Chapter Eighteen
Link struggled to gasp for breath. The water had changed somehow, but the pressure was still pushing down on his chest. He struggled against it, but it was no use.
Link spun around, narrowly avoiding some sort of spiked ball in the water. He didn't know what it was, but experience told him that touching it wouldn't lead to anything good.
Link dug around in his bag, lungs burning.
He finally found the item he was looking for, yanking it out and slamming it onto his face as quickly as he could.
The mask fused to his face, a painful coldness spreading across his body. Scales grew painfully out of his skin, fins jutting out from his arms, and his neck split apart into gills.
Link took in a deep breath, the water flooding into him like air, and his lungs eased.
Good, at least he couldn't drown now.
Link, now a Zora, looked around in confusion. He seemed to be in the ocean, which didn't make sense to him. He'd been fighting Majora not 10 minutes ago. How had he ended up all the way in the Great Bay?
He swam up as quickly as he could, thankful for the speed Zora's had in the water. In minutes he reached the top, treading water while he looked for a landmark.
Near him seemed to be some sort of desert, a pyramid standing proudly in the center of it. Beyond that was a tower, various designs covering the stonework. To his left were multiple islands, but most didn't look populated.
Link frowned. None of this was in Termina. He'd been all over Termina in his effort to stop Majora and he didn't recognize any of this.
Could killing Majora have sent him into another world? If that was the case he was going to be angry. He could not deal with a third world, not until he knew that he'd finished saving the second world at least.
Link huffed and started swimming towards the desert. It was the closest land he could see and hopefully he could find someone to tell him where he was.
One of these days he needed to find out how to have a serious conversation with the goddesses regarding this Hero thing. After everything he'd been through, he seriously wanted a vacation.
Zelda pursed her lips as she looked around the empty house she'd been teleported to. All the furniture had been pushed to the walls, stacked precariously behind three long, empty counters.
She couldn't imagine why Midna had chosen this place to send her to or what had happened to Link in the process. She did know that she had to get back though. Midna could not face Ganondorf on her own. She'd be slaughtered.
Zelda spun around, ignoring the empty room, and tried the door. It was locked, but a simple spell took care of that. Rushing outside, Zelda looked around desperately for anything that could tell her where she was.
The house was small, quaint even, perched on a tiny hill and surrounded by trees. Zelda thought she could see the castle over the top of the trees, but couldn't be sure. However, it was the best guess she had.
She raced down the hill, desperate to get there as quickly as she could.
"Halt!" a voice cried out behind her. Zelda turned, eyes widening when a knight in green armor lowered his spear and charged her.
Zelda dove to the left, narrowly avoiding the attack. "What are you doing?!"
The knight ignored her question, raising his spear to stab at her. Zelda jumped up, dodging the attack again. "I am Princess Zelda, why are you attacking me?!"
"Princess Zelda is in custody! You are an imposter! Death to all imposters!" the knight cried, lunging forward again.
Zelda stepped to the side nimbly, trying to remember all of her combat lessons. Stay light on your feet, be quick, get inside their defenses.
Holding her hand out to her side, Zelda summoned her sword. It appeared in a flash of light just in time. She avoided another lunge of the knight's spear, darting forward to sink her blade into the gap of the knight's armor at his neck. The thin steel sank in as if there was no resistance.
The knight froze for a moment, then exploded before her.
Zelda coughed, waving the smoke away. She took another look around, making sure there wasn't anything else that was going to try to kill her, before dismissing her blade.
This must've been one of Ganondorf's monsters. All of her knights knew her and up until a few minutes ago, she had been in his custody. She couldn't waste anymore time.
Zelda stared resolutely in the direction of the castle, taking off running towards it. She was still weak from Ganondorf's possession, but she wasn't going to give up.
The ship was even larger up close, knocking into the dock gently as it reached the island. The tiny blonde girl at the prow waved at them before jumping off into the waves below.
"Aryll!" someone cried, reaching out after her.
The girl giggled when she surfaced, swimming to the shore.
"We told you to stop doing that!"
"I'm fine! Big Brother taught me to swim!" she called out to them.
Link smirked as he watched her reach the shore, reminded of the children back home.
They made their way down to the shore, arriving just as the girl did. A couple men were disembarking from the ship as well.
The girl smiled widely at them, "Hi!"
"Hi there." Link couldn't help but grin back at her.
"You kinda look like my big brother." she said, squinting up at him a little.
The pieces connected in his mind, "Are you Aryll?"
She nodded as the men reached them. They were both tall and broad shoulders. One wore a bandanna and his shirt opened enough to show a swirling tattoo on his chest. The other made Link more wary. His black hair was pulled back into a tight pony tail and a scarf covered the lower half of his face, but what drew Link and his friends' attention was the man's large metal arm. It came close to touching the ground despite his height, the fingers looking sharp and deadly.
Link turned his attention from the arm and up to the man's face. As much as Link had been studying him, the man had been doing the same. His red-lined eyes glared at him now, but he stood there silently.
"I'm Gonzo, first mate of Tetra's crew. Are you the ones who sent the letter?" The first man said, looking between Link, Fi, and Ezlo.
"Affirmative." Fi answered, "We were hoping to book passage aboard Tetra's ship. Is she around to negotiate with?"
"No one talks to the captain without going through me first." he huffed, crossing his arms, "Especially not some strangers claiming to be Link and Aryll's cousin."
"I don't have any cousins." Aryll chimed in helpfully, smiling innocently at them.
"And you should be getting back on the boat." Gonzo huffed at her.
Aryll ignored him, her attention now focused on Ezlo. The hat squirmed uncomfortably at the young girl's curious gaze.
"I think I can help clear things up." Link said, "It's complicated, but-"
"You fell through time." the other man interrupted, still glaring although now it seemed to be in general as opposed to just glaring at Link.
Link's eyes widened and Ezlo began sputtering, "H-H-How could you possibly know that?!"
"Initial scans indicate technology that is not native to this time period." Fi said, "Specifically in the use of the tool currently located on his left arm. Factoring the circumstances and the current working theory, there is a 87% chance that this man has also fallen victim to the time travel phenomenon. Please confirm this."
The man raised an eyebrow at her and Aryll giggled. Ezlo let out a resigned breath, "Fi, you've really got to learn to let someone else handle these conversations."
Fi glanced up at the hat she wore, "I attempted to explain it much more efficiently this time. In what ways did I not meet the expectations?"
"It was still too confusing! This is the second time now that-"
"Would both of you stop?" Link groaned, resisting the urge to rub his forehead. Sometimes they got along just fine, but other times, these two did nothing but argue and it was almost instantly guaranteed to give him a headache when they did.
Turning back to the other three, he said, "Yes, we fell through time. To shorten Fi's question, is that also what happened to you?"
The man nodded after a moment, "Yes, it is. I woke up on this boat almost two weeks ago. After learning where I was, it wasn't hard to figure out what had happened."
"Honestly, we didn't believe him at first." Gonzo said. "But it's not like we could just drop him off on some random island. Besides, if he was telling the truth-"
"He is, I can tell." Aryll interrupted, smiling up at the gruff man.
He rolled his eyes, but didn't glare at her. If it wasn't for the man's scarf, Link would've thought he was smiling at her instead.
"Anyway, we thought Tetra would like to talk to him, so we kept him around." Gonzo finished.
"What did Tetra say after she talked to you?" Ezlo asked him.
"She hasn't. She's not here." he stated simply.
Link raised an eyebrow at Gonzo, "I thought you said she was on the ship."
Gonzo avoided his gaze uncomfortably, "Technically I said you had to talk to me before talking to her. I never said she was on the ship."
"You liar!" Ezlo squawked, "You led us on! You-"
"I'm a pirate." Gonzo snapped, "Deal with it."
"He's really a nice guy, he just doesn't like strangers." Aryll giggled.
Gonzo turned on her, obviously annoyed, "Ok, that is it! Get to your grandmother before I send you to swab the deck with Niko again!"
"No! No, no, no! Please no!" A cry came from the ship. Aryll giggled again before running off in the direction of her grandmother's house.
Gonzo shook his head, exasperated and muttering under her breath.
"I told you not to let her near the mop bucket." the other man said.
"I didn't know she'd make him wear it as a helmet!"
"She's six."
"That doesn't-shut up!" Gonzo yelled at him. The other man seemed unbothered by the reaction.
"As entertaining as this all is." Ezlo said dryly, "Why isn't Tetra here?"
"She hasn't been around in months." Gonzo sighed, "Not since we went to the Forsaken Fortress. After that she went with Link to-"
"To the castle under the ocean." Link sighed, "Grandma told us. I can't believe we forgot."
"To be fair, we've been dealing with a lot these days." Ezlo said.
"What did you want to book passage for anyway?" Gonzo asked.
"To find him." Fi said, gesturing to the other man.
Gonzo looked at them in confusion, "You were looking for Byrne? You didn't even know he was here when you sent the letter though."
"We were attempting to find others who may have fallen through to this time." Fi explained, "Our hope was that by gathering more information then we could formulate a plan to return home."
"I won't be able to help you there," the man, Byrne, muttered, "I've been here two weeks and I don't have any idea how to get home except through waiting."
"Waiting?" Link asked.
He nodded, "My original time is almost 100 years in the future. The Tetra and Link of this time are the ones who found the kingdom of New Hyrule, where I'm from."
"That doesn't help." Ezlo huffed, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but you won't live another 100 years."
"I'm a Lokomo, not a human." Byrne shot the hat a glare, "We age, but at a much slower rate than humans do."
"How old are you precisely?" Fi asked curiously.
It didn't look like he was going to answer for a long moment before finally sighed, "216. Lokomo live to be around 500."
Link's jaw almost dropped open, "You're over 200 years old?"
He nodded.
"A-And your plan was just to wait 100 years until you could go home?"
"If that is my only option, then that is what I will do."
"Sadly, we do not have that option." Fi said, "The three of us come from three different time periods in the past. We have to go back in time, not forward, as well as figure out what happened to make us fall through time in the first place."
"I don't know." Byrne told her, "I was fighting Malladus with the Link and Zelda of my time. He tried to kill me with a spell, but instead I ended up here."
"My Link and I had already defeated Vaati when we were taken." Ezlo said.
"As were my Master and I. Our fight was over. I think it is safe to say that none of our respective enemies were responsible for our fall through time." Fi concluded.
"Mine could be." Link put in, "Midna sent me away before the real fight with him began. He may have done something."
"The chances are low, but not impossible," Fi conceded, "At this point we need more information before we can know for certain."
"Where exactly are you hoping to get more information?" Gonzo asked.
"Is there any way to get below the sea and talk to Tetra or Link?"
He shook his head, "You need some sort of magic to open the portal, at least, that's what Link said."
"I think we can handle that." Ezlo smirked, "Between the three of us, we've got some magic."
"I may be able to help as well." Byrne offered.
Gonzo looked between all of them before sighing, "You know what, I'm not even gonna argue. Let's get going."