Chapter 14: Together Again
…
By the time Link and Irleen were close enough to see the island's edge, the Island Symphony had already docked. Link became concerned upon realizing that both mizzen sails were down. That was about as far as he got with his evaluation of the ship because, in the next instant—
Whump!
"Wah!"
Ka-fwump!
—Link took a flying tackle from behind. He reeled from the impact with the ground, although he had actually managed to save himself from hitting his head by catching himself. His attacker's arms were wrapped tight around his stomach, and the tackle had hurt his back, so he remained on the ground to recover from the shock. And to indulge his attacker.
"Nice to see you, too, Layna," Irleen said in a flat voice.
"Where the hell does she come from?" Link asked himself. Shouting sounded from further ahead, and Link had to prop himself up on his arms to see what was happening. At least three of his crewmen were jogging toward him, so he pushed up a little more and said over his shoulder, "Layna, can I get up now?"
"Ay'a, My Kyabtin," Layna answered as she stood up. Link got to his feet and turned around to look at her. Layna, wearing her green work shirt and brown trousers instead of just her black suit, was steadily reaching a hand toward Irleen.
"I don't need you to pet me," Irleen told her, her voice now irritated. Layna jerked away and quickly hid her hands behind her back.
"Captain," Leynne called out. Link turned back to find that he, Line, Dholit, and Dubbl were coming to a stop just in front of him. "Good, you've suhvived."
"Sentiment's the same," Irleen said. "We were worried you wouldn't be coming back."
"Damage?" Link asked.
"Light damage to the hull," Leynne said, turning and indicating the ship with a hand. Link began walking while his crew escorted. "We've also had some of the standing rigging snap, and the sail mechanism on the starboard mizzen-mast has failed."
"That whole windstorm was like sailing through a Sky Line sideways," Line added.
"Any injuries?" Link asked. "I saw you two take the plank across your heads."
"Bumps and bruises mostly," Leynne said. "Aihman Gillam has seriously injuhed his hand, and Aihman Botu dislocated his ahm. But the hull is sound, and the crew is all accounted foh. The only ones who've been missing ah you and Ihleen."
"Aihman Huntah expressed amazement to see light on the island during the night," Dholit spoke up. "Have we discovahed civilization afteh all?"
Link stopped near the gangplank and turned back to look at his nearby crew. "It's… not what we were expecting," he told them in an exhausted voice.
"How so?" Line asked.
"Everyone on this island is…" Irleen started. Her faltering caused the crew to look up at her. Link sidestepped so it would not feel as if they were just looking at the top of his head. "Wrong. I-I can't think of any other way to describe it."
"Wrong?" Dholit asked.
"Everyone walks around with cloaks over themselves," Link said. "They… don't have any other features."
"Their bodies are little more than transparent shells," Irleen continued as the crew shared confused looks with each other. "Those fragments of life I saw before are them. When they go to sleep, it's like they're nearly dead, but, awake… they're… spooky."
"Is theh any indication of hostility?" Leynne asked with a concerned tone.
"I think 'hostile' is the last word I'd use," Irleen said.
"They practically ignored us," Link said.
"Wheh have they come from?" Leynne asked.
"Featureless shells," Irleen reminded him. "We'd have better luck identifying them by their shadows than their bodies."
"We did manage to talk to one of them," Link added. "Maroon. But… he could barely remember anything about himself, never mind the island."
"Now, a moment," Leynne said, raising a hand to stop Link from talking. "You did speak to one of them."
"Yeah?" Link replied, confused.
"And you both undehstood," Leynne presumed.
"Yeah, why?" Irleen asked. Leynne had just opened his mouth when Irleen droned, "Oooooh."
"Oh?" Link asked, looking up at her.
"Link, take out my translator gem and put in on the ground." Link put his hand into his trouser pocket and removed the oval amethyst. Once he set it on the ground, he looked up at Irleen. "Kakòrōl ahà?"
"Nope, still not used to it," Line said as Link picked the gem up again.
"That settles the matteh," Leynne said. "We know who they ah. Oh… ratheh, what they ah."
"I don't undahstand," Dholit said, sidestepping to get a better look at Leynne's face. "'What' they ah?"
"My gem only translates for people who speak the same language as whoever holds it," Irleen explained. "For both of us to understand them, they must be speaking Hylian."
"In essence," Leynne said, "the people heh ah Hylians."
"Well, were Hylians," Irleen said while stunned looks passed among the group.
"Something is definitely wrong with these people," Link said. He turned and looked up at his ship. "Dubbl, did you finish replacing the rigging?"
"No, Kyaptin," Dubbl said.
"Okay, I want you to make that your priority," Link told her as he turned back around. "Leynne, how bad is the damage to the mechanism on the port mizzen?"
"Much less than the stahboahd mizzen," Leynne said. "A few pahts should suffice, but we don't have those."
"Well, we have access to that shop Lwamm opened," Link said. "I'd like you to take a few airmen and get to work on repairs."
"Of couhse, Captain."
"The rest of you, go ahead with your normal shore duties. Dubbl, you'll be in charge of the deck once Leynne leaves."
"Kyaptin?" Dubbl asked.
"I didn't get any sleep last night," Link explained. "I wanna at least get in a nap before we go look at those wells."
"Yes, Kyaptin."
"Okay, get to it, guys," Link said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the ship.
"Link," Leynne said as Line, Layna, Dubbl, and Dholit boarded the ship. "Might I have a wohd with you?"
"Sure," Link said as he walked up the plank with Leynne behind him. "What is it?"
"Well, you know that I'm not one to live on innuendo and paranoia," Leynne said, "but I have cehtain suspicions about this place that I feel I should bring to youh attention."
Link stepped onto the deck and moved aside to allow Leynne to board. He leaned a hip on the bulwark, mostly because he was tired of walking around. "You have it."
"You make it sound serious," Irleen commented as she circled above Link's head.
Leynne flagged down Lwamm and asked her, "Hixwuman an dosh."
"'Anw doc?" Lwamm asked. Then she nodded her understanding and told him "Ay'a, Lyayn" before jogging off.
Link pointed after her and asked, "What'd you ask her to bring?"
"We still have one of the pylons we weh moohed to," Leynne explained. "The othehs slipped the lines once the ship broke free."
"Is this part of what you want to tell me about?" Link asked.
"Undeniably," Leynne answered. He crossed his arms and let out a sigh. "If I wehn't a membeh of this crew, I could not find myself believing what I am about to tell you.
"I think that ouh encounteh with the seveh winds was an act of sabotage."
Link blinked, trying to process what his second-in-command had just said. Leynne was right to caution him about not giving in to paranoia; Link's first instinct was to tell him that he was being just that. He was also right to mention that, if it had not been for this ship having seen so much two years prior, the accusation would be quite unbelievable. Between stories about living rocks that controlled the kingdom's winds, monsters the size of buildings, and an ancient airship crewed by demons caught in a magical storm, it was hard not to hear something absurd and take it at face value. The only other possibility was that Leynne was drunk. Considering the sobering effect Link's chief engineer had on any sane person, it was safe to assume that no one on-board had an urge to exceed their daily grog allotment.
Irleen's response told Link that she was on the same page. "You know," she said, "I think the ridiculous part is that you have a valid reason for sounding like you've lost your mind."
"All the same, I'd ratheh yield to paranoia," Leynne commented. He took in a breath and continued, "I think ouh separation from you, Link, was engineehed. It seems a little too convenient that the two of you weh marooned on the island while the ship was blown aside by a powehful gale from practically nowheh. The fact that we have neveh encountehed this soht of activity on any island in Hyrule fuhtheh makes the situation sound suhprisingly convenient."
"Well, it was freaky," Link agreed. "I'll give you that. But with all we've seen this morning, it doesn't exactly mean that the island's out to get us."
Leynne glanced over his shoulder toward the starboard staircase. As if on-cue, Lwamm came onto the deck from those stairs with a wooden pylon in her arms. Leynne unfolded his arms so that he could point to her. "I might agree with you if it hadn't been foh this."
"What is it?" Irleen asked as Lwamm approached the group.
"This is the pylon we saved," Leynne said. "Once we weh suh we had some distance away from the island, we checked the rigging and hauled in the mooring lines. As I said, one mooring line managed to save this pylon."
"Sometimes you get a bad mooring," Link said with a shrug. "Even you've seen this before."
"From the aged piehs and rotted bollahds of Fohge Island, I can undehstand," Leynne said. Then he placed a hand on one of the steel bars protruding from the bottom of the pylon. "But this pylon has fuhtheh anchorage to the edges of the island. If we ah to assume that the edges of the island ah solid rock, this is quite suspicious." He tugged on the pylon, forcing Lwamm to adjust her hold on it (and give him an irate glare) while he indicated the ends of the steel bars with a hand. "These steel bahs ah pehfectly straight, and the ends ah cleanly cut at an angle."
Link and Irleen were quiet as they tried to think of the point Leynne was trying to make. Irleen was the first to say, "Yeah, I'm not following you."
Leynne was just about to make his point when Link said, "If the pylon was tugged free… then there should be some sort of damage to the bars. Right?"
"Precisely," Leynne said. "These bahs should've been bent while the ship was pulling them free of the rock. And these ends…" He used a finger to trace the shape of the end of one bar as he described it to them. "The fact that these weh eitheh cut oh broken at an angle indicates that theh might have been a fuhtheh length to the bah, angled to help anchoh it to the suhrounding rock. The cuhvatuh at the back of the break indicates that the full length of the bah might have been angled… around twenty degrees oh so. Wheh these bahs broke is fah too pehfect foh these cihcumstances."
"Oigh," Irleen grunted as confusion set in.
"What do you mean 'too perfect'?" Link asked.
"Had this been a natural break," Leynne continued, "I would expect to see paht of the bent bah still connected to this piece. Oh pehhaps not see any paht of the bent bah at all, including this cuhve at the back. Wheh these two pieces of steel broke, which probably wehn't even exposed to the same stresses, is even and consistent with each otheh. The way these bahs broke, it would be simple to then pull the pylon out of the rock."
Link nodded while Irleen bobbed up and down in synch with his motion. "Which would've caused the Island Symphony to break away in the heavy wind," Link concluded.
"What was that about the island not being out to get us?" Irleen asked.
"'Imtowu, Lwamm," Leynne said, giving the pylon a pat.
"'Imayn baytha, Lyayn," Lwamm told him before she walked away with the pylon, presumably to put it away.
"I'm awah of the extent of the technowohks' abilities," Leynne said, looking up to address Irleen. "Is theh any reason to suspect that the technowohks ah behind this?"
"The wind? Maybe," Irleen answered. "But the thing with the pylons? I don't think so. The technoworks can be pretty big; I'll bet they're pretty extensive under this island. But they don't go all the way out to the edge of an island. And the technoworks can't control solid rock or anything inside that rock. They bring rock and soil and water from the surface, and they'll bind the rock together to make a solid structure underneath the top layer of soil. But they can't control how or when that's done."
"But it may have controlled the wind," Leynne reiterated.
"Yeah, that's possible. But someone would have to tell the technoworks to do that."
"Nevehtheless," Leynne said. "Theh appeahs to be a saboteuh on this island."
Link took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We'll try being cautious about this," he told Leynne. "No one leaves the ship unless there's someone with them, and no one goes into the town without giving a good excuse. Right now, I can't think of too many, so, unless you take them to the machine shop in town, no one leaves. Pass the word among the crew."
"Very good," Leynne said with a nod.
"Link?" Irleen spoke up.
"Hmm?"
"Layna."
"Oh," Link uttered. He paused for a moment to think. "Uh… have someone explain to Layna that we'd like her to stay in sight when she's not on-duty," he told Leynne. "I know she can take care of herself, but I'd feel better if she didn't sneak around while we're here."
"Ay'a, My Kyab—"
"Yaaah!" Irleen hollered in surprise.
"Yikes!" Link shouted while he jumped forward. Leynne was startled by their surprise and had already taken steps backwards before Link could collide with him. Link spun around to find Layna standing where he had been, eyes wide and shoulders shrugged as if she was apologizing to him.
"I've the feeling that youh ohdeh has already been accepted," Leynne commented.
Link gave an exhausted sigh and placed one hand over his heart. "Man, I'm so jumpy. Leynne, take over. I'm gonna go get some sleep."
"Me, too," Irleen said as she followed Link toward his cabin.
…
~~9/19, Expedition Day 35.
~~I didn't get a chance to put in a log entry last night due to being separated from the Island Symphony. This island experienced a freak windstorm yesterday evening, and the mooring pylons that the ship was attached to broke free of the island's shoreline. Come morning, Irleen and I returned to find the ship lightly damaged but the crew well and accounted for, if a little battered themselves. The mechanisms controlling the sails on both of the mizzen-masts have been damaged; Leynne is looking at a machine shop we found on the island in the hope that we can make repairs.
~~And it turns out that this island is inhabited. Even more bizarre, it's inhabited by Hylians. I may have an explanation, though. I know that, back a few decades ago, there were a number of self-sufficient expedition-type ships that left the kingdom in search of other islands here in the sky. None of them were heard from again, but I'm willing to bet that these people used to be the crew of one of those ships. And I say used to be because they're not quite Hylians anymore. I don't know what to call them. Irleen says that they're fragments of life inside a shell, and just talking about them seems to give her shivers. They seem harmless, but they are also very unpredictable and prone to varying amounts of insanity. We managed to talk to one of them, Maroon. I might look in on him sometime during the night. If anything else, we might get a few more answers out of him about this place.
~~But, it looks like we have a serious problem. Leynne has good reason to suspect that the windstorm that pushed the Island Symphony away from the island and broke the mooring pylons away may have both been someone's doing. I share his opinion of the situation, but I haven't been able to understand what the point was. If it was to get me away from the ship, they didn't do a good job. If the purpose was to scare the crew away, again, it didn't accomplish much since I was left behind. It might've been to show me what the island looks like at night, but then, what would be the point in pushing the whole ship away? There's something going on here, I can feel it. I just hope me and my crew will be able to escape before anything bad happens.
…
Link woke up late in the afternoon, which came as a surprise. He ate a quick dinner before gathering Line, Layna, and Gold. They left the ship in the Conductor, a cutter that had had its mast and sails replaced with a single lateen that spanned the length of the boat but was much shorter than the original mast. The Conductor's single advantage to a large vessel like the Island Symphony or a smaller vessel suited to sailing in the vicinity of an island like a junk was that it had a powerful engine which provided forward motion without an external propeller. No one was sure how this was accomplished, mostly because no one wanted to stand behind the Conductor while that noisy engine was active. Line stood at the helm and used a compass built into the pilot station's partition to steer the boat toward the eastern part of the island.
Here, the buildings did not get much higher than two stories, offering a good view of the streets below. And whereas the streets in the southern region were straight, crooked, and jagged, the streets here looked to have been planned by a two-year-old with a crayon: squiggly. At best, Link could see a single, continuous road that wound its way through the buildings and looked much larger than any other road they had seen so far. Branching from that were short streets that divided and converged in directions much less organized than the south. The homes and businesses below took on many different shapes from triangles to long and narrow structures two blocks in length to circular to match the curvature of the surrounding roads. But the one thing Link focused on were the wells that Gold pointed out to him. Each one was built at a bend in the main road, usually at the point where the main road turned back to continued on its way toward the edge of the island as slow as possible.
Link and Gold directed Line to land in the straightest part of the main road they could find, one that could accommodate the Conductor's length and width.
Bam! The jolt produced by the Conductor's keel meeting the brick road caused Gold to curse while Link's hand slipped off the bulwark, nearly throwing him to head-first overboard. Layna grabbed the back of Link's tunic before he could go any further.
When Link recovered, he turned to the pilot's station and said, "That'll do, Line."
"You think?" Line asked, showing him a grin.
Link allowed his own smile to show. "Gold," he called to the other side. "Toss the bags overboard."
One thing that Alfonzo, Captain of the Grand Sails and Link's father, had insisted on was that the Island Symphony left with two sets of sandbags. Link now understood why. No airship or launch had an anchor because most of them were never designed to land in water (the Island Symphony being a rare exception). Therefore, there were no need for weighty external anchors, and no airship or launch was likely to dock in a place without bollards or some type of pylon to moor to. But here on this new island, mooring to the outside of the island all the time made getting around inconvenient. Without internal docks such as those used by island-bound utility junks, they needed to improvise a way to keep the Conductor still. Therefore, sandbags, the weight of which was equal to a grown man. Link and Gold heaved four bags overboard. Even though the ropes were slack, the Conductor was not as likely to drift into a nearby building even with Line remaining at the helm.
The next to go over was a rope net off the transom. Link used this to climb down the two-story drop between the transom and the ground. Once he was on the ground, he looked down the road behind him. He could see a river being buried underneath these thousands of bricks. But it raised the question of why. Why would the Hylians who had landed on this island so long ago want to cover up a river, one of the necessities of life that the sky-dwelling people needed above all else?
Even more concerning: was it the same reason they buried the Sorian's lost library?
"Cap'n!" Gold called down. Link looked up as he and Line carefully lowered a toolbox holding a lantern, a bundle of rope, a handful of metal stakes, an extra belt of flare shells, and a sledgehammer. Link reached up to grab the box, but his fingers caused the box to tip. Link quickly dodged aside as the sledgehammer, with no way of remaining secured to the toolbox, slid out from under the handle and hit the ground next to his foot. "Whoop. Yeh okay, Cap'n?"
"I'm fine," Link called up as he took hold of the toolbox's handle. "C'mon down."
Line, Layna, and Gold joined him on the ground a moment later (with Layna achieving this by leaping over the side to a nearby building and then dropping down from that). Although this left the Conductor empty, Link felt that it would be untouched if they returned to the Island Symphony before dark. Besides, his standing order was that no one went onto the island alone, and he did not feel it was safe to leave Line alone in the launch. They wandered south along the main road until they came to one of the massive bends. In the middle of the bend was a well. And as they approached it, the group discovered that the well was closed by a massive layer of stone bolted into the brick structure.
"Man," Line exclaimed. "What's a guy gotta do to get a drink around here?"
He showed Link a grin, and Link rolled his eyes. Link then asked, "Gold, do you think you can break that open?"
Gold scratched at his short, blond hair for a moment, pondering the well. "I can try, Cap'n," he replied with a shrug.
Link nodded and indicated the well with a hand. "Have at it."
Gold set the head of the sledgehammer on the ground and rested the handle on his knee so that he could roll up the sleeves of his shirt, exposing muscular arms which probably made up a third of Link's body weight. Link swore Gold's bicep winked at him as Gold picked up the sledgehammer again. Link and Line backed away a step. Gold held the hammer with his hands apart as he raised it over his head. In the same motion, he then slid his hands together and brought the hammer down on the stone cap. Paink! The stone barely seemed to budge. Gold slid the hammer off the top and repeated the motion instantly, as if it was second-nature to him. Paink! Again, not much of a hit, but Gold swiftly delivered another blow. Paink! Paink! Paink! Paink!
Paink! Paink!
Pogh! The surface finally cracked down the middle. Gold's next blow caused the crack to widen by knocking stone into the well. Pogh! A gap opened, so Gold shifted to knocking out the larger left side of the stone. Pok! Pok! Link thought he could hear the stone falling into water below, but Gold's constant hammering as he moved to knock the rest of the stone away made the sound unclear. Pok! Pok! Pok! Pok!
When Gold was finished, he dropped the hammer. "Wshew!" he exclaimed. He put a hand on his forehead. "Barely a sweat, Cap'n."
"Nice work," Link told him as he peered into the well. He saw nothing but black, but he could hear running water. "Good. We've got water."
"I still don't get why they cut off the river," Line said as Link handed Gold a stake. "That's kinda important."
"I'm worried that they might've closed it off for the same reason they closed off that library," Link told him. He picked up the bundle of rope and began to untie it. "Still not sure what that is, though."
"I just hope it was for something stupid," Line said. "Like they didn't like the color of the water or something." Pank! Pank! Line looked to his right to see Gold driving a stake into the brick ground just a few paces away. Then he glanced over his shoulder at Layna, who only responded with a curious look. "Look, Link, I know I don't know what's going through your head half the time, but you look like you're getting ready to actually go inside this thing."
"That's the plan," Link replied as he pulled one end of the rope loose.
"What for?"
Link gave him an annoyed look. "The technoworks, Line. It's the reason I sent the ship out to look around."
"Oooooh," Line said as he remembered.
"Layna's going down with me. You'll stay up here with Gold."
"Why does Layna get to go?" Line whined, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at her. "I haven't gotten to see the technoworks yet."
"Because Layna has her own way of getting in there, and she's capable of taking care of herself if we get into trouble."
"Big deal. I know how to scream like a little girl; I'd be fine."
"I also trust the two of you to haul me up fast if there's a problem," Link told him as he began tying the rope around his waist. "We don't know how well Layna understands Hylian, so I'd rather have her down with me where she can hear me clearly." Link then glanced over at Layna. "No offense, Layna; I'm sure you understand Hylian better than you let on." Layna only tilted her head in confusion.
Line cleared his throat and pulled back his shirt to reveal his bodysuit-clad upper arm. "Well, I guess I'm still good for a few things around here," he said as he flexed his bicep.
Link, just about to throw the rope toward Gold, paused to glance at Line. "Is that a pimple on your arm?" he asked.
"Whatever," Line replied, slapping his flat bicep. "That's pure muscle there."
"That's cuz the fat's 'angin' off the other side," Gold said as he stepped over to take the rope from Link.
"Aw, screw you, Gold!" Line snapped.
Link picked up the lantern and held it out to Line. "Light this for me."
"Why me?" Line asked, sounding offended.
"Because you're the only one carrying matches," Link said as he pulled himself up onto the edge of the well. Line grumbled to himself and snagged the lantern out of Link's hand.
"'Ow long yeh think yeh'll be down there?" Gold asked.
Link took in a breath and sighed. "I don't know, probably a couple of hours," he admitted. "I don't have Irleen with me, so we can't change the Sky Lines yet. But it'll be useless to bring her along if it turns out we can't access the technoworks this way either."
"And what if we can't access the technoworks this way?" Line asked after touching a lit match to the lantern's wick.
Link shrugged. "Gotta be another entrance somewhere. We just keep looking. The main thing is we have water now."
"If it's good," Gold said.
"It's good," Link said as he accepted the lantern back from Line. He pulled a length of rope and tied a bowline on a bight around the lantern's handle. "Ready?"
"Yeah," Gold grunted as he tugged on the end of the rope he had tied to the stake. "That's good an' tight."
Link swung his legs so that they dangled inside the well. "Okay. Just take it slow; I wanna see if there's anywhere I can walk."
"Careful, Cap'n," Gold said.
Link nodded. He picked up the lantern and let it hang down in the well. Then he carefully slid into the well while he used his feet against the inside of the well to keep from falling. Gold held the rope and had to whistle at Line to get him to help out. Link's pace was lacking mostly because he was trying to make sure he did not get tangled in the rope or hit the lantern as he slid inside.
Then his feet slipped.
"Whoa!" Link cried out in surprise as he suddenly plunged into the well. The slip caused him to strike his head as he fell in, and he lost sight of what was happening.
"Cap'n! Cap'n, yeh arright?!"
"Link!"
Link blinked and shook his head. It made his head rush, cluing him in to the fact that he was hanging upside-down by his waist. His vision darkened a bit, but he had enough sense to grab the rope at his waist and pull himself until he was upright again.
"Link!" Line hollered.
"I'm okay!" Link hollered back. He looked up to see Layna poised over the well, prepared to drop into it if necessary. "I'm all right!"
He looked down into a cavern about three stories deep into the island. The scant light assured Link that there was blackness in two directions, but he could at least make out the shimmer of the slow-moving water beneath him. Even better, he had a clear view of banks on either side of the river. The water was a soft rush through the cavern, something of a delightful break from the silence the rest of the island provided.
"What do you see!?" Line called down.
"This place is a huge cave!" Link shouted back up. He listened to his voice echoing away for a moment. "There's dry land on either side of the river, but I don't know how to reach it!"
"Can yeh swing tae it?" Gold asked.
"It's a long way away," Link replied. He looked down at the water again. "I think I'd be in the water before I reached it." He looked up at Layna. "You got any ideas?"
"'Ow deep's the wa'er?" Gold asked.
"I can't tell."
Layna looked over at Gold and Line and used a hand to motion downwards. "Yeh want us tae lower 'im?" Gold asked. Layna nodded. "'Ang on, Cap'n! I think Layna's got an idea."
Link felt Gold and Line lower him further. With the lantern descending with him, Link had a better view of his surroundings. The brick above him looked like someone had simply laid a large wall over the cave. The walls on either side were bare earth with a few roots protruding here and there, much like the tunnel to the library. He could not focus on much else; he began to slowly spin around as they lowered him further.
When Link was low enough, he hollered while pulling his feet away from the water, "Hold up, whoa, whoa!" The rope jerked to a stop. He dared to lower one foot down. As his boot penetrated the water's surface, he found that the flow was not strong enough to carry him away. The water was up to his knee when he found the bottom, so he lowered his other foot until he was standing. "Okay, gimme some more slack! I can walk to the edge!"
"Got it," Gold shouted back, although it was now barely louder than a whisper. The rope slackened, and Link trudged to the bank on the inside of the bend. Once he was on dry land, he pulled another stake out from his belt and thrust it into the soft earth further up the bank. He untied the lantern to set it on the ground. Then he untied the rope from around his waist.
He thought he heard a commotion from the surface and looked up just in time to see Layna fall into the cavern. He was not worried, though; as she dropped, she appeared to swing on something invisible for a moment. It gave her enough momentum that she kicked into the dirt wall above his head to slow her descent a moment. From there, she simply landed on the bank near him. He shook his head as he tied the rope to his stake.
"Hey, guys!" Link called up to the well. "Keep your eyes and ears open! We'll be back as soon as we can!"
"You got it, Link!" Line shouted back.
But before they started walking, Link stepped back down the bank into the water. He leaned over and cupped his hands to pick up some water to take a sip. It was fresh, the way a flowing river should taste. He splashed his face with the rest. "Perfect," he told Layna. Then he pointed upstream. "Let's get going."
The walk proved to be a bit boring, but Link was hardly surprised. Not a creature stirred in this cavern, probably the result of covering it up from the outside. It still concerned him that the Hylians on this island would do such a thing. However, it was not long before Link realized that, if the residents of this island had gone crazy after all this time, maybe there was no reasonable explanation for this. Maybe this feature was simply a victim of the residents' descent into madness. It could even go a long way to explaining why the island was as it was now.
A couple of hours must have passed before Link finally found something other than more cavern, which was slowly shrinking as they came closer to the river's source. Actually, it was Layna that first noticed something. About halfway through the fifth bend, Layna grabbed Link's shoulder to stop him.
"What?" Link asked.
"Zabiyc," she answered.
Link leaned forward to follow her gaze across the river. True to her word, there was a large space on the opposite bank that was pitch-black. Even after Link turned so that the lantern could cast more direct light, the space, which was the size of a doorway, remained black against the barely-visible cavern wall.
"Just like the library," he told Layna. She nodded in response, eyes still locked on the doorway. "Here, hold this." Her gaze broke as she accepted the lantern from Link. Link then pulled his flare gun and opened the chamber. It took him a moment to find a green flare from his belt. "I think it's safe to say this place won't catch fire," he commented as he readied the gun. He pointed the gun at the doorway. "Head's up."
FZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz! Link flinched from the sound. The flare hit the opening and bounced off. Then the flare erupted into green light. This also caused the flare to flip up and fall into the river, dousing itself as the water carried the shell away.
Link gave the doorway a disappointed look. "Well that was stupid." He looked at Layna. "How about one of your throwing blades? Maybe we can cut through it."
"Ay'a, My Kyabtin," Layna said. Link reached a hand out to take the lantern. But instead of handing it over so she could retrieve a blade, she simply jerked her free arm. Link barely saw the blade fall out of her sleeve before she caught it behind her back. Then she flung it underhanded.
The blade made contact with the black mass; Link had no doubt about it since he had once seen her throw the same kind of circular blade (well, he had never actually seen her throw it), skip it off his sword while he was in the middle of a fight, and embed it in a Lizalfos' eye. However, the blade rebounded and dropped to the ground. The black mass in the middle of the door remained undisturbed; there was not even a sign that the blade had penetrated. Link glanced back at Layna. It was probably the first time he had ever seen her look offended.
In fact, when he saw her jerk her arm again to get another blade, he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Don't," he told her. Her response was a surprised look in his direction. "You'll just waste blades." Layna gave a careful nod and lowered her arm, appearing to stow the blade out of sight. Link nodded upstream. "C'mon. Maybe there's another opening ahead we can use."
Layna allowed him to take the lantern. She lingered behind for a moment, eyes cast down at the water and one hand holding the shoulder Link had touched.