Prompt Ten – Blood Loss, Trail of Blood

Timline – Set during Wind Waker

They Look so Pretty when They Bleed

The trail of blood that Link left behind was an alarming amount. The young Hero of Wind's, limped his way back to the small boat that was waiting for him, desperately trying to hold the gaping wound on his side closed. His efforts didn't seem to be helping all that much, as the blood continued to flow from behind his fingers, dripping down his leg and creating large puddles on the ground. The boy knew that this wasn't good. He needed to hurry or he might pass out from blood loss.

The injured child could make out the orange boat from a distance; hopefully the old wise boat had a potion on hand for him to drink. Link had to actively tell himself not to look at the wound. He had never been much of a squeamish person, but seeing your own blood pour out of you like a fountain was an entirely different scenario. His stomach lurched every time he looked at the wound as well as the bloody ground that was left in his wake. When the boy finally reached the King of Red Lions, the boat's wooden face clenched into a look of worry, "Oh Link… what have you done to yourself?" His deep voice was relatively calm considering the situation. One might have thought he had just discovered Link in the aftermath of falling into a thorn bush.

Honestly the boats lack of urgency in his voice calmed the young hero slightly, it made him think that maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought it was. Maybe it wasn't. He didn't feel that much pain, though that could be from the adrenaline, or maybe it was a symptom of blood loss. Whatever the case was, Link had a hard time believing that his injury wasn't that serious. The old boat was probably just trying to keep Link from panicking. "W-Was a Darknut…" the boy fell to his knees in front of the boat, still clenching his side. "Couldn't block i-in time…"

"We will need to get that taken care of immediately," now Link could hear the urgency in his voice, he could even make out some well masked alarm. The boy's fears were confirmed… he was in a very serious condition.

"Do- do you have any p-potions stashed away…?"

The King of Red Lions looked troubled, "I'm afraid I do not…" he turned his dragon head away from Link to look out at the vast sea. After a moment he looked back at the injured boy, "We're fairly close to Windfall Island, do you think you could make it there?"

From what Link could conclude he didn't have a choice. He had to be able to sail there, it was either that or bleed to death. Unless… "W-What about the Beetle Shops?"

"Some of his shops sell potions, but not many," the old boat's voice was getting graver by the second. "I feel like time is not on our side, and it would be unwise to blindly check their shops. Our best chance is to sail for the nearest island that have potions, which is Windfall."

The boy nodded his head shakily, knowing that the King was right. And the longer he stood there debating about it, the more precious time and blood he lost. Taking a deep breath, Link stood up on trembling legs, gritting his teeth against the pain. Since the adrenaline was dying down, his pain was slowing growing. He stepped into the ocean water, and saw the blood dripping from his body get washed away in swirls against the waves. Link didn't know if Gyrog's smelt blood the way that sharks do, but he better be careful anyways.

Getting into the boat was a clumsy, painful effort; by the time Link was in the boat and standing in position to sail, the King of Red Lions had his head turned around, looking at him with deep concern. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"Don't... really ha-ve a-a choice on it…" Link said through gasps of breath. They both knew this statement was true. The dragon shaped boat could not make it to Windfall without Link at the sail. So the boy had to do it or die trying… literally.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Link pulled the sail out of under compartment of the boat, and set it up for sailing. "You'll need to change the wind's direction, for optimal speed," the old boat reminded him.

So Link pulled the Wind Waker out of his pocket. It took him three attempts before he played the Wind's Requiem correctly. This was only because the first two times he tried doing it one handed since he was reluctant to let go of his side. The blood seemed to come out so much faster when he wasn't putting pressure on it. He finally had to give in, and just try not to fall over while he played the short song. By the time the wind was blowing in the proper direction, a large pool of blood had formed at Link's feet. There was no more time to waste. Keeping one hand on the rutter, Link had his other hand plastered on his injury while he sailed. The King of Red Lions was correct in Windfall being nearby. He could already see the small island off in the distance. But it was still miles away and he'd lost so much blood already; could he make it?

Link could only grit his teeth while sailing, and try his hardest not to look down at the pool of blood slowly growing at his feet. It seemed like the Gyrogs were indeed a lot like sharks because it wasn't long before he could see their fins on either side of him. This was indeed unfortunate because now on top of everything else, he now had to avoid their attacks. Luckily they always attacked one at a time. The boy had hoped that his blood would stay contained inside the boat, but it seemed like its liquid seeped through the cracks in the wood.

He started noticing the pain in his side dying down; this either meant that he was going into shock or the adrenaline rush was coming back. Either way he was grateful for it, because he could focus more on sailing. Soon Link began feeling light headed, which wasn't a good sign. Windfall Island was growing bigger with each passing second, but it wasn't happening fast enough in his opinion. It was getting harder and harder to avoid the Gyrog's attacks, the close calls were becoming more and more frequent. The King of Red Lions must have sensed Link's peril because he suddenly said, "We're almost there Link. Just hold on a little longer."

Dizziness was beginning to accompany his lighthead, as well as a bit of nausea. "King… I- I don' feel slo well…" Even Link was alarmed by the slur of his words. His legs began to shake unsteadily, and black spots began to dance around his vision. They were almost there though. The young Hero was able to make out the people milling about on Windfall Island. Luckily the Gyrogs began to disband away from them as they approached the island. But they were still some distance away from the Windfall when Link finally collapsed face first into the boat. A salty matalic taste entered his mouth as he began breathing in the bloody sea water that had pooled into the bottom of the boat.

"Link!" The King of Red Lions called out in alarm, "Roll over onto your back before you drown."

Unfortunately the injured child had no energy to do this. So the old boat swung his head back far enough to grab Link's arm with his teeth and ungraciously roll him onto his back. The boy groaned loudly at the harsh handling, but still surprisingly had not passed out yet. They were close enough to Windfall Island for the King of Red Lions to cruise his way to the docks without Link's help.

As they approached Windfall Island's dock, the King of Red Lions also known as Daphnes, turned his head around to check on the young lad again. Link still appeared to be conscious, as his eyes were still open. But the glazed look in his dark orbs indicated that he wasn't all the way there mentally. The old King of Hyrule had to work very hard not to show how alarmed he actually was about Link's condition. His wound was very, very serious and he had already lost a substantial amount of blood. But allowing the young child to know this and letting fear overtake him would have made the situation much worse. He just hoped that he wouldn't be too hard to flag someone down to help them. Daphnes may be the ruler of the lost kingdom, but in his current form, he was useless off the sea.

Luckily it was daytime now, so there were plenty of people milling about. In fact, the man who was standing at the dock's when he pulled up had noticed them almost right away. It wasn't hard to miss a young injured child lying in a boat full of blood, so it wasn't surprising to see the man gasp in horror, "Oh sweet goddess Farore!" the man ran up to the boat and squatted down to his knees as he looked down at Link. "Who could have done this!"

Most of the time Daphnas tried not to reveal how he was a talking boat to the various islanders, since most tended to panic when he did. But they were in a state of emergency right now, so he turned his wooden head to look straight at the man and said, "There is no time to lose. You must go get a potion for him, quick! He does not have much time left!"

The man looked alarmed as the realization that a boat was talking to him, but sternness in his old King's voice seemed to strip any panic the man was feeling. So he only gapped for a moment before nodding his head and quickly running away. Daphnes looked again as the boy lying on him, his eyelids were beginning to droop slightly. "Stay awake Link!" he called in a firm voice, "It won't be much longer now."

The boat was actually quite surprised at how long it was taking. People sold potions all over this island, so it shouldn't be too hard to get their hands on one. Even if he didn't have any rupees, no one would let a kid die just because there was no one to pay for the medicine he needed. Unless no one believed the man, hopefully he left out the talking boat part. Daphnes was just wondering if maybe the man thought he was going crazy and wasn't going to come back when he came running down the hill towards them. The King was unsettled to see that he had nothing in his hands, but a moment later he saw the young woman who ran the Cafe following him. In her hands was a bottle with red liquid in it.

The lady gasped when she got close enough to see Link in the boat. "Oh my goddesses Candy, there really is a boy bleeding to death!"

"I told you I wasn't lying!" Candy yelled at her.

"I'm surprised he's still conscious," she mused to herself. "Quick! Get him onto the dock, we need to try and feed him the potion before he passes out."

Candy once again went down onto his knees next to the boat, and snaked his arms under the boy's shoulders before heaving him out of the boat and laying him on the dock at gently as possible. Link only gave a few whimpers at the treatment, but still managed to stay awake. The woman quickly uncorked the red potion bottle, and bent down next to the injured lad. With very careful handling she poured small doses of the potion into Link's mouth, waiting for him to swallow before pouring more. The results were instantaneous. The blood flow slowed to a stop, then the skin around the wound began to reform.

The only thing that did not change was the paleness of his skin. This probably meant that the potion did stop the bleeding and heal the wound, it did not replace all the blood Link had lost. "Bring him to the Cafe," the woman said to Candy after the young hero had taken the whole potion.

The large man carefully scooped Link up into his arms without a word, and the two of them walked away, neither taking a glance back at the boat which had brought the injured boy here.

Link's return to consciousness was a slow process. His weakened body was resistant to its mind's fight towards wakefulness. He must have been recovering from a bad bout of flu, so his Grandmother was surely nearby. He could hear background voices around him, but couldn't make out what was being said. The amount of different voices heard didn't seem to make sense. It sounded like a crowd of people were milling about. Even if everyone that lived on Outset Island gathered in one room, it wouldn't sound like the number of people who could only be in the next room. Maybe he wasn't home right now… but if he wasn't home then where could he be?

This very wonderment was what got the young child to pry open his heavy eyelids. The world was a swirl of blurry colors when he first looked around. Link had to blink a couple of times before his vision cleared, and he could finally see where he was. Unfortunately, he still didn't recognize where he was. It looked to be someone's room; lying on a bed, but nothing in the room belonged to him. Memories began filling his head, and he was able to piece together how he might have gotten here.

He certainly wasn't home on Outset Island, and hadn't been for weeks now. He was on a mission to save his sister Aryell. Then he recalled getting severely injured from a Darknut, and having no potion to heal. It didn't feel like he was still injured, but he quickly removed the blankets from his injured side to check. He was no longer wearing the green Hero's clothes that his Grandmother made, but instead was donning a large brown garb. He lifted up the dark material to see his side. Though the last thing the young Hero remembered was trying not to pass out while sailing to Windfall, someone must have gotten a potion down his throat before he passed out, because the only thing left of the once gaping wound was a small scar.

The sound of the bedroom door opening caused Link to quickly cover himself up with the blanket again. Gillian the young lady who ran the Cafe on Windfall Island stepped in the room, "Ah, ah, ah!" she tutted, striding towards him. She pressed a firm hand on his chest and pushed him to lay back down on the bed. "Don't even think about getting out of that bed."

Link opened his mouth to speak but she effectively silenced by placing two fingers on his lips and saying, "Shhh!" The young woman readjusted his blankets then left the room as abruptly as she entered with a firm, "Stay there." Not even daring to disobey, the child laid his head back down on the pillow with a sigh. He wasn't alone for long, after a few moments Gillian returned with a mug of something in her hands. "Here drink this," she squatted down on the bed next to him and held the mug up to his lips. The boy reached his hands up to grab the mug and attempt to take it from her hands, but she firmly kept it in her grip as he drank the liquid.

He wasn't sure what exactly the liquid was. It wasn't water, but it also wasn't any type of potion he'd ever drank. He finally settled on it being some type of medicine that didn't taste as bad as most medicine's do. Link drank about half the liquid before thinking he couldn't stomach anymore and pushing the mug away, hoping she would take the hint and not force him to drink the whole thing. Her demeanor so far made him wonder. Luckily she seemed to be happy with the amount of liquid he consumed and set the drink aside. "You are to remain in bed for the next few days," her tone left no room for argument. "You've lost quite a bit of blood and need to regain your strength."

The child's mouth hung open in shock at her order. He couldn't stay in bed! There were things he needed to do. Ganon wasn't going to be waiting for him to get better to continue his evil reign over the seas. But before he could voice any of these concerns, Gillian was gone again. Well, it didn't matter. No one was going to force him to lay around for days. With determined stubbornness that would have surely gotten him in trouble with his Grandmother, Link tossed the blankets off his body and sat up in the bed again. He looked around for his green tunic, wondering what had happened to it.

It must have been covered in blood, which was why it was taken off of him, so hopefully they just washed it rather than throw it away. He next stood up to begin looking around the room, when a great wave of dizziness overtook him, forcing the boy to lay back down again. Ok… maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to rest a bit.