Key Quest: Air and Fire by Judy Colella (first color ebook reader TXT) 📕

Or a scream of terror… “You, um, yeah! I’m sure he’ll love it.”

“You really ought to pay the mask shop owner back now, Link,” whispered Navi. “Just in case.”

He wanted to ask her what the heck she meant by that, but the guard was talking about how he’d been told there was an explosion on Death Mountain the night before, and that Link should be very careful if he was going back up there.

Without bothering to explain that he knew all about that explosion, he nodded and said he’d be careful, but that now he had to go pay for the mask. Not that he felt like trudging all the way back to the Town. If he didn’t though, Navi would nag him without mercy. Dang.

As they were crossing the drawbridge again, it occurred to Link that Navi was probably concerned about his chances of surviving that stupid cavern. After all, if he got killed, the shop owner would never get paid for his mask. Great. And the sun was going down, too.

This time, two masks stood on the shelves – another Keaton Mask and one that looked like a horned animal skull. As soon as he handed the owner the ten rupees, he was given the new one.

“But – ”

“Now go make someone else happy! This one costs twenty rupees! Byeee!”

Crap. I really don’t have time for this. Frowning, he left the shop. “You know what?”

“No, Link, what?”

“I don’t care if he’s waiting for his rupees. I have a promise to keep, and if I get killed, someone else can take this stupid mask and either sell it or give it back. Since I doubt my death will mean you die, too, you can tell whoever it is that this is what I want. Unless some monster eats it first.”

“The drawbridge is closing.”

“And another thing – why do we have to do all this stuff in the first place? I mean, yeah, I promised Zelda I’d collect all the Spiritual Stones, but why wouldn’t Darunia give it to me if he was such great friends with the King, who happens to be Zelda’s father?”

“You’re climbing up the drawbridge, Link. It’s almost closed.”

“Whatever. I mean, sure, I didn’t exactly tell him she’d sent me, but the fact that I knew that song should have clued him in, wouldn’t you think?”

“Link, you’re about to – ”

Splash! Coughing and spitting out water, Link climbed up onto the bank and turned to glare at the now-closed drawbridge. He’d been so wrapped up in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized he was heading to the end of the bridge as it was being raised, so had walked right off the edge and fallen into the moat.

“I tried to warn you,” Navi said quietly.

Link took a deep breath and decided that the way things were going, he should probably wait until morning to enter the cavern. Which meant finding a place to sleep…the sound of dirt being frantically shoveled behind him made him stand a little straighter and slowly draw out the Sword. “There’s a Stalchild behind me, isn’t there.”

“Yes, Link.”

He nodded and spun around, lashing out with the Sword. The creature fell with a satisfying crunch, and Link, thinking he’d probably get severely injured if he stopped to play the ocarina, turned toward the stairs leading to Kakariko Village, and took off at a dead run. This had definitely become a bad day for an adventure.

He slept in the mill again, got a bite to eat from Anju after explaining what he’d found himself doing the day before, and went back to the gate. The guard waved and smiled, shouting after the boy that his son had loved his present.

Up ahead, after the first bend in the path, Link heard a horribly familiar sound. The leaping thud of a Tektite so early in the morning was not his idea of fun. At least they were easy to dispatch.

When he reached the mouth of the cavern, he paused to make sure his equipment was secure. The recumbent Goron hadn’t stirred as he passed, so he didn’t bother to disturb him – or her, maybe? How did one tell the difference? He was just glad that the explosion hadn’t harmed the Goron at all.

Plenty of light shined into the entrance, showing him two interesting facts: a wall of stone covered what should have been the continuation of the way in, and several bomb flowers were growing nearby. No-brainer.

This time, he’d set the explosive plant down and back away in plenty of time. Once the wall was down, he found himself looking at a very strange place, indeed. Directly ahead was a wooden jetty that had been built over what appeared to be a lake of liquid fire. Pathways led around the outer sides of this, and which ran below walls too high for him to climb up. In the middle of the lake was a small, raised island with some kind of statue at its center, and behind that, a face had been somehow carved into the rock. Not a Goron face, a Kokiri, human or Hylian face – something else with which Link was completely unfamiliar. It looked almost reptilian and was gigantic.

The word “Dodongo” came to mind – after all, this was called Dodongo’s Cavern, so maybe this was a representative of whomever or whatever this Dodongo was.

Another thing he noticed was that the place was uncomfortably hot. Only a few feet in, and he was already sweating.

“Are you hot, Navi?” he asked before she could point out how hot it was.

“No, Link. I’m a fairy.”

“What – so you don’t feel heat?”

“Or cold.”

“Well, I do.”

“I know.”

“Will I be able to function in here, do you think?”

“I don’t know, Link. But you should try.”

No joking. “Yep. I should.” He took a deep, unhappy breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.” He had no idea what “this” was, but moving was better than standing still.

“Those are lava pits, not a lake,” Navi explained. They were standing at the end of the wooden pier, Link peering over the edge after asking her about what he assumed was a fiery lake of some sort.

“Lava?”

“Yes, Link. It’s what comes out of volcanoes. Melted rock.”

“Saria told me about that, but I don’t think she used the word ‘lava.’ What would happen if I fell in?”

“You’d die.”

“Oh. Well, that’s great. How am I supposed to get any further than this, then?”

As if the cave heard his question, something began to rumble from deep within the lava, and a moment later, three smaller, round islands arose, one of them right in front of him. Lava dripped from its sides, and it remained still for several minutes, only to sink downward again. This time, however, it didn’t become immersed in the lava, but stopped with its top several feet above it.

Link waited. Watched. Waited. And sure enough, it began to rise again. When it was level with both him and the larger island on the other side, it stopped once more. A few more of these movements, and the remaining lava on its surface appeared to have cooled enough for him to stand on.

“Okay. Next time it comes up, we go.” He swallowed, uncomfortable in the heat and wishing he’d put some water in the bottle Anju had given him. He did have the milk, but he suspected he’d be better served waiting for an emergency to use it.

The little island came back up, and Link leaped across the gap between it and the pier. As soon as his feet hit the surface, he took a few running steps and jumped again, this time landing solidly on the larger island.

“Look out!”

Before he could react, something struck the ground beside him, nearly hitting his feet. He looked up and realized a beam had shot from the head of the statue. Taking a sideways leap, he scurried around past it, only to feel the heat of its ray scorching the back of his tunic.

The way he’d gone had brought him in line with another of the three small, moving islands, the one to the left of the larger one. Even though it wasn’t quite level with him yet, he jumped and ducked. Heart racing, he risked looking back at the statue, only to find it was no longer moving.

The head, which lacked a face and had instead one eye at its center, had revolved, tracking him. Now that he was no longer on its island, it had gone dormant.

“Dang. How do I fight something like that?” He shook his head and straightened. The island had completed its ascent, so he jumped again, this time landing on the higher ground that had been unreachable from the entrance to the cavern.

The long wall facing him had a path blocked by metal bars and several arched areas that looked like doorways, except these were blocked by purposely-constructed piles of stone. That would have been the end of the matter, except for the bomb flowers growing at intervals on this path. He pulled one up, still delighted at his ability to do so, and dropped it carefully in front of the blockage to his immediate left. He ran off, crouched down, and waited.

When the flower exploded, the stones crumbled, revealing a deep alcove. He went in and found a large chest just like the ones he’d encountered in the Great Deku Tree. Eagerly, he pulled it open and found one of the scrolls he knew would open into a map.

“Now I need one of those compass things,” he muttered, peering at the sketched layout. Here, he felt, the map would be particularly helpful, if the size of the place was any indication.

“Look out, Link!”

“Huh?” He lowered the map and looked around. A second later he saw it – another of the one-eyed statues several feet further down the path. It hadn’t detected him yet, apparently, and he wasn’t about to change that. Tucking the map into his belt, he decided to see what was on the other side.

Yes, that would mean dealing with the deadly statue in the middle of the larger island, but he’d realized that running really fast was a pretty good way to avoid its deadly beam. As soon as the smaller island rose high enough, he leaped onto it, then across to the middle one. Going at top speed, he made it to the other side and onto the smaller island there before the statue’s ray of death could connect with him.

On the other pathway, now, he saw things were a little different. A larger, unblocked opening was a few feet away, its bottom edge too high up for Link to clamber over. Framed in riveted metal, it wasn’t far from a blocked arch, and in front of that, yet another of the statues.

“I wonder…” Again, a bomb flower grew nearby. He went to it, plucked it, and steeling himself, ran toward the statue. When he was close enough to be detected, he tossed the flower and ran back the other way.

Boom! Thunk-thunk-thunk-sizzle…

The first sound was the flower exploding, of course, but the next sequence of noises came from the head of the statue,