A Link to the Past
Chapter Ten: The Dunes
By staying off the main roads, and sticking to lesser used trails and overgrown areas while heading south, Link was able to avoid any more contact with the guards, because honestly who in their right mind would go all the way down there? The closer the young man got to the dunes, the more overgrown and untraveled the terrain became, at least until the plants started to thin out in favor of sand. The trees and bushes got smaller and sparser until there was no cover at all from the wind and rain, and soon there wasn't even any grass underneath his feet as Link reached the edge of the dunes. Now the miniature desert lay before him, with hills of sand being all that lay ahead.
The good news was that the weather had the temperature down all across Hyrule, but that meant that it was raining there as well, meaning that the dunes, or at least the top few inches of them, had turned into mud. Underneath that the sand was still dry, but the top layer of mud made it a little more difficult for the young man to walk, stumbling and slipping a little while climbing up that first hill. Even though this was considered a miniature desert, that didn't mean that the dunes were small in any way, shown by the fact that all he could see up ahead were more hills and valleys of mud and sand, but this couldn't be the spot yet because the highest trees were still visible when Link looked back.
No, the voice, whom the young man suspected was really the village elder he was looking for, had specifically said that nothing would be visible except sand in any direction, so he kept going. A few specks of green dotted even this harsh desert landscape, cactus's of varying size mostly, some even with a large bird sitting on top, its head ducked down with wings pulled around as cover from the rain. Now that he thought about it, Link wasn't sure why this desert was there in the first place, since it got pretty much the same weather as the rest of the province, and yet nothing except those few cactus's grew there. Yes, this was the first time that the young man ever ventured this far into the rolling sand, but it seemed like an odd location for anything to be built. Maybe this place wasn't always a desert?
Whatever the case may be, it was a desert now, and as the rain picked up again the top layer of mud grew thicker and more slick until it took a little effort to pull his boots back up with each step. As if this wasn't hard enough while going up hill, the rain became more intense at the very top, and then Link lost his footing, crying out from surprise when his back hit the mud, and now he was getting down the slope much faster by rolling and sliding all the way to the bottom. Once there he was able to get up again, instinctively reaching out for the nearest object to stead himself as he got to his hands and knees, only to gasp in shock, quickly pulling his hand back from the large cactus that he had just leaned on.
"Ah… damn it!" Link yelled, looking at the three large needles stuck in his palm but hesitant to touch them. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
With his free hand, the young man drew his sword, slashing at the large plant in anger, but only becoming more so when the fluid stored inside the cactus squirted out through the cut, splattering all across his face and making him fall on his back in the mud again. Now slipping and sliding as he tried to get up without the use of both hands, Link's angry yelling and cursing echoing across the dunes until he was finally able to get up, and then resisting the urge to cut the cactus again, instead tending to his hand. The needles weren't in that deeply, but they were barbed along the sides, meaning that it was difficult to remove them without hurting himself even more.
Eventually, the needles were removed with only some small marks and a tiny bit of blood remaining, and now there was a path that snaked its way in between some of the hills, so the young man decided to follow it for a while if anything just to get a break from the hills. Oh man, what was he doing there? Had the old man been lying to him? Did Sahasrahla really not trust him, sending Link on this ridiculous errand while he laughed all the way to an even better hiding place? If so, then the village elder was long gone by now, and if there was nothing to be found in the center of the dunes, then he would just have to go back to the temple and hope that Princess Zelda had another idea for what they were supposed to do.
Soon the path came to an end, branching out into several directions once it rounded the next hill, but now everything was a lot less elevated, as in the hills were getting noticeably smaller until it wasn't difficult to climb them at all. Now when the young man looked around he could see nothing but sand in all directions, but still not seeing anything as he kept walking forward, at least not until after pulling his boots out of the mud one more time until Link's foot stepped on something solid. Whatever it was, it was just under the top inch or so of sand, and large enough so that both feet were on solid ground now, as well as the next several steps that he took. Kicking some of the mud away with his feet, the young man saw that it was stone, and not random rock, but a smooth carved platform that was completely flat.
"Is this the place?" He asked aloud quietly. "So… courage tested, huh?"
There was plenty of sand around, and… and it looked like there were a few rocks sticking up from below, but upon closer examination, the rocks turned out to be more like the remains of carved, stone pillars. There were the lines from what looked like decorative marking, but too worn to make out exactly what kind of language or pictures they were supposed to represent, not that Link was an expert on languages or anything. Whatever the pillars were, the ones he could see were evenly spaced out into a large circle, at least that was the guess based on the four of them that he could see. All right, there was a stone slab surrounded by pillars, but… but what was he supposed to do now?
Slowly turning around for another look at his surroundings, the young man didn't seen anything more than he already had, and now the rain was coming down harder again. Forced to wipe the dripping water from his forehead and shake out the hat he was wearing, Link couldn't help noticing that more of what remained of the broken pillars was visible now… and so was the stone platform as the mud covering it was slowly being washed over the now visible sides. As he thought, the platform was a large stone square, now with a few more broken remains of the bases of pillars around it, but there was something at the very center. The young man didn't see it until the rain had washed off the surface completely, just some subtle lines in the shape of a much smaller, double square, but then he jumped back when it suddenly moved.
Breaking apart at the middle and then each half swinging downward with a loud, hollow clang upon hitting the sides, Link realized that he was looking at a very old and really well hidden trap door… one with a set of stairs heading down into the darkness beneath the dunes. Even though the sky was cloudy, there was enough light from the sun for him to see to the bottom of the stairs, or at least what he thought was the bottom, but not much else. It looked like there was some kind of path moving away from the stairs, but without a lantern or a torch there was no way to tell without investigating more closely. So, was this it? This had to be the place Sahasrahla told him about, so was entering this ruin how his courage was to be tested?
"Hello?" He called down into the pathway. "Is anyone down there?"
It wasn't like there was anyone else around to answer that question, so the young man took a deep breath and put his foot down onto the first step, and nothing happened, prompting him to keep going. Like the dungeons of the castle, the air was stale and dusty, but now at least Link was getting a break from the wind and rain. Since he wasn't sure what to expect in this place, and literally anything could've tunneled down from the surface over the years since the original ruins had been built, the young man drew his silver sword before moving his foot from the bottom step onto the dry, sandy ground, and then the whole world seemed to echo with an intense bang when the light from above was suddenly gone.
Instinctively rushing back up the stone stairs to investigate, Link tried to pull the trap doors back open, also feeling around for some kind of switch or hidden lever… probably something he should've done before they closed again, but there was nothing. He couldn't find any way to open them from where he was, and they were too heavy to force, leaving him trapped underneath the old ruins… in the middle of the dunes where no one ever went. All right, so calling for help didn't seem to be an option right now, so what was he supposed to do, just go back down and wander around in the darkness? Looking back down the stairs at the only path forward, it took Link a moment to realize that he could still see the path itself… but where was the light coming from?
Trying the doors one more time but not getting anywhere, the young man turned and walked back down the stairs, now able to see a lot better since his eyes had adjusted, and realizing that the light wasn't the orange flickering kind that came from fire. Instead it came from above, where small holes had been carved into the ceiling at regular intervals, allowing sunlight to come in as well as small amounts of sand with mud. The light also allowed Link to see the carved stone features of this passageway, including a lot of shapes and images along the walls, not that he could read the language… and there was one other thing.
Bones… there were bones of people on the floor, partially covered with sand, and some wearing scraps of deteriorated clothing or rusty armor. The young man's mouth started to run dry as he looked at them, but the worst part was that these skeletons didn't look like they died in a fight… sure, the bones were pure white like they had been there a long time, but some were sitting against the wall while others were simply sprawled out on the floor as if trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. The meaning of this was simple… half a dozen people had entered these ruins at some point… and hadn't been able to get back out again.