Chapter 34

The Disappearance of the Gorons

Lamps were flickering along the main street through Kakariko as Link entered the village itself. More clouds had covered the sky and a spring shower had started to fall. Pulling the hood of his cloak further forwards to shield himself from the fine rain, Link walked towards the Death Mountain Trail. He didn't have a clear idea of where he was going, or if there was an inn where he could spend the night, but his mind was still full of his confrontations with the sheikah.

"We saw you approach the town earlier," said a voice. Link turned and saw five men stood in a line behind him, blocking the road the way he had come. "You went with one of the sheikah scum, but I see you've been left on your own now. Who are you?" The speaker was the man in the middle. All five wore dark cloaks, hoods pulled forwards so their faces were obscured. The man held a sword loosely, but Link suspected from his grip he did not really know how to use it. All four of his companions help some form of weapon, too, although there were no other swords.

"Who are you?" asked Link, cagily.

"We asked first," spat the group's leader. "We don't like strangers coming into our village and having cosy chats with those harbingers."

Link shifted his weight slightly, muscles tensed, ready to go for his sword if he needed to. "Are the sheikah now the enemies of the hylians for you to fear them so greatly?"

"Don't try and be cute, or I shall teach you some manners, boy," the man snarled, and at his words Link recognised him.

"Tursun," he said, grimacing. "Seven years and you're still just a bully?"

The man who had tormented him on his first visit to Kakariko Village was clearly shocked at this recognition, but he recovered himself quickly. "What's this? Sheikah tricks to try and unnerve me?" He spat on the road to show what he thought of that.

"Leave me alone, Tursun. I have more important things to think about than you and your little neighbourhood watch."

"That's it, you insolent-" Tursun didn't finish the threat, but charged Link, raising his sword. The warrior was ready. With the sound of ringing steel, he whipped the Master Sword from its sheath. Tursun, committed to his charge, swung his blade at Link's head. The younger man parried, and stepped backwards quickly. He wanted to see if he could disarm Tursun, thinking that was the quickest way to diffuse the situation, but he was also aware that Tursun's four companions were slowly edging around to try and box him in.

Lunging again, Tursun tried to catch him off guard. The swing was clumsy, and this time Link was able to not only block him, but to turn his sword aside. Swinging forwards he grabbed Tursun's wrist with his right hand, exerting his strength to hold the man's arm still, and brought his own sword up to the man's neck. His hood had fallen back in the brief struggle.

"Drop it," he ordered. Tursun hesitated, and Link put the slightest extra pressure on his throat with the edge of his blade. Out of the corner of his eye, Link caught movement, and knew one of Tursun's companions was trying to creep up on him.

With only a split second to decide, Link knew he could not follow through with his threat and kill the man; if he did, he would be himself a part of the evil of Ganondorf's Hyrule, and that was a price he was not willing to pay. He had not yet killed a Hyrulian, and would not start here.

Releasing his aggressor, Link dodged to the side. The man who had been approaching him lunged with a cudgel, and Link was forced to duck, rolling on the wet earth. He sprang back to his feet, sword ready. There was a noise behind him and he twisted to see a third man, gripping a knife, moving towards him.

Before he could respond, though, all of them heard a noise that distracted them from their confrontation. There was a roaring that filled the air like thunder. The pitch of the roar changed and became almost a shriek. Then there was the sound of huge, beating wings, and suddenly a shape loomed through the murk of the rain. The shower was not heavy, but it obscured their vision. The six men stood rooted as they watched the shape resolving itself in the darkness, sweeping towards them.

There was another roar, and then with the beating of its wings creating a hurricane along the main street of Kakariko Village, the dragon swept over them. Buffeted by the winds of its passing, the men cowered, covering their eyes. All except Link; he watched grimly, seeing this new foe passing overhead.

The creature did not seem interested in Kakariko Village, though. It swept high in to the sky again, and disappeared in the gloom. There was another, distant shriek, and the dragon was gone.

Wrenching his eyes from the skies, Link swept his gaze over the rain drenched road. Tursun's companions had slunk away in fright, Link could see the last of them disappear near down an alley. Their leader still stood in the rain, though, standing forlornly in the rain and clutching his sword, a look of outrage etched across his features.

"You!" he shouted. "You and those shadow scum did this! You've called this monster here, to destroy us all! You're probably all servants of the gerudo thief!"

He had finally gone too far. Link strode forwards. Tursun barely even reacted, seeming to forget the sword he held. Link drew his arm back and used the hilt of the Master Sword to deliver a heavy blow to Tursun's head. The hylian man rolled on the floor, and Link delivered a swift kick to his midriff. He groaned and clutched his stomach, his sword forgotten in the mud. Still holding his own blade in his left hand, Link reached down with his right and grabbed Tursun by the front of his tunic, raising him up from the ground. Tursun scrabbled at Link's hand and gauntlet, but his grip was like a vice.

"Don't ever say that, Tursun. I gave you the chance to walk away, you should have taken it." Exerting his strength, Link pulled Tursun higher and threw him into the mud, then turned, sheathing his sword, and began striding away down the saturated road. Coughing, Tursun climbed to his knees and looked around for his sword. He found it, and for a moment as he stood he contemplated chasing after this stranger who seemed to know him. Thinking better of it after the way the grim man had so easily bested him, he pulled his hood up again and disappeared into the night.

Link half walked and half jogged through Kakariko, the edifice of Death Mountain looming over the village in the dark. The sudden shower had stopped and a wind had sprung up, the clouds were blowing over. He reached the steps that started the Death Mountain Trail and scaled them swiftly, slick though they were from the heavy rain. At the top, he paused. He was at the mouth of the canyon, formed from the steep hills on one side and the sheer rock face of Death Mountain on the other side. Seeing the dragon had made Link want to rush straight to Goron City and see if he could find his friends, but trying to climb Death Mountain in the dark would likely be suicide. He wondered for a second what Navi would have told him to do.

Frustrated by the delay, Link pulled the blankets from his pack and wrapped himself in them, trying to make himself as comfortable as he could. He had slept in better places, but the canyon did mean he was out of the wind.

When he awoke, the sky was clear, a deep, dark blue. There was a lightness in the east, though. The height of Death Mountain meant Link could not see it, but Din's Fire was pushing its first golden light above the mountains. Rousing himself quickly, Link took the time to drink from his water skin, and then set off along the canyon. He had not eaten since before his visit to the Sheikah council yesterday, but he did not want to wait any longer at the bottom of the mountain.

He moved quickly down the canyon to the point where the two rock walls tapered together. Reaching this point at the age of ten, it had taken him time to find the ledge he had been able to clamber on to. Now, for the second time in his life, he pulled himself up to the ledge and began ascending Death Mountain.

The climb was much easier than it had been when he had climbed the mountain previously. He was not only taller, but stronger too, and he moved up the rocky trail much more quickly and easily. In places it was still strenuous, but as Din's Fire climbed into the clear blue sky and bathed the mountain in sunshine, he found he was enjoying himself. It reminded him in some ways of working at the ranch, immersing himself in physical tasks. As he climbed, he thought of Malon, and offered a prayer to the goddesses for her and her father.

Up and further up he went, past the point where he remembered meeting Marduk, and there the trail levelled out and he was able to walk normally. He jogged along, knowing he would come soon to a fork in the trail.

As he moved along, there was a distant noise that he couldn't identify, but immediately he felt in danger. Drawing the Master Sword, he flattened himself against the wall along which the trail ran. Listening hard, he waited, as the sound grew. It was, he realised, the sound of beating wings. Heart hammering, Link looked about him for cover. Ahead, there was a protruding outcrop of rock that jutted out. The path passed underneath it, but it created a small amount of space, a tiny grotto.

Sprinting, Link ran under the cover and tried to make himself as small as possible. He was not a moment too soon, as with a gust of wind the dragon swept round the mountain and passed him. It disappeared again, and as it did he heard it roar.

Link did not know how much time he had or if the dragon would come back, but he did not want to find out. He began to run along the trail. The sounds of the dragon passed into the distance, but Link did not slow. Within a couple of minutes, and with no reappearance of the creature, he came to the fork in the trail. Here he paused, and looked properly around him. To his right, he could look down into the valley and see Kakariko Village nestled among the foothills, all far below him now. Beyond the hills, the plains stretched out west. He looked towards the south, where far away were the Hylia, and far beyond there the forest. West, he thought of Lon Lon Ranch and then, not much further north, Hyrule Castle Town where Ganondorf sat on his dark throne in the dead city.

Looking to his left, the mountain stretched high up into the sky. He realised he had barely covered a third of its height, and the summit was high, high up above him. The left hand fork of the trail snaked its way up the mountain's face, disappearing as it wound amongst rocky outcrops and circled the crags. Still there was no sign of the dragon.

The other fork was a narrow path, clinging to the rock face. This was the path he took. It wound around the cliff face, before opening up into a cavity with one exposed face. This looked back down the path, and Link remembered Marduk explaining that it was used as a sentry position. He moved to the opening and looked down the trail, but could see nothing moving. There was no sign that anyone had been here recently, or had marked his approach. Link thought of the missing sheikah, and paused. If three highly trained sheikah had come this way and not returned, they had clearly met with the sort of trouble he alone would be unable to deal with.

Looking down the mountain again, though, he realised that he had little choice. He could go into Goron City, go further up the trail with no idea what was up there or which way to go, or abandon the attempt and go back down to Kakariko. No, he had to go on and do what he could, for the gorons and also for the missing sheikah.

He loosened his sword in his scabbard, ready to draw it if he needed to, and moved to the entrance to Goron City. Keeping close to the wall, he crept down the passage, looking around for signs of danger.

The cavernous main hall of Goron City, with its descending circles, was lit by shafts in the high roof. The pillars of sunlight only gave some light, and when he had come here as a child, many torches had been lit all round the city. Far ahead and below where Link stood, he thought some must still be lit, for he could see a flickering light unlike the shafts of sunlight from above, but there were none near him.

Edging further forwards, Link kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, but he could not make out anything that alarmed him. Nervous in the poor light, though, he was still on edge. He could feel his heart hammering as he crept to the edge of the top tier and looked down towards the bottom of the cavern, where seven years ago he had joined in the goron dances. As he had guessed, by one of the doors there was a lit torch, its flame dancing, the only movement in all of Goron City.

There was no one in sight, no minions of Ganondorf, and no gorons either. Link could not be certain in the gloom, but he thought the torch was next to the entrance to Darunia's chambers, if his memory of the place was accurate.

Still keeping his grip on the hilt of his sword, distrusting the quiet, Link moved back from the edge until he had his back to the wall. He waited for a long moment, thinking. He did not seem to be in immediate danger, but he also didn't know what else was sharing the darkness of the city with him. Considering what he had learnt from the Sheikahn Council, the lit torch was almost certainly a trap, trying to lure him in. He also had no idea where the gorons were, and no way of finding out except trying to spring the trap without getting caught in it. And, just to add to the drama of his situation, there was a dragon on the loose circling the mountain.

The top tier of the city was mostly in shadow, the shafts of light and the flickering torch illuminating the meeting place at the bottom of the city. Straining his eyes as he stared into the darkness, Link began making his way along towards one of the stairways he remembered that would lead him down. His hand trailed on the rock wall, and he was alert for any noise.

After he had walked about thirty feet along, he felt an opening with his groping hand. Probing with his toe, he felt the dip of the first stair and began descending into even deeper darkness. Here there was no light, and he had to feel for each step. His heart was thumping in his chest as he made his way down, the stairs twisting now and again. He had counted fifty-two steps when he came to an opening on his left. Shuffling around in the dark passage, he found he could also turn right, but he did not know what led in either direction. The darkness was now complete; he could close his eyes and it made no difference, and waving his hand before his face did nothing more than stir the dead air.

Although he thought it possible he had become disoriented in the dark, his sense of direction told him that the left passage led back towards the main open space of the city, and not into deeper pathways and catacombs and the living quarters of the gorons. He took the left passage and again shuffled along in the darkness, hand trailing along the wall.

The passage did not open as quickly as he had hoped it would, and he found more openings and turnings. Each time he paused and then plunged on. Sometimes he came to stairs that he carefully made his way down. A worry began to grow in his mind that he was hopelessly lost and wouldn't be able to get back out again, doomed to wander in the empty city, alone, until his strength gave out.

Finally, when the oppressive silence brought him to the verge of yelling out just to hear a noise, he came to a turn where he saw a dimness ahead. It was not much, but after the pitch blackness he had walked in for what felt like hours, it was enough to make his heart soar. Moving forwards more quickly he rounded another turn and before him the passage opened out into the cavernous hub of the city. The light that had earlier seemed so dim now seemed blinding. Cautious again, Link moved to the opening and looked around. He had made it down to the last tier; the other levels of the city rose above him, and below was the meeting place. The light here was much better and looking around, he thought he could remember the straightforward set of stairs that would bring him out at the bottom of the city.

Making a final sweep of the open space to look for any danger, he began making his way to the stairway he was looking for, still moving as quietly as he could.

Half way along, he stopped, for a moment standing as still as possible and holding his breath. He had heard a noise. It had been very small, but after so long with nothing but the noise of his own steps it had been unmistakeable. It had sounded like a footstep.

Link waited for over a minute, but there was no further step. Slowly, he began walking again, but he knew now he was not alone. Sure enough, after he had taken a dozen paces he heard quiet footsteps start up behind him. Not reacting this time, he kept going to the stairway and turned down it. He went down several steps, and as he did drew his sword with as much stealth as he could manage, masking the sound with the noise he made on the stone stairs. Moving more loudly than he had been in the open, he began to walk on the spot, waiting just below the opening, hoping to draw his footpad in.

Sure enough the footsteps came closer. Link readied himself, and as his mysterious companion reached the head of the stairs he launched himself forwards with a roar, swinging his sword up in the air. In the gloom he could only make out the silhouette of a short stumpy figure. With a flash of realisation, Link saw that it was a goron, and that they were unarmed.

Too late to stop his leap, he pulled his sword out of the way so that the stroke he had aimed at his stalker fell wide, but he could not stop himself crashing into the goron, and they both clattered to the floor.

Groaning, Link rolled and tried to get to his feet. Running into the rocky creature had felt like hitting a wall, even if it had been bowled over as well. Still uncertain of their intentions, he tried to push himself away and get room in case the goron attacked. He was surprised when, instead of moving towards him, the goron sat up and let out an almighty wail.

"That was so mean!" it cried. "You! You must be a follower of Ganondorf! I don't care! Hear my name and tremble! I am Link, hero of the gorons!"

Startled, Link backed away. The goron stood, and the warrior realised it was shorter than the gorons he had known previously. "Fine! I'll fight you if I have to!" it declared, a slight warble betraying its fear.

"Did you say you're Link?" asked the hylian Link.

"Yes," replied his slightly hysterical companion. "I'm the hero of the gorons!"

"But I'm Link!" he said, confused.

"You're not Link, you're just-" The goron stopped abruptly and hiccupped. "You're Link? Are you the legendary hero and dodongo buster, Link?"

"Um, I don't know!"

"Do you know my dad, Darunia?"

The name of his old friend delighted Link. It was something familiar in what was turning into a very confusing day. "Yes, I know Darunia!"

"Then you must be the hero! Dad's told me all about you. He named me after your because you're so great and brave."

"I think he might have exaggerated that a bit." Link remembered that Darunia had a habit of extending stories to make them sound more impressive.

"Oh no, he's told me all about the glorious battle when you saved all the gorons of the mountain from the terrible dodongos! You're a great hero." The story Darunia had told his son didn't match at all with Link's memory of the trip into the dodongo's cavern. He remembered it as a horrific ordeal of falling ceilings and teeth and darkness. "Anyway," continued Link the goron, "you're here now, so you must be coming to save us all!"

"Save all who?" asked Link, getting more confused every moment.

"The gorons of course!"

"Where are all the gorons? What's happened to everyone?"

"Oh, it was terrible. Ganondorf's followers came and they took everyone away, but I hid like Dad told me to, and then I got left all alone!" The goron began to cry again at this point, and for a minute Link could get nothing more out of him except loud wails.

Sheathing the Master Sword, Link moved close to the other Link and began patting him on the back and trying to calm him. He was feeling thoroughly bewildered at this turn of events.

Eventually the goron calmed and continued explaining. "All the gorons got taken away, to be eaten! The dragon is going to eat everyone, and Ganondorf said-"

"Ganondorf was here?" interrupted Link.

"Yes! He was the one who had everyone taken away! He had some people with him, and these horrible tall monsters! They came up the trail, and rounded up every goron on the mountain that they could find, and when they were all in the centre of the city Ganondorf spoke to them, and he told them they were going to be executed as a sign to anyone who tries to oppose him, and then he took them all away!"

For a moment Link didn't reply, as he furiously tried to process this information. Ganondorf had been on Death Mountain, had come to Goron City, and from the sounds of it he had brought moblins with him to help him quell the strongest of the Hyrulian races. He wondered if the Sheikahn Council had known this when he spoke to them, and if they'd hidden it from him.

"When did all this happen?" he asked.

Goron Link shrugged. "Two weeks?" he hazarded.

Two weeks. Two weeks ago, Ganondorf had rounded up all the gorons to be executed, as a sign to anyone who tried to oppose him. It couldn't be a coincidence after a few weeks earlier he had suffered a serious setback in the Forest Temple. The destruction of his phantom and army of moblins had clearly provoked him to this reaction.

"Okay, when did the dragon arrive?" Link said, trying to stay calm and rational. He was fighting down a rising panic that it was already too late, that the gorons were already dead. He didn't know how he could cope with that after the burial of the kokiri.

Goron Link looked up at him and his eyes brimmed with tears again. "The dragon's already here?" he asked, and his voice was turning into a shriek now. He began crying again, sobbing loudly. Too late, Link realised how much noise they'd been making. If there was anyone else in the city they were bound to have heard the wailing and shouting.

"We have to be quiet so we don't get caught too!" he said, frantically shushing the little goron. "Yes, I saw the dragon last night, and again earlier today. But if you didn't know it's here then we must still have time! Ganondorf will want people to know what he's done or it's a pointless gesture. Come on, we need to get out of the open."

His companion hiccupped again, but became quiet and when he spoke it was in a softer voice. "We can go to Dad's room. That's where I hid when they came to the city." He passed Link and started down the stairs.

"And they didn't find you there?" Link asked, following.

"No. There's a secret compartment inside a statue." That explained why the torch outside the room was lit. "Dad showed it to me ages ago, before he was arrested, and told me that if there was ever trouble, I had to hide there. He made me promise!"

"What do you mean, he was arrested?"

The goron turned and his eyes were filled with tears again. "You mean you don't know?" he asked, forlornly.

"Don't cry!" said Link, quickly. "Remember, we need to be quiet. Just, tell me what happened."

"Dad fought in the war, in a big war against Ganondorf, to try and stop him being mean to everyone. But he lost, and Ganondorf had Dad locked up."

"So he's alive too. That's a good sign. Do you know where he is?"

"Of course! He's in the same place all the other gorons are!"

"You mean he's still on the mountain?" The stairs wound round, and although for a moment Link thought they were going into more dark passages, as they turned the corner he could see they were doubling back on themselves to emerge on the lowest level of Goron City.

"Yes. There's a shrine at the very top of Death Mountain, and they've all been taken up there. So have the other men who came."

"What men?" Goron Link led his namesake across the goron meeting place to where the lit torch was still flickering.

"Some men came up Death Mountain a few days ago. I hid. They looked round the city and then left again. They seemed strange to me. Sort of, I don't know, dark."

Link nodded. The missing sheikah. "Where did they go?"

"I don't know. They just left the city." They had entered Darunia's room now, and there were more torches burning here. It made the place feel quite homely after the darkness Link had walked through in the rest of the city. Goron Link sat on the floor and his hylian counterpart sat on a chair that the goron Big Brother obviously kept there for hylian guests.

"I'm guessing they tried to go to this goron shrine. They haven't been heard from since. Which means while the trail up to the city might not have a guard on it, the paths up to the summit certainly does."

"Oh, but we don't have to go that way! Everyone who came, Ganondorf and his monsters, they led all the gorons out and up the mountain trail. They don't know about the secret way!"

"There's a secret way up there?" Hope began to flicker in Link's chest. If they could reach the shrine undetected, maybe they just had a chance.

"Yes! Right from this room! It goes straight up, through the mountain!"

"That's our plan then. I'm going to sleep here tonight, and then first thing in the morning, we're going up to the shrine to save the gorons."