Link strode easily up and down the filthy harbor for the fifth time in counting, eyeing the frothing water below, wrinkling the bridge of his nose at the foul odors that the wind brought to his nose. As disgusting as this place was, he barely took note of his surroundings at all. His thoughts were focused upon a very disturbing matter.
Why were all those moblins still alive, and where are they going? I thought that after Ganondorf was imprisoned, they were all wiped out… If they're heading for Talmina, then those poor people will be in some serious trouble. I doubt that Clocktown's little band of soldiers is enough to fend off so many enemies, and since all of the beings are so aloof in that nation, they will be destroyed one after the other… If they're heading for Hyrule, then they will not make it far without a leader like Ganondorf at their head. They couldn't have found another leader, could they?… Aren't they only supposed to serve Ganondorf? Did Ganondorf break out without the Sages knowing?… No, they would have noticed… But then why—
He was brought crashing back to earth as something sharp went shooting straight at him, nicking his ear. Out of pure reflex, he drew his sword and shield, turning mechanically around. All he found behind him was a length of black water.
There's something hiding in there… He tensioned, senses cackling to life, azure eyes darting between each submerging bubble on the shifting dark surface. He did not even realize he was holding his breath until the pressure became too great to ignore. Breathing deeply but quietly, he waited for a second arrow, gripping the rough hilt of his weapon so hard his hand began to throb.
And it came. The second arrow shot out from the water, heading straight at his face. Link deflected it with a shout, moving immediately forward. He normally would have shot his own arrow into the water, but his bow and quiver happened to still be in Epona's saddlebags, and he hadn't the slightest idea where she was now. Instead, he automatically went charging headlong into the unknown. A fraction of a second later, Link had let slip a string of loud swearwords, struggling violently to free himself of the devil water he had unwittingly plunged into.
It was like he was caught up in Morpha again. The midnight liquid was grabbing at him, pulling him down, down into a thick black suffocating blanket. He fought back violently, shouting as he thrashed around with his sword, shield, legs and arms. But nothing seemed to drive the water back off him, and as he searched frantically around for a transparent bulb, one similar to Morpha's, he realized that the sea must have been hundreds of miles wide; the bulb, if it existed, could be miles away. Jerking his gauntleted hands wildly at the water to keep his head from going under, he began to lash out more savagely at the sea floor, and was startled when the heel of his boot connected with something hard. He had been expecting silt.
All at once, the grip on him vanishedandsomething emerged in the black water next to him. He turned to face his attacker, sword held at the ready, butwas tooshocked at what he saw to attack.
"…Kafei…?"
At once, something came crashing down upon his head, and all became black and still.
A week had passed since the death of Darunia.
The monster at the top of the mountain was more powerful then any of the Sages had anticipated. The Chief Goron had been the strength of the group, working hard and battling off any threat that had arisen. He had never failed at anything before, and the very thought of his end seemed unreal. It had broken through the hopes of the Sages. Rauru spent most of his time pacing in the Chamber of Sages, his balding head bent in concentration. Darunia's dais, once vivid red, had faded into a dull black-maroon. His medallion hovered above his pedestal, carefully waiting to choose its new owner. It had appeared there the instant Death Mountain's ruler had passed. Darunia's body was never found or recovered— Not that they could have recovered it in the first place. They no longer had the power to recover anything from Death Mountain… Until Link came, everything there was unreachable, blocked by a barrier of spite. Ruto still claimed she had a plan to get to the top of the mountain, but she could not do it without the old Hero's help.
Try as she might, no matter what she did, Saria had found it impossible to locate Link. Nabooru had flown into a rage when she arrived on the shores of Great Bay to be greeted only by Epona and Saria. In a voice close to a shriek, she had ordered the young Kokiri to lead the Clydesdale to Romani Ranch, ask them to keep the horse safe until Link came, and to find a place for Link's equipment. Crying, Saria had done so, but not without trying to defend herself. In the end, Epona was given a stable and Link's saddlebags were given to the innkeeper in Clocktown who, Saria sensed, was trustworthy enough to watch over the bags without looking in them.
Saria had always been a close friend to Darunia. When she found out the news, the shine in her eyes had faded like Darunia's dais, and she had spent the next three nights alone in her Temple, weeping. No one could find much to say to her, as they all were faced with tribulations of their own now. Where was Link? They were all fully focused on locating him now, but the harder they tried, the more they were disappointed.
On the seventh morning, Rauru called a meeting. He looked more tired and forlorn now that he was staying up, continually searching, as all of them were. The first thing he did when everyone had arrived was suggest that they look for a new Sage of Fire instead of searching hopelessly around for Link. A loud silence fallowed until Saria, who had been bewailing profusely in last week, sniffed loudly and raised her hand.
"Do you have a hunch at where Link might be, then?" Rauru asked, his golden eyes resting on the small girl.
"N-no," She squeaked, "But I was wondering if we could just gave the Medallion to Darunia's son instead of waiting for it to choose an owner… What did Darunia name him again? …Link, right? After the Hyrulian Link?"
"Boy, that'll really be un-confusing," Muttered Nabooru sarcastically in the background. "He better have a nickname or something, 'else I'm calling him Junior…"
"We need to look for Link." Saria continued, "That monster has to be really strong, and with or without a perfectly fitting Sage of Fire, we can't do much without him…"
"Don't be foolish, Saria," Impa said quietly, "We mustn't let this disturbance throw all of us off completely. We need an appropriate Sage of Fire if we are to continue evenly, and giving it to someone possibly unworthy will not only corrupt our whole system, but it is also betrayal to the Goddesses! We will wait for the Medallion to choose for itself, but in the meantime, we will continue to look for Link. Besides, the Medallion can only be received if its Temple is cleansed. The Fire Temple is currently playing host to dark creatures again, as Darunia has left his post and there is no one there to stand guard."
A ringing muteness fallowed the small lecture. At long last, Rauru coughed loudly and said in a voice that clearly stated the end of the meeting: "Well, then, that settles it. We'll continue what we're doing. If anyone finds Link, they are to first inform the rest of us before heading out to retrieve him. He might have found his way into a very dangerous place, and for all we know—"
Suddenly, the rim of Darunia's platform ignited in blue flames, and the Fire Medallion was warped from the chamber. Saria shrieked, and Rauru gave a start so bad he nearly went toppling off his own platform. "OY!" He shouted, regaining balance, "The Medallion has chosen! Quick, Impa, go to the mountain and see what has happened, and Ruto, go summon Zelda!"
Magol was curled in the corner of his prison cell, hands balled into fists beneath him, a scowl etched across his broad façade. It had taken him awhile to regain composure after being blamed for Rahami's death, and though he had continued to fight aggressively for his freedom three days after his arrest, the loss of Darunia had left him hopeless and hallow, and he had given in. His Chief and his friend were both gone, and it was all because of… Ijuah. He was the reason of the turmoil, the deaths. Magol squeezed his fists tighter. He had made a resolute promise to find and kill that wretched parasite, and he was keen to fulfill it. He was so caught up in his thoughts, eyes closed and face pressing into the earth, that he was unaware of a sudden red flash beside him where a vibrant crimson Medallion had appeared, awaiting claim. He was unconscious of a sudden purple flash just inside his cell, or a hushed female voice calling to him, beckoning for him to uncurl and look up —
"AAH! GREAT GODDESSES, GUDNIP, THE MONSTER!" A strange goron was rolling top-speed down into the jail chambers. Magol uncurled just after Impa teleported out of the dungeon. He rushed forward to the bars of his cell, staring out at the scene before him. The one who had shouted was uncurled before another goron (one called Gudnip, it seemed) and had begun shouting more. His eyes rolled and spit flew from his mouth as he screamed, looking completely mad.
"THE MONSTER HAS GONE INTO THE FIRE TEMPLE! HE'S GOING TO UPSET THE GODDESSES AND SAGES AND KILL US ALL! QUICK, RUN FOR COVER—"
He was cut short as Gudnip's large, rough hand came down hard upon the side of his head. The stranger seemed frozen for a moment, shocked at this unexpected reaction. "Calm down," Gudnip growled. "If you keep acting like that, they'll throw you out with the rest of the deranged gorons. Now, what's happened?"
"The monster has gone into the Temple! It's going to kill—"
"There's nothing to worry about, then. It's gone for now; there's nothing it can do in the Temple that would hurt us, I think, and maybe that stupid fog will go with it. And how do you know this, anyway?"
"One of the outside gorons told me."
"…Wait, you went outside?"
"Oh, you don't know? Well, the fog loses its power or something when the monster leaves, 'cause lodes of us have already gone outdoors and nothing has happened to us. The crazies aren't crazy anymore, or at least, some of them aren't. Some still try to kill you on sight, but they're easy to avoid because they're all in Dodongo's Cavern, and they don't seem to want to come out."
A pause, then—
"You came down here looking pretty crazy, yourself…"
"That's because I thought we were all doomed."
"…I'm staying inside. I don't care about were everyone else is going; I'm staying inside and keeping myself sane."
"Fine. I'm starving to death; I'm going to go eat."
"Wait! What about the deranged psychos still in the cavern—?" But the strange goron was rolling away already, ignoring Gunip's warnings. With a sigh, the guard returned to his post up the hall, shaking his head. "That dim-witted bolder, going to get his head torn off before the end…"
Magol was thoroughly shaken by what he heard, and when he turned around to see the Fire Medallion hovering feet above his bed with it's base surrounded by small blue flames, he was absolutely thunderstruck. He stood gawking with his mouth agape at Darunia's prized pendant, which he had only ever heard of before. It was said to be the center of the Chief Goron's strength, and many gorons denied its existence. Was it his now…? Could he touch it?
Before he built enough nerve to answer these questions, Impa appeared again with another purple flash, and this time he noticed her. She stood frowning before him, her maroon eyes flashing with annoyance at being so plainly ignored before. "So," She began, folding her arms across her chest and eyeing him skeptically. "You are the new Sage of Fire. You have work to do, chum. Best get your Medallion before it takes you for a moron and goes looking for someone else."
When Magol continued to stare, Impa moved forward, giving him a firm slap on the shoulder. "What's the matter?" She sounded more irked then concerned. Magol regained himself and, with a deep breath and a muttered "I'm fine", he reached out for the glowing Medallion, closing his large hand around it—
There was a sudden shock of pain in his hand, as if he'd stuck his palm into lava, and he automatically drew back. The Medallion was gone, but the symbol that had adorned it was now engraved into his hand. Impa smiled. "Good. Now, what's your name?"
"…Magol," He said quietly, staring at his palm, before he added quickly: "Does this mean I'm also the new Chief Goron? Because I've been arrested and I don't think—"
"That's a matter of the gorons, not the Sages," Impa cut in tranquilly, "But you've been arrested before, and the Medallion still chose you? Why?"
"I'm innocent, I didn't commit the crime. Ijuah did." Even as he said the words, he knew they would make no sense to her. But she merely nodded pensively and took him by the shoulder.
"Hold on," She said, and they were both engulfed in blue flames, incased in azure glass, spinning and flattening out until suddenly—
He was standing alone on a vivid red dais, facing six strange people. The chamber he had appeared in was strange and dark, and most of the people assembled there were unfamiliar to him. But this was not a problem, because they all immediately began introducing themselves. Impa, Rauru, Ruto, Saria, Nabooru, and— He gave a start, staring. Princess Zelda stood on a triangular platform in the middle of them all, watching him expectantly. After uneasily inclining his head to each in turn, a very uncomfortable silence took hold, and Magol felt his face grow hot, knowing they all were staring at him with interest, as though waiting for him to do something drastic and impressing. This is something Rahami was meant to do, not me… He thought awkwardly, shifting his weight from one short leg to another. Finally, after long, uncomfortable moments, he brought himself to act as he usually did. He frowned seriously, folding his heavy arms across his chest, straightening up, and saying evenly: "I am Magol, and now that I've been chosen to be the Sage of Fire, I accept any responsibilities that have been given to me; I assure you, I will be no disappointment."
He knew he'd said the right things, because the smallest of the group, Saria, smiled and said: "He's really like Darunia; he's good for the duty, I know it." And the others seemed to agree. Suppressing a smile, he turned to stand facing the old man to his right, Rauru, as he spoke up.
"Okay, now we have our fitting Sage of Fire! Let us turn to the matters at hand. Finding Link is absolutely vital if we're ever going to get that monster off of Death Mountain—"
"There's still some problems that I don't get," Nabooru cut in. Rauru frowned, but stopped talking, allowing her to continue. "I thought you said that the Medallion couldn't choose a new owner if the Temple is dirty, yet here's Magol! And how was Impa able to teleport into Death Mountain? I thought that the 'unspeakable evil' or whatever kept us from going near that place… The monster either has left or is dead, right? But then why is the fog still out? Isn't—"
It was her turn to be cut off. Zelda had spoke up finally, drawing everyone's full attention onto her. "The monster has gone into the Fire Temple, cleansed it of the dark creatures that were lurking there, and is now lurking just outside it in the crater, guarding it from any other monsters. This is why the Medallion was able to choose a new owner. It seems the fog only works when the monster continually renews it, and for some reason, the beast wants the Mountains to be approached… And as for cleansing the Temple… I doubt it meant to kill Darunia. That was not part of its plans. It probably supposed that he would be one of the first to inhale the fog, but Darunia was smarter then he thought, and he was also stronger and more experienced then anything it had faced down before. He was more of a threat then it believed, so it had to slay him to keep itself alive. I think it wants Link to face him… To take Link down, befoul all of the Temples and take over the whole of Hyrule."
"It's an extremely foolish thing to do, underestimate a goron." Said Saira, nodding shrewdly.
"But that doesn't make sense," Said Ruto suddenly. "Link is a better fighter then Darunia… Why does it want him to come and kill it? Because he obviously can!"
There was a silence. With a look of emerging comprehension on his face, Magol spoke up. "What? Your talking about Link, right? As in the Hero-of-Time-Link? As in the hasn't-been-sighted-in-years Link? He isn't in Hyrule anymore?"
Nabooru laughed wryly. "Well, aren't YOU lost!" She said. "Me and Teleporter-Extraordinar here—" She gestured brusquely towards Saria with her thumb, "—went to go get him out of this town across the sea, but we kinda lost him somewhere… We've been up all week looking in every corner of the planet, but we haven't been able to find him, which means he's either extremely well hidden at the moment or he's dead."
"We're all really praying it's not the latter," Zelda said quietly to Magol as the other Sages began to warp from the chamber, "but by the looks of things, we may end up being forced to face a horrible truth… No one knows what that monster is capable of except Darunia, and well… He never told us…" But, somehow, as Magol watched everyone teleport back to their own Temples, he knew she was wrong…
Ijuah was still out there, and something told him that if they could just find the liar, then they would find the real threat to Hyrule…
Long chapter… For once o-o! Yay for boring talk and obvious wannabe-mystery xB! I WILL get this story done, though I cannot promise quicker updates. Been busy u-u. Please please PLEASE review! At least tell me all the reasons why this freaking crappy piece of toilet paper is sucky and boring! 3 Thank you, all those who bothered reading this anyway!