Chapter 30: The Giant's Forest

…

Link soon ordered Ray, Leynne, and Layna down into the galley where they could sit and calm down from their brush with death. Dholit was already in the galley, where she explained that both she and Layna were still struggling with their peculiar sleeping habits. Leynne retrieved for each of them, including Dholit, a cup filled with just a few sips of rum to help them mellow out. He was certain to watch how much each drank so as not to accidentally instigate drowsiness so close to the time of The Night's own awakening. Very little in the way of words passed among them; Dholit only heard about the incident on-deck from Leynne. In the excitement, Link had forgotten about Leynne's concerns for their electricity. Although a flicker from the galley's single overhead light reminded him, he was hardly in the mood to address it.

Ray, sitting at the dining table with her eyes cast to her lap, finally decided to speak up. "'Inu nayx midhujak sazabthoyf," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Link, who stood at the head of the table near her with his bottom leaning on the edge, glanced over his right shoulder to look at her. Then he looked over his left at Dholit. Dholit took her cue with only a moment to formulate a translation in her head. "She says she should apologize," she told Link.

"I should think that an apology is hahdly necessary," Leynne, seated next to Dholit but facing away from the table so that he could lean forward, spoke up. "We all know what this place is doing to us."

"Naxiban yayxwotak wabin abthif," Dholit told Ray. "'Inan mathosak. 'Inan hiyconwotak nwik sayfitt. 'Inan nadlwaybiliynak 'al nadlwaycaynil."

"'Itab marix 'inu 'alaxomya codhayxwya'ak taf garixwya'ak," Ray replied, looking up to glare at Dholit.

Dholit turned her head toward Leynne and said, "She says that what she did was reckless and stupid."

"And she's going to continue this self-loathing until she tihes of it," Leynne told her. "We can't hold a man responsible foh beating anotheh to a pulp. Why should we hold heh responsible foh falling asleep on the deck? It could have happened at any otheh time in any otheh place. Tonight was just bad luck."

"It's a bit of a hahd sentiment to translate, Leynne," Dholit said.

"Give it your best shot," Link told her, crossing his arms against a chill he suddenly felt. "If she keeps blaming herself, The Night will just latch onto it."

Dholit gave Link a tired look before heaving a sigh. "I will try," she told them. "Ray." Ray's attention snapped toward Dholit again. "Mayxwosan 'adhic 'ithab. Waba moytokak 'ak marix 'athiykwfya xodican dha' thil fiyk max?"

Ray gave Dholit a wary look before nodding. "Ay'a," she answered.

"Nwaki thukwfya'ak foltab 'ak sanway joydhaysya za'aytn zhamin ablun zhal," Dholit continued. "Zhamin idha' golwaynya'ak oksitha'. 'Itab zhi nadlwaynwarotya'ak nwaki. 'Ak Dhayba cablya'ak nwiy oksitha' 'ulwis 'ak sanway bulnya zhi nayx midhuj sazaszhiyl zhamin nwubali. Idha zhi fidhisak bathifi, 'itab nadfidhisak 'ajti. Wamathosak max?"

Ray took a while to come up with an answer, and Link and Leynne turned their attention to her, concerned that Dholit's words, whatever they had been, might have upset her. However, she bowed her head and gave a barely visible nod, followed by the words, "Ay'a, Giltiyn Dholit. 'Inu mathosak."

Dholit looked up at Link and said, "I think I've gotten haah to undahstand."

"Salya, 'ak maddix—" Ray spoke up again. This caused Dholit, Link, and Leynne to look at her immediately. However, she quickly closed her mouth and looked down at the table.

Leynne shared a look with Dholit before leaning forward and asking Ray, "Dhol?"

Ray heaved a sigh and addressed Dholit. "'Inu mudhjak zathhiydh wabin taris."

Dholit made a difficult face and pointed to her own chest. "'Imayn taris?" Ray nodded. "'Oyfzhax dha' dhol naday?"

"Waba nadmoytokak 'oyfzhax dha' dhol naday?" Ray's eyes flickered toward Link. "'Inu mudhjak zabaytkw zhal."

Dholit's response was a worn grin just barely showing her customary devilishness. "Ah, lwuzhdak, lwuzhdak. 'Itab waba nayx midhujak sazamtoyk My Captain sayl odi naygodhak zhamin giyt. 'Al coylaxom 'iydhonot zhamin 'adhij xoc 'athi'min, 'al coylaxom doyxathit nwik 'ilthan'afi'il… 'al coylaxom bonwithot zhamin silwabin, zhi nayx layxomak nayfsik may' zhi joydhos nwik giyt zasulwb. 'Inu 'udhjak kiylwubtya zhal rituc nwiy 'oyfzhax 'ithab." She nodded toward Layna, who was standing behind Ray's left shoulder. "'Itab Layna mathosak kwuhat 'immu tac."

Ray could only blink at her for a moment. "Sanimyayl?" she asked as she turned to look at Layna.

"Lwuzhdak," Layna replied. "My Captain zhajxya'ak 'imayn silwabin. Zhi nayx nadyijoydhiysak zatniyl 'inon."

"'Inu nadlway'oydhacak nway," Ray replied in a tone of awe. "Sanimyayal? Taf yabbid?"

"Taf maddix 'abothfi," Dholit spoke up again. Ray turned back to her and stared wide-eyed. Then she seemed to nod as her eyes fell to the table again.

"I hope you haven't found some way to depress heh," Leynne told Dholit.

"I hahdly think so," Dholit replied. Then she let out an audible breath and stood up. "I feel as if I've done us both a favoh. My Captain, Leynne, if you will excuse me."

"Sure," Link answered. Dholit flashed a smile, one which still looked weary, before turning to walk away. Ray looked up as Dholit left. Then, without a word, she stood and followed. Link glanced at Layna to say, "You can go on back to duty, Layna."

"Ay'a, My Captain," Layna answered. She must have taken Link's no-hiding order to heart, as she neglected to disappear from sight as she slowly wandered after Ray.

Leynne gave a half-sigh, half-growl as he allowed his head to loll backwards, giving him a view of the deckhead. "Shall we tie them to the masts next?" he asked Link.

"I don't know," Link confessed. He uncrossed his arms and turned around to face Leynne. "But The Night has turned this ship into a hazard. The crew can break out in a fight on any deck before we can react, and now our deck crew is getting so drowsy that they could fall asleep in any one of dozens of dangerous spots. What should we do? Take them onto the island?"

"I think it would be a bad idea," Leynne said.

"Why?" Link asked with a little more challenge to his voice than he had intended.

This tone was not lost on Leynne, who turned to look at him with one eyebrow raised. "It's a matteh of leverage at this point," he said with an even tone. "Right now, we ah on the ship, and The Night has decided that we need to suffeh. Howeveh, while we'h on the ship, The Night cannot do anything to the ship to prevent us from leaving. Should we decide to move the crew to the island, what prevents The Night from destroying the Symphony?"

"Oh," Link replied. He pressed the fingers of one hand into his eyes. "Right."

"We've seen that The Night is capable of manipulating the wind and the moorings."

"No, I get it," Link said, holding up his free hand to stop Leynne. He took the other hand away from his face and added, "I just… wish it was easier."

"Yes, it does seem we lack options," Leynne agreed as he sat up to lean on his knees. "With The Night gone from the riveh… what does that leave us? Two moh locations?"

"In the technoworks, yeah," Link replied. "But that's not all. Part of The Night is in that tower in the center."

"I remembeh. The question is: do we intehfeh with that paht as well? One would assume that The Night cannot control the technowohks from theh."

"No. Probably not."

Leynne pulled a pocket watch and checked it. "Seven. It feels like we've been down heh foh ages."

"When does The Night wake up?"

"Two moh houhs."

"Nine o'clock? Really?"

Leynne closed the watch with a loud click. "That's as best as I can estimate it. Unfohtunately, the time tends to vary by about half an houh every night. Nine seems the eahliest, but my only indication is the Obeetans waking."

Link nodded. "I suppose we should get ready for another night."

"I've asked Stan prepah some of his unnecessarily-hot, excessively-spicy bramble chili. I'm hoping the crew will fohgive me."

"Insomnia and arson?" Link asked, grinning. "You may only get away with having two pots poured down your own throat."

Leynne stood up. He turned toward the stairs only to spin back to Link upon remembering something. "Oh, right. The generatoh."

"Just… do what you can with the lamps," Link told him with a dismissive handwave. "Maybe plan to mount some below, too; it won't be long until we need them."

…

~~Same day, 1930.

~~We nearly lost Ray today. She sat on the edge of the bulwark and fell asleep. If it hadn't been for the rest of us noticing, we might not have realize she'd fallen until someone tried looking for her. I just came to that conclusion ten minutes ago. I feel like I should do something to prevent my crew from just up and disappearing, but I don't know what. I can't make The Night go away any faster; my current rate is less than one technoworks a night. I also just realized that The Night is likely to be mad like before. I'll have to be extra careful tonight, or else it might catch me again. I wish I had some insight into how it organizes its nightmares, but I went into the river three times, and there just wasn't any sort of consistency.

~~On top of our supply problems, Leynne told me that our wind generator isn't picking up enough wind to provide power. Leynne gives it a few days at best. I would hope to be out of here by then, but then there are a lot of things I'm hoping for. The best we can do are use our incidental shipment of lanterns to light the ship's decks at night. As lon as we don't lose the engine, we'll be all right.

~~But then, we're still here. Nothing is all right.

…

Link left instructions for Leynne to inform him when the Obeetans had awakened. Later, he could hear the sigh in Leynne's voice as he reluctantly called into the sick bay only to have Nester sum up his thoughts on Stan's chili in a single vulgarity. Link sat up in response to find that the sick bay had its lights on. To Link's mild amusement, Line, Flower, and Cale were hovering near the front of the sick bay with revulsion on their faces while Nester mixed them… some kind of concoction at his desk. Link could not tell what it was, but, after watching Nester chase a healthy drink from one beaker with a relieved sigh, he assumed it to be something to kill the potency of Stan's chili. He could hardly blame his crew's reaction; Link had previously ordered Stan not to make the chili again unless it was for a dare. This had had the side-effect of his crew goading other airmen into trying the chili for the humor of watching said airmen scream like little girls. He had to admit a small amount of humor at the irony of actually putting the chili to use, even if his crew detested it, and was glad Stan kept the necessary ingredients on-board.

Janni had not been present when Link woke up. Fortunately, with his sleeping form still on the bed after he stood, he could reason that he was in the dream once more. He put his gear on, using the tight band on the new goggles to help hold his hat to his head. Then he squeezed past his groaning airmen so that he could descend into the orlop and retrieve the rigging knife and a pocketful of nuts. He was not sure if he also needed a rope, but he remembered that there would be some spare rope on the Conductor if he needed. So he left.

And nearly bumped into Janni at the top of the steps. "Whoa!" he hollered as he tried to bring his feet to a sudden stop.

Janni stood on the main deck with her arms crossed and one eyebrow cocked. "Good evening to you, too, Captain," she said in a dry voice.

"Sorry," Link told her with an embarrassed smile. "I wasn't sure when you were gonna show up."

"I just about didn't," she told him.

This caused Link to give her a confused look. "Why not?"

"Don't get me wrong, Link; I love a good suicide as much as the next captive. But what you're doing is seriously disturbing."

Link stepped up to the deck so that he was eye-level with her. "I thought disturbing was your taste, too," he told her with genuine concern in his tone.

"Not on this level. Link, you killed a skeleton and living water! Don't you think something's fundamentally wrong with that?"

Link half-grinned at her. "Janni, if you knew what I faced two years ago, you'd know why these things don't bother me that much. The Night isn't even the largest thing I've had to fight."

"Maybe not, Link. But is it the smartest?"

Link frowned as he considered the differences between Cunimincus and The Night. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"How about the most creative? Most powerful? You've been killed twice. And, face it, you didn't really survive those fights at the bottom of the technoworks, either."

"What are you worried about?" Link asked, his confusion masking most of his impatience.

"I'm worried that you might be getting in over your head," Janni replied, her face forming a scowl. "When you broke off the first part in the library, The Night was mad. But when you broke off the second part, the ground shook so bad that some of the buildings gave way." She punctuated by pointing a hand over his head toward the island.

Link turned to look at the island over the hatchway. Although he did not really have the island's skyline memorized, he could tell something was off at his first glance. His first conclusion was that the tower at the center had suddenly become taller since the last time he looked in its direction. Then he saw a couple of gaps in the black sky near the base of the tower. Link decided to trust what Janni had said, although he would have to take a closer look once he took the Conductor out. So he looked up at her and asked, "Those missing buildings aren't part of the dream?"

"No. They would've fallen early this morning, though I doubt your crew was really paying attention."

"Do you know what they were?"

Janni's scowl disappeared with a wide-eyed look of mild confusion. "Not really. Why do you ask?"

Link gave her a side-glance over one shoulder. "Just wondering if they were important or not."

"To you? Maybe. To The Night, definitely not. You've seen it in the tower. That's the only place it wants to be, so it'll protect it, maybe even more than when it tried to protect the river." She gave a weak grunt of a chuckle. "So I can only imagine that its attempt to defend itself from you tonight might fall somewhere in between those two."

"What, the river and the tower?" Link asked, half-turning toward her.

"Yep."

Link admitted to himself a dose of trepidation. He had already seen what happened when The Night had decided not to pull any punches. Still, he took in a breath and told Janni, "Well, whether it kills me or not, I still have a job to do."

"I don't think you're taking me seriously, Link."

Link shrugged. "So what if I'm not? I have to do something before my crew kills itself. Or were you not around when Ray fell over the side?"

"Oh, no, I was there," Janni answered as Link slid past her to start across the deck. She picked her feet up and floated along beside him. "Leynne's got the situation pegged; The Night won't destroy your ship while you're still on it. But that doesn't mean it's gonna stop tormenting your crew. That little stunt with the girl wasn't even trying. I'm pretty sure The Night did it just to get under your skin. You know, like every other time it messes with your crew."

"Well, it's under there."

Once in the boat bay, Link set to work readying the Conductor for sail as fast as he could. He had been a little out of practice since helming the launch had been left mostly to Leynne, Line, or Gold for the past two years, so he wound up bumping the Conductor on the inner edge of the gap in the poop deck before raising the ship out of its bay. He had to push the Conductor into the island's headwind, surprised by its strength in light of the Island Symphony's power problem. But then, the wind did not seem to pick up until Link was over the town and approaching the tower. Going near the tower was not his intention, but, according to the map Leynne had made (which he had stashed into his trouser pocket before he had gone to sleep), the mine he was looking for was almost precisely on the other side of the tower from the Island Symphony. Leynne had not mentioned a stronger wind to him, so Link decided that it was just The Night interfering.

Janni did not have any input on the matter. She had barely paid attention to the trip, having chosen to sit on the deck behind the pilot's station and hum to herself. Link was not concerned with asking her anything at any rate. Her fretting about The Night's temperament had seemed to be the only thing on her mind, although she hardly acted like it since they had left the ship.

Once Link was over the forest, he cut the engine and locked the wheel so that he could look overboard. He could barely see a thing, looking at almost pitch-black under a sky that would not even allow the moon through. Even more frustrating was the lack of Obeetans to guide him around; at this distance, even the shrillest scream had become a dull howl. However, with the storm around the island, infrequent bolts of lightning gave a flash that offered a brief picture of trees. Link located a road and let the outgoing island breeze nudge him toward it until he was able to set down. He dropped the sandbags and the net.

However, he did not descend until he had a lit lantern with him. Once he set foot on the ground, he held the lantern up to see what was around him.

"Well," he said to himself. "This isn't gonna be easy."

"You're probably lucky it didn't just let you fall over the edge," Janni told him as she floated down beside him.

Link glanced at the crude map in his other hand. "Leynne said there should be a rock in the middle of this road somewhere," he told her, tilting the map to let her see. "From there, we go left and just keep following the road to the mine."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Janni replied in a flat voice. She glanced around at the nearby trees just on the edge of the lantern's poor light. "The only way you'll find that rock is by tripping on it."

"At least you'll get a laugh out of it," Link said as he started forward.

Janni, having touched her feet to the ground, fell into step behind him. "Yeah, I'd love it."

"Have you been in these technoworks yet?"

Janni was silent for a moment, so Link glanced over his shoulder at her. "I don't really remember," she confessed. "I know the worksite around the mine, but I don't think I've actually been inside."

"I thought you liked going in them."

"I love it. It's taken me a bit to figure out what theme it uses for each area, but I can't seem to remember this one."

Link frowned and glanced over his shoulder at her again. "What 'theme'?"

Janni raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah. I was trying to tell you about it while you were in the library. The theme in that technoworks is 'death'."

"Oh, that, huh? So what was the river?"

"Uncertainty."

Link tilted his head in confusion. "Uncertainty? You don't know?"

"No, the theme is 'uncertainty'. Think about it, Link. You never really knew what was there to kill you until it sprung on you. You got attacked by a door! Twice! And let's not forget the sisters."

"I wish you would…" Link groaned. "So, if you know the themes to the others, what are they?"

"You sure you don't want those to be a secret?" Janni teased.

"I think I've had enough of this place's secrets. C'mon, give."

Janni descended in front of him, causing him to suddenly stop. "Yes, sir, Captain Bossypants." She held up a hand and acted like she was pulling down a roll-up chart. The accompanying sound preceded the actual chart appearing behind her. Thanks to his attempt to use the technoworks in the library a few days ago, he recognized the image on the chart as an overhead map of Obeeta. Janni pointed as she explained, "You know the library and river's themes. The technoworks we're looking for, I'm not entirely sure. But the technoworks on the west side are self-themed."

"'Self' themed?"

"The creatures in there act like living mirrors. They mimic everything you do. Sometimes, they won't even attack you unless you do something to attack them."

Link nodded. "I'll have to remember that one."

"The tower's theme… I haven't been able to put a name to it, but every floor of that tower contains something that doesn't like intruders."

"Every floor?" Link asked. "How many floors?"

"About f—"

Wh-WHAMMMMMMMM! Link dropped his lantern and saved his face from hitting the dirt by stretching his hands out before him. He had been knocked forward by a combination of a violent quake and a powerful gust of wind from behind. Both forces continued their assault for several seconds, although Link was out of harm's way as he was. The tremor under his hands and stomach was a shock, something he had never felt before. Janni stumbled backwards until she decided to lift up from the ground again. She braced herself against the wind using her own pull-down chart.

Once the wind lifted and the shaking stopped, Link looked up. His lantern lay on its side, two of its glass panels shattered but still sporting a light. He grabbed it and looked up at Janni. "What was that?" he asked.

"I-I don't know," Janni admitted, her face reflecting Link's astonishment.

Grrrrrrrr—khrah. Gahhhh. Link pressed himself to the ground again as the island beneath him shivered. The sound, a heavy grumble permeating the night, gave Link the impression of something massive moving nearby. He wished he knew what it was, only being familiar with the scale of such sounds and not knowing what the noise itself indicated.

However, his more pressing concern was where it had come from. "That sounded like it could've hit the Conductor," he commented as he grabbed the lantern. Once he was on his feet, he stuffed the map into his pocket and placed his hand on the Sorian sword. He turned and held his lantern out at arm's length, trying to find a source along the path he had already walked. However, he discovered that the surrounding darkness was so thick that his light was not reaching the boat. "C'mon, let's go look."

"Don't you think you should worry more about the mine?" Janni asked.

"With something making that sound behind me?" Link replied. "If that follows me, I'd like to at least know what it is."

"You know, I remember those Hylian settlers having an appropriate phrase for this kind of thing," Janni said as she followed in the wake of Link's lantern. "Curiosity killed… uh, some kinda animal."

"The rabbit," Link said. "'Curiosity killed the rabbit'. And I'm not being curious; I'm being cautious."

"Maybe that should be it instead of curiou—"

Link hissed at her. "Shut up."

"Oh, what?" Janni whispered in response, confused by the need for silence.

"Just… just be quiet for a moment."

Link and Janni retraced the route they had taken in just a few minutes. And when they found the Conductor, both of them could only stare in shock.

Because the Conductor had been flattened into the ground. Other than some of the pieces around the thicker parts of the launch's engine, there was not a single unbroken timber or unbent pipe in the mess that had once been Link's faithful boat. The boat's structures were in the relatively correct places; they had all just been pressed into the dirt as hard as possible. The mast had been snapped in two. A thin trail of smoke snaking along the ground hinted at the last of the engine's life leaking away. Even more disturbing was the fallen trees on either side of the path, each of them snapped in two or even three places and crushed against the ground just like the Conductor's mast. Where Link stood, he was just on the edge of the area where the broken trees began.

"Wow," Janni commented in a quiet voice. "Guess I wasn't the only one who didn't like that boat."

"What could have done this?!" Link asked, his free hand stretched out to indicate the boat.

"Does that take a lot of imagination?" Janni asked with a giggle in her voice.

Link glanced at her to find her smirking at him. "I know who did this," he told her. "But with what? And why? Are we in The Night's miasma now?"

"No, we aren't. But do you think that matters?"

Link heaved a sigh. "No, I guess it doesn't…"

"There are a lot of things that don't matter. Like light, for instance."

"Light?" Link asked in confusion.

Janni put on a wide grin. "Didn't you notice the lightning's gone?"

Link slowly looked up at the sky. Through the trees around him, he saw nothing but black. But then, he realized how visible the trees were, how he could see their full colors when, a moment ago, he could barely make out their shape in his flickering lantern. He held the lantern up to his face. While it was lit, the light it gave off was barely a yellow glow against what was already there. Even both he and Janni stood in full light with shadows cast on the ground beneath their feet.

"What's going on?" Link asked, his heartbeat becoming a noticeable thump against his chest.

"Vengeance, probably," Janni answered in a casual tone.

Just as Link opened his mouth to ask another question, the air around them stirred. He froze and glanced into the wind, expectant of something to come charging from that direction. The wind became stronger, giving Link the impression that something large was coming his way. He drew his sword and dropped the lantern on the ground. But half a minute passed without anything appearing, and the wind grew even stronger. Link had to step back and brace himself to keep from being blown off his feet.

The last thing he saw was a pale-green mass dropping out of the sky above. Then he had the sensation of being pressed into the ground in just a split second, this dream ending around him with a sickening crack.