Link continued playing the song that he had learned from Saria to Darunia. Around and around it went as he struggled to improvise, so he just kept looping. At some point, Navi learned the point it looped and joined in with lyrics.
"Pathways meet,
feel the beat
underneath your feet
As you move along.
We sing our song.
Left or right?
Through the night,
There's no end in sight!
Was I here before? I should know more."
Eventually, Link got the hang of it and began playing a lot more confidently. Navi also started to sing a lot more clearly. Her voice didn't shake as much and within moments, she and Link were having an absolute BLAST!
Darunia looked at him, trying to look as confused as he could, eyes twitching, mouth changing from a smile repeatedly, but he had a big soft spot-
Music.
Rather scarily, Darunia leaped into a dance. He pumped his fist into the air immediately.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YEAH!"
Link almost completely messed up his song because he had closed his eyes while playing, but he just about managed to keep his rhythm as the massive man-mountain launched into a dance. He leaped up into the air and came crashing down, his weight shaking the entire throne room.
"OOOH, YEAH! DANCE, BOY, DANCE!"
Stone cups wobbled and clattered to the ground, stalactites came loose from the ceiling, the surrounding Gorons wobbled to keep their balance and Link was very nearly crumpled in a heap on the floor.
"HOT! WHAT A HOT BEAT!"
The great Goron began pointing about as if he were in a disco, he pumped his ankle back and forwards with his arm as if he'd hurt his ankle, he even started sliding around as if he were on ice. Seven minutes later, Darunia FINALLY stopped dancing. Out of breath, Link lowered his ocarina, panting from all the playing. Him and Navi exchanged glances.
"That's the one!" announced Darunia, proudly smiling at his mad dancing skills, "That's the song I know and love! The one from the forest! Thank you, kid! I needed that! My name is Darunia, big brother to all Gorons! Was there something you wanted to ask me?"
Darunia bent down to get level with Link as he repeated his motives for coming here, albeit with slightly different wording to cause as least offence as possible. Link predicted that Darunia would loose his cool when he asked for the Spiritual Stone, but instead, pretty much the opposite. "I can see sincerity in your eyes. You do not seek the Goron Ruby for your own gain, but for more. Unfortunately, I cannot just give a priceless heirloom to you. First, it must accept you."
"What?" said Navi flatly as she turned grey with confusion, "It's sentient?"
"No, of course not! I meant that you will need to do us a small favour. Crush all those creepy creatures in our cavern and then we'll talk about the stone."
"That's what I tried to tell you in the first place!" claimed Link with a cheeky smile. "I'll be happy to do that but… how do I get in? You said it got blocked off."
"Dodongo's Cavern is just out near Washa's Butte. Look for the big bit of rock sticking up and then look down. You should see this groß boulder in the road against a wall. You'll need to find a way to blow that up. Have you ever heard of… Bomb Flowers?"
Link remembered that, in his rage, Darunia had last ranted about Bomb Flowers when he was complaining about the lack of them due to the boulder blocking entrance to the cavern. "I can guess what they do, but what do they look like?"
"Just look for a little black ball with thistles growing on it. Be careful with them though, they WILL blow up on you if you hold them for too long."
"Will do. I'll be back. See you then."
Just before Link made it out of the throne room, Darunia had a few words of encouragement for Link.
"Oh, and one more thing: Good luck, boy."
Link smiled and nodded at Darunia, as did Navi, turning a shimmering blue and bobbing her body forward and back. Finally, they went out of the throne room and back into Goron City.
Link and Navi made sure to be careful as they crossed roads. Every time they stopped a rolling Goron with the signals, they would ask if they were Grindelwald.
Guess which letter they pronounced wrong?
Unfortunately, none of the Gorons they stopped were the right one. They just shook their heads and curled up again, ready to roll.
As Link was walking through one of the many tunnels to find the way outside, though, he found someone was calling for him to stop.
"Hey, you! Over there! Child with the green clothes!"
Link stopped immediately and turned around. The voice was feminine, yet a bit deep. Running up behind him were two breathless Gorons, one a male and the other a female, distinguishable by her red lips and long hair.
"We're sorry to bother you," started the male as the two stopped to catch their breath. "Have you seen our children anywhere around here? One is a boy and the other is a girl. They've just gone missing and we've been turning the place upside down looking for them!"
"Well… No. Sorry." replied Link, lowering his head and shaking it. "I've only seen one Goron child around here and he was just a baby."
"What do they look like? What are their names?" Navi asked as she floated out from behind Link's back and gently buzzed in front of the two parents.
"The girl is Mürren and the boy is called Wengen." clarified the mother. "Mürren has bright pink lips and long hair, as a girl Goron can have. Wengen is… a regular Goron boy. I'm afraid most male Gorons look very similar to each other."
"I haven't seen anyone like that around here… Well, other than.. Wengen. He's everywhere."
"We're going to Dodongo's Cavern in a minute so if he found his way in there, we'll look for them there." declared Navi. "That's the most we can do."
"Agreed." added Navi, turning a warm yellow.
The parents looked a little sceptical, but also a bit relieved. "I doubt they'll be in there, but thank you for offering." said the male, curling up before immediately returning to normal. This was how they bowed.
"I hope I find them. I'll try my best."
With that, Link turned and took a left turn out into the light.
The two young Gorons had ended up back in the main room of Dodongo's Cavern. Now they were standing on a plateau that was elevated above a pit of lava, inspecting the skull of a massive monster that they had deduced to be hiding something in its mouth.
"I've got it!" hissed the male, punching his palm. "That stone tablet! Remember?"
"Wengen, what are you talking about? All that thing said was 'Redden my vision with fire and smoke' or something! How are we meant to use that to our advantage?" His sister groaned and rolled her eyes in frustration. "You have said 'I've got it!' 173 times since we came here! I've been counting!"
"No I haven't!" protested the boy, "I've said it 152 times!"
"How is that helping your case? That's still a lot!"
"Oh. Anyway, I have ACTUALLY got it this time, it's a bomb! We need to find some bombs, or at least Bomb Flowers."
"That could work..." hummed the sister. "But if it backfires, it's your fault!"
"Yeah. Right(!)"
With that over, the two made a jump from the plateau to the right side that hung above the lava to try and find some explosives.
Link followed Navi along the mountain path, back the way he came, back into the cold weather. Have you ever been outside during the winter in a knee-high tunic with short sleeves? It makes you feel like an ice lolly coated in dry ice!
"Link, I can see it! Over here! Through the tunnel on your right is a giant boulder!"
Link looked to his right towards a gap in the wall that lead through. "Navi? Are you in there?" he shouted through it as if it were a megaphone. As if it was one, his voice amplified from the hole.
"Link, I've found the boulder! It's just off this ledge over here!" Navi's voice bled through the tunnel back at him. "There are these weird things stepping out of the ground. I think this is a Bomb Flower!"
Link briskly followed Navi through the cave on the other side and ended up on a balcony of sorts. Nature's balcony. It was a slab of rock that extended out over a deep crevice. Link recognised this crevice as one he had hiked up on his way to Goron City. As Navi kept saying, a massive boulder sat comfortably in the middle of the hairpin bend. It was clearly not meant to be there. It was just too large and out of place. Link was surprised he didn't notice it when he was ascending the mountain, but maybe that was because he was too busy freezing his face off.
"How on earth can anyone break a boulder like that?" Link asked incredulously as he furrowed his brow and looked down at the gargantuan granite chunk for any signs of weakness. "Where's that Bomb Flower you were talking about?"
"It's here!" Navi flew down to indicate some growths sticking out of the ground. Three of them. They started yellow and were blood red at the tips, like war weapons.
Well, that's reassuring!
"Pick it up by the roots." instructed Navi as Link peered all the way down the cliff at the big boulder. The Bomb Flower was near the edge, so he did not feel comfortable advancing on it to pick it up. "Come on! It's not going to hurt you if you're quick!"
"All right, all right!" groaned Link. His patience running dry, he yanked the Bomb Flower from the ground with ease. Instead of just a few scrawny leaves like he could see, he discovered that there as an entire fruit underneath. It was hidden completely beneath the soil and was completely black. It almost looked like a turnip.
Except turnips didn't throb between red and black or make hissing noises.
Hisssssssssssssssss…
It hissed like a snake on the prowl. Link was so bewildered, so startled that he forgot that if he were to keep holding onto it, this book would probably turn into a Looney Tunes fic without the piano.
"Link, throw it down there! Throw it!" squealed Navi in his ear as she turned red. Her voice snapped Link back to life and, realising he was holding an actual explosive, he yelped and dropped it off the ledge. Not even within a moment of it hitting the ground, a massive explosion shook the mountains. Small rocks broke from the top of cliffs and fell into the path and little pieces of boulder and billows of smoke flew into the air. Somehow, that tiny little Bomb Flower had destroyed the boulder several dozen times bigger than it. The resulting shockwave caused a little earthquake in the ground, destroying several surrounding protrusions, including Link's ledge. The ground crumpled beneath his feet and soon, he found himself separated from Navi and plunging down the side of cliff, bouncing off the walls as if he had too much sugar.
"Link! LINK! LI-" RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE…
"Link, please! Wake up! Please! I beg of you! Wake up!"
Link woke up to these words and a scratching pain on his forehead, some of his arms, his legs and his hands. His tunic had been scratched black in some areas but his body was covered in scratches and grazes. The skin around them had gone white, but there was blood oozing out of a small hole in the middle like a jam doughnut.
First raw beef and now jam doughnuts! I really should stop with these comparisons or I'll put someone off food!
"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Navi fading back from yellow to her usual white and blue and giving him a big hug. Well, the biggest she could manage anyway.
"Navi..." gurgled Link, still rather messed up from the fall, "How long have I been out?"
"Three hours!" answered Navi. "I was starting to get REALLY worried! I wanted to get help, but it would have been dangerous to leave you here with Tektites around!"
Link looked up at the sky for confirmation. It verified her claim, as it was yellow and pink. Off in Kakariko Village, Link could see that some of the house lights had come on.
Luckily, the massive, metal shield had protected his back from most of the fall, as he landed on it and had it take most of the impact. Pity about all the rocks from the broken rock balcony coming down after him.
Stiffly standing, Link looked into the mouth of Dodongo's Cavern. It was breathing hot air in his face, inviting him in, but the red glow at the back of its throat was very worrying. What could possibly have been in there? If it was too much for the Gorons, then how could he possibly do anything?
No. He had said that he was going to rid the cavern of monsters. He had said that to Darunia after bringing him out of his funk. If he turned back, Darunia would just become a volcano in a city in a volcano again.
And no one wanted that, even those who never met him.
Shaking his legs to make them crack and become easier to move, Link stepped into the fiery cavern.
Now that he had destroyed the boulder that was in the way, light was filling the cavern. If Link had found another way in, he would have been as blind as a bat in an upturned bucket.
Phew, it's just gotten hot in here! I'm going to take off my jumper. Excuse me just a second…
Anyway, the tunnel that Link had gone through to get into Dodongo's Cavern eventually widened into a gigantic chamber that stretched back about fifty meters. There was a large pool of molten lava in the middle of the room which housed a rocky, plateau and, the most stunning feature, a GINORMOUS skull of what could only be assumed to be a massive Dodongo of some sort. Its eyes were a dull black and its mouth was clamped shut, even though gravity should have made it hang open. Despite this place being a death trap to a human, especially a child, Link could understand why the Gorons liked their cavern so much.
"Link, it is boiling in here! You need to stay hydrated otherwise you'll get heatstroke! Did you remember to pack any water?" Navi spoke as if they both knew Link didn't have any water with him, but he rooted in his bag and pulled out a wooden flask of water that Saria requested.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" replied Link, his tone of voice acknowledging Navi. "Do you want some?" He prised the lid off the water and tilted it over to Navi.
"So that's what that was..." Navi said quietly. She flew onto the lip of the flask, relaxed her wings and began daintily sipping the water as if she were a butterfly on a flower. When she was done, Link himself took a sip. As little as possible to conserve their limited supply. "I thought that was, like, a musical instrument when I hid in your pouch back there. A shaker or something."
"I suppose… Saria knew. Friends always know."
Link replaced the drinking instrument and he and Navi made their way to the edge of their platform.
The layout of the main room was rather simple. There were three ways into other rooms. One was the way Link had just come from. The other two were on the east and west sides of the room. To get to them, you would have to get onto the plateau in the middle of the pit of lava, but to get to THAT, you would have to make a jump onto these round platforms that rose up and down. It was essentially a risk to get anywhere.
"Let's be careful here." advised Navi, turning a shimmering green with thought. "That may seem obvious but… you may think you're being more careful than you actually are."
"Navi, the trick for getting onto this platform is to jump not when it has reached the peak of its travels, but when it is moving up. That way, you jump on it from above rather than having to jump from an even angle."
Link stood right at the edge and watched the platform leading to the plateau as it descended to its lowest. Just as it began to ascend, he made a jump onto it. Ultimately, the platform levelled with the plateau and Link made a running leap onto it, easily landing.
Getting up, Link looked left and right at his options. Left? Another bit of parkour to a little cliff that lead into the door. Right?
Pretty much the same thing. It was all up to personal preference.
"Right..." mumbled Link. He was about to reach for a rupee to toss, but he remembered that both sides were identical. "How do we decide which way we go?"
Navi shimmered green once again. "Left or right… Left or right…" As she paced the air in thought, she realised Link had gone with the handedness approach and made a run for it left. He didn't even wait for the platform to begin lowering so he could jump on it from above. Instead, as if he were on a timed obstacle course TV show, he jumped onto it as it was at the apex of its ascension and then immediately jumped again…
as it was going down.
He almost fell straight into the Tabasco drink but, with a stifled gasp, he grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up. Navi just about noticed as he disappeared into the tunnel.
"What? Hey, Link! Wait for me!" she squealed, turning neon green and whizzing off after her companion.
"Link, don't scare me like that! I thought you fell in the lava!"
"I nearly did! Sorry. It's just something about this place that makes you want to go as fast as you possibly can." Link explained. Navi was strobing several colours with stress, which wasn't easy on the eyes. The two were now going down a twisting hall. The walls were made up of cobbles, with giant bones holding up the ceiling.
Where were the Gorons getting all these humongous skeletons?
Eek!
No, there isn't a mouse in your room. You don't have to bring out the mouse traps and cheese, there was something behind Link.
"What was that?" The boy turned around to a little, legless lizard behind him. Green in colour, it would slither on the floor to get around like a snake.
"Link!" whispered Navi discreetly, "Don't touch that! It's explosive!"
"An explosive lizard?" scoffed her partner, rolling his eyes, "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" He looked back to the lizard, who's eyes were slightly narrowed and glowing a ferocious red.
"Uh-oh."
Before Link could escape, the lizard, sure enough, exploded in fire, smoke, blood and scales.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!" The boy skidded backwards, creating a deep furrow in the ground. When he sat up and shook his head to stop the ringing, he looked like he had just stepped out of an alien movie. His entire front was covered with green blood, but his back half was bone dry.
"You all right?" Navi went flying over to Link and brushed a loose scale off his face, "You know, you're just like a fly in a marmalade kitchen! You're always getting stuck in a jam!"
Huffing, Link wiped his face clean of lizard blood. "Oh, ha ha ha(!) WHY DO THEY EXPLODE?"
"They have chlorine trifluoride in their system." Navi said this as if it were an everyday thing. "It's so flammable that it doesn't even need a flame to combust."
Link removed his shield and checked it for damage. "If every enemy in here does that, we might be in a bit of trouble."
"I think we'll be fine if you run like a rabbit instead of making conversation with them, you should be all right."
"Enough joking and more moving! We need to find the source of all these monsters!"
"Touché!" agreed Navi. Link looked at her as if she'd declared herself a purple, flying cow.
"Um… what?"
"I was agreeing with you. Let's move on."
"Fancy some more water?"
"Yeah! My wings are melting!"
Link pulled out his flask once more and let Navi perch on the side so she could drink from it. When she had shown even the slightest sign of having had enough, Link took his turn. Immediately, Navi squeaked and flew off the side. "Hey, careful! You're going to end up drinking ME one of these days!"
"Pretty sure I'd notice in time. I would turn into a torch." replied Link nonchalantly, screwing the top back onto his flask.
"Well, better safe than sorry!"
The two had walked deeper and deeper into the cave with no signs of any monsters. They had gone from lava everywhere to hot, but lavaless caves and now they were in a very humid, damp, green cavern. They were beginning to wonder if this was all a dodge by Darunia to avoid having to break the boulder himself. "No." thought Link, shaking his head adamantly, "He could have easily broken that boulder by throwing that Bomb Flower. He wouldn't have gotten anywhere if he tricked me into doing it."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…
A deep, growling noise billowed off from around a corner. No, I haven't fallen asleep at my keyboard. This was not even another person, unless they REALLY needed to blow their nose. Was this another Goron?
"Hello-" called Link but Navi zipped in front of him and pressed her hand against his mouth. She shushed him rather loudly.
"That's a fiend, not a friend!" she whispered. "Don't call out to it! Sneak up on it!"
"What is it?" Link lowered his voice to match hers.
"That is a Dodongo. The most dangerous monster that you'll encounter here!"
"Isn't this place called… Dodongo's Cavern? Aren't they meant to be here?"
"No, they invaded!"
"Dodongos invaded Dodongo's Cavern? That's tempting fate for you!"
"Oh, enough wise cracking and more reptile whacking!"
Link had Navi hide in his pouch so she wouldn't accidentally wake the unseen threat and, like a green ninja, like a developing detective, like a blonde Bond, he sneaked around the rocky pillars in the room, following the sounds of snoring.
Finally, Link located the gurgling gargoyle.
A scaled reptile, like a more bulky Komodo dragon, was slouched in a bed of black sand, wheezing away. It had green scales, like the combusting cut-throat from earlier on, but it was a darker shade of green, it had limbs and it was A LOT BIGGER. It's jaw sloped, adding to the look of a dragon. Smoke was puffing out of its nostrils in a funky rhythm and it was curled up in its nest.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…
"Link, sneak-strike it out of slumberland and into a different kind of slumberland!" whispered Navi as he drew his Kokiri Sword, making sure it didn't scrape on the floor.
"What?"
"Never mind. Just… hit it hard in the tail while you can!"
That sounded like a good idea to Link. Stilling his breath, he held his sword in both hands and approached It from behind. He had to focus on this. If the monster awoke, he was a Dodongo's dinner.
Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, he lifted his sword up to total its tail, which had shifted slightly and was now moving towards him at speed-
CRAAAASH!
Link shot back against a pillar, Navi turning neon green with the sudden shock and flying to his aid. "Link! Are you OK?"
He was OK, but he was winded and his back hurt from the impact. The only other effects was that his hat and hair was in his eyes. As he pushed them back to retain his vision, he noticed that the Dodongo had opened its black eyes and was sporting a twisted grin.
It had tricked him.
"Link, don't run away this time!" Navi turned her attention-grabbing yellow and targeted the Dodongo just above its blind spot, the top of its head. Its two eyes were on the sides of its head and they couldn't look up too far, so Navi was sure she was safe.
"Don't worry, I won't!"
Link eyed the Dodongo like a prison guard monitoring an inmate making a phone call.
The Dodongo eyed Link as if he were the last doughnut at a policeman's meeting.
With an ear-piercing, cracking cry, Link charged at the beast.
With an earth shattering ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR, the Dodongo stood its ground, waiting for Link to attack.
CLANNNNNG!
Link leaped in the air and tried to split the Dodongo in two like he had done with Gohma, but he had no sword beam for assistance. As a result, all he ended up succeeding was bouncing the Kokiri Sword off its thick hide and sending it boomeranging through the air at tremendous speeds, spinning to the floor with a clatter. Now with no weapon, Link was left awkwardly standing on the monster's head, expecting to have driven the sword through its head.
With a very wide, smug grin, the Dodongo flipped his head up, sending Link flying up with a yelp. It then sat there with its gob open, waiting for gravity to give it a free dinner.
However, Link was not beaten so easily. The monster's throw was so powerful that Link made it all the way up to the natural ceiling, where he grabbed hold of a wooden stick that was jammed within it. The Dodongo didn't give up. It sat there, mouth open as if it were at the dentist, until Link prised the stick free and came plunging down. Holding the stick sideways, he jammed the monster's lower and upper jaws open by placing the stick between them. The monster roared and roared in fury as Link ran to get his sword, taking advantage of his stick-up. By the time Link had retrieved his sword, the monster had closed its purple mouth with the jammer still inside.
CRUNCH!
Link charged at the monster once again as it shot a round fireball out of its mouth. With a crazy vertical dolphin jumping slash, Link cut the fireball clean in two. I don't quite know how that works, but Link sailed over the Dodongo, landed behind it and lopped of its tail with a quick attack. All the Dodongo did was emit a high grunt out of pain, but it died almost immediately. Black blood fired out of the stump like water out of a hose, drenching Link in it and shocking him to a standstill.
"Link, move! This one explodes too!" cried Navi, trying to take his hand as if she was trying to fly him to safety like a superhero. No need. Link had already taken off, getting out of range just as the demonic devil detonated, spreading fire and smoke in a perfect sphere.
Link pulled himself up, pulling little parts of his blackened clothes outwards to look at them. "I look like I just struck oil!" he complained.
Navi turned a hot pink in amusement. "That's not a bad thing, you know. You can really rake in the rupees with that!"
"I doubt we'll strike oil in here. If we did, the place would probably have even more explosions than it already does!"
"That's a good point actually. Lets try and find our way out of this room and into the next!"
Back in the main room, the two Goron kids who had been there since morning suddenly turned their heads to look at the left tunnel.
"Mürren, did you hear that?" The boy didn't even wait for a response. Already, he took a rolling jump off the plateau, completely missing the platform and landing directly in the tunnel.
"Wengen, stop! Slow down! I heard that! It was a Dodongo exploding! We've been hearing that noise all day! Someone's in here!" Following her brother's lead, the sister leaped to join her brother. Both of them coiled, rolled on the spot to gain momentum and then blasted off down the narrow tunnels, bouncing off the walls like pinballs in a very narrow machine.
There was only one way in or out of that corridor, and the two Gorons were occupying it. Link and Navi were about to meet them.
The question was, at full force or not?
Quote of the Day:
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
…
Don't actually do that, you'd probably get arrested and I'd probably get sued.