The whole room seemed to be holding their breath. Zelda stared at the girl in silence, her eyes never once leaving the girl in front of her. The mutation had done a lot to her skin, turning it blue and grey. Still, her eyes were large and bright, and her hair easily looked like any Hylian's. Even in Zelda's line of work, she rarely had time to be up close to a Twili and study them. Her life was all about fighting them.
Surprisingly, she had come unarmed, and the only harm that she was doing was hiding out and scavenging for food. A few empty bottles were spilled out onto the floor, some of them half broken. A bit of red potion was stuck to the side of her lips.
"Well," Ashei spoke, "what are we going to do?"
Telma, who stood beside Zelda, uncrossed her arms from over her chest. Her own hand reached for the hilt of the sword strapped to her side. "I suppose that we should question her; I want to know just how much stock I've lost to this girl." She looked over to Zelda. "Any suggestions?"
The boy in green from earlier stepped forward, his sword raised. There was a look of fury in his eyes, and though he clearly had been trained in how to hold his sword, Zelda could tell that he did not know when it needed to be put down.
"Stop," she said.
He frowned, but did so. He stepped back, his eyes never leaving the Twili girl.
"If she is discovered to be our enemy then you can have at her." Zelda looked over to her. "Still, she may have information we need, and I'm curious to why she is here unarmed. She may not be as bad as she looks."
The words seemed strange on her tongue; still, the girl in front of her was a curious sight. Zelda could not deny that.
Besides, no one could get information out of a dead girl.
"I assume," Zelda said, turning back to the girl, "that you are hungry."
It was no groundbreaking discovery, but it was a way to start things off.
She shook her head.
"Oh," Zelda said, looking down to the empty bottles.
"Don't look at me that way." Her voice was rough, and fury crossed through her eyes. She began to stand, her legs wobbling slightly. "You all look at me like I'm a freak, some monster."
No one responded.
"Look, I was hungry. What's the crime in getting some food?" She rubbed her arm. "Do you really think that the Twilit ships are a good place to be on? You'd think pirates who steal so much would buy food regularly, but no." She sighed. "I just came here to eat."
"You abandoned your ships to eat?" Ashei stepped forward, her sword out. "Do you actually expect us to believe that nonsense?"
Zelda stepped forward, blocking the sword. "Everyone, calm down. Have you looked at her? She's skinny as a rail; she couldn't possibly be lying." She turned back to her. "Well, have you had your fill?"
The girl scowled. "It wasn't like I was going to take over this damn ship. Check the whole place; you won't find another Twili on here."
"Look around," Zelda said. She turned to Telma. "Do you have anywhere private?"
From what Zelda knew, the Twili tended to struggle with pollution and lack of light. Midna certainly looked far from healthy.
"Need anything?" Zelda sat down across from her.
To their side, Telma cooked breakfast. Zelda had lost her appetite, but nothing stopped the other woman from eating. Zelda didn't mind that she was listening in on the two of them; this was her ship after all.
"I already told you," the girl responded. "I don't need anything else to eat."
Fine, Zelda thought.
"Why did you come here for food? It's not like this is the only place who has it." Zelda placed her hands on the cold metal table. "Did you have an interest in the cheese?"
"You mean that white goat stuff? That stuff tasted awful." She glared at her. "Look, I really meant no harm. All I wanted to do was eat."
The kitchen slowly filed with the smell of soup and coffee. Telma hummed a low, slow song. The various types of machinery inside hummned along with her.
"What's it like on their ships? Do they work you hard?" It was hard to tell if the girl was physically hurt; she kept herself as far away from Zelda as she possibly could, and tried to hide herself even when they were only a few feet away from each other.
"Of course." The girl looked down at the table. "It's not a nice place."
"Were you planning on staying?"
"Huh?"
"You haven't said much about what life with the Twili is like, but I'm guessing that it isn't great." Zelda leaned forward, locking her eyes with the girl. "Tell me, were you planning to keep hiding? This place must seem like a wonderland to you."
"No." She sighed. "This place is definitely nice, but I wasn't going to stay here. There are other places in the world you know, I just couldn't immediately reach them. If I tried to get to those places, all I would have been able to do was jump. Do you think that I want to be squished like a bug?"
"I suppose not." Zelda raised an eyebrow. "How did you even get on this ship in the first place?"
"I had my ways." She smirked.
"Well, tell us!" Telma glared at her. "You're on my ship!"
"Look, I didn't mean it-"
A cannon fired, cutting her off. For a moment, Zelda froze; even if she was used to attacks, she wasn't used to a ship being attacked again so early in the day, especially not so quickly after another (failed) attack earlier.
"Shit," the girl said, standing up. "They're here, they're-"
Zelda didn't hear the rest of her sentence; she raced forward, her bow out. How could this have happened?
"Zelda!" Telma called. "Do you know why this is happening?"
"No!"
The Twili all seemed to blend into one another; Zelda, even when she usually worked alone, found herself fighting alongside others. Ashei and Telma were at her sides, their weapons raised.
"There's so many of them!" Telma said. "Do they really need our food this badly?"
"We had a damned stowaway earlier and all she did was gripe about food!" Ashei commented. She raised her sword, then slashed at a nearby black monster. It fell to the ground, its tentacle like parts wriggling. The noises coming out of it made Zelda's ears ache. "The rat probably jumped when she had the chance; I knew that I should have killed her!"
The others on the ship were just as thick in monsters as the others. The boy in green and a girl, Zelda thought her name was Ilia but couldn't be sure, were fighting side by side. The girl mainly used martial arts moves, though she also had a sword. The boy in green used his sword easily, and it was easy to tell that he had been using it for a while.
"Keep fighting!" Zelda aimed her bow, then fired. The arrow shot through ship, striking a faraway Twili before it could get close. "I've seen worse invasions."
They somehow managed to fight off a large group, the creatures exploding into a dark fog. Zelda coughed; at least their wouldn't be anything that they would have to clean up.
"They can be beaten!" Zelda said.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Telma grin.
"You know, I think that you're right."
The three continued forward, helping to fight off the other groups.
"Thank you," Ilia called. "Link and I really appreciate it."
The boy in green, Link, smiled at them. Then, he raced forward.
"Be careful!" Telma called. "I know this is dangerous, but that doesn't mean that I want to lose any of you!"
The noises soon enough began to blur in Zelda's ears. There were shouts of words that made no sense, mixing with the cries of the Twili. None of them seemed to have gotten any food, though some crates and barrels were broken. Telma said more than a few colorful words at the sight of her damaged stock.
From the corner of her eye, Zelda noticed the Twili girl from earlier. She seemed angry, and the same hard look in her eyes from earlier were in her eyes then. She was fighting off her own kind, yelling angrily all the while. Zelda couldn't tell what the words were, or even if they were words at all. Still, she would have to question her about this once everything was said and done.
She would just have to finish fighting off all of the Twili first.
She raised her bow once more, then fired. Every arrow she fired was carefully aimed; if the Twili kept coming at this rate, she would have to make sure that no shot was wasted.