Really, really sorry about the long wait. I've been stressed out with collage things, which sucked for me...
Well, I'm a little less moody now, so I was able to finish this chapter!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 6: The Forbidden Woods
The Forbidden Woods' atmosphere was pretty similar to the Forest Haven, except it appeared darker and dimer. The first room our heroes were featured a lot of dead trees and vegetation, making this place feel like it was abandoned for many years. And this could be a possibility, since it is said that there were some abandoned houses that were destroyed and decayed around in this place, so… could the Forbidden Woods be what remained of Kokiri Forest? That's pretty deep if you ask me.
"Is it me, or does this place look way bigger on the inside than on the outside?" Link wondered.
"You're not the only one." Luigi said. "We had this experience before."
"What did you say?"
*PLOP!*
Before anyone could respond, a swarm of Green Chuchus suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and landed in front of them after a few steps inside the woods. They quickly took care of all the Chuchus, and then Yoshi eyed at the closed door up ahead.
"That door is apparently shut by those vines…" he mused as he approached the door, and that caused the strange blue flower-like thing in the middle to close itself.
Link and the rest of the Mario cast also went up to Yoshi, while Luka had ventured to the right side of the room to find a treasure chest holding the Dungeon Map.
"I'm pretty sure that's the earliest Dungeon Map you get in the game." she thought before heading back to the others.
"How are we going to open it?" Peach asked. Link swings his sword at the vines, successfully cutting them down, only for them to grow back.
"Well that didn't work." he remarked.
"Let me try." Mario stepped in. "Maybe it has to be with this flower thing." he then attempts to burn down the flower, but since its petals were closed, that did nothing. "What? That's odd…"
"You could say that literally." Luka finally spoke. "Because the only way to destroy this flower is by hurling a Deku Nut at it." she then points to their left. "There's one right there." seeing the Deku Nut, Link walked over to it and picked it up. "However, we have to be far away because this flower will shut its petals if we get too close. And also, Deku Nuts will disintegrate as time passes, so be careful."
"That's some really helpful advice there." Link said, surprised at how well Luka knows about what this world offers as he throws the Deku Nut at the flower with its open petals, destroying it and freeing the door.
"Why in the world is it that Deku Nuts are the only things that can destroy these weird flowers?" Toad questioned.
"Don't ask me. I don't know either." Luka shook her head as everyone went to the next room, where it was filled with Baba Buds and moving thorns on the walls.
"I don't know why, but these large thorns are creeping me out…" Luigi trailed.
"Oh, chill out, Luigi. Just don't touch them and we'll be fine." Toad replied.
"Looks like we'll have to use these Baba Buds to get up there." Link looked up, seeing the next door on the second floor of the dungeon.
By using the Baba Buds and their Deku Leaves, the heroes made it to the second floor, only to discover that the door was shut by the same strange flower as well. Because there wasn't a Deku Nut nearby, Luka told Link that a Bomb Flower would work too, so he picked one at the side and tossed it at the flower, but not before he and the others had to deal with a few Green Chuchus.
The next room had an open ceiling, with our heroes being even able to look up at the starry skies. There was a wooden hanging cart, which would serve as the only way for our heroes to cross to the other side, but it was currently inaccessible due to it being positioned in the very middle of the gap. The heroes looked around and saw a pinwheel to the left and to the right, so they guessed they would be the ones to move the hanging cart.
Since the right one was too far away for the Deku Leaf's wind gust to reach, they went for the left one, watching it spin as the hanging cart was moving over to them. Luka was the first one to hop on and smiled back at everyone:
"Aren't these wind mechanics that great in this dungeon?" she winked.
"I guess." Mario shrugged as he and everyone else joined Luka on the cart and used their Deku Leaves to get to the other side.
They entered the next room of the dungeon, where they split up to take out the Peahats and Boko Babas that threatened them. Once the room was clear of enemies, the heroes used the Baba Buds to reach the top of the large stump at the opposite end, where they found another door shut by the strange flower.
"You know, there's something that occurred to me…" Peach pondered.
"What is it?" Luka asked.
"If a Bomb Flower also worked on getting rid of that flower, maybe another sort of projectile can work too?"
"Hmm, I never actually thought of that before. Maybe. But first we must step back a little so that the petals open up, and that involves using that other hanging cart."
With that, Luka uses the Deku Leaf at the nearby pinwheel to bring the hanging cart over to them, and when they hopped on it, Peach plucks a turnip and tosses it at the flower, which surprisingly, met with the same result as the Bomb Flower.
"It worked!" Peach exclaimed.
"Well, I guess we don't need those Deku Nuts anymore!" Luka chuckled. However, Link still needed to process the fact that Peach just pulled out a vegetable from the wood.
"How can you pull out vegetables on a wooden floor?!" he questioned.
"Hey, you just saw me pulling out a bomb from the ground once, so how is that surprising for you?" Peach asked as she, Luka and the rest of the Mario cast hopped off the cart and went through the door.
"…That's completely different!" Link exclaimed. "Also, wait for me!" he quickly followed the others.
They next walked down a corridor, which was empty at first aside from the lonely Deku Nut up ahead.
"Sweet! Easy Deku Nut for us!" Toad exclaimed and rushed for it.
"Wait, Toad!" Luka called out. "It's a…"
"WAUGH!" Toad yelled as large thorns suddenly popped up from around the Deku Nut, knocking him back.
"...trap." Luka sweatdropped.
"Are you okay, Toad?" Peach asked as Link used the Deku Leaf to blow away the Deku Nut so that he could pick it up and throw it at the flower blocking the door.
"Yeah, I'll live." Toad replied before they all went through the door.
They found themselves into a very wide room, most likely the dungeon's main chamber. Everyone marveled at the sight, as there was a large hanging plant in the very middle and around it on the walls were moving platforms.
Going right, the group leapt to one of the moving platforms and then jumped to the other one as soon as the one they were standing on moved closer to it. Unfortunately, the platform led them to a locked door, and this one was not shut by a flower.
"A locked door… We haven't come across a key yet, have we?" Mario pondered.
"Now that you said it, I don't think so." Link shook his head.
"We can use this Deku Nut on that door over there, though." Yoshi said, pointing to said door. "Maybe we can find a key there."
With that, they used the Deku Nut on the door to unlock it and went inside. The next room had a depression filled with… those spiky things that like to attach themselves into you, if you know what I mean. And because there was a Chest in there, Link had no choice but to go down, where the Morths immediately did the thing.
"Argh… GET… OFF ME!" Link yelled, destroying all the Morths with a Spin Attack before opening the Chest that held 10 Rupees.
"That's… a pretty lame reward." Toad commented.
"No kidding..." Link deadpanned before climbing out of the depression and they all went through the next door.
In the next room, there were a few trees around and two treasure chests on the other side. Obviously, the path to get to them wouldn't be easy, since as soon as they took their first step forward, a wall of large thorns popped up from the sides, and when they moved forward, more thorns appeared, forcing them to find an alternate way around, so this room was pretty much a maze.
Eventually, the group managed to reach each of the chests by blowing up the wooden walls blocking them with bombs. One of the chests held the compass, while the other held a key, the latter being the exact thing they needed to progress further into the dungeon.
Soon, they made it back to the central chamber and unlocked the door with the key, as all of them were eager to see what lies on the other side. There was another cart with pinwheels on both sides of the new room, plus a Peahat that was quickly taken care of before the group made it to the other side by riding the cart with the Deku Leaf.
The group walked into the next room, encountering Boko Babas, Wingless Mothulas and Peahats as they made their way up to the treetops with the use of the Baba Buds. As much as they wanted to head to the door that was currently shut by two of those flowers, they decided to check the door on the opposite side first.
As soon as they stepped into the next room, the door behind them suddenly slammed shut, so Luka and the Mario cast braced themselves, knowing that this means a fight coming up, and then Link looked up to see… falling glitter?
"Uh, guys?" he awed. "What's this?"
Yoshi sniffs the glitter. "Doesn't have any smell… Where is it coming from?"
It was then that the source of the glitter suddenly spreads its wings and takes off, flying right in front of them as they jumped.
"Eeep!" Peach yelped.
"What is that?!" Luigi asked.
"A Mothula!" Luka said. "Careful! That thing is very aggressive!"
The Mothula flew back and its yellow eye turned red before it swoops down at the heroes. Toad blocked the attack with mushroom spores, and Link stabbed the Mothula's eye, causing it to screech in pain.
"Hey, try striking its abdomen! That'll do a lot more of damage!" Luka suggested.
The Mothula recovered, and this time it went for a low dive right towards Luigi. Thankfully, upon hearing Luka's suggestion, Luigi did a hammer uppercut at perfect timing to knock the Mothula into the air, allowing Mario to smash its abdomen with his hammer, bringing it down to the ground and breaking quite a lot of its shell.
With the Mothula dazed, Link quickly sliced off its four wings, and now it looked and behaved like a regular Wingless Mothula as it hissed angrily at the heroes. It then made a desperate move… which was spewing out a barrage of Morths at them.
"Oh no…" Link paled as all the Morths immediately clung into our heroes.
"Aaah! T-That…t-tickles!" Yoshi caterwauled.
"Mmghf… GET OFF!" Luka yelled, her anger triggering her volcanic powers as her whole body caught on fire, burning down all of the Morths attached to her. Taking advantage of her active powers, Luka fires a powerful fireball at the fleeing Wingless Mothula, dealing the final blow to it as its body stiffened before going poof along with all the Morths still attached to the rest of the group.
"Phew…" Peach sighed in relief. "Thanks for helping us, Luka."
"You're welcome." Luka replied once she calmed herself down to deactivate her powers as Link went over to a chest and opened it.
"Cool! A boomerang!" he exclaimed. He then used the Boomerang on the two crystals perched above the exit to lift up the barricade and everyone went out.
*SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!*
The Boomerang easily cut through the vines attached to the ceiling in one of the newest rooms the group went through. Link did the same thing again in the next room with the hanging large flower, letting it fall into the basement floor below. After he and the others got past another room, Link used the Boomerang to cut the vines from a large red hanging flower, and it fell into the water along with everyone else on it. They then rode the flower down the river by blowing gusts of wind with their Deku Leaves, getting rid of some Octoroks in the way.
Once they made it to the next door, thorns rose up in front of it on the other side, trapping the group inside. Taking a quick look around the room, what caught the group's attention the most was a concealed treasure chest in the very middle.
"Let me guess; that chest holds the key to the boss room, right?" Toad guessed.
"Yep." Luka nodded.
"Well, this should be easy enough." Link said upon noticing the crystals perched around the room. He stood on top of the tree in the middle and threw the Boomerang at the crystals, opening up the way to the chest.
But then, right after the heroes got the Big Key, a noise of a Kargoroc suddenly came, and then two Moblins were dropped down from the sky in front of the heroes.
"Oh, great!" Link complained.
"Aw, where's the fun if it was too easy?" Luka smirked as everyone got ready to battle.
Yoshi quickly hit one Moblin in the head with an egg, stunning it as Peach attacked it with a hip drop along with Luka shooting a fireball at it. Mario went for the other Moblin, breaking its wooden spear with a single hammer smash after it used to try to block the attack, and then Toad headbutted it from behind, followed up by Link slicing through it to finish it off. At the same time, Luigi defeated the other Moblin Yoshi, Peach and Luka were handling with a thunderbolt.
With both Moblins defeated, the thorns blocking the door retreated back into the ground, allowing the group to head out.
Some more dungeon navigating later…
As the group finally made it to the boss door, Luka stopped them from going in:
"Hold up, guys."
"Eh? What is it, Luka?" Luigi asked.
"Link, could you hand me your empty bottle?"
"Um, okay…" Link hands Luka his bottle. "Why do you need it for?"
"I have… something to do with it. You all go ahead. I'll be right back!" Luka said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"…Do any of you have an idea about what she's planning?" Link asked, breaking the dead silence between them.
"Beats us." Mario shrugged. "Well, I guess we should do what she told us to do and face the boss until she returns."
Everyone else nodded at that and unlocked the door with the Big Key, keeping their guard up for their next dungeon boss.
The room was wide and circular, with an eerie glow to it. A huge flower with wavy vines was in the center. The heroes looked around in awe.
"Curious…" Toad mused.
"Hey, look!" Yoshi pointed to the flower at the very center, and when everyone looked there, they saw a tiny wooden creature waving its arms while making some squeaky noises. It was the missing Korok, Makar!
"That has to be Makar!" Link beamed.
Just then, before the group could take a single step forward, an odd Boko Baba lookalike suddenly sprouted from behind Makar. Makar didn't notice, but our heroes did.
"Makar, look out!" Link warned, but it was too late: Makar didn't react in time, and was eaten by the plant.
"NO!" the heroes yelled.
The mischievous plant laughed at them before closing itself with the large flower on the ground into a large bulb. Dexivines then sprouted from the tip of the bulb, attaching themselves to the ceiling as it made the flower rise from the ground and be suspended to the air by the ceiling.
"Mama mia…" Luigi trailed.
"Come on, we can't just stand there! We have to save Makar!" Peach ushered as everyone stood ready to fight. The battle against Kalle Demos has begun.
Because Luka wasn't with them to give advices, the heroes found themselves not having a definite idea on how to beat the plant monster, but they knew that the Boomerang Link just obtained would play an important role here. All they needed was to find a way to use it, and when they were still thinking about it, Kalle Demos was starting to lose patience and proceeded to attack the heroes by lashing out its vines at them.
"WAH!" Luigi barely avoided one of the vines heading straight towards him. Thankfully, everyone seemed to avoid being hit by the vines. "We need to think of a way to beat it, and fast!"
"If only Luka was here…" Yoshi frowned.
"Hmm…" Link inspected Kalle Demos all over, looking for a way to use the Boomerang. He then eyed at the Dexivines attached to the ceiling and that gave him an idea. "Of course!"
He aims the Boomerang at the Dexivines and throws it at them, cutting them off easily. He did the same thing until all Dexivines were cut out, and Kalle Demos' shell fell to the floor, its large petals opening up to reveal the plant that has eaten poor Makar.
The heroes got ready to rush to Kalle Demos and give it some good whacking, until…
"WAAAIIIIIIIT!" Luka's voice suddenly came as she appeared in the room within her smoke teleportation powers.
"Luka?! What are you-?" Link began to say, but Luka cut him off by extending her palm in front of him in a 'stop' signal.
"Just watch." she replied before casually walking towards Kalle Demos, who tilted its head in confusion at her.
Once she got closer to it, she took out the Bottle Link passed on to her, which was now filled with a strange teal liquid, poured its content at Kalle Demos… aaaand it was history (yes, I'm serious).
*record scratch*
Kalle Demos' head shot into the air as it cried out in defeat, bouncing on the floor a few times before exploding into purple smoke as Makar came out of it. The rest of the giant flower flapped as it began to have its energy drained before curling up as it turned dry. A windy portal showed up in the very middle of it.
"...Wait, that was IT?!" Link's eyes widened in unbelief as the Mario cast also had the same reaction. "Just what in Hylia's name did you pour at that plant monster?!"
"Two words: Forest Water." Luka casually replied. "I got some from the Forest Haven when I left. Now, how about we go check on Makar?"
"Okay…"
Everyone walked over to Makar, who stood up on his own and looked at them in awe.
"Are you the ones who rescued me?" he asked. The group nodded in response with a smile. "You have my thanks!" he then frowned, "When all went dark around me, I thought my time on the earth was over. But...why are you all here?"
"We were sent by the Great Deku Tree to rescue you." Mario answered.
"What? The Great Deku Tree sent you?! Oh! Th-That's right! Today's the day of our annual ceremony! Oh, I'm in trouble! I shouldn't be here! I must get out of here immediately!"
"We'll come with you." Peach said and then everyone walked into the portal and vanished.
In an instant, they were all whisked back to the lily pad, which was raised up, in front of the Deku Tree. The Deku Tree noticed Makar with the heroes and spoke,
"Oh, Makar! You have returned safely!"
"I'm sorry, Great Deku Tree…" Makar whined. "I know you warned us many times, but still I did not listen…"
"Do not worry, Makar. You are safe now. Just be more careful from now on." the Deku Tree laughed. He then turned his attention to Link and the others, "You have done well, heroes. I must thank you for your brave deeds."
"Oh, it was nothing…" Link replied sheepishly.
"Here are those which I have promised you. Please accept them."
With that, the Great Deku Tree waved its canopy, and down fell two shiny green objects. One was Farore's Pearl, and the other was the Green Star Piece. Both were now in the heroes' possession!
"Thank you, Great Deku Tree!" the heroes said in unison.
"It is my hope that this pearl and this star piece shall lead all of you to a fair destiny!" the Deku Tree exclaimed. He turned his attention back to Makar, "All is well, Makar. Do not cry. Please… Play your songs for me as you always do."
Makar then cheers up again and began jumping up and down. "Oh, that's right! We must begin our ceremony soon, before the day ends! I'm sorry to keep you all waiting. Let the ceremony begin!" he then pulls out a violin and its bow… somehow. "Oh, great people…" he turned to the heroes. "As my thanks to you, I shall play even harder than I normally do. I hope you enjoy it!"
The heroes smiled as Makar began to play the violin. The tune was very entertaining, easily giving forest vibes and just like with the Deku Tree and the other Koroks, the heroes just couldn't resist swaying from side to side to it. They then looked up at the Koroks who started to sing, and as they did, seeds began to grow from the Great Deku Tree's canopy, much to the group's amazement.
They watched in awe as the seeds fell, and when Makar stopped playing his violin, all of the singing Koroks leapt towards each seed while opening their leaf propellers.
"Great Deku Tree! This year you have once again produced some splendid seeds!" one of the Koroks exclaimed.
"With these seeds, we will continue to spread new forests across the Great Sea."
"Let us go, Koroks! To the sea!"
"See you all next year!"
"Take care!"
"Farewell, great people! May the winds of chance bring us together again someday!"
The Koroks departed out of the Forest Haven as the heroes waved goodbye to them. They were now ready to leave Forest Haven as well, so they gave a nod to the Deku Tree before leaving through the hole.
"So every year the Deku Tree produces seeds that the Koroks scatter all over the Great Sea? Sounds interesting!" Toad exclaimed as they were making their way down. It was still nighttime.
"It does help give the Great Sea life." Mario said. Everyone then made it back to the King of Red Lions as he spoke:
"Ah, welcome back. Have you gotten your hands on the pearl and the star piece?"
"We did." Peach nodded. "We went through quite a perilous journey to get them, though."
"Hmm… So this place, too, has been attacked by Ganondorf. Could he already be regaining his power?"
"Oh, I sure hope not!" Luigi shuddered as the Mario cast had the same reaction while Luka was just neutral. Link was of course confused.
"Everyone, you must get the remaining pearl and the next star piece! They lie in a place northwest of here. We must set sail immediately!"
"Right on!" Luka nodded. "Link, change the wind direction to northwest!"
"Alright!" Link takes out the Wind Waker and conducts the Wind's Requiem. "Winds! To Northwest!" he directs the baton to said direction, and the winds immediately began to blow northwest.
With that, they all set sail for their next destination, unaware that they were about to go through a change of events…
To be continued…
I just couldn't resist on adding that cheap (but hilarious) method of killing Kalle Demos in one hit in my story. Only the Zelda expert Luka would do that!
What's going to happen next? Find out next time! Please review!
EDIT: I didn't realize that I added the fact about the Koroks' evolution twice in a row between chapters as one reviewer pointed out. Whoops! So I finally fixed it!