CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Escape from the Stone Tower
When the group appeared on the other side of the portal, the sight was very bizarre. Admittedly, none of them knew what awaited them in Termina, so in that sense, anything would surprise them. Nonetheless, appearing in a desert in the middle of a sandstorm was certainly not what they were expecting.
And there would sadly be no fast way across it. At Zelda's insistence, Link left Epona behind in case the terrain they would travel would be too uneven for her. It pained him to leave his faithful friend for the second time, but Lana had quelled it with the assurance that she could have Epona there in the blink of an eye if they needed her. Now, though, he wished he had protested.
"Well, that's just awesome." Mako groaned. "And in the middle of a freakin' sandstorm, too. Perfect."
"Honey, you've never had to live in a desert." said Nabooru with a roll of her eyes. "Quit whining."
"No sense standing around." Impa called. "Let's get moving!"
They began a mad dash across the stormy landscape, the heat bearing down on them though the sand whipping through the air obscured the sun from their vision. It was only a few minutes before one of them realized they weren't going anywhere. If anything, they just seemed to be looping around the same wrecked pillars again and again.
"What the hell's going on now?!" Midna growled. "Sure, I signed up to pal around, but nobody said anything about an endless desert!"
"Skull Kid," said Zelda. "Not that I doubt we passed into Termina or anything, but are you sure this is where we were supposed to go?"
Even Skull Kid seemed confused until the mask on his face began shaking again. After seeing this enough times already and remembering what had flashed through his mind when it fell on his face, Mako couldn't take the imp's ignorance of it anymore.
"Okay, seriously!" he said. "Why is that happening?"
"What?" asked Skull Kid.
"Your mask! It's shaking, for Farore's sake! And how are you not seeing freaky things while you're wearing it?!"
"I've got no idea what you're talking about. I'm just wearing this because my friend asked me to wear it until I saw her again."
"That's another thing! Who's this friend even supposed to be?!"
He didn't get an answer when the earth suddenly began to rumble, startling all the warriors into drawing their weapons and surveying the immediate area. As they did, a mighty roar rang out from somewhere beyond their position, and they could see from a distance that a great deal of sand was shifting around as something began moving underneath it.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this…" muttered Rusl as he clenched his grip on his sword's handle.
Not two seconds after he had said that, a giant creature erupted from the sand, roaring and flying above the heroes too quickly for them to catch it. All they saw was its crimson tail as it burrowed away, its calls still echoing in the wind.
And Groose was the first to ask the obvious question: "What the sam hell was THAT?!"
"Behind you!" Volga roared.
They dived away just as the sand puckered up again, the beast revealing its head. Right away, they wished it hadn't. Its three soul-piercing eyes were disturbing enough without the set of spider-like fangs underneath, nor the tusks it began snapping at anyone who got too close.
"So, Agitha," said Mako as he strafed backward. "You gonna feel upset if we slaughter this son of a gun?"
"Good gracious, not at all!" Agitha said, averting her eyes from the foul creature. "Even Skulltulas aren't this hideous! Exterminate it, by all means!"
"Good. Only seen it for ten seconds and I'm already sick of lookin' at it."
The moment one of the heroes made a motion to strike the Twinmold, it retched and spat a vile green liquid at them. As it hit the sand where they had been standing, it began to sizzle and give off steam. They were having enough of a hard time looking at this creature without the knowledge that it spat acid, and certainly without what happened next. Impa was the first to feel it as a gust of sand slammed against her shins, forcing her to turn to have a look.
"What in the…oh no, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!"
Indeed, a smaller blue Twinmold revealed itself, still dwarfing the heroes with its size and curiously avoiding direct confrontation. Instead, it remained airborne and made up for its supposed cowardice with a rain of lasers. Zelda gritted her teeth and opened fire on it, as did Groose and Lana as they all hoped in vain to be able to damage it in some fashion while the other warriors kept the red one off their backs. To their relief, the blue Twinmold shrieked in pain when one of Groose's bombs detonated against its tail.
"There's its weak spot!" Lana called. "Fi! Saria! Agitha! Shanya! Come help us out with this one!"
Leaving Link and the others to deal with the larger Twinmold proved a more hazardous idea than they thought as it let loose with a mighty roar. The moment it did, Stalfos and ReDeads rose from the sand and began lurching toward the heroes. The heroes in turn broke away from each other to combat them, leaving Link, Mako, and Skull Kid to face their true opponent.
"Ah, just as well." said Mako with a friendly punch to Link's shoulder. "I've been looking for a chance to kick some tail alongside you, anyway."
"Did you somehow get even cockier when you were with Zelda?" Link asked as he fought back a small laugh.
"Hey, I think I've earned it! You heard me, right?! Zant! Freakin' Zant! And I took him down!"
Midna rolling her eyes from some distance away, Skull Kid led the charge with his marionettes, the Twinmold spitting all over them and melting them in a matter of moments before it snaked out of the ground and began to chase them. With a strong leap, Link and Mako landed on its back, seizing onto the ridges and steadily making their way to its head.
"Gotta give him one thing." said Link. "He can see better in this storm than we can. What do you say we fix that?"
And they climbed, nearly losing their grip a few times as the Twinmold realized its prey had mounted it and started thrashing. It did nothing to help as Link and Mako reached its head, reared their blades back, and stabbed them into the top eye. The beast shrieked, slithering wildly out of control until it crashed into a nearby lone pillar. The impact launched Link and Mako off its back, and it made a move to whack them with its tail when they landed. Luckily, there had been just enough time for Skull Kid to catch up and stop it, heaving it up off the ground and tossing it a little ways away.
Meanwhile, Zelda's small group was steadily starting to lose their patience as the smaller and more agile Twinmold continued to avoid them. They'd occasionally land a hit on its tail, but it otherwise kept jetting around, firing down on them every few seconds and forcing them to find cover. Shanya threw her scythe and guided it toward the beast, managing to leave one long slash along its body before it swatted the weapon away. It wheeled around and fired at the ground where Zelda stood, surprising her just enough that she shot an arrow into its eye by accident. It shrieked, focusing its attention on her and firing again, only for a one of Agitha's mighty beetles to block it with its hard shell.
"A vile creature like this has no business being in our presence!" said the bug princess. "We must dispose of it quickly!"
"Agreed." said Zelda. "Groose! You're up! Mind giving him a lift, Agitha?"
Groose mounted the golden butterfly and held on tight, juggling his launcher onto his shoulder and aiming true as he closed the distance between himself and the blue Twinmold. When he was within the proper range, he leaped off his steed's back and pulled the trigger.
"Bombs away, sucker!" he hollered.
The Twinmold shrieked and lurched forward, Groose landing on top of it and holding on for dear life. He really hadn't counted on such a thing happening, and with Agitha now occupied with a team of Stalfos, he couldn't count on her sending him another butterfly. It hardly mattered when Lana came jumping up to his aid from several of her conjured platforms and offered him her hand.
"You had my back the entire way through your time. I figured it would be good to save your hide for once."
"You figured right! Get me off this thing!"
They made a mad dash back to ground level, the enraged Twinmold firing mercilessly on them and realizing too late that Link had begun to ascend the platforms with the Mirror Shield in hand. The two lasers it fired bounced off the shield's surface, one into its firer's eye and the other into its counterpart's. The blue Twinmold in particular fell to the ground and immediately made a vain attempt to burrow away from its opponents, stopped when Darunia seized it by the tip of its tail.
"You're not goin' anywhere, ya stupid bug!" the Goron chieftain roared. "Now how about we go for a little spin?!"
The Twinmold could do nothing as Darunia began spinning it around practically to the point of vomiting up whatever it had eaten before, particularly when its captor shouted "Got a kiss for your big brother?!" and slammed it hard into its larger counterpart before tossing it high into the air. There, it knew its fate was sealed as Volga reared back his spear and threw it with all his might. The weapon embedded itself flames and all into the Twinmold's remaining eye, and as Volga flew upward and retrieved it, the beast let out one final pained shriek before it dropped motionless onto the ground.
"Great work, brother!" Darunia laughed as Volga landed back on the ground.
Volga himself smirked at his ally, clearly showing that his pride as a dragon remained strong as ever.
"Fire has no brothers but the smoke it exhales and the stone that encases it." he replied.
"Well, hey." said Darunia. "You can't get a harder rock than me."
Seeing the corpse of its companion drove the red Twinmold into a rampage as it recovered from the blows it had suffered before. It unleashed a mighty roar before it began snaking along the sand, angrily snapping its tusks at whoever came close enough. Link flipped out of the way, dragging Skull Kid along with him. He was surprised at how fast the Twinmold was despite its size, and he quickly began looking around for a method of stopping it. All at once, his eyes landed on one particular ally who would be more than happy to help him.
"Ruto!"
The Zora princess turned to him, growing a wide grin when he said to her "Let's go surfing." With a wave of her arms, Ruto summoned forth a tsunami, Link kicking up a stone slab laying on the ground and standing upon it as the wave reached him. Thus, he and Ruto zipped forward as the water picked up their monstrous opponent. The torrent sucked it helplessly toward them, and without any hesitation, Link bounded forward and buried his sword to its hilt into the final eye.
"Bullseye!" he shouted in triumph, wincing when Ruto squealed in delight and proceeded to embrace him.
"That was flawless, sweetheart! …oh, crap on a carp, it's still alive."
Alive, trashing, and angry. Even though it was now permanently blinded in all three eyes, it didn't stop moving. It seemed to be in full retreat, but with a quickly conjured barrier, Lana stopped it in its tracks. It turned left, and Midna created a Twilight barrier. It turned right, and Volga breathed a line of flames. It turned backward, and Darunia slammed his hammer into the ground and produced a series of stalagmites.
"Alright, he's boxed in!" Midna shouted. "FINISH HIM!"
At that order, six warriors bounded upward and readying themselves. Link, Impa, Nabooru, Rusl, Shanya, Fi. As the blades pierced its hide and ruptured its organs, the Twinmold thrashed about in a steadily weakening fashion, letting up several disgusting shrieks before its head fell limp, and once it stopped moving, both it and its already deceased companion degenerated into sand that blew way in the wind.
And to make things odder, so too did the desert surrounding the heroes. Within moments, they stood in the entrance hall of a crumbling fortress of some sort. Some distance away from them was a strange monument that Skull Kid stepped forward to look at. He hesitated at first, but then slipped off his mask and held it up. He looked at the monument, then at the mask, then at the monument again. Then he turned his mask upside down and compared them again.
"That's weird…" he said before he put the mask back on.
"What is?" Zelda asked.
"Nothing…but doesn't that thing look kinda weird?"
He received several strange looks.
"You mean OTHER than the fact you just took your mask off and compared them?" Colin asked.
"It looks…wrong somehow…I dunno. Let's get outta here."
He scurried toward the nearest exit, his companions following closely behind him though were now slightly more wary. As they walked through the gateway they were met with nothing more than a drop-off with a small set of platforms seemingly leading to nowhere. The heroes looked around for any other way of traversing, but found nothing.
At least not until Groose took a look around and noticed several things, namely the ridges below them.
"I think I figured out what was weird about that statue to you, Skull Kid." he said, snapping his fingers as a conclusion sprung to his mind. "It's upside-down. The whole tower is."
"…okay, Groose." said Nabooru. "You seem like a nice guy, but that's single-handedly the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and we're in the presence of Ruto, the queen of saying stupid stuff."
After Nabooru avoided a disgusted fin-slap from her aquatic companion, Groose directed them over the side of the floating platforms, and then upward. Wonders never ceased it seemed, for below them was the starry night sky, and above them was a black pit with a bed of spikes on the ceiling.
"Master Groose appears to be 100% accurate in his claim." said Fi. "In this current state, exiting the tower appears to be impossible. The only solution seems to be flipping the tower rightside-up."
She surveyed the immediate area until something caught her visual processor: a red jewel fixed just above the gateway they had exited from. She analyzed it for a few brief moments, determining it to be some sort of switch and uncovering what would activate it.
"Milady Zelda." she spoke up. "I must advise you to fire upon that jewel with your Light Arrows."
Like anyone else, Zelda wondered what that would do, but Fi hadn't steered them wrong yet. Thus, she loaded her bow and fired away. As if things weren't strange enough, the moment the arrow struck the jewel, the tower began to shake. The heroes struggled to keep their footing, shielding their eyes as a light shined from everywhere around them. The shaking kept on going, nearly convincing them it wouldn't stop until their bones jumped from their skin.
Gradually, however, it settled from a full-on earthquake to a mild tremor and finally nothing, and when they opened their eyes…
"…ah." Nabooru said before patting Groose on the back when the way was now open. "Well, son of a bitch. Good on you."
"Even I get lucky sometimes." the Skyloftian said with a grin.
They peered over the edge once again. Whoever built this tower clearly hadn't finished it, as there were no ladders or even stairwells leading through the individual levels. In fact, the heroes had a very unnerving feeling of what may have actually happened here when they heard and then saw several ReDeads slouching in isolated areas of the tower.
"Long way down, eh?" Link sighed, rolling his shoulder and sheathing his sword and shield. "Oh, well. Let's get a move on."
And they took off, taking carefully steps as they did so. Every once in a while, a piece of the floor would give way and leave the heroes with a steadily escalating dread of the entire tower collapsing. Even worse was the strange moans coming from somewhere far below them. They didn't know if it was just the distant ReDeads longing to be heard or something even more hideous, but they weren't able to shake the feeling that this tower, whether haunted or in serious need of renovation, had been built for some nefarious purpose.
Said nefarious purpose bringing Link, Zelda, Impa, and even Lana to think about what Skull Kid had led them into. That monument had indeed bore a heavy resemblance to his mask for whatever reason, and they couldn't imagine why. Zelda still stood by her belief that Skull Kid meant them no harm, and she could see that when he helped Agitha, Saria, and Colin work their way down alongside him. An innocent child at heart, but with a mask of treachery looming over him.
Literally. The mask shook again and sent shivers down their spines. Then Zelda of course remembered why Termina had been so difficult to access in the first place. Not to keep them from getting in, but to keep something from getting out. Something that now commanded Wizzro, Veran, and Onox. She thanked the gods it wasn't Ganondorf or Cia or anyone of that sort, but who? Come to think of it, they had seen neither hide nor hair of the three in ages, nor had they even presented that much of a resistance.
Then Link spoke, summing up their worries the best.
"I've got this feeling…what if those three wanted us to follow them?"
No sooner had he said that then they reached the bottom of the tower and exited out into the canyon it was stationed in. To say the least, it was sickening. There was no vegetation whatsoever. Even the Gerudo Valley had some sort of shrub or the odd palm tree, but with an ominous haze blocking out a good deal of sunlight and oddly colored water that one would rightfully assume was toxic, this topped Nabooru's homeland in barren quality by some distance. That was if one ignored the shadow the Stone Tower cast over the land, the crumbling castle on a nearby cliff, and what seemed like a giant music box sitting in a small pond with several Gibdos circling it.
"This land…" Zelda said in despair. "Some kind of curse has swept over it…dear Nayru, this is horrible."
"Jeez, and I thought I lived in a wasteland." Nabooru grumbled. "This is just depressing. Like 'I wanna kill myself just looking at this' depressing.
"No matter. At least we…." Impa started, trailing off when she gazed over her Gerudo companion's shoulder. "What in the world?"
Following Impa's curious stare, the army saw a most unnerving sight, funnily enough not within their current location. Beyond the mountains of what they would later know as Ikana Canyon was a field, and in the center of that field was a town that looked to be in a very distressing predicament.
Seeing the moon so close was not that unusual. In fact, there are many who would call it romantic, but what couldn't be considered romantic under any circumstances was its distance from the ground was far too narrow for comfort, in addition to the fact that…well, it had a face. A face invented solely to induce nightmares, it seemed, and to their dismay, Skull Kid began to get excited and pointed them in that direction.
"There! My friend is at the top of that tower!" he cheered. "Come on, you guys!"
"That tower?" said Midna. "The one with the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life not even fifty feet above it?"
"Yeah! Let's go! Hurry!"
They wanted no such part of it. If anything, they wanted to pack up and go back to Hyrule as soon as possible. Perhaps they could just keep someone stationed at the Temple of Souls and wait for the three dark warriors to appear, then just slay them there. Anything but proceeding deeper into this abysmal place and facing whatever horrors lay within it.
Skull Kid had already made the decision for them, and Volga reaffirmed it while strengthening their resolve as he stepped forward.
"This is no time for cowardice from any of us." he said sternly. "Let's press onward and put an end to this."
He was right. On top of putting an end to the threat that stationed itself there, they had the people within this land to consider, as well. With this in mind, they followed Skull Kid across the field and to the small city of Clock Town, keeping their eyes on the moon as they did so. The entire trek built up their sense of dread as well as their sense of curiosity, and even Link, perhaps the bravest among them, could only imagine.
Who or what was behind this madness and, in the case of the unnerving excuse for a moon, these potential nightmares…and was it just them, or was it actually starting to get closer?
Okay, folks. Get ready. No, seriously. Get the pitchforks and torches ready. You're gonna like me a little less for this if you even liked me at all. Here we go...Majora's Mask is my least favorite of the 3-D Zelda games.
Darth Vader: "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Do I hate it? Hell no. I love it. I'm replaying it on the 3DS and having an absolute ball with it, but there's too many small annoyances for me to like it more than the others. For starters, there's only four dungeons not counting the Moon, and in my opinion, only the Stone Tower Temple is great (yes, I'm aware the development team only had a year to make the game). I mean, Woodfall is okay in my eyes, but I found Snowhead kinda bland (aside from the boss. He's epic), and in the words of rabbidluigi, I'd rather castrate myself than play through the Great Bay Temple again. Then there's the whole three-day mechanic which is very inventive, but it's kind of annoying in several ways, mainly because I don't like having to hurry myself through certain sections or else risk having to do it all over again. Trust me, that's stressful. Like, REALLY stressful. The masks were awesome, though, and there are some neat theories regarding the story, especially the one linking the Stone Tower to the Tower of Babel (even though I don't support the "Link is dead" theory).
Oh, and Ben Drowned? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Sorry if I pissed you off/bored you with that little rant. Just something I had to get out and give you a warning considering how Majora's Mask has swelled in popularity in the past few years. It does at least have a ton of cool scenarios and interesting characters, and we'll get the grand culmination of that next time. Hope to see you then.
And on an unrelated note, I'm not wearing pants right now. ;)
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Musou test in the Faron Woods- "In the Greenwood" from Hyrule Warriors
Link, Mako, and Shanya versus Phantom Ganon- Phantom Ganon's battle theme from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Ambush on Hyrule Castle- "Under Siege" from Hyrule Warriors
Reinforcements- Legend of Zelda main theme (Hyrule Warriors version)
The Omega Fairy- "Kumite" from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Hyrule Warriors version)
Saria, Sage of the Forest- "Saria's Song" from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (look for a version by TheOnlyDeerAlive.)
Invasion of Ordon Village- "Hyrule Field" from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Hyrule Warriors version)
Liberation of Skyloft- "Skyloft" from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Hyrule Warriors version)
Fi, Benevolent Sword Spirit- "Ballad of the Goddess" from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Rescue on Death Mountain- "Hammer of Stones" from Hyrule Warriors (which actually has a bit of the Link to the Past Death Mountain theme at the start)
Nabooru, Sage of Spirit- "Gerudo Valley" from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U version)
Joust on the Bridge of Eldin- King Bulblin's battle theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Skull Kid's bravery- "Courage" from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Treasure of the Ancient Cistern- "Heart of the End" from Hyrule Warriors
Koloktos, Ancient Automaton- His theme from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Siege of the Spirit Temple- "Temple" from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Melee version)
Bongo Bongo, Phantom Shadow Beast- Boss theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Hyrule Warriors version)
Impa versus Twinrova- Twinrova's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (look for a version by FamilyJules7x)
Reclaiming the Palace of Twilight- "Remnant of the Twilight" from Hyrule Warriors
Stallord, Twilight Fossil- Dinosaur boss theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Hyrule Warriors version)
Volga, Dragon Knight- "Solidus Cave" from Hyrule Warriors
Link versus Ghirahim- "Focal Line" from Hyrule Warriors
Twinmold, Giant Masked Insect- Boss theme from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask