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Author's Note: Woohoo—I finally finished this chapter! I'm not even going to bother making excuses as to why this took so long…lol. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time!!

This here is another chapter written from the viewpoint of a pirate who has not completely mastered the English language. I hope the usage of incorrect and inconsistent tense isn't frustrating for you. Enjoy!

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Gonzo

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Once when I was a young'n, I climbed to the highest point of the island where a short cliff dropped sheer into the ocean and the waters below were deep enough that you could dive in without cracking your head open on a rock. I remembers just peering over the edge and shivering all down to me boots. Me mates was treading water some forty feet below, shouting up at me to just jump, to take the plunge, and prove meself no coward.

When had I, Gonzo Fowler, been afraid of anything.

So, I launches meself with a run, and I was flying—no—soaring for instant, arms spread eagle and screaming at the top of me lungs. I didn't think I would ever fall, but suddenly there was the surface of the water rushing right up at me and me voice died right there in me throat.

I heard me own body give a horrible crack as I smacked the water's surface, feeling the sting of a cat o'nine. Me whole front bruised purple and never again did any child try a belly flop off that particular cliff.

Now, I was never one with numbers, but I could equate that the higher you fall from, the more the impact smarts. And if Miss Tetra was right—and she had been right all that day—we was aloft in the highest atmosphere of the Old Kingdom, just about where sea level was—uh—is in the present. So, that's quite the distance and I wagered we'd suffer a great deal more than a bruised front when, slowly the clouds parted and slowly, we began to fall.

It was that same sensation you get sometimes when the ship's rolling on whitecaps. You know, that feeling like your gut's trying to make an escape through your throat. Tetra shrieking at us to attach our lifelines to the main mast, except for Link and Niko whom she recruited to help release the mainsail. Apparently, she had herself a plan.

Never one to sit back and enjoy the ride, I comes clamoring up the mainmast ladder and started struggling with the rigging too, tugging with those blessed fasteners that, of all times, chose now to be stubborn little friggers.

We was falling faster now, plummeting to our deaths like an anchor through water. The air was a-howling.

So, "JUST CUT THEM LOOSE," bellows Miss Tetra, pulling her dagger from her sash. She starts hacking away at the ropes, motioning for the rest of us to do the same.

Seconds later, the mainsail is released like a great, billowing cloud, followed by the other, lesser sails, and all at once the ship looks like she were prepared to cast off from port. Tetra is screaming at us again—this time to get back to the deck, and she follows, in her own fashion, somersaulting off a length of rope.

As Mako put it, she landed there in the bow of her ship, arms spread wide the glorious horror she had incurred, roaring at the Wind Waker to summon the greatest updraft Hyrule had ever seen. And, in my opinion, that's just a fancy way of saying Tetra ordered Link to get us out of this fantastic mess.

And, by the Goddesses, the kid pulled it off.

So, he whips out that silvery do-dad of his, swings it 'round his head and pointed it aloft. There comes a rush of air that sends people's hats flying and the rigging snaps as the sails are hit with a brick wall of atmosphere. I cringes as I watch the cables break, though it was a choice few, and the sails balloon upwards, acting like enormous parachutes, halting our fall to hell into a merry drift on a summer's breeze. Simply astounding!

Stunts like that there will make Miss Tetra famous.

And then, all of us collapse, pulses hammering in our chests, thanking the divine. And Miss Tetra just strode to the helm, pleased as punch, as though falling through a thousand feet of sky were nothing out of the ordinary.

Link and me, still, both shaken but trying not to show it, took a stroll to the edge of the ship and peered down. Tetra had told us a "Sea of Green" would be stretching out in all directions below us, but whatever it was below sure was green, but it didn't look like any sea I'd ever encountered. I would guess we was about a quarter of a mile from the surface at that particular point in time, and Link and me could make out little square boats that to me looked more like houses, but I told meself that couldn't be.

"What are those, mountains?"

Like a whole range of Dragon Roosts times ten, a chain of tremendous mountains rises sharply at the northern horizon, the highest of them belching a tall plume of queer-looking smoke. It looks like several towns was built on the foothills, the surrounding farms spilling out onto the green "water". The ship's drifting further and further from them and our view of all of this is shrinking as the ship sinking gradually lower and lower.

So, I looks down below again. "That ain't water," I finally declares.

"Yes, it is," says Link.

"No, it ain't. Look, there's not a wave to be seen down there. Some queer "sea" if you're asking ask me."

"What else could be that big and flat," he argues. The kid was frowning at me notion.

So I tells him, "I'm going to have a word about it with the Captain any how."

"Nice knowing ya!" He's such a pompous twit, ain't he?

I makes me way up to the poop deck. Tetra was concentrating real hard on the helm and didn't even glance me way, only snarling, "Yes, Gonzo? What is it?" as I came near.

I removes me hat solemnly. "Miss Tetra, begging your pardon, but I think that "Sea of Green" down there ain't no sea of the ordinary sort."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, spinning the helm roughly. "All the texts agreed upon the name. The water just happens to be a particularly vivid shade of green."

I gives her a grunt.

Her eyes flashed in my direction. "Well, if it isn't a sea, what would be your proposition, Gonzo. Dry land?" I gives me head a dawdling nod, and the Miss makes a little noise in the back of her throat. " Well, we're in for a rough landing then, aren't we? I'd hold on extra tight if I were you."

There came a high whistle from aloft. Mako peeped over the edge of the lookout and called down, " Miss! We're approaching the surface. I'm estimating three minutes to touchdown."

"Aye, Mako!"

I knows from experience to cover me ears and step back when the Captain starts bellowing her orders…

"YOU HEARD THE MAN! I WANT EVERYONE ATTACHED TO THEIR LIFELINES ON THE DOUBLE! QUICKLY NOW, QUICKLY!"

People were sent scrambling toward the mainmast, some clamoring down the shrouds, others bursting out through cabin doors. Each groped like mad for their respective lifelines, lengths of lassoed rope that you rung 'round your body and tightened to keep yourself fastened to the ship. Miss and me remains at the helm until she demands that I too get meself tied into a lifeline.

"But, what about you, Miss?"

"Well, someone's got to land this ship." She winked. "ALRIGHT GENTS, KEEP YOUR HATS ON. WE'RE GOING DOWN!" She threw the helm spinning starboard.

So, I find meself a lifeline and crouch next to little Aryll and Niko and braces meself, praying that I was dead wrong about the Sea of Green being a sea of solid ground.

I was wishing for a mighty splash and a spray of seawater, but what comes is a shuddering crunch as the stern makes landfall first, followed by the bow, which drops forward down a slope with the sound of planks splintering to pieces. We had landed with such force that it sent us sailing unnaturally across terra firma, tearing the keel of our ship to bits. What stops us was a gentle hill that rose up sharply off the port bow, sending the massive bulk of the ship crashing down on its side.

I wasn't sure if it was my body or the mast I heard crack. Between the screams and the crunch of timber, the ruckus was real awful. The sails lost their air and drop like a huge blanket over us all, and then we soon finds ourselves entangled in the canvas, dangling like little pieces of bait from our lifelines. All I was seeing was the dirty white of the sails and all I was thinking was "Miss Tetra, Miss Tetra!"

Miss Tetra. She had said no to a lifeline and I could only imagine where her tiny body had been thrown to. It would be a miracle if she had survived. Oh, the blessed Goddesses!

I manages to cut through me constraints of rope and rumpling canvas and falls down, landing with a smarting arse on the ground. I sees the kid, and he's rubbing his noggin—I'm guessing 'cause he must've given it a nasty bump somewhere along the line.

"Have ye seen the Miss," I asks him.

He looks at me woozily; he must've been seeing stars. "No…didn't she tie herself in like the rest of us?"

I'm looking frantic around for her. "No…she refused. She at helm when we crashed." I rushes off, bellowing, "MISS TETRA!" again and again.

I hears Link muttering a curse, struck dumb with horror, and he stumbles after me, shouting the Captain's name too.

We're not even thinking about being in Ancient Hyrule, about the endless grass, the smashed ship. Tetra, and Tetra only, is the sole thing on our minds and we race together up a small rise, teach of us more distressed than the other,

He stops suddenly at the top and a moment later I sees why.

There's Tetra, sprawled out supine on the ground.

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What you just read is grossly impossible in regards to the laws of physics. Please, before you review, bear in mind that I am well aware of the preposterousness of a 17th century wooded ship that could plummet miles through the air and land unscathed (well, relativity so) on solid ground, using sails as makeshift parachutes to slow their fall. That said, please do REVIEW--as you know, it would positively make my day! J

Until next time,

Cheers!