The stone doors of my very first Hylian dungeon gave way grudgingly at first, then more easily as I shoved them open, letting me into a darkened, gloomy area with a variety of mushrooms and sickly looking plants that had grown up in the minimal light.
Already visible as I entered and looked warily around was a shallow stairway leading down, curving off to the left, and a passage just visible that had massive sheer metal bars that stopped me going that way even before I'd started. A further bird statue, this one accented in green rather than gold, also stood here.
Before I got to take in anything else, Fi once again appeared to give me her input.
"Master, I have bad news," she informed me. "The auras of many creatures reverberate throughout this Temple. As a result, I am unable to isolate Zelda's aura, and will not be able to track her here. Given the situation, I suggest you look around constantly to see where we should move next at each stage. Should I have further information, I will impart it to you."
"The Bird Statue?" I prompted, before she hid away again.
Fi regarded it only briefly before answering, "These statues act as a form of way-point for you, Master. Statues you find within will return you here to this one should you have need to depart the Temple early, and this one will remember the one you came here by to provide a short-cut back. The capabilities of this statue have faded over time however, so this remembrance will only last for short periods outside."
"I'd rather walk," I muttered to myself, starting down the staircase. I may never have done a dungeon like this before this point, but in dealing with Robotnik's various crazy schemes I've been to enough places, had to track down shards of the Master Emerald so many times, I can't help but think of myself as experienced.
Link – or whoever else made the Skyview Temple – just made me realise how inadequate this was for what I had to handle.
I gave a glance down the passage I'd seen as it came into better view, seeing no easy way to pass it short of tearing up the Temple itself, and somehow I didn't think I'd get away with that. Giant spider webs hung around supporting arches, easily sliced out of my way, closely followed by a few dumb Keese that never learned to leave adventuring Heroes alone.
At the foot of the staircase I found a heavy stone door that was also barred off, with no immediately apparent way of handling it. There's always a way though, I just had to find it, and in this case it was the sound of plant-like slavering – the sound of a Deku Baba that had spotted me, and was waiting for me to get too close.
It was hiding behind a clump of bushes, which were in turn on top of spindly little trunks that were sliced away to reveal vines, vines that led up the the edge the Deku Baba was perched on, watching me with vegetative hunger. If I climbed up there as it was, I'd become a Baba's breakfast.
Fighting while hanging off a wall is something of a significant feat, a skill that needs considerable practice before attempting. I even thought of that myself while I climbed the wall, knowing I'd have to properly anchor myself with one hand and try not to fall off when striking with my sword.
I knew I was going to have trouble with it. But with the Deku Baba perched right on the edge, what choice did I have? I did punch it once to make it reel back, giving me the opportunity to draw my sword – the weight of which, while manageable, threatened to pull me off the wall as it was. I had to wait for the chance to present itself, the Deku Baba obligingly opening it's sap-dripping mouth.
In my defence, the strike I made struck true and did dispatch the Deku Baba first time. The crashing rattle I made when I hit the floor was second only to how painful it is to hit it wearing chain-mail. Take it from me – it hurts!
I made a number of comments I don't think I'll repeat here before I decided to stop lying on the floor and find out what the Deku Baba had been guarding, which was a large red crystal – or rather, a collection of six tiny red diamond-shaped crystals that were held tightly together to form a larger diamond.
Overlooking the obvious oddity that they were floating unsupported in the air, I figured I simply had to separate them, making a slash that should have just separated two of them away. At the first impact however all the crystals shot apart and turned grey with the sound of something metal grating nearby – the one blocking the door nearby.
The door itself did not open outwards or slide. Only grooves in the ground gave any hint that it had to be lifted from below. No issue for me, of course, but I still ached. The room beyond was more of a hall, the white stone walls still visible through the colonising plants, even the engraved designs had managed to survive fairly well.
At first look there was no way on. I could go up the steps right in front of me, and all that was ahead of there was a polished oval, a thin line separating it into two halves. Taking a second look from the top of the steps things changed just slightly, revealing another grating covering another stone door, both of which had been concealed behind the steps I stood on. There may once have been a path leading ahead, but the cracked floor had long since gone if there had been.
The stone oval turned out in fact to be the eyelids of a large eye that watched me. Nothing else, it just watched me. It was a bit of a stretch to reach it from where I stood, but I reasoned I could hardly do any worse than I had already and re-drew my sword, intending to stab at the eye.
As it hissed out of its sheath, the eye refocused on my sword though. It might have been the reflection, it might have been that it recognised it as a threat, I honestly don't know. I moved my sword, the eye tracked it.
How do you deal with an eye? Make it dizzy. I moved my sword in broad circles, the eye following it as best it could until it turned red, the pupil rotating wildly for a moment, then turning into a kind of star burst. The eye closed and slipped off the wall, vanishing in defeat.
Hardly the most challenging of enemies, but it'd made me stop and think at least – and this was still early on in Link's career too, of course. I imagine he had a lot of help at the start.
This defeat caused the grating to retract, allowing me to shove the next stone upward and pass into a short corridor that opened into an even larger area. A couple of Deku Babas hung down from the ceiling, then dropped to the floor when I cut them down.
Here I found the second green bird statue, which I filed away mentally in case I ever did actually need it. Scratching sounds came from small spider-like creatures on a set of vines that had grown over the wall around the corridor, shot down by the slingshot in no time.
Around the room were giant, gnarled tree roots forming natural pathways above the main area. Large portions of the floor were sunk down, leaving what was left as simply a series of raised stone paths separating them. Huge logs that may once have been part of the roots lay in the depressions.. More mushrooms and plants decorated the place. Another door faced me across the room, not separated by another grating but by a series of interlocking chains with a padlock on them.
And to round it all out,; a green Bokoblin was waiting for me just ahead. He – or possibly she, I can't tell the difference – may have been green and wearing a skull on his head, but he still didn't last very long.
Once it was down I took a look at the door leading east. There was one leading west as well, but I decided I'd take a look at that when I could do no more to the east door, which had yet another grating on it, and another red crystal cluster above it. A single shot from the slingshot turned the crystals grey and opened the grating.
Part of the room beyond had collapsed into rubble, and yet another spider web had been draped between the rubble and the wall. It didn't appear to be occupied right now, so I cut my way through this one too, allowing me to look right into the rest of the room.
It was actually much like the previous – lower areas, logs, roots, stone pathways – the differences were in design, and in the giant spider that dropped down as I started down the nearest pathway. It was easily double my size with yellow eyes glaring at me, and the top part that faced me looked like a skull. It hung from a thread, barring my path, but didn't actually seem inclined to attack me.
"Fi," I said to my sword, not taking my eyes off the enemy. "A little advice?"
The spider ignored her completely. She regarded it for only a moment before saying, "A giant Skulltula. Your sword will not even scratch its tough carapace. However, its underbelly is vulnerable to assault. My recommendation would be to strike, causing it to swing on its thread and reveal this weakness."
"All I needed. Thanks Fi," I told her, waiting for her to return to the sword before I acted. One strike send the Skulltula swinging, it's legs waving wildly as if it could steady itself. A second blow caused it to start turning in the air, apparently helpless to stop itself as it revealed the vulnerable spot on its belly. I had to strike twice more to keep it moving while I waited for the right chance, then stabbed, harder than I intended so I actually had to kick it off the end of my sword – which snapped the thread. Thankfully it fell on its back, and it's thrashing flung it down into the depressions. I threw several rocks from the pile of rubble to finish it off and make sure it wasn't going to come after me.
It was a fair start to my first dungeon, even if I had made a few mistakes.