x.

He had been in the ship one moment and off it the next. Like the sea wind, there one second and then gone the next (with only blown hair to show for it), Gonzo vanished even when the whole ship needed them.

The sea wasn't known for its mercy. Sailors who called it their home just as easily could call it their graves. If a storm came up or someone went off board, there was no guarantee of survival. No solid ground, no solid proof, and no solid hope. The ocean, Tetra knew, could be both beautiful and dangerous.

Gonzo was a strong swimmer, that Tetra knew.

Just got to get him back on board, Tetra thought. We need to get everything in order and get everyone calm. This has happened before.

It had. If they survived it once, then there was still a chance that they could survive this again. Not a one hundred percent chance, but Tetra would take any chance over no chance.

"Everyone, calm down!" Tetra roared. For once, however, her fiery voice didn't seem to catch their attention. "Everyone!"

Everyone was screaming, a mess filling Tetra's ears. Yelling, shouts, thumps, footsteps. Even when she stopped trying to yell to them, the screaming went on, as if none of the men aboard had ever been a bought boat before.

Tetra rushed forward. Of course she would have to be the one who would have to get something done. Her mother had taught her years before that this job took initiative, and yet it wasn't until then that she had known just how much.

Would she have even been able to calm the crew now? Tetra thought.

Everyone seemed to be in front of her, blocking her view from the water below. The voices all mixed together into one big clump. There was Niko in front of her, and there to her right was-

Tetra's heart skipped a beat.

Aryll.

"Hold on!" Aryll shouted, her voice rising clearly over the others. "I'm coming to get you, Gonzo! Just try and stay above the water!"

"Out of my way!" Tetra roared. By the time she finished screaming, her throat burned and her fists had been tightly clenched.

Only now did the crowd of the crew move. The setting sun's light reflected off of them, turning their skin various shades of orange.

I should have done this sooner, Tetra thought as she raced towards the edge of the ship. Leaning over the wooden railing, she looked down into the water below.

In moments, when Tetra had been yelling her head off (too focused on her crew, far too focused), she had managed to slip past Tetra's vision and drop down into the water below. Now, all that the pirate captain could see of her was a bobbing yellow head that swam against the tide.

Tetra bit her lip. It would be so easy to just jump in after her. Getting out? Not nearly as easy, and there were enough down in the water already.

As if to make things worse, a sudden breeze started up again. Loose strands of blond hair momentarily blocked Tetra's vision.

She turned. "Take down the sales! Drop the anchor! We can't get separated!"

For a moment, her crew merely blinked at her.

"Captain's orders!"

They quickly scrambled away.

Tetra's breathing was coming in fast, and leaving out of her even faster.

She had seen her entire crew save Link. He certainly wouldn't have been running around screaming. While her stomach twisted, she searched for Link. He could at least help her with ropes.

"Link!" Tetra yelled. "Link, I need to see you!"

He had to have heard what was going on. Wherever he was, he was needed up there right then. If he wanted to save his sister and teammate, then he better come running.

"Get here right this instant, Link!" Tetra turned back towards the water. Below her, two bodies were visible above the water, yet only one looked to really be moving.

Aryll, Tetra thought. What are you doing?

She may not have been the little kid that she had once been, back when they had first met, but she wasn't the strongest woman in the world ever. How did she possibly expect to get both Gonzo and her back on the boat.

Gonzo, she noticed, didn't look to be moving in the slightest.

Did something happen? Is he hurt? If he was, how could she possibly get him back on board?

"Link! Please, Link!"

He finally appeared. Tetra's vision was blurring, her mind moving a mile a minute.

"Link, we need to throw rope down in the water. You and me? We have to get Gonzo out."

Link nodded.

The two ran to the side of the ship where rope was kept.

"Just hang in there, you guys!" Tetra yelled. "We're going to get you out!"

Oh, Nayru, Din, and Farore, Tetra thought. I know that I don't think about you as often as I should, but can you please help me now? Gonzo has been a great friend to me, and I don't know how my pirate crew could survive without the big guy. And Aryll? Oh please, please, please don't let anything happen to Aryll. She means the world to me, and if she were gone, I, I- Well I don't know what I'd do. Please, help her, for me and Link. He wouldn't want to lose his sister. You have to listen to me!

Her prayer turned into a jumble, a mess as big as the sudden problem that the crew was facing.

If I could just get to her in time, Tetra thought. Then everything will be okay.

The two took the rope and threw it overboard.

"Grab it, Aryll!" Tetra yelled. "Grab it!"

"Gonzo isn't moving!" she yelled back. At the end, she gasped.

"Aryll, grab the rope!"

"But," Aryll yelled, her head momentarily sinking below the water, "Gonzo!"

Tears stung at Tetra's eyes. "Just grab the rope and tie it around him, okay? Then hold onto his body, like you're doing now! We'll get you both up! Just please get the rope, Aryll!"

She was only a few feet from it. Aryll pushed forward, using a strength Tetra doubted that even she had. Tetra almost cheered when she saw Aryll's hands wrap around the rope. Link's eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. He tightened his grip on his side of the rope, and Tetra followed.

Pulling them up was harder than Tetra had ever imagined. She had known Gonzo was made of muscle, but it almost felt like his body was made of stone. Aryll was on there too. Both were probably even heavier from all the seawater in them.

Just keep pulling, Tetra reminded herself. They'll never be up if you don't pull them.

Tetra's hands ached, the rope digging into her skin. As calloused and rough as her hands already were, she would soon have fresh blisters.

But that didn't matter now. Not now, when her world felt ready to collapse.

This wasn't how things were suposed to go. This was supposed to be smooth sailing.

Tetra took in a deep breath, then let the next one out.

She just needed to keep focusing.

xi.

"That was a really ridiculous thing that you did today," Tetra said. She held a cold cloth over Aryll's forehead before gently placing it down and smoothing out the wrinkles.

"I had to," Aryll replied. She closed her eyes. "That feels good."

"It better," Tetra replied. "You definitely need it, after what you did today." Tetra's own muscles still ached from all the work that she had done that day. It had taken a while for her to start breathing regularly again, to calm herself down. Her hands ached and eyes felt ready to fall at any moment. Were it not for Aryll, she might have already been asleep.

"I couldn't have let him drown. He needed me."

Tetra nodded. Gonzo had gotten hurt, tearing his ankle when he accidentally fell overboard, keeping him from swimming. It had gotten him a nasty bruise, and he'd need a cane to move around the ship.

"Don't think I won't use this," he had said earlier, waving it at Niko. The other man's eyes had widened beneath his glasses and he had quickly scampered off.

"And I need you."

Aryll was silent.

"I need you, Aryll." Tetra repeated. "When you jumped overboard, I was really scared that you were going to drown." She bit her lip.

"Tetra-"

"But that doesn't mean that I'm not proud of what you did."

Aryll's eyes widened.

"It wasn't the best decision, but I wouldn't call it the wrong one either. You did what you knew was right, and I'm not sure many others on this ship would have done the same thing."

"Do you really mean that?" Aryll's voice lowered.

"Of course." She placed her hand over Aryll's own, the one that wasn't hidden beneath her blue blanket. "I'm not saying that you should always be throwing yourself in harms way. That's my thing. You should be the one worrying."

Aryll laughed. "You kind of do."

"Yeah, I kind of do." Tetra winked. "And hey, what you did today reminded me a lot of what your brother would do."

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?"

"No!" Tetra laughed. "But I have to admit, with the calm way that you react to things, thinking things over before you do them, except for what happened today of course, I do sometimes forget that you two are related."

Aryll laughed again, and then closed her eyes. "You don't need to worry too much about me now, Tetra. I'm feeling better than I was before, and should be better at most in a few days, if not tomorrow. Now, I'm on the ship, below deck. I'm nowhere near the water."

"Aryll, you're in a boat."

Aryll gave a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I am." She paused. "Good night, Tetra."

Tetra leaned down, placing a kiss just above the cloth on her forehead. Aryll's blond hair tickled Tetra's lips.

"Good night," Tetra replied. She leaned down and placed another quick, chaste, kiss on Aryll's lips. "And sweet dreams, Aryll."

xii.

"What are you doing out here so late?"

"Huh?" Tetra looked up, her hand still halfway towards the sword strapped to her side.

"Sorry for shocking you," Aryll said, sitting down on the ship's wooden floor beside her. "I was just looking for you, and one of the crew mentioned you being outside looking at the stars."

"Oh, yeah," Tetra replied. For the most part, the stars had just been little lights up in the sky, something for her eyes to focus on while her mind was moving.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

Aryll rolled her eyes. "It may be dark out, but I can tell by your face, along with your tone of voice, that something's wrong."

"Oh," Tetra replied. "Yeah, something is, but it's not anything that you should be worried about."

Aryll laced her hand through Tetra's own. "Of course I would be worried about it. I care about you, Tetra."

Tetra felt herself blush. Were it not for her naturally dark skin and the sun's lack of prescense from the sky, then surely Aryll would have noticed. She always seemed to notice everything else.

"Really, don't be worried about it. This really just concerns me, not you."

"Are you sick?"

Tetra shook her head.

"Injured?"

"No, Aryll."

"Scared?"

Tetra bit her lip. "Like I said, this really doesn't concern you."

"You're worried, so I'm worried."

Tetra stood up, breaking their hands apart. "I'm serious, Aryll. This really doesn't concern you. I..." She sighed. "As much as you care about me, you can't do anything about this."

"What is it?" Aryll's eyes fell. "Tetra, I really am worried about you. Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

Tetra took a breath in, then let it back out. "Aryll, this is about me being a princess."

"Zelda?"

"Yeah, Zelda. One day, I'll have to rule over a kingdom, be a queen, look over a new Hyrule. As much as I don't like it, I still have to do it. Someday I won't be able to be a pirate." Tetra looked around the ship, the one place that she had always been able to call home, even if it did move constantly. "And when that happens, and it definitely will, then I'll just to accept it. Things are going to change, and I can't seem to stop it." Her stomach tightened.

There's just salt in my eyes, she told herself as her vision blurred. She reached up to wipe it, but soon more came.

It was true, wasn't it? Time was going to pass. She could only run away from her problems for so long. Eventually she would have to settle down and take her rightful spot as ruler of a new Hyrule, even if that did involve staying landlocked and having to deal with politics. She would have power, yes, but she doubted that she could treat an entire kingdom like she did her ship crew. It was a new kingdom after all, and if she wanted people to stay there then she would have to actually watch over it with care and keep it safe.

It was going to happen. Her life was changing courses, sailing in a new direction.

And nothing was ever going to change that.

Warm arms wrapped around Tetra's waist and squeezed it tightly.

"I know, Tetra."

"Aryll?"

"Things change. Link and I both know it. If you think you're worried, go see him. He's scared he'll have to save the whole world all over again!"

Tetra gave a weak chuckle. "Let's hope not. Knowing him, he'll need me to shoot more than a few arrows for him."

"And knowing you, you'll need my help too." Aryll giggled, and Tetra couldn't help but join along.

"But, Aryll, things will change. I'll be busy, and you probably will too. Things will change, both for the world and us."

"That doesn't mean that I have to leave you." Aryll looked up, her eyes locking on Tetra's. Even in the moonlight, her eyes sparkled with a deep light. "We'll work things out when we get to the future, okay?"

Tetra nodded. "Okay." Snaking her hands around Aryll's own waist, she pulled the other girl closer to her and held her tightly.