When Link dives into the Faron Woods area, he’s not given the usual choice of where he wants to go. Instead, a cutscene plays – as Link falls, he hears, then sees, Groose making his dramatic entrance back into the story. Groose doesn’t have a sailcloth, so he clings onto Link’s leg, trusting that Link’s will be able to slow both of them down. It does, but Groose doesn’t adjust his position, and that means Link can’t get into a good landing stance either, so they land with a thud (behind trees, with the shot of birds flying away from the disturbance). Why didn’t the rescue knights catch him? Why don’t they catch Link (when he doesn’t fly near the cloud barrier before disembarking so they’d have no chance)? Why do I ask these things when the answer is “that’s the way the game/story works”? I suppose I should be grateful he came by himself, no Cawlin or Stritch.
Groose recovers from his landing and goes straight to what he does best: blaming Link for his misery. Everything about the surface freaks him out, starting with the small birds and Gorko. He turns to Link for answers. He’s noticed Link has been skipping in and out of Skyloft, so this last time he thought he’d follow Link, who’d lead him to Zelda. (Only, the last time Link was in Skyloft, he was getting his shield repaired mid-Lanayru Mining Facility [1], then went back to the dungeon. I guess the game doesn’t expect you to go straight from a dungeon to the next story bit.) Once Groose calms down a bit and stops shaking Link, Link explains everything. It’s still a lot to take in, but Groose is relieved to hear Zelda’s okay, and starts to like the surface, so much he decides it needs a name: Grooseland.
Definitely recovered now, Groose decides that he can take over the quest, and Link’s part is done. He heads off to the temple to talk with the old woman, while Link stays behind to talk to Gorko. Gorko’s learned that there are walls and statues that respond to music. They appear where a group of Blessed Butterflies gather. The statues pop out of the ground with a “boing-oing!” and speak a strange language – Gossip Stones, although Gorko doesn’t know that name. As for the walls, apparently items the Hero needs will appear to him, but that’s all Gorko knows for now.
In the Sealed Temple, the old woman is explaining to Groose that he’s not the hero. Groose figures she means it’s Link and sputters his doubts about that and runs off screaming. The old woman explains that there’s only one way to reach Zelda now, and it requires the harp. She teaches Link to play, first a simple tutorial, then teaching him the first song he’ll need to learn, the Ballad of the Goddess. The song summons a Gate of Time in the Sealed Temple, but it’s still dormant.
Her explanation is cut short when the temple starts shaking. The Gate of Time weakened the seal in the Sealed Grounds, and Link and the old woman go outside to check on it. As Link approaches, black tendrils emerge from the seal, and finally the black worm fully emerges from the ground (with the Sealing Spike still in its forehead), finally identified as the Imprisoned, and starts walking up the slope toward the temple. (This seems to be a time limit for the fight; I assume bad things happen if it actually makes it.) It has huge white growths on its feet, and Link can attack them. When they’re all destroyed, the Imprisoned falls over backward, and Link can use his sword to drive the Sealing Spike into its head. After this is done, the Imprisoned gets back up and slithers on its belly up the slope for a while, before getting up and walking again. Link needs to repeat the full process twice; the third time is more complicated because every step the Imprisoned takes sends out shockwaves.
After the spike is driven in three times, the Imprisoned is returned to the seal, and the Sealing Spike hovers over until Link returns to restore the seal, finishing with a cool flourish. The old woman joins Link down by the seal, congratulating him on his victory, but she knows it’s only temporary. They return to the temple, where she tells Link that he needs to power up his sword by gathering sacred flames from the three surface regions before he can awaken the Gate of Time. The clues Link needs are in the lyrics to the Ballad of the Goddess, which someone in Skyloft will know. Throughout all this, Groose was afraid when the earthquakes signaled the Imprisoned’s impending escape, then looked on in stunned silence after the seal was restored. Having seen Link in action, he figures he’s been wrong about him, and he might be up to the task… leaving him feeling useless. As Groose walks away to think about everything, the old woman says that she knows Groose can help, he just doesn’t know how yet.
Out behind the temple, Gorko has found a convergence of the butterflies, and Link plays his harp to summon a gossip stone. This one’s pretty useless, simply reiterating the whole butterfly thing, but it’s a freebie, and Link got a treasure when the gossip stone popped up, so, hey, neat. I’ve given the game a hard time for handholding and Fi’s… everything, but I like how they use Gorko. Difference between good and bad tutorial writing, I suppose. (Despite it all, I still like Fi, although that’s mostly the fact that Hyrule Warriors was able to write to her strengths while downplaying the Captain Obvious bits and moving the tutorials entirely to pop-up text.)
Next: Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been?
[1] I’ve got no idea how it got so damaged. I only used it against the Sentrobes, and the timing there is pretty easy.
