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Chapter 4

Oh my god, Brenz is SO hot.

Here's been here three days now, and I swear he's teasing me. He comes out, eleven O' clock in the morning, and starts working. Chopping wood, catching fish, smashing coal down to size. And then, always, ALWAYS, he gets all sweaty and takes his shirt off.

Like I said, he's teasing me.

He's there now, chopping wood just outside Link and Tetra's house. He doesn't know I can see him, up here in the watchtower. Ah, Brenz. Your lack of awareness fuels my daydreams. And now Link and Tetra have you to do all the work I used to do, I get to spend my day watching you. Your the best thing that washed up here since...well, ever.

I should totally go get some paper or something. I should, like, right poetry or something. I have a friend in Windfall Island who sends me letters, and she says that people who are in love write poetry. It's really romantic.

Maybe I should ask Link about it. He's married. He knows about love and that kind of stuff. But then again, he's a guy. He doesn't know what it's like being in my situation. I could ask Tetra, but...well, I dunno. She isn't too chummy.

"Hey, Aryll?"

I quickly whirled around, folding up my telescope and hiding it behind my back. It was Tetra, poking her head just up to the watchtower.

"Hey Tetra." I said quickly

"...yes." Tetra said, raising an eyebrow. "Me and Link need to have a little talk in private. Could you take Jake to the pier and keep him busy for a while?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure..." I sighed, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. It's not like I didn't like Jake. I loved spending time around him. But I was enjoying my time up hear. Alone. Spying on Brenz. I know, it's creepy but...well, I just can't take my eyes off him.

And then, as Tetra started climbing on down, she said,

"Oh, and Brenz is going too. Hope you don't mind."

And that little sentence made my day.

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Ah, Brenz. You even look fantastic when your fishing as well.

It was just me, him, and Jake, fishing on the pier. This time of year you would get some seriously big fish. Like, as big as human. Link caught one once, and he spent ages scaling it for dinner. That fish alone fed me, Link, Jake and Tetra. With one fish!

We come here all the time for food now. A few hours can sometimes get us enough food for a whole week, and thats just with one person. And of course, with Brenz here, we'd probably catch, like, hundreds of them of something. I bet he's as good at fishing as he is at doing everything else. I know he looks as good fishing as he does with everything. I mean, it's not like he'd look less hot. He just looks especially hot when he is doing something. Anything. Everything.

Ahhh, Brenz. How I long for your manly arms to sweep me up and take me somewhere I can express my never ending love for-

"Aryll?" Brenz said. He was using the head of his hammer as a stool while he sat there fishing. He pointed to where my float was; or where it should have been, if a fish had been biting.

"Oh!" I shouted, grabbing my fishing pole and pulling upward. I tried to reel it in, but then then the line went slack. I sighed, and reeled in the hook, the fish having escaped.

"Better luck next time." Brenz said absent mindedly, staring at his float. He briefly set down his pole, and took off his jacket and wiping his forehead with his arm before picking up his rod again.

Damn it, Brenz. Why have you gotta tease me like this?

"Oh, oh, OH!" Jake suddenly shouted, holding his fishing rod above his head. He jumped up and down a bit. "Got one!"

The fish pulled, and swear it would of pulled little Jake into the water if Brenz hadn't grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Steady on." he said, holding onto the short six year old to prevent him tumbling into the sea.

"It's big, IT'S BIG!" Jake cried as he reeled in and pulled on the rod madly. I peered into the water, and my eyes widened. I could just see the silhouette of the fish Jake had on his line. It was huge. Evidently, Brenz had seen the fish as well, because he got up, quickly reeled in his line, set down the rod and held Jake around the waist, making extra sure he wasn't pulled of the pier.

"Alright, Jakey, this is a big one, now-pull, PULL NOW!" he shouted. Jake pulled the rod up into the air, and Brenz suddenly picked Jake up off the ground and held in the air to double Jake's efforts. It almost looked like Brenz was using Jake as a fishing rod. I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of it.

"Reel it in!" Brenz said, and Jake did as he was told enthusiastically. It looked like Jake wasn't the only on taking this a bit too seriously. But then, suddenly, with a final pull, the line snapped. The fish swam off.

Both Brenz and Jake stared into the water for a few seconds, like they weren't sure how to react. Nearby, the float, that was still attached to the fish by what was left of the line, surfaced and floated around as it was tugged along by the fish.

Jake whimpered, and sniffed. He let out a little sob. Brenz however, had something completely different on his face. It was something that could only be described as pure, utter rage.

"Oh no you don't, you fishy bastard..." he muttered, setting Jake down who immediately dropped his rod and toddled over to me, hugging my leg and burying his head in my hip. Brenz pulled off his shirt, picked up the knife we had brought to kill the bigger fish with, put it in between his teeth and dived into the water. I saw a little trail of bubbles move over to where the float was in the water. I felt Jake's head turn as he watched Brenz swim towards the float. And suddenly, it dipped under the water.

After a few seconds, Brenz surfaced, wrestling the massive fish. He stabbed it with the knife.

"TAKE THAT!" he shouted. "YOU SON OF A BI-"

He went under again. I laughed a bit. Brenz was very, very stubborn, as it turned out. He wasn't going to let that fish get away that easily.

He surfaced again, still stabbing the fish. He was closer to the shore now.

"Come on! COME ON!" he shouted, stabbing the fish again. "DIE YOU SILPPERY FU-"

He went under again. And then suddenly, he emerged at the shore, dragging the fish out by its tail fin. It fopped about madly, and Brenz grappled with it, stabbing it with the knife over and over with the kind of rage and passion you might reserve for someone who you have hated for years.

Oh, Brenz. Only you could do that. Only you could look that hot stabbing a fish to death. Only you.

Eventually, the fish went limp, and Brenz fell backward into the sand. He held up his free hand, and gave them a thumbs up.

"...I...I got it!" he wheezed.

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I don't think Aryll knows it, but I know she's been watching me all this time. And I gotta say, it is fucking creepy. I don't think I've ever been stalked by someone before, but I'm seriously not enjoying it.

God damn it, she's staring at me right now.

I don't know what aspect of scaling a fish is so fascinating that she has to stare me down. It's like I've got this big red mark on my head or something that only she can see. It's pissing me off. She probably should have been concentrating on Jake, who was going mental in the sea again. Man, did he love those waves. Shame I couldn't share his happiness, since my good friend here was drilling a hole in the back of my head with her bloody staring,

But...ugh. I can't be bothered to have a go at her about it. I wasted all my anger murdering the fuck out off this fish. He was a fighter, this one. If I hadn't been killing him to death, I would be giving him a pat on the back and buying him a drink. He'd better not go to waste.

It was only then that I noticed it. It wasn't a particularly big boat. It probably could of held about five people max. But it was there, anchored near some of the rocks that skirted Outset Island. With no one in it.

"...Aryll, we got visitors?" I said.

"Huh, what?" she said, snapping out of her little staring-trance.

I pointed over to the little black boat. She squinted at the boat.

"...hmm. I don't think so." she said.

"Well then it looks like someone must of got onto the island without us knowing then." I said, dropping the knife, putting my jacket back on and grabbing my hammer up off the floor. Aryll watched me pick it up, and looked at me nervously.

"I think thats a bit hasty, with the hammer and all." she said. "They might just want to trade or something..."

"If they wanted to trade, they would of made themselves noticed,  the wouldn't of docked all the way over there and sneaked off." Brenz said, walking over to the pier so he could get a closer look at boat. It was jet black, and it had lantern hanging off it. It had a blue flame in it, oddly.

Damn it, if I hadn't gone to look at that boat, I probably would of noticed the bastards before Aryll screamed. I whirled around. There were three of them, all dressed in black, all sneaking up to Link's house. Aryll was staring at them, wide eyed.In a few seconds all of them had swords out. One began chasing were  Aryll down the beach. Some of the other islanders must of seen them as well, because I heard more screams. One of the attackers went after that girl with the pot on her head. I know this, because I heard the pot smash when it hit the floor after she started running.

Oh, goody. I haven't had anything to beat the shit out of in a few days. These guys picked the wrong island to loot.

I ran back down the pier. I saw Jake crawl underneath it to hide, keeping his head above the water. Good. He should be safe until I was finished with these bozos. One of the attackers saw me as I approached; just too late. I swung my hammer at him, and he dodged down and swung his sword up at me. I blocked it, kicked him back, and swung my hammer down at his head.

And then he did something really, really weird.

He kinda, flicked his wrist up at me, and his shadow jumped up off the floor and pushed my hammer away from him. What the fuck was that? The shadows turned into spikes, and went to stab me in the stomach. I dodged, whirled underneath the attack and shoved the head of my hammer into his gut. He doubled over, and fell to his knees. His little trick wasn't going to help him here. I swung my hammer down at his head, and caved his skull in.

One down, three to go.

I heard Aryll scream. The attacker that had been chasing her had caught up with her, and knocked her to the ground. The bastard never saw my hammer coming when I threw it at him. It smashed into his spine, and I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't be getting up from a hit like that.

Two down, one to go.

Where the hell was he?

I knew as soon as I heard his sword coming down at me. I rolled out the way before the blade could hit me. He flicked his wrist. My shadow leapt up, wrapped around my legs, and I face planted into the sand. They could do it to my shadow too? What the hell was this?

I pushed myself up, turned around and he punched my across the face. I felt my nose go snap.

He broke my nose. That son of a bitch just broke my nose. I was going to have to add that to the tally.

I had to get to my hammer. It was still lying next to where it had hit the other attacker. Aryll was running off to her watchtower. Great. At least she'll be all right.

I tried to get up again, but the guy kicked me back down again. He put his foot on my throat before I could react, and pushed me onto my back. He pointed his sword at my head, held it up, and I swear to god that was going to be it for me if Link hadn't suddenly come out of no where and stabbed him through the back. On the first sight, Blondie didn't look like the kind guy who ones a massive sword. He sure as hell didn't look like the guy who could sneak up on some guy and plunge the said sword into his back so it came straight out  his chest. But hey, looks can be deceiving.

He pulled out the door, and I, not being in the mood for having a dead body land on top of me, rolled out the way before it did just that. I saw Blondie looking at his sword quietly.

"It's been a while." he muttered, before, looking over at me. He flinched. "...I'd...take a look at that nose if I were you."

"I looked like it was a beak before hand, mate. I doubt it could be that bad." I said, getting up. I then saw my reflection in the dead attackers sword.

"...actually, yeah. It is that bad." I said, staring at my nose. I don't really want to describe it to you, but needless to say, my nose was pretty fucked.

Tetra came out of the house and walked towards us. She was fussing about Jake or something or other. Blondie was comforting her. People were coming out of there houses and hiding places again and looking around. I was left by the corpse of the guy Blondie had stabbed. I'm pretty sure the same two questions were on everyones mind. Who are these people, and will there me be more coming? I had no idea who these guys were, but I knew the answer to the second question.

There will be more. There's always more.