A\N: I love temple chapters xD
Link glanced around as they came into the main area of the temple.
There were three doors for them to go through, each marked with a different symbol. On the floor was a marking of the Triforce with three dragons curled around it.
"Dragons?" Ganondorf asked, staring at the picture. "I thought the Zonai worshipped a boar, owl, and a dragon."
"They….do," Zelda said uncertainly. "Perhaps they were aware of the existence of the dragons?"
That's possible, Link agreed. They're pretty hard to miss.
"Could be," Ganondorf muttered, staring at the pictures skeptically as he rubbed his chin. "Or it could be a hint."
"A hint?"
"Perhaps they knew about our coming here."
You mean they could see into the future?
"Or their shamans could. So, they built this for us and added the three dragons." Ganondorf pointed to the dragons. "See, their colors are slightly different. The red one is over the power piece. The blue one is by wisdom."
Zelda gasped as she noticed what Ganondorf was talking about. "I see. Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh."
So what does this have to do with us? Link asked.
Ganondorf stepped onto the Triforce, right on the piece of power.
The floor shifted down slightly as if he had stepped on a switch, the drawing of Dinraal lighting up.
"I see," Zelda said, stepping on the Triforce's wisdom piece.
Link stood on the courage piece.
Naydra and Farosh both lit up.
There was a slight rumble and the three doors slowly scraped open.
"So, what do we do?" Zelda asked, looking between the three doors. "Is there an order we need to go through them?"
Ganondorf shook his head. "No. I think we need to split up."
Split up? Link asked. Why?
"See the marks above the doors?" Ganondorf pointed to the symbols painted above the doorways. "Din, Nayru, and Farore. Each one possibly meant for the wielder of that particular Triforce piece."
"But what's going to be tested?" Zelda asked, crossing her arms. "And why did the Zonai build this? What did they have to gain from it?"
"Who knows," Ganondorf murmured, heading towards the door straight ahead of him. "Let's find out."
Zelda sighed before heading into the door on her left while Link entered the final door.
The doors closed behind them.
Ganondorf hummed as he glanced around the room which appeared empty save for a single sign.
The rooms beyond test your strengths and weaknesses.
"Pretty straightforward then," Ganondorf muttered.
A few torches appeared from the floor, each one numbered. The room was obviously testing his strength, which was magic.
Ganondorf lit the torches in order and the door opened before him.
I wonder if that means the last temple will be extremely hard, Ganondorf wondered as he moved into the next room, the door sliding shut behind him.
A sign sat in the center of the room and Ganondorf went over to read it.
"Try and catch me?" he muttered, wondering what exactly he had to catch.
A Korok with a spade-shaped leaf appeared on the top of the sign, startling Ganondorf.
"Let's play tag!" the Korok giggled. "You're it!"
The Korok disappeared before Ganondorf could react, reappearing a ways away from him, waving at him.
What does this test? Ganondorf thought as he approached the Korok.
He wasn't really bad at games. He defiantly didn't consider it a weakness.
As he reached out to touch the Korok, it disappeared again with a giggle. With a slightly annoyed huff, Ganondorf looked around for the Korok and spotted it near a corner. Before he could even approach it, the Korok vanished again. With a low growl, Ganondorf clenched his hands. He took a deep breath as he realized that the room was testing his weakness of easily angered.
Of course it would pick that one.
Instead of following after the Korok only to have it disappear and move somewhere else, Ganondorf sat down.
He was going to wait for the Korok to come to him.
After a while, the Korok appeared in front of Ganondorf, tilting its head. "Aren't you going to play with me?"
"I am playing," Ganondorf said, tapping the Korok's head. "You're it."
The Korok gasped before giggling and vanishing.
The door behind Ganondorf opened and he stood up to move into the final room.
Test the strength of your blades.
"Sword fighting, huh?" Ganondorf muttered as a Stalfos dropped from the ceiling, wielding two blades.
As the skeleton raised its weapons, one vertical and one horizontal, Ganondorf unsheathed his swords.
"That I can do." Ganondorf circled the Stalfos to give himself time to scan its strategy.
Every so often the Stalfos would switch the positions of its swords, exposing different weak points.
I get it, Ganondorf thought as the Stalfos once again repositioned its swords.
Once it did, he lashed out with both blades, smashing two of the Stalfos' ribs.
The Stalfos staggered from the blow before righting itself, swords raised again.
Ganondorf stayed just out of reach so the Stalfos couldn't attack him but lunged forward when he saw a good opening to strike. He kept up the strategy until all the ribs were smashed and the Stalfos collapsed under its own weight.
To be sure it couldn't reform itself, Ganondorf pierced the monster's skull.
The door to what Ganondorf assumed was the boss room opened up.
He headed into it, wondering how Zelda and Link were fairing with their own challenges.
Zelda hit another glowing target with a Light Arrow, turning it grey.
A fifth one popped up, followed by a sixth. The two began to move opposite of each other.
Zelda shot both of them one after the other.
Once the last one turned grey, the door to the next room opened up and Zelda went through it.
The next room looked pretty empty. Zelda couldn't even see a sign.
Zelda hummed, glancing around as she wondered what she was supposed to be doing.
What was it testing? Her patience?
Deciding to see if there was something hidden, Zelda shot the walls with Light Arrows.
One wall lit up briefly before fading.
"Huh…"
Was it testing the strength of her Light Arrows?
Deciding to test her theory, Zelda took aim at the wall once again before trying to embed some of her weak magic into the arrow in an attempt to strengthen it. Then she let the arrow fly.
It Zelda stared at the picture that was revealed.
She recognized the figures facing off against the enormous boar beast. The one dressed in white was using some kind of light magic against the beast to weaken it. Zelda didn't have strong magic. The best she had was the Light Bow and Arrows.
Zelda headed into the next room, deciding not to stare at the mural any longer.
The final room had three boxes with symbols on them. Indents in the floor had the same markings, indicating where the boxes were to go.
"This seems easy enough," Zelda mumbled to herself, heading to one of the boxes and beginning to push it.
Her efforts were in vain as the box refused to budge. She tried from different sides to try and get it to move but the box remained where it was.
With a frustrated growl, Zelda glared at the box as she put her hands on her hips. She glanced at the vambrace on her wrist, remembering how it had held Abyss still.
"I wonder…"
It couldn't hurt to try, right?
Holding out her hand, Zelda focused on the box, trying to get the vambrace to work.
After a bit of waiting, a red line shot out and wrapped around the box.
Zelda moved her arm a bit, watching the box move with it, and set the box in the right indent. As it sank down, she grabbed another box and repeated moving it to the right section before doing the same with the final box.
As the last box sank into the ground, the door to the boss room opened up.
Zelda grinned at the vambrace. "You are extremely useful."
Link grunted as he struck down another Bokoblin with the Master Sword.
He didn't like this temple at all.
Looking around to make sure there wasn't another monster, Link sighed as the door to the next room opened up.
Fighting through three waves of monsters wasn't exactly what he wanted to do in a temple.
The next room was empty except for two torches.
The sign he found told him to light the torches without the use of fire arrows.
Link didn't have any fire arrows, but how else could he light the torches? It wasn't like he could use magic.
With a grunt, Link withdrew the Master Sword and his shield. He struck the metal edge of the shield to create sparks which lit up one of the torches. He did the same thing with the second torch and was relieved the temple accepted the unusual method, the next door opening up.
Scattered around the room were multiple targets that were archery targets.
Link assumed he had to hit them with arrows and checked his quiver. He had a small amount of bomb arrows and the bundle Sidon had given him of shock arrows. It didn't look like he had normal arrows.
Next stable he would buy some to add variety.
For now, he would use the shock arrows since they wouldn't do too much damage.
After shooting the fifteen targets, the door to the boss room opened up and Link went into the room, spotting Zelda and Ganondorf already there.
"There you are!" Zelda said.
Hey. Link waved. You guys have weird rooms too?
"They were testing our strengths and weaknesses," Ganondorf said.
"But why?" Zelda asked. "We already know our strengths and weaknesses."
"Perhaps to help us with the boss?" Ganondorf shrugged. "Who know what the Zonai were thinking when they built this place."
Zelda decided not to mention the mural she had seen. Of course the Zonai would know about the prophecies and future of Hyrule.
Link glanced around the empty room. Where is the boss anyway? It should have shown up by now.
"Perhaps someone else already killed it?" Zelda suggested, looking hopeful.
"Don't count on it," Ganondorf muttered when there was a shriek.
An enormous scorpion dropped from the ceiling, opening its thick claws as the barbed tail raised above its head.
"A scorpion?" Zelda asked as the scorpion clicked its claws at them. "How do we get past its exoskeleton?"
"Let me handle that," Ganondorf growled. "Just like with the crab boss. Break the shell, expose the soft skin underneath."
Don't get hit by the barb, Link added.
"That too."
The three separated to different sides so the scorpion could only focus on one of them at a time.
The scorpion hissed, looking between the trio before focusing its attention on Link.
With its back turned to him, Ganondorf jumped on the scorpion, driving one of his swords into its hard shell, trying to break it.
The scorpion shrieked and reached its claws back, snapping at Ganondorf.
He avoided the claws, continuing to try and break the shell.
The scorpion turned in a circle as it continued to try and grab the one stabbing it, tail swinging out.
Link ducked to avoid the wayward tail.
Zelda moved backward, the tip of the barb grazing her cheek.
The scorpion managed to knock Ganondorf off its back, hissing at the redhead.
Link shot the scorpion in the face with a bomb arrow, blinding it temporarily.
As the scorpion shook its head, Ganondorf lunged forward to stab its open mouth.
The scorpion screeched at the weapon stuck in its mouth, trying to paw it out.
With the scorpion distracted, Link jumped onto its back to resume piercing its shell.
With the pain in both its mouth and back, the scorpion shook itself in an attempt to dislodge one or the other. It was a useless attempt as Link hopped off on his own, shooting a thumbs up at Ganondorf.
"Good job!" Ganondorf said, looking towards Zelda. "Your Light Arrows will finish it—Zelda?"
Zelda looked unwell and the graze on her cheek gave him all the answers to her state.
"Let me have the Light Arrow."
"It will burn you though," Zelda protested, looking at Ganondorf miserably.
"That's what the spring is for. It will heal us both, but we need to kill the boss before the poison spreads."
He was not panicking. As long as Zelda was still standing, there was a chance.
Zelda bit her lip before summoning the Light Bow and an Arrow. She held them out to Ganondorf.
He took the bow, which didn't burn him like it probably should have, and the arrow which immediately hissed against his skin the second it touched.
Ganondorf approached the scorpion which was still attempting to get the sword out of its mouth. He jumped on its back and fired the arrow into the soft spot of skin exposed underneath the cracked shell.
The scorpion shrieked at the pain, reaching its claws back to try and pull the arrow out.
After jumping to the ground, Ganondorf pulled his sword from the scorpion's mouth. Then he stabbed it in one of the beast's eyes.
"That's for poisoning Zelda."
The scorpion writhed in pain before dropping to the ground and going limp.
A door at the end of the room opened up once the scorpion had vanished in a cloud of dark dust.
The Light Bow vanished from Ganondorf's hand and he looked towards Zelda to see her on the floor.
"Zelda!" Ganondorf ran over to her to check her out.
Is she all right? Link asked as Ganondorf checked for a pulse.
After finding a pulse Ganondorf nodded, gathering Zelda into his arms. "We need to get to the spring though."
Link gave a quick nod, following Ganondorf into the spring room.
The healing waters closed the small cut on Zelda's cheek and healed the burn on Ganondorf's hand.
He continued to strike at the training dummy, make believing that it was a vicious monster.
He was tired of just training and wanted a real challenge, but he wasn't yet a knight. He had to first pass his knight training test which was why he was training in the first place.
It was boring work though. But he wanted to be one of Hylia's knights desperately. He would show everyone even a country boy could hold his own against monsters.
With that in mind, he threw himself at the training dummy harder than before.
He grumbled to himself as he continued to stare at the map laid out on the table in front of him.
Trying to get the Bokoblins of Lanaryu was proving difficult.
"Having trouble there, Demise?" Hylia asked, approaching him and leaning against his side so she could see what he was plotting.
"The Lanayru Bokoblins are being difficult to convince that joining forces with me will help keep your lands safe."
"They don't like you?"
"No, they don't like you."
"Ouch. The Lizalfos like me."
"Because they're stupid lizards that jump at anything shiny," he mumbled.
Hylia laughed. "You don't have to get every monster to turn good to please me."
"I guess…"
"Come on." Hylia pulled his hand to lead him away from the table. "Tea's getting cold."
When the dragon's mouth opened up again, the Zora perked up from their daze.
"Did you finish it?" Mipha asked when they saw Ganondorf, Zelda and Link leaving the temple.
Link nodded with a grin.
"That's wonderful!" Sidon said. "So, you only have one more temple to do?"
"We don't know where it is, though," Zelda sighed.
"Perhaps you could ask Astrid to search around for it?" Bazz suggested. "Then you'd at least know where to go."
"We'll do that at the next stable," Ganondorf said. "We're pretty tired and it will be nearly four hours to reach the stable."
Everyone looked up at the afternoon sky, tinged pink and threatening evening.
"Then we'd best get going," Sidon said. "It's not safe to spend the night out in the open."
Zelda nodded.
Returning to where they had left the horses, the group resumed their trek towards Lurelin, stopping at Lakeside Stable which sat near the moss-covered wooden bridge that spanned Lake Floria. Floria Bridge was held up by three enormous tree trunks.
While the Zora went to find fish in the lake. Zelda got them beds for the night.
After asking Astrid to check out Akkala and Eldin for any temple locations, Ganondorf scratched the small braids out of his hair so they wouldn't get in his way when he took a bath later. With everyone doing their own thing, the redhead took some paper and a quill, writing a letter to the Gerudo.
Once it was finished, Ganondorf borrowed a messenger hawk from the stable, tying the letter to the bird's leg before telling it where to go. He watched it fly off, hoping it made it to the desert safely.
The heat was just beginning to rise over the ridge that separated the desert from the remainder of Hyrule.
The hawk scanned the shifting sands below, searching for where it had to go when something grabbed it from above, pinning its wings to the sides.
"Quit your squawking," Revali muttered as he landed on the dusty ridge, holding the shrieking hawk in one foot. He spotted the note tied to its leg and pulled it off. "What's this?"
Opening the piece of paper, Revali read it over and hummed.
"Interesting."
Tying the letter back onto the hawk's leg, Revali released it, watching it fly away. "Fly off, little bird."
The hawk continued to the desert.
Revali crossed his wings, tapping his beak. "I wonder what he would like to know more: the location of his daughter or that the Gerudo still live?"
*shakes fist* REVALIIIIII
Anyway, trying to get caught up xD Thanks for reading!