In total, it had taken them a little over a week to reach the labyrinth and return to Rito Village. Farrow didn't think that was bad time considering the blizzard, monsters, lynel, Link's injury, the labyrinth, and the blood moon. Wow she was glad they were alive.
Farrow had convinced Link they should stay in the shrine and let him heal, especially since he had popped two stitches during their run from the skeletons. She'd made it a day before Farrow broke under Link's restless energy and allowed them to leave, lest she lose her mind.
It turned out Link didn't need the extra day anyway. His injury had mostly healed. The cut had sealed and Link said he only had slight pain when walking now. At this rate, he'd be back to normal in a day. It left her with no doubt he healed fast, and that comforted her a bit. Her shoulder still ached when she lifted her pack, but besides that she had recovered.
She and Link climbed the stairs to the chief's roost. The wind gusting through her hair felt warm compared to the gales from the tundra. Wooden wind chimes clattered in the breeze. Farrow couldn't believe it had only been a week and a few days since they were here. It felt like it had been months.
They came around the last landing and spotted Bentha, still guarding the chief. When he saw them his feather's ruffled.
"Chief," he called, "the hylians are back." Bentha waved them through.
"I am glad to see your safe return," the chief said as they entered. "I hope your quest was successful?"
'It was,' Farrow translated for Link. 'We were able to find two of the stones the Tuli family used. With them, we're practically weightless.' Link took one from the slate. The chief's eyes widened at sight and an intrigued gleam entered his eyes, but he didn't comment.
As Link's fist closed over the stone his hair rose. He kicked off, rising to touch the roost's ceiling before pushing himself back down. He dropped the stone back into the slate and his weight settled him back to the floor.
"Astonishing," the chief said, "and exactly what I had hoped for. While you were away I spoke with several of our warriors. Two have been particularly restless. I was able to talk them out of confronting Vah Medoh for a few days with the promise that I expected aid in the near future. They did not seem happy with my evasiveness on specifics, but I believe they would be willing to collaborate, with some convincing. Seek out Teba and Harth. Where you find one, you'll find the other. Tell them I sent you and explain your plan. You may wish to start with Teba's roost, a few roosts down."
Link listened with a sharp focus Farrow hadn't seen before. Which made sense. Link was about to reclaim the first divine beast. They could be on it in a matter of hours, depending on the plan.
Farrow looked out past the fabric panels of the roost and up to Vah Medoh, just visible. She didn't know what they would face up there, but she doubted it would be safe or easy.
Link led them from the chief's roost and down the steps of the first flight of stairs, and she nearly collided into his back when he stopped. He spun on her, eyes wide and intense.
"What?" she asked, taken aback at his serious expression.
'You need a glider,' he signed.
"Oh. I guess I do." Her stomach dropped at the idea of being so high up, but Link was right. If they were going to be flown hundreds of feet into the air, she'd want some kind of back up plan if the stone failed.
'I'm going to make you one,' he signed. 'You find Teba and Harth, start planning, and I'll find you.' Farrow considered what he'd need: wood, fabric, and twine at least.
"Uh, sure," she said. "But how long is it going to take you to make one?"
'Not long.' He grinned. 'See you soon.' And he went running down the stairs and out of sight.
Farrow sighed, but decided to have faith in him.
She followed the chief's advice and went to Teba's roost. His wife, Saki, and son were there but Teba was not. Saki said Teba might be at Harth's roost though. This started a long trek around Rito Village where Farrow went to see if the two were in one place, found they were not, and was directed to another location to look for them.
Farrow was considering that maybe they had gone up to face Vah Medoh by themselves, when one of the guards overheard her conversation with the general shopkeeper.
"If you're looking for Teba and Harth they left for the flight range hours ago." The guard was nice enough to tell her where that was, and Farrow prayed to the goddess the two were actually there. It was going to take her a very long walk to get to the place.
"If you see my friend could you let him know where I went?" she asked.
"The blonde one?" the guard clarified. "Sure."
((0))
Farrow trudged up the rocky path, her toes once again numb. She was beginning to think she'd never be free of the cold.
She had to follow a faint path north around Rito Village. It looked like it wasn't tread often. Since the people using the flight range were rito, it made sense that the path was faint. She'd had to keep an eye out for the splotches of red paint, high on the trees and cliff faces, that marked the way to guide her in some areas.
Now the path led up in between two rock faces, and just ahead she could see a huge roost perched over a cliff side. As she neared the rock face to her right fell away, revealing the ravine the cliff led to. It stretched further down than she could see, with huge gusts of wind roaring up its sides and threatening to snatch her hat away. Several pillars, almost like the ones that made up Rito Village but smaller, stretched up from the bottom and towered above her.
A figure flew around one of the pillars, a dark blur in the air. Farrow stopped to watch.
It was a rito. He dove through the gale like a fish through water. His flight slowed only a moment as he drew his bow and fired on several targets attached to the walls of the ravine and pillars. Farrow couldn't see if he'd gotten the center, but several targets jerked after he fired. He spun away a half second later.
Wings cracked the air beside her. She jumped and turned to see another rito with white plumage land beside her. A bow rested on his back and a steel breastplate protected his chest.
"Who are you?" he asked in a stern voice. He didn't seem hostile exactly, but his stare drilled into her.
"Farrow," she said, straightening. "I'm here looking for Teba and Harth. The chief said I should find them here. Would that be you two?" She nodded to the other rito, still wheeling in the air.
The rito, she was guessing he was Teba or Harth, frowned. "So this is the help he promised was coming huh. No disrespect, but how is a hylian supposed to help? You should leave." Despite his words, Farrow found she did feel disrespected.
His tone told her he didn't expect an answer, but Farrow gave him one anyway, in as polite a tone as she could muster.
"It's not just me. My friend has a machine that can calm Vah Medoh. He had some preparations to make but he'll be here shortly. He's hylian as well, and we have accounted for our inability to fly, if you'd let me explain. I still don't know your name." Farrow knew some irritation had leaked into her voice, but she felt it was deserved.
"Teba," he said as he rubbed the top of his beak. "Come on. Let's talk then."
((0))
Farrow, Teba, and Harth sat around the fire in the roost. She had just finished explaining the sky stones when footsteps came clunking up the ladder.
Farrow twisted to see Link's blonde head appear at the edge of the roost. He grinned when he saw her and clambered the rest of the way up. In his right hand he held a wooden framework with orange fabric stretched across it. A glider.
"This is Link," Farrow said as he took a seat by her side. "Link, this is Teba and Harth."
Link dropped the glider into her lap and Farrow examined it more closely. The wood was dark spruce and the fabric a tight woven linen. It was the same shape as Link's with leather wrapped handles. Where had he gotten the materials for this? Before she could ask, Link was already signing.
"I need to reach Vah Medoh," Farrow translated. "I can stop its attacks. Will you help?"
"We were discussing that," Harth said. "Your friend said you have a device that can calm it. Let's see it."
Link presented the Sheikah slate, its screen glowing with runes. Teba and Harth leaned in to get a better look, their expressions shifting from skepticism to intrigue.
"That's ancient tech alright," Teba said. "And you're certain you can calm Vah Medoh?"
Link frowned at the slate. "As certain as I can be without having done it yet. With it I can interact with the shrines and towers around Hyrule. I don't see why it wouldn't work on the divine beasts."
Harth turned to Teba. "This might work. It's a better idea than trying to down it with only arrows."
Teba narrowed his eyes and swept them up from the slate to Link's face and hair. He hummed and his expression thawed a fraction. "Right. We'll help. Let's do some practice runs using your gliders and stones. Once we have an idea of how well we'll be moving in the air we can make a plan."
The two rito rose and went to the launch deck of the roost, the one that hung over the cliff's edge. Link withdrew his own glider and the stones. Farrow paled at the sight of the deck's edge and nudged Link.
"I'm gonna practice over there, first." She pointed to the platform with the ladder.
Link nodded and plopped one of the stones into her hand. Her glove was on so she didn't start floating. He gave her a quick thumbs up and hurled himself off the deck.
Farrow went to the ledge and considered putting the stone in her glove, but decided it would be better to get a sense of how the glider naturally worked. She put the stone in her pocket and gripped the glider with both hands.
She took a deep breath, raised it over her head, and stepped off the edge.
The world pulled her down and her stomach dropped before the fabric caught the air. She almost lost her grip on the handles at the sudden change. The ground flew past beneath her and rose to meet her much faster than she'd expected.
Farrow hit the ground and stumbled as she tried to control her momentum. She ended up tumbling in the snow and losing her grip on the glider.
She sat up and shook the snow from her hair. Link and the rito spiraled around the chasm, Link occasionally folding the glider to lose altitude, then snapping back open to ride a gust back up. He made it look effortless.
Farrow stood and found her own glider. She'd just have to keep working on it.
She eventually got the hang of running as she landed, which kept her from face planting into the snowdrifts. And she figured out that by tugging on the left or right handle she could somewhat control her line of descent.
She did it a few more times and felt pretty comfortable with it. Then she considered the chasm.
A few more practice flights couldn't hurt.
When she couldn't rationalize her stalling any longer, Farrow forced herself to the platform, her eyes fixed on the ground below. It must have been a hundred feet, at least.
She tore her gaze away from the ravine and squared her shoulders. She couldn't use the stone. It would make her too light and the winds would send her up too high.
Farrow locked her grip around the handles of the glider, knowing the gale would attempt to snatch it from her, and stepped into the void.
The wind howled up around her, snatching up the glider and hauling her out toward the pillars. Farrow grit her teeth and tugged the glider right, missing the pillar by inches. She was close enough she could have kicked off of it.
Harth appeared beside her, his wings outstretched and held steady against the winds. Farrow spared him a glance, but kept her focus on guiding the glider around the ravine.
"You're not doing bad," Harth said, his voice raised above the howling gusts. "There's areas on the southside with better updrafts. If you want to get back to the roost, hit those and then circle back around."
"Thanks," Farrow yelled. Harth wheeled away. Every so often one of the rito would fly by, she assumed to check on her. Once Link flew past, grinning at her.
When he saw he had her attention, he collapsed his glider and dropped. As he did, he drew his bow and he blurred. He fired three arrows in the space of a second at one of the targets before he returned to normal and swung his glider back up to catch the wind.
Farrow found herself smiling at the feat. He really was getting stronger, whether it was the gifts from the shrines or his own practice.
Farrow knew she wasn't going to be collapsing her glider to shoot arrows anytime soon. She made sure she had a good sense of how to change direction and seek out air currents before she hit the updrafts and looped back to the roost's platform.
Her boots hit the deck and she let the glider drop to her side. Her shoulders and upper arms ached as she stretched them.
They tested the stones after. She and Link tried to float down to the ground while they had the stones in their gloves, and found the descent was so slow it wouldn't be realistic for getting onto Vah Medoh, especially if it was shooting at them.
So they devised a new system. They hung the stones on necklaces that could be tucked into their shirts, or left to rest over their clothing. It would be an awkward switch in mid air, but after a few trial runs she and Link could manage it fairly quickly.
After a few rounds of this, they all reconvened at the fire.
"Alright," Teba said, his eyes gleaming with excitement, "let's make our plan."
((0))
The icy wind bit at Farrow's exposed nose, but the ground hundreds of feet below distracted her from the pain. Harth's claws were tight around her shoulders. Her feet dangled beneath her and past them she could see the tiny dark spot that was the flight range.
In the distance, just below them in altitude, Vah Medoh patrolled over Rito Village. It seemed larger than it had from the ground.
"Alright," Teba's voice cut through the wind. "This is it. Any closer and Vah Medoh is going to start firing on us. Is everyone ready?"
"Ready," Farrow called, feeling anything but.
Link, who hung from Teba's claws beside her, held out a thumbs up and grinned.
"Ready on you," Harth said.
"Dive."
The two rito tilted their wings. Farrow's stomach twisted as they swooped down toward Vah Medoh. Air streamed past them, making Farrow's eyes water.
As they neared Vah Medoh, a booming screech rolled over them, echoing from the giant. It raised the hairs on Farrow's skin. On the tips of Vah Medoh's wings small red lights flared.
"Brace," Harth yelled as he and Teba split apart, Teba's wings cracking as he went high and Harth plunging down. Farrow expected her stomach to drop, but the weightlessness given to her but the stone gave her an odd feeling of stability. It was kind of like floating on water.
There was a high whine, then a crack as a beam of red light tore through the air they'd occupied moment's before. Heat radiated from the beam, then it flickered and faded. Farrow caught a strange sharp smell in the air.
No sooner had it vanished when there was another flicker of light.
"Going high!" Harth said. His wings cracked and Farrow was hoisted up along with him. Another whine, crack, and flash of the laser cutting past them. Farrow's hands felt icy, but she couldn't tell if it was from the cold or adrenaline.
They circled left around Vah Medoh, slowly creeping closer. Teba and Link would be doing same, but circling right. That way Vah Medoh would have to split its attention between them, and they wouldn't have to worry about crashing into each other mid air. This was the first part of Teba's plan, and so far it was working.
When Vah Medoh was close enough to see the details on the etchings, it shimmered, and a red glow bubbled around it.
Teba had warned them about this. It was a barrier that they wouldn't be able to get through. He'd seen it when he had first tried approaching the divine beast and had been forced back.
"Ready?" Harth shouted, gaining altitude.
Farrow inhaled and gathered her courage. "Ready!"
A moment later, when Harth had raised her high enough above Vah Medoh, he let go.
Farrow hung in the air, then slowly began to drift down. A high whine sent her veins singing with adrenaline. She snatched at the cord around her neck and ripped it up from her shirt, exposing the stone.
Gravity seized her at once, her stomach plunged, and she fell. A boom, flash of light and heat somewhere behind her. She snatched her glider from her hip and as soon as she'd turned it right side up the wind snatched at it and pulled her from her descent.
Another boom echoed around her, and she looked up to see smoke pluming from the nearest wing-tip of Vah Medoh and Harth circling away. The shield flickered.
Her job was simple, if not terrifying. She was a decoy.
On the other side, Teba and Link were doing the same, with Teba acting as decoy and transport while Link shot the bomb arrows the rito had provided.
Farrow found an updraft and rode it to gain back some altitude.
"Switch!" Harth yelled. Farrow couldn't see him, but she punched her glider to collapse it, and snatched the stone back up in a bare hand. Her fall slowed, and then claws closed around her shoulders hauling her forward and up.
"We're moving to the rear!"
"Right!"
Farrow had been braced for another blast, but when she looked to the turret she found it smoking and sparking with that strange red light. Harth's first shot must have been enough to disable it completely.
Craning her neck, Farrow saw Link and Teba for an instant, just above the opposite wing, before they dropped back down out of sight. The shield flickered in some places, more so than it had been a second ago.
Harth dropped into a dive as they came up on the rear turret. It swiveled to face them and flashed. The beam screamed over their heads.
"I'm going low this time," Harth said. He swooped up and let her go.
Farrow made the switch again, her eyes locked on the turret. It stayed fixed on her as Harth plunged down and out of sight.
The turret glowed, and Farrow waited until the last moment to punch out her glider and drop. The laser screamed past her. Harth appeared beside the turret, fired his arrow, and peeled away.
The explosion cracked across the air and as the smoke streamed away from the ruined turret the glow of the shield gave one final flicker and vanished.
The divine beast screamed, and Farrow braced for another attack, her eyes darting across the beast. But smoke plumed from its turrets and no further attacks came.
"Switch!" Farrow did so, and Harth hauled her toward the tail of the beast.
As they neared the platform at the rear of the beast, styled like a rito's tailfeathers and covered in moss, Farrow caught sight of Link and Teba headed toward them from the opposite side. Teba seemed slow, but Farrow tell why.
Harth dropped her over the platform as Teba did the same with Link. Her boots hit the ceramic and she pulled the sky stone from her shirt. As gravity returned she felt the slow sway of the beast beneath her, as she widened her stance against the shift.
Farrow watched both rito fly up, hang in the air side by side for a moment before Teba descended out of view. Harth approached and hovered above the platform. "Teba's hurt. I'm escorting him back. Good luck you two." With a crack of his wings he disappeared over the edge.
This was essentially the plan. The rito had a superstition about alighting on the divine beast–which apparently didn't extend to firing at it–but both rito had decided they wouldn't be needed at this point. Link had the slate, and he would be the one to fix the beast. Farrow hoped Teba was alright.
Wind howled over them as the beast tilted left, causing Farrow to shift her weight and eye the left edge of the platform with apprehension. Ahead, a looming alcove covered a Sheikah Slate podium and doorway that lead into the internals of the divine beast. The same spiral designs from the shrines wandered the surface of the platform. Moss and grass clung to the etchings, carpeting the beast in green. A few air plants clung to the corners of the walls and sprouted at the base of the slate podium.
Link had already crossed the space to the podium and Farrow wobbled after him, her arms held out and steps careful. It reminded her of her dad's fishing boat and the first time she'd been on it. It took her a little while to get her sea legs, but by the time they'd returned to shore, walking on land felt wrong compared to the gentle sway of the ocean. Farrow found that if she thought of it like a boat, walking was much easier.
When Farrow reached the podium and stood beside Link, she found him frowning down at it. Now that she was closer, Farrow could see there was something off. It took her a moment to place it, but she realized the glowing eye of the podium was red, not orange.
Link signed, drawing Farrows attention. 'There's malice on it.'
Farrow squinted back at the podium and sure enough, hair thin threads of malice wove themselves in with the roots clinging to the podium's face. She made a face.
"It makes sense. Vah Medoh was taken by the calamity. I guess this is how its been controlled. Think you should use the slate?" Farrow wasn't sure if it would work with the malice here, or if it would harm the slate somehow.
Before she voiced any of that, Link set the slate to the glowing eye of the podium, taking care not to crush one of the air plants that had made its home there.
The eye flared blue and the threads of malice dissolved away.
"Oh good," Farrow said. "Glad it's not contagious."
"Well, there's a familiar face."
Farrow jumped at the voice that echoed around them. Link straightened, his gaze somewhere distant.
"I had a feeling you'd find your way here eventually, but a hundred years? You certainly took your time." The voice sounded almost mocking, but like the speaker's heart wasn't really in it. And the voice didn't seem to come from one place, but all around them.
"Are you here to wrest Vah Medoh from the calamity?" the voice asked, its mocking tone replaced by something sharp.
Link nodded.
Farrow realized the person speaking wasn't really here and that meant it was likely one person. It must be the rito champion, Revali. His spirit was still here after a hundred years. She'd heard of ghosts lingering if there was something in the world they'd left unfinished, but she'd never met one. Farrow wondered if it was by choice or entrapment that Revali was still here, and couldn't decide which would have been more painful.
"Then let's get started. You'll need a map. You can find it at the Guidance Stone here." the voice went quiet and Link's eyes glazed over like they did when he recalled a memory. It only lasted a second, then he blinked and was back.
"That was Revali, wasn't it?" Farrow asked.
Link nodded. 'He showed me where to go.' His expression was solemn. 'I didn't realize he was still here. Do you think the others are…' his hands hung in the air.
Farrow sighed. Honesty would be little comfort but she wasn't one to sugar coat things. "I don't know Link. But if Revali is still here that means it's possible."
Link's hands clenched.
"But," Farrow said, making sure his eyes met hers before she continued, "you're here now."
Link considered her words, inhaled deeply and nodded. He fixed his gaze on the entrance to Vah Medoh and strode forward. Farrow kept stride with him and together they entered the divine beast.