Volume One: The Rescue of the Saviour

By Gabriel B

Chapter Seventeen: The Disappearance of the Gorons

Link awoke to the sound of crying in a nearby room, and rolled over in frustration. It had been such a lovely dream, seeing his father again after all these years, and he didn't appreciate being rudely woken from it. But there were duties to perform, and caring for his brother was one of them.

As he set out to find something with which to pacify his brother, Link's thoughts returned to his dream. The details were beginning to fade, but he still remembered the basic premise. Father was on a mission, and he was coming home today. But the more Link thought about it, the less he could recall; like gravel trickling away through your fingers – you can grab onto one piece, but the rest falls through.

"Calm down, Darbeno," Link said, finding some of the young boy's paste, and carefully spoon-feeding it to him. "Father will be here soon," he said, and hoped.

Goron City was quite a remarkable sight, even when devoid of all its inhabitants. The grand ceiling, carved out of the stone of the very mountain itself, was smooth, and perfectly spherical. As it sloped down, it formed the walls, too, in such an excellently contoured arc that there was little doubt that both designer and craftsman were perfectly accordant with each other.

In either direction, there were hallways carved into the rock face – or rather, the wall itself – which lead to other rooms. The floor was flat, but it formed a giant circle, which they could see in its whole, with the centre being carved away entirely. Saria looked over the edge, and saw four other such floors, with the bottom one containing an enormous urn with the face of a Goron carved into its side. As she looked up, she saw another two floors, each seamlessly built into the last.

Hyre looked at Darunia expectantly, and Darunia nodded. Whatever had taken them, it was his responsibility to find them. "This way, everyone," he said, and started off to the right, "it's down that hallway over there." Impa and Nabooru lifted Yrma's only barely breathing body and the two of them carefully carried her around the narrow ridge. Saria tore her gaze away from the artwork that, too, was expertly etched into the walls and noticed Ruto hadn't moved from the entrance.

"C'mon, Iketh," she said, but Ruto only twitched slightly at the name. Darunia looked back, and saw that Ruto was staring intently at something on one of the walls right by the exit. She rubbed a damp finger over it, and looked at it, then her finger. The little forehead she had scrunched up slightly in thought.

"This is new," she said, and held up her finger to the others. Indeed, there was a black smudge on her finger. "Very new."

"Is this really the time?" Darunia asked impatiently. Didn't saving the entirety of the Goron population of Hyrule come before a new painting on the walls? But Hyre would have none of it, it seemed, and Darunia grunted in frustration, trudging along behind him.

Nabooru nodded at Impa, and took most of Yrma's weight on her own shoulders. "I've got her," she said, and Impa hurried back to take a look at the smudge. In black ink, rather than an engraving, there was what appeared to be an eye, surrounded by the same four symbols repeating in a circle around the eye.

Impa ran her own fingers over the symbols, getting some of the ink on her hand. "Those letters, those are Old Hylian, aren't they?" she said, examining the symbols surrounding the eye. Despite the apparent smudging, the painting looked untouched. Impa shied away from the markings, and said, "I think Darunia's right – we should get back to looking for the Gorons."

Out of the corner of his eye, Darunia saw Hyre linger at the wall for a moment longer before hurrying to his side.

Slowly, details of the dream returned to him, as reminders from around him sparked Link's memories. Father was angry about something – no, not angry; it was more like he was worried about something, about him.

As Link fed Darbeno the liquidy mush that was his breakfast, his thoughts returned to his memories. "It's been quite awhile since Father was here, you know," he said, more to himself than to his little brother. "Everyone respected him, and everyone listened to him – well, he was our leader, after all. But he was also a brave man, and a soldier in the Great War. You know, our father, Dar—!" Link was cut off by someone screaming from another room. "Get off of me!"

Link dropped the bowl of food, and hurried off after the voice.

"Let's go, Iketh," Saria said, grabbing Ruto's hand and pulling. Ruto stumbled away from the marks, and fell in line with the rest of them as Darunia led them down several hallways. Ruto kept looking around her, but not at anything particular, and every so often, reached a hand out to feel something in the air. "What are you doing?" Saria asked, but Ruto shook her head. The group walked down several more passageways, each getting progressively hotter and hotter. "Where are you taking us, Dar?" Saria asked, pulling off her outer tunic. "A volcano?"

"Where do you think Goron City is, Miss Saria?" Hyre asked, without turning around. Saria and Ruto exchanged worried glances. At last, the party turned one more corner, where they were met by a brutal heat that almost fused their clothes to their skin.

"The safe house is across this gap," Darunia said, gesturing to a large hole in the floor, several yards long, filled almost to the brim with boiling hot lava.

"You mean we have to cross this?" Yrma asked as she painfully clutched her side. She collapsed onto the floor from the sweltering heat.

Impa reached under her sister's arm, and hoisted her up. "Come on, it'll be easy," she said. A shimmering violet light shone from Impa's chest, and soon, the Sheikah sisters had completely disappeared, replaced by a violet orb. Nabooru, Saria, and Ruto followed suit.

Darunia reached out an arm for Hyre, and said, "Grab on," but Hyre shook his head. He reached inside one of the pockets in his cloak, and pulled out a clanking silvery, torpedo-shaped object.

"Creeps me out too much; I've got my own way across, thanks," he said, and carefully aimed at one of the pillars on the other side of the chasm. With a 'clunk', the pointed head of the object hurled forward, and with another, stuck itself onto the head of the pillar. He pressed a button, and was hurled towards the other side amid a mechanical clanking sound. Darunia only shrugged his shoulders, and joined his comrades in flight, as the coloured orbs floated across the pit. Hyre clicked another button, and the magnetic head detached itself from the pillar.

"How did you –?" Saria asked when she realized he was the first to arrive, but Hyre showed her the object in his hand.

"Link's Longshot," he said. "I've been tracking him for a while, and I found a few of his belongings in the process." Hyre looked around, and saw that the tunnel reached its end here. There was only a rock in the middle of a circle; other than that, the only way to go from here was back. "So, Mister Darunia, where is the safe house?"

Darunia pointed at the rock in the centre of the circle. "Under here," he said, and casually pushed the boulder it to the side.

Link ran up the ramps leading towards the upper floors to find the source of the commotion. One of his friends, Liggs, was lying on the floor with a Hylian soldier standing over him, brandishing a sword. "What's going on?" Link demanded. He hoped his tone didn't convey the fear that was definitely within him.

"Who's in charge of this place?" the soldier demanded, looking around in agitation.

"That would be my father," Link said bravely, "but he's not here at the moment, so I'm in charge."

The soldier scoffed at him. "A boy, head of a city?" he said, and laughed. "What is the world coming to? Nevertheless, we are here on official matters from the Royal Family, and have no interest in your people; all we want is cooperation. A woman came this way last night. She called herself 'Impa'. Is she still here?"

Link returned the soldier's firm gaze, and said "No, nobody by that name has been here as far as I can recall."

Another male soldier, as well as two females, returned from other rooms. "No sign of her," one of the females, a redhead, said. "She may have gone down the mountain."

"She can't have gotten much farther than that, at least. Are the insignias in place?" the lead soldier asked, and the three others nodded. "Very well, then. Everything's up to the Queen, long let her rule, now. Move out!"

Without saying another word to Link, the four of them turned around and marched outside. Link breathed a sigh of relief as they left. It wasn't until he returned downstairs that it happened – a blinding flash of light, accompanied by an ear-splitting sound that brought the entirety of Goron City to its knees.

Hyre was the first to leap down into the hole, with a cry of "Geronimo!"

"I'll stay here with my sister," Impa said, and Nabooru nodded. One by one, the other four Sages dropped in the hole, to be caught by light emanating from the platform at the bottom, which slowly lowered them to the ground. Saria gasped as she looked around her, and saw a lush growth of plant life, despite being so near to the heart of a volcano. Above them, the ceiling had holes to allow rainwater and sunlight; right now, she could make out beams of light that were peeking through the clouds outside. She looked behind her, where the lava pit should have been, but all she saw was a rock face.

"The safe house is this way," Darunia said, and hurried off into the trees. It was protocol that, in any attack, the Elders takes shelter in the safe house while the city defends itself. Darunia only hoped that his son, Link, would have followed those instructions, as he raised him to do. Perhaps one of them would have more information on what happened, but that wasn't what Darunia was thinking about. How could I let this happen, he angrily asked himself, and knocked down a nearby tree in his frustration.

"Whoa there, big guy," Nabooru said, taking a small step back, and Darunia realized that the rest of them were giving him worried looks.

"Let's keep going," he said after a moment. "We're almost there…"

"You know, you never really told me who those guys are," Yrma said to her sister. Impa had set up some sort of violet barrier to keep out the heat from the nearby lava pit, but Yrma didn't quite understand how. Twelve long years had passed since the two of them were together, and in that time, Impa had changed completely from the rash girl she'd once known.

"Like Hyre said, they're Sages, like me," she said, and stood up to resume her pacing. "The boy we're looking for, Link, he awakened each of us to our 'heritage' or what have you, and the five of us, Rauru, and Princess Zelda helped him defeat Ganondorf." After that, she fell silent, the only sounds being a slight humming from the shield, a bubbling of lava, and Impa's boots clicking on the rock.

"Quite a diverse group you've got, though," said Yrma, and Impa simply shrugged, and Yrma changed the subject. "So what's the deal with this Hyre guy, anyway?" she asked, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of Impa, recalling her negative reactions to whatever he said.

But Impa shrugged again, and simply said, "He's been lying to us from the get-go, but he's been a bit helpful, I suppose." More pacing. Yrma grew frustrated at her sister. Back in Kakariko, only an hour ago, they'd been smiling, laughing, happy together, but now, she wouldn't even look at her, instead finding a small shadow on one of the walls to be much more interesting.

"Is it something I said?"

"Not now, Yrma," Impa said with a hint of agitation.

"It damn well will be right now, Imp," she said, and shakily brought herself to her feet. Slowly, she stumbled over to her sister.

Impa gasped. "No, really, we've got more important things right now. I've seen this marking before," Impa said urgently. She turned to her sister for the first time since the others departed, and pointed directly at the spot on the wall that had held her attention for the past minute. "Think about it – where else have we seen this?" Yrma gaped at her sister, and then looked at the wall. Sure enough, there was an ink drawing on the wall, but Yrma drew a blank. It seemed familiar, but she wasn't exactly feeling her best at the moment, and déjà vu was everywhere for her.

"Sure, it's identical to the one Ruto saw at the entrance, but that's not what I mean – not that you even saw the other one. But I'm talking years ago, back before everything happened, back at the Castle." Yrma shook her head, her mouth still slightly open. "Oh, come on, didn't you pay attention to anything during your Sheikah lessons? It was Old Hylian history, during the first Great War, centuries ago. Come on, Yrma, think!"

Yrma turned back to the image on the wall, and slowly, boring lessons from twenty years ago began to creep back into her memory. She remembered poring over history books about the two – quickly becoming three – Great Civil Wars, about the discovery of the Triforce bringing chaos to the kingdom, with Hylians emerging victorious after a long and terrible struggle. But there was something else, something that helped, something that made the end finally possible. And then everything clicked in place; Yrma remembered the image, one of ten in a circle, exactly as it was depicted here on this wall, and she gasped. "You're kidding…"

Three minutes later, when they finally arrived, it felt like they had been running for hours. In front of them stood a large cobblestone structure, shaped clumsily like a house, but there was no light inside. Darunia pounded his feet on the ground rhythmically for a moment before stopping, and looking at the wooden door expectantly. Nothing happened. Moments passed in silence as they waited, and nothing continued to happen.

Darunia looked at Hyre, and the two of them nodded silently – something was wrong. Hyre slowly drew his sword as Darunia opened the door. Hyre stepped towards the doorway and wielded his weapon threateningly at whatever was inside, and Darunia ignited his fists. "Please let one of them be here," he whispered to himself, and the two of them barged inside, and were met with more silence.

"You go left, I'll head to the right," Hyre said, and Darunia grunted in agreement.

The two of them navigated the structure in a matter of minutes, and returned to the entrance empty-handed. "There's nobody here," Darunia said angrily. "Back in the city, there were doors open, cupboards, but there's nothing like that here. Whatever happened, the Elders didn't even make it down here."

"It's deserted down here, too?" Ruto asked, and her face fell. "I really hope Zora's Domain isn't like this, too – I don't know what I'd do if my father were gone…"

Saria hugged her friend, and said, "I'm sure everything's fine, Iketh." She looked at Darunia, and asked the question that was hot on everyone's mind: "What next?"

When Link finally managed to open his eyes and pry his hands away from his ears, everything seemed oddly darker. His eyes began to adjust to the lighting, but the walls definitely seemed darker than he'd remembered them. He tried to call for help, but no sound came out – he'd screamed himself hoarse during the explosion of light and sound. He stood himself up, trying not to fall over, and hurried back to his brother.

"It's okay, Darbeno" he mouthed, as tried to calm the young Goron's flailing arms. Like himself, Link noticed that Darbeno wasn't actually screaming – no sound was coming out of his lungs, but he had all the visual indications of wailing, nonetheless. Darbeno gradually calmed down, and Link was able to focus on other things, like a faint buzzing sound he hadn't noticed earlier that was coming from somewhere outside of the room. He placed Darbeno down in his bed and silently promised to be back in a moment.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who had noticed it. Many other Gorons were looking up in confusion at the only thing that was still making any noise – repeated attempts at smashing into things had only resulted in silence, but the hum continued.

He followed the crowd as they wandered towards one of the outer walls of the city. Being only nine, he wasn't the tallest of the bunch, so, with difficulty due to not being able to speak, he managed to push his way to the front of the crowd by one of the hallways. This particular hallway, as Link saw, lead to the outside – or at least, it had. Instead, there was a kind of wall made from black lightning about halfway between the fourth floor and the outside that seemed to block out all light from the sun, despite it being well after dawn.

Something caught his eye to his left, and saw a small ink painting on the wall that wasn't there before. It looked like an eye with some inscription circling it, but he wasn't familiar with the language. Curiously, he put a finger to it and –

"OW!" he mouthed, but again, no sound came out. He shook his hand as the pain subsided. Whatever it was, it wasn't friendly, and probably had something to do with the lightning just ahead. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he turned to the rest of the Gorons. It was time for him to step up as the leader of the Gorons, in fact as well as in title. He took a deep breath, and mimed for someone to get him some paint and a brush.

"You're kidding!" Yrma said, and for a moment, completely forgot about her injuries. "But this is really powerful magic! The Goddesses had to do this – nobody knows how it actually works!"

"Clearly someone figured it out," Impa said. "And it makes sense, too – why everyone in the city is gone, but it's localized to only the city – these markings must be a boundary of some sort. The only question now is how we get them back."

Yrma frowned. "But I thought it was only one-way; wasn't that the point, after all? Wasn't the point that once we imprisoned them, they never came back? Otherwise, I can't imagine why it was in use for so long." Her stomach sank as she realized the implications of what she was saying. If it worked the way it was supposed to, anyone that was inside at the time would be trapped with no way to return.

Her sister seemed to read her mind. She said, "Let's hope whoever did this got it wrong, then," and gave Yrma a slight smile.

"Alright," Yrma said, "let's assume they got the spell wrong somehow and that – I don't know – that these symbols are what are holding them there. Can we maybe paint over them or something?"

"I don't think so," Impa said and shook her head. "The ink's already begun to dry, so the symbol would still physically be there, it would just be covered." She looked at her fingernails, and said, "Let's try removing them…" She scratched a finger at the figure, but seemed unable to affect it in any way, but her thumbnail showed signs of wear. "It doesn't seem like that's working, either."

"Can you try using some of your Sage mojo to blast it away?" suggested Yrma. If nothing else would work, maybe magic would defeat magic.

Impa shrugged. "Might as well give it a try," she said, and a dark violet, pulsating ball of light appeared in her right hand. Except Yrma noticed that it wasn't quite light – it certainly didn't cast any shadows, and didn't give off a glow, but there was no better way to describe it. Impa hurled the un-light at the wall, and the two of them covered their ears and heads as the impact caused rubble to loudly fall from the wall, and debris to spray everywhere.

One of the other Gorons handed Link a thin brush and a bowl of white paint, then stood back with the others and watched. Link tried to make sure he didn't show how nervous he was, how little he knew what he was doing.

He dipped the tip of the brush in the paint, and then pressed it against the mark on the wall. The wall responded by sending a sharp, painful pulse throughout his body. Link shook violently, and backed against the wall behind him, his scream silenced by whatever was going on around them. But Link wasn't going to give up that easily. If he couldn't touch it, he would have to remove it forcefully.

Link dipped the brush back into the paint, and then looked behind him at the rest of the Gorons and the expectant looks on their faces. He walked over to one of the interior wall faces, and began detailing his plan, as clearly as possible, so that they would all understand what they had to do. They had to fight magic with magic – Goron explosive potions. Quickly, preparations began being made, and the ingredients were gathered…

"What was that?" Ruto said suddenly, looking around her, and the others looked at her in surprise. "Is there a breeze in here, or something?" She shook Saria off her as she looked around to find whatever had gotten her attention.

"No, there's no breeze here," Darunia said to her, and waved his hand like he was swatting an insect. He had other things to worry about, and shared an enraged look with Hyre – or rather, expected to, but apparently Hyre was preoccupied with the ceiling.

"There's a breeze out there," he said, and pointed to one of the holes in the ceiling that revealed the cloudy afternoon sky above them. "But there are too few of those holes and too far away."

Darunia was confused. "What are you talking about?" he asked, looking at Hyre, then at the ceiling, then back at Hyre. "What does that have to do with anything?" He wasn't the only one – Nabooru and Saria both gave him blank looks; neither of them followed, either.

Hyre shrugged, and said, "It's going to rain soon, so there's a bit of a breeze beforehand. Only, that can't be what Miss Ruto described, for those reasons." He bent down and picked up a fistful of dirt from the forest floor, then threw it into the air above him. Despite everything that was going on, Darunia couldn't help but crack a smile when all of it fell back down, squarely on Hyre's face. "New theory: there is no breeze."

Best of all, this seemed to satisfy Ruto, who quit her fidgeting, and allowed Darunia to finally regain his control over the situation. "We should get back to Impa," he declared. "We still don't know what did this; she and her sister might be in danger." Despite the fact that Impa was one of the strongest people he'd ever met, and would have to be severely outnumbered to be taken in a fight, everyone seemed to feel that it was the best option at the moment.

When Yrma could see and breathe again, she saw a silhouette standing in front of the wall, with rock rubble scattered around them. Amid coughing, she managed to ask, "Did it work?"

Instead of answering, though, Impa bent down and swatted away some of the settling dusts from a few of the larger chunks of rock. "Heh, see for yourself," she said, and tossed a piece back to her younger sister.

As she caught the fragment of rock, Yrma felt a mild tingling in her fingertips, which ran through up to her shoulder. Every muscle in her arm momentarily seized, and she dropped the rock in her panic. Facing her was half a painting of an eye, and the lower parts of the ancient lettering that had surrounded it when it was still on the wall. Yrma could year a faint hissing noise accompanying an almost imperceptible flickering of light from the paint. "I think we – augh!" She was interrupted by a much louder humming sound, and much brighter golden glow, coming from right behind her. One by one, the Sages, followed by Hyre, materialised from the light surrounding the hole they'd entered. "Oh, it's just you guys," she said, and relaxed.

"Did you find anything?" Impa asked the others.

Darunia let out a heavy sigh – an impressive sound, if Yrma had ever heard one – and said, "Nothing. The safe house was empty and untouched. Whatever happened to them, nobody had a chance to react. But it gets weirder – it's not just the Gorons that are gone: it's the things, too. If it wasn't built into the mountain itself, it's gone – the food, the paint, the beds – they're all gone. I'm almost afraid to find out what happened to my people…"

Their brief victory temporarily forgotten, Yrma felt for the Goron leader. But Impa wasn't looking at Darunia. Instead, her gaze was focused intently on Hyre. "We think we have an idea," she said, and Yrma saw that she was holding, by her fingertips, another piece of rock that presumably came from the wall. Still looking straight at Hyre, she asked, "What do you make of this," and tossed the fragment to him. Hyre threw his hand up to catch it and Yrma could see his body tense up as he felt the same jolt that she had. Yrma could see the sliver of satisfaction on her sister's face when she caught Hyre off-guard, which quickly faded into her usual, down-to-business demeanour. The other four didn't seem to notice.

Hyre glared at Impa for a moment, before looking at the stone in his hand. He said, "From the look of it, it seems to be a piece of the painting that Miss Ruto found on the wall earlier."

"Except this one came from right over here," Impa said, pointing at the rock face behind her.

He looked at the fragment again, and said, "I still don't see the signifi…cance…" His voice trailed and he furled his brow in thought.

"Can I take a look?" Nabooru asked. Without waiting for an answer, she snatched the stone from Hyre's hand and examined it herself. Hyre didn't seem to care. His mouth was opening and closing, as if he had something to say, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. Finally, he spoke.

"But that can't be it."

"It's been over two hundred years. Someone was bound to figure out how it worked eventually."

"No, it can't be – it never created an energy field around it like this. And even if it did, it certainly didn't last once the spell was finished."

"That's why Yrma and I think that whoever did this got it wrong somehow – and it means that if we're right, we might be able to bring back the Gorons."

"What in Nayru's Love are you two talking about?" Ruto asked, looking back and forth between Hyre and Impa. "I've understood exactly none of this conversation."

"Calm down, Iketh," Saria whispered. "I don't get it either."

"What do you know about the history of the kingdom?" Hyre asked, but was hushed by Impa.

"Two hundred or so years ago, the Triforce was finally found, and the question of ownership grew into a war – the Second Great Civil War, instigated by a batch of dark mages," she said, and Hyre closed his mouth disappointedly. "The Goddesses finally intervened when the King was assassinated, and presented the people with a silver Mirror, and a spell, which the Wise Men used to cast the dark mages into another world. The mirror had markings on it of an eye, surrounded by some sort of word that nobody understood, and it had ten of these markings, in a circle around the rim. If we're right, a similar spell was used on the Gorons – on the entire city."

"But it didn't work properly," Hyre said, taking advantage of Impa's pause. "The mirror worked on a per-use basis; nothing could get in or out unless the mirror was active, but here, the field is always on. I'm guessing that breeze you felt earlier was actually the field weakening from Impa destroying one of the markings."

The potion was ready, and had been distributed into a dozen or so small vials for individual uses. Link felt the eyes of the city watching him; he felt more nervous than he could ever remember being at the moment. But there was only one thing to do, so he took a deep breath, and hurled the vial in his hand at the wall.

There was an explosion of light and debris as the glass shattered against the wall, and a rush of rock and air flew at him. Link threw his arms up to protect his eyes, and after the bulk of the debris had passed, willed himself to take a look. Whatever that marking was, it was bad news, and they had to get rid of it. If the potion wasn't strong enough to do that, then he was at a loss for what to do next. His stomach turned to ice.

However, to his immense pleasure and surprise, there was a chunk of wall missing, precisely where the markings had been only moments before, and Link could have sworn he felt the stuffy sensation around him lighten just a bit. And he wasn't the only one who felt it.

Link turned around, and saw that behind him, the rest of the Gorons were similarly excited, though none of them could speak. It took a moment for him to get their attention, but as he did, he gestured for the potions to be passed out. He returned to the paint and the walls, and, on a clean surface, gestured for his fellow Gorons to spread out, find the symbols, and destroy them.

For the first time since Yrma had seen his face clearly, Darunia looked hopeful. He said, "So if we destroy all of them – I'm guessing there are ten – then that means –"

Hyre said, "We can hope."

"That's good enough for me," shouted Darunia. "Where are the rest of these markings?"

"They should have been arranged in a circle – or close enough to one," Yrma said, struggling to her feet, ready to help. "They had to surround the city, but the effect would be felt from a bit outside the ring."

As if that settled things, Darunia unleashed an impressive roar, a phrase in a guttural tongue Yrma didn't recognize, and leapt into the lava-coated pit. In two great leaps, he crossed the pit, and scaled the far wall. "What are you all waiting for?" he said, with what sounded like fantastic enthusiasm.