The Wind Waker

XXXVI

THEY WERE here. Finally, preparing for their real final confrontation with Ganondorf. Beneath the rippling, magical curtain far above them, Link and Tetra walked the ancient roads of Hyrule. Tetra kept pausing to look at every slight change in the vista, at the Hylia River, the mountain peaks far in the distance.

It was beautiful, but felt odd, and incomplete with a blue sky with billowing clouds overhead. Strangely, despite the water separating them and the surface, the sunlight seemed just as bright in old Hyrule.

They were already treading carefully, when they saw it just beyond a hillside. It was a massive army.

Link stared in a kind of morbid awe at it. Link had read of warfare, what it had been like in the days of the ancients. It was like a sea of soldiers, armored beasts, all bearing weapons.

There was a massive noise accompanying it - but Link had assumed he was hearing some kind of natural force. The entire throng was around an obsidian black tower, that rose high up into the underwater sky. It was not a very enlivening sight.

"That... is a predicament."

"We need to lead them off in some way," Tetra said. "Sneaking does not appear to be an option."

"What kind of thing would lead them off?" Link asked.

"They're beasts that won't think very clearly," she said. "They will simply go after what they desire."

"Are you suggesting that one of us plays decoy?"

"Something like that," she said.

"It isn't like we have some other Hylian here that can pose as us," Link said, "it would actually be us. That kind of defeats the purpose of being a decoy."

Tetra breathed out, and planted her hands on his shoulders.

"Link. You are the hero of winds. I am Tetra. I am not going to be the one to defeat Ganondorf. I have no divine weapon. I cannot harm him with simple powder and ball."

"Tetra," Link said, "don't say that. You are not "just Tetra." You are a capable warrior. You are the heir of Princess Zelda. You have the wisdom of Nayru within you. Even if you didn't have that, I want my friend fighting alongside me."

Tetra removed her hands from him, and glanced between him, the army, and the expansive landscape.

"What would you even try doing?" Link asked. "Ganondorf knows that we're here. I think maybe we should rethink this, maybe try and gather a force -"

"No Link," she shook her head, "I can feel it. Ganondorf is going to begin lashing out in rage before we raise an army to fight this."

He stood there in unsure, anxious silence.

"What are we going to do then?"

She slowly met his eyes.

"We're going to surrender."

Link's eyes shot wide. "What? Tetra, you can't possibly be serious!"

"We need to get in," she said. "That seems like the only way."

"But it also results in us failing."

"It puts us in a place to talk, to outwit him," she said.

"But we won't have any weapons," Link said. "And do you really think that we can outwit someone who's been around for more than a thousand years?"

"Do you really think you can outfight him? Someone who was said to be an accomplished, well trained warrior?"

Link bit his lip.