Aria: Alrighty then! Chapter eight! This one shows how things are going
to get more dangerous for Link and Tetra and how Tetra has more wisdom into
some things than she might think. And, if you're wondering; yes, I do like
being cryptic.
Hired guy: Aria Zephyr does not own the Legend of Zelda games or their
characters!
Aria: *sweat drops* Um, I'm gonna go see the employment agency this guy
came from. I'm starting to wonder whether he's programmed to say the same
thing over and over again. Check out chapter eight!

Chapter 8: Tetra Sees Something Sinister

They decided not to travel any further that day, so they dropped the anchor
and went to bed early.

Well, everyone but Tetra, that is. She was still awake even though she
could hear snores coming from her crew in the cargo bay. 'Why can't I go
to sleep? Everyone else is out like a rock and I can't even keep my eyes
closed,' Tetra thought irritably to herself. She swung her legs off her
bed and stood up. She walked downstairs to the cargo bay, where she could
see her crew sleeping on either the floor or the many crates stored down
there.

There was a small room on the other side of the cargo bay and she could see
the light of a candle still burning there. 'He must have fallen asleep and
didn't blow out the candle,' Tetra thought with amusement. She used the
ropes hanging from the ceiling of the cargo bay to swing over to the room
and entered it.

The flickering candle rested on a small crate beside a small cot that was
built into the wall. Link was sleeping peacefully on the cot and he looked
very different from the courageous boy Tetra knew during the day than he
did now. Other than the fact that his hat was resting on the crate, he was
wearing pajamas, and his bright blond hair was spilling onto his face, he
seemed much more helpless than ever before.

Tetra noticed that he seemed to be clutching a letter or something in his
hand and when she pried it free, she could see that it was actually a
pictograph. It was all in black and white, but she could tell that the
scenery in the pictograph's background was from Outset Island. There were
six people in the picture; a man, a woman, a young boy probably no older
than five or six, a small baby girl, an elderly woman who was short of
stature, and an elderly man who was rather tall and spindly.

Tetra took a closer look at the boy who was sitting on the shoulders of the
man and gasped. She recognized the sweet, silly grin the boy had and
realized that he was Link. She studied the faces of the toddler in the
woman's arms and the elderly woman and saw that they were Link's sister and
grandmother. She looked again at the smiling faces of the man, the woman,
and the elderly man and saw that they all shared certain characteristics of
Link's.

She flipped the picture over and saw that there was a date written on the
back, signifying that the picture had been taken at least seven years ago.
'Could this picture be of Link's family before his parents died?' Tetra
thought to herself. 'It had to be,' she thought. 'They all had the same
bright blond hair and sincere way of smiling.' Tetra found it
disheartening to think that three of the happy people in the picture were
already gone.

Suddenly, as she looked at it again, the picture began to change. The man,
woman, and elderly man vanished, leaving behind only Link, his sister, and
his grandmother. But, even that changed. Tetra tried to rip her gaze
away, but it was almost as if the pictograph was holding her gaze to it.

The three left in the picture aged until she recognized their current
looks. Aryll and Link's grandmother seemed to fade slightly as Link
himself changed. She could see determination and bravery in his face, but
soon that all changed. His expression changed from one of confidence to
one of terror and pain until.

Tetra regained control over herself just as the last image appeared; Link
laying on his back, with an ice-white face, his clothes soaked with blood
and a glassy look in his blank, dulled, dark-green eyes. It was too real
for comfort, but when she glanced at the picture again, it had returned to
the picture of Link's family, seven years previous.

She slipped the picture into Link's hand again and quietly crept back to
her own room. She crawled into her bed again, but her mind was too plagued
by the frightening image she had seen. 'Where did that come from? Was I
just hallucinating from lack of sleep? Or was it real? Maybe it was a
warning or something; but how? I'm probably making too much of a deal out
of this. I must have just been seeing things because I'm tired.' She
eventually drifted off to sleep, but it was neither a restful, nor a
peaceful one.

Aria: How'd you like it? I can't tell unless you send in a review, so send
'em in! I bet you're wondering what chapter nine is about. Sorry, can't
tell you. The union forbids it. *giggles callously*