It seemed wrong to use this ancient contraption in the way that it was being used. Tya was thankful that time hadn't weakened it to the point that ramming it continuously into solid surfaces would shatter it, but it didn't really seem like The Point. Not all of it was intentional, she could tell. Link was still learning to control it, which led the poor thing into various walls, but he did still use it to trigger switches. A required impact. She wondered what the initial use of it was, strongly doubting that smacking into walls was it. Who had made it and why had they done so? It was a wonder of a creation, and even though she was inept in the area of technology, she really did want to know what made it work.
Link, meanwhile, seemed to just be having a grand time with it overall. He'd used it to trigger the aforementioned switch. Used it to smack a spider off a web. Clipped some vines. Even found an absolutely ancient rupee, which Tya was inclined to keep just for the fact that it was beyond old.
The fact that he did seem so enthused by flying it around meant she felt bad in reminding him that they did actually have an objective. Even if he didn't seem to mind at all, and had stored it away in the box that was now also hooked to his belt. It seemed heavy and probably like it was going to be in the way, but it was better than carrying it around she supposed.
He opened the door to this room and hesitated far less than Tya had in actually entering. She couldn't help but momentarily choke on the possibility it was going to be yet another trap, and upon noticing her reluctance, Link held his shield arm out to her again. This time, however, it didn't help much.
With her unwillingness to follow, Link stepped away from the door, letting it fall shut again. The fact that it didn't sound like it sealed did leave her a little more at ease, and this was further aided by the fact that he came back to her and raised her hand to place it on his arm. "You're safe with me," he assured her. "Even if we- we do get lock-locked in, we'll find a way out."
She said nothing, only watched him carefully. She could see the small signs of wariness in his eyes. The hint of worry creasing his brow. But more than that, she could see confidence that helped her trust his words, even if that wasn't the exact cause of her fear.
Swallowing back the anxiety, she nodded, turning her attention forward again and thus mostly missing the fact that he examined the hand now set on the bend of his elbow. It wasn't a long study, and he soon moved forward to open the door once again.
To her relief, when it fell shut, it didn't immediately bar itself off like the other. It did still make her flinch, and what was even more uncomfortable was the fact that she could feel Link's muscles tense under her loose grip. Even so, they were both able to breathe with a little more ease as they stepped further into the new room; a crumbled mess of a hallway. A stairway, to be more specific, but since the stairs had long since fallen through, it kind of made itself into a hallway. That was how that worked, right?
Tya blew out a breath to try and ease the weight on her chest and squeezed Link's arm softly as they started forward. The edge of this part in particular, looked more like it had been another decorative pathway, and this assumption was furthered by the fact that there were rubble-ridden shallow waters in the space below. Just like the rest, time had since brought down the bridge, but that didn't phase Link. It seldom did.
He pulled from her grasp and hopped off the edge, unfazed by the ensuing splash that accompanied his impact. Tya lowered onto the edge and slid down so she could follow him across and up a relatively stable portion of the fallen bridge on the other side.
It was there that the hallway widened, leaving room for symmetric staircases that led upward, though to what, Tya couldn't tell. She almost didn't notice the area with it being behind them, because the stairs up to it had, like everything else, crumbled.
They jointly and silently came to the conclusion that they'd check this room first, and after, they'd see if they couldn't find a way up there. And then the pair proved they hadn't learned their lesson in not going directly for the first path that made sense, by going directly for the first path that made sense.
She was no more at ease in entering this room than she had been the previous. Really, the anxiety hadn't gone away at all; it was still there, still lingering, causing her to look needlessly over her shoulder and forcibly draw in each breath. The only difference was, now in the residual fear, she could see how ridiculous it was. She couldn't stop it, only see that it was a stupid reaction she shouldn't have, which was definitely helpful. She loved feeling stupid and afraid on top of the weak helplessness that had pervaded her since the moment she realized Zelda wasn't coming back.
She just wanted to bring her home, and that hope was still present even though she knew it wasn't a possibility. Not with all the storybook bullshit apparently at stake between her and Link. Both of them were the perfect heroes to have chosen for this tale, and Tya really wished that she didn't find herself caring so deeply for the heroine. Especially when, by all accounts, she should be the eventual traitor given her monstrous background.
Something to uncover down the line, she supposed… something to make both parties feel the ultimate betrayal and disgust toward her. Those feelings she deserved but couldn't bring herself to coax out and just get it all over with early.
Link opened the door and motioned for Tya to come along, thus allowing guilt to seep in and infect every already present ill feeling in her. He hadn't done anything, no, he just offered her a smile. But it was the reminder of his kindness that told her he deserved so much better than to be subjected to her bullshit. The fact that she'd done nothing while he was in danger, and the fact that he had gone out of his way to reassure her even though he was the one that had been in harm's way.
What had she done throughout this entire journey so far aside from bitch?
Aside from fucking complain and wallow? And she was too afraid to even try and be useful?
Why the fuck would Link want to put up with her? It had to be guilt or something. There was literally no other reason to keep her around, she was nothing but a burden; a bundle of cloth and negativity dragging him down when he could be so easily doing all of this. He could be going through each idea he had without her, not wasting time trying to find a different entrance, not stopping to comfort her when she was afraid, not helping her onto ledges–
The door slammed closed behind her. The bars fell shut after.
Link, with no hesitation, whipped his blade from its sheath and held his shield at his front.
Tya held her breath. Was it intentional? Anticipation? Fear? The absolute desire to drop dead right then and there?
She reached a shaking hand out to grab for Link again despite her best judgment insisting he needed freedom to protect them. And despite her mind reminding her that she was a fucking nuisance that had spent every second of their fucking time doing nothing.
This room was more whole than the last, and that fact made her uncomfortable. They'd undoubtedly cheated the last by using the broken-down state of the building to escape. But this one had held up to the test of time far better. Without the sounds of shambling bones rattling across the floor tiles, Tya was admittedly more at ease, but not by much. She allowed herself to set a hand on Link's arm, and given that she'd reigned in the urgency with which she'd initially reached for him, he didn't seem quite so startled by the action. Instead, he looked back at her, his shield arm held out to indicate that she was to remain behind it so she wouldn't get hit if anything did come of the suddenly locked door.
On top of finding solace in the fact that she hadn't yet heard any old bones clattering together, there was also the constant reminder to herself that this room was a room. It gave no indication that it could be a cell, and therefore there had to be a way out. Why the hell would a room close itself like that without having a way to exit, no matter what that way may be? She'd admit, they hadn't looked far in the last because she'd been too panicked to try, but if they had, they more than likely would have found something. They had to. It just made sense.
The ceiling nearest the entry was lower than it was deeper into the room. A crescent shape of shade was cut into the moonlight filtering in from another domed glass ceiling far overhead. As they stepped out into the cylindrical room's center, Tya noticed one, that the ceiling had been the floor of a loft, and that the wall to their left was a rampart up to it, albeit a somewhat crumbled one. And two, the eight-legged shadow that was cast on the floor in front of them. That one, Link had actually seemed to notice first, causing him to stall in the room and glance upward toward the monstrosity that had webbed its home along the dome.
Two legs peeled off the web, allowing it to look down at them with what was no doubt a predatory stare. Tya may have been an absolute tree hugger when it came to animals, but spiders were the exception. Had she ever delved into the psychological reason for the borderline phobia, she would have discovered that it was because of her mother being utterly terrified of them, but she hadn't. She had just had it embedded in her brain for the last seventeen years that spiders = bad, and thus, she needed to stay away.
And right then, at that moment, as the Skulltula gracefully descended to the floor with a thud that indicated it was way too big for a spider, she realized that her mother was so, so right.
Sharp chelicerae clicked at them, the sound causing Tya to recoil and wave her hands with something near disgust. She shuddered, and despite her guilt a moment prior in being of such little assistance, she just opted out of the situation entirely by retreating back under the shade of the loft overhead. Link hardly seemed to notice, his focus first and foremost on the thing with intent to harm. It was dispatched with ease, and even though Tya was sickened by even the corpse of it, she couldn't help feel a touch guilty. They had walked into its home, after all.
"Don't like 'em?" He asked back as she joined him again. Her lip curled with distaste and she gave the beast a wide berth even despite it clearly being dead. She'd always felt that guilt, even when her father would kill the significantly smaller versions of them back home, lest her mother burn the house down. It just felt cruel, but that wasn't exactly something they could scoop up in a cup and toss outside. Which was something her father had only ever done in secret, lest her mother burn the whole island down.
"Not at all," she answered, glancing back toward the barred door. Unsurprisingly, it hadn't been linked to the spider that had taken up residence in the room after its previous inhabitants had been long dead, so it didn't open even if she wished it had.
She was slowly becoming numb to the fear, aided by the lack of sword-wielding dead guys lunging at her around the room. It was still a very upsetting thing to consider starving to death in this room, something that she realized would come sooner rather than later. They hadn't actually eaten all day, had they?
She set a hand over her stomach, trying to parse whether or not the pain was actually anxiety or hunger. Her mind wandered briefly to the fact that she had packed food, but hs didn't dwell on that long "...Do you see any conveniently placed switches?" She asked, looking toward the ramp that led to the second floor. She cast a quick glance back toward the dead spider, then another up to its web just to be sure it didn't have any friends or family waiting to avenge it.
Link didn't give an answer, but the subsequent shuffling of his gear suggested he was beginning to look for one as well.
The most notable part of the room aside from the loft was the fact that, opposite the door, there was a covelike structure. A half circle in which the splintered remnants of an old warped desk lay. Shelves or something of the like seemed to have once lined the wall, but there were no fancy boxes waiting for them in the rubble there, only a piece of furniture that looked like it would turn to dust if Link touched it.
Tya proceeded up to the loft, ignoring the inherent need to cringe away from everything that possibly had Spider Germs on it. She instead allowed herself the momentary distraction of admiring faded artwork along the wall's old trim, but upon seeing the thick white webbing again, that was also not a possibility. At least it wasn't a skeleton.
She shuddered, trying once more to shake off the lesser fear, this time in a way that was more literal and almost like something you'd see a wet dog do. Surprisingly, it actually worked, if only because she acknowledged that it kind of looked ridiculous.
The second floor had seemed a little cozier now that she was on it. Even if the furniture here had long since been reduced to packed dirt and splinters of wood, she could definitely have imagined the way it may have felt back in the day. A pleasant little resting area away from the work done down below. To rest in the sunlight, taking a break from their duties…
Over the broken railing, she peered down at Link who was stood in the little alcove opposite the door. She pointedly kept her eyes off the still lingering corpse of the skulltula, desperately wishing it too would disappear. Which. Actually.
She tilted her head.
She wondered why those strange pests' bodies always seemed to wither into that black mist whereas other creatures here didn't seem to.
"...Is there anything down there?" She asked, side-eying the wilted legs of the spider with a bit more skepticism now that she'd considered the fact that it did not in fact disappear.
Link shook his head, nudging at a vaguely rectangular piece of still standing wood. It was threaded through with a vine that had crawled down the wall next to the alcove, thus reclaiming whatever the piece used to be. The remnants of a long plank had since buckled and lay diagonally poked out and rested against the rectangular chunk, which to Tya implied that it may have once been a desk.
"There is nothing up here either," she said, looking back toward the vines which had long since consumed a row of bookshelves. There was a pang of sorrow in her chest over what had been on those shelves, and the fact that they were now lost to time. She moved to the natural lattice, pushing aside some thin stems to see if anything remained, but no, there was nothing of substance.
The sound of shuffling called her back to the railing, peering down at Link as he crouched by the desk's carcass. He was using the edge of his shield against the packed earth, tilling up a big portion into thick moist segments of mud which he brushed aside with little thought. From the pile, he plucked a small dish-like item.
Finding nothing of value on the loft, Tya descended again, watching Link as he turned over his treasure in his hand and wiped a bit of dirt from its surface. As she neared, he held the emblem up to her to see. Etched in the tarnished golden surface of what appeared to be an old broach, was an intricate beetle. With her nail, Tya carved a bit of dirt from the outline, smiling with a bright excitement over his find. It didn't help them get out of the room, but she was thrilled to see it regardless, at least up until she realized that Link had been the one to find it.
She dulled just a bit, holding it out for him to take it back. Even if it wasn't hers, it was still an impressive find- a souvenir that she'd be thrilled to see if Link ever wore it elsewhere. But upon having it held out to him, the boy waved a hand as if to dismiss the gesture. His eyes briefly flickered to a place behind her as he got to his feet once again, and after he patted her hand, he turned his attention instead to unlatching the slingshot once more.
On the inside of the wall was another pink crystal, sat like an ornament over the chipped archway into the alcove. Tya examined the broach once again, and as Link readied a pellet into the slingshot, she stowed it away in her pocket for the time being.
The bars receded, and with them, a little more of Tya's anxiety ebbed away. Time was further weathering away her fear, letting her ease the farther behind her that creature was put. By Link's side, she was having trouble feeling unsafe anyway, and there was a newfound excitement over everything she could see. Somehow, having found that little broach, was a reminder to her that this place had been inhabited. That people had lived there once upon a time.
They stepped back out into the hall, facing the second floor which they could see clearly from that angle. The former infestation of the white-blue fungi had touched this area as well, causing the vines within this corridor to be a little more translucent, and more blue than they were green. It seemed less prevalent there than it had been in the deeper portion of the temple; the part through which they'd entered initially. Here, it was barely enough to light the way, but it did cast just enough for them to see by.
Link glanced back at her, eyes narrowed as he looked at her hands. She tilted her head at him, but he said nothing. So the pair just moved on, and assisted one another onto the half-fallen stairway so they could proceed down the upper corridor. In the relative darkness, she felt the need to once again stick close to Link out of fear of getting left behind but she refrained from outright clinging. A conscious effort she had to make, as she was inherently inclined to grab for his tunic to keep him from getting too far away from her.
Their trek down this hallway wasn't one that went far. A short way down they were met with another fallen-in pathway, and the platform across was decimated to a point they elected to abandon hope in exploring it further. The bright side of it was that the state of the path had allowed them a shortcut back into the lobby.
"There are two ways left to try," Tya said as they emerged back into the main area. As she dusted her clothes needlessly, she glanced back, hoping the crumbled corridor didn't actually lead to where they needed to go. Looking at it, though, she wasn't even entirely sure where it would go. Given the fact that it was in this direction, and the fact that it wasn't far off from the other doorway, she figured it would have to curve somewhere else otherwise it would have just been a useless portion of the building.
This place just seemed full of questionable architecture, like a switch specifically made to flood a floor. Though she guessed she could see the merit of it, if they were trying to clean the canals or something… She had a few ideas as to what it could be for, all of which she idly mused on as she followed behind Link to the nearest of the remaining doors they had left to try. This one was actually less a door and more a gate, beyond which she could see yet another broken path and an absolutely massive door that she desperately wanted to examine.
Link's first instinct was to press to the bars. They were just close enough together that he couldn't fit his head through, meaning it was unlikely that he'd be able to squish himself onto the other side. Given that he was by far the thinner of the pair, there was no chance either of them would. The second option he had was to shift and unlatch the beetle he had tethered to his hip. He tried to see if he could get that through the bars too, but the wingspan was too long, and the body was a bit too bulbous for it to fit through.
That big door seemed important though… On one hand, Tya wondered if it was the actual entry point to the temple itself. Given the layout they'd explored thus far, the way they'd come in seemed more along the lines of a 'staff entrance' than a grand entry, but that door definitely looked like the magnificent grand entrance that would be the front door. Either that, or that door just had something very important behind it. Whether or not that was something that involved Zelda, she didn't know, but it was definitely something she wanted to find out.
After a thorough check of the area and everything within reach of the bars, the pair begrudgingly elected to abandon this route for the time being and see what could be done with the last.