Story Title: Our Wind Will Shake the Earth and Stars
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight Princess. Shad would've been featured more and playable.
Author's Notes: Much thanks to Tavi, henslight, Kit, mysticalgems, and Tapix for reviewing.
One of these days, the Goddesses will cut Shad some slack. Not today though. Thanks for reading.
-o-
Chapter Three: Oocca Like Visitors But Do Not Like Thieves
-o-
Shad was falling. To where he did not know and he dared not open his eyes to see so—he was far too afraid of finding himself plummeting towards solid ground and his untimely death. Link and Shad's grips had failed at about the peak of their acceleration and they fell separately. Shad called to Link, but barely able to hear his own voice over the heavy flapping of his clothes and the wind blustering in his ears, he doubted Link heard him. Link was somewhere, near but out of immediate reach. He couldn't save Shad, and the scholar reminded himself of that readily. Shad was on his own…
And splashed into a deep pool of water.
Shad broke the water's surface and came up coughing and gasping for air. The scholar was thankful for two things: One, that the water was warm so that he wouldn't go into shock, and two, that his rucksack was absolutely watertight and protecting his father's journal well. He could not see his surroundings yet for all the water dripping into his shut eyes. Shad removed his spectacles and washed his hand over his face. As he did so, there was a second large splash. The nearby gush sent a spray of water directly into Shad's newly-dried face.
"Shad! You all right?" Link called as soon as he reached the surface.
"Physically, I am unharmed," Shad said, his voice muffled by his hands covering and drying his face. When able, the scholar replaced his spectacles and looked annoyed at Link. "Other ways, however, I am undetermined still. I quite expect nightmares into the coming year, I say, for that little cannon stunt."
"Trust me. If there was any other way of coming here, I would've gone with it," Link said as he wrung out his green cap and slipped it back on.
"Coming here?" Shad quirked a red eyebrow curiously. "Just where in the blazes are we anyway?"
"Turn around," Link said, smiling.
And Shad did so.
His already wide, alert eyes grew more owlish from the moment he circled around and saw the City in the Sky. Mouth a tad gaping, Shad had no words, the best verbal response he could utter were little high squeaks of happiness to himself. He floated in the pool's sun-warmed water and gazed along the hovering structures and committed the City to memory. Clear azure, white cumulus clouds, egg-shaped gray-white stone buildings kept aloft by continuously spinning fans…
Shad could not believe his eyes.
Dearest Father, I'm here! I have found the City in the Sky…well, with Link's kind assistance, however, nonetheless, our time and research has not been wasted. We were not barmier than two cats tied together at the tail, like the townsfolk and my colleagues said we were. I say, we are terribly owed scores of apologies now, are we not, Father?
The City is real and I am here. It is an awkward truth to believe, I must admit. After all, until today, all this was but a fantasy, and you and I dreamers. Oh, but it is beautiful, Father. More so than either of us imagined. If only you were here to view it…
Father, I hope you are proud of me. I have the impression that you are, because, right now, I am proud of myself.
A moving brown and flesh-colored blur snapped Shad out of his thoughts and stunned trance. It turned out to be, as Shad came back to reality, Link waving a hand in front of his face. Shad dabbed the small tears moistening his eyes. He had no idea how long he had been engrossed by the magnificent sight of the City in the Sky. It must have been long enough, he was certain.
"Back on Hyrule now?" Link teased.
"Ah, yes…" the scholar stammered, a little rose rising to his cheeks in embarrassment, and stared down into the water, "…I suppose. What?" Shad peered up at Link and appealed for assistance.
And Link shook with quiet laughter.
Which made Shad more embarrassed. Shad was observant—it was something one could say he prided himself on since he had so few other skills—and he was intelligent, but somehow Link, for the thrice time, had managed to reduce him to a gaping, dumbfounded fool tripping over his words, clueless and as vigilant as Chu jelly. Once again Shad lost himself in his awe, and once again Shad felt that he had embarrassed himself.
But he was happy.
"…Thank you, Link," Shad said with a polite reverence in his voice. "For bringing me here. I owe you—"
Link raised a hand and halted Shad from speaking another word. "No, you don't. I owed you. This pays my debt to you for all your help to me back in Kakariko Village."
Shad blinked, "My help? You must be terribly mistaken. I was useless. I did nothing that could, in any measure, be considered helpful."
Link angled his head downward and laughed to himself. Shad didn't understand the why behind Link's laughter but had the impression that he was missing out on some great secret joke of the Goddesses that Link obviously knew the punch line to. Shad hated being out of the loop, especially when that loop specifically concerned himself.
"I say, explain to me what is so funny?" Shad asked, a measure of irritation lined his voice.
Raising his head again and meeting Shad's eyes, Link grinned, "You were more help to me than you realize."
Shad's eyes widened and he blinked. The shy scholar, put ill-at-ease, looked off to the side. Link's reply was not what he expected. It didn't help matters that the swordsman oddly seemed so brightly pleased by his own reply.
Shad cleared his throat discreetly, "…Then you are welcome."
It was the sun in his face making his cheeks so warm, Shad knew it had to be. A soft smile rose across his face. I am delighted that I was of some assistance, though, I say, I cannot reason how I had been of any use in Kakariko. …Something to do with the Owl Stature's restructuring? That was all I did of any practical value. Or perhaps it was simply something I said?
Shad sighed. Link is a cryptic chap. …But it's nice to be useful and of assistance, especially for a fellow with few skills like me.
When Shad peered back, Link was gazing across the bridge to the first stone building. Link was patient and calm, and the sight of the City in the Sky had not awed him like it had Shad. It was like he was used to being here and knew the place well.
He probably has, Shad realized. He knows every room and every secret. While that makes him the perfect guide, it means we are not sharing the journey and that Link is just showing me around.
And once again, I am left searching the remains of where others have traversed first.
"If you're ready, we'll go," Link said.
"Then let us go." Shad pushed forward as Link swam in tow.
Though saddened, I will not squander this opportunity. My father raised a poor researcher, however perhaps I can redeem myself. Perhaps there are still secrets remaining to be unearthed.
Link reached the stone step first and helped Shad pull himself out of the water.
My life's work has been pursuing one hopeful dream after another. If I am capable of anything, it is that I can hope.
-o-
Shad did not give himself over to impulse. No, he was a young Hylian of caution, of timidity, of temperance, and of careful planning before one took action. Shad was often times the voice of reason in the Group and in his daily life. Diving headlong into unfamiliar territory, as was Ashei's mode of operation, would normally spark his prudence and Ashei's chiding.
But apparently, the City in the Sky was Shad's exception to his nature. It was the only place that could prove that Shad had inherited any of his father's rashness and so it seemed Shad had. The scholar ran across the mossy and grass-patched bridge with little wait, not even for Link. He was, after all, feet away from answering all his questions and inviting more marvelous inquires. It would be odd for Shad to wait in such a case.
Though it would have been wise.
"Shad! Stop!" Link yelled.
That sounded rather urgent, Shad realized and paused. Wondering why Link called and stopped him halfway across the bridge, he turned around. Link was running toward him. Curious, he looks fret, Shad thought. I say, though I may not be the adventurer-build such as he, surely Link trusts that I can traverse a bridge without assistance.
First, the scholar heard an unexpected airy, hissing noise and immediately afterward a low snarl. Shad circled back around to investigate the sounds and met the widening jaws, wet with digestive acid, of an angry Baba Serpent. Shad stared wide-eyed down the carnivorous red-orange plant's purple gullet. Synapses in his brain rapidly fired orders to run but, at this close, Shad's legs were rigid in terror. The Baba Serpent reared on its thorny stalk and readied itself to chomp Shad wherever it so pleased. Shad demanded his legs to move. He was ignored.
The hungry plant struck just as the wind picked up. The violent gust knocked Shad back and out of the Baba Serpent's reach. The great wind tossed his light frame along the ground, like a lost letter rolling in a gentler breeze. Shad only stopped when he crashed into what he thought was part of the stone bridge's walls. That wall turned out to be Link standing firmly against the wind in what appeared to be iron boots.
From the ground and on his back, Shad, dizzy from his tumbling, peered up at Link in a daze and blinked in astonishment to his luck. Link offered his hand and helped Shad steady onto his feet and held onto him until the high wind died.
"Don't run off. This place is dangerous," Link warned.
Shad was well aware of that by now and had learned it the hard way, by most accounts. He had imagined the home of the sky beings a thousand, if not millions, of times before since he was a little boy, and somehow he had decided it was a place as innocuous as the fluffy clouds obscuring it in the heavens. It had never occurred to Shad that it might be laid with hazards and traps and snarling monsters keen on munching foolhardy researchers.
"Yes, well…" Shad said, a bit still shaken by the ordeal, and swept his tousled hair back with a trembling hand. "Lesson learned. I will keep by you from now on, if you do not mind."
Link nodded in agreement and began guiding Shad across the bridge, bracing the scholar whenever the wind periodically lifted.
"It was silly of me to so impetuously race off," Shad said, his eyes angled to the ground. "Must have caught blazes of my father's fire."
"You're excited. It's understandable," Link said, tightening his grip on Shad as another squall blew through. "Rusl told me a little about your dad."
Shad stared into the dying wind, his eyes reverent, and smiled, "My father was a great man. He would have enjoyed meeting you and hearing of your adventures."
"Rusl said the same thing," Link said.
Shad smiled the rest of the way across the bridge, though he did cringe while Link dealt with the first Baba Serpent and then the other. When they finally reached the entrance, Shad wanted to pause and make a sketching of it in his father's journal, but Link assured there were more important things behind the door than the door itself. Reluctantly, the scholar put away his ink and quill and placed the image to memory. Link approached the door, and without push, the entrance opened on its own.
-o-
Shad pretty much assumed with every new room, with every new peek further into the City in the Sky that he would be taking mental notes and images all along the way, at least until he had time to jot everything down in his father's journal. He thanked Nayru for giving him an impeccable memory and keen observation and went on with surveying the room.
There is the presence of advance technology, Shad took note, but it all seems to be in a state of disrepair. Peculiar.
Shad wondered then doubted there were supposed to be ivy growing on some of the non-broken pillars or stone missing from the walls, grimed with dirt or what more likely was brown water stains from leaky sources, or that a large portion of the floor was supposed to be gone and opened out to the sky. The scholar shuddered at the sight of sky cannons held in nearby segregated chambers and readily moved his attention away from them, for now.
As he gazed slowly about the room, Shad was torn between mesmerism and disillusionment. Everything enthralled him, after all it was a part of the City in the Sky, but at the same time, nothing matched to what Shad had envisioned.
Frivolous folly! Shad scoffed at himself. Why I am permitting my boyhood fantasies to prejudice my exploration of the real City in the Sky, I will never know. Father would laugh at my puerile behavior and he would be rightly so!
Shad banished all his previous daydreams of the City in the Sky and absorbed the wonders of the true City.
"This is all quite fascinating, Link," Shad said as he stepped about the room, though careful to avoid the drop space, and continued memorizing his surroundings. "It begs several questions of the Oocca culture. Specifically on their architecture process."
"When I was here, I never saw them build anything," Link said, standing by the closed entrance. "Or fix anything for that matter."
Shad nodded in thanks to Link for his information and then tried conjecturing how the sky beings built the City in the Sky. And then Shad's mind focused on a different part of Link's words.
Shad circled around, "Wait… The Oocca are still around? They're alive?"
Link stifled a laugh, "Of course, they are. They've been watching us since we first came inside."
Shad madly searched about the room. He saw no one but Link.
"Not sure why they're hiding…" Link shrugged his shoulders. "Guess they might be afraid of you."
At that, Shad ran up to Link and grabbed him by the tunic. "Please, tell them I mean no harm!" he pled frantically. "Tell them that I would be honored and humbled to meet them. Tell them I have much to ask and a willingness to learn. Link, please!"
"Can't do that, Shad," Link said, grinning and failing to hide his amusement, if he even tried to.
"Why?"
"I don't speak their language."
Shad blinked. "…Oh." He let Link go, stepped away, and angled his face down and to the side to obscure his embarrassed flush. "Pardon my actions, if you will. I was…over-stimulated by your news. I had viewed the state of the room and assumed that the Oocca were no longer around."
"Nope. They're around," Link plainly said.
Shad nodded as he paced about the room and thought on everything Link had said. "We're, or more correctly I, are in quite a quandary if the Oocca are frightened of me. I do not take pleasure in the prospect of being in the home of the sky beings and never seeing one for myself."
"Ooccoo speaks Hylian," Link said, as if it was a just-remembered afterthought. "She'd probably be happy to help us."
Shad looked at Link with a pinched expression on his face. As well-meaning and helpful as Link intended to be, his little offerings of valuable, crucial information bit-by-bit pressed on Shad's nerves. Annoyed as I am, I cannot be truly irritated. After all, Link is not the sort to divulge and prattle on such as I.
Shad relaxed and readopted his usual friendly, open disposition and smiled. "Very well, I say. Shall we meet your friend Ooccoo?"
"You shall," said a high, vaguely-female voice. The voice was strange and Shad could not place or compare it anything known, which was rather exciting getting to hear something he was for certain he had never heard before or ever would.
The awe and wonder of discovery was not yet over for Shad. Stepping out from behind Link's boots was the most peculiar-looking creature. Its body was like a cucco with deep yellow feathers, its neck was thin and pale, and its head was fairly ovoid in shape and bore a vaguely humanoid face.
"Shad, this is Ooccoo," Link said, smiling. "She's an Oocca."
"A pleasure and honor, Madam Ooccoo," Shad said, his voice ringing with excitement, and bowed deeply from waist. "And might I add how magnificent it is to meet you. Awe-inspiring for me, in reality. I say, truly, I do not possess the words to express how wonderful it is to be here and to be meeting you. Thank you so very much."
Ooccoo covered her laughter, like a restrained bawking sound, with her wing, "Gracious! Your admiration is plenty, young man. My… We've never had so many guests."
"Then I hope I am not intruding, Madam," Shad said, readying a lengthy apology if needed.
"Young man, you don't have to worry," Ooccoo said, tittering. "Oocca enjoy receiving visitors, though it's been decades since we've had any."
"I imagine you would not possess the opportunity," Shad said. "Being so high up and hidden in the clouds and with so few down below believing in your existence. Most consider your people a legend, a story."
"Yes," Ooccoo gave a brief nod, "So we've been told."
Shad glanced quickly over to Link. Well done, old boy. So he has spoken to them of our world. I say, it may prove easier for me and less work and time wasted explaining if the Oocca already know some details about Hyrule.
"Madam Ooccoo," Shad said respectfully and took a step toward her, "If I may explain, I am here not by chance but for a reason, as you might have already conjectured."
Ooccoo nodded and, to what Shad could tell what with her constant blank expression, was waiting for him to continue. It was rather off-putting, her empty, unemotional face and eyes. Shad wondered if all the Oocca shared this appearance or if she was the only one.
Shad gathered the bit of lost courage disturbed by Ooccoo and continued on with his speech. "I am a scholar and my life and research has been devoted to discovering and learning all I can about the Oocca. I ask of you, if you will grant me, to permit me to observe and study your culture."
Ooccoo clucked and the short, deep sounds echoed throughout the room. She then shot Shad an impassive sidelong stare, "…You're a scholar."
It suddenly became apparent to Shad that the room was quite occupied and that there were several sets of tiny, oval-shaped red eyes watching him all across the room. Taken aback by this newfound knowledge and Ooccoo's new behavior, Shad hesitantly nodded. He was uncertain, what with Ooccoo's emotionless stare and the even coolness of her tone, whether it was the right answer or not.
Ooccoo then stared at Link, "But you're a friend of the adventurer."
Shad nodded again, more readily this time, and Link also nodded in confirmation for Ooccoo.
Ooccoo clucked again, this time a longer string. The other Oocca clucked too, clipped and quietly, as they spoke among themselves. Shad swallowed his air and dared not to move. Though he was nervous, and understandably so not knowing what any of the Oocca were saying, one thing reassured Shad and told him everything was okay—Link was calm.
Truthfully, Link seemed bored and restlessly tapped the tip of his boots against the floor. The Oocca, clearly, did not alarm him. If anything was wrong, Link would have sensed it. Link would have informed Shad and told him to run or get behind him or whatever was needed. Since he was silent, nothing was wrong.
The Oocca all quieted at once. Ooccoo nodded and met Shad's eyes. "It's been decided. We'll allow you to stay and study us, scholar."
Shad's smile beamed. "Thank you! Thank you so very much, Madam Ooccoo!" Shad raised and looked up to all the eyes of the hidden Oocca. "And thank you all as well!"
Wasting no time, Shad placed his rucksack on the floor and opened it. "If I may," Shad spoke excitedly, his body all but vibrating in elation, as he rummaged through his supplies, "I would like for you, Madam Ooccoo, to model for a sketching. I'll do a quick job of it, I can assure you that. Allow me to first get this out of the way—" Shad removed the Ancient Sky Book from the sack and gingerly placed it underneath his left arm.
Shad did finish his sentence but whatever he had said had been crushed by the Oocca's deafening din of shrill, strident screeching. Shad peered wildly about, listening to the frenzied, angry sounds surrounding him, and paled and trembled in the midst of it. He did not need to know what they were saying to know they were enraged.
"Link, please inform me that you are acquainted with what is happening and that you possess a proper solution."
"I don't, Shad," Link said, looking worriedly about the room, and made his way with care to put himself in front of Shad. "They've never done this before."
Hearing that, Shad panicked. "M-Madam Ooccoo, k-kindly provide a translation for us, please, if you will."
The Oocca squawked and hopped from their hidden perches. The closest ones fell on Shad. The scholar screamed and ran, raising his arms to protect his face from the Oocca's scratching talons and, in doing so, dropped the Ancient Sky Book.
More and more Oocca glided over and attacked him. Oocca on the ground leapt up and clawed his legs and torso. Several perched on his shoulder and back and bit Shad's ears, face, neck, wherever they could reach. Shad ran, his eyes clamped shut, his strangled cries unintelligible in the riot of angry Oocca squawks. Shad dashed erratically about the room and swatted blindly at the Oocca and fought to keep their sharp talons away from his soft eyes.
In the rushing flurry of feathers, squawks, tears, talons, and screams, the Oocca attacked and chased Shad. Link hurried behind them, striking away and clearing Oocca from Shad as quickly as he could. In what felt like a hellish eternity to Shad, Link eventually made progress. Progress enough that Ooccoo finally gave them an explanation as to why the Oocca's sudden aggression on Shad.
"They're saying you're a thief. That you've come back to steal from us again. 'We will not let you take from us again, thief.' That's what my brethren are saying."
Hands clasping the swordsman's shoulders, Shad hid behind Link and cowered from the angry Oocca. Though the scholar was taller than Link, with the way Shad crouched, Link was now taller than him and Shad only appeared to reach Link's shoulders.
"T-That is im-impossible! I have never been here b-before," Shad said, quite shaken by the Oocca's fury. "H-How could I have s-stolen from you?"
The Oocca clucked. Ooccoo translated as the other Oocca began their second assault. "That book has been missing from our library for thirty years. It's an artifact only meant for the eyes of the messenger. It being in your possession now means you're a thief!"
"Ooccoo, tell them to stop!" Link shouted through the squawks, brandishing his arm and swiping the Oocca away from Shad, screaming apologies and holding tightly to Link's waist. "Shad's innocent! I gave him the book. I didn't know not to. It's my fault!"
After a quick bit of chirping from Ooccoo, the Oocca all stopped attacking and stood surrounding Link and Shad and glared—as best as a creature with oval eyes, emotionless stares, and a lack of eyebrows could glare, though if Shad had to note their expressions they were without a doubt glaring. At him. And not at Link.
Shad never was very skilled at making new friends.
A larger, dusty-yellow Oocca stepped up and stood beside Ooccoo. It began chirping and from its deeper, coarser chirps, it was evidently an older Oocca and male. As he spoke, Ooccoo provided an immediate translation, "We're aware it is the boy's first look of our home, but another of his kind have appeared."
Link blinked, "Well, yes, I've been." The swordsman looked down at the floor and paused for a second to think. "If I did anything—"
"Not you, messenger," the male Oocca said via Ooccoo's translation. "Another. A scholar."
"A scholar?" Shad's eyebrows shot up with surprise. Marked interest overriding his fear, he rose to his full height and stepped out from behind Link. "There have been other scholars here?"
"Only one." With a brief contemplative pause, the male Oocca began a long series of chirps, tweets, and clucks. Ooccoo waited until he had finished to translate.
"Thirty years ago, a stranger, a scholar, unexpectedly appeared in our pond. He explained to us, just as you have, boy, that he was a scholar and was fascinated by our culture and wished to know more. We allowed him to stay. We showed him our world and answered his many questions. In turn, he taught many of us Hylian and entertained us with the stories of the world below us. The land he called Hyrule.
"We learned from him. He learned from us. It was a fair harmony. We each held one another in high esteem. We believed out bonds of friendship were strong and true.
"…It was not to last," the male Oocca shut his eyes and frowned softly. He then bowed his head. The other Oocca followed suit in a sequential wave.
"We put trust and loyalty in a kind stranger. Just as he had for us, we opened ourselves—our benevolence, our sympathy, our world to him. Blood may have differentiated our people but his heart, we had believed, was like ours. We were wrong. The scholar, our faithful friend and brother, stole from us. An artifact of vast importance to us. He stole from us and disappeared."
Shad and Link listened to the male Oocca's story intently. Shad, reeling from the fact that another scholar had reached the City in the Sky before him and had then proceeded to plunder from the beings Shad so revered since boyhood, stood in a stunned trance and blinked. The story too had been a surprise for Link but the swordsman recovered quicker from the news. For him, other parts of the story were more important to Link than what shocked Shad. Link walked over and picked up the Ancient Sky Book from the floor.
"If the book's been missing for thirty years," Link said, standing beside Shad again and holding up the Sky Book in one hand. "I think the real thief would be still alive. I'll bring him back to answer for his crimes, if you want. What did he look like?"
The male Oocca clucked and Ooccoo translated. "Thank you, messenger," the male Oocca bowed in appreciation. "The scholar was Hylian and bore a strong resemblance to your traveling companion. Your friend even carries the scholar's scent on his person."
"B-But that would mean… That sounds like… My father?" Shad, stressed and aching, closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair in disbelief. "…This cannot be. My father never discovered the City in the Sky. It was his dream to. It was not him."
The male Oocca squawked harshly. "We do not lie."
Distress lined Shad's brow and his jaw tightened. Holding his chin, Shad paced about in a short, narrow line and considered much. After all, he had much to consider.
"Does this sound like something your dad would do?" Link asked.
Shad halted and faced Link. He waited before he spoke, crossing his arms over his chest, his hands cupping his elbows. A soft frown joined the many thin lines marking Shad's worry.
"I am ashamed to admit that this is something he would and has done in the past." Shad exhaled a long, sad, disappointed sigh. "I have always upheld my father as great man but he was not without flaw. It saddens me that he could not restrain his vices in a sacred place that deserved only his esteem and admiration."
The scholar bowed his head and continued to frown. And then a new thought came to Shad and he lifted his head and met the Oocca with a new determination and resolve in his eyes.
"Madam Ooccoo, if you would, please translate for me. I have something I wish to say." Shad extended his hand and received the Ancient Sky book from Link.
"My name is Shad. I am the son of the scholar who befriended you and subsequently broke your trust and said friendship. My father and I share a similar appearance, the same interests and passions, a love of knowledge and a spirit for adventure, and appreciation for a finely brewed cup of tea.
"But what we do not share are our morals and values. I wish first to give my utmost apologies for my father's actions. It was wrong of him and he should have known better to not steal, especially from those who considered him a dear friend. My father knew much and many things but treating others well was not always at his forefront. No, my father, rest his soul, faltered in tact.
"That said I would like to return what my father has stolen," Shad lowered onto his knees and bowed his head. He stretched his arms forward and offered the Ancient Sky Book to the Oocca. "After all, something so precious and valuable deserves to remain where it rightfully belongs and with the ones it rightfully belongs to. It may not clear my father's betrayal but I hope it serves as some form of retribution for his actions. I am sorry."
When Ooccoo's chirps ended, the Oocca looked and spoke amongst themselves. It was impossible to tell what they were saying or how they felt about Shad's apology. Shad, remaining bowed and presenting the Sky Book, waited. Finally, the older male Oocca bawked and six Oocca hopped out of the flock and grabbed the Sky Book in their talons. A spasm of pain ran through Shad as he watched the Oocca's talons pierce the Ancient Sky Book's leather and fly off with it. To where, he could only guess.
As he rose to standing, Shad now understood how it pained his father so to return the royal family's artifacts and treasures. He sorely missed the Sky Book already, but Shad knew it was not his to keep and that it rightly belonged with the Oocca. Shad would just have to live with his transcribed copy safe in his study.
Shad must have been staring at the departing Sky Book quite intently because he was startled by Link's touch on his shoulder. Shad looked and saw Link smile and gaze reassuringly at him, confirming Shad's own belief that he had done the right thing.
"I'd wager the Oocca will let us explore the rest of the City in the Sky after this," Link said, his hand still resting on the scholar's shoulder.
Shad wanted to feel excited and started to smile but reflecting on what he had learned, he crushed that hope rather swiftly. "I say, you, they would. But I…" Shad shook his head. "I doubt scholars are welcome."
"No harm in asking," Link said. "Ooccoo?"
Ooccoo turned, "Yes, adventurer?"
"Will the Oocca still let Shad stay and study you? I know his dad hurt you but Shad means what he says and is sorry about what happened and he really does just want to learn about you. Please, Ooccoo."
"I'm only one Oocca. The others must also allow the scholar passage. …But I'll see."
Ooccoo grabbed the attention of her fellow Oocca and they listened quietly to her chirps and then deliberated. Link and Shad waited and hoped. Shad could barely breathe as he waited for the Oocca's reply. He wished it did not take long. He did not wish to pass out in anticipation.
Finally, the older male Oocca chirped and Ooccoo turned to Link and Shad and said, "The scholar may stay and study us."
Shad's mouth fell open and the scholar beamed and grabbed Link's arm and bounced in place. Link smiled and stifled his laughter and amusement at Shad's overwhelming joy.
"I have never in all my life felt this much happiness," Shad readily bowed to the Oocca and spoke hurriedly. "I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and generosity. All of you, I thank you. Thank—"
"There's a stipulation," Ooccoo said harshly to match the male Oocca's tone and effectively silenced Shad's gushing gratitude. "We're letting you stay because the adventurer spoke for you. For you to stay, he must vouch and be responsible for you. Anything you do, scholar, reflects on him so be warned. We will also be watching you at all times. Understood, scholar?"
"Yes," Shad nodded without delay. Link followed suit and agreed to be responsible for Shad.
"Very well then," translated Ooccoo. "Follow us."