Aryll sighed as she leaned over the banister of the pirate ship. The night sky was clear, giving Aryll a nice view of the stars, and the vast ocean looked beautiful with the twinkling reflection of the stars on the surface.
Despite the fact that it was a great night out, Aryll's thoughts were elsewhere. The last she saw of her big brother, he was being whisked away to fight the monstrous bird that had taken her from her home on Outset Island. Before Link could come back to save her, this group of pirates had rescued her first.
The pirates told Aryll that their captain had vanished with Link, and suggested that she remain with them for a while. Aryll didn't have any real objections, since the pirates were nice enough to recuse her in the first place. After dropping off Maggie and Mila (and picking up a vast reward from Mila's father), the pirates set sail to search the ocean for Link and Tetra.
Aryll sighed again. The only thing on her mind was her brother. He was lost somewhere out in the ocean, and the only reason he was in this mess to begin with was because of her. The pirates were nice to the little girl while she was on the boat, but she still couldn't help but feel guilty.
"Please be safe, big brother." Aryll whispered. "I'm okay, now. I don't want you dying trying to find me."
Aryll suddenly heard some footsteps coming onto the deck. The blonde girl turned and saw one of the shorter and younger pirates walking up fro below deck. His sideburns, blue bandana and buckteeth identified him as Niko.
"Hey, kiddo. How's that dress fitting ya?" Niko asked.
Niko was referring to the purple dress of Tetra's that the pirates had lent to Aryll. Her blue dress was dirtied due to her lengthy time in a cold, dank cell on the Forsaken Fortress and the pirates were quick to give her some fresh clothing. Surprisingly, it was one of the tougher-looking pirates (Senza, Aryll thought his name was) that suggested Aryll get the dress in the first place.
"Oh. I like it. It fits me perfectly." Aryll nodded. "You sure it's alright if I wear one of your captain's dresses?"
"The captain's not exactly around to object, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind anyway." Niko shrugged. "Great night, isn't it?"
"Yeah. I guess." Aryll shrugged.
Niko walked over to the railing and leaned against it. "What's on your mind?" He asked.
"Just…Just thinking of my big brother. He's lost out there somewhere and I'll probably never see him again." Aryll said.
"Aw, I wouldn't worry about him. He's the best swabbie I've ever had, ya know!" Niko said with a smirk. "Before we went to Forsaken Fortress, I built some test chambers for him and he cleared them no problem! That was when I knew he'd be ready for the dangers of the sea."
"But you saw the size of that bird. There's no way he could take that thing on alone." Aryll pointed out.
"Eh, you'd be surprised." Niko assured. "Before we picked you up, we stopped on Windfall Island and I met up with Link again. I asked him what he had been up to and he said he fought this HUGE scorpion thing on Dragon Roost Island while the monster was in a giant pool of lava."
Aryll's eyes widened. "What? He…He must have been exaggerating!" She said.
"That's what I said, and then he showed me a picture of it he had taken with his Pictorgraph Box." Niko said as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a picture. "Turns out that he took a couple of pictures of it and he gave me one as compensation when I let him take some of the bombs we had collected."
Aryll inspected the picture and couldn't believe what she was seeing. This scorpion monster looked HUGE and monstrous! Link took that thing on all by himself?
"That thing's so big!" Aryll said.
"That's what I said when I saw the picture. I told him that if he could take on something like that, he'd have no trouble." Niko assured.
Aryll felt a little better after seeing the picture. Seeing that Link was able to take on something of that size and ferocity and survive the encounter told Aryll that he may still be alive. Aryll looked back at the sea, now with a slight smile.
"Have you guys ever taken on something of that size?" Aryll asked. "I'd be beyond horrified if I ever saw something like that."
"There's not a whole lot out on the ocean except for a few monsters, and we all know to steer clear of sites where they roam." Niko said.
"That's good to hear."
"Of course, that's not saying that we couldn't take a monster that size on." Niko bragged. "Yeah, we were able to take on two of those things at once before, you know."
"Seriously? Wow! How'd you do it?" A stunned Aryll asked.
"It was a tiresome struggle and it drained a lot of our ammo, but we finally reigned victorious in the end." Niko said. "It's what put Captain Tetra on the map as a respectable pirate, you know?"
Aryll laughed. In all honesty, the story sounded a little fishy, but Niko looked so proud telling it that she decided to go along with it. She looked out into the ocean and her eyes suddenly lit up in excitement.
"Oh, wow! Look at that, Niko! Isn't that neat?" Aryll asked.
"What is it?" Niko asked.
"Over there! See that big flock of seagulls flying around?" Aryll asked. "I've never seen so many in one place before! I've always loved seagulls!"
Niko's eyes snapped open as he looked out into the water. He indeed saw a flock of seagulls flying over a designated area of water, and the ship was sailed right towards it.
"Crap! Crap, crap, crap!" Niko cursed as he ran over to the steering wheel of the ship and spun it to the side, trying to steer clear. Unfortunately, it was to no avail and Aryll suddenly noticed that a whirlpool had appeared around where the ship was sailing.
"Niko, what's going on?" Aryll asked.
Seeing that the ship was already in the whirlpool, Niko ran for the door to the hold and ripped it open. "Gonzo! Senza! Mako! Everyone! BIG OCTO!" He screamed.
Aryll watched in horror as something emerged from the middle of the whirlpool. The monster kept rising up higher and higher until the portion above water was well over twice as tall as the ship. Aryll saw that it was a huge octopus with multiple eyes covering its body.
By now, the rest of the pirates had rushed onto the deck. Gonzo was the first to act and raced towards the wheel.
"I'll try and get us out of the whirlpool!" Gonzo said. "Everyone else man the cannons!"
Niko and the rest of the pirates rushed over to the cannons lining the side of the ship. Aryll was still frozen to the deck, looking up at the Big Octo's monstrous body in pure terror. One of the eyes appeared to be looking directly at her.
This said eye was promptly shot with one of the cannons. Aryll looked and saw Niko manning the cannon next to where she was standing. Niko looked determined now; nothing like how he was looking previously.
As Gonzo continued to pilot the ship around the whirlpool, trying to steer out of it, the other pirates unloaded everything they had on the Big Octo. After taking several hits, the Big Octo lifted one of its tentacles into the air and started swinging it down onto the deck. Nudge was quick to stop the attack and shot the monster's body, making it recoil in pain.
The assault continued and it was clear that the monster was not only in pain, but getting increasingly angrier. The octopus swung another tentacle, destroying the cannon Zuko was operating. Another swing and Senza's cannon was destroyed. This left Nudge, Niko and Mako as the only ones with cannons.
"Keep attacking! We gotta be getting close to killing it!" Mako shouted.
Niko saw that the octopus was trying another tentacle strike. His eyes widened when he saw that it was aiming towards Aryll, and then turned his attention to the tentacle rather than the monster itself. Niko unloaded as much as he could as fast as he could, striking the tentacle with so much force that the tentacle got removed from the body altogether. The octopus roared in pain.
"That did it for me! I'm out of ammo!" Niko shouted.
"We've almost got it! Come on!" Mako said as he and Nudge fired their cannons multiple times and struck the octopus with the force needed to finally destroy it. After the last shot, the octopus roared in pain as it slowly sunk back into the water to its death. As soon as the monster went under the water, the whirlpool disappeared and the water's were calm once again.
Now that he had full control again, Gonzo steered clear of the waters. If the Big Octo was still alive somehow, he didn't want to be around it, especially since they were no so low on resources.
"Okay. That…That was too close." Gonzo sighed in relief.
"Niko, I thought you knew to steer clear of large groups of seagulls." Mako said. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"I told you guys as soon as I could. I even tried to steer out of the way!" Niko insisted.
"P-Please don't get mad at him!" Aryll pleaded. "He let you guys know as soon as he saw the seagulls!"
Nudge stepped forward. "Look, the main thing is that we killed it and we're alright." He said. "Sure, we exhausted a lot of our resources, but we just need to go restock on things in the morning."
The pirates agreed as they went under the deck again, although Gonzo remained behind the wheel to change course towards the nearest island they could get ammo and resources.
Niko looked at Aryll, who still looked rather pale. "Hey…Are you okay, Aryll?" He asked.
Aryll quickly threw her arms around Niko. "That was…That was the worst experience of my life." She said. "I've never seen anything that scary before."
Although surprised, Niko returned the hug. "Hey, don't worry. It'd dead, now." He assured.
"You…You saved me back there." Aryll said.
"It's…It's fine. I couldn't let that thing kill you." Niko said. "Those monsters are killers. Look, you've had a rough time. Why don't you go below deck and turn in for the night?"
"I…I think I probably should." Aryll said. "Thank you, Niko."
Aryll gave Niko a kiss on the cheek and went over to the door, going below deck. Niko rubbed his face where Aryll kissed him and suddenly heard a chuckle. He gazed up at Gonzo. "What's so funny?" He asked.
"Nothing. Just watching you finally become a man." Gonzo said. "Look, you head to bed as well. I got things covered up here for now."
"Thanks." Niko said as he went below deck. Although he was somewhat happy for what just happened, a thought lingered in the back of his mind. A girl had actually kissed him, something he was secretly wanting for a long time.
But what would Link do if he found out?
END