I met one of the only two new enemies in the next room – an Anubis statue. It floated in the air opposite me, mirroring my movements so we were always opposite. I closed on it, and so did it. Navi warned me against using my sword as that would cause it to spit fire at me, which interestingly was also its weakness.

The room itself was circular, but most of the floor had long since fallen away. What was left gave a path running across to the opposite side, on which were more moving spike traps and the Anubis. There was a piece of floor following the edge of the room counter-clockwise from the far side, and a mirrored piece on my side – only my side had a crystal switch on as well, and a barred door at the end.

I triggered the switch with a stab from the Kokiri sword, the only one I could reliably wield for now, which caused a ring of fire to shoot up on the other spit of floor opposite. The Anubis, too dumb to figure the meaning of this, continued to mirror my moves until it stupidly floated right into the fire, which destroyed it and unbarred the door.

"If this Temple is all like that, this will be too easy," I remarked.

"Don't get overconfident, will you?"

"C'mon, me? When have I ever been that?" I grinned back, letting myself through the door. It let me into a room similar to the one with the Green Bubble, though this time I was on the north side of it and there was no Bubble. Short-lived Keese and Wallmasters which met the same fate as their friends in the Forest Temple, but no Bubble. I dealt with these nuisances then I set about collecting the Silver rupees. It turned out that they too had some silver in, but since I'd never actually turned my mind on them before I'd never noticed.

Even so, it wasn't enough to stop me using the boomerang to haul them in with a few guiding nudges, collecting all five of them to release the clamps that held the grating here up, allowing it to clatter down to form a second bridge. If my rough mental map of the area was accurate, this meant I now had a ring-route that would give me easy access from either northwest or northeast doors in the room with the tunnel. Not the one Nabooru was beside, the one after that.

This bridge also let me reach several unlit torches on the other side and one lit one. Rather than use Din's Fire yet again, I took out one of the Deku Sticks I'd collected way back, lit it from the still burning torch and re-lit the others, extinguishing it before I put it away again. Amazing how long you can make a Deku Stick last if you take care.

The torches caused a small chest to appear which, rather predictably given my limited options, held a small key. For a moment I was tempted to Farore's Wind back to the locked door, but decided it might just be a good idea if Nabooru continued to recognise me – for now. Even then, it wasn't that far to get back to the door, unlocking it to let me into... well, a room that was no bigger than a broom closet.

It was the tell-tale scratching sounds of Skulltulas on one wall that made me look up, not just to shoot them down but to see that one wall had been carved into to provide a surface to climb up. Naturally, after I shot them down, I ignored it and went up without.

Unlike previous parts of the Colossus, this area was not so well maintained. Sand had been blown in through various cracks to cover part of the floor, and the carpet here looked moth-eaten and patchy. At the center of the room it appeared to have been cut away entirely around a large sun, not carved into or painted on the floor, but actually coming out of it. It appeared to serve no immediate purpose, so I continued to look about the room. Thin beams of sunlight crept in through small cracks in a ceiling.

The room was only partly made from sandstone, that much was immediately clear. The upper part seemed to be a combination of earth and rock, perhaps the outside of the Colossus itself. The ledges formed by the ruined sandstone below held several things, among them a crystal switch and two eagerly watching Lizalfos.

All I had to do was approach each on in turn to make them come down to play, and after that they didn't really last long. I didn't have the lava I'd had back in Dodongo's Cavern, but a few more decent slashes made up for that. The second of them seemed extremely confused when my sword conveniently left my hand and attacked of its own accord.

The switch was triggered to cause a chest to appear that had Bombchus in – not the ones I already had, but the ones Navi had described to me. They looked like little more than motorised rats that would explode, with the same fuse length as an ordinary bomb.

I tested one out there and then, figuring out where I'd need to place one to get it to explode near the cracks of sunlight. It was the only place I could see that might actually react to an explosion. Like the water ones it buzzed into life when I set it own, charging forward in its own erratic line. The wall was no obstacle to it, easily making its way up and over the ledge to the dirt wall to explode where I'd meant it to.

The dirt rocks crashed down letting broad daylight stream in. That in turn lit up the sun in the floor, which turned, eyes opening and lighting up to unbar the lone door up here. Now I knew what the point of these sun things were.

That door led me to one of the biggest Temple rooms I remember seeing, the caverns of the Fire Temple the possible exception. This was man-made though, a giant chamber with a massive statue similar to the one that made up the Desert Colossus itself, but accentuated in full colour with no detail spared or lost to the sand. The statue's hands were outstretched palms turned upward, not over knees but what appeared to be the coils of a snake.

The statue dominated the room quite naturally, but there were other details too. Two great pillars stood in the corners on either side of the statue to complete the north wall of the room, while here on the south side I'd emerged from the door at the foot of a staircase that turned after a ways and doubled back to reach some higher door. A similar staircase was on the eastern side of the room, identical to the one I was stood at. It even had a matching Armos statue, though from here it was impossible to say whether the far one was alive or not.

Interestingly, someone or something had taken a leaf from the Fire Temple, creating a barrier that prevented my passage. It was different though, as it would allow me to pass through normally, but the moment it was something to do with my mind the air thickened to stop me.

Because of this there was only so much I could do here. I'd be able to climb back up from the lower floor the statue rested on, but there was no way I'd be making it up to the hands, the pillars or the other staircase.

I did discover a switch on the lower floor just near where I'd come in, a blue one that refused to stay switched. The Armos statue here was real and not of the monster variety, quickly turned into a weight that caused the door at the top of the staircase to unbar. With the air forming unseen barriers to prevent me from reaching other parts of the temple, this door was once again, my only option.

A short and shallow staircase awaited on the other side of that door, leading me further up the Colossus to another bright sandstone room. This one was fully sandstone too, no ruined areas like the last one. There were several raised ledges in here and a number of small grey stone blocks – actual stone, not silver as well. One of them had a sun face on it, but was not in the sunlight that already streamed in through an opening with the dusty desert air.

There were also unlit torches, several more moving spike traps patrolling back and forth, and a handful of swiftly dispatched Beamos. More Silver Rupees were also here to collect as well, giving me three possible options to follow.

The torches, I quickly found, could not be lit even by Din's Fire. There was a golden torch in one corner that was unlit and stubbornly refused to be lit by any means I had, but it also had Hylian pictograms over it that, if I read them correctly, suggested something else would light it, and only its flame would light the other torches. That meant I either had to put the Sun face in the sunlight, or collect the Silver Rupees.

I elected to do both at the same time. I sent the boomerang flying around to collect them, guiding it with my mind while I physically heaved the blocks around to free the Sun face one, then dragged that over to the sunlight. I had to pause along the way to retrieve the boomerang as it had finished its task.

The Silver Rupees lit the golden torch, closely followed by the Sun block removing the bars on the other door here. Rather than leave it at that and move on, a few moments with the Deku Stick conveniently re-lit the other torches with their own golden flame, causing a chest to appear on one of the ledges containing a small key. Just as well I hadn't moved on!

Again I was faced with carpeted stairs, this one well-maintained again. Who came into these places to clean up and keep putting pots in? I'd noticed before that sometimes when I went back to a room where I'd accidentally broken a pot or two, they'd be replaced with new, whole ones by the time I'd returned. Did someone hire people to maintain the Temples? What a job that would be!

There were no enemies on the stairs though, leading me further up to another locked door. Well, even if I had come on ahead I wouldn't have had far to backtrack. The room it let me into was much like a throne room, though far smaller and emptier. The red carpet led away from the door, turning when it was between the twin lines of three pillars to head up to a throne on which was sat a suit of armour – my first Iron Knuckle.

I love these things! Alright, so they're enemies – but they never fail to make me laugh. Per Navi's warning though I always took care – particularly when I saw the giant axe it held. One hit from that and I'd need more than a bit of magic to recover.

Unlike other monsters which would attack me on sight, the Iron Knuckle completely ignored me until it considered me a threat, which because of their somewhat mindless nature meant 'until I get attacked by this thing wearing green' or something along those lines.

So to keep myself safe as well, I once again sent the sword on ahead, bashing the helmet with the hilt with a ringing almost like a bell. It stood up at once, swinging its axe as it came right for me. I immediately made the first use of the Nayru's Love spell, creating not one single protective barrier but several, more preventative aimed ones instead. Each of them were placed in such a way that as long as I was positioned behind one, it would be incapable of harming me – which made for great fun.

The Iron Knuckle clanked for me, trotting along as if the great weight of the armour it bore was nothing, then when it thought I was close enough to hit, it stopped and swung its axe downwards. The barrier protected me, and the axe embedded itself in the floor.

I quickly retrieved my sword, searching the armour for the straps that held it on. The Iron Knuckle meanwhile appeared to have realised it hadn't hit anything, leaning forward over the axe with a dull, "Ugh?" I had to suppress the urge to laugh as I spotted one of the straps. I cut it quickly with a short slash that 'accidentally' caught the Iron Knuckle's unprotected body through the opened crack, then quickly danced clear as it heaved the axe out of the ground with a cry of pain, whirling to face me.

Again it came for me, and I took cover behind another barrier. It was too stupid to notice them, or if it did notice it didn't comprehend the reasoning for them. The axe swung a second time as I got behind it again to search for the next strap, and again the Iron Knuckle leaned over to stare in astonishment with its dense sound of surprise.

The strap I cut this time caused both back and breastplates to fall off it, improving its speed slightly but leaving it even more vulnerable. Given how easy it was to confuse and evade it at the same time though, it didn't really matter too much.

The next straps I cut very nearly cost me. While it was busy staring at its buried axe again, I cut certain lower ones that caused the armour on its legs to clatter down – the armour version of making someone's pants fall down. It started down in astonishment with a second grunt of surprise, then hauled the axe free and swung it around, and had it taken the time to orient its axe correctly it would have turned out much worse. As it was the blade of it hadn't headed for me, only the flat side of it. Even so I was launched by it, thrown hard through one of the pillars which collapsed on impact, then into the wall behind.

The Iron Knuckle gave a cruel chuckle, then headed for me with a speed it hadn't had before. The only armour encumbering it now was the helmet, and I had the perfect trick for that. I quickly shook the rubble off myself to meet it, jumping back clear as the axe descended for me yet again. This time while it grunted surprise again, I leapt up to perform the Helm Splitter, not only sending its helmet flying off but catching its neck just right to finish it off.

"Well that was fun," I breathed, catching my breath.

"I'm sure I said something about Bombchus," Navi said. "Seems to me I suggested they might be a safer way."

"Yeah, but if I'd done that I wouldn't have seen how stupid it was," I said, then mimicked its surprised 'Ugh?' after seeing the axe had missed. Even Navi laughed at that. It's what makes fighting Iron Knuckles so much fun.

It had been defeated though, and that meant it was time to move on. There was only one door, hidden behind the throne it had sat on, and that led me back outside on to one of the great hands of the Colossus outside, where there was a large chest... on which perched that damned owl.

"Ho! What are you doing here, Silver?" he asked. As if he didn't already know – he'd clearly been expecting me, facing the door I'd just emerged from.

"I'm just running an errand," I said. "Someone needed a hand and I didn't have anything better to do, so I helped out."

"It wouldn't have something to do with the Silver Gauntlets in this chest, would it?"

"What gives you that impression? Of course I am looking for them, but that's beside the point."

The owl somehow managed a chuckle, then turned serious again. "Within this Temple there are two Gerudo witches, together known as Twinrova but apart known as Kotake and Koume. One commands powerful fire, and the other ice. Your own magic will not be enough to defeat these witches when you face them, instead you must find a way to turn their own magic against each other."

"I'm sure I'll find something. I've got plenty of time, if I need it."

"Then best of luck to you, Silver!" he said, thrusting his wings to take off.

Within the chest was of course, the Silver Gauntlets. I could feel the silver in them without even having to open the chest, and I was thankful I still had my gloves on underneath the image. The touch of silver is one thing I can't stand – it's a price I pay for having a powerful mind.

Just as Nabooru had said, they were too big for me right now. I could have kept them for heading forward in time, but I had promised to give them to her. Maybe I could find a way to borrow them for a while.

As I stowed them away though I heard Nabooru's voice cry out, "Silver, run! Get out of here now!"

I headed to the edge of the hand and looked down toward the source of the voice, spotting her along with two Gerudo hags on broomsticks, each holding a wand aloft as they circled her, cackling all the while.

Nabooru was being sucked into the sand by a strange purple portal, apparently formed by the magic of the two hags – presumably, Kotake and Koume.

"That's the same kind of portal I saw Ruto get sucked into," Navi exclaimed. "They must be... she must be the last sage! Silver, we have to-"

"No," I interrupted. "We know she'll be safe, Navi. All the other Sages awakened just fine when we defeated the Temple's guardian boss. Those two witches are the bosses of this Temple, so all we have to do is defeat them."

"But..."

"I know. I don't like letting this happen. But what can we do? I could use my mind to reflect their magic back, but here in the present..."

"Right. You could better do it in the future. And that means we get to use the gauntlets for ourselves – they must be the power of silver that inscription talked about."

"Back to the Temple of Time then, and we'll be back in seven years. Just hold on until then, Nabooru."