"Knots, then." Anne gave a comforting grin once they were on the deck. "I'll teach you an' the thing with knots is you'll never forget 'em." She beckoned them over. "Then you'll be able to help 'round the ship."
"Right..." Link and Harry took a glance at each other then walked over to Anne.
After establishing that they knew nothing of knots, (much to Anne's frustration) she showed them the reef knot, then clove hitch, figure of eight and then bowline.
"How's your coming a long?" She asked.
"Fine." Harry replied.
"Um..." Link shrugged, "Good, but I could need my hand." He shifted his hand to prove his point. Somehow he had managed to tie it into the knot.
Anne chuckled to herself. "How d'ya manage that?" She asked, surprised and gleeful in equal measure. She took the rope and began to try to untangle it. "Just.. Put yer hand… In… and…"
After a good minute or two, she had just worked it loose enough for him to slip out his hand. "You work on my rope, and I'll try and sort this one out."
"Sure." Link muttered and slouched over to Anne's rope.
Naia had got bored of knot lessons, seeing as the rope was too heavy for her to lift, let alone tie up.
"Um... Anne…" She asked. Anne lifted her head, almost knocking Naia off her shoulder.
"Do you have any jobs 'board this 'ere ship 'at a fairy such as me-self could be gettin' on wiv?" Naia and Anne laughed at her pathetic attempt of an accent. Anne looked around thoughtfully. After a minute, her eyes lit up.
"Of course!" Anne clapped her knee. "The mast! We usually send people up there to look for land and other ships! It's quite dangerous for inexperienced climbers, but… You can fly!"
Naia's eyes shone and she squeaked with excitement, "Oh! That sounds so awesome!"
"Daniel's up there at the moment... Wanna fly up and give 'im a shock?" Anne grinned," But don't scare 'im too much, or he'll fall out the basket... An' that's never pretty..." Naia was too excited to listen, but saluted to Anne and shot off towards the main mast.
Link watched her go with squinted eyes then looked back down at the rope. He seemed to be getting the hang of making knots... finally.
A sudden, heavy cough surprised Link and he held a fist over his mouth.
"Getting a cold?" Harry shouted to him.
"Yeah, must be." Link gasped through little breath, then carried on with the work.
Naia tried to fly as fast as she could, but the wind was strong. She rested on one of the ropes, breathing heavily. She looked up at the man, who was perched at the very top.
"Why do they have to make it so high?" She whispered to herself, before taking off again.
For the next few minutes, no one spoke a word - the wind paired with the work at hand did a good job of keeping the crew quiet.
Every now and again, Link would cough into his fist a couple of times then carry on.
Naia finally reached the top of the mast, her flapping wings dropped in exhaustion when she flopped onto the mast. After a few seconds to catch her breath, she sauntered around the side to see the watchman.
She cleared her throat. "BOO!" She shouted.
The man screamed and jumped out if his skin. Many of the crew looked up. Naia's shrill laughter could be heard all over the ship. "Classic.." She managed to gasp in between hysterical laughter. The watchman had finally composed himself and grabbed at her angrily. She squeaked and darted out of the way.
"Rude!" She gasped. She flew down the mast again. "Stupid pirates, can't take a joke!"

A few minutes ago, Link would have passed off his fatigue as not getting enough sleep the night before. Now he was starting to seriously doubt his previous judgement.
Sweat was flying off his forehead and riding the harsh wind as he grasped the rope once more, blinking rapidly and trying to keep his eyes open. His head was growing hot and faint fuzzy splodges had started to appear in his eyes. His breathing rate had increased and he was stumbling quite a bit, finding the rope a lot heavier than it had been a few moments before.
He didn't want to say anything. Would these pirates even give a damn? Probably not.
Naia dumped herself on Anne's shoulder, even though it still shook with every one of Anne's chortles. She looked over at the boys learning the knots. Link looked ... Uncomfortable. Even more uncomfortable than one would expect after you've been randomly transplanted on a pirate ship.
She fluttered over so she could talk to him without drawing attention to it.
"Link... Are you… Um... Is there anything I can do?"
"No..." Link sniffed and quickly wiped his nose with the back of a free wrist, "I'm -" His voice was raspy and had that echoey feel once again, "I'm fine." He continued, desperately trying to ignore it.
Though another cough was all that was needed to stagger him dramatically. He tripped sleepily over his own feet and fell against the side of the ship, very almost toppling over board.
"I'm no doctor, but I'd say that means you are not very OK." Naia said sternly. "Anne, you have a ship's doctor, right?"
Anne nodded.
Link's eyes screwed up and a hiss escaped through his teeth. He pushed himself back upright and said boldly, "I'm fine, see?" He attempted a grin, but before it could form properly, the ship lurched. Or at least it seemed like that for him.
As if he was on ice, he slipped forwards and slammed into a pile of storage boxes with nets over them, bruising his ribcage. He groaned and rubbed his face. What the HELL was happening?
Naia grabbed his finger.
Anne ran over. "You shouldn't be up here, not in that state. You'll go overboard, then you'll drown. We wouldn't want that. I'll take you downstairs. Come on."
"Y-yeah." Link stammered, now extremely confused and disorientated, letting himself be dragged back to his feet.
"I hope the doctor's not drunk again..." Anne murmured to herself as she persuaded Link down the stairs.
Link's vision was now alarmingly impaired. The only things he could make out were large splodges of different coloured light here and there. The hand on his shoulder reassured him slightly.
But then it got to the stairs. Oh Din no.
He tapped his boots on the first descending step, feeling desperately for the wall and a rope to hang on to on his right hand side. Finally happy with his orientation, he fell onto his leading foot.
He was confused, very confused. He had never felt anything like this before. It was as if someone had jumbled up all of the different sectors of his brain, leaving it in a weirdly shaped heap in his skull, the connection to the rest of his body somewhat distorted.
His hands shook as he slid them both down the same rope, mind numbed and slowly forgetting where he was and why he was there. Eventually, his brain was so slow that his legs gave way and he tumbled down the rest of the stairs, lying on his back and not knowing what to do.
Naia gasped. "Link?" No reply. "LINK!"
Anne scooped him up and carried him over her shoulder,"The doctor 'ere knows next to nothin'. They're only trained at choppin' limbs. I'll see if anyone else aboard knows what's what. I'll get some strong brandy too."
Naia looked concerned, "Hermione will know what to do! She always does!" Anne nodded to the fairy as she turned and darted off down the corridor.

I am so, so sorry for this horribly long wait! There's stuff going on and it's hard to keep writing at the moment, but we're starting to write again, so that'll be good.
Thanks for your patience.
-Cradger