We arrived in Kakariko Village. It wasn't too big. A number of buildings, cuccos, and a windmill were about. Carpenters just ran about, supposedly "making improvements" to the village. We went up some stairs to the north and found the gate to Death Mountain. It wasn't too hard to climb, the dirt was brown and steep but we managed. About half way up, a disaster struck.
"Watch out!" Navi screamed. A rock was whirling straight toward us. It rolled and rolled, and I could've sworn I saw a face on it. I grabbed Saria and we spun to the side, narrowly missing it. "What was that?!" asked Saria. Navi provided the answer, "Gorons, the race that lives on Death Mountain. They might have the Spirtual Stone of Fire." We walked into this little passage, and into this ...city. It was divided into levels. The first level had nothing of interest, but rocks and rock people, the gorons. The 2nd floor had a huge goron, mindlessly rolling around. The 3rd floor had nothing of interest either. The bottom floor had this huge door that was closed with a symbol on it. In the middle of all this, connected by ropes to the 1st floor, was this little island thing. Saria pointed to it, "We should go there." We carefully balanced across the ropes to this little island. A little stand was on it, and looked like something used to reside in it.
The nearby horon unrolled itself and stood up. It was quite friendly and spoke well. It said a shining red stone used to be there. However, their leader "Big Brother" had taken it away, sealed himself in the room, and wouldn't come out except to the royal family messenger. I figured that could be me. So we managed to run around the Goron City and find our way to the bottom. However, the door was tightly sealed closed. "What do we do now?" I asked. Saria had the answer, "Remember the song Impa taught you? She said to play it to prove your connection with the royal family, play that!" I took out my fairy Ocarina and played Zelda's Lullaby, and the door opened. Grinning, we ran in. The room wasn't too fancy. Some soft rugs were spread about, with tables in a corner. There was this big, very different looking goron standing there. He had a very wild spiked out hair and beard. Behind him, was this statue of maybe some sort of goron god.
As soon as I ran up to him, he said, "What the heck! Who are you?!" I told him my name was Link, but he didn't let me finish, "When I heard the song of the Royal Family, I expected their messenger had arrived, but...you're just a kid!" He went on about being abandoned by the King of Hyrule, how creatures infested Dodongo's Cavern, their Bomb Flower crop was weak, their people were starving because of rock shortage (how can you eat rocks?), and then he got mad at me for offering to help him. We quickly left after that. "Jeez, isn't he pissed off" was my comment. Although everyone agreed, we weren't sure what to do next.
Saria suggested looking around. It sounded good to me, so we split up. I wondered around, I hated being helpless. All 4 of us were stuck on this. I wondered around, very angry at the goron boss for being so pissy and not giving good information. A few minutes later, I saw Saria's fairy flying at me. She pushed against me and flew off, getting the signal I followed. We went to the 3rd floor. A Goron was sitting against some rocks that were in the wall. I didn't understand, how did this help? Saria's fairy pressed itself against the rocks. Navi suddenly stopped and pressed against it too. "Music, I hear faint music! This leads to the Lost Woods!!" Navi said. Wha? I leaned up against it, concentrating, I could hear the faint noise of the music I thought I heard while in the Lost Woods. I said, "Wow, your right." Saria's fairy began to fly rapidly up and down. Now I realized it, the music that was playing, was Saria's Song. "Alright," I said to the fairy, "Go find Saria and tell her to meet me outside of the boss Goron's room.
We all met there a while later. I explained to her my plan. "I just go up to him and play Saria's Song? What will that do?" she said. I shrugged, "I don't know, but I think it should do something." She shook her head again, "I..don't really like him, why do I have to play it?"
"Because your better at it, I've only played it a few times, you have it perfected."
"Ok, and if he attacks?"
"Then run"
"You silly" she said slightly punching me.
We went in, Saria facing the big goron. He began to look angry, until Saria put her Ocarina at her lips. She played wonderfully, I could see the forests in my head and feel the beat trapped in my chest. However, that joy didn't last long. The goron, did something so very terrifying. He began to dance. He danced so joyous and kept hopping around saying "Come onnn, Come ON!" With a big grin on his face and eyes closed, he just danced like there was no tomorrow. As rapid as he began, he suddenly stopped. "Heeey!! What a nice tune!" he said to Saria. "Just like that, my depression is all gone! Something just came over me! I suddenly wanted to dance like crazy!" he went on. That WASN'T dancing crazy? I hate to see him at a party. He straightened himself up and properly introduced himself, "I am Darunia! I'm the big boss of the gorons! Was there something you wanted to ask me about?" Since Saria was in front of him, and played the song for him, she asked him about the Spiritual Stone of Fire. This seemed to offend him, Darunia puffed out his chest and tried to stand straighter. "The Spiritual Stone of Fire, also known as the Goron's Ruby, is our race's hidden treasure...But hold on—I'm not going to give it to you that easily, . If you want it so badly..Why don't you go destroy the monsters inside of Dodongo's Cavern and prove you're a real man?" he spoke. So Saria is going to become a man? I found this amusing. Darunia said that if we did it, he'd give us the stone. He also gave Saria a power bracelet, to pick up Bomb Flowers with.
We exited Goron City, with Saria messing with her bracelet. She hugged her fairy and thanked her for helping us. Her mute fairy nodded. We found a goron outside, and we asked him were Dodongo's Cavern was. He lead us up a ways, next to his little Bomb Flower and pointed down. It was blocked by a huge boulder. I looked down and asked, "How are we going to get-" but was cut off. Saria was already plucking the Bomb Flower and tossing it off the edge. It hit the boulder and exploded on impact. "Er, nevermind" I commented. She smiled and said, "Let's go! This is pretty exciting!" I wasn't too thrilled but I went onward. We went down the path to Dodongo's Cavern and entered it. Another boulder was blocking the way in. Saria had to toss another Bomb Flower and blow it up.
Inside, was a very big room. Broken bridges hung above us and lava pits were on the ground. There were 4 platforms. The one we were standing on, one to the left, one to the right, and one in the center. Although, the center one had a very huge blue skull of some creature on it. Navi told us to wait and she flew ahead a little bit. When she came back, Navi said, "See to the left? That door with bars on it? Now look to the right. There is a switch on elevated ground, I bet that switch opens that door." I nodded and Saria agreed, "Then, we go right!" We leapt to the center platform, then to the right one, careful to not fall into the lava pits. However, I cut us off short. I asked Navi, "What is that?" A very strange statue was guarding another boulder guarded door. The bottom half of it looked like a mouth, while the head had 1 eye that would rotate around. Navi said, "It is a Beamos. It's eye shoots out a bad beam, but I bet it doesn't like smoke in it's eye." Saria was already on it, picking up a nearby Bomb Flower and tossing it to the Beamos. It exploded and destroy both the monster and the boulder.
The next room was a big passage. A bunch of lizard looking creatures surfaced from the ground. There were tons of them. I gripped my sword and launched toward them, only to have them leap at me. While I slash and defeated them in 1 hit, they would hit me at the same time. Not only that, they would explode when they died. It was a little battlefield. Running and dodging everything. Pretty soon I was overpowered, the lizards jumped in packs and I could not fend them off. They hit me like a very dull pain that got worse over time. Saria escaped to the other side, but was helpless to do anything. Navi exclaimed, "Run!" I refused to give up though, I will win this! I won't be almost defeated like last time. Navi got madder, "Didn't you hear me? RUN! You can't do it!" I then tripped over a lizard's glowing body, about to explode. I heard Saria, "LINK!" I raised my shield up when the thing exploded. It hit my shield but blasted me back and I slammed against the wall. The lizards kept coming. My back was now in pain, from being blasted so hard. My shield looked very damaged, it could collapse any second. The lizards were ganging up on me, until I heard the break of a pot. They turned around, very angry. I saw Saria running around. I realized what she was doing, being a decoy so I could get away. Once again, Navi's "RUN!" was heard. Only this time, I heeded it. I got up and staggered to the door exit. I saw a statue pressed on a switch, obviously unlocking the door. I reached it and saw Saria jump up and pushed me through it. When the door closed behind us, the sound of lizard's hitting the door was heard.
I fell to the ground to rest. Saria took my slingshot and got rid of the bats who were eying us. Saria then returned it and got mad at me. "Why don't you ever listen to Navi?" she asked me. I just looked up, it was rare Saria got mad. "How is it, I listen to my mute fairy more than you listen to your very vocal one?" she asked me again. I felt a bit ashamed now. Navi was very wise, but I refused to listen to her. Saria sighed and sat down a bit ways from me. We were both tired. I looked at Navi. She was still flying beside me, seemingly unaffected. "Sorry.." I mumbled at her. Navi replied, "It's ok." "Your not mad?" I asked her. Navi shook, "No, your only 10 years old, you'll make mistakes, and not want to listen to others, it's normal. You'll grow up." I muttered, "Maybe I should start listening." Then I remembered, "Hey, how come you never get mad at Saria?" Navi looked at me, "Because she is wise and many your years senior." Hm? This confused me, I thought all the Kokiri I lived with were the same age as myself. How could she be older? She looked 10, just like me. But I decided not to bother with it, it's not worth the headaches. I stood up and helped Saria up and we continued.
The next room, had a bunch of small platforms on top of lava pits. Navi whispered to me, "Shield up, strike after they strike, use your feet, and jump." Huh? Next thing I know, 2 lizards with sharp swords fall from the ceiling. OK. I want to ignore Navi's advice, and just run up and slash, but I know that would only make me look stupid. Saria backed away, having no sort of protection. A lizard hopped in front of me and struck. Direct hit. I fell backwards, blood beginning to come from my wound and stain my green shirt. The lizard jumped, attempting a jump attack, gaining sense, I rolled to the side and he missed. I stood up. Navi piercing voice invaded me, "Shield up!" So I raised my shield. The lizard looked at me, and tried striking again. At the same time, Navi ordered me left, so I jumped left. She then told me to attack. Hit. The battle went on like that with the 2 lizards. I sometimes would mess up, but only get a glanced stab. It hurt but not to terribly bad. Afterwards, I was so out of breath, I had to hang onto Saria for support.
Saria set me down in a corner of the next room to catch my breath. I didn't really pay attention, but it was cool which was nice. Saria returned shortly, and took one of my deku sticks. I didn't know what she was doing and I didn't care, I was too exhausted. She came back and helped me up and to the next room. Our hard work was payed off, the next room was actually the beginning one. We were on the platform containing the switch. We stepped on it together, and saw the bars on the door across the room unlocked. I had to push myself to jump and get to the other side, but I made it. I'm glad Saria was letting me rest. These next few rooms were just puzzles types. Bombing some stairs and pressing down a switch. Only, there were firebats in the switch room. One attacked me; I instinctively raised my shield. Poor mistake, it caught on fire and I didn't have the sense to throw it down immediately. It ended up burning my arm and making me completely vulnerable.
Once again, we were in the main room, only on one of the unstable bridges. Saria got my slingshot and took out a nearby firebat. We carefully crossed the bridge. Taking each step at a time and skipping the ones that were majorly damaged. The few rooms were a snap. One had blades revovling on the ground, Navi would tell us were they were and how to dodge them. Saria bombed a boulder and I shot a switch to put out some fires that would let us jump across some platforms. I was gaining my strength back. I was very grateful to have Navi and Saria by my side. There was no way I could do this on my own. We went into a room with more lizards I had to fight. I kept getting slashed, since I had no choice but to jump since my shield was gone. I would slip and have to hang on to not fall into the lava. I believe getting burned is worse than getting a cut. However I managed through it, running down my stamina in the process.
I was finally awarded for my efforts. The room after had a chest. Inside the chest, was a Bomb Bag filled with bombs. I grinned at Saria and said, "Looks like your not the only man here now." "True," she replied, "But I could still beat you in an arm wrestling contest." holding up the arm with the power bracelet still on it. I couldn't argue with that. Navi suddenly spoke, "I feel we are getting closer to the evil presence, it's underneath us." We were on another broke bridge. Navi told us to jump onto the creature skull below us. I was hesitant, but finally agreed. She then ordered to put a bomb on both eyes. I stuck my tongue out at Saria. There were no Bomb Flowers around so her little braclet was useless. I bombed both eyes, and the mouth of the skulls fell open. Inside, was a door. We went in and went up this little passage way. Both of us had to push a block through it, into the room, and onto the switch to open the door. When we walked in, Navi said the evil was right underneath us. Saria noticed the ground was soft and probably bombable. I bombed it and a hole opened up. Then, all 4 of us jumped inside.
I dropped in front of Saria. She had this shocked open mouthed look on her face. I turned around, to see a huge, huge lizard coming out way. The entire was a lava pit, except for the small dirt path surrounding it, which is what we were standing on. It slowly walked in front of us and roared. This thing could've just eaten Gohma for lunch. Navi whispered, "Infernal Dinosaur: King Dodongo." Great. How do we defeat something this huge? It opened it's mouth to take a deep breath. Saria ran up, and tosses a Bomb Flower in. It swallowed it and fell down. Navi shouted, "Attack!" I ran up and began to slash at it. King Dodongo quickly recovered and rolled into a ball. "Watch out!" come from Saria, she dived to the side. But I was too late, and right up against him. He slammed against me and sent me into the lava. It burned so badly, I screamed and just tore back to land. Saria grabbed me and roughly got me out. She took my sword and left me to go face the huge dinosaur. It burned so badly, my arms, legs, and body were sore now. My sorry little excuse for a shirt had holes all in it, and the front burned off. The bottoms of the shoes were gone. It hurt so bad, I wanted water. But being in a fiery place, water didn't exist. I looked up and saw Saria had gotten to close also and was knocked in. She was so strong, I saw the burns but she ran up and did fall over like I did. I felt so wimpy. She had fallen on her back, and her shirt was barely fixed on. I could tell she wanted to just fall over. What am I? Sitting here being weak! I got up, and just in time to see King Dodongo rolling this way. I managed to get out of his way. It turned around and opened his mouth up. Doesn't he ever learn? I tossed in a bomb, then jump slashed him. The finishing blow!
It cried out and curled into a ball. I backed up and was about to jump, but he rolled off course and into the lava. I stood with Saria and watched him melt and harden. The lava also cooled. The blue portal appeared like it had in the Great Deku Tree. I grabbed Saria's hand and lead her to it. I felt better but the burn marks and cuts were still there. She looked better too, but both of us shirts still wanted to fall off. We floated up and...landed outside of the cavern. Before we had a chance to do anything, Darunia fell from the sky and landed almost on us.
He beat his chested and smacked Saria on the back, knocking her to the ground. He exclaimed, "It's me, Darunia!" No duh. He congratulated us, well, Saria at least, "Thanks to you, we can once again eat the delicious rocks from the Dodongo's Cavern until out stomachs burst!" He went on, rambling about how this would make a great story, however, these words interested me. "All this trouble must have been caused by that Gerudo thief, Ganondorf! He said, Give me the Spiritual Stone! Only then will I open this cave for you!" He must be serious about getting the Triforce. Saria managed to stand up at this point. Darunia went on, "Kid, I like you! How's about you and I become Sworn Brothers?!" Saria asked, in a tired voice, "Will there be a big ceremony?" He shook his head no and said, "Just take this as a token of our friendship!" Out of the sky, came a red flash and a beautiful stone. It had a golden outline with 3 points at the top. The middle was a very shiny red, almost pink color. Saria's eyes widen. She must feel it's fragileness as well. We thanked Darunia and bid him good-bye. Now we only had 1 more Spiritual Stone to find.