Chapter 18: Lost Gorondia
Link kept the nose of the wing aimed downwards as far as the control mechanism would allow, giving them a much steeper, faster descent. His heart felt heavy as red-tinged darkness closed around them from the Gloom spattered on the walls of the Chasm.
Everything's been happening so fast here – it's been too long since I spent a night in a shrine! What am I thinking, going down here? If I end up in some Gloom –
He twisted the lever on the control mechanism sideways to avoid a molten orange rock clinging to the side of the Chasm, wincing at the fierce wave of heat emanating from it. There was another further down, and another past it.
"It's gettin' awfully hot down here," Yunobo said uneasily. "I'll be fine, but you have those fireproof elixirs, right?"
Link nodded, wiping his sweat-damp brow on his sleeve and carefully lifting one hand off of the lever to delve into the pouch at his belt where he'd stored the vials of elixir. Popping the lid off one with his thumb, he drank it quickly and tucked the bottle back in his pouch in time to dodge the next chunk of molten stone.
How big are the Depths? How long will it take to search them for Zelda? It's so dark – what if I crash into something?
He pushed the thoughts aside, his insides knotted up with anxiety. There were no answers to be had now. Although… if I can manage it, being able to fly this thing around will keep me off the ground – away from the Gloom!
A sudden wave of heat stinking of sulfur and carrying with it ash and sparks billowed up over them. Link coughed, grunting at the flare of pain in his ribs, and wiped his eyes with a forearm at the sudden burn. He maneuvered the wing over a rock stretching all the way across the diameter of the Chasm.
"Who knew it would look like this inside Death Mountain!" Yunobo gasped, leaning forward on the edge of the wing.
Link swallowed uneasily, sweat breaking out anew on his brow and under his arms. The familiar thick blackness of the Depths was broken up by massive lakes of magma fed by waterfalls of molten rock oozing from the top of the massive cavern, by springs burbling up from even deeper underground and forming wide, weaving rivers. A glaring orange glow illuminated some of the regions near the rocky shorelines, not as strong as a lightroot, but plenty more than a simple campfire.
Link felt some relief at first, but it was quickly swallowed up as he realized that a fight going wrong down here would be far worse than his other fights in the Depths. At least if he fell into Gloom, he could get himself out. But if he fell into magma, he was done for. He coughed again, feeling as though the ash was coating his nose and throat with each inhale, and his ribs pulsed angrily.
"Look at that!" Yunobo exclaimed, pointing off the side of the wing. "There's – there's something over there, goro! It… looks like some sort of building?"
Link followed the direction of his finger, squinting through the haze of ash and embers. There did indeed appear to be a massive structure at the top of a cliff in the distance, illuminated red and orange by a lake of magma beneath it, distorted by the thick haze of heat and ash and embers. He shuddered despite the intense heat.
Something… something lived down here, once. Long enough to build that thing.
What kind of depraved creature would live in the – oh. He stopped his train of thought, feeling stupid, as he remembered the Goron children explaining that the Gorons themselves had once lived underground. It would make sense for 'underground' to mean the Depths. I… I guess the Depths probably weren't always so Gloomy.
"Come…"
A gruff, gravelly voice drifted through the underground cavern, distorted faintly by the low rumble of the magma flows. Link went stiff, remembering at once the voice of the Sage of Wind guiding Tulin to the Stormwind Ark.
"Come… to me…"
"Link, did – did you hear that?" Yunobo gulped. "Or – or was that just me?"
"I heard it," Link said quietly. Another sage? Is Yunobo meant to be a sage as well, then?
"It was coming from the building," Yunobo pointed out uncertainly. "I'm… pretty sure, at least."
"Then that's where we'll go." Link angled the wing towards the building, squinting through the heat haze. And I'll get to figure out how to land this thing. He cringed inwardly.
As they neared the building, Link felt increasingly confident that, at least on this foray into the Depths, Gloom would not be his enemy. There didn't seem to be any of it remotely close to the massive structure – because it was built in the middle of a magma lake. They flew over a lightroot not far from the edge of the lake, which would be useful, Link thought, if there was a way from the building to the shore. But though there appeared to be remnants of a bridge going across the lake, it was badly warped by heat and broken apart where it would have reached the shore.
"Hold on," Link warned, tilting the lever forward and bringing the wing down. The bridge was uneven, but it was a decently long stretch of solid ground leading ultimately to the massive structure over the lake. The wing bumped jarringly over the stone, gradually slowing in speed with its underside grinding against the bridge, until at last the nose collided with a chunk of bridge pushed upwards from the rest and they came to an abrupt, jarring stop that threw their heads forward.
"Oof," Yunobo grunted, stumbling off of the plane and rubbing the back of his neck with a grimace. "Well, I guess… here we are!"
Link nodded, stretching his neck from side to side. He followed as Yunobo clambered up the piece of bridge they had crashed into, and they started making their way laboriously over the rubble towards the structure itself.
It was something that became more and more impressive as they drew closer, the heat haze clearing enough for them to make out details. Carved of Eldin's red-tinged stone, it was comprised of several levels stacked on top of each other, with every tier supported by interlocking stone and intricately-carved supports. The blocky, rectangular designs seemed familiar, although Link couldn't put his finger on what exactly they reminded him of. Sconces and braziers placed symmetrically along the bridge and on each tier brought enough light to the area that it was easy to see, even without a lightroot active. Some of the structure was in ruins, of course, with walls crumbled and missing and pieces protruding from the lava lake. But a majority of the structure was intact, stretching all the way up to the top of the Depths.
"This place is amazing," Yunobo marveled, tipping his head back to peer up at the very top. "I… I wonder who built it."
Link glanced at the Goron sideways. "I'm only aware of one group of people who once lived beneath Death Mountain," he said meaningfully.
Yunobo stared at him. "You – you think Gorons made this?" he asked dubiously. "I… I dunno. I mean, I just… I don't think we could. We're not really… artsy, like that. Our buildings are mostly just practical."
Link hmmed thoughtfully. "You carve statues of each other on a massive scale. That's pretty 'artsy.'"
"It… it would be pretty cool, if we could make something like this," Yunobo murmured.
They kept walking, coming to the door into the building. It was blocked by a massive chunk of marbled rock.
"We're on the right track, then," Link muttered grimly. Yunobo nodded curtly in agreement and made quick work of the marbled rock, freeing the grand entryway.
Together they walked into a massive hall with a towering ceiling and a path lined with thick, sturdy pillars each bearing a lighted sconce. Up to the first set of pillars, the sides of the hall dropped away into the magma lake, protected by compact railings that still allowed access to the view over the edge. Beyond the first two pillars were a pair of rooms facing each other, bearing weapon racks that still carried old, corroded blades with blunted edges – Goron weapons.
"That – that almost looks like my Boulder Breaker," Yunobo noted curiously, wandering into one of the rooms in awe. "And… the pillars and the archways, and these braziers and stuff… it all reminds me of Goron City! The only thing that doesn't fit are those other designs." He pointed up one of the pillars, where a geometric design in gold glittered in the firelight. Link noticed several small characters engraved beneath that pillar's sconce, and his brow furrowed.
"Zonai," he murmured. At Yunobo's confused look, he continued, "I think the Zonai contributed to this place, too. The overall design feels a lot like Goron City, like you said. But the way the sconces burn on no fuel – that seems like a Zonai device. I'd bet the Gorons and the Zonai worked together to build this."
Yunobo nodded slowly, looking around. "So is this – is this Gorondia then?" he wondered aloud. "Is this… where we used to live?"
They walked to the end of the hall, to another bridge over the magma lake. Across the bridge stood a wide, dome-shaped building, with a stone structure in the shape of an anvil at the top, holding magma streaming from below. It's like a fountain, Link thought with some amusement. This place was meant to be beautiful – to be special. Sacred, perhaps.
But the bridge did not lead all the way into the domed building; five padlocks in the shape of a lizard's head held up a grated drawbridge barring the way. Link peered through the grating, trying to see what was being held at the heart of this place, and his breath caught. Chunks of marbled rock, and…
"Zelda," he whispered, looking frantically around for some other way to get across, some way to pull down the grating. He spotted a dragon ring nearby and sprinted towards it, ignoring the burn in his ribs. "Yunobo, Zelda's in that room! Look around for a way to get in!"
The green seal appeared in the dragon ring and he pressed his hand against it, his heart pounding hard against his battered ribs. The drawbridge began to move, but the mouths of the five stone lizards holding the padlocks in place remained still, keeping it in place. Link cursed under his breath, looking frantically around –
"Link, you better get over here, goro!" Yunobo exclaimed fearfully, and Link hurried back over to him, looking in the direction of Yunobo's pointed finger through the grating. The chunks of marbled rock – Zelda was standing on one, Link realized – had begun to shudder and tremble.
"Zelda! Over here!" Link shouted desperately, flinching at the ache in his ribs. To no avail – she didn't move as the rocks shot upwards, forming a tight cluster around a rough mass of stone at the center of the domed ceiling. Pinning her against it.
"Not good, not good," Yunobo whimpered, his eyes wide. "She's stuck inside there! We gotta hurry and help her!"
Link nodded, running a hand anxiously through his hair, absently pacing across the width of the bridge. He tried not to think about Zelda, perhaps smashed by the rocks or slowly suffocating. Don't panic. I'm no use to anyone if I panic. He swallowed. "The five padlocks – we need a way to get them open somehow. But I don't know how to pick locks, and they don't look all that pickable, either. Which means there must be something else, some other key we don't have…"
"So… we should explore this place and look around for a key, right?" Yunobo asked, a note of excitement in his voice. "I… I definitely wouldn't mind that, goro!"
"Yeah," Link mumbled, taking one last anxious glance through the grate where Zelda had… "Yeah, let's do that."
For all its grandeur, Gorondia was not a very straightforward place to navigate, as Link quickly discovered. Shallow pools of magma separating part of one hall from the next, a maze of minecart tracks that could be switched and altered in several different ways, and of course no clear destination – nothing in particular that they were searching for, other than some sort of 'key.' That, coupled with the oppressive heat despite fireproof elixirs, soon resulted in a swiftly-growing migraine pulsing behind Link's eyes.
The first branch they took led them to a dead-end – a grated-off room that seemed to contain some sort of massive gong. Without any way inside, they moved on, unable to investigate further.
They figured out how to cross smaller pools of magma without too much difficulty. Yunobo could charge across using his special ability, and then he would reach out and grab Link when he jumped and pull him the rest of the way across. Link was grateful that the magma pools seemed only to exist on the lowest points of the temple; their method worked, but it left his feet feeling uncomfortably hot and close to blistering, and the bottom of his boots scorched.
They discovered the first of the 'keys' at the lowest point of Gorondia, after defeating a fire-like spewing a globby trail of fireballs at them. Over another small pool of magma was a small room containing a massive gong encircled by glowing orange Zonai designs. Yunobo rang the gong using his charge attack, and they hurried back to the drawbridge to find that one of the padlocks had opened.
"So we're looking for more of those gongs," Link said, his eyes straying to the mass of marbled rock within the domed room locked away from him. Hang on, Zelda.
"That means… there's four more," Yunobo said, counting the padlocks. His expression fell. "Aww, man… that's a lot!"
Link couldn't help but agree – four was too many, with Zelda trapped and possibly in grave danger as they spoke.
He and Yunobo traversed the route they'd already taken through the temple, to the first minecart switch. Yunobo stood in the minecart with Link instead of rolling along in front of it; he smacked the switch with his Boulder Breaker and the tracks ahead of them changed course with a jarring click. The minecart jostled slightly as it shifted to the new tracks and carried them upwards, to the next level.
Link's head throbbed as he tried to keep track of what routes they'd taken and which ones they had yet to explore. Not all of the minecart tracks were particularly useful, he discovered quickly, as they entered a room with a wall broken down and treasure chests across the floor.
"Nothing in here," he said, rubbing his temples.
Yunobo was delighted. "A treasury!" he beamed, quickly hopping out of the cart before it had even come to a full stop and hurrying towards the treasure chests. "This is so cool! What did my ancestors count as treasure?"
Link followed him out of the cart, biting off a frustrated retort. He leaned against an intact part of the wall and closed his eyes wearily as Yunobo delved into the chests.
"Rocks!" he exclaimed in delight, pulling out what appeared to be an entirely ordinary chunk of stone. "And – and gemstones! We like those now, too!"
Link opened his eyes blearily, managing a small smile at Yunobo's excitement. He squinted as Yunobo turned to him with a horrified expression. "Link! The cart!"
Link whirled around, his heart flying to his throat as he spotted their minecart slowly drifting away down the tracks after bouncing off of the bumper posts. With a startled yelp he leapt after it, crashing painfully inside with his shins striking the sides. Grunting, he pushed himself back to his feet and punched the fan attached at the back, sending it safely back to Yunobo.
Getting minecarts to stop when there wasn't a bumper post proved more difficult than Link had anticipated. It was hard to estimate how long the cart would take to come to a stop on its own, since the minecarts' speeds varied depending on the slope of the track. He found himself trying to time when it was reasonable to jump out of the still-moving cart – something that resulted in a growing collection of bruises.
One of the gongs was entirely surrounded by magma, and too far for Link or Yunobo to jump. There had clearly once been a sloping bridge leading up to the gong, now in pieces barely protruding from the magma. Yunobo lifted the pieces – or what remained of them – out of the magma, and Link Fused them roughly back together, though it singed the tips of his fingers. Yunobo heaved them upright, and it formed enough of a ramp that he could charge up and launch himself the remaining distance to the gong.
In the same area, there was yet another broken stone bridge – this one far, far above the magma lake below. It led to a tall tower, higher up than the current room, high enough that they couldn't see what was inside. Yunobo managed to drag the Fused-together bridge they had used before into place to launch himself across and investigate.
"What do you see?" Link called, cupping his hands around his mouth as Yunobo searched the room. "Is there a gong?"
"Uhhh… yeah, but it's all the way at the bottom of this big hole!" Yunobo shouted back, his brow furrowed. "I… I don't know how I could get down there; it's too far to fall safely!"
Link rubbed a sooty hand wearily across his face, remembering the gong they'd seen behind a grate with no way inside at the beginning of their exploration. Of course – it's probably that one. I'll… have to figure out some way across; I'm the only one who can get down safely.
It was a fairly large gap, and the other side was too high up for him to land on even from the top of their Fused-together bridge. Which means I'll have to climb.
He studied the side of the building. The engravings along the edge were fairly bulky – perhaps bulky enough to climb. He licked his dry lips uncertainly. I'll have to try.
He clambered up to the top of the bridge and exhaled heavily, eyeing the distance. It felt much further from here, from the very edge of his closest point to the tower.
Yunobo made his way carefully to where the previous bridge had broken away and stretched his hand down. "I'm ready to catch you," he said firmly. "Be careful!"
Link nodded, drawing in as deep a breath as he could manage. He backed up several paces then burst into a fierce run, his ribs splitting open his chest, and then he jumped, stretching out his hands as far as they would go. He reached the top of his arc and started to fall, too soon; the side of the tower was coming up too fast, too low –
Yunobo's massive hand snatched his left hand and his body swung forward with the force of his momentum, colliding painfully with the side of the tower even as a grinding snap and a flare of pain came from his left wrist. His vision flashed white for a moment; then Yunobo was pulling him up into the room at the top of the tower.
"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.
Link flapped his right hand towards him. "Give me a minute," he grunted, his broken ribs flaring anew and fighting his every breath. He could smell blood in his nose as he cradled his left hand to his chest, gritting his teeth at the grinding of his broken wrist bones against each other. Great.
He exhaled heavily, wiping his nose on his shoulder. Well… I can still walk and run, and I can still use my sword arm, and I can breathe, so I'm technically still good to keep going.
…But I'm… certainly starting to push that boundary.
He pulled himself to the edge of the hole in the room Yunobo had mentioned. I can paraglide down this, no problem, he thought, and then he remembered his left hand. Well… maybe not. Hurts like hell. But if I can get down there, I might be able to figure out where we are, and if there's a different way for Yunobo to get down.
…Could I Ascend downwards? Then I wouldn't have to try and use my left hand to paraglide.
As he had done with Tulin, he quickly explained to Yunobo what he was about to do. Then, drawing in as deep a breath as he could manage, he Fused himself headfirst into the floor.
At once he realized why Rauru had called it Ascend, and not Descend. The blood rushed to his already aching head, making it pound worse than ever. Fusing himself with materials was a bad enough idea with broken bones, he realized; the rough, grating sensation of the minerals in the stone passing through him was particularly painful as they grazed past his ribs and wrist. And when he poked through the ceiling of the next level down with his arms, torso, and head all hanging down, gravity was already pulling him towards the next floor down. He quickly Fused himself downwards into the next floor, and the next, and then he was hanging down much higher above the final floor than he had anticipated, and his mind was swimming from the blood rush and the lack of air.
"Damnit," he wheezed, sweat and blood dripping down – or rather, up – his face.
"Link!" he heard Yunobo shout down from above. "Are you okay, goro?"
No – I might've just completely messed this up, he thought wryly in response, eyeing the distance to the ground uneasily. It was too far – much too far for him to just pop out and fall.
But… what if I Fuse myself to the wall partway down?
He couldn't help but wonder if he was just going to continually make this worse for himself. Better than falling two hundred feet or more to my death.
Gritting his teeth, he allowed gravity to pull his body fully out from the underside of the ceiling. At once as he began to fall he threw out his hand towards the nearest segment of wall and Fused himself towards it, leaving his legs free and his head and arms trapped inside of the stone. He could feel an instant terrifying pressure on his spine – Goddesses, this was a horrible idea! – and fought to brace his feet against the wall. After a few missed attempts, his feet slipping on the deceptively smooth stone, he managed to get them into position and used his legs to pry himself out. He fell the last several feet and landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of his aching lungs.
He lay still, sucking down a deep breath as soon as he was able, ignoring the stabbing pain from his ribs. Wincing, he rolled over onto his knees and pushed to his feet, his mind whirling dizzyingly and his temples pulsing bitterly.
"Link!" Yunobo yelped, sounding desperate. "Are you okay down there?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Link called back with as much force as he could muster. More or less. I blame the migraine – keeping me from thinking straight. Making too many dumb decisions.
He turned his attention to the room itself. He had no way of ringing the gong himself – it was simply too massive. But there was a switch on the ground, next to the grated-off door. Ah. So it is the gong we saw first, that we just couldn't get to.
Stepping on the switch lifted the grating over the doorway. Link called up to Yunobo, instructing him to head back down the way they'd come, all the way back to the bottom floor.
"It's the room we couldn't get into," he shouted, clutching his ribs. "The first one!"
Then he slumped back against the wall with an exhausted sigh and closed his eyes, waiting for Yunobo to get down. He pinched his nose with his right hand, trying to stop the bleeding – something that hanging upside down with all the blood in his body rushing to his head had only exacerbated.
Was there a better way?
But… Yunobo couldn't get down in here through the pit. It had to be me. And at the point at which my left wrist got broken, I couldn't climb or use my paraglider. No… Ascend was the right call there.
He let out a shaky breath. This place is just… a lot.
It was taking much longer than he had hoped to open up the padlocks, he reflected, his heart aching as he thought about Zelda stuck with all of the marbled rock. Hold on, he urged silently, gazing absently towards the ceiling. We're coming, just as fast as we can!
If only she didn't keep closing doors on him, he thought glumly – first the door to the Temple of Time, now this much more dangerous drawbridge shut behind her. Then he remembered how she had tuned herself into an orb of light and drifted upwards at Hyrule Castle, and he frowned.
Maybe… maybe she isn't even using doors. She seems a lot more willing to use her powers now than she was before – at least when it comes to moving around.
He rubbed his forehead wearily. If she could just use her powers to escape… Although maybe she did; we would have no way of knowing. By the Goddesses… I wish she would just talk to us.
After going up, then down, and then up and down again, throughout all of the many levels and adjacent towers of Gorondia, he was beginning to grow more familiar with the layout. In particular, there was a central depot that led to most of the gongs – or, at least, that would get them close. Link and Yunobo reached the point where they had traversed all but two of the tracks leaving the depot, and the two that remained seemed to lead to the same tower. One was clearly unusable; it only went up partway before a segment of tracks had been switched to the side. Link could just make out the green of a switch on the other end of the tracks that would, presumably, turn the segment of tracks the right direction and create a clear path. But it was much too far away to hit from here, even with his bow.
Which left the second pair of tracks. It seemed misshapen further up, but the heat haze and the drifting ash made it difficult to clearly see what exactly was going on. Could just be a weird junction.
"Do you see anything off about the tracks?" Link asked Yunobo, pointing.
The Goron squinted fiercely. "Uh… no, it looks okay to me," he said uncertainly. "But we Gorons don't have very good eyesight, goro. Is there something wrong?"
Link shook his head slowly, walking over to the nearest minecart. There might very well be. If I ride up front, I could see it coming…
And then what? We go back down? There's no other way across! And… and there's always the chance that if I see something too late, Yunobo won't be fast enough to stop the cart. He's… not the best at reacting in a high-stakes situation. "I'll be ready to stop the cart if need be. We'll take it up there as normal. Let me know if you see anything."
"Got it," Yunobo gulped, hefting the cart up in one hand and placing it onto the tracks. They climbed inside with Yunobo in front, and Link punched the attached fan. With a soft whirring and the screeching of metal on metal the cart trundled up the tracks, and Link peered around Yunobo's arm, trying to see the path ahead. The tracks here climbed steeply upwards, but Yunobo was simply too big; Link couldn't see anything past him. He kept his right hand hovering near the fan, which somehow didn't seem to have any difficulty at all pushing their combined weight up the incline – a testament to the surprising strength of the Zonai devices.
"Gah – stop! Stop! Stop!" Yunobo yelped, waving his arms, and Link slammed a fist into the fan. But the cart didn't stop right away, although its speed instantly began to deteriorate. "Link, it needs to stop now!" Yunobo exclaimed desperately, and Link's eyes flashed from side to side across the minecart for a moment, his heart racing furiously, before he lunged over the side of the cart and reached for the track itself, Fusing it to the wheels. With a jarring lurch that nearly bucked him out of the cart entirely, they came to a sudden halt.
Link felt a massive hand on his shoulder as a worried-looking Yunobo pulled him back in. "That was quick thinking," the Goron said, a slight tremor in his voice. "Look!" He pointed to the front of the cart.
Link squeezed past him, his stomach dropping to his toes as he looked out over the edge.
The cart's front wheels were mere inches away from the end of the tracks – warped, broken metal twisting downwards towards the lake of magma far below – far enough that, Link thought grimly, the fall alone would be plenty enough to kill, and the magma was just the icing on top of such a fate.
He exhaled heavily, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. Goddesses, if we could just be done with this place… Maybe there's not a gong across these tracks.
But he knew better than that – they had scoured the temple from top to bottom, and this was the only place left untouched. And there was one gong left. It… it has to be over there.
The tracks continued some distance away, at the top of a narrow stone pillar rising up from the lake. There didn't seem to be another broken segment – if they could get to the tracks across this gap, they could safely reach the other side.
Question is, how do I get a Goron and a minecart over the gap? Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.
"Should we… head back down?" Yunobo asked uneasily. "See if there's something else we can try?"
Link considered the proposition, intently studying the tower at the end of the tracks.
We're already on the highest level of Gorondia. There's no 'higher up' place that I could jump off of with the paraglider, broken wrist aside. And these two tracks – the broken one, and the one with the switch on the wrong side – are the only routes to this tower.
He turned his attention downward, to the base of the tower. There didn't seem to be any openings there, either. Nothing he could use to get underneath and Ascend up to the top. And with no guaranteed way up, I don't particularly want to fly down there to make sure I'm not missing anything, he thought, gritting his teeth.
"You'll head back down," Link answered Yunobo at last. He climbed up onto the rim of the minecart, eyeing the distance across the gap and pulling his paraglider out.
Yunobo's eyes widened to the size of dinner platters. "What – what are you doing, then?"
"I'll try and jump across the break," Link explained, glancing back over his shoulder. "See if I can land on top of that pillar, or climb up if necessary. Then I'll walk down the tracks to the other side, activate the switch, and you can ride up the other set of tracks."
"You're sure about that, goro?" Yunobo asked faintly, studying the gap fearfully.
"I can jump pretty far," Link nodded, his gut twisting as he looked down at the magma lake so far below them. "And – I've got good balance."
"Well… if you say so," Yunobo said. "But – but be careful!" He hopped out of the cart and rolled back down the way they had come. Link watched to make sure he made it safely, then turned to the space between the tracks. He swallowed thickly, feeling the hot dryness in his throat. It'll… it'll be good to get this place done and over with, he thought determinedly, gingerly moving his left hand into place on the paraglider's handles and hissing at the grinding flare of pain in his wrist.
He made his way to the back of the cart, and then before he could lose his nerve he sprinted forward and leapt over the edge, falling for a heart-stopping moment before the hot, heavy air rising up from the magma below caught hold of the paraglider's canvas and lifted it slightly upwards and forwards from Link's momentum. A grating cry of pain tore from his throat, his left wrist and broken ribs violently protesting his position as he glided towards the pillar.
He was losing altitude too quickly – he wouldn't land on top of it as he'd hoped. As it drew closer and closer he dropped his right hand from the paraglider's handles and flung it out towards the pillar, snatching a ledge and grunting as his body swung forward with the force of his momentum and smacked against the stone for the umpteenth time in this horrible place.
He dangled by his right hand for several moments, every muscle and tendon in his arm taught as a bowstring ready to fire. Breathing hard, his left hand still tightly wrapped around the handle of the paraglider, he gingerly raised his legs up to find purchase on one of the many incredibly narrow ledges decorating the pillar. His feet slid into place; clinging to the pillar by the tips of his fingers and his toes, he managed to slide the paraglider's handles down his left forearm as if it was a shield, freeing up his left hand. Bulky and in the way, but still usable if he ended up needing to save himself from a fall.
His left hand wasn't actually able to bear his weight while climbing, but he could use it to help himself balance as, inch by inch, he pulled himself upwards to the top of the pillar.
"Link! What are you doing?" Yunobo exclaimed from behind across the gap, and Link nearly lost his grip in surprise.
He let out a heavy breath that hissed through his teeth. "Thought I told you to go back," he grunted, blinking sweat from his eyes and pulling himself higher.
"I – I couldn't just sit by and do nothing while you're doing this," Yunobo protested. "Wh-what if something goes wrong?"
"What would you even do if it did?" Link grumbled, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as the pain in his left wrist flared hot. After taking a moment to compose himself, he dragged himself higher up the pillar.
Yunobo didn't respond to that, and Link was dimly aware that his response may not have been the most tactful one. Maybe I'll feel bad about that later. If I survive this.
At last he clawed his way over the top of the pillar. He glanced briefly at his right hand, feeling a rush of relief that it was both his better climbing hand, thanks to the claws, and it hadn't been broken.
Come to think of it, my left arm's been battered quite a bit over the past few days, and my right's been mostly fine – the bones, at least. Maybe Zonai have denser bones?
He pushed himself to his feet, finding himself directly between the two rails forming the second half of the minecart tracks. With a grunt, he climbed up onto the rightmost rail and held his arms out for balance, testing the feel of it beneath his feet. The top of the rail was mostly flat, fortunately. Trick is not to let the height and the narrow width freak me out too much, he told himself firmly, letting out a deep breath through his nose despite the twinge from his ribs. One foot in front of the other, he started slowly across the rail.
"Careful," Yunobo called worriedly from the other side.
Link ignored him, devoting all of his focus to keeping his balance. The rail was incredibly hot beneath his feet, warmth rising up through the soles of his boots. He glanced up briefly, fighting despair seeing how much further he had to go, and locked his gaze back to the rail beneath his feet, silhouetted by the fierce orange of the magma lake far below.
Certain death here if I slip up. No pressure.
The hot air rising from the magma had direction, he realized uncomfortably, lifting a foot only to feel a slight puff of air blowing against it, threatening to pull him off balance. With nothing but a thin stone and metal line separating him from the lake below, it was much easier – and far more disconcerting – to notice the slight deviations in the flow of air.
He leapt the last several feet to the other side, his breaths shaking slightly from the relieved rush of adrenaline jittering through him. He made his way to the switch for the other set of tracks, slammed his fist against it as hard as he could, and watched as the disconnected segment of track lowered itself to form a complete route.
Link cupped his hands around his mouth. "Yunobo! You're good!"
He wrapped an arm around his ribs, wincing, listening as the sound of minecart wheels screeching against metal came steadily closer, and then Yunobo was there, hopping out of the cart.
"Please don't do something like that again," he asked.
Link chuckled breathlessly. "Hope I don't have to," he responded, holding his ribs.
They found the final gong. Yunobo activated it, and together they hurried back to the lowest floor of the temple, to the drawbridge locked in place. Link's shoulders sagged slightly in relief as he saw that all five of the padlocks had opened. He hurried back to the dragon ring. We're coming, Zelda! Just hold on a little longer!
He activated the dragon ring, and the drawbridge creaked downwards, landing in the magma with a deep, resounding thud and a splatter of molten rock.
"It opened!" Yunobo crowed victoriously, punching the air. "Let's go smash those rocks and rescue Zelda!"
Link followed him anxiously inside, looking all around. It was such a strangely shaped room, with its domed roof sloping upwards from the floor itself. The ground was smooth, black volcanic stone ringed with a grated-off moat of magma underneath, and the walls consisted of the same reddish stone that formed the rest of Gorondia, embossed with golden Zonai designs and highlights of white stone.
"Hey…" Yunobo said musingly, staring intently at the curvature of the walls. "I wonder if… yeah!" He tucked himself into a ball and charged up the wall, all the way to the center of the ceiling, where he collided explosively with the marbled rocks that had trapped Zelda. They crumbled away and Link rushed forwards, holding his arms out ready to catch her, anxiously scanning the rubble and the ceiling as Yunobo dropped heavily back to the ground, looking pleased with himself.
"She's not here," Link told him numbly, slowly lowering his arms back to his sides even as he scanned the chamber again, to be sure.
No… definitely not. Maybe… maybe she did escape, using her powers. Which… which is good; it means at least she's unharmed… but I still feel disappointed.
All that remained at the top of the chamber was the rough mass of dark red stone that had been there to begin with. Link grit his teeth, looking around the room once more. After everything we went through to get in here…
"It's moving!" Yunobo yelped, pointing towards the mass of stone, and Link's gaze snapped upwards in time to find a black, crimson-lined slitted eye opening among the chunks of rock. Shaking itself loose and landing with a cloud of ash and dust, a hulking crab-shaped creature with a carapace of rough red stone stretched out its marbled-rock legs, rising to its full height. At once Link's fears for Zelda resurfaced – That thing's alive? Did it – did it eat her? Goddesses, help us not be too late!
"Its legs – more marbled rock roast," he pointed out to Yunobo, whose eyes narrowed.
"I can take 'em out," Yunobo nodded confidently. "Be my eyes!"
He tucked himself into a ball as the crablike creature scuttled sideways. Link gave Yunobo the command and the young Goron shot off towards the creature, smashing into one of its legs and knocking it clean off. The crab teetered, its eye widening as if in shock, before regaining its balance with its remaining three legs.
Link sprinted towards Yunobo, who was now waiting anxiously on the opposite side of the chamber. Precariously the monster lifted up one of its legs, holding it ominously over Link as he ran, carefully aiming an attack. It's only standing on two legs!
"Yunobo, two o'clock!" he yelled, his mind racing trying to picture himself in Yunobo's location. "Now!"
He saw Yunobo tuck himself into a ball, beginning his charge. Then with a rush of hot air from behind, the monster's leg smashed into the ground just behind him, shooting powerful shockwaves trembling through the ground and sending Link flying with a startled cry. Instinctively he tucked his arms and legs around himself before he landed hard against the side of the wall, his left wrist jarred anew.
Even as he pushed to his feet, cradling his left arm to his chest, he saw a fiery streak across the chamber as Yunobo crashed solidly into one of the monster's remaining legs. Its eye shot wide open as its final two legs crumbled beneath it, rendering it briefly immobile.
"Link! All you now!" Yunobo shouted, but Link was already running, his breaths coming short and sharp through tightly gritted teeth. When he reached the creature he scrambled up its side, using the claws of his right hand to find quick purchase on the rough rock. The monster's pupil thinned as if in fear as it watched him draw his sword, and at once it began to tremble beneath his feet. Staggering slightly, Link thrust his lizalfos blade deep into the eye, a gooey black and crimson-streaked substance suspiciously similar to Gloom spurting from the wound. The monster gave a fierce shake, and Link leapt off to the ground before it could send him flying again.
As his feet touched the ground it was sprouting fresh legs of marbled rock and tottering upright once again. Yunobo hurried to Link's side and tucked himself into a flaming orb awaiting command.
"Nine o'clock!" Link said, and Yunobo was charging before he even finished, blasting the closest leg into slivers. Link raced after him, hoping to get into position before the monster recovered its balance. No such luck – it recovered even faster this time, its bloodied eye locked on Link. Its body seemed to heave, and from its mandibles burst a volley of rounded chunks of marbled rock. Link forced an extra burst of speed from his legs, trying to get out of range –
One of the rocks crashed into the ground beside him and exploded, sending fire and dust and shrapnel in every direction. Link felt his feet torn from the ground, felt his ears suddenly pop and go silent, red and gold and black twisting and swirling around him. As the silence gave way to a fierce ringing in his ears he became aware that he had stopped moving, lying crumpled against the side of the cavern once again, his body pulsing in time to his rapid heartbeat. Someone – Yunobo – was shouting, though he sounded dim and faint. His vision swam, disoriented, seeming just as underwater as his hearing, reduced to a dark smear that seemed to be moving.
Something… something coming towards me…
He realized with a jolt what the black smear was – the monster, closing in for the kill. Link's heart gave a panicked jolt, adrenaline searing through his veins and sending him scrambling back to his feet as his vision and hearing slowly returned to normal. His mind raced, his body paralyzed for a moment in indecision. He sprinted forward, towards the monster, even as launched itself upwards and began a rapid descent, intent on squishing him beneath it. Instinctively Link reached his right hand out, up towards the creature's underbelly, and Fused himself within it before it could crush him.
At once his right arm flared hot with the corruption, writhing within his veins almost strong enough that he lost his grip on the Fuse spell. He felt, for a terrifying moment, his living flesh and organs merge more solidly into stone. Gritting his teeth, his mind flaring white with the sheer pain of being Fused with this thing, he fought the corruption away, clinging to the Fuse spell with all of his might and fighting to Ascend upwards, through its body.
It – it's full of Gloom!
He could feel the Gloom, interspersed with rough, grating minerals, all too eager to join with the corruption already inside of him. It was slimy, oily as he clawed his way up through it; where the earthy minerals felt as though they were grinding across his body and innards, the Gloom burned wherever it touched, inside and out. Link willed it to stay away, feeling a peculiar comforting warmth bubbling up within him as he did so. He clung to the warmth like a lifeline, letting it drive away the creature's Gloom as it attempted to infiltrate his blood.
Then at last he felt his face break free into open air, and with a surge of adrenaline he scrambled out of the creature in desperation, his entire body feeling raw, like an open wound. He crouched on hands and knees for a moment, trembling, glimpsing what seemed like a bright light quickly fading away from where he'd emerged.
With a chill down his spine he realized the rock monster was staring at him – he'd successfully Ascended up through its belly to pop out near its weak spot once again. It was trembling, attempting to shake him off. Link lurched to his feet and drew his sword, thrusting it deep into the monster's eye with a hoarse cry of exertion. It bucked and writhed all the fiercer; Link held on, bracing his feet against the monster's rocky shell and fighting to push his blade deeper. The monster gave a sudden powerful jump, and Link yelped as he found himself suddenly upside down, dangling from the creature's eye by his sword as it clung upside-down to the top of the chamber.
His sword began to slip free, and Link's blood jolted – his own weight was pulling it out now. Perhaps that had been the monster's plan.
"Link!" Yunobo called from below, holding out his hands. "I – I can catch you!"
Gritting his teeth tightly in a pained grimace, Link pulled his paraglider free with his left hand as his sword slipped loose further, dripping crimson slime. "Charge up the wall – any direction, and you should hit it! Try and knock it down!"
The monster shook itself violently, and Link nearly choked on a breath as his sword came entirely free. His stomach jumped and he flicked the paraglider open even as he fell, feeling its canvas catch the hot air and carry him lightly to the ground. He heard a blast and flinched, looking back up at the monster, expecting to see more explosive rocks. Instead it was crashing to the ground, its mangled eye spinning and disoriented, Yunobo standing fiercely atop it.
"Take – this!" Yunobo roared, gripping his Boulder Breaker in both hands and smashing it downwards into the monster's eye.
It popped like a balloon under the sheer force of the Goron's blow. At once its carapace went deathly still, and Yunobo pulled his blade free, a slow grin creeping across his face. He hopped down to join Link, just as the monster burst into crimson mist that drifted slowly upwards, turning briefly to wisps of purest gold, and then disappeared entirely, leaving the chamber empty but for the two of them.
Zelda was nowhere to be seen.
Link ran a shaking hand through his sweat soaked hair, brushing it out of his eyes. So… so she did escape, then. Again, that's… that's good. I'm glad she wasn't… eaten by that thing.
He turned to Yunobo, mustering a weary smile. "If only we'd known to do that the whole time," he said with a grin. "Good job."
Yunobo smiled bashfully, sheathing his sword. "I… didn't know I had that in me," he said honestly. "But… I'm glad I did." His smile faded, and he looked around. "No sign of Princess Zelda, though," he sighed. "But I really, really need to talk to her. We've gotta straighten out everything about the marbled rock roast – ask her to take it away at least, goro!"
Link nodded glumly. "We'll keep looking, then," he said, trying to sound encouraging. "But I… I don't think she's in here anymore. Anything else you want to look at before we try and find a way out?"
Yunobo hummed thoughtfully. "Well, this whole room is kind of a puzzle," he noted. "What with all the barriers, you'd think they kept somethin' really, really special in here! And instead, it's just… empty." He looked around, his brow deeply furrowed, and gave a slight start. "Oh! Look up there!"
Link followed his gaze to the very top of the chamber, where the rock monster had initially clung to the ceiling. There was an opening inside, with something glowing within, a pure, unblemished white. Link inhaled sharply, squinting at it. It looks like… like Tulin's secret stone.
"I'm gonna go see what that is," Yunobo said, tucking himself into a ball and charging up the curved sides of the chamber, uncurling at the peak of his trajectory, grabbing the stone, and dropping back to the ground with a grunt. Link walked over to him curiously, nodding slowly as he recognized the teardrop shape cupped between Yunobo's massive hands.
There was a sudden flash of light that engulfed the two of them, and when Link could see again, he found himself standing next to Yunobo in a familiar misty region with soft, pale gravel across the ground. Just like with Tulin.
Before them stood an old, burly Goron – certainly well past youth, but undeniably in stellar fighting condition, his body rippled in muscle beneath a white sash embossed with golden designs. His face was obscured by a mask of green stone in the shape of a lizard's face, similar to the locks that had bound the drawbridge in place. "Yunobo, little rock," the Goron greeted, his voice deep and booming.
"I've heard that voice," Yunobo murmured. "Are you the one who led us here?"
"Yes," the Goron confirmed. "I am your ancestor from a time long past. I served the first king of Hyrule as a mighty warrior, and as a sage who could command fire, like you."
"I – I don't know if I command fire," Yunobo stammered. "It just sort of… happens."
"You fight using your body as a weapon," the Goron sage laughed. "We Gorons are born from fire and rock. Is it any wonder that your technique calls upon the might of both? You are my descendent – the pride of the Gorons."
Link felt certain that if Gorons could blush, Yunobo would be red as a tomato. Yunobo stood a little taller, a bashful smile across his face.
"You defeated the Marbled Gohma," the sage continued grimly. "It was the source of those foul rocks that proved so destructive to our people. But it was the Demon King who summoned it. He sent that monster to keep you from obtaining the stone you just found – my secret stone."
He went on to explain the Imprisoning War, just as Tulin's ancestor had done. Link didn't pay much attention; his mind was caught on the revelation that the Demon King had summoned the Marbled Gohma. And it made the marbled rock roasts – something that Zelda distributed to the Gorons by controlling Yunobo. Did she… did she know it came from the Demon King? She couldn't have – she fought against him in the Imprisoning War!
He considered his previous theory – that he was dealing with the repercussions of a Zelda who wasn't in her right mind, but still wanted to help her people. There's any number of explanations. She could have stumbled across the marbled rock roasts by accident. Or maybe, since she met Yunobo at Death Mountain's summit, she did know that they came from the Marbled Gohma. But that doesn't mean she knew it was summoned by the Demon King. Especially because the Demon King would only benefit from someone distributing the marbled rock roasts – maybe he kept the Marbled Gohma from attacking her for precisely that reason.
He thought about how, after he freed Yunobo, they had seen Zelda periodically on their way towards the Marbled Gohma. Almost as if she was leading them right to it. Did she… realize she'd made a mistake? he thought hopefully. She led us right to the source of the marbled rock roast – and then we were able to destroy it. She… helped us, at least a bit. So is she… trying to fix things? But then why won't she speak to us?
He found himself reminded of when the two of them had discovered the Dondons in Faron. The creatures had seemed visibly thin and wasting, in need of a good meal. Zelda had at first tried to feed the creatures gourmet animal feed, using a recipe she and Link had created together that worked wonders for goats and cattle, but it made the Dondons sick to their stomachs. Link was certain he would never forget the smell of unhappy Dondon dung. Zelda felt awful about her mistake, and worked tirelessly to find the right food – which ended up being luminous stone, of all things. But it was in part due to her guilt over her prior mistake that she became so protective over them, to the extent that she wouldn't let Link try to ride any of them.
Is that why she won't talk to us? he wondered, fighting a painful sting in his eye and a hollow, empty ache in his heart where Zelda ought to be. If that was her reaction to something much smaller, much less significant, in the grand scheme of things… Of course, she wouldn't see it as less significant, but that's not the point. In her right mind, she would be devastated by what she did to the Gorons when she realized it was a mistake.
…Devastated enough to shut me out?
He turned his gaze skyward, into the misty haze above, his eyes wet. Zelda… we'll figure this out, I promise. I don't hate you for this. Please… please, stop running from me!
He blinked, and the vision faded away, returning him and Yunobo to the innermost chamber of Gorondia. Yunobo was staring intently at the secret stone still cupped in his hands.
"You asked me back there, when you were walkin' along the minecart rail above a lake of magma, what I could even do if something went wrong," Yunobo said quietly. "Well… there wasn't anything I could've done back there. But… there was something I could do about the Marbled Gohma."
His voice hardened with resolve. "And there's something I can do for my people, too. For Hyrule. I'm the President of YunoboCo – and I've learned from all the marbled rock roast stuff that I… I actually hold power there. Power to do some real damage – or power to do some real good."
Yunobo held up the secret stone, his expression determined. "I don't know if I'm nearly as great as my ancestor was," he said. "But there's no way I'll let the Demon King gain influence over the Gorons again! I can do this!"
The secret stone turned a rich, fiery orange, an ornate symbol appearing at its center before it embedded itself into Yunobo's belt. "I am the Sage of Fire," he said boldly. "Hold out your fist, Link. I think there's something I can do for you, goro."
Link did as Yunobo asked, and Yunobo placed his own much larger fist against Link's. "You can count on the Sage of Fire," he said. "I'll fight by your side until the very end!"
Yunobo's stone began to burn orange, a glow that soon took his entire body before passing through his right shoulder, down his arm, and into Link's fist. There the light remained for several moments; Link could feel it scalding away the corruption in his blood – a painful sensation, but the relief he felt in its aftermath, with more of that wicked power gone from his body, was more than worth it. Then the light gathered up in the back of his hand and into the ring on his thumb, where a symbol appeared, identical to the one on Yunobo's stone.
"It's proof that I and the Goron people stand with you," Yunobo explained. "I promise – I'll be strong enough to fight beside you, no matter what happens!"
Link grinned at him. "I never doubted that," he said with a chuckle. "Thanks, Yunobo." He lifted his right hand absently to his ribs, wincing slightly. "But… inasmuch as we've gotten rid of the marbled rock roast, according to your ancestor…"
Yunobo grimaced. "Yeah – let's get you out of here," he said with concern. "I… I don't think Gorondia was ever meant for Hylains." He scratched his head thoughtfully. "You know, these stones are weird. I mean, they let us meet my ancestor, and it told me how to give you that power just now. And – and now I feel like it's telling me something else."
"Like what?" Link asked. "Secret hot spring location?" That… that would certainly be nice right now. His left wrist throbbed in agreement.
Yunobo shook his head slowly. "This way," he said, walking towards the sconce opposite the entrance to the chamber, with its drawbridge. Oddly enough, it was the only sconce in the room that was unlit. Yunobo swung his fist towards it, flame dancing around his forearm, and it caught fire with a soft whoosh. At once a panel in the wall rumbled backwards and then to the side, revealing a minecart sitting on tracks leading away into darkness.
"We used to live in Gorondia," Yunobo said thoughtfully. "But they had to have a way to the surface – that's how my ancestor got out to fight the Demon King, goro. And… and that's how we all came to the surface, when we stopped living underground."
Link shrugged, climbing into the minecart. "Let's give it a shot, then," he said. "And pray there's no broken tracks."
Yunobo cringed. "Yeah," he said with a shaky laugh. "No more of those, goro!"
Link punched the fan at the back of the minecart, and with a familiar soft whirring, it set out wheels rattling into utter darkness.