The Water Temple
The area on the map was lush. Full of life-giving water, it's beauty stretched out for at least two acres. Sighing, Beast Boy rolled up the map and looked at it as it really was. Lake Hylia, described as one of the great wonders of Hyrule, was now nothing more then an giant hole, with only a small amount of water near one of its islands. As Beast Boy, Martin, and Ralph looked out at the corruption, they remembered the journey that had taken to get to this point, and thought of the one still before them….
"Are you sure this is the right spot?" Beast Boy asked for at least the tenth time. "Yes! It correlates to the directions on the map." Martin snapped, as tired of hearing the question as Beast Boy was of asking it. Only Ralph seemed oblivious, looking around the cliff face as if he actually knew what he was seeking. The group had been through some difficult times since setting out on their quest. Their journey had been up the majestic Hyrulian River, the only way to reach Zora's Domain, whose aquatic people held the keys to the Water Temple. Of course, the river did not run straight from a source. Instead, it crisscrossed through a veritable Olympic field course, filled with twists, land that broke away beneath their feet and monsters that ha hidden in the water. Finally, they had gotten through all that, only to come to the end of the river, a careening waterfall. They had climbed up to the stone bridge right in front of it, but now, they were stuck with no way across. They could glimpse some sort of doorway between the falls and the cliff, but they could not get past the force of the falls. Not for lack of trying of course, as they tired to leap through many times, but each time, the force of the water had pushed them down into the current of the water. Thankfully, they'd managed to get back up, but now they were out of ideas, and since Ralph and Martin couldn't activate their powers until the were in the Temple, they were, as far as they could tell, screwed.
"There's gotta be some way across!" Beast Boy muttered as he paced up and down the walkway. "How did Link get in here?" "Maybe you should've thought of asking him before we left." Martin replied. Whirling around, Beast Boy said, "Hey, how was I supposed to know? Besides, didn't he give that.. weapon thing to you? Why couldn't you ask him?" Martin began to answer, but then stopped. "The Longshot!" he exclaimed, as he quickly pulled the weapon off of his belt. Shaped like a garden shifter, the weapon had one main difference; the long, pointed chain that stuck out from it. Aiming it directly at the waterfall, Martin pressed the trigger. The long chain shot out instantly, stretching like it would reach beyond the falls. But just as it hit the water, it bounced off, as though it had hit a wall. It snapped back and retracted back into the weapon. The two heroes stared in amazement at what had just happened(Ralph was still looking over the cliff face). "Well, it was worth a try, right?" Martin asked. "Yeah but what do we do now?" Beast Boy replied, seeing no other options. As the two of them pondered this. Ralph stood at the very center of the walkway. Opening his mouth, he sang a brief, four note melody. Of course, Ralph did not have what could be called a pristine singing voice, as he friends' covered their ears and writhed on the ground, screaming for whatever monster was attacking them to please kill them and end their torture. Then, they saw it was only Ralph, and they asked the obvious question of ,"What the hell are you doing?" Ralph only pointed towards the waterfall. Following his view, the two heroes gasped; the falls had parted, revealing a doorway, within jumping distance! "How did..?" Martin sputtered. "There's some writing on the wall, next to the falls." Ralph explained. "At first I didn't know what it was, but then I realized it was music notes." "You can read music?" Beast Boy asked in surprise. "Well, enough of it to figure out the tune. Then I saw there was a marking over here." Pointing down, he revealed the symbol of the Triforce. "I guess I just figured since Link had that ocarina with him when he did this, maybe he put that here as a way for his allies to know the way in or something." With that, Ralph stepped back, and with a running leap, crossed the divide and landed at the other side. Looking at each in pure amazement, Beast Boy and Martin shook their heads, and followed.
The doorway opened up into a world of pure natural wonder. Zora's Domain was a huge cavern, with flowing waterfalls from seemingly every direction. The three heroes stared at amazement at the sights before them for almost five minutes, until they saw the corruption underneath it. Th waterfalls were a full of ice chunks as they were of water. Nothing swam in the crystal waters, which were half-frozen. A cold breeze blew from almost all corner of the cave, chilling the heroes to the bone. "Do they have central heating here?" asked Beast Boy, beginning to shiver against the cold. "This is Link said happened the last time." Martin recalled. "If we don't kill the demon soon, the whole place is going to freeze over. We've got to hurry and find the King Zora." "I think this might be the way then." Ralph commented, pointing to a set of stairs that went up around a cave wall. Nodding, the group began to head up the stairway.
At it's end, the stairway led into a great chamber, in which they found a large Zora, dressed in a red and gold headpiece sitting on a throne-esque part of the wall. "Um, excuse me?" Beast Boy began. "Are you King Zora?" "Mmm?" the Zora asked, looking up for the first time Taking a look at the heroes, he said, "My, you don't look like the Knights. Where is Seaking?" "Huh? Um, no they weren't available." Beast Boy explained. "Oh dear! Wait, who are you then?" "We're their replacements sir." Martin spoke. "Hmmm,.. Well if Link sent you, I suppose I should trust you. I assume you've come for supplies?" "You do have them right?" asked Ralph, causing Martin to elbow him hard in the ribs. "Indeed." The King replied, and he passed out two sets of blue tunics and heavy iron boots. "The tunics are made of Zora scales, and will allow you to breathe underwater." The King explained. "As for the boots, they will blend in with your shoes, and when you wish it, they will appear and allow to walk on the sea floor as easily as you do above ground. I apologize, but I only have enough for two of you." "Not a problem." Beast Boy said. "Now, how do we get to the Temple?" At this, the King writhed on his throne a bit and said, "Well, normally, there'd be a passageway here, but I'm afraid that the Lake's been dried up, so it's useless to you. I hate to say it, but the only way there is to walk, and Lake Hylia is on the other side of Hyrule."
So, having no other options, the group had left Zora's Domain and began the long treacherous walk to Lake Hylia. Finally, they had reached it and after crossing the series of rope bridgeshad reached the island where they now stood. Of course, the entrance was not the only thing on the island. There was also the guardian statue. This one was dressed in scale-like armor, with fin like protrusions on its forearms and thighs. Its weapon was a trident, and the exposed face was that of a giant cat. "Wow, these guys know irony, don't they?" Beast Boy commented. Nodding, Martin bent down and read the inscription on the base; "Seaking, Knight of the Ocean." The three heroes spent another moment looking at the statue, as if to get some kind of hope from it. Then finally, Ralph and Martin donned their tunics, and the three of them leapt into the water. The iron boots almost instantly appeared on the BRATS and brought them down to the floor. Beast Boy, in the form of dolphin, came down to meet them, but they already had a problem to deal with. The entrance to the Temple was blocked by a huge iron gate, that looked too strong for them to break. Motioning around, since they couldn't speak, Martin managed to instruct the others to look around for some kind of key. But the area was extremely small, and they were out of searching room almost instantly. Beast Boy was about to give up, but then he noticed a strange statue sticking out from above the gate. Hit by a sudden burst of inspiration, he swam up hard, and hit it out of its place. Instantly the gate began to go up. Martin and Ralph gave the shape-shifter the thumbs up, and then all three heroes entered the Water Temple.
They surfaced a moment later, the boots vanishing, allowing the BRATS to swim up. Once they were back on solid ground, they shifted into Polar and Neuron. Looking around, the three of them wondered where they were supposed to go. The only other piece of solid ground was a large pedestal structure that stuck out from the water deeps. "Well, what else do we have to go on?" Neuron asked, as he sped over to it. Beast Boy and Polar followed quickly, but then there was even less to go on. "Maybe if we go around?" Beast Boy suggested. The group did so, making it's way around to the other side. It was there that they saw something interesting. A huge pillar, topped by a dog-head lurked on the opposing side of the pedestal, and behind it, there was an unearthly glow. "You know, I'm pretty sure that weird glow equals bad guy or something." Beast Boy quipped. "I agree, but how do we get across?" Neuron asked. Once again, Polar provided an answer, as his ice bridge appeared across the gap. "Well that works." Beast Boy spoke, as they walked across. Once on the other side, they walked around the pillar and found the same platform that their friends had found before them. Seeing it, the same thought came to each of their minds. One by one, they stepped on and were transported to the demon room..
"Hey, shouldn't there be a monster in here or something?" Beast Boy asked, as they looked around. Indeed, save for the spiked walls, the only thing in the room was a pool of strange blue water. "Weird." Neuron muttered, looking into it's depths. "It's like it's contaminated or something." Suddenly, Polar yelled, "There's something moving in there!' All three of them stepped back from the edge, and as they watched, the water began to condense in the center of the pool. A tendril grew upwards and in it's tip, was a glowing, brain-like ball. "Is that thing Morpha?" Polar yelled. "It must be like an amoebae." Neuron replied. "The waters' just the body, that thing's the brain. That's what we need to attack!" Almost as if it had herd them, the tendril lashed out, knocking them back, and almost into the spiked wall. But they were able to ride the blow and jump over the spikes. Morpha retreated back to the waters, and sent out two more tendrils. But now, the heroes battle instincts had kicked in. Beast boy changed into a gorilla, and as Polar froze the tendrils, he shattered them into pieces. Morpha, caught in the tendril, hopped around on the land, but Beast Boy turned into an octopus and kept him trapped. Neuron whipped out the Longshot and pulled the creature right into his hands. It squirmed around trying to escape, but not fast enough to avoid Neuron's electric blast. Finally it squirmed away into the water and sent up more tendrils. But the heroes battled them back again and again. Finally, Morpha could stand no more, and exploded in a rain of dark water. Slowly, his body evaporated until nothing was left. Collapsing in their exhaustion, the heroes looked at each other, pleased at their efforts. Of course they weren't the only ones, as a blue light shown and the pale image of a Zora girl appeared. "Thanks your help in freeing my Temple." She said simply. "And who are you?" Polar asked nonchalantly. Her eyes narrowing, the Zora replied, "I am Ruto, Sage of Water, you little…" "Hey, can we not start this already?" Neuron cried out, not wanting another battle. The Zora calmed down and said, "Listen, your friends are waiting for you in the Temple of Time, so hold on." The heroes were enveloped in a blue light and then….
