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A/N: Thanks for all the encouraging reviews. Link's back at the helm of the story and I think he's my favorite POV. Maybe it's because his is the easiest to write. Anyway, enjoy!

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[Link]

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It was early dawn and I had myself perched in the shrouds, letting my mind wander as the new sun shone pink and gold through the breaking clouds. I could never sleep when I was out a sea. Most people find the constant rolling of the waves lulling—I sure don't. I guess it's survival instinct left over from my sailing days with the King of Red Lions. Red was a heavy sleeper; nothing could wake that guy. We could've capsized, sank, or crashed into rocks and he wouldn't have stirred one bit. I had to keep an eye open that entire quest to make sure we didn't die en route to the next troubled destination.

Hell. I missed Red. He was a grumpy, unappreciative, old fart but it neared killed me when I surfaced from Hyrule and he was just a normal boat again. I gave the skiff to Aryll; it hurt too much to sail on Red when I knew his spirit was gone.

"A rupee for your thoughts." Tetra climbed up the latticework of ropes and joined me. As the morning air was still laced with nighttime chill, she had herself wrapped up in a heavy blanket. Her hair was in the loose plait that she always wore to bed; I guessed she couldn't sleep either.

"Nah, you'd be wasting your money," I replied. I liked her during these quiet mornings. She wasn't screaming orders and there was nobody around she had to put up a false front for. "We've turned southwest."

"Yes, and…?"

"Shouldn't we be headed to Windfall for supplies?"

"Got 'em. We're headed to Outset to pick up one final crewmember and then we ship off for good." Despite her grogginess, she sounded exhilarated. Tetra and her gold—a relationship that ran deeper than any sea I had ever sailed on.

Wait! —Outset? That didn't sound good. I was right to immediately fear for my baby sister. If Tetra thought she was going to endanger Aryll on this wild treasure hunt too, she had another thing coming. "We're not brining Aryll," I told the Captain firmly.

"She's already told me she's coming. We've kept in touch through post."

"She's still a kid, for Nayru's sake!" I cried. This wasn't going to happen. Aryll was sweet—sweet and innocent and there was no way I was allowing her to put her neck on the line for some lousy pile of gold. For me it was different; I was going to settle a score.

"Aryll's seventeen now. She can make her own decisions without you telling her what to do."

No she can't, I thought. "We are not going to Outset." And that was that.

But as it turned out, that was not that. It was the Captain's ship and what the Captain said went and I could only stand by, furious, as we sailed closer to my home-island. By mid-afternoon the tall, slate cliffs of Outset were in view and the tide was high enough for us to drop anchor right at the docks. Just Tetra and I went to see her, leaving to crew to collect mangos for provisions. I hadn't lost yet; I was going to talk Aryll out of coming when we saw her.

Aryll had moved out of our old house shortly after Gran died because she couldn't justify having all that space to herself. She sold it and sent me half her earnings with a note attached saying she was moving into that old watchtower where we used to play with the gulls.

I had been sure she was joking.

But today I would find out that she had been utterly serious. She had made some modifications, of course, like putting up some proper walls and constructing a treacherous-looking window box extension that I wouldn't step onto for all the courage in the Triforce. The original ladder remained and the arduous climb up it had us both panting by the time we reached the top.

Tetra knocked and Aryll called for us to "Come on in!"

Like most of the general population, Aryll was a much better housekeeper than I. Her books and papers were stacked neatly on shelves along with some odd, observational instruments. She had thrown down an elaborate rug to hide the fact that her floor was the original deck of the watchtower. The loft was dark, for the windows were few and facing away from the sun at that hour.

Aryll emerged from the back room. She gave a strange, high-pitched squeal of girlish delight and launched herself at Tetra. "YOU'RE HERE! It's great to see you! I'm packed! I'm packed! Just give me a sec and I'll be ready to go!" Aryll said all this in one breath and then, catching her wind, noticed me lurking in the shadows by the door. "Oh, Link…hi, didn't see you there." Her voice was suddenly a thousand times subdued. She released Tetra and gave me the obligatory, sisterly squeeze. She'd been distant with me ever since I moved away from Outset.

I smiled at her as she stepped back from me, back into the light streaming in from the window and I got my first good look at her in two years. Tetra was right: Aryll was seventeen. She was forever imprinted in my head as that frightened little girl who I had rescued ten years ago. The girl before me was a stranger. Her feathery, blonde hair had darkened into the color of autumn and she had chopped it so short she couldn't put it into her old pigtails even if she wanted to. Aryll still wore those floral-printed, summer dresses, but now big, clunky jewelry dangled from her ears and jingled on her wrists.

As Aryll began to chatter animatedly with Tetra about the coming voyage, I interjected firmly, "We've come to say goodbye." The two starred at me.

"What are you talking about," Aryll asked.

"Yes, what are you talking about," echoed Tetra, sounding annoyed.

I didn't care how mad they got with me; it was time to lay down the law. "You're not coming with us. You're too young." Not the most tactful I've been, I'll admit.

I expected Tetra was the one who was going to chew me out, but it was Aryll who exploded. "Too young? I'm seventeen! You were twelve when you had your first adventure!"

"Yeah and I was too young then, but I had to save you! There wasn't a choice in the matter! This is completely different. Do you even know what an adventure entails? Monsters! Battles! Dungeons! Traps! Wounds! Death! Tingle! They're no walk in the park and whatever treasure Tetra's promised you isn't worth your life!"

"The why are you going now?" said Aryll, crossing her arms and giving me the finest example of her "You're-Not-Gran-So-You-Can't-Tell-Me-What-To-Do" look.

"To get even! After all the madness Ganondorf put me through, is it so unreasonable to want a little revenge?"

Aryll's face darkened to the same shade of red as the poppy flowers on her dress. "Well, in that self-preoccupied, fat head of yours did it ever occur to you that maybe I would want revenge too?"

Honestly, no it hadn't. The revelation was a stinging slap and Aryll, now in tears, pushed past me, slamming the door on her way out. I sighed, feeling like a jackass and rightfully so as I heard her thump down the ladder. I looked up from my boots to see Tetra glaring at me.

"Don't you say anything!" I warned her. That's all I wanted now; someone telling me what I already knew.

"I wasn't going to," Tetra retorted coldly, picking up Aryll's forgotten knapsack and leaving me all alone in the loft.

Din! Gran had left me in charge of looking out for Aryll and I screwed it up at every possible opportunity. How could I manage to alienate my sister every time I saw her?

The years after my quest I had thought of my own haunting troubles and the bitter injustice of having my life forever bound to consuming fate. Now it occurred to me that Aryll had faced her own horrors while being locked up at the Forsaken Fortress. Once, shortly after it was all over, I had asked about what went on during her time there. Aryll wouldn't say much, but between the shrugs and staunch aloofness, I got out of her that she had been Ganondorf's favorite.

I hadn't though about that in years but now it had me seething. But I was soon distracted from my sudden fury when I spied a candid photograph sitting on Aryll's shelf. It was of the three of us: Aryll, Gran, and me. Gran stood in the middle, giving the camera her usual, cautious but benign, smile. She had let me go when adventure called…and I was only twelve. Gran had sent me off with a shield and a hug whispering in my ear, "Keep safe, y'hear."

There was nothing for it. Aryll had every right to join us. All I could do was keep her safe along the way.

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Whew! Now that the gang is all assembled, it's time for the crew to weigh anchor and sail back through time. However, before that I'm posting a short, foreshadow-intense, chapter that breaks from the way I've been telling the story thus far. Check back sometime this weekend for that update.

Since you've read this far, you may as well drop me a REVIEW. Pretty please!

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Thanks for your time!

--Stellar