Chapter 20: Hunting the Molduga

The party recovered themselves from their encounter with the figure, who was apparently named Ghirahim. "Ghirahim. I heard that name before." Zhago said. "Some Yiga Clan members said his name in reference to him being their leader."

"When I was speaking with Lady Riju in Gerudo Town, she said that the Yiga have created a stronghold in a place called the Arbiter's Grounds." Uten looked at Tipa. "I guess that evens out, since he wants to meet with Tipa, or whatever is inside of Tipa." The party walked around the Bazaar. The marketplace was closed because of the recent happening. Some Gerudo soldiers ran into the Bazaar and set up a crime scene. They asked the remaining people about what happened to the dead Gerudo on the floor. One of the Gerudo soldiers turned around and looked at the party.

"You must be Uten. Riju sent us here to check on the commotion that was reported here, and to also give you the tracking frequency for the Molduga." The Gerudo handed Uten a small metallic chip. "Plug that into the Sheikah Slate in your possession and it should be able to track down the Molduga you're looking for."

"Thank you." Uten said. She handed the chip to Poump. Poump plugged it into the Slate. He clicked on the screen for a bit and eventually saw the map pop up. The Gerudo Region wasn't mapped out, but it did show Poump's location, and he saw a small icon to the North of where they were. He tapped on the small icon and then the Sheikah Slate started beeping slowly.

"Beep….Beep….Beep…"

"It looks like we have to follow this beeping sound." Poump said.

"Yes, we need to follow it. Let's go to Gerudo Town for a moment." Uten said. She refilled her water suit with the body of water at the Bazaar and then she got onto her Sand Seal. The party followed behind her. They made it in front of Gerudo Town. Uten pointed out a blue Shrine next to the town walls.

"Oh, that's smart." Poump said. "We will be able to teleport here again when we need to." He walked up to Shrine and registered it with his Sheikah Slate.

"Great, now let's discuss the plan on fighting the Molduga." Uten said. The party huddled around her. "There is a ruins site North of here where the Molduga likes traversing around. Riju told me that Moldugas are attracted to vibrations on the ground. First up, Tipa will turn into a Lynel tonight. Riju said the Molduga could swallow us whole, but if we have Tipa turn into a Lynel while she's inside of the Molduga's stomach, then that can give us a big advantage. Second, Zhago will shoot a bomb arrow at the sand to attract the Molduga. Third, the rest of us will have our Sand Seals positioned off to the side so that way once the Molduga arrives, we can chase it down. With Tipa killing the Molduga from the inside as a Lynel and us attacking it from above, we should be able to kill it quickly."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's do it." Zhago said. The party steered their Sand Seals towards the beeping sound. The beeping sound became more frequent.

"Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep." They saw a ruins site.

"Now we wait." Uten said. The party set themselves up around the ruins. The sun started to set, and Tipa walked out onto the open sand. The party noticed the sand around the area shifting a lot, but nothing was happening too much. Zhago knocked the bomb arrow and fired it at the sand a few yards away from Tipa. Tipa noticed the movement on the sand starting to move faster. The moon started rising and then she felt herself become bigger and bigger. She turned into a Lynel and roared. The moving sand swam up to her quickly. A large gaping whale-like mouth came out of the sand and swallowed the Lynel whole. From afar, the party saw the large Molduga leap entirely out of the sand. It was magnificent. It went back into the sand and started swimming away through the sand. Uten, Zhago, and Poump got onto their Sand Seals and chased after the Molduga.

Inside of the Molduga's mouth, the Lynel closed its eyes since there was so much sand pouring into the mouth. Slowly and slowly the sand went out of the Molduga's mouth since it blew the sand out with it's mouth very slowly. The Lynel looked around the mouth now that it was clearer and brought out it's weapons. It started slicing at the tongue and then the roof of the Molduga's mouth with its weapons. The Molduga jumped at the pain and caused the Lynel to bump into the roof of its mouth. The Lynel's horns caused some pain to the Molduga, but the Lynel also got a little bit dazed from being hit in the head.

Outside, the party followed the Molduga's moving sand mound. They saw its spine come out of the sand a few times. Poump decided to use his Clawshot on the spine when he got the chance. He aimed at the spine and the Clawshot fired and pulled him onto the back of the Molduga's spine. He still had his shield he was surfing on, but the Sand Seal he had decided to swim away. Zhago tried firing a bomb arrow at the exposed spine, but accidentally hit Poump in the process. Poump rolled on the sand which put the fire out, but he was pretty knocked out. Uten tried swooping Poump up off the floor but instead she sort of dragged him along. Poump woke up and grabbed onto the shield that Uten was using.

Inside of the Molduga, the Lynel recovered it's senses and started breathing fire through the Molduga's throat. This caused the Molduga's tail to fly out of the sand and create a huge wave of sand that fell onto the party members. Uten's water outfit got a little sand inside of it, which caused her to cough uncontrollably. She still held onto her Sand Seal, but she wasn't feeling good. Uten ordered Zhago to follow her. She positioned the Sand Seals just to the left of the Molduga's path. The Lynel inside of the Molduga decided to climb through the Molduga's throat and into its stomach. There were a bunch of rusty treasure chests inside of it's stomach, but the Lynel didn't care about those. It swung its weapons around, causing one of its inner organs to start bleeding. The Molduga's blood was very harmful and started pooling around the stomach. The stomach acids started damaging the Lynel, but it kept on slicing away.

Zhago and Uten with Poump in tow noticed the Molduga was swimming towards a Mesa of some kind. The Mesa got closer and closer until they made it there. The Molduga's tail flipped out of the sand and launched the three and their two Sand Seals into the air. They were in freefall. Apparently the Mesa had an open whole above it that lead to a large sand bed area within the Mesa. They pulled out their paragliders and landed safely on the floor. The Molduga surfaced out of the sand, let out a holler, and then fell over, limp. Uten saw a small Molduga and another large Molduga approach the corpse of the dead Molduga.

"AHK! AHK!" The small Molduga said when it saw the dead Molduga's body. Uten saw movement coming from inside of the Molduga's body. The Lynel's weapon cut the stomach open from inside and roared victoriously. It looked at the party members and without hesitation charged right at them. They rolled out the way from the Lynel's attack.

"Uten, Poump! Gather the Molduga Guts! I can take this thing!" Zhago exclaimed. He brandished his katana and prepared to fight the Lynel.

Uten and Poump ran up to the Molduga's open stomach. "Scan for the Molduga Guts with the Sheikah Slate!" Uten said.

"Right!" Poump brought the Slate out and scanned the inside of the Molduga. He scanned a few organs and the Slate classified them as Molduga Guts. "These ones!"

"Got it!" Uten took Poump's sword and sliced the guts out and put them in a bag. She gathered about 4 Molduga Guts before her bag was full.

The Lynel raised its weapon and swiped at Zhago. Zhago dodged the attack, but the Lynel's shield slapped him out of the air. The Lynel ran after Zhago while he was rolling on the floor and swung at him with its weapon, causing Zhago to hit the wall really hard.

"I really need to heal." Poump drank up a health potion and noticed Zhago on the floor at the other side of the area. "Hey Zhago, catch!" Poump threw another health potion right at Zhago, but it landed in the sand just many yards away.

"Thanks." Zhago said inaudibly while regaining his breaths. The Lynel's attention was diverted to Poump. Poump ran out to try and grab the health potion but the Lynel smacked him to the side with its shield away from the health potion. The Lynel chased after Poump, but this is what he wanted. Zhago crawled after the health potion in the sand, but he had competition. The small Molduga crawled up to the health potion and scooped it up between its lips. "Give me that." Zhago said with little energy to the small Molduga. The small Molduga dismissed him and turned around, slapping him in the stomach. Zhago curled up into a fetal position from the immense pain he suffered.

Uten noticed the small Molduga had the health potion in its mouth. She took her spear and tried poking the potion out of its mouth. The small Molduga was really adamant on keeping the potion for itself. It crawled towards the other big Molduga. "AURH!" The big Molduga said to the small Molduga.

"AHK!" The small Molduga spit the health potion out of its mouth to Uten. She caught it off the ground. She ran up to Zhago and force fed him the potion. He felt better after that.

"Let's get out of here." Uten said.

"Good idea." Zhago looked at Poump who was currently running away from the Lynel.

"CLIMB!" Poump pulled out his clawshot and latched onto a piece of vegetation on the side of the wall. He started climbing up the side of the wall hurriedly. Zhago brought out some climbing gloves and started scaling up the wall with Uten on his back. The Lynel looked at the party members climbing the wall. It punched the wall causing them to lose their grip a little bit, but they kept on climbing. The Lynel put its weapons on its back and started digging its fingers into the wall. It positioned its hooves into a walking position on the wall and started scaling the wall. Poump looked down at the Lynel climbing up at them. "WHOA!" He exclaimed. Poump tried climbing faster and faster but the Lynel caught up to Poump and grabbed his leg. The Lynel slammed Poump straight back into the sand below. Poump regained his vision after the impact. "My scrotums." He faintly said.

Zhago kept on climbing with Uten on his back but he saw the Lynel starting to climb sideways towards them. They were almost at the top of the Mesa. Zhago stopped climbing and awaited the Lynel. Uten panicked. Zhago pressed his feet onto the Lynel's face and springboarded himself up the wall. He teleported to the top and dropped Uten off. "Wait here." Zhago dove off of the side straight onto the Lynel. The Lynel grabbed Zhago and slammed him into the wall, causing some of the rocky wall to fall down towards Poump. Poump noticed the rocks falling and rolled away from them. Zhago pulled out a bomb, laid it on the Lynel, and teleported away from the Lynel. The bomb went off, causing the Lynel to collapse next to Poump. Poump brought out his sword and poked at the large Molduga's tail which had its back turned to them. The large Molduga flinched at the poke and waved its tail up, vaulting Poump sky high. He looked around him. He saw what looked like an endless desert, and to the other side he saw the cliffs where Gerudo Valley was. He free fell out of the sky and released his paraglider and safely landed on the outside of the Mesa. Zhago and Uten also paraglided down, and their Sand Seals swam out from under the sand to join them.

The Lynel swiftly climbed up the inside wall of the Mesa and made it to the top. It looked at the party with malicious intent. "WE MUST KILL THEM!" The malicious voice said inside of Tipa's head.

"No, we can't." Tipa replied to the malice within her.

"WE ONLY WANT BLOODLUST. CHAOS. WE MUST SLAY THEM." The malice was getting impatient. Tipa shook her head. "GO!" As if by instinct, Tipa fell forward towards the party.

"Fucking go!" Poump said to the others. Zhago and Uten got onto their Sand Seals and Poump clawshotted onto the back of Uten's shield. They rode forward with great hurry. The Lynel was chasing them across the desert. They came across what looked like a large fish skeleton, and they saw some light underneath it. The party went up to it and saw a monster encampment inside of it. They rode through the monster encampment. They passed by some Bokoblins and Lizalfos that were roasting some meat, and they noticed them sledding through. One Bokoblin on top of a small wooden structure blew into a horn, which caused all of the monsters in the encampment to look at the party sledding through with the Lynel behind them. The Lizalfos started chasing after them, but the Lynel slapped them to the side. The party made it to the other side of the monster encampment, where the monsters weren't able to see any of them. However they saw another problem. They saw Tipa the Lynel challenging another Lynel to a fight. Both of the Lynel's started punching each other, but Tipa the Lynel had stronger attacks. She knocked out the other Lynel with a right hook to the face. The monsters started celebrating at the Lynel's victory.

"Well that's something, but we need to get her out of here now!" Uten said.

"The Ocarina, should we play a song for them?" Poump said.

"No, Riju doesn't want us escorting them without the Divine Beast." Uten replied.

"Divine Beast?! When was that a thing?!" Poump replied.

"I'll explain later. We just need to get Tipa out of here and stall her out in the desert until morning." Uten said.

"Alright." Poump walked into the monster colony and made a loud noise. "Over here!" The monster all looked at him and started to draw their bows on him. The Lynel chased right after Poump. "Shit shit shit shit!" Poump grabbed onto Uten's shield and they rode across the desert away from the monster encampment. The Lynel chased them in the moonlight for a while. They kept on riding, no matter how tired they were. It took a long time, but with their will power, the sun rose again. The Lynel turned back into Tipa. Zhago carried Tipa on his back and the team sled forward towards the cliffs where Gerudo Valley was.

They arrived at the Stable. "Wowie! You guys actually kept two of your Sand Seals!" The Stable hand said excitedly.

"Yeah, we're efficient like that." Uten said, feeling exhausted but still in a hurry. "Give us our horses, we need to go through Gerudo Valley!"

"You want to try and go through that warzone again?!" The stable hand replied.

"We did it before, we'll do it again." Uten said.

"Alright then, here are your horses." The stable hand gave them their horses. The team mounted up. "Open the door!" Someone standing next to a crank started to crank the door open. "Good luck!" The team rode their horses through the door and back into Gerudo Valley.

Everything seemed fine at first, but then a few Guardians rushed out from behind the corner of some large rocks. They targeted the team, but a few Gerudo warriors ran right up to the Guardians and slashed at their legs, causing them to be stationary. The Guardians blasted their lasers, which some of the Gerudos blocked but a few others got hit and fell to the floor. The team kept on riding forward through the fight. Arrows flew from a platoon of Hylian soldiers towards a group of Yiga footsoldiers. Zhago quickly swiped his sword at a few Yiga assassins, killing them. A Guardian was shooting at the Yiga as well with its laser, but then a Yiga planted a device into the Guardian which caused it to start chasing the party. The Guardian pointed its laser at each of them periodically, deciding to see which one it wanted to blast to smithereens. A Hylian soldier rode up beside them and fired a blue arrow at the Guardian's eye, killing it instantly. Zhago knew that was an ancient arrow. He never got the chance to fire one before, but didn't want to stop to stack up on supplies since it was an active battlefield. Two more Guardians started chasing them, and the Hylian soldier was shot off of his horse by the Guardian. The team rode across the wooden bridge, with the Guardians still in pursuit. Zhago pulled out a bomb arrow and shot at the wooden bridge, causing it to break down the middle. One of the Guardians pushed the bridge to it's breaking point, causing the bridge to break and crumble into the ravine, with the Guardian falling down as well. The other Guardian stayed on the other side of the bridge, looked at the team for a bit, and then walked back towards the battlefield.

"That was intense." Zhago said. "I am so tired right now."

"Me too, but we have to keep pushing towards Zora's Domain." Uten said. The party rode across the rest of the wooden bridges and made it next to the Great Plateau. All of a sudden they heard something.

"HEEEEEEEYYYYY!" The mailman in his short shorts came running up to the party. They stopped their horses. "I have a few letters addressed to the lot of you!" The mailman handed the party two letters. "That's it for now, see ya later!" The mailman ran off into the field towards Hyrule Castle.

"We will look at these letters later. For now we need to go to Zora's Domain." Uten's outfit was sand ridden, but still functioning. It continued pumping water into her, making her feel more energetic than the rest of the party. Their horses passed the Great Plateau, and then a few stables as well. They arrived at the Lanayru Wetlands and made it to the river that lead to Zora's Domain. "I'll meet you guys there." Uten said to the party. She dove immediately into the river and swam straight for Zora's Domain.

Zhago, Poump, and Tipa looked at each other. "I guess we need to hike through the mountains then." Zhago said. They rode up to the beginning of the pathway that leads to Zora's Domain and dismounted their horses since the pathway didn't allow them to ride their horses.

Uten swam through the river and arrived at Zora's Domain. She swiftly swam for the medical facility where Dorephan was being taken care of. She entered the building. "Hold still." The lasers scanned her and she equipped the mask that was dispensed to her. She went into the medical room with the bag of Molduga Guts. Sidon got up.

"By Jabbu Jabbu you did it! Hopefully you made it in time." Sidon said. Uten offered the Molduga Guts to the Hylian researchers.

"Thank you for retrieving them. With these, the operation will be successful. You can rest now." One of the Hylian researchers said to Uten.

Uten gave a sigh of relief knowing that King Dorephan will be alright. She walked out of the medical facility and swam back up one of the waterfalls to Zora's Domain. She met up with Dento. "Ahh! My design worked! You're alive and well!" Dento said feeling relieved.

Uten gave Dento the suit. "You should make it work better around the sand. Some of it got inside and made me nauseous."

"Thank you for the advice, Uten. I will test around that design for future versions." Dento took the suit and set it up on an armor stand.

"By the way, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." Uten said. "About the 'runt of the family' speech you gave me."

"Oh it was never a big deal to me. I'm just glad you're alive and well." Dento started working on a weapon and Uten walked up to a water pool in the room. She dunked herself into the cool water. She became relaxed with the soothing sensation of water overcoming her skin on all sides. To a Zora, this is exactly what heaven feels like.

2 hours later, Zhago, Poump, and Tipa arrived at Zora's Domain. They all hadn't slept in a day, and also came back from the desert escapades extremely tired and weary. They dragged themselves to an area in the Domain with a sign that said 'SEABED INN'. "Three beds, please." Zhago said, feeling really tired.

"That will be 60 rupees, please." The Zora behind the counter said.

"Here." Zhago handed the Zora 60 rupees and immediately passed out on the bed. Tipa also put herself to sleep. Poump sat on his bed for a bit and then got off of it to look around the Domain. He walked around the place, finding its elaborate architecture to be exquisite. Just being in Zora's Domain was soothing in it of itself. He walked around a bit and noticed a blue Shrine in an area underneath a large set of stairs. He walked up to it and registered it, although he was curious about something else. He noticed that every Shrine he's been to has a lift of some kind. He remembered the lift they used to go down to the basement of the citadel. He walked up to the lift and it lowered down slowly.

The lift took him down into a rather mysterious looking place. The walls seemed metallic, made of a metal that he didn't recognize. He looked ahead of him and saw a slope with water flowing down, and a bunch of boulders rolling down the slope. There were apparently a few tubes on the ceiling that seemed to be jetting the boulders out onto the slope. He looked down and saw what looked like an endless pit, although he was able to make out the faint sound of boulders possibly falling into some tubes down below. The lift stopped and allowed him to walk forward. He walked forward a little bit, and then stopped. "Eh, no point to it." Poump walked back onto the lift and it sent him upwards back to Zora's Domain.

Once Poump made it back to Zora's Domain, he went back to the Inn. He looked through the party's belongings and found the two letters.

The first letter was from Queen Zelda.

"Thank you very much squad, for dealing with the monster colony in the Akkala Region. I am really happy that you found success in dealing with two of them so far. Attached to this letter is a wallet with 10,000 rupees. Once you're finished dealing with the Gerudo Desert monster colony, you will need to deliver them on a boat that has been built in Lurelin Village. For now though, take a moment to relax. If you have more questions, speak to Lady Riju in Gerudo Town. Signed, Zelda."

The second letter didn't seem to be addressed by a clear name.

"Once again, I thank you for dealing with Aghanim. Anyways, the Mask Festival is going to happen at Castle Town in 3 days, and I've been investigating a crime that seems to be linked to a few of these masks. If you can, I'd like you to stop by to help me with this mission. Sincerely, The Guardian."

Poump put the letters in the bags as well as the 10,000 rupees and then he fell asleep.