Chapter 12: The Stormwind Ark
Lightning flashed through the storm wall, and Link's heart lurched as it illuminated the massive shape of a great ship far below them. He landed in the center, on the edge of a flower-shaped grating on the deck. There were six gears surrounding the grating, lifted up on pillars, one for each petal of the flower – a way to unlock it, perhaps.
Tulin alighted next to him, slowly shaking his head. "This… this has got to be the Stormwind Ark," he murmured. He gulped. "So it wasn't just a kid's story. It wasn't just a legend. It… it was real. The god… was real."
Link nodded slowly, spotting a Zonai dragon ring near the grating. "Yeah," he said quietly. Then his heart gave a painful leap as a figure in white walked out from behind the gears, moving slowly, steadily towards the dragon ring, passing behind it –
And disappearing.
"No," he whispered. "Not again – Zelda!"
He sprinted towards the dragon ring, looking all around, his chest feeling squeezed painfully tight. Nothing – not a sign of her, even though she had been here, just moments ago –
A sudden raging gust of wind billowed up from beneath the grating, snow and ice flurrying up along with it. Link took a step back instinctively, a hand flying to the hilt of his blade. But after a moment the gust died back down.
"What was that?" Tulin exclaimed. "That big updraft…"
"I think there's something being kept down in there," Link said slowly, looking around again at the gears. "Did you… did you see Princess Zelda again, just now?"
"I think so," Tulin nodded. "And she was walking right up to this grate, right before that updraft." His voice hardened. "I think she is guiding us through how to save Rito Village. Whatever's in the hold right now is causing the blizzard; I'm sure of it!"
Wind and ice and snow… it certainly fits, Link thought. The ache in his chest remained as he glanced once more around the deck, scanning for Zelda's dress. Why… why couldn't you just… tell us?
"So…" Tulin scuffed a talon across the deck. "What do we do? Is there some sort of… blizzard monster you've seen that could be stuck in there? Do we have to melt it somehow?"
Link realized belatedly that Tulin was genuinely asking him what to do. He scratched the back of his head uncertainly, studying the grating. Whatever had caused the brief gust of wind when Zelda walked up to it had fallen still once more. "There… there are ice monsters out there," he said slowly. "But I've never seen one that could create something as big as a blizzard." He walked onto the grating and flattened himself against it, peering down into the misty white depths swirling below. He shivered – there was definitely something moving down there, in all the snow. Something massive.
He pushed back to his feet. "Definitely a monster," he confirmed, and Tulin gulped. "We'll let it out, watch what it does, and see if we can do anything about it."
"If?" Tulin repeated fearfully. "There's – there's gotta be something we can do about it, right?"
Link bit his lip. Poor choice of words. "We'll do something," he promised, offering an encouraging smile. He returned to the dragon ring – it had enabled him to activate Zonai technology before; perhaps this would be similar. The green hand crest appeared, and he raised his right hand up to it and the light danced affirmingly away. At once there was a great grinding sound throughout the ship; the gears around the grating sank back into the deck, but only one seemed to be moving. After a few moments of the one functional gear struggling to move against the others, all six of them lifted back up into the air, and the green hand crest appeared once more in the dragon ring.
"What… what happened?" Tulin asked, sounding disappointed and relieved at the same time.
Link hummed quietly, activating the dragon ring a second time and watching carefully. "It… it looks like the other gears are jammed up somewhere," he murmured. "Wish I had the blueprints of this thing – if we could see what gave the gears power, we could start from there and follow it all the way back to the deck to see what's stopping it."
Tulin brightened at once. "We could still do that," he said eagerly. "Whoever built this thing would have to be able to fix things if they went wrong, right? So we have to be able to access where it gets its power." His expression fell slightly. "It's… a big ship, so it'll take a while, but we can find all that… right?"
Link nodded slowly, walking up to the nearest broken gear and studying it closely. We'll figure this out.
It wasn't often that the skills he'd gained from working with Hudson could be put into use. Most people were far more interested in his swordplay than his ability to fix things. But throughout his time with the construction company he had found joy in working, building, creating with his hands, after his initial restlessness and frustration with his situation had faded.
"You're pushing yourself too fast," Hudson had noted one day, shaking his head, when Link returned with half as much wood he'd been sent out to gather – and a collection of fresh scratches and bruises from a fight he'd gotten into with a lizalfos. "Give yourself time, kid – I'm telling you, you're not going to get anywhere if you don't let yourself heal first."
Link hadn't gone out woodcutting again for some time after that. Instead, Hudson had him work alongside himself and other employees of the company, picking up various skills and trades from each of them until Link discovered that he had a knack for puzzling out the inner workings of things – something he realized he had developed while accompanying Zelda throughout her studies on ancient technology the century prior. As he steadily worked himself back into fighting condition after the Shrine of Resurrection, he found that it greatly helped calm his mind to work on some of Hudson's more complicated projects – often fixing things, repairing them.
He had never worked on something nearly as large as the Stormwind Ark, of course. And the Zonai technology was different from anything he'd seen before in several ways, but Tulin was able to get multiple different perspectives on the more confusing parts, and between the two of them, they managed to figure out how it was meant to work. Levers, gears, turbines… piece by piece, they found what was broken or deactivated and found a repair, until at last Link had been through all five of the stuck gears' workings.
"Alright," Link grinned, giving Tulin a light clap on the shoulder as the last gear clicked into place, rotating smoothly. "Ready to fire this up?"
Tulin managed a grim smile. "Ready," he answered determinedly. His brow furrowed slightly. "And… and I'm also super nervous."
Link hesitated before responding, reminding himself again of Tulin's youth. There was a very real possibility that the fight with this whatever-it-was would kill one or both of them. It was something Link didn't spend much time thinking about. There were so many things that had almost killed him, or even that definitely should have killed him and somehow didn't, that he'd stopped worrying about if he would die. Something would kill him eventually, he was sure. If not this, then maybe the next thing. Or the next. Or the next. It was by the Goddesses' good graces that he lived to see each next battle, and he prayed that they would agree to let him stay alive at least long enough to make sure Zelda was safe.
Regardless, worrying about death, fearing death… it wasn't something he'd confronted in a long time. But… I'm not about to tell a kid that it's okay because this might kill you, or it might not.
Link remembered his words to Tulin before they'd even gotten the young Rito's bow back, and his heart squeezed slightly. It's not really fair for adults to put kids in situations like this because they're skilled. It wasn't fair when they did that to me – and it's not fair for me to do that to Tulin, right here and now.
Link swallowed, gripping Tulin's shoulder firmly. "I need you to listen closely to me right now, alright?" he said solemnly, and the young Rito nodded quickly. "You've got a bow, and you're exceptionally good with it – that gives you a lot of range. You shouldn't need to get close to this thing. In fact, I'm telling you right now – stay as far away as you can. And that is an order. Let me do the up-close stuff, alright?"
Tulin met his gaze, his eyes filled with wariness. Slowly he nodded again. "I can do that."
"Trust your gut," Link said. He smiled encouragingly. "You've got this, Tulin." And I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe.
They returned to the main deck. Link approached the dragon ring and gave Tulin a quick nod; the young Rito flew several yards away, waiting what Link hoped would be a safe distance from the grate. He raised his hand to the crest in the dragon ring, and the gears slid panels of grating smoothly aside.
There was a sudden massive rush of wind with devastating, bone-breaking force. Link barely had time to realize what had happened before he realized he was in the air, tossed upwards by the wind as if he was a feather. Flinging his arms out, he fought to stabilize his ascent, craning his neck and looking all around. "Tulin!" he shouted, the wind snatching his voice away. He caught a glimpse of black-tipped feathers beating rapidly.
"I'm here, Link!" Tulin called back, his voice pitched higher in fear.
"Stick to the plan!" Link said, squinting through the torrent of ice and snow billowing upwards from the opening in the deck. The updraft was fierce enough that he wasn't falling nearly as fast as he knew he ought to be. His stomach flipped nauseatingly as he saw two massive, icicle-tipped mandibles alongside a toothy maw emerge, followed by the segmented body of some colossal insectoid creature. It had multiple eyes, and too many long, fin-shaped legs acting as wings, sending it gliding rapidly skyward. Spikes that looked as though they were made of ice coated the entirety of its body, although it did seem to have several weaker spots along its underside, from the quick glimpse Link got as it soared up towards them. He swallowed thickly, feeling acutely aware of its immense size.
Focus. It's made of ice. Ice is not impenetrable.
He snapped his paraglider open and soared upwards, the updraft plenty strong enough to send him up to Tulin's level. "I'm going to try and get a closer look at its underside," he said over the roaring winds. "Stay here for –"
"Look out!" Tulin yelped, his eyes fixed on something below, and Link clutched the paraglider to his chest and spread his body out, to give himself greater maneuverability in the sky. He sucked in a sharp gasp and tucked his body into a ball to avoid an ice spike soaring towards him. Where'd that come from?
The monster was shaking itself slightly, the movement jarring several of the spikes on its back free. The updraft caught the spikes and sent them shooting upwards, transforming them into dangerous missiles. But where the spikes had once been, Link spotted a sheen of white – the weak spot he'd seen, from above instead of below.
It's literally made of ice!
Gritting his teeth, keeping his arms tucked against his sides, he dived down towards the weak spot, the thin sheet of ice over something glowing a malignant violet within. At the last second he closed his eyes and tucked his chin to his chest, and then he was crashing through, ice splintering all around him, sticky tendrils like spiderwebs grasping briefly at his body, and then he was falling towards the deck.
Shaking ice and flashing spots of pain from his eyes he whipped out his paraglider again, his body jolting as the updraft caught him and carried him skyward once again.
The monster was flying upwards as well, a massive orb appearing in the sky above it. It disappeared within, and Link looked around wildly, the back of his neck prickling uncomfortably. No way it's just gone!
"There!" he heard Tulin shout. "Below you!"
A surge of adrenaline seared through him and he gasped, snapping the paraglider shut and struggling to force himself downwards, away from the monster suddenly careening up towards him, its jagged maw open wide. Its legs were too long; he was too small, too slow. One of the legs knocked across his side, painfully driving the air from his lungs and sending him cartwheeling through the sky, out of control, tumbling rapidly down towards the deck of the ship. Wincing, fighting to suck down a breath as his side pulsed in protest, he stretched out his arms and legs again, stabilizing his fall enough that he could open the paraglider again. In doing so he managed to slow himself down just enough that he didn't shatter the instant he touched the deck, instead landing painfully hard on his feet and then falling to his knees from the force of the impact.
He exhaled heavily, looking back up at the monster circling overhead. There was a gaping hole in its middle from Link's first attack – if it could be called that – and two more weak spots visible from below. Got to do better about dodging.
There was a sudden streak of white, and Tulin fired an arrow up at one of the spots, striking one sheet of ice but not the pulsating violet pustule beyond it. Link's heart lurched. "Tulin! Get back!" he roared, flicking the paraglider open and leapt into the updraft, wind catching the canvas. The young Rito glanced at him wide-eyed for a moment, and then yelped and zipped out of the way of one of the monster's massive fins crashing down towards him. If only I had that maneuverability!
"Stick to the plan!" Link shouted firmly, wind carrying him up to the monster's level and then above. It lunged for him once with its mandibles and missed; then he saw it shaking again, dislodging spikes from its backside and revealing one of the other weak spots. Link dropped once again from the sky, keeping his arms just slightly outstretched this time, allowing him to more precisely change direction in midair. But the monster started moving again before he could strike; he wrapped his arms around his head and struck the solid plates down its back with a pained groan, his limbs jolting from the impact. With a flick of its segmented body it shook him off entirely, and then he was falling again, the deck of the ship coming up much too fast –
There was a jolt on his shoulders, and he grunted as suddenly his descent slowed and he heard wingbeats in his ears. "Tulin?"
The young Rito let go quickly, breathing hard, once Link was a safe distance from the deck. Link landed on his hands and knees, grimacing, his body aching from the battering it had taken. He knew it would hurt worse if he gave any mind to it. Shaking his head slowly, he pushed back to his feet. "Thanks," he said, keeping a wary eye on the monster circling above them. "But you need to stay back, alright?"
Tulin shook his head stubbornly. "I won't get close enough to shoot or hit it – I'll leave that to you," he said, his voice firm. "But you can't move through the air like I can. That's why you missed that last one! You need my help!"
The monster had changed direction in the sky above, noticing them on the deck. It swooped towards them, jaws parted hungrily. Link hesitated, gritting his teeth – "Alright," he said at last, flicking his paraglider up and feeling Tulin grab it in his talons.
"I'll do my best!" Tulin promised, and the winds whirled around them, guiding them safely away from the monster's path. "I'll let you know when to dive!"
"Got it," Link said grimly, gazing downwards as the monster circled around the deck as if looking for where they had gone. Its head snapped up towards them and it gave itself a firm shake, once more launching spikes towards them. Tulin started diving, wind whistling around them as he weaved between projectiles.
"Okay! Now!" Tulin yelled, and Link let go of the paraglider entirely, pinning his arms to his sides and diving into the thin sheet of ice, then through the violet pustule and webbing beneath. Shards of ice in every direction. Then he saw Tulin swoop in front of him, holding tightly to his paraglider; reaching out Link snatched the handles and then Tulin was carrying him higher once again.
"Great job!" he called up to the young Rito as the monster soared up into one of its glowing orbs once more. When it emerged directly beneath them, the winds shifted, blowing them safely out of reach of the monster's grasping fins and legs. The monster wheeled around to face them, tossing its head as if in anger. But the motion stirred up the winds directly around it, forming a horde of smaller cyclones that billowed towards them.
"Tulin, you've got this!" Link shouted encouragingly, his insides clenching with dread as the cyclones rushed towards them. His stomach lurched as Tulin swooped forward, the winds parting before his wings, carving a path for them through the storm, to the monster on the other side, already waiting with several spikes shooting up from its back towards them. Link exhaled shakily as they passed the cyclones, and then they were dropping and darting nauseatingly between ice spikes –
"Now!" Tulin cried, and Link let go, just as one of the spikes jostled free, directly up towards him. Link grit his teeth, barely managing to angle himself out of the way with mere inches to spare. Then he crashed through the ice and the violet pustule beneath. The creature let out a sudden unearthly screech when its final weak spot was destroyed, writhing upwards through the air with its fins and legs flailing violently.
Link felt a fierce impact to the side of his arm that sent him flying head over heels through the storm, his aching head unable to tell the difference between up and down until he felt something grab his ankle and his body swung back and forth in midair, the deck of the Stormwind Ark somehow above him. He raised a hand to his aching, disoriented head, struggling to clear his vision well enough to make sense of what was going on. Upside down – Tulin's got my foot – Below him, or rather, above him, in a vast sea of sky, the monster exploded in a flash of crimson light and black smoke, leaving behind a faint trail of golden light.
Tulin let him down carefully on the deck of the ship, where he remained on his hands and knees for several moments, breathing hard, his head pounding more fiercely by the second as adrenaline slowly faded from his blood.
"Link?" Tulin asked worriedly, looking at him with wide eyes. "Are you alright?"
With a deep, weary exhale, Link pushed himself to a sitting position and managed a smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he said quietly. "Great job out there, Tulin. It wouldn't have been possible to take that thing down without you."
Tulin's chest puffed out with pride, and he grinned widely.
Link grunted, getting to his feet and looking around. The storm had dissipated with the monster's demise; the skies were clear, the golden light of dawn just visible on the eastern horizon, the stars beginning to wink out, one by one. "We did it," he murmured. "The blizzard is gone."
"Hey, Link… check out this thing that was in there with the monster!"
He turned to find Tulin peering down into the ship's hold, where the monster had been locked away. Something was glowing faintly within. Link walked closer, quickly realizing that one of his ankles was sprained or worse as it sent pain flashing through his leg with each step. Yeah… I'm sure I'm a complete mess after all that.
Within the hold was a large, teardrop-shaped stone, similar to the one Link had seen in the Temple of Time. It shone a pure, white light, unlike the gold that he'd seen before, and its surface was smooth and unblemished.
"Wow," Tulin breathed, reaching out with a wingtip as if to reach down and touch it. At once it shrank drastically in size and soared up towards them, pausing just in front of Tulin's face. He tapped a feather against it, and there was a sudden flash of bright light that engulfed both of them.
"Tulin… my brave fledgling."
Link's eyes flashed open. He found himself standing next to Tulin, in the same place where he had seen Zelda before, after touching the stone at the Temple of Time. A ground of soft pebbles, clouds and mist drifting through space. He looked around eagerly, his heart lifting, but Zelda herself was not here this time. Instead, a tall dark-feathered Rito stood before them, wearing a gold and white sash across one shoulder and a green helmet in the shape of a bird's head that obscured every detail of his face.
"I know that voice," Tulin said softly. "You… you were the one who spoke to us earlier. You led us here!"
"Yes," the Rito affirmed. "I am your ancestor from a long time ago. I proudly served Hyrule's first king, as a warrior of our people and a sage with control of the wind. Where you fly, the winds follow… I would expect nothing less from my descendent. You make me proud."
Tulin smiled bashfully, squaring his shoulders. "I try to do my best to help our people," he said eagerly.
"And you certainly did," the Rito said somberly. "The monster you defeated, the Colgera, was indeed the source of that bitter blizzard. It was summoned by the Demon King and locked within our Stormwind Ark to keep you from obtaining the stone you just found – my secret stone." He gestured to the teardrop-shaped stone hanging from his ankle, shining a vibrant green.
"Demon King?" Tulin said uneasily. "…Secret stone?"
"This is a lot to learn all of a sudden, I know," the Rito warrior said sympathetically. "But listen while I tell you what happened in the past. A tale of the Imprisoning War, and the mission our people must accomplish!"
He raised his hands, and the scenery around them shifted. A dark chasm, deep underground. Before them, with a wicked grin, a massive man in a flaming, crimson robe, eyes like a monster, and a secret stone upon his brow between two short horns. Link felt a deep chill, looking at the man. The Demon King.
He heard the Sage of Wind's voice, explaining how Rauru had requested his aid, and the assistance of five other warriors, in fighting the Demon King. Rauru gifted each of them a secret stone – an artifact that amplified their own innate abilities. And yet the Demon King proved stronger, and would have won if not for Rauru's sacrifice in sealing the Demon King away.
The vision shifted, and Link's heart froze solid as he recognized Zelda, wearing the same dress as she had been at Hyrule Castle and the Temple of Time. She was standing on the deck of the Stormwind Ark, facing the Sage of Wind.
"Some time later, I was visited by one of my fellow sages – the Sage of Time," the Sage of Wind explained. "She warned me that eventually the Demon King would return, that the swordsman Link would oppose him. I swore an oath that when that time came, the Sage of Wind would awaken once more, and the Rito would stand with the swordsman Link, and defeat the Demon King."
The vision faded away, and Link found himself suddenly dizzy, fighting to breathe as the implications of what he'd seen settled in. His first reaction was denial. That couldn't have been Zelda. There's no way! She – she couldn't have been in the era of the first king of Hyrule!
"You've saved Rito Village," the Sage of Wind continued, unperturbed. "But there's more to do. The Demon King will soon recover his full strength."
Link swallowed. The Demon King, sealed away by Rauru. The corpse we saw in Hyrule Castle – that must be the Demon King.
"Tulin, my brave fledgling," the Sage of Wind said gently. "You must take up my secret stone, and honor the Sage of Time's request."
The Sage of Time. Who looks identical to Zelda. Maybe – maybe she's just Zelda's ancestor?
He cringed inwardly. He knew Zelda – he recognized that the woman in the vision looked exactly like she did.
And… there's the fact that the ancient Sage of Wind knows me by name.
There was a flash of light, engulfing them entirely. When they could see again, they stood once more on the deck of the Stormwind Ark, in the gray light of the encroaching dawn.
"So… it's my mission to fight the Demon King with you?" Tulin murmured excitedly, his eyes widening as he turned to face Link, beaming. "That's awesome! Fighting alongside you to save the world – I never would've dreamed – that's so cool! I'll happily take this secret stone!"
The white stone before him turned a vibrant shade of green to match his ancestors,' and a symbol engraved itself across the smooth surface before it fastened itself around Tulin's ankle. Tulin held out his wingtip, taking Link by the hand. "I am the Sage of Wind," he said proudly. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. "There's something I need to give you, my ancestor says. So… here goes! I, Tulin, the Sage of Wind, swear to fight by your side until the end!"
Tulin's stone began to glow green, a light that soon enveloped his entire body. It gathered up at his shoulder and then passed through his wing to their joined hands. The light hovered within Link's arm for several moments; he could feel it seeping through his very bloodstream, rushing through him with the bitter cold and strength of a fierce wind, as if blowing away some of the damage wrought upon him by the corruption. Then the light gathered up on the back of his hand, and a symbol identical to the one on Tulin's stone appeared on the green and copper band on his little finger.
"It's proof that I and the Rito people are with you," Tulin said enthusiastically. "We'll defeat the Demon King, together, and he won't mess with us anymore!"
Link mustered a small smile, for Tulin's sake. "I like that plan," he said, clapping Tulin's shoulder lightly. "Now, I don't know about you, but what do you think about heading back to the village and getting some rest?"
Tulin's eyes widened. "I can't wait to tell Kheel all about the Colgera!" he exclaimed. "And Dad! Actually, Kheel probably doesn't want to hear about monsters – but Dad would!" He walked to the edge of the ship and looked down. "We're high enough up that it'll just be a nice glide back down – I can even try and speed up the wind to get us there quicker!"
Link nodded approvingly, pulling out the paraglider and flicking it open. "That… would be great."
He leapt off the edge and Tulin grabbed his paraglider, and soon enough they were zooming down towards Rito Village. Link kept his thoughts focused on the world-renowned Rito-down beds, letting the promise of a restful sleep motivate him as they soared back down.
As for the rest of it… I'll deal with it later. Not now.