Inside the chest was the first dungeon treasure, and one that proved to be useful time and again once I got the hang of it – the beetle. Gold and green, powered by some means no one except possibly Gondo knows about, capable of flight, and even more useful once he'd upgraded it a few times.

At the time though, I had no idea. It just looked like an oversized ornament.

"This?" I demanded. "This is what I get for beating up a skeleton?"

"It appears to be of Lanayru design, Master," Fi remarked, talking even as she put in her appearance. "Based on available information about the device and this temple, I conjecture it will be vital for the continuation of your task here."

"It's a beetle, Fi. What am I meant to do with it?"

"Analysis indicates the device is capable of flight, Master. In this manner it may serve a purpose not unlike your Slingshot. The sharp front of the device may be used to sever threads or trigger switches. No information is available on the means of control however. I suggest you experiment with it at this safe location to familiarize yourself with its function."

I wasn't expecting much, I knew that. It looked decorative and impractical, it felt like it weighed too much to fly, and since the door hadn't become unbarred when I defeated the skeleton, I doubted it was going to get me out of here.

I gave it a rather half-hearted throw into the air, and it buzzed easily into life, flying erratically but more or less straight. This was where I learned how to control it – quite by accident. I wondered how I was going to get it to turn, picturing it going right, and it obligingly turned. After a short trial run where I got to grips with steering it, I found it had a limited flight time to it, after which it dropped out of the air, vanished, and reappeared in my hand.

It wasn't getting me out of here though. I searched the room thoroughly, uprooting bushes and even trying to punch my way through the walls, all to no effect. The only other way out was the gap in the dome, over which a web was stretched, and a Skulltula present. If I had some way of seeing where the Beetle was while it was out of sight...

I have my suspicions about where this idea came from. Fi had long since hidden away, and given that I knew there was no one else here I had no issues thinking out loud, at some length. Someone had to be listening though, because I had an idea I'm certain didn't come from me.

The beetle was thrown again, aimed for the web, and as it left my hand I closed my eyes. Instead of seeing nothing, I was given a view as if I was the beetle, looking out of the golden spirals that counted as its eyes! It was disorienting – I could hear where I was, but see where it was – but I bore with it, steering it through the web, past the Skulltula, and round to the outside of the massive structure.

Where I saw the other side of the door had been barred too. It hadn't been barred this side when I entered. If I triggered it again... I steered the beetle back up a ways and because there was no other option, rammed the crystal switch. Now my sight dropped off, just as the beetle dropped to the ground nearby. The bars on this side of the door grated back.

Now I knew what I was doing with this thing, I looked out over the open area again and noticed several small passages, too narrow even for me to squeeze down, but not for the beetle. Perhaps there as an exercise for me?

In the course of the next few minutes several crates that had been tied up were dropped down and looted for rupees, the passages all explored triggering a crystal switch which unbarred the west door, and a second switch higher up on the central structure got me to another of the heart crystals.

This one refused to go into the pouch. Instead, the ones I'd collected thus far drew themselves out of the pouch, merged together to form a heart crystal that was full, rather than just a red core, then the entire thing turned into a red glow which in turn sank into me – repairing the various rips and tears in my tunic I'd obtained thus far, easing a goodly amount of the aches and pains, and generally making me feel a lot better.

I've often wondered why Link dropped the heart containers actually.

"It was a mechanic that just didn't work very well," Link told them. "There were a lot of those back then. I thought it was a good idea, a way to help you keep going longer, give you more strength, but it didn't really turn out the way I wanted, and if you did things right you'd effectively never need a health potion. I realized thanks to you they were also something of a collectible item, and you'd go out of your way to try and collect as many as you could find, which was just a distraction."

"Your dungeons don't sound as big as the ones I went through either," Tails said. "Judging by his description of the place and the map..."

"Give me some slack, I was new," Link said defensively. "I re-used areas a lot because it was easier on me than coming up with so much stuff. Take you, for example," he said, waving a hand toward Silver. "Eight whole dungeons I had to come up with for you. And I had to try to do something about your mind, which you kept ignoring. You all do that to me, you know that? Knuckles and his wall climbing and gliding, Manic's creative and immoral approach to life, your mind, Tails can fly and Sonic-"

"Yeah, thanks, you countered me just fine," Sonic interrupted. "All that water, there was barely any room for me to get up to speed!"

"You ran rings around bosses that should have been more challenging."

"You threw me at the Tower of Gods," Sonic retorted.

"Children," Telma cut over them. Both Sonic and Link gave her guilty looks. "Now if you'd like to behave yourselves... Knuckles?"

Once I'd finished playing around with the beetle, collecting rupees and other treasures, I headed through the western door, simply because I knew this to be a dead-end that needed searching before I went east. Knowing the detail the map gave me was helpful.

Immediately on the other side of the door I noticed two things – a drop ahead that I wasn't going to be climbing back up from, and a narrow gap above that looked very much like one I'd had to fall out of earlier in the Temple. I make a mental note of that this time, I wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

So I dropped down into shallow water, more mushrooms and more bushes scattered around. This place was underneath the remains of an upper area that showed the signs of time doing its job. At the far end the remains of a flight of broken, worn steps led up to the next door. I'd figure out my way back in a moment. Probably.

The door led me into another high domed room. Opposite me was a chest behind bars, with not two but three of the eyes around it, one on either side and one above – and the one above ignored me completely. Without getting its attention to, the other two refused to go the same way as their earlier comrades. Which meant, experience being what it is, there was something I needed to do in this room.

I didn't have to search it long. A heavy steel crate was hanging by an already fraying thread, snapped completely by the beetle to drop it with a massive clang. It might have been heavy, but this is me we're talking about here – heaving it down off the higher ledge and shoving it into place before the eyes was not a problem. There I just used it like a conductor's podium, using my sword instead of those wand things they use to direct orchestras, and this time the third eye also paid attention, to its detriment.

This got me one small key, which after the last one I fully expected to use soon, if not immediately. Now I had to head back a room and figure out a way past everything. There were stairs that led up and back toward the massively open room, but they were in even worse condition, and inconveniently placed pillars stopped me from simply climbing over the walls.

I needed to know what was further ahead though, and suspected I needed the beetle anyway. This time, as I threw it I made sure my hand was roughly where I judged it would appear and land when it was done, then switched my view to what it saw so I could scout ahead and steer better.

Picking my way – or its way – through the thin, scrubby trees and another web, I found yet another red crystal switch, again rammed to make it trigger. Once more, I was soaked as water rose and allowed me to swim to what was left of the stairs. And there I'd been, thinking I was about to dry out.

The beetle reappeared as expected, landed slightly off from where my hand was, bouncing off it and to the ground. I'd figure it better eventually, for now I swam ahead and started dripping my way through the same course it has, along with way removing more of the web, dispatching an angry Skulltula and cutting down the plants that concealed the other side of the narrow gap.

This time I went through backward so I could hang on and drop down safely. Have I mentioned how much it hurts when you hit the ground in chain mail? It needs saying. Definitely something you wanna avoid.

Now the only way for me to go was back through the open area and head east. The floor had fallen away in front of the door here – with a lock on for the small key, I knew I'd have to use it soon. Someone had considerately left a tightrope to cross the gap, but someone else had inconsiderately left a collection of Deku Baba's hanging from the ceiling, just close enough to reach anyone foolish enough to try and cross.

Again, I used the beetle, though this time since I wasn't going far away I didn't bother to see through its eyes. I sent it weaving through the Deku Babas to sever their stems at the top, sending them tumbling into whatever abyss was down below. Probably the creep I met not long after. I'll get to him in a bit though.

Once I went through the now unlocked door, it barred behind me, though these bars looked rusted. I could probably pull them off the door if I wanted, but I had no need to backtrack – for now. So I headed on, down the corridor into the next room, where there was a new enemy.

Honestly, it looked to me like a giant slug with three heads and skulls on them. It moved slowly across the floor, I could only assume to try to headbutt me. Punching one of them destroyed the skull, causing whatever had been underneath to retract – only to re-emerge growing a new skull. Yes, growing. Don't ask me, it's probably magic.

Interestingly the heads lined up perfectly once it had re-grown, and I took that as a signal to make a strike straight through them, destroying all three. I watched the beheaded stumps freeze in place, like they were shocked, then the monster finally puffed out of existence the way defeated monsters always do.

It's the sorta thing that makes you understand why there's no graveyards for monsters.

Defeating it let me out through the other door present, along another short corridor and up some stairs to a broad, open area. There may once have been more floor to it, but now much of it had fallen away.

A Bokoblin and Skulltula were both sent flying down into the pit below – saves me having to actually defeat them properly, they weren't what I was here for after all. I had to leap the gap I dropped the Skulltula into very nearly missing had I not also decided to glide at the height of the jump. Gotta remember that extra weight I'm carrying.

A crystal switch here opened a narrow route which, after a quick look, turned out to be just another shortcut back if I needed it. It was almost as if I was expected to come back here. For the moment I ignored the helpfully placed tightrope leading to the door that, even though I was the only Hero to see it, any Hero would immediately recognise as the Boss Door, instead heading toward an area that had bars separating it off behind old masonry. Old masonry I found easy to climb around, reaching a uniquely designed chest that held a strange, golden ornament. An ornament that I would have ignored, had it not been the exact same shape as a gap in the Boss Door's lock.

There wasn't anything else I needed to do here so I crossed the tightrope, where another Bokoblin went for me, trying to keep his own balance on the rope. I just dropped down on purpose, hanging from my hands instead and swinging to make it even harder, until it also toppled into the pit.

Figuring out what I had to do with the lock wasn't hard. It just had to be properly aligned, then shoved back into place. The lock undid itself then, the golden ornament turned into glowing light, then vanished as the doors swung, creaking and ponderously, inviting me to meet the first real boss fight of my quest.

A/N: Coming up next, the boss known to various people by various names, my favourite given by my own brother - Creepy Clown Face. This should be interesting.

A note on Knuckles characterization - as has been pointed out to me, he doesn't always sound like himself here. It's not an easy balance to strike between a mute character that has barely any character at all (Link), and Knuckles himself. Later on it can be more easily explained as being an experienced Hero, but early on it's a tough one to match.

So I apologise for him not seeming like himself. Blame Link.