Story Title: Our Wind Will Shake the Earth and Stars
Disclaimer: The rights and ability to do whatever I wanted with Twilight Princess… Pfft, why would I want that?
Author's Notes: Thanks to mysticalgems, Tapix, Kitade, FFlove190 for reviewing.
I am positive a lot of readers thought I had dropped this story for lack of any updates in nearly a year. I had set this fic aside during my holiday specials but once I could work on it, life sort of got in the way and then I was hit with the worst writer's block for this chapter. Literally pulling teeth would've been an easier endeavor.
But "Wind" is definitely back in my rotation and I hope this chapter will be well worth the long delay, especially for my regular readers, how ever many of you still remain and remember this story exists… Originally, the chapter was going to be a bit longer but I decided to end it where I did because I think I have enough material for a full chapter from what I planned on doing and well, I wanted to update early just to prove that I'm still working on this story. As such, it ends on a cliffhanger.
I'll be working on the next chapter immediately though, provided Hyrule Warriors doesn't provide too much of a distraction when it comes out on Friday. It's hardly a distraction when it can be called 'inspirational research', right?
As always, thanks for reading.
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Chapter Ten: Ordon Underground
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The surge spat them out and drained away through the small square gaps in the metal floor grates. Shad gasped and coughed up water as he pushed himself onto his forearms and crawled onto the dry, sand-colored stone. Knocking the water out of his ears and lining his senses back in order, he opened his surprisingly still bespectacled eyes and was shocked to see what lie beneath the humble farmlands of Ordon.
There was a stone passageway lit by mounted torches that gave way to a turn and how ever more twists and corridors and secrets. Where it led or how long the path was, the scholar did not know but was eager to see what lay buried for eons. There was not even a passing trace of a suggestion that such pathways existed beneath Ordon in none of the mayor's history books and records. Shad surmised and hoped to prove that the corridors and the chambers it led to existed before Ordon Village's establishment.
Link lay scowling beside Shad. The water had soaked and matted his feathers into clumps of gold and white-gold needles. While Link was regularly a patron of puddles, ponds, rivers, a dragon's feathers and scales were not as partial to water as tunics and bare Hylian skin was. He stretched and shook out the water, sending spray flying everywhere, especially toward Shad's face.
Muttering his protestations, Shad raised his arm and closed his eyes to shield himself from the second-hand shower. He intended on formally reprimanding Link but as soon as he could open his eyes, he was blinded by his natural golden glow suddenly sparking in brilliance. Heat vapor rippled around Link and the once comforting presence of Link's body warmth was searing to his skin. Shad saw redness spreading across his exposed hand. Unfortunately, the passageway was not very wide—nor tall, as Shad soon realized, as he hunched down to keep from knocking into the sandy-yellow stone. He could not distance himself from Link. Not well.
"Are you doing that?" Shad asked, following two to three strides behind Link as he blazed the way, his claws clacking against the stone. "I mean, I see that you are…however, is this sudden radiating sauna of yours intentional?"
Link shook his head no.
"I see… Merely a survival response then, a means of restoring your body temperature to standard," the scholar considered, taking deeper notice of his drenched feathers in his closely folded wings. "Seems your wings will be out of commission until they sufficiently dry. No pressing need for a take-off anyway. I have traversed a few caverns and catacombs in my short life and few of them provide adequate conditions for flight. Except for keese and you do not share characteristics with keese."
Except you do seem to be on fire at the moment, and you do scare me at times, not all the time like keese but some of the time, Shad swiftly reconsidered, sweat beading on his brow, as he turned the first corner and followed Link as he went ahead and peered around the next turn.
Shad had hoped for some form of hieroglyphics, or any sort of carving or fresco painted along the walls to give indication of the time period and civilization that constructed these tunnels. So far, he had seen no other sign of intelligent construction but sandy-yellow square block piled on more of the same blocks for seemingly endlessly twisting paths. The scholar had swiftly deduced that they were in some sort of underground maze, not all of which was sufficiently illuminated but, with Link's natural glow surrounding them, they had more than enough light.
A turn right, a circle to the left, a gap in the straightaway, Shad and Link took turns deciding their next direction and more often than not found out their chosen paths led nowhere. Neither could decide who was more correct and which of them should take point, though Shad usually deferred to Link since he happened to be out in front, which the scholar swiftly realized was a poor reason to accept Link's directional decisions.
Between Shad keeping mental note of the layout and carefully selecting his route based on several conjectured possibilities he laid out before himself and Link going wherever sense and intuition took him, forcing an increasingly annoyed and left behind Shad stranded in his thoughts to hasten after him, it was no wonder they found themselves at yet another dead end.
"You really should be more patient, old boy," Shad said, voice a bit pinched, as he crouched along, pressing a hand against the stone wall with each step as a guide and balance. They were making their way up a long, straight corridor that had ended in another entry-less wall. "Perhaps we would not be backtracking so much if you allotted me enough time to consider our route. This haphazard, willy-nilly gut-feeling approach is clearly not making us any headway."
After he shook off a swarm of scurrying, smoldering poison mite, which incidentally caught fire as soon as they crawled onto Link's superheated scales, Link looked back and breathed a sharp, bullish snort in disagreement.
"Now I am not one against exploration," Shad said sternly, eyebrows sharply sloping downward in irritation, as he waited for the spike trap—one of many so far—to slide back down so he could pass over, "however, we have discovered nothing of interest but our own shadows because of your insistence and pure stubbornness."
He believed Link was ignoring him now as the inflamed dragon-boy steadily proceeded on without a response.
Though he did not accurately know how much time they had exactly wasted, Shad did know the chronological measurement would be in hours and after several hours of remaining in the same hunched over position, his shoulders were burning and his ache was now steadily coursing its way down his spine and into his lower back. His knees were also feeling the strain of his lowered stance. Ah, what he would not give to be able to stand upright… It certainly would have been a booster to his shriveling morale.
"What in heavens is the purpose of this subterranean maze?" Shad said aloud, his body aches and lack of answers (or any interest to occupy his mind) causing a bit of a whine to slip in his voice. "There is no indication of this being an ancient aqueduct nor do I believe a booby-trapped maze would make due for an adequate escape route. Certainly there is some significance or the ancestral society that constructed this stone web never would have bothered to build it in the first place. One does not place a trial such as this to guard nothing, unless they are ma—"
Shad silenced himself immediately and stared at his hand on the wall. There was nothing different about his hand or the wall for that matter. He had simply felt something. A vibration. And much against his liking, it was not magical in origin.
"D-Did you feel that? Tell me you felt or otherwise sensed something," Shad said urgently, his eyes locked on Link and awaiting for his slightest signs of an answer.
Link growled deep in throat. It was neither a confirmed yes or no, only that he did not like what was going on any more than Shad did. Lifting his head, he smelled the musty air, his nostrils flaring noticeably. He then growled once more, bearing his teeth.
Shad hurried along to keep up with Link's sudden haste. He did not need to repeat his question to know that Link had indeed sensed something out in the maze. The uncertainty chipped at him. Knowing that there was something unseen wandering the maze searching for foolhardy trespassers, a creature that no doubt knew every path and false end while he and Link were left to resort to blind choices sent urgency rushing through his nerves. They needed to locate the maze's exit and locate it soon.
The path they were on, however, seemed to leading them closer. Though his hand was trembling uncontrollably, there was no doubt the vibrations in the walls and now the floor were growing deeper and more pronounced. He swore he heard a low growl rumble in the distance.
Sweat running down the side of his face, some of it from fear and the rest from keeping closer distance to Link, Shad peered over his shoulder, behind and around gaps and crossroads for the beast that lurked within the maze. He knew they were easy targets. Between Link being a beacon and himself crouched down in a position highly averse to running, they were sitting cucco.
No, no, we are not, Shad reconsidered. Cucco, even sitting ones, can swiftly rise up and fell their assailants with swift pecks and assistance from their flock. Only one of us could accomplish that same feat and that individual is most positively not me.
They were very, very close to it. Shad could hear its guttural grumbling, its loud sniffs of the air. Link hurried on and Shad did his best to follow, covering his own mouth with his hand to quiet his muttered, squeaky cries. If memory served him right, they would end up back at the crossroad. Shad already knew which fork they would take, being the only one they had not attempted yet. He prayed to the Goddesses that the gap they just passed was not the direction they needed to take and that they had slipped by the beast undiscovered.
And then turning out from that very gap, the beast roared, its sound booming and powerful enough to shake the walls. Shad immediately turned around as soon as it roared and saw it was a naked man, all muscle, with a head of an Ordon goat. It was hunchbacked and coated in matted, grizzled fur. Its horns were broken, split at an angle so there were two sharp, chest-piercing points lowered into position as the goat-man lowered its head and charged.
Shad's brain and body seized up and readied for imminent death as his knees buckled and he dropped to the stone floor. Before he hit the stone, Link wrapped his tail tightly around his waist and ran. Dragged off his feet and head knocked forward, Shad found himself suddenly snapped back into temporary clarity and awareness again. He saw the goat-man, raging white foam slinging from its scarred mouth, charging after him as Link raced up corridor after corridor, a right turn, a left turn, through a side path.
This was it, the scholar realized. After all his explorations through poisoned arrow-trapped tunnels, nights cowering from roaming bulblins, the many, many scraps and cuts and times he literally almost lost his head with the Group, either during Ashei's approximation to training or out in the field, his absolute and permanent end was going to be at the ungulate beast's brutal hands.
Link's golden light cast deepening shadows across the goat-man's bowed head, its face and eyes obscured, deformed, and demonic. Its guttural roar, the rapid clacks of its hoofed feet against stone were nearly inaudible to Shad over his own screams. Shad drew his legs in and protected himself as best as he could as he skidded and bounced off the floor and banged into the walls as Link rushed down straightways and twisted sharply around turns in an effort to outmaneuver and escape the goat-man.
In what he was positive was the last moments of his short lifespan, Shad was reminded of his mother requesting he pursue a teaching position and debated in his final seconds whether it would have been better and more fulfilling to live to a ripe age with a crushed spirit or to die suddenly of a crushed body amidst pursuing what he loved in the field.
Ornate metal gates rose up behind them as Link raced down a center corridor. The goat-man barreled through each one, ripping through and crinkling the metal as if it were parchment. It maybe slowed it down a second or two but the beast was still undeterred and rampaged on. Short of maybe a stone wall sliding out in front of it, Shad did not believe any gate could detain it long enough for Link and Shad to make headway in their escape.
Until it reached the final ornate gate made of another metal entirely gilded in gold and red lacquer and discovered it could not simply run riot right on through. After recovering from stumbling backwards from the shock and reverberations, the goat-man rammed and pushed but the gate held.
Shad was delirious with joy and relief and grinned through his tears. They could make it. For as long as the gate held, they could put that much distance between them. They could be long gone before the metal crumpled.
We might actually survive, the scholar thought as laughter bubbled up from his throat in elation.
And then Link skidded to a quick stop and unwrapped his tail from Shad. Every bit of his effervescence fizzled away, leaving only a black lump of terror rolling down his spine, anchoring him to the floor as he gaped at the snarling, bellicose beast.
Why in heavens are we stopping? he wondered, his mind racing to determine a sound reasoning for their asinine cease of action. We are not safe. The beast remains before us, stopped tenuously no doubt, Shad flitted his eyes to his left and then his right. There were no other paths to take. I say, we are trapped and the beast will break its bonds and that shall be our end!
Link nudged his forehead against Shad's shoulder roughly, knocking him on his back, and growled, the sound more urging him to move now rather than angry. Preparing to reprimand him sternly for pushing him down, the scholar then followed Link's fervent nods directing him to a point behind him and saw a square opening, large enough for Link and Shad to crawl through one at a time. Link growled once more and Shad scrambled onto his forearms and crawled as Link stood between him and the goat-man as the metal began to bend at its push.
Clouds of fine dirt left still for decades, perhaps even centuries stirred around him as Shad inched his way down the sloping shaft. Along with the scent of dry earth, there was the faint smell of stagnancy, either of still water or decayed rat. Shad crawled through the dark, coughing through the motes of dirt until the shaft gave way to an open space.
Feeling his way around, still shaking, his heart still pulsating somewhere between his throat and chest cavity, Shad crawled over and pressed his back against a wall and waited. He fumbled around his rucksack for his lantern, wondering if it would be any use to light it if Link was sure to come soon. He certainly would have rather been able to see his surroundings than to sit foolishly and vulnerably in the dark, however, though he neither heard nor believed he was in any further danger.
Just as he located his lantern and the necessities required to light it, he saw golden light warm the tunnel walls beside him. Gradually, being a tighter fit for him than it had for Shad, Link crawled out and stretched his back and opened up his finally dried wings a bit, though he could not spread them out fully. The strident screech of metal bending was covered over soon by the wrathful roar of the thwarted goat-man rumbling through the shaft and walls.
"S-Seems we made it here safely," Shad said, a little nervous waver in his voice. "No harm befell you, old boy, correct?"
Link made a lazy growl and glanced at his wings. He seemed fine, though the close confinement was beginning to irk him. Normally, Link did not have any issues with caverns and the underground, though normally Link was not a winged dragon forced into narrow, tight corridors and even smaller, uncomfortable square shafts. All winged creatures, even keese, preferred open, airy locations to make better use of their flight capabilities. These cavern tunnels were better suited to the Mogma from the Sky Era.
"Shall we continue?" he said, rising to his…well, crouched feet, ducking as he realized the ceiling was still as low as the previous section. Indeed, the civilization that constructed this maze must have been small in stature, child-sized even. "Well, at least, there is not a goat-man pursuing us here as well."
Link gave an as-far-as-we-know rumble and half rolled his eyes as he once again led the way.
"Yes, that is true, though I doubt this environment would sustain two goat-men. Actually, I am not certain how one managed to survive this long…" the scholar considered. "Perhaps there is a pathway to the surface, however you or Rusl would have located such a beast if it hunted above, correct?"
Link adamantly nodded.
"And this is your first knowledge of its existence below the village?" Shad said and Link agreed. "I say, how it is possible that it survived this lon—ah, what in heavens!" He smacked a black lump of fur perched on his supply pouches around his belt and realized as it squeaked and scurried off that it was a giant rat…with his rupee pouch in its filthy fangs.
A sharp whip from Link's tail put an end to the vermin's escape. It lay on its side, dead, though it was possibly just stunned. Gingerly, Link picked up his pouch, tossed it back to him, and then kept an eye on the rat. Shad wondered what the necessity was for. Perhaps he heard its heart still beating. Rats were not particularly dangerous, aside from the plagues they carried and the pain and infections their bites inflicted. Still Link's extreme vigilance was more than matters called for.
But Link was keeping close watch on the rat. He leaned in, nostrils flaring, and then in one smooth motion scooped up the rat and swallowed it whole. Bile cascaded up the scholar's throat as he held back the contents of his stomach tenuously. …Seemed his vigilance was less so much due to protectiveness than purely hunger.
"Heavens, old boy," Shad said, turning his head away and fighting off the dry heaves. "It would be…most appreciated if you ceased doing…that. And here I believed that Ashei possessed the worst sense of propriety…"
Link grumbled low in his throat.
"Do not excuse your behavior because you are a dragon. You are Hylian at heart and in true form and mind you it is not required for you to consume meat so…fresh," Shad said. "Perhaps it is considered permissible in Ordon, which I highly doubt, however I consider it absolutely, positively disgusting and I adamantly request you cease consuming uncooked beasts at least in front of me. I say, when proper cooking is not plausible, I will soon carry fruits and nuts to stave off your unshakable impulse to consume incapacitated enemies."
Link breathed a sharp, dismissive snort.
The scholar furrowed his brow in annoyance. "Do not think I did not hear that, old boy. Might I remind you I possess no inkling of how to proceed about tending to a dragon's aching stomach or, heaven forbid, you contract worms from consuming vermin. Are you even aware of the latest studies on parasites? Some are so minute they require the utilization of magnified lenses to be observable and they are far more debilitating and deadly than any weapon in existence."
He could have sworn Link was laughing.
"It will be no laughing matter when you are doubled over in pain," Shad warned but it was clear Link was not worried. Hyrule in danger, especially his loved ones, seemed to be the only thing that ever made Link truly worried. The possibility of himself getting sick, burnt, blown up, trampled, and any other serious threat to his life never registered as a cause for concern. His general life philosophy seemed to be to try anything—food, combat technique, random levers—and let what happened to him happen.
Shad did not agree that this was a necessarily wise approach to life but he did surmise that a certain level of risk-taking was a prerequisite of Heroes. I simply hope he does not one day cross the line between courage and stupidity, Shad thought, peering up at the stone ceiling, wisps of prayers floating about his mind.
Once again, he followed Link deep into the underground. The scholar was disappointed to discover little difference between one section of the maze from another. There were some brown water stains, however, seeping down the gaps as they edged onward, indicating moisture was prevalent at one time.
Easily could have been run-off seeping through underground springs or wells, Shad surmised. There is little indication of our exact depth below the earth's surface, after all.
Shad did begin to notice a shift in the maze's construction around him. Gradually, alternate paths ending in false ends became more obvious—their paths shortening until they were nothing more than what Shad referred to as little closets branching off from the central road—and eventually the side paths stopped presenting themselves at all. The maze had become a labyrinth, with only one path to traverse.
"Certainly draws at lot of the fuss and conjecture out," Shad spoke aloud as they made their way through another ring of the labyrinth. He was not so much talking to Link than simply talking for the sake of talking. "Ah, where shall we try next? No need, just follow the winding way. You shall arrive at your destination in good time."
After a while and more of the same stones, Shad did settle on a thought to occupy his mind. "The very existence of this elaborate underground monstrosity is a wonder in of itself. What in heavens was it required for and why is there such a beast patrolling its walls? The people that constructed this did so for a reason, but why is that so?"
Link growled and wrapped the end of his tail around Shad's wrist and pulled him forward as if to say he should walk faster so he could find out sooner. He rather did not appreciate the tug forward as Shad had nearly tripped over his own feet but he had to admit Link's method of communication was effectively truthful and direct, to say in the least.
Meandering through ring after ring, Link and Shad were surprised to see what appeared to be an ordinary doorway at the end of what seemed to be the final passage. Hurrying along, they discovered at the end a chamber of moderate side, large enough to evenly hold Link and Shad with high enough ceilings to permit the scholar a well-deserved break from crouching. Unfortunately, the endeavor in solving the maze did not wield much reward.
The final room contained no entranceway, no stairs leading elsewhere. It was a plain room of the same water-stained stone as before, though there was a far more pronounced wet, musty smell in the air. The only object of interest was a central statue of a young, presumably Hylian girl with her hands outstretched and raised high above her as if in offering. Shad bowed his head and gradually began to accept defeat.
"I am beyond disappointed, old boy," he said, shaking his bowed head, and paced slowly around his available half of the chamber. "To think we risked our lives on a hope to locate a Feather of Glory, only to discover our one lead is false. Indeed there was always the possibility this location was never associated with said Feathers but it was our one promising clue, the only one we possessed—" Hearing a particularly fibrous, crunching noise, Shad looked and saw Link munching on what were definitely little baby pumpkins, some still green, others ripe and bright orange. "Now where in blazes did you get pumpkins?"
Link offered him a short nod up and once Shad followed his guidance, he observed that the entire ceiling was an entangled growth of pumpkin vines in which pumpkins hung upside down in varying states between flowering and mature fruit.
"I say now, this is just bizarre," Shad said in awe as a water droplet dripped from above onto his spectacles. "I do believe some law of nature, whether it is gravity or fundamental requirements for pumpkin production, is being broken here. This is…unnatural."
Link rumbled his throat and tipped his head to the side as if he did not mind and proceeded to enjoy a very familiar taste of home.
"You know better than I that this should not occur," Shad said, his voice edged with a slight bit of annoyance at Link's easy preoccupation with consuming the pumpkins rather than investigation or conjecturing on their existence. "This alone should inform us that something is not right here. …That must be a sign signifying that there is more to this room than there appears."
Shad began glancing about the room, scrutinizing and searching for any little detail. He asked Link to tear away at the pumpkin vines above and he did so but at his own pace while he disposed of the many pumpkins he also brought down with their vines. It was very clear he believed in the logic of not letting perfectly good food go to waste. Shad wanted to argue and hurry him along but Link was bigger than him and stronger and he could definitely ignore Shad and eat all he wished and Shad would not be able to lift even just his head off the floor. If there was anything of importance among the vines, Shad would have to wait and see in time, at least until Link's dragon stomach was satiated, which if it could hold the same amount of food as his Hylian stomach would probably entail the consumption of every single pumpkin.
And then he noticed a few tiny scratches and nicks on the girl's hands. Upon closer inspection, the marks appeared to be a primitive alphabet. Shad was familiar with every early Hylian script known in existence, but these figures only partially resembled the earliest known writings. The symbols actually appeared to possess more of a root origin stemming from Sky Writing than Hylian.
The matter was that he recognized three of the marking as being very close but not identical to actual Sky Writing. The issue was that while the marks looked like certain words, they could very much mean something else entirely in actuality.
"Look sharp, old boy," he said, still bowed by the small statue, as Link turned his head in show of attention. "There appears to be a rudimentary message outlined on the statue's hands. While there is a possible margin of error, I would best surmise its translation to approximately be…'I give and sustain all life'."
Shad rose to standing but stood peering down at the message and held his chin in deep contemplation. "Now the Goddess associated with bringing all forms and essence of life to Hyrule is Farore," he thought aloud, wishing Link would attempt to quiet his rustling among the vines. "There was once a long-standing belief of Farore blessing and standing beside the Kokiri, alongside the chosen Hylian people, to the extent that ancient artists often depicted Farore as a Kokiri or as having a child-like appearance and demeanor."
"If I am correct in assuming this statue represents Farore, the solution must be that we must offer something of importance to the Goddess. However, the only artifact I can recall of potential significant connection to Farore is the Kokiri's Emerald, mentioned briefly in the Hero of Time's story but is never heard of in history or located ever again." Shad circled around and stepped away in frustration as he groaned and ran his hand through his hair. "We unwind one knot only to bring forth ten others. How are we to obtain any progress in our search if we must scour the kingdom blindly for yet another lost treasure?"
Shad turned back around and looked to Link for some sort of spark of an idea, concurrence, support, something. He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyed disbelief as he watched Link place an albeit perfectly proportionate pumpkin onto the statue's hands.
"I say, it is a shame you cannot adequately speak, old boy, as I would very much like to hear your reasoning as to why a pumpkin is the correct answer," he said, a stern edge in his voice.
And then the statue's arms lowered, stone grating on stone, a stone column rose in the open doorway, essentially sealing their escape, and water began to flow from tiny circular openings along the bottom of the walls into the small room.
Water lapped at Shad's ankles as he rushed around in panic and fear. "You have certainly done it, old boy. This cannot end well…"
Over the steady rush of flowing water, the scholar faintly heard through the stone walls the distinct click and plunge of levers and weights, of gears stirring and whirring to life. Soon after, large slabs of the stone floor began to sink and fold away like a lotus flower inversely blooming. Bit by bit, the angle of the rocks grew steeper. Shad pressed himself against the wall and watched in terror as the slippery floor inched him closer and closer into a dark pit.
Link attempted the same staving measures but on account his body took up half the floor space, there was little he could do. He fought for as long as he could before sliding into the pit, his claws leaving white scratch marks in the stone. Shad called out to him and watched his descent until his golden light faded beyond sight.
It is inevitable…Shad thought, his body trembling, as he squeezed his eyes shut to impede his tears from flowing. I shall join him soon enough. There is no requirement to prolong my suffering when I am fully aware of the final outcome. Within similar circumstances as this, it is best to embrace inevitability…
As his boots began to slide, Shad closed his eyes, released a calming breath, and fell away from the wall. He followed the flowing water into darkness. Moist air and the smell of wet, loamy earth and hay rushed past his face as he plummeted down and farther down still. And then he hit water.
The water slapped him alert. He opened his eyes to see nothing beneath the black water. He had barely enough time and sense to grab hold of his spectacles before the swift current twisted and tossed him along at a swiftness beyond frenzy. His nose and windpipe burned from inhaling a measure of water. Shad wanted to cough. He needed air. He tried to break the surface but the current rolled him aimlessly about and he found no river bottom or wall to push off from. Fat air bubbles escaped his mouth. Shad covered his mouth as he struggled to deny instinct ordering him to take in air at once when there was none to partake.
He held his breath, even as his chest felt ready to burst. Every last bit of air had escaped his body. Shad writhed within the current. Eventually succumbing to the pain and natural impulse, he opened his mouth, expecting to draw in liquid, when the most merciful air filled his lungs. In shock, he opened his eyes, only to close them just as suddenly from the unexpected burst of bright light. And then he fell out of the water and landed on something quite solid and hot to the touch. It stirred beneath him and rumbled at his sudden presence atop of it. Shad soon realized he had fallen from a massive waterspout and had landed on Link.
"Are you all right, old boy?" he asked, his voice a bit hoarse from breathing and coughing up water. He quickly placed his spectacles back on to make a visual check. Link's growl seemed to indicate yes but he was very irritated that his wings were once again soaking wet.
Once he felt a little less waterlogged, Shad saw they were in a massive circular chamber of blue-gray stone. White moonlight shone through the ornate bird and clover-shaped skylights above, casting a silver glow on the inner surrounding ring of support columns. Many waterspouts, large and small, lined the upper portion of the walls and steadily poured water into overflowing fountains and flooded the floor with ankle-deep water. Patches of green moss discolored the stone in moist places while verdant flowering vines clung to the walls, sprouted from cracks, clogged spouts, and twisted around column bases.
"I surmise we have reached aboveground, if the moonlight is not a hallucination brought forth by physical head trauma or mental breakdown," Shad said, rising to standing. "However, I say, I do not suppose you have ever located the exterior of this place in any of your hunts through the woods, old boy?"
As he peered about with the same curiosity mixed with uncertainty as Shad, Link's growl indicated a no.
"Ah, I see." Shad nodded as he stepped forward. Little bright gold fireflies began to float past them and appeared all across the chamber. He fleetingly watched the fireflies gather closely. "Rather exquisite architecture. It is a fascinating locale to say the least."
The fireflies swarmed, creating a golden mist in the center of the chamber. And then over the steady surge of flowing water around them came the sound of a single water droplet dripping. The waterspouts began to flood the room with white-gold water. Link rushed ahead of Shad and nudged him back in a clear indication to stay back before turning back to the swirling gold mist and crouching into a battle stance. As tendrils of white-gold water reached for and circled around and gave form to the gold mist, Link growled and bared his fangs.
"Welcome, brave youth and friend," Ordona said as the Ordon goat-bodied Light Spirit manifested itself. "Welcome to my inner sanctum. It was once a holy site of purity and peace where the wayward could be made whole again but war and thirst for power corrupted the natural energy of the sanctified land until I reestablished order. Fear caused the world to abandon this place. It is lost and forgotten."
The air began to stir around them, in the same way that the wind stirs and sways the highest treetops moments before a great storm. "…There is much in this world that is lost and forgotten," Ordona insisted. "These such things need to remain that way."