Harry was asking about for Link. He'd been on the other side of the ship to him for the last few minutes, so he had no idea where he had got to...
ZOOOM.
Naia raced along the deck and zipped past Harry at top speed. However, she stopped abruptly and flung herself back towards him.
"HARRY!" She screeched, "Harry? Harry!"
She stopped right in front of him. "WE NEED TO FIND HERMIONE. I WENT TO LOOK FOR HER BUT THEN I REMEMBERED I HAVE NO SENSE OF DIRECTION. I- I" she calmed herself down. "I have no idea where I'm going." She finished, still visibly flustered.
"Uh - she - she's over there." Harry frowned, pointing in the general direction of the bow of the ship, "Naia, what's wrong?"
"WRONG!" She mentally slapped herself. "I mean.. Wrong? Nothing. Nope. 'S all good. Peachy! Uh... Links a bit.. Um." She sped up her wings. "Thanks! Bye!" And raced off in the direction Harry was pointing in. She then felt guilty and flew back. "Something is wrong with Link. Something bad. We need to find Hermione."
"What?! Uh-uh sure!" Harry said, confused, then followed her.
"- then you've got the bearings." The Captain said and put down the compass. Hermione nodded, in deep concentration. This was shattered immediately by Naia.
"HERMIONE QUICK COME WITH US! LINK'S ILL" she shouted. Hermione looked up, confused. Naia tugged on her hair. " now now nOW NOW!"
"OK! Please excuse me, miss." Hermione said, running in the direction of Naia's blue trail.
As they hurtled into Anne's cabin, she looked around with a concerned face.
"Now you're here, I can go find our doctor, but fat lot of good it will do him." She stood up from her bed and they could see Link laid upon it. Naia wrung her hands and looked very worried. Hermione walked over to the bed.
"Link? Can you hear me? "
Link could hear her, but all he could hear was a muffled mumbling. After a long time, he got the gist of her query and tried to turn his breath into a reply.
Hermione began to panic slightly.
"What do we do?" She asked Naia, "Does this happen a lot? WHAT DO WE DO?"
Naia put a hand to her head and shook it, "Um... Pulse?"
Hermione clapped a hand to Link's neck and tried to find it.
Harry stared at Link with wide, scared eyes. He couldn't be... No. Could he be?
"It's really weird... It's not regular. What does that mean? What do we do?" Hermione spluttered under her breath.
She put a hand to his head. "Temperature..." She retracted it quickly and swore under her breath, "burning up."
Naia's eyes lit up. "A cloth! Some cloth! Now!" She tugged at Anne's cotton belt and dragged it over to Link. She doused it in cold water and gave it to Hermione.
Link shuddered heavily as the cold cloth was slapped onto his forehead and started to shake feverishly.
Hermione grabbed the blankets and froze. What was she meant to do?
"I KNOW!" Anne said and dashed out of the room.
A few minutes later she ran back in, a dark brown bottle in her hand, "Give this to him."
Hermione obeyed.
"What was it?"
"Rum."
Harry ran his eyes along Link's bare arms and frowned when he spotted a harsh red mark. He drew in closer to his shaking friend, muttering a few words of comfort, and staring at the patch. It looked almost as if he had had a jab... Which had gone terribly wrong. This must surely have something to do with his friend's feverish state. He started to panic. Link had been poisoned,
"Hermione! He's been poisoned!"
"WHAT?" Hermione, Naia and Anne all shouted at once. Hermione tipped his head over to the side, just in case it was some sort of vomiting poison.
"Who poisoned him?" Naia looked at Anne.
"None 'board this ship. Good men and women, all of them. Not a soul would do summin' like this. Else they'd been given good reason. But what I've learnt of you lot I'd doubt that."
"It's obvious isn't it?!" Harry almost shouted, "It was Ghirahim! He pushed him against the wall. That must have been when he did it! Hermione, how do you settle most poisons? You have everything in your bag! You must have something!"
"BEZOAR!" She almost screamed.
"Excuse you!" Said Naia.
Hermione crammed her entire arm into her little bag and found a small tin. She opened it and picked out a small pebble. She placed it carefully into Link's mouth.
Link gasped heavily and his reflexes sat him bolt upright on the bed, eyes wide as his breath started to steady. He gave a last throaty cough then relaxed, though maybe a bit too much.
His whole body seemed to droop, as if he was a puppet and his strings had just been cut all at once. He was unconscious, though breathing steadily and still sat up in the lumpy bed.
Hermione slowly reached to take his pulse again.
"It's regular now." She announced after a few minutes. "He's a bit cooler, but still pretty hot."
"Aaaayyyy!" Naia said quietly. Hermione glared at her.
"I'msorryImakejokeswhenI'mnervous!" Naia spluttered anxiously.
"Joke?" Came a hurt and slurred mumble and Link's shoulders moved, "Sorry... for the shock..." He groaned as he struggled to lean backwards and lay down.
"Shhhh..." Hermione said, trying to be comforting.
"Stay lying down. Just keep breathing. Deep breaths." She said, picking up the cloth again. "But yeah. That was quite a scare."
Soon after, Link fell into a solid sleep, one which could not be broken easily.
Harry decided to get back up onto the deck after checking he was alright to leave.
Hermione sat down and wiped her brow. "That was quite frightening for a few minutes there."
Naia could be heard muttering Ghirahim's name along with a series of threats and curses.
"He'll be fine now. I'll wait here and get ya if anything happens. You go back to the Cap'n." Anne suggested.
Hermione nodded and left.