Sorry for the long absence, guys! I've been fighting a cold since last week, but I'm better now and will be posting more chapters soon!
Chapter 32: Underwater Grotto
Sheik led Zelda and the others further out into the artificial sea until they came to an underwater cave that led them into an underground cavern that was filled with water that was boiling hot. The Zora Armor everyone wore started steaming and becoming increasingly uncomfortable, which forced them to surface. They found a large flat rock in the center of the cavern that was hovering on top of a vent of hot water and swam onto it.
"This is the Underwater Grotto, a sacred place where the Zora People come to worship a giant worm-like creature called Tubula," Sheik said while he and the others removed their Zora Armor. "It is also the place where the second Wind Instrument is kept."
"Okay, but why is it so hot in here?" Zelda asked, noticing that parts of her normally pale skin had turned lobster red.
"I'm not sure," Sheik replied. "The water's normally the same temperature as it is outside. I'll go on ahead and see if I can find anything."
So Sheik leapt from the rock they were standing on to a nearby one which in turn led to a series of similar floating rocks and then into a dark cave that was lit by two torches. The women sat on the rock and waited for several minutes, but Sheik didn't appear. So they kept waiting until an hour later when Zelda stood up and said, "I think we should go look for Sheik."
"Yeah," Lana agreed. "He should've come back a while ago."
"But he's the only one who clearly knows this place more than we do," Impa said and turned to Lana. "Unless you'd like to share something with us, Lana."
Lana huffed. "Just because I'm a sorceress doesn't mean I know everything."
"It doesn't matter," Zelda said, hopping to the same rock that Sheik leapt onto. "Sheik got us here, and the least we can do is make sure nothing bad happened to him."
By the time Impa and Lana followed her, Zelda was already at the entrance to the cave. The three of them stepped inside and found a tunnel with hot steam flaring up from cracks in the floor. Using the Kokiri Fan, Zelda sealed the vents off with sheets of ice making the tunnel easier to walk through. At the end of the tunnel they came to a wooden door which led into a cave that was steaming hot to the point where drops of moisture fell. There was a hole in the middle of the cave with stone steps leading down deeper and jellyfish-looking creatures with electrical sparks flying from them hovered over it.
"Biri!" Lana exclaimed. "I didn't know they lived this far down in the artificial ocean."
"Or something attracted them here," Zelda suggested.
While Zelda used the Kokiri Fan to blow incoming Biri away, Impa and Lana made their way down the steps. Zelda was about to join them when a Biri suddenly zapped her from behind. It caused Zelda to fall down the hole but fortunately she used the Wind Parasol to lighten her fall.
"Well," Impa said, standing in a kneeling position with her arms held out. "It seems I didn't need to catch you, after all."
Standing back up, Impa followed Zelda who caught up to Lana who was examining a door with a silver lock on it.
"Hey, Lana," Zelda said.
"Yes, what is it?" Lana asked, looking around for another passageway.
"In my reality, I…saw what Priestess Cia looked like, under the mask," Zelda said sheepishly, then she looked Lana sternly in the eyes. "She had your face. Is there something you've been keeping from me this whole time?"
Lana's eyes drifted down and she said, "There's a strange pattern on this floor, so you might want to watch your step."
"You didn't answer my question," Zelda said as she stepped on a tile with a wave pattern on it.
This caused Zelda's foot to sink low which caused all the tiles with the wave pattern to fly off as jets of steam escaped from them. To avoid getting burned, Zelda and the others avoided the jets and made their way into an adjacent hallway from the door with the silver lock. Here, there were several Biri floating above as steam came down from above every few seconds. After defeating all the Biri in the room, Zelda found a small chest at the end of the hallway with a silver key in it. They went back and unlocked the door, which led into another room where the steam came from the sides.
Avoiding them, they came to a large chest that was guarded by an Octorok inside a small pool.
Using the Sheikah Silencer, Zelda took out the Octorok in two shots which allowed her to open the chest. Inside was a large bellow made of white sealskin adorned with blue gems and bone-like handles.
"By the Goddesses," Lana said, examining the bellow. "This is the Bellow of Frost. Supposedly, it has the ability to freeze anything in its path."
"I see," Zelda said and pointed the bellow at the steam vents.
Pressing the two handles together, a blast of icy air escaped from the bellow and froze all the steam vents mid-spurt. Walking around them, the three women left the room and Zelda used the same trick on the steam vents coming from the floor tiles. This caused the rest of the tiles to sink revealing a hidden passage underneath. Unfortunately, the whole passage was filled with steam but then once Zelda used the Bellow of Frost the passage became an icy tunnel. Walking steadily along it, they found a fork in the passage with one door that required a silver key while the other curved downward. So the three went down the second path and found themselves having to dodge jets of steam coming from below their feet, so Zelda froze them with the Bellow of Frost which caused them to slide down to the bottom of the passage.
To be continued…