The moment the door was opened, a gust of hot air poured out and over them. Link turned away and shielded his face until it died, however Tya closed her eyes, letting the heat engulf her body. She could only hope that this is what it felt like for Zelda to 'purify her body', because it was amazing.
She looked back to Link, a hand raising to lightly rub his shoulder when she saw him take a deep breath. They'd need to move slow, or else he'd get overworked once again. Slow, but as fast as they could... They'd need to experiment to find a good pace...
They started into the temple, going down the stairs to step upon a blue stone path that shown brightly against the orange hue of everything else.
Stone slabs lightly swayed in the magma. Casually, like they belonged there. Like it was just a lake of water and they were Lilies so peacefully resting on the surface... Link didn't hesitate with them. They seemed stable enough, and the blue stone path led directly to them. The last temple was set up to their convenience- things grew in places they often wouldn't just to cater to them. So they both assumed this one was no different.
Across the stone slabs to a part built entirely of the blue, standing in the middle of the pool. It branched off in two directions, and on one side it was connected to land.
When lost, go to the right! There was no door there, but there was a soft spot that appeared to have been blocked up. So Link dug it up, and another of those air spouts was uncovered. Nothing of real significance was found on the ledge it took him to though. Only some rupees. The treasure itself was the flow of air that allowed the hero to catch his breath. It was hot steam, but it blew in a way that was a lot cooler than the air around them...
Stepping out again, he nearly decided on going to the right once more, but Tya pointed to a mogma poking out of the ground directly ahead of them. So they crossed over to it.
One of the ones from outside, she realized, though she figured that should have been obvious. He told them that his partner had gone missing, and then realized they were there in search of their friend. He told them about what he knew- what Tya had already heard with her eavesdropping. That a 'weird-looking' blonde girl got dragged away. Though Tya certainly disagreed with the weird looking, she thought Zelda was quite pretty. Perhaps a different hair cut though.
He also told them there was no point in going to the rescue because the place was filled with monsters. To which Tya responded with a scoff and a much too cocky 'I'd love to see them try to take me down here.'
It was surprising really, even to her, to hear such a thing come out of her mouth. The place just invigorated her. Her body wasn't even tired, though it really should have been. She'd been up and moving all day, much more activity than she was used to- though that was slowly changing. Night fell, and though she was used to occasionally going without sleep for a few days at a time, she just thought she should have been exhausted at that point.
Link was, that was clear. Exhausted and it was pushing his patience. To her, it was obvious he wanted this to be over with, so he could lie down.
Flaming keese got to find out his true aggravation. She actually felt a little bad for them with how hard Link was swinging. But he wanted to continue, no time to waste.
They took the last path, after Link stopped to soak up some of the steam from the spout of air.
This time, the slabs of stone were shaking on the surface. Bubbles of magma erupted form beneath them, and the pair hesitated to step on them. A good thing, really, because after a second they shot up, being held by a column of magma.
And then they lowered again, seconds later.
They watched the scene once more, counting the seconds, and on the third time around the used it to their advantage. They jumped across, taken up in the air on a rather unstable stone, and then they were able to jump down onto the new ruined section. The part they belonged on.
Two mechanisms rested on either side with ropes holding gears in place. Link cut the rope and a bridge across the magma started to descend, but paused. Then the other, and it was let down a little more. Their first thought, looking at the rough edges of the structure they stood on, was that the remaining mechanisms had fallen into the magma long ago. But they realized that couldn't be the case if the red creeps were using the place. When they actually got to looking, they found the third piece pretty quickly. It was next to the bridge, and because of its placement, Link just used the beetle to cut the rope. The bridge dropped down, and across it they could see a humanoid figure.
The waves of heat, mask of smoke, and just all around thick air, skewed what they could see, but Tya could tell it wasn't human, nor was it one of the red creeps. It was a short distance, and at that she could see a pattern of green scales against tan ones, an elongated snout, and a massive appendage in the place of an arm.
The closer they got, the more she could see. It appeared to be a lizard. A large one. And the arm was there, but shielded by a large piece of armor that she really couldn't tell much about. Not that she cared- she was more concerned about whether or not that thing was friend or foe.
They didn't get the chance to step on the bridge before Fi appeared and stopped them both. She had apparently taken a reading of the creature, confirming that it was indeed foe, and that it possessed a great physical strength and ability.
She recommended they stay clear of its tail.
Link charged in with little warning after Fi disappeared again, landing a good blow in on its chest, but its scales were thick. There was damage done, but not significantly enough to take it down. A growl escaped it, it bared its teeth and immediately started to attack. The armored arm was held up to block Link's blows, and every time one of them was forced back the creature would leap up and spin swinging a tail which it had a spiked ball attached to, at Link.
As Link fended off its attacks, Tya moved to a good position on its vulnerable side and any chance she saw she started to fire. With their combined attacks, even its strong scaled couldn't keep it alive forever...
With the foe down, they were able to further examine the room... No stone slabs lay awaiting them this time, they were left to figure out how to cross on their own. The red creeps must have had something to get across- something they took or hid, because there was nothing that they could see as useful to them. There were no ledges, no tunnels, dangling vines, nothing. Whatever way across was originally there seemed to have been devoured by the magma long before they arrived, judging by the ruined structure peeking out of the surface in the middle.
Link even took the beetle around, using it to see around the room in places they couldn't from their position. Like many times before, they were stuck. Though this time, not even Link seemed to be able to construct an abstract way around it. Well... At least that's what Tya thought.
Up until he noticed a crack in the ruins in the middle, and a few bomb flowers growing on it.
"Ty, can you sh-shoot that?" Pulling the beetle back, Link pointed out with his free hand to a bomb flower on top of the ruins. She looked at him, then to the bomb flower, and just did as told.
The force of the bomb was enough to chip off a large piece of the ruin. A large round piece. One which didn't sink into the magma, but remained on top, and floated in their direction after being propelled by the explosion.
"Link, no." Tya shook her head, eyes widening a little as she realized what he was thinking.
"Di-Did you see a b-better way across?"
"That's not a way across! That's a way to cleverly kill yourself by rolling into lava!"
"You a-admit its clever."
A sharp and heavy sigh escaped the mage as she closed her eyes and shook her head. He'd succeeded in his other strange endeavors, and the arguments before had proven there was no point in trying to stop him. Not unless she had a better idea, and she didn't. "If it doesn't kill you, I will."
"Hey, th-that's mean." A small smirk tugged at his lips and he pointed at her like he was actually, honestly, offended. She knew he wasn't, and was actually glad to see him play like that.
The sphere bobbed up and down in the magma, somehow holding its form and not beginning to break with the intense heat engulfing it. And with precision, the hero leapt out onto it. He slid at first, taking a second to catch his bearings. Of course, the entire time, he was giving Tya mini heart attacks. Luckily it was a large enough piece of stone that he had quite a bit of room to maneuver, and thus was able to keep from killing himself while he figured out where he needed to be. Because he'd used the beetle, he knew the room's layout. His first destination was a spot to their right- of course. He always went right.
Over there she could hear talking, and see him speaking to a mogma, but couldn't hear what about exactly. She lost sight of him not too long after...
It seemed like he was gone forever, and she was left to pace the piece of land she was on. She looked for another way around, a way she could get over there and make sure everything was okay, but found nothing. The stone he'd used to get around was too far for her to get over there, and so she was left to wait. Each second the room remained relatively still, was just more adding to her anxiety. Right when she was starting to feel sick, she saw him again, coming out to speak to the mogma. She couldn't tell about what, she could barely see him with the state of the temple, but she had this feeling like something wasn't right. The voices were quieter on the other side, the mogma seemed less enthused about everything from what she could hear. What did that mean? What had Link done? Did he find something? What was wrong?
She paced the edges close enough that she herself risked falling in. Her ice blue gaze remained firmly locked on the two of them while she desperately tried to make something out, either hearing or seeing. It was only a few minutes that Link stayed and spoke to the creature, but she still felt like she was dying inside.
Finally he started to return to her. Slowly, less enthusiastic than before, rolling on that sphere stone like he was actually being careful.
Something was wrong, she knew. Had he found Zelda? Was she okay? No, he'd be excited if she was okay, and she'd be there. Was she hurt? Was she dead? One part of her mind said yes, forced the thought just to hurt her, but the other side doubted it. Offered more solutions. The mogma said his friend was lost, perhaps that was what it was? Perhaps he'd found the other mogma dead or injured. That would be sad. It would certainly warrant this reaction- mourn but continue.
As he got closer, she realized something was missing. What was it. His shield?
Of course, why didn't she think of that. It was wooden. Wood burned eas- Wait.
It was gone. He had no shield, that meant he fought. So slowly and carefully- was he hurt?
He returned, sliding down from atop the stone.
Closer, and she could hear his breathing. He was having trouble, skipping breaths.
"Are you okay?" She asked quietly closing the little distance between them so she could look him over.
Almost immediately she noticed new blood. It was hard to distinguish whether it was his, so she stepped forward and looked at it.
"I-I'm going to go to th-that part in the middle. I'll r-roll the th-thing back so y-you can get there too."
He had turned away, but she followed his movements. There was a gash in the cloth of his shirt, his bracer, and his arm. A deep one, bad. "You're hurt."
After pointing it out, Link used his free hand to pull her forward, turn her around, and unzip a part of the pack. He pulled out a bottle filled with red liquid- a healing potion. He took a swig of it, then put it back.
"What was it that got you? It broke your shield, didn't it? You don't have it."
"Yeah," was all he said at first. Short and quick, then changed the subject. "Ledd g-gave me this bag, I can p-put th-the bomb flowers in it. Th-they won't go o-off if they a-are in it, so w-we can carry them aro-around." He pointed with his uninjured side, to the bag dangling from his belt. Then he started back toward the stone. "I'll r-roll it back."
"That potion won't heal that quickly, Link, it looked bad." He leapt back out onto the stone and started toward the side that lead deeper into the temple. Like he said, he rolled it back toward her, so she was able to follow.
On the other side, she moved to look at his arm again, but he turned away and kept going.
"Why won't you let me look at it? Please let me see."
"Because you'll ac-act concerned, a-and I d-don't want to w-waste time."
"Act concerned?" She stopped, furrowing her brow for a second before crossing her arms. "Its not a waste of time to let me look at an injury."
"Pl-Please stop."
"You please stop. Pushing yourself won't help her any."
"You're one t-to talk."
She paused, jaw clenching to keep her mouth shut. But not for long. She swallowed the rude things she wanted to retort with, grabbed his uninjured arm and pulled him back.
"We are stopping." She said shortly, her free hand pulling the straps of the pack down.
"No, we ar-aren't. We n-need to move quick, and we h-have no idea how much of th-this place there is."
"Sit down."
"No."
Jaw clenched again, she released his arm only to grab onto the belt over his chest that kept his sword strapped to his back. He looked at her hands with confusion at first, then realized what she was doing and immediately moved to stop her. She already had it unhooked though, and pulled it back just as he went to grab her hands.
"Tya, stop." He tried to grab the sheathed sword back as it slid off him, but she pulled it away too quick.
"Sit down."
"No.G-Give me back my sword."
"Sit down."
He reached for it again, and she pulled it back, then stepped away from him.
"You're being r-really immature."
"I'll act like a fucking four year old all night if it gets you to sit down. The sooner you take a break, the sooner we can get moving again."
A heavy, aggravated sigh left him before he shook his head, rolled his eyes, and sat on the ground. She softened up when she looked down at him, and when she was sure he wasn't going to grab the sword and run, she propped it against the pack and sat in front of him.
She gently took his injured arm, looking over the gash that had already begun to heal up with the potion taking it's course.
Wooden splinters were in the frayed edges of his bracer and in his skin. Whatever hit him must have shattered the shield. So it didn't burn, it was just breaking. He'd used it a lot, it must have been weakened.
She started to pull the bracer down, trying her best to keep from hurting him. The edges had been forced into the wound though, so she had to peel the cloth away from broken skin.
Link winced, but didn't draw back.
She set the piece in his lap, then started to pull up his sleeve. That was torn too. Torn and soaked in blood.
"What was it that got you?" She sounded calmer then. Normal.
"Two of th-those l-lizard things..." He didn't though. Still aggravated and impatient.
The bigger pieces of wood, she started to pull out of the wound. She knew the potion would do its best to force those pieces out while it sealed the split skin, but the less work it had to do, the faster it would go.
Again, he winced, closing his eyes so he didn't have to watch what she was doing.
"You know I don't act concerned about you, I actually am."
"I didn't m-mean it like that wh-when I said it. It just came out that way."
"Is that what you think though?"
He was quiet then, thinking it over as he reopened his eyes and looked around.
"You do think that."
"You came do-down here for Zelda. N-Not me."
"So that means I can't care about you? Why are you acting like this all the sudden? You were fine before." She rested his hand in her lap, both of hers clasped around it.
Again, he kept quiet. She released his hand, pulling her sleeves down over her palms to reach out and wipe his face off. Dust, sweat, and blood had all mixed up on him and was dripping down his features. It had to be in the way, just like his hair. Not that that was doing much movement- it was too busy sticking to his face. He leaned away from her a bit at first, but finally gave up and let her do it.
She didn't push further on the subject, not then. She was more concerned about the wound healing up quickly. So they sat in silence for a few minutes before Link spoke up again.
Quietly and with uncertainty, like he didn't actually want to be saying it aloud, but he needed to. "No-No one would have d-done this for me."
It was something she immediately felt the need to refute, but she didn't. It was true. Zelda was adventurous and she was strong, but she knew she likely wouldn't have made a trip like this for Link. Nor would she have for Tya. Honestly, the only person she could see Zelda going through this trouble to rescue was Geapora, which was understandable. And Tya also knew that days before, when this first happened, she probably wouldn't have gone after Link either. But now?
The beginnings of friendships were often so much more intense and passionate than they were later on, and as she thought over her answer- wondered if that was maybe the reason for the change, she realized she really didn't feel that. There was no novelty, no thirst to get to know him. At first she worried that that meant she really didn't like him, that she just thought she was obligated to act friendly toward him because they were traveling together. But delving a bit deeper into the thought, she realized that wasn't the case. It was because he just felt... Right? Like she didn't need to learn more about him because she knew him already.
She bit the inside of her lip, looking at his arm for a long moment before finally leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Why did you start thinking about this?" Her hand lightly rubbed his back as she held onto him. Just something she thought may offer consolation. She would have drawn away at the lack of a real reaction, but she could feel him leaning back against her. It was light, but his head rested against her shoulder, and he was trying to relax. Somehow, she could tell.
"Because I j-just... Tried to do so-something simple.. he asked me to get his bo-bomb bag and so I went to get it and th-those things attacked me. I-I wanted to give up c-cause I d-didn't care en-enough. All this st-stuff is so hard. I-If it was me, so-someone would have gave up cause th-they don't care enough."
She readjusted, pulling him closer to the point she was almost just sitting in his lap.
Too hot for hugs, but she didn't take that into account. The warmth was fine to her, but probably awful to him, yet he didn't actually move to stop her. The heat of the area no doubt made her already inhuman heat, so much worse.
She pulled back after a few seconds, going back to look at his arm.
The layer of skin the potion was creating was thin and tender, she didn't doubt it would break easily. Something that bad would likely take hours to get healed up well. As she looked it over, fingertips lightly brushing along the back of his hand, she sighed and said "I would go after you."
Her attention kept to the wound, but she could see him looking at her. He seemed like he didn't believe it, but also like he was forcing himself to believe her simply so he could feel okay. She knew that feeling, and honestly just hoped he was better at convincing himself than she was at convincing herself..
"Its true." She added, hoping to further drown any negative thoughts he had. "And I'm sorry for being immature."
Whether the confirmation worked or not, she didn't know. He didn't say anything else about it, only shook his head. "We n-need to figure s-something out s-so we don't argue about th-this stuff so much..."
"And we need to start putting ourselves on the same level we are putting Zelda. I think we've both put her before us."
"Sh-She's in the immediate d-danger."
"As are we. She's able to protect herself. At least enough to survive until we get to her. But if we aren't careful, we never will get to her."
He inhaled heavily, nodding to show he understood that. Then he yawned and looked around again. "W-We need to keep going."
She took a look around as well before her attention rested on him once more. "You need to let this heal a bit more. Can I go ahead and look around, clear the way if I can, and you rest?"
"You n-need to rest too."
"Not here. This place is... I don't know how to describe it, but it feels... Good. I'm alright for now. I won't go too far ahead."
He nodded hesitantly, quietly saying "be careful" as she got to her feet.
