Sir Link Outset was eternally grateful that he hadn't lost his memory this time around. The Upheaval had certainly changed Hyrule, but it was mostly the same as how he left it place-wise. Instead of traveling through the wild to get to Rito Village, he had the memory of the roads so he and Epona made it there without much trouble. Of course he got distracted along the way. He explored some caves and got a few more shrines of light. He would have to speak with the Goddess statue and get a heart container at Rito village.

As he got into the Tabantha region, Link noticed the temperature quickly dropped so he'd switched into the warm pants he'd found on the Great Skyland.

When he got to where the Rito stable was supposed to be, he found the small newspaper company Purah mentioned, called the Lucky Clover Gazette. Link didn't know when it had been built, but he did know who ran it. Traysi, a reporter Link had talked to a lot at stables during the Calamity days, looked up from a desk strewn with newspaper clippings and letters. A white Rito man stood behind her, sporting large goggles over his eyes. When he tried to talk to Traysi, the Rito shushed him.

"Traysi, our editor here, is getting ready for our big Princess Zelda investigation. If you're here about our newspaper, you can talk to me."

"I'm here for the newspaper, I want to help with your investigations." Link signed.

"You wanna be a reporter?" the Rito asked, "I could put in a word with Traysi for you…" That seemed to be it for Traysi herself who yelled at her subordinate.

"HEY! QUIET!" She turned to the Rito with an angry expression, "Don't you listen, Penn? I told you I was busy, but you keep bothering me!"

"I… S-Sorry Traysi. There's a new application for a reporter job. I wanted you to know…" Penn trailed off as Traysi's expression grew more dangerous. She sighed and then looked back at Penn.

"New applicant?" she asked, and then turned to Link. "Hmm… Hang on.. You look like… Ah!" Traysi's eyes widened with recognition. "Hey, sorry Penn. But could you give me and Li- this guy a second here?" Penn nodded and left.

"Alright. How about you give me the whole story, Link."

Link smiled and signed "Funny." to Traysi before giving her the rundown of what happened. At this point he'd done it so much that his hands flew through the signs a little too fast for Traysi to understand, she had to ask him to slow down a bit.

"Interesting. So Purah asked you to investigate places seriously affected by the Upheaval. Well it was a really good idea for you to come here, we're getting tips from all over Hyrule. Perhaps the most alarming is the sightings of someone who looks like Princess Zelda appearing in all sorts of places. I was about to assign Penn to chase all of those leads, but he could use a partner." Traysi raised an eyebrow, and smiled like she already knew how Link would answer.

"Of course I'll help you and Penn." Link signed.

"Alright, but I don't think it would be a good idea to tell Penn who you are, it's best no one knows your involvement." Traysi winked. "Of course this is still a job and I won't let you do it for free- though that'd be nice."

"You don't need to pay me." Link signed but Traysi grabbed his normal arm.

"Uh-uh. You're providing me a service, you're my employee. I'm gonna pay you, and I have just the thing, it's valuable for its utility!" Traysi ran to the back, and brought out three stands with strange looking armor on each.

"Ta-daa! A full set of Froggy armor!" Traysi said. Link looked at the set with mild confusion. It obviously did something but Link wondered if that bonus was worth this interesting design choice. Traysi rolled her eyes.

"When you wear it, you can climb on slippery surfaces, so rain, ice, you get the picture right?" Traysi asked.

Link almost considered stealing. During the Calamity days, he hated having to sit under a ledge by a fire for days on end to get the rain to stop so he could climb a mountain. This armor was the answer to every one of his problems.

"You work with Penn to chase down all these news stories and I'll give you this armor piece by piece." Traysi said, smiling at his expression.

"Yes, please." Link said, not taking his eyes off of the armor. When Traysi gasped, Link turned to her.

"You… never mind, let me call Penn back in." she opened her mouth wide and shouted, "HEYY PENN!" When the Rito came back in, Traysi went right to the point. "Penn, starting now, this guy's your partner." Penn turned to Link.

"Well, if our editor says you're in, you're in. Traysi sure knows how to pick 'em." Penn gave him a feathery thumbs up.

"All right you two. You're going to visit every stable for leads. Penn you're leading this. Stables are where people gather across Hyrule. I'm sure each stable has different rumors flying around. Now, get me some news!" Traysi sent them off. Penn went flying away from Rito village, and Link looked towards Rito village. He couldn't even see the village through all the snow and as soon as he maneuvered Epona towards the bridge, he found that it had been destroyed.

After talking with a woman by the fire, he learned that setting a Hylian pine on fire would create an updraft not unlike Revali's Gale. As Link flew over where the bridge should have been, the memory of Revali consumed his mind. Only his slightly adequate cold gear kept him from drowning himself in that memory.

When he saw Rito village, he felt impossibly worse. The village was covered in a thick layer of snow. Their Goddess statue was covered in icicles. Near there, three of Kass's daughters were motivating to practice a song. Link remembered having to strong arm them into doing so last time he saw them.

"Our song is called, The song of the Stormwind Ark." Molli said, when he approached her about it. The young Rito girl looked very serious and quite hollow, just like her village.

"We're going to sing it together to save our village from the Upheaval." Molli said solemnly. Great Hylia, fledglings were thinking about saving Rito village?

"Are you going to listen to our song, Mister Link?" Notts asked, remembering him as one of her father's friends. Link nodded. The girls gave him brave smiles and counted off.

Once a god fell from heaven

Stilling the Hebra winds

The heavens grew lifeless

Just as the air below thinned

With the world in Upheaval

We pledged to help the lord

A line of ships soaring

Built as a passage skyward

The god ascended to heaven

Leaving behind an ark

Its winds brought us new life

Thanks to its great divine spark

"You know, this song is about an ark that saved Rito village a long, long time ago." Genli informed him, just as solemnly as her sisters. "Something bad happened then, just like now."

Molli turned to her sister, "Hey… that Stormwind Ark… Is it real?"

"It definitely is!" Genli's s smile turned into the one Link knew, more carefree. "Papa told me it's always watching over us, high in the sky."

"We could surely use its help with this blizzard." Notts mumbled, "Since most of the adults aren't around anymore because of the weather." Notts stood up straighter to look her sisters in the eye. "Well, if we don't have the adults, it's up to us kids to take care of the village!"

Link's heart just about broke as Notts assigned her sisters, food duty and crafting arrows respectively. The two girls flew off and left Notts, still singing into the quiet. Probably for moral's sake. As Link made his way through Rito village, he spotted Kotts, her small head peeking over the desk of the Rito's inn. She was dozing. Cree was manning the slippery Falcon general store with a professional heir she shouldn't have, especially as she apologized for the lack of food and suggested looking in caves for mushrooms and fish. Genli was worrying over her cooking job already, as she was missing an ingredient. Link gave her his bass and continued on, Genli murmuring about how she was going to be like her mom.

Link almost started to cry when he bought a Rito headdress and coat from Kheel, the young girl just as professional as her sisters. Link's sadness soon turned to anger and he raced up the stairs faster wanting to reach the Elder or maybe Teba as soon as possible. He stopped when he saw Molli at Hearth's usual station with her head in her wings. He gave her an ice fruit to help her make ice arrows and continued on.

When he got to the Elder's house to find him gone, Link's rage and sadness nearly made it's way onto his face. But just before that he saw Teba and Saki talking to Tulin on Revali's landing. He sprinted over.

"That's not fair at all! You know I can handle it!" Tulin was glaring up at his parents. "Checking out that huge cloud wouldn't be hard! I could even do it alone!" Teba hummed worriedly, his head in a wing. Saki herself looked even more worried. With Teba silence, Tulin spoke again.

"If we don't do anything, the village-" Tulin cut himself off as his blue eyes moved to Link. Link struggled to maintain his calm front. Great Hylia even Tulin was trying to be an adult now. Oblivious to Link's feelings, the fledgling's face looked confused. Link supposed he hadn't been to Rito village in years.

"Huh? Is that you?" Tulin asked. He spread his small wings and flew over to Link, Saki and Teba's eyes following him.

"It is you!" Tulin shouted, a big smile now on his face. "LINK!"

Teba and Saki made their way over and Link shook hands with his old friend.

"Link! They told me you were missing. It's good to see you doing well." Teba had a new breast plate on, and Link realized that Elder Keneli may have passed away in the time between Link's last visit, and Teba must be the new Elder.

"It's very nice to see you again." Saki greeted warmly.

"It's very nice to see you too." Link signed.

"Do you remember my son, Tulin? He's grown taller, though perhaps not yet grown up." Teba gestured to Tulin.

Link put a small smile on his face and nodded.

"Maybe I would be grown up if you didn't treat me like a hatchling all the time!" Tulin scowled at his father, who just looked tired to Link.

"As long as you still think you can take on the world by yourself, you'll always be my little chick." Teba said, love for his son showing through his tired eyes. Tulin however, didn't seem to see it that way.

"What, you think I can't? I'm already fully-fledged, you know! You'll change your tune when I ace today's scouting trip! You can all keep wasting your time treating the Song of the Stormwind Ark like it's real, but not me!" And with that Tulin flew away, Teba calling after him.

"Unbelievable." Teba muttered before turning back to Link and Saki. "Tulin wants me to let him go find out what causing the blizzard, and he'd having trouble hearing "no.""

"He mentioned the Song of the Stormwind Ark?" Link signed.

"It's an old folk song here in Rito village." Saki said, "You might have heard the girls singing it below. The song tells the tale of a different Upheaval, and how the Rito were saved by a great flying ship."

"It's a song for children, mind you. Few adults still parrot it as if it were true." Teba said. "Still every now and then you get reports among the Rito of a flying ship. Combine that with the blizzard caused by the Upheaval, and it seems less far-fetched." Teba looked up to the large storm whirling around in the sky.

"If the Song is just a legend for children, I suspect that there is something lurking high in the sky. But their air is too turbulent for any Rito to fly close enough to investigate. This is why I say we need to make careful preparations to find the truth, but Tulin.." Teba sighed. "He thinks we cling to that song out of cowardice. But these are Rito matters. You came here for a purpose, yes?" Teba asked.

"Princess Zelda is still missing, and Hyrule castle floats in the sky. I came here to see if I could find any clues about Zelda's whereabouts. I also came to help you, strange things are happening all over Hyrule." Link signed.

"What? This is terrible news. The other tribes in danger and not even Hyrule castle is safe… Do you think that the strange phenomena and the Princess's disappearance are related somehow?" Teba asked, and Link nodded. "Myself and the rest of the Rito would ordinarily help with your search, however this blizzard shows no signs of stopping, and food has grown scarce. Everyone I could spare is searching for food."

"Teba hasn't been able to leave the village since he became the elder." Saki explained. Link sighed, so Teba wouldn't be able to accompany him this time around.

"I wish there was something more I could do… Ah! Maybe I'm not the one you want. You should try asking Harth. He has many sources of information, so he may have a lead on Princess Zelda." Link nodded slowly.

"Harth is at the lodge at the base of Rospro Pass, you remember?" Link nodded again, and took off the ledge of Revali's landing.