#y'all asked for my wind fish heacanons like a month ago and here i am finally delivering

[midzelink]

Marin and the Wind Fish

We are all familiar with the story of the Hero of Legend - the story of a boy who, upon heeding the call of a mysterious voice that came to him in a dream, was thrust into a dangerous adventure to save all of Hyrule from the impending threat of the resurrection of Ganon at the hands of the evil wizard Agahnim.  In the end, he was successful - but this was only the beginning of his long journey, as he shortly thereafter found himself in the distant kingdoms of Holodrum and Labrynna, where he faced an entirely new set of challenges.  And when all was said and done and he set out to return to Hyrule by sea, he fell victim to a stormy night, crashing upon the shores of the mysterious island of Koholint, where he was found and tended to by local songstress and dreamer, Marin.

Of course, we know that Koholint and its inhabitants are only an illusion - an illusion dreamed up by the Wind Fish, a large, flying whale with a penchant for music, trapped in a never-ending dream of his own creation by the Nightmares.  But what we do not know is who exactly the Wind Fish is, or why he fell into such a slumber in the first place.  To answer that question, we must look to the past - and so now, for the purposes of which I am writing here today, allow me to tell you a story:

Long, long before the Wind Fish was lost to the realm of dreams - before the kingdom of Hyrule was founded, before Demise crept up from the earth and the millennia-old cycle of hatred began - the world enjoyed an era of peace, ruled over by Her Grace, Hylia, the Goddess of Light.  She was a benevolent and loving goddess - or so they say - watching over the land of mortals from the comfort of Her own realm in the heavens.  However, She frequently found Herself leaving the comfort of Her world to walk amongst the very land She protected, as it was full of delights and surprises the likes of which Her own world could never offer.  It was there where she would inevitably meet her Chosen Knight - a courageous young man by the name of Link - but before the world had need of Heroes, on one such journey to the realm below, Hylia found yet another gift: the gift of song.

It came to her carried on a gentle breeze, the sound of plucked strings and the voice of a young woman like a choir of angels accompanying it.  It was unlike anything She had heard before, and so enamored with the sound did She become that the Goddess saw it fit to keep her close, to learn more about this thing the mortals called “music.”  And so it came to pass: the young woman became as a Minstrel for the Goddess of Light, and in exchange she was given a gift of her own - a Crimson Loftwing - so that she might travel freely between the heavens and the realm of mortal men.

Many years passed with the Minstrel in Hylia’s court, and with the aid of her newly found feathered friend, she traveled farther and wider than she had ever dreamed she could, performing for people the world over.  She wrote countless songs for countless hearts: songs for the Six Great Sages of the Land of Hylia, songs that evoked vivid, profound images of lush, green forests and vast, deep oceans. She even wrote a song for her Loftwing, and it became the means between which the two found one another, no matter how far apart they might have been.  And of course, as was befitting of a Minstrel in Her court, she wrote a song for Hylia Herself - a grand, sweeping movement that she called a ballad - and it became the Ballad of the Goddess, and it would come to be known by many, as she was so loved.

Indeed, she was beloved far and wide - but none loved her so much as the Great Spirit of the Sky, the leviathan of the heavens, Levias.  Long had he served as the protector of the skies, but never would he forget the day he first heard her song with his own ears, as it had so deeply touched him.  Before long, they became as dear friends, for she so loved the way he accompanied her songs with his own enormous, bellowing voice, like the sound of harmonious thunder splitting the sky, and he in turn grew fond of her kindness, and of her curiosity.  And then she did what she was often wont to do - she wrote him a song, and he adored it in full.

Over time, the Minstrel became like a goddess in her own right: a Goddess of Song, whose moving melodies could change night into day and heal the weary of their wounds.  Hylia soon fashioned an instrument of her own after hers - the Goddess Harp - and it would come to play an important role in the fate that would soon befall the land, for peace is a fleeting and fickle thing, and not something to be taken for granted.  A great scourge monsters would rise up from the earth, and in the coming months Hylia would formulate a plan: a plan involving a Chosen Knight, a Legendary Sword, and - with the help of Her Minstrel - a song fit for a hero.

Of course, we, too, know the rest of this story; this is the story of the Hero of Sky, who tempers the Goddess Blade to its Master state, and with the help of the power of the Old Gods and a reincarnated Hylia, is at last able to defeat the great evil known as Demise.  And we know Levias, too - a behemoth of a sky deity who watches over Skyloft for thousands of years, protecting his own piece of the Song of the Hero, one final gift from his most beloved friend.  We know that he fulfills his duty, and, in time, the residents of Skyloft leave their skyward home and make for the Surface, where they go on to establish the Kingdom of Hyrule - and the seemingly endless cycle of heroes and villains begins.

And yet - whatever became of the Great Spirit of the Sky, who had watched over the heavens for so long?  It is true that, after Skyloft was abandoned, the skies were not completely void of life; we see it inhabited by the Wind Tribe who our Hero dons a talking hat, and perhaps the Loftwings themselves changed and evolved to become the Oocca we meet amidst the Twilight Invasion.  But throughout all of this, Levias is nowhere to be seen.  The absolute truth of the matter is that, after millennia of soaring the skies, with fewer and fewer to keep his company, the leviathan who so adored to sing grew painfully and painfully aware of two simple facts:

That he was incredibly, incredibly tired, but mostly...

...that he missed his dearest friend.

And so he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the Minstrel he had loved so dearly.  He dreamed of a town by the sea - no, an island - an island by the name of Koholint, and he populated it with a village of animals, talking animals, because animals were her favorite - and in his dream the Minstrel sang the song she had written for him: the Ballad of the Wind Fish, a name she had affectionately given them upon their first meeting, a name that had irreparably stuck - and he dreamed and dreamed till the Sky Spirit known as Levias was gone, and nothing but the Wind Fish remained - and that Minstrel’s name was Marin, and she was as captivating and gracious in the dream as she had been in life.

It is hard to say exactly when the Wind Fish fell asleep, but so rooted, so lost in the dream did he become that it eventually became much more than that, gaining a life all on its own, and allowing the Nightmares to take ahold of it.  Perhaps he had no one to blame for himself, seeking sanctuary in the imagined world of a dream, and staying there for much, much too long - but in the end, even he knew that the dream had to reach its conclusion, as it was a small piece of his own spirit who guided the Hero of Legend on the path to waking them both.  Perhaps, deep down, he knew that the Marin he loved would not have wanted to be trapped on an island with nowhere to go for all eternity - that the Marin he loved would have wanted to be free, to share her songs with all of the world...

But whatever became of the real Marin, the one upon which Levias based his dream?  Some inhabitants of Hyrule believe that the cycle of reincarnation affects all living things, not just the spirits of its great heroes and villains.  Legends say that, as the Knight had so loved the Goddess, so, too, had the Minstrel loved the Knight - and some even say that Crimson Loftwing he could be seen riding through the skies was Marin’s own.  It is not so hard to believe that, somewhere out there, she could be reunited with her noble steed - and that she could sing to her, as she always did.  Perhaps, in another time, in another life, she could still waiting for her Knight in shining armor to come and sweep her off her feet...