Chapter 18
Link started to spin faster with his sword. He headed toward the lizard hoard. The first dozen lizards were cut down before they even had a chance to react to the situation. Most of the other lizards hissed in alarm and they leaped out of the way of Link's blade. Link finished his spin attack and looked around him. He only killed a small handful of lizards. The rest of them were hissing violently at him. He glared at the lizard hoard and taunted them.
"Come on! Are you cowards just going to stand there hissing at me? Attack me. Let's see you fight for a change!"
Groups of lizards began to charge at him. He stood his ground with his blade ready. He swung his blade at the advancing lizards and kept striking at their heads with his blade. They were slain instantly from the blows, but there were far too many for Link to take on himself. Link backed up to the door into the room as more lizards advanced on Link. He knocked on the door urgently.
"Charlie! Navi! I need help right away! This is a vast lizard hoard!"
Charlie opened the door quickly and saw the large hoard of lizards. Navi flew over and landed on Charlie's shoulder.
"It's no good, Link! You need to retreat! We need to think of another way to get through that mob!"
Link nodded.
"Good idea, Navi! I'm coming out!"
Link ran out of the room and pushed on the door with all the strength he could muster. Charlie ran over and pushed on the door as well. The door creaked shut behind them. Both sighed with relief. Link looked at Charlie and smiled.
"Thanks, bud! If it wasn't for your help, those lizards might've got out of that room."
Charlie smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Anytime, pal. Let's go across the bridge and sit on that pillar and think out our next move."
As soon as they began to cross the bridge, they heard familiar voices. They looked across the lava pit and discovered where the voices were coming from. The gorons were in Dodngo's Cavern. Argus was with the gorons. Link shouted over to him.
"Hey Argus! How's it going? What are you doing in here?"
Argus turned in the direction of the voice and realized it was Link and waved at him.
"Hey, brother! Long time no see! We are scouting the cavern out for loose rock deposits. What are you guys up to? Have you seen any dodongos yet?"
Link shook his head.
"I haven't seen any. Navi saw one on an upper floor, but we have bigger problems right now. There is a huge lizard hoard in the room ahead of us! We can't get past them. There are just too many of them."
Argus scratched his head.
"You don't say. Hmmm...Wait! I have an excellent idea. Me and two gorons are going to come over to assist you. It's the least we can do after you saved our tribe."
One of the gorons beside him gave him a nudge.
"Chief told us to search for more loose rock deposits, brother!"
"I know that! Go and tell the chief to send in more gorons. Tell him I'm taking some gorons to help our friend Link.
He pointed to two other gorons.
"You two! Follow me. We are going to help our comrade Link."
The goron Argus had sent off was on his way out of the cave while he and the two gorons went over to the edge of the lava pit. Link yelled over some advice.
"There is a platform that rises out of the lava pit. When it rises, jump onto it and over here."
Argus laughed at the advice he had given him.
"You don't know gorons at all, do you? Our bodies are like rocks and we can withstand extreme temperatures. Walking in lava is like walking in water to us."
Without another word, the three gorons roared and jumped into the lava pit. Afterwards, they walked over to the pillar Link, Charlie and Navi were on and began to climb it. Shortly after, Argus and the three gorons reached the top and pulled themselves onto the pillar. Link and Charlie both had surprised expressions on their faces. Argus winked at them.
"I forgot to mention! We know how to climb as well. Now, lead me and my fellow gorons to this room full of lizards you were telling me about."
Charlie, Link and Navi led the gorons to the door. One of the gorons grabbed the door and opened it easily with one pull. As soon as they entered, there was a deafening noise of hissing lizards. Argus looked at them closely and smirked.
"You guys were right about them being lizards, but they are more than just lizards. These are baby dodongos! I have been attacked by them in the past. They are very hostile if you try to enter their territory. I just hope there isn't a fully grown dodongo around. They can be very hard to kill sometimes. Their tail is their weak point and they don't let you near it without a fight. Okay, guys. Let's kill these things! I want you humans to stay far back near the entrance to this room. This is going to be messy."
Argus and the other two gorons curled into balls and rolled around. The small dodongos were trying to jump on them, but they were either missing their targets or they were jumping on then sliding off. It didn't appear like the gorons were accomplishing much by rolling around. The dodongos were just hissing violently and hopping out of the way. Suddenly, spikes started to stick out of the gorons the faster they rolled! They resembled three hedgehogs rolling around with lizards. The dodongos weren't fast enough to dodge their spikes. One by one, the dodongos were getting impaled on their spikes. Dodongo guts were splattering everywhere. After awhile, Link and Charlie closed their eyes to the sight. They were both afraid they were going to get sick. Navi hid in Link's hat for the same reason. After a few agonizing hisses, Argus rolled over to Link. He tapped Link on the shoulder lightly.
"Open your eyes, brother! The deed is done."
He opened his eyes as did Charlie. There wasn't a single dondongo left alive. Squished and impaled dodongos littered the ground. He patted Argus on the back.
"Thank you for dealing with that dodongo hoard so efficiently. Where did you guys learn that awesome move?"
Argus grinned.
"We were granted Magic by the great fairy on the mountain top. About four years ago, our tribe was exploring this mountain for a place to house our largest goron named Biggoron. He is bigger and taller than most of the houses you humans build. Anyway, on our way up the mountain, we stumbled upon her cave by accident. We walked in and she appeared in front of us and granted us magic power and told us of a secret rolling technique. She then told us how to use it. We haven't used it in a very long time. I'm actually not sure why the chief didn't try to use it on that human in black armor that blocked this cave."
Link nodded. He enjoyed hearing stories from the different people he met.
"That was an interesting story. As for your chief not using that move, he was probably under pressure and forgot about it."
Argus smiled and patted Link on the back. It knocked him onto the ground. Argus grinned.
"Sorry, brother! I guess I got carried away. That was a very nice thing to say about our chief. He's always been a fair chief to us gorons and he's never raised a hand in anger against us unless we deserve it obviously."
Link got up and dusted himself off.
"That's alright. Don't worry about it. I like your chief. Like you said, he seems like a fair and cheerful leader. Should we move onto the next room?"
Argus looked over to the other gorons and they raised their arms and roared.
"I think my friends here are ready. Lead on, brother. And you too, brother Charlie."
The party of adventurers moved into the next room. There were a lot of weird looking statues and a scattering of bats near the ceiling flying around. In the center of the room, there was a large stone platform with a huge pressure activated switch on top. They also saw a barred door on the other side of the room. They immediately assumed that the switch was for the door and they started to look around for a way to get on top of the platform. They soon discovered the solution to their problem. There was a small ladder. However, there was one of the weird statues in front of it. Argus and the two gorons walked over to the statue and proceeded to move it. Suddenly, just as they started to move it, it began to glow red and roar. The three gorons gasped in surprise and dropped the statue. It then started to jump all over the room roaring. Link was flabbergasted. He had never seen a statue actually come to life before! Now, the statue turned in his direction and started to jump towards him. It was getting very close to him when Charlie shouted at him.
"Link! Get out of the way or you will get crushed by that thing!"
Seeing that Link didn't respond or move, He took action and ran over to Link and pushed him out of the way. Unfortunately, this put Charlie right in front of the jumping statue instead of Link. Charlie closed his eyes expecting to be crushed by the statue when he heard a loud Smash! He opened his eyes and he saw that Argus was in front of him. He was covered with white powdered stone. The other two gorons were behind him also covered in white powdered stone.
"Wha-What happened? Where did the statue go?"
"We crushed it, brother! Me and the my friends combined our strength and gave the statue three hard punches. It shattered into little pieces, brother! That was very heroic what you did for Link! You could have perished yourself but you pushed him out of the way anyway. Nice work, Charlie! You're a hero."
Link walked over to Charlie and patted him on the shoulder.
"Thanks for saving my life, Charlie. I don't know what came over me. I couldn't look away from that statue. You're learning how to be heroic every day! I'm glad I can count on you to help me out when I'm in trouble."
Argus had an explanation.
"I think that statue had the power to hypnotize anyone it stared at. I felt funny when I stared into it's eyes and noticed there were strange glowing lights coming from the eyes. Now, are one of you guys going to push that switch?"
Charlie walked over to the ladder and climbed it and pushed the switch. It pressed down flat and the door at the far end of the room unlocked. Charlie climbed down and gave Link a thumbs up.
" I was happy to help, Link. So far, this hero business is kind of fun."
The rest of the party laughed aloud at Charlie's statement.
They entered the next room only to find a large flight of stairs. They climbed the stairs and when they reached the top, they realized that they were one floor up from where they started. Link and Charlie looked down and they could just make out the lava pits and the pillar they jumped to. Just to one side of them, there was a stone block with writing on it. Charlie tried to read it, but he couldn't make it out.
"What kind of writing is this? It's a bunch of strange scribbles!"
Argus walked over and looked at the writing and groaned.
"This writing is in hylian. I only learned a small bit when I went to Hyrule castle with the chief. I was very young then, so I couldn't remember how to get back earlier. If I'm right, it says something like this: "Giant lead dodongo. When it sees Fred, a new way to grow will be coping."
Link scratched his head in confusion.
"Argus, I think you translated that wrong. That makes no sense. Who is Fred? And where is this lead dodongo? And what was that about a new way to grow will be coping? Hahaha! I'm sorry, Argus! Don't feel bad! Does anybody else know Hylian?"
Navi flew in front of Link.
"I do! The deku tree taught me a little hylian! I'll see if I can translate it."
Navi looked at the message closely. She nodded and reported back to Link.
"I think this is what it says. "Giant dead dodongo. When it sees red, a new way to go will be open."
He nodded at Navi.
"That makes more sense! I saw that big skeleton when we entered these caverns. So, when it sees red, we will be able to go a different way?"
Navi nodded.
"I think that's what it says. Look, Link. There is a bridge above the skeleton."
The party walked over to the bridge and looked down. They could clearly see the skeleton and it's eyeless sockets. For some odd reason, it's mouth was shut. They crossed the bridge to the other side and there was only a small ledge with a couple plants growing on it. On closer examination, the plants were bomb flowers. Link remembered how he unblocked this cave and a plan was beginning to form in his mind.
"I've got it! I will grab a bomb flower and I will pass it to one person. That person passes it to the next and so on and the last person drops it into the eye socket. I think that's what we have to do in order for the skeleton to see red. It's worth a try. Let's get started!"
Link picked a bomb flower and quickly passed it to Charlie. He then passed it to Argus and he passed it to one of the gorons and he dropped it into the eye socket not a moment too soon. It exploded in the socket and turned the eye a dull red! Link raised his arms and cheered.
"Woohoo! I was right! Now, let's do the same thing to the other eye!"
They repeated the process to the other eye and the mouth opened! The party turned and ran to the stairway. They ran down the stairs, through the room with the staues, through the room where the baby dodongos were and out on the bottom floor. They were breathless and exhausted. They rested for five minutes and then they proceeded towards the skull. When they got closer, they realized that there was a door cleverly concealed behind the dead dodongo's mouth. Before they entered, Argus approached Link.
"Brother, I want to give you something as thanks for saving our tribe."
Argus reached into a sack one of the gorons was carrying and produced a medium sized bag and handed it to Link.
" That is a bomb bag, brother. There are still twenty bombs inside it. I was supposed to use them to loosen rock depisits, but I want you to have it. We used a fair amount of bombs and we loosened a lot of rocks with them!"
"Thanks, Argus! I appreciate it.", said Link.
Link opened the door. When he entered, he gasped in surprise. Max was standing there staring at him. Link drew his sword.. Max just grinned at him.
"Is that any way to say hello to your old friend? Drawing a weapon? Charlie! Good to see you again! Still keeping up with that idiot Link?"
Link glared at him. He wasn't going to be taunted by him. Not this time.
"What do you want, Max?"
Max grinned at Link.
"What do I want? First, I want you to stop calling me Max! My father, Lord Ganondorf renamed me! He gave me a more evil name! From now on, you can call me Vaati! I am an evil sorcerer and the name suits me! Let me show you my power! You thought you saw the last of the dodongos eh? Not quite! Get a load of this, guys!"
Vaati waved his hands and evil magic shot out of them and hit the ground with a deafening blast. It raised a large dust cloud. When the dust cleared, there was a giant dodongo in front of the party! Vaati laughed aloud.
"Hahahaha! Have fun with this monster, Link! This monster can breathe a lot of fire and his jaws are like a steel vice! Charlie! I have an offer for you! Ditch that loser Link and join me! Together, we can take over all of Hyrule with my father! Doesn't that sound fun?"
"Don't do it, Charlie! He's trying to trick you! Join him and you be just as evil as he is!", yelled Link.
Charlie glared at Vaati.
"I'll never join you! You almost killed Link! Do you think I'd want to join you after that? Go to hell, you maniac!"
Vaati laughed aloud.
"Fine by me, Charlie. It was nice to know you guys! Tell your goron friends I say goodbye! Have fun! Hahaha!"
Vaati disappeared a cloud of purple smoke. Link turned his attention to the giant dodongo. He started to inhale. Suddenly, he breathed out a huge fireball. It shot out and narrowly missed Link's head. Link groaned aloud. First the baby dodongos and now this big monstrosity! Even with the three gorons, how were they ever going to defeat something that big? After it shot the fireball, it curled into a ball and began to roll towards the party at an alarming speed! The party dodged it just in time as the dodongo hit the wall. It growled and walked over fast in argus's direction and picked him up in his mouth! Suddenly, the dodongo grabbed argus with it's tongue and swallowed him!
End of Chapter