8. Ice

Navi was right, as usual. Zora's Domain was in trouble. Or, more specifically, frozen. Which had to suck for the primarily aquatic Zoras.

"See!" Navi exclaimed. "I was right! I told you they were not fine!"

"You're always right," I grumbled. "Always."

"Then you should listen to me more."

I ignored her and looked around at the Domain. "This is awful…" I murmured. I climbed down the ladder to the ice and walked around on it. Even the waterfall was frozen solid, and it was completely freezing in there. "What do you think happened to the Zoras?"

"Nothing good." Even Navi was subdued now. It was harder not knowing where the Zoras were or if they were okay than it had been knowing that the Gorons were trapped in the Fire Temple.

"The King!" All of a sudden I remembered him. No matter where the other Zoras were, it was unlikely that the king could either a) get up to go with them, or b) be carried away. That guy was frickin' huge.

I made a mad dash across the frozen fountain, slipping and falling flat on my face only twice, and up to the throne room. Where I stopped and stared.

The king was encased in an enormous chunk of red ice, like a crystal.

"Ewww!" Navi exclaimed. "Is that frozen blood!"

"No," I said, grateful to at least be able to rule that out. "Blood freezes differently than water."

"How do you know that?"

I decided not to answer. "There is something very very wrong with all of this."

"Well, duh. Are you only just now coming to that conclusion?"

"Navi…"

"It's sort of obvious you know. What with the ice, the missing Zoras, the king trapped in a big chunk of red ice-"

"Okay! I get it!"

"Speaking of that red ice…" Navi flew on ahead of me to examine it. Being ground based, I had to go around the side path to get up to the king, and once I got there I didn't really see anything strange. Except for the obvious.

"What?" I asked. "What is it?"

"This ice isn't natural," Navi was in her serious-mode again. "None of it. The red ice is a spell I'm fairly familiar with, but the normal-looking ice is just…strange."

"Strange how?"

"It seems like normal ice, it's nothing but frozen water, but I don't think you can melt it. Or break it."

"But how am I supposed to help if I can't break the ice!"

"I'm sure there's a way," Navi reassured me. "These kinds of spell are usually linked to something. Like…the ice won't melt until the one who froze it is dead."

"Fan-freaking-tastic," I muttered. "And I suppose we both know who froze it."

"Well, who else could it be?"

I flexed my fingers, imagining them around Ganondorf's throat. "At least this saves me time. I can save the Zoras and the rest of Hyrule in one fell swoop."

"I think it's going to take more than a fell swoop to defeat someone who could freeze this much running water."

"Two fell swoops then."

Navi laughed, bobbing around and rolling through the air as she did so, somehow ending up facing the passageway back to Zora's Fountain. "Hey, look!"

I came over and did. "What?"

"Look!" She raced off down the passage and all I could do was follow.

It took me a few seconds to realize what was missing from the Fountain. At first I was too distracted by the freezing wind and the huge ice floes floating around. Then it hit me. "Hey," I said, looking around, "where'd that huge fish go?"

"Died probably," Navi said coolly.

"Oh no!"

"My guess is, Ganon had him for dinner some night."

"That bastard!"

"Agreed. Now let's go over there."

I peered in the direction she was bobbing. "What's that, a cave?"

"I think so. And it's the source of the cold wind that is blowing through this place."

Without another word I set off towards the cave. Luckily the ice floes didn't move too much, and even though my weight tended to unbalance them a little and I sent a few of the spinning when I jumped over to them, I still managed to make it over to the cave without having to take a swim in that freezing cold water.

The cave, like the rest of the Zoras' home, was encased in ice, but this place seemed like it was supposed to be. There were icicles hanging from the ceiling, though maybe calling them ice stalactites would be more appropriate, since there were ice stalagmites coming up from the floor at the end of the tunnel I was in. The stalactites had an annoying habit of coming loose and falling as I walked under them, but if I walked fast I could avoid them. Both stalactites and stalagmites seemed to be just ordinary un-magic ice; the stalactites shattered when they hit the ground, and the stalagmites shattered when I hit them with my sword.

Beyond the stalagmites I found a chamber with a blade trap and what I originally thought were ice sculptures, but turned out to be Freezards and very annoying. I destroyed all of them and went through the door that opened.

The Ice Cavern (I found out it was called that later) was full of puzzles, traps, Ice Keese, Freezards, and cold. The cold I didn't really mind, not after the Fire Temple, but the other stuff was very annoying. I probably would have given up on the place, were it not for the blue fire.

The first source of it was in the third chamber, in a cool goblet-like thing. It was on this ice walkway that was very hard to walk on, but finding the blue fire was worth it.

"You said you had seen that red ice spell before, right?" I said to Navi.

"I've seen things like it," she said. "Usually they can be destroyed or undone by the opposite of themselves."

"And what might possibly be the opposite of red ice?" I asked sarcastically.

"This fire is totally magic," Navi said, understanding me. "I'll bet you could put some of it in a bottle."

"Check and check." I scooped up some fire in one of my bottles and ran as fast as was safe back through the cave, across the ice floes, and back to the frozen king.

The king shook himself all over and rubbed his arms in an effort to warm up. "Oh...I've come back to life!" he asked. Then he turned and saw me. "Was it you who saved me?"

"Yes," I said, "but the rest of your people…Well, I don't know where they are."

"Trapped under the ice." The king shook his head. "If only there was something I could do, but I have been sitting here for far too long." Then he looked at me. "You, who are you? Aren't you that kid who saved my daughter?"

"Yes, I'm Link."

"And you saved me too!"

"I'm trying to save everyone."

"Then take this," from inside his robes he removed a bundle of blue cloth. "The Zora's Tunic, It was once used by Hylian divers searching for treasure. It will allow you to breathe underwater."

"Really?" I accepted the blue cloth and held it up. It was a tunic, of the same type as the Goron's Tunic I had gotten from Little Link, only blue. "Well, thank you very much." I bowed but didn't say anything else, since I didn't know how to properly address a Zora King.

So I went back to the Ice Cavern, having learned its name from the Zora shopkeeper who tried to sell me some blue fire, and made my way back through the chambers I'd already seen.

Beyond them were more puzzles, more traps, more Ice Keese, more Freezards, and a lot more cold. The last, and most aggravating, puzzle involved a block, an icy floor, and silver rupees. I had to somehow maneuver that block around the room to the places where the silver rupees waited, but the floor had no traction and the block just kept sliding until it ran into something. Or off of something.

But finally I got all the rupees and the door unlocked and I managed to get the block over to it and through the tunnel behind it.

And on the other side of a blockade of red ice and another door, a White Wolfos attacked.

A White Wolfos is not that different from a regular Wolfos. The only real difference is that they're white. But Wolfos are annoyingly good at dodging and blocking sword attacks, and if you don't time it right the Wolfos can kill you just as easily as you could have killed him.

I won.

A chest appeared in the middle of the room, as they often do, and I opened it to find a pair of big metal boots. "What are these things?" I wondered aloud, taking them out.

Navi made the motion that was her way of shrugging. "Iron boots?"

"I guess." I shoved the heavy iron boots into my pack and stood up.

Sheik was standing between me and the door.

"Dammit Sheik!" I exclaimed, embarrassed about being startled. "Why do you keep doing that!"

Sheik grinned at me and ignored the question. "If you came here to meet the Zoras, you wasted your time," he said. "This is all there is... With one exception, the Zoras are now sealed under this thick ice sheet. I managed to rescue the Zora princess from under the ice, but...she left to head for the Water Temple. This ice is created by an evil curse. The monster in the Water Temple is the source. Unless you shut off the source, this ice will never melt. If you have courage enough to confront the danger and save the Zoras, I will teach you the melody that leads to the temple." He pulled out his harp and spoke solemnly. "Time passes, people move… Like a river's flow, it never ends… A childish mind will turn to noble ambition… Young love will become deep affection… The clear water's surface reflects growth… Now listen to the Serenade of Water to reflect upon yourself."

The song was very nice, soothing and melodic. I played it with him and felt the magic rise up, but something about what he'd said haunted me. I couldn't even remember exactly what it was, but there was something that just seemed…off about it. Very strange.

When we stopped playing I started toward Sheik. "Hey, what was that stuff you were saying before the song? Something about…a childish mind and deep affection?"

Sheik shook his head, blushing a little under his tan, and stepped back. "Link…I'll see you again."

Then he pulled one of his you-didn't-see-me exits and I was trapped in that room. Alone with Navi.

"Well…?" she said.

"Well, what?" I didn't move.

"Aren't you going to play the song?"

"Maybe later."

"Link!"

I grinned mentally. "I just don't feel like it right now," I said, trying to sound aloof.

"You are so annoying!" Navi was near-raging now. "You're just like that weirdo Sheik, you're doing these things just to get under my wings!"

That was true, but I wondered about the comparison to Sheik. "Do you really think he's doing it just to annoy me?"

"Either that or he doesn't want you to get too close to him." Navi shrugged. "It's like I said, he's a weirdo."

"Yeah…maybe." I decided I didn't want to think about Sheik anymore, worrying about Zelda and fantasizing about dream girls was keeping my mind busy enough, and played the Serenade of Water.