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"Are you sure this is safe?" The sailor looked to his captain with worried eyes.
"No, but what other choice do we have, that–that was too close of a call. I can't risk it happening again!" Tetra clenched her fist.
Link stirred around the small cup of poison, then chuckled. "If this kills me, I'm haunting you as a ghost."
"If this kills you, I'll be haunting myself…." The young captain's shoulders slumped.
"Wow, you killed me and won't even give me the pleasure of haunting you!" Link dramatically put a hand to his chest, offended.
"Oh, shut up and drink your poison." Tetra tried to smile.
"Aye, Aye, Captain." Saluting his captain before gulping down the small shot glass worth of poison.
Both were still waiting for something to happen.
"How do you feel?" Tetra moved towards him, checking his face for any reaction.
"Disappointed, the rum in this poison is weak." The sailor cracked a half smile at his best friend.
Tetra let out a laugh, "of course, THAT'S what you say."
Link lifted his arms and shrugged his shoulders. "Listen, if it's literally called drunken sailor poison. Then a boy should expect enough rum to make a man drunk."
Tetra rolled her eyes. "It's diluted, remember," rolling the R's at the end.
"You only had about a teaspoon of the straight poison. Then the rest was blue chuchu."
Link stuck out his tongue at the captain. "Blah, And this will really help?"
"That's what the old pirate journals said. A teaspoon a day of straight poison mixed with blue chuchu for about a week then will move you up a tablespoon mix, then a cup. Then back to a teaspoon of just straight poison, and so on." Tetra explained, moving her hands along.
The boy stared at her deadpan. "Yeah, okay! You're just trying to kill me, is that it? Tetra dear, if that is it, just shoot me on the catapult again!" Link put his fist against his hips. "Oh, did I piss you off so much you wanted to long game kill me? At least tell me what I did! Did Niko snitch that whiskery rat? I knew I shouldn't have trusted him!"
Oh, not this again. When the sailor started going, Tetra knew he couldn't stop. So she forced him to stop by pinching his cheeks together to make him look like a duck. "Link enough! No, I'm not trying to kill you! My gosh! You really think I want to find and establish a new country by myself! HA! Listen to me, you summer sunshine island boy! You're not leaving me with all the work! If you do, I'm going to the underworld and dragging your butt back! Also, what do you mean did Niko snitch?" Tetra puffed out her cheeks.
"Hehehe, you called me sunshine!" Link giggled.
Tetra's face morphed into rage. Forcing Link to run. Out of the cabin, onto the deck. Tetra closes on his tail.
"LINK, GET BACK HERE!" The captain yelped.
"NEVER!" The hero of the winds playfully cheered.
Bobbing and weaving between his fellow crew members. Gonzo lifted up a crate he was holding, so it would not fall on them. While the others playfully watched. They knew the captain would win, but it was always fun to see Link give it a go.
The young sailor went back and forth, attempting not to be tackled by Tetra. Before seeing a loose rope attached to the mast, and as quick as a monkey scurried up it!
"LINK, GET DOWN HERE!" Tetra commanded.
"Hmmm, I think not," the boy chuckled, walking out on the topsail yard. Carefully wrapping his arm in rope.
"SAILOR, I MEAN IT!" The threat was evident in the young captain's voice.
"Aww, you're so cute when you're mad?" Link titled his head.
The ship burst into an assortment of "Ooooohhhh."
"....Alright, I take it back. NOW YOU'RE DEAD!" Tetra's eyes blazing red.
Link let out a laugh. Taking a step forward.
Then something happened. Link's body felt broken. His eyes became blurry and foggy, and he couldn't hold himself.
In a snap of a second, the boy fell. Body feeling heavy in the air.
"LINK!" He heard a cry but was not sure from where. Sharp pain entered his arm as the rope tightened its hold. Snapping and swinging back into the mast.
With a loud thud, the hero of the winds slid down. Definitely leaving a rope burn.
Tetra was at his side in a second. "LINK! You idiot, are you alright? What happened?" The pirate captain lifted her friend's head forward.
"Tetra," the boy gargled in pain. "Get me to the edge of the ship."
The captain nodded, sliding Link's arm around her neck. She lifted him up. The poor thing could barely even stand. Legs shaking violently like he never had his sea legs.
Gonzo came to his friend and captain's aid. Taking almost all the weight off of Tetra.
Reaching the edge, the sailor shot forward, gripping the railing for dear life as his guts exploded. Hurling it into the sea below.
Tetra stood next to him, rubbing circles on his back. Noticing a majority of what he was throwing up was blood.
Oh, Cyclos, what had she done…
Linked started coughing, a good sign that the vomiting was over. Gargling his mouth before spitting into the great sea.
His body collapsed into the railing. Pained groans escaped his lips.
He looked awful.
"Hey," Tetra whispered, bent over to meet the boy's eyes. "Can you stand?"
The boy pitifully clicked his head, no.
"Okay, that's okay…Gonzo, pick up Link and take him to my quarters. Make sure pillows are lifting his head up! Niko, go down to the bridge and get a bowl of broth, water, rags, and a pale! Mako! Keep us on course for another four hours. If we hit an Island, great. If not, anchor us for the night! Hop to it, all of you!" Tetra barked.
The men who were given orders scurried as fast as they could to complete them. Gonzo, lifting the hero of the winds up in bridal style fashion as he made his way below, Tetra hot on his heels.
"Link, hey, I need you to stay with us, sailor! That's an order." Tetra spoke in a steady tone.
"Aye…aye…cap–tain…." The boy weakly whispered.
Arriving at her quarters, Gonzo placed the hero on the bed. Doing as Tetra commanded earlier. While the captain removed any additional layers from him. Coat, boots, belt, sash, bandana, necklace, and outer tunic all came off.
Tetra huffed, "You know what, maybe you were onto something with that lobster tunic. It was simple!"
Gonzo let out a chuckle. Fully aware the captain was the one who pushed Link to wear the garbs off a pirate.
Tetra shot daggers at the older teen, "thank you, Gonzo, that will be all." She growled.
The pirate nodded and left the cabin leaving the last two pieces of Hyrule alone.
Tetra sighed, pulling up a stool to sit next to Link. Him, shifting to his side so he could look at her apatite eyes. Noticing them growing cloudy with worry.
"Hey…" he faintly spoke, taking her hand in his own. "It's–going to be okay….This is probably a part of the process, right?" Link fumbled his words but got them across.
Tetra reached over to her desk and pulled the journal off, not letting go of Link's hand.
Quickly and quietly, she reread the print, finding it a bit hard because it was old Hylian, but she understood the basics.
There on the next page, the words shouted beware and listed all the things that could happen to her best friend.
"Did–didn't read the…the fine print, huh?" The hero chuckled.
The captain's shoulders slumped. She had failed.
Link squeezed her hand, "it's–it's okay….will wait it out until tomorrow and then decide if I should keep–keep going with it." The hero's forehead was becoming very sweaty.
"How can you say that, Link? This–this is going to be a painful process…." Tetra held on to the hero's hand like a lifeline.
"Ah–can't be more painful than being shot out of a catapult, then hitting a wall…Or being thrown off a tower by a bird–OR getting smacked down by a machine designed by the gods to decide if you're worth….OR–"
Tetra slapped a wet rag over Link's face. "Okay, I get it. That's enough out of you." She chuckled, turning to Niko, who had brought the stuff the Tetra had ordered from him. "Thank you, sailor. Let everyone know it's all hands on deck until Link is in a better state." Niko saluted before leaving the room.
The captain looked back to her friend to see the boy had sucked the rag into his mouth, creating a mold of his face. "You're a dork, and I hope you know that." She proclaimed, pulling the rag up his face and to his forehead.
Link looked at his captain, giggling, "yes, but I'm your dork, and–your stuck with me–me until either you kill me….OR I–I do something so stupid, that–that I kill myself." Sharp, pains engulfed the hero's body causing the boy to curl up on himself. With humming whimpers escaping from his lips.
"Shhhh, hey–hey, no more talking." Tetra gently placed a hand on the boy's neck. Listening for his pulse but also feeling how warm he was. They needed to stay ahead of a possible fever that could happen. Taking the rag off his head, dipping it back into the water before placing it back on. Link groaned in pain as his body started to tremble. Tears began streaming down his eyes, with Tetra whipping them away.
Leaning back over to her desk, she pulled out a small locked box, unlocking it revealed a flute with six colorful tops. Taking a deep breath, she whispered into it. Letting the warm air create a soft melody. She knew Link had a thing for music. Anytime they stopped to rest at a coffee house, he was hypnotized by any band that just so happened to be playing. He tap along, being able to match every note and key.
His ears twitched at the soft tune, body seemingly to instantly relax and forget about the pain as his captain played. Link could tell his body begged for rest, though he elected to ignore it. As his mind turned the world, he knew into unintelligible waves. Despite his feeble state, he hummed along, conducting his finger the same way he did his Windwaker.
Tetra laughed in between breaths. He really was a dork, her dork, and a dork she refused to lose. She couldn't do much for him now, but what she could do was get him to sleep, which was the best kind of medicine in this situation. She kept playing while weaving her fingers into his golden locks.
Last time she had seen Aryll, the darling little lass had given the captain the most vital piece of information she thought she ever received. If Link was in a calm situation, and you scratched his head in a triangle pattern three times. The sunshine island boy would fall straight to sleep. She didn't believe it until she watched Aryll do it, and it worked.
At first, Tetra assumed she would never do it. They were close, but not that close, right?
Wrong. Turns out the hero of the winds is one of the most physically affectionate people she ever met in her life. It didn't take long for her to start hugging him when no one was looking after their first adventure. Then after their second, they start snuggling.
However, she refused to scratch his head…. that was until he had stayed up three days in a row. Nightmares plagued him. He wouldn't tell her of what, but what she did overhear on the third and final day, in his rambles, was. 'Stone, shattered, Aryll, Grandma, sinking, dead,' and that was enough.
So she suched it up. Did the trick his little sister taught. The moment Tetra's hand touched Link's head. He froze, eyes scared. She removed it. Admittedly, the captain would never, never make one of her crew members uncomfortable like that. It took a second for Link to process it. He allowed her to do it, and the hero ended up sleeping for a day and a half.
Link, unfortunately, was fighting it this time. She fix that, stopping the music. The captain faintly whispered. "Link…get some sleep. That's an order."
Tetra chuckled as the hero gave her a goofy smile and slurred, "aye, aye….Cap–tain." Then he was out.
Despite being free to handle the ship, Tetra kept checking in on Link every thirty minutes. It got to the point that the young captain understood how ridiculous it was, so in her sound judgment sent Niko to watch over her best friend. He did nothing in the belly of the ship anyway might as well actually be useful.
She faced a new problem when night fell, and it was time to turn in. Link was in her bed, and there wasn't any way she be sharing with him. The crew already teased them enough. Tetra would not be giving them more content. Reluctantly she chose the floor. Which honestly wasn't that uncomfortable….yeah.
The captain closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. When she awoke the following day, she was lying in her bed with Link, nowhere to be found.
Tetra burst from her cabin. Dashing to the deck, not even bothering to fix her hair. Once arriving, the captain was met with the hero of the wind leaning on the railing. Watching as the sun began to rise. She joined him.
Link acknowledged her presence with a calm, warm smile. "Good Morning," he whispered softly.
"Morning…how do you feel?" Tetra needed to know.
Link shrugged, "all right, I guess. Slept it off real nice, so now I'm ready for action."
"That's good…." Tetra fiddled with her fingers trying to find the right words to say.
The hero knew what she wanted. "Yes, I'm okay with continuing the process."
Tetra's eyes grew wide. "Are you sure? I mean, it could kill you!"
"Ah, anything could kill you if you try hard enough…." Link hummed.
Both sailors look to the horizon processing the next best course of action.
"If you're sure…we'll start doing it at night. That way, you can sleep it off in my cabin…." Tetra didn't dare look at the hero, but a warm, gentle breeze hit her face. Then from the corner of her eye, she caught a smile.
"You really willing to give up your bed for me for a whole mouth, maybe longer?" Link had the biggest toothiest smile, "awww, you really are a sweetheart, aren't you, Captain!"
"Watch it, hero! For all you know, I could put you in a barrel!" Tetra puffed her cheeks out.
"Surrrreeee," Link slid next to her bumping their shoulders.
Tetra's shoulders slumped against his. She was overthinking once again.
"Hey, I think this is the best course of action. There might come a time where I'll need to be the dead man." Link took Tetra's hand.
"Yeah–yeah, I know…I don't like it, but I understand. Just promises me you won't do something incredibly stupid, okay? I'd very much like to keep my best friend." She leaned into him.
Link chuckled. "I promise not to be stupid, captain…besides, when it's all done and finished, what's the worst that could happen?"
….
"So this is how it's going to work." A gruff ugly voice spat as he held the Vet's face in his calloused hands. "I'm poisoning that one if you want to keep him alive. I think you'll want to hear my proposal."
The sailor watched from the wood rafters thinking through his next steps. He had only a second to make his decision. Throwing the grappling hook across the room, waiting for the right moment. He took a deep breath.
"Sorry, Tetra…looks like I'm breaking that promise…."
He had to, for his brothers.
Wind jumped.