Chronicles of a Champion
A Rewrite of 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'
Disclaimer: I do not own LoZ. Period.
Chapter Three: Quests Are A Pain
The chamber was huge. Link gazed towards the ceiling—what must have been a hundred feet or more—hovering above him through the musty and gloomy air, awe at the sheer size of the place flooding his system. Navi sniffed delicately and sneezed, waving the dank smell away from her small nose.
"Farore, this place is terrible!" Link tore his gaze away from his surroundings and spared Navi an exasperated glance.
"You were the one who encouraged this trip." Navi huffed slightly as she flew higher into the air, dispersing some of the murkiness that hung like fog with her brilliant glow.
"I'm starting to regret it. Come on; we need to get going. The sooner we break this curse, the better." Link nodded and evaluated the chamber again, struggling to find where to begin.
A ramp of some kind jutted out from the wall above his head and spiraled high into the air, and Link could barely make out what looked like platforms far above them. The walls around him occasionally held an overgrowth of vines, and Link felt certain they were sturdy enough to support his weight. He stepped further into the room, but cried out in surprise and jumped back as though bitten when the floor beneath his foot sunk into something sticky. He looked down and paled.
An almost unfathomably large spider web had been spun over a giant hole in the ground. Link edged closer to it and motioned Navi towards him, intending to use her light to see beyond the web. Link gasped at what it revealed. Far below them lay another chamber, and Link could see a great body of water flowing beneath them. He paled and backed away, horrified at the though of falling through there. He shivered and Navi chimed her agreement.
"I don't even want to imagine how big the spider must have been to weave this…" Navi trailed off. Link made violent shushing gestures at her.
"Don't say that! I don't want to think about that. Let's just get going…" Navi hid her irritation and floated closer to the walls, and thus the vines.
"Here, Link. You should be able to climb these." Link nodded and took a firm hold of the leathery vines and hauled himself off the floor. The vines were slippery and he almost lost his grip and fell to the ground. "Careful!" Link scowled at her but said nothing, instead choosing to focus on the task of climbing up the wall. Below him the sound of leaves rubbing together drew his attention, and he looked down to see Deku Babas unfolding like fans from their nests, hissing at him and snapping their teeth. He scowled at them and returned to his climbing.
When he reached the terrace above he gratefully sank onto the solid ground beneath him. Navi made an impatient noise and flitted about his head. "Well, hurry up! We haven't all day, you know." Link grumbled at her as he reluctantly stood, refusing to look over his shoulder to see how far he was off the ground floor. Navi flew ahead of him, lighting the unsteady path beneath and before him with her blue glow. They had not been walking more than a few minutes when an excited tinkling issued from the small fairy. She darted ahead, and Link ran to catch up with her, his breathing keeping an unnatural rhythm with his footsteps and the shadows growing as she sped farther away.
"Navi, what are you…?" he trailed off, his eyes going wide at what Navi was floating above. A large wooden chest blocked half the walkway, pressed up against a wall that was covered with the same slippery vines Link had climbed before. It was ancient, the wood chipped in some places. The metalwork didn't so much as gleam in Navi's light, so covered in rust and grime was it. Navi rang persistently.
"Well, open it! There might be something good inside."
Link didn't need telling twice. He rushed up to the chest and, though the rusty hinges groaned and fought against him, he flung it open. The (admittedly blinding) light that issued from the chest holding the Kokiri sword didn't occur here, thankfully, and Link reached in with mounting excitement. He felt something papery brush against his fingertips and he seized it, pulling it out with a flourish. The anticipation fell from his face as he held the prize out before him.
"It's a map," he said dully, a bit disappointed. Navi sighed and flew closer, illuminating the parchment.
"Yes, but it's a map of the place! Now we can't get lost!" Link wondered briefly why there was a map of the inside of the Great Deku Tree. What if the Great Deku Tree ate people? The boy shuddered and pushed the frightening thought away. He honestly didn't want to think on that. Link looked over the map for a moment, pinpointing the ramp he was currently standing on and noting how it curved up to another door. He rolled it up and stuffed it in the loop of his belt. He reminded himself that he needed to buy a bag of some kind before he tried anything like this again, though the chances of that happening were looking pretty slim. He had already decided he was going to run home and curl up under his blankets once this was all over.
With the directions he needed he started off up the ramp again, Navi once more lighting the path so he didn't run the risk of falling off a sudden drop. He was glad for it; heights didn't frighten him (how could they, he lived in a tree!) but the idea of falling all the way down there and (possibly) breaking through that spider web was probably the most unappealing thing he had ever contemplated.
They reached the door Link was looking for without incident. He inspected it, and realized with a jolt that it had no handle. He groaned in frustration and leaned against it, wondering why anyone in his or her right mind would install a door with no knob—and why there was a door in the Great Deku Tree in the first place. He was so preoccupied with that sudden mystery that he didn't feel the door sliding open behind him until he had fallen on his rear just inside the new room, grumbling softly. Navi followed him, and the high-pitched tinkling she was emitting sounded suspiciously like laughter. Link grunted and stood, brushing the dust that had gotten on his tunic when he fell. Navi's mirth suddenly stopped.
"Link, behind you!" Link looked at her, confused.
"Wha…? Oof!" Something hard and heavy impacted with the small of his back and Link lurched forward, his balance thrown from the sudden shift in his equilibrium. He scrambled off his knees (now skinned to match his throbbing and bleeding leg) and whirled around, his eyes immediately landing on the Deku Scrub that sat in the middle of the room, preparing to shoot another nut. He glanced over his shoulder, debating with himself whether or not to retreat, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind him and Link felt his stomach plummet to his feet when spikes crashed down to bar the way, tips bathed in a tarnished brown color that looked eerily like blood. Another nut impacted with him—in his chest this time—and he frantically unsheathed his sword and charged the Scrub, wheezing for the air that had just been forcefully knocked from him. To his dismay it simply burrowed into the ground, safely out of his reach. He retreated again, and the creature popped back up, sending another projectile his way. He put the sword away and jumped out of the way of the attack, looking to Navi—who had been hovering near the ceiling—for guidance.
"How do I beat this thing?" He dodged another one.
"Use your shield! You can't get close enough to hit it with your sword, so try…I don't know, bouncing its attack back at it or something!" Another nut was coming, but this time Link unhooked his shield from the blade's scabbard and held it before him to block the attack. He felt—and heard—it strike the wooden surface, and Link glanced cautiously over its rim to see, much to his satisfaction, the nut rocketing back towards the Deku Scrub. It connected, and the thing let out a pitiful, high pitched squeak and leapt from its perch, choosing instead to huddle in the corner. Link advanced on it, sword drawn, and the bushy creature cringed and mewled pathetically.
"Please don't hurt me! I was only doing my job! See, look, I'll even unlock the door for you!" Link eyed it with suspicion, but true to its word the rusty bars that had been blocking both the doors in the rooms lifted, leaving the entrances unguarded. "Just don't tell queenie!" The Scrub skittered back to its perch and buried itself among its safe, leafy foliage. Link cast it a confused glance (who's 'queenie'?) but turned to the door he had yet to go through and left the room, Navi fluttering anxiously about his ears as he wondered just how it had opened that door.
The next room was so odd it made Link stop dead in his tracks. The terrace the door had led to was raised high off the ground below, torches illuminating the darker corners of the chamber. A curious metal box was indented into the ground, and Link spared it a glance as he passed it on his way to inspect the drop.
The floor below stretched out in an oblong shape to the far reaches of the room, where Link—not without a slight jolt of excitement—noted another large chest that waited to be opened. He peered down into the recesses of the lowered ground, and noticed three large, round discolorations in the floor pattern. He tilted his head to the side, curious.
"Navi, what are those?" Navi glanced at him before flying off towards the floor, further lighting the ground.
"It looks like platforms pushed into the ground." She examined the room thoughtfully. "Maybe there's something that could bring them back up?" She flew back to Link. "Look around. It shouldn't be too hard to find."
Link's mind immediately went the odd metal box thing he had seen upon first entering the room, and he doubled back to approach it. He looked to the fairy questioningly.
"That's a switch. Try stepping on it; it should do something." Link nodded and tentatively pressed his right foot down onto it, feeling it give easily under his weight. A rumble echoed underneath his boots and he whirled around to stare with wide eyes as the platforms—previously sealed tightly within the floor—rose from the ground and halted at the same level as the raised area on which he stood. He gulped as he noted the distance between the first platform and the edge of the drop, but swallowed back his trepidation and ran towards it full pelt, not entirely trusting the thing to not just give out under his feet when he landed.
He leapt from the edge with a mighty bound but fell slightly short of his mark. The young boy clawed out for the ledge and barely managed to get a good grip on it as gravity attempted to send him plowing into the floor. He bit back a nervous yelp and hurriedly hauled himself up onto the platform, eying the next with distaste. His bad leg pulsed with agony as he forced it to support his weight, taking a few hesitant steps forward before gathering his willpower. He made another bound to the next platform, unable to stop the yelp that slipped from his as his body collided with the side of the platform. He grasped the edge and hauled himself up, a shaky breath the only true indication of his relief. The terrace was still two platforms away, and as he grudgingly leapt to the next one an ominous ticking began to echo somewhere behind the walls of the room. Navi fluttering worriedly about his head.
"Link, hurry up, that doesn't sound good…"
Link wished he could. The terrace was even farther from the platform than the previous ones, his leg was screaming in protest and that ticking was growing louder and faster by the second. The boy backtracked a few steps before running for the edge as fast as he could, feeling the platform begin to sink beneath his feet even as he leapt from it. He caught the edge with his fingertips and clung desperately to it, watching with disbelief as the platforms sank back into the ground. He heaved a sigh of relief as he hauled himself back up to level ground. Navi floated down to his shoulder.
"Are you alright?" Her glow turned slightly paler with worry, and Link gave her a half-hearted grin as he painstakingly rose to his feet. His leg was beginning to go numb, and he wasn't sure that was a good thing. The chest rested on the other side of the terrace, just as oxidized and dilapidated as the other one that held the map, but Link approached it thankfully and flung it open.
Link reached in and pulled out a slingshot; a nice yellow shade in color, it was just the right size for him. He grinned and tucked it into his belt with a sense of achievement. He had once owned one like it, but Mido had broken it a few years back in the course of one of his infamous vindictive rampages. A bag of what looked like Deku Seeds (a once over them proved his suspicions to be correct) lay next to its original resting place and Link grabbed that, too. He turned back to the task of retracing back to the other side, but his face fell as he noticed a problem.
The other side was too high to climb and the platforms were no longer raised. He groaned in exasperation.
"Not another trap…" Navi, however, was thoughtful. She floated around the room, inspecting the shadows for anything they may have missed. Above the alcove that had the door Link noticed a thick swath of spider webs hanging from the ceiling. He squinted and could barely make out the small splotches of brown from the overwhelming white…
On an impulse Link pulled out his newly acquired slingshot and loaded it, taking careful aim at the webbing. Navi paused in her fruitless search and stared at him as if he were mad.
"What are you doing, Link? That thing won't help us here." Link didn't answer her, instead adjusting his aim a bit further to the left before letting the seed fly. Navi let out an undignified screech when the seed sailed dangerously close to her and hit its mark, sending a ladder toppling into place against the platform. Link grinned cheekily at her as he slid down the vines on the side of his current platform and strolled towards the ladder, a sharp intake of breath the only indication of his wounds.
"Oh shut up…" Navi grumbled waspishly, but Link's grin only grew wider. He had one up on her.
The two backtracked to the spiraling pathway of the main room. Navi, still a bit sore from his earlier cheek, huffed and flew off back down the path towards the empty chest that had once held the map. Link, bemused, followed her. Once he caught up with her she bobbed in the direction of the slippery vines creeping up the wall.
"Climb those," she ordered him shortly. Link scowled at her but acquiesced, knowing she'd only get worse if he refused. He reached up with one hand as far as he could and grabbed one particularly thick creeper and used it to haul himself up. He was only about three feet up when a skittering noise reverberated in his ears and something slammed into his head, sending him tumbling back down to the pathway with a yelp. He landed with a thud, a groan of pain and annoyance sounding in rhythm to Navi's beating wings. This just wasn't his day.
A/N: Okie dokie folks, it's been quite some time since I updated, and I'll tell you why before you break out the pitchforks and torches. Remember that my old Nintendo gave out on me? Well, we've got our hands of a GameCube version of OoT, so I've finally been able to continue this story. As always, if you have questions tell me about them, otherwise I wouldn't be able to answer.