Wow, two chapters in one day. Hehe. This story is actually really long. I started writing and just kept writing and writing and writing and I'm still not done. But here's another chapter to keep you occupied.
The town was a bustling market but apparently we are a strange group to look at. We had a very modern style that was hard to ignore but once people gawked enough we headed towards where Vienne and Stu said their house was in town. According to their most recent letter they lived right next to the path that leads up the mountain.
Course we didn't even take a few more steps when we saw Vienne's loving smile. She dropped her basket of laundry as Dmitri and I ran to her. Link tried to play it cool and walk casually. Stu came out of their house and saw the commotion and walked over giving Link a pat on the back before jokingly offering him a drink. Dmitri helped his mother take the laundry back in and to the trained eye like mine, could see he was avoiding any look in his father's direction. We went inside then and saw the new house. On the bottom was a large sitting area and a kitchen to fill Vienne's fondest dreams as she was quite the cook and the one who taught me.
Upstairs were several spare bedrooms and then the master bedroom. Vienne and Stu still hadn't unpacked everything so boxes were still around as well as dust and trinkets that lay everywhere. We stayed just the one night before heading out early the next morning up Death Mountain Trail.
We entertained ourselves easily for the first hour or two but then everything became rather repetitive. Rock, rock, rock, and hey look, another rock, its just a little bigger than this rock. My friends will be so jealous. They don't have a rock this big. Finally though we found something worthwhile to stop and look at.
"Why does this all look extremely familiar?" Link asked as we stood in front of a large cave opening.
"Well it could be because when you had to gather the three spiritual stones that you blew up a big rock and got rid of the Dodongos in there"
I stared ahead as the two of them stared at me and my seemingly endless knowledge.
"Again, is there anything you don't know, love?" Dmitri teased
"I'd rather know what I'm talking about and people stare at my intelligence than make dumb comments and have people stare at my stupidity" I said smartly walking into the cave.
"Wait, I thought we were going to Goron City" Dmitri asked as Link followed suit.
"We got all the time in the world Dmitri. Might as well use it" Link said and Dmitri shrugged in agreement jogging to catch up.
"Hello!"
'Hello...hello...hello' the echo rang.
"Careful Saira, lava pits" Link said preventing me from stepping off into one.
"Thanks" I said gratefully. "So any memory on how to get through this thing?"
"Nope"
"Good" Dmitri said. "Makes it more fun but do we really want to go through it?"
"Good point. I'm kinda tired from walking the trail. How about we set up camp and do it tomorrow?" Link suggested.
We agreed but then one of the lava pits spurted and landed on several bomb flower plants. Within seconds a chain reaction had started. Link shoved me and Dmitri down to the ground to protect us from flying debris. I covered my head and tried to hold back a scream because with all the echoing going on it sounded like the whole place was collapsing.
Soon it all ceased but I waited for Link to remove his hand from over me before I did anything. Once he did and moved my hands from over my head coughing on dust in the air when I realized there was barely any light inside the cave now because rocks had piled up in the cave entrance preventing any exit from there but from what I'd read over the years, that was the only way.
"Well, this is just dandy" Dmitri said with extreme sarcasm. "Saira, lights?"
I summoned my light beads and spread them out all over the caves.
"Guide?" Link asked.
"What the hell do you want me to ask? Show us the way out? There is no way out" I said easily irritated.
"Just try"
"Fine" I said doing as he asked. The little ball just spun in circles for several minutes until it floated in one spot. "It says we're stuck"
"Well, I for one am not digging this heat. There's got to be a way out of here"
Suddenly a loud roar echoed throughout the cavern shaking the very ground.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Dmitri demanded
"Saira?" Link asked
"See, now you're glad I read. Well according to my books this place was home to the dinosaur like creature called a Dodongo but in the books you killed the head Dodongo. I'm betting that when we got to start over that it came back. It's probably still trapped in here."
"Oh, idea, idea" Dmitri said excited.
"What?" Link asked
"How big is the dino thing?" he asked me.
"Big. Why?"
"Why don't we untrap it and get it to break the rocks down?"
"Then what? Set a dino loose on Hyrule?" I said rolling my eyes.
"Nah, then we'll get rid of it like Link did way back when."
"It's a plan" Link said.
"Yeah a somewhat suicidal plan. I'm too tired to keep you two alive now. I suggest we find a less sweltering spot to rest for a bit then we can find you a dinosaur to entertain yourselves."
"What makes you think we need you to keep us alive?" Link asked faking offense.
"Whose kept you alive most of the time?"
They shrugged unable to argue. Then two of them smiled and we explored some of the hall ways coming across several creatures. Some that attacked like leeches out of the ground and blew up after they were killed. Those I could deal with and then we found the same sort of statues that were in the Spirit Temple so Dmitri and I knew not to touch them this time. I made the fight the Lizalfos we got locked in a room with. There was no way I was going to deal with those.
Once we were ready to fight we found the way onto the overhead bridges and I told Link and Dmitri that to open the door the eyes of the giant Dodongo skull must light up red. On cue they dropped bomb flowers into the eyes and we held on as the place shook once more sending more rocks down.
Unfortunately once large one fell straight into the bridge.
"Saira jump!"
I did blindly and plummeted to the ground. I closed my eyes and in that brief moment Dmitri swung by and grabbed me. When the rocks stopped falling he lowered us down and the doorway was open.
"I say no more bombs until we're out of the cave" Link suggested.
"Good idea" Dmitri and I agreed as we headed into the doorway. We passed several rooms and fought annoying little Keese before finding a deep pit with the top sealed shut.
"I think we may need to use one more bomb" I said reluctantly.
"It's a wonder this place is still standing" Link smirked lighting up one last bomb as we got out of range. This room was obviously more stable but at least now we had a decent sized hole to jump down through, not that we planned on jumping.
"So how do you suggest we get down there?" Dmitri said leaning over.
"Uh, well...hmm, good question. Saira?"
"Why do I have to be the one with all the answers?"
"Because that's what you do Saira. See Link here is the fighter, I'm the looks and you're the brains"
"I think you got the first two switched" Link joked.
"I think you're both idiots" I teased. "I could make a little spiral slide out of ice if you don't mind your ass getting cold"
"I think my ass would melt your ice" Dmitri joked as I smirked and created the slide. I told them the rest of the plan and we all cheered going down. Course as we neared the bottom, the huge Dodongo King was waiting for us mouth open.
"Dmitri now!" I screamed. Dmitri threw a bomb into the creatures mouth and it went off just in time for us to slide under him rather than into him.
"Okay Saira, pull your Jack and the Beanstalk and pray the walnut brain follows" Dmitri said. I summoned vines out of the ground that took us up. Sure enough the angry oversized iguana dug his claws into the wall and climbed up following us out.
"Run Dmitri!" I screamed as it gained on us. It bashed through walls trying to get to us finally rolling into a ball when he found a flat stretch. "Alright, he's aimed straight for it. Get ready!"
King Dodongo rolled and crashed right through the cave entrance with us barely jumping out of the way.
"All right boys, the dino's ready to be extinct" I said watching them go for the hunt. I found myself a nice little perch on a pile of rocks and watched as they fought the Dodongo keeping it from getting too close to the village. People from down below came to see what all the noise was. And Gorons began coming to the edge of the mountainside to see the spectacle.
"Saira! Little help!" they called. I jumped off my perch putting ice before me to slide down to the battle. I started distracting the creature with my magics while Dmitri and Link attacked from opposite sides. I summoned vines from the ground and started binding the creature giving them time to plunge for the striking blow. Once it was done and the body stopped twitching, cheers and shouts erupted from every side. I think we just made ourselves into celebrities.
"That was a fun way to start the day" Dmitri smiled as we stood on top of the Dodongo.
Suddenly the ground shook as several Gorons slammed into the ground. The one in the middle stood nearly a foot taller than the other two that landed. He also had spikes I assume is his hair going around the head.
"Link, I'm disappointed in you. You're what, almost 19 and this is your first venture to Goron City?"
"Do I know you?" Link asked looking to me for an answer. I motioned for him to come down as I whispered who I assumed it was saying his name was Darunia and the leader of the Gorons and his sworn brother, whatever that really meant.
"Right, Darunia" Link tried to play off.
"Don't worry, my boy, I know all about your little memory loss thing. Come" he said.
We slid off the big lizard wondering what was going to happen with it. The Gorons headed towards it so I decided to push it from my mind. Darunia led us farther up the mountain trail and into Goron city. I thought Dodongo Cavern was cool, not literally, but the city, a thousand times better. There were three levels as far as I could see with intricate tunnels leading to different parts of the city. I couldn't wait to explore it all and by the look on Dmitri's face, he couldn't either.
"Welcome to Goron City" Darunia said. "Nabooru said you were heading this way. I was actually going to ask the three of you to help us with our Dodongo problem"
"We have a knack for getting into trouble like that" Dmitri smirked
"That you do. Goron City is at your disposal."
"I really wouldn't give us that much freedom. Even with rules in Gerudo Fortress, we still managed to cause lots of trouble"
"I doubt there's much you can cause trouble over. After all, most everything is rocks"
"See, now you're just setting them up for a challenge." Link joked.
Course Dmitri and I had to agree. One of the Gorons was assigned to show Dmitri and I around the city. Link however went with Darunia. The Goron showing us around introduced himself as Raus and boy was he long winded.. It didn't take long for us to get bored and separate from him. Not sure if he really noticed but oh well. We went to literally every room in the entire place leaving a couple pranks around we stayed to watch. Course when we accidentally left one for Link and Darunia, his angry Goron face was enough keep us from leaving anymore Deku Nuts around.
I must say I wasn't all that impressed with Goron city other than the amazing architecture and basic build of the city. Everything was perfectly arched and constructed so cave ins were unlikely to happen. It's not so much that really, but if you've ever met a Goron they don't exactly pulse with intellectual information. Half the time you're wondering how on earth they made it so long without becoming extinct. Honestly, they're like the dodo birds sometimes. My assumption is that the leaders are more intelligent than the rest.
Link was instantly popular among the Gorons for the legend of his defeats in his former life were actually drawn onto the walls for I learned that Goron history was painted all throughout so once Dmitri and I had wreaked havoc everywhere we went back and followed the history trail until I'd soaked it up like a sponge. Not to mention we'd just defeated the King Dodongo again which they'd just trapped rather than kill so now they were in the midst of adding that to their history.
That's one big thing I learned about the Gorons during our stay. (They wanted Link around as much as possible and he was loving the attention). Gorons, despite their size and ability to crush your head in their hand, were absolute scaredy cats, the most of them. Even I intimidated a lot of them and I'm just a thin blonde girl. Not too scary I don't think.
After several days though and enough gagging at Link's popularity, which had grown ten fold just by his presence, we finally convinced his O Bigheadedness to climb the rest of the mountain in search of the Great Faery that was rumored to dwell there.
"So Saira, when did you learn about all the cool stuff I did and why didn't you tell me?"
"Link, out of all the places we've been, which is your favorite?"
He smirked. "Here"
"Why?"
"Do you even have to ask, love? He's treated like the bloody king of Hyrule" Dmitri joked.
"Point taken" Link laughed as we came across a long stretch of jagged land. "Doesn't this look charming. I think I preferred the city"
"Well, C'mon, we didn't come all this way for nothin'" Dmitri said starting to go until Link grabbed his arm. "Link?"
"What's wrong, Link?" I asked
"Saira, you know any really good protection spells?"
"What? Like barriers?"
"Yeah" Link said. "Got anything that will protect us should..."
"Should what?" My knees suddenly buckled and I my vision went black momentarily. Shots of pain went through my head in this damn vision. It was simple. I saw Link, maybe ten years old running as fast as his legs could take him as huge molten rocks hurtled down at him from the erupting volcano. I snapped out of it just when a voice said.
"That be Death's Row"
We all jumped. I turned to see Raus behind us.
"Gods, jump start my heart" I exclaimed.
"What do you mean Death's Row?" Link asked as though he remembered as they helped me up..
"You should know, you named it"
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" We smirked.
"Yes, young Link here made this pass several times according to our history. Once to see the Great Faery, another time to save us from Volvagia, the evil Goron eating dragon."
"That doesn't answer why he named it that" Dmitri pointed out.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh. I remember."
"You do!" Dmitri and I exclaimed jealousy.
"Yeah, for some reason whenever there's an eruption it always situated in a certain radius around the mountain"
"I taught you that" I rolled my eyes.
"No, but this is that radius only it's the only part situated on the trail. I remember the first time I ran it. I know that sounds crazy but I do" he said excitedly. "It's cause I thought the mountain knew I was coming because when we start going, I guarantee it'll start to blow. So, like I asked Saira, you know any barrier spells?"
"I know plenty."
"Okay, but we gotta make this quick. Everybody ready to run?" Link asked.
"One sec" I said pulling my hair back into a ponytail and then muttered a few spell words. "Okay, when we start running, the spell should kick in."
"Run!" Link called and we all bolted. We all started laughing when Raus just rolled along with us. I don't suppose they're very good sprinters. Sure enough though, like Link said, the ground shook and rumbled while huge boulders crashed onto my barrier. Finally we reached a nearly vertical but climbable wall I had no doubt the Great Faery was beyond. Slowly the erutopion ceased and all was calm again.
"Well that was exciting" Dmitri said with a grin.
"Yeah, I'll say. We haven't been without that good a time since we broke into the Spirit Temple." Link agreed.
"Okay, thrill seekers, how do you want to get up this? We're not exactly trained rock climbers"
"True, but we've done more dangerous stuff than this"
"We have?" Dmitri asked
"Yeah. You most of all Dmitri. A Sheikah among the Gerudo. C'mon. Saira, you just pull some magic and I know we'll be good."
"I'll meet you guys at the top if you're so eager to climb" I said smartly
"Oh and what are you going to do?"
"Me? I'm going to take a ride" I said pulling my 'Jack and the Beanstalk' trick as Dmitri had named it and carried myself to the top.
"Oh, c'mon Saira!" they called. "You cant just leave us here."
"You're the ones who wanted to climb" I teased but within a couple of seconds they were riding vines up too. Raus was ecstatic I'm sure having never seen so much magic at one time. I brushed dust off my clothes as I took a look around. I saw two caves. One that led down into the volcano and one that was sealed off by a big boulder. My boys and Raus joined me and then we walked to the edge and took in the amazing sight before us.
You can see a lot from the top of Gerudo Fortress but never before in my life had I seen everything. Lake Hylia gleamed in the distance with Mr. Ely's house sticking up with the ruins next to it. Little dots were running around in Lon Lon Ranch and I wondered how Epona was. I could even seen the maze like pathways in Kokiri Forest not to mention I could even see Zora's Lake behind their Domain with Jabu-Jabu floating lazily in the water. Last but not least I could see the bustling marketplace I'd never been to and the palace I'd dreamed of seeing one day.
"Sure is a sight, isn't it?" Link said quietly.
Dmitri and I nodded before Raus broke the silence.
"Whatcha looking at?"
"We've only got one more place to go guys. One more place" I said almost saddened by the thought.
"We'll make it count Saira, don't worry" Dmitri said encouragingly. "Castletown wont know what hit them"
"So, how do you reckon we get past that?" Link said turning around and seeing the big boulder. "We didn't bring any bomb flowers and we ran out during the fight with the Dino guy."
"Saira's our little magician, I know she's got something"
I looked in my bag.
"Uh, Saira cant be a magician without any tricks" I said noticing I hadn't replenished my potion set in ages.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't have anything. I haven't refilled my ingredients in a long time"
"Any ideas Raus?" Link asked
"Well, the magma inside the Core is rather explosive but without being a Goron or have a Fire Tunic, one could barely last 5 minutes in there."
"That could work. I just see one flaw" Dmitri said acting all smart. "How do you suggest we move exploding magma from inside there to out here?"
"I may have an answer to that" Raus interjected. "The stomachs of Dodongos are unique from any creature in the world, since dragons are extinct, but anyway, their stomachs can hold in heats more than that of the sun. Perhaps your bomb bag could hold enough."
"My bomb bag?" Link asked confused
"Yeah, its made out of a Dodongo stomach."
"That's perfect!" I exclaimed heading towards the entrance.
"What do you think you're doing?" Link said grabbing the collar of my shirt.
"I'm going in."
"No, you're sitting right here and waiting for Dmitri and I to come out."
"Why does Dmitri get to go?" I argued.
"Because Dmitri is better balanced than you and I can just imagine what Vienne would scream at me should you trip and fall into a pit of lava"
"Magma" I corrected
"Whatever and have to bring your bones back all charred and gross"
"You know that wont happen."
"No" he said sternly. "Please, just wait here."
"Ugh, fine" I relented. The three of them then went ahead without me while I took a seat on a rock and took a glorious look at the view again. It amazed me how much of it I'd already seen. I have a map of the world in my mind with only one place left to put together. But there's got to be something more. Something beyond Hyrule. I know there are other worlds, two in particular that I've read about, Earth and Middle-earth. I guess I was with my thoughts for longer than I thought because suddenly the three of them ran out. Raus was fine but Dmitri and Link looked ready to melt. Sweat poured off of them and then both tried to come over and give me a hug knowing that's exactly what I woudlnt want them to do
"Ew, don't even think about it!" I laughed running away.
"Alright, alright. Here . Work your mojo."
"My mojo?" I laughed again.
"Shut up, we were just inside a friggin' volcano."
I took the bag from Link and was extra careful as I set it down in front of the boulder and used my magic to pull it out and then back up before I threw it at the boulder. For several seconds I thought it was just going to melt on there but a blast knocked me off my feet and I rolled right over to the edge of the cliff barely grabbing the edge.
"Link!" I screamed as my grip wasn't all that great.
"Hold on " he yelled back sliding over to the edge to get me. But I lost my grip. My mind was racing too quick to think of any spells. Pain shot up through my arm as it hit a ledge sticking out. Then everything went black. I hope I'm not dead.