After freeing Tingle from his incarceration due to a “misunderstanding,” Link was left confused, worried, and confused some more by his new unitard-clad acquaintance. Tingle gave Link an admittedly nice farewell gift as thanks, but where did Tingle go after bidding Link adieu? Would Link ever see him again? Time would tell, whether Link wanted it to or not.
Some time passes after that fateful encounter, and while sailing the endless sea, Link spots a tower on the horizon. Towers have yielded good (and sometimes dangerous) things for Link so far in his journey, so he’s excited to explore a new one.
Upon approaching the tower and seeing more of its details, such as the giant head on top of it with an uncanny familiarity to his green-clad creeper friend, Link’s curiosity switches from the excited variety to the morbid one.
Gathering more courage than usual, Link shuffles onto the small, circular island’s shores and does a quick inspection. It’s about the same as he’s seen from other, similarly-sized islands. There’s some grass, there’s a mailbox, and there’s an obnoxious Blue Chuchu just begging to be shot with an arrow. There’s nothing much to the island, which means he has to address the towering attention grabber protruding from its center.
This tower, about the same height as the numerous observation platforms, seemed like a custom-built testament to everything that made Link uncomfortable. The tower had a totem design, and as Link climbed to its top by way of a ladder, he passed all manner of wood carvings of monsters and creatures he’d sooner forget, such as Moblins, Chuchus, and the Fairies that leave him guilt-ridden when he stuffs them in a bottle. And Link knows a giant monument to Tingle awaits him at the top, so it’s not going to get any better.
As Link climbs to the top of the tower, or as high as the ladder takes him, he finds a peculiar sight — one even more peculiar than he was expecting. Perhaps due to trying to avoid looking at it too much, Link had not noticed that the giant Tingle head at the top of the tower was rotating. And the reason it was rotating was because two men, almost identical in appearance to Tingle, were moving it manually. These two men are circling the center beam together, and Tingle is standing at the side, watching them work. There are three of them. The goddesses help Link, there are of them.
Not wanting to rush things, Link decides to speak with the two new ones first, Ankle and David Jr. Ankle is Tingle’s brother, and David Jr. is a guy who gets treated like he’s Tingle’s brother. That is to say that both of them are treated poorly. He forces them to keep his head spinning (they’d probably like to make his head spin in more than one way), and he’s harsh to them when guests aren’t around. That’s why they are happy to see Link. Tingle’s mood seems to have improved with Link now present. Ankle and David don’t know why, but they aren’t going to press it.
Well, Link can’t avoid it any longer. With nothing else on the platform to investigate, he finally greets the prison escapee.
Tingle is elated to meet Mr. Fairy again, a name that probably doesn’t sit right with Link, and eagerly asks if he is there to play. Link quickly makes it clear that he is not and that he has important things to do. Tingle is sad, but he shows a level of understanding that Link almost doesn’t expect. Tingle says farewell, and Link returns to the King of Red Lions, sailing back onto the sea, never to return to Tingle’s abode again — expect not actually, because Link can’t get that lucky.
Link’s quest continues on in a steadily unsteady pattern, with his objectives constantly changing. His goal eventually becomes to find the shards of the Triforce of Courage, and whether by fortune or stalking, Tingle sees fit to send Link a map of each piece’s location. Link is grateful, but he discovers that the map leads to other maps that will need to be translated, and Tingle is the only one who can translate them. His gratitude quickly turns to suspicion.
Link returns to the island to have his suspicion confirmed by the steep translation fee Tingle hits him with. Did Tingle send Link the map to the pieces of the Triforce to be helpful, or did Tingle see a chance to make some quick cash? Link doesn’t know, but he won’t be wasting time trying to find out, because once all of the maps are translated, he’s never setting foot on this island again.
