Much as I'd love to be a rito, I don't own the Great Sea or any other Zelda setting or characters.


He was alone, adrift in the middle of a raging sea, unable to see more than a few meters in each direction. For a moment, he allowed himself to relax, thinking that a storm had sprung up while he'd been asleep and settling into the familiar habit of reaching for his sail and map to set a course to the nearest island. His fingers met empty air, and he looked down, frowning. The space where he stored his sailing equipment was empty, the wooden boards of King's hull starkly illuminated in the flash of lightening that abruptly split the sky from end to end.

"King, where are we?" he asked around teeth that chattered from cold and a sudden sense of dread.

There was no answer from the boat that had accompanied him throughout his entire quest. He crawled to the bow and peered around at the figurehead. It was still and wooden as that of a normal boat, eyes staring sightlessly off across the waves.

He shivered, not entirely from the cold, and pulled his hat lower over his eyes, ineffectively shielding them from the rain that was pouring down in buckets and glanced around, trying figure out where he was

Another flash of lightening caught his eye and he followed the light towards a darker mass, solid on the rolling waves of the storm. A silhouette, lit by the sky's rage, smiled at him, white teeth flashing and lifted a sword that glowed with evil power. He reached for his own sword in response, but his fingers closed once more through empty air.

The figure did not move, but the boat drifted closer and closer on the tide, carrying him to his inevitable fate. The boat hit land and Ganondorf stepped closer, raising his sword. He raised his chin to stare straight into his enemy's empty eyes

The sword flashed in the lightning as it rose and descended, accompanied by a yell of sorrow, shock, and disbelief. "BIG BROTHER!"

"Big brother!"

Link snapped awake, jerking upright as someone shook him. He blinked several times until his eyes cleared and the person doing the shaking came into focus. Aryll was standing over him, one hand still resting on his shoulder where she'd shaken him.

"Big brother," Aryll repeated, "are you alright? You were thrashing all over the place."

The Hero of Winds glanced around quickly as he forced his breathing back under control, checking his surroundings from force of habit. He was in his grandma's house, lying on the rug by the fire. The blankets on Aryll's bunk were hanging down from where she'd scrambled out, shielding his grandma's bed from sight. There were no monsters, no Ganondorf, no danger threatening.

He reached up and pulled his sister down next to him, hugging her tightly, reassuring himself that she was alright. He hadn't failed, she was safe, the Great Sea was safe and everything had returned to normal.

"I'm fine, Aryll," he reassured her quietly, "It was just a bad dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she offered, voice slightly muffled from where her face was pressed into his shoulder.

Link shook his head and released her. "No, I'm fine. You can go back to sleep now. I'm sorry I worried you."

The blonde girl stood up and made her way back to her bunk, innocently reassured by him simply saying everything was fine.

He didn't sleep for the rest of the night, watching over the little girl he would and had crossed the seas for.


He could see Aryll was getting worried. In her mind, her brother was back now, so everything should go back to normal. But if anything, it was getting worse.

He still had trouble sleeping, waking her every night with his trashing and crying as his sleep was disturbed by the nightmares. She tried to wake him, and he tried to hide the panic in his eyes when he woke from dreams where monsters swarmed in seas of blood, lit by glistening arcs of his sword. Some nights he lost her, other times, it was others he'd met on his quest.

He couldn't move, bound with chains stronger than iron, couldn't speak, could do nothing but watch. He had no choice but to watch helplessly as Ganondorf paraded them in front of him.

Delicate Medli, with her wings mangled beyond repair.

Komali, with his eyes filled with shadows.

Makar, wilting away slowly.

All the koroks, nothing but husks, often with burn marks.

The King of Red Lions even joined as nothing but a figurehead, a head served on a platter.

Tetra's crew, all the pirates, none with even a spark of resistance left.

Tetra herself, bound in iron chains. She looked up as she passed, the only one with gall enough to do so. "You!" she shrieked, "this is all your fault!" Her voice was directed not at Ganondorf, but at him. "We trusted you, and you failed us! How can they call you Hero when all you are is a little boy floundering around? You should have stepped down, let someone actually capable handle things! Anyone but a little boy!"

Ganondorf laughed, and reached behind him to drag out two limp bodies. The Evil King carelessly flung them forward to hit the ground in front of him. He could just make out their faces.

His grandmother and his sister.

He'd put everything he'd gotten on his journey in the upstairs loft and no one was not allowed to go up there. He deflected questions about what had happened on his quest. All of Outset seemed to think it was a grand adventure, but all he wanted to do was forget.


"Big Brother?"

Link hummed to show he had heard her and patted the spot next to him. Aryll took the invitation, plopping down next to him and dangling her legs off the cliff edge.

"Big Brother, what's wrong?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Link replied, leaning back on his elbows to tilt his head back and stare at the stars that were just beginning to appear.

"It changed you," his sister answered, "the adventure."

He laughed, a hollow sound now. He hadn't laughed properly in months, since the first time he'd had to wrestle a bokoblin's own weapon away from it and bludgeon it to death with the stick. "Of course it did," he answered, "I'm the Hero of Winds now."

Aryll turned to fully face him then. "I wish I could fight your monsters," she told him seriously, "the ones that make you wake up trying not to scream."

"I wish you could too," Link agreed.

He started sleeping in his boat after that conversation, so she didn't have to wake when he started thrashing. The waves helped, reminding him of the peaceful nights, when he didn't have to fight.


She woke one day with the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong. A quick glance to one side showed her that his sleeping place was empty, as it had been since that day when they'd had the conversation on the cliff. He'd taken to sleeping in his boat, or in the loft when weather forced him to sleep inside. He said it helped with the nightmares.

Aryll slipped out of her bed and walked outside to see if Link was up yet. The crisp dawn air chased away any sleepiness from her eyes that rubbing them missed. Her feet hit the wood of the docks and she looked up to find his boat was not docked in its usual place.

A small red vessel with a green-clothed figure inside was racing away from the island, already out of shouting range. Aryll ran to the end of the dock, nearly tripping on a small red object obviously left there for her. Her eyes filled with tears as she picked it up.

The girl sank to her knees, clutching the telescope to her chest. He never would have left it if he planned on coming back.