Chapter 7: The Shock of His Life
Link didn't wait for the sun to rise. Standing where he was, and pumped full of energy, he instead decided that sleep was a commodity that would have been far off and elusive even if there weren't skeletal child soldiers popping up out of the ground around him. He ran for the path, and then withdrew the ocarina, standing as close as he could to the drawbridge.
A "song to summon the sun", Sharp had said. Well, time to put its other capabilities to the test (he already knew it could…incapacitate the undead…). He glanced at the stalchildren out of the corner of his eye as he played the "Sun's Song", but they were unaffected by the tune. Only the protective barrier of the path prevented his being swarmed.
He sighed, tapped his foot along with the melody as if he didn't notice them, and drew out the last note. Suddenly, the moon raced by in the sky, and the stalchildren, too, seemed to grow much swifter, as they whacked at the protective barrier repeatedly. The moon sank into the horizon, and the sun emerged, heralding the dawn.
The stalchildren slowed, and then sank into the ground in a flurry of dirt. The drawbridge paid out its chains, slowly lowering with the noise of Link's nightmares, and he didn't wait for it to lock into place before running up it into town.
His first stop was to the mask shop, to pay the twenty rupees for the skull mask, and to discover the newest mask, which was the spooky mask. He shivered as he looked at it, wondering how the Happy Mask Salesman could keep up that broad grin while holding out the mask. It looked just like a redead!
With some misgiving, he tugged the mask on over his head, trudging out of the shop with dragging feet, until he remembered the redead's shambling walk. He straightened up, and tried to walk normally.
He paused at the entrance to the back alley. He was coming to the point where he could head straight for the hidden brick entrance. It was quite the skill. However, since today he was going to visit the dead end past the barred gate bridge, he would ignore it for now, instead taking his original path. He needed to practise sneaking past the guards, anyway.
He nodded resolutely to himself, adjusted the newest mask on his face (how he hated this mask; it far too closely resembled the redead), and turned to the dirt path leading to the guarded gate.
He turned aside at the vine-covered wall, climbed up it, and ran for the top of the gate-bridge. He jumped off behind the gate, rolled, and kept a special eye out for guards as he approached the "dead end". The guards at the hill were the biggest threat, but he was barred from their view by the less-than-perfect visibility of their helmets coupled with the steepness of the slope, and the curvature of the hill upon which the path stood.
Still, Link felt exposed, until he came to the high walls of the dead end. There, he took a moment to breathe. He'd hardly dared to, sneaking over here, lest he attract notice, but why was he concerned about that? He wasn't sneaking in to see the princess (yet!). All he was doing was paying a visit to the Great Faerie who probably lived behind this boulder at the dead end.
Sure enough, when the boulder exploded, he saw a tiny crawl hole in the side of the hill. The spooky mask did not seem to belong in such a space. He removed it, sedning it back to one of the shelves of his inventory, before he got down on his hands and knees, crawling into the tiny space, and emerging into a familiar area, with its night-sky waterfall rippling around the walls, and a ceiling impossibly high above—too high to be seen, as if he stood under the open sky—or in some other world. The torches here were green, and the pathway was red, as the previous one had been. Other than that, it looked quite the same as the previous one, with its packed snow floors, and waterfall walls, and emblazoned triforce on a step right below the basin of the fountain.
He stepped onto the sign, and pulled out the faerie ocarina, unthinkingly playing the song of the Royal Family, mind wandering back to his encounters on the Great Sea. He had every reason to believe that this Great Faerie would be much the same as the previous, if different in colour, somehow. Which meant that…!
Sure enough, this faerie, too, was dressed in nothing but vines and calf-high boots. Unlike the previous faerie, who'd had the modesty—or something—to cross her legs as she floated there, this one lay supine, although she was lying on nothing but air. Her left hand cushioned her cheek, as she stared down at Link with bright red eyes. She smiled, and gave a friendly, kindly laugh.
"Welcome, Link! I am the Great Faerie of Magic! I can teach you a magic spell! It's called 'Din's Fire'! It is a gift that Din gives to those whom she favours. To use the spell, swipe your left hand to the right, then the right to the left, and say, 'Great Goddess of Power, Din, I ask for your aid!' Of course, it will consume a bit of magic…but you can use it not only to attack, but also simply to light things on fire. It all depends on how much energy you place into the spell. You could, for instance, use it to light a single torch…try it now!"
Feeling rather ridiculous, Link swiped his left hand to the right, and then swung his right hand to the left, pivoting as he did to the left. "Great Goddess of Power, Din. I ask for your aid," he murmured, and fire flickered into existence around his hands, spreading out around his body. He could feel, now, how he could feed magic energy into it to make it grow, or he could let it go as it was, and it would condense before him into a small torchlight.
He let the tiny torch flicker and die, and turned to the Great Faerie, who nodded at him.
"It's a very useful spell! Don't forget it! And, keep on the lookout for more of us Great Faeries! We'll always be glad to help you! When battle has made you weary, please feel free to come back and see me!"
With that, she spiraled back into the ground as the other one had, leaving the fountain mercifully empty.
An hour later found Link speaking with Zelda in the castle courtyard, and then explaining to her what he had done on Death Mountain, and showing her the Spiritual Stone of Fire. That to do this required them to once more sneak out of the keep in "disguise", did not seem to bother Impa as much as Link would have assumed. She seemed oddly…pleased, that Zelda was so ready to escape the confines of the castle walls and have adventures.
Perhaps, however, they shouldn't have gotten quite as carried away as they had with the new Bombchu Bowling game, but neither of them had seen bombchus before, and both were rather fascinated by wind-up explosives. Now, these seemed useful. Why didn't they have these on the Great Sea? Given the origins of bombs, where did bombchu come from, and how was it made?
At length, Link set off for Zora's Domain, spirits lifted by the…well, fun, he had had, playing at the Bombchu Bowling Alley with the princess, and by his reward for one of his better rounds—a new bomb bag, that carried more bombs.
Along the way to Zora's Domain, he stopped to speak to the little boy in the graveyard, whom he had finally figured out was the son of the Death Mountain Trail gate guard. The boy bought the spooky mask from him for full price, and consequently, Link backtracked back to the castle town, where he traded thirty rupees for the Bunny Hood, and snuck in to see the princess via the back alleyway. Her reaction to seeing the bunny hood was much happier than her reactions to the previous two masks—she'd seemed quite as alarmed as he by the mere existence of the "Spooky Mask". She seemed fascinated by the dangling rabbit ears, which was definitely an improvement.
After he'd left the castle for the second time in recent memory, he headed up the river, to Zora's Domain. Here, for the first time, he had to remove his cucco from his inventory in order to sail across the river's many islands and ledges. He'd almost accustomed himself to the care and handling of cuccos, and how to gather eggs. But, trusting his sort-of pet to carry him across the river…?
He was just glad to make it to the falls in one piece.
In a small cave to the right of the falls, he noticed a stone pillar standing in a deep pool of water. He was reminded of another, similar pillar in the Lost Woods, and wondered if there were a hole way far down below—farther than he could possibly dive, now. Perhaps this, too, was a portal between the Lost Woods and elsewhere in Hyrule.
Instead of lingering at the pool, contemplating the connection it might have with the Lost Woods, he turned to walk up the tallest of many arches of rock spanning the river near the falls. This one was close enough that he could, if he chose, reach out and touch the falls. There was an odd patch on the ground of the ledge upon which he stood, made of some strange, shiny steel, rustless despite where it stood.
There were words engraved upon the stone placard. The words ran: "This is the Sleepless Waterfall, for they say that the flow of waters stills only at the King of Hyrule's command." There was no mention of a specific king who could stop the falls, and thus the message was more of a subtle hint: if you are somehow connected with the Royal Family, prove it, and the falls will still.
Would they really do this, or would something unexpected happen? Regardless, it was the most plausible way for him to move forward.
Accordingly, he wasted little time in withdrawing the faerie ocarina, carefully sounding out the comforting notes of Zelda's Lullaby. To his surprise, the waterfall didn't cease, but a hole appeared behind it. He thought of Makar as he leapt across, and into King Zora's Domain, for the very first time.
Zora's Domain, he discovered, the minute he was through the passage, was a beautiful hollowed out cavern, same as Goron City, but with a much more impersonal appearance. Catching his eye was the tall waterfall that flooded a basin below him. A single island stood near the entrance to the domain, with a zora standing upon it, gazing around. The waters of both waterfall and pool were a clear, pure blue, and sent lights and shadows playing along the otherwise boring rock walls of the domain. Hidden windows high up provided one source of light, but there were also unlit torches, and some sort of glowing blue balls of lights, lining the walls.
He noticed that the area upon which he now stood did not end with an inevitable dive into the pool; there was a path that wound around itself, heading through a broad tunnel to a higher flooded area, where King Zora bodily blocked the only passage and waterway to and from Zora's Fountain, and a zora teacher waited for his next student to show up at the top of the falls.
As he watched, a zora would emerge from the water below, shaking his head, which Link was alarmed to notice looked as if some sort of fish had latched onto the backs of their heads, and would not let go. He recognised that clear white skin with its bluish sheen and the occasional blue mottling. He recognised the wide, purple or blue eyes of the individual zoras. Mostly, he noticed those head-fins, and the elegant build, how very familiar they all looked. Laruto had looked just the same, except that she, unlike them, wore clothes. Otherwise, from her swaying head-fin to the webbed feet, she resembled these…zoras. They even had the arm-fins drooping from the elbows. It seemed Laruto had been a zora, after all.
And, hadn't Zelda said that the daughter of King Zora was named "Ruto"? It was all too much to even be considered a potential coincidence.
Link stopped to talk to several of the zoras, swiftly gathering that, owing to a personal crisis of their own, they couldn't help him now, for Princess Ruto was missing. The Zora's Sapphire was a hidden treasure, its very whereabouts unknown to the average zora. It was rumoured to be in the keeping of the ruling family, King Zora and his daughter, however.
Princess Ruto was missing. Link put together all this information in his mind, and thought he understood. While Link had been gathering songs of power, and helping the gorons, Ganondorf had kidnapped a child, to try to force her to reveal the whereabouts of the final stone.
Link glowered at nothing in particular when this particular understanding came to him. Nevertheless, he let himself be distracted by the mysterious allure of the diving game.
It gave him the opportunity to think, and try to figure out what to do next. Where was Princess Ruto? How to find her? He'd need to swim all about the pool of Zora's Domain regardless, seeking more information on Ruto's possible whereabouts.
And, besides that, games were rarely only games in Hyrule. There was a nudge in the back of his mind (perhaps from spending so much time in the Kokiri Forest), that the simplest games reaped their own rewards. A bigger bomb bag from the Bowling Alley (an unexpected prize), and the promise of a bigger seed satchel from the Shooting Gallery. What the reward for diving down the falls, even if the practice weren't its own reward?
The zora instructor refused to tell him what the "reward" for retrieving every single one of the five gems he would toss over the ledge was. Link gladly paid the twenty rupees, dove over the edge, and picked up a rupee, and then all in swift succession. Despite the time limit of five minutes to pick up every rupee, Link had no trouble beating it, diving over the waterfall ledge and down far into the pond beneath.
He ignored the broad, egg-shaped Zora in the red robe, where he sat, giant fish-lips pursed, swinging his legs against the metal wall behind the staircase, muttering about his "dear, sweet, daughter Ruto". From what he'd heard from the zoras as he climbed the slope leading through their domain, any one of those adjectives the king used to describe his daughter were very inaccurate. Ruto was just a spoilt brat.
He turned to the left, and came to the top of the waterfall he had dove down from, where the zora instructor stood waiting for him. He'd paid twenty rupees to play the coin-collecting game, and had gathered twenty-five rupees in blue rupees, which he was obligated to repay. He handed them over, as the zora instructor said,
"What a graceful dive! Most impressive, for a non-zora! Since you're a foreigner, and already an impressive swimmer, I think I have the perfect gift for you! It's a scale of our kind. If you eat it, you'll be able to hold your breath as a zora can! That should allow you to dive much deeper under the water! Doesn't that strike you as a good reward? It's called the 'silver scale'. Take it, with my best wishes and congratulations!"
He handed over what seemed to be a teardrop-shaped silver scale. Link'd seen no such on any of the zoras thus far, although he hadn't been scrutinising them. Perhaps it came from their guardian god, whom he'd already learnt was named Jabu-Jabu. ("Every visitor to Zora's Domain should go to see Jabu-Jabu in Zora's Fountain at least once!" one of the zoras had told him as he'd swum onto the far edge of the pool, near the waterfall.)
With great misgiving, he swallowed the scale, not bothering to glance over at the unusually quiet Navi, who seemed curious about the entire affair. Then he dove back over the falls, hoping that his greater familiarity with Ganondorf, and with Ganon, would show him clues to Ruto's kidnapping that the zoras would miss, even though none of the zoras had mentioned a gerudo thief in black armour, or something similar that was obviously a description of Ganondorf.
Now that he could hold his breath longer, he noticed a mysterious passage set into a cliff underwater—too deep down for him to even have seen it from above. It reminded him of the tall stone pillar in the Lost Woods, and just outside Zora's Domain. Could it be a warp portal? Was this how Ganondorf had abducted Princess Ruto?
Link dove down under the water, and swam through the darkened portal, emerging still underwater near what seemed the remains of an antechamber to an old, old temple. It reminded him of the ruins at the back wall of the Sacred Forest Meadow, where Saria sat playing her ocarina.
…Saria…would she know anything about this mess? He doubted it.
Where was he now? Wherever this was, it was the broadest expanse of water he had seen since he had left the Great Sea. It was strangely nostalgic, looking at it, and even thinking over his adventures before. The water even tasted similar. But, this area, vast though it was, was much smaller than the Great Sea.
It took him several hours, but he managed to swim to an island with a tall dead tree standing on it. From this platform was a bridge leading to a tall island, rising as a pillar from the waters, which was connected via a second bridge to the mainland. It was so far away, however, that Link could only see the tall pillar, and not the stone monument, or the bird that waited there.
It took at least an hour to walk across the wooden bridge, where Kaepora Gaebora was waiting, clinging somehow to a triangular stone slab that might be a tombstone.
"Hoo hoot!" the owl said, as Link approached. "You've come a long way to come up here. Don't you ever look at a map? Well, anyway….
"This is Lake Hylia, a vast beautiful lake full of clear, pure water. The zoras are the steward-guardians of the lake. They still offer prayers at the Water Temple, deep beneath the lake. The zoras are the guardians of all the water in Hyrule, most of which runs into this Lake, although there are other tributaries of Zora's River, as the one that ends in a pond near the Kokiri Forest, where you stopped on your first night on the road.
"However, all the running water in Hyrule, and most of its ponds and lakes, have their origin in Zora's Fountain, located at the greatest heights of Zora's Domain. It is the abode of the great water spirit-god, Jabu-Jabu. I've heard that the god is a vast fish-like creature who eats whatever is placed before him. He particularly enjoys fish! The zoran princess, Ruto, is in charge of preparing his meals. But recently, she seems to have gone missing. Oh, dear! Is it the work of Ganondorf, the evil Gerudo King of Thieves?"
Link paid the owl only half as much heed as he might otherwise, because the owl was only telling him what he already knew, which was, in fact, highly typical of the bird. Navi was sitting on his shoulder, arms crossed. At length, she flew off, towards a house that Link could see on the shore. Or, he assumed that it was a house. It was rather odd-looking, with that tall tower sticking up out of the otherwise flat floor. Not typical of hylian architecture at all. It bore scant resemblance to the houses in Kakariko Village, or in Hyrule Castle Town. Perhaps, whoever lived there wasn't a hylian. Perhaps, it wasn't a house.
Link stared at it as he pretended to listen to the owl's extended speech. If you'd asked him before he awoke in the Kokiri Forest, he would have told you that no one could possibly be as long-winded as the King of Red Lions.
Now, he knew better. If anyone ever droned on as long as this owl, whilst saying somehow less…Link wasn't sure that the world could survive producing such boredom. It would cause reality to cave in on itself, he was sure. He'd now plumbed the depths of boredom, as far as long-winded, pointless speeches went. Maybe the bird was working for Ganondorf, and was stalling for time for his master. In that case, he was succeeding well, because it was nightfall, now, and Link had made no progress yet on finding the zoran princess.
Link would not admit to it if asked later, but he fell asleep, leaning against the tombstone, waiting for the bird to finish speaking.
When he awoke the next morning, the owl had gone, and Navi was cross, on account of having to stay awake to see their "guide" off. Link apologised profusely, but Navi was having none of it. She clung to his shoulder, arms crossed in a pout. Link ignored her, unsure of what else to do, as he ran across the second bridge to the building on the far side.
This was, he learnt when he opened the door and entered (it was, by the time he had crossed the bridge, early morning, but no longer dawn), a place used to study and gather data on the lake itself, owned by an old man with wild, wide eyes, and a gaunt, skeletal face. The man had a stone chamber filled with lake water, dug to the same depth as the shore of the lake. The lake was, accordingly, very, very deep. Judging by the markings on a stone ledge sticking out of the water, the pit was nine meters deep. And, that was the shoreline.
Actual lake water flooded the chamber, streaming in through a wire grate. Link dove down to the bottom, but could see nothing different about the lake from this angle. He thanked the old man for the information on the lake before he left, running along the shore, to find himself back at the antechamber-like ruins he had emerged from on the previous day.
As he walked down what seemed to have once been the temple floor (was it to the Water Temple that Kaepora Gaebora had mentioned?) the water grew abruptly deeper, until he was suddenly swimming in water over his neck, deeper than he was tall. Looking down, he saw what might have been a giant step down. He swam forwards, until he came to the end of the ruins, with its columns supporting a no-longer-extant roof. He saw how some of them were broken, the pieces lying on the shore behind him. He'd passed by some of them. These must once have belonged to some grand building. The warp portal was set into the ruins, under the water.
As he approached the columns still standing in the water, a zora rose from under the water's depths.
"Have you seen anything strange in the lake?" the zora asked gravely, forgoing any politenesses to get straight to the point, by which Link knew that the zora was thinking of the still-missing princess. "The water of Zora's River carries many things into this lake!"
Link shook his head, with his fervent best wishes in the zoras' search, and swam out towards another island he saw backed up against a tall cliff that surrounded the river. But, he was distracted when Navi, glowing green, dove down under the water, swimming through the water as if she were flying, hovering near something deep under the water.
"Perhaps, you answered too soon," she said. "Or else, what's this?"
Curious as to what she had found, Link dove down into the depths of the lake shore, finding a glass bottle of the kind he had received from Tarlon and Juna. He dragged it out of the sand of the lakeshore, and settled his grip firmly around the narrower neck of the bottle before swimming back up to the surface, holding it over his head to look at it better, as he trod water to stay afloat.
It seemed that there was some sort of paper inside the bottle. That made Link suspicious. He put the bottle into his inventory room, and swam back to the shallows of the antechamber. Then he uncorked the bottle, and shook out the message inside. This was a note, which read:
"Please come save me. I am waiting for you inside Jabu-Jabu's belly.
"Ruto
"P.S. Don't tell my father."
Well, this complicated things. Instead of being kidnapped by Ganondorf, was the zoran princess actually inside the stomach of their guardian god? Or had Ganondorf somehow caused her to be swallowed? Apparently, for some reason, the King didn't even know where she was.
Link thought of his own parents, whom in both realities he hadn't had a chance to know or to appreciate, and clenched the soft paper in his hand, carefully returning it back into the bottle to show the King exactly what he had found. Because the king deserved that, no matter what Ruto thought.
Navi seemed to sense his thoughts, and the direction in which they had headed. She was full of silent support as she rested on his shoulder, tiny hand resting in what was probably intended for a show of understanding, a reassuring weight on his shoulder.
Without a word exchanged between them, he dove back under the lake, to the warp portal, and thence to Zora's Domain. He climbed out of the water, making the journey back up the ramp-way leading to Zora's Fountain, this time pausing to read the sign next to a strange outcropping sticking up into the air before the waterfall atop which the King still sat. It was possible that he was so…heavy…that he found it too taxing to get up to find someplace to sleep every night, only to return the next morning. Or, perhaps, the sleeping habits of zoras were radically different from those of hylians and kokiris. The gorons probably slept curled up into balls. Perhaps, zoras were comfortable sleeping in any position, as long as their bodies had contact with water.
According to the sign, in order to be given an audience with King Zora, he needed to stand on the outcropping of rock. So he climbed onto the platform, and pulled out the letter in the bottle, wondering what he should do now.
"Your Majesty," he said, at last. The fishman's eyes turned towards Link, but the man didn't otherwise move. "I found something; I think it will tell you what became of your daughter. She sent a message in a bottle, somehow, to Lake Hylia. I think you should read this."
Now, how did he get the letter to the king?
"Hand it over, child," said the king, imperiously, and Link held the bottle out by the neck, as far as he could. He didn't want to tell the king more of the information within the message, lest the king assume that the message was really from the princess, when, for all Link knew, it was a forgery. Certainly, he'd never seen the girl's handwriting.
The zora king snatched the bottle out of Link's hands (how he'd reached that far across, Link still couldn't figure out), and shook the letter out into his hands. His frown grew, as furrows appeared in his brows, which were drawing progressively tighter together. It almost made Link think that that tiny golden crown would be upset from its precarious position atop the King's head, and fall into the river. However, the crown stayed where it was, and the king's expression cleared.
"I would say that this was impossible, that our guardian god would never eat our precious princess Ruto…but he has been acting a bit odd, of late…as if something has upset him. And my darling daughter is in charge of his meals, morning and night. I have had to ask other zoras to fulfil this duty in her place, as she has been missing for two days now…but the fact remains that this letter is clearly in her handwriting, and Lord Jabu-Jabu has been very different from his old self since that gerudo in black armour came here a few days ago…. Well, then, it is settled. What is your name, young man?"
"…Link," said Link, a bit taken aback at suddenly being directly addressed. "Link Sylvanus, sir. I was sent here as the messenger of Hyrule's Royal Family, but—"
"Even better," said the king, beaming. "How noble of Daphnes to send me assistance in my time of need. Well, Sylvanus. I will assist the king in whatever he needs done, if you go into Jabu-Jabu's belly and save my dear, sweet Princess Ruto. You may pass through this doorway to Zora's Fountain at any time. Just say the word! Ah, let's see! And, you'll want this bottle, I'm sure. I hear they're very valuable in Hyrule!"
He threw the bottle at Link, who caught it, brow furrowing as he tried to keep up with what was happening. Meanwhile, the king scooted to the side, inch by painfully slow inch, until he sat to the left of the centre of the falls, no longer blocking the way to Zora's Fountain. By that time, Link had figured out what was going on.
"I will find and rescue your daughter, Your Majesty," he said, executing his best proper bow. The zoras were right. The zoran king did seem very kingly.
Once the way was unblocked, Link realised that he had no real idea of how to enter Jabu-Jabu's belly. But, a zora's claim that bringing the god a fish to eat was said to bring good luck made him think. Perhaps, while the god's mouth was open, he could slip in? It was worth a try. There were plenty of fish swimming in the shallows near the falls.
Five minutes later, he'd caught a fish, and raced back up the slope. Now, he crossed through the tunnel into Zora's Fountain for the first time.
Zora's Fountain was a vast body of water, at least half the size of Lake Hylia. He emerged from what seemed a mound in the ground, connected to a high rock wall around the fountain by a slatted iron gate that ran across the top of a waterfall (to prevent incautious visitors from falling down a waterfall?). On the other side of the fountain, he could see a cave, its mouth high enough above the water that he knew he'd never reach it, and another, more distant ledge leading up out of the water, with a tree growing on it, and a gossip stone standing near the edge, and a conspicuous brown boulder near the rock wall.
And, of course, directly to his right as he exited, two iron railings as tall as he flanked a broad flight of steps leading onto a stone pier, at the end of which floated a strangely familiar fish, with a broad, black body, gently waving fins (each many times Link's size), a slightly squashed-in face, and strangely empty, irisless blue eyes. The resemblance between this "Jabu-Jabu" and Jabun was uncanny, and something about the appearance made him think that this "Jabu-Jabu" was only an infant god. Could "Jabu-Jabu" be a baby name built off the name "Jabun"?
Now, that was a strange thought. Link couldn't help staring. But…those eyes…they were unthinking eyes, with no intelligence to them. Jabu-Jabu seemed to be a simple creature, who was content if his needs were adequately met, and had no deeper thoughts.
Link turned aside from the god, for now, to swim over to the boulder on the far side of the fountain, past the tall island rising up near the end of the pier, running from Jabu-Jabu's head, to his tail. He swam under the fallen tree protruding from the spring, until he came to the far shore. Once there, he wasted no time in pulling out a bomb, and placing it next to the wall, and the boulder. That small explosion revealed far more than it should have, given its size—a huge tunnel leading deep into the mountain.
And, of course, on the other side of that tunnel, he found himself in the familiar, otherworldly beauty of a Great Faerie's fountain. Here was a green path leading up to green torches, with the familiar deep, night-sky-blue walls, rippling in a way befitting a watery residence (and less incongruous than might be expected of such a fountain located at the height of a volcano). This was not the true source of Zora's Fountain. It was merely a fountain located next to a springs. Link didn't know whether or not that was common, but it seemed to make sense; he thought no more of it. He had to brace himself for the imminent arrival of a Great Faerie, after all.
He stepped onto the ledge a step below the rim of the fountain, and withdrew the faerie ocarina, playing Zelda's Lullaby as calmly as if he didn't know what was about to happen.
As he played, nearing the end, a Great Faerie emerged out of nowhere from the base of the fountain, twirling around as she shot into the air, dressed only in leaves and vines, her red hair pulled back by such vines into three long locks of hair. Her eyes were bright green, to match the leaves of her "outfit", and her smile and laugh were gentle, and kind. She lay down recumbent on the air, as the last Great Faerie had.
"Welcome, Link!" she said, as she settled into what must have been, for her, a comfortable position. "I am the Great Faerie of Magic!" Was she the same Great Faerie of Magic, or was there more than one? He honestly didn't think he had any way of finding out.
"I will teach you a magic spell. It's a bit complicated, so pay close attention, and let me know if you need more details, or to repeat anything! This is warp magic you can use by holding your hands above your head, and drawing them back to you. If you do this, and say the proper words, you will create a warp point. If you do this again, without using the warp point, you will replace that warp point. Each time you do this, it uses a lot of magic, so watch out! And it can only be used in dungeons, alright? If you activate the warp point, it will take you to wherever you were when you first made the warp point, and use a little of your magic energy.
"To create one, hold your hands above your head and focus energy into them, and then draw your hands in to your body. As you do this, say, 'Great Goddess of Courage, Farore, I ask for your aid!' When you want to return to that warp point, fix your mind upon the proper location, and say, 'Great Goddess Farore, take me back!' You can have as many warp points as there are dungeons. But you can only have one warp point per dungeon, and creating them eats up a lot of magic, so be careful! In this way, you can quickly return to where you were, if forced to leave the dungeon unexpectedly or for supplies.
"It can also carry you out of danger. This is particularly important when it comes to wallmasters, which will resurrect all minor foes, and reset all minor puzzles, that you have solved in a dungeon! It's better to warp away from the danger than to risk that! I think this spell will be very useful to you. Good luck, Link! When battle has made you weary, please feel free to come back and see me!"
Laughing, she spiraled back down into the fountain, out of sight. He hoped that he understood everything that she had just said.
With a sigh of relief that made Navi laugh, he exited the fountain, swimming back across the water-source until he could walk across the shallows to the stone pier. As he walked, still dripping wet for the moment, he tugged the cork out of the bottle with the fish in it.
He stood before Jabu-Jabu (who might also be Jabun) and dumped out the bottle before him. There was a moment of stillness, when Link thought he might have to return and try something else (an entire basket of fish, maybe? A cooked fish?), before Jabu-Jabu opened his mouth wide, and breathed in deep, inhaling both Link and the fish.
Link knew, right away, that this was going to be the most disgusting dungeon he had ever encountered. For the moment, he was inside the fish's cavernous maw. That wouldn't last long. Some sort of white lump hung from the ceiling. At the back of the throat was a strange green substance crawling across the makeshift "door" at the back of the fish's throat, keeping his throat shut.
Two giant bubbles bounced across the room ("They're called shaboms!" Navi said. "They'll burst if they touch you, but that really hurts! Destroy them before they fly into you!"), and two octoroks popped out of a pool near the back of the throat as he approached. He'd already encountered octoroks here, and was thus already familiar with the differences between them and the ones he was used to. These were much rounder, and more bulbous, with glowing green eyes, and several legs hidden under the water, and snouts for noses.
He redirected their rocks to the shaboms, and then dispatched the octoroks by knocking rocks back at them. He knew that they'd somehow disappear into the shallow water if he came too close. They were the same as deku scrubs, that way.
But, once he had defeated all of the enemies in the "room", and the "door" still hadn't become "unbarred", Link became less confident, turning to Navi.
"…I think that white thing, sticking out of the roof, is some sort of switch," Navi said. "Try hitting it with something."
There was only one candidate for "things he could hit a switch on the ceiling with". He pulled out the slingshot, and, despite Navi's words, was surprised when the switch retreated into the ceiling, and the green muck vanished from the door.
On the other side was a winding corridor, with a couple of crates off to one side (how? Did they sometimes feed him crates full of fish, or what?), and several odd creatures with three or four tentacles sticking out of a domed, blobby body. The crackle of electricity that surrounded them let Link know that these were enemies to avoid, unless they were vulnerable to the slingshot….
No. The seed impacted with the body with the sound of rock hitting rock. He'd just have to avoid these.
He made his way around the giant hole leading down to a platform far below (a helpful platform rose and sank between these two floors), and opened the door on the other end, which led to a huge chamber, with many greyish black spots on the floor. There was a giant, pulsating green…column, or something, off to his left, and a number of electrified jellyfish around the room. There was another door on the far side of the room, and Link would have made for it, were it not for the girl with pale blue skin standing next one of the strange spots.
He ran over to her instead, as she stood calmly next to the spot. Closer to, he could see a pulling movement, as if the grey spot were a hole that sucked nearby things into it. It made him feel no better about leaving the girl to stand there.
"Who are you?" she asked, before he could say anything. She had a hasty, clipped sort of voice, that made her sound bossy and demanding, and Link immediately suspected that this was the zoran princess, not only because of the letter, now, but because of the girl's demeanour (and she was definitely a girl…why didn't zoras here wear clothes?).
She didn't let him answer before she continued. "Why are you here? Just go away and leave me here. I'm not some sort of damsel in distress needing to be rescued!"
"But…your letter!" Link managed, before she cut him off again.
"What are you talking about? What…'letter'? I never asked anyone to rescue me. I'm fine in here, by myself!"
"But, your father asked me to come here to look for you. He seems really worried."
Ruto made an indignant noise. "So what? What do I care if he's worried? There's something in here that I lost—but that's not important. Just go home, right now!"
With that, she turned around, and walked onto the black patch, and fell through it. "Ohhhh nooo!" she screamed, as she fell out of sight. Well, she at least seemed to have survived passage through the spot/hole.
There was nothing to do but to follow her. Link took a deep breath, and walked onto the hole, falling through into a strange chamber with many ledges of varying heights. The green pulsating tentacle was on a higher ledge, next a door. There was a ramp leading up to another ledge, with a strange wall covered in what elsewhere might have been mistaken for vines leading up, possibly to the room he'd been in before. He stood on a ledge between the two in height, and Ruto was still standing there at the bottom.
As he landed softly behind her, she whirled to face him, violet eyes narrowing with her anger. He noticed that she seemed to have eyes tattooed on the back of her head, which was triangular and covered in blue fuzz. It reinforced the impression that something was chomping on the back of her head.
"What are you still doing here? Go on! Go home! I've been going inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly since I was little. I'll be fine. Although…Lord Jabu-Jabu looks very strange today. There are strange holes and electrified jellyfish everywhere…. But, I'm fine! Go away, and leave me in peace!"
Link folded his arms, angry despite himself at how dismissive of everyone's concern Ruto was. He'd think that, at least after she knew what sort of dangers she faced, the girl would see sense, but no. And, to take for granted her father's concern for her…! Well, for a boy who'd never had the opportunity for what she was taking for granted…it hit a nerve.
"I'm not leaving," he said, staring her down. "Your father asked me to bring you back alive, and I will. I might have to stop to get supplies, but you're not getting rid of me until you're safe back home."
Ruto narrowed her eyes at him, and then sat down on the ground, bringing her knees up before her head.
"Fine. If you're so concerned about me, then I will give you the honour of carrying me. But, don't think for one minute that I'm leaving before I get what I came for."
Ugh. Well, there were less pleasant tasks, surely, than carrying a spoilt princess around like a living litter.
He wished that she were wearing clothes. It would make the whole thing seem less improper.
He went through the door on a level with them, to find a corridor filled with shaboms, and a kind of monster that Navi called a "stinger", which led to the ledge he had seen earlier, far below the curved path leading to the room with all the holes in it.
All that work, just to get back where he'd started. What an impulsive, foolhardy girl! He cringed at the feeling of her slightly damp scales against his skin, and tried not to think about it.
He'd given up on trying to have a meaningful conversation with her by the time they'd reached the room with the holes, and the green tentacle. He'd introduced himself to her (she had not reciprocated), he'd asked her what she was looking for (she'd refused to tell him), and he'd even asked her simple questions, such as what she liked to do, and whether she and her father were close. He'd tried to tell her a bit about himself, even. Ruto blocked him off at every turn, and now they traveled in silence.
They crossed to the far side of the room with difficulty, and Link tried to stay calm as he ordered the "door" to open.
Beyond was a room with three passages: one led straight ahead, barred off by a bluish tentacle similar to the one in the other room. The passages to left and right continued out of sight.
Sticking out of the central hub were three sets of sharp claws.
"These are tailparasans! Their tail is their weak point, but they're electrified…I don't think the slingshot will do it, either…. Avoid them, for now!"
They cut off his progress when he tried to head to the left, so he followed the right-hand corridor instead, giving the tailparasan sticking out of the floor by a second fork in the road a wide berth.
Within, the room initially seemed empty, until he saw the telltale fins sticking out of the ground, showing that in fact, several stingers were swimming through the floor. He already knew that if he stepped close to them, they'd soar out of the water (or in this case, floor) and fly around for a period of time, before diving at him. If they flew close enough, he could cut them with the sword. Otherwise, he could use slingshot seeds. He threw Ruto to the side, where she grumbled as she bounced across Jabu-Jabu's soft flesh, and set about luring the stingers out into the open, to be dispatched by the joint work of sword and slingshot.
When he had done this, he saw something gleaming white as bone begin to sink down from the ceiling. It was taller than he'd been before his arrival in Kokiri Forest, with sharp points at the end. It looked a lot like a rib. Or it did, until it began to reshape itself, shrinking, compacting, with the bend of the centre turning into two straight lines, an angle meeting at a point.
The edges gained…well, an edge…the material thinning considerably as it shrank, flattening out. In a few seconds, a familiar boomerang lay on the floor beside him. It looked far too similar to the one he had found in the Forbidden Woods.
As it sank towards the floor, he reluctantly approached it, as Navi fluttered over, bobbing up and down around it, examining it from all angles.
"It's…a boomerang," she said. "I think Jabu-Jabu made it to help you defeat the monsters that have cursed him. He must have some degree of intelligence, after all. He probably heard what I said before, and—er, maybe I should stop talking that way, hmm?"
Link snatched it out of the air, holding it up to better examine it. If there were a difference between this boomerang, and the one he had found in the Forbidden Woods, it was that that one had seemed old and worn, with thin scratches marring the surface, and a certain dimness to its sheen. This one, by contrast, was new, almost shining with polish. He turned it over in his hands, but wasn't sure that he could spot any other conspicuous differences.
Ruto huffed, audibly, her arms crossed as she glared at him from across the room.
"Hurry up, boy! You shouldn't keep a lady waiting! Honestly! Do I have to tell you everything?"
Link gritted his teeth, but put the boomerang away into his inventory, and bent down to pick Ruto up in his makeshift litter (i.e.: his arms).
They returned to the corridor, passing by the red tentacles, and then the bluish one, Link taking the time to practice with the boomerang (ignoring Ruto's protests at being set down, even gently) by striking the tailparasans as they glided through the air. It was a difficult thing to do, now. He thought it shouldn't surprise him that he no longer seemed to know how to use the boomerang, either. He should just be relieved that he didn't have to relearn how to use sword and shield.
He used his memory of how he had used the boomerang before to know how to position his hands, but even this was insufficient for actual success with the weapon. He just had to keep on using it, until he mastered it, the way he had the slingshot.
And now, he probably wasn't going to be using the slingshot anymore. After all, the boomerang didn't need ammunition, but could do many of the same things as the slingshot. The slingshot was mostly good for hitting multiple enemies in a short span of time. But, most of the enemies here were impervious to the deku seeds. His quest was almost finished (this was the last Spiritual Stone), which meant that he would no longer have need of either slingshot or boomerang. Was it worth mastering the new weapon? Perhaps, if he did it for its own sake.
And, just because he suspected his quest was almost at an end was no reason to act as if it were. There was no excuse for getting lazy and hasty now. Even if, come tomorrow, he and Zelda had defeated Ganondorf and saved Hyrule, and he returned to the Kokiri Forest, with the Great Deku Tree dead, the monsters invading the Woods would only continue to increase in numbers. He'd need as many weapons as he could, to help protect the Kokiri Forest until he went back to the Great Sea.
He would go back, right?
He shook his head, as he passed by the third tentacle in the right-hand fork of the passage on the opposite side of this many-branching chamber from the one he had just come from. The last tentacle, in the left-hand, western fork from the room filled with holes, was another of the red tentacles. With it blocking the way, he had no choice but to activate the step-on switch (throwing Ruto accidentally at the tailparasan on the floor when it bit him, sending a jolt of electricity up his leg).
When he walked off the switch, he noticed that the green muck covering the door reappeared, and the switch rose back up. Clearly, this was one of the switches that needed a weight left on it to trigger it. He could think of no better such weight than the still-grumbling zoran princess.
"Wait here, on the switch," he told her, and she glared at him, possibly because he'd dared to give her orders. He didn't much care. His ears were beginning to scream at the shrieks she made whenever a monster approached (afterwards claiming she had done no such thing), and he was tired of her constant insults ("What? You think you're some hero? Your average zora guard could take down the same enemy in half the time you're taking!"). He ignored her. As long as he could make it through the door before she left the switch he could, he hoped, make it back through into the series of corridors without a problem.
He ran for the door, commanded it to open, and stopped in the room beyond, with a long, slimy-looking tentacle hanging from the ceiling. Unlike the red tentacles he had seen in the many-branched network of corridors outside, this one had a narrow bulge near the top, and an actual blunt tip hanging down.
"I'm not sure," Navi said. "But, I think you can kill this tail by cutting through that narrow part, up there. Be careful, though. Since the tentacle doesn't run from floor to ceiling, it's not fixed in place. I bet it would hurt to have it slam into you!"
With that, she flew off, towards the narrower part of the tail, high above. He took careful aim for the narrow area, aiming for Navi. He couldn't afford to take chances right now.
The first time he hit it, it retracted into itself. It stayed stuck in the ceiling, beyond his reach even with Navi's help, until he came within striking distance. These were surprisingly smart monsters. But, he hastily threw the boomerang, hitting it again in its weak point, and causing it to retreat again, before dropping down again. It seemed he'd cut deeply into that narrow point, which must be its weakness, if it was working hard to protect that area.
As the ropey tentacle dropped down again at his approach, he pulled back his arm, again, aiming at the narrow point high above for a third time.
It retreated back into the ceiling again, and Link moved forwards again to draw it back out, flinging the boomerang as it started to drop down, able to guess when the narrowest point would appear.
This time, he cut through the rest of the narrow area, and the tail fell apart into disgusting red blobs. As they fell, blue flames engulfed them, and a treasure chest appeared in a circle of light. It was a big treasure chest, of course. It should contain the dungeon map, but then, he suspected that he already had the dungeon item meant to make his quest easier.
Since this dungeon seemed determined to contradict his preconceived notions about how dungeons worked, he received the dungeon map after the dungeon item (a gift from Jabu-Jabu, as Navi had said, but no less was the dungeon map).
He left the room, and was somehow not surprised to see that Ruto had disappeared. As he wandered the corridors looking for her, he noticed that the red pillar-like tentacles had gone from the halls. Had Ruto noticed this, and set to finding what lay beyond? Thinking that this was the most plausible answer, he stood before the other door in the self-same corridor, and commanded it to open.
Beyond was a room filled with shaboms, but without any sign of the zoran princess. Green muck covered the door as he entered, meaning that he would have to dispatch the shaboms first, before he could return. He made short work of them, with the help of Navi, and meanwhile, acquired quite a bit of practice with aiming the boomerang. When the last bubble burst, a big treasure chest appeared in a spiral of light. He opened it, perching precariously on the rim, to pull out the compass. Now, he had a clear view of how the dungeon was laid out. Unfortunately, there was no purple dot showing him the location of Princess Ruto. He'd have to search for her himself.
He backtracked, heading for the now open path in the same side of the corridor as the door that had held the stingers, where Jabu-Jabu had given him the boomerang. This was the only remaining door he hadn't yet investigated in this part of the dungeon.
He opened the door, to find the bluish tentacle tail hanging down, but no princess.
No matter how he wanted to dispatch this monster now, he knew his priority should be finding the zoran princess. With a stroke of inspiration, he raised his arms to the sky, focusing magic into them, and drawing them slowly back to his chest, saying "Great Goddess of Courage, Farore! Please lend me your aid!"
A ball of green light formed over his head, and grew brighter and broader as he drew back his arms. Then, it seemed to vanish, but Link could sense that the connection still continued. That was, even if something had happened to Ruto, he should be able to return here. For all he knew, he could use the spell to bring back Ruto with him.
The spell set, he turned away with great reluctance, heading back to the room filled with pits. Ruto stood next the same pit she had jumped into in the beginning of this journey, and he frowned, furrowing his eyebrows as he approached.
"Did I not ask you to wait for me while I investigated what lay beyond that room opened by that switch? Why didn't you stay where I left you, briefly, as I asked?"
"I am a princess," she retorted, crossing her arms and sitting down in her previous position. "A worthless commoner doesn't tell me what to do. I give the orders, here. How could you leave me behind? If you're a man, act like it. Take responsibility!"
And Link, whose patience had grown greatly since arriving in Kokiri Forest, enduring Mido's daily regimen of bullying and mockery, nevertheless still had his limits. He suspected that if he continued on as he had been for the past several hours (or for the past day, or so), he might do something he'd regret. Ruto's behaviour was truly appalling. She was even worse than the zoran gossips had said.
He marched back across the room, turning at the door through which he had originally entered, to say, in a voice so level that it surprised even him, "I am going away for awhile. I trust that you can take care of yourself. If you feel the need to return to your father, to go home, feel free to do so. I will return shortly; don't think that you've gotten rid of me. Goodbye, Ruto."
He ignored her grumbled mutterings about how she was a princess, and he ought to show her the proper respect.
He marched back through the passageways until he emerged into the darkness of Zora's Fountain. He snuck past the sleeping king, dove down the falls, and climbed out the ladder leading to the exit to Zora's Domain.
Now, he remembered the strange pillar sunk into a cave near the entrance to the domain. He turned left as he exited the waterfall, and stepped into the pool of water, diving down, and down, until he could reach the bottom, with a tiny, darkened hole that he could easily fit into. He swam through it, emerging into a similar stone pillar sunk deep into a similar pond. He rose up from the depths of the pond to find himself in the middle of a lush green forest, with the familiar melody of Saria's Song ringing in his ears.
He lay down at the water's edge, and slept.
He awoke the next morning, using his memory of the forest paths to find the second portal of the Lost Woods—the one leading to Goron City. He had the vague sense that Darunia, his only male friend who knew something about growing up (or at least, the only such friend he'd made since arriving in Kokiri Forest) might know something about dealing with strange princesses, and how to keep Ruto from using her title against him. Maybe, since it wasn't so far away with this warp portal, he would also ask Princess Zelda.
For now, he started by returning to Goron City, where everyone he met praised him for his assistance with the rock shortage. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to overlook the attention they showered on him, thinking that he might bring his head to a boil with the heat of his blush.
He descended to the very bottom of the City, seeking out Darunia, and hoping the man would have answers.
He left two days later, with a much better understanding of how to use bombs, and the reassurance that no man understood how women's minds worked, just as no woman understood a man's mind.
He also said that it sounded as if Princess Ruto perhaps had a crush on him, which boggled the mind. Truly, it did.
Still, he could find no further excuse to delay the inevitable, and had discovered that having Navi around to listen to his attempts to explain the girl's behaviours was bad enough. She had quite a few laughs at his expense, as he described Ruto's inexplicable behaviour, and teased him mercilessly about his non-existent crush on Princess Zelda Atempor (the non-Tetra one).
Then, she discovered his mixed feelings concerning the girl he'd left behind…and somehow, Navi's teasing was even worse when directed towards his feeling for that Zelda. He bent over, face burning, head in his hands, as Darunia thumped him gently on the shoulder with a broad grin that suggested that he was holding back similar laughter only through great willpower.
He returned to Jabu-Jabu's belly, picking up the quest more-or-less where he had left off. He returned via magic to the warp point, defeated the blue tentacle as he had the red, and returned to the zoran princess, feigning unlimited patience with her.
He picked her up, and carried her back into the many-branched corridor. When she asked what had become of the red and blue tentacles, he hesitated to explain what she had missed, but explain he did. There was one further tentacle to defeat—the green one. He passed through the final door, the one blocked by a blue tentacle, and found himself, at long last, in the room with the tail end of the green tentacle. Did he remember which hole, precisely, was the one blocked off by that tentacle, or would trial and error be in call, here?
He defeated the green tentacle, and a large number of biri. He picked them off with ease, before aiming for the tentacle itself. Then, Link and Ruto returned back to the room filled with pits, and Link took his best guess as to which of the pits was the one that the green tentacle had previously bound. He and Ruto fell through, landing softly before a small, winding corridor, at the end of which was another door.
On the other side of the corridor was a medium-sized chamber, with a platform ringed in yellow spikes. His eyes narrowed upon seeing the spike-lined inner wall.
He was given no chance of examining the room more closely, as Ruto flailed so viciously he almost disregarded her.
"Ooohh! There it is! That's my mother's stone, that I was looking for…. throw me up there!"
Link, frowning, nevertheless obliged without complaint. Ruto picked up a stone with three blue sapphires, nestled in a golden frame in the shape of a tree. Even from this distance, he could see the branches. The golden tree frame hit the upper left, upper right, and bottom stand of the gem-frame. The branches themselves were crescents.
Link frowned, thinking of the moon. Since his arrival here, he'd noticed that the moon always seemed to be full at night. There was probably a superior way to analyse the nature of the moon, really, but he didn't know what.
He stood at the entrance, listening to Ruto's tale. He heard how she had come to feed the god Jabu-Jabu, and had been swallowed by him unexpectedly. Then, although she was familiar with this process, it had surprised her, and she'd dropped her mother's stone somewhere in the dungeon. But, now that she'd found her stone again…it was time to go. Link approached the platform, as Ruto had ordered, and the spike-laden floating platform began to lift into the ceiling, with Ruto still standing on it.
"What is this? An octopus?" she shrieked, from somewhere above Link, as the platform sank back down, this time princess-less. It did, however, have a enormous octorok standing in the centre, which leapt off towards him. The platform began to spin, creating a wall of spikes, an added defence for the giant octorok.
"That's a Big Octo!" Navi said. "Attack it from behind!"
Straightaway, the octorok charged at him around the circle of the room. It was, naturally, facing him.
He hit it with the boomerang, waited while it spun in rapid circles, before stopping, revealing a giant green spot in its back. Link knew what that meant, hastening to hack at the spot once, before wrinkled skin returned to covering it.
Then, the octorok ran right at him, again, and he again attacked it with the boomerang. Darunia had given him plenty of practise on using the boomerang (and bombs). This came in very useful now. He kept in constant motion, hitting the octorok repeatedly with the boomerang to try to force it to stop with its back turned to him, but easier said than done.
Eventually, he managed to hit it a second time with the sword. He backed up as the octorok was charging him, and then hit again as it spun around in circles.
This time, it stopped with its rear to him, and Link took the opportunity to lash out with the Kokiri Sword, before it started barreling towards him. He threw the boomerang at it, hit, and it began to spin around in circles. Again, he only managed to swipe at it once with the sword before the green spot was covered up again. He hit, again, before it could set out in its circular course around the room, and he waited as it began to spin in circles, hoping that it would end with his back to Link, which would be useful.
He lashed out for the fourth, and final, try, and the octorok was consumed in the blue flames, and vanished.
The platform sank down into the ground, and Link, for want of a better plan, with no Zelda to ask about it, walked onto the platform, allowing himself to be lifted up to a room near the entrance to Jabu-Jabu's belly. There was a short corridor, and then he would, it seemed, be back in a series of corridors in the room just before the one where the green tentacle had blocked his way forward. The room just beyond Jabu-Jabu's mouth, with all its crates.
He jumped across a gap, to a piece of a platform, which sank down, with him still on it, bridging what had been a gap between two different sections of this particular room. Now, he could go anywhere in that corridor. He saw a switch nearby, and a couple of crates on the other side of the room. He withdrew the boomerang to take care of the bari floating there. Then, he picked up a crate, almost missing Ruto, and carried it to one of the organic switches.
Now, at last, he could access…the room lying just outside the boss's lair. Doubtless, he'd find Ruto if he beat the boss. But…how was he to acquire Zora's Sapphire? He was sure that that was the stone that he needed, that Ruto had picked up, with greatest reverence, whilst standing near the edge of the platform. Somehow, he'd have to get it back from her. He should have known that this was the path to the Spiritual Stone—at least after he'd realised that this was a dungeon.
Still, he just kept moving forwards, dispatching the bari swarming throughout this new room. He climbed a tall ledge in the room (for the first time, not a room made of fleshy walls and floors, but one that looked made of rocks), and hit a switch set behind a web, in the ceiling.
The final door was now uncovered by that green muck. Link could go through to face the boss of this dungeon. And, he did.
On the other side of the "door" was a huge, fleshy chamber. The fleshy door disappeared, smoothing over into solid tissue, trapping him within. That was more than a bit disturbing, and left him with no choice but to face the boss, and trust the blue light to see him safe back out. There was no sign of Ruto; perhaps the monster lurking in the centre of the room had eaten her, as Kalle Demos had swallowed Makar. This monster reminded him a lot of the boss of the Forbidden Woods, although he couldn't readily pinpoint why.
It was composed of a round, pulsating red body covered in blue spikes with several stalks growing up from the top, flaring out at the end to form what he swiftly discovered were weapons which shot beams of electricity at him. Several jellyfish floated near the boss; these quickly flew over to cover the monster as a coat of armour. He stared, speechless, at the boss, as it shot a barrage of electricity beams—like thick bolts of lightning—in all directions, and then began to move.
This was not going to be fun, was it? He pulled out the boomerang, and made sure to keep on the move.
"It's Barinade! It's the boss of all the monsters inside Jabu-Jabu's belly! It's protected by that shield of jellyfish, but its weakness is that red round part, protected by the spikes! Be careful!" Navi said, glowing yellow near one of the stalks. Link hoped that she was impervious to electricity, too.
First things first, he tried to cut through some of those electricity-firing stalks. Throwing the boomerang several times in rapid succession managed to incapacitate several of them, and when he had done this, the protective shield of jellyfish (each sporting what looked like a smiling face, which somehow served to make the boss even more disturbing), attached to the boss by beams of crackling energy, moved to encircle the boss from a distance, leaving it sort of exposed, if still protected by all those jellyfish, and the electricity connecting them to the boss, and the fact that the boss was still moving. In other words: not very exposed at all.
Link aimed with hasty care for the red base that he could now clearly see, despite the circle of guardian jellyfish. When he hit the base, the beams of energy connecting the jellyfish to Barinade disappeared, and the boss stopped moving.
Except for the stalks he'd failed to immobilise, of course. Nevertheless, Link closed the distance, hacking mercilessly at the body of the monster, noting that those stalks were ranged weapons only, and couldn't hit him when he was this close to Barinade, before being forced to retreat as the appearance of beams of energy at the edge of his vision were his first warning that Barinade had recovered, and was once more on the move.
The next time he managed to hit Barinade through its wall of jellyfish, he found that these jellyfish followed him, getting in the way whenever he tried to stab the body with the Kokiri Sword, electrocuting him, until he bent over, gasping for breath. This battle was, if possible, more painful and tedious than the fight against Kalle Demos. His arms and legs were shaking, quivering as if full of energy. He felt rather as if he'd been burnt down to his bones. The attack of the jellyfish wasn't, however, as painful as Kalle Demos's electricity, and he was soon back on his feet again.
He set to destroying every jellyfish, instead of attacking the main hub of Barinade, which reprieve the boss used to recover, reattaching its jellyfish with those green beams, and spinning around the room again.
When he finally managed to hit the boss again, he set to destroying all of the jellyfish, which sat there, waiting for him to try to attack their boss. He wasn't making that mistake again.
The moment that the last jellyfish disappeared in blue flames, Barinade rose up out of the ground, revealing a rotating disc which carried it around the room, indefatigable.
Link threw the boomerang at the red upper part connecting the electrical stalks to the whirling base.
Once he hit, he could return to lashing out at the defenceless Barinade. Who, of course, was not quite defenceless after all, sinking into the ground after Link had given it a few good gouges. Surely, it must be almost out of energy by now, right?
Two more boomerang blows later, and over twenty-five deep gouges more scored deep into the monster, and Link was beginning to wonder if it just couldn't be defeated. That was an alarming thought.
Nevertheless, he kept up the fight, with Navi constantly calling out warnings as Barinade sent streams of electricity at him. She helped guide his boomerang to the target, watching out for him as she did.
Finally, Link heard the monster give a great groan, and blue flames licked up the base, spreading to cover the body, and creeping up the stalks. Soon, nothing remained of the creature, and a beam of blue light had appeared on the other side of the room from Link.
Standing in that beam of light was the zoran princess, Ruto. Well, at least she was safe?
He'd have to ask her for the Spiritual Stone of Water, and then…and then, his quest would at last be complete! He could bring the three stones back to Zelda, and stop a Ganondorf from destroying a Hyrule, at least.
As he stepped into the light, with Ruto, she took the opportunity to scold him, but she was blushing. What?
"You! You're late! You're useless! I was just lonely, that's all! Just a little!"
Then, the blue light carried them up out of the dungeon, setting them down on the tall island looming up out of Zora's Fountain.
Link didn't realise how close it had set him down to the edge, until Ruto, giggling, leant towards him, and he automatically took a step back…and landed with a great splash in the crystal clear water. Ruto dove in after him. In the light of midday, he could see her much better than within the dungeon. She had mottled dark blue on her head, looking a bit like hair, and bright purple eyes, and she wore no clothes, making her arm fins readily visible.
He trod water where he landed, and Ruto swam closer to him.
"You…you were pretty good…better than I thought you'd be, anyway. I suppose I owe you…for what you did back there. Saving me and all, so…. What can I do for you? Just tell me what you want."
Link paused, considered, stared at her. Could it be that easy? "I want the Spiritual Stone of Water," he said at last.
"You mean Zora's Sapphire, right? My mother gave it to me, and told me to give it only to the man I would marry…you might call it the 'Zora's Engagement Ring'! Giving it to you would mean we were engaged…."
Link closed his eyes, hoping that he could later return it to her. The Stone was obviously very important to her, and had belonged to her mother, and if it were some part of zoran marriage ceremony, she'd need it if she ever wanted to get married, right? He was not so fixated on his goals of saving the world to forget that his success would mean Ruto's loss. He'd return the stone.
And then, too, he didn't really think they made a good match (even if he hadn't had feelings for Tetra), regardless of whether or not Darunia was right that she had a crush on him. Surely, that would annul the engagement. And, if all else failed, when and if he ever grew up (kokiris didn't grow up, so he was probably safe), he could always claim that he had been a child at the time, and hadn't had any idea what she was talking about.
He opened his mouth to respond, but Ruto continued, to his surprise. (He'd expected to have to beg her to give him the stone, or something; he'd have liked to have at least been able to explain.)
"Alright! I'll give you my most precious possession, Zora's Sapphire! Take it respectfully!"
She held her arms over her head, as Darunia had, and an orb of blue light gathered there, solidifying into the self-same stone he had seen before. It slowly floated over to above his head, and he reached up to touch it.
"Oh, but don't tell my father…" Ruto said…and vanished. Probably, she had gone underwater. Zoras, he'd observed, seemed to have a bizarre ability to vanish at will underwater.
With Zora's Sapphire in his hands, and the sun high overhead, the water of Zora's Fountain looked impossibly blue. He realised that the presence of the last Spiritual Stone was purifying the already pure clear waters of the fountain. Impressive.
"We did it!" Navi said, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice, as Link trod water in a daze. "We've collected all three Spiritual Stones! Now, we should go back to see Princess Zelda!"
Link nodded to her, putting the Sapphire back into his inventory, his own giddy anticipation making up for any sense of loss at how ordinary the water of the Fountain looked now, outside of the Sapphire's light.