TOTK: The Lonely Hero

The Eye of the Storm

With a powerful gust of wind, Link shot through the air with his paraglider in hands. Gliding across to the neighboring peak, he used ascend to rise through some nearby ruins, allowing him to gain higher ground and take off flying even further.

Tulin flew ahead of him through the air, his little eyes filled with awe as he saw Link rise through solid matter like it were water as the Hylian tried to keep up with him.

"Whoa..."

"So where are you leading me exactly?" Link asked, as he landed once more.

"After the Upheaval, all those big ruins started falling from the sky. However, some of them stopped before they hit the ground and are still floating! You can use those to make your way up with me!" Tulin explained.

Landing beside Link, he raised his wing as sign of caution:

"Careful, there's a monster camp up ahead, be ready!"

Link and Tulin both drew their bows, as they crept up from behind the ridge. Knocking arrows, they raised them over the rocks to take aim at... an empty camp. Lying strewn across the snow and slowly being buried by the blizzard were the remains of several Zonai construct warriors, alongside their weapons.

Confused, the two descended down the slope to inspect the remains of a campsite. It had been evident there was a struggle, as among the remains of the battle were the horns and teeth of bokoblins, as well as the wings from an aerocuda.

"Looks like they got into a fight with other monsters," Tulin stated, as he plucked an arrow from one of the construct's eyes.

"Then where are the rest of the victors?" Link wondered. It was strange, he'd never known bokoblins to quickly abandon a sight after having raided it, especially if it meant leaving behind valuable loot like their enemies' weapons.

"Let's keep moving," Link told Tulin, "Whoever was here was in a hurry. We need to catch up."

"Righto!"

Using ascend, Link swam up through the ruins now embedded into the side of the mountain, allowing him to make the climb a lot quicker.

"Last one to the top is a rotten egg!" Tulin let out, as he flew ahead, flapping his little wings as quickly as he could.

As they made their way to the top of Hebra Peak, Link laid his eyes for the first time on a large collection of floating ruins, scattered throughout the skies. They were arranged in an uneven, broken path that gradually ascended up to the heavens and towards the eye of the storm.

"Oh no!" Tulin gasped, as he looked to the start of the path, a piece of ruin lying atop the mountain. Turning to what he'd spotted, Link noticed a Rito warrior sitting in the snow, his back leaning against the wall, his wings gripping his head.

The two quickly made their way over to him, checking to make sure he was alright.

"Huck, are you alright?!" the fledgling asked.

"Argh..." the sentinel groaned, before looking up at him, "Tulin... Good see you..."

"What happened?"

"It was awful... There was this horde of monsters flying through the air. They were carrying some of the ground monsters with them. I was about to fly back down and warn everyone when one of them dropped a huge snowball on my head. I just got back my wits again..."

"Where did they go?" Link asked, "Was anyone with them?"

When the Rito saw the Hylian swordsman, his eyes jolted wide open in shock.

"S-sir Link?" he stuttered.

"Where were they headed?" Link repeated.

"U-up to that big swirling cloud," Huck answered, pointing up to it.