The Legend of Zelda: Sky Lines

by Light Onthemayo

One hundred and fifty years after the disaster with the Spirit Tracks, Hyrule has risen to the skies. The people have made a living through the use of airships and the "Sky Lines", trails of intense wind used to aid these airships in their travels. On the eve of a fantastic adventure, a young man named Link has just been given command of his own airship...

91. The Week We Improvised

Chapter 91: The Week We Improvised

…

~~Well, we didn't find the king and queen, but we have another lead. And, just as expected, we're heading south toward Bold Island.

~~I met Captain Luke for the first time in over three years. I have to admit, I was just about as paranoid as Gold, so I'd call myself pretty lucky that Luke actually likes me. He didn't believe me about the Sky Lines, and, granted, I'd probably be about as believing as him. But at least he's willing to back me up and buy us some time to get to Bold Island. It's occurred to me, though, that Captain North might be able to use the Sky Lines we've already restored to beat us there. So now I really hope the distraction we left on Might Island works.

…

"Ow." This was followed by Link sucking in air as the stitch was removed from his shoulder. "Oh, that smarts."

"Somehow, I find this much moah enjoyable than when you initially said you wanted to speak to me in youh cabin," Dholit told him as she set the black piece of surgical thread inside an empty ration bag. "Not that I would have been disappointed with any otheh activity."

Irleen, hovering overhead, gave a sigh. "Dholit…"

"Yes, I know," Dholit told Irleen with a nod. "My daily allotment of innuendo is slowly dwindling." She carefully placed the seam ripper under another stitch and tugged up, causing Link to suck in air against the pain. "So why did you not get this taken caah of while we weh at the island?"

"I forgot," Link groaned through his teeth as she removed the stitch. He relaxed after she pulled it out. "Even though it was just Luke, I thought it would be easier to get off the island before any more Skyriders showed up."

Dholit shook her head. "You and Layna," she said as she prepared to cut another stitch. "Both negligent of youh own health."

"Ah!" Link hollered as the stitch tugged on his flesh instead of being cut right away.

"Oops," Dholit said with a grin. She pushed down on his skin and cut it properly.

"What's wrong with Layna?" Link asked.

"Hmm?"

"Layna," Link repeated. He paused as she took the stitch out. "What's wrong with her? Is she okay?"

"Oh. This mohning, Biluf found heh doing push-ups in heh cabin. She also tried to come on duty, so I took heh back down to heh cabin and told heh—"

"Ow!"

"—that you ohdahed heh to rest. And, it looked like she removed some of heh bandages."

"Is she trying to kill herself!?" Irleen asked.

"Well, pehsonally, it would not suhprise me," Dholit said. "But I imagine this is just paht of the bravado that she's been trained to display. She sees being wounded as a sign of weakness, so she compensates by acting nohmal." She shrugged. "I suppose that could be the reason why she received moah injuries than My Captain."

"Could be," Irleen said, "but I wouldn't underestimate the difference between hiding behind a pile of scrap metal compared to a wooden table."

"Yeah," Link added. "Especially since we were hiding from a—d'OW!" He gave Dholit an annoyed look, to which she replied with her usual grin. "Gun."

"Pehhaps you should speak to heh," Dholit said. "Afteh all, I am meahly a yabbid that speaks to heh undah the pretext of conveying My Captain's ohdahs."

"Wait, what?" Link asked. But then Dholit jerked the stitch that she had just cut out of his skin. "YEOWCH!" he hollered, jumping off the bed and immediately stepping away from her. He felt the area she had pulled it from to see if he was bleeding. Then he accused her, "You did that on purpose!"

"Oh, my apologies, My Captain," Dholit said. "I get distracted when someone attempts to change the subject."

Link rubbed the spot she had pulled the stitch from. "Whah… What was the subject, again?"

"The welfaah of youh crewman, I believe," Dholit said. She patted the edge of the bed. "I expected that it was impohtant to you. Yes?"

Link shook his head. "Not if you're just gonna yank my stitches out."

Dholit pouted her lips. "If I promise to be gentle, will you rejoin me on the bed?"

"Thaaaat's it, Dholit!" Irleen declared as she flew rings above Dholit's head. "You've just used your last one. No more double entendres for you today."

"Ah, yes, I suppose I shall defah to you foh when an innuendo needs to be spoken," Dholit said as Link returned to the bed. "Though, I would like to emphasize that you try speaking to Layna, My Captain. I imagine that you will find the points I brought up to be of some concehn."

"Okay," Link said with a nod. "Okay, but can you finish me before I go take care of Layna?"

Dholit grinned and pointedly glanced up at Irleen. Irleen remained silent for a moment. Then she sighed and said in a dull voice, "Oh, My Captain, I was hoping you would say that."

"Thank you," Dholit said.

"Don't get used to it; he walked into that one," Irleen said as she rested on the desk. Link gave both of them a tired look.

…

Link allowed Dholit to finish removing the stitches from his shoulder and side (and declined the offer to pull the two stitches from his thigh due to not wanting to take his pants off with her in the room). Then, after the night shift took over on-deck, Link and Dholit went down below to talk to Layna.

They got as far as the cargo hold before they both froze at the bottom of the stairs. Half of this response was caused by shock.

The other half was preservation instinct. They did not want Sello's flailing legs to hit them. WHUMP! Sello's body hit the deck like a dropped sack of potatoes. The only part of him that did not lay flat on the deck was his left arm. This was mostly because it was still in Layna's grip. Layna, who had been injured only three days ago by over a dozen bullets nearly shredding her body apart. Layna, who, despite being smaller and lighter than Sello, had just flipped the Island Symphony's engineer over her head and slammed him hard enough into the deck that they were sure they heard something in Sello's body snap. Layna, who switched from her neutral killer face to paling embarrassment and utter shock upon seeing her captain and his insane yabbid standing at the other end of her drunken punching bag. Biluf, who had been enjoying the sight while leaning in the doorway to the berth deck, slowly straightened up with a surprised look on her face.

Perhaps it was the fact that both of them had shown such surprise, but Link could not be sure at the moment. All he knew was he had just watched one of his airman throw another to the deck, and that action made him mad. "Layna, let him go now," he told her with a voice of restrained anger.

Dholit gave him an amused smile before she said, "Faysolwan zhal."

Layna just opened her hands so that Sello's arm could fall out of her grip, frozen in place with blatant fear. Link stepped over to Sello's side and looked down at his goofy, unfocused expression. "Sello, are you okay?" he asked.

Sello chuckled. "Oh," he replied. "We done?"

"You're done, Sello."

"Ye-okay."

He turned to Layna and asked, "What are you doing? You just threw a superior against the deck."

Dholit giggled, and Link turned his glare to her to show he was serious. She put her fist on her hip and maintained her smile to show him that she was not intimidated. Then she said, "Waba liyxomotak dhol? Waba anwud tuxdhya'ak sahaydhi 'an xayna biyta."

"Sa-sahaydhi?" Biluf asked. She glanced at Layna, expecting to share her horrified look.

Layna continued to stare at Link for a moment longer. Then she calmed herself, closed her eyes, and stood up straight. "'Inu mimathosak, 'Imayn Kyabtin," she told him in a level voice. "'Inu mitoysiykwak lwiyckin."

"She says she undahstands and is awaiting heh punishment," Dholit said.

Link slapped a hand over his eyes. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "I can't punish her; she's still wounded!"

"I know," Dholit told him as she stepped up to his side. She kept eye contact with Layna as she told Link, "But if you considah the cihcumstances which brought about youh scolding, I imagine that you can find a way to tahn this situation into a means of cohrecting heh self-destructive behavioh."

"Her… self-destructive behavior…" he repeated with an air of skepticism. He was not entirely sure how throwing Sello down on the deck constituted "self-destruction". Then, a moment of thought later, he realized what Dholit was talking about and gave her a surprised look. She nodded at him and turned back to Layna with a stern look on her face.

Link steeled himself and addressed Layna. "Layna, you are restricted to your temporary quarters for ten days." Dholit gave a translation that sounded a little more concise than what he had said. And, unusual for her, she gave it in a tone similar to Link's. He continued, "You are to only leave your quarters to use the head." Dholit provided another translation. "Another airman will bring you meals." Dholit hesitated a moment before speaking. "You are also forbidden any sort of exercise since it seems to have led to you assaulting Chief Sello." Dholit gave him an approving nod and translated. "Any questions?"

After Dholit translated the question, Layna's body appeared to start shaking. "Na', 'Imayn Kyabtin," she said in a terse voice.

"No, My Captain," Dholit said.

Link glanced at Dholit, but his eyes had returned to Layna when he said, "Then tell her to return to her room."

"Tayjolwan wabin jalwayl xwal," Dholit told her. Then she motioned her left hand so Link would not see.

Layna saluted. "Ay'a, 'Imayn Kyabtin."

"Dismissed," Link replied, returning the salute. Layna dropped her hand and walked across the deck to the stairs on the opposite side. Link could see that her stride was a little stiff and dropped his scowl in a moment of regret. Then, remembering that Biluf was nearby, he turned to give her a glare. "Just what were you thinking, Biluf?" he asked. "Aren't you friends?"

"Biluf, waba bulnya'ak dhol?" Dholit repeated in Geltoan. "Nway nadlwazhidak wabun nwubuli max?"

Biluf looked down at the deck with shame and strode forward until she was standing right in front of Link. "Na', May Kyabtin," she responded. "Layna… zhidi 'imayn nuttaxwab."

Dholit placed a hand on Link's shoulder as she told him, "They ah the best of friends, Link."

"May Kyabtin, 'inu… 'inu sanwayrtya'ak Layna," Biluf continued. "'Itab nwaki xwibilak. Layna soyyutkwak taf soysoydhobak zhadmin siylwub sanimyayl ib. 'Inu bilunak… addu soykwabol foltab soyyutkw." Link looked to Dholit for a translation, but he found her looking incredibly somber. He could only think it had something to do with Biluf's words. "May Kyabtin, 'inu…"

Link looked back at Biluf. "Uh…" was all he could reply with since he did not know what she was saying.

Biluf shook her head. "Na'," she seemed to tell herself. "'Inu nadsabinwumak."

Then, she dropped to her knees (making herself look smaller to Link) and quickly wrapped her arms around Link. Link's back stiffened, caught off-guard and completely at a loss for how he should respond. Biluf buried her face in his chest for a moment. Then she turned her head and said, "'Imtowu, May Kyabtin. 'Intowanwak waba… zaghiylw Layna ta'ab balw."

Link glanced up at Dholit, who was giving Biluf a pitying look. Then, in an effort to relieve his discomfort, he raised his hands and pressed them against Biluf's back. It only helped a little, resulting in about two minutes of Biluf hugging him for reasons that he was not sure he understood. Then Biluf pulled away, covered her eyes with a hand, stood up, and stepped out of sight into the berth deck.

Link waited a moment before glancing up at Dholit. She looked down at him again and told him with a grin, "So. It appeahs you've made a staht on Biluf as well, My Captain."

Link silently stammered while indicating the berth deck. Then he managed to say, "I-I don't even know what that was about!"

Dholit's eyes softened. "They ah the best of friends, Link."

Link stared at the berth deck as he pieced the situation together. Then he began to sympathize with Biluf. For as big of a problem Line had been for Link over the years, having lost Line was probably one of the things he had thought about the most ever since he had awoken on the surface. Between the two of them, Link suspected that Layna was the more reckless due to her assassin upbringing. He could understand her concern for Layna as a friend of a troublesome lunatic. And, somehow, he also felt like he had an understanding of what it had felt like to be Captain Alfonzo dealing with him and Line. Both Biluf and Layna were trouble, but there were ways of dealing with them.

Link sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "Yeah," he said. "They are, aren't they?" He looked over his shoulder, remembering that Sello was still nearby. "Sello, are you all right?"

Both he and Dholit turned around as Sello answered, "Ooooh, looooook. Stars."

Link sighed again and started for the stairs. "I'm going back to my cabin," he told Dholit.

"Oh, would you like some company?" Dholit asked.

"No!"

…

~~Day 71 (Command, Day 34)

~~I can't say watching Layna throw Sello to the deck was fortunate. And I can't really say I'm glad she did it, either. But at least I had a reasonable excuse to punish her and make her stay in bed until she can heal up. Biluf seemed relieved, and I think the other Gelto were, too. I don't know why, but I felt really tired at the end of today.

…

~~Day 72 (Command, Day 35)

~~We had to spend part of the day using the engine to push us south due to horrible winds. Leynne thinks this might've also affected our course, so he spent some time keeping track of our movement and went off-duty into my cabin to figure out our position. He reported that, at best, we've deflected from our course a bit, but it shouldn't be significant enough to make us miss Bold Island. He suspects that we may miss South Sand Island, though. Personally, I don't think it'll be a problem; if we miss it and reach Bold Island, we could always double back. It'll be easier as long as Bold Island is where the technoworks were sabotaged.

~~I'm glad to report that Layna has begun to heal properly. Dubbl says she's been silent about being punished, but, somehow, I'm afraid that she might be mad at me. I don't want to say it was something I had to do because that's just too easy. I really feel kinda bad that I had to punish her just to get her to feel better. Maybe, by the time we reach Bold Island, things will be back to normal. As creepy as it's been having her secretly follow me ashore ever since we started running, I'd feel more comfortable if she was able to come along.

…

Link had planned to sleep a little later than usual, still a little sore from asking Leynne remove the stitches in his thigh the evening before. Whoever was at the helm had other plans come the early morning.

It started when the Island Symphony suddenly rocked to one side, causing Link to roll out of his bed and land with a solid thump on the floor. The hit jarred him awake fast enough to appreciate the situation before things jerked in the opposite direction as the ship corrected itself, causing his head to strike the drawer that had slid out in the initial maneuver.

Pam!

"Augh!" Link hollered, cradling his head.

"Luc con háta!?" Irleen asked after her bed was done rocking.

Link stood up and looked out the windows at the back of his cabin. Although the frosted glass made it difficult to see anything, the large, brown spots made him understand what might have happened. "Oh, man…" he groaned to himself as he turned and stepped over to his wardrobe. He pulled his green, wool jacket out and dropped it on the footlocker. Then he sat on the footlocker so he could pull his boots on. Once he had finished, he grabbed his jacket and stepped out onto the deck.

The sudden presence of cold air caused him to jump in surprise, and he quickly threw the jacket on and buttoned it up. The jacket only covered him down to his waist, so he could feel the cold attempting to freeze his legs through his bodysuit as he strode across the main deck. Dubbl and Lwamm were nowhere in sight. It was not until Link was halfway across the deck that he saw someone else.

Leynne was just coming up the port stairs while pulling on a brown longcoat over a bright red, short-sleeve body suit. "What the hell was that?" he asked in an irritated tone as Link made to pass him.

"I tried to warn you guys," Link responded as he marched past. He saw Gold still at the helm. Once he climbed the steps onto the forecastle, he found Dubbl and Lwamm standing on the bulwark, using the stays for the fore-masts to keep their balance. "Report," Link tersely said to Gold.

Gold sighed, realizing that his action had prompted the irate tone from Link. "Sorry, Cap'n," he said. "Appeared tae port. I couldn't see it 'til we 'bout 'it it."

"My wohd…" Leynne awed as he stared at the skies off to port.

Link could not help being surprised by the sight of the rocks, either. He had only ever noticed them a couple of times as the Grand Sails had passed by the spot in a Sky Line. Back then, Link had thought they were no larger than maybe him. Being inside the area gave him a new appreciation for how dangerous it really was. Many of the distant rocks were vertical, oblong, and looked like they could rival whole apartment buildings in size. Meanwhile, the rocks floating nearby varied in sizes between regular furniture and more massive than the Island Symphony itself. Being early in the morning made rocks on the port side hard to see with the presence of the sun on the horizon, at least until a large rock moved to block the sun. Link could see why Dubbl and Lwamm were in their current positions. The rocks never seemed to maintain the same altitude from one moment to the next. Smaller rocks especially seemed to rise and fall with interesting speed, and the two Gelto needed the positions at the edge of the ship to make sure they did not have one rise from below and punch a hole in the ship.

"What a mess," Leynne said after his grapple with shock. "How does something like this come about?"

"I'm sure there's an explanation for it," Link said.

"Of course there is." Both Leynne and Link glanced around until they found Irleen hovering behind Link.

Link gave her a confused look. "Irleen, you understand us?"

"Why?" she asked. "You don't have my gem with you?"

"I was sure I left it in my trousers…"

Link felt a tug on the back of his jacket. "The same trousehs that could be on this clothes hangeh?" Leynne asked.

"What?" Link asked over his shoulder before he felt around behind his head. He felt the hook from the clothes hanger that he had thought he had left in his wardrobe. "Oh. I guess it is."

"So what's youh hypothesis behind this?" Leynne asked, indicating the air around them with a hand.

"Hypothesis, nothing," Irleen answered. "I know what's causing this. It's the technoworks."

Link gave her a confused look. "The technoworks? But… but we're nowhere near an island right now. The closest one is still West Iron Island."

"No, Link," she replied. "Not technoworks from a different island. There are technoworks all around us."

Leynne glanced at the distant rocks. "What, in those?" he asked, pointing.

"In everything," she said. "Every rock you see here contains a part of an old, probably collapsed technoworks that still seems to be operating."

"Operating? How?"

Link snapped his fingers. "Because they're still pulling resources from the surface, right?" he asked.

"You're paying attention, Link," she said in a pleased voice. She slid aside to look at Leynne. "The technoworks pull water and minerals from the surface to maintain their processes. The rocks you're seeing are probably years of excreted dirt and maybe even metals which the technoworks can't use."

Link nodded. "I always wondered why this was such a good mining spot."

"I'll bypass the obvious question of how those resouhces get heh and move along," Leynne said. "I'll ask the stupid question of why they'h floating like this."

"Don't sound very stupid tae me," Gold spoke up as he gently turned the ship to port.

"Magic," Irleen responded. "When the technoworks receive enough materials to power themselves, their basic response is to float. That's why the islands up here stay up here."

Link expected Leynne to ask more questions, but his second-in-command had fallen silent. This prompted Link to turn to look at him. Leynne tilted his head with an unreadable look on his face. At first, Link thought it was a skeptical response to the word "magic".

Then Leynne grinned, causing Link to become confused again. "Leynne?" he asked.

"I've an idea," Leynne replied. "But we'll need the otheh Gelto and pehhaps the Gorons. And net. And ropes. And crates full of all the spah metal pahts we have. And Gold to stay on the helm."

Gold shrugged and said, "Still me turn anyway."

"What's the idea?" Irleen asked.

"We'h going fishing foh rocks," Leynne answered, causing Link and Irleen to share a look.

…

"Now remember," Irleen said as the deck crew all looked at the air above them. "The best way to do this is knock off all the dirt you can and then close it up. There's a chance it'll want to rise once it's free."

"Thank you, Ihleen," Leynne, standing at the top of the stairs to the forecastle, told her in an idle tone.

After changing clothes, Link stood next to Gold and looked through the air above for a small boulder. It had taken him a moment to realize Leynne's plan. Although Leynne had never seen a cube of technoworks before, he had considered that these things could only be as large as some of the smallest rocks floating around them. While Link directed Gold to maneuver the ship in order to get a rock on the deck, Lwamm, Twali, Lidago, and Helo stood by with nets fashioned from spare shrouds they had below. Dubbl and Leynne each held a small piece of metal which they would use to remove the outer layer of dirt from the technoworks cube. Biluf waited near the middle of the deck with a crate tied down to the deck and turned on one side so that box's open top faced where the rock would be. The end result would be a technoworks cube or two which could be installed in the cutter as a ballast system. Once Link had explained the idea to Irleen, she had described it as ambitious. She also said that, once they had what they needed, the technoworks would go dormant until Link played the "attention" note on his blues harp.

Link could see this going wrong in many different ways. The foremost on his mind was a rock punching through the deck and opening the ballast system. He had gotten lucky on the Island Sonata; he was not sure he could pull it off on the Island Symphony. The fact that he had a crew with him had made him hesitate even more. It had only been Leynne's assurance that it would take a boulder probably about a quarter of the size of the ship itself to penetrate the deck which had helped alleviate Link's concerns. Just alleviate, though; Link still had his fears.

"Cap'n," Gold spoke up. Link turned, and Gold pointed up and ahead. Placing a new duoscope (made out of consistent materials and not the patched-together pieces Leynne had used before) to his eyes, Link followed Gold's direction and found a boulder which could not be any larger than him. The boulder was slowly floating downward, meaning that it should be a decent catch.

Link nodded. "Go get it, Mister Gold."

"Aye aye," Gold said. He spun and fought to engage the ship's propeller. Then he pushed the throttle to increase its speed. He did it a little fast, causing the bow to tip upward and the rest of the crew on-deck to stagger.

"Easy, Gold," Link said. "We don't wanna drop anyone over the side."

"Wasn't me, Cap'n," Gold said. "I was bein' gentle with it. It's that moron down below. Every time I turn it on, it does somethin' different. Yesterday, I 'ad tae play with it tae make sure it was runnin'."

"That's the fihst time I felt the ship jehk," Leynne pointed out.

"Yep, that was a new one," Gold said.

Link looked back up at the boulder. "Increase the ballast a bit," he told Gold.

"Increase the ballast, aye," Gold responded as he tapped the ballast control lever with his elbow.

The ship rose a moment, and Link suddenly had the impression that the boulder was coming straight for his face. But he saw that the boulder was not falling fast enough, so he told Gold, "Slow us down a bit."

"Slowin', aye," Gold said and tugged back on the throttle. He looked forward again, and his head moved from the boulder to the bowsprit. Then he looked back up and turned the ship slightly to port. "Gonna be tricky…"

"That's pehfect, Gold," Leynne said. "Keep it coming."

Gold nodded. "Aye, Chief."

Link felt excitement rise in him. "That's it!" he said. "Is it stopping?"

"That looks like it's stoppin'," Gold agreed as he tugged down the throttle.

"A little fahtheh than I expected," Leynne commented.

"Take us up," Link told Gold.

"Aye, takin' us up," Gold answered as he pushed the ballast control. The ship rose further.

"Okay, stop the engine," Link said as the boulder passed over his head.

"Stoppin' the engine, aye," Gold said. He jerked both the throttle control and the propeller control down, causing the ship to coast to a stop while it continued to rise.

It coasted a little far, and Link, as he moved to the stairs behind Leynne, lost sight of it due to the port fore-mast being in the way. Leynne must have lost it, too, because he called across the deck, "Wheh is it? Does anyone see it?"

"Sofatan 'anw fayt!" Dubbl hollered at the other Gelto.

"Kyabtin!" Lwamm, standing on the starboard side with Helo, called out while pointing up. Link stepped back onto the forecastle and moved to the center of the deck. He saw the boulder again between the sails. The ship was still rising, but it appeared as if the boulder was falling toward the deck. Nobody on the main deck was reacting.

Instead, he watched two human figures (Cale and Lilly) jump into the opening in the poop deck. The boulder landed the starboard side of the deck a second later, hitting so soft that Link could not feel the impact from the forecastle at all.

"Hold altitude!" Link snapped just before leaping over the rail and falling to the main deck. "Twali, Biluf, with me! Lwamm, Helo, secure that rock! Get it off the poop deck!" Halfway between his orders, Link dashed across the deck with Leynne and Irleen following. Twali and Biluf chased them down after Dubbl repeated his orders. Link and Leynne took the stairs up while Twali and Biluf jumped up and pulled themselves up and over the railing in the same amount of time. Link charged for the doors to the launch deck and pulled them open.

When Biluf had started using her chemistry things in the launch deck, she had covered the cutter with a spare pair of sails and constructed a partition which she had braced against the cutter in case any of her experiments exploded again. Both Cale and Lilly were lying on the partition they had knocked over after they had rolled off the cutter's overturned hull. Lilly was on top of Cale, her body sprawled across his abdomen.

"You guys okay?" Link asked as Twali and Biluf reached the door.

Lilly sat up and moved off Cale. "I-I feel so," she said, moving to the edge of the partition closer to Link. "I might gotta hit my head."

"Cale?" Link asked.

Cale wheezed. Then he said, "I huht…"

Link breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay," he told them with a grin. "Let's get you out on the deck."

Link and Twali had to pick up Cale and helped him out onto the deck, where they sat him behind the rail next to Lilly. Leynne was looking over them when Link heard something heavy coming down from the poop deck.

"Captain," Helo said, holding up something in his enormous hand.

He handed it over to Link. Link found it to be a dark, copper-colored cube of technoworks about the same size as the floor cubes back on Might Island. It was lighter than he had expected, and he found that it had five perfectly smooth faces. The remaining face was partially covered by gray stone.

"Funny," Link said. "I thought it was larger when it hit."

"That is the size we found it," Helo said. "The deck above is covered in dirt. I believe that it all fell off the metal surface when it hit the deck."

"Irleen?" Link asked as he turned around.

Irleen popped up from behind Leynne and moved to hover over the cube. "Yep, that's technoworks," she said.

"How come it's dark like this?" Link asked.

"It isn't being used on an island," Irleen replied. "It's… how can I say it? It's-it's like raw dough. You know how, after you make dough, you either have to use it or throw it away?"

"As if it had gone bad?" Leynne asked as he stood up.

"Yeah," Irleen said. "I mean, even when you don't use it, there's always processes going on, right?"

"Naturally," Leynne said. "The yeast in the dough continues to bubble foh as long as the yeast is present."

"You bake?" Link asked.

Leynne gave him an irritated look. "I've lived in a dying forest foh almost fifteen yeahs, Link."

"The technoworks continued to feed on materials it can still draw from the surface," Irleen said. "That's its most basic function: survival."

"You mean to say that thing is alive?" Leynne asked.

"Yep. They take in whatever non-living things they can find on the surface, consume what they need, get rid of the rest. All the dirt and the rock that was on it is all just fecal matter to them."

"Thank you foh the distuhbing thought, Ihleen," Leynne commented. "It's… nice to know that I'm stepping in rock feces wheneveh I stand in diht."

"So what can we do with this?" Link asked.

"It'll take a bit of time to figure it out," Irleen said, "but if you hold onto them, you can put them on that small boat just like Leynne wants to do. Just one of these should be enough."

"Fouh will ensuh we don't capsize it while flying," Leynne said.

"So three more than?" Link asked.

Leynne shrugged. "Now that we know how to uncoveh them."

…

~~Day 73 (Command, Day 36)

~~Today, we've probably done one of the weirdest things ever: we spent part of the day harvesting cubes of technoworks from a bunch of floating rocks. We have four total, and Leynne thinks that we'll be able to put them on the cutter with some of our spare parts. This probably put us a day behind, but if we can get the cutter working as a launch, we won't have to worry about risking the safety of the Island Symphony every time we approach an island.

~~We had to run the engine more today, but Leynne reminded me that the islands always produce wind that push outward from the island. His hunch was right; the larger rocks in the area produce the same thing, although maybe not as strong. Although neither Leynne nor Gold really enjoyed sailing near the rocks, it gave us some reprieve from using the engines and save fuel. But unless the winds in this area shift, we could possibly run out of fuel before we reach even South Sand Island. It feels just like the journey from Sagacity Island to Might Island, only this time, things are happening too quickly. We need a way to move faster before we chance falling out of the sky again.

…

~~Day 74 (Command, Day 37)

~~We're still traveling through the scattered technoworks, but we've attempted to lessen our reliance on the engine by continuing to move near the larger rocks. Leynne modified two of our oil lanterns so that the light they give off is brighter in one direction, which makes it easier to move at night. Still, we've been hit by three rocks today. I'm glad Leynne was right about the hull, but I never thought I'd be testing it by flying through a bunch of rocks. It makes me wish we had started at Bold Island, although I wonder where we would be now if we had.

…

~~Day 75 (Command, Day 38)

~~The rocks were thinner today. Unfortunately, this means we've had to rely on the engine again. We tried beating to windward for some of the smaller distances between the larger rocks, but the Island Symphony being such a large ship makes it difficult for her to tack. We could run close-hauled for a bit due to having six gaff-rigged sails, but it doesn't get us to Bold Island any faster. Most everyone's been quiet today, and I can't help feeling that things are quickly going hopeless around here.

…

Link woke up confused by the darkness around him. Even stranger was the bed he was on, some sort of long, flat, wooden box draped with a bedsheet and anchored to a wall with metal plates and chains. He could only tell what they were due to the light somewhere across the room from him. The light was weak, and, as Link slipped off the bed and to his feet, he found that he could not reach it. Somewhere between the bunk and the light, Link encountered a vertical set of bars. A cage? Or… was it a cell?

"Captain?" The feminine voice, the voice of Princess Zelda, came from his right. He glanced over to find her soft face peering between the darkness of the bars around him. At first, he thought that he was somehow mistaken. He proved himself right when he began to see the rest of her body in the poor light.

"Princess Zelda," he said as he stepped over to her. "You did it again, right? This is… We're talking to each other inside a dream, right?"

Her face molded relief, honest and free of consciousness of her image. "Oh, thank the Goddesses," she said. "I was worried I had failed."

Link glanced around again. "What is this? Where are we?"

She looked down. "This is… where I've been. Where I am now."

Link ceased breathing for a moment. He had to remind himself that it was only a dream, that he was not actually in the brig of the Smiling Gunner. He regretted asking, not because he actively feared the place, but because Zelda's reluctance to say exactly meant that she did not really want to be reminded. He lowered his head and said, "I-I'm sorry."

"You have… never been here before, Link," she told him. "It's understandable that you would ask."

Link glanced around uncomfortably. "I… I think I've seen it before, though," he said. "When I first started having your dreams…"

She nodded. "It took some time, but… I guess I managed to fool myself into believing that you had been here all this time. I have tried to focus on you because… of all the people that I can imagine, you are the only one who will appear to me."

"Is something wrong?" Link asked.

Zelda gave a giggle, a rather sad sound accompanied by her eyes glancing away for a moment. "Yes, I… I suppose you could say that."

Link had picked up on the stupidity of his statement before she responded and silently kicked himself for asking if something was wrong. The Princess of Hyrule was in the brig of a demon general's airship with no means of contacting her friends, never mind her own parents. "I'm sorry," he said. "Your Highness, I've be—"

"Zelda."

Link looked up at her, dumbfounded. "Huh?"

"Please call me Zelda?" she asked. Link thought he was hearing things. Did she really turn a request into a question? "I… want you to, Link. I don't want to stand on formality within a dream."

He was not hearing things, which just left him more confused. "Z-Zelda," he said. She smiled in response, so he continued, "I've… I've been trying to find your parents as fast as I can, but they moved on from Might Island. But-but I think—"

"Link, please stop." Link did as he was asked, clapping his mouth shut. "I know you have been working so hard for me. At times, when I fall asleep, I find myself looking through your eyes. Sometimes, when I say things, I wonder if you might actually hear me. But I did not bring you here to question your progress, Link."

"Oh," was all Link had to say.

"Link, has there ever been a time in your life when you wished you had… someone, anyone to talk to?"

Line immediately came to Link's mind, and he nodded with his eyes aimed downward. "I sure do."

"I did not want to impose on you, Link. But… with the Sorian crew not willing to talk in front of their traitorous countryman, I find that I can no longer tolerate the silence." Link saw her reach a hand through the bars. "Please, Link. Please would you be my friend? Not a servant that feels the need to serve my need. Not an airship captain whose duties should have ended when he fell asleep. Just… my friend."

"I…" Link replied, staring at the hand. He was not sure what she was asking. It all felt so awkward to him. But he could see how eager she looked, so he held up a hand and carefully clasped hers. Her skin was soft and warm, and he could feel his face growing red as he held her hand. "I-I will."

Again, she looked relieved as she pulled his hand closer. "Thank you, Link. I wish I could tell you… tell you how much just this means to me."

Link did not know how to respond. He just looked down at their clasped hands and blinked.

He immediately regretted blinking. He found himself lying on a bed when his eyes opened with the bleariness of having lost sleep again. A strip of soft light filtering in through a door showed Link that he had awoken back in his cabin, the room itself confirmed by Irleen's soft light glowing on the ceiling. His hand clutched the pillow that had previously been the princess's hand.

The dream was still fresh in his head. To him, it had ended because he was stupid enough to blink, just as had happened before. Even without knowing if what he had seen were the conditions the princess was held captive under, he could see how dreary things could be for her on that ship. At first, he was saddened by what he had seen. Then he became frustrated, throwing the pillow off the bed. He flopped onto his stomach and bunched up part of the bedsheet under his head. But his thoughts continued to dwell on the dream. The more he thought about it, the more he began to think that this slow pace they had been dealing with for almost a week was not good enough. They had to find the king and queen as soon as possible. He eventually arrived at the idea that, had they taken the Sky Lines back through the other side of the kingdom, they could have been at Bold Island by now. The idea angered him further. He sat up on the edge of the bed for a moment, chastising himself in the dark for his stupidity. He had let his paranoia of the Skyriders get to him so bad that he was taking his chances on a route that could see his ship falling to the surface. He should have known better.

He had to fix it. He could not wait. Zelda could not wait. The longer he took to get back into the storm, the longer she had to suffer. Without thinking about what he was doing, he stood up from the bed and started getting dressed.

"Link?" Irleen asked, her voice cracked and deep (that is, a definition of "deep" which accounted for the naturally high pitch of a fairy's voice). "Whus goin' on?"

Link sat down on his footlocker to put his boots on. "We're not going fast enough," he told her.

"We're doing what?" Irleen responded as she rose out of her bed.

"We can't keep going like this," Link said as he stood. He felt around his pockets to see what he had with him. His hands bumped the blues harp.

It spurred his brain into a clearer thought. If the cubes of technoworks could float, what about making them go other directions? "Irleen, is it possible to make the technoworks go in other directions?"

"What?" Irleen asked. "Link, what time is it?"

"C'mon, c'mon," Link said. "Is it possible?"

"Wha—… Y-yeah, I think so, but yo—Link!"

Link had stepped out the door into the night air. The running lights had been turned on, and the night sky was moonless. Due to Gold needing Lwamm and Dubbl on the bridge to keep watch for rocks, there was no one on the main deck in front of him. He remembered that, despite Irleen having told them that the cubes would eventually go dormant, Leynne had put forth the idea of storing them in the hold below, inside the crate they had intended to use. So he marched across the deck toward the portside stairs.

Irleen had barely managed to get out the door before Link had closed it, and she followed him across the deck. "Link, just what are you expecting to accomplish?" she asked as she followed in his wake, the only way she could move while the engine drove the ship.

Link snapped to consciousness that she was following him and turned around. "Come here, hurry," he said, cupping his hands together and holding them out. Irleen grunted and flew into his hands. He closed them around her and hustled to the stairs. He waited until he reached the landing halfway between the weather deck and the hold before releasing her. "Irleen, can I use the blues harp to control the technoworks?"

"Wha—" she managed to get out before chasing him down the stairs. "Yeah, you could, but… Link, you need to know how to use it. It's not just a matter of playing notes. You can't just experiment, Link, you have to be taught."

"I don't think so."

Irleen paused at the bottom of the stairs while Link stepped up to the crate in the middle of the hold. "Well, there's your problem, then," she told him in a snide tone.

Link reached his hands into the crate and pulled a cube out. "I got a plan," he seemed to say to the cube before placing it on the floor. The one he had pulled out had a large, oval-shaped grey stone encasing half of the cube, so he stood it up on its only untouched face like planting a strange mushroom.

"Yeah, okay, you're not thinking very straight," she told him. "Let's just go back to bed."

"Not yet," Link said as he pulled the blues harp from his pocket. Despite his lack of clarity, he could remember which note it was that caused the technoworks to respond. He was about to play it, but then he decided to pick up the cube and moved it further forward. Whatever he had in mind, he did not want to accidentally turn on the other three blocks. When he had it in position, he played the note softly. The cube responded by brightening in the dull light of the overhead bulb. It did not glow like the technoworks, but Link just assumed it was because it was not part of a larger group like what he had found under the islands.

"Okay, so you remember how to awaken it," Irleen said. "What are you going to do now? You can't just spontaneously learn how to use that thing."

Spontaneous learning… The gears in Link's head changed directions when he remembered something from before. It was a while back, beyond when Link knew next to nothing about the Sorians.

Next to nothing, because he had known something about the Sorians. He remembered Rireen using that baton thing, what had Zelda called it? The Wind Walker? It sounded close enough. He could not remember the name, but he did remember that it was a Hylian artifact that Rireen did not know a thing about. In spite of that, Rireen had been able to use it to open the Undying Storm for the Island Sonata to pass through.

So Link replied, "I can't. But you can."

"Huh?" she replied.

"I've seen it before," Link explained. "I saw a Sorian use magic from a Hylian relic to open the Undying Storm for my old ship. And. I've seen you use magic even like that. Remember, in the Snow Realm on the surface?"

"Link, that sort of thing requires concentration and clarity," she told him. "I really don't have either right now, and neither do you."

"Irleen, I need you to do this," Link pleaded. "You're the only one who can."

"Right now, Link? It's the middle of the night!"

"Yes."

"No! Link, what's gotten into you?"

"I'm not wasting time anymore!" Link snapped, causing Irleen to back up a bit. "We've already spent a month wasting time, and for what!? I'm being hunted by my own company! They've got orders to shoot me down, Irleen! Twice! Twice, we could've been captured! And twice, we've had to deal with Cunimincus' crew! That makes four times that we all could've died! What have we got to show for that, Irleen!? We aren't any closer to finding the king and queen! And we're about to go down in the middle of a bunch of floating rocks because we're gonna run ourselves out of fuel! There are people suffering out there, Irleen! Suffering because we're doing everything the stupid way! Normal people who have no idea what's going on! Governor Lore, who was reduced to almost nothing overnight! Captain Luke because he has to cover our asses! Captain North because he has to follow his stupid orders! That's not to mention Captain Koroul and his crew! They're still on the Smiling Gunner! They're stuck in a brig with no light, no rescue! Princess Zelda doesn't have anyone who's willing to talk to her! She's lonely in that brig! We suck, Irleen! We can pat ourselves on the back for putting the Sky Lines back, but it isn't enough!"

"Princess…" Irleen trailed off. Then she snapped, "Just what the hell is wrong with you!? 'Princess Zelda'!? Is that what you're going crazy about!? Because your princess is on another boat!? You still think you're seeing her in your dreams, don't you!? How many times do I have to tell you!? It doesn't! Work! That way! A long time ago, I was willing to go along with you randomly having a dream through Koroul's eyes because it was plausible, Link! But no! No! Not anymore! You're not seeing her! And you're just letting these dreams get you riled up! What good is this kind of thing going to do for you!? Waking up in the middle of the night thinking you've just shared a dream with her!? Are you that naïve!?"

"So what!?" Link shouted back. "Who cares if I'm seeing her in my dreams or not!?"

"I do!" Irleen replied. "You're taking this way too far! You told me we should be able to make it to the next island! What's the point in doing this!?"

"To make sure we don't fall out of the damn sky!"

"How wonderful for us then! Our captain throws away his sanity just to make sure we make it a day early! What are you gonna do next, get out and push!? It's not going to harm anything if you would at least get some damn sleep, Link! We could just as easily have done this in the morning!"

"We're doing it now!" Link shouted. "And if I have to bust a hole in my ship just to make it work, then all Goddesses be damned I'm gonna do it!"

Someone cleared his throat, and Link and Irleen looked to the starboard stairs to find Leynne standing there. Unexpectedly, he did not appear very bleary-eyed. He looked quite clear-headed for someone who had probably been awoken by Link and Irleen screaming at each other. "I don't know that blasphemy is really favohed by aihmen up heh," he told them, "but I imagine that one doesn't want to try it while running on his last leg."

Link glanced to the doorway to the berth deck to see Cale, Biluf, and Lilly leaning out. He tightened his grip on the blues harp and told them in a controlled voice, "Go back to sleep, you guys."

"Is that an ohdeh?" Leynne asked. "Because, even in the dead of night, I can see an oppohtunity."

"Not you, too," Irleen groaned.

"I don't want to inconvenience you, Ihleen," Leynne said, "but while we may bahely make the next island, it would be betteh to cut those odds in any way we can. Even if it has to take place in the middle of the night."

Irleen sighed. "Okay, okay. Just… this could take some time."

Link held out the blues harp to her. "Take all the time you need. We just need a way to get these cubes to keep the Symphony moving."

Irleen rested on top of the blues harp and remained there for a few minutes. Leynne hissed at Biluf, Cale, and Lilly to disappear and stepped out into the hold to watch. Link was careful not to move his hand out of fear of disrupting her.

Then she moved along the surface of the blues harp, stopping and changing directions at one end of different emeralds. Link took this as how the cube needed to be controlled and memorized the eight-note sequence that Irleen indicated. Then, she pulled away from the blues harp and told him, "After you play that, just touch one side of the cube. Whichever face you touch will cause the cube to want to float in the opposite direction."

"Thank you," he said. Then he played the eight-note sequence, one of the easiest pieces he had ever played although lacking any sort of sophistication.

The cube glowed brighter, and Link saw blue rings expanding in sets of three on both of the sides of the cube visible to him, looking like ripples on water. He strode forward and touched one side. The cube responded by pushing itself away from Link's finger and sliding across the deck until it hit the wall on the inside of the berth deck.

"The technoworks…" Irleen started. She seemed to shake herself and continued, "The technoworks need have a line of sight on the surface so they can feed. This cube will give up in a few minutes; it'll run out of power and go dormant again."

"I have a plan," Leynne said, placing a hand on Link's shoulder. "We'll put it togetheh right away, and then you need to go back to bed."

Link nodded. "That's all I want."

…

~~I found us a new option.