And again I had to cease all work on this chapter (i.e. not even start it) until I finished other tasks. Sorry.
PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Day 2 – 12:05 PM
Great Bay Temple Entrance
The giant turtle emerged from the water, Sora and Link returning to their normal forms as they let go of his shell's palm trees and hopped down onto solid ground in front of him. They headed up the ramp and through the door ahead of them, coming out into a very large room with all sorts of moving machinery and pipes, including a large waterwheel overhead. Following Tatl's 'pointer spell', the duo jumped into the water and swam over to the northeast corner of the room. There, just under the water was a switch connected to a large yellow pipe that in turn was connected to an inactive water-geyser machine. Link shifted to his Zora form and sunk down, pushing the switch and allowing water to flow and produce a geyser. The duo then swam back toward the entrance onto dry land, and used an elevating platform to reach a higher level. Sora dealt with a pair of Skulltulas with a couple Strike Raids, and the two then hopped across the geyser to reach a doorway that had the room's red and yellow pipes running through it.
The next room contained a circular water-filled area and a massive turbine, with the latter's rotation providing a strong current in the water below. Link and Sora jumped in, assuming their aquatic forms, and the current quickly proved too strong to fight against, leaving some of the submerged passageways inaccessible. Left with little choice in destination by the current, they swam through the upper of the two accessible passages. The room they were tossed into had a few Skullfish swimming around, but Sora's Keyblade made short work of them. They surfaced, Sora using a magic-powered leap to reach a treasure chest containing the temple's magical map, and then went back under. The red pipe ran through another passageway that was guarded by a pair of skeletal hand-like enemies; a double Fin-Blade Boomerang from Zora-Link cut them away, and the duo swam on.
Further down the hallway, they encountered a trio of 'Deku Baba' dark-magic carnivorous plants hanging upside-down underwater from lily pads, their 'jaws' snapping in Link & Sora's direction. Sora tossed a well-aimed Strike Raid that took out all three of them. They then surfaced, de-transformed, and headed through the door. In the next room, Link used an arrow to take out a 'Real Bombchu' guarding a chest across the way, and the two boys then hopped across lily pads to reach a chest which contained the Great Bay Temple's enchanted compass.
"Hmm… Says there's a couple of Small Keys in this room" Link said.
"Eh, we don't need 'em" Sora replied. "One of the powers of the Keyblade is the ability to unlock any lock. That should save us time on key-hunting."
With this knowledge in mind, Tatl's 'Pointer Spell' pointed the duo into rapid current-bearing water on the side of the room, which carried them back into the central room. Zora-Link and Merman-Sora swam down through the lower of the two accessible passageways this time. In the next room, Tatl's spell led them to avoid the enemies in the water and follow the red pipe until it breached the surface. They shifted to their normal forms and walked along the pipe, being led to a door that Sora unlocked. Link stocked up on arrows in the next small room, and the two headed through the door on the other side. In the next room, they were confronted by a huge green spherical creature with a single gigantic eye. It dropped from the ceiling, surrounded by multiple beach-ball-sized pink egg-orb things that clung to it as a shield.
Mini-boss – WART
Wart started leisurely floating around the room, surrounded by an ever-moving shield of little pink 'minions'. Link tossed a bomb, and the explosion dislodged around 15 of the little things, which started bouncing around; Sora used a Thundaga to kill most of them, with Link's sword handling the rest. Sora then fired an explosive blast of magic that knocked more of them loose, allowing Link's Spin Attack to slice them apart. The process was repeated a few more times with bombs and blasts, until almost all of the pink things were gone. Wart dropped to the floor and charged at the two heroes, who rolled out of the way, Link drawing his bow as he righted himself. The giant eye-creature charged again, but this time Link fired an arrow that pierced right through its pupil and deep into its body. Wart rolled to a stop and then exploded in a burst of dark magic. A treasure chest appeared in the center of the room, and Link pulled out of it a pale-blue arrowhead-shaped charm.
"And now I can charge my arrows with Ice magic" he said. "Fire and ice…"
"Are there any other elemental arrow charms out there?" Link asked. "Lightning, Wind, Light, Darkness, Stone, stuff like that?"
"Well, there are Light Arrows" Link replied. "They were a big help toward the end of my last adventure. I don't know about any of the others, though."
The duo headed back to the room with the red pipe. Link tested his new arrows out by freezing an Octorok, making it into a floating platform with which to reach the pipe-flow switch atop the platform in the center of the room. The switch was turned, allowing water to flow through the red pipe, and the duo transformed and swam to follow it back to the central chamber, and back up through the upper passageway. Back in the room that had held the dungeon map, Link's Ice Arrows and Sora's Blizzard spell were used to make ice platforms with which to reach the door to the south. In this small room, Link froze a Blue Chu-Chu to make it into a platform, which he used to reach another switch to keep the red pipe's water flowing.
Sora & Link followed the red pipe back to the room where they found the magic compass. Using an Ice arrow, they were able to cross to the right-hand door across the water. In the next, square-shaped room, there was a strange orange frog-like creature – a 'Gecko', identical to the one Link and the girls had fought in the Woodfall Temple. Upon spotting the two, it called out, and a swarm of large transparent gold-colored jelly/blob creatures dropped from the ceiling. The Gecko began hopping around, and the jelly-blobs bounced around as well, making for a very chaotic situation. Sora started attacking the blobs, which were sent bouncing away without actually being harmed by his attacks, clearing a path for Link to chase after the Gecko. The preteen hero quickly caught up and slashed with his sword, dealing a solid blow to the frog-like monster.
The Gecko called out to the blob monsters, which converged around it to form a single huge blob-monster with the frog-beast at the center. It then 'jumped' up onto the ceiling, crawling along it toward Sora. As it began to drop onto him, Link quickly used his Hookshot to pull the Keyblade-bearer out of the way and to safety. The Gecko-blob returned to the ceiling, but this time Link quickly drew and fired an Ice Arrow at it. The entire blog froze solid, and then dropped to the floor, shattering into its component parts. The Gecko was in the center, stunned and wounded. Link rushed at it, but the blobs moved to defend it. Sora came to aid again, batting them away, and the Gecko came to its senses just in time to catch another heavy slash from Link, and this one finished him off. With a flash of magic and a puff of smoke, the cursed amphibian reverted to a normal frog. The blob monsters faded away into nothingness.
The duo headed through a now-unlocked door, which led to a large and colorful chest holding the Boss Key (just on the off chance the Keyblade wouldn't work). They then hopped through the opening nearby and jumped into the water, letting it carry them back to the central chamber. They headed south, to the temple's first chamber, and Sora carried Link in a magic-powered leap over to a red switch, which was quickly turned. The resulting geyser of water further down the line stopped the spinning of the waterwheel that was powering the central chamber's turbine. They then jumped down and swam over to the yellow switch in the middle of the room, turning it to switch off the yellow geyser. This allowed the red geyser to reverse the waterwheel's direction, thus doing the same to the turbine and the current it powered.
Upon returning to the central chamber, Tatl's 'Pointing Spell' sent them down to the bottom, swimming through a passageway walled by red and green pipes. In the next room, they climbed up the pipes, reaching a green switch, and across a gap was the boss door, with an inactive geyser connected to a green pipe at the bottom of the gap. Link sighed, ready to turn around and hunt for more things to have to do, but Sora grinned and gave a thumbs-up, and pulled little Link close. With his other hand he tossed his Keyblade across the gap, and then twin bursts of light accompanied Sora – with Link & Tatl in hand – teleporting to the weapon.
"Good thing I had Erika teach me her trick before I came here" the youth said.
Link used the Boss Key to unlock the door, and the duo headed through. On the other side was a large circular hole in the floor. They jumped down, and the temple's magic slowed their fall, safely lowering them onto the center of a large platform. The room was very large, square, with a lone platform in the center surrounded by deep water. Everything was eerily quiet. …Suddenly, there was a splash, as a huge fish – at least 30 feet long, with dark red scales like armor, a mouth with huge fangs, and glowing blue eyes – leapt clear over the platform and the two young warriors in the middle of it, landing with a splash on the other side.
Gargantuan Masked Fish – GYORG
Sora jumped into the water, assuming his mer-boy form, while Zora-Link followed. Gyorg lunged at them, massive jaws open wide, and they swam to either side just in time, lashing out with Keyblade and blade-fins, cutting into Gyorg's thick hide. The giant demon-fish thrashed about, forcing the two back, and then turned to the side and tried to eat Link, its heavily armored head scales harmlessly deflecting Zora-Link's Boomerang Blade-Fins. Sora cast a Reflega spell that protected Link, allowing him to get some distance.
Link charged his transformed body with Zora magic, and swam into Gyorg's side, tackling it with his electrified body. The beast was wounded and stunned, allowing Sora to land a few combos before it regained itself and thrashed back to force the boy away. It swam away with surprising speed, then doubled back and rushed at Sora with jaws open. Sora swam out of the way as quickly as he could, but a fang grazed his side, leaving a six-inch gash. Wincing, he cast Cura to heal the wound before he could lose any serious amount of blood. Zora-Link landed another electrified tackle into the demon-fish's body, stunning it and leaving it open to several fin-blade slashes.
Gyorg opened its mouth wide, and out from it swam a swarm of piranha-like Mini-Gyorgs. Most of them went for Sora, keeping him occupied and forcing Link to fight the big one alone. Gyorg breached, arcing through the air, and crashed down right at Link, forcing the Zora-form hero to dive as far down as he could to avoid the attack. He unleashed another Boomerang Blade-Fin attack, the whirling cutters slicing deep into Gyorg's side, but the fish got out of the way of his follow-up attack, and Zora-Link barely avoided being speared by one of the beast's massive fangs. By this point, Sora had fought off the Mini-Gyorgs, and he swim-dashed in, catching Gyorg off-guard with a heavy Keyblade blow that stunned the monster while dealing heavy Light-type damage, allowing Zora-Link to deal a powerful electrified tackle that knocked the monster fish even further off-balance.
Gyorg roared as it used a tail-swipe to send the two young heroes into the wall, and then swam over to the central platform. After a few seconds it charged at them, which they returned. The wounded demon-fish breached from the water, and as it started to come back down and forward, jaws wide, Sora and Link launched themselves out of the water at it, transforming to their normal forms and drawing their blades as they soared upward at an angle. There was a flash of Light magic as they struck simultaneously, dealing a death blow to the mighty beast of the sea. Their momentum carried them back onto the central platform, landing with blades still in hand, as Gyorg landed behind them with a splash.
The two boys straightened up, turning to face where Gyorg has fallen. Suddenly, there was a burst of water as Gyorg lunged out, roaring as it beached itself on the platform, thrashing about as it gazed at the two heroes with murder in its eyes. Then, however, its struggles tapered off until they faded completely, and the beast went still, succumbing to its wounds. With a burst of dark magic, Gyorg ceased to exist, vanishing and leaving behind a mask of his face floating above a small circle of light. Link and Sora stepped into the circle, grabbing the mask, and everything went white.
Again, Link and Tatl found themselves in a realm of a Guardian Giant, tinted blue with thick 'mist', the ancient spirit faintly visible in the distance.
"Hey, listen!" Tatl shouted to it. "We need you to lend us your power! If you just leave things as they are, something terrible will happen to this world! Surely, you're the only ones who can stop it! That's what my brother Tael was trying to tell us!"
"HELP… OUR… FRIEND"
"…I get it. We have to help the last Giant! Then promise us this… You'll help us…"
Again, everything went white.
-SCENE BREAK-
Behind Zora Hall
Day 2 – 2:40 PM
A circle of swirling light appeared in front of the giant turtle, and from it emerged Sora, Link, and Tatl.
"Well done, young heroes" the turtle said. "Now, I can continue resting in peace. I, too, must abide by the laws of ancient times and again merely watch from my deep slumber."
Link and Sora nodded, and then turned around to see Homura, Miyako, Lulu, and the rest of the band waiting and watching. Judging by the expressions on the other band-mates' faces, they'd heard about Mikau's passing. Link looked at the Zoras nervously, but one by one they nodded their heads to him. Lulu knelt down to Link's eye level, placing her hands on his shoulders.
"Please… stay safe, little one" she spoke softly. "And put an end to the dark force that took him from us…"
Link nodded. "I will" he said. "I promise."
"I don't like to say this," Sora spoke up, "but I've gotta get going soon. I only had a handful of hours to come help you guys before I had to head back and continue my training; as of now I've got, like, 50 minutes left. I wish I could help you see this through to the end, but…"
"I-It's okay" Miyako replied. "We'll manage, I think…"
"Before we get going…" Link said. "Some of Mikau's skills were passed on to me, including how to play a guitar. I know it wouldn't really be him, but…"
He assumed his Zora form, pulling out the fishbone guitar that his ocarina became when in this form.
"How about one last jam?" he asked Mikau's band-mates.
Soon, Sora, Miyako, and Homura joined a crowd of Zoras inside the hall, watching and listening as the Indigo-gos put their heart & soul into an impromptu concert. Link was a natural, Mikau's skill and muscle memory allowing the transformed Hylian to play with the skill of a veteran. And as he played, the other members of the band watched as the spirit of Mikau himself appeared next to his green-hued doppelganger, rocking out on his own guitar alongside.
-CHAPTER END-
…Huh. With how long playing the Great Bay Temple takes, I thought writing it would take a lot longer and take up more words than this chapter did. …Oh, well. Next Time: heading to Ikana Canyon, and accessing the castle there.