On the other side of the door, Link found himself in a long room with a curved ceiling. Another rotating platform was in front of the wooden ledge he stood on, as well as another in the back of the room. There was more of the blue gemstone surface in the back of the room, leading over to what looked to be a door on the metal ledge across the nearer rotating platform. Instinctively, Link found his gaze sliding down, to look at where he would fall if he missed the jump onto the metal platform. A sigh of relief, as he saw a large basin of water, and platforms leading back up to where he stood.
As he ran across the rotating platform to land on the other side, he realized that the door was actually on another platform. He would have to use the other rotating platform, to get across to another door. He grimaced as he noticed the blue gemstone patches along the platform, and how quickly it spun.
Each time the platform spun, he fought to keep himself from feeling nauseous as the iron boots kept him desperately clinging to it. Eventually, though, he reached the other side. He panted, some from the exertion of staying on the platform and darting across to another gemstone patch, and some from the relief of it being behind him.
Behind this door, Link realized he was in another of the Goron elders' rooms. This elder stood hunched over, a long and thin beard dangling from his chin. Absentmindedly, Link noticed that the statue behind this elder had a green crystal rather than red like the previous one.
"Oh... Ah... The young human. I am pleased to see you make it this far, Brudda... I am one of the four elders of the Goron tribe. I am called Gor Ebizo." Link nodded.
"Good to meet you, Gor Ebizo." The Goron elder smiled, for just a moment, before again frowning.
"You know of the plight of our patriarch." Gor Ebizo closed his eyes. "Darbus is a good and just leader. That thing, it has cursed him, twisted him into a monster." Gor Ebizo again opened his eyes.
"Here, take this, Brudda." He handed Link a small metallic object. The next piece of the key.
"There is one more shard, but seeing you has reminded me of the dangers that line the path to it..." Gor Ebizo stroked his chin thoughtfully, staring off somewhere behind Link.
"There is... something that may help you. A weapon, once wielded by a hero to the Gorons. It is beyond price, and so we have protected it through generations..." Gor Ebizo's voice trailed off. "Now, when our tribe balances on the brink of ruin, it could aid in our salvation." Gor Ebizo looked back at Link. "The Hero's weapon is stored safely up ahead. Talk with the guard, Dangoro, and take it with you, with the blessing of the Gorons." Link nodded.
"Thank you." Gor Ebizo almost smiled, though before too long the frown returned.
"There are limits, to what we elders can do to contain Darbus, now that he has been overcome by evil. You must aid us, Brudda. Please, take the Hero's weapon and save our patriarch!" Link nodded, and made his way up the ladder. Like Gor Amoto's room, the ladder led to a rocky area with wooden platforms, leading to a second door.
He found himself standing on a ledge overlooking the long rotating platform. He frowned. 'No way I'd make a jump from here down to there... There's gotta be some other way of getting down from here.' Looking around, he found that some of the blue gemstone surface allowed him to carefully walk up. 'Of course. The boots.' He sighed.
It was a long, slow, trudging walk across the gemstone surface. When he reached the end of the blue surface, he looked left (no, down) at the platform below him. A roll caught most of the impact as he landed. The door in front of him, surprisingly, wasn't locked.
What was surprising was the sound of metal scraping behind him once the door closed. Startled, he glanced back to see that a metal gate had slid in front of the door. He frowned. 'That's... ominous.'
In front of him was a long walkway leading to what seemed to be a very large piece of the blue gemstone. Through the yellow haze in the room, he could just barely see four lines going from the gemstone chunk up into the ceiling. As he walked, he realized that the gemstone chunk was hanging from the ceiling, with only lava below. He grimaced. 'Good thing I have the boots...' As he stepped onto the gemstone chunk itself, he noticed two things. One, that the surface was very smooth, meaning he would have to be careful not to slip. And two, a large creature of some kind sitting on the other side of the room. From the distance, he couldn't quite tell what the creature was.
Slowly, the creature stood, grunting. Link realized the creature had several thin sheets of metal on its body. Before he could think or observe further, the creature's voice called over to him.
"Whoa... Human?! What business does a human have coming here?! None! No business!" All at once Link realized that the creature was in fact a Goron. 'This must be Dangoro.' Dangoro ground one fist against the other, making Link realize that Dangoro had some kind of metal gloves on.
"This is a forbidden place! I will protect this treasure from you!" Link opened his mouth to speak, to respond, but before he could Dangoro leapt into the air and landed on the gemstone chunk in front of Link. The chains holding the gemstone piece up snapped from the sudden additional weight, sending it crashing down into the lava. Small bits of lava flew up into the air from the impact, thankfully avoiding Link. However, the motion also made the gemstone piece start wobbling, sending Link sliding backwards until the boots appeared on his feet and immediately stopped his slipping.
Dangoro punched his fists together, before slowly walking towards Link. Link, in response, pulled the Hylian Shield in front of himself, waiting to see what his opponent would do. Dangoro raised his fist, and then punched the Hylian Shield. Even with the boots, the impact pushed him backwards and sent his arm slamming into his chest, making him wince.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Midna's voice, from his shadow. He didn't turn to look, keeping his eyes locked on Dangoro. "He thinks you're an intruder, and I doubt he'll listen to reason." Link didn't respond, watching Dangoro so he could prepare for another punch.
"You're going to have to fight back!" Dangoro raised both of his fists into the air, and Link again ducked behind the Hylian Shield. He was again shoved backwards, and a quick glance behind him showed the edge of the gemstone chunk close behind his feet. Another punch would surely send him into the lava. He sighed, closing his eyes and gathering his thoughts. He heard Dangoro grunt as he prepared for a third punch.
Link drew his sword and opened his eyes, unleashing a spinning slice into Dangoro's exposed belly. Dangoro flinched and recoiled, rolling himself into a ball. Reflexively, Link braced himself and caught Dangoro, throwing the Goron guard behind him- into the lava below. He looked down, panicked and guilt stricken. 'Ordona's claws, I... I didn't mean to...' Despite the horror and guilt gnawing its way through his stomach, Link couldn't look away-
As Dangoro suddenly leapt out of the lava and back onto the surface of the gemstone chunk, shaking it violently. His helmet had fallen (or perhaps melted) away, revealing a scared Goron panting from exertion (and pain).
"Ugh... That... hurt a lot. Who knew that humans were capable of such feats of strength..."
"Dangoro, I... I am so sorry... I didn't... I..." Link didn't know how to explain the rumbling storm of thoughts in his mind. The Goron's expression became curious, confused.
"You... know my name, little human?" Dangoro slowly stood as Link nodded.
"Gor Ebizo told me." Dangoro's eyes widened.
"I... I see.. You must be... going to see Darbus..." Link nodded again.
"Then please... take the weapon... of the Hero of the past. Just... please save Darbus!"
"That's why I'm here." It wasn't entirely untrue. Taking the Fused Shadow away would save Darbus, wouldn't it? He fought back a grimace. 'That's the kind of thing Midna would say...'
Dangoro picked up something near his foot, throwing it at the wall where it unexpectedly made a clanging sound. Suddenly the gemstone chunk rose up to where it had been before. The confusion must have been obvious to Dangoro, who offered Link a weak smile.
"Wouldn't make sense to make the room permanently inaccessible." He sighed.
"With skills like yours, surely Darbus can be brought back to his senses."
Behind Dangoro was another door, which led to a rocky platform over lava. An ornate chest stood between two torches. Rather than the blue chests he remembered from the woods, this chest was a burnt red. Patterns reminiscent of the markings the Gorons ran along the chest.
Inside the chest was a wooden bow, reinforced with metal, and a leather quiver with 10, 11, 12, 13... 30 arrows. He stared for a time, admiring the craftsmanship of the bow. Then he slowly reached out to pick it up.
For its prominence, the bow was surprisingly light. The quiver, full of arrows, was heavier than its bow. Carefully, he pulled back on the string of the bow. It took some considerable effort, his arms shaking after only a few moments. The string began to dig into his fingers, until he reflexively removed his hand from the string, which snapped back to where it had been with a low twang.
He turned his attention to the quiver of arrows. It was a faded brown, with dull blue markings. There were leather straps, and the shape seemed to suggest it would rest on his leg. The arrows seemed to have Cucco feathers, like the Cuccos back in Ordon Village. Small pieces of metal were attached to the ends of the arrows, almost looking like small two-pronged forks. He gently laid the bow on the ground near the chest, curiously picking up one of the arrows and inspecting it. There were three Cucco feathers, with one of them strangely dyed a pale red.
"What, never used a bow before?" Link was so focused on inspecting the arrow that the sound of Midna's voice startled him. He turned to look at where she had appeared from his shadow. Her hands were on her hips, the faintest of smirks visible in her shadowy form. He shrugged.
"I've never had the chance to. Closest I have is the slingshot." Midna tilted her head to one side, putting a hand to her chin. Then her smirk turned into a grin.
"Well, I guess someone will have to help you, now won't I?"
"I would appreciate that, yes." Midna giggled.
"Hmm, but have you learned the magic word?" Link frowned, an impatient reply beginning to rise from his throat. But as he began to open his mouth to speak, a different response came to mind. He adopted a smirk to match hers, raising an eyebrow.
"If you'd like to get through the rest of the mines to Darbus by yourself, then by all means, be my guest." Midna, evidently, had not expected that. She was silent for some moments, glancing between Link and the metal plate that he could only assume meant the way forward. Then she huffed.
"You'll want to pick that bow up first, you know." Link grinned as he picked the bow up from the ground.
"Thank you."
It took some time, but with Midna's help Link slowly learned what he had to do to shoot the bow. Some of his arrows went flying in a different direction than he'd aimed, others fell down into the lava at the bottom of the room. Eventually, however, an arrow struck the rope holding up the metal plate, and the path forward was open.
"Nice shot!" Midna's voice was uncharacteristically enthusiastic, before she hesitated and coughed. "I mean, good- good job. Now, get going!" She disappeared back into Link's shadow as he chuckled.
The next room was comparatively small, with one of the fiery slugs hanging from the ceiling. Past the slug was another room, where Link could see what looked like more Beamos. In only a couple of shots, the slug fell to the ground dead. He stepped cautiously over its corpse, and into the wider room with the Beamos. There were six of them in the room, though the one to his right seemed to have been broken at some point. As he slowly stepped further into the room, Link frowned at what seemed to be the silhouette of a seventh Beamos.
Walking into the center of the room, with the six Beamos surrounding him, Link couldn't help but feel uneasy. None of them were spinning, but he eyed them suspiciously all the same. He noticed that two of the Beamos had been moved, revealing small rooms behind them. In the room to his left was a fiery slug, and in the room to his right there were some old wooden barrels.
The other four Beamos were directly in front of the entrances to their respective rooms. As he slowly walked around and looked at them, Link noticed that there were dents in the rocky ground under the Beamos. 'I wonder...' On came the iron boots, and he pulled at the motionless Beamos until they were no longer in the way of the small rooms.
One of the rooms had a chest, which had a second map inside showing the locations of chests throughout the mines. There was another chest in the room across from where he stood. He walked, still suspiciously eyeing the Beamos as he passed them.
The room with the chest turned out to be another of the elders' rooms. The room was very different from the other two elders', with the only similarities being the statue and the sumo platform the elder sat on. The elder himself was sitting quietly, his eyes closed. As Link walked closer, the elder's eyes slowly opened.
"Ah! You are here at last!" The Goron elder smiled, standing up. "I heard that you would be coming, little human. Tell me, what is your name?" Link, taken aback, told the Goron elder his name. To his surprise, the Goron's eyes widened.
"Link, you say? How curious... I believe the ancient Hero to the Gorons held that name." A chill ran down the length of Link's spine. Instantly, the image of the ghostly soldier appeared in his mind. The Goron elder, not seeming to notice Link's surprise, simply smiled.
"It is a good name. I am sure you will bring great honor to your namesake, young Link." The Goron elder paused. "My name is Gor Liggs. We are well met, little hero." With those words, Gor Liggs handed Link a small piece of metal.
"The last shard of the key to where Darbus is held." Gor Liggs' smile faded into a concerned frown and he closed his eyes. "Our patriarch, he is a good Goron. What he has done under that thing's possession, that is not the Darbus who would sooner cast himself into Death Mountain than allow harm to befall his people." Gor Liggs opened his eyes. "Please, Link, you must save him." Link nodded.
"I will, sir." Gor Liggs chuckled, a deep laugh.
"Please, little hero. Call me 'Brother'." Link nodded, albeit a little awkwardly. Remembering the chest, Link decided to leave it alone and leave. 'It probably belongs to Gor Liggs.' With that thought, Link returned to the room with the Beamos.
The map showed another room to his right, which he walked towards until he saw the Beamos still standing in front of him. He grimaced. 'It's... probably fine. Maybe it's like the other ones.' As he approached it, however, suddenly a red light appeared on the Beamos and glared at him. Link scrambled back to get away from its line of flames, only to realize that the Beamos behind him had also suddenly sprung to life. 'Ordona's horns, what do I do now?!'
Without even having a second thought, Link pulled out the bow and fired an arrow directly into the red light of the Beamos. The light dimmed, and black smoke poured out of the Beamos, before it finally fell down. Link's heart roared in his chest and his ears, and he stared at the fallen Beamos for a long time until he was sure it was dead. Then he walked around the felled Beamos and through the door it had blocked.
The next room was very large, with several rocky platforms and metal beams. A path lead to a metal gate, with fiery keese hanging from the ceiling above it. To his left, hanging over the rocky platforms, he noticed several of the fiery slugs. Checking the quiver, he readied the bow and fired several arrows until the slugs fell dead. He noticed more of the slugs to the left of the others, and shot them as well. With his last arrow, the last slug fell dead. 'Hm. Hopefully I can find some more arrows.'
The fiery keese were easily dealt with, the sword keeping their flames from reaching Link, leaving only the gate as an obstacle. He reached out and touched the gate, noticing that it felt very unstable. With a gentle push, the gate fell, and Link walked into the space he'd opened. He grimaced as he noticed more of the flaming slugs hanging from the ceiling in the distance, and as he noticed more of the fire-spewing lizards.
Link looked behind himself, noticing some more barrels. A look into one of the barrels revealed 10 arrows. His hand moved to grab the arrows, before hesitating. 'It would be wrong to steal from the Gorons... but I need arrows to continue forward.' He frowned, glancing to one side and the other. His hand moved towards the arrows again, stopping when he heard Midna sigh from his shadow.
"If you're that worried about it, just... put back the ones you don't use, alright?" Link considered Midna's suggestion. In a way, it would mean he was only taking the arrows that he used. He sighed, and finally grabbed the arrows, slipping them into the quiver. Almost immediately, though, three arrows were taken out to deal with the fiery slugs.
He looked down, then, at the gap between where he stood and the rocky platform he knew he had to jump to. Boiling lava would greet him, if he could not make the jump. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to focus. 'You've made lots of jumps like this, Link. This one is no different.' Opening his eyes, he took a few steps back before making a running leap over to the rocky platform. Beneath his feet, the ground shifted slightly, but thankfully it held steady.
Link's steps along the rocky platform were careful, ready to flee at the first sign of the rocks crumbling and falling into the bubbling lava below. For a moment he debated using some of the remaining seven arrows to deal with the fire-breathing lizards, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Instead, he waited until they meandered to the other side of their platform, and then jumped across. Unfortunately, the sound of his shoes falling onto the stone got both lizards' attention on him, and he drew the Hylian Shield in front of himself again. The fight was more difficult now that two lizards hissed at him with flames flickering from their mouths, but he eventually managed to slay both lizards while keeping himself unscathed. The sword went back into its sheath, and Link turned towards the next platform.
This was a further jump than the others. For some moments he stared at the distance, taking short glances down at the lava below which suddenly seemed unnervingly brighter than before. He took in a breath, then slowly let it out. Then he closed his eyes, forcing his mind to focus and tune everything out, even the angry bubbling of the lava below. His eyes opened, and he again saw the gap, prompting him to frown. 'Perhaps I should give myself a running start...'
At the other end of the platform, near the limp corpses of the lizards, Link again closed his eyes and focused his mind on reassuring himself that he could make the jump. His breaths deepened, and he dimly felt his sword hand clench seemingly on its own. With his eyes still closed, he slowly lowered himself into the stance of preparing to run. 'You can make this jump, Link.' He opened his eyes, almost glaring at his destination. 'You have to.' With that thought, he took off in a sprint and leapt off of the platform at the edge. Time seemed to slow as his jump carried him to the platform, and then all at once the edge of the platform rushed to his face. On instinct he caught himself with his arms and hands, dangling for several shaky, fearful moments. Despite the earrings, he could still feel the warmth of the lava in the bottoms of his shoes. With that realization, he scrambled up, panting.
Thankfully the next jump was not so nerve-wracking, although Link did let out a sigh of relief when he saw that there was no more jumping ahead on the winding path towards another large metal gate. As he began walking, he noticed another barrel sitting next to the rocky wall. With a grimace, he looked from his quiver to the barrel. 'It's... probably a good idea to have more than just seven arrows...' Sure enough, inside the barrel was another thirteen arrows. Link huffed. 'Convenient number of arrows for the barrel to have.'
Another barrel near the gate had another seven arrows. 'Twenty three, twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven. That should be enough arrows, right?' Link looked around for a way to open the gate. To the right of the gate was what looked to be a path, leading to another metal plate. He sighed, looking up to see more of the blue gemstone surface, and a metal ring embedded in it. Above the door was a large hole in the side of the rock wall, which the gemstone surface led to.
Landing on the ceiling was a sensation Link could never see himself getting used to, the sudden lurch of being dragged into the sky feet-first followed by slamming into the ceiling, then by his head spinning as he tried to remember which direction "up" was. Finally, after several moments of dizziness, he was able to walk forward to take a closer look at the hole in the wall. Another fire-breathing lizard crawled absentmindedly across the gemstone surface, seemingly unbothered by the strangeness of being on the ceiling rather than the floor. Again Link considered using an arrow to get rid of the lizard, but his familiarity with the sword won out. The lizard's body fell from the ceiling, in just the right way that it slipped from the edge of the stone platform and sank into the lava with a vicious hiss that sent a chill racing down Link's spine even as he turned to look at the hole in the wall.
In the back of the hole was another of the blue crystals, slowly spinning as he looked at it. For a moment his hand reached for the quiver, brushing against the leather cover that thankfully kept the arrows securely inside. The instant he realized what taking out an arrow would mean, his hand stopped, instead reaching for the slingshot and slipping another seed out from one of his pouches. The seed struck the gem, prompting it to turn yellow. Below, Link could hear the large gate slowly open. He hesitated for a moment, in case the clicking noise started, grateful when the gate stayed open. 'Now that the gate is open... How do I get back down there?'
It was almost nauseating, moving his head up to look directly below him, for some moments the world spinning again. The ground seemed dizzyingly far below, something that further unnerved him. Instinctively he brought his head back down - no, up - only for the motion to make him that much dizzier. He only dimly noticed the sensation of air rushing past his face and his body moving until with a harsh thud he landed on his left shoulder. His ears rang so loudly that he couldn't even hear himself cry out in pain, couldn't hear Midna's voice as she glared down at him. Sharp, searing pain ran through his shoulder and his back, keeping him from moving except to curl up further in the instinctive hope that it would make the hurt go away. Slowly the ringing in his ears lessened, until he could hear-
"What were you thinking?!" Her voice, as it turned out, was shrill with fury. Link's body protested at him even thinking of moving his head to look back up at her.
"What... do you mean…?" For some moments, the only sound was the distant bubbling of the lava.
"What do you think I mean? I mean taking those boots off while you were on the ceiling, idiot!" He blinked.
"I... didn't take them off..." His mind was still a haze, between the pain and residual dizziness.
"What?" Link opened his mouth to respond, but before words could come out his hand began burning. Like in the cellar when he had been a wolf, he could feel things shifting and reconnecting underneath his skin, accompanied by tightness and flashes of stabbing pain. Unlike in the cellar, this was anything but brief. After what, as far as he could tell, could have been several hours, the piercing pain fell away. His shoulder and side, warm and still sore, at least allowed for movement again. Slowly, he uncurled his body and stood, wincing despite his caution. Midna was still staring at him, her anger having been replaced by what was unmistakably concern. She opened her mouth, silent for a moment, her eyes looking into his.
"... Are you all right?" Link didn't respond at first, instead reaching his right hand up to massage his shoulder, where the soreness was the strongest. The soreness lessened, enough that he felt he could continue through the mines, though it did not entirely fade away. With his uninjured arm, he reached for the canteen and drank from it. While he did not feel any thirst, his throat was nonetheless dry from his pained screaming.
"I think I'll be okay." Midna frowned, but for a time did not say anything else. Link looked to the door in front of him.
"You said you didn't take the boots off. So... how did they come off, then?" Link shrugged without thinking, wincing as the injured shoulder gave a dim protest. He studied the door, remembering how heavy they were. He approached it, reaching out with his right arm. The wood of the door was sturdy. After a moment of hesitation, he slipped his hand into the gap between two of the beams and grabbed one of them.
Without his left arm to support his right, the door felt that much heavier. His teeth ground against each other as he pulled, his right shoulder inaudibly screaming at him for the offense. Slowly, though, the door rolled to the side. Eventually Link was able to slip through the door, moving to brace it against his arm as he did.
He found himself standing on a metal ledge. To his right was an ornate chest sitting on a separate platform. As he approached it, he realized with a start that he was now high above a previous section of the mines. He took out the map. Sure enough, this was the same room. 'I hadn't realized I'd climbed so high up.' Suddenly the jump across to the chest was much more daunting than it had been before. Missing the jump meant a long, long fall, which would either see him fall into the boiling lava or break his arms and legs on the rusted metal below. He closed his eyes. No. He couldn't think like that. The Gorons were counting on him to save Darbus. Midna was counting on him to get the Fused Shadow. The kids were counting on him to make Kakariko Village safe.
Next to the chest were some clay pots. One of the pots had six arrows sticking out from it. He glanced into his quiver. There was room for another ten arrows, maybe more. He couldn't be sure if twenty-seven was enough. He eyed the chest, for a moment pondering what it could contain. The soreness in his left shoulder dissuaded him from considering it further.
On the other side of the original platform was another metal platform held up by two ropes, leading to what seemed to be another blue gemstone surface on one of the moving metal platforms. An arrow brought the metal platform down so that Link could jump across, seeing another of the metal plates that could be weighed down with the iron boots. As he stepped on it, the boots appeared on his feet again, and he was once more yanked into the air. The moving platform brought the blue gemstone surface to another platform in the room, which he realized with a start that he recognized.
Continuing through the familiar door, he was once again in the room that now had the corpses of the strange red jumping creatures. He stepped around those corpses, firing another slingshot seed into the gemstone to open the gate. The two Beamos still spun on the raised platform in the middle of the room, but this time Link had the bow and could fight back.
With the two Beamos now no longer spinning and shooting flames at him, he could easily make his way into the next room. He recognized it too, the wooden walkway where the monsters had fired flaming arrows at him. Like with the Beamos, this time he could fight back instead of hastily dodging their arrows. After several shots, the monsters fell dead, and the flaming arrows no longer flew. He let out a long sigh.
As he continued along the wooden path, he remembered the lone Beamos in the alcove. Sure enough, it still spun in front of a strange gap in the wall. 'Time to see what you're hiding, Beamos.' He grinned when the arrow flew into the Beamos' eye.
There was a shallow hole that the Beamos sat in. As he pulled the Beamos to the other side of the hole, the wall behind it shook and slowly slid down into the ground. Curious, Link walked around behind the Beamos, finding wooden beams leading through the wall up to an area with metal fencing. Two more of the monsters drew flaming arrows and aimed them at Link, who countered with two of his own arrows before the monsters' could even leave their bows. Directly ahead of him, near where the monsters had been, was another of the structures that moved a gemstone surface around. Walking around it, he found another of the metal plates.
As expected, this plate brought the structure to life, raising the blue gemstone surface into the air and slowly bringing it somewhere behind the rock walls, somewhere Link couldn't see. When the gemstone surface swung back around, though, it caught Link in its strange blue field of particles, and he was once again stuck to the surface. The structure brought him past a wooden walkway, before bringing him to another metal platform held up by a thick rope. Another arrow, and the platform turned into a floor for him to land on. Much to Link's gratitude, the gemstone surface lowered so it was closer to the ground, allowing him to tuck into a roll as he landed. 'Nothing broken this time.'
The door in front of him was simple, like the other door. He stopped nonetheless, massaging at his shoulder. It was still sore. As much as he would have liked to use both arms to pull the door open, he would have to save his shoulder so he could still use the bow. He grimaced. 'Good thing it wasn't the other shoulder, at least...'
This door led to what seemed to be a small room. Some of the floor was made of solid metal, but some was made from metal grating that allowed Link to clearly see the lava below. More clay pots sat by a short metal fence. The tallest of the three had five arrows sticking out of it. He snorted. 'How convenient that, once I get the bow, there's arrows everywhere.' That thought brought him to pause. 'How did they get spread all across the mines anyways?'
As he walked past a thick metal pipe, he suddenly heard the sound of bowstrings being drawn. He ducked back behind the pipe, just in time to see a fiery arrow fly past where his torso had just been. Link let out a deep sigh, then risked a glance around the pipe. Four monsters suspiciously eyed where Link had just been. Two of them were standing on the metal platform over the lava, two more standing on haphazard wooden structures on either side of a gap in the rock wall that was blocked off by another metal platform-to-be. Four monsters' bodies soon flopped down with arrows sticking out of their chests, allowing Link to walk down to where they were. To his surprise, each of the monsters had quivers of their own. He smirked as he added the monsters' arrows into his own quiver, imagining the monsters' reactions when they ran out of arrows. 'Let's see... This makes thirty arrows, this makes thirty-five, this makes forty arrows, and now forty-three.' The last three were difficult to coax into the quiver, without making him worry that he'd accidentally snap one.
An arrow brought the metal platform down, though before he continued forward Link found himself curiously staring at the symbols engraved in the wall above where the platform had hung. They reminded him of the symbols he'd seen in Gor Amoto's room. He didn't know whether the symbols meant anything, whether they were just for decoration. He shook his head. He had other things to worry about. 'Maybe after Midna's done having me get the Fused Shadows for her, I can come back and investigate these symbols.' With that resolve, he walked forward into the new room.
The stone was unlike anything else he'd seen in the entirety of the mines. A different color, arranged differently, and with different symbols adorning it. Pillars lined the hallway leading up to a large door that was bound with a thick, heavy-looking chain. Link reached into his pocket and pulled out the three metal pieces the Goron elders had given him. The pieces slid and clicked into place together, until they made some kind of metal tube with key-like pieces of metal sticking out. For some moments he admired the craftsmanship. Then he shook his head and walked up to the door.
The door on the other hand was very much like the rest of the mines, even having three copies of the symbol he'd seen on many of the Gorons. The chains, oddly enough, didn't resemble the room nor the door. It was almost as if they had come from somewhere else, though he couldn't be sure where. He reached up and slipped the key into the hole in the center of the lock, feeling it click as he pushed the key in, until all at once the lock fell at his feet. The chains slid off of the door. He frowned once he got a good look at it. It was no doubt heavier than the other doors in the mines.
"Say, Midna. Would you be able to help me with the door?" She appeared by his side a moment later, staring up at the door. Then she shrugged.
"Probably not." Rather than waiting for him to ask, she floated over to the door and went to place her hand on it, only for her hand to completely pass through the door as though it were air. Despite her face being hidden by the shadowy form she was in, Link could see her frown. "Yeah. Thanks to him, I can't do as much in this form." Link was startled at the venom in Midna's voice. He was silent for some moments.
"Who is... 'him'? Is it that 'Zant' you've mentioned?" Midna visibly tensed up at the name.
"Yeah. Calls himself the king of twilight..." She spat. "As if anyone would bow to that murderous snake!" Link didn't know what to say, what to ask. Suddenly a noise like a growl came from Midna.
"That... that" Link wasn't sure what word Midna had said in that moment "took my parents from me!" A chill ran down Link's spine as Midna finished her sentence, and not only because the end of the sentence brought the familiar sound of sniffling tears. In an instant, the person who spent the first several hours he'd known her as an antagonistic monster was now quietly crying next to him. He shifted awkwardly.
"... Instear's wrath, I miss them so much." Despite hardly knowing her, Link found himself nodding, found himself fighting back memories of when his own loss was still fresh. He closed his eyes, steadying his breath. With his breath steadied, he opened his eyes and reached a tentative hand out to Midna. His hand almost reached Midna's shoulder, but as he hesitated a small pink glowing creature gently landed on his outstretched hand. He blinked. 'Another fairy...?'
"Oh, Mr. Hero, dear oh dear, how did you get hurt? I'll take care of that for you right away!" Before he could make sense of how the fairy's voice was in his mind rather than his ears, a warm tingling feeling spread from where the fairy rested on his hand. As it reached his left shoulder, the soreness completely left, as if it had never broken. He began to thank the fairy, but before the words could leave his mouth the pink light faded until it was gone. He stared at where the fairy had been. For a moment he wondered if he'd imagined the whole thing, but the distinct lack of pain in his shoulder very much told him otherwise.
"Midna, did you... hear that?"
"Huh?" Her voice still carried the crying from earlier, he noticed with a frown.
"A fairy. She said something to me, but I didn't hear it - I mean I did hear it but not... with my ears." He cringed internally at his awkward explanation. 'She's probably going to think I'm crazy.' He wasn't sure why that thought bothered him.
"I didn't know fairies could use telepathy." He blinked. 'She... believes me?'
"Teh-leh-pah-thee?" The word was awkward in Link's mouth. Midna nodded, wiping stray tears from her eyes.
"It's a simple form of magic. It's like..." She paused, her head tilting to the side as she thought. "It's like sending your thoughts to the other person."
"So can you use... telepathy?" Midna let out a laugh.
"Of course I can. Even in this form, I can still at least do that." She grinned as she looked directly at Link.
"See, wolfy?" Her mouth didn't move, but he could hear her voice as clearly as if she had spoken. He wasn't sure how to feel about it. Well, that was a lie.
"Do you think... I could learn it?" He felt silly for asking, but his curiosity was louder than his embarrassment. Midna's curiosity mirrored his own, as she put a hand to her chin. Then the grin came back.
"Let's find out!"
