A/n: We finally posted, so very sorry for the wait, but we were also mapping out the remainder of the story. And this chapter ended up having to be split in two because it is so freaking long and complicated, but quite necessary… hopefully… It gives you a little insight into Naomi and gives her a few more abilities than just being (I'm a pirate who can hit people with sticks.). Hope you like this one!
The temple creaked as if it were alive. A robotic clanking haunted Gangor and Arian as they emerged from the water. The Zora climbed gracefully but cautiously onto the stone platform that acted as the temple entrance though only accessible from the water, stone surrounding all other sides. Arian, opposite to Gangor's entrance, dragged himself onto the floor while coughing sea water from his lungs.
"Were you trying to drown me?" He growled angrily between coughs, trying to pull himself to his feet. Gangor looked back absentmindedly, responding only out of reflex.
"No, not yet." Arian sneered at him as he spit the last bit of saltwater back from whence it came. "Now, come on… Naomi may not have gotten far, hopefully we can catch her, if we hurry." He quickly ran up the entrance ramp, standing between two lit torches. A wooden seal graced the stone landing, bearing a strange marking. Arian stopped on it, momentarily, but as he heard the door before him open and shut, he snapped out of his daze and quickly followed behind.
The shock of the new room stunned them both. There were many, many gears, all turning in accordance with some unknown contraption. Two platforms on either side of their stone landing would periodically rise and fall, taking them to a second floor. Another pool was before them, giving them little space to stand. Arian quickly mapped out the pipes in the room, gazing over everything to see how it worked.
"Amazing…" He whispered to himself. Gangor quickly took to the water, looking for Naomi. He circled the room twice before he discontentedly jumped back to Arian's side.
"She's not in here." He said worriedly. Arian spotted an exit on the upper floor and quickly pointed it out to Gangor.
"She probably went up there, knowing Naomi." Arian laughed at her cleverness. "Just wait for one of these platforms to come down, it'll take us right up to it." Gangor wrinkled his blue nose.
"What do you mean 'knowing Naomi'… how long have you known her." Arian grinned to the Zora's response and as he jumped to the lowering platform, his feet getting a bit wet as it plunged a short ways into the water. Gangor quickly followed, waiting for his response.
"I've known her for six glorious days." Arian grunted, jumping to the second floor with a summersault. Gangor followed with a flying cartwheel, as is Zoran fashion.
"Yeah, well I've known her for six glorious years, so I say I know her best." Arian nodded as he jumped onto a gushing spout of water, balancing on the unsteady surface, and then throwing himself towards the higher platform where the door was. Gangor followed, clumsily doing the same, he too threw himself, falling short.
"Gotcha." Arian said as he pulled Gangor up by the fin that graced the back of his Zoran head. He set him down on his knees as the Zora griped about having his tail pulled. He looked up to Arian and sneered, the boy cocked his head to the side.
"You're welcome… Now let's go find Naomi."
The next room was more amazing than the last. A great turning shaft stirred a seemingly endless pool of water, the water too deep to see the bottom. The two stood on a small bridge hovering directly above the water, leading out to the wooden shaft. Both looked down in astonishment until Arian broke the silence between them.
"Who designed this place!" He asked in a disbelieving tone of voice, finding no viable use for such a contraption. Gangor didn't answer but looked up, away from the horrifying whirlpool of death below them, finding a ladder on the opposite side of the turning rod.
"There, maybe Naomi went there!" He exclaimed, Arian quickly looked to where he indicated.
"Well there's no harm in looking before we plunge into, where ever that leads." He said, staring back down into the deep. "I hope Naomi didn't fall down into that."
"She'd fair better than we will. Naomi's a better swimmer than I am, believe me, I've raced her before. She out swam me by ten seconds." Arian laughed, gazing back to his Zoran companion.
"Well, let's hope she didn't attempt this and go check that place out." Arian added. Gangor nodded in reply and quickly gazed back to the ladder.
"How are we going to get over there?" He asked, "This thing is blocking the path way." Arian looked below them, seeing two large paddles protruding form the shaft, circling just a few feet below the stone bridge they stood on. Without a word, Arian jumped onto one as it passed beneath the bridge. He balanced while the paddle took him to the other side of the shaft, allowing him to jump onto the other side of the bridge. Gangor watched, and then after a quick prayer, did the same. Arian waited on the other side and helped to pull him up, taking the arm that the Zora instinctively drew out.
The two continued up the ladder and through the door on the upper platform without another word. They were completely unaware of the eyes that had laid upon them from the moment they had entered the temple.
Another large basin of water lay before them in this new room. Two large pumps were within the water, more tubes running through them. Arian took a step forward, his brow arched in curiosity as to what these pumps were meant for as Gangor looked into the deep water. He saw several interesting fish circling beneath them, and nervously stepped back when he saw the fangs one of them bore.
Neither one noticed the wire netted ceiling above them, where a strange man stalked over to an opening just over their heads. He hesitated, waiting for the right moment to pounce upon them. This hesitation was just the amount of time needed for Arian's acute senses to detect the extra member of the room. He snarled out of instinct, even though his teeth were the normal length and sharpness and his appearance that of the boy he normally was. The man above them quickly reacted to his being discovered and jumped down before them. Out from the shadows appeared the deranged General Gaft, standing before them in all his darkened glory. Arian instinctively stood between him and Gangor, his lip curled up in a menacing yet boyish facade.
The General laughed as he began to recognize the snarl and intense reaction.
"So it is you… the one from the Town." He smiled as he stepped to the side, Arian moved in accordance. "I wasn't expecting you, and what? Without your fangs, claws, or even a tail?" He crossed his arms. "Why you're quite the creature aren't you?" Gangor spoke behind him.
"And what kind of creature are you?" He asked in an irrespective manner, sensing Arian's tenseness. The General laughed again.
"Why don't I show you?"
His last words were followed by the darkening of his eyes, signifying the beginning of a devastating blow. Arian anticipated, but a bit too late. He shoved Gangor into the water, taking the majority of the blow upon himself. There was a lapse of thought and he felt himself hitting the water, gasping for breath before he plunged beneath the surface. Only seconds later did he feel the fangs of an underwater beast gnawing upon his leg. A shocking sensation ran through him. Gangor took a moment to realize the dangers of the current predicament before he discovered that he would have to fight the creatures off Arian.
The Zoras had many battle tricks, many of which Gangor had failed to learn, but he knew of some, and he was in his own territory. He began to swim, spinning towards the creatures that were now dragging Arian to the bottom. He knocked into them, the bare bones of the smaller fish broke into many pieces, but the one large, fanged creature was only shaken. It was thrown from Arian, but quickly swerved around to face Gangor.
Gangor watched as Arian quickly swam back to the surface; the boy was nearly out of breath, breaking the water's surface with coughing gasps for air. The general took full advantage of the boy's momentary weakness. He watched with a laugh at the boy just before he slipped his hand into the pool. A black substance clouded the water he touched and slowly worked its way out to Arian.
The warped darkness worked its way around the surprised boy's shoulders. Arian realized what was happening in time to take one quick breath before he was forced back underneath. Gaft laughed as he watched the boy's blurred form struggle against the black substance and the Zora fighting helplessly against the fanged fish.
"This is going to be easier than I thought." Gaft said quietly to himself as he bent over the water, catching a closer look. He took pride in the pain he inflicted upon his now helpless victims. However, as the general was caught up in his glories, he failed to notice the figure of Naomi looming in the door behind him. The sound of the blast had captured her attentions during her search for the Ocarina. It had only taken her a few moments to navigate her way back up to the churning wheel and to the other door which hid Arian and Gangor's battle.
Naomi immediately recognized Gaft, not by his appearance, but by his laugh. She quickly caught sight of Arian struggling in the water, and was quicker to recognize the danger of the black mass surrounding him. The momentary pause seemed long to Naomi, in comparison to how fast her reaction actually was. Naomi quickly pulled out her pirate sword and slashed Gaft across the back, the sting causing him to fall forward into the pool. Naomi followed behind him. She dove gracefully into the water, with the sword out in front of her as she readied to battle him on her own terms.
Gaft acknowledged his disadvantage and was too quick to remember his previous, embarrassing, defeat. He was now more cautious, and willing to take time to catch his victims unawares. Naomi caught a glimpse of the injured general as he glared at her and disappeared into his own, now controllable darkness.
She took a momentary pause to gather her thoughts and examine the situation. Her heart dropped as she saw Arian curling up beneath the water. The black liquid was dissipating, but the boy seemed to have already run out of breath. Naomi quickly dropped her sword and dove into the water, swimming at an unnatural speed to his side. His green eyes were shut tightly, his body going limp as she began hauling him to the surface.
Using all of her strength, she pushed him onto the stone platform. In subconscious luck, her hand beat into his chest as she pulled herself up beside him. His reaction was immediate. Water burst from his lungs and he rolled to the side to cough up the remainder, breathing out a few incoherent words, but Naomi was able to hear one familiar name.
"…Gangor…" Naomi nodded curiously and looked back into the water. There the Zora was being tormented by a large, spiny skeleton fish. Naomi rolled her eyes as she grabbed her sword and went to rescue her poor friend. After waiting for the Zora to be still enough for her to safely strike the beast, she helped Gangor to the same ledge Arian was coughing on.
Naomi then jumped beside them as the two rested in agony. As both began to show signs of being well, Naomi replaced her sword and stared at them both in a disbelieving stupor.
"What are you two doing here?" She questioned. Arian sat up as he finished his coughing fit by wiping the tears from his eyes.
"We're saving you." He laughed, noting the irony. Naomi cocked her head to the side, her eyes rapidly blinking as she also laughed.
"Well, thank you… I suppose." She smiled at Gangor and began thinking of ways to mend his wounds from the fish. Her ingenuity prevailed and she unwrapped the scarf around her waist, to hide her stomach while she wore the rather revealing pirate attire. The scarf was then torn into several pieces which were then wrapped around the various cuts and gashes adorning his blue skin.
"Arian has a nasty bite on his leg too." Gangor said nervously as he stared gratefully into Naomi's eyes. She returned his nervous smile and used the last of the pieces on Arian's leg, wrapping it over his bloodied pant leg for extra bandaging. After all was well, Naomi found herself blushing out of shame as she revealed her reason for being in the temple.
"I'm afraid I must find the Ocarina before we try to leave… A fish stole it from me and--" Her explanation was cut off.
"And that same skeleton fish spit it back at us just as we went out to look for you. Amy is taking it back to Link right now." Arian finished for her. Naomi was once more dumbfounded. She laughed once and fell into thought.
"That's very odd." She said at last. Arian nodded.
"The oddness doesn't end there. A giant turtle who apparently has some sort of second sight was watching you and some other doings near the bay and woke up to tell us where you had gone, and that some evil thing was indeed trying to lure you into this temple."
"And I bet that evil thing and that strange man are directly correlated." Naomi interrupted.
"Gaft." Arian corrected. Naomi looked at him curiously. "His name, or what he calls himself, is General Gaft. He introduced himself before he started attacking me."
"No he didn't." The baffled Gangor retorted. Naomi lifted her chin in a likeness of when one makes a connection between two once separate ideas.
"Ah, you mean the first time he attacked you, in that underwater passageway of Clock town." Arian nodded. "I keep forgetting that was you." She blushed. Gangor rolled his eyes as he became irritated at not knowing about any of the conversation passing before him.
"So now that we're all caught up are we going to leave now?" He asked in a tone verging on bitterness.
"Yes, I suppose we should, before Gaft comes back. I'm lucky he decided to attack you two first. I don't think I would have been able to fend him off by myself." Naomi's soft voice rang while she helped Arian and Gangor to their feet. "This way I was able to sneak attack him." She laughed. "I don't think he expected me to decipher the layout of this temple so quickly."
"Yes, the first couple of rooms implied that it would be incredibly complicated." Arian concurred. The group walked through the door back into the largest room of the temple. Naomi gasped as she entered, noting a very important detail.
"The turbine… it's not spinning…" She ran to the edge, looking down at the still water.
"And that's a bad thing…?" Arian stated as a question, wondering if Naomi had discovered the secrets of this quirky temple. Naomi nodded dramatically.
"This temple was built by my people, the Nynians, in order to contain the poison that killed them." The jaws of her two companions inexplicably dropped as the news burned into their minds.
"What? How did you find this out? Are you sure?" Gangor's questions came quickly. Naomi nodded, calming herself down as she tried to pull out a quick explanation.
"As I was looking for the Ocarina I wandered into what seems to be the control room. It wasn't what I would expect to be a control room, but as I swam to the bottom of this pool, looking for that accursed fish, this white square in the middle of the circular floor seemed to awake at my very presence. Out of curiosity, I swam to it and as I hovered above it some strange lights floated around me and I was somehow able to read this compressed information about this entire temple and some about the doings of my people, pertaining to this poison anyway. I inferred that this poison they spoke about was the cause of their demise, since they were also testing for a way to reverse it's affects… that's what these green pipes are for."
"And the other ones?" Arian asked. The temple was slowly beginning to make sense.
"The red pipes contain the contaminated water and they run through various cleansing stations until they come to that first room you entered where it may be released which can turn the turbine the other way to operate the testing system with the green pipes. The yellow ones in the beginning are pulled directly from the clean water reserve in order to stimulate the hydroelectric power that runs this whole temple and keeps the collected poison contained. That's why the water must always be flowing, the electricity conducted by the two turbines creates a shield that keeps the water from being contaminated again." Arian nodded, his brain eagerly collecting the new information. Gangor however was still caught on the prospect of poison.
"So if this temple isn't started back up again, does that mean the Zoras could be in danger?"
"Yes, it means that anything living in the Great Bay is in grave danger." Gangor turned pale, his mind turning to his Zoran brethren. Arian's reaction was expressed in a deep sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair, then turning to Naomi asking.
"Well, where do we begin?" He asked, Naomi looked at him absently. "How do we fix this temple?" She bit her lip before responding.
"I think if I go back to that control panel, I could figure out which part of this huge contraption needs to be fixed, and maybe even which room, but it is just so incredibly difficult to read." Arian placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"It's nothing you can't handle." Naomi blushed and smiled lightly at him as Gangor decided it would be best to get down to business.
"Okay then Naomi, lead us to the control room before the water gets contaminated." Gangor said angrily. Naomi nodded and grabbed Arian's hand.
"Hold your breath and jump on three." He nodded as she began counting. Gangor rolled his eyes and dove on 'two', Arian and Naomi following after him.
The absence of the whirlpool current was greatly appreciated by all. Naomi was able to find her way back much faster than flowing water would have allowed. Arian was especially appreciative of the haste, considering he was more partial to breathing air than his two companions who seemed to have an amphibious adaptation.
Gangor fell behind her as he followed her through a tunnel and into a room where Naomi surfaced to give Arian a breath. She released his hand and as he was treading water, Naomi swam back down to fight off several bloodthirsty fish she noticed were heading towards them. She replaced her sword and resurfaced next to Arian.
"Hold your breath again, it's just through one more tunnel, then we can walk the rest of the way." Arian nodded, breathing too heavily to respond properly. As soon as he drew a deep breath Naomi pulled him back under and made a swim for another tunnel entrance, guarded by two, long, green hands (part of the demonic flora that graced several temples of Termina.) Naomi quickly drew her blade once more and swiped them away. Gangor followed behind, thankful that Naomi was taking care of the strange predators.
They surfaced again in a long, narrow room. The small pool of water held three large lily pads, and at the very end of the room there was another stone platform leading to a door. Naomi let Arian tread water and catch his breath as she went ahead, showing the way as she climbed onto the stone landing. Gangor followed her as Arian slowly caught on and did the same.
"It's right through here, at the bottom of a deep pool. At first I was just exploring, curiosity I guess. But this white tile in the center of the pool reacted to my presence. The next thing I knew, I was reading these strange inscriptions… I don't know why, but I understood it, even though I know I have never seen it before, or at least I don't think I have."
"What have you read thus far?" Arian asked quickly as the three of them crossed through the door into the large room. A bridge lay before them, allowing them to cross over a stream of water towards the great pool Naomi had been speaking of.
"I read about everything I told you… and a little about my peoples' history, but I suppose I was too surprised, and a little shocked to read much more. I was heading back, to tell you guys about the temple, and to admit losing the Ocarina, when I head that loud explosion Gaft caused. I'm assuming correctly, am I not?"
"What?"
"That Gaft caused the explosion?"
"Ah, yes." Arian responded robotically. Naomi smiled at his weary expression.
"I'm going to go back down and see if I can't find out more about how this place works. I figure that will be a start to fixing it." The two boys nodded, watching Naomi dive into the water and swim to the very bottom. They were astounded as they watched her blurred silhouette become surrounded by a bright, blue light. That was the way of it; the information surrounded Naomi in lights, dancing in the water as it waited for orders from the girl before sorting itself to show whatever she wanted to see.
As Naomi sorted through the seemingly limitless amount of data, all that Gangor and Arian could do was wait, and watch. Boredom crept upon the two as the time passed by without much visible movement from Naomi.
"She's been a while… do you think she's okay?" Arian asked, still not accustomed to the fact that Naomi could thrive underwater much longer than he. Gangor nodded.
"She said she had done this before… and if this control room doubles as the historical holdings, than there's probably quite a bit of information for her to sift through before she finds anything of use." A silence followed, ending with the splash of Naomi's surfacing. The girl appeared frazzled as she held onto the edge of the pool. As Arian and Gangor bent down near her, she abruptly pulled them underwater.
Arian barely had enough time to breath in prior to hitting the water, but before his reflexes could force him to breath in the liquid, air was already surrounding him, Gangor, and Naomi. She had her hands raised above her, as if she held something heavy over her head. The girl continued to look from one to the other in a fretful manner.
"What is wrong Naomi?" Gangor asked as he glanced curiously at the water that surrounded them on all sides. It seemed to flow around them, yet leaving enough room for them to breath.
"And what is the meaning of…this?" Arian asked with a crack in his voice, inquiring about the sudden new trick she learned.
"I haven't much time to explain. Just know that this was a Nynian trick that the records taught me about. I can't do much else, but there isn't time to speak of my shortcomings."
"Then speak of what troubles you." Gangor urged her. "Why did you bring us down here?"
"The records, they told me of his presence. Gaft. He's setting a trap for us, all of us. He's also able to spy on us, watching our every move. It seems that he has the power to control all the evil beings that reside in this temple, and he's using them to listen to our conversation… hence, this." Naomi looked up at her creation. "This way, the water distorts our words too much to be heard, and all Gaft thinks is we're going for a swim."
"A very long swim." Arian muttered. "Well, how is he setting a trap, did it tell you that?"
"Yes, he knew I had already looked at the records and was knowledgeable of this place." She bit her lip. "Apparently he was too. He knew I wouldn't leave this temple unless it was working properly, therefore he--"
"Did whatever injury he could to it to lure you into fixing it." Arian finished.
"Exactly." Naomi nodded. "He's waiting to strike while we're involved with our repairs."
"A surprise attack…" Arian added. Gangor smiled.
"Fortunately it's not really a surprise anymore."
A/n: Was it good? Is anybody still reading? Am I alone? Well now I'm scared…………….. Hello? R&R please…………