Despite the fact that the boat was big enough to accommodate four people, Reoh insisted on sitting in the far corner with his legs scrunched up against his chest, seeming to dislike the fact that if he sat any other way, his legs would brush against all the others' legs. It was a precarious and extremely uncomfortable position, because sitting like that for so long would give cramps and there was very little balance, so Reoh might even fall off the boat. Link took note of that as he took off his boots and rolled up the leggings past his knees because of the water that Link knew would gather in the cockpit due to spray. Emit shot Reoh an annoyed glare for a fleeting second when Reoh adopted that position, a disapproving stare just long enough to exist before disappearing as if it had never been, and Link took note of that too. When Reoh carefully avoided Emit's gaze by staring at anything at all, Link took note of that. Sturgeon had always said that his memory was a miracle, but only now did Link fully appreciate it. And it was fun.

It continued on this way for the entire silent sailing trip, with frosty tension building between Emit and Reoh. No words were spoken, not even glares were shot, but it was all in the body language. Emit would stare off to the sea, lost in thought with his eyes unfocused, but clearly his mind was sharp and thinking about something. Link tried not to guess what it was, because it would be too frustrating with no clues. Reoh, on the other hand, was agitated by the lack of movement and fidgeted every couple minutes. But whenever Emit's gaze traveled near Reoh, both would stiffen just a little. Reoh's lips would tighten a smidgeon and his eyes narrow a bit even though he wouldn't look at Emit, and Emit's face would grow harder before turning away again. Then once again Reoh was back to fidgeting, Emit back to thinking, and Link back to wishing something else would happen. Somehow, Link preferred the relationship between Orca and Sturgeon—while they hated each other just as much as Emit and Reoh did, they were open, loud, and almost comically upfront about it. Here, things were uncomfortable, quiet, and tense.

The uncomfortable air was really getting to Link, causing him to become antsy throughout the entire trip and spend most of his time thinking about ways to break the silence. Link really wished that Tetra and Aryll were here. Tetra would know what to do about it, and Aryll probably lighten the mood without even trying, she was just that likeable. Link even hoped that the scary Midna would come out and do something completely random to break the ice, because she seemed the type to do something like that, but she didn't show, and Navi didn't do anything either. She'd just latched herself onto Emit's sleeve and stayed there, trembling in the buffering winds.

Of course, the trip wasn't without its perks. After all, he was on a boat on the sea with no island to have to return to or responsibilities waiting at home. Whenever he got on Orca's old sailboat, no matter how much he tried not to think about it, he would always know in the back of his mind that he would have to turn back eventually. Now that little weight wasn't there, and it felt absolutely great. Refreshing, almost. Exhilarating. Here, Link knew he was going to someplace new and exciting and not going back.

But after five hours, not even this wonder could comfort him for long. So at the sight of the island between Windfall Island and Dragon Roost, their destination, Link nearly fell off the boat in his glee, causing the boat to wobble precariously. "Look! It's the next island!" It was just a large smudge that Link hadn't noticed before, but it was relief from this tension. He fumbled with the latch on the pouch Orca had given him to get Aryll's telescope, but decided against it just as he got it open. What if he dropped it in the water? It would sink to the ocean floor, and if it could miraculously float, then it would get ruined by the water somehow. Aryll would never forgive him.

Reoh craned his neck to see around the mast, but Emit didn't really move. "What? An island? Really? We're not gonna die out here?"

"Everybody's going to die," Link told him with a mock serious face. "Just not now."

Navi stopped trembling and exclaimed, "That's a horrible mindset!" Link just shrugged, grinning again to show her that he hadn't meant any serious value to it. The words he'd just said weren't even his own. They were Aryll's.

The King of Red Lions stared up at the sky, noting the distance the sun had traveled. "It seems a little after midday, and we started around…eight o'clock. If we want to limit the time spent traveling at night, when the seas become dangerous, we shouldn't stop at this island and make haste to Dragon Roost Island. We shouldn't stay here overnight, for the delay would be too long."

"Mister King of Red Lions, just five minutes couldn't hurt, right?" Link begged. "Besides, something good might be here." Before the King of Red Lions could respond, Link went ahead and ordered, "Emit, unlatch the boom for me, will you? Reoh's a little busy with the mainsheet." Not really, because they were going right with the wind.

"Boom?" Emit repeated blankly. "I remember you telling me about a boom, but all I can remember is that it's a ship part that's long." He jerked a thumb at the mast and the boom. "Which one of these is the boom again?"

"The boom is the one that nearly sent you overboard about five minutes into the trip."

"Oh, that one." Emit checked Navi on his shoulder quickly before leaning over to the rope that tied the boom to the mast. "…Er, how do I undo this thing?"

The King of Red Lions groaned heavily, and Link gritted his teeth. Goddesses, that knot wasn't even that hard, either! But if they didn't get the boom down now, even if they did get it down and slowed, they'd coast right past the island, and Link wasn't turning down a chance to explore something. The island was close now. Too close.

"Quick, trade places with me. Don't move the tiller from its position." He offered Emit the tiller and clumsily switched with Emit so he could undo the boom. Once it was down and lying in the cockpit, he undid the mainsheet from the boom, too, so the sail flapped wildly in the wind, the loose mainsheet like a whip with a mind of it's own. When Reoh tried to snatch it back in an attempt to keep it from snapping at them anymore, Link shook his head. If Reoh did that, they'd start picking up wind again and Reoh would probably fall overboard. Instead, Link began to wrap the loose sail around the mast to secure it, Emit and Reoh watching with nothing to do as they began to slow down. Link would have to get them familiarized with the basics of sailing, definitely… But then again, he'd prefer to do everything himself than let them do it.

They practically crashed against the side of the island because they were still going too fast, but the King of Red Lions didn't seem to feel it. When Link apologized fervently, the King of Red Lions just laughed. "It is okay, Link. I'm tougher than that. I barely felt it."

Link still felt bad about it, though, and apologized one last time before realizing there wasn't a bowline to tie to a dock—not to mention that there was no dock to begin with—therefore leaving the boat to drift away. "Mister King of Red Lions, there's no…uh…"

"I'll be fine. I'm a talking boat, and I can take care of myself," the King of Red Lions pointed out. "Now, come back in five minutes, alright? Spend no more than that. Time is of the essence."

"Yessir." Link hopped easily to the rocky shore, Emit and Reoh following clumsily. Please don't fall in the water, Link thought. I don't think I'd be able to not laugh if that happened. Already Link was chuckling at the thought.

The island was made of several levels, solid rock with grass and vegetation growing over its surface, covering it nicely. Four miniature islands were lined up by the main island, forming something like a pawprint in Link's mind as he imagined the bird's-eye view. A red postbox was stationed by the side, just like the one that sat by Link's house on Outset. And right smack in the middle, immediately drawing Link's eye, was a huge egg-thing.

"What is it?" Link asked, poking the blue stuff in the dome. It hurt his fingernail, so he tapped it with his sword, ignoring Emit's protest about sword treatment. It wasn't Ishek's sword, and it wasn't like Orca was going to pop out of the grass and reprimand him for tapping his sword against a rock. Link could hear that the dome was hollow, so he began trying to see through the blue stuff. He couldn't see through it, so Link just jogged around the rock, trying to figure it out. He crawled on his stomach, stood on his toes, even smelled the thing, thoroughly enjoying his exaggerated attempt to see what was with the obviously suspicious rock.

Link heard Reoh ask Emit quietly, "Was he this hyper on Windfall?"

"You think this is hyper?" Emit scoffed. "You've grossly underestimated him."

Link laughed a little to himself and squinted his eyes, peering into the grass. Bingo. Sticking his head through the tunnel in the rock, he could see that the entire dome really was hollow and there was a hole in the ground. Link tilted his head to his right. A hole? Interesting.

"Hey, Emit, Reoh! I found something!" Link gloated. "Aha!"

"Really," came a skeptical voice.

"Yeah! It's a hole in—"

"What? A hole? Really?" Link had no idea that either of them could move so fast. It was like one second they were on the other side of the rock, the next they were right beside him.

Navi shivered from the top of Emit's head. "A-A hole? Please, don't get him started…"

"Get who started?" Link cocked his head.

"L—Emit," Navi sighed. "This is going to take much longer than five minutes, I'll tell you that."

Both Emit and Reoh were ignoring her, their eyes shining with identical gleams. "I think we can fit," Reoh said, peering through the tunnel. "It might be tight, but it's big enough—"

"—And the kid will have no problem—"

"—When was the last time you found a hole—?"

"—Dunno—"

"—Coming back from Termina, probably—"

"—Must have been—"

"—Six whole years, I can't believe—"

"—Really? I hadn't noticed—"

"—Wasted time in my opinion, sitting on a boring roof all day—"

"Hello?" Link waved his hand in their face. "Excuse me?"

As if snapping out of a trance, they blinked and stared at him. Navi just sighed again.

"…Are holes really that great?" Link asked skeptically. They'd always seemed like two brothers who hated each other's guts, but here, it seemed they both agreed on something concerning holes. The identical eyes above the masks, while physically the same, had always had a different feel to each, with one being calm and determined and the other fierce and guarded. But here, both of them were exactly the same. It was unnerving.

In fact, from their bright expressions, it was like both elder teens had turned into…little children.

"Are holes—?" Reoh began to laugh, as if the question itself was incredulous. "Of course they're great!"

"Some of the best holes I ever found were on the way coming back from Termina," Emit sighed. "Pity that in Hyrule, the holes aren't as fun, even though there are some pretty good ones there too."

Termina? Hyrule?

Link's eyes narrowed and his ears twitched.

"Is that so…?"

Reoh nodded emphatically. "Seriously, nobody knows what they'll find down a hole, but that's the best part! There's some holes from where I come from too, and they've always got something interesting inside! Could be ReDeads, could be treasure, could be Poes—"

"—but no matter what's down there," Emit concluded excitedly, "there'll always be adventure! Holes are practically the symbol of all things fun and adventurous!"

Now, that sounded like fun! "I call first!" Link cheered, already infected by their enthusiasm.

"Wait!" the King of Red Lions' voice called from the water. "We have to keep going! There is no time to waste!"

Party pooper, Link thought ruefully. "Just a sec!" Link yelled back. "We won't take long!"

"The world depends on our swiftness!"

Reoh snickered, watching as Link crouched and ignored the King of Red Lions. Link shouted, "Eh, the world can wait! I'm going into the hole!"

"The longer you take," the King of Red Lions warned, "the longer your sister will be stuck in captivity!"

Link froze.

"Sir," Emit frowned, "that was dirty."

"Let the kid do what he wants," Reoh called. To Link, he said, "Go on, kid. If you want to check the hole out, go check it out."

"N-No." Link shook his head, straightening. "He's right. I should be hurrying for Aryll—"

"We know you'll regret it," Reoh interrupted.

Before Link could retort, Emit explained, "Honestly, it's pretty obvious your curiosity would never forgive you if you didn't check it out."

Link suddenly had to study his feet. They were totally right… He would regret it if he didn't go down the hole… He might never come back to this hole in his life. It was such a stupid reaction, but Link would probably always wonder what was down that hole, and it would be so painful if he had to wonder that for the rest of his life.

Did he really want to live regretting something?

But he'd regret it if he made Aryll wait.

Link chewed his lip. Stupid lose-lose situation…

After a silence, Link chuckled softly, "You know, Emit, Reoh, you two are a lot alike sometimes."

Emit and Reoh stared at each other, identical noses wrinkled, then turning to Link before demanding in accidental perfect unison, "Do you have any idea how insulting that is?!"

Link laughed weakly. "But anyway, I think Mister King of Red Lions is right, so we'll just leave…the hole…" His voice was unbearably conflicted, cracking in places.

Reoh rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, the sister is waiting, so we have to hurry. No time to eat, sleep, breathe, pee—"

"I never said that!" Link huffed as Emit laughed with Reoh, creeping Link out even more. Since when did Emit laugh at any joke Reoh said? "But I'm not going to make Aryll wait. Aryll or Tetra. I have to find both."

"Right," Reoh sighed, running his hands through his hair, smiling slightly. "When you rescue them, and they ask why you took ten minutes longer to rescue them than you should, you can say that we forced you down a hole. Therefore, it wasn't your fault."

"Wha—?" was all Link got out before Reoh and Emit each grabbed one of his arms and stuffed him through the tunnel. Link popped out the other side inside the dome, just a foot from the hole, slightly shocked.

"You don't have to wait for us! You can go down ahead of us!" Emit called cheerfully. "Unless you'd like us to throw you down the hole, too!"

--

"You see this?" Emit declared, gesturing around them to the green forest-like world down the hole. "You know what this place is?"

"No. What?" Link asked with genuine curiosity, already getting over his initial irritation at being forced away from Aryll.

"I don't know what it is. So I can't tell you."

Link just stared blankly at Emit, who crossed his arms, grinning. "…And the point of that was…?"

Reoh answered for Emit. "The point is that is because he doesn't know what the hell it is, it's adventure! It's new, and all things that are new are adventure in their own right."

"Exactly!" Emit bounced on his toes, more excited than Link had ever seen him. "Let's go have fun!"

So with eyes wide and curiosity tingling, Link was led down a tunnel by the joined forces of Emit and Reoh to whatever awaited him. This was the first time he'd ever ignored his sister in need.

And that was new. Maybe that made it adventure in it's own right.

And wasn't adventure fun?

The black cloud of confusion scrambled Link's thoughts.

--

Link crawled back through the tunnel into the sunlight, completely drained. The rush of adrenaline had disappeared, leaving him tired and even more confused. There had been six ChuChus down there, and instead of waiting for anybody to tell him, he'd simply cut through them all…

Yet why was he smiling? Why was there a tight feeling in his chest, a certain joy bubbling there, threatening to burst? Despite the fact that ChuChu slime clung to his sword, the adventure had been fun. It was a new kind of fun, not the kind that Link felt when he played an old game he'd been playing since his birth. This was something a little dangerous, a little scary, something that—just as Emit had said—he had no idea what it was, and that somehow made it so much more fun than anything else he'd ever felt.

It was very entertaining to try and describe the feeling "adventure" gave Link. Maybe it was so unique it was indescribable.

Link's happy grin grew wider and as he meandered back towards the boat, his step had an extra spring. Perhaps he wasn't as tired as he'd initially thought. He squinted in the bright sun, his eyes still transitioning from the dim lighting down the hole and the sharp light up here. He listened to the ocean and its familiar lapping, mulling over everything in his mind, ignoring the black cloud and everything in it's domain. Too troublesome at the moment.

"See? That was definitely not worth missing," Reoh crowed from behind. "That was an exceptionally good one, though—" He cut himself off, eyes narrowing. "Hang on, I think I left my bag up there…"

Just as Reoh began to turn back towards the dome, Emit whispered under his breath, "Irresponsible…"

"What's your problem?" Reoh snapped, wheeling around, bristling with anger already.

Emit shot back, "I'm only speaking truth! You do have a tendency to be irrespon—"

Link whined, "Just stop fighting…"

"He started it," they insisted together. Link giggled in response as Reoh stalked away, harrumphing as he went.

The King of Red Lions stared sternly as Link and Emit approached, causing Link to wince a little sheepishly. They'd only spent twenty minutes or so, but it still hadn't been anywhere near the promised five minute time limit. "This is no game, you three. The fate of the world hangs in the balance."

"Yessir," Link intoned, grunting a little as he jammed the boom back in its place, "and it's very important that we keep moving." He barely refrained from adding, "Blah, blah, blah," at the end of his sentence. The hole had definitely been worth it—

No! Nothing was worth making Aryll wait.

Was there?

Of course not.

Really? Nothing at all?

The confusion grew, making Link hesitate as he threaded the mainsheet back through the boom.

"Are you taking any of this seriously?" the King of Red Lions demanded. "You took much longer than five minutes!"

Link blinked but didn't look up. "Yeah, I know. Hey, how long did we spend down there, exactly?"

"An hour," the King of Red Lions replied stiffly.

Link's head shot up, clipping his ear against the boom. "S-Seriously?" Link cried. He hadn't thought it would be that bad! He glanced up at the sun, and yes, it had moved quite a bit. Gaping, he turned from the King of Red Lions, who stared irritably back, to Emit behind him, who just shrugged. "Ah, er, ehe, well…" He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry…"

Inside, he kicked himself. How could he have wasted so much time when Aryll was waiting?! Stupid, stupid, stupid…

"I heard you all. All three of you were whooping and hollering down there, being irresponsible, when we should have been going to Dragon Roost Island," the King of Red Lions growled.

"We weren't whooping and hollering," Emit defended.

"You kind of were," Link whispered, stepping out of the boat.

Emit just gave him a blank look. "That must have been Reoh, then." He pointed over his shoulder at Reoh, who had just come back from fetching his bag.

"What about me?" Reoh demanded.

"It was when we were trying to blow up the rocks down there with Reoh's bombs," Link clarified, stifling giggles. "And while Reoh was yelling, you were too, Emit. You were jumping all over the place. And you call me hyper."

Navi hissed in Emit's ear, "No offense, but you got really, really carried away."

Reoh snickered as Emit stood there, frozen, and while Link couldn't see all of his face, his eyes steadily grew more and more mortified with each passing second. Mesa once told Link about how he'd gotten so drunk one night he couldn't even remember what he'd done at that time, and when people told him about all the insane things he'd done, he couldn't show his face for a week without feeling completely horrified. Probably the same thing was going on right now in Emit's head.

So Link simply smiled innocently and pointed out, "Emit, your ears are getting sunburned."

Reoh roared with outright laughter at that one. "Yeah, Emit, you're getting sunburned!" Emit shot him another glare, causing Reoh's cackles to increase. It should have been good-natured teasing, but somehow Link detected a slight resentful edge to it.

"This isn't funny!" the King of Red Lions interrupted. "In the worst case scenario, everybody will die!"

Reoh shut up and everybody turned towards the boat. Sensing that he'd gotten their attention, the boat continued, "Link here isn't treating the situation with its full gravity! In fact, none of you are! You treat this like this is all just a big game!" His blue eyes set on Emit, narrowed in displeasure. "I'm very disappointed in you especially, Emit. I thought you were a responsible young man."

Emit's eyes smiled slightly, even though his head was still slightly ducked from embarrassment. "What can I say, sir?" said Emit as he shrugged. "It's a hole. And holes are fun."

Seriously, nobody knows what they'll find down a hole, but that's the best part!

Yes, Link mutely agreed. Holes were fun.

But no matter what's down there, there'll always be adventure!