Following Blondie

Chapter Six: Fighting the Fog

He was laughing.

Laughing at her.

Aryll stamped her foot on, well, mostly air. "Stop that!" she cried. Cyclos' laugh died down quickly and he turned to her. His laughter hadn't been the result of genuine amusement, it was more of a way for him to let the pouty little girl standing beside him know how ridiculous her request had been.

"The answer to your question is no," he replied. "I can't take you to a person, I can only—"

Aryll cut him off, "But you said, no limits!"

"I did say no limits. I said I would take you any place you wanted to go. However, I can only take you to a place, not a person. It wouldn't help you to be taken to your brother anyways. But, I appreciate your spunk. You're a clever little girl, but there aren't any loopholes in my offer."

He smiled at Aryll, and she scowled.

"What do you mean, 'it wouldn't help'?"

The wind deity blinked. He was silent for a moment, then, "Blondie, I meant what I said. You're sharp. I hope it helps you out. Right now, though, I have a lot to do. Places to go, people to terrorize. You know how it is. May I just remind you that this is a one-time only offer?"

Aryll stared intently at the froglike creature before acquiescing. "Fine, I'd like to go to Gale Isle, please." She emphasized the please with a sarcastic little curtsy. Aryll was a child, but she wasn't stupid. This wind god was hiding something from her, and she wasn't going to be able to get it out of him. And that made her angry. She was sorely tempted to start poking Cyclos in the eyes again, but thought better of it. If nothing else, she need him to get to Gale Isle. At this point, with their leaf-boat in tatters, if Cyclos up and left Makar would be stranded and Aryll would be drowning.

"Don't give me that," Cyclos smirked, as he began to spin faster and faster. Aryll had no chance to speak, any words on her tongue were swallowed up into the tornado she felt lifting her up, up, towards Fado…

"All right boys, start unloading."

Tetra's ears were met with confused variations on 'What?' 'Why?' 'Are you sure?' and 'Do you need to lie down?'

"Yes. Start unloading, you're docking here indefinitely. Until further notice."

Gonzo started forward, "But, but, Miss Tetra…we haven't docked permanently in…well…I can't remember!"

Niko stepped forward and nudged Gonzo in the side. "That's because we never have docked permanently!"

"Oh," Gonzo mumbled, then, turning to his captain, "Why then, Miss Tetra?" and, realizing something, he added, "And why did you say we were docking, and not you? Where are you going?"

"There's something I have to do, Gonzo, and I can't take you all with me." She started to turn away, towards Medli, waiting a few paces back.

"Why not, Miss Tetra? We wouldn't get in the way…haven't we been a good crew all these years?"

Tetra's expression softened, and she turned back to the sailor.

"Of course you have. I couldn't ask for better." She sighed, "But this is something I have to do alone. The ship can't come with me, I don't even know if I'll make it myself."

"...I'll take good care of it, Miss."

Tetra smiled. "Thanks, I'll expect it to be fully functional when I return!" Then her face settled into a smirk as she addressed the whole crew, "All right men, I'm off—and if I come back and you're not all ready to set sail, heads will roll." Then she turned to follow Medli back up the mountain.

A dizzy Aryll found herself spinning back into consciousness on an unfamiliar patch of sand, with faintly obnoxious laughter ringing in her ears. She frowned, before remembering.

"Makar! Makar where are you?" worried for the tiny forest sprite, Aryll quickly turned around to search for him, and, in a fit of vertigo, tripped over her own feet.

"Ow…" She moaned from the ground. As she tried to shake off the head rush, she heard a small voice piping, "I'm over here, over here!"

Aryll quickly ran over to the source of the voice, which was very difficult, as the entire island was covered with a dense fog that she hadn't really noticed before. Blindly rushing forward, Aryll was only a little surprised when she tripped over a small, soft lump on the ground.

After letting out a startled "Oomph!" she collected herself, sat up and felt around for the lump. Upon locating it, she scooped the dazed Makar into her arms.

"Aryll…?" he muttered confusedly. He'd landed on his head and was a little dazed and disoriented. Aryll put him down beside her, right-side up, and he brushed himself off.

Why, she wondered, had Outset had perfect weather for so long? Aryll could not actually remember a single rainy, foggy, muggy, or otherwise unpleasant day in the entire time Link had been gone. It was so, so strange. And then, the moment she stepped onto another island, suddenly there was wind and fog and…

"AHHHHHH!!! Makar, run for cover!"

Hail.

Medli had led Tetra back into the room with all the spears. They were finalizing their plans. There wasn't much to plan. They had to get to Laruto, perform some sort of exchange, as Terta understood it, and take it from there. Tetra wasn't even sure exactly how Laruto was supposed to help her find Link yet.

Zephos, the wind deity, hadn't disclosed much more to Medli than the Rito girl had already explained. Tetra hated to have to act upon such hazy instructions and with only the vaguest of destinations, but she figured there was just no other way. This was one voyage she couldn't be difficult about.

Hopefully Zephos would pop up, or Laruto would prove to be of a slightly more distinctive value.

Medli led Tetra up to the top mountain.

"Link once walked this same path, you know," Medli remarked, as they passed into over a bridge within one of Dragon Roost's caverns.

"Oh?"

"He was coming to rescue me from Valoo, who we all thought had gone mad." Tetra snorted. She wasn't in the mood for Medli's girlish fantasies of Link being her hero and One True Love…

"He was really doing it for Prince Komali's pearl, probably, but you know…"

Here it comes, thought Tetra.

"I've always felt really grateful to him. It's easy to think you can imagine the gratitude someone like me feels in a village where everything had gone so wrong, and nothing helps. And even when I tried to make things better, when I saw how desperate the situation was and needed to do something to help, I couldn't. It seemed impossible. It's really only hopeless once you've tried to do something and failed."

Tetra stared silently at the ground, Medli was just close enough to her so that she wasn't lost in the fog. Tetra was relying on her to get them both to the top of the mountain safely.

"And you know, it's easy to watch heroes fail, and still hold out hope. All the best fighters can fail, but there can always be one more. But when you're the last one, and you attempt, and fail, that's when it's really hopeless."

Medli paused, and turned to Tetra. Taking both Tetra's hands, she drew them around her neck and flew a short distance over a crevasse it would have been too far to jump.

"And when you've known what it's like to not care about other people—I do, Ritos are mail-carriers, we see everything but can't get tangled into anything, or else we'd have to care about everything—you know other people don't care about you."

They had had reached the top of the mountain.

"But Link cared even though he came from a tiny island where there were never any problems. The only problem he ever had came from the outside. And he went outside to fight it, and he helped us all along the way."

Terta finally spoke. "I know what it's like to not care. I'm a pirate. I make a living out of not caring how others feel when I take things from them." She paused, realizing it didn't really matter that she couldn't really see anything beyond the mountain top, out at sea. She could see Medli's glowing eyes listening to her, and it was enough.

"He cared, and it was different, and we all needed it."

Medli smiled.

"Laruto lives in the far South, but I can carry you there. It won't be easy, not in this fog. And it's quite a distance. But I…well, we can do it."

"If you drop me, I can swim the rest of the way. Let's go."

It's been almost two years since I updated. I'm really hoping for feedback to jog my memory of even the major plot points...I haven't even played the game since I beat it about a year and a half ago.