Festival Day 3: AAAAAAARGU!

…

Link could feel the pressure on him as the rest of the band surrounded him. The last time he had had this much attention, his crewmates had tied him up in his sleep for an early morning game of Dodge-Link. Even then, the crew had not looked so grim, while the members of the Sokkarokka Band stared as if they were contemplating how they were going to cook him. Even Kanowanotakka, who had just moments before been sleeping, hovered nearby with an angry look on his face (although Link had never seen him with any other expression). Link could only conclude that he had done something wrong. He looked to Line sitting outside the group. The best Line could do was stare back in bewilderment, and Link could not tell whether Line knew what the band was reacting to or not.

Lukka, who had been helping Link with harmonica practice, hovered over Link the closest. His jocular demeanor was all but gone. Even the usual lilt in his voice had disappeared as he told Link, "Play that again. One more time."

Link had the distinct impression that he was about to get roasted alive whether he played or not. He decided to play "Farmer's Rhythm" again, a relatively slow piece with only one uptake which Lukka said they could work around if they needed to. Link felt that he had been making progress on playing it; Lukka had shown him how to narrow the number of holes he was blowing into as well as pacing his breath so that he was playing the draws and the blows at the right time. However, Link only made it past the first section before Lukka firmly clamped his hand down over Link's, muffling the blues harp until Link promptly stopped playing.

Kookka immediately snapped, "WHAT THE HELL, GORKKA?! HE'S TONE DEAF?!"

"WHAT'RE YOU BLAMIN' ME FOR!?" Gorkka shouted back. "IT WAS YOUR IDEA'A LIE'A JEKKA?!"

"NO IT WASN'T; IT WAS PEA'S IDEA!" Kookka replied, pointing a finger into Pea's face.

"NO IT WASN'T; IT WAS LUKKA'S IDEA!" Pea snapped back, his deep voice noticeably echoing throughout the large room.

"I DIDN'T KNOW!" Lukka shouted, hands crumpling the brim of his straw hat. "WHAT'RE WE GONNA DO?! JEKKA'S GONNA KILL US!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS!?" Talukka screamed at Lukka. "YOU'RE TEACHIN' HIM!"

"HE WAS DOIN' FINE YESTERDAY!" Lukka argued.

"WHAT'RE WE GONNA DO?! WE'RE BONED!" Pokka hollered.

Kanowanotakka gave a dismissive grunt. "Screw ya jerk-weasels; I'm takin' a nap," he said just before walking away.

"That's just great, Lukka!" Talukka snapped. "One busts a trombone, and the other's tone deaf! What next?! Oh, let's get a completely deaf boy to play piano!" Link spotted Line throwing up his hands as if to holler "what the hell'd I do now?!".

This caused the other members of the band to pause and exchange looks with one another. "Actually, that wouldn't be so bad," Kookka said. Spakky struck his splash cymbal while nodding his head in agreement.

"Great, then let's punch out his eardrums," Pea said in what Link hoped was sarcasm. Still, Link curled up and covered his ears with his hands.

"What do we do, then?" Gorkka asked.

"'We'?" Pokka asked. "This is Lukka's fault." Link felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He glanced backwards to find Trikky giving him a soft smile and indicating him to follow with one finger.

"Okay, okay, I got it!" Lukka said, hands raised to pull attention to him. "We break up, go to Bold Island, get drunk, and forget we ever existed."

"Man, that's your solution every-time we get in trouble," Kookka said, every staggered word emphasized by him smacking a fist into his other hand.

"What is wrong with you?" Gorkka asked.

The argument continued as Trikky led Link outside the circle and to a corner of the room. Here, she sat on a small crate and picked up a flute that had been sitting nearby. "Close your eyes, Link," she told him in a soft voice.

Link leaned away from her slightly as he realized that the flute was thin enough to jam into his ears. "Why?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, smile still on her face. "There's no reason to be suspicious, Link," she said. "It is possible to be reasonable about this." Link sighed and closed his eyes. "Now. I will play two notes one right after the other. I want you to raise your hand when you hear me play two different notes. Do you think you can do that?"

Link gulped. "I-I guess so."

Link was nervous. He had no idea what she was doing. He tried his best to distinguish notes, but his anxiety (and paranoid understanding that he would lose his eardrums if he had to deal with anyone else) made him hesitate a few times. It felt like she was playing for quite some time; his arm quickly became sore.

"Okay, Link," Trikky said after the final pair of notes. "You can open your eyes now." Link opened his eyes. Then he immediately took a step back when he saw that the rest of the band (plus Line, minus Spakky) crowded around Trikky. While the rest of the band was staring at him with serious expressions, Trikky continued to smile at him. She turned to Lukka and said, "There. It isn't so bad. He has a little trouble with closer notes, but he still has a decent range."

"He still forgot which notezza play," Lukka pointed out.

"If only because he's still starting out," Trikky replied. "You said he was doing fine yesterday; perhaps he just needs a rehearsal beforehand."

"It did feel like he had the general tune right," Talukka pointed out. "A few notes off here or there can be fixed."

"Really?" Line asked. "I thought you guys were actually gonna take out his eardrums."

"Yeah, but all our desperate plans sound like that," Pokka said with a dismissive tone.

Line heaved a sigh. "You guys are nuts…"

"This is gonna take some drilling," Gorkka said. "You know Jekka's been waitinna see how this is gonna come out. He's gotta be on stage tonight."

"All right, Link," Lukka said as he pulled his own blues harp from one pocket. "We drill." Then he raised a hand and declared, "FOR TONIGHT! WE PLAAAAAAAAY!"

Link felt his stomach kick itself, and not just from hearing Lukka wail so loudly. He was not expecting to go on-stage; no one had said anything about him actually playing in front of people.

And yet, he kept this anxiety to himself as Lukka worked him through two other pieces he would be playing. Perhaps the only reason he had not quit was that Lukka had told him that he had been playing quite well as he drilled and drilled almost through lunch and into the early evening. Link could only take his word for it; for reasons he did not fully understand, he had started equating being labeled tone deaf as an inability to appreciate whether he was playing correctly or not. After all, he had not even been aware that he had played "Farmer's Rhythm" so wrong as to cause the rest of the band to react as they had.

That evening, the applause of the crowd helped him decide otherwise.