Yes good question where are they? Well if I told you that, what would be the point of this, so I'll just let you figure it out on your own, think of its higher edumacation. Yes that's right, extra credit.
(Insert disclaimer of choice here.)
Nagori, Saimon, and Senkyoku
By: Achitka
Chapter 1
Within the Main
"Miss Tetra...wake up, Miss." A shadowy figure stood in the doorway outlined by the lamps that were only at half-light.
"Hmmm?" Tetra sat up and winced when her head protested. "Oh... where?" She scanned the darkness, what just happened. "Link?" The shape in the doorway shifted slightly.
"Are you all right Miss?"
Tetra didn't answer, she tried to shake her head to clear out the sleepiness she still felt and winced again as she thought, 'Was any of that real or just a dream?' As she rose from her bed something clunked onto the floor. Tetra looked down at it briefly but it really was too dark to see clearly and she had no time for it.
The shape in the doorway shifted again.
"Senza, what time is it?"
"Half past four, Miss. You asked me to wake you if we caught up with that sloop."
"Yes I did, didn't I," she replied absently staring out the only window of her cabin. The moon was very full and bright and she hoped that wouldn't end up giving them away later on. Tetra looked over at the door again and said, "Thanks, Senza, I'll be up shortly."
"Yes, Miss," he said as he turned and closed the door to her cabin.
Tetra dressed quickly in the dark and pulled her blonde hair up, tied it back as she headed up onto the main deck. Her orders were for no lamps above decks, so the only light available came from the now setting moon. She looked across the wide bay and spotted the night's quarry. It eluded them for two full days and they were further west of Great Fish Island than she liked to be.
"Something's not right." She said to herself as she looked at the smaller ship again. She watched her crew as they prepared for the final leg of the chase. Everything was just as it should be.
But it wasn't.
She spotted Gonzo's red bandanna among the rest and walked over to where he stood near the mast. He was a good first mate, though he could be a little emotional at times. He was five years older with a broad open face and with the exception of Niko, he was the closest in age. He was taller than her by almost a foot, broad shouldered as most of the crew was, with a strangely ready smile for a pirate. Of course no one smiled on her ship lately. On her way across the deck, she hesitated due in part to confusion she was feeling again. She just could not shake that feeling that something was not right.
The wrongness, reminded her of Ganondorf's assault on her dreams and in the days leading up to the rescue of Link's little sister Aryll and the other girls. Tetra's dreams had been nothing short of horrifying. She shivered. The lingering effects still haunted her, despite the fact that almost seven years had passed since that fight atop the tower. It had taken most of her strength to ward off those ever-tightening probes. Tetra growled, she never should have let fairy boy leave her in the castle no matter what the King said about the danger. She'd been stuck down in that dreary basement way too long. She could not forget and would not forgive for any of it and intended to hunt down and destroy every last one of Ganon's cronies if it took her the rest of her natural life.
She glanced out over the water again catching sight of their prey and thought, This is personal. She looked back out at the way they'd come, nothing but ocean for miles and spotted a lone seagull as it made its way against a fast blowing wind. On the edge of it all, a melody lingered as if to remind her of something forgotten. Well no time for that now, she thought and returned her attention to the crew. "Gonzo?"
A very large young man with a goatee turned away from another sailor he'd been speaking to and answered, "Yes, Miss?"
"Um, any word from Link lately?"
The big sailor hesitated, "No, Miss Tetra."
Tetra tilted her head and thought, You never was very good liar. "Gonzo," she said, as she took a few steps closer. "I know I told you to burn anything Link might happen to send, but I also know you two are good friends." She moved closer still and looked him in the eye. "I also know you didn't exactly follow my orders." More silence. Tetra tugged on her jacket in frustration. "Well?"
"Maybe one or uh, two letters." Her impatience with his answer was clear as he quickly added, "There may have been more..." Gonzo hesitated again.
"More meaning..." she coaxed.
"Seven. Well six really, one was from Aryll."
"I see," Tetra said quietly, "and of these how many were actually destroyed."
He cleared his throat. "One," he said as he looked straight ahead.
"And of course that would be the one I took care of."
His eyes shifted and he swallowed. "Yes, Miss."
She looked at him for a moment as she tried to decide what would be the best punishment for disobeying a direct order and asked, "When was the last one received?"
"Almost a week ago."
"Fine, when we're finished here, bring them to me." He nodded. "Good, now assemble the crew on deck." For the first time she noticed his worried look, she scoffed and added, "No, I will not be having any ritual burnings in my cabin."
"Yes Miss." he said and appeared very relieved.
Tetra returned her attention back to the ocean. The melody she thought she'd heard earlier faded away as if it had never been. She raised her telescope and watched their intended target, just sitting there, not moving at all. The only thing she could see moving were a bunch of gulls circling overhead. Weird, she thought. This morning's mission still gave her a bad feeling, but she allowed her anger to overrule her caution.
"Hoy, men listen up," she said and spoke quickly in a hushed angry tone. "We'll be coming up on the lee so not a sound until we're right on top of her. That crew is slipperier than a barrel of eels. Surprise is what we'll need if we are going to take 'em out. Everyone understands their assignments?" The only replies made were nods. "Good. Let do it."
As they bore down on the smaller ship, Tetra's earlier misgivings suddenly came back to life. She lifted her telescope and upon closer inspection of their quarry, she realized she could almost see right through it. Tetra focused above the smaller ship again and knew why there were so many gulls.
"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath. "SENZA! BREAK THE LINE! IT'S A TRAP!"
When the big man spun the wheel, the larger pirate ship lurched dangerously. The crew caught off guard tumbled about the deck as they struggled to regain their footing and pull the big mast into line with the ship's rudder. By now though, the ship was moving at a good clip when the whirlpool started to form. "Drop that sheet we've got a giant octo to port! GAH! Someone, go get Niko!"
As the wind picked up, someone disappeared below, "Watch those line, Gonzo!" Just below her Niko appeared on deck. "Man that gun! We're low on Ammo so make your shots count!" He nodded a little nervously and she watched him as he ran aft toward the waiting cannon. She turned back to Senza and added, "Keep her as steady as you can."
Tetra dropped down to middeck and headed for the cannon. It was all up to Niko now. How many bombs did they have? Niko may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was the best shot on the ship.
She reached the stern just as the first shot fired.
BOOM!
The Octo, she was relieved to see, was only a six-eye.
BOOM! BOOM!
Three down, three to go. With three more shots, the Octo went down.
"Good job Niko," Tetra said and smiled. "I knew I could count on you."
Niko beamed at the attention and the rest of the crew had some fun tossing him about. She waved to Senza, glad to have his steady hand at the helm.
Tetra lowered her hand when the glint of something shiny caught her eye. She was almost afraid to look, but knew it could only be the Triforce of Wisdom. It lay dormant within her these past years with hardly a glimmer. What set that off? She wondered and without warning, the glow moved forward from her hand, up her arm until she found herself saturated in a bright golden light.
The gleam subsided but the light still danced around her. She looked around and realized she was some place she'd never been before. There were no colors in anything. Everything around her was washed out shades of gray and moving so quickly it was difficult to track anything. Her arrival had gone unnoticed by the monsters that wandered in and out of the rooms, so Tetra carefully made her way down a narrow corridor until she came to what appeared to be a locked room. When she tried to push the heavy looking door, she fell through it, as if it wasn't even there.
The room appeared to be a cell of some kind. It contained a dirty looking bowl of water and a not too clean looking pile of straw. Tetra stifled the impulse to cover her nose, there was no smell, but she could imagine what it must be like. She turned in time to see the door burst open. There were no sound as two moblins dragged a limp form over to the nasty looking pallet. They dropped their unconscious cargo unceremoniously to the floor just short of it. They appeared to laugh harshly then left the room.
Tetra turned to examine the crumpled man on the floor, but something made her pause. She focused the light surrounding her at the man and realized he was out of his time. He didn't belong here and his whole countenance reeked of the shadow. Worse than anyone she'd ever run across next to Ganondorf himself. The man stirred and turned over. His features were gnarled and bruises shown there. Still she backed up and thought, This was bad, very, very bad...
The entire scene started to fade, she felt herself release the breath she had been unconsciously holding. She moved again along that path of light. It became so bright she was forced to close her eyes. Tetra expected to find herself back on her ship. Instead, she found herself surrounded on all sides by a great crater.
"Oh great," she scowled, "where the hell am I now?"
Tetra looked cautiously down at herself, no more glow, whatever set it off was gone now. As she looked up she was struck by the sheer height of the crater she was in and felt a moment of panic, the only way out appeared to be straight up and with no apparent handholds; she was not going anywhere, any time soon. Tetra sat down where she was and groaned, she hoped Gonzo and the others weren't freaking out too badly. She closed her eyes reviewed the morning's events. Other than the Octo attack, nothing too unusual, what was it that distracted her?
That music and … something else. She frowned as the details came back to her at first, only in bits and snatches. She'd had some powerfully strange dreams in her life but always had been able to put them into some kind of perspective. Still, Tetra felt she was missing something important.
"Ugh! This was so frustrating!" she shouted and struggled to come up with that missing piece. Something so obvious that she'd over looked it. Calm down Tetra she thought, You will never figure it out shouting at a bush. Tetra sat up straight and arranged herself cross-legged on the grass beneath a tree. She pulled her mother's chain from around her neck and held it up. I really wish you were here she thought. Wrapping it around her wrist, she tried to clear her mind, empty it of everything as she slowed her breathing.
Quietly it flowed in like on a gentle breeze. Almost out of range, as if waiting for her invitation. A quiet peaceful melody, her mind drifted, this was the melody that drew her out of bed and into the garden of... ?
Okay, no help there. Right, then we'll just move forward a bit. There was a pool, no more of a pond. The sun was very bright and warm, but that probably was just because of dress she'd been wearing. Dress? Do I even own a dress? Moreover, what in the world brought Link there. That was him, right?
Tetra rubbed her forehead, she could feel the beginnings of a headache. But why him? He did not play any instruments that she knew of but then he always was full of surprises. No, she thought, she'd seen it before...damn. She focused on his remembered face. His reaction made it seem like he'd been looking for her, like she was lost or something. She wasn't lost, did he forget he had her pirate's charm? All he had to do was call her. But she remembered her fear but what did she have to be afraid of? Way to many unanswered questions.
Gonzo said it'd been a week since Link's last letter. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen a Rito postman or Aryll's gulls for a while. To make matters worse she realized then that she'd not even recognized Link when she first saw him. Not a good sign, how could she possibly have forgotten the most irritating man on the ocean? Arrogant little fairy boy, messes with her life and then just sails off. She paused mid thought, what had they argued over? She could not seem to remember. It didn't matter anyway, at least she didn't have to put up with his constant nagging anymore. Still, why would he be there? As angry as he was, she couldn't figure our why he would bother, now she was starting to worry as that remembered fear returned full force.
"Blast it all!"
Frustrated Tetra smacked the ground sending a jolt up her arm. Something squeaked as it rustled off into the taller grass nearby and sent up a small dust cloud. A quick burst of wind pushed the dirt up into her face making her sneeze and cough.
"Perfect," she said as she stood and rubbed her eyes to remove the last of the dust. When Tetra cleared her eyes, she found a small face floating a few inches in front of her nose. The blue tinged face laughed and startled, Tetra tried to hurriedly back away. Her foot caught on a small bramble causing her to lose her balance and topple into a nearby stream. Tetra landed hard on her backside momentarily knocking the wind out of herself. She groaned and opened one eye cautiously. The small face was back but now it was upside down. Tetra opened her other eye realizing the face was familiar and asked, "Have we met?"
Childish laughter again filled the air around her and the form floated up and away from her.
"Welcome Princess."
"Please don't call me that," Tetra said reflexively. "My name is Tetra."
"Of course it is silly child."
Tetra stood up in the stream trying to ignore the water dripping from her clothes and took another look around. Link told her the story of how he gained the ability to enchant his arrows to utilize fire and ice. This, she realized, was the interior of Mother and Child Island. She'd only seen the islands from her ship at a distance. So there really was no way out except up because there certainly was not any way in by sea. She wondered briefly how Link managed to get in here.
As she stepped up onto the small sandy bank, she stretched a little and winced. She rubbed her elbow a bit, as she studied at the floating figure before her. Tetra was reminded of a fairy tale her mother once told her of a beautiful creature that was made from the waves on the ocean.
"You must be Venus, Queen of the Fairies." Tetra put her hand on her hips and asked, "Why do you look like a little kid?"
The child laughed and floated a little closer to her. "You are very observant princess."
"Don't call me that," Tetra said, "did you bring me here?"
"No, Only one other visitor has come to my island since the Hero came to me, that meeting was great fun and he was quite adorable. Don't you think?"
"Let's not bring Link into this, okay?"
"I can see you think so too." The fairy queen giggled and said, "I wonder how much longer you will be able to from more than just your true name Princess."
"Look, can you please stop calling me that? Do you know how I got here, or better yet how I get the hell out."
"Those who visit my island seldom do so by accident. All the bearers if the Triforce of Wisdom since before the great flood have come to me at some point in their lives. That includes the last bearer."
My Mother? What does she have to do with any of this? Tetra tried to watch as the Fairy Queen spun herself around in gentle circles around her. In the child-like fairy's hands swung a rag doll that looked surprisingly like the Great Fairies of the ocean. Why the great fairies appeared blue and had four arms was a mystery to her. She'd only seen health fairies and they only had two. With a start Tetra noticed whenever the sunlight hit her, the fairy queen glowed a slightly different color.
"Can you please stop doing that you're making me dizzy."
The child laughed once again, but stopped floating in circles. Instead, she floated gently back and forth just out of reach with her doll hanging limply in one of her left hand.
"Her spirit is never far from you, Princess. She watches over you and prays to the Goddesses on your behalf."
"That still doesn't explain how I got here."
"Maybe it was the power that dwells within you trying to get your attention." Venus stopped moving, floated a little closer to Tetra, and asked, "Why do you deny that part of yourself?"
"It's not that simple and you know that."
"It is not that difficult either."
"Whatever." Tetra responded sullenly.
"Listen well, Princess of Hyrule," the child-like voice took on a scolding quality as she continued, "a message was sent, and yet you chose to ignore my daughter's warning. Even now you do not even realize that you are now in great danger." Venus floated in very close as if to bring home her point. "It is time you awoke from your vengeful dream." The mention of off dreams made Tetra take a small step back."Following your anger, you have set off a trap set long ago to snare another."
Tetra's eyes narrowed as the Fairy Queen spoke, but she bit back on her tart reply as Venus moved closer still.
"You are in great danger, if you do not recognize the bars of your self made prison soon, you will perish. Your escape path continues to get narrower as each day passes."
"But I'm not in a trap..." laughter filled the air around her mocking her stubbornness.
"Then tell me, Princess, what did you do yesterday?"
Tetra thought back to her previous troubles trying to remember earlier in the day. That nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach returned as more of the infectious laughter filled the air.
"I like you, please allow me to give you a gift to remember our meeting."
The child held her doll out in front of her and it started to get smaller and smaller until it was no larger than a baby's hand. It floated over to Tetra and attached itself to the chain she still had draped around her wrist. She unwrapped the chain and held the tiny doll up to the sunlight. Four sets of tiny fingers grasped the gold chain. Tetra gave it a little shake. It wobbled at the end but did not come off. She held it up close to her face her eyes widened when the little face smiled and winked.
"Seriously, that is just creepy," Tetra said but pulled the chain over her head anyway. The little fairy doll giggled when she got caught in Tetra's hair. Tetra let out a mild curse and after she untangled it, she bowed absently and said, "Thank you, I think. What am I supposed to do with this? Will it stay on this chain forever?"
"She will find her own purpose eventually," the child said, "but for now she will help you if she can, and will not leave you as long as you have need of her. Goodbye Princess. May you awaken soon." With that the child began to fade away.
Tetra remembered suddenly the man in the cell. "Hey wait! I have more questions. Before I came here I saw a prison, and a man, I think it was a man, well whoever it was, they were a mess..." Tetra stopped as the whole area became engulfed in brilliant light. When she opened her eyes this time she found herself lying down, back on her ship in her cabin, and it was just before dawn.
"Miss Tetra...wake up, Miss." A shadowy figure stood in the doorway outlined by the lamps that were only at half-light.
"Hmmm?" Tetra sat up and winced when her head protested. "Oh... where?" She scanned the darkness, what just happened. "Link?" The shape in the doorway shifted slightly.
"Are you all right Miss?"
Tetra didn't answer, she tried to shake her head to clear out the sleepiness she still felt and winced again as she thought, 'Was any of that real or just a dream?' As she rose from her bed something clunked onto the floor. Tetra looked down at it briefly but it really was too dark to see clearly and she had no time for it.
The shape in the doorway shifted again.
"Senza, what time is it?"
"Half past four Miss. You asked me to wake you if we caught up with that sloop."
"Yes I did, didn't I," Tetra replied absently staring out the only window of her cabin. The moon was very full and bright and she hoped that wouldn't end up giving them away later on. Tetra looked over at the door again and said, "Thanks, Senza, I'll be up shortly."
"Yes, Miss," he said as he turned and closed the door to her cabin.
As she turned to start dressing, her hand caught on the chain around her neck. Tetra pulled at the chain and realized there was an unusual weight to it. Against her own orders she lit the small lamp over the desk she stifled a cry of surprise as she caught her reflection in the small mirror that was on the wall above it.
"Good morning, Princess," said the tiny rag doll fairy hanging from her chain. "I am Nagori."
While the little fairy spoke, Tetra's breathing grew sharp, her heart beat faster, fit to burst as she began to remember all the odd happenings of the past few weeks. How she was repeating the same few days over and over. The words of the Fairy Queen were ringing in her head.
"Listen well Princess of Hyrule, It is time you awoke from your vengeful dream."
"If you do not recognize the bars of your self made prison soon, you will perish."
Shaken Tetra sat back on her bed with a groan and realized she'd no idea how to begin to extricate herself from her confinement. She was not even sure how she'd gotten in. Looking out the cabin window, she caught sight of the full moon again. This is the same as yesterday…Tetra whispered a prayer to the Goddesses for guidance and felt the little fairy let go of the chain and climb up onto her shoulder.
"Nagori?"
"Yes, Princess?"
"Call me Tetra from now on, okay?"
"Yes, Princess."
"Thanks," Tetra said. Once she finished dressing, she noticed the object that's fallen off her bed earlier. She looked at the box and thought, This is new. Picking it up, she turned it over in her hands. The small carved box had two latches, one on each side. One covering a moon on one side the other a rising sun. She pushed lightly at one but it didn't move at all. With a grunt she placed it on the desk and determined to care about it later and headed topside. Whatever else was happening today, it was not going to be an Octo fight.
3/26/06
and today is 11/9/2015 could I be any lazier.