Chapter Eleven: The Hunters and the Hunted

Lucrus and his troops awoke before the first light of the sun crept over the eastern horizon. The Tyfirians were all very eager to capture their prey, for major Lucrus had confirmed that they were indeed the ones General Ormek sought.

Most of the Tyfirians' horses had been killed or injured the night before by the sarudon. There were only five horses left unharmed and still able to carry large loads, but those horses had been frightened when the sarudon attacked and ran off on their own. The five horses that fled were found in the morning near the canyon entrance. Luckily for the Tyfirians all five horses happened to be packhorses carrying a large amount of their supplies.

The sarudon had also claimed the lives of nine Tyfirians the previous night, leaving sixteen in the squad. Although the remaining Tyfirians wished to stay and mourn for their fallen comrades, they felt compelled to continue on and complete their objective.

The Tyfirians began their march at the break of dawn. They first advanced out of the canyon, which did not take long, and then turned and began to hike up to the top of the canyon wall. As the Tyfirians approached the top of the canyon the path became steeper, narrower, and rockier, making it impossible for the horses to make it to the top. The soldiers then decided to take up the horses' burden themselves and send the steeds back down the path. The trek up the canyon wall was long and strenuous, but that did not stop the former slaves, who were used to such physically demanding activities. At the top of the canyon the ground was very flat and with a few trees scattered about the way, making travel much easier and allowing the Tyfirians to move along their course quicker. Once the Tyfirians had successfully marched past the blockage of boulders hampering the canyon path they began to tie many ropes end to end to make one extremely long rope. They then tied one end of the rope to a tree near the edge of the canyon wall and cast the other end down into the canyon itself. The rope reached all the way to the canyon floor, allowing the Tyfirians to safely descend to the bottom. Two Tyfirians remained at the top of the canyon to guard the rope and make sure it was still there when the others needed to get out of the canyon. Every other soldier followed Lucrus into the depths of the canyon.

Each Tyfirian carried with him his weapons of war and his share of food and water rations. The Tyfirians' detour took them about eight hours to complete, meaning they needed to gain that much time on the renegades before they reached the end of the Shadow Woods lest they would escape.

Link and the others began the day's journey around the same time as their predators hoping it would take the Tyfirians several days instead of just a few hours to find a way past the obstruction created by the sarudon. Nonetheless, they still traveled as fast as they could, however they were slowed down somewhat by Vialla, who had not yet recovered completely from the loss of blood she had suffered the previous night.

The thought of the trek through the Shadow Woods weighed heavily on the minds of each member of the group, but it worried none more than Chiron. All the terrible stories he had been told about the Shadow Woods when he was younger still concerned him, even though he was aware that most of the stories had probably been contrived simply to scare little children. Link was not so much concerned with the woods, as he was with the fact that the group was very low on food and water. They were certainly not carrying enough to make it out of the woods with out finding some way to replenish their supplies.

The march along the canyon floor was long and tiring, but it held many advantages to traveling in the desert. First, the high canyon walls kept the heat of the sun of their backs for most of the day, also the ground was very firm and did not suck their feet in with every step like the sand did.

The group was beginning to feel hungry towards the end of the day. They did not eat anything the day before and had only had little something that morning. The lack of food did not bother Link much, he was used to going long periods of time with out food. Chiron and Vialla on the other hand were used to eating at least two meals every day; still they were able to drudge through the canyon at a fairly speedy pace.

Night came, but the group continued on. Chiron and Vialla wished to stop, but Link forced them to press on further for several more hours during the calm of night. Eventually Vialla could travel no further because of her wound, so Link finally decided to stop for the night. They took refuge in one of the more shallow caves in the canyon wall and settled down for the night. Vialla and Chiron dropped right off to sleep, but Link remained awake and stood guard as his companions rested. After three hours Link finally drifted off as well.

Link was still the first one up, even though he had the least amount of sleep. He awoke the others at the day brake, they ate a very small portion of their rations and drank a bit of water and set out again. They walked on the barren canyon floor for five hours stopping to rest only once, when they came across the entrance to the Shadow Woods.

The trees seemed to abruptly form a wall in the middle of the canyon. A narrow path located in the middle of the wall of trees, led into the eerie forest. Each tree was extremely tall and loomed over the earth as if they were great towers. From the trunks of the trees sprung many branches bearing lush green leaves. The branches formed a thick tangled mess, making sunlight in the woods a rare occurrence.

"Do we have to go through?" Chiron asked nervously as Link began to approach the entrance.

"There is no other way out of the canyon, Chiron," Link answered calmly. Chiron closed his eyes and shook is head before reluctantly following Link into the dark forest with Vialla close behind him. The group traveled for many hours in the dim forest when the path suddenly became very steep and rocky. The canyon walls, which could still barely be seen through the trees, were beginning to come lower to the ground. Link and Chiron were easily able to handle the road's incline, but Vialla was still a little weak and her shoulder was still bothering her making it difficult for her to keep up with the pace of the others. Chiron noticed Vialla was struggling to keep up and hurried back to help her.

"Link," Chiron yelled out, "slow down. Vialla needs to stop for a minute.

Link sighed and called back, "We can not afford to stop, we need to get out of these woods as fast as possible. Besides, with those Tyfirians on our tail every minute counts.

"Vialla can't go any further," Chiron pleaded, "she needs to rest for awhile if she's going to survive our journey through the woods." Link shook his head and walked back to Vialla and sat down with her and Chiron.

Link apologized to Vialla for making her go faster than she was able and explained that he was used to traveling on his own and keeping his own pace. Link actually wished at this point that he were on his own. He felt guilty for dragging Chiron and Vialla into his battle and leading them into the perilous Shadow Woods.

After resting for half an hour the group continued up the path. As they traveled deeper into the woods, the light of the sun broke through the forest eaves less and less. By the time the slope of the path evened out again the tree branches were woven together so tight the sunlight disappeared altogether. Yet in some patches of the forest leaves seemed to glow with a dim green light. The air in the woods was also very stuffy, due to the fact it could not circulate properly because of the thick forest roof.

The group was forced to come to an early halt that night, for once the sun set nothing in the woods could be seen other than darkness. Even if something were standing right in front of a person, they would not know until they ran into it. Link tried to light a torch using a tree branch, but there was far too much moisture in the air. The stagnant forest air soon smothered any flame Link managed to create.

It was evident that the company could not advance any further that night, so the group decided to take some rest. Link was uneasy about everyone sleeping at once so he assigned Chiron the first watch of the night.

"I can't see anything. What good would watching over us do if I can't see anything?" Chiron moaned. "Besides, why must I stand guard, have I not walked just as far as you have today?"

"I did not sleep last night Chiron, and Vialla is still weak and needs her rest," Link retorted. "Furthermore, you will not have stand guard the whole night. I will relieve you before the night is through." Chiron did not protest any further. He sat down on the ground and kept his eyes wide open, while Link and Vialla drifted off to sleep.

"My staying awake will not do us any good," Chiron thought, "If some sort of beast were to come upon us, we would be devoured before I even knew anything was there." Such thoughts were running through Chiron's mind the whole time he was on duty. It was not long till Chiron began to drift off himself. He was about to close his eyes for the night when he noticed a point of orange light off in the trees. Chiron quickly became alert again. He looked around the blackness of the woods thoroughly, but the light had disappeared. Chiron drew his sword and kept attentive. He knew something was watching them. Soon the orange light appeared again, but it was clear there were two points of light not one. It was plain to Chiron that he was looking into a pair of eyes.

Chiron prepared for whatever he saw to attack, but it did not move. Instead he saw another pair of eyes come beside the first pair, followed by another pair and then by dozens.

"Link!" Chiron shouted, waking his companions. The swarm of eyes did not frighten Link; in fact he chuckled when he saw them.

"Those are merely black boes, they are nothing to be afraid of," Link stated. "Just slash them with your sword as they attack and they will fall." Just as Link finished speaking the first boe pounced. Chiron was easily able to slash it with his sword. The boe then fell back harmlessly and evaporated. More boes began attacking from a different side. Still Chiron was able to slay the boes. Then suddenly all the boes attacked at once. Chiron swung his sword wildly and felled many of the aggressors, but there were too many for him to hold off on his own. Chiron was bitten by many boes, but he was not severely harmed. Chiron continued to slash at the beasts while receiving more bites from the creatures. It was not until Chiron slew every last boe that the attacks ceased.

Neither Link nor Vialla had lifted a finger to help Chiron during the battle, for they were both confident he could handle it himself, though he was not experienced as a warrior.

"Thanks for your help!" Chiron said sarcastically as he sat back down.

"I figured it was good practice for you," Link said, "You can take some rest now, I'll finish off your shift." Chiron struggled to sheathe his sword and then laid down right where he sat and fell asleep.

Vialla woke him many hours later. The sun was in the sky again, though they could not see it. What little light had found its way into the woods was now enough to guide them along the forest road. As usual everyone in the group ate and drank a bit and started their long march. They walked for as long as they could before the sun set and the light was completely absorbed by the shadow, resting only when it was absolutely necessary. They continued with this pattern for ten days.

Every so often the band would come across a river. The rivers would have been a problem due to their swift undertow. Had they tried to swim across they would have been dragged so far down stream by the time they got to the other side, they may never have been able to find the road again. Luckily Link's hookshot was just long enough to grapple the trees at the other side of the rivers and bring him safely to the other side. Link would then fire his hookshot at a tree on the side Chiron and Vialla were on and let his end go. The hookshot would then drag itself to the other side of the river allowing the others to use it to cross.

Link and his companions were making good time through the forest, but they used up the last of their food before the end of the ninth day. This was cause for great concern, none of the travelers had eaten enough the whole trip to keep hunger from setting in and they were now out of food and only about half way through the forest.

On the eleventh day, the group heard the howl of a wolfos off in the distance. As the day progressed, the howls of the wolf seemed to be coming closer. When the day ended the cry of the wolf was no longer heard. On the dawn of the twelfth day Chiron and Vialla had trouble getting up. They both craved a decent meal, but their desire for food only made them feel weaker. Link on the other hand would not think of food, he knew thinking of it would only make things worse.

Early that morning a large wolfos wandered out onto the trail. Link quickly drew his bow and strung an arrow. He brought the beast down with one shot. Link quickly skinned the animal and peeled off its flesh and fed it to the Chiron and Vialla. They were both very grateful for the meat, though it was raw, somewhat rubbery, and tasted extremely foul, still it was enough to fill their stomachs and keep them going. Unfortunately they knew that the meat would not be enough to get them through the woods.

The fugitives walked for another hour, when a shrill unfamiliar voice echoed through the woods. "Intruders, why hast thou entered these woods and defiled my creatures. Thine pitiful weapons do not impress me. For behold, I am Sogos, guardian of the Shadow Woods. I shall enjoy gnawing on thy bones."

Once the voice ceased to speak, dozens of vines sprung from the darkness of the woods and wrapped up the three companions. They struggled to break free, but the vines were too strong. Then a larger vine covered in thorns wrapped around all three of them and pricked its prey and let go. The vine's thorns had secreted a powerful sedative, which caused even Link to pass out in a matter of seconds. They all fell motionless to the ground and the vines dragged them into the depths of the woods and away from the path.