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

Since he was feeling so much better, he opted to go for the arch and see what was behind it. As it turned out, a metal-clad door led him into a medium-sized chamber where he carefully avoided one of the horned statues to obtain another Gold medallion.

“Cool,” he muttered, leaving the chamber at a trot. Back in the outer area, he started to climb back up to cross the top of the wall, but was startled by the angry squeal of two more fire-keese. “Dang! Thought I’d gotten rid of them!”

As soon as he shot one down, the second keese came after him, this one moving so swiftly, he didn’t have time to fit another deku seed into his sling-shot, and had to fend it off with the Sword. When it was dead, he peered about, not wanting any more unpleasant surprises.

Silence. Good. Walking along the top of the wall, he came to its end and jumped down into another small space that opened into tunnel. Feeling aggressive, Link swung at one of the clay pots near the arched entrance and was rewarded with three deku seeds.

“Link?”

“I know – hurry.”

“Yes, Link.”

He grinned and headed into the tunnel. By the way it curved left a moment later, Link realized he was probably headed back into the room where he began. It occurred to him to wonder why all the looping and circling had been deemed necessary by whoever had built these places, but forgot to think of an answer when he saw the large block ahead. Beyond it, as expected, was the initial room – the one with the square hole in its center – and his smile got bigger.

“You know what, Navi?” He leaned against the block and began to push. “I bet…this thing…fits…perfectly…in that hole…in the floor!” It tumbled over the side of the ledge (the one that had been too high for him to climb earlier) and he jumped down, got behind it, and began to tug. When he could feel the rim of the hole with one heel, he went to the front and gave it a final shove.

A perfect fit, and immediately, the metal bars covering the door slid up. “Aha!”

“You knew that would happen, didn’t you, Link!”

“I did. Now. What’s on the other side?”

Navi was silent.

“Er, is there a problem?”

“No. Not yet.”

“I see. Right, then. I’ll just go through here, yes?” Oh, brother. Here we go.

With a nod and some manufactured bravado, Link went to the door, waited a second for it to slide open, and went in.

A chest. That was it.  And a small one, at that. Inside were several bombs, which he tucked in with the others. “Um, Navi? Why were you acting like – ”

“Link! Look! The floor!” She was hovering over a spot at the very center of the room.

“What about it?”

“Look closely!”

He went to her and looked down, noticed that there seemed to be wider cracks between the stones here than elsewhere, but nothing else. “So?”

“I bet it will blow up very easily.”

Ah. “I…so what? Why would I want to blow a hole in the floor?”

Navi changed colors several times, her agitation obvious. “Because you – you have to, Link!”

“Why? Is the main monster down there or something?” He was half-joking.

“It is.” She wasn’t.

“Oh.” Dang. “Fine.” He took out a bomb, placed it on the floor and activated it, then stepped back.

The resulting hole was wider than he expected it to be, and from somewhere beneath a blast of hot air shot up into the room. That didn’t sit well with him. This upper chamber was already hot enough.

“Jump, Link!”

Or simply walk over the edge and fall…A ladder would have been nice. “Guess I have no choice.”

Silence.

“Is it far?”

Silence.

“You’re making me nervous, Navi. Way nervous.”

Twinkle, but silence.

Link sighed. Well, if this was why he’d agreed to come in here in the first place, it woudn’t make sense not to see the thing all the way through. At that moment, he really hated being sensible. “Okay. Here I go.”

Peering over the edge, Link realized the ground below wasn’t even as far as it had been from the top of the gate near the castle, and he’d survived that jump. Tuck head in by knees…

He jumped. He tucked. He untucked at the last minute because of what he would have rolled into, and landed safely on his feet.

Lava. Great. He probably would have complained about the increase in temperature, or perhaps the horrible stench assaulting his nostrils, but before either of these annoyances could be explored thoroughly enough to give rise to some serious sarcasm, he was distracted by another of his senses – hearing.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

It was now only a very small, irrelevant part of his mind that was still obsessing about the first two things, since the greater part was suddenly consumed by what had thundered into view - the largest, ugliest lizard Link had ever seen, and it was thumping toward him on legs bigger and taller than his cottage. Was this a live Dodongo? Did it matter what it was called?

The thing raised its head and appeared to be sniffing the air. Thinking it might not bother to check the ground near its feet, Link scooted closer while it was still looking elsewhere and huddled by one massive leg.

“What are you doing?!” Navi’s little voice, barely audible in the vastness of this part of the cavern, sounded, nonetheless, far too loud to the terrified boy.

“Sshh!!! Wait!” he hissed.

The creature was moving. In fact, it had tucked its massive head between its front paws, leading Link to believe it had sensed him. But instead of turning one of its eyes on the boy, it began to roll forward.

Relieved beyond measure, Link nonetheless knew he had to do more than simply stand there, and looked around to see if he had any options besides getting eaten, squashed, or burned to death. As he looked, a plan began to take shape. This lower chamber was roughly circular, a fiery lake with an earthen path defining its perimeter. Pretty unremarkable. However, growing at intervals along the curve were bomb flowers. He also had more of the actual bombs in the satchel he’d gotten from the chest…

Doing something, anything, was better than standing near the edge of the lava; Link ran onto the path and toward the closest flower. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do once he plucked the thing, but throwing it at the Dodongo seemed like his best choice. It had occurred him that if the smaller versions could be destroyed by making them self-explode, he could certainly help this massive version do the same. Then again, the explosion of something so big would probably kill him, too.

Dang.

“Look! It’s coming closer!”

“I see it, Navi. Thank you.”

The Dodongo had been rolling along the path, and moments before had rounded the side that brought it into a head-on intersect with Link. But before the boy found it necesssary to dodge the oncoming juggernaut, it stopped and opened its maw, inhaling in obvious preparation to breathe fire.

Determined to go out fighting…or something…Link grabbed the bomb flower and ran forward, heaving the thing toward the Dodongo’s gaping mouth when he was as close as he felt he could safely get.

To his surprise, his aim had been true despite the terror pounding in his temples. As soon as the flower landed on the creature’s tongue, it closed its mouth and swallowed. A second later, its frame shook with the explosion, its greenish underbelly glowing with a flare of orange light. It crashed to the ground, but if the look in its eyes was any indication, it was far from dead.

Still, Link rushed closer and began hacking at its snout with the Sword. He got in at least ten good whacks before the Dodongo, shaking its head as if a fly had been bothering it, got up, tucked in its head, and continued the strange roll. Link jumped back to avoid it and nearly tumbled into the lake.

“Ack!” Throwing himself forward, he went to his knees, avoiding the certain death behind him. Some part of his mind acknowleged that it was getting harder and harder to breathe in the cloying heat, but he barely recognized the thought, getting to his feet and running toward the next bomb flower. Within seconds of reaching it, the Dodongo came rolling toward him once more.

And once more, he managed to “feed” it the flower. The burst of light in the monstrous chest was more yellow now, as if its skin had somehow thinned. Link went for the eyes this time, but again, it shook off the attack and got up, only to begin the crazy rolling again.

The third time, it took longer for the lizard to rise, and the fourth time, it didn’t fall, but raised its snout upward and let out a deafening roar of pain. Then it curled up and began to roll, but much more slowly. It didn’t stay on the path, tumbling instead into the lava where it blackened and fell apart.

Link could hardly believe it. He’d defeated a monster much bigger than Gohma, much fiercer than anthing he’d ever imagined could exist. And he wasn’t even injured himself. Hot, tired, dehydrated, yes. But unhurt.

“Look, Link – the healing heart-mana! Absorb it, and then go into the blue light.” Navi flew toward the remains of the Dodongo, coming to a hovering stop over something shining red and blue.

Before the boy could point out how silly it would be to walk across lava to get to it, the lake itself blackened, as if its very heat-essence had come exclusively from the now-dead creature at its center. The temperature in the cavern immediately went down and a cool breeze swept in from the hole through which Link had jumped.

He walked to the object Navi was near, remembering seeing something similar after he’d killed the giant arachnid. At the time, however, he’d been nearly dead himself, and hadn’t really paid much attention to what it had been or looked like. Now he could see that it resembled the larger heart-shaped fruit, but seemed to be made more of light than substance. He stopped beside it, not sure what to do. Absorb it, Navi had said. How was he supposed to do that?

“Get closer, Link!”

He went to one knee beside it, and to his amazement, the object’s glow moved toward him, and a second later, had disappeared into his body. He stood, eyes wide with the rush of exhiliaration and sense of physical well-being coursing through every part of him.

Unable to speak, he went to the crown of blue-white light and stepped inside. It enclosed him and swept him upward. A second later, he found himself standing outside the opening to the cavern, facing the pathway back to Kakariko Village.

And then he was lying outside the opening to the cavern, having been knocked down by a gigantic thud behind him. What the heck?! He got quickly to his feet, horribly startled.

“IT’S ME, DARUNIA! WELL DONE!”

He turned, heart still pounding, and found the Goron boss standing there, eyes crinkling at the corners, his face split by an almost scary-looking grin. Before Link could say anything, the bearded behemoth gave the boy a series of congratulatory thumps on the head that sent the boy crashing back to earth, this time with a serious headache.

“THANKS TO YOU, WE CAN ONCE AGAIN EAT THE DELICIOUS ROCKS FROM DODONGO’S CAVERN…UNTIL OUR STOMACHS BURST!” He threw back his head and laughed