"Link, stop arguing! After getting over a cold, I really think you should take a break and just ride on the ship with us!" Tetra yelled at me for the thousandth time today.

I had just gotten over a cold – just a cold – a little bit ago and just convinced her to continue traveling. "Come on, I wasn't that sick to begin with!" I had convinced her to do that, but had not convinced her to let me continue sailing in my boat. Instead, she's been insisting on – actually, it's getting to the point of forcing – me to ride with her and her crew in the pirate ship that I normally sailed next to.

Tetra sighed and grabbed me by the neck of my shirt, shaking me back and forth – and she didn't want me sailing? "Listen, you stubborn boy! If you get sick again, while we're sailing, we won't be able to stop in time to help you! In case you've forgotten, our ship can't stop as fast as your boat!"

Just as I was about to say something else to further continue this really pointless argument – I know she's right – Tetra's trusted first mate, Gonzo, walked into my hotel room.

"Miss Tetra, the ship's ready to sail." Gonzo said happily.

Tetra smirked and let go of me. "Perfect timing, Gonzo. Can you take Link here to my cabin on the ship?"

"M-Miss?"

"Just do it!"

Gonzo nodded and lifted me up over his shoulder. He walked away, ignoring my yells to "put me down right now!" After a moment, seeing as it was futile to resist, I settled down and looked around at the familiar islanders staring at me like I was crazy.

This place, actually everywhere we've traveled the past few days – save the days I was sick – was familiar for me. Sure, it's been over a year since I've been to any of the 49 islands in the area, but there's still that familiarity in the air, especially here. And why shouldn't there be? After all, this was the first island I came to after I left my home island of Outset – okay, the second, but I don't really count the Forsaken Fortress – the small island shop community of Windfall.

I sighed as the memories of those violent days flew passed my mind again. It seemed to be only yesterday that Tetra and I – who are, strangely enough, the reincarnations of Princess Zelda and Link, the Hero of Time – were called upon our duties as the chosen ones to take down the man who threatened our land the same way he had another many years before. His name was Ganondorf, and he was the very evil that had taken down a kingdom that was once where our beautiful seas are now. The only ones alive today who know of the fate of that kingdom – which is named Hyrule – are Tetra and myself. We never shared the knowledge of the now drowned kingdom, for simple fear of someone being stupid enough to try and release Ganondorf from his stone coffin.

Gonzo jumped onto the ship and walked into the brig/captain's quarter's area. He dropped me in Tetra's room and looked at Niko, (AKA: My boss-type-person). "Make sure he doesn't leave this room. Miss Tetra wants him to ride along with us for a while."

Niko nodded. "Will do."

Hmm… I could probably take this situation to my own advantage. Just as I was thinking of a way to escape to my boat – who I still fondly call the King of Red Lions, though the former king of Hyrule's spirit no longer dwells there – I felt the "gossip stone" in my back pocket vibrate. I sighed and pulled the stone out of my pocket, holding it eye-level by its string.

"Don't get any ideas Link." Tetra said sternly through the stone. "If you escape, Niko will be the one taking the blame. Don't forget that. I understand you and Niko are buddies, so I know that you wouldn't do anything stupid if I blamed him." She laughed. "See you in a bit."

I put the stone back into my pocket as it stopped shining – an indication that Tetra was done talking to me. I gritted my teeth and lay down on Tetra's bed. I can't believe this! Me, the Hero of Wind, whipped by the reincarnation of a princess whose name isn't even mentioned in the legends of Hyrule that were passed down on Outset! This is pathetic!!

I'm not sure how long I stared at the ceiling of the cabin, plotting my revenge, but soon enough I was asleep.

…

"Link…" Tetra's voice leaked into my dreams, and I wanted it to go away so I just ignored it and tried to block her out. "Link…!" Ignoring her… "LINK! Wake up, you lazy bum!!"

By the Gods, one of these days…! I reluctantly opened my eyes and sat up. "What? I was asleep."

"I know you were asleep, but you need to get up now." Tetra said with her hands on her hips.

"Are you tired?" I asked, yawning.

"Tired? No. I actually just came to tell you that you really need to come up onto the deck now."

I stood up and stretched. "Have we reached Outset?" I know we're on a large ship and all, but that'd be a little fast.

"No, we haven't." Tetra got a serious look on her face, one I haven't seen in at least a year. "We were actually passing one of the Triangle Islands and stopped because we knew that you needed to see this."

"What is it?"

Tetra bit her bottom lip. "I cannot explain it." She looked at me. "Just come on."

I followed Tetra to the deck of the ship and to the right side. She pointed down to the island. "There. Can you see it?"

I looked where she was pointing and saw the statue of the Goddess Din sliced off at the waist. The upper part of the statue lay uselessly on the ground, the pearl – Din's Pearl – was gone. "W-What happened?"

"I don't know. None of us do." Tetra looked over at Gonzo, who was standing next to the mailbox on the beach of the island. "We had Gonzo slip a note inside the mailbox, knowing that it would take itself directly to Dragon Roost Island. It requests for them to send a couple of their bird-men to us immediately."

As soon as Tetra finished speaking, two of the Rito flew up to us and landed of the deck of the ship. Both of them I recognized, Komali, the Chieftain's son, and Quill, the postman for the southern region. Tetra and I faced the two Rito.

"You sent that note, I assume." Quill said with his arms crossed over his chest, as usual.

Tetra nodded. "Yes."

"May I ask, why?"

She pointed back out to the statue. "That's why."

Quill and Komali looked out at the statue. Komali gasped and said, "That's…Din's statue!"

Quill looked at Komali. "Are you sure?"

Komali nodded. "Yeah, Din's Pearl, the pearl I gave to Link a year ago, had the same symbol as the statue!"

"Hmm…" Quill thought for a moment and then faced Tetra again. "I'm assuming that you called us here to investigate the other two Goddess's statues."

Tetra nodded. "Yes. If the same thing happened to those statues as well, then I fear something might've happened elsewhere." She looked at me and I understood what she meant.

I looked at my left hand, the triforce of courage was still there, and I knew the triforce of wisdom of still with Tetra. If something happened to the three pearls of the Goddess's then maybe – hopefully it's just maybe – something happened to Hyrule.

Quill nodded. "Okay then. We'll keep you informed, you can continue to sail. Where will you be heading?"

"Outset Island." I said quickly.

Komali nodded. "Then I'll probably report to you first. I'll go check Southern Triangle Island, Nayru's statue."

"Then that leaves me with Eastern Triangle Island." Quill looked at me and nodded before him and Komali flew off towards the two islands.

Tetra turned and looked back at Gonzo, who was right behind her – I never figured out when he got back on the ship. "Keep sailing towards Outset."

Suddenly, it occurred to me how off course we were. It should've been a beeline to Outset from Windfall, so why were we here…? I decided to ask Tetra about it.

"Hmm? …I'm not entirely sure why I took this detour. I just felt something pulling me towards this place." She winked at me. "Don't worry about it. We'll be at your precious island soon enough."

I smiled and followed her up to the wheel, Gonzo steering. The rest of the crew went about their work, keeping the ship on course. We really weren't too far away from Outset; we'd be there by nightfall. Yes, I couple of times I had to use the Wind Waker to keep the wind on our side – come to think of it, that's one of the only items from those days that I still use – but aside from that, we made good time and Outset was on the horizon as the sun began to set.

"Miss Tetra, do you see that?" Gonzo asked when we all saw a large cloud of smoke rising from the island.

Tetra's face hardened. "Yes, I see it."

I smiled. "I almost forgot about that!"

Gonzo and Tetra both looked at me like I was insane. "Huh?"

I looked at them, smiling widely. "It's the festival to celebrate the Hero of Time! I missed it last year, it'll be so cool for you guys to be there!"

"You have a bon fire?" Tetra asked as her face softened.

"Yeah!"

Tetra smiled just a little until we got closer to the island, that's when my smile faded. It seemed…

"Isn't that a little too much smoke for a bon fire?" Tetra asked seriously, almost demandingly.

I gaped at the amount of smoke. It was as if the island itself had been on fire. Yes, it was way too much smoke! Tetra must've seen my face, because she suddenly said:

"Gonzo, increase speed quickly! We need to see what's going on, on that island!"

"Yes ma'am." Gonzo began to shout for the crew to increase speed as quickly as humanly possible.

With the large increase in speed, we reached Outset in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, what we saw, I'll never forget.

We stopped just off the shallows of Outset, as close as Tetra wanted the ship to the flames bursting from the island. Even as far from the shore as we were, I could feel the heat from the flames burning my island. My mouth hung open, but I had nothing to say. Everything in my body screamed for me to jump into the water and swim onto the island to find any possible survivors…but I knew that I would find no one.

Behind me, Tetra and Gonzo were talking to quickly for my brain to process right now. All I could think about was my family and friends that I'd left behind, who were all gone. The only thing that got through to my mind was when someone yelled:

"Over there, there's a girl!"

I ran over to the person and looked where he had pointed, seeing Aryll, my sister, floating on a piece of wood towards us. I grabbed the rope that kept the King of Red Lions attached to the ship and released it. My boat fell onto the water with a splash and I jumped down into it. I shook off the initial shock in my legs quickly and went over to Aryll. I picked her up out of the water and into my boat.

Once I was near the pirate ship again, Tetra and the rest lowered some ropes down and hauled me back up.

Tetra glared at me. "You idiot! You never learn! Like I've told you before, if you keep running into situations without thinking, you'll get yourself killed!"

I growled at her after I told Gonzo to take Aryll to Tetra's quarters – she didn't say anything against me. "That was my sister, what do you expect me to do?!"

Tetra sighed. "Forget it! But, listen; she was really pale. I'm not sure how long she was in the water, or if she sustained any burns. Regardless, you better pray to the Gods that one of our Rito friends has some medical skills, otherwise your sister will be dining with the Gods."

I knew what she said was true, but I tried to ignore it as I ran to my sister to check on her. No, no, she can't die! She's the last of my family. I'm sure the fire killed my grandmother, my parents died years ago when Aryll was still a baby, so I can't lose the only person left.

Gonzo looked at me as I entered the room. His face was grim. "We can't do anything." He looked down at Aryll when I approached. "She's still alive, but not for long."

I fell to my knees.

"I'll go tell Miss Tetra of this." Gonzo left.

This isn't happening. My home is gone, my friends are gone, my island is burning, and the last of my family is slipping away. Why are the Gods being so cruel? Who could be so heartless as to burn this innocent island? Who?

…

Next Time;

Heartless Threat:

To find the one who destroyed Outset, Link and Tetra must return everywhere they once visited. That could very well include Hyrule.