Full And By

…

An airship did not regularly need cleaning like other sorts of vehicles. Carriages kicked up dirt, carts picked up mud, and the few water vessels in Hyrule occasionally grew some kind of fouling. But the constant exposure of the hull to wind and very little water caused airships to remain quite clean. That is not to say, of course, that an airship did not get a cleaning on a regular basis. With water stores meant to only service the crew's needs, very little actual cleaning was done while a ship was sailing. On occasion, some of the store water would be drawn for an airman to scrub down the weather deck, sometimes in response to crewmates with muddy feet or the odd work which would leave a mess while sailing.

Docked, on the other hand, it became a chore often for some of the newer members of the crew. Dirt would occasionally blow off the island and settle on a ship or would be tracked back and forth by airmen while they took care of some business ashore. Then, the airmen assigned to swab duty would have to take care of whatever lower decks were not being used and work their way up to the weather deck, forecastle, and aftcastle. These were done last because these were the most likely to become dirty while docked and were the last places to have it tracked while work was being done. Docked was the best time because water could be drawn from whatever source provided the island, a lake or stream which was believed to somehow be fed from the surface world.

Link's and Line's antics while on shore leave two weeks before had left Captain Alfonzo in a foul mood with them, especially after Leeta told him what they had done to her roof. He ordered them restricted to the Grand Sails while on a run between Rake Island, Castle Island, and Bold Island. To make sure they would stay out of trouble, he also ordered that Line begin swabbing decks with two other airmen while Link would join him after he was finished with his clerical duties. Link could feel the extent of the captain's chagrin towards him; he could not stand in arm's reach of the captain without the impression that the first screw-up would see the captain's hand across Link's head. Not that the captain was abusive to his crew, of course, but one could hardly get a different notion after angering him. Link was only too happy to take up his swabbing duty after he was finished, as his clerical duties required him to be near the captain at different stages.

By the time Link joined Line and the other airmen, Line had already moved to sweeping up the cargo hold beneath the gun deck while the others scrubbed the berth deck below. Link took up a push broom and started sweeping up the fore end of the deck while Line finished up aft. The directions they moved were perpendicular to each other, and they would exchange a comment before Line jogged his broom back aft.

At one point, their broom handles clicked together.

Both paused and glanced down at the deck. "Line, I already swept there," Link spoke first.

"No you didn't," was the reply. "We agreed to split the deck in half. I'm still on my half."

"No you're not." Link pointed to the bulkhead behind Line. "That's where we agreed to divide the deck. You've done it twice; I just didn't say anything."

"So why are you saying something now? Besides—" Line indicated the bulkhead above them. "—we agreed it was this was where we divide the deck."

"Line, if this was where we divided the deck, then I've already done some of your half. And I didn't."

"Of course you didn't because you're going slow." Line waved a hand around. "This is all my area; you haven't touched it at all."

"I did so." Link jerked his head at the hull. "I started at that crate."

"If you did, then you didn't do a very good job."

"Lot better than what you're doing."

Line thrust his broom handle forward so that it would click against Link's. "You wanna have it out?"

Link pouted at him and thrust his handle back. "How?"

They hit their broom handles back and forth for a moment.

Then they picked up the brooms and started fighting with them. It was difficult at first because the brooms were a little unwieldy with the wide heads at the end. Link flipped his around and started pushing Line backwards with a number of strikes intended to whack him on the head. Line finally countered by thrusting his broom head into Link's exposed gut. Then he swung the broom sideways to catch Link's ribs with the end of the handle. Link intercepted only to have Line's handle rap his knuckles. He backed off a moment, held the broom a little closer to the head, and advanced again. He tried to keep out of Line's reach by thrusting with the end of the handle, but Line kept Link's attacks at bay by holding his broom handle with a wide grip and deflecting with the handle in the middle. A few minutes of fighting attracted a couple of crewmates.

Another few minutes attracted trouble.

Line had succeeded in warding Link off and brought up the head of his broom with the intention of swing it with enough force to break Link's. But as he twisted his torso for the swing, he found that the broom was caught on something. So he looked over his shoulder.

The head of the broom had been caught in Captain Alfonzo's hand, just a hair's breadth away from smacking him in the face.

Line immediately spun around and stood at attention. Link also stood at attention, the broom's handle giving a hard click against the deck as he held it. Both saluted at the same time, and they were forced to hold their hands against their brows as the captain stared them down.

"Nice to see you boys taking it full and by," he told them. "It's… almost as if you two aren't in enough trouble."

"Yes, sir!" both of them chimed.

The captain dismissed their salutes. "Get back to it."

"Aye, sir!"

Line picked up his broom and followed Link's example of idly sweeping while the captain walked back to the aft ladder. When he was sure the captain was out of earshot, Line leaned towards Link and delivered a soft punch to Link's shoulder. Link replied with a quick swat at Line's arm.

"STOP IT!"

"Aye, sir!" both boys cried in surprise.