Chapter 16: Zora's Domain
Talon, who had been snoozing in the house when Link and Malon were attacked by the Gerudo, insisted that Link stay the night when he discovered what had happened.
"No use arguing, son. It'd be a fine thing for me to let you go in the middle of the night, seeing as you saved my Malon's life, with who knows how many more of those women hanging around out there just waiting to lay their hands on you."
Link reluctantly agreed to the logic. Not because I'm afraid for myself, he thought, but if they are out there and they know I have the Spiritual Stones, I'll never make it to Zora's Domain unless I go in the daytime. Maybe not even then.
He tried to ignore that last thought as he tossed and turned on a cot in Talon's bedroom. Between his own anxieties and Talon's snoring, it would be a long night.
In the morning, Malon and Talon accompanied him to Zora's River on horseback, with Link riding behind Talon on one of the stallions and Malon riding solo on the foal, Epona. After a quick breakfast on the riverbank, the three of them parted ways.
"Can't imagine what a young fellow like you could be doing that'd have the Gerudos in an uproar," said Talon, "but good luck to you."
Looking up at him shyly, Malon offered him her right hand, keeping her left arm—with the scrap from Link's sleeve still tied around the elbow—at her side. "Thanks again, fairy boy, for saving me. Come back soon."
Before Link could reply to these good wishes, Talon loaded him up with an armful of fresh vegetables, most of which he had heard of but never seen before.
He whispered to Navi. "Is that a…"
"Tomato," she said, confirming his suspicions.
"And that's a…squish?"
"Squash."
"I knew that."
Talon grunted. "Ingo may be a handful sometimes, but he keeps a garden like nobody else I've seen. You'll be grateful for those later."
"Thanks." Link nodded and stuffed as many tomatoes into his pouch as possible, then wondered what he would do with the rest of them. But the foal solved the problem for him by lunging forward and snatching them up in her teeth, splattering vegetable flesh and the seeds of tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers on the grass.
"Well," Talon said with a chuckle, "at least someone's enjoying them."
Link splashed through silt and sank to his knees in the river as he crossed from one bank to another. This stretch of Zora's River, just east of Kakariko Village, made a sharp turn into a narrow ravine with more water and less of a riverbank the closer they came towards the domain of the Zoras, a noble if somewhat reclusive race, as he recalled from the Deku Tree's stories.
"Did you believe Ingo?" said Navi.
Link frowned. "You mean when he said he was trying to run over the Gerudo? No."
"Don't you think it's strange he just happened to follow us out of the village after you were attacked and he just happened to see the Gerudo coming last night?"
"Yes."
"What if he's helping them?"
Link crawled onto the bank, wiping mud from his legs. "He did seem nervous while we were there. That would make sense if he was hiding something."
"Do you think we should go back and tell Talon about him?"
"Tell him what? We don't know anything for sure." Link peered into the distance to see if he could spot any sign of the Zoras' habitation. "Right now, the best way to do what the Great Deku Tree asked us to do, what Zelda asked us to do, is to get the other Spiritual Stone."
With that, they plodded on, encountering the source of the river a half-mile to the north. The roar of the waterfall drowned out talk and restricted vision to a few feet because of the great mist thrown up by the water's force.
"This is it?"
He glanced at the cliffs to either side and saw nothing that remotely hinted at any kind of settlement. So it has to be inside the waterfall, he thought.
A natural arch formed of soil and rock stretched over the river facing the waterfall. Link climbed the arch to get a better view of their surroundings.
"Did you try looking down?" said Navi.
Link stared at the inscription in the stone at his feet. "Sleepless waterfall," he read. "The flow of this waterfall serves the King of Hyrule. When the King slumbers, so too do these falls."
"'Serves the King of Hyrule'?" Navi squeaked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
While he had been reading the inscription, Link had pulled out his Fairy Ocarina, and now he raised it to his mouth. "Maybe it means…this." With a little more confidence than he had shown in Goron City, he played Zelda's Lullaby, the signal between the Royal Family and its allies.
After an expectant pause, he heard the scrape of stone on stone as a door concealed behind the waterfall directly in front of him slid open. He squinted trying to determine what, if anything, was on the other side of that door. When another minute went by and nothing else had happened, he backed up as much as he could without falling off the arch and leapt the short distance from the arch to the waterfall, spluttering as the weight of the water pressed down on his body, yet somehow tumbling through the doorway with only a scrape of the knees.
Brushing himself off, he saw they had entered a narrow tunnel. Here, the air was humid, but unlike the smothering air of Dodongo's Cavern, it was a pleasant humidity, like being near a hot spring.
Once he had managed to regain his balance, Link strolled to the end of the tunnel and stopped. Crystal-clear pools untainted by pollution filled the caverns of Zora's Domain, each body of water glowing with a soft light that reflected off smooth sandstone walls of blue. A second waterfall poured over a ledge at the east-most side of the cavern ahead, glittering with drops of dew and rainbow colors.
Flickers of movement beneath the water caught Link's eye. Sleek forms dipped and dived with grace, sometimes coming to the surface, but mostly staying submerged. The Zoras?
"Beautiful," said Navi.
Alerted to the strangers' arrival, one Zora rose from the bottom of the nearest lake, spraying water on Link and Navi as it climbed onto the shore. Its arms and legs resembled a human's, but blue skin and a fish-tail dangling from the back of its skull gave the lie to any true similarity.
Navi ventured from the shelter of the tunnel first. "Hi!"
"Greetings." The creature's voice was deep yet airy, as if it came from a long way off.
"We're friends of the Royal Family," Link said, taking a few cautious steps forward. "We'd like to speak with your King."
"Unless you have information on the whereabouts of his daughter, Princess Ruto, the King is unlikely to speak with you today."
"I think he will when he hears what he have to say."
The Zora pointed east, towards the waterfall. "You are welcome to try, friend, as long as you come in peace. But make no requests unless you have something to offer in return."
"Thank you." Link turned to follow the path the Zora had indicated, a path that ran along a sandstone ridge bordering the edge of the cavern.
As the path rose higher, the view grew more spectacular—and since there were no pollutants, Link could see to the bottom of every lake in the cavern. Dozens of Zoras twirled and twisted in the water as if compelled to make an art of every stroke.
"I have a feeling," said Navi.
"Me too." Link reluctantly tore his gaze away from the Zoras. "What's yours?"
"I think if we want the Zoras' Spiritual Stone, we'll have to find Princess Ruto."
"Funny." Link raised both eyebrows. "That's my feeling, too."
Soon, the view on their left disappeared behind a wall. Ahead, a long stairway carved from the same blue rock scaled the way to the throne room. At the top, a pair of guards wielding spears barred the way. Link approached them warily; when their looks became suspicious, he fumbled once more for his ocarina and played Zelda's Lullaby.
"Oh, oh!" A voice piped up from the throne room. "It's a messenger from the Royal Family. Please let him in!"
The guards lowered their spears, and Link passed into the throne room. Contrary to his expectations, the King was nothing like the rest of the Zoras, at least in his appearance. Where his people embodied form and grace, King Zora never moved without jiggling. His eyes rolled back and forth like balls of jelly at the top of his head, and his legs dangled, not from the edge of an ornate throne, but from a simple ledge at the back of the room.
"Gross," Navi said, too low to be heard by any but Link.
Breathing the dead-fish stench that choked the air, Link ascended the dais that faced the King and bowed, holding the gesture as long as he thought polite.
"Oh, dear. And who might you be?"
"I am a messenger of the Royal Family." Link bowed again and held up the letter Zelda had intended for Cahus, the Knight who guarded Death Mountain. "I'm Link. This is Navi."
A page, probably no older than Link himself—though it was hard to tell—took the letter and rushed it to the King. The King stared at the writing for a while, then sat back on his ample bottom and grunted.
"I don't read Hylian, I'm afraid."
Navi answered for them. "It says we're on a matter of royal business, and it's signed by Princess Zelda."
"We'd like to help you find Princess Ruto," said Link.
"Oh, dear."
Link tried to smile. "Can you tell us anything that might help?"
The King jiggled uncomfortably. "Every morning, my daughter visits our patron deity, Lord Jabu-Jabu, to feed him and talk to him. This morning, she went out as usual, but she hasn't been seen since then. Lord Jabu-Jabu has been acting rather strange lately, ever since…"
"What? Since what?" Link couldn't help betraying his curiosity.
"Since that man Ganondorf visited," the King finished.
Why isn't that surprising? Link grimaced. Always one step ahead.
"We'll help you find her," Navi said. "Won't we, Link?"
The King sighed loudly. "Yes, yes. I doubt someone like you will have better fortune finding her than any of my people, but please do try. Guards, escort Mr. Link to the Lord Jabu-Jabu's shrine."
The same guards that had stopped Link just a minute ago flanked him on either side before bowing to the King.
"Excuse us, Highness," one of them said.
"Oh, yes." King Zora shifted his massive bulk, leaving room for the guards and Link to squeeze through the gate at the back of the throne room.
Alone, the King bowed his head and blubbered over his troubles. "Dear Ruto. I'm so sorry!"
It turned out that the tunnel at the back of King Zora's throne room opened onto a body of water wider than Zora's River and deeper than the pools within Zora's Domain itself. The end closest to the tunnel remained shallow for several meters out, then it dropped off sharply. The guards escorted Link to the edge of the drop-off before they stopped.
One of the guards pointed. "That is the altar to Lord Jabu-Jabu, where Princess Ruto makes her offerings to the god morning and evening."
Link followed their gaze to a square of marble resting on the skirts of the cliff. However, what lay just beyond it, in the deeper parts of the water, was far more arresting.
An armored fish, nearly the size of a whale, had claimed those waters. Its dorsal fin stuck out like the ridge of a mountain, and its eyes were almost as large as Link himself.
Link licked dry lips. "What does he usually eat?"
"He prefers small fish," the other guard said, "but of late, he has been willing to eat larger bodies."
"Has he ever eaten a person?" said Navi.
The guards exchanged glances. "No," said the first who had spoken, "but there are those who believe that the curse Ganondorf placed on Zora's Domain has affected the god's appetite."
They think he may have eaten Princess Ruto; they're just afraid to tell the King, Link thought.
The guards bowed and made to reenter the tunnel, but before they had gone more than three meters, a vile roar stayed their progress. Lord Jabu-Jabu had opened his jaws, and a great gust of foul wind began to suck every loose object in the vicinity toward his mouth.
Link yelled into the wind, but no one seemed to hear him. Apparently, the patron deity of the Zoras had mistaken them for a burnt offering.
Well, there is some good in this. He closed his eyes. Maybe we'll find out what happened to Princess Ruto…