Chapter Text
6:00 AM, 1st Day of the Arrival
It was a quiet morning on Tetra’s Pirate Ship. Niko had just given his exposé to Link with images on what had transpired when the boy was 12, which was already 7 years ago. From how he met Tetra, set out to save his sister from the Forsaken Fortress, discovered his destiny as a Hero and Tetra being Princess Zelda culminating in their battle against the evil Ganondorf and their adventures within the Realm of the Ocean King.
After Niko’s exposé had ended, Link was exhausted and bored. He had found a quiet corner to fall asleep behind barrels in the brig of the ship, in doing so also avoiding his duties on the ship and hoping Tetra wouldn’t find him.
But someone used to sniffing out treasure, wouldn’t have a problem finding something hidden on her own ship. Tetra looked around and walked past some barrels when she saw just a tiny bit of green poking out from the side. “So there he is.” she muttered. She considered shaking him awake, but that wouldn’t be as fun as the other idea she had. Slowly she stepped away, grabbing one of her favorite things she had plenty of on board: Rope. Once she had enough of it, she loomed over him like a dangerous shadow and began to stretch the rope over his defenseless body.
Link began stirring awake as he felt the pressure of ropes being tightened around his wrists and ankles. Slowly opening his eyes, he looked down to see he was covered from neck to toes in tight ropes wrapped around his body. Looking up, Link saw Tetra holding a roll of white duct tape. “Um… Hi?” Link muttered, blushing with a sheepish grin.
“Hello” Tetra said with a devilish grin as if she didn’t just restrain him like some maniac. “Any last words?” she teased him, holding the duct tape over his lips. Of course she had done something like this before, but she still liked seeing his reaction.
Link began struggling a bit, trying to crawl away from Tetra. “Look, no need to-mmph!”
It was too late and his mouth was covered. “Oops.” Tetra chuckled. “Do I choose the cannon or not today?” She looked at him as if he had a choice in that.
Link’s eyes widened as he began squirming helplessly against his binds. “Mmmph! Ummph!” He protested through his gag, although in vain.
Tetra sighed and shook her head. “Nah, not going anywhere. What did I tell you about sleeping on the job?” once again as if he could answer.
“Lmmph mmph gmmph!” Link begged in a muffled shout for her to release him, contorting and feeling the ropes getting tighter every time he struggled.
Tetra managed to actually lift him up. She was quite the strong woman. Well, one had to be to show their place as a feared pirate captain. But Link was heavier too and so she stumbled a bit. “Ugh! I told you! You eat too much!”
Link wiggled around, squirming and thrashing as he tried to free himself. “Nmmph! Dnmmpth!” He let out another muffled protest.
Tetra managed to carry him out on deck, in view of everyone. She liked to make an example of Link, but somehow he got punished a lot more than any of the other crew members. “This is what happens when you’re lazy!”
The crewmates started laughing as Link blushed, squirming trying to escape Tetra’s grip. “Hlmmph!” He tried to call out for the others for help, but his call was muffled.
Tetra put him on display like that for a moment, until a familiar voice shouted “Heeeey!” from above. It was Aryll, Link’s little sister who was not so little anymore. She used a rope to jump down from the crow’s nest safely. “Capt’n Tetra! He’s been punished enough!” she said with a cutesy worried tone.
But Tetra laughed it off. “This happened how many times? I’m starting to think he likes it.”
“Boo!” Aryll folded her arms and walked off. She may still act like the cute little girl at times, but she became a skilled young lady herself.
Tetra chuckled and said “Well I guess I did make you struggle for a bit. I don’t see a target right now, so I can’t shoot you off just yet. Imagine I shot you beyond the horizon?”
Link gasped and started intensifying his struggle. “Grrmph! Nmmmph!” He begged, shaking his head rapidly as he twirled and wiggled.
Zuko’s eyes widened as he looked at the horizon. “Miss Tetra! Land ahoy!!!” He shouted.
“Land?!” Tetra gasped. Tetra dropped Link and ran to the front. Though Aryll was quicker.
With her telescope Aryll spied at what was appearing before them. “A lot of land! Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Tetra tried to get a better look. “What? This must be a huge landmass!”
Link bonked his head against the floor as Tetra dropped him. Senza turned to Tetra and asked “So we finally found a new place to settle, Miss?”
“We don’t know that.. Yet!” Tetra remarked. “For all we know it could have lots of people! And with that, potential danger. It could be that they don’t like strangers. Hm…”
But then she got an idea. She winked at Link. “Only one way to find out.”
Link noticed Tetra’s wink and started trying to crawl away while trussed up tightly. “Hmmph!” He shouted.
But in a mix of nostalgia, deja vu and trauma, Link soon found himself inside a barrel. Tetra made sure to tie a sword to his body, so the same accident of him losing his weapon wouldn’t happen again. “Say Link, what do birds like doing?” Tetra asked him, tilting her head slightly.
“Plmmph nnmph!” Link begged as he squirmed around in the barrel helplessly.
Senza prepared the catapult and said to Tetra “Ready to fire, Miss!”
Tetra smirked. “I know what they like doing.” Finally she gave Senza the thumbs up signal, showing him he’s good to go. “They like… Flying!”
The barrel flew high into the air as Link shouted in his gag. The barrel hit the water near the beach, and luckily floated ashore. Link squirmed, cutting the ropes with the sword’s blade and freeing himself as he ripped the tape from his mouth. He began looking around and noticed, now free from his binds, how expansive this land was. He looked around first to see if there were anyone in the vicinity.
Tetra borrowed the telescope from Aryll to watch the scene. She managed to adjust the sight just in time to see him land. She would have not admitted it so easily, but she was glad the landing went well. “Hmm… He’s getting there” she commented as she watched Link. “He’s on the shore! He did it!” She lowered the telescope. “Now we have to wait for the signal to see if we can land safely.”
Link looked around for a good five minutes, searching around the shoreline first before climbing up the hill and what he saw had him in awe. A vast green land, grassy plains and trees as far as the eye could see. Link hurriedly signaled the all clear to the ship.
So far there seemed no proper port in sight, at least not from where their ship was positioned. Thus the crew prepared a boat to lower from the ship, with which they could get to land while keeping the ship at a safe distance. “Solid ground, crew! I bet you missed it?” Tetra told them as they rowed.
Link squinted and his eyes spotted a tall tower in the distance, a massive one by the looks of it. With no other buildings than the tower in sight, Link went down to regroup with Tetra and her party.
They arrived at the shore safely and got out of the boat. “Whew! There we are!” Tetra said as she approached Link. “What did you see? Anything special? Any people?”
“None that I could see, but I did see a LOT of land as well as what appears to be a tower of sorts in the distance.” Link explained, leading the way up the hill.
Tetra and the others followed. “If there’s a tower, then there’s people - or well.. Maybe there were people?” she wondered. After all she and Link saw a whole Kingdom empty of people. “This really is the biggest piece of land we’ve seen. Who knows what all we can find? Or what can find us. Everyone watch your step and be aware of your surroundings!”
Link suddenly began hearing sounds of what seemed like galloping horses, but something was wrong as the steps sounded much heavier. Swiftly turning around, he drew his sword. “Incoming Monsters!” He shouted.
Tetra turned around and pulled out her cutlass. Aryll had her crossbow and the crew anything ranging from single planks to flintlock muskets and the most dangerous weapon of them all: An angry cat. They had no idea what was about to befall them.