So I wrote this a while back and have been holding on to it for some time, unable to come up with an ending. The Cielinebeck is more subdued, more of a friendship in this story. It's pretty long, about 7000 words, but I assure you that a lot of it is action packed and dramatic. It's sort of a new type of story for me, so read it with an open mind and do not hold back with constructive critisism, etc. I humbly ask for reviews. Enjoy!
Mercay was famous (in terms of islands) for its fruitful, tall, and abundant palm trees that lazily swayed in the ocean breeze, creating an oasis of shade on a hot summer day, or dropped hefty coconuts onto the brilliantly white sand that cascaded down hilly beaches below. It gave the simple island an exotic aura, and travelers flocked to this alien world, or so they thought; the trees were a symbol of the island, being found nowhere else in the world, to the knowledge of the villagers.
Linebeck, being so used to them, found them dull and ordinary, unless they posed a profit that exceeded their level of interest- which they didn't. To him, they were merely trees: large and green and flourishing in just the places you didn't want them. Their seeds would disperse across the island when the wind blew, and the trees would reproduce, hence the return of the vicious cycle. Yet, they were trees, and there wasn't much one could do about them. Not that anyone wanted to get rid of them (and the over- exaggerated hubbub), besides him.
The sun, though, shone with such potency that he found himself sitting beneath one in its holy spot of shade on the beach, letting the salty and dense sea air blow gently on him. His heavy coat lay in a heap next to him, having been quickly shed under the heat of the day. His trousers and shirt were slick with sweat, and his skin itched consistently, despite his small patch of earth that felt a lesser heat from the sun.
Likely by accident, Ciela found herself sitting exhausted beneath an identical tree, straight to his right. If she had the energy to look down the long strand of shoreline that extended down the beach, she would've seen Link, wading into the water up to his knees, casting a fishing pole into the placid ocean. And had she looked at the young hero down that seemingly endless beach, she would have scoffed; no fish in its right mind would be even near the surface of the water during this kind of heat. No, if she were a fish (and quite frankly she wished she were right now, to be rid of the land and welcome the water), she would have dove as deep down as possible until no sunlight dared filter down to the depths of the ocean.
Groggily, the fairy sighed and traced lines in the sand with her fingers, knowing that all too soon the shadow would shift and, in turn, she would have to as well. Simply moving her body seemed like a thought out of the question. She dug her fingers deep into the sand where it was cool, flexing her hand with life, and proceeded to do the same to her other hand until an equally as fatigued voice distracted her.
"Why don't you go swimming?"
She tilted her head slightly, and closed her eyes to blot out the reverberation of the sun off of the water, "…what?"
Linebeck reiterated his question, "Why don't you go swimming, considering how miserably hot out it is?"
"Why don't you go swimming?" She retorted, but the snap to the sentence was lost when the last word drawled out with unnecessary length.
"…I can't swim, remember? Or is this memory-loss working its way into the present time?"
Ciela snorted at this notion, fondly imagining the captain thrashing and panicking in a small pool of water. She paused, rolling her eyes heavenward and grimacing at the gentle fanning of the palm tree's leaves over her head, casting a greenish light on her forehead and hair. "Goddesses, it's so hot out." She whined with exasperation, bringing her knees up to her chest.
"You could go in the water and leave me alone," He pressed, giving the last part of the sentence an extra push for a heavy dose of suggestion.
"Fairies can't go in the water, stupid," Ciela stated, as if it were the most obvious fact since the dawn of time, "Our wings will get wet, and then we can't fly."
He lethargically slipped off his boots and tossed them with his coat, and Ciela found his disregard for keeping his precious coat clean quite curious as it sunk even deeper under a pile of sand. "That's lame," Linebeck said without really any distinguishing emotion in his voice.
"What's even more lame," Ciela laughed skeptically, "Is the fact that you physically can swim, and you still can't."
Linebeck paused long enough to give himself time to retaliate smartly, but in truth, Ciela would come up with a response that was even more worthwhile, and then he would do the same; it would repeat again and again until the two were shouting, and frankly, he wasn't up for that- it was too hot out to even think, much less speak with purpose. And sometimes- once in a blue moon, really- he would think of his arguments with Ciela, and a realization would overcome him as swift as the waves rush in over the beach and crash onto the shoreline that he wasn't content nor happy angrily debating the fairy. He knew, somehow, that neither would ever win those debates, and simply snapping at each other wasn't the answer to their disagreeable personalities. The realization would slip away from his grasp once again, much like the waves would sink back into the vast and immortal ocean.
An uncalled for sloshing emanated suddenly from the water, not sounding remotely like waves or anything natural of the kind. Linebeck and Ciela glanced up as a pair, senses heightened from the unnerving commonness of monsters emerging from the sea. To their relief, Link was trotting through the gentle waves up to his knees, small whitecaps forming at his thighs as he trudged through the water with difficulty. He faced his two companions, grinning euphorically, his eyes squinted at the beach. He held up a decent fish for them to see, and Linebeck nodded in feigned approval. As Link stumbled towards the shore, Ciela spoke aloud, mostly to herself, but addressing Linebeck as well, "I'm surprised he caught anything."
"Surprised?" He turned to her, "Why? The kid's got talent for a lot of things. Not treasure-hunting, but…" He ended the sentence without further addition.
"I don't know," Ciela shook her head, "I didn't think the fish were biting. Never mind."
Linebeck folded his arms, "Then something's driven them to shore."
Ciela had no time to reply as Link approached them rapidly, and held up the fish with pride. He smiled broadly, and Ciela felt compelled to grin in return as he glanced from her to the fish and back.
"Great, isn't it?" He mused, dangling its scaly and wet body from the fishing line in front of Linebeck's face, to which the captain crinkled his face and turned away.
"It looks…like you caught it when it was already dead," Linebeck laughed half-heartedly. He motioned to its body, half-covered in scales, and the single missing eye that could be anywhere in the ocean.
"No," Link assured, "It was moving when I caught it," And he added, "But only slightly. There were a lot of them like that, you see."
"Odd," Ciela noted. Why would so many fish rise to the surface, barely alive, and mostly mutilated? The day was hot, yes, but the water was still cool; the weather was certainly not extreme enough to kill many fish, not hot enough to reach down to the depths and roast a population. Then again, Ciela didn't give herself much credit in the knowledge of science.
Linebeck rose to his feet, snatching up his coat and shaking the sand from it, "Why don't we head back to the ship and cook that…thing," He pointed a finger disgustingly at the creature, "and tomorrow morning we'll set out for the next Pure Metal."
Link responded with an excited nod, and shouldered the fishing rod. His thin legs scrambled up the beach and onto the more solid ground, and he looked over the horizon at his companions, lumbering up the sand with fatigue that only the heat could cause. It hardly fazed Link, though, and he always wondered why everyone else was so susceptible to the elements. Link had run circles around monsters and traps alike in volcanoes, standing inches away from lava geysers that sent hot rock around his feet tantalizingly; he had skid up and down slopes of ice and dodged falling stalactites with ease, and none of it ever bothered him in the least. Yet here, on a hot and densely humid day, Linebeck and Ciela were so miserable they could hardly walk (or fly, in the fairy's case). Link found it curious, because he thrived off of this environment- a challenge, to him- and it only made him more used to it.
The captain and the fairy had caught up with the hero momentarily, and the ship was their following destination.
"…I'm worried."
A campfire burned slowly through the late evening, the remaining flames licking the charred logs and red-hot embers glowed in pulses around the kindling that surrounded the wood. A few sparks now and then would jump from flames in the clearing and dissipate as soon as they made contact with the air above them, falling gracefully to the ground where they faded and died. Link was drifting into a heavy sleep as he lay curled up on a large tree stump- he found that he really could sleep anywhere- as his eyelids drooped to a close, and he would respond by blinking furiously until they would reopen with livid awareness.
Ciela's statement, "I'm worried," was so rhetorical that Linebeck wondered whether he should respond. They were all worried, be it about Bellum's growing power, or Tetra's well-being, or the impending notion that they could all die a most painful death if they weren't careful.
Linebeck decided that he would respond, for he was growing tired of poking the fire with a lengthy stick: "Got anything new to tell me?" He frowned and added, "If you're not constantly bitching to me, then you're panicking about every last situation that could go wrong- we all know what could go wrong." With a sarcastic roll of his eyes, he mumbled, "It's my job to do the panicking around here." He glanced at Link and then returned his gaze to the fire.
"No," Ciela placed her chin in her hands, "I mean not about the usual things that worry us," Linebeck felt a foreign pang in his chest as she said the word us, until she continued, "I'm talking about what a nervous wreck we're becoming. And don't try to deny it; I saw it in you, too." Linebeck was silent as she lamented, "When Link was coming back to shore, and we thought the sound of him running through the water was some horrific creature. I hate that panicked feeling, where my heart races so hard I feel like it'll burst out of my chest, and I can't seem to even breathe," She hesitated slightly, making eye contact with him to check if he was listening or not. When he nodded, she spoke once more, "You get that too, don't you?"
Linebeck returned to poking the fire with the stick. The flames had simplified to engulfing the tiny bricks of charcoal, sizzling and popping as the dying heat hungrily grasped for the piece of live and unscathed wood.
"Oh," she remarked snidely, "Of course. You're the great Captain Linebeck. You don't get nervous, you don't wince when a thirteen year old boy-"
"If this is about Link, then-"
"No, it's about all-"
"If you weren't so over protective-"
"I'm worried about us-" That word again: us.
"You're paranoid-"
"…just concerned; I don't want to die-"
"We'll all die anyway, there's no reason to be optimistic-"
"You can't just give-"
"Stop, Ciela, just listen." Linebeck held up his hand in both surrender and as a way to halt her rambling. She did silence her voice, and very abruptly indeed.
"Listen," he repeated, as if she hadn't heard him the first time, "Yes, I'm worried in that aspect, and I don't like it either. I don't, however, let it stop us from continuing our journey. I think you're brave enough to do these half-crazy things- throwing yourself into a monster's lair- but your conscience is telling you to stop, if not for your own well being, then for Link's. Your common sense likes to be locked away in the back of your head, and then shows up when you realize your life's in danger. And then it over-reacts from not being used very often and you begin to panic."
Ciela's jaw dropped as she stared at him in disbelief for a split-second. How could he, Linebeck the coward who didn't even know how to swim, divulge upon Ciela's emotions and personality better than she did herself? How could a man who was so socially awkward up close (especially around a certain She-pirate) tell a woman what she was thinking and be absolutely correct? How could Ciela not even know he was correct until now?
When both realized that Ciela had really nothing to say in response, Linebeck cleared his throat, "…To answer your question, yes, I am on edge all the time because of all these close calls we've had, but it's not going to make me freak out over Link all the time to the point where he never gets anything accomplished."
Ciela came to admit, for what was likely the first time, well, ever, that she had been bested by Linebeck. She seated herself in a tuft of grass, and brought her knees to her chest slowly. She sighed somewhat melodramatically, returning her vision spectrum to the fire. What used to be a roaring blaze was now a set of pitiful coals, most not even red with heat anymore. As there was no longer a resounding burning and snapping sound from the fire, the chirping of the crickets became more prominent and overtook even the crashing of the waves on the beach.
Finally, Ciela said, "…I just don't want anything bad to happen to us."
Linebeck found himself averting his eyes from Ciela to Link. The hero was asleep now, contently even, as his face was softened and his limbs hung loosely over the sides of the tree stump. This entity dubbed, "us," as Ciela had mentioned several times, was intended to include the hero, he supposed. Yet, Linebeck had an uncanny feeling it was just the two of them- just Linebeck and Ciela- because Link was a different type of person than they were. Link was almost inhuman; he could run through vast fields of monsters, paying no mind to the roaring elements that surrounded him, and still uphold the naivety that characterized a child. The kid was incredible, no doubt, though Linebeck wouldn't dare admit it aloud. Link was very human in other terms, though. He had the strongest sense of morality that he'd ever seen: Link fought for the good of everyone, no matter whom. The kid wasn't perfect, though, and Linebeck sometimes envisioned his rash courage as a fault; it just ended up getting him hurt.
Ciela and Linebeck, however, were typically so weak in comparison to the hero. These two weren't blessed with the unbelievable ability to feel no pain or fear (though they both liked to believe they did), and yet when Ciela reiterated "us," it told of two side-kicks who had yet to feel the kind of pain that Link had, and were unable to keep up with the hero. They had run tired, and the journey was taking its toll on them, whether it was with heightened paranoia, or not physically able to dash from temple to temple like Link could.
"It's getting late," Ciela yawned, "We should head back to the boat."
Linebeck nodded in agreement and picked up a large bucket of water, to which he dumped over the blackened wood. It released a satisfying hiss as dense smoke billowed from the ground and up into the air. Ciela flew to Link's side and woke him gently, rendering a response that consisted of a few stretches and an exasperated yawn. The trio returned to the boat in silence, found their beds, and drifted into sleep as quickly as their heads hit their pillows.
"Linebeck, wake up."
Though it was dark, there was some sense of light, illuminating a small circumference from its bright epicenter.
"Really, wake up!"
He shifted in his bed, rolling over and reacting haphazardly to the words. He turned to face the source of the sound, and opened his eyes with hesitation.
"Link? Ciela? What're you…" He shielded his eyes from a blinding light that he thought was Ciela, but when his brain returned to its waking function, the fairy appeared dim in comparison to the other light, which shone a tempest silver. He sat up quickly, hitting his head on the head of the bed and swore loudly.
"What is it?" Linebeck snapped, "Why did you wake me up?"
Link swallowed nervously, pointing to the porthole, "There's a terribly bright light; we thought you should have a look."
Linebeck furrowed his brow, "I saw," Though he mentally admitted to not paying much mind to it. It was likely another ridiculous natural phenomenon that had plagued the world with consistency ever since Bellum had risen to power, and Link had challenged that attack. Linebeck drew himself to his feet, stumbling over to the porthole and rubbed his eyes. When not much could be made of what he saw (The porthole was much too small, and his eyes understood nothing in their tired state), Linebeck trudged up the steps and onto the deck, followed anxiously by Link and Ciela. The two seemed obviously awake to a full and unashamed extent, and shaken, no doubt, like they had seen something horrendously frightening only moments before.
Linebeck gripped the railing tentatively, bringing his hand to his forehead to refocus his vision and find the light once more; it did not take him less than a half a second to rediscover the source of trouble. It was more brilliant than the sun and similar in hue to lightning, taking up nearly half of the horizon as it lit up the water surrounding it.
"What is that?" He mumbled, turning from the occurrence to his comrades.
"We don't know," Link spoke for the both of them, "The light woke me up nearly twenty minutes ago."
Linebeck returned to the sight, squinting and trying to deduce what it was; this, in turn, was a fruitless effort because he had never in his life seen anything like it.
The captain found Ciela hovering adjacent to his right shoulder, and he faced her expectantly, believing she was about to say something. The fairy donned a look of perpetual doubt, hesitant in her speaking. Linebeck nodded, as if to prompt her to continue- it was unusual that she was reluctant to speak her mind- and so she did: "I think the light's getting bigger, if it's not just my eyes playing tricks on me."
Link stepped up to the same plane as his comrades, "No, I see it, too, Ciela."
Linebeck silently agreed, seeing the grand illumination take up an even bigger portion of the sky. The crew fell silent, drawn in like hypnotism to the swelling apparition and blinked as it stung their retinas and watered their eyes.
They were so transfixed that the small and sudden jolt of the ship threw them out of their minds with fright whilst knocking them to their feet, accompanied by a heavier and stronger jolt only moments later.
"What the hell was that?" Linebeck grimaced, rubbing his back as he attempted to stand- a tedious effort once the ship shook like a rattle again and he slid back down to the floor. Ciela had managed to maintain a spot in the air, thanks to her ability to fly, and darted her eyes from all sides of the ship at an aerial view.
"Ciela!" Link cried, "Do you see anything?"
"No, I…" The fairy blinked and rubbed her eyes in disbelief; was what she seeing really there? She gasped, "Oh, my Goddesses!"
Erupting from the ocean, colossal waves in its wake, was an atypical monster, deriving from nothing she had ever witnessed before. Fifty, no, sixty feet in stature, and massive from side to side as well. She gulped and watched as its forehead glistened with the same unadulterated light that she had seen in the ocean only seconds prior. The light revealed four beady and uncolored eyes, turning all different directions at once to protect its scaly and light blue body. The beast grinned, if she could describe it as that, revealing four rows of pointed teeth that reeked with ancient flesh and blood, remaining stagnant for eons.
The creature waved its newly revealed tentacles from behind its body, cracking like a whip as they changed direction swiftly.
Ciela found herself absent-mindedly at Link's side- a reflex, now, she supposed- and he had finally steadied himself, sword drawn in preparation. Linebeck was hidden behind a crate.
The hero did a quick side roll when a wet, prodigious arm came crashing down onto the dock and, as expected, avoided it with ease. The arm was too massive to be drawn back to the body quickly, so Link seized the opportunity to slice it several times. The creature groaned, regaining dominance over its arm, and to both Link and Ciela's surprise, the wounds so recently inflicted were healed in a heartbeat.
Ciela called out to Link's attention, dodging another large arm, "The body isn't the weak-spot, then," She paused as Link completed an amble back flip to avoid the molten rocks the sea-monster was now projecting from its mouth. "Look!" She yelled, soaring daringly close to the enemy, "The eyes are all looking different directions at once!" She flew to each one individually to elucidate, "If you shoot one that isn't looking at you, then you can catch it off guard and prevent it from protecting the eye you shot."
Link nodded as Ciela returned to his side. The hero retrieved his bow, readying an arrow and squinting out of one eye to achieve proper aim. His fingers barely released the string as one of the creature's tentacles encircled the boy's body and he dropped his sword and bow as he was carried high into the air, screaming with all that his lungs could muster. Terror tore through Ciela as she watched the creature move the boy towards his mouth… was it going to eat Link?
"LINEBECK!" She screamed, zipping across the deck and to the crate of which he hid behind, "Link's going to die! He's been attacked!"
A shuffling sound was heard, and Linebeck emerged from behind the wooden box, hesitant and nervous, "…what?"
"The monster picked up Link and is probably going to eat him!" Ciela screeched, flitting around in a panic.
"Well… do something!" Linebeck retorted testily.
Ciela scoffed so hard, it hurt, "I'm a fairy. I'm not even a sixteenth of your size! What am I supposed to do?!"
Linebeck rolled his eyes heavenward, standing to his full height and sizing up the monster. He blinked a few unnecessary times, swallowing back a heavy amount of fear that still was very prominent in his voice as he spoke, "The kid will be okay. He can take care of himse-"
A deafening roar emanated from the creature, and Ciela spotted Link, to her relief, still in the tentacle, however weak his screams may have seemed as he wavered on the verge of consciousness.
"Alright, Linebeck," Ciela turned to her cowardly comrade violently, her teeth gritted with force, "Listen to me. If we're going to save Link, you're going to need to help."
To her surprise, he nodded without reluctance. She flew to Link's dropped bow, her body lighting it up well enough to be seen from a distance. "Use this," She instructed, "You do know how, right?"
Linebeck cleared his throat, "No."
Ciela slammed her palm into her face, yet forced herself to calm down, "Okay. No problem… I'll just…" She winced at the notion, "…teach you how."
Linebeck blinked as if she had just asked him to swim right up to the creature, "Uh…okay."
Linebeck picked up the bow and tediously fitted an arrow to the drawstring, and Ciela flew around anxiously, shaking like a rattle. An enormous shadow of doubt and fear seemed to swallow her as she realized that this was very real, and Link's life was in the hands of an inexperienced and incapable man, as well as a fairy that was bound by the limits of her body. She inhaled deeply, shaking that thought away as far as it would go, which was simply to the back of head.
"Alright," Said Ciela, and Linebeck directed his attention to her as the beast let out a horrible roar, "Close your non-dominant eye so you can get proper aim, pull back the draw string with enough force for the projectile to hit its eye, and release."
Linebeck bit his lip and abided, yanking the draw string hesitantly, and at her word, released it. The arrow clattered to the ground a few feet in front of him.
Ciela suppressed an angry shout as Linebeck swore at himself and scooped up the arrow again and slid it back into position. The fairy decided, no, forced herself to remain calm, if not for her own sake, then for Link's. She couldn't panic now, not yet. She instructed Linebeck to repeat the act, but pull the string further and with more power and force.
"Sparkles, I did that!" He hissed, "What else am I supposed to do? I've never done this before!"
Ciela shouted in return, "What else are we supposed to do, you moron! This is our only option!" She flew around angrily and came face to face with Linebeck, "Do it. Shoot the Goddess forsaken eye that isn't directly looking at you."
Linebeck sighed, "Fine." He readied the bow again, and Ciela flew up to one of the eyes, directing its attention at her.
"Ciela, what're you-"
The Spirit of Courage replied with a strained yell, dodging a tentacle, "It's not looking at you, it's looking at me; now's your chance to shoot it! Hurry!"
Ciela found herself eyeing Link worriedly, though the monster had since disregarded Link and focused its attention on the fairy. A plead to the Goddesses would be useful now, she supposed, for Link's life may already be terminated if he had been suffocated by the tentacle.
A whizzing sound distracted her from possibly praying, and the sea monster screamed in agony, an arrow protruding from its eye. Ciela turned drastically to face Linebeck, an astounded and euphoric grin forming on her face. He returned the smile, obviously over-pleased with himself.
"Alright, next eye!" Ciela cried, circling the head in a semi-circle to target the adjacent pupil.
To even more her surprise, Linebeck pierced that eye, as well. When she had managed to isolate the third eye, a small and whip-like tentacle came flying at her, hitting her and disrupting her flight. She toppled through the air, nearing the ocean at a terrifying speed. She hadn't even a split second to scream, attempting strenuously to turn her frame right-side-up. A half a second before she hit the water with what would've been a terrifying splat, her wings regained dominance over her body. She floated in mid-air to catch her breath once again, but that time was little spent as she returned to the previous eye, much more cautious and alert.
Linebeck wiped the sudden look of concern off of his face as quickly as it had appeared, and yanked the drawstring back into its prepared position. He released it forcefully, and punctured the eye, however barely. Ciela cringed, wondering if the attack had done any remote damage. The beast was howling, for sure, confirming her expectations.
"Last one!" Ciela shouted with exasperation, flying to the final eye, hovering adjacent to it and distracting it, "Hurry!"
An arrow soared through the air and missed the eye by inches to scathe the center of the beast's face.
"You missed! Try again!" Ciela urged, "Have better aim!"
Linebeck returned with a painstakingly hesitant voice, "...There are no more arrows."
"What?!" Cried Ciela, though she had heard him perfectly well.
Ciela, breaking her own personal promise to herself, fell right into raw panic. This was it: with no way to kill the monster, Link would undoubtedly die, and she and Linebeck would more than likely follow. The world would fall into ruin with no one to stop it; people would die under the wrath of this monster, and so many others alike. She could tell Linebeck was panicking, if he hadn't been already. He was pacing back and forth, hands in his hair, and wrought with fear. He stopped suddenly, bending over and picking up the sword Link had dropped when he had dropped his bow. Was Linebeck really going to… yes, he was. The captain balanced the hilt of the sword onto the string of the bow, drawing it back further than he had before, extending his elbow far behind his chest; Ciela feared the string would snap. Was he actually trying to shoot the sword? It would never work! It was far too heavy.
Ciela closed her eyes, fearing the worst to come. She reopened her eyes when she heard the monster scream once again, with more pain than prior. Ciela's jaw dropped as she saw the sword implanted into the eye of which she hovered next to. She turned to Linebeck and glared at him incredulously, his own face contorted in disbelief. As the sea-dwelling monster wavered in its standing point Ciela returned to Linebeck's side, still unsure of their predicament. The creature groaned and stumbled forward, its head coming to rest on the side of the boat. Ciela screeched, the boat rocking tremendously. Linebeck walked forward tentatively, suppressing a gag as he ripped the sword from the punctured eye. The luminous light from its forehead died down slightly, revealing a black crystal surrounded by ornate metal.
Ciela responded to a question that wasn't stated aloud: "Strike it."
Linebeck did, retracting his arm and slicing the gem with as much force as his arm could physically muster. He did it several times, and the creature let out many hideous cries until a final and explosive screech emitted from its mouth before the beast burst into a reeking and horrible purple smoke. Ciela and Linebeck simultaneously observed as a small body toppled through the skies and into the waves.
The two stood in place, catching their breath and letting the shock wane from its potency. "…That's Link," She finally said in an exhalation of air, "What are you waiting for?" She rambled, "Go get him!"
"Sparkles," He sneered, "I can't swim, remember? We'll both drown."
Ciela frowned at him furiously, hatred billowing up in her like the smoke from their fire a few hours ago. She would prove him wrong, though- that she can stay relatively calm when Link was in danger beyond compare- and save the hero. "Fine," She snapped, "I'll go get him, if you won't."
Linebeck stuttered obscenities as she darted out into the ocean, a mere foot above the water, glancing around in the dark for the boy in green. He called out to her, and when she didn't respond, he mumbled curses at her from under his breath, dropping the bow and sword at his feet. The captain swallowed harshly, and leaned over the railing, gazing at the black and unwelcoming water below him. Linebeck took in a deep breath, holding it in awkwardly and lowered himself into the blanket of blinding darkness. It was instantly a frigid rush of seemingly hundreds of pinpointed needles seizing his limbs. He felt himself sinking all too soon, despite the nearness of the shore. He grasped around haphazardly, feeling his way around for something-anything- to grab on to. His fingernails dug into the wooden panels of the ship's hull, providing a safe haven momentarily.
"Sparkles!" He cried out, coughing the water from his lungs, "I can't see a thing!"
To almost his astonishment, she took no hesitation in flying over to the sound of his voice. "Are you okay?" She asked, and Linebeck almost laughed because of how genuine it sounded.
He nodded, gesturing to the open waters, "Lead the way; I'll follow." Ciela began slowly flitting backwards as Linebeck released his hold on the side of his ship, watching him meticulously as he moved his arms haphazardly through the water, concentrating on what he could see in front of the light that Ciela provided. They were soon in open water, and Ciela stopped, and Linebeck tread the water with difficulty.
"Can you see him?" He asked.
"No, I…" The fairy gasped, seeing a beam of moonlight casting a spot of visibility on the water, "There he is! Thank Goddesses! He's floating on his back!" Ciela flew at a faster pace, and Linebeck struggled to keep up; how he managed to do so, he never understood.
When they came to the boy, he was found to be unconscious, however, he was in fact breathing. After Ciela had been drenched in relief from head to foot, Linebeck half-shouldered the boy, leaving a heavy weight on his body that prevented the captain from remaining buoyant. He franticly kicked his legs until they were sore and numb- a forest creature jutting its limbs bewilderedly after a fatal wound. He tilted his head heavenward, gasping for what seemed to be the last air on Earth, treading the water proficiently enough to support both him and Link. Ciela had gone silent until now, as had the sound of thrashing and the whisper of any remote thought of hope.
"Linebeck…" She said, and her voice cracked painfully, "…Please just try to make it." She knew now what a poor idea this had been; it would've been smarter to run to the town for help rather than what was occurring now. The water was freezing in the night, regardless of the daytime's heat- Linebeck was freezing, probably to death. She wasn't daft, for Mercay had had several ocean-related fatalities over the years, and the victims never drowned because of a lack of ability to swim, it was that the water was too cold. A body cannot function under a certain temperature.
"Ciela," He gasped in a long-awaited return, "…Go get help."
"Can you stay afloat that long?"
"No, but Link… might." Ciela closed her eyes in a sincere hope that she would reopen them somewhere else, but the two figures in peril remained in the water, twin broken buoys.
"You mean you won't try?" She winced, and the fairy turned away from the sight, her stomach jumping around in her body.
"Look, Sparkles," He took in a deep breath and continued, "I can hardly move my legs anyway, and dying is inevitable at this point-"
Ciela scoffed forcefully, and flew to a vantage point a mere inch from his face, "Look here, Linebeck," She growled, "You are perfectly capable of swimming thirty feet to the shore. It'll be over quickly."
Linebeck closed his eyes and reeled in a few laborious breaths before it was possible to speak again, "I don't think-"
The Spirit of Courage, the feisty, fire-hearted fairy, begged: "Please. If not for Link, then for yourself, or me, or the entire world's sake."
Linebeck may have smirked, but it was too dark to tell, even under Ciela's fading light.
When he started to swim towards shore, it was in such a slow manner that Ciela didn't even notice he had started to. Most of the action was with his left arm, as Link was supported in the right, and the legs were entirely numb, she supposed. Ciela posed once again as the guiding path, bobbing slowly until, after what seemed to be an eternity, his feet found the cliff of the drop off and he was able to steadily stand up. He collapsed with the boy on the lukewarm sand, and for a moment, stopped entirely; he stopped breathing, thinking, moving, and, to Ciela's terrified thoughts, living. In less than a heartbeat, he was revived, and she turned to Link, who seemed to be fine as well. She observed the two like specimens on a scientist's lab table, watching them with such closeness that she felt she could do nothing else.
Ciela found herself staring at Linebeck. His shirt was matted to his chest, drenched with salt water that had yet to dry. She watched as his heart pounded relentlessly, rattling his organs and bones in his body like an unwanted hiccup. She watched him a while longer, perhaps just to confirm that he was in fact living, until she jumped to the realization that she needed to fetch help from someone.
"They'll be alright, Ciela. Please calm down."
Ciela alternated from sitting to flying for the millionth time in the past ten minutes. She blamed her uneasy stomach on the rocking of the boat.
"But, Grandpa…" She whined, "Link's lips are blue! What if-"
"Enough, 'What ifs'" Oshus ordered curtly, "They'll be fine."
Ciela was yet again seated on the bedpost, her chin in her hands. Both her comrades were resting unconscious in their own beds, buried beneath a dog pile of blankets.
"Can you take it from here, Ciela?" Oshus relayed a rhetorical question: Of course she could take it from here. The actual question was whether she was sane enough to do so.
"Yes." The fairy stated, though she wasn't all too sure that was true.
Oshus bid her good-bye and left the boat swiftly.
A rustle of blankets diverted her attention back to the beds, whereupon Linebeck was rousing from sleep. He blinked a few times, then gasped and sat up so quickly he hit his head on the headboard of the bed- just as he had done earlier.
If Ciela hadn't have been so rattled about what had terrorized them earlier, she would've shamelessly doubled over in laughter.
Linebeck rubbed the back of his head and glanced about terrifyingly, taking in all that he saw, trying to make sense of it. His brain ached and throbbed, his throat was raw and stung, and his legs… Goddesses, he could hardly feel his legs, much less comprehend what kind of pain they were in. When he tried to lift his leg, nothing happened, and for a half of a mortifying second he no longer believed he had any lower extremities, until he looked down the lanky mass that was his body and saw the two limbs making slight indentations in the blankets encasing him. He returned to caressing his pounding skull, and lifted his eyes cautiously to the glittering ball of light floating with tired wings a few feet from his bedside.
"…I'm going to have quite a few bumps on my head, huh, Sparkles?"
Ciela felt suddenly like she may explode. Or cry. Or die. Or maybe all three. She clenched her hair into a ponytail in her hands, and then released it like a waterfall of pressure. All her emotions, bottled up for hours, came crashing down as an avalanche on her functions to breathe and speak. She could barely stutter out a quiet, "Are you okay?" She had never felt this relieved or conflicted in all her life as her brain buzzed with fatigue and unrest. Linebeck sat up straight, fully aware now, and she took his place mentally; Ciela forgot where she was, what she was doing, and how in Hell's name she was supposed to feel at this moment.
"I'm great," Linebeck shrugged, "I feel fine."
Ciela laughed painstakingly, "You're such a liar."
Linebeck mocked a feeling of being offended, elongating his back against the headboard in a slow movement. He blinked suddenly, and then returned her glare with an expression of eureka. "The dead fish, remember?"
"What?"
"The one that Link caught this afternoon; all of them were dead because they had been driven to the surface and shore, where it was too hot. They didn't dare go further out or any deeper, because that monster was out there," Linebeck paused for a moment, setting his chin in his hands, "From that, they basically were cooked on the surface of the water."
Ciela's jaw dropped; that explanation did make a lot of sense, though the information was now irrelevant. Linebeck managed a smirk, "Though, that's just common sense."
Ciela's retort was lackluster, "I…uh, doubt that's the actual case." She found solace in the following silence. "…See, all that stuff you did?"
He nodded, his face a blank and unprecedented pallet.
"That was..." The words flew from Ciela's mouth before she could filter them, "Courageous."
He smiled coyly, but with a genuine aura, "It was, wasn't it?"
As Ciela floated down to her perch with a hopeless groan, Linebeck's ego grew, but not for the shallow reason that he had another reason to compliment himself.
"In all seriousness, I'm not only grateful for you taking action in that time, but I'm really, really ..." She paused for a moment, trying futilely to formulate a response,
"Indebted, overjoyed, and proud. It sounds silly to say that I'm proud , because it's an emotion more relayed from parents to children, but I can say for sure that you proved yourself entirely. "
Linebeck 's lips curved modestly to what could be thought of as a smile, if Ciela ignored the following statement that cracked the ambience of the room and purposely subverted her attempt at a conversation, "For your own sake, you'd better hope I forget this conversation," He paused, "But for both our sakes, I won't be doing that anytime soon."