Perhaps it was the feeling of warmth escaping through his veins of his back, yet encased against his cold skin and tattered fabric that he felt something was wrong. Terriblely wrong. The last he remember was laying down, supposedly relaxed and in comfort; he could not remember being layed down on a hard floor, the smell of wet salt, yet the taste of metal left behind in his dry mouth... He could, at least, remember his senses overtaking his conscious. Although his eyes lidded and fluttering with weak strength, he can make out the dull and cold sky above him, hovering over in swirls and in a roaring wind as wooden posts stuck out broken on the side of his weak vision; he recognized a tattered flag... A sharp pain emitted from his back and a wince in his voice couldn't be any less audible as movement under him wavered and shoved him in another direction on the floor. The warmth under him, as he was moved from the creaky floor, as well wavered in another direction, and he finally felt the pool of this sensation soaking more into his fabric. Goddesses, he thought, is my back bleeding? But my coat still feels intact...He turns his head to his previous spot before he was forcefully moved from the floor under, and he confirms his assumption that, yes, he seemingly bleeding from under him. Yet, this realization still brought him fear, and his pulse began to race and his breath shook alot harsher than before, soon forcing himself to cough roughly. This scenario is too familiar... Actually, he remembers this scenario completely; this didn't even happen too long ago. Except...

He doesn't remember the events after the ship moved so abruptly, where the floor crashes and that vile creature comes in, movement eratic and a previously petrified child coiled tightly around a tentacle, it's threats audible only by it's screams and the crash of a ship. He doesn't remember the events after his precious treasure of a ship sank with moans of wood and water crashing together, nor the feeling of adrenaline pumping through his arteries as he grasped a metal handle and tightened his wrists into place, the warmth from it's previous wielder still lingering through his fingers as he punctured through cold wind and into a twitchy eye of a spare tentacle, in which another had quickly coiled around him immediately after the first strike and wringing him dry of his strength. He doesn't remember... But he saw...

"Do you think he's ok?"

"...I dunno."

He saw... his treasure dog. Along with that previously petrified girl, yet her face now still resembled a petrified look, even while unconscious, while her body was violently thrown into the distance of the ocean and away from his field of vision; he didn't need to hear the crash of the water or some sort of yell from her being to know that she wasn't going to last in that cold water when she came intact with that violent ocean. His tired eyes remained on the floor of the wrecked ship board, still suspended by the coiling arm tightning around his mid section, his head flooding with blood and vision beginning to blur with mild pain. She's a pirate, right? He tried to reassure himself in thought, She can swim? Although, now that he thinks about it, along with her unwell state, her entire being looked too pale to be healthy, especially coming from being a stone figure for many months. The child looked as if her life force was drained enough by the coloration of her skin...But how? Didn't the old man say that her life force was too great to sustain?

"He's not looking so good..."

A distant yelp brought some attention back in his eyes, which were now scouring his field of vision, yet still constantly colliding with exhaustion. The grip around his midsection tightened, and he could feel his arms lose feeling as this beast continues to stop his blood circulation. What was that slick feeling he felt on his back? It's movement was shaky, yet it felt sharp and hard like a polished knife. With all his remaining might, he lifted his head, in the direction of the voice that sounded like his treasure dog... Where was he? Where was that monster? Behind him? He was too weak to turn his body around and look behind him, yet he can feel his presence close, mixed in with the shivering wind and slight rain beginning to fall. It made himself relive the feeling of fear and adrenaline increase the pace of his heart, his heart which began to hurt the longer there was no response, either from his ship mate, or from-...He couldn't take the suspense.

"...L...Link..."

"Yeah?"

He felt the tentacle wringed around himself jerk suddenly, gripping him enough to ensure tension, before he heard a sharp and thick crunch that seemed to last more than a second in duration. The moment felt as if it alone stopped time, or if not, slowed down enough for it to be remembered in detail; the sound mocked the man in ways he wished he couldn't imagine, he tried with all his might to not imagine, to not assume of what happened above him, Oh Goddesses, he didn't want to hear that crunch above him ever again, considering his position and the unknown location of his shipmate; his unreplacable treasure dog. He prayed, an act he was strongly against in his own morals, with fear and helplessness that his immediate thought wasn't the truth, that it was just a ridiculous presumption, he had no visual evidence but only vague noise, along with the storm slowly brewing around the broken shipyard, only heavy noise and a head filled with blood, he was not well in both his head or his stomach, he bets that it was himself that was making him nauseous, that what he experienced hearing in his hear was just his imagination, the things he saw on that creature, that vile, disgusting, oily monster, Oh Goddesses he saw that hellish thing with a big, sharp beak-!

As if on cue, another sound came behind him, but, Oh,please, that sound couldn't have been faked by an excuse of a trick in his ear; the same crunching sound echoed through his ears, as close as he can feel the creature's heavy breath and the warmth of something eminatting close to his skin. Even though the tentacles around his mid section loosened just slightly, his stomach tightened even more and started dry heaving in the wet atmosphere when he witnessed something fall from near his head. Again, it was as if time had stopped, or, if not, slowed down for him to witness all the details. He couldn't tell if it was the heavy rain that began to flood the world or his own tears that began to coat his face and freeze his expression with despair. He felt himself shake violently as he was raised near the same height as the creature, his vision blurring on the image of the kid's arm and tattered sleeve, coated with dark crimson along the wet floorboard, left in front of him to mock, left him to mock himself, to be ashamed; his thoughts left scrambled and his being broken as he was raised closely to the monster's beak, that disgusting, metallic beak-!

"I don't know what to do..."

Linebeck had no time to register the immense and shocking pain in his back in which he had remembered as he clutched both his arms tightly and sprang up from his pillow. His knuckles were white from the grip he had on his shoulders, to ensure he had blood circulating through them again, as well his breathing becoming erratic, his head dizzy and his stomach still flipping around from the nauseous attack he previously had. Wide awake and eyes filled with fear, yet he could've sworn he heard the voice of Link somewhere, yet his mind continues to mutilate and swim with memory of what happened. Shit, he began to process slowly, what happened...? It felt so real. A s soon as he was recovering ever so slowly, panic sprang forward again into his weak state, and paranoia overwhelmed his mind, similiar to his dream. What did happen to the fight with Bellum? Was what he dreamed of actually happened? He saw no one with him, and that voice...seemed so distant.

Linebeck felt like crying and throwing up at the same time, yet both options were unobtainable; he seemed to have dried out his eyes from crying in his sleep, and he had nothing to puke out for he didn't eat before he slept, leaving him tired and emotionally pained. He relaxed his hands and regulated his breathing after a few minutes, ever so slowly moved his body to the side and carefully planted his feet to the cold floor, nearly falling over when adjusting his weight to stand up. He didn't bother with wearing his bedside slippers, nor check the mirror of himself, to see if there was still blood on his back or if his face was still soaked with sea rain. He had to confirm his suspicion; was what he encountered actually what happened? Even he couldn't remember, yet his mind now was too fogged up, his sense of reality unclear in the middle of the night.

He had to check his room...He had to check Link's room. Perhaps he was there, soundly asleep, and his suspicion was just another false assumption, that he just had a bad dream... A very terrible one...

But what if not? How did Linebeck cope with the loss? Did he continue drinking? What of Bellum? Was he still out there? Was he being chased by that...That disgusting demon? Did Tetra survive? Did Link...

"...Mmgh-..." He breathed in, holding in another dry heave, and slowly exhaled, one hand returning to his shoulder to refrain from shaking once again, the other slowly, shakily reaching out to the knob of his bedroom door.

However, before he touched the cool metal, the knob twisted suddenly from beind and the door swung open. Even in the dark, the outline of Link could be seen infront of the captain, wearing his blue and orange pajamas and in his hand a glass of water. Link's face changed from surprise to relief in matter of seconds when he saw Linebeck awake and walking.

"Captain! You're ok!"

"Oh, K-Kid...!" Linebeck began to shake even more, and his knees bucked under him to fall down near Link, yet his hands shot out and grasped the kid in surprise, bringing him close and holding him tight in his arms. Although his eyes were dried of anymore tears, Linebeck sobbed and choked through his breathing against Link's shoulder, his mind fuddled with so many different outcomes of what could've happened, what he almost believed had happened. And yet, here the kid was: alive and awake and, goddesses, he was worried about him too, after all this time.

Link was almost speechless of Linebeck's sudden embrace, and even more when he was held onto closer, considering he still was holding Linebeck's glass. The position was awkward for him, yet Linebeck didn't seem to mind completely, which made Link wonder of what Linebeck was going through his night terror?

After a moment of recollection, Linebeck slowly released Link from his grip and slowly backed up. For an extra act of affection, the exhausted captain raised his hand and softly petted the kid's bed head, finding warmth again on his face, rather than the closeness he felt in his dream...An entirely different situation-

"Captain, what happened...? Tetra came by and heard you sobbing in your sleep, so I went to check on you, and you started talking in your sleep. You didn't sound well."

The kid still had that compassionate voice. He wonders how he never noticed it before...

Yet, Linebeck couldn't bring up his experience in that nightmare; telling a child and his friend about their detailed death by the hands of that beast? Everyone was stressed in that moment, and yet, even after the epic battle, the presence of evil still lingered. Besides, the captain would not want to recollect himself of that dream.

...And, what would Link think of Linebeck having these sort of dreams?

"I... Don't really wanna talk about it."

Linebeck raised himself up, and carefully took the glass from Link; his hands still shook when he gulped the water quickly, nearly choking on it, too.

"Are you sure?" Link pursuaded. He then took back the glass from Linebeck, noticing his trembling demeanor. The kid starts to regret asking; personal issues weren't something he was knowingly allowed to poke at the captain, but his caring heart urged him on. "You can tell me anything, ok? I'm here for you..."; he thought for abit, "because we're a crew, and you're my captain." he added, with a huge hint of worry in his voice.

Linebeck had to hold back a smile. It was... Really cheesy for the kid to say something like that to his captain, but perhaps it was almost fitting in the current situation. Almost. "Yeah, I know...", he replied. He felt his own body relax and regained some warmth again; perhaps he was getting cheesy towards the other, too.

"I know, kid."