Chapter 10: Companion Facade

It took half the morning for Link and Gale to walk back to where Epona had fallen. The sky was filling with clouds and a steady wind blew the grass in waves. Even though the road had been cleared last evening, monsters were back to lurking so they could ambush travelers. Neither of them had trouble with this since the worst things out were the Wizzrobes striking from a distance and the occasional Lizardfos.

Unfortunately, the delay in getting back made it unfeasible to take care of her properly. Something had already picked the bodies until they were scattered bones. Was it the monsters? They never left behind bodies but they were seen occasionally to be eating food. Link went into the grove to gather some wood, then made a cross to mark the spot where they buried the bones. While he couldn't take long for this, he spent some time remembering how things had been with her: going to the castle on their own for the first time, riding through the woods around Taven, talking with her in the pasture when he still felt uncomfortable talking with others. He might be able to get another horse somehow, but Epona would always be special to him.

"Thanks for helping me with this," Link said to Gale after he felt like he'd done what he could.

"It's fine," Gale said. He understood well what this loss meant, unlike others who might see Epona as just another horse and find him strange for this grief. "Are you going to keep going?"

He nodded. "I have to. Many people are suffering, not just me. If I can end this, I should."

"I'm not sure I could be so selfless, but seeing you like this makes me want to try," he said. "Well then, I can warp you over to Kakariko and guide you up to Death Mountain. The Gorons are a stubborn and prideful race, not that easy to talk to. Do you want me to stick around and help with that?"

The offer lifted his spirits some, although it was embarrassing to have him helping so much. Still, the Gorons sounded like the kind of people he was most nervous talking around. "I don't want to keep you away from your own research and work," Link said.

"Well I'm happy to put off some of that to have more time with you," Gale said, smiling at him. That did make Link smile before he realized it; Gale then took his hand. "Especially if I can make you smile like that. Let's go and see how you do with them." A blur of gray surrounded them, taking them away from Epona's grave to the town of Kakariko.

There was a disorienting feeling when Link looked at the town, like a familiar place that had become foreign. He closed his eyes for a moment and found images from past legends. During the time of the Hero of Time, it had been founded at the base of Death Mountain by the last of the Shiekah, a mysterious people who were renown for being excellent bodyguards and assassins. It was one of the oldest towns in Hyrule's lands even if it paled in comparison to the castle town's history. It changed, shrank, and grew through the years, enough that another hero had come through and helped the town through another time of hardship.

Link opened his eyes back up and looked at how Kakariko was now. Stone houses lined a wide street that followed a winding canyon of red and orange stones. While there was a watchtower here, it wasn't in the places that he remembered one being. This watchtower was on the western ridge; a person could easily see a good expanse of the eastern fields of Hyrule and the whole town from the top. He also spotted signs saying that the hot springs remained.

"Actually, this is a good trade town," Gale said, looking towards a shop nearby. "Traders like my group often stop in this place when going between Hyrule and Sudai. Not only that, but the Gorons do most of their trade here instead of in their mountain home. That makes this a good place to find unusual goods now that the castle town is abandoned. You might be able to find charms for arrow enchantments here."

"That would be good to have," Link said. He recalled from stories and dreams that past heroes often got such enchantments as gifts or from dungeon chests. But if he could pick up some in a store, that would be handy.

As they went to check on the shops, one building near the southern part of town caught his eye. It was a community shrine in a tall domed building, its stone exterior weathered in old age. Seeing it, he could tell a little more clearly which of the legends were a part of history and which were legends part of other ways history could have gone. Although that made him wonder, how did stories of the other legends make their way into the repertoire of storytellers? Was it some power of the Triforce, connected to them all?

There didn't seem to be anyone in the shrine at the time, so he couldn't talk with them about the past. Gale picked out a pair of shops that was most likely to have the enchantment charms, discounting another store that had a sign with a bomb on it. In the first shop, he was able to meet up with a witch who sold potions to refill his empty bottles. She didn't have the charms he wanted. "You're going to have a hard time finding that kind of a charm in a shop."

"Are they that rare?" Link asked.

"More like they're too dangerous for regular sale," the witch said, shifting her eyes towards an orange cat that was sitting on a shelf other charms. "It may not mean much now when the royal family of Hyrule isn't in power, but I wouldn't go selling something like that unless the customer proved their skill with a bow and their responsibility with such power. A stray shot could set a place on fire, after all."

For a moment, Link considered asking if there was something he could prove himself with for her. Perhaps it was something he could come back for if he truly needed that power and couldn't find it elsewhere. The other shop Gale picked out had most of the shelves devoted to living in the wilderness and gathering your own meals. It turned out well because he could trade in his old camping gear to better versions, including a charm that should help boost the monster repelling power of Sophie's lamp.

But there were no arrow enchantments in this shop either. "If I did have such charms in, it'd be eight thousand rupees for one."

"That's a ridiculous price," Gale said.

This shopkeeper just shrugged. "They don't show up often and when they do, I need the extra cost to pay off the knights for allowing the sale. All right, so that might not matter so much with Ganon in the castle, but I'd still pay the knights here for protecting the town."

If he did have to buy such charms, Link figured that he would go asking the witch about it first. She could probably make them herself if she didn't have some already. The charms had a potential high price, but the camping gear was a reasonable purchase.

When they got back outside, Link felt something warm on his right wrist. He looked down and saw two of the summoning charms glowing. "What's this doing?" he asked, showing Gale the chain.

He immediately looked concerned. "Those spirits are summoning themselves, But why in the day?"

Then they heard screams and pounding hooves from the northern end of town. Other pedestrians scattered towards the buildings, but Link reached for his sword. A lone horseman was barreling through town on a large stallion with a black coat and fiery red hair. The horseman itself was in better shape than he'd last seen it, with armor that Link recognized without a second guess as Gerudo armor.

Running out of the way of Phantom Ganon's horse, Link switched from getting his sword to taking out his bow. The phantom yanked back on his horse and whirled around to race at him again with a sparking lance at ready. Link rolled out of the way and fired at the phantom's back; Gale warped out of the way and fired a lightning bolt at it. After they exchanged two more failed charges, an icicle spear, and two more arrows, the phantom rose off the horse and dropped to the ground, handling its lance with both hands. Where had it picked up that weapon? Link put that question out of mind as the phantom charged over to engage him in direct battle.

The lance had greater range than his sword; the lightning enchantment would surely make those strikes hurt a lot more. Link backed away, glancing around until he spotted a balcony on a building nearby. Waiting for a strike to dodge, he darted over and jumped onto the balcony to fire another arrow at the phantom. It jumped into the air as well, floating there to shoot a lightning ball at him. Link deflected it with his shield, knocking it to the ground and leaving it vulnerable to several more arrows. Down on the ground, Gale put some kind of defensive spell over Link and then kept trying to hit the phantom with magic. It must have been resistant to spells to last through that barrage.

Eventually, an arrow caused it to collapse into a pile of ashes and a dark orb. Link jumped back down to the street, wondering if it was something that needed holy power to extinguish entirely. "Can we destroy it like this?" Link asked.

"In this state, I can take care of that," Gale said, appearing by the orb. He closed his eyes and made a ring of magical script surround the orb. After examining it, Gale caused the orb to unravel like a ball of yarn. The skull charm crumbled apart as well. "It shouldn't trouble you now, but what about the horse?"

As he asked that, the phantom's horse walked over to them. Link braced himself. He didn't like the thought of attacking a horse, even a strange dark phantom of one. Thankfully, it didn't look aggressive. The phantom horse stopped in front of him and lowered its head. The horseshoe charm brightened up. For some reason, he had a feeling like Epona was nudging him to get his attention.

"Hmm, this one is submitting himself to your will," Gale said, looking over the horse. "It might obey you now since you have its summoning charm. Though, I feel like some other spirit is influencing it."

"Epona?" This looked promising. Link took hold of the reins. When he reacted positively to being rubbed on the neck, Link put a foot in the stirrup and got onto the saddle. The name 'Balrog' was written on a plate on the reins. "Balrog, let's go," Link said, tugging at the reins. The horse obediently turned around and walked towards the path to Death Mountain. Some people began stepping out of the alleys and buildings, cheering in thanks for taking care of the phantom rider.

"That's quite a horse, actually," Gale said, walking alongside him. "As a spirit, it can be dismissed and called at will. It should be able to heal itself as well if you dismiss it for a while."

Link stopped Balrog by the path and dismounted. "I think Epona helped me tame him," he said, patting the horse's side. "How do I use him as a summon spirit?"

"This chain should make it simple on you," he said, taking his hand to get a better look at it. They figured out that the charms could be twisted a quarter turn in their holders. With that small action, he could dismiss Balrog and call on him when needed. The phantom horse might even get him up Death Mountain where other horses would have trouble. However, Gale didn't have his horse and wouldn't attempt to scale the mountain trails like that if he had.

"Excuse me, but you two were the ones who stopped that strange horseman?" a Hylian knight asked as she slowed her own horse down by them.

"Yes," Link said, feeling bad since the Phantom Ganon had only come here because of him.

"It was a phantom of some kind," Gale said. "You shouldn't see it again."

She gave them a salute in gratitude. "Good, you did well. It appeared out of thin air and jumped the town gate. Hopefully we won't have other monsters doing the same. Can we do anything for you?"

"Your thanks is enough, we were just heading up to meet with the Gorons," Gale said.

"Well be careful going up that way," she said. "Monsters that used to only be found in the deep mines have shown up on the roads. And the Gorons were in an uproar a while ago because someone stole a historical artifact from them. While it was located and returned to them, they're still wary of strangers."

"We'll be fine, but thanks for the advice," he said. Link nodded, not worried about what monsters might be on the trails. The two of them would be fine against anything.

Joachim accepted a note from one of the castle messengers. The messenger summarized it as saying, "Leonidas has gotten groups protecting Kakariko, Ruto, and Onduran. We've heard that Narin was swamped with Likelikes, but Link took care of those and has been making his way towards Death Mountain for the last key medal."

Opening up the note and skimming it, he noted that Leonidas was trying to get some soldiers at a fort in the northern mountains, to Narin, and the Zora territory; others were sweeping over the wide fields to rescue stranded civilians. They had yet to get people to Taven and the provinces south of that, but they didn't want to spread too much. "That's good."

"Also, Kimbera says she's ready to accompany you through the king's trial this afternoon," the messenger said.

"I'll be down there in a few minutes."

Joachim finished off a report he was writing on the state of Sudai's current budget. When Ganon had gone off to conquer Hyrule, some of the nobles here had attempted to get themselves tax loopholes so they could keep more of their wealth. But this country needed to finish up rebuilding its roads, defense structures, and power systems to lessen problems on the majority of civilians. The loopholes didn't make economic sense for the nation as a whole. Joachim wanted to make sure everyone contributed.

There was a little mystery within those economic reports. There was a nobleman by the name of Gale Fellclaw who was a ghost among the records. While he owned a few properties and notable antiques, all of his transactions had taken place in the past four years. It might be that he was a young man who had only recently become independent of his parents. But there were no records of a noble family in Sudai of that name. The closest was the family of the last queen, a Gerudo line by the name of Fellclaw that was noted as wanderers who dismissed the trappings of nobility and wealth. And it was all females save for one, the queen's son Ganon. It might be someone running a scam with the name, although they did charitable things like a contribution to keep a public library open for the next ten years.

It might be worth it to track down this person and figure out what they were up to. But that could be handled later. After passing his report over to a clerk to copy and mail off to current members of the royal court, Joachim headed down to the castle basement where the trial was held. This had been interesting to study, the fact that this nation made their rulers prove themselves and thus could handle a situation where a bad ruler needed to be kicked out for someone more fitting. Hyrule's royal family was matriarchal even though it was a kingdom ruled by a king. As such, the future king needed to prove his worth to current princess or queen in order to claim power.

This led to the issue that Zelda Abigail represented: if the princess wasn't a good judge of character or a leader in her own right, she might choose an ill-suited man to marry and make king. The fact that the Triforce of Wisdom always chose a Hylian princess as its bearer made a great many people accept Hyrule's system of succession. But Sudai's system might be better overall for the kingdom, since it would be harder for a corrupt ruler to last as long as Albertos had in Hyrule.

Joachim still wasn't sure what all this trial would entail since the details were kept secret. The candidate could choose someone skilled in fighting to accompany them. In fact, it was highly recommended to do so. He had gone with Kimbera because she had proven herself to him and was one of his first supporters in taking over Sudai. She was waiting on him, a short sword at her side and her arrow quiver on her back.

"Are you ready?" Joachim asked her.

"Yes, but you're the one being tested," Kimbera said. "Are you ready?"

"As much as I can be," he said. He hadn't been given a lot of time to consider this matter, but this wasn't a chance to miss out on.

"Then hold your hand up with the Falcon Ring on it," she instructed, gesturing to the stone door that had a magical seal engraved in it.

Stepping up to the door, he held it with his palm facing the door. The seal shone and enveloped him in a blinding light. Joachim winced at that but stayed as he was. Being there, he was reminded of being under the scrutinizing gaze of his strictest tutor. And of many other things: earlier today when he had been thinking over the economic situation here, a month ago when he quickly had to organize an evacuation after Ganon's invasion, months ago when Albertos had given him orders he didn't want to carry out. That last had been one of his and Zelda's works: Albertos wanted to unfairly punish the region of Laverre for revolting against Hylian rule and the two of them wanted to start a project that the Laverre people had demanded to help smooth things over. Some careful wording, shuffling commanders around to put a more reasonable one in Laverre, and setting up a diversion from their assistance managed to get their project set into motion. Laverre had settled down with that, at least until a statement from Albertos riled the people back up.

The door opened and Joachim wasn't surprised to find the falcon spirit waiting for them in the next room. He already knew that he was being judged, perhaps from the moment that he'd put on the ring. Perched on a curved stand of petrified wood, the falcon had golden brown plumage with markings in red and black. It looked like a regular falcon at one glance, but then it raised its wings behind it and showed a halo of light around its body. And its eyes were white, sometimes with an ethereal glow.

The falcon spoke strictly to him. "Petitioner Joachim, you have no royal heritage. You are a bureaucrat and a merchant. You still hold allegiance to the kingdom that conquered us. Why should I listen to you? Why do you seek the throne of Sudai?"

He had given thought to that. "I want to do the greatest good with the talents I have. I can't fight to take care of the threats that all of us are facing, but I can make sure those who do fight are taken care of and properly compensated. Whether I do this as a government clerk or a king doesn't matter to me."

"You are one who is considering the big picture rather than what would most benefit yourself," the falcon said. "Very well, we will see the nature of your leadership. Lady Kimbera."

"Yes, your holiness?" she asked, giving the falcon a respectful bow.

"The tests within these chambers are meant for the petitioner, but some cannot be solve directly. Some do require combat. Your role here is to follow the commands of the petitioner without question. Petitioner Joachim, you may command her as you see fit. You will be stopped if your orders cross the line to purposely harm her. The decision of if you may keep my ring will come at the end, but be aware that there are some actions which will end the trial immediately. You understand this, correct?"

"I understand, your holiness," he said, quietly thankful that he'd gotten the example of how to address this spirit.

"I will meet you at the end," the falcon said, then turned into a bright silhouette that flew off through the walls.

Although this trial was said to have some combat involved, the first chamber involved a critical thinking problem of considering a widely varied and biased range of reports that might come from a large government council, and then making a decision on what version of a law to implement based on those reports. It was a bureaucratic riddle, which was exactly the kind of thing he and Zelda might discuss in their official duties. This was definitely something he could handle.

He found himself considering what she might say to all this information in the riddle before giving his answer. It would be nice if she were there to work on this with him. But he might see her again soon, as long as the hero could fulfill his role.

As they headed up the mountain trail, Gale revealed that he had done some research on the Septdraco. According to the old records, there were seven evil dragons sealed by the artifact, including a marsh dragon that was originally from Sudai. The Sudain marsh dragon, or Sulfur Dragon to some, had originally made the river delta lands treacherous to inhabit because it exhaled a poisonous flammable gas that often set wildfires in motion. The sage who had created the Septdraco had taken away the marsh dragon to help those who wanted to settle in Sudai and take advantage of the rich farmlands there. The other six could be equally or even more devastating if released.

Eventually, they came upon a high cliff face in the middle of the road; the rest of their path continued on top of the cliff. Link started glancing around for areas to climb up, but Gale just took his arm and warped them both up to the top of the cliff. "Such things are never an obstacle to a sorcerer," he said.

"That's impressive, but I wouldn't have minded climbing up," Link said, continuing along the path with him.

"I would," Gale said, holding up a hand where he had a loose sleeve that would be in the way of trying to climb a cliff.

"I'll give you that," Link said. "I think it's rewarding to be able to climb something like that. You put a lot of effort into it and it feels great to get a better view at the top."

"It does take a lot of work to gain mastery over teleporting magic," he said. "If you mess up, you could not move at all, or end up a mile away not sure where you are at all. Although I do agree that the view from high places is worth any effort to get up there."

"I think I'll leave any magic like that up to people who study like you," he said.

"Well you can get a view of the area the Gorons live in now," Gale said, pointing ahead. "Before we get there, there is an unfortunate thing I should tell you about. Gorons don't really like things that other races consider romantic. They find a good portion of it disturbing or disgusting."

"Really?" Link asked. They'd have to be careful to stay polite around them.

Gale put a hand to his chin, thinking. "They have, how do I put this? They have different ways of bearing children and do not have separate genders like most races. When Gorons first came in contact with human races, they found that they better liked what most considered masculine traits. So every Goron is referred to with masculine terms. Well, nearly every Goron. If you find one that wants to use feminine terms, you know she's a real oddball of the group. So while we're dealing with them, we have to stick with chaste actions and words because doing otherwise might make them reluctant to talk with us."

"I'd rather not offend them," Link said.

Galen then leaned closer and said, "Well just wait until later when we can be alone and things will change." Link nearly laughed at that.

The town in Death Mountain was interesting, being full of tunnels. The Gorons liked to carve murals and stories onto their walls. Glancing over them, Link wondered if he could come back to look at them. There wasn't the time now for that. The Gorons were working on their jobs and talking with each other. Whatever had troubled them before didn't seem to be a problem any more.

And it turned out that Gale was well liked by them. "Hello Gale, it's good to see you again," one of the guards said, giving them a wave. "What brings you back here?"

"Hello, it's nice to be back," Gale said, nodding back. "I've come with a friend who needs to speak with Elder Micah; this is Link, a traveler working towards being a hero."

The Goron guard looked down at him, eyes widening. "Really? We've been hearing a lot of talk about you from Kakariko. You certainly seem like a hero with all the people you've saved, like the Zoras."

"I'm just doing what I can to help people," Link said, bearing this attention like he'd done with all the rest. "But I need to find the Medal of Vigor now."

"Ah, yes, you'd have to talk with the elder about that," the guard said. "When we got word that the other two were stolen, we had to be more careful with it. Go on ahead, he should have time to meet with you both."

"Thank you, we'll go on ahead," Gale said. Once they moved away form the guard, he gripped Link's shoulder. "You really don't like all this attention, do you?" he asked quietly.

"No," Link said. "Partly because they'll want me to talk about what I've done and I'm no storyteller. And I've never had this much attention on me so often."

"What about from me?" he asked.

That did help him relax for being happier, although he did reach up to take Gale's hand off his shoulder. "It's different from you. And weren't you the one warning me that we had to be mindful of the Gorons?"

"Well you make it really hard to resist just by being you," he teased him. Maybe it was just how he was trying to cheer him up; it was working. "All right, all right, I'll settle down until this matter with the Gorons is settled." Moving ahead to a more decorated doorway, Gale swung a knocker by one of the doors to ask for permission to enter. It didn't take long for them to get a response from the Goron elder to come on in.

The elder managed to be wrinkled even though the Gorons were all made of stone. Micah had an impressive dark beard and long limbs. He wore a beaded sash with white feathers as a sign of his rank. "We were able to retrieve the law tablet with Gale's help, although we weren't able to capture the thief. I've heard that you're here for the Medal of Vigor."

"Yes, I've gotten the other two," Link said.

"There is a problem with that as we don't keep that particular treasure in town," Micah said, then pointed downward. "It was placed in a harsher part of the mines, the lava trench. We figured that anyone who had the vigor to retrieve it from the trench without being a Goron was fitting to receive it. Since that time, a lava creeper has settled itself into the area. Not even our strongest brothers have been able to defeat it. Shalan said he was onto something a couple years back, but he passed away before he could deal with the monster. The lava creeper sometimes comes out of the trench and attacks the miners in the area, plus the generator's at risk from its attacks. You'll need to retrieve the medal yourself, and we'd appreciate it if you found a way to deal with the creeper as well."

"Is the creeper made of lava?" Link asked, not sure how to picture this beast. To the side, he saw Gale step aside to take a message from a Seeker.

"Yes, that's so," Micah said. "It'll hurl chunks of lava at you too, so you'd best limit anything on your person that can catch on fire. We've tried bombs on it before; those splatter the creeper all over the room, but then it brings itself back together and keeps on hunting. But that could be handy if you need to make a quick retreat."

So how did he deal with a monster made of lava? What ideas he could come up with, he had nothing to implement them with. Gale might be able to help, but he'd like an elemental attack himself. "Do you know what Shalan was working on before, to deal with it?"

"Not myself, I'm afraid," the elder said. "He was a master at crafting toys. The young Gorons might know something more, since the warriors scoffed at the idea of a toymaker creating a weapon."

"Thank you, I'll try talking with them," Link said.

When he excused himself from speaking to the elder, Gale had some bad news for him outside the elder's room. "I've got some other business I need to take care of. While I thought I could leave this magic to my coworkers, they've managed to bungle things up again. You seem to be handling yourself well now, so you'll be fine on your own."

"Alight, we'll have to find another time to meet up."

He nodded. "Of course. They seem to have heard good things about you, so you should be fine handling the rest on your own. At any rate, I'm glad I got to hear your voice again."

"I'm glad to speak with you again," Link said, with some embarrassment as he couldn't think of a compliment to match that. Even so, Gale gave him a charming smile and took his arm for a moment in lieu of doing something more. Link had to take another moment to refocus on his work here after Gale left.

On asking where the kids would be, Link got directed to the workshop where they practiced skills in mining and crafting. The kid Gorons were just as rocky and round as the adults, albeit with smoother surfaces and heads. When he walked in, three of them were chipping away at a block of stone that was starting to have form. It reminded Link of an octorok.

"You're the new hero people have been talking about?" one of the kids asked after he introduced himself. "You seem skinny, not big like a Goron!"

"He's a Hylian because he has pointy ears," another kid said, making pointed ears from the sides of his head. "And they look skinny compared to us, so he's probably normal."

"But that's not strong."

"There's many times when a hero has to fight smarter," Link told them. "How much power you have or how big you are doesn't decide everything."

"Yeah, it's like Shalan used to say, be smart and you can do big things!" the third kid said, spreading his arms apart with enthusiasm.

"Actually, I came to ask you all about something Shalan was working on," Link said. "It was supposed to be for taking care of the lava creeper in the trench."

The third kid pounded his hands together. "Yeah, yeah, that thing! It's a hot thing, great like the mountain!"

"He finished it?" Link asked.

"Which thing?" the second kid asked.

"The cool thing, it was dynamite!" the third one said.

Link didn't see how dynamite was going to help since it was just another kind of bomb. But the first kid nodded. "Oh yeah, the dyna, uh, the dynarang that's dynamite!"

"That was just his lame advertising pitch," the second one said. "It's a trirang, which is like a boomerang but it has three arms instead of two."

"I thought you wanted to call it the kaboomerang," the first kid said.

"Well," he sounded embarrassed as he rubbed his head, "a trirang is what it is. I was being silly."

"No, it's a dynarang trirang!" the third kid insisted. "It's finished, but only us kids were willing to try it out. And the adults won't let us go deep enough to reach the lava trench, so we can't beat the creeper."

"Where is this dyna-trirang?" Link asked. "I want to defeat the lava creeper."

"We were using it as a toy, but they said it was too dangerous for us," the first kid said. "The teacher took it and put it somewhere."

"I wanted to make my own trirang that I could play with, but teacher said it was really hard to make one," the third kid said, sounding disappointed.

"That's the kind of thing that your practice here will make you able to craft," Link said, although he wasn't sure what exactly went into making a boomerang, much less a trirang. But everyone had to start somewhere. "It might take a lot to tries and failed boomerangs to get right, but you could make your own one day."

"Really?"

Link nodded and patted his sword's handle. "Practice works for bettering many things. Like, fighting with a sword is actually a tough skill to learn. I've spent years practicing it and got hurt on many occasions. But now I'm fighting monsters to protect others who can't fight. And I'm sure Shalan must have taken years to get good at his craft, enough to make a boomerang that could destroy a monster that bombs can't."

The third kid grinned. "All right! I'm gonna work hard on wood carving so I get as good as old Shalan was!"

Happy that he'd inspired them to keep practicing, the Goron teacher told him where he had put Shalan's trirang. It was in the school's storage closet locked in a chest that only the teacher had a key for; Link had to borrow and promptly return it, making sure to lock the chest with other confiscated items back up. The workshop was too crowded to be testing a boomerang in, but the teacher let the students take a break to go outside with him to test out.

"It's got lots of fun magic on it," the trirang enthusiast said, pointing to the center. "See the sliders by the fire, wind, and water markings? You push one of them to the side and the boomerang will take that element! Try it!

"I'd like to see how it flies plain first," Link said, noting that all the sliders were currently turned off. It took a narrow loop when he first threw it. The second time, he used some past knowledge to direct its flight towards a pair of poles in the area below them. Both twanged as the trirang struck them, then returned back to him.

"Wow, you can make it go really far," the first of the Goron kids said. Even the second one, who was trying not to be impressed, was watching in interest.

"It's a knack," Link said, then shifted the fire slider until it clicked. The painted symbol turned brighter and the trirang felt warmer. It didn't show its true power until he threw it out into the mountainside. A foot from his hand, the arms of the trirang burst into flames and appeared like a whirling red disc. When it got back to him, the fire was extinguished before it was in range for him to catch it. The water symbol turned it icy for some reason, while the wind symbol caused it to glow green and make flags it flew by to whip around wildly.

"See, Shalan was awesome!" the third kid said. "Dynamite even!"

"Try activating two or even three sliders at once, it gets even better," the first one said.

"All right," Link said, turning the water slider on with the wind one. When he threw it, it turned into a sparkling lighting ball much like what the phantom had thrown earlier. Fire and water made it turn into a blur of steam while fire and wind extended the range of the fiery arms. And when he turned all three on, nothing seemed to change until the peak of its flight path, where it exploded with such a powerful noise that it startled the Gorons working below them.

"That explosion is why we decided that trirang is too powerful for the kids," the teacher explained. "But you should be able to make use of it against the lava creeper."

"I don't know if the explosion will help," Link said, turning the sliders off before he set the trirang in his bag. "Some of the other elements look promising. Thanks for letting me use it."

"It belongs to the Gorons," the teacher said. "But if you kill the lava creeper, I'm sure the elders will agree to let you keep it."