Chapter 11: Through the Storm

…

The ship itself felt tense as it sailed through the storm. The airmen made their rounds over the weather deck and up onto the forecastle. Link stood atop the bridge just in front of the port side stairs, watching as Albert, Flower, and Leonard walked circles with their lamps swinging in an attempt to keep their paths lit. It was difficult; the oil-based flames had a hard time maintaining themselves because of the constant flow of air all over the ship. Every few minutes, one might go out, and a nearby airman would have to stop and relight it. It was as much for being seen as it was for seeing, but Link doubted there was anyone else about trying to navigate through the storm.

The lamps cast a soft orange glow against the ship and melded with the blue light of the Sky Line to put some definition to the storm clouds about them. As scary as it had been outside, with the setting sun adding malice to an already frightening situation, being able to see bare lightning skirting the perimeter of the Dawn Line caused the crew to jump every now and then. Every strike created the fear that half of the Island Sonata would be blown to pieces. What was unseen by one person was heard by all as thunder rattled the airship's already frail hull. Still, with Rireen having cleared their path, Line was able to keep a straight course, possibly the straightest he has ever been able to sail.

Rireen remained in Link's cabin. Standing almost directly above it, he heard the door squeal open and shut before the top of Princess Zelda's head came into view. She exchanged a silent greeting with Flower as he walked by, turned, and walked up the stairs.

Link stepped aside as she reached the top. "How is she?" he asked in a concerned voice.

"She is taking a nap right now," she replied. "We suspected that using the Wind Waker might leave her fatigued. Thank you again for the use of your cabin…" She noted Line standing at the helm, listening. "Skipper."

Link nodded. "It's no trouble. Will she recover soon?"

She nodded and said, "Within the hour, I suspect. The first time she attempted to use it, she had passed out for an hour. She appears to have been more prepared for this attempt if she was able to walk back to your cabin."

"Someday, you'll have to explain just what the hell happened," Line remarked. "Much as I like having a clear path, it's a tad unnerving when a person makes it."

"Perhaps," Zelda nodded to him. She turned towards the bow. "It is amazing how deep the storm is."

"Unfortunately, we don't know how thick it is," Line said. "We're just lucky to know that there's an island at all in the middle of this mess."

"I must admit some ignorance of Forelight Island," Zelda told them. "I know only of the storm and that the island is where the rest of the Sorians reside."

"Sorians?" Line asked Link.

"The other girl," Link replied. "That's… what she is."

Line opened his eyes wider. "Wow. I thought it was just a one-time deal. Aerial acrobatics on the job. It was a first for me. Think we'll meet more?"

"Possibly," Zelda nodded.

Link nodded in agreement and looked out towards the bow. The bow seemed to be the stopping point of all light; everything beyond was simply a dark hole. Only the lightning ahead of them gave indication of the tunnel still ahead. What little the lightning revealed was a slow funnel of cloud spiraling into abyss.

Despite the dreadful look of the path ahead, Link found himself a little surprised by how calm he felt. Somewhere inside, he simply knew, without any other indications on the route they traveled, that they would reach a place of rest. He wondered if this was the intuition that skippers eventually developed. If so, it seemed somewhat rushed, although he appreciated having it at all at a relatively unnerving moment in his life.

He could hear himself breathing, and this stirred him from his thoughts so that he could ask a question. "Hey, Line?"

"Yeah?"

He nodded out at the storm. "Assuming that Forelight Island is at the center of the storm, and assuming that the Sky Line emerges close to it, how long do you figure until we find it?"

In the scant light cast by the lantern resting on the deck rail in front of the helm, Link watched Line's face scrunch as he thought. He used one hand seemingly to trace in the air before him the map which they had checked their course on. "Well," he finally answered with a hesitant drone in that first word, "if the charts are to be believed, it should be about a half-hour to the center of the storm from the periphery."

"There is cause to doubt the charts?" Zelda asked.

"No one in years has been crazy enough to get near this stupid storm, let alone sail into it," Line explained in a voice leaking a few drops of contempt.

Zelda glanced away from him, prompting Link to give a rather gentle scold, "Line." But Line replied with a glance indicating that Link should be thinking the same thing.

"No, it is all right, Skipper," Zelda replied, holding up a hand. "To hope that an airman would abandon the justification of a bitter attitude asks far too much." She stepped closer to the helm. "I apologize for my ignorance concerning this matter, Airman Line. I hope that you will forgive me."

Line sighed and stared at her for a moment with a touch of irritation coloring his expression. "Aaah, don't worry about it," he told her in a dismissive tone as he returned his focus on the sky before him. "I suppose I'm just a little cranky right now. You know, piloting a ship through uncharted clouds and such."

Link grinned as a thought occurred to him. "You know, Line," he said, "this little venture does offer bragging rights. How many pilots do you know that can say they've sailed through the Undying Storm with such ease as you are now?"

Line offered himself a small smirk. "Yeah, I can see your point there, Skipper."

"I assure you that your reputation will be well-spread, Line," Zelda added.

"Well, you start saying that sort of thing, and you're gonna make me blush," Line laughed.

Link, a smile still decorating his face, glanced towards the darkness off the stern, somewhere in the clouds above. Lightning flashed.

And in that instant of lightning, Link saw something that turned his calm into a flicker of almost pure terror, almost as if something had punched his chest from the inside. He stood stunned in the second after, but try as he might, the object of his horror had already escaped his recollection of that second. What had it been? Some kind of figure in the clouds outside of the Sky Line, as far as he could tell. Something made his whole body run colder than the usual air around him. The chill ran up and down his spine, sending with it signal flags to all parts of his body that now was not the time to keep warm. A ghost, perhaps? A kind of haunting apparition which airmen loved to speak about in a dark cabin to make sure the younger crew did not sleep at all? He felt his thoughts collect themselves. Maybe it was simply a trick of his imagination. Or perhaps a sympathetic reaction to Princess Zelda's earlier fears. Yes, let it be such and be dismissed just as quickly as it occurred, he thought.

"Skipper?"

Link shook his head and glanced over at Zelda. "Yes?"

He met a worried face, Zelda leaning her head as if to peer past his eyes and up into his mind. "Are you well?" she asked.

"Yeah, I…" Link started, glancing up at the spot where the lightning struck. But whatever had inspired his moment of terror had already disappeared into the darkness. He could not even recall what the shape had been, only that it had given him reason to fear. So he sighed and said, "Just thought I saw something. That's all."

"You're not getting worried, too, are you?" Line asked.

"I've been worried since we left port this morning," Link replied with a grin. "Remember?"

Line tapped Zelda's shoulder with a free hand to get her attention. "You wouldn't believe the look on this guy's face when the Captain promoted him," he told her. "Stiff as a plank and prime for use in a ship's hull."

"Line…" Link warned him.

"Every time he saluted, he'd leave a mark on his forehead," Line continued, demonstrating with a free hand. "We took off from Skyrider Port, and he nearly rammed into a junk getting the ship moving."

"A junk?" Zelda asked.

"Small three-masters," Line explained. "We use them to port cargo across the island."

"Line?" Link asked. "Would you keep your mind on the air so we don't fall out of the Sky Line?"

Line opened his mouth, his mind already weaponizing a comeback which any other skipper would throw him overboard for.

"Signal ahead!"

The cry came from the bow, startling Link and Line from their conversation. Link stepped past a confused Zelda and put a hand on the deck rail as he called out, "Report!"

Flower, just rounding the deck between the aftcastle and the aft mast, immediately charged towards the bow. Albert ran down from the forecastle and into shouting range just short of the aft mast. "Lights ahead, skipper!" he reported over the wind. "Two sources. Stagger to starboard and up-altitude."

"Lieutenant!" Leonard, who had been watching the commotion from the port bulwark, ran up beside Albert. "We're exiting the storm!"

"Line, hold to the wind," Link said as he stepped past Zelda to descend to the weather deck. At the bottom, he rounded to his cabin and went inside. He left the door open to provide a bit of illumination to the dark room so that he could search around. He immediately found a telescope in a desk drawer and charged back out onto the deck. As he crossed to the forecastle, he saw that the lights along the deck no longer showed the storm clouds so close to them. The lightning strikes had distanced themselves from the schooner, no longer rattling the ship with each blast of thunder.

Link reached the forecastle and immediately located the lights Albert reported. He focused the telescope on it, but he found that the Sky Line's unusual light interfered with his ability to see. What he could make out, to his astonishment, was the rest of the Sky Line they traveled. He remembered that the ship's exit would be to the south towards Autumn Island, not on a return Sky Line back to Turtle Island. What so astonished him was the revelation that the Dawn Line actually turned, forming the Sky Line that led south. Furthermore, the Sky Line traveled very close to Forelight Island (assuming, of course, that the two lights in the distance were indeed their destination), the closest Link had ever seen any come to an island.

Link passed the telescope to Flower, telling him, "Keep an eye on those lights and tell me when you can see the island itself."

"Aye, sir," Flower replied with a salute. He looked out at the sky as Link descended to the weather deck.

"Albert, Leonard, keep up the rounds," he addressed the airmen still standing before the aftcastle. "Flower is on lookout for now."

"Aye, sir," they chimed.

Link returned their salutes and climbed to the bridge. "Line," he said, "you won't believe this. This Sky Line is the same as the one leading south."

Line's eyes went wide for a moment. "Are you sure?" he asked. Link nodded, and he continued, "So that means that the Sky Lines really do loop back eventually."

"Is this significant?" Zelda asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Line replied. "This whole Sky Line does a complete loop around the outside of the kingdom. A complete loop!" He drummed his hands on the helm in excitement. "Wait until the captain hears about this!"

Link could not help grinning at his enthusiasm. "Let's get this job done first," he said. "We can brag to other vessels later."

"Oh, this is not mere bragging, Skipper," Line told him. "This is a find of a lifetime! We can definitely give the Island Sonata some well-deserved prestige with this."

Zelda gave Link a bright smile. "He is quite engaged, isn't he, Skipper?"

Link replied with a helpless shrug, "I'd be worried if he wasn't."

"Stop talking about me behind my back," Line told them. Then he quickly added, "Sir."

Link stepped around him. He could barely make out the two points of light from the bridge. "Prepare to exit in a few minutes; let's see how close we can get to this thing."