Chapter 141: This Is a Training Montage
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~~Day 134 (Command, Day 97)
~~So training the crew for a "royal" parade has started. Kinda. Sir Gilliam was in the middle of meeting the crew when he triggered Layna's assassin instincts. We're hoping he'll be awake in the morning. Sir Hartman took over and ended the introductions by having the crew go onto the shore and run back and forth between two bollards (away from the edge, of course) until most of them fell over exhausted. We all had to eat rations because Lilly was the last to fall; Twali and Line were the only ones left standing. After that, everyone went to bed early. Night watch was very lonely.
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~~Day 135 (Command, Day 98)
~~Gil woke everyone this morning. We're now waiting to see how long it takes for him to wake up this time.
~~The Royal Knights of Hyrule have a different system of training compared to the Skyriders. Hauling coils of rope across the deck makes sense, but I can't think of many reasons for "jumping jacks". Neither did Dholit, so she decided to flirt her way out of it with Sir Hartman. If I knew making Dholit run up and down the stairs to the quarterdeck would shut her up, I would've done it months ago. After that was about two hours of listening to Hartman scream at them about their inability to march. I'm hoping they'll eventually move the work to the shore; I always understood that the captain is the one who's suppose to wear a trench in the deck. If this keeps up, we might have to put in for repairs at the end of the month!
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~~Day 136 (Command, Day 99)
~~Gil brought in a couple more knights for further training. They spent the day napping in the berth deck after they decided to scream at Layna for dropping the rope she was exercising with four times. I've had Dholit talk to her about not attacking the knights. But I expect it to go as well as talking Dubbl out of punching Sello.
~~Speaking of Sello, Gil caught him drinking in between exercises. They got into a fight over the bottle, and now Sello's confined to his bed. Which I would have pointed out to be either his couch or his crates in the engine room. It doesn't matter, though; Sello's satisfied and not ranting and raving and trying to fix something that isn't broken.
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~~Day 137 (Command, Day 100)
~~I woke up this morning to something slamming on the deckhead. It turned out to be Lawrence, Harley, and Lwamm running back and forth on the quarterdeck. Hartman explained that Lawrence and Harley were sleeping with pieces of cotton in their ears and claimed that they couldn't hear the knights hollering at them. As for Lwamm, well, now I know how far a misunderstanding between people speaking two different languages can go. Sir Joseph left to go see a dentist so he could get three of his teeth put back in. I'm beginning to realize that I've been crewing a ship full of very violent individuals for the past three months! The only thing missing is a posse to grab me and stuff me into a cannon!
~~Other than that, it seems that things went better today. Granted, most of the crew are exhausted beyond belief at the end of the day and are beginning to hate the knights.
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~~Day 138 (Command, Day 101)
~~I found the dartboard. I don't know where they got the darts, but Line, Flower, Gold, Lawrence, and Harley might be thinking about murdering me in my sleep.
~~Today seemed cheerful, despite what I found. The knights took it easy on the crew, and none of the crew tried to kill them. Even Sello didn't cause any problems, but that was because he fell and skinned part of his face on the ground. Sir Joseph took him to get cleaned up. And drunk. The second part wasn't Joseph's idea.
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~~Day 139 (Command, Day 102)
~~So we had a change in routine today. After morning exercises, the whole crew was taken to an outfitter. When they came back, Line explained that the knights had been given funds so that the crew could get some regular uniforms as well as special uniforms for the ceremony. I'd gotten so used to them wearing their own clothes, I'd forgotten what it's like to be surrounded by airmen wearing uniforms.
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"My. This is not want I expected to see this afternoon."
Link gave a silent chuckle and looked to his left to find Zelda's image standing next to him. Once again, she wore her airman outfit, although she had removed her hair decorations and simply left her hair draped across her shoulders.
He shrugged and looked back out across the deck as his crew, now clad in blue tunics with their own color combinations of work trousers and bodysuits, performed a shuttle run between the fore- and main-masts while each carried a rope. They had gotten better, although Twali led the group by half a lap and Sello could barely call what he was doing "running". The rest managed to run in a single line that seemed to cause the ship to rock.
"What were you expecting?" Link asked.
Zelda saw that Link was leaning on the rail and decided to rest her elbows on the rail next to him. "I cannot be certain," she admitted as she copied Link's posture. "I had wondered if you had returned yet."
"We're here at Castle Island," Link pointed out, nodding toward the castle walls in the distance. "You could've come out yourself, you know."
"I would like to, Link," she replied, "but my parents have asked that I remain on the grounds for the time being. It appears that my father would prefer to limit my contact with you."
"What'd I do?"
Zelda shook her head. "I do not know. Perhaps it has something to do with taking me into combat against Cunimincus."
"I couldn't do anything about that!" Link argued.
"I have explained this to him. He would still prefer that I remain on the castle grounds." She sighed. "I've been wishing to tell him that I would prefer some time outside the grounds, if only to help alleviate my anxiety."
Link looked at her. "What anxiety?"
Zelda cast her eyes to the empty area of the main deck directly beneath them. "I still seem to have irrational fears of closed rooms. Recently, I have found even the corridors of the castle to be somewhat stifling. I fear it is growing worse."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Link asked.
Zelda sighed and placed her hands on the rail. Then she stood up with her eyes cast to the sky above. "Just you being here is what I need, Link," she told him. "While I may not be where you are, feeling that at least a part of me is free helps."
"Oh. Okay."
"I also had a couple of things to tell you."
Link stood up and turned to her. "Really? What?"
She met his eyes. "First, and I feel sorrow at this news myself… but I am afraid that the messengers I sent with the Skyriders have failed to find the Sorians."
"Oh no…" Link groaned, one hand raking across the side of his head. "Oh, man. Poor Irleen. Are you… are you sure they checked every island up here?"
"Yes, Link. I even asked that one find passage through the area of sky occupied by those floating rocks. I fear that we have failed Irleen."
Link took in a deep breath. "No," he told her. "Not yet. The Sorians are here somewhere. Captain Koroul and his crew had to go somewhere when they jumped off the Smiling Gunner. We're just not looking hard enough."
Zelda gave a solemn nod. "I hope that you are right, Link. I am afraid that Irleen could face only so much heartbreak."
"We'll find them."
"I believe you. I believe in you." She sighed. "I also wanted to tell you…"
Link gave her a confused look. "Tell me what?"
Zelda closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them and said, "My father is considering knighting you and giving you a position within the Royal Knights of Hyrule."
"He—… wha-what?" Link asked.
Zelda offered a shy smile. "My father would like to make you a knight. He has said that your skill and cunning in facing down my doppelganger has inspired him to bring you into the knights as a dedicated defender of the realm. What I have told him of your exploits against Cunimincus… has encouraged his decision further."
Link was slack-jawed for a moment. Then he managed to find his voice to say, "I-I don't know what to say. It's… it's just such a surprise."
"I know what I wish to say," she told him. "It would be a pleasure for you to be a knight, Link. I cannot guarantee that your life will be as exciting as it has been now that Cunimincus is gone, but I would like to believe that life as a knight would offer things that you could not expect from being a captain."
Link glanced out at the crew. "What about them?" he asked.
"Your crew has their own lives to live," Zelda said. "And it is not as if you would never see them again."
Link pursed his lips as he thought. Then he asked, "I-I don't know if I can decide right now…"
"It's okay, Link. Take your time. My father plans to present the option to you during the ceremony. You may give your answer there."
He nodded. "Okay," he replied in a faint voice.
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~~Day 140 (Command, Day 103)
~~Zelda visited today. Well, she appeared in my head again. She told me that her messengers didn't find any sign of the Sorians living on any of the islands up here. I shared this news with Leynne, and Leynne said that, although we still haven't found them, there are still places we haven't looked. He proposed that we forget about the search area that the compass provided us, especially since it was unreliable to begin with. Instead, we should maybe look at some of the islands outside of the kingdom. Since we now know they exist thanks to our use of the technoworks to change the Sky Lines, it would be easy to maybe pick out a few to try going to. And, considering that we can control the Sky Lines, we might be able to shorten travel time between the kingdom and the outlying islands. Leynne and I agreed that we probably shouldn't tell Irleen about all this. If she knew we're now looking somewhere else, it might worsen her depression again. She just got to the point where we actually say more to each other than "hey".
~~Zelda also told me that the king wants to make me a knight. I have to admit that maybe becoming a knight would be fun. I've sure gotten in some fighting experience ever since this whole thing started. It'd be a shame to let that experience go to waste as an airship captain. But then, I don't know that I want to leave my crew. I can't decide. But I've still got twenty-one days to think about it. Maybe something will come up that'll help me decide.
~~But then, I probably have the same odds of that happening as I have of being shot down and surviving again.
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~~Day 141 (Command, Day 104)
~~Gil approached me about joining the crew in their exercises, and I agreed that I probably should. I think I did all right; I managed to outlast Line in terms of lying on the deck trying to catch my breath. They took us out on a jogging march across part of the port. I think the last time I felt this sore, I had just finished that fight with the creature in the Ocean Realm. I don't even wanna continue writing in this journal; I'm getting sweat over everything.
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~~Day 142 (Command, Day 105)
~~Too tired to write. Can't even think.
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~~Day 143 (Comma
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~~Day 144 (Command, Day 107)
~~I think I fell asleep last night before I could make a journal entry.
~~The crew seems a lot less hostile toward me now that the knights are bossing me around, too. Not that their attitudes toward the knights have improved much. Lawrence got into an argument with Gil. And Layna knocked out Sir Joseph again, but I found out that Dholit had prompted her to do it in revenge for something that happened yesterday. So I assigned Dholit to clean the heads for the next two days. Which now seems stupid since we're all back to eating rations again, but Dholit seemed to hate it enough.
~~Then again, you can never really tell with Dholit. She's gotta turn this around somehow.
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~~Day 145 (Command, Day 108)
~~Dholit turned it around. She convinced Flower, Line, and Lwamm to lock me in the berth deck's head for the entire morning. Apparently, they thought it was a joke. I came out smelling like someone had been using me to clean the head out. Not that that's new; sometimes that was the only way to clean out certain heads on the Grand Sails. But I digress. It still sucked.
~~So I had the knights lock her in a room with Sello. Though, last I heard, Sello was the one screaming.
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~~Day 146 (Command, Day 109)
~~The crew seems to be settling down again. Nothing bad happened, no one got locked in anything, and the knights didn't have to shout at anyone. In fact, the knights made arrangements for us to get showers at a bath house and have our clothes laundered nearby. Naturally, this just fired up Dholit, so there was plenty of embarrassment on either side. The rest of us agreed that the girls and the guys need to shower at different times in the future. And that Dholit should be tied to something when the guys are gone.
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~~Day 147 (Command, Day 110)
~~We had an emergency today. Something in the engine room blew, and the replacement crew ran for it. But my engine crew ran to the engine room. I ordered everyone else off the ship and joined them. Somehow, the engine's boiler sprang a couple leaks. I found out later that the ship fell low enough that the mooring lines nearly snapped. Lidago improvised patches using his crack pipe and some kind of clay that he chewed and spat through the pipe to fill the leaks. Then they improvised a forge using the coal containers and melted some of the iron reinforcing band from some of our empty water barrels. I can't even describe how they poured and cooled the iron over the patches, but they saved the ship from going down. Afterwards, Harley explained that the replacement crew hadn't been replacing the water in the boiler or feeding coal to the engine correctly.
~~The replacement crew criticized us for having a finicky engine. Sello accused them of wearing trousers and chewing their food with only five teeth. Not that it helped anything. Harley and Lawrence called them out on not knowing how to run the engine. There was a shouting match, then one of the replacements shoved Lawrence. Lidago shoved back. The airman he shoved had to be picked up because he was out-cold. That was about when the replacement crew decided that they didn't wanna try starting a fight with either Goron. The whole affair messed with training, and the engine crew had to go back on duty since we don't have the replacement crew anymore. Gil said he's gonna find some more replacements, probably from the Grand Sails or the Moon's Shadow. Now that I think about it, he didn't really tell us where he found that first crew.