Chapter 08: the temple of icy fire
After about half an hour more in the air, Link and the others began descent.
Rather, Red controlled the descent using his Wind Waker and the other two bickered.
"You owe me ten rupees!"
"You owe me ten rupees!"
Who cared who spoke? They were arguing over the same thing: the bet.
"You guys, could you keep it down?" asked Red. "I'm trying to land in the volcano!"
"WHAT?" the other two cried in shocked unison.
"Ten rupees he kills us," smirked Blue.
"Well, if he does kill us, I won't be able to give you the rupees, will I?" Link asked.
"Why not?"
"We'll be dead, Dinhead!" Link snarled back.
"Be quiet or we will be dead!" Red told them both. As they entered the neck of the volcano, a blast of lava missed them by an inch.
"What are you DOING?" shouted Link.
"Something's telling me that the temple of icy fire would naturally be in this volcano," Red smiled cheerily as he continued their descent.
Fifteen minutes and several close calls later…
"You owe me ten rupees!" shouted Link. Blue growled at him and handed him a yellow rupee.
"Thanks."
Other than the fact that their nerves were in shreds, they were fine as they turned to face the temple, Red leading the way. He seemed pleased that they'd reached his temple, but neither Link knew what he was really thinking of.
That boy in purple was a mystery. And Red adored mysteries almost as much as he loved being nice to people.
As soon as they entered the fire temple, Red ignored the others and started off on the only available path. He paused to admire the statue of him holding the Wind Waker aloft, but then continued on through the dungeon.
The others were slightly slower, but continued behind him. As a matter of fact, because they were slower, they were the ones who picked up all the prizes. Red killed enemy after enemy ahead of them, but continued through the temple, which seemed to be in the shape of a spiral staircase. The other two thought they had it easy… until a Darknut faced them.
Blue began to hack at the armor as if there were no tomorrow, but Link practically laughed as he took out his new weapon. Readying the gale boomerang, he locked it onto the Darknut's helmet. The cyclone surrounding the boomerang knocked Blue out of range as the boomerang hit the helmet, knocking it off and bringing it back to Link.
"Ten rupees says you can't do that again!" Blue declared.
"What's with your gambling addiction lately?" Link asked.
"I want my rupees back."
However, unfortunately for Blue, Link was able to pull all the armor off, piece by piece. However, despite his frustration at losing another ten rupees, Blue was more than happy to tear into the Darknut and cause him to explode. As gratitude, Link let him claim the dungeon map.
"But you still owe me those rupees," he added. Blue growled and handed him another yellow rupee.
Red, meanwhile, breezed past the miniboss chamber once again, this time through a network of tunnels that he was sure was designed for him. Blue and Link were left to face it, this time a particularly nasty ghoma.
"I hate spiders," muttered Blue as soon as they were done. They'd of course tried the tunnel network, but hadn't been able to fit. Thankfully, right beyond the miniboss chamber was the boss chamber itself.
"Great, what is this? That game Take 'em all on?" Blue asked incredulously. However, they were both stopped short when they noticed Red looking at the mosaics.
"Red?" Link asked. The two raced up to him, but he was already moving.
"I think I'm the one meant to break open this boss door," announced Red. Neither noticed that he had purposely distracted him from the fact that he'd been looking at the mosaics. He wasn't sure who that boy in purple was, but he knew that something didn't quite fit with Shadow Link.
"Are you kidding?" asked Link, bringing him back to earth about the very heavy door.
"Ten rupees says he can't," Blue smirked. Imagine his shock when Red looked at the door for a moment, then suddenly lifted the Wind Waker, seemed to conduct a little piece, and opened the door with the power of wind.
"Ugh. I hate Red," Blue muttered, handing Link yet another yellow rupee.
In the boss chamber, Red surveyed the two torches with interest for a moment before each shot out a stream, one of fire, one of ice. The two streams of energy met in the exact middle point of the room, then merged to form a boss that Red had of course heard of. Fraaz, master of icy fire.
"But Link had a boomerang then," he mumbled as Fraaz shot a jet of fire at him. However, seeing his Wind Waker, he got an idea. Aiming it at one of the torches, he directed the winds to send a jet of ice at the now fire-charged Fraaz. It hit him with extreme accuracy, and Red went in for the kill.
Or not. After a few whacks with his sword, Fraaz pushed him away. But Red got the general idea now. Even when Fraaz split into his fiery and icy halves, Red knew exactly what to do. And even when Fraaz destroyed the torches as a last resort, Red could easily use the wind to direct the fire or ice towards the maniac.
Eventually, just as it had happened with Link, Fraaz collapsed and split into seemingly a thousand pieces before reforming into what looked like a rod. Red picked it up and aimed it at one of the jars. By accident, he'd set it on fire before he realized.
"Cool! Another range weapon!" Red was so excited that he didn't notice that when he aimed his rod to shoot both streams of fire and ice and fireballs and iceballs, a stray fireball caught Blue on the seat of his pants.
"Argh!" he screamed. "You set my butt on fire!"
"Sorry!" Red apologized, seemingly innocent. He shot an iceball onto his flaming pants instead and just managed to rescue them before they burned away.
"Well, before our clone here… ahem, interrupted," Link was trying not to laugh. "Blue and I read a carving that told about 'the temple of swimming earth.'"
"Let's go! It's probably mine!" Blue shouted gleefully as Red quietly conducted the wind to bring them the balloon.
"Would you like to bet on it?" Link asked sweetly.
"No. I've been wrong too often in these past few hours," Blue replied.
As the heroes took flight once more, this time with Blue as lookout, Red thought back to that odd boy in purple.
Who was he, really?
And whoever he was, did he have a connection with Shadow Link. No, Red thought. His eyes have wisdom in them. He'd never ally with Shadow Link willingly.
Okay, before I write another chapter, I need a review! Also, I want the few readers I've got to tell me. What do they think the connection between the boy in purple and Shadow Link is?