Link's island shot into the air like a rocket. As it whizzed through the ceiling, it abruptly stopped, causing Link to rise up a little. As he recovered from the shock, he realised that he was just about in a different room. Just in time, he stepped forward off of the island. As the lava roared deafeningly in his ear, he ran forward to escape the racket. Finally, the noise stopped as Link's island fell back into the main room.
There was no turning back.
The boy looked around the room. True to Medli's word, there was a big fancy door up a wide flight of steps. Also as she'd told him, there was a little moat of lava blocking entry to that door. A giant, gold, circular lock with small spikes around the lip was chained to the front of the door.
He took out the grappling hook out of his bag and looked for the pillar that was supposedly above the moat. Sure enough, an ornate pillar hung sideways above the obstacle, The middle was made of wood for grappling purposes.
"She was right. Great." Link headed to the moat and prepared to swing over but suddenly, a cracking shriek came from the lava. Link hurriedly shoved his grappling hook in his bag and pulled out his weapons.
Before his eyes, a charcoal coloured monster crawled out of the lava. Parts of it glowed magma-red. It had a massive amount of legs, with a crushing set of mandibles that resembled antlers. It looked like a fiery centipede x stag beetle hybrid, but Beedle wouldn't want that thing on his boat if it was the last insect on earth.
Link faced the monster as it hissed. The two circled each other as the fire on the monster flared to life. After a solid half-minute of circling, the beast finally spread its mandibles. As it clamped forwards, Link leaped into the air and plunged his sword through it's head, causing it to instantly crumble into dust and leaving Link's sword stuck in the floor.
Link retracted his sword and put it away, gasping a sigh of relief, but that wouldn't last long. He still had a very dangerous task to do to even get close to curing Valoo. That was…
SWINGING ACROSS A MOAT OF LAVA TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE.
Link looked down at the bubbling lava that separated him from the end of the cavern, Link pulled out his grappling hook once more and coiled it up. He began to swing the hook around and around and around before finally letting go, making sure to throw his arm along with it for more accuracy. The rope coiled around the wooden part of the beam above him before the hook itself buried into it. The boy yanked on the grappling hook hard. It was stuck fast.
"Here goes!" thought Link, holding his breath.
With that done, he jumped up and began to swing. Gliding over the pit of lava, he sharply pulled on the rope at the other end as it unraveled. Suddenly, the rope pulled free from the pole and Link landed safely on the other side. He headed up the stairs to the big door with the giant lock. The lock itself was much larger than the one on Medli's cage but as he got closer, he realised that the keyhole was the same size. Link removed the key necklace from around his neck and shoved the key into the opening.
The key was a perfect fit, just as predicted. The lock clattered as Link turned the key sharply left. Suddenly, spikes that were on the lip of the lock started to spin wildly.
They spun
and spun
and spun
and spun.
Link tapped his boot against the floor.
"Come on! I haven't got all day!" Link put his hands on his hips as the lock spun and spun and spun before it broke off with no warning. The lock landed clean on top of him.
CLANG!
Link pushed the large lock off of himself and shouted in frustration as the door rose open by itself.
"Yes! We were right!" Link got up and ran through the door before it could shut itself.
The room was large and domed. The walls were made of rock and the floor of black sand. A large, circular pool of lava lay in the middle of the room. Wooden boardwalks jutted out from the walls.
Link looked up and almost had a heart attack when he saw something red and long snaking down into the room. Yelping, he whipped out his sword and shield before he realised that this was not a giant snake but a tail of some kind. It was red and scaly like some snakes, but it had two hooks on the end rather than a face, presumably for holding Din's Pearl. Fin-like growths hung down the sides of it. Unfortunately, it seemed to be trapped in solidified Lava.
"That must be Valoo! This must be the Queen's room!" deduced Link. He was amazed. If Valoo's tail was so bright and colourful, Link just HAD to see the rest of him.
Now was no time to be amazed, though. If this was the Queen's room, that must have meant that she was in here somewhere.
Suddenly, the whole room started to shake. Waves rippled from the pool of lava ahead of him. The rumbling got closer and closer and closer to the surface of the pool. Link wobbled at the force of the shaking room as suddenly, a giant figure cloaked by lava rose out of the pool very quickly. Globules of lava shot towards Link as he dodged, ducked, dipped and dived out of the way. As the lava slid off of the snarling shape, it turned it's massive, single eye onto the boy.
The monster raised its head into the air and shot a jet of fire upwards with a horrible shriek, shaking the rest of the Lava off and torching Valoo's tail. Valoo let out a deafening wail, almost as loud as the monster.
"So, you're the Queen, are you?" Link took his sword and shield off his back. "Time to make a royal mess!"
With all of the lava off of the Queen, Link could see that she looked like a giant version of the centipede x stag monster he had encountered earlier. She had a large number of legs and body segments, also bearing resemblance to a scorpion. She had a tough looking exoskeleton, so Link's sword would likely not have any effect. Upon even closer inspection, she looked exactly like the statue in the main room.
"What do I do here?" mused Link, but as he was deep in thought, the Queen raised a giant pincer into the air. That pincer probably was probably sharp and powerful enough to cut a sheet of metal clean in two. Link glanced at the looming threat before he dove out of the way.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact shook the ground and sent Link involuntarily bouncing into the air.
The Queen growled, lifting her claw out of the ground and leaving a large furrow where it had landed. Link looked around the room for anything that could be damaged. His eyes focused on her electric blue one.
Link knew exactly what to do. Taking his grappling hook back out, he whirled it around and hurled it at her eye. A massive eyelid slammed shut, deflecting the attack.
"I have to get rid of that pesky armour!" panted Link. He looked around the room to consider his options, but there was nothing near hard enough to break through her defences.
The monster raised her claw into the air with a piercing screech once more. Link clamped his hands over his ears and ran out of the way as fast as he could.
Instead of slamming it down, it started clamping on Valoo's snaking tail. The dragon roared in agony as the monster bit it, clawed at it, swung it around and slashed at it like a cat playing with a ball of wool.
"It's trying to get Din's Pearl!" thought Link as he watched in powerless anger. He got his breath back and took out his grappling hook once more. Now that the monster was distracted, Link had a good shot at hitting her eye.
Link swung the grappling hook, aimed it and hurled it straight at the monster. Noticing just in time, the Queen dropped down to avoid the projectile.
CHINK!
The grappling hook had grabbed something! Link held on with both hands and pulled as tightly as he could, but in a second he found himself lifted from the ground. He had missed the Queen's eye entirely.
HE HAD HIT VALOO'S TAIL.
The boy shot into the air and swung over the monster as she spat burning charcoal at him. Link was now swinging by Valoo's tail over the armoured colossus as it slashed at him furiously. Valoo thrashed his tail madly, letting out deafening bellows as he shook Link around like a hanging mirror ornament. Link did not dare let go. He needed this grappling hook to beat the Queen!
Finally, the grappling hook came free and Link shot across the room and into a wall. He slid down the wall and slumped onto one of the boardwalks hanging from it. His back was hurting from impact, his arms were feeling very loose because of all of the hanging. His head was spinning from the… well, spinning. His whole body felt like it was on fire, as if the Queen had hit him point blank with fiery breath. Speaking of her…
The Queen looked at him with a sadistic grin before opening her mouth. The inside began to glow a fiercer and fiercer shade of orange. Link's goose was cooked and he would be too if he didn't get out of the way. By now, Link had resigned himself to being campfire food. He couldn't move out of the way because of his weariness, so he just looked down and braced himself for the fire.
The Queen's fiery breath charged and charged and charged, with the sound of a furnace with the occasional cracking noise.
Wait, 'cracking noise'?
Valoo thrashed his tail wildly as the bedrock surrounding it came free. It fell through the air like a plate off a shelf and smashed the Queen right on the head.
SMAAAAASH!
The Queen's eye rolled around in its socket like a ball on a treadmill before she sank down to the floor with a horrible cracking noise. Her armour splintered more and more and more until she disappeared into the lava with the bedrock.
Link climbed down the wall and looked into the depths of the lava. The Queen showed no signs of coming back up. He was alive, yet because of luck.
Link remembered that his sister was still imprisoned and that spurred him to climb down the rock wall. After excruciating movements, he finally reached the bottom.
"Was that crown too heavy for you?" taunted the boy as he turned to leave.
All was not over, however. With not even a rumbling ground to tip him off, the monster came smashing back out of the lava. With her exoskeleton smashed, it was revealed that she was made almost fully out of lava. Her head was the only solid part of her, which was a giant eye socket with two massive mandibles attached to the side. Looking at it now, her eye was a lot bigger than it looked when she had her armour on.
Here's the problem: Link could not beat this thing in his weakened state. Instead, he dug in his bag and pulled out his Picto Box.
"Right, if I take a photo of the monster and show it to the Rito, they can follow me with an army of appropriate soldiers!" Link put his eye to the magnifier that showed what his photo looked like and then snapped a quick photo. Looking over it, the photo was very clear and the Queen's whole body was distinctly visible.
Link nodded in approval, turned to the exit and sprinted for it, but a set of bars slammed over them just as he got there.
He was trapped.
With no alternatives, Link turned to face the Queen before him as it screeched and hissed in absolute fury.
She lunged forwards with her mandibles to try and chop the boy in half. Ducking out of range, Link jumped at her eye for big damage. The monster leaned back just in time, almost making Link fall into the lava. She slammed both pincers on either side of him and began lighting up her fiery breath. Her pincers were too tall for Link to climb. He was trapped twice. All he could do was watch as the Queen's fiery breath sprang to life and roared through the air like a flamethrower.
Link screamed in agony as the flames engulfed him. He bent down to cover his earlier injuries but by the time the assault stopped, he was badly burned all over. He felt like burned toast. The Queen monster cackled manically as she raised her pincers in the air for the killing blow.
Fire in his eyes as well as on his clothes, Link began spinning his grappling hook. As the monster leaned in, Link let it loose. The rope and claw flew through the air and perfectly latched onto the monster's eye. It shrieked and screamed, spitting hot charcoal everywhere but Link did not flinch when they hit him. He had to try and pull the monster to his level. Both hands on the rope, burning from the friction and flames, he gave the rope a sharp tug.
POP!
All of a sudden, the beast's eye came flying out and splattered into an unrecognisable pile of slush. Agonised roars blasting through the room, the Queen fired the last of its charcoal everywhere, burning Link badly. She thrashed her claws wildly, sending Link flying against the walls. Finally, the lava hardened around it and it crumbled into dust in the wind. All of the lava in the room solidified into igneous bedrock.
Link felt DESTROYED. His whole body hurt from being thrown around and he was burned black. He looked like if his shadow had gained sentience and rose out of the ground. He was just about to black out when the sound of sliding bars screeched in his ears. As he looked back over to the door, he noticed that the barricades had gone back up. He was free.
"I must tell the Rito!" wheezed the boy as he staggered out of the door.
As he backtracked down the stairs to the moat of lava that once blocked his way, he realised that it, along with the pool of lava in the Queen's room was hardened.
Relieved about not having to take out his grappling hook again, Link wobbled across and came across his next obstacle: The hole that lead to the main cavern. He had got there by riding an island up to the top, but it had broken long ago.
Link scanned the room for any sign of escape. A small hole extended into the wall next to a stone tablet.
ESCAPE ROUTE.
Link was losing consciousness fast but he could easily read the sign. He got on his stomach and disappeared into the tunnel.
The tunnel's floor immediately smoothed out and got steeper. Link slid down the tunnel, bumping painfully against rocks, screaming as he went. Faster and faster and faster he slid until he finally landed in a bruised heap at the living quarters of the cavern that he and Komali had run through earlier. He stood up and wondered through the monster-free cave, eventually reaching the exit.
As Link headed back to the spring, the winds and the ashes had stopped spraying. Since there was no more monster to rip up Valoo's tail, he appeared to have calmed down. Finally, Link reached the bridge and started to feel sick. The battle with the Boss and the Queen really took it out of him. Unsure whether he could muster jumping into the dirty water to get back, Link just wobbled as he watched the debris float by.
Feet pounded across the floor on the other side. Eventually, the stampede started to echo less as whoever was running reached the end of the tunnel. Link tried to look up to see who it was, but his head was getting too heavy.
"There he is!" came a young male voice.
"Link! Are you all right?" called a feminine voice.
No, Link did not feel all right. In fact, after this was said, Link toppled forwards into the dirty water face-down, blacking out as he did so.
Have you ever had a screamer dream before? You know, when you have a dream, everything is all normal and at the very end, you're in a dark location and some monster bursts in out of nowhere, screams in your face and then you wake up like a catapult going off. It's rather common. Eventually, your body gets used to this and when you see the monster coming, you just think: "Right, this is a dream. You're not getting me with that again." but you still wake up with a jolt, only this time you get temporarily paralysed for some reason.
Well, Link had one of those dreams just now. Aryll was in her jail cell in the Forsaken Fortress and Link was burned black and cut badly just like his earlier encounters with the Boss and the Queen. As he headed forwards, his vision would distort and he would just end up the same distance away from his sister. Five minutes of this later and a mummified zombie burst in front of him with a deafening scream.
Link had these kind of dreams a lot, so he knew it was coming. He woke with a jolt, but found he couldn't sit up, open his eyes or anything. He felt something soft supporting his head, a bit of weight on his chest and something cold on his forehead. Had all of this been a dream from him falling out of a tree? Link began to listen to his surroundings.
"¡La próxima vez, recuerde revisar el otro lado de la escotilla antes de volar!" came a nagging voice from the other side of the room. Nope, he was still on Dragon Roost. Link opened up his eyes as soon as he could and looked around the Aviary. Beds were on either side of him, populated by young and old Rito. The boy lifted his covers. He was still wearing his white, long tights but he was now wearing blue and white striped bedwear. He had also been bandaged on his arm, parts of his face, his upper leg and his back. An ice pack sat on his forehead. When he moved his bandaged areas, they hardly hurt.
A feminine gasp came from the other side of the room.
"Link, you're OK!"
Medli came dashing over, dropping a bedpan (empty, thank goodness) onto the floor with a loud clatter.
"Medli? What's going on? What-" Suddenly, the events of what last happened zapped through his head. "Dragon! Lava scorpion thing! Torturing dragon tail!" panted Link as he sat up abruptly. Medli restrained him slightly.
"Calm down, Link. You're safe. I did have a hard time persuading everyone of what I saw, but I did it and we got to you as you fell into the spring." said Medli, calmly.
Link calmed down. His heavy breathing slowed and he sat back a bit. Medli began to hurriedly walk out the room. "I'll see you in a bit! I just need to pop out for a moment." she called back to him.
"That's fine!" answered Link. He looked to the table to his side. His bag and several other belongings lay on it. Curious, the boy rummaged in his bag and pulled out his Picto box. He turned it on.
The picture began to load up on the little screen as Link looked in wonder. What had just happened? Had he won? He couldn't really remember.
The picture loaded. He still had the photo of the lava colossus from back in the cavern. The picture made Link's memory flash back to when he fought the monster. After seeing the whole thing, Link remembered: He had beaten the monster. He let out a huge sigh of relief as he collapsed back against his pillow.
The sound of excited children filled his ears. They got closer and closer to the door. Finally, Medli and Prince Komali came running inside. Komali was back in his old clothes and he looked physically exhausted. He had bags under his eyes and his hair was even messier than usual. Upon seeing Link awake, his eyes widened and a smile shot across his face.
"Oh, thank goodness!" gasped Komali as he ran over and dropped into a stool beside Link. "I was beginning to think you were dead!"
"No, though I almost was!" Link turned to Medli. "But a certain grappling hook saved my life!"
Medli looked at him in surprise. "What? My one?" she rushed over. "What on earth happened?"
Link reached for his Picto box and showed her the screen. Medli let out a yelp.
"What? What is it?" Komali craned his neck and jumped back at what he saw, but then remembered that it was just a photo. "What in the… Is that the Queen?"
"Yeah… My grappling hook helped me immensely. It helped me destroy the heavy armour that protected her."
Medli gawked in further astonishment. "Wait, so she had armour? Where did it go?"
Link cringed a little as he said this. He was not comfortable in telling the two that he took to tail torturing to defeat the monster.
"Well… you see… I accidentally hit Valoo's tail with the hook when I aimed for the monster and he thrashed so hard, he made a sheet of bedrock bonk her on the bonce!"
The three all laughed before Medli started speaking. "Oh! Speaking of Valoo, he's feeling a lot better now! I suppose two days of not having your tail attacked by that thing really-"
"Wait, two days? I've been here for two days?" gasped Link, catapulting upwards.
"Relax. You're fine. You needed rest. It is now the afternoon of Tuesday. You've slept for pretty much two days." said Medli. "I've been keeping watch over you. So has Quill and the Chieftain." She put a hand on Komali's head. "Komali here has been doing most of the work. He's been writing updates on the front of your bed."
Link looked in astonishment as Komali sheepishly went to his front and picked up several charts from the front of his bed. He turned them around. One of them was labelled 'Heart Activity' and featured a large line which shot up and down erratically. It looked like a lightning bolt. The second was labeled 'Actions' and detailed what he must have been doing as he slept. Notable examples included 'Jolting about erratically', 'Talking about a grandmother' and 'speaking Hindi'. Link didn't know a word of Hindi, so the last part was especially weird.
"Sorry if that's… embarrassing to you, but you saved my life back there! I couldn't just leave you hanging!" explained Komali.
Link smiled. He felt a lot of… appreciation. For Komali, for Medli, for Quill and for the Cheiftan.
"You didn't. I would have fallen in the lava with the Boss guy if you'd left me hanging! Thank you. Thank you all."
"Well, we're the ones who should be saying that, Link!" beamed Medli.
Link remembered Aryll trapped in the Forsaken Fortress. Uneasily, he stepped out of bed.
"Do you know where my clothes are?" asked Link. Despite second thoughts, he could stand perfectly. Medli and Komali seemed concerned. "They're… here. I fixed them up when I wasn't watching over you." Medli pointed over to a clothing rack. There lay his green clothes.
The boy couldn't believe his ears or his eyes. He picked up his top and looked over it. Sure enough, the two slashes the karambit knife had made were completely fixed up. It was as if it hadn't even happened.
"Wow!" gasped Link, looking over the rest of his clothes. They were all good as new. They had all been well washed and well cleaned, they looked like they did when Granny had given them to him.
Minutes later, Link was back into his signature clothes. He stepped out of the changing cubicle as Medli and Komali applauded.
"Sorry, but I have to go back to the King. He shall tell me my next objective."
Komali looked a little confused. Medli looked a bit sad.
"You are right. One of your objectives will be saving your sister at some point. I know it."
Komali asked what he meant by 'King', so Link explained his entire situation.
"Oh, that's what you meant by 'talking boat' earlier as well! Um… Fair enough!" Komali said, rather bemused.
Medli could see that Komali was a little sad that Link was already leaving, so she pitched a little suggestion.
"Link… Would you mind if we… go down to the boat with you? Komali would like that."
Komali raised his head a little, before nodding it in agreement.
Link walked over, put a hand on the Prince's shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "I can do that."
The trio walked down where Link had come from. Link told them all about the antics he had on his way up. The other two were laughing and laughing.
"This was the tunnel where Quill came flying in and made me jump out of my skin!"
"That's the farm that allowed me to get here in the first place. That farmer was lucky his farm didn't go up in flames!"
"This hill is where the wind decided to trip me over and give me a face full of rocks!"
"And… this is where I started. I'm sorry."
Komali looked down at the little red bearded boat bobbing about in the blue. Suddenly, he remembered: The boat could talk!
"Hey! What's shaking?" called the prince. With a grin, the boat responded.
"Me! These waves have been making me feel sick!" The King waited for the Prince's shocked expression. Not one look of shock crossed his face.
"W-w-w-what? Why are your lips mum? Have you seen a talking boat before?" spluttered the King. Komali looked up at Link. Realising what happened, the King grunted and rolled his eyes. Komali ran forward to ask the boat questions about him, leaving Link and Medli to talk.
"I'm sorry about what happened." whispered Medli. Link furrowed his brow in confusion.
"What? What did you do?"
"Well… I was the one who tempted you into Dragon Roost Cavern. If I had just held off, you wouldn't have come in after me, got cut with a curved blade, got burned by a giant… THING. I just caused you so much trouble."
Link gave a sympathetic smile. "But if you hadn't gone in, Komali wouldn't have felt better until even later, Valoo would never have gotten better at all and monsters would still be flooding Dragon Roost Cavern! You did a good thing and you should be proud."
Medli beamed at this statement. With a happy tear sliding down her face, she stepped forwards and hugged the boy tightly. Link simply returned the gesture, a little surprised. She was right: Hugging was a habit of hers.
A sudden roar made them jump.
"Not again!" moaned Link, looking up at the peak of the mountain.
Luckily, Valoo was not in danger. This was evident as the clouds were cleared from the top of the mountain. Atop it was a beautiful dragon, sitting on top of the volcano as if it were a throne. With a face that resembled a mandrill baboon in terms of colour, a beige stomach and front neck, angelic wings and a hooked tail, the dragon easily looked like a giant statue.
In a very deep voice, he began to speak. His language was not Spanish, Hindi or… however that Queen communicated. Instead, it was a very royal and ancient sounding. In fact, I can't find anything to get the phonetics of it! Darn!
The four all looked up as the great dragon spoke. Medli seemed to be paying very close attention, as did the King of Red Lions.
"Use the… Wind God's… wind?" translated Medli. She looked down in thought.
Luckily, the King of Red Lions appeared to know a lot more about the language than Medli did. He began to translate his entire quote.
"He said: 'O Hero! Thank you! O hero, Use the Wind God's Wind!'"
Medli turned to face the boat. She took a polite bow. "Thank you, sir."
"What does that mean? 'Wind God?'" echoed Link.
Komali broke away from talking to the boat and ran up to Link.
"The Wind God! I know!" he pointed around the shore. "There is a cave hidden around the side of that shore. If you go through it, you will find a shrine. Apparently, some kind of directing will reveal the Wind God. I don't know what that means, but you might!"
Link smiled and followed his gaze. "I'll go to find out!" He turned to leave, but the King's voice stopped him.
"Your highness, is there something you're forgetting?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in anticipation. Link turned his head as Komali seemed surprised by this question.
"Let me think… My schedule was… go down to the bottom of the mountain and- Oh! Silly me! I forgot!" laughed the Prince. Suddenly, he faltered in shock. "WHAT? How did you know?!"
The King laughed uproariously. "Ah! I got you with that! Don't worry, it's just one of my… abilities!"
Komali coughed and turned red. He swivelled around and rummaged in his bag, pulling out something wrapped in a towel. "Link… Medli and I had a talk yesterday. You need this pearl… to help your sister." The Prince yanked the towel off of the pearl. It shone brighter and brighter as it absorbed the surrounding sunlight.
"Oh!" Link approached the Prince and took the pearl into his hands. Suddenly, it disappeared into an orange light and automatically flew into his bag, leaving the three in stunned silence. "Thanks… Komali. What just happened?"
Medli shook her head. "I have no clue!"
The King turned to Link. "Well, whatever happened, it seemed that the pearl is already helping."
Link tried to leave once again, but Komali's voice was now the one that stopped him.
"Oh, one more thing, Link!"
Link turned around again. "What is it?"
"By the time you see me again, I'll have a great pair of wings! I know it! I am ready to brave Dragon Roost Cavern again!" announced the Prince with his fist in the air.
"I'm sure you will! Good luck in there!"
Link turned and ran down the beach. He had to see this 'Wind God'.