I never really thought about Phantom Hourglass a lot…(I never even played it), so me writing this one-shot is sort of a surprise for me. But one thing I liked about Phantom Hourglass is Linebeck being Link's companion (In a way…?), so I wanted to write something about their closeness.
Also if you didn't know I'm actually tRASH for wind waker (and toon link). So thats a factor into why I am writing this.
Prompt: Link and LInebeck are alone at sea in complete silence, and Linebeck asks Link about his adventures on the Great Sea.
"Tell me about your adventures."
Link sat up from the floor, looking around in slight shock. He faced Linebeck with his eyebrows raised in confusion, since the ship's captain was standing on the deck in silence, just like he was for a past few hours. Link assumed that LInebeck wasn't the one to ask him this. After all, the first rule that Linebeck placed was that Link wasn't allowed to "distract him".
In other words, don't talk.
While Link welcomed the idea of talking in the ship, he had to respect his new captain. After all, Link was always reminded by him that Linebeck was risking his life taking him around the ocean. Linebeck preferred to sail in silence, and while Link didn't mind, it would make long trips extremely boring. Link usually had Ciela to keep him company, but the small fairy retired into his hat for a small nap. Link couldn't blame her, with them travelling quietly for hours now, he wanted to fall asleep too. Although he gotten used to travelling in silence.
He has travelled across the Great Sea alone, after all.
"Oi, did you hear me?"
Link blinked out of his thoughts, and focused back at Linebeck. "Sorry?" He asked, just to confirm it was Linebeck talking to him.
"Boy, you heard me. Come over here and tell me about your adventures." Linebeck called out. "You've said you're some great hero of whatever."
Link's face lit up. He practically jumped up from the floor and quickly made his way up to the deck. He climbed onto a crate next to Linebeck and comfortably sat down. Linebeck shifted his gaze from the ocean to peer at the smaller boy. He scolded as soon as he saw how excited Link was.
"Hurry up, we're been traveling for hours and I'm bored." Linebeck spat out. Link would have normally frowned at Linebeck's attitude, but he's recently gotten used to it so his smile grew bigger.
"A-Ah um…" Link rushed through his thoughts. No one other than Tetra's pirate crew asked about his adventures as the Hero of Winds, so to say he was excited was an understatement. "Where to begin...Oh! How about when I met my boat!"
"Met your boat?" Linebeck asked. "How in the gales do you meet a boat?" Linebeck asked, with slight distaste in his voice. Link shifted his gaze away from Linebeck and laughed normally.
"Ooookay… I'll go a little back then." He said. Link thought for a second and raised his eyebrows. "I guess I should start with my birthday." He said. Link paused, not sure if that was the right place to start, or if Linebeck was interested in hearing him talk about it.
"Well…? What are you waiting for?" Linebeck asked. "Begin!" Link smirked and closed his eyes, allowing flashbacks to come back to him.
"I used to live in an island." Link started, "It was a small island called Outset. I lived there with my grandma and my little sister Aryll." Link hesitated, but warmly smiled at the memories of playing with Aryll and eating his favorite meal, which was his grandma's soup. "Back at my island, there was a tradition that went with some old legend. Do you know the legend about the Hero of Time?" Link asked. The boy took Linebeck's silence as a no. "Well it was about a boy who was able to travel through time, and sealed this demon king from harming an old kingdom. But eventually that demon came back years later, and since the Hero of Time was no longer there, the demon king almost destroyed the kingdom. The goddesses then flooded the kingdom to seal the demon king away, and the kingdom no longer existed." Link quickly explained.
"Sounds like that hero wasted his time." Linebeck snorted, "Get it? Time?" He asked, with a proud smirk on his face, even though he was still looking forward. Link nervously chuckled.
"Y-Yeah… I guess." Link said, "but because of the brave effort of the hero, boys around the hero's age would dress up as him and travel around doing brave acts." Link pointed at his clothes. "Which explains why I'm wearing this."
"No wonder. I can't imagine who would want to walk around in such a weird outfit." Linebeck said. Link shrugged.
"Yeah… I never really liked them that much." Link mumbled. "But when it was my 12th birthday, I was to follow that tradition. The only thing is that the tradition was outdated at the time. So boys wouldn't actually leave the island and fight monsters. We would just sit there in the hero's clothing for that one day." Link explained.
"12th?" Linebeck suddenly cut in. "You were that young? How old are you now?" Linebeck asked. Link sat there in silence for a bit.
"14…" Link answered, with slight doubt in his voice. Linebeck nodded and continued to stay silent. Link took this as a sign to continue. "Back at my home, some of us weren't even allowed to learn swordplay. But I was lucky, since one of our village elders has always taught me as soon as I was old enough to wield one responsibly." Link reached for his back and pulled out his sword. He held it up with a determined face. "I'm very grateful for him training me. I would have died on day one if I didn't know how to fight." Link admitted. LInk faced Linebeck, and saw that the older man didn't shift from his spot. Link sighed and placed his sword back. "If everything went normally, I guess my life would have stayed the same." He said. Link looked down at his own hands, remembering that it was once covered in his own blood. "Sometimes, during my journey, I wished things didn't change."
Linebeck shifted his gaze back at the younger blonde boy and noticed his sad, longing expression.
"So what happened?" He asked. Link looked up at Linebeck and noticed he was looked directly at him. "What happened during your birthday that changed things?" He asked again.
"Oh...well…" Link thought back to that day. "I went to change into my hero's clothes, and I had to go to my sister. When I went back to her, she gave me this gift." Link explained. "It was a telescope, and we were playing with it." He paused, partially for suspense. It seemed to have worked, since Linebeck was leaning slightly closer towards Link.
"And then…? Linebeck asked.
"That's when the bird came." Link said. Linebeck blinked.
"Bird?" He asked.
"Bird." Link nodded. "It was huge, bigger than any ship you've seen." He said, spreading out his arms. "It was flying through our island, trying to escape from something. My sister noticed there was something on it's talon, so when I used her telescope to see what was there. And there was Tetra." Link said. Linebeck raised his eyebrows.
"You mean the girl we're looking for?" He asked. Link nodded.
"Behind the bird, we noticed her ship was chasing the bird and shooting cannonballs at it." He said. "One of the cannons hit the bird right on the face. Which made it drop Tetra right on the top of our island. And that top part was closed off since there were monsters that lived there." Link said. Linebeck tensed up, but quickly relaxed before Link could noticed. "I quickly went to the elder who taught me how to fight. He gave me the sword and I went up there to save Tetra." Link let out a warm smile. "That was when I first met her." He said. "Now that I think about it, she was really rude to me, even after I tried to help her multiple times. I didn't really like her much." Link paused, after hearing a snort from Linebeck. Ignoring it, Link continued on. "When we exited that part of Outset, I found my sister waiting for me. Of course I was happy to see her again, but…" Link stopped. After a long moment in silence between the two, Linebeck raised his eyebrows.
"Speak, boy!"
Link hesitated, and shivered.
"The bird came back. It came quickly, before any of us could notice it." Link said.
"So was your friend taken again? If I were you back then, I would have left her since she sounded like a brat." Linebeck said, crossing his arms. Link stayed quiet and shook his head.
"No. It didn't take Tetra." Link mumbled. He looked up and locked eyes with Linebeck. "It took my sister."
Linebeck stared at the younger boy. Though the adventure was a long time ago, Linebeck still knew Link was still terrified of that moment. A small part of him wanted to reassure the boy.
But that part was quickly overrun by pride.
Thankfully, Link quickly recovered from the memory and gave him a wide smile.
"Don't worry! I eventually saved her." Link said. Linebeck huffed, and faced the sea ahead of him again.
"I was not worried." He hissed. Link laughed and continued on his story.
"I went out to save her, and Tetra took me to the island where Aryll was being kept. The trip took a month, and I got close to the crew members, or at least most of them. Tetra and her assistant still weren't that friendly." He said. "The island that held my sister was known as forsaken fortress." Even the name of the place still freaked Link out. "I wasn't successful in getting her out, though. When I to the top of the fortress, the bird caught me and took me away. When he brought me to the top, I saw him for the first time." Linebeck shifted his head and eyed Link.
"Him?"
Link took a deep breath. "The demon king himself," Link said. "Ganondorf." Linebeck blinked.
"I thought you said that king was dead." Link shook his head.
"I said he was sealed. But somehow he got out." He said. "He ordered the bird to throw me away. I don't remember what happened since then, but I woke up inside a boat." He explained. Link smirked. "That's when I met my boat."
"Still don't get it." Linebeck said.
"Yeah, things get way more complicated from here." He said. Linebeck sighed. He looked ahead, but seeing that there was still nothing but water for miles ahead, Linebeck stepped down from the deck and sat next to Link.
"Alright tell me." He said.
And that's what he did.
"So...why did you have to leave the master sword on his head?" Linebeck asked. Link shrugged.
"It was keeping him sealed, or dead. I don't know." He admitted. "He turned into stone. So, I don't think he'd ever be a threat again." He said, proudly. LInebeck stared at him.
"I didn't think you'd be that violent." He said. Link nervously laughed.
"Uh well… I kind of had to. I was really battered up. I would have died if Zelda wasn't there to help me." Link explained. "After we defeated Ganondorf, Hyrule started to rapidly flood. The King came back and explained things to us but…" Link paused, "I wasn't listening. Partially because I was in so much pain, but also I kind of shut out after he said he couldn't come with us." Linebeck kept his gaze on Link.
"Why not?" Linebeck flatly asked. LInk bit the bottom of his lip nervously.
"I'm not even sure…" Link said. "After all we've been through I thought...He'd want to come with us." Link locked eyes with Linbeck, with an expression of confusion and defeat. "I just really miss him." He said. Linebeck tried to think of ways to calm him down. Obviously the boy was upset about the whole deal. Linebeck has never comforted anyone before, so the whole situation left him flailing around his arms at the boy, who didn't seem to same notice. Linebeck straightened his back and stood up.
"Well, what happened after that?" Linebeck asked. Link blinked out of this thoughts and looked down.
"U-Uh well…" He paused. "Hyrule sank, and I woke up on the middle of the ocean. I found Tetra and her crew waiting for me, along with Aryll, Prince Komali, Medli, and Makar. We went back home to Outset after that, and I decided to go out to find the new land the king was talking about with Tetra. And now here I am." He finished.
"Yeah? What about the princess?" Linebeck asked. Link hesitated, not wanting to reveal that Tetra was in fact Zelda (he skipped the part about Tetra coming back and going to Hyrule with him).
"Um….I still don't know where she went. She….probably drowned with the king." He lied, without realizing how morbid the thought was. Linebeck shook his head in shame.
"Well, I'm sorry." He said. Link shook his head.
"I've gotten over it months ago." Link replied, offering a smile. "I'm okay now. Thanks." Linebeck scoffed.
"I did nothing. Have some pride in yourself, boy." Linebeck said. Link nervously laughed and played with his belt a bit. He suddenly felt a soft pressure on top of his head, and when he shifted his eyes up, he saw Linebeck was looking away, while patting his head.
"I'm glad you're okay, at least." He admitted, a little too quietly. Link stared blankly at the captain, and then his eyes and smile widened. As soon as Linebeck noticed Link's happy expression, he pulled back his hand and stormed off, mumbling about kids and their dumb faces. Link bursted out laughing at Linebeck's reaction. He quickly followed him to the deck, and as soon as the two reached it, they both looked ahead on the vast ocean.
"Do you miss your home?" Linebeck asked. Link nodded, even though he knew the captain didn't see him.
"All the time. I've written tons of letters, though." He said. "I miss my friends too."
"I could imagine." Linebeck said. More silence, before Link pointed ahead.
"Linebeck, look! I see land!" He exclaimed. Linebeck squinted his eyes, and found that the boy was right after all.
"Excellent work, Link." Linebeck said. "Now only a few minutes before we get on land." Linebeck patted Link's head again and steered the ship towards the incoming island. Link let out a warm smile once he finally heard Linebeck refer to him by his name instead of "boy", but didn't want to point it out since he figured it said it without noticing. The blonde reached over to lightly tapped the spot on his head where Linebeck patted him and remembered an old friend back at Dragon Roost who used to do the same to him.
"Oi, Link!"
The call distracted the said boy from his thoughts and he looked up at Linebeck. The
captain had a smug grin on his face and nodded at Link. "Grab all your equipment! It's time to find the last spirit!" He said. Link nodded back and saluted him. He turned away from Linebeck to run down the deck. "Hey, wait a moment." Link stopped and turned his head to face him. Linebeck was looking ahead, but Link knew he was talking to him. "Thanks." Linebeck finally said. Link blinked in confusion.
"Thanks?" Link asked. Linebeck huffed out stubbornly.
"Look, I thought it was a nice story. Thanks for telling me." Linebeck said, "Also, I'm glad you're safe." He murmured. Link gasped.
"Linebeck is being nice!" Link shouted out. Linebeck turned towards Link and gave him a venomous glare.
"Pipe down, kid!" Linebeck hissed out, but Link jumped up and down around him, saying 'Linebeck's being nice' repetitively in a sing-a-long voice. Linebeck released his grip on the steering wheel and swiped his hand towards him, in an attempt to grab him, but Link quickly dodged him and ran down to grab his stuff, laughing. Linebeck sighed and went back to the wheel, looking ahead at the sea. "The kids been through a lot." He mumbled to himself. "He's got a lot of courage in himself..." Linebeck snorted and the thought. "Not bad".