A/N: Sorry about taking so long. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven – Rude Awakenings

That morning, Link awoke to Sarah crouching over him, about to shove what looked like a sausage in his nose. Quickly moving away, he looked around. Everyone else was at the kitchen table, either eating or laughing. Realizing what Sarah had was undeniably a sausage, he snatched it and dropped it in his mouth. He then quickly walked forward, around the lamp, and to the table, grabbing a few sausages for himself.

After finishing the sausages and some bacon, eggs, doughnuts, poptarts, bagels, some biscuits and gravy, a few waffles, and a couple pancakes, Link started packing up his stuff. As he was trying to figure out how he had stored a table into his itty-bitty bag, Rau walked over.

"I heard you all last night."

"Don't talk to me," Link defended. "They were the ones in the room making noise."

Rau laughed. "Not that. I was talking about you two. That was a very nice thing you did. As is the tradition in my family, I reward your behavior with that which you so seek." From out of nowhere, Rau produced a burlap sack tied closed and handed it to Link, who took it gratefully.

-

"Well that was nice of him to just give up the rock," Sarah said. "Any idea why?" Zelda and Ruo shrugged as Link smiled just a bit as he shook his head no.

"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. We have the Thunderrock, so let's head for the next rock," Ruo said.

Suddenly, Link drew his sword and waved it around. "I am calling mutiny! I am taking control of this ship! To the Lake, I say!"

Zelda stopped and stared at him strangely. "There's no ship."

"Then we shall find a ship! After that, I will mutiny!"

Sarah sighed. "I warned him about the sugar. I warned him."

Suddenly, Link stopped for a moment then fell flat on his face, his sword dropped to the ground next to him. Zelda just stood there. "Get up. You're not fooling anyone." She nudged him with her foot. "Get up."

Sarah bent down and looked at him, then went about checking things such as pulse, temperature, etc. After a few moments, she stood up. "Guys, something's wrong. Link has a pulse, but a faint one. He's burning up and he's barely breathing. We need to do something."

Zelda and Ruo quickly went toward Link's oversized backpack, slowly taking it off him. Sarah removed a few first aid items from her bag and started working, applying a wet cloth to his forehead, double-checking his pulse, and sitting him up against a rock. As Zelda started to move Link's backpack, she noticed a hidden zipper on the back. Quickly unzipping it, she removed a large bag. Emptying it, five glowing rocks fell out.

"The Stones! There's the Thunder one, the Air one, your Earth one, the fire One, and my Water one. What's Link doing with all these?" Ruo asked.

"My...my boat's...sinking. I...can't swim... The...the rock...it's here! I can't...reach it..." Link struggled to mutter. He stopped and let out a breath, obviously not having enough energy to finish.

"Boat? That's got to be one of the weirdest thing he's ever said," Zelda said.

"You've already forgotten the marshmallow incident?" Sarah asked, bemused. She turned back to Link, leaning him against her to make the application of the cooling strips easier. "He needs medical attention. More than I can give him. We need to get him back home."

Zelda nodded. "Agreed, but how? If his condition worsens, he might not need the attention."

Sarah glared at Zelda and then proceeded to try to lift Link up. It didn't work as well as she planned. Dropping Link almost as soon as she picked him up, he fell back down with a thud. Ruo bent down and started searching for long sticks.

"Not to intrude on your search," Zelda said, "but may I know what in the world you're searching for?"

"Sticks. Good, long ones. Strong, but somewhat flexible. That and I'll need some fabric."

Sarah nodded and pulled out some spare material that always seemed to be in her pack. Taking one of the sticks Ruo had found, she started fastening the stick to the fabric, much to the wonder of Zelda.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing now?"

"Making something we can put him on so we don't have to carry him everywhere," Sarah responded as she finished one side of the thing.

Soon, the stretcher was finished, and Link was curled up on top of it. Ruo and Zelda were pulling him along, while Sarah was scouting ahead to find their way home. The sky had darkened and Sarah was trying to figure out if they could afford Link getting caught out in the rain. After a moment of pondering that and a bit more scouting, she yelled back to the other two.

"Hey! We can't risk Link getting pneumonia on top of whatever this is! There's a cave nearby! We can stay there until the storm clears up!" She worked her way to the cave, followed by Zelda, Ruo, and Link on the stretcher.

-

After an hour in the cave, Zelda looked outside. There wasn't much to see. All outside was right now was rain, mud, rocks, and trees. The storm showed no sign of clearing up. Frustrated, she sat back down.

"Hey, Zel. That's the fourth time you've checked on the outside conditions in the past half hour alone. What's wrong?" Sarah asked.

"I just wanna get back to town, ok?" Zelda responded defensively.

"Whatever. Let's just try to rest," Sarah commented.

"I'm afraid any 'rest' will have to wait," Ruo said. "Come here and take a look at this! And bring Link too!"


A/N: Bum bum bum! Don't get mad at me for putting Link in a life-or-death situation! Wait until you read next chapter before you get mad!