Hey. Sorry it took me so long to update. First of all there was a lot of work involved with the end of the school year, and then we went to China for two weeks. And when I got home, my computer was misbehaving. I already started this chapter once, and it deleted it. Luckily I hadn't gotten too far when it was erased.
So, I'm not going to spend too much time on the dungeons. That would take too long. Something tells me you won't be too disappointed. Oh, I did add a little more detail since a few people requested it. And by the way, I will make Link talk. That doesn't mean just shouts and grunts. That means actually communicating. It should be interesting to try and make Link talk after knowing him as a mute for so long…
Chapter 10: Monkeys and Boomerangs
Link quickly put his new sword to use as we continued on our voyage. We were attacked by some strange mutant Venus flytrap. Apparently it's called a deku baba. It's a good thing I helped him get that sword. Otherwise he'd be pretty chewed up by now. We stopped by at the lantern guy's house-the guy we saved from twilight bugs. He was perched near a fire with a jug of oil next to him. What a weirdo. Imagine letting your hair get so overgrown that birds start to nest in it… Well, either way, he gave us the key to get into the forest and Link refilled his lantern with oil. This time we didn't have to dig under the gate. Link just used the key to open it. Back through the long dark tunnel and we again emerged into the misty part of the forest.
But how would we get across the fog this time? He wasn't a wolf any more, so I couldn't help him jump across. But as Link was holding his lantern out in front of him, suddenly a monkey darted out of the bushes and snatched the lamp right out of Link's hand. It held the lamp above it's head on the top of a branch and swung it around wildly. Then it turned around and waved at us, like it wanted us to follow. A monkey?
"Hey, what's this monkey's problem?" I popped out of Link's shadow and glared at him accusingly. "You idiot! While you were staring off into dreamland, your lantern got stolen!"
Imagine! A great hero letting a monkey get the better of him! Just because he was busy admiring the purple fog! Useless human.
I hopped back into the shadows, deciding to let Link get his lantern back on his own. To my dismay, instead of attacking the monkey, he followed if into the thick of the fog. But somehow as she wildly waved the lantern around, the light chased away the mist and clear a pathway. The monkey was actually guiding us through the mist? How strange. She led us all the way through the fog, leaving us to get rid of a few monsters on the way.
And when we reached the other side of the wood, the monkey dropped the lantern and hopped away down the path. Well, at least we got the lamp back, even if it was out of oil.
We raced back towards the forest temple, but Link skidded to a halt just before the pathway to the entrance. The reason for this was obvious. Barring our way was a wolf. A golden wolf with only one eye-a red eye.
The wolf crouched down, ready to launch itself at us. Link drew his sword just as the wolf lunged. It struck Link, and he fell to the ground. No sooner had the boy fallen that the golden wolf vanished.
Just as I was starting to think that Link had been hurt, he stood back up again.
"What on earth happened?" I asked.
Link glanced down at his shadow, where I was still hiding. "It was a ghost. He taught me the ending blow."
"What is that?" I asked.
"A sword technique."
"Really. Well, let's see it then."
Link hesitated. "Um… okay." He drew his sword again and jumped into the air, bringing the blade straight down into the ground. If it had hit an enemy, it wouldn't have lived long. As it was, the sword sunk deep into the soft soil. He tugged at the hilt trying to pull it free. I popped out of his shadow and fell over, laughing. He tugged several more times and finally dislodged the sword from the earth.
I rolled over, clutching my sides and laughing like crazy. "You… should… have… seen… yourself!" I gasped between laughs. "The great hero sticking his sword into the ground! Hee hee!"
Link glared at me and wiped the dirt off the blade, stowing it back in its sheath.
When I finally got my breath back, I returned to his shadow and he walked up the pathway, grumbling darkly about me and the stupid stalfos ghost that had taught him that sword move.
Back at the giant tree trunk, we found that the entrance was now clear. When we got inside the temple we were reunited with our little monkey friend. And the next couple hours were spent following her around in a wild goose chase as she had us free a bunch of her monkey friends that had been caged by monsters. Who would bother to cage a monkey anyway?
During our little game of hide-and-seek, we met up with the monkey boss. He attacked us with a strange boomerang that could create a small tornado-the Gale Boomerang. He was in a strange room with a ring of columns in the middle. He jumped from column to column while hurling the boomerang at us. Link found that if he rolled into the column the monkey was standing on, he could knock the monkey boss off balance and he'd get hit by his own boomerang as it made its return trip. When he fell off, Link would slash at the monkey with his sword. In the end, the monkey boss's big butt was his undoing. As the monkey hopped around in pain after Link's sword had its say, he crashed into a column and a weird bug fell off his head. That bug had been controlling him and had made him behave… badly. But the monkey boss quickly came back to his senses, and he fled from us in terror. But he left the boomerang behind so we were able to make use of it throughout the rest of the dungeon.
Talk about strange. We met a chicken creature with a human head. Apparently her name was Oocoo. She says she'll be helpful, but all she looks like to me is some freaky mutant creature. Well, we'll see. We may end up needing all the allies we can get.
At one point we could go no further as we faced an immense chasm that stood between us and the Fused Shadow. We'd have to find a way to get across it.
So we decided to rescue the rest of the monkeys. And once we'd rescued all of them, they all went to the room with the chasm and climbed up a branch and hung upside down, holding the ankles of the monkey below them. They'd created a chain of monkeys! They were going to help us cross the chasm that lay between us and the first fused shadow!
Link bravely leapt off the platform and grabbed the hands of the bottom monkey. They swung us across the chasm and we entered the final room where the boss lurked.
We were in an immense chamber. In front of us lay an acidic pool with a few bomb bugs perched on floating logs. Suddenly, two enormous deku baba heads erupted from the water. It was Diababa, the monster set to guard the fused shadow.
Link sprung to action. He used the Gale boomerang to catch a bomb bug, and then the wind carried it into the mouth of the first Diababa head. It groaned and sunk beneath the acid lake. The second head lashed out, trying to swallow Link whole. He quickly dodged and aimed the boomerang again. A second bomb was forced into the open mouth of the monster. And it too sunk beneath the water.
Was that it? That was easy!
But wait…
Suddenly, something else burst out of the water. Those two heads weren't the only part of Diababa It was huge! The enormous bulk of the monster appeared. There was a third head in the middle of the two others. And there seemed to be a sort of eyestalk inside of the mouth. That eye looked vulnerable, but there were no more bomb bugs. They had sunk under the water as Diababa had reemerged. What could we use to hit that monster?
The two other heads lashed out at us. Link dodged. But suddenly a familiar sound rang throughout the chamber. A monkey. The monkey boss was back! And he had brought a bomb bug! It looked like he wanted to make up for attacking us before. He swung across the chamber by a vine, holding out the bomb bug for us to catch. Link carefully aimed the boomerang, but missed. It was hard to time the monkey's swing for the boomerang to catch up with him. Finally Link caught the bomb bug with the boomerang's whirlwind and brought the explosive crashing against the side of the monsters middle head. It roared in pain and collapsed in front of Link, who promptly slashed at the exposed eye with his sword.
It quickly regained consciousness and spewed acid at us from its mouth. Link barely leapt out of the way in time, but some of it did singe his sleeve a little.
One more bomb and another series of slashes were all it took to destroy Diababa. It flailed around, screaming out its dying breath, and then shriveled away.
Link did a dramatic victory pose with his sword. The remains of the monster exploded into twilight squares, which formed themselves into a welcome shape. They had become the fused shadow.
I laughed and hopped out of the shadows, taking the Fused Shadow in my twilight hand. "Well done! That's… what I was looking for. That's a Fused Shadow." He'd earned the right to learn what they were called at least. "It's what the light spirit called dark power. Do you remember what that spirit said? About how you had to match the power of the king of shadows? Could it really be so easy? Is this all there is to it?" Fighting a few monsters was nothing. We could do this easily!
"There's a total of three Fused Shadows," I continued. "I think the other light spirits have the rest. If you want to know exactly what Fused Shadows are… Well, maybe I'll tell you if you find the other two. I guess you'd better do your best to find them, huh? Eee hee hee!" I sure wasn't going to tell him about the power of the Fused Shadows until I had them all. I still didn't trust him completely, and I didn't want him taking the other two for himself.
I pulled the Fused Shadow safely down to hide with my twilight hand. "So, let's not waste any more time here when we could be looking for the other two. I'll get you out of here." I created a portal to take us back outside. He stepped into it, and the two of us warped back into the sunlight.