What? Its been like almost a whole month since I last updated this story?! No way! Sorry guys! I kinda got distracted by Blood and Spirit, as well as life in general and writer's block... Hahaha...
Anyway, Thanks to everyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed so far and please feel free to keep them coming! Before we begin, I'd also like to say that I finally put the cover for this story that I drew up on deviantART! You may find it by going to art/Twisted-Fates-410127639
Comment on it if you'd like XD Now onto the story!
Chapter 2: A Fated Reunion
"You don't forget the face of the person who was your last hope."
-Katniss, The Hunger Games
Tetra frowned as she watched Outset Island come into full view. To say that she had not been near the place in years was an understatement; to say that no one had been to the small isle in years was much more appropriate. About four years ago, a fierce storm, unlike any ever seen upon the Great Sea before, struck Outset, ravaging the island and completely obliterating the few small homes that dotted it. Luckily, none of its former residents had been caught up in the raging hurricane winds and destructive torrents of rain; all of them had been warned about the storm several days before it came and they all had the good sense to flee to safer parts of the sea. Once the storm had passed, the people found that there was little left of their island to come back to and so they simply decided to make their homes in other places across the Great Sea instead of trying to rebuild. Since then, the place had been completely abandoned and largely untouched, something that Tetra was glad for. It meant that no one would be around to see the final tears that she was going to shed over the hero.
When the pirate ship had closed in on the island, yet still quite a ways from its shore, Tetra quietly slipped onto one of the lifeboats and lowered it down into the dark waters. She let her thoughts wander as she rowed towards the shore at a steady pace. When her mother had died when she was a little girl, she didn't really remember much of what had happened, but she remembered the pain well. The grief of loosing someone important to her and the burden of having to take on the responsibility of leading the crew had crafted her into the brutal, firm, unyielding girl she used to be up until five years ago. And back then, she thought that the relatively short span it had taken her to recover from her mother's death had been too long, But the much longer span of five years that it had taken her to finally come to terms with the fact that Link was gone had been by far too long in her opinion. Had it really damaged her to much that she had been trapped in a state of constant depression for half a decade, while the rest of the world steadily went on without her? She knew that clearly, this had to end and it was going to that very night. She was determined to finally move on, to let her regret and sorrow go and find herself once more, even if she no longer had the hero who helped her find herself in the first place.
A wave of memories washed over the pirate captain as she stepped foot on the sandy beach of Outset. Though the entire island was overgrown with plant life and the scattered debris of destroyed dwellings, her mind still flashed back to that bright and sunny morning years ago, when her and Link first met and first started traveling together. It had been under less than desirable circumstances, as the only reason Tetra had found herself on Outset in the first place was because a giant bird had kidnapped her and accidentally dropped her there. The monstrous creature had then proceeded to capture Link's little sister, Aryll, and take her off to the Forsaken Fortress, prompting the boy to seek passage on the pirate ship so he could rescue her. The young captain had initially been vehemently opposed to the idea, but after some persuasion, she reluctantly agreed and a deal was struck between the two of them.
From that point, everything had seemed to unfurl at once in a rush of events that both children had found themselves caught up in. Link had failed in his initial attempt to rescue his sister and got abruptly tossed out of the Forsaken Fortress, though it hadn't really been of much concern to Tetra at the time, who had thought that the boy had been too brazen and foolish to charge into the dangerous place so unprepared. For a period of several weeks afterword, life on the pirate ship had returned to normal, that is until word of a tempting treasure known as the Nayru's Pearl hit Tetra's ears and she immediately set out to claim it as her own. However, she quickly found out she was not alone in her search, for Link was looking for it as well to help him save Aryll. When the pirate girl discovered this, she had felt a rare twinge of pity and decided to let this prize slip through her fingers for once. And even more than that, in a strange, noble moment, she even helped the boy actually save his sister first hand, and even leaped in heroically as they both came face-to-face with the evil Ganondorf for the first time. Though they managed to escape the dangerous encounter with their lives, their journey was not over. What happened after occurred such a quick succession that thinking about it still made the pirate captain's head spin. The two children went down to the underwater kingdom of Hyrule, where Tetra discovered that she was actually Princess Zelda, and from there King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule had made Link's next task clear: to restore the blade of evil's bane, the Master Sword and find the Triforce of Courage. And after all of this, Link and Zelda had faced Ganondorf once more, this time on the fateful field of battle, where they barely emerged victorious. In the wake of Hyrule's permanent flooding, the hero and the pirate girl had made the decision to set sail together and find a place to build a new land, a place that would become the new Hyrule, a task that even after five years, Tetra had been unable to accomplish on her own.
The fact that she had failed to rebuild the kingdom that was rightfully hers was just another thing that brought shame to Tetra. And she knew exactly why she had failed too; because she had spent the last five years doing nothing but miserably moping over Link. But she knew that was all about to be over. Once she finally let go of the pain, she'd be able to fully devote herself to their initial task of discovering a new land. And perhaps if she did, then maybe she'd finally feel at least halfway fulfilled again.
Tetra let these thoughts and regrets swim around in her mind as she made her way up the barely recognizable path that led to the run-down, long-abandoned hut that stood on the westernmost side of the island. The last time she had seen this house was when her and the pirates came to Outset five years ago to tell the hero's grandmother and sister of his terrible fate. Back then, the small house, and the entire island had carried an air of comfort and serenity. Now that it had been battered by winds and waves and been untouched for several years, it had a feeling of solemn, ominous loneliness. And even more than that for Tetra, it stood out as a symbol of what she had lost. Though it had never been her home, she knew that Link had lived there once; in fact, it was where he had been born, and where he had spent his childhood at and the fact that Tetra had basically been the one to take him away from this once-peaceful haven just so he could meet his end on the high seas, made her feel even more guilty.
Though it hadn't been washed out to sea or it hadn't collapsed completely like some of the other houses on the island had, the home's wooden exterior was still worn and storm-beaten. Its roof had caved in at several places and it no longer had a door at all. And so, Tetra stepped through the empty doorway tentatively, glancing around the similarly decrepit interior. The floor was strewn with plant remains that had been blown into the house, plus a few items that its former inhabitants had left behind. The entire right wall of the house had been blown down, opening the way to the porch that surrounded the house and looked out onto the open seas. The light of the large full moon flooded into the house from this wide opening, washing over Tetra along with another wave of sadness. She knew what she was about to do would be hard, but she had to do it anyway. Even if it was for no one else then herself.
As the pirate captain crossed the single room house on her way to the balcony, she heard the sudden crunch of glass underneath her foot. She stopped to glance down at the floor, where she found something that she quickly wished she hadn't. The shattered glass came from a framed picture that had apparently been left behind by Aryll and Grandma when they fled the island. Though Tetra didn't really want to, she picked the pictograph up and examined it with growing grief. It was a picture that she recognized, for she knew that Link had sent a copy of it back home not too long before the Ghost Ship incident. The pictograph was of the pirate girl and the hero, standing back to back near the railing of the pirate ship, both of them grinning at the other with both slyness and friendliness. Simply looking at the image brought back memories of fonder, simpler times. Trying to hold back her tears, Tetra shook her head and let the faded picture fall to the ground, just as she wanted the rest of her memories of him fall away into the past where they belonged, once and for all.
The first thing Link felt after making his wish upon the Force Gem was a slight rocking sensation underneath him, followed by the chill of the blowing sea breeze. He opened his eyes to the sound of the water gently splashing against whatever he was lying on to look up into the starry night skies above. But before he could really gather his bearings, he heard the sound of Ciela's muffled voice coming from underneath his cap. He slipped it off for a moment, allowing the fairy to fly out into the open as he sat up.
"So..." Ciela asked, glancing around at the vast expanse of ocean that surrounded them and noting that both Linebeck and his ship were nowhere to be found, as well as any of the Force Gems that they had previously been surrounded by. "Did it work?"
"I think so..." the hero mused as he turned to get a better view of their surroundings. And as he did so, he realized that not only was he sitting within a small boat adrift in the middle of the sea, but it was an unmistakably familiar one at that. Ciela noticed it too and circled around it to examine it with curiosity.
"Oh hey..." she said in slight confusion. "What's this boat? Where'd it come from?"
"Its the King of Red Lions!" Link exclaimed with a smile, fondly remembering the many days he had spent traveling across the Great Sea with this now-unliving boat companion. "That means we must be in the Great Sea!"
"Well you were right..." Ciela said as she came to float in front of him once more. "Your sea doesn't really look that different from the World of the Ocean King..."
The hero nodded and took another glance around the dark waters around them, trying to spot any signs of an island, or even a boat nearby. "Ciela, can you go high and see if there's anything close to us that we could sail to?" he asked the fairy, who was quick to comply but flying up several feet above him into the air.
"Um... I see an island a little ways up to the north from us!" she called down to him. "I can't out too much about it though..." she said as she returned to his level.
"That's OK," Link said as he turned to the small storage compartment that he remembered being near the back end of the boat. "I just need to figure out where we are before we go looking for Tetra."
"Somehow I knew that find her would be your first priority," Ciela said with a slight giggle as the hero shuffled through the contents of the compartment. To his surprise, there was a number of useful items inside of it: the sail that he had used five years ago to navigate across the vast seas, the pirate's charm, which Tetra had lent to him when they first met and had never bothered to get back from him, along with his boomerang, grappling hook, and bow, plus a sizable stash of bombs for the boat's cannon. Fortunately enough, Link had also been able to bring the sword and shield that he had gotten in the World of the Ocean King along with him, which meant that in the unlikely event that he encountered any danger, he'd be readily prepared to handle it. But all the same, the hero was still puzzled as to how the King of Red Lions had ended up in the middle of the ocean in the first place, considering the last place he remembered it being before he was taken away from the Great Sea five years ago was on board Tetra's pirate ship, where it had been stored in the cargo hold along with the vast majority of his gear, save for the Wind Waker, which he had left in the care of the pirate captain.
"How did all of this stuff get here?" he asked aloud wonderingly, knowing that this couldn't be a mere coincidence.
"Maybe the Force Gem did it," the fairy suggested as Link started to set the sail up so they could go to the nearby island. "Maybe it somehow knew that you might need these things here. Its not impossible... After all, they say that sometimes, when you have a good or noble wish granted, whatever grants your wish will also provide you with whatever you might need to help you once its granted."
The hero wasn't paying a great deal of attention to her as he turned the boat around to face the direction of the island. A northernly wind was already blowing, which was fortunate as he didn't have the Wind Waker in his possession at the moment to help him change the direction of the breeze. And, as Ciela finished talking, he raised the sail and the small boat lurched forward, quickly skipping along the cresting waves as it always used to. However, unlike before, Link was unable to keep a steady balance while standing on the boat as it sailed along since he had naturally grown taller from the boyish height he had been five years ago, and so now he had to sit to allow the ship to maintain its course. Ciela flew alongside him quickly, beating her wings at a feverish pace just to keep up as the pair approached the island, which was only a few miles away.
Despite the fact that the cold autumn sea gales were beating upon him as he traveled, the hero hardly noticed them as he grew more and more excited over the fact that he was about to meet Tetra again after so many years. Until now, this had only been a dream of his, one that he had always wished would come true, but now it was finally within reach. He could hardly wait to see her again after so long and he wondered if she felt the same. But at the same time, he was somewhat nervous about how the pirate captain might react. Knowing Tetra, there was a high chance that she wouldn't believe him when he told her the reason why he had been gone for so long, and she would only push him away in anger, despite the fact that she had been the only thing on his mind for five years. He had no idea how she would respond for sure, but one thing was certain: he wanted nothing more than to bridge the long gap between them and resume the close bond that they had once shared.
As the small boat drew closer to the island, its shape grew clearer and clearer on the horizon. And as the light of the full moon shined down upon it, Link was finally able to tell what island it was, for it was a place that he knew quite well. "That's Outset!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Its where I grew up!"
"It looks like there's a ship floating in the waters close to it..." Ciela mused somewhat uneasily as she flew a little ways ahead to get a better look. "It kinda looks like a pirate ship!"
"A pirate ship?" the hero's eyes grew wide upon hearing this. "It must be Tetra and her crew! They're the only pirates who sail the Great Sea!"
"You think so?" the fairy asked and Link didn't hesitate to nod his confirmation. "Well, what do you think they could be doing at your old home so late at night?"
"I don't know," he said, too delighted to even care what Tetra's purpose in coming to Outset might be. "But we're going to find out."
The pair was silent for the remainder of the trip as they finally passed the ship lurking in the nearby waters, confirming that it was indeed Tetra's ship. However, immediately after speeding by it, the hero got a better look at his former home, which he was now only a few feet out from, and his excitement about seeing Tetra again was quickly replaced with shock at what he saw. Outset Island lay in shambles, completely devastated by some unknown force. As the King of Red Lions finally met the sandy shore of the island, Link hopped out and was stunned speechless as he took in the sight of the deserted, destroyed place that had been a peaceful, pristine paradise the last time he saw it five years ago.
"What... what happened here?" he managed to stammer out after several minutes of silence.
"Oh, Link..." Ciela said gently, in equal awe at the island's rundown state. "I have no idea... Maybe a storm or something came and-"
"I don't get it..." the hero interrupted her in a quiet, morose voice. He wasn't one to get upset easily, but upon returning home after five long years only to find it standing as a haunted shadow of what it once had been hit him hard on a personal level. "This wasn't how this was supposed to be... Where is everyone? Where's Aryll or Grandma? ...Where's Tetra?"
"They're probably all OK!" the fairy said with bright encouragement, though it did little to raise his spirits. "And maybe Tetra is here! Why don't you check around for her?"
Link ignored her and hung his head in shame, looking at the untouched sand at his feet. "This is my fault..." he said with guilt. "Maybe if I had been here, I could have done something and-"
"Listen to me, Link," Ciela said firmly, making sure that he gave her complete eye contact as she addressed him. "Whatever happened here, clearly nobody could have stopped it, not even you. I know that this isn't what you expected to come back to, but things were bound to change over five years. But all the same, I don't think anyone died in whatever destroyed this place. I don't sense any signs of death in the area... That means that everyone, including your sister and grandma, must have gotten out fine!"
The hero stared at the fairy for a long time, mulling over her words. While it was true that his childhood home laid in nothing more than ruins now, perhaps his family was still out there somewhere, waiting for him to return. And he knew that aside from reuniting with Tetra once more, he was going to find Aryll and Grandma and reunite with them once again too. "You're right, Ciela," Link said with a small smile, letting his frustration and sadness over the demolished island fade away. "I can't live in the past and think about what I could have done. I can only go forward now."
"And I think I know of a way for you to move forward even as we speak..." the fairy said somewhat coyly as she directed his gaze towards his former house, or its remains anyway. Though they were several feet away from it, they were both able to watch as a lone figure, silhouetted by the light of the silver moon, stepped out onto the open back porch of the house and stood there in near perfect stillness. Link's heart started to pound fast with elation and desire when he saw her and he didn't even have to think twice about who she was. Without a word, he started up the rough path towards the house, keeping his gaze locked onto her and trying to find the words that he wanted to say to her to finally bridge the gap of time that had separated them for so long.
Tetra stepped out onto the open porch, letting the full glow of the large and lofty moon bare down on her. She stopped right in front of the worn and somewhat rotted wooden railing of the platform and stared out into the dark blue seas, which reflected the glow of the moon and stars and never seemed to end as it droned on into the distance. The crashing of the waves against the shore and the sound of the softly whistling wind were all she could hear, but even those seemed drowned out compared to the loudness of her thoughts, which were all vying for attention at once.
Still staring at the open waters, the pirate captain took the Wind Waker out of her pocket and held it in her hands for the last time. Its smooth, white metal surface also sparkled in the moonlight as Tetra wondered just how many times Link might have taken the thing out at night to conduct the winds in his favor over the course of his journey to save his sister, and later, the pirate girl, or princess rather, herself. She decided to let her pressing tears finally fall as she pictured him the way he once was: youthful, vibrant, smart, caring and most of all, brave. Perhaps it had been those simple qualities that she had respected most about him. She had been envious though, and she still was, over the fact that she would never be anything like him. She was too selfish, bitter, crue, cowardly, and hopeless to even come close. She had never understood why he had been the way he was, but maybe she wasn't supposed to. Maybe the reason behind why he was able to fight without flinching while at the same time show deep compassion and understanding was something she would never fully comprehend. Maybe it was inherent or something else, but the Hero of Winds had truly embodied everything that a hero was supposed to be. And it was for that reason that Tetra felt personally responsible for the demise of such a worthy hero.
The pirate captain's tears began to fall harder as she started to break into choked sobs, clutching the Wind Waker closer to her chest. Not only had the world lost such a great hero, but she had lost such a great friend. She knew that she would probably never be as close to anyone as she had been to Link. Despite the fact that she had, on several occasions, refuted his kindness and friendship, he had willingly given them to her anyway, but why? Why had he cared so much about her to journey across dangerous waters and fight masses of vile monsters for her sake? Why had he been willing to jump onto that death trap of a Ghost Ship in her place?
The girl shook her head as she cried her heart out, pain and sorrow eating away at every part of her, threatening to cave her in completely. All of the hurt of the past five years came crashing down upon her at once and it was too much. She almost collapsed to her knees from heartache before grasping onto the railing firmly. After a few deep, heavy breaths of pent up grief and rage, Tetra stood up straight once more and forced her tears to stop. Her heart still racing feverishly, she held onto the Wind Waker with both hands and glared down at it, remembering with resolve what she came her to do and what she was not going to leave without doing.
Link slowed his pace down as he came to the open doorway of his former home, hearing clear sobs coming from the inside, or rather the back porch of the house. He stopped within the doorframe and didn't even glance over towards the open back end of the house out of sudden nervousness and worry. He had no idea what she could be crying about; in fact, he had never once seen her shed so much as a single tear before, but there was no mistaking it now. The very thought of seeing her in tears almost frightened him, since he had always known her to be so strong and resilant. He stood perfectly silent and still as he listened to the sound of her weeping as it intensified into ragged sounds of agony before flattening out into a spell of sharp, deep breathing. And then, as suddenly as it had started, it faded off into silence, with only the sounds of the sea and the wind remaining. And the hero knew, that now, it was finally time.
He gave an anxious glance to Ciela, who understood his intent without him having to say a word. The fairy nodded and perched herself on the outside of the doorframe so the two of them could be alone upon meeting once more. Link took in a quiet deep breath and briefly touched the red cloth still secured to his belt as he took a near-silent step forward into the house, still not sure about how he was even going to go about doing this.
Tetra cleared her mind of every thought so she wouldn't be able to stop herself. With slow movements, she grasped the Wind Waker with one hand and raised it up into the air, staring at the deep sea before her all the while. It took all of her power to hold her tears back, but she somehow managed to, despite the fact that it felt as though her heart was literally breaking.
As the pirate girl started to draw her arm back, the hero stopped several feet behind her, still completely unnoticed. Link wasn't entirely sure of what she was doing, but he was able to make out the sight of the Wind Waker that he had left with her all those years ago, grasped into her hand and pulled back, almost as if she planned on throwing it into the ocean. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out as his eyes grew wide in amazement and sudden, unplaceable fear. It shouldn't be this hard, and yet, for some reason it was almost impossible.
Tetra closed her eyes as she counted down in her head. 3. This was it. She was finally going to be free again. Free to open up and be her old self again. 2. But what had really stopped her from being free in the first place? Her memories of better times long gone by? Or something else entirely? 1. Did she really want to let those memories go after all? Now! Before her thoughts could linger too long on that final question, the pirate girl thrust her arm forward but she did not relinquish her steady grip on the white baton as she had intended to. Another sob was burning in the back of her throat, and she was about to let it out when a sudden voice from behind her nearly caused her to jump out of her skin. "Tetra?"
Link took a quick defensive step back as Tetra whirled around in a movement so quick he barely saw it, grasping onto her trusty dagger firmly with one hand, and still holding onto the Wind Waker tightly with the other. But no more than a second after she did, she dropped the baton and let it fall to the ground in an almost inaudible clatter as she let out a sharp gasp of shock and sudden fear. Her chest tightened and her eyes grew wide as she stared at the hero, her eyes not leaving him for a second. A shiver of terror swept through her body as she closed her eyes tightly, trying to get rid of the sight of him if he was an illusion, but sure enough when she opened them, he was still there, still staring at her with the same level of surprise and awe.
"Link..?" she barely whispered audibly as she looked over the hero with her mouth agape. Over the past five years, she had often seen him within her dreams or nightmares, but never like this. In all of those occasions, he had been as she had remembered him: a bright-eyed, somewhat short and stocky twelve year old boy with mostly childish features. But now he stood before as a seventeen year old young man, tall and lean and quite handsome. In many ways, he did look quite the same; he was still garbed in the same manner of green attire that he used to wear and his blonde hair still stuck out from underneath his cap to partially sweep across his forehead, giving it a natural wind-blown look. His eyes were still the same shade of dark green that she had remembered them being, only instead of having a manner of boyish innocence to them, it was replaced with a respectable level of maturity and hardness, but at the same time understanding and even the slightest hint of pain. Tetra didn't know how to react as a million emotions came over her at once and so she simply stood still and kept examining him, hoping that if she did so enough times, he would eventually disappear like the rest of her illusions and dreams.
At the same time, Link stood taking in how much Tetra had changed over the years with amazement and also slight admiration. He had always known her to be pretty when she was younger, but now, she could only be described as beautiful, though not in a ladylike way, but rather a fierce, bold one. Her skin was even darker than he had remembered it being, from spending an entire life sailing within the golden sunshine that painted her smooth skin such a warm color. Her golden blonde hair stood out against it, still piled atop her head in its trademark bun as two curled locks came framed both sides of her face and some of her bangs spilled in front of her dark, alluring, blue eyes, which were currently red-rimmed from crying. She had a thin, curvaceous, feminine shape about her, as was natural for a seventeen year old young woman, though at the same time, she was also firm and strong. A small golden image of the Triforce was tattooed on her upper left arm, to match her earrings and the banner that hung from her cloth belt that bared the shame crest as an homage to the kingdom that was supposed to be her charge. The hero also noticed in surprise and curiosity that the pirate captain's left leg had been replaced with a wooden peg, though she seemed to have no trouble standing or walking on it. But all the same, all Link could really think about as he took in the sight of her was that she had remained the same, while still changing so much.
For what seemed like an eternity, the two of them stood completely still, holding their breaths in anticipation, neither of them sure of what they could possibly say at a moment like this. Both of their minds were rushing with a million thoughts and emotions at once, but there was no way they could voice them at a moment like this. And then, after several minutes of this prolonged tension-filled silence, Tetra was the first to move by slowly shaking her head in disbelief. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be. It was beyond everything that she knew to be true. There was no possible way that this was the real Link; this had to be some kind of illusion or nightmare. That was the only logical explanation, but it still brought fear to the pirate captain nonetheless. Had the pain and solitude of the past five years really driven her to the brink of insanity, causing her to see things in the depths of her sorrow? Taking in a sharp breath, Tetra gripped her dagger tighter and backed up slowly until her back was against the porch's railing.
A sudden panic came over Link as he watched Tetra shuffle back, her expression looking frightened and not in the least happy to see him. But all the same, he had been apart from her for five years; he had no intentions of being apart from her now. "Tetra, wait!" he called out, starting to take a step towards her. The pirate girl jumped in fear and surprise at the sound of his voice, as she was still trying to place where this vision of the grown-up hero had come from.
"Don't come any closer!" Tetra shouted with a harsh glare, trying to feign anger in her voice but mostly amplifying hurt.
The hero stopped in his tracks and gave her a look of utter confusion. "Tetra, its me," he said with slight pleading in his tone, trying to get her to calm down and listen, despite the fact that he had clearly shocked her. "Its Link."
"No!" Tetra hissed bitterly. "The real Link has been dead for five years! I watched him go down with the Ghost Ship myself..." The pirate girl trailed off as tears started to roll down her cheeks once more. She had not spoken this aloud to anyone, even herself, since it had happened. All these years, she had been too afraid and too hurt to. But now, as the words came tumbling out of her own mouth, she was reminded of how final it had seemed. Now, however, it was as though her mind was trying to change what fate had ultimately laid out five years prior.
"Dead?" Link was taken aback by his claim. If Tetra thought he had been dead for all of these years, then who else upon the Great Sea did? "But I'm not dead!"
"Yes, you are!" Tetra groaned in aggravation as she suppressed another sob. "I don't even know why I'm arguing with you! You're nothing more than a figment of my imagination!"
"But Tetra-" Link started, but he was quickly cut off by the frustrated, grieving pirate captain.
"Stop it!" she cried out in both fury and sadness as she looked away from him. "Just... just leave me alone... Forever!" Before the hero could even move to stop her, she leapt over the railing of the porch, landing skillfully on the beach and not even looking back as she ran towards the lifeboat she had came here on. Link rushed forward to the edge of the porch and called out to her in a desperate attempt to get her to stop.
"Tetra, wait!" he shouted, leaping off the porch himself as the pirate captain got her boat back into the water. "Come back!" Despite his pleadings, she refused to stop even for a second, just as much as she refused to believe that she had actually reunited with the hero himself. The moment she got the lifeboat shoved off of the shore, she hopped in and started paddling towards the ship at a hurried pace, hot tears still streaming down her face.
By the time Link made it down to the edge of the shore, Tetra had almost already made it back to her ship. Though he wanted to chase after her and get her to see reason, he had a feeling that she wouldn't listen to a word he said, no matter what. For some reason, she just wasn't willing to accept the fact that he had returned. The hero's heart sank as he watched the pirate girl slip away. After years of waiting and wishing to see her again, it had all been for nothing.
A soft, chilling autumn wind blew over the abandoned island as the Hero of Winds stood alone, watching as the very reason why he had been pining to return home disappeared out of sight. He didn't say a single word as Ciela rejoined him, having heard everything that had happened back at the house. "Link..." she said consolingly as the wind started to propel the pirate ship across the vast seas. "I'm so sorry..."
The hero remained silent as he simply shook his head, while at the same time hardening his resolve. Though Tetra didn't want to believe that he was back now, Link was certain that she would accept it eventually. And when she did, he wanted to be there, so they could have the proper, happy reunion that he had been dreaming of for the past five years. And though he didn't know how, he was going to make her believe somehow. Maybe then, things could finally go back to the way they used to be.
What neither the pirate captain or the hero could have known was that, as their ill-fated reunion had taken place, something had been watching them and plotting from the shadows. Something that couldn't wait to destroy them both.
So, chapter 2 is finally over! Yay! This was kinda heavy, don't ya think? Well I can only tell you that I plan on making things even heavier as we go along so stick around! I'm thinking that the next chapter might be mostly focused on Link, as he discovers just how much has changed upon the Great Sea during his absence. Then, we'll go back to Tetra for some foreshadowing angst (you guys don't think I'm making her too angsty, do you?) So as always, don't forget to REVIEW because I LOVE them! Until next time!