A/N:ok here's the full version of Chapter 5, and again I'm sorry it took so long but I had a lot to do lately, things are starting to winde down though so hopefully I'll get the next chapter up soon. Please review because they do help me write, and if you have any requests of side chapters, please let me know :D
"You have got to be kidding me!" Misty cried as she walked to the edge of the platform they were on. "Tell me I did not climb all this way, avoiding being fed on by those red jumping spider things and being smushed by those big rolling rocks for this!" She held her arms out wide to the big empty cavern where the Goron's used to live.
Link sighed as he stayed back from the edge some, running his hands over his face in frustration. Misty wasn't as fit as he, but even Link had to admit that coming up the mountain had been more of a challenge than what he cared for, and it turned out they had done it for nothing.
"Hey." Misty called back, and when Link removed his hands from his face to look at her, he noticed she was leaning over the side to gaze down at one of the lower levels of the cavern.
"What's that little rolling thingy?" She asked pointing down with one index finger, and her hand seemed to move with what ever it was that she was looking at.
Walking over beside her and looking down, Link couldn't help but grin and bite back laughter.
"That." He began, "Would be a Goron."
"Uh huh." Misty said as Link looked around below them. The Goron was rolling around, and from past experience, Link knew it wasn't just about to stop on command. There was a stretch of wood that stuck out over the open cavern right in front of him, and Link carefully walked halfway out onto it. Standing to one side, he watched the rolling Goron, judging its movements.
Misty gave him a questioning look and walked to the edge of the plank, stopping with her hands on her hips.
"Link, what are you doing?"
Link ignored the question as the Goron drew nearer, suddenly pulling out a bomb and dropping it right in front of the moving Goron, all with a straight face.
"Oh my God!" Misty shrieked and covered her eyes. There was an explosion, followed by Link's snickers as Misty uncovered her face. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but then another male voice ran through the cavern.
"How could you do this to me? You, you're Ganondorf's servant! Hear my name and tremble! I am Link! Hero of the Goron's!"
At this it was Misty's turn to bite back laughter as she slapped her hands over her mouth. Glaring at her, Link stepped off the wooden plank and fell the short distance to the next level in front of the Goron, who uncurled himself and stood up at Link's protests that he did not work for Ganondorf, and the declaration of his name.
"What?" The Goron named Link said. "Your name is also Link? Then you must be the legendary Dodongo Buster and Hero Link! My dad is Darunia…Do you remember him?" At the nod of Link's head he continued. "Dad named me Link after you because you're so brave! It's a cool name! I really like it! Link, you're a hero to us Goron's! I'm so glad to meet you! Please give me your autograph! Sigh it: To my friend, Link of the Gorons." At the loud giggles of Misty, Link the Goron looked up at her for a moment, blinked a couple times, and then looked back down at Link.
"Oh….I guess it's not a good time to ask you for this….Please help everyone! My dad, Darunia, went to the Fire Temple, a dragon is inside! If we don't hurry up, even my dad will be eaten by the dragon! B-b-b-boooohooooo!" The little Goron began crying, and Link looked up to ask Misty what he should do, only to find her gone. Panic started to waft through him; he wasn't used to dealing with these types of things. Just when he was starting to get desperate, he felt a gentle touch on his arm. Looking down he was relieved to see Misty, who must have taken the stairs down to their level. She tapped lightly on his shoulder and he bent his head down for her to whisper in his ear.
"You'd better try to calm him down if you can….maybe he will calm down if you talk to him."
Giving his head one nod, Link looked back up to Link and asked the first question that came to mind. "What dragon?"
The Goron brushed away a couple tears and even though he was still shaking, he managed to speak. "A long time ago there was an evil dragon named Volvagia living in this mountain. That dragon was very scary! He ate Gorons! Using a huge hammer, the hero of the Gorons…Booom! Destroyed it just like that. This is a myth from long ago, but it's true! I know because my dad is a descendant of the hero!" With that said the little Goron went right back to crying.
Sighing some Link looked back down at Misty, who patted his arm and moved to stand in between them, speaking to Goron Link in a soft and gentle voice human Link had never heard before.
"And what of the others?"
"Everyone was taken to the Fire Temple" He began again through his sniffs, "While my dad was out…Ganondorf's followers came and took them all away. All of them will be eaten by Volvagia! Dad said that Ganondorf has revived Volvagia, as a warning to those who might oppose him; Ganondorf is going to feed them all to Volvagia! Dad went to the Fire Temple all by himself to try and save everyone. Please help Link! I'll give you this heat-resistant tunic and I'll open the shop so one can be made for her too."
A rumbling sounded throughout the cavern and Link could see the door to Darunia's room and the shop open up. Taking the tunic from the Goron Link, both human Link and Misty walked past him and along the wide platform to a set of stairs that brought them to the ground floor. They made their way into the shop in silence, where a single Goron stood behind the counter looking bored.
"Link wants you to make a heat-resistant outfit for her." Link said pointing to Misty.
At these words the Goron perked up and nodded his head vigorously.
"Yes yes yes, come right this way." The Goron said and took Misty by the hand, leading her off to a side room. Left behind, Link sighed pulling off his green tunic and hat. Pulling the red tunic and hat on, he replaced all his weapons where they belonged and held out his hands.
"Well I'm ready."
Navi giggled as she flew back under his hat, calling out to him as she did so.
"You're going to have to wait awhile for Misty"
And so he did.
What seemed like hours later, the Goron finally came back into the shop, clapping his hands in excitement.
"Her outfit is all done, she looks very lovely!"
Link had to silently agree as Misty stepped into view. She was once again in a pair of shorts that went down to mid thigh, though this time her boots only came up to the bottom of her knees. Her shirt was more like a jacket then anything. It had a high collar and the bottom fell all the way to the floor. The top front of it though was cut into a low v-shape, and the bottom was cut down in front starting at the base of her ribs so that she had plenty of movement. Of course, again it was all in the same red as his tunic.
Link eyed her for one more moment, gave a smile and then turned towards the door of the shop.
"Alright then let's get going." He said, taking one last look at Misty before walking out.
Misty smiled brightly at his retreating back, turning she gave the shop owner a big hug, and then ran after him.
The two tuned left once exiting the shop and made their way towards Darunia's room. Walking towards the large monkey looking statue that stood at the back of the room, Link stopped and put his hands onto his hips. Before he could say anything though, Misty pointed out something from her position to the side.
"Hey I think I see something past this statue."
Leaning over Link looked at the small hole in the corner of the statue and the wall. Frowning, he walked over to the statue, moved his hands over it until he got a grip and pulled. The statue moved after a couple moments, and after a small nod of congratulations, the two walked though the new doorway, and into what Misty thought would have to have been hell on earth.
They had entered into Death Mountain Crater, the temperature inside being hot enough to bring a slight sheen of sweat to their bodies even with the heat resistant tunics. To the right of them a suspended bridge made a path to another ledge, but Link moved to the left, where a now half broken bridge hung.
"You're serious?" Misty asked coming up next to him at the ledge.
"Yep." Link answered then pointed above the still intact part of the bridge. "Look we can hookshot onto that, and besides I can see the pedestal that marks a temple on the other side of this bridge."
"Fine." Misty said as Link wrapped an arm around her, wrapping both her arms around him in turn.
Link pulled out the hookshot, and before she knew it, they were on the other side. As Link put the weapon away, Misty began to walk across the bridge, only to be stopped by a figure that landed on the other end of the bridge.
Sheik began to walk forward, as per usual with a little speech.
"It is something that grows over time….a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes ever stronger over time. The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power, and through it, you will know which way to go. This song is dedicated to the power of the heart….Listen to the Bolero of Fire."
With that Sheik played the first notes of the song, with Link joining in soon after. The sweet melody drifted off the volcanoes walls, and the thoughts of Misty's two dearest friends clouded her mind for awhile. She began to wonder why she was here, why she was even bothering to help. All she had to do was look over at Link to remember why, and when Sheik began speaking again, her mind was back on the task at hand.
"Link, I'll see you again…"
Link began walking towards Sheik, but a great burst of fire came up between them. Sheik backed away, used a deku nut, and vanished.
Link sighed and shook his head as the fire died down, and then walked down the rest of the bridge, moving left and through a large stone archway. When Misty followed after him, all she saw was a stone platform with a ladder leading down.
"The temple must be down there, it's a long way down so watch your step." Link said as he swung himself down the ladder. Misty moved carefully as instructed, and after what seemed like forever, hit the bottom floor. Turning around, both entered the Fire Temple together.
The first thing they came to was a large staircase, three large statues at the top, a door to the left of the statues, and a pile of blocks to the right.
"Let's go." Link said and moved towards the stairs. Misty began to follow, but a warning bell rang in her head, and she lunged for his arm, pulling back.
"Link wait!" She said, and just then flames shot up from the bottom step. Link stared at them for a moment before looking down at Misty.
"How did you know?" he asked, not bothering to mention anything about the fact that she had just saved him from getting a serious burn.
"I don't know, something just told me."
Link regarded her for a moment longer before he climbed up the stones made for a railing and jumped the fire, making his way up to the door.
"There're bars across it." He called out, than mumbled under his breath.
Misty looked around the area, trying to figure out how to get through the door, and then her eyes fell onto the statues. They looked like faces with their mouths open, and one had a fire burning in his mouth. Eyes falling back down to the fire that roared in front of the steps when she drew near.
As Link watched, Misty climbed the stone railing and stood in the center of the platform. She took one step back, grabbed something out of her pocket, brought her arm up and around, and when whatever was in her hand hit the ground, fire erupted around her. The shield of fire moved out and away from her, lighting the statues and the torches they hadn't seen on the stone railing, while behind him, the door opened.
"How did you do that?" Link demanded as Misty moved towards him. She in turn simply shrugged her shoulders, opening the door into the next room, forcing Link to follow. As soon as they entered, a booming, familiar voice greeted them.
"Who's there? Is that you Link?"
"Yes Darunia it is I." Link called back to the large Goron on the other side of the room.
"Oh, it really is Link!" Darunia continued. "You've grown so big since I last saw you! I want to have a man-to-man talk with you, but now's not the time. Ganondorf is causing trouble on Death Mountain again! He has revived the evil ancient dragon Volvagia! On top of that, he is going to feed my people to that evil dragon as a warning to other races that might resist him. If that fire-breathing dragon escapes from the mountain all of Hyrule will become a burning wasteland! I will go on ahead to try and seal up the evil dragon. I'm concerned though, because I don't have the legendary hammer…but I have no choice. Link…I'm asking you to do this as my sworn brother. While I'm trying to deal with the dragon, please save my people! The prisoners cells are in the opposite direction. I'm counting on you Link!"
With that Darunia entered into the boss room, leaving Misty and Link just standing there.
"Great." Link said, "We always have to do the rescue missions first, and find a way to get to the boss door"
Link just watched in an amazed silence, shaking his head as his eyes followed Misty running around down below. They had entered a large room with walls created a large maze, and had gone around without finding the key to unlock the door that was currently behind Link. He had stood there talking to Navi when Misty had suddenly grabbed his arm and asked for his bombs and hookshot. Since they had nothing better to do he had handed them over without another thought. There had been an explosion, and that was when he just stood there, watching her. She had disappeared behind a wall, and then five minutes later a Goron had come into view, shortly followed by Misty, who was now jumping from the top of the last wall over to the platform he was on.
"Found the key!" Misty said a little breathlessly as she held out the silver key.
"I don't even want to know how you found it." Link answered laughing as he took it from her, unlocked the door, and pushed away the chains.
The next room they entered into curved around to the left. To the right was a higher area where a door was located, and a lower area to the left with a gate surrounding it with another door and a large blue button. The whole floor was completely covered in lava, the only way to move throughout the room were chain platforms that fell from the ceiling.
Link was the first to jump from the entrance platform, and then turned around to make sure Misty was alright following. Moving to the second chain platform, one that had a pillar with a torch on either side of it, Link stopped and looked around. The door on the right had strong iron bars locking it, so he turned to face the lower one to the left. There was another stone platform above it with a large crate and two smaller boxes on it. Looking over to Misty, Link smiled and held his arm out to her, while he pulled out the hookshot with the other.
Misty simply shook her head and moved to him, wrapping her arms around him as he held her, aiming the hookshot at the crate. Latching onto it they were pulled through the air, landing onto the platform and then dropping down onto the ground. Both moved through the door, and Misty stopped dead.
Again there were only two doors, one to the far right, and the other to the far left. The problem she had was that the only way to get to the doors was along a very narrow path of rock that lead from their door to the center of the room and then branched off, with nothing but a long drop back down to the room to the right of the entrance. The walls were the dark red and black stone of a volcano, and the breeze that swept up from below was hot.
'That looks like a twenty foot drop if not more.' She thought to herself as she turned back the way they had come, only to find that the door was closed by strong iron bars.
"Just be careful." Link said as he walked out onto the path.
"Easy for you to say." Misty answered, but followed after him anyway. She walked with one foot in front of the other, arms out to the side to keep her balance, moving slowly and swallowing every time she could hear rocks break away from the path under her feet. She moved as carefully as she could out to the center where the paths branched off, but when she made the turn to go down the left path, her foot came too close to the edge, the rocks crumbled away from under her foot.
"Link!" She screamed, but she was already falling. Before she fell from sight, she saw Link turn around with a look of what she thought was fear in his eyes.
As she watched the pathway fall away, she closed her eyes and prayed to whatever being ruled over Hyrule that they would let her have a quick death, or even send her back home to her own time before she hit the ground. Even with the fear of what would come, mixed with the wind whistling past her ears, she managed to open her eyes again to face what was to come, and her mouth dropped open as strong arms wrapped around her.
"Hang on tight and don't let go!" Link commanded as he slipped one arm around her waist, the other moving to protect her head.
Misty did as she was told, still in shock that he had jumped from the path to come after her.
The two of them fell through the air, and just before they hit the ground, Link twisted in the air so that he got the full force of the impact. They rolled along the bridge that was suspended above another pool of lava, finally coming to a stop a few moments later. Staying where she was for a moment with her eyes closed, Misty took a metal survey of herself to see if she was hurt or not. When nothing screamed pain, she gently pushed herself up on Link, looking down at him, words not even coming to her lips as she looked at him. Link in turn just groaned a bit before opening his eyes, smiling as he pushed himself up on his elbows, eyes meeting Misty's.
"Are you alright?" He asked gently.
Misty could only give her head a small nod, blushing faintly when she realized how close she was to him. A wave of relief washed over Link at her nod, and he sat up a little closer to her, one hand holding him up, the other going to rest on her hip. Their faces were very close together, and Misty had the sudden erg to just lean in a bit more to close the gape between their lips. Just when she was about to move, a small ball of light came in between them, Navi's voice coming out in an almost shriek.
"Are you two alright!?! One moment you were both behind me, and then the next thing I know I see Link jumping off the path!"
As Link told the fairy what had happened and reassure her that they were alright, Misty jumped back up on her feet and began moving around to collect the arrows that had fallen from her quiver during her fall. Not all of them had made it, but there was still a large enough number to use until she found some more. Once everything was back in place, the two once again made their up through the temple.
Misty had to bit her tongue to keep from screaming as the air rushed past her. It wasn't bad enough that she had fallen a long way once already, but they were doing it again.
They had found a large pillar in one room, and after they had climbed on top, Link had struck down with the megaton hammer they had found, and the pillar had dropped from under their feet. Now they were falling again, Misty clinging to Link's neck as he held her bridle style.
Soon enough there was a large bang as the pillar stuck into something, and then a thud and shiver as Link's feet hit the ground, his legs and body absorbing the impact for the two of them.
Opening her eyes as he set her back on her feet, Misty realized they were in the room where they had first met Darunia, the pillar landing so that they now had access to the boss room.
"Awesome." She said as Link laughed and both jumped to the boss door. Link unlocked it with the big key they had found and pushed away the chains as he opened the door, both walking in together.
There was a gigantic stone dais in the center of a giant lake of lava, small circular pits spotting it. There was another stone platform between were they stood and the main arena.
"Let me go first." Link said jumping to the platform and then to the large dais.
When nothing happened Misty moved to follow him, but then the ground began to shake as if the volcano was going to erupt, and the platform between them sunk into the lava. Link turned around, but when one of the pits behind him began to erupt, he turned back around to watch as a huge serpent like dragon flew out of the pit and into the air. Volvagia circled around the dais, roaring, and shot a line of flame just past Link's head before diving back into the pit of lava.
"Link, when she comes back out hit her with the hammer and then with your sword!" Misty yelled out to him, going down to one knee and knocking an arrow.
Link didn't even ask how she knew that too. As soon as Volvagia exited another pit, sitting there for a moment resting her arms on the stone, Link ran over and smashed her head with the hammer. Letting out a roar she collapsed to the ground, and Link struck her with his sword. Again she went under, and then came out of another pit, but this time she rose all the way into the air. Link backed up some, but then an arrow shot over him, hitting Volvagia in the head. She let out a scream and then dove back into a lava pit. Link turned around and nodded his head at Misty, who smiled back and got another arrow ready.
Link struck Volvagia again with the hammer and sword combo and then backed away so Misty wouldn't have to worry about hitting him instead. As he suspected the dragon rose fully out of the lava pits, moving upwards. Misty loosed an arrow, and cursed when she missed, and then realized something. Turning to look at Link, she shouted a warning to him.
"Link move down the side of the dais! She's out of my range; she's going to knock boulders from the ceiling."
Sure enough boulders began to rain down, forcing Link to climb down the side, carefully finding foot and hand holds. As soon as the rocks stopped falling, he was back up again, and the two fighters went through the trials again and again. Link found the battle to be overly easy, for nor he or Misty got hit once, Misty even managed to hit the dragon twice while she circled in the air once and awhile.
What seemed like not too long after the battle started, Volvagia reared up grabbing her head and sunk back down into the lava pit. A few seconds later she came up from the center pit and began to madly circle in the air, her body very close together. Suddenly her tail caught fire, and the fire slowly ate away her skin all the way up to her head with one final scream from her. The bones dropped around Link, and he turned to face Misty, voicing the concern he had since the battle started.
"How are you going to get over here?"
"Don't worry about me Link, I'll get myself out. You go on ahead to meet the sage and I'll meet up with you outside." Misty answered cheerfully.
Link only hesitated a moment before he turned around and entered the blue portal that would take him to the Chamber of the Sages.
Misty watched him disappear, and then sighed as she looked down to the boulder that had landed on the bottom of her jacket like shirt, trapping her in place.
"You seem to have the habit of getting yourself into trouble." A woman's voice said, and a figure suddenly appeared.
"That I do." Misty said smiling. There was a flash of light and the boulder keeping her in place vanished. Standing up Misty gave the figure a hug and then backed up a step. "So you going to get me out of here?"
The figure laughed and nodded her head, and there was another bright flash, and the two of them were gone.
Link landed lightly on the center triforce of the Chamber of the Sages, this time facing the pedestal for the fire sage. As the blue light faded, Darunia appeared, smiling to him as he spoke.
"Thank you, Brother! I really appreciate what you did. I thank you on behalf of the entire Goron race! You turned out to be a real man, just as I thought you would! By the way, I, the wild Darunia turned out to be the great sage of fire. Isn't that funny, Brother? Well, this must be what they call destiny. Nothing has made me happier than helping you seal the evil here! Hey, Brother, take this! This is a medallion that contains the power of the fire spirits—and also my friendship." He said and raised his hands above his head. Just as with Saria, a red medallion appeared above Link before turning into a red light that seeped into him and then vanished.
"Don't forget….now you and I are true brothers." Darunia's last words echoed around him as he was swallowed by a bright light.
Opening his eyes, Link looked around the death mountain crater standing on the dais of the Fire Temple. He smiled slightly as he watched Misty stand from her seat on the ground, moving towards him. Together they took once last look at the Fire Temple and then made their way back towards the broken bridge that lead back to the Goron city.