Chapter 7: We meet again... again

"Link."

"Link, wake up."

"Liiiiiinnnnnkk..."

"Pull yourself together, now!"

"LINK!"

"Wha-?" Link was being shaken awake by a hand on his shoulder. The silence around him seemed unnatural, until he noticed he wasn't in the battlefield anymore. He seemed to be in an empty ship's cabin, with wooden floors, a door with a single window that had bars on it, two lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and the rocking of the ship and occasional creaking.

Link looked up to see the face of a Rito with brown hair, but the red eyes looked familiar...

"Link. It's me, Quill." the Rito spoke in a calm voice.

"...Quill?" Link said, surprised, and more fully awake. "But you look so different now!" Link and Quill stood up, and they got their first good look at each other. Then, Link noticed something.

"Quill... what happened to your wings?" Quill looked down briefly at his arms at his side. He was a Rito, but the feathers on his arms were gone.

"It is a rather long and sad story," he replied. "But isn't there other things to worry about?"

"Aryll!" Link realized. "Where is she?"

"She is in another room with my daughter."

"'Daughter'?" Link asked, puzzled. Quill smiled slightly and held up his hands in defeat.

"You got me. My daughter, Natahsa. And I am the brother of Chieftain Wollf."

"But Wollf is a Crowhen. How can you be a brother with him?" Link asked.

"There is a little secret about the Crowhens that I know." Quill then said in a low and quiet voice:

"Once in a blue moon, a Crowhen will hatch without the power to shapechange. They will always hatch in the form that it will most likely use in its life, whether it will be able to shapechange or not. So, it turns out that I am indeed a Crowhen; but I was born as one of the very few who couldn't shapechange."

"I never knew.." Link said quietly, looking down at the floor. "I'm sorry." Quill walked over and patted him on the back.

"There, there. It's okay; I don't mind not being able to shapechange. I don't really see how it would help, either."

"Does the Rito know that there is another race called the Crowhens?"

"Good question," Quill said, and pondered. "Most of them do... but not all of 'em. They do know that a 'different tribe' of Rito come every year at a certain time to receive a scale from the great Valoo. Obviously, because there isn't another wind spirit in this world." Link nodded in agreement.

"Why have you been at Feather Flats, anyway?" Quill asked.

"Well, let's see..." Link said. He told the whole story, starting where Link and Aryll saw the Crowhen being attacked by Tetra's crew, and all the way up to the war on Feather Flats. Quill nodded or said "Yes, okay," whenever Link paused for breath or simply talking.

"Well, the little Crowhen we all thought had been taken by Tetra's crew turned out to be by one of Ganondorf's followers," Quill confirmed, "and Ganon took the little guy and turned him into that evil bird that dropped Tetra on Outset Island. Interesting story, but I don't see why they would blame Princess Zelda."

"They didn't know she was a princess," Link countered. "And it all happened a while before I met her, right?"

"I suppose it is right to give them the Golden Talon to keep safe for 5 years, but we would have to know that we can trust her and the crew to give it back for a couple of months. Also, we have the problem of getting it."

"Isn't it with Chieftain Wollf?"

"No. The invasion of the pirates happened because they wanted the Golden Talon, too."

Link fell silent, and Quill sat down, leaning against the wall, and started rubbing his temples. Link noticed for the first time that Quill looked unnaturally tired and stressed. Feeling guilty, he sat down next to him.

"They have apparently been watching Miss Tetra's ship from a distance and figured out that there was a great treasure hidden in Feather Flats," Quill explained. "Pirates have a tendency to go wherever there is treasure, and they have a tendency to watch other pirates to see what they are going to attempt next."

"Oh!" Link replied. Then he murmured, "I'm sorry... did I insult you?"

"Actually, no," Quill said. "You're the kind of person who won't do that, unlike me-"

"Hey!" Link said, pretending to be insulted. Quill laughed.

"Why are you here, Quill?" Link asked, after they both had a good laugh.

"I'm not exactly sure," he replied, serious again. "What I do know is that they stole my scale, thinking it would be of some value."

"That's cruel!" Link exclaimed. "And that made you lose your wings?"

"Affirmative," he replied. "All of my feathers fell out. And my nose turned brown." He tapped his beakish nose, which was now brown and softer than a Rito's yellow and hard beak. "I just hope they won't do such a thing to my Natasha."

"Do you think they will hurt Aryll?"

"Not sure. But they took my scale..." A look of pain crossed Quill's face. "I just really miss my scale; I feel so empty without my wings."

Link remembered that he had a Golden Feather for Quill, so he reached to the delivery bag clipped around his waist. It was there alright, but something didn't feel right. He was used to putting his hand back there and feeling his mirror shield, but this time...

Panicking slightly, he felt for the shield and sword. They were both gone, along with his bow and arrows, hookshot, and boomerang. He groaned.

"My weapons are gone," he said, as Quill watched curiously. "The pirates must have taken them." Then he pulled off his delivery bag from around his waist.

"But at least I still have this..."

"They let me have mine, too. I guess they looked in mine and saw it was full of letters, so when they saw yours, they assumed it would be the same." Thinking about that comment, Link opened the bag and pulled out the feather.

"I hope this could make you feel better..." Link said as he handed it to Quill, who took it shyly. "With losing your wings and all." He was running a finger along the soft edge of the feather, turning it so that the little light would make it glisten.

"Thank you, Link. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me." He smiled a little and Link smiled back, then busied himself with checking the Windwaker (it was still there. He drew a sigh of relief at this) and putting the bag back on. Then they stared silently at the two lanterns hanging from the ceiling, which were swaying with the rocking of the ship. The flame in one of them went out.

"You think that's an omen?"

"I hope not."