Hey everyone. Apparently Fi showing up in the last chapter sparked some interest in a few people which is good. I'm going to be updating regularly around the weekend from now on because of how my personal life is getting a bit busy. I'm back to studying so it takes up a fair amount of my spare time. This however will not affect updates to this story so you can relax. I'll talk about that a bit more later but I know you want to get on to reading (half of you probably aren't reading this anyway). So here it is, Chapter 5.
Chapter 5: Joining the Order
"Here we are," Callum announced, but the statement left the Hero somewhat confused. They had been riding for a good couple of hours now and they had only just arrived at a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
"I thought we were heading to Skyloft," Link said. "What could possibly be here that will get us there?" Link had been unconscious on his first visit to the floating Peacekeeper headquarters and the small company had warped away from the base's Mirror chamber to Faron Woods before returning to Ordon Village. This left the details on how to travel to Skyloft unknown to the Hero.
Callum dismounted before he answered, Link followed suit and Midna emerged from his shadow once more. "Headquarters is above the clouds so this is as far as your horse can go. This ranch here belongs to the Peacekeepers, where we keep our land-based animals. Epona will be staying here when you don't have need of her."
His word's tugged Link's heart a little. "You mean we have to leave her behind?" Link's hand rose unconsciously to the mare's flank. Ever since Epona was stolen by monsters shortly before Link had met Midna, he was reluctant to abandon his mother's horse for any extended period of time. Goddesses knew what those things did to her as the next time her master saw her Epona had been utterly distressed.
The Peacekeeper seemed to understand his concern. "Not indefinitely, there will be times where you'll need her for missions. It saves us a fair amount of money if our newer agents own their own horses. Don't fret Link, the staff here will take good care of her. Have a look around, the place has the best facilities available and is far from any form of danger. Epona will be safe here."
Link scanned the vast green plain before him. He could see various breeds of horses, donkeys and other similar looking creatures. There were even some of those giant boars that he had seen bulblins ride. They all seemed quite content. He escorted Epona to a two-story farmhouse where they were greeted by the ranch's owners. Link was still hesitant about leaving his horse so the owners gave him a guided tour of the property. They seemed nice enough and they told Link that he was free to visit anytime he wanted.
Satisfied that his horse will be taken care of properly, Link said goodbye to Epona, stroking her neck and feeding her a few treats. The mare seemed to understand what was going on as she nuzzled her master affectionately, as she always did when he went off on his own for a long time.
Callum pulled out his scrying mirror and appeared to be conversing with the image within it. Link raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "I thought you said that you couldn't talk to people with that thing."
The Peacekeeper replaced the mirror into his pocket and turned to the Hero. "No, I said that to do so you needed another scrying mirror, which Midna did not possess. You only assumed my mirror couldn't be used for communication." He gave Link a cryptic smirk he had seen on his Twili companion numerous times before. "I've contacted headquarters and they will be sending us transport for the rest our journey. It should be here soon."
Confused, Midna looked at Link. "What was that about mirrors?" Link realized that he had neglected to tell Midna about the enchanted devices that the Peacekeepers used to view people and places of interest. Knowing her tendency to react badly to such things, he was not ready to explain it to her in front of the other people in their company.
"I'll tell you later," was all he said despite her annoyance.
Ten minutes passed before the Hero could hear the flapping of the wings of something big coming. His eyes darted around the sky, searching for the source of the sound, when he spotted three shapes approaching the ranch at alarming speed. As they grew closer, Link realized that they were large birds. Two of them were grey in color and carried people on their backs while the third one was riderless with rusty orange feathers. Everyone on the ground hastily made room as the flock landed with loud screeches.
Link and Midna stared at the creatures in awe. "What are those things?" Link asked. Each bird stood as tall as a large Goron. The orange one waddled up to Callum and pushed him playfully with its huge bill.
"These are called loftwings," Callum explained as he petted the animal's crest. The loftwing closed its eyes in content. "They'll take us the rest of the way back to Skyloft."
Link and Midna climbed up each behind the rider of one of the loftwings, uncertain if the giant birds could carry the extra weight. Callum mounted the russet loftwing and gave some sort of signal Link could not see before it screeched again and jumped into the air. The other birds did the same and both Link and Midna screamed at the sudden ascent. "New recruits," Link's pilot chuckled, his words barely audible over the rushing wind.
It took a while to adjust but Link started to enjoy the ride, the speed of the birds and the force of the wind beating on his body felt exhilarating. He glanced over to Midna to see her laughing. She met his eye and grinned, causing Link to do the same. He had not had this much fun in such a long time.
"This place is amazing!" Midna exclaimed as she cast her eyes around the gardens and buildings of Skyloft. The Twili had only seen one room in the place so this was her first true glimpse at the suspended island. She had been to the sky before with Link but Skyloft was so much more vibrant and modern-looking than the ancient Oocca city, despite it being arguably older.
Link smiled, happy that she was able to see this wonder of the world as well. Callum escorted them down a path that was new to the Hero. Along the way they past a group of Twili women engaged in animated conversation. Midna felt relieved that she would still be able to socialize with others of her kind but curiosity plagued her mind.
"Those Twili aren't shadows," she commented. "How are they able to survive in the light?"
After generations in the world of shadow the Twili had grown intolerant to even small quantities of light, which would burn them horribly within seconds. For the first half of her previous adventure with Link, Midna had to stay hidden safely in his shadow whenever they were outside of the Twilight, until that night Zant threw her into the light and nearly killing her.
"We use the same technique that Princess Zelda used to save your life," Callum explained. "Although usually the Twili are at full health at the time so the people giving them the power to survive here don't lose so much of their own life force."
Midna's mind flashed back to that moment in time where Zelda gave up all she had to the dying Twili. Midna never wanted the gift but the other princess's display of selflessness was what gave the imp the ability to walk freely in this world, and changed her into the person she was today.
They entered a building and found themselves in what looked like the reception room of a small business. The front desk was made of quality wood and the velvet seats along the wall looked very comfortable. The Peacekeepers must have a high budget or something Link thought. The creature sitting behind the desk looked like some kind of burly mole-person, its dirty blonde hair covering its eyes and long black claws extending from its fingertips. The mole man gazed up at Callum from its work then to the other two with him.
"Hello Coper," Callum greeted, "I've brought in our new agents-in-training."
The mole named Coper glanced at the two strangers then began digging through a pile of papers. "Ah yes, the Hero of Light and the Twilight Princess, got their files just this morning. How did it all go?"
"According to plan; Link has left Hyrule indefinitely and Midna is deceased, only officially of course," the bearded man chuckled some.
Coper found what he was looking for and handed the documents to his colleague, if that was what their relationship was. "Good. If there's anything I truly hate it's when an extraction gets botched up, giving me more paperwork to do." Without responding, Callum opened each file to a particular page and handed one to the new recruits.
"What are these for?" Midna asked as she flicked through the previous pages, keeping her thumb on the one the document was opened to as to not lose it.
Link did the same and found that there were records of his entire life; his date of birth, his home village, a personality profile, even his accomplishments since he first became the Hero of Light, a title he did not usually like to be referred to by. Hell, Hero was a bit much for him as well but people insisted on calling him that.
"These are your personal records. We keep tabs on everyone we take an interest in. We just need you to sign a form saying that you accept becoming a Peacekeeper agent for life and agree to our rules. After that you are officially members of the Order."
The Hero and the princess took a pen from the desk and looked at each other for a moment, an unspoken exchange to be sure that they were both ready for the commitment they were about to make. Together they scribbled their signatures on the document. A sense of finality filled the air.
Callum gave them a hearty smile. "Link and Midna welcome to the Peacekeepers."
"Before we go sending you into the field we will need to put you through some basic training," Callum said. They were outside now, standing next to a fountain with a statue resembling a great fairy. The two new agents opened the mouths to protest but he stopped them.
"It has been a while since either of you have seen any action so you will both need to get back into proper shape. What's more, though it is primarily what complemented you two before, you each lack each other's special skills which we require all agents to master.
"As the clock is against us we don't have time for you to go through standard training so I'm going to write each of you a quick custom curriculum. Link, your swordplay has gotten sloppy so you'll need some tuning up. I'll arrange for you to start learning how to use magic as well considering who you'll be fighting in the future.
"Midna, I'm going to get you learning to use a sword too. Also, you're skills at sorcery are exceptional but there are many different forms other than shadow magic that you can learn so I'll set up some advanced tutoring for you.
"I will go and arrange your training with your instructors. In the meantime I'll have someone give you a tour of the base." Callum took a look around before he stopped and whistled loudly. "Groose! Come over here!"
Answering the call was a rather big, muscular human wearing a blue shirt with an extravagant greenish-yellow collar. He appeared to be the same age as Link and Midna. He had deep red hair that he wore in an absurd pompadour and his yellow eyes showed a lot of confidence. Strapped to his back was a large cannon-like device, similar to what Link remembered seeing Auru from the resistance use during the retaking of Hyrule Caslte. On Groose's hip was a short sword sheathed in a black scabbard.
"Hey chief," he greeted, "What'cha need me for?" He looked over the two strangers, he was disinterested in the shorter boy in green but the slender Twili girl made him blush with a dopey expression.
"Groose, these are our new recruits Link, the Hero of Light, and Midna, the former princess of the Twilight Realm. I need to go organize their training so I would like you to show them around." Groose gave a grinning salute. When Callum bade them goodbye and left them, the red-haired boy then turned to address Midna.
"Hey there, I'm Groose. I'm sort of one of the top agents here so if you need any help with anything just give me a call," he boasted. "Well the big man Callum said to show you around so how about I take you on a private tour?" He offered his hand to her in a courting manner that made Link's blood boil.
Midna could see what he was trying at and was skeptical about his 'best agent' claim. She raised one finger and gave it a flick. In an instant, Groose's arms were bent back painfully behind him, causing him to lean away from her. Midna walked up and rose to full height over him, which intimidated the Hero a little even though none of it was happening to him.
"Listen here pal," she said sternly, "you might as well get any funny ideas out of that head of yours right now. This girl is taken." She released Groose who proceeded to massage his strained muscles. He did not take his eyes of the scary Twili woman.
"Yeah," he replied timidly, "Got it. Sorry." He looked at Link for the first time with any meaning who gave him a sympathetic shrug. "Ummm," Groose continued, "let's... let's go then shall we?"
As they started walking Link turned to Midna. "So... you have a boyfriend then?" he asked disheartened, he looked away. "That's... that's nice." The question that filled his head was how she could have that kind of relationship with someone if she was supposed to be dead to the world.
Midna shook her head at him in disbelief then brought her hand to her face, covering her eyes. "Goddesses you are thick! Did you really think that I gave up my throne, faked my own death, traveled across dimensions and joined a secret organisation with you, which I can never leave now, because I thought we were just friends?" she asked incredulously. "Nothing ever changes with you Link."
It took him a few seconds to process what she had said. "So... you mean that... when you said you were... you meant that..." he trailed off, unable to voice his thoughts.
Midna rolled her eyes and sighed, then leaned in close to kiss him. Link's brain turned to mush as he went to press deeper onto her lips but she pulled away. "That's all you're getting for now for being such an idiot," she said sternly. She smiled though as she took his hand and followed Groose, who was wisely pretending not to notice the exchange.
Skyloft was truly a place of wonder. It was plain that the Peacekeeper base had originally been a floating block of earth and over the centuries, man-made structures similar to those that kept the Oocca city afloat had been built to accommodate for population growth. In one part of the natural area was a small lake filled by a waterfall. Where the water was coming from when the island was high above the clouds baffled Link. His guide was unable to give him an answer when he asked.
Groose showed them the various facilities that were available. There was the training center for honing your skills, the scrap shop where you could repair weapons and armor, the dining hall with a twenty-four hour kitchen as well as a number of places with recreational purposes. The most significant building had to be the mission control building where the Peacekeepers' operations were led and monitored.
During the tour the group encountered what appeared to be some mechanical being. It was small, cream in color with a red face and mismatched eyes. On its head was a peculiar black ornament with a large propeller that kept the machine airborne. Its disproportionately large hands were held away from its main body by blue arcs of electricity. It was carrying a heavy box of scrap metal. It took one look at Link and dropped its cargo.
"Hey, you look like Mister Shortpants, BZZRT!" Midna burst into laughter, already liking the strange thing while Link was ready to smash it to pieces. "And you have Mistress Fi's sword with you, zzzzt!"
As if stirred by the mention of her name the spirit of the Master Sword emerged with the same divine light as before. The mechanical thing bounced around in excitement.
"Mistress Fi!" it exclaimed, "It's been ages since I last saw you, ZRRPT-FOOOSH!"
The blue-purple spirit faced the machine, only the slightest hint of a smile appearing on her lips. "Greetings Scrapper, yes it has been exactly three-hundred-and-seventeen years, two months, three weeks and five days since our previous encounter."
Awkward silence fell over the group. "Uhhh," Scrapper said hesitantly, "wow. Didn't realize it had been that long, dzzt."
Groose was the one to break the quiet. "This robot here is Scrapper," he explained to Link and Midna. "He's ancient as. Apparently he was operating since long before the Order was founded by the Hero of the Sky and one of my ancestors."
Link straightened up in surprise. "The Hero of the Sky started the Peacekeepers?"
The other boy nodded in confirmation. "Sure did, along with my great-great-how-ever-many-other-greats grandfather, old man Groose. Have you ever heard of the story of the battle between Hylia and Demise?"
Both of the new agents nodded. "Callum told us the gist of it," Link replied. "The fact that Ghirahim and Brandon are trying to resurrect Demise is the whole reason Midna and I are here. Callum said that I'm the only one who can stop them."
"So that's it, huh? Well according to the Order's history, my ancestor and the Hero of the Sky worked together to defeat Demise. Old Groose built an awesome bomb catapult to knock that monster back into its prison each time it broke out, but it was the Hero who put Demise down for good.
"After that, the spirit maiden possessing Hylia's soul told them to start the Peacekeepers to watch over the new world. Since then the Order has been growing and went 'underground' when we started working in espionage." Groose chuckled at the irony of the last sentence.
"So your family's been here since the beginning then?" Midna asked wide-eyed.
Groose smiled proudly. "Yep. It kinda makes us nobility around Skyloft. Hadn't had a generation go by when at least one of the family wasn't sitting on the council."
The more ancient members of the group were engaged in their own conversation, talking about old times and not paying any attention to the mortals. They appeared to be finished when Fi returned to the Master Sword and Scrapper picked up his abandoned cargo and flew away.
Suddenly a light came on in Groose's head. "Hey I just thought of something. Let's go over to the rookery. Every Peacekeeper has a loftwing partner and I reckon it's time you guys met yours."
Their senior agent had taken them to the top of a very tall stone tower. On every landing there were lots of giant nests supposedly for the loftwings. Groose had told them that since Skyloft's origins humans have always been bonded to a loftwing that appeared before them. The same tradition still held true with those that were not human. They even bonded with Gorons, which raised a lot of interest as those birds were considerably larger than the normal. No one had seen loftwings of such size before the Gorons came to Skyloft so many wondered if the goddesses had created them to carry the much heavier beings.
The wind tore brutally at the companions' clothes causing them to have to brace themselves against it. "So what's supposed to happen now?" Link shouted over the roaring gale.
Groose did not seem as bothered by the blustery weather as he smiled confidently back at the Hero. "Just sit tight and watch," he bellowed in return.
Hardly a minute passed when the sounds of screeching enter the threshold of Link's hearing. He turned to see the source and spotted the two now-familiar shapes of approaching loftwings. Despite the force of the wind the birds landed gracefully onto the tower roof.
The one standing before Midna was the color of obsidian. It towered over the Twili and stared her down with a regal aura, if it was possible for a bird to possess such a trait. Midna held herself high, looking into the animal's eyes firmly. Perhaps it was a test of character as the black loftwing eventually bowed its head to her. With a smile she stroked her new friend's bill, the loftwing clearly enjoying the contact.
Link grinned as he witnessed the exchange, but then a shrill scream made Link turn to face the other loftwing in front of him. It stood twice as tall as him, its feathers were a stunning crimson. He gazed into its big eyes and felt a strange sense of familiarity, as though he had known the creature all of his life, and he could somehow tell that the bird felt the same way as well. Without being aware it, Link climbed onto the loftwing's back. Instantly the bird spread its wings and leaped upwards, taking to the skies.
Adrenaline rushed through Link's veins, his face beaming with excitement. It was as though he had been born to fly as his loftwing turned at the slightest touch, as though the two possessed a psychic connection. Link removed his arms from the bird's neck and spread them out sideways. He hollered loud and enthusiastically, letting himself be taken in by the experience.
Down on the tower roof Midna and Groose watched the scene absolutely amazed. "I've never seen anyone bond with their loftwing as quickly as that before," Groose laughed.
Midna could not suppress her grin. "He's a natural. Little show-off."
"How about we go join him?" Groose proposed. He placed two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly. Then to Midna's horror he started sprinting towards the edge of the tower and jumped. Her heart leaped into her mouth before she saw him again flying upwards on a purple bird. Relieved she turned to her own animal, whose gaze almost seemed to be granting its approval. With a smile Midna mounted the creature and took off in pursuit of the others.
Flying was not a new experience to the former princess but she had to admit it was far more comfortable sitting on soft feathers than the leathery back of a monster. It was not long before she caught up with the boys. The rush of flying high in the sky, the thrill of experiencing something new, this was the feeling of adventure that Midna had missed terribly.
They had flown for hours, racing each other and various other flyers who they met. They only landed when the sun began to set as Groose told them it was too dangerous to fly at night. Callum met them after they touched ground and told them he had arranged for Link and Midna to begin training in the morning.
After saying goodbye to Groose, Callum then led the two recruits to the rooms that had been provided for them to live in. The rooms were relatively spacious and loosely resembled Link's old house in terms of layout. There was a small kitchen in each room adjoining a compact living area that doubled smartly as the bedroom. There was also a bathroom already stocked with the essentials like soap and towels. Link's room was just a few doors down the hall from Midna's which both of them were pleased with.
Callum bade them goodnight and left them be as they explored their new homes. The kitchen cupboards were stocked with food so rather than go to the dining hall, they threw together a simple stew and ate on Link's new couch, which felt divine to sit on. The whole time they ate they recounted the day's events and the wonders they saw. By the time they exhausted themselves from talking it was getting late.
Link gave a huge yawn as he stood up. "Might as well hit the hay," he said tiredly. "I reckon we're going to be doing a lot of hard work tomorrow." He smiled at her fondly. "Goodnight Midna."
Midna did not move from the couch. "Actually Link, I was thinking maybe I could stay here tonight," she said sheepishly. "I mean if that's okay with you, that is."
His smile widened as Link leaned in to kiss her. This time it was sweet and long, his fingers running through her silky hair. "Of course you can," he said when they broke apart. Together they snuggled into Link's bed where they held each other in their arms and stared into each other's eyes.
"Link," Midna finally said. "I think we did the right thing here. Even though we had to give up so much I think it was all worth it. It took me having to lose you to realize this but... this is exactly where I want to be; with you. I love you Link."
He smiled and lifted a hand to gently push as stray hair away from her face. "I love you too Midna."
More Skyward Sword characters. :D
Yeah so I'm back to working hard now with university. Got so much to do this semester that my fan fiction has to take a backseat for a while. This doesn't affect this story as it's already finished (there's still more chapters for you to read, mind you) but my other writing projects have to be put on hold.
I guess the great thing about my writing style is that my personal life has almost no effect on my work on this site. I just find a bit of time to post a chapter and that's all, no problem with writer's block, and that's the way I think it should be. What I want to do is encourage other authors on this site is to do the same as it is kind of annoying when stories go without being updated for months, we've all been there. Sure you go unappreciated while you work but that's what makes receiving the reviews when you publish so great. I've been writing this whole story for four months in secret and the reviews I get from you guys makes it all worthwhile.
Until I next update,
EquinoxWolf