The Company moved with a trudging gait through the mountain, stepping into tunnels of varying roughness, attributed to the massive slabs of limestone, bedrock, and whatever other materials the Gorons of old had ground through with little more than their own hands. Even with the overwhelming presence of danger looming overhead, Zelda couldn't help but take in a particular sense of awe as she examined the endless ventilation shaft that constantly surrounded them.
"Exactly how much longer must we traverse these labyrinthine corridors?" Revali suddenly complained lowly, "Surely it's been a few hours by this point in time."
Daruk quietly retorted with dry emotion, "When we arrive, we'll have arrived."
"Pah! What a droning answer."
Urbosa fronted, "And, yet, it's the correct answer. Just suck it up like the rest of us are."
"Then allow me the pleasure of voicing the displeasure felt by the lot of us," Revali seethed, "My feathers are starting to singe."
Link looked over his shoulder, muttering with smarmy resolve, "Any caverns coming up that we can toss him down..?"
"You'd find that tremendously fortunate enough, wouldn't you, Hylian?"
Link frowned, "It'd make this excursion so very worth it."
"Boys, come on," Zelda complained overtop the two's conversation, "There's enough here for us all to endure. Just- find something to take your mind off everything and it'll help the time pass."
Revali complained, sputtering, "My relishing in this Hylian's boorish and accusatory behavior was serendipitous enough in its method of passing time."
"Thinking of his folly was keeping my mind off things, as well," Link confirmed with a lowly sarcastic tone.
Trudging along with ever-weakening strides, Zelda's head forward as her hands covered her face, anguished in her resignation as she grumbled, "Goddess, they're right…"
"I'd recommend trying it for yourself," Link shrugged.
Zelda fired back, "I'm to do no such thing! And if the two of you don't learn to behave, regardless, you're both going down the first cavern we see; got it?!"
"Just another mile," Daruk quietly murmured, "or fifteen."
Urbosa's lips flared up into a skeptical curl, "That's quite the range, there."
Shrugging, Daruk's reply came, "Keeps me accurate, still."
"I mean, if it were prophecy, I'd think a large range isn't indicative of one's accuracy, but-" Urbosa challenged without consideration, stopping only underneath Zelda's scrutinizing glance.
"Urbosa," she reminded, "Daruk is the one of us who knows these tunnels better than any of us. So long as it's within reasonable bounds, I haven't a problem with some variance. So much of history is subject to much the same, you know."
Link frowned, "Well, I'd rather us not become history, either."
Shooting him a pithy glance, Zelda curled her lips in thought as silence overtook the Company once again, the lot of them left with nothing more than their thoughts as they attempted to bring up other topics of consideration for their minds to busy themselves with besides the current landscape of incinerating air.
As their feet slid tiredly across broken pebbles that rested upon their ground, it broke the silence only with the scattering sound of rolling gravel, until the sickly violent shout of Zelda's voice flew through the air life a firework. Her foot had caught a loose stone and sent her careening forward, with only a split second allowing her to release such a piercing sound as surprise overwhelmed her, just before her quick flash of darkness finally brought her to the searing pain of slamming face-first into the ground.
"Zelda!" Urbosa cried out, quickly taking to the ground, along with Link, to find the young woman, who had gone silent except for an anguished piddling of crying gasps as Zelda weakly pushed herself up.
"I-" she managed, struggling to speak as her thoughts ran into thankfulness at being concealed in darkness, "I'm- fine."
She felt hands patting her back to find her before blindly scurrying to her arms to help her up, Link's voice breaking through the darkness, "You're not hurt, are you?"
"Don't think so," she spoke up quietly, feeling the warmth of blood trickling down her face, a shaking timbre lining her voice, "Sorry."
Urbosa found them, taking Zelda's other arm as if merely to join Link in helping her, though her deep, powerful tone was a quick respite from the agonizing woe that Zelda had been caught up in, "I've told you once, child. I'm officially putting a culling order on apologies until we're out of here, alright?"
"I think you mean embargo," Zelda offered.
She could even hear Urbosa's smile in the darkness, "Well, you've time to show your smartass side, so you can't have been shaken too severely. C'mon. I think the others have gone on. Need me to carry you?"
"Absolutely not!" Zelda ejected in a shout, though by now, it only echoed impotently along the darkened walls.
Shrugging, Urbosa pulled away for only a moment before hearing the scuttling sound of Zelda's foot dragging along the ground, immediately returning to the young woman's arm, "Alright, you're limping. You're coming-"
"N- No!" Zelda fired back, pulling herself away and suddenly into Link's shoulder, "I- won't have myself carried like a child. Nobody else here has resigned to such a thing, so-"
Urbosa frowned, torn between Zelda's passioned rejection and her own need to care for this young woman. It was those same pangs that had traveled alongside her heart ever since taking up the mantle of this child's surrogate mother. The Gerudo simply groaned, releasing Zelda from her grasp before crossing her arms, voicing her displeasure nonetheless.
"If there were ever an appropriate time…" she noted heatedly, as though upset at her proposal having gone rejected.
Despite her impassioned rejection, Zelda was equally happy to have Link silently helping her along as she was thrilled for the darkness to be concealing his role, allowing her to reply with a bit of wryness in her voice, "There's never an appropriate time for a Princess."
"Yeah, once more for those in the back," Urbosa smirked as the three of them worked their way forward in the same frail gait in time with Zelda.
By the time they had caught up the few paces to the others, they had come to a full stop, leaving a pile-up of bodies before a small doorway-like entrance into a cavernous pit. At the fore of the group, Daruk stood at the edge of their trail, which in an instant had vanished into an immediate decline straight down into the earth. His eyes had been scanning the environment as best he could, frowning in realization.
"Now what's the hold up?!" Revali sputtered angrily.
Daruk replied uneasily, "We'll have to jump."
"Pardon?" Urbosa perked up.
Scooting to the side to allow the others a chance to look, Daruk answered, "This portion of the tunnel must have collapsed during an earthquake of some kind. It continues over there."
Sure enough, as Urbosa stepped ahead to examine the situation, they had found themselves in a crevasse-like chamber of sorts, their current pathway almost torn from existence before reemerging across the chasm, not ten feet away. The Gerudo stepped back, taking stock of the Company for a moment before turning toward Daruk.
"I don't have to point out the obvious flaw, do I?"
The Goron shrugged, "We'll just have to throw her across."
Mipha's eyes went wide with astonishment.
Urbosa groaned, having just been told about Princesses and such activities, before turning toward the Zora encased in mechanism, muttering weakly, "Well?"
"I- I mean- If I must," Mipha spoke up, embarrassed.
The Gerudo shrugged, turning to Revali, "Well, we've brought a Zora up here only to see one fly. I think she's quickly running the table with the Rito."
"Tch," Revali scoffed as though in a cringe, "You wish.
Daruk braced himself against the wall, "Enough idle chatter. Come on. Urbosa first."
The Gerudo nodded, recognizing the beginnings of Daruk's plan. She wiped her hands free from any debris as she crouched down, readying herself while locating the opposing pathway in the ever-encroaching darkness. With a three step sprint, she charged into the humid air, lunging her body through the air before sending a massive *SCCHHH* into the air as her feet slid atop loose gravel, the chasm having been successfully challenged by her.
She spun around, viewing the others through slit eyes, "Alright. Mipha next."
Daruk nodded, turning to find Mipha already working her way up toward his grasp. Link's brow narrowed determinately as he watched the scene play out, his breathing slowing into choking bites for air as his focus so greatly rested upon Mipha's obstacle. The Goron wrapped his arms around the Guardian-like mechanism that housed Mipha, his eyes remaining locked on the opposing end of the chasm, watching Urbosa get into position to receive the immense body of weight.
Taking a lunging step to bring himself some momentum, Daruk let loose a massive, booming roar as his entire weight spun around like a snake launching itself, "WOAAAAAAAAARHHH!"
In an instant, he released the cargo, sending Mipha's massive weight flying only barely through the air. She careened in such a piddling arc, Urbosa's eyes went wide in terror as the body suit only barely made it, its midsection slamming into the edge of the path before immediately sliding away, down into the chasmic depths. Urbosa let loose a curse before slamming a foot into the ground to anchor herself, taking hold of Mipha's slow-slipping body and yanking with a horrid groan.
"MIPHA!" Link cried out in terror.
He lunged closer toward his own chasmic edge as Urbosa clearly struggled with the weight of Guardian technology bursting the earthen cliffside, barreling through the air as he made his own leap across, finagling his footwork to come to a halt in the minute space between Urbosa and the wall before spinning around and crouching against her to find his own grip.
"C'mon-!" he demanded to nobody in particularly as his strained voice broke through his heavy grunting, "C'MON!"
His muscles, already weakened due to lack of oxygen, cried out in pained bursts of aches that rushed throughout his body, but he pressed on without another thought, forcing his body backward as he and Urbosa just began to make headway. The massive suit began a slow, anguishing ascent as the two growled in heated breaths, desperate to keep Mipha aloft until, finally, the suit broke the plane of gravity, coming to rest horizontal atop the craggy earth.
Link and Urbosa fell backward, just able to keep themselves from lying down entirely, as they took gasping breaths, Link shaking his head at the crises that had just been averted. He surveyed the landscape through sunken eyes, dropping his head against his chest all while his body convulsed in revolt against his strenuous activity.
"Goddess," Urbosa exclaimed through her ravenous series of panting breaths.
She pushed herself upward, fighting lethargy, knowing that to pause now would be to quit. She reached out a hand toward the others, waving them along.
"Alright," she fought, "Revali. Get your feathered ass over here."
He grimaced, fluffing up his plumage in preparation for flight , "I oughta let you know that-"
"No flying," Link commanded, earning him a scornful stare from the Rito.
"I beg your pardon!"
Link shook his head, huffing out breaths like a churning machine, "You've run into every possible slab on the way down here. No way are you gonna take flight down here."
Sputtering with disgust, Revali turned away his ruffled plumage, frowning as he instead stepped up toward the craggy edge, whispering spouting curses beneath his breaths. He grabbed hold of either side of the tunneling entrance of their pathway before throwing himself forward, leaping rather gracefully across the gap and into the waiting arms of Urbosa and Link, from which he could not escape from soon enough.
"Unhand me, knaves!" he cried, throwing his shoulders forward in an attempt to conceal his arms, "Had I required you help-!"
"Without our help, you'd be halfway to hell!" Link shouted.
Revali charged back with insult, causing Urbosa's head to drop in exhaustion, her mind having already undertaken all that it could when it came to withstanding such onslaughts between the other two.
Across the gap, where only Zelda and Daruk remained, the Princess watched with renewed vigor as she studied the distance, wanting desperately to claim such a victory on her own. Despite Link and Revali's continued bickering, Urbosa shook her head, releasing a tired sigh before reaching out to Zelda, waving for her to cross as well.
"Alright," she muttered breathlessly, "Daruk? You'll catch her if she falls, right?"
Zelda's brow tensed, "I won't-!"
Daruk nodded, silencing Zelda with a blank frown. She shook off their apprehensive as she stepped a few paces backward. Wiping fresh blood from her cheek, her hand strode across her trousers before she slowly convulsed in place, readying g her muscles for a moment before sprinting, pell-mell, toward the edge, a echoing stomp leaving her silent as she launched herself into the air, careening forth for what seemed like an hour before her feet slammed against the soft earth across from the end of their previous passage.
"Ta- AAAAH!" she cried as excitement immediately drowned into terror, the ground nearest the edge melting into a crumbling mass, distressed as it was from Mipha's earlier, furtive approach.
As gravity overtook her, her instincts burst into action like pistons, her arms flailing out for anything they could for something, anything, to cling onto.
"ZELDA!" Urbosa screamed in tremoring fright, launching herself toward the edge as her daughter flailed.
In the briefest of moments, Zelda's hand managed a desperate grasp upon something of an anchor point, keeping her aloft for but a single moment before losing all sense of relief. Her eyes caught sight of the sheath of Link's sword, torn away from the soldier's back as Zelda's weight unraveled the Divine instrument, though even in her terror, Zelda's arms continued their intense swatting, her spinal cord betraying all reverence in favor of survival.
Urbosa snatched her wrist from its zero-gravity motion in a split second, though any sense of relief was lost on Zelda. Her head whipped around her shoulder, watching helplessly as the Master Sword descended lifelessly into the darkness.
With a brush of ozone, as if Daruk's breath were rushing past her, the mighty Goron's body screamed through the air at a noticeably lower angle than the others, arm outstretched to grasp the Sword before it were lost forever.
Daruk's mind was awash. This was his moment.
He threw out his hand, his fingers slamming against the hilt of the weapon, sending its momentum eschew.
Daruk's heart sank.
"Noo!" Zelda cried out in terrified recognition.
The next sound they heard was Daruk's body slamming into an outcropping of earth noticeably lower than they, though, as if in hopeful timber, not a moment later, the sound of the Master Sword slamming into rock echoed along.
All was not lost.
Link peered beneath their current position, down the ever-darkened vertical slope that surrounded them, desperate for any signs of life from Daruk.
"Daruk!" he shouted vigorously, "DARUK!"
A distant sort of coughing arose.
"I'm fine," was all the Goron offered.
Link's brow tensed with worry. He turned to the others as Urbosa wrangled Zelda in, the lot of then visibly concerned, even Revali.
As if sensing their distress, Daruk's listless voice returned, "Keep going. It shouldn't be too difficult from here, just-"
A pause, one heart wrenching as Link recounted their conversation in his head.
"I'll get the Sword," Daruk assured.
Urbosa watched Zelda curiously, the Hylian Princess now riddled with shivering skin, having encountered such distress.
"What do we do?" she asked in a whisper, wholly out of character, demonstrating even her uncertainty.
Too overcome with the bevy of emotions fluttering throughout her body, Zelda remained stagnant, leaving her-
"We move on," Link suddenly ordered.
Urbosa grit her teeth, "We can't just leave the-!"
"Yes we can," Link retorted in a heated breath, "Daruk will retrieve it. He knows this place better than any of us, and we're still on a time crunch."
His eyes matched with Mipha's for a brief moment, like two stars lined up in alignment for only a split second in time.
Her prolonged silence said more than any words could about her current state.
"We move on," Link repeated, more authoritative as he hiked up his backpack, now loose-fitting without the Sword at his back.
Urbosa watched him warily. Still, without any more goading, Mipha turned to follow the soldier, followed in line by Revali, despite a underwhelming scoff. Watching Zelda's bedraggled face, so worn beyond the poor girl's years, Urbosa felt her heart tear only slightly as the Princess pulled away, head dropped in sorrow as she followed along behind the others.
Taking a deep breath herself, Urbosa took one final glance down the seemingly-endless chasm they were now departing. For all the trust Link exhibited, she couldn't help but feel a pang of distress. a pang of terror.
That they might not ever see that Sword again. They'd never see Daruk again.
Daruk's fists curled into fingered boulders as he lay there, face first, tears swelling up along his face as frustration, pity, and anguish overwhelmed him. His body jolted irrhythmically as he lay there, crying, having sent the others off without him, leaving him the sole recipient of all the failures he had exhibited. He felt his face begin to strain as his tears only served to bring aches and pains to his cheeks, forcing him to push himself up, running and forearm across his eyes as he took a prolonged breath.
Despite a moment of forced relief, his teeth barred angrily as he lifted his balled fist, throwing it into the ground with a thundering punch, its tremors offering him only brief Company until, once again, his choking, tearful breaths were all that kept him from true desolation.
He shook his head in disbelief, covering his face ashamedly as he slowly, troublingly, returned to the ledge's end, glancing into the cosmic fissure that had now swallowed the Master Sword, of all relics, due to his impotence.
Daruk knew, all too well, what such a thing meant, if only to his Sworn Brother of all people.
Finding no will to move, he could only find strength in that fact, alone. He had to make amends, no matter the cost.
Such things were expected of all Gorons, he knew. Even worthless ones. Even mere stones.
With little care, he meandered down the sheer rock face, with little more than the hope of an easy retrieval.
He hadn't a clue that this act, alone, wouldn't be what his Goron brothers would one day sing his praises in recollection.