The Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ Gerudo Forest ❯ Chapter 33 ( Chapter 33 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

On the inside of the temple she had wondered if it was going to be dark but the walls were covered in a sort of phosphorescent underwater plant life. The brightest of the plants reminded he of underwater mushrooms. The light they gave of faded in between a bright blue to coral. Also little fish that reminded her of betas were attracted to the lights but darted around them as they moved through the tunnel. Even the fish themselves had a glow to them. Exiting the main entrance tunnel they entered a cylindrical chamber that seemed to go up at least three stories. A tower like structure ran up the middle. There seemed to be a barrier of visible water flow blocking it's entrance. Melissa saw a few of the biri jellyfish things floating around but they didn't seem to notice them. Rutulla motioned to a door to the right and they all followed her to it. Touching it an electric current ran from the zora's hand to the door. It slid open letting them through to the next room which had an entire floor covered in dexihands. The seaweed looking hands reached for them as they swam above. These creatures were another one of those creepy Zelda monsters Melissa had forgotten about. Looking around Melissa saw that there were two iron gates blocking doorways on either side of the room. In the middle of the room was a platform with a switch just high enough up that hopefully the seaweed like hands couldn't grab anyone if they landed there. “In each door there is a lever that drains the water from the main room. I will have to stay and power the switch while you get the levers. I can only power the switch for so long before I will need to recharge so you will have to split up and be quick.” Rutulla ordered in her ethereal underwater voice. Heather grabbed a hold of Links arm making a point of not being separated from him so Melissa figured she was going to have to go to the next room alone. It didn't seem fair but she would just have to deal with it. Melissa approached the opposite gate and peaked down the hall through the bars. She didn't see anything that looked dangerous so maybe this would be a quick in and out. Rutulla swam to the middle platform and activated the switch with a shocking pulse of energy. The gates rattled open with a piercing screech of metal against metal and Melissa watched Link and Heather go through their door before forcing herself to do the same. A couple dexihands were attached to the wall but were easy enough to swim around. The hall opened up into a small room covered in a glowing moss. Holes dotted the wall and she wondered what had made them. On the back wall she spotted a rusted lever. She tried to pull it down but it didn't want to budge. “Hurry!” She heard Rutulla calling from the other room. In a panic she pulled again trying as hard as a she could to make it move. It shifted only a fraction but would not move anymore. Of course she would end up with the difficult switch. She kept at it till she felt something tap her shoulder. Freaking out thinking it was one of the creepy hands she turned to see Link. He motioned for her to swim aside as he opened a pouch that was attached to his belt and magically pulled out a humongous hammer. There was no way that thing could have fit in there. It was physically impossible. Then again it would make sense for him to have a magic pouch. How else had he carted around all those items in the game. She moved out of the way allowing Link to bring the hammer down on the lever. It gave under the blow and a clicking sound reverberated from deep in the walls. Without warning skeletal looking fish with piranha like jaws erupted from the holes in the wall and began to swarm around them. Melissa didn't have to wait for instruction from Link to know to take off. In her rush to leave a dexihand grabbed her wrist. She pulled frantically away making the monster tighten it's grip cutting into her skin. If she could have screamed she would have. Link was there in a flash and sliced right through causing it to release her. The blood was starting to attract the fish so Link grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the other room. As soon as Rutulla saw they were through she stopped feeding power to the switch closing the gates and blocking any monsters from coming through. Melissa could see she wasn't the only one to sustain damage. Heather had bites on her left arm and was also bleeding. Melissa swam as far above the reaching hands as she could scared to be snatch a second time. If one of those got her she would be dead for sure. Melissa then noticed the water hadn't drained yet. Had it not worked? Rutulla didn't seemed bothered by the fact nothing was happening. On the contrary she was already heading back to the door to the main room. Opening the door caused a suction that pulled everyone through the door spilling them onto the ground of a now drained room. There were still pools that led deeper under the temple where most of the aquatic life had fled. None of the jellyfish remained in the drained room which was a relief. The tunics had retracted back since there was no water around them. Link helped Heather up and pulled out some binding to wrap her wounds. He worked diligently and then hugged her when he had finished. Heather must have some redeeming qualities if Link could put up with her. Melissa looked at her cut. It didn't seem so bad. Even though it still stung a little it had actually stopped bleeding. Melissa dipped her hand in the pool closest to her cleaning off the blood. “Where next?” Link asked looking to Rutulla. “Now to the tower.” The zora said bring Melissa's attention back to the tower's entrance. The barrier was gone now allowing them access. She didn't know if any of them knew exactly what they were looking for so it was up to her to keep an eye out for the door. Stairs led up into the tower disappearing up into the dark. The dark made her feel nervous as they ascended the stairs. It became so dark that she couldn't even see her hand in front of her. She tripped several times her foot catching on the steps in front of her. “Don't you have a lantern?” Melissa heard Heather ask Link. “I think so hold on.” He replied. She could hear him rummaging through his pouch as things clinking against each other. She wondered how much stuff he actually had in there. “Ah here it is.” Link said triumphantly. She heard him fiddle with it but nothing ever happened. “Drat. I think the water affected it.” Link said after a while. How were they going to know if there was a door if they couldn't see? As soon as the thought had entered her mind she started to hear the voice from earlier. It started soft in the back of her mind singing the song the Zoras used to open the waterfall. It filled her with courage distracting her mind from her worries. She let the song fill her head and even began to hum along. As she hummed globes on the wall that they couldn't see before began to light up faintly as they passed. Rutulla caught on and began to sing with her which caused them to brighten up to the point they could finally see where they were going. Did that mean the voice was helping them? It seemed Rutulla hadn't known about the song being able to light the way. They climbed up a few more flights before she saw the door she was looking for. It was almost hidden in the wall. If they hadn't gotten the lights on she would have missed it and the group was still moving on having not noticed it. “Wait! There is a door here.” Melissa called to them making them stop. “There is!” Rutulla exclaimed in surprise. “I have never seen this one before.” The zora said putting her hand to it. “It doesn't seem to open though.” She traced the pattern that began to glow as everyone came closer to it. “It looks like the other mysterious doors we have seen in the other temples. No use messing with this one. They never open.” Heather said giving Melissa a look. Melissa was more than happy to prove her wrong. Melissa grabbed Heather's hand and held it to the door. “What are you doing! Let me go!” Heather said angrily trying to jerk away from her. The door sprang open revealing another set of steps going back down. Melissa would have took more pleasure in the sight of Heather eating her words sporting a look of surprise and shock if she hadn't seen that they were going to have to go all the way back down. At least it was lit on the inside. “It opened!” Link said being captain obvious. “ Do you have some kind of key?” Heather asked suspiciously. “When at the Spirit Temple did you actually try touching the door yourself? ” Melissa asked shaking her head. “Well no but I figured if Link couldn't get it to budge surely I could do no better.” Heather admitted. “Next time try before accusing someone of being a liar.” Melissa said entering the door. Heather actually looked embarrassed. Melissa hadn't really expected an apology but it would have been nice. Descending the stair case Melissa finally knew they were on the right path.