The Pirate and the Hero

By: Wordsworth 13

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda

Chapter 4: Life & Death

Tetra bit onto her lip as the excruciating pain ran through her forearm and her blood splashed onto the parched soil. She was, as it happened, doing this to prevent herself from crying. She was far too proud a character to allow herself to cry in front of any member of her crew, especially not Link.

Link meanwhile was seeing every moment of this and drawing his sword.He was too angry to be thinking 'I told her so'. He leapt forward, sword in the air and thrust it down on the plant which screamed, releasing Tetra. She stood back, clasping her arm, trying to swallow her sobs of anguish. Link was still in a red-eyed blind fury, randomly slicing at every available part of the plant, which was squealing and writhing in agony. Finally with one lumberjack style swipe he cut the stalk in two sending the lifeless head to the floor. He sighed and relaxed his muscles. His eyes suddenly widened and he brought his head up as soon as he remembered why he'd been so angry.

He rushed over to Tetra. "Let me see your arm," he said with an out of character concern in his voice. Tetra held up her arm, and link cringed at the mess the plant had managed to make of it. His face suddenly lit up and he reached in to one of this countless pockets and pulled out another bottle, similar to the one he'd put the forest water in, except this one had a rather depressed looking fairy sat in it. He uncorked it and the now smiling fairly flew out gleefully. It took a look at Link, and then and Tetra, who it flew over to. It glanced at her arm and appeared to be examining it. It hung its head slightly, but then resumed normal fairy activity; flying around someone in circles, sprinkling fairy dust over them and healing their wounds. Once it had completed its task it flew away, leaving Tetra finger the zigzag purplish scar on her arm. Link thought it was rather unusual for a fairy healed wound to leave a scar but didn't think it was important.

Link looked over at the plant's remains, which were currently disappearing into a purple haze. He could have sworn he saw a blue light behind it. He did, he ran to what was left of the drifting plume to see that enveloped in it was a heart container. He picked it up and it began to glow even brighter and moving towards him. It came into contact with his torso it flashed a near blinding white and sank into his body. All signs of fatigue disappeared from his face. Tetra was stunned. "Amazing." She managed to whisper under her breath. The green-garbed hero turned to face her, smiling, and tilted his head towards a small exit from the clearing. "Well," he said "shall we be on our way then?"

And thus the two friends continued their little escapade through the forest until they came to a long and moonlit beach. Link glanced around "There's nothing here," he remarked "but considering everything else we've found on this island I guess that's a good thing." Tetra was staring at the moon seemingly ignoring him. She turned her head to face him and said flatly "It's getting late, we should set up camp." Link nodded and turned to one of the trees behind him, snapping off a few twigs. He placed himself down on the ground next to an already sitting Tetra and began work on a fire. "What was that thing you found back there?" She asked him.

"Wha- Oh that, that was a heart container, uh, hold on." He pulled out his bow and wrapped the string around one of the sticks. He began vigorously moving it back and forth, then turned back to Tetra, still continuing his attempt at kindling the wood. "You know," he said "I've noticed that the really, really powerful monsters, like the ones that guard the dungeons, all have those. I've got a theory." Tetra tilted her head to one side.

"Oh, and what's that?"

"Well, they all just look like really big monsters, so I reckon; it's having the heart container that makes 'em that way. They can't handle all that energy, mutates 'em." Tetra looked out onto the rolling ocean. "You know, that actually makes sense." She said. She was in fact quite impressed by his logic. Though, as I've stated before; she'd never let him know that though. "Wait," She said turning back to face him "how come you can 'handle' the energy if they can't."

Link didn't have an explanation for this. "I dunno," he confessed "maybe it's because people have hearts, that would kinda go with the hole 'heart container' name, or maybe it's 'cause I'm the Hero of Winds or some- ah! The fire's going!" Tetra looked the now roaring flames. "Took ya long enough!" She spat, scooting closer to the warming glow of the flames. She stared up into the sky with a contented smile on her face, and sighed. "This reminds me of when I used to stargaze with my mum." She murmured sadly. Link couldn't help but be sympathetic. He hated to see cheerful, constantly laughing Tetra in such a state. He hung his head and forlornly whispered "I can't even remember my parents."

"Lucky." Tetra hissed sourly

"What?"

"Sorry. It's just… sometimes I think if I didn't remember her so well it might not hurt so much…" She trailed off, and began speaking again, quietly. "You see, we were stargazing on a night just like this, Gonzo and all the other crew were off cutting wood and fishing for shrimp, the ship had taken a little damage, you see, I can't really remember how, and Mako had found a high up rock somewhere to read, so we were basically all alone, and mum was pointing out all the constellations to me." Link was giving her story his full attention with a sympathetic expression on his young face. "We, we heard this rustling in the bushes and mum could see shadows, when this sort of thing happened she got all cat-like you know, all poised and ready to strike. I must have only been five but I still remember it like it was yesterday. And suddenly, just like that we were surrounded by them, loads and loads of Moblins. Stupid blue big-nosed freaks." Link could hear an obvious resentment in her voice that went way beyond her experiences with Ganon. Tetra continued her woeful tale "They all had spears and lamps, I don't even remember what island we were on, but, they must have seen our fire, and I remember that mum pushed me under one of the blankets and I heard a scream, probably my own… I'm such a coward."

"Tetra, don't say that, you're one of the bravest people I know. Hell, you're braver than me!" Link almost yelled at her. Tetra just looked away.

"But, I could see everything from under there, the colour of her blood…" Link could hear her voice starting to waver. "Tetra… You don't have to tell me all this." She shook her head. "No, you're my best friend, I can tell you anything right?" Link nodded reassuringly, but still with an uncertain expression on his face. "One of them, he just… ran her through with his spear and, I could see them tearing her flesh from her bones." Her voice was filled with revulsion "The pirates came back, they heard whoever screamed, and they got rid of the monsters, but it was too late. I, I saw it, I watched my mum die…" By this time she was looking completely away from Link.

He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, turning her around to face him. He was extremely surprised to see the tears rolling down her cheeks. Seeing tougher than diamonds, totally invincible, tick me off once and I'll rip your spleen out, Tetra cry was like watching the Devil ride to work on a steamroller. He thought to himself Oh, Goddesses, now what? Whenever Aryll starts bawling you just have to hug her and tell her not to cry, but I think if I did that to Tetra my life expectancy would be about the same as a fish's memory span. Tetra cursed herself for her moment of weakness, but couldn't help feel slightly better from Link's understanding gaze. She just didn't want to face anything alone anymore. Before Link knew what was happening she had wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his shirt, and almost knocked him over in the process. Then again He reflected.

Link, all in all, was mildly disturbed by the events and was inwardly telling himself to wake up, not that he minded having a cute girl practically draped over him. Then it occurred to him: since when did he think Tetra was cute? That was the second time that had happened today. He considered, perhaps that the time out at sea had driven him off the deep end. He couldn't think of anything to do. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He guessed he was supposed to do what he'd do if one of his friends from Outset was crying, admittedly none of his friends had ever hugged him, a fact of which he was quite relieved considering they consisted of small boys and Zill, who's shoes probably didn't fit properly, as he seemed to make an odd popping noise as he walked. Link rested his hand on the girls back and looked over her sympathetically, her head rested on his shoulder, she was still sobbing quietly.

Link's eyes slowly drifted open. He looked up at the pale blue morning sky, and allowed the calming sound of the waves washing up and down the beach to flow over him as he shook the sand out of his hair. He looked down beside him where Tetra was still asleep. "Why am I always the first to wake up?" He said to himself "Well at least she's happy when she's asleep." He remarked, noting the thin smile on her lips. "Oh well, time to drag her back to her misery." He said playfully, shaking her shoulder. "Tetra, wake up Tetra," he whispered. The pirate girl didn't stir in the slightest. Goddesses, she sleeps like a Redead! "Okay that's it." He murmured to himself, grabbing Tetra's vest he began violently shaking her. "Tetra! Wake up! Now!" He screamed. The girl slowly opened her eyes. "Link…" She whispered quietly. He tilted his head to one side. Her expression became harsher. "Let go of my shirt you perv!"

"Wha-!" He yelled, dropping her onto the sand. She dusted herself down and got to her feet, glaring at him. "Hey, wha-, but… you wouldn't wake up!" He exclaimed, a blush spreading across his face.

Link's sensitive, pointed ears pricked up, and he looked over to the water, swearing he'd heard something. He spied a shadow darting around beneath the azure wave. "Ah-ha." He mumbled making his way to the water's edge. He reached into one of his seemingly infinite pockets and took out a small floppy bag made to look like a pig's head. It wasn't a particularly happy looking pig though. "Link what're you-?" Tetra asked, before being shushed by Link, who had just produced a cluster of red pellets from the sack. The tossed them onto the water, in the general area of the shape he'd seen. "Link, this hardly, seems like a good time to be feeding the fish!" Tetra muttered doubtingly "Shh! You'll scare him away!" He hissed back.

After the bait that Link had thrown had been floating on the water for a few moments, each pellet seemed to disappear. And then something Tetra definitely wasn't expecting happened. The fish popped up, front first from the water. It had a face like a person. It wasn't a persons face, it still had scaled and everything, but both its eyes were on the front of its head, and it had lips. You don't see many fish with lips. "'Hoy, small fry!" It yelled at him in a voice that was the same as the voices of all the other talking fish. "You need something?" It asked.

"Um, yeah, could you tell us where we are?" Link was acting like this were a perfectly normal occurrence, then again, knowing him it probably was. "Well, fry, d'ya got a sea chart?" It asked. Link handed him the dusty map, which he examined shaking his head. "This'll never do, fry." Link wore a blank expression "Your map's way too small."

"Too small? How can it be too small?"

Niko meanwhile, was still gazing in terror at the rolling ocean before him. "Are you really, really, really sure?" He asked Gonzo one last time, without a shred of hope in his voice. Gonzo nodded. Niko gulped again. "But that's straight off the edge of the sea chart, if we sail another mile I bet we'll fall off the edge of the world."

"I hear there's Big Octo's out there." Nudge said. "They're s'posed to be twice a big as the normal ones, and they have twenty eyes!" He made a shape like spectacles around his eyes with his fingers. "I heard about a crab that rips people nadgers off!" Exclaimed Senza, who was more happy to be telling monster stories than he was scared of sailing into uncharted waters. Niko gave out a small cry, then asked "Wait, what would crabs want with my private parts?" Mako looked up from his book, which he had been engrossed in for most of the conversation. "Must every discussion we have turn to this subject?" He enquired patronizingly. Gonzo was getting bored, so he simply erupted

"Will you guys shut it? We can't chicken out just because of a few crabs that neuter people! Think about it! What would the captain do if Link and the captain were missing?"

"Well," Niko interjected thoughtfully "if the captain and Link were missing, the captain'd be missing, wouldn't she?" Gonzo stared into space for a moment.

"Well, what'd she do if just Link were missing then?" He yelled angrily at his having been outsmarted. By Niko no less, Mako he could handle, but Niko! At this point Niko would have made a stupid and pointless joke about Link being Tetra's boyfriend, fabricating lies being a hobby of his, but thought better of it, remembering the bruise he still had on his stomach from nine months ago. Eventually after much whining, bickering and sighing, the crew managed to set sail north of Gale Isle.

"Well?" Link inquired again "What do you mean my map's too small." The fish stared at him blankly as if the answer was staring Link right in the face. "Well?" He cried again, seriously getting impatient. "Your map just stops before you get to this island, fry." The fish droned in a monotone voice.

"What?" Link half asked, half whined.

"See here, fry, I've got a bigger one just down in a treasure chest 'round here. I'll fetch it 'kay?" Link was happy the conversation had got beyond 'what'.

"Yeah, yeah, fine." He blurted out quickly. The fish disappeared under the water for a moment then slowly re-emerged holding something it appeared to be having a hard time carrying. It dumped the dripping, rusty, iron and oak chest onto the sand and began breathing so heavily Tetra could see its gills moving up and down. Link pried the chest open and looked down into it, him being a child, and it being a chest, he had to lean down into it to retrieve the piece of paper inside, which, to his surprise, hadn't rotted or smudged. It was about twice the size of his sea chart and had all the islands on Link's chart drawn in the centre. The rest was blank. Link was slightly confused. "So, where are we?" He asked.

"You're about here, fry." It said pointing to the space above the one containing Gale Isle.

"But, there's nothing there…" Link murmured.

"Yep." The fish said nonchalantly "You might just wanna get a map maker to fill in those blank squares."

"What? You mean this map's not finished?" Link screamed at it

"Nope." Link was just getting annoyed now.

"Well, can you fill this square in?"

"Why should I?"

"I gave you food, didn't I?"

"Oh, fine!" The fish grunted, producing a calligraphy brush from under the water. "Show me the chart." Link handed it over and the fish put one swift stroke on the paper. He returned the map to Link who looked at it with a bemused expression. "It looks like an egg on its side." He muttered in confusion. Then he noticed it didn't have any writing next to it. "Hey, doesn't this island have a name?" He said questioningly.

"Sorry, fry, no names here, just a fish and a bunch of ugly trees." The fish replied as if he'd said something funny. "Okay then," Link said, starting to pull apart the chest. "hand me that brush." The bewildered fish did as instructed.

Link jammed a loosened nail between one of the sides and a long beam that had held the back to the bottom. The inside, not exposed to the water had stayed a pleasant light brown. He painted the words 'FoREsT TRAP IsLAND' onto his makeshift sign and stuck it into the ground. "There we go." He said, satisfied with his handiwork. "Now, all that's left to do is wait for the pirates to pick us up." This fish also heard this and told him. "If they're coming from that windy place down south, you'll need to be on the other side of the island."

"Fine." Tetra said, looking down the winding beach "Come on then." And on the entire journey back to the spot they'd woken up on the day before she only said three patronizing words to him. "Forest Trap Island?"

Link exhaled from exhaustion when they arrived back at the spot they were walking to and glanced over the horizon. His eyes widened. "Tetra, I see it!" He yelled "Tetra, I see the pirate ship!" Hr clambered up the grey barked tree and waved his arms.

On the ship Zuko closed his telescope and looked down from the crow's nest. "It's them!" he yelled "It's miss and Link!"

At last, finished! Hooray! Finally, finally, finally! Sorry I kept ya so long. But I'm also working on a Metropolis story. If you haven't seen that film (in Japanese with subtitles) you haven't lived. It's called soul data but it's not published yet, it might be done tomorrow or the day after. (This is only relevant if you're reading this the day it was published.