Chapter 10: Never Hopeless

…

Link had to take a bit of time to pull his thoughts back together into a coherent mind. He managed to set aside his blur of emotion toward his ship and crew so that he could focus on his new task: survival. He pulled off the blanket covering the closed window so that the setting sun could provide a little more light through more than just the broken door. This allowed him to find what looked vaguely like a fireplace. It was a raised construction made of brick with a chimney to the outside. Link looked it over for a moment. And then he found a small stock of coal in one corner of the single-room building, which he concluded was a house. After he raked the coals already in the fireplace only to discover that none of them still held any heat, he used a small shovel to add more to the fireplace. Then he loaded a red flare into his gun and aimed directly into the sand-like pit left exposed from underneath the pile of coal. When he fired it, the resulting blast sent up coal, ash, and sand that nearly blinded him. He backed away and waited for a moment. Once he was sure it was safe, he looked to find that the red flare had ignited the coal into a decent fire that lit the room better. So he covered the window again and set about figuring out how the blanket had gone over the door.

Irleen had watched him in silence. Once Link had released her from his hat, she had spent a few minutes watching Link sob on the floor. For that time, she had felt shock and sympathy and, if given the opportunity once more, might have dropped to the floor and cried along. Link suddenly getting to work afterward had jarred her a bit, and she was not sure if she should say anything. Her own mind gone, it felt like an eternity before she finally got up the courage to talk once more.

She waited until Link had succeeded in replacing the blanket over the door, which helped to cover the sound of the wind outside. "They're gone," she said in a hollow voice. "Aren't they."

"What?" Link asked, his breath heavy with the effort he had put in. But once his mind had processed her words, he took in a couple deep breaths and located her hovering above the window. "Oh." It was all he seemed to get out.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

Link stepped closer to her and leaned his shoulder against the wall. "Wait, probably."

"For what?"

"I saw th—" Link quickly cut himself off when a sob attempted to escape his throat. He sniffed and pressed his fingers into his eyes as he tried to suppress the urge to cry. The effort seemed to choke him; he thought he would throw up. But he swallowed the taste in his mouth back. "I saw… I saw the ship disappear from the island," he said in a shaky voice. "The dust made it hard to see. They're still around."

"How can you be sure?" Irleen asked.

"They've had… two years to become good airmen," Link asserted, more for his own assurances than for Irleen's. "They're strong. They're smart. Leynne will bring the ship back."

Irleen sighed. "Okay, Link. If you say so, I believe you. So… we wait."

Link nodded as he shoved himself away from the wall. "If this…" He trailed off as he tried to articulate the conditions outside. The howl of the wind and the rattling of the door and window seemed to illustrate what he could not say. "Irleen, did you notice anything strange about this wind before it picked up?"

"No, Link. But… it doesn't seem natural."

Link dragged his feet to a low-sitting bed that had been placed along an adjoining wall in front of the door. He sat down on the edge and stretched his legs out. "I kinda got that same impression. Winds have never gotten like that on any of the islands back in the kingdom. But, if that's so… what caused it?"

"Well…" She hesitated as she fluttered toward the middle of the room. She sighed and said, "Maybe it has something to do with that… that dark thing blocking off the technoworks."

"How?"

"The technoworks are capable of controlling the Sky Lines. It would take a lot of time, but it wouldn't be completely out of the technoworks' abilities to call up a storm."

"Something only a Grey could do?" he suggested.

Irleen had to pause for a moment, and Link thought he knew why. A Grey was a Sorian magician. In particular, a Grey was someone who could control the technoworks with precision and detailed knowledge of the system's intricacies. Link had a limited understanding of the technoworks, and he could only ever use it to affect the Sky Lines with Irleen's help. He had barely been able to use the technoworks to restore the Sky Lines two years ago when Cunimincus' crew had been causing havoc for the kingdom. There had been one Sorian, a Grey named Lutock, who had escaped and thwarted his demon captors by using the technoworks under Bold Island to find and (rather gruesomely) kill them. He had almost done the same to Link and Layna out of ignorance of their intentions. Now that Link was remembering, he realized that the technoworks under Lutock's control had changed to black. Granted, there had still been some shred of light to them, but was it possible that the technoworks on this island were under a similar influence?

"Maybe," Irleen finally answered. "It's hard to say. But if there is a Grey here, then he's been here for a long time. We wanna be careful if we find him."

"And what if it isn't a Grey?"

Irleen sighed. "I don't know. It… would mean that something else might have access to the technoworks." She paused, and then she added, "But that's all assuming the storm was caused by the technoworks. There's no way to tell one way or another."

"I can think of a way. The wells on the east side."

"The underground river…"

Link nodded and glanced at the door. "But, I don't think we'll be getting to it tonight. We're lucky the wind didn't knock me over the edge."

"But it shoved the Symphony away," Irleen pointed out. "You're telling me a whole airship can get pushed away, but you managed to stay?"

Link allowed himself to smile. "It's all about wind resistance. I was low to the ground; I was even lying on the ground when it got heavy. The wind can't do much blowing against my shoes. The broadside of an airship is a much larger surface to push against. Aaaand I probably had at least some luck on my side."

"And… you're sure the ship wouldn't have gone down?"

Link nodded his head. "If Leynne lowered the sails in time, the ship won't have capsized. The ship is also bottom heavy because of the engine and all the spare parts in the orlop. They'll be all right." He took in a deep breath. "As soon as this wind dies down, they'll be back."

"It's too bad we couldn't explore a little more."

"I'm not arguing," Link said as he removed his boots. "My legs are tired. Between the walking around and the running… my legs feel like jelly. I think I prefer to rest here for now." He glanced around the room. "I… guess there isn't anything to eat around here."

"Only if you're a Goron."

Link rubbed one cheek as he stared at the pile of coal. "Yeah, I don't think I have the teeth for it." He looked around a bit more. "I don't think anyone's lived here for a while."

"Where are we, exactly?"

"Uuh… one of the houses on the outskirts, I think. I'm not sure. It was a little hard to see. All that wind kicked up a lot of dust. Probably from that building Biluf accidentally took out."

"Near where we docked?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I was just thinking… when the ship comes back, they might see the smoke from this fire and find us here."

Link nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Especially since no one else here seems to have a fire burning in the middle of the day."

"You think this wind'll last all night?"

Link pushed himself backward into the wall. "Not necessarily. I'm just thinking I might sleep here for the night. And maybe hope the fire lasts that whole time in case they get back before I wake up."

Irleen fluttered over to the window and squeezed past the blanket. When she came back, she said, "It's still early in the evening."

"That's fine. I can use the extra sleep anyway." He gave a chuckle as he added, "It'll probably be the only quiet evening I'll have since we left the kingdom."

"Iiii don't know, Link," Irleen teased. "The crew's pretty good at finding you when they cause trouble…"

Link let his back slide against the wall as he lay down on the bed. Then the pouch on the back of his belt jabbed his lower back, prompting him to sit back up. "Whoops," he said. He scooted back to the edge of the bed and started removing his belts. "I probably don't wanna fall asleep with all this stuff on me."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"You can get some sleep, too, can't you?" Link asked as he propped his sword against the foot of the bed.

"I guess…" she replied as she looked around.

"Sorry there's no small bed for you."

Irleen moved over to a narrow table opposite of Link and started pushing some of the cloth and paper fragments out of the way. "That's okay. I think I'll manage."

"If you say so." Link snapped open his bracelet and placed on the sword hilt. Then he stretched out and flopped onto the bed.

Pak! "Owwww…" Link groaned as he sat back up. He reached underneath what he thought was a pillow to find a wooden block. "What the…?" Irleen giggled as she settled into a pile of paper. "It's not funny, Irleen."

"It was a little."

Link flopped back onto his back and examined the block in the firelight. "You know… this must be the only block of wood on the island. We haven't seen anything else made of wood. I wonder where this came from…"

"There're still probably trees somewhere on this island, Link. They might have just preferred to do thing with stone and bricks."

Link shrugged and dropped the block onto the floor nearby. He let out a yawn and stretched out again. "You settled in?"

"About as much as I expect."

"Good night, then."

Irleen gave an exhausted sigh. "Good night, Link."