He nearly jumped at its next action.
“You took my eye!” It snarled loudly, and Link could tell it was male. “You tricked me! You wanted me to think you were asleep! Damn you!” It started walking toward him, spinning its short sword, and Link gulped and drew his sword from its scabbard.
The creature then changed its gait. Link anticipated its next move and brought his blade up just as the creature swung its blade forward. Their swords clashed, and Link pushed down on the creature’s blade and began to gain ground. The creature fell backwards, sliding to its left to avoid Link’s oncoming blade. It slashed at Link as it stumbled and barely glanced Link’s shield. Link turned, righting himself, and slashed toward the creature. It hopped backwards, and thrust its blade at Link. Link blocked the attack with his shield, and the creature began to beat down on Link, forcing him back and tiring Link’s shield arm.
Link turned his head as the creature launched another blow and saw the railing behind him. He had to get away from the creature before he was pinned against the rail. Link blocked another blow from the creature and spun, his left arm forward, while the creature prepared for another strike. Link’s sword slashed directly underneath the creature’s, cutting its side open, spilling blood on the ground and causing the creature to keel over. Link took his chance and struck his blade at the creature’s neck. He heard a satisfying thud as the creature’s head rolled and his body fell limp to the floor.
Link wiped his blade on the creature’s hood and sheathed it, sliding it easily into its scabbard. He looked around and saw a replica of the other room, save for the corpse. He found a big chest with a dagger inside. A pair of boots were strewn near it, and a pair of gloves were sitting under the dagger. He figured the creature hadn’t finished putting on its armor when Link arrived.
Finding nothing else inside the chest, Link walked over to the thread. It was no different than the other thread, and he didn’t even bother trying to cut it. He thought for a second and blinked, looking to his left. He caught a glint of something on the other side of the column. He walked to it and found a small wooden chest with cheap iron framing its sides. He kneeled down, inspected the lock, and saw that it was quite shabby. He stood and kicked it hard, busting it. He opened the chest and found a small glass bottle with a blue flame sitting inside. Link held the bottle away from himself and uncorked it.
The flame shot out of the bottle’s opening and away from Link. It flew over the massive thread; then it stopped and caught onto the thread, spreading wildly. The flame burned away the thread. Link dropped the bottle, and it shattered, the rest of the flame spreading around his feet. He dived away, rolling over his shoulder. The last of the thread burned to wisps of string.
Link walked to the hole in the wall where the thread went through; he could see into the sphere room. The thread had burned all the way to the sphere, which now dangled from the thread adjacent to Link and the thread connected to the ceiling.
He jumped out of the hole, landing a few meters below with a smooth roll. He entered the adjoining room, climbing the stairs in a hurry, and searched the column on all sides, but he found nothing. “Damn,” he muttered, and kicked the column, succeeding only in stubbing his toe. “Damn.”
He walked back down the stairs and to the sphere room. He glanced at the door to his left, which he assumed was the way to the ceiling thread. He pushed through the door and found himself in a room identical to the previous rooms. Nothing was there waiting to kill him, though. He climbed the stairs, which were leading him even further up than before, and found himself in a large cavern with doors on the left and right sides of the cavern, one of which had a lock. Link walked toward the door to his left and opened it easily.
The room he was now in was a large dome. The sides of the dome were embedded with stairs that led near the top of the dome where a set of bars hung on the ceiling, allowing access to the platform hanging by chains hooked to the ceiling.
He walked to the stairs and heard a ‘click’ as his foot landed on the first step. A stone panel fell in front of the door he had come through, and it melded into the doorway, sealing it off. He heard the clacking sounds of gates opening, and he looked around but found none. He then heard a pouring sound, and his eyes shot to the floor. The floor was parting, revealing a pool of acid green liquid. The walls of the pool were lined with the gates Link had heard opening, and they were spewing out acid. Link stepped a few stairs up and estimated, from the pouring speed, that he had about a minute till the pool rose to the height of the ceiling platform.
He jogged up the stairs, away from the pool. When he was about fifteen stairs up, he heard another ‘click’ from the step, and the pool began to rumble. He stopped jogging and looked down at the pool, which was only at the bottom step. It rumbled for a few seconds, and a monstrous moth shot from the pool. It reared its head back and spat a glob of acid toward Link. He dodged out of the way and ran up the stairs again, away from the rising pool. The moth fired another glob of acid, but this time not at Link but to the stair in front of him. The acid plastered itself to the stairs, and they began to dissolve. Link leapt over the gap and continued running.
The next blast hit directly in front of Link, and he stopped quickly, his momentum almost carrying him into the acid. He stepped back, leapt over the puddle, and kept running.
Another blast was followed up almost immediately by yet another, which created a gap too long for Link to cross. He stopped at the puddle and ducked as the moth fired a glob directly at him, but it missed and flew into the wall behind him. He shielded his face with his arm as it splattered. He shook the driblets off before they ate his arm and looked for something he could use to get across. An idea formed in his head as he noticed the short height of each step.
He pulled his clawshot from his belt and fired it across the way from him, the chain carrying its load upward to the stairs. It latched on firmly, and Link was yanked through the air. He used his other hand to grab hold of the stair, and he pulled himself up. He unhooked his claw from the stair and hooked the gauntlet on his belt.
He started running up the stairs again, reaching the ceiling after dodging a few more globs of acid. He didn’t stop to think when he reached the last stair, he just leapt off, latching his hands onto the bars attached to the ceiling.
He quickly climbed to the platform and jumped to it, and the platform rattled and shook as it absorbed his landing. He steadied himself and looked up at the ceiling; a hole had opened up, leading Link to another room. He tried jumping to grab hold of the ledge, but his fingers fell short by a few inches. He saw a grate embedded in the ceiling. He pulled out his clawshot and fired it up to the ceiling. It latched on, and Link soared up. He shifted his weight as he looked around. He found himself in a small circular room.
He swung his body, building up momentum, and unhooked the clawshot from the grate. His body carried itself onto the floor of the room, and Link looked for a switch of sorts to close the hole. He found a small button on the wall near a frail-looking door. A stone slid into place on the floor, and it sealed itself into the hole, closing the room off. The wall across from him rumbled slightly; it began to crumble, revealing a small wooden chest like the one in which he had found the blue fire.
He walked over to the chest and kicked it hard, busting the lock. He cracked the lid open; there was a key. He pocketed the key and opened the door, but he failed to check in front of him and found himself falling to the ground. He landed hard on his right shoulder, the impact jarring him greatly. He shifted a little and probed his shoulder; it seemed to be out of place. “Damn,” Link muttered, as he used his other arm to push himself up. He looked around and realized he was in the room he had been in prior to the acid room. He looked over his hurt shoulder and saw that the door to that room was holding tight, not dissolving.
He walked to the door on his left and inserted the key, finding it wouldn’t budge the lock. He wrinkled his nose, and headed over to the door adjacent to where he h
ad fallen. He inserted the key into that door, twisting it slightly. He pushed the door open and found an eerily quiet dome room. The room was illuminated by a few torches that hung on the walls. They cast dim firelight onto the soft grass which carpeted the room’s floor.
He walked forward and looked around, the scent of burning wood and sweet grass filling his nose. Bits of the floor were cast in lightless shadows, and as Link neared the center of the room, the flames dancing upon the torches began flicker lightly. Soon the light was all gone save for the torch hanging above the door he from which he had entered. Link looked around, his left hand creeping toward his sword. He stood in the center of the room for a moment.
The darkness seemed to whisper to him, the tendrils of his shadows rising from the ground and filling his head with fright. He shifted uncomfortably on the grass and looked over his shoulder to the door. He advanced toward the door, turning around and withdrawing his hand from the hilt of his sword. He placed his hands on the door to push it open. It held in place, despite it being unlocked. He took a sharp breath and whipped around. His shadow was crawling from the ground, stretching to the sky, taking eerily real shapes. He placed his hand on his sword’s hilt again and watched the shadows form into an identical figure of Link, but like the form he had seen in the Temple of Power.
Link drew his sword, and Shadow Link followed the action, drawing his own blade, which was identical to Link’s. Link stepped forward, and Shadow Link copied his actions again, placing them only a sword swing away from each other.
Link tested Shadow Link, moving his arm up, slightly, and Shadow Link did the exact same movements, even copying the slight tremble that was ripping through his arm. Link put up his guard and advanced half a step before feinting left and slashing to the right. His blade connected with Shadow Link’s, and he stepped back before sending out a flurry of strikes that would only be mirrored by the strange foe.
He circled around the room, continuously looking for ways to slip past the impenetrable defense of his enemy. He began to tire and, to his dismay, realized this was a plot he had found out too late. Shadow Link changed his gait bolt-like and, had Link not noticed the slight change, Shadow Link’s sword would have run him through. Link stepped back, bringing his sword up to deflect Shadow Link’s next unexpected blow, which sought Link’s neck.
Shadow Link flashed his blade expertly, now creating gaps in Link’s attempts at defense. A small slice here or there in his arm or leg left Link sore within a few minutes, and he began to retreat from his foe, desperately trying to think of some way to fight him off. Link was about to lose a battle of locked blades when he remembered his hidden blades. He pushed his foot back into the grass, helping support his aching right shoulder, and pushed hard against Shadow Link, only causing the shadow to push harder, and forcing Link to bend back to push Shadow Link’s blade away.
Link let his foot slide from beneath him, and Shadow Link fell forward onto Link’s hidden blade. Link slid it around his gut and pulled it out of Shadow Link’s back, leaving a three inch gash wrapped around the right side of his body. Link locked the hidden blade into place before Shadow Link collapsed, and thrust his sword into shadow’s back; it sank into the grass below, impaling Link’s foe completely.
Shadow Link began to drip black blood onto the grass, but it evaporated into normal shadow as it touched the pure object. The body around Link’s blade began to evaporate too, and after a few seconds Shadow Link had disappeared, leaving no traces of his existance save for Link’s wounds.
Link stepped back, and the room began to lighten as the torches re-lit. Link grimaced and turned to leave when the grass at the center of the room began to push away from itself, creating a hole in the center of the room. Link peered into it and found a chest slightly bigger than the one in which he had found the key. He judged it to be of the same binding strength, so he merely kicked it, which broke open its locks. He lifted its lid and found a small rod with a bit of heft to it. It was encased with rubies and gold, and its pummel was a dim red sphere. He swung it experimentally, and the top of the rod sprang open revealing an extension which held a small flame that was reaching for the world outside of the rod’s interior.
He swung the rod again, and the flame shot from the rod, twirling around him and flowing freely. It scorched the ground around him. He noticed the sphere that made up the pommel was glowing furiously, small flames fighting within. He swung it again, and the flame stopped its spinning and snapped into a straight line, flying directly into the wall. He wielded the rod for a few minutes, getting the feel of it, before figuring out that clasping his hand on the pommel would extinguish its flame and close the rod into a smaller form, which he then placed on his belt.
He moved to kick the chest back into the hole before seeing a small glass bottle inside. He reached down and picked it up; a red potion was inside. He uncorked the bottle and gulped down its contents. Within moments his wounds had healed, and his shoulder clicked painfully into place.
Link kicked the chest back into the hole from whence it came and turned back to the door. He tried pushing it open again, and this time, succeeded. He headed to his left, down the stairs and back to the sphere room. He walked to his right, to the room with the thread he couldn’t burn. He pushed through the damaged door and climbed the stairs. Then he pulled the fire rod from his belt as he neared the undamaged thread. He whipped the rod lightly, and it extended, shooting a small gust of flame forward. He whipped more heavily, and the flame followed his thought. It whipped around the thread, spinning engulfing it in a blazing inferno.
As the last bit burned away from the sphere, Link saw a small object fall from the thread and onto the floor. He closed the rod and hooked it back on his belt. He jumped through the hole, rolling on his healed shoulder as he landed. He walked over to the object. He bent over and scooped it up, inspecting it in his gloved hand. It was a key, which he assumed was for the unlocked door that lay in his future.
He looked up at the final thread with a confident glare and headed for the locked door. He climbed the stairs hurriedly and rushed to the locked door. He pushed in the key and was relieved to find that it fit. He twisted it and pushed the door open, finding himself at the foot of a winding staircase. He walked up the stairs, a sense of déjà vu in head, and after the long flight of stairs he found yet another door at the top.
He pushed through it and saw the last thread going through the floor, connecting with the ceiling of the dome room. He walked forward, pulling the fire rod from his belt again; he extended it, raising his arm as he walked to it, and flung his arm straight out, shooting the flame forward. It wrapped around the thread and started eating away at it. The thread burned away, and he could hear the sphere falling down, smashing the floor to bits, falling to whatever was below. He peered into the hole and saw nothing but black.
He looked up, and saw a small grate that was concealed by the thread. He pulled out his clawshot and fired it onto the grate. It pulled him over to it, and he lowered himself down with the chain until he was hanging a small distance above the pit where the sphere had broken through. He looked up and found that his chain was extended to its full length.
He began to swing his legs and create momentum when the grate to which he was hooked began to shift under his weight. He felt the shift, and before he could try to swing forward, the grate ripped from the ceiling. Link fell into the pit.
He landed roughly in the dark, but fortunately a bedding of web was underneath him. He coiled the chain back into the clawshot and slid the grate off of himself. He got to his feet and hooked his clawshot onto his belt. He looked around. Strangely, the room was dimly illuminated by the green moss that clung to the walls.
Something was missing.
“Where in Din…” His voice drifted off as he realized the sphere had disappeared.
He looked through the room, not finding anything, and he glanced to the ceiling, steeling himself for what he may see. Clinging to the ceiling w
as the sphere. It had shed its metallic skin to reveal the skin of a massive Gohma. It had unfurled its many legs and was using them to crawl along the ceiling.
Link inched his hand toward his sword and took a deep, slow breath as he drew it. He held his sword aloft as he waited for the Gohma to move. It continued to crawl for a while, giving Link time to look for a weakness. The only thing he could find was a small chink in the armor on its back: the Gohma’s eye.
Link grew tired of waiting and sheathed his sword. He pulled his rifle from his back and loaded it, keeping one eye on the Gohma. It stayed still mostly, and Link hoisted the butt of the rifle against his shoulder. He aimed his shot to the eye of the Gohma and placed his finger on the trigger. He held his breath, and kept the rifle steady, then squeezed.
The sequence of explosions rang out inside the gun, and the bullet spewed out and toward the Gohma. It struck dead on, sinking straight through, and causing the Gohma to writhe momentarily, wailing as it fell from the ceiling, landing on its back.
Link ran across the room to the Gohma, hooking the rifle on his back and drawing his sword as he ran. The Gohma squirmed and struggled to flop over, managing to flip Link end over end with one of its legs. Link landed hard on his back. He pushed himself to his feet, dodging the Gohma’s legs this time, and slashed his sword toward the nearest leg. It fell right off when the blade contacted it, the slice clean and easy. Link grabbed the stump of the leg with his free arm and leapt onto the Gohma’s stomach.