Chapter 20: The one where you solve your first puzzle
There was a locked door. That was not a problem per se, it just needlessly complicated things.
"I told you, when that crossroad came, we should have gone left" Legend snarked from your back. You quietly cursed under your breath before answering: "That's not how things normally work. And we had a fifty-fifty chance."
"In which you didn't listen to me" he added. "So what, you were not doing the walking" you bit back.
"I would have if you would have let me" he retorted. "In your current condition?" you snorted in dark humor. "Were you to use your legs, that'd be their end. Well be my guest, become fitting to your name Mr. Leg-End"
"Was that a pun on my name? If so, it's bad" Legend commented dryly, his face probably twisting into a grimace and you snorted again. Guess that's five to four for you. Not that either of you ever had vocally admitted defeat in your little bickerings.
"So what to do now?" you voiced. "How should I know?" he commented. "You're the one with too many dungeons to count under his belt, you tell me. I'm just the dimensionally displaced kid" you admitted calmly, too calm for a dimensionally displaced kid that was currently stuck somewhere deep underground that could be full of death traps for all that you knew, but neither of you voiced it.
"How about listening to what I say for starters?" Legend muttered and you wished you could turn to him to give him your best death glare. It was nothing against his, but still better than nothing. So instead you gave an overdramatic groan while whipping slightly back and forth, thus jostling him slightly, which in turn caused him to hiss under his breath. Ha, served him right.
"No fair" he grumbled and then quietened for a moment, before finally commenting: "Well, the door is locked so there's gotta be a key. Find another room, find the key, open door, easy."
"Well then" you sass. "Where is another room then, Mr. Veteran? I don't see any doors, do you? Or are they hidden?"
"My guess is hidden. Try standing on that obnoxiously huge and not overlookable – which you apparently have overlooked - rock over there, I think it might be a …" "Switch?" "…switch to unhide the next room."
You did as suggested, and truly an opening in the wall appeared.
Touché, Bunny. Five to Five.
But when you went to get off and towards the singly door, the switch deactivated, and the wall slid closed again. Well, sh*t.
You paused, unsure of what to do next. On one hand it was clear what you had to do now, on the other hand it meant leaving your guaranteed survival behind. Legend seemed to notice your hesitation: "Hey, dimensionally displaced kid to Hyrule! Do you compete?"
"Stop using my phrases" you snided, snapping out of your head. He probably give you a sharp grin, full of teeth: "Why should I, they're the only good thing you've given me so far."
"What about all the headaches I gave you, while you tried to solve the mystery that I am in vain?" you asked overdramatically. "Where they for naught?"
"Stop messing around" he only commented, probably still bitter over the fact that you wouldn't give a straight answer. "You're behaving too much like someone else I know right now." You chuckled at that and then slid him off your back onto the switch, thus reactivating it.
"You mean Ravio?" you voiced and took great delight in seeing Legend's gaping face, before he quickly got himself back under control: "I'm not gonna ask, cuz let me guess: it's a secret?"
"Exact" pronounced, before turning and facing the newly formed entrance, where you pause.
Again Legend seemed to manage to read your hesitation like a book: "You know, I'm not going anywhere, because if I could, you would be sitting right here, and I'd be going in there."
"Like hell you would. You'd first have to knock me out in order for me to stay here, all alone in the dark" you answered, turning back to him, before pausing. Legend was bowed into himself and was working his right foot free from his boot.
"Need help?" you asked carefully. "Nope" he replied and then with a grimace finished the deed of pulling his foot free. Then he proceeded to rummage in the boot before pulling out a dagger and holding it out for you to take.
You gaped for a moment at it before voicing quietly: "Don't you need that yourself?" He shrugged simply before answering: "I've got another one in the other. Also you take your damned tunic with you, so it's not like it'd do me much in the dark. So take it, or so help me I'm gonna go in there myself."
Tenderly you took the offered weapon. Its blade was about as long as your hand and its handle was wrapped with simple brown leather. It was so small and yet it showed so much. It showed that you had to get out of your comfort zone, it showed that even Legend had placed his trust in you. It showed that this was the beginning of your own adventure whether you liked it or not.
"Thank you" you voiced quietly.
"You too" he gave back.
You nodded and then you turned away and started your track down the dark stone tunnel, Legend's form soon swallowed by the darkness behind you. You were all alone and this time you had no notebook guaranteeing your survival. Was this how all the heroes had felt when they had started their first journey? Knowing their own lives were for saving the lives of others on the line?
How brave, how courageous does someone have to be to do this out of free will?
Spirit of the Hero, the incarnation of courage, duh.
You snorted bitterly, dryly and almost fell when suddenly the tunnel ended. Stumbling back you noticed that the tunnel had opened up into a large cavern, so large that the bright glow from your tunic couldn't even light it the slightest. And the only way down was a simple wooden ladder, that seemed like it would break if a feather landed on it. You couldn't even see the ground.
But seeing as you didn't have another choice you take a deep breath to calm yourself. "Be courageous" you told yourself. "You can do this. You've done this a lot of times in the games. This is still Legend of Zelda. The ladders won't break if you step on them, no matter what they look like. This is just another game, with the simple special feature that there won't be a Game Over screen. This is fine, you can do this."
Then taking another deep breath, you stepped your first foot on the ladder. The old wood groaned in protest but didn't break. The second foot followed. The damn thing held.
Sighing in relief you started to carefully descend, freezing at every loud sound the ladder made. You didn't count the time. But when your feet finally touched firm ground again, you would have almost kneeled down and kissed it. You just barely managed to suppress that urge, when looking at the floor and seeing how dirty it was. Here hadn't been anyone in ages, which meant that here probably wasn't a key. Which meant that everything you had managed so far had been for nothing. Damn.
You gasped when you heard a sound you had heard in a lot of Zelda games. At the last second you dodged the monster hand that had fallen from the ceiling. Well, shit. Springing forward, your bruised and battered body groaned in protest, while you buried your dagger in the Wandmaster, before pulling it out and hitting it again and again until the thing finally dissolved into smoke, leaving nothing behind.
You were left kneeling there, a hysterical laugh escaping you. You were absolutely royally ducked, weren't you? You were so not ready for this. The first step into this new room and already the first attempt on your life.
You should probably just give up, head back up and search for another way. You were so not made for this. There had to be a peaceful way. Hopefully. Or probably not.
But…Legend now depended on you, didn't he? Were you really ready to give up already?
The dagger in your hand caught the light of your tunic and threw it further away onto a stone, which reflected it against a wall and there was a sound and then suddenly a gigantic flower shot out of the earth and you barely managed to roll out of the way in time, it's flowery jaws clamped shut around the air where you had just been. Horrified you scrambled back. With the flower now blocking your exit there was no way for you to get back without first defeating it.
What had just happened? Breathing hard you looked around and realized that there was more than just one of these reflective stones, there were four. And they all pointed into different directions, thus reflecting the light somewhere else, which meant it would probably booby trap it there, too.
This was a puzzle! A dangerous puzzle in which one step would send monsters at you!
Carefully, not wanting a repeat from earlier, you wrapped your cloak firmly around you, thus dimming the light coming from you. Carefully you skidded around the room, searching for a sign of where the light was supposed to go, seeing as there were a lot of places where it was not supposed to be.
On one wall you found a sealed hole and on the other side of the room, there was a switch which opened the hole. After killing the Skulltulla that thought it was funny to place herself above the switch and bite you in an arm (ouch) with the dagger, you started to drag the stupidly heavy reflecting stones into a fitting position. So in the end the four stones reflected the light coming from your tunic while you stood on the switch into the then opened hole. And you only got the direction wrong once and had to deal with a Floormaster, aka hand of doom 2.0, which was a definite success in your books.
Another telltale sound was heard and turning into the direction it had come from you could watch in fascination as a treasure chest appeared in the middle of the four stones. Carefully you hid the light from your tunic beneath your cloak once more to not activate accidently another trap and made your way across the room to it.
Staring at the old wood you felt giddiness rise within you. This was it! Your first puzzle and your first treasure chest! You were so excited!
Quickly you opened the chest and took out what was within and it was…
…not a key. Man, this was disappointing.
What you had fished out was a simple old, worn and old brown leather girdle on which was placed a small just as leathery and worn bag, about the size of two fists. Curious you opened the bag and found within the finally a key. A sigh of relief escaped you and you placed the key back in the bag, before closing it. Then you placed the girdle around your tunic on the height of your hips and started your way back.
The monster flower that was still in the way of the ladder was dealt with by crushing it with one of the reflective stones. You picked nuts it left behind up and stuffed it in your newly acquired bag. Who knows when you'd need them?
Feeling much better you climbed the ladder back up and made your way back to Legend, already feeling much better. This was all dangerous but survivable. You could definitely do this.