The Clawshot pulled on his arm as the chain stopped extending, rather suddenly stopping his fall. His heels scraped the rock wall, and his shoulder already began to ache from the Clawshot pulling on it. But he was alive.

Once his heart was persuaded to slow down just a little bit, he moved the gear to loosen more of the chain, and he slid down the side of the wall before stopping again. Not only was it working, it was working really well! He allowed himself a smile as he loosened more of the chain-

And he slid down the rest of the wall, landing on the floor a little more harshly and suddenly than was comfortable. Oops.

"Hey. Are you alright?" Midna didn't appear from his shadow, but he could almost see the concern on her face.

His backside was complaining a bit, but thankfully it was manageable. 'Yeah. Just not quite the landing I'd planned for.'

Midna huffed, or perhaps laughed. "Good. So quit sitting around, that Fused Shadow isn't going to find itself." Link rolled his eyes as he stood and brushed the dust and small pebbles off of himself.

Aside from the body of the giant toad, the next most noticeable thing in the room was the gate. The stairs leading up to it must have crumbled away a long time ago. It also must have once had a not-quite-a-chain hanging down, but that was in pieces that stuck out from the rubble of the stairs. Where the not-quite-a-chain must have once hung from, however, was another of the markings. So the Clawshot would come in handy, then.

As soon as the Clawshot latched onto the marking and pulled Link up to it, he felt himself fall for a moment. His eyes shot up to where the Clawshot had latched onto the marking, but the Clawshot's grip was still stable. Huh. Then what was that?

Midna's voice almost startled him. "Well that's handy. The Clawshot can trigger the switch's mechanisms in case the handle is broken." Link blinked. Mechanisms? Handle?

Midna must have seen the confusion on his face. She sighed, then pointed down at the broken not-quite-a-chain, then the base where it should have been connected. "That's a handle, and that was its switch." Oh. So that's what those were called. The Zoras had their own switches, like the Gorons?

"What about... mechanisms?" The word was awkward in his mouth. Even more awkward than 'telepathy' had been.

"It's the parts inside something that make it work. It looks like the mechanisms of the switches still work when you pull on it with the Clawshot, even if the handles themselves are gone." How much else was there that Link didn't know? Suddenly, Lanayru's words and the words of the spirit knight sounded much more truthful.

He slowly lowered himself onto the ground, next to a few pots that happened to contain a few blue Rupees. Then, through the door. He blinked when he realized he recognized where the door had brought him. Of course. The place where he'd found the key to the other door. When he found the room where the gate had been right in front of him, that was the room behind him now.

As he made his way back to the room with the spinning staircase, he looked for any other places where the Clawshot could help him. There was the place with the bridge that didn't quite reach the other side, the gate there had one of the red markings behind it on the wall. But he would need to raise the bridge first, to get there. He would have to come back later.

The first thing he did when he got back to the central room was look around. Now that he knew the markings were places where he could use the Clawshot, getting around the room should be much easier. He found his gaze falling on the vines that grew on the walls and ceilings. Maybe?

He honestly didn't expect it to work. But when the Clawshot did latch onto the vines and pull him over, he didn't hold back the grin that found its way onto his face. So, vines, and those odd red markings. He could remember that, right?

As he reached the door on the other side of the room from where he stood, he realized there was another red marking above the walkway to the door. The handle wasn't there, but according to Midna that shouldn't matter.

He grinned again when, with the scraping of stone, the staircase slowly swung around until it was facing him. That grin didn't fade away when he noticed that the water from the upper level was being brought down the staircase and through the door behind him. So he was right. And if that was the case, he should be able to see what was on this side of the temple now.

Through the door was another water wheel - or maybe it was a gear? No, Midna had said some of them were actually water wheels. This had to be one of them. The water pushing against it allowed Link to duck under as it spun, and he continued through the newly accessible hallway.

This room reminded him a lot of the room on the other side of the temple. Large water wheels - no, these were gears - in the ceiling, with more platforms on chains hanging from those gears. The gears weren't moving, so neither were the platforms. There were Keese flying around the room. It made sense, with how old the temple was and how long it had been abandoned.

Link stopped looking around, for a moment. If the Fused Shadow caused the problems with the temple in the first place... would the temple be safe again if the Fused Shadow were removed? Would the Zoras be able to use this temple again as a holy site?

Would they want to? They'd spent probably generations seeing it as cursed and deadly. That one Zora seemed to think Link was trying to let the dangers of the temple out into the world.

Now wasn't the time to worry about that. He could think about it after Midna had the last Fused Shadow.

As he looked around again, he realized that without the gears in the ceiling moving, he really couldn't go anywhere in this room. Okay, back to the central room. Maybe something changed with the floor above him as well?

Because of the force of the water down the staircase, he had to use the iron boots to climb back up. There was a fence to his right, but luckily the vines that grew on the wall made that barely a challenge. He passed a door on his right, and almost walked through it out of curiosity. Oh. Right. That was the entrance. Link thought he'd been good about keeping a mental map of the area, but apparently the temple still had managed to get his sense of direction spun around. Or maybe it'd just been so long since he'd walked past the entrance door.

Vines grew on the ceiling above the next fence, and Link found himself standing above where he'd been just a bit ago. He could still hear the rushing water below. He took in a breath and sighed. Hopefully he was right. Hopefully. He walked through the door-

And let out a disappointed sigh when the upper hallway's water wheel refused to spin. Now what? He walked back through the door into the central room.

Then he noticed - well, more like remembered - the markings on the chandelier. Might as well see what was up there, right? It was worth a shot. He smirked. Maybe even a Claw-shot.

Huh. Well that was a surprise. There was a chest sitting in the chandelier. And inside it was another of the heart-shaped gems. He grinned to himself.

That grin quickly fell away, however, when he glanced around for a way to get back down to safety. He was above the other markings where he could use the Clawshot. So how was he going to get back down?

He looked down. There was the water down below. Even though it had those eerie skeletal fish. And it was a long, long way down. Possibly longer than the waterfall in Zora's Domain. Maybe if he lowered himself down, like he had in the giant frog room, and avoided the water somehow... No, there had to be another way. Somewhere else he could go- perfect!

There was a set of vines that just happened to grow along the railing of the upper floor. They were within reach, easily. Link let out the breath he forgot he'd been holding. The Clawshot carried him over to the vines, and from there he scrambled up and over the railing to safety.

He glanced around again, before pulling out the map. The left side of the temple had no other rooms to visit, that he could tell. So there had to have been something he'd missed on the right side. He couldn't go through the upper floor yet, its water wheel was still stuck. So again he went to check the lower floor on the right side.

Again he stood in that room, looking around. And this time, he saw it. Vines, growing on the stone pillars in the room. A red marking on the gear above. So that was what he'd missed. By lucky chance, one of the platforms was stuck at a distance where Link could just jump onto it, giving him extra room to reach the marking on the gear. From there, he slowly lowered himself onto the stone pillar below the marking - thank you, Midna, for mentioning that gear in the Clawshot. There was a small wooden chest on the pillar, with more Rupees inside. A couple of Keese flew over to attack, but Link was faster.

He climbed up the vines along the pillars, until he found himself in the room at the top. This room also reminded him of another room on the left side of the temple. The ancient Zoras seemed to be rather fond of symmetry. This room, however, had a small balcony with a door, and vines that grew next to the balcony.

Through the door, the path split. To the left was another unmoving water wheel, with another of the strange bubble insects that thankfully hadn't noticed him yet. Maybe the Clawshot would be of use here too? To the right, another gate, and more water that gushed up from the floor, with a stalactite hanging down above one of the spots of gushing water.

He grinned when the Clawshot did in fact pull the insect out of the bubble. When he was done with the insect, he turned to see if he could now investigate the strange bubble it had been hiding in, only to find that it had dissipated. Hm. Disappointing. Oh well.

The stalactite crumbled into a clump of rocks that floated on top of the gushing water. Good, that would let him get a better view of what was beyond the gate. As he approached, he noticed what looked like another stalactite. So the gushing water would give him a better angle to destroy that, then.

However, as he approached, he noticed something odd about the stalactite. It wasn't one of the weaker ones. And as he stared down at it, he recognized the slightest sliver of metal. Another Clawshot marking?

The area below reminded him of the left side of the temple too. Though, there were a couple more of the deep blue jumping creatures down there. And how was he supposed to climb or jump down to safety now? Wasn't the fall too high? He frowned. There weren't any other options, though, were there. The best he could hope for was that rolling would at least help keep him from hurting himself too badly. He took a deep breath, and jumped down.

He didn't have much time to be relieved that ducking into a roll had kept him from harm, as the two jumping creatures soon turned to attack him. They were no match for his sword, of course, and soon fell dead. He looked up at the stalactite. Sure enough, there was the base of a switch mechanism there. With the help of the Clawshot, he brought it down, which opened the gate. So at least he wouldn't have to make that jump again.

Up on the ledge was another Clawshot marking, and below it a door. One he'd gotten on top of the ledge, he pulled out the map. There was a room beyond this door that looped back to the other side of the room he was in. Just like the left side of the temple. Did that mean this would also have one of those paths with flowing water? He grinned. Sliding down another path would be a lot of fun.

There were two bubble insects in this new room, though with the element of surprise they were quickly dealt with. Sure enough, there was another of the doors that let water through. There weren't any doors to let Links through, however. He glanced around. There, on the ceiling. More vines. That would do.

Well. That was unfortunate. This path was broken in several places. The Clawshot would make it easy to climb up, but that meant he wouldn't be able to slide all the way down this one.

At the top of the path was another wooden chest, which had more Rupees inside. There was also another archway with its own handle, and a chest behind where the water would fall from. Oh, right, the other path room had one too. Get the water flowing first, then get the chest. This chest had a second version of the map. There were chests marked in several of the rooms, and a symbol was drawn on the room at the very bottom. He wasn't sure what the symbol meant. Maybe it said something in the language of the ancient Zoras?

He at least was able to have fun sliding down some of the path, broken though it was. What was less fun was seeing more of the skeletal fish swimming at the bottom of the room. He would have to wait until they swam somewhere else, before he could swim over to the handle and let the water out of the door.

For a moment, while he waited, he imagined catching one with the fishing rod. He shook his head. Bad idea. It would probably just attack him.

Finally, they happened to swim away, allowing him to swim over to the handle and jump up to pull it. Then he quickly swam back to the other side of the room, to safety. He'd already seen what was behind one door, so he decided to look at what was behind the other.

As it turned out, behind the other door was an area where the floor had fallen through. More of the crackling jelly-like monsters swam through the water. Would the Clawshot come in handy with these things too?

As it turned out, yes. The Clawshot tore through the creature's flesh (... Ew.) and ripped something out of it. (... Ew.) Thankfully he didn't have to ponder what the something was for long, as it fell back into the water and sank to the bottom. Good riddance.

Across the section of missing floor was a spinning water wheel. Perhaps the one he'd seen earlier? He ducked underneath it, only to find out that it in fact was another water wheel. There was another set of bars blocking the path, with a chest sitting on the other side. The only way forward was a door to his right.

The gears were spinning now, seemingly moving each other. There was a small chest on the other side of the room, might as well see what was inside that first. Oh, it was over by the pillars with vines on them. How hadn't he seen that earlier? Inside were more Rupees. Hm. His wallet was starting to get pretty full. How was that even possible?

He'd already seen what was behind the door on the balcony, so the only other door was the one on the other side of the room. He made his way across, finding the chest he'd seen earlier (which had more Rupees inside) and a gate with a switch mechanism that opened it. He was just about to leave and return to the central room, when he noticed a large chest on the other side of another set of bars. Interesting. What could be in that chest?

He pulled out the map again. He would have to go back into the room with the gears and go through the balcony door again. Was the chest worth the effort? He might as well take a look.

Hm. Just more Rupees. Not even that many, either. A couple of greens. With his wallet having less and less room as he continued... He decided to leave those Rupees in the chest and make his way back to the central room.

The water filled up more of the central room. Maybe he could finally make his way into the rooms on the lower floor? The map showed a chest in one of the rooms he hadn't made it to yet, so hopefully that was the case.

The gears were indeed spinning in the lower room, meaning he could ride the platforms across to the other door. The Keese still flew to try and attack him, though they were quickly dealt with.

Then he noticed. The second gear had no platforms hanging from it, only the Clawshot markings. He would have to deal with the rest of the Keese first, so they couldn't attack him while he couldn't defend himself. The others were easy enough. But one lone Keese stayed where it was, where it could fly into his face while he was clinging to the Clawshot marking. He reached for his bow. Then he remembered the Hawkeye. He grinned.

There was a fluttering in his chest as the arrow cleanly struck the Keese, knocking it down into the darkness below. Sure, he might have been able to hit the Keese without the Hawkeye. But with the Hawkeye, it was a guarantee. Which was a rather enjoyable feeling.

He had to be careful, still, to time the Clawshot properly so it would reach. Though once that was done, he was standing in front of the door.