The Sea Calls
Wind couldn’t swim for more than five minutes. Didn’t matter how much stamina he built, he just couldn’t. He would sink into the water and drown. Grandma had fished him out many times. Aryll had fished him out. And now Wild also fished him out.
“So what was the bright idea behind jumping into the bay after Wild? To drown?”
Legend’s word cut deeper than the other hero knew. Wind scowled.
“I don’t have to tell you,” Wind crossed his arms and stuck out his chest. He didn’t want to let them know how badly he had been shaken. How much the sea called to him after all this time.
“You do. What reason could you have possibly had to follow Wild and drown?”
Wind kept scowling and looked away from Legend. His gaze fell on the ocean. He could hear it laughing at him even as the wind scolded it. Wind and waves were not opposites. They complemented each other. But one ceased to exist when it touched the other. One could not be of the wind and the waves.
“Sailor.” The whispered call drew his gaze away from the mocking sea. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Sky blinked down at him. The soft cobalt eyes drew Wind in like the sea during a sudden storm. Tetra had tethered him constantly after that first storm at sea. The King of Red Lions had never had to. The sea had lapped at his ankles on the red boat, but he remained out of the sea’s reach on the larger ship’s deck.
“I’m fine,” Wind muttered. Because it was bad enough he was the youngest. It was already a pain to keep the truth of why his world was a Great Sea from the Hero of Time. It was a constant ache to know that he had not been chosen. Because Hylia sounded wise and careful with her heroes whenever she could be. But she had to have been missing in his time if not dead. How could he ever explain that to Sky?
How could he then explain to any of them that he did not belong to the sea when he should? That he should belong to the waves and not the wind. The sea demanded he remember that truth. Remember his betrayal of her.
“You don’t look fine,” Sky shook his messy bedhead. He likely had been taking a nap before Wind jumped into the sea behind Wild. The sleepy hero leaned in close, “You can tell me. I promise not to say anything to the others.”
Wind glanced around. Warriors had started to lecture Legend on how to treat children who had nearly drowned. Wild had started cooking the fish he caught despite Wind while Hyrule hovered nearby scribbling notes in a book Legend had given him. Time and Twilight both moved their gazes to the lecturing Warriors when Wind caught them staring, and Four met Wind’s eyes before shrugging and returning to polishing Time’s Biggoron sword.
Wind reached up and tugged Sky’s shoulder down lower. He cupped his hands around the older hero’s ear and whispered, “We’re a bunch of busybodies. They don’t need you to tell them anything. They’re listening right now.”
Every other Link around them flinched, and Wind grinned widely at them. Sky laughed loudly and then picked up Wind and threw him over his shoulder. Sometimes Wind forgot that Sky’s slim build held a scary amount of strength.
“Let’s move our conversation elsewhere then,” Sky declared. He spoke to the rest past Wind’s dangling feet. “Anyone who follows to eavesdrop will be my sparring partner for the next three weeks straight.”
Sky turned to carry Wind away just in time for Wind to catch the flash of fear tear through everyone’s eyes at the threat. Including Time. Sparring three weeks solely with Sky was terrifying. Wind wasn’t sure even Twilight could survive that long.
For an instant, Wind feared Sky would take him closer to the sea, but he didn’t. Sky moved further inland and walked around the edge of rock wall to step up and onto a grassy incline. He placed Wind down and then lay down on the grass right next to him.
The sun set over the waves splattering colors on each and every cresting tip. Wind sat up to watch the light dance on the edges and rounds of the water from a distance where the sea could barely hum at him to come.
“The ocean is beautiful.”
Wind nodded in agreement.
“I remember the first time I saw it. I flew over it and wondered how so much water could be held in one place. I didn’t think anything could be as vast as the clouds I had flown over my whole life. I was wrong. And unlike the clouds, the ocean holds life and moves like it lives and breathes itself. It’s amazing.”
“She is,” Wind muttered. Cheek squished into an arm crooked on a leg. Heart beating along with the swish of the ocean waves. “She’s alive.”
“Why can’t you swim?”
Wind heard the silent “if you live on the sea.” He snorted. “Why can’t you fly?”
“I can,” Sky answered. “With Crimson, I can fly everywhere and anywhere.”
“Your loftwing?”
“My friend,” Sky agreed. “Do you have a friend that swims for you?”
“I used to.” Wind could nearly feel the red wood thrum and dip beneath his fingers and boots. “I sail with a different friend now.”
“Why don’t you swim for yourself?”
“Why don’t you fly for yourself?” Wind shot back. He didn’t want to answer Sky’s question. But he knew he would if Sky kept asking. Wind loved his brothers, and they loved him. Wind couldn’t lie in the face of that love.
“I wasn’t born with wings of my own,” Sky answered. “But you were born with arms and legs, and Wild has shown that is more than enough to swim.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You weren’t what?”
“Born with arms and legs,” Wind felt his heart drop along with his volume. “I was born with arms and a tail.”
Sky said nothing, and Wind rubbed his hands against his two perfect legs. They carried him on land so well. They kept him stable on rocking wood. They made it so he could jump and roll and fight. He shouldn’t hate them.
“What happened to the tail?”
“It was thrown into the sea right after I was born.” The words fell like pearls and urchin needles from his lips. “I don’t remember having a tail. I don’t know what color the scales were. I don’t even know what part of Outset saw it before it was gone. But the sea knows I should have a tail, and my body knows I should have a tail. So my legs can’t swim like Wild’s. They know I swim with a tail.”
It felt odd to explain out loud to someone else. Everyone on Outset knew. Wind had never managed to find the courage to explain it to Tetra (some hero of courage he was). But here, on the grass, with the sea crashing and splashing her complaints about his distance from her, Wind spoke aloud what he never had clearly before.
“I was born a mer.”
Sky hummed louder than the waves had. He sat up and scooped Wind against his side and covered him with his sailcloth.
“Do you want to swim?”
The question startled Wind. He looked up at his normally sleepy older brother who had a determined look in his eye. Wind knew what would happen if he answered “yes.” He knew that his brothers would scour the Great Sea to find what should be impossible and succeed.
Wind shook his head. “I can swim enough not to die easily. And I am not the Hero of Seas. I am the Hero of Winds. The wind stops when it meets the wave.”
The last phrase sing-songed out of him, the old Great Sea shanty slipping out. The truth shone brighter through the music notes.
Sky chuckled, but then asked, “What about the waves wanting you to go under them?”
“I have you guys to keep my head above them,” Wind grinned. “Well, I have Wild, Legend, and Time. The rest of you will go down with me.”
The sailcloth covered his face and ducked his head down like a wave of cloth.
“Sky!”
A few moments later, the rest of the busybodies joined them on the incline, and they ate Wild’s incredible fish stew. From then on, whenever Wind wandered into the sea, one of his brothers would grab him and keep him above the waves. Wind would endure their fussing and remind himself that Sky was a very good liar, a terrible promise-keeper, and a terrific brother.
