I glance back at Link, Midna, and Fi, who all remained in the safe zone while I grabbed the first ‘Air Crystal’. Now I have three to get, Link has four, Midna has three, and Fi has four. Then we’ll receive the real crystal. After that, we’ll kick Ghirahim’s sorry ass and get back the Twilight Mirror.

Link nods, and starts climbing the ladder of the Light Tower. I remember there being one on top, so he’s already headed towards a step in the right direction. Midna takes a little longer, watching Link climb the tower. Eventually she closes her red eyes, then opens them with a new look of determination. She darts out and rockets towards the graveyard. Finally, Fi glides through the cool air towards the Knight’s Academy, where a crystal floats on the path.

We’ve already gotten one, so this will be easy. And the Guardians probably won’t wake up if we keep collecting them at this rapid pace, unless someone stupid enough falls into the light of a Watcher’s lantern. Then we’ll all have to scramble because we’ll all be chased by Guardians at any given time.

I see a small flash of light from the top of the Light Tower, so I assume Link got it. I should probably get going and stop wasting precious time.

Another small dim light shines from the stairs of the Bazaar, so I run down the path and up the stone steps carved from the wall. As I expected, another crystal is here. They’re all identical: clear with the same yellow hue and small air bubble with gold wind swirling and spiraling about. Gathering the crystal, I start again.

A light flashes from the graveyard, so I guess Midna found one. As I turn to find more, the sky changes from blue to orange, and I hear clanking of heavy metal coming towards me. Blood pumps in my ears, and a cool sweat covers my palms. I see the Watcher that looks over the graveyard go berserk, so I know Midna stepped into the light—she underestimates things too often.

Another Guardian flies at me with twin scimitars, and swings wildly about. My legs start to pump, and I try to find another crystal. Right then, I hear a scream, and I momentarily pause. Everything keeps going, so I assume no one’s dead. It sounded like Link, but he couldn’t have been caught by a Guardian—he’s Link!

A small glint from the path below lets me know Fi got a crystal. The sky changes, and the sounds of the Watcher’s rusty lanterns echo through the realm. Fi nods at me from below, and continues on.

More flashes of collected crystals come from the houses built into the hills next to the graveyard; and the bridge crossing the stream, where I see Link running to. I guess he’s alright.

A third flash comes from the roof of the Academy, so I think Fi got that. I continue running to find another crystal, after getting distracted by all the pretty lights. Fake crystals surround the Bazaar, so I grab another one overhanging the edge of the building.

Because I run so fast at it, I collect the crystal, then fall off the ledge before I can come to a halt. I yelp, and my body makes a dull thump as I hit the grass about ten feet below. Ouch...

Raising myself, I begin to brush off all the dirt and get going, but a light blinds me like I’ve looked at the sun. When I look up, I hiss in a breath. I lay at a Guardian’s feet, with a lantern’s light beaming down at me from a Watcher just next to it.

The eyes of the ethereal warrior light up, and he raises his giant sword. I hustle to find footing, but mainly just claw at the ground as I maniacally attempt to get up. The halberd comes down, and I fall flat from the shake emanating throughout the ground. To my surprise, the weapon is not even an inch away from me.

In the polished surface, I can see my scared wide eyes reflecting back at me, and a good chunk of my hair has been hacked off. Now that my bangs are only half the length of usual, I get my thoughts straight and catapult forward into a sprint.

About five seconds into my endurance run, the light turns blue and peaceful again. Someone must have found a crystal. A corresponding glow comes from the cobblestones that cross the lake near the edge of Skyloft, and then a second one in the field behind the Knight Academy.

Wow, I’m moving slowly. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that people who get caught by Watchers are stupid. More like, whoever falls and is winded, while a Watcher just happens to be standing below, no doubt stalking her and waiting for her anticipated fall.

Yeah, that’s how it goes.

Enough with my excuses, I need to start focusing. If I’m correct, I have one more to get, Midna has one more, Link has one more, and Fi has one. Small lights flicker from the stairs leading up to the Statue of the Goddess, so I guess Fi has found her fourth, and should be heading back to our rendezvous near the Light Tower.

From the corner of my eye, I see a small floating imp grab one from the end of the stones crossing the lake. She smiles and waves at me, then starts floating towards the Light Tower. I wave back, and see Link running towards one at the peak of the hill that the houses are built into.

My last crystal is one of the trickier ones. It’s on one of the ramshackle wooden bridges below the island that look like they’ll collapse. I hesitantly climb down about twenty feet to the bridge, and immediately my hands start shaking. I don’t have a fear of heights per se, but it would be nerve-wracking to anyone.

Balanced precariously on the wooden beams holding up the bridge, is the Air Crystal—one of the fifteen that is. I get down on my knees and reach out towards it, but of course my arm isn’t long enough. Licking my dry lips, I stretch out more, and try not to look down.

Too late. Even if all I see is blue clouds miles and miles below me, my breath catches and I gasp. Reaching my arm out more seems impossible. I’ll have to climb across this damn beam.

Crawling onto the beam almost gives me more stress than my diploma exams. The whole beam is another ten feet long, with the crystal at the very end, of course. I must have been stupid to try and reach for it. Well, we learn something new every day—like how our arms can’t reach ten feet away. I bet no one else knew that.

Sadly, the beam is only a foot wide. A single foot wide. I may have a slim figure, but that is insane. My legs shake as I shimmy forwards, and I grip the sides so hard my knuckle turn white.

Because my leg shakes, my foot loses grip and falls off the edge. My nails scrape the wood as I fall off, suspended by one leg and my arms (barely), above who knows how far below Hyrule’s surface.

For about thirty seconds, I evaluate my pathetic state. Both my arms are bear hugging the beam and the wood has scratched my left cheek and the bridge of my nose. My left leg hangs down, feeling nothing but the cold light wind pushing through my jeans, and my right heel of my sneaker hooked along the other side of the beam is the only thing keeping me from falling.

The memory of Ghirahim slashing through my Achilles tendon when I tried to take a bath resurfaces the moment I feel and hear a slight rip from my right heel; which is holding my full bodyweight. My mouth gapes in a silent wail, and it’s the pain of my heel that brings me back to reality.

I swing my left leg that is hanging around to the other side of the beam, so now I’m crawling...upside down. Inching forward, I do a weird sloth-like pull across to the crystal. It takes about a minute, but it feels like years. With my limited arm strength, I pull myself upright back onto the beam over the course of a few minutes, and bolt towards the bridge and up to land now that I’ve collected all my crystals.

When I start running, I see Link trying to get to the hardest crystal, which is surrounded by four Watchers, all of them shoulder to shoulder as they orbit around their treasure. A Guardian stands just next to him, on the other side of the Watcher’s circle. I remember trying to get to that tear in the game, and I got caught a fair few times by the Watchers, and never once made it without being seen.

“Link!” I yell. He looks at me, on my ledge. “Go when I say to!” Link nods and gets ready to charge. I carefully examine how the Watchers slowly drift in and out, in and out, in, out, in, out—

“Now!” I shriek, and Link leaps forward. He dives between the Watchers, and catches the final phony Air Crystal. As he raises his arms in victory, he stops and looks around.

“Why hasn’t the portal to our realm appeared to take us back?” Link cups his hands, and yells back.

“The trial isn’t over until we all get to the safe zone! Until then, it keeps going!” Link looks a little angry. “But you can’t get caught by Watchers now, because there will be no crystals to collect to stop them! If you get seen, run like hell!”

Link shifts his weight from one foot to the other, but just that alone changes everything. The Watcher’s light catches him, and waves around its bell to wake the Guardian.

Oh no.

The atmosphere turns a bright orange, I start running. Link stumbles back from the Guardian that lights up in front of him, and starts sprinting. The Guardians are quick, though.

It easily catches up to him, just on his tail. Every time it swings at him the Guardian slows down a bit, but always catches up. I run alongside Link on the ledge parallel to his while some other flying Guardian drifts towards me a ways away. I won’t have to worry about that one because it’s far away, but my thoughts are preoccupied with the one tailing Link.

Our two ledges eventually converge, and Link and I run next to each other. Link looks panicked, like he doesn’t know what to do—now the Guardian is chasing both of us.

It swings the halberd at us, and we both shriek and duck. My heel burns and I see the blood soaking my white sock, but Link pulls my arm so that I’m on my feet again and we continue racing from the Guardian. It puts the sword in front of itself like a lance to spear us. My heart starts pounding, and I look over at Link.

His sandy hair swipes over his forehead and falls into his cold blue eyes as he sprints, looking like a true hero. No wonder he was chosen by the Goddesses...

“Neri!” Link yells, and shoves me forward. My pace has slowed, mainly because I have been running and exerting myself this whole time. Not to mention the fact that my heel is burning and throbbing so much it’s going numb.

“Link! Neri!” Midna yells, at the base of the Light Tower, in the safe zone just beside the deck that drops off to the endless clouds. She waves her arms, her eyes widened in terror. Fi floats next to her, but looks tensed.

The rest happens in slow motion.

In a split second, the Guardian swings down the weapon right at my head, and it will hit its target. Link pushes me out of the way to the left, right into the safe zone.

I fall to the side and into the safe zone, and scream in horror as the sword now comes down on his head. He barely dodges to the side, and it slams into the rock next to the heel of his boot. The ground shakes. Link loses his balance and falls back, his eyes widening in terror. I stretch my hand out to grab his, but his eyes lock on mine as his body falls back away from the sword.

His lips mouth my name as he falls over the edge of Skyloft.