Link's Awakening

Chapter Eleven: A Hidden Grotto

One thing that all of the stories I used to hear about my father's adventures had in common, was that they made sense. By that I mean that even in the wildest parts, where the most bizarre things happened to him, all of it could be explained by sorcery, or local legends, or something, but Koholint Island… that place was just something else entirely. Looking back on it all, now that I understand everything, it should have been pretty obvious to me, but it was not obvious at all while I was there, trudging my way through the swamp toward the source of the music.

Without many features of the swamp to look at, aside from more dead trees and the occasional thorns that Bow-wow made short work of, the walk toward the soft music was pretty unobstructed, as long as one didn't count the rain. Without the forest's canopy to block the falling water, Link was completely soaked again in a matter of minutes, and this big, flat, open swamp just seemed to keep on going. Eventually it came to an end, but only after traveling so far north that the wall of rocks that suddenly appeared in the instrument's glow was probably the start of the mountains he had seen on the map.

At first the young man thought that he was going to have to do some climbing, but that was when he noticed the opening in the rocks; not a wind-worn entrance like the Tail Cave, but just a large crack that seemed to have been forced open at some point. That music continued for a second, but then stopped, as if giving Link just enough to let him know where it was coming from. After what happened in both the Tail Cave and the Moblins' Den, the young man was a little apprehensive about going inside, but then again his circumstances had changed a lot since then.

Whereas Link had been unarmed in the Tail Cave, now not only did he have a sword and the light from the Coral Triangle, but Bow-wow had proven to be pretty handy in a fight as well. It was certainly a risk, but he was feeling better about his chances, so after taking another moment to decide, Link decided to head in. The crack in the mountain was wide enough for both Link and the big creature to fit through easily, and he expected to find a neatly carved out sanctuary like where the cello was hidden, but this was not the case.

Instead of nearly carved stone, it looked like the original crack that formed the opening in the mountain had just kept going, branching off into different directions until it had formed a labyrinth of jagged walls, but without the little holes in the ceiling to let light in, not that those would have helped right now anyways. Like the rest of the swamp, there were a few inches of water on the ground, but this place did have a single thing in common with the Tail Cave, and that was the remains of creatures that had been burned a long time ago.

The skeletal remains on the ground with the scorch marks on the rocks behind them were exactly the same as the others, only this time they weren't those spiked turtle/beetle things… instead, they looked kind of like big rabbits, but with small rounded bodies and oversized ears. Since the remains were so old and degraded, it was hard to tell anything else about them, but after what those spiked turtles had done to his foot, the young man hoped that Bow-wow would like to eat any of those that had survived… whatever happened to the creatures in the first place.

Had the last castaway already gone through these places all those years ago? If so, then he must have been powerful in order to just walk through and destroy all those creatures in both areas, but if that was the case, then why had he stopped before collecting the instruments? Maybe he had run into creatures like the Moblin Captain and gotten scared off, or maybe the bigger creatures guarding the instruments were too much for him. Instead of individual rooms, the crack in the mountain made it out to be like one single lengthy tunnel, and…

"What are you doing here?!" A voice suddenly demanded. "Get out!"

Startling him, Link turned around, looking in all directions, but the voice had been echoing, and there was no way to tell where it came from, especially since the only light came from his triangle. But there was really only one way ahead, so it wasn't like the owner of the voice could sneak up on him. So the young man kept going, keeping Bow-wow close as he kept sloshing his way down the tunnel, at first having been glad that this place was a single tunnel instead of the multiple rooms of the Tail Cave, but now wishing that there was more to look at.

"Hey, are you deaf?!" That same voice echoed. "I said get lost, kid, there's nothing for you here!"

Link wasn't going anywhere, especially since the unseen owner of the voice was clearly scared of being discovered, meaning that there might not be a monster like last time. Hell, even if there was, Bow-wow was a monster eating machine, so the young man ignored the warnings and continued around the next curve of the tunnel. More of those big-eared remains were found throughout, as if this hidden grotto had once been their nest, but they had all been burned, and not even the water along the floor had been able to save them.

"Kid, you're really starting to piss me off, you know that?!" The voice from nowhere called out again, this time in a much more threatening tone. "So you can either turn around and get out of here right now, or you're never get another chance."

This time Link stopped, hesitating because of the voice's threatening nature, but no, he wasn't about to turn back after walking all the way there through the swamp during a rain storm, so again the young man kept going. Around another curve, this time in the opposite direction, the tunnel finally came to an abrupt end, and then there was just nothing. This was apparently as far as the crack had gotten, and after everything Link had been through, his reward was seeing the two unique features of this place: The burned remains of a much larger big-eared creature, and a very large bottle of some kind that was just sitting there.

No doors, no hidden sanctuary, just a long linear tunnel with no other features besides being flooded and annoying, but most notably no Instrument of the Sirens. Wait a second, no… something was happening with the bottle, the top was open and a bunch of red smoke was coming out. At first the young man thought it was a trap of some kind that he had sprung, but instead of filling the whole chamber, the red smoke only came out far enough to form some kind of creature… or at least the top half of it floating there while the bottom was… part of the smoke?

Honestly, this thing looked like an overweight clown with white gloves and a really long tongue, something ridiculous like the kind of performers that would be found at a carnival in Hyrule during the holidays, but nowhere near as entertaining. In fact, this thing was downright scary, but if it was aggressive, Link was sure that he could handle anything with Bow-wow's help. The clown creature didn't seem worried, though, in fact he seemed more annoyed by their presence than anything.

"I told you to leave, kid." The creature explained, shaking his head. "You could've just walked away, and I would've pretended that I never saw you, but now that I know you're trying to wake the Wind Fish… it's too bad, you don't seem like a bad guy, but I have to kill you now."

"No, you really don't." Link replied, pointing his finger. "Bow-wow, get him!"

Without hesitation the big creature leapt toward the floating clown, but then the clown snapped his fingers, and Bow-wow just disappeared. Vanishing in a small cloud of red smoke, Madam Meow-meow's pet was just gone, and the floating creature laughed at the shocked expression that was now on the young man's face. Watching him make such a large and powerful creature simply vanish was one of the most intimidating things that the young man had ever seen, but that didn't mean he was going to just stand there and allow it to happen to him as well.

Now that his hands were free, Link drew his sword, and swung the blade, but it just passed right through the smokey lower half of the creature as if it were just that, smoke. As for the top half, the visible part of the clown backed off a little, before gathering some of the red smoke in his hand, and tossing it like a fireball. There was no fire or anything, just pure force that made it feel like a rock slammed into the small shield, but not quite as strong as the Moblin Captain, so the young man remained on his feet… barely.

"What did you do to Bow-wow!?" Link demanded, shaking off the stinging sensation in his arm. "Answer me!"

"Don't worry, the mutt's fine." The clown replied, laughing a little, gathering some more red smoke. "But between you and me, kid, this is probably the time to worry about yourself."

The floating creature tossed the smoke, but this time the young man ducked under it, coming forward and swinging his sword at the clown's top half, and managing to hit one of its arms, but only managing to make even more red smoke come out for the two seconds before the wound healed. His blade was all he had right now, though, so he didn't back off, swinging the sword again and again, but causing absolutely no damage at all to the floating creature. In fact, the clown started laughing at him, no longer trying to avoid the sword hits, until one time during a powerful swing where the blade struck the edge of the bottle.

Even though the bottle was barely touched, the floating creature suddenly became a lot more serious, the grin vanishing from his face as he snapped his fingers, causing a ring of red smoke to form around Link just above his elbows, and then pinning his arms to his side when it constricted. Now unable to move or defend himself beyond flailing the sword uselessly a bit, there was nothing the young man could do when another ball of red smoke was slammed into his chest, throwing him across the room to where he slid to a stop against the wall.

"It's not your fault, kid, I know the owl sent you." The clown continued, holding up both arms while even more red smoke gathered. "But you see… the Wind Fish really needs to stay asleep, and my orders are to kill anyone who tried to get the Conch Horn, so… goodbye, kid."