Four
Link and Akama sat atop their horses at the border between the Gerudo Desert and Hyrule, looking out over the green fields and forests of Link's homeland.
"Farewell, Hero," Akama said, reaching over to grip his forearm in a warrior's salute. "You are welcome in the desert anytime."
"Thanks," Link said. "If you ever need any help with anything, don't hesitate to call me. I'll come back as fast as I can." He held out his Gossip Stone, and Akama touched her own stone to it, attuning the two magical stones to one another.
She smiled at him one last time and turned her horse around, riding off into the desert. He watched her go for a few moments, and then he turned around and reached up to scratch Khamsin behind the ears.
"You know the drill," he said to the stallion. "Let's go."
The horse started forward and carefully picked his way down the twisting narrow path, retracing the route the two of them had taken into the desert more than a week ago. Khamsin picked up his speed, moving with a sure-footed grace as they headed back into Hyrule.
After about an hour, they emerged into softer country, and Link pulled his horse to a halt as he thought about what to do next. He thought he should return to Majacen and let the wizard know he had completed his training with the Gerudo, since the old man might have more helpful suggestions as to what he could do next.
On the other hand, Link thought he could use a day or two's rest after the brutal training regimen, so he decided instead to go to the Eldin lands and visit Zelda and Gareth. He consulted a signpost for directions and set off in the direction of Death Mountain, whose smoldering crater he could see towering over the smaller hills of the canyon country to the east, the cone wreathed in a halo of smoke.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, and after another few hours of riding, rain began to fall, pelting the Hero and his mount with frigid droplets. Link brought out his cloak and draped it over himself and Khamsin's hindquarters, hunching low in the saddle as they sped along the beaten dirt road. He saw a few flashes of lightning off in the distance, and he moved away from a large tree in their path as a quick flash danced in its upper boughs.
Without warning, a lance of fiery orange energy stabbed out at him from the upper part of the tree he had avoided, and Link hurled himself out of the saddle to avoid it, grunting as he hit the ground and rolled to his feet. Khamsin galloped off, whinnying in fear.
Link drew his sword and took his shield in hand, looking for his assailant. A moment's tingling on the back of his neck alerted him to another blast, and he dived out of the way as an orange beam of magic gouged a chunk out of the ground where he had been standing.
The Hero backed away from the smoking crater and looked up at the tree, trying to spot the dark shape of the Sorcerer. Instead, he felt his senses prickle again and he moved his head suddenly to the left just in time to avoid a sword thrust, the gleaming steel blade reflecting a flash of lightning next to his eye.
Spinning away from the blade, Link brought up his shield and looked at the tall shape behind him. The Sorcerer, robed in black and covered in a long, wide cloak, stood at the ready position with his sword pointed at Link in silent threat. The young warrior could see no detail but a vague outline of a face beneath his enemy's hood, but the Sorcerer's body language more than conveyed his contempt and malice.
"What do you want with me?" Link demanded, blinking rain out of his eyes. The cold rain continued to pelt him, running in rivulets down his face and into his collar, soaking him.
The Sorcerer remained silent and motionless, cold eyes staring at the Hero as the two of them stood facing each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.
With a blindingly fast movement, the Sorcerer surged forward, his dark cloak flowing around him as he spun to give greater momentum to his swing. Link caught the slash on his shield and cut under it, but the Sorcerer leaned back out of the way, lashing out with a booted foot to hook behind the Hero's knee.
Link slapped the boot away with his sword, raising his leg over the kick and extending his foot in a kick of his own at the Sorcerer's wrist.
The assassin jumped away with unnatural dexterity and slashed at Link again. The Hero met the Sorcerer's blade with his own, and their swords clashed together six times in rapid succession, crossing and thrusting, parrying and blocking each other's blows.
Link opened a hole in his opponent's defense by smashing aside his sword with his shield, and he took advantage of the opportunity this provided, thrusting for his opponent's chest. Some unseen force turned aside his blade, feeling slippery beneath the tip of Link's weapon.
He blocked a return slash with his shield and backed away a few steps, reassessing his opponent. The Sorcerer apparently had some kind of magical protection surrounding him, so he would be unable to penetrate it with his ordinary steel sword.
The Sorcerer jumped forward and reminded Link that the Hero had no such protection by slipping his blade inside the young warrior's defenses and slicing his side. Link felt his chain-mail turn the edge of the sword away, but that had been too close.
While he was close, the Sorcerer knocked Link's shield out of the way with his sword and lashed out with his empty hand in a vicious uppercut that knocked the Hero off balance. He stumbled backwards a few feet and finally tripped, landing hard on his back.
Determinedly, Link hauled himself to his feet and dropped into a ready position as his adversary raised his sword and began to charge.
Due to his Triforce's influence, Link felt time slow down for an instant as he absorbed a detailed observation in only a second. The Sorcerer favored his right leg slightly, as if a long-healed wound there affected his stride. He was right-handed, but held his sword in his left as he charged at Link. The Hero noticed a tiny sphere of orange energy forming in the Sorcerer's right palm, and he instantly deduced that if he were to block the slash with either his own sword or shield, the Sorcerer would loose a blast of magic at him.
Link prepared a counter-strategy, but all of that was obliterated in the next second by an overwhelming rush of light and sound. With a momentary feeling of energy building up surging through the air, a jagged white bolt of lightning suddenly stabbed down from the clouds and, as if directed by the Goddesses themselves, impacted with the Sorcerer, lighting him up with a blinding radiance for a fraction of a second.
In the next instant, a deafeningly loud peal of thunder and the outrush of a shockwave knocked the Hero completely off his feet and flat on his back, his head ringing.
As he shook the stars from his eyes and tried to collect his wits, Link saw that the Sorcerer had also been blasted off his feet and lay smoking in the middle of the road, his clothes scorched by the sudden intense heat of the lightning. The rain hissed off of his superheated sword, which slowly faded from a glowing orange to scorched black.
Link saw his advantage and leaped at his foe, his sword held point-downwards for a finishing strike. The Sorcerer managed to roll aside slightly, but Link's sword still sunk deeply into his side, a surely mortal wound.
The Hero pulled his blade free and adjusted his grip, intending to strike the villain's heart this time, but the Sorcerer moved with sudden quickness and jumped out of the way, making Link's stab sink into the mud the road had become instead.
The Sorcerer stumbled to his feet, weaving unsteadily, and Link fought to free his blade from the mud, but instead of attacking, the Sorcerer merely gave him a venomous look and moved his hand in an arcane gesture, disappearing as the air around him appeared to flex and bend momentarily.
Link rushed forward to the spot his enemy had just vacated, his sword raised, but it was too late. He sighed in frustration, irritably reaching up with one hand to wipe the rain off his face. The heavens crashed and boomed overhead, as if chastising him for letting the threat escape, and Link scowled up at the sky, moving off to try and find his horse.
--
--
Several hours later, Link entered the inn in Castle Town where he had spoken with Majacen and asked the innkeeper as to the whereabouts of the wizard.
The innkeeper, a pleasant, plump woman of about forty or so with curly brown hair, smiled, her eyes twinkling amusedly as the young Hero dripped on her floor.
"He's up in his room as far as I know, young sir," she said. "It seems he had the sense to stay out of the rain."
"Thanks," said Link, smiling wryly. He heard her chuckle as he turned and strode through the series of small puddles he had left on the simple wooden floor, pausing to hang his wet cloak on a peg near the fireplace.
Quickly, Link ascended the stairs and made his way through the hallway to Majacen's room, stopping to rap his knuckles on the door.
"Come in," the wizard's voice said from the other side.
Link opened the door and stepped inside to see Majacen sitting in one of the chairs next to the window, calmly sipping tea from a mug. The wizard gestured to a teapot and another mug sitting near his elbow on the table between the chairs.
"Would you care for some tea?" Majacen asked, smiling slightly through his graying dark beard. "You look like you could use some."
Link nodded. "As long as it's hot," he said, adjusting his sword as he sat down in the chair opposite the wizard. The rain had chilled him to the bone, and he welcomed the heat of the mug against his fingers as the wizard poured from the teapot.
Majacen's dark green eyes twinkled as he regarded the Hero. "I take it from your somewhat… bedraggled condition that you met with some adventure on the way back to the city, young Link?"
The Hero nodded. "I met the Sorcerer in Hyrule Field, and he attacked me."
Majacen's brows drew together in concern, and he leaned forward slightly across the table. "Please, tell me what happened," he said, his tone serious.
Quickly, Link described the fight, making note of the magical protection the Sorcerer had and how the assassin had acted once he had been hit by lightning.
The wizard leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm," he said finally. "I believe it is time for you to find some way to increase your own power to match that of your foe." He gestured to Link. "Since you are Hylian, you possess the innate capability to use magic, but you are already too old to become a student of the arcane arts. One must dedicate years of study to become truly proficient in such things, and you obviously do not have that kind of time." Majacen frowned thoughtfully. "No, you will need to seek an object of power if you hope to match your foe in battle. There are few I know of that would give the raw capability to stand against the kind of magic the Sorcerer wields, but since you mentioned that the lightning strike severely weakened him…"
Majacen fell silent for a few moments, deep in thought, and Link took advantage of this opportunity to take a few more sips of his tea. The pleasant warmth of the liquid spread through him and helped to dispel the chill from his bones.
He relaxed slightly as he looked out of the window and watched the vague flashes of the lightning outside, the dull rumble of the far-away thunder rolling over the city shortly afterward. The rain pelted the window in a staccato rhythm, flowing in rivulets down the glass that spread and split as if in slow imitation of the lightning.
Finally, the wizard stirred, a concerned look on his face. "Go to the Gorons and ask them what items they hold, Link," he said. "If I remember correctly, they guard a staff of great power that will help you stand against your foe."
At the wizard's meaningful look, Link set down his mug. "Now?" he asked wearily, dreading the answer.
"Yes, now," Majacen replied. "You have no time to waste, young Hero. Once the Sorcerer recovers from his wound, he will come after you and those you protect with a fury, and you must be able to stand against him once he does."
Link dropped one hand to rest on the hilt of his sword at his side. "I'll go ask the Gorons, then. It's about time I stopped by to check on Zelda and Gareth, anyway."
Majacen stood and looked up at Link as the young warrior did the same, since he was almost six inches shorter than the tall Hero.
"I shall keep searching for your enemy," he said, "and if I discern any weaknesses, I will let you know immediately. The sooner you dispatch this threat, the sooner we can work to stabilize the kingdom, lest Hyrule's enemies take advantage."
"All right," said Link. "See you later, Majacen."
The wizard nodded once. "Farewell, young Hero."
Link turned and left the room, headed downstairs and outside.
--
--
Zelda looked up from the chessboard at a sound at the other end of the large, round room deep within the Gorons' village carved into Death Mountain. Her brother turned to look, also, and his features brightened as he saw Link.
The tall Hero strode into the chamber with a broad smile, walking with long strides toward the royals. He was dressed in different clothes than those in which Zelda had last seen him, now wearing a sleeveless green tunic over a shirt of finely worked chain-mail, a long-sleeved white undershirt under this, mostly covered by leather bracers and fingerless gloves. Loose dark trousers were tucked into knee-length leather boots, and a sword hung at his side, the fletchings of a quiver of arrows poking up over one shoulder along with one end of a bow. Combined with his longish wavy blond hair and intense blue eyes, Link cut a dashing figure, and Zelda caught herself thinking he was rather handsome before the other thoughts and worries associated with their protector caught up with her and her mind was on business once again.
The Hero's appearance here could only mean that he'd come to consult with Zelda about something, and by the concerned expression that hid at the edges of his smile, she knew it worried him.
"Link!" Gareth said happily, moving forward as if to hug the Hero. Suddenly, he stopped and extended his hand instead, as if just then remembering his place.
Link shook her brother's hand in a strong warrior's greeting, smiling broadly as he clapped the boy on the shoulder with his other hand. "How've you been, Gar- ah, Your Highness?" Link caught himself, remembering that the two were well above his station and so should not be addressed informally.
Zelda smiled slightly to herself as Gareth launched into a description of what he and his sister had been doing during their time with the Gorons, which was, as he put it, a whole lot of nothing.
Once he was finished, Gareth looked up at Link inquisitively. "So, have you fought that assassin yet?" he asked, his tone growing more serious.
Link looked over at Zelda, meeting her eyes briefly as he spoke. "I have, actually. He attacked me during the storm, and we fought." He looked back down at Gareth, his expression apologetic. "I'm sorry, but he got away."
Gareth nodded sadly. "That's all right, Link. You'll get him eventually; I know you will."
"Young warrior!" the Goron patriarch boomed as he entered the chamber, his massive head nearly scraping the ceiling. Gorons were some of the few beings beside which the tall Link appeared short, especially the nine-foot-tall Patriarch, whose name Zelda did not know.
The enormous rock-man slapped Link on the back heartily, eliciting a clang from the shield slung over the Hero's quiver. "I heard you were here," the Patriarch said, grinning broadly. "Come to check on your charges?"
Link nodded. "I have. I've also come to ask if you are guarding any items of power. I need something to help me match the Sorcerer's power, and I was wondering if you know of anything I can use."
The Patriarch frowned thoughtfully, his broad face creasing in concentration. "The Elders will know," he said. "I will bring the keeper of our histories, Gor Ignus."
He gestured quickly to one of the guards who stood at the door, and the Goron moved off to fetch the elder.
Link turned to Zelda. "How have you been, Your Highness?" he said, addressing her this time.
The princess shrugged, reaching up to brush a lock of golden hair behind her ear. "It is as Gareth said," she replied. "There is not much to do but wait."
Though he attempted to suppress it, the muscles in Link's jaw worked momentarily and a hint of an apologetic expression gathered around his eyes. Clearly, he was irritated with himself for not dispatching the Sorcerer during their fight in Hyrule Field.
The Hero met her eyes with a serious expression. "I swear I will find and destroy the assassin, Your Highness," he said gravely. "The moment I am able to stand against him, I will make sure he does not threaten you again."
Zelda inclined her head in acknowledgment. "I thank you, Hero. I know you will do your best."
His expression brightened slightly at this, and Zelda let the smile that had been trying to emerge since she had first seen Link again through a little, in hopes of encouraging him to do the same.
A soft tapping announced the entrance of a positively ancient Goron, bent with age and leaning on a cane. Zelda had no idea how long Gorons lived, but she was sure they were in the presence of a being who had been alive for centuries, if not millennia. His skin was the tan of sandstone, but webbed with innumerable wrinkles, looking almost like cracks in an edifice.
"I am Gor Ignus," he announced in a surprisingly strong voice, looking over at them with intelligent brown eyes. "I understand you wish for me to relate to you part of our history?"
Zelda thought to herself that anything he said had to be reliable, because he was old enough to have witnessed most of history first-hand.
Link bowed his head respectfully in greeting to the elder. "Yes, I wish to know what items of power your people guard that might let me stand against the assassin who is after the prince and princess." He quickly described his fight with the Sorcerer, and the ancient Goron's craggy brows rose in interest when Link mentioned the lightning strike.
"Ah," Ignus said, a thoughtful expression on his wrinkled face. "I know just what you should seek, young warrior. Long ago, in the dawn age of the world, a great war was fought between the Golden Goddesses and the forces of evil, and many items of staggering power were fashioned by both sides in hopes of giving themselves the advantage. The sacred Master Sword was one of these, said to have been wielded by Din herself against her enemies. Another item, one that will surely interest you, is a weapon that the enemy forged for themselves; a staff capable of unleashing great blasts of lightning."
Ignus paused for a moment, and Link leaned forward in his chair slightly, obviously interested.
The Goron elder continued. "Upon the defeat of the enemy, their weapons were seized so that they would not fall into the hands of mortals, who did not possess sufficient power to control many of them. The Staff of Lightning was one of these, and instead of destroying it, the Goddesses in their wisdom decided to hide it and the other weapons away for the day when their servants, the Heroes, would have need of them."
He gestured at Link with the tip of his cane. "You, young warrior, must seek the Staff of Lightning. It was hidden deep within a temple, full of many dangers to keep those who were not worthy of wielding it away. The Goron people were entrusted with its location, and only one with our strength can open the entrance."
At this, the Patriarch, who had been standing silently behind the Goron elder, turned and beckoned one of the other Gorons in the chamber forward. "This is Dar," the Goron leader rumbled. "He knows the location of the temple, and he will accompany you there."
"Hello again, young warrior!" Dar said cheerfully, slapping Link on the back when he moved to stand next to him. Link stumbled a little, surreptitiously using the back of the chair he had been sitting in to keep from falling over. Zelda smiled slightly in sympathy; she'd been on the receiving end of a few enthusiastic Goron greetings herself, though they were undoubtedly a little gentler with her.
Gor Ignus placed a gnarled hand on Link's shoulder. Zelda noticed he was of a height with Link, which made him somewhat short for a Goron. "You must stay with us here tonight," the elder said. "The temple is far from here, and the journey is not an easy one. You would be better off beginning your journey with a night's rest and a full stomach."
"Thank you," said Link.
"Come," said the Patriarch. "Some of us have become adept at making human food, so you must tell us what you think. I still prefer a nice rock sirloin myself, but…"
He continued talking to the Hero as they made their way out of the room, and Zelda smiled to herself again as she and Gareth followed.
--
--
Majacen met the other man's eyes with a determined glare, his sword held in both hands in front of him. "I know what you are and who you serve, creature," he said derisively, "and you will not pursue your prey any longer."
"Out of my way, old man," the Sorcerer replied. His voice had once been deep, but now had an almost thin, slightly echoing quality to it, and was an unnatural and unusual sound.
The wizard had sensed the Sorcerer teleporting away from his duel with Link, and now he had tracked the servant of the Enemy here to the top of a cliff near Death Mountain. The wind was fierce at this altitude, and the hot wind flowing from the volcano sent both men's cloaks and robes flapping and fluttering around them, toying with Majacen's long hair and beard as he faced down the man who had assassinated most of the Hylian Royal Family.
Ordinarily, the wizard would have left any confrontations with this monster to the Hero, but once he had sensed the Sorcerer in the vicinity of Death Mountain, he had known he had to do something. If he could not destroy the creature in this encounter, he would at least keep him from discovering that his quarry was nearby.
The Sorcerer favored his right side, and dark blood stained his robe there. He kept one hand pressed to the wound the Hero had inflicted, but the other held his sword, blackened from the lightning strike. Majacen thought the Sorcerer had come to this secluded spot to recover from his fight with Link, since if the monster knew the royals were nearby, he would likely have begun his attack already.
The swirling wind made a lock of long black hair blow in front of Majacen's eyes momentarily, and his enemy took advantage of this to surge forward, a blast of magic charging in one hand while he slashed with his sword.
Majacen raised his sword to block the strike, and took one hand off his weapon to send a wave of concussive force blasting at his foe. The invisible shockwave twisted the Sorcerer half around, and the blast he had been charging pulverized a nearby rock formation instead.
The Sorcerer turned with the blast to build momentum in his sword, and he pushed himself free of the ground to jump in a spinning slash at the wizard, his sword gleaming in the moonlight.
Majacen poured power into his sword, and the blade began to glow with a bright white light. When the Sorcerer drew closer, Majacen raised his sword to intercept the spinning slash and the resultant discharge of energy blasted the Sorcerer backwards and off his feet, stumbling over a crack in the rock to topple onto his back.
The wizard pushed himself forward, sword outstretched before him as he sought to reach his foe before the creature could get to his feet. The Sorcerer managed to bring his sword up to intercept Majacen's overhand slash, and he responded with his own blast of concussive force, one that knocked the wizard several yards away.
Majacen managed to stay on his feet as he landed, and he flung his sword arm out to the side as he steadied himself, sending another charge of energy into the blade and making it glow again.
"You are weak, wizard!" the Sorcerer sneered, slowly getting to his feet. "Just like those you serve!"
Majacen brought his powerfully glowing sword into a guard position in front of himself. "Your master is deluding himself," he said, closely watching his enemy's movements. "He was defeated once before, and he will continue to be defeated by those like the one who gave you that wound," he gestured at the Sorcerer's side with the tip of his sword, "and those like me, until he is finally destroyed."
"My master is a god!" the Sorcerer said in his eerie, ghostly voice. "He cannot be destroyed, and he will claim his rightful position over the corpses of those who gave you your power."
Majacen did not reply, focusing instead on building up more power in the blade of his sword. With a sudden movement, the Sorcerer feinted left but brought his sword around in a powerful slash, hoping to catch Majacen off guard.
The wizard had lived past the normal lifespan of most mortals already, and his long decades of experience allowed him to see through the Sorcerer's feint and move into position to block the slash, discharging the power in his sword once their blades connected.
The pure energy flooded into the Sorcerer, and he shrieked in pain as he was blasted backwards into a boulder, actually cracking it with the force of his impact.
Majacen pressed forward, not allowing his enemy time to recover, and sent three consecutive concussive blasts at the Sorcerer, the first cracking the boulder even more so that a large chunk broke off and fell at the wizard's foe, the second knocking the Sorcerer into the path of the falling chunk of stone, and the third sweeping his feet out from underneath him.
As planned, the man-sized chunk of stone landed on the Sorcerer, but some sort of protection surrounded him, and the intended hammer shattered over the Sorcerer's prone form instead of crushing him.
Moving with surprising quickness, the Sorcerer leaped to his feet and telekinetically seized a dozen of the fragments of stone that lay scattered about him, sending them at Majacen in a deadly hail while he leaped in for a blur of strikes, moving so quickly that the wizard barely managed to keep his sword in his hand under the onslaught.
Several of the chunks of stone found their way through his defense, and one gashed his temple as another struck his knee. Majacen moved his sword through a furious defensive pattern, trying to keep the Sorcerer's deadly blade away from him as he tried to dodge the other chunks of stone.
More missiles found their way though, and Majacen's sword clattered to the rocky ground below as one sharp chunk impacted solidly with his wrist. Grinning savagely beneath his hood, the Sorcerer loosed a blast of concussive force and knocked the wizard backwards, off-balance, and before he could recover the Sorcerer sent out another wave of force, toppling Majacen over the edge of the cliff.
As he tumbled, Majacen managed to grab onto a tiny ledge several feet below the edge of the cliff, seizing a small, scraggly shrub with all his strength as his feet swung desperately beneath him.
The Sorcerer stepped to the edge of the cliff, sneering down at the wizard as he charged a ball of orange energy in his palm.
Majacen allowed his eyes to fall half-closed, concentrating furiously to build up the necessary energy before his enemy could finish charging his blast. Dark clouds swirled overhead, rapidly drawing together above the combatants. The air began to tingle with pent-up energy, and the Sorcerer looked up suspiciously at the clouds.
His eyes grew wide beneath his hood, and he dove out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by a lance of jagged purple-white energy, the thunder from its impact threatening to deafen both of them. The shockwave loosened Majacen's grip on the ledge, and he scrambled to pull himself up, finally finding purchase with his boots to push himself up into a more secure position.
Concentrating further, Majacen drew another chain of lightning strikes down out of the clouds at his foe, and the Sorcerer somehow managed to avoid them all.
With a final sneer, the Sorcerer sent a lance of energy at Majacen's handhold and transported himself away, disappearing as the wizard fell another few yards, seizing hold of another hardy shrub with both hands to halt his tumble.
Since he was now free of other distractions, Majacen gathered energy and transported himself back up to the top of the cliff, sighing in frustration as he saw that his enemy was gone and had somehow managed to disguise his destination as he teleported. There was no way to know where he had gone now.
Majacen picked up his sword from where it lay nearby and sheathed it, frowning. Despite his best efforts, the Sorcerer had managed to escape the death he so rightly deserved twice in one day, again free to come after Link and the two remaining royals he protected. At least the monster had not learned that the prince and princess were with the Gorons, which was an admittedly small victory.
The wizard dusted himself off and began his preparations to return to Castle Town and resume his hunt for the Sorcerer. Majacen was now determined; the assassin would meet his end the next time he met either himself or Link. He would devote all his time and resources now to making sure both of them were ready.
--
--
"I think you're going to have to leave him here, Little Brother."
Link looked over at his Goron companion, whose face was only a few inches below his, even though the young warrior was atop his horse.
The Hero reached forward to pat Khamsin's shoulder, looking up at the forbidding terrain ahead of them. Huge crags rose on all sides, as if they were giant sentinels who long ago turned to stone, but still kept a watchful eye on the entrance to the Temple of Lightning.
The two of them had come almost to the northern border of Hyrule, within sight of Zora's Domain and the Snowpeak Mountains beyond. Dar was right; the terrain ahead was too severe to attempt anything other than a hike on foot, and even then, Link would have to rely on Dar in places.
"What should I do with him?" Link asked his companion. "There are monsters around; I don't want to just leave him here."
Dar frowned thoughtfully, and then his wide face split into a grin. "I'll ask the Zoras, Little Brother. They take care of travelers' horses all the time, especially adventurers looking to explore one of the old temples around here." He hopped from one foot to the other, a comical image for something of his size. "You go ahead and start up the mountain, Little Brother. I'll be right back."
With that, Dar rolled himself into a ball and careened off down the canyon, bouncing off the walls and generally appearing to have a good time. Link smiled to himself. Gorons were generally pretty happy most of the time; he didn't think he'd ever seen one sad. Angry, he didn't want to see; an angry Goron was probably an unstoppable one, and something even the Hero didn't want to face off against.
Shrugging under his cloak and listening to his equipment rattle, Link dismounted and looked up at the forbidding rock face, wondering if there was really a temple hidden inside the mountain. It was certainly big enough; only Death Mountain and those in the Snowpeak range were bigger. It seemed a perpetual thundercloud hung over the tip, striking it repeatedly with lightning.
Link adjusted the various buckles on his equipment one last time and stretched up for the nearest hand-hold, searching for a foot-hold next. For the next half hour, he made his way up the mountain, almost painfully slowly from the dearth of good places to put his hands and feet. He nearly fell twice, and by the time he had gotten high up enough that a fall would at least injure if not kill him, he discovered that the rock face was smooth for the rest of the ascent, with no door visible. The mountain just kept going, stretching far overhead.
Muscles straining, Link tried to pull himself up another few inches, but the tiny crevices and ledges on which he was perched were only an inch or two wide, and remaining still was quickly taxing his strength.
Fortunately, it was then that he heard a deep voice humming merrily and a succession of thumps and breaking rock. In seconds, Dar came into view, pounding hand- and foot-holds into the rock face for himself. He grinned at Link as he passed the young warrior and kept going, making more progress in a minute than Link had made in his entire climb.
Link shook his head amusedly. Good thing he's with me, he thought.
Grunting, Link moved over to the Goron's path and followed the rock-man the rest of the way up the mountain, dodging rock debris and attempting to figure out what tune Dar was humming, if any.
Finally, after another ten minutes of climbing, the sheer rock face gave way to a wide ledge with a darkened opening at one end, set into the cliff beyond. The two of them stopped for a rest break, and Link broke out his canteen, drinking nearly half its contents in one gulp.
"This is the temple, Little Brother," Dar said, walking over to the opening. Link thought it looked like the entrance to some huge animal's lair.
As Link watched, Dar walked into the opening and quickly disappeared in the blackness. The Hero heard several loud thumps and a deep grunt of effort, followed by the sound of sliding stone and something metal grinding against something else. After a few moments Dar reappeared, beckoning him closer.
"The way is open, Little Brother," Dar said, grinning broadly. "Let's go."
Steeling himself, Link got to his feet and followed his Goron companion through the doorway, wondering what awaited him inside.
--
--
Author's Note: This took a little longer to finish than I had hoped, partially due to finals and partially due to some flu-ish thing that I'm just now getting over. I'm still working on the 'Missing Pieces' entry I mentioned in the last chapter, so that won't be up for a little while. I have already started on the next chapter of this story, however, so it should be up before too long. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the art based on my stories, which you can find in the Favorites section of my DeviantArt account.