Night: Wolf howl
The rhythm of the crackling fire had put Link to sleep. But Lily was used to the sound so it didn't effect her. She was wide awake and she stared into the red and gold flames. Epona stood a little farther away, eating some grass.
"Lily, what's wrong?" Yara asked, flying around Lily's head. "Are you still thinking about what the Deku Sprout said?"
"Yeah." Lily said, bunching her legs up. "I didn't know that Queen Ghoma was our mother..."
"But even if you did back then, you'd still have had to kill her."
"Well I don't care!" Lily spat. "This is all that damn Ganondorf's fault!"
"I..."
"Sorry, Yara." Lily apologized, placing her head on her knees. "I shouldn't be taking my anger out on you."
"No it's my fault you're like this, Lily." Yara said, "If I hadn't left you that day..."
"Wait...you did leave me?"
"Yeah, you don't remember?"
"Remember what?"
"Oh, I shouldn't be saying it then."
"Huh?"
"What happened after you went into the Sacred Realm."
"Yeah, I went a year into the future."
"Well...Not quite."
Lily didn't ask anything else, mostly because she was confused. She tried to sleep but didn't get any. As the moon sank into the west, Link woke up.
"Lily?" Link asked rubbing sleep from his eyes. "What are you doing awake?"
"Couldn't sleep." Lily replied.
"I can go ahead on foot if you want."
"No, I'll be fine."
Day: Cucco crow
They rode through the field and across the bridge. At the bottom of the stairs, they got off Epona and walked up the stairs.
They town was empty. Nobody was on the paths or outside any houses. It was almost as if, everyone knew something was coming.
"Come on, Lily." Link said, walking up the stone stairs.
They walked up the stairs and through the open gate onto Death Mountain. Many rocks had fallen along the path after seven years, but the Red Tektites were still there.
"Stay back." Lily said, cocking an arrow into her bow. "I'll shot it with an arrow."
As she let the arrow go a large boulder block the path and the arrow broke on the stone. The rock came right towards them.
"Duck!" Link exclaimed.
Lily jumped towards the small space between the rock and the cliff wall. She was thin enough to slip through the space unharmed, but Link was alot more plump then she was. He had pushed himself against the side the wall and the rock missed him by a few inches.
"You need to lose some weight." Lily said. "Come on!"
They ran along the path, hiding behind the fallen rocks on the path. It was almost noon by the time the reached the top of the hill. They looked around and saw that the nice young Goron that had stood at the top was not there.
They continued up the hill and around dusk they came to the city. One of the large stone doors was cracked into pieces and the other looked about to break.
"Something must have happened!" Link gasped, "Hurry!"
They ran into the city and found that no Goron was in it. They stood on the edge of the cliff and heard the sound a falling boulder.
On the floor below was a baby Goron rolling around the level. He must have been less then five years old, but in Goron years, that was more like ten.
"Hey!" Lily called. "Where is everyone!"
"Ah!" the Goron exclaimed, "Leave me alone! You're probably one of Ganondorf's minions!"
"When did we start looking like Ganondorf's minions?" Link asked.
Lily shurgged, then leaped down to the lower level and as the Goron came around again she blasted him with a bomb.
"Ow!" the Goron moaned. "How could you-! You! You must be one of Ganondorf's followers! Fear my name! I am Link hero of the Gorons!"
"Don't worry. I won't hurt you." Lily said, walking up to the young Goron. "I'm Lily."
"Lily?" the Goron asked looking up.
"Hey, Lily!" Link laughed, walking up."You stopped him!"
"You're Link the Dodongo Buster!" the goron exclaimed. "Oh, I thought only in my wildest dreams I'd meet you! My dad told me about you and how you and Lily saved the Gorons seven years ago!"
"Your dad?" Link asked. "Who's your dad?"
"Don't tell me you've forgotten about Durania!"
"You're Durania's son?"
"Yeah."
"Where did everyone go?"
"They were taken to the Fire Temple. To be food to the dragon."
"Dragon? What dragon?"
"V-Volvagia."
The young Goron began to weep. Lily knelt down and held the child close, trying to comfort him. Link stared in amazment at his sister.
"It's okay. Take your time." she said to the Goron.
"There...there's an old story that long ago the dragon Volvagia had once lived inside Death Mountain, in the Fire Temple. And he ate Gorons. But there was one Goron who had a hammer, the Megaton Hammer, and he defeated the dragon with it."
"And I know that the story is true because my dad is part of that bloodline. But the hammer was hiden inside the Fire Temple. The Goron hero, made a second Megaton Hammer, and he passed it down from generation to generation, and Dad took it to defeat the dragon."
"But I thought the dragon was dead." Lily said.
"No...Ganondorf revived him. And while Dad was out, Ganondorf's followers came and took everyone to the temple. Which is why Dad went into the Fire Temple alone..."
"Don't worry!" Link said, patting the Goron's head. "We'll save the Gorons and your dad!"
"You'd better take these, then." the Goron sniffed, pulling out two bundles from behind his back. "They'll protect you from the heat of the crater."
The Goron handed each of them, a red tunic. In the blink of an eye, both had changed into the Goron Tunics and Lily was already down below.
"Come on Link!" she laughed, "Don't make me leave you behind!"
"Wait up!" Link called back.
Lily ran into Durania's room and looked around for a door. She noticed that the large statue in the back of the room had been damaged a little.
Lily walked over to the rock and pulled it away from the wall. Sure enough on the other side of the statue was an opening. Through the dark cave she could feel heat flowing from the next next.
"Would-you-please-stop-running-ahead?" Link panted, walking up beside Lily. "You-found-the-door-did-you?"
"Yeah." Lily said, starting to walk down the cave. "Come on."
They walked through the cave and entered into the Death Mountain Crater. Boiling lava bubbled far below the cliff that Link and Lily stood on.
"Wow!" Navi exclaimed.
"Never thought we'd see the inside of Death Mountain before!" Yara laughed. "And it's so cool in here!"
"What are you two talking about?" Lily panted, "I'm roasting like a Deku Nut!"
"Really?" Navi asked. "I didn't notice..."
"Yeah, whatever." Lily said, taking out her hookshot. "I'm gonna go over there."
She aimed for the wooden plank on the other side of a large gap in the old wood bridge. She shot over and Link came right after that. They took a few steps towards the rock platform in the middle of the valley, when Shiek appeared out of nowhere.
"Good gosh, Shiek!" Lily gasped, "Are you trying to give me a heart attck!"
"No, he just thought he'd scare us." Link laughed.
"It is something that grows over time...a true friendship." Shiek said, walking towards them. "A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger over time..."
"You've said 'over time' twice-" Lily coughed, but stopped when Shiek raised his hand.
"The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it, you will know which way to go..." Shiek continued, "This song is dedicated to the power of the heart. Listen to the Bolero of Fire."
Shiek pulled out his harp and played a song, which Link and Lily both played on their ocarinas. Shiek put the harp away and backed towards the platform.
"Link, Lily, we'll meet again soon."
"Hold on!" Link excliamed, taking a step towards Shiek. "Why are you helping us?"
A wall of fire came between them and Shiek vanished in the flames. When the flames died down, they walked into a cave just off the platform.
Inside was a deep dark hole, with a metal ladder leading to the floor far below. Lily began to climb down the ladder, with Link right behind her. Lily reached the stone floor and looked behind her to see another cave leading into a large room with a staircase going up.
She walked into the room and looked around. The stiarcase led onto a higher level in the room. Three rock pillars with small shelves, had burning torches set into them. Two doors on either side of the higher level, were facing each other, one locked with a silver chain and lock while the other was unlocked.
"Is this it?" Link asked, walking up.
"I think so." Lily replied.
"It is!" Navi exclaimed. "No doubt about it!"
"This is the Fire Temple." Yara echoed.