Chapter 76: Not Past It Yet

…

~~Same day, 1400.

~~I think I'm beginning to understand why both Irleen and Ukhool don't like dealing with the Mystics. He took the other Mystics' items from me, but he just threw away the scroll! I explained to Ukhool that we didn't want it because we couldn't read it. He said he would take it to the library to see if they would be interested in keeping it. Personally, I'm beginning to wonder if it would be better to just burn it. I know it's a record of the last moments of the Mystics of Obeeta, but, from what Irleen read, they weren't exactly pleasant moments.

Kon kon kon.

Link set his pen aside and responded, "Come in!"

The door was flung aside, startling Link when it slammed against his wardrobe. "Līnca!" Irleen hollered as she jumped inside. Link had leapt to his feet in surprise. Irleen rounded his desk before he could move out of the way and tackled him to the floor in a squeezing hug. "Kákihōoooon! Kōnwi hì kònōtan nòt kákihōn!" she told him as she held him pinned to the deck.

"Ack—Irleen!" Link snapped. Since Irleen's face was pressed to Link's chest, she looked up at him. "You're crushing me!"

"Haħ?" she asked. "Oħ, līntána." She sat up on his thighs and reached into her pocket. Rather than give it to him, she set her translating gem on his chest. "You'd think I'd know better by now…"

"What's going on?" Link asked as he pushed himself up on his elbows.

Irleen heaved a sigh and looked up at the deckhead. "Oh, I'm just so happy right now," she said. "Two years… can you believe it? They brought all my stuff with them, but my room just doesn't look the same. I've been with them all morning." She looked down at him. "I-I thought I'd just check in really quick."

"Okay…?" Link replied. "I-I wasn't really worried about you checking in; I figured I'd just ask the elder if we needed you."

"Oh…"

Link then gave her a suspicious frown before asking, "Weren't you one of the people I heard outside my room this morning?"

"Nnnnnope!" Irleen said, although her attempt to suppress a grin made it hard to believe her.

Which was why Link gave her a flat look. "Right."

Both then heard a sharp intake of breath. Irleen's attention snapped to the door, forcing her to rise a bit to look over the desktop. "Uh oh…" she uttered.

"What?" Link asked. "Who is it?"

"Dholit."

Link was already in the process of sliding out from under Irleen when the cabin was filled with a horrible shriek. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Irleen realized where she was sitting and immediately scrambled to her feet, allowing Link to stand. Both of them watched as Dholit collapsed to her knees and buried her face in her hands. "Uuugh, noooooooo!" she wailed.

"Dholit, what's going on?" Link asked as he rounded the desk.

"Uh, Link?" Irleen spoke up. Link turned in response. "Um, I was still… sitting on you when she came in."

Link offered a look of confusion before asking, "Uh… so?" He felt something on his chest shift and looked down just as Irleen's translating gem clapped against the floor.

"Līnca!" Irleen snapped as he reached for the gem. "Nùtùl klápácàrhu pòt tanì!"

"What?" Link asked after he grabbed the gem.

"I'm too laaaaaate-he-he!" Dholit wailed.

"Huh?" Link asked. "What? Too late for what?"

"You-you-you did it with Ihleen!" Dholit hollered at him through her hands. "And she wasn't even youh fihst!"

"My first? My first what?" Link asked.

Irleen crossed her arms. "She's probably talking about Layna," she said with a smug grin.

"Layna?" Link asked her. "What about Layna?"

"You slept with haah," Dholit answered in a weak voice.

"I what?" Link asked. Then, once the details of the previous night and that morning started surfacing, he quickly raised his hands. "Waaait a minute, wait a minute! What exactly do you think Layna and I did?"

"Depends," Irleen said. "Did you take your clothes off?"

"What!?" Link snapped, glancing back and forth between them. He turned to Irleen and told her, "No! No, we both woke up from nightmares! She heard me holler, so she came to my room and we shared the bed."

"Yeah, we noticed," Irleen said. "You two looked pretty comfortable snuggling together."

"We weren't snuggling!" Link hollered. "We weren't even touching when we went to sleep! If we were together, it was the bed's fault!"

"I knew I should've made haah kill you…" Dholit groaned, her hands still pressed to her face.

"Look, if it was anyone else, I wouldn't've minded!" Link told them both.

Irleen's face turned scarlet as she snapped, "Well that doesn't help things!"

"Well, let him keep talking!" Dholit hollered at her. Then she quickly hid her face again.

Link gave her a confused look before telling Irleen in a calmer voice, "Look, we were both tired. We just slept. That's all."

"And what about now?" Dholit asked, her voice almost sounding like an accusation.

"Oh, uh…" Irleen uttered as she looked down at the deck beside her. "That-that was just me getting caught up in the moment. I-I was thanking Link, and… N-no!" she hollered as Dholit started bawling into her hands again. "I-I wasn't gonna do anything like that! I got excited and tackled Link to the floor! I didn't even think about how it looked!"

Dholit sniffed. "Ah you suah?"

"I like Link, but he's not my type," Irleen said. "I prefer dark feathers." Link gave her a confused look in response, wondering if he was supposed to feel insulted.

Dholit let her hands fall into her lap, revealing a face glistening from tears. "Okay," she told the floor. "I believe you."

"Are you all right?" Link asked her, leaning to one side to better look at her face.

"Well, I suppose that depends," Dholit said. She tilted her chin down further, forcing her to open her eyes wider as she stared up at him. She also pouted her lower lip. "Can I have pity sex now?"

Link's compassion flashed out of existence as his face turned to a fresh look of irritation. "You're fine," he told her. "Get out."

"Awww…" Dholit groaned. She rose to her feet and dusted her knees off. "Well, I tried."

"That was trying?" Irleen asked.

"Oh, trust me," Dholit said. She took a moment to wipe her face off, and then she shot Link a smug grin. "If I wasn't having so much fun doing it, My Captain could nevah resist."

"Out, Dholit!" Link shouted, one hand pointed at the door for emphasis.

"I'll be back, My Captain," Dholit said as she sauntered to the door. "I know I have Layna to go through now."

"Nothing happened, Dholit!" Link hollered after her.

Then, in the moment Dholit took to step outside and shut the door, Link felt a shiver climb his spine. Just before the door closed, Link realized that Janni had been staring into his cabin, a look of quiet malevolence on her face. He felt that, if she had the means, she might have shot him just before the door closed. In fact, he jumped when the door slammed shut.

"Link?" Irleen asked.

Link immediately turned to her. "Yeah?"

Irleen paused as she gave him a concerned look. "Are you all right?"

Link was about to deny it, the words already on the tip of his tongue. However, he closed his mouth and heaved a sigh as he collected his thoughts. "Irleen," he started. Then he paused again. "Did… did you give Janni her dad's device?"

"The Dreamweaver's device?" Irleen asked. When Link nodded, she explained, "Well, it seemed like the right thing to do. It used to be his, and I just thought it belonged to her now. You don't…" She paused as she recalled him saying something about nightmares earlier. She lowered her voice a bit to ask, "You don't think she's causing your nightmares, do you?"

"When did you give it to her?" Link asked.

"I… I don't remember," Irleen admitted. "I think I gave it to her before we left Obeeta. We kinda took off without any of her things, so I just thought she'd like to have something. I mean, I kinda regretted it later because, well… we-we kinda used it to kill her dad."

Link had returned to his chair while she was talking. He sat down with a heavy sigh and rubbed his forehead with one hand. "So… maybe it's just me, then," he told himself. "The first one I had was just after we… after we killed him. It doesn't sound like she could've done it then."

He heard Irleen take in a heavy breath. However, when he looked up at her, she shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," she told him.

…

~~Same day, 1800

~~Ship's business seems to be keeping the crew a little busy. Other than that, well, the crew have taken to enjoying themselves in Anlah Takeen. Except Sello, but that's because we've been bringing him some of the local wine to keep him from going crazy and potentially burning down the Sorians' new home. It seems to be working. So far.

~~I have to admit that I'm not completely convinced that Janni hasn't been messing with my dreams. But, the more I think about it, the more it seems like she should not be able to manipulate dreams like that. She never really said that she knew how to control dreams. And I think that the Dreamweaver's device only works with the awake dream that the Dreamweaver used to make, and I don't think I've been in that kind of dream. And, like Leynne mentioned last night, there are others in the crew that are still having nightmares. Why should I be the exception?

~~I haven't quite heard from Zelda what our itinerary is gonna look like for the next few days. I'm hoping we'll be going back to the kingdom soon. As much as I'd like the vacation, I think I'd like to get back to the grind just to keep myself busy. And, well, I'm kinda hoping that the sooner Zelda goes back home, the less her father will want to throw me under an executioner's axe.