City in the Sky [U5/BP]

City in the Sky
- Lyra and Hector, Apprentice Healer and Fairy (1/4/4) Reward: Rejuvenation, +25 Rupees
- Jacob Temple and Essyeth, Wandering Soldier (5/2/1) Reward: +40 Rupees

Lyra held the glass in both hands, shutting her eyes and focusing her energies. This was hard... the Life spell allowed her to cover a huge area if she so wished, but it was difficult for her to concentrate her power in so condensed an area. Finally, she fell forward, dropping the glass. She caught herself with one hand before she would slam into the table, and looked up at her mentor, panting. "I can't do it," she complained, "It's too hard!"

"You're too inexperienced to focus your energies into something as small as this glass, is that it?" the old woman couldn't bend forward far enough to pick up the container, but Hector quickly fluttered over and picked it up, handing it to her. "Thank you Pixie."

"I'm a Fairy," he said, but he sounded amused. Lyra's mentor always mistook Fairies for Pixies. Lyra supposed they just weren't common enough in the north.

"Regardless," the old woman said, "This is a problem Lyra. Condensing your power helps save power. That's why Rejuvenation costs so much less power than Life does, which is why I insist that you learn to master it."

"But I can't!" the Kokiri exclaimed. The elderly woman shook her head.

"You can. See that?" She pointed at the floor, where a small puddle was in place where the glass had been. "You just did it. You just strained yourself. You just need a little... help."

"Help?"

"I know of a place called Celestia. It's a strange place, only reachable on certain days and nights, and it's hard to navigate, but somewhere within it there lies a small, blue gem." The woman smiled. "From what I read, that gem can help you control your power better. If you like, I can arrange for someone to accompany you."

That exchange had occurred well over a week ago. In that time, Lyra had read up on Celestia using the books her mentor had given her, and she had decided the old bat suffered of dementia. Celestia was the name of the remains of an ancient, sky-dwelling civilisation. In one of the books it was mistakenly referred to as Skyloft. Lyra didn't doubt it existed, Hyrule had a lot of legends that turned out to be true, but how was she supposed to get there?

Her mentor had apparently hired someone to go with Lyra to the fabled place, but the Kokiri didn't know what to think of it. She had been given a letter to give to him and told a place to meet him, and she had set out in order to not disappoint her mentor.

"Lyra, do you think that's him?" She looked up as Hector said that. Immediately she understood what her mentor was on to, as the first thing she noticed was not the man, but the large, white dragon next to him.

It had been about a week since Jacob had been hired by an older woman to escort a student of hers to a fabled City in the Sky. Jacob had heard tales of the City, but he hadn't seen it and with Eysseth he had spent much time in the skies of Hyrule. "Well girl. Here's where we're supposed ta meet wit tha student o' tha woman. She was pretty vague on tha details wasn't she?" Jacob pats Eysseth's side as he talks to her. Eysseth replies with a snort and a nod of her head.

"Still. I'm assumin' that tha student'll be a female o' some race. So keep an eye out fer a woman that looks like she's lookin' fer somethin' okay?" Jacob sits next to Eysseth and starts polishing his sword and mirror shield. Eysseth looks around, doing as Jacob asked. Eysseth starts barking a bit of a song quietly as she notices a small girl looking at her.

Eysseth stands up and cocks her head to the side. Eysseth folds her wings to her body and slowly walks over to the girl. Eysseth purrs a bit looking at the girl curiously. As Eysseth stands up Jacob, who was leaning on Eysseth falls backwards. "Hey Eysseth. What was that fer? Oh..."

Jacob jumps up. He sheaths his sword and attaches his shield to his armor. Jacob stretches a bit before walking over to the girl as well. Jacob pats Eysseth on her side again. "Now Eysseth. Don't just walk up ta people witout me. Most people get scared when a giant Wyvern walks up to 'em." Jacob turns to the girl and kneels down smiling a warm smile. "Howdy little lady. Ya look like yer lookin' fer somethin'. I'm Sergeant Jacob Temple, Hyrule Castle Town Guard retired. Can I help ya?"

Lyra cautiously walked in the direction of the dragon, only to see it suddenly strolling over towards her. Hector immediately yelped, diving towards the back of Lyra's head and grabbing on to her hair. He was even more afraid of the beast than Lyra herself was, but after the initial shock she realized that not only was the dragon not running towards her with murderous intent, it was apparently tame, judging from the man that followed at a short distance from the beast.

When she reached the Wyvern, she laughed. "Hi to you too, mis... miss." She put her hand on the beast's nose to pet it, although Hector still clung to her hair and refused to show himself. "What's your name?" She waited for the dragon to reply before taking a little bow. "It's nice to meet you, Eysseth! Mine's Lyra."

By the time this entire exchange had finished, the man had reached them. Lyra smiled at him, bowing again. "Good morning, sir. My name is Lyra. Are you Eysseth's master?"

"Aye I am. Eysseth's been with me fer a long time." Jacob smiles remembering his life with Eysseth. Jacob shakes his head and again focuses on the task at hand. "Anyways. Lyra you look ta be lookin' fer somethin'. Can I help ya wit anythin'? I may be retired, but I can't help, but helpin' people." Jacob chuckles as he stands back up. "May be gettin' too old fer this."

Eysseth cocks her head to the side in confusion and lowers her head to look the little girl in the eyes. How did the little female understand her? Unless...she was of the Kokiri Tribe from Southern Hyrule. Eysseth tries to ask the little girl if she is in fact a Kokiri in the same way that Eysseth had introduced herself.

The man confirmed ownership of the dragon, additionally asking if Lyra was looking for something. "Not so much something," she said, "as someone. I'm a healer-in-training from Castle Town. My mentor says she's arranged for someone to accompany me to Celestia, or Skyloft if you will, best known as the fabled city in the sky."

She was still petting Eysseth when her question came in. Now Lyra was the one cocking her head to a side. Most animals she communicated with didn't show enough sentience or curiosity to inquire after her race for whatever reason, but her smile didn't drop and she took her hand off of Eysseth's face. Reaching behind her head, she grabbed the protesting Hector and held him out in front of the dragon's face. "Yup," she said, "I am. It's a long story."

She then turned back to the man. "Oh! With your dragon, maybe you could help me! Can she fly?" It might have seemed an odd question at first, but some animals had wings for show rather than for flight, or maybe Eysseth was lamed, which could explain her tameness.

"City in tha Sky? Healer apprentice? I was asked by an old woman ta fly someone there 'bout a week ago. Huh. No offence meant, but I figured ya'd be older. Anyways this old war dog's tha one yer menter hired ta take ya there." Jacob looks curiously as Lyra pulls a a ball of light from behind her.

Eysseth notices the little Kokiri cock her head to the side before saying "Yup. I am. It's a long story." As the Kokiri girl pulls out her fairy Eysseth sniffs it and cocks her head to the side again. Are you surprised that I have intelligence? I am a Young Adult White Wyvern. I have had many, many years to gain intelligence. Eysseth says in whatever way she is talking to the Kokiri. Also please tell Jacob you are a Kokiri. He is really confused right now. Eysseth snorts a chuckle as she looks at Jacob.

"Oh! With your dragon, maybe you could help me! Can she fly?" Jacob smiles a bit. "Well that is what I was hired ta do. Yeah Eysseth can fly. Those wings ain't fer show. Also Eysseth ain't a dragon. She's a White Northern Hills Wyvern. I'm sure she'd be more than happy ta take ya up."

Lyra giggled when Eysseth asked Jacob to explain what she was, especially after the Hylian had expressed wonder at how young Lyra looked. "I suppose I don't look like I'm of an age well into three digits, no," she said, still laughing. "I'm of the Kokiri Tribe to the South of Hyrule, Sir Jacob. My people don't age." As she spoke, she pointed to Hector, who was now comfortable enough to leave the cover of his partner and idly float next to her.

When Jacob promised to take Lyra up, she clasped her hands together, smiling. "Yes! That's great! Oh, here..." She reached towards him with the envelope. "I think my mentor wrote down directions to Celestia in here." As soon as Jacob had the envelope, she turned back to Eysseth. "How do I get on your back?" she asked the Wyvern, "If you're okay with it, of course."

"Kokiri? Oh them forest kids. I've seen a few back in ma days as Cap'n o' tha Guard in Saria. Well sorry ta assume ya ta be a kid." Jacob bows a bit and accepts the envelope. "Directions eh? Welp let's open 'er up." Jacob carefully tears open the envelope and pulls out a piece of paper. Opening the paper Jacob's right eye brow raises a bit as he reads.

Eysseth gives a Wyvern smirk. Well how else are you going to get to your destination then? Sprout wings? If so teach that to Jacob. He weights a lot more than he looks. 17 years of doing nothing will do that. Eysseth winks at Lyra before looking her over again. After a moment Eysseth reaches her head down like she is going to bite. Eysseth stops and instead turns to where Lyra is at the Wyvern's side and lowers her wing to make a ramp.

Jacob finishes reading the paper and nods. "Alright. Think I got it." Jacob folds the paper back and slides it into his armor. "All aboard. Next stop...tha City in tha Sky. Climb up whenever yer ready Lyra. Eysseth don't bite. Well she don't bite anyone but me anyways." Jacob rubs his shoulder a bit as Eysseth shoots him a dirty look bearing her teeth a bit. Jacob smirks and shrugs bearing his teeth back.

Lyra laughed at Eysseth's remark, appreciating the disarming personality that the Wyvern had. She may have looked scary, but she was kind of nice, even if Lyra noticed some... rivalry? between Wyvern and rider. "You're sure about that?" she then said, finally using the beast's wing to climb onto her back, "Doesn't it hurt?"

She took Hector in one hand and kept the other at Eysseth's neck while the Wyvern lifted them up into the air and Jacob steered towards the City in the Sky. The Kokiri didn't realize how hard she was squeezing both hands shut until she heard Hector's muffled voice. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She opened her hand, the Fairy seemingly perfectly fine. "Did you want to say something?"

"Yeah... how will we find that gem? We've never been to Celestia."

"I have a map," Lyra said, smiling. "It's an old map, but it should be usable." She obviously couldn't pull it out right now, but during her research she had found a map of how Celestia had looked when it had still allegedly been inhabited. She'd had it copied by a professional cartographer. She didn't know exactly how old it was, but she hoped it would at least be a little accurate.

"Ya gotta map? Good. I honestly never thought tha city actually existed. I heard several reports from other flyin' mount units o' tha Guard, but just never believed 'em." Jacob says not looking back as he steers Eysseth through clouds and Loftwings. Eysseth roars at a passing Wind Drake that flies in the opposite direction obviously running away from the Wyvern.

Lightning crashes behind Eysseth as all the other animals quickly fly away. "Shit. Where'd this storm come from? Let's get above tha clouds. Come on Eysseth. Yah!" Eysseth powerfully flaps her wings gaining altitude quickly as lightning goes off all around the Wyvern and her riders. Heavy rain starts falling. "This is horrible. Come on Eysseth. Almost there!" With one last flap of her wings Eysseth breaks the cloud layer.

Blue sky shines above in a cloud less sky with a layer of clouds stretching out below them. "...Oooookay then. This is different. Never been up this high." A large chunk of flying land can be seen in the distance. "That might be it. Let's go Eysseth."

Eysseth looks to the flying island. Seems...familiar. Something important... Eysseth's eyes narrow. Argorok... Eysseth growls to herself quietly. Kokiri...Lyra was it?...we need to be careful.

"Argorok?" Lyra repeated, turning to her Fairy. "What's an Argorok, Hector?"

Hector seemed to think for a second, but then shook. "I think I heard something about that back in town. A few adventurers were talking about it... One was a Rito claiming to have hands-on experience with it. From what I understand it's a dragon-like monster of quite some power... why do you ask, Lyra? Do you think we'll have to face one?"

"Eysseth says there's one in the city," Lyra answered, "Now I'm worried..."

It didn't take much longer until Eysseth landed next to a large container of water and Lyra dismounted. Checking her map, the Kokiri quickly pinpointed that they had landed at the remains of a pond. She couldn't see much more, though, before a strong gust of wind blew her off her feet and sent her tumbling almost into the now murky, disgusting water of the pond, and only through Hector's swift reaction was the map saved. "Is that natural?" she asked Hector, who shook from left to right.

"Definitely not. I'm getting bad vibes from this place Lyra... I think either the Argorok isn't the biggest of our problems or I'm mistaken on what it is..."

Eysseth and Jacob brace themselves against the wind. Eysseth growling the entire time. After the wind dies down she turns to Lyra who was in the water. Carefully she bites into Lyra's clothes and fishes her out of the pond. Not "an" Argorok. The Argorok. He is a fearsome dragon. Terrifying and powerful. Even as far as dragons go he is unbelievably cruel. He hunts my kind for sport and has devoured more Wyvern Hatchlings than years I am old and let's say that I wish I was your age.

Eysseth sets Lyra down next to the pond as a near deafening roar comes from the sky. Jacob and Eysseth both look to the sky as Jacob readies his sword and shield. The Wyvern has fear painted all over her face. With another roar Argorok swoops down from behind a large stone structure on a crash course with Eysseth.

Eysseth weakly roars fear sounding in even her voice as Argorok spews flames out of his mouth once he gets in range. Jacob jumps in front of Eysseth as quickly as he can crouching behind his shield. Jacob's shield takes a bit of the fire, but most of it still hits Eysseth burning her. Eysseth almost screams in pain as Argorok ends his fire breath still diving towards Eysseth. "Back off ma family ya over grown lizard!" Jacob inhales deeply and blows his own fire out of his mouth, yelling as he does so.

Argorok flies into Jacob's flames and roars a bit in pain before flying away a little burnt. "An' take that!" Jacob smirks before turning to Eysseth who is pretty burnt and obviously scared. "Eysseth! Eysseth are ya okay girl?" Jacob drops his sword and shield hugging his Wyvern tightly. "Lyra. I got some herbs that can soothe tha pain, but it ain't gonna do much more than that. Can ya heal 'er? She's tha only family I got left." Eysseth looks up to Jacob and tries to purr a bit. Jacob.

Eysseth helped Lyra out of the water and explained some things about Argorok while the Kokiri wringed the water out of her dress. "I see," she said to the Wyvern while Hector commented on how she was never going to keep her dress white whenever she ventured out of the house. "I apologize for-" she interrupted herself with a scream when the humongous dragon swooped down, focusing its attack on Eysseth. A second attack was held off by Jacob, who gave the monster a taste of its own medicine, but Eysseth was badly wounded.

Hector immediately flew over to the Wyvern, dancing in front of her face and expecting the damage. "It's not beyond your ability..." he said, "But I don't know if your magic works on animals..."

"I've healed Lizalfoses before," Lyra said, "If I can heal monsters, a Wyvern should be fine." She resolutely walked over to Eysseth, gently stroking her nose before taking her staff in both hands and holding it between herself and the part of the Wyvern that was burnt the worst. Shutting her eyes and concentrating, she cast her Life spell with such power that it covered Eysseth's entire body in white healing light.

Being specialized in the use of the spell, it didn't take so much power that it would cripple Lyra for the rest of the day, but Hector still winced upon seeing it. "Lyra, that took almost a quarter of your mana..."

"I don't care. Are you okay now, Eysseth?"

Jacob smiles a very big smile and hugs Eysseth as tightly as he can. "Eysseth. Thank Din an' thank you Lyra. Eysseth's tha only family I got left. I don't know what I'd do wit'out 'er. Thank ya Lyra. Thank ya so much." Eysseth stands up inspecting herself. She is fully healed. She smiles as best she can at Lyra and nuzzles the small Kokiri gently with her nose purring very loudly. Yes. Thank you Lyra. I am in your debt. Although I am terrified of Argorok I will not stop until we get the item you are after here. I give you my word. Eysseth carefully picks the Kokiri girl up and sets her on the saddle where Jacob usually sits.

Jacob smiles before retrieving his sword and shield. "Seems Eysseth's taken a likin' ta ya Lyra. Took me ferever ta get 'er ta do that wit me." She weights a hell of a lot less than you Jacob. D-I-E-T. Say it with me Di-et. Jacob and Eysseth laugh for different reasons as Jacob sheaths his sword and looks around. Stone structures that used to be buildings lay in ruins around a courtyard sort of area overgrown with plants and weeds from many, MANY years of misuse. "Ya got any ider where this thing yer lookin' fer is Lyra?"

Lyra couldn't help but laugh at Eysseth's thanking her for the healing. To Lyra, it didn't mean much- she was a healer, she was supposed to help people and beasts in need of treatment. She could understand that the Wyvern would be grateful though, and patted her neck as she was put on her back.

"I have a suspicion," she said in reply to Jacob's question, as she took the map to hand once more. Hector had managed to catch it when Lyra had been thrown off her feet by the strong winds, so it was perfectly unharmed. "Do you see this?" She leaned forward, holding the map in such a way that Jacob, too, would be able to see it. She pointed at a small, square chamber in the far North, on the third floor. The only way to it was a large, circular chamber at the end of a series of courtyards, rooms and hallways, especially from where they were in the center of the first floor.

"I've read up on Celestia," she said, "And I believe this to have been a chapel. The ancient civilisation that used this place as their home was not as familiar with magic as we are now, so items like the one I'm looking for would probably have been kept in a safe place... and what could possibly be safer than under the watchful eyes of the gods?" Nothing could. It was the logical place to put a potentially dangerous, magic-related item, if she understood the logic of the former inhabitants properly.

"With Argorok around, though, I don't think it's a wise idea to just fly up to the third floor," Hector thought out loud. "Maybe we should look for a more under-the-radar way to get up, first."

Jacob strokes his mustache in thought as he looks at the map and listens to Lyra. "Aye. Yer right. That'd be tha first place I'd put somethin' like that. Yeah. I don't think Eysseth's gonna be flyin' anywhere. Ain't seen 'er scared like that in many years." Jacob firmly holds his sword in his hand as he walks ahead of Eysseth, which isn't hard when he naturally walks faster than the lumbering Wyvern, checking anything and everything. Little does Jacob realize the family of Helmasaurs he is about to disturb who don't like unwanted company in their territory.

Inside a broken and roofless building a Helmasaurus munches peacefully on grass as her four Helmasaur babies play with each other around the ruined building. The Helmasaurus looks up from the grass she was happily eating only moments ago as she hears a noise outside of the building. Through a crack in the wall she sees a Hylian with a sword and shield drawn. Something is invading her territory and could attack her babies. The Helmasaurus readies to charge the invader.

Jacob stops dead in his tracks. "Eysseth. Stand back." Jacob says his eyes narrowing at he focuses his vision on a ruined building in front of him crouching behind his Mirror Shield. Eysseth backs up a bit not taking her eyes off of Jacob as the Helmasaurus bursts through a wall of the building that Jacob had his eyes fixed on. "SHIT!" Jacob barely rolls out of the way of the beast's first charge. The Helmasaurus turns around as quickly as it can and prepares to charge again roaring at Jacob.

When Jacob told his steed to stand back, Lyra redirected her attention to the same point the Hylian had. Before even the pattering of Helmasaurus feet reached her ears, though, she heard a battle cry. "Chaaaaarge!" With that single word, the black-helmeted beast charged forth from the ruined building, its relatively short, stumpy legs going back and forth ridiculously quickly to propel it forward.

Jacob succeeded in dodging the first charge, but was on the ground when the beast prepared a second one. It skidded to a halt, turning around and roaring at the Hylian. "You will not touch MAH BABIES!"

"Wait!" Lyra shouted, both to Jacob and to the Helmasaurus. The beast turned its head, blinking. Lyra supposed it wasn't daily that it met a two-legger capable of understanding it. "What's this about your babies?" The Helmasaurus growled, although it was clearly not a hostile growl. In that single sound, it explained its reasons for attacking to Lyra. "Oh, we're not going to hurt them! We're looking for something, we don't intend to hurt anyone." The Kokiri turned to her companion. "Sir Temple... She has four children. You won't hurt them, right?"

"Wait!" Jacob glances over to Lyra his shield and sword still ready to counter attack if need be. The Helmasaurus had also seemed to have taken notice of the Kokiri looking over at her. "What's this about your babies?" Jacob looks confused, but keeps his eyes on both Lyra and the Helmasaurus letting Lyra keep doing whatever she is doing. The Helmasaurus growls at Lyra causing Jacob to ready his shield for another attack. "Oh, we're not going to hurt them! We're looking for something, we don't intend to hurt anyone." The Kokiri turns to Jacob. "Sir Temple... She has four children. You won't hurt them, right?"

Jacob lowers his sword, but keeps his shield up. This all makes sense now. Jacob thinks to himself. The Helmasaurus is attacking a believed threat to her children. Eysseth has done that to me countless times. "No. I will not attack yer children unless they attack me first." Jacob lowers his shield sheathing his sword. "I mean the youngins no harm."

The Helmasaurus, not fully knowing whether or not to trust the Kokiri and the armed man, glared at both while she walked back to her nest. Unable to walk backwards, she finally turned her gaze away from the two-leggers as she reached the wall she had burst forth from, going back into the building to check on her babies.

Lyra heaved a relieved sigh when the beast disappeared. "Are you okay, Sir Temple?" She dismounted Eysseth, assuring herself that Jacob was not in need of any healing, and walked up to a different building, comparing the layout of the place they were at to her map. She then turned the map, so that the building in front of her lay North on it, and put her hand on the door. "I think we'll need to be here," she said, "Or at least go through here."

The wind picked up again, although Hector didn't panic, so Lyra assumed with was not Argorok this time. The dragon was probably still licking its wounds somewhere, and the strong winds here were natural. That would make sense, considering how high up they were. Lyra just hoped the wind wouldn't turn out to be their worst enemy yet. She inspected the door, but couldn't find out how to open it. "Please don't be blocked..."

Jacob sighs as the Helmasaurus returns to the building that it burst from. "Well that coulda gone a lot worse. Glad yer here Lyra. I know tha feelin' o' losin' family. Even though I don't know if they'll understand tha same way that I do I'm glad ya stopped me from killin' it. I'm good thank ya fer yer concern."

Both Jacob and Eysseth look to the sky as the wind blows hard again. Eysseth bears her teeth. "I don't think it's tha dragon, girl. Just some wind. Pretty strong wind, but just wind." Jacob braces himself against the wind as he tried to reassure his Wyvern. As the wind dies down a bit Jacob looks over to Lyra and the door.

"Please don't be blocked..." Jacob looks down to the bomb bag tied to his hip and smirks. Jacob lays his shield down by Eysseth and walks over to Lyra. "Lyra. It may just be locked. An' lookie here. I found a key." Jacob says putting one hand on Lyra's shoulder and tossing an unlit bomb into the air and catching it with his free hand. "I'll get us in there. May wanna warn tha Helmasaurus 'bout tha bomb. Just so she don't take it as a threat an attack us." Eysseth walks over holding Jacob's shield in her mouth. What's going on?

Jacob pulls unlit bombs out of his bomb bag and starts setting them up in front of the door ready to breech it.