Link’s supposed to be finding Aryll and bringing her home so they can get ready for his birthday celebration, but just like other Links, he never met a sidequest/minigame/diversion he didn’t immediately drop everything for to see through as much as he can, so when one of the islanders asks him to help capture a pig as a pet for his wife… well, he eventually captures three of them, and is rewarded with 20 rupees for each one. The exercise is presumably meant to teach the player about crouching and crawling and prepare them for the inevitable stealth segment, but my main takeaway after I finally got the controls down to where I could catch the first pig was that the tutorial guy yelling at Link and pulling him into a forced conversation maybe could have been scripted to not happen while Link’s holding a pig, because it made Link drop the pig and have to catch it again. Anyway, after all the pigs are secure and Link’s all paid, Link pays a visit to the tutorial guy’s house to read all the tutorial bits he has posted on the wall. The main purpose of this visit, though, is to reveal that the sword guy Grandma mentioned is tutorial guy’s downstairs neighbor and brother. So, Link will be back here.
But first, let’s check on Aryll. As a birthday present, she lends him her telescope for the day. After a brief tutorial on how to use it, she point him to look at something in the sky: a giant bird carrying a girl in its talons. A pirate ship is chasing after the bird, throwing rocks at it with a catapult; one rock hits the bird, causing it to drop the girl into the forest. Aryll encourages Link to go help the girl, but says its dangerous to go into the forest alone and he needs some kind of weapon. Link goes to sword guy to learn about using a sword, and after a tutorial segment on how to do various sword attacks, is granted a sword for his quest.
Link goes to the forest, and after a few fights against Bokoblins, reaches the girl, who’s suspended in a tree. Just as the Bokoblins – who seem to be working with the bird – are gone, she wakes up and shakes herself free, and one of her crewmates comes up, so… the game seems to give Link credit for the rescue, and maybe without him the Bokoblins would have taken her where the bird could snatch her, but she might have been fine on her own. She certainly doesn’t seem to think much of Link. The three head out of the forest, and Aryll’s come up to the other side of the bridge. As she crosses, the bird swoops down and take her, and Link goes of the cliff trying to rescue her. The girl – whose name is Tetra – grabs him and tells him there’s nothing he can do.
Back on the beach near Link’s house, Link apparently expresses a desire to go with Tetra and crew to rescue Aryll. Tetra’s not interested, saying she doesn’t owe him anything, but the mailman – who’s some kind of bird person – intervenes, saying Link rescued her after her fall. Also, the bird’s been scooping up Hylian girls like Tetra and Aryll from around the islands, and had Tetra not escaped, Aryll would never have been taken. Finally, the mailman also says the bird’s made its nest at the Forsaken Fortress, which gives Tetra an idea of where to go. Tetra relents a little, and says Link can come if he can find a shield. And, just in case the player doesn’t remember Grandma pointing out Chekhov’s Shield, Tetra says Link should say goodbye to his family because he’ll be gone for a while.
When Link returns home to take the shield, Grandma’s taken it down. She gives it to Link, and then starts crying about Aryll being kidnapped. Link goes back to Tetra, who pokes fun at his shield, but accepts that it technically meets the requirements, so she allows Link to come aboard as they head off. Link waves goodbye to the assorted villagers, then stands on the deck waving with both arms to Grandma. Tetra asks how much longer he intends to go on, and mockingly offers to turn the ship around and bring him home.
Wonderful girl. Either I’m going to kill her or I’m beginning to like her.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the bird is working for Ganon (or possibly is Ganon), who’s looking for Zelda. The fact that he’s looking for her indicates that she’s not in Hyrule Castle (if it’s even there anymore) doing princessy things and may possibly even be hiding in disguise like the last time Ganon was looking for Zelda and she was gallivanting around Hyrule as Sheik. We've met two Hylian girls, and both seem like they're going to be important enough characters to turn out to be Zelda. Tetra probably has the advantage on account of not being Link's sister, but Aryll could be adopted. Or A Link to the Past Link's uncle could've been onto something.
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