The place was cool and dark. Maybe cool was too light a term to use and dark was underestimating. Sora had shivers up his spine and even with a lantern he couldn't tell what anything was until it was too late. He let out a soft sigh as he held up the lantern, noting his breath condensing in the gloomy air. This place had great insulation for being made in a gigantic tree, and not seeing sunlight or fire in years was probably not very good for temperature.

Sora knew he wouldn't have forever with his lantern, so he picked up a quick pace that was borderline reckless with his visibility. He could imagine Donald chastising him for going so fast. "You could trip, dummy!" The imaginary fowl wagged a feather at him, "And don't get me started on surprise attacks!"

As if it was his instincts telling him something, Sora ended up swinging his sword blindly and unprepared as he came across an ambush consisting of a plant monster and bats. He wiped off some sickly green juice from the plant and sighed in disgust. His instincts or subconscious or whatever was giving him that warning should've voiced their concern a little more clearly.

Sora then looked up to see a monster charging at him, and he dispatched the creature with another frenzied battle. His sword broke through something with a clatter of wood in the chaos, though he couldn't exactly see what. A fleeting shadow moved on before he could get a good look.

He cautiously put out his lantern when he saw torches on an upper floor, then walked up to and felt around the wall for a way up to them. "Leaves, vines..." He tested his weight, and smiled, "Okay, I can climb these." He managed to get a foot or two off the ground, ever pursuing towards the light, but then something sank fangs into his hand.

He fell back to the ground with a yowl of pain. Quickly his mind set to relighting the lantern and getting a better look at the wound. He hissed a little at the sight of a pair moderately deep puncture wounds that were oozing blood, "Snake? Bat?" He prodded his hand delicately, then grabbed his lantern and looked around, "What the he-" he lifted his lantern higher as he saw a spider the size of his hand retreating, "oh." He looked at his hand again. He wasn't sure if it was a venomous spider or not.

Sora was pulling out a potion and already had it uncorked before Midna said, "Walltullas aren't poisonous, idiot."

Sora closed the bottle, "Thank you for the great timing on that." For some reason (perhaps his not very good mood mixed with a nostalgic memory of Donald and Goofy telling him this) he got fixated on correct terms and muttered, "And it's venomous. Poison is what you eat and venom is what bites." He then saw the spider fall off the wall and onto the ground shortly after that comment.

Twitch.

Twitch.

Dead.

Poof.

Midna grinned and disappeared back into his shadow with a giggle, "Then I guess you're poisonous."

Sora stared at his hand, then brought his lantern as close as he dared to properly inspect the wound. His blood looked less red and more purple, to be honest. Maybe it was a fungus or something nearby rather than the blood, but there was an odd smell. He finally just settled on the bite being he equivalent of nonvenomous fangs, set the lantern down, pulled out some gauze, wrapped up his hand, and continued climbing.

This time anything that bit him he left alone and/or shook off, knowing it would probably die. It felt cruel, but what was he going to do about it? It was the stupid thing's fault for biting him in the first place.

When Sora reached the top he paused to catch his breath, dangling his legs back into the darkness. He looked around warily at the shadows and the roof made from what he figured was a thick canopy of trees, "I hope it's not always this dark." He then shook his head, "Who am I kidding, this place is abandoned."

"I like it like this. No one to bother us while you look for my little fused shadow." Midna's smug reply echoed around while Sora tended to other bite wounds.

Sora stood and checked his sword. He looked around for something cloth-like before sighing in disgust and wiping off the distasteful slime from the plant monster that remained with his jacket, "Well I don't like it one bit. In case you haven't picked things up I'm used to fighting with a crowd."

Midna laughed as Sora rolled the door to the next room inside, "Oh, a coward, are we?"

Sora halted as the door slammed back behind him. His voice was cold and even, "Excuse me?"

"Little 'fraidy Sora; scared of the dark, scared of fighting, scared of being alone. He hides behind his stupid friends who don't know-" Midna sang. Sora grabbed his sword and swung it around in blind anger to cut her off. He completely ignored the fact that Midna couldn't be hurt as a shadow and just swung and yelled.

Midna floated out of Sora shadow as he continued swinging at nothing, grinning wide and sniggering at the sight. Sora stopped with Midna to his back, growling, "Okay, where are you you little IMP!" He heard her burst into laughter behind him and he swung, stopping the blade inches from about where her neck was. Midna seemed unimpressed by his glare, perhaps because she knew he was a soft child at heart, but Sora had given this look before and scared many, "Quit toying around with me!"

Midna clicked at him, "Hmm, I would but you're too much fun."

Sora held his pose, "You know, I can somewhat at tolerate you messing with me, but even IMPLY ANYTHING about my friends and you're dead!"

Midna idly held up her hand, "Hmm, not dead. Guess I'm innocent." She flipped back into Sora shadow with another mocking grin.

Sora sheathed his sword with a cold grunt, stomped his shadow a few times, and moved on. He stopped, squinting at the distance of the new room, "Wait a sec that's..." His expression tightened back into anger.

Midna popped up next to him, "Oh hey, it's the monkey again."

Sora charged into the room, noticing now that it seemed less derelict and brighter than the previous one. There was grass and moss beneath his feet, but soon he was ascending creaking wood onto a square platform in the middle. He skittered to a halt when a spider- a BIG spider that was as long as he was tall with a white skull against its black abdomen -dropped in front of him and bared its fangs.

Sora's instincts kicked in and he held up his arm to block it. He yelled when the spider made a very good attempt to bite his arm off. As he frantically tried to strike the spider, Midna said, "Well, I didn't think you'd want to be Skulltulla chow."

Sora threw off the arachnid and stabbed it over and over, "NO. I. DON'T!" It crumpled in a bug-juice mess and disintegrated, leaving Sora panting and clutching his bloody arm. He whimpered as he held it up to look at it, "Ugh..." It wasn't as bad as other injuries he'd had (still had a scar from one time when Saïx practically disemboweled him) but his arm was feeling pretty useless and limp, bleeding profusely.

"I'm guessing these are venomous?" Sora asked with a weak whine.

Midna popped up and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess."

"Midna! 'I guess' is not a yes!" Sora shrieked at her. What if the numbness of his arm was paralyzing poison in his veins? It could've also been the spider getting lucky and screwing up some tendons, but Sora was much more worried about the former. He uncorked a potion and gulped the contents with no concern for his breath.

When the bottle was done he gasped for air, but then clutched at his heart. He covered his mouth, coughing a familiar rusty taste into his hand as he doubled over and fell to his knees. Was the potion not fast enough? Was he really poisoned? Nothing he knew was that fast, though...

Sora pulled back his hand with a dreary, confused look. No, the blackened fingers told a different story. His illness was merely reminding him it was still there. He sank back on his haunches, "I guess it acts up when I'm under pressure." he felt his pulse a moment, then nodded, "Yeah, seems like if my heart rate goes up too high..." He swallowed back another cough.

Midna appeared to him with a grin, "You know, they aren't poisonous. Couldn't you tell I was toying with you?" While Sora glared at her she examined his arm, "Honestly just looks like what happened is you got hit in the right places."

Sora undid the bandages on his hand and other bite wounds. There wasn't any point to them now that the wounds had healed. He glanced up when he heard chittering to see the monkey looking at him with what he guessed was concern.

Sora said the first thing that came to his mind, "You stole my lantern you dumb chimp." She (Sora was pretty sure the monkey was a she from the flower in its ear) chattered and whined some more. The monkey seemed quite bashful and sorry. Sora knelt down, his temper subsiding as he realized something, "Then again, you did get me through the fog..." The monkey squeaked excitedly. She then whimpered a little and touched his arm. Sora smiled; she was worried about him! "I-I'm fine. I'm sorry I've been kinda mean to you."

The monkey then tugged his arm towards a door to the north, and Sora took a look around to see the one he entered to the south and two more to the east and west. None but the way he came in could be reached, though. Maybe in the temple's heyday there were steps to them but now all sat there with no way to reach them.

Sora shrugged, "I don't think I can get there." He pulled out his lantern again, "But maybe if I get a better view of things..." He lit it and took note of the torches on the corners. Sora walked up to one of the torches and lit it, then did the same for the three others-

Sora jumped when steps to the north door sprang up. He laughed when he recovered, "Heh, da da da da, I did it."

The monkey scampered ahead and waved for him to come over. Sora put out his lantern and followed. He paused to open a chest, and found a map of the place. He grinned, "Just what I need."

The monkey squeaked at him impatiently, and Sora walked over and opened the door. He was blasted with cold air from powerful winds. They stopped after a moment, oddly enough. Sora walked out to see the chimp waving him over to a wooden bridge, and it began crossing. Sora saw another monkey at the other end though, "Hey is that a friend of yours-"

Something came rushing at him, and he dodged it as it made a turn around him and back to the bridge. The object cut the bridge down with no trouble, but fortunately the monkey came back with little trouble. Crossing was a different story with the bridge out. Sora, however, knew that it was still crossable to a degree. He climbed up the poles that still remained, then carefully got on the support ropes left.

The monkey squealed at him. Get down you idiot! Get down!

Sora began shimmying across the rope (after all actually balancing on it would be stupid even by his standard with the wind around) and shook his head, "I'll be fine you silly monkey." He managed halfway, and was feeling pretty good. He stopped and held onto the rope for dear life when the winds picked up, but then managed to shimmy across all the way.

The monkey was screaming for him to get back over where she was, but Sora waved his hand, "I'll be fine, I promise-" he lurched and threw up a little. He shook his head to try and clear the nausea, "Jeez, I should really find out what my limits are..."

Midna appeared for the first time in what seemed like ages, "Yeah, you really should. I can't have you dying on me!" Sora smiled at the thought of Midna changing, but frowned when she added, "Not when you still need to find my fused shadows."

Sora sighed, then stood back up. He turned to the door, "Okay, she wanted me to go here." He opened it and dove right in.

Before I get complaints that "this isn't how the game went DX" lemme just say two things:

1) This is Sora, not Link, handling things

2) I've been playing Skyward Sword recently so that prob in TP seems just silly (jump up and shimmy across the rope simple as that doy)

3) you try novelizing a dungeon without it sounding like a walkthrough