Time for the second installment I suppose. I'm not sure how many people read the first installment before I added this but it doesn't really matter. I'm on a Zelda High. I just can't stop myself. Well, here comes the next bit. Ciao. ^_^

As he entered the crater, Link was struck by a blast of heat. He looked around. The lava at the bottom of the crater was bubbling furiously. The heat was causing the air shimmer and the rocks nearest to the magma at the base of the crater were glowing an angry red. "The volcano has been stirring." Said Darunia from behind Link, "It is angry for some reason. I think it is because it knows that there is a foreigner in the temple." Link moved over to the bridge leading to the temple's entrance. And noticed that it was broken. "Oh I'm sorry Link, we had built it but that evil man destroyed it again." Lamented Darunia. Link nodded, "That's okay I can get over there." He pulled out his Goron drums and began to play. Bu-boom Bu-boom, Bu-boom Bu-boom, Bu-boom Bu-boom, he played the "Bolero of Fire." He was suddenly enveloped in a fiery light and was transported to the Triforce symbol just outside the temple.

Link entered the Temple and jumped down the ladder without wasting any time climbing. He ran into the entry chamber and gazed up at the stairs. At the very top there was a man, standing feet wide apart, Keese flapping around his head and arms raised holing the spiritual stone of Fire. "Alright you, hand over the stone!" Link yelled. The man glared down at him. There was something strangely familiar about the man's eyes but Link couldn't think what it was. The man shook his head as if to himself and muttered under his breath, "The young one? But in a different body I think. Yes, it must be." And with that he turned and ran through the door on his left. Link gave chase but when he reached the door it had been locked. Link, remembering the location of the first key he had found in the temple the last time he was there turned and ran through the opposite door. Once through he noticed that the temple had changed significantly. Instead of the expected pillars amidst a lake of lava he saw that the room had changed completely. Now there was a large pit where the floor should have been and before he could stop himself he had fallen into the subterranean levels of the Temple.

He hit the ground hard but remained uninjured due to the toughness of the Goron hide. As he stood up a circle of flames erupted around him. The sound of maniacal laughter caused him to turn. Before his eyes was the man once again but this time he had changed. No longer was he an ordinary man he now stood twice as tall as he had previously and the spiritual stone seemed to be ingrained into his chest, as if it had always been there, as if it belonged there. He opened his mouth and it seemed to be a tunnel of fire, stretching away into oblivion. "You who possess another's skin, listen and obey!" He cried. His black clothing began to flap as if in a heavy wind. "Trouble me, you will not! For in this labyrinth your doom awaits. If you attempt to stop me you WILL perish!" With that he seemed to explode in a ball of fire. When the flames died down he was no longer there.

Link looked around and discovered that he was in a long dark hallway. Somehow the earthen walls were damp despite being beneath the volcano. Deciding that one way was as effective as another, he headed forward down the hall. Realizing that there was no longer an intense heat constantly pushing at him Link removed his mask. Once he had reverted back to his human form Link noticed a decomposing dodongo's skull on the ground next to the wall. Starting off again link drew his sword. If there was a dodongo's skull nearby then maybe there were live ones as well. He needed to be prepared. Perhaps there was even something that could kill a dodongo. It seemed that the tunnel continued forever. Link was running for hours. He passed more dodongo skulls and kept running but he didn't see any monsters or anything to change the scenery. Even the skulls were in the same position. Suddenly Link stopped. The Skulls. He turned and ran back to the last skull he passed and looked at it. It wasn't a different skull, it was the same one that he had first seen. He had been running in circles. Doing laps of the volcano. Link examined the walls. He approached the wall opposite the dodongo skull. Then he hit it with his sword. There was the familiar ca-chink that meant that the wall was thin and unstable. He pulled out a bomb. Dropping it at the base of the wall he turned and ran outside the blast radius. It went off with an earth-shattering boom. The sound echoed throughout the tunnel. Link approached the still smoking ruins. He cautiously walked through the new archway and looked around.

Quite suddenly he saw a feeble looking old man in the corner of the room he had just entered. The old man had a large pickaxe, a hunch on his back and a toothy grin. He was bald but made up for this with his magnificent beard. It was long, grey and went all the way down to his feet. He was wearing tatty blue pants and a red and white striped shirt. "Hello young one." He said in surprise, "It certainly has been a long time since I saw anyone." Link approached slowly and said, "Who. Who are you?" The old man chuckled. "My name is Nalon. My son owns the Lonlon ranch. I though, am a Miner. I tunnel my way through Hyrule in search of precious Gems. I had them all in a bag so that I could carry them but they have been dropping out. If you go find them for me I'll give you a map of the tunnels I've dug under this volcano. You'll probably get lost otherwise. It's a veritable Labyrinth. There are seven in all so get to work!" Link nodded and looked around. Two feet away there was the first gem. It was a large emerald. He picked it up and took it back to Nalon. "Yes those are the ones." Nalon exclaimed, "Now there are six more exactly the same. Please find them for me." Link looked around once again. There were no more obvious gems so he started looking through the jars piled in one corner of the room. He picked one up and shook it. Something rattled inside. He threw the jar against the wall and from the shattered remains he removed another gem. It was then he noticed that in that corner there was a small hole. He walked over to in and got down on all fours. He scrabbled his way through the small tunnel and when he came out into the open once again he looked around. There was another gem on the floor in the center of the room. He started towards it when a skultular dropped from the ceiling stopping him from getting the gem. He drew his slingshot, took careful aim and fired. The skultular groaned in agony. Link fired again and the skultular dropped to the ground, dead. Link took the gem and made one last quick glance around the room. There was nothing else to do so he crawled his way back through the tunnel. As he re-emerged he noticed that Nalon was watching him. He took his latest two gems to the old man, "Thank you young child," Nalon said, "There's four more to go, and if you follow that tunnel back a ways you might see some more." Link looked to where Nalon was pointing. There was a dark and dingy looking tunnel leading into blackness. Link bravely set off down it in search of the remaining gems.

The tunnel opened into a large cavern. So large that link couldn't see the ceiling when he looked up. There were a great many tunnels connecting to this one cavern. Link could now see the need for a map. He noticed that the tunnel he had just emerged from had been marked with a white cross. He would be able to find the correct tunnel anyway. He looked around the room. The floor, broken by a number of crevices, seemed a maze of towers. On the one nearest to him Link noticed that there was a Beamos. He thought hard and then remembered. "Throw a bomb!" He drew one of his bombs and hurled it at the Beamos. Once the smoke cleared away Link saw that the Beamos had been guarding one of the Gems. He jumped onto the pillar and grabbed the gem then he noticed that the floor below the pillars was not so far down though it was far too high to get back up without a ladder. Link noticed one of the dark openings had a bomb-flower growing next to it. He leapt from pillar to pillar and made his way towards the tunnel. As he leapt to the last pillar he noticed something. He looked high above the opening and noticed a small platform. He wasn't sure but he thought he'd seen the glint of a large emerald. He continued into the tunnel. The floor sloped gradually upwards and he noticed it was getting warmer. He turned a corner and came into a room with a boiling lake of lava. It was so hot. Link took out his goron mask and put it on. The heat immediately withdrew. It was as if the goron skin repelled the heat from the magma.

Looking across the room Link saw that there was yet another emerald situated on top of a pillar just next to the entrance. Looking about for some way of getting to that pillar Link noticed that there was a pillar next to him that looked long enough to bridge the lake. He walked up to it and pushed it a little. It didn't budge. So he drew back his arm and unleashed a mighty Goron Punch. The pillar cracked and toppled. It created a broken bridge of platforms all the way to the emerald. Link, knowing full well that he couldn't jump in the goron body, backed up, curled up into a ball and began to roll along the pillar. Each gap he came to he was propelled across and within seconds he had made it across the lake. As he reached the other side his momentum threw him against the wall and he stopped rolling with a grunt. He turned around and picked up the gem and then headed into the next tunnel. The tunnel quickly became cooler and he removed the mask. Once back to normal he continued his trek. The tunnel opened into the cavernous room he had been in before and sure enough there was the emerald, right at his feet. He picked it up and looked around. From his new vantage point, Link could see there were several other platforms at the same hight as his own but none could be reached. It was then that he noticed that in the very centre of the room there was a slightly higher platform and on it. the final gem.

Link could see no immediate way of getting to the platform so he pulled out his boomerang took careful aim and threw it. The boomerang flew upwards a few feet then seemed to ricochet off something. As it returned Link looked through the eye of truth, the trusty spyglass that showed invisible things. Sure enough there was a number of invisible platforms leading up to the centre one and blocking his boomerang. Link leapt to the first of the platforms and almost fell off. It was slippery. He would have to be careful. He cautiously made his way up the next few platforms and finally reached the top. He picked up the gem triumphantly. Now he could get the map that would help him find his way through the underground caverns. He took a running leap off the platforms and landed back at the entrance and made his way back through the previous rooms, back across the broken floor and back to the room where Nalon was waiting.

"Thankyou my boy!" Nalon exclaimed when Link handed over the gems. "And here's what I promised you a map of these tunnels." Link looked at the map. The tunnels were quite extensive and they seemed to continue throughout Hyrule. "Oh and here's something else that may come in useful." Nalon added. "It's a special compass that will tell you when there is a treasure in the room and it also shows where you are on the map." "Thanks!" Link cried. He looked at the map with the compass and saw that he was in a section that seemed to be made up of circular tunnels. It was labelled "Caverns of Fire."

Well that's the second chapter. I hope it's as good as the first. Anywho. Till next time, Ciao. ^_^