Once again, the door slammed shut behind us, leaving us mostly in the dark. A few bioluminescent plants glowed along the walls of the tree. As we were looking around, I couldn't help but wonder how the tree was still supporting itself. The walls really weren't that thick, and if the trunk was all hollowed out, there couldn't be that much structural strength. However, before I could think too hard on the matter, we heard a loud droning. The room lit up around us and I could see another of the Hive Queens from earlier coming towards us from the other side of the room.
I dropped into a ready stance, thinking this probably wouldn't be too bad. Before I could do anything though, a massive plant bulb I somehow hadn't noticed surged up from the floor and ate the monstrous bug in one bite.
That's right. One bite. One.
Zelda took a step back in surprise, which must have alerted the plant monster to our presence. The large, petals I guess, of the plant folded down to reveal a massive eye perched on a stalk that swiveled to stare at us. Not sure what to do, I stared back. We maintained eye contact for a few seconds before the petals shifted and folded back up over the eye. A little bit of ominous rustling and rumbling later, the demonic Baba creature had pulled itself up off the ground slightly and had pulled some spike-covered root/tentacle things out of the ground. They slapped the ground twice as if to say 'come get me' before lashing out towards us.
Zelda and I immediately resorted to our tried and true technique of running away from the thing while we tried to find a way to hurt it. We tried sneaking around it to make it loose track of us, but it always seemed to know where we were. We could cut and freeze its thrashing roots, but there were so many it didn't seem to make a difference. The petals were impenetrable, fire made the plant faster, and we were running out of options.
It was Zelda who noticed the bright yellow spots near the base of the plant's petals seemed to shift slightly. She took a closer look while I was distracting it (by frantically cutting at a tentacle that had grabbed my leg), and noticed the spots were slightly transparent. With a few quick shots from the Ice Cannon she covered all the transparent portions of the plant.
If it was possible for a gigantic plant bulb to look confused, this one definitely fit the bill. Remembering how the monster reacted when it first saw us, I stomped on the floor. As I had hoped, the petals peeled back, revealing the eye once again. Knowing time was of the essence, I ran up to the plant and took a few swipes at the eye. Knowing better than to push my luck, I backed up before it could eat me. Come to think of it, I didn't see any trace of the Hive Queen the Baba demon-thing had eaten. Getting trapped inside of it would probably end horribly.
The plant quickly folded its petals back up, protecting it from the bite of my sword. I shook itself, dislodging about two thirds of the ice covering its eye holes. A few were torn, forcing the Baba Demos (see, its like a Baba, but a demon) to either close the openings or leave itself vulnerable. After two more rounds of dodging vines, ice and shaking itself, all of the eye openings were closed, leaving the creature no way to see us.
It must have realized this (it really was quite smart for a plant), because it proceeded to push itself up out of the ground using the vine-roots it had left and folded its petals back so that they dragged along the ground. I heard a revolting churning sound from inside the beast and had to jump out of the way to avoid a massive glob of plant spit. Good thing I did too. The spit sizzled and hissed on the ground, eating away at the ground beneath it.
"Zelda, this thing spits acid! For the love of the Goddesses, don't get hit!" Another mess of acid flew towards me before freezing into a massive cluster of ice in mid-air. Of course, I had to dodge that too, but I guess a cracked skull was better than being melted alive. Not much better, but still. "Hey, freeze the mouth when its about to spit!" I yelled out.
"You mean freeze the base of the bulb? Because technically that's not a mouth!" Zelda shouted back, jumping out of the way of a spray of acid.
"It's used it to eat something, it opens, and it spits acid. I'm calling it a mouth, now fucking freeze it!" Seriously, women. I think I heard Zelda grumble something similarly directed at men, but she still froze the monstrous plant so I could run up and hack at it some more. I was wondering how an eyeball was so tough that I couldn't cut through it immediately when my sword sunk into it just a little bit. I had to jump away to avoid being eaten, but I could tell we were almost done. "One or two more hits should do it!" I called to Zelda, who was jumping around more flailing roots.
I moved over to her to dispatch the vines when one caught my leg. Undeterred, I sliced at it, freeing my foot again. Suddenly, Zelda screamed, and I looked up to see an enormous ball of acid flying towards her. Her arm was trapped, leaving her unable to freeze the acid or move. With only a second to think, I jumped towards her and swung the Hylian Shield towards it as hard as I could. There was a loud ringing and the acid ricocheted off the shield. Seeing the plant was about to fire again, I sliced at the vine holding Zelda down and dropped to the ground, giving her a perfect shot to freeze the Baba Demos again. I immediately launched myself at the plant, jumped as hard as I could, and slammed the point of my sword into the thing's eye. I heard a horrible gurgling noise from inside it and pushed myself away from the monster as quickly as I could, dragging my sword out with me.
The large plant demon went berserk, petals thrashing, vines twitching, and acid shooting out in short bursts, before the whole thing relaxed, oozing its own destructive spit all over itself. It rapidly rotted to pieces, disappearing with a final burst of ash, leaving another large heart crystal where its roots had met the floor.
"Well," I said, carefully picking up the Hylian Shield. I was relieved to see that the horrible acid hadn't even ruined the paint on the thing's face. It really was absurdly strong. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Zelda laughed as she walked over to me.
"Maybe if you're not worried about being melted." She took a look at the Hylian Shield too. "I'm surprised this thing was able to withstand the acid. Not even the plant itself was completely immune to it." She was interrupted by a loud creaking, groaning sound from the back of the room. A large knot in the trunk of the tree had shifted and opened, revealing something green behind it. "Guess we should check that out." I nodded, grabbing the heart crystal from where the plant had been. It shattered and flew into my chest as usual, leaving me invigorated and ready to go. As in, ready to go out of this labyrinth. I was ready to see the sky again.
Behind the knot was really just a pedestal with an ornate wooden box on it. I popped the lid open to see a dark green shirt neatly folded. I reached in and pulled it out. It took a lot longer to pull it free of the box as I realized the bottom went down way further than a shirt should. I looked at it quizzically for a moment.
"So, it's a dress? I don't get it, I thought this was supposed to be stuff for the Hero. Who is a guy. Guys don't wear dresses. That makes sense, right?" I asked Zelda, who looked similarly confused.
"I guess so. Maybe try it on anyways? It looks about your size." I dropped my arm to my sides before squinting at the girl next to me.
"This isn't just you trying to get me to put on a dress, is it?" Zelda snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Just put it on, doofus." I quickly pulled the soft material over my head and straightened it. Zelda was right, it did fit pretty well. Loose enough to move my arms easily, but not baggy. The bottom was a bit loose though and hung down to my upper thigh. The material had a slight slit along the sides going from the bottom to just below my waist, presumably to prevent constricting leg movement.
"It's not a dress, it's a tunic," Zelda said, examining me. She looked into the box again and pulled out a worn strap of leather. She stepped closer to me and wrapped it around my waist. She was close enough that I had to lift my eyes to keep from looking down her shirt. And, you know, to not get bashed in the face by her head, but whatever. I can confidently say I was at least partially successful in my attempt. Desperate for a distraction to keep from looking back down, I saw there was another belt in the box, as well as a few small pouches and two bits of fabric.
I pulled out the other belt first, twisting it this way and that before I realized what it was for. I grabbed the makeshift back strap I had made for my sword and removed the sheath from it. Two minutes later, I had the sword strapped against my back, much more securely that it had been before. I had also found a hook on the back of the belt for my shield, which fit perfectly.
Pulling out the pouches, I looped them onto my waist belt, finding I could move them around but also strap them tight enough to prevent any annoying shifting. The larger of the two pieces of fabric in the box, colored a dark tan, proved to be a pair of pants that I decided could wait to be put on. Last, the final piece of cloth. It looked like one of those wind socks, just not as big and the same color green as the tunic. There was some decorative lacing around the opening and down towards the tip.
"What the heck is this?" I said, thoroughly perplexed. Zelda swiped it out of my hand.
"Bend down," she said holding the cloth by the opening. I raised my eyebrow inquisitively and Zelda huffed in annoyance. "I can't reach your head when you're standing like that." I slowly stooped down to give her better access to my head. Again, she stepped closer, bringing her face way too close to mine for comfort. I could feel her messing around with my hair and I vaguely felt something fit snuggly on the top of my head, but I was too distracted to really pay attention. I really had to figure myself out, because this was starting to be a problem.
Zelda finished whatever she was doing and dropped her eyes to meet mine. Seeming to realize her position, her cheeks briefly glowed pink before she carefully stepped backwards. Not sure what to do, I straightened myself and looked down my new dress/tunic. I could feel my new equipment, and it felt pretty good (even the tunic, which surprised me), but I couldn't really say anything else about it. I just kind of crossed my arms and looked at Zelda.
"Well, how do I look? I can't really tell." Zelda seemed to shake herself out of a daze briefly before pulling out her phone to snap a picture of me. I looked at it and was pleasantly surprised. The greens and browns all blended together really well, and everything fit like a glove, showing off my strong, lean frame. Arms crossed with a steady look in my eye, sword hilt sticking out from over my shoulder and glints of metal from my shield peeking out, I looked capable at worst and pretty damn sweet at best. "Yeah, that's not bad at all," I mused. Zelda nodded her head in agreement.
I popped one of the pouches on my belt open, finding it empty. On a whim, I reached into our backpack and pulled out one of the rupees we had found and stuck it in the pocket. Seeing there was room to fit more, I stuffed another one in. Finding more room again, I jammed something else inside. It wasn't long before I realized that I was able to fit way more stuff into the pouch than I should be able to. In fact, it seemed like the only limiting factor to what I could fit inside was that it had to be able to get in the opening to the pouch. After that, the space inside was limitless. A quick test with the other pouches, which I noticed had conveniently different sized openings, proved they worked the same way. It was ridiculously funny to lower the two-and-a-half-foot long Fire Rod into the pouch and watch it disappear. Reaching into any of the pouches, I just had to think of what I wanted, and it appeared in my hand.
"This is easily the coolest thing I've ever seen. We're barely going to need a backpack now," I said in amazement. Zelda was similarly impressed, stuffing her entire arm into one of the larger pouches. It made her look like some sort of amputee until she pulled her whole arm back out. She tossed it back to me and I strapped it back onto my belt.
"Either way," she said, "I'm holding on to these two." She patted the Fire Rod and our new Ice Cannon, both in their respective homemade strap holsters. "I think we can both agree that I'm way better with them than you are," she quipped. I stumbled back in mock offense.
"Is that what you think?" I said, layering on the drama. "I am appalled and offended that you would think such a thing. I am far better equipped to handle such powerful devices. I simply don't want to leave you unprotected and helpless."
"Oh, is that what you think?" Zelda said, mischievous glint in her eyes. "You don't want to protect me? I am a goddess, but you can't be bothered to defend me, so you leave me to fend for myself? Some protector you are," she said, walking with exaggerated outrage towards the exit, extra sway in her hips. I had to jump to run after her once I fully realized what she had said and meant.
"Hey, wait, that's not what I meant!" I yelled after her, hearing her laugh at my expense.
Oh hey there. Look at me, updating. And it hasn't been a month. Aren't you guys (and gals) proud of me? I hope so, because otherwise I'll just take longer with the next one. That'd show you, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it!? HAH! I WIN! AS I ALWAYS DO! MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA...someonehelpme.
Let's see, I want to ramble a bit before we do all the reviews, so let's talk about...something? You guys don't know how much being an introvert sucks. I will be talking to someone, the conversation ends, and I just stand there, because how the hell do you start a conversation? It's not easy, let me tell you. Although, I bet some of you know my struggle. After all, you are reading nerdy fan fiction. Safe to say at least some of you are introverts. Alright, perfect time waster. On to reviews.
Twilit Lord, Cerberbug could work, but there's not really enough heads on them. If I had added some horrifying mutant bug thing, that totally would have worked though. If I don't meet your requirements, you're welcome to go somewhere else and get your story (please don't actually, I need the views. They give me sustenance). Not sure why the name wasn't taken though. I will agree that it is a bit of an oversight on someone's part. Ai Star, good! It was supposed to. My own little homage to the hand-holdyness of...certain games. Foopuff, YES! Glad you liked it, the plan is a horrible idea that goes impressively well, and yes, flips are cool. No hookshot yet, but I'm sure it'll show up eventually. No idea what theme you're talking about though. What the items are is only dictated by a future point of the story that I shall not speak of yet. It'll be cool, just wait for it. I appreciate your enthusiasm and I know exactly what you mean. Random Reader, hope you're not dead yet, that would suck. Not quite sure where the Triforce rant is coming from, but I don't think its so much that he can't as much as he doesn't always try. After all, he does get it in (spoilers) Link to the Past and Link Between Worlds. Ultimate, my man, I have indeed returned. The journey was hard, I had to fight a thing, bad times. But I did it for you, knowing you would appreciate the fruits of my efforts. And thus you have, therefore validating my efforts and proving I'm not crazy. You hear that, you stupid psychologist, I'M NOT CRAZY! Nightwing, indeed he does, and shall continue to do so. As you may have noticed. After all, and let's be honest here, Zelda's hot. I appreciate you vigilance and shall count on you going forward. Finally, Sand Seal, YES! I've found teachers usually don't like laughing in class, unless they're the one telling a joke. Try to keep it down. Glad you noticed my awesomeness, not everyone does. It is appreciated!
Glad you guys are liking the story so far, I'm enjoying writing it for you. Just so you know, I'm going to try to speed through the next few chapters so I can get to the good stuff. I always have a hard time with the third dungeon in Zelda games, because its usually the last barrier before the twist in the story that makes everything exciting again. We'll still have the third dungeon, don't worry, but I'm going to try to cut it down to two or maybe, MAYBE, even one chapter. It's a pretty simple one, so I might be able to get away with it. Stay tuned to find out.
Anyways,...I have very little else to say. Next chapter is going to be a little bit of a wind down and then wind back up to the next dungeon. And remember how Link's been thinking he needs to sort out how he feels about Zelda? That's going to be happening... I know at least a few of you are looking forward to that. Might be a bit of a longer chapter because of what I have to fit into it, plus relationship stuff takes effort and all that, so don't expect another quick update like this. It might happen, but it might not, so temper your expectations. But lucky for you guys, I'm in a writing mood right now. (Almost just typed 'write' there instead of 'right'. It would have been funny, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.) Got my 'Two Steps from Hell' playing, keyboard is nice and clicky, and for once there's no mountain of homework to get done. It's only a small hill! Suck it, college! HAH!
Okay, done raving. Don't forget to leave a review saying how much you love me, my story, and my ravings and how they're almost as long as the chapter itself (not really, but it feels like it). Cheers all!
-Aro