The room after the hallway was very different from the room with the spinning staircase. It almost resembled the first room he'd found, where the stalactite fell as he'd walked in. In the center of this new room was a giant metal waterwheel, laying sideways unlike most waterwheels. More of those red and gold markings were on the side of the waterwheel, with chains hanging down from them holding up some odd metal platforms. But why?

To the right was a cave that seemed to lead down into the room below. Link followed it, the walls of the tunnel seeming to shine with water, until he was standing closer to the bottom of the room. There were a couple of the blue jumping monsters down there, their jumps making the shallow water splash. They weren't able to jump high enough to reach Link. Thankfully.

Water gushed up from a nearby gap in the rock. Past the water, he could see vines along the rock pillar that supported the waterwheel, and on the other side of the room was what looked like a gate. That gate was probably important. But how would he get there? He glanced around the room, looking for something, anything that could be useful.

Finally, he saw it. A stalactite, hanging above where the gushing water was. Maybe that would give him a safe path across to the gate? It was worth a try.

As he aimed another arrow at the stalactite and tied a bomb to it, he noticed that there was more to the room beyond the other side of the waterwheel. Interesting.

The stalactite fell, by his luck, exactly into the place where he'd hoped it would. Thank Ordona for an underground cave not having much wind to worry about. He stepped across the new path, and explored around the center pillar of the room.

The vines led over a large gap in the rock at the pillar's base, closer to where he'd seen the gate. Hopefully, they would support him well enough. What would happen if they didn't?

He shouldn't worry about that.

To his relief, the vines were strong, and soon enough he was safely on the other side of the gap. However, he would have no such luck reaching the gate - what had once been a bridge across to it must have fallen to the ground a long time ago. He sighed. Now what?

As he glanced around, he noticed a smaller rock pillar, and another gushing current of water. Beyond those two things was a ledge, which had a chest sitting on it. That chest was a better lead than anything else he had at the moment. The water, though, that would be a challenge. Its gushing wasn't consistent, sometimes reaching above where the small pillar ended and sometimes seeming to hardly flow at all.

Well, the last time he'd been faced with gushing water, a stalactite had done the job. It made the most sense to see if it would this time too.

Sure enough, peeking out from behind one of the platforms dangling from the sideways waterwheel was another stalactite. How convenient that these stalactites formed exactly where they would be helpful to him!

As he fired that bomb-arrow, he noticed a ledge up on the wall, with one of the strange red symbols holding a lantern of some kind, and something that almost looked like a door. That was probably important to remember. But first, the chest.

Inside the chest was a key. This should unlock the chains around the door in the main room. Was there anything else he could do in here, first? He looked around. The raised platforms with doors were out of reach, the bridge that would bring him to the room with the gate was too low for him to cross. So, back to the room with the spinning staircase he went. As he did, he noticed a familiar symbol on the doors. Interesting.

The hallway behind the locked door led to a room with two paths, one left and one right. The left path was blocked by metal bars, like the ones in the castle's dungeon. Link fought back a shiver at the sight, focusing instead on the small chest next to the metal bars. To his right, the path led to a closed gate. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and vines grew on the walls. Another of the not-quite-chains was on the ceiling as well, but how would he get to that one?

The small chest on the left path had some arrows in it, as well as a couple of blue Rupees. Link frowned as he noticed a couple Chus drop from the ceiling behind the metal bars, and his frown deepened as he watched them merge into a single, larger Chu. So that was something for him to keep in mind, then.

Knocking down one stalactite made a clump of rocks that would probably let him jump up onto the vines. That would be helpful. The other stalactite, however, just made a clump of rocks on the floor near the closed gate. Should he have wasted a bomb arrow for that? Probably not.

As he neared the vines, he noticed that they curled around the curved wall and up to where the not-quite-a-chain was. So that was how he would get up to it, then. The vines brought him up to a gap in the wall, which brought him high enough that he could jump and grab the not-quite-a-chain. He smirked. How convenient, that the temple fell apart in just the right way for that to be the case.

Below him, the gate clanked open when he jumped and pulled down on the not-quite-a-chain. He glanced down, at the floor that was too far away for him to just drop down. No, that was not how he would get down. The vines next to him wound all the way down to the ground, he would use those instead. He took in a deep breath, and then sighed. This... would be difficult.

His left hand first, that had to shuffle closer to his right hand. When had his hands gotten so sweaty? That would make things more difficult, more dangerous. But he couldn't think about that. Wouldn't think about that. Instead, he focused, on shifting himself around until he was facing the broken wall. There. One step down, just one step left. He started swinging himself back, and forward, and back, and forward. Swinging again and again until he could jump and land on the broken part of the wall, his hands still sweating but a grin on his face. The hard part was over. He sighed and walked over to the vines, making his way down to the ground.

There was a door, and the path also continued past that door to show two of the strange lizards with metal shells. Interesting. Unlike the hallways that came from the spinning staircase room, this hallway was plenty wide for him to use the back slice.

Once the lizard monsters fell dead, Link let out a sigh before reaching for the map. The door closest to him led into a central room, whereas the one behind where the lizards had come from led to a different room. He closed the map and put it away. He could at least check out the central room, see what was there and what it looked like.

The first thing he noticed was the metal water wheel. The second was another of the lizard monsters with bladed tails, standing in front of a door on the other side of the room. Thankfully, the lizard monster seemed not to have seen him. He slowly stepped forward, looking down the edge of the cliff he stood on. In an instant, he recognized the room below. He'd been there, just a little bit ago. The platforms that hung down from the large metal water wheel, the doors he hadn't been able to reach. They were all below him now. That was an odd feeling, an odd thought.

The lizard monster with the bladed tail, as it turned out, was even less cautious than the one at the entrance to the spinning staircase room. As soon as it saw Link, it shrieked and leapt onto the metal water wheel. When he slashed at its chest, it recoiled... and fell off of the water wheel and into the room below. He could hear it hiss in anger and pain as it landed on the ground. Stupid lizard.

Behind the door the lizard had been guarding, Link noticed another water wheel, also unmoving. Next to it was a chest, this one containing another key. He hadn't seen any locked doors yet, but it would certainly come in handy once he did.

On the other side of the path was another door, though it was on a raised platform that was too high for Link to climb up onto it. Even when he jumped, his hands couldn't reach the edge to grab on. Annoying. So the only way forward was to go back to the other door, the one the charging monsters with metal shells had been... maybe guarding?

A strange bug-like creature, likely startled by the sound of Link opening the door, hissed and chattered as it jumped into a large bubble of water that was just... sitting on the ground. How did that even work?

The insect seemed content to ignore him, at first, simply rolling its water bubble along the ground away from him. He shrugged to himself. If it wasn't going to attack him, that made things easier, didn't it?

Behind the strange bug creature was a door, with chains looped around it as well. Well. Wasn't it a good thing he happened to find that key just a little bit ago?

The bug in the bubble seemed to take offense to him nearing the door, even though he'd been careful to stay away from it. It hissed and chattered at him, jumping towards him and only narrowly missing where he had been standing. Okay. Now he would have to fight this thing. But how?

His sword swung through the air, only to... uselessly bounce off of the bubble? What? How? He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to worry about that. The slingshot, maybe? That was no good either. Hm. What else could he try?

Of course! An arrow should be sharp enough to pierce through the weird bubble. Except... no, it wasn't. The arrow and its twin found themselves lodged in the bubble. Clearly, the bubble wasn't made of water. Link huffed. Now he was out of options.

Well, not entirely. He could lure the creature to the entrance, and then sprint for the new door to unlock it and quickly make it through. A risky idea, sure, but better than being unable to move forward. To his relief, it worked. The bug didn't follow him, allowing him to walk through the now-open doorway into the next room.

Like a lot of the rooms in the temple, it was circular. This one also had a central pillar, with another of the not-quite-chains hanging from the top of the pillar. The pillar almost seemed like it was supposed to resemble something.. But what?

To his right, across a very large gap, was what looked like an incomplete pathway, as well as more vines that led up from the bottom of the gap to the pathway. That seemed to be the way forward.

He climbed up the vines, then clambered up onto the railing of the spiral ramp. There were more of those strange red symbols on the walls. Hm. Definitely important.

At the top of the spiral path, there was a small chest in front of him that had more arrows and more Rupees. To his left was an archway that stretched over the path, with a ladder on either side. Another of the not-quite-chains hung in front of the top of the archway. Behind the archway, there was a gate that blocked the way to another chest. But how would he get to the chest?

Climbing up the ladder, he realized there was a door above where the chest was. Maybe the not-quite-a-chain would open that door?

As it turned out, it was a lot like in the castle's dungeon. Water flowed from where the door was, following the path down to the bottom of the room. Link again swung himself off of the not-quite-a-chain and onto the archway, climbing down the ladder.

The water rushed past his ankles, almost reminding him of the river at the top of Zora's Domain. As he walked to the start of the path, the water started to pull at his ankles. Should he use the iron boots to keep himself steady? Then he took another step, and the water pulled him into falling on his bottom.

At first, that had brought panic and fear gnawing at his chest and stomach. But then when he started sliding down the path, he realized something. It was... fun. For a moment, he let himself forget the circumstances, forget the stakes, and he grinned as he slid down the path. Some parts of his story might be scary to tell when everything was over, but this, this was not one of them.

All too soon, the path ended, and Link found himself swimming in the water that was slowly filling up the bottom of the room. And Ordona's horns, this water was cold. Cold like the water in the castle's dungeon. It made him miss the hot springs of Death Mountain.

It wasn't long before the water reached the platform in the center. Of course. That was how he would reach this not-quite-a-chain. He swam over, ignoring the chill of the water as best he could, before climbing up onto the center platform and jumping up to grab the not-quite-a-chain. Like the one higher in the room, it opened a door as well. This door seemed to lead into the room with the bubble insect. But what did that mean?

For one, the water current seemed to force the bubble insect into the other door in that room. Well that was annoying. Now he had to find a way to kill it, so he could move forward. Thankfully, the water current was strong enough that the insect couldn't make its way to him anymore, giving him plenty of time to think.

... A bomb, perhaps? It was definitely worth a try, wasn't it? He set it into the channel in the floor, letting the rushing water carry it to the insect. The insect hissed in fear, but was helpless to stop the bomb before it exploded, destroying the strange bubble along with it. Perfect.

Now the angry insect chattered as it bounced at Link, but he was ready with his sword. It only took a couple of slashes before the insect fell dead. Gross. But now he could make his way forward.

He followed the water as he walked. Just like the water wheel in Ordon Village, once there was water the metal wheel spun. If it weren't for the fact that he was pretty sure that was where the metal bars were, he'd have tried to duck under the wheel. Instead, he continued forward the only way he could, into the door to his left.

The giant water wheel was spinning now, too. He looked down at the room below. Sure enough, there was now some water filling up that room.

As he reached the room with the spinning staircase, he looked down and noticed the water now making a waterfall that poured water down into the area below the stairs. He remembered the chest. Could he reach it now? Diving down into the water from where he was would be a bad idea, however.

As he walked, a realization struck him. The staircase that spun around, could it carry the water as well?

It was during many of his attempts at spinning the staircase the right way around that he noticed a locked door on the platform under the stairs. Interesting. Where could that lead? He pulled out the map again. Unsettlingly, it showed a giant empty circle on the bottom floor, right where that locked door led. Hopefully the Fused Shadow wasn't down there...

After several unsuccessful attempts, Link huffed and decided to just go down to the room below where the water flowed from. Maybe something else would be different down there. If not, this was going to get even more annoying than it had already become.

The platforms that hung from the large water wheel were moving, at least. He let one carry him to the first door. Where would this door lead to?