Sorry I'm late. The stupid fanfic wouldn't let me log in for the past 3 days. I don't know why.
Temple of Time! How on earth did it end up in the Lost Woods? Maybe the forest grew up around it or something… But then how did it get so far away from the castle? Why can't the geography of the different games line up? Wah! But if the state of the temple is anything to go by, then it's been a very long time since the Hero of Time has been here.
Chapter 38: The Temple of Time
Where had this temple come from? What sort of magic allowed a bare doorway to lead to an enormous temple like this? The Temple of Time.
We walked through the first chamber and past two statues exactly like the ones guarding the Master Sword. And then we found ourselves in a huge round room with light pouring in through stain-glass windows. Near the back of this room was a pedestal just like the one the Master Sword was pulled from. In fact, it was in exactly the same place as where we had found the sword. And come to think of it, those two statues were in the exact same place as the ones in the ruin. It was as if we had stepped back in time to when the ruins in the forest were still in their original pristine shape.
Link took the sword, and for the second time, plunged it into the pedestal. Suddenly a staircase appeared before him, leading up to the window at the back of the chamber.
Link drew his sword again and sheathed it.
Suddenly, something scrambled past us, up the stairs. At first I though it was a cucco. But it wasn't. It was Ooccoo. And fluttering along beside her was what looked like a floating Ooccoo head. Erm… If you say so.
As they reached the top of the stairs, the window vanished, revealing a passageway. And as the two strange creatures passed through it, the window reappeared.
"What just happened?" Link said blankly.
"Well, it looks like a couple chicken creatures just went into the temple. Let's go!"
Link shrugged and climbed the staircase. The window vanished, allowing him to pass through and enter the inner temple.
And what a temple it was! It was fantastic.
As we walked into the entrance chamber, we found what looked like a giant bell sitting on the floor. I had not idea what it was for, but we passed it to try to get to the next room. But the door was shut.
Link walked up to the door, wondering if there was a way to open it.
And then I noticed something. There was a statue to one side of the door. And on the other side of the door, there was a pedestal for another statue, but there was no statue there. Now, we'd had to place the two statues flanking the door when we were trying to get to the Master Sword. Maybe we'd have to find the other statue and bring it back here in order to open the door further into the temple.
But that statue was big. Bigger than Link. Even if we managed to find its pair somewhere in the temple, how would we get it back here?
I emerged to tell Link what I'd discovered.
"Link, Don't you think there's something odd about that statue? In the grove and in the temple entry, there were always matching ones on each side, but there's only one here. Why don't you use your senses to take a look around?"
I turned him into a wolf and we examined the empty statue pedestal. Sure enough, there was a hazy outline of a statue opposite the other statue.
"I knew it… There was one more here originally. We need to find the other statue in this temple that matches that one."
When he was human again, we headed around to another doorway, but just as we reached the staircase, we ran into Ooccoo and the little flying thing that was with her. Maybe it was a baby of… whatever Ooccoo was.
"Erm! Not so fast!" Ooccoo barked as we started up the stairs.
Link stared at Ooccoo, waiting to hear what she'd say this time. She'd followed him through every single dungeon so far, offering help. But she hadn't done much yet except follow us around, hiding whenever we got into a battle. Not too helpful if you ask me.
"At last… This is it! This is where I've been trying to get to! The ancient technology of our people sleeps in this place. We've searched all over… and now we're so close, I can SMELL it! Once we find that thing, we can go home at last! Oh, gracious, yes! Erm, young man! We're so close… so PLEASE help us find what we're looking for!"
"Sure," Link agreed, scratching his head. "Why not?"
As he set off up the stairs, Ooccoo and her son (yes, that flying Ooccoo head thing was her son) followed us.
We slowly made our way thought the Temple of Time. It was an impressive structure, which, unfortunately was full of monsters and puzzles. Just like all the other dungeons, huh? And I couldn't help noticing that pretty much every room we entered had one or two of those big bell-like things.
And finally we entered the room with the statue! But as Link headed towards it, we found ourselves face-to-face with a knight dressed in black armor and wielding a huge sword and a shield.
And the battle was on.
The knight had an advantage. He was covered in armor. But that didn't stop Link. He dove into the fight, slashing in with his sword to cut pieces of armor loose. He rolled out of the way of the knight's swings. He was pretty slow with all that armor on, but as Link knocked the heavy metal plates off his body, the knight gained speed.
Soon, the heavy armor was scattered across the floor. The knight suddenly hurled his sword at Link. Link dove to the side just in time to avoid having his head sliced off. The knight dropped his shield and drew another sword. A smaller one that would be easier to wield.
And now it was proved just how fast he was. And the battle suddenly became much more intense. Link blocked blows with his shield and swords clashed.
And finally, using a move that would have made his ghost teacher proud, Link leapt into the air and slashed his sword down over the knight's head.
The knight collapsed to the ground, defeated.
Link stood there for a minute, panting and exhausted.
"Nice work!" I said, popping out of his shadow. "Now, how do we get that statue down to the main room? Well, there's a treasure chest over there. You might as well check it out. Maybe there will be something useful."
Link nodded and headed towards the chest. He kicked it open and reached in to pull out a metal rod.
Ooccoo, who had dove into a corner with her son when the battle started, peeked out and stared at the rod. Was this what she was looking for?
"How does this thing work?" Link asked.
Suddenly a ball of light began to glow at the tip of the wand.
"Whoa! I wonder what that's for."
Link swung the rod, and the ball of light shot out of it and headed straight for the statue we'd been searching for. The light settled inside a little hollow in the statue's chest, and the statue began to glow.
Link blinked in surprise and took a few steps back. The statue followed him, hopping forwards as Link moved.
"Link, you're controlling that statue!" I cried. "It moves when you do! It will follow you back to the entrance!"
But there was a problem. The statue didn't fit through the doorway. It was too big.
"Lead it to one of the bells," Ooccoo suggested.
Link shrugged and led the statue to one of the big bells that was hanging above the floor. As the statue hopped under the bell, the bell lowered, enclosing the statue inside.
"Now," Ooccoo cried, fluttering her wings. "Go to the next room. The bells will transport the statue from room to room."
As we entered the next room, we found that she was right. The bell there lifted, revealing our statue. In this way, we took it all the way back to the first room and set it in its slot. And lo and behold, the door opened. At last.
And we were free to move forwards to where the next mirror shard was.
We found ourselves in a huge dark room. Holes in the ceiling allowed light to pour through, casting parts of the chamber into light. We saw that the walls were lined with huge statues much bigger than the one we'd led around the temple.
Link stepped into a patch of light and gazed around at the statues. Where was the mirror shard?
Suddenly the light around him vanished. Something was blocking the hole in the ceiling.
Link looked up, and to his horror found a tremendous spider sitting on the ceiling! It was at least three times as long as he was tall, and there was a giant eye on the top of its head.
Link quickly pulled out his bow, but the monstrous eye had shut and the spider started scuttling along the ceiling.
Link drew his bow, ready to shoot. And when the spider opened its eye again, Link shot his arrow with deadly accuracy. It embedded itself in the eye and the spider dropped to the ground.
"Use the rod!" I shouted.
Link swung the rod, taking control of one of the huge statues. He swung the rod, causing the statue to slam its fist down onto the spider's soft underbelly.
The spider shrieked and scuttled free, scrambling back to the ceiling. Again, Link shot its eye and the spider fell. And Link took control of another statue, making it slam its fist into the beasts stomach.
The spider screeched in pain and curled up, diminishing into dust.
But its eye was still there.
Link let out a sound of disgust as a hoard of smaller spiders (As big as a cat, but small compared to the thing we'd just fought) scuttled out and surrounded the eye. But it wasn't just an eye. The eye was the abdomen of another spider! Ugh!
Link quickly sent several arrows into the eye spider and at last it fell for good. And its remains revealed the next mirror fragment. At last.
Relieved, I emerged to take the mirror shard.
"Three of the mirror shards are ours! Just one left! Link… you saw how nasty that monster was, right? The evil within the shards is more powerful than you can imagine. You know, we could be assembling something truly terrible here." The thought of what might happen when we healed the mirror frightened me. If one shard was enough to attract a horrible monster like that spider, what could the whole mirror do? "It could be something that we'll ultimately have to destroy." And I was the only one able to do it. Only the true leader of the Twili could destroy that thing, before it could be used for any more evil. That was me. I would have to do it even if it meant that I'd never be able to return to this world. I'd never be able to see Link or Zelda again… But I'd think about that later. We still needed to get to my realm and defeat Zant before we could think about destroying the mirror.
I opened a portal.
We have to hurry! Let's find the last shard, Link! We have to reach the sky! That's where the last shard is supposed to be!" But how would we get there? How were we supposed to reach the sky? I hoped we'd find out soon.
Link stepped into the portal and Ooccoo and her son followed. I warped us all back to the entrance of the temple.