Chapter 9: The Tale of Young Link
A week had passed since the incident with Roy. We took him directly to Dr. Mario, who bound his wounds and did… other doctor related things. I'm not a doctor, ok? He was still resting at his house, broken and fractured bones don't fix themselves overnight. Still, we were all hardy people here; he would get better much faster than a regular person. There was nothing I could do, so I tried not to worry about it. I checked the fridge, but it was empty. That was weird; Zelda had supplies brought in a few days ago. I looked around for the culprit, and found someone I was hoping never to see again. Tetra was sitting on the edge of the stage, eating our food. While not technically a fighter, I assume she was allowed in as a related guest to Zelda. Kind of like how Daisy was allowed in thanks to Peach and they were currently sharing a house. The reason I never wanted to see her again was simple. Remember when I left the flats a while ago? Well, while I was gone, Tetra stole all my stuff, and sold it, keeping the earnings. Not to mention she represented the game in which my REPLACEMENT was the star.
I approached her, and considered pushing her off the edge. When I spoke, she jumped. "What are you doing here, and does Zelda know?" She turned around.
"Hey!" she said in surprise. "It's my bank!" I pulled out my sword. "Ok short stuff, calm down." She said, only half-genuinely I put my sword back and pulled out a bomb. This time she meant it when she asked me to calm down.
"Ok, Young Link, I'm sorry, ok?" I put the bomb away.
"That's what I THOUGHT you said. Anyway, what about it? Answer the questions."
"I've been here just as long as you guys have." She said defensively. "But I got lost."
"And it took you a week and a half to find this place?!" I accused.
"Umm… Yes." She admitted. There was a short silence, which was broken by the sound of voices, Link's and Zelda's. That was when I knew this would be a 'fun filled' day.
After what seemed like a political debate, it was decided 2-1 in favour of allowing Tetra to stay here. I can't believe Link and Zelda would betray me like this.
"Fine." I started "but I'm having nothing to do with her, she wants to come to a fighting game, let her protect herself from the other contestants. It was a general rule not to attack guest characters, but another rule was that these very people were supposed to have bodyguards outside of their home stage, just in case. Of course, it's not like it was a law set in stone. Link and Zelda looked at each other and nodded, although, I had a feeling that they weren't necessarily agreeing to my request.
"God damn it." I muttered to myself as I followed Tetra around. Although, to be honest, I kind of had a feeling they would do this. We were currently in Kongo Jungle, Pichu's home stage. DK had Jungle Japes, and all the Pokémon stages were taken, so Pichu was sent here. When Tetra saw Pichu, she squealed, and yelped about how adorable he was. "YL, buy me this." There were so many things wrong with that that I didn't even bother to try to explain.
"No. You took all my money anyway." We stood in silence for a few seconds and then…
"Moving on." She said, walking away and avoiding the subject.
"Hey, if we're going to be out anyway, can we at least visit a friend of mine, he was hurt a while ago, and I want to see how he's doing."
"Who was it?" She asked.
"Not that you'd know him, but his name is Roy, he lives in Fourside."
She spun around to face me.
"THE Roy?! As in from Fire Emblem?!" I withdrew a little in surprise.
"Uhh… yeah, how'd you know?"
"I love Fire Emblem! If Roy's hurt, what are we waiting around here for?!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me off towards Fourside.
When we got there, we found Roy resting in bed, awake but trying to remain still. But I was more worried about the person sitting next to his bed, If Tetra reacted like this after hearing about Roy, she would faint from seeing Marth. Marth had been with Roy ever since the incident, looking after him. When Tetra saw Marth she froze, visibly tensing. She got her guard back up shortly afterwards and strutted past him, heading for Roy.
"Can we help you in some way?" Marth asked sarcastically. She went a shade darker red.
"Shut up, miss high-heels." She retorted, adding as much snobbery into her voice as she could muster. While it wasn't hard to notice that she didn't mean it, and that she was actually fawning over him, I also noticed that she was right; he indeed WAS wearing high heels. Marth looked a silent question at me, and I signalled that I'd explain later.
It wasn't a short visit. Roy and Tetra were talking some shit about something called Pherae and someone called Eliwood. They didn't even notice when Marth and I snuck off.
"Sweet freedom!" I exclaimed. Marth looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Shut up, it's been a long day." Although, I had a nagging feeling that that wasn't the reason he was doing that. But I didn't want to acknowledge what he was silently implying. We headed over to Peach's place (Princess Peach's Castle) for the small café by there. There needed SOMEWHERE where we could get that kind of atmosphere. Marth approached the counter and ordered a coffee, then looked at me.
"Make that two" I ordered. Marth stared at me again.
"Are you allowed to be drinking that at your age?" I glared at him.
"Fine" I began "make it decaf." He conceded the point at that and dropped it.
"How old are you anyway?" Marth asked out of nowhere.
"Well, as you know, I'm exactly 7 years younger than Link, who's 16, making me 9. And my game came out three years ago, so add on three, and I'm 12." That's how our age was calculated. Our bodies set age, plus the difference in years between now, and when our games were first released.
"What about you?" I asked. He looked up for a second, concentrating.
"Let's see, like Link, I'm supposed to be 16, but my game was released three years after his, in 1990, so I'm 27, exactly three years younger than Link. Now that I think about it, Roy's nearly as young as you are. He's supposed to be 15, but his game won't be released until next year, so in reality, he's only 14." We sighed in unison.
"It's a good thing no one gives a shit about our modified ages." I said. Then something occurred to me. "If Roy's game hasn't been released yet, how did Tetra know who he is?" I asked.
"Beats me" Marth replied. "Speaking of, who was that anyway?" I knew I'd have to explain it eventually. So I decided to get it over with, and explained the whole story.
When we got back to Fourside, Roy and Tetra were still having their little chat. I don't think they noticed that we left. In the end, I had to drag Tetra, kicking and screaming, back to Temple… by the ear. Marth waved goodbye and we were gone.
By the time we got back to Temple, Tetra's ear had gone completely red. Link opened his mouth to ask, but closed it at a glare from Tetra. Tetra may have THAT kind of personality, but she was feeble to us, regardless, she was scary at times.
