Finding Home

A/N: So... I wrote fluff for a change. For the LU Discord Weekly Challenge, actually. Since I normally write angst, I wanted to try the opposite. Forgive inconsistencies and mistakes. At its basic form, this is what my outlines look like. :Wild_Laugh: So yeah. People call my outlines first drafts, so I guess enjoy this super fluffy first draft. I might revise later, but for now it is what it is. :)

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Link was an odd child. Many people pitied the poor orphan boy—the son of a great Skyloftian knight and a wonderful woman. His parents had died less than a year prior, on his sixth birthday. Nobody knew how it'd happened, but they'd gone off on a flight together with their loftwings and were never found again. It was assumed that they'd gotten caught up in turbulent winds and fallen below the clouds. Even their Loftwings weren't found.

Sometimes the other children would tease him about his parents abandoning him. Groose, in particular, was getting rather nasty about it. Especially since Zelda had taken to hanging around Link. Link knew better, though. He'd always had odd dreams... visions. He saw his parents get attacked by something very dark and very bad, and they fell with their loftwings to someplace below the clouds. He knew they were never coming home. He also knew that that wouldn't be the last time he saw the darkness.

He eyed the children playing near the plaza with a mildly jealous gaze. They were older—old enough to have their loftwings. Someone wasn't considered a whole being until they'd bonded with their loftwing. Every loftwing was born with a Skyloftian counterpart. Loftwings couldn't fly until they were about three, and they grew pretty quickly. Most loftwings weren't born until their Skyloftian half was about five, so most children didn't get their loftwings until they were eight to ten, when they'd meet them in a quiet ceremony beneath the statue of the Goddess.

Link heard that loftwings were born on a different island, but nobody really knew where that was. The loftwings refused to bring anyone there, so it was commonly believed to be a very sacred land of the Goddess herself. Link idly wondered if some loftwings missed home, or missed their parents.

His eyes narrowed when he saw Groose smirk and head towards him. Groose wasn't necessarily cruel, but he did take things too far. Link didn't like him. Normally, he had the energy to at least sit there and stonewall the redhead, but today made six months since his parents had left Skyloft. He was struggling and he didn't want Groose of all people to see that.

So with a frustrated sigh, he turned and walked away. "H-hey! Link, where'ya goin?" Groose called after him. "Ya scared? I dunno why Zelda hangs around a guy like you."

Link bit his tongue. "Just leave me alone, Groose." He sent the boy a glare over his shoulder. "I'm not in the mood today."

"Aww, don't be like that." Groose grinned brightly, a chuckle falling from his lips. "I saw how you were eyeing those loftwings. Don't worry, I'm sure the goddess will send you one in a few years. Of course, it won't be as cool as mine."

Link pushed his feet to walk faster. He rounded the bend towards the falls, ducking behind one of the trees by the edge of the island where Groose wouldn't see him, careful not to get too close to the edge.

"And when Zelda sees it, she'll surely be... hey! Where'd you go?! Link!" Groose growled in irritation before running a hand through his shoulder-length hair. "Fine. Be like that. I am going to go play with Zelda. All by myself. Humph." With that, he turned around and went back towards the plaza, leaving Link blessedly alone.

He let out a sigh of relief as he stepped out from his hiding spot, sticking his tongue out at Groose's retreating back. "Dummy. Just leave me alone."

A loud screeching noise startled him badly as something flew inches by his face—a keese from the nearby cavern, he realized belatedly. He eyed it warily. Small or not, it was still a monster. There was a reason why parents told kids to stay away from the cavern, and Link was only six. He couldn't take something like that, not without a sword anyways.