Chapter
Twenty One
I
walk through the Valley of Death…
Link galloped across Hyrule Field as fast as Epona could go. Behind him, six glowing orbs of color sped after him, each bearing the essence of a sage. Link jumped the outcropping over Zora's River and galloped up the steps to Kakariko.
"What the…!" A guard cried as he jumped out of the way of the stampeding horse and pursuing orbs of light. Epona ran through the rebuilding town, scattering the replenished chickens. Survivors that had hidden in their houses during the massacre looked at the horse and lights in amazement as Link rode up the steps toward the ruin of Death Mountain. Giving a small salute to a guard wearing a yellow mask, Link jumped the high gate blocking the path, before the stupefied guard could stop him.
High above, ash clouded the air, destroying any visibility. The smoking ruins of the mountain could barely be seen, a gaping hole into the crater. Link rode up to Dodongo's cavern where he suddenly stopped. The eruption had blown the entire mountain side out, Goron City and Dodongo's Cavern were gone. Instead, there was a gaping hole of lava in between Link and the Stalfos Tower, standing tall through the ashy distance. The sages each appeared out of their orbs and gaped at the destruction.
"I'm sorry Darunia." Link said sympathetically to the Fire sage. To his surprise, Darunia grinned. All around them, rocks began moving and unfolding themselves into ash covered gorons. Even Biggoron, whom Link had mistaken for a boulder, stood up and with a great stretch, shook the ash off of his back like an avalanche. He squinted at the sages.
"YOU WOULDN'T HAVE SOME EYE DROPS ON YOU DO YOU? THAT WAS SOME EXPLOSION!" Biggoron said to them in his booming voice. Fortunately, Ruto had some of the eyeball frog potion and she gave the small bottle to him. After some thunderous drips, Biggoron looked back with refreshed eyes and noticed Link. "YOU! I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU!" The immense goron fumbled around in its colossal rock bag and pulled out a sword that looked like a needle in his large hand. Link took the sword (It was about four feet long) and nearly collapsed from the weight of it. He had to use the golden gauntlets to hold it with two hands.
"Hey, (puff) thanks!" He gave the sword a mighty swing at a rock and it chopped it in half. "Whoa…"
"MAY IT SERVE YOU WELL. I WILL HELP YOU ACROSS THE CRATER." Biggoron picked Link up, careful not to squish him with his incredible strength. Once Biggoron had him in his palm (which was about the size of a barge), the living colossus stepped into the crater. The lava toiled and hissed around Biggoron's feet, unable to damage the thick rock hide. Link looked back at the sages who had once again assumed the shape of colorful orbs and were following behind at a matched pace.
It took an hour to reach the other side of the crater and Link wasted no time in hitting the road, not that there was much of a road… After thanking Biggoron, Link ran into the cloud of heavy ash. Unable to follow Link in their orb forms, the sages resumed their normal shapes and joined the Hero through the biting ash.
"How much farther is it?" Saria exclaimed after an hour of walking. Black sand was blowing around in unpredictable patterns, thoroughly blocking any view of the tower. She covered her face with her hands and touched something sticky. With a gasp, she drew her hands away from her face and gaped in horror at the blood that covered them. The sand was ripping all of their faces to shreds! Realizing this, Link reached into his bag and pulled out seven rags and told the others to cover their faces. Ruto was having the most trouble with the sand, as an amphibian, her skin was much more vulnerable to the sharp grains and also the fact that she didn't wear much for coverings… Link pulled out his Zora Tunic and helped Ruto get it on. Now that they were all fairly protected from the sandy wind, they trudged on. After another hour, they still couldn't see where they were going. Link looked around, vainly trying to locate any familiar landmarks. Nabooru came walking up to him.
"The wind is messing up our direction! Fortunately, that kind of thing happens often in the wastelands!" The Gerudo yelled through the howling wind. "We need to keep our eyes—" Nabooru didn't finish her thought for that moment, a fireball suddenly ripped through the sand and exploded not twenty feet from the sand blasted travelers. "The dragon! Come ON!" Nabooru grabbed Link by the arm and began dragging him away from the fireball crater.
FWOOSH!
"Aaahhhh!" Saria was blown onto her back from the force of the second fireball that had impacted less than ten feet away. Darunia picked her and Ruto up and pulled them through the storm, following Link and Nabooru. Rauru yelled an incantation and sent a power ball at the invisible dragon. The beast retaliated by blasting Rauru's now vacant location with a fireball. Rauru sent up another power ball in a different location, distracting the dragon as the others staggered past. Link looked up at the blurred sky trying to see the dragon. For a second he thought he saw the great black dragon sprawled over the cliff, its glowing red eyes searching the black valley below it.
FWOOSH!
Rauru narrowly dodged the fire attack and blasted the dragon with a powerful beam of light. As the dragon shrieked in pain, it torched a few carrion birds that were circling overhead. Rauru fired another power ball and quickly moved out of the way of the dragon's retaliatory attack. Fed up with the game, the dragon launched off the cliff and swooped over the valley, sending a fireball directly at Rauru. Unable to move out of the way in time, the Light Sage quickly cast Nayru's Love and took the now harmless hit.
"Watch out!" Link cried as the dragon swooped overhead. Everyone instinctively ducked and hugged the cliff wall. Ruto glared at the dragon, which was breathing a spout of flame at Rauru. As the fire lizard swooped around again, Ruto concentrated on the beast's mouth and shot a cold blast of ice.
SCREEE!
The dragon shrieked loudly as the painfully cold ice froze its throat. After passing the valley in an angry swoop, the dragon flew back to its perch in order to thaw its windpipe. It landed on the cliff with a thunderous crash, sending chunks of rock crashing down upon Link and the sages.
"Watch out!" Link grabbed Saria and pulled her away from the imminent impact site of a boulder the size of Biggoron's fist. Rocks showered down on Impa's helmet, nearly knocking her out. Darunia grabbed a rock in midair and stuffed it into his mouth for an afternoon snack.
"Ain't top sirloin but it'll do…" Link heard Darunia mutter as he swallowed the crushed rock. Up above, the dragon was still shrieking loudly, attempting to thaw its throat by breathing its fire-lung and melting it from the inside. By the time they heard a successful fireball hit the ground, it was nearly a mile behind them. Link groped forward for another twenty minutes before the black base of the tower finally came into view.
"Come on!" Link yelled back through the sand at the sages. As he touched the black wall of the tower, a harsh chill went through his spine.
"Link? Are you alright? Saria asked him concernedly when the hero suddenly locked up. The other sages came trudging up and one by one they stared at Link. His hand was touching the wall. With a choked sound, Link fell over sideways, twitching.
"No one touch the wall!" Darunia yelled as he kneeled down to take a closer look at the hero. "The walls are cursed…" Saria looked up at the goron with a horrified look.
"He'll be alright, w-won't he?" The kokiri stammered.
"Of course he'll be alright." A voice quite different from the one she had been expecting replied. Everyone looked back at the wall, where a door had formed. General Stalakor came walking out, his two swords bared. "For the time being…" The stalfos general jerked his skull in an authoritative nod and the sages soon found themselves surrounded by the skeleton warriors. "Inside." He barked imperiously before entering the dark tunnel. With the other stalfos holding them at sword point, the other sages had no other option but to follow.