404: Intro not found. Try again later.
RRRP:
ChangelingRin (FF): Hallelujah. The last thing DL needs is a TOM crossover. Yes, Link still has the Stalfos Hand, it's just been drained of all of its dark magic. That darkness will 'recharge' over time from Link's own life force, so he's the same in that regard. And yeah, being brainwashed sucks. At least it's not just Nabooru this time.
Setokayba2n (FF): Thank you! And I didn't put dark magic in the Master Sword; it's in the Biggoron Sword.
Chapter XIX: Temple of Sand, Infant Edition
Link threw his body weight backwards, wanting nothing more than to get out of the cycle of good old-fashioned graverobbing.
Well, it wasn't quite that. The Great Fairy had said that Ivan was ready to rejoin Link, and that he was in a Fairy Fountain in a grave behind Kakariko, but she hadn't specified exactly which grave it was. For that reason, Link was more or less forced to dig up every single grave in the village cemetery, a number which was certainly disproportionate to the number of living citizens of Kakariko. To make matters worse, most of the graves didn't have anything, and only stowed away Poes, which then tried to attack Link. They weren't a problem for Link to deal with, merely irksome, but they definitely got on the Hylian's nerves.
He had scored a free Hylian Shield out of one of the graves, though, so he supposed it wasn't all that bad.
The grave that Link had just finished unearthing hid a hole beneath it. Hopping down revealed that it contained nothing but a cracked wall. It soon exploded into a pile of ashes thanks to a well-placed Bomb, revealing a Fairy Fountain behind it. Link ignored the Healing Fairies in favor of the off-violet sprite hovering in the center of the room, staring back at him.
Ivan sighed. "It has been far too long, leetle man."
"Far too long, indeed," Link ascertained. "Also, could the Great Fairy not have told me which grave this thing was in? I spent the last hour laboriously dragging around tombstones trying to find this place! At least I found this shield, but that's really it."
"For a Hero of Time, you sure do defile tombs an awful lot," Ivan mocked playfully.
"That was a one time thing and you know it!"
"Ivan jests," the sprite responded, throwing his hands up in mock self-defense. "What's next on our to-do list?"
"We have to get past the Gerudo Fortress and into the Haunted Wasteland, because that's where the last Temple is," Link explained, hoisting himself out of the grave. "Problem is that all the Gerudo are brainwashed, and don't take very kindly to me trying to Longshot over the big old gorge that separates Hyrule from Gerudo territory. I can't just walk around the ravine, because Ganondorf would die of old age before I got there.
"Long story short, we need Gerudo identification, but we can't get that, because all the Gerudo are brainwashed and want our blood. Got any ideas?"
Ivan looked pensive. "How did you do it last time?"
"Last time, I snuck into their base and rescued some of Anjou's dad's carpenters from imprisonment," Link reminisced. "They recognized my skills and made me an honorary Gerudo because I managed to out-thief them. But I can't do that now. What do you think?"
"If only they weren't brainwashed or something," Ivan said in an odd tone, nudging Link with an elbow.
"Can't exactly un-brainwash them, because they're brainwashed and won't let me go to the Spirit Temple to de-brainwash them in the first place," Link drawled.
"Ivan said, if only they weren't brainwashed or something…" Ivan repeated.
"If you're not going to be helpful, then-"
"Just go back in time!" the fairy suddenly burst.
"Huh?" Link repeated.
"Ganondorf caused the Gerudo to be brainwashed, right?"
"Right…"
"So, if we went back to before Ganondorf brainwashed all of his people, they wouldn't be brainwashed anymore, silly leetle man!"
Link blinked. "Ivan… I don't know what to say. How did I not think of that?"
His guardian only chuckled as Link played the Prelude of Light.
!0*0!
A younger Link descended from a vortex of blue onto a pedestal on an island in Lake Hylia, due to its relative proximity to Gerudo Valley. From there, it would only be a half-day's walk back to the bridge over the massive ravine that separated Hyrule from its desert neighbor.
The time passed uneventfully. The few Peahats that tried to decapitate him were easily bested by Link's new Hylian Shield, even if it was so large that he couldn't possibly use it on his forearm like he had once done. He made sure to avoid the villages in the area, in case they weren't friendly to half-skeletons or were entirely purged when Link had fought Ganondorf at midnight in front of Hyrule Castle.
How long had it been since that day? It felt like years. The rational part of Link knew, of course, that it had only happened about six months ago. Even still, though, the Hero of Time had been wholly consumed by his quest for vengeance against the King of Evil, and as such had lost all sense of time. The inevitable onset of winter hardly helped matters, cooling temperatures sending chills and shivers along Link's body. He pulled his arms in around himself to conserve body heat, wishing that he had time to set up a fire to warm himself during the swiftly approaching night.
"It's funny," Link said after some time. "I'm the Hero of Time, but I can't command its speed."
Ivan looked at his partner. "You have a song that turns it to daytime, don't you?"
Link blinked. "Oh," he eventually stated, rather lamely, as he procured the Ocarina of Time and played the Sun's Song twice, changing the time to early morning. Comparatively, it was much warmer than dusk.
!0*0!
As it turned out, the Gerudo were not, in fact, brainwashed yet. That was a good sign.
The only issue was that they weren't particularly keen on letting Link slip past.
The only passage across the ravine was a tiny, open bridge with no cover whatsoever. Even in darkness, Link would be painfully obvious. The Gerudo were most certainly vigilant, and even if he did manage to get behind the one Gerudo blocking the bridge, the egress point was sealed with a massive iron gate that Link couldn't possibly hope to cross. On an unrelated note, a number of large metal cylinders on wheels were pointed at said gate, and they were in close proximity to a large pile of iron spheres. Link didn't understand their purpose, and ignored them for that reason. Rappelling up the side of the gorge wasn't an option, as the nearby waterfall made it so slick that the Hylian wouldn't be able to get a good grip on it. And there was no other point where Link could cross over to the other side. This bridge was the only way to get across, and Link would have to take it.
There had to be a way to smuggle himself in somehow. There had to be some way to earn Gerudo identification. Otherwise, he was stuck.
Wait.
He could just play the Requiem of Spirit and go directly to the Desert Colossus!
Then he remembered that he had inexplicably forgotten the Requiem of Spirit. Crud.
"Any ideas, Ivan?" Link asked.
"The Gerudo sometimes go to Castletown in an effort to find… uh… boyfriends," the fairy mentioned carefully. "Maybe you can 'find' identification that way?"
"That's a good idea. Thanks," Link said, playing the Prelude of Light to warp back to Hyrule Castle.
It was probably the worst possible time to warp, though, as there was some kind of congregation occuring in the Temple of Time. People had finally figured out that the Door of Time was open and were now packing themselves inside, fighting to get just a glimpse of the Master Sword. Fortunately, they all had their backs turned to Link, so he could easily slip back out into Castletown. It didn't help the fact that he had nearly had a heart attack upon seeing the throng of Hylians swarming the sacred blade..
He combed the streets, only to find neither hair nor hide of any desert dwellers. He was about to give up when he spied a shock of red hair atop a tanned face in window in the Happy Mask Shop. Eagerly, he went inside and searched for the feminine body attached to that Gerudo face, only to find that it was nothing more than a veneer. Still, though, maybe it would fool the Gerudo guard enough to get him into the complex.
He asked the Happy Mask Salesman if he could purchase the Gerudo mask, only for the red headed mask maker to go completely ballistic, practically foaming at the mouth. After recovering from his psychotic fit, the salesman kindly informed Link that the Happy Mask Shop didn't sell masks, it lent them. Apparently, Link would have to sell a Bunny Hood to get the Gerudo mask, which he could only sell after selling a Wooden Mask, which became accessible after selling a Skull Mask, which he would unlock after selling some kind of yellow mouse mask called a Keaton.
He took the Keaton mask and warped to Kakariko, gifting it to the Hylian knight guarding the gate to Death Mountain. He then returned to Castle Town and paid for the mask out of his own pocket. Link then borrowed the Skull Mask, but quickly found that he had no idea who to sell it to, so he simply went to the middle of Hyrule Field and burnt it before returning to the Mask Shop, claiming to have sold it. He then just repeated the process with the remainder of the masks, finally gaining access to the Gerudo mask. Sure, he lost Rupees, but he refused to schlep across all of Hyrule selling masks to people. He had better things to do with his time.
"How do I look?" Link asked, wearing the Gerudo Mask.
"From the neck up, you look like a bonafide Gerudo," Ivan said. "But everything else, sheesh. For one, you're not quite tan enough. Then there's the matter of your height, width, and musculature, which don't reflect that of a female desert warrior. And that's not even taking your clothes into account."
"What about in the dark?" Link supplied, desperate for a solution regardless of its stupidity. "If they can't really see me, they can't call me out on not being a true Gerudo."
"That's not going to work, leetle man," Ivan grumbled. "But if you want to try, be Ivan's guest."
!0*0!
The 'Gerudo' approached the Valley, praying that his disguise combined with the cover of darkness would be enough to fool the real Gerudo. The stars were dimmer than usual, which reduced the ambient light a bit. Far below him, the river rushed and churned as it flowed down towards Lake Hylia.
Link crossed the bridge slowly, footsteps causing the overpass to creak just slightly as he traversed it. He could barely see the Gerudo guardswoman on the other side of the bridge, but he could see that she wasn't buying his disguise. At all.
She took a step forward. He took a step back. Link could tell that his ruse had been defused, and now he was horribly confused; what did he do now? Best to back out and not reveal his own identity, right?
He grabbed the Ocarina of Time and softly played a song. Given how the Gerudo opposite him suddenly paused, she had heard anyway. The Hylian waited for the teleportation song to whisk him away from the situation, safe to try again.
That never happened.
Then a droplet of water hit the top of his head.
It started raining in earnest, which was odd considering the fact that it had been a cloudless night but a few seconds before. Link finally process exactly which song he had played, and realized that, in his panic, he had played the Song of Storms and not the song he was intending.
The Gerudo on the other side of the bridge stared at him. "Did you do that, kid?"
"Uh, yeah," Link said, pouring as much confidence into his words as he could. "I definitely didn't play the wrong song or anything… or plan to teleport away, yeah, that'd be crazy. This was one hundred percent intentional, definitely…"
She started chuckling, then began laughing in earnest.
"If you weren't some little kid trying to sneak into Gerudo territory in the middle of the night with nothing but a dinky second-rate mask, I'd buy you a drink!"
"Oonamu, what's going on back there? Can't you see that it's pouring?" another one of the Gerudo guardswomen yelled from further into Gerudo territory. "Go get a bucket and fill it with as much water as you can get! These things don't happen very often!"
Then it clicked for Link.
The Gerudo lived in a desert, where it hardly rained. Getting as much water as they needed was obviously a struggle for them. However, when Link was an adult, it was raining quite a lot…
He had taught the Gerudo to play the Song of Storms to summon storms whenever they needed them, hadn't he? An idea was beginning to form in the back of his mind.
"... solve the problem!" Oonamu was saying before turning to Link. "I know all men are worthless except the Great Ganondorf, but this kid might be able to help us!"
"Come on, we're not that bad," Link argued weakly. "Most of us, anyway. Cut us some slack."
"Maybe it's coincidence," a third voice piped up.
"I can play the song again," Link suggested.
"Shut up, voe!" that second voice echoed.
"Ah, let the kid do it," the third voice emanated. "That way, we can prove that it's not a fluke."
Link played the Song of Storms again, and the rain restarted in earnest.
"Have we proved that the kid is causing the rain yet?" Oonamu hollered.
"But he's a voe! Voes are all useless except the Great Ganondorf!"
"Well… if he's proven that he can control the weather… I don't see the harm…" the third voice said.
"Oh, come on!"
"It's settled, then. We take him to Aveil," Oonamu decided, reaching out and snatching Link's wrist before procuring a rag from somewhere and tying it around his eyes, ensuring that he couldn't see. He was then thrown over Oonamu's shoulder like a sack of sand and was carried all the way into the Gerudo Fortress, although he could only tell from memory of the terrain from last timeline.
!0*0!
When the cloth came away from his eyes, Link realized that he was locked in one of the cells he had once freed the carpenters from. If his mind served him correctly, it was the cell deepest within the Gerudo fortress.
His cubicle was surrounded by a large number of Gerudo, staring back at him with a mixture of emotions etched into their tanned features. There were a few looks of confusion, a handful of neutral, and one or two expressions Link couldn't recognize, but the vast majority looked on with disdain or even outright anger. They were babbling amongst themselves in the Gerudo dialect, of which Link could understand very little.
"They're arguing over whether or not to kill us, leetle man," Ivan translated.
"Well, that's lovely," the Hero of Time grumbled.
The argument amongst the sand warriors went on for some time, as Link and Ivan awaited their fates. Hours passed, and yet the Gerudo had yet to even acknowledge the Hylian's presence amongst them. Link would have passed the time by organizing all of the stuff in his pouch, but that was rather difficult to do when both of his wrists were shackled to the wall. Plus, someone had taken his pouch off of his person while he was being brought here.
Eventually, the bickering petered off, and one of the Gerudo slowly sashayed over to Link's prison. The youth instantly recognized her as the Gerudo who had run the Fortress in the last timeline, while Nabooru had been brainwashed by Ganondorf's mothers in the Spirit Temple.
"Who do you think you are, kid?" she asked, dangerously calm.
"Honestly, I have no clue," Link answered, trying desperately to remain nonchalant. "I think I'm Link, but who knows? I might be the king of Holodrum and not even know it."
"Kid's got spunk," she murmured. "Do you understand the gravity of your situation?"
"Yes. Kind of hard to not understand the gravity of the situation when I'm surrounded by dozens of armed women capable of ripping me to shreds, especially given that I'm chained to the wall."
Aveil- Link assumed it was Aveil, given how Oonamu talked about her and the fact that she seemed to be leading the Gerudo in the room- chuckled a bit. The rest of the Gerudo did not join in.
"I get that I'm a voe and that I'm supposed to be worthless, but there's something I can do. I'm sure Oonamu has already talked to you all about it while I was out."
"She did," Ivan supplied.
"Basically, I know a song that summons storms. Problem is, I think it only works on my Ocarina, and I can't give you that because… well…"
"It doesn't really belong to him," Ivan filled in. "Leetle man is just delivering it to someone. Someone in the Spirit Temple beyond the Haunted Wastelands. What was her name again?"
"Nabooru," Link said.
"Yes, her."
Aveil stiffened. "Nabooru isn't expecting anything. I know that because she just left for the Spirit Temple a few weeks ago and didn't mention needing anything, much less a musical instrument."
Link tensed. "Okay, I admit that what my partner told you is stretching the truth a bit, but it's definitely not a lie. I'll be happy to teach the song to you, but in return, I need Gerudo identification. Hell, you can make it expire after a decade or something, just give me one of those tokens and I'll give you all the water your people need."
There was silence for a few seconds as the present Gerudo processed what Link had offered and was demanding in return. Then they all burst out into raucous laughter, which lasted for some time before finally stopping.
"The kid's telling the truth," Oonamu's voice rang out. "I was there, on the bridge, as he summoned thunderstorms with that little blue ocarina of his. As improbable as it sounds, it's not a lie."
"But then there's the issue of it only working with that specific wind instrument," another Gerudo chimed in. "The kid's not going to give up the ocarina for this. And for that matter, why does he want identification?"
"Because I need to get to the Spirit Temple, and the only way to get there is through the Gerudo," Link attempted to explain. "I need to get the Ocarina to Nabooru, no matter what. And it needs to be set in stone; it can't just be something in the back of your head."
"Those are… oddly specific requirements," Aveil noted.
"It's what I must do," Link said. "Please. I want to help you just as much as you all collectively doubt me. I have no reason to lie to you. What would I gain?"
"You're a voe," one of them spat, before a good number of Gerudo started a shouting match with her, causing the entire chamber to erupt into arguments before Aveil shut it down.
"You yourself said that the song only works on that blue Ocarina of yours," the Gerudo leader mentioned, "meaning that even if we knew the song, it wouldn't do us any good anyway. You'd have to give us that Ocarina-"
"Hell no," Link refuted.
"Then we are at an impasse. You will stay here, then, until you come to a decision, and we will act accordingly. Do we make ourselves clear?"
The Gerudo behind Aveil nodded vigorously, evidently satisfied at the conclusion of the pseudo-interrogation. When Link said nothing in return, they slowly began to file out of the room to leave Link to his own machinations.
"Wait!" a voice rang out.
Aveil turned to see the fairy, who had previously been mostly silent, suddenly take a more active role in the negotiations.
"Prostite, but… the song might not only work on the Ocarina of Time," Ivan said.
Link blinked. "Really?"
"You could play the Sun's Song on Saria's Ocarina, could you not?"
"Well… yeah, but-"
"Then why is the Song of Storms any different? Better to try than to do nothing."
Link sighed. "Fine. Unlock my chains and let me get my Ocarinas. If it works on Saria's Ocarina, then we can proceed. If not, then we're back at square one."
Aveil barked an order to one of the other Gerudo before turning back to Link. "You're not leaving that cell before that, though. Understood?"
"Understood," Link affirmed. A few minutes later, the Gerudo returned with Link's pouch in tow.
"Is it in there?"
"Should be," the Hylian said.
Aveil opened the pouch and pawed through it, first removing Link's Giant's Wallet. It was nowhere near full, only having about two hundred Rupees inside.
"Where'd you steal all this money from, kid?" Aveil asked, probably trying to make conversation.
"Just a few ancient temples," Link answered, with none of the childish boasting one would expect from someone his age. "Most of the other equipment in there was also liberated from those places."
"Like this dinky slingshot?" the Gerudo boss drawled.
"That was from the interior of the Great Deku Tree, a lesser deity of the Kokiri Forest, who asked me to purge a curse inside of him. He died shortly afterwards, though."
Aveil guffawed a bit, rummaging through Link's bag some more before finally finding and procuring the blue and beige Ocarinas.
Link pressed Saria's Ocarina to his lips- a difficult task, given the chains- and played the Song of Storms. He heard nothing happen outside, so he assumed that it hadn't worked. He started to play the Prelude of Light to try to break in from the future again before a thunderclap emanated throughout the room. Ivan started laughing triumphantly. Outside, he could hear the Gerudo talking quickly as they scrambled to store as much water as they could before the storm dissipated. Aveil was standing still, listening to the delectable chaos unfolding outside of the cell, before stepping forwards and unlocking the door to his cell.
"You're going to teach the girls how to play that song. I'll write up that identification for you. Don't worry about anything the other Gerudo say about you being a voe, okay?"
"I… wow… thank you so much! This is better than I hoped! How long does the identification last?" Link asked, ecstatic that he was one step closer to slaughtering the Gerudo King.
Aveil looked at him. "Kid, Ganondorf normally calls the shots, but he's not here. Neither is Nabooru, so that leaves me in charge. As far as I'm concerned, you're an honorary Gerudo for the rest of your life, and given what you've done for us, I doubt they'd mind at all."
Link knew that Ganondorf most certainly would mind, given the fact that he was Demise's spiffy puppet, but bringing that up probably wasn't the best idea.
!0*0!
Link had wanted to stay as a child and just go to the Spirit Temple directly, but he had forgotten the massive ravine of quicksand that he would need the Longshot to traverse. Dejectedly, he began to turn back towards the Temple of Time to come back as an adult, which would be possible now that he had identification. Fortunately, the Gerudo had graciously allowed him to use one of those large metal cylinders from the bridge, which they apparently called 'cannons'. They were designed for firing the iron spheres that he had seen next to them, but with a bit of fine-tuning, they could be engineered to launch Link himself. They had done so surprisingly well and hadn't even scratched the Hylian; he soon found himself on the other side of the river of grit and dust.
From there, the Hero of Time had to follow the various pikes that the Gerudo had set up, that would lead him to the next part of the trial. Link could barely see anything through the violent sandstorm that had taken residence in the Haunted Wastelands, and was practically being carried by the strong winds deep into the desert.
He managed to claw his way through the dune sea, however, and came across a small stone edifice erected in the sand. Wasting no time, Link dragged himself into the structure and climbed down a ladder, finding himself in a basement that housed two torches and a Gold Skulltula. He ignored them, opting instead to take off his boots and dump the metric ton of sand that had coalesced there.
"I hate sand," Link grumbled. "It's coarse, rough, and it gets everywhere. Hell, it's even in my tunic! This is awful!"
"Are you surprised? You're the one who's done all of this before…"
"Last time I went through this place, I was an adult, and had a white shirt and pants on underneath it," Link mentioned. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't have those now, and there's nothing stopping half the sand in the desert from diving in."
To close his case, Link adjusted the belt of his tunic a bit, causing even more sand to pour out.
"Ivan sees your point," Ivan relented. "Still, the faster we get to the Spirit Temple, the faster we can get out of here. Da?"
"Fine," Link yielded, picking himself up and scaling the ladder, returning to the heart of the sandstorm. He climbed up the stone structure, embarrassingly trying to climb up the wrong side due to the reversed world, and found himself in front of a stone plaque of some sort. He wasted no time in peering through the Lens of Truth once more to see a rather large Poe just sort of floating there.
Ivan, who had been reading the plaque when Link donned the Lens, jumped at the ghost's sudden appearance. It was odd, considering that Link was the one looking through the Lens of Truth, but apparently Link looking through the Lens also gave Ivan the ability to see through the illusions.
"I'll be your guide on your way, but coming back, I won't play! I'll show you the way to go, so follow me and don't be slow!" the spirit cackled as it drifted away from the stone fort. Link scrambled to follow, constantly donning and doffing the Lens of Truth to preserve Magic and still be able to see the Poe that was guiding him through the wastes.
Link followed the Poe for a while, only to notice two glaring flagpoles off in the distance. He checked over his shoulder to see that he was, in fact, facing away from the building he had left from. If his memory served him correctly, wasn't the Spirit Temple up ahead?
"Hang on… this Poe is literally leading us in circles… and the Temple is right over there… Screw it, I'm going that way," Link declared, deviating from the ghost's path and making for the two flags on the other side of the sands. He darted beneath them and headed forwards, only to find himself back at the short stone structure he had left from. Thoroughly confused, Link clambered on top and saw the exact same plaque sitting on top. And the Lens of Truth revealed the exact same Poe waiting to guide him to the Spirit Temple.
"Okay, that's bullshit," Link grumbled, feeling himself lose ten Rupees as he dejectedly followed the Poe in its hardly logical path through the wastes.
This time, after going through an identical pair of wooden flagpoles, Link found himself facing the giant stone goddess statue that sat outside of the Spirit Temple. The sandstorm had thankfully let up the instant Link had entered the area just outside of the Temple, leaving no obstacles for the child to beeline for the entrance, although he did veer left right at the beginning so that he could grab Nayru's Love from another Great Fairy Fountain.
He entered the Temple through a gaping hole between the Sand Goddess' legs, finding himself inside of the Temple proper. Two massive basilisk statues flanked a simple stone staircase, emblazoned with Gerudo insignias. There were also two boulders on either side of the staircase, but the Armos that had been present the last time were noticeably absent.
The sound of rushing water reached Link's ears as he ascended the stairs, and turning to his left he realized that the source of the noise was coming from a massive pillar of water that cordoned off the left wing of the Temple. Link knew it was the adult section from memory, and therefore wasn't all that worried about it.
There was a single chest tucked away in the bottom-right corner of the first room, which contained some Bombchus. Since he had too many Bombchus to carry, Link merely set them back in the trunk and carried on, like he'd never opened them in the first place.
Link shifted his attention towards the Gerudo kneeling by a small hole in the rightmost wall, as if trying to figure out a way inside. As soon as he approached, though, she abruptly stood and stared at him with an imperceptible expression on her face.
"Haven't seen you around, kid…" she said lowly. "What do you want?"
"I heard this was where Ganondorf's minions were plotting some stuff," Link stated confidently. "Figured I could mess them up."
"Really?" she asked, incredulous. "You're here for the same reason I am? What good timing! First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm Nabooru of the Gerudo. I'm a lone-wolf thief. But don't get me wrong! Though we're both thieves, I'm totally different from Ganondorf. With his followers, he stole from innocent women and children, and even killed people for no reason! A kid like you might not know this, but the Gerudo race only consists of women. Only one man is born to us every one hundred years… but even though our laws say we must make that man king, I'd never bow to a man as vile as that! Anyway, enough about me. What about you, kid?"
"My name is Link," Link revealed, "and this is Ivan. Like I said earlier, we-"
He was interrupted by Nabooru bursting into laughter at the Hylian's proclamation. "Link?! What kind of stupid name is that?"
"It's my stupid name, I'll have you know!"
"Heh, I like you, kid… Anyway… remember that thing I told you about, that can help us stop Ganondorf? It's through here. You see, there's this treasure inside of the Spirit Temple that we can use to rout all of Ganondorf's followers. It's called the Silver Gauntlets. When you wear them, you'll get superhuman strength and be able to push things around with ease. It won't fit a kid like you, though, so don't even try to keep it for yourself. I want you to be a good boy and give them to me! Ganondorf and his minions are using the Spirit Temple as a hideout, and only the Silver Gauntlets will allow us to sneak deeper into the Temple. Once there, we can ransack the whole place and really mess up their plans! How about it?"
"Sounds like a deal… on one condition," Link said. "As soon as I go through there, you go back to the Gerudo Fortress. Once I have the Silver Gauntlets, meet me at the entrance to the Gerudo Training Grounds. I already have identification, so you won't need to worry about that."
He felt awful, orchestrating the future Sage of Spirit's own brainwashing. But time had forced his hand; who knew how time would be screwed up if he refused. He was the Hero of Time, but he was also its slave.
"This is a ruse to keep the Silver Gauntlets for yourself, isn't it?" Nabooru asked, squinting her eyes.
"No… what if I told you I've seen the future? A future where you're brainwashed by Ganondorf into doing his bidding? Would you believe that I'm taking every precaution to avoid that?"
The Gerudo thief blinked. "I'd laugh in your face."
"You don't have to believe me. All you have to do is trust me," Link declared. "You do that for me, I'll bring you the Silver Gauntlets. Besides, what do I have to gain from lying to you? I can't even wear the Silver Gauntlets; just look at my hands!"
Nabooru snorted in an undignified manner before regaining her composure. "Alright, sheesh, kid. I'll hold you to that," she stated. "You and I, let's give Ganondorf and his cult a big surprise, shall we? I'll be waiting in front of the Training Grounds. And if you do manage to bring me the Silver Gauntlets… I'll do something great for you!"
She brushed past him and strode out of the Spirit Temple, hips swaying as she left in a way that left Link staring at her like a moron before shaking himself out of his reverie. Evidently, he'd picked up a few bad habits from being an adult.
"Uh…" Ivan piped up. "What… exactly… was the 'great thing' Nabooru just promised you?"
"I never figured it out, honestly," Link answered. "But last timeline, she lamented not being able to keep it after meeting me in the future."
Ivan gulped. "Ivan does not like the sound of that."
!0*0!
The room beyond the small hole was completely engulfed in flames, along with a few Torch Slugs that were easy to dispatch despite Link's horrendous lack of range with the Kokiri Sword. Shooting an eye switch caused the flames to disperse, but they revealed nothing, even after a peek through the Lens of Truth. Once the Torch Slugs had all been slain, the two side doors unsealed.
Link chose the leftmost door at random and ran through it, finding himself on one side of a large canyon that was blocked by a huge metal fence. On his side were a pair of graves and a Gibdo, which Link defeated with the assistance of the Sun's Song. He also managed to stun the two Gibdos on the other side of the gate, which he wasn't even aiming for in the first place. But there appeared to be nothing left for Link to do in this area except exhume the graves.
Apologizing to Ivan in advance, Link hoisted one of the headstones up and lobbed it into the abyss, noting how the bottomless pit wasn't actually bottomless. In its place was a gold button, which when triggered, caused a part of the gate to fall backwards. It still didn't help Link solve the puzzle of getting to the other side, though. It was then that he noticed several boulders stuck in the walls of the room, including one directly behind the section of the gate that had fallen. The two on his side of the room hid nothing underneath them, but the third rock appeared out of reach until Link considered using a Bombchu to crawl along the bottom of the gap and blow up the rock, revealing an eye switch hidden behind it.
Shooting the gold eye caused a crystal platform to appear, allowing Link to jump over to the other side. Killing the two Gibdo there caused the exit to unseal, permitting Link to step through.
The next room was going up in flames around a giant spinning disc of some sort suspended from the ceiling. There was nowhere for Link to go save onto the giant turning platform, so he hopped on top. A Stalfos also appeared on the turntable and attempted to spring towards Link with a powerful overhead slice, but the spinning of the disc threw it off, and it sailed into the abyss below. The fire promptly died down and the exit opened up. Link grinned at his own good luck, and jumped off of the turntable to progress.
Link was quick to snipe all of the Keese in the room with his Slingshot before they could touch any of the four torches and become Fire Keese. He then exhumed a nearby grave and stepped on the golden switch hidden inside, causing another iron fence to fall across a chasm that would grant him access to the other side. There was a large chest and an Anubis on the other side, but a quick blast of Din's Fire quickly dealt with the latter issue. The crate contained a Dungeon Map, and the small chest that appeared in the wake of the Anubis' death had a Small Key inside.
Leaving the room brought him back to the first area. Link began to crawl through the cramped tunnel that led to the second floor, only to realize that it was blocked off by something. Dragging himself back out of the crawlspace, Link procured a Bomb and kicked it into the hole. After the ensuing explosion shook the whole room, the Hylian peered through the hole again and saw that the blockage had disappeared. Clambering through again, Link was able to reach the other side, where he noted a rusted switch that would normally only be pressable by the Megaton Hammer. Odd.
He used his newly acquired Small Key to open the locked door that he was faced with, finding himself in a small space with a diamond switch. Without thinking, he drew the Kokiri Sword and hit the switch. He heard the grating sound of iron on stone above him, and he looked up just in time to see a Like Like descend on his face. Without time to react, Link was sucked into its undulating maw and separated from his shield before being spat out. The Hero of Time then proceeded to gut it like a fish until it evaporated, spewing out his Hylian Shield. He then climbed up the rough stone to reach the second level, but he was immediately attacked by several Baby Dodongos and a Beamos. Link summoned his Stalfos Shield and slapped the Beamos' beam back at it, causing it to destroy itself, before he focused his attention on the Dodongos flopping around like a fish out of water. Needless to say, they all died very quickly, and a small chest appeared. Hoping that it was the Small Key that he needed to progress, Link opened it and found a single Bombchu. He used that Bombchu to destroy a rocky outgrowth in the wall, allowing sunlight to stream in onto a disturbingly happy sun plaque. Once the light hit it, the sun started smiling, causing another chest to appear- in a place completely inaccessible to Link himself.
"Ivan, do you have any idea how to get up there?" Link inquired.
"No clue," Ivan responded. "Maybe you don't have to get that yet. Remember that rusted switch back in that last room? You must have to come in this section as an adult somehow and Hookshot to it or something."
"Well, what do you suggest, then?" Link asked irately.
"Maybe you missed something in one of the other rooms?" Ivan said.
"I combed those so carefully, though…"
"Not that first one. There were two boulders by the stairs," the fairy mentioned.
Link paused. "You're right. We should check those."
He returned to the entrance to the Temple and destroyed those boulders, discovering a Silver Rupee underneath each of them.
"That doesn't help me… the other Silver Rupees are on the other side of that geyser," Link lamented, ascending the stairs and pointing out the Silver Rupees separated by the water.
Then he stopped.
Because there was a third boulder hidden behind the leftmost basilisk statue that he hadn't noticed before. Destroying it revealed an eye switch, which triggered a chest to appear when it was activated. Opening the chest revealed a Small Key.
"Ivan, you're the best, you know that?" Link asked.
The sprite in question only grinned bashfully at the compliment.
!0*0!
Link now found himself in the main chamber of the Spirit Temple. He glanced at the Dungeon Map, and was somewhat disgusted to find that the second and third floors seemed to be oddly similar to the internal systems of the human body. The second floor represented the stomach and intestines, and the third floor represented the arms and torso of a human being. Absently, he wondered if this extended to the first and fourth floors of the Temple, but scoffed. He'd carved through enough monsters to recognize the second and third floors of the temple, so why would the first and fourth be any different?
He took in his surroundings. There was a large statue of the Sand Goddess to his right that took up much of the chamber. There was a golden eye switch hidden cheekily on one of the Goddess's legs, which Link shot. This caused a large chest to appear on a small dais right in front of the Goddess of Sand. It contained the Compass.
There were several totem poles with torches on top that Link couldn't hope to ignite all in one go, although there was a frozen eye switch above a locked door that he could probably cast Din's Fire to activate. The Hero of Time's theory was proven correct, and triggering the switch caused the sealed door just beneath it to open.
According to the Compass, there was a chest in that room, but Link couldn't see it. Even checking the Lens of Truth didn't reveal anything where the chest was supposed to be. This angered Link. He didn't want to be stuck in another Forest Temple situation, where he couldn't find the button he needed to proceed.
"There's an Eye Switch in that hole," Ivan mentioned.
There was, in fact, an Eye Switch inside of a massive hole flanked by an enormous stone that would require the Silver Gauntlets to move. Shooting the switch caused that chest to appear once more, revealing a Small Key.
He returned back to the Goddess room and climbed back up the westmost side. He found that the door that he needed to go through was locked tight, and not even a Small Key would help him. In other news, there was a blue switch on one of the Goddess's hands that would probably cause that door to open. But where would he find something to put on that button? His question was soon answered when he looked down and saw a Song of Time block floating right next to the lowest section of the west staircase. However, the spikes adorning the sides of the staircase were simply too high for Link to jump over, meaning that once he got the box, he wouldn't be able to get back without jumping off again.
He leapt onto the box, and noted how Ivan turned green right next to the block, indicating that more Song of Time blocks could be spawned there. Playing the Song of Time, Link grabbed the wooden crate and strolled up the stairs, ignoring the living pot that tried to smash into him, and set the box down again when Ivan revealed that there were more Song of Time blocks he could spawn in. He played the Song of Time, causing a Block of Time to appear in a place that facilitated Link to jump across, placing the crate on the blue button. True to his prediction, the door on the western staircase unsealed, allowing the Hylian to progress.
The next little hallway was adorned with pillars that seemed to be ripped straight out of the Fire Temple, what with the fact that they spewed flames all over the elegant-looking carpet. It was miraculous that the whole place hadn't burnt down yet, although those two rooms below him were probably signals of what was to come.
So was the room immediately after that, as it was filled with flames. Even worse, Fire Bubbles kept launching themselves out of the floor directly at Link before descending back below the stone tiles again, creating an extremely tense atmosphere due to the uncertainty of whether a Fire Bubble would appear at a certain place at a certain time or not. Shooting an Eye Switch caused the flames to temporarily abate, allowing Link to sprint past the Fire Bubbles in order to get to the light on the other side of the room. Link grabbed the first block he could see, which had a sun on it, and dragged it into the light. It caused a chest to appear in the corner of the room. Opening it caused an arctic wind to surge forth, engulfing Link in a massive, frigid icicle.
Eventually, the Hero managed to break himself out of the ice, shivering madly. He then spent the next few minutes by the fire in an effort to coax some warmth into his body. He then returned to the light and grabbed the next sun block before yanking it into place. Thankfully, it caused the entrance and exit doors to unseal. Triumphant and still sitting on a key, Link wasted no time in leaving the room.
He was now stuck in a little hallway, with a Giant Skulltula hiding above him and a locked door ahead. Link sprinted up the stairs, rolling under the Skulltula as it descended from the heights, and unlocked the door, which sealed itself behind him.
!0*0!
The last room was adorned with pillars of identical shapes, following a crimson carpet as it snaked towards the last door, which was sealed. In front of the door, however, was an Iron Knuckle- at least, that's what the Hero of Time had expected. Instead, there was a giant black suit of armor with a sword and round shield where the Iron Knuckle was supposed to be.
"That's a Darknut," Ivan supplied. "They're loosely related to the Iron Knuckle, although nobody's sure how. You'll want to remove its armor and then attack, alright?"
"So it's an Iron Knuckle with a sword and shield. Got it," Link replied, awakening the Darknut by whacking it with his tiny Kokiri Sword.
The first thing that he noticed was that the Darknut was far faster than any Iron Knuckle was. However, it attacked in much the same way; it slowly approached before bringing its blade down in a heavy arc in an attempt to hit Link. It gave the Hylian barely enough time to scurry out of the way and retaliate with a quick attack to its back, where there was a tiny chink in the armor that he could exploit with his miniscule blade.
Then it slapped him with its shield.
Link was thrown back across the room, painfully colliding with the Darknut's throne. He was lucid enough to see that it was trying to stay on his left side, the side that housed his bad eye. It was clearly trying to gain an advantage over Link, which he had to begrudgingly respect. If he hadn't lost his eye so long ago, he would have been much more disconcerted by the Darknut's actions.
He spent a good deal of his energy on casting Nayru's Love on himself before sprinting at the Darknut. It tried to retaliate by swinging its sword in a horizontal arc, but Link Backapparated behind the attack and shoved his dagger through an armor chink in the Darknut's armpit. Most of the chestplate fell away at the attack, allowing Link to attempt to withdraw the Kokiri Sword and drive it through the Darknut's heart. However, the swordsmonster swung its blade around, catching Link off-guard and lobbing him across the room. Nayru's Love protected him from injury, but it didn't help with being thrown around like a handkerchief in a monsoon. Shaking stars away from his eyes, Link got his feet underneath him and blocked the Darknut's blade with his Stalfos shield, managing to deflect the stroke just enough to disorient the Darknut. From there, it was a straight shot for Link to drive the Kokiri Sword straight through a thin gap in the Darknut's visor.
It spewed blood from its facial wound, getting its internal fluids all over Link's garb and face. Once it stopped moving and struggling, the door behind it unsealed. Link, for some odd reason, felt a twinge of remorse; evil as it may be, the Darknut was an honorable opponent. For that reason, Link spent a few minutes crossing its arms over its chest and its blade. A soldier's death. It was fitting, somehow.
The same could not be said of all the blood on his face, though. That would have to go. Although it would have looked great on him if he was deliberately trying to look like he was insane, which would have fit perfectly on him at the beginning of this second adventure.
!0*0!
"Ayy, what's up, Link? Surprised to see me?" Kaepora Gaebora hooted.
"No…" Link mumbled morosely, wishing he didn't have to deal with Rauru's reincarnation at this point.
"A long time in this world is almost nothing to you, is it? How mysterious!" the owl continued. "Even I thought the tales of a boy who could travel back and forth in time were merely legends. Link, you have fully matured as an adult."
"Thanks," Link drawled. It's not like I'd done that already or anything…
"From now on, the future of Hyrule is on your shoulders. Maybe it's just not my time anymore. Here is my last piece of advice: Two witches inhabit this Temple. In order to destroy them, you must turn their own magic against them! Hoot hoot!
"I will continue to watch over you… remember that…"
With those final words, the owl turned and flew off into the sunset. Link turned to the large chest in the Sand Goddess' hands and cracked it open, revealing the Silver Gauntlets. The caught the light in just the wrong way, reflecting it straight into Link's own eye. He staggered as he tried to recover his vision, nearly dropping the Gauntlets in the process.
An emanating, warbling tone soon caught his attention, and Link turned to see Koume and Kotake floating there, staring off into the desert. There was no Nabooru being sucked into a portal, so he assumed that she had gotten to the Gerudo Fortress well enough.
"My, my, it would appear that our little friend has turned tail, Kotake," the red sister stated.
"Yes, it would appear that way," Kotake replied. "I was going to enjoy making her our slave…"
"Who said we couldn't?" Koume replied.
"Her sisters would go up in arms against us! Of course we could not!"
"We could if we brainwash the whole lot of them, instead of just the one girl."
There was silence, as Link winced. He'd caused that.
"I love the way you think, sister dearest," Kotake declared giddily, as both witches flew off in the direction of the Gerudo fortress.
Link sighed, playing the Prelude of Light to warp back to the Temple of Time. It was deserted, as usual. He stepped towards the Pedestal of Time and drew the Master Sword, sucking him into the future.
It would be his future, as soon as Ganondorf was dealt with.
I hope I'm writing Koume and Kotake right, because they're both hilariously demented. The Spirit Temple is going to be a two-parter, just because it's really long and I've got a lot of stuff planned for the next half. Don't you worry.
Anyway, finals are next week. After that, I'll be able to churn out more chapters of this.
NOOTTD: I don't think there is anything.
Review Please!