The Legend of Zelda

Chapter Seven: Crescent Tower

Traveling a great distance through the northern part of the Eastern Forest, Link remained on guard in case more of Ganondorf's Moblins attacked. However, none appeared as the terrain became less flat, and he was getting bored by the time they reached the hills. This meant that the tower was close, but what the young man really wanted was more action. Agahnim was always so careful, and wanted to plan out everything ahead of time, including their staged robberies like the one they had done earlier. Link, however, was a man of action, and loved the idea of a quest like the one given to them by Impa.

To him, that was what a hero's life was all about; action, excitement, and traveling the world. The idea of never staying in one place was appealing to him, as was never settling down, and simply doing heroic deeds every day in order to make rupees and buy food. His robed wizard friend, though, had silly ideas about saving some of those rewards so that he could someday buy a permanent place to study his magic. Studying was fine, since magic was what Agahnim used in situations like the ones with the Moblins, but it was also incredibly boring.

"Is that it?" Agahnim asked, interrupting his thoughts. "There… up ahead."

Link looked through the trees, and there was something on top of the hill up ahead; green like the leaves, but missing anything resembling a trunk. The two of them moved closer, climbing over large roots and ducking under fallen logs, until they reached it. The tall, stone structure stood higher than everything around it, but thick vines were growing all throughout, and its green color came from a combination of leaves and thick moss. Massive roots had also been growing around it, and in some cases had burst right through the stone in order to continue on their path.

"This should be easy." Link said as they looked at it. "Just teleport us to the top, and then we'll search for this chest on the way down."

"No teleporting." Agahnim replied. "Look at this place, Link, the roots have pulverized most of the base walls, and now it looks like they're the only thing holding it up. So if we reappear standing on the wrong spot, the whole thing might collapse."

Taking a second look at the old and neglected tower in front of them, there was no way to argue. For a moment he considered climbing up the outside wall, using the roots and vines as a kind of ladder, but Agahnim's way of thinking probably applied to climbing as well. The main entrance to the tower was right in front of them, at what was left of the base, and the door appeared to have long ago rotted away. This meant that they could just walk right in… but so could anything else that happened by.

"The front door it is, then." The young man said while taking out his boomerang. "All right, let's go find that chest."

Thanks to the windows and other holes in the wall, there was enough light to illuminate the entire first room when they moved through the doorway. Everything in this place smelled like dirt and moss, mostly due to the fact that there was so much around, but this was all that they saw. There were no Moblins waiting for them, much to Link's disappointment, as most of the first floor had collapsed under nature's assault, leaving them nowhere to go but up to the second level. More of the same awaited them as they reached the top of the stone staircase, with the exception of bits of rotted furniture scattered about.

"It's a shame they allowed a place like this to be forgotten." Agahnim commented as they moved into the next room. "The historical value alone would be enough to… Link, stop moving… Link, stop!"

With his friend's words becoming both quieter and more urgent toward the end, Link stopped in his tracks. He was about to ask what was going on, but then he saw the problem, and tried to stop breathing as well. It was a Rope… not something to climb with, but a fierce yellow python that inhabited the darker parts of the forest. It also happened to be poisonous, but thankfully this one appeared to be sleeping, hence Agahnim's warning. It remained motionless, coiled up with its eyes closed, and the young man would have slowly moved away, if he hadn't seen the others.

They were all over this room, some of them on the floor, and others on what remained of rotted shelves and chairs. One bite of these things was known to cause severe pain and sickness, and neither of them wanted that, so they very carefully started back the way they came. So far their plan to retreat was working as step by step, they moved back toward the door. Maybe there was another way around, but Link had no more time to think about this when he accidently stepped on a piece of wood, making a loud crack echo throughout the tower.

Suddenly the nearest Rope's eyes snapped open, and it was purely out of reflex that Agahnim was able to hit it in the face with a fireball when it leapt at them. The burning python shrieked as it fell to the floor, and now the hiss of multiple stirring creatures could be heard around them. Being predators, the Ropes quickly moved to block their path, with even more pythons coming up the stairs from below, leaving them boxed in.

Link's response was to throw his boomerang, not as an attack, but as a distraction that flew above the pythons' heads. A good number of them leapt up in failed attempts to catch the flying weapon, but the distraction would not last long, so Agahnim grabbed his friend's arm before vanishing. There had been another door on the far side of the room, and this was their only option for escape, so he risked teleporting with Link, and thankfully the tower didn't collapse when they reappeared.

"Run!" The robed wizard yelled.

The boomerang returned to Link's hand a second later, and with it came the Ropes who had been chasing it, forcing the young man to follow his advice. The next room curved around toward another staircase, but the young man had to dive sideways to avoid another leaping python, causing him and Agahnim to separate. More Ropes were after him almost instantly, leaving him no time to even stand up, instead scooting and rolling across the floor to get away. Soon he was cornered, forced to use his boomerang as a sword to smack them away, along with a piece of metal that his other hand came across.

The pythons hesitated a bit once he started smacking them with both weapons, but there were so many of them, that he was completely surrounded by the time he was back on his feet. This tower must have been some kind of major nest for the creatures, and of course they had walked right into it, but that knowledge didn't help him when the creatures started becoming bolder because of their numbers.

"Hechizo!" Agahnim yelled.

There was a small burst of light on the floor in front of him, and when it faded, several of the Ropes had been replaced with gelatinous Bots, just like what had happened with the Moblin. Then the ropes, no longer recognizing the transformed creatures as their kin, swarmed over them, entering a feeding frenzy as the robed wizard repeated this spell a couple times. This sustained use of magic seemed to be taking its toll on Agahnim, since he was now sweating and breathing heavily, so Link ran over to his friend and pulled him by the arm to continue their escape.

Of course, escape was probably the wrong word for it, since the staircase took them to the third level of the tower instead of toward the exit, but anything was better than being swarmed by those Ropes. However, the pythons seemed to give up when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Leaping off of them as if in pain, the creatures remained on the second floor, hissing angrily at the two adventurers for several seconds before slithering away. The young man wasn't sure why this was happening, but whatever the cause, it gave the two of them a moment to sit down on top of the stairs before moving on.

"Good job being quiet, Link." Agahnim said while catching his breath. "Next time why don't you just ring the dinner bell?"

"Hey, we're still alive, aren't we?" He replied, also panting. "Boy, I thought I was a goner when they surrounded me… good thing I found this… hey, look at this."

Now that he had a chance to examine the piece of metal he found on the floor, he discovered that it was no ordinary junk, but a small metal shield with the crest of Hyrule on the front. He figured that it must have belonged to a Knight or something back when this tower was in use, and it easily locked onto his forearm as if it had been made for him. Well, he had always wanted a sword and shield, and now he had achieved half of his goal, but he somehow doubted he would be lucky enough to find an old sword in this place as well.

"Good find, Link." Agahnim said sarcastically as he got up. "I'm so glad we came here today."

"Oh, will you lighten up?" The young man asked as he stood up and followed him deeper into the third floor. "The Ropes gave up, and who else but us could get past them, so the worst is over."

But the worst was not over… not by a long shot. Upon leaving the staircase and walking into the next room, the two of them discovered why the pythons had given up the chase. It wasn't because they were tired or outmatched… it was because of the massive and thoroughly armored three-horned beast that was standing in the center of the open chamber. Bones of several Ropes as well as another skull that looked human could be seen littering the floor around the beast's large feet, and it let out an annoyed grunt when it spotted them.

"How did something that big get up here without destroying the tower?" Link asked as they looked at it. "Oh well, let's kill it."

"Link, wait." Agahnim argued while grabbing his friend's arm. "That's a Dodongo… we don't have anything that can hurt it… but it can sure hurt us."

The young man was getting so tired of being cautious, and he was sure that they could defeat the beast once they came up with a plan. Maybe they could lure it away, or maybe set some kind of trap, or… or maybe they wouldn't need a plan at all, once he saw what his friend was carrying inside the pocket of his robe. It was one of those exploding devices that he used so many of their rupees to make, and with the holes he had seen them make in solid rock, he was sure they would be effective on the Dodongo.

"Nothing to hurt it, huh?" He asked as he grabbed the device. "Let's see how it likes a taste of this."

"Link, no!" The robed wizard yelled as he tried to get it back.

But it was too late; the young man tossed the device at the beast, and as expected there was a powerful explosion of fire and smoke. The beast roared as it was engulfed, but then the whole tower started to shake as the roots and vines embedded in the walls began to move. No, it wasn't the plants that were moving… it was the walls, as if Crescent Tower had been shaken loose from the only things that were still holding it up.

They tried to make a run for it, but it was too late. Huge cracks were making their way across the walls and floor of the neglected tower, and then the floor fell out from under them. The levels of the tower collapsed one by one, starting from the top, and kicking up a cloud of dust that spewed out of the front entrance like a fog bank until there was nothing left to collapse. After being forgotten for hundreds of years, Crescent Tower had fallen, and all was quiet as the smoke slowly cleared.