Link was glad when the Epona flew out of the fog and back into the sun. He lay on the deck where he'd collapsed after climbing aboard, and with the warm light raining down on him, he felt content to stay there. Navi darted around his head for a moment to make sure he was still conscious, but she disappeared into his Gossip Stone bracelet when Malon appeared from the hold. She was still dressed in her stolen Gerudo garb.

"Link?" Malon cried, rushing over to his side. "Link, are you—"

"I swear it's not as bad as it looks," Link mumbled, grinning up at Malon's worried face. "Couple of scratches, really. Mostly I'm lying here 'cause I'm tired. Being a distraction is exhausting — do you know how much running around I just did?"

Malon laughed, though it sounded forced. She sank back, scrubbing briefly at her eyes. "Link, I swear — if you keep scaring me like this, one of these days I'm gonna kill you myself just so I don't have to wonder anymore. What happened in there? I heard the commotion, but I obviously couldn't look back to check."

"Oh, you know, the usual nonsense," Link said, trying to sound casual.

"I swear I don't know what that means with you anymore, Featherbrain," Malon said, taking his hand and moving his arm so she could examine the multitude of shallow cuts that ran along his bicep. "Did you fall through a cheese grater..?"

Link laughed, squeezing her hand and sitting up to show he was fine. "You know, that's not a bad guess. Nah, I took a wrong turn and ran into a fight that I had a tricky time running back out of. What about you — how was your adventure? Did everything go well?"

Malon shrugged, releasing Link's hand so she could better look at the wound on his chest. She sighed. "Link, if you don't stop sprinting into danger, one of these days you'll outrun your luck. Stay here, I'll go see what med supplies we have left."

"You haven't answered my question yet. How did—"

"Fine. It went fine — and if you want to know more than that, you're going to have to wait until you've stopped bleeding all over my ship."

"Fair enough," Link murmured as Malon disappeared belowdecks. He knew she was right — he was too reckless by far — but as much as he appreciated her concern, he wished she'd stop voicing it. The soonest way he knew to feel okay was to pretend.

Malon returned a few minutes later, carefully balancing an array of gauze and salves and potion bottles in her arms as she came up the ladder.

Link sat up again to greet her. "You know — I could have just gone below with you. I swear these scrapes look worse than they really are. You didn't have to carry all that all the way up here."

"Yeah, well — like I told you, I don't want you bleeding all over the ship. Anyway, our guest is sleeping, and it'll be easier to take care of you up here where there's room so we don't wake him up."

"So you got him out, then? How is he?"

Malon grimaced, kneeling beside Link and setting the bottles down carefully. "Honestly? I don't know. He says he's fine — but I hear that enough from you not to believe it, and… well, I don't know enough about Zoras to know how to help — but even I can see that he's pretty rough right now. He'd been in the brig for a while, and… you know… they wanted information. The pirates, I mean. And he wasn't giving it to them, so they… yeah. The sooner we get him home, the better."

Link nodded, saying nothing. Malon gestured for him to remove his shirt, and he did so — wincing slightly as the bloody half-dried fabric peeled away from his skin. Malon poured water from a bottle into a shallow wooden bowl and began to clean his cuts with a damp rag.

"Okay…" she murmured after a moment. "For once, I think you're right — these really aren't much more than scratches. That's a relief."

"I did say that," Link protested mildly, trying not to let his breath catch at the sting. "You should have believed me."

Malon gave him a look and passed him a potion bottle. "Link, I've seen you try to shrug off a shattered shoulder — if I don't believe you anymore, it's your own Nayru-forsaken fault."

Link chuckled, accepting the potion. "I… suppose that's a fair point, and I can't hold it against you." He removed the cork with a pop and downed the drink as fast as he could, aiming not to taste it. Then, as Malon moved to help him with the wound on his chest, he began again. "Actually… I… I really ought to say it more, but I appreciate it. The way you look out for me." The pirate captain's cold voice echoed in his memory, and Link shuddered despite himself. "I'm… glad you have my back. I don't know where I'd be, otherwise."

"Dead, probably," Malon replied, matter-of-fact as she set the damp and bloodied rag aside in exchange for the container of healing salve. "You'd have jumped headfirst into trouble without ever thinking about how to get back out. But I'd be dead doing this job on my own, too. I've come to count on your quick thinking, even if most of your plans are a featherbrained affront to wisdom."

"You flatter me," Link said, laughing quietly. The potion was already kicking in, and his whole body felt pleasantly numb. He saw Malon applying the salve to his cuts, but he felt nothing — she may as well have been smearing the paste on a stranger.

Malon cleared her throat, pulling away to wash her hands and grab the bandages. "Anyway, I'm not doing more than you'd do for me. We're shipmates. You took the fall for us both way back when, so I figure the least I can do is pick you up afterwards. That being said — if these cuts start to heal and you reopen them doing something dumb, you're on your own, Link. Got it?"

Link nodded and managed a grin. "That sounds fair to me."

Link and Malon spent the rest of the day relaxing on board the Epona, taking it easy and taking their ship as far from the pirates as they possibly could. Thanks to the fog, they'd run their whole escapade without the Epona being seen, but both of them felt it was better to be careful regardless.

By evening, they were well away — they'd tucked their ship into a narrow gap between two tall rocks near the shore — and the night passed peacefully, followed by a gentle dawn.

Link awoke to the soft sound of muffled conversation. One voice was Malon's, but the other was new — Mikau's, probably. The Zora had been asleep when Link went to bed, so they had yet to actually meet.

Link sat up, stretched, yawned, and hauled himself up out of his hammock to greet his guest.

Malon and Mikau were on the deck, sitting on cushions under the clear blue sky. Malon looked over and nodded good morning, saying. "—and here he is now!"

Link grinned, nodding hello to each of them. "Talking about me, were you?"

"Mikau here was just asking when he'd get to meet you," Malon said.

Mikau himself made an effort to stand — a painful effort, despite Malon and Link's joint protest — and managed a bow. The Zora was well over seven feet tall, and his scales were a sickly blue-green, marred by barely-healed injuries Link preferred not to think about."I gotta to thank you in person, man," he said, voice strong despite his weakness, "Malon was tellin' me the trouble you went to for my sake and I can hardly believe it. Storming the pirate ship? I thought I was mad to try it! Honestly, guys — I'm in your debt."

Link rubbed the back of his neck, returning the Zora's smile with a sheepish one of his own. "Hey, don't mention it — we were just following orders. It's good to see you doing okay, though. Ruto's gonna be over the moon."

Mikau's expression lit up, then fell suddenly dark. He sank down to sit on the deck with his arms crossed over his knees. "I… I let her down. Big time. I put her heart through the wringer gettin' her all worried, but for all that I still failed. I had a quest, you know? The pirates stole her amulet, and I was gonna… The thing's sacred, you know — like, mega important to the Royal Family. I had it, but the pirates…"

Malon grimaced sympathetically, placing an arm around his scaly shoulders. "I'm not your princess, but Link here has put me though a similar wringer once or twice. If I know anything about anything, Mikau, she's gonna say it's more important you're safe."

"You don't understand," Mikau mumbled. "It's — it's sacred. That amulet's a badge of Zoran honor. It's proof of our divine favor, it's the symbol of the royal house, it's the key to the flying ore mines... it's worth more than my life a hundred times over. If the pirates have it, they have everything."

Link frowned. "Okay, yeah, that's… kind of a problem. Maybe we can… uh… go back for it…?" The thought of returning to that terrible ship, the memory of the pirate captain's flint-hard eyes — it was enough to chill his blood in his veins, but all the same, he had to offer.

"No!" Mikau cried, staggering back to his feet. "I can't ask you to do that, man — no, I'll — I'll—" He stumbled, landing heavily on the cushioned deck. His legs wouldn't quite stay under him.

"You'll stay here, where it's safe," Malon said, helping him back up with a firm, gentle hand. "We'll figure this out. What does this amulet look like?"

Mikau shrugged, gesturing vaguely as though to holding an invisible trinket. "It's… about the size of my fist. Kinda… shaped like this? With three blue stones — glittering things that shine like fire — all bound together with pale gold, like… like…"

Struck by a memory, Link stiffened, suddenly aware of the weight in his pocket. "Like… this?" Link fished for the unfamiliar object, and sure enough, the bauble was exactly like what Mikau was trying to describe.

The Zora's mouth fell open. "How—wha—where did you get that?!"

Link chuckled and gave a tiny, awkward shrug. "Oh, I — uh… Well, it was on a table in the captain's cabin, you know? And it was shiny, so I… picked it up. It wasn't nailed down, and I was right there and maybe I am a bit of a common Guay at heart — but with all the fighting, I completely forgot about it until just now. This is the thing?"

"Yes!" Mikau crowed, "That's it! Link — you —" He grabbed Link's arm and reeled him, taking the Hylian's face in both webbed hands to plant a chilly kiss on his forehead.

Link stumbled, caught off balance — but he righted himself and managed a crooked grin. "Y-you're welcome?"

Malon didn't bother to hide her laughter. "So then I guess that's that! Problem solved!"

"Yes!" Mikau was beaming. "This solves everything! I'll — I'll — I'll make sure the Zoran people remember your glory forever! Both of you — I'll sing your praises from here to the stars!"

Link shook himself and smoothed back his hair. "Actually…"

"Actually?" Malon repeated, passing Link a curious sidelong glance.

"—maybe you should get this glory, Mikau," Link finished. "I think I've got the shape of an idea."

Mikau hesitated, looking from one Hylian to the other. "What?"

"Just roll with it," Malon advised. "I don't know what he's talking about either, but at this point I've accepted that whatever goes on in this one's head is between him and Nayru."

Link grinned. "Don't worry — we'll work it out along the way."

Yo! How're you all doing? It's been too long since I've been around.

As always, thanks for reading — and extra special thanks to you lovely people who left nice comments while I was away. I've been in a heck of a slump (depression sucks), and the encouragement really does wonders when it comes to getting up and rolling again.

I'm *hoping* to pick up a regular posting schedule again soon, but I know with my track record I really can't make any promises. That said, I'm here, I'm alive, and I've already got the next chapter halfway written and the next arc almost entirely planned — so if all goes well, things are gonna pick up speed soon. And then things are gonna get good.

So yeah!

Thanks again, and I hope to see you next month!

Have a nice day!

~Garsson