iv.
"Why are you always in my room so much?" Tetra pulled the band holding her bright yellow hair up, letting it fall freely down her back. "Is there something interesting about it? Are you looking for something?"
Aryll shook her head. "I'm just curious."
Tetra raised an eyebrow. "About what? Those rumors you hear about me keeping a whole chest of gold in my room is a load of shit. The other pirates just started that as a joke, and I'm sure they all know that it isn't true either."
Aryll laughed. "You couldn't fit gold in here." She plopped down onto Tetra's bed, then raised her pale arm. She pointed towards the painting that always hung on the right wall of Tetra's room. "What do you have a picture of my big brother for?"
Tetra laughed. "Oh, it's about that." She leaned against the door and closed her eyes. "Well, Aryll, I've actually had it for a while, even since before I even met Link. My mom had it, and her mom had it, and her mom had it, and I'm pretty sure that every mom had it. Let's just say that the painting is old, okay?"
"It sure looks like it." Aryll stood up, walking over to it. "So you have it because everyone else in your family had it before you?"
Tetra nodded. "That's right."
"But why didn't someone eventually throw it out? I love my big brother, but I don't see why people would keep it."
"Because he's a hero."
"I know." Her eyes softened. "Of course I know. I know the legends, too. Still, what made this painting so valuable that it had to be passed down for generations?"
"I guess because it brought hope. The Hylians had lost their land and the world had been flooded, forever changed. They didn't have much hope to go around, so they had to cling to whatever was left."
v.
"Ugh," Aryll commented, squeezing her nose. "What happened?" She walked past the large green-brown pile, careful not to get her feet messy.
"That's dirt," Tetra commented, grinning.
"Dirt? You're actually excited about getting dirt?" Her eyes flitted to where her brother stood beside the ship's captain. He had just as wide of a grin spread out across his face, and never once did his eyes leave the disgusting smelling pile in front of him. "What do we even need dirt for? It's not like anything can grow on this ship."
"Okay, maybe sand is a better word." Tetra shrugged. "Dirt, sand, to a pirate it's mostly the same stuff."
"I still don't see why we need this."
Aryll took a long, hard look at both of them. How could they possible not be bothered by the smell? Was the dirt really that exciting?
"It's not the dirt, but what's in it." Both Tetra and Link leaned down, their eyes widening. "If my calculations are right, then we didn't just bring up dirt, but gold and jewels that were lost in a wreck years before."
Tetra and Link stuck their hands inside of the wet, gross dirt as if it were the most normal thing in the world; Aryll looked away from them, trying to focus instead on the ship and the blue water beyond.
"Link, I bet we're going to do great."
Aryll walked over to the edge of the ship, each step taken with care. She just needed to get to the edge of the ship, as far away from the dirt as possible. The smell of sea salt would make her feel normal; there was nothing quite like the smell of it. It was a comfort, a smell that she had inhaled years before she even stepped foot on Tetra's ship.
Once she made it to the edge of the ship, she put her hands on the wooden rail and looked out to the water below. If she squinted, then she could see fish swimming along.
She had once thought that the pirate's ship would be hard to deal with, loud and full of mischief. Sometimes it was, but most of the time it was actually rather calm. Tetra and her crew never caused more trouble than they needed to.
Well, most of the time. Aryll still couldn't see why they had needed that dirt so badly.
"Ugh!" Tetra roared.
Aryll turned around.
Tetra and Link were absolutely filthy, almost every part of them covered in some part of the wet, sandy dirt. Link was trying to get it off of his clothing, but that only caused it to stick to his arms and hands. He looked like he was both disgusted and angry, and Aryll couldn't tell which one he felt more like. Tetra was definitely angry.
"That didn't work! I could have sworn that it would!" Tetra threw her hands into the air.
Aryll sighed, then turned back to looking at the waves below. At least she wouldn't be the one stuck cleaning up the mess.
vi.
Aryll scooted closer to Tetra. She didn't believe any of the stories that the other pirates were telling, but she stayed close to Tetra anyway. A few of the kids back home had tried to scare her with ghost stories before too, usually ending where they jumped out at her. If she had the pirate captain beside her then surely they wouldn't do it.
Tetra, in turn, wrapped her arm around the side of her waist. Her hand was warm and her touch light. The edges of Aryll's cheeks turned pink, though thankfully it was too dark for anyone to notice.
Link seemed unfazed. A few of the other pirates looked the same, though she could notice hints of worry in their eyes.
"And that's why you have to be careful at sea," Zuko said, his voice lowering. "The sea can be cruel, and you don't want to face certain parts of her. There is a reason that we tell these tales."
"Boring," Niko commented, adjusting his glasses. "You could have done way better than that."
A few of the other pirates nodded, and Aryll joined in.
"Well, who has something better?" Zuko raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sure everyone does." Tetra smirked.
A few began to laugh, Aryll included.
"Let me try," Nico said, waving his hands. "I have a really good one."
"That's what you said the last time," Zuko responded. "That story was awful."
"Just let him tell it," Tetra said. She rolled her eyes. "It's not like anything that we tell is actually true."
"But my story is," Nico said.
"Oh, really?" She raised a blond eyebrow. The edges of her lips wrinkled. "Tell me, how do you know it's true?"
"I know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Tetra responded. "As if. Link and I have probably lived through something ten times more horrifying than anything that you're about to describe, Niko."
"Tetra," Aryll said, "does anything scare you?"
She paused. "Well, the truth is that I would be lying if I told you no."
A few of the pirates gasped.
"I know, I know," Tetra responded. "Still, if hundreds of super powerful monsters are coming up to fight you then you would be scared too. I guess you could say that I'm afraid of losing, that everything that I've worked so hard to do right or to gain will be lost because someone or something has defeated me." She looked over to Link, and then to Aryll. "But I suppose that you two can relate."
For a moment, everyone was silent.
"Tonight wasn't that fun." Tetra released Aryll, then stood up and stretched out her arms. "Let's go eat something and then get to bed. I heard that the sun is going to be really hot tomorrow. Everyone needs to be ready for a brand new day."