Story Title: Our Wind Will Shake the Earth and Stars
Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is not mine.
Author's Notes: Normally I would thank the reviewers of the last chapter here but as there were none, I cannot.
This chapter is short, very short for my usual chapters in fact, but I felt satisfied at leaving where it ended. Thanks for reading.
-o-
Chapter Two: Up and Out, or Shad's High-Flying Nightmare Fuel
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"Sir! Please wait!" Link called from the back of Epona as he raced her onto Hyrule Field toward the drab packhorse bearing Rusl and towing a small cart of supplies from Castle Town.
It was early in the evening with the lemon sun beginning to set and drawing the shadows and dark golden half-light of twilight over Hyrule. Link called again, a more urgent yelp, and this time found the swordmaster's attention. Rusl peered over his shoulder and, seeing Link, slowed the sluggish packhorse to a full stop.
"Link!" Rusl shouted as the young Hylian rushed to reach his stalled cart. "Have you changed your mind? Are you coming home after all?"
Six hours had past since their last meet and the forging of a promise between men that allowed Link three days to search for a danger Rusl (and everyone else, in fact) did not believe existed. Rusl hoped that perhaps in those hours that someone had persuaded him in the safety of Hyrule or that Link himself had came to his senses.
Link had not.
Slowing Epona abruptly, Link calmed Epona as she reared and stamped her hooves in displeasure for the quick halt. Being so focused on catching up with Rusl, Link misjudged Epona's speed and stopped her too quickly, much to her annoyance, so not to dash past Rusl. Link made a note to buy Epona a few apples in apology later.
With Epona settled, Link turned to Rusl and matched sights with the swordsman. "No, sir, I'm not," Link said. "But I thought I ought to tell you that I'm going with Shad to help him on his research."
Link had expected his mentor to smile gently, nod approvingly, and wish him safety, but Rusl did not. Link's smile and the cheer in his voice faded as he watched Rusl bow his head and sigh.
Rusl frowned. "Link… You're not already going back on your promise, are you?" He asked, somber disappointment lining his question.
Link quickly shook his head from side to side. His reaction was apparently too immediate— Rusl's eyes narrowed and stared at Link discerningly. The swordsman now seemed to suspect Link was up to something. Silence, except for the snorts and light stomps from the horses and the magical chime of a golden insect nearby, fell between them.
Rusl deepened his frown, now as deep as the canyons of Death Mountain and just as provoked. "You're not using Shad for more time to search?" Rusl asked, a reprimand in his voice at the ready. "If you are, I am ashamed of you and you should be for yourself. You were raised better, Link."
"I'm not! Honestly, sir!" Link said. "Please believe me that I am helping Shad and only that." The Ordonian-raised Hylian did his best to bow as deeply as possible while on horseback to express his honesty.
Though Link, still bowing, could not see Rusl's face to confirm his senses, he could feel that maybe the older swordsman believed him a bit more. Rusl had certainly gone silent and more contemplative, as if he was considering that Link was telling the truth with more intent.
Link raised and saw Rusl waiting for more proof or a better explanation than Link's just-trust-me response. While normally only giving his word was enough before, Link was changing their promise and doing it rather quickly, so the young Hylian could understand why Rusl was skeptic on the value of his promises now.
"I owe Shad a debt," Link explained, hanging his head in guilt upon remembering his poor treatment of the scholar in the past. "It's a debt I made long before my promise to you."
The swordsman's frown had softened a bit, but it still remained a hard line across his blank face cast in deepening shadows by the sunset setting behind him. Rusl sat back listening and keenly observed Link, his young face still awash in a ray of deep golden twilight.
Darting a glance up at Rusl's eyes, Link noted how his hawk gaze scoured for hints in Link's demeanor as the older swordsman separated the absolute and partial truths of Link's words. But Link was being honest. He wasn't using Shad anymore. This wasn't about conniving for more time to search Hyrule—it was about settling an overdue debt and acting how a hero was supposed to act, which didn't mean using people for their skills and casting them aside when they were of no more use or were in the way.
Gathering the strength to do so, Link met Rusl's gaze to show him the sincerity in his eyes that equaled the sincerity in his voice, "You taught me to honor my promises and debts, sir, and if I can, I still intend on upholding my promise to you, but I have no doubt that three days won't suffice Shad's research."
"But will you really need to be there with him?" Rusl asked, a gentleness in his voice Link had not heard since the beginning of their talk and had missed. "Surely you can escort him there and be back in our agreed three days?"
Link shook his head no, "This place I'm taking him is quite dangerous without the proper know-how and I can't in good faith abandon him there because my three days are up. It's best if I'm there, not only as protection but to help him navigate through some of the more challenging locations."
Link had wanted to say the more impossible locations at first, because in truth, certain places in the City in the Sky would be impossible for Shad to explore without Link's assistance, but had thought against it to stave Rusl worrying for him.
"Yes, I do see," Rusl solemnly nodded. "Though I don't like this sudden amendment to our promise," he paused, sighed airily, and dropped his worn gaze just under Link's. "…But the boy does worry me when he announces he's going on another research expedition and I know Shad will be safe in your care."
"But once you have paid your debt to Shad, you will immediately come home, right?" Rusl less so much as asked but ordered Link and gave the young Hylian a strong, serious eye.
"I promise," Link smiled and nodded firmly.
At that, Rusl's demeanor lightened, his smile faint but happy. "Yes, well…I must admit I am relieved to hear the boy will have someone watching over him. Shad is a smart boy with a lot of heart, but he's not his father. In many ways, Shad is just like him, but in other respects, he…well, isn't."
"Was Shad's father a member of the Group too?" Link asked.
"Yes, yes," Rusl nodded readily and smiled more. "He and Auru were our founders. A brilliant man, Shad's father was. It's sad that a man of his caliber was taken from us so soon. You would've liked him, as he would've with you, I'm sure. His company was always enjoyable and lively…" Rusl, his voice and eyes full of happy memories, trailed the rest of his words off before the fact of the fallen Hylian's death could sour the good feeling his remembrance stirred.
Link noticed the sun slipping steadier below the horizon and taking with it precious light to guide Rusl's trip home. Even though the swordsman had a full lantern ready to be lit hanging on a crooked post beside him, Link did not like the thought of Rusl traveling alone at night, not with the disquiet plaguing Hyrule having yet to reveal itself, "Sir, I believe I've kept you long enough. Travel home safely and watch yourself."
Rusl nodded and tightened his grip on his reins, "As you should too, Link. Come home quickly and well. You know…there are many in our village who miss you when you're gone for long."
Link's thoughts wanted to bring an image of Ilia to mind but the young Hylian brushed the thought away before it came to fruition. It was best if he focused his attention on finding the evil hiding in Hyrule and dealt with Ilia when he better could.
"I know. Good luck on your return, sir," Link said, and to his relief, with no harsh emotion in his voice. Getting angry now, for seemingly no reason, would not help anyone at the moment.
"Good luck, Link," Rusl replied and the two swordsmen parted ways—the older one toward Ordon Province and the young one back to Castle Town.
-o-
With a short diversion to the spirit spring and a quick prayer for safety and good luck, Shad hurried, bounding with each step, up the short series of wooden bridges overlooking Lake Hylia in the early morning. The scholar was elated to finally have new possible leads on the sky beings and felt both light in heart and head. It really seemed like the only thing keeping Shad grounded was the weight of the leather rucksack on his back—without it his excitement and good cheer would have swept him up like a great wind and carried him up to the heavens.
But of all the things Shad expected to see when he met Link, his list of possibilities did not include the expanding sight of the Sky Cannon as he drew closer to their agreed-on meet point.
"Morning, Shad," the scholar heard Link say as Shad, mouth gaping, stared up in dumbfounded awe at the cannon and slowly walked over to where Link stood waiting.
"Is this… This is… If I am not mistaken…" Shad started to speak but, in his astonished state, had yet to find the right phrasing. He adjusted the position of his spectacles and verified that there was nothing flawed about the lenses. Even if all he saw without his ocular aids was its heavily blurred outline, the cannon was indeed there.
Once he found his mental bearings, Shad turned around and asked, "This is the cannon we found in Kakariko Village, isn't it?"
Link nodded yes.
"Brilliant," Shad, facing the cannon once more, gasped in admiration. "I had wondered whatever became of it. I had quite a start returning to the chamber and discovering that it had completely vanished. How ever did you transport it?"
"That's not really important, Shad," Link said.
Shad peered over his shoulder with a rebuttal on his lips that it was quite important that he know how the cannon mysteriously vanished and came to be here, but dropped the reply once he saw Link staring ill at ease and saddened out over the lake's glittering surface. Though Shad was eager to know and wanted to push for answers, he was also sensitive to how uncomfortable the subject made Link and obliged Link's unspoken request not to press the matter further.
"I suppose it is a silly point to ask how it came to be here anyway…" Shad gave an awkward smile and ran his hand through his hair. He turned back around to examine the cannon and continued, "The importance is that is here and it is fixed and that we can inspect it—"
"It works," Link said.
"That it is operational…" Shad said without thinking and froze once his mind caught up with his mouth. Once he realized what he had said, Shad circled around. "It w-works? How ever did you test it?"
"Not significant, Shad," Link said as he walked up and stood beside the perplexed scholar, "The cannon's not what I wanted to show you anyway. It's just our means of getting there."
"M-Means of getting there?" Shad repeated as he blinked in disbelief at Link. Even as Link nodded, affirming his statement, Shad could not believe him.
He cannot be serious, Shad thought, mostly to calm his racing heart and ease his trembling. This is all a joke in the poorest of tastes. …He cannot propose that we'll be inside that mechanical monstrosity, can he? Great Goddesses, this must be a hoax!
Shad heard Link calling him out of his thoughts. "You all right?" Link asked, his right hand steady on the scholar's shoulder, "Not about to faint, are you?"
"Heavens no, old boy!" Shad said overenthusiastically to offset any visible distress he might have been showing. "I was simply overcome with excitement, that was all. No need to worry. No, no, not at all."
Link quirked an eyebrow, "Are you sure? If you're not up to it—"
"Nonsense! I am my father's son after all, and once my father had a lead he pursued it to the very end, no matter what terrible tests and trials befell before him and so do I!" Shad was the voice and picture of false confidence. He hoped Link would not see through his show of bravado, or even if he did, decide not to take Shad to see his findings. The cannon terrified Shad, but he would endure anything to continue his and his father's research.
Link shrugged his shoulders, "If you say so, Shad," and then smiled, "Ready to go then?"
"Umm…yes," the scholar nodded. "However how?"
"I guess, like this," Link said, much to Shad's confusion.
The scholar was ready to ask Link to clarify himself when he felt Link's arm wrap strongly about his waist. Link pulled Shad close, pressing the front of Shad's body tightly to his side, and held him there. Shad's ears and his cheeks flushed as he looked about bewildered and stammered softly about Link's forwardness and the propriety of it all. Link appeared unbothered by the intimate proximity. He also seemed to not hear Shad's murmurings.
"Hold on tight," Link advised and raised his left arm. It was then Shad saw the metal claws of the peculiar device on Link's arm open and fire toward a gold and red target inside the cannon. The claws connected and away Shad went screaming into the cannon with Link.
In cases of terror and plausible death, propriety did not matter much to Shad anymore. Panicking, Shad wrapped his arms and legs around Link and pressed and clung like mistletoe on an oak tree to the swordsman. I'm going to perish and this beastly contraption will blast my bits across the lake! Bugger all to it that Link is a madman!
…And so am I for agreeing to this!
The cannon sealed itself, loudly and with screeching hinges, and plunged the chamber into darkness. Shad buried his face in Link's chest. By now, he trembled violently and gasped for breath.
"It's okay. It scares me too," Link said as the cannon rumbled and stirred to life.
Shad looked up. Link was the most courageous person Shad had ever met and for defeating Ganondorf, Link was quite possibly courage personified, but if even the Sky Cannon frightened him… Shad was not reassured, if anything he was more terrified.
He intended well, Shad admitted. However, his logic requires work if he believed that was supposed to comfort me.
The chamber shifted and positioned itself to fire. Shad secured his close hold on Link as he tightened his grip around Shad's waist. Both heard the igniting boom and felt the vast force rocket them through the cannon's barrel and shut their eyes. Out of the cannon and soaring through the sky, Shad felt like a daft fool, but the experience was both exhilarating and horrifying, a never-before-experienced peak high and a crushing low.
At least, when Shad screamed, he wasn't ashamed he did so. Not with Link screaming along beside him.