Chapter 19: Anjean
It had been a hectic day, made even more hectic by Tetra's recent desertion, and it just got worse.
"It's been five minutes. Why isn't she answering?" Kid's eyes were riveted to the glowing blue stone in his palm as they tromped along in no particular direction at all.
That was the question they'd all been asking themselves. Link barely even contemplated the notion that the pirate girl's silence was out of remorse for her recent actions. Tetra was too stubborn for that. It was more likely that she was ignoring them for some ludicrous reason or other.
But there was no guaranteeing that. She could very well be in trouble, and, since there were undead monsters roaming around and Tetra's whereabouts were unknown, that was very bad indeed.
"Could the stone be malfunctioning?" Zelda inquired, trying to be optimistic, though Link could tell that she was just as worried as Kid.
The young hero shook his head, a frustrated look on his face. "I don't know. Can magic malfunction?"
"Sure, if you don't know how to use it," Midna answered him. Link couldn't believe that the Twilight Princess, a living shadow, hadn't noticed Tetra running off. Then again, the same could be said for him, heightened senses and all.
Link stopped, sucking in a breath. How could he be that stupid?
"What?" Kid wondered, stopping along with Zelda and Midna. All three were regarding him with puzzled expressions, but Link only had eyes for the stone in Kid's hand.
"Tetra gave you that, right?" Link asked, indicating the luminescent rock with a nod of his head.
Kid's gaze flicked to the pirate's charm, then back up to Link. "Yes."
"Then I can use it to track her," Link declared, suddenly determined to find Tetra so that he could confirm she was alright, and, once that was done, give her a piece of his mind. "Midna-"
He turned to the cursed Twili to find her already balancing the shadow crystal on the tip of her finger, a wicked grin splitting her face. "I've been waiting to do this all day!" With that, she shoved the crystal into Link's forehead, and pain lanced through his entire being as shadows consumed him, and his bones and muscles and organs shifted into new positions and hair sprouted to cover every inch of him.
It was over in seconds, and the pain dulled to a numb buzzing in his limbs. Now on four legs instead of two, he shook himself to acclimate to his new form. It had been quite a while since he'd last transformed into the blue-eyed beast.
Midna plopped herself down onto his back, but Link barely offered her a half-hearted growl in protest. He had a mission to complete and wouldn't be distracted.
Padding forward, Link sniffed the blue stone that Kid had set on the ground for him. The acrid smell of smoke and the lingering odor of the decaying Bokoblins had only become more prominent in his wolf form, but Link did his best to ignore those unpleasant smells and focus on the stone itself.
Two similar, yet different, scents swirled around the rock. The strongest was Kid's, a warm and homey smell mixed with the now all too familiar tang of salt, but there was an underlying scent beneath it, heavy with salt and air and freedom. There was no doubt about it. This fainter scent was Tetra's.
He homed in on it, concentrating on memorizing the scent. Once he was sure he had it, Link turned away from the stone and began to sniff the ground for a whiff of Tetra's scent. He found it almost instantly and took off, his companions trailing behind him anxiously.
Tetra's scent initially misled him, nearly drawing him back to where they had entered the smoking village until he realized his mistake and retraced his steps. When he did manage to find the freshest trail, it pulled him around twists and turns and under and over unstable debris, solidifying the belief in his mind that Tetra had no sense of self-preservation.
"Link, the stone!" Kid exclaimed suddenly, causing Link to momentarily snap out of his tracking and glance over his shoulder at his distraught counterpart who was now cradling the gossip stone in two hands. Link could see that it wasn't glowing anymore. Tetra must have deactivated it. At least, he hoped it had been her. But why? Did that mean she'd escaped from the hole she'd fallen into?
As if in answer, the sound of shifting debris perked up his ears, and suddenly he didn't have any thought in his mind but to revert back to his original form. Tetra had said someone was with her, a girl. The last thing he needed to do was scare her with his wolf form.
Hastily, he attempted to signal Midna to turn him back, but the Twilight Princess was too busy lounging comfortably on his back, admiring the sky swirled into a pallet of pastels by the sunset, to notice. Only when Kid bolted past them and rounded the artificial corner constructed entirely of debris, calling Tetra's name, did Midna snap out of her reverie. She quickly transformed Link back into a human before dripping into the lengthening shadows.
Link stood, shaking off the last of the shadows surrounding him, and ran after his counterpart with Zelda by his side.
They rounded the corner just in time to see Kid standing amidst a pile of charred wreckage, reaching a hand into the rubble and pulling up an ash-covered Tetra.
"What happened?" Kid interrogated her as Link and Zelda hurried over to join them.
"Nothing," Tetra said nonchalantly, removing her hand from Kid's and beginning to brush dirt and ash off of her arms, not that it really helped. She was filthy from head to toe but appeared unharmed otherwise.
"Why did you stop responding to us?" Link demanded, unable to mask his anger now that he knew she was okay.
Without pausing in her futile effort to clear her clothes, skin, and hair of grime, Tetra replied, "You were annoying me, so I cut off the sound."
"You-?!" Link had been expecting a reply like this, but it still got under his skin. "That's not a good enough reason!"
"Maybe not to you. To me, it's a very good reason," Tetra declared, shooting him a pointed look that sent his blood boiling.
"You made us think that something happened to you," Kid chimed in, his voice no louder or softer than usual, but the definitive frown on his face made it evident that he didn't approve of Tetra's recent actions either.
The pirate girl rolled her eyes and held her hands out to either side of her. "Look, I'm fine, okay?"
"We didn't know that," Link interjected, unable to comprehend how Tetra could just disregard everyone else's feelings.
"Well, what do you want?" Tetra demanded folding her arms across her chest. "An apology?"
"Yes, actually," he answered, mimicking her stance and raising his eyebrows expectantly. "You shouldn't have run off on your own to begin with."
"See, this is why I cut you off earlier," Tetra informed him with a roll of her eyes. "I knew you were going to do this."
"Do what?"
"Lecture me."
"I wouldn't have to lecture you if you listened," Link retorted.
"And why should I listen to you?" Tetra challenged him. "Because you're older? Because you know best?"
Link expelled an irritated sigh through his nose. "Because you're too rash for your own good, Tetra. Running around doing whatever and saying whatever you want is going to get you killed someday."
"Oh, yeah? Well, someday isn't today. I'm very much alive, as you can see." Tetra gestured to herself as if he needed the proof.
Link grit his teeth. "That's not the point."
"It never is, is it?" Tetra huffed.
"Tetra?" Zelda's inquisitive voice instantly drew the pirate girl's fury to her.
"What?"
"Would you terribly mind introducing us?" The princess inclined her head, and Tetra glanced over her shoulder. Link looked as well. Shame settled like a heavy hood over his head as his eyes landed on the ghostly-pale girl in the plum dress standing just behind Tetra. Suddenly he was all too aware of the tightness of anger in his face and did his best to rid himself of it. This girl was probably scared out of her wits, and their arguing couldn't have helped reassure her that she was safe with them.
"Oh…" It was as if Tetra had just remembered that the girl existed. "That's Anjean." She was quiet a moment longer before saying, "I didn't know you had purple hair."
The girl's wide eyes had been flicking back and forth over them all, assessing them, but now they settled on Tetra. Anjean put a hand that had previously been obscured by a voluminous sky blue sleeve to her lavender hair, as if defending it from the pirate girl's judgment.
Link, for one, didn't see anything wrong with it. Sure, it wasn't exactly normal, but dying hair unnatural colors was a sort of fashion statement some people in Hyrule, primarily in Castle Town, had been experimenting with for a while now.
What interested him more was the circular clip that held together the extremely loose ponytail that was tossed over her left shoulder. It looked like a wheel, the middle a bright scarlet and the wide spokes alternating between yellow and orange.
"Anyway," Tetra said, gesturing to the princess, "this is Zelda." She pointed to him. "That's Link. And this," she nudged Kid in the side with her elbow, "is Kid."
"It's a nickname," Kid offered hastily when Anjean's calculating expression turned puzzled.
"So now that you know who everyone is, we should get going," Tetra declared, glancing at the pale blue and peach tinged sky. That was the first thing that Tetra had said in the past half hour that Link actually agreed with.
They began to pick their way off of the rubble, but it became clear after just a few seconds that their newest member was not following them.
Link stopped and so did the others.
"Come on," Tetra called to her. "We have to go."
Anjean shook her head and stayed rooted to the spot.
"Why not?" Tetra demanded.
"Are there other people in need of assistance here?" Zelda inquired. Of course! If there was one person here, then it wasn't unlikely that there were more.
"No. There's no one else here." Anjean announced, dropping the hand that had been playing with her hair to her side. Her accent, Link noted, was lighter than the accents they had encountered at Papuchia. "I just…need something."
"Whatever it is, I bet it's not that important." Tetra said, taking a step back towards the road.
"It is," Anjean insisted. "I can't leave without it."
"Please come with us," Kid urged her, approaching the purple-haired girl and extending a hand towards her. "It's too dangerous to stay here. There are monsters."
Anjean shook her head vehemently, and Kid's face fell at the rejection. Reluctantly, the Hero of Winds retracted his hand.
Link opened his mouth to try his luck at convincing her, but Tetra spoke up before he could.
"Just how important is it?"
Anjean's dark brown eyes instantly shot to the pirate captain. "Immensely."
"And you're sure you can't replace it?" Tetra checked.
"Positive."
Tetra expelled a heavy sigh before straightening and shooting Anjean one of her signature winks. "Then I guess we have no choice but to go get it."
"Tetra, we don't have time," Link objected. He wasn't opposed to helping Anjean, but they had little daylight left, and once it was gone, Link didn't even want to imagine the types of monsters that would assault them.
This place made him uneasy enough in the last rays of the sun. Complete darkness, he was sure, would only increase the eeriness already crawling on his skin and burrowing in his bones.
"We'll be quick," Tetra assured him before turning her attention back to Anjean. "Where is this important thing you need?"
Anjean seemed a bit taken aback by Tetra's decision to help but quickly snapped out of it and pointed. "Over there." They all followed her finger to the only building that was still mostly standing. It was incredibly large, making Link believe that more than one family had to live within it at one time, or else it had belonged to someone quite wealthy. But what concerned him most wasn't who had lived there, or even the structural soundness of the damaged building, but its location. To reach it, they would have to tromp across a good deal of debris. Debris that they had begun to walk over earlier only to be ambushed by Cursed Bokoblins.
Tetra must have realized this too, for she drew her dagger before declaring, "Let's go."
Soon, Link found himself back where they'd first encountered the decaying monsters, trying -and failing- to ignore the lingering rancid stench of the creatures as they walked, weapons drawn and ready to protect, not only themselves, but Anjean as well.
The young girl was situated in the middle of their formation, protected on all sides by each of them. Tetra in front of her. Link to her left. Zelda to her right. And Kid at her back. Yet, despite the protection, Anjean didn't seem comforted by their presence. Link could understand that. They were strangers after all, and she'd just lost her home and friends and family. He couldn't help but feel guilty, knowing that. But how were they to know where Ghirahim went?
Link was snapped out of his sour thoughts by a Cursed Bokoblin clawing its way to the surface right in front of his feet. He jumped back before it could grab him and lured it far enough away from the rest of the group so he could safely perform a spin attack. The creature was instantly knocked on its back, and he leapt forward, driving the sword into its gut and officially ending the abomination.
Standing, Link twirled the sword in his hand and reclaimed his position beside Anjean, shooting her a reassuring smile. She just stared up at him in a mixture of awe and horror, as if she had just caught a glimpse of the beast within him. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Link looked away and returned his attention to scanning the ground for any more Cursed Bokoblins.
They continued their trek, interruptions becoming more and more frequent as they drew closer to what used to be the village's center.
By the time they all crouched behind the charred remains of a wall from someone's house, they were all tense and, in everyone's case besides Anjean's, out of breath from fighting. Their destination was just ahead, but there was a problem.
Just beyond the demolished wall that was their hiding place, an entire swarm of Cursed Bokoblins ambled around, effectively discouraging anyone from entering the building. By Link's count, there were at least fifty, but that was all he could see from this side. It was likely that more undead monsters were shuffling around on the opposite side of the large building. They couldn't take on that many.
"Bombs," Kid stated as they all ducked back down, allowing the small wall to completely obscure them once more. "We throw those in first and take out as many as we can, then make a run for the building."
"And escaping?" Zelda wondered.
"We do the same thing," Kid answered.
"How many bombs do you have?" Link asked his counterpart. The battle earlier had nearly cleaned out his entire supply. If Kid didn't have a decent amount of explosives in his own arsenal, there was no way this was going to work.
"Ten or so," Kid replied. Combined with Link's equally meager supply that meant they had, at most, fifteen bombs to use for their break in and break out. Not to mention that they'd have to be extra careful about where they threw the bombs. It was pretty much inevitable that they'd rekindle some of the earlier fires. The trick was not to set the building that was their destination alight along with it.
"Use half of what you both have to get in and half to get out," Tetra proposed, and Link nodded. It could work. But they'd only have one shot at it.
And then there was Anjean.
"I'm not staying behind," Anjean informed them when Link suggested that she should.
"You wouldn't be alone. We'd leave Tetra or Zelda with you," he added.
"I'm still not staying behind," Anjean said stubbornly, the pastel sky reflecting off of her eyes and briefly turning them lilac. "You don't even know what you're looking for."
"Tell us what we're looking for, then," Link invited her as gently as he could.
Apparently, it wasn't gently enough, for Anjean went mute. He couldn't very well force her, so Link resolved to keep a close eye on her as they executed their plan.
After going over a few more specifics, they were ready to take action. Link stood along with Kid, bomb bags at the ready, while the girls stayed down and covered their ears in anticipation of the explosions they were going to rain on the unsuspecting Cursed Bokoblins.
Kid was the first to light and throw a bomb. It landed a good distance away from them, not too close to the building, but close enough to shake the foundation that still stood when the bomb exploded and take out three of the undead monsters it had landed near.
The two of them nervously watched the blackened building, worried that the weakened wood and stone that it was made of would collapse from the new stress. When it didn't, Link lit and threw a bomb, making sure to throw it so it landed a little farther from the building and wouldn't disturb it as much. The resulting explosion took out another three Cursed Bokoblins.
By now, the creatures were aware that they were being attacked and began to redirect their decomposing bodies towards Link and Kid. Moving away from what used to be their hiding place so the creatures didn't stumble upon the girls, the heroes continued to take turns throwing bombs.
After the eighth bomb, thrown by Link, detonated and reduced five more Cursed Bokoblins to purple haze, it was time to move.
Tetra, who had been counting the explosions, jumped up and made to leap over the wall they'd been hiding behind, but then stopped and turned to him. "You guys barely made a dent! Throw more bombs at them!"
"If we do, there's no way we're getting out!" Link shouted back at her, already moving forward and drawing his sword. He'd been right. There were more monsters on the other side of the building, and they were now rounding the structure. If they waited any longer, the new numbers would close the gap that they had managed to make. "Come on! I'll clear more."
"Wait," Kid said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him to a stop. "I can make a path. Just give me room."
Link's eyes went to the Master Sword clutched in his counterpart's hand, and he grew hesitant. Kid had only just started using his left arm again yesterday, and Link didn't want him to push it. Unfortunately, he didn't get to make that decision.
The cluster of Cursed Bokoblins drew closer, and Link stepped back, reluctantly waving Kid forward and putting an arm out to stop the girls from advancing as they came up behind him.
His eyes were on his counterpart, as the boy crouched, holding out the Master Sword as if in preparation to perform a spin attack. Only when golden energy lit up the sword in his hand did Link recognize what it was. The Hurricane Spin. Kid had told him all about it when they'd first started training together, per Link's request. Unfortunately, Kid couldn't teach it to him because the technique required magic power, and Link had none.
Kid, however, had plenty.
With a cry, Kid released the shining energy that had flocked to the sword and let it spin him around and around in what had to be the most out of control spin attack ever invented. But it worked. Kid plowed through the mass of Cursed Bokoblins with all the devastating force of a hurricane, knocking a great number of monsters onto their backs and creating a very obvious path for them.
Link hurried forward before the creatures had a chance to rise, and the girls followed closely behind him. Just ahead, Kid had stopped spinning and was now swaying dizzily, trying to regain his balance and reorient himself while the monsters he hadn't managed to hit were shuffling closer and closer.
Link ran harder and managed to reach Kid just in time to yank him out of the way of the Cursed Bokoblin reaching for him. He struck the nearest creature with his sword, and it snapped back a second, before springing right back and returning to its thirst for blood or flesh or whatever it was that Cursed Bokoblins yearned for.
"I'm sorry to ask, but can you do that again?" Link requested, still holding on to Kid's arm as the boy shook off the last of his dizziness. Even though it left Kid completely exposed at the end and it didn't kill the Cursed Bokoblins, it was an effective way of creating an opening for them all to pass through.
Kid agreed, and Link let go of him, giving him space to charge up that Hurricane Spin of his once more. While he did that, Link turned to see how their path was holding up. The undead monsters Kid had previously knocked down were already starting to get to their feet. Link dealt out ending blows to those that he could, but in the end there were just too many, and he wound up performing spin attack after spin attack just to get the girls in the clear.
"Get her inside, we'll help Kid," Zelda ordered as they all raced down the new path Kid had made. The princess released Anjean's hand, and she and Tetra veered away from the building, heading towards where Kid was just beginning to lose his momentum.
Anjean's hand lingered in the air, as if she wasn't quite ready to part with the girls just yet, but ready or not, she had to, at least for a little while, so Link snatched her outstretched hand in his own and pulled her towards the building. "It's alright. Come with me."
She didn't protest and allowed him to drag her through the Cursed Bokoblins still lingering near the building. The monsters grasped at them with hands shorn completely of flesh, and Link nearly gagged at the putrid stench of the creatures closing in on them. Ahead he could see a hole near the base of the damaged building, just big enough to allow them entry.
He sprinted for it, and as soon as they were close enough, Link ushered Anjean inside. "Hurry and find what you need," he told her, letting go of her hand. With a determined nod, she left him, and Link turned his back on the hole, facing the approaching Cursed Bokoblins.
He performed the Great Spin, knocking back a good deal of the Cursed Bokoblins. But not enough. The monsters that his attack didn't reach were still coming, scrambling over their fallen comrades to get to him.
He executed another Great Spin, granting himself the space he needed to climb through the hole and inside the building. Ash, blackened wood, and colored glass turned dull by dirt covered the floor, making Link very glad that he was wearing boots.
If not for the fact that the roof had all but been torn asunder, there would have been very little light to see by. As it was, the gaping hole high above his head was quite beneficial as he moved forward through the gloom and debris littering the floor.
He could see Anjean at the opposite end of the building, down on her hands and knees, reaching for something trapped beneath a beam of wood. Since she was all the way over there, and he didn't see any monsters, Link thought it safe to say that there weren't any in here. Of course, that didn't mean that this place could serve as a shelter. The Cursed Bokoblins could still climb in the same way they had if the creatures had enough willpower to.
Link had just started forward when Anjean managed to grab whatever it was she was reaching for. She retracted her hand from underneath the wood, drawing out some kind of ash-covered object. She was too far away for Link to see what it was. Nonetheless, he could tell that, whatever it was, it was what Anjean was looking for by the way she began to tenderly brush off the grime coating it.
He was about to call out to her to let her know that they had to go, when the sound of powerful wing beats perked up his ears. His eyes were drawn to the darkening sky, obscured only by the occasional blackened piece of wood that used to be a support beam for the roof.
A large bird came into view, its burnt orange plumage fiery in the glow of the setting sun. Its tail trailed behind it like some decorative, filigreed streamer as it circled above the building. Link wasn't sure if this was a normal bird or a monster bird, but he wasn't interested in sticking around to find out.
He lowered his gaze and settled it back on Anjean just in time to see a Cursed Bokoblin creeping up on her. It must have snuck in from some other hole in the building while he'd been distracted.
Link bolted forward but already knew as he took his first step that he wouldn't make it in time.
"ANJEAN!" Link yelled her name in warning just as the monster raised its hand to grab her.
The purple-haired girl started at her name, or the tone of his voice, or both, and whirled around. Something flashed in her hand as she turned, her arm raised as if to protect her face, and suddenly the undead creature that was just a hair's breath away from touching her shot backwards, crashing into the wall with a mighty crack.
Link ground to a halt, mouth hanging open and eyes riveted to the spot where the Cursed Bokoblin had fallen. The others were outside. He was the only one in here with Anjean, but he hadn't touched it. He hadn't even been close. Did Midna do that? He glanced at his shadow, but it didn't offer any hints. Or… did Anjean do that? But how could she? She wasn't armed. The flash of light alighted in his mind's eye. Or was she?
"Let's go!" Anjean exclaimed, running past him and snapping him out of his shock.
"Wait!" Anjean didn't heed his call. She kept going and left Link behind, trusting that he would follow her. But Link was still trying to make sense of what he'd just witnessed and did not follow. Not until the shadow of the fire-colored bird from earlier fell over him, that is.
All it took was one glance upward to see the flames gathering at the bird's beak to animate him.
Link scrambled after Anjean, gritting his teeth as fire balls hurtled past him and connected with the wooden portion of the wall ahead. 'Definitely a monster bird,' he decided grimly. The incredible heat and black smoke that resulted from the flames all but shoved the Hero of Twilight, coughing, out of the building.
No sooner than he sprinted out of the suffocating smoke did he run into a Cursed Bokoblin. It was much steadier on its feet than one would expect of a decaying creature, but Link was thankful for it since it meant it didn't go down, and he didn't either. He did, however, snatch his extremities away from the monster before it could bite him.
"Link!" Kid's voice spun him around to see his companions, Anjean included, making their way towards him through the field of Cursed Bokoblin bodies that he could only assume his counterpart had felled with the Hurricane Spin just moments ago.
Leaving the straggler monster to its own devices, Link hurried to meet everyone else.
"Are you okay?" Kid asked him.
"What did you leave Anjean by herself for?" Tetra demanded. "And how did you manage to set the building on fire?"
"I didn't-" Link began to protest, only to be cut off by an ear-splitting screech. Their attention was drawn to its source. The monster bird hovered above the burning building, beating its four feathery wings and parting the smoke around it like a rock in a river.
"Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!" Anjean urged them, pulling on Tetra's arm to hurry the pirate girl along.
"We're going," Zelda assured the panicked girl while Tetra shook her off irritably and began to run in the opposite direction of the smoking structure.
Kid fell into step beside Link as he ran after the girls, dodging the Cursed Bokoblins that were beginning to stir. "Where did that bird come from?"
"I don't know," Link replied. He found that he didn't know a lot things lately. "All I know is that it can shoot fire balls and doesn't like us being here."
Suddenly, he felt a pressure on his right ankle and tripped, falling hard onto the ground. He looked back to see one of the undead monsters grasping his ankle, attempting to crawl closer and opening its mouth to make a meal of him.
The Master Sword came down on the Cursed Bokoblin's skull before it could complete its mission, and Link leapt to his feet as soon as he felt the monster's grip loosen.
"Thanks," he thanked his counterpart, but Kid wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He was too focused on keeping seven more of the bloated monsters at bay. Stealing a glance beyond the boy battling the creatures, Link saw more Cursed Bokoblins shuffling closer. If they didn't move, they'd be overwhelmed.
Link grabbed Kid's sword arm before he could complete another swing and yanked him back, forcing the younger hero to abandon the monsters and run with him. "Forget that. Run and throw bombs!"
Kid had no reason to argue, and in moments, the two of them were doing exactly what Link had suggested, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Fortunately, the monsters that remained were slow and few in number so the girls weren't hindered by those they did encounter.
Nonetheless, the two heroes made sure to catch up to them, and soon all five of them were fleeing the scene as fast as their legs could carry them, avoiding the Cursed Bokoblins that arose from the shifting rubble at their feet and ignoring, to the best of their ability, the shifting rubble as well.
But they could not avoid or ignore the bird when it placed itself directly in their path.
"What kind of bird is this?" Kid wondered aloud, as they all stared up at the medium-sized monster that flapped before them, its long tail dangling and beady eyes regarding them in a menacing manner. Its head was reminiscent of a Kargarok, causing Link to believe that it fell somewhere in that monster family. And if so, arrows should work just fine.
He began to dig out his bow and arrows, his head snapping up when lavender light flickered in his peripherals, and Fi's droning voice reached his ears. His eyes instantly went to Anjean. The girl that had been cowering behind Tetra, much to the pirate captain's chagrin, was now staring openly at the sword spirit floating beside Kid.
He winced, turning back to his task. 'That will be fun to explain later,' he thought. As he found and drew out his weapons, Link lent an attentive ear to Fi. According to her, this creature was known as a Furnix and was more of a spirit bird than a monster. If that was the case, Link wanted to know why it was attacking them. But he supposed that Ghirahim had just created his own version of this ancient bird and made it more bloodthirsty than it originally had been. Fi mentioned using a whip on its curved tail to bring it down to their level, but by then Link had already nocked an arrow and was aiming at the Furnix's chest. Seeing this, Fi added that it was also a viable method to dispose of the creature.
Link released the arrow, and it flew towards the fire bird's narrow chest as the creature reeled back its head in preparation to spew fireballs at them. His arrow reached it first, burying itself in its plumage and instantly puffing into ash.
"Further analysis indicates that this Furnix is not susceptible to arrows," Fi announced just as the Furnix snapped its head down and opened its curved golden beak, spitting out three balls of controlled flames.
Fi retreated to the Master Sword while Link and his companions scattered, their footing clumsy on the unstable debris. Thankfully, no one was sent aflame and turned to ash like his arrow had been.
"Ice arrows may be more effective," Zelda observed, throwing a meaningful look at Kid who just shook his head apologetically.
"I don't have any more magic left," he said.
"Don't you have a green potion on you?" Tetra demanded.
"Uh…" Kid began to dig through his adventure pouch in search of a potion that would recharge his magic energy, but they didn't have time for that. The hostile spirit bird was getting ready to attack them again.
"Forget it," Link told him, stuffing his bow and quiver back into his own adventure pouch. "We'll just have to bring it down to our level."
"We don't have a whip," Tetra objected.
"We don't need one," Link shot back, pulling out a clawshot from his belongings and aiming it at the Furnix's looped tail. Praying that he was correct, Link pressed the button to detach the claw. With the usual kickback, the claw launched, shooting away from him on a rattling silver chain and latching on to the loop at the end of the Furnix's impressive tail.
Without taking a moment to celebrate this small victory, Link tugged hard on the chain, forcibly pulling the Furnix to the ground.
"Get it!" he ordered his companions since he was afraid of letting go of his hold on its tail, lest it return to the sky.
Tetra, Kid, and Zelda rushed forward, all too eager to comply. It was pretty safe to say that this fire-spewing bird, perhaps with some minimal help from the Fire Keese from earlier, had burned this forest village to the ground, and for that, it would pay.
The assault of three sharp-edged weapons saw it dead in seconds, puffing into a cloud of purple smoke that quickly blended with the smoke from the rekindled fires littered all around them, swirling into the sky.
That done, they all made haste off of the mound of debris.
Once they hit the dirt road they knew to be safe, the five of them paused to catch their breath, looking back at the destruction they'd inadvertently caused in their escape. Scattered flames leaped and danced atop the seemingly endless stretch of debris, but the biggest blaze was the surviving building in the middle of the destroyed village. Once one side caught fire, it had continued to spread to the rest, and Link could hear the pops and cracks as the last of the building burned to the ground. No doubt that when it was through only the stone of its foundation would remain.
"Why is there a spirit in your sword, dear?" Anjean's inquiry caused them all to cringe and redirect their attention to the lavender-haired girl. Link was surprised to see that Anjean didn't appear freaked out in the least. In fact, her eyes were wide and sparkling with curiosity.
"Uh…" Kid trailed off, searching for an explanation he didn't have. "She's just…um, I don't know." To be honest, Link didn't either. All he knew was that Fi was a servant of the used-to-be-goddess Hylia. Why she was in the sword was beyond him.
Anjean nodded sagely as if she understood anyway, then fixed her gaze on Link. "Do you know why there's a spirit in your shadow?"
Link's confused gaze flicked down to his shadow. Midna. Was she talking about Midna? But that was impossible. Midna had stayed hidden ever since they'd found Tetra, so…
"Where did you get that idea?" he asked her, cautiously.
"Your shadow," Anjean answered as if it was obvious. But it wasn't.
"Alright, enough of the crazy talk," Tetra interjected. "Did you get what you needed?"
"Yup!" Anjean chirped happily, holding up a dirty wooden object hanging from an equally grimy braided cord around her neck. Link still couldn't tell what it was, or why it hadn't burned, for that matter. "Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, let's get out of here," Tetra said, motioning them all forward. Glancing at the now twilit sky, Link knew that there was no way they would make it back to Linebeck before full dark.
As they began to trek back to the horses, Link couldn't stop replaying the scene he'd witnessed in the building earlier between Anjean and the Cursed Bokoblin in his mind. What had that flash of light been? A trick of the light? His imagination? Neither one of those things could throw a monster into a wall with such force. And it couldn't be a coincidence that it happened at the precise moment that Anjean whirled around. Only one thing would put his mind at ease.
"Hey, Anjean?"
The girl glanced over her shoulder at her name. "Yes?"
The image of the purple-haired girl cowering behind Tetra during the battle with the Furnix alighted in his mind's eye. Surely if she was armed, she wouldn't have been so scared. "Back in that building…when that monster almost grabbed you-"
"You let a monster get close to her?" Tetra cut him off in disbelief. She shook her head, as if he were hopeless. "I should have known better than to leave her with you."
"I didn't know there was a-" he cut himself off with a heavy sigh, knowing that if he continued to defend himself, he'd never get his question out. He turned back to Anjean. "How did you get it away from you?"
"I used this." Anjean pulled something out of one of her large blue sleeves and held it up for him to see. A wickedly sharp looking knife glinted in the half-light of twilight.
Tetra stopped dead. "Where'd you get that from?"
"I had it the whole time," Anjean replied innocently. Link couldn't take his eyes off the knife in her hand. No matter how sharp it looked, there was no arguing that the blade itself was small. Something so miniscule shouldn't have the power to pack such a punch. Unless it was enchanted…
"Then why'd you need us?!" Tetra exploded.
"Because there were too many soulless to handle on my own and… they scare me."
"And you never thought to mention that before?" Tetra fumed. Link could only assume that by 'soulless' Anjean meant 'monsters'.
"It was a test."
Tetra threw up her hands in exasperation. "A test!?"
Anjean nodded somewhat apologetically, stowing the knife away within her sleeve. Link couldn't help but wonder what else the young girl was hiding. "Don't worry, you all passed."
"I'm not worried about that!" Tetra exclaimed. "Why were you testing us?"
"Because I had to know if I could trust you or not. Usually, I can tell, but all of you are..." Anjean trailed off, searching for an appropriate word. Finally, she found it. "Different."
"Different how?" Tetra pressed, seeming to take Anjean's use of the word as an insult. Personally, Link could see exactly where Anjean was coming from. To Anjean, they were strangers wearing odd clothes and speaking with equally odd accents. Not to mention the fact that they were armed and had displayed on multiple occasions that they knew what they were doing and could potentially pose a lethal threat to the small girl despite the fact that she had a knife on her.
But Anjean didn't point out any of those things. "There are four of you, except there aren't. Right now there are four people in front of me." She pointed to each of them from left to right, as if counting them. "But I only see two."
Link was helplessly confused and glanced at Kid to see if his counterpart had understood any of Anjean's explanation, but Kid was equally lost.
Catching their perplexed expressions, Anjean giggled. "Confusing, isn't it? That's why I wasn't sure what to think myself."
"Please elaborate," Princess Zelda requested politely while Tetra just shook her head and let out a bewildered, "What?"
"Your souls," Anjean said. "They're the same."
"How would you know?" Tetra challenged her immediately, trying to mask her surprise because the rest of them weren't doing such a great job.
Anjean smiled. "Because I can see souls."
"Yeah, right," Tetra scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I can!" Anjean insisted. "I already knew there was a spirit in his sword," she nodded to Kid, "before she showed herself. And I know there's a vessel-bound spirit in your shadow so you must know it's there." She looked pointedly at Link and her round-eyed gaze somehow made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was because he couldn't deny what she was saying, and he also couldn't deny what that meant.
"Alright, what are you? A witch?" Midna relented, drifting up from the shadows and adopting a stance similar to Tetra's in the air. She probably hoped to scare the girl that had ruined her hiding place, but Anjean didn't seem startled at all by Midna's sudden appearance.
"Huh?" Anjean blinked. "No. I'm a Lokomo."
"Is that another word for a crazy person?" Tetra commented.
"Nope!" Anjean chirped happily as if she didn't detect Tetra's insult. "It's the name of my people."
"And your people can see spirits?" Zelda inquired.
Anjean shook her head. "Not all of them. Only those with The Eyes can see souls."
"What makes someone a Lokomo, then?" Kid wondered.
"Lokomo are beings blessed by the Spirits, and as such it is their sacred duty to protect The Realms and its people," Anjean explained proudly, her head held high, and hands folded before her, hidden within the folds of her sky blue sleeves. To Link, it sounded like she was reciting words from a teaching that had been ingrained into her brain for so long that its true meaning had been lost on her.
It was certainly lost on them, and Link found that he didn't mind so much when Tetra spoke up next. "What the heck does "beings blessed by the Spirits" mean?" Tetra interrogated the girl. "What spirits?"
A pink flush tinted Anjean's pale cheeks, and her proud stance deflated a bit. "Erm…the Spirits."
"The Lokomo worship these spirits?" Zelda interjected, attempting to understand what Anjean was trying to say.
Anjean nodded vehemently, her eyes brightening at the princess's understanding. "Yes! It'd be sinful not to since they bless us with so much."
"What do they bless your people with?" Zelda inquired. Link had a feeling this was turning into a matter of religion. Just as he and other Hylians worshipped the Golden Goddesses, these people worshipped beings known as the Spirits.
"With strength and magic and long life spans," Anjean replied cheerfully. "We Lokomo can live for hundreds of years."
"Hundreds?" Link repeated, wondering if he'd heard her right. Earlier, he'd assumed, based off of Anjean's pointed ears and her possibly enchanted knife, that the Lokomo were just Hylians that weren't aware they were Hylians and so had adopted a different name. However, living hundreds of years was a feat even Hylians couldn't manage. Sure, he'd heard of the odd case or two in which some Hylians lived to be a hundred or older, but he'd never heard of anyone ever coming close to two hundred.
"Hundreds," Anjean confirmed with a nod.
The topic of age made Link wonder exactly how old Anjean was. He was about to ask her when Tetra gasped. "Hey! Wait a minute! If you knew that we shared souls then that means you were looking at our souls."
"Yes…" Anjean confirmed, somewhat cautiously due to Tetra's tone.
"Don't you think that's a bit rude?" Tetra huffed.
The purple-haired girl blinked, taken aback. "I…don't think so."
"Well, I think so!" Tetra snapped. "You've no business peering into my soul or anyone else's without permission."
"But if I don't, how will I know who to trust and who not to?" Anjean wanted to know.
"You get to know people by talking to them," Tetra informed her in a haughty manner. "Not spying on them."
"People lie," Anjean countered. "Souls don't."
"How do you know they don't?" Tetra challenged her.
"Because if they did, everyone'd be able to see souls," Anjean claimed. "They're hidden for a reason."
"Yeah, because they're personal, and no one wants you peering into their soul," Tetra refuted.
"Plenty of people want me to peer into their souls," Anjean disagreed.
"Then they're equally insane as you are!"
"I'm not insane and neither are they." Anjean held out her hands towards Tetra. "If you'll grant me permission, I'll prove it to you."
"No way!" Tetra refused, backing away from Anjean. "Why ask my permission now when you've obviously already looked?"
Anjean shook her head, tucking her hands inside her sleeves. "I haven't been able to really look. I've only gotten glimpses. To truly evaluate anyone's soul, I have to be looking into their eyes."
"Why?" Kid wondered.
"Ever hear the saying, 'The eyes are the windows to the soul'?" Anjean asked him. When the Wind Waker nodded, she continued, "Well, it's true."
Tetra immediately directed her eyes to the ground, and Link found himself doing the same. The idea of someone peering into his soul was…well, unsettling. It was a part of him that even he couldn't see, and it seemed like an extreme violation of privacy to allow another person to see it.
"You have my permission," Zelda spoke up, stepping forward. Link snapped his head up just in time to see the delighted expression that came to life on Anjean's face.
"What?!" Tetra cried, shooting a baffled look at the Princess of Hyrule. "You're seriously letting her look at your soul?"
"I am curious to see what she can discern with her powers," Zelda returned calmly. The princess turned to Anjean. "What must I do?"
"Just look into my eyes, dear," Anjean said, smiling as she eagerly took the princess's hands in her own. "Don't look away or else you'll break the connection."
"May I blink?" Zelda inquired. Link could see by the set of her jaw that she was nervous, but he commended her for doing it at all. He wouldn't.
"Yes," Anjean answered. She paused, looking up at Zelda. "Ready?"
The princess gave a stiff nod, and Link couldn't help but watch as Anjean's eyes instantly transformed from a brown so dark they bordered on black to a brilliant violet.
It appeared as if the two of them were having a staring contest, except it was heavily one sided for Anjean didn't blink at all. Just before the pressing silence could squeeze them into permanent uncomfortableness, Anjean spoke, still peering intensely into the princess's pale blue eyes. "Your soul's ancient. Impossibly ancient, in fact. Such a soul shouldn't be housed in a human vessel at all. But...I see traces of divinity in your soul so maybe…that's why?"
The Lokomo girl gasped. "No. There's a curse binding your soul to others. So long as one exists, so will the others. For all eternity."
She paused for a moment, as if allowing them to take this in, before continuing with her examination. "I can also see that you possess magic of your own. It's an impressive supply, more than any non-Lokomo should have, so I can only assume that's a byproduct of your divinity.
"Earlier, I could catch a few attributes from your soul, but now I can see them all. Your soul is very wise and kind and just and bright. There's no sin blemishing it. Therefore, you're trustworthy."
Anjean's eyes faded back to their neutral brown, and she dropped Zelda's hands with a small exhale of breath, as if using her power to such an extent had drained her.
Link was sure that all their startled expressions matched. There was no denying Anjean's ability now. She couldn't have guessed any of that. Not Zelda's connection to being a goddess. And especially not the curse.
"Freaky," Midna commented, drawing Anjean's attention to her.
"Mm," the girl hummed in agreement. She turned back to Zelda. "I never expected to find that your soul was cursed or divine."
"I wasn't talking about her soul," Midna informed Anjean. "I was talking about you."
"Oh…" Anjean trailed off. Suddenly, her eyes widened in understanding, and she shot a hurt look at Midna. "Hey!"
The Twilight Princess shrugged as if the insult slipping out of her mouth was beyond her control, which Link was tempted to believe, it was.
"What about you?" Anjean wondered. "Are you a witch?"
"No," Midna answered. "I'm a Twili, and that's all you need to know."
"What about your name, then, dear?" Anjean asked, cocking her head to the side with childish innocence.
"It's Midna," the Twilight Princess said curtly. "And don't call me 'dear'. It makes you sound like an old lady."
Anjean was so taken aback that she could only pout at the ground and mumble, "I'm not an old lady."
She quickly perked back up, though, the need for knowledge swirling in her warm brown eyes as she looked around at all of them. "How are the four of you sharing souls? Each soul is unique and there are no repeats so…how?"
"How do you know no souls repeat?" Tetra returned cheekily.
"Because other Lokomo with The Eyes know," Anjean replied. "It's a fact and there are no exceptions. So…so…" She gasped, her round eyes widening in realization. "Two of you aren't from this world at all!" She glanced at Midna. "Well…maybe more than two."
Link just barely stopped his jaw from dropping.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Anjean wondered, eyes shining with glee at their sudden determined silence.
"Yeah…" Link admitted after a few more moments of pressing silence, his voice barely a whisper, but Anjean's long ears ensured that she heard it.
Anjean turned to him, eyes wide with wonder and hands clasped together as if she was silently begging him to answer her questions. "Where are you from, then? How did you get here? It must have been some really advanced magic, right? Why are you here and not in your own world? Did-"
"Perhaps we'll share that story with you while we travel," Zelda suggested, cutting off the eager girl's barrage of questions. "For now, we must leave."
Link's eyes flicked to the sky, and he was shocked to see the first stars of the night winking back at him. They'd dawdled here for far too long.
As they began to stroll through the ruins as fast as possible, another concern popped into Link's head, and he voiced it immediately without breaking stride. "Anjean, do you know how to ride a horse?"
"Yes," she said, "but I'm afraid animals don't like me too much."
Link barely registered the second part of her answer. As long as she could ride, he could deal with the rest of it.
Dealing with the rest of it turned out to be a larger hassle than Link anticipated. Upon reaching the horses, the previously docile animals practically went berserk, tossing their heads and straining against the rope that connected them to each other and the trunk of a tree.
It took Link ten minutes just to soothe the animals and another fifteen to situate his companions atop them.
"Aren't you getting on?" Anjean asked him as he finished untying the horses and returned Kid's grappling hook to him.
Link shook his head. There was no room for a third person on either horse. "I'll catch up. Remember if the horse gets out of control again-"
"I know what to do," Anjean assured him with a smile. Link hoped she did, for her sake and Kid's. His counterpart fidgeted anxiously in his seat behind the Lokomo girl, clearly not trusting her to keep control of the horse.
But Link could tell by the way Anjean held herself that she did, indeed, know how to ride. The real question was how she'd ever been able to stay on a horse long enough to learn. Despite the fact that he had given her the gentler of the two horses to command, he could already see that it was getting antsy again.
Anjean sensed it too, for she suddenly faced forward, tightening her grip on the black and white horse's mane. "There's only one way to get it used to me and that's to let it run. Hold on!"
Kid barely had time to do just that before the young girl dug her heels into the horse's sides, and it bolted forward.
"Is she crazy?!" Tetra cried as Anjean's whoop of joy and Kid's terrified scream echoed back at them through the trees.
"Get going," Link ordered them, handing his lit lantern to Tetra so that they'd have some light to see by. "I'll catch up to them to make sure they're okay."
Midna was ready with the shadow crystal in hand before he'd even finished speaking. She waited until Zelda and Tetra took off before turning him into a wolf.
This time, the transformation wasn't as painful. The shadows that enveloped him were somewhat comfortable, and he was almost sad to see them go.
Nonetheless, he didn't linger on it. As soon as Midna claimed her spot on his back, he darted forward, weaving amongst the trees, his paws crushing fallen leaves and twigs.
There was very little light in the forest, but that didn't matter for him. He could see well enough in the dark, and even if he couldn't, the laughter would have guided him.
A minute later, he caught up to Anjean and Kid, both were laughing and still seated atop the horse which was a good sign. And yet, he felt his fur standing up on end and couldn't help but grit his teeth to suppress a growl.
"What are you doing?" Midna hissed into his left ear, which was flattened against his head. "Start acting like a wild animal, and you'll spook the horse."
He knew that, but the horse was spooking him. Or rather, the girl seated atop the horse was spooking him.
As a wolf, Link understood exactly why animals didn't like Anjean. Spirits swarmed around her like moths to a flame, and he knew that if he concentrated he'd be able to see more than just blobs of blue-white light. He didn't much care to, though.
Those spirits could be the spirits Anjean was talking about earlier, or they could be spirits from the burned down village they'd just left. Link wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle seeing either one. The former could turn out to be something horrific, and he'd seen enough horrific things today. The latter could be the ghosts of the men, women, and children he'd been too slow and incompetent to save. Neither would be good for his mental health.
He cringed as his ear was brutally tugged back. "Shh!" Midna ordered him, alerting him to the rumbling growl building in his throat. He stopped immediately, wrenching his gaze away from Anjean and to the forest floor. It helped if he didn't stare at her. Just a little bit.
It felt like forever until Zelda and Tetra caught up to them, but once they did, the chatter began, and Link tried to get lost in his companions' voices to distract himself as he trotted after them. His instincts screamed at him to turn tail and run.
"It's not safe," the beast inside him insisted. "You'll die if you keep going."
Link narrowed his eyes at the ground in front of him and didn't falter. The beast didn't know anything. It was an animal, and he was a human. He knew more than it did. Anjean wouldn't hurt him or anyone else, so there was nothing to be afraid of.
Even knowing that, Link found himself relieved when they emerged from the forest, and he had to farther distance himself from the group to ensure he wouldn't be detected by Anjean or the horses.
By the time he met up with his companions at the dock in his human form, the moon was nearing its peak in the sky, and Link was exhausted.
None of his companions seemed to notice as they walked across the dock to where Linebeck's ship was moored. They were too engaged in their conversation, and Link actually preferred that, for it meant Anjean was occupied eagerly asking Tetra, Kid, and Zelda questions about their recent adventures, so she didn't have time to question how exactly Link had managed to catch up to them so quickly on two legs.
He honestly didn't know what he'd tell the girl if she did ask. He didn't have to worry about that, though, for Anjean had found a new interest. Linebeck's ship.
"Where's the sail?" Anjean wondered as she hurried up the gangplank behind Tetra and spun in a circle with her head tilted back as if she believed the sail to be invisible.
"It's a steamship," Tetra supplied as Kid slipped past the two of them and headed inside to find the ship's captain. "No sails are needed."
As Anjean gazed around the vessel in awe, Link followed Zelda onto the ship, mildly wishing that he didn't have to return to the tropical world of water and swaying floorboards beneath his feet just yet.
Being able to embrace the familiar world of nature and solid ground had been refreshing, as had the cool weather. In fact, as Link settled himself against one of the posts, he noted that the night air was almost cold. It was nothing like the warm, often humid, nights on the Great Sea which led him to believe that this land changed with the seasons much like Hyrule did.
He leaned back, closing his eyes. If he pushed the throbbing of his muscles to the back of his mind and ignored the briny smell of the ocean and the shushing of the waves and the bobbing of the ship beneath him, Link could almost convince himself that he was relaxing in a familiar land.
A sharp screech startled him, and he clapped a hand to his right ear, attempting to rub the ringing out of it as his eyes snapped open and whipped around to rest on Anjean who was sitting a short distance away from him.
She cringed, an apologetic look on her face. "Oops. I guess I didn't clean it out well enough." His eyes instantly went to the object in her hands. It was considerably cleaner than before, enabling him to see the various colors that banded around each pale pipe that made up the object. All the pipes were connected by a carved, decorative piece, and a teal, beaded tassel swayed at each end.
"What is that?" Tetra wondered, massaging her own ears. "A torture device?"
"No, it's an instrument," Anjean replied, seeming completely oblivious to Tetra's sarcasm.
"Obviously you don't know how to play it," Tetra observed with a roll of her eyes.
"I know how to play," Anjean said, tapping the instrument with the heel of her hand to clear out whatever had obstructed the air flow. Though it was dark, Link could see dust falling out of it.
The cabin door suddenly burst open to reveal Linebeck. "What was that gods awful noise?"
"She was 'playing' her instrument," Tetra said with a smirk, putting air-quotes around the word "playing" and nodding at Anjean, who had abandoned her previous task and was now staring at Linebeck.
The sea captain took a long look at Anjean before turning to Tetra. "Make her keep it down. Some people are trying to sleep!"
"You're not sleeping," Tetra countered. "You're taking us back to the others. If we don't return tonight, they're going to get worried and do something stupid."
"That's not my problem," Linebeck returned.
"It will be," Tetra assured him, her tone poisonous. Such tactics wouldn't have worked on Link, but on Linebeck they worked wonders.
With a few muttered words, he turned and disappeared back inside, allowing only a couple seconds for Kid to slip out before the door slammed shut.
A beat of silence and then: "I don't like him." Anjean's tone was casual, matter of fact.
"Don't take it personally," Kid told her. "He just-"
"He's greedy," Anjean declared, returning to tapping the side of her instrument like she was sifting flour.
"Ugh! Stop looking at people's souls already," Tetra admonished her. Anjean didn't pay her any mind. She simply continued with her cleaning.
"What kind of instrument is that?" Kid asked, stepping away from the closed door and coming closer to where the rest of them were gathered.
"It's a pan flute," Anjean replied.
"Is it supposed to sound like it did earlier?" Kid wondered.
"No." Anjean gave the pan flute one final shake. "It's supposed to sound like this." She raised the instrument to her mouth, closed her eyes, and blew.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, a wispy sound, like someone barely blowing any air into a bottle, floated into Link's ears.
By Anjean's furrowed brow, Link could deduce that this wasn't the sound the instrument was supposed to be making, so he kept watching the young girl as she continued to blow into one of the pan flute's pipes.
Eventually, the pipe cleared and a deep, pleasant note exploded into being. The Lokomo girl held the note for a little longer before moving on to the next pipe in line, giving it her breath until the sound it produced satisfied her. She repeated this process for the remaining four pipes, and once they were all clear, she played a scale, first up, then down.
Link expected her to launch into a song, but Anjean returned to playing one note at a time. From what he could hear, the sounds the instrument was making now were correct, so he couldn't imagine that she was still testing it.
Tetra must have felt the same way, for after another minute of Anjean playing one note for an extended amount of time she asked, "Do you know any songs?"
"Yes," Anjean answered, momentarily lowering the pan flute to answer.
"Then why aren't you playing a song?" Tetra demanded.
Anjean lowered the instrument once more. "Because I'm doing something else."
"Which is?" Tetra's question was answered by Anjean's pan flute and the pirate girl gave up talking to the Lokomo girl with a huff.
For the life of him, Link couldn't figure out Anjean. One minute she was wide-eyed and curious, and the next she was all business and flashing eyes. Well, the flashing eyes part may not be true. She currently had her eyes closed so he couldn't tell if they were a normal color or not, but regardless, he had no idea what to expect from her, and that unsettled him just as much as seeing those spirits floating around her like fireflies earlier did.
As they pulled away from the dock and Anjean continued playing her pan flute, Link took comfort in the fact that they wouldn't have to foster the strange girl much longer. Once they arrived at Papuchia, they would go their separate ways and never have to see her again.
