Chapter 17: Facing Up to Fear
Link felt oddly weightless as his consciousness returned. His arms and legs seemed to be drifting, floating, lightly tugged around by a weak current. The air was thick and moist, very warm, and he realized as he heard the gentle lapping of water against stone and felt it at his neck that he was submerged in some sort of pool.
At once a flare of panic jolted through him. Not – Shrine of Resurrection! No! Not again! His eyes snapped open, all at once fully awake. His racing pulse quickly began to slow as he took in his surroundings. The cave above him was a warm red, the rocky edge of the pool stained white from mineral deposits. A… a hot spring?
He glanced down at himself, feeling a deep ache through his left arm and chest. But he couldn't determine what exactly the damage was; he was still fully clothed, despite being in the water.
Link continued examining his surroundings. Bludo was in the hot spring as well, some distance away, clearly fast asleep – Link had mistaken him for a boulder during his initial look around. Beyond the spring, he could see a tunnel winding up and presumably out. There wasn't any sign of anyone else around.
"Bludo," Link called, his voice echoing slightly. "Hey, Bludo!"
The old Goron stirred, yawning widely, and raised a hand from the steaming water to scratch his head. He looked around wearily. "Oh, Link," he said in relief. "You're awake! How're you feelin'?"
Link almost shrugged and didn't, some of the details of how he'd lost consciousness coming back to him. He doubted his left shoulder was in particularly good condition. "A bit sore."
"Well, Yunobo'll be glad to see you awake," Bludo winced. "Kid's been beside himself with worry."
Link gingerly stretched out his right arm. Surprisingly enough, it seemed entirely uninjured. "What all… happened?" he asked.
"You fought Yunobo," Bludo answered plainly. "Knocked him outta whatever crazy was goin' on in his head. But, uh… he got a good few hits in, so he and I took you to Simmerstone Springs. It's one of our best hot springs; works wonders on the body. Really helps my back. What with Hylians workin' for YunoboCo, we've had our share of minin' accidents, and of course we aren't really cut out for treatin' you smaller folk. But we discovered that this particular spring actually heals your wounds, instead of just feelin' good, like the other springs."
Link nodded slowly, bending his legs and ankles. At least in the water, they felt completely fine, even though he knew they'd at least gotten a bit bruised. "How long have I been in here?"
"Hmmm… maybe three days," Bludo answered, scratching his chin, and Link sighed heavily. "Like I said, Yunobo'll be real glad to see you up." He shook his head with a baffled expression on his face. "Your skull must be made of rock or somethin.' It's a miracle you're… not worse off."
Not dead, Link could hear what went unspoken. He smiled grimly, remembering his dive from the Great Sky Island, and then later smashing through Colgera's weak spots. Maybe my head is uniquely tough – a blessing from the Goddesses. I won't complain.
He pulled himself out of the pool, flinching as at once a dull ache started up in his left arm and his chest – areas that had been more severely battered in the fight with Yunobo. He sat down on the dry rock and started kicking off his boots before peeling away the sodden stockings underneath with his right hand.
"What'cha doing?" Bludo asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion as Link unbuckled his belt and baldric and lay them out next to his boots.
"I need my clothes to dry off," Link explained, gingerly tugging his tunic over his head, wincing at the renewed ache in his left arm – which he still couldn't examine properly. "Then I need to speak with Yunobo."
"You're feelin' better enough for that?" Bludo asked hopefully.
"We'll see." Link pulled off the last of his layers and examined his left arm, now throbbing more insistently after unavoidably getting jostled about by his undressing. Carefully he felt along the bones in his arm, from his shoulder down to his hand. He could feel the swollen, more painful areas where his bones had cracked, but they seemed weeks along in the healing process, instead of mere days. His ribs seemed almost entirely healed; he could breathe fairly deeply with only slight discomfort. Intrigued, he felt over his face as well; his nose seemed fine, and his cheekbones felt only slightly swollen.
One of the best hot springs, indeed, Link marveled, wading back into the pool. Might still just have a hard head – or might be that this spring is just that effective.
"Comin' back in?" Bludo noted. "I half expected you to just up and walk off."
"No – like I said, my clothes need to dry," Link said. "I… think I'll stay one more day in here, if that's alright. See what it does for my arm." His insides twisted anxiously at the notion of delaying another day, though he didn't know what, exactly, he was delaying. I'm at Death Mountain, aren't I? I helped Yunobo, and Zelda just… walked off. Obviously the marbled rock roast has to go, but in terms of actually accomplishing that… I'm right back where I started, with no leads, nothing to do.
So… I might as well heal.
"Well, I'll go get Yunobo, then," Bludo grumbled, dredging himself out of the pool. "That's why I rolled all the way out here in the first place. Someone had to watch over you, but Yunobo couldn't bring himself to. We'll see how he feels about it now." He plodded closer to Link, his expression deeply regretful. "It's just like I said when you came into town – I've never been so ashamed of my own people. That one would do somethin' like this – by the Mountain, I'm sorry on their behalf."
Link shrugged his right shoulder. "It's not your fault," he said quietly, and Bludo grimaced oddly at that before rolling away without a response.
Link lay still in the spring for some time afterwards, contemplating the strange reaction, before he realized why Bludo had grimaced.
It's not his fault. All the evidence points towards this, in fact, being Zelda… Zelda's fault.
He bit his lip, his heart tight. Zelda… commissioned a mask that changed Yunobo into a brutal, uncaring person – the type of person to use children for labor. And then she met with Yunobo frequently, directing him to mine up marbled rock roasts. Which have brought the Goron people to their knees – even though everyone addicted to the stuff is convinced they're fine, and happier than ever.
A heavy breath burst from his lips, and he let his head rest back against the side of the pool. Then there was also the Gloom erupting from Death Mountain, and Gloom was undeniably a creation of the Demon King. But the exterior of the mountain itself was not coated in Gloom as the Depths were, and there didn't seem to be any other overtly negative effects of Gloom on the mountain. So there's two different problems going on, Link thought dismally. We've got Zelda, who must've… must've been badly hurt, badly changed, by what happened in the past, because this just isnt' like her at all. His stomach churned – she never would've ended up in the past to begin with if he'd caught her.
He swallowed, directing his thoughts back to the Gorons. She… she's gotten most of them addicted to marbled rock roasts. She was willing to – to take away Yunobo's free will. So that's the first problem. Then we've also got whatever's wrong with Death Mountain. I'm not sure about what that's affecting, but it can't be good.
Two problems… and nothing that looks like a solution.
Sometime later, he heard the grinding rumble of stone through the tunnel, waking him from a hazy, half-conscious nap he'd fallen into. He straightened, looking towards the tunnel in time to see Bludo and Yunobo getting to their feet before him.
Yunobo, ever one to wear his feelings on his face, didn't meet Link's gaze. He held his massive hands clasped together in front of him, and his head was bowed in shame.
"Well, go on," Bludo said gruffly, giving him a nudge.
Yunobo gulped, his shoulders slumping. "Link, I… I'm sorry, goro," he said in an uncharacteristically small voice. "Really. I – I messed up, I'll never do anything like that ever again…"
His voice trailed off, and Link climbed out of the hot spring. He couldn't reach Yunobo's shoulder, so he settled for putting a comforting hand on his elbow. "You know, I always kind of wondered what it would be like to spar with a Goron," he said with a grin. "But any time I asked, they just said I was crazy."
Yunobo looked dumbfounded.
Bludo laughed in bewilderment. "And they were right!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "You – you are the craziest Hylian I've ever met!"
Link smiled at Yunobo. "I don't blame you for what happened," he said honestly, a note of solemnity in his voice. "It… it wasn't really you. But I do want to get to the bottom of what all happened, to try and see if we can – if we can find Princess Zelda again and fix all of this."
Yunobo sighed deeply. "Yeah," he said glumly. "I've got a lot of questions for her. I just – I'm really shocked she'd do something like this, goro! Makin' me dig up marbled rock roasts…"
"What all happened?" Link asked.
"Well, not long after the Upheaval, I was really gettin' worried about the way the mountain was looking," Yunobo answered, sitting down with a heavy thud as Bludo made his way back into the hot spring. "The red haze wasn't goin' away. So I went up to investigate, and… I saw Princess Zelda, up at the mountain's crater. She talked to me and gave me that mask to wear."
Link's stomach plunged to his toes. Zelda… at the crater spewing Gloom. The Demon King's power. "What did she say to you?" he asked uneasily.
"She said… she said that an awful gloom was spreadin' over the land, and that the world would soon be lost to monsters," Yunobo answered, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "She gave me the mask, and said it would help. So I put it on, and… and I don't remember anything else. The next thing I knew, I was in that cave, with you collapsed in front of me."
She said it would help… Link felt as though an invisible knife was twisting in his gut. It was… exactly as he had feared, then. She said it would help – and she got the Gorons addicted to something that would… give them fake happiness, while the world is in danger. Something that helped them ignore all the bad things going on.
And Yunobo's wording… it was disturbingly similar to what the Great Fairy had described. Altogether, it was painting an unsettling picture of a Zelda not in her right mind but still trying to help. Might even explain why Memory ran off. Zelda was trying to get her beloved mare to safety, but Memory could tell something wrong and escaped, which then made Zelda frustrated, because she had only wanted to help.
With each new revelation, Link felt as though he was drawing closer and closer to the edge of a precipice – a precipice down which Zelda had already fallen. I can… try to catch her. Keep trying to reach her, talk to her, find out what's wrong and help her heal.
Or he could turn aside. Based on the fruits of her actions since the Upheaval, something had changed, deep within her. And losing the battle against the Demon King in the past… well, that's enough a reason to shake anyone loose in the head. Zelda's not… she's not a soldier. She's already lost so much, fought so hard – this could have just been the final straw.
Link had seen it happen to countless soldiers, before and after the Calamity – those who saw combat rarely emerged unscathed, although the specific changes varied by person. Link had long wondered whether his own struggles with memory after the Shrine of Resurrection were truly a side-effect of the Sheikah healing technology, or his own mind's attempts to protect him from the trauma he had suffered in combat.
I was… lucky. I had Hudson, and work at the company. Impa, Purah, Robbie, to a degree. They… helped me find myself again.
Who would have helped Zelda? Rauru seemed nice enough, but these… these changes occurred after he sacrificed himself to seal the Demon King – after the war. He wouldn't have been able to help her find herself and recover from what she saw, what she had to go through.
The woman he had fallen in love with could be gone forever, for all he knew. She could be damaged badly enough that she would never recover. But the thought of turning away from her in such a situation, leaving her to continue to suffer, felt far more agonizing than staying by her side with the possibility that she couldn't heal.
I'll do it – I'll keep trying to get you back, Zelda. I'll find you, just like you asked, no matter the cost.
I won't let you go again.
"Link, are you alright, goro?" Yunobo asked uncertainly, and Link dragged his gaze upwards, realizing he'd been staring intensely at a rock on the ground for the last… however long. His eyes prickled with unshed tears, and he blinked, keeping them back.
"Fine," he answered, more gruffly than he intended. "So you last saw her at Death Mountain's crater." He exhaled deeply, rubbing his forehead. "I think that's as good a place to start as any. Is there a way up to the crater still?"
"I think so, using the minecarts," Yunobo said eagerly. He glanced at Bludo guiltily. "If… they're still operational?"
Bludo cracked his eye open from the hot spring. "Yeah, they're operational," he growled. "Minecart rails don't break that easily. And… and you did a good sturdy job when you put them in."
Yunobo beamed with pride. "Yes, we have a way to the crater," he said determinedly, turning back to Link. "When do you want to go?"
"Tomorrow," Link answered, glancing at his left arm. It was only polite, he'd thought, not to be lounging in a hot spring while trying to have a sincere conversation with Yunobo. But by now his arm was starting to ache again.
"Got it," Yunobo said excitedly. "I'll gather up some supplies and come back tomorrow morning! See you later, Link!"
The cave was too humid for Link's clothes to dry entirely, but by the next day, they were only slightly damp. He pulled them on, and shortly afterwards Yunobo returned, carrying a multitude of odds and ends. The 'supplies' he had gathered ended up being fireproof elixirs and several of the little orbs containing Zonai devices.
"For gettin' the minecart to move," Yunobo said eagerly. "Dugby said you could attach these things to them. Usually I'd just roll up behind a minecart to make it go uphill, but if we can get something else to move them, I can do something different! Like take care of any blockages on the tracks!"
"I thought Bludo said they were intact," Link said, helping Yunobo store the supplies in his pack.
"Yeah, they're not broken, but there's big ol' chunks of rock all over them," Yunobo said, scratching his head. "But if I build up my strength for a moment, then I can shoot myself forward and hit anything in my path hard enough to break it. It's real handy for mining."
Link nodded, remembering Yunobo using that particular move against him at YunoboCo HQ. His left arm twinged; it was sensitive, but well enough that he could get going again.
They left Simmerstone Springs behind, through the tunnel to the mountainside beyond. Once again, Link was surprised by the number of monsters they encountered – moblins and lizalfos, mostly. There was a different kind of monster that he hadn't seen before, a disgusting parasite-looking creature protruding out from the stone, possessing a mouth full of rows and rows of teeth. Like-likes, Yunobo called them. "Because they won't actually kill a Goron, but they'll bite off his weapons or overalls – things they like, for some reason," he explained. Unsurprisingly, they hadn't started showing up until the Upheaval.
They fought their way to the Bridge of Eldin. Link could see from there the minecart tracks winding up the mountain – along with monster watchtowers, he thought grimly. He and Yunobo easily cleared the watchtowers on the ground, but the ones higher up would be harder to get to.
"Any ideas?" Link asked, looking at the young Goron.
"Yeah, I'm chewin' on one," Yunobo answered slowly. "I've got that charge thing I can do. But when I charge, I can't see where I'm going. So someone has to give me a direction."
Link nodded slowly. "I don't suppose 'left' or 'right' or 'up ahead' would be specific enough," he noted, raising an eyebrow.
Yunobo shook his head. "You know those clock things, that split a circle up into a bunch of pieces with twelve numbers? Occasionally there's travelers who'll stop by who sell 'em. Bludo has a small collection. But those twelve numbers are what the other Gorons have used to direct me when we're mining."
"So twelve o'clock is directly ahead…" Link counted on his fingers, picturing a clock in his head; the school in Hateno had one that he remembered. "Three o'clock is right, nine o'clock is left…"
"And you use the numbers in between to be more precise," Yunobo nodded. "So anyway, if you can give me a direction, I can shoot out at those monsters and take them down. The minecart tracks go all the way up the mountain, so I'll just roll on back up after you as fast as I can."
"And I'll have my bow ready for monsters while I'm waiting for you," Link said, checking his quiver and stringing his bow in preparation.
They found a minecart left next to the tracks, and Yunobo easily lifted it back on. Link found a fan among the Zonai devices Yunobo had given him. As the Hylian Mezer had instructed him, he threw the orb onto the stony ground; it shattered, and a fan popped into existence in its place.
"Wow!" Yunobo exclaimed delightedly. "So that's how you get to the things inside!"
Link attached the fan to the back of the minecart, double-checking to make sure it was facing the right way. "Alright, good to go," he said, nodding at Yunobo.
"Got it," Yunobo said. "I'll get myself ready at the front of the minecart. Tell me when to charge, alright?"
Link climbed into the minecart, and Yunobo tucked himself into a ball, rolling into the space between the rails. Just as he'd seen Dugby do, Link punched the fan, and it activated with a soft whirring sound. After a slow start, inching forward as the minecart started pushing Yunobo up the rails, it began to pick up speed, racing up the mountain with wheels screeching loudly.
"Twelve o'clock!" Link yelled, and Yunobo shot forward along the tracks to demolish a chunk of rock blocking their path before rolling back down to the minecart.
They kept going, rattling along up the mountain. "Two o'clock!" Link called, and Yunobo shot forward to bowl a moblin off of a tower. Link watched anxiously as the young Goron landed on the ground behind the watchtower and then rolled down the mountain a ways to the closest segment of minecart tracks. He raced back up the rails, hopped ahead of the cart, and settled back into place in front of it.
"Good job," Link said approvingly, just as they rounded a bend and reached the next lookout, the moblin archer atop it already taking aim. "Ten o'clock!"
More monsters obscured their way – from keese flying around in broad daylight to a fiery variant of the like-like, which spat flaming orbs of magma from its gullet onto the track. Further up, bokoblins had erected a barrier over the minecart tracks at another depot. Link leapt out of the cart when the barrier brought it to a halt, and he and Yunobo cleared away the bokoblins and lizalfos surrounding them.
"I've never seen so many monsters up here," Yunobo said heavily when they finished and decided to take a quick break.
Link carefully extracted an arrow from a bokoblin's chest and examined it for damage. "Not even during the Calamity?"
"Death Mountain was actively erupting – not much could live up here, even monsters," Yunobo sighed. "Except lizalfos, and some moblins and bokoblins, but not many. The sheer numbers I'm seein' now… And we don't get bokoblins up here often, but their barrier over the tracks – I didn't think they were that smart!"
Link replaced the arrow in his quiver, scowling as he remembered the massive bokoblin he'd seen on his way to Lookout Landing, and the way it had seemed to lead a group of smaller bokoblins marching in formation. "They've gotten smarter," he confirmed grimly. And I'd bet that all happened at the same time as the Upheaval. The Demon King… did something to them. Enhanced them, somehow.
They continued up the mountain, facing more monsters along or even on the tracks. But they were almost at the top already; it wasn't much longer before they came to the end of the tracks on a wide lookout platform very close to the crater itself. There were several Zonai devices lying around, including a couple that Link hadn't seen yet – a strange dome-topped spigot-looking object, a tall, upright lever attached to a round platform bearing a design that looked like two footprints, and several thick, sturdy wheels.
He climbed out of the minecart. "So you came up here," he said, looking around. "Then what happened?"
"Um… it's this way," Yunobo said, walking up a short ramp to the next level up on the lookout. From there, the path led directly up to the crater's edge. "Yeah – when I came up the mountain, I saw the princess standin' right here, goro! And then she gave me that fancy mask to wear around, and… I don't remember anything after that."
There came a sudden rumbling tremor from the mountainside, and Link tensed, his spine stiff as he realized what an awful place this would be if the volcano was on the verge of eruption. He glanced uneasily up the path towards the crater, and his heart lurched.
He spotted Zelda – and she was walking away from him, again. "No – come back, please!" Link called out, unable to keep the desperation from his voice as he lunged forward towards her –
A massive hand closed around his arm. "Link, you can't!" Yunobo yelped, pulling him back. "Look!"
"Let me go," Link hissed, futilely yanking at his arm in the Goron's indomitable grasp.
Then he saw what Yunobo had been talking about – thick black clouds, ash or smoke or something else, billowing up from Death Mountain's crater. And Zelda was walking right towards them. "Zelda, stop!" Link bellowed, straining against Yunobo.
"That – that looks like volcanic ash," Yunobo gulped. "Hold still, Link! I mean it! We – we might have to turn back, if it keeps building up – that stuff's really hot! You wouldn't survive!"
"Then she wouldn't either!" Link exclaimed, and his breath froze in his throat as the clouds of ash billowed thicker and higher, accented by streaks of red twisting upwards like tongues of flame, and overwhelmed Zelda entirely. No… No!
No sooner had Zelda disappeared than the mountain's tremors resumed, far stronger than ever. Yunobo managed to stay standing, but Link fought to keep his footing as the shuddering iron creaked and groaned ominously beneath them, barely audible over the roaring of the quaking volcano as black plumes billowed higher and higher as if determined to blot out the sky. Then the tremoring gradually eased, and the dark clouds began to disperse, revealing a hulking, misshapen black mass blocking off the crater.
"Well," Yunobo gulped. "That… wasn't volcanic ash."
"You're sure?" Link asked shakily, managing at last to steady himself as he gazed up at the conglomeration of dark volcanic stone still burning and molten in places that had built itself up over Death Mountain's summit.
With a fresh wave of tremors and the thunder of cracking stone, a massive, bulbous draconic head burst from the freshly molten rock, parting its jaws and issuing a harsh, grating screech as it spewed fireballs from its maw – fireballs that soared high in a large arc before crashing down the mountainside and exploding. Another head burst from the mountaintop, then another, and Yunobo yelped as a fireball crashed down towards them. It missed, but struck a segment of track instead, instantly warping the metal and breaking through.
Yunobo's eyes went wide. "Not good," he gulped. "It can break apart metal – Goron City will be destroyed!"
As if to emphasize his point, another of the heads spewed out several fireballs down the mountain, sending up great clouds of shattered rock and earth where they impacted.
"So we have to stop it," Link said, looking frantically around. There was nothing – nothing but the Zonai devices. The molten rock was built up too high for them to climb, and he doubted the heads would leave them alone if they attempted to climb up.
We have to get to their level. But even if we managed that, they're made of rock! What could possibly…
"They – they almost look like marbled rock roast," Yunobo pointed out uneasily. "I think I could do some damage to 'em if I could get up there. But that's… really high up…"
"I've got an idea," Link said, pulling open his pouch and digging through his supplies. "Give me a minute. If any of those fireballs come towards us, try and knock them away!"
"Got it," Yunobo said determinedly.
Link pulled out the Zonai device shaped like a little bird inside its orb – the gift from Mezer. "Goddesses, let this work," he muttered shakily, tossing it to the ground. The bird expanded rapidly, much larger than Link – larger even than Yunobo. Perfect. Something to give us wings.
And it had an icon in the middle – two footprints, just like the lever he'd seen on the mountainside.
Is it… a control mechanism of some sort?
Wincing as he heard several more fireballs strike the mountainside around them, he grabbed several of the fans from his pouch as well, shattered the orbs, and set about Fusing them in place. This thing needs to fly. So – so it should be balanced, right? Like the fans on Vah Medoh.
"Cover your eyes!" Yunobo shouted, and Link pulled his arms over his head just as a massive explosion rocked the mountainside near them, shrapnel raining down on all sides, leaving his ears ringing. Once the air had cleared somewhat, Link lunged to his feet and grabbed the lever-looking device from the rest of the scattered Zonai devices around the lookout. He lined up the footprint icons and Fused them together so that the lever stuck straight up out of the wing. There was a small circular opening halfway up the lever, he noticed, about the same size as the glowing orb Mezer had given him. Link pulled it out from his pouch as well and slid it into place.
"Alright," he said, standing up. "Okay, Yunobo – get on!"
Yunobo turned around, and his eyes went wide again. "On – on that thing?" he asked faintly. "But it – it looks like it's going to – fly!"
Link nodded. "That's my hope," he confirmed.
"I'm a rock!" Yunobo protested hoarsely. "I can't – I can't fly!"
"Do you have another way up there?" Link asked, spreading his arms out and flinching as another fireball struck the mountainside nearby. "How many more of these can Death Mountain take before there's a landslide? What happens if they start aiming for the city? We have to do something!"
Yunobo gulped audibly and walked onto the wing, at the nose as Link directed him.
"Goddesses, preserve us," Link muttered, exhaling shakily and stepping onto the device as well, lining up his feet with the footprints on the control mechanism. He gripped the lever and pushed it forward, and with a loud whirring from behind the fans came to life, and the wing slid off of the edge of the lookout. Link's stomach swooped and Yunobo yelped, covering his eyes, as they dropped suddenly, and instinctively Link pulled back on the lever. The nose of the wing tilted upwards, and steadily it began climbing back up in elevation. Link let out a trembling breath, feeling an adrenaline spike of terror and almost childlike delight. We – we're flying!
A fireball whooshed past them, and Link gasped through gritted teeth, jerking the lever to the side instinctively. The wing followed his guidance, turning to the left – but slower than he would have liked. The glowing orb he'd inserted into the control mechanism sparked eagerly, catching his attention, and intrigued, he let go with one hand and punched it the way he had activated the fan on the minecart. At once it sparked more fiercely, and the wing surged forward, much faster than before. But the burst of speed ended after a few moments.
"So – so we're all the way up here, goro," Yunobo stammered, slowly dragging his hands down from his eyes. "N-now what?"
"You'll have to trust me," Link said, his gut tightening with dread. "I – I have a plan, but it's dangerous. Just like with the minecart, we'll shoot you at those heads."
"I – I couldn't survive a fall like that!" Yunobo exclaimed in terror, his voice shaking violently.
"That's why I'll catch you, with this," Link countered, fighting against his own doubt and fear. I… I may be about to lead a friend to his death. He swallowed. "We won't do it if you don't want to. We'll… think of something else."
They didn't have 'something else.' He knew it, and he suspected Yunobo did, as well.
"Well, I… yeah, let's do it," Yunobo said at last, tucking himself into a ball, preparing his attack.
"Alright," Link said with a trembling breath. "Listen for my signal. I'll try to line you up well."
They were high enough up by now that all three marbled rock heads were beneath them. Link tilted the lever forward, dipping the tip of the wing back down towards them. His pulse throbbed violently in his neck, his gaze narrowed on the nearest head. It spat fireballs at them and he jerked the lever to one side then the other, weaving between them, though he could feel the searing heat as one passed directly above them.
"Twelve o'clock!" Link shouted, and Yunobo rocketed off the nose of the wing, shooting towards the head. He collided, and the monstrosity crumbled away into nothing. Link slammed his fist into the orb in the control mechanism and tilted the lever as far forward as it would go, entering a steep dive. The wind generated from his speed threatened to tear him from the back; he fought to keep his feet firmly planted, keeping his eyes pinned on Yunobo's freefalling shape swiftly growing closer. Almost – almost!
He tilted the lever suddenly back and the wing swooped upwards, neatly catching Yunobo. Link let out a heavy breath. "You alright?" he called.
"I – I don't want to do that again," Yunobo whimpered, his hands curled around himself.
"You destroyed it in one hit," Link told him reassuringly, gritting his teeth and swerving to avoid an angry barrage of fireballs sent in retaliation from one of the other remaining heads. "Can you do it two more times? I caught you – just like I said I would."
Yunobo drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. "I can do that," he said, determined despite his fear.
Link was already lining him up for the next shot. The head they were aiming for spat a volley of fireballs towards them and he dodged carefully, veering slightly away from it before turning back towards it. "One o'clock!" he yelled, and Yunobo burst from the nose of the wing. Link thrust the steering stick forward and punched the orb, sending the wing careening downwards. Yunobo collided fiercely with the head and it exploded, sending chunks of rock the size of himself in every direction.
Too close! Link thought, panicked, twisting the lever to the side as pieces of the monster flew up all around him. Not enough – a chunk of rock caught him square in the chest, knocking him off the wing. His heart lurched, his blood screaming with sudden unadulterated terror even as his vision swam and the volcano whirled dizzyingly around him and his lungs ached for breath and his ribs burned with fresh pain.
Quickly he spread his arms and legs wide, stabilizing himself in the air. His stomach clenched as he saw, much too far away, the wing continuing its downward dive without him, as Yunobo tumbled helplessly through the sky.
Goddesses help me!
Remembering the battle against Colgera, Link tucked his arms against his sides and pinned his legs together, turning his body into a missile speeding downwards, racing downwards against everything else – the wing, Yunobo, and a fresh volley of fireballs from the last remaining head.
Come on – please! He was getting closer to the wing; its burst of speed had already ended. He wasn't as heavy, but he was smaller, thinner, more aerodynamic. He reached out desperately, the lever almost within reach; after a few frantic grabs his hands closed around it and he slammed a fist into the orb, sending it shooting downwards even faster, just in time to scoop Yunobo out of the air before he struck the mountainside.
Link let out a deep breath that caught in his throat at the flare of fresh pain in his ribs. Well… looks like those're broken again. It was nice breathing while it lasted. "One more," he called out grimly to Yunobo.
"Got it," Yunobo answered. "I'm ready!"
They had lost significant altitude after the last dive; Link could see Goron City itself nearby, smoke rising from several places from the monster's fireballs. He grit his teeth, pulling back on the lever and bringing them back up to its level. As they drew near the creature bellowed out more fireballs at them, and Link weaved in and out between them, his skin burning from the extreme heat as they flew past. And when the air was clear, the creature was dead ahead.
"Now – twelve o'clock!" Link shouted, doubling over at once as his ribs flared hot with pain. Yunobo charged off the edge of the wing and collided with the monster, destroying it entirely. Link skirted around the debris this time, driving his fist once more into the orb of energy in the control panel and sending the wing shooting downwards. The mountain groaned and trembled below; Link didn't allow himself to be distracted by it, his eyes trained on Yunobo's trajectory, and pulled up on the lever in time to catch him safely.
"Did – did we do it?" Yunobo asked breathlessly, smiling widely.
"Not sure," Link answered tightly, glancing down at the rumbling mountain. "The monster's gone, but the way the mountain's shaking –"
With a sudden thunderous grinding and clattering of rock, the fresh dark and molten stone that had coagulated at Death Mountain's summit collapsed inwards onto itself, crumpling into the volcano's maw. The crater itself was practically bathed in Gloom, glistening wetly in the sunlight and oozing acrid black and crimson tendrils. At the very center of the crater was a dark hole aflame with blood red mist. Link felt a sudden deep, cold fear take root inside of his chest, stilling his breath far more effectively than a broken rib.
A Chasm entrance. Of course. That would explain why Death Mountain was spewing Gloom. But… there's so much of it…
He swallowed thickly, his heartbeat hammering much faster than before as he stared into the Chasm. Not the Depths again – Goddesses, anything but that! The Gloom, the infested monsters, the darkness that sapped his strength, the Gloom Hands –
"What's wrong with Death Mountain?" Yunobo yelped, peering over the edge of the wing. He shook his head slowly. "Has it… has it looked like this the whole time? And then there's that – that creature that came out of it… there's something badly wrong with the mountain right now, goro!"
Link nodded uneasily. And Zelda was here again. No sign of her now. His hands were clammy on the wing's control lever as he led it in a wide circle above the Chasm. She wanted the Gorons to have the marbled rock roast, and the creature we just defeated looked as though it was made of marbled rock.
Maybe Death Mountain is the source of the marbled rock roasts.
"I don't know what to do, Link," Yunobo said dismally, looking back at him. "We came up here lookin' for Princess Zelda, and it looked like she went into the mountain. And… the mountain looks… sick." He bent his head down towards the Chasm. "I don't know if we should… investigate, or… I mean, I don't really want to – this looks awful! But… if we don't…"
"Goron City has already been damaged by that creature's fireballs," Link told him quietly. "And its people – your people – have been damaged by the marbled rock roasts. Something that comes from inside the mountain, if that creature is any indication."
Yunobo glanced at him fearfully. "So… we should go investigate," he said tentatively. "Can this thing get us there?"
"We'll find out," Link responded, pushing the lever forward to send the wing downwards. His right hand tingled ominously.
Back to the Depths again.
His past two ventures there had been devastating, and the most physically painful experiences he'd ever gone through. Every instinct balked at the idea of going back.
But if Zelda's there, in that horrible place… I have to get her out.