Following Blondie

Chapter Two: Birthday Boy

When Aryll came in for dinner, she did not tell her grandmother what Tetra had said. Her grandma was perfectly content thinking that Link was sailing around having wonderful adventures with a whole gang of pirates to make sure he didn't hurt himself. She didn't need to worry over her only grandson when there was nothing she could do but worry.

When Aryll came in for dinner, she did not tell her grandmother what Tetra had said. Her grandma was perfectly content thinking that Link was sailing around having wonderful adventures with a whole gang of pirates to make sure he didn't hurt himself. She didn't need to worry over her only grandson when there was nothing she could do worry.

Aryll choked down her meal, not really tasting it. Then she went to bed early, and when Grandma asked her what was wrong she said she had a little bit of a stomach ache. It wasn't entirely untrue. Aryll had felt uneasy and a little nauseas since Tetra's visit.

She went to bed feeling guilty that now her grandma thought it was her fault that Aryll felt sick.

That night Aryll had a dream about the day Link left.

She tossed and turned under her blankets, as her mind filled with images of her brother…

Aryll heard Link get up in the middle of the night. She wondered where he could be going so late, and her child's curiosity overcame her as she slipped out of bed to follow him.

Link had absentmindedly left the door ajar when he left. Aryll frowned. Link was normally so paranoid about closing and locking the doors and windows shut tight every night. He said he was scared something would come and take her away.

He said, when Aryll pointed out that he was a hero and could save her, and that Grandma was always around to watch her, that he didn't care, and that the doors were the first line of defense and would remain locked whenever someone was not outside.

Aryll slipped through the open door, grateful she didn't have to worry about the noise alerting Link, but still unsettled. She knew he must have been really distracted to have done that…

She padded across tufts of grass in bare feet, squinting through the darkness to see Link bending over his boat.

At this point, Aryll panicked. She may have only been ten, but she was not stupid. Link wouldn't fuss around with his boat unless he was going somewhere.

Aryll sprinted towards him. His back was turned, so when she hugged (tackled) him from behind, locking her arms around his waist, he fell over into the sand in surprise. He realized it was his sister who had attacked him a second before he unsheathed his sword with the intention to cut down the offending ChuChu.

"Aryll, get off," he grunted, trying to shove his sister away. She held on tight, burying her face into his shirt.

A muffled 'no' vibrated across Link's back. Aggravated, he twisted around so that he was facing Aryll. He then sat up, pushing the small girl onto the sand. Her face was smushed into the cloth covering his stomach.

"Why are you doing this, Aryll? You're supposed to be asleep."

Aryll lifted her face, tilting it upward to Link's. "So are you," she accused.

"That's not what I meant," Link muttered, trying, to no avail, to undo Aryll's vice-like grip. He knew he could get her off if he really wanted to, but he, unlike most siblings, made it a point to never resort to any kind of violence when it came to his sister.

"Aryll, please…" Link intoned, hoping she would let go if he explained what he was doing out so late, "I have to go."

"Why?" Aryll demanded, tightening her arms around him. "I don't want you to go. What if you don't come back? It's so dark, what if a monster comes?"

"Aryll, I can't breathe," Link muttered. Aryll's arms loosened around him, and Link assured her, with a grin, that he thought he could handle one or two monsters.

"Where are you going?" Aryll asked, finally sliding away from her brother and grabbing his hand as he stood and tugged her up after him.

"I need to find the pirates."

Aryll's eyebrows furrowed. "The pirates? But…what for? Aren't you happy here?"

Link closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

"Yes Aryll, I am happy here. But I'm bored, too, and I feel…I don't know…useless. I feel like I don't need to protect you two anymore. There are no more monsters on this island, and now that Ganon is gone, I don't think there will be any more."

"But why the pi—" Link held up a hand to silence his sister's interruption.

"I've been having this weird feeling lately…like I need to get out there. I can't explain it…it's like something's…calling…me…" Link trailed off, staring, transfixed, at the back of his hand. Aryll could see the faint outline of the Triforce, with the bottom right triangle outlined a little darker than the others.

"I think it's another piece of the Triforce calling me. I think…Tetra might be calling me."

"Oh…" Aryll said. "Does…does it have to be today? Your fifteenth birthday is tomorrow. Grandma will be so sad that you're gone…"

"Yes, Aryll, it's got to be tomorrow. I'm allowed to sleep late on my birthday. They'll all think I've gone to sleep on the Lookout. They won't know I'm gone until they send you to find me… I'm counting on you to buy some time for me to get far enough away…"

The thought of her big brother needing her to stall so he could leave her far, far away was immensely saddening to Aryll, and it showed on her face.

Link looked down at his little sister. "Hey, cheer up. I'll be back before you know it. I just need to find out what Tetra wants, and then I'll be right back. I promise."

Aryll's voice was hopeful. "Really? You promise? You pinky swear?"

Link indulged in the ritual, locking pinkies with his sister. "Yeah, I promise."

Aryll smiled for a second, then sobered, saying, "…I'll miss you."

Link ruffled her hair, laughing when she cried out in indignation and reached up to smooth it.

"I know. I'll miss you too."

Aryll's dream ended there. It usually ended with her getting back into bed, and waking up when her dream-self would have fallen asleep. She frowned, wondering why she had woken up. Judging by the light outside, it was still night.

She had that strange feeling people sometimes get when they're on the verge of discovering something, but can't quite grasp what it is yet.

Aryll buried her face in her pillow, and prayed for the morning and word from Tetra.

Tetra peered through her telescope at the wide sea surrounding the pirate ship. There was a small blot on the horizon, and bit to the north-west.

"Hey!" she yelled, motioning towards the land. It was Windfall, and the crew jumped for joy. They always got excited when a stop at Windfall was pending.

While the men eagerly fastened ropes and (in Niko's case) swabbed the desk excitedly, Tetra found her mind wandering to a day almost three years before, on a similar stop to Windfall...

It was the summer Tetra was fourteen, and they had docked at Windfall. Tetra had allowed the men to wander around the town for the afternoon, herself going to retrieve any mail the pirates might have received.

She had quirked an eyebrow at a girl standing beside the mailbox with what was, unmistakably, a cow.

The girl had brightened when she saw the pirate girl. "Ah! You must be Tetra!" she had exclaimed. But Tetra was wary.

Giving the girl a sidelong, suspicious glance, Tetra had asked, "What makes you say that?"

The girl's smile did not waver. "This!" she said, shoving a piece of paper into Tetra's face.

Tetra had taken what turned out to be an envelope addressed to her into her hands, noting that a rather smarmy footnote was attached to the front.

The footnote read:

Give this delivery to a girl named Tetra. She is short and has yellow hair, and will probably look at you weird. She will also probably make some sarcastic comments when you deliver the package, so don't take anything she says personally. Thanks again!

The writing had been Link's. The girl had informed her that she had been instructed to give Tetra Link's thank-you-for-helping-me-and-taking-care-of-my-sister gift, "by the Hero of Winds, himself, no less," the girl had added, bragging.

Tetra had then asked, dreading the answer a second later, "Well then, where is it?"

The girl giggled infuriatingly. "Him!" she pointed to the cow, waving around the hand holding its…leash…?

Tetra was not amused. "Oh, no flippin' way…"

"Oh yes way!" the girl had trilled, then tacking on, "Aren't you excited?"

"Terrified," Tetra had muttered before grabbing the cow's leash-thing and leading it away, happy to get away from the annoying villager, at least.

She then, once out of sight, ripped open her letter and read the aggravating greeting. In a letter dated the previous Winter Solstice, Link basically told her that he thought he owed a big 'thank you' to all the pirates, so he'd given them Fred the Cow, in hopes that they would all get big and strong with healthy bones…

Tetra had angrily crumpled up the note and thrown it into the sea, perturbed to have to take on another passenger. And it had been the first word from him in, what, two years?

Then Tetra's scowl had softened, as she realized, slowly, that Link had been sincere, and really had sent the cow as a thank you. He hadn't meant it as a joke at all. Tetra was suddenly sorry she'd tossed the letter.

Later that night, Tetra had seen the girl again. Realizing that Link's 'pet' had been entrusted to the town girl's care for over a year, Tetra felt compelled to ask her, "Why would you wait so long…just to give me..." she almost choked out, "...Fred?"

The girl had just shrugged, seeming to lose her mindless, girly attitude for a moment. "Because the hero asked me to."

It was that night that Tetra had realized that Link was out of her reach. The legend was so widespread across the Great Sea that even a ditsy girl living where most were considered the 'elite' respected the Hero of Winds. Link was far above her, and she knew she could never be on the same level as him.

Sure, she was a secret princess, ruling over a load of rubble at the bottom of the sea, but Link…

Why would he trifle with pirates? He was a hero. He could have any friends he wanted. Why choose her, out of them all?

She hadn't exactly been the nicest person to him, after all. He'd thanked them…maybe it was his way of tying off the whole affair. Maybe he was saying "goodbye, it was great, but not really great."

That particularly disturbing thought, coming back to Tetra after all those years, snapped her out of her daydreaming and back to the present day where she and her men hadn't even set foot on Windfall yet. She stayed out of her nostalgia-induced haze long enough to climb off the boat and onto shore, where she dispatched her men for the evening.

Tetra ambled up to where the weirdo dancing man always was. She stood a little ways behind Tott, the freak in the white jumpsuit. She really didn't want him to try to talk to her…again. Tetra faced the Great Sea, putting disco dude out of her head, and reflected bitterly on her decision, on a night much like this one, to cut ties with Link.

She had resigned herself to no communication, thinking it would be better to just let go than to try and somehow get him back. He had turned down her offer to come with them after his quest was over…she should have realized then.

Now she thought maybe her choice had been the wrong one. If she'd kept contact with Link, she might know where he was now.

Tetra knew the only way she could help Link now was to face the one thing she hated above all others…

Townspeople.