Author's Note: Back to regular updates! I'm hoping to update Saturday or Sunday, sometimes both. I found the motivation and time to keep writing, and also the story's going to get to the good part soon! Also, I suck at writing action scenes. And hey, Midna and Jen, still on rocky footing with each other.

The temple smelled like rotten wood. It smelled like compost, like something that someone had forgotten. It was pervasive, and heavy. Midna could wax poetic about the smell. The wood flaked off under Link's inquisitive touch, falling apart around the intricately carved supports built around them. Grass and Deku Baba grew through the floor around the path in the middle.

Yarie, of course, informed them that this was a bad sign. The temple was supposed to be the living tree, and if it was rotting, then it could collapse, with them in it. They had to move quickly. She rifled through her bag and came out with a black mask which she put around her lower mouth, and a second one in white for Link.

"This feels weird," Link declared, voice muffled slightly, "It's so hot under here."

"It's either this or choking. I prefer this," Yarie replied, "Also, I put a spritz of vanilla in mine once upon a time, and I might have overdone it. I can't smell anything but vanilla. Count your lucky stars that yours doesn't smell like it too."

"I'm gonna chose choking. Can't breathe in this," he complained, giving it back. She shrugged.

"Then choke, I guess."

The two of them quickly got to work clearing out the first room, lit only by flickering torches. The room was filled with wood dust and brimming with monsters. Small spiders on the wall were shot down with Link's slingshot, and Yarie ran at the larger monsters at the end of the room surrounding a cage. With a few whirls of her blade, they vanished into black mist. Midna had to admit, as irritating as she was, she was handy with that weapon of hers.

Link cut the wooden bars and freed the monkey, which Midna quickly recognized by the pink rose on its right ear.

"Wait a minute, that's the same monkey that stole our lantern!" she pointed out. The creature quickly scaled the vines behind it, and began to beckon for them. She laughed. "Oh, look at that, it wants you to follow it! Maybe it likes you?"

"Yeah, sure, Link could you please get rid of the spiders?" Yarie asked. Link pulled out the slingshot and knocked them down.

"What, don't like spiders?" he asked rhetorically.

"And Deku Baba, and those light bugs," Midna listed, just to be a pest.

Yarie just stuck out her tongue and started climbing the ivy.

The monkey led them through a large door decorated with a red swirl pattern, which Link forced open with a grunt and a shower of dust. The next room was larger, with a platform in the middle connecting three raised doors with a series of ropes. The team jumped down the stairs to get to the platform, and were met with the largest goddamn spider Midna had ever seen. She was very glad to be in Link's shadow while the two battled the creature. Or, well, while the swordsman battled the creature. Link killed it with a few decisive strokes and a finishing stab to the thorax.

Yarie took a look at the way the room worked while Link observed the area around the platform. Midna exited his shadow when he got on the bad side of an explosive insect.

"We should split up," Yarie decided, pointing with the weapon, "Link goes one way and I go the other. We need to save as much time as we can."

Midna was inclined to agree. "Hm. A fair assessment, but what happens if you need the other's help? You'd be pretty stuck. You've been working well as a team, and I'd hate to break that up."

Yarie blinked, looking at her calculatingly, "How fast can you fly?"

"How fast can I what?"

Moments later, Midna found herself testing her top speeds, including how quickly she could get around obstacles. Bursting into flakes seemed to improve her speed, as the shards of her magic moved more rapidly than her normal lazy float.

"This is humiliating," Midna grumbled as Yarie made a note of her speed. Link shot down some pots and a chest hanging from the ceiling by spider's thread.

"It's either this or one room at a time," she pointed out. Midna groaned.

"Maybe I don't want to act as your personal messenger fairy!" she complained.

Link finished a puzzle involving lighting all the torches with his lantern, earning himself a set of stairs to the northern room. He jogged across the rickety planks, looking into a chest first.

"I found the map!" he called, "This place is pretty big!"

Yarie made a "told you so" gesture as Midna groaned.

"Fine! I'll do it, but don't expect me to bail you out personally if you get stuck in a hole because the temple collapsed and Link wasn't around to fish you out!"

"Oddly specific."

"Oddly accurate!"

Link opened the northernmost door, letting in sunlight, "Hey, I think I found the exit! We might be able to skip all this."

Midna and Yarie followed him, blinking in the sudden brightness. Midna gratefully took in breaths not clogged with dust or the smell of rot, but had to hide in Yarie's shadow to avoid being burned. The outer area was dominated by a rope bridge with planks of wood haphazardly added in anchored by carved pillars like those inside the temple. The chances of that thing holding up under any of their weight was slim. To its right was a series of wooden bridges with a fan on top. They moved with the wind, never staying still. In Midna's opinion, they were still less hazardous than the rope bridge. Everything was slightly greened with age and moss.

The monkey quickly ran in front of them to try to cross the bridge, but when it was halfway across, the other door slammed open and a massive white baboon stormed out, raising what looked like a boomerang.

The smaller monkey panicked, quickly trying to backtrack. The baboon's boomerang glowed an angry black, creating a tail like a comet, and sliced straight through the rope supports. The monkey fell with the bridge.

The weapon returned to the hand of the owner, who shrieked in delight.

"Oh fuck you!" Yarie complained when it turned around and taunted them with its bright red posterior. The baboon howled at them in reply, and stormed back into its lair. Link rushed to the remains of the bridge.

"It's alive!" Link declared as he checked over the edge to see the monkey climbing up the remains of the bridge. He helped it over the cliff, where it breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's a bit creepy how human-like it is," Yarie muttered to her shadow.

"You're making a lot of obvious statements today. Keep it up and I might think you've got eyes," Midna replied.

The monkey beckoned them back into the temple.

Once out of the sun, Midna appeared. "Okay, so does anyone know what just happened? Yarie, any obvious statements to make?"

"That you're a sarcastic little shit?" she snapped back, "But seriously, that thing did not look right."

"We should probably follow the monkey. At least she's on our side," Link mused. Midna snorted.

"She?"

"Yes, she! She's got the little rosebud, so she's probably a she!" Link mumbled, gesturing. Midna laughed, Yarie with her.

"Okay, okay, she," Yarie acknowledged when she got her giggles under control, "She's probably going to help us across the ropes. I'm thinking of splitting up."

"Yeah, I heard, and using Midna to transfer messages. It's a good idea, though we're going to have to be careful," Link rifled for the map, pointing out a few of the rooms. "I'll go right, since it's blocked off by a spiderweb and I can burn that off. You go left, that's where a lot of the rooms are."

Yarie started rifling through her bag. "I might have something that'll help with that, actually!"

"What could you possibly be looking for?" Midna demanded.

"Flamethrower, at least the components." Yarie pulled out a small rectangle of colored glass with a metal bit on top and continuing to look through her bag. The deeper her arms went, the more she grunted with effort, "I need… the hairspray… I got a lot of stuff for emergencies, and I thought bringing a flamethrower to the forest temple should at least give me an advantage of a sort."

"What the in name of the sacred dark is a flamethrower?" Midna asked incredulously as Yarie apparently found what she was looking for, pulling out a cylinder with a bright label.

"Ha! This!"

Yarie flicked the square open, and the top ignited into a small flame no bigger than a candle. She pointed it away from anyone or any thing, and pressed down on the nozzle of the cylinder. Immediately, a plume of flame erupted. She grinned maniacally.

Midna wanted to use that.

"Hey, Yarie, tell you what. I get to use that and I won't complain about being a messenger," she promised.

"Oh done deal, just be safe. Short bursts only," Yarie instructed. Midna couldn't decide whether to be excited to play with her new toy, or be offended that Yarie wanted her silence so bad that she'd give up a flamethrower.

Midna tried it out on the spiderweb, which ignited immediately. She giggled maniacally. The laugh was a bit infectious, she thought, maybe it was just a part of using a flamethrower?

"What the hell did you just do?" Link leaned in to ask of Yarie.

"I got me some blessed, blessed silence," she replied, "And also a mobile flamethrower."

The monkey beckoned for one of them to go left, and Yarie followed, waving goodbye. The monkey climbed up onto the supports and onto an unstable-looking rope, hanging upside-down and gesturing for her to grab hold. She jumped, reaching and the monkey swung her to the other side.

"See you in a bit, Link!" she called, "Midna, flamethrower?"

Midna set the webs aflame with glee, and Yarie waved as she pushed the door open and jogged out of sight.

The monkey jumped off the ropes at the first sign of fire, and hopped over to Link's side. He repeated what Jen had done, and landed in front of the door. Midna went with him. The monkey followed, too.

The room opened to a pair of tunnels branching right and left. Thankfully, Link didn't have to check the map to see where he had to go. The right side was entirely barricaded. The left teased him with a cool breeze.

Link tried to lay out what he needed to do. "Okay, so we just need to – GAH!" he yelped as he noticed the bomb bug skittering closer to him. He smacked it away with his sword, and it turned an evil-looking red. He brought his shield up in time to deflect the worst of the blast, though his ears rang.

The blast also, apparently, opened up a place to explore. Behind the blockage had been an entire room filled with nothing but pots.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" a voice yelled. The middlemost pot shook, "Help!"

"Oh, I'm coming!" Link called. He quickly took the pot and carefully broke the lip, shattering it in his hands. What came out looked… bizarre.

A yellow bird with a human face and… breasts… looked up at him in relief. It was sheer puzzlement that kept Link from dropping it. He could hear Midna cracking up in his shadow.

"Thank you! I'm free at last!" the bird breathed in relief, "I got stuck there for so long!"

"Yeah, no problem…" Link cleared his throat, "Uh, what were you doing? In the pot?"

"Well, I was looking for something," it explained, "I'm Ooccoo. And I think you're looking for something too? Then we should work together!"

"Oh, I'm okay, I, uh…"

"But don't think of me as a burden! I can warp us both out of the temple if you so desire or require! Now, shall we?"

Without Link saying anything, it jumped into the bag at his side, disappearing immediately. Midna popped out of its shadow the moment it vanished.

"What the… hahahah! What the heck was that?"

Link only looked baffled, and mildly disgusted. "I don't… what just happened?"

Midna broke down laughing again. "Ohh my goddesses I need to tell Yarie!" Still cackling, she vanished through the open door. Link sighed, and trekked onwards into a room dominated by a stagnant pool of water, with raised platforms standing on stilts in the pool.

Midna zoomed through the main room quickly to reach Yarie.

Her room was mostly elevated, with grass growing out of every available surface, both on the floor and in the walls, and as she passed she could see the remains of a Baba with red and black stripes. Must've been fun for her. A loud explosion caught Midna's attention, and a plume of black smoke erupted from a random spot between the stairs.

"Yes!" she heard her cheer.

"Yarie, where are you? You've gotta hear what Link just found!"

"…I'm up at the top of the stairs!" Yarie yelled back after a pause. Midna saw her lean closer to the door and wave. Midna zoomed closer.

"When you meet up with Link again, ask to see the weird bird he found!" she crowed, "It looks so dopy!"

Yarie chuckled in confusion. "Oh-kay, will do. And, uh, as for a status update here, just a bunch of Deku Likes. I'm blowing them out of existence so I can reach the next rooms. Not much of a problem except for the bomb bugs trying to explode on me. Speaking of…" she trailed off as she noticed another one of the bugs trying to reach her. She picked it up, ignoring how it turned red, and jumped across the gap where the Like was, throwing it at a pile of rubble. It exploded, revealing a doorway. She checked it, noticing it was darker than ever. She pulled out a long set of matches.

"Yeah, just that," Midna summed up, "I'll let Link know you're fine. Have fun in this room."

Midna sped off to check back up on Link.

She found him returning from a brief excursion out of the main temple.

"I got a key," he explained, "And also I think those bridges from outside need some sort of wind. Maybe Yarie can use her magic? I dunno."

He shot down a spider that was hovering between the two platforms, watching it drown.

"I think it's the same with the puzzle over there." He pointed out a set of four pillars, topped with a fan, "We need a breeze to move it."

"Why don't you just cheat? Jump the fence?" Midna suggested. Link paused, something like sheepishness crossing his expression.

"Well, I… didn't really think of that. I…" He cleared his throat, turning red with embarrassment.

"Am a goody two shoes? Knew that. Have fun breaking the rules for the first time, good talk."

She left before he could make a retort, laughing to herself.

Yarie had just finished the dark room's puzzles, and was soaking wet, though had a monkey in tow behind her.

"Have a fun swim?" Midna needled. Yarie shuddered.

"Found a giant fucking spider, that's what," she answered, "Oh, yeah, this is Lily."

The monkey squeaked in greeting. Midna raised an eyebrow.

"Are we naming them now?"

Yarie nodded, and cracked her back. "Oh yeah. The one we found first is Rose, this one's Lily. Also, can you do me a favor and set the little spiders on the vines to my left on fire? Please and thank you."

"You're just lucky that I'm looking for an excuse to use the flamethrower," Midna ribbed as she floated over to do just that.

"Thaaaanks, you do such important work."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go check on Link," she grumbled, bursting into flakes and zooming away.

She found him getting a lift from two monkeys over the fence.

"Please tell me you haven't named this one," Midna demanded as Link fell over the top of the fence onto his feet.

"I have, and that's Rosie and that's Carnation," he responded cheekily. Midna groaned.

"You even named the first one the same thing as Yarie. Also, what's with you both and flower names?"

Link shrugged and kicked the chest open. "It's the forest temple, and I know a lot of flowers. Oh! I got the boss key!" He held it aloft triumphantly.

"It's even gaudier than the chest," Midna griped. Link chuckled and accepted a hand up from Carnation, hauling himself back over the fence.

"It's the boss key, it's got to be gaudy," he decided, "Anyway, I'm heading back to the main room. Is Yarie almost done?"

"Her room is a bit of a mess. She probably could use some help."

The two of them jumped back over to the first room, and found Yarie, to their surprise. She looked up when she saw them.

"Oh thank god. The next room in my section has a mini-boss," she groaned, "It's absolutely bullshit."

"How bullshit?" Link asked sympathetically.

"A Deku Baba and a Deku Like in a symbiotic relationship and both of them are huge bullshit," she said, deadpan. Link winced.

"It's guarding another monkey, and it ate the key to its cage," she explained, "I don't really feel like fighting it alone, especially considering how many other Deku are growing around it. It's like it's teaching them how to be a symbiotic plant."

"Gross," Midna commented. Link nodded in agreement.

"I'll show you."

Yarie led them up to the place she had gotten stuck, avoiding the singed areas of the ivy where Midna had burned the spiders off and side-stepping the bomb bug. A monkey, probably Lily, hooted in greeting as it saw them coming, beckoning them to come closer. She stopped in front of the door.

"Ready?" Link asked.

"No," Yarie replied, "But we kinda have to do this."

Link slid the door open, and they both jumped to the side to avoid a flying green liquid. It sizzled when it hit the ground. Midna's eyebrows rose as she watched it create a shallow dip in the wood.

"Oh fuck this boss, seriously," Yarie sighed as she hefted Chiku. Link twirled the Ordon Sword in agreement, and they fanned out. The room was dominated by the creature, though other Deku lined the far walls, creating a thin area they could fight in. Bomb bugs occupied the corners.

"I'll get the head; you get the body and the small ones!" Link commanded as it made another lunge. Midna heard Yarie shout an agreement.

The two were a coordinated team. Link drew the attention of the bigger threat, avoiding the spit, and Yarie slashed at the smaller monsters before they could bite at him. She cut down Baba and threw bomb bugs at the Like in the room, slowly filling the space with the black soot they produced upon death. Her mask would protect her from the worst of it.

Link dodged another lunge and finally landed a finishing blow on the massive head, and it turned to smoke separate from the main body.

"Yeah, I got this," Yarie called as she picked up a final bomb bug and threw it into the Like's maw. It swallowed it, and shriveled, exploding. In the ash sat the key.

"Good job team, now we need to get going," Midna said, hustling them into action. Link took the key and freed the monkey.

"I'm going to go finish the last Like outside, see you in a bit," Yarie shouted as she disappeared out the doorway.

"See that, Link? That's a good hustle," Midna praised. Link just waved her out of his face. A small explosion outside marked the death of the creature, and her head appeared in the door.

"Alright, I think that's good!"

The monkey, still unnamed though Link was thinking about the name Petunia, cheered as it re-united with Lily. Both of them beckoned them out of the room.

Back in the main room, all four monkeys cheered and led the way to the northern space. Link opened the door, careful not to step on their finger-feet. Midna retreated into Yarie's shadow.

The monkeys quickly attached themselves to a rope hanging above where the bridge once stood, swinging themselves across to various points in the rope.

The two paused.

"Hey, what's the holdup, you two?" Midna demanded, "Get moving!"

Link took a steeling breath and went first, swinging from monkey to monkey. He landed at the end and rolled to his feet, then turned and waved for Yarie to follow. She took a running start, and remained absolutely silent as she crossed. When she landed, she landed stiffly.

"I hated that," she stated gruffly as Link picked her up.

"Let's add heights to Yarie's list of fears," Midna said sarcastically, "Let's go please!"

The next doorway across from the windy, open space was ornately supported by carved pillars built into the wood. None of the monkeys followed them through it. Midna quickly saw why. Standing on top of a carved totem pole in a room filled with them was the baboon. Its white fur stood almost on end as it shook violently, growling at them.

The door slid shut behind them, and locked. Link twirled his blade.

It raised the boomerang, cutting several Tiger Likes from the ceiling to crawl at them ominously. It caught the weapon on the rebound, howling and screeching like a feral hyena. Yarie yelled in rage as it taunted them again.

"You get the Tiger Likes," Yarie growled, "I'm gonna go make a fur coat."

She ran past the crawling plants, Chiku raised like a vault pole. With the creature's attention firmly on her, Link dispatched of the Likes.

Midna felt her fighting style was a bit aggressive, but then again, she didn't have a shield like Link. Offense being the best defense and all that.

Yarie swiped at it, but for once her reach wasn't far enough. It threw the boomerang at her, and she blocked it with the naginata's shaft, but even Midna could hear the ringing the blow caused. Yarie grit her teeth, adjusting her grip on the weapon.

Link joined her, chasing after the creature as it jumped over poles.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just jarred me. Pretty strong hit," she winced.

The baboon threw the weapon again, and Yarie dodged. Link, strangely, body-checked the totem pole as the boomerang returned, making it wobble. The boomerang hit the creature with the same jarring force it hit Yarie's weapon with, and it fell.

Between the two of them, the creature went down quickly. Midna noted that Yarie aimed most of her blows on the glaring red weak spot.

Shrieking in pain and clutching its butt, the baboon ran headfirst into a totem pole. There was a crunch, and the creature fell, knocking off what looked like a light bug off of its face, which neither of them had noticed. Midna mused that there was nothing dignified about this fight.

Slowly, it got to its feet, blinking in confusion and clutching its head. Midna noticed that it was huge, taller than even Link. Then it froze, slowly turning around. It caught sight of Yarie's murderous expression and shrieked in fear, jumping on top of the totem poles and out through a hole in the wall.

"What the fuck just happened?" Yarie asked first in the ensuing silence. A gentle chime, like a bell, answered her. The boomerang, still lying where the creature left it, rose sharply into the air on its own, glowing white.

"I am the Fairy of the Winds who resides in this boomerang," the boomerang declared, "You have freed me from evil, and I have my true power back. Please, take it with you, use it to aid your quest, and may both my power and my blessing go with you."

The boomerang blew itself into Link's hands, and went silent.

"That's convenient," Midna remarked.

"It does seem like most magic items like him," Yarie added, "Also, we agree to never speak of that fight again, right?"

"Never," the two others agreed in unison.

It took them a minute to find the exit, and eventually the Boomerang gave them a hint.

"Just throw me at the fan above the door! I can make it open!"

"Don't talk down to those two, fairy!" Midna snapped, "They just "freed you from evil" didn't they? Be a little more considerate!"

"So she does care," Yarie murmured to Link.

"I think she just wants to be the only one who bosses us around," he joked. But he still threw the boomerang at the fan above the door a few times. Yarie was quietly impressed that Midna had taken her words to heart, at least enough to start a conflict.

"Jeez, can't even make it open on the first try. Maybe you're losing your touch, Ms. Fairy?" Midna said smarmily as Link quickly put it into his bag.

"Please don't pick a fight with the boomerang," Link begged. Midna stuck out her tongue.

"Maybe if she wasn't such a pain, I wouldn't have to," she retorted. Yarie rolled her eyes as hard as she could.

Outside again, they quickly turned left to follow the bridges. With the use of the gale boomerang, they created a path to the next section of the temple. When they hit solid land again, or at least a carved branch that offered a path that held their weight, they found another monkey in a cage, guarded by a small group of 'blins. Yarie dispatched them as Link used the Boomerang to break the flimsy cage.

"Guess there's more of them," Midna considered, "What's this one's name?"

"Definitely Cherry," Link decided.

They came back to the main room again, and Link proceeded to go on a hunting spree for things he could use the Boomerang on, starting with the chest hanging by spider string.

"Compass!" he shouted in excitement.

"There's a lantern puzzle in the room I was in, the one with water. Might be something behind a set of stairs," Yarie called.

When he was gone, she turned to Midna.

"I'm really sorry about this morning, and I'm really sorry for what my planet's heroes did to you," she said. Midna's expression flattened.

"You should be."

"Yeah. That's why I'm apologizing. But at the same time, you really were being a dick."

Midna sighed. "Fine. If you really want me to admit it."

She looked mock-innocent. "Admit what?"

"I admit that I've been mean to Link. You, however, I would happily let drown still."

Yarie pinched the bridge of her nose, letting Chiku hold herself upright for a moment as she rubbed her face. "Alright, we're halfway there. Progress. But we've still got a few more places to go, so at least make sure Link can't see us fight."

Midna scoffed. "What, is he a child?"

"Yeah, and we're going through a messy divorce," she joked, "But seriously, let's at least be civil with each other."

Midna stretched. "I can do civil just fine. I'm a princess, I'm used to pretending I like someone."

"Good skill. Learned the same at school."

"Hm."

They sat in silence a moment, before Yarie spoke again.

"Also, my name isn't Yariemacha."

"Well of course it is, you answer to it," Midna replied.

"It's Jennifer, Jen for short," she stated, ignoring the barb. Midna tried it out, making her best approximation of the name.

Jen cut her off. "You can keep calling me Yariemacha, but I just want you to know that it's not my actual name."

Link came back a minute later, with news that there was a wide open space just after the rooms to their left. He led them through the first rooms, past a wide-open area, and into a room occupied entirely by wind bridges, leading to three doors. They went straight ahead first.

The room there was huge, with no floor. On one side of the room was a bunch of huge mushrooms growing out of the wall, with the four monkeys they had already rescued occupying a mushroom each. The one they recently rescued went to join his friends. There were three mushrooms left.

"Guess we've got to find the rest," Midna mused, "Three left around the temple. Not that bad, we're already over halfway there!"

Link went to check out the right side of the room, where there was a wall covered in ivy with two wind bridges. The two quickly manipulated the bridges to allow the access to the platform below the ivy, killing a few 'blins guarding the area. Link cleared the ivy of spiders with the Gale Boomerang.

"Pretty useful tool," Yarie commented. Midna scowled.

At the top of the ivy wall was another few blins, and a door. Jen checked the pots for stashed items as Link walked through the door, quickly dispatching of a couple Tiger Baba. Jen took the Boomerang and took care of a Like, as well as a giant rock at the top of another ivy wall blocking a second door.

"You're learning fast," the fairy in the boomerang praised.

"Shut up," Midna and Jen snapped back in unison. Then they both made a face at mimicking each other.

"I was only trying to be nice…" it whined as Link took the weapon back.

"They're touchy, don't take it personally," he advised as he put it in his belt. Jen was already halfway up the ivy, and by the time he joined her, she'd taken care of the monsters up top. Another rock blocked the doorway, and he used the Boomerang to call another bomb bug up to him to get rid of it. Jen got to the side as Link caught the bug and threw it away.

The rock exploded, revealing the sixth monkey.

"Alright, three-fourths of the way there!" Jen cheered, "Let's get Sunflower here back to his friends."

Link made a face. "This one's definitely Tulip."

"Sunny."

"That's not even a flower!"

"Fine. Their name is Buttercup."

They dropped it off in the previous room, and continued to backtrack. In the wind bridge room, he taunted the 'Blins guarding each side into falling off into oblivion by harassing them with the slingshot.

"Oooh, clever!" Midna smirked, "And here I was thinking you didn't have any brains to you!"

"Ow, Midna," Link complained.

They went through the locked room using a small key Link had found. The door opened to a room with a lot of wooden scaffolding, like the room leading to the plant mini-boss, but without any stairs. Firstly, Link used the boomerang to uproot the tile monsters in the floor. Jen quickly dispatched of them while they couldn't return to their burrows.

"Hey, found something!" she called as she observed a tunnel leading through the gap in the scaffolding. Link came over to investigate. The tunnel was small, and the top of his head barely brushed the roof. He checked the rest of the room in a glance. Nowhere else showed any openings. He shrugged, and let her lead the way.

The two followed the tunnel to the end, finding a spider and a vine wall. Link dispatched of the small spiders on the vines while Jen engaged the larger one. She sliced off the legs at the joints, then rolled it over and stabbed at the weak spot on its underside. Link winced. Jen shrugged.

Up the vine wall was another wind puzzle to open a seventh monkey's cage, who was quickly dubbed Tulip. Link threw the Boomerang while Jen checked out the other side, where a yawning open hole in the wall, guarded only by a hanging Tiger Baba, led to the top of the scaffolding.

The two returned to the wind-bridge room, and entered the last door.

This room was blank, save for three holes in the floor, covered by spiderwebs. Link killed the spider while Midna incinerated the spiderwebs and checked for traps.

"These two lead to the mouth of a Like, this one's got the monkey," she reported after a moment. Link dropped and freed the monkey. Jen had to help him back up the hole by dropping Chiku to give him a hoist up.

"His name's Fern," he grunted as he climbed out of the hole.

"First off, you're the one who didn't like Sunny because it wasn't a flower, and secondly, their name's totally Poppy," Jen refuted as she gave him her arm. Link let her help him out of the hole, checking the room once for more monsters.

"It's definitely Thistle, then."

"I'll allow that."

"And like that we're done!" Midna crowed, bringing the conversation to a close as they walked back to the wind room.

"Boss time, though," Jen groaned, "It's probably a giant monkey, or another acid-spitting plant."

"Don't say that. If we're lucky, it's both!" Link teased.

They crossed to the monkey room, reuniting all eight monkeys. Once together, they climbed to a hanging branch and linked hands, forming a long chain which began to swing.

"Not again," Link moaned.

"It's even less stable than last time," Midna snickered with mock amazement.

Midna heard Jen take a deep breath.

"LEEEEROOOOYYYYY JJJJJJEEEENKINSSS!" Jen shouted, running at the chain as it came to greet her, fully ready to meet God if anything happened. The chain grabbed a hold of her wrists, and slowly swung to the other side as she went limp, screaming. Midna cackled at the sight. Jen rolled when she landed, as Link had, and managed to come to a stop on her back. She sprang up.

"That fucking sucked!" she called, waving at him, "I hated every second of that!'

"Learn to have fun!" Link retorted, meeting the chain as well. He rolled to his stop more gracefully, though Jen caught him. The two jogged down the steps to a large, intricate door layered in thick chain with an ornate lock. Midna appeared.

"Looks like this is the final room, unless we suddenly find another four monkeys in need of our help," she concluded.

"Alright, which one of us is Captain Obvious, hypocrite?" Jen accused. Midna stuck out her tongue again, and slid into Link's shadow. They took a breath.

"Ready?" Link asked, gazing up at the massive chained door. Jen took one last glance around the wooden temple and hesitantly nodded.

"Sure. Let's… let's go with that. You?"

He made a face, but inserted the key and turned it. All three of them had to cover her ears as the rusted lock shrieked as the chains fell off the door. Midna, not for the first time in the past three hours, felt a sense of deep-seated unease.

Link put his hands flat against the massive door and jerked it open. The automatic motions of the door let it roll open easily. Link and Jen jogged through before the door rolled shut behind them. Midna didn't like to make assumptions, but that chain may have been made to keep something in.

The first thing about the boss room that Midna noticed was the humidity, then the smell. If the normal smell of the temple was bad, this was infinitely worse. It was like getting hit in the face with a wet cloth made of putrid compost. The doors, two of them, rolled shut heavily behind them, trapping them in with the stench.

"Eugh," Jen groaned as she hoisted her mask around her face more assuredly.

"Can I have the spare, now?" Link requested, covering his nose in the crook of his elbow. Jen found the white mask, still folded neatly, and passed it over. As she secured her own around her mouth, she took a second look around the room. Like the rest of the temple, it was made of living wood, but the wood here seemed grey. The floor creaked under her feet ominously. There was very little moss around, and the main source of light came from the middle of the room. Four waterfalls of purplish water came from the top of the walls to land in an equally rancid pool. Two exits on either side of the waterfalls led to some unknown area away from them. There was a bomb bug on the left, middle, and right. Bubbles, potentially methane, rose from two places right under the water.

Link slowly unsheathed his sword, keeping his shield in front of him. The bubbles came more violently. Chiku vibrated in Jen's grip.

With a crash and a huge plume of corrupt water, two massive Deku Baba heads emerged, snapping and hissing. They screamed in unison, and the walls shuddered. Dust fell from the ceiling. Dozens of Deku plants emerged from the walls, not all of them a danger to the two. Another pair of heads, smaller and more like the miniboss they fought not long ago, emerged from the walls, reaching for them both. Jen shrieked in surprise, dancing a few feet away, to the relative safety of the middle of the room. Link took another analytical view of the area and pulled out the Gale Boomerang.

"Bomb, far left mouth, please!" he ordered as he let it fly. The ivory boomerang followed his orders, picking up one of the bug bombs and altering course. The water-based mouth on the right hissed and snapped, shuddering.

"Link!" Jen shouted, taking a flying leap to tackle him to the ground. The mouth located in the wall to their left struck the dirt where he had been standing a moment earlier with an unhappy growl, sending dust flying. Jen swung Chiku in a wide ark, but all she did was bounce off the Baba's tough outer shell. It hissed in response, angling back to wait for another strike. The Deku Tigers on the walls, freed from their stems by the wild attack, crawled towards them.

A sudden explosion caught their attention. Link barely reacted in time to catch the Gale Boomerang as she returned. The Deku Baba head in the water on the left shook, then belched out a plume of smoke. The two of them cheered as the head sank below the water with barely a gurgle. The right head shrieked in outrage, preparing to hit again.

"I've got the large ones, you get the small ones," Link commanded as he rolled to his feet.

"Yeah," agreed Jen as she aimed her naginata where it would be most effective. With a few low strikes, the area immediately around them was clear, the Deku disintegrating as they were cut into halves. Jen accidentally came too close to one of the wall-based heads, and it snapped at her. She danced back, bumping into Link.

"You okay?" she checked, maintaining eye contact with the smaller boss head.

"I'm fine. I'm clearing the left side for dodging," he replied. She heard him grunt another request to the Boomerang as he threw it again, "Hopefully we'll get a bit of breathing room, then."

She heard him snap a curse, then the shriek of a dying Baba. The Deku head on the left side of the platform exploded, falling to shriveled pieces. The force of the creature's death throes separated more snapping plants from their anchors. Link favored his left arm, small holes bitten into the fabric.

"I'll get those. Keep doing what you're doing," Jen said as she ran at them. In several slashes, they began to thin out.

The battle settled, strangely, into a rhythm. Between dodging lunges from the biggest Deku heads, Link used the Gale Boomerang to give them something to chew on, and Jen used the reach of the weapon to deal with the tiger heads. Jen managed to kill the land head on their right, taking out the small heads around it before dealing a finishing blow. It disintegrated just as an explosion signaled the end of the second water-bound head.

"Yeah!" Link cheered as it sank. Then he paused.

"It's not poofing," Jen noticed, readying Chiku in front of her.

In the water, the bomb bugs hid in their logs. The water roiled, turning greenish. The two of them backed up, Link hiding behind his shield.

From the water emerged a third, massive head connected to a trunk-like body. The two heads in the water re-emerged, and the stems of the Deku plants regrew.

"SHIT!" Jen shouted as foul water coated her skin from where she was standing too close. She quickly wiped it off, but Link could see that where the water struck, rashes appeared.

The creature bent down, the mouth opening like a flower with three petals lined with teeth, exposing one acidic yellow eye. It screamed, long and loud, making their ears ring. Link immediately backpedaled. The Baba reacted, one of the heads coming down to strike at him. He dodged, and Jen struck at it, but the tough scales repelled her blade.

"How do we beat this?!" Link demanded rhetorically, "Where are the bomb bugs when you need them?"

"Hiding, like intelligent creatures?" Jen suggested as she avoided another attack, swiping at the Deku growing from the walls.

"If I die because Midna sent me into a trap, I'm going to haunt her!" Link snarled, swiping at another lunge.

An animalistic howl caught both of their attentions, and they looked up and to the left. The baboon shrieked for their attention, grabbing a rope and swinging across the monster's line of sight. It snapped at him, but wasn't fast enough. It reached the other side, scrounging for something, eventually coming up with a bomb bug. With another cry, it grabbed the rope again and began swinging back and forth.

"Why does the monkey have a bomb?!" Link demanded.

"At least it's helping us! Do the thing!" Jen retorted, narrowly avoiding a bite from an overzealous baba on the wall, slashing it in half for its efforts.

"Monkey's bomb, middle head!" Link ordered as he threw the gale boomerang. He attacked the small pests with Jen until he heard an explosion, putting his hand out to catch the boomerang. With a bellowing shriek, the creature caught the bomb full to the side of its head, falling down and exposing the eye. Wasting no time, Link slashed downward at it. It roared in outrage, rising back up.

It shuddered, and suddenly began to hose down the area with foul purple fluid.

"OH-!" Jen shouted, cutting off the curse halfway through, and they split. Link narrowly ducked under the spray, though the baba behind him weren't so lucky. With piercing shrieks, they withered instantly. His eyes widened.

"Acid!"

"Yeah I fucking got that!" Jen yelled back from the other side of the room, taking care of the monsters there. The acid spray continued, moving from left to right methodically. Where it landed, the moss died, leaving only bare, hissing dirt behind.

Wood snapped to his left, and he heard Jen gasp, then scream. The acid flow stopped, but Jen continued to pant heavily, in pain. She grunted as she tried to pull her leg out of the floor, caught to the calf in the splintered wood.

The left head snapped, and lunged at her. Link felt his heart drop. He sprinted towards her, catching the Baba head with his shield. The head slammed into the wall and retreated.

"Yarie! What happened?" Link shouted in concern as he took in the scene behind him. She heaved in a shuddering breath.

"Wood broke, got my foot, couldn't dodge," she managed painfully, "Just get rid of this thing and get us out of here!"

The baboon signaled again, and Link let the Boomerang fly. The explosion slammed it in the side of the head, and it collapsed. Link put every ounce of his strength into stabbing it through the eyestalk. It roared, hissing, but couldn't pull the eye free from his sword. Link pulled out the Gale Boomerang and used the sharp wing-like edge to hack away at the eyeball. Streams of blood appeared on the eyeball as he opened up gashes on its tough, rubbery surface.

With every strike, the creature pulled harder, eventually freeing itself, but at the cost of its eye. The massive organ twitched on the ground independently of its owner. The massive Baba reared back, howling and sending up sprays of poisoned water as it thrashed. Link knelt next to Yarie, covering them both with the wooden Ordon shield. Eventually, with a sound like a falling tree, its body convulsed one final time, turning black. The eye, where it lay, exploded into pieces.

Without the bulk of the body in his way, Link could see where the creature had attached itself to the tree using spider-like appendages. It must've been a parasite, slowly killing the tree. Then the blackened body burst into flakes, which hovered for a moment with a sound like the wind through a small space. Then, with a hiss, they coalesced into a black chunk of … something. Link didn't stick around to see.

"Yarie!" he shouted, turning to check on her. The acid had bitten through her clothes and was eating into her side. She heaved in shallow breaths as her skin sizzled, cursing under her breath. He looked around to see where he could clean the wound, and his eyes landed on the now-crystalline pool in the center of the room. Link quickly picked her up, resolutely ignoring her shriek of pain, and dunked her into the purified water, washing off the last of the acid. The burn looked terrible, pink and raw and bleeding in places. She gritted her teeth.

"Spring! Now! Healing!" she hissed, gripping Link's arm.

Link nodded, about to call Midna, when he heard a noise like a pop and a sizzle. Midna held the coagulated spark thing with her hair, gesturing for him to get into an opened portal with the other.

"Come on you idiot, don't waste time!" she snapped, hovering anxiously as he hauled her upright and into the portal. All three of them dissolved into black shards instantly, quick to get to their next destination.