"VISCEN!"
Once again, the old guard and bomber leader were being stopped by someone else who had recognized him and wanted to 'catch-up' or warn him of Dotour's behavior. Jim was getting tired of it, five times they have been stopped, and they JUST made it outside of the damn town gate. He had debated leaving the soldier behind; he had waited long enough to do something about the rain.
"I DEMAND THAT YOU STOP!"
Viscen's eyebrow cocked wondering who in their right mind would speak to him in such a manner. He too had originally assumed it was an old acquaintance, but seeing a guard running at him had told him otherwise. The guard wasn't armed, at least readily, and was completely out of breath. Viscen recognized him as his replacement. "What are you doing here, Shiro? What do you want?"
The captain caught his breath, "Only to talk, old friend," Viscen relaxed, "Dotour wants you gone…told me to capture you and put you in the sewers. He's completely convinced you're against him."
"What is that man's cause to believe such a thing? There are no sides in this besides this town and the monsters of the swamp and…whatever is causing this blasted rain. What does he believe I'm after?" Viscen question, his mind was boggled as to how someone who used to be of great standing could have fallen so low simply through paranoia.
"His office," Shiro said simply, "His town. He's under the belief that you're using the crisis as an opportunity to take his spot."
"Has he gone completely insane! I've done nothing to make anyone think that I wanted his seat! I've been running my ass around all over Termina to stop this mess and he thinks it's for his office? Son of a bitch!" Viscen was wildly swinging his battle spear, throwing a tantrum. Jim had never seen him lose his cool like this before.
"So? Do you plan to take Viscen?" Jim asked. Viscen was occupied with his current rant.
"No, of course not," Shiro stated, "I'm not so stupid as to detain one of the few people left trying to save this town. However, know that when Dotour finds that I disobeyed his orders he will send someone else to do the job. Just be careful, with whatever you're doing."
"I'll have his back. Thanks Shiro," Jim's thanks was half-hearted. Just because this man warned them that Dotour's actions had become worse didn't mean he forgave Shiro for bending to that madman's will. But, at least for now, it seemed even Dotour's allies were falling apart. It boded well for the soldiers actively searching for ways to stop this would-be disaster, but not for Clock Town. If it's guards didn't wish to protect their commander, what would be keeping their will to defend the town. It seemed that civil war was on the way. No one could afford that right now…
Jim watched Shiro return through the city gates. By then Viscen had relaxed and the duo began to make their way to the snowy peak to the north.
After two days of hiking the swordsmen reached the secluded goron village. The hike was tough, but they travelled during the cool nights. Thankfully, winter ended long ago so no snow made for an easier trip. They met some gorons along the way, making sure they were headed in the right direction. The ones they met seemed friendly enough. They acted a little strange, probably due to the weather and these ones looked to have become accustomed to the rain. When the gorons talked they acted as their usually happy dispositional selves, but why they went back to whatever they were originally doing their attitude changed to a depressed tone. Both Jim and Viscen could tell why, the only big source of their entertainment was ruined, their home was flooded in areas surrounded by higher elevation. The gorons are fire warriors, of course they would be depressed in a land of water. When they reached the village it looked as though they were packing up, as if to leave for someplace. Jim ran up to one of the villagers.
"Excuse me? I'm sorry to disturb you, but what's going on here?" Jim asked.
"Oh! A Termian! Not a whole lot of you come up here to visit us. Figured you all packed and left too…Anyway we're leaving this mountain. The rain and rumblings from Snowhead have us beat. We can't live here anymore." The goron explained.
"What! We're here to help now. You can't just give up!" Jim pleaded.
"What do you expect us to do?" the goron took no offense to Jim's comment, his actions showed that he had long since submitted to the natural disasters, "If there was something that could stop all this, I'm sure the tribe would be willing to help, but I don't see any way to get that done."
Viscen stepped in, "The tremors are coming from Snowhead right? Point us in the right direction and we'll take care of it from there." The goron pointed up a recently built path for easier access to the temple, but warned them that there was no way for them to get there without a guide. All Viscen said was a we can manage and they left without another word to the goron.
Travelling on the path was a lot tougher than Viscen had imagined. It was nasty, unleveled, and above all wet. The rain wasn't helping either as it went from a decent drizzle to a heavy downpour. Still they trekked on, determined to find a clue or the cause itself.
Left turn. Dead end. Right turn. Dead end. Straight. Dead end.
"What the fu-!" Jim started, "Who's idea was to make this place so freakin' huge!"
They continued trying to find any path they hadn't taken already.
"You feel that?" Viscen stopped. Jim was gnawing on the food from the pack. He didn't understand why the old soldier stopped. Just then he could feel rumbling beneath his feet. Jim dropped the bone he'd been gnawing on. He figured out what was going on right before a boulder tumbled over the canyon wall and screamed downward at them intending to crush the two. Viscen braced as his instincts told him to, and Jim jumped out of the way. Viscen, though his eyes were closed, could feel the boulder bearing down on him, but it never hit. At first he'd thought it missed him, but he was so sure that it was right on top of him. He looked up, a fine dust now radiating around where the boulder was. Ahead of him stood a goron, still rolled up. The goron stood and faced him, it was the one they spoke to in the village.
"I told you. You need a guide." He simply stated.
"Did you do that? Save me, I mean."
"Of course, I won't have blood on my hands. I showed you the way, now it's my responsibility to get you two back to safety." The goron explained.
"Sorry bro, we aren't going back," Jim spoke up.
"You have too! It's too dangerous! We've lost enough family as it is. We don't need strangers dying for us too," the goron said.
"We're doing this for the good of Termina. Not only for the Gorons, but the Zoras, the Dekus, the citizens of Clock Town! We can no longer afford to not act. Something has to be done. Every day the rumblings get worse, the waves get closer, and the swamp spews more foul creatures that wish to drag our villagers away! We've decided to start here. Now move aside." Viscen threaten the goron.
"I…I think that, maybe I should go with you both," the goron realized, "Maybe it's fate that I met you two today. I was about to give up on this place, but it's my home. Seeing everyone's faces when the elder said we were leaving…I just…can't bear it. Let me accompany you! I can hold my own against the weak creatures of Snowhead! You won't need to worry about my well being."
Viscen turned to Jim, "What do you think?"
"Well I have three reasons why we should bring him. One, he's a goron. Two, he's a goron. Three, he's a freakin' GORON. But, seriously we obviously need a guide. I'm sick of hitting dead ends." Jim reasoned.
"Good point, James," Viscen approached the goron, "Alright, Mister Goron, I cordially invite you into our party, but we'll need a name,"
"The elders named me Pyrus," the goron stated.
"Well Pyrus, lead the way,"
Within minutes they reached the temple.
"Why couldn't you do that?" Jim joked.
"Shut up," Viscen replied, annoyed.
They made their way to the top of the temple. Pyrus was the first to enter, the other two stopped in the first room. The temple was freezing contrary to the temperature outside. The ice was still thick on the walls. Pyrus came running back into the first room.
"The temple!...It's frozen! Completely!"
Sure enough the entire main column was frozen to the core. Maybe water had been collecting at the bottom and it slowly built up to fill the whole room with ice. Unsure of how to proceed they felt tremors below the temple. It seemed like they were coming from the chasm underneath the temple…the volcano?
The trio rushed out of the temple and looked out over the chasm. As if to confirm their thoughts another tremor erupted out of the void. It had to be the volcano. For months it had been building, trying to erupt and burn the surrounding areas.
"I have to take a look down in the chasm," Pyrus said.
"You're kidding right?" Jim asked, "There's a volcano ready to erupt and you want to get closer to it? That is the dumbest thing I hav-" Pyrus decided Jim's comment was unnecessary and jumped down the sloping hill to the bottom, "And there he goes…" He looked at Viscen, "Shall we?" Viscen shrugged and the two of them jumped down the hill after Pyrus.
It was not a fun ride. The rocks and stones made for a bumpy ride all the way down to the bottom. They met up with the goron at the end. He was studying the mound of earth that served as a plug for the inferno below.
"It still has some time. I'm surprised it held out this long though," Pyrus discovered.
"Great! Can we leave now? There's something unsettling about being burned alive that makes me uneasy. I don't know, maybe it's just me?" Jim replied sarcastically. Viscen chuckled.
"We really should be going though, Pyrus. It's still not-" Viscen cut-off. A cavern in the side of the cliff caught his eye, "What's that?" He pointed it out to the other two. They climbed up the side of the cliff wall and reached the cavern entrance. It was dark and the air was extremely hot, almost unbearably.
"Have you ever seen this place, Pyrus?" Jim asked.
"No, I had no idea it was down here," Pyrus said exploring the new place they had found. The group continued deeper into the cavern. A red glow permeated the depths of the cavern. Following the red glow they found a red orb, glowing brightly within a pool of magma.
"I seems…unnatural. I looks like it's giving power to the volcano," Pyrus explained. It did have strange pulses running throughout the pool. Pyrus began to wade out into the magma.
"Pyrus! What are you doing?" Viscen asked.
"Let's see what happens when I do this," Pyrus reached down into the pool and pulled the orb out of the lava. The mountain seemed to tense up and then…nothing. The pulses stopped, the lava seemed to relax, and the tremors…well that part was too early to tell. Pyrus brought in back from the lava pool.
"What should we do with it?" Pyrus asked the two.
"Let's just get out of here first. Being inside a volcano is still freaking me out," Jim stated.
After two hours they found their way out. The odd thing was that there were no tremors coming from the mountain during those couple of hours.
"You think it's over?" Jim asked tentatively.
"That was…remarkably easy," Viscen stated.
"Let's smash this thing in celebration!" Pyrus exclaimed.
He placed it on the ground in front of them. Viscen and Jim let Pyrus do the honors as it appeared as though the orb had been cause him and the villagers all of their problems. Pyrus brought a mighty fist into the orb and it shattered effortlessly. The rain stopped instantaneously. They all looked at the sky, wondering if what they were seeing was a dream. Surely the rain was only playing a trick, but after a few minutes it hadn't continued. The trio celebrated, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting. The sun's rays poured through the once dark skies and returned to the land. Unfortunately it was short-lived.
A red mist emitted from the orbs remains and wafted into Viscen's pack. Odd stares were given to one another and Viscen removed his backpack. The tablet he had found on his earlier trip was attracting the mist. Letters on the tablet were filled in:
The Goddess wish for us to worship them?
They are deluded.
Never will we, the architects, of the great Stone Tower,
Bow to such insolent beings
This tower will reach the heavens
And we will invade the Goddess's Realm
Destroy us? Such an ironic name to give a land.
But we will prevail…
The rest remained in the ancient language.
"What is this? It seems like a letter or a journal," Jim reasoned.
"Destroy us? The Goddess wanted to destroy them? What land did they name?" Viscen asked.
"Termina?" Pyrus suggested.
"Termina? Why…wait. Ironic? Termina..." Jim was babbling.
"What's wrong James?" Viscen was a little worried of the look of fear growing on his friends face.
"The people who built the Stone Tower were the people we descended from, Viscen. They wanted to destroy the Goddesses according to that journal. What if Termina was given that name by the Goddesses to be affiliated with the word destroy? To get back at us, as their revenge,"
"What word would that be?" Pyrus asked.
"Terminate." Viscen realized.
"It's an ironic name. The moon and now this crisis. Viscen, regardless of whether or not we've fixed things this time…" Jim stopped, afraid to continue,
"Termina was always meant to be destroyed,"