Chapter 25: Ralis Temple
Beneath the temple there was a metal chute that appeared to be shut. Raoole loosened the lid, allowing Link and Zelda to swim up through the chute. They found themselves in a stone slide with no water running down, and climbed up onto the wall while Raoole closed up the chute to keep the ocean water out. On the other side of the wall, Link and Zelda beheld an array of indoor pools that were dried up with stone bridges running over them and a mural that ran along the sides depicting the Zora's origins, the rulers that had come before, and their ascension to Skyloft. One image stood out to Link the most, and it showed a female Zora and a young boy facing each other with their eyes closed holding a blue-colored stone between them.
"These ponds used to be filled with water," Raoole said sadly. "The thing that the Fused Shadow infused with must've done it."
"Probably," Zelda said and looked down at the slide. "What's that for?"
"In the early days, foolish Hylians and Gerudos tried to steal gold from us and so we installed traps throughout the place," Raoole said. "The slide was used to dump the dead bodies into the ocean, but it's been disabled along with the other traps."
Link and Zelda breathed a sigh of relief. After changing out of the Zora Armor, they and Raoole investigated the pools which were now infested with slime-like ChuChus. Using their respective weapons, Zelda and Link were able to turn the ChuChus into jelly. At the bottom of each pond there was a large pearl and a stone pipe.
"They may look like pearls, but they're actually nobs," Raoole said. "Turn them to pump water back into the ponds."
"What'll that do?" Link asked.
"Hopefully lure out whatever caused the ponds to be drained in the first place," Raoole said.
Changing back into the Zora Armor, Link walked down to bottom of a pond after defeating all the ChuChus and then he turned the pearl to the left. A stream of water flowed from the pipe and filled the pool up in a matter of seconds. Zelda told Link when the water reached the edge of the pool causing him to twist the pearl to the right which stopped the water flow. They did this seven more times until all the ponds were filled. This caused a stone door to open.
"I guess we need to go this way," Zelda guessed heading through the stone door.
Link and Raoole followed, and they found themselves at the top of a flooded stairway. Link walked down the steps in the Zora Armor, but then he came back up a few moments later.
"There's a tunnel at the bottom of the staircase, but the entrance is blocked by iron bars that are too small for me to swim through," Link reported.
"Maybe hitting that crystal over there will do something," Zelda said, pointing to a white crystal on a ledge across the stairway. She pulled out her Crossbow, inserted a Blast Arrow, and fired.
The arrow hit the crystal and exploded on impact. While the crystal wasn't damaged, it changed from white to yellow. Suddenly, the bars that blocked the entrance vanished.
"Sounds like it worked," Raoole noted.
The three of them swam through the tunnel, which then turned into a maze of tunnels that were filled with clam-shaped Shell Blades. Swimming past them, they came up into a stone chamber with a small wooden chest. Opening it, Link found a silver-colored key. Then after some more exploring, they found a door with a similar-colored lock.
Inside, they found an empty pit with spikes at the bottom. There was another crystal on the other side, prompting Zelda to shoot it with a Blast Arrow. Once the crystal changed color, the two pipes along the sides of the pit suddenly pumped water. After the pit was full of water, Zelda, Link, and Raoole swam to the other side and opened the door. There, they found several Tektites skimming along a ring of water that circled a small platform. Jumping onto the platform, Link and Zelda fended off the Tektites while reaching the large chest in the center.
Inside, there was a rifle-shaped item that had a black handle with a silver tube above a metal shaft. A black-colored hose connected the tube and shaft near the handle and there was a leather strap attached to the bottom.
"Isn't this…a Steam Gun?" Zelda pondered.
"A Zora Steam Gun, to be exact," Raoole corrected, standing behind Link and Zelda. "They're made from silver-copper-gold alloys and have a firing range of 7-15 feet."
"Let's see if it works," Link said, picking up the Steam Gun and pointing it at a nearby Tektite.
After pulling the trigger, a spout of concentrated steam emerged from the shaft's end causing the Tektite to shriek in pain until it eventually died.
"That will certainly come in handy around here," Zelda responded.
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After doing some more exploring around the maze, they found another silver key in a chamber filled with Dexihands. Once they got this, they wandered around the maze till they came to another door with a silver lock only this time it was located at the top of a staircase infested with ChuChus. Using the Steam Gun, Link was able to turn the ChuChus into jelly before placing the silver key into the lock. On the other side, Link and the others found themselves on an outdoor balcony that overlooked Sunset Bay all the way to the shore, but the skies were still stormy and there were occasional flashes of lightning. Treading quickly across the balcony, the three came to another door which opened into a dark room with a shrine at the end. A small fountain gurgled at the foot of this shrine, but when Link and Zelda stepped closer to it a pair of red eyes appeared in the fountain and a tiger-like creature made of pure water with a fish-tail emerged.
"That's Teegra, the Sea-Shark!" Raoole exclaimed. "Don't let her touch you! You'll turn into liquid water!"
So Link and Zelda kept their distance of the creature as it ran towards them. While Zelda used the Noise Arrows to distract Teegra, Link blasted it from behind with the Steam Gun. After a few rounds, Teegra evaporated into steam and a gold-colored chest appeared at the foot of the fountain. Inside it, Link and Zelda found a gold key.
To be continued…