Hello, everyone! Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this. As always, it's great to hear from you all; thank you! I'm so glad you all like my fights, and the changes, and especially the patch notes. I genuinely think they may be the single most applauded thing I've ever written. XD

Without further ado, my friends…

Chapter 27: With Others' Aid

Link was still steadying himself when the rock beside him cracked, splitting open as easily as spade-struck soil, and a pair of heavy-clawed hands poked out even as he whirled to face it, a furry, pointy-muzzled head following, eyes squinting into the light of his lantern.

"I can't believe it!" Nackle exclaimed jubilantly. "You took out every last one of 'em! You're one tough customer! I owe you one, pal."

"It's, uh… it's okay," Link managed, still trying to calm his racing heart.

"Nonsense," Nackle told him. "I don't blame you for not knowing this, but we mogmas always honour our debts. And hey, we're right by my den, and all of my stuff! So let me give you something in thanks. Any requests? Crystals? Ores?"

"Well…" Link looked into the mogma's eyes, seeing nothing but honesty and gratitude. He had the impression Nackle would be offended if he outright refused, but… there was really only one thing that was important. "Is there any way you could help me find my friend?"

Nackle frowned, scratching his furry head. "Hmm… Well, I don't know where you should look… and I can't leave here until I've moved all my stuff somewhere safer…" His head lifted sharply as an idea seemed to occur to him. "Ah! I have just the thing! Wait right there!"

Before Link could respond, he vanished back down into his hole with the sound of crumbling rock, leaving another mound of freshly-broken pebbles behind him. Unsure of what else to do, Link waited, glancing around the silent cavern. How had the mogma done that?

It was barely a minute before Nackle returned, popping up again in the same spot and reaching down into the broken stone around his waist to hold out a metal-and-leather package.

"Take these things!" he instructed. Link obediently took them from his clawed hands, holding them up to inspect in his lantern's light: a pair of oversized mittens, more or less, with thick metal strips running along the back and extending into slightly blunted claws nearly twice the length of his fingers. "I reckon they'd be something pretty special to a surface-dweller like yourself! We make 'em for pups whose digging claws don't grow right. With a pair of these, you should be able to dig places just like a mogma. Impressive, eh? Maybe they'll help you get to wherever your friend has gone. I put the enchantments on 'em just a few weeks ago myself, so I guarantee you that's a first-rate pair of diggers."

Link smiled faintly, still shaken, as Nackle wound down. "Thank you very much. I'm sure that'll be really helpful."

"Thank you very much!" the mogma replied. "You won me safe passage right back to my den, and let me tell you, that's worth a lot! I'd better get started moving everything out before any more of those creeps come back, but I hope those claws help you find your friend… and that they're okay when you get there. Good luck!"

"You, too. Be careful."

"As a pup under scree!" Nackle promised… whatever that meant. In moments he had disappeared again, back into the tunnel he had somehow dug through what Link could have sworn was solid rock. Looking at the digging claws again, he used the strapping on them to clip them to his belt, and set out back across the cave to the tunnel he'd been in before, where Zelda's trail had been, avoiding the bokoblins' bodies as much as he could. The short drop at the entrance was much easier to scramble up than it would have been with them hacking and grabbing at him.

"Fi," Link murmured as he walked back into the tunnel, the faint sense of directionality she lent him picking out Zelda's path, "what do you make of these gloves?"

They are of sturdy construction, and notably adjustable, although the basic hand shape they are designed for is somewhat different to, and notably larger than, your own. Fi's silent voice answered in his mind. My analysis confirms that they have been enhanced magically, granting them additional properties, including the ability to dig through rock for short periods. From observation of the mogma Nackle, I am able to confirm that he, and with 90% confidence the majority of other mogmas in the area, possesses some ability for and training with magic associated with rock and stone.

"Wow," Link murmured. That was potentially useful. "He said he made them for pups whose claws didn't grow properly…"

The deterioration that I have observed in the four mogmas we have thus far encountered renders it highly probable that a proportion of them are born with outwardly visible deformities, including insufficiently or incorrectly developed hands. This would inhibit their ability to dig and potentially to cast magic, depending upon their casting tradition. I remain unable to determine the ultimate cause of the damage at this time, Master. However, it is clear that Nackle is familiar with its effects, and that the mogmas of this region attempt to circumvent them where possible.

"I guess that's good, at least." He wondered again what had happened to the mogmas, what had caused the strange hereditary deterioration that Fi was still unable to explain. Though he didn't really know any of them, let alone their community as a whole, he hoped that somehow, somewhere, someone would be able to help them.

. . .

Link had never thought he would be as relieved as he was to feel the oppressive heat of the ash-laden air on his face as he finally emerged from the caverns further up the volcano. Nackle's gift had already proven well worth its while, letting him cautiously and somewhat awkwardly scoop handholds out of rock faces in order to climb, although he had to keep one of the gloves off to grip since putting his weight on an embedded claw simply caused it to slice down through the rock in a shower of gravel. Zelda's trail somehow led directly up those same rock faces, and though Fi had informed him she detected residual traces of magic which she must have used to ascend, it was still strange. He hadn't even known she'd begun learning a spell to lift herself, and she usually enjoyed showing off her mastery of new magics to him and her other friends.

He took a deep breath of the stiflingly warm air, blessedly filtered and purified by the Sheikah mask over his mouth and nose, and set off along Zelda's path, looking around in the hope of seeing her somewhere ahead – or, if not her, at least Ireya and Davar. Zelda's path led around another rocky outcrop, and Link followed it hopefully… only to stop in dismay. The trail ended in a precipitous drop down to another lava flow, and though he could see a projection on the far side, ash-coated but blockily regular for all the sky like a broken bridge, the gap was far too far to jump. And yet, once again, Zelda's trail led directly over it.

"She used magic here, too, didn't she?" he asked Fi softly. There seemed to be no other way.

That is correct, Master.

"Can you see any other way across?" Link didn't want to risk turning away from Zelda's path in case he never found it again – and, if he was honest with himself, he didn't want to go back underground.

I do not detect any potential crossing location in the immediate vicinity, Fi replied after a few moments, dashing his hopes. Another long moment lingered in the silence, Link gazing defeatedly across the gap, before she spoke again. However, Master, I have just detected two partially-concealed presences upon the far side. It is apparent that the Sheikah, too, have reached this region.

Relief brought a sudden smile to Link's face beneath the mask.

"Ireya!" he shouted. "Davar!"

Only the wind, and the disconcerting rumbling tremors of the mountain, and the strange almost crumbling flow of the lava below, met his ears. Link wondered if they could even hear him at all.

"Hello!"

It appears that they have noticed your call, Master.

Despite Fi's confirmation, Link had to wait nearly a minute before he saw either one, a slim camouflaged figure almost melting into view through the hazy, ash-laden air.

"Chosen one!" The voice calling back proved the figure to be Davar. Motion behind him, then, had to be Ireya. "Do you need aid?"

Link nodded, a little exaggeratedly just as he would have from the back of a bird. "I need to get across! Zelda's trail goes right across this gap!"

Ireya and Davar glanced to one another, sharing an almost imperceptible nod, and Davar made a few swift gestures before vanishing, reappearing less than a breath later beside Link. Even though he'd known to expect it, he still jumped despite himself, turning to face the taller Sheikah.

"Brace yourself, chosen one," Davar advised. Remembering the dizzying transportations of before, Link widened his stance, and the Sheikah nodded in quiet satisfaction before repeating almost the same swift gestures. They seemed less dramatic than the ones he had made to take them from the Sheikah camp, what Link remembered of them: because they weren't going as far, perhaps?

In the blink of an eye, they were across the gap, and Link staggered slightly as he found his new footing, looking back at his unexpected allies.

"Thanks."

"It is our task to aid you," Ireya said, but behind their masks, Link thought they were, perhaps, smiling.

"Have you seen any signs of Zelda on this side? She was definitely here."

"Nothing of which we can be sure," Ireya told him slowly. "But we have found sign that another of our kin passed this way recently. The only one who would be upon this mountain is Impa, she who is attendant to Mahra Impa in watching over the seal upon the darkness. She set out before we to seek the spirit maiden – to seek Zelda. Since she passed here before us, perhaps, by the grace of the goddess, she will have found her."

"I hope so," Link said, wholeheartedly. The Sheikah were strange, and mysterious, and once he'd found Zelda there was so much that he needed to ask them – but they were also allies he could trust. Wherever she was, he hoped Zelda had that, too.

. . .

Accompanied by Ireya and Davar, scouting ahead of and around his course, Link fought his way further up the mountain, climbing steep slopes with the aid of the digging claws or once at a desperate run, forced to move as quickly as he could, faster than he should have dared risk, by a pair of bokoblins at the top of the slope hurling rocks down at him that bounced and spun and chipped shards from the jagged stone of the mountain as they flew, and only when he was halfway up did Ireya and Davar finally reach the monstrous creatures and swiftly, efficiently, silence them forever. They passed through a ramshackle village of crude huts, only sparsely occupied with bokoblins chittering and squealing their hatred, and between Link and the Sheikah all of them were slain.

As they clambered to the top of what appeared to be another high ridge, Link pulled himself up onto flatter ground and stopped with a gasp of surprise. Ahead, a stone-built facade loomed from the otherwise impassable cliff face, somewhat cracked and ash-coated, but clearly a building, with grand columns and half-concealed reliefs hinting at ancient importance. The ground before it was remarkably level, though coated in volcanic ash, and before the great doors Link could see recent evidence of digging, clearing stained and blackened flagstones in an arc large enough to allow the doors to be opened.

"The Earth Temple," Ireya stated in her customary near-whisper, almost in his ear.

"It looks like someone's been in here recently…"

Fi vaulted from the sword to hover before them, surprising the two Sheikah only somewhat more than Link.

"Master Link, I detect that Zelda's aura passes directly through these doors. However, I also detect traces of demonic presence. Additionally, the digging is too extensive to have been carried out by one person alone in the amount of time that Zelda possessed. I thus deduce that the temple ahead is currently occupied by bokoblins and other demonic creatures, raising the hazard level within it significantly."

And Zelda's gone right into it… Link took a deep breath, the Sheikah mask leaving the air he breathed clean, if still warm. "Then there's no time to waste. Ireya, Davar?"

He thought he saw the Sheikah's eyes crinkle behind their masks in matched smiles.

"It will be our honour to accompany you, chosen one."

Sorry again for the long delay!

Patch Notes:
- Reason provided for mogmas to possess artificial means of performing an action mogmas perform naturally, continuing previously-introduced plot threads.
- Frequency of using dangerous volcanic vents for lift significantly reduced in favour of new climbing mechanic.
- On learning Zelda is in trouble, Impa no longer waits around to say nothing of value to Link before going after her.
- Zelda ambush location moved to more suitable point.
- Inexplicable temporary increase in bokoblin intellect removed. Bokoblins no longer possess sufficient foresight to break keys and bury shards behind inaccessible rockfalls.