Chapter 2: Stormclouds

The two Loftwings and their riders rode a fair wind away from Skyloft, out into the open sky, flying in easy formation, rolling or diving for the sheer fun of it; circling back up on a rising wind. The day was theirs, and the shadow over Link's heart had faded back into a memory.

"This has been such an amazing day!" Flying almost wingtip to wingtip, Zelda barely needed to raise her voice to speak to him, just loud enough to be heard over the wind in their ears. Link looked across at her, smiling, the two Loftwings contentedly matching one another's speed and direction as their riders spoke. "Our graduation, and the ceremony… I'll always remember this!"

Link's smile broadened. "Me too!"

"You know, I was so nervous this morning," Zelda went on. "I knew there wasn't anything to worry about, but I just kept feeling… I don't know. As if something was going to go wrong for you." Her Loftwing slipped sideways to catch a slight change in the wind, and Link's matched her perfectly. "Father told me I was worrying over nothing, like he always does." She gave a little, embarrassed laugh. "And I guess he was right, wasn't he!"

Link nodded. "I was worried, too," he admitted.

"You? You're never worried!" She said it light-heartedly, but it had been the cause of some friction between them more than once. Link had never quite understood why Zelda – and the others – thought it was so important that he worry. Life in Skyloft was good; life at the Academy was good. He'd do the best he could, and if it ever wasn't good enough for some, it wasn't as though anyone would suffer for it. He excelled at weapons training and flight; enjoyed his hobbies; got by perfectly acceptably in even his worst classes. What more did he really need?

"Well, I was this time. It sounds stupid, but – I had this… this nightmare, last night. I woke up still feeling like something was looming over me." He shook his head. "I don't know. It's gone now." Mostly, at least.

"I think today probably felt like that for everyone," Zelda said. "But… it's all over now. Everything went perfectly! And we have the whole rest of the day…"

Link looked at her quizzically as she trailed off, seeming to think about her next words. What would she say? Was it…?

Instead of speaking, however, Zelda suddenly looked sharply to her left, her Loftwing banking into a wide turn. Confused, Link followed her, trying to guess where she was looking and searching for anything out of place in the sky.

"Zelda?" he called, coming level with her again as her Loftwing straightened out.

"Did you… did you hear something, just then, Link?"

Link shook his head, frowning. "No, nothing. What was it?"

"I don't know… I couldn't make it out. But it felt like… I was being called." Zelda looked around again, scanning the sky much as Link had, and finding as little. "It's… not the first time it's happened lately, either…" She shook her head. "It – it must just be all of the worry about today. Let's not think about it!"

With that, her Loftwing flapped her wings, beating up to a higher altitude. Link watched for a few moments before following, rejoining her on another strong, steady wind. Zelda looked across at him as he caught up, then back down at the great expanse of cloud below.

"Do you ever wonder what's below the clouds, Link?"

Link thought about it. There were legends, if they could be called that: most of what he'd ever heard about anything that might be below the clouds came from midnight stories told by fellow students sneaking out of bed after hours and as often as not competing to scare one another silly. He and Zelda had heard a fair few in their time; in fact, he was pretty sure he remembered Zelda coming up with at least one herself.

"I just have to wonder. What's down there? Why won't our Loftwings even fly too near the low clouds? There's a wall at the bottom of our sky, and nobody even thinks about it! I know everyone says there's nothing, or whatever's there is barren and dead, but… the old books I've been reading, they all talk about this 'surface'. They seem to say it was so much bigger than Skyloft. That it's as wide as the sky itself… can you imagine?"

Link frowned, trying to. Islands had edges; to look in any direction, unless there was a building in the way, was to look out to sky. What would it look like if the island didn't end? Would it fill the horizon? How would it do that without curving up into the sky?

"How could something that big all be dead?"

"I don't know!" he called back to her. Then, after another moment, "Is that why you've been in the library so much?"

Zelda nodded, exaggerating the motion to be seen in flight. "I was just reading about the tradition of the Wing Ceremony to begin with, but it all seems connected to myths of the surface! And I… I really want to know what's down there. Somehow, I want to see for myself one day."

Link looked ahead again, out into endless blue sky and white clouds. With a strong wind to bear them and the whole future ahead, the possibilities seemed endless. "Maybe one day you can! I don't know how, but…"

Zelda's whole face lit up like the sun shining out through a moment's gap in thick cloud, and he couldn't help but smile back at her. "Link…!" She gazed at him for a few moments, eyes bright. "You know… there's something I've been meaning to-"

A sudden, blinding flash of light from below cut her off, both Loftwings screeching in protest. Suddenly viciously contrary, the wind buffeted them almost from all angles, Link and Zelda gripping their Loftwings' collars in desperate reflex to hang on in the abrupt turbulence. Link knew his eyes had only been shut for a shocked second, and yet as he forced them open again, blinking away the afterimages, he saw something impossible, unnatural: a pillar made of spinning cloud directly in their path!

"What is that?!"

He had no breath to spare on an answer. The Loftwings screamed in panic, but Link's reflexive response to try and avoid the danger meant that his bird's call was almost as much of a follow-me! as he sideslipped hard to the right, Loftwing watching his flight path, Link splitting their awareness to watch Zelda. Her bird tried to follow, but slightly shorter wings, slightly less flight strength, and the winds somehow all rushing into the spinning, towering cloud tore at them, and where Link's Loftwing had begun, just barely, to gain a trajectory that would take him around the whirling cloud, Zelda's was still being pulled in! Bird and rider shared an instant of panic, of terrible fear, but the decision was made in that same moment. Abandoning the fight, they arrowed towards her, though somehow the going was just as hard: the wind tried to drag them up, down, sideways, anywhere and everywhere but directly to her. She was only a few bird-lengths away and it might as well have been across all of Skyloft; her Loftwing lost control, blown in the hurricane wind like a leaf in an eddy, and then Zelda-

Even over the wind, Link heard her scream as she fell, hands wrenched from her tumbling bird's collar. There was no thought, only instant, reflexive response: they folded their wings and dived, going after her despite the wind that tried to rip them apart, slamming them from side to side, turning their dive into a spin, stronger with every heartbeat until- Link's grip gave out-

The sky went black.

Shorter chapter this time, but if I combined it with the next one it'd be way too long. Relatively few key differences here beyond various bits of conversation occurring at different times - though we do get a first glance at whether Link is really as laid-back as all that, and/or why he comes across that way. Also, a couple more general hints about culture; making attitudes to the surface consistent is harder than you'd think.

Hope you're enjoying!