Chapter 114: Cleanup

…

Link had seen his fair share of after-party mornings in which everything had been completely trashed. This was the first time it had ever happened aboard an airship. It was also the first time that anyone had actually died the previous night. And it was probably the only time the entire crew was not hung-over, although they were sufficiently miserable.

The morning began when, after a well-deserved rest, the crew woke up to the stench of dead reptile and fish stinking up the main deck and the decks below. Link gathered the crew and started handing out assignments. Then he and Leynne went to the shore to retrieve buckets and soaps from one of the intact warehouses. They also found a canvas tarp that was not being used and decided to employ it in the process of removing the bodies.

When Link and Flower hauled the last body out of the orlop, they decided to pitch it over the starboard side with the tarp. Link then ripped off the leather gloves he had swiped from the warehouse's office and threw them overboard. With a relieved sigh, he dropped to the deck and sat up against the bulwark.

Flower removed his own gloves and tossed them over the side. "Hell of a night, Captain," he commented to Link. "Only thing missing was the beer."

"Couldn't afford it," Link replied. He looked up at the blue sky above. "Man, I'm sore. Just… all over."

"At least you can still move around. Both my legs cramped up last night."

"I thought you were walking kinda funny this morning," Link said with a smirk.

"How goes the body disposal, Captain?"

Link's eyes fell until he saw Leynne standing before him. "We're finished," he said.

"I hope that ouh ratheh unceremonious methods will not result in an incident below," he commented.

"Autumn Island barely skirts the northern edge of the Snow Realm," Link pointed out. "If anything, they'll likely land near the Horizon's Eye."

"The king put rules in place so that airships don't dump on top of the old realm," Flower added. Then he gave a shrug. "But, you know, when you gotta go, you gotta go."

"Naturally," Leynne replied, his tone indicating that he did not quite agree with the statement. He looked back to Link and said, "I've just finished speaking to one of Nohth's men."

Link took in a deep breath. "What did he report?"

"Nohth has now confihmed that five of his aihmen weh killed in the ambush. Six of his men weh killed heh at the poht. The Grand Sails has lost three men. Nohth also says that three of his men ah still unaccounted foh, and Blaih is missing a man as well."

Link sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn…"

"It's still better than what could've happened," Flower pointed out.

Link shook his head. "Just one is still too much. But fourteen people…"

"Link," Leynne said in a firm tone. "We'h still heh. And we can still do something about all of this."

"I know," Link said with a nod. "I know. I just wish all this would stop before someone else gets killed."

"It will, Captain," Flower said. "One way or another."

"Hey, guys!" Line called as he walked toward them. Link gave him an annoyed look. He had assigned Line to hunt down any pieces of the Stalarmor and the Darknut that had invaded the ship. Line was currently wearing the Darknut's cuirass and greaves, both astoundingly ill-fitting for his smaller frame. He held a metal bucket in one hand and a pair of metal bones in the other. "Know anyone interested in fancy armor and a bucket full of steel bones?"

"I should think that the steel bones would do foh a student of anatomy," Leynne commented.

"I saw one of those uglies close up," Flower told him. "I don't think anatomy includes knife blades melted to a person's spine." Leynne nodded his understanding.

"Line, I told you to get rid of that stuff," Link said.

"C'mon, Link," Line replied. "You can't tell me we couldn't find someone who'd like to buy this junk."

"Some of the bones to that Stalarmor went over the side when Irleen's gem blew it apart," Link pointed out. Then he indicated the cuirass. "And that armor's probably cursed."

"It—wha-what?!" Line immediately dropped the bones and bucket, spilling the collected phalanges inside. He lifted the cuirass and threw it aside. Then he kicked the greaves off at it. "Holy crap, Link! Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I did, Line. I said that we can't afford to have those things on the ship; they need to get tossed overboard."

"Yeah, but you didn't say anything about them being cursed!"

"I thought that watching them walk onto the ship and attack the crew made it obvious we shouldn't be messing with these things."

"Right. Excuse me while I go find a board or something." Line turned to walk away.

"Line, just throw them over by hand," Link told him.

"No way!" Line argued, turning back around. "I'm not touching those things!"

"You don't have to wear them again," Link said. "Just throw them over the side, like I told you. Layna and I already threw one over. It's no big deal."

Line groaned and moved to pick up the cuirass. "Hey, Boss," he addressed Leynne. "If I die in some stupid way, I'd like someone to tell my captain 'screw you'."

"Is he talking to me?" Leynne asked Flower while Line carried the cuirass over to the side.

"I hope so," Flower said. "I don't wanna boss that around."

"A second-in-command without any rank in the company is usually just called 'boss'," Link explained. "Helps differentiate them from chiefs."

"Ah," Leynne said. "I see." He spotted Line walking back to retrieve the greaves and turned to address him. "Would you like the delivery of these wohds in a pahticulah manneh? Pehhaps a whiny tone? Oh would you prefeh completely flat? I've been infohmed that I am quite adept at sahcasm."

Line glared at him for a moment. "Geez! I'd rather deal with the curse!" he declared as he took the greaves to the side. "What were those things, anyway?"

"The armor was a Darknut," Link explained. "Just… evil sealed in armor. They're vulnerable to light; that's why I fired a flare into its suit."

"I thought you were just pissed," Line said before he threw the greaves over.

"The other one was a Stalarmor. It's like a living skeleton, but it's been plated with molten metal and then gets armor and sharp things attached to its body."

"Yeah, what was with that, anyway?" Line asked, spinning to lean his hip against the bulwark.

"What?" Link asked.

"You know." Line stepped away and turned a shoulder to Link, picking up the hem of his shirt so that he could hook his thumb to his belt. "This whole number. 'Get off my ship'. Remember that?"

Link gave him an annoyed look. "I didn't say that."

"Yeah you did."

"No I didn't."

"Yeah-huh. And what was that whole thing where you just drop your stuff? You turned into a turkey!"

"I'm not a turkey," Link argued as he got to his feet.

"You are a turkey."

"A tuhkey?" Leynne asked Flower.

"Lame," Flower replied. "Uncool."

"Aah," Leynne said with a nod.

"I heahd some mention of tuhkey," Dholit said as she approached Line from behind. "Ah we discussing lunch plans?"

"Eeh…" Line said, trying to disguise his disgust. He turned around. "You… eat turkey?"

"You don't?" Leynne asked.

"Turkey's one of those snobbish things people up here eat," Flower explained. "Really, anyone I've talked to that's tried it says it tastes horrible. It's also a really rare bird up here; they don't breed too well."

"Well that's unfohtunate," Dholit said. She touched a fingertip to Line's shoulder, causing his back to stiffen with surprise. "I cannot imagine not being able to eat tuhkey. Not…" She leaned closer to whisper in Line's ear. "… being able to put a piece of puah-white meat in between these full, luscious lips."

"Dholit, leave him alone," Link told her. Dholit stood up, and Line leaned so far forward to follow her that he lost his balance and fell to the deck just as she stepped aside. Link groaned, covering his face with a hand.

"Did you need something?" Leynne asked with an impatient tone. "Oh ah you just heh to play with Line's hohmones?"

"Oh, playing with Line's hohmones is always an entahtaining bonus," Dholit said as she approached them. "Howevah, I did come up heah to call some business to My Captain's attention. The othah captains ah in the behthing deck. They've brought some othahs with them, people who don't appeah to be aihmen."

"I thought we'd already concluded that the island had been completely abandoned," Leynne spoke with a concerned tone.

"That's what I thought, too," Flower told him with a finger hooked to his chin. "The people we found last night were part of a trap."

Link looked between his crew for a moment. "Leynne, Flower, come with me," he said as he started for the starboard stairs. "Line, get up. Dholit… just leave Line alone."

Link, Flower, and Leynne descended into the cargo hold. Immediately, their noses were assaulted with the stench of dead fish despite both doors on the port and starboard sides being left open so that the island's natural breeze would air it out. Gold and Twali were on their knees in the middle of the deck, trying to scrub away the bloodstains. To their right, one of North's airmen was loitering outside the berthing deck. He stepped aside as Link, Flower, and Leynne approached. Inside, Link looked to the left and found Chief Mallard leaning against the partition at the front of nearer row of berths. He signaled them closer with a finger, his face a grave picture.

Link rounded the corner to find North and Luke standing at one of the berths halfway down the row. Beyond them, two more airmen were helping people into other berths. Dholit had been right; they had brought aboard some of the locals: a few children and at least two women. Link and Leynne approached the captains.

"There's a man here we thought you'd like to listen to," North said, indicating the berth in front of him.

Link felt nervous, but he relaxed a bit when he found that the man was not Captain Alfonzo. Instead, the man looked younger than the captain, maybe in his late twenties. His dark hair was a mess, and his clothes were tattered. He sported a few scratches on his arms. His face looked dirty, as if he had had his head pushed into the ground.

"Mister Row?" North said. "Would you repeat what you told my airmen?"

Mister Row took in a breath. When he spoke, his voice sounded very rough, as if he had not had anything to drink for some time. "When we—" He cut himself off to clear his throat, although it did not seem to help. "When we started evacuating, a couple of us elected to stay behind—akhm—just in case anyone was forgotten. Akhm! There were three of us. Now, I'm the only volunteer left. The people—akhm—… The people we were found with were on the edge of the forest and had not been informed of the evacuation. We found them—akhm!"

"Leynne, go get some water from below," Link said.

"Of couhse," Leynne replied. He moved past Flower.

"Sorry," Row said.

"It's all right," North told him. "Just take your time."

"Thank you. Anyway, we found one of the women and the kids wandering around the east side of the island. The other woman was hiding in the back alleys; I'm-I'm not sure if she's entirely there, you know?"

Link glanced at North. "Hysteria," North told him. "I don't think she even realized why the island had been abandoned. My surgeon gave her a couple tranquilizers; she should be fine for the time being."

"The clinic in the middle of town was supposed to be our hiding place," Row continued. "The ship captains that evacuated the island were told to look for us there once the storm had left. Problem was we started finding people just as the storm was bearing down on us. There was cannon fire before we could reach the clinic, and a bunch of the buildings around the pier started going down. We hid in the cellar, and the clinic nearly fell on top of us… must've been about half an hour later. Akhm! We had a few rations with us, so we would've held out if we needed to."

"When did all this happen?" Link asked.

"Day after the evacuation."

"Best we can figure, it was about two days ago, maybe three," Luke said. Link sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Keep going," North urged with a gentle tone.

Row coughed for a moment. "Well, when the cannon fire stopped—akhm—me and one other guy dug our way out of the rubble. We saw the fires, and then we saw the monsters looking through the debris on the main road. Akhm! We thought we were safe, but… the hysterical woman started acting up, and we got caught. Just as this big guy with blue scales all over his body was walking by."

"A Lizalfos," Link commented.

"Wait a sec, Captain," Flower spoke up, raising a hand. He looked back at Row and asked, "Was this scaly, blue guy wearing a long coat with armor on the shoulders? Human-ish face?"

"Yeah," Row said, giving Flower a bewildered look. "How do you…?"

"That's Cunimincus," Link said. He glanced at Flower. "Isn't it."

"If that's their captain's name," Flower replied. "Yeah, that's him. He sure acted like the captain."

Leynne squeezed between Flower and the bulkhead. "Heh's some wateh," he said, handing a small flask to Row.

"Thank you," Row said. He took the flask and immediately drank from it. Then he sighed and settled into the hammock a little better. "Anyway. The two guys with me, they just up and killed. They…" He glanced down at the flask in his hands. "They handed me over to that bird thing. The next thing I know, some airman is shaking me awake. I thought I'd just passed out or something; I-I—akhm—wasn't feeling well after… after watching them…"

"It's all right," North told him. "We get the gist. Go ahead and rest." Row nodded and turned to lie in the hammock. "Captains," North then said, indicating the end of the row. "If we might speak in private."

Luke and North ushered Link, Leynne, and Flower to the end of the row. Flower, almost immediately after stepping out of the row, growled, "As if we didn't have enough proof of who did this…"

"Wheh did you find this man?" Leynne asked in a low voice as he and Link turned to North and Luke.

"Our missing airmen," North said in a similar voice. "While we were fighting Cunimincus' crew, they had discovered the survivors in the remains of the clinic, just as he said. They spent the whole night digging them out of the rubble."

"My wohd…" Leynne awed.

"Wow…" Link agreed.

"So what's our next move?" Luke asked.

"Thoughts, gentlemen?" North asked.

"It would help to know a little moh about Cunimincus' motivations," Leynne said. "That, and just plain knowing wheh he would've gone afteh Autumn Island."

"Well," Flower spoke up, "we know that Cunimincus has the storm moving all over the place. So why did he come this way? How'd he know there was an island here?"

"It's entihely possible that he didn't," Leynne pointed out. "Considering that the fastest way to travel through the realm is the Sky Lines, pehhaps he just followed the only one available to him."

"So, once he got here," Luke said, "where'd he go? This island's a junction for four different places. Turtle Island, Thicket Island, uh…"

"Center Island," North added. "And then there's the east, which is simply outside the realm."

"If he went that direction, there's no point chasing him," Flower said.

"Agreed," North said. "Captain Link, I wonder if you might oblige me."

"Oblige you?" Link asked, unsure of his meaning.

"These people should be taken to a safe harbor," North said, indicating the berths behind him. "As the only unarmed vessel of us four, I would prefer it if you would take them."

"What about you guys?" Link asked. "What if you encounter the Undying Storm?"

"We'll agree here and now that," North said, looking between the captains and airmen nearby, "if one of us is to encounter the storm, he will disengage and return to a port and get word to the others. Agreed?"

Link nodded. "Sure."

"Yeah," Luke agreed.

There was a moment of silence. Then North turned to Mallard, who had yet to move. "Chief?" North asked.

"I'll let Lieutenant Blair know," Mallard replied. Then he held up a finger. "But. If we're gonna split up, the Grand Sails should head to Center Island. If the storm doesn't show up there, we can go straight to Skyrider Port and pick up Captain Alfonzo, if he's still there."

"Of course," North said with a nod. "In a similar vein, I would like to take the Moon's Shadow north. After Turtle Island, I would like to report to Castle Island. We should inform King Lauris and see if provisions for refugees of the storm can be arranged. By the time this is over, I imagine that a number of people are gonna need help."

"D'aww…" Luke groaned. He gave Link a half-grin. "I get all the boring assignments."

"Actually, I should think going to Thicket Island would be just as impohtant," Leynne spoke up. "If, by some cihcumstance, the Undying Stohm no longeh decides to follow the Sky Lines, it stands to reason that one vessel looking through that region might notice it the most. The islands on that half of the kingdom ah vital. The technowohks undehneath Sagacity Island and Might Island ah essential to maintaining the Sky Lines."

"Captain Link," North said. "Until we can find the storm, we should work on the assumption that the enemy might maintain a straight line on whatever Sky Line they find. Therefore, it would be best if you left these refugees on an island not in the direction any of us will be traveling."

"I've got some friends on Bold Island," Flower spoke up. "I think we should be able to make some arrangements there. And it should be out of the way."

"We'll have to stop at eitheh Centeh oh Thicket Island on the way," Leynne said. "I don't think theh's an intehmediate Sky Line we could use."

"Well, I feel confident we won't find anything," Luke said. "So it'd be best if you followed us past Thicket Island."

"Should we meet up somewhere?" Mallard asked. "I mean, we need to get word to each other somehow."

"We should rendezvous at Skyrider Port," North said. "If the company is back up, we can request more combat-ready vessels and pool our resources."

"Sounds like a plan," Luke said.

Mallard pushed away from the partition. "I'll go let Blair know what's going on."

"Leynne, go ahead and plot us a course from Thicket Island to Bold Island," Link said as Blair stepped by them.

"Undehstood," Leynne said as he made to follow Mallard.

"Flower," Link said as Luke and North pushed past. "Would you tell Cale and Lilly that we have passengers aboard and have them check in with the passengers every now and then? We probably won't be at Bold Island until later toward the evening."

"I'll take care of it, Captain," Flower replied with a nod.

He walked away, leaving Link alone. Link sighed to himself and scratched his head, wondering where he should go now.

…

~~Day 96 (Command, Day 59)

~~I didn't write it down yesterday, but we got into a fight with a bunch of Cunimincus' men. And, by a bunch, I mean we must have encountered well over half of his crew. North lost eleven men, and the Grand Sails lost three men. I'm relieved that I haven't lost any crew, but I'm still troubled by such an outcome. I don't know; I think I've just been sensitive to loss ever since we found the Horizon's Eye. Maybe the best thing we got out of this is North's men found some survivors under the clinic Captain Alfonzo was hiding at.

~~We've cleaned up most of the ship. Some of it, we had to do underway to Thicket Island with the Summer Breeze. We're bound for Bold Island to drop off the survivors, and then we'll regroup with the other ships back at the Port.

~~I have to admit that I've been feeling a little sick to my stomach lately. All this stuff going on, running around, finding out that people are being hurt—There's so many things going on, and I've just been getting overwhelmed. I can't even think of how we'd go about rescuing Princess Zelda once we find the storm. Clearly, we'd have to board the ship; we couldn't fire on it, or else we might hit the princess or some of the Horizon's Eye's surviving crew. But that's gonna be worse than what we saw on Autumn Island. Whatever plan we come up with can go wrong in so many ways. But, maybe gathering more Skyriders will change Cunimincus' mind; he wouldn't willingly challenge a fleet of ships, would he? Well, now that I think about it, probably. If his entire crew has gone crazy, then he's probably just as insane.

…

The Island Symphony had followed the Summer Breeze until East Iron Island. From there, they took another Sky Line west toward Jar Island. Link, partway through the trip west, expected to see their passengers on deck; it was something he had always expected from passengers. He supposed that it had been because most passengers on the Grand Sails did it. Something about the thrill of sailing in a Sky Line, he supposed. It was not something he could relate to, having spent half of his life hating to do work while traveling through a Sky Line. Instead, he found himself a little disturbed by their absence. He looked in on them not long after the ship passed Jar Island. The children were fast asleep with the women watching over them. Row, however, was restless and a little nervous. Link introduced himself, and Row commented that seeing a fourteen-year-old captain was the most normal thing he had seen in days. This left Link scratching his head as he watched Lilly bring in some dinner for them.

The ship arrived in the sky around South Sand Island and immediately switched Sky Lines to go south to Bold Island. The longer route meant that, by the time they reached Bold Island, the sun was touching the horizon. Through the orange glow of sunset, Link was amazed to find that the blockade around Bold Island was gone. The island itself had yet to recover, but the fact that he could see a few patches of green among the buildings and dead trees left him with a more optimistic outlook than he had had leaving Autumn Island.

But then, there was the lingering realization that he had yet to hear from Princess Zelda once more. He wanted to let her know that the storm had moved, although it was a debate he had not settled with himself yet. On one hand, he needed to let her know that they had lost the storm. However, it would only raise the question of what Cunimincus' crew was doing now that the storm was no longer confining them.

This was something he pondered while looking out over the bow at the rest of the port. Having sent Line and Flower to take the refugees to their friends and Leynne to procure some supplies, there was not much else to do.

"Rupee fer yer thoughts, Cap'n."

Link turned to find Gold standing nearby, looking out toward the sunset. He sighed and said, "Nothing new. Just… worrying about everything."

Gold nodded. "Can't say I blame yeh. A lot's 'appened since we got 'ere."

A thought occurred to Link. "You know, we were in the middle of a big battle last night. Where'd you go?"

Gold chuckled to himself. "Leynne asked me tae go below and check the mechanics under the deck. Well, when I got under the deck, someone slammed the door shut on me. I could 'ear what was goin' on, but I couldn't get out. If yeh'd checked the hatch that goes under the deck, yeh'd find the latch broke. 'Ad tae kick the damn thin' out." He gave Link a glance. "'Ope it wasn't too bad."

"We managed."

Gold nodded again. "Well, next time, I won't get stuck under the deck 'gain."

"Might be easier to put Cale and Lilly under the deck," Link commented with a half-grin. "That way we know where they're at."

"Yeah," Gold chuckled as footsteps approached them from the port side.

Link glanced to port to see Line and Flower approaching them. "Did you guys get those refugees set up?" he asked.

"Yeah," Line said while Flower took interest in a letter he was carrying. "They've got a place to stay here, and then they'll be taken to the Port tomorrow morning. It was pretty simple; we have people who like us."

"That's a first," Link commented.

Line crossed his arms. "Uh-huh," he said, looking annoyed with Link. "Keep cracking the jokes and see who you can get to be your new best friend."

"Hey, Captain," Flower spoke up. He stepped forward and offered his letter to Link. "You should read this."

"Is that that letter from Leonard?" Line asked.

"Yeah."

Link took the letter and looked it over. It was not very long, but the contents left him shocked.

—Flower, Line.

—Sighted storm to the east. Heading this way. Send help fast. Leonard.