It took longer than I anticipated, but the good news is that we're back on track! We are inching ever closer to the final battle.
Chapter 21 – Scaling the Darkness
As preparations for the strike on Kneph continued, Link took a walk through Kakariko. Most of the homes had been fixed or completely rebuilt after the twilight incident, and an effort to repopulate the village had begun right before Kneph's terror reigned down on Hyrule.
Save for some wind damage, the homes were still in good condition. It was an eerie sight for Link to see the village nearly pristine and continue to warrant its status as a ghost town.
In the dusty road were Roy and Ike, an odd combination. They shared no words, though they were fixated on Death Mountain.
Roy looked relieved when he saw Link and asked, "How's the princess?"
"She's going to be okay, but she did say something about Kneph's hate and malice tainting the wind."
Roy sighed, "What is it with everyone and 'malicious wind'?"
Link glanced around the village. "Where's everybody else?"
"Marth and Peach went to get a look up ahead. Lucario...well you never know where he disappears to. Probably goofing off where we can't see him."
Ike immediately turned an indignant glare upon Roy before growling, "Wherever he's gone to must be important."
"Oooo!" Roy uttered in mock fright. "If it's so important, maybe he should tell us before he disappears like that!"
"He's not obligated to tell us anything."
Roy opened his mouth to counter that assertion but was beaten to the punch.
"Quite the contrary," Lucario intervened, appearing behind them. "It's not good leadership to leave your team in the dark regarding your whereabouts."
Roy bore a cocky grin but Ike simply folded his arms and looked in any direction but his.
"However, I simply took a trip to the store to run an errand for Link. I did not think that required a briefing."
Link raised his brows, "Errand for me?"
Lucario gave him a bomb bag filled with bombs and said, "I noticed you were missing these."
"Thanks, but you didn't have to go through the trouble. I've got enough rupees to buy them myself."
"My method is much more efficient."
There was something mischievous about those words that piqued Link's interest. "...Did you threaten Barnes?"
"There was no need. My appearance was intimidating enough."
"We're supposed to be saving Hyrule, not scaring it into submission."
Peach and Marth returned with one more in tow: a large goron, his round body painted and his back covered in rugged stone. Link would have lied if he had said he could distinguish him from any of the other gorons.
The goron's wide mouth and beady eyes brightened with delight at the sight of Link.
"Brother! You live!"
He opened his arms wide and came towards Link with a hug.
"I...wait!" Link screamed, nearly panicking. "It's all thanks to this guy right here!"
He pushed Lucario forward into the goron's hug.
"I – what – no!" Lucario sputtered from the goron's clutches, clearly at a loss for words.
"Don't be rude, Lucario," Roy teased, barely able to contain his amusement. "He just wants to share the love!"
Lucario growled in response.
Peach stifled a laugh while saying, "We ran into this guy when we got to the mountain trail."
"He was quite excited when we mentioned Link's name," Marth added on. "But we may have a problem."
The goron finally let Lucario go, and his smile was replaced with a hint of distress.
"Brother, a strong wind has taken over the mountain trail! I have not been able to get back to the mountain since I left this morning!"
Link put an assuring hand on the goron's shoulder, "We're heading in that direction, so we'll see what we can do about that."
Lucario gave Link an icy glare that made it clear that he would live to regret his actions one day. One day in the near, near future.
"It's like a wind tunnel!" Roy shouted over the fierce winds ripping down the trail to Death Mountain. Standing straight up was quite a feat, and even if they took their chances and fought their way up the trail, if anyone succumbed to the power of the wind, they would be at the mercy of the rocky terrain.
"It's even worse now!" their goron friend, Godor, complained.
"Luc, you can get us over this, right?" Peach asked.
Lucario grunted. "I'll show you firsthand why I'm certain that won't be possible."
He leapt into the air as a blur and navigated the skies towards the mountain, but it was a brief moment. The vortex over Death Mountain reacted violently, sending a stream of lightning his way.
One bolt after the other streaked after Lucario, the frightening accuracy only negated by the pokemon's reflexes. He was forced to retreat.
"Well...it was worth a shot," Peach murmured with a shrug.
"My tail is singed," Lucario complained when he returned. It took an iron will for Roy not to mock him.
Link took the time to think of a way around the wind. Zelda was out of commission, and if Peach's own wind powers were a match, she would have tried something already. Ike could manipulate the earth, but trying to block the wind that way while navigating such a small path would probably hurt more than help.
His own shield powers were so new and unrefined that they wouldn't last long. They needed something sturdy and moving...
"That's it!" Link cried out in enlightenment. "I've got an idea of how we can get through here, but I'm going to need Ike's help."
Ike said nothing but followed Link back to Kakariko. A few minutes later, the sound of shifting earth revealed a large owl-like statue with a soft yellow glow at its center, raised from below. The statue hopped forward a few steps, garnering a mixed reaction until Link and Ike stepped out from behind it.
"With the Dominion Rod, this statue mimics my every move," Link said, rubbing the side of the staff. "If we stay behind it, we should be able to get to Death Mountain."
They formed a small line behind the statue with Godor at the rear. The journey was slow, both due to the statue's speed and for the sake of caution.
They emerged in the valley to find it devoid of gorons. The spiraling clouds at the peak of the mountain kept it in a permeating darkness, and a silent dread draped the land. It reminded them much of the castle town; piece by piece, Hyrule was beginning to hide away under the might of Kneph.
The statue lost life as the light powering it returned to the Dominion Rod. Link knew his way around Death Mountain, but before he could even lead the way, Godor called their attention to a cave at the base of the mountain.
"There! Let us reach the safety of the mountain before drawing the ire of the storm demon!"
Inside the confines of the cave, they were greeted by the modern convenience of a worn, metal elevator. Godor ushered them onto the creaky platform and moved to grab a rusty crank at the end of the machinery. Displaying the incredible strength of the gorons, he turned the crank, lifting the elevator through the shaft above.
"Brother! We're counting on you!" He called up to them before he disappeared from their sight.
A fear had been nagging at Peach ever since they started the trek to Death Mountain. "We're stepping onto their turf. Will they let us go after Kneph?" she inquired over the squeaks of the rickety elevator.
"The gorons can't be happy about their new tenant upstairs," Link said. "It's in everyone's best interest to let us handle this." Despite how he worded it, he knew there was a chance that they wouldn't get through so easily.
The elevator's destination was a corridor that led to the main room of the gorons' home: an open, circular area with a platform in the center. Gorons were scattered about, but beyond the platform were its two leader figures, the elder Gor Coron, and the patriarch Darbus.
"Who knew granite could wrinkle?" Roy murmured on sight of Gor Coron. The elder goron was stout and weathered, but held a wise gaze that proved all his years weren't for naught.
Next to him was Darbus. With craggy forearms and an expression that seemed glued into an unending scowl, the patriarch towered above all the other gorons.
There was a grim atmosphere Link had never seen amongst the gorons. They were elated upon seeing the hero, though their reactions were notably more subdued than that of Godor, most likely due to the worrying prospect of their immediate future. In a way, Link was relieved.
"You really are a man of miracles, Little Brother," the elder hummed thoughtfully. If Darbus was impressed, he kept it to himself.
"I see the rumors of your return are true, little human," the leader said flatly. "And I know why you are here."
"It's time to finish Kneph, and these people share my goal," Link said.
"I understand you have unfinished business, but once the demon began weaving storms atop the mountain, it became the personal responsibility of the patriarch – ME, to defeat him!" Darbus declared gruffly.
Peach grimaced as it seemed her earlier fears were correct. She had no idea what to say to sway and ease Darbus, but it turned out that she didn't need to. Link didn't falter; if anything, his face was awash with confidence.
"We were in the middle of a battle when he escaped and hid here," Link recalled. "In a way, it's our responsibility too. So how about this: we pick up where we left off, and if we fail, it'll be up to you to finish him off."
Link's proposal garnered no immediate reaction from Darbus, but there was an eventual flash in the patriarch's eyes; a mutual understanding of courage and power.
Darbus stood tall and folded his arms. "I will allow it," he said with a nod, his voice much softer. "We have a passage leading to the top of the mountain. We are counting on you..."
Upon receiving a signal from Darbus, one of the gorons approached a solid wall and pressed against it. He heaved, and with the shifting of the earth, a round section of the rock wall rolled aside, revealing a secret passageway.
"Please follow me, Brother!" the goron requested with much enthusiasm. Link nodded and the Brotherhood entered the tunnel.
The path twisted and turned seemingly at random, its only consistency being a steady upwards slant. Crackling torches lining the walls suggested that the path had already been prepared for travel. Link could only help but wonder how close Darbus was to facing Kneph himself before they arrived.
The goron stopped at another stone door and turned to the party. All the enthusiasm had been washed away from his face with fear, his stony body whitening a bit under the flickering of the torches.
"This leads to a small cave at the top of the mountain. The storm demon is up there. I hope you're prepared. Everyone is counting on you..."
Lucario took the lead and turned his back to the goron, facing the Brotherhood. He looked over the band of warriors he put together, taking the time to lock eyes with each member: Marth, Peach, Roy, Ike, and Link.
Finally, he spoke, "There's no turning back now. We've got Kneph cornered and only one side is going to leave the mountain alive. A master of lightning and wind, he will use new tricks and traps to defend himself and annihilate us if given the chance. Show him no mercy, and don't die. The consequence of our failure leaves a lot more than Hyrule hanging in the balance."
"This is quite a macabre battle speech even for you, Lucario," Marth admitted. This was more than the usual 'don't let me catch you slacking' speech. Of course, the situation completely warranted it. "The lot of us realizes our lives are at stake here, as well as what we stand to lose if we do not triumph is an even greater loss. This is why we are the Brotherhood, are we not?"
Lucario nodded. "I don't need to lecture you like children..." he trailed off; a slight pained expression crossed his face as he stopped himself from continuing. It lasted only a second until his usual calm and serious demeanor returned. "Prove that I chose each member of this team correctly."
He turned to the goron who took the piercing look of his red eyes as a signal to open the way. The stone slab was slid away and they stepped into the small cave. A blast of screaming wind ripped steadily into the mouth of the cave, and the sounds of the birth of a catastrophic storm rumbled above them.
This was it. They were in the demon's territory now.
The final battle begins in the next chapter, and the stakes are higher than ever. Link has lived beyond his initial death, but if this battle is lost, the order of the universe could disrupted.
I can't say when exactly chapter 22 will go up, as I'm juggling it with my SSB Halloween story, but do know that I'm working on it right now.