Out above the clouds away from Skyloft, the green beacon marking my first destination was clearly visible. It had been one of the rifts in the cloud barrier that I'd seen on the way in, though I couldn't tell which one until I got closer. From a distance however, it looked like only a small, swirling gap in the thick cover.
Up close however it was definitely not so small. As I'd been warned, my Loftwing refused to fly too close to the clouds, even in the vicinity of the rift itself, not even going low enough to skim the tops. It did however go close enough to carry me over the great rift and show it to be nearly as large as the entirety of Skyloft's main island.
Below was a thickly forested region with a number of clearings dotted about. From this height, picking out details was impossible, but I could at least attempt to scout out a suitable landing position. Once I had an idea I steered back toward the centre of the rift reassured my Loftwing, and quite deliberately fell back off it, turning in the air to go spread-eagled. He went off on his own, content to roam the skies until I needed him again.
It was actually a long flight down, and along the way I had time to attempt to steer myself toward my intended destination, and time to realize there was one think Link had neglected to tell me – just how in the world was I supposed to get back up again? I trusted the scatterbrained God, or at least his Mother, would have made preparations for that though.
Since I didn't have anyone watching besides Fi, and she was the one who'd suggested I could probably do better with the sailcloth than on my own, I resorted to that for a safe landing, opening it before it was actually necessary. I'd landed nearby the top of what appeared to be a long disused quarry – the kind of quarry with long, sloping ramps to get up and down. Nature had long since started to recolonize the area, grass and moss already in abundance over the exposed earth, time having worn away any rougher edges to give it a more natural look.
There was something right at the base, far below, that had black wisps of could have been smoke coming from it, but from all the way up here there was simply no way to tell what exactly was going on down there.
More locally to me were the remains of some stone pillars, among them a stone bird statue that had seen better days. Nature was busily at work trying to conceal a number of flagstones, even growing up the rusted, pitted iron railings that were there to keep people from falling into the pit, and were probably by now completely useless at such. Peaceful woods loomed on almost all sides, broken only by a larger structure in the distance – perhaps once a temple or hall of some kind, now again steadily succumbing to time and nature.
Fi appeared nearby while I looked over the area, my hand already part-way toward the hilt of my sword – an absent act Pipit had trained into me. "You never know what'll be waiting for you," he'd told me. "Whenever you arrive somewhere new, always be ready to defend yourself at a moment's notice."
I don't think I ever told him how useful that piece of advice was, actually. Someday I think I'll commandeer Silver and go tell him.
"Master Knuckles, we have arrived," Fi told me, rather pointlessly. I didn't bother to mention that however. "By my calculations, you are currently positioned in a location known as the Sealed Grounds. This location does not appear to be regularly frequented, and I predict high chances of hostile activity in this region. Proceed with caution, Master."
"Naturally," I sighed, then nodded toward the bird statue. "Isn't that a replica of the ones up on Skyloft?"
"It would appear to be so," Fi answered, giving it only a cursory glance. "However, it is of a different design, and is also not active at this time. Available information indicates a low probability that you can activate it with your current capabilities. However should you manage to do so, I believe it will act as our passage back to the sky."
Stubborn as I am, I wasn't about to leave it at that and struck it with a Skyward Strike. It had worked in the statue of the Goddess, why not on this? Aside from cutting away a vine that had been content to grow around the statue's neck, nothing happened. Fi, to her credit, did not comment.
With the railings barring progress down a far more pitted path one way, I started down the one that would ultimately lead to the peak of the quarry's only route in and out for those on foot. Fi came along floating behind rather than returning to the sword.
"Beware, Master," she warned as I approached a large flower in the ground. I slowed, approaching more warily, then a plant burst out of it, impossibly large for the tiny arrangement it had come from. A long leafy stalk terminated in a giant blue bud, but this was no mere flower – this bud had teeth and tongue, and while it had no apparent means of seeing me, it was slavering as it watched me closely.
"This appears to be a Deku Baba," Fi remarked in her clinical manner. "This violent plant is widespread in such wooded areas as this, and will attempt to bite anything that approaches. Though it is covered in a toughened husk, the inside of its mouth is soft. I have confirmed the existence of two varieties: Those that open their mouths vertically, and those that do so horizontally as we see here."
I'd paused to listen to her, waiting patiently, then asked, "Anything else?"
"I have no further information regarding Deku Babas at this time, Master Knuckles. You have also yet to defeat any, so I have insufficient data to analyse your battle performance with them."
"Yes would have done, Fi," I said, making a strike for the Deku Baba. While it could sense me, it could not sense my sword, so appeared to simply accept the strike through it. Once neatly sliced in half, the remains puffed out of existence in purple smoke. Since Fi didn't remark on this, neither did I.
There were several more Deku Babas awaiting me down the path, the next opening the bed vertically, then one of each beside each other. There I found giving them a good punch caused them to recoil back, snapping straight up stunned. Slicing the stem also defeated them instantly. Hardly much of a challenge, but I was just starting out.
"I noticed that too," Tails remarked. "You start of simple and work up from there."
"Naturally," Link said. "I may have been rather bad at my job back then, but even I knew I couldn't just lob you in at the deep end. Besides, you all started out just as bad at your jobs at first, even if you had someone to teach you," he went on. "You've got to start somewhere. Deku Babas were my first attempt at a kind of... training monster I suppose. Something to get you started."
"You never left any of them for me to play with," Manic noted.
"No, but I was experimenting a lot with you remember. You knew about me, and I had a bit of experience, so in effect I made use of that to see how things went. You got Octoroks instead. Silver had the Stalfos on Hyrule Field – not that he actually took his sword to them."
"Hey, even Mido knew shattering skeletons was the best way to go," Silver put in.
"Yeah, about that. Do you even know what happened because of that?"
"Yes," Scourge muttered darkly. "The little brat tried to beat me up when I went back there. Managed it too, once he caught me off guard."
"Oh, did I do that?" Silver asked innocently. "It's probably just as well I forgot to teach him how to use his mind like me, isn't it?" Link gave Silver a hard look. "What, it's not like I made good on it, right?"
"You," Link said firmly. "Are going to go back there and teach him as soon as Knuckles is done, or when we next take a long break. Because otherwise you'll have caused a paradox, and I know what you're like with those. Not to mention how loudly Fate yelled at me for letting it happen. I've half a mind to send you to Her so She can tell you what She thought of it personally."
Silver looked startled, and wasn't the only one. "Wait, you mean- I actually- I'm going to-"
"Yeah, that's how he caught me out, idiot," Scourge told them. "D'ya have any idea how humiliating it is to have a little kid throw you about like a rag-doll?"
"Isn't that worth it?" Silver suggested. Manic was clearly on his side, everyone else looked sympathetic one way or the other. Link just glared at him before telling Knuckles to carry on again.
All about the top of the pit area were yet more signs that people of some kind had once been here, remains of walls that had toppled back, marks in the rocky sides that were clearly not natural, and then ultimately the structure I'd seen when I landed. It looked like there had once been more to it, a worn, cracked dome rising up from above the door only to end in mid-air, the rest of it clearly broken away. The door was ornately framed in carved, if also worn, stone, a large indigo door with strangely vibrant golden etchings, all centred around an eye with a tear-drop. Moss and vines were less abundant here, perhaps because it was more sheltered here and got less light.
The door, despite best efforts, refused to budge in even the slightest degree, and the shape of the dome itself prevented any attempt I might have been able to make to scale it. I had no intentions of doing so though, as a three-fold sense told me the base of the pit was where I needed to be – one came from my own intuition and knack for finding things, one came from the warrior's sense Pipit had instilled in me, and the third came from the breeze that was coming from the pit, just strong enough to pick up leaves and blow them up, out and past me.
Rather than make the long trek down there, and believe me it would have been a ridiculously long trek at that, I stuck with a combination of my own gliding and the sailcloth again, since the additional weight I was carrying still threw me off balance a bit, quickly descending. Small holes in the ground dotted the area, but the breeze did not originate from them. Rather it came from what I now saw was a large stone spike stuck into the ground in the middle of a large and oddly compelling design, scorched into the rocks around it. Though nature had made its attempt to colonise this far down, even it seemed to keep a wary distance from both the design and the stone.
This close it was clear that the black wisps were originating from it. They didn't look or move like smoke, they were more like long strings of just black, reaching out from it, but held back by something, as if there were an unseen barrier it was trying to find a gap in.
"Master, the rocks here have a message ingrained in them that I believe is intended for you." Fi informed me. "It appears to be quite ancient."
"Ingrained in the rocks? I don't see-"
"It is not a carving, Master Knuckles. The very rocks themselves have had it stored within them awaiting your presence."
"I'll take your word for it. What's the message?"
"Great Monster Hero, descended from the sky, raise the sword of Her Grace to the sky, take aim at the evil aura radiating from this seal, and unleash the power of the Goddess."
"The whole Monster thing is really starting to get old now," I sighed. "That's seriously all this message says?"
"It is repeated constantly in all the rocks around us Master. There is no further message. I believe it refers to a Skyward Strike."
"I gathered," I muttered to myself, again raising up the Goddess Sword, charging it and unleashing the strike. Blue designs glowed over the surface of the stone, designs that had not been visible before. The black wisps were drawn back into the stone, seeming almost to lash out at the retreating barrier as they were sucked back in. And then, once they were no more, the holes dotted about the area started to hiss. Passing leaves told me they were producing air currents I could probably use to get back up quicker.
"I am detecting a significant change in the area affected by your Skyward Strike, Master," Fi informed me. "There is an aura present that was concealed before which correlates closely with your sailcloth. I surmise therefore it is the aura associated with Zelda, and should you require I can direct you to where the aura is strongest. At present this is at the remains of the Sealed Temple above us."
"Looks like the only way from here is up," I remarked. Fi took that moment to return to my sword, leaving me to ascend on my own.