Chapter Twelve—Ice
Water, according to my mental checklist of Temples, was next for Link to conquer. The Water Temple was at the bottom of Lake Hylia, and that fact presented something of a problem; Link wouldn't be able to reach it. As strong a swimmer as I knew he was, since the goddesses surely had granted him that gift, he still wouldn't have the lung capacity to swim to the bottom of the lake and make his way through a structure that was mostly underwater. Of course, the fact that the lake was half empty might help, but it was still a lot of water for any land-dwelling person to deal with. So I decided that the person to consult on the issue would be a non-land-dwelling one, one who cared about the state of Hyrule and about making sure Link could do what he needed to do without getting hurt…
Figuring out who fit that description was not much of a stretch of the imagination.
"Well, how did you get here?" she asked me irritably when I found her.
Ruto was hiding out in the Temple, as she had been since Zora's Domain froze over. She perched on the edge of the central tower inside the Temple, absently splashing with one foot in the water that came up to the ledge. I stood next to her and frowned.
"I have magical powers native to the Sheikah culture, and I'm not encumbered by weaponry. Neither of these facts will work in Link's favour. If you have any ideas, I would be delighted to hear them. If you have only snide comments and—"
"All right, calm down," she sighed. "I just get grumpy when I'm nervous. Sorry. But, getting to the point, doesn't Link have some magic? I'm sure he's visited the Great Fairy Fountain in Zora's Fountain, behind Lord Jabu-Jabu, and there's that little guardian fairy of his always tailing along. She's an annoying and bossy little thing, though… Anyway, maybe Link knows the same spells as you."
"Maybe," I replied, feeling quite sure that such a thing was all but impossible. "But what if he doesn't? I need a back up plan that can't fail."
Ruto sighed. "Come on, I'm getting dried out. I can't think when I'm all hot."
She slipped off her ledge and into the water, swimming to the next ledge down, which was underwater, and seating herself comfortably on it. I dived in after her and treaded water between the floor I had just been standing on and the floor Ruto was now sitting on. She didn't notice my situation.
"So he needs to breathe underwater, huh?" she was musing vaguely. "Well, we make a tunic for that. Dad has one, and I'm sure he'll give it to Link… After all," she giggled, "Link is going to be Dad's son-in-law soon."
This comment struck me as even less likely than her theory that he would know as much magic as I did, but I chose to ignore it.
"Great," I said. "About the tunic, I mean."
"Although," Ruto added thoughtfully, "Dad's all frozen, so Link will have to save him." She frowned, but brightened momentarily. "Oh, well. He might as well help us out, right?"
"Of course," I agreed. She missed the sarcasm, and I resisted the urge to add, "It's not like he's busy or has something better to do with his time." Besides, I was fairly certain that King Zora was safe; I hadn't heard that anything had happened to him, and I heard about everything that happened to everyone in Hyrule.
"Anything else?"
"Now that you mention it, one more thing…"
As we held this conversation, I was struggling to keep myself down. I kept banging my head against the floor above me as the water kept bobbing me up to it.
"Is there anything Link could use to keep his feet on the ground?" I asked.
"His feet on the—? Oh!" Ruto laughed, noticing me. "Yes, you land people aren't so good at floating and sinking at will, are you? Let me see… something heavy…"
She considered a moment, her fins waving idly.
"Well…" she finally said slowly, "I have one idea. There's a place in Zora's Fountain that's always been frozen. We call it the Ice Cavern. It's in a crack in the northern wall, you can't miss it. Do you know where I mean?"
Having never been to Zora's Fountain, I didn't. But I just said, "Yeah, sure."
"Well, when we go in there, we need special equipment to keep from slipping all over the ice. Or getting stuck to it." She shuddered. "Our skin's not made for traction on those types of surfaces. So we designed these special shoes, the Iron Boots. They weigh a ton, so I bet Link would sink like a rock if he wore them."
"Those sound good. Where are they?"
Ruto sighed. "Weren't you listening? In the Ice Cavern! There's all sorts of useful stuff in there. And I'm sure you won't need to motivate Link to go exploring it. He's just naturally curious like that. That's how we met, after all." She smiled affectionately, but I couldn't help thinking that if that were true, he was likely to never want to go exploring again.
"Right… Okay, thanks. I'll get going, then."
Relieved to finally abandon my struggle against buoyancy, I quickly swam away before Ruto could say more. I was grateful to escape that room and be able to surface, and to breathe without the aid of magic. It was also nice to be able to get away from Ruto, whose mere presence grated on my nerves. She was one of the few people who made me happy that I would someday have the power to shut up anyone who bugged me. I harboured many a vindictive thought about her.
Maybe when she finds out I'm her queen, she'll be a little less annoying.
I had to hurry to guide Link to the Ice Cavern. I took a deep breath and dove, swooping through the underwater entrance to the Temple and back up to the surface of the shallow lake. It was an unfortunately long ride from here to Zora's Domain with the portal between them frozen; all I could do was hope Link hadn't figured out that it was his next destination.
No such luck.
It started out according to plan. All looked well when I arrived at Zora's River. I didn't see Epona waiting nearby, and I didn't encounter Link himself, either, as I sprinted the winding, maze-like river, dodging the projectiles of Oktoroks, and leapt straight through the waterfall marking the entrance to Zora's Domain. Bursting through the water felt like running straight into a wall and somehow breaking it rather than being broken by it, and I led with my arms to keep that impact from fully striking me in the face. Shaking wet hair out of my eyes, I scanned the grotto. No Link. I was off and running again.
Zora's Fountain was, I knew, the home of the Zora deity, Lord Jabu-Jabu. Therefore, only those with the permission of King Zora could access it, and whatever Ruto might be wrong about, I was sure she would be right about her father's willingness to help Link without question. Would he be so kind to me? Surely. Surely he would.
When I reached King's Zora's throne, I ground to a halt and stared up in horror.
"Damn it," I said bluntly.
My hopes shattered; of course Ganondorf had imprisoned King Zora— Part of me was sure he had done it just to bother me. Ruto's father was encased in a large red crystal, but it looked different from the one in my vision that had been Saria's prison. I climbed up to King Zora's side, noticing as I did that he also seemed unable to move within his captivity. I hesitantly touched the crystal… which wasn't crystal. It was ice. Red ice, but definitely ice.
"Strange…" I murmured. Even stranger, it didn't seem affected by my body heat. Leaning in close, I breathed on it, but it didn't melt at all.
It wasn't all bad, though, since he wasn't blocking the way to Zora's Fountain, so I could still do what I needed, to get Link the equipment that he—
I felt my heart plummet when I remembered that King Zora had the tunic Link needed to breathe underwater.
Then my heart leapt in fear when I realized that I was wasting valuable time. Wherever Link was, he was making progress, and I wasn't. Having not run into him yet, I was fairly confident that he was quite a ways behind me, but I couldn't be sure.
"Bye," I whispered to King Zora, though I doubted he could hear me. I dashed past him.
To my surprise, Zora's Fountain wasn't frozen solid. It was, however, changed for the worse. Icebergs floated quietly over its gently rippling surface, and Oktoroks swam just beneath. The most noticeable and horrific change, however, was the complete absence of Lord Jabu-Jabu himself. A stone platform, which was clearly intended as a place for people to stand and face him, remained, but there was only ice and water beyond it. I wondered, with a flutter of concern, if Lord Jabu-Jabu had met the same fate as the Kokiri's Great Deku Tree.
Even as I thought this, I spotted what could only be the Ice Cavern. Ruto was right in saying you couldn't miss it; the wall opposite me had a large hole in it, gaping like a mouth, that looked like a natural crack in the stone resulting from the shifts of time. I also thought Ruto was probably right in saying that Link would explore it even if no one told him to; the wide, black space peaked even my curiosity… and I had learned that curiosity doesn't always pay. The fact that making it up there appeared challenging only added to the allure, and it was just as taxing as it looked.
I scrambled over the small icebergs awkwardly, because they tilted under my weight and offered no grip for my hands or feet. Adding to this complication was the fact that I had to jump from one to the next, taking off from as high a crouch as I dared and landing splayed on the hard, cold surface.
Then there were those Oktoroks that I was getting sick of putting up with; I would have taken out a few with throwing stars, if I'd had a free hand, just to vent some frustration.
From the last iceberg, it was a matter of standing up and jumping to grab the edge of the gaping hole.
Wouldn't it be funny, I thought, if I went through all this trouble and it wasn't the right cavern?
Well…no, I answered myself as I hauled my body up over the edge, another massively physical task.
Luckily, I could tell this had to be the right place. It was a cavern, and it was covered in ice. Ice Cavern. However, I still felt myself losing hope as I made my way through it. Each room showed signs of having been visited already: doors were unlocked, treasure chests were opened, monsters carved of ice were hacked to bits, and in one patch of snow, I found a set of footprints that only a pair of Kokiri boots could have made. I sighed. Maybe I could catch him on the way out, at least.
When I arrived at one door, though, I heard noises on the other side… an animal was growling, howling, something or someone was running around… it sounded like a fight.
Just to be sure, I composed myself and performed the skill I had shown Impa after my first visit with Link. With undetectable intercorporeal sensory reception, I accessed Link's vision.
Sure enough, I saw a room with a floor of snow and walls that were black but covered in reflections like stars. His focus was on a fight he was engaged in against a large, white Wolfos. The sounds I could hear through the door matched what I could see through Link's eyes as he and the wolf battled ferociously. It didn't take long before I heard a high-pitched growl of agony and saw the Master Sword slice across the throat of the beast. The sword repelled the blood, which dripped onto the snow and stained it, along with the wolf's own fur, a vibrant red.
Apparently cued by the wolf's death, a large treasure chest materialized before Link out of nowhere. This didn't surprise him; he approached it and lifted its heavy wooden lid. Inside was a pair of boots more or less identical to the ones he was already wearing, except that they had metal casings over the feet. Link looked them over carefully, and I could tell he was wondering what use metal shoes were supposed to be to him.
Navi fluttered around his head, and he looked at her; she was speaking, though I couldn't make out her words through the door, and he answered, his voice equally muted. I thought I heard something about "sinking to the bottom."
I let my concentration fall, slipping back into my own mind, and opened the door to subtly answer Link's questions. He jumped when he heard the someone entering, and whirled around with one hand on his sword hilt and the other poised to grab his shield. When he recognized me, he dropped both arms back down to his sides.
"Oh, hey," he said with a smile and a wave. "I was wondering if you were going to show up. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be here. I mean, these boots don't make a lot of sense to me." He nonchalantly kicked at the Iron Boots, which he had dropped when he prepared himself to fight me.
Not directly addressing his words, I said, "You've noticed the changes in Zora's Domain, I'm sure."
Link's expression became darker and more serious. "Yeah, I did. What happened? I know you never tell me anything I ask you, but…"
"Ganondorf sent this ice to trap the Zoras, to stop them from rebelling against his control."
Link swore viciously. "Figures. I hoped it wasn't him… but you'd think I'd know better than that by now. They're all trapped, then?"
"I managed to save one just in time. The Princess Ruto."
I saw Link's expression of disgust before he could suppress it. "Oh," he said, trying and failing to sound neutral and casual, "my fiancée. That's…really great."
Hearing Link refer to his engagement to Ruto was very different from hearing the bride herself refer to it. When she spoke, it sounded like an unrealistic fantasy of hers. When he did, it seemed real, in the same way a fatal disease is. Clearly, he would have taken the disease if he'd had a choice. I hid my smile under my face coverings.
"Also," I went on, ignoring his comments, "King Zora is frozen in a crystal of red ice. I'm sure you saw."
"No problem," Link said, taking me slightly aback. From somewhere in his tunic, he pulled out a bottle containing what looked like blue fire. I had seen sconces of this fire burning at intervals throughout the Ice Cavern, and observed that they gave off no heat, but I couldn't imagine why it would occur to Link to bottle some of it. He must have thought I understood, though, because he spun the bottle in his hand with a proud smile before replacing it in his tunic without further explanation. Since asking about it would have taken away from my image of omniscience, I merely nodded.
"To travel to the next temple, play the Serenade of Water," I instructed him, taking out my harp. We played the song together; it was slow, simple and echoing, like raindrops onto a calm pool in spring. When we lowered our instruments, I said, "Ruto is waiting for you there."
"I look forward to seeing her," he said, with a smile so false it looked like a painful grimace.
Tactfully, I told him, "Don't worry. I don't foresee a marriage between you and someone of a different…species." I hope.
He laughed. "You read my mind. Well, see you."
I had no doubt that there was more he wanted to know, but of course he knew better than to ask by now. I simply walked away as he put on his new boots and trudged over to a hole in the ice behind the empty treasure chest. He took a deep breath and jumped into the water.