Chapter Sixteen: Back to Cyntir

Because of the rapidly melting ice and snow, Link's journey out of the Frozen Fortress took only a fraction of the time the journey in had taken. Link made his way from the base of the mountain to the fortress wall in just over three hours. Link left the fortress through the same gate he entered and made his way back through the woods. Before long Link found himself at the same beach he landed on nearly a week prior. He returned to the beach hoping against hope he would find Chiron and the others, but when he arrived he found no sign of them. He ran up and down the beach in search of them, but they were nowhere to be found. However, Link did not find any trace of the Tyfirians either. The mercenary wondered if another one of their ships had picked them up.

Link sighed after an hour of searching for his lost companions. He knew he was not going to find them, now he feared their blood was on his hands. Link did not dwell on the probable death of his companions for long. Instead he diverted his attention to finding away off the island. Finding away back to Cyntir was his highest priority. With Balris's ship lying at the bottom of the ocean, Link was in desperate need of a boat. As Link was walking along the shoreline on his way back to the forest, he noticed a mass of washed up wood. As Link examined the wreckage he realized it was part of Balris's ship. There was quite a bit of the ship's wood on shore, enough for Link to build a small raft using some of the ship's rigging, which was tangled up with the discarded planks from the ship.

The raft was primitive and possessed no steering mechanism, but it was the best Link could do with the few materials he had. After Link finished building the raft he made his way back to the forest. The forest was made up mostly of palm trees, many of which had large coconuts growing on them. Link spent a while using his boomerang to knock the coconuts off the trees and gathered a sizable hoard and brought them back to his raft. Link would have brought some of the coconuts with him to the Blizzard Temple, but they were simply too large to carry effectively.

Once Link got back to his raft he cracked open the shell of one of the fruits and drank the milk inside. Because of the amount of liquid in each coconut Link did not have to worry about taking any water with him. The warrior then used one of his knives to cut out a piece of the fruit and he gladly gobbled it up. The sweet coconut was a pleasant change in taste in contrast to the awful raw wolfos meat. Link made two more trips into the forest to gather coconuts and then he set out on his way back to the mainland.

It was night by the time Link pushed his raft off from the island. He used one of the smaller planks to paddle his craft out to sea and fight the waves pushing him back to the Frozen Fortress. Link paddled his raft out until the waves no longer threatened to pull him back to his starting point. He then stretched himself out on the raft and fell asleep. He did not get much sleep though. Minutes latter something hit the raft hard and caused Link to tumble into the water. Link snapped awake as the salt water poured into his shoulder wound. Link screamed with pain and searched the water for what threw him overboard. He could not see anything so he started to swim for the raft, but something grabbed him by the foot and pulled him under the water before he got far. Once his head was underwater he saw it was a zora that pulled him under. Link looked at the zora for a moment and realized it was the same one that killed Calrith.

Link drew a knife with a six-inch blade from his belt and swiped at the zora, but Shrion let go and swam away. Link quickly made his way back to his raft and pulled himself aboard. He then wrapped part of the rope that held the planks together around his wrist and stayed low. Seconds later the zora jumped out of the water and on to the raft.

"Greetings traveler," the zora said with a bow, "I am Admiral Shrion of the Tyfirian navy. You are here by under arrest for entering into restricted waters and the destruction of two Tyfirian ships." Shrion eyed Link carefully and laughed. "The other Tyfirians said the one who destroyed my ship had undoubtedly drowned or frozen on the island. How glad I am that I decided to wait for you instead of heading back to the mainland like the rest of my crew. Otherwise I would have never got this chance to kill you. The others said I was crazy for waiting and left with your little friends. Now your fate will match that of your companions." With that Shrion dove back into the water.

A short time later the raft was hit again, but Link was tethered to his craft and managed to hang on. Shrion hit the raft two more times, but Link held fast and prevented himself from going overboard. When he failed to knock Link of the watercraft the zora threw himself on to the raft again. He popped out of the water with his sword drawn, he immediately brought his weapon down on Link, but his blow was deflected by Link's shield. Link then drew his sword and took a swing at Shrion, but the zora jumped back in the water before he was struck.

Link determined he could not beat his opponent with his sword alone, so he sheathed his blade and drew his bow. He waited for Shrion to strike the raft again and then he drew his last arrow. He carefully tracked the zora and waited for him to ram the raft again. As soon as the amphibious man charged Link fired his arrow, which struck his target in the back. Shrion surfaced moments later and cursed at Link.

"That's for Calrith!" Link yelled.

"Agh, you won't get away with this," the zora cried. "You may have gotten past me, but your little friends are doomed." The zora coughed and blood spilled from his mouth. Link pulled him out of the water and held his knife to his enemy's throat.

"What have you done with them?!" Link demanded. It took every last ounce of his self-restraint to prevent himself from quickly slitting the throat of the man responsible for the death of Calrith, one of the only people Link considered a friend, albeit not a very close friend, but as close of a friend he had.

"Ha," Shrion chuckled, "We captured them as soon as they made it to shore. They were taken aboard one of our ships shortly after."

"What do you plan to do with them?!" Link asked coldly as he tightened his grip on his knife.

"We have strict orders to kill anyone we find out her," the zora replied weekly, "I wouldn't be surprised if they are already dead. And it's only a matter of time before you join them."

"You will be dead much sooner than I will," Link said as he watched the blood pour rapidly through Shrion's wound.

"Ha," Shrion laughed, "I have no regrets. I just wish I could have been the one to take you down. It doesn't matter though, you can't stop the Tyfirians now. By now our ground forces have no doubt taken the Strait of Cyntir. It won't be long until we topple the last Cyntirian stronghold."

Link tightened his grip on his knife and pointed its tip at Shrion's throat. He contemplated slitting the zora's throat. "He deserves it," Link thought to himself, after all he and his men had killed countless innocent bystanders passing through the Strait of Cyntir. However Link could not bring himself to do it. In a way Link pitied the man, he was like the rest of the Tyfirians, he was only following orders. The zora then began to twitch and stopped breathing. Link pushed the body off the raft and collapsed on the deck and slowly let out a deep breath.

"They are dead," Link thought to himself, "they are dead because of me." Though Link was deeply disturbed by the news of the capture and imminent death of his companions, he still drifted back to sleep rather easily. After all, he had not slept in days.

Link awoke with the dawn the next morning. He immediately began paddling with a northbound bearing. The whole day he dwelt on how he let his companions down. He kept beating himself up about not going back to the beach after the shipwreck. He knew he could have saved them, but it was too late. All Link could do now was make sure he defeated Ormek.

Towards the middle of the day, Link removed a needle and some green thread from a pouch on his belt. He used the thread to mend the tear the ice demon ripped in his coat in the Blizzard Temple. The stitching was a bit sloppy, but it was sufficient to repair the mercenary's coat. Link always kept a sewing kit with him at all times, for his clothing was constantly torn in battle. He had repaired his clothing countless times and it showed. Hundreds of stitches held Link's only set of clothes together.

Link propelled his raft forward for nine days. The journey bored Link out of his mind and he was amazed when he found himself longing for the companionship of Chiron and Vialla and even Balris. Link usually did not like having other people around including people he liked. Ever since he returned from Termina, he never liked being around others in any circumstance. He simply preferred to be alone. Link could not believe how attached he had become to his comrades.

During the rest of his journey Link frequently went over Admiral Shrion's last words. He said the Tyfirians had captured the Strait of Cyntir and that the last Cyntirian stronghold would soon fall. This meant Ormek was close to destroying Cyntir and Link was running out of time to complete his task. Link's awareness of his rapidly shrinking window to defeat Ormek allowed him to row his raft with the speed of five men, but his progress was severely inhibited due to the primitive structure of his craft.

Before the end of the ninth day of rafting, the Cyntirian shore came into view. At that time Link wondered why he had not run into any Tyfirian ships. When Link left Cyntir on Balris's ship, there had been many ships patrolling the waters which he and his group had to avoid, but this time he did not find any. Link soon beached his craft and began to travel along the coast heading eastward.

Two hours after sunset, Link saw East Port Town over the horizon. He ran the rest of the way to the city, hoping to find an inn he could spend the night at, but when he arrived, any thought a sleep vanished from his mind. East Port Town was void of life; there was not a single soul in the streets or in any building, however the streets were riddled with the bodies of hundreds of Cyntirian soldiers. Many of the smaller buildings were lying in heaps, some of which were on fire. Link peered inside several of the buildings in search of people and supplies, but he found neither.

"Ormek must be behind this somehow," Link thought to himself as he continued to search the abandoned city and navigate his way through the slues of lifeless bodies. Most of the carcasses wore armor and it was apparent that the majority of the dead hylians were soldiers. As Link delved deeper into the city he noticed many more smoldering buildings, but fewer corpses. By the rubble of one of the decimated buildings he heard the faint moan of a man. He immediately began digging through the rubble to find the source of the noise. Before long he uncovered a man whose legs had been crushed by the ruined building.

"What happened here?" Link asked the man.

"The Tyfirians," the man uttered. "Th...th...they attacked a few days ago. From the north. We tried to defend ourselves, but then. Then. Then the ships landed and unloaded another army. We never had a chance."

"Are there any survivors?" Link inquired with a soft voice.

"The...the," the man pointed northward but did not speak again. Link checked the man's pulse, but it was gone the man was dead.

"I am too late!" Link yelled and slammed his fist into the ground. A single tear rolled down the warrior's cheek as he slowly lifted himself to his feet. He looked north to Tyfiria and said in an exasperated voice, "I have failed!"

"No," Link thought to himself, "The rest of Cyntir may still be standing strong. If I can defeat Ormek there may yet be some hope. I have to find out if the rest of Cyntir has been conquered." Link did not know much about the geography of Cyntir, but he did have a general idea of where the Cyntirian capital was. It was somewhere in the northeast corner of the nation. Link figured if any Cyntirian city still stood it would be the capital.

Without further hesitation, Link headed north out of the city. The hero was worried that he would arrive at the Cyntirian capital too late. After all, the city was at least two hundred miles away and he would have to go the entire distance on foot.

Fortunately, Link did not have to walk the whole way. Soon after he left East Port Town Link found a Cyntirian horse, which had run away during the battle at the city. Luckily the horse was not frightened of Link and he was easily able mount it. The horse had not been harmed in its escape and it also carried with it all sorts of food supplies.

"If I did not no any better, I would swear this horse was sent by the gods," Link said. "This is the end of the road Ormek!" Link yelled as he kicked his horse in its side and rode off.