Good day/evening/whatever, all! So, yay! five reviews! The review replies will be at the bottom, so have a read before scootching down, or scootch down and then have a read, up to you! XD
I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and that you enjoy this one too. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed, but without disney-esque music, the beginning's kinda slow. So yah.
Here you go! Chapter 2~!
Curiosity
Link watched, amazed at the sudden surge of panic on-board, and realised that he was seeing fire. Fire. The embodiment of solid heat, a phenomenon hardly felt, much less witnessed by the sea-folk.
And Link was watching what it could do, first hand.
It ate. It ate at the wood like a hungry gyorg, unmerciful and terrible. It snapped the mast as easy as Link could snap a piece of dead corral, and died a hissing angry death as, still clinging to the mast in a brilliant display of red and gold, hit the waters.
So fire didn't like water…
Link's stomach churned with pity. After all, the humans couldn't jump overboard, not now, not when the sea was too deep for them and the shore was just too far. But they had little boats, so they should be fine, shouldn't they? Link nervously watched, knowing he should be leaving, but unable to tear himself away from their fear and panic and the calm command that Princess Sheik still wielded even in the chaos.
"Captain! Do we have enough life-boats?"
"We do but-"
"This isn't a natural storm, it reeks of magic. There's a high chance that I'm targeted, so please, get everybody off now. Impa, take care of the servants. Captain, I'll leave the aristocrats to you and your crew, they're more likely to listen if you shout."
"But Princess-"
"You know what we have in stock."
The realisation dawned on Linebeck's face. They had goods from Holodrum, like musical instruments, food, textiles, the usual things, but in addition, they had…
Gun powder to power the canons to ward off pirates. Fireworks to celebrate Sheik's return to Termina and to herald her coming of age. If they ignited…
"Captain please!"
"Aye, your Highness."
The ship's eruption of panic turned into a steady billowing of activity; the high born ladies and gentlemen were cajoled into entering the life-boats, the servants collected food items and blankets, piling them into bundles to be dumped with the people. Many a man and woman stumbled as the sea and sky rose and sunk to war with the other, the wind picking up, the lightning and thunder snapping and shrieking. The inexperienced cabin-boys teamed with the most experienced, as the middling men stuck together, ordering/helping each other to safety. Sheik barred her teeth and whistled a shrill note, and the flames quailed as if huddling together, pained by the agonising pitch.
Link winced too, his sensitive ears twitching.
Lightning struck again, smashing the hull of the ship, and splinters burst and whipped with the wind, and the screaming of the ladies (both high and low born) intensified and if it weren't for the shipmen and the manservants the escape would've frozen.
Fire scattered gleefully, riding the wind, crawling against Sheik's whistle and eating and eating and eating. Link looked for the rain, and it was there, in the distance, a wall of savage water curtaining towards the ship's direction too slowly.
Sweat beaded against Sheik's forehead as the heat intensified, her knees buckling in the effort to keep her upright on the rearing ship. "Is everybody off yet?"
"Nearly, your Highness! A few more!"
Sheik coughed mid-whistle, smoke choking her throat. A few stray raindrops batted her eyes, blurring her vision. The sky boomed, and the ship shuddered. "Hurry!"
The fire seemed to have found the crates full of fireworks and was leaping towards it, determined to open it up with its red teeth, lick it with its yellow tongue, blow it up black and gold before the rain came.
"Sheik!" It was Impa, shouting as she commandeered the final boat from its resting place, "Get on!"
The Princess gave one last harsh whistle before turning and sprinting, gathering her skirts in her hands as she rushed, tripping and rolling when a wave smashed into the side of the boat and sent everything collapsing into the floor and sea. She hit her head, the pain blooming and spreading on her temple; her attempts to stand were hindered by the accelerating rain, making the floor slippery.
The fire spread, rain or no, chasing her.
She told her arms to move, move gods DAMN IT but they slipped again, her head ramming against the floor once more, and she would've given up if it weren't for her big, angry, roaring dog who was dragging her towards the boat, nearly tearing her sleeve as he did it.
She stumbled over and rolled into safety, and they dropped into the churning sea, where the others were tying the boats together so they wouldn't be lost from the others.
Sheik forced herself up, looking at the boats, not noticing the pale figure that lurked under the waves, watching her. "Is everybody-"
The fireworks on deck exploded.
^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v
Link ducked down with a shout as the deck of the ship exploded, and even as he dived down in a serpentine motion to dodge the planks and bits of metal that dove in after him, he could see the water dyed colours of anemones and poisonous octopi and lion fish and tropical corral, flashing and wheeling and blinding him.
Humans! What in goddesses' names had they packed into the ship?
When the violent reel of colours subsided Link hesitated, his heart pumping frantically fast as he stared at the surface of the sea. He could just go. He could just leave them alone; they seemed fine, and Sheik was a competent leader…
But this storm wasn't natural. The sea was screaming in agony, tides controlled by outside forces, schools of fish terrified into deep territories that they never ventured into. Link surged up, fighting the forces that buffeted the ocean, spitting water like a human fountain as he breached, awe and horror painting his face as he saw the damage the ship had suffered.
It'd been ripped in half by the concussive power of the fireworks' and the gun powder igniting, setting a chain reaction all the way through the vessel. It looked like a sea urchin torn in half, guts oozing, spikes still twitching the last of life.
And one of the humans on the little boats, all strapped together, was shouting, and a dog was being held down as it barked and howled, both of them trying to leap into the violent ocean, made worse by the torrential rain and the screaming winds.
The woman kept wailing one name over and over in fits of agony.
Sheik.
Link's stomach tightened. There was no way that human could've survived, not if she'd been tossed into this sea, angry and scared, full of debris and sharp objects, and even she could grab onto a plank or something, fire still clung to those, and after all that, when the sea calmed the gyorgs would take her from below.
Link dove down and searched for her.
He swum, fighting the crazy currents, weaving round the falling bits of wood and sharp broken glass and porcelain, dodging the cloud of spices that spilled from metal-shod barrels, the ribbons of tattered and ruined textiles. He listened, desperately, searched for any hint, and finally there seemed to be a scream as some bubbles burst from below, and there she was, tangled in a rope ladder weighed by a metal clamp.
Link dove, grabbing the rope and ripping it off her with his teeth before rising up to the surface faster than was wise. He breached again, his nose and mouth aching from the constant switch of environments, and the rain in his eyes didn't help. Crushing her torso he forced her to vomit water, and once doing so, knowing that he could never approach those cluster of barely surviving boats without being seen, he set his course for shore, the rain battering down on his head.
The human's head lolled against his shoulder and Link shuddered. Navi was going to kill him.
^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v
It was lucky it was summer; any other season and the frail human would've frozen to death half way to shore. It was high tide as he climbed up the beach for the second time that day, though this time onto the sand instead of the concealing rocks. The sea here was a lot calmer, but still restless, like a child snuggling against a parent, waking from a nightmare. Gasping Link dragged her up just that little bit more, so that the highest waves went up just to her knees. Any further and Link would be stuck, grappling fins or not.
Gods. The weight of his actions fully made themselves known, as he watched the human girl breathe on the sand, his hands still resting on her shoulder.
He, a Hylian, had helped a human.
And he was so close to her. He watched her breathe, her chest rising and falling, like waves rolling over the beach. She really had no gills lining her torso, and her arms were smooth whichever way he dragged his webbed finger over her skin, no scales, no fins, like the inside of a shell, only softer. The one thing they had in common was their hair, and even then, his was paler with shades of green breaking in and out while hers was just… gold, like sunlight wavering in the shallows.
It was surprising how much a human reminded him of the sea…
"Oh. My. GODDESSES!"
Link flinched as he guiltily turned, spotting Navi and Midna in the rocks a few tail-flicks away, the blue spot looking livid even from so far away.
"I'm going to kill you Link!" she shrieked, in a voice no human could hear, "I'm going to crawl in your mouth and stab through your stomach and claw all over your heart before eating your left lung!"
"Why the left?" Midna asked mildly.
"It was onomatopoeic. Don't interrupt my rant."
"Yes miss."
"You stay right there, Link, if you know what's good for you!"
"Won't the human wake up soon?"
"Youwill come over here right now, Link, if you know what's good for you!"
Sighing, Link nodded before putting his gaze back onto the human, at the fingernails, the web-less fingers, how the dress clung to the girl's legs, making it look like one limb, like a tail. Only if only…
His eyes travelled up this strangely attractive girl, noting the strange hairs that sprouted from her eyelids, framing her red eyes.
Red… eyes…?
Oh gods. Link froze, as the girl groggily shifted her head, blinking as she tried to focus on his face. She was looking at him. She was looking at him.
Link grabbed some sand and tossed it into her face.
She coughed and gave a mew of indignant confusion, and when Link looked backwards a particularly large wave was coming, and he dived head first into it, clawing his way over the sand, hiding under the bubbly surface till he was deep enough to flick his tail and zip through the water, away from those eyes.
Sheik squealed and shot upright, coughing and spluttering, water going up her nose and throat. Hacking and retching she stumbled weakly backwards, up the beach, confused and dizzy and so, so very tired.
Her shaking arms wouldn't support her weight, even if she was only sitting. Body thudding back against the sand she saw the sky, blushing for the dawn. Bordering the pink and yellow was the light blue of the day, blue as the eyes of the man that'd saved her.
She closed her eyes and fell unconscious once more.
^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v
"Were you seen?" Navi immediately asked when Link emerged amongst the rocks to take her home.
"No. I don't think so."
"What do you mean you think?" the fairycrab demanded, pointing a claw at him, "She moved and you dove away in a panic!"
"Her eyes were closed," Link lied again, firmly, "Even if she saw me the wave would've confused her. She'd probably forget, anyhow. Look at her."
They peered over the rocks, and she was lying in the morning sunlight, unconscious.
"Stop it."
Link turned back at Navi, looking confused. "What?"
"You were looking at her strange!"
"I was not."
"Yes you were."
"Ugh." Rolling his eyes Link scooped her up and tucked her into the long trail of hair at the nape of his neck, making her shut up. "Thanks Midna."
"No problem. I love seeing you get flipped by someone as tiny as she is."
Scowling, Link splashed water at her, making her squeal and giggle, and smiling to himself he swum back to Castleton.
Somehow, in his mind, Sheik's eyes came with him.
^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v
A lot of people (including Link himself) wondered why Zelda had chosen, of all the people under the sea, Link to marry her. She did have her reasons, and good ones at that. He worked in the Coral Halls, the cavernous forest of old coral the Hylians had grown over the years, shaping them into unbreakable words, telling History in the form of living bones. Link knew them like the back of his hand. Zelda had wanted a man of high learning, and Link fit that mould; though, admittedly, some men had done better than him at the Academy, he had been the best at logic and problem solving (two disciplines Zelda most admired). Not only that, he had potential to be a great warrior; his fins were tough enough to be used as weapons, and he had good reflexes and a strong body from swimming excessive distances, most probably from spending so much time in the Coral Halls. With enough time, and the right training, Link would have made an exceptional leader.
But Zelda hadn't accounted for his personality.
He was easily distracted. When he was being taught anything that didn't involve physical activity his mind wandered, and he was stubborn when it came to the traditions. Anything he didn't like, or found odd, or questionable in his mind, he nibbled and gnawed on the subject till his 'tutors' went off in frustration.
Zelda found that almost endearing, that way of wanting to know and understand and refute what was accepted as common-sense, but…
But there was the people to think about and her position as future-Queen, at least of this generation. Only a few Hylians outright opposed the union (Aryl being one of them) but that in itself was great; Hylians were a docile people, not prone to any confrontation, or even emotion, in some individuals.
So Link, being Link, was a problem…
"Perhaps I should consider another to be my candidate…"
Aryl heard her and twitched her nose. "I think that would be better. Link is a bore and a sordid hermit, and I don't like him at all."
Zelda rested her chin against the palm of her hand as she sat forward on her thrown, thinking. Her cold eyes sparkled like gems; her pale, mother-of-pearl tail swished in the current. Some advisers had left, having talked to Zelda about exports of fish-scale necklaces and knives made of shell-blades' teeth, imports of gyorg skins and kelp textiles. More would come to discuss the Night again.
Rubbing her temples, Zelda gave an irritable sigh. "I'm not concerned with your personal opinion of him, Aryl, I'm concerned with him being a good leader or not."
"What about a good husband?" Aryl retorted haughtily, "What about a good companion? If you really are going to choose him to stick by you, why must you choose such a dull man? You're going to spend the rest of your life with him. Why can't you choose what you want, and not what the people need?"
"Can't I do both?" Zelda pointed out, a wan smile playing at her delicate lips.
"I'm sure you can," Aryl rolled her eyes, flicking hair decorated with pink pearls, pouting sadly at herself. "…Zelda?"
"Yes?"
"If I found something about him, something so dreadful and terrible that he would never be redeemed within the Hylian community, you'd cancel the marriage with him wouldn't you?"
Zelda eyed her sister warily. "Do you think he has some dark secret that he keeps from everyone?"
"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't." Aryl swam from her perch and smiled, languidly, as she cocked her head to the side. "But if I'm to tolerate that fish for the rest of my life as my brother, I'd like to learn about him more."
Zelda sighed, closing her eyes. "I won't be able to stop you, will I?"
"No, I doubt it."
"Go; go, before I become too worried."
Laughing Aryl darted away, dodging the delegates that'd come to express worries about the growing population and the lack of growth of glowing coral in the volcano.
All she really needed was her eye-piece, and that she always had with her. It was a new toy that the craftsmen had created and she could see great distances away with it; she'd been looking for an opportunity to use it.
First she swam to the living quarters of the city, knowing vaguely where Link lived. It was easy to spot once she was nearby because it was so rundown and unattended to. The corral hadn't been brushed, and grew uncontrolled round the entrance. There was no stingray or carpet-shark to clean his walls and his bed of sea-moss was smooth, untouched. Crossly she looked for him at the Corral Halls, but today wasn't his shift, so he wasn't there either.
Puzzled, now, Aryl went back to his home, and found a blue crab scuttling on the streets, and recognised it as Navi, Link's companion. Aryl despaired at how she would have to follow such a slow, scurrying creature, but Navi swapped herself some seahorses for a few obsidian shards from a pets' trader, and dragged herself through the ocean with high speed, using bait to guide them where she wanted to go.
Aryl, sighing with relief, languidly followed her.
^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v
Where Link spent most of his time was on the outskirts of various monsters' nests. It was a perfect location in terms of privacy, even if it was a high risk in terms of physical safety. But Link had his harpoon, and after many years the creatures had learnt to recognise him, and ignore him.
Besides that, no-one was brave enough to come near a once highly volcanic area, with mud cones that once billowed hot water and ash and dust looming like blunt spears, pointed at the surface. Nobody knew their insides were hollow, and Link had used that to his advantage. Nobody wanted to be close to the breeding grounds of the spikes, which was an angrier metallic cousin of urchins, or the bombfish that fed on them, or the live shell-blades that trapped the bombfish in turn. On top of that, Link's secret grotto was an old cave that once inhabited a Degu Toad, and the skeleton of it still lay there, used as shelving for Link's collection. It had died of starvation inside the cave itself (it probably wondered in when it was small enough but couldn't leave once it grew too big), and when Link had first found the cave many skullfish had been feeding off its rotting corpse.
Of course he kept that a secret from Navi…
He lay on his back on the warm sand, smiling at the spiralling shelves full of human artefacts; sorted and resorted so many times he knew where everything was, even when he had his eyes closed. He kept looking at his new pieces, the jars of ink dangling on a chandelier he'd attached to a mace/ball-and-chain at the top, so it caught the light from the hole into the cone and reflected muted rainbows on the glass… the hair piece was sticking out of a broken jar placed between dolls and figurines of the world above, with ferks (forks? Furks? He forgets how they're pronounced) and skewers and pens, just as beautifully decorated… and his prize, sitting in the middle of the sand, broken but pieced together with kelp and rope and nets…
For the first time, Link almost felt his collection was complete. He just… there were a few spaces here and there, which he could fill if he re-sorted everything a little wider, but still, still…
He wanted more.
A small stone plopped against his head, and when Link looked up it was Navi, floating down, having jumped in from the cone's chimney hole. "I knew you'd be here…"
"Hi Navi." Then he frowned. "Why through there?"
"The seahorses I bought refused to come down, so I had to send them up and I let them go there and I basically dropped for ages. Anyway, are you saying goodbye or… oh, my, Goddesses."
Link smiled proudly, gesturing at the statue with his head. "Impressive, huh?"
It was Sheik's statue from a few nights before. The broken thirds with their planes of snapped marble had worked like puzzle pieces, slotting in perfectly to where they belonged, so Sheik looked like she was wearing a green veil of kelp, and a dress decorated by nets, hiding the cracks. The man beside her was crumbled to bits, having taken most of the damage from the storm.
"I can't believe you did this! I thought that shipwreck was the last one!"
Link shrugged before staring at the statue once more. "We got interrupted."
"We got attacked by a desbreko and its pack, that doesn't count as an interruption! It's a habitual hazard! It shouldn't count!"
Link stuck his tongue out at her. "No rules saying that. Besides," he added with a tired sigh, "This one's really the last."
He drifted up, fiddling with this and that, slowly circling his way up his collection. The textiles of the human world fluttered under the things he'd laid on top, to hold them and protect them from the tide. Weapons rusted like time sped up, thinning till there was only coppery dust. Cups, saucers, tankards and tools were draped in beads and jewels, clothes and shoes were ordered in metal-shot barrels, and weighed down by shields and helms. The mirrors that'd scared him silly amused him now, as he saw himself flashing through the reflected plane. He wondered even as he drifted from shelf to shelf, what other marvels awaited him in those broken troves of treasure…
"But you want more, don't you."
Link sighed again, and nodded.
"But you're marrying Zelda."
This time he smirked. "She might not want me soon."
Navi rolled her eyes and swum up to his shoulder. "Once she looks at this, she'll definitely won't. But please don't go there, Link, you'll be exiled."
"I know." He circled back to Sheik's statue, which was a little too beautiful for Link's taste. But in a few days' time the tide will carve her face, make it smoother, less defined, and in that imperfection the statue would be a perfect double to Sheik. "What did Midna say?"
Navi grumbled to herself a little before saying, "The human you saved is fine; her dog found her and then she got taken away."
Ah. That thing that she kept with her. What had she called it? Wolf? Link stared at the statue's face, thinking that that would trigger the memory properly, but all that stared back at him was an amused smile, and somehow that made him smile back. "She was beautiful."
"She's human."
He shrugged. "Fact still stands."
"Well don't fall for her."
He grinned and winked jokingly. "Oh but I have."
There was a barely audible gasp followed by some bells getting knocked over. Link and Navi looked up in alarm but all they saw was the shadow of a Hylian tail escaping his grotto, the sun blocking out all other details.
"Oh my goddess."
Link nearly stopped breathing. His heart froze over with dread.
"Oh Nayru, Nayru, Nayru Din and Furore, I, I, I, must've been followed, but, b-but why would they how could they oh dear ladies above Link I'm so sorry I-I'm so, so very sorry I should've paid more attention especially now that people actually care about-"
"Hush, hush, it's fine," he patted her shell gently, trying to smile, to calm his rising heartbeat, "It was bound to happen."
"But, but if they tell the Zoras, they'll tell Zelda and she'll exile you or worse, much less marry you, Link, oh gods Link…"
"It's fine. Really." He flinched when the bells finally hit the sand, resonating a sad note.
This was bad. This was really bad.
"The Zoras mightn't believe them." He pointed out optimistically. "This collection is insane."
But this place needed hiding, and it needed it now. Link darted to his pile of shields, looking for the oldest one, covered in barnacles and weeds and moss, heart racing. He rubbed dirt into it as well, and once it looked appropriately like the ground Link went up top, got out of his grotto and lodged the shield in place, hiding the entrance. It looked like any of the other cones, from the outside. And getting help would take time…
He was about to seal the entrance that he usually used as well but armed Hylians with the Zora uniform grabbed him, ambushing him so fast all he could do was shout in panic.
Then he saw Aryl, glaring at him with complete and utter hatred. His heart sunk.
Please note that Aryl is not a 'bad-guy'. She's just nosy and easily angered. Why is she not Link's sister, you ask? Cuz Zelda needs siblings. And in Windwaker she spends most of her time on Zelda/Tetra's ship (was that a spoiler?) anyway, so she might as well be her sister, not Link's. And I like Link as an only child. :P
Anyway, review replies!
Darkwolflink1: Here you go. XD Thank you for putting in the first review, it was really nice seeing a familiar name to the list! And thanks for thinking this is different. XD And don't worry, I've got a few plot twists brewing in my head (though time will tell if they're good ones...).
Code Geass Viceroy Destiny: Why thank you! So many greats that I don't deserve, lol! Thank you very much. Yes, the updates will be 'jumpy' (I have exams in uni exams six weeks so I should probably concetrate on studying instead...) so I hope you forgive me for that. And thanks for liking all my stories, though I gotta say I kinda cheated with 'Rain'. It's based on Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'; I wrote the fan-fic to make it easier for me to study the damn novel. XD Wow, this was a really long review reply. Anyway, here's the update, don't expect the next one too soon, and enjoy the show!
arrowriver: Yes. Navi is a fairycrab! XD Blame Sebastion for her predicament, lol. I was thinking of turning her into a fish, but then I realised she couldn't follow Link around on the surface, so, CRAB. BWAHAHAHAAAA! I hope you liked this chapter!
CatsGotTongue: Hi! Nice to see you again! I laughed outloud when I read the part about you watching the little mermaid before seeing the update. Coincidences are crazy, huh? Yeah, Navi feeding the corpse. XD This fic is definitely going to be darker than the disney movie, I assure you. It is gonna be so much fun putting Link and Sheik through hell again! And you're right, the original is utterly depressing. No way am I gonna finish my fic like that. :S
Me: Hi Me! I always love saying that. Anyway, it's good to see you in the review list as well, so I hope you stick around! This mermaid thing is kinda new to me, so I hope it works out too. And I have no idea what corrupted my file. I think it was just because the usb stick was old, I had it for like two-three years when it crashed. Just keep backing it up on like three things is probably the safe optionl. I hope it doesn't happen to you!
That's all for now, folks! Please review, it'd really make my day!