Chapter Nine
The Cavern of Frost
Link, Zelph, Zane, Bongo and Jerry were in for a shock when they arrived back at the manor because the whole place had been trashed and there was a barrier around it now that only they could get through. They Mayer' office was empty apart from a note Link took from an upset Jerry that read; You knew what would happen.
"That's what the meeting must have been about, he was going to try and fight off whatever is in the Cavern of Frost by himself, this is from the King" Link said, "Jerry, Bongo, where is this cavern?"
"There's a map in dad's safe" Jerry said
"I don't know the combination" Bongo said
"I do" Zane replied
Zane opened up the safe and found a map in it but the map had been smugged by some form of liquid.
"What can we do now?" Link asked
"Wait a second" Bongo said, taking the map, "This is a trick, if we take it beyond the mirror then we should be able to read it"
"That's genus" Zelph said, "But we're at the bottom of a massive slant, how're we getting back up?"
"It's a bit tiresome if you're not used to it but we have steps built into the rock, how else do you think the Yeti' got up to the start line for their race?" Bongo said,
"Can't believe you won and I missed it" Jerry said sadly
"We didn't mean to win it at all, we were just trying to get down here to find you" Bogo told him
"Did you get the prize still?" Jerry asked
"Yeah!" Bongo said with an infectious laugh
Link, Zelph and Zane told Bongo and Jerry that it was probably best they stay put as they had no idea how long it'd take them to save their father, if they could even do that and someone needed to run things. Link told them that rather than only one of them taking the strain for the Yeti settlement that they should both stand by each other and work together to reasure the other Yeti' living nearby.
As Link, Zelph and Zane left to make the long journey back up to where their cabin was Bongo and Jerry felt more important than they ever had done before.
The view that awaited Link, Zelph and Zane was just awe inspiring. Link had always wanted to see the Northern Lights and now he was going to be lying beneath them.
Even if the map had been readable right away Zane told them it'd be foolhardy to try and find it now. Link agreed with some reluctance, he didn't like waiting when someone was in trouble but here his hands were tied.
The three of them sat round the table in the dining area staring at the map, trying to make sense of it until finally they gave up and went to bed.
In the middle of the night Zane was woken up by a sparkling light and was surprised to find Tattle buzzing over Link.
"Hey! Wake up!" He was saying
Tattle got a shock when Zane grabbed him in his hands and took him to the table in the dining area,
"Shut up Tattle, we can't go anywhere until morning" Zane said letting him go, "Besides, the map is unreadble even if it is dry now"
"Unreadable to Hylian and Korki, you dummy, you need a Yeti" Tattle told him
"Then I'll give one a call" Zane said taking out his phone,
"What the heck is that?" Tattle asked
"A phone" Zane told him.
By now Link and Zelph were awake, Link was wondering why his door was wide open when he saw Tattle hopping up and down in front of Zane,
"What the...?" He began
By now Zane had gotten a hold of Bongo and was face-timing him,
"Hey! Listen!" Tattle screeched
Link wriggled his finger in his left ear, it was vibrating from Tattle' yelling.
Zelph giggled at this and then every time Tattle told her off there after,
"That's my line Tattle, shut up will you?!" Zane snapped, "OK Bongo this is the map, can you give us directions based on what you see?"
"I can...oh no" Bongo said, "You need to go back through the woodlands and pass the clearing, keep going until it dips and takes you out onto the other side of the quarry or quarry 2, it's there that the Cavern is based. There are a number of tricky trials in there even without monsters to deal with"
"Like what?" Link asked
"The maze of glass, Ice and Mirrors, and the balance blades for one, the Freezards guard that room and then there's the traps that could freeze you or the people around you for several seconds" Bongo told Link, "I've no idea which area dad will be in or what kind of state he'll be in when you find him...if you find him"
"Thank you Bongo, I'll bring him back don't worry" Link said
For the rest of the night Link and Zelph grilled Tattle about his sister and the land of Termina, then at first light he disappeared and Link, Zelph and Zane made for the Cavern of Frost.
The path there was a treturous one, they opted for the steps and realised how dangerous they were going down, wondering how it could have seemed much safer the previous night going up.
There were Ice Keets waiting for them, that took Link and Zelph by surprise. These creatures tended to act like normal bats so to see them in the daylight was a shock.
After Zane got frozen Link stood still to listen and then used his bow and arrows to shoot down any remaining Ice Keets nearby.
Zane just shook his head after unfreezing. Freezing didn't do damage but it was an uncomfortable experience for them.
It was mid day before they reached the clearing they had been in the day before.
Link honed in on Wolf Link' sneses and everything to his vision became infered. He used this to see Wolfoes and took them out with his bow. The first two cried out as they died and blew up into purple smoke and Link got a shock when the third appeared from nowehere and pounced on him, knocking his senses out of whack. He used his sword and the Wolfoes blew up into purple smoke with the same cry as the others.
Link stood up to check on Zelph and Zane but couldn't see them anywhere. Then he looked up and laughed to find them both up a tree.
"Come on!" He called, "The woodland' safe now at least"
"You're eyes went funny" Zelph said as she climbed down
"Did they?" Link asked with wonder.
On they went until they finally came across Quarry 2 and found the route down to the entrance of the Cavern of Frost.
Here they were parted and Link was faced with two shadow beasts. Link grinned at them and did a spin attack on them, then three more showed up, Link delt with these too, coaxing one then attacking the other two. Five then turned up and circled around him,
"Link! Look out!" Zelph cried
"You asked for it!" Link spat, "Wolf Link hear me, see me, be me!"
Suddenly with a flash Link was now Wolf Link and this time the shadow creatures were destroyed. Wolf Link growled, there was another flash and Link returned to normal, leaving Zelph stunned. Zane was used to all of this,
"What happened?" Zelph asked
"There is a difference between calling on the power of the Master Sword and needing it's strength, Link can focus on the power within the sword to battle with Shanklin and Cannon if need be, once the sword has all of it's upgrades that is. However if he comes into a situation that requires one of the skills obtained by a forefather then he can used the sword to summon that power. In this instance he realised that without Wolf Link nearby or in spirit those Shadow Beasts were just going to keep on coming" Zane explianed
"But I don't know if that was a test or if Shanklin is getting stronger" Link said
"No, that was a test, it was of the twilight and they have no quarrel with us, it is the old Shieka they dispise" Zane told Link
"Don't remind me" Zelph sighed
Link and Zelph searched the area for switches to open up the cavern, eventually realising, after finding nothing but fallen rocks that the rocks themselves must be concealing the switches. Link used up five bombs, eventually locating the two switches they needed. There was a metal grate covering them that took the three of them to lift each time before Zelph stood on one and Link stood on the second.
The cavern opened up and blasted them with cold air.
"We'd be dead right now if it wasn't for these tunic' wouldn't we?" Link summerised
"Very much so" Zane said
With that they ventured into the Cavern of Frost.
After going through a short tunnel a door shut on them that they couldn't open again and they found themselves in a maze, there were mirrored walls, ice walls, glass walls and glass doors.
"Oh woe!" Link said
Suddenly a Freezard appeared on the other side of a glass wall on the left so Link, Zelph and Zane went right, summerising that if they went forward chances were they'd be in the same space as the Freezard. Link needed fire arrows and he had none.
Through the next door they encountered a Wolfoes. Once this was dealt with they ventured through the door in the centre but this led to a trap. The snow beneath their feet melted and Link, Zelph and Zane dropped into a pool of cold water.
From here they were warped back to the start.
The freezard was now in front of them, breathing on the glass door and cracking it. Link, Zelf and Zane went through the same door they ventured through at the start and then smashed the glass wall to get into a new section of the maze, they followed this around until they found blue fire and a gold glove, realising that if they wanted to progress they were going to have to use it to melt some of the ice walls.
Once they had the blue fire they made their way back towards the start, paying great attention to what was beyond the ice walls. They got it wrong once or twice, there were a number of bats behind one and then a sheer drop of about 20 foot to another level of the cavern behind the other.
"I so do not want to go down there" Link gasped
The only ice wall left was the one by the entrance but the entrance was now ocupied by a Freezard, forcing them to find another route around. After smashing three glass walls and melting one they found the a smoother route around the maze. As they followed it they were scared by several Freezards that couldn't actually get to them and Ice Keets or Bats flying at walls to get to them. Finally they found the door leading out of this maze but what awaited them was even tougher.
In the next room they had to deal with spinning blades that had four switches on them but also waiting for them were frozen enemies. One foot wrong and they would be dead.
There was a chest in the centre platform and on the ceiling a switch that had ice over it so without fire arrows it couldn't be activated and Link, Zelph nor Zane could be sure what it would actually do Would it help them or hider them?
Link jumped up onto the first blade and tried to balance, Zelph then jumped onto the second and Zane the third. They all fell off and had to shuffle back to the start of the room because if they moved an inch the blades would have surely got them.
They tried again, this time leaving time for the one jumping and the one on the blade already to balance propperly.
Once they had it, they had a new problem,
"Three of us, four switches" Zelph said
"What Link able to create statues of himself?" Zane asked
"Majoras mask!" Link said and he closed his eyes while remembering the tune he needed to play, "Got it!" He said, opening his eyes and taking out his whistle.
He fell painfully as he created his double and nipped his shins. He got onto his back and shuffled back to the door before jumping on the last blade and activating the switch to release the chest.
The blades still turned though and Link had to create another version of himself so he could walk across to the platform.
Inside the chest he found fire arrows. He smiled and used one to shoot at the ice covered switch above, this stopped the blades turning but it also unfroze the enemies, these were all freezards that Link had to use his sheild to reflect back. This froze them once more, allowing Link the time he needed to shoot them with his fire arrows and melt them away.
Once he'd gotten all three the platform in the centre and the blades sank into a hole that appeared beneath them.
Zelph and Zane nearly fell into it until Link helped them up onto the platform with him.
In this next room there were silver diamonds dotted around at various heights and three doors, two were locked, the other had bars on it.
A noise came from the diamond Zelph touched and they realised they had to get all of them, working together to get to the ones that were higher up but then a ticking sound occurred and they realised there was a time limit.
When the time ran out three pieces of the floor disappeared beneath them, making it harder to get to the diamonds.
This time they pictured the route around the room before setting off the timer and with a bit of team work they got it right, the bars came down, allowing them access to one of the three rooms.
In this room Link, Zelph and Zane found a number of armless knights, all frozen to the spot,
"Because this doesn't feel like a trap at all" Link said sarcastically
"Don't unfreeze them yet" Zane said, "Can't you hear that?"
They listened,
There was a shuffling sound coming from beneath their feet and suddenly a huge lizard like creature with tenticles that froze everything they touched crashed up out of the floor with an almighty screech.
"OK Link, you need to use his own powers against him and the fire arrows" Zane told Link
Zelph and Zane had to duck befind one of two pillars while Link deflected the ice breath from the mouths on the tenticles and then while the whole creature was frozen use the fire arrows to melt it.
He had to do this twice more before before it worked and a chest appeared in it's place, within which was a key.
Link, Zelph and Zane left the room and looked at either locked door, then they each took the key to take in the details of it against the details on the locks.
"I think it's this one" Zelph said going up to the door on the right,
It worked and Link, Zelph and Zane ventured into the next room. This one had a number of ice blocks dotted around and holes in the floor and rocks in other places.
There was a ledge up at a weird angle and the blocks had to be moved in a particular order. Block one had to be moved forward, then right, right again, then forward and left one; then the second block, which was larger, had to be moved right and then forward to meet the first block.
Both blocks needed the three of them to move it and they kept slipping and falling on the ice themselves as they did this, nearly ending up in the pit below a few times.
Eventually they got it but they were so tired by this stage they had to take a break on the first of the two blocks to get their strength back.
"This Cavern in hard work" Zelph sighed
Link and Zane nodded in agreement and then they stood up with difficulty and climbed up onto the next block and then up onto the platform where they found a rusted switch.
Link had to use the Goron hammer to activate it and although it released the bars to the platform across the other side of the room it also caused stalictites and icicles to rain down from the ceiling.
Now they had a bigger problem, both blocks were by the wall and couldn't be pulled; they needed them on the other side of the room now.
"What if we leave the room to reset the blocks?" Link asked
"No, do that and it'll deactivate the switch" Zane told Link, "Use the Goron hammer to smash one of the blocks up and see if it get's replaced"
Link nodded and slammed the hammer into one of the blocks and the block was sent back to the very spot it started from.
The same thing happened with the second block and the task of moving them started again. This time to get to a chest and while doing this a number of bats and Ice Keets appeared and these had to be dealt with before they could carry on with the task.
Link got annoyed at this point and in his anger managed to destroy a block, forcing them to start again. Zelph and Zane were not happy about that at all.
Link gave them a sorry look and they set to work once again on moving the blocks around to get to the chest. This time they got it and found the key to what would be the last room, inside it.
Before they could leave this room bars went up at the doors and a Whizrobe appeared. While Link dealt with him, Zelph and Zane had to fight off everything he summoned.
Link knew what this meant. The Shanklin was gaining powers and the Cannon' waking was looking evermore likely .
Link took a few hits from the enemies summoned while trying to deal with the Whizrobe but he took them like a hero and cocentrated on finding the Whizrobe, targeting and shooting it with fire arrows. He'd used ice arrows in this fight and normal arrows, even bomb arrows but the fire arrows seemed to have the biggest effect and finally after about 6 hits with the fire arrows Link got him and the room was cleared.
The bars came down and Link, Zelph and Zane could leave the room.
Link, Zelph and Zane stood before the door leading to the last room and stared at it for a few seconds,
"I'm slightly more nervous about this one than I was the last" Link said seriously
"This place is charged with power" Zelph commented
"That's what I mean, this is scaring me now, we have been getting the upgrades, we've been defeating the Anti-Minerals so how is Shanklin obtaining that power?" Link asked
"I have one theory and if I'm right than our next stop will have to be the Garudo Desert" Zane said
Link and Zelph stared at Zane in shock.
Finally they unlocked the door and stepped inside.
It was dark at first until the ground shook beneath them and beams of light rained down, revealing the Mayer, who was floating now, had frightening eyes and an even worse laugh.
"What's the matter Hero of Time? Have you just realised that you're fighting a losing battle?" Came a hidious voice,
"That's Shanklin!" Zane cried
"You're the one, who is going to lose!" Link yelled, "What did you do to the Mayer?"
Shanklin just laughed and the Mayer spun around, firing icicles at them,
Link blinked,
"If you need any of us, focus on the power you need and trust that it will come to you" BOTW Link' voice rang I his ears.
Link looked at Zelph and then at the icicles and they all stopped dead, Link smashed them all and stood by the last one with his sheild out so he could hit the Mayer when time went back to normal. It worked, stunning Zelph,
Link slashed part of the Tri-Force symbol into his back before being thrown across the room. Zelph screamed and then ducked out of the way as the Mayer stomped around the room, holding his back and crying out.
He then fired off more icicles and Link slowed down time, dealt with these, deflected the last at the Mayer and slashed his back with the sword.
The Mayer then picked Link up, jumped onto the ceiling and dropped him.
Mid air Link slowed down time and slashed at the Mayer a few times for good measure before dropping and landing safely.
Once more came the icicles and once more Link slowed down time, he dealt with the icicles and then used the last to deflect back at the Mayer before completing the Tri-Force symbol on the Mayer' back.
The Mayer screamed out in anger, then started to shrink as the power left him and he coward of the floor in the centre of the room.
"The sword really is mighter than thou thought, please, Link, take the mineral upgrade, save Hyrule, save us all!" The Mayer cried
Shanklin was heard screaming in anger and before Link could get to the mineral the whole Cavern started to colapse around them.
Link quickly upgraded the sword and was teleported, along with Zelph and Zane and the other soldiers, frozen further in, to a tower that centred the two quarries with the woodlands and central clearing behind it.
The portals were activated. One leading back to the King of Hi-Range and the other leading to Goron City.
The Mayer was so upset with himself, Link couldn't console him at all.
"My lack of faith allowed Shanklin to change me, to control me" He sobbed, "I wasn't myself when we met, I was counting on you failing, you're just a kid, what the hell do you know of the monsters we've been plagued by for generations? I thought those successes at the other Shrines were flukes but I know now I was wrong, you can defeat Shanklin, you must!"
Link just nodded his head.