Disclaimer: Yugioh and Zelda not owned here
Claimer: Made-up stuff that I invented belongs to me (how many more times am I gonna have to say all this before it sinks in?)
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"We're lost, aren't we?" Yuugi asked Yami, several hours later.
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"No we're not," Yami retorted, "Not any more than we were the last four times you asked, Aibou."
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"Yeah, we were just as lost then too weren't we?" Yuugi said, "Well, I mean, we know where we are, but we don't know where we're going."
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That was true: ever since leaving the woods, Yami had been driving Epona around Hyrule Field in huge circles as the two of them tried to remember where to go next. And it wasn't like before, when they literally had NO clue what they were doing - this time they had specific, albeit sort of vague, directions.
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Except that they didn't know where in Hyrule to find a lake, or sand, and neither of them REALLY wanted to go out of their way to find dead people, and the only mountain they knew of was a volcano that brought up really bad memories Yuugi was trying to suppress…
0But all that suppression turned out to be in vain, since Death Mountain was the only place they knew how to get to next. Parking Epona in the grassy part of Kakariko Village, Yami trudged up the staircases to where the path up Death Mountain began.
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Seven years in the future, not only was Croquet no longer standing guard at the gate, but the gate itself was gone. A few stray metallic bars were on the ground where it used to be, looking an awful lot like they'd been run over, over and over…and just a short ways up the steep path Yami and Yuugi discovered why that was exactly the case.
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"The fire part wasn't bad enough," Yuugi complained loudly from high above the situation, "Then there were monsters, but that wasn't bad enough EITHER - noooo, now we must be plagued with HUGE BOULDERS TRYING TO SQUASH US!"
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"I don't see you in that much danger!" Yami snapped, diving for safety to the side of an incoming boulder larger than he was.
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Diving forward on a steeply uphill path resulted in Yami plowing face-first into said path almost every time. Needless to say, when the two of them got past the area the boulders were reaching the path at (right on top of the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern, a place filled with such fond memories for both of them), Yami was extremely Not Amused.
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There were only two improvements: firstly, the ominous cloud cover hanging over the volcano blocked most of the sunlight, reducing the temperature from the terrible heat Yuugi had gone through to something almost chilly for the desert-acclimated Yami, and secondly, there were no hopping monsters waiting on the now-boulder-infested path to try and eat them, undoubtedly having all been squashed by the falling rocks.
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Those were the only good things going on on Death Mountain. And when Yami and Yuugi made it to Goron City, they were quite alarmed to discover that all the Gorons were mysteriously missing. A check in the Big Brother room showed that Jou was also missing, which really got them worried.
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"Now what do we do?" Yuugi wondered as the two of them wandered Goron City, "I was hoping Jou or even one of the Gorons would know something about this mountain sage we're supposed to find, but everyone's vanished! I hope they're all okay…"
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Yami had no idea what to say to comfort his distraught aibou, especially since he was worried about Jou too - the blonde duelist was his sort-of-friend too, or at least his favorite competition - so he lead a new search of Goron City, leaving no stone unturned. It was in the middle of trying to turn over a particularly heavy round stone tucked into a corner that Yami discovered that not all the Gorons had disappeared.
0In response to being turned over, the stone uncurled and complained, "OI! Don't ya know its RUDE ta flip a guy over when he's sleepin'?"
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The 'stone' was in fact a Goron! It was also the smallest and (apparently) youngest Gorons Yami and Yuugi had ever seen, and once he got over the indignation of being rolled over, the little Goron greeted Yami and Yuugi with a big Goron grin.
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"Are you guys called Yuugi and Yami?" was the first thing the Goron asked.
"Yes," said Yuugi and Yami.
"FINALLY!" the little Goron cried, "Big Brother told me ta stay and wait for ya to come! He also told me to tell ya that he's sorry he couldn't wait for you but he needed to go try and squish the dragon before he eats all the Gorons."
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"Jou's going to try to squash a dragon?" Yuugi gasped.
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"Wait…Jou's going to try to eat all the Gorons?" Yami blinked.
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"It was awful," the little Goron nodded, responding to Yuugi, "We were all happy and fine, after you cool guys fixed up Dodongo's Cavern and we could eat again, but the evil guy who blocked the cavern before…he came back."
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Here the Goron swallowed nervously.
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"And then he revived this evil dragon Volvagia that used to live here a long time ago, and the evil dragon came and took everyone but me and Big Brother away to eat them!"
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"Oh no!" cried Yuugi.
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"So Big Brother said he was gonna have to go rescue them," the little Goron continued, "And he told me to stay here and hide until his friends the Dodongo-Busters came back, and then tell them…but I already told you."
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"This is bad," Yami said, "Jou's a determined person -"
"You can say it, Yami, we all know he's stubborn and impulsive sometimes," Yuugi interrupted him.
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"As I was saying," Yami said, annoyed now, "Even so, he probably can't defeat a dragon by himself. So we need to go after him."
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"Volvagia's inside the Fire Temple, Big Brother said," the little Goron piped up, "And that's inside the lava inside of the crater where only Gorons can go because other people'll burn up in, like, five minutes because its so hot there."
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"So how are we supposed to do anything if we can't go into the Temple?" Yami growled.
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Yuugi was silent, remembering something from their last visit. Jou had been wearing a weird coat…because of -
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"But Jou can go into the Temple, even though he's not a Goron," Yuugi exclaimed, "He had that weird red jacket which was supposed to protect him, remember? The last time we saw him?""…Ah yes," Yami said, remembering, "I also remember that rather delightful hot dog analogy he mentioned - but where are we going to find one of those protective coats…"
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"No sweat!" the little Goron piped up, "Big Brother ALSO told me to give you guys this so you could get into the Temple without flash-frying!"
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Yuugi made a face at his best friend's choice of descriptions as the little Goron pulled out another of those weird red coats. This one came with a hat - an ugly cowboy hat the same color as the coat which would fit nicely over the green pointed one Yami was already wearing.
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"Do we have to wear this hat too?" the spirit asked as he pulled the coat over his tunic.
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"Yep! Its for total protection, otherwise your head'll catch on fire or something," the little Goron said, "That makes the hat the essential part of the Goron Jacket - and while you're wearing the Goron Jacket, you can survive being set on fire real easy too!"
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"That's actually a relief, I think," Yuugi said, trying not to make his Yami's mood worse by laughing as the spirit reluctantly forced the ugly red hat over their pointed green one.
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The total outfit was very eye-catching, the coat going to the tops of Yami's ankles. Intriguingly, there were holes in the coat that connected to each and every pocket in Yami's tunic, so Yami couldn't complain how inconvenient it would be to get out his Hookshot every time he wanted to shoot something.
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The last thing the little Goron told them were directions to the Temple. Inside of the Big Brother room, the ugly statue Yuugi and Yami had seen on their previous visit blocked the tunnel leading directly to the Fire Temple (as this temple was obviously named) and it could just so happened to be moved by someone wearing Goron Bracelets.
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The Bracelets Yuugi had gotten from Jou still fit Yami's wrists, so with very little difficulty the ugly statue was moved and the two adventurers were on their way.