I modeled this chapter after the characteristics of the zodiac sign Taurus found here: It's a slow chapter, I'll admit, but it's the only way I could get this finished. It's also really Link-centric, which is strange for me, but it works. It's just a glimpse for you to see how I think of Link. (Since I've learned to appreciate his character and all…)
Anyway. It's an experimental chapter and an abrupt change of pace. Let me know what you think of it, please! (I don't plan to continue the story in this style – I just wanted to try it.)
Chapter Eight: Taking the Bull by the Horns
The monstrosity of metal stood across from them, its sharp angles and bolted sides pinned together with great bands of wire and steel. Pressed copper coated the human face, and deep violet paint dripped down the clay rivets that had been added to simulate armor. It breathed steam without inhaling, and it scorched the pressed dirt floor of the chamber. It was a massive bull – a Taurus of a creature, if it could be defined as anything, with the body of the bull and the face of a man who knew only how to stare.
From somewhere in the back of Link's mind the name Goht floated forward.
Link, though he had towered over the other Gorons in the Shrine, was dwarfed by the creature. He stood just inside the room, a few steps away from the door. In one hand he held his reforged sword; it shone in the half-light of the chamber, its gold coating gathering the torchlight and warmly reflecting it.
Goht and Link stood across from each other, gazing calmly at one another. Certain stillness hung between them, ghosting around them and through them, saturating and washing away excitement.
From the recesses of Link's mind, two voices murmured to one another. The hero chose to gently ignore them, caught in the moment between himself and the machine enemy before him.
"Help me," Goht whispered. The word eased into the silence, sliding between them. Link nodded and slowly turned his wrist so the light from his sword bounced across the room.
Goht's eyes flashed red in response.
-
It had been Sheik who staggered in front of the Temple entrance, one hand pressed to his head as he suddenly knelt in the snow. Link caught him by one elbow, a startled frown of worry creasing his features. Sheik waved a hand at him and smothered a wince as he stood up again.
"Are you all right?"
Sheik nodded, pressing two fingers to his forehead carefully. "The magic that hides this place is very strong. It pierces my sight when I try to see through it."
From his pack, Link pulled out a set of drums that the Smith had given to him. They were simple and compact, with tan skins stretched over dark red bases. Link ran a hand over each drum carefully before cradling the instrument in the crook of one arm and tapping a beat out with the other.
The echo of the soft melody drifted through the valley, carried on the wind. With each echo a plane of light shifted, collecting the light and distributing it elsewhere in the valley. The temple at the mountain base of Snowhead eased carefully into view, stepping out of the sharp angles and settling into the blanket of power-snow of the valley floor.
Sheik wiped the sunlight-tears from his eyes and the three continued to the mountain temple.
-
Goht took a step forward.
Link took a breath and blinked once, but made no other move.
-
The smith greeted them at the door. He ushered them inside quickly and then swept away the snow that had drifted in with them. Link sat immediately on one of the cots, testing it tentatively before sinking into the crosshatched hay. Zubora handed Rae a blanket and she went to drape it over him.
"I take it that all went well?" Zubora asked Sheik. He put on a thick pair of gloves and then held out one hand to the Sheikah expectantly.
"Aside from the various detours, you mean?" Sheik remarked dryly. He pushed a brimming bottle of gold dust into the smith's hand.
Zubora laughed and examined the contents of the bottle through the glass. "Then Darmani is freed. Excellent."
"Why didn't you just tell us about him?" Sheik asked curiously. "We would have helped him either way."
"Ah, but if you would have helped him anyway, does it matter if I told you or not?" Zubora smiled, tossing the bottle cork to one side. He poured the gold dust into a blackened-metal container, and then put the container into the blazing forge. "Forgive me my amusements, but life isn't always following instructions, completing the task, defeating the evil and saving the day." His voice raised a touch to project over the forge noise. "You need to remember that, young heroes."
Sheik gave him a quizzical look, wondering at the source of this mini lecture. The smith smiled at him, offering nothing more than a mysterious shrug before he started to work with the sword and melting gold. Sheik watched him, wondering if there was more to the warning than Zubora was letting on, but the sage remained unyielding.
"Tomorrow the earth will shake," Zubora said, as Sheik was starting to turn away. He was oddly serious, and the glance that he sent Sheik was protected. "Rest now, and capture Snowhead on the third day."
-
Even this was an act against the curse that held Snowhead captive. The slow, wandering pace of their circling was the first strikes of a battle. Each step was taken with definite and calculated choice. Link couldn't explain it himself, but it was something that he could feel in the marrow of his bones. It wound around the joints of his hands, wove between the fabrics of his clothing, and settled somewhere – and everywhere – in between. This stillness was something he vaguely remembered from when he lived in Kokiri Forest. It was breathing without moving, and focusing your vision with a softened gaze. Link felt in complete balance, and somehow credited the spirit of the borrowed body he was occupying.
Each step that Goht took rippled through the room; a slow rumble that vibrated across the dirt floor. The sound of it was muted, soaked up by the walls and the ceiling, and the overall absence of deliberate acoustics in the cavern. It moved steadily towards Link, round eyes fixed on him unblinkingly.
Link took his first step out of his stance.
-
He reached out to touch the hand of the Elder, this time in the guise of Darmani. There had been no reaction when Link had been in his real body and done the same thing. This time the elder's fingers clenched around the arm of the throne, and muscles up the arm twisted and flexed in response. Eyes opened and darted to the side, fixating on Link. His lips parted slightly, his mouth opening to suck in a meager breath of air. The tip of a tongue flickered out to wet his mouth and the Goron swallowed, muscles in his neck flexing visibly.
"Darmani…if you are here, then I am truly dead…"
"You are not dead yet," Link said, wrapping his hand around the Goron's. "I have come to lead you to your people."
"My people are buried beneath the snows and cursed ice," the Goron said. He gasped with the effort it took to speak. "I am all that remains of our race…"
"No," Link said, and pulled hard on the other's arm. The old Goron lurched off his frosted throne, unable to offer up any resistance. "I come so that your son may know the fate of his father. Come with me and he will see you with his own eyes."
The Elder shook his head and fell to his knees. "You are an illusion being forced on an old man's mind… You will lead me to nothing…"
Link knelt in the snow in front of the Elder. "Stay here and you will become nothing. Would you rather wallow in the frost and dark, or walk towards the thought of your son?"
The elder sat limply in the snow of the shrine floor with his empty eyes and gaping mouth open wide to the Lonepeak winds. He blinked once and then blinked again, as if to clear his visions from a snowy mist.
"Help me stand," he said finally, and offered a hand to Link. "Ghost or not, the Hero Darmani would never mislead me. Take me to my son."
-
It seemed like a dance to Link. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot again. Each was a step forward, a crossing over, and then another step with the opposite foot. He felt limber and almost too loose. His detachment hazed the edges of his vision, and his mental processes slipped away. He could hear his heart beating through out his body – it was odd to experience, especially when one usually only associated a heartbeat with one's chest. His blood rushed in his wrists, at the soles of his feet, at the back of his throat, and along his collar where he could almost feel the tattoo of the Goron's symbol on borrowed skin.
Link turned his upper body and kept one leg in place. With a sharp turn, he was facing the opposite way with his back to one of the walls. Goht came to a stop on the other end of the room and turned to face him. The beast's body seemed to compress, right before the bull leapt forward, heading directly for Link at the opposite end of the room. Link tightened his grip on his sword and waited for the right moment to move.
-
Link was forced against the wall when he entered the Lone Peak Shrine. He struggled to lift one arm so that he could shield himself from the heavy blow of wind and snow. He pushed away from the wall, taking one struggling step forward and then another. A gust of wind squeezed the air from his lungs and Link gasped out loud. "Be careful," he yelled to his companions, "The weather's vicious in here!"
"I'm sure it is," Sheik said in a dry tone. Hands clamped onto his and the face of the Sheikah came into sharp focus. Crimson eyes examined him closely, pupils shifting oddly in the light of the room. "This place is a test of illusion and the mind. Do you understand?" Link threw up an arm to block his eyes from another gust of snow. Sheik brought the limb down again, almost pinning it to Link's side. "Link?"
White frost clouded his vision, and Link had to blink several times to clear it. "…Yes," the Hylian said, "Okay." Sheik released him and the hero made a visible effort to stand normally, despite his perceived conditions in the room. He glanced around and asked, "Where's Rae?"
"Right here." She seemed to step out of the drifts, hesitantly approaching the two men. "Everything's a little misty, but I'm pretty sure I can see the Truth. This place is a tall dome. I found stairs across the room. The elder is likely at the top."
Sheik nodded. "Yes, you are correct." He looked at Link again, suggesting, "I'll lead. If you follow behind me, Rae will watch our backs."
-
Link rolled forward, sliding underneath Goht's belly and tumbling into a standing position on the other side. He relaxed and let his muscles go loose; tension melted away slowly and Link slowed his breathing carefully. He tilted his head to glance over his shoulder and found the mechanical bull carefully turning around to face Link again. The red eyes glittered across the room at him, once again inviting him to spar.
The hero adjusted his grip on his longsword (a short sword to the Goron form) and dropped into a crouched position. The flesh and muscles of his body coiled and tensed, waiting for the next burst of action.
Goht stamped the ground with one hoof and tossed his head. He lowered his head afterwards and trained his eyes on Link again. He burst forward and Link moved to meet him again.
-
"If you truly are the ghost of Darmani, then you will go to the Lone Peak Shrine and bring back Elder Uranai. He dwells in the reflections of ice and despair, and we dare not go where illusions swallow reason." The young Goron paused; taking his hands off of the chair and folding them overtop his knees. "Please…find my father. I will give you your weight in gold dust if you bring him back to me."
Link found himself bowing to the young Goron, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I understand. I will return."
They left the Goron shrine and, at Rae's direction, looked for another temple in the snowed-over village. Many of the houses that were built there had been covered over by the weather and storms; though chimneys poked into the air, free to expel smoke and dark ash. A large mound was at the far edge of the village, perched precariously at the cliff end. It was four feet wide, and lead up the side of the mountain. At the top there was a set of windows, all of which bore the symbol of the Gorons.
They found a door at the far side of the mound. Link pushed it open with one hand, even though the door ground against the floor in resistance. He stopped as he was about to go in, feeling a peculiar tugging at the base of his neck.
There's a faerie nearby, Rae said. It occurred to Link that this was perhaps one of the first times he had heard her voice since he put the mask on. I don't think it's inside the shrine…
Link looked around, shifting through the snow as he made a slow circle around the outside of the structure. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary and asked Rae if she was sure.
Wait, Sheik said from another place inside of Link's mind. Up there…just below the windows there is a bit of mesh…
Link moved for a better vantage point, craning his head to one side in order to peer upwards properly. It took him a moment, but the wind helped him find the small corner of flapping mesh that was independent from the building.
I can't get that while I'm in this form, Link murmured. Team effort?
I think so. Rae agreed. Sheik mentally nodded in agreement as well. Link placed his fingers under each side of his jaw line and started humming the Song of Healing. When he started feeling the change come over him, Link moved his fingers forward, pulling at the stone edges that were lifting out of his skin. By the time he was done, Link was standing with Darmani's mask in his hands, and Sheik and Rae were to either side of him, bent painfully in the snow.
"Why does that hurt less than the other mask?" Rae wondered to herself, brushing off the knees of her pants. She stretched out her back, squinting up at the mysterious mesh tip flapping in the breeze. "Yeah, that's where it's coming from. Ideas, boys?"
"I could try to climb up there," Sheik said doubtfully. He had brushed off a section of the wall, revealing that underneath the shrine was coated in thick ice. "However, I don't know if I would make efficient progress."
Link eyed the twenty-foot gap thoughtfully. "Hm." He pulled off his bow and started stretching out the string.
"'Hm'?" Rae asked, watching him warm up the bow. Link nodded, pulling out an arrow and aiming directly for the side of the building. He shot the arrow directly into the ice.
Sheik moved forward to examine it, tugging on the arrow. When the arrowhead refused to dislodge from the wall, he turned to Link, "Every…two feet, perhaps?
In response, Link shot another arrow into the ice, two feet above the other. He continued to do this, placing them in a zigzag pattern from the ground to the mesh. Sheik used the arrows to climb the tower, keeping as close to the wall as he possibly could. Rae watched apprehensively as Sheik made his slow climb to the top. She seemed more apprehensive each time he stopped, but there were times when the wind was too strong for him continue.
Once at the top, Sheik perched on one arrow and brushed the snow off of the mesh. He pulled the metal clips away from the wall and loosed the fabric enough to recover a small glass container. The glass was frosted over, and the top was secured with cork and twisted wire.
Looking down, Sheik called, "Rae?"
"I got it," She said, moving so that she was underneath him. "Go for it."
Sheik judged the wind for a moment, and then dropped the container. It fell steadily, drifting to one side slightly when the wind gusted. Rae moved to compensate, however, and caught the container. Sheik then made his decent, collecting arrows on his way down.
Link and Rae bent the wire away from the bottle mouth, and pried the cork out. Carefully, Link tipped the bottle into Rae's hands, and a faerie rolled out. She shook out her wings, and fluttered off of Rae's hands.
"Oh!" She said, lifting slowly into the air, "Thank you for helping me!"
-
"Fight me!"
The drowsy movement vanished in an instant, giving way to the sharp angles of real time. Link dove to one side and rolled upright, narrowly avoiding a burst of concentrated steam. The heat glided past him in a wave that momentarily hazed his vision. The hero blinked it away and turned to face the mechanical bull again.
Goht paced a tight circle and charged again. Link was already moving to the side, knowing that he couldn't count on his own speed in the body of a Goron. The bull veered to meet him, but couldn't count on agility at such a pace. Link thrust his sword into Goht's side and was pulled off his feet. The bull roared and jerked from side-to-side, trying to throw the hero off. Link let go and let himself be tossed across the room. He curled into a tight ball and struck the wall, shaking rocks and clumps of dirt from the ceiling. Goht crashed into the ground at the opposite side of the room, and the sword in its side was jerked loose: the protruding hilt had dug into the floor.
Link ground his fingers into the wall and pulled at a large rock embedded there. Protests sounded in his mind, but the hero ignored them. From behind him he heard the creaking body of the constructed bull, and Link pulled the rock out of the wall. Using the momentum, he stepped out and turned, hurling the rock across the room towards Goht.
The rock skidded across the floor and came to a rest at Goht's feet.
You missed! Rae cried.
No. Link murmured. He dropped a handful of bombs in the dirt behind him.
Sheik gasped, Link – you'll collapse the chamber!
Sheik's and Rae's burst of sudden fear gripped Link tightly, and all at once he missed his unaffected detachment. Like he had done many times in his past, he pushed on, and once again faced the monster trying to kill him.
"Face me, Goht!" Link yelled. He shook with suppressed energy and impatiently watched as the bull slowly stood. "You aren't done yet!"
Steam poured from the hole in Goht's side, and it drew dark marks across the walls and floor. He turned to Link, his legs grinding against his body. The clay had broken off in clumps, and now it was clear that it had not been for mere decoration. With each step, sparks showered from the joints and faded away in the very inflammable dirt room.
You're fucking crazy, Rae muttered. Clearly, she thought it couldn't work, or that it would never work. Her disbelief cluttered Link's nerves, alongside her fear.
"No," Link said again, and lunged forward, rolling into a ball as Goht started another charge. They collided with the bull, striking him just below the joints of his knees. The mechanical monster flew over them and across the room, and Link clipped the side of his sword and struck the opposite wall again. He unrolled enough to stop from going back the way he came, and then pulled his body tightly together again.
There was a moment where all Link could hear was his heartbeat in his ears, and the grinding of metal as Goht turned to face them again.
Then there was a muffled explosion, and all Link could feel were rocks and heavy pieces of wall flying into him. The wall groaned as it collapsed, and Goht's metal frame screeched as it gave way as well.
Another silence passed and Link unrolled, immediately reaching out for his sword. He carefully pulled it from the floor with his palms on the flat of the blade, and held it properly again. The hero moved across the remaining half of the chamber, and started sifting through the dirt. The top of the bull horns were revealed first, and Link moved more dirt aside until he could see the rest of his head.
One of the eyes opened to stare at Link. "I…yield… Finish me…"
Link took a moment to find the place of stillness he had earlier in the battle. His breath stilled and his tension fell away, curling into strength at the palm of his sword hand. The hero-Goron pulled his arm back, and with one hard stroke, chopped at the neck of the mechanical bull called Goht. The staring eyes closed again, and Link sheathed his sword. He picked up the head, cradled it under one arm, and walked out of the half-caved in doorway and into the melting snow.
-
Link ran his fingers over the smooth polished stone. It curved cleanly and bore only the symbol of the Gorons on its front. All-in-all, it looked more like a soup bowl than a Goron mask. He chose to keep this observation to himself, though, and set the mask to one side.
The village snow had melted away completely, emptying into two dug-out areas to create ponds. The creatures of the village – bugs and birds, as well as burrowing animals – came back to life and resumed their daily routines, like they were never even disturbed. A pathway to Darmani's grave appeared, having been hidden away in the impromptu winter. Many Gorons made their way to the grave, intent on sharing the hot spring waters in the company of their hero's memory.
Link found himself in isolated contentedness, sitting at the edge of the pond that almost swallowed his companions the day before. Lily pads and water flowers floated on the surface of the water with their roots reaching to the bottom of the clear-coloured pond. Butterflies traveled from one edge to the other, dipping low enough to grace the water's surface.
From small ripples on the water, five frogs jumped onto various lily pads. The largest and greenest of them turned to Link and blinked one large eye at him.
Impulsively, Link said, "Hello."
The frog croaked at him in response, his tongue snapping out to catch a small bug that flew past him. His companions croaked in chorus, jumping individually when they made a sound.
Link nodded at them and said, "Very nice." For a moment we wondered if he should really be talking to frogs. It sounded a bit like a crazy thing to be doing.
The leader, for that's what he seemed to be, of the frogs sounded a higher note, and the rest followed in suit. This continued for a bit, with Link acknowledging each sequence. Behind him, he heard the door of the Smithy open and close, and he glanced back to see Rae coming towards him. When he returned his attention to the frogs, only the large one remained on the lily pads. The others were calmly swimming away under the water.
The last frog hopped over to the side of the water and then moved onto the land. He stopped beside Link's hand, and croaked very quietly at him. The hero offered his palm to the frog and heard, "I am Don Gero. I thank you for listening to my choir." He croaked once more and then hopped back into the pond. He vanished almost immediately beneath the water, and from where the frog had been, Link pulled a dark green jewel out of the grass. He tucked it into his pocket and looked up at the woman leaning over him.
"We should get back to Clock Town." Rae said, nudging at him with the toe of her boot. "…Are you okay?"
He smiled up at her. "Yes – I'm fine."
She nodded and grabbed him by the wrist to help him up. "Let's go, yeah?"
"Okay."