Wow, an update! You guys probably think I'm dead or something... Regardless, here's chapter 13! Funny thing, I had most of this written on Monday, but certain things kept coming up, preventing me from actually finishing it. So, here it is, two days later than I anticipated. By the way, those treasure chests in PH: you pull them up from the sea, swing them around a bit, and then the lid opens so easily! And it didn't open when it was being hauled up because...? Whatever, it's a video game, physics doesn't apply there. Anyway, this chapter shows a fair bit of progress in both the story and character development. Or at least I think so for the latter. Maybe not. Ah well. And I finally found a way to get rid of the deus ex machina! Turns out it was actually pretty easy. Regardless, no more (major) cheating for Link. At least not intentional cheating. Okay, enough prattling on. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 13: Cheats and Comforts
As the trio approached Mercay about a half hour later, Link was feeling anxious. He was getting quite close to finding the Ghost Ship, and now he wanted to find it as fast as possible. As soon as the S.S. Linebeck had docked, Link jumped off the ship and ran the entire way to the temple. Ciela just sighed at seeing this and slowly flew after him, debating whether or not to push him in front of a Phantom.
As she caught up to him, he was checking the Hourglass. They both noticed that it had significantly more sand in it than before. Cyclok's death must have added more sand, Link realized. The timer flipped up and read 12:00 as they entered the temple. When they were in the first safe zone, Link braced himself. Time to begin.
As Link began going through the routine for each floor, he started thinking. Each visit to the temple thus far had taken him lower and lower into the temple itself. On the last trek, they had gone as low as the third floor. But Link remembered seeing a stone door with a mark on it, like the one Leaf had opened for him. Seeing as this dungeon was big on repeating itself, Link figured that Neri could open this new door.
Soon, Link was back on the third floor, facing the as-of-yet unopened door. He noted the symbol that matched the one on his Sea Chart for Neri's location, and reached into his pocket for the fairy. She came out, coughing and spitting.
"What is with that pocket of yours? That is the gateway to eternal torment!" Neri cried, trying to fly away. Link grabbed her and shoved her toward the door. "Look, I'm sort of in a rush, so can you just make with the fairy magic, please?"
Neri stared at the door and gave a really girly laugh. "Oh, sure, sure, that'll be a piece of cake, I've got this!" Neri began to glow a bright blue as she rose in front of the door, and with a bright flash, the stone parted. Link cheered, stuffed Neri back in his pocket with a quick thanks, ignored her screams and protests, and ran through the new opening.
The passageway led to a floor lower in the temple, and Link quickly figured out what to do to advance. The only thing new was a sort of multi-eyed blob that floated with a propeller under it called a Phantom Eye, which quickly fell under Link's blade. Otherwise, the floor was basically like the ones the hero had already cleared, and he proceeded relatively quickly.
The next two floors were more or less the same, and finally at the end of the third new floor Link stood before a red door. The room had several signs in it but Link, being the lazy person he was, just skipped them all and ran to the door. He noticed an inscription above the door: Trace here the sacred mark. Or, uh, or else. Or else you can't advance. So ha. Link stared at the words for a moment before randomly tracing an hourglass on the door as he thought about what the 'sacred mark' might be. Suddenly, the door began to glow and opened, as Link just stared blankly at the new passage available to him. "Score another one for screwing around and doing the right thing," he smirked as he walked arrogantly through the new doorway.
A short walk later, Link saw that he was in a small room with a chart lying on a pedestal. He was about to run forward and take it when two things ran through his mind: 1) What if it was like Indiana Jones and something crazy happened when he took it, and 2) Where had Ciela gone?
Link blinked and looked behind him into the room beyond, trying to spot a glowing ball. He hadn't even noticed that she hadn't said a word in nine minutes, according to the Hourglass. He was about to call out when a voice said, "I'm right here, moron."
Link spun around to see Ciela hovering over the chart. As he walked over to her, he asked, "When did you get here? I never saw you fly past me when I opened the door. Or any other time since we've been here."
Ciela rolled her eyes. "I figured I'd try going on ahead of you and seeing how far I could get before I got stuck. I get bored watching you run in circles and pretending you're a ninja, you know. So I got to the Wisdom Door, and once you opened it, I waited until you were distracted and then kept going, until I made it all the way here. Any idiot could figure out that the sacred mark is an hourglass, since that's the main treasure of this temple!"
Link just stared at her for a moment, before finally saying, "You beat me here? But I have the Hourglass! You sort of need it to not get the life sucked out of you!"
"I guess that life-sucking rule only applies to humans," Ciela replied with a shrug. "Or elves," she added, smirking at Link. The latter glared at her. "I am not an elf!"
"Oh please, you wear green and have pointy ears, you're totally an elf, don't hide it from me anymore," Ciela said, still grinning. Link was fuming.
"I wear green because I just do! Or because that's what the Hero of Time wore. Not sure why, but it's tradition or something like that. And my pointy ears are because I'm a Hylian! The ancient race of Hyrule!" he shouted.
"Hyrule. Never heard of it," Ciela replied. Link put on a smug look and replied, "Well, yeah, it's buried and now flooded at the bottom of the Great Sea."
"So you're a descendant of a race whose land drowned. You know, that makes so much sense," Ciela muttered as she turned away. Link's smug expression fell off of his face, as his slow brain finally registered the insult. Before he could say anything though, Ciela said, "Look, just grab the chart, will you? I'm getting sick of all this exposition." Link just frowned and grabbed the chart. As he looked at it though, he realized something was wrong.
"Wait, this looks familiar," Link said quietly. As he studied the chart, he realized that it was the Southwestern Chart, but mirrored. However, this chart had a mark on it: a green mark like the one on Farore's Pearl from his last adventure. Okay, I think I'm figuring this out, he thought. However, there was still the matter of marking that spot on his Sea Chart. Suddenly, Link got an idea. He placed his chart of the Southwestern Sea face-up on the pedestal, and then placed the new chart overtop of it, face-down. Then he shoved them together, and peeled them apart, and, like he'd hoped, the mark had transferred over to his map. Setting the mirrored chart back on the pedestal, Link turned to Ciela with a big smile on his face. "We're getting close to finishing," he said. "One more stop, one more fairy, and then we'll have the Ghost Ship!"
As a blue spot appeared on the ground, the pair stepped into it and was taken back to the temple's entrance. Once they were outside again, Link stretched and then ran for the ship, Ciela close behind him. As they approached it, they saw Linebeck talking to one of the villagers. Seeing the hero and fairy, Linebeck dismissed the person he was talking to and walked over to them. "So, you got the next location, kid?"
Link smiled and brandished the Sea Chart, and said as he opened it, "You bet! And the next temple is…" He trailed off as he realized just where the spot was marking. Linebeck looked over the boy's shoulder and was equally puzzled. "It's… in the middle of the ocean?"
The green mark was over a spot of sea, nowhere near any island. The trio stared at the map for a few seconds before Linebeck snapped his fingers. "I bet that isn't where the temple is, but where something is lying that's needed for the temple. Something on the ocean floor." Link looked miserable. "On the ocean floor? How are we supposed to get that?"
Linebeck smiled, which made Link curious. "As is so happens, while you two were away, I went to see Eddo, since… Well, I was just bored. Anyway, as it turns out, he's come up with a new product, a Salvage Arm. It lets you pull things up from the bottom of the ocean. By the sounds of it, it's just what we need!" Link's spirits rose. "So all we need to do is go get this thing!"
"Actually, I already got it. We can head out for that spot," Linebeck told them, nodding to the Sea Chart in Link's hands. "Wait, you actually bought something?" Ciela asked, amazed. Linebeck blinked. "Oh, yeah, I bought it, that's right," he said, avoiding the fairy's eyes and whistling innocently. Ciela facepalmed. "Let's just head for that spot," she said as they all walked onto the ship.
Later, the ship arrived at the spot indicated on the Sea Chart. Linebeck killed the engines walked out onto the deck. "Okay kid, let's grab some... whatever it is! Pull up the Salvage Arm!" he called, as Link obeyed and hoisted the claw up from the ship's belly. Once it was set up, Link turned to the captain and asked, "So how does it work?"
Linebeck was about to answer when he stopped and realized that stealing something was without the benefit of learning anything about it. Glancing at the Arm, he shrugged and replied, "How hard could it be to figure out? Just drop the claw and we'll play it by ear from there."
Link shrugged and threw the switch, and the claw dropped into the sea and fell fast. They all waited a few moments until a muffled 'wham' was heard, and then stopped the claw's descent. Linebeck peered over the railing. "I think we hit the bottom. Either that or a bomb," he said. Link snorted. "Yeah right, bombs just floating around in the ocean? Whoever heard of something as ridiculous as that?" Linebeck smiled slightly. "Yeah, that is pretty stupid." Ciela looked over the railing next to Linebeck and laughed. "No one would be dumb enough to do that," she added confidently. Turning to Linebeck, she added, "So now what?"
Linebeck shrugged and called to Link, "Anything else on that machine, kid?" Link studied the Salvage Arm briefly before finding a button marked 'Grab'. "There's a button here marked 'Grab'," he said helpfully, and hit it.
A whirring sound could be faintly heard, and then metal scraping on metal. The trio looked at each other and quickly hit the switch to bring the claw back up. All three were watching the line with anticipation to see what had been caught, when finally the claw broke the surface, a treasure chest in its grasp. Linebeck cheered and hugged the Salvage Arm. "I love this treasure-finding machine," he said happily, tears rolling down his face. As he did that, Link dropped the chest onto the deck, and he and Ciela approached it.
Link took out his sword and started to pry the lid open before discovering that it opened quite easily. Deciding that this was just about the stupidest thing he'd ever encountered, he sheathed his sword before just throwing the lid open. Inside, glowing in a bright light was...
...Pretty anticlimactic in Link's opinion. It was just a key. Granted, it was a pretty nicely decorated key, with the design of the sun on the end, but still just a key. Link facepalmed. "Well, that's perfect. We have a key, and we don't know what it's for!" Ciela fluttered around the hero's head. "We could just wander aimlessly around the world, searching in vain for one lock that this key might possibly fit in," she suggested. Link shook his head. "No, we're too close to finding Tetra to waste that much time now. Maybe before finding the first spirit, but not now." He sighed. "Screw it, time to consult my old friend."
As Linebeck came back over to see what it was they'd recovered, Link pulled out his copy of the storyline from his pocket. As he began flipping through the pages, Linebeck looked from the key in the chest to Link, and asked, "Is he cheating again?"
Said Ciela, "Well, to be fair, this is sort of an emergency. We're kind of stuck, and we just want to figure out where to go next. At least it's a more productive use than opening a door," she added, rolling her eyes. Linebeck just stared at the fairy before shaking his head, and they both turned back to Link.
Said boy had finally reached what he was looking for, and a couple minutes of reading later he looked up with a smile on his face. "We need to go back to Molida Island," he said. "The last temple is there, and apparently the keyhole for this stupid thing," he added, pointing to the key in the chest. Linebeck glanced at the papers in his hand and asked, "Why not just see if you rescue your girlfriend or not? If you don't, then is it even worth all of this trouble?"
"First of all, she's not my girlfriend. Second of all, yes, it would still be worth it. And who cares what this thing says anyway?" he asked, brandishing the storyline over his head. "Even if it said I didn't end up saving Tetra, I'd still try!" he exclaimed. Linebeck turned and looked at the ocean. "Alright, alright," he said, though a faint smile was on his lips.
"And third of all... I suppose a peek couldn't hurt," Link said, looking at the papers in his hand and realizing what he could actually do with all the knowledge they contained. Suddenly though, without warning, a strong wind came and blew the papers right out of the boy's hands. Link's eyes widened as his precious storyline blew over the railing and was carried far away by the wind, faster than he could ever hope to catch.
Link's lower lip quivered and tears began to form in his eyes. Linebeck and Ciela just glanced at each other, and backed away slowly from Link. The boy dropped to the deck and began to sob loudly. "Noooo, my precious storyline! What if I need to use it again? I hadn't even abused its usage yet! It's not fair!" he cried as he rolled around. Linebeck just rolled his eyes and went below deck to take them to Molida.
Not long after, the S.S. Linebeck was approaching the dock of Molida. Just as they were about to arrive though, a giant sea monster suddenly appeared out the water and began throwing some sort of slime at them. "Kid," Linebeck called from below, "Get to the cannon and start shooting that thing!" Link, however, continued to roll around on the deck, crying his eyes out. Ciela flew over to him and started slapping him across the face. "Get up and kill that thing!" she cried, until Link finally stood up. He pulled up the cannon, took aim, and fired one bomb. The bomb made contact with the creature, and somehow this killed it, as it randomly exploded. Ciela just watched in shock, until Link put the cannon back and sat down again, leaned against the railing, and wiped his puffy red eyes.
Linebeck docked quickly before something else could happen, and jumped off the ship. As Link walked off, Linebeck saw he was still dejected about losing the storyline, so he put a hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Look kid, you can't go through the last temple moping and depressed. You want to save Tetra, right?" Link nodded. "Well, then buck up and go conquer that temple with your head held high! Go get that last spirit, and then let's go rescue her!" Linebeck exclaimed. Link looked at Linebeck for a moment, then nodded determinedly. "Yeah, let's do it! Come on, Ciela!" Link called as he ran off. Ciela watched him for a moment before turning to Linebeck. "Not bad for a motivational speech," she said, before flying off to catch up to Link. Linebeck smirked, and turned toward his ship. "Now then, let's see just how much fun I can have with this Salvage Arm," he said quietly, a grin forming on his face.
Ciela caught up to Link just as he jumped down the hole he had fallen through last time. Following him, she asked, "How do you know where the temple is?" Link turned to her and grinned. "I had one of my moments," he replied. Ciela pondered what this could mean for a moment, before coming up with the answer. "You thought to read more than just the temple's location in the storyline," she guessed. Link nodded, "Bingo." The pair followed the path they had taken to leave last time, but stopped when they reached the open room. At the north end of the room was a door with an elaborately-decorated lock. Judging by the sun on the door, Link knew that this was the lock that his key belonged to. As he unlocked it, he wondered aloud, "How did we not see this door last time?" Ciela shrugged. "One-track mind and laziness, I guess," she replied. As the door opened, Link ran through the opening and up the stairs beyond.
They were back outside, and Link could see the temple. However, there was a large gate blocking access to the entrance. "Do you remember reading about that?" Ciela asked. Link nodded. "Yeah, there are three laser-shooting statues or something like that, and we're supposed to point them all at that gate so it'll open."
"Are we going to?" asked the fairy. Link shook his head. "Nah, I had another idea." Drawing a bomb from his bomb bag, he lit it and placed it at the foot of the gate. Then he put four more around it. As he backed away, Ciela watched with amazement as they all exploded, causing the gate to collapse. "Wow, that's some trick."
"See?" Link replied. "I don't have to follow what's written in the storyline. I'm free to change it as I wish." And with that, the pair entered the Temple of Courage.