Chapter 27:
Childlike Innocence and Naïveté
If there was a world record for the most dumbfounded look, Tetra had certainly just broken it.
Eyes wide open, jaw dropped and a certain sense of 'Please poke me, because this has to be a dream' to her overall expression made it apparent that, out of all the things she could have encountered in here, this was probably the most unlikely one she could have imagined.
Link (Kaze), quite frankly, didn't care. His relieved and cheerful expression wasn't diminished the slightest bit by the disbelieving look Tetra gave him.
"Tetra, thank goodness, you're alright!"
"Link…?"
Tetra needed some more time to, firstly, process that this little, green, winged thing on the floor that was actually Link and, secondly, to pick which out of the three dozen questions that just came to her mind she was supposed to ask now. Eventually, she managed to settle on one.
"What in the name of everything that makes sense in this world happened to you?!"
And, just to be sure that she actually was not dreaming, she rubbed her eyes once more… The two Link-fairies on the floor remained. She was positively awake. Somehow.
Kaze blushed a little bit and laughed uncomfortably, "Ehh… this?... Well, that's a quite long story, you see…"
"…I can't believe it…"
That last sentence didn't come from Tetra or Kaze, but from Toki. His look wasn't quite as dumbfounded as the prize-worthy one Tetra had delivered a few moments ago, but the way he stared at the Hylian girl above them now came rather close to it.
"Zelda…"
His eyes alternated between staring at Tetra's hair (which now had revealed itself to be much longer than it had looked when she still had worn it tied up) and her face. Finally he gasped a little, "You're not just similar… You're almost identical!"
"Huh? What…"
Tetra's attention shifted to this other boy… fairy… whatever, as she tried to understand how exactly he was realizing this just now. It didn't take her long.
"Oh. Let me guess. The ancient Princess wore her hair open all the time?"
Toki slowly nodded. "…Whenever she wasn't wearing a wimple… yeah…"
"OK. Could you please explain to me, then, how exactly she could consider this to be comfortable?!"
Tetra grabbed her whole mass of hair in one hand and started to wring it out like a wet towel:
"This is so goddamn annoying! Soaking, dripping, getting stuck on everything everywhere… ARGH! Just because I lost my barette in this darn storm…I can't imagine any sane person willingly wearing this hairstyle! It's torture!"
"You're using a barette?" Link asked, interested. He never noticed one in this monster of construction she called a 'hairstyle'.
"Used," she responded, quite bitterly. "Tried hairpins once. Didn't work. My hair was too heavy."
"Aha…"
"W-Whatever! That's beside the point!!" Tetra quickly shook her head, as if to get out all the unnecessary thoughts about the inconvenience of openly worn hair. "Again: What happened to you two?! I mean… your size! … the wings!!"
She bent down and let Kaze climb onto her palm, so she could look him into the eyes without causing herself major pain in the neck.
"…Also, you are giving me déjà vu," she stated. "For… some… reason."
"Hm? Déjà vu?"
Kaze took a second to think…
"Yeah…"
He looked up at Tetra again, as her (for him) over-dimensionally big eyes looked at him in a puzzled manner. Finally, he nodded.
"That perspective is... kind of familiar…"
"OK… Ehm… Say, is there a certain reason you're fumbling around with your hat like this?"
"Huh?"
Just now, Kaze realized that he had taken of his cap and started playing with it between his fingers. He had never done this before. Quickly, he placed it on his head again. Why was he feeling a little weird right now...?
Tetra started impatiently tapping her foot on the floor. "Link. I am waiting for an explanation for this. A good one."
"Uhm…"
Finally, Kaze just took a deep breath and got ready to explain their recent progress in this temple to Tetra.
Meanwhile, Toki's eyes were somewhere completely different, however…
Eyne was floating right behind Tetra's head, holding both of her hands up before her face. After some time, she started putting down one finger after another, after an interval of roughly one second each... wait.
Was she counting down?
6…
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
"WOAH!!"
It was just this moment, that a strange sensation overcame the boys—
Less than a second latter, they had grown back to their usual size, accompanied by loud yell from Tetra's side.
In case you don't quite understand why she was yelling, might I remind you: Kaze had been sitting on her palm the moment he regained his normal size.
Holding her pounding wrist in the other hand, Tetra remained gritting her teeth in pain for about two seconds, before she angrily glared down at her Link (who was just rubbing his hurting bottom this moment) and started to shout at him:
"WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?!"
Naturally, Kaze backed off about a meter right away before he could answer, "Sorry!! The spell must have worn off!! Ah—Ah… That didn't hurt, did it?"
"Oh, no, I am perfectly fine holding about 50 kilos in my bare hand all of the sudden; don't you know about my superhuman strength? Of course that hurt, you dolt!!"
She made a fist with the non-pounding hand (which was, for the record, her left one) and knocked her dear friend on the head.
"Ouch!"
"Well… so this was a spell. One you knew would wear off." Tetra gave the boys a confused look. "Don't tell me you cast that on yourselves?"
They both nodded, as Kaze explained, "We got that spell from Medli. There were obstacles and using the spell was the only option to get past them. It's not like we had any choi—OUCH!!"
Fist applied to forehead: Take two.
Kaze jumped up and finally returned Tetra the angry glare she had been giving him for the past five minutes. "What was that for? HUH?!"
"For you being such idiots!" Tetra explained. "So, you two were perfectly aware that this spell would wear off after a certain time span! You were also aware that it would render you defenseless and weak! Yet you kept flying around in the temple the whole time?! That's what you call a good plan?!"
Kaze wanted to defend himself and was about to point at Eyne, already saying, "We were being pushed to—"
But Tetra was faster. Reducing the distance between them to a minimum (and making Kaze feel incredibly uncomfortable in the process) she hissed at him:
"You two were lying on the ground. Surrounded by Wizrobes. My conclusion: You were about to be finished off by them. And you would have been, if I hadn't showed up, right?!"
"Tetra…"
"Link! Seriously, can't I let you out of my sight for two minutes without you doing something so incredibly stupid, where death should be the only possible outcome for any person with a normal amount of luck?! You are reckless—no wait, scratch that. You are impossible!"
"Ha! You're one to talk!" Kaze tried to make her back off now, but it didn't quite work. Still, he kept hissing at her, "Who's the one who went through three temples all by herself, without even considering to get some help?!"
"Me!" Tetra hissed back with certain pride in her voice. "And I would have made it through the other three as well! It wasn't that hard!"
"What if something had happened to you?! There would have been no one to help you out in a worst-case scenario!" Link argued. "You call me reckless and impossible, but meanwhile had me worrying for your life all the time!"
"Boohoo, pass the boy a tissue for worrying about someone, who is perfectly able to take care her of herself!" Tetra returned and finished up with a, "And you know it."
"Why are you even yelling at me like this?!" Link demanded, after he ran out of arguments to… well, argue. "We finally meet again, finding out that the other is fine and the first thing you do is yell at me?! How messed up is that?!"
"I'm just wondering how the heck you even got down here!" Tetra shouted. "You were never a good swimmer, let alone a good diver! Adding the fact that you don't have most of your equipment at the moment, you should have had no way to—"
"—Wait!" Link looked up in surprise. "How do you know about my stolen equipment?!"
"Huh!—"
It was just now that Link's previous intention actually became reality and Tetra actually backed off, for some reason:
"Well… I… uhm…"
"Hey… Isn't that my spare bow?!"
Link had taken a closer look at the bow Tetra had strapped to her back and recognized it as the one he had gained in the realm of the Ocean kind—the one that had been stolen from their ship. Along with pretty much everything else on it.
"The thief… the one who emptied ship… was you?!" Perplexed and disbelieving of his own words, Link watched how Tetra tried to quickly hide the bow, even though it was no use. A slight blush appeared on her face, as he continued, "You plundered your ownship?!"
She bit her lower lip. "It's not plundering when the things technically do belong to me…"
"This means you actually were on Windfall! The girl Linebeck saw was you after all!"
"I…"
"Why didn't you show yourself when you saw the ship and knew we were there?! Do you even have the slightest clue how worried everybody was for you?"
"Yes…"
"So, who is the reckless one no—"
"OH, JUST SHUT UP!" she suddenly yelled. Link couldn't help but back off once again, unwillingly passing the domination over the argument once again over to Tetra. "I just wanted you and the crew to stay on Windfall 'till I'm finished! That's why I emptied the ship: I wanted you to be unable to leave the place! So, now I got that off my chest!"
Those words, however, only caused Link to be even more puzzled. "Let me get this straight: You wanted to trap us on Windfall? Why would you want to do that?!"
"So you wouldn't go out to search for me and do something unbelievably dumb in the process!" she replied. "Like roaming a monster-ridden temple as an adorable, little fairy, for example!" At this point, she had to take a deep breath. Otherwise, she would have run out of air.
"… I wanted to take care of this problem myself for once, without dragging anyone else in. So I detached the sails, took pretty much everything usable with me, boarded the vessel of the King of Red Lions and left. That's it."
"And how did you get down here?", Link asked.
Tetra tried explaining. "The Spirit Temple was within Mother Child Isle. I thought, already being there, I could pay a visit to the Queen of Fairies as well. She told me were you went and when I explained to her, that I wanted to solve the Water Temple myself, she gave me a spell, so I could breath under wa—ha—ha—achoo!!" She sneezed all of the sudden.
"—But that spell doesn't protect me from getting wet and wearing my hair like this when it's soaked with water doesn't really help at all! And it just won't d-ra-ACHOO!... Damn it…"Already her nose was starting to run and Tetra was visibly not pleased by this. "Oh great, now I got myself a cold! Because this will make my already horrible night's sleep that much better…"
"Oh! Wait a second!"
It was Eyne who now flew over to Tetra. Watched by the young girl's confused eyes, the fairy made a gesture with her hands and clapped. Out of nowhere, a warm wind suddenly swept through Tetra's hair, causing it to dry in a matter of seconds.
"Better now?" Eyne asked.
Somewhat relieved, Tetra moved her fingers along her dried hair. "…A lot! Thanks."
"You're welcome! Heehee…"
"Hey…"
In interest, Toki turned towards Eyne:
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?" she answered, the innocent smile still on her face. It however, faded, once she got a reply.
"I've never seen a common fairy using a wind spell before."
Eyne's eyes opened wide in shock when she heard that. Quickly, she started waving her arms before her body nervously.
"Ah—It's just some little parlor trick I learned it somewhere, nothing special, really!"
"Parlor trick, huh?"
Toki's eyes made it more than just obvious that he hardly bought this explanation. Eyne quickly escaped his eyes by slowly floating behind Kaze, whose attention was still on Tetra, rather than Toki or Eyne:
"What do you mean by 'your night sleep is horrible'?" Kaze asked Tetra with a hint of worry in his voice. "Nightmares again?"
"Yeah, nightmares…" she stated and looked away quickly when she realized that Kaze wanted to know more about this. "…Just some more stupid nightmares. That's all."
"Still about Ganondorf?"
"…" Tetra fell silent. For a short second, she bit her lip again, like this question made her feel very uncomfortable. And for some reason, she suddenly seemed to try hard not to look into Kaze's eyes. Kaze, on his part, tilted his head slightly and tried to sound as calm as possible.
"Tetra, is something wrong?"
"No, nothing…"
"Don't lie," he told her, causing her to move her eyes even further away from him. "Com'on! What did you dream this time?"
"Ha." She closed her eyes, slightly tilted her head upwards and claimed in a stubborn manner, "Those are my dreams. I don't need to tell you anything!"
"Tetra, please!"
"Even if I wanted to tell you what those dreams were about," she threw Toki a quick glance, "you know that I don't exactly like having some stranger listening to my private conversations!"
Toki showed visible discontent about being referred to as "some stranger".
"It's OK!" Kaze quickly said. "He's me!"
"Uhm… What?"
Tetra blinked a few times and took a close look at Kaze's face, just to make sure that he actually intended this last line to be taken seriously. His face, however, was dead serious.
"Long, long story!" he quickly replied. "But that's not the point now! Tetra, I know you heard that one before, but you are the princess of Hyrule! It's more than likely that your nightmares are actually visions of some kind! Please, you have to tell us!"
"Argh…"
"Please!"
Tetra was still hesitating to talk about it, but after some time she took a deep breath. With her eyes fixed on the floor next to Kaze, she finally mumbled:
"I keep dreaming of …you… dying...."
Kaze's eyes momentarily widened.
"…W-What?!"
Suddenly, Tetra looked up and right away started shouting again. "That's how it is! Every single, darn night, I have to watch you suddenly kneeling over and dying! Happy now?!"
"This is bad!" Toki stated. "Every night? Kaze, if she actually keeps having the dream, it's most likely a prophecy!"
Kaze gulped. "But I don't want to die," he stated somewhat flatly, as if he believed this to be a bad joke of some kind. "I'm way too young to!"
"And that's why I wanted to keep you out of this!" Tetra claimed furiously. "Look, I'm not stupid just because I'm a blonde! I do know that the Princesses of Hyrule always had weird powers. I do know that a dream I have every single night is bound to eventually have some kind of meaning! So I tried preventing it from happening!"
She crossed her arms. "A good captain has to always make sure that the safety of their crew is secured! So, in the case that there's even a hint that one of my crewmembers might be in mortal danger, I have to act! That's why I tried to keep you on Windfall, where the greatest danger you could possibly run into are the pigs. But no, you have to work around this, just so you can continue playing the hero!"
"Tetra, I am the hero!" Kaze responded once she finished talking "That's"—and he hesitated a moment, as if he didn't quite want to say the next word–"my destiny!"
"Screw destiny!" Tetra suddenly exclaimed so loudly and emphatically, so Kaze jerked a little when he heard it. "I don't need destiny! I need my people alive!!Link, you… you are…"
Link was still in the process of backing off from Tetra's furious shouting, when he suddenly noticed how her voice started to soften…
Then, she opened her, eyes (which had been closed all the time while she was yelling) and…
"Can't you see that you are in danger?! Link, I know that you are always trying to give your very best to help, but you have watch out for your own safety as well! You are important to… all of us!! And if my dreams eventually become reality… I pray that this will not be the case! I cannot allow that something as horrible as this happens to you! So how could I ever approve of you risking your life as easily as this?"
In surprise, Link stopped stepping backward, as he noticed how Tetra's expression was gradually changing while she was still talking. What was happening…?
"Link, it is true, you are the hero! But what if something was to happen to you? Link, everyone in these lands needs you! Especially in times like this! This is why I will do all in my power to prevent this horrible vision from becoming reality!"
"'These lands'?... Tetra?"
There was a clueless look on Kaze's face when he heard the girl before him saying those lines. What was going on? This tone, the way she spoke… the way she was gazing at him with big, hopeful, blue eyes…
…This was not Tetra. At least not the Tetra he knew.
Eventually, Toki took a step forward and slowly opened his mouth:
"Princess… Zelda? Is that you…?"
"Huh?"
As soon as Tetra heard the name, she seemed to be startled for some reason. For a second, she just blankly stared into the air, before she suddenly kneeled down and put her hands to her head, looking like she was in severe pain.
"Agn… Ah…"
Shocked, Kaze bent down next to her. "Tetra! Are you alright?!"
Tetra stopped groaning. Her breathing became calmer again as she nodded. "… Yeah…"
She looked up again and shook her head a few times, before she (refusing to accept Kaze's helping hand), stood up again and sighed, "It happened again…"
"What?"
"Never mind." She quickly killed the topic. "So… You two don't happen to have a new barette for me, do you?"
Tetra was fumbling around with her hair between her fingers as she said this. The boys silently shook their heads.
"Thought so. Whatever… Oh, yes, Link…"
"Yes?"
While Kaze was still asking himself what exactly had just happened to Tetra, she rummaged in her bag and pulled out something. "I thought you might want to have this back…here!" She smiled as she handed Kaze a snow-white baton.
"The Wind Waker!" he exclaimed, somewhat relieved, as he took it back from her. "You actually saved it, Tetra!"
She grinned. "And it still works fine as well. I used it a few times, so I guess there should be no problems. But, seriously, try to not lose it anymore, alright?"
"That's an easy thing to say…" he replied, as he closely examined the baton for cracks or anything else of that kind. Fortunately, there actually seemed to be no damage. "How could I have foreseen that gust coming?"
"Oh yes, about that storm…" Toki sighed "Sorry about that. I completely underestimated the power of the Song of Storms. I didn't think it would have that kind of effect out on the ocean…"
"No problem." Tetra winked at him. She seemed to have completely calmed down now. "After all, nobody got hurt and I saw that the ship is alright as well. I guess everybody got lucky, or what?"
"Well… not exactly everybody…" Kaze admitted, somewhat subdued. "We wrecked the S. S. Linebeck…"
"What?!" Tetra was a little startled. "Does that mean Linebeck is—"
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Kaze quickly kept her from talking any further. "He's fine."
Hearing this, Tetra sighed in relief, "Wheew… Thank goodness…"
While Kaze was carefully storing his baton in his inventory, he carried on, "He's currently with the others on Outset… I agreed to let him come with us on our ship until we found a replacement for his own. Is this OK with you?"
Tetra nodded slowly. "Sure, as long as he doesn't get in our way... Ah… whatever. Anyway… So you came from over there?"
She pointed at the door in the corner of the room. The boys nodded.
"Hm… that means that this way just leads back to main hall… OK, we'll have to take the door I came through then and take another way. Follow me, boys!"
She had already turned around and started to head for the door, when Kaze suddenly jumped up. "W-Wait a sec!"
He ran up to Tetra, passed by her and placed himself between her and the door. "You… you can't come!"
"I beg your pardon?"
Tetra stared at him as if he just told her the lamest joke in the history of lame jokes.
"Link. I made my way through three of those temples. Alone. And in case you suddenly suffer from short-time memory loss, may I remind you that approximately 5 minutes ago, I saved your butt? Now name me one good reason why I should stay behind?"
"Ehm—Because—You are—I am—"
But Tetra didn't allow him to go any further than that. The angry expression on her face had made its triumphant return, after barely three minutes of absence.
"Oh, I get it, let me guess! The Great Mighty Hero™ can't help but feel humiliated, because I refuse to play the role the Fair Pure Princess™, who nicely stays behind and waits until he's done with boosting his ego on some stupid quest. Well, if you want to hear my opinion on that… hello?"
She started knocking at Link's forehead. "Tock, Tock, Tock! Anybody home?!"
"Ow!!"
Link barely managed to dodge the fourth knock, stepped back three steps and quickly resumed talking, before Tetra could cause him any more headaches than she already did. "Tetra, listen to me! You made it through those other temples way too fast!"
"Or you two were just way too slow!"
"Honestly, did you encounter any monsters while you where there? Just asking."
"Well… There were some, of course."
As if too show that she was just as capable as the two of them, she started counting the monsters aloud. "There were two Octorocs… Annoying, but not really hard to get rid of…a swarm of burning Keese… Ugh, this disgusting ReDead… yeah, that one was rather nasty…"
"…And a giant larva, who tries to pound you to mash once you get anywhere near it or a colossus made of magma? Or seemingly bottomless armies of ChuChus and Stalfos, that make you seriously wonder where they keep coming from and how?!"
Link actually managed to baffle Tetra with those monster descriptions, an achievement he was rather proud of. Yet, he tried to keep his expression as serious as possible. He wanted her to clearly understand what he was trying to tell her.
"Tetra, seriously, I would never even dare to think a single second that you were weak! But we think that the monsters are specifically targeting us! That's why you didn't have half the problems we had when you went through the temples. Staying with us right now would be too dangerous! Yesterday night, Grandma, Aryll and Sue Belle got dragged into a battle with some monsters that attacked us during the night. Look, I just don't want you to get into trouble, just because the two of us are walking dartboards right now!" "
"One more reason not to go let you two progress alone now!" Tetra insisted. "Link, I know I am repeating myself, but I do have dreams of you biting the dust! And when the enemy is actually sending monsters en masse after you… Forget it! I'm not leaving now, just so I can return later to pick up your corpse!"
"Tetra…"
"I am sick of the waiting anyway! I felt useless when I had to wait for you in Hyrule Castle! I felt like a nuisance when I had to watch you fight all alone in the realm of the Ocean King and couldn't even move a muscle! I'm so done with that! And you know what? I surely didn't fight through half of this goddamn hole of a temple, just so you can sent me back to the reserve bench in order to wait again! You got that?"
"Uhm… But…"
"You got that!?"
Once again, Kaze couldn't help but back off. This woman never failed to "amaze "(read: scare the heck out of) him.
"A…Alright…"
He sighed:
"But please… be careful, OK?"
"You too!" was Tetra's answer, before she went past him and gave them a sign to follow her. "Come on, guys, we don't have all day!"
Silent, maybe even a little perplexed, the former group of three followed the blond girl, who apparently had just appointed herself as their leader.
Lucky them.
"And… PUSH!"
"HA… HNGH!!"
Tetra and the Links were leaning against a huge boulder which was in their way. With all their might they tried to move it out of their way.
"Almost there! Just once more, boys!!" Tetra shouted.
"HNGH!!!"
Finally, the giant piece of rock moved. They'd done it. Tired but proud, they exchanged smiles and high fives, before they continued their way through the corridor.
"So… you actually mean it?" Tetra finally asked. "The reincarnation thing, I mean."
"Well, that's what the sages told us." As Kaze replied, he stretched his arms into the air a little bit for no particular reason.
Toki took a look at Tetra's now very calm face. "You don't seem to be very surprised by this," he stated.
Tetra just smiled. "Well, it is a weird thought, but I guess it really doesn't surprise me much. ...After all, Link is much more capable than he does looks. His talents do have to come from somewhere."
"What do you mean by. 'Than I look'?" Kaze asked, slightly annoyed, although he was rather glad that Tetra had called him "capable" and "talented."
A short laugh escaped Tetra when she notice the look on her friends face: "Well, you don't exactly look like a knight in shining armor, do you? And even if you did, you'd be a rather short knight!"
"Argh…" Kaze didn't like this last statement. Not a bit. Mostly because it was true. "It's not fair; why's she taller than me…" he mumbled, almost unintelligible (but just almost).
Toki pointed out to him, "I'm taller than you too!"
He grinned, as he measured their heights with his hands and showed his partner that there was a difference amounting to approximately 2 inches.
"See?"
Kaze rolled his eyes. "Next you'll point out that one day, Aryll will be taller than me."
"If it continues like this, certainly!" Tetra commented.
"Hey!"
Gradually Kaze's face was changing to a crimson red color as the game of "Everbody is taller than you" his friends were playing progressed.
Toki just gave him a grin and patted his back. "You just need to drink more milk! That will help you growing!"
"You and your milk..."
"Hm… Sorry, no, but I don't think so," Tetra stated, grinning mischievously. "Milk cannot substitute a missed growth spurt! Heheh…"
As Kaze heard this, he jumped. "I… I didn't miss it! It's just… taking it's time!!"
"Su~re it is." Tetra replied in a sarcastic tone.
When Toki saw that they were actually upsetting Kaze a lot with this talk, he said, "Hey, don't worry. It's not all about height, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah…"
"It can't be far anymore!"
This was Eyne, finally letting her voice be heard again after having remained silently watching everybody else for quite some time now. "The sanctuary is near. I can feel it!"
"And once we are there, we'll just defeat the last monster and break the sage's seal," Toki stated, as the smile on his face reappeared. "Piece of cake!"
Kaze agreed with a smile. "Yes, together we should be able to finish this in no time!"
"Uagh!!"
A gasp of disgust was the next thing the boys heard and thus they turned around to see Tetra, desperately brushing her hair with her hands. "Yikes! I got some spiderweb in there! That's gross!"
She tried everything in her power to get the sticky strings out of her hair, but it was to no avail; no matter how much she got out, a few strings remained. Finally, she gave up and once again declared:
"I hate hairstyle!! How did that other Princess not go nuts, wearing her hair like this?!"
"Simple: She never went through any spiderweb-filled dungeons," Toki explained "Because that's… you know… actually… my job."
"Please, don't get us started with this again…" Kaze sighed, already feeling the headache coming back.
Tetra, however (after trying to somehow tie up her hair, using her scarf and, of course, failing), stated, "Argh!....First thing I do once we got out here: Get myself a new barrette!"
"Why a barrette? You could try wearing braids for once.", Kaze suggested and Toki nodded.
"Yeah, or a ponytail!"
"With a ribbon!"
"Oh yes, a ribbon would look cute on you!"
Fist applied to Link's forehead. Take 3.
"Uhf!!"
Fist applied to Link's forehead. Take 4.
"Ouch!"
"You say 'ribbon', I say 'toilet duty.' Forever," Tetra hissed. "And now, move on. I want to free that sage and get this finally over with!"
"There'll … probably be a huge monster again," Toki noted, while he was still rubbing his forehead. "We'd better be prepared."
Tetra put her hand around the handle of her cutlass. "I am prepared for anything," she said. "And once we awaken the last sage, this whole mess will finally come to an end."
"Yeah…"
Suddenly, Kaze smile faded again and he looked to the floor…
So the moment the sages joined forces, everything would go back to the way it used to be? This mean the monster attacks would stop again; Dragon Roost mountain would not erupt again for sure; he would stop heaving those dreams and déjà vus all the time...
…Toki would be gone.
When everything went back to normal, there would only be one "Link" left in the world. That was the way it was supposed to be, right…? Why did it feel so incredibly cruel to him then?
Toki was a person too, after all. Even if he didn't truly belong here, he was their friend. If they could just find a way to keep him from disappearing… Then they could stay friends…
Actually…considering what they were… Was this a narcissistic wish? Now that he thought about it…
"Uhh… Ruto…"
Toki's slightly trembling voice caused Kaze to return to reality and notice, how the Hero of Time was downright shivering in fear at the thought of the Sage of Water. "I hope she'll at least stay on-topic! I hope the impending apocalypse is enough to distract her from her pointless flirting attempts… But I seriously doubt it."
Kaze couldn't help but be amazed.
That were his worries? His only worries? Just how could he stay so calm? How could he ignore the fact that he was going to die?
…That's when Kaze remembered what Tetra said about her dreams before.
He gulped.
If she was right… Toki wouldn't be the only one to die. They both would.
Then again, what if what Tetra saw was not actually meant to be him, but Toki? Maybe she just saw the inevitable happening…
"Also…I am still worried because of Saria…" Toki suddenly stated.
Quickly trying to forget the terrifying thoughts he had on his mind just a second ago, Kaze turned towards him again. "Why don't you try to call on her again? Maybe this time it works."
Since this suggestion seemed like a good and logical idea, Toki reached into his bag and got out the Ocarina. He played the familiar three notes and repeated them…
After a short moment of silence, he shook his head. "Nothing…" He stored the Ocarina again. "…Just why isn't she answering? I got the feeling that something is wrong with the sages…"
As Toki was still pondering about what could possibly have happened to Saria that caused their connection to disappear, his eyes suddenly rested on Tetra.
"Hm…"
"Huh? What?" Tetra blinked at him a few times. "Do I have something stuck in my face? Why are you starring at me like that?"
"Well, you see… it's like this:", Toki started explaining: "Actually, there are seven sages. Princess Zelda is the seventh. And since all the sages are spiritually connected to each other, I figured you might be able to find out what has happened over there…"
A skeptical expression appeared on Tetra face, as Toki explained this. "Ehh… yeah, sure, right. And how exactly is that supposed to work?" she asked in disbelief.
"Ah, what do I know… close your eyes and think… Triforce or something, just try it, please! I just want to know what happened to Saria!"
"Ahh… Alright…" Annoyed, Tetra crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Triforce, Triforce, Triforce—surprise, nothing happened. Let's move on!"
Toki looked rather offended by Tetra's actions, as he glared at her for a short moment, stating, "You may look like Princess Zelda… but you are not like her at all…"
Tetra promptly returned that glare and replied in an uncharacteristically deep tone for her voice:
"Yes. And I will never be. I am my own person, not just a substitute for the Princess you knew. Deal with it, OK?"
It actually seemed like his statement had offended her a little bit. Toki, however, just crossed his arms and made a short gesture towards Kaze. "But…he and I are not this different…"
"…Maybe, we are…"
This unexpected reply by Kaze caused Toki to suddenly turn to the side and look at his friend. "What?"
"Oh..?" Kaze looked up. He had seemingly not been quite aware of his surroundings for at least some time now. Somewhat embarrassed, he laughed, "Ah… I was just thinking aloud, sorry."
"But what did you mean by that?" Toki asked in curiosity.
"Uhm… It's just…" Kaze hesitated a little, but finally, he answered, "…I just think I'm not really able to do all the things you can do…"
"You surely have some talents that I don't."
"That's… not quite what I meant…"
The boy blushed, as he stopped walking for a moment and rubbed his back, like he was feeling a little uncomfortable.
"It's just that you are…"
Toki's eyes were on him with an interested look in them, but finally Kaze just sighed, "Ah, never mind."
Afterwards, he just went on. Toki wanted to ask further what Kaze was trying to say, but finally decided that it was probably better to just let the topic rest. The group continued on their way.
'It's just that you are stronger than me,' was what Link had actually wanted to say, but he had realized that this formulation perhaps didn't really fit with what he had been meaning to say, so he decided to postpone the topic until he finally found a way to correctly express what he thought. Also, having Tetra next to them and listening was kinda awkward… But in this aspect, he probably wouldn't really have a choice. It wouldn't be long before Toki was gone… right after they defeated the monster in the final room would probably be his last chance to say this, so he had to decide on a formulation quickly. Maybe: 'I still got a lot to learn before I can be as —' ... as… as… 'cool' maybe?... No, the multiple meanings of that word came into the way here. He didn't want to express 'awesome' by saying this… but 'calm' or 'controlled' didn't really fit either. Ah, this would be much more difficult than he thought—
Just as he was about to think about other possible and non-awkward ways to say what he wanted to say, a voice surprised the group mid walking.
It was a loud giggle that echoed seemed to come out of nowhere.
"Eheeheehee…"
Surprised, Toki drew his sword and turned around. "Did you hear that too?"
Kaze went into battle stance as well. "Yes! It sounded kind of like…"
"… a laugh?" Tetra ended the sentence, as she took a look around."But who…"
"Over there!" Eyne shrieked, as she pointed towards the end of the corridor.
Two pairs of red eyes glowed through the dark and seemed to be waiting there for them…They belonged to two figures. Two figures which the boys had actually hoped they would not have to ever see again.
"Huh?" Tetra backed off a little. "They look like… you?!"
Kaze saw it too, but he actually hoped it were just his eyes playing trick on him. Unfortunately, they weren't: Dark Links. Two of them. In the corridor, just a few meters away from them. "Oh no…Those shadows again?"
"Don't worry, this time, we are prepared!" Toki stated, as he put his sword back into its scabbard and took out his hammer instead.
But once more, the laughter they had heard just a minute ago echoed through the temple:
"Heeheehee…"
The boys looked up in surprised and looked all around, but there was nobody nearby whom the voice could have belonged to.
"Who's there?" Kaze shouted out through the corridor, with Toki adding, "Show yourself!"
But they got no answer. As Kaze slowly stopped searching for the owner of the disembodied voice out of nowhere and returned to looking into the depths of the corridor before them, both of the Dark Links where still in the very same spot as before in the very same position.
"They are not charging for us…"
Toki noticed it as well. "Yes… why?"
They kept attentively observing their dark doubles standing in the middle of the corridor, doing nothing...
"Boys?" There was something to Tetra's voice that made her seem unsettled. "I don't have a good feeling about this. Maybe, we should—"
It was that moment that the Dark Links suddenly moved. Slowly and expressionlessly, they turned around… and ran down the corridor.
"H-Hey!" Kaze exclaimed, surprised, as Toki made a fist.
"We can't let them get away! Let's go!!"
Exchanging quick glances, the boy sprinted off and left a baffled Tetra behind.
Could those men really be that naïve?!
"No! But what if this is a tra—argh! They're not even listening… WAIT!!"
She dashed after them, hoping that her suspicions were not right, because with the head start the boys had yet, she would not be able to catch up to them before something happened. She saw the Links running through a wide, open doorway.
Just as she tried to follow them inside, a wall came down all of the sudden, right before her nose.
"Ah!"
"Tetra!"
It was just now that Kaze noticed that they let her fall behind, so he ran back to the now sealed doorway and knocked against it. "Tetra! Tetra, are you alright?! Can you hear me?!"
"Ohhhh…." Even through half a meter of stone Link could hear her voice tremble with anger, which made him jerk. A loud yelling followed:
"Link! If you'd just try to use your brain before acting once in a while! This was about the most obvious trap I've ever seen in my life!"
"But those Shadows… they—"
"Kaze…"
Toki tried to regain the other boy's attention. "There…"
He pointed at the center of the room, where the two Dark Links had stopped and were now standing left and right of something resembling a podium. With their expressionless faces and their stiff postures, they looked like royal guards, protecting a throne… For some reason, this image was rather creepy. It probably had also something to do with what was placed above the podium…
Just a few inches in the air over it, a figure hovered, completely obscured by a kind of robe…
"Huh? What is this?" Kaze let his hand wander over to his scabbard, so he could draw his sword as quickly as possible when needed. "The monster guarding this sanctuary?"
"Guys…"
Kaze felt Eyne on his head trembling a little, as she peeked out from under his hat and whispered, "…Be careful…"
"Hey, do you know something about … whatever this is, Eyne?" he quickly asked.
But the fairy had hidden under his hat again and remained silent.
Toki had already gone into a battle stance. "Judged by the size… it could be a magician type creature… Maybe another Wizrobe!" He took a closer look. "Wait…I think that's Gerudo writing on the robe…"
"Gerudo? The warrior tribe you mentioned?"
As Toki was nodding to respond to this, the unknown giggle suddenly echoed through the room again:
"Eheeheeheeheehee… ah…"
A hand, grayish in color, reached out from under the robe. The boys got ready to block any eventual attack, but this turned out be unnecessary.
The robed figure made a gesture with its hand, moving it first up, then down. As it did, the two Dark Links suddenly bowed down and melted into shadows on the ground and disappeared. Surprised, the boys looked up. So those two had merely served as bait for them?
…Who was that, under those robes?
Now, the robed creature slowly descended from the podium, down to the boy's level, but still not touching the ground. A second, grayish hand emerged. The hands grabbed the robe… pulled it up… threw it to the corner of the room.
The creature's true form had been revealed—
OK. 'Creature' was probably not the right word. Just as 'surprised' was a vast understatement for what the two boys felt this moment, when they saw what, or rather, who exactly had been hidden beneath those robes.
Was that a joke? It had to be.
Kaze blinked a few times, just to make sure that he was seeing right. "But… that's… that's just…"
Meanwhile, Toki had obvious problems trying not to burst into sudden laughter. "…That's it?!" he stated with a big grin. "But that's just a little girl! Oh boy… and there I was thinking we were in trouble!"
Really, that being hovering about one meter over the ground had the exact same appearance of a little girl, certainly not older than 7 years, except for the fact that her skin was of a downright unhealthy looking, pale, grey color. Completely dressed in black—actually, even her hair was black—she wore a pointed hat and a cape, which made her closely resemble an evil storybook witch, except that she was… adorable.
Yes, adorable. There was no other way to describe it. She was so adorable, almost doll-like, that not the color of her skin, not the markings on her face, or even the fact that she had red, glowing eyes, like the Dark Links, could make her seem intimidating.
In fact, she shared many of their superficial features, but unlike the Link's dark doppelgangers, who were genuinely unsettling to look at, she just looked like a failed attempt to create something that tapped into mankind's greatest fears, but instead ended up resembling a doodle a 9 years old would come up with when given the task to draw a 'scary' witch or sorceress. In fact, Kaze was rather sure that this was what Aryll would come up with when asked to draw one.
With eyes full of curiosity, the witch-like girl closely examined the two green clad boys before her, which also revealed whom the giggling voice they had heard all the time did belonged to.
"Oh?... Eheheheh...Tee hee…"
Judged by her expression, she was having great fun, even though she wasn't doing anything except looking at them.
Amused, Toki couldn't help but giggle too. "Heheheh… OK, whoever our enemies may be this time… They have clearly run out of monsters, if they're already sending the nursery after us!"
"Hey, Toki?"
Kaze took a step towards the little girl and looked into her big, sickeningly cute eyes. She quickly returned the look with a big smile.
"Do we really have to fight her… it… that monster?" he asked. "I don't know, but I think I would feel like common bully if we did…" He suppressed the strong urge to randomly say, "Aww."
Crossing his arms, Toki went up to him and stated, "I'm not beating up little girls. Especially not when they are not attacking me… she's not attacking, is she?"
"I think she wouldn't even know how to pronounce the word 'attack'…" Kaze guessed. "Or… any words, while we're at it…"
The little girl's reaction to their confused looks had stayed limited to random giggles and big, playful smiles until now.
"But if she's really supposed to be the guardian monster of this temple…" Kaze's voice made it obvious that he was doubting this, "…she does have the key we need to open the sanctuary."
"Maybe we can get her to reveal it to us?" Toki suggested.
"Hm…"
Kaze took a few seconds to think, and then he nodded and looked at the little girl. "…Ehh… Hello?... You?" He proceeded to speak slow and clearly:
"Do...you...understand...me? "
"Heheheheh…"
"Boys…don't…"
In surprise, Toki turned his head around. That was Eyne's voice… it had just been very quiet whispering, which Kaze had not noticed because he was to focused on the laughing girl, but Toki was sure that he heard her say something...
But the fairy remained hidden underneath the other boy's hat and didn't say anything else.
What she said… It sounded like 'don't'. 'Don't'… Don't what? This was when Toki came to think…
"Kaze…" He bit his lip. "Maybe you shouldn't go that close to her…"
"Why?" Kaze replied, cheerfully smiling. "You think she'll suddenly turn into some fierce monstrosity and tear me to shreds?"
"No, maybe not, but I think, we probably shouldn't be so—"
"Ehee hee…"
That sudden, short laugh pulled the attention back to the girl. She hovered at their eyelevel now, smiling blissfully.
She reached behind her back, tilted her head innocently…
And pulled her hand back forth, in order to reveal a dark energy ball, which she promptly fired at Kaze.
"AH!"
With an incredible force, the young boy was hit, ripped away from the ground and smashed against a pillar behind them.
"UNGH!"
"Kaze!"
While Toki was still turning around to Kaze, he heard the voice of the little witch laughing loud and delightfully:
"Ahahahahahahahaha!!"
He wanted to turn around to face her again, but all he saw when he did was the next ball of energy, already shooting towards him. He quickly slashed it away with his sword, so it returned back to the witch, but she dodged it by disappearing into the ground and only reappearing when the spell had already faded. An amused giggle escaped her lips.
While she was still occupied with laughing, Toki rushed over to Kaze and helped him getting up. "Are you OK?"
"Uhh… yes… yes, I'm alright…"
He shook his head in disbelief at his own stupidity. "Just how could we be so stupid?! Tetra was right, this was a painfully obvious trap and we ran right into it! Still…" He looked over to the witch who was still laughing loudly. "…What is she? I've never seen a monster before that doesn't attack right away!"
"B-Boys…"
Eyne peeked out from under Kaze's hat, before she slowly came out and placed herself before them. She looked incredibly nervous and couldn't seem to be quite able to look into their eyes. "D-Do you know the Gerudo word for 'witch'?" she asked with hesitation.
"The Gerudo word…?" Kaze replied, seemingly not quite getting the question, while Toki already started thinking aloud.
"The Gerudo word… Nabooru told me back then…" He looked up. "It's 'Rova,' right?"
"R-Right..!" She still didn't seem to be able to just say what she wanted to say.
"H-Her… Her name… Her name is 'Wizrova'. She was created the way Wizrobes are created but not with the same intent or the same properties… D-Do you understand how you have to face her?"
"Huh?"Confused, Kaze stared at her. "Eyne! How do you know about this?"
"What do you know about her?!" Toki suddenly yelled at her. "And if you really know something about this monster, why don't you just tell us what you know? Why?!"
"I… I…"
"Just say it!"
"…"
Eyne closed her eyes and fled under Kaze's hat again.
"Eyne! What is going on?!" he asked her.
But Eyne just shivered under his hat.
"D-Don't underestimate her! Please—" she whispered before she fell silent again.
But Kaze couldn't just ignore this any longer. He was about to take off his hat so he could force her to look them in the eyes, when he suddenly heard a sound behind him. "Huh?"
The witch with the name 'Wizrova' had materialized behind him and prepared her spell, still with that innocent, childish smile on her face.
When Kaze realized this, his eyes widened and a thought flashed through his mind:
She was so close. There was no way he would be able to dodge this.
As Wizrova flung her spell at the boy, Toki had already raised his sword. He hit the ball of energy and reflected it back at her, but once again, Wizrova just dematerialized to escape getting hit by her own spell. She rematerialized behind him, which Toki quickly noticed. He turned around, jumped and tried to slash her, but she just dodged it.
She was incredibly fast…
While Toki was still trying to regain his balance from the failed attempt to attack her, Wizrova suddenly unleashed a storm of smaller magical projectiles at the boys.
"Ahahahahahahahaha!"
"Woah!"
Of course they tried to dodge, but it was impossible. With the laughter of a playing child, the seemingly psychopathic girl downright feasted on their cries when they were thrown to the ground.
"Argh!"
Kaze quickly got up again. "She's strong…"
"Not strong…" Toki argued, "Just very fast and skilled with her spells… We need to change our strategy!"
"But to what?"
No answer followed.
Kaze gulped as he realized in what kind of difficult situation they were right now. How to hit an enemy, who almost instantly reacts to everything you do…?
Tetra had been right. If he just had taken a second to think before he let himself so wide open, their enemy wouldn't have gotten the upper hand.
---Note
Pretty long chapter. Didn't remember that it was that long. ^^;
Thanks to the person who volunteered to Beta for me, until my actual Beta has finished beta-ing the, like, 17 chapters I sent in to her too late. -.-; I owe you big time.
This is, by the way, the reason why this chapter features so much better spelling, grammar and paragraphing than the previous ones. ^^;
Jup, Tetra is back. And as you can tell, writing her is huge fun for me. She's just an awesome character, there is no use denying it. Her reaction to the loss of her barrette is, by the way, based on the fact that I have the same hair length as her and know just perfectly well how annoying it can be wear such long hair open.
While translating, I noticed that a lot of Tetra's dialogue here is pretty much reversing Princess Zelda's dialogue in the beginning Spirit Tracks in terms of meaning. That was not what I actually intended to do but, well, it works. XD
Ah, my beloved little creation, Wizrova, makes her debut! This character is what happened when I realized how incredibly boring the other 3 boss monsters I had yet where. Not to mention the fact that two of them were insects. -.-;
Yes, I am aware that the Links are acting quite stupid in this chapter, but they are hot-blooded boys, who don't know about the Anime tendency of monsters to disguise themselves as cute little gir—Oh. Wait a moment. Cubus Sisters. OK, TWW Link should really have seen it coming. XD
Let's just say it's not their day…^^;
