This chapter ends the fantasies arc. I will warn you now, this chapter has some slight lemon. Very slight. But if you absolutely despise lemons, close this window now. Lemons. I warned you.
Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah. Nintendo blah owns blah Zelda blah.
Tetra couldn't sleep that night. She spent all night tossing and turning, hoping that there was possibly another way to break free of her dream, then she just decided to sleep on it. But, then again, how could you really sleep in a dream? Tetra got up and sighed. She knew what had to be done, and she knew that it had to be done soon. But the very thought of what she planned to do sickened her, she couldn't bear to go through with it. But she had to.
She slowly took off her nightgown and put her regular clothes back on, wondering if this would be the last time she'll wear her pirate clothes again, and grabbed her sword. She took a deep breath, and went above deck.
The night sky was comforting, the moon shining down on Tetra. There were barely any clouds in the sky, and the only light that could be seen was the gentle light of the moon and stars. Tetra breathed in the fresh night air, savoring the taste. But she knew that it would all be over soon, that it was all a dream. A good dream, but a dream nonetheless.
Tetra sighed and leaned over the rails, just to see her reflection. She missed the sight of her own face, with no girly frills. She touched her face, feeling the roughness of her skin. She'll miss that when her face became smooth and perfect. Tetra shook her head trying to shake her thoughts, as it would only make her mission harder. She sat down on the rail, and waited.
Tetra didn't have to wait long, as her mother walked on deck in a few minutes. Tetra watched Clarisse stare at the stars for a moment, then spoke up. "Hello, mother," she said quietly.
Clarisse turned around, startled, but relaxed when she saw that it was only Tetra. "Oh, hello Tetra." She replied, "What are you doing up so late?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Tetra said softly.
Clarisse laughed. "That's true. I'm up here to look at the stars, they always calm a person down don't you think?"
"Not tonight," Tetra muttered. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Tetra dear?" Clarisse said worriedly, "Are you okay? Your eyes are watering."
"No, mother, I'm not okay." The tears were streaming down her face.
"What's the problem Tetra?"
"My problem," she hesitated. "My problem is you."
"Me?" Clarisse said incredulously "Why would I be giving you a problem, dear?"
"Don't call me dear," Tetra whispered, "You're only making it harder for me."
"Harder for you to do what?" Clarisse asked.
"This." Tetra unsheathed her sword.
"What are you doing with that? Isn't it a little late to practice your sword fighting?"
"This isn't for sword fighting," Tetra's voice shook. "It's for…for killing you!"
"What?" Clarisse said, shocked, "Are you sure you're not sick Tetra? That you have some kind of autumnal fever?"
"Shut up!" Tetra said fiercely, "Just shut up! You're not real, none of this is. You're just an illusion, a fake, my mother is dead, dead."
"Tetra," Clarisse mumbled, her eyes watering, "How could you say that? After all I've given you, all I've sacrificed for you, you're just gonna call me a fake and kill me?"
"Stop it," Tetra demanded, "Stop trying to mess with my head!"
"But Tetra," Clarisse pleaded, "I'm your mother. You can't kill your own mother, it's wrong."
"You're not one to tell me what's right and what's wrong, you're only an illusion!"
Clarisse kissed Tetra on the forehead. "Tetra, could an illusion do that? Could an illusion spend thirteen years of her life raising you?" Tetra's grip on her sword loosened. "See Tetra? Don't you see how much I love you? How much I care about you?" Tetra bit her lip. "I know that deep down inside, you know that this is real, that I'm not just some kind of illusion or dream. That I'm your mother, and I care about you. Now put away your sword, you won't need it." Tetra obeyed. "That's a good girl. Now we can just go back to sleep and pretend that this never happened. Okay?" Clarisse gave Tetra a tight hug. "And in the morning, we can finally cure that sickness you have."
Tetra didn't say anything. She just stared at the shape glowing on the back of her left hand. "I'm sorry mother." Tetra took her sword and stabbed Clarisse straight through the heart. Blood spurted everywhere, drenching Tetra in her mother's blood. Clarisse looked at Tetra with a horrible expression on her face.
"I'm sorry," Tetra said again, tears overflowing in her eyes, "But even though you're the closest thing I've ever gotten to seeing my mother again, I know that you're not her. I can't live a life of lies while my friends are in danger, I can't just sit back and let Shadow kill everybody. I hope you understand."
Slowly, Clarisse's corpse faded away, the ship sinking into nothingness. Only whiteness existed around Tetra now. Tetra's body slowly changed, her pirate attire melting away into a dress. Tetra faded away, and Zelda took her place.
"I don't understand," a female voice said, "Why you wouldn't want to be happy."
But before Zelda could respond to the voice, she was swept back into reality.
Zelda awoke on the King of Red Lions, surrounded by a thick fog. As consciousness returned to her, she noticed that Nayru's pearl was shining light on her, before the light faded away. "W-what's going on?" Zelda said drowsily.
"Ah!" King exclaimed, "I'm glad to see that you've broken free, princess!"
Zelda was too tired to be annoyed at being called princess, so she asked another question instead. "What's with all the fog?
"I don't know," King answered, "But the ocean around us was red until you returned to reality."
Zelda noticed Link. Farore's pearl was shining brightly on him. Suddenly, a foreboding thought crept up on Zelda. "Um, is Link trapped in a dream like I was?"
The King of Red Lions nodded, "Yes, but I'm afraid it'll be much harder for him to break free."
--
The loneliness that crept up on Link on the beach faded away slowly, along with Aryll's attempts to follow him and Medli everywhere. Aryll seemed to have gotten tired of waiting for something to happen between Link and Medli and contented herself to staying on her lookout, her gaze following Link and Medli with her telescope. Though they sometimes disappeared behind a thick clump of bushes, only to come out a few moments later with pleased looks on their faces.
Link and Medli were inseparable. They always stayed together while exploring the island, and they split the amount of rupees they found in half. Once they explored every inch of the lower island, they decided to explore the forest.
The forest was what Link expected it to be, a tangled beauty of trees and nature. Link knew that Aryll couldn't see them up here as the trees blocked her view, and Aryll was too afraid to cross the wobbly bridge by herself. So instead of directly going into furious kissing, Link decided to reminisce about the times in the forest.
"Have you ever seen so many trees before Medli?" Link asked.
"No," Medli answered, "You already know that Dragon Roost doesn't have any forests. Why? Have you seen a bigger forest?"
"Why yes, I have," Link said, "Forest Have had these huge trees. They were ten times larger that these ones. I remember when the Koroks-" Link stopped.
"What about the Koroks?" Medli asked.
"Nothing, it wasn't anything important." Link said hurriedly. "You know I met Quill for the first time here."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Well, it wasn't exactly here, I met Tetra here. I was really surprised to find out that Tetra was really Zel-" He stopped again.
"That Tetra what?" Medli inquired.
"Nothing." Link answered.
"Is there something wrong, Link?" Medli asked.
"No, it's just," Link hesitated, "You ever had a memory that you couldn't quite remember? Like you thought you had it one second and you lose it the next?"
"Not really, why?"
"I don't know." Link admitted, "But it feels like I'm forgetting something, that I shouldn't be here right now."
"Don't you want to be here? With me?"
"Of course I do," Link said, "But there's something buried in my memories that I need to remember."
"Can't you just make new ones?" Medli asked.
"What?"
"You know, new memories? Like if you forget something, you can replace it with new memories, better ones. You don't have to dwell on the past, you only have to think about the present. That's the beauty of being alive."
"Yeah, but," Link started, "But what kind of memories can replace what I'm missing?"
"I could give you one." Medli said quietly. She leaned toward Link and kissed him passionately. Link kissed her back. It wasn't any different than the other ones, until Medli pulled Link's floppy green hat off.
"What did you do that for?" Link asked.
"No reason." Medli said as she undid her hair. Link was wondering why she did that when she pulled him back into the kiss. Link ran his fingers through her hair, marveling at how soft it was. Medli ran one of her hands through Link's hair also. Link broke the kiss, gasping for air, but Medli kept kissing him, not on the lips, but on the neck. Link was curious as to exactly where this was going, then learned with a strange horror when she started unfastening her robe.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Link stuttered.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Medli asked playfully, "I'm taking off my clothes."
"But why?"
"Why else do girls take off their clothes in front of guys?"
"Um, because it's too hot or something?" Link said nervously.
"That's not the reason, silly." Medli put her mouth close to his ear, whispered what she was doing, the licked his ear once, softly.
Link flinched. "B-but aren't we a little, I dunno, young to be doing this?"
Medli laughed. "No time like the present. Besides, if we don't do this now, I might lose the nerve to do this later."
"Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
"Not to me it isn't." Medli said quietly. She leaned in towards Link and started taking off his clothes. Link tensed like he wanted to run away, but Medli held him there. "Please?" she whispered, "For me?" Link didn't know what to do. He knew this was wrong, that he shouldn't be doing this, but some part of him screamed that he wanted this to happen. Link wanted to tell that part to shut up, but it would be strange to talk to himself like that. Slowly, he relaxed and let Medli do what she wanted to do. "Excellent," Medli said as she took Link's sword and shield off.
Medli unfastened the outermost layer of Link's clothing, letting it fall to the forest floor. Her hands tickled his neck as she draped them onto it, pulling him into an even deeper kiss. Feeling helpless, Link kissed her back, still having a silent debate within his mind. Medli slowly eased off on the kiss, tracing the corners of Link's lips with her tongue, then kissed his cheeks, eyes, and ears. It was when she started nibbling on Link's ear when the battle in his mind ended, and a single rational thought entered his head.
This girl isn't Medli.
"You're not Medli." Link said quietly in her ear.
Medli stopped biting his ear. "What?"
"You're not Medli." Link said, stronger this time. "I don't know who or what you are, but I know you're not Medli."
"How can you say that?" Medli asked.
"Because the Medli I knew, the Medli I love, is not you. The Medli I knew was always shy, always having a hard time voicing her opinion. She always thought carefully about her decisions, and she wouldn't have started doing this until she knew she was completely ready. And if she knew I wasn't sure, she wouldn't pressure me into doing this. I'm completely sure when I say this, that you're not Medli."
Medli glared fiercely in Link's eyes. "You little bastard." The forest and Medli melted away, leaving Link alone. He was back to normal, all of his thing back where it was supposed to be, when a young woman appeared in front of him.
"I don't understand." The woman said, "How you and that girl could not be happy in your dreams."
"Because it was a dream," Link told her, "It wasn't real. No matter how good it may seem, a dream is still only a dream, it can't beat reality."
"But reality is so much harsher," she said, "I've seen into your memories, I know the hardships you face, the friends you have lost. I don't know why you can't just give it all up and live in your dream world."
"Dreams are nice," Link said, "But it doesn't replace my responsibilities. Even though some of my friends are dead, I still have friends that are alive, that I need to protect." Link hesitated. "And Medli is still alive, waiting to be saved."
The figure smiled. "Just the answer I expected from the Hero of Winds." She waved a hand and a portal opened. "If you want to go back to your reality, I won't stop you. In fact, to make up for the time you lost, I'll let you depart near the place you are going."
"Where I'm going?" Link asked, confused. "What do you mean?"
The woman started to fade away. "Good luck, young hero…"
"Wait!" Link cried, "Could you at least tell me who you are?"
"I am Nabooru, the Sage of Spirit…"
--
Link woke up to see a bunch of fog, and Zelda's face staring at him. Link gave a cry of surprise, then calmed down.
"It's good to see you're finally awake, Link." Zelda said, we've been waiting for a while now."
"What do you mean?" Link asked.
"It's been three days since you fell asleep," King answered.
"What!" Link shouted, "Three days! Who knows what Shadow could've done in that amount of time!?"
"I think I have an idea." Zelda said quietly as the fog cleared.
Link could see Outset Island through the remainder of the fog, and the bodies of its residents lying on the beach.
Very long chapter right here. The longest chapter I've ever done. Anyways, I hope I am completely finished with the romance now, because it's making me sick. Honestly, it is. Anyways, leave a review, because I love reviews, and if you don't review an evil non-reviewer demon will throw monkey things at you.