Author's Note: Man, poor Link. Kid doesn't get a break, does he? Attacked by giant bugs, fought skeletons for an entire night, snuck into a castle, turned into a Skull Kid, and now torn apart by dinosaurs. That's the hero we all know and love, right? I'm just as excited about writing this chapter as I hope you are about reading it! Well, enough of my innane babbling, we've got a dungeon to complete!

A Hero's Path

Chapter 13: Scaley Monsters

"I'm fighting dinosaurs! No wonder I'm getting my butt whooped!" Link said, still clenching his wounded arm.

"Remember, these are fire-breathing dinosaurs, Link."

"Thanks for the pick-me-up."

"Here, slice off the bottoms of your sleeves," she instructed, and Link obliged.

Navi then proceded to wrap the shreds of cloth tightly around Link's wounded arm.

"Let's avoid blocking with that arm from now on, okay?"

"Shut up," Link said, ashamed of his own stupidity.

He got up and they returned down the corridor they had entered, for the nest room was a dead end. They entered another doorway and found a large, rectangular pillar, which started against the wall and extended to the center. It appeared to be made of metal, and there was a pulley system connected to it.

Link looked up to the top of the pillar and found out it was a set of stairs that started too high up and didn't come all the way down. The entire thing was overgrown at the bottom with the mining plants the Gorons were so fond of.

"Hmm..." Navi said. "Looks like several of the Gorons would pull this rope system and move the stairs up or down."

"So they could get to levels two and three?" Link said.

"Yeah. The problem is, we aren't as strong as three or four Gorons, so we can't use it."

"That's where you're wrong," Link said. He picked up one of the bulbs and chopped the stem short.

"What're you doing?" Navi said as he grabbed her off his shoulder, ran, and ducked under his Hylian Shield. "With all those bomb flowers, we'll blow sky high!"

"We can survive one more boom!" Link said, and as soon as he did, the entire room was encased in an inferno.

Link pushed a large chunk of rock off that was pinning him to the wall and coughed while the dust cleared.

"I don't think you're cut out to be a miner, Link," Navi said.

When the dust had settled, they found the stairs down to a level Link could climb, but with great difficulty. The steps were each almost as tall as he was, and the pillar was slanted to the side and shaky. Navi closed her eyes as he climbed, afraid the staircase would tumble over with him on it.

Finally he reached the top and climbed across the remains of wooden catwalks until he reached a door he could pass through. He did so, and traveled down a much more peaceful corridor than the room he had left behind. At the end was another door that Link opened.

The room through the door was dark and warm. The sounds of deep breathing were in the air. Navi's glow lit upon an eye in the dark, about ten feet ahead. The eye raised and disappeared behind a large mouth, inhaling air.

"Link, look out!" Navi shouted. Link dove and rolled out of the way of the burst of fire that came flooding out of the Dodongo's mouth. The farthest reaches of the fire caused a small explosion. Link looked over and could barely see a small scattered patch of bomb flowers. He rolled over to it and plucked one. The Dodongo began inhaling again and Link threw the bomb in its general area. Then he ran out of the range of the Dodongo. Moments later there was a burst of flame, a bright flash of light accompanied by an explosive sound, and much wailing.

"You got it!" Navi cheered.

Link ran through the dark room until he tripped over something and fell to the ground. A large creature turned to face Link. Under the light of the explosion when the Dodongo died, he found he had tripped on this new creature's tail! It started to snap at him and he rolled out of the way. He pulled out his slingshot and shot the Dodongo in the eye, which distracted it long enough for him to stand. But the obstruction in its eye only served to anger it, and it drew in breath. Link shot at its mouth and then shot at its tail. The seed in its mouth did very little if anything, but the seed that hit its tail deflected and caused an explosion nearby. The monster fell to the ground bleeding to death. Link hurried and ran out of the room as he heard several of the creatures starting to roar and step toward him after the confrontation.

He followed the wall, leaping over a couple snapping lizards, until he found a door and went through. He found he was now standing at one of the rope bridges above the main room, and encountered one of the floating flames, which turned out to be a bat-like creature on fire!

"That's a fire keese!" Navi said. Link shot at it a couple times before hitting it. It fell into the magma pit below. He ran across the bridge, leaping over areas of missing boards, until he reached the other side and sat down, leaning against a wall.

"What are you doing?" Navi asked.

"Maybe Darunia ws right," he said. "Maybe this wasn't a job for someone my age. My arm is really hurting now."

"That's cause you've been using it with your slingshot, Link!"

"I know, but... I've nearly died about twenty times already in this cave! We missed so many of those Dodongos back there..."

"It was too dark for you to fight that many adult Dodongos, Link. Besides, those were probably all girls."

"So?"

"If we find and kill the king, we won't have to kill all the others. They'll die out! Female Dodongos only have a life expectancy of about two or three years."

"Two or three years? I can't imagine that!"

"Did you hear me? If we don't kill the king, they'll keep multiplying. We've already cleared the first floor for the most part, and we've discovered their weakness is their tails. We tell the Gorons that and the mine is theirs. But we have to kill the king, Link."

"Sure. Where would he be? Is that him?" He pointed to the giant Dodongo head they had seen when they first entered.

"No. That one's dead. But be careful, he could be really big like that. That's the largest Dodongo fossil ever found, if I'm not mistaken, but most kings were larger than the females by a good amount."

"Oh. Well that's a relief!"

"Let's go, Link." Link got up and they went through the next door. Down another tunnel and into the next room, they were amazed at the sight. An entire room filled with magma, but with large platforms to travel on across the room.

"Whoa."

Suddenly, a large reptile dropped from above. Where he came from, Link couldn't tell, but he wasn't a Dodongo. The lizard stood on two legs, but had a set of arms too, with which he was holding a sword and shield. He had light armor on his body, and seemed ready to attack Link, like he was waiting for him.

"That's a Lizalfos!" Navi said.

"Is he a dinosaur, too?"

"No, he never existed! Lizalfos are summoned by dark magic, at great expense to the user, too. He must have been set here as a guard by Ganondorf! This confirms my suspiscions!"

"Never mind all that! How do I fight him?"

"Like a swordsman!"

The Lizalfos hopped over to Link's platform and struck at him with his sword. Link hopped out of the way and tried to strike back, but the lizard blocked with his shield. As Link's sword made contact with the shield, the creature struck again, this time at Link's head. Link ducked under the attack, and struck upward at the Lizalfos. The lizardman couldn't block fast enough and took a jab to his stomach. The scales of his body took most of the force and very little of the sword made it through the lizard's skin. Still, he wailed in pain and jumped back.

He came back with a jump attack at Link, who jumped aside and slashed the creature's tail. The tail swiftly came off, but didn't bleed at all.

"He's not a Dodongo, Link!"

The creature turned and slashed horizontally across. Link was already too injured. If he took a slice from that lizard he would probably lose. He did a backflip in the air and avoided the lizard's blow. On his landing, Link bounced off his legs and pounced at the lizard with his sword in both hands above his head. He came down on the lizard's head before it was ready to defend. He sliced its head open and it died instantly.

Link fell to the ground holding his wounded arm.

"I didn't think I could slice him like that. I don't know how much more I can take!"

"Come on!" They hopped over to another doorway, where they stopped and Navi removed his bandages. Link's wound was now yellow, and his arm was looking pale.

"That doesn't look good!" Link said.

"We need to get you out of here!"

"No! We have to be getting close! We'll get it checked out when we kill the king!"

"Link..."

"No!" He jumped up on his feet and set Navi on his shoulder again, and then opened the door.

There was another corridor, and beyond was a large room filled with rows of pillars. Link took one step across the floor, and a spiked trap came flying toward him. Link jumped back and avoided getting stickered. The spike trap slowly returned to its spot against the wall. As it passed Link, he ran in between two pillars to safety. Between every row was another spiked trap, and Link made his way cautiosly across the room. To his left he saw a raised area of ground, too high for him to jump to.

On the other side of the room was a passageway that led in a slope in a "u" that wound up to the raised section in the trap room. There was a box next to a door across the room. Link opened the box and found a couple of things he didn't recognize, but Navi did.

"That's a stomach. Looks about as big as a Dodongo's. What's inside?" Link cautiously opened the top, which was closed with some rope. Inside, it was filled to the top with six or seven bomb flower-like bulbs. "And some flint in the box too! It looks like you can light the bulbs with it! Those look an incredible amount like bomb flowers!"

"Well they're portable, so they're better than bomb flowers!" Link said. He tied the stomach to his belt and stuck the flint inside. They then proceded through the room, which led back out to the main room and another rope bridge, which went straight over the dead Dodongo's head. They hurried across the bridge to the other side, which turned out to be a dead end. The wall looked to be very hard stone, something hard to mine through.

"This must be as far as the Gorons mined," Navi said.

"No!" Link said, beating the wall. "We were so close!"

"There might be another way..." Navi said.

"There has to be!" Link said. He paused for a moment, and then ran back out to the middle of the bridge, where he pulled out a bulb and some flint. He lit the wick with a spark.

"What are you doing!"

Link dropped it into the skull's eye socket down below. It exploded and destroyed a portion of the skull. The jawbone broke and fell, revealing a passage through under the spine of the Dodongo.

"How did you...?" Navi said.

"I don't know." He took another bomb down to the end of the bridge, lit it, and went out to the middle, holding either side of the bridge as tight as he could. The end of the bridge blew up, and it fell. As he swung down on the bridge, Link slid down and jumped off on the Dodongo's head. He entered the passage and went down it.

"This has to be it!" Link said. Finally, the passage ended with a hole in the ground. Link looked down and saw a bright light below. "What now?"

"Jump?"

"We've come this far!" And with that, he dropped into the hole. It was a lot further down than he had hoped. Finally, he hit the ground on his feet and buckled under the shock of the landing.

On his knees, he felt heavy breathing on his neck. He turned his head and saw the scariest thing he'd ever seen. It was massive. Not as big as the dead Dodongo, but atleast twelve feet tall. It roared mightily at Link, and Link was finding it hard just to have the courage to stay on his knees. It was definitely Dodongo, but very large. His natural armor was greater than that of the others. He inhaled.

"Link..."

Link jumped before the creature blew fire, but it blew much more fire than Link was expecting. Link started running before the tongues of fire could reach him. The room was circular, with a big pit of magma in the middle. The land around the pit was just wide enough to fit the Dodongo.

"I think we found the king!" Link said.

"No kidding!" Navi answered.

The king stopped breathing fire just as Link backed against a wall. Then it rolled itself up and started rolling around the room toward Link. Link sucked in his gut and stayed against the wall, but was sliced across the chest by the Dodongo's spikey scales.

"Gaagh!" he exclaimed, and grabbed his chest. The lizard hit the wall and unrolled, facing Link it began to inhale again, and Link took this opportunity to light a bulb and toss it at the giant Dodongo's tail. The bomb exploded, but the dinosaur was unscathed.

"It's armor's too strong!" Navi said.

The creature began exhaling flame again, and Link ran away again.

"What do I do?" he shouted as the creature started rolling again. He stood on the edge of the magma as it rolled past and leaned away from the spikes. After it past, it was all Link could do to keep from tipping in to the magma.

"Not that!" Navi shouted back.

Link fell forward and the creature rose again. It opened wide to inhale once more.

"It sure doesn't do much, but how do I kill it, Navi!"

"I don't know, its armor protects it from all outside attacks!"

"So then what?"

"I don't know, throw a bomb in its mouth!"

"A bomb?"

"It's as good a plan as any!"

Link pulled out another bomb just as the creature spewed fire once more. He ran and ducked in a corner. The creature rolled up and rolled past Link, missing him altogether. As the Dodongo hit the wall again, Link lit his bulb. The creature breathed in, and Link chucked the bomb with both arms and all his might into its mouth.

The dinosaur didn't know what to do. It had just been fed by the prey it was trying to eat! It closed its mouth, and Link and Navi heard a faint "Boom!"

The monster's eyes glazed over and it rolled limply into the pit of magma, which cooled and solidified. Instead of melting the creature, it encased it in a bed of rock. There was no explosion. The creature would not explode.

Pleased with his victory, Link dropped on his knees and recognized the antagonizing pain in his right arm.

"Link? Link, are you all right?"

He closed his hand around his yellow arm and wailed like the monsters when they were delivered fatal wounds. Then he slowly blacked out...