"This tunnel will take you right to the Temple entrance," Gor Darbus said, gesturing to a large archway set into the rock. "But before you enter, you will need to give me all of your weaponry and armour."
Linkle gave him a look, "but, you told me that the issues you've been having originate within the temple."
"So, I did," he replied, "But it is a sacred place, and it is also the place of your trial. That means that whatever the conditions may be, you must rely on your own power."
Which meant that her only means of defence was the martial arts training that she had received from the sheikah. It was actually extremely effective, it just wasn't her style. Begrudgingly, she handed over her sword. Once she had finished giving up all of her equipment, Gor Darbus handed her a large ornate key. "This will open the temple entrance."
Linkle nodded her thanks and headed in. Gods, it was hot! Now, she was thankful she had given sheik her mask. It was pretty dark in here, but Linkle thought she could see some light ahead of her. As she got closer, the tunnel opened up, and a long narrow stretch of cliff led to a large door with a crest on it. The crest on it seemed familiar to her, even though she had never seen it before in her life. She peered over the edge. It was a long way to the lava below. Linkle mentally shook herself and went towards the door. The shape of the Goron crest loomed over her, it was surrounded by a fiery circle that echoed the crest of the sage of fire. She put the key into the lock. With a creak, the massive doors slowly opened. As she entered the Temple, she couldn't help but marvel at the inside of it. The stone wall was ornately carved, glowed as magma flowed between their cracks. The floor looked to be marble and had carvings of fire on them, as did the pillars that spanned from ceiling to floor. Two large doors stood at the back of the room. They were almost identical to the ones at the entrance, but the lock on this was different. Two tubes shaped like dragons weaved themselves to a disk that had the same crest from before on it. Linkle recognized this mechanism. It was a lock often used by elemental sorcerers. Why it was in a temple like this puzzled her. The priests that had originally lived here wouldn't have been able to use fire magic, and the Gorons certainly didn't use it, either. She supposed that there was an item of some sort that allowed them to open this. As Linkle examined it, she became aware of shuffling footsteps to her right. She turned and saw what looked like a badly maimed Dynaflos moving towards her. It looked at her with milky eyes and groaned in malic, "L-leave this place. The malice has taken over most of the temple."
Despite herself, Linkle went closer to the injured Dynaflos. "Malice?" she replied back in malic, "how did it get here of all places?"
The Dynaflos looked at her in surprise, it had known something was different about this human female, but it hadn't realized that she could speak malic. Something was very wrong about this female. "The Demon King. There was something here that he wanted, but I don't know what. He wanted the Gorons to give it to them, but they refused. He then sent me here to help change their minds, but they just sent me here."
Of course, it was the Demon King, of course, it was. Linkle frowned suddenly. What about the malice? She couldn't smell it, so that meant that something had happened to it, to render scentless. She asked the Dynaflos about, while at the same time healing its wounds.
"The Demon king cursed this place that made the Guardian Deity, Volga, go mad. I'm guessing he used living malice to do so."
"Living malice?" Linkle asked, confused. She had heard of malice being a liquid and a gas. but, alive? She had never heard of that. Then again she had never seen wounds like this, so what did she know?
"Yes," It replied, "the Demon king found a way to make it alive. It causes anything that it fuses to become a mindless being. It also mutates them."
So that's what the Gorons were having issues with. Damn it! How was she supposed to make any difference? Especially without any weapons or armour. Wait a minute, she could sneak pretty well. That or people were very unaware of their surroundings. It was rather hard to tell which was which. And if logic told her anything, whatever the demon king was after, were behind those doors. She could do this, it was just going to be a lot harder than, she thought it was going to be. She got up.
"W-wait, where are you going?" the Dynalfos cried out, petrified at the prospect of being alone.
"I'm going to explore this place and find a way to open those doors" she replied, her eyes had a strange light in them. Almost as if she had done this before, and enjoyed it each time. Almost.
It rather shook the now healed, Dynaflos. Seeing that there was no stopping her, it gave her a map and compass it had already picked up, "Take this, it will be of more use to than me."
She took the items and thanked him. This would definitely be of use to her, specifically the compass. Linkle didn't know why she didn't already have a compass on her, but hey, she had one now. She examined the map. So, the place that she wanted to go was probably this suspiciously unmarked area on the left-handed side of the map. The area was small, but it was in the shape of a hexagon and a rectangular indent in one side told her that there was a door there. Of course, it could be a broom closet, but she found that unlikely. Going through a door on the left, she wrinkled her nose as she got a very strong whiff of malice mixed with what smelled like rotting flesh. Up ahead, she could see the outline of some massive creature ahead of her. Crouching low against the wall, she carefully went forward. With no weapons, and no knowledge of- what the hell is that thing!? The massive creature that she had seen the outline of turned out to be what looked like a heavily mutated Chu. The thing was a rusty sort of red with black highlights throughout. It appeared to have no arms but had eyes in various places all over its body, some on stalks, some appearing to just barely be connected to the body. And then there was the smell, sweet bloody Nayru it smelled bad! Linkle didn't exactly have the words for it, but if asked to describe it, she would say that the Chu smelled like a redead after being sprayed on by at least sixty skunks. Linkle held her breath as she slipped past the creature. Normal Chus smelled nothing like that, normal Chus actually had a relatively pleasant scent to them. Linkle was very happy when she got to the door she had been looking for. The door creaked when she opened it. Inside, the room was very spacious and it had the same decorations as the main entrance. As she walked to the center of the room, the door slammed shut and was gated. Linkle swore colourfully, she should have known something like that was going to happen. "What do we have here?" Said a cheerful voice from behind her, "why, a young She-wolf is what we have!"
Linkle began to quite literally growl and bared her teeth, had she been her wolf form, her ears would have been flat against her head. She turned around to see an unusually beautiful Flare Dancer. Linkle stopped growling as she watched in awe at how graceful the Flare moved, the flames that it was made of shining all the different colours of the rainbow. It moved like some ethereal ballet dancer.
"Why don't you dance with me, little wolf?" asked the Flare politely, "You really don't have anything else to do since the way you came is blocked."
"But, I can't dance" Linkle replied still in awe of the fire spirit.
"Oh, so the sheikah didn't teach you? Guess that means I get to! What fun!" The Flare began to shoot fiery balls at her feet. Linkle dodges them quickly, snapping out of it. The Flare Laughed and said, "that's it! Keep on dodging! Don't want to get burned! What use would you be if you were burned to a crisp?"
She dodged again. This kept up for what felt like days but was probably no more than two hours time. By that point, she was automatically doing it, and the Flare smiled as she moved. Everyone had their own flair when it came to dancing, and this human was no exception. She had a kind of feral grace to the way she moved, betraying what lay within. The Flare had taught the human's father, and he had been good, even promising. It was sad the way he had turned out, but this human was different. As she danced, the Flare wondered how she would sound if she sang. Would she sound like the hero of twilight, whose voice could be heard late at night, when the moon was full? But, that was not for it to find out; that would be for the Zora Queen to find out. The Flare bowed to the She-wolf, knowing that its job was done. It went out, leaving behind its glowing core. The glow faded, as a fiery stream was absorbed through Linkle's skin. Focusing more on getting her breathing under control, she didn't immediately notice it. Wha-what? It didn't hurt but it was rather weird to watch yourself absorbing the essence of a fire spirit. She conjured small fire in her palm. Well, that's going to be useful, she thought to herself. A grating sound behind her told her that the way out was now open. Yes, finally! Linkle went through the door, once again holding her breath as she went past the Whatever-that-thing-was and went back into the main entrance. She noticed that the Dynaflos was gone. Shame, she had wanted to speak to him more. She turned to the ornate door. Now, if she had thought this through correctly, she should be- Ah ha! The lock on the door began to turn as it was fed a steady stream of fire from her palms. The doors opened. Inside, Linkle thought she could see the sleeping form of a dragon. Carefully, she went inside. Scents assaulted her, painting her vision as many colours as the Flare Dancer. There was the scent of malice, brimstone, dust, grass, earth, and another scent. She began to focus on it. It was similar to the scent of the princess and Hylia. Hylia? Where did that come from? And how did she know how the white goddess smelt like? She shook her head, but she was certain that it was the scent of something sacred. The scent appeared to her as a rather pleasant lavender colour. The dragon snorted and opened one amber eye. Well, it was a good run.
The dragon roared, now very much awake and very pissed off. It lunged at her with one massive clawed paw. Linkle found herself doing a much deadlier version of what she had done with the Flare. Dodge right, dodge left, right, left again, right, nope, left. She narrowingly missed getting gutted by a massive talon. This was going nowhere. What could she use against it? Fire would probably be ineffective, transforming would just get her killed quicker and she really didn't want that. Which left the martial arts. Hopefully, it worked, if not, then hey, at least she died trying. Linkle dodged the dragon's attacks while at the same time getting closer to it. Once she was closer, Linkle noticed something shiny at the base of the dragon's neck. Upon getting close enough that apparently, it couldn't see her, the shiny 'something' turned out to be a weird gem. Talk about an obvious weak spot. Linkle lashed out a kick at it. The gem cracked and shattered. Smoke surrounded the dragon and the scenery changed as the dragon grew smaller. In its place stood a young Dragon Knight. He looked around confused, his eyes fell on the equally confused Linkle.
"Who are you", he asked, "what happened?"
"I am a shifter that originally came to meditate at the spring of power, but ended up freeing you from some sort of curse" she explained to him, "who are you?"
"Volga, Guardian of this spring." Volga replied, "If what you say is true then I am in your debt. If you are ever in critical danger, then I shall come to your aid."
Linkle nodded to him, uncomfortable. She had not expected this. Though, it was rather nice to know that she had someone who would fight alongside her if things got rough. Volga bowed to her before fading away. Well, that was weird. Linkle looked at the spring which had been behind Volga. Going to the edge of it, she sat down and began to meditate.
A soft breeze rustled the grass of the endless meadow. A tree stood at the center of this meadow, standing tall, swaying gently in the wind. Not far from this tree a pure white she-wolf was slowly waking up. Linkle looked around, confused. Where was she? Just a few minutes ago she had been furless and meditating in the spring of power, and what was this place? The smell of it was similar to the spring, yet also drastically different. If she closed her eyes, she could see a blue-silver. There was also an aura of power that seemed to fill the air. Another scent found its way to her. It was almost exactly like her own, yet instead of being a dark green colour (as her scent had the tendency of being), it was the same colour as the sacred smell around her. Linkle followed it. The scent led her to a white wolf with blue and red markings on his face. One blue eye, one green eye; same as her. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I...am..you" The wolf replied with a deep sadness in his eyes.
"How are you me? I am neither male nor am I a sacred beast such as yourself" Linkle said wondering who the hell this wolf was, and(most importantly in her opinion) why he was saying that he was her.
"In a past life, you and I were one and the same."
Okay, this guy was obviously off his rocker. Also, past lives? The hell!? Linkle was aware that her haunches were raised and that she was growling. The wolf (though, he did look remarkably like her) was still looking at her with that same sad expression. It was starting to get on her nerves. Just like how this place seemed eerily familiar, even though she had never been here before in her entire life, was getting on them. But, the past lives thing... there was some truth in that. So far the wolf had not lied, though Linkle wasn't putting any rupees on that. There were ways to lie without actually lying.
The wolf could tell that the young she-wolf in front of him wasn't believing a word he was saying. Perhaps it hadn't been such a great idea to tell her the truth outright. "I am an echo of the one known as "Oni". You are the hero reborn. In a past life, you used me to defeat Majora a second time" hopefully that would help her believe him, if not? Well, there would be more chances.
Oni..? Linkle was unsure of what to think of that. But "hero reborn"? No, she couldn't be. The hero was only born ten to twenty years before the darkness came, and she had been born the exact year of when Hyrule fell to the hands of Ganondorf. Not only that, but she wasn't what she called heroic. She was a wolf, a beast, a monster. She fit right in with all the other monsters that now lived among the humans. No, she wasn't the Hero, and if she was? Then the goddesses have made a terrible mistake. She was damned, just like the rest of her family. Once, the name 'Lukami' would have made her prideful. Now? All she could think of was what had happened to her father. "Wolven children of the moon," indeed. "I am no hero," Linkle said to the wolf, "I am a monster. You are heavily mistaken."
The wolf bowed his head to her.