LINK WAS left to himself as the crew made ready to leave. He didn't feel like talking to any of them, and he thought it better not to bother them anyway. So, he sat quietly near the prow of the ship.

He tried hard not took toward the island. The ship, named The Shrewd Scout, was mostly made of dark wood, with a single large mast and sail. It was very old looking, with weathered wood. It was also the largest he had seen in person, though he had seen engravings in books of larger vessels.

The actions of the pirates were unfamiliar to him. He was used to smaller boats like dad's fishing boat that could be easily maneuvered.

He'd studied a bit about the workings of sailing, and he himself had become fairly able at sailing the small fishing boats they used on the island. It was obvious though that the pirates didn't adhere to usual sailing practices.

The one pirate, Gonzo, was going through some bundles of thick braided rope. He glanced about him, then took a knife and cut through several cords of the rope.

Link stared at him with a quizzical expression, and Gonzo silently placed a finger to his lips.

"Not a word," Gonzo whispered.

"What are you -"

Gonzo placed a finger to his lips again.

The rope... Gonzo had told Tetra it had been damaged, and that was why... why they were going north toward Windfall.

"Why are you helping me?" Link asked.

"Because I'm in the business of sparing people's lives," he replied, "and we need a reason to get you in a position where you can do that."

He walked away and said no more.

Link felt the boards groan beneath his feet, and the ship began a hard turn to port. Link walked to the edge of the deck, and clutched some rigging.

He stared out at the island. His mind felt adrift, like his thoughts couldn't fully process what was happening.

He was leaving home for the first time in his life.

As he waved goodbye to his family and friends, he was able to see more and more of the island, until all of it was in his view.

Though marred by the terrible circumstances, the landscape was beautiful, illuminated by the afternoon sun. Never had Link seen it like this, a patch of green, in a quilt of rich, sparkling blue.

But as long as Aryll was gone, it was a tainted beauty, a hollow one. Unless he brought Aryll home, it would not be home again.

As the minutes passed into an hour, the island became a haze on the horizon. A pain, more mental than physical, came across Link. His island was only a memory. In the face of this vast, churning expanse, it was nothing.

"I can tell you're only going to get more sentimental from here on out."

Link turned around to find Tetra smugly lying on the ship's prow, resting her back on some rigging.

"Are you already trying to get me to turn around?" Link remarked.

"Hey," Tetra stood up, grabbing the rigging for support, "you said it, not me. If you want to turn around, it's not too late. I'll even pull the ship close enough to the island that you'll be able to swim back."

She laughed at her own joke, then walked away.

What a pleasant girl.

Link looked to the little sack that his parents had made for him. He opened it up. Inside, he found The Stargazer's Guide, along with some assorted food items. Link made a slight smile upon seeing some skippyjack jerky. He felt something at the bottom of the sack.

Pulling it out, he found an unfamiliar hardbound book. Odd, Link had been through all the books in the house, and most of the books in Sturgeon's library. He opened it, and found writing on the inside front cover.

Happy birthday Link,

I want you to know that your mother and I are very proud of you. Though it may seem that we live in a world very different from the past, it still has great need of those who are heroic in all things.

As I've watched you grow up I've seen that you are very resilient. You keep trying until you succeed.

We love you Link, and we know that from this day, you'll begin to grow into a great man.

-Your father, Eli

Link felt a bit guilty now for thinking about turning back. He hadn't even had to do anything truly difficult yet, and he had thought about giving up already. He pushed his feelings aside and turned the page.

The title page read: The Codex of Time.

Dad had given him a brand new personal copy of the Codex. Though Link enjoyed reading, when he'd read his family's Codex, he'd always found it hard to get his mind around the centuries old ancient Hylian text.

He perused the book. He flipped it open to a random page, and began to read the lines there. It was when the Hero of Time entered the temple of time for the first time.

Link, being weary of his journey and misfortune, wandered off from the press of the throng, and made aside.

As he sojourned, he found himself before a mountain of quarried pearl.

Laid in verdant garden, the edifice scraped the sky,

yea, even the heights of smoking death mountain.

Engraved in the founding stone read thus:

THE TEMPLE OF TIME

RAISED TO THE GODDESSES

THE GATE OF LIGHT

THE PATH OF THE STEALER

Link entered in.

The foundations of the cathedral's posts trembled at the echo of feet against marbled stone.

The echo sounded forth, seeming a song, saying,

The marauder is come!

All is lost! All is won!

The sliver of the past is in his hands,

Yet the prize he shall not have,

But he shall have uncommon power,

To bring forth a world unfamiliar to us,

but shall with his victory lose the past.

And that, he thought, is the reason why I enjoy reading more recent books.

Stuffed full of extremely old language, and heaped atop that, extremely strange poems that are being sung by the sound of the hero's footsteps. It all was a little bit odd.

The way that Link's father had always talked about the hero, it seemed as though he had a perfect understanding of what the text talked about, and then his father would go on and say he had no idea what Link was talking about when Link would tell him about astronomy.

In his case, the only parts that Link could understand well were when the ancient hero was battling a fierce monster. Although still hard to read, it was hard to misunderstand reading about the hero skewering yet another monster.

Link closed the book and glanced around the ship. Tetra stood at the stern, which was fitting, considering her expression.

Link felt like he should help with something, but he got the impression that Tetra didn't want to even deal with him. Link decided to simply wait until he was called upon.

He walked the deck, taking in the surroundings. It was a grand ship. The more childish part of Link wanted to jump around the ship exploring all its little secrets, but he decided that was probably another thing that would steer Tetra's mood in a "I'm ready to heave you into the ocean" kind of direction.

With nothing else to do, he decided to read from the beginning of the book. Link enjoyed using big words, but the Codex used far more than even he was comfortable with - and Link perhaps didn't use those big words correctly either.

"What are you reading?"

Link looked up from the page, slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted, right as he'd finally freed his mind from distracting thoughts.

A shorter pirate stood before him, wearing a striped ragged shirt, bandanna over the head, and a pair of spectacles that looked just barely too large for him.

"The Codex of Time," Link said, looking down to the page again, hoping that the pirate would realize he didn't want to be bothered.

The pirate leaned up against the railing of the ship. Drat. He wasn't leaving.

"I see you have a copy of "The Stargazer's Guide."

"Yes," Link said, a bit confused. How did a pirate know about that book?

"May I see it for a moment?" The pirate asked.

Link trepidly handed it to him.

Tapping his fingers impatiently, Link nervously watched the pirate peruse his book.

The pirate paused, looking over Link's notes.

"Very interesting," the pirate noted, finally handing the book back to him.

"I suppose I should introduce myself," the pirate said, adjusting his spectacles, "I'm Mako."

"Link," he introduced.

"Hmm," Mako said, "interesting."

Mako walked away, going about his own business.

After reading for another space of time, Link watched the sun dropping in the sky. He decided to eat some of his food. He got up from where he was sitting and wandered around the ship, chewing on some jerky.

"What'cya up ta' boy?" A tall pirate asked.

"Nothing," Link said, putting some more jerky in his mouth.

"Don't ya know that Tetra hates the smell a' jerky?" he said, "she'll skin ya' alive and use it to make a pair a socks!"

Link shoved the rest into his mouth, swallowing it. The pirate laughed.

"What's yer' name kid?" the pirate asked.

"Link."

"Where ya' come from?" he asked.

Link almost spoke, then paused, "you know where I'm from, we literally just left from my home island."

"Really?" The pirate said, I could a' sworn we just came from Windfall."

He laughed again, and shook Link's hand, catching him by surprise.

"I'm Nudge," the pirate said.

Though he felt a bit weary at the thought of dealing with this pirate's sarcastic shenanigans, he took the opportunity to ask several questions.

"I was wondering sir," Link started.

"Sir?" Nudge said, "where is this 'sir'? I aven't' met a' sir."

"I was wondering Nudge," Link ignored the remark, "why is someone as young as Tetra a pirate captain?"

"Beggin' yer' pardon lad," he said, "but it's somethin' remarkable that Tetra's lived as long as she as, considerin' she's thirty five."

"Thirty five?" Link exclaimed.

The pirate laughed. "Just a mere prank is all, no I think she said she said she was eleven the last time I asked er' - about four er' five years ago. She inherited the scout from er' dear old mother."

"Nudge," Tetra's voice called, "please talk normally, or you're going on half rations."

"Sorry miss Tetra," he said in a surprisingly less embellished voice. Nudge still did have a unique color to his speech anyway.

Tetra walked down the stairs to the lower tier of the deck where Link and Nudge were.

"Have your accommodations been deemed suitable?" Tetra said to Link in a sarcastic tone.

"Yes," Link replied.

"Strange answer," Nudge said, "he hasn't even seen em' yet."

Perhaps Link should've thought that through.

"C'mon," Tetra sighed, directing him to walk through a door set into the ship's higher tier. They walked down some stairs into the dark hull of the ship, oil lamps giving the only light.

"Interrogating Nudge, were you?" Tetra asked.

"Just...," Link began, trying to think before speaking, "just curious."

They walked down the length of the ship, hammocks on both sides, a thin aisle going between them. At the front of the ship were stacks of cargo, mostly in the form of barrels.

"Niko!" Tetra called to a pirate in the cargo area, "this scamp is gonna make himself useful and help you refill the oil lamps. Don't set my ship on fire."

"Of course miss Tetra," Niko said.

Tetra turned around, eyeing Link with a suspicious glare, then walked back upstairs. Niko's enthusiasm evaporated once Tetra left.

"Here," Niko said, picking up a wrought-iron container, "this flask is filled with oil. Don't spill it."

Niko picked up another flask, and did one side while Link did the other.

Link shook, trying to careful pour the flask's awkward weight. Niko was already a lamp ahead of him.

Link poured a bit too much oil in a lamp's chamber, and the oil overflowed a tiny bit. Niko quickly sprang into action, drawing a rag from his trouser pocket and gripping the chamber to catch the extra oil.

While he wiped up the oil, Link went on to the next lamp, and did the next one too. Niko screwed the cap back on the lamp where Link had spilled, and then went back to his own side.

Watching out of the corner of his eye, Link noticed that it seemed like Niko was going faster, as though it were a race to him.

The weight of the flask decreasing, Link went faster. He finished his side one lamp before Niko, and after waiting a moment, followed Niko up onto the main deck to fill the lamps up there.

"You two ready for supper?" a pirate Link didn't recognize asked them from the lower part of the ship. Niko hastily capped his oil flask, and made his way down to where the rest of the crew had gathered.

Walking down there himself, Link found the pirates gathered around a makeshift hearth. A fire burned in a metal bowl, with skewered fish cooking above it.

"We really need a nice oil stove," Mako said, "we have to get wood every time we make port."

"Yes Mako," Tetra said, grabbing some fish off the fire, "but Windfall is one of the only ports that we can buy oil from, and more often than not, the island is out of our way. Plus, going there often, with their fletching port watch is a bad habit."

Tetra handed Link some skewered fish. Link examined it. It looked like a small kind of Loover almost. He wasn't sure he'd had fish like this before.

"What's wrong?" Tetra scowled, "our food not good enough for you?"

"No," Link said, tearing off a piece, "just looking at it."

Tetra turned her attention to the other pirates, and Link closed his eyes and quickly thanked the goddesses.

He began eating the fish, and thankfully, he didn't think the pirates had noticed. It was pretty decent fish. Not as decent as mom's of course though. They'd put a lot of unfamiliar spices on it.

The pirates conversed among themselves mostly, acting as though Link wasn't present. Tetra didn't say a word to him after they began eating.

They retired to bed, and Link grabbed his provisions sack, carrying it below deck with him. He normally would have stayed up late stargazing, but tonight, his whole frame, body and spirit, was exhausted.

He sank into his assigned hammock, and quickly fell asleep as the ship rocked beneath them.