Copyright disclaimer: *dah dah dah dahhhhh*
That was the "you just opened a treasure chest" theme from the Legend of Zelda. Not to brag, but you've just opened a treasure chest (lol jk). Anyway, I don't own the Legend of Zelda, or the song for that matter. But it's pretty cool, eh?

CHAPTER 21: The Sand

It was endless.

Lift your foot from the sand, take a step. Let it sink a bit. Repeat.

Resist ripping off your clothing. Think about how painful the sunburn would be if you really did give in. Repeat.

Drink water sparingly. Hate that this is even a rule.

Wipe the sweat from the bridge of your nose so that your sunglasses stop sliding down. Repeat.

Rethink all of your life choices. Repeat repeat repeat.

"Link? Link, are you listening?" I blinked twice and stopped abruptly. Karane had stopped and turned around to look at me.

"Could you repeat that, please?"

"Stop spacing out," Pipit teased.

"It has to be especially hard for Link," Keet said. "These temperatures must be really heating up the air in his head."

"And it seems Keet's bullshit is especially steamy today," I retorted with a grin. Groose gave me a pat on the back, laughing heartily.

"Good one, Link! I didn't think you had it in you."

"Anyway, back on topic," Karane said, clapping her hands twice. "We're going to take a break soon." I looked around. There was nothing but sand no matter where I looked.

"...Where?"

"There is an oasis a few clicks from here," said Pipit. "I'll lead the way," he said, glancing at his map. We all followed him, our pace noticeably faster. All of us wanted to take a break, we had been walking since dusk.

Lift your foot from the sand, take a step. Let it sink a bit. Repeat. Resist ripping off your clothing. Think about how painful the sunburn would be if you really did give in. Repeat. Drink water sparingly. Drink more because 'sparingly' does not quench the drought you are feeling in your throat. Wipe the sweat from the bridge of your nose so that your sunglasses stop sliding down as if gravity only acts on your sinking shoes and your cheap shades. Repeat. Rethink all of your life choices. Repeat repeat repeat.

When it is forty degrees Celsius and you can't tell if breathing is dry desert air exiting your body or entering it, when the sky shrinks you to the size of a famed Lanayru ant—when Lanayru ants seem to be more productive than you as you trudge through the desert,

"I think it's time for a rest." Karane sounded very excited. I pulled myself out of my dark cloud of self-pity and looked up ahead. There, snuggled into the sand dunes, was a small green body of water, lined with bushes and two palm trees standing on the side like its holy protectors.

"We'll spend half an hour here, then? Why don't we eat lunch while we're here?" Owlan offered.

"Goddess. Two incredible things said in almost the same breath," Keet sighed happily. We walked to the oasis and removed our kits. We sat in the sand, still keeping a cautious eye out for snakes and scorpions.

We didn't speak while we were resting or eating. We coveted the restful quiet and the cool breeze blowing through as we ate our warm almond butter and jelly sandwiches and trail mix. The question that we hadn't necessarily thought of but knew we should have been worried about was raised:

"How are we on water?" We checked our canteens. Mine was half full (or half empty), so maybe drinking sparingly was really helpful in the long run. Groose's canteen was empty, Keet's was completely full, Pipit and Karane were working with around what I had, and Owlan had a bit less than us.

"Keet, you are giving us more reason to believe that you aren't human. Are you even alive?" Pipit asked, furrowing his brow.

"Your perception of me is yours to decide," Keet said with one of his cryptic smiles.

"Anyway," Groose said, pushing his way in front of the group, "what should we do? Keet's water isn't going to last us the whole trip. It'll only get hotter as time goes on." I looked to my watch. It was only 9 AM, but we had been walking since six. We were trying to find checkpoints on the map for resources, and afterwards begin investigating. There were a few tiny villages scattered around the desert, but we hadn't found any welcoming people in the three that we'd visited. We planned to visit one more, and the map said it was only a kilometer or three away.

"Water purification tablets? Anyone? Did we even pack those?" Pipit scratched his head, searching for an answer. "Guess we're out of luck."

"It should take about forty-five minutes to get to the next village checkpoint," I estimated. "We can hope to the Goddess that the people there have some kind of empathy. If not, we can come back here since it's the way back. If we don't have water purification tablets, the sun will kill the bacteria in the water, though it will take longer. In the time it will take for the water to purify, whoever has the most can share with whoever has the least."

"Look at Mr. Leader," Keet said. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

"I'm fine with it," Pipit said. "Let's get going if we all agree."

And so we walked again, although we all had more energy. We got to the village fifteen minutes early. The few huts of mud and rocks seemed friendly and honest, but we had thought the same of the other hut clusters with none in return by way of hospitality.

"Stay on your guard," Pipit warned us. We split up and each went to knock on the makeshift mud and tree branch doors of the five huts. I knocked twice on the smallest one.

"You won't find anyone there," a gruff voiced announced from behind me. I whipped around, as did the whole of my coworkers, pistols aimed. A middle aged man of the Goron race with a thick grey goatee and hair brushed to stick straight up stood there. He had a fierce look on his face but I felt no malicious intent coming from him. If anything, I was intrigued by the tattoos covering his body that were commonly known to be from the ancient Goron tradition.

Gorons were a nomadic people that had been in the area around Skyloft since antediluvian times. They are rather scarce, and most Hylians can go their entire lives without ever meeting a Goron. Their culture is almost completely unknown to Skyloftians, but there has never been any strife between us. The Goron population in Skyloft was zero, but there were few in the regions surround it. The only thing we knew about Gorons was that they didn't have genitalia—it was rather obvious as they did most things naked, however, most, if not all Gorons identified as male. In the past, they were travelers that studied different aspects of life like geology, entomology, biology, volcanology and cartography. They had discovered great things! It was a legend passed around Skyloft that Gorons were either immortal or lived a much longer lifespan than humans.
I have to say, I was a bit enthralled with the idea of meeting a Goron.

I gestured for everyone to lower their guns and stepped closer to the man that was most likely feeling very threatened.

"My apologies, sir," I said. "We are all on our guard."

"Oh, I haven't seen you in years!" he exclaimed, though it didn't seem strange with his throaty, booming voice. "Haven't seen the sword, either."

"Link, you know him?" Keet said as he approached, looking back and forth between us. I lost some of my confidence.

"I don't think so," I responded with confusion.

"Your name's Link? I didn't remember that part. How have you been?"

"Sorry, I think you have the wrong person."

He looked at me for a moment, and then something like deep understanding crossed his face.
"You're right, you're right. You look just like someone I knew a long time ago. Anyway, I'll introduce myself! I am Golo! Pleased to meet you and your band of comrades, Link."

"Same to you," I said. We explained our reason for looking for the villagers and offered a vague explanation for our desert trek.

"You won't find the villagers here at this time of year," he said. "They move near the water at this time. But if it's water you need, there is a freshwater spring in the Caves."

"How far is that from here?" Karane asked, pulling out her map.

"We are right above it. The entrance is around here somewhere," Golo replied, looking around. "A few paces from here," he said, away from the village. We followed him at a distance.

"Should we trust him?" Karane asked, whispering loudly so the whole group could hear.

"I don't see why not," Keet said. "We were all taught when we were in primary school that we should respect the Gorons."

"We were also taught to respect human beings, but there are plenty of people that do things that the Goddess would frown upon," she pointed out.

"I see where you're coming from, but even if there is an army of anti-Hylian Gorons down there, it isn't like we couldn't take them out. We are the best of SkyCorp, both physically and mentally."

Groose grunted in agreement and Karane rolled her eyes.
"Okay, fine, let's catch up."

Golo was standing next to a gathering of boulders, facing us. When we got to him, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a rectangular prism sort of thing.

"You're going to the docks, right? Then you'll need this." He handed it to me. "I've got to get going, but it was nice seeing—um, meeting you. Best of luck on your expedition." He gave a small head nod and turned to in the direction from which we had just come.

"It was nice meeting you too," I called after him, and looked at the warm lightweight metal in my hand. I supposed it was some kind of key, but I had never seen anything like it.

"Let's go," Groose called, now stomping his foot impatiently at the mouth of the cave, which was hidden by boulders.

Traditionally, one would expect a cave to be cold, dark, damp, and musty. The Lanayru Caves were unorthodox in that sense. Though the dry air was stifling, it was because of the heat. The ground had been hardened enough that it seemed like rock, so it was easier to walk on. There were lit candles lining the walls, and we wondered if someone else was in the caves. All we needed was to find the spring and head for the coast. We didn't want any trouble.

Of course, we are taught at a young age that we won't always get what we want.

We found the spring relatively quickly. Everything was as Golo had described it: glowing flowers, butterflies flitting about peculiarly, and a faded rectangle etched into the wall. The spring flowed to a large waterfall that cascaded off of a cliff. The water looked like it led downward into an abyss meant for demons and devils, we couldn't see the bottom.

"It's so pretty, though," Karane said after we'd all refilled our water bottles. She stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down.

"You're too close, Karane," Pipit warned. "Come closer to us."

"I'm fine," she replied, turning around. She spread her arms, stood on her toes and lifted one foot into the air.
She slipped, giving a small shriek.

"Shit!" a number of us exclaimed, rushing to the edge. She was holding on with just her fingertips, dangling precariously.

"Help me," she pleaded. "I twisted my ankle." Her forehead was bleeding, it looked like she had skinned it against the rock. Groose grabbed one of her wrists and Pipit grabbed the other, hoisting her up easily. She sat on the ground and wiped the blood off of her head with the back of her hand.

"I'm fine," she said, spoken like a true SkyCorp detective. She tried to stand but flinched in pain.

"Your ankle?" Owlan asked, having her sit back on the ground while he disinfected the cut across her head.

"I can walk it off," she replied with her trademark grin, though it was a bit strained.

"You can't," Pipit growled. "Are you trying to make it worse?" He sounded livid.

"I'm fine—"

"You aren't."

"Pipit, calm down, I'll take her back to camp," Owlan offered. "I can set her ankle there if it's serious, but I don't have the proper tools here."

Groose, Keet and I sat back without interfering. Pipit was massaging his temples and sighing excessively.

"I'll walk you to the exit," he said. He didn't look very happy about this decision. He lifted Karane onto his back gently, and Owlan followed them as they walked in the direction of the exit. We waited five minutes before following them.

"Dude." Keet elbowed Groose in the side as we walked, and he snickered.

"I know, right?" he replied, snickering.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Pipit is what we would call whipped." Keet said, patting my head.

"What does that mean?"

"He is so involved with Karane that he can't see what's ahead of him."

"Okay," I said, pushing his hand away, "thanks. Didn't need the patronizing attitude."

"You're so uninformed that I can't help but feel like a genius when I'm around you."

"Why would I need to be informed on things that don't matter to me?" I asked bluntly. Groose snorted and a mischievous grin spread across Keet's face.

"Let me ask you this, then: have you ever had a girlfriend? Have you ever gone on a date? Have you even had sex yet?" Three sickening images popped into my head: Ghirahim when he blew up a street, Ghirahim and I at the library, and Ghirahim, with me pinned on top of my desk, legs spread.

A bitter laugh worked its way up my throat.
"You'll be happy to know that I can answer two of those three questions positively," I replied cynically, and said no more on the matter, regardless of how much Keet and Groose tried to pry.

"Hey, Link's fucked a girl!" Groose and Keet exlcaimed when we finally ran into Pipit, walking in our direction. He looked at ease, most likely because Karane was in the care of Owlan. I knew he wanted to be with Karane, but he was the only other person that had an understanding of the complex maps that Impa had given us.

Pipit looked at me, a confused look on his face.
"Cool? Haven't you guys? Why is it such a big deal?"

"Of course," they both said, going rigid.

"Oh, I see," I said, smirking. Now it was my turn to be an ass. "Please, tell us about it."

"K-Kina from Pumm's," Keet stuttered, lacking all of his earlier confidence.

"Really? Because the last time we talked about it, you—"

"Oi, oi, let's get going, aren't we behind schedule?" Keet rushed, pushing all of us through the entrance of the cave and into the sunlight. It didn't feel as hot, and the breeze felt liberating on my lungs. Pipit led the way to the small port town, and we followed.

We walked at a faster pace than we had all day, and, as the shortest of the group, I had to take big strides to catch up.

"Hey, Link," Keet said, walking beside me easily with a congenial smile. "Don't forget that I have shit on you too."

"And what do you plan to do with it?" I asked, mirroring his expression.

"Show everyone, of course," he replied.

"Show them," I said, smiling wider. I honestly didn't care. Blackmail was something that would work on me if others were in danger, or of there was a gun to my head. I didn't care about anything else.
Keet stopped.

"Ugh," he replied. "It's so annoying when you fight back. I'm going to have to mess with someone else
from now on." I had no idea why I was so passive-aggressive before. It seemed like responding to impoliteness with more impoliteness worked with Keet. I honestly didn't care what he did with all of his 'blackmail', but I felt bad for all my irritable responses, although it wasn't enough guilt to make me want to apologize.

"I think I see the sea," Groose announced, shading his eyes against the sun.
"It's probably a mirage," Pipit replied. "We shouldn't be there yet."

"I see it too," Keet said. "Do you?"

"I honestly can't tell," I replied, suddenly feeling the intensity of the elements increasing. It felt much hotter, and the sun was almost scalding. My head began to pound, and my ears were ringing. I was cleared to go on the trip by the doctor I'd visited before, Fi had me go in for another checkup. It couldn't have been the concussion because I wasn't feeling any of the symptoms in the days prior.

If we were near the sea, it should've been cooler. We walked in the direction that Keet and Groose had claimed to see the water. We came up short.

"Goddess, can rest be our next step?" Keet sat on the ground and wiped the sweat off of his face.

"Right here? In direct sunlight?" Pipit replied, turning to look down at him.

"I think I'd be less tired if a certain someone wasn't power walking like his life depended on it," he said with reproach.
Pipit rolled his eyes and sat down next to Keet. Groose and I sat as well.

"Ten minutes," Pipit declared, leaning back against his pack.

I gulped down water. I hadn't had any since before we met Golo, and I was parched. I sat down next to Pipit, and Keet sat across from me. He was slumped down, head bowed. It seemed there was something wrong with him. His breathing was shallow and he was cupping his forehead.

"Keet, are you okay?" I asked, just as he fell onto his back, lying motionless in the sand. We moved closer to him. The skin around his neck and face was red and splotchy, and he wasn't sweating at all. I felt his pulse; it was quick and weak.

"You think he's dead?" Groose asked, poking his face. "Fuck, his face is hotter than the sand!"

"I think he's had a sunstroke," Pipit said as Keet's eyes suddenly opened. He pitched forward and vomited in the sand next to Groose's leg. "Groose, I hate to ask this of you," Pipit began, scratching his head, "but please take Keet back to base. He would definitely be dehydrated, he hasn't had any water all day. Link and I will continue and rendezvous with Skipper at the port. We will finish the investigation, it seems like a big group of people wasn't a good idea."

Groose nodded and picked Keet up, folding him across his shoulders so that Keet's stomach was on the back of Groose's neck.
"I'll tell them back at base."

"We'll be back in no more than three days. Come back if we don't." Keet let out a groan, and Groose walked in the wrong direction. We shouted after him that the base was the other way. He turned around and walked the other well.

"I think they might get lost," Pipit sighed. "But at least we know Keet is human."

"If Groose gets too disoriented, he can just wake Keet from his sort of comatose state and ask him for directions," I replied. More than ten minutes passed, and we were still sitting in the same spot.

"And then there were two," Pipit sighed. "I am starting to wonder if this trip will come up with no results." He stood slowly and dusted himself off. I stood as well, pulling my kit onto my back.

"Why?"

"I just think it's too late. I have this feeling in my stomach," he said. "that if we got all this information two weeks ago, and the ship had disappeared a week before, we're going to come up short."

"I disagree," I began, pulling out my compass. "I have a really good feeling that there is something out there waiting for us." Somehow, I'd had the idea that we would find something mindblowing, and I'd felt this way before we even got to the desert.

"Then we'll go with your gut," Pipit said, walking west.

Lift your foot from the sand, take a step. Let it sink a bit. Repeat. Resist ripping off your clothing. Think about how easily it would be to pretend to pass out so that Pipit has to drag your body back to base camp. Repeat. Drink water carelessly. Feel much better about your situation for a good thirty seconds. Pull up the front of your shirt so the light desert breeze dries the sweat on your stomach and chest. Repeat. Wonder how everyone is doing back at the base camp. Rethink all of your life choices. Repeat repeat repeat. Tell yourself that you're almost there. Repeaaaaaat.

"I think I see a small town," Pipit said. "And maybe the Sand Sea?" I looked to where he was pointing. There stood a mid-sized village on the edge of the sea. The sun glistened on the surface of the clear water, and we were rejuvenated by the sight. Walking slowly, taking deep breaths, I pulled out the slip of paper with Skipper's address on it. Impa had handed it to me just before she sped away with Fledge in the back seat of her SUV.

The third house from the sea, with two Ancient Flowers in the front window.

It was written in archaic Hylian, and therefore took me a few moments to figure out what I was reading. We walked to the nameless village. The sea was even more brilliant up close; Pipit and I found ourselves gawking. I had never seen such a big body of water, but, at the same time, I felt that I had there before. I had a moment of déjà vu, so strong that I almost thought that I was dreaming. I looked at Pipit and the feeling went away.

"Ready? Third house from the water would be... that one." He pointed to a small mud house. It was more advanced than the mud huts we had seen other. It had four walls and a roof, with a polished wooden door and a window in the front. There were two Ancient Flowers sitting in the window.

Skipper, the small, seasoned looking man, answered the door after my third knock.

"Hello, boys, glad to see you. Come on in." We entered his home, and it was much larger than it looked from the outside. It was filled with nautical paraphernalia, but otherwise empty. The wooden table with two chairs took up most of the room in the house. There was no bed and no sign of heavy use of anything. I was sure that Skipper did not live there.

"I am glad SkyCorp could make it out here to find the Sandglider," he said. "I bought it in the midst of my middle age crisis. My wife was so against it," he said, looking at a framed picture that was facing him.

"You are the owner?" Pipit asked, alarmed. This information hadn't come to us. We thought he was just a good man, but it turned out after further questioning that he was the boat's owner and had come all the way to the city to request help from SkyCorp a few weeks prior.

"After my wife died, I began leasing it. Right now, the city of Skyloft uses it. But the crew didn't dock those few weeks ago, so I lost some money while waiting for it to be returned. There was something scheduled to lease it after the city. The mayor said he'd rather the crew use a more updated boat, so this one was supposed to be their last trip."

Pipit and I were taking notes: how often the ship was repaired, who repaired it, how long Skipper had owned it, a list of all the people that had rented it, etc, and other miscellaneous information such as the numbers of people in every crew that had rented out the boat for the past few years. It was better to have an excess of information than to have an insufficiency.

We also learned that Skipper was not able to meet the crew before they set sail. They had to postpone the meeting numerous times, and eventually it was time for them to set sail. Skipper let them go because he didn't want them to be late for any of their deliveries.

"I like to meet the people that will be taking care of my boat before they go," he said, scratching his head. "I should have known something was fishy about the crew." I recalled the list of eight crew members and two passengers on the ship. The shipmates were all around their late twenties, with a few outliers, such as the 37-year-old captain and a 35-year-old seaman. The captain's wife and young daughter were the only passengers.

"Have you formed your hypothesis yet?" Pipit whispered to me. I could usually formulate an idea of a case's chronology with the amount of information we currently possessed, but at that moment, my mind was blank. Something was missing. One could assume that the crew stole the Sandglider, but even so, there was no tangible evidence.

"No," I said, flipping my black notebook closed and tucking it in my kit.

"When will you begin looking for the ship?" Skipper asked, looking at us expectantly.

"Right now, maybe?" Pipit replied.

"Oh, thank you!" Exclaimed Skipper. "I have a yawl we can use to find it, and I got the city to give me a map of their path. I left it with my chart of the Sand Sea. Oh, it's at my retreat..." He scratched his head again. "We'll have to stop by there," he said.

"How far is it?" Pipit asked. It couldn't have been far, there weren't many other establishments in sight.

"We'll have to take the yawl," he replied, rummaging through an old suitcase and pulling out a ring of keys. I racked my brain for the correct nautical vocabulary: a yawl was along the lines of a sailboat.

"You'll get some sailing experience in," Skipper piped, walking out the door. Pipit and I looked at each other and nodded. Things were moving quickly, but I went along.

A/N: Hope you missed me :D

FUN QUESTION TIME! You can answer these in the comments. This is kind of like a survey to see how Aphelion's followers are thinking. If there isn't an answer that you like, then you can just add in your own. This isn't for a prize, just for fun (: I like funny things btw
1. In real life, what would Ghirahim's first two languages be?
German
Arabic
French
Other(s)

2. How many pictures does Ghirahim own of himself?
10
150
2000+
Infiniti

3. How many selfies has Ghirahim taken on Link's phone, unbeknownst to our hero?
10
20
30
500+

4. What would Link do if he entered his apartment and saw Ghirahim sniffing his favorite pair of underwear?
Kill him.
Slam the door and sleep in the subway station.
Call the police.
Laugh and stab him.

5. On a scale of one to ten, how attractive do you think Ghirahim is in Link's opinion? And vice versa?
6. What do you think turns Link on, if anything? Or is he an emotionless potato with no kinks?
7. What turns Ghirahim on? Keep in mind that if your answer fits with the story, I will use it.
8. What is Link's ideal date?
9. What is Ghirahim's 'ideal' date...? Oh goddess, I'm scared.
10. Do you think Link will ever come to like Ghirahim?

You don't have to answer all of them, or any, but I hope you enjoy thinking about them. If anyone is curious about my opinions, I will put my answers in the next chapter's A/N.
Happy camping!