Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and all associated character names and places are copyright of Nintendo and sprung from the grey matter of Miyamoto Shigeru. Everyone/thing else in this fic that you don't recognise is sprung from the grey matter of Lucinda Hill.
A.N: And we're off again! A new story, when I'm already finding it hard to finish Vagabond… oh dear. "Why?" I hear you ask.
Simple.
April 2006 marks the arrival of what is possibly the most eagerly anticipated Zelda game of all time, certainly the most eagerly anticipated since Ocarina, anyway. Twilight Princess has the potential to be incredible, and I'm itching for more plot details to be leaked so my fanficcer brain can go into overdrive on the subject. However, the topic came up on my f-list on that while TP is going to be amazing, Wind Waker's going to be forgotten and quite possibly hurtled into the annals of obscurity when its sister hits the shelf.
But why? Tetra's awesome! The pirates are hilarious! The Koroks are adorable! There are so many questions left unanswered that are begging to written into fanfic!
So, you can all blame/thank weegie and thepiccolopixie for making up my mind to write this, because according to them the world needs more Wind Waker fiction and I for one agree with them, for all the reasons stated above and more.
This one's for you, girls!
Phoenix
By anime animal
Prologue:
He watched as the frail, luminescent figure stood alone on the prow, face turned upward at the pole star. If anyone asked, she was navigating but Nudge knew that wasn't the reason that Miss Tetra stood alone in her nightdress gazing at the stars.
Of all the burdens that the girl had to face, this one that so many of those who knew her thought she had overcome continued to plague her. It had the ability to wake her from her sleep in a cold sweat, so often had the memory haunted her dreams, but being the sort of woman she was she would never allow those closest to her to know. Nudge knew; he had been the one she had accidentally woken one night with her cries and the truth had tearfully tumbled out of frightened lips. He could see when her eyes were shadowed in the mornings following sleepless nights, when they held that same haunted look that he had first seen in the terrified seven year old girl whose mother had just been cut down before her very eyes.
This night, Tetra had more on her mind than the phantoms of her eventful past. Her countenance was subtly different, verging upon melancholic. Slender, tanned fingers gripped the weathered wooden railing while her eyes, hooded and brooding, gazed aimlessly out at the inky black horizon.
"Rupee for your thoughts, Miss Tetra."
She looked startled as he joined her on the deck and took a moment to rearrange her features back to their normal expression of nonchalance.
"You wouldn't want 'em Nudge," she sighed.
"No offence Miss, but I've been hearing 'em for the last ten years. Not a lot's gonna make me want to ignore 'em now."
The smile he received for his consideration was warm and genuinely affectionate.
"Thanks Nudge."
"You going to tell me then?"
"Nope," she returned with a smile. "Honestly I'm fine. Just a nightmare."
Nudge's look was sceptical.
"Really."
"Really. Go back to sleep."
The ship bobbed gently up and down, anchored firmly as it was just off a small uninhabited island. After weeks of solid sailing with the crew taking turns at night duty, Tetra had put her foot down and insisted they weigh anchor and all get a decent night's rest. That had been the plan, only it seemed that one of the crew of seven wouldn't be sleeping that night.
Tetra watched Nudge head back below deck and let out a heavy sigh as she flopped down onto the deck, back against the rails. Of her crew she knew that she could rely on Nudge to keep her secrets confidential, but this was one she would really rather keep to herself. Her hand went to her throat, to the thick leather cord that kept suspended around her neck the golden fragment from the past that weighed so heavily upon her future. She didn't understand why it was there after the events of five years previously, but sure enough she had woken in the water to find the incomplete Triforce of Wisdom tied in its usual position and a faint impression of the sacred mark branded on the back of her hand like a faded scar. No one had been able to explain it, even Link, whose own mark remained on his hand as clear as day.
She let her hand fall to her lap and thought back to the dream that had dragged her out of bed. For once, it had not been the usual nightmare but a strange new dream. It hadn't brought any of her past horrors to the surface, but it had rattled her all the same. There had been a castle overlooking a shimmering lagoon of bright water, beautiful in its simple architecture and its stunning setting, and she had been standing there in robes of white whit bare feet, watching over the scene with a look akin to maternal pride. A town had sprung up before her eyes, filled with smiling, prosperous people who went about their business not seeing her. She had turned from the town and ascended the flight of white marble steps that led to the castle on the cliff, but the steps kept going on and on and on, and the castle grew fainter and fainter until it had vanished into nothing. The town, its people and the lagoon had all disappeared too, leaving nothing but the ocean. Suddenly, grasping hands had seized her, rising from the sea to desperately snatch her ankles and drag her screaming down into the ocean, down to the ruins of her ancestors. That was when she had awoken, drenched in sweat with the sheets knotted around her body and her heart racing. Quickly she had gone to her dresser and gulped down a beaker of water from the pitcher before taking in her appearance in the mirror. She had expected to see a dishevelled looking girl with a tired look on her face, not the sad, lost face of the other her staring back.
The beaker had fallen to the floor but she ignored it. She screwed her eyes shut, rubbed them with her knuckles and looked again. Her own face greeted her, paled and alarmed with eyes large and disbelieving, but it was unmistakably Tetra.
Just your imagination Tetra girl, don't go loopy now.
Tetra had never told anyone that she had been seeing herself as the princess recently. There were times when she'd catch her reflection and see the trappings of her station adorning her features but these had only been fleeting glimpses, not like this time. This time she had stared into the eyes of Princess Zelda and those eyes had been disappointed with her.
Very few people, including the woman in question, knew that Tetra was not actually her first name (fewer still knew that it was an abbreviated form of her third name, Tetrana.) She had been born under the lengthy title of Zelda Anastasia Tetrana Asper and had had the named shortened to Tetra at the age of a few weeks. Upon asking her mother why this was so, people were told rather cryptically that it was safer for her to be plain Tetra and so Tetra she was.
"Anyway," her mother Elektra had said, "if she feels aggrieved when she's older she can always change it back."
Aware or not of her extremely regal full name, Tetra knew that someday, when she finally set foot on the land that she had been tirelessly searching for over the past half decade, she would have to adopt the name Zelda for good. It was to be a symbolic and poignant act, hailing the dawn of a new era by saluting the legendary queen of the past. Her noble, near divine ancestress. Those were some pretty big shoes to fill, and Tetra was convinced that the reason she had been catching glimpses of herself as the disappointed princess because she simply was not filling them. How could she? For five years she had sailed the endless ocean seeking out the promised-land and she was no closer now than she had been when the quest began. She had gone from an eager young girl on the cusp of womanhood to a young woman disillusioned with the seemingly hopeless task she had set herself.
It didn't help that Link was gone either.
It had happened two years ago; the day had dawned hot and the crew had been growing increasingly irritable with one another. Tetra, in a flush of hormones and heat induced hostility, had been snappy with everyone, especially Link, who she regarded as a very close friend and verbal sparring partner. She had emerged from her cabin hot and sticky and in the mood for a confrontation. The others, having experienced both her temper and her mother's enough times over the years, had recognised the warning signs and steered clear. Link had not been so lucky. He had been checking the slipknots that secured the mainsail when Tetra had stormed up to him with a look of indignation.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking the ropes."
"Why? I did them yesterday."
"I know."
So what, are my knots not good enough? Is that it?
"They're fine."
"Clearly they're not if they require seeing to a mere twenty four hours after being tied."
"Oh for Farore's sake Tetra, do you have to be so analytical."
"Who's being analytical? I'm just saying-"
Link had sprung down from the rigging with a look of annoyance and anger on his face.
"You're always saying! Blah blah blah! Don't you ever get tired of hearing your own voice?"
He stormed off with an irate Tetra hot on his heels.
"Come back here you worm! I'm not letting you get away with speaking to me like that!"
"Tough, I just did."
"What the hell's your problem?"
"My problem! Oh that's rich coming from you."
"Oh, and what is that supposed to mean?"
"It means I'm sick of you bitching at me every hour of every day! In case you hadn't noticed, I'm supposed to be a friend, not your whipping boy."
She balked then, startled at the raw emotion in his voice.
"I've given up everything for you and this stupid quest and for what? You banging on at me day in day out, acting like you own me. Well guess what Tetra? The world does not revolve around you and I am not your slave."
He had turned on his heel and stormed below deck.
"Uh, Miss Tetra?"
"What !" she had snapped, almost biting Gonzo's head off.
"Maybe you should lighten up on the kid," he had ventured, looking understandably nervous
"After the way he spoke to me? Like hell," she had snorted.
"Yeah," Niko had quipped, "but give him a break, his grandma's sick."
"What?" Tetra's face had fallen a mile. "When did this happen? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Well you know that day when the Rito guy dropped in? That day when you were running a stock check blow deck, yeah? There was a letter from little Aryll, it didn't sound too good," Gonzo explained.
Mortified, she had gone after her friend, determined to make amends and offer him a friendly shoulder. She hadn't expected to find him throwing all of his belongings into a canvas hold all.
"Link, the boys just told me about your grandmother. I'm so sorry."
He said nothing, but for one moment his hand hovered above the hold all before he resumed his packing.
"And I'm sorry I bit your head off for nothing. Tetra the bitch strikes again, eh?"
Again, nothing.
"Anyway, I want you to know that you can take as long as you need to go home, OK? We can spare you for as long as it takes for her to get better."
"…I appreciate that."
Tetra had released the breath that she'd been subconsciously holding.
"Do you… would you like me to come with you?"
"No. I'm going alone."
His voice had sounded off, uncharacteristically detached.
"Oh. If you're sur-"
"And I'm not coming back."
Shock had been the primary emotion to register in Tetra's head, followed swiftly by hurt, panic and then a flare of anger.
"What?"
"I'm not coming back. I'm going home and I plan on staying."
"Because of earlier? You're throwing in the towel because of one stupid little argument?"
He had turned to look at her, and in that moment Tetra noticed for the first time that her friend wasn't the naïve boy who had set out on the quest with her all those years before; the softness was leaving his face and had been replaced by eyes that seemed tired and to have seen far more than the average boy of his age.
"Believe it or not Tetra, you don't figure in my decision. I can handle your tantrums, I can take you being selfish and not giving a damn for anyone but yourself but I won't be able to live with myself if my grandmother dies while I'm skipping over the ocean chasing an impossible dream. I can't turn my back on my responsibilities any more."
So he had left that afternoon, having said goodbye to everyone except her. She pointedly ignored him for the rest of the time he was on board, refusing to say another word to him. That had not stopped her from looking sadly out of the porthole in her cabin as he had waved the Wind Waker and disappeared with the King of the Red Lions in a cyclone.
Tetra didn't want to admit that she missed him. With the others she maintained a rigid stance of being furious with him for bailing on them, but every time she spoke badly about him she developed a strange ache in the pit of her stomach and had to remind herself not to be so bitter. She couldn't blame him for leaving- wouldn't she have done the same thing had she been in his position? It was his parting words that had hurt the most, the home truths that her 'family' were too scared to share with her that only Link could bring to light. It was as though he had thrown a rock at the glass case that she had built up around herself and shattered it, leaving an ashamed and embarrassed Tetra in its wake. Now every time she snapped at someone, every time she muttered some barbed comment behind someone's back, she felt disgusted with herself and had to take a step back to look at herself with disdain.
But you're different now, she told herself. You're older, wiser, perhaps nicer because of what he said. Stop wallowing in self pity.
It was time to bring the quest back on track, and there was only one way she could do that. It had been drifting away from her for too long, she couldn't afford to spend another two years wandering the ocean facing nothing but disappointment.
As dawn crept up on the horizon, staining the velvet blackness of the sky with its rosy blush, Tetra had made up her mind.
It was time to swallow her pride and bring Link back.
Whether he liked it or not.
To be continued…