Aria: They're still going at it.
Navi: It's because they never get tired. They are goddesses.
Aria: I knew that!
Din: *from torn-up battle ground* Nayru, do you apologize now?!
Nayru: Not on your life, sister!
Aria: *from cloud high above battle* Maybe I should stop them. But, hey,
we're in a separate world. They can't hurt anyone unless one of them
accidentally sends them somewhere else.
Navi: Can I still do commentary until they finish?
Aria: Yeah, sure, whatever. Just do your disclaiming before the chapter
starts.
Navi: Of course! Aria Zephyr, the authoress of this story, does not own
the Legend of Zelda games, their characters, etc.
Aria: Remember how Niko rudely woke Link up in chapter ten? Well, let's
just say Link gets a little sweet revenge in this chapter.
Navi: *snickers* It's a doozy! You'll love it!
Aria: Okay, enough chit-chat; on with chapter fourteen!

Chapter 14: A Playful Prank

Later that night, Tetra awoke to the sound of soft noises coming from the
cargo bay. 'This is the second time I've woken up in the middle of the
night,' she scolded herself as she slid out of bed to investigate. When
she peered into the room, nothing seemed amiss except for a large bucket
that was hanging above one bed.

Tetra looked again and saw that a rope was attached to one side of the
bucket and that the other end of the rope was being held by a small figure
standing in the shadows of the doorway to Link's room. He noticed her
standing at the edge of the room and winked. Tetra glanced at the
unfortunate occupant of the bed and saw that it was Niko. She giggled
softly as she imagined how mad he would be when Link pulled that rope.
'Well, he does deserve it after he yelled in Link's ear yesterday morning,'
she thought.

A mischievous grin graced Link's face as he gave the rope a hard tug and
pulled it away from the bucket as a downpour of water flowed out and
drenched Niko. "AHHHHH!!!!! COLD!!!!" he yelled, jumping out of bed.
Link had run back into his room with the rope and tucked it under his bed
and got into it quickly after he had pulled the rope. Tetra was barely
keeping silent as she tried to keep herself from laughing. Niko, on the
other hand, was standing in the cargo bay looking rather like a, for lack
of a better phrase, drowned rat.

"What the heck is going on here?" Senza asked, after he had been woken up
by Niko's yells. "Heck if I know!" Niko said indignantly. "I was just
sleepin' peacefully in my bed when a whole bucketful of ice cold water
comes down on my head!" "Sounds like somebody pranked ya," Mako said,
putting his glasses on.

"But, who would do that?" Niko asked, looking up at the overturned bucket.
"I dunno," Gonzo said. "Wasn't me!" Nudge said. "Wasn't me either!" Senza
said. "Ditto!" Mako said. "Same here," Zuko said. "Well, it couldn't be
Miss Tetra or Link; they're still asleep," Niko said. Tetra was nearly
choking on her laughter when she thought about how naïve they were being.

"Maybe we should check on them," Gonzo suggested. "Good idea; I'll check
on the kid and you check on Miss Tetra," Nudge said. When she heard this,
Tetra ran up the stairs to her bedroom and dove into her bed. "Miss Tetra?
Are you asleep?" Gonzo asked from her doorway, only moments after.

"Ugh.What? What's wrong now?" Tetra asked, trying to sound like she'd been
asleep. "Sorry to wake you, but somebody dumped water on Niko and nobody
has any idea who it was," Gonzo said. "Really?" Tetra said in an
uninterested tone. "Maybe a ghost came by and decided to pay him out for
not doing his work around here when he's supposed to," She said. "Perhaps,
but did you hear anything?" Gonzo asked. "With you guys snoring like
freight trains downstairs?" She said rhetorically.

"I suppose not. Anyway, you should see this. Niko looks like he went
swimming with his clothes on," Gonzo said in jest. "Maybe, but everyone
should get some sleep now. Just tell Niko to grab some spare sheets and
hang the wet ones outside. And, go back to sleep," Tetra said. Gonzo
nodded and left the room.

Hours later, after the sun had risen, Niko was still very puzzled as to who
had played the prank on him during the night. When Link came above decks,
Tetra motioned to him to come over to her. "That was one heck of a sly
prank you pulled there," She said. "More or less, it was my way of getting
back at him for yelling in my ear," Link said with a grin. "He doesn't
even realize that you were the one who did that! I don't know how I kept
myself from screaming with laughter," Tetra said. "Tell me about it! When
he said it couldn't be one of us, I had to pinch myself so that I wouldn't
laugh!" Link said, his eyes twinkling roguishly.

"How'd you know when I was pulling that off, anyway? I didn't wake you up
did I?" Link asked. "I don't think so. I did hear some noises down there,
though," Tetra said. "Sorry about that! I didn't mean to," Link said
apologetically. "Hey; don't worry about it. A few minutes of lost sleep
won't hurt me," Tetra said. "Well, okay; if you're sure I didn't keep you
awake," Link said. "Believe me, I'm fine," Tetra said. "Okay," Link said.

"So, do you think that you could change the wind for us so that we can
leave?" Tetra asked. "Sure!" Link said. He took the Wind Waker out of his
pocket smoothly conducted the "Wind's Requiem". Soon, the wind swirled
around and started to blow to the northeast.

"Now that that's taken care of." Tetra muttered to herself, as she turned
around. "Hey! I thought that a crew of hard-working pirates lived on this
ship! Not a bunch of slacking swabbies!" she yelled. There were a
seemingly surprised number of shouts that came from below decks and they
were soon followed by the sound of many feet pounding the stairs as the
pirates rushed upward. When they had all reported to the main deck and
were lined up in front of their captain, Link was standing behind her,
trying to suppress a mocking laugh.

"What took you so long?" Tetra asked when they were all there. There was a
choking, coughing sound behind her as Link stopped another laugh. "Um,
well, you see, Niko just, er, swabbed the deck downstairs and, uh, we
didn't want to slip and hurt ourselves," Gonzo said falteringly. Tetra
heard Link say something under his breath about this, but she continued.
"We're heading northeast now and all of you should be up here doing your
jobs. Is that clear?" she said. "Yes ma'am!" came the unanimous reply.
"Good; now, get to it!" she said and they all scurried off to their places.

"What were you saying just a second ago?" she asked Link when she turned
around. "Oh, that? I was just saying that I've heard better excuses than
that," Link said. "They have come up with better ones. That one ranks
right up there with 'my dog ate my homework'," Tetra said. Link laughed
and said, "So, what should I do now?" Tetra gave him the mischievous look
that was her trademark. "You're asking me? That's a bad move. You know
darn well that I could have you do the laundry," she said. Link grimaced
and said, "If you did that, I'd make Niko do Gonzo's underpants!" This
remark caused an intended laugh from her. "I've heard Niko complain about
that more than once! Making him do that would be the ultimate spite!" she
said. Link nodded and winked in a conspiratorial way, making her laugh
again.

Suddenly, this ship shifted and the wind stopped blowing. "Hey! What's
going on here?" Tetra cried. "Uh-oh." Link said. "Uh-oh, what?" Tetra
demanded. Link bit his lip nervously and looked at the sky. "Lot of
seagulls, no wind, and no current; not good," he murmured as if in a daze.
"What are you talking about?" Tetra asked.

Link seemed to come out of the trance and looked at her quickly. "Do you
still have some bombs left from when you were going to go after Jabun's
treasure?" he asked. "Yeah, but why?" she replied. "You'll know soon
enough, if our bad luck holds out. Just tell somebody to get ready for an
attack. We're going to need those bombs if we're going to get out of here
alive and in one piece," he said hastily.

The urgent tone in his voice convinced Tetra that he wasn't lying and their
situation was serious. "Zuko!" she yelled up to the crow's nest. "Yes,
ma'am?" se called. "Keep an eye on the waters ahead!" she yelled. "Yes
ma'am!" he replied, taking out his telescope in the same process.

Then, she ran up to where the catapult was. "Gonzo, are you up there?"
she shouted. "Yes, Miss Tetra; what's the matter?" Gonzo asked, looking
down at her from his elevation. "Go into the cargo bay and grab what's
left of the bombs we got off the shopkeeper on Windfall!" Tetra ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, coming down.

"Why do we need the bombs?" He asked before he opened the door leading into
the lower region of the ship. "There's a giant squid in the water up
ahead! The only way to destroy it is to knock out its eyes!" Link said,
running over to Tetra. "A-a g-giant s-squid?" Gonzo stammered, freezing in
his tracks. "Yes, a giant squid. Now, if you don't want this ship to get
eaten with everyone aboard, you'd better get those bombs before it gets to
us," Link said. Gonzo gulped, nodded, and practically sprinted into the
hold.

"You know, I'm still the captain on this ship, but I'll let that slide for
now," Tetra said, trying to lighten the mood. Link nodded and turned to
see Gonzo running up the stairs, carrying two large barrels in his arms.
"These are what are left," he said. "Well, hurry and get the catapult
ready!" Tetra said. He nodded quickly and ran up to the catapult.

"Mako! Go and get Nudge and Niko up here!" Tetra yelled. "What's the
matter, Miss? Is there something wrong?" The short pirate asked. "I'll
tell ya what's wrong!" Senza said from the wheel. "There's no wind! You
can't sail a ship with no wind!" "That's not all," Tetra said, getting
annoyed. "The ship's going to be under attack any minute!" She snapped.
Mako nodded and ran to the hold. He came back not long after, with Nudge
and Niko following. Then, Tetra started rolling out orders.

"Nudge, go to the wheel and wait there with Senza. We'll need all the
strength we can get if what Link is warning us about is true. Niko, you
get up to the crow's nest with Zuko and watch for anything suspicious.
Mako, you go to the catapult and help Gonzo aim. And, Link, you stick with
me. If we run out of bombs, we'll need you to haul this ship out of the
frying pan," she said, finally taking a breath. However, everyone was
already running into their places and it wasn't long before a shout rang
out from the crow's nest.

"There's a giant whirlpool, dead ahead!" Niko yelled. Almost immediately,
a gigantic squid reared its head up out of the water from the center of the
whirlpool. Twelve enormous eyes stared down at the ship, which looked
miniscule in comparison. Two large tentacles waved through the air
randomly as the ship began to shift again.

"Link, you didn't say that it was that big!" Tetra yelped when she saw the
monstrosity. "Hey, when I say 'giant squid' I mean giant squid!" Link
replied. "W-what d-do I a-aim f-for?" Gonzo stammered from the catapult.
"The eyes!" Link shouted as one of the tentacles barely missed the ship.

Gonzo and Mako tried bravely to destroy the terrible monster's eyes, but as
their supply of bomb dissipated, they had only knocked out seven. "This'll
take too long and we're nearly out of bombs," Link said as they were
getting closer and closer to the monster. "What'll happen if we get too
close?" Tetra asked. Link flinched and said, "It'll suck us up into its
mouth and shoot us out to who-knows-where."

Tetra was startled for a moment, but the frantic cries from Gonzo and Mako
reporting that their bombs were all gone, brought her back to her senses.
"Link, we don't have time too fool around anymore; you have to get down
there and get rid of that thing!" she said urgently. "I know, I know! I'm
going!" Link said as he dashed for his boat. "Is there anything we can try
to do up here?" Tetra asked as he lowered his boat into the sea. "Try and
pull the ship out of the whirlpool!" Link called as a giant wave barreled
towards him.

It caught his light boat and slammed it into the side of the ship, hard.
The force of the impact caused Tetra to lose her footing and soon she fell
overboard. "MISS TETRA!" The pirates yelled when they saw her fall. She
could see the angry waters beneath her as she tumbled inexorably towards
them. She took a deep breath and braced herself for a rough landing just
before she hit the water.

Aria: Oh dear! What will happen to our dear princess now? Can't tell you
yet, though!
Navi: Can't you bend the rules just once? I wanna know what happens too!
Aria: Sorry, if I did that, I'd be breaking the authors' code and you know
what happens.
Navi: Awww.
Din, Farore, Nayru: *have stopped fighting because they want to know what
happens next too and are peering over Aria's shoulder*
Aria: *looks over her shoulder and shrieks when she sees the goddesses
staring at her* You're not supposed to be looking over my shoulder! Why'd
you stop fighting, anyway?
Farore: We wanna know what happens to Tetra.
Nayru: Her real name is Princess Zelda.
Aria: I'm not telling! Now leave me alone or I'll turn you all into
guppies and put you in a fish bowl!
Navi: *leering evilly at goddesses* She has a cat who tried to kill her
brother's beta fish, you know.
Din, Farore, and Nayru: EEK!
Aria: Good one! *high fives Navi with index finger* Alrighty! Because I'm
in a good mood and I know all of you will be screaming to know what
happens, I'm posting chapter fifteen too! Please read and review!