Link was worried for the kid. Sure, his swords skills were crappy, and the other Link must have been using less than a tenth of his real skill to deal with the kid, but the kid was dangerous enough to take down a bokoblin. Bokoblins weren't exactly hard to dispatch.
And that was exactly what sent Link hurtling over the bridge after the kid.
The other Link would take a while to get back up the mountain from his escape, even with Navi diving down the cliff face to find him, so it was up to Link and Midna to help the kid as much as they could. Actually, there wasn't much they could do, because they could neither kill the bokoblin themselves, nor even show themselves to boy, but what else could they do? Link sure wasn't going to let the boy go into the forest alone, and he could tell that Midna wasn't either. Making sure the shirt sleeves were tied firmly around his face, he sprinted the last stretch of land, slowing down as he reached the cave opening.
When Link crept through the entrance, he easily found the boy was standing in the middle of the area, examining the tall ledge that separated him from the girl who dangled from a tree branch. How in Hyrule she had gotten her shirt caught like that, Link didn't know, but the point was that she was unconscious and very high up. At least, Link hoped she was just unconscious, and not dead. Link immediately analyzed the area from his experience with those endless temples and his past adventure into the forest, and realized that one would have to go around, through the clearing with the bokoblin, and into another clearing that Link had seen from his previous visit here but hadn't ventured into. Probably then one would be high enough to get to the girl's ledge. The boy was taking a bit more time to reach that conclusion, but eventually the kid nodded to himself and began making his way towards the bokoblin.
Link threw caution out the window and came within a mere six feet of the boy, watching as the kid rounded the corner, froze, and darted behind a nearby tree. The boy's bright green eyes were wide, the color made even more vivid with the conflicting emotions that were obvious through his face. What was curious, though, was that he seemed more frightened by the thought of having to hurt the monster, because the boy slowly took out his sword and held it gingerly with two fingers. He remembered boy's reluctance to hurt the other Link, and all doubt of his theory vanished. Link hoped to the Goddesses that the boy had meant what he had said back by the bridge: "I do what I want, and nobody tells me otherwise." If the kid really wanted to, he could bail out now and run for an adult, but the boy didn't. Did he feel that he had to rescue the girl? No, even then, he could ask for that old geezer Orca's help.
Link was envious of the boy. He could back out of it...at least, Link hoped. If there was that telltale symbol on the kid's hand...
"Ohoho, what a sweet kid," Midna breathed, disappearing into his shadow for convenience and stealth reasons, but her voice still floated upwards. "He doesn't want to hurt the widdle bokobwin, now dwoes he? Somebody's got to get this kid to grow up."
Link retorted, "I like him how he is. If he wants to be a kid, he'll be a kid. I'm not forcing him to turn into an adult." Midna didn't respond from his shadow, for some reason.
The kid was tossing his sword from hand to hand, glancing from the bokoblin to the sword. He began to step out, and Link sucked in a breath, but the boy lost his nerve and retreated back behind the tree. Link found himself with a large amount of patience for the kid, settling himself to wait for the kid to come into his own, which was very uncharacteristic of him. But if the boy didn't want to, he supposed that he might be able to find a way to somehow get the kid high enough to scale the wall that separated them from the girl, therefore avoiding the bokoblin—
Wait. The boy clearly didn't have the resources to do that by himself, but Link did.
"Pfft," Link let out a mocking breath, ridiculing himself. He eyed the boy, making sure he wasn't looking, then stood upright and tried to reach the top of the ledge from where he was on a small ledge himself. It was perhaps six inches from his hand if he raised it high over his head, but still, it wasn't within his reach. Link didn't even have to ask Midna, and felt his bones shifting and rearranging themselves, morphing and grinding against each other, while a furious itch burned under his skin before it broke out in thick fur. All in all, it wasn't exactly pleasant to turn into a wolf, and Link shook himself out in a vain attempt to get rid of the lingering traces of the itch. Midna flew to the top of the ledge and beckoned as usual, but her visible eye was fixed firmly on the kid nearby, watching for any sign that he had noticed the extremely odd events occurring right under his nose.
Once he was on the ledge, Midna slipped back under his shadow, transforming him back into a Hylian at the same time. She knew it wasn't his preference to stay as a wolf, and he tried to avoid the form if he could help it, although sometimes he enjoyed the heightened senses and agility. It all really depended on his mood. The ledge he crouched on was actually quite thin, being only two feet in width, but that wasn't a problem for Link. If he walked a bit down this narrow path, he would eventually get to the tree where the girl was dangling, so he cast one last glance back at the kid and crept swiftly to the girl's tree. By rescuing her, Link could remove the point of having to kill the bokoblin, and therefore the kid's dilemma.
He didn't even have to be right up close to her to tell that she would grow to be a fine young lady with a face that would surely bring in many suitors. Grow, as in she looked to be only around the boy's age. Tied up in a style of bun that Link had never seen before, the golden hair color was a lot like the other Link's Princess Zelda, the one who used the Ocarina of Time to send the other Link back in time and create this whole mess with the alternate Hyrules. Speaking of Princess Zelda, he remembered how both Princesses from both the other Link's time and his own had strips of hair in front of their ears, as did this girl. It was probably just a coincidence, though. It wasn't exactly an uncommon hairstyle; just look at the kid, who had pretty much the same thing. Not only that, Link realized with a snort that he himself had something similar.
But aside from her odd hair style and color, he noted with glee that she had light sandals instead of shoes or boots, glad that somebody other than Midna knew exactly how liberating sandals and going barefoot could feel. She had a small cutlass at her hip, and from the calluses on her hands, she knew how to use it. Link gingerly poked the bandages around her wrists, and sure enough, he could feel throwing knives hidden inside. Her blue vest was flapping open, and blades glinted from inner pockets. This girl wasn't a pirate for nothing. She might have a pretty face, but she wasn't a girl Link wanted to mess with, Triforce of Courage or no.
"Alright, let's bring her down and set her somewhere the boy will see her. We ain't got all day," Midna hissed, impatient, and materialized by him. Link glared at her, trying to figure out how he could bring her down without touching her. Even with his best efforts, there wasn't any he could think of. Midna urged, "Screw your weird personal space complex! Let's move!"
"Okay, okay, give me some time!" Link sighed, looking back at the kid one last time to make sure that the kid was still there. Sure enough, the kid was staring hard at the blade, still not finding it within himself to slay the monster.
You know, I'm kind of hungry," Midna commented, yawning widely. It was completely off topic, but Midna tended to act on whims, anyway. "I mean, we didn't eat today, we didn't eat at all yesterday, and...hey, the last time we ate was before we assembled the Mirror of Twilight! Geez, that was almost two days ago!"
"I've got some of the Yeti's soup," Link offered, glad to take his mind off having to actually carry a person. "It's cold, but it's still good."
Midna eyed him skeptically. "What about you?"
"I'm fine."
"No wonder you're nothing but muscle," Midna scoffed, but waved her hand to refuse the offer anyway. "And if I don't eat, I'll never have to listen to those annoying Twili counselors again, always bugging me about how I need to stay skinny, being a role model, blah blah blah. So! Just hurry up and bring the girl down."
"Alright..." He carefully wrapped his hands around the girl's middle, realizing exactly how big he was compared to her, when a little golden light began to shine.
For a long, long second, Link and Midna did nothing but stare at the back of Link's hand, where his Triforce of Courage resonated. It was a simple matter of process of elimination. Ganondorf was not dead in this timeline (not that he wasn't in Link's timeline, either), so he had the Triforce of Power, and Link assumed the boy had the Triforce of Courage. Therefore, this girl had the Triforce of Wisdom, which was a hereditary heirloom of the Royal Family that wasn't supposed to leave the bloodline. His hand stayed there for a moment, his fingers just barely touching her stomach, then Link jerked his hand away as if burned and Midna put a hand to her mouth, chuckling. "Oho, so Miss Pirate isn't so boyish, is she?"
"...Damn," was all Link could say, at loss for a better word.
"Oi, the kid over there is on the move," Midna said, changing the subject completely again. "Is he seriously going to kill the bokoblin?"
"Dunno, but I want to watch." Link hopped off the ledge, once again separating himself from the girl, and absently apologized to Midna's angry protests about how he had just wasted her efforts with the whole wolf-jump trick. If the kid was going to kill the bokoblin, then it was no longer necessary for Link to rescue the girl. Even scrambling as fast as he could without making too much racket, however, he only caught the bokoblin falling, and the boy shuddering uncontrollably. Then the boy hoisted himself onto a tree stump and jumped to a higher ledge, disappearing as he crawled up a log to another clearing.
Link ran to the bokoblin, shocked that the kid had actually done the deed, and facepalmed when the bokoblin twitched. The boy had only hit it with the flat of his sword, knocking the bokoblin out, which would explain the kid's less-than-dramatic reaction. It was almost like cheating, although it was a rather effective way solve the problem, Link had to give him that. "Smart kid," Link murmured, smiling.
Inhuman screeches from the next clearing ripped through the forest silence, and Link snapped back into action. "What the hell is going on over there?" he muttered angrily, his irritation coming not from the annoying sounds, but from the fear of the kid having to deal with more monsters. Yet, by the time Link had gotten his head up in a position to watch, both bokoblins had visible lumps on their ugly heads, and the boy still looked squeamish at just putting a bruise on the monsters.
"He can't even handle that. Oh Goddesses, what a pathetic squirt," Midna sighed, tutting as if she pitied the poor boy, but stopped when Link clapped his hand over her mouth in an attempt to silence her before the kid heard her voice, which had rose just a little too loud. Link whispered one of the dirtier cuss words he had picked up at Telma's bar and ducked back out of sight as the kid whirled around, looking for the high, mocking voice that had called him a pathetic squirt.
Link hissed, "Midna! If he heard and realizes it wasn't just his imagination, we're going to be in deep sh—"
"Who's there?" the kid called, curiosity in his tone.
"Oh...crapcrapcrapcrapcrap," Link muttered to himself as he sprinted behind a giant rock, briefly glancing at the sign that said something about a fairy fountain, and prayed to Farore that the kid wouldn't think to look here. Although he probably would.
"Hello?" The boy's voice was coming closer, and when Link looked frantically at her for ideas, Midna raised her arms to signal she didn't know what the hell they were going to do. After a moment, she motioned to show that at least the cloth around his face would protect him somewhat if they were found. Link glared at her, and jabbed his finger in the general direction of the kid, and then her. Midna tapped her finger against her chin, then pointed at his shadow in solution. Link perked up, getting an idea, then motioned to his shadow, then imitated the confused motions of Sturgeon and Mesa. Midna shook her head, and he glared at her. She shook her head again, more adamantly, and shrugged, as if to say, Maybe it would be better if he found us. Link shook his head wildly, mouthing the word No! and bit his lip when he heard the kid's voice again, which effectively ended the little sign language display. "I know that you're there!"
There was a sharp cry, and it sounded like the girl had woken up. Peeking out from behind the rock, Link saw the kid hesitating, then clambering back up the log. Midna did a little jig in mid-air, silently gloating over the narrow escape, and Link felt a smile tug at his lips. Then Link followed the boy with Midna right behind him, albeit both of them a lot more cautiously, and they didn't dare venture any closer than the fallen log. The girl was squirming, trying to get off the branch, and Midna laughed silently at her vain attempts that included much embarrassing arm wiggling and whining. "All princesses really are weak," Midna chuckled.
"And this is coming from...?"
"Okay, shut up."
"Of course, O Twilight Princess." Midna smacked his head, but he kept grinning to himself. "We don't know for sure that she's the princess, anyway... Just because my Triforce was resonating, doesn't mean that she's part of the Royal Family. She's a pirate; she could have stolen the Triforce piece somewhere...although that is highly unlikely..." The branch snapped, and with one last squeal, the girl hit the ground with a crash. Both Link and the kid winced, and Link muttered, "Ooh, that looks like it hurt."
Midna chuckled dryly and stretched her arms, looking bored. "Good for her. Maybe next time she won't be so pathetic, get kidnapped by an overgrown bird, and have to get rescued like a damsel in distress. If she's going to be a princess, at least try do some things by herself instead of leaving it all up to a little kid with an obsession with green." Link's eyebrow twitched.
The kid ran over to her as she picked herself up, brushing her white pants off. She gasped, "Ooowwwwch!" As soon as the boy climbed up, she stared at his green outfit and pointed hat. Link couldn't blame her, really. The boy shifted a bit under her scrutiny, and his face angled so that Link could see a bit of a blush on his cheeks.
Midna cackled, "Oolala, I think he's smitten!" Clearly, this was the first time the kid had ever met a pretty girl. Link thought, I pity the poor guy...
"Wow. What's with that get-up?" The pirate girl raised an eyebrow, eyes narrowed.
"Exactly!" Midna whispered with relish. "Honestly, it's a green dre--"
"It's a tunic," Link growled before she could get the word out.
"Same difference. It's even got leggings, for the love of—"
Link glared at her, and she smirked, but left it at that.
The girl dismissed the boy, and continued, "Well, whatever. So, where am I...?" She paused, and stared off at a point somewhere in front of her. "Oh, that's right! That giant bird came and..."
"Miss! MISS TETRA!"
"Whoever this newcomer is, from his voice, he sounds like a dumbass," Midna commented immediately. Link couldn't help but agree with her. Although they couldn't see this new person, from his deep, dull voice, he did sound like he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Both kids hopped off the ledge towards the voice, and Link took their place underneath the tree the girl, apparently named Tetra, had been hanging. It looked to be one of the pirates, although he certainly didn't act like one. He acted a lot more like...how should Link put it? A worried mother? The pirate calmed himself down, taking deep breaths, and gasped out, "Oh! Oh, thank... Thank goodness! You're safe!"
Oh yes, definitely a worried mother. What the hell was up with these pirates? One had a piece of the Triforce and the other was nearly in tears!
The pirate whined, "When I saw you get dropped on this summit, I thought for sure you'd..." The boy was standing by, looking awkward as he fidgeted in place. Link was sure that if he were in the kid's shoes, he wouldn't be doing much better.
"Summit?" Tetra snarled. "So that bird dropped me on the top of a mountain?"
Link nearly laughed, Tetra reminded him so much of Ilia. He could hear Ilia scolding him: "Link! How could you! You were pushing Epona too hard again! I bet you hurt her leg jumping fences, didn't you!"
"Uh-oh, princess is going to throw a hissy fit," Midna giggled, her voice border-lining on audible to the two pirates and the boy.
"Well, wasn't that nice of it!" Link could only partially see Tetra's face, but her blue eyes were narrowed in malicious cunning. She hurried off, then motioned for the pirate to follow her. "Well, don't just stand there! Let's go! Time to repay our debt to that bird in full!"
"Whoa, she's giving orders to the muscle-man over there!" Midna said.
"He did call her 'Miss Tetra,' so obviously she's a high-ranking somebody on their ship," Link pointed out.
The pirate motioned to the boy. "But, Miss... What about this boy?"
"Don't worry about him. Come on!" Tetra called from the entrance, almost already gone.
"Rather rude little princess, ain't she?" Midna commented.
"I kind of like her."
"She's so bossy!" Midna complained. "She treats the kid over there like dirt!"
"What a hypocrite."
Midna huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm not that mean to you..."
"Haha."
The pirate gave one last glance at the kid, then hurried after Tetra. The kid began to follow, then stopped in his tracks. He turned around and cast a sweeping stare over the forest, and Link had to duck out of sight for what felt like the millionth time today. "...I know that somebody's here," the kid called in the forest silence, "but I can't find you... I'll come back and catch you, though!" Then the boy dashed off after the two pirates, leaving Link alone with Midna.
"Yeah, well, I won't be here to be caught, kid," he mumbled to himself, then exited the forest after them.
Hiding in the shadow of the cave entrance, he watched the kid stop next to Tetra, and heard the cry, "'Hoy! Big Brother!" Link saw the girl Aryll across the bridge, grinning and waving.
"Wait, what's she doing here? Wasn't she the one who said it might be too dangerous to come up here without a weapon?" Midna said, raising an eyebrow.
"Did she? I wasn't there," Link reminded her.
The boy laughed, obviously delighted to see his sister, and raised an arm to wave back. Aryll giggled, already walking across the bridge to meet up with her brother. Midna picked at her nails. "Alright, sappy reunion scene. Nothing interesting is going to happen, so I'm taking a break. See you later!" She dropped into his shadow, and Link turned his eyes back to the girl crossing the bridge.
Link sensed the bird before he saw it or even heard it. It was a gut feeling that he couldn't quite place, not really knowing what was wrong, but knew that something wasn't right here. That little gut feeling had been developed as he duty as Hero, and it had saved his life quite a few times, so he knew to never doubt it. Finally, he heard a faint, distant shriek, and glanced around to find the source, but couldn't see anything. "Did you hear that?" he whispered to his shadow, taking his eyes off the group in front of him. There was no answer, indicating that she didn't know either, and suddenly the kid screamed. Link looked back at the bridge, and the bird was closing his talons around Aryll, who shrieked in fright.
What caught his attention, though, was the kid's face as he watched the bird begin it's flight back to wherever it was supposed to go. It was sheer agony, just looking at his sister being kidnapped, and Link's own eyes widened at the emotional torment that was so plainly written on the kid's face.
"BROTHER!" the girl cried, and it only served to increase the fear and pain on the boy's face. Tetra turned when she heard the kid draw his sword, and Link realized what the kid was going to do.
"Sweet Farore," he swore, as the kid began running off the cliff, his eyes fixed on the bird and nothing else. He's forgotten he was on the top of a mountain, the fool. Both Tetra and Link leapt forward, the pirate following close behind, and the kid didn't realize he was falling until his feet met nothing but empty air. Tetra and Link clasped their hands around the kid's at the same time, trying to restrain the wild kid.
"What the—Where'd you come from!" Tetra shrieked, shocked at the sight of the strange person with half of his face obscured by a makeshift mask. The expression her face was priceless, a moment of sheer surprise that Link had tried prank after prank to catch a glimpse of on Ilia's features, but Link wasn't exactly in the mood to savor it.
"Goddessdammit, girl, stop screeching in my ear like a ReDead!" he yelled back, wincing at the slight ache that had already set itself into his sensitive ears.
"I said, who are you!" she shouted, even though they were shoulder to shoulder. That time, he ignored her, busy trying to get the kid to calm down while hiding his glowing left hand, which had activated again after being so close to Tetra and the boy. The kid didn't notice anything, still trying to follow his sister, not accepting the fact that he was dangling off a cliff and his sister was already a mile away.
"Kid! Calm down!" Link cried, shaking the kid roughly. The boy didn't listen in the slightest, and just wiggled harder, and Link snatched the kid's other hand, the one with the sword in it. He leaned over the cliff, lifting the kid slightly as he did. "LISTEN TO ME!" he bellowed in the kid's pointed ear, and the boy froze.
"Exactly! Stupid kid!" Tetra grunted, trying to keep her grip on the kid's wrist. "Get ahold of yourself! She's gone! There's nothing you can do."
Link let Tetra take care of the kid's right arm, while he tugged on the other one, trying to help Tetra haul the kid back up, when he realized which hand he was holding. The left one. He could see a distinct yellow eye in his shadow, examining the hand as he did with interest. This hand was supposed to have the Triforce of Courage on it, but the back of the kid's hand was clearly unblemished, with not a single trace of gold on it.
What?
The boy was just sitting on the edge, looking dazed and lost, and Tetra turned back to Link. "Where the hell did you come from? How did you sneak up on us?" Link ignored her again, much more concerned with the forlorn expression on the boy's face. It the boy wasn't even registering that some complete stranger had just saved him from falling off a cliff, then obviously this kidnapping had hurt him bad.
"Kid."
The boy didn't look at Link, just twitched. He didn't seem to recognize the fact that he'd never seen Link before. Link wondered briefly why he was talking to the kid more than he had to, then continued quietly, "You said that you did what you wanted, and nobody tells you otherwise, right?"
Silence.
"You want her back, right?"
Silence.
Link put a hand on his shoulder. "Then you go get her back. No bird is going to tell you otherwise."
"She's gone," the kid said finally, his voice anguished. "Gone. And I can't follow her."
"Yes, you can."
"How?" the kid asked dully, obviously not really expecting an answer.
"Figure it out, Link. I'd say you've got a pretty big boat right under your nose." Then Link sprinted across the bridge before Tetra could demand more answers, or the kid remember that this was the second stranger to know his name. The sight of the kid's left hand was almost burned into his mind, so wonderfully Triforce of Courage-less. Funny, how the absence of light could lift Link's spirits.
Perhaps there was hope for the kid, a ray of light to believe in. Perhaps the kid would not be shackled to the dead weight the Hero of Time had created, where free will was but a mere fantasy.
Well, I'll be honest: I don't really like this chapter. Something about it isn't interesting for me. Maybe I'm just so obsessed with the pirate ship that everything else isn't as fun...