Aryll:

It was Big Brother's birthday, his coming of age, the day he wears the Hero's Clothes. He must be so excited! I love the story of the Hero in Green. I like to imagine where the Hero went after he defeated the darkness, what he did next. Maybe he went to a whole different world, with new people to fight beside! Grandma always jokes that he went to the moon!

Brother doesn't seem so happy about getting his new clothes (I think he's afraid of how hot they'll be!) but I knew I still had to find him something good as a gift to compete with them! So, I had the best present picked out for him, something I knew he'd love. My spyglass!

I've had this spyglass for as long as I can remember. It was Father's. He gave it to me before he and Mother left home.

"You can see the world with this Aryll," he told me, "And you will. Just look out on the horizon with this and you'll see the world going on and on and on."

I said the world was too big. I'd never see it all, even with a spyglass. Father laughed.

"But isn't that its beauty? What's the fun of a world that just ends?"

I watched their boat sail on the horizon through my spyglass, until they became tiny dots bouncing on the waves. They never came back.

Brother remembers them better than me. Whenever I talk about them, his face gets stiff and hard. I can tell it hurts him. It hurts me to see Brother like that.

Today, Brother was out of the house before I was awake, so I couldn't even give him his present in bed! I ran all over the beach, looking for him. Sue-Belle hadn't seen him. I like Sue-Belle. She's always nice to me, and I love watching her balance that huge pot on her head! She's really good at it. Maybe she'll teach me one day. Sue-Belle's parents also left her when she was little. Her grandpa, Sturgeon, raises her. I think her parents are still alive though. I think they just left her because they didn't want her. Who could ever be so cruel? I always try and be nice to Sue-Belle because if anyone deserves people being nice to her, she does.

Big Brother was on my look-out tower at the end of the island, like I thought he'd be. He was asleep! That lazy bum, he snuck out so I wouldn't wake him up with my surprise! He's always up there, looking out at the ocean. I like going up there sometimes too, when Big Brother's not there. The tower's really really high and I get tired climbing up the long ladder, but the view makes it worth the adventure. I watch the sea gulls instead of the ocean. I know Father said it goes on and on, but I can't see the "on and on" part from our island. The gulls though, they're alive. They'll come down and play with me. I love to watch them glide high over the whole island and think about all the things they've seen. Sometimes, when a lot of them land on the tower, I like to think they'll pick me up and carry me off. I don't want to leave Outset and Grandma and Brother, but I do want to see more than my look-out can show me. I want to see everything! Not the ocean, but the other islands, like Windfall where Grandma is from. What good is a spyglass if all I can see is fog and sky? I want to see the huge world Father told me about!

When I woke brother up, he was still half asleep. He acted like he didn't even know what day it was! Goofy! So I reminded him by giving him his present. He was so surprised! I hate hate hate when someone takes my spyglass, and I never let anyone borrow it cause that's the easiest way to get it broken. Which is why I knew it would be a great surprise! When I gave it to him, Brother's eyes got so wide. He looked so silly!

I've asked Big Brother before why he watches the ocean so much. "It's boring," I said to him, "just staring at the water. Why don't you watch the gulls? Or the people on the island? Even the crabs are more interesting!" He smiled. I wish Brother spoke to me. I wonder how much he has to say? It's sad to think about. I wouldn't be able to go a day if I couldn't tell how I feel! He always listens so well, but he must have so much he wants to say. Like why he watches the ocean. I wander if it's because he misses Father and Mother? I wander if it's because he wants to travel and see the world that Father told me about, to follow Grandma's legends and Orca's adventures? But part of me doesn't think those are the right answers. I wish he could tell me. I've asked him to write in the sand, but he always just shakes his head. That I do understand. Some things should be said out loud.

While Brother was testing my spyglass out (I saw him get a smudge on the lens too! I should have told him off for that!) I was trying to find something for him to practice on. There were a lot of sea gulls out, so I was trying to pick one for him, and something big flew through the air past them. It was a rock, a big boulder flying through the sky! Imagine! On the horizon, a pirate ship, with fat white sails and a black flag, was coming towards the island. At first, I thought we were about to be invaded! I hadn't heard of pirate raids on islands ever in my life! Grandma said that was something that only happened long ago. I told Brother to look when I saw the bird.

No. This thing is no bird. Calling it a "bird" is like comparing the fish near the shore to the big mean fish that Orca catches. "Bird" makes me think of a sea gull: kind, friendly, ready to play if you have some food for it. This thing is massive; its wings are longer than our house. Its claws are wider than our front door and they feel covered in metal, not scales. It's feathers are so rough and coarse. Its face. I think of thunder.

Is this the sort of beast Sturgeon told me and Brother about? When Sturgeon told us of great sea beasts that stalk sailors who go out too far, I had nightmares about them, about glowing eyes coming closer and closer to Outset, bringing wind and thunder, pulling me off the shore. Pulling me away from land out to sea. I always thought that was what took Father and Mother. Maybe it was this monster.

The pirate ship was chasing the monster. Two men were loading a catapult on its deck, flinging the big rocks. At first they couldn't hit it, but when the monster wheeled around, to fly over open sea again, they struck it head on! That was when I saw the girl the monster had in its claws. It dropped her, right over the top of the mountain, into the forest. I thought she'd be dead for sure!

Brother was gone, already running across the dock to Orca's house. I knew what he was going to do. He was going to rescue her. Brother's like that. When he sees something that needs to be done, he doesn't stop to think about it. He can be pretty stubborn sometimes, because of that. I didn't want to move. That monster had fallen behind the island and I'd lost sight of it. I wanted to run home but I was afraid to stop looking.

Big Brother once took me all the way up to the very top of Outset Island. We stood on the edge of the tallest cliff and looked out over the whole island. We could see everything! Our house, Sue-Belle's well, Sturgeon's room with the papers everywhere, the huge swatches of cut grass around Orca's house where he and Link would practice sometimes, those funny pigs, the hopping rocks in the middle of the island.

I said to Brother, "I like our home. I don't think there's anywhere in the world I'd have rather been born."

He smiled but I could tell he was thinking something.

"You'd have rather been born in some great kingdom wouldn't you? Or on a ship out in the middle of the ocean? Or at Windfall, like Grandma, right?"

He shrugged. I tried to think of something to say.

"Do you know why I like this place so much?"

He looked at me. Listened.

"Because it's not any of those places. It's not some kingdom, or some big ship, or even Windfall with all its people. Here, I can know about all of them and think about how great it would be to see them. If I were born in those places, I wouldn't find them the least interesting! Here, they actually mean something to me."

Brother. I want you to be happy where we are. You always watch the ocean, always look so far away. I feel like you're looking right where Father and Mother sailed off to. I'm afraid you're tired of calling this place home… and, maybe, you're tired of me.

When you came running back out from the woods, with that girl with the pony tail behind you, I guess I knew then what would happen. I could tell from looking at her, from seeing the sword in your hand that something had changed. And you had my spyglass. And the hero's clothes fit you so well. As if they were made for you. Or you for them. Maybe we were made for a legend. And we've never had a choice which role we play.

I've always wanted to fly, so I could see more and more and more! See everything. Maybe, somewhere, see Father and Mother. And I guess I will see them soon, in some way.

I'm scared Brother. Because I never thought, when you fly, how you'll be so high up. And the ocean is so so far away from me. And this monster's grip is so loose. He already dropped one girl. I don't know if I'll have any trees to catch me. But up here… the ocean is so wide. I wish I could tell you. It goes on forever. It goes on. It goes on.

Brother, it goes on longer than we ever will.