Author's Note: Hey all! I'm back again with another Zelda fic! Though I suppose that instead of writing an entirely new story I should probably try to update and finish my others…. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT! Read Zelda's Trial, my other Zelda story! END SHAMELESS PLUG! But this story just came to me after finishing Wind Waker. It really got me thinking, as well as depressed over what happened to the Hero of Time and Hyrule, and because of the open-ended-ness (word?) of the game. So here's my fun, happy take on it! Well, sort of…But it should end happy, so that's just as good! I hope you guys like it, and please try to picture everything as being not cartoony in any way. And please try to swallow anything that doesn't make sense, if something doesn't make sense, or whatever. Also, I'm guessing that Link and Tetra were both ten when Wind Waker took place, and that his sister was seven. Hope you guys like it! And by the way, before I end this incredibly long author's note, thanks to all my reviewers for everything else. I love you guys! REVIEW!
Because it was there. The sadness, the pain, and the lost memories of the past. He had left, so many years ago, on an adventure that would steal him from his people, from the woman who loved him. He had left. And when he had left, the Tri-force of Courage had left him as well, breaking into eight shards and hiding in the vast lands of Hyrule. And then so many years later, so many years, Ganon had broken free and the goddesses, with no hero to seal him away, had buried Hyrule in an ocean of water. And so the years went by. The land had changed; the tops of mountains existing as islands, the races had changed; from sea to air and child to creature, but the blood lines remained firm.
There was still a Princess Zelda, and there was still a Link; a hero who defied all odds, a hero with a heart so pure that he was loved by all, and hero who would only fall, because of one thing. Love. The Princess Zelda who lived above the kingdom her blood had come from was unable to shake the sad sweetness of the emotion from her dreams. They were there in her head, these visions of the past, of a love her ancestor had held for one man, and one man alone, and the pain she had felt when he had left her.
Had he not loved her? Had he not held some feeling towards her? Was he not also her ancestor? Or had the poor girl who had previously held her name lived a lie by marrying another man when the one she had chosen had scorned her? And for him to leave? Would he not have come back when the Tri-force had left his body? Would he have come back at all?
Lately she had been plagued by these questions, and by the sweet depression of a love that was only in her dreams. And lately, she seemed to hold more contempt for the name that had kept her so long hidden from her true self than the name that had nearly killed her and the young boy who had been destined to save her. He was also named Link, and had become the Hero of Wind, like the man before him who had been the Hero of Time. Were they related? Could they be related? He had told her that the shield he had carried was rumored to have once been used by the Hero of Time, and that it was a family heirloom. If the Hero of Time was Link's ancestor, and her ancestor had loved his, was she doomed to the same fate of unrequited love? Had that love been unrequited? The memories were so foggy…
But she was certain, so very certain, that she and the Wind Waker were not related. Why would her mother have taken her, and only her, aboard a pirate ship if she had had a son as well? And then to have another daughter much younger than she and to leave the child with her grandmother? It did not make sense. No, she was surely not related to the present hero and his sister. She couldn't be. But somehow this knowledge did not lift the weight from her heart. Surely he must be the descendant of the Hero of Time, and she was a descendant of the woman who had loved him, and who had been scorned by him. Zelda was sure of this. The love that she had felt in her dream was not that of a sibling love, it simply was not. Her ancestor had loved the Hero of Time, and he had held that love in contempt. So why should now be any different? No. She could never. She would never. So what had been the question? Oh yes. Why should the emotion in her heart matter?
Because it was there.
Tetra was sixteen years old, and much as she didn't want to admit it, she had become more princess than pirate. It was partly because of her awakening as a princess of the lost kingdom of Hyrule, and it was partly due to the dreams that she'd been having as of late, and also partly because of her age. The things that she had seen, the things that she felt…. Day by day it was getting more and more difficult to deny her royal blood. It was much easier to deny her wish for a dream that could never be.
They had explored for roughly four years, but the seas had proved long and dangerous. The world was much bigger than she could ever have suspected, and every time they had approached land, even if it was just a shape in the distance, they had been swept away by a storm and dropped into uncharted seas. So they had returned. And though she had given her crew an entirely different impression, inside she had been relieved. Even then, after the Tri-force of Wisdom had been present in her, she had felt the hopes and dreams of her ancestors, and now she too still longed for Hyrule to return.
She had wanted to smack herself in the forehead for feeling such things and thinking such thoughts, and had she been the same girl before destiny had befallen her, she would have. But she had been irrecoverably changed. And it was getting so much harder to cover up the changes. She laughed dryly from her room inside her ship. Wisdom grows with age.
Where had the Tri-force gone? Had it returned to the goddesses? Or had it hidden itself once again? And why, why could it not be with her when she needed it? Her dreams were like nightmares, haunting her at every turn. Wasn't her destiny over and done with? She had helped Link defeat Ganon as his predecessor had once done, and Hyrule had drowned in the sea. Hyrule was no more, and she was supposed to find her own land, if that had been the king's meaning. Not her land to rule, but a land where there was no water to separate everyone, where they could live in peace and happiness, a land where the destiny that had befallen both Zeldas and Links could never fall again. Ganon was dead, the Master Sword resting quietly in the middle of his forehead, just a stone far beneath the waves. The Tri-force, wherever it was, no longer inhabited herself or the new Hero.
She sighed. Such thoughts to fill her head on the day that she would see him once again. It had been nearly a two years since they had left Link to stay on Outset Island with his family, two terribly long years, and she had never once visited, or he her. When she had first met him, he hadn't seemed to be the sharpest sword in the head-Tetra chuckled; they had come up with that expression shortly after Ganon's defeat-well, he hadn't seemed to be the sharpest sword in the head, but he had been brave. He had had the Tri-Force of Courage, and she the wisdom, though not by any means were she less brave then he. But he had proved her wrong in the intelligence department, for though he most often acted without thinking, he was actually pretty bright. And they had become friends.
How could they not after what they had experienced together? Even still, she had grown very fond of the kid. She smiled. There was some of the Tetra she remembered. She still called him kid; though they were roughly the same age and no longer kids. But she had grown fond of him, and she was half-sure that he also considered her a good friend. But it was hard to tell. He was nice to everyone. But then, he had traveled with her for close to four years, and when they were faced with defeat and had turned back from the unexplored seas, he had gone back to his home. Her smile grew wider. She wondered if he had gotten any taller. He must have. The last time she had seen him the top of his head had barely reached her eyes, but she had already reached her full-height of five feet seven inches, and he had not gotten done growing yet. Anyway, maybe she expected to find a change in him that equaled the length of time in her heart that they had been apart.
She had gotten soft. She wondered if he had missed her. Miss her? Why would he miss her, really? After all of the trouble…but they had had fun too. But they had not even visited each other, though it would be easier for her to find him then he to find her. She frowned. She really had gotten soft, and over a stupid kid who never questioned anything. Not like she did. Why did these dreams have to come now? Why did they have to come at all? Every night the same thing… She knew she was seeing the past, a past so far back in legend that it seemed impossible to believe. But all of it, every image, was true.
Tetra stood up from her bed and adjusted her clothes. She now wore black baggy pants that did not hug her ankles and instead f lowed free around her legs about mid-calf, and her shirt was blue with the sleeves cut off. A white sash was tied around her waist and a white bandanna hung from her neck. There was no small jacket to go with the ensemble, and neither was her hair like it used to be. It was still pulled back behind her head, but it was no longer rolled up, and it flowed behind her in a ponytail. She wondered, suddenly, if Link would still be wearing green. It was time to see him. They would be arriving at Outset soon, and it was time she resumed her role as captain of the ship, and time for her to finally admit that she had missed the dumb kid.
AN: So ends the first chapter. I hope I got her character okay, but you have to think that she would have most definitely changed a little after the whole Ganon experience, and not to mention age will change a girl! REVIEW! Please don't flame…..it'll make me sad…. (puppy dog eyes). REVIEW! This doesn't really suck, does it? Sigh.
