So, on to the first mini-dungeon! And as you'll notice, it's also a mini-chapter! Which is great, because finals are just around the corner and I really ought to be studying for my 3 AP's!
Why do I put myself through this…
RRRP:
ChangelingRin (FF): Keep in mind that Link's got a ton of gauze wrapped around his busted eye. That's what's drawing most of the attention, and not the eye itself. Regardless, we're breaking through Link's armor, bit by bit.
Chapter XIII: Fickle Frozen Fallacies
Link awoke suddenly, his right eye having sensed motion in front of him even while he was asleep.
"Gah! Redeads! Wolves! Redeads riding wolves!" he yelled, scrambling into a standing position and reaching over his shoulder for a sword that was no longer there.
Ivan chortled. Malon was staring right between his eyes with a consoling look on her face. Link glared at his partner, racking through his memories of the preceding few hours. He was shocked to find that he had no recollection of anything since confessing everything to the rancher.
"Uh… what happened last night? I don't remember any of it," the Hero of Time asked groggily.
"Ivan will fill you in," the fairy answered, preventing the ranch owner from saying anything. "We went to the party, and o put it bluntly, you have no tolerance. Ivan is being serious. Leetle man was out cold. Ivan will not lie, it was hilarious. But Ivan had to Mind Hack you all the way back to New Lon Ranch. You wouldn't have had any of it, but they had run out of milk by the time you got there. Ivan figured it was okay if you had a little, but… evidently not. Are you experiencing any side effects? A pounding migraine, for example? Nausea? Sensitivity to light?"
Link thought for a moment. "Well… no…"
"Ah, good. We can get to Zora's Domain faster then. Epona has been saddled and given enough supplies to last you a fortnight."
"Half a fortnight," Malon corrected.
"Same difference, da?"
"Probably," Link agreed, collecting all of his belongings, which were conveniently already localized in the ranch house. "I'll see you soon, okay, Mal?"
"Mal…" she said, letting the nickname flow off her tongue. "I like it."
Link smiled good-naturedly, swung himself on top of Epona, and galloped into Hyrule Field.
The wind was cool.
!0*0!
Just like last time, the Domain had frozen. Every drop of warm water that had once filled the home of the aquatic folk had turned to ice. The effects had spread to even outside Zora's Domain; snow coated the banks of Zora's River and the poisonous water that flowed through it was deathly cold.
Unlike last time, however, the ice was a charred black, and a muted red in some places. A fierce cold wind permeated the Domain, ensuring that every inch was the same frigid temperature. Even separating the waterfall protecting the Domain had proved a challenge, as large Red Ice crystals had formed at the lip of the waterfall and diverted all the water right in front of the entrance. Therefore, playing Zelda's Lullaby did nothing. Link had had to return to Kakariko Village, release a fairy from one of his bottles, and buy a vial of Blue Fire for all of his Rupees. Only then could he melt the Red Ice and gain access to Zora's Domain.
Or what was left of it, anyway.
"O Bogini," Ivan whispered, astounded. "How did this happen?"
"Ganondorf did it," Link explained. "Simple enough. Although the ice wasn't black last time."
"No, it's not that. Does leetle man remember that dark mage we met? What was his name? Nierak?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, Ivan senses his signature all over the place. Evidently, he must have done a lot of running around before he left."
Link blinked back tears. He had done this to the Zoras, save their most volatile member. His negligence had allowed a part of his horrible future to come to pass. He hung his head in shame.
Ivan looked at him dryly. "Ivan knows that look in your eyes… er, eye. Don't you dare blame yourself for this. There was no way you could have known the water would become toxic. Not even Ivan knew, and Ivan is the historian in our party. Ladno?"
"You're right," Link sighed. "As usual."
Ivan laughed as his partner trotted up the steps towards what was once King Zora's throne room. The King, however, was frozen in a giant crystal of Red Ice, and Link didn't particularly feel like walking all the way back to Kakariko just to melt him when Blue Fire could be found in the Ice Cavern pretty easily.
He took a left, ascending to pass King Zora's crystalline prison, only to glance to his right and nearly choke on his own surprise. There was a single hand, reaching towards the exit. Then there was another. Two left hands, one significantly fatter than the other. Link's mind flashed back to finding Talon and Ingo's charred corpses on the darkest hour of Summer's Day, but these hands weren't charred; rather, they were frozen in the ice. Still, the resemblance was uncanny and more than enough to evoke painful memories of the times he failed.
He forced himself to move on. Getting hung up on the past only hurt him, after all.
!0*0!
Lord Jabu-Jabu was gone, evidently having fled Zora's Domain when Ganondorf came to power. In his place was a myriad of giant rotating icebergs, and a few Octoroks patrolled the frigid waters. Link summoned his shield and darted on top of the icebergs, deflecting any attacks that the octopi tried to hit him with. He took a right at the center of the lake and deftly maneuvered across the frozen expanse, eventually hauling himself into a gaping cave entrance. Frigid air radiated from it like heat from Death Mountain, but he stepped through nonetheless. The Hylian did, however, change from the Goron Tunic to his forest green Kokiri tunic; heat-retardant garb was probably the last thing he needed.
The Ice Cavern began with a cramped hallway full of, well, ice. Link took a gentle left, blindly racing forwards- only to be nearly run over by a giant boulder. Slipping on the slick ice floor, Link only barely managed to sidestep to the right in time to avoid the large rolling stone. He took a second to regain his composure, before slashing open a nearby pot and revealing a Green Rupee.
The Hylian shivered before drawing the Master Sword and hacking through several stalagmites of ice. As soon as the next boulder rolled past him, Link darted further down the hallway and barely avoided another boulder.
The corridor opened to a large cube-shaped room with two Tektites and an ice statue. The way forwards was sealed with a crystalline structure, which the Hero of Time assumed would dissipate when the enemies were defeated. Link knew from experience that the ice statue was alive and would freeze him with its breath. He despised being frozen.
He allowed the leftmost Tektike to hit him, Backapparating behind the attack and jump slashing at the statue. The blow caused the entire top half of the statue to crumble, leaving only the base behind. Another solid whack with the pommel of the Master Sword and the ice statue was history.
Link charged a Spin Attack and released it when both Tektikes were in range, slaughtering both of them instantly. They dissolved into green fire, but when the Hylian turned to progress, the wall of ice was still there.
"Huh…" Link muttered. "How do we get rid of that?"
"Din's Fire?" Ivan suggested.
"No, there aren't any torches," the swordsman refuted, scanning the room once again. There were several raised platforms tucked into the corners, but there was no way to get on top of them. More importantly, Link couldn't see anything on top of them. Just a myriad of frozen crystals. Maybe the crystal blocking the way forwards was vulnerable to explosives? No, that wasn't it, as his bombs did nothing to the structure.
"Ha!" Ivan suddenly exclaimed, flying over to the platform just to the left of the sealed hallway and turning green to notify Link of something. "There's a diamond switch here!"
"Where? I don't see anything!" Link hollered back angrily. "Just ice crystals!"
"Right here!" Ivan replied loudly, perching himself on a well-camouflaged diamond switch. "Shoot this with your bow!"
Instead, Link grabbed his Hookshot and pointed it at the disguised switch. The pointed head struck the crystal with a resounding ding, and the crystal blocking the corridor disappeared.
The Hylian shivered once, then progressed forwards, nearly getting himself crushed by the giant boulder that rolled through the tiny hallway.
!0*0!
A White Wolfos sprinted at a shieldless Link, intending to rip him open with its razor-sharp claws. The Hylian in question had drawn his sword, muscles tense, ready to leap backwards and allow the Wolfos to expose its vulnerable backside.
Ivan, however, had other ideas.
The Wolfos stopped dead, eyes glowing Ivan's borderline purple. Then it turned around, flaunting its back at Link and sat on its haunches. Link drove the Master Sword into its spine, ending the White Wolfos' life in an instant. This gave the pair plenty of time to react to and deal with the ice statues that spontaneously emerged from the frozen floor. When they had all been defeated, a gateway to the left that had previously been blocked opened.
"Okay, that was pretty good, Ivan," Link congratulated on seeing his partner emerge from the corpse.
Ivan said nothing, but clearly swelled with pride. Then he yawned, something Link had never seen or heard a fairy do. "A, uh… slight downside is that it makes Ivan very tired. Ivan will be taking a rest now. Holler if you need Ivan."
Without saying anything else, the sprite slipped under Link's hat. The Hylian then left the room through the left entrance, slashing down the giant icicles in his way.
The next room contained a cauldron spewing Blue Fire straight in front of him, an altar of Red Ice to his left, and a Skullwalltula to his right. Link ignored the Skullwalltula, and instead opted to grab his empty bottle. He contemplated emptying one of his other two bottles, but the Healing Fairies inside would be critical if he got too injured, and he could always backtrack to get more Blue Fire from here. With that in mind, Link stepped forwards and only filled the one bottle with the unnatural flames.
On the way out, he caught sight of a diamond switch embedded in the ice and hidden behind a column of ice to what was now his right. When it was activated, a chest appeared inside of the altar of red fire. Knowing what he had to do, the Hero stepped towards the ice formation and released the Blue Fire from his bottle. It spread around him and melted all of the Red Ice, allowing Link to open the chest and see what was inside.
It was a Dungeon Map. If only it had been the Iron Boots.
Refilling on Blue Fire, Link returned to the room at the center of his Map. According to the Map, there were two ways he could go, either up or to the right. Going up lead to a dead end, so he opted to go that way, to ensure that he didn't miss anything. There may have been something like the Interloper Ring back there.
After melting the Red Ice blocking the way, Link ran blindly past the two ice statues and rolling boulders that inhabited the thankfully wide hallway. After that, he ended up in a rather large chamber. There was a thin, frail-looking ice path that led up to another cauldron emitting blue fire. There was also a chest on the highest platform and two ice statues, each on different platforms.
By this time, he was at the center of the room, absentmindedly fingering a bomb. Link panicked when a third ice statue appeared out of nowhere and nearly froze Link with its breath. In his haste, he lobbed a bomb at it, not only ending its life but also triggering a diamond switch that he had had no idea existed. The switch caused another crystal cube to disappear, wedged under which was a heart-shaped piece of glass, some of which was red. It must have been some kind of ornament or something.
After taking the trinket and laboriously killing the ice statues with the Hookshot, Link kicked open the large chest and retrieved a Compass. In other words, he had wasted his time. Perfect.
Dejectedly, the Hylian made his way back to the central room and melted another barrier of Red Ice. He stepped into the tight corridor that lay beyond it, only to collide with yet another massive boulder. Grunting in pain, Link picked himself up and carried on.
The next room was a massive ice-filled chamber. There was an inaccessible cauldron of Blue Fire on the other side of the room, and it was filled with short ice pillars that would serve as stopping points for the-
Wait. Where was the big sliding ice platform that Link could use to get places? There must have been a way around it. Contemplative, he jumped down from the slightly raised platform, only to be caught off guard by the White Wolfos that suddenly appeared. The Hylian dodged its attack and then countered, killing the Wolfos, but he wasn't expecting an Ice Keese to sneak up behind him and freeze him in an ice cube. Breaking himself free, Link wasted no time in killing the Keese and the other Keese on the other side of the room, using Din's Fire to warm himself up.
He was surprised when he heard a high-pitched sound, like a chime. He turned around, only to see that he had accidentally hit a diamond switch on the ceiling, right by the entrance. Evidently, this had caused a set of crystal blocks to disappear, revealing a Gold Skulltula but also preventing Link from going where the map said he needed to go. So he killed the Gold Skulltula, collecting its Token, before returning to the room entrance and Hookshotting the switch again. This brought back the crystals, allowing Link to proceed once again.
Or at least it would have, had the path forwards not been blocked with Red Ice. Link eyed the Blue Fire in the back of the room. There must have been a way to get there. Maybe he could jump from one of the short pillars right next to the alcove.
Indeed he could, although just barely. He filled his bottle with Blue Fire, then jogged over to the other side of the room and hauled himself up on the crystals. Melting the Red Ice, the Hylian went back to retrieve another bottle's worth of Blue Fire before continuing forth.
The small corridor in front of him appeared to be plagued by a rather large infestation of Ice Keese. A bout of Din's Fire turned the Ice Keese into normal Keese, and a few arrows later, they were dead.
He pushed forwards, past the charred black ice, and into the last room of the Ice Cavern.
!0*0!
The last room was a lot like Link remembered it. Like the rest of the Cavern, it was completely frozen, and the floor was slick to the touch. However, this chamber seemed to stretch on forever, although it quickly faded to black. If he squinted, Link could make out Zoras frozen in the ice. Expressions of terror were etched into each of their faces, just like last time.
The only differences were that the ice was black and there was a Stalfos instead of a White Wolfos. Link must have killed them all earlier in the Ice Cavern.
Link barely had time to summon his shield before the Stalfos' bronze blade slammed into it. Link suffered no bodily harm, but his Dark Magic had taken a rather hefty hit. The living combatant countered by swiftly jabbing the Master Sword into the dead combatant's ribcage. The Stalfos shook it off and brought its guard up, preventing Link from attacking for a short while. In the meantime, Link dispelled his own Shield and prepared to dodge the Stalfos' next attack. He did so successfully, and then threw a Deku Nut directly at the Stalfos' feet. The ensuing flash stunned his opponent, despite the fact that it had no real eyes and shouldn't have been able to see anyway. Link took the opportunity to jump slash it in the back, which dealt major damage to the skeleton, but not enough to kill it.
So he threw the Master Sword at the Stalfos like a javelin, blade first. Despite the fact that Link had never held a spear in his life, much less thrown one, the skeleton seemed surprised enough that it dropped its guard and allowed the blade of evil's bane to embed itself in its cranium. It then collapsed and disintegrated. As Link picked up the Master Sword from its remains, he kicked open the chest that had appeared and tugged out the Iron Boots. Well, they weren't really Iron Boots, just an enchantment that let Link sink like a stone by dramatically increasing the weight of his boots. It also severely limited his mobility, though, so he didn't use it unless necessary.
He turned, and shouldn't have been as shocked as he was to see Sheik standing there. But he was surprised enough to take a step back. She blanched the instant he turned around. "Why is your eye all bandaged up?" she demanded.
"There was an Iron Knuckle in the Fire Temple and it cut my eye open. Now everything I see with it is so blurry that it's easier to keep it wrapped up. Anyway, welcome to the party," Link drawled. "All the Zoras are frozen and the water is poison. Can you teach me the Serenade of Water now?"
The disguised princess looked affronted. "Why do you hate me?"
Link blinked, confused by her bluntness. "Come again?"
"Why do you hate me?" she repeated.
"I don't hate you," Link argued.
"But you clearly do," Sheik shot back. "If you didn't, you wouldn't act that way around me."
"How do you mean? It's not like I lose all compassion whenever I'm around you," Link said.
"But don't you see? I've been observing how you talk to people, and there's a certain tone of voice you use only when you're talking to me. It's angry. Depressed. Like every syllable either of us say is a punch to your gut. And I can't help but feel… that it's me."
Damn straight it's you, Link thought. If you just hadn't fucking forgotten in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation. This is all your fault.
Wait, where did that come from?
"I… no. I don't think it's you," Link forced himself to say, despite the fragments of his mind that screamed the contrary. "In fact, I know it's not you. The problem is that I'm getting hung up on the past. And if Ivan has taught me anything-" he nodded at his fairy partner, who was at this point very much awake- "it's that fixating yourself on the past never gets anyone anywhere."
Ivan grinned.
"So, no. You're not doing anything wrong. I just need to adapt," Link finished.
Sheik stood silent for a second, then nodded. "Once again, I'm sorry for allowing Ganondorf to enter the Sacred Realm in the first place. That's my fault."
"But I warned you that that was a danger in the first place."
"Which makes it all the worse that I gave the Ocarina of Time to you on the day that Ganondorf betrayed us," Sheik countered. "And Ganondorf forced you to draw the Master Sword by threatening to slaughter every single one of Hyrule's denizens. You aren't at fault. I am."
Link blinked. "Okay, so it's not my fault. Remind me to never argue with the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom again. But it's not yours either. It's Ganondorf's. He was the one that killed your dad, killed the Great Deku Tree, cursed Lord Jabu-Jabu, starved the Gorons, and became the King of Evil."
"You're right," Sheik accepted.
"Anyway, does the Water Temple have anything to do with the cursed water from Zora's River?"
"Yes, actually, it does," the Sheikah confirmed. "As long as the curse holding the Zoras frozen in the ice remains, so does the curse poisoning the water. I managed to save the Zora princess from the ice, but she left for the Water Temple… and the monster in the Water Temple is the source of both of the curses. Unless you destroy the evil, the ice will never melt, nor with the water ever become cleansed. Now, let me teach you the melody that will lead you to the temple.
"Time passes, people move… Like a river's flow, it never ends. A childish mind will turn to noble ambition… Young love will become deep affection… The clear water's surface reflects growth… Now listen to the Serenade of Water to reflect upon yourself…"
She procured her harp and plucked five notes of ascending order. This song never failed to send shivers up Link's spine; nor did the sensation of suddenly remembering playing the song over and over again, clear as day.
"Link… I'll see you again…"
Last time, Link had tried to stop her from disappearing, in order to unveil her identity. Now, he simply let her go. He took a deep breath, somehow feeling refreshed.
"Leetle man… that was…" Ivan started.
"Surprising?" the Hylian suggested.
"Nyet… frankly, Ivan is unsure of why it took you that long to truly accept it. But still, Ivan thought you handled that exquisitely."
"Yeah… I think so, too," Link replied.
It didn't matter how he felt about the first Zelda. To be quite honest, he still hated her guts. But this new Zelda hadn't betrayed him. This new Zelda had talked to and seen him on a much more personal level than before. Maybe that would be enough to stop her from trying to send him back once Ganondorf was killed again. Maybe he'd be free.
They may have been the same, but to Link, everyone he had ever met was inherently different from themselves, or at least the incarnations of themselves in the first timeline. Only Link remained. Only Link remembered.
And that was okay.
!0*0!
"Oh- I've come back to life!" King Zora XVI proclaimed, stating the obvious. "Was it you who saved me? Don't be nervous! You must have a hard time breathing underwater. As an expression of my gratitude, take this tunic. With it, you won't choke underwater."
Link accepted the gift happily, but wasn't done just yet. Mutely, he procured Biggoron's eye drop prescription and handed it to the Zora King.
"Ooh… this is… well… hmmmm… hmmmm… eye drops… You might say we have them, you might say we don't… We do have the ingredients. If you take them to the doctor in the Lakeside Laboratory, he can make the drops for you. But you need to deliver them fresh… Can you make it before they spoil?"
"Definitely," Link said.
The Zora King then gave him a literal frog with eyes the size of small plates. Without skipping a beat, Link pulled out his ocarina and played the Serenade of Water, instantly warping to Lake Hylia.
The lake, similar to Zora's River, was full of corrupted liquid instead of water, giving the once-pristine body of water a sinister appearance. Most of the water had also drained from the lake, revealing the barren lakebed. Errantly looking about, Link spied something south of the lake that he had somehow never seen before. It looked like a destroyed city.
"Hey, Ivan?"
"Da?"
"What're those ruins over there, down south? I never noticed them before."
"Those," Ivan said, going into full scholar mode, "are the ruins of Khalonir, what was once the capital city of Catalia. The city was the site of the last battle of the Unification War and saw the end of Catalia as its own country when it surrendered to Hyrule after its defeat. The Hylians torched Khalonir to the ground, as a show of strength, shortly before the peace treaty was signed."
"It looks… familiar…" Link noted.
"Didn't you not see them before?"
"I didn't… And that's what irks me. It's probably nothing, I guess. I need to get this frog to the lab before it decomposes."
With that, Link jogged across the rotting wooden bridge towards what was once the shore of Lake Hylia, thoughts of Catalia and Khalonir dancing across his mind. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen it at some point.
He was jolted from his doldrums by the unearthly scream that echoed across the vast expanse. Mustering his wits, the Hylian sprinted the rest of the way across the bridge, only to see one of those ancient demons- the stick-like bird one- swinging its long beak at the door to the laboratory.
"K-kumangiriza," Ivan whispered. "They're weak to blunt trauma, especially at the small of the back and at the knees. You'll want to use the Megaton Hammer to deal maximum damage. Arrows are ineffective because you're not going to hit it, due to its thinness."
Link silently nodded, hefting the Megaton Hammer in both hands and only barely managing to lift it. Muscles straining, he charged at the Kumangiriza, only for it to notice him and swipe at him with its lengthy beak. The attack hit Link and sent him flying across the plain nearly forty feet. Grunting, Link got himself back on his feet in barely enough time to scramble away from the Kumangiriza's next swipe, which swung down into the earth just inches from where he had laid seconds before. It disengaged itself from the ground with practiced ease, and made to swing at Link again.
But this time, he was prepared.
"Ferreus," he whispered, and his boots became encased in iron. The change in Link's weight prevented the eldritch demon from being able to fling him away like a leaf in the wind, and despite sustaining an injury, the Hylian stayed put. This allowed him to smash the Megaton Hammer into the Kumangiriza's left forelimb, causing the beast to squeal as it desperately tried to counter. The Hero of Time narrowly avoided the beak and grasped it as it passed, very thankful that he was wearing greaves. If he hadn't, his fingers would have been amputated.
Stopping the Kumangiriza's momentum with his own weight caused the beast to lose its footing, toppling onto its side. Link dispelled his Iron Boots as the abomination thrashed wildly in an effort to escape. Only when it was laying down did it occur to Link just how large it was; its beak stretched nearly two and a half times his own height, and it stood at about thrice his height at the shoulder. Despite being stick-thin, the Kumangiriza was covered in wiry muscle pulsing just below its skin. It was unnerving just to look at; things like this just shouldn't exist.
Shaking the thoughts out of his mind, Link drove the Megaton Hammer into its midsection, a jarring snapping noise echoing through the Lake. The Kumangiriza screeched, foaming at the mouth and jerking about like a fish out of water before finally going limp. It was still alive, given the crazed look in its amber eyes as it stared up at nothingness.
Link sighed, putting away the Megaton Hammer and opening the door to the Lakeside Laboratory. The old man who inhabited it didn't look the least bit fazed; he had probably gotten used to the demons by now.
Wordlessly, he retrieved the Eyeball Frog and showed it to the old man.
"Oh, wowie! I haven't seen an Eyeball Frog like this since Zora's Domain froze over!" the scientist exclaimed, appearing thoroughly stupefied. "Those eyeballs are quite delicious! I will feast on fried eyeballs tonight for the first time in ages! Uhoy hoy hoo houy hoy! Such great stuff! Please say thank you to King Zora!"
The old man started doing a little dance on the spot. A justifiably weirded-out Hero of Time coughed awkwardly.
"No… this is for an eye drop prescription… for Biggoron…" Link explained hesitantly.
"Eh? What?! Oh, how disappointing! You should have said so from the beginning! Shame on you!" the old man pouted, slapping Link across the face and nearly making him drop the Eyeball Frog. He snatched the frog from Link's hands and turned to his desk, fussing around for a few seconds before turning around again.
"Here it is…" the scientist said dejectedly. "It doesn't have any preservatives in it, so it won't last long at this temperature. Run as fast as you can to Death Mountain- you're young, you'll do just fine!"
Quietly saying his thanks, Link grabbed the vial of eye drops and sprinted out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Then, he grabbed his ocarina and played the Bolero of Fire, warping straight into Death Mountain. It was way hotter than he remembered; he wasn't wearing the Goron Tunic. Dashing out of the crater, Link ended up right at the precipice of Death Mountain. He handed the Eye Drops to Biggoron, who was still bemoaning his fate.
"Reallllllly? You brrrrrrrrought the eyedrrrrrrops? I'm so rrrrrrrrrelieved! I'm going to use them rrrrrrrright now!"
The sound of dripping could be heard all throughout Hyrule.
"Wowwwwwwwwwww!" Biggoron crowed, striking a comical pose. "This is stimulating! It's worrrrrking grrrrrreat! Now I can get back to my blade business! My worrrrrrrk is not verrrrrrrry consistent, so I'll give this to you so you don't forrrrrget. After a few days… just wait patiently…"
"Okay, but can we do the whole steel-lattice thing on the inside?" Link inquired.
"Yessssssss, but it willllll cost you," the Goron blacksmith replied.
"Let me look in my wallet," Link said, pawing through his Pouch for his purse. He knew he was pathetically low on Rupees thanks to Ivan and the Red Ice, but maybe he was wrong?
A Deku Stick dropped out of the Pouch. Link bent down to pick it up, but Biggoron stared at it like it was a severed head.
"What's that?"
"It's a Deku Stick. It just fell-"
"It's a dealllllll!" Biggoron said.
"W-wait, what?" Link stammered.
"I'lllll take your entirrrrrre stock!" Biggoron confirmed. "Deku Sticks are verrrrrrry good for sword hilts!"
Ten Deku Sticks later, Link accepted the claim check and played the Sun's Song six times. This caused the day-night cycle to pass in a span of seconds. Vaguely, he wondered how the denizens of Kakariko were reacting to the sudden change in what day it was.
"Yourrrrrrr sworrrrrd is my finest worrrrrk!" the giant Goron proclaimed, producing a massive broadsword from somewhere. Link grasped the Biggoron Sword and swung it a few times, testing its balance, sharpness, and most importantly, its weight. The blade was flawless, and despite requiring both hands to operate efficiently, it wasn't so heavy that a Stalfos-handed Link couldn't pick it up easily and swing it around.
"It's perfect," Link praised. "Thank you so much!"
Without missing a beat, Link played the Serenade of Water and warped back to Lake Hylia. He dropped by Bonooru and repeated his nine-note tune, gaining the assistance of his scarecrow friend Pierre. The Hylian probably wouldn't use him much, but a few extra Skulltulas would be nice.
The Hylian breathed deep from the air while he still could. They may have been gone, but these new forms in their place were just as perfect.
He smiled as he sank to the bottom of the lake, calm at last.
You don't have to have everyone ripped away from you to pull at people's heartstrings. Accepting that loss is just as emotional, if not more so.
NOOTTD: The Kumangiriza, like the Maoqiu and Elder Skullfos, is a reference to the Rejected BotW Guardian concepts. They can be found in the Master Works books, and they're actually nightmare fuel.
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