A Hero's Choice : A Skyward Sword Fanfic

Lesson 4: Forbidden Field Trip

There was a crushing weight on top of your body, but not as crushing as the blurry fortress of trees surrounding you.

You have seen trees before. Skyloft had them.

What Skyloft didn't have was a surplus of shrubbery, ferns, mulch, and dirt. The backdrop, a lively scale of verdancy, bled vertically into the earth beneath your body.

Where was the sky? Your eyes expanded from half-lidded to open as you noticed the sky above you, blotted out by the plethora of trees.

Why did it look so far away?

With a grunt, you snapped your head down to see Link sprawled on top of you, shaking his now-brown, shaggy gold tufts due to the bodies of bark caving in around you. The impact of the fall had roused him awake.

You pushed him off.

"Get off of me. I'm not Zelda."

He rolled off, landing beside you with a thud. "You're right. Zelda is kinder. And she knows how to say, "thank you."

You winced. He wasn't wrong. But he also didn't have to dive after you off the island, as if he were some hero.

Before you could rebuttal in classic Y/N fashion, you heard a chirping sound from up ahead.

"How did we survive? And where are we?"

Your steps were soft among the grass as you approached the source of the chirping. A small, blue-winged creature shot from a branch, fluttering away in panic.

You yelped, falling on your tush and covering your mouth. "L-Link... what was that? Was that a baby Loftwing?" The creature landed on another branch, mocking you with its foreign chatter.

"Well, well, well, look who hasn't been studying her textbook." Link stuck his hand in your face; reluctantly, you grabbed it as you allowed him to pull you back on your feet.

"I may not have been studying from my textbook, but I've been studying how to use this fist if you want a lesson."

He chuckled. "Y/N, they are birds."

You had heard that title before, indeed, in one of your textbooks. Your face was absent as you tried to recall where you had read it. He patiently waited, raising his eyebrow as he saw the truth beginning to untangle on your face.

"Birds... like birds... on the surface? Those birds?" You clamped your hands over your mouth. "Goddess, have we fallen to the surface?" 

For some reason your reaction cajoled Link into a fit of laughter. 

"What is so funny, you goody two shoes! You think Gaepora would flip about that island? Imagine if he knew we were down here on the surface! How can you be so calm right now?! We don't even have a way to get back to-"

Link's crimson Loftwing floated to the ground beside him. He patted his head, ruffling some of its feathers with affection.

"Wait, your Loftwing is down here? What about Sava?" You frowned, instantly worried your bird met with hardship and was somewhere injured, or worse. 

"Loftwing won't traverse to a location their pilot has never been." 

Link studied you, waiting for his words to register with you, but they never did.

You saw freckles of sun appear at your feet. "Day is breaking. They're going to find out, Link."

He remained silent, your head whipped upward at the sky, your home. "Am I wrong to think that if I am to be suspended or dismissed, I may as well explore down here?"

You took a moment to admire the sounds the birds made; a cacophony of chittering and tweeting seemed to whip through the many leaves around you. Link took a step closer to you, his hand dangling midair as if he wanted to reach out and touch you. "Y/N..."

"This is all your fault!"

"What!" He hissed. "You're a piece of work! You know that?"

"If you never followed me, I would have been back in Knight Academy, safe in my bed, my secret unknown. But you had to go and follow me, and you had to go and rile me up, and now look!" You folded your arms; an irritated huff left your lips.

His eyes darkened in a way you had never witnessed. In a way that made your pulse flutter. "I should have just let you fall." His voice dropped to emphasize the word 'fall.' You mimicked his dramatic tone, provoking him.

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because!" He shouted; his words caught in his throat. "Because I-"

"Hero..." A frail voice croaked, breaking up your spat. 

Link's face, which a moment prior had been infested with rage, morphed into horror.

"Oh no... no..." 

"What is it? Link? What's wrong?" You followed his eyes to an image standing behind you. 

Before you both stood a crippled woman, ravaged by age. Thick ropes of white braids looped around her forehead, with one rogue braid framing her face. A burgundy shawl covered her from head to toe, pointing upward at the top of her head, creating a cone shape. The combination of the color and the woman's abrasive tan skin made her resemble a pinecone.

"What did this pinecone just say to you?" You asked, dumbfounded.

"You couldn't remember the word for birds, but you remembered pinecone?" Link commented beneath his breath.

"Don't change the subject! Why is an ancient pinecone calling you a "hero?"

The fragile woman spoke again: "Hero, you've returned. Although I expected it to be with the princess."

You looked at Link, waiting for an explanation. He couldn't meet your gaze. 

"How does she know you Link? And princess... is she referring to Zelda?" 

"You must feel it within the sacred ground. The imprisoned rumbles, waiting for release once more." 

"Impa," Link implored, "I've felt it for a while now. A great evil is waiting for our Skyloftian wing ceremony to make its presence known." Link finally looked at you, and his demeanor shifted into one that was unrecognizable in all the years you had known him. "And that is why, Y/N, I asked you to forfeit the ceremony. I must protect you."

"Impa?" Your mouth hung open. "You know her, and she knows you, and..."

You lifted your finger and pointed it at Link, finally processing his words from earlier. "A Loftwing will not fly where its pilot has not traversed."

You were not the only one with a secret. And Link's was about to capsize right before you.

"You've been here before. You've been coming to the surface." 

Edited:5/26/24