"So where are you from?" Link asked me
"I'm from Bright town... I was told that it's very far away from here." I said
"After we save Hyrule, we'll go find it together." he smiles
"Really? You're so nice Link." I smile back
"Ah, I just like helping people." he blushes,
"Still... now the worlds counting on you..." I said
"Counting on us." he corrected.
"I don't know how much help I'll be..." I frown, as links expression changes like he had an idea. he stops walking and grabs his bag,
"You can use this!" he said pulling out a slingshot from his bag then handing it to me. "with this I can fight people with my sword and you can cover me." he smiles
"Okay." I said holding onto the slingshot tightly and then continue walking. we make it to a gate and enter, there were loud sounds coming from the road ahead and our curiosity gets peaked and we head over arriving in Kakariko village. it seemed like some sort of party is happening. there were people singing and dancing in the streets.
"What are they doing?" I asked
"It looks like a festival." Navi said
"Let's explore before heading up Death Mountain." Link said
"Okay!" I said and we explore the town. we found me a pair of boots and there was a booth where I could practice using the slingshot. We also danced with villagers,
"Did you hear that Death Mountain has been sealed off?" I hear one of the towns folk say
"Really? why?" I heard someone else
"Apparently it came from orders higher up..." he responded
"By who?"
"That guy Ganondorf." I quickly grab Link and pull him to the side
"Link I just heard the path to Death mountain is sealed," I said
"What? We better hurry then!" link said as we head up a path with a sign saying leads to death mountain, but after a ways we're blocked by a gate and it's under guard. we walk up but the guards quickly stop us.
"Go back kids, Death mountain has been sealed off by order of Lord Ganondorf." one soldier said.
"What should we do now?" Link asked
"Link, the letter Zelda gave you." I said and he pulls the letter out of his bag and shows it to the guards.
"That's a letter from princess Zelda!" one of them said with shock.
"We're under orders from the princess, please let us pass." I said standing up straight and Link follows my direction.
"V... very well, you may proceed." the man said as the gate opens.
"Thank you," I said as we both walk slowly through the gate then run passed with grins on our faces.
"That was so cool!" Link praised as we start making our way up the mountain, "You were so calm!" he laughed
"Thanks," I laugh, then I see a four legged creature with one eyeball jump out at us taking us by surprise.
"What is that?" Link yelled as we both jump back,
"It's a tektite! Pura use the slingshot and hit it in the eye. that should stun it long enough for link to strike." Navi said
"Okay..." I said readying my slingshot ant aiming at the eye of the tektite then letting go and it hits the tektite right in the eye and it collapses unable to move. Link quickly walks up and strikes it with a final blow and then the monster disappears into nothing.
"Good job Pura!" Link said and I smile, we continue our way up Death mountain and find the Goron Village and hesitantly enter and discover the atmosphere is the exact opposite of what we saw at Kakariko village not that long ago... it felt lifeless and dark. A large boulder rolls in front of us and we move out of the way but before it passes us it stops moving. The boulder pops open showing that it was actually a rock person with arms and legs rolled up into a ball. This must be one of the Goron, a race of rock people?
"Who are you?" it asked
"I'm Link and this is Pura. We've come to get the sacred stone for princess Zelda." Link said
"Why is that stone so popular?" the Goron mumbled to himself, "Come, Daruina is the one you want to talk to." he said getting back into the shape of a ball and rolls away, he rolls quick so it's difficult to keep up with him. we get to a lower chamber where we see another Goron, but this one is a lot larger in size and has a long beard and his hair seemed to defy gravity. he's sitting at the far side of the room meditating.
"Who are you?" He asks
"They want the sacred stone of fire." the other Goron said as he stands up and looks down at us... I feel very small.
"I am Daruina, leader of the Gorons, tell your master Ganondorf he will never get his hands on the sacred stone of fire." he firmly said
"W... we don't work for Ganondorf..." I said
"We're here to stop him." Link said
"You two kids are going to stop him?" he stares at us then laughs, "I needed that... it's been so long since I've laughed." he said with a gentle smile,
"Why is that?" Link asked and he frowns,
"Not but two days ago that man Ganondorf came here and asked for the sacred stone of fire, I refused to give it to him. Them that request became a demand and not long after that a threat. He sealed the path to our food supply and has put a horrible monster called King Dodongo there to prevent us from gathering food." Daruina explained
"That's horrible!" I said
"Ganondorf had made his demands clear... the stone for our food." he said as link makes a face like he has an idea,
"We'll open the path and get rid of the monster!" Link said as I look at him shocked
"We will?" I asked
"C'mon! I know we can! we have to help them, Ganondorf can't get away with this!" Link said enthusiastically.
"If you really think we can do it Link then let's do it!" I said, I felt my chest feel warm again similar to when I stood up to the Gerudos who took me.
"Normally I would never allow for children to venture somewhere so dangerous... but we're desperate... If you can truly enter the cave and defeat the King Dodongo then we'll talk." he said "The entrance of the cave is sealed you'll need to use bomb flowers to clear your path." he explained,
"Thanks," Link said and he turns around to leave, "Let's go Pura!" he said running out,
"I still feel like this is a bad idea!" I yell chasing after him.
"Have more faith! we beat the Tektite didn't we?" he said
"I'm pretty sure something called King Dodongo is going to be much bigger that that Tektite..." I argued,
"You worry too much." he said with a smile then laughs... I could not tell if he was really brave or really thick headed... we get to the sealed entrance that Daruina talked about and we find a nearby bomb flower.
"That's a really weird flower..." I said
"There's nothing like this in Kokiri forest." he said as he grabs the bomb flower from the bottom and attempts to pull it out of the ground but it doesn't budge, "It's too heavy!" he said and I kneel on the other side and with our combined strength we're able to lift the bomb flower and we carry it over to the front of the cave and run as fast towards a nearby boulder and behind it. Link puts up his shield above our heads to protect us from any debris. We hear the explosion followed by sounds of pieces of rock bouncing off of the shield. Link takes down the shield and we both stand up to see what happened. The entrance of the cave is now clear.
"Ready?" Link asked and I hesitantly nod and we enter the cave slowly. it was very dark and out of fear I grab onto Link's shoulder. "You scared?" he asked
"So are you..." I said
"No I'm not!" he said
"Then why are you shaking?" I asked as he looks away embarrassed,
"I'm shaking because I'm excited.." he said as I take his hand,
"Then let's do this!" I said pushing through my fear and we continue forward,
"It's hard to see..." Link said
"There's a torch over here!" Navi pointed out, she glowed brightly in the dark which made it a little easier to see. Link grabs the torch Navi showed us and it was pretty big.
"Do you have something to light it?" I asked
"No..." he said as we both sigh then continue our way in the dark. then through the darkness we see a light ahead and we see two torches lit showing an entrance to another room. Link reaches the unlit torch into the flame to light it.
"Let's keep going," I said as we head deeper into the cave we're constantly harassed by bats on our way until we reach an roof the center filled with lava.
"Man it's hot!" Link complained
"Where's King Dodongo? this is a dead end..." I said as we head loud stomping behind us and we both turn around to see a large monster larger than the door we just entered the room from staring at us with fire in its eyes.
"You still think we can defeat that?" I asked as King Dodongo curls into a ball and rolls towards us at alarming speed.
"Move!" Link yells grabbing me and we run towards the wall and get as close to it as we can just barely avoiding his attack, the King Dodongo continues to roll until is crashes into the wall, but it reacts like nothing happened.
"It didn't even get hurt..." I said
"It's armor in impenetrable!" Navi said
"Then how do we beat it?" Link asked as I look at the bomb flowers,
"It's armor is on the outside... but not on the inside!" I look at Link as the King Dodongo walks over to us and opens its mouth and begins to charge an attack that I can only guess would kill us. Link and I both run over to the bomb flower and work together to pull it out of the ground then we use all of our strength to throw the flower bomb into its mouth and King Dodongo swallows the bomb. We hear a muffled explosion and then smoke starts to come out of King Dodongo's mouth before it collapses and falls into the lava. We look at one of another in awe before we grab each other's hands and smile.
"We did it!" We both cheered. we happily make our way out of the cave very excited about what we just accomplished,
"Thank was really quick thinking Pura." Link said
"Well it's your quick reflexes that saved us." I responded and we both just keep smiling at each other. we were both so astounded at what we just did that we didn't have words.
We finally make it out of the cave and get a breath of fresh air. We both take a deep breath, but then we're surprised by a loud thud behind us we quickly turn around.
"It's me Daruina! Well done! Thanks to you we can once again eat the delicious rocks from this cave until our stomachs burst! What a wild adventure! It will make a great story! You two risked your lives for us." he smiles. "I like you," he said putting his hands on each of our shoulders. "How's about we become Sworn brothers, and sister?"
"What does that do?" Link asked
"No, there's no big ceremony involved. Just take this as a token of our friendship." he said handing Link the spiritual stone of fire, I was mesmerized by the stones glow and once again the mark throbbed like it did when I saw the spiritual stone of the forest... but it wasn't painful. I'm not sure Link even saw my mark when we first met so I'll keep it a secret for now...
"Just one to go." I said
"Brother, you and sister be sure to visit and get stronger." Daruina said
"We well, thank you." Link said as we finish our good -byes and head down Death mountain.
"What does it mean to be sworn brothers and sister?" Link asked me and I shrug, "Oh well, not to find the last spiritual stone!" Link said
"Let's ask around Kakariko Village." Navi suggested and we agree and head back to town.
We arrive back in Kakariko village and the festival has ended but the liveliness of the town has not died down. we ask around town to discover a race called the Zoras and that their domain resides somewhere upriver but none of the people we talked to truly knew exactly where .
"It won't hurt to check it out," I said as we both agree and head towards the river, on our way there we both start to get hungry just as we stop in front of a farm called Lon, Lon ranch. there was a sign for something called Lon, Lon Milk and we head over to see what it was about. the ranch was large there was a house and across from that was a barn, we continue down to find a coral where a bunch of horses are running around,
"Can I help you?" a girl our age with red hair and a long dress walk up to us,
"We saw the sign," Link said
"Oh! wait here I'll be right back." she said leaving, and we sit down and watch the horses play and Link takes out his ocarina and begins to play an upbeat happy song. a baby horse comes right up to Link happy to hear the music, Link and I stand up.
"Hey there," Link said reaching out to pet the baby horse and the horse comes right next to his face and rubs against his,
"She likes you." the girl came back with two bottles full of milk,
"She's cute!" I praised petting her mane. "What's her name?" I asked
"Epona, I'm surprised she warmed up to you two, she usually doesn't like people." she said holding out the bottles of milk. we take the bottles and open the tops and take a sit,
"This is really good!" Link said as Epona comes up again and rubs her nose against his cheek, "That tickles!" he laughs,
"So where are you from?" she girl asked
"We're from the forest," Link said as she notices Navi
"OH! well I'm Malon, it's nice to meet you." she said with a smile and Link blushes,
"It's nice to meet you Malon, I'm Pura and this is Link," I said as he looks away and drinks more of the milk, I couldn't help but giggle.
"Well you're welcome here any time." Malon said with a smile, "That way Epona has someone to play with."
"Thank you." Link said handing me his empty bottle and starts running around with Epona.
"You can keep those bottles, we have plenty here." Malon said
"Ok," I said putting the empty bottles in my pouch,
"So where's your fairy?" she asked as I look over seeing Navi following Link,
"I'm a little different," I said
"True, I mean your ears are so small..." she pointed out. My ears must look very strange to Hylians.
"Yeah..." I said as Link runs back up looking ready to go,
"C'mon Pura! we gotta get going." Link said
"Thank you for the milk and letting us play with Epona," I bow,
"You're welcome, I hope to see you soon." Malon said and we say goodbye to her and Epona before we make our way up river.
