Chapter Twenty Four – Taking down Morpha
I received a new report from Sheik today. It seems Link was taking some strange beans while he was in the temple. Sheik says they're the same beans that poisoned the waters of Hyrule and killed most of the people in my kingdom. If Link is consuming large amounts of these beans his life is in great danger.
Sheik stated in his report that Link was swinging his sword wildly at some of the workers from Morpha while they were trying to escape the flooded rooms, and he ended up killing all of them. Sheik continued to follow him into another room where it appeared Link was fighting something that was attacking him, and ended up hurting himself badly, but there wasn't anything in there with him. It seems obvious he's consuming the dangerous beans that have been known for causing hallucinations. The people that were suffering the effects from the beans would complain of sever pains throughout their body, and the only thing that would make it go away was a larger dose of water the beans contaminated, but this relief was short lived as most of the people quickly died from overdosing.
I told Sheik to inform Link of the dangers in regards to the beans so he will stop using them. He needs to get those things out of his system if he's ever going to finish helping at the water temple. Morpha and Princess Ruto could really use his help getting things finished so the water in the lake can be refilled.
Upon entering the next room he was excited to find a treasure chest. Hoping there would be something amazing inside he quickly opened it up and found some chain and a note. Brushing off his disappointment he took the note and began to read.
By order of King Zora we are to take the chain within this chest and deliver it to the hero of Hyrule, Damp-
The ending of the name was smudged and it was difficult to make out, but for some reason it didn't appear to be his name. He found it baffling since he was picked personally by Princess Zelda to be the hero of Hyrule.
He has served all of Hyrule faithfully for many years, and to show our appreciation for all he's done for our people we have obtained the very rare metal he needed to finish the chain for the device he's been creating. The completed chain is to be a symbol for how he stopped the war and helped bring peace to all races in our land.
The children of the Kokiri forest revealed the secret to locating the rare metal, and the metal was then mined by Hyrulian's; the goron's forged the metal in death mountain, and the zora cooled it in spirit water, and the Gerudo refined the finished chain. None of this would have been possible without the noble and selfless acts of Hyrules greatest hero.
Link figured the hero they were talking about must have lived long before he was born, and was probably dead now since he was the current hero of Hyrule, and he was proud to be doing everything in his power to bring peace and harmony to the land.
Pulling out his hook-shot he easily removed the chain that he was currently using, and began to switch it out with what was in the chest, but it proved to be far more difficult than he expected. After a moment of struggling with it he quickly became frustrated and just left it on the ground in front of the chest and figured it was impossible to fix and was trash now.
As he was walking back towards the door to leave, the floor suddenly dropped out from under him and he began to fall down a very long vertical shaft until he landed in a raging river where he was quickly swept away by the current. While careening out of control he noticed whirlpools ahead of him and he had to fight with all his might to avoid getting pulled into them. The river continued to twist and turn as it moved through what appeared to be a cave beneath the temple. The river suddenly turned into a giant waterfall as he plummeted into a large pool of water that was flowing in a circle. It seemed the water was draining out at the bottom of the deep pool of water, but it was so deep the whirlpool wasn't able to completely form, but the current showed it was there.
Suddenly he noticed there was a dragon at the bottom of the pool that looked like it was sleeping. He didn't want to wake it up, but at that moment it lifted its head and began to move towards him. The feeling of fear wanted to fill his entire body, but the beans he just ate prevented fear from taking hold and he began to desire taking the dragon on.
Diving into the water he was feeling very confident as the dragon drew closer to him. He could feel the water pulling him with the flow of the current, and as he drew closer to the dragon he swung the master sword as hard as he could, but instead of killing the dragon it felt like its skin was made of stone.
The current of the water kept pulling at him and took him far away from where the dragon was swimming, so he used this time to return to the surface for air, then dived back down and would attack it again. With each attack he landed it continued to seem impossible to hurt the dragon, so he decided to try attacking the mouth. As he came around once again he aligned himself straight on with the dragon and slashed at the mouth with all his strength. To his astonishment it still didn't seem to hurt the creature, but something did happen as the currents flow quickly altered and began to suck him through a new opening in the wall. Just before he was fully sucked through, he looked back at the dragon and noticed it was just a statue with a switch in its mouth.
Without a way to escape he was pulled into a long tunnel and began to be pushed upward very quickly. The pressure was intense on his chest and was making it hard to hold his breath, and just when he thought he was going to drown, the water erupted into a room where he was able to breathe. Lying on the ground he gasped for air as the water that shot him up drained from the room.
Once he caught his breath he got up and looked around. It seemed he was back inside the temple, but he wasn't exactly sure where in the temple. The room he was currently in only had a single door leading to another part of the temple, and the hole he was shot-up from. As he went through the door he was surprised to find the room had a large gap between the door he entered from and the door he needed to get to. On the far side of the room was a ladder that lead up to the area the door was on, but he didn't want to have to jump all the way down just to climb a ladder back up. In between the gap were geysers that kept raising and lowering. Figuring he would be able to jump from one geyser to the next, he told himself it seemed like the faster option to get across the room.
Upon leaping to the first geyser his feet hit the water right in the middle. He tried to land so the water would keep him up, but for some reason his body past right through the water and he fell all the way to the ground below. It seemed his idea didn't work and he had to climb the ladder after all. He rubbed his hurt backside as he made his way across the room, and climbed the ladder to the door.
In the next room he found himself back in the main hall he first arrived in. Following the path to the back of the temple he found a very large door. It was obvious the boss Morpha would be in there, and he was going to stop it no matter the cost. His energy wasn't completely drained from the fight against the dragon, but it was starting to decline and pain was starting to appear in his body again, so he decided to boost his strength by taking a large handful of beans and entered the door.
The room was large with a square pool of water in the floor that had four pillars protruding from the water that formed platforms just above the water. He jumped onto the closest one and while he was standing on it a guy appeared out of nowhere.
"What are you doing in here?" the man said. "I'm the boss here and I don't remember giving you permission to be in here! You need to leave before you mess anything up!"
While the guy was yelling, he began to transform into a large pillar of water that quickly wrapped around Link's body and threw him across the room. Link got back up quickly and felt the power from the beans surging through him as he drew the master sword and began charging back towards Morpha. With power he never felt in his life, he began chasing the creature back, but just as he thought he was winning a second water tentacle appeared behind him and began pulling him away from the first.
Suddenly Link noticed the new tentacle that appeared had some kind of orb that was floating inside the water. Link struggled to free himself from the creatures grasp and began attacking the orb with all his strength. He wasn't sure what it was, but if it was a part of Morpha it could have been its heart, or whatever it was that kept the creature alive.
While Link was focused on trying to get to the orb he completely forgot about the first tentacle and suddenly felt it wrapped around his waist and once again launched him across the room where he crashed hard into the wall. This only made Link angry as he quickly got back up to face them once again. The tentacle that originally had the orb passed it to the other, then began to move closer to Link. His attention was on both tentacles, but he needed to figure out a way to get past the one coming towards him to get to the orb again.
With as much speed as he could gather he burst from the spot and raced past the tentacle. As it went to reach for him it barely missed grabbing his arm and he managed to get around it. With his sword drawn he leapt into the air and sliced through the tentacle, but he missed the orb. The tentacle lost its form and the orb fell to the ground where it began to roll away.
Link chased after the orb, but just before he was able to reach it one of the water tentacles grabbed him and began holding him back. While struggling to get free the other tentacle began to rise out of the water, but it didn't seem as stable as it did before; it was now wobbling from side to side. The tentacle moved over to the orb and picked it up and began moving back towards the water. He knew he couldn't just let it get away, but the tentacle that was holding him made it impossible to swing his sword.
Kicking his legs wildly he managed to kick the tentacle, and for some reason it felt more solid than water. The tentacle released its grip on him and he took off as fast as he could after the orb. The tentacle with the orb was almost back to the water as Link dove into the tentacle and grabbed the orb free. He landed in the water with the orb, but quickly realized he needed to get out of there fast.
Suddenly the tentacle he kicked moved over to the pool of water and dove in. Once in the water it was impossible to see where it was, but suddenly he felt himself being shaken violently as the creature tried to pull the orb from his hands. He continued to hold on as tight as possible, but he was running out of air quick, and he knew the creature was made of water and didn't need to breathe.
With no other choice he had to release the orb and quickly swam back up to the surface. As he was gasping for air he looked around for the orb and watched as it floated to the opposite side of the pool, then was launched out as the tentacle reformed from the water and left the pool to retrieve the orb. The second tentacle rejoined, and then the tentacle with the orb passed it over.
Getting out of the water he ran over to where the orb was, but the tentacle that removed the orb from the pool moved to block him from getting close to the other tentacle. Link wasn't about to be stopped again, so he swung the master sword as hard as he could through the middle of the tentacle, and it exploded into splashes of water all over the place as the tentacle fell into the pool of water and vanished.
Link was finally able to get to the orb once again. The tentacle held tightly to the orb, and was now trapped in the corner with no place to go as he slowly walked over to it. He was so glad the beans removed his fear since there was no way he would have been able to fight without them. The power was still surging through his body, and with the power of the master sword in hand he was unstoppable.
Just before Link reached the tentacle it threw the orb as far across the room as it could. As Link began to chase after it he glanced into the pool of water and noticed a body at the bottom. He stopped chasing the orb and realized it was Princess Ruto and she had been killed. Blood was still draining from the open wound on her stomach. Rage began to build within Link as he realized the only one that could have done this was Morpha. He knew he shouldn't have let her go alone to face Morpha, but she left him so quickly he couldn't keep up.
Falling to the ground he began feeling really sick and began throwing up most of the magic beans he had eaten. His head was feeling really dizzy, but his rage was continuing to build. Without thinking he felt his body moving on its own as it charged back towards the tentacle he just left and began slicing through the water over and over again. The clear water began spewing red as if it were bleeding, but he wasn't paying attention from the overwhelming rage, and continued to hack away at the tentacle.
When Link finally came to his senses he was covered in the red blood from Morpha. He didn't understand how something clear could have red blood, but at that moment he was more focused on getting himself to calm down. Looking around the room he noticed where the orb had rolled, and realized the other tentacle was still nowhere to be seen. Figuring he must have killed it as well, he moved over to the orb and picked it up. As he held it in his hands he noticed it was a giant heart that was beating. Without a second thought he stabbed the heart with the master sword and the moment he did sparks began to fly out from it. He wasn't sure why there were sparks, but let the heart drop to the ground and watched the pool of water drain from that room. It seemed the water temple had finally been released from Morpha's control and he was finally able to leave.
Picking up Princess Ruto's body he brought her back outside with him. He struggled to get back out through the main entrance, and almost drowned once again from how long the hallway was, and he forgot the water level had risen, which made it that much longer of a swim back to the surface before he was able to breathe again. While he was swimming back to the surface he noticed hundreds of bodies sinking to the bottom of the lake. It seemed there was no way to free the minions from Morpha control after all, but at least no one else would be controlled by the monster ever again.
Upon reaching the surface he began gasping for air while clutching Princess Ruto's body so she wouldn't sink to the bottom of the lake as well. When he made it to the island that was in the middle of the lake he pulled her body up with him, then collapsed from exhaustion. He was so tired from fighting Morpha, then almost drowning, and finally, the long swim to shore that he passed out from fatigue.
When Link awoke he was surprised to see Princess Ruto's body was no longer next to him anymore, but instead there were just a few giant feathers and claw marks on the ground where her body was. Getting up he noticed Sheik was standing on a large flat slab with the symbol of the spiritual stone of water on it.
"I'm glad to see you again Link," Sheik said as he stared out at the lake. "I'm pleased you were able to help restore the water back to the lake. And I saw Princess Ruto flying away with the giant owl that lives around here. I'm sure she's returning home to be with her people.
"I have a message from Princess Zelda for you. She has instructed me to tell you not to consume anymore of the beans you have in your possession. I fear you may have run into some issues within the temple while using them. If you continue to consume the beans she will be forced to choose a new hero to save this land. I advise you to visit the witch that lives in Kakariko village. I believe she's the woman that used to be married to the scientist that lives here at the lake. She's already helping the people in Hyrule town, so she's going to be your best choice if you want to feel better."
Link moved next to Sheik and began to look out at the lake. He really did fell proud of himself for how hard he fought, and being able to help restore peace to the land. While looking out at the water there was a small splash next to him that drew his attention, but it seemed to just be a rock that was thrown into the water by Sheik. Turning back to see what he was doing, Link was shocked to find Sheik had completely vanished, but brushed it off as just one of those things to expect from him. As Link was leaving the island to head to Kakariko Village he failed to look at the top of the dead tree on the island where Sheik had quickly climbed up and was trying to hide.