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

“Look out, Link! These are fire-keese!”

Fire what? Not that it mattered – a bat was a bat as far as Link was concerned, and these – these were on fire. Purposely. Dang!

Dropping into a crouch, he whipped out the sling-shot. Thwack! Squeak! Thwack – ping!

Missed. Drat.

Thwack – ping!

Argh! It was lots harder to hit them when they were flying in unpredictable, almost spastic movements.

Thwack! Squeak!

Ah. One more, and this one was flying right at his head. He waited until it was nearly upon him, and – thwack! Splat! Squeeeeaak!!!

Yuk.

He stood, got his breathing under control, and took in the layout of the room. A circular pedestal of some sort took up most of its center, and it was surrounded, more or less, by more of the horned statues.

Great. Before attempting to learn whether these were the hopping-roaring-exploding sort, he took out his map and compass to see where another door he’d noticed in the room would lead him. This, too, was barred, but he suspected that the metallic gleam he could just make out on top of the pedestal might be one of those switches, which would probably open the metal bars.

According to the map, some kind of ramp led away from the room on the other side of that second door, and it looked like it was on a different level. Of course – he’d climbed all those deep steps and upward-slanting ramps to get here. Hmm. He wasn’t sure what the area at the far end of this new ramp was, but at least he could see it led somewhere.

He put the map and compass away, and circled the pedestal to make sure there wasn’t something he was missing. Nope. Horned statues all the way around. Why? What were they protecting?

“Link! There’s a ladder behind this one!”

He joined Navi on the side he’d already passed, peering around the statue there. Sure enough, he could make out the wooden sides of a ladder that would bring him to the top of the pedestal. Well, that solved the problem of how to get up there, but what about the problem of getting to the ladder? Would he get stomped at again? Or was this one of the lighter versions that didn’t do anything exciting.

Only one way to find out. He took a deep breath, approached the statue, and grabbed its stone shield with both hands…

The first time Link had crossed a rope bridge, he’d been six years old. The bridge in question was the one in Kokiri Village that ran from the upper level of the Shop to a raised mound several yards away. Narrow and shaky, it had nevertheless been fun rather than frightening for the little boy with almost no friends and no fairy. Here was something that could challenge him without words, without striking at him, something he could conquer all by himself and not have to worry about coming up with something smart to say. It would have been a perfect moment, in fact, when he’d reached the other side without falling, were it not spoiled by the presence of another Kokiri who had gotten there ahead of him somehow.

Fado. She’d applauded him and told him he must be very brave, and carried on at length about how amazing it was that he’d gotten across unscathed. She even gave him a blue rupee. What had been discouraging about this was the realization that this little girl, for all her seeming admiration of his feat, had herself managed to cross, and apparently – if her nonchalance about being there was any indication – had conquered the stupid bridge long before and probably many times.

Still, despite his shock at finding her there, he retained a sense of satisfaction; after that, he went across frequently. Once in a while he’d run. One time, he hopped on one foot, but this had nearly caused him to fall headlong off the side, and only by throwing himself flat onto his stomach had he stayed put.

Link experienced a brief memory-flash about all this when, upon leaving the chamber (the statue had been inactive after all), he found himself on the longest rope-bridge he’d ever seen. He might even have enjoyed crossing it, had it not been for the fire-keese that flew at him the moment he emerged, forcing him to run flat-out across its less-than-steady length. In fact, there were two sizeable gaps he had to jump, but they hardly registered, and it was a testimony to how good he’d gotten at retaining his balance on narrow, swaying paths while pelting along at top speed.

He outran the keese, and only after reaching the other side and turning around to make sure the danged thing hadn’t followed him, did he notice that this bridge had been erected over the top of the gigantic stone Dodongo head in the main room of the cavern.

“Huh. Look at that,” he muttered.

“That was very brave, Link.”

He made a face, disconcerted by how much she sounded like Fado – and right after he’d been thinking about that very incident, too. “Not really. I’ve done that kind of thing a lot.”

“Yes, but not so high up!”

“Nope. Not so high up. Same thing, though.” To him, anyway. To someone else, the height factor might have been a problem. He turned back toward the direction in which he’d been running.

A dark tunnel lay ahead, and he hesitated. “Navi, can you fly in a little way and tell me if you can see anything?”

“Sure, Link!” Off she went, returning more quickly than he’d expected. “It isn’t very long, and you’ll be able to see as soon as you go in.”

He hesitated a moment as the darkness made him think about how tired he was. He knew this was due in part to all the strenuous activity in which he’d been engaged since entering the cavern, but he was also pretty sure it had gotten rather later. The sky outside was certainly dark by now, and if he didn’t get some sleep soon, he’d start making really stupid mistakes.

“What’s wrong, Link?”

“Nothing. I’m…I’m really tired, Navi. If I knew it would be easy to get back up here, I’d find a way to get out and go back to the village for the night.”

“Maybe we can find a safe way down ahead.”

“Hmm. Okay.” Made sense, he thought, and entered the tunnel.

Only a few steps in, he was able to see the end as Navi had said, which gave him more than enough light to walk by. He could also hear something, an odd, metallic sound that he couldn’t put into a context of any kind. When he emerged from the tunnel, he found himself on a ledge with a wooden ladder propped against it, affording him a way to the lower section. He looked over the edge to see how far down it was, and was greeting by the sight of yet another new thing.

More or less circular in shape, it had metal projections on all sides that looked extremely sharp. As he watched, the thing slid slowly along the floor, only to slide back at more than twice the speed when it reached the wall. Back at the far wall, it stopped and returned, slow again.

Some more observation showed him there was enough room between the base of the ladder and the metal Whatever for him to get off safely. This area was divided by large wall sections; if he waited for the bladed slidey-thing to get to the other end of its quicker run, he’d have enough time to get past it into one of the spaces between walls.

He also realized the whole section was divided into a kind of grid, and if what his ears were telling him was accurate, there were more of the deadly objects sliding around on parallel paths. Well, he’d have to be careful, was all.

Being extremely tired actually worked in his favor this time.  He was moving more slowly, for one thing, but he was also semi-oblivious as his mind drifted periodically to thoughts of a soft bed…like the one at Lon Lon Ranch…no dreams…waking to a hearty breakfast…

“Link! Aren’t you going to push that?”

He blinked several times, finally realizing he was now standing in front of one of the cork-like blocks with no recollection of how he’d gotten there. “Oh. I – um, sure.” He leaned his shoulder against it and gave it a shove. Where was he pushing it to, and why? Feeling slightly foolish, he hauled himself up and stood on its top.

From this vantage point, he could see several interesting things. To his left was a narrow ledge in front of one of those stoned-up entry-ways. To his right, the tops of all those grid-forming walls. The one nearest had a chest on it, but not a huge one like those containing maps and such. He jumped to it, skirting a bomb flower growing nearby, and gave it a kick. The lid sprang up, and he took out…a red rupee.

“Great. Don’t need that.” Dropped it back inside and turned around.

Bomb flower. Wall of stones. Ladder to wall. Movable block. Bed. I need a bed. Not exploding flowers. Bleh.

“Link?”

“I know, Navi – throw the stupid bomb flower at the wall.”

“No, Link. I was going to ask if you’re all right.”

“Oh. Sorry. No. I’m trying really hard not to fall asleep.” He sighed and plucked the flower. Tossed it. Missed. Boom.

A moment later, a new flower began to bloom, and he repeated the action with pretty much the same result. He closed the lid of the chest and sat on it. “I can’t even aim straight, Navi.”

“What else can you do, though, Link?”

“Get the heck out of here.”

“But how? Do you really want to go all the way back the way we came?”

He considered this with a deep frown. They way they’d come might now contain more of the creatures he’d eliminated, which would mean more fighting. “No, not really.” Taking a deep breath, he stood and went to the bomb flower.

Staring through narrowed eyes, he recalculated how hard he needed to throw it, then pulled the plant from its roots, heaved it across the space – the wall came down amid a great deal of noise and dust. Link gave it a grim smile of satisfaction and hopped back onto the block. From there, he leaped to the ladder, caught it, and climbed to the ledge.

This opening brought him to a kind of passage that consisted of a series of platforms separated by fairly narrow spaces. They would have presented no problems, except that the very first one was on fire. How strange! But above it on the wall over the opening through which it led was one of those stone eyes, and it was staring at him.

By now, Link new these were switches, so he took out his sling-shot and hit it square in the center of the carved pupil. The eye closed, the fire died down and then disappeared altogether, and he jumped across quickly. There was no guarantee the flames wouldn’t pop up again soon, after all. At the next section, he encountered a number of the baby Dodongos, but as