Chapter 14: Conquer Yourself!
The first thing Link did, standing there on the familiar island, with its old, dead tree, and its bridge leading to a tombstone, was pull out the Ocarina of Time, and play "Saria's Song". At least she might exist in this world vicariously, and it was important to keep in touch.
He hadn't contacted her in days, and he was about to head into danger. Now, she was also a liaison to the other Sages of the Temple. If he wanted to speak to Darunia or Rauru, Saria might be willing to help him. Of course, she would. The question was if he could justify asking her, to himself.
"Link! You're alright!" Saria cried, as Navi fluttered near his head. She needed to be fairly close for the connection to work, but her main reason for staying this close was to keep an eye on him.
He sat down at the shore of the island, dangling his legs over the side. It was conspicuous, how far the water level had dropped. He could see water far below him, but, when he'd been a child, if he'd sat where he was sitting now, and dangled his legs over, his ankles would be completely covered—the water would come to—oh, probably about mid-calf.
Now, however, it was visible only if he looked down, far below. There was a plaque standing nearby, its once-mysterious words now much easier to understand: "When water fills the lake, shoot for the morning light." It must mean that the water level would return to normal after he defeated Morpha, and that was when he was to fire an arrow at the rising sun. It was an important thing to remember.
"Saria, is all well there?" he asked, unable to keep the concern out of his voice. Look what had happened, despite his precautions, when he'd left Zelda behind! He needed the assurance that Saria was still well.
He heard her giggle, and felt the warmth in her response. "Oh, Link…. Don't worry about us. Darunia sends his best regards…he's really fun to hang out with. I wish we'd been able to spend time with outsiders, before the Great Deku Tree…. Link, I don't want you thinking that that was your fault. The forest spirits say that he kept the knowledge of what was going on hidden from everyone. I, if anyone, should have noticed, but I didn't…. He must have thought that he could fight off the curse, and then realised that it was time to involve you. But, you aren't to blame, Link. Just remember that. I know how you can be."
He blushed, hanging his head. She did sound just like a mother, didn't she? He was glad he had such people who cared so much about him.
He surreptitiously watched Navi as he thought this. She was doing her best to pretend that she didn't care in the slightest, but was hovering too close for that to seem truly credible. He gave her a grateful smile—how could he ever express, put into words, explain—all that she had done for him, even this far?
"I'm about to head into the Water Temple, if I can find it. It's at the bottom of the lake, which is a lot lower than it was, seven years ago. Tell Darunia that Ruto is the Sage of Water. He'll understand why. I need both of your advice, when this is all over. But, for now…look out for yourselves, and each other. Please. You, Navi, and Darunia, and Zelda…you're the most important people in the world to me. Stay safe."
He nodded to himself, and turned to glance at Navi, who, as if reading his mind, nodded to him, and the sense of presence, of Saria's presence, forsook him. It came with a brief pang of loneliness, but then he stood, staring down at the low waters of the lake. There were blue, four-legged creatures that must be blue tektites, standing here and there around the lake, waiting for him. He could see the red glare of their eyes even from up here.
He considered returning to the research centre, but decided against it. He would find all the answers he needed, down below.
He nodded to himself, pushed off from the edge of the island, and fell the ten or more feet to the remnant of the lake. It must have been drained quite recently, as nothing grew on what had been the lakebed. From here, he could see that the area resembling the entrance to a temple was now completely dry. It made the sheer slope standing near the research building plain to the eye.
He hit the water, and switched out the kokiri boots for the iron ones with only a slight effort of focus, comparing it to the constant need to hold onto the boots, as the Wind Waker had had to do in the Wind Temple, or the slightly less convenient strategy of stomping around the bottom of a shipwreck wearing them.
He belatedly remembered that, as he couldn't breathe underwater, he had best exchange his green tunic for the blue one.
As he sank into the lake, dragged down into its depths by the great weight of the iron boots, he studied his surroundings. Things looked quite different under the water—water had a strange, distorting effect—but he could see the great iron grate stretching across a blue, vast door. Above it was a diamond switch. He wondered if the bow would be able to function properly underwater, or how else to hit that switch. Were bows waterproofed?
As he sank to the bottom, where a tiled floor sat incongruously waiting for him, he withdrew the bow and arrows, and aimed at the switch up above. He drew, shot one of the faerie arrows made by the kokiris, and hit the switch with his first shot. Perhaps other bows were vulnerable to wet, but he'd had the suspicion that, regardless, the faerie bow would be impervious. After all, the kokiri boots and tunic were quick to dry after exposure. The kokiris must know some secret of keeping the wet out.
He watched as the grate rose before him, and he was obliged to approach the door, and somehow open it…which would have to involve opening his mouth, underwater, and hoping that he didn't suffocate. He'd done well at holding his breath thus far, but this….
As he approached the door, it rose of its own accord, and he raised an eyebrow, staring at it. He let out his breath in a stream of bubbles, and realised what he'd just done. He breathed in, gingerly, and nearly fell over in relief to find that he could still breathe.
He cocked his head at Navi, and she flew down to cling to his undershirt, as they walked through the doorway into the short entry to the Water Temple, which, at first glance, was a dead end.
On a hunch, Link exchanged the iron boots for the kokiri boots, and he and Navi slowly rose out of the bottom of the short entry-path, passing by the sandy floor of the central chamber of the water temple as they rose. There were suspicious grey stones lying here and there in shallow indentations in the floor. He watched, as he rose, as they grew spikes, and began to roll around the floor. Navi saw that he understood, and didn't bother flying over, glowing yellow, to inform him that this was an enemy.
"They're living spikes," Navi said, as they rose. "You can't hurt them while their spikes are extended. Wait until they curl into balls."
Link nodded, and continued looking all around him. There was a tall central tower in the very centre of the room, broad and square, with doors set into it on the first and second floors, at least, and a locked door in the middle of one of the walls of the tower. There was also a floating platform, so light he was sure that it wouldn't sink even under his weight.
He noticed two of them, as he swam in a circle around that central tower. One was in the centre of one of the tower's four walls, the other standing against tone of the Temple's outer ring of walls. As he would later learn, they each rested in basins, and couldn't be moved. There were no handholds.
He climbed onto the platform, and heard an odd, familiar sound, of something scratching against stone, and then flopping heavily against the same substance. Then, a blue tektite, its red eye fixed upon him, leapt down into the water. Link climbed out of the water onto the wall around the tower, and pulled out the bow once more, taking careful aim at the tektite as Navi flew over.
"A blue tektite?" he asked her. He sensed, rather than saw, her nod. He nodded in response, and aimed the bow at the red eye. No telling how tough these things were. He released the bowstring, hitting the thing in the eye. It squealed, but changed its direction, and hopped towards him, eye still impaled with the arrow. He drew another arrow, aimed, fired, hit. Still, the monster kept coming. He aimed at its back, and then at its belly as it approached. It was beginning to seem inexorable, but her shot it with one last arrow, and it burst into blue flames, halting where it stood on the water's surface, and Link relaxed.
And then heard one skipping over the water behind him. He whirled around. It was too close for the bow; he drew the Master Sword, and waited for it to come close enough, focusing magical energy into the Master Sword. When it came close enough, he released the energy in a spin attack, cleaving straight through the blue tektite, which promptly burst into flames.
He raised an eyebrow at the sight, but refrained from comment. Was it a sign of how strong the Master Sword had grown, that it did so much more damage than the bow, a peculiarity of the tektites, or what? Link didn't know, and he doubted that Navi did, either.
He shrugged, and sheathed the Master Sword. On this floor, he had a door he couldn't enter in the centre of the tower, and another two or three paths lurking to the left and the right, and straight-ahead.
The last looked as if it curved around to the left. The fact that he could see part of the path convinced him to approach that room first.
He found himself in a complicated minimaze, which he followed until he encountered a block. He tried pushing it, failed, and then tried pulling it back, whence he had come. He could only drag it so far, however, before he could not move it any further.
The door to the left was blocked. There was an eyeswitch under the door. He shot an arrow at the eyeswitch, and the barrier grate lifted. He pulled out the hookshot, to carry him across to the treasure chest that lay beyond, and found that the chain wasn't long enough. Meanwhile, the switch soon reverted back to its normal state, and the grate slammed back down. Link shrugged, and swam to the third door, which had one of the floating platforms in front of it. It was locked.
Nowhere to go but down, then, Link decided. He put the iron boots back on, and felt himself sink back beneath the water. He drew the Master Sword as he sank, alarmed at the resistance that the water provided.
The moment he settled on the lake floor, he went after the spikes rolling about the lakebed, waiting for them to retract their spikes before impaling them, or cutting right through them with the Master Sword. His arms would quickly tire if he kept using it. When the last of the spikes erupted in blue flames, he sheathed the Sword, staring at the doors around him.
He quickly marked the path through which he had entered, but continued around the circle, this time one floor lower. There was a hallway, with its entrance flanked by two torches, which gave him pause. If this floor was always submerged, the torches made no sense. That suggested that….
He continued his circuit, entering another of the hallways buried deep under the water. He found himself unable to continue far into it. There was a door he couldn't swim to swiftly enough, especially as it was protected by a top and bottom row of stone spikes. He emerged at the surface of the water to find his way barred by another row of spikes. Nonplussed, defeated for the moment, he retreated back beneath the surface, wandering back to the mysterious torches.
He shrugged, and followed a short corridor into a room with two more torches, a barred door, and a woman with two long, trailing arm fins, blue fuzz that passed for hair atop her head, and startling violet eyes. She was clearly a zora. That meant that this must be Ruto.
He sighed, and considered making a run for it. But, his iron boots were loud, on the stone floor. She must have heard his approach.
"Who goes there?" demanded a familiar, impatient, and demanding voice. Definitely Ruto. "You, in the blue tunic…you must be…Link Sylvanus, huh?" Her hands settled onto her hips, as her eyes narrowed. "Well, what kind of a man are you, to have kept me waiting for seven years? At least you came back to fulfil your promise…no, I haven't forgotten the vows we made, seven years ago. 'I'll come back and marry you, Ruto,' you promised then. Well, it took you seven years! How my poor heart has ached, missing you so badly…. You're a very bad fiancé, to keep me waiting for seven years!"
Then, her head bowed, and her eyes closed. Her arms dropped to her sides. "But, now isn't the time for speeches about love.
"My people need help. Perhaps, you've been to Zora's Domain, and seen what became of it. My people, buried under the ice! A kind man named Sheik rescued me, but he was unable to save anyone else…."
Link wondered if she genuinely didn't realise that Sheik was a girl, or if Sheik had sworn her to secrecy. When had this happened, anyway? Had Zora's Domain only recently frozen over? That must be the case, or Ruto wouldn't be here, now. She'd long ago have ventured into the temple, and quite possibly died. Despite her obnoxious and brash attitude, he was relieved that she hadn't died. And, speaking of brash…Ruto wasn't done.
"That vile man, Ganondorf, did this to them! I'll see him dead if it's the last thing I do, but…I'll need your help if I'm to rescue my people. Please, Link, do this as a favour to me, your fiancée! Please, help me to save my people!"
She raised her head to look at him, and something in him, despite it all, wanted very much to just turn back now, and spare himself the grief that would invariably come of assisting the zoran princess, one way or another.
But, she was right. It was more than just her safety at stake—and besides that, he was certain that she was the Sage of Water. He needed her help. He took a deep breath, pressed his lips together, and nodded. Ruto, face unusually grim, nodded in response.
"There are three chambers where you can change the level of the water in this temple. The first is located in a room above us. Follow me; I'll lead you there!"
With this, she began to rise to the surface, propelling herself upwards by kicking her legs and pushing against the water with her arms. He followed her, exchanging the heavy iron boots for the kokiri ones. Well, that explained all the unlit underwater torches. He was much slower to rise than she, no matter that he swam for the surface with powerful strokes. She had already gone by the time he broke the surface.
Before him was a ledge running up to a door set into the wall, with a plaque sitting on the right hand side of the wall, which he mistook for mere decoration until Navi flew over to it, staring hard.
Engraved into the stone of the temple was the picture of the triple triangles, and a caption: "If you would access the deeps, play the melody passed down by the Royal Family here."
Link looked at it, looked at Navi, and nodded. Then, he disregarded the plaque, for the moment, to see what lay beyond.
This was a corridor, with two ledges on either side, but a long gap between them, and several tektites waiting at the other end. He took careful aim, shooting at the first tektite, which then bounded towards him, now aware of his existence, despite the distance. He ignored it, to peer over the side of the gap, where a short waterspout lay in the middle of the pit. There was also a diamond switch.
He suddenly had some idea of how to get across. He carefully aimed the hookshot at the switch, and watched as the spout rose into a geyser, forming a sort of path across. He cast Farore's Wind, just in case, and then leapt onto the geyser, which supported his weight. From the geyser, he leapt onto the far ledge. He drew the Master Sword, and went to meet the three tektites still waiting for him, ignoring the one down below him. With them dispatched, he approached the handleless door before him.
Beyond was a small, square room, with a blue tektite, and several keese. These things were everywhere. He used the Master Sword to dispatch the blue tektite, deliberately limiting his allotted space, to avoid waking as many keese as possible. With the tektite gone, he focused on the keese. Navi hovered silently beside each in turn, and Link picked them off, one by one.
A blue light appeared, circling around the centre of the room, leaving a big treasure chest behind. Experience suggested that this would be the dungeon map.
Experience did not disappoint. The map was full of broken fragments of rooms and corridors, showing underwater passages connecting surface rooms. He might not have understood if he hadn't already seen one.
Here it was, on the map. There were three floors of rooms marked in here. The middle floor was blocked off by those rows of spikes, and the uppermost was currently inaccessible for similar reasons, but he remembered seeing a hookshot patch in the ceiling above. If the hookshot's chain were longer, he might have been able to reach it from below. The chain had certainly seemed longer, on the Great Sea. Perhaps, there was an attachable length of chain that he could use to lengthen it, somewhere? In this temple? Hmm….
He backtracked, still staring at the map, as Navi alternated between chiding him for his lack of caution ("remember that tektite down in the pit?"), fluttering over the map to examine it herself, and watching where he was going for him. It kept her very busy.
Link took aim at the switch with the hookshot from above, hitting it the first time, providing him a way back across. He had stared at the map enough, and thought that he understood some of what he ought to do next.
He returned to the room in which he'd met Ruto (if it could be called the same room; it was on a different floor) and stopped to stand before the plaque on the wall, withdrawing the Ocarina of Time, now, to play Zelda's Lullaby. He turned to watch the water drain away…somewhere. It drained all the way out, leaving him standing on a tall cliff above the door he had seen before.
He leapt back down into the room wherein he'd first seen Ruto, casting Din's Fire to set the torches ablaze, causing the bars to lift. He walked through the doors into a room with a pool of water in it. According to the map, this was part of an underwater passage. He leapt into the water, surfaced, put on the iron boots, and sank.
Looking down, he saw enemies that resembled clams, albeit with spikes sticking out of the back of their shell, near the hinge. That would be very painful to run into. He turned to Navi.
"Well…they're clams. Their weakness is their fleshy inside, near their joint. They have to open them occasionally to breathe…but they aren't open for very long. You'd better already be aiming for the right place."
She sighed, flying down to the first one, which opened its mouth, turning to face her. When it faced her, that meant that the spikes faced away. That was as much difference as Link could see, other than the wide-open jaws. He already had out the hookshot, and he aimed it at the monster, rotating the disc. The chain shot out, impaling the monster, which broke into two halves and burst into blue flames unhindered by the fact that these monsters were underwater.
Link followed Navi as she flew to the next clam, and the next, and the next. At length, the floor was clear, and he found himself in an underwater hallway. He followed it into a broader room, with a hole in the ceiling. (Possibly to allow him to surface, but he wasn't putting anything past this dungeon. Unfortunately, there was no means to head up there to check. Well, it wasn't marked on his map; it couldn't be too important.)
He swam across to a ledge on the far side of the room, with a door set into the wall. The door was covered by bars, but there was an eyeswitch above it. It was easy enough to figure out what to do. He tripped the switch, and entered the next room.
This room was huge, and mostly flooded with water, and strange, spinning vortices. Boulders fell from paths outside of sight, heading from left to right, and right to left. A diamond switch lay under the water, which was at a low enough level that he knew that he wouldn't be able to climb out unless the water level were higher. That might be the function of the switch. The function of the vortices, however, remained a mystery. There was a door on the other side of the room, currently unreachable.
He timed his jump carefully, and leapt into the water. His caution was rendered fruitless right away, when an invisible current carried him around the room, following the square perimeter of the pool. It was all happening too fast for him to get his bearings, but it was only a matter of time before his cycle of the room coincided with the departure of a boulder in his area. Then, he'd be squashed flat. Better, then, to wear the iron boots, and slow his reaction time (making him vulnerable to the boulders in a different way), then to smack into one without warning, too disoriented from his repeated rounds of the room to react.
He sank to the floor, and clutched his head, walking to the centre of the room that he knew was clear of boulders. He watched the room above him, analysing it, staring at the paths the boulders continuously took. It was the only way even he knew the difference between left-right, and forwards-backwards, anymore. If he face the right way, then the door out of this room was located to his left, on the far wall, and out of sight. If he were wrong, then it was located behind him, and to the right.
He turned to look at Navi, but she looked to be even dizzier than he. Her smaller size seemed to have ensured that she be buffeted about by the currents, spun this way and that, until she couldn't tell up from down. Wordlessly, Link reached out, and stuffed her under his shirt. She leant back against him, breathing heavy. She seemed to be shuddering. Well, he didn't like it, either.
Rather than draw the Master Sword, he withdrew the hookshot, aiming at the switch before him. He hoped that his luck held, and he either made it to the correct ledge in time, or else he avoid injury until he did. Only luck had saved him from already being squashed, and he acknowledged this with a fervent prayer to Farore.
Sure enough, with the diamond switch hit, the water level rose, and he switched out the kokiri boots for the iron boots, resolutely heading towards the edge of the water, wherever it was, and climbing onto the first ledge that met his hands. His luck held. It was the correct ledge.
He lay there on the edge of the ledge for a few seconds, catching his breath and reorienting himself, soothing his battered body, reassuring his feet that there was solid ground underfoot, and it wasn't moving.
Navi crawled out, stumbling drunkenly across the floor, nearly falling over several times. Gradually, she straightened up, and her stride lengthened, grew more determined, and erect. She continued to walk around a bit, as Link, too, stood, taking cautious steps forwards, wobbling much as Navi had, but with less room to reacclimate himself.
When both of them felt well enough to continue, they followed a narrow corridor to a handleless, unbarred, unlocked door. Link feebly requested that it open, and it obliged, seeming to lift more slowly than normal doors, perhaps recognising that this would take him longer than usual.
He walked into a smaller room, with its tektites and keese.
When they were all slain, the familiar blue light circled around a tile on the floor, and a big treasure chest appeared there, revealing the compass. All of this work, for that? But, the dungeon assistance item never seemed to precede the miniboss, and the boss key came only near the very end. Perhaps, it was to be expected. At least he hadn't gone through all that work for only a small key.
According to the compass, this Temple was even more complicated than the previous two, filled with small keys (and therefore locked doors). Between the dungeon map and the compass, this temple was beginning to seem a maze. With the water lowered, he could now explore the room with the three rows of spikes across two floors that had beaten him before. He had the sense that the very difficulty in finding a way past those spikes was meant to ensure that he left it for later.
The dungeon map claimed that there were other routes leading to the room with the boulders and currents, but what, precisely, the paths indicated, or how to find their start—or which passages connected what rooms to where, was very difficult to figure out. Here was another map for a dungeon where it was almost worthless. Poor cartographer, if there were one. The Water Temple was a headache to try to remember or to understand.
Still, given his current progress, and lack of a longer hookshot, the way forward was clear. He would have to finally see what awaited him within the tall tower, the heart of the temple.
Or, well, he assumed that it was the heart. Instead, it was a very basic sort of room, with a hidden chamber somehow somewhere underneath it (he didn't realise that that was a floating platform until he played "the melody of the Royal Family to raise the gate on the far heights", as the inscription on the wall plaque bade him do.
There were no foes in this central chamber, nor indeed any great complexity. It was a matter of using the hookshot to leap from one floating platform to another, in a way that reminded him of his vague memory of the Tower of the Gods, which may or may not have actually been he, and he'd had over two months to forget about, regardless. Over two months, with the addition of seven years, that is. Why was his life so confusing?
This room, here, in the heart of the temple, was the most straightforward room in the entire building.
He left that room to find himself on the highest ledge, looking out over the highest floor of the dungeon (that is to say, 3F), facing a statue with a hookshot circle on its front. It was dragon-shaped, with a long, serpentine neck, that long, square muzzle, with wild white eyes. He compared it first to Volvagia, and then to Valoo, and finally to the King of Red Lions. It resembled the last of these most, despite being a slate grey.
It was too far away to reach with the hookshot, but he noted the path in his mind. Judging by his sense of twists and turns, that infallible sense of the interconnections of passages, a mind that could encompass the floorplan of even a building such as this, those giant heads lay to the west. To the east was a locked door, inaccessible for the moment. That left the final door, lying to the north. He leapt off the ledge of the central tower, heading into another corridor.
The Water Temple was a maze, and one in three dimensions. He found himself often returning to rooms he'd been to before, not recognising them right away, if the water had risen or fell since he'd last seen it. The northern passage had led the way to an alcove high above the waters, providing a way to return the water to its original level (which was the only way he could leave the dungeon, apparently).
He'd wandered into the same rooms from different angles, and different heights, encountering tektites, keese, clams, and spikes, depending on where he was. The clams and spikes were only to be found in the bottom two floors (1F, and 1B). Their mobility was limited; they couldn't jump or roll high enough to reach the upper floors. Keese, on the other hand, were to be found on any floor but the flooded basement. Tektites, similarly, couldn't venture underwater, and as surface creatures never sank into the basement rooms.
Link found he much preferred fighting the blue tektites, even up close, to trying to time a shot at the clams just right, in that very narrow window of opportunity between closed and facing away, and open and facing him. He had only the warning of the shell turning around to ready the hookshot, or the bow.
He did, however, encounter them once or twice on dry ground, and these battles were much more swiftly resolved. Tetra might have called him a master of many weapons, but as far as he was concerned, his strength would always be the sword—and that strength was mostly that of others—of Saria, Darunia, and Rauru, who had added their power to his. It was thanks to them that he could make such short work of the grounded marine life.
As he ventured through the temple, he gathered a surprisingly small number of small keys, having usually precisely one more than he needed to make his way through the given corridor he was investigating at the time.
The Water Temple was huge, and rather alarming. There were timed switches, and geysers, and confusing rooms that far too closely resembled rooms he'd already visited, and the map availed him little. He clenched his fists, set his jaw, and continued in silence, with Navi scrutinising the map, and their current progress.
And then, they opened one of the doors off the central chamber (a locked door, set into the wall of the second floor), and Link found himself in a room that was decidedly different.
There were two waterfalls in the centre of the room, leading down into darkness. Platforms extended out of them at regular intervals, sinking slowly into the abyss. On his side, however, there was only one platform, rising and falling. The closer it came to the abyss, the further from the falls it stuck out. With the short chain of the hookshot, he'd need to get closer to latch onto the square patches with the targets adorning them.
And, of course, there were keese. He could expect nothing less. Most of the keese were too far away from him to even consider the hookshot. He had no other plausible weapons save the bow, and he thus took it out, reached behind him for an arrow from the quiver, aimed, fired, struck a keese across the room. Bow, mastered.
He gave a grim smile, but did not pause to celebrate, instead just sighting along the arrow for the other keese clinging to the same wall. After shooting the keese across the falls, he took aim at those lurking closer to.
Although his new quiver of arrows carried up to forty, and he'd only used three, he thought it might be a better idea to use the hookshot where he could, instead. He'd then also have it handy for crossing the falls. He sent away the bow and quiver, and carefully aimed the hookshot at the keese at the other end of the short entryway—one of two flanking the mini-corridor before it widened out into the main chamber. Using the hookshot was much like using the bow, in some ways. He was making progress on skill with the hookshot, and had nearly mastered it.
When the room was devoid of keese, he walked over to the platform hanging out over the falls. He slid down the embankment—its steep slope—and onto the sinking and rising platform.
He waited until they had extended themselves out of the water to what he judged was a sufficient degree, and then rotated the disc that controlled the hookshot. It caught on the white target of the platform he had aimed for, and Link let it carry him across the falls.
He should probably have used Farore's Wind, back there, but he ignored this sentiment, walking over to the door on the other side of the room, and flinging it open to a room filled with lowered statue heads of a kind with those he'd seen on the third floor—the ones with faces reminiscent of the King of Red Lions's. They were grey, and, at this current point, most of them were sticking out of the water, heads held high. There was a diamond switch under the water, one that he could reach from the floor.
He used the hookshot to travel to a higher ledge across the gap, knowing on sight that his eventual goal was a door on the other side of the room, on a high ledge. It was to the right of the entrance, set into a far-off wall. He just had to hope that somehow, he was doing the right things, and that this strategy would lead him up that cliff, eventually. He turned to the diamond switch.
Despite the fact that several similar switches (and several eye-switches) had done nothing but release a number of monsters, he tripped the switch with the hookshot. He could see no other way to climb onto the higher platforms hedging the statues. It seemed plausible that the switch would raise the water level.
Instead, it made all of the statues sink into the ground, up to their heads. These were just short enough that he could climb onto them.
He stared at the switch, and waited. When he was satisfied that the effect was not about to wear off, he aimed the hookshot into a target adorning the wall to his right. The hookshot carried him across, and he jumped over the statue head that would otherwise have kept him from crossing the narrow platform path. He climbed onto the statue at its far end, and sent the hookshot at the diamond switch, again, wondering what it would do now.
In response, the statues rose back out of the ground, the one he was now standing upon no exception. Wow.
Even where he stood, he could aim at the exposed target circle of the statue on the final ledge, which was conveniently facing him. The hookshot carried him across, and he jumped off the statue, and turned to the (even now accessible) diamond switch, tripping it with the hookshot, and running over to the statue hanging just below the exit ledge. He'd noticed that it was of a height with the ledge, when raised.
He withdrew the bow, and aimed for the place where he could barely see the diamond switch. He shot, and hit, and the statue head upon which he was rose up to meet the exit ledge. Navi cocked her head, but Link shrugged, leaping easily from statue head to alcove, and marching forwards to stand before the door, ordering it to open.
It did…revealing another vortices-and-boulders room. This one was marked on the map as having a hidden entrance, or some such, high above one of the boulder's chutes.
This one, thankfully, lacked currents, and a carefully timed jump was enough to ensure his success at crossing the room.
On the other side was a room, small and unassuming, with a couple of keese. At the other end was a door, handleless and small. He ordered it to open, and stepped through into a very odd room.
A sense of foreboding sent shivers up his spine, even before the bars slammed down to cover the door. The miniboss's lair. What lay in wait for him, here?
The room was empty, covered by a thin veneer of water, which lapped at his feet, but never covered his kokiri boots. There were no visible walls—not even in the door through which he had just entered, which looked as though there were a field or bank of fog and mist, and the door stood suspended in that. On the other side of the room was a similar story—an identical bank of mist, with an identical door, covered by identical bars.
There were no walls to his left or to his right, either. The only things of any note that he could see were the island in the centre of the room, and the dead, twisted tree rising out of it. He stared at both from across the room, and then cautiously approached. He looked up. There was no ceiling. Instead, there was nothing but infinite whiteness, and he looked back down. As he continued his trek to the central tree, his foreboding increased, despite the lack of any visible threat.
There was still nothing there when he arrived. Nor was there anything else visible in the entire room, despite his mounting dread. He looked around the island for any threats, found nothing, for lack of a better plan, headed for the door he had originally intended to leave through.
It was barred, of course, and there was no visible means of fixing that. When he reached the door, fear not at all bated, he sighed, turned to lean back against the door, resting his weight on it to think, head angled once more towards the whiteness that should have been ceiling.
He lowered his head, caught sight of something dark with two pinpricks of glowing red standing before the tree.
It hadn't been there before; he knew it. He straightened up, drew sword and shield, crossing once more to the tree, paying little heed to the water trying its hardest to soak through his boots, now.
As he approached, he could better see the hazy figure. It was murky and translucent, the shadow of a man cast by stark lighting, but made solid and three-dimensional, and with glowing red eyes.
Nor was it the shadow of just any man. He recognised the pointed cap. The winged guard of the sword it held angled out—a shadowy sword, without hue or shading. The shield, how it came to a point, and the features of the face, the shape of the chin as it turned its head, the way it cocked its head as he drew near, studying him.
He knew every one of its mannerisms. He should. They were his.
"Navi, what is that?" he asked, recoiling. He chastised his own cowardice as he took a step back when the shadow moved. It straightened up, sword drawn, and approached him.
"I think… Link, you don't have a shadow! You should have seen it in your reflection on the water, but you didn't. You're not casting a shadow—instead, somehow, this room gave it life! I have no idea how you're going to go about fighting your own shadow (we'll call it 'Shadow Link', right?), Link…."
Shadow Link waited for him to move, shield positioned at an optimal position to block any of Link's usual sorts of attacks. For a long while, they faced off against each other, circling one another, neither willing to make the first move. But, the Shadow—could it even attack him? Could it even hurt him, incorporeal as shadows usually were?
He took a chance, moved his shield aside slightly to slice at the shadow. He stopped his attack as the shadow thrust at him, bypassing his shield, aiming for the heart, and in that moment, he didn't care if it was real or not; he wasn't willing to take the chance. He backflipped to gain some distance, breathing heavy, but not from exertion.
The shadow returned to mimicking his pose, waiting for him to close the distance again.
Always waiting. Wasn't that how Link too often fought? Waiting for his opponents to lower their guard, even just briefly, and then lashing out before they could, using his superior speed to exploit their split second of vulnerability preceding their strike? He had to change his tactics.
He approached the shadow again, leaping for it with the Sword raised above his head, cleaving downward in a powerful downward stroke. The shadow flickered, disappeared, sank into the water, but the feeling of foreboding remained. Chills ran down his spine, and he sensed danger, but couldn't pinpoint it, until Navi, valiantly trying to look everywhere at once, and not knowing that the miniboss must surely still be nearby, called out,
"Watch out, Link! Behind you!"
Link rolled forward, narrowly avoiding the shadow's own downward slice, and whirled to meet it, eyes wide. He was trembling. Never before had he encountered a foe such as this. Had he even injured the shadow, when it'd dropped out of the water just now? Or had that been another of its tricks?
Perhaps, if he charged the Master Sword, the magic surrounding the sword—his prolonged vulnerability risking an attack against which he could not defend an irresistible lure—might be able to hurt the shadow whilst letting him keep his distance.
He waited for the blade to burn blue. The shadow, mimicking his actions, did not get an answering energy charge.
As he approached, it broke from mimicry, leaping onto the blade of his sword, weighing it down (not by a man's weight—perhaps a few pounds, the weight of a small dog), as it edged down the blade towards him.
Link felt his heart stop. He'd never learnt how to do anything similar. The idea had never even occurred to him. Oh, Goddesses Three. What if his shadow was a superior fighter to him?
"Master of many weapons", ha!
Wait. Many weapons? What if he forewent the security of the Master Sword, and attempted to use such a weapon as the bow against this foe? Or the hookshot? There was a tree right there, and the hookshot sometimes latched onto wood.
What if he brought out the bow, and with superior reflexes, the shadow shot him in the heart, and killed him? What if he brought out the hookshot, and it latched onto him, finishing him off before he could withdraw the sword to attack?
His thoughts were interrupted as the shadow thrust down at his head. He bent backward, struggling to shake the shadow off, but it dragged a ragged gash down his chest, anyway. It was not the shallowest wound he had ever received, but it was nothing serious, either.
He sank to his knees, and the shadow backflipped off the sword, realising, if it could think, that with Link crouched as he was, it would more easily wound him by heading behind him. His front was too well protected, with the shield held in front of him, angled to give even his head some cover. He realised what the shadow was trying to do, and rolled forward, again, out of its reach, whirling to keep the shadow in sight.
Navi was calling out advice, but he couldn't hear her through the blood pumping through his veins, the rush of battle, but also…fear. He was far too accustomed to being the superior fighter, able to find and exploit even the smallest gaps in his opponents' defences.
Something else. What else could he do? The Megaton Hammer would leave him too exposed—he'd be hampered by its great weight, which would slow down his pace, and occupy both of his hands. What else remained? Master Sword? currently in use. Hookshot? Hammer? Bow? The only thing that remained was Din's Fire.
He glanced at Navi, just briefly, and the shadow broke from circling him, to lunge. Link ducked under the blow, thrusting at the living shadow. He hit it, again. Again, it sank into the water, and Link watched Navi, confident that she'd spot the shadow before him, as he tried to keep in constant motion, constantly changing direction. Did the shadow always appear behind him?
It appeared at his side, immediately slicing at his more vulnerable left-hand side—the side not protected by the hylian shield. He moved the shield to block the slice, then pushed against the shadow with it. It blocked with its own, and a battle of shields commenced. Which one was sturdier? Clearly, they both had some sort of weight and solidity, or that sword wouldn't have cut Link open (the zora tunic was currently in better repair than he, already mending itself back together seamlessly).
He managed to shove the shield backwards enough that it gave him some room to manoeuvre, and rolled to his feet at a fair distance, dropping sword and shield, knowing he could summon them back again, if need be.
He swiped his hands to the right, and then to the left, and as he did, he began a quiet prayer to Din. As he bent over, the fireball spread outward. Would a fire hurt a shadow? He could only hope.
The flames of Din's Fire spread until they consumed the shadow monster, which dropped into the pond again. Reappeared. Once again dropped down. Reappeared. Again dropped out. Reappeared. Dropped out.
Link held up the spell as long as he could, until he sensed that it was doing more harm than good. Then, he took advantage of the brief window of time when the shadow would be gone to sheathe sword and shield, withdraw the ultimate medicine, and down the entire bottle in a single shot. He'd never had to do that before, but he was losing too much blood, and he'd used too much magic.
His wound knitted back together. Magical energy flooded his body. Even the zora tunic sped up its self-repairs.
At Navi's warning, he spun to face the shadow again. Was he accomplishing anything? He couldn't tell. He wished that he'd used Farore's Wind somewhere in the dungeon. Or maybe he had, long ago.
Maybe he'd have to use that escape route. Never before had he even considered fleeing the fight. It was a strange sensation—this suspicion of cowardice, of weakness. The shadow was getting in good hits, and it wasn't even alive. What did he do? Could he even defeat it?
He lashed out at it, going on the offensive, throwing caution to the winds while he had the energy to give as much haste as he could to his attacks. The shadow dropped out into the pond again, and Link came to the conclusion that that meant that he had hurt it. He had no real reason to believe this—no evidence—but without this assumption, he could only assume that it was invincible, and that attitude was not conducive to either fighting or victory. He needed to give himself hope.
It reappeared, standing at his side, sword already midarc towards his side. He blocked it with the Master Sword, forsaking the hylian shield for now, and pushed the sword of the shadow back, quickly lashing out in his turn. But, the shadow was wise to his most recent strategy, blocking the blow with its shadow shield. Was this how it felt, to fight him?
They returned to circling each other. The shadow waited with unflagging patience, eyes (which were one solid colour, with no pupils or irises) fixed upon him, watching his every move, every twitch of a muscle, the direction of his gaze, the slight shifts in stance that might betray his plans.
He backflipped, leaping away from the fight, and the shadow lunged, opening a cut in his leg that had him drop to his knees for the second time in the space of only a few moments. He remembered the Waker of the Winds, facing off against the Helmaroc King, injuring his leg, still managing to rise and continue on to face Ganondorf, atop the Forsaken Fortress.
He rolled to the side in time to avoid the Shadow's fatal blow, as Navi hovered near his side. She seemed to realise that he couldn't focus on her words—his mind was too filled with frenetic noise to pay them heed. Every bit of his attention was consumed with avoiding the blows of the shadow, and on inflicting his own in return.
Now, he couldn't even retreat. He rose shakily to his feet, swiping his arms to the right, and then to the left, murmuring another prayer to Din, spreading the flames outward in a circle the shadow dared not to cross. Despite that, it got caught in the blast, as Link expanded the bubble of fire outward. Always, it reappeared within the range of the flames—perhaps it was unable to control where it reappeared. It reformed, dropped out, reformed, dropped out, reformed, dropped out, in an almost gratifying sequence.
But, Link couldn't keep the spell up forever. He only had one other bottle of the ultimate medicine, and he needed to leave enough magical energy to retreat to his warp point, if he had one. If he didn't…well, he would probably die.
He took advantage of the shadow's temporary absence to withdraw the medicine of life, drinking just enough to heal the worst of his injury, leaving behind an almost-familiar, phantom pain.
His heart thudded in his chest, drowning out all other noise. He wasn't aware of Navi's persistent shouts, asking him what she could do to help, asking if he was alright, asking what he wanted her to do, and why didn't he try this, or that? He didn't notice the way the water soaked through the knees of his white leggings, and the leather of the kokiri gauntlets. He didn't notice the pure ring of the Master Sword as it struck the stone floor of the temple. He barely even heard his own, ragged breathing. Medicine or not, he was going to die. He couldn't keep this up forever.
He stood on his injured leg, which was mostly restored, after all, and spun in an uncharged spin attack, catching the shadow off-guard. Mostly because he hadn't planned for that to be an attack, himself. He'd never used an uncharged attack before. It was strange, to see the path of the sparkling Master Sword, without its customary blue flames covering it.
The Master Sword clove through the shadow, cutting it in half horizontally, and the pieces fell into the water. Link thrust behind him, almost on impulse, felt his blade connect with something again, turned his body, slightly, to watch the shadow, already reformed, drop back out of the room.
The feeling of imminent doom bated. The water vanished as if it had never been, replaced by the stone tiles of the temple. The tree and its island were nowhere to be seen. Instead, a treasure chest stood in the middle of the room, exactly where it should be. He barely noticed, sinking to his knees, and then falling flat on his face. The battle had taken too much out of him.
Navi stood watch over him, as he hovered in whatever strange land signified the border between life and death. As she did, she wondered what she could have done differently; if she could have saved him. She landed on his shoulder, reached for his neck to feel for a pulse. She leant back against his neck as she felt it, racing beneath his skin. He was still breathing heavy, too. She didn't know what to do. She wished that she knew what to do.
She looked at him, still bleeding and worn, his leg throbbing with pain that even she felt.
He had pushed himself too hard. She knew it. They were outmatched, no matter what he had done. He'd used too much life energy—naturally drained in combat and exertion, unnaturally drained by Din's Fire, only partially restored by the ultimate medicine, and the medicine of life, and flowing out of his body with every new injury.
Didn't he realise that the shadow had cut him in the arm, too? She didn't think he did. She flew over to examine the cut, but it was mostly healed by the medicine, which couldn't possibly be expected to be a miracle-worker. If Link lived, it was only grace of the Goddesses Three watching over him. Or, perhaps, Navi herself.
She remembered all the times that he had offered her support, warmth, a place and time to recover and restore her own energy. She remembered his kindness, how he had forgiven her, trusted her, respected her. A faerie bond is forever, and she didn't want him to die.
She bent down, fluttering over to the area of his heart, and began to pour her own energy into him, healing the rest of his wounds, restoring as much of his energy as she could, until she, too, was exhausted. Her glow dimmed, she sank to her knees on his neck, and fainted.