Don't forget to leave any constructive criticism you have for me! I am always working to get better, and I love to know your thoughts on my stories 3

Maybe it was because they'd known the way, or maybe it was because they'd unintentionally hurried, but the way back seemed much shorter than the way to and Tya wasn't about to complain about it. Link was a knight, sure, or at least one in training, but that didn't mean she was at ease. They had no idea what would be lurking on the surface when night fell, and given the things that tended to roam at night in Skyloft, Tya wasn't confident. She seldom went out at night, unable to defend herself in a way her mother had found socially acceptable. And the anxiety of home only worsened in this already heavy situation.

Whatever timers had been left on the doors, if any, were yet to have triggered it seemed. The pair of them, after hurrying themselves back indoors, made their way back to the crossroad without any problem. She hadn't fully dried, but she was beginning to warm up which was something at least, leaving her a little less bitter. Even if she had no intention of using the fire in her veins she didn't like being cold and wet. It was just instinct, she guessed.

"It was a dead-end that way," Tya said, pointing in the direction they'd first gone. "So the two doors that remain must be the correct path."

Link nodded at the absolutely genius level of detective work she just did, his brow furrowing as he glanced between the two. "Just flooded the place," he reminded, motioning down toward the opaque water around the platform's edges.

Tya, bitterly reminding herself that she'd almost drowned herself in that room, grimaced. The same thoughts occurred to her then, that had before they'd left: why the fuck did that matter? Crossing her arms over her chest, she joined him in peering down at the water that had raised exponentially even out here in this part. There were grates on either side of the room, implying that it had been built with the intention of water being down there in the first place. Which made sense given the layout; the walkways and the somewhat dried-up chasms beneath.

Straightening up, she looked toward the barred door, and then once more to the chained one. There was a lock on the door, and now that she considered it, she wondered how it was even supposed to keep them from opening the damn thing. These doors seemed to slide in and out of a recess and the chains that held it seemed attached not to the door but the archway around it. The only issue they really had was getting to the door, but ledges were a familiar and very conquerable foe at this point.

"Do you think we'd be able to get a better look at that door?" Tya asked Link, calling his attention to the chained one. After a moment of consideration, he nodded his head and stepped to the edge of the center platform on which they stood again. The water level had raised but not so much that it would be over their heads. She didn't much like it, but she did want up there, and her pants being wet again was a small price to pay for it. So long as her hands were free, she guessed.

Link followed the edge for a short way, finding a spot clear of the former bridge's debris, and then when he deemed it safe for a landing, he hopped down. The impact of himself and his gear sent water on the sides of the platform, droplets darkening the torso of his tunic, but he was on his feet and glancing once again to their intended destination.

Tya, unwilling to make such a mess of herself for the millionth time today, slid to sit on the edge, pushing off so she could attempt a more graceful landing. Which she failed, but she too was on her feet, and she kept her hands above the waist-level water. She followed to the edge, and with the help of some debris, Link hoisted her up onto the edge.

Her aching limbs begged her to not try and lift her own weight, but fortunately Link's strength was enough to cover the difference between them, and she flopped her now sopping ass onto the edge of what was left in front of the chained door.

Getting to her feet, she glanced back as Link kicked at a bit of rubble, testing the stability so he could stand on top of it though it wouldn't actually give him the height needed to get up to where they were. Knowing well that she was too weak to pull him up, she left him to his own devices as she turned back to look at the door.

She wrapped her fingers beneath the chain and she gave it a small tug, looking over the remaining four as she did. Each reaching limb of the chain seemed embedded into the floor and the archway as she'd suspected, making her wonder how this was even meant to be effective. She was just about to write off whoever had put it up as an idiot when she realized that it was the lock itself meant to hold the door.

She leaned, poking at the large mechanism to find it didn't budge. Upon pressing to the door a little more she realized it was stuck fast, and she dropped her hands to her sides again to consider that. It made sense then, that if the door attempted to pull itself open, it would be stopped, which really put a damper on her whole 'fuck the chain altogether' theory.

Turning back, Tya knelt at the edge, peering down at Link who had just been patiently waiting for her to return. "Do you think we can break a chain?" She asked him, to which he tilted his head. He replied with a shrug of his shoulders, and at that, she readjusted so she could slide herself back into the water. "Would you like to try?"

Again, Link shrugged, this time more on the end of a 'sure why not'. So she grimaced at the water, leaving herself only a second's worth of mental preparation before she leaned down and plunged her hands into it, clasped tight with one another to give a stable place that he may step.

After he was up, he again turned to hoist the emotional support damsel in distress back onto the platform. While she tried to find a spot on her clothes that was dry enough to clean her hands, he went about examining the chain to come to the same conclusion she did. But always one for simplifying a task, Link mentally did away with the thought that they'd break the chains. Instead, he examined the connection of each link to the structure around it.

"Can't be too deep," Link said, motioning to it and looking back at her. He stood again and removed his hat, taking off the pins that had held it in place so they wouldn't fall off as he handed it out to her. Upon seeing the confusion in her expression, he motioned to her hands which she'd taken to waving in the air to try and dry as her clothes were still damp in the driest of places. Given that it was untouched by the water all but the tip where it had fallen in just a bit, it helped immensely, though she wasn't sure if handing it back was the right course of action.

"Do you think we can just pull them out?" She asked, looking at the hat for a long moment before electing to hold it out anyway. It felt rude to hand it back after using it like that but what else was she going to do with it? Throw it away?

Again, he shrugged as his answer, and after shaking the splotched hat out, he pinned it back in place and turned back to the chains.

They had been driven in with enough efficiency to hold the door closed, but upon closer inspection, there was a line of dust on the stakes that held them in, suggesting that, upon trying to open the door, they'd been wiggled out little by little. It wasn't a lot, no, but it was enough to suggest the idea of pulling the chains free might just work if they fucked with it enough.

And work, it did.

The cracked and worn stonework of the temple was hardly a stable enough place for such a thing, so jimmying it free only took blunt force, breaking the floor, and a little bit of frustrated kicking here and there. Either way, even Tya knew enough to know that whoever did this wasn't exactly the pinnacle of handiwork.

Tya and Link ducked through the slightly open door into a stairway that led the pair back up and into a far more vast space than the crossroad.

Moonlight filtered through the time-frosted remnants of a glass dome overhead, through which the room's centerpiece rose and curled out into what she assumed to be the structure they'd seen over the treeline. Nature had spilled from the openings in the glass, overtaking it all in much the same manner it had everything else she'd seen thus far. The stone flooring had long since been covered and grass once again allowed to grow in the dirt. The fungi, now above land again, ate away at vines that crawled along the walls and along the decorative bird statues that were placed incrementally around the circular space.

"This is beautiful," Tya breathed, as she gazed in awe at the desecrated temple. Link, a smile on his lips bright enough to light the room on its own, said nothing. He only stood aside and waited patiently for her to admire the space around them. Or for her to take a step, at the very least, because as she did so, he did move to stop her, effectively drawing her back to their predicament.

As beautiful as the place was, they had no idea what dangers may lay in wait, and while there was low light to give them some hint as to what was around them, caution was to be taken. He was right.

He moved once more to have her on his shield side.

Overhead, Tya could see the outlines of spiders comfortable on their webs drawn across portions of the dome, and the heated tints of dangling keese. There was also the key sound of footsteps somewhere; a manmade movement among the breeze circulating through the open glass and the rustling of leaves and vines. She reached forward, her fingers wrapping into the fabric of his sleeve, which he didn't seem to mind. He held his arm out to her as if to say she was allowed to lock her own with his, so she did, keeping her grip loose as to not hinder him should he need to act quick.

Among the things to emit dim light by which they could see, was the familiar pinkish glow of a switch. While it seemed unlikely that it was where Zelda was, the fact that it was directly ahead of them put both Link and Tya on the same page. Careful to be quiet- something that came easy to Tya but much less for Link and the amount of gear he had, the pair made their way across the vast space, all while Tya was left to wonder what purpose this portion of the temple would have served. Given how large it was, and the fact that it was once again above ground, she wondered if perhaps this was the main room; a lobby of sorts. Where any visitors would have come, where daily activities would have taken place, so on.

The daily life in such a place would have been interesting. Was it the goddess they worshipped here, she wondered, as Link separated from her to pop the slingshot from its place on his belt. The golden goddesses, perhaps? There was little symbolism in the way of either, though legends insisted Hylia herself had a loftwing. The bird statues and depictions throughout made her lean toward thinking Hylia was the one worshipped here.

Though really, she wondered if this even was a temple at all. She'd been under the impression it was, though for what reason, she wasn't sure. Perhaps someone had said something about it and referred to it in such a way she just couldn't remember, but there was a very vague sense of familiarity, something old and untouched, something deep, deep in her being. It was a temple. It just felt right to say it was.

There was the distinct sound of a pellet hitting the switch, and the gears waking from their long slumber. Link had drawn his sword in case the sound drew any attention, which it had, but it wasn't so much hostile as it was curious. The keese overhead spread their wings, their wide reflective eyes in their direction. They didn't seem keen on taking off though, only watching, which Tya was fine with. The keese in Skyloft often got antsy when you got too near them, but these were so far overhead they didn't seem to care, dangling from the ceiling which made Tya wonder if this was perhaps not a lobby at all but instead an atrium?

Link opened the door, waiting there for her to come to once again. He no doubt would have had more patience had it not been for the acknowledging grunt and some shuffling that suggested something was coming in their direction. As such, he instead ushered her inward, and she complied without question upon realizing why.

He guided her to the side of himself, both of their backs to the walls in wait so he could ambush the foe when it made its way around. The door did fall closed, but if they were able to open it, they assumed the creature could too.

That plan was dashed in a matter of seconds.

The impact of the door closing was followed by another. The slick sound of metal against stone and then a mechanism locking hard into place left her leaning forward to look at the door.

The sight made her stomach drop, and Link pushed off the wall to grab hold of the bars in a near panic. A hard tug proved fruitless, and he hissed through his teeth as he took a step back to look around the archway for any indication of how they may leave.

Tya's first instinct was to hurriedly seek out another exit, to see if there was another doorway out. And as if it wasn't already sickening enough to look around the crumbling hollow interior and see that this was the only entrance, as her eyes tracked back around the circle, helplessness growing, she noticed something worse. Bones.

So many bones.

Strewn all across the floor.

She reached a hand toward Link, grabbing once more at his sleeve. While her touch had been idle before, a request to hang on as to not get lost, she actively pulled him this time. It was the first indication something was wrong, leaving him to whip back around and hold his sword and shield at the ready.

The second indication?

The sound of bones beginning to rattle across the stone.