By the time that Sky was ready to get moving again, the sun was already high in the sky. It was nice to be able to sleep in for once. Usually the others would steal his pillow and bedroll if he didn't get up after the fifth or so time trying to wake him up. It was rather annoying. But even so, his rumbling stomach did still wake him sooner than he would have liked.

He took note to keep his eyes peeled for any kind of food. His net would be his best bet if he found birds again, or if he found water with fish. His bow would be good for small game. And, if he was lucky, maybe he'd find some fruit or something.

With that decided, he reached for his wooden and metal orthoses. He slid them on one by one before doing the leather buckles to keep his legs in place. Struggling a bit, he managed to slide them in his boots with a bit of force.

That settled, he stood up and took out his sword. "All right Fi, please show me where to go." he asked of her as he pointed her straight in front of him. She lit up, beginning to chime. He moved to point her in roughly the direction he had been heading before, but the chime slowed. "Wait, but wasn't I heading that way before?"

He frowned as he moved around in a circle. It wasn't until he was facing the way that he had come that the chime was the loudest. "So, it's a moving target..." he gathered with a sigh. He really did not like walking more than he needed to, that was for sure. But in any case, he gave a quick thank you to her before putting the sword away and beginning to backtrack.

「∆」

「∆」「▲」

"How is he?" Legend demanded as he pushed his way into Purah's quarters. He crossed his arms over his blue tunic as he walked over to the bed where Hyrule laid. He was even more pale than last night. Now his shirt had been removed and replaced with bandages, and a pile of blankets had been piled on him. At the same time, he appeared to be sweating, and in his slumber, his breathing was noticeably faster than normal.

"Not good." Wars replied, not looking away from the unconscious hylian. "He's lost a lot of blood. I keep changing his bandages, and it doesn't seem to be slowing any. Still not responding to anything I'm giving him, other than stamina potions. His temperature is dropping, and his heart rate is only getting faster. But he would have been much worse if you hadn't used your tunic as bandages last night. Good thinking."

If this was any other scenario, Legend would have made a comment about how Wars was actually complimenting him for once. But Hyrule was there, lying on what looking unnervingly like a deathbed at the moment. Not to mention, even if he did take the jab, he was afraid Wars would comment on his pink rabbit undergarments, which had been the only thing he had been wearing when they arrived. So instead, he gave a hum in understanding.

"Legend." Wars said as he turned at last to face the Veteran. "There's been something I've been mulling over all night. When you got here, you had a cut on your face. If you both were attacked by the same monsters, how come that healed when his cuts didn't?"

"Well, I..." Legend began, shifting his gaze to Hyrule. He looked less than peaceful, and he had to tear his gaze away to focus on Warriors instead. He didn't like the way his heart sank in his chest the more he looked at Hyrule. It reminded him of his uncle. And Marin. And--

"If there's anything you know that even has a chance of explaining things, we need to know." Wars encouraged. "It may give us the answer we need to save him."

As much as he hated to admit it, the Captain was right. "Well, he told me to not tell anyone, but," A sigh. This was a breach of trust, yet it seemed he had no choice. "He mentioned that he was half fairy. I don't really know what all that entails. He said he should have been able to heal himself, but he couldn't. Maybe it's something to do with that?" He explained as Warriors' eyes widened, then narrowed as he took in the information.

"I mean, maybe." he supposed, spinning his chair back around to study his patient with newfound eyes. "Was there anything else-- anything at all?"

"Not that I--" A pause in which it was Legend's turn for his eyes to go wide.

Wars turned back around, standing up now. "What? What is it?"

Legend reached for one of the necklaces that he kept hidden under his tunic. The small stone glittered in the light streaming in from the windows. "My moon pearl. I first got it to enter the Dark World. The dimension is filled with dark magic, and so if you don't have a pearl like this, you are changed into a new form. In other words, it protects against dark magic. Maybe it protected me this time, too?"

When Wars held out his palm, Legend was quick to take off the necklace and hand it over to him. The hylian studied it for a few moments before turning back to Hyrule yet again. "Do you think if I put it on him now that it'll help?" he asked.

"Not sure. It wouldn't hurt to try, at least." Legend hummed as he watched as Wars carefully put the necklace on Hyrule. But if it was going to help, it didn't show it immediately.

Just then, the door opened, and in walked Purah. "Oh hey, perfect timing Legend!" She grinned. Taking her hand out of her pocket, she took out a needle. "I need a sample of your blood. It's for, uh, research purposes."

「∆」

「∆」「▲」

By the time Sky took his first break, he was lucky enough to find an apple. One. If he had a proper dinner last night, it would have been good enough as a breakfast. Still, though, he was hungry. his stomach grumbled once again as a reminder. "I know, I know..." he complained as he once again rose to his feet. His legs protested the motion again, but thankfully not too much considering it was still early in the day.

He took out the Master Sword and checked where his mystery target laid this time. A bit more to the west this time, but thankfully still in the general direction he had been heading before. By the quick chimes, he could tell that he was getting fairly close now. He sighed in relief, hopefully it wouldn't be too long now. With that settled, he headed out.

He only walked for a few minutes before he stumbled across perhaps the strangest thing he had seen up here in the clouds. Laid on the ground, protected by carefully placed leaves was a steaming hot bowl of soup with a spoon. Steaming, of course, meaning that it had just been placed there. But other than that, there was no other evidence that someone had been there -- no camp, no put out fire, no nothing of the sort. "Uh-- hello?" Sky asked, blinking in confusion as he began looking around the trees and brush that somewhat circled the area. He cupped his hands as he called again, "Is anyone there?"

At the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a shadow pass. He quickly turned, but he found nothing there. He was alone then. Maybe.

He approached the spread out meal, taking up a stray stick so he could poke at the leaves to check for traps. Nothing. He discarded it as he sat down beside the bowl and picked it up. The scent of juicy meat and fresh cut vegetables filled his nostrils, making him all that much hungrier. He paused, considering if it was a good idea to eat some random bowl of soup he found lying around, but then shrugged. "Well, even if it's poisoned, I've survived Hyrule's cooking before." He mused with a chuckle. He took ahold of the spoon and took a taste.

Immediately, he felt the tension leave his shoulders. The smell hadn't been deceiving at all, unlike some of his companions' cooking. In fact, this had been the best meal that he had in weeks. He quick ate another spoonful, and another, and another. within five minutes, he had not only eaten it all, but had also scraped and licked it clean. He sighed as he set it down back where it had been before.

With his hunger solved, it only gave way to a new problem. The skyloftian held back his head with a yawn, stretching out his arms. "I always get tired on a full stomach." He hummed as he stretched his arms and legs as far as they could go, then laid down. "Well, I did wake up early today, anyway... A little nap won't hurt anyone." He grinned as he kicked off his shoes and took off his braces again. He allowed his eyes to flutter closed and drifted away into the sweet land of dreams.

「∆」

「∆」「▲」

Purah had tried to grab Legend's arm, but he quickly shooed it off and followed her instead. He wouldn't have agreed if it weren't for Wars, who clarified it was for something called a blood trans-something or rather. To move his own blood to Hyrule, which would help keep him stable for a while longer supposedly.

Purah had said she had some 'very important tests' to perform on him. He wasn't so sure if he trusted her with that silly grin on her face, especially after what she did with Sky. Still, as much as he'd hate to admit it, he would do anything for Hyrule currently.

She led him to a small lab that, much like the rest of the Landing, had been strewn together. It mostly looked like a wooden box of a room, with some lopsided chairs thrown in. Tables lined the walls, filled with all sorts of devices. In one corner sat a bookshelf filled to the brim with titles. He was surprised to see that everyone else, bar Wars, Hyrule and Sky, were already sitting in the chairs. Each one of them had one sleeve pulled up with a fabric tied just above their elbow.

"Hey Legend, hey Purah." Twilight greeted, waving his non-tied up arm.

"Oh, you're doing this to all of us?" Legend asked instead of replying. He paused in the doorway, but with a nudge she was able to convince him to go inside.

"Yeah, I don't get it either." Four admitted with a shrug, closing his violet eyes. "Where I come from, we just gave them milk."

"As in, made them drink milk, or injected it into them?" Twilight asked with narrowed eyes as the newcomer went to sit beside them.

"Injected it, of course." Four replied. "I read about it in a medical book once."

"But wouldn't you want to replace the blood with, you know, blood? Like from an animal or something?" Twilight blinked.

"Very observant, Twilight." Purah nodded to herself in delight. "In my studies, when I was trying to reverse aging, I studied hylian biology. I found that there are different types of blood, and if you combine types, it can cause more harm than good. Using animal blood is especially a bad idea." She shivered. "I keep a document of everyone's blood type here so if there's an emergency, we know who is able to give blood to the patient. We're already gathering people who matches Hyrule's blood, but there's only so much I can take from one person. Hence..." she gestured to them.

"And," Purah continued as he stared directly at Legend. She opened her fan to try and hide her grin, but her unnerving gaze gave her away. "I'd like to see if your blood has any special properties. Or none, which also would be rather special, actually."

A shiver went down Legend's spine as he realized she wanted to compare it to Hyrule's in particular. Of course she had already tested his. He shoved down his nerves though, and nodded. "Alright." he agreed, however reluctantly.

「∆」

「∆」「▲」

A poke. Sky refused to move in order to show his companions that he would not be stirred so easily.

Another poke to his cheek. Really? Usually they would at least moan and complain about how he wouldn't wake up after sleeping for eight full hours... as if that was even a lot. At home, he preferred ten at least. He let out an annoyed sound as he rolled over.

Another poke. "Stop it, guys..." he mumbled, waving them off. And it was precisely that moment that he remembered he was away from the others. That he was alone. Who was poking him then?

Curiosity stirred, causing him to open his eyes. Only mere centimeters away was a pair of blue eyes, so close he couldn't make out any more details. He jumped up, his entire body tensing before he fell back with a thump.

"Who are you?!" He asked as he quickly fought to sit back up. The teen sat there patiently, stick still in hand. With long unkempt locks of hair spilling over his shoulders and an old, dirtied exomis, Sky briefly wondered if this person lived up here, away from even the concept of civilization. However, the misty black prosthetic held in place and decorated with what looked to be an orangish gold metal was enough to suggest that the hylian wasn't completely alone here up in the clouds. 

The blonde pointed to himself using a finger from his prosthetic, tilting his head slightly. He began to move both of his hands out in front of him, but he didn't say anything. 

"Wait... You don't happen to be named Link, would you?" Sky asked before he could finish, something clicking into place. The teen gave a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head before he nodded. 

Oh. So that was what Fi sent him looking for then. That made sense, he supposed, with a slightly embarrassed chuckle of his own. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Link. My name is also Link, but you can call me Sky if that's easier." he couldn't help but smile. He felt tension ease from his shoulders as he gave a silent thankful prayer to his goddess. Once again, she had shown him the path, guiding him to what he had needed. With this new member, things were going to get a lot easier, so he thought.

「∆」

「∆」「▲」

Okay, okay... for context, yes, milk was used to replace blood at some point in history. 

There's a long history of finding the most effective way to replace blood. Replacing human blood with human blood causes all sorts of problems, like needing volunteers, needing various types and having a short shelf life. The concept of blood types wasn't discovered until 1901 I believe, and it seemed much easier to get blood from animals instead of humans. Of course, as we know now, it's very dangerous to mix blood types, so patients receiving blood often had their condition worsen. There were a lot of non-blood substitutes they tried, with milk being one of the most popular ones. It was used under the belief that it would support growth of white blood cells, and to their credit, early studies seemed to imply that it did help. Probably safer than goat blood, anyway. 

To this day, scientists are trying to find a more sustainable substitute for blood, but for now nothing is better than what we have now. 

Uhh-- I nerded out, sorry--