Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth move faster than your mind

-Evan Esar

Chapter 35: Good Luck

My attention turned to the sound of a door opening up from across the one we entered, which led to what looked like even more stairs.

"Ah, this is the part when we get the treasure," Link said as he started walking to the now open door. We all followed him up the thankfully small flight of stairs and caught sight of a room filled to the brim with rupees of all colors. Lily and Ryan, being the kids they are, rolled around in it all giddy.

"Whoa! Look at all this loot!" I exclaimed never seeing this many in one room before, there must be at least… I can't even think about how much this all is. Link walked towards a chest that lay in the middle of the room and opened it, letting out a whoa himself. I looked into the chest and saw that it was full of silver rupees, SILVER RUPEES! That's two hundred rupees a rupee!

"We're gonna need help getting this to the ship," I said still in awe.

"You're right…" Link said obviously thinking of what to do. He then snapped his fingers as if coming up with something. Knowing that he'd tell us all anyways, I stayed silent. He walked up to Lily and Ryan who were throwing rupees at each other.

"Alright, you two. You're going to get the crew from the ship to come and help us out." Link said.

"Ok, sounds easy, is there a catch or something?" Lily asked, to which Link raised a brow.

"Why would you think that?" He asked.

"Um, we kinda ignored what you told us to do. So I figured…" Lily trailed.

"I mean, if you want to be punished… I'm sure I can think of-"

"No, no we're good," Ryan interrupted waving his hands frantically.

"Yeah. Thanks Dad," Lily thanked happy that she's not getting punished.

"Good, now all of you stand back," Link told as he started walking towards a side of the wall. He took out a bomb from his pocket, lit it, calmly put it down, and then took a few steps back watching the bomb explode leaving a gaping hole in the wall. Conveniently the hole gave a straight view to the ship.

"Alright, now drink this," Link said giving both Lily and Ryan a red drink to which they both drank… which wasn't apparently very good as they both gagged and coughed it out.

"You lied, there was a catch," Lily whined sticking her tongue out.

Link rolled his eyes, "You needed to drink that to do what you're about to," he said and took out two giant leaves… as you can guess, from his pocket. "You're going to use these to fly over to the ship," he told giving them the leaves.

They both held it in front of them, questioning what exactly it is. "What are these?" Ryan asked.

"They're deku tree leaves, they allow you to fly through the air. You needed to drink that potion so that when you jump you won't fall straight down, and I'm sure you'd rather have drank that disgusting stuff rather than get your broken legs. Now, just jump holding the leaf above your head and you'll glide to where you want. Don't worry about letting go, just wrap the leaf ends around your wrist and it'll secure you. Have fun!" Link said guiding the two to the hole.

Once they got to the edge they looked hesitant, and looked at Link unsure. "Um, how many times have you done this?" Ryan asked.

"Countless," Link answered easily.

"Have you ever… hurt yourself?" Asked Lily as she peered over the edge to see how high up we are.

"Are you seriously asking this? You just took out an endless horde of Mobgoblins yet you're scared of heights? Just go," Link said antsy.

Ryan and Lily looked at each other. "Um, Ladies first?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, so you go first," Lily came back.

"Screw you," Ryan muttered not arguing anymore as he took a wary step forward. "Alright on three. One… two… I can't do-AHHHHH!"

Link and I just stared openmouthed at Lily, shocked that she just kicked her best friend off the building.

"What? I was just helping out," Lily said sheepishly.

"Whoo!" We heard from behind Lily. We saw that Ryan was gliding towards the ship, having fun while doing it, swinging his feet freely as he rode the wind. "C'mon Lily, this is awesome!"

Following her friend she jumped into the air and the leaf started to glide with the wind, she screamed in excitement as she followed behind her friend. I smiled at how much fun she looks like she's having. I then heard footsteps behind me along with the dragging of wood on wood. Link was dragging the chest out of the room and towards the stairs when he paused and facepalmed himself.

"What is it?" I asked. Link didn't answer as he wordlessly lifted the chest and chucked it out the window, crashing to the ground with a loud thud. "Why'd you do that?"

"Easier than dragging it down," he answered bluntly as he went to throw out another chest, not even looking at me.

"Hey… are we cool?" I asked lamely, the question slipping out before I even knew it.

"Tetra… like I said before, this act is all for Lily. You saw how happy she was just now, fighting and flying. She's definitely not going to forget this. And I don't want to fight with you because that'd ruin the rest of the trip, " Link said then throwing another chest out.

"Link, stop," I told to which he surprisingly did. "Can we be friends again or not?" I asked straight to the point. Link looked at me as if asking me if I'm seriously asking this right now.

"Tetra, I told you I can't trust you. And I can't be friends with people who I don't trust."

"Then give me a chance to show you you can trust me," I pleaded.

"I did. I just did! Back in the boss room! I trusted you to stay back and keep the kids safe and out of the room, more specifically out of danger. But, as expected, you gave me yet another reason not to trust you," Link said obviously holding back his anger.

"You can't put that on me! You… I thought you were gonna get yourself killed! Of course I'd run to help you! You think I'm just gonna let you get beat to death? No way! Making sure you're ok is second nature to me!" I exclaimed.

"I could've handled it myself," Link said frowning, getting angry.

"You said you couldn't have done it without us!"

"You're wrong! I said that you guys helped out, I never said that I needed it. I told you that I'm more than capable than taking on a boss before!"

"Well just because you say it doesn't make me worry any less! Do you know how scared I was?"

"Do you know how scared I was? Because the three of you came in I had to keep an eye out for all of you! I never brought you along for any of my dungeon clearings, you could've been cut up in seconds. Lily and Ryan… they're just kids! Thank Din they know how to fight, otherwise… I don't even want to think about it. You made me worry about four people instead of one."

"Look, we're all alive now aren't we?" I asked, which got Link's frown to deepen.

"The only reason you're alive right now is because Lily was unscathed and happy. You're incredibly lucky she knows how to fight, otherwise the consequences would've meant your head."

"You really would've killed me?" I asked looking at my feet, my anger abruptly turning to sadness. He didn't hesitate to answer.

"You ever hear the saying an eye for an eye?" Link asked, answering my question.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat and calmly walked up to him. I looked up into his cold and calculating eyes, and slapped him, hard.

"I HATE YOU!" I screamed as I turned on my heel and walked out the room and down the stairs, the tears quickly pooling in my eyes.

I made my way to the bottom, the trip down feeling extensively long. Once I got to the bottom I walked out the door and started making my way to the ship, not bothering to take a look back. I was almost at the ship when I saw the crew coming my way to the tower, Lily and Ryan leading them. Thankfully I kept the tears from falling and hopefully I don't look like a mess.

"Hi Mom, where are you going?" Lily asked stopping in front of me, no doubt intentionally blocking my way.

"I'm just going to the ship. I'm… not feeling well," I said lowly not able to look at her, otherwise she'd see the tears in my eyes.

"Oh. ok," was all Lily said before stepping aside and letting me through, a worried look in her eye.

"Just-just get the treasure to the ship," I told my crew as I walked through them, no doubt giving me questioning looks.

Once I got to my ship I climbed up the landing board and onto the ship, making my way into my room. But before I entered, I walked to the stockroom and grabbed myself a glass of rum, the crate holding it was unsurprisingly open. I then walked into my room, uncorked the bottle and gulped half of it down in one chug.

"For Lily," I said, then taking another chug, trying to drown out my sorrows. I want to be happy for Lily, I don't want to ruin this trip for her. She's having a good time, I don't want it to end on a bad note. I'd hate seeing her sad.

Before the crew had come back I ended up drinking three bottles in whole, me being a pirate felt nowhere near tipsy as I'm able to hold my liquor. Footsteps approached my room and I quickly disposed of the bottles, well more like stuffed them between the wall and my bed. I then threw the covers over myself, along with the tops of the peaking out bottles.

"Hey Tets, you feeling ok? Lily told me you weren't feeling so hot," Link said with a face as fake as plastic worried look on his face, Lily behind him. I wanted to cry at how much of a good faker he is.

"Yeah, just needed to rest my head," I lied terribly, Link's nose scrunched slightly as if smelling the traces of alcohol lingering from my breath.

"Ok, just making sure," he said waving me goodbye before turning giving a kiss to the top of his daughter's head and making his way to Din knows where, probably the crow's nest. Lily walked in and closed the door behind her, then walked up to me as I laid down in front of her.

"Are you and Dad ok?" Lily asked bluntly.

"Yeah, we're fine," I answered, lying to my own daughter.

"No, really. Are you two friends or not?" Lily pried.

"Lily, we're good. I promise," I falsely assured, feeling like an absolute scumbag as I lied to my own daughter.

Lily squinted, "Alright if you say so. Anyway the crew suggested us eating out on the beach, in celebration for all the loot we collected they said."

"Ok, we can do that," I said sitting up.

"Cool, I'll come and get you when dinner's ready," Lily said giving me quick hug, then leaving the room, leaving me with my thoughts. Just me and my depressing thoughts.

"There really is no chance for us huh?" I asked myself, thinking of Link. He really doesn't want to give me any more chances. He trusted me to take care of the kids and of course, despite their after effect happiness, I did put their lives on the line. He's had enough of me in his life.

"We'll never be back to where we were, happy and together, let alone friends. Never."

The next few hours or so consisted of me thinking of how to stop loving Link. Trying to come up with things that didn't make him great, that didn't make him loveable. In the end, despite his justified anger at me, I couldn't think of anything that made him unloveable. It just goes to show, that once you fall in love, it's hard to stop.

"Mom, dinner's ready," Lily said opening the door to my room. I tried my best to put on a happy face and started making our way to the shore.

"So what did you do while waiting for dinner?" I asked.

"Me and Ryan trained some more. Then Dad came back from the forest and gave the both of us pointers and stuff," Lily told.

"That's nice," I said trying to sound happy. Lily seemed to pick up the act as she gave me a worried look, but she said nothing about it.

"Yeah… well, c'mon let's eat," Lily said as we were now on the beach, the starry night sky illuminated by the bright moon. She ran towards Ryan, who looked like he was patiently waiting for his friend with an extra plate of food in his hand, sitting on a blanket on the sand. She gratefully accepted the plate with a smile and sat down next to him.

The rest of the crew was sitting around a fire that was put in the center of all of us, Senza serving out something other than just salmon.

"What's this?" I asked as I stared at the various fruits on myplate, the only the fruit I recognized were the hyoi pears, of course this was all accompanied by salmon. He also handed me a cup of what looks like a mix of varying fruits as well.

"This place gots a lot of food on it, it's all good! We crushed a few n' mixed them toge'er to make the drink, tastes pre'y good too," Senza said. I took a sip and it tasted better than I expected.

"That is good, where'd you get it?"

"Link had gone up into the fores n came back with all this stuff and said 'we'll eat this' he said."

I frowned and turned around looking around the beach, not seeing Link. I looked up to the crow's nest and saw him climbing down towards the main deck making our way towards us.

"Why was he up there?" I asked myself aloud.

"I dunno, I think Lily asked em to do somethin'," Niko said speaking up.

"Huh, alright. Gimme a plate, I'm sure he needs to eat," I told. Senza put a plate in my hand and I walked up to Link as he walked down the landing board. "Hey Link, I got you a plate," I said holding out the plate for him to take, he looked over my shoulder and then quickly gave me a fake smile and gratefully took the plate.

"Thanks Tets," he thanked before making his way to Lily and Ryan, me not trailing far behind. My smile fell at hearing his old nickname for me, knowing that whenever he calls me that he's faking it. I walked towards him, Lily, and Ryan and sat down next to Ryan… as Link had already taken the spot next to Lily.

We had then all taken to eating in silence, well we as in me, Link, Lily, and Ryan. The crew went on to have their usual rowdy conversations, while we just ate silently. Ok, maybe not all of… just me and Link. Well we joined in once in awhile but we never directly talked… a sense of deja vu overcoming me.

"Dad where'd you get this stuff? It's great!" Lily praised happily stuffing another foreign fruit in her mouth. Link smiled at our daughter's childish antics.

"There's a lot of food lying around here, don't worry nothing's poisoned… at least I don't think," Link questionably trailed causing Lily to slow down on the chewing causing him to chuckle heartedly. "I'm joking, I wouldn't give you something I didn't know was safe. You know that."

"With the amount of food that's just 'lying around' don't you think we can stay for awhile?" Ryan asked.

Link sighed smiling and shaking his head no, "Nice try, but you two have to get back to school. By the time we get back you two will no doubt have some work to do."

"We know, but is there a lot of food left or no?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, why do you want us to bring some back home? I already took some seeds from each of them, so we could have them grown when we get back," Link answered. Ryan then looked at Lily and she looked back, they gave each other a smile.

"Cool," Ryan said as he took a bite out of his hyoi pear.

"I think we should leave in the morning if we're going to get back on time, I'm sure you two remember that Halloween is just around the corner," Link said.

"Oh I almost forgot!" Lily exclaimed, "I still don't know what I want to be…"

"A loser," suggested Ryan jokingly.

"I'm not going to be you for Halloween," came back Lily, to which Ryan rolled his eyes. "Seriously though I don't know."

"Ok, before any of you continue talking about this… what in the world are you talking about? What's Halloween? Is it like Christmas or something like that?" I asked unaware.

"It's called a holiday, Dad had done some reading and found out that the original people of Hyrule celebrated holidays. He says it's to bring all of us together… and to give us time off of school," Lily answered smiling at me and then Link.

"So… it's a vacation?" I asked still not really getting it.

"A vacation with a theme. Halloween is about scary things, dressing up, and getting candy. Christmas is about giving and spending time together. We have New Years to mark the new year, Valentine's Day for lovey stuff, April Fools for playing pranks, and… I think that's it," Lily said.

"You forgot 4th of July," Ryan commented.

"Oh yeah! 4th of July was when Dad found Hyrule, we celebrate with fireworks, they're really cool," Lily added.

"I'm still a little confused about them," I said scratching my head.

"Don't worry, when the time comes I'll show you how to celebrate," Lily said happily.

I smiled at the thought of us celebrating happily together, "Sounds great."

Lily then yawned loudly stretching out her arms and laid down on her back. "So Dad can you play me a song please? I'm feelin' a bit tired," Lily asked turning to Link. I looked towards Link and saw that he pulled out… an ocarina.

"Sure sweetie," Link said, bringing the ocarina to his lips. Then playing the tune that he once played to me to sleep so many years ago. After hearing a few notes Lily started snoring, Ryan laughed quietly and laid down next to Lily quickly falling asleep as well. My smile fell at the bittersweet memory but I found myself getting drowsy, the notes gracefully finding their way to my eardrums, and like my daughter I fell asleep.

…

After waking up from a dreamless sleep I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I stretched and looked around taking in the my surroundings. The bright sun high in the sky shining down onto me, the gentle waves swishing back and forth against the sand, my ship out in the middle of the sea. Wait… what?

I looked towards the place where we docked the ship, only to see that it wasn't there, and I looked back to the ocean to see that it really is sitting in the middle of the sea. Did they seriously leave me behind?

I was about to get up but then felt something against my feet, I looked down and saw a bottle with a slip of paper inside. I reached forward and pulled it towards me, then uncorked the bottle and took out the slip.

Mom,

I know that things aren't the best between you and Dad. I know that you're sad and that makes me sad. Dad is mad at you, which makes me even more sad. I want all of us to be happy, and I think that if you and Dad become friends again that that'll happen. So Ryan and I made a plan, which was to leave the two of you alone on the island. The crew thankfully went with it, we all wish you the best of luck. We'll come back in a week to pick you and Dad up, good luck!

Love, Lily

Author's Note

So… were you expecting Lily to do this? I hope not, it wouldn't make for much of a cliffhanger if that's the case. Although I'm sure you all thought something would happen, not this but something.

Now Link and Tetra are stuck together whether they like it or not, anything can happen. Anything. What do you think?

Anyways I hope you guys liked the chapter, thank you for reading and I'll see you all next week! Bye!