Author's Note: Wow! Reviewers have given me so many positive comments and
words of encouragement that I've decided to write yet another chapter to
keep everyone happy and reading ^_^ I've been asked whether or not Link
will be in this story, and I have yet to decide on that issue. If you have
any comments on that, please feel free to let me know via e-mail, or by
reviewing and mentioning your opinion.
When Ruto arrived at the large open hole inside the rocky back of Lake Hylia, she swam in front of it and peered inside. It was so dark inside she still couldn't see anything, even when she was up close. She hesitated once more, almost expecting the serpent to suddenly emerge and attack her, but minutes passed and nothing happened. The Zora princess absorbed more water into her gills, trying to keep herself calm by filtrating it though her at a faster rate. She couldn't allow herself to panic now, not when she had to enter the lair of the serpent and find Misu. Her husband's life was in her hands, and even though they were forced to wed one another, losing him so quickly without really getting to know him seemed unthinkable.
Finally feeling ready, Ruto swam forward and into the underwater cave. Darkness enveloped her, but once her eyes managed to adjust to the lack of light, she realized the cave only looked dark from the outside. The light from the shining sun outside bounced off the floor of the lake and into the cave. As a result, the water seemed to glow a mysterious light blue color, providing enough light for her to find her way around. Instead of rocks covering the floor of the underwater cave, it was covered by smooth white sand, untarnished by any animal tracks. There were no fish in the cave – no signs of life.
Ruto swam onward, warily looking around. The cave seemed to lead deep under the water, even below Lake Hylia's floor. The entrance way was a wide, empty and circular in shape, with nothing in it except the smooth white sand covering the bottom. She swam to the floor of the underwater cave and felt her feet touch the smooth sand, its tiny white grains lightly brushing against the bottom of her webbed feet. As Ruto slowly walked to the back part of the entrance, she looked behind her and saw her feet were making clear webbed tracks in the sand. Ruto decided to use that as a marker in case she got lost or disoriented, as a way of helping her find her way out.
In front of her was a smaller rugged entrance on the floor of the cave, but was still big enough for the water serpent to slip through. Ruto went through the passage into another area of the cave. The second area was slightly smaller, and not as round. Instead Ruto noticed strange eel like creatures lying still on the sandy floor. She stopped and watched them carefully – the creatures almost appeared to be half buried in the sand, and were blackish blue color. There were three of them in all, and they barely moved, except the occasional flick of their tails.
She approached cautiously, seeing the exit was on the other side of the room. However, as she moved slowly passed the first eel on the floor, it suddenly stirred and rose up from the sand. Ruto looked upward at it, knowing the creature must have felt her movements in the water and since became aware of her presence. Tiny rows of sharp pointed teeth projected from its upward facing mouth, and its yellow empty looking fish-like eyes stared at her as it swam steadily faster in the water. Before long the eel- like creature was circling around her, is long thin body moving quickly from side to side. Along its back was a short wavy dark blue fin that extended partially around the tip of its tail.
Ruto braced herself, reading for an attack at any moment. She watched the eel-like creature carefully as it moved behind her, and then turned around just in time when the eel swam swiftly forward, its jaw opening and eyes flashing in sudden instinct to attack. Since she had no weapon, she had to use her hands and feet to protect her. As the eel aimed to bite her arm, Ruto swung her other arm forward and felt her fist collide into the creature's side. The eel withered from her blow, and fell sideways in the water while its body floated slightly toward the sandy bottom. Before it could recover though, Ruto kicked it with one foot and then smashed it into the floor with the other, holding it in place as it struggled pathetically until slowly vanishing in an array of bubbles.
The Zora princess was surprised she could defend herself so well without any weapons, but decided not to let it overcome her just yet. Quickly she moved toward the other eel-like creature, and before it could even rise out of the sand for an attack she hurtled herself upon it and grabbed it around its neck and then tore away at its flesh with her webbed hands. She hated killing something so savagely, but there was no other option – she had to protect herself. The creature struggled profusely, but soon became limp and also disappeared.
Suddenly, Ruto felt something strike her in her back, and she fell face forward onto the sandy floor. She turned her head and saw from the corner of her eyes the third eel-like creature circling around her angrily, its jaws opening and closing in excitement. She hadn't been bitten, but the eel thing had rammed into her pretty hard. Ruto winced as a sharp pain shot through her, but managed to get to her feet, and moved her arms and fins in front of her face to shield it by crossing them. The creature moved to ram her again with its body, and swiftly swam through the water directly toward her. When it got into range, Ruto's fins flared sharply and she thrust her arms away from her face, and struck the surprised eel-like creature with them. The fins on her arms had flared so intensely that the edges actually cut through the eel's skin like a knife, causing its light red colored blood to spill into the water.
The eel creature swam awkwardly through the water, sinking deep but desperately trying to keep swimming. Red jagged slashes were gouged into the creature's side from Ruto's blow. It had been weakened, but wasn't dead. Instead, it turned suddenly and surprised Ruto, who thought it would die quickly after. The eel-like creature suddenly swam as fast as lightning toward her and Ruto thrashed at it with her arms, only to no avail. The eel managed to wind its way around her and sunk its sharp teeth into her shoulder.
She cried out in pain, but managed to contain herself enough to slash at the creature once more. Her blow managed to finally finish it off, but blood steadily flowed from her wounded shoulder and into the water. Ruto put one of her hands over her injury and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Eventually the blood stopped flowing enough for her to continue, but she felt a jab of pain every time she moved her shoulder.
"I hope I don't encounter any more of those creatures..."
Ruto said quietly to herself as she made her way across to the end of the room and saw the entrance to the next area had a fairly large dip in it, heading deeper into the earth. She couldn't see the bottom very well, which made her decide to swim below slowly just in case some other unpleasant monster was waiting to meet her in ambush. The rocky walls around the sandy dip were very jagged, so she moved slowly and carefully as to not hit one of the sharp rocks.
She approached the edge, placing one foot in front of her and one foot behind her, and then slid gracefully down the sandy slope, remembering to keep her balance as to not fall and roll down it. Once she reached the bottom of the slope, she warily looked around and noticed she had just entered a long tunnel that led so far down she couldn't see the end of it. The tunnel was long and rounded at the tope, like a half circle dome made of rock above her. Ruto cautiously proceeded down the tunnel, noting how high up the ceiling was in comparison to its narrow width. The waters in the tunnel had become strangely colder, which sent shivers up Ruto's arms and back.
It took a while for her to reach the end of the tunnel, but once she did she came into yet another room. The next room had an extremely high rocky dome ceiling, and at the very top the rocks turned into jagged stalactites that pointed downward like the tip of an arrow. Ruto felt more intense shivers the moment she entered the room, and had a feeling she wasn't alone inside it. She felt her fins prickle in anxiety as she continued to examine what was before her. The floor was still covered by smooth undisturbed white sand, and it appeared nothing other than the water serpent had passed through it in millennia.
Still, even if it appeared she were alone, Ruto's feeling warned her she wasn't. Dare she go further? Her purple eyes scanned the room one more time, but still it didn't seem anything was there! Maybe she was just being irrational, maybe the whole water serpent thing had gotten to her mind and she was becoming overly paranoid, Ruto thought to herself. Or...maybe there was something waiting for her if she walked another step...something dangerous. She had already come so far though, and there was no way she would turn back now.
Without further hesitation, Ruto finally stepped inside the large domed room. The second she did, she felt the ground begin to shake. Ruto stared, her eyes widening bigger every second, as a massive long eel like creature rose from beneath the sand. It had been concealed so well that she didn't even see it was there, but could only sense its presence in the room somewhere. The eel looked like a mass projection of the smaller ones she had fought earlier, and its body spanned almost the whole length of the room. The eel-like creature uncurled itself from within the sand, which caused the white sand to stir and cloud the water slightly. Ruto saw its large yellow eyes stare at her in a transfixed state, as it lifted its head from the sandy floor and then swiftly set its body in motion. The eel thing rose from the sandy floor, moving from side to side like a snake, however slightly slower and with a more fish like appearance to it. Ruto saw its powerful teeth flash as the creature exposed them, and she felt foolish to think she had seen the last of those pesky eel-like monsters. The one she was about to face now appeared to be the mother of them all, which made Ruto take more water harshly into her gills. She would have to fight it; there was no other choice. It wasn't as scary looking or as powerful as the water serpent, but its uncanny relation to the water serpent made Ruto cringe.
The Zora princess bravely moved inside the room, where upon the eel-like creature opened its wide jaws and swam toward her. The eel's tail moved swiftly, propelling its body effortlessly in the water, as it moved in and snapped at her with its teeth. Ruto barely dodged out of the way in time, and felt the top of the creature's head graze her left flank. Ruto's mouth gaped in shock, but she kept moving, determined to keep the creature on its fins for as long as she could. Blood leaked from her wound in her shoulder, and that was what probably awakened the creature. The eel could taste the blood in the water, and after a long hibernation decided to attack its first victim. Ruto thought she had stopped the bleeding, but the mark must have been deep, leaving a jagged cut in her skin.
Ruto moved toward the rocky wall of the room and swam along it in a wide circle, as the eel followed closely behind, but wasn't fast enough to catch up to her. Once the creature managed to lunge its head suddenly forward, but it was just as the round wall narrowed slightly, which nearly caused the creature to crash into it. Ruto kept swimming, her legs kicking powerfully through the water as her mind cleared to come up with a plan – any plan. The eel was very careless in how it handled its long fish-like body, which gave Ruto an idea.
Mustering her speed, Ruto moved even faster through the water, which forced the eel to wriggle its body from side to side quicker in order to keep up. If her plan was going to work, she would have to do it soon or else she would get too tired to continue swimming so fast. Ruto swam to the bottom of the room and then touched the floor with her feet. She looked quickly behind her and saw eel had pointed its nose down toward the sand where she stood, aiming to slam its massive body into her and crush her with its weight. Just as the creature came within range, Ruto darted off the bottom of the room with a thrust of her feet. The creature was going too fast and didn't have enough time to pull up, which cased it to slam head first into the sand. A large cloud of sand filled the entire room, and hung in the water.
Ruto swam swiftly to the top of the dome and waited there patiently, not making any effort to give away her location just yet. The eel wriggled its body angrily before slashing away the sand with its head. It wasn't a very smart thing that was for sure, Ruto thought as a smirk crossed her lips for a moment but faded when the creature regained its senses. The eel circled the room, blinded by the cloud of sand that it had disturbed by crashing into the floor. Its body moved as fast as it could, completing a full circle near the wall of the room until Ruto decided it was the right moment.
She flared her fins as far from her body as possible, so the aqua colored gem-like scales that dotted them flashed because of the glow from the light blue water. The eel soon caught sight of her location despite the sand, and in a fit of rage it swam upward at a slight angle. Ruto saw it emerge from below, and watched its jaws open and close in anger while its yellow eyes locked onto her with sheer determination. Upon seeing her come closer into view, the eel swam even faster, and the moment it seemed it would get to Ruto, the clever Zora princess shifted to her left and moved down to the sandy bottom.
The second after she managed to get out of the eel's path, the monster was too surprised to find she was no longer there to stop. In desperation it attempted to turn its body around, but that only caused more harm than good. Ruto was well aware of the sharp pointed stalactites that hung from the roof of the room, and she had positioned herself just in front of them. By causing the creature to crash into the sandy floor and stir up sand into the water, she had blinded it from seeing the stalactites hanging above, and its only clear vision would be her flashing fins as a way of distracting it and angering it to come to her.
When Ruto moved out of its way, the eel twisted so far on its side that it slammed into the stalactites. Blood poured into the water as the stalactites pierced through the monster's flesh, stabbing though all over its body. The eel-like creature wriggled vainly, but its body soon went limp as its weight caused the stalactites to break apart and crumble. Ruto swam as fast as she could to the exit on the other side as the eel's massive heavy body fell from the ceiling and landed on the sandy floor with a harsh thud that echoed though the cavernous walls.
She had made it into the passageway, and turned to see if the eel was still alive. It lay unmoving, and its head was near the doorway of the exit and turned toward her. The creature's yellow eyes didn't shift, and depicted a blank empty look. Blood slowly seeped from the gouges in its flesh where the stalactites had pierced through. Ruto had killed it, despite all the odd against her. The Zora princess stood watching it for a while, feeling distinctly proud but also catching her breath. Swimming so fast had tired her, but she had to keep going. Time was running out for Misu and her people. The water serpent had to be destroyed, and another reason being if the Zoras could no longer go to the Water Temple to worship the water spirits, the temple would lose its power and evil would fill the lake like it had seven years ago. As the sage of water and guardian of the Water Temple, Ruto had no choice but to complete her task by vanquishing the evil serpent once and for all.
Ruto continued down yet another passageway, but this one was wider. The rocks above seemed to flatten out and become smooth and reflective, which allowed the light to bounce off brighter and reveal more ahead. Ruto noticed the pathway separated into two different rooms. The entrance for one on the right was obviously too small for the water serpent to slip through, and was just wide enough for her. As for the one on the left, the rocks around its doorway became greatly sharp and jagged, but the room appeared to be enormously wide and long, spanning into the watery depths. Ruto was unsure which path to take, and was leaning more toward the entrance on the left when a bright flashing light caught her eye.
The light illuminated from the room on the right, streaking brightly through its doorway and nearly blinding her. Ruto's purple eyes shone as her pupils contracted while adjusting to the sudden light that seemingly came from nowhere. The light was so beautiful and bright, she felt convinced to first venture into the room on the right first. Slowly Ruto walked toward the entranceway and managed to fit through.
In the middle of the room on a rocky platform was a large wooden chest. The walls were made of pure crystallized rock, which bounced light from all ends of the small square shaped room and created an amazingly bright light that reflected pale rainbow colors. Ruto was astounded when she looked up at the ceiling and saw it was made of glass, which reflected her in it. Yet the chest in the middle also captivated her. What was inside? Slowly she moved toward it and stepped onto the platform. There was no sand in this room, and the floor was made of a hard smooth black rock.
Cautiously, Ruto stood in front of the chest and relaxed her tensed body. There was something special inside, and she felt she would need whatever it was to help her on her mission. The Zora princess grasped the lid of the chest on either side, and slowly she lifted it open, and became blinded yet again by a golden light. What was inside took her breath away.
When Ruto arrived at the large open hole inside the rocky back of Lake Hylia, she swam in front of it and peered inside. It was so dark inside she still couldn't see anything, even when she was up close. She hesitated once more, almost expecting the serpent to suddenly emerge and attack her, but minutes passed and nothing happened. The Zora princess absorbed more water into her gills, trying to keep herself calm by filtrating it though her at a faster rate. She couldn't allow herself to panic now, not when she had to enter the lair of the serpent and find Misu. Her husband's life was in her hands, and even though they were forced to wed one another, losing him so quickly without really getting to know him seemed unthinkable.
Finally feeling ready, Ruto swam forward and into the underwater cave. Darkness enveloped her, but once her eyes managed to adjust to the lack of light, she realized the cave only looked dark from the outside. The light from the shining sun outside bounced off the floor of the lake and into the cave. As a result, the water seemed to glow a mysterious light blue color, providing enough light for her to find her way around. Instead of rocks covering the floor of the underwater cave, it was covered by smooth white sand, untarnished by any animal tracks. There were no fish in the cave – no signs of life.
Ruto swam onward, warily looking around. The cave seemed to lead deep under the water, even below Lake Hylia's floor. The entrance way was a wide, empty and circular in shape, with nothing in it except the smooth white sand covering the bottom. She swam to the floor of the underwater cave and felt her feet touch the smooth sand, its tiny white grains lightly brushing against the bottom of her webbed feet. As Ruto slowly walked to the back part of the entrance, she looked behind her and saw her feet were making clear webbed tracks in the sand. Ruto decided to use that as a marker in case she got lost or disoriented, as a way of helping her find her way out.
In front of her was a smaller rugged entrance on the floor of the cave, but was still big enough for the water serpent to slip through. Ruto went through the passage into another area of the cave. The second area was slightly smaller, and not as round. Instead Ruto noticed strange eel like creatures lying still on the sandy floor. She stopped and watched them carefully – the creatures almost appeared to be half buried in the sand, and were blackish blue color. There were three of them in all, and they barely moved, except the occasional flick of their tails.
She approached cautiously, seeing the exit was on the other side of the room. However, as she moved slowly passed the first eel on the floor, it suddenly stirred and rose up from the sand. Ruto looked upward at it, knowing the creature must have felt her movements in the water and since became aware of her presence. Tiny rows of sharp pointed teeth projected from its upward facing mouth, and its yellow empty looking fish-like eyes stared at her as it swam steadily faster in the water. Before long the eel- like creature was circling around her, is long thin body moving quickly from side to side. Along its back was a short wavy dark blue fin that extended partially around the tip of its tail.
Ruto braced herself, reading for an attack at any moment. She watched the eel-like creature carefully as it moved behind her, and then turned around just in time when the eel swam swiftly forward, its jaw opening and eyes flashing in sudden instinct to attack. Since she had no weapon, she had to use her hands and feet to protect her. As the eel aimed to bite her arm, Ruto swung her other arm forward and felt her fist collide into the creature's side. The eel withered from her blow, and fell sideways in the water while its body floated slightly toward the sandy bottom. Before it could recover though, Ruto kicked it with one foot and then smashed it into the floor with the other, holding it in place as it struggled pathetically until slowly vanishing in an array of bubbles.
The Zora princess was surprised she could defend herself so well without any weapons, but decided not to let it overcome her just yet. Quickly she moved toward the other eel-like creature, and before it could even rise out of the sand for an attack she hurtled herself upon it and grabbed it around its neck and then tore away at its flesh with her webbed hands. She hated killing something so savagely, but there was no other option – she had to protect herself. The creature struggled profusely, but soon became limp and also disappeared.
Suddenly, Ruto felt something strike her in her back, and she fell face forward onto the sandy floor. She turned her head and saw from the corner of her eyes the third eel-like creature circling around her angrily, its jaws opening and closing in excitement. She hadn't been bitten, but the eel thing had rammed into her pretty hard. Ruto winced as a sharp pain shot through her, but managed to get to her feet, and moved her arms and fins in front of her face to shield it by crossing them. The creature moved to ram her again with its body, and swiftly swam through the water directly toward her. When it got into range, Ruto's fins flared sharply and she thrust her arms away from her face, and struck the surprised eel-like creature with them. The fins on her arms had flared so intensely that the edges actually cut through the eel's skin like a knife, causing its light red colored blood to spill into the water.
The eel creature swam awkwardly through the water, sinking deep but desperately trying to keep swimming. Red jagged slashes were gouged into the creature's side from Ruto's blow. It had been weakened, but wasn't dead. Instead, it turned suddenly and surprised Ruto, who thought it would die quickly after. The eel-like creature suddenly swam as fast as lightning toward her and Ruto thrashed at it with her arms, only to no avail. The eel managed to wind its way around her and sunk its sharp teeth into her shoulder.
She cried out in pain, but managed to contain herself enough to slash at the creature once more. Her blow managed to finally finish it off, but blood steadily flowed from her wounded shoulder and into the water. Ruto put one of her hands over her injury and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Eventually the blood stopped flowing enough for her to continue, but she felt a jab of pain every time she moved her shoulder.
"I hope I don't encounter any more of those creatures..."
Ruto said quietly to herself as she made her way across to the end of the room and saw the entrance to the next area had a fairly large dip in it, heading deeper into the earth. She couldn't see the bottom very well, which made her decide to swim below slowly just in case some other unpleasant monster was waiting to meet her in ambush. The rocky walls around the sandy dip were very jagged, so she moved slowly and carefully as to not hit one of the sharp rocks.
She approached the edge, placing one foot in front of her and one foot behind her, and then slid gracefully down the sandy slope, remembering to keep her balance as to not fall and roll down it. Once she reached the bottom of the slope, she warily looked around and noticed she had just entered a long tunnel that led so far down she couldn't see the end of it. The tunnel was long and rounded at the tope, like a half circle dome made of rock above her. Ruto cautiously proceeded down the tunnel, noting how high up the ceiling was in comparison to its narrow width. The waters in the tunnel had become strangely colder, which sent shivers up Ruto's arms and back.
It took a while for her to reach the end of the tunnel, but once she did she came into yet another room. The next room had an extremely high rocky dome ceiling, and at the very top the rocks turned into jagged stalactites that pointed downward like the tip of an arrow. Ruto felt more intense shivers the moment she entered the room, and had a feeling she wasn't alone inside it. She felt her fins prickle in anxiety as she continued to examine what was before her. The floor was still covered by smooth undisturbed white sand, and it appeared nothing other than the water serpent had passed through it in millennia.
Still, even if it appeared she were alone, Ruto's feeling warned her she wasn't. Dare she go further? Her purple eyes scanned the room one more time, but still it didn't seem anything was there! Maybe she was just being irrational, maybe the whole water serpent thing had gotten to her mind and she was becoming overly paranoid, Ruto thought to herself. Or...maybe there was something waiting for her if she walked another step...something dangerous. She had already come so far though, and there was no way she would turn back now.
Without further hesitation, Ruto finally stepped inside the large domed room. The second she did, she felt the ground begin to shake. Ruto stared, her eyes widening bigger every second, as a massive long eel like creature rose from beneath the sand. It had been concealed so well that she didn't even see it was there, but could only sense its presence in the room somewhere. The eel looked like a mass projection of the smaller ones she had fought earlier, and its body spanned almost the whole length of the room. The eel-like creature uncurled itself from within the sand, which caused the white sand to stir and cloud the water slightly. Ruto saw its large yellow eyes stare at her in a transfixed state, as it lifted its head from the sandy floor and then swiftly set its body in motion. The eel thing rose from the sandy floor, moving from side to side like a snake, however slightly slower and with a more fish like appearance to it. Ruto saw its powerful teeth flash as the creature exposed them, and she felt foolish to think she had seen the last of those pesky eel-like monsters. The one she was about to face now appeared to be the mother of them all, which made Ruto take more water harshly into her gills. She would have to fight it; there was no other choice. It wasn't as scary looking or as powerful as the water serpent, but its uncanny relation to the water serpent made Ruto cringe.
The Zora princess bravely moved inside the room, where upon the eel-like creature opened its wide jaws and swam toward her. The eel's tail moved swiftly, propelling its body effortlessly in the water, as it moved in and snapped at her with its teeth. Ruto barely dodged out of the way in time, and felt the top of the creature's head graze her left flank. Ruto's mouth gaped in shock, but she kept moving, determined to keep the creature on its fins for as long as she could. Blood leaked from her wound in her shoulder, and that was what probably awakened the creature. The eel could taste the blood in the water, and after a long hibernation decided to attack its first victim. Ruto thought she had stopped the bleeding, but the mark must have been deep, leaving a jagged cut in her skin.
Ruto moved toward the rocky wall of the room and swam along it in a wide circle, as the eel followed closely behind, but wasn't fast enough to catch up to her. Once the creature managed to lunge its head suddenly forward, but it was just as the round wall narrowed slightly, which nearly caused the creature to crash into it. Ruto kept swimming, her legs kicking powerfully through the water as her mind cleared to come up with a plan – any plan. The eel was very careless in how it handled its long fish-like body, which gave Ruto an idea.
Mustering her speed, Ruto moved even faster through the water, which forced the eel to wriggle its body from side to side quicker in order to keep up. If her plan was going to work, she would have to do it soon or else she would get too tired to continue swimming so fast. Ruto swam to the bottom of the room and then touched the floor with her feet. She looked quickly behind her and saw eel had pointed its nose down toward the sand where she stood, aiming to slam its massive body into her and crush her with its weight. Just as the creature came within range, Ruto darted off the bottom of the room with a thrust of her feet. The creature was going too fast and didn't have enough time to pull up, which cased it to slam head first into the sand. A large cloud of sand filled the entire room, and hung in the water.
Ruto swam swiftly to the top of the dome and waited there patiently, not making any effort to give away her location just yet. The eel wriggled its body angrily before slashing away the sand with its head. It wasn't a very smart thing that was for sure, Ruto thought as a smirk crossed her lips for a moment but faded when the creature regained its senses. The eel circled the room, blinded by the cloud of sand that it had disturbed by crashing into the floor. Its body moved as fast as it could, completing a full circle near the wall of the room until Ruto decided it was the right moment.
She flared her fins as far from her body as possible, so the aqua colored gem-like scales that dotted them flashed because of the glow from the light blue water. The eel soon caught sight of her location despite the sand, and in a fit of rage it swam upward at a slight angle. Ruto saw it emerge from below, and watched its jaws open and close in anger while its yellow eyes locked onto her with sheer determination. Upon seeing her come closer into view, the eel swam even faster, and the moment it seemed it would get to Ruto, the clever Zora princess shifted to her left and moved down to the sandy bottom.
The second after she managed to get out of the eel's path, the monster was too surprised to find she was no longer there to stop. In desperation it attempted to turn its body around, but that only caused more harm than good. Ruto was well aware of the sharp pointed stalactites that hung from the roof of the room, and she had positioned herself just in front of them. By causing the creature to crash into the sandy floor and stir up sand into the water, she had blinded it from seeing the stalactites hanging above, and its only clear vision would be her flashing fins as a way of distracting it and angering it to come to her.
When Ruto moved out of its way, the eel twisted so far on its side that it slammed into the stalactites. Blood poured into the water as the stalactites pierced through the monster's flesh, stabbing though all over its body. The eel-like creature wriggled vainly, but its body soon went limp as its weight caused the stalactites to break apart and crumble. Ruto swam as fast as she could to the exit on the other side as the eel's massive heavy body fell from the ceiling and landed on the sandy floor with a harsh thud that echoed though the cavernous walls.
She had made it into the passageway, and turned to see if the eel was still alive. It lay unmoving, and its head was near the doorway of the exit and turned toward her. The creature's yellow eyes didn't shift, and depicted a blank empty look. Blood slowly seeped from the gouges in its flesh where the stalactites had pierced through. Ruto had killed it, despite all the odd against her. The Zora princess stood watching it for a while, feeling distinctly proud but also catching her breath. Swimming so fast had tired her, but she had to keep going. Time was running out for Misu and her people. The water serpent had to be destroyed, and another reason being if the Zoras could no longer go to the Water Temple to worship the water spirits, the temple would lose its power and evil would fill the lake like it had seven years ago. As the sage of water and guardian of the Water Temple, Ruto had no choice but to complete her task by vanquishing the evil serpent once and for all.
Ruto continued down yet another passageway, but this one was wider. The rocks above seemed to flatten out and become smooth and reflective, which allowed the light to bounce off brighter and reveal more ahead. Ruto noticed the pathway separated into two different rooms. The entrance for one on the right was obviously too small for the water serpent to slip through, and was just wide enough for her. As for the one on the left, the rocks around its doorway became greatly sharp and jagged, but the room appeared to be enormously wide and long, spanning into the watery depths. Ruto was unsure which path to take, and was leaning more toward the entrance on the left when a bright flashing light caught her eye.
The light illuminated from the room on the right, streaking brightly through its doorway and nearly blinding her. Ruto's purple eyes shone as her pupils contracted while adjusting to the sudden light that seemingly came from nowhere. The light was so beautiful and bright, she felt convinced to first venture into the room on the right first. Slowly Ruto walked toward the entranceway and managed to fit through.
In the middle of the room on a rocky platform was a large wooden chest. The walls were made of pure crystallized rock, which bounced light from all ends of the small square shaped room and created an amazingly bright light that reflected pale rainbow colors. Ruto was astounded when she looked up at the ceiling and saw it was made of glass, which reflected her in it. Yet the chest in the middle also captivated her. What was inside? Slowly she moved toward it and stepped onto the platform. There was no sand in this room, and the floor was made of a hard smooth black rock.
Cautiously, Ruto stood in front of the chest and relaxed her tensed body. There was something special inside, and she felt she would need whatever it was to help her on her mission. The Zora princess grasped the lid of the chest on either side, and slowly she lifted it open, and became blinded yet again by a golden light. What was inside took her breath away.