Back at Skyloft I made full use of the need to wait until nightfall as an excuse to take a nap, though I stopped by Gaepora and kept him up to date. He didn't have anything new for me yet, but the weary expression he had, along with the various tomes scattered around his room, suggested he was probably just as hard at work as I was.
Skyloft by night was not a strange place to me. I'd been about before, if nothing else to settle my concerns about the Master Emerald in the earlier days. There was occasionally a bit of monster activity, but mostly it was just the odd ChuChu, and nothing to worry about. Tonight, of course, there'd be a Demon as well. After Ghirahim... I had my doubts about the wisdom of this.
Regardless of that, I went ahead and found the gravestone that had been mentioned. There were cracks over it that suggested it had been hit one too many times, and I added a few more after giving it a solid punch, which made a pair of glowing horns appear. It might just have been me, but the faded, worn epitaph on the stone looked almost like a bestial face when those horns appeared.
Once it lit up, I shoved the stone back, which as the old man had told me caused the storage shed to open, and the gravestone to grind slowly back. All that was in there was a ladder, heading down to a wooden platform that had been built under Skyloft. I'd seen it before, but never actually been here. It headed down, following the underside of the island, to a door. Framed with similar horns. Light spilled out from the edges, with sounds of a fire – and a girl, laughing. Kukiel?
Something make an impressive roar, not loud but definitely one most people would run from, then a scream followed – and after a moment, more laughter. Demon or no Demon, something was going on in there, and the best way to find out was to take them by surprise.
There was, in fact, a Demon in there – a massive Demon, with immense gold and blue wings, red horns and a terrifying expression. Both he and the girl, who now I saw her I recognised as Kukiel, had frozen as I'd entered.
What struck me immediately was that, as terrifying as this Demon should have been, not only was I not afraid, but it looked afraid too. Kukiel just looked surprised. She broke the spell first, giving a squeal of delight, running for me – to the Demon's surprise.
"Knuckles!" she exclaimed. "My other monster friend!"
"Other monster?" the Demon and I both said, both equally surprised, then again at the same time, "You?"
"Kukiel... maybe you'd better explain what's going on here?" I asked.
"When you had to go out and do things, I had to find someone else to play with," she told me, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "I found Batreaux here! Batreaux, this is Knuckles – he's the monster friend I told you about!"
"And... the uh... screaming?" I asked.
"I assure you I mean no harm," Batreaux said hurriedly. "We were just playing 'scream as loud as you can'. No one can hear down here! It was only a game!"
I gave this some thought, then decided there was only one thing I could do, and extended a hand.
"As one monster to another... sorry for nearly judging too quickly."
Batreaux took my hand and shook it. "Quite understandable. I live down here in this humble dwelling, so it is hardly surprising you haven't come across me before."
"Batreaux looks scary, but he's really friendly," Kukiel told me. "He doesn't want to scare anyone, so he's been down here on his own. Then I found him..."
"The dear child is the only one before now who hasn't let loose a blood-curdling scream at the sight of me! Since she started visiting me, I've felt better than I ever did before! I can only hope that in time..."
"You want the people of Skyloft to accept you too," I finished for him. "Like they do me."
"Quite so. But as you can imagine, it is not the easiest thing to do. At least you do not share my terrifying image. But there is hope yet! You see among... certain kinds of Demons, we have a little legend. It seems that when people make others happy – other than Demons, unfortunately – something called a Gratitude Crystal is made. Sometimes more than one! They are quite remarkable things. Just looking at enough of them... knowing such gratitude exists, perhaps with enough could turn me from this, into a human!"
"Hold on a moment there. I'm... not sure if I count or not, but these crystals. I've never seen them before. And I know someone who goes out of his way to help people far too often for his own good."
"Ah... yes... but you are not a Demon. But perhaps..." Batreaux considered for a few moments. "If you had something that could contain a fragment of what little Demonic power I have, that might perhaps allow you to see them..."
I drew the Goddess Sword, which caused him to start back. I had to hold up a hand to reassure him.
"What about this? I got it up at the Statue of the Goddess."
"Regrettably, I cannot touch such a blade. But if a way could be found to transfer it through some other willing vessel..."
An idea occurred to me. Two, in fact, the second being that I hadn't really addressed the reason I was here.
"Alright. Kukiel, you know your mother is worried about you?"
"Aw, she worries too much. Batreaux won't hurt me. It's not safe to go out at night though, so I guess I'll stay here."
"You ought to go home and make sure she knows you're safe though. And I think I can help all three of us at the same time. We'll just have to make sure no one else sees you, Batreaux."
The Demon looked puzzled. "Whatever do you have in mind?"
"I'm thinking of a large, green gemstone I have to protect that has considerable power to it. If it's willing to work with us, maybe the Master Emerald will help us. And then once we've seen to that, I'll make sure Kukiel makes it safely home. I know you're friends now, but..."
"I understand completely. Better that your parents know you are safe, Kukiel. I would come with you, but as I am..."
"Aw, they're just a bunch of stick-in-the-muds. They don't know any better. Does this mean I get to come see the Master Emerald up close?" she asked hopefully. "Please?"
What else can you say in the face of that?
Batreaux flew on ahead to avoid being seen, taking care to avoid the night-time rescue Knights, while Kukiel and I just made our way back up through the graveyard and to Angel Island. The guards on duty didn't question why I was heading up there, or why I was doing so with Kukiel, which was just as well.
I had words with the Master Emerald, which as always never responded except with a few pulses of light. I could only assume it was willing to help. Batreaux sent his power into it, and it relayed it into the Goddess Sword. The sword's polished blade became tinted emerald, as did the handle, then to show what Batreaux had given it darkened slightly. I made sure this had no effects that I could find on me, I could still do the Skyward Strike and everything else besides – just to be sure. He was a Demon, after all.
I later learned that Batreaux's little gift was also one of the first things that ultimately made the resulting Master Sword as powerful as it was. If I hadn't done that, it would have been completely useless to Tails in the Twilight Realm.
Once Kukiel was brought back home, her mother reassured and I'd weathered several crushing, thankful and tearful hugs (And surreptitiously collected the five crystals that appeared), I made a quick stop by Batreaux to find out a bit more about these Gratitude Crystals, then spent the night picking up any I spotted.
I'll spare you the details, because frankly it wasn't very interesting. I'm fairly certain the Master Emerald chose to lend a hand, as that little sense that used to help me find the shards of it whenever it got shattered (again) also helped find ten of the Gratitude Crystals overnight, which I dropped off with Batreaux in exchange for a larger wallet, and another heart crystal. Given the abundance of rupees Heroes are used to, the former at least was well received. The five I'd gained from returning Kukiel home Batreaux rewarded me with a Big Wallet, which had room for a further thousand rupees, despite appearances. Another bigger-on-the-inside thing.
One day broke I had plans to stop by Beedle and see what he had up in his air.. ship... shop... look, it's a confusing name, alright? I don't even know why he wanted a flying shop. Anyway, I was going to head there, then head back down to the new part of the surface, but since Beedle's store wasn't open yet I had to delay.
Which gave Parrow time to let me know he had a bit of a problem. His little sister Orielle, who had incidentally been the one to tell me about the old man at the Lumpy Pumpkin, had gone out flying late yesterday, and hadn't come back. He'd gone looking, but his Loftwing didn't have the stamina of some others, and hadn't been able to range out far.
He gave me a direction, and since I never pass up a chance to fly, I went looking in the south-western reaches of this part of the sky. It turned out her Lofting was simply injured and couldn't fly. Medicine was needed, which was the care of Parrow, who naturally was back at Skyloft.
One round-trip later, and the promise of keeping the bottle with the medicine in, and Orielle was nursing a recovering Loftwing back to health, and I gained another five Gratitude Crystals. I don't blame her for wanting to stay on that little island for a while to make sure he was safe.
Have you ever noticed we seem to spend as much time on side-quests as we do on the main one? I wonder if that's why Link dropped the idea of the Heart Containers and Gratitude Crystals – and if that's the real reason why the Kinstones were never ready in time for Manic's quest?
Letting Parrow know Orielle would shortly be on her way back gave me yet another five crystals, and by that time Beedle's place was open. What rupees I hadn't spent or earned by this point went on another additional item pouch, and just in case an extra wallet that had space for another three hundred. Just in case.
Fi pointed out about then that I really should be getting on, I suspect nudged by Link – or more likely Fate, knowing Link at this point in time. After having helped various people and picking up a few more useful things, I had to agree.