Duck. Block. Counter. Parry. Riposte. Bell. Jump back to dodge the arrow. Jump again to avoid a four-pronged stab. The two Driders were a good team. Link supposed that having 8 eyes somehow helped with aiming, because the arrows from the wall-crawler were ridiculously accurate. Some shots skimmed by his mate by less than an inch, with the female never even flinching. The female in turn seemed to stylize her fighting style not to land any blows, but to manipulate Link, to consume her focus on the attacks, to position her just so, when an arrow would come at her blind spot. It really was only because of Don's warning pings that Link had avoided being hit. On the other hand, Link was noticing that the Spiders only had a couple of attack patterns. They were too used to killing an opponent in one or two attempts, and here Link was, not a scratch after 15 arrows. At the female was starting to visibly tire, while Link was just warming up. She was used to spending hours swinging weighted wooden sticks. So Link simply smiled as she kept dancing around, waiting until the female's arms started sagging before suddenly launching a quick, vicious assault, tearing through her weak guard, slicing off her two right arms, and then knocking her out with a buckler-smash to the face. An inarticulate cry of rage came from above as the male dropped down, swinging his bow like a club. Link dived sideways, rolling and coming back up quickly, if slightly off-balanced. The male was yelling some interesting curses as he chased after Link, still swinging his bow. Link was surprised that when she parried the attacks with her sword, the Spider's Bow did not even chip. But the male, who Link noticed was out of arrows, was not a melee fighter, despite his impressive natural strength. It was simple for Link to find an opening, to lash out, and suddenly his head was flying away, his body left twitching as it fell. And all of a sudden, the fight was over.

Link, who had been carefully controlling her breathing during the fight, now let herself freely pant, catching her breath. She wasn't exhausted, by any means, but the fight had been a good work out. She noticed that the Driders had a greenish blood color. She also noted upon reflection that she was less bothered by the Drider's death than the Goblins so far. Was it because they were spiders? Link wasn't sure if she was OK with being racist against spider-people.

"Nice job Link." Don appeared over by the chest, arms crossed.

"Thanks." Link replied, cleaning the green stuff off her blade and then sheathing it.

"You gonna finish the job?" Don asked, pointing at the unconscious Drider.

"What? No! I'm not gonna kill her!" Link shouted, indignant.

"Why not?" Asked an utterly nonplussed Don.

"She's unconcious! She's helpless!"

"She's a spider-monster!" Don said snarkily. "And you just killed her kid, her mate, and cut off two of her arms! Let her live, and I swear to you, you will regret it." Don, though snarky, was calm. He was speaking with confidence. He wasn't smiling or frowning, his voice was even, sounding very matter-of-fact.

Link, who was quickly becoming upset by the sudden moral dilemma, asked, "Well if you want her dead, you can kill her!"

"Nope." Don chuckled darkly, not accepting Link's attempt to cop-out. "This is your quest, Hero. You have to make the decisions, and you have to deal with the consequences. I'm pointing this out because it's not going to be the last time you have to make a hard choice. And I know what you're going to decide, I think, but it has to be an informed decision, so you can't complain later. If you let her live, her 'thousands' of children will find out you killed daddy, and will begin hunting you down. If you kill her now, it'll be less trouble later. Do you take the high road, sticking to what you consider to be moral, or do you take the 'low' road, doing something distasteful, but pragmatic. Your choice."

Link looked at the Drider, noticing that in addition to her amputated arms, one of her eight eyes had reptured from the knock-out blow. She was a monster, and had attacked her, but Link couldn't bring herself to execute a helpless opponent, a mother who had just been trying to avenge her dead child. This angry spider-mom with thousands of spider-monster kids would never forgive Link, but she still couldn't do it.

"I won't."

"I know. Do me a favor and grab the bow and quiver from the dead guy, it looks like good quality stuff."

"Ok..." Link said, put off by the nonchalant change of subject. "Why?" She grabbed the bow, noting how the weapon seemed to be made of two connected spider legs with a string of non-sticky spider-silk. "I'm a swordswoman, not an archer, I've never used a bow before."

"Well, you are technically a Hero, you're gonna need a much wider skillset than just martial play, and a much larger arsenal that a simple piece of steel to overcome the challenges ahead. Here, nock an arrow and try shooting that torch over there."

Don tossed an arrow at Link, who begrudgingly did as asked. She was surprised at how naturally her fingers set the arrow on the string and drew it. She'd never even held a bow before, but there went the arrow, hitting the torch, nearly knocking it loose from its cradle. "How did I...?"

"In previous lives, you have used a variety of weapons, countless times. You have dormant knowledge in your very soul. Don't hesitate to pick up and try any weapons and tools you find, you may be surprised."

"You can't be fucking serious..." Link muttered, face-palming. If at some point in the future she was able to pick up some exotic weapon she'd never even heard of before and use it easily, she was probably going to scream.

"I'm very serious, now stow that bow, and open this chest."

Link hooked the quiver to her left shoulder and hooked the bow over her head so that it draped across her chest at an angle. She then took a look at the chest Don was standing next to and examined the simple lock on it. There were some lockpicks on the ground, likely what the male Drider had been using.

"Alright 'thief', this looks like your area of expertise."

"Yeah, about that. While I could easily pick the lock for you, this is, as I said before, your quest. So I think the 'Hero' should figure this one out. After all, it'll probably be natural for you, like the bow. Just grab a pic-what are you doing!?"

Don was stopped in his verbal tracks as Link drew her sword and carefully, but sharply, stabbed the slightly rusty lock, breaking it and opening the chest.

"Opened it." Link said with a smirk.

"That's cheating..." Don said, sulking slightly.

"I call it technique." Link laughed as she looked inside the chest and checked out her sweet loot. She found inside a belt, a silver key, and a map. Oddly, she felt an urge to hold the junk in the air triumphantly, which she stifled.

"Whatcha got?" Don asked, trying to look over her shoulder.

"Not much, I think." She handed the belt and key to Don while looking at the map, figuring it would be more useful. It seemed like it was a normal map, though with 'helpful additions' having been done by an amateur. It was an old map, well drawn and showing the details of the Temple proper, with the tree part having been added on in some colorful, glittery ink. There were also colorful marks and doodles all over it. Finding her current location, Link realized that blue boxes probably indicated chests, and the squiggles inside the box was the loot. Silver circle was probably the key, and the gold dot was...the belt? Link raised an eyebrow in an unworded question at Don. An old belt?

"This thing is enchanted!" Don said loudly, surprising Link. "It's called a Belt of Holding, you can attach pouches and purses to it and they'll shrink when not in use! Here, switch your belt and see!"

Link did so, doubting slightly, but whistled in amazement when it was proven true. She had attached her pouch (with the potion) and her purse to the belt, and they did indeed shrink and grow depending on whether or not she was reaching into it. She also felt the weight on her hip change with the pouch size, being almost nonexistent when small. Judging by Don's comments, Link was going to need the magical inventory space/weight management.

"Alright," Link said then, turning to Don. "What about the map and the key?" Link handed over the map to Don, who frowned as he looked it over.

"A Fairy got her hands on this, probably trying to be 'helpful'." He then glanced at the key. "Standard Magic Key. Synchronized with this temple. It can only open one door before it fades, but it will open almost every door."

"What door will it not unlock?"

"The door that has what we came for behind it."

"Of course. How do we open that one?"

"We have to find a key made specially for that door. Now, before the Drider wakes up and attacks you again, let's get going."

Link glanced at the unconscious Drider once more before following Don out back into the Tree Dungeon/Temple/Thing Don quickly returned to being invisible, letting her find her own way. Briefly looking around, she decided to hop across a couple of platforms to the room on her right. As she traveled, she had to dispose of a couple Deku Baba and normal Skulltalas (wait, that 'normal' skulltala had turned out to be that Drider's child...crap...) One of the Baba had odd black veins, which an invisible Don explained meant this Baba had taken a bite out of a goblin, and in turn was second generation corrupted by Fangor's Blood (which was odd since Deku Baba had been brought back to life by Fangor's blood, double corrupted? Was there a subtle difference?).

"Any directly corrupted Deku Baba?" Link felt she knew the answer already.

"I believe so, though I haven't found out where that beasty was sent."

"Lovely..." Link muttered, thought the thought of 'double corruption' gave her a thought. "Hey Don, does different amounts of Fangor's blood give different types or levels of corruption? Like, is there a set amount of blood that makes a Goblin? And would more make a...Super Goblin?"

"Ah, from what little I understand, no creature receives more than a drop of Fangor's blood. Any more causes death."

Link nodded as she entered the next room.

-o-

In the shadows, a cloaked figure watched and followed.

Author's note

You can thank a friend of mine, Celran, for this chapter getting out. He's the one who pushed me into doing it.

It's funny writing for a canonically left-handed character, every now and then I have to pause and think how a left handed-person would do something like position their quiver and such.