Chapter 18: Adventure Ahoy!

On day one everyone was so eager to find something new that the island they'd left became frequently mistaken for a new one.

On day two the island they'd procured fruit from disappeared, and they were left to sail with nothing but the sea.

On day three, Princess Zelda proposed that they continue their training, and Tetra agreed, but only because there was nothing else to do, and perhaps most frustratingly, nothing to see.

On day four, their high hopes dwindled further, and Nudge tried to convince her to turn back. At first, Tetra wouldn't hear of it, but after some arguing with her advisor, she couldn't ignore the fact that they were low on supplies and conceded that if they found nothing tomorrow, they would turn back.

Day five was supposed to be their last day, so day six was never supposed to happen. However, Zuko spotted some debris comprised entirely of wood on the horizon on the fifth day of their great voyage, and despite not knowing what or where it was from, Tetra decided that they would keep sailing and try to trace the wreckage back to its source, because, technically, debris was something.

So they had kept sailing. That alone should have made Tetra happy, or at the very least satisfied, however she could only feel anxious.

Already it was past noon and so far nothing. No more debris. No rocks. No island. No hope.

Except there had to be a little hope left because otherwise they'd be on their way back to the Great Sea right now. Otherwise, Tetra would be thinking about turning the ship around. But she wasn't. Because they had found something yesterday and today they could find more.

At least, that's what she told herself because the truth was that she was too stubborn to quit, even though she knew it may be in hers, and everyone else's, best interest to do so.

There was a demon on the loose, after all, not to mention their food situation. It wasn't the most ideal time for sailing around uncharted seas in the hopes that they'd find a land to call their own. In fact, though she wouldn't admit it out loud, it was the absolute worst time for such an expedition. But maybe that's what would make it successful.

As much as she'd like to kid herself with such delusions, she couldn't. Not completely. Yet, she couldn't let go of them either which was why she was pacing circles in the crow's nest, Zuko's telescope clutched in her right hand, while her thoughts scurried like worried mice around her head.

She'd reviewed the facts a dozen times and not one brought her closer to making a decision.

Sighing, in exasperation, Tetra brought the spyglass to her eye for what must have been the hundredth time that day, peering down into the water. To the left she found Linebeck's steam ship chugging along through the waves. To the right, Jolene's extravagant vessel cut through the water like a dagger. And on the horizon…nothing. Nothing behind them. Nothing in front of them. Nothing-

Her breath hitched. …Something? She hardly dared to think it anything but a mirage cooked up by her desperation.

Hastily zooming in, Tetra cursed as she almost dropped the tool. It seemed to take forever and a day to focus, and when it did, Tetra didn't believe that it truly had.

She stared harder and harder and harder still before she realized that she was looking at an island.

Heart hammering, Tetra adjusted her view, zooming out a bit and sweeping the telescope farther to the left. She didn't have to go far before her sights landed on another island, this one appearing to be a bit larger than the last, though it was hard to tell for sure.

Two islands close together? That was too much to hope for. She had to be dreaming. Except the sticky ocean humidity on her skin and the salty air in her lungs felt all too real for a dream.

Tetra lowered the telescope and shook herself before she could get too excited. Islands weren't what they were looking for. She couldn't build a kingdom on a tiny island or even a group of islands. They were too disconnected.

Still…she raised the spyglass to her eye once more, easily finding the two shapes in the distance. Islands were a start.

She knew that she should go down and inform everyone else, or at the very least, shout "Land ho!" but she couldn't bring herself to do any of that just yet. Once she did that, everyone would want to see, and she wouldn't get another glimpse for quite a while.

So the young pirate captain stayed silent, a feat that would astound anyone who really knew her, and continued to peer through the telescope, fiddling with the settings in an effort to see more than just hazy blobs.

After a few minutes, she'd managed to identify two more islands. All four of them stretched out somewhat methodically along the portside horizon, like sentries guarding something precious.

The very thought sent her on a vain hunt for that precious thing, and it was on this ridiculous mini mission that she noticed something peculiar.

Tetra leaned forward, pressing against the crow's nest's wooden wall that acted as a rail as if that would help her see better. Unfortunately, it didn't, and she was left squinting through the telescope, taking it away from her eye and putting it back again and again and again.

Either it was a large cloud hugging the horizon or it was another island, considerably larger than any she'd ever seen before. It could've also been a mirage, but Tetra didn't like to entertain the thought that she was crazy.

It was much more comforting to believe it was something tangible, rather than imaginary, and as long as it was tangible, getting closer would prove beneficial.

Drinking in one final, selfish look at the series of islands, Tetra alerted the others to the existence of the land with a shout, hurrying down from the crow's nest to direct Senza, who was currently manning the wheel, to turn towards the isles and to return the telescope in her hand to Zuko.

She'd just passed the spyglass off to the pirate lookout when Kid ran up to her, Link and Niko in tow.

"Did you say land?" the Wind Waker asked her, excitement shining in his eyes.

"Yeah, there are some islands a ways out," Tetra informed him, reaching for the compass she usually kept on her and tossing it to him. He caught it easily. "We'll get there faster if you get the wind blowing in the right direction. It'll probably be easier to do in the crow's nest because then you'll be able to see where you're aiming for."

"Right," Kid agreed, scurrying away towards the ladder that led up to the crow's nest. The foot of it was already crowded with most of her crew, eager for a glimpse of a sight of land in nearly a week, but Kid pushed his way through and managed to get to the ladder.

"Oi, oi! Where do you get off thinking you can cut in front, shrimp?" Gonzo protested, grabbing Kid by the arm and yanking him back before he could start climbing.

"Let him go, Gonzo!" Tetra ordered. "I'm sending him up there to change the wind direction." Her first mate obeyed, and Kid hurried up the ladder to join Zuko and Mako in the crow's nest.

"So since we found islands we can drop everything and celebrate, right, Miss?" Niko piped up, his tone hopeful.

Tetra whirled around to address the swabbie. "We're not looking for islands, so no one's getting out of doing work." She made sure her voice was loud enough for the chattering men at the foot of the ladder to hear.

"Ooh bummer for you, swabbie," Niko said, elbowing Link in the side and causing the hero to throw an irritated glare at the small pirate. "Looks like you're not getting a break."

"Tetra, tell me I don't have to listen to him anymore," Link requested.

She raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"

"Because he's not even working!" Link exclaimed, gesturing in an accusatory manner at Niko.

"Oi! What are you ratting me out for?!" Niko demanded, aghast at his fellow swabbie's betrayal.

Link continued as if Niko hadn't spoken. "He's dumping all of his work on me and cutting up paper." The first part wasn't anything new to her, but the second was.

Tetra leveled a stern look at Niko, causing him to shrink back a little. "What did I tell you about those stupid paper cut outs?" Niko had created paper cut outs detailing their whole first adventure, and probably their second by now as well, and it was excruciatingly embarrassing. She hoped he hadn't shown them to Link.

"Someone has to log our adventures!" Niko claimed. "If I don't, who will?"

"Niko, we have our adventures logged up here," she said, tapping the side of her temple with a finger. "We don't need you scrapbooking them, so stop wasting time and precious paper and start doing your job."

"Yes, Miss Tetra," Niko replied solemnly, turning to go and gesturing for Link to follow him.

The Hero of Twilight stood his ground. "I am not helping you."

"You have to! Right, Miss Tetra?" Niko immediately looked to her for support.

She was about to agree, but then she glanced at Link's fed up expression and decided that Niko's reign of terror in Link's life had gone on long enough, if only because it was highly likely that if it went on any longer someone would get hurt.

"No, Niko," Tetra said. "You're on your own."

"What? But Miss-"

Tetra held up a hand, silencing Niko's protest instantly. "You're on your own. Go swab the deck."

"Thank you," Link breathed as his former torturer sulked away to do as he was told.

"Yeah, yeah." Tetra waved off his thanks. "Just keep yourself busy for the next few hours, and don't get in anyone's way."

"Is it really going to take that long to reach those islands?" Link wondered.

"Yes, if you haven't noticed by now, sailing takes a while."

The Hero of Twilight stared at the miles of waving blue stretching out before them. "I miss Epona."

"Your horse wouldn't get you far on water," Tetra reminded him.

"No, but she would on land."

"We're not on land."

Link paled a little. "Don't remind me." She wondered if he was still a little sea sick. If he hadn't gotten used to it by now, there was no helping him.

Leaving Link to his own devices, Tetra ordered her crew back to their posts. She paced the deck for a while, overhearing Jolene reprimanding her own lookout about not noticing the islands before Tetra and her crew did. It was somewhat entertaining to listen to for a while, but she quickly tired of it and began to seek out some other form of entertainment.

Occupying herself was harder to do than it should have been which made Tetra suspect that some of Link's antsiness had rubbed off on her.

She was only able to hold out for another hour before she couldn't help but relieve Zuko of his lookout duties once more and settle herself into the crow's nest to wait. Kid joined her, just as eager to see the islands up close as she was.

However, as she'd reminded Link earlier, sailing wasn't a fast means of travel. It was slow and methodic and painfully boring. At least, it was when the waters and weather were calm and you weren't doing anything but watching the horizon and waiting for it to get closer.

She didn't remember dozing off but she must have because she was waking up now to a particularly loud and daring seagull who was perched beside where she was slumped against the post.

Waving it away, Tetra got to her feet and searched for Kid. She found him dozing on the opposite side of the crow's nest and was instantly relieved. He hadn't seen her sleeping. Therefore it had never happened.

Swiping Zuko's telescope up from the floor, Tetra made to check their progress with the tool and was surprised to find that she didn't need it in order to see the islands in the distance. They were considerably closer than they had been before, and by using the spyglass in her hand she could pick out finer details. Green grass and defined edges and some trees, but nothing else. Nothing that explained the debris they'd found.

She moved the spyglass to check the other islands but didn't even get that far. Her gaze had stilled at the sight of another island, a ways past the tiny island she was just looking at.

It was much larger than the others and that made her wonder if it was big enough for their purposes. Unfortunately, when she swept her gaze a little farther to the left, the land gave way to ocean, and she could see by the curve of it that water surrounded the other side of the land as well.

Continuing on to the left, she soon came upon another piece of land. She expected it to stop after she passed her sight over the little island of green she'd spotted before, but it kept going and going and going, and when it did stop, the cliffs rising up at its end suggested that, though the coastline stopped, the land beyond it did not.

Hardly daring to have the thought, Tetra zoomed in as much as she could, trying to see farther. It was hazy so she couldn't be sure, but it didn't look like it stopped. It looked like it kept going.

Tetra yanked the telescope away from her eye and marched over to Kid, kicking him none too gently in the side. "Wake up!"

Kid started, raising himself up on an elbow and sleepily rubbing at one eye. "Huh?"

She yanked him to his feet and all but shoved him in the direction of her discovery.

"What's going on?" he wondered, a little more awake now that he'd been tossed around some.

"Look," she commanded, jabbing a finger towards the mass of land that may or may not be an island.

Kid hastily tugged his sister's telescope free from his belt and raised it to his eye. "What am I looking at?"

Tetra made an exasperated noise. "Past those little islands. It looks like a big island, doesn't it? Wide coastline and all?"

"Uh huh," Kid confirmed.

"But is it an island?" Tetra interrogated him, hoping he could tell because she couldn't. "How much farther does it go?"

Seeming to catch on to what she was getting at, Kid adjusted the settings on the painted telescope, and Tetra raised her own spyglass to her eye once more to take a second look.

The land seemed to stretch on, making up a new horizon, and there may have been mountains in the distance, though she needed a closer view to be sure.

"I don't think it's an island," Kid said slowly, carefully as if saying so could somehow change what they were seeing.

Tetra removed the spyglass from her eye and glanced at Kid. "So…we found it," she said with just as much caution and disbelief in her tone.

"We found it," Kid echoed emotionlessly, as if testing out the words.

Tetra returned her gaze to the horizon as if to assure herself that it was still there. That it wasn't a mirage or a dream but real. And it was.

"We found it!" she repeated, true happiness coloring her tone this time and painting a smile as wide as that miraculous coastline on her face as she turned to Kid.

"We found it!" the Hero of Winds exclaimed in agreement, lowering his telescope and matching her elated expression with his own.

They stood there, grinning at each other from ear-to-ear like idiots, before the reality of it caught up with them, and they couldn't contain their joy any longer. It bubbled up out of them, first in the form of laughter, and then in the form of shouting nonsense to the wind.

No doubt, all of this confused those below, and it was this thought that reminded Tetra that no one else knew yet, and they had to know, so she chose the quickest route possible down from the crow's nest, which just so happened to involve a rope and lots of air.

Her feet thumped hard on the deck when she landed, but she hardly felt the shock of it. She was too excited, too happy, to feel anything else.

"What is it, Miss?" Gonzo wondered as everyone on deck gravitated towards her. "Another island?"

Tetra shook her head, still smiling. "No, no. It's not, but…I don't know what to call it…it's…it's…" Suddenly Tetra found herself breathless and unable to articulate anything. What was she supposed to call it? A mainland? Her land?

Kid hit the deck and all eyes went to him. Their land?

"What is it?" the pirates pressed.

"Hyrule!" Kid exclaimed, snapping Tetra out of her brief loss of words.

"It's not Hyrule," she corrected him. "It's going to be New Hyrule!" She had picked out that name a while ago. She wanted to honor the lost kingdom somehow, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

"You're serious?" Mako said, incredulously.

"Yes!" Kid cried, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Go look!" Tetra urged, pointing in the general direction of it and pushing Zuko's telescope at him. "It's over there!"

The news sent everyone scrambling to catch a glimpse of the landmass. Even Link and Zelda were interested.

The disbelief quickly transformed into euphoria so strong that no one knew what to do with it, and soon all the pirates were whooping and hollering and cheering and Kid and Tetra joined them.

The lively seagulls above added their own screeches to the celebration as those on the pirate ship smiled and laughed and screamed and punched the air and jumped up and down and spun around until they were dizzy and fell in heaps on the deck, though that last part was mostly reserved for the youngest members.

It was no surprise that their boisterous celebration attracted the attention of the members of the other two ships so they spent a while explaining what it was they'd found.

"If it wasn't for me, you never would have found it!" Jolene pointed out indignantly after Tetra had informed her that the land belonged to her.

"You're right," Tetra conceded.

"So I should get half!" Jolene claimed.

"You don't need half," Tetra said.

"You don't need any of it!" Obviously, Jolene was still oblivious to her heritage.

"Actually, I do, but I'll let you live there." She broke away from the railing before Jolene could protest.

"Don't you think it is a little early to be saying such things?" Princess Zelda asked her, as icy as always. "You don't know what that land holds just yet."

Tetra barely registered her counterpart's words. She was feeling too good to let anyone ruin it for her and odds were that if she took the time to take Zelda's words into consideration, her joy would disappear.

So she strolled past the princess without a word and grabbed Kid. The two of them ventured out onto the bowsprit, which may not have been the smartest idea when they were both dizzy with elation, but they were both seasoned sailors, and even if they weren't, nothing could touch them. They were the seeds of the future, and the soil they were going to sow was right in front of them. All that was left to do was to get there.

After a few hours of sitting on the bowsprit, talking and munching on dried fruit –for there was no use in conserving it now- the islands she'd spotted in the distance, what seemed like forever ago, were almost close enough to touch.

"Hey, Tetra?"

She threw a glance back, her eyes landing on Link. Unlike Zelda, he was actually happy for them. "What?"

"I smell smoke."

The smile she'd been wearing ever since they discovered the land faltered. Experimentally, Tetra sniffed the air. Nothing but salt hit her nose. "I don't smell anything." She turned to Kid. "Do you?"

He shook his head but looked like he wanted to point out Link's heightened senses. Tetra didn't give him the chance.

"Nice try," she told Link, "but you're not ruining this for us."

"I'm not trying to ruin anything," Link protested. "I'm just saying that that might." He pointed, and Tetra followed his finger to a column of dark grey smoke coughing up from behind an island to their left. Only when they passed the island blocking their view a few seconds later, did she see that the smoke was coming from the land she planned on making her own.

Kid sucked in a breath. "That doesn't look good."

"Maybe…someone's having a bonfire?" Tetra suggested, trying to maintain her optimism.

"More like a forest fire," Link commented.

Tetra shook her head, though it wasn't in denial. "It doesn't matter right now anyway." They had decided to head for a small village that Zuko had spotted on the island beside the mainland first since they were already on a direct course towards it. The fire wasn't their concern.

Right now, their only concern was checking out that village.

Nonetheless, Tetra couldn't help but stare at the clouds of smoke puffing into the sky and be concerned. Why did Link have to point it out?

Seeming to sense that he upset her, Link drifted away from their perch on the bowsprit. Unfortunately, Tetra couldn't stand to stay there much longer herself, and soon left as well, busying herself with the docking preparations and making sure everyone else was informed about what they were doing. She definitely didn't need Jolene deviating from their plan and going exploring on her own.

Before she knew it, the ship had come to a stop and she was strolling off of it and coming face to face with a spearhead.

Tetra recoiled instantly, bumping into Kid who was right behind her. She raised her gaze from the gleaming tip of the spear to see a skinny man with bronzed skin and wild black hair glaring at her. Behind him were at least ten more men of all shapes and sizes, though their skin tones and hair colors didn't vary much, all wielding spears of their own. Stealing a few glances around the dock, Tetra could see that Jolene and her crew, as well as Linebeck, were getting similar treatment.

"Who is your captain?"

The man spoke with a strange accent, and Tetra blinked, taking a moment to process his words.

She straightened in an attempt to regain some of her commanding air. "You're looking at her."

An uncertain expression crossed the man's face, but she couldn't tell if it was because of her answer or how she sounded. Probably both.

"State your business."

"What?"

"State. Your. Business," the man repeated, speaking slower and enunciating each word carefully to drive his order home.

Right. Business. She didn't really have any at the moment, aside from curiosity. "We're traveling…" Tetra began slowly but not for the man's sake. She didn't exactly know what else to say. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to.

"You're pirates," he stated before Tetra could say anything more.

"Yes…" Tetra confirmed tentatively. She glanced back at Kid. "Well, not all of us."

"I'm not a pirate," Link announced as if anyone cared, raising his hand and then pointing at Zelda. "And neither is she, or him." Link pointed to Kid.

"I'm just a humble sea captain!" Linebeck called from his ship, drawing the men's attention away from the pirate ship for a moment.

"And I'm a mermaid!" Joanne cried jovially from Jolene's ship, earning odd looks from almost everyone present.

The urge to scream at them all for being idiots and putting in their two rupees when they clearly weren't needed was only suppressed by her feeling that the strangers wouldn't hesitate to attack if she did that. If these people hadn't thought that they were crazy before, they did now.

"Leave," the man ordered, returning his gaze to Tetra.

"Why?" Tetra demanded, though she did have a pretty good idea after the spontaneous input from her companions.

"We don't feel like being robbed today." The men behind him nodded in agreement, their grips on their weapons tight and facial expressions fierce.

"We're not going to rob you," Tetra replied truthfully, which only earned her another hard look.

"We also don't feel like dying today," a different man piped up.

"We're not going to kill you either." Then, before they could jump to any more conclusions, she added, "And we're also not going to hurt anyone or kidnap anyone."

"Then why are you here?" The man's battle ready stance and expression didn't change.

"Well, I…we…" Tetra snapped her mouth shut. Mentioning that she was here to establish a kingdom and basically take over the entire surrounding area, this village included, probably wouldn't help reassure these people that they meant no harm.

"That's what I thought," the man said, taking her lack of words as confirmation that she'd been lying. "Now be gone, or we will force you to leave." The men closed in, forcing Tetra to back up even farther or else get poked with the tip of a spear.

She gritted her teeth. Out of all the things she expected to find when they landed, it was not this. Not even close. And now she had to deal with it. Except…she couldn't. She didn't know how.

"If I may interject," Princess Zelda spoke up, making her way down the gangplank to stand beside Tetra. "We are but mere travelers who seek to explore the lands outside the sea we hail from."

"And what sea is that?" the man asked, his tone cautious.

"The Great Sea," Zelda said.

"There is no such sea by that name."

Zelda dipped her head regally in acknowledgement. "Yes, we suspected that no one outside of the Great Sea knew of its existence. However, it is quite real. Passage in and out is limited due to the storms that rage at the borders, but once you bypass that hazard, you will come upon the forty-nine islands that make up the Great Sea."

The men were whispering and muttering among themselves now, debating the truth of Zelda's words, though they didn't lower their spears so much as a centimeter.

Finally, the man that seemed to be their spokesperson, said, "We know of a cursed sea, but we can't be certain if we have the same one in mind. From here, how many days out is it and in which direction?"

"It's about a week out from here," Tetra cut in hastily, though it was unneeded because she knew that her counterpart didn't know the answer to this question. "To the Southwest."

The men shared startled expressions with one another. They hadn't expected her to answer correctly, apparently.

"Well, then," the man in charge lowered his spear and so did the rest of them. Tetra sighed inwardly in relief. "We apologize for our hostility, but you still must leave this place. Return to your cursed sea."

"What?!" Tetra exclaimed, outraged now. She took a step closer to the men and Zelda put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, but she shook it off. "Why? We haven't threatened you or anything!"

The men suddenly looked unsure about that. Well, to be fair, she was yelling at them, but that was hardly a threat.

"It is not that we don't…trust you," the man said with difficulty as if he didn't exactly trust her. "It is for your safety more so than anything. Recently, monsters have plagued these waters, and there have been strange happenings in the lands beyond. If you are truly travelers as you claim, I advise you travel elsewhere while you can."

"We can't! Our sea is dying as we speak!" Tetra argued. "That's why we're out here in the first place. To find somewhere else to live."

"You should keep looking," the man suggested. His expression turned somber. "We may join you soon."

Tetra shook her head. No. This wasn't how it was going to go! So what if there were monsters around? That had never stopped her before, and it definitely wasn't going to stop her now. "Look, we've seen our fair share of monsters. I'm sure that whatever's here, we can handle it."

"Our realm's guardian couldn't handle it, and he is a trained warrior," the man said, obviously trying to deter her.

It didn't work. Trained warrior or not, whoever their guardian was wasn't a hero or a reincarnated goddess. "We're not leaving."

"Hmm…suit yourself," the man relented. "Don't expect much hospitality, though. Our fishing hasn't been as successful as it usually is." The men stepped back, allowing them access to the dock.

Tetra hesitated, wondering if they were joking. But the men continued to retreat and the onlookers, worried women and curious children, swarmed them with questions as they stepped off the docks and onto a small grassy island.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," Link said as they all filed off of the ship, "but I feel welcomed."

Kid laughed a little, as did the rest of the pirates, but Tetra remained unsmiling. She whirled around to face her counterpart. "I had that under control, you know!"

"Of course you did," Zelda agreed, her hand fan raised to cover the lower half of her face, no doubt hiding an amused smile. Tetra scowled at her, and the princess lowered her elegant fan to reveal a definitive frown. "If you plan on running a kingdom someday, you are going to have to learn to give some thought before you speak. We were lucky they didn't attack us as soon as you started yelling."

"I do things my way, okay?" Tetra shot back hotly. "If you don't like it, then that's too bad."

"Actually, it's too bad for you," Zelda corrected her. "That attitude won't earn you any trust."

Tetra spat a curse at her counterpart for lack of a better response, which only proved the princess's point further, and turned to join everyone else.

"So what's going on now?" Linebeck wondered, meeting them in the middle of the dock. Surprisingly, Jolene didn't protest against their proximity. She was probably still too stunned about what had just happened to complain.

"We're going to learn more about this village," Tetra announced. "And also the realm. Whatever that means…"

"Sounds like a province thing," Link commented, and Zelda nodded in agreement.

"But I thought that stuff was for countries," Kid spoke up.

"Yes, but not all countries are landlocked like Hyrule," Zelda explained. "It's possible that this village and the surrounding islands are considered to be a part of the larger land nearby."

"Let's go ask around," Tetra suggested.

"Let me ask," Zelda said.

"No way!" She went to run ahead, but Link caught her arm and stopped her.

"Let Zelda ask," Link told her. "You're not the most…delicate when talking to people."

"Yeah I am!" She turned to Kid. "Aren't I?!"

"…You're screaming," Kid pointed out hesitantly.

She twisted out of Link's grip and pushed the Hero of Winds, causing him to stumble back a little. "Jerks! All of you!"

She didn't need them. She could handle talking to people on her own. Stalking off of the docks, Tetra found that all the villagers had dispersed, going back to whatever they were doing before they had arrived.

The only ones that had stuck around were a group of small children, but even they fled with startled gasps when Tetra got close. They had probably witnessed her yelling at everyone and pushing Kid and didn't want to be next. Well, fine. There were plenty of other people to talk to and little kids probably didn't know anything anyway.

She surveyed the area and momentarily forgot what she was doing as her eyes drank in the sight of the village. It was unique, that was for sure. She'd never seen anyone make a home out of an archipelago, but these people had done it.

Small, grassy islands were connected by sturdy wooden bridges, and huts built on stilted platforms acted as houses. There weren't many of them on the scattered islands, but looking past the small isles, Tetra could see that there was a bridge connected to the largest island of the archipelago where more well-crafted huts with brightly colored roofs stood amidst swaying palm trees.

The cawing of an unfamiliar bird drew her attention to the sky, and her eyes became fixated on a mean looking black bird with an elongated mauve neck and equally mauve beak. A pole hung lengthwise from its neck via a rope, and she couldn't even begin to fathom why.

"Whoa," Kid voiced her thoughts, suddenly appearing beside her.

"What kind of bird is that?"

Link's question snapped Tetra out of her awe. "Who cares?" Though she did. "We're supposed to be asking about this village. Come on."

She led the way across a bridge and onto another tiny island without so much as a glance behind her to see who was following, or if anyone was following her for that matter.

The natives were still wary of them, and didn't make it a secret. Furtive glances and flat out stares were shot their way as the large group wandered through the village. But as much as people looked at them, not many were willing to speak to them. In fact, most ignored them outright, but after some searching, Zelda managed to find a narrow-eyed woman that was willing to talk to them. Or, rather, to her.

"Could you tell us more about this village, please?" Zelda inquired politely.

"Well…" the woman began, tucking dark, stringy locks that had fallen into her face behind her ear. Tetra noted that it was rounded and tried to remember if the other villagers had possessed rounded ears as well. She was almost positive that they had. "This is Papuchia Village, and it's a fishing village, though fishing isn't all we do." She hefted the woven basket filled with large green fruits up to her chest, drawing their attention to it. Tetra thought that she'd seen some of those fruits on the palm trees they'd passed earlier. "Oh, and it's also the largest village in the Ocean Realm. That is to say…it's the only village."

That seemed odd. There were more islands, so why not use them? Though, Tetra supposed it could be the same case as with the Great Sea. Only certain islands were habitable.

Zelda didn't ask about that, though. "Can you tell us more about the Ocean Realm? What is it exactly?"

"Hmm, well…it's the realm located at the sea…" Her tone turned apologetic, "I'm sorry. I've never had to explain it before."

"That's alright," Zelda assured the woman. "Are there more realms?"

The woman perked up, perhaps invigorated by a question that she could answer. "Yes, there are five realms in total. The Ocean Realm is one. Then there's the Forest Realm, over there." She shifted the basket in her arms to her hip and pointed out the large land that was separated from Papuchia Village by the sea. She pointed in a different direction, further into the Ocean Realm. "There's the Sand Realm. Beyond that is the Fire Realm." She dropped her hand and readjusted her grip on the basket. "And the Snow Realm is way up to the Northwest, though I've never been to any of those places before, so I couldn't tell you what they're like."

"That is quite alright," Zelda said. "Just one more question, if I may…"

The woman nodded, the shells woven into her hair clacking together. "Go ahead."

"What has been going on as of late? The men we talked to earlier mentioned something about monsters and strange happenings."

"Oh, that." The woman sighed, dropping her eyes to her basket of fruit. "Yes, sea monsters showed up six days ago, and it's been making fishing and just plain sailing in the Ocean Realm dangerous. No one knows for sure what's going on in the other realms, but we know something awful has befallen the Forest Realm. Fires popped up around the same time that the sea monsters began to terrorize us here. Some men tried to take a ship over to see what was going on and if they could maybe help, but it was wrecked by a monster before they could make it."

Well, now they knew where the debris was from. Tetra didn't dare ask whether or not the men that went were alright or not and neither did Zelda.

The woman looked so distraught at this point that Zelda didn't press her luck with another question and thanked the woman for her time before they all distanced themselves from her to review the new information in private.

"I say we check it out," Tetra voted. Based on what that woman had just told them, this place was exactly what they were looking for. The only problem was that it was already inhabited. No one would agree to her taking over if she tried to pave a way with her heritage and asked now for their consent. But the natives would hardly object to her building a kingdom here if she saved them all.

"Didn't you hear what that lady said?" Linebeck interjected. "Sea monsters! With an 's' on the end. And that's only here. They don't even know what's in the other places! "

"Which is exactly why we need to check it out," Tetra argued. "So? Who's in?"

Her crew and Kid gave their support, as she knew they would. Link and Zelda were the real questions, and she looked to them expectantly.

Link shrugged. "I'm in."

All eyes went to the princess, whose gaze was trained on the ground in contemplation. "This is all very suspicious. These people were living peacefully until a few days ago. It may be worth our while to investigate." Zelda raised her head, her eyes finding Tetra's. "I'm in."

"Well, I'm out," Linebeck announced, raising a hand in farewell. "I'll see you crazy people when you get back."

Tetra blocked his escape. "No, you won't. You're coming with us. We need your ship."

"Why?"

Tetra raised her eyebrows. "Why do you think?"

"Cannon," Linebeck answered after taking a moment to think. Tetra nodded, and he cursed. "I should've never let Eddo install that!"

"Shoulda woulda coulda, let's go," Tetra quipped, turning on her heel and strolling towards the docks.

Five minutes later, Tetra, Kid, Linebeck, Link, and Zelda were pulling away from Papuchia Village aboard the S.S. Linebeck. Originally, Tetra was planning on taking her ship as well, but the distance to the Forest Realm wasn't too great, and it would be far faster and less of a hassle to use Linebeck's ship since they didn't have to worry about the wind direction.

Besides, her plan to win over the people of this land wasn't limited to eradicating the evil that was plaguing them. It also entailed helping them on a slightly smaller scale and for this, Tetra had ordered her entire crew to offer any assistance they possibly could to the villagers of Papuchia while the rest of them were off scouting the Forest Realm. It would be nice if Jolene and Joanne and the rest of them would help in that endeavor as well, but the last time she saw them, they were doing their own thing. She was fine with that as long as they didn't do anything to endanger the natives, which was another reason she'd left her pirates behind, to babysit the make-pretend pirates and mermaid.

Of course, her crew had argued, concerned for her safety, but she'd argued back and won like she normally did.

Now she was at the bow of Linebeck's ship with Kid, searching the clear waters for danger. So far, nothing. But then again, they had only just left.

"We never got any answers about those birds," Link piped up, as one the black birds in question glided past them. "Why do they have those things around their necks?"

"I don't know, but I bet that if I used my grappling hook I could latch onto one," Kid theorized, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What would be the point of that?" Link wondered.

"To fly!" Kid exclaimed happily.

Link laughed. "More like dangle."

"Not if you swing."

"That still wouldn't be flying," Link pointed out.

"It'd be like flying," Kid refuted good-naturedly. "And I'm trying it when we get back."

"Not without me you're not," Tetra protested, elbowing him in the ribs and winking. Flying sounded like fun.

Link shook his head. "You're both crazy."

"Takes one to know one," Tetra returned, shooting Link her craziest smile and Kid did likewise.

Their banter descended into a comfortable silence that remained until Kid spotted something in the water, off the starboard bow.

"Uh…is that a monster?" Kid wondered, beginning to inch back towards the cannon that Linebeck had made sure was ready to use before they left.

Three golden creatures surfaced beside the ship, and both Tetra and the Hero of Winds jumped back, letting out startled gasps. Tetra's hand instinctively went to her dagger, and Kid scrambled for the cannon but was stopped by Zelda who seemed to be trying hard not to laugh.

"Calm yourselves," Zelda said. "They're just dolphins."

"Meaning?" Tetra demanded, wishing her counterpart would stop teasing them and get to the point.

"They are harmless," Princess Zelda explained, moving to the edge of the ship so she had a better view. "Though I've never seen golden ones before."

Tetra relaxed and removed her hand from her weapon, peering down at the sleek, yellow creatures cutting through the water with happy chirps. Kid stepped up to the rail along with Link to get a closer look.

"So they're like big fish?" Kid asked, glancing up at Zelda.

"Well, they are more akin to animals, but they live in the water."

"Neat."

Tetra nodded her agreement, reaching out a hand to try to touch one.

"Tetra!" Link exclaimed.

"What? Zelda said they weren't dangerous," she replied nonchalantly, smiling as one of the dolphins made an effort to reach its nose out towards her hand.

"But falling off the boat is!"

Tetra rolled her eyes, staying right where she was. "I'm not going to fall, and even if I did, I can swim."

Link sighed. "That's not the point."

Tetra ignored him and continued to reach out to the dolphins. After a few minutes, one of the animals leapt out of the water, and Tetra's breath caught in her throat as it bumped her hand.

"Did you see that?!" Tetra exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement as she turned to her companions. "I touched it!"

"I wanna touch one!" Kid fell to his knees beside her, reaching out his hand like she had done.

"I wanna swim with one," Tetra said, still smiling and watching the dolphins, who suddenly ducked under the water and didn't resurface.

"I would not advise swimming at the moment." Something in Zelda's tone made her look up, and her smile fell.

Ships, but not any ships. Pirate ships. Being a pirate herself, Tetra wasn't normally intimidated by such things. However, the heavy artillery that was quite obviously a cannon mounted to the vessels' main masts did a pretty good job of intimidating her. She turned to order Kid to get to the cannon but he was already on his way there.

Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. A bomb shot out from one the three pirate ships approaching them, narrowly missing the S.S. Linebeck and shooting up a geyser of seawater.

"Kid, hurry!" Tetra cried, scrambling away from the railing along with Link and Zelda.

A boom, this time from their own cannon, answered her. She watched the bomb arc in the air and fall onto one of the enemy ships, exploding instantly. Direct hit! But when the smoke cleared, the ship was still floating. The only indication that it had been hit was the gray smoke flying off of it.

Another enemy ship fired, and Kid fired at the bomb. The two explosives met in the air, and the resulting explosion caused them all to flinch and duck a little, though they were in no danger of getting hit.

"Don't let them get that close!" Tetra shouted.

"I'm not trying to!" Kid yelled back, firing at the ship he had already damaged. The bomb hit its mark, but didn't sink it. "I can only hit one thing at a time!"

"Aim for the ships," Link ordered him, and Tetra momentarily tore her eyes off of the enemy vessels to see Link fiddling with a bomb and an arrow. "I'll take care of the bombs."

No sooner had Link spoke, than did two of the three ships fire. Link swore, drawing back his bowstring and letting his hastily put together bomb arrow fly. But it only took care of one of the bombs. The other was still coming and neither Link nor Kid were ready to fire again.

A ball of fire suddenly rocketed towards the wayward bomb, activating it before it could crash down onto the deck of the S.S. Linebeck. All eyes turned to Zelda.

"I'll help with the bombs," the princess stated. Link and Kid nodded, relieved, but Tetra could only ball up her fists in anger. If her counterpart had bothered teaching her that stupid fire spell, she could be helping too right now.

Instead, she was forced to watch as her companions exchanged projectiles with the pirate ships and cringe whenever they were too slow to get the bombs to explode farther away from the S.S. Linebeck, which was often.

As hectic as the battle was with all the flashing bombs, fiery explosions, smoke, and occasional bursts of sea spray, it was going well. At least, it was until the smoking enemy ships decided to fire in unison.

Having three bombs hurtling towards them at once sent Tetra's heart racing. If even one of her companions missed, there would be no second chances.

Knowing this, Link called out when he was shooting to ensure no one else wasted their shot before letting his bomb arrow fly. It met one of the bombs, igniting it instantly.

Following his lead, Zelda spoke up before she sent a sphere of fire loose, striking down another bomb.

Kid didn't have to call his shot. They all knew the last bomb was his to destroy. The boom of the cannon rumbled in Tetra's chest as Kid fired, and she watched the freshly-fired bomb sail through the air, anticipating the brilliant explosion when it met with the incoming explosive. But it never came.

Because Kid missed.

Barely thinking, Tetra threw out a hand towards the too-fast-falling enemy bomb and wrenched up her magic from within her so quickly that she felt sick. A circular crystalline blue shield popped into being, hovering above the ship's stern, and she barely had time to brace herself, imagining a sturdy stone wall, before it struck.

The bomb plowed through her shield like it was glass and crashed into the S.S. Linebeck with a brilliant burst of fire, violently rocking the ship and turning the white smoke puffing out of the ship's pipe, grey.

"You can't account for the force of an explosion!" Zelda exclaimed in a reprimanding manner as Linebeck shouted something at them about doing a better job. "Why do you think I didn't shield us before?"

"Well, excuse me! Someone didn't teach me any other spells, so I'm using what I got!" Tetra shot back, her anger so hot that she barely registered the coldness of the magic loss.

The booming of a cannon was her only answer as Zelda returned her attention to the battle.

Begrudgingly, Tetra did likewise, loathing the fact that she couldn't offer any assistance. Fortunately her assistance wasn't needed and her companions managed to end the battle a few tense minutes later.

"Now I know why the people at Papuchia didn't really trust us," Link said as they all watched the last of the pirate ships sink into the water. "Those pirates were mean."

"Do you think…they were people?" Kid asked timidly, as if he didn't want to entertain the thought. Tetra didn't much like the idea herself, but…

"They attacked us first," she pointed out. "So if they were, they brought it upon themselves."

"I do not believe humans were controlling those ships," Zelda announced. "We were told that monsters have been plaguing this place recently, so it's entirely possible that monsters hijacked those ships."

"But the people at the village only mentioned sea monsters," Link interjected.

"And we haven't even seen any sea monsters yet," Kid added. They all couldn't help but agree with that.

Of course, that changed about ten minutes later.

"Octoroks!" Tetra and Kid exclaimed in unison, not so much because it excited them, but because it was something familiar.

"Do you think they're the exploding kind?" Kid asked her, backing away towards the cannon.

"Let's not find out," she returned. The tentacle monsters' bodies were red, while their bulbous mantles had a sickly greenish tinge to them, but other than that, they appeared to be nearly identical to the Octoroks that inhabited the Great Sea.

Fortunately for them, these oddly-colored Octoroks were not, in fact, "the exploding kind." Their projectiles were rocks. Of course, being hit by a rock was better than being hit by a bomb, but they all agreed that it was in their best interest to not get hit at all, especially since Linebeck was already fuming about the damage that his ship had sustained in the skirmish earlier, so Kid and Link teamed up to eradicate the five Octoroks that had popped up to torment them.

Unlike the pirate ships that may or may not have been controlled by monsters, the Octoroks were much less durable and could be defeated by one well-fired bomb or arrow, each.

It wasn't long after they managed to get rid of the sea monsters that they reached the modest little dock that was built at the edge of the Forest Realm. No ships bobbed in the water besides theirs.

"Alright, all of you get off," Linebeck ordered, shooing them off of his ship. "I need to do some repairs now because someone didn't do their job right." He looked pointedly at the Hero of Winds.

Kid winced. "Sorry."

"It wasn't his fault," Tetra said, her eyes on the princess. Zelda promptly ignored her.

Linebeck harrumphed, turning his attention back to his precious ship. The four of them, five if one included Midna and six if one included Fi, stepped off of the S. S. Linebeck and strolled to the end of the dock with Tetra in the lead.

Setting foot on the grass, Tetra couldn't help but forget her enmity towards Zelda and smile a little. It was land, a lot of it, and it was going to be hers. Sneaking a glance at Kid as they continued to walk, Tetra saw that he was smiling now, too.

"Monster infestation aside, you have to admit this place is awesome," Tetra spoke up, stretching her arms above her head.

"If what that lady in Papuchia told us is true, we've barely seen any of it," Link reminded her, which only served to improve her mood. The little she'd seen so far was greater than she'd imagined and that meant it could only get better.

"Speaking of, we should have requested a map," Zelda said before Tetra could voice her thoughts.

Tetra rolled her eyes at her counterpart's interruption. "Who needs maps when you have smoke?" Even from this distance, their destination was quite obvious.

Zelda began to protest, explaining the exact benefits having a map would grant them, but Tetra wasn't in the mood to listen to her counterpart's logic right now.

"Race?" she asked, shooting Kid a sly look.

"Race!" he agreed.

They took off across the grass, leaving their startled counterparts in the dust. Tetra couldn't help but feel satisfied as she ran. She didn't care about the blades of grass tickling her feet or the dirt working its way into her sandals. It meant that it was real. It meant that they had found what they'd been looking for and didn't have to look anymore. It meant she was home.

Tetra increased her pace, and Kid matched it. She glanced at her best friend, catching the elated expression on his face, and knew that neither of them were going to stop until they couldn't run anymore. For once, their stamina would run out before the land did.

The two of them slowed as they hit a hill, but they didn't stop and collapse until they had reached the top of it. Breathing heavily, the two of them sprawled out on the ground, grinning up at the sky. A flock of little white birds flew by overhead.

"Tired already?" Midna's voice startled them both, and Tetra thought that she should really be expecting the Twilight Princess's spontaneous entrances by now. "Come on! Get up! There's still a long way to go, and isn't the point of a race to get there fast?"

"We're…taking a break," Tetra panted.

"And we need to…. wait for Link and Zelda…to catch up," Kid chimed in, just as breathless as she was.

"You don't wait for the competition. Go, go, go!" Midna urged, hovering over them in her shadowy form, turning the sky dark.

"I wasn't being serious about the race," Tetra informed the Twili, sitting up and forcing Midna to retreat. The race had just been an excuse to get away from her counterpart's nagging for a while. "Stop rushing us."

Midna giggled. "Well, if you want to get there and back before the sun goes down, I suggest you hurry. Not that I mind twilight, but well…"

Tetra looked past Midna to the wisps of smoke rising up in the distance. In total darkness, it would be difficult to see, but it was more than that. It was so far away! Miles of rolling green fields and trees laden with red and orange tinted leaves separated them from it, and that was only as far as she could see.

She glanced over her shoulder, checking their companions' progress. They were still pretty close to the dock and slowly making their way over. Tetra frowned. They were probably doing it on purpose.

"Wow," Kid breathed, drawing her attention to him. He was gazing at the distance they still had to go. "I don't think we're going to make that before dark."

"Not unless you run," Midna piped up helpfully. "Fast."

"I don't want to run anymore," Kid whined, and Tetra couldn't help but agree. There had to be a better way to get there than on foot. But when she cast her gaze around, all she saw was grass and trees. To their right, mountains were visible, as well as a tower of some sort.

"Look at that," she said, pointing to the tall structure. What did buildings need to be that tall for anyway?

"I wonder what it's used for," Midna mused.

Kid took out his sister's telescope and peered through it, trying to get a better look.

"So?" Tetra asked him after a few seconds had passed in silence.

Kid shrugged, handing the telescope to her. "It just looks like a big tower. The top has some kind of symbol on it, but it's not one that I recognize."

Tetra raised the spyglass to her eye and focused her line of sight at the peak of the tower where she found a symbol that was somewhat similar to the Hylian crest. It appeared to be depicting a bird of some sort, just like the crest she knew did, except the wings were stubbier and less defined and an inverted triangle was situated in place of the Triforce.

She lowered the telescope and returned it to Kid. The symbol was likely just something the people of this land used to identify themselves. It was nothing to worry about.

At least, that's what she told herself as she waited with Midna and Kid for their companions to catch up because if she allowed herself to think that that tower and the symbol at its peak was significant, then she may begin to assume that there was a ruler of this land. And if there was a ruler, then all her plans were ruined. Therefore, Tetra decided, it was better to not entertain the idea. So she didn't.

"You guys are so slow!" Tetra complained, a hand planted firmly on her hip as Link and Zelda climbed up the slight grassy incline.

"You guys were the ones that ran ahead," Link reminded her. His tone suddenly turned admonishing. "And you really shouldn't have done that considering that we don't even know what we're dealing with here."

Tetra rolled her eyes. Link seemed to make it his mission to constantly forget that they could handle themselves. "You worry too much."

"You don't worry enough," Link accused her, cresting the hill and coming to a stop in front of her.

"I agree," Zelda piped up from behind him.

"No one asked you," Tetra spat at her counterpart. She turned her back on the pair and locked her sights on the smoke that was their guide. "Let's go."

"Wait…that's really far," Link protested as she took a step forward.

"Which is why we have to get moving," Tetra declared, satisfied when Kid fell into step beside her. "Come on. You've slowed us down enough already."

"Perhaps we should delay this venture until tomorrow," Zelda suggested. "It will be dark soon, and we do not have the supplies to camp or find our way forward when that happens."

Her counterpart was just being practical, but Tetra wasn't in the mood for it. Princess Zelda had won too much today -been born with too much- and Tetra wouldn't allow her have anything else.

"You don't have to follow us," Tetra said, throwing a careless glance back at the hero and princess. "You're welcome to go back and wait for us with Linebeck."

She wished that they would so that she and Kid could explore their new home without them, but of course they didn't. Kid didn't seem to mind this as much as she did, so after a few minutes of attempting to coerce Link and Zelda to turn back by themselves, she gave up, and they traveled in silence.

Tetra didn't recall walking being so tedious but after an hour even she was having difficulty refraining from complaining. Yes, the land was huge and new and wonderful, but ankle deep grass, copses of trees with lush boughs, and the occasional rock could only be so intriguing for so long. She kind of wished that monsters would show up, just so she'd have something to do besides walk.

Glancing at the rest of her companions, Tetra concluded that they were equally fed up with the trek, though she suspected the reasons for that varied.

The only one among them that didn't seem to mind was Midna. Ever since she'd popped out of the shadows on the hill they'd stopped to rest on, she hadn't gone back. The Twilight Princess had been content to fly beside them and around them when they weren't moving fast enough for her liking. Tetra couldn't really blame her. She had cooped herself up in the shadows for a long time, and even though she had emerged outside of them in Tetra's cabin, there hadn't been any space to really stretch her limbs.

The fresh, not so salty, air out here was refreshing, as well as the breeze that ruffled the grasses and tree tops around them. Even so, Tetra decided that when this place was hers, she'd find a better way of getting around. Walking such distances was ridiculous.

Perhaps it was this thought that caused her to look around for a better mode of transportation than her own two feet. Perhaps it was boredom. Whatever it was, it guided her eyes over the rolling plains stretched out before them until they landed on animals grazing in the distance.

Snatching Kid's telescope out of his hand and ignoring his resulting protests, Tetra put the tool to her eye to take a better look. What she saw pleased her, and she came to a halt, causing her companions to stop as well.

"Hey, Link," Tetra said, lowering the telescope and tossing it back to Kid who caught it and instantly put it away, probably to prevent her from stealing it again. "You said you missed Epona, right?"

"Yeah?" Link responded, his cautious tone suggesting that he didn't like where this was going even though he didn't know what "this" was just yet.

"There are horses over there," she announced, pointing towards the animals in the distance and effectively drawing everyone's attention to them. "Get us two."

Link didn't even take a moment to think about it. "No."

She dropped her arm and turned to Link. "As the ruler of this land, I order you to get us better transportation," Tetra declared with such finality that any one of her crew wouldn't dare argue. But Link wasn't one of her crew.

"It's not even your land yet!"

"I'm practicing," she claimed, head held high in an attempt to imitate that regal manner Zelda employed so often when speaking.

Midna laughed. "Humor the girl, won't you, Link?"

"No way."

"Why not?" Tetra demanded, dropping her attempt at regality and defaulting to her usual bossy stance. "You're a ranch hand, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I herd goats, not horses," Link explained.

"You ride a horse to herd goats, do you not?"

"Yeah, a trained horse!" Link exclaimed. "Those," he threw a hand in the direction of the horses, "aren't trained. They're wild. They're not going to listen to me."

"Why don't I turn you into a wolf and you can convince two of those horses to come with us?" Midna suggested.

"That would only scare them away."

"Your wolf form didn't scare away Epona," Midna pointed out.

"Again, trained horse," Link stressed.

Tetra sighed in exasperation. "At least try. Taming a horse can't be too hard."

"Oh, really?" Link returned sarcastically. "Would you like to try?"

"Well, if you're not going to then sure." She took a defiant step in the direction of the horses, and Link instantly caught her arm and pulled her back as she knew he would.

"That was a rhetorical question," Link informed her. She shrugged him off, crossing her arms over her chest and regarding him expectantly.

"If you could manage to obtain horses for us it would be beneficial," Zelda spoke up after almost a minute of fierce staring between the young pirate captain and teenage hero. "It's doubtful we would reach our destination before the sun sets without them."

Link broke eye contact with Tetra, breathing out a heavy sigh full of reluctance. "Fine. I'll try."

Fifteen minutes later, Tetra, Kid, Zelda, and Midna, because she refused to go back into the shadows, were situated a good distance away from the grazing horses, crouched low in a particularly tall patch of grass so that there was less chance of them being noticed as per Link's request.

Link himself was currently slinking up to one of the oblivious animals, and as Tetra watched, she could understand Link's reluctance a bit more. The horses were much bigger up close and none of them were wearing any riding equipment. Just mounting one would be a challenge.

They all watched with bated breath as Link crept up to a mud-colored horse from its left side. If he was trying to keep it from seeing him, he failed. The animal immediately stopped eating and tossed its head, trotting away. Some of the other grazing horses followed the mud-colored one, but a few stayed where they were, and those were the horses Link turned to.

As Link began to approach a sand-colored horse much the same way he had the previous, Tetra decided that Link had no idea what he was doing despite being a ranch hand. Fortunately, she was wrong, and though Tetra didn't like being wrong, she was glad she was in this instance.

Unlike the other horse, this one didn't move away when it caught sight of Link. It allowed him to inch closer and closer until an arm's length separated them. Link stretched out his left hand towards the horse, and the animal sniffed it curiously. Taking this as an invitation, Link stepped even closer to the horse and placed his right hand on the side of its head.

When it didn't object, he began to pet it and murmur something to it, but Tetra was too far away to hear what he was saying. She didn't know how long he kept it up, but he continued stroking and talking to the animal until her legs were cramping, and she couldn't help but shift into a more comfortable position.

Shortly thereafter, Link moved towards the horse's neck and back. He placed both hands on its back, close to its neck, and Tetra thought he was going to mount it, but no. He just jumped a little. It wasn't even a half-hearted attempt at mounting the thing so Tetra could only assume that that wasn't his intention.

Link glanced at the horse's head, judging its reaction. She wasn't close enough to tell for sure, but from where she was peeking out of the tall grass, it didn't seem phased.

Nonetheless, Link repeated the action on slightly different parts of its back and neck, before going back to petting the animal. The entire process was taking way too long, but Tetra tried to silently coach herself into patience. After Link caught the horses everything else would be a breeze.

She tore her attention away from the position of the sun in the sky and refocused it on the Hero of Twilight. Much to her delight, Link seemed to be done with his testing the waters phase and was preparing to mount the horse for real.

Positioning himself by the animal's head, Link grasped part of the hairs at its neck and swung himself onto its back in one smooth motion. No sooner than had he landed on the horse, did it bolt.

A collective gasp rustled the grasses they were hiding in as they watched the animal race away with Link clinging to its bare back. The horse tried to throw the hero off with sharp turns and, when that failed, pure speed, but Link managed to stay on through it all.

That's when the animal came up with another idea. It ground to a halt and bucked. As impressive as Link's horse-riding skills were, they weren't enough to keep him on the horse this time. He flew off of the horse's back and hit the ground hard on his side, causing Tetra to cringe.

Kid jumped up, but Tetra tugged him back down and began to count. One. Two. Three. Four. Link had told them that if got knocked off and didn't get up after thirty seconds, then they could intervene. Otherwise, they were to stay away and out of sight. Just as she reached ten, Link rolled over and got to his knees.

As he got to his feet, they all let out relieved sighs.

To Tetra's surprise, Link approached the sand-colored horse once more, apparently unconcerned about being bucked off again. He restarted the painstaking process of familiarizing himself with it, and if Tetra hadn't been concerned about spooking it, she would have screamed.

Eventually, Link decided it was safe to try to mount the horse again and with a little skip and hop he was situated on its back once more. It danced a little in place, making Tetra think it was going to bolt again, but Link repositioned himself and patted its neck, calming it.

"He did it," Kid said happily as Link got the horse moving in their direction.

"He still has to catch one more," Tetra reminded Kid. If Link didn't get two, he might as well have not gotten one.

As Link drew closer with the horse, he motioned them to stand with a hand and they did, slowly so as not to startle the horse. Of course, that didn't seem to matter, for as soon as the animal caught sight of Midna it grew skittish.

Link shot Midna an apologetic look, and with a huff, she descended into the shadows at their feet.

"Are you injured at all?" Zelda asked him as he guided the horse to a stop beside them once he'd managed to calm it down.

"No, I'm fine," Link replied, "and I don't think these horses are wild."

"What makes you say that?" Kid wondered.

"Yeah, the other horses ran from you and this one bucked you off," Tetra added with a smirk.

"All horses are different," Link claimed. "Some startle easier than others, and this one probably isn't used to being ridden bareback or just isn't familiar with my weight. I'm not sure, but I know she has to be tamed. Otherwise, she would have resisted the commands I gave her to get her over here just now."

"Perhaps someone turned her loose," Zelda theorized.

Link nodded. "Maybe."

"Who cares?" Tetra interjected. "Go get another one. Time's wasting away here."

"Alright, alright." Link dismounted easily and turned to head back to the grazing horses.

Before he could take more than a step, Zelda stopped him. "Will this horse stay?"

An uncertain look crossed Link's face, and he scrutinized the horse as if silently asking it if it would stay. "She should, but just in case…Kid let me borrow your grappling hook." Kid dug out the tool from his belongings and handed it to Link, who fashioned it into a loose loop around the horse's neck. He handed off the excess rope with the claw at its end to Zelda. "There."

With that, he left them to "catch" another horse. Much to Tetra's dismay, it took just as long, if not a little longer, for Link to befriend another one of the large animals and ride it over to them, but he managed it without falling off again, and there was still daylight left so Tetra couldn't complain too much.

"So, Zelda," Link said, sliding off of the black and white speckled horse he'd just caught, "have you ever ridden bareback?"

"I cannot say that I have." Tetra groaned at her counterpart's answer.

Link cracked a smile, and Tetra just barely resisted the urge to punch it off his face. "Tetra, I don't think you realized that it isn't as simple as getting on a horse and going when you ordered me to get these for us earlier."

Tetra crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him so that she didn't have to admit that he was right. "Whatever. Just teach her so we can go."

Link turned to the princess and launched into an explanation filled with technical terms Tetra didn't understand and didn't bother trying to understand. Only when they were ready to depart did she tune in again and that was only because she had a problem.

"How do I get on?" There was no stirrup to aid her like there had been in Hyrule, and Zelda was already seated atop the black and white colored animal.

"Here, I'll boost you," Link said, coming over and cupping his hands into a makeshift stirrup. She stepped into his cupped hands, placing one hand on his shoulder and her other on the horse to give herself better leverage, and hopped up behind her counterpart.

Immediately, she knew this was going to be different than before. She could feel the muscles of the animal beneath her, and her center of balance was off too.

Perhaps sensing this, Link instructed her to move up a bit and to hold onto Zelda to stay on rather than squeezing the sides of the animal she was seated on with her legs. She followed his instructions without complaint because this had been her idea and backing out of it or whining about it would only give the Hero of Twilight satisfaction.

She sat as straight as possible behind her counterpart, watching as Link swung expertly onto the sandy-colored horse's back and then reached out a hand to Kid, tugging the boy up behind him.

The horse tossed its head a little in objection at having two humans on its back, but Link didn't let it get out of control like it had earlier. He clicked his tongue and urged it forward.

"Let's go," Link called over his shoulder. Tetra really hoped that Zelda had been paying attention during her little riding lesson with Link because they were on their own now.

Thankfully, the princess seemed to know what she was doing and the horse responded to her. Of course, that didn't mean the ride was any less bumpy or uncomfortable but it did minimize the peril.

They trailed behind the boys and their horse, sights locked on the smoke that was beckoning them closer. It beckoned them through the field and into a wood choked with trees so close together that they were forced into a tight single file line.

It was difficult to see the smoke above the dense multi-colored foliage that made up the forest's canopy, but luckily they had Link's sharp senses to guide them.

By the time they emerged from the trees, the sun was setting, and Tetra wanted nothing more than to get off of the horse and never get on it again. Of course, to get off, she needed Link's help, as did Zelda, and Link was too busy staring at something. That's when she noticed how strong the smell of smoke was.

Leaning to the right as much as she dared, Tetra peered around her counterpart. The sight that greeted her snatched away the breath from her lungs and plopped a leaden ball into her stomach.

Smoke wafted up from the remains of a village like the spirits of the deceased floating up to meet the goddesses. Everything was grey and black, like a dusty old pictograph. Even the surrounding trees were tainted with grey, ash coating their limbs and leaves.

None of them spoke, and the silence seemed to make it worse, for the unuttered questions screamed all the louder. What did this and why? What of the people? Were they all lying dead beneath the ruins of their homes or did they escape? If they escaped, where did they go? If not, were there any survivors? And, most importantly, was whatever did this still around? Was it targeting other villages? Were there even anymore villages left to target? The people at Papuchia Village had said that this had been going on for six days now. Had all the existing villages in the Forest Realm been burned? She knew that she didn't want any resistance when she laid claim to this land, but she didn't want to ensure it like this. She'd rather the natives live. Even if they weren't her people, they were people. They couldn't just die so quickly, one after another.

Maybe this was an accident. Maybe someone had mishandled a torch and set the entire place ablaze. Tragic, but possible and better than the alternative that something else, something wicked, had done this.

It's what she chose to believe as they all dismounted the horses. It's what she chose to believe as Link tied the two animals to a tree using Kid's grappling hook as a makeshift rope. It's what she chose to believe as they entered the sizable clearing that once held a village. It's what she chose to believe as they slowly picked their way through the rubble, timidly calling out and listening for any form of response to indicate that someone was here and had heard them.

And it's what she couldn't believe when they passed under a long, charred beam and disturbed several charcoal black Keese from their slumber. The creatures screeched, bursting into flames and dive bombing their little group.

Fortunately, they were all blessed with quick reflexes and dodged, drawing their respective weapons.

"Do you think it was the Keese that did this?" Kid asked as they began the battle, at least one of the bat monsters targeting each of them.

Tetra side-stepped as one of the flaming Keese flew at her and swiped it out of existence with her dagger, feeling the heat emanating from its body before it burst into nothingness. "If they were, that's stupid. They're so easy to kill."

Princess Zelda swiped another out of the air as if to prove Tetra's point.

"Maybe there were more," Link suggested, ending the last three in a single swing of his sword. "A whole colony of Fire Keese could cause problems."

"Are colonies of Keese attacking villages common in Hyrule?" Tetra interrogated him.

"Well…no," Link admitted.

"But the people at Papuchia said that monsters showed up recently," Kid pointed out.

"I do not believe this was an accident or even a random attack," Princess Zelda spoke up. "It was intentional."

"How can you tell?" Tetra wondered. From what she could see, the burned village, large as it was, didn't offer any clues. There was nothing distinctive about the rubble. It was just ash and charred and splintered wood aside from one building towards the center that had obviously been built slightly better than the rest since it was still standing.

"The Keese. If they had been native to this land, they would not have disappeared. There would have been a corpse left behind when we killed them. Because there was not, I can only conclude that these monsters were created by magic," Zelda explained.

"Who created them then?" Link asked.

"Someone evil, duh," Midna interjected, slipping out of the shadows and into the open.

"Like…" Kid trailed off, reluctant to continue.

But Tetra knew what he was thinking and finished for him even though the thought made her sick. "Ghirahim."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Link said, raising a hand as if to stop the anxious looks taking over their faces. "It could have been someone else. Ghirahim isn't the only one that can make monsters."

Tetra tried to take comfort in that fact, but it was nearly impossible. Zant wasn't here, and the Ganondorf of their world was currently encased in stone at the bottom of the Great Sea with the Master Sword in his head. He wasn't going anywhere, much less creating monsters to wreak havoc ever again.

"Let's keep looking," Zelda said finally, stepping forward to continue touring the ruins. "Perhaps we will find some other clue as to the origins of whoever did this."

The rest of them followed her, sticking close together with their weapons ready. As they drew closer and closer towards the center of the decimated village, Tetra's uneasiness only grew, and she gripped her dagger tighter as if that would somehow alleviate the feeling.

The dirt path carved out of the earth hadn't been completely clear to begin with but at one point it was overflowing with rubble, so they had no choice but to travel over it.

That's when something shot out of the mess at their feet and latched onto Zelda's ankle, eliciting a scream of fright from the princess.

Princess Zelda stumbled back into Tetra, pulling up a grotesque-looking monster from the rubble. Her counterpart seemed to have forgotten all about the sword in her hand so Tetra took the liberty of getting it to release her, lunging past Zelda and swiping her dagger across the creature's bloated chest, once, twice, three times, before aiming a powerful kick at its stomach since her other attacks didn't seem to faze it much.

Her attack ensured that it lost its grip on the princess and tumbled backwards for a few revolutions before coming to rest on its back.

"Thank you," Zelda breathed gratefully behind her. Tetra barely heard her, though. Her attention was focused on the monster that was not disappearing like it should have by now.

She took a few steps forward, mindful of the uneven rubble she was walking over. Just when she reached it, the monster leapt to its feet with more energy than it seemed capable of possessing and snagged her arms, pulling her forward and forcing her to take in its putrid stench and corpse-like features.

Tetra recoiled instantly, but she didn't get too far. The monster was stronger than her despite its decaying body and yanked her closer, opening its mouth wide as if in preparation to take a bite out of her.

A blade suddenly sliced across the side of the creature's face, and Tetra turned to see Kid wielding the Master Sword. He struck the monster once more, this time across its wrists. By all means, the blow should have severed its hands, especially considering the fact that its skin was sagging off of its bones and one of its arms was completely stripped of flesh, but it didn't.

However, it did succeed in forcing the monster to let go of her, and she scrambled back from it, rubbing at her arms to get the gross feeling of the monster off of her.

As she watched Kid battle, Tetra tried to figure out what he was battling. It was obviously a monster, but what kind, she didn't know. Its features were reminiscent of a Bulblin, but she'd never seen a Bulblin so worse for wear and still standing, much less moving. Its black horns were cracked and chipped off in places. The flesh that was still clinging to its bones was bloated and purple. Its eyes were jaundiced and glowing and its tongue was blue and lolling out of its mouth, dripping with saliva.

Whatever it was, it was unwell, but that didn't make her feel sorry for it. Not in the least. It had tried to bite her and was trying to do the same to Kid every time he paused in his attacks to check if he'd done any damage.

Oddly enough, even though Kid had to have hit it with his sword at least a dozen times by now, the monster didn't show any signs of fatigue or weakness.

"Get away from it!" Link ordered, and Tetra whirled around to see Link coming towards them, probably not trusting that they would do as he said. On the contrary, Tetra had no qualms with doing what he said at the moment and neither did Kid. The two of them retreated, regrouping with Link and Zelda.

It was only once they were all together that Tetra noticed there was more than one of the shambling corpse Bulblins in the vicinity. More must have clawed their way up from the rubble while she and Kid had been dealing with the first one, which explained why they'd gotten no help from their companions, not that she thought it would have mattered. Despite their fragile appearance, these monsters were indestructible. Even so…

"They're slow," she observed. "We can slip past them, easy."

Link shook his head. "I don't think anyone's here. We should just turn back."

"We haven't even seen half of this place yet!" she protested. They couldn't just leave without accomplishing anything. They had to look around some more. Reporting back to Papuchia that a village had burned down and that theirs was probably next wasn't the kind of news she was looking to deliver to the natives.

Link didn't seem to care about that, though. "There isn't much of anything to see here, Tetra. It's burned. It's gone."

"But we don't know why," she pressed. "There are monsters here. Someone had to have sent them to destroy this place, and if we don't figure out who that was then every village still standing will suffer the same fate!"

"How are we supposed to figure that out when we don't even know what those things are?" Link demanded, gesturing to the monsters slowly limping their way across the debris in their direction.

Suddenly, Fi materialized between the two of them, and they all jumped back in surprise. "Those are Cursed Bokoblins, Master. These horrifying Bokoblins reanimate after death. Analysis indicates they fear pure, shiny items and will startle at the sight of a sacred shield. They are able to reanimate purely through their hatred of this world…and their attachment to outlandish underpants."

It was as if Fi knew how this information would affect them, so she added on the last part of her announcement just to lighten the mood. But the mood was decidedly dark and no amount of jokes would brighten it.

Because Tetra just couldn't get past the fact that if Fi knew what it was, then that could only mean that her first Master had encountered it. Which meant that it was a creation of Ghirahim's. Which meant he was here. In her land.

It was more of a slap to the face than it had been before. Knowing that Ghirahim was in the Great Sea was one thing. Knowing that he had found and begun to take over the land that she intended to make New Hyrule before her, was another.

She was snapped out of her horrified thoughts by something nearly as horrifying and swiped her dagger across a Cursed Bokoblin's outstretched hand, hopping back so it couldn't grab her.

"So how do we defeat these things?" she asked the sword spirit, narrowing her eyes at the creature in front of her. It wasn't Ghirahim, but killing it would do for now.

"There are a total of three methods to defeat Cursed Bokoblins," Fi announced. "The first is to keep striking with a sword. Hitting one at least twenty-five times will dispose of it. The second is to unbalance the Bokoblin with a spin attack and follow up with an ending blow once it is on the ground. The third, and most effective method, is to use bombs."

"Bombs it is," Link decided. "Tetra, move."

"I'm going to kill it," she declared stubbornly, tightening her grip on her dagger and preparing to strike the monster.

"You're going to hit it twenty-five times?" Link deadpanned.

In answer, Tetra took a step forward and struck the Cursed Bokoblin with her dagger. One.

Twenty-four hits later, the Cursed Bokoblin fell flat on its back and puffed into purple smoke, joining the other five that had crawled out of the rubble with it in death.

"Alright, so…what now?" Link wondered, looking at them all to see what they thought.

"We have our answer," Zelda said. "So we should return to Papuchia Village and go from there."

"But what do we tell the people at Papuchia?" Kid asked. "If we tell them about Ghirahim, we'd have to explain everything, and they'd probably stop us and kick us out as soon as we mention that it's kinda our fault that he's here in the first place."

"So we don't mention that part," Link replied.

"Then what do we say?"

Link hesitated, and Princess Zelda took over. "We-"

Tetra was too busy looking for something else to take her frustrations out on to bother listening to the conversation anymore, much less contribute.

She swept her gaze over the ash and blackened wood and broken glass and other miscellaneous objects that were damaged beyond recognition, unable to feel anything but fury. How did Ghirahim find this place before her? She'd been trying for months and it only took him a week! That wasn't fair! Of course she knew life was anything but fair, but she felt that the goddesses should treat her a little better, considering that she was technically their sister.

As if granting her wish, a piece of charred wood fell off of the remains of a house, and Tetra's eyes flew to it instantly. She thought she could see a scrap of fabric, peeking between two blackened beams, but when she blinked it was gone.

She continued to stare at the spot, willing the thing to reappear or for something else to shift. When nothing did, she ventured closer to the debris, listening for any sound besides the talking of her companions.

Upon arriving at the suspicious spot, Tetra stepped over the crisscrossed beams and inspected the ground. It was littered with debris and ash, but it was a boot print stamped into the fine gray particles that caught her attention and held it.

None of them had come over here until now, and no one else had been here as far as they knew, so there shouldn't be any prints. Then again, there were monsters around and the Cursed Bokoblins earlier had been wearing boots, or rather, a boot, each.

If that had been the case, there should be an actual footprint on the ground as well. Except when Tetra kneeled down to check, there wasn't. She did notice something else, however. A piece of wood laid almost directly next to the boot print.

Experimentally, Tetra repositioned herself so that her right foot rested on the piece of wood and her left foot came down directly on top of the print. Raising her head, she found that she could see her companions perfectly between the two crisscrossed beams.

Someone had been spying on them, and Tetra was willing to bet it hadn't been a monster.

Closing her eyes, Tetra did her best to block out her companions' conversation and the unfamiliar tweeting of birds and buzzing of insects and dry rustling of leaves and just listen.

She didn't know how long she knelt there, unmoving and straining her ears, until she heard something. It wasn't big, just the skittering of pebbles over dirt, but it was enough to give her a direction.

Shooting to her feet, Tetra turned and picked her way as swiftly as she could through all the debris in the direction of the noise. Once she hit the road, she caught a glimpse of something moving around a corner constructed of debris. With any doubts she had swiftly leaving her, Tetra ran.

She tracked the fleeting thing around twists and turns and under and over debris, but she was always a second too late to see anything more than a blur. Whatever it was, it was fast and obviously didn't want to be caught. Even so, Tetra didn't intend to let it succeed in escaping. She wanted answers.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't going to get them. When she careened around the next corner, she didn't see anything but wreckage.

Unable to believe that she'd truly lost her lead, Tetra sprinted across the shifting debris and came to a halt at what seemed to have been a crossroads of sorts for the village.

She looked in each direction, craning her neck and walking back and forth along the dusty road to try to catch another glimpse of the thing she'd been chasing, but to no avail.

Kicking the ashy ground in frustration, Tetra doubled back. It had to be hiding somewhere. There was a lot of wreckage. All one would have to do to conceal themselves is to crawl under some.

Tetra began to stomp across the debris. If someone was hiding here, then she'd step on them and make them wish they'd kept running.

Her foot came down hard on a shard of something colored grey by the ash, and she stumbled as the debris shifted, forcing her off balance. Luckily, she managed to catch herself before she could fall. But not before the wreckage she was standing on gave out from underneath her.

With a cry of alarm, Tetra plummeted down into darkness amid a dust cloud of ash. She struck the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a stop on her stomach.

Dazed and temporarily out of breath, Tetra laid there, trying to calm her racing heart and reassure herself that it was still beating. She'd just fallen. No big deal.

As if to prove it to herself, she gathered her arms underneath her and pushed herself up onto all fours.

Coughing at the ash and dirt in the air, Tetra settled back onto her knees and tilted back her head to see darkness. A little to the right was the hole that she'd fallen through, and Tetra silently mused that the fall had felt longer than it looked. Though that didn't mean it would be easy for her to get out. The hole was at least ten feet above her head.

Well, great. Now she had to call for help. She could already hear Link's lecture about not running off on her own as she pulled out the gossip stone from her wallet and activated it.

A warm blue glow surrounded the precious rock, and she held it up in front of her face by the string, watching as the milky scene inside of the expertly cut stone began to swirl into a clear image.

The too-loud scuff of a footfall alerted her to the presence of something else, and she gasped, dropping the charm and reaching for her dagger as the stone rolled away from her, its cerulean light flickering but holding just enough for her to see the boot that it stopped against.

Her gossip stone was swept up by an unknown hand, and she was momentarily blinded as the blue light flared. Blinking rapidly to chase away the colorful dots dancing across her vision, Tetra found herself staring up at the face of a girl that couldn't have been any older than her.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," the young girl apologized, holding out the glowing stone towards Tetra, inviting her to reclaim it. Tetra couldn't help but note that the girl possessed a similar accent to the people they met in Papuchia Village.

Even so, she wasn't inclined to trust her. What was she doing hanging around down here? Wherever down here was. At least she had an excuse, falling like she had, but this girl had none.

"Where are you?" Kid's voice floated through the stone and into her ears, breaking her distrustful stare with the girl in front of her, who was so startled by Kid's disembodied voice that she let out a small squeak and dropped the stone.

Tetra snatched it out of the air with both hands and brought it close to her chest. "In a hole."

"What?" Kid sounded like he was trying to decide if she was joking or not.

"In. A. Hole." Tetra repeated slowly. "I fell."

"Are you okay?" Kid asked at the same time that Link exclaimed, "What possessed you to go off on your own?"

She chose to answer Kid. "I'm fine."

Link repeated his question, unwilling to let it go. "I was chasing something." Her gaze flicked up to the girl and then back to the stone in her hand. "Someone."

"Someone?" Zelda's interested voice came through, and Tetra rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, anyway-"

"Who?" Kid wondered.

Tetra released a heavy sigh. "I don't know. Some girl."

"Is she with you now?" Link interrogated her.

"Yes," Tetra breathed out in exasperation. "Now don't ask me anything else about her because I don't know. I just found her."

Link surprised her by changing the topic. "Alright, where are you?"

"I don't know!" And she didn't. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going while she was chasing the girl in front of her, for she was fairly certain that that was who had been giving her the run around.

A heavy sigh erupted from the stone, and Link began his lecture about disappearing on them and not mentioning that she'd seen something. Tetra wasn't interested in being reprimanded by the Hero of Twilight or her counterpart or even Kid, so she closed her cupped hands around the hovering stone, instantly muting their voices and dimming the light.

She snapped her gaze up to the girl who had her hands tucked behind her back and was leaning forward a bit, clearly intrigued with the multi-voiced blue stone in her hands. "Why were you spying on us?"

The girl blinked dumbly. "What?"

"You were spying on us," Tetra accused her fiercely. "Not now, but earlier. You were hiding and listening to us talk. Why?"

Silence, and then, "I was trying to see who you were and why you were here."

"And you couldn't have just come up to us and asked us straight to our faces?" Tetra demanded.

"I…was scared," the girl admitted, shrinking back a little and suddenly making Tetra feel a tad guilty for yelling at her.

"Well, stop being scared," Tetra ordered. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl's eyes met hers, and Tetra swore that they flashed purple for a second. "I know that now."

Tetra furrowed her brow. Why was this girl being so much more trusting than the people at Papuchia? She hadn't exactly done or said much to earn her trust, which only encouraged Tetra to be even more wary. "How did you get down here anyway?"

"This place used to be someone's cellar," the girl explained. She cracked an amused smile. "There's a better way in and out than falling through a hole."

Tetra opened her mouth to scream at this strange girl for teasing her, but then snapped it shut. Upsetting this girl could mean that escaping this place would be a bigger headache than it had to be, so she just settled for leveling one of her best glares at the girl in retaliation. It didn't work quite the way she'd intended, for the girl giggled.

"Just show me the way out," Tetra commanded, exasperated.

"Sure," the girl agreed. "Follow me."

Tetra started to get up, her hands still trapping the shining charm in her palms, when a sharp pain shot through her leg. She fell to her knees with a hiss of pain.

"You lied to your friends about not being hurt," the girl observed.

"I did not!" Tetra argued. She hadn't even known her leg was hurt until now. Moving into a better positon so that she could see her right leg, Tetra brought the glow of the gossip stone close, allowing her to make out a nasty-looking scrape on her shin and bruising around her ankle.

"I can help," the girl said, kneeling down in front of her and reaching out to touch her leg. Tetra retracted it, sucking in a breath at the pain the motion caused her.

"Really, I can!" the girl insisted, meeting her distrustful gaze with an urgent one. "Let me. I feel bad for making you fall in the first place."

The girl reached out her hands towards Tetra's leg once more, and this time Tetra let her, but only because it really did hurt, and she wasn't sure she could walk on it like it was now. Of course, she didn't exactly know what the girl aimed to do for her. From what Tetra could see the girl kneeling before her had no supplies on her. She didn't wear a pouch or satchel anywhere on her person. She was just clothed in a tunic-like dress and a long sleeved undershirt with billowing bell sleeves that almost completely hid her pale hands, which were now hovering just over Tetra's wound, a hair's breath away from touching it.

Tetra watched in a mixture of distrust, fascination, and disbelief as the girl closed her eyes and her hands began to glow gold. Lavender sparks dripped off of her fingertips and onto Tetra's leg, sinking into the wound. Tiny pinpricks of pain appeared where the sparks touched her, but they quickly transformed into a soothing coolness that dulled the ache.

She no longer needed the glow from the stone nestled in her hands to see the wound begin to close and the blood begin to disappear. Seconds later, it was completely gone along with the bruising around her ankle, and the girl's hands stopped shedding violet sparks, losing their golden hue.

The darkness was a shock after all the light, and Tetra found herself momentarily unable to speak. She moved her leg experimentally. When it didn't hurt, she tried to get up. This time when she put weight on it, it didn't send pain lancing through her and drop her to her knees. She was able to stand just as well as she had earlier when she'd been unhurt.

"How did you do that?" Tetra breathed, watching the girl stand as well, dusting off her hands. The girl was a little shorter than her, and now that the light was higher, Tetra could see more of her face. Her hair was pulled back from her face and thrown over her left shoulder in an extremely loose ponytail, drawing Tetra's eyes to her ears. They were pointed.

"Magic," the girl replied cheerily. "Does anything else hurt? I can heal it for you."

Tetra shook her head, still in shock. Was this girl Hylian? Or something else?

"Well, then," the girl said, tucking her hands behind her back and turning on her heel. "Let's go."

She began to walk away, deeper into the darkness, and Tetra hesitated a second before following her, letting a little more light trickle through her fingers to illuminate their way.

"What's your name, anyway?" Tetra demanded gruffly, trying to regain her composure. Despite the fact that this girl had healed her, Tetra didn't completely trust her. Magic wasn't something regular people possessed. Nonetheless, trusting this strange girl seemed like the only option she had at the moment.

The girl stopped, and Tetra stopped beside her. "What's your name?" the girl returned, tilting her head to the side like a curious dog. Tetra didn't like dogs.

"Tetra…" she replied cautiously.

"Nice to meet you, Tetra," the girl chirped, sticking out her hand for the pirate princess to take and smiling warmly. "I'm Anjean."