The Wind Waker

XXIII

"Din's fire," Tetra swore.
The bird let out a piercing shriek, and then dove down into the tower.

They sprinted for the door, and escaped another rain of debris.
"Look what you've done!" Tetra yelled as they got through the door. "I told you to get on the ship!"

The helmaroc tore through the stone surrounding the doorway, flinging chunks of the wall into the air.

Link sprinted down the stairway, feeling his heart race, his body shake, and hearing the sound of massive destruction behind him. He glanced behind him, and saw as the whole entire tower fractured at its foundation, and then began to careen towards the ocean.

"C'mon you fletching idiot!" Tetra commanded, "You run about as fast as a dead chu chu!"

Tetra clamped her hand down on his wrist and dragged him forward faster, until Link feared he would stumble and roll down the stairs.

Tetra kept them going until they got to the bottom. Rather than going down the section of the wall straight forwards, she pulled them to a door that led into the inner part of the wall. She briefly searched the sky for the bird, but saw that they were not in its vision.

She yanked him through the door, and to relative safety.

"Din's burning blazes I'm fletching mad you got me into this mess," Tetra cursed.

Link took a moment to breathe.

"Say something gerudo!" Tetra yelled at him, "are you a fletching mute?"

"Bah," Link said, "I didn't get you into this mess, you came of your own free will!"

Tetra grunted. "Whatever. I don't have time to argue. We're going to have to do this carefully. We're not sure if the base walls of the fortress are as strong as the tower. By my estimation, the tower was shoddily built, so the walls might be able to withstand an attack if we travel through them.

"That way, we can travel through the passages in the walls to protect us until we can get close enough to the ship."

"I told you Tetra," Link frowned, "I have a duty to fulfill."

"Why do you have to do it?" she asked. "You're just some boy from an unimportant island who's had no formal combat training - "

Link grunted. "I am trained," he said. "You speak so confidently on things that you have no knowledge of."

Tetra tightened her hands into fists. She grabbed his wrist again, pulling him to go forward down the tunnel in the wall, but Link would not move.

"These are all lies," Tetra said. "Ganondorf is not back. Even if he was, what power does he have? What evidence do you have that he is going to try to rise to power again?"

"I have been among many islands," Link said, "and I've seen evidence of abnormally large monsters plaguing the land. I've seen that there are more monsters prowling at night than usual too."

"Scant evidence."

"Until you tell your secrets, I'm not going to tell mine."

Tetra didn't respond. She rested her left hand on the pommel of her sword.

"I am not leaving Tetra," Link said.

"If that is the case," she said, "then at very least... I'm going to watch your back until you try to find Ganondorf, see that you were an idiot all along, and then I wont have to suffer this nonsense anymore."

"Tetra," Link said, "the helmaroc is not going to just sit idly as I attack its master."

"Nayru's wisdom you're right," Tetra said in a patronizing tone. "Guess that means you need to just -"