Wang: Time for the first temple!

Static: We don't own a thing.

Chapter 9: Odolwa

They woke up with the sun as it crested the earthen walls to bathe them in golden light. Tatl fluttered about, having stayed awake nervously for the majority of the night. Link stretched out, working out the kinks in his back from falling asleep on his shield. Nadai got up and began to pace, getting the blood flowing.

Link reached for the bread from the previous night. "Hungry?" He asked, ripping apart the bread into two equal-ish pieces.

Nadai caught the bread when he tossed it to her. She took a bite. "It shouldn't be too bad inside," she reassured when she saw the fairy.

Tatl shook, exasperated. "How would you know? What if you're wrong!"

Link shrugged. "We're not wrong." He stood up, and put his shoes and socks back on. "This temple can't be that complicated. This is a place of worship, not a stronghold of the damned."

Tatl shivered. "But what about the thing that took the princess?"

Nadai finished her breakfast and smiled. "What did I say earlier about us being not your normal kids? We've got this. Take a step back and watch."

Link took out his sword, and swung it experimentally. "I might need a new weapon soon." He commented, "the Kokiri Sword isn't as long as it was before."

"It's the same length," Nadai said. "You just got bigger."

Link shrugged. He looked at the door. "Ready?"

Nadai grinned. "Ready."

Tatl sighed, resigning herself, and sat down on her shoulders. "You have less than a day to save the princess and bring her back to the palace."

Link smiled. It vanished as the thoughts of his past came back to him. "Piece of cake." He said.

Striding forward he pushed open the door, and entered the temple. He let his eyes adjust to the low-light. It had a high ceiling, and it stretched out ahead of him. Several platforms with bulbous flowers on them were dotted here and there. Water lay beneath them, just out of the light.

Link looked at the distance between the platforms. "I definitely won't reach that."

Nadai shrugged. "Well, we do have the flowers."

Taking a running start, she jumped and flew through the air. She landed on a platform, and kicked off of it. She landed again, but didn't go as far. Within a minute or two, she had made it to the other side of the expanse to stand next to the torch there.

Link brought out the mask, and changed into a scrub. Instantly he was sucked into the flower at his feet. He waited until he was pollen filled and then pushed up. He swam through the air, moving his arms and legs forward. He landed on the next platform. As he landed on the flower, he was sucked back in to be re-pollened.

It took longer than Nadai, but he made it across to stand next to her. Staying as a scrub, he followed her into the next room. It was wide, and tall. There was another story above them, with direct access to see it but not to get to it. In the middle, floating on the water sat a wooden platform with a torch stand that was unlit. Flowers were here and there on the water. They weren't the same kind of flower that Link would be sucked into, but rather flowers with broad petals. To the left stood one door, and to the right stood another.

"Somethings wrong." Tatl whispered. "It feels like…like…"

"Like something evil is here." Link finished for her. "Something's off."

Nadai went to the water. "My guess is the water. Unless," she added, "it's supposed to be purple."

They took a closer look. It was purple, and it gave off a foul odor. "This definitely is poisoned." Link muttered.

Tatl shuddered. "Do you think that that monster that took the princess did this?"

Link shrugged. "Maybe. It's more than likely."

Nadai stood back up straight and stretched. "You know what you were saying about the giants needed to be roused?"

Tatl nodded. "Yeah, that's what the Great Fairy said."

"I think it's more serious than that." Nadai said. "I think that these giants are being purposefully held out of this."

"What! How?"

"If their temples are being attacked, maybe their powers are being lessened." Link reasoned. "If that's the case, then the giants have less power because their followers don't believe in them?"

Nadai shrugged. "That could be it. But I'm thinking more along the line of the sages. If Saria couldn't access her powers to help beat Gannondorf because the temple was overrun, wouldn't the same concept work here?"

Tatl spoke slowly, trying to comprehend. "So if Majora is trying to destroy the world, then he knows Terminian lore enough to know that the giants would try to stop him. So he sent monsters to the temples to stop the giants and distract them from the moon falling down?"

Nadai nodded. "Something like that I guess." She pointed to the door on the right. "That door is open a bit."

Link peered that way. "Open?"

Tatl flew over to it. "Who could've done that?"

"The Princess and her lover were attacked by a monster." Link recalled. "The monster took the Princess. Her lover went after it. He might have tried to stop the monster."

"Then where is he?" Nadai asked.

The image of a stump, with the twisted, terrified face of a Deku Scrub came to him. "I think Majora got to him."

Tatl came back to him. "Now that you mention it, Skull Kid wasn't all himself right before we met."

"You don't say?" Link asked. "He must have killed him, or cursed him."

Tatl clutched her head. "No, no, no, no, no," she repeated to herself. She sank to the ground. "He wouldn't do that, he couldn't do that."

Link closed his eyes, trying to keep as much frustration out of his voice as possible. "Tatl. You should get it through your head that Skull Kid is gone, and Majora remains. Until that damn mask is off of him, your friend is gone."

Nadai reached down and picked up Tatl. "Sad to say, but it is true." She said. "Come on, you can sit on my shoulders for now." She placed the fairy on her shoulder. "Now all you have to do is hold on tight and watch."

Link smiled, though the effect was diminished due to his form. "We'll have this place done in a jiffy."

Nadai jumped to a flower, then another then another. They held her weight, though they did dip dangerously close to the water level. She went to the door on the right and stood by it. Link hopped across the poisonous water to each flower. He didn't know for certain, but he was sure that if he was in his normal body that he would sink the flower easily.

When he got back to stand on stone he rubbed his feet furiously.

"What?"

Link looked up at Nadai. "I'm made of wood, the water got soaked into my feet."

He stood back up, but felt pan as he stood. "Oh that's gonna hurt."

"Change back into a Hylian." Nadai suggested. "Would that work?"

Link went to his face and took off the mask. The pain diminished but felt like a dull ache in his muscles. "Less," he grimaced. "But certainly more manageable than being a scrub."

He followed Nadai through the open door. The room was filled with water, with a single platform in the middle of the room with a flower on it. On the four walls were stone landings leading to doors. Above them was another level, with a similar layout to the floor they were on. To their right, however, was a crumbing mess. Someone had fought something over there, and the landing to the right of them was no longer upright and stable. Instead, it was slouched over, as if something had crashed into it and cause it to collapse on itself.

Link pointed up to the door on the second floor to the right. "There's something up there."

Tatl followed his finger. "I don't see anything."

Nadai fingered the daggers on her belt. "I sense it to."

"Is it that monster?"

"I don't think so." Link walked to the edge of the landing and judged the distance. "At least, I don't think it's the monster that took that princess."

Nadai ran past him and jumped through the air. "Wanna find out then?"

Without waiting for his response, she leapt from rock to rock to stand on the landing above. It wavered with her weight, but it held. "It's certainly not stable."

Link nodded. "I take it that I'll have to be a scrub again."

He put the mask back on and shrunk in size. He ran and jumped. He hopped across the water to the first rock, ignoring the pain in his feet. He jumped from rock to rock, clambering and climbing as needed. He got to the top and stood next to Nadai. The pain in his feet was stronger, but still bearable. The structure wobbled.

"I'm scared." Tatl whispered.

Nadai ignored her and opened the door, walking inside. Link came a moment later. The door closed shut behind them and locked itself with a small click. Something was on the ceiling, and it was falling to them. As it landed, Link took off the mask, reverting back to his Hylian self.

The Lizalfos standing before them was twice as tall as anything that they had met in Hyrule. It also bore two long swords that glinted in the torchlight.

"Can I have this one?" Link asked.

"But you had the last one." Nadai argued. She took out the daggers from their sheaths. "And you got to go into the deku palace without me."

Link shrugged. "You could've put on the mask."

Nadai shook her head. "Not my mask." She stepped forward. "Now relax, I want some fun."

Tatl flew off of Nadai's shoulder and flew up above. She could see everything that happened, though she couldn't quite believe it herself. Nadai was just as strong as Link in their younger state. She was also more than a tad faster than Link. The Lizalfos, despite being a terrifying force, was no match to the speed of Nadai.

She dodged around the swipes of the lizard, and cut along his scales, opening up dozens of small wounds. She danced backward, waiting for the monster to come to her before striking again. Tatl realized what Nadai was doing close to when the battle was over with. She was like a hunter, playing with her food.

"You know, you don't have to tease him like that."

Nadai wiped the sweat from her brow. "I needed the fun." She answered. "It feels like I've been doing nothing the past couple of days."

Link shrugged. "Fair enough," he said. He pointed to the chest that had materialized on the other side of the room. "Boss key?"

Nadai shook her head. "If that was the sub-boss, then this place is far easier than I thought."

They walked to the chest and opened it up. Nadai reached down and pulled out a bow and quiver with arrows.

"Another bow." Link moaned. He grinned, "Another thing that I can't use."

"I beat the monster, I get the reward." Nadai held the bow up. "And it's small enough that I can use it without hurting myself."

"Maybe you've done some growing yourself."

Nadai smiled. "Maybe I have."

They left the room. In the moment before the landing collapsed on them, Nadai and Link spotted the eye that hung on the wall. Link fell forward, aiming for the platform in the middle of the room. Nadai snapped the bow out, and jumped forward in the air. She aimed and fired. The arrow hit the eye. She pushed off of Link's back, sending him down, and landed on the landing on the opposite of the room they had come out of.

Link landed on the flower as the platform rose up, activated by the eye being hit. He changed into a deku and went into the flower. He popped up once he was properly pollened and swam through the air to the landing by Nadai.

"You didn't have to push off of me like that."

"Bu where's the fun in that?" Teased Nadai. She opened the door. "Besides, it was obvious that the platform would rise up."

"Not completely obvious to me," Tatl complained.

The rest of the fairy's words were cut short as they came face to face with a frog that was as tall as Link was when he was an adult. It was orange and black in a swirling pattern that they didn't recognize. It reached out with one webbed hand toward them. Link reached out his own hand in curiosity, until Tatl knocked it away.

"Don't touch it, its poison!"

Link stepped back, and the frog let out a loud bellow. The frog hopped back and landed on top of a large, circular rock. Nadai trained her bow on it.

"So we should attack?"

"No clue."

The words died in Tatl's throat as the rock shifted and stood up taller. Four blue legs popped out, and a squat, angry looking turtle head poked its head out. The turtle and the frog roared at them.

"What?" Link said.

"It's a giant turtle, and a frog on its back." Nadai said. "Are we supposed to fight them now?"

The turtle tucked in its extremities, and began to spin. A second later it shot forward, frog still on its back. Surprised, it hit Link and he flew off to the side where he hit the wall and slumped to the ground. Nadai was clipped, and she spun in place to avoid the force.

"How the hell do we fight that thing?" Nadai shouted.

She took aim and shot at the frog. The frog ducked its head and narrowed its bulbous eyes. The frog shouted out, and the turtle spun her way. She waited until the last second until she moved, narrowly missing the impact.

Link pushed himself back up from the ground. His head hurt tremendously. He shook the cobwebs out as best he could and stood. Nadai was dodging the frog, and she seemed to have its undivided attention. He glanced at the turtle's thick shell, and the poisonous frog that was upon it. How could they possibly hurt that thing through its defenses?

Tatl flew over to him. "Are you alright!?" She shouted.

"Fine, fine." Link waved his hand. "What can you tell me about that turtle and the frog?"

"Uh, they're natives to the swamp. I've never seen either of them to be this big though."

"What about weaknesses, what can I do that will hurt them?"

"The frog can be hit from afar, I think. The bow will be a good idea against it. As for the turtle, the only way to hurt it is to get at it from its belly. Though I have no idea how you could possibly flip it or anything like that."

Link spotted the flowers on the ground. "Oh, believe me, I have a plan."

He ran to the closest flower and stood by it. He waved his hands to get Nadai's attention, but she couldn't see him due to the turtle. He groaned in frustration.

"Get her to bring the turtle to me." He ordered, before slipping into the flower.

Inside the flower, he collected the pollen. He glanced up, and could see the small opening where light came in. He readied his legs. As soon as the light was blocked by the turtle, he would push up and hit it hard.

Meanwhile, Tatl flew over to Nadai, whom was busy dodging the frog. The fairy landed on her shoulder and whispered into her ear.

"You're gonna need to shout out." Nadai said loudly. "Can't hear a word your saying over frog boy."

"Draw the turtle over to Link."

"And where the hell is he?"

"In a flower."

"What does…" She trailed off, understanding the plan.

She dodged the turtle as it came at her again. She looked about, but each flower looked to be the same as the one next to it. She groaned inwardly, but set to work. She would have to just go flower by flower until they found one that worked.

She tried the ones on the opposite side of the room first. If Link was nowhere near her beforehand, how could he be in the ones closest to her? Her intuition payed off as Link popped up at the second flower. The turtle flipped over, and the frog leapt off. It went to the turtle's shell, trying to push on it to push it upright once more.

However, there were other plans for them than that.

Nadai shot with accuracy that came from years of practice. She pinned one of the frog's hands to the shell. After that, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Link on the other hand turned back into his true form. Taking out his sword, he stabbed the turtle's soft underbelly. Once it was in, he dragged his sword back and forth and gouged a long, thick wound on it.

Within moments they had beaten the overly-large animals.

"Just who are you guys?"

"Professionals." Said Link, distractedly.

Off to the side another chest was materializing. Only, this one was far more ornate than the one before. They went to it and opened it, revealing an ornate key.

"This has got to be the boss key."

"We just need to find the boss room then."

"Maybe off the main room?" Nadai suggested. "We could also light up that torch that was on that platform."

Link nodded. "Sounds fine to me." He looked about. "Is it me, or is this particular temple a tad too easy?"

"Maybe." Nadai shrugged. "It's not like we have done like a dozen or so of these dungeons already."

"True." Link stretched out, working the kinks out in his back. While being a scrub had helped with landing against the wall due to its hard wooden body, now that he was Hylian again the pain had manifested in a tightness that wouldn't quite go away.

They left the room. The landing was connected to the others on this level. They went right, and returned to the main room. On this level, several torches were placed strategically around. Only one was lit. To their right, and directly opposite of the entrance into the temple, was a locked door.

"We gotta open that door." Nadai said.

Link looked at the torches. "We need to light these torches up."

Nadai frowned. "You know, if we could use magic, this would be so much easier."

"Din's Fire would be nice right now." Link agreed. "If only Hylian Magic would work in Termina or vice versa."

Nadai nodded. "Well, we do have the bow."

"But what does that have to do with anything?" Tatl cried out in frustration.

"Watch and learn."

Nadai went to the lit torch. She frowned. From that angle, she could only reach the torch in the middle of the floating platform below her. Unless the boomerang or something of the like was in the temple too. Besides, she could always jump onto the platform below and shoot the torches from there. And if that didn't work, they could always look about for the boomerang or something like that.

She took aim, and fired. The arrow went through the torch, lighting afire, and hit the other torch. The torch below them lit. Just as Nadai was about to jump down, the platform began to rise. It came up to their level, unfolding itself until it looked like a wooden flower. Then it began to spin.

"Have fun!" Link called.

Nadai glanced his way. "Just stay out of the way."

She jumped onto the platform. As soon as she landed the platform sped up. She planted her feet, forcing herself to stay low to keep her balance. When the platform didn't show any signs of slowing down, she slowly righted herself. The world was spinning too fast for her to fully process what she was seeing. Blurs upon blurs upon blurs clouded her vision. She focused on the red streak that was the lit torch on the second floor, and on the torch that was in front of her. She raised her arm, closed her eyes, and notched an arrow.

She fired. She notched another arrow, and fired again. The arrows were the right height for the torches, however they weren't anywhere close to their mark. The fiery arrows clanged off walls, or chipped off the pillars. Safely behind a pillar, Link could only wait until all the torches were lit, Nadai fell off, or she had run out arrows.

Then the first torch was lit. Then the second. By alternating the rate that she fired, she managed to hit the torches. Then all the torches were lit and the platform stopped spinning. Then she flew off the platform to the water below.

In the instant the arrows were no longer hitting the walls, Link peered his head around the pillar. He saw Nadai fall in, and he ran to the edge. Tatl, who had stayed by the pillar, couldn't understand why he was laughing so hard.

"Throw me a rope!" Nadai called out. "Don't leave me stranded down here!"

Link took a rope out of his pack, and threw one end over the edge. Below in the water floated Nadai. While the water was no longer purple, it was cold and still smelled as though something had died in it. She took hold of the rope. Together, with Link pulling and Nadai climbing, she got up soon enough. She wiped the water from her as best she could, and squeezed it out from her hair and clothes. Link recoiled the rope and waited for her by the door that they had chosen.

He tried not to watch. As fun as it was to see her in wet clothes, they did have a job to do. If he could focus on their task for long enough and hard enough, then they could finish saving the world for the second time. Then they could talk.

She came over a moment later, still wet but not as soaked as before. They pushed open the door. It was a small room, with table on either side. They glanced about. No one was there.

"This must be the Advent Room."

"Advent Room?"

"It's the room before the Inner Sanctum." Tatl explained. "The Dekus would prepare themselves here with holy oils before entering the Inner Sanctum."

Link held up the key. "Then I guess the monster is in there."

They strode across the room, and they stuck the key in the hole. It opened silently. Inside was all dark. Link drew his sword and shield, and Nadai fingered the bow. They stepped inside.

When all three of them were inside the room, the door closed behind them. The torches around the room lit up. From the ceiling came light, reflecting off a complicated array of mirrors to illuminate the room fully. Around the sides of the room were bomb flowers, though they looked withered and malnourished.

In the dead center of the circular room stood the monster. Vaguely humanoid in nature, it wore a fierce looking mask with yellow eyes. It stood as tall as Gannon, but was very much skinnier. It bore a diamond shield and a long, curved sword.

"That's the monster alright." Link said.

"What the hell is that thing!" Tatl flew backwards, and ran into the door.

"I dunno." Nadai notched an arrow. "You think that we could hit thing with the bow?"

"Knowing the trends of the temples, probably." Link commented. He stepped forward and brought up his shield. "I'll distract."

"Sounds like fun."

The monster reached out with its sword, and hit Link harder than anything else they had faced yet in Termina. He grit his teeth and stood his ground. While this guy was strong, he wasn't as strong as Gannondorf. And while Link wasn't nowhere as strong as an adult, he wasn't a pushover.

The monster cocked its head to the side, as if confused that a little boy had stood his ground against his attack. Just then Nadai's arrow hit it in the chest, and the monster reared backward. As it tried to identify the shooter, Link had darted in and struck a blow against its legs.

Link darted backwards, and readied his shield. When the monster stood back upright, he could tell it was angry. Nadai fired another arrow at it, but it was deflected against the shield. The monster roared out a challenge, the sound alien to their ears. It attacked, swinging its sword faster than Link could defend.

Link jumped backwards, avoiding an overhand chop. He stabbed, but his sword wasn't long enough to hit. He cursed under his breath, he really did need a proper weapon for his age. The monster thrusted and Link deflected it off the Hylian Shield. This time, unlike before, his whole arm rang with the reverberations of the attack. He stepped sideways, forcing the monster to overextend itself.

While it was overextended, Nadai fired her bow again. It snuck past its defenses and hit the monster in the neck. The monster roared out in anger, as Link ran forward to capitalize on the opportunity. But as it swung about to right itself, the Heroes of Time were back at it again. Both Link and Nadai were smiling grim smiles.

Tatl shivered. Whoever these kids were, they worked in perfect unison. They had found a weakness in the monster and had exploited it. She watched in horrid fascination as another round passed. This time, the monster was knocked off balance from Link's attack against its shield. The arrow sped in, and the monster roared again in pain. Then Link was back in, striking and drawing thick red blood from its veins.

The monster shouted out in anger, and stomped its foot. Nadai glanced up. She darted backwards as a small rock crashed to the ground where she had been only seconds before.

"Watch out! He's trying to bring the temple in on us!"

Link didn't answer, but rolled under the monster's attack. Nadai dodged again, and fired an arrow at it. It missed, but the monster's attention was diverted to her. A piece of the ceiling caved in, dropping a suitably large chunk onto its head. The mask cracked, and the monster swooned.

She shot her arrows at it. Link ran in and his sword whirled about. The monster stopped roaring in pain. It fell backwards, landing in a large thud. The room shuddered and rocked. Bits of the ceiling fell around them. Then all was still. All was silent.

Tatl flew forward, hovering behind Nadai.

"Well, that was easy." Nadai said.

"Thing was strong though." Link wiped his blade off from the blood and sheathed it.

"Strong as it was, we could beat it far easier than anything in Hyrule."

He shrugged. "I don't know about far easier. The thing was about as hard as Gohma."

"Minus the broken leg and twisted ankle for you and almost dying from poison for myself."

He smiled sheepishly. "Well, this time, I hurt my feet and you got wet."

"I also might have thrown up a little when I landed in the water." She admitted. "But think 'bout it. We're far stronger than we were before we started. If that's all that that monster had for us, then we might be too strong for this place."

"I don't think of it as too strong. I think of it as we are experienced heroes."

"Is that what we are now?"

"We've always been heroes."

"I meant as a professional job." Nadai corrected herself. "Saving the world and beating terrifying monsters is fun and all, but I'm thinking of retirement."

"Retirement? We're only ten."

"Doesn't feel like it to me."

"JUST WHO ARE YOU GUYS!" Tatl finally shouted. "JUST HOW DID YOU DO THAT? JUST WHO ARE YOU?" The fairy panted for breath. "Just exactly who are you guys?" She repeated, softer.

Link shrugged. "What's there to tell? We're just two kids out to save the world."

"But why you two?" She asked.

Nadai shrugged. "Destiny?" She suggested. "It really hasn't been clear why we are doing what we do."

Malon came to Link's mind, followed by a dark tower filled with the dead. "And if we don't do it," Link added softly. "Who will?"

All three of them fell to the ground, knowing nothing more.

Shadow: I know we deviated from the game, but to be fair we've done that before...

Time Stop: Please Review!