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Author's Note: Thank-you all for the encouraging reviews!

Disclaimer: I do not own Zelda. Shocker, I know.

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[Tetra]

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Link acts like it's entirely my fault that we are in this mess, but he can take a share of the blame too. Even aside from bungling up my plans, he decided to come along which alone makes him equally party to any guilt. I didn't force him to come…I simply persuaded him.

And it wasn't like he was doing anything so wonderful when I arrived with the ocarina. The way he gets on you'd think I tore him away from a family and a career. Hardly! He had been lounging around that lonely cabana ever since he gave up on the search for the new kingdom. After spending a year wandering through monster-infested dungeons and then another year of endless sailing, Link figured he had exerted himself enough for lifetime. And it's my personal belief that his tormented solitude would have ultimately driven him insane had I not intervened.

"So you're going to sell it, right?" he asked me of the ocarina while he busied himself making a pot of tea.

Typical Link, not using his imagination. "There are other ways that this thing can turn a profit," I told him. I righted one of the over-turned chairs and took a seat near the large bay window.

I watched him, waiting for his reaction, but then I found myself comparing the man of twenty-two who stood before me to the boy I had taken aboard my ship ten years ago. Even though his shoulders had broadened and his arms had thickened, Link's form had not lost its lithe agility and his face still had that mischievous, almost-elfin quality about it. His golden hair was as unruly as ever and he still had the habit of flattening it nervously when he was unsure of himself. Despite how much he had changed, to me he was still every bit the same.

He said nothing for a moment, apparently thinking over what I had just said. He searched for mugs that were clean enough to use. It dawned on him, finally. "Use it, you mean?"

I could practically hear him thinking, surely she wasn't that crazy…stealing and selling the Ocarina of Time was one thing, but actually using it? The truth was that I was that crazy. And I knew that if he had the slightest inkling of what I was planning he'd be crazy enough to use it too.

So I began to fill him in on the plan. "There's a temple in the middle of a searing desert and in that temple there is a secret trove, a trove filled with the combined spoils of a Gerudo Dynasty that lasted a thousand years. It's called the Lost Trove of the Desert Kings. The problem is—as you may have guessed from the name—is that it is lost. And that desert hasn't existed for centuries. But with this Ocarina we can warp back in—"

Link cut me off. "Stop, stop—stop right there! Will you just listen to yourself, Tetra! Every time I think you can't get any crazier, any greedier, you do. And then again, I think you can't get any crazier, any greedier, and again you amaze me—every time. Din! Tetra, you just don't mess with some things…and time is one of them."

Again, typical Link. I don't know what I saw in him—why did I even bother? Back then I had been convinced that I needed a hero for this adventure. Now I know heroes of his sort are more trouble than they are worth. I tried a different approach. "So you know how it works then?"

Of course he did. The ocarina was only the centerpiece of the ancient legend. The Hero used it to travel through time to defeat Ganondorf. It could open the door to the sacred realm and warp the player of the ocarina from one end of Hyrule to the other faster than he could say "long-eared Hylian".

"Yeah—but I doubt the royal family intended it to be used to warp through time, stealing treasures in every epoch!"

"I am the royal family," I said, throwing back her head with mock majesty, attempting a little humor that was utterly lost on him at the moment.

"You are a member of the royal family…and the apple has fallen very far from the tree—in the next yard I think! You've stolen a sacred artifact to increase your net worth!"

The water inside the kettle began to rattle as it warmed.

"I didn't steal it! I intercepted it. Cagway was after it and I wasn't about to let him get his hands on such a sacred artifact. This thing could be dangerous in the wrong hands."

Good ol' Capt'n Cagway—then my only real rival left on the Great Seas. He rose to power after Ganondorf's defeat left a gaping hole in the world's menace department. He took all the leaderless monsters and made them his crew. Cagway was first-rate fool and he wasn't swift enough at hiding the ocarina from me. I thought I had dealt firmly enough with Cagway back at the Jungle Archipelago, seeing as how Gonzo had knifed right through him. But Cagway was as slippery as an eel and it wouldn't take long for him to slither back into my life and spoil my fun.

"The ocarina is no safer with you," Link said through gritted teeth. I had no idea why he was getting so upset about this. I mean, I hadn't even mentioned that I wanted him to come along with me yet.

"This adventure isn't just for gold…it's just as much for revenge as treasure," I assured him.

"Oh? On who exactly?"

"Ganondorf."

The name ringed through out the cabana. Even the rattling kettle seemed to hush momentarily. It surprised me, the effect it had on Link. His face drained of color and he gripped the counter very hard. I saw a ten-year-old terror flash in his light hazel eyes as if Ganondorf, not I, stood before him.

"It's his treasure, Link. He was the last Gerudo king in power before the vault was sealed."

"No," he breathed.

The water in the kettle was on the verge of boiling.

"If we could just take that from him…that treasure, aside from his power, was what mattered most to him."

"No."

"If we could just get even with him…it would put him away in my mind…the both of us could be at peace…move on." My voice was getting hoarse now. I was moving toward him, reaching for his hand…

The kettle was hissing like mad now.

"NO!" he roared. "Do you really think that would make us even? Stealing a pile of gold? No, I'm not coming with you. That's what you came here for, right? You need a hero to help you on this treasure hunt. Don't pretend you came here for my sake, my peace of mind! You want the treasure for your pocketbook, not to get even."

Before I could respond, the front door opened. In waddled Niko, drenched. "Begging your pardon, Capt'n, but it's started to pour and I was just wonderin' how much longer?"

Normally I would have bawled at him, but I too busy being angry with Link. Anyway, I think Niko learned his lesson to knock first after intruding in on that scene. I can just picture how it must have looked: Link's cabana in chaotic disorder, both of us panting and red-faced, and the neglected kettle whistling away furiously.

"Link and I are finished now, actually." I looked at Link and said coldly, "My offer still stands. Come, Niko."

I picked up my things and strode out of the cabana, not daring to cast another glance at Link.

It wasn't five minutes later and Niko had us rowed halfway to the ship, when Link burst through the front door of his house. From his porch he called out to us, "WAIT! I'M COMING! I'M COMING!"

"Aww, Miss, this doesn't mean I have to turn this skiff 'round and row back there to pick his sorry arse up, does it?" whined Niko.

"It seems, Niko, that Link has had a change in heart—unfortunate for you at the moment, though highly fortunate for us all in the very near future. But in the mean time, the exercise ought to do you some good."

I don't know what changed his mind in those few minutes. Something had rocked him deep down the year he saved Aryll like something had rocked him now. A combination of constant battle and the final horror of facing Ganondorf now had him forever on the edge, waiting for some nameless evil to jump out at him. Link tried to hide it with his boyish humor and goofy grins, but I could still see the trauma he had suffered lingering in his eyes. He had sailed out of Outset as a boy looking for adventure and his sister and he washed back ashore a broken man.

I think he came with me this time to right himself.

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So how do you like the narrative from Tetra's side? I'm trying to develop a strong sense of voice for each POV. I'm hoping their character is evident through their narrative. If you could let me know how I'm doing with this in the reviews it would be greatly appreciated!