here,” she rapidly informs, pumping a healthy dose of panic into the boy.
“What’s the matter with you?” The patriarch asks, watching Rifts suddenly nervous antics as he pulls his hood back over his head and searches for another way out. Seconds later, the seemingly thick leader puts the pieces together. “Fugitive, huh?”
“W-what?” Rift stammers, only half listening.
“Traveling? Hah! More like running,” he accuses, crossing his arms and becoming more comfortable. “What’d you do? Steal something?”
“N-no I,” the boy starts as his thoughts scramble into a thoughtless purée. Taking another second to exhale, he decides the Goron’s excuse is as good as any. “I got caught stealing bread from the market,” he lies, staring at the ground and hoping the patriarch’s disgruntled standing with the throne will inspire some sympathy.
“Haha, I knew it!” He laughs, walking over to a shelf and snatching a small item from within. “Here,” he offers, tossing Rift a necklace of oddly shaped rubies. “Hide in here until he’s goes. Hurry up,” he insists, cocking his head toward a large circular stone with the Goron symbol boldly etched upon it. With a little effort, he rolls the stone aside revealing a doorway leading into a dark hall. Without another option, the boy quickly jogs through, turning back with a worried gaze. “Hot in there,” he states with a serious expression. “Necklace will protect you. Don’t wander off,” he concludes, rolling the secret doorway closed just as Boam enters the room. Standing in the darkness, Rift can hear muffled voices speaking calmly, but cannot make out the words. Still, he managed to avoid being spotted with an unexpected stroke of luck.
“This is perfect!” Mai cheers, slapping both palms onto the boy’s cheeks as she appears before him with an energetic smile. “The portal to the temple is in this crater. I didn’t know how we were going to get in here, but you did it! That was genius!” She exclaims, releasing the boy from her faintly glowing grasp and dissipating for the moment. “It’s this way,” she calls, reappearing behind him and pointing ahead. “With a little luck we’ll be back before he knows we left.” A proud smile spreads across Rift’s face as he makes his way through the winding hall to emerge in a sweltering cavern of molten lava. The air itself seems to be alive, quivering and waving from the absurd amount of heat radiating from below. Inside the heart of the volcano, the boy almost instantly begins to pass out, but Mai promptly throws the necklace over his head. The room ceases spinning as quickly as it started, and with a stumbling misstep, Rift has regained his balance.
“Thanks,” he chuckles, shaking his head and palming his brow. “That guy wasn’t kidding.”
“It’s hot,” Mai agrees with a modest look, scanning the room for the portal. “We need to get down to that platform,” she points out, the lone patch of earth amongst the lava only accessible via a winding path stretching from the base of the massive cliff Rift stands upon.
“Alright,” he nods, stepping to the ledge and squinting past the sharp pillars of rock attached to the path far below. “It looks flat enough,” he shrugs, involuntarily flinching when he drops through the ground, popping out of the flat, grey stone at the center of the crater. After righting himself and landing on his heels, he sees the Triforce is engraved upon the platform, though time has caused much of the craftsmanship to fade. The sound of churning, bubbling lava is much louder now that he has descended into the heart of the inferno.
“There,” Mai exclaims, not trying to hide her excitement. Searching his surroundings for a moment longer, the boy finally spots a peculiar shade of bleached stone upon a cone-shaped wall of rock. With a confident smirk, he marches through the portal and into a radically different setting. The rock face he just traversed, a reddish-brown stain marring the otherwise white chunk of earth, is the only discernible geography as far as the eye can see. The ground he stands upon sizzles at such a high pitch, the noise soon fades into Rift’s subconscious. The flat, featureless landscape is thoroughly cracked, like a shattered mirror someone attempted to piece back together on the ground. Strikingly white, the soft earth seems to glow like heated iron, the scribbled divisions throughout the endless plain glowing brightly and starkly contrasting the pitch black sky. Unsure if he is even inside a mountain anymore, the utter lack of wind assures him he is.
“Not what I was expecting,” the boy admits with a humbled expression.
“It’s only meant to disorient us,” Mai shrugs, not at all shocked by the vast emptiness. Walking forward, Rift searches for any sign of life or structure in the distance, the endless black meeting the stretching white on the distant horizon.
“Well it’s working,” he sighs, slowly spinning three hundred sixty degrees as he continues forward. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“We’ll figure it out,” she asserts with an optimistic attitude. “Let’s just move forward for now.” Taking her advice, Rift jogs forward into the vast emptiness. The soft, repetitive crunch of the boy’s feet meeting the piping hot earth is lost in the infinite darkness all around him. After a time, he grows irritated by the lack of results, pausing to rest for a moment. The portal through which he entered the Fire Temple’s dark counterpart is barely visible in the distance behind him, and still nothing of interest has appeared.
“As much as I like the exercise,” he starts, scanning the distance for anything worth noting.
“There’s something out there,” Mai interrupts, a curious anxiety in her voice. “Just a little further.” Shrugging his shoulders, Rift continues forward, the landscape failing to differentiate at any point during the long trek. Finally spying a form in the distance, the boy picks up the pace until the figure takes shape. Four massive suits of heavy armor stand back to back guarding nothing Rift can perceive, even once he’s drawn closer. Threatening from head to toe, their every conceivable weakness is covered with multiple layers of heavy plate mail. The seemingly empty shells show no signs of life, but their gigantic war axes, clenched tightly in their hands, are far from inviting. Circling the statue-like warriors, the boy finally spots a metallic button, identical to the ones he had to activate in the previous dungeon. Positioned to halt any advance toward the switch, the iron-clad guards remain dormant while Rift considers his options.
“Call me crazy, but I’d rather not get too close to those things,” he admits with a nervous sigh.
“Don’t worry,” Mai assures, though there is something in her voice Rift doesn’t quite like. “I’ve got a plan. Just jump over them and land on the switch. As long as you don’t touch them we should be fine,” she concludes as if the feat is no big deal.
“You’re serious too,” the boy chuckles after a moment, shaking his head.
“Concentrate. Just focus on the spot you want to land,” she advises, waiting with anticipation. Taking a minute longer to size up the obstacle, Rift eventually works up the nerve, stepping back to an optimal distance. After a deep breath, he takes two running steps before vaulting into the air, dropping between the spikey suits of armor and directly upon the button. The odd-looking mechanism pops into the ground with a loud click as the boy squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for the armor to angrily awaken. Moments pass and nothing changes. Relaxing his muscles, Rift peers through the small gaps between the iron-clad curtains, finding nothing has changed outside his cell of metal backsides. “Hmm,” Mai chirps, confused by the lack of results. “Well that’s disappointing. Great jump, though.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he responds satirically. “Now what?” Without warning, the entire area begins to shake violently. Barely able to keep his footing, Rift stumbles into one of the statues surrounding him before dropping to a knee. An instant later, all four of the armored sentinels come to life, lifting their gigantic axes to their chests and stepping away from the switch the boy resides upon. In a synchronized about-face, the group slowly turns to discover the one who would disturb their eternal duty. “No, no, no,” Rift mumbles, looking from faceles
s helm to faceless helm. Each of the warrior’s heads is concealed behind a perforated shell, like ancient gladiators they are void of any features behind the expressionless masks.
“It’s okay,” Mai quickly interjects, watching the iron knuckles collectively end their synchronized mannerisms, and individually strive to be the one who kills the intruder. “Stay calm,” she adds, though her voice is quickly infected with worry as well. A deep grunt sounds from behind, and Rift turns in time to see one of the animated armors twist its axe behind its form, powering up for a destructive attack. “Jump!” Mai exclaims, just as the colossal weapon begins to swing. Diving for the warrior’s head, Rift springs over the attack, pushing off the helm with his idle hand as he flips to temporary safety. Already closing in, the remaining sentinels march with extremely hefty footsteps, their mighty boots plunging into the soft earth with every step. Coordinating their attack, the heavily armored suits spread out, attempting to surround the boy once again.
“I just remembered,” Rift announces, meekly backing away from the imposing force. “I had a thing I needed to do. You know, somewhere else.”
“Get it together!” Mai