HM: Hello my pointy-eared peoples!
Gin: Yo!
HM: You seem to be in a good mood.
Gin: That's because you're finally updating this freaking story!
HM: Oh haha… right.
Gin: And I think you should mention a little something too.
HM: Right! So, a couple of things. One, yes, I am finally updating this story. Two, I went back and redid the first chapter-
Gin: Again.
HM: -again… I didn't think it really flowed right, so, it's much better than how it was before, with proper spacing and stuff. I'm gonna be doing that with the other chapters to this story too, so give it a look-see and let me know what you think. Oh, and there's an AN after the chapter title, it's letting you guys know a little something. Without further ado, on with the story!
Chapter V: Forest Temple; Twilit Parasite Diababa
AN: So, I'm gonna try something different with this chapter. I'm going to make a chapter playlist. I'll put the song title, artist, and album in bold and in parentheses. Tell me what you think of it and if I should continue doing that.
(Forest Temple - Koji Kondo, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Link
A little tip for you adventurers who plan to explore the inside of a giant tree: bring nose plugs. When we stepped foot into the Forest Temple, the stench of mold, mildew, and all that other stuff you find in the forest, and in dilapidated giant trees, assaulted our nostrils. The circular wooden door rolled back into place, engulfing us in mild darkness. Thankfully, Gin's skin glowed with a faint silver light, which provided enough light for us to see. I had asked him about it once, and he had replied that it was the lotion he used, not that I believed him for a moment, but I let it go.
We walked down a small tunnel in silence, weapons out just in case. We finally reached the end of the tunnel and came upon a large room. A path led to a lighted area with totem-like pillars lining it. At the end of it was a large tree with a hallway carved into it five feet above the ground. There used to be steps leading up to it once upon a time, but they had long since rotted and fell apart, ivy growing along the trunk in their place. "Di immortales," Gin breathed in awe. "Demeter would have a field day in this place, literally."
Crawling along the ivy were Walltula, tiny spider-like insects with a bad attitude. On the ground against the wall of ivy was a crude wooden cage, inside of which was a familiar face. The monkey that had led us to the temple was shaking in fear of the Bokoblin that stood leering at it.
Gin turned his head to look at me and we both nodded. I launched forwards, sword drawn, and Gin stayed back, notching an arrow in his bow. I slashed diagonally across the blue-skinned monster's chest and it staggered back. With a couple more slashes and stabs, it was dead, vanishing in a cloud of black smoke.
I heard something behind me and turned to see a Deku Baba lunge towards me. Just before it reached me, it reared in pain as something penetrated its head from behind. I saw Gin notch another arrow and let it fly into the Baba's cranium. With another screech, the Baba shriveled up and exploded into black smoke.
Another Deku Baba emerged from its underground hiding spot and I cut it in half with my sword. Showing off a bit, I twirled it in intricate patterns and slid it into my sheath.
Gin walked past me, rolling his eyes. "Show off." He muttered.
I smirked in reply and took out my slingshot, making short work of the Walltula crawling on the ivy wall. Gin, in the meantime, brought out a knife and hacked the bars off the wooden cage, releasing the monkey. "I just hope this is isn't gonna be a routine." He said.
"You've got to be kidding me." Gin deadpanned somd time later as he looked at the four monkeys clinging to him.
I coughed to suppress a laugh and he glared at me. Midna, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide her laughter, her cackles echoing in the central room of the temple.
"You guys are terrible." He muttered as he walked forwards, the monkeys trailing him like an entourage. One of the monkeys, the one with the pink flower, took that moment to leap on his head and play with his head wrap.
Midna and I broke down, both of us were rolling on the ground and holding our sides. Gin's face turned a bright red and he tried to shake the monkey off. "Vgeite apó mou na sas chazí prágma!" He yelled.
That only made Midna and I laugh harder. "G-Goddesses, ple-please stop. I-It's too much!" Midna gasped between laughs. I couldn't speak, only nod.
Gin, failing to get the monkey off, huffed and crossed his arms. "I'm not talking to you guys for ten minutes." He said.
Midna giggled and floated over to him in her transparent form. "Awwww, are you pouting wittwe baby woofie?" She cooed with a grin.
Gin turned his head to the side, not looking at her. "I do not pout." He said.
Midna giggled again. "Really? Cause it looks like you're pouting right now." She said.
He didn't answer and just kept going forwards. He made it to the door that led to the now destroyed bridge and opened it, Midna and I following after him.
Once outside, the monkeys leapt onto the rope hanging over the chasm and hung from their feet, gesturing for us to jump after them.
Gin and I looked over the edge of the chasm and gulped. It was a long way down. Gin straightened up and sighed. "Well, if there's an Underworld here, I guess I'll see you there if this goes south." He muttered. He took a few steps back and shook his head. Getting a running start, he leapt over the chasm and grasped the hands of the third monkey.
After swinging back and forth, he leapt to the fourth monkey, then to the ground on the other side. He threw me a thumb's up and I nodded. Deciding on doing the same thing Gin did, I took a running start and grabbed the hands of the first monkey. After a couple of moments of swinging from monkey to monkey, I landed next to Gin.
We both now stood in front of the door that large baboon had gone through. Taking the honors, I opened it and we stepped through.
We entered a large room and once the door closed behind us, wooden bars slid down, locking us in. In front of us were four totem poles surrounding a fifth pole, and on the middle pole was the baboon who had destroyed the bridge with a boomerang before we had gotten the monkeys.
He glared at us and lifted two boomerangs, one in each hand. A dark aura surrounded them and he threw them towards the ceiling above us. The boomerangs cut the stalks of two Baba Serpents and returned to the monkey's hands. It laughed and slapped its butt at us as the Serpents slithered in our direction.
It jumped from pole to pole as we made short work of the Serpents. Gin shot an arrow at it but it batted it away with one of its boomerangs. I took the opportunity to roll into the pole he was standing on and he lost his balance. Gin shot another arrow and, though it was blocked, it hit with enough force to make him fall off the pole face down with his butt in the air.
I slashed and jabbed his butt and he cried in pain, leaping to another pole and throwing both boomerangs at us. Since Gin was the closest, he punched the pole the baboon was standing on and he lost his balance again. This time, both boomerangs hit him and he fell to the ground, dazed.
Once more, I hit his butt with my sword a couple times, and then the baboon jumped to another pole.
This went on a couple more times until after I hit him, he leapt up and jumped forwards, grabbing his butt and yelling. He hopped forward a couple feet till he ran face first into a pole. He fell backwards and something fell off of his head.
On closer examination, I saw that it was some kind of insect that was trying to get back on its feet. I stepped on it and it exploded to black smoke under my boot.
The baboon slowly got up, holding its head. He slowly looked around until his gaze fell on us. He screamed and ran away, jumping on the poles towards a hole in the wall.
"Well, that was anticlimactic." Gin said.
I saw the boomerangs on the ground nearby and went to pick them up. One of them was white and the top looked like a bird's wing while the other was yellow and was jagged.
The white one spun, creating some kind of wind under it, and floated upwards. The yellow one sparked and was in the air in a flash and with a noise like a clap. Suddenly, a gentle feminine voice came from the white boomerang in a whisper. "I am the Fairy of Winds who resides in this boomerang."
Then, a male scratchy voice came from the yellow one. "And I'm the Spirit of Lightning that resides in THIS boomerang!"
"You have freed us from evil, and we now have our true power back."The Fairy said."Please... Take them with you, use them to aid your quest, and may both our powers and our blessings go with you."
"If you focus power in her boomerang before releasing it, you unleash the powers of the wind. If you focus power in mine, you'll unleash the force of lightning, giving your enemies quite a shock! Hehe!"
The voice of the male spirit spoke rapidly and reminded me of whenever the kids were too hyper.
Then, both boomerangs spun around the room, the white boomerang surrounded by a cyclone and the yellow one surrounded by yellow sparks. The yellow one landed in Gin's hand and the white one landed in mine.
"By the way, hers is called the Gale Boomerang while mine is called the Phosphorus Boomerang. Stay safe kiddos! Hehe!"
Midna popped up from my shadow and floated in front of us, a small grin on her lips. "I bet even the monkeys should be satisfied now." She paused in thought. "Alright, let's continue combing the place and see what goodies we can find!" She said, rubbing her hands together. "We already found something good, so let's keep searching in places we haven't looked yet."
"So you're basically telling us to steal from this place." Gin said blandly.
Midna shrugged, "Hey, no one comes here anyways. If we happen to find a few goodies here and there, no one's gonna miss them." She replied, retreating back into my shadow.
I just looked at him and shrugged, then headed to the door. I saw something like a windmill or weather-vane on top. I looked at the boomerang in my hand and then looked back at the windmill. "Maybe..."
As I was looking at the windmill, the boomerang started whistling and a soft breeze ruffled my clothes. Three triangles appeared around the windmill and started rotating around it with their points pointing towards it. I tossed the boomerang and a cyclone formed around it as it flew towards the windmill. The winds produced by the boomerang spun the windmill and the bars rose up a bit.
I raised an eyebrow and tossed it again. The windmill spun again and the bars rose all the way.
Gin
The sound of rattling wood drew my attention from the boomerang I was inspecting. I saw the wooden bars blocking the door rise and Link looking pretty pleased with himself. "Ready to go?" He asked. I hummed and walked past him.
When we went outside, Link pointed to the right, towards a bridge with a windmill on top and that was currently turned sideways. "You reckon we can go that way now?" He questioned.
I shrugged in reply. "Try it."
He held the boomerang ready and a gentle wind spiraled along its length. For a moment, I thought I saw his left eye glow a golden color, but it was gone in the time it took for me to blink, so I ignored it, thinking that it was just a trick of the light. He threw the boomerang at the windmill and the bridge turned so that we could cross it.
Turns out that there were two bridges that led to the top of what appeared to be a massive tree stump. Somehow, another tree was growing out of the middle and tied to one of its branches was (surprise surprise) a cage with a monkey trapped in it.
"This is getting repetitive." I muttered as Link killed the lone Bokoblin guarding the cage.
Once he had killed it, he stared at the cage, trying to figure out how to get it down. I smirked and pulled out my bow, though he didn't notice. He snapped his fingers and took out his boomerang. He aimed it at the cage, but just before he threw it, I shot an arrow at the string holding the cage in the air. It fell with a thud and shattered into many pieces of wood, though the monkey was unharmed.
He looked at me with a pout and I shrugged, stowing my bow away. The monkey jumped up and down, turning and jumping over the bridges in the direction we came.
Midna came out from Link's shadow and crossed her arms. "Well, I guess there are some monkeys you two haven't freed yet!" She said.
"What was your first clue?" I asked her.
She glared at me but continued. "Anyways, at this point, you guys should just save them all and see what you can get for it!" Without another word, she dived back into Link's shadow.
"Yeah, must be nice to be sitting around doing nothing in someone else's shadow." I muttered.
"I heard that wolf-boy!"
"Congratulations, you can hear, would you like a medal?"
"Can both of ya just stop for a bit? For the love of Farore, y'all are worse than an old married couple." Link complained, rubbing his temples with his fingers.
"Say what?!" Midna and I both yelled.
Link sighed and shrugged. "See? Anyways, let's go this way." He said, running to the left over a wide branch that formed a path.
I grumbled under my breath and followed.
The path led to two more windmill bridges and Link used his Gale Boomerang to turn it so we could run across. We reached another door and rolled it out of the way.
"I hate this temple. I hate it, and I hope it burns." I muttered some time later as I shot a Baba Serpent that was hanging from the roof.
"You don't mean that." Link said as he used the Gale Boomerang to open a wooden prison that held the eighth monkey that we had encountered.
"I do." I said. The monkey immediately latched onto my leg and climbed up my body so that it rested on my shoulder.
We backtracked to a large room, where all of the monkeys had gathered on platforms jutting out from the walls around a large chasm. The monkeys traveled up a tree and crossed a branch that hung over the middle of the chasm. Linking hands and feet, they made a monkey chain and started swinging back and forth. The lead monkey, the one with the flower in her hair, beckoned us to jump towards them.
Link backed a few paces and ran forwards. When he got to the end of the platform, he jumped and grabbed hold of the monkey's hands. He swung back and forth for a few moments until he let go, the momentum propelling him to the other side.
He landed with a roll, jumped up, and flashed me a grin. "Come on Gin!" He whooped with a fist pump.
"You're either very brave... or very stupid..." I said.
He just shrugged and grinned.
Taking a deep breath, I backed up, and ran forwards. When I got to the end, I jumped and grabbed onto the monkey's hands. After swinging for awhile, I let go. Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance. I made it a few feet from the platform's edge, and gravity reared its ugly head.
I yelled out as I fell, until I felt strong hands grip my wrists. I looked up and saw Link leaning over the edge of the platform, grabbing onto me tightly. "I got ya." He managed to get out, grunting in exertion.
I breathed out a sigh of relief and situated myself. Thanks to Link, I was able to pull myself up and over the edge, coming to collapse on the ground facedown next to him with a sigh. "I hate this freakin' temple." I groaned.
I felt Link pat my back and let out a shaky laugh. "You gotta lay off the pumpkin soup, man. I think ya've gotten a bit heavier." He teased.
I swatted him from my position and smirked in satisfaction when I heard a small grunt come from him. Slowly, I raised myself up and shook myself off. "Now, onto what we came for." I said as I looked at the door in front of us. A door with the biggest lock I had seen yet.
Reaching into one of my pouches, I fished out the big key we had found a while ago and inserted it into the lock. It fit perfectly and I turned it. The middle portion, where the key was, inserted itself into the lock while the outer portion popped out and spikes appeared behind it. The spikes began to rotate at a fast pace and the padlock fell to the ground with a thud, the chains falling away after it.
Link and I shared a glance with each other and turned our attention back to the door. Steeling ourselves, we opened the door and went in.
/_\
/_\ /_\
We entered into the room and the large doors closed behind us. We stared out at a small lake deep within the tree, waterfalls dotted in various positions. However, the lake was colored a dark purple, and streams of smoke wafted from it. Not to mention the smell. It smelled like burning mildew mixed with tar.
A stump with a bombling stood out in the middle of the lake with a log not too far away with another bombling on it. Link tensed and I saw his gaze focused out on the middle of the lake. I turned my attention towards it and saw a small whirlpool form. The ground rumbled and two of the biggest Deku Baba's I had ever seen sprung out of it. Their heads were of a similar color to the Baba Serpents and they writhed on their stalks.
{Twilit Parasite: Diababa}
I saw red lettering appear in my field of vision, hovering over the monster.
I got my bow and notched an arrow while Link readied his sword.
"Any ideas?" I asked him.
"Hit it hard?" He responded, in question form.
"We're doomed." I said in a deadpan.
I saw Link put his sword away and get out his boomerang. Seeing the bomblings on the stump and the log, I knew what he had in mind. While he was aiming, I shot a few arrows at the heads in an attempt to distract them from what he was doing. I saw the boomerang fly, trap a bombling in a whirlwind, and fly towards the left head's mouth. It ate said bombling and promptly exploded. It writhed as it sank beneath the surface of the lake.
We repeated the same process with the other one and high-fived each other when the right head sank beneath the waters.
Our celebration didn't last long, though. A much bigger rumbling shook the room and something exploded out of the water. It crushed the stump and the log beneath it and sprayed water in all directions. Both of us jumped back right before we got drenched and our jaws went slack as we saw what was in front of us.
It looked like a cross between a worm, plant, and frog. Its wide base sank beneath the lake and it pointed its serpentine head in our direction. The mouth opened in three parts like a plant, revealing needle-like teeth, and a stalk right in the middle bore a baleful yellow eye. It let out a roar and the two giant Baba's were slithering on either side of it. It could've been my imagination, but I could've sworn that they were smirking.
We readied ourselves as the right head launched towards us, mouth open wide. We barely jumped out of the way and I unleashed a volley of arrows, all of which bounced of its thick hide. Suddenly, we heard a very familiar call. Looking up and to the side, we saw the baboon we fought earlier holding a bombling in one hand and a vine in the other.
He jumped and swung back and forth in front of the giant plant-thing, the heads tracking his every movement. I put away my bow, realizing that it wouldn't do me much good here, and pulled out the Phosphorus Boomerang. When I prepared myself to throw it, sparks traveled from the boomerang up my arm, stopping at my shoulder.
It tingled a bit, but I was otherwise unharmed.
My vision tunneled and I saw a transparent purple glyph appear over one of the Baba heads. The glyph was in the eye shape I've grown oh-so-familiar with, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. The glyph turned crimson, and I threw the boomerang. It flew with a speed greater than the Gale Boomerang, and lightning discharged off of it as it flew through the air wildly in a zig-zag pattern.
It was probably my imagination, but I could've sworn that I heard a whoop of joy and manic laughter coming from the boomerang.
It hit the Baba head that was about to launch itself at the baboon and the sound of a thunderclap was heard as a violent discharge of electricity surged through the head. It writhed as if struck by lightning and went still for a few moments, long enough for Link to throw the Gale Boomerang and send a bomb flying at the middle head.
It exploded on impact and it swayed for a moment as the other two heads fell into the water and then fell hard onto the ground in front of us, its eye sticking out of its mouth. Link slashed with his sword and I stabbed with the knives I summoned, making it bleed black blood.
After striking it a few times, it snapped back up again, the Baba heads surfacing again. The middle head aimed and spat out gallons of dark purple liquid that it sprayed from side to side, trying to hit us. We dodged the stream and it was only a matter of doing the same thing over again a couple more times.
The third time we attacked the eye, the middle head thrashed violently, smacking its head around the room. Link had to pull me away to avoid getting squished. Before our eyes, it shriveled up and the eye fell out onto the ground in front of us, where it exploded into black smoke.
The stalk exploded into tiny black particles that floated in the air. They all converged into a point and formed a shape. What looked like a piece of a stone helmet enshrouded in a black aura floated towards us. Link held out his hands and it floated a few inches above them.
Midna popped out of Link's shadow and giggled. "Eeh hee hee! Well done! That's... what I was looking for." She said. Her ponytail turned into a hand and she grabbed the object.
"What's so special about a broken helmet?" I asked.
Midna glared at me like I said something completely stupid. "It's NOT a broken helmet! THAT is a Fused Shadow. It's what that light spirit called dark power... Do you remember what that spirit said? About how you had to match the power of the king of shadows?" She asked somewhat irritably.
Seeing us nod, she continued. "Could it really be so easy?" She asked, more to herself than us, as she held the thing in front of her with a grin. "Is this all there is to it? Eee hee hee!"
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" I asked, crossing my arms, Link nodding next to me.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh calm down! Don't get your leotard in a bunch!" She spat. Before I could retort, she continued. "Anyway, there's a total of three Fused Shadows. I think the other light spirits have the rest..." She trailed off and smirked in my direction. "If you want to know exactly what Fused Shadows ARE... Well, maybe I'll tell you... if you find the other two."
Link opened his mouth to say something, but the imp would have none of it. "I guess you'd better do your best to find them, huh? Eee hee hee!" She turned to the side, away from us. "So let's not waste any more time here when we could be looking for the other two..."
She floated a few feet from us and pointed her finger at the ground, where a neon and black portal formed like a burrow. "I'll get you guys out of here... YOU pick up the Heart Containers that fell out of that thing." She said, floating to the middle of the portal.
"Now wait just a goddesses-damned second! If you-"
"Gin." Link interrupted, grasping my shoulder.
I turned my head towards him and he jerked his head to the side. Giving the imp one last glare, which she responded to by sticking out her tongue, I followed the Hylian in the direction of the now clean lake. "Gin, for now, let's just go with it. I mean, what if we find the kids and Ilia while we help her? Think about it. " He softly said.
I struggled to come up with a counter-argument, but came up with nothing. Sighing in defeat, i hung my head and nodded. The blonde grinned and threw his arm around my shoulders, bringing me into a half hug.
"Alright, alright, don't make it weird." I muttered. He just laughed loudly and squeezed my shoulders.
He led me in the direction of two crystals in the shape of hearts. Picking up one while he picked up the other, they transformed into light that seeped into our bodies. Not only did I feel stronger, but my wounds were healed and I felt reenergized.
I closed my eyes and grinned. "Hey Link, how's about we blow this compost heap?" I asked. When I didn't get a response, I opened my eyes and turned towards him. My eyes widened and I let out a gasp at what I saw. Somehow, a Baba Serpent had survived and had sprung up behind Link, sinking its teeth into his side. The Hylian was pale and his own eyes were wide. "G...in..." He croaked before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed onto the ground.
HM: CLIFFHANGER! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!
Gin: *rubs ear* So loud…
HM: Anyways, what did you guys think? I hope I did justice to Link's accent, he is a country boy after all. And if you guys are a bit confused to anything in the story, just remember that I'm redoing chapters I-IV so that it makes a bit more sense. I hope you guys like it! Let me know what you think. Review, PM, or mail me a letter, I wanna know!
See you guys next time! Ja ne!