THE FUNCTION TO BREATHE
by an awesome blossom
But then Linebeck breathes.
New twist to the drabble game which made up the Five Minutes Of collection. This time we had ten minutes to write a drabble based on lyrics of our choice. I chose Kaiser Chief's "Ruby" for the line "...the function to breathe, but I'm not really fussed; doesn't matter to me". The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is property of Nintendo and co.
When the normally smooth and playful sea is turbulent and angry, he worries.
It's for the ship, he says, though he knows with arrogant pride that the S.S. Linebeck has withstood worse. He then shrugs off any further comments from his makeshift crew (alternately the peanut gallery) and sends the boy out to look for monsters while he shuts himself up in the hull. What he doesn't say, though, is that he knows his ship can take it, and if something breaks he can fix it. So it's not his ship he's worried about.
What he doesn't say is that he's worried about THEM, that some harm could come to their bodies-not-built-like-ships and they could perish at any moment with a great CRASSSSH! Ships can be rebuilt; people cannot - young boys who attract trouble like he attracts that fiesty pirate woman cannot.
And that's what worries him the most.
When the ship tosses and turns on emotional waves, he holds his breath, so concentrated on any signs of calamity above, or malfunction with the machinery. But then he breathes because the boy who he should perhaps call a man after everything the lad has done will mollify troubled waters as he always does.
And so Linebeck quells his worries for he knows that if anything goes wrong Link will take care of it (take care of THEM). The waves calm, and he goes on deck to rattle away sarcastic terms of endearment, pretending nothing was ever wrong.