My apologies for taking longer to update this time. I had a hard time thinking of how I wanted the Forest Temple to play out in regards to whether or not I should use a dungeon that's already been explored in a Zelda game or coming up with my own. I decided on the latter because I just thought it would be more fun.
Then I started writing and writing, and I could not for the life of me figure out a way to make it any shorter and keep the budding relationship scenes, so this chapter is going to be split into two parts. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if you want to see more original dungeons like this over the story, or if you'd prefer I used familiar dungeons from previous games.
Chapter 8: The Forest Temple (Part 1)
Fortunately for Lucina, there was plenty of cover in the grotto to hide behind. Unfortunately, her blue hair and pale skin would stick out like a pegasus in a wyvern den against all of the green, brown, and gray of the trees, stone, other cover she could find. She tied up her hair the way she used to while pretending to be Marth to keep loose strands from appearing around the tree she was sitting behind.
When she had sneaked in through the entryway, Elara and Link had their backs turned, but Jixi spotted her right way. The fairy had caused a distraction that allowed Lucina to take cover behind the tree she was now behind. Afterwards, Jixi made some excuse to the two of them and joined Lucina behind the tree.
"She gave him a sword, a shield, and a bow," whispered the fairy into Lucina's ear. "I guess there's like a treasure deep in the temple that will help him out if he gets stuck."
Lucina nodded in understanding. The fairy seemed to distrust the sorceress as much as the rest of them and was glad to help Lucina sneak into the Temple after Link unnoticed. The glow around the fairy's form was so intense that Lucina couldn't even make out a body within the light. She was just so cute, like what was that?
"Okay, looks like Link is going in," said Jixi, hovering out near the tree.
"Are you going to follow him as well?" Lucina whispered as softly as she could.
"No, he'll be fine if he has you around," replied Jixi. "I'll keep our little sorceress occupied and see what other information I can get her to tell me." The fairy floated close to Lucina's face again. "You know, you're very pretty. Do you have a boyfriend?"
The question nearly made Lucina gasp aloud in surprise, but she suppressed it. Such an… odd question. "…No," she replied quietly after a short pause. It was almost embarrassing that she didn't have anyone to call her own that way. Practically all of her comrades-in-arms found love on the battlefield during the wars they fought together, but she had been so doggedly focused on saving her family that she gave almost no thought to starting her own. Men in the villages and cities across Ylisse had been happy to accept her proposals for courtship, but they always ended the same.
"Don't look so glum about it," whispered Jixi happily. "Hyrule has lots of nice guys!" Lucina had a lurking suspicion that the fairy and Caeda were of like minds. It… didn't bother her, but sparking any kind of romance here would certainly lead to heartbreak yet again. After taking down Lior, it would be time to go home again. To Ylisse.
Not risking another sound, Lucina screwed her face up into a smile and nodded. Gaius instructed her during their brief lessons that the first key to stealth was to shut up. The second key was to make the rest of your body shut up.
"Okay, I'll go distract her with some annoying questions," said Jixi, floating slowly out around the tree. "Give me thirty seconds and you should be good to follow Link."
Counting the seconds, Lucina waited patiently. After the thirty seconds passed, she dared to peek around the tree and saw that Elara was indeed turned away from the entrance to the temple talking to the fairy. It was now or never.
Lucina crept over the tree roots and stepped slowly and quietly towards the door. Watch your feet, nothing will get you caught faster than tripping. There were roots, vines, twigs, and stones littered across the floor; every step she took had to be calculated to avoid tripping and making noise. Take cover whenever there's cover, hug it like it's your long lost lover. A tree here, a broken wall there, Lucina kept behind them as best she could, praying that Jixi wouldn't lose Elara's attention.
"No, I don't have a crush on Link!" cried the sorceress suddenly. Lucina couldn't help but grin, hoping she'd never have to be on the receiving end of a Jixi distraction. "That would be so gross!"
Gross? That was a bit harsh, Lucina thought. Link was certainly a good looking man, like Inigo without the womanizing bit. Ugh, no, she couldn't let herself think that way. It was impossible not to notice, though. That messy blond hair, those deep blue eyes… no. It wouldn't do to dwell on these thoughts.
After a few more overly probing questions with equally annoyed responses from Elara, Lucina reached the door to the Temple, which Link had left slightly ajar. Doors are the worst; you can never tell if someone oiled the hinges or not. If you can use an open window, use an open window. There were no open windows. With a soft prayer to Naga on her lips, Lucina pushed the door open which thankfully didn't creak.
Taking one last look behind to see Elara glaring at the fairy, Lucina stepped into the dark Forest Temple.
The air Link breathed in was earthy and moist. Above him the canopy of leaves was so thick that he wasn't sure if there was a ceiling or open sky above. The only light in the place was from torches burning along the stairway walls. The air itself felt mixed with the darkness surrounding him.
The shield the sorceress gave him was held out in front of him defensively. It made him feel safe, in a way. For some reason, it felt almost natural to hold the sword and the shield, as if he'd been training with them for a lifetime. Maybe that was part of being the Hero?
Nothing the sorceress said convinced him that he was indeed some legendary Hero, but he'd be lying if he said that the idea of exploring this Temple didn't excite him. Something about the mysteries within beckoned him to take these steps into the darkness without a guide.
At the bottom of the stairs, there was a door flanked by two lit torches. How were these torches lit? Link stepped close to the one on the left and observed it. There was no visible fuel for the fire that burned orange in the heavy darkness. No wood, and he doubted the thin torch contained oil. So, it was magic that kept these torches burning for the years since any living person walked through these halls.
Thinking it would be better to travel with an eternal source of light through the potentially dark hallways ahead, he tried pulling the torch from its sticking place. It didn't budge. Tugging and trying to push with his legs off the wall yielded no effect either. The Temples, as the stories about them all said, were certainly mysterious.
Resigning himself to travel unaided, he reached for the door's handle. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Instinctively, Link sidestepped to his right, unsheathed his sword, and turned back holding the shield between him and… Marth?
No, not Marth. Lucina's more delicate features and branded eye were tinted by the soft amber glow of the torchlight. The plain blue tunic she wore hung loosely about her torso and was tied around her waist by a belt, and she wore simple traveling pants. Her arms were exposed, but she wore fingerless blue gloves. He remembered that she said she was summoned here in just her nightclothes, so everything she wore now must have been gathered while here in Hyrule, not a rupee to her name. Hardly the kind of clothes for dangerous excursions into cursed Temples.
"You cut your hair?" Link asked Lucina, sheathing his sword but electing to keep his new shield held. It was odd, it felt so sturdy but light at the same time. He wondered idly if the sorceress had made it herself with her own brand of magic.
"What?" asked Lucina with a confused look. "Oh!" With a deft motion, she reached her hand behind her head and the rest of her blue hair cascaded down to her mid back. Her other hand rested on the hilt of the iron sword sheathed at her side.
"We don't really trust Elara, if you cannot tell," said Lucina, shaking her head. "So, Marth and Caeda went after the Princess, and I snuck in here. If this is a trap, at least she won't be expecting me to be with you."
"Right," said Link simply, nodding appreciatively. He wanted to say more, but the words just wouldn't form in his head. Something about being alone with Lucina made him feel even more hesitant than usual to speak freely.
"Let us proceed onward, then," Lucina said almost casually. She looked remarkably at ease, where Link felt the heaviness of the Temple as if it had been built on top of him. Taking a deep breath, Link turned the handle on the simple wooden door and stepped into the room beyond.
Like the grotto behind them, the enormous room before them was overgrown with vines, moss, and grass creating cracks through the stone floors. Sunlight breached the canopy above, bathing places here and there with light. In the middle of the room there was an ornate fountain topped by three figures: one that looked like a Hylian child, a Deku scrub, and a strange creature with a leaf for a mask. The child had a hand stretched upward, the scrub was pointing its spout upwards, and the leaf creature held a staff high. The fountain was dried up and moss coated the figures.
On either side of the fountain, high up on the stone walls, were three wide channels like gutters. Cracked stone pillars held the odd channels up. Link could only assume that the gutter-like things were used to transport water, but from where he didn't know. They were dried, and at the end of each channel was a doorway below it that led to rooms further beyond. One of the doorways was on the floor level but broken down staircases led up to the other two.
"That's a big door," said Lucina, eyes fixed on a different enormous stone door behind the statue at the back of the room. Intricate carvings weathered by far too much time were etched into its ancient surface. The broken walls around the door revealed gears and cogs like a clock's that were probably once used to operate the door.
"What is all this?" Link asked in a wonder. Was this the paradise that led his friends to these woods all those years ago?
"I think those are aqueducts," Lucina marveled, her eyes darting to every structure around the room.
"What?" asked Link, having never heard of whatever that was.
"Aqueducts," Lucina repeated, stepping towards the fountain. "They're used to carry water from one place to another, like an artificial river." Link followed her, taking each step carefully as though some monstrosity would jump out at them at the slightest disturbance.
When the two of them arrived at the fountain, Link got a better look at the statues. It appeared as though each one had a place for water to pour out of. The tip of the staff of the leaf creature, the snout of the Deku scrub, and the fingers of the Hylian child. Though, now that he was closer, the "child" looked strange. He couldn't quite place it, but it didn't look like a normal child.
"Fascinating," said Lucina softly. "Are these different species in your realm?"
"The scrub, yeah," said Link thoughtfully. "The girl looks strange, and I've never seen the leaf thing with the staff."
Lucina proceeded to ask Link all he knew about the Deku scrubs. It's not something he knew too much about, but having grown up near a forest, he'd encountered them before. Some were friendly and wanted to sell things like smoothies, seeds, and bags, and others would attack just for the fun of it.
"Smoothie?" asked Lucina giggling. "It's your turn to tell me what in Naga that is."
Naga? Link had a feeling that the two of them had quite a bit to learn about each other's worlds. "It's like taking a lot of fruit or other ingredients and blending them together so you can drink it." The Deku vendor in Hateno always had a busy stand during summer and leading into autumn.
Lucina's eyes lit up at the idea. "You have to show me!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"Alright," chuckled Link. For such a serious woman as Lucina was, it was almost surprising to see this lighter, softer side. She smiled brightly at the idea of them getting those smoothies. The idea struck Link as well; the two of them sitting on a bench in Hateno drinking smoothies together.
Turning her eyes back at the statue, Lucina continued, "I wonder what those other two are…" She pondered for a moment before shaking head dismissively. "I suppose it doesn't matter. What shall we do from here, Link?"
Slightly taken aback at the question, Link tried to recall what Elara told him. "Elara said there was an item I could find in here that would help us. She didn't tell me what it was."
"Maybe something that can open that door?" Lucina suggested. There was no way even with their combined strength they could move that door, but something told Link that was exactly where they needed to go to find the sigil.
"I guess we have to find out," said Link.
The path forward seemed to be one of the other rooms with an aqueduct above it. Two of them were inaccessible, ancient staircases having long since broken away where they led. Maybe if Link or Lucina hoisted the other up one of them could move forward, but Link at least didn't like the idea of separating. So, the way had to be the door with the aqueduct above it on the ground floor.
Lucina seemed to draw this same conclusion. Without another word, the two of them stepped to the door, which was thick and wide, made of wood, with a large spiral symbol painted onto it. They both placed their hands on the surface and pushed the door up until it disappeared into the wall above. It was surprisingly light. Or was Lucina surprisingly strong despite her thin frame and arms?
The aqueduct continued on through this room, sloping upwards until it reached another wall with another door. Between them and the door, however, an entire network of platforms, trees, stone walkways, and other obstacles separated them.
"What kind of Temple is designed to be hard to get through?" asked Lucina grimacing. To their left, there was a large treasure chest. Link instinctively opened it without thinking, and inside there was a dusty old parchment.
Looking over it together, it dawned on them that it was a map of the entire Temple. "At least they were kind enough to leave a map," sighed Lucina sarcastically.
Even with the map, it took the two of them nearly half an hour to navigate through the large chamber. There were monsters, too, but none of them were strong enough to give either of them significant worry. Skulltulas, mostly. Nothing Link hadn't dealt with in the forests near Hateno, but Lucina was frightened out of her wits when she first saw one.
"What gods above thought spiders and skulls would be a good fit together?"
The really frustrating part of their excursion through the chamber was when they reached the door and realized they needed a key to unlock it. Lucina tried and failed to pick the lock herself, cursing a man named Gaius somewhere for not taking these particular lessons more seriously. What was worse is that where they had already killed monsters, more spawned in their place.
A small brown chest, hidden away in the hollowed out trunk of a large tree, contained the blasted little silver key they were searching for. "Next time, we find this before we reach the door," laughed Link.
He enjoyed the occasional banter with the princess. While Link had barely interacted with Hyrule's princess, Lucina was a far cry from what he'd expected of a princess apart from her slightly more proper way of speaking than his.
"Shall we press on?" asked Lucina, turning the key in the lock, causing the chains around the door to collapse to the ground with the lock.
The eerie darkness in the room beyond felt almost heavy. There were no stone structures or statues apart from the aqueduct which led now to the ceiling. Spiderwebs covered the trees which grew so close together they practically formed a wall separating them from the outside world. The ceiling was the same, branches intertwined so thickly that even the sunlight was blocked from view. The only light in the room was given off by lit torches sticking out of the ground like the ones that seemed to burn eternally in the hallway to the main chamber.
It was barely visible in the torchlight, but Link could make out a thickly woven spiderweb that blocked the aqueduct. Water droplets dripped onto the aqueduct between tiny holes in the web. Another large treasure chest sat right underneath the aqueduct, but it too was covered in spiderwebs.
"Link," said Lucina, voice shaking. "Are there… giant skull spiders in Hyrule?"
Unfortunately, Link didn't know the answer to the question. "I don't know," he whispered, his own voice shaking.
A frenzied pattering answered. Hundreds of legs clicking against each other reverberated around the dark clearing as skulltulas the size the dogs crawled through the cracks in the branch ceiling. The two of them turned back to the door to retreat, but the door now had metal bars blocking their exit.
"Damn I wish I had my Falchion," said Lucina, her voice now forcibly steady. She drew her sword as Link drew his own, the unsheathing sound drowned out by the now descending skulltulas.
A skulltula lunged at Link, its pincers bared. Link cut through it cleanly and followed up with a strike that cleaved the two behind it. Lucina dealt death to the skulltulas that assaulted her behind him. "Stand back to back with me, we can avoid getting flanked that way," Lucina shouted over the clicking.
Link obeyed, and they fought off the skulltulas together. Green blood coated their swords as they repeatedly struck at each one. The shield protected Link's right side effectively, but he worried about Lucina's own lack of a shield. He chanced a glance behind to see if she was okay. Never before had he seen a person wield a sword with such finesse. Her offense and defense were balanced. Whenever she saw an opening, she struck and immediately returned to defense.
He tried imitating her strategy, focusing on defending himself until he saw an opening, but the skulltulas didn't have any coordination with their strikes. There was nothing to read. He felt overwhelmed. A skulltula latched its pincers into his left arm, and a bigger one pulled on his shield.
Lucina's sword passed cleanly through the one on his arm, giving him the boost enough to kill the skulltula pulling on his shield. Wave after wave of skulltulas fell to their combined strength, more than once Link had to rely on Lucina's experience to get him out of a sticky spot.
How much time passed was unclear, but when Link brought his blade through the last one he saw remaining, he swayed on the spot. He was bleeding from his arm and several punctures on his legs. Lucina, on the other hand, sported a single small puncture wound on her right arm.
"Good job," Link panted, dropping his sword and shield onto the ground. The skulltulas thankfully vanished into clouds of smoke when they died so there were no decaying corpses at his feet as he collapsed to the earth.
"Not so bad yourself," said Lucina between breaths. Unlike Link, she remained standing. "You think anything useful will be in these pots?"
For the first time Link noticed the ceramic pots that lined the walls and felt an ungodly urge to break every single one of them. It had always been like that. He didn't know why. "Probably," he managed to say.
Within moments, Lucina broke the pots. "There's money in some of them, and I found this cute little fairy like Jixi. It's not talking like her, though."
"Bring it over," panted Link. "It can heal us."
Lucina obeyed and brought the small fairy over to him. As fairies instinctively did, it flew over the two of them, and the puncture wounds they both suffered closed up, and the energy they expended in the battle was refilled.
"Gods, that feels good," sighed Lucina contentedly. "That's incredible, can Jixi do that, too?" Her eyes lit up excitedly at the prospect.
"Different kind of fairy," replied Link, lifting himself into a sitting position. His joints were sore, but he felt the fairy's healing powers working through him. "And once they use their power…" The fairy fluttered way high until its glow vanished through the branches above.
"I see," said Lucina, a little downtrodden by the disappointing news. "Ah well. At least you're okay. You fought well."
"Not as well as you," muttered Link.
"Hey," said Lucina, sitting across from him. "I know warriors with years more experience than you who would've come out a lot worse." The soft glow of the torches caressed her delicate features with an orange light. His eyes met hers and, by the gods, his heart pounded like it had when fighting those skulltulas.
"Th-thank you," said Link, fumbling over his words. It was time to stop talking now. Time to stop feeling.
He was 18 years old, but ever since his friends disappeared in the Lost Woods, his social life was practically non-existent. Hateno was a relatively large town by Hyrule's standards, but he became somewhat of a pariah after he came back from the Lost Woods alone. Nobody believed him to be dangerous per se, but the remaining villagers his age seemed to think it was better to avoid the boy whose friends all disappeared.
When he was 16, there was a new girl in town who gave him a blissful few months, but that ended when she left to live in Lurelin after a brief stay in Hateno. Last he heard she was already engaged to some fisherman. How he started to see Lucina reminded him a little too much of how it had been with that girl when they first met. Only Lucina was much prettier and far more intimidating to approach than her.
"Want to see what's in that treasure chest?" asked Lucina, breaking him from these dangerous thoughts.
Link nodded and the two of them rose and approached the web-covered chest. Rather than rip the webs off with his bare hands, Link found a fallen branch and lit it with one of the eternally burning torches. The webs burned off the chest easily. Link opened the chest and inside was a strange contraption.
"This must be the 'item' Elara was talking about," said Lucina.
There was a pronged metal tip like a wide arrowhead sticking out of a purple and silver mechanism. Chains wrapped around the mechanism and the arrowhead was attached to the chain at its base. A handle with a kind of trigger was at the opposite end of the arrowhead.
Link grabbed it by the handle carefully making sure not to pull the trigger. He had… no idea what this was. He looked at Lucina, who merely shrugged her confusion.
Figuring that he wouldn't find out what it was unless he tested it, he aimed at the line of trees, firmly grasped the handle, and pulled the trigger. The arrowhead and chain shot out and stuck to the tree he pointed at. Before he could even wonder why this would be useful over having a good bow, he felt his feet lift from the ground as he was carried through the air by the mechanism attached to the chain.
Holding to the handle for dear life, Link zipped through the air and crashed headfirst into the tree. Lucina ran to his side and, upon seeing he was okay, let out a laugh. "That's incredible!" she laughed, almost doubling over.
Rubbing his head, Link pulled the mechanism out of the tree. It came out surprisingly easy. Realizing what this could be used for, Link pointed it at the branches right above where the aqueduct was blocked by the spiderwebs.
In a similar lurch, Link was pulled through the air by the chain until he landed easily on the aqueduct itself. It was covered in dead moss.
"No way!" cried Lucina, laughter replaced with awe. "How does that even work?"
Unsure himself that he would ever understand how the mechanism worked, Link drew his sword and cut at the web blocking the aqueduct. It only took a few seconds of cutting for the web to break entirely as water cascaded from the opening. Thinking quickly, Link pointed the mechanism and fired it at the branches above.
Water gushed through the channels in the aqueduct, years of dried moss and twigs washing away with the new current. He wasn't sure why, but getting the water running seemed like the right way to progress through this Temple.
There was another trigger on the mechanism. He pulled it instinctively, and the chain slowly lowered him to the ground where Lucina stood below. As his feet touched the ground, Lucina approached him, her eyes practically sparkling at how awestruck she was at the mechanism.
"You must allow me to try that!" she exclaimed, her usual propriety almost forgotten.
"You earned it, too," he said, pressing the primary trigger which caused it to unhook from the tree branches and retract.
"Navigating the rest of this Temple will be easy with this," said Lucina as Link handed the mechanism to her. She admired it fondly.
"Link," she said suddenly, looking into his eyes. "You know, I believe you might just be a hero."