Chapter 136: Melancholic Days
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~~Day 113 (Command, Day 76)
~~We're still on our way back to Hovela. Leynne now says we'll probably be pulling in late in the evening. Line and Flower are still switching out duty below, but everyone else is back to their usual thing. Somehow it all feels kinda empty.
~~The mood's dropped around here, too. The Gelto on-deck used to stand together and talk. Now they all seem to be avoiding each other. Dholit has even been just standing around not even bothering me. It's not just them; even the guys on-deck seem to just be quiet. Line hasn't said much to me, and Leynne seemed to be busy reading something whenever he came up to watch the night shift earlier.
~~I think the problem might be me. We set out to find the Sorians, and it just didn't work out. Not only did I take away their shore leave to go chasing after something that doesn't seem to exist, I've probably burned them out in the process. I guess I should expect a few of them to leave soon.
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~~Day 114 (Command, Day 77)
~~We made Hovela early this evening. And I felt I owed it to my crew to treat them to some sort of relaxation. So I arranged for them to stay the evening in the Hovela Station's hotel. The only ones who aren't in the hotel this evening are me, Irleen (who still isn't talking to anyone), and Sello.
~~I've never realized how empty the Island Symphony could feel without a crew. It's weird to have the only sounds to be the water outside. I walked the ship twice. I even went through the berth deck to see if I could guess which berths belong to which of my crew. Line's wasn't too hard to figure out. But I couldn't tell the Gelto's berths apart; they didn't leave anything out. Probably for the better. I thought I saw Sello sneaking around the deck.
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~~Day 115 (Command, Day 78)
~~Line and Flower came back this morning and just went back to their duties as usual. Harley and Lidago returned this afternoon. Harley told me that he decided that he wanted to send a letter to his former fiancée. From what few details he gave me, it wasn't meant to be a nice letter. He also said Lidago was wandering the streets and just followed him back to the ship. I asked Lidago if he was okay. Somehow, I don't think my Goron is all that good, but how do you mess up a language that only uses one word? I wasn't very successful in Hylian, either, but I guess he's doing all right.
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~~Day 116 (Command, Day 79)
~~Rosaline and Linebeck visited us! And they're married! They told me that it happened about a month after we left the surface. They live on Kakucha Island now, and they're planning to make Rosaline's island into a shipyard where she intends to start building airships. Apparently, she has a "five-year plan" in which she wants to start putting ships together that are meant to ferry people and things between the surface and the sky kingdom. I told her that the idea sounds nice, but I explained that there are a couple problems with navigating between the two. I showed them a map of the sky kingdom compared to the surface. Since Leynne had a spare copy stowed away, I gave them that in case it might help them.
~~This evening, Cale, Lilly, and Leynne returned. Leynne said that he was checking in on some of his patents and made orders of fuel and other supplies for us since the ship still doesn't have a very big bank. I suppose Cale was visiting his family, and since Lilly isn't from here, she probably went with him. I didn't get a chance to talk to them because they disappeared after they went below.
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Thump. Bam. BAM!
Link finally jerked awake when something heavy hit the door to his cabin. WHAM! Something then struck the bulkhead which divided the cabin from the weather deck. Link had to blink his eyes clear of their bleariness before he could tell that it was still night outside, the only illumination coming from Irleen's light above his bed. He sat up to look at his door, wondering if someone had just been knocking. Then he scrambled to his feet when he heard someone shouting outside. He moved to his footlocker and threw it open, tossing his discarded clothes onto his bed. Once his hand found the sword sitting on top of everything else, he pulled it from its sheath and stepped up to the door. He wrenched the door out of the way and stepped out with the sword raised.
"The bull eats twenty kitchen tables for dinner every morning! I AM SELLOOOOOOOOO!"
Link lowered the sword in bewilderment. Sello stood in the middle of the deck with someone dressed entirely in black lying unconscious under one foot. Another person wearing all black—"Aaaah!" BAM!—felt the deck slam his shoulder and neck after Sello flung him aside with a powerful throw. The dim light of the moon along with the ship's running lamps allowed Link to see two more dark figures lying on-deck, one of them crawling toward the gangplank while another silently rolled in pain. Layna, dressed in her black outfit, had yet another one pinned against the port mizzen-mast with one blade resting against his neck and another waiting between his eyes. Three crates had been dropped to the deck behind Sello. Further back, Leynne, Line, and Cale were just emerging from the starboard stairs.
Sello raised his arms in a triumphant pose. "CHECK YOUR TEETH AT THE WINDOOOOOOOOOW!" he declared at the night sky.
Link glanced to his right when he heard something scraping against the bulkhead. One more person clad in black sat up with a hand rubbing the back of his head while he groaned incoherently to himself. Link sighed and leaned against the doorway, mainly to make his presence known. The person looked up at Link, and Link asked, "You wanna hear what you did wrong, or do you just wanna get outta here?"
"Nah," the man replied as he stood up, his voice casual despite having been thrown into a wall. "I think we's rea'y tae go 'ome."
"Uh huh," Link replied, sounding bored. "Just try to be quiet about it; some of us are trying to get to sleep." He indicated Layna with an idle swing of his empty hand. "Including our assassin." Link caught sight of the surprised look in the man's eyes just before stepping back into his cabin and grinned to himself after shutting the door.
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~~Day 117 (Command, Day 80)
~~Saying that my ship is well-protected by its crew is like saying that having the entirety of the outer wall of Hyrule Castle fall on you would hurt. Even though Flower had been on watch, we had about five or six guys sneak on board very early this morning and try to take some of our supplies. I guess they woke up Sello trying to take some of his alcohol with them, and Sello and Layna both beat the hell outta them. As far as I know, no one died. I'm not gonna hold Flower responsible for this because I know that standing watch late at night from the poop deck still makes it hard to watch over the whole ship. Although, I have to admit that I'm surprised they got past Layna, too.
~~Incidentally, it looks like Layna's back. Of course, her being her, she might've been here the whole time. Helo checked in this afternoon, and then Lawrence and Gold showed up this evening.
~~With Lilly back and cooking again, I've unfortunately had to give another job to the crew: cleaning the heads. Needless to say, no one really liked this, but since we're not using rations anymore—yeah. It's gotta be done.
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~~Day 118 (Command, Day 81)
~~It's been a while since I experienced rain. We had a light shower earlier this evening, and Line flipped out and tried to build hatches over the stairs so we wouldn't sink. I think Layna knocked him out with those poison needles, so he'll probably be awake sometime next month. I wish, anyway. There's been no sign or message from the rest of the Gelto crew, but I'm not worried. I've got a feeling that Dholit will sneak on board whenever she feels like it.
~~I still don't know what to do about Irleen. I decided to try giving her reports on the day's activities to let her know what's going on, but after today, I think I'll just drop it. Is there anything I can do that doesn't sound like I'm trying to get her to forget about the Sorians?
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~~Day 119 (Command, Day 82)
~~One of the scholars the king sent with us came back. I'd completely forgotten about them, so I was a little surprised. He asked to interview me for a bit, and I ran out of excuses to avoid it. Fortunately, this one (I think his name was Kingsley) actually asked me some good questions. How much of the surface had I seen, what would be the best places to go for various needs, had I run into any trouble along the way. I started laughing at that last question. I couldn't help it; I had nothing but trouble the first time I was down here.
~~I tried to get Irleen motivated today. She still hasn't said anything, but she agreed to at least get out of my cabin for some fresh air. Whatever that does for a fairy. I'm hopeful that she'll be back to herself soon. I keep trying to tell her that I haven't given up on looking for the Sorians, that Zelda sent out people looking around in case they showed up on another island in the sky. I haven't heard anything back yet; it's been over a week, and I know it takes less than that to travel from one end of the sky kingdom to the other. Of course, I haven't told Irleen that last bit. She just got to flying around again, and I don't want her to go into another slump because there's no word.
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~~Day 120 (Command, Day 83)
~~Biluf and Dubbl came back this afternoon. I guess Biluf was getting worried that Layna wasn't back at the camp like the rest of the Gelto crew. I think that's how Dubbl explained it to me, anyway. She's got some of the weirdest gaps in her language. It doesn't help that she gets frustrated so easily.
~~Most everyone that's back has nearly run out of money. Leynne volunteered to give people an allowance since he still has plenty left over from whatever returns he got on the inventions he left behind. I can only imagine what might be waiting for him once we're back in the sky.
~~Irleen stayed in today. I think I need a girl expert; I'm out of ideas.
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~~Day 121 (Command, Day 84)
~~It rained. That was about all that happened. Leynne improvised some covers for the stairs, but I guess the orlop still had a layer of water on the deck. Nothing a mop couldn't fix.
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~~Day 122 (Command, Day 85)
~~More rain, and most of the crew stayed below. Leynne and Gold were the only ones smart enough to go get some rain gear. But then, there's no sign of Layna.
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~~Day 123 (Command, Day 86)
~~Layna's sick. I guess we found out where she was for the past couple of days. Leynne brought a doctor aboard, and he explained that Layna has a "cold". Cough, runny nose, sore throat… Granted, she's looked worse, but I've never seen someone with such a nasty disease. The doctor said she needs to be kept off-duty for two weeks, get plenty of water (he used the term "fluids", which I thought sounded kinda stupid), and cover her coughing and sneezing so she doesn't spread it. Biluf volunteered to look after her. I feel kinda sorry for Layna. I've seen people with illness before, but she just looks so damn miserable.
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~~Day 124 (Command, Day 87)
~~The weather's gotten better, but there's still a bunch of overcast.
~~I guess the weather brought those scholars out of the woodwork. They showed up early this evening complaining about having to spend the past two days stuck in their tavern rooms in Library Town.
~~So I introduced them to Layna.
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~~Day 125 (Command, Day 88)
~~For the record, even these bonehead scholars should know better than to handle things that a sick person has been touching. Now all three of them have a cold. With Layna occupying one room, we had to cram two of them into a single room while the third got a private room to himself. Lilly agreed to take care of them since she spends most of her time in the galley. Leynne had a doctor confirm it was the cold this afternoon, and the doctor gave Lilly a set of instructions on how to care for them. The way it's looking, we might be taking off next week with all four of them sick.
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~~Day 126 (Command, Day 89)
~~Lwamm and Twali arrived this morning. I guess Biluf and Dubbl filled them in on what's been going on, and they decided that they should kill the scholars. As much of a pain those three have been, I couldn't really condone killing them. Other than the obvious strike against morality, I'd have a hell of a time explaining it to Zelda.
~~Irleen ventured out onto the deck again and got in some time flying around. She still isn't talking to anyone; I've double-checked twice that I've been carrying her translating gem.
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~~Day 127 (Command, Day 90)
~~Dholit's back. We gave her a rundown of what's been happening, and she actually sounded concerned for Irleen. I've asked her to talk to Irleen, but she says she doesn't think it's appropriate. She thinks that I would do better, but I still don't know what to tell her. She suggested that, in order to talk to one girl, I should talk with another of the same age.
~~So, spontaneously, I'm going to visit Meilont tomorrow.