Chapter 75: Welcome to Sagacity Island

…

"She's a what!?"

Leynne's loud question was a reflection of Link's own feelings on the matter at hand. While the Island Symphony underway with the night covering her departure from East Iron Island, he had called Leynne, Dholit, and Layna into his cabin in order to get an explanation as to what Layna's function in Gelto society was. Needless to say, Dholit's response was quite surprising.

"She's an assassin," Dholit repeated, a wide, delighted smile on her face expressing her glee at Link and Leynne's expense.

"I don't get it," Irleen commented as she hovered over Leynne's shoulder. "And what are you smiling about, Dholit?"

"An assassin," Link repeated. "It means she kills people."

Irleen hovered over and—puh—"Ow."—knocked him on the head. "I get that, Link," she told him. "I mean why is this such a problem?"

"You mean otheh than heh neahly killing ouh fihst passengeh?" Leynne asked.

"Dholit?" Link asked, rubbing the spot where Irleen had hit him. "Did you know about this?"

Dholit gave a shrug. "I suspected," she told them. "The thing about Gilto assassins, though, is that you can't quite tell one apaht from society. And they don't strictly kill people. They'h moah like… like watchehs."

"Watchehs!?" Leynne declared. He indicated Layna with a hand, who flinched in response. "She almost killed someone! Who was she supposed to be watching!?"

"My captain," Dholit replied.

"M-me?" Link asked.

Dholit nodded. "In case the enemy showed up."

Link stood up from his chair. "Dholit, the 'enemy' is my fellow Skyriders," he said. "We can't kill them. Any of them."

"Was this youh idea?" Leynne asked her.

Dholit nodded. "When I found out what she was, I told heh that, on pain of death, she would protect you while you went onto the shoah. I didn't exactly tell heh to kill anyone who approached you; she just… kind of approaches issues as she sees fit. Watch." She turned to Layna and asked in a gentle voice, "Layna, 'ijunwan wabin kyabtin thib 'anw 'addic 'asayzhali waba 'anw Xili'anay amidh."

Layna, having apparently lost the killer composure that Link had seen twice so far, gave Dholit a shocked look. Then she showed the look to Link. "A-Amda Kyabtin, 'i-'inu mizhoymiycak 'imayn abthuf 'agosji!" she declared, bowing as deep as possible. "Nwik fithoma mibinwoymak Amda Ky-Kyabtin thib tab zhidi thulwacuk xwabdhiyn na'ithab."

Dholit appeared impressed as she mumbled, "Ooh, 'anik 'ahaywxi…" Then, she said in a normal voice, "Na', Layna. 'Ijunwan."

Layna raised her head and nodded. Then, standing at her full height, she said, "'Inu nadlwaythawocya'ak 'anw Xili'anay amidh foltab 'ak kwofis zabicya'ak. Am-Amda Kyabtin taf Lyayn yitazmya'ak, 'idh 'inu bulnya'ak zhayf thusiyzhiltya. Taf…"

"Taf dhol?" Dholit asked.

"T-taf awyu 'inu kulwbya'ak zhadi…" Layna looked down at her toes, nervously playing with her fingers. "'Imayn xusruk mothayxwya'ak." Then she stood firm and told Link, "Nwaki nayx nadthikwufak 'idus, Amda Kyabtin. 'Inu nayx taynolak 'al 'inu yayxwot."

"Oooh, I can't wait to hear this one," Irleen commented in a dry tone.

Dholit shot her a sarcastic smile before addressing Link. "She apologizes foh the attack and… hopes you will discipline heh as you see fit. She couldn't tell who the gihl was because it was so dahk, but she saw you jump and decided to attack. She, uh… she had a change of heaht and decided not to kill heh, quite hahd foh heh to do. And she says it won't happen again."

Link sighed. "Dholit…"

"You know," Leynne spoke up. "Having heh follow us might not be a bad idea. As long as she doesn't kill anyone."

Link looked at him for a moment before saying, "Dholit, tell her that she's only allowed to capture someone if she has to, not kill. If she can do that, she can accompany us when we disembark again."

Dholit nodded. "I think she can do that."

"Tell her later," Link quickly said as Dholit made to address her. "Right now, I want both of you to go get some sleep. Leynne, you, too. Morning's gonna be here soon."

"My Captain?" Dholit asked. She indicated Layna. "What about heh punishment? She's waiting."

Link blinked in stupidity at Dholit's suggestive eyebrow waggle. He was not sure how to discipline airmen, never mind a Gelto airman. "Uh… I'll-I'll let you take care of that, Dholit," he said.

Link did not think it was possible, but Dholit's smile became even wider. "Thank you, My Captain," she said. "I shall take great pleasuah in disciplining heh." She shared her manic smile with Layna, and Layna's dark skin visibly paled a few shades, something else Link did not think was possible. "'Inan sifunidh, Layna. 'Ak Kyabtin zhi xaylokwak 'inoy zalwciyk wabnik." Layna looked so stunned that Dholit had to pull her arm to get her to follow.

Irleen waited until they were out the door before saying, "You know, somehow… I don't think that was a very good idea. She's already mentally scarred Dubbl."

Link shrugged and said, "I don't know how to discipline airmen. And I'm not sure if I wanna try disciplining a… a trained killer." He stood up and stretched his arms out. "Let's get some sleep. I wanna sleep before anything else happens tonight."

…

~~Day 44 (Command, Day 7)

~~A drunk, a walking inun—inuendo (whatever that means), a brawler, and a trained killer. I'm not sure what's going to come up next.

…

~~Day 45 (Command, Day 8)

~~For the first time since we left the Sky Lines a week ago, the wind's shifted enough for us to open the sails for a decent run. It should give us a lead on the Moon's Shadow. We can use all the lead we can get since Captain North is following us. I'd like to think he would show some compassion for a fellow Skyrider captain, but the last time I saw him makes me think compassion went with his eye. I'm willing to bet that he would start shooting if he ever laid his remaining eye on the Island Symphony, so we'll have to hide her beneath Sagacity Island once we make it there.

…

~~Day 46 (Command, Day 9)

~~We found Sello's couch. Well, he put his couch back in the engine room, but no one knows where it's been this whole time. It smells like a shipment of fertilizer.

~~We're still running full toward the northwest with all sails open. So far, no sign of the Moon's Shadow.

…

~~Day 47 (Command, Day 10)

~~Our first passenger, a bar girl named Lilly, finally felt safe enough to come up on-deck. Although she stayed far away from Layna, she seemed interested in asking the rest of the crew about themselves. She spent a long time speaking with Cale especially. I guess it stopped when they both got distracted and fell through the poop deck into the boat deck. Fortunately, Cale's had enough experience falling from greater heights, and Lilly landed on top of him. But I think we should put a tarp over the hole so he doe—so no one else falls in. I'd been recently thinking about having Rosaline's cutter converted, but I'm beginning to realize that it breaks people's falls and muffles the sound they make against the deckhead to my cabin.

~~I can't believe I wrote that.

…

Bam!

Link and Leynne glanced at each other across the forecastle in reaction to the soft explosion and the jerk that was the Island Symphony's response. Link knew that the explosion, if it could really be called that, could not have been a cannon; aside from the surrounding skies being clear, the impact did not feel right. He looked around to make sure that the sky was still empty.

"What was that?" Leynne asked as Link stepped past him to look over the deck.

"I-I don't know," Link said.

Leynne turned and pushed the propeller lever, finding that the mechanism was resisting. "The engine's still running, so it doesn't appeah to have been Sello," he said. "Not that it really means much."

"There's nothing in the sky to shoot at us," Link said as he looked around. However, other than Dholit and Layna sharing confused conversation, nothing appeared out of sorts "Everything looks okay."

"Could it have been just a… I don't know, pehhaps a strange wind cuhrent?"

"Did you notice the wheel jerk?" Link asked as he looked up at the sails.

"Well… no, not really."

"Hang on," Link said when he finally noticed something. Although it was not very apparent due to the wind blowing over the deck, Link thought there was smoke wafting from the starboard stairs. "I'm going below. Have someone come get me if you start losing control."

"Suh."

Link quickly moved down the stairs and crossed the main weather deck to the below-deck steps. Now that he was closer, he could definitely tell that there was smoke emerging from below. He turned and called out, "La—Yikes!" The original intention was to call Layna and have her follow him down. Layna appeared to have taken the initiative, however, because she had already been standing behind him, giving him a curious look. Behind her, Dholit looked around in confusion as she tried to locate the person she had been talking to only a second ago. Link took a moment to calm himself and told her while pointing down the stairs, "We're going down below to see what's happening."

Layna glanced past him, and then she gave a firm nod. Sure she had the idea despite not understanding him, he waved her along as he moved down the stairs. They rounded the landing and emerged into the hold. Everything looked fine, but the hold was partially obscured by a thin cloud of smoke. Link quickly snatched his hat off his head and held it over his nose and mouth, and he turned back to find that Layna had taken a square cloth from her pocket, folded it, and was now tying it over her nose and mouth. Link took a few steps toward the stern, trying to see if there was a source in that direction. Then Layna tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned, she tapped one of her ears. He reasoned that she was telling him to listen and strained for a short moment before he became aware of voices. He gave Layna a questioning look, and she turned to point at the stairs leading to the galley below. Link nodded his agreement and followed her down.

"… ya would se' us on fire!" came one voice as they reached the galley. Thick smoke prevented them from seeing for a bit, so it was hard to tell who was in the compartment "Is ya nuts!?"

"Kwal waniygothotak 'immu thib?" replied a Gelto voice toward the back, sounding a little annoyed. "'Inu nadmatikak wabin 'anik."

"Guys?" Link called out. "Who's down here?"

"Tha' ya, Cap'n?" a second Hylian's voice called out.

"Ye—Is something on fire?" Link asked.

"It was," the first voice, which Link was now able to identify as Lawrence, answered. "It's ou' now."

Layna carefully pushed Link in a direction, and they emerged from the smoke beside the starboard hull. There, Link saw that Harley, appearing to only have recently awoken, was fanning the smoke toward the bow using his shirt. In front of him, Biluf was sitting on the deck with her back against the hull, covered in black powder like a coal miner and holding her head between her hands as if sporting a tremendous headache. From this vantage point, Link could also see the black, smoldering remains of some kind of furniture.

"What happened?" he asked Harley.

"No' sure, Cap'n," Harley replied. "I's jus' comin' down for a drink when I 'eard the boom."

"Is everyone all right?" Link asked, indicating Biluf to Layna. Layna nodded and moved past him to check on Biluf.

"Feelin' glad I used the 'ead earlier," Lawrence replied. Link could see him also waving something at the smoke to clear it out. "Go' scared shi'less when it 'appened."

Link coughed and waved his hand to clear the smoke away from in front of his face. "Anyone know what exploded? That's what it sounded like on-deck."

"Knew ya guys might o' 'eard it," Harley said.

"It, accident, Kyabtin," Link heard Dubbl say from somewhere else in the room. "Biluf making shells."

"Shells?" Link asked. "For what?"

"Fla'es," Dubbl replied. "She make fla'es fo' gun."

The smoke finally cleared enough for Link to see Lawrence waving a fire blanket at the smoke while Dubbl was standing on the opposite side of the smoke, trying to hurry it along with another blanket. "Okay, so what went wrong?" Link asked. "Can you ask her?"

"She alleady said," Dubbl replied. "Zis room da'k, so she had lante'n. Powde' all on table. Biluf tested powde' and powde' test blew out ze lante'n. She stluck match to wo'k mo'e. Zen she dlopped ze match on table on accident. Boom."

"The table 'n some o' the floor was on fire," Harley continued, "bu' we go' it. Jus' go'a finish the smoke."

"Is Biluf okay?" Link asked.

"She have headache, but she all light," Dubbl said. "When she dlopped ze match, she fell to ze floo' fo' plotection. She vely fast."

"Okay, Dubbl, go make sure anyone still on the berth deck above moves," Link told her. "This smoke is gonna fill up the deck above; we need them to get out of there before they start choking. Lawrence, Harley? Keep fanning for now. I'm going above to see if we have a way to vent all this out of the cargo hold."

…

~~Day 48 (Command, Day 11)

~~I learned a couple of things today. First, Biluf is a fan of pyrotechnics. Dholit explained to me that she's one of the Gelto who makes bombs and shells for their flare guns. According to her translation, Biluf was trying to modify the color of the flares with different powders that she suspiciously obtained on Thicket Island. She had a lantern over her work table (which is now splinters all over the galley) while she was testing powder combinations, and she struck a match to light the lantern again. She dropped the match on the table and only had a moment to dive away from the table before the match lit her bag of gunpowder. Everything on the table exploded; there was shrapnel everywhere. Biluf agreed to clean it during her off-duty time. I discovered only about a half-hour ago that she had completely swept the galley clean. The only evidence left is the scorch marks on the deck where Dubbl and Lawrence beat away a couple of small fires.

~~Second, because of all the mechanics that work the masts and the controls to the engine, there's no cargo hatch in the weather deck. Leynne, after asking Gold to take the helm for him, showed me that he had already thought up an alternative to my inevitable question. He showed me that, between the frames in the hold, he had cut out panels which could be easily raised or lowered to allow heavy cargo in through the hull instead of the deck. He showed me all four panels by opening them, revealing two on each side of the ship. The best part is they can be controlled with ropes while standing perfectly safe behind the permanent hull. Thanks to this, we got the whole deck aired out within an hour and got the night shift back to bed so they had time to sleep before they went on-duty. Yet again, I'm stymied by this invention. It's almost as if half of this ship wasn't even built on conventional vessels just to mess with me. But, in this case, I'm glad they decided to experiment with the ship; a hatch in the deck might not have been as effective.

~~I've told Biluf that, if she wants to make more shells, please do it where it wouldn't cause such a problem. She decided to do it on the boat deck, which will be fine as long as she doesn't blow it up.

…

~~Day 49 (Command, Day 12)

~~Biluf has provided me with a range of shells which burn different colors when fired. We tested them out earlier today. Although they don't mix well with a sunny sky, they still show enough that at least it's possible to tell that there's a flare. She's made four different colors, so Leynne, Dubbl, and I worked out a system to determine what each color will mean if I ever have to fire one. We're planning to use this system so that we can communicate while we're at Sagacity Island. Knowing that the Moon's Shadow could show up there next, we've decided to create a few contingencies in case they come close to discovering us.

~~Twali has also provided me with something interesting: arrows. She's a fletcher and used to work on a skiff, using a bow and arrows to hunt Malgyorgs. The arrows she made came from the same source that provided Biluf's powders (which I'm trying not to interpret as theft), and she only had enough for a handful. They're only sharpened shafts without arrowheads, but I was still grateful. If it came to anything attacking me, I think something with any kind of point will come in handy.

~~We had a bit of a shift in the wind today, so we've had to go back to reaching. Still, I think we're close enough to Sagacity Island to be there within the next day.

…

Link was quite right as the Island Symphony pulled into the southern reaches of Sagacity Island's port at noon the next day.

Sagacity Island, being almost as spacious as Castle Island, had developed a similar architecture of wide main streets and buildings taking advantage of the limitless sky. A number of buildings toward the center of the main town rivaled the walls of Hyrule Castle in height, buildings which Link knew were used to house a good majority of the island's population. He was surprised to find out from Lilly, though, that a couple of the colleges were also rooted in those towers. The port was a long string of docks and supply stores across the long, southeast edge of the island, purposely set up to mimic the layout of Castle Island's port for the ease of locating specific offices and storehouses. Although, Link wondered about the accuracy now that the fake Princess Zelda had turned Castle Island on its head.

Sagacity Island was not all town and flat land, though. The eastern edge sported a luscious forest that had not been touched by the residents since settlement, allowing nature to simply exist in a small oasis of its own. The town also sported some of this growth, but it was mostly relegated to dedicated parks and certain homes. Sagacity Island was one of Link's favorite islands for this natural beauty, second only to his permanent home on Skyrider Port.

However, now that they had arrived, they had only a limited amount of time to take care of business before the Moon's Shadow appeared. Link decided to send Cale and Leynne with their passenger Lilly, who would show them to the town library. Link expected them to see if they can try to piece together the events of the past month since the Sky Lines had disappeared. He decided to leave Dholit and Dubbl in charge of the ship with orders to clear out if they happened to see the Moon's Shadow on the horizon. This unfortunately left Gold their only pilot, but Link planned to only be in town for two hours, figuring that it was a fast enough time to regroup and exchange information while keeping the workload on certain crew to a minimum. Although Link did not ask for her, he assumed that Layna was accompanying him to shore in her stealthy way as before. He was not sure how she would accomplish this in broad daylight, but he would not be surprised if she could.

Link, wearing a plain green jacket instead of his tunic and only armed with his sword strapped to his waist, wandered into the dockmaster's office. The room was barely large enough to accommodate him, the secretary, the low desk the secretary was sitting behind, and a logbook. Link casually picked up the pen next to the logbook and scribbled in "Horizon's Eye, Captain Koroul, Noon", figuring that there would not be any question as long as he did not use the words "island", "symphony", "sonata", or "Link". Still, he had to admit to a little discomfort about forging the dockmaster's log as well as some guilt at using someone else's ship.

"A bit young for a lieutenant, aren't ya?" the scrawny man behind the desk, wearing a drab grey shirt and blue slacks, commented while looking at Link over a pair of thick glasses.

"I'm just a substitute," Link said. "The second-in-command is on another errand." Since this man had decided to talk to Link, he spoke up, "Hey, I have a question while I'm here."

"What is it?"

"Did this office happen to receive a strange shipment in the past few weeks? Some unknown crates from East Iron Island?"

The man shrugged. "I can check. Why, are they yours?"

Link watched the man pull open a drawer and start fishing through pages of paperwork. "Someone on Thicket Island was worried that someone on Autumn Island had lost their shipment," Link explained, trying to play to the truth as best as he could. "My ship's been following them for over a week since we left Thicket Island. Someone keeps putting shipping orders on them, and they seem to just disappear the next day; it's taken us a while to figure out where they went."

The man pulled out a folder and started looking through a thick packet of what Link took to be the dock's receiving records. "You might gotta check the southern office; they keep separate paperwork for the stuff they receive over there. What's in the crates?"

Link shrugged. "No one knows. That's why we've been trying to find them."

"Well, it should've been on the copy of the shipping orders." He stopped and pulled out a paper. "Then again, I have a honeycomb growin' oudda my bellybutton and lost my head in a game of cards tomorrow." When Link blinked at him in confusion, he revealed the paper to Link and said, "No one wrote down the contents." He turned the paper and looked over it some more. "And someone's been cheatin' the system. Accordin'na this, the dockmaster on East Iron Island hadda payya get the crates here."

"I didn't know you could do that."

The secretary shrugged. "If a crate's sittin' around with shippin' orders, the dockmaster's gotta send it out within a day unless other arrangements were made."

"Who filled out the shipping orders?"

At this, the secretary had to squint at the paper. "IIIIII can't tell. Signature's crap. Not that the rest of the order looks nice."

"Can I see it?" Link asked, holding out a hand.

"Sure."

Link accepted the paper and looked hard at it. Whoever had filled out the order appeared to have barely managed to make it legible enough to have it sent to Sagacity Island. The same person must have only had a passing understanding of Hylian; some of the information, like the date and the number of crates in the shipment, had been written on the wrong lines, although understandably so since one was above the other and used the same length of line. The handwriting was also full of errors, the writer probably lucky to have written "Sagacity Island" correctly. Just as the secretary had said, the "Contents" line had been left blank. And it looks like, at a few points, the pen that the writer had used had sliced through the paper from too much pressure. It left Link a little concerned; he had been hoping to find more of Line's messy handwriting, possibly hinting that he might be nearby. Instead, the order looked like it was written by someone with barely any understanding of the Hylian language. He knew Line better than that.

Link offered the paper back and asked, "Do you know where the crates are now?"

"I'll take a look," the secretary said as he accepted the paper. He leafed through the drawer again and pulled out another folder. Then he started glancing between the shipping orders and the new stack of papers he was searching through. He gave a few sounds which Link found hard to interpret. Then, after about a minute, he told Link, "They never shipped out; they're still here."

Link felt his spirit brighten. "Where?"

"Hang a sec." The secretary produced a small notepad and scribbled a few things with a pencil before ripping the note free. "Buildin' one-twenty, Stormrider," he told Link as he handed over the paper. Then he pointed in one direction. "Just that way. Give thadda the supervisor, and he'll take ya'a them."

Link gave him a relaxed, parting salute with the note. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

Link stepped back outside and took a moment to get his bearings before heading in the direction the secretary had pointed. Being familiar with Castle Island's port helped him navigate; he had never had to wander this half of Sagacity Island's port, and he could imagine that his experience with the other end of the Sagacity Island's port would be helpful if he ever found himself on the wrong side of Castle Island. One of the unique things about Sagacity Island's port, though, was the buildings. While all the port buildings on Castle Island tended to be painted blue or grey, Sagacity Island allowed local artists to paint on the outer walls. Most of the paintings, as Link noticed on this side of the port, were small pieces clustered on the sides, each additional painting respectful of the space claimed by the previous painter. Two buildings Link saw had their whole outer walls covered by a single mural. And the people who usually watched over these buildings often nicknamed them according to some of the older paintings. One was Sunrise because of the skyscapes painted on one wall. Another was The Chalkboard; Link saw local kids scribbling on a green patch of wall and the nearby path.

Stormrider took its name from the massive mural painted on one wall. Link was amazed by it because it looked remarkably similar to the relief he had seen back in the Sorians' library: a ship sailing on the billowing, dark clouds of an incredible storm. Whereas the other one had been monotone and frightening, this one had been painted in a multitude of dark colors, giving it a strong, brave feeling. Maybe it was the lack of a permanent grin broken into the bow of the ship. Maybe it was because all of the sails were whole and all the lines secure (for as few lines as had been painted; a ship's masts would not stay with so little standing rigging). Or maybe it was just that spot high on the left side, a burst of light in the midst of dark clouds that somehow made the whole composition less frightening.

Link stepped into the large door at the front of the building, immediately attracting the attention of an overweight man wearing a docker's hunter-green jumpsuit tailored to his girth. He turned to Link as Link approached. "Need some help, boy?" the man asked in a business-like tone.

"Looking for a shipment from Autumn Island," Link replied as he handed the note over. He glanced around the interior to find that, as far as warehouses went, this one was pretty empty. Normally, crates had to be stacked together to spare room, but only some of the smaller supplies had been stacked together. Link found that, even at his height, he could see the tops of many of the crates nearby.

"You takin' this shipment out, airman?" the man asked as he knocked on the office window next to him.

"Uh, we just… we just need to confirm the shipment's here for now," Link replied.

The door to the office opened next to the man. "Need something, boss?" a man behind the door asked, only his head protruding from the door.

The boss held Link's note to the other man's face. "Know where that's at?" he asked.

"Yep. Far corner, around that shipment of wine the Cloudy Skies never got."

The boss was already nodding in response. "Follow me," he told Link.

Link asked as he fell into step with the man, "I don't suppose you know if anyone came with the shipment, do you?"

"Can't say I do," he answered. "Why?"

"Well, someone keeps writing shipping orders for these crates; we tracked them from Thicket Island to East Iron Island to here."

The boss, who Link believed to be the supervisor, gave a thoughtful sound. "We ain't seen anyone. We got broken inna a while back, though. Nothin' stolen, but we hadda buy a new lock for the door."

"Really? How long?"

The supervisor, turning a corner, wrinkled his nose as he thought. "Might gotta been about… I wanna say a little over two weeks. About the same time the Sky Li—no, ya know, I feel it was two days before the Sky Lines disappeared." Link's eyebrows rose. He had to admit that it was quite a coincidence, and he wondered if there might have actually been a connection between the Sky Lines and the break-in.

Then all doubts of a connection were immediately quashed when the supervisor stopped in front of what had clearly used to be a group of crates. Four crates side by side with each other had been bashed to pieces where they sat as far down to the bottom side, probably the only intact parts. Link stared in shock; surely, these could not be the crates they had been chasing.

The supervisor threw his hands up in outrage. "Oh, what the shit!" he declared. Then he immediately stormed back around the row of crates as he shouted, "Mel, what the hell happenedda the shipment!?"

Link glanced over his shoulder at the supervisor for a moment. Then he stepped forward and squat near the closest crate to look at it. With his gloves already on, he carefully picked up one of the larger fragments and looked it over. Just as had been described to him, the board had pieces of three different warning labels stamped on it in a disorganized fashion. He reached down and picked up another fragment which he tried to fit together with the first. Of course, they did not fit together, but he found that this second fragment had part of a "This End Up" stamp on it, set at a different angle from the same label on the first fragment. Dropping both fragments, he passed his eyes over the rest of the destruction, wondering what had prompted it.

He saw some kind of pattern on one bottom side that had not had as many fragments thrown onto it. He stepped over to it and used a foot to clear pieces away. He was surprised to find the treads of a boot actually embedded into the surface of the wood. Link passed his fingers over the tread for a moment to feel the divots caused by the boot, curious as to what type of boot had produced it and how the wearer had been able to stomp a complete bootprint into the surface of solid wood. He put his own foot next to the print for comparison. The wearer's feet must have been nearly twice the size of Link's feet. It discounted the possibility of Line having made this print, but he wondered if even Flower or Leonard had feet large enough to produce such a print.

When Link looked up again, he saw something that sent a shiver down his spine. On the bottom of the crate to the far right, he saw a dried pool of dark red under some of the debris. He pulled aside an intact board and immediately regretted it. He jumped backwards with a hand over his mouth to keep him from losing the last ration packet he had eaten.

He reacted like this because there was a severed limb under that board. And it was not any normal, human limb, either.

It was a Sorian's wing.