Pirates of the Seas: II

Link leaned against the ship's railing and wiped his hands on his trousers. He smelt of fish, rotten at that, and of salt. The sky was already beginning to glow a fiery red, and finally the deck was clean. Niko swept the boards with a mop one last time, and when he noticed Link watching him he raised a hand in greeting.

The blue-capped pirate made his way over in a rather sluggish way. "What did the Miss want?" he asked when he approached.

"Nothin'," he responded. It was all he was able to say.

"The boy says 'nothin,' what d'you think of that?" Senza called out from across deck. He gave a laugh and made his way over. "You looked like you'd seen some of the dead, with the way you looked when you came back out, so don't you be sayin' 'nothin' to me, boy."

Zuko peaked over from the crow's nest having heard the conversation taking place below. "There's nothin' goin' on 'tween you and the Miss, is there?" he called down.

"Aye, I think that be the case, with this and-" Senza began to say until Niko cut him off.

"All of ya pirates, you leave my lad be. It's not up to you to tell 'em what he does with the Miss in his spare time."

The words were supposed to be helpful in a way, but Link's eyes narrowed and he hit the smaller pirate in the back of the head with a dull thud. Off to the side Gonzo was looking on to the scene, namely at Link, with his chin raised and face contorted in what appeared to be distaste.

"What in the name of the Goddesses are you going on about," Link began to say. "I already told you, she didn't want anything." But even as he said the words, he knew that even the other's could hear his lack of conviction.

However, it seemed that the other's were willing to leave it at that, so they turned their attention away and got back to their own business. Niko stayed for a moment, silently debating whether or not he should stay and speak with Link, but a sharp look from the other party sent him hurrying away.

Not that Link minded in any regard. Rather, he was glad for the silence, and he wasn't exactly overly fond of the pirates constantly asking about his relations and whereabouts at all times of the day. He went out to have a drink when they came onto shore? Why, he must've been with Tetra. Went to buy supplies-for the pirates, nonetheless? Must've been with Tetra. Had to take a piss? Well, most certainly he must've been with Tetra. Because he could stay alongside the overbearing pirate captain for more than a few at a time without her making a sly remark on whatever it was that was occurring.

Link turned out to sea and propped his chin on his hands. That wasn't to say he didn't like her, no, that was far from the case, and it seemed that the rest of the crew knew that fact all too well. Sure, he cared about the girl, but when one has to save the aforementioned party from a Dark Lord, one tends to get attached.

They'd been stuck with each other through thick and thin. That reason alone would explain the shock that ran through his entire being when she spoke to him earlier. When she asked him if they should just give up on finding the land they had been tasked with to find, well, he's lucky he was even able to form coherent sentences at that point.

"Is there even a point?" she had asked.

To be entirely honest, Link wasn't even sure. But to give up on what they had spent their past five years doing? Surely Tetra could see what was wrong with what it was she inquired about. It was a strange thought, and it sent chills up Link's back every time her question repeated itself in his mind.

He straightened up and slammed his hands on the wooden railing. He'd get himself his own boat, even if it was a small sailboat barely large enough for him to fit. He'd get himself his own boat if Tetra refused to continue on with their journey. He'd go out on his own, and alone he'd find himself a new Hyrule.

Link near hit his head off the railing. He sounded ridiculous, and he knew that if he told any of the crew they'd laugh right in his face.

He shook the thoughts from his head. Slowly he made his way back below deck to where he had his own dank cot set up, snug in the recesses of the ship. Without even bothering to change he fell onto the makeshift bed. He was forced to pause for a moment, to check if the bed was his.

The pirates were forced to rotate their cots even so often, due to everyone wanting to be closer to the door. If you were closer to the door, well, you were closer to the food that came with the rising sun.

Link's final thoughts were of the next morning's meal, and with them he fell into a deep sleep, despite the fact that the sun had not yet set. Tetra wouldn't yell at him, she was off in her own room sulking. And if the crew said anything about the fact he would hit them over the head with the flat of his sword.


"Come to me, my child king
Take my hand and walk with me
There will be a crown to bring down the world
And it shall be on your head
Yet forget what the men have said to you
For a heart as yours is gold and true."

The song echoed all around him, bathed in the blackness of the voids and of silence. He himself felt disembodied, and the song ran through his essence, becoming him till he had no sense of what he previously was.

"Is he alright?" someone asked. Just as the song had, the voice ran through him, and he felt himself shrink down against its might. "This is the one? Is this a sort of joke?"

"Hardly," said another. "You have seen what has happened. We all have."

"He is but a child."

"There are no rules saying he cannot be a child."

"There are no rules at all."

Silence engulfed him once more as the short lived argument died out into the void. His body, or what was supposed to have been his body, trembled with a force tenfold that of the voices as someone or, rather, something seemed to bear itself to his very essence.

And just as it had started, it had vanished, and he was left with an emptiness that would drive any living man to his own death. Yet in its place came his senses, after what seemed to be ages of darkness. But there was no time in the voids, for they were as endless as the ideology of time itself.

Slowly his body returned to him, and he felt the rise and fall of his stomach with every shuddering breath he managed to take. He opened his eyes then, or so he had believed, for nothing but darkness flooded his vision.

So he sat there in complete blackness, and he began to wonder if he was dead. Perhaps he had been killed in his sleep, his throat slit or his heart stabbed. Or, maybe, as a pain as sharp as a thousand daggers burying themselves into his gut, his entrails had been sliced out.

"When faced with a bliss so pure your mind goes to believing that you are dead? Is that how wretched such enjoyment is to your kind? Surely no, I would not think."

The pain lifted from his body, and he was left swaying in the voids while enticed in a fit of delusion.

"But such is beside the point. There are many challenges in this life, and you have seen more than most, unless my sight has begun to fail me."

The new voice was a welcoming one in comparison with the others. It wound around his body, filling him with a sense of comfort, but hardly one false.

"I have seen your thoughts. You do not think of death, or of hate. But of life and of love. That is why you are one of the chosen. You are not here to be guided blindly by those who know nothing of such things, for to do so is to be utterly lost and it is not in your mind to do so. You would be lost among lost men, and so I ask you, please, to not stray to such a path.

"Great Hero, my child, you are not far from that which you seek. Tell your Lady of Wisdom, and warn her not to stray. For she is far too near the edge that will be her downfall. Warn her, and do not let her stray, lest you both bring the world as you know it into a blackness far worse than this."

The warmth of the voice lifted from his body, and he used all of his might to reclaim it. But quickly it fled into the dark, only to be replaced with the solidity of a heated body.

"Farewell my child, my Hero of Winds."

Link rose with a start, his eyes wild as they scanned the shadowed room. Sweat rolled down his chest and beaded at the nape of his neck, dampening his hair that had fallen from its uphold. His ears rang and his body shook, and he near fell from his bed as he tried to rise.

Above him shouts were beginning to rise out into the night, and they were far too reckless to be a simple squalor that might be held between the crewmembers.

So with heightened senses he felt his way up above deck, where the crew was gathered alongside the railing of the deck.

Link made his way over to them, near stumbling as he squinted into the light of the night, still far stronger than that of his dream.

"What's going on?" he managed to ask, although it took him a few tries.

"Zuko spotted a ship," answered Mako, paying no heed to Link's disheveled appearance. "Heading straight towards us. Gonzo steered us in another direction, and there it goes following us."

Niko pushed his way in between the two. "Zuko says they've cannons out and all."

"Aye, boy," said Nudge. "So if you've a sword and some armor, I'd go get it if I're you."

Link rubbed his eyes and stared out to sea. There it was, just as promised, a dark shadow of a ship on the horizon that made its way slowly to their own party. Large shadowed flags hung from its masts, and a sense of dark foreboding knotted in Link's gut as the song that had played in his dreams came to mind once again.


A/N: A day late, I know, but I was sick. And now I'm making excuses. But I do like this chapter a whole lot more than it's original counterpart. However, I'm only planning on rewriting if people are interested, if not I've been trying to update some other stories, so... But yeah, anyways, hope you enjoyed! Chapter 3 should be up soon. Thanks for reading (and, of course, reviewing is always nice, so thanks in advance?)!