Another dungeon! I was so excited to get the last fused shadow… until the incident immediately following the defeat of Morpheel, that is. I can't wait to write it! That's one of my favorite parts of the whole game (along with the beginning and very end). I might just have to start working on it now instead of waiting till next week! We'll see how my essay goes.
Chapter 25: The Lakebed Temple
You probably know this already, but deep water is cold. And wet. And we had to go all the way to the bottom of the lake. The temple entrance had been blocked with a boulder by the Zoras. They wanted to keep all the monsters locked in. How refreshing. More monsters. An underwater bomb was all that was needed to clear the boulder up, though. And then we were in.
Let me tell you, the underwater tunnel that led into the temple didn't seem like a good beginning for this place. It was infested with giant chomping clams and shocking jellyfish. Link managed to dodge the clams, but was slightly fried by the jellyfish. When we surfaced, his damp hair was sticking up slightly from static, making me snicker with amusement.
So, water temple, here we come! Zant, look out! We're about to get the last Fused Shadow!
The central room of the temple was a giant round room that took up several stories. The middle was filled with water, and there were several doors all around the outside. A rotating staircase granted access to the different doors.
There was a sort of island in the very middle of the room, and the only way to get through the doorway on the island was to fill the center of the chamber with water, all the way to the ledge. So, we set about finding the water pumps that would flood water down the canals. Something told me it wouldn't be easy.
Okay. We met Oocoo again. Just thought I should mention that.
And eventually we found ourselves in a large, apparently empty chamber. Some strange little mutant tadpoles dropped from the ceiling and sunk their teeth into Link's ankles. He quickly got rid of them, massaging his ankles and muttering darkly.
But tadpoles dropping from the ceiling? That was a bit odd.
I looked up to see what was on the ceiling.
"Um… Link, you might want to look up about now."
Link paused in the rubbing of his ankles and looked up at the ceiling. His jaw dropped and a look of repulsion came over his face. I didn't blame him.
Hanging from a stalactite on the ceiling was one of the ugliest things I'd ever seen (except for maybe that giant twilight bug). It was some huge fat toad about the size of an elephant with little tadpole things clinging to its back. Well, this would be interesting.
The toad thing dropped down from the ceiling, landing in front of us with the force of an earthquake.
The tadpoles jumped off its back, snapping at Link's feet. As Link was busy killing the little slime balls, the toad monster jumped up onto the ceiling again.
And then, a shadow fell over us. A somewhat toady-looking shadow. The toad was trying to flatten us!
Link rolled out of the way just in time and the toad slammed into the ground, knocking itself silly and giving Link enough time to slash out with his sword.
After a few more flattening attempts, Link did enough damage to send the toad thing reeling back and keeling over. But before it died, it spit out a disgusting blob of muck. I was all for leaving the blob of slime alone, but Link thought he saw something in it. Well, he did. He found a clawshot. It's a sort of chain with a claw-grabby thing on the end, so you can pull things towards you, or pull yourself towards something else, like a chain fence or a wall covered in vines. It was actually a pretty cool weapon, once Link washed all the slime off of it.
With a brand new weapon in our arsenal, we continued on and at long last we were able to fill the temple chamber with water. Now we'd be able to reach that little island in the middle. That's where the last fused shadow was being kept.
Link swam out and opened the door. Well, here comes the monster guarding the fused shadow. I hated to think what this one would be like.
But the room was empty. Except for a hole in the middle of the floor.
There was nothing else to do. Link jumped down through the hole.
And he fell.
Until he hit water.
So, he put on his fancy iron boots and sunk all the way to the bottom of the strange lake.
The floor was covered in sand. In the middle of the floor, there was some tentacle thing sticking out of the sand.
As Link walked towards it, an eye swam up through the tentacle. Like the tentacle was hollow or something. It stared at Link for a moment, and then sunk back down below the sand. And then more tentacles sprang up from the sand. Almost ten of them. And then something else pushed itself up out of the floor. It was some sort of anemone thing. All the tentacles were connected to some central mouth thing. And the eye slid in and out of each tentacle. It was Morpheel.
The eye was the target.
Link swam out of the reach of the waving anemone arms and took out his clawshot. He needed to get that eye over here so he could kill it.
But the tentacles were waving so much that it was hard to aim for the constantly moving eye. Link could move closer and get a better shot, but then he'd be in range of the monster's grip. He didn't want to be flung into that giant mouth, that's for sure.
Finally he was able to hook the eye and he dragged it towards him with the clawshot. He drove his sword into it, but it wriggled free and bounced back to the anemone.
Once in possession of its eye again, Morpheel sunk below the sand. For one moment, there was silence. And then a rumbling sound filled the chamber. Something worse was coming. We could tell. And then something erupted from the ground in front of us. That anemone thing was only Morpheel's head. This thing was MASSIVE! It circled around the chamber, and Link wisely decided to get out of the way of its head. He swam above it to avoid that huge mouth, and then he saw the eye again. Instead of passing through the tentacles that wreathed its head, it was now lodged on the back of its neck.
As the giant eel-like monster swam in circles, trying to swallow Link, Link tried to get himself close enough to the eye to hook it with the clawshot.
Then Morpheel swung its huge head around and Link found himself facing the huge gaping mouth. It sucked the water in, trying to pull Link down its throat, but he aimed his clawshot and sent the claw out to hook onto the skin by its eye. The chain of the clawshot reeled in, landing Link right next to the eye. He slammed his sword down into it. Morpheel roared in pain and shook Link loose, sending him swirling away through the water. Link got his balance and quickly set about getting above Morpheel again. He came down over the head, using the clawshot again to land him on the scaly back. And this time when he struck with his sword, Morpheel let out a moan and smashed head-first into the rock wall of the water chamber. Link had let go just in time to avoid being flung against the wall himself.
The tremendous force of Morpheel's skull crushing against the wall knocked a huge crack in the stone and all the water began to flush out. And as the last of it drained away, Morpheel's body shattered into twilight squares.
And the twilight residue formed the last fused shadow.
Feeling giddy and victorious, I lifted out of the shadows.
"There it is! The last Fused Shadow. I'll just take that, thanks."
I took the fused shadow in my twilight hand. But I felt kind of bad for Link. He'd fought through countless monsters to help me get these things. He'd been locked in a dungeon, forced off a bridge, jousted a giant ogre, and found that his friend had lost her memory. And he couldn't even touch the Fused Shadows due to the shadowy twilight aura that surrounded them. And he still didn't know exactly what they were for. They were the only way to destroy Zant and regain my throne in my twilight realm!
"Now, don't resent me for all I've put you through. I NEED this thing! Besides, we have to do something about Zant, the one who thinks he is the king of shadows. His power is a false one. I'll prove it using these!" I brought the fused shadow into my mask with the others we'd worked so hard to gather. "So… I've done everything I needed to. I'm sorry for dragging you all over the place with me."
I wondered if he would help me fight Zant if I asked him to. I didn't REALLY need his help anymore now that we had the Fused Shadows. But he was a good fighter. He'd proved that several times already. But I should let him return to his life. He'd done so much for me. And now that we'd gotten what we needed, I was able to look back and see how much I appreciated his help. I'd been kind of annoying sometimes, and let him do a lot of the actual fighting. But it would all be worth it because now his world would be free of twilight. Would that mean I'd have to say goodbye? I'd gotten more attached to him than I would have thought possible. And the thought of saying goodbye hurt more than I wanted it to.
I drifted over to open a portal back to Lanayru's spring. I threw down the twilight magic and floated above my portal.
"So… Shall we go?" But it came out a little more hesitant and sad than I meant it to. I had the Fused Shadows! What did I have to be sad about? A goodbye? Saying goodbye to a boy from the light world? Link didn't even know that I might be leaving soon. I wasn't sure how to tell him. I could tell he liked me too. Since he first saw me locked in that dungeon and started snarling at me… there'd been so much of a change between us. Instead of only using him to get the Fused Shadows, I now thought of him as a friend. And I knew he though I was his friend too.
Link walked to the portal with a bounce in his step. As far as he was concerned, the quest was over. He'd fulfilled his part of our agreement. I tried to relax. We'd be going back where we belonged now. Both of us.
Link pulled off his Zora armor before entering the portal. Now that the water had drained, he didn't need it anymore. And then I took him outside.
We landed on the edge of the spirit's spring, looking out over the water. Link turned to leave the cave, and we came face to face with Zant.