The Phantom Hourglass

I

Thunder flashed, and Link's hammock threw him out onto the floor. He groaned as the ship did likewise, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

His vision cleared and he looked up the stairs, seeing The Shrewd Scout sway harshly back and forth. The weather had worsened. For several days now, they'd been caught in a thick fog, and they'd grown more uncertain of their surroundings.

Link looked back at his hammock, and began lying back down in it.

Someone grabbed a fist-full of the back of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. Staggering around for a moment, Link found his balance, and stared Tetra in the face.

"I find it interesting," she remarked, "that the boy who once gazed unwaveringly at death now can hardly keep those eyes open when confronted by sleep."

"This last week has been quite foggy," Link noted.

"Yes," Tetra said, "and because you can't go out starin' at stars it's thrown off your sleep pattern."

"You assume correctly," Link yawned.

"Well," Tetra said, "you got something different. There's a storm raging outside. Make yourself useful and do somethin'."

Link stretched, and walked over with Tetra to the middle of the room where Mako and some other members of the crew were kneeling down, looking at a map.

"So," Mako said, "given our approximate speed and such, we should be somewhat over here."

Mako pointed a few inches off the map's edge.

"Mako," Tetra said, stooping down for a closer look, "that does not help."

"I apologize Miss Tetra," Mako said. "The fog and the rough seas have not helped us navigate. We have not been able to see the slightest hint of star, or even the direction of the rising sun."

"It's unnatural it is," Niko said. "No goddess blessed sea would be so foreboding."

Mako stroked his chin, and seemed to be deep in thought. He pulled another map that was sitting nearby, and overlapped it with the other one.

"It's hard to say where we are," he said. "We honestly could be in this whole area."

He drew an imaginary circle with his finger, over a big section off of the map.

"None of the maps show that place...," Niko whispered.

"Hey," Gonzo said, motioning to that area, "isn't that the area the local islanders were tellin' us about? They said the seas here were protected, yeah?"

"It's that phantom ship," Niko muttered.

"Pfff," Tetra scoffed, ignoring him, "we should just turn around. I'm sick of this impenetrable fog. If it ain't fog it's storms, and if it ain't storms it's fog."

"But this is where the wind waker led us," Link reminded.

"Well," Tetra said, "ask the wind waker to lead us out of here."

"Well," Link said, adjusting his cap, "the wind doesn't usually talk back. And it is hardly something I can just control, even if you may act like it can Tetra."

"Yeah princess," Niko said.

She darted her gaze to him.

"I - told - you - not - to - call - me - princess, or Zelda, or 'your highness'!"

Niko averted his toothy grin. "Of course your grace."

"Regardless," Tetra said, "even though we haven't gotten much obedience out of the wind lately, try again."

Link shrugged, walking over to his hammock, where he unlocked a chest beneath it. He unwrapped a bundle of cloth, and found the ancient relic.

He started up the stairs, and Tetra grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"Link," she warned, "there's a storm out there like Nayru's out for vengeance. Be careful."

He nodded, and went up the stairs, and opened the door, to immediately be hit with a wall of water. Link quickly closed the door again, coughing and wiping the moisture off his face.

"Talk about the goddesses throwing up a wall," Niko remarked from the stairway.

Link took a deep breath, and ran out into the storm.