Zelda slipped on the frozen floor and fell onto her rear for the fifth time since they began exploring the cave.
"Why does the ground have to be so slippery?" She asked demandingly even though she knew she wouldn't get an answer.
Link and Saria helped pull the princess back up onto her feet and they proceeded further into the Ice Cavern. They had been searching for a while now but there was still no sign of Princess Ruto.
"I don't think she's here." Zelda said. "Let's just leave and wait for the others to be rescued."
"I think I'm starting to agree with the princess." Saria rubbed her hands together to warm them up. "It's dark in here and even I'm starting to get cold."
"Alright." Link relented. "We'll just check around this next corner and then I'll send us back."
The trio of children and the two fairies accompanying them walked the rest of the way through the short passageway they were in, which opened up into a large room-like area lined with icy pillars. To their surprise, the chamber was lit by several torches producing mysterious blue flames. In addition, some of the ice seemed to be red.
"Hey, what's this?" Navi flew up to a particularly large chunk of red ice sticking out of the ground. "I think there's something in this!"
The others all ran after the blue fairy to see what she was referring to. Zelda nearly slipped and fell over again, though Link was able to catch her this time.
"I-I think that's a person!" Saria gasped as she made out a humanoid silhouette through the semi-opaque ice.
"It must be the Princess!" Zelda exclaimed. "She's been frozen alive!"
"But how do get her out of there?" Saria asked.
Link held his hands out towards the red ice and shot out a continuous small stream of Din's fire. It didn't seem to have any effect on the ice.
"Hey! Maybe you should try using blue fire to melt the red ice?" Navi suggested.
"That might work." Zelda folded her arms and started shivering. "Hey, is it just me or is it getting even colder in here?"
"I feel it too." Saria looked around. "It also seems like it's starting to get kind of foggy in here. That can't be good."
Link remembered when he had made his way into the lowest level inside the Great Deku Tree just a couple days before, when he ran into an apparently empty room only to end up having to fight the Queen Gohma. He looked up at the cave ceiling and, for the second time that week, found a giant single eye staring back at him.
"What are you looking at?" Zelda asked as she noticed Link staring at the ceiling. She screamed when she looked up to see what it was. "What is that thing?"
"Well, it appears to be releasing a lot of frost into the air and it's staring at us." Navi flew up to the giant eyeball, illuminating it with the faint glow emanating from her body. "I'm going to call it Frostare."
Saria's fairy flew up after Navi. The combined light of the two fairies, along with the torches scattered about the room, made it so that the children could see the creature better. The violet, bloodshot eye was covered in ice-like shards and seemed to be hanging from the ceiling by some kind of root structure.
The temperature in the room dropped dramatically and it became hard to see through the frosty mist that filled the room. Zelda ran over to Link and grabbed onto him, holding on tightly for warmth. Link concentrated and unleashed as much fire as he could. He was surprised to see just how strong Din's Fire actually was, as he created a wall of flame that engulfed the room in front of him. Fortunately, Saria wasn't hurt by the blast. Unfortunately, that was because she had become frozen in a block of red ice.
"Saria!" Zelda called out and started to run to her, but Link held her back.
"No, you might get frozen too. Get behind me and stay close."
Once the princess had followed his's instructions, Link held both his arms up towards Frostare. A massive blast of fire shot out of his hands and struck the monster in its eye. Navi and Saria's fairy were both able to avoid the blast, which unfortunately didn't seem to do anything to it. Link tried again, this time aiming a bit higher up. The flames burned away at the roots holding Frostare up, catching them on fire.
When the roots had burned away, Frostare fell from the cave ceiling. Rather than crashing into the ground, however, the shards surrounding its eye opened up into a pair of wings and the monster hovered in circles around the room. Each flap of its wings sent out a powerful gust of frigid mist but Link was able to guard against it by creating a wall of fire around himself and Princess Zelda. Zelda wrapped her arms around Link and began to cry.
Link closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He had no idea if the idea that popped into his head would actually work but he didn't have any other options at the moment. He knelt down and punched the ground as hard as he could. The wall of fire around them turned into a dome that expanded in every direction, filling the entire cavern with a burning inferno before the fire went out. All of the normal ice in the room had melted, creating a deep pool of water that covered the ground, though the red ice remained seemingly untouched. Frostare collapsed onto the ground, creating a large splash and thoroughly drenching Link and Zelda.
Frostare began to rise up from the ground again but wasn't fast enough. Link charged forward drawing his sword and plunged the blade into Frostare's eye with all the force he could put into the strike. Then he pulled it back out and slashed at the swollen eye wildly until Frostare exploded in a puff of black and purple smoke, leaving nothing behind but a large red and silver gemstone of some kind, shaped like a heart.
"What's that?" Zelda walked up beside Link and pointed to the heart.
"That's a Heart Container." Navi answered, flying down with Saria's fairy. "They're rare items said to be able to increase your lifespan."
Link motioned for the Princess to take the Heart Container.
"What? You want me to have it?" Zelda was shocked. "But you're the one who defeated that thing! You should get it."
"I already got one after defeating the Queen Gohma." Link said. "Shortly before we met."
"Are you sure about this?" Zelda wasn't quite sure why she was so hesitant.
Link nodded.
"Alright." Zelda inched towards the Heart Container and reached her hand out to touch it. The moment her fingers brushed against its smooth red surface, the Heart Container dissolved into particles of light which flew into Zelda's chest. She felt warm and empowered somehow. Like she was just a bit stronger than she had been a moment ago.
"So now we just need to figure out how to get these two unfrozen." Navi flew around Princess Ruto, while Saria's fairy flew around her Kokiri companion. "Any ideas?"
"Well, I think that we might be able to use the blue fire from those torches to melt the red ice." Zelda said. "We should try and give it a shot, at least, though I'm not sure if we actually have any way of getting the blue fire to the red ice."
Link had an idea and pulled out his Deku Shield. He gazed at the red emblem painted onto the wooden shield carved from the Great Deku Tree, before closing his eyes and smashing the Deku Shield over his knee, splitting it in two. He didn't want to break the only thing he had left of the one who had raised him, but two lives were at stake, including Saria's. He held one half out for Zelda to take.
"What are you doing!" Navi shrieked.
"We should be able to use these as torches." Link explained as Zelda grabbed the broken shield from him. "And we don't really have anything else to use."
Navi tried to object but found that she couldn't. Link and Zelda both walked over to one of the torches positioned along the sides of the chamber and lit their halves of the shield on fire. Link then ran over to where Saria was frozen while Zelda hurried to Princess Ruto. Just touching the red ice with blue fire was enough to completely thaw the two girls out.
"L-let's n-never d-do t-that a-again." Saria shivered and rubbed her hands against her arms once she was freed and able to move again.
"Who are you people?" Ruto looked around. "Where am I? What's going on?"
Impa wiped slime off her face and stood up. Darunia and Ganondorf were lying on the ground beside her on the altar to Lord Jabu-Jabu. All three of them were drenched head-to-toe in slime. Lord Jabu-Jabu was poking his head above the water and stared at them blankly as he seemed to be chewing on something. The last thing that Impa could remember was being swallowed by the nature spirit along with Ganondorf and she had no idea what had happened after that.
"I have such a headache." Darunia moaned as he sat up. "Are what am I covered in?"
"I don't think that I want to know." Ganondorf replied.
Impa turned to see Link, Zelda and Saria running up to them with a young Zora girl their age who must have been the Princess they had been looking for.
"You're alright!" Zelda shouted excitedly.
"Of course we are." Impa brushed some of the slime off her arms.
"I'm not sure if I would call waking up covered in fish slime to be alright." Ganondorf muttered.
"What do you have against fish slime, peasant?" Princess Ruto asked him, seemingly offended.
"I am not a peasant." Ganondorf tried to look dignified, though actually doing so was more-or-less impossible at the moment. "I am King Ganondorf of the Gerudo."
Ruto looked stunned but tried to hide it. "What are you all doing here, anyway? Zora's Fountain is supposed to be off-limits to visitors."
"Your father let us through so that we could search for you." Impa explained. "You've been missing for several days."
"Several days?" Ruto was shocked to hear this. "That can't be right."
"I'm afraid that it is." Darunia nodded solemnly. "Now we should probably go see old Zora de Bon and let him know you're safe."
After Impa, Ganondorf and Darunia quickly cleaned themselves off in the cold water of Zora's Fountain, everyone headed back to Zora's Domain. King Zora was sitting exactly where they had left him, still bawling his eyes out. Princess Ruto ran up to him and tugged on her father's arm.
"Ruto!" King Zora exclaimed and hugged his daughter tightly, pulling her off her feet.
"Too tight, too tight!" The princess gasped.
"Thank you for finding my daughter." King Zora released his tight grip on Ruto and turned to the others, who had made their way back to the platform facing across from him. "I am in all of your debt."
"Does this mean that you are ready to head to Hyrule Castle for the peace treaty negotiations?" Ganondorf asked.
"Of course." King Zora said emphatically. "We will begin preparations to travel at once. It may take some time, though."
"That is fine." Impa bowed. "We shall wait for you to get ready, so that we may all travel back to the castle together."