With the new clawshot in hand, Link and I went over to a gate that was too high for us to climb up to. He used the clawshot to grap onto a target above the gate, then pulled me close to him as the chain raised us over the gate. We dropped back down on the otherside and continued on through the temple, going to all the places we couldn't before.
It was a bit awkward to continuously be so close to Link, but I tried getting used to it. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take long. By the fifth time we had to use the clawshot to navigate the temple, I had gotten mostly used to the feeling of his arm slinking around my waist and pulling me flush against him while I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on until we stopped moving.
After a lot of swimming, using the clawshot, and blowing up rocks, we eventually made it to a room with a target on the ceiling. Link grabbed it with the clawshot and his weight pulled a lever that opened a small hole in the floor. He dropped the chain slowly and landed on a platform below our current level. He retracted the clawshot and I looked down the hole to where he stood by a large chest.
"It's not that far. Come on down, I'll catch you." Link says. I nod to him and sit on the edge of the hole, dangling my feet off of it. Link stepped to the side and I jumped down. He caught me by the waist on my way down to ease my fall, holding me steady afterwards. For some reason, this closeness wasn't the same as before. Before, it was necessary, and fleeting. Temporary. Now, he was holding me and not letting go.
I looked into his bright blue eyes, wondering what it was about this boy that made him so special. Other than being a chosen hero, of course. I didn't notice how close he had gotten to me until I could feel his breath on my face. His lips were moments away from mine and his hands were firmly holding the small of my back. I quickly looked down and cleared my throat, taking as much of a step back as possible with Link's grip on my waist. He noticed our situation too, and let go, taking a small step back himself.
I then took notice of the large black and red chest sitting behind Link and approached it without looking his way. It seemed pretty important, so I opened it, finding a large key inside. It looked just like the chest it was in and kind of reminded me of why we were here. The twilight. Whatever this key went to, I'm sure it has something to do with that. I hand the key to Link, who promptly puts it in his bag after.
"Where to now?" I ask, looking around the room we were currently standing in. It was only the small round platform we were standing on surrounded by water as far as I could tell. Link pointed down into the water at what looked like a door.
"Through there, then out to the main room of the temple. This key opens the last room we have to go through. We just have to fight our way past whatever's in there, then we can move on." He says. I nod and we both jump into the water.
Over the course of this temple, I'd say that my swimming skills have increased greatly. They had to, or else I would have drowned by now. Not that I was bad before, only that I only swam when I had to. I still wasn't very fast though.
Just as Link said, we went through the door then back through the temple to the last locked door. He took out the key and unlocked it, opening the door to reveal a small room with a hole in the center. We looked at each other for a moment before lifting up our swimming masks and jumping down, one at a time.
When we hit water again, it was like being dropped in the ocean. The pool was a lot deeper than I thought it would be, and a lot colder. So much so, I had to hold on to Link while he sank us to the bottom with his iron boots, resisting the urge to shiver the whole way.
Once we hit bottom, I had begun to adjust to the cold while we stared at the monster in front of us. It was only an odd, tube-like, clear tentacle with a single eye moving through it, but soon grew into something bigger. One tentacle turned into eight and a large gaping mouth was revealed from beneath the sand. The eye was occationally going down and out a different tentacle, never once letting us out of its sight. While avoiding the whipping of the other tentacles, Link tried grabbing the eye with his clawshot (after Midna gave a little piece of advice that included a minor insult towards me). It took a couple of tries, what with it constantly moving, but he got it then attacked it repeatedly with his sword.
I almost felt bad for just standing there, but unfortunately, arrows don't fly well through water. Even Link's sword was slowed a bit. That didn't stop him though.
The eye bounced back towards the mouth and was swallowed before moving back through the tentacles. Bomb fish swam out of the creature's mouth and circled the area, but Link ignored them. He grabbed the eye with his clawshot again and hit it with his sword. This time, when the eye went back to the creature, the whole ground rumbled and it disappeared under the sand.
But if I learned one thing from fighting beside Link, it's that this could only be a bad thing.
Sure enough, it came back from under the sand and kept coming, and coming, and coming, until the entirety of the massive fish was revealed. It was beyond huge. Link and I looked at each other for a moment before coming to the mutual agreement to go after it. We began swimming up, Link going one way and me going the other. He was the first to attack the fish, using his clawshot to grab onto its back and slash at another eye that was on top of its back.
The creature shook him off and continued to swim around, knocking into the occational stone pillar that circled the area. As it came back around, I swam after it and grabbed onto its back, pulling the small dagger from my boot that came with the zora armor. I stabbed at the eye as much as I could in a short time until it shook me off and I floated away from it. I swam up to stand on one of the nearby pillars in the room to get a better look at the fish.
As the fish came back around, its tail hit the pillar I was standing on and the entire structure crumbled below me. I fell a bit, but other than that I was fine as I slowly floated downward. My eyes caught sight of Link shortly after, who had been watching me when I fell. The monster of a fish swimming around me pulled my attention away from Link for only a moment as it passed behind me. I watched it swim past my right side before looking back at Link who was quickly swimming my way. Before I could question why, the large tail of the fish had hit the back of my head, pushing me down and my helmet off my head.
I released a short burst of bubbles after the impact, putting my hands over my mouth to prevent breathing in water. Don't panic. Don't panic. Find your helmet. I looked down and saw the air supplying helmet sinking to the bottom. I could try to go after it, but my lungs were already burning from the sudden lack of air. There's no way I would be able to get to it in time if I exert myself by swimming down to it.
I looked up and saw Link still swimming towards me, quickly making his way to be right in front of me. He started down to grab my helmet, but I let out another small stream of bubbles and he abandoned his previous actions. Link looked at me, deep in thought as I struggled to hold my breath. I watched him take a deep breath under his mask before I squeezed my eyes shut in a last effort to hold on. He grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands away from my mouth, the last of the air I was holding onto escaping as my lungs eagerly awaited more. I opened my eyes again to tell him I was done, that I couldn't hold on any longer, but didn't get the chance.
When I opened my eyes, Link had already grabbed my face and forced his mouth on mine. I gasped and, surprisingly enough, found air. The moment was short lived though, because as soon as I had a breath of air, Link pulled away and I let it go. He pulled up his mask and took a breath before pulling it back down and repeating the process. He continued to give me his kisses of air until he was sure I was fine then took a deep breath, took off his helmet and gave it to me, then swam down to retrieve my own. I greedily breathed with his helmet while he did so.
He didn't risk going all the way down, and just went far enough he could grab it with the clawshot then came back up with it. When he got back, we traded and continued on with our mission with only a nod of thanks shared between us.
Link was the one to finish it off, stabbing at the eye some more before the creature crashed into a wall, cracking it upon impact. The crack in the wall began draining the water from the room and we floated down as the water level dropped, leaving us standing there with the monstrous fish.
I looked at Link once the water drained and pulled down the breathing mask of my helmet. He looked at me too, and seemed to already have a preconceived idea of what I had to say as he pulled down his mask.
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't know what else to do and I panicked. I'm so—" Link started but I cut him off.
"Thank you." I smiled at him and he gazed at me, slightly confused. "You saved my life."
"You're not mad?" He asks. I shake my head and approach the blonde hero, grinning the whole way. I had to stand on my toes to reach where I wanted, but it was worth it to kiss him on the cheek and see his face turn pink.
"Of course not" I say, and step away from him. I turn to the monster fish and watch it finally die. Like all other monsters, when it died, it turned to smoke and dust, though with this one, the dark parts of it fused together into a solid piece of twilight. I'm guessing this is that fused shadow that Link and Midna were talking about.
It sort of looked like a piece of Midna's helmet, but it was actually something you could clearly see. Unlike the imp, who was mostly translucent. The fused shadow slowly floated down to us and I subconsciously reached out to touch it. It slowed down as it got closer to my hands before hanging in the air just above them. A faint ringing sounded and Midna appeared out of Link's shadow.
"There it is! The last fused shadow... I'll take that, thanks!" She says as a large orange hand shapes from her hair and grabs the fused shadow from me. Link let out a sigh from beside me.
"Does that mean I'm finally done riding you around on my back and in my shadow?" He asks with a raised eyebrow and I chuckle at the thought of Midna getting an eternal piggy back ride. He nudged me with his arm, smiling a playful warning at me. Midna rolled her eyes at us before bringing the attention back to herself.
"Now, don't resent me for all I've put you through. I NEED this thing! Besides, we have to do something about Zant, the one who thinks he is the king of shadows. His power is a false one. I'll prove it using these." Midna put the fused shadow away and looked between the two of us. Considering I still don't think she likes me much, this is the longest she's gone without excluding, ignoring, or even rolling her eyes at me directly.
A nice break, yes, but it gave me a strange comfort when she was rude to me. It was familiar, unlike the constant politeness of everyone I seem to meet on this trip.
"So..." She trailed off, looking directly at us now, "I've done everything I needed to. I'm sorry for dragging you all over the place with me." Midna floated over to a small island out of the ankle deep water and opened what I assume to be a portal. It was an off blue and black swirled circle on the ground. She seemed to look slightly pleased with my confusion and astonishment, and grinned at us.
"So...shall we go?" She asks. I didn't move for a solid thirty seconds after that until Link gently grabbed my hand from beside me. I looked over at the blue eyed hero to see him smiling at me. He lightly squeezed my hand and nodded towards Midna's portal.
"Come on, lets get out of here." Link says and leads me over to the swirling circle. We stood in the middle of it and seconds later, the world around us had gone dark, but only for the blink of an eye. When light returned to the space around us, we were somewhere different. Back at the spirit spring to be exact.
The spring was just as we had left it, bright and shining. Maybe even more so now that the fused shadow had been removed from this place. Link and I turned to leave, only to be met with a masked figure. He wore a long cloak with large sleeves that covered most to all of his body, and a silver mask with a long tongue covering his mouth. Its blank eyes stared at us for a moment before the spirit Lanayru came bursting out of the spring behind us.
A large ball of light lit up the cave from the creature's jaws as the stranger continued to stare. He then let out a blast of twilight, making a dark flash that traveled fast, much like the twilight that once covered Castle Town. It knocked me back onto the ground and, before I could react, everything went dark as I slipped into unconsciousness.
--Good stopping point, no? Too bad. See ya in the next one!