A/N: Hi! I'm sorry, but my chapters may be somewhat delayed from now on due
to my participation in several community plays ("Annie" and "The King and
I"), plus tons of homework. It is, however, quite easy to put these down on
paper, since I have the entire plotline written out in my head. In a
nutshell, the rest is about races, misfits, and mythology of sorts (I
probably lost a few there). You can't cram a lot into a nutshell, so stay
with me; it's better than it sounds! There won't be very many monsters
until the end, sorry to say, but Tetra'll kick more than monster butt! ~Who
gives a rip about this Tropeo guy? These guys can carry out an argument for
ages (half an hour, to be more specific)!
Once more, we rode into the cool shade of a forest, and this time it was reassuringly familiar. I smiled; I knew this entire wood from the smallest pansy to the tallest oak, just as easily as I knew the back of my wrist. Our horses had slowed to a walk, Link and Tetra had finally ended their bickering (and were now sitting back-to-back, refusing to speak to each other), Medli had awakened, her orange eyes still half shut with a sort of fatigue; and the pirates- who seemed extremely fond of singing- had switched to a song more of Tetra's liking- and much more "piratey" by my standards. I won't type it out for you, since half of the lyrics seemed to be curse words (which the mousy one attempted to yell "BEEP!" over), but I'll tell you, I had to cringe and cover my ears before that wretched ballad got out of my head. When that song had ended, the buccaneers took breaths to start another profanity-ridden refrain, but Tetra simply raised her hand, and they let it out as a sigh.
"Thanks," I breathed, uncovering my ears and realizing that Komali, two horses over, had been doing generally the same thing as I. The pirate captain smirked and looked to the other side. Then she looked back at me with a puzzled expression.
"You haven't met my guys yet, have you?"
"No, I suppose I haven't," I was curious, but I was really not sure weather I wanted to or not, considering the songs they sang, not to mention the fact that they'd obviously done something horrible to Link. On the other hand, he must've kept traveling with them for some reason.
"Gonzo? Get your hoss over here; Anni has no idea who you guys are," Tetra had to call over several horses to get the message over to him, since we all were riding in pretty much a row in front of the herd. The guys on the horse looked back over the other, the smaller one having to sort of climb up his huge partner's back to see. Both saluted: "Aye-aye, Miss," and got their pony to back and then side step until it was between Tetra and I.
Their horse was a grey (one I called Beau), and the large rider was the green-and-maroon clad one who had mouthed to me when I'd first met their captain. He wore his maroon bandanna right over his eyebrows and almost over his eyes, so that they shone out from the shadow creepily, but when he began to speak, he sounded quite extraordinarily like a very nervous and otherwise uneasy person- unusually so for a man. "Do you need something, Miss Tetra?" His voice squeaked every once in a while from anxiety.
"Not really, Gonzo. I'm just helping Anni put names to faces." After this she cringed, clearly expecting his reply.
"You're quite sure, Miss? Nothing at all, yeah?" Tetra rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Gonzo, nothing at all. What are you, my mom?" She groaned.
"Your mother was not a very responsible person, milady," he replied, rubbing his broad forearm sheepishly with a sweaty palm. "I'm just acting in your best interests, like she ordered me to; quite a load of work it is, yeah?" Tetra rolled her eyes again, this time ending with a small grin. She shrugged with one shoulder.
"Obviously, he's my bodyguard. I sorta inherited these guys from my mum. No idea what she was thinking when she appointed some of 'em, though." She gave Gonzo a playful glare, and I saw him shiver. "Another example of my mother's preferences is this piece of work back here," she said, gesturing toward the other pirate. "This is Zuko. Say hoy, Zuko." The sea- dog gave her an odd look, grunted, and waved. "See? He's barely literate." Zuko murmured something to himself and faced front. He had bristly brown sideburns which made the scarlet bandanna on his head seem even brighter; I noticed that his blue-striped shirt wasn't tucked in all the way around his waist, and his belt buckle was in the shape of a skull.
"What does he do?" I asked, not sure it was much if he spoke in grunts.
"He's the lookout." Tetra sighed. "He has the sharpest eyes of all the Great Sea. The funny thing is, whenever he sees something, he never knows how to tell us what he saw, so we never quite know whether we should wave one of our flags or get the catapult ready." I laughed, and she started once I did; this was the first time I'd seen a grin on her face that wasn't superior or sly, but rather goofy looking, and the tips of her ears were bright scarlet like her bandanna. She, struggling to straighten her face, beckoned to the next pirate horse, and I recognized the little one this time; he was the mousey one who'd teased Link a while back- Niko, wasn't it? "The one in purple is Nudge-he's our counselor- and the little guy's Niko. He's the swabbie, and he's Link's favorite." Link, though not involved in this conversation due to his not speaking with Tetra, gave us a glance, and winked at Niko, who returned it.
"I hear you rescued Link." The mousey pirate said, trying desperately (and fruitlessly) to make his voice sound low instead of squeaky as he straightened his sky-blue bandanna. "He was telling us all about how you gave him that potion, and all."
"I didn't; at least, not really- I mean, he would've come to on his own, I'm sure." I felt my face grow hot, and I saw Link smile and shake his head slightly, though he still faced forward. "Erm... What makes you Link's favorite?"
Niko chuckled embarrassedly and replied: "According to Miss Tetra, it's the fact that I let him get away with so much." Tetra nodded.
"Niko, it's true. You've let him have a Spoils Bag, spare bombs, extra portions of meals, the best sleeping bags, fewer chores than anyone else, sleeping in, places opposite the lee of the campfire smoke, and various other privileges that he shouldn't really be having," she said, counting each off of her fingers.
"It's not me, Miss," Niko said, almost sorry to admit it, looking down at his scarlet-striped shirt, his mouse-like front teeth protruding between his lips. "We always make bets, and he always wins."
"Don't make bets, with him, obviously. Everyone knows that green's a lucky color." I had a feeling that she was making this up, but I didn't say anything. Nudge spoke up then in his calm, counselor-like manner, running a hand along the back of his orange kerchief and down the length of his particularly long, black-and-grey streaked hair.
"I don't mean to interrupt, Miss, but if green is such a lucky color, why don't you make us wear it?" One could tell that Link was enjoying this greatly as he attempted to suppress laughter first with a tight-lipped smile, then behind a hand, and then behind fake coughs when a snort sneaked out. Once Tetra realized what he was doing, she smacked him on the head and folded her arms. Link rubbed his crown, but still chuckled under his breath as if he were Tetra's little brother (smaller siblings seem to do such things- I know from experience).
"Why don't we wear green?" she mimicked. "Why are you asking me? I'm not the smart one around here. That's Mako." She folded her arms across her chest.
"You have such anger! Take a few deep breaths for me- that's right, in and out, in and out-" Nudge instructed, and Tetra (reluctantly) obeyed sulkily.
"And that's why we have a counselor around," Niko said jokingly, not able to help himself. Tetra gave him a death stare, but then eyed Nudge and took another huffy. That's probably true, I thought to myself, not without a small grin on my lips.
Tetra (once calmed down considerably), called the next two pirates up, and introduced me. "This is Mako- he's the one who taught me angles to use in that battle against the crocodiles." Mako adjusted his glasses, which were nearly half an inch thick.
"Salutations." He said smartly, closing the great scarlet book on his lap. I noticed with interest that he had no sheath, as the others had, and that the skull on his belt buckle had glasses.
"I'm Senza," said the large pirate, not hesitating a moment to let Tetra introduce him. He held out his rather scarred hand, and shook mine so heartily my arm felt somewhat limp afterward. I recognized his name from the captain's talk prior to this meeting, and took advantage of it.
"Aren't you the one that runs the catapult?" I asked. "Tetra told me about you."
"Yeah. Also do the ballast." He replied, smiling mischievously at the back of Link's head.
"He tells the most splendid stories as well!" Medli exclaimed. "When we would travel, we would all gather around him beside the campfire just before we got to bed. That is, if there was a campfire to gather by..."
"Yeah, everyone tells me that, so I suppose I am. It all comes from experience, really." He said, quite modestly. I smiled and nodded.
It was not long after that that a wonderful, entrancing sort of scent wafted under our noses. I heard several stomachs growl. I was rather familiar with this aroma, so much so that I hardly noticed it anymore, but I knew the effect it had on newcomers. One could be driven mad with hunger by way of one whiff, which, as you can imagine, made The Spilled Goblet a very fine business. It was somewhat like oranges and chives, fresh coffee with cream, boiling cider, trout frying with pineapple, chocolate, cucco roasting with honey, pork and dates, beef marinated in cocktail, baking bread, and all the other lovely sorts of smells that waft from one's grandmother's kitchen when she's cooking for a very large party. In this case, though, it was my Aunt Siagon and the various ranch-hands that worked with her, not much farther down the road. The horses smelled it too, and thinking of the oats waiting for them in the stalls, began to canter without a prod.
Epona reared again, and bolted ahead. Link had to turn around and catch Tetra before she fell off. Medli covered her mouth (this was somewhat awkward, since she had to shove her hand underneath her beak), whether in fright or surprise, I have no idea. The smoke of our chimney rose above the horizon, and the fragrance grew stronger as we descended that last hill toward home. The horses flooded into the forested valley like a sort of sparkling, mystical waterfall, and they slowed. We dismounted, the Prince taking to the air easily on his swift, wide wings, the bag holding Makar dangling wildly beneath him.
"C'mon guys!" I said, running into the depths of the woods. I hardly heard them follow as I turned, parted two leafy branches, and let them all behold the splintery oak building before us, The Spilled Goblet, just as the three-o'-clock sun hit it and exposed every crevice in the wood. It, at least in my opinion, was a comfortable, happy place. Perfect to come home to, even if you didn't live there.
Once more, we rode into the cool shade of a forest, and this time it was reassuringly familiar. I smiled; I knew this entire wood from the smallest pansy to the tallest oak, just as easily as I knew the back of my wrist. Our horses had slowed to a walk, Link and Tetra had finally ended their bickering (and were now sitting back-to-back, refusing to speak to each other), Medli had awakened, her orange eyes still half shut with a sort of fatigue; and the pirates- who seemed extremely fond of singing- had switched to a song more of Tetra's liking- and much more "piratey" by my standards. I won't type it out for you, since half of the lyrics seemed to be curse words (which the mousy one attempted to yell "BEEP!" over), but I'll tell you, I had to cringe and cover my ears before that wretched ballad got out of my head. When that song had ended, the buccaneers took breaths to start another profanity-ridden refrain, but Tetra simply raised her hand, and they let it out as a sigh.
"Thanks," I breathed, uncovering my ears and realizing that Komali, two horses over, had been doing generally the same thing as I. The pirate captain smirked and looked to the other side. Then she looked back at me with a puzzled expression.
"You haven't met my guys yet, have you?"
"No, I suppose I haven't," I was curious, but I was really not sure weather I wanted to or not, considering the songs they sang, not to mention the fact that they'd obviously done something horrible to Link. On the other hand, he must've kept traveling with them for some reason.
"Gonzo? Get your hoss over here; Anni has no idea who you guys are," Tetra had to call over several horses to get the message over to him, since we all were riding in pretty much a row in front of the herd. The guys on the horse looked back over the other, the smaller one having to sort of climb up his huge partner's back to see. Both saluted: "Aye-aye, Miss," and got their pony to back and then side step until it was between Tetra and I.
Their horse was a grey (one I called Beau), and the large rider was the green-and-maroon clad one who had mouthed to me when I'd first met their captain. He wore his maroon bandanna right over his eyebrows and almost over his eyes, so that they shone out from the shadow creepily, but when he began to speak, he sounded quite extraordinarily like a very nervous and otherwise uneasy person- unusually so for a man. "Do you need something, Miss Tetra?" His voice squeaked every once in a while from anxiety.
"Not really, Gonzo. I'm just helping Anni put names to faces." After this she cringed, clearly expecting his reply.
"You're quite sure, Miss? Nothing at all, yeah?" Tetra rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Gonzo, nothing at all. What are you, my mom?" She groaned.
"Your mother was not a very responsible person, milady," he replied, rubbing his broad forearm sheepishly with a sweaty palm. "I'm just acting in your best interests, like she ordered me to; quite a load of work it is, yeah?" Tetra rolled her eyes again, this time ending with a small grin. She shrugged with one shoulder.
"Obviously, he's my bodyguard. I sorta inherited these guys from my mum. No idea what she was thinking when she appointed some of 'em, though." She gave Gonzo a playful glare, and I saw him shiver. "Another example of my mother's preferences is this piece of work back here," she said, gesturing toward the other pirate. "This is Zuko. Say hoy, Zuko." The sea- dog gave her an odd look, grunted, and waved. "See? He's barely literate." Zuko murmured something to himself and faced front. He had bristly brown sideburns which made the scarlet bandanna on his head seem even brighter; I noticed that his blue-striped shirt wasn't tucked in all the way around his waist, and his belt buckle was in the shape of a skull.
"What does he do?" I asked, not sure it was much if he spoke in grunts.
"He's the lookout." Tetra sighed. "He has the sharpest eyes of all the Great Sea. The funny thing is, whenever he sees something, he never knows how to tell us what he saw, so we never quite know whether we should wave one of our flags or get the catapult ready." I laughed, and she started once I did; this was the first time I'd seen a grin on her face that wasn't superior or sly, but rather goofy looking, and the tips of her ears were bright scarlet like her bandanna. She, struggling to straighten her face, beckoned to the next pirate horse, and I recognized the little one this time; he was the mousey one who'd teased Link a while back- Niko, wasn't it? "The one in purple is Nudge-he's our counselor- and the little guy's Niko. He's the swabbie, and he's Link's favorite." Link, though not involved in this conversation due to his not speaking with Tetra, gave us a glance, and winked at Niko, who returned it.
"I hear you rescued Link." The mousey pirate said, trying desperately (and fruitlessly) to make his voice sound low instead of squeaky as he straightened his sky-blue bandanna. "He was telling us all about how you gave him that potion, and all."
"I didn't; at least, not really- I mean, he would've come to on his own, I'm sure." I felt my face grow hot, and I saw Link smile and shake his head slightly, though he still faced forward. "Erm... What makes you Link's favorite?"
Niko chuckled embarrassedly and replied: "According to Miss Tetra, it's the fact that I let him get away with so much." Tetra nodded.
"Niko, it's true. You've let him have a Spoils Bag, spare bombs, extra portions of meals, the best sleeping bags, fewer chores than anyone else, sleeping in, places opposite the lee of the campfire smoke, and various other privileges that he shouldn't really be having," she said, counting each off of her fingers.
"It's not me, Miss," Niko said, almost sorry to admit it, looking down at his scarlet-striped shirt, his mouse-like front teeth protruding between his lips. "We always make bets, and he always wins."
"Don't make bets, with him, obviously. Everyone knows that green's a lucky color." I had a feeling that she was making this up, but I didn't say anything. Nudge spoke up then in his calm, counselor-like manner, running a hand along the back of his orange kerchief and down the length of his particularly long, black-and-grey streaked hair.
"I don't mean to interrupt, Miss, but if green is such a lucky color, why don't you make us wear it?" One could tell that Link was enjoying this greatly as he attempted to suppress laughter first with a tight-lipped smile, then behind a hand, and then behind fake coughs when a snort sneaked out. Once Tetra realized what he was doing, she smacked him on the head and folded her arms. Link rubbed his crown, but still chuckled under his breath as if he were Tetra's little brother (smaller siblings seem to do such things- I know from experience).
"Why don't we wear green?" she mimicked. "Why are you asking me? I'm not the smart one around here. That's Mako." She folded her arms across her chest.
"You have such anger! Take a few deep breaths for me- that's right, in and out, in and out-" Nudge instructed, and Tetra (reluctantly) obeyed sulkily.
"And that's why we have a counselor around," Niko said jokingly, not able to help himself. Tetra gave him a death stare, but then eyed Nudge and took another huffy. That's probably true, I thought to myself, not without a small grin on my lips.
Tetra (once calmed down considerably), called the next two pirates up, and introduced me. "This is Mako- he's the one who taught me angles to use in that battle against the crocodiles." Mako adjusted his glasses, which were nearly half an inch thick.
"Salutations." He said smartly, closing the great scarlet book on his lap. I noticed with interest that he had no sheath, as the others had, and that the skull on his belt buckle had glasses.
"I'm Senza," said the large pirate, not hesitating a moment to let Tetra introduce him. He held out his rather scarred hand, and shook mine so heartily my arm felt somewhat limp afterward. I recognized his name from the captain's talk prior to this meeting, and took advantage of it.
"Aren't you the one that runs the catapult?" I asked. "Tetra told me about you."
"Yeah. Also do the ballast." He replied, smiling mischievously at the back of Link's head.
"He tells the most splendid stories as well!" Medli exclaimed. "When we would travel, we would all gather around him beside the campfire just before we got to bed. That is, if there was a campfire to gather by..."
"Yeah, everyone tells me that, so I suppose I am. It all comes from experience, really." He said, quite modestly. I smiled and nodded.
It was not long after that that a wonderful, entrancing sort of scent wafted under our noses. I heard several stomachs growl. I was rather familiar with this aroma, so much so that I hardly noticed it anymore, but I knew the effect it had on newcomers. One could be driven mad with hunger by way of one whiff, which, as you can imagine, made The Spilled Goblet a very fine business. It was somewhat like oranges and chives, fresh coffee with cream, boiling cider, trout frying with pineapple, chocolate, cucco roasting with honey, pork and dates, beef marinated in cocktail, baking bread, and all the other lovely sorts of smells that waft from one's grandmother's kitchen when she's cooking for a very large party. In this case, though, it was my Aunt Siagon and the various ranch-hands that worked with her, not much farther down the road. The horses smelled it too, and thinking of the oats waiting for them in the stalls, began to canter without a prod.
Epona reared again, and bolted ahead. Link had to turn around and catch Tetra before she fell off. Medli covered her mouth (this was somewhat awkward, since she had to shove her hand underneath her beak), whether in fright or surprise, I have no idea. The smoke of our chimney rose above the horizon, and the fragrance grew stronger as we descended that last hill toward home. The horses flooded into the forested valley like a sort of sparkling, mystical waterfall, and they slowed. We dismounted, the Prince taking to the air easily on his swift, wide wings, the bag holding Makar dangling wildly beneath him.
"C'mon guys!" I said, running into the depths of the woods. I hardly heard them follow as I turned, parted two leafy branches, and let them all behold the splintery oak building before us, The Spilled Goblet, just as the three-o'-clock sun hit it and exposed every crevice in the wood. It, at least in my opinion, was a comfortable, happy place. Perfect to come home to, even if you didn't live there.