Link's Awakening

Chapter Ten: The Coral Triangle

This was another of those times that I wish I could say I was fearless, boldly facing off against the Moblin Captain while its minions cheered, but the truth is that I was afraid. As a town guard in Hyrule, I hadn't spent years facing down legendary foes such as Ganondorf and Barba like my father had done... in fact, this was the first time that I was forced to stand and fight such an opponent on my own… and it was also the first time that I started to understand why my father didn't still hunger for adventure after having two of his own.

With his head still hurting from the blow from the smaller Moblin's spear, Link struggled to keep completely focused on the much larger enemy in front of him. Running away like he had done in the Tail Cave wasn't an option this time, since he needed to both rescue Bow-wow and recover the Coral Triangle, and there wasn't an obvious way to trap or disable the Captain. The young man also had a feeling that if he were to run away, all of the smaller creatures would chase him down, and without the lantern to see in the darkness, that chase would probably be a short one.

Whoosh! Ducking down as the Captain swung its spear, the weapon went right over Link's head, but the Moblin was still fast enough to block when the young man swung his sword upon coming back up. For such a large and stocky creature, the Captain was surprisingly agile, able to side step to keep Link from getting behind him when he tried to circle around, and if he didn't have that small shield, he might have lost his arm during the next attack when the spear was brought down hard.

Even though the shield stopped him from getting hurt, there was more than enough force behind the blow to knock the young man off his feet, but there was no time to recover, since Link had to immediately roll to the side in order avoid being stabbed. As soon as the spear sunk into the hard ground, an opening presented itself, so the young man swung his blade while rolling, causing the Captain to hiss with pain when the tip slid across its ribs. The Moblin took a step backwards, looking down at the small wound while Link got to his feet… and then the large creature gritted its teeth with anger.

There was no time for him to react to what happened next; the Captain suddenly dropping its spear and charging at the young man like a wild animal, crouching down and ramming into him with its shoulder hard enough to drive him back into the wall. The wind was knocked out of him by the pressing force of being rammed like that, and then the Moblin grabbed him by the shirt with one hand and tossed the young man across the chamber like he weighed nothing.

Although scattering in order to stay out of the way, the smaller creatures continued cheering as Link crashed into the ground hard enough to slide a short distance, but the Captain's rampage was not over just yet. Link was struggling to get up again, and had only just realized that his sword was no longer in his hand, when the Moblin came charging toward him. In a defensive move, the young man swung his shield, but this did nothing to stop the next hit even though the metal surface struck the large creature right in the face.

Flying backwards yet again, Link was starting to realize that this enemy might be just a little bit out of his league, right about the time he rolled and bounced his way up against the cage door that he had seen earlier. Coughing as he grabbed onto the bars to try getting up again, and seeing double from the hits he had taken, the young man lost his grip on the bar, causing him to fall back down… but this is actually what ended up saving him from the Captain's next attack.

When he fell down, the Moblin rammed into the cage door at full speed, and with all of its strength behind an attack that was probably meant to finish Link off, instead the large creature found itself falling on its face after knocking the cage door completely off its hinges. Facing the opposite way from where he was lying on the ground, the young man was unable to see what was happening inside the cage, but he got the idea when the smaller creatures stopped cheering, instead getting horrified looks on their faces when the Captain's scream was suddenly drowned out by what sounded like… barking?

Link tried to roll over to see what was happening, but then something big, as in bigger than the Captain, jumped over him, causing the smaller Moblins to scatter as it headed right toward them. Now, the young man admittedly hadn't seen that much of a variety of the, uh… stranger creatures of the world, but this… creature was a bit hard to comprehend. Looking like a massive black ball, with big white eyes and a… maw filled with sharp teeth, this thing was easily able to swallow a Moblin whole while dragging its… chain-like tail behind it.

Taking a look back into the cage as he again tried to pull himself up to his knees, Link had to look away to avoid getting sick after seeing what remained of the Captain, and the smaller creatures weren't doing much better. It looked like the creature had been recently wearing a muzzle, but it must've gotten knocked off when the cage door fell down or something, because this thing was gobbling down Moblins one after another, and… was it possible that this thing was Bow-wow? If so, then why in the world would anyone want to steal such a creature… or even keep it as a pet?

Most of the Moblins ran away, while a few tried to fight it off with their spears, but it all ended up the same way… with the smaller creatures nearly getting swallowed whole. Once all of the Moblins had either been eaten or fled into the forest, the big creature turned and came bouncing its way right toward Link, and he thought he was done for, closing his eyes tight and waiting to feel those big teeth coming down… but instead what the young man felt was a tongue. A big, prickly tongue that dragged up his entire body, before the big creature started bouncing around him while… barking like an excited puppy?

"You… you really are Bow-wow." Link said, kind of absent mindedly patting the thing on top of the head. "So, I guess we, uh… should… get you home?"

Bouncing again while yipping excitedly, Bow-wow pushed its chain-like tail toward the young man's hands as if it were a kind of leash, but that was when he remembered about the Coral Triangle. According to the Captain, it was another Instrument of the Sirens, and there was no way he was going to leave there without it, since apparently the owl had been correct that people were willing to kill over them. So Link kind of looked away from the remains while picking up the triangle, and since he wasn't as big as the Captain, the young man had to put the whole thing around his neck instead of wearing it on that rope like a necklace.

"All right, uh… boy." He said, taking hold of the chain tail. "You ready to go home?"

Barking again happily before licking him again, Bow-wow led the way, and at first everything was going fine as they went back through the fallen tree trunk, and into the rainy forest. Still night time, and still raining just as hard, there was no sign of Tarin or the lantern, but it was funny… after moving out of the torchlight, somehow the young man could still see a small area around himself. The light was pale, and just enough to barely make out the trees and branches that were in the way, but where was it coming from.

It was mostly in front of him where the light was shining, not really to the sides or behind, making him think at first that the light was coming from Bow-wow, but then he realized that it wasn't. The light was coming from the subtle glow of the Coral Triangle around his neck, making the young man wonder if maybe the Full Moon Cello glowed too, and he just hadn't noticed it during the daytime. Oh well, with the glow, and knowing the general direction of Mabe Village from there, getting back shouldn't have been too hard… at least not until Bow-wow nearly pulled him off his feet while taking off in the wrong direction.

"No, down boy, uh… heel!" Link exclaimed, trying to keep his balance while being dragged and hit with small branches along the way. "Home's the other way… aren't dogs supposed to know the way home?!"

Making its way down a couple different paths, but continuing in the same direction, the young man tried in vain to pull the creature back, but then noticed how soft the ground was starting to get under his feet. Now only soft, but there was more and more water, causing his boots to get stuck a little with each step. Now the trees thinned out to the point where Link was pulled out of the forest, once again feeling the full force of the falling rain, while ankle deep in standing water like… like he had been led right into a swamp.

Splosh-splosh-splosh, the big creature pulled him a little ways farther into the swamp, where all the young man could see around him was randomly placed dead trees and shallow water, but then the whole way forward was blocked by what looked like a wall of very sharp thorns on thick branches that was just growing right out of the swamp. Oh well, apparently they couldn't keep going, but once again Bow-wow surprised him by leaping forward and taking a big bite out of them.

With even more hunger than when going after the Moblins, the big creature tore into the thorny plants, devouring them as if it were a rare treat, and opening the way forward. Of course, Link didn't want to go stomping his way through a swamp, he wanted to get Bow-wow back to the village so that Marin would think he was a hero and give him another kiss on the cheek… but just as he was turning away to go return the big creature to Madam Meow-meow, the young man had to stop when he heard, mixed subtly in with the rain and the moving water, that same soft music he heard coming from the Tail Cave.

Did that mean there was another Instrument of the Sirens somewhere up ahead in the swamp? Part of him wanted to forget about it, and take what he had won from the Moblins back to Mabe Village, but then again the owl was so adamant about finding the instruments so that he could wake the Wind Fish… whatever it actually was, and honestly Link didn't know if he would be able to find this place again on his own. Now that it had eaten, Bow-wow didn't seem to have an opinion on where they should go, so after taking a deep breath and making his decision, the young man continued onward into the swamp.