"Din, why is it so hot?" I muttered as Zelda and I walked along the slopes of Death Mountain.
"Link, it's not her fault the volcano is full of lava. Besides, I thought you were excited to see the mountain. You hardly shut up about it all the way here," she said with a snort.
"Yeah, that was before I knew it was going to be so Din-damned hot. And I think who's fault it is is beside the point. I'm looking for an effective way to express feeling about my imminent melting and I think Din would appreciate my complaints. Besides, are you telling me you're not hot?" Zelda jumped over a small ridge in the rock before answering.
"I'm not saying it's not hot. I'm not saying I'm not hot. I'm merely pointing out your abrupt turn in attitude."
I couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, don't worry, you're definitely hot." Zelda's cheeks, already red from the head, turned a shade darker. "Besides, I knew it would be warmer, but I thought with the caldera cooling and all that, maybe it wouldn't be so bad."
"It's still liquid rock, idiot. A couple dozen degrees isn't going to make a difference."
"I would argue that point. It used to be so hot up here that stuff would just burst into flame. Note our decidedly not on fire-ness. I'll take what I can get." We clambered over a large boulder and looked out at the rocky, glowing mountain around us. "How much further is it?" I asked, already tired of the climbing. Zelda pulled out a small map and looked around before pointing at a spot on the map.
"Best I can tell, we're here. So we're almost there. Then we just have to find the right lava flow and a way behind it."
"Wonderful." We had been climbing on the mountain for what felt like ages but was probably only an hour or two. We had made good time from the Castle that morning, leaving early and getting to the base of Hyrule's volcano early enough to ride the first tram up the mountain. For being an active volcano, the mountain was an oddly frequent tourist spot, even with the constant mining of the mountain. The Gorons who lived on the mountain didn't resent the extra traffic; they actually seemed to enjoy the crowds. While Goron City was too hot for Hylians to stay in for any long period of time, day trips were common and some Gerudo women even lived there, being more accustomed to the heat. Everything combined to make the volcanic city a small hub of activity on the mountain.
Normally, anything off the thoroughly beaten path was strictly off limits, but with another handy letter from Princess Felia, we had gotten straight past the ample Goron security and made our way across the craggy cliffs to the place we thought the Triforce of Courage was hidden.
Another twenty minutes of climbing over the hot rocks and jumping over small lava flows led us to a large bridge stretching over a particularly large lava flow cascading down from higher on the mountain. We both stood and watched the incredible sight for a moment.
"Okay," I said after a minute. "How the hell are we going to get behind that?"
We spent the next five minutes poking around the molten rock before we took a break. The heat of the mountain was only amplified by our climbing up and down the rocks and our proximity to the liquid slag moving across the mountain. Panting with exhaustion, we rested our backs against a rock a little way away from the lava.
"Well," I said with a sigh, shaking a loose rock out of my boot. "I think it's safe to say that there's no way around. So unless you fancy a little lava bath, we're very slightly screwed."
"I think I'll pass," Zelda muttered, staring off into the sky. "I like my flesh right where it is. How in Nayru's name are we going to get through that?" I grinned.
"You know, it's not Nayru's fault we can't get through. In fact, it's unfair to pin the blame on her. She's a goddess, she probably doesn't have time to come down and tell us how to solve a problem. She probably assumes we'll find it since it's right in front of us."
"Yeah, yeah," Zelda grumbled. I could practically hear her eyes rolling. "I'll eat my words, now shut up. I've got apparently obvious solutions to come up with." I let her be before suddenly realizing something and burst into laughter. My girlfriend looked at me like I had lost it, though at this point she really shouldn't have been surprised.
"Well, you're right about one thing," I remarked, standing up and pulling Zelda to her feet as well. "The answer really is right in front of us." I pulled Zelda's Scepter out of one of my pockets and handed it to her. "Split the lava."
She looked at the staff in my hands in confusion for a second before laughing herself. "Of course! I can't believe I forgot I can use fucking magic." She grabbed the Scepter out of my hands and walked purposefully towards the lava flow. "I'm a goddess and I forgot I've got magic," she mumbled one more time before she started glowing.
Zelda walked straight up to the edge of the liquid rock and stepped onto it. If it had been anyone else, I would have thought they were insane. But with Zelda, I wasn't the least bit worried. The lava beneath her feet froze almost instantly where she walked, making a safe path appear out of thin air. She thrust her arms out at the slowly falling magma. I noticed the anomaly in the flow immediately. It looked like the lava was flowing around a rock, only the rock was invisible and getting bigger. The gap in the glowing liquid got bigger and bigger until it was wide enough for three people to step through side by side. Through the opened space, I could see a dark tunnel that appeared to be lit further back judging from the faint glow barely visible. Zelda stepped through the parted curtains of fiery rock and I quickly followed, not waiting for the path she had made to melt back into the viscous flow. Once we were both safe on the other side, Zelda dropped her hands and the glow surrounding her faded. Almost immediately, the lavafall resumed its natural course, closing us off from the outside.
"That was pretty damn cool." I couldn't hide how impressed I was and didn't try. Zelda was breathing slightly more heavily than she had been earlier, which made the rise and fall of her chest more noticeable as she stared up at me. Lit by the lava from the side, she was a vision bathed in glowing oranges and reds. I leaned down at the same time she reached for me and our lips locked together. She tasted like sweat and heat and, above all else, like Zelda. I allowed myself to luxuriate in the taste of her lips and her embrace for a moment before forcing myself to pull back.
"Got to get moving," I said, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. "I've got a Triforce to find." Zelda didn't say anything, but nodded in agreement, grabbing my hand as we descended the steps to the first Triforce dungeon.
The first thing I noticed when we reached the bottom of the stairs was that the walls, floor, and ceiling were much smoother than I had expected. I had been expecting a roughly hewn cave, but instead, the corridor we found ourselves in was as smooth as the walls of the castle. Someone had clearly put a lot of effort into making this place.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, we were immediately met by a solid door like those we had seen in the Fountain Trials. With a quick lift, we found ourselves in a large circular chamber with fine ornamentation all over the walls and floor. Most notable was the massive Triforce carved into the center of the room.
"Well," I said casually, "I guess we're in the right place." A large upright tablet stood in the middle of the Triforce carving with something written on it. A few steps closer revealed exactly what it said. "'Seeker of Courage, your test awaits. The Triforce sits behind the gates. Patience tested by trials many, and final hurdle, a long held enemy.' Great, more ominous poetry, my favorite. Think it means anything?" Zelda looked the short poem over, reading through it quietly a few times.
"I don't think so. It doesn't seem to really be saying anything, more just saying we're in the right place. The last line is a little worrying, but I don't know what it could mean."
"Not much we can do about it either way," I said, glancing around the room. "Which way do you want to go: left or right?" I asked and pointed to our two options. Three doors in total led out of the room, but one of them, the middle option, was locked shut. Both of the other paths were unblocked.
"I doubt it matters. If the Fountain Trials were any indication, the way we need to go is through the middle. I say left." Our minds made up, we pushed the door open and walked down the small hallway behind it. Almost immediately, the heat shot back up to what it felt like outside. Two small channels of lava flowed across the hallway. They were small enough and spaced enough to make them easy to jump over, but I worried that if lava was seeping through here, it might cause problems further into the dungeon.
The next room was thankfully lava free, but that was about all it had going for it. The area by the door was solid ground, but to the right the ground dropped away sharply, leaving nothing but a few platforms rising out of the abyss or hanging from the ceiling. A large wall kept the available path clearly limited and blocked any further challenges. I could tell that the path curved around a sharp turn further down the corridor but couldn't see what was around the corner.
To the left was a small bowl on a pedestal with a glowing blue ball inside. I looked at it quizzically. "What do you think this is for?" I asked aloud. I looked up to see what Zelda thought, but she was busy looking at the wall.
"I bet it goes in there," she said, pointing to something out of sight. I walked over to her and saw what she meant. On the other side of what looked like a small tunnel was a matching bowl painted blue. "If I had to guess, we have to navigate the whole jungle gym of death to get over there." I gave her a quick peck on the crown of her head.
"See, this is why I have to bring you. I would have gone all the way over there before figuring that out and had to come back, only to do it again." She rolled here eyes and tossed me the small ball.
"Thanks, but that's not going to get you out of doing the hard part. Just don't drop it. Or fall." She peered down into the dark of the pit and shuddered. After a quick glance in the same direction, I agreed that falling was a bad idea. That wasn't going to stop me though.
"Hey, no problem. Just have to jump from platform to platform, right? How hard can it be?" Before I had a chance to recognize how wrong that statement had the potential to be, I jumped to the first platform.
The first section that we could see from the door wasn't too bad. The jumps were manageable and nothing fell apart as soon as I touched it, which was pretty lucky given how long the whole thing had probably been lying there. The next section was where the real fun began though.
Small flame jets shot out of the walls, some positioned over the platforms I had to jump to, some positioned between the gaps. To make matters worse, the path I had to follow wasn't just platforms now, but also sections of thin beams that I'd have to jump to, balance on, and jump from. Not to mention the persistent flame gouts.
From there, I did as little thinking as possible. I'd check the timing on the flame bursts just long enough to make sure I wasn't going to get my face barbequed and make my next jump. Before I knew it, I could see the goal. Of course, it was across a pit that only had a few narrow walkways spanning it, broken so I'd have to jump between them if I wanted to make it across. With more bursts of fire for good measure, of course. Three deep breaths later, I was running along the beams as quickly as I could, jumping between sections of walkway like a parkour expert. Which maybe I was, given that I not only managed to make it across, but was able to do it without any massive mistakes.
With a sigh of relief, I dropped the small orb that had been clenched tightly in my hand into the similarly painted bowl. The two glowed and a section of wall to my right lowered itself into the floor, opening up a shortcut to the beginning of the terrifying course. Zelda peeked around the corner, eyes meeting mine with a look of relief.
"Glad to see you're not dead," she said, looking me over for any trace of injury. Fortunately, the whole thing had gone without a hitch.
"Don't worry," I said. "You would have heard me scream if I had fallen." Her face seemed to pale slightly, but she brushed it off. Instead, her eyes alighted on the wooden chest that had been nestled in the shortcut back. We popped it open to reveal an old key that looked like it would fit the lock on the center doorway back in the main room. We hopped the lava streams again and quickly found our suspicions to be correct. Of course, since things couldn't be that easy, the other side of the door was just a short corridor with another locked door at the opposite end. "Guess whoever made this place wanted to make sure we experienced all of their efforts," I mumbled as we walked back through the door and made our way through the door to the left.
Another short hallway, this one lava free, led us to a large room that immediately buffeted us with wind. It was strong enough to nearly knock me over, and probably would have if I hadn't grabbed the doorframe to steady myself. A quick look around the room revealed that it might be the worse of the two options.
A rough X was cut into the floor, revealing glowing lava beneath the floor and a nasty end to anyone who fell in. Wind buffeted us from all directions, making it hard to keep a steady footing. Above us, flaming keese swooped from draft to draft, soaring around the room with ease. At least, they were until they noticed us. Then it was "divebomb at the tasty Hylians" time.
For the next few minutes, all I could do was react. Jump over the lava crack, duck under swooping fire bats, lean against blustering winds, try to swing at a bat, fail, and repeat with a few variations. To be honest, Zelda did most of the work, and that was mostly just by standing still and turning any monsters that flew her way to ash. Still, I managed to get the final hit on the last of the Keese, sending it spiraling into the wall where it burst into ash. Once it was dead, the winds abated from 'hurricane' to 'blustery day,' making the room at least a little more manageable to navigate. Another wooden chest appeared in the middle of the room, revealing yet another key once we managed to stand still enough to open it.
The second lock opened, allowing us into another section of the dungeon. We spilled out into another room shaped like a large hexagon with two doors side by side on the opposite wall. Squishing around the middle of the room were slimes like we had seen in the Nayru fountain, but on fire this time, probably to spice things up. Just like their non-flaming counterparts, we couldn't really kill them, but luckily both the doors were unlocked and available for a quick escape route. We ducked through the left one before we could get set on fire or eaten.
"Love to see those things again," I mumbled as we navigated the corridor we found ourselves in. "Let's hope we don't have to fight another Slime Behemoth." Zelda nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we can't really melt them when they're already on fire."
Another branch of the tunnel split off to the left and I could vaguely see another doorway at the end of the short hall. We opted to keep going straight, figuring we'd come back to the side tunnel later. A few dozen feet later, the corridor curved around to the right. Two doors were on either side, one like any other and the second extremely ornate, laden with gold, and definitively locked by the large padlock affixed to its front.
"Well," I said briefly, "I guess we found where the Triforce is." We kept going down the curving corridor, passing another offshoot of the tunnel before we reached a final door. A quick peek through it revealed the room full of flaming slimes we had just left. "Guess it's a big 'U' then. Want to try the door across from the Triforce first?" Zelda agreed, and we made our way back through the curving tunnel.
Naturally, we regretted our decision almost immediately. When we stepped into the dark room, nothing lit up like it normally would, so Zelda made a bright light shine from the end of her scepter. The room was flooded with illumination, and annoyed screeches filled the room. We realized that we had unwittingly stepped into a massive Keese nest, disturbing their rest in probably the most startling way possible. A horde of the winged demons lit themselves on fire before diving straight for us. A hastily erected barrier of stone and water ensured the monsters were extinguished and thinned out the swarm considerably. The few that got through were quickly dealt with with a few deft swiped of the Master Sword.
The dying screeches of the Keese swarm echoed through the room, which, upon closer inspection, was roughly rectangular in shape and still had quite a few Keese lurking around, the most notable being a giant bat dozens of times the size of one of its smaller brethren. It was staring at us with beady eyes the emanated annoyance and hostility. A moment after I made eye contact with it, it gave an echoing screech and dropped from the ceiling. Six wings expanded from its sides and the whole thing lit itself on fire as it started hovering its way over to us.
"I wonder how they do that…" Zelda mused from beside me, staring at the giant beast. "Are their bodies naturally coated in a flammable substance that they light themselves or does their internal body temperature cause them to appear to be on fire?"
"Zelda, darling, you know I love how inquisitive you are, but do you think this is really the time?" I asked, just a little exasperated as I dragged her away from the enormous, flaming monster. She was undeterred.
"It's not flapping its wings enough to stay airborne, do you think it's using its own updrafts to keep itself in the air?"
"Look, you can dissect it and theorize all you want when we're not in danger of being incinerated." As if to reinforce, the bat shot a large fireball over our heads, nearly singeing our hair. I could tell she wasn't happy about it, but Zelda stayed quiet after that.
To my extreme annoyance, the massive keese seemed smarter than its brethren, staying at a distance and rarely swooping down to attack. Its ability to spit fireballs was equally annoying. To make matters worse, none of Zelda's magic was particularly effective either. The monster was too agile to be hit with earth magic, water and ice evaporated almost immediately, and the thing was obviously immune to fire.
Eventually, I got sick of waiting for the creature to do something and decided stupidity was the best course of action. Dropping any pretense of caution, I dropped my guard, charging straight at the monster and jumping as hard as I could, Master Sword outstretched to try and get some sort of hit on it. The infernal bat just flew higher and shot a fireball at me. Fortunately, my hero's garb deflected most of the heat, but it still hurt. I circled back around to Zelda, trying to keep an eye on her and the keese's swooping claws at the same time.
"Okay, admittedly, that didn't work," I said once I got back over to Zelda. "Any ideas?"
"Remember how I said it might be keeping itself in the air by using its own heat?" Zelda asked after a moment of thought.
"Are you still thinking about that as we're about to be barbecued? Priorities, Zelda."
She let out a groan of exasperation. "Whatever, just jump at it again and be ready."
"For what?"
"Trust me and you'll see." With no other options left, I did exactly as she said. Something was different this time though. Right as I jumped at it, the bat jerked in the air and dropped a few feet, as if the air beneath it disappeared. Unfortunately for it, that was all I needed to sink the gleaming blade of the Master Sword into its abdomen and hold on as my weight pulled the sword down, cutting the monster mostly in half. It let out a final high-pitched squeal before collapsing to the ground and crumbling away to ash.
"What was that about not asking questions?" Zelda said from behind me as she walked up to where I was crouched on the ground. "Like I thought, a disruption in the heated air around it was enough to disorient it long enough to deal with it. Giving you the perfect opportunity to deal with it." I slowly turned to face her.
"Yeah, I'll admit it, you were right," I said with a grimace. "I'm not sure you can rub it in my face too much though."
"Oh, why's that?" she asked, teasing tone still in her voice. I pulled my hand away from my chest where four large talons were fixed in my skin, blood seeping from the edges of the wounds. I saw her eyes go wide as my vision tunneled.
"Claws," I mumbled as my vision narrowed further and everything fell to black.
Oh gosh, it has been a while. I'd apologize, but I'm not really that sorry. I've just been busy. College, work, relaxation, reading stuff, anime, the shattered remains of my social life, and probably a few other things all take some form of precedence. I am busy and this has just been something that got pushed back a bit. Especially since there's nothing I'm particularly excited to write about this dungeon. That cliffhanger at the end literally came to me when I decided that Link was crouched over after his jump. Super spontaneous. But it works and now you all get to suffer. Yay!
Anyways, let's get to the reviews. Quite a few this time, so thank you all in advance. Silverblood Writer, thank you so much for your high praise. I try not to slip into too many done-to-death tropes, so it means a lot to me that you think they're varied and different. So glad you like the romance, I'm a massive fan of it myself. Link and Zelda are just too cute. I hope you continue to enjoy it. Twilit Lord, I apologize for giving you ideas, though I think that's really your fault. Haven't been ignoring your story so much as I haven't had time to read it. I'll get to it, fear not, but it hasn't been a burning desire for me. Oracle, as you should be! Looks great. As for the First Hero...I've got something in the works along those lines that I think will satisfy you. You'll have to wait for it though. Sand Seal, I see you're as enthusiastic as always. They're not going to the Yiga hideout, there's another massive pit. Though I wonder what the old hideout looks like now? Might have to do a little something with that. We'll see. And yes, of course fluff. Just for you. Kind of. Daaazer, glad you're enjoying the story. My work ethic comes from renewing my determination and annual sacrifices to the Old Ones. I'm sure if you do one of those two things, you'll find your inspiration again. Princessa Muse, thanks for your good review. WolfyPrincess, the place holder was Cremia's necklace, symbolizing their relationship as it falls apart. And that's okay, Cremia was never going to win, so I didn't put an excessive amount of work into her. I take no offense. And no, this is not a Link from any game. The story takes place roughly 1000 years after BotW, so we're dealing with all new characters here. Which means I get to take all the creative liberties I want! Woot!
Once again, thank you all for your reviews, they really do mean a lot to me. In other news, you all see that 'Cadence of Hyrule' trailer?! I love Crypt of the Necrodancer for so many reasons, including the brilliant pun in the name and the music. Add Zelda to that and we're undoubtedly going to get another winner! Can't wait, hopefully I won't have to for long. Lots of other indies that look good too, 'Katana Zero' in particular.
Also, I posted a short little story a little while back when I was hit with a bit of inspiration. 'Haunted Dreams' is on my profile for your reading pleasure. Just be advised, there is a mature rating on it for a reason. I hope you'll check it out if you haven't already. I'll also try to get the next chapter of this story up before too long, but please be patient with me. I've got a lot of things that take precedence over leisure writing. It sucks, but that's the way it is. But thank you to everyone who does read my stories, not just this one but my other bits too. I see the numbers and I know you're there, so thank you. Just that is motivation for me to keep writing. Once more, I shall state this. I won't be abandoning this story. I've got too much of this story planned out to do that. Just have to get from A to B at this point. Anyways, I've got class, so I'll see you all next time. Don't forget to review and follow the story so you know when it gets an update. Cheers!
~Aro