Chapter 7: The Woodfall Temple Part 1
Upon entering the Woodfall Temple, Link and company found themselves immersed in a highly vegitated area, lots of plants hung from the walls and adorned many spots of the temple also the sound of someone playing the drums could be heard reverberating through the walls of the temple.
"Where are those drums coming from?" asked Chun-Li.
"Heck if I know, but it does have a pretty catchy beat," replied Ken.
"Indeed, but the Secret Text is awaiting us, let's make haste in our search," suggested Zelda.
"Agreed, off we go," commented Link.
"Ok, first off, we need to cross this giant gap between here and that door way over there," remarked Alex pointing over to a door leading further into the tmeple on the other side of the room. However, a large chasm was between them.
"Again, not a problem," commented Zelda as she used her magic to float everyone across the chasm and onto the platform across the room. Link pened the door and as they entered the next room. A Deku Baba lunged at the group upon their entry but Link quickly cut him down with his sword. The stem of the monster dried into a stick like form and Link picked up the stick.
"All right, we got a Deku Stick!" exclaimed Link.
"How's that a good thing?" asked Ryu.
"These are good for helping us light any torches that may need lighting," answered Link.
"So slaying these monsters is beneficial for other reasons than getting them out of our way, that's good to know," commented Ken.
"Precisely, now let's keep moving," said Zelda as the sextet hopped across lily pads that led them to a locked door.
"Great, we don't have the key to get in there, where to now?" grumbled Alex.
"There should be another way we can go around here, let's keep looking," answered Link as the group continued to leap across lily pads to another little isolated platform to another door which was luckily unlocked. Upon entering the door they saw group of spider monsters hanging from the ceiling, Ryu shuddered at the sight of the spiders.
"Skulltulas, these things are perpetual pests," remarked Link.
"Man, I hate spiders," groaned Ryu.
As the six walked forward, the Skulltulas lowered down and crawled toward the heroes, when they tried to attack, their strikes merely bounced off of the spider monster's thick hide.
"These guys are durable, we're not having any effect on them," stated Chun-Li.
"Their underside is their weakness, wait until the expose it to attack, then strike!" called out Zelda to the others.
"Easy said and done," replied Ken.
Each of the six warriors waited patiently for the Skulltulas to strike and when they saw the soft underbelly of the spiders exposed, they all struck quickly stunning the monsters and each of them finished them off with one of their more powerful attacks. As all the Skulltulas dissipated, small wooden treasure chest dropped down from the ceiling. Link wasted no time in opening the chest and inside was a small silver colored key.
"Good, we got the key, now let's get back to where we were going," suggested Ken.
"Agreed, let's make haste," affirmed Link as the six left the room and bounded across the lily pads lining the watery floor once more and unlocked the previously locked door and promptly stepped through the doorway into a new area of the Woodfall Temple. In this area, more Deku Babas snapped at the group, but were easily cut down like all the others. Upon surveying the room, the heroes saw a number of unlit torches with one lit torch burning in the center of the room and the door leading to the next area was barred shut.
"I take it that we'll have to light all these torches to unlock the path leading forward," commented Alex.
"Yes, good thing we got some Deku Sticks from those ravenous plants, they make excellent torches," answered Link.
"Give me one, we can cover more ground if we each take opposing sides of the room," suggested Ryu.
"Agreed," replied Link handing Ryu a Deku Stick, the two held their sticks up to the torch's flame and both ran in opposite directions lighting all the torches they came across, after igniting every torch, the bars on the door whooshed upwards clearing the path to the door. However, more Skulltulas dropped down from the ceiling to attack the heroes.
"Oh lovely, more of these guys," groaned Ryu.
"Eh, we've dealt with these before, we know what to do," remarked Ken.
Without a moment's hesitance, the sextet engaged the Skulltulas waiting for them to expose their weak points and then striking the arachnids down. After the Skulltulas dissipated, two treasure chests appeared, one small and one large.
"Hey, double treasure, I wonder what's in them," mused Alex.
"Only one way to find out," said Link as he opened the smaller one and fouond another key. Upon opening the bigger chest, the group found what appeared to be a map.
"Great, we found the map to the dungeon, this will make it much easier to navigate around here," stated Link as he eyed the map.
"Superb, then let's make haste," suggested Chun-Li as she walked towards the door, the others followed her through the door. In the next room a lake of purple colored water covered the floor on the way to a platform where the door further into the labyrinth was. Sitting on the liquid was a myriad of large plants each with a single yellow eyeball.
"I don't think that liquid is safe to swim in," commented Chun-Li.
"Couldn't we hop across those weird plants though?" asked Ken.
"No, they'd chew us up and spit us out, unless you're as light as a Deku, then that's out of the question," answered Zelda.
"Talk about some crazy architecture," remarked Alex.
"There's gotta be a way across, survey the room!" ordered Link as the heroes all glanced around the area until they all saw a golden switch in hte shape of an eye hanging on the wall.
"If we could hit that switch, that should help us out," said Zelda.
"No sweat, Hadoken!" yelled Ryu as he fired forth his projectile at the switch nailing it causing the eye to close. A bridge rose up out of the water and a chime began ringing.
"Quickly, the bridge won't stay up forever, we need to hurry across to the other side!" ordered Link to the rest of the crew. And without hesitance, the six swiftly sprinted across to the other side of the room right as the bridge sunk back into the depths of the poisonous purple liquid.
"That was too close for comfort," commented Chun-Li.
"My thoughts exactly, these Deku Scrubs are wizards at constructing temples," remarked Ken.
"They guard their sacred treasures well, anyways let's press forward," suggested Zelda.
The other five nodded in agreement as Link and company headed through the door in front of them and started to scour the next room that lie in front of them. In that room, two branching paths presented themselves to the group who mused for a bit before deciding to take action.
"I suggest we split up into groups of three and each of us will tackle one of the doors, I'll take Chun-Li and Ken with me," stated Link.
"I agree, Ryu and Alex will accompany me," affirmed Zelda.
"I'll take the west, you cover the east, does that work for you?" inquired Link.
"Works for me, you three be careful," replied Zelda.
"Same to you," responded Link as him, Ken, and Chun-Li entered the western door right as Zelda, Ryu, and Alex entered the eastern door. As Zelda's group entered their door they found themselves encircled by Deku Babas snapping ravenously at them.
"Weedwacking time!" exclaimed Alex as grabbed a Deku Baba by its stem and ripped its head clean off making the Deku Baba disappear in a puff of smoke and then chopped another two into oblivion with his Flash Chop.
"Tatsumakisenpukyaku!" shouted Ryu as he spun around with his leg jutting outwards kicking the Deku Babas in the heads which stunned them long enough for Zelda and Alex to administer finishing blows to each of the hungry plant monsters. After clearing the room of Deku Babas, two treasure chests materialized in front of Zelda, Ryu, and Alex. Upon opening the first one, they found another small key. The second one contained a compass. The trio quickly pocketed the key and upon surveying the room again to make sure they miss anything left the room to meet up with Link, Ken, and Chun-Li who upon entering their room, the door was immediately barred shut behind them.
"Looks like there's no way out until we clear out all the monsters in here," commented Link.
At the moment Link finished speaking a group of turtle like monsters with lots of spikes surrounding their shells materialized in front of Link's crew. The turtles withdrew into their shells and started spinning frantically at the three warriors who all dove out of the way to dodge the crazy turtles.
"Snappers, they're hard shells give them nearly impervious defenses," remarked Link.
"Then how do you propose we defeat these creatrues then?" asked Chun-Li.
"What do blondes and turtles have in common?" asked Ken.
"This is no time for dumb blonde jokes!" exclaimed Chun-Li.
"When they're on their backs, they're screwed," responded Ken.
"He's right, if we can flip the Snappers over, we should expose their weak point and be able to finish them off no sweat," stated Link.
"How do you propose we do that?" asked Ken.
"Look at those huge rocks hanging from the ceiling, if we can kock them down to the ground, jolt should be enough to flip the turtles over," answered Chun-Li.
"Yeah, I agree, I'm sure you two can handle that," remarked Link.
"Sure can, Hadoken!" shouted Ken firing his projectile at the large rock hanging from the ceiling.
"Kikoken!" yelled Chun-Li doing the same, the rocks came crashing down to the ground and the resulting shock flipped the terrapin terrors onto their backs and before they could righ themselves, Link and company quickly dispatched of the myriad of Snappers, making them disappear in a puff of smoke. As all the Snappers dissipated, the bars on the door lifted up and Zelda, Ryu, and Alex came bounding through the door to rejoin Link, Ken, and Chun-Li.
"Run across any trouble?" asked Zelda.
"Nothing we couldn't handle," answered Link.
"Are we ready to go forward?" asked Ryu.
"Better believe, let's see what's in the door ahead," answered Ken.
"Could be anything lurking there, be prepared," warned Alex.
Upon opening the door in front of them, the room was pitch black and the door was soon barred after closing meaning there was no going back for Link and company.
"Great, now we can't see a foot in front of our faces," grumbled Chun-Li.
Just then, the whinny of a horse became audible and Link immediately unsheathed his sword and gripped his shield tightly.
"How did Epona get over here?" asked Ryu.
"I don't think that's Epona, be on guard," answered Ken.
At the moment Ken finished speaking, a circle of torches lit up with dark blue flames and crashing down from the ceiling came a monster clad in red and black armor who had the body of a bulky human, but the head of a white horse. The monster gripped a large spear tightly in his hands and his eyes glowed crimson as he let out a monstrous whinny once more and charged at the sextet flooring all six of them.
"Horsehead, I figured Ganondorf and Urien would plant monsters in all the temples to impede our progress," grumbled Link.
"Can't allow him to do that now can we, let's make glue out of this galoot!" suggested Alex as he rushed at Horsehad with a Slash Elbow, the monster merely shrugged it off and knocked Alex back with the butt end of his spear. He then charged a Zelda in an attempt to impale her, however, the princess of Hyrule teleported away using Farore's Wind just before Horsehead's spear made contact.
"Hyakuretsu Kyaku!" hollered Chun-Li as he rapidly kicked Horsehead in the back, the sinister stallion turned around and lifted his leg kicking Chun-Li backwards and flying right into Ryu and Ken.
"This thing has a lot of resilience," groaned Chun-Li.
"What the hell is his weak spot?" groaned Ken in frustration.
"Everything on him is armored except for...his head!" exclaimed Ryu.
"Good observation, everyone aim for the head, it's the only unarmored part on him!" shouted Alex.
"Affirmative!" called out Link as he threw down a Deku Nut which temporarily blinded Horsehead. As Horsehead staggered about blindly, Link leapt up and aimed swung directly at the stallion's head causing it to whinny out in pain. Zelda decked the monster with a Din's Fire. Alex leapt up and hit Horsehead with two powerful chops, Chun-Li followed suit kicking it hard as did Ryu and Ken. As Horsehead recovered from the effects of the Deku Nut, it became enraged and began attacking even quicker and more ferociously.
"Whoa, it's become blind with rage," gasped Zelda.
"Well then, time to blind it literally, I don't think it can handle another onslaught from us," commented Link as he blinded Horsehead wit hanother Deku Nut and the six repeated the process on the monster. After the assault, Horsehead let out a loud garbled whinny and slowly fell to the floor. Soon after hitting the ground, Horsehead disappeared in a puff of smoke and a large treasure chest materialized in front of the heroes. Link wasted no time inopening the chest, inside was a durable wooden bow and a quiver full of arrows.
"Excellent, we got the Hero's Bow and thirty arrows along with it, this will be very useful," commented Link.
"One thing, that door is still barred shut, so how do we get out?" asked Alex.
Upon surveying the room, Link saw another switch shaped like an eye he pulled out his newly acquired bow and loaded an arrow onto it.
"Let's test my new bow out," suggested Link as he fired an arrow with precise aim and hit the switch smack dab in the middle causing the eye to close and a flight of stairs leading up to a foyer arose from the floor.
"All right, we found our way out!" exclaimed Ken.
"This monster didn't have the Secret Text though, meaning there's probably another one further on, we must hurry forward!" ordered Link.
And with that, Link and his intrepid group continued their foray into the Woodfall Temple knowing that the Secret Text that they had to find lie even deeper in the recesses of the swampy domain.
Author's Note: Finally, my writer's block is gone, somewhat. Anyways, I'm so stoked for Street Fighter IV, only a few more days baby! Next chapter the heroes will finish up their exploration of the Woodfall Temple. I'm sure some of you were surprised to see Horsehead from Adventure of Link as the sub-boss here, well I'll be using bosses from all Zelda games for sub-bosses and bosses of most of the dungeons the heroes have to explore. Anyways, I'm off to work on the next chapter. Until then, please read and review.