Chapter 31, Drowning.
Water temple.
The door shut and sealed separating Link and Ruto, Ruto stepped back in shock before regaining her composure, "Link are you alright in there" she called but received no response.
Suddenly Ruto heard a bubbling sound coming from behind her, she turned around but saw nothing, however Ruto could still hear something and whatever it was it was coming from the water.
Ruto approached the edge of the water and looked down, below her deep in the water's depths was a strange creature, the creature was small and round, it consisted of a single red nucleus that was surrounded by a strange water like substance, this was the Giant aquatic amoeba Morpha,
Ruto was confused was this little creature the source of Zora's domain's curse, suddenly much to Ruto's shock and horror tentacles made of water emerged from the water's surface and attempted to grab her.
Ruto quickly jumped out of the way and looked down at Morpha, the creature seemed to be completely focused on her, more watery tentacles emerged and this time they attempted to crush the young Zora princess, it was at this point that Ruto realised the Morpha was controlling the water.
Another tentacle attacked but this time Ruto used the power of the Zora scale amulets to slice the tentacle in half letting it fall and rejoin the rest of the water.
More tentacles emerged there was now a dozen of them, the tentacles attacked and this time they attacked in a group, Ruto sliced one tentacle in half but was forced to dodge the others, she was quickly realising that this creature's ability to control the water was greater then that of the Zora scale amulets.
Ruro could see that this fight was not going her way, she couldn't stop all of the tentacle and there was no way that she could reach Morpha from here, with no other option Ruto jumped into the water and swam down intending to end this fight close and personal.
Ruto swam as hard as she could but she could feel that the water itself was resisting her, Ruto used the power of the Zora scale amulets to lesson the effects and continued to swim.
Soon Ruto reached the bottom of the temple where Morpha was hiding, Ruto swung at the creature's nucleus trying to cut it in half with her razor sharp fins, however Morpha moved out of the way.
Ruto swung again but Morpha continued to dodge, the creature could move through the water as easily as if it was air.
Ruto could feel the water's density changing around her, it seemed that Morpha was trying to compress the water in order to create a tentacle under water, Ruto knew that she had to end this quickly before it was too late.
Ruto used the Zora scale amulets to hold Morpha in place and attacked with her fins, this time Ruto landed a hit and cut deeply into Morpha, the small nucleus was bleeding badly but it managed to recover.
Ruto felt a tentacle wrap around her and pull her to the surface, Ruto tried to break free but the tentacle was too strong, she tried to use the Zora scale amulet but the water was resisting her.
The tentacle tightened and Ruto screamed in pain, she was sure that at least some of her bones had just been broken, then the tentacle began to swing Ruto around the room slamming her into the stone walls.
With every hit Ruto felt more and more of her bones shatter, she coughed up blood as her world began to turn dark, finally with on last hit and a sickening crack Ruto closed her eyes.
A few minuets later Link stumbled back into the main room, he was losing a lot of blood from the wounds that he had sustained from Dark Link.
"Link this isn't good, we need to get out of here and patch you up" said Navi her voice full of concern, "I know, lets find Ruto and go" panted Link, at that moment as if on cue Ruto's body was flung out of the water and landed near Link.
Navi screamed in panic at the sight of the young Zora princess, Ruto's body was completely ruined, her limbs was all bent at odd angles showing that her bones was broken and there was a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.
"No" said Link under his breath as he moved closer to Ruto, Link couldn't believe it he had lost another friend, "Link watch out" shouted Navi, Link looked up just in time to dodge a watery tentacle.
"What in the name of Hylia was that" said Link, "There's something in the water, it's all the way at the bottom of the temple" said Navi unable to control her panic, Link looked into the water and saw Morpha far out of his reach.
More tentacles came out of the water and Link was only just able to avoid being ensnared or crushed, "Link what are we going to do" asked Navi who was also being attacked.
However Link had no idea what to do, there was no way that he could reach Morpha without drowning and even if he could his sword arm was numb and useless, he also couldn't fire his bow with only one arm leaving him with even less options.
Link tried to think of something while trying to avoid the same fate as Ruto, Link thought about the equipment that he had, he had the Master sword which was useless while Morpha was under the water, he had his bow which he couldn't even use, and he had a few bombs left from Death mountain.
Suddenly an idea came to Link, "Navi I need you to get out of here" he said, "What, I can't leave you, I promised the Great deku tree" said Navi as she flew out of the way of a tentacle, "Navi please, I have a plan but I need you out of the temple first" said Link who was starting to sound desperate.
Navi thought for a second, "Fine, but I hope that you know what your doing" she said as she fled the temple, "So do I" thought Link as he reached into his bomb bag.
Link throw a bomb at the temple's ceiling, the bomb exploded leaving a large crack, Link continued to throw bombs at the ceiling causing more damage, soon the ceiling was practically falling apart.
Unfortunately Link was so busy throwing bombs that he failed to dodge Morpha's tentacle, the tentacle wrapped around Link and dragged him towards the water, right before he was submerged Link throw the last of his bombs up.
Link was dragged down deeper and deeper into the water, he tried to fight but he was too weak, after just a few seconds Link was at the bottom of the temple with no way too escape, at the same time the ceiling finally gave in and started to collapse.
Link was trapped and he was quickly losing oxygen, Link opened his mouth and water began to rush in, Link chocked while pieces of the ceiling fell into the water.
Morpha continued to hold onto Link while he drown, however it didn't take any notice of the falling ceiling until a large piece narrowly missed it, Morpha let go of Link and focused avoiding being crushed.
A particularly large chunk of stone fell from the ceiling and Morpha was unable to get out of the way in time, the stone landed on top of Morpha crushing the strange creature.
Link was losing consciousness, he could feel that there was water in his lungs and he had lost all of his strength, Link closed his eyes just a a bright light consumed him.