"I take it you're the one who made this bridge come out," Tails asked Knuckles along the way back.
"Trust you to figure that out," he muttered. "It was one of the first things I did actually. Whenever I hit another locked door or dead end, I'd just come back this way to try and open that chest."
"You're stubborn," Tails laughed.
"Watch out!" Midna exclaimed suddenly, shoving them both hard past the narrow crack that marked the gap where the bridge had come from. They stumbled to the stones, turning to see what she'd done it for only to see the great dragon crash through the bridge. A huge chunk of it was destroyed, sent flying in pieces down through the cloudbanks, then without the support of the structures on both sides the remains tilted, the mechanism that had extended them creaking ominously. Then slowly, ponderously, the last chunks slid out and down after it, leaving only an array of metal bars hanging in the air where it had until recently hung.
"Close call," Knuckles breathed. "I guess we owe you for that."
Midna's look grew sly. "Oh? Do I detect someone else wanting to become my servant too?"
"Servant?" he seemed startled, then looked to Tails. "You?"
"Well, I guess I am in a way," he said rather depreciatingly. "But so long as it's helping people and we're having a bit of fun, what difference does it make?"
"Fun? This is your idea of fun!"
"What's wrong – don't you want to play Hero with me?"
Knuckles stared at him for a moment, then threw up his hands. "Why me? Why'd I have to be the one stuck here?" Tails and Midna shared a look then burst out laughing. "What now?" Knuckles growled.
"Sorry," Tails answered. "It's just I've been saying 'Why me' since I got here, and no one's been able to give me a good answer. Come on – lets get on with it. We've got a date with a dragon, and we don't want to be late."
Knuckles muttered a few comments as Tails headed back inside through a door he hadn't noticed before, but followed eventually.
"Just keep going," he told Tails. "There's another door on the other side, and another bridge there. I already forced that one out too. This place is like a mirror sometimes, I found – one side is almost identical to the other."
"So it's probable we'll find another chest you couldn't open."
"Some more of those bird things and a locked door. What happened to the ones outside the other bridge?"
"Wolf boy shot them own," Midna supplied as they went through the door.
"Looks like I get some more target practise with these Kargaroks," Tails grinned, shooting them down like their friends with the beam sword once more.
"Watch for the wind," Knuckles warned, but there seemed to be no need for concern. Unlike arrows, the beam sword ignored the wind entirely.
Once they were down, Midna provided the Iron boots again so he could cross. Knuckles just dug his hands into the side of the bridge and scrambled across using the bridge itself as cover.
The room behind the locked door was not like its opposite on the other side. Several fans blew air currents through the rooms between pillars and yet more gaps in the floor. Tails took to the air for a moment to get a better view of the room, spotting a red crystal hidden behind a pillar. Striking it with the beam sword deactivated one of the fans.
Back on the ground, Knuckles had found a Helmasaur. It charged him, but he stopped it easily, picking it up still attached to its helmet, then with a roar hurling it against one wall.
Tails continued around the route he'd seen following one edge of the room, using his clawshot to remove the helmet of another Helmasaur, which charged him only to get thrown off into the nearby pit.
"You won't be able to use the iron boots to get past this fan, wolf boy," Midna remarked. Those blue tiles will fall before you get the chance."
"That's what this is for," he answered, waving the Clawshot toward a vine-choked pillar.
"What about me?" Knuckles asked. Tails considered it for a moment, looking thoughtfully at him then at the fan nearby.
"You take this," he answered eventually, handing him the Clawshot. "I'll just fly over."
Knuckles took a few moments to figure out how to use the Clawshot while Tails flew over, noticing the door in the far wall of the room. Knuckles shot past him rather suddenly with a startled exclamation when he used the Clawshot.
"You could have warned me it was going to feel like it was jerking my arm off!" he complained.
"I guess I didn't really think about it. I don't even notice it any more."
There was another blue chest just inside the next room. Knuckles eyed Tails almost enviously as it opened easily to his hands, drawing out the map – which as usual, was seized by Midna.
"Go on back a room," she told them almost immediately. "There's nothing more you can reach from here, and there's a door just beyond some blue tiles in that room. Good thing you hit that switch, wolfy, or you'd have to fight against another fan to get to it."
"You're just going to accept that?" Knuckles asked Tails.
"Accept what?"
"Her directions?"
"She's the one with the map. I've never known Midna to steer me wrong yet once she's got her hands on the map – between it, her own powers and the compass, there's almost nothing she can't tell us about where to go."
"You're too kind," Midna murmured, patting his head absently as she settled once again on his left shoulder. "Actually the map just makes things easier for me. I could give you directions with out it, and the compass too, but since they make it much easier for me."
The room she directed them too had many holes in the floor, and several fans below that were blasting air upwards. There were a few keese flitting about – until he shot them too – and a chest, but nothing else.
Knuckles just dug his hands into the walls again to make his way around after Tails, who flew the small gaps easily. The chest just held rupees, but while gathering it he noticed something about a nearby tile.
"I was wondering when they'd show up again," Tails said to himself, then took out the Gale Boomerang and threw it toward the tile – which was dragged up, the worm-like creature underneath snarling furiously at him before it fell into the abyss below. "Haven't seen them since the Forest Temple."
Behind the lone door from that room were two lizard creatures, heavily armoured. Neither one made a move for him, but both eyed him watchfully. Tails threw one arm out warningly to stop Knuckles. The door locked behind them.
"Wait just a moment," he murmured. "I've got an idea."
He took out the bow, readied a bomb-arrow, then shot it at one of the lizards. The bomb exploded on impact, not only throwing it back but down one of the holes in this room. The other lizard looked after its fallen comrade in consternation, then charged them, easily leaping the gaps.
Tails met the charge, parried the first strike it made for him, then blocked the next, making it stumble back slightly – enough for him to use the helm splitter skill on it. It didn't finish it, but it did expose its unprotected rear too him. After only a few strikes the lizard beast turned back to face him.
He backed cautiously away to give some room between them. The lizard tried to follow, but seemed unable to get any purchase on the ground somehow. Tails watched in curious bemusement as it hacked futiley at the air.
Then it started to move, not forward but in a circle as Knuckles, who had grabbed its tail, swung it around. With no feet on the floor it flailed around ineffectually but couldn't do anything as the echidna continued to swing him around until he let go, sending the lizard flying into one wall. It sank down, defeated.
"Nicely done," Tails complimented him.
"You weren't so bad yourself. Never seen you use a sword before."
"Why is it everyone says that to me?" Tails said as the door unlocked, and a grating sound from above indicated something else was opening too. "It's not as if they've never seen one before."
Tails flew up to have a look at the area the sound had come from. Knuckles, after spotting a piece of ivy, followed with the clawshot.
It was a small alcove that had been gated off with a few Oocca in, several pots holding arrows and more rupees, and what appeared to be a massive metal ball hanging from the domed top.
"What was the point of that?" Knuckles wondered. "There's nothing here – except these Oocca."
Tails saw what his friend did not though, jumping up to the metal ball, scrambling to the top of it then jumping hard. It came down a ways, followed by a lot of mechanical clicks and rumblings.
In the middle of the room below, a new blast of air started blowing upwards in response to it.
"That was the point," Tails answered somewhat smugly, then he took Ooccoo Junior from his resting place and had him return the Oocca to the safety of the shop. He could only take them one by one, so they waited for him to finish up before they went anywhere.
"Yeah, but what for?"
"Look there," Midna pointed. "There's a door above the one you boys came in by. These dungeons weren't made with someone who could fly in mind though. My guess is that someone would have to get one of those Oocca to help them fly from here over to that blast of wind, then use that to gain height to get over to it. You two don't need that though."
"Now there's an interesting point," Tails said. "If they weren't built with me in mind, just who was meant to go through them?"
"Who cares? They were more meant to protect something."
"I'm not so sure," Tails disagreed. "The Fused Shadows, yeah, I can agree, but these? They're older constructions, but the Mirror of Twilight was only shattered recently."
"What difference does it make? Go fetch my mirror shard, wolf boy."
The door led to a room that was on the opposite side of the bars they'd seen in the area they'd gained the map. Unlike the other areas so far, it held no holes in the floor, except for grating that allowed periodic blasts of air upwards.
Another metal ball unlocked a grating in one wall, allowing access to another chest – with more rupees – then from there they headed past a giant hole in one wall to yet another, which also held rupees.
"What do you do with all those?" Knuckles asked.
"Buy stuff. I don't really use them all that often though. I think I might see how much Malo needs to buy out the guy in Hyrule Market and give him a hand with it."
"Plan ahead later, wolf boy," Midna told him. "You want to get yourself on the other side of that wall with the gaping hole in it. You'll have no trouble with that, right?"
"Of course not," Knuckles answered. "We'll go just as soon as you tell us what's there."
Tails was already heading where Midna had directed them.
"Well are you coming or not?" he asked Knuckles before heading around the corner, where he'd already spotted yet another metal ball. Knuckles muttered to himself again before he followed.
This one activated another fan on the far side of the room hurling several pots into the air – one narrowly missing Knuckles, who was hanging on the wall near the hole in case he wasn't needed.
"A little warning would have been nice!" he shouted over the wind.
"Serves you right for not keeping up with me," Tails called back impudently.
The wind from the newly activated fan was again not exactly necessary for ones of their talents, allowing them to fly and climb over to the ledge just above without needing it – though Tails used it to gain heigh easier anyway.
The narrow ledge was actually just another hole in the wall, a one-way route into another area with another Oocca and another fan blasting air upwards. There was no reason to use them to come back the way they'd come, so they took the door nearby, leading into a room that had no floor except for ledges around the edge, a massive central pillar, many fans blasting air in various directions, and all kinds of enemies besides. There were several clawshot targets visible too, but some of them seemed rather useless since he'd need a second clawshot to make any use of them.
"Midna?" he said.
"Give me some time. This room is huge."
"You noticed," Knuckles muttered. Midna leaned over from Tails' shoulder and clipped him lightly with one hand.
"Be nice, or I'll have wolf boy leave you behind again. Just give me some time to study the map and figure this out."
Tails shot down the nearest Keese and Kargaroks, then sat down against one wall to wait.