From The Lizalfos' Lair to The Dodongo's Skull

No one gets hurt again.

Link brought himself to the front of the group as the beastly warriors approached. His heart raced—half from rage and half from fear—and all he could think about was how to protect the others.

"Who are they?" Link asked Navi without taking his eyes off the foes.

"Lizalfos," Navi answered.

The largest of the Lizalfos screeched at the group. Its yell pierced Link's hearing, causing him to cringe. He gritted his teeth, refusing to break his glare at the horde as they tried to corner their intended prey. Link looked back at the mountain boy called Maruka. He tried to hide it, but Link wasn't fooled—the battle with the Dodongo hurt him.

Because of this, Link knew he had to bear the burden of the battle. He thought of his failures with the Deku Tree. Link was in pain as well—he carried a hurt that would never go away until he knew he could protect those he cared about. The new friends he found were amongst them.

Suddenly, a Lizalfos charged at the group. It hissed before swinging its sword down on Link, who saw the attack coming. He turned the Kokiri Sword to sideways so that it was horizontal in comparison to his enemy's weapon. Both blades clashed, birthing sparks while making a fierce cross.

The Lizalfos snarled and pulled away from Link. It tried to take off the forest boy's head with a side slash. Link crouched below the attack, balling himself beneath his Hylian shield. The Lizalfos' attack was relentless. More sparks fell to the rocky ground.

When Link heard Sheila scream, it propelled him to action. He quickly cut the Lizalfos' shins when it slowed down on its attacks. While the creature gawked in pain and staggered, Link took advantage. He lunged his sword into the foe's gut. The Lizalfos trembled from the blow before falling to the ground. It let out a final breath and became still.

Link looked around and panicked. He didn't hear the scurrying footsteps of the others during his fight with his attacker. They were spread out across the lair, dealing with the two remaining monsters. Each of them were in danger of facing their doom.

Maruka was two platforms away from Link. He actually had his dagger out and held his own against the brute strength of the Lizalfos he fought. Every strike of the sword met the dagger and Maruka managed to avoid getting harmed. It wasn't going to last for long.

Link could tell the mountain boy was getting weary. Sweat poured down his face and his injuries didn't help much either. Link leapt in Maruka's direction, careful to make his steps count.

"Hold on!" he shouted to Maruka. He noticed Sheila and Trevor keeping their distance from the third Lizalfos as well. As long as they kept a platform between themselves and the Lizalfos, they would be fine. They just had to give themselves more time.

Link leapt to the platform where Maruka and his opponent fought. He knew he had to be quick. His timing was fortunate, as Maruka fell down and lost his dagger. Link rushed to get between the mountain boy and the Lizalfos. He blocked the Lizalfos' downward slash with his shield, using both hands to lift it off his back and push up against the brute force of the creature.

Link looked back at Maruka, who crawled toward his dagger. Clasping a trembling hand around his knife, Maruka then leapt up and stabbed the Lizalfos in its side. He held the blade there until the Lizalfos died. Maruka breathed heavily as he cleaned the dagger off.

"Don't push yourself," warned Navi. "You can't get hurt anymore."

Maruka shook his head. "I have to help the mountain. You won't stop me, even if it's bad for me. Where's Trevor and Sheila?"

"HELP!"

Link and Maruka's friends were trapped at the edge of the magma fall. The platform they were on was attached to a narrow bridge connected to another isle. Like Maruka's attacker, the Lizalfos didn't seem to notice anything other than its targets. Link and Maruka had to work quickly to make sure it stayed that way.

They leapt from isle to isle, landed on the platform leading to the bridge and balanced themselves on the narrow pathway. When the Lizalfos turned around, the boys stumbled. Link almost fell, but Maruka caught him and kept him standing. When the Lizalfos inched its way towards Link and Maruka, they noticed Trevor sneaking behind the creature. He had a large rock in his hands that he raised above his head.

Link and the Lizalfos engaged each other in battle, clashing their swords against one another. Link pushed the Lizalfos in Trevor's direction, which gave the boy from Oak Shire a chance to join the fray. He bashed the rock on the Lizalfos' head, breaking the stone into pieces.

The Lizalfos swayed, dazed from the hit. Link could have plunged his sword into the beast's heart to finish it off, but Trevor's attack was enough. The Lizalfos fell into the magma, floating into a horrible doom the children didn't even want to think about.

And so, the battle was over.

"Are you OK?" Maruka asked Trevor and Sheila.

The two nodded before Maruka pressed a hand to his forehead and seemed close to falling into the magma himself. They scrambled to help him up. Then, the group carefully trekked back toward where they started. Another steel door awaited them to the right and they entered through it, continuing their journey into the cavern.

Many obstacles stood in their way; strange metal razors skidded across the rocky floor of one room, as if they had a life of their own. Link and Navi had to lead the way, with the fairy looking around the corner to make sure the children weren't harmed.

There were platforms with surfaces set on fire. They seemed unable to go out until Maruka wearily noticed a switch on the wall that resembled an eye. It was enclosed in a marigold, diamond-shaped frame. When Link fired a deku seed into the eye, the flames were instantly doused, as if they were never there.

They dealt with more foes—there were strange bats called "keese" that had to be taken out with more deku seeds or a slash of the blade. One time, the children tried to move a statue of the way and it came to life. It changed color, had a sharp growl and jumped in the children's direction, intent on brutally bashing them.

Link took care of the foe with a nearby bomb flower. It rested in the corner of the room they were in, thriving in the dark. Link ran and plucked it from its green patch. After striking it against the rock wall, he threw it in the statue's direction and did enough damage to blow into stone shards. The children thanked him for his help very often.

Soon, the children made their way to a higher level of the cavern. After braving through another pair of fiery pillars doused by the eye switches, they came upon another switch in the ground. When Link stepped on it, a rocky platform rose to the top. The children recognized the platform from the first room in the cavern. They even looked down and noticed the top of the Dodongo's Skull. For the first time in a while, Maruka seemed full of energy.

"Darunia!" he called out. He pulled away from Trevor and Sheila's helping arms and stumbled ahead. "We're back!"

There was no response. This proved odd to the group. Link saw Maruka's face fill up with worry.

"Where did they go?" asked Trevor.

"I wish I knew," Maruka said. "Darunia said he would meet us here."

"There's an explanation," said Link.

Suddenly, Sheila gasped. She stood still and her eyes widened. The others around her could have sworn one of her eyes changed color—to a mixture of violet and red and other shades of colors they didn't seem to know—then, she went back to normal. Her face looked tired, even more than Maruka's.

"They're inside its head," she said.

Trevor raised an eyebrow. "Uh…what is that supposed to mean?"

Sheila pointed at the Dodongo's Skull. "They're inside the head," she said. "Don't you notice something different. Its eyes never glowed before. And I think its mouth is open."

The boys looked at each other and turned to see if what Sheila said was true. Surely enough, when they observed the skull, the changes were there—both eyes glowed with an eerie red light. The skull's mouth was open.

"Why would they go without us?" Trevor asked. "Not that I'm complaining that much."

"They didn't want us to get hurt," said Maruka. "So they wanted to take care of the other Dodongos."

"Good for them," said Trevor. "And us, too. We can wait for them out here."

"Or," said Link. "We could help them. We're supposed to. We promised."

Trevor palmed his forehead. "No," he said. "No way am I getting myself killed in there. We've done enough! We almost died from baby Dodongo bombs, fought fire-breathing dinosaurs and beat up evil lizard freaks! I'm not doing anything else."

It was quiet for a moment. Then, Maruka looked at the place where the rocky platform would rise.

"I'm going," said Maruka. "We have to make sure the Calvary's OK."

Trevor looked shocked. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No," said Maruka. "I've been out of my world, hometown and family. That's where I've been."

"Well," said Trevor. "You're crazy too. I know they're nice and all that, but you got to stay with your friends! OK?"

Maruka looked back at Trevor. He walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking the boy from Oak Shire dead in his eyes.

"I'm Jerome," said Maruka. "I can control fire, have dreams about my life and I can save a mountain if I wanted to. And I made a lot of friends along the way while getting my old ones back. I'm not leaving them behind and I'm not going to let them get hurt. I'm going to help them."

Trevor shrugged. "OK…but what if something bad happens? What do we do?"

"What we did in the game we played," said Jerome. "We're going to win. Don't worry about it, T."

Maruka—Jerome—offered his hand. He and Trevor did a strange handshake Link didn't understand until he remembered something Trevor told him outside of Castletown. This was the strange method of greeting he mentioned. It was clear that it was part of a bond, part of a closeness Link had with Saria back home, part of a life the boys missed dearly and wanted to get back to. Link was glad to see all this unfold and knew it would lead to better things.

"Man," said Trevor. "You're crazy."

"But we're all going to be crazy," said Jerome. "Aren't we?"

Trevor sighed. "We better not die."

Jerome smirked. "We're not."

"You better not die."

"I won't."

"It's decided then," Navi declared. "We're helping Darunia and the Calvary."

"And your boyfriend Maui," said Trevor.

Navi glared Trevor. "He's not my boyfriend."

"You treat it like he is."

"Just walk to the ledge and don't stop. See if you can walk on air."

"OK!" Link pointed at the platform finishing its rise. "Let's get on before it goes back down, please."

The children boarded the platform. They traveled down to the main chamber and leapt onto the center isle, which was far wider than its four counterparts. When they looked into the Dodongo's Skull, they saw the steel door in the back of the creature's mouth. Link's gut sloshed around. He unsheathed his sword.

"Let's help them finish this," said Link. "All of us together. Does that sound good?"

"We're with you all the way," said Navi. "I don't doubt you for a second.

"Thanks." Link turned to Jerome. "Are you going to be OK?"

Jerome looked at his burnt hands, seeming aware of what Link meant. "I feel better than I did before. That's got to count for something, right?"

"Definitely." Link walked up the ramp made by the skull's jaw. "We have a fight to win."

Four children and a fairy journeyed into the Dodongo's Skull. They knew a great battle could await them on the other side, but they refused to avoid the chance to help out their friends.