Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Link ran until he was out of the village and stopped. If he charged ahead blindly, he was going to miss the trail.
Unfortunately, there was not much, although Saria had trained him well in tracking, and Moblins were well-known for being clumsy. That was part of the problem; there were so many Moblin tracks in that part of the island that to find Marin’s tracks among them was extraordinarily difficult.
He headed in the direction of the mountains when the trail grew so hard to find that there was basically nothing.
And all the time his heart was full of fear.

He came to the mountains and paused. If he was a fat lumbering Moblin, burdened with a light, slim girl, how would he get up?
That posed a problem for him, as there was only one way to go up into the mountains, but many ways to go after that. Link wrinkled his forehead in frustration and anxiety and ran again. There was a tower on the eastern horizon.
Through tunnels, not forsaking the darkest corner, and to the most remote plateaus, he jogged along. Already he was getting tired, and the day was almost gone. The caves were dark enough, and he had no lantern.
He came to the tower and sprang in.
It was a long, hard trudge through the most difficult puzzles he had faced on the island so far. The first three-quarters were easy, but finding the dungeon’s master was almost impossible.
The boss was a robed skeleton, riding on a gigantic vulture-like bird. Content with hurling insults and threats at the young Hylian, he paid no heed to Link’s repeated and insistent questions. Questions like: “If you don’t tell me where Marin is I’ll stuff that bird down your bony throat!!”
Using his bow and his sword, Link finally brought the bird down.
“The girl… is not here…” wheezed the skeleton. “If you… touch the Instrument… we’ll kill her…”
Link stabbed the skeleton, shattering the skull. “Instrument’d just slow me down, anyway.”
He got out of the tower the fastest way he could, and headed back west. He looked at the Instrument before he left, and shook his head – it was a miniature pipe organ. There was no way he was carrying that all the way back to Marin’s house. It could definitely wait – it wasn’t going anywhere.
It was pitch dark, and while he wanted to keep going, his body was making demands of his attention he could not ignore. It was exhausted, and if he was going in any more holes, he might not see the pitfalls until too late.
Defeated by this logic, Link slumped down on a flat-ish rock and tried to sleep.
His mind was keeping him awake.
It seemed hours before he finally slept.
The next morning, he was woken by the sun on his face and a distant voice, it seemed. When he sat up and rubbed his head, he didn’t hear the voice anymore.
Tiredly, he travelled west again.
Then, suddenly, he heard the voice again. It was Marin’s voice! She was calling for help, almost crying, it sounded.
“Hang on, I’m coming!” he shouted and dashed off in the direction of the sound.
He came around the side of a cliff and saw her. She was kneeling on a few boards suspended above a deep ravine by old, worn ropes.
“Oh, Link! Please, help me! I’m scared of heights!”
“I’m here.” Link was almost smiling with relief. “Can you stand? It would make it a little bit easier.”
“I-I’ll try,” Marin quavered, trembling. She wobbled and sat down again. “No, no, I can’t do that.” She made a valiant effort not to cry.
“That’s all right,” Link said, soothingly. “I can get you off like this. Hold still.” He re-aimed his hookshot and fired it.
He flew over the chasm and caught the girl in his right arm, landing safely on the ledge on the other side.
“Are you all right?” he asked, looking down at her.
She glanced up at him shyly, then looked down again. “Uh-huh…”
“Thank goodness.” He put his hookshot away and hugged her. “I – we were so worried…”
“I’m sorry… I… I shouldn’t have…”
“What?”
She tensed up and blurted out. “I… I went to sing the Ballad in front of the Wind Fish’s Egg so that he could wake up before you get hurt trying to get those silly instruments!”
Link stared at her wonderingly. “Y-you really did that?”
Finally she looked at him, half-defiantly. “Yes!”
Link almost laughed out loud and gave her another big hug. “Thanks for the thought, but I don’t know if that works…”
“It didn’t,” Marin said sadly, putting her arms around him and giving him a small hug back. “And that’s when the monsters grabbed me, when I was coming back.”
She looked him directly in the eyes. “Thank you…”
“I’m glad,” he replied softly.
Link didn’t realize he was leaning forward until he heard someone else shouting, somewhere in the distance. Tarin was calling Marin’s name.
Marin, her lips only millimetres from Link’s, jumped and whirled around. Link jumped, too, and both of them blushed.
Tarin appeared at the base of the cliff; he couldn’t have seen the young couple. “Marin! Thank goodness you’re all right!”
“Tarin, what are you doing here?” Link demanded. “It’s dangerous!”
Tarin grinned sheepishly. “Well, now, I’m not worried for myself. Right, then? Shall we go?”
“Yes, I’ll take you home.” Link helped Marin down the steep slope. “And you know, Marin, dungeon crawling is sort of a hobby for me now, so if it’s so dangerous that I might get hurt – which doesn’t happen often – I stop. Except that usually by that point I’m addicted to that particular puzzle, and if I can’t figure it out I get annoyed…”
Marin giggled in relief. “I’m just glad that you’re all right this time. Did you find any more instruments?”
“Oh, right. The Organ of Evening Calm is in a tower somewhere back there. I’ll get it later.”
“Oh, no, go and get it now! No point in waiting.”
“I-it’s too dangerous!” Link protested. “You’ve got miles to go to get home!”
“I made it here,” Tarin pointed out. “You can leave Marin with her own daddy, can’t you?”
Link’s forehead scrunched up in indecision. “The Moblins are pretty powerful, and you don’t even have a weapon…”
“Oh, is that all!” Tarin picked up a pretty big stick and smiled at Link. “I’ll show ‘em. Go get that Organ, lad.”
Link sighed. “I really think this is a bad idea…”
He left them and travelled quickly back to the tower.
Inside the tower, he got lost, and it was nearly night before he reached the top and found the Organ of Evening Calm again.
He slept before returning to Mabe. He was ragingly hungry, as he hadn’t eaten for almost two days.
When he appeared, trudging out of the shades of the forest with the Organ under his arm, one of the quadruplets ran up to him.
“Hey, Link! Have you seen Marin and Tarin?”
“Why, what about them?”
“No, I mean, have you seen them recently?”
Link’s insides went cold. “I saw them yesterday. Haven’t they gotten back yet?”
“No!”
Link grew tense. Suddenly, turning, he flung his sword at a tree. The blade embedded itself halfway, quivering. Link let out a long, shaking breath as he tried to calm himself.
The small boy’s eyes were huge, and he said with trembling voice: “I think they must just have taken longer than you did… Tarin’s not an adventurer, you know…”
Link dropped the Instrument on the ground beside the boy. “Take this to their house. I’m going to find them.”
After only a few paces, he stopped and ran back. “Wait. I’ll take it. I need something to eat, or else I’ll drop dead. Please stay in the village.”
Link set the Organ down on the table in Tarin’s house, grabbed a loaf of bread out of the kitchen, and ran out again, wolfing down a chunk of the bread as best he could.
In the forest, he called the owl. “Owl! Owl, I need to talk to you!” His voice cracked twice, and after that he grew hoarse.
After several minutes, with a flap, the owl alighted in a nearby tree. “Calm yourself, young hero.”
“Please! Tell me – if you can,” he added with a frown, “- where Marin and Tarin are.”
“I saw them yesterday in the northwest corner of the island. Where they are now, I cannot tell you. Be calm, or else in your recklessness, you may lose more than your friends.”
Link paced back and forth frantically. “I just can’t stop thinking about what the Moblin said the other day. If I got any more Instruments, they would kill Marin. And I didn’t want to tell her, so I let them talk me into going and getting the next one, and now they’ve vanished.” He turned back to the owl. “Do you see where I’m going with this?”
The owl peered down its beak at the distraught Hylian. “I do. Indeed, your logic is as clear as crystal, so your question was unnecessary. Please calm yourself before I decide discussion with you is pointless.”
Link plunked himself on the ground and took deep breaths, trying to put himself into meditation the way Saria had shown him once.
“Now,” continued the owl. “There is still a small chance that they were merely delayed on their journey. I shall scout out the land. If you would return to Mabe Village this evening, I might be able to give you news.”
“All right.” Link stood up again. “I’ll look to the northwest. Thank you.”
He ran off, this time with firmer purpose in his heart.

The northwest part of Koholint Island is just as mountainous as the northeast part, and Link, after he had scoured the foothills, found himself wasting precious hours trying to enter the sheer walls of the mountains.
At the top of one cliff, he was attacked and almost knocked off by something large and scaly. After wobbling for a bit and finally regaining his balance, not to mention fighting off a pair of black birds, Link found himself facing a large and irate turtle head.
Link had never fought a giant hostile turtle before, but hitting it in the eyes killed it, and it exploded, leaving a large hole in the mountainside behind it.
The Hylian left it there for a while, searching the rest of the mountain, but no answer came to his calls, and so he entered the tunnel.

He wandered for a while, sweating profusely as the temperature rose the further he travelled. The light was dim, and reddish, but it was there, guiding his feet around the pits in the floor. The caves at the end of the tunnel were more spacious, but almost suffocating with heat. Lava bubbled out of cracks in the ground now, and Link’s adrenaline began to rise. This was another dungeon, he was sure of it.
Chasing some flying monsters into another room, he heard something ahead of him. A low grumbling and moaning.
Prepared to fight redead, Link dispatched the winged menace, steeled himself, and smashed in the locked door ahead of him.
Three Moblins were slumped around the corners of the room, laughing lazily. One had its eye on the door in a suspicious fashion, and Link recalled sarcastically that he had been rather noisy coming in.
Suspended over a pool of lava by chains on his wrists was Tarin, looking dazed and only half-conscious.
Link sprang forward and stabbed a Moblin before it could do much else than grunt in surprise, and then leapt past it to get at one scrambling to pull a switch. Link had no doubt it would drop Tarin into the lava, and with almost inhuman speed pinned the monster to the wall.
After the battle was over, Link frowned mightily at the dangling Tarin. The lever did not drop Tarin in the lava, but it didn’t do much in that room either.
“Tarin!” shouted Link.
The man woke with a start. “Link? Oh, I’m glad to see you! Where’s Marin?”
“I don’t know. Do you know how I can release you?”
“No… oh, boy, I’m sorry… you were right…”
“Don’t think about that,” Link said. “There must be some way to get you out of this.”
After a few moments, “Look, I’ll go get some water – I saw some big jugs of it back a little – and then I’ll cut the chains.”
“How will that work?” moaned Tarin.
“I think it will,” said Link, already back with the jug. He heaved it into the lava, and it melted, evaporated, and formed a small floating lump of rock.
Link made an incredible jump and severed both chains with his sword. Tarin dropped neatly onto the lump of rock.
“Jump! Quick!” Link shouted. Tarin hopped unsteadily onto firm ground.
Both men breathed a sigh of relief.
“All right, now,” Link said authoritively. “I don’t know where Marin is, but the owl is looking for her, too, and I need to get back to Mabe to hear what he has to say.”
“Did you get the Organ?”
“Yes. But that’s one thing that makes me especially worried…”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t want to tell you… oh, I guess you need to know. When they told me they had kidnapped Marin, they also said they would kill her if I retrieved any more Instruments…”
“We need to hurry!” Tarin exclaimed. “We shouldn’t go home. I don’t know where they’ve taken her, but it can’t be far…”
“No,” Link said firmly. “I will be back as soon as I can, but I can’t risk you, too. Please understand.”
Tarin was quiet for a few minutes, and then nodded. “You know best.”
Link looked very upset at that. “Unfortunately, I don’t know that.”
“Tarin, I’m sorry. If I had never come here, or if I had been less careless, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“That’s not tr-“
“Somewhere in my definition of a hero is the idea that… a hero fights to preserve peace and justice, and so… That someone I’m trying to protect is exposed to what I’m trying to protect them from means that I failed. At least you’re still alive so I can do better next time. Not like… not like one of my friends…”
Tarin was very quiet as they hurried back to Mabe in the lengthening twilight. Link was angry with himself more than ever. Still, he kept a small hope that if Marin were rescued, they would both emerge from this unscathed, emotionally and mentally as well as physically, if it were impossible they should be unchanged wholly.

The owl and, surprisingly, Richard, were waiting for them at Tarin’s house. The owl’s face was unchanged, but his mood seemed to lighten a bit as he saw Tarin was with Link.
“I have to say that I found no trace of Marin on the rest of the island. I brought Richard here for safety. He must not be alone in his hut.”
“And also!” cried Richard. “I wish to aid you in your valiant quest to rescue the fair maiden!”
Link stared at him.
“My sword is at your disposal, great warrior.”
“Did you bring your Golden Leaves?” Link asked. “Because you would help me more by defending the village. And, that being said, you might as well move here permanently.”
“I do see your logic,” Richard said, nodding sagely. “While before I might have doubted your skill, the tales I heard of you from Lady Marin have conquered my scepticism completely. You wish for me, and of course Tarin here, to relieve your mind of at least one pressing worry.”
“Yes, certainly,” Link said. “Thank you, Richard. Goodbye.”
“Where are you going?” Tarin demanded. “You haven’t eaten anything, and you need to rest.”
Link looked distressed, but stayed.
Richard left, muttering something about a tower, and the owl flew north. Link didn’t ask where he was going, but after eating, collapsed on the couch and fell into an uneasy sleep.
The next morning, after telling Tarin to stay put and no excuses, Link headed back to the eighth dungeon.

He entered it and searched for a long time. The day was passing, and the heat was getting to him. It was nearly nighttime already.
“Liiiink!” came a scream nearby. He whirled, and found that there was a door open just wide enough for someone to see him.
“Marin!” he shouted back, flinging open the door and running to her – and all the lights went out.
His hand brushed soft cloth and tight ropes. “Marin, is that you?”
He heard a wimper.
“Hold still.” He sliced through the ropes tying her slim body to a wooden pole, and felt her arms slip around his waist like a drowning person. She laid her head against his shoulder and her smooth hair brushed his arm.
Link flipped out his new Fire Rod and sent a bolt of flame jetting to the other end of the room.
Several creatures sneaking up on him were caught in the ensuing blaze, but it also showed him something else. Several huge Moblins were stomping towards him.
Link pulled away from Marin, ran to the door, and made sure it was shut firmly. Then he turned to the Moblins, took his sword in his left hand and the Fire Rod in his right, and engaged them.
They fought fiercely, surrounding him, and Link was hard pressed from the start. Marin had sunk to the floor and hid her face in her hands.
Link was having flashbacks to his fight with Shadow Link by the time he finally gained the upper hand and slashed the last Moblin’s head off.
He cleaned his sword and sheathed it, and ran back to Marin’s prone form.
“Marin?”
Abruptly, she stood and flung her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder again. “Link…”
He held her close. “You shouldn’t have done that. You’ll get blood on your dress.”
“Oh!” Marin said at about the same time. “You’re hurt!” The shoulder she was leaning on had an ugly jagged cut in it.
“Don’t worry about it, please. You’re unhurt?”
“Yes.” Her large brown eyes glittered in the fading firelight with unshed tears. “Oh, Link, I’m…”
His lips brushed hers…

Late, very late that night, and only halfway home, they stopped beside a stream. Marin, who seemed to be almost completely recovered, was not recovered at all physically.
She yawned. “Are you tired, Link?”
Link smiled. “Not really… I think…”
“You are, you are,” she teased him. “Can we stop here?”
“Sure, that’s fine. I wish I still had some food with me. You must be hungry.”
“It’s all right. Tomorrow, I will make a really big dinner, to celebrate.”
“Link, I-I am very grateful for what you have done for me…”
“I told you, I can’t leave you in the hands of enemies. That would just be wrong. As for my injuries, it’s better that I get injured than you.” Her eyes were so bewitching.
“Still… thank you…”
“Well, I do have one thing to say to you… You can’t be a bird if you’re afraid of heights.”
She laughed. “It’s not actually the heights I’m afraid of, but falling from them!”
“Same here.”
She laughed again, lay down and fell asleep in a patch of long grass.
Link looked down at her as he sat against a tree. Her face was peaceful, as well as he could see it in the starlight. The moon was not yet risen.
Suddenly, he felt very tired too. If Navi had been there, he would have lain down and gone to sleep as well, but he had to keep watch… had to…
His eyes closed, and unconsciously he slumped over beside the girl, putting an arm around her protectively.
Nothing attacked them that night.

Tarin was almost crying with joy the next day, and Link smiled for the rest of the day just to know that the world was back to normal.
Life did go on as normal, and Link stayed away from the dungeon. And yet –
The Moblins occasionally showed up, and Link always fought them off. But something was wrong with that, he knew. Allowing evil to exist, perhaps to flourish where he could not see, was against his principles.
He was not afraid of them, or even of what they might do to his friends – he knew that much. Mabe Village was perfectly safe as long as he was there, and once when he visited Animal Village, he found that the bear was an equally competent guardian.
But Link was getting restless again already. Although the quiet life of Mabe was a wonderful change from almost his entire life, and Marin’s songs left him with nothing to wish for, he felt… dull. The Moblin raids did little to lift the monotony that assailed him after the second week of normal life. Link was furious with himself, but that did nothing to change his restiveness.
So why, he asked himself one day, did he wait in the village? The last dungeon remained as yet a refuge of monsters, and with everyone safe, there was no reason to not go and defeat it.
So Link went, one day, giving everyone full notice of his mission.
The dungeon was not difficult, even though the monsters inside it had devised new traps and reset the old ones. There were only a few moments where Link was puzzled momentarily. And, at last, he fought the boss of the dungeon, a withered little imp that lived in the lava.
“I will never allow you to play the Instruments of the Sirens! You cannot wake the Wind Fish!” it cried, throwing rock at him.
Link frowned and flung fire magic at the creature. Shortly thereafter, it was caught full-on in a magic fireball, and burnt for real. It choked and screeched.
“I’m done for… but so are you! Remember… you… are in the… dream too!”
Link took this all very calmly. He was not planning to discover whether he was living in a dream or not anytime soon.
The last Instrument of the Sirens was the Thunder Drum. It was a rather large side drum, with sticks included.

Link returned to Mabe Village for the last time, and waited.
The monster attacks were growing much more vicious, even though all eight dungeons were empty. The other villagers went about their tasks happily and innocently, unknowing that every night, the young hero would take up his patrol around the edge of the settlement, driving away each and every would-be invader.
Tarin began helping him to build a house for himself nearby. Richard had almost completed his own house, built in an empty field between the shops. Link was left without much choice, but chose to build his between the Ulriras’ house and one of the shops. It was a tiny little house, which suited Link fine. It reminded him a little of his home in Kokiri Forest. Marin adored it, and called it cute.
And this continued for months.
Summer was passing, and fall was beginning to redden the land. Link had plenty of time to think on his position. Although he was busy in the community, guarding them through the night, sleeping from dawn until noon, helping in the small fields, fishing sometimes, and taking Marin to Animal Village and to visit Martha sometimes, most of those activities he did by himself. Yet he had all night, every night, when he wasn’t actually fighting, to puzzle over his confusing feelings.
His first confusion was over Marin. He loved her, and she at least liked him a lot, but he had not said or done anything since he had rescued her from the Moblins in the mountains. In relation to his second dilemma, over whether the island was a dream, he hesitated to tell her anything.
He still had not decided if he should stay for the rest of his life, or leave. Mr. Write, who now lived in Animal Village, had told him that, when he was young, he had tried to sail away, but always found the island waiting for him after a few hours. Link, with no boat and no inclination to build one, decided not to repeat the other man’s experiment. So, he had to either wake the Wind Fish, or live his life out on Koholint.
As he pondered these things for weeks, he turned to the beach more and more often, wondering where Navi, Tael, Tatl, and Demon were. He imagined his friends, and decided their best course would be to go back to Hyrule. Demon would be an excellent substitute Hero in Link’s place. But, knowing Navi, that was not going to happen.
And one day, Marin came to find him, as he sat on a log with his chin on his hands, staring at the ever-changing waves.
“Link, what’s the matter?”
He started to use the words he had for months, but stopped. “I don’t wa-“
“Marin…”
“Yes?” She sat beside him.
“I just have an awful feeling, all the time now. I’ll tell you… It’s that, once when I was collecting Instruments of the Sirens, I came across a shrine…” He told her about the carving on the wall. “I don’t know if it’s true… Marin? Are you all right?”
She had turned as white as paper, and sat very still.
He put his arms around her, and she was cold to the touch, although the day was hot. She yielded to his embrace, however, and turned and clung to him.
“I… I’m just so startled. And scared.”
“Me too. I don’t want to wake the Wind Fish if you are going to disappear. But things can’t go on like this.”
“Like what?” She looked up at him with frightened eyes.
“I’m sorry, Marin… I don’t want to cause you any more pain…”
“I want to know…”
“I know. You have a lot of spirit… that’s why I’m telling you… But every night, I go and patrol around the town… Monsters have attacked… Frequently.”
“Oh, I never knew! Why didn’t you tell someone?”
“I didn’t want you to know. I know Richard’s been making fun of me, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Link, you are the kindest boy I know… There’s a little selfish part of me that wants to make you stay here whether you want to or not…”
“I- Oh, Farore, I can’t go on…” He buried his face in his hands.
“I feel… trapped. Here. On Koholint. Not even your friendship and the duty of protecting Mabe lifts that feeling.” He waited for her to despise him.
Her arm went over his shoulders. “I know.”
She had nothing else to say. Neither did Link.
Until they stood, both their faces grave. Link was unused to Marin’s expression being grave, and impulsively took her hands.
“Marin, oh, Marin, I love you.”
She leaned away from him in surprise, and blushed redder than she had yet. “You… do? …Yes… you… do.”
“You say I’m the kindest person you know… but you are far more kind…”
“I… don’t… think so…”
“It’s true.”
He kissed her.
They walked home in silence, but Marin’s happy smile had lifted Link’s spirits again.

It was not a month later when Marin had told the village of what Link had done for them and organized their own patrol. Link began to have his nights back for sleeping in.
With Marin as his fiancé, he was happy and contented when he was with her. But she could not be with him always. Something was calling to him from beyond the horizon. He didn’t know what it was. He didn’t think it was Navi.
Marin saw it, and ignored it patiently. Link felt himself an ingrate when she put her head on his shoulder so trustingly.
Yet, bare weeks later, he felt he had to go.
“After all,” he said to Marin, “this may not be a dream. I want to know.”
“If we are a dream…”
“I’ll never forget you, I promise. Never, ever. You’re too dear to me for that…”
“Thank you. The Wind Fish will take care of us, anyway!”
The villagers gathered, even the ones from Animal Village, to see him off. No one made big speeches, and hardly anyone wept. Everyone had something to say to him; everyone wanted to shake his hand or hug him. Tarin called him ‘my son’, which almost made Link cry, but instead he gave him a bear hug.
Finally, Link kissed Marin one last time, and turned his face towards the central mountain.

The mountain was tall, but the path was smooth and straight. Though he had the eight Sirens’ Instruments, he hardly felt their weight. At the top was the huge, pearly egg that was visible from all over the Island. It towered over him when he came right up to it.
He pulled out his Ocarina, set it to his lips, and played the Ballad of the Wind Fish.
Even if he never saw Marin again, that song alone would keep her with him forever.
The Instruments floated into the air, sparkling, and began to play their own haunting melodies with his. He had never heard such music before.
A deep fissure appeared in the side of the egg in front of him, and the Instruments fell to the ground, useless.
Link looked in, but could see nothing. All was darkness, and there was no visible place to stand. Saying a quick prayer, he stepped in and let himself fall.
He landed heavily on a green, marble floor. Lights flared around him, and he looked around. It was like he was in an arena. Looking up, he saw distantly something blue and glittery.
Swishing noises from behind him alerted him, and he turned with drawn sword.
A threatening black shadow crouched on the floor, constantly shifting its shape.
“You are a fool, little hero. You are trapped here, and we shall kill you now. No one will ever wake the Wind Fish, and we shall control him.”
“You are the one who controls the monsters?”
“We are the Nightmare Creatures.” The shadow split into half a dozen smaller shadows and they crawled around the edges of the room around him. “There is no escape for you, and you have doomed your little friends. This dream will never end.”
“You will end, though,” countered Link, and plunged his sword into the shadow.
That did nothing. It took him several minutes for him to figure out their fighting style – one of them fought rather like Gohma, another like Morpha, another like Ganondorf – and several more to remember his most powerful weapon.
Dropping his sword, his shield, everything, he unslung his bow. Dodging a razor-sharp shadow claw, he drew an arrow, set it, and called on the power of light.
Shadow bone, flesh, and steel melted before the divine golden glow.
The blue shape far away at the top of the Egg stirred, shifted, twirled, and drifted lazily down to near the young Hero. Link put away his weapons and waited it.
It was a great blue whale, adorned with a jewelled headdress.
“You have done well, young Hero. I thank you for dispelling the creatures of darkness. Play the song of Awakening once more…”
“Wait one moment,” Link cried. “What will become of Koholint?”
“There is no way to know…”
Link stood still for a long moment, and then lifted the Ocarina to his lips.
The Instruments of the Sirens played again, and then fell and shattered into sparkling dust as Link felt himself blown upward on a geyser of water…

Link stirred groggily. His mind was made of fuzz, it seemed. He could feel it. An arm twitched, feeling for a missing rudder.
What? Rudder?
Where was Navi?
An eye cracked open, showing hot blue sky. He was lying on something hard and uncomfortable…
“Liiiiiink!” someone squealed, and something small and soft pelted his cheek. “He’s awake!”
His arm twitched and reached up to hug the happy little fairy mobbing his face. He blinked again at the sky, and sat up.
He was on a small raft. Demon sat nearby at a makeshift tiller, the two other fairies bobbing around his head. They too came to help ‘wake up’ Link, who held their attacks off, laughing.
He glanced around at the empty horizon and sighed quietly. No Koholint.
And then a shadow fell across him and he looked up. The Wind Fish was flying through the sky, singing a familiar song… the Ballad of the Wind Fish.
Link smiled gently.
Demon smiled at the distant-minded Hylian. “Welcome back, O strange dreamer.”

Chapter 6

Chapter 5     Chapter 7

Chapter 6

    The next day, Link went to the shop and bought a bow. It wasn’t as good as his old one, but it would do until he could find or make a better one. Thus armed, he went exploring to the east past Kanelet Castle, scouting out the land to see if he could get to the mysterious village Marin had hinted about. The river flowed deep and fast, and he hesitated to dive in.
    He found a cave, and it didn’t smell like monsters, and no monster noises came out of it, so he went in with a makeshift torch he had fashioned out of wood and old cloth and magic powder. The tunnel got very tight at one point, and he could hear water trickling all around him, but it was not a dead end. The exit put him on the other side of the river, and Link smiled.
    “I wonder if I could make an easier way for Marin to cross,” he wondered out loud. “Well, at least there is one safe-ish way.”
    He set off on the well-travelled path south, and it soon bent to the left. There was a large sign overhanging the road that said ‘Animal Village’.
    Link blinked at the sign and stepped forward.
    Five white rabbits, a blue baby bear, and a small raven rushed up to him, and stopped, their faces showing disappointment.
    “…” Link stared at them. He had met talking monkeys, but never talking rabbits… if they could talk. “…Hello?”
    Two rabbits turned back to him and smiled politely. “I’m sorry, stranger. We thought Little Marin had come.”
    “Oh. I’m a friend of Marin. I just arrived on the island. She was going to come, but the bridge is gone.”
    “Yes, monsters got it. I don’t know where they came from! Anyway, what’s your name?”
    “I’m Link.”
    “Pleased to meet you. Are you a swordfighter?”
    “Yes, I am.”
    “Wow! We’ve never met a swordfighter before.”
    “There are supposed to be swordfighters at the castle, but we never bothered going, and they didn’t bother coming.”
    “Oh, didn’t you know?” Link gave them all the news he could think of. Meanwhile, the animals were showing him around their village in much the same way Marin had showed him hers. The baby bear introduced him to his father, a gourmet chef, and Link met an artist who was a crocodile, and a goat who was writing a letter and was very annoyed at being disturbed, muttering something about etiquette.
    Soon, the animals and Link were right at home with each other, and he found himself playing with them as if he were ten years younger. He had a lot of fun that day, and decided to fix that bridge as soon as he could.
    On the way back, he was pursued and attacked by a small swarm of monsters, not just Moblins but little Octoroks and Moldorms as well. He stopped heading west and turned north, leading them away from the villages, before turning to counterattack. He took out two of three Moblins, and almost all the Moldorms, when an arrow pierced his left shoulder from behind. Clenching his teeth, he whirled, ducked, and plunged forward into the darkness to kill the extra Moblin with the bow. His sword was difficult to hold.
    Weary, but triumphant, he arrived home with no further mishaps.
    The family was already in bed, but as he closed the door as quietly as he could, he heard a tiny squeak and looked up to see Marin’s door slowly opening and a pair of pretty brown eyes peering out at him.
    “Is that you, Link? Why did you stay out so late?”
    “Er… I ran into trouble on the way home.” They were whispering so as not to wake Tarin.
    “Trouble? Oh! You’re hurt!”
    “It’s not much. I can fix it.”
    “Let me help you.”
    Link turned his shoulder towards her. “Just pull it out. It’s at a terrible angle for me.”
    “Just pull?” Marin took hold of the arrow shaft nervously.
    “Pull hard.”
    He heard her suck in her breath and felt her brace her hand against his back. Pain raced down his arm and she wrenched the arrow out of his shoulder.
    Link sagged in relief, although his shoulder was throbbing even worse now. It could be bandaged and anaesthetized. After he took his shirt off, Marin made him sit still and did it all for him, and her cool hands relaxed him as she wound strips of cloth around his arm.
    When she was done, he smiled at her, and lay down on his bed, the couch, curling up like a small child. He didn’t even hear her close her door again.
    He slept late the next morning, but as soon as his consciousness was awake enough to know the difference, his eyes opened with a start, and he jumped up excitedly.
    “Where’s Marin?” he asked Tarin. “I found a way to get to Animal Village, and I want to surprise her with it.”
    “She’s down at the beach, as usual.”
    Link ran down to the beach after hardly a bite of food, and followed the sound of beautiful singing.
    He came across her in a little cove, stretching her arms to the seagulls. She heard his footsteps and turned, startled. At first her eyes were frightened, but when she saw it was him, she relaxed and smiled.
    “Does your shoulder hurt today?”
    “No, it’s fine. I’m going to go find a Great Fairy sometime. There are some around; I’ve seen their pools. What are you doing here?”
    “I’m just singing… I like to sit here and wonder… Do you know, I…”
    Link sat down on a log, and Marin sat close beside him, looking down at her hands in her lap.
    “When you came… I was so excited…”
    “I thought, ‘this person has come to give us a message!’”
    “I… I’ve never been away from Koholint…”
    “You haven’t suffered from it,” Link blurted out, staring at her, instantly blushing.
    Marin blushed too and looked out at the sea, away from him. “I-I always wondered what it would be like to be a seagull and fly to far distant lands… I once wished I could fly away and sing for many people… You know?”
    “… yes…”
    “I’m glad you came. We’ve never known anyone like you…”
    “I’ve never known anyone quite like you, either… Rana was fun, and Saria was gentle, and the Princess was beautiful, but you’re –“ Link stopped before saying ‘all three’.
    Marin jumped up, flustered. “I don’ t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Actually, you’re a lot like my friend Malon, who looks a bit like you, too. Except she doesn’t sing Ballad of the Finned Wish… um, Wind Fish…”
    “Are you sure your shoulder doesn’t hurt?”
    “No, I… I’m happy about something, and I want to show it to you!”
    “What?”
    “Come with me,” and Link set off, looking back at her. Her face was pink as she followed him.
    He led her to close to the river after asking a fairy to heal him, and showed her the cave. “Do you know where this goes?”
    “No…”
    He took her to the river and showed her what he had done the day before – he had made a sort of rope bridge out of two ropes – one to stand on, and one to hold on to.
    “Do you want to walk across yourself, or shall I carry you?”
    “Er… ah, I’ll go by myself. Did you do this?”
    “Yes, yesterday. Just a minute…”
    When they were both across, he showed her the other cave entrance. “If the bridge breaks for any reason, you can get under the river like this. It’s a bit dark, dirty, and narrow, though… so…”
    “Wow! I never knew about that. You see so much.”
    “It’s… my job, partly.”
    Marin skipped and twirled, and ran ahead to the village, where she was mobbed by happy animals. “It’s Little Marin! Sing us a song!”
    “All right, already! Sit down, and I will.”
    Link sat down near the back, since he was the biggest, and listened to Marin’s lovely voice and her lovely favourite song, “Ballad of the Wind Fish”, and other songs, too.
    After a while, they started talking about him, and Marin mentioned that he was an adventurer, and explained about that. The little raven hopped up and down.
    “Hang on a second! I found something weird in the desert once. Maybe he knows what it is!” And it brought him a fish-shaped key.
    “I guess it’s the key to another dungeon,” Link said, after glancing at it once.
    “Ooh, are you going to go and fight it?”
    “I suppose… Can I keep it?”
    “Yeah! Keep it and beat the monsters!”
    “Okay, I will.” Link smiled.
    They returned to Mabe Village that night, together, and the next day, they went back to Animal Village yet again. This time, Link stayed only for a few minutes to hear Marin sing a song and to say hello to the residents, and then he left to find where the key went.
    It was a long hard trek uphill towards the centre of the island, towards the central mountain, but at least, Link thought, it wasn’t through jungle. His path was a rocky, dry one, with smaller, tougher, grey-skinned Moblins trying to stop him.
    He found the dungeon entrance at about lunch-time, which was intensely fast, and after a sandwich, he dove in.
    He came to the end of it in a couple of hours. He was weary, but not as hot and sweaty as usual, as the dungeon was half-underwater, and the largest, final monster was in a deep, black, cold pool. He didn’t trust the water, though, and drank only from his bottle to keep himself hydrated.
    The Sirens’ Instrument he found was a lovely carved harp, with a beautiful ringing sound when he so much as let wind blow through it. He even blew through the strings on purpose to hear it more. Then he tucked it under his arm – wishing that his fairy were there to take it and protect the delicate thing from damage – and left.
    Marin was still in the Animal Village when he returned, which relieved him: it was getting late, and he was concerned about her safety if she returned alone. She smiled at the harp, and tried to play it, but though the notes she played were pretty, they had no coherent meaning.
    Suddenly, Link checked behind himself.
    “What is it?”
    “Uh… Nothing…”
    They returned to Mabe Village, but Link kept having the feeling that he was being watched, but when he closed his eyes and listened, he could sense no living creatures other than Marin and drowsy birds close by. They continued, with the girl giving him confused looks every once in a while
    Then he heard a sigh, and it didn’t come from Marin. It wasn’t another human, or a Moblin either… Link’s skin prickled all over, and he quickened his pace.
    “What was that?” Marin asked.
    “You heard it?”
    “Yes.”
    “I don’t know. Let’s get home.”
    She nodded, and they almost ran to Mabe Village.
    Once they were inside Tarin’s house, where he had prepared mushroom stew for them, they relaxed a bit.
    Sitting in front of the fire – night was cool, even in summer – after supper, Link glanced around, frowning, and rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know… I just have this feeling that something’s not right, but it’s not threatening…”
    “I’m… I feel…”
    “I have the Triforce of Courage, which makes me fearless against any physical danger… but I still get creeped out by things I can’t see or understand…” Link got up and looked out the window. “It’s annoying me. This doesn’t normally happen.”
    “No, I’d say not,” Marin agreed, huddling into a little ball on the hearth.
    “…Please… Help… me…”
    Link jumped and whirled. “Who are you?!”
    “I… am… lost…”
    Link resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
    “What do you need help with? Where do you want to go?” Marin asked, looking everywhere, and actually relaxing. Link stared at her.
    “…Home… You…”
    A dim, pale shape was coalescing in the middle of the living room. Link calmed a bit now that he could see it. It turned towards him.
    “You… are a… fine… young man…”
    “Thank you,” said Link uncertainly.
    “Today… I will… stay with… you. Tomorrow… we… can… go.”
    “All right,” Link replied.
    “Is your home close?” asked Marin.
    “Yes…”
    “What’s your name?”
    The ghost put its face close to Link’s ear and whispered a name that sent a tingle through Link, though he couldn’t say why.
    Marin looked at his wide eyes and epiphanic face, but decided not to ask. She rose.
    “Goodnight, everyone.”
    Link shook himself out of his reverie. “Goodnight, Marin.”
    The ghost faded away, but Link knew it was still there, motionless. He curled up on the couch and tried to get comfortable in his mind as well as his body.
    Where had he heard that name before?

    The next morning, he set out with Marin to find the ghost’s house, and they found it at almost suppertime – on the edge of Martha’s Bay, a tiny little crumbling building. It was difficult to see in the daylight the faint pale glimmer that was the spirit, but inside it became stronger and something almost like a face began to form as it looked around. It looked almost like a Hylian as it glanced at the bed, and the mouldy table.
    “This is the place,” the spirit said happily. “It brings back memories, doesn’t it?”
    “What?” Link said without thinking. Marin elbowed him.
    “I love this little house…”
    Marin smiled at it.
    “I must leave now.” It turned to him, becoming indistinct again. “For you… something… under… the bed…”
    Link knelt down and scrabbled a bit in the dust, coming out with a new, large shield. It resembled the Gerudo Mirror shield he had left behind in the future, but without the design on its face.
    “I… hope… it helps… you… in your quest…”
    “Thank you,” Link said.
    “And… Martha has… what you seek.”
    Link looked at Marin, and she made a sign that meant ‘later’.
    They left the house and Marin led Link to the graveyard. Alone, in a separate plot, there was a small gravestone with the Triforce on it. Link blinked at it and looked at Marin.
    “Well, I don’t know what it is,” Marin told him. “It’s just three triangles.”
    “It’s the Triforce.”
    “What’s a Triforce?”
    The ghost turned to them, not seeming to notice their discussion.
    “…Thank… you. …I can… rest now.” It turned to the grave, and for the briefest of instants, it looked like a person again. Link cried out, but the spirit was gone.
    “Who was that?” Link asked.
    “It was…” Marin read the name on the grave. “But I don’t know why you would be reacting that way.”
    “Neither do I. That’s why I’m asking. Anyway, the Triforce is…”
    Link explained on the way home a little more about his homeland, and Marin was properly impressed by the mark on his left hand. Her innocent admiration warmed Link’s heart and embarrassed him.

    The next day, over breakfast, Link asked: “So, who is Martha?”
    “Oh, right!” Marin exclaimed. “I forgot all about her. She’s the mermaid in the bay. She’s named after her grandmother, who’s named after some ancestor. The bay is also named after that ancestor. I guess she must have been very beautiful or something.”
    “Oh. Does she have something that I seek? Like an Instrument or something?”
    “Oh, no, Martha doesn’t have an Instrument. But we can go ask her about it.”
    She led him in the direction of Animal Village, but turned south before they reached the river. At the edge of a huge blue lagoon, she pointed to a round rock just above the water near to them. “Martha usually likes to sit there. I guess we wait until she shows up.”
    “Oh, hi, honey,” sang a very happy voice. “Looking for me?”
    “Martha!” cried Marin. “Yes, we are. This is Link. He’s a hero.”
    “Sweet,” answered the wavy black-haired, black-eyed mermaid. “In two senses of the word. Could he help poor little me out?”
    “Why, what’s wrong?” said both legged persons.
    Martha winked and turned on her back. “Well, I’m swimming along, minding my own business, when a bunch of little fat fish with sharp teeth start trying to bite me! They didn’t get me, of course.”
    “Well, but that’s…” Marin’s voice died away as she remembered the land monsters actions. “It’s just a couple of fish…”
    Well, honey, it seems like the cavern in the middle of the bay is off limits to nice folks. There are other things than little fat fish in these waters now. Unless, of course, handsome wants to come and purge them or something.”
    “Yes, I will,” Link said suddenly. “Is there an Instrument of the Sirens in the cavern?”
    “Bless you, he doesn’t waste time, does he? I don’t know. The Wind Marimba is supposed to be around here somewhere, but in there?” She thought. “I guess that would make sense, although we never thought about it… at least, I didn’t.”
    “Go on ahead to Animal Village, Marin,” said Link, wading into the water. “I’ll be back soon.”
    He followed Martha to the middle of the bay. She swam butterfly, he swam sidestroke as he usually did. She stopped, and he caught up to her.
    “Straight down from here,” she said. He nodded and dove.
    Down, down, a very long way it seemed. Link wondered if he had enough air as he swooped under an arch. He caught a brief glimpse of a huge carving of a fish, which looked a lot like the front door of the     Zoran Hall in Termina, and then he was inside. Light beckoned him upwards, and he shot out gasping into a warmly lit, roughly hewed cavern. He flopped on his back, panting.
    Martha’s head popped out of the water. “Um, you might want to look around before you do that…”
    Link jumped up and spun, drawing his sword. A strange, helmeted quadruped was charging him. He leapt out of the way, though his legs felt sluggish, and stabbed it under the helmet from behind. It squealed and collapsed.
    Martha clapped. “Good, now you can recover your air.” Her tone indicated she thought of pure-air-breathers as odd. “I’ll leave you to the rest of it, then. And if you’re looking for Instruments and things, you can have any you find, I guess. It’s not like we’ll be using them. Bye!”
    “Bye,” Link replied, getting up and venturing further in.
    It seemed odd that so much of the cave was pretty dry. Martha and her family would have found it difficult to get around inside.
    When he exited with the Wind Marimba, undamaged by water or by water-moldorm, he made for the Village. Martha had somehow gotten into the pool just below the town, and Marin was talking to her. They were having a cheerful conversation about – him. He joined them, and the girls squealed in surprise, and Marin blushed. After a while, Martha left.

    Link spent the rest of the day chatting pleasantly with Marin. It was nice to be with her – to be with someone who understood what he meant when he talked about strange things, someone who was cheerful and kind and gentle. Sometimes, she would sing a song, and then the animals would gather around. Link had a lurking suspicion that the big brown bear in the café had a crush on Marin, and a stronger suspicion that he was jealous of Link. Link laughed inside at that, but also felt uncomfortable. He felt he’d rather not think about it.
    If Navi had been there, she would have told him otherwise, he knew, and that made him more uncomfortable.
    The next day, Marin stayed in Mabe Village, playing with the quadruplets. Link went out to the land north of Animal Village, where he hadn’t been yet. He met the owl, who helped him, directing him to a small shrine. Without his assistance, he would probably have bypassed it altogether.
    Link walked carefully among the tall standing pillars. The shrine was in a small, stony valley, and the sun was not yet high, so most of the valley was still pleasantly shaded.
    As he entered the darkness of the main building, he heard shuffling and clanking.
    Link stood motionless, only his eyes and ears moving.
    Ceremonial armoured guards advanced out of the darkness in a semi-circle around him. For a moment, nothing moved.
    Then, they attacked with huge axes.
    “Just once, I’d like to run into some holy guards who aren’t trying to kill off the hero,” Link muttered as he ducked and counterattacked.
    The suits of armour were empty, and the empty shards turned to stone and vanished. Link blinked. He had seen some odd antagonists, but this was stretching his credibility.
    The next room was blazing with light, and the door locked behind him, just like old times. A massive statue lurked in the centre of the room, clutching a giant spear.
    The statue creaked to life – “Of course,” Link told himself with satisfaction – and forced him to jump back.
    Eventually he found its weak spot in its fragile joints, and pelted them with ice arrows.
    When it fell in pieces, he found a key in the ruins. The carved top looked like a cat’s head, but not quite. It looked a little disturbing somehow.
    There was another room he hadn’t gone into. He wondered if there was a door for the key in the next room.
    The next room was pitch black. Link hastily dug out his almost-forgotten magic powder and sprinkled some on the torches at the door. He took one with him as he walked forward, staring at the huge carving at the back of the room.
    It showed a picture of what looked like Jabu-Jabu and the owl, surrounded by grape vines… and there was a strange form of Hylian letters carved throughout it. Part of it was scratched as with sharp claws. It sounded like a poem.
    “To the Finder… The Isle of Koholint, is but an Illusion… Human, Monster, Sea, Sky… A scene on the lid of a Sleeper’s Eye… Awake the Dreamer, and Koholint will vanish much like a bubble on a needle…”
    “Cast-away, you should know the Truth!”
    Link turned away, his mind reeling.
    “It… doesn’t mean anything, does it?” he said aloud uncertainly. “It sounds like… it’s all been set up for me… but that doesn’t make any sense at all… completely incredible.”
    He paused for a long moment.
    “If I wake the Wind Fish, Koholint will vanish as if it had never been?” He raced through his new acquaintances… Marin, Tarin, the quadruplets and the animals, Grandma and Grandpa Ulrira, and even Richard… they are real people. If the island were to vanish, what would happen to them? Would they vanish too?
    Link went back home, arriving near supper, and sat and stared at the sky. The sun set slowly as the hours went by, and the clouds deepened to rosy red and brightened again briefly to gold before everything turned purple.
    Marin tried to talk to him, seeing he was upset, but he put her away gently. He didn’t want to tell her what he had read.
    Was that tablet even real? “Cast-away, you should know the truth”, it had said, but if it was not the truth…
    His thoughts degenerated into semi-coherent blobs of logic and he went to bed, still trying to get it into something he could understand in words.
    The next day he felt differently. Going up to the woods, he tried to let himself understand the flashes of insight that were invading his mind. After all, he had decided not to tell anyone, so why did he need to put it into words?
    All that day, he hesitated, unsure whether to find the place to put the key and ultimately, the next instrument, or to leave the rest as proof against waking the Wind Fish and destroying the island “like a bubble,” he thought resentfully.
    He returned with a grim face, and Marin sighed as she went about her chores. Link helped her, and then went to sword practice.
    When he was so exhausted he could barely hold his sword straight, he went back into the house.
    Marin was sitting in the living room, and she got up and smiled a little uncertainly, holding out a slim volume. “I found a really useful book… you might want to read this one next…” It was entitled “Instruments of the Sirens”. Inside were descriptions of different instruments, including the Cello, the Horn, and the rest, and Link learned the next one was a triangle. Link had never thought of a triangle as being particularly musical in combination with other instruments. There were no pictures, though. The book talked about the properties of the instruments, including the fact that they were indestructible.
    “Well, that explains why the monsters didn’t just smash them,” Link said, “and prevent the chance of…” He looked up and smiled at Marin. “Thanks. This is great.”
    “Are you having trouble with something?” she asked, innocently, smiling more naturally now.
    Link hesitated. “I… I don’t really want to tell you about it… not yet…”
    “Okay. I wish I could help. You seemed so tired and sad today.”
    Link looked at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
    “That’s all right,” Marin said automatically. “Um… Good night.”
    “Good night…”
    The next day, his moods were mixed. He wanted to go to the next dungeon – he felt refreshed and ready – and he wanted to hold back and think through his situation some more. The pile of Instruments on the table was already pretty big, even though they were individually small instruments.
    After breakfast, and listening to a once-more-happy Marin singing “Ballad of the Wind Fish” as she swept the step, his desire for action won out and he was off exploring again.
    He was getting pretty far a-field, and it took him almost all day to find the dungeon. To make up for it, he raced through it, defeating its monsters in record time, for him, and carried the Coral Triangle out in triumph to the sunset.
    Sunset! He looked at it in dismay. Even with his efforts, he was going to be very late indeed getting back. He would have to go carefully when he came to the river, too. Electric chus liked to congregate on the northern mid-section of it.
    He wished, again, for Navi and his other friendly fairies. A hero’s life was just as lonely as he had heard, and while it didn’t bother him a lot of the time, as he liked peace and quiet, the solo adventuring was pointing out to him just how forlorn he was without even his fairy to talk to and share things with. He was taking to talking to himself inside the dungeons, for goodness’ sake!

    He did get home late, later than last time, and this time, uninjured. Marin looked out to see him, but he waved a good-night to her while covering the yawn of the century with his other hand. She grinned at him and went back to bed.
    The next day, he took as a holiday, and spent his time mostly with Marin. True, Tarin showed him his collection of whittled figurines, and they went to tea with Richard, and Marin dropped off some embroidery or something for Grandma Ulrira, and Link played one game of ball with the quadruplets, but that took surprisingly little of the day. Marin stayed away from his darkness of the day before the day before that, and Link was determined to enjoy himself that day.
    Occasionally, dark thoughts would sweep across his mind, but he did his best to push them back into his subconscious. He didn’t think Marin noticed anything.

    The next morning, Link was rounding the corner of the house with an armful of wood.
    “Hey! You!” yelled a squeaky Moblin voice. “I gotta message for you! We got the girl, so-“
    Link dropped the wood on his foot. His arm shot out and the miniature Moblin was pinned to the wall of the house.
    “Where?”
    “We – we – If you want to see her again, stop trying to destroy the island!”
    “Where is she!?”
    “M-mountains…”
    Link turned and threw the Moblin as far as he could. It bounced. “Tell your cronies I’m coming. I’ll walk into whatever trap they’ve got set up. But if they’ve hurt her in any way, I’ll…”
    “What’s the matter?” Tarin asked, coming around the corner of the house. The Moblin squealed and scampered away.
    Link stood very still. “They’ve taken Marin.”
    “What did you say!?”
    “They’ve kidnapped her. Excuse me. I need to go find her.”
    Link took off at a run, his sword and shield bouncing on his back.
    Tarin stood frozen in shock, staring after him.

Chapter 5     Chapter 7

Chapter 4     Chapter 6

Chapter 5

    Link stirred groggily. His mind was made of fuzz, it seemed. He could feel it. An arm twitched, feeling for a missing rudder.
    What? Rudder?
    Where was Navi?
    He tried to remember…
    Memories were flitting in front of his mind’s eye. Sending Epona home… building a ship… Not very big, only big enough for himself and… Demon… yes.
    Setting sail, visiting different islands, having hectic times and good times… just he couldn’t remember them yet…
    Two years had passed since he had set out from Termina’s Great Bay, and he’d had many adventures… so how was it that he was in a comfortable bed that wasn’t rocking? The blankets were warm and soft…
    Not like that storm… right. A hurricane had hit. “I’m going to reef!” Link had yelled to Demon, giving him the tiller and clambering to the mast, clinging like a monkey to anything he could. He grabbed a rope and wrapped it around his right arm for safety. The rest of his memory was a blank…
    “Ah! Are you waking up, sir?”
    “Uhn?” Who was the girl? Malon? His eyelids cracked open, showing him brownish red hair and a blue dress. “Uhn?” he mumbled again.
    He flung himself upright into a sitting position, his pulse going about a hundred kilometres an hour. “Where’s Navi? Where am I? Who are you? Are you Malon? You look different. Where am I?”
    The girl stepped back, laughing. “Whoa, traveller. I’m Marin, not Malon. I don’t know a Malon. You’re on Koholint Island. What was your other question?”
    “Where’s Navi?”
    “Who’s Navi?”
    “She’s my… fairy… I guess she’s not here. Why am I here?”
    “My little girl found you on the beach!” said a deeper, jolly voice. Link looked over to a little table where a man who looked an awful lot like Talon sat, fiddling with a pipe.
    “Eh? What beach?”
    The man chuckled. “Of course you were found on a beach; we’re an island!”
    “Okay. I think I’m getting it… so I washed up here?”
    “Were you in a shipwreck?” Marin asked excitedly. “We’ve never had anyone wash up before. What’s your name?”
    “Link, and I’m not sure what happened. I was on my ship with my friends in a hurricane and I went to reef and then I’m not sure what happened. I need to go look for them…”
    “I’ll show you the way,” Marin volunteered. “Here’s your shield. It was strapped to your back, and it looked uncomfortable and dirty. I cleaned it.” Link buckled both his belts on and checked his appearance. Since he had left Termina, he had donned a brown sweater under his green tunic and shorts, bought new boots out of necessity, and let his hair grow a bit longer, and he was definitely much taller. The shield on its cross-strap made him feel comfortable, even if the comforting weight of his sword was missing.
    “I’m going to the forest,” Tarin called, as they left his house, sauntering in a different direction than the boy and the girl.
    “This way,” Marin said, skipping ahead of Link.
    Link looked around. The village reminded him somewhat of Kakariko – laid back, contented, cheerful… he could see an elderly woman sweeping her porch, and three identical boys playing ball while another identical boy egged them on…
    “Whoa!” Link started back as an enormous black dog lunged at him.
    “That’s Bow-Wow. He doesn’t hurt people, but he’s death on the little monsters we find around occasionally! Little blobby things and stuff.”
    Fortunately, it was chained to a post, but Link edged carefully past the dog as he followed Marin.
    Marin led him past a building with a sign: “Library” and to the top of a steep drop. Link stopped for a moment and looked out at the horizon. The sky was blue, and the sea was calm. It was a beautiful sight, but no ships broke the smooth sheet of water.
    “What are you waiting for?” Marin asked, turning back from where she had slid down a short incline in her sandals. “We have to find your friends!”
    “Sorry.” Link followed her, although he saw some wooden stairs nearby.
    The beach was made of fine sand, with palm nuts everywhere. There was flotsam and jetsam everywhere. The two made their way slowly along. Link was looking for anything that gleamed – it could be a fairy. He was also looking for Demon, but if the spirit was unconscious or tired he would be in the shape of a mask, meditating, and be harder to find. Link checked under every pile of seaweed or driftwood he came across.
    Something glittering caught his eye at the same time that Marin said: “What’s that?”
    Link raced forward and found something long and sharp. “Well, it’s not as good as I’d like, but it’s good.” He picked up his sword and sheathed it. “Now I’m not defenceless.”
    “Oh, it’s okay!” Marin assured him. “I hardly ever see monsters, and they never bother me. They only bothered people a long, long time ago…”
    “Looks like there’s some right here,” Link said grimly, whipping out his sword and facing the small band of Moblins coming from around a corner in the cliff face. “Stay behind me!” Marin ducked back in a whirl of skirts.
    Link charged at the monsters as they charged at him. He was taller, stronger, bigger, and faster than ever, and the fifteen year old was confident in his monster destroying abilities, although he hadn’t truly used them for some time. He dodged the spears and leapt high in the air, stabbing downwards. He got scratched on the arm, and wished he had a fairy friend with him to help him concentrate on his targets.
    “Kill him! He’ll destroy the island!” came a shout from the top of the cliff. Link looked up and saw another, bigger Moblin. The Hylian had killed one of the four, but the other three were putting up a good fight. Link kicked one and stabbed another and slashed the third across the face, trying to finish faster than ever so he could go against the Moblin above.
    A few minutes later, he had succeeded, and threw himself at the cliff, clawing his way up. “Marin! Go back home and stay there! I’ll be back! Be careful!”
    Marin squealed anxiously, but Link caught a glimpse of her dashing towards the town as he pursued the Moblin fleeing through the trees.
    They came to a cave, and they both dove in without stopping. Link chased his opponent through chambers, jumped over chasms, and fought off other enemies.
    At the end of the cave, he finally brought the Moblin to bay and killed him. Only then did he look around.
    The cave was lit with torches, and from the accessories lying around… Link had blundered into a dungeon! The dead end he had come into had a huge door in one wall, and a tiny little keyhole in the centre.
    Link blew a sigh. “Only one thing for it.” He was going to have to go back and explore the dungeon all over again. He was partly excited – exploring dungeons on his first day in a new place suited him just fine. It made him feel welcome somehow.

    Two hours later, he exited with a small cello in his hands. The instrument seemed to play if he only shook it, so he handled it carefully.
    “Hoo!” something hooted behind him.
    Link jumped, squawking in fright, and relaxed as he saw it was an owl. “Hey! What do you mean, scaring people like that?”
    “I apologize. I want to talk to you, young hero.”
    “Are you Kaepora Gaebora?” Kaepora Gaebora was a venerable owl who lived in the Kokiri Forest. He had offered Link advice on occasion, and hobnobbed greatly with the Wise Brothers. Link wondered what he could be doing here, but…
    “No. I don’t know what you are talking about. That, what you hold there, is the Full Moon Cello. There are seven other instruments.”
    “I have to gather them all?”
    “Only if you wish to leave this island.”
    “What!?”
    “The Wind Fish sleeps, now, but if you play the eight collected Instruments of the Sirens before his egg, he will awaken and take you away to where you wish to be.”
    “I don’t get it.”
    The owl sighed. “You will find it impossible to leave the island without waking the Wind Fish.”
    Link turned away, chanting: “Drat, drat, drat, drat…”
    Marin was preparing supper in her house as he entered; something with chicken in it. She looked up and smiled, relieved greatly.
    “I was so scared! I’ve never seen that happen before! It must be a weird fluke.”
    “I don’t know,” Link answered. “Smells good.”
    “I’m also worried about Daddy. He’s never been out this long!”
    “Oh, I’ll go look for him. How long do I have?”
    “Until supper is ready?” Marin giggled a bit. “Fifteen minutes. The forest is to the north of the town.”
    “Great. Thanks.”
    Link set the cello down on a side-table as he left the house again.
    From there, he went to the forest, and did not find Tarin, but he found Moblins and and a fairy and a raccoon. He got lost several times, but was eventually saved by the lights of the town.
    Marin was terrified when he told her this, and supper was a silent meal.
    When Link finished, he went out again, even though it was dark. He stopped first at the shop to see if he could buy anything that could help him, since he had nothing in his pockets or his pouch. He bought bombs and something called ‘magic powder’, which he’d never seen before.
    He went back to the forest, which was getting dark, and threw magic powder at the first monster he saw. It burst into flame.
    “Cool,” Link said, having no dutiful little fairy around to reprimand him, and threw some at the raccoon.
    The raccoon did not burst into flame, but it began to bounce. It bounced off trees and rocks, squeaking “ouch, ouch, ouch” all the time. It swelled, and the voice deepened, until Tarin sat down under a tree.
    “What happened?” asked the big man. “I just picked a mushroom, and then my mind went blank… What? It’s dark already? Ohmigosh, my daughter’s going to kill me!” Tarin ran off flailing.
    “This all seems very familiar,” Link said to himself, following. Talon had once run away from Malon in a similar fashion, and Malon had told him afterwards a very similar conversation to the one he had just heard…
    When he got back, Marin and Tarin were staring at his cello. “What’s the matter?”
    “Where did you find this?” Marin stammered. “It’s… the Full Moon Cello!”
    “I found it in a dungeon, in a cave near the beach. Can you tell me what it is? An owl tried to explain, but I didn’t get it too well.”
    “Well, the Full Moon Cello is one of the eight legendary Sirens’ Instruments. They were hidden all over the island by the god who made Koholint, and it’s said that the one who finds them all and plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish before the Wind Fish’s Egg will wake the Wind Fish. The Wind Fish is the god who made Koholint, but he went to sleep inside a giant egg at the peak of the mountain in the centre of the island.”
    “So, what happens after that? The owl said I could only go home if I did that.”
    “No one knows,” Tarin rumbled. “I don’t know if it’s true. You could ask Mr. Write; he lives up north past the forest. I think he tried to leave the island once to deliver a letter. He writes letters to all kinds of people; that’s why we call him Mr. Write. Nowadays, he just gets the seagulls to carry them.”
    “Did he ever get any answers?” Link asked.
    “No. We think it’s because we’re too far away from other lands, or even from sailing routes to other lands. But we don’t mind. We’re a good community, Mabe and Animal Villages, and monsters don’t bother us.”
    “I think I cleaned them out of the forest, but I’ll check again tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere just yet. I’m sure my friends are still in the boat, wondering where I am, so I’ll wait a bit to get all those instruments. What’s that song you mentioned, by the way?”
    “It’s called the Ballad of the Wind Fish,” Marin reminded him, blushing, and stood up and sang a beautiful song without words. Link gazed at her with his mouth hanging open. Marin was probably the equal of Lulu the Zora singer in voice power…
    When she finished, Marin blushed again and said: “It sounds better outside in the sunshine. That’s my favourite place to sing it. Good night!” She hurried off to her room.
    Link stared after her.
    Tarin stood up and stretched. “Night, Link. I’m sleeping in this room, but you can sleep on the couch here. I’ve left some blankets and pillows for you. Night!”
    “Good night!” Link called, loudly enough to be heard by Marin.
    He flopped on the couch and fell asleep instantly.

    The next day, he got up and went outside before breakfast. Everything was quiet.
    He went back inside. Marin was cooking breakfast, and Tarin was chewing on his pipe.
    “She doesn’t let me smoke indoors,” he explained to Link. “Says it smells bad.”
    “Hm. After I check the forest, do you want to introduce me to your neighbours?”
    “Sure!” Marin chirped, flipping a pancake and smiling – and blushing – at Link at the same time.
    “Great.”
    After breakfast, Link went to the forest and discovered that the monsters were not gone, but he couldn’t find their next base. When he got back, the four little boys with the ball rushed up to him.
    “Hey, mister! Mister Link! You gotta help, really!”
    “It’s an emergancy! It’s really bad!”
    “The M-m-moblins came!”
    “What?” Link knelt down to their level.
    “And they went all around, and we all hid, and they went to that house, and that house!”
    “But we don’t know what they did!”
    “Yeah, we do! I think they stole Bow-Wow!”
    “The dog?” Link asked, looking over at the house and noting the absence of large and ferocious black animals.
    “Yeah!”
    “Please, mister Link! You gotta save him!”
    “How…”
    “Please!”
    Link stood up. There was nothing more he was going to get out of the kids, and he still was mystified as to how even the Moblins had carried off the fierce animal. He had heard no trace of them in the woods, either, but set off northwards.
    He came across their trail right away. It curved around to the northeast, and past a noisome swamp full of Deku Babas and fish with large teeth.
    “Not many monsters here?”
    Link wondered again.
    The trail grew more difficult as the ground grew harder again as he got closer to the central mountain. At last it led into a hole in the ground.
    After being accused of being an assassin and, admittedly, killing all the Moblins in the cave, he left with the dog. It was muzzled, but the muzzle had Moblin blood on it, so his guess that the Moblins had not found it as easy as the children thought was proved. Bow-Wow frisked around and licked his face, almost knocking him over constantly. It was a long walk back.
Madam Meow-Meow, the dog’s owner, was estatic to see her “precious puppy” back, and gave Link a big hug and kiss before he could get away.
    “And you come by and walk my poor doggie anytime you like!” she added, with a wink.
    Link returned to Marin’s house. The girl was singing as she swept the path to the door. “Hi!” she called as she caught sight of him. “I guess you returned the dog. Do you want to meet everyone else, now?”
    “Sure, but could we have lunch first?”
    “Oh, right, yes. Come in.”
    After lunch, she led him slightly to the north, past a small ornamental windmill. The house behind, on a little hill, was where the quadruplet boys lived. They ran out and swarmed around Link, clapping their hands.
    “You saved Bow-wow, didn’t you?”
    “You’re great, Mister Link!”
    “You can just call me Link,” the Hylian replied cheerfully. “What are your names?”
    “I’m Ben, he’s Mack, that’s Tim, and that’s Stu.”
    “If you can’t tell us apart, you can call ‘us’ Stutimmackben and we’ll answer.”
    “Don’t you try wearing different shirts?”
    “No, because we switch to fool Mom and she got frustrated.”
    “Now we wear whatever.”
    “Yes,” Marin said, “they’re a handful, sure enough. They like running around a lot. Why don’t you show us what you can do with that sword?”
    “Uh…” Link hesitated, looking around for something to attack that wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Is it all right if I attack that fence post? I might break it…”
    “Don’t worry about that!” said a tall man, coming and sitting in the doorway. His wife stood behind him with a baby in her arms. “I’m Papahl, by the way, and this is Mahria. The baby’s Flo. She’s the only girl! But, I’m sure she’d love to see you, too.”
    “I’ll fix it if I really smash it,” Link said, drawing his sword. He wished Navi were there to help him focus, but did his best to show some of his flashier moves.
    There was a small burst of applause when he finished, panting, the fence post cut and sliced almost disreputably, and Link grinned apologetically at the quadruplets’ parents.
    After a generous display of hospitality from Papahl and Mahria that included a welcome drink of milk for Link and a cookie for each of the boys, Marin took Link over to the two shops, introducing him to the shifty looking market owner and the nervous game store operator. Then, over to the elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ulrira. Mrs. Ulrira was vigourously sweeping her whole yard, and reminded Marin loudly but cheerfully that Mr. Ulrira was very shy in person; would they please use the phone?
    On the phone, Mr. Ulrira was gruff and loud. Marin laughed at the bemused expression on Link’s face.
    Next was Madam Meow-Meow’s house, with its huge dog and two little puppies. One puppy was a boy, and the other was a girl. The girl kept snapping at a shiny bracelet Marin wore until she gave it to her, and then the puppy whined with happiness and tried to put the bracelet on its tail. Marin bent down and put the bracelet on the dog’s paw, tightening the clasp just enough that it wouldn’t fall off.
    Meanwhile, Link was getting smothered by the woman.
    As soon as they were able to leave, Marin took Link just to show him the library. Link grinned at the piles of books. He loved books, ever since he found out what they were. They told him all kinds of fascinating things, and sometimes less fascinating things as well. He found one: “Fun With Bombs”, that hardly told him anything interesting that he already knew. It was a pretty small book. Some of the others looked more promising, with fairy stories and legends in them.
    At length, it was suppertime, and after that, Link and Marin and Tarin talked about the Cello until it was dark out.
    The next day, Link went out with the big dog and ventured north again. He had an idea about the slimy-looking swamp he had passed.
    His guess was correct, and he was rewarded with a horn made out of a spiralled seashell. He brought it back to Marin’s house, and was rewarded again when both father and daughter’s eyes lit up with wonder.
    “That’s the Conch Horn!” Marin exclaimed.
    “I kinda guessed that,” Link grinned as he set it on the table next to the Full Moon Cello.
    “Well, that’s its name. I should have taken that book out… The one about the history of the island.”
    “Well, there’s always tomorrow.”
    “But tomorrow, I’m going to take you to meet someone else!”
    “Oh? Who?”
    “Well, you’ll meet him when you meet him. And then there’re other people, too.”
    “Oh, all right.”
    Tarin chuckled. “My girl’s a good talker, ain’t she?”
    Link grinned again, ruefully. “Yes, she is.”
    Marin rolled her eyes with an impatient sigh. “Just because I want you make your own first impressions?” And she stalked off to bed.

    The day dawned bright and sunny, and Link was up early. Not as early as Marin, though. She had already gone out and brought back several books from the library, and had re-read them all half-way through the morning, while Link was still on the first one. Then she jumped up.
    “C’mon, you can read those later. We have to go and see Richard now, otherwise there won’t be time to go to the other village.”
    “Other village?”
    Marin smiled and ran out the door.
    “Wha-? Hey, wait!”
    Link ran after her.
    Outside of Mabe Village, there was a small rock fall, and after that were small land-Octoroks. Marin was confused and stuck close to Link, leading him along a grassy path south.
    The path wound around to the east, and then north, leading eventually to a small, beautiful old castle. Marin rang the doorbell by the gate. Link looked up.
    “Look out!” he shouted suddenly, grabbing Marin around the waist and pulling her back. A large rock thudded into the chipped paving stones where she had been standing. Marin looked up in fear, and gasped. A helmeted head was peering over the battlements.
    “You again, wench?”
    “Wh-where is Richard?” Marin cried.
    “Don’t know. Don’t care. Go away and take that stupid hero with you.”
    Marin’s eyes were wide with shock, and she turned around and began walking away slowly, skirts flapping in the breeze.
    “Hey! Wait! One of my buddies says he’s moved into a little frog-filled house somewhere south of the pond. Okay?”
    “O-okay.”
    “What was that all about?” Link asked as they went out of bow-shot of the walls.
    “I don’t know! They’ve never been like that before. I hope Richard’s all right. I mean, he’s… but he’s…”
    “You’re confusing me,” Link cried, throwing his arms out wide. Marin giggled.
    “Sorry. Is that the house?”
    She ran forward, heedless of danger, and knocked on the door. A young man with styled black hair and a small elegant moustache answered it.
    “Yes? Oh, hello, Marin. Who is this?”
    “This is Link! He just arrived on the island, and I’m showing him around. What happened up at the castle?”
    Richard invited them inside and served them tea. “I’m afraid I am just as confused as you are. Suddenly, yesterday, my servants revolted against me. They threw me out of the castle, and I didn’t even have time to pack. I don’t even have my Golden Leaves!” A frog croaked mournfully from inside an empty pitcher. Richard dumped it out impatiently.
    “What are gold leaves?” Link asked.
    “Golden Leaves,” Richard corrected the Hylian, still impatiently. “They are a symbol of my status as lord of the castle. I refuse to leave them in the hands of those ruffians. As such, I am most distressed.”
    “Er, well…” Marin began.
    “I might…” Link began at the same time. They looked at each other, blushed, and then Link started again. “I could go and get them for you. Where are they?”
    “Oh, you would? I see you have a sword. You must be an excellent warrior, by the look of your physique. The Golden Leaves are on my dresser, although they may have been moved. There is also a back way into the castle. If you will, I could show you the entrance.”
    “That would be very helpful,” Link said. “Marin, if I take an hour or maybe a little more, will we still have time to visit that other village you talked of?”
    “Well, we will certainly have time to get there and back, but I don’t know if we will be able to have enough time to visit, you see…”
    “Oh. Well, tell me the way, and I’ll catch up later.”
    “It’s across the river, directly east of here.”
    “All right.”
    Link set out with Richard and Marin, and Richard showed him a tiny, grimy staircase into the back of the castle. Link went in and found a broken ladder to get out into the castle grounds. He jumped for it.
    After at least an hour and a half, he had found all five of the Leaves, none of which were on the dresser in the master bedroom, and had managed to open the gate for a quick exit. The guards were not brilliant fighters, so he took them by surprise, knocked them out, and left them where they lay.
    He jogged east to find the village, but instead…
    Marin and Richard were standing by the river. Marin was surveying the wreckage of a wooden bridge, and Richard had drawn a rapier and was trying to fence with a small octorok. His success was minimal.
    Link came up to them. “Were you waiting all this time?”
    “Well,” Marin said, “if we didn’t, you might think we had gotten across somehow, and then you might drown trying to cross also.”
    “Oh.”
    “Fear not, friends!” cried Richard. “I have slain the foul beast! Did you get my Golden Leaves back?”
    “Yes,” and Link handed them to him.
    “Well, we’d better go home,” Marin said. “Thanks for your help, Richard.”
    “Come back tomorrow!” Richard invited them. “I have something else to tell you.”
    The next day, Marin was busy helping Mrs. Ulrira, so Link and Tarin went.
    “The thing I have for you is a large, oddly decorated key. I found it when I took this house, and I am not sure where it goes. Perhaps you would know.”
    “How would I know?” Link asked.
    “There are strange keyholes scattered over the island, I am told. However, I have not personally gone to visit them all, certainly not with the recent kerfuffle. Would you take this and try some?”
    Link shrugged and accepted it.
    It fit into a keyhole in a rock very close to Richard’s house, and Link rolled his eyes. Tarin was stuck back at the house, still drinking tea.
    The keyhole opened another dungeon, which Link defeated before suppertime. The instrument in that one was a bell, and he added it to the growing pile on the living room table.
    “That’s the Sea Lily Bell,” Marin told him. “It’s in…”
    “I still haven’t finished reading this book about the Wind Fish,” Link protested.
    “All right, don’t worry about it, then.”
    After a while, during supper, Marin glanced at her father and then at Link. “Um, I had an idea. Would you like to go out tomorrow? I want to go down to the beach again, and you could spend the day reading…”
    “Like a picnic?” Tarin asked.
    “Yes, exactly.”

    The next day, Marin took a huge basket of food and other things, and Link filled his cleaned pack with books, and Tarin brought chairs and umbrellas, and they all went down to the beach. They set up a blanket on a grassy lawn so grit didn’t get in the food, but the chairs and umbrellas went down on the sand.
    True to the size of her basket, Marin had prepared almost a feast, and Link was nearly over-full when they finished. He flopped on the blanket, grinning ruefully, and reached for a book about Kanelet Castle.
    Marin waited until she was sure he was fully absorbed, and went to her private spot and sang for the seagulls.
    Link finished that book and felt like taking a break, and lay staring up at the changing clouds. Tarin was smoking under his umbrella with his feet in the water.
    Marin came back and Link sat up.
    “Hey, Marin, did I tell you where I came from yet?”
    “Oh, no. Would you? You’re an amazing fighter, and you’re so strange, and yet everyone here likes you and you fit in perfectly…”
    “Oh. I didn’t know that. I’m kinda glad that you haven’t had trouble with monsters before I came, though. I wonder why they’re acting up. Anyway…”
    In a hesitating, round-about fashion, he managed to explain what Hyrule was, and who he was there. Tarin came over to listen. Link was just in the middle of a rousing rendition of how he had fought Ganondorf when he stopped suddenly, and Marin saw his face change colour.
    “Are you okay?”
    “Uh, sorry. Just, after I killed him, my best friend died, so I don’t like talking about that part.”
    “I’m sorry about that. I understand.”
    “Daddy, what’s that you have?”
    “It’s a flute of some sort…”
    “Can I see?” Link held out his hand, and Tarin placed the Ocarina of Time into it. Link’s eyes went very wide. “How did this get here?”
    “It was in a wooden bowl thing. Is it yours?”
    “Yes… This is the Ocarina that was so important during that quest. I hope the others are all right…”
    “How many others are there?”
    “Oh, right.” And Link told them about his adventures in Termina and how he met Tatl and Demon and Tael.
    “Well, this Demon person sounds competent, and if he has three fairies with him, he should be all right,” Tarin said.
    “Yes… but if he fell in the ocean… if he’s stuck in a place where he can’t change… I don’t know… he might be stuck underwater forever… The fairies will be all right, but what if they get lost? What if I never find them again?”
    “Please don’t despair yet,” Marin pleaded. “It’s not good for you, and I don’t think it’s true. Perhaps they can’t find the island. When you are able to leave, you will probably find them quickly.”
    Link shrugged. “Maybe. Anyway, having the Ocarina makes me feel better, although I don’t know why.”
    “You know it’s safe,” Tarin said. “I’m never sure if things are safe unless I’ve got my eye on them.”
    “I suppose, yeah.”
    Link lay awake that night, wondering.

Chapter 4     Chapter 6