Chapter 13: Dodongo's Cavern
"Just pick it up," said Navi. "It's not going to hurt you."
Link inched toward the cliff, eyeing the patch of brown grass that marked the Bomb Flower's stem. How was something so small supposed to remove an entire boulder from the mountainside?
"Here goes nothing." Bending over, he thrust his hands into the soil and yanked on the stem, ripping it out with ease thanks to the bracelets King Darunia had given him. Instead of the scraggly bulb he expected, the part of the plant beneath the soil was much larger than the grass marking its location. It was round and heavy. It also hissed like a geyser.
"It sure makes a lot of noise," said Navi.
A flame licked up through the roots and engulfed the grass clinging to the top. Link dropped the Bomb Flower, startled, and tried to pick it back up, but the plant had already rolled over the edge of the cliff.
Wait a minute. His eyes widened. "Get down!"
A split second later, the hissing stopped, and the night lit up with an explosion that shook the cliffs. Shards of rock spiraled away from the blast, bleeding trails of smoke that reached the sky over Kakariko Village. Heat and debris washed over Link as he huddled near the entrance to Goron City.
"I think it worked," said Navi.
Link had no intention of bumbling his way to Dodongo's Cavern in the middle of the night, so he slept as far away from the edge of the cliff outside Goron City as possible to wait the dawn.
After a restless slumber, he ate the rest of the fruit Zelda had given him—the one food item he had managed to save from Impa's leather pack—and hiked back to the cavern, trying not to look down. He spotted the wreckage of the boulder easily enough; just past that, the mouth of the cavern beckoned. He took a deep breath and plunged in.
Steam belched from countless vents in the rock, blinding him. Everything in the cavern seemed to glow an angry red. When he finally could see, it took everything he had not to turn and flee back to Kakariko Village.
Ahead, the narrow tunnel he had entered opened up to a chamber that stretched back hundreds of meters. Steam shrouded everything, including the man-sized cracks that loomed every few feet and the lava that seeped through the floor like blood through clenched fingers. From a handful of stalactites poking through the mist, he got a rough idea of how high the ceiling was.
Rocks of all shapes and sizes were scattered everywhere, some smaller than Navi, others nearly as large as King Darunia himself.
Link wiped the sweat from his eyes. "I don't see any monsters."
A loud thump drew their attention to a nearby boulder.
Link whirled, ready to strike anything that moved, but the beady-eyed lizard perched on the boulder caused him to hesitate. "That doesn't look dangerous."
"Just don't touch it, whatever you do," said Navi.
Ignoring her, Link put out a hand to touch the rough green skin. When he did, the skin turned red—and the lizard exploded.
Scraps of flesh flew everywhere. Thrown back by the force, Link slammed into the wall, collapsing against a steam vent. The smell of sulfur drove him back to his feet swiftly in spite of the pain, and he stumbled away towards the far end of the cavern, sneezing twice to remove the foul air from his lungs.
Navi flew up close, flicking a bloody scale from his shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"I'm still alive."
"Link?"
"What?"
"Next time, listen to the fairy."
With a half-hearted smirk, he brought out his Deku Shield. "If all of them do that, I think we're in trouble."
"We'll be fine as long as you don't try to pet one again."
"Go dip your wings in the lava."
Before Navi could respond, a flock of bats erupted from a crack to Link's right and swarmed over his head. Both of them stared until their reflexes kicked in; then Link took up his sword and ran for cover, swiping at any bat that got too close.
A second flock of bats awoke from behind a boulder on his left. Rather than attacking, these bats flew away towards the center of the cavern. He decided to follow them, hoping their passage would disturb any monsters lurking in the mist that might otherwise attack him.
"Not so fast," said Navi. "We don't know what's out there!"
Link slowed just in time to witness a pillar of fire swallowing the bats directly in front of him. The fire had come from a nearby ditch, but he had no time to wonder if it had originated in the earth or from one of the monsters. Diving behind a boulder, he waited for the fire to die out, then he scurried to the edge of the ditch for a look.
The monster slouched in a bed of rocks at the bottom of the ditch. Like its smaller cousin, it had the appearance of a lizard, but razor teeth and a sloping jaw also gave it a dragon-like appearance. Smoke puffed from its nostrils in a steady rhythm, and it stared at him as he might have stared at a hunk of roast Octorok after a day of fasting.
Time slowed. King Darunia's warning goaded him on, even as he yearned to find some safer way of killing the creature.
"Kid, if you don't come back without killing every last monster in Dodongo's Cavern, I'll stick your head in a Bomb Flower!"
Link broke his gaze with the monster. "Navi, if you had to choose between having your head stuck in a Bomb Flower or set on fire, which would you choose?"
"Huh?"
He grimaced. "Never mind."
With a cry, he leapt into the ditch, planting the soles of his boots on the monster's tail. His blade slid from the tough scales on its back, causing minimal damage but certainly making the monster angry. He had hoped to hold the tail in place, but instead it lashed forward, throwing him onto the head. He rolled off just as the monster clamped its teeth on the toe of his right boot, missing the flesh of his foot by inches.
With one leg trapped, he slashed at the beady eyes, and his sword came away wet with blood. Pulling his leg free from the thrashing beast, he jumped back onto its head and ran along the spine to the tail.
It doesn't seem to want me near its tail, he thought. Why?
Taking a deep breath, he threw down his Deku Shield and aimed for the juncture where the tail hooked up with the rest of the body. Then he plunged his sword straight down with both hands. Black blood showered his tunic, going up his nose and into his eyes.
He had severed the tail completely.
"Link," said Navi. "I think you'd better run."
He didn't have to see to know what she meant. Wiping blood off his face, he ran. The lizard exploded a moment later, and the blast carried him out of the ditch to land on a rock some distance from the center of the cavern. He nearly blacked out.
"You listened that time." Navi tiptoed up his back. "Good for you."
Cradling bloody nostrils, Link pointed back towards the ditch with his sword. "I left my Deku Shield behind."
"Isn't that part of it in your lap?"
"Where?" He picked up a blackened shard of wood straddling his knees. "You mean this?" He stared at it, recognizing his initials and Saria's in the grain. The only part of the shield that had survived.
"Ouch, that hurts, Brother!"
Link froze. The steam, the gurgling of lava, and the squeaking of bats had muffled the sound, but someone had called out, clearly. "Navi?"
Before the fairy could reach the spot, the young Goron huddling near the ditch perked up. "It's me, Mountainfoot!"
Darunia's nephew. Link frowned. "How did you get here?"
The Goron stood, pulling a splinter from its palm. "I followed you."
"Why?" said Navi.
"My brother and I wanted to see if you could defeat the Dodongos."
Link's frown deepened. "Your brother and you?"
The rock Link had landed against unfolded, becoming the mottled form of Stonethrower.
Link's eyes widened slightly. "How did you find out where I was going?"
Mountainfoot clapped a hand to his face. "We hid in the smoke as you opened the door. We heard everything."
Stonethrower flung a rock at his brother's head. "If it wasn't for Mountainfoot, you never would've found us!"
Link pointed his sword, first at one, then the other Goron. "I want you to go back. Both of you."
"Why?" Mountainfoot lowered his hand.
"Your dad barely let me into the city to begin with. What will he do if you're killed?"
Stonethrower's eyes glinted. "That won't matter if you die, too."
Link shook his head. "Why should I let you come with me?"
Mountainfoot exchanged a glance with his brother. "Because Uncle Darunia blocked the entrance to the cavern."
Link and Navi shouted in tandem. "He what?"
Stonethrower explained. "After you left the throne room, he found us hiding by the door and told us to follow you. He said that if you tried to go back on your word and escape, we should find a Bomb Flower and…well…I probably shouldn't repeat the rest of it."
"He wanted us to make sure you destroyed all the monsters," said Moutainfoot. "We helped him block the entrance again so you couldn't get out; the only way to get out is to find a Bomb Flower."
"The only Bomb Flowers in Dodongo's Cavern are guarded by King Dodongo," Stonethrower added.
Link was afraid to ask, but he did anyway. "Who's King Dodongo?"
"A monster like the one you just destroyed," said Mountainfoot. "Only fifty times bigger."
Fifty. Link closed his eyes, not sure whether to laugh or throw himself in the lava. "That's a big number."
"It is, Brother," Stonethrower said. "A very big number."
After five hours in the cavern and not even a sign of King Dodongo, Link was ready to try ramming the blocked entrance with his head. If by some miracle it worked, King Darunia's wrath at his failure could scarcely be hotter than the air in the cavern.
But then, he could never go back to Hyrule Castle without the second Spiritual Stone. To disappoint those who had placed their faith in him, particularly Saria, Zelda, and the Great Deku Tree, would have been unimaginable.
"I'm starting to wish I was a Goron," he whispered to Navi.
"Why?"
He waved at the rocks littering the ground. "At least then I wouldn't have to worry what I'm going to eat."
Navi giggled.
The two Gorons had moved ahead of them. Neither seemed to mind the heat or the ever-present stench of sulfur.
"I can't believe they blocked the entrance," Navi said. "Some of them could be in here eating by now."
"Maybe." Link glanced at their companions. "It's still dangerous as long as there are any of those things around."
"I wonder if we're getting close to King Dodongo."
Link turned his eyes away from where he was going as if to offer a reply, but he bumped into Stonethrower instead. The brothers had stopped and were looking around them, listening to a new sound that rumbled through the cavern.
At first, Link heard nothing. Then slowly, a rhythmic pounding, like a giant drum—or footsteps, perhaps. As the sound grew deeper, the smaller rocks began to slide across the floor.
"What is it?" Link addressed this question to Stonethrower, though he suspected he knew the answer to it already.
A tremor shook the entire cavern, loosening the stalactites overhead. One broke and crashed just behind Link. Another fell on his right. Two more shattered in the lava, spraying particles of superheated rock in several directions.
Unable to see beyond a few feet anyway, he soon lost track of the Gorons in the confusion. He called out, but there was no answer.
"Look out!"
Navi's voice saved him from being impaled by the fifth stalactite dropping from the ceiling, but it didn't save him from plummeting when the stalactite opened a hole in the already-weakened floor. So down he tumbled into the cavern beneath the cavern, spared the horror of knowing his fate until he had landed in the mouth of the monster below.
King Dodongo.
Link snatched at the nearest handhold, only to find his fingers slipping on the monster's gigantic tongue. Tightening his grip only cramped his hands, so he let go, dropping the last few feet to the back of the mouth, where he clung to the tonsils, just above the windpipe. The stink rising from the gullet—dead bats and sulfur and perhaps even the flesh of a few Gorons—nearly drove him mad.
"I'd get out of there if I were you," said Navi, hovering just at the edge of the mouth.
"Thank you, Navi." Link examined the mouth for a way of climbing out; since King Dodongo's neck was craned up, towards the roof, this was considerably more difficult than it might have been otherwise.
Suddenly, the monster roared and swung its head downward. Link lost his grip and slid out of the mouth by way of the tongue. Pushing himself to his feet, he drew his sword just as the monster clapped its mouth shut.
He could see that Mountainfoot had not been exaggerating King Dodongo's size; the monster dominated the lower cavern. Still, he wasn't sure what scared him more: the monster or the lake of boiling lava behind it.
"I think I found the Bomb Flowers!"
With a thrill of hope, he followed Navi's lead, bracing himself against a wall on his right to avoid slipping into the lava. Once, he twisted his neck around for a backward glance but was immediately sorry he had. The monster had tucked its legs beneath its body and was rolling end over end like a boulder going down a hill. And it was gaining on him with frightening speed.
As he ran, he almost forgot the pounding of his chest and the sweat pouring freely from his pores. He pumped his arms and legs furiously to reach the corner of the room that Navi had indicated. He sheathed his sword and tackled the first Bomb Flower he saw.
No sooner had he ripped the plant out of the ground than the monster slammed into the wall beside him, its limbs forcibly splayed out by the blow. Seeing its prey at hand, the monster lowered its head to his level, saliva dripping from its open mouth onto Link's chin.
Saving his disgust for later, Link lobbed the Bomb Flower into the monster's throat. The orb snagged on the tonsils, kicking in a gag reflex. The reek of carbon dioxide bubbled up from the gullet and washed over his face. In trying to dislodge the bomb with its tongue, the monster only succeeded in swallowing it.
Link flinched, expecting a rain of Dodongo guts when the bomb reached the monster's stomach, but the only sign of the explosion was a trail of black smoke that bled from each of the monster's nostrils. Then he noticed how still it had become. Its head had sunk to the ground, blood rimmed its lips, and its breath came in faint gasps.
For one awful moment, he pitied the creature. Had it been created for good, only to be enslaved by Ganondorf for his own evil purpose? Or were the Dodongos naturally evil?
"What are you doing?" said Navi. "It'll kill you!"
Link drew his sword from its sheath and approached the wounded Dodongo King. Flames seeped out from the creature's nose and mouth and dissolved in a cloud of smoke drifting over the lava. The smell of sulfur lingered in the air.
It's trying to breathe fire. Link watched the flames, struck dumb by curiosity and his strange reluctance to kill the creature. Then his eyes widened. It's trying to breathe fire!
With a ragged intake of breath, the bloody lips opened up to unleash a firestorm. There was no time for shelter. Link dropped his sword and covered his face with his arms as the fire surrounded him, singing his hair, his tunic, and his face, but never engulfing him. When the gust faded, he opened his eyes, awestruck at his survival. He glanced up at the monster, but his view of it was blocked.
A boulder had fallen directly in front of him, so close it had almost squashed him. Instead, it had provided protection from the flames.
"Why did you wait? That was too close!"
Navi's anger snapped him out of his trance. Sheathing his sword, Link dashed from behind the boulder and ran as the monster delivered a second blast of flame to the ground he had just vacated.
He knew it would follow him, but this time he repressed his fear and concentrated on finding another Bomb Flower. King Dodongo would catch up with him sooner or later, so it would do little good to spend his energy on fleeing.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated the size of the cavern. By the time he spotted another Bomb Flower, he could feel the monster's breath on his back and neck, and the dust stirred up by its passing made it all the more difficult to see where he was going.
When he saw the boulder slumped in the corner of the steaming lake, he didn't even question how it had gotten there—it certainly hadn't been there before. Trusting that it would hold his weight, he leapt, landing on the boulder with one foot and pushing off with the other so that he landed on the opposite shore right by the Bomb Flower.
Unable to turn the corner smoothly, the monster smacked into the wall again, driving the ridges on its back into the rock so that it couldn't move freely.
Link hesitated. With the monster stuck in the wall and its mouth unreachable, the Bomb Flower was useless. But since he already had it in his hand and the fuse was about to run out, he decided it was better to worry about the monster later.
"Get rid of that thing quick," said Navi, "before it turns us into Dodongo meat!"
Ignoring her, Link flung the bomb towards the wall just as it detonated. The blast rocked him off his feet, but it also punched a hole in the wall, freeing King Dodongo.
He stepped back, ready to flee again. But then he saw it, a Bomb Flower resting just beneath the hole in the wall. He dove for it without thinking, unwittingly dodging another column of flame from King Dodongo—mostly. Fire licked at the soles of his boots, but he had bigger things to worry about.
Even as the monster swung to face him, he tore the Bomb Flower from the ground and hurled it.
That skin is too thick to cut through, he thought, pulling out his sword. What could he do to take advantage of the monster's weakness once the bomb exploded?
When the bomb went off, the monster's mouth snapped shut, but in the short time between the moment he had thrown the bomb and the moment it went off, Link had jumped back into the mouth and pointed the Kokiri Sword upwards. The monster snapped its mouth shut, but in so doing, the roof of its mouth came down on the tip of the sword, driving it up into vital organs inside the head.
With a grunt, Link pulled his sword free, parted the jaws with a light push, and escaped into the cavern.
The monster began to convulse, sapping its remaining strength by thumping its head against the wall. Enveloped in clouds of dust and rock, Link welcomed the fatigue that swept over him and hoped that someone would carry him back to Goron City, because now seemed like a very good time for a nap. He swore that once he left that place and claimed the Spiritual Stone of the Gorons, he would never set foot on Death Mountain. Ever. Again.
In this section of the story, one of the most difficult aspects of adapting the game into a novel was to flesh out King Darunia. How do you explain a king who basically hangs out in his throne room all day while his people are starving? Not an easy task. I was tempted to turn this into a team-up with Link and send them both into the cavern to deal with the Dodongos, but that just didn't feel right. Too different from the game, and too similar to what transpires in the Fire Temple later on. Hint, hint.
As you can see, I couldn't resist having a little fun with the Goron diet. At this point, we've reached page 128 out of 406 pages in the overall manuscript. So we've still got about two-thirds of the way to go. Expect the overall story to continue to stay true to the game, but there will be some fun surprises along the way, too. Thanks for reading, everyone!