Through the doors of the Earth Temple was not ruined, as the outside had suggested, but it was hotter than the volcano. It was in fact simply carved out of the rock, at a glance I'd have guessed naturally. A great lake of lava dominated much of the initial cavern. At regular places along the walls, pillars and arches had been added, which the lava had later left partly scorched.
What first appeared to be a blue carpet leading the way in was actually a path made of blue stones, not painted but naturally blue. Only parts of it remained due to the lava, but enough was there to make it clear, there was only one way to go from here.
Right at the entrance, someone had evidently been here before me. Four stone bird carvings had lit torches burning brightly above them, and two braziers just before them. One just barely concealed the first bird statue of the dungeon.
I went with the path until it broke off at the lava's edge, leaving me to follow a series of large rocks floating in the lava, crusted with burnt rocks but still glowing slightly red. The first chain of rocks led me to what may once have been more floor, where I defeated a Fire Keese and another Lava ChuChu.
A patch of earth here had clearly been disturbed, and someone had tried to cover it up again. Digging it out caused an air jet to emerge briefly, then fade completely. Rather than wait to see if it'd do it again – that's right, I climbed the wall. Why not? It led me to a chest, but since the chest only gave me rupees I didn't think much of it.
It did however leave me on a higher level than before, and with the lava heating the air, I'd be able to glide for a lot longer than usual. There was a small cavern opposite here that looked empty, which I chose to ignore unless I found something that meant I had to go back there.
What I was probably supposed to do was drop back down and use a pair of lava geysers, and the rocks carried on top of them, to make my way to the door. What I did instead was shoot down the remaining Fire Keese and glide to the area in front of the door instead. Don't look at me like that, it was hot, and I felt too lazy to go through the unnecessary extras.
I didn't go directly to the door because it wasn't a door, it was a drawbridge, and it was raised. On one side of it there was a rope holding a gear in place, and on either side of this platform there were two more. I'm not a technical person, so I slashed through the two close by and sent the Beetle to sever the last one. Which I caught this time.
The drawbridge crashed down and was immediately followed by a shrill cry and a giant lizard running for me with a massive spiked shield raised. It bore no weapon, but once it closed on me I realized it didn't need one – it twisted quickly with the tail rising – a tail that looked more like a spiked mace!
I had to quickly step back to avoid that, checking myself to avoid falling in the lava. The... thing stuck it's forked tongue out at me and I can only guess that it was laughing at me. It blocked the first few strikes I made for it with the sword, then grabbed one of the spikes on the shield and yanked on it.
It stumbled off balanced, pulled toward me and the lava right behind me. I had to avoid its suddenly frenzied flailing as it too tried to avoid ending up being melted, but it was bigger than I was, and I got behind it and gave it a solid kick in the backside. It didn't flail any more after that. It didn't do much of anything, except sink slowly down into the bubbling lava.
With that sudden attack out the way I took the first look at the next room, which like the first was mainly lava. The remains of some garishly coloured monument had collapsed into the lava nearby, only a part of it visible above the lava level. A small crop of Bomb Flowers had colonized the top of it, a single shot from the slingshot causing one to ignite in place and cause a nice chain reaction, leaving one large round stone rolling conveniently through the lava to me.
Given that short of climbing the walls again – which here seemed to have been shaped to deliberately make that difficult – I had no way to progress, I grudgingly settled for scrambling on top of that massive stone ball and guiding it through the lava. I stayed wary, expecting it to drop off some under-lava ledge at any moment to try and dunk me in it. Going through too many of Eggman's trap-laden fortresses will do that to you.
That didn't happen though, and in the course of rolling that ball around the room I fended of several attacks by Fire Keese, blew up some more rocks to get a golden skull from a chest – why that was there, I never quite found out – headed toward a bridge I had to punch out the last remnants of so I could roll through without getting knocked off, and that got me to another chest – with a blue bird feather in.
A lot of the chests that I found from here on tended to contain less rupees and more random odd 'treasures' like that. For the most part I just collected these and didn't really pay them much attention, but they were useful from time to time thanks to Gondo.
Not far from there what appeared to be a stone bullseye target was sticking out of a more intact bridge, with a kind of mechanism behind it. No, I can't tell you any more. Go ask Tails to take a look at it. It was just about obvious enough to me to roll the stone into it and shove it in.
Nothing happened. Of course, this might have been because there was a second one on other other side. Rather than make the trip, I punched a few holes in the top of the rock to grip it by, moved to the nearby bridge, heaved up the rock and dropped it back down the other side. With both of them shoved in, a piece of the bridge rose up, and I had to ask myself... what was the point of that? Maybe something Link had leftover?
So I went ahead and explored the other side of the room, where behind a grating there was a lone red Bokoblin. Normally the grate would have got in the way, but not only was it climbable, there was a channel underneath.
And a Mogma – Ledd.
"Didn't I tell you there were monsters in here?" I asked him, watching the dumb Bokoblin watch me back.
"Yeah, well... they ain't so bad if you dig underneath them," Ledd answered defensively. "But there mighta been something to what you said. See this door right here?" he asked, pointing. The blue stone path resumed here. "Coupla lizard beasts in there. I got outta there quick, but I reckon I left my bomb bag in there. Useful little thing, scoop up a Bomb Flower from right where it is and the bag stores it until you need it. Lights it too."
"Want me to go beat them up, get it back for you?" I offered. "Only let me go deal with that guy in there first."
"Be my guest... Knuckles, wasn't it?"
I just nodded, already heading for the grate. The Bokoblin wasn't stupid enough not to watch me, but it was stupid enough not to rush me and try to take advantage of it. It did run for me once I got on the ground, and subsequently got stabbed in the chest, kicked off my sword, and then stabbed again just for good measure. Not that there was anything worthwhile in the area, but at least I'd checked to be sure.
Through the door Ledd was waiting beside, another giant cavern awaited. The blue path turned into a series of linked platforms floating unsteadily on the surface of yet more lava. There were also two more of the lizard-things that seasoned Heroes will recognise by now as Lizalfos, just without weapons.
As soon as I'd passed through the door it closed and barred itself behind me, which naturally got their attention. Unlike their later cousins, these Lizalfos did not take me on one at a time, and if someone hadn't told them about the demise of their late friend, they were at least more wary than they might otherwise have been.
The iron shield I'd bought in advance saw it's first use here. I don't like fighting with a shield, not when I can give a solid punch instead, but with these two I wasn't going to give them too much of a chance. They were very free with the use of their spiked tails, and more than once they scraped over the shield.
I worked my way around them, trying to get one between me and the other, stabbing wherever I could. One managed to lose an arm, who made a retreat to lick the wound, leaving a trail of green blood after it. The second looked briefly after it, then quickly back to me at the sound of me dropping my shield. Their shields were only made of stone, and a good blow sent cracks throughout it. Two shattered it and left it vulnerable, and I just hacked away. Pipit would have given me such a look for that, he didn't like to see just random attacks. Pipit wasn't there though.
The other Lizalfos definitely looked concerned when the first puffed into non-existence (Hey, at least they're tidier than leaving bits everywhere like Eggman's robots!). It had retreated near the edge, and I wasn't going to just give him the chance to attack, so I charged him, giving a yell just to throw it off guard. I slammed into it bodily, launching it easily into the air, into the rock wall, and then down into the lava, which made a chest appear.
It wasn't the best fight I'd had. But I enjoyed it all the same.