Chapter 14: The Ice Cavern
"Let's return in the crater," suddenly said Link before he turned around to reenter the crater of Death Mountain.
"Uh? Why?" asked Sweetie Belle at his side.
"I was never able to explore the crater before, for obvious reason. It's important to explore everywhere, you never know where you may find something useful. A secret grotto with a treasure inside, or even a Fairy Fountain with, with some luck, a Great Fairy."
"Fairies at this place? Are you sure?"
"I was able to come with you into the crater and the temple," said Navi. "We fairies can perfectly survive in this environment."
"Good point."
So they returned in the crater, searched, and did found something. However, it was blocked by solid boulders that couldn't be destroyed even with the bombs. But then, having a hunch, Link used his hammer, managing to destroy the boulders and free the path.
The tunnel behind the boulder led to a Fairy Fountain, a very enchanting place full of fairies with a Triforce symbol at the front. Standing on it, Link played Zelda's Lullaby, invoking a Great Fairy.
She didn't look at all like Sweetie Belle expected... Fairies were generally small and adorable...
Not this one.
The Great Fairy was actually very tall, easily dwarfing Link, had only a light clothe covering her body and two long socks covering her legs, and had a lot of makeup. She didn't even have wings like all the other fairies.
But Sweetie Belle could feel power in her. Lot of power. Despite her bimbo appearance, she wasn't to be underestimated.
As a proof of her power, she enhanced Link's magic reserve. Just like that, Link now had a reserve of magic two times bigger than before.
And before leaving, the fairy gave a last advice. "You are going to the Zora's Domain now, right? I suggest then that you keep a space bottle empty. You will need it. If you don't want to empty the ones you possess right now, then you should return to Hyrule Castle Town. A man here will give you another bottle in exchange of a... favor."
On these words, she disappeared.
Sweetie Belle and Link glanced at each other.
"A man? In that place filled with blood-thirsty zombies?" wondered Sweetie Belle.
Link shrugged. "If the Great Fairy says there is a man... then there is one, somehow. I wouldn't mind getting a fourth bottle."
"Alright then, let's return to Hyrule Castle Town."
So Link played the Prelude of Light to warp to the Temple of Time, gaining time. Sweetie Belle followed him with a teleportation.
Back in Hyrule Castle Town, they left the Temple of Time, quickly killed the ReDeads around, and began to search for that man.
They found him inside the old guardhouse, beside the drawbridge.
The man was very... weird... to say the least. He was cloaked, only had one eye, loved Poes, and even was able to keep spirits in cages.
Then he told them that he would buy any Poe they would bring him, and there were apparently ten large ones haunting the Hyrule Field that he would like to have. If they managed to bring the ten big Poes to him then he would recompense them.
What he forgot to say, that the Great Fairy also didn't think about, was that they needed an empty bottle to keep the Poes trapped, so they still needed to empty one of the ones they had.
Thankfully Sweetie Belle was there. She could perfectly keep a ghost trapped thanks to her powers.
So, with the help of Epona (that Link had to call with her song), they wandered Hyrule Field in search of the Poes, finding them one by one. As soon as they found one, Sweetie Belle trapped it inside a magical cage that she kept levitating beside her. Once they had the ten Poes, they returned to the guardhouse and gave them to the man who gave a bottle in return.
With the bottle in their possession, they then went toward the river and went up it.
The river was full of Octoroks, but thanks to a magical floating plant that Link had apparently planted seven years ago, they passed above most of it before landing not far of the entrance to the Zora's Domain, which was hidden behind a waterfall. Link playing Zelda's Lullaby at the right place parted it, opening the way for them.
They entered the Zora's Domain...
Only to look in horror as they discovered the place entirely frozen, and not a single Zora could be seen.
Link grit his teeth. "Here too..."
Sweetie Belle huffed. "Seems like there really isn't a place on Hyrule that has been spared by Ganondorf. Let's still search to see if we can find the Zoras."
Link nodded, and they began to search. But they didn't find the Zoras anywhere, not even in the houses. The most weird, however, was the presence of some red... ice blocking the entrance to the shop.
Link sighed at this. "Of course..."
"You needed something in here?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"A blue tunic. If the next temple is where I think it is, then I will need this tunic to breathe underwater."
"Right. The next temple is probably under water. But it seems like we will need to melt this ice." Sweetie Belle sent a powerful stream of fire at the red ice at this. While the fire managed to melt some of the ice around, it did nothing to the red ice. "Darn..."
Not sure what else they could do about the red ice, they continued to explore the Domain, eventually going to the King's throne room. There, they found the Zora King himself trapped in more red ice.
"Oh no..." said Sweetie Belle.
Link sighed. "In the end, there's nothing we can do here... No, wait... There may be something."
"Really? What?"
"Follow me."
Link entered a tunnel that was behind the frozen king, followed by the filly. Midway through the tunnel, which was also filled with frozen water, they reached a point where the water wasn't frozen, but very cold. Eventually, they reached the Zora's Fountain, which was the den of the Great Jabu-Jabu, now gone too. The Fountain was only partially frozen however, and it was snowing. A fog also limited their view.
"As I thought..." muttered Link before he looked at Sweetie Belle. "I remember that there is a cavern that I couldn't reach before. Now that the water is partially covered in ice, maybe I will be able to enter it. We may find something in it."
Sweetie Belle nodded in understanding.
So they went on the ice and jumped from ice platform to ice platform, dealing with Octoroks on the way, before reaching the cavern Link talked about, and they entered it.
The cavern was absolutely frozen, filled with stalactites that could fall anytime to impale them, so they made sure to destroy all of them for their security. On the way, they also found more of that red ice, thankfully not blocking the path, just being a small obstacle to circle. They however had to also destroy stalagmites blocking the way.
They then reached a room with the ground covered in slippery ice. Some enemies looking like statues of ice named Freezards were present, sending streams of ice at the heroes and even sliding on the ice to charge at them. The Freezards weren't hard to approach and to destroy once the heroes avoided the streams, but a Blade Trap (a metallic object covered in blades that kind of reminded Sweetie Belle of Gordos) circling the room made the task much more dangerous because it was easy for them, especially Link, to slip into its path.
So, to minimize the risks, Link went in the middle and used Din's Fire, which was very effective and killed almost all of them. Sweetie Belle finished the survivors.
Their destruction made bars blocking a passage between two crystals of red ice to rise, letting the heroes continue.
"Uuh... Is this me or is this cavern actually a dungeon?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"It seems to be," agreed Links. "I frankly didn't think that we would be exploring a dungeon in this cavern, so close to the Zora's Domain."
Following the new passage, they reached a new room with a giant spinning blade and some silver rupees floating here and there. The blade wasn't a big problem as it was high enough that Link could avoid it by duck, and the blade passed above Sweetie's head (it was good to be small!).
It wasn't the first time they saw there silver rupees. Back at the bottom of the well, there were some of them in the bottom floor. They had to take all of them in order to open the path for them to return to the top floor.
If it was the same thing here, then it meant that they had to find all the silver rupees in the room while avoiding being beheaded by the blade. No problem! Although, as they entered the room, some jars acted like the tiles back in the Fire Temple, levitating and charging at them. Sweetie Belle simply destroyed them with her beams.
Three rupees were all over the room, a fourth was hidden in a small alcove behind stalagmites, and a fifth was up in the air. Link could reach it by jumping from a ledge (where an exit of the room was), but Sweetie Belle simply flew to it. With the five silver rupees in their possession, the bars blocking the exit on the ledge disappeared, letting them continue.
Following the path, fighting a Freezard and avoiding more Blade Traps moving back and forth, they reached a third room also with slippery ice floor. There were some more Freezards as well as many Ice Keeses that the heroes quickly dealt with, mainly Sweetie Belle with her beams. More Blade Traps were also present, but they weren't dangerous as long as the heroes followed the path formed by the platforms that they climbed on.
On one of the platforms, they found a blue fire that wasn't natural, like Navi noted. The fairy also said that this fire could probably be used for something.
It wasn't hard to guess what that something was: melting the red ice. Speaking of, there was a crystal of red ice covering a big chest further.
But now, they had to bring the fire to the red ice, and using a Deku Stick didn't work. Link also fired an arrow through it, but no luck either.
Link then got an idea, took his empty bottle, and somehow managed to trap some fire in it.
"So this is why the Great Fairy told us to have an empty bottle..." said Navi.
Sweetie Belle stared at the fire in the bottle in wonder. "Okay... Even for me, this is very far fetched. And I saw many weird stuff in my adventures. Fire in a bottle, really..."
"At least, now, we can melt the red ice," said Link before he moved toward the trapped chest and used the fire to melt the ice. With the ice gone, he was able to open the chest, getting the map of the ice cavern.
"I hope there will be other blue fires in this cavern. Coming back here to get it each times will quickly get annoying," remarked Sweetie Belle.
Link agreed, but he only had one empty bottle. He could empty the others, but he didn't want to release the fairy and to waste the potions he bought.
So he filled the now empty bottle with blue fire again and they returned in the room with the spinning blade where they used the fire to melt some stalagmites of red ice blocking another exit that led to a room that was a dead end. But who said dead end room said possibly a treasure.
So they entered the room and immediately spotted another big chest trapped in red ice. Thankfully, there was a blue fire in the room too, so they destroyed the many stalagmites that were a little everywhere, filled the bottle with the fire, and used the fire on the red ice to open the chest and get the compass in it. Link then filled his bottle again with the fire and they returned in the previous room for the third time, this time using the fire to melt a wall of red ice blocking the last exit.
The passage led to a huge room with a strangely checkered ice floor and a big ice block. Blue fire was present in an alcove too far up to reach it with a jump, silver rupees were around mainly on pillars, and some Ice Keeses too.
Their goal: push the ice block around so they could use it to reach the silver rupees and the blue fire that they needed to melt the red ice covering one of the rupees in another alcove. The problem? Because of the slippery floor, once the block was pushed, it didn't stop sliding until it was either stopped by an obstacle or fell in a pit surrounding the area.
"So... Do you want to do it, or will you go the easy way and let me fly around to get the fire and the rupees?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Let me try first, looks like fun. Just kill the Keeses for now," answered Link, and the filly nodded.
It wasn't hard in the end. Link managed to push the block toward the alcove with the fire to get it before pushing the block into the pit around. As he thought, a new block appeared at the beginning, and he managed to push it toward the alcove with the rupee trapped in ice. He then pushed the block in the pit again to reset it.
Instead of losing time by pushing the block to the alcove with the fire, he then gave the empty bottle to Sweetie Belle (who was done by then with the Ice Keeses) so she could fly to the fire with it and fill it. Meanwhile, Link pushed the block around to get the four remaining silver rupees (one of them didn't even need the block to be reached), doing a full loop with it before he pushed it toward the ledge on which was the now opened exit.
In the passage, they again had to fight some Freezards before reaching a wall made of several crystals of red ice blocking the way. Link used the blue fire to melt all the crystals in one go and they continued before they passed a door camouflaged in the ice, entering a beautiful room with walls full of little blue lights.
Behind them, bars appeared to block the door.
And suddenly, a White Wolfos appeared.
Easily killed. It wasn't because it was white that it was harder to kill than the normal Wolfos. It was just as easy.
Just after it died, a big chest appeared, containing iron boots for Link.
To put it simply, the boots were so heavy that, while Link won't be able to run while wearing them, he will be able to walk in the bottom of the water without the whole floating part. Useful to explore the seabed, without forgetting that Link will be able to resist strong currents and to step on rusted switches without using the hammer.
And since the next temple was apparently under water, these boots will quickly get many uses.
Then, as the two heroes turned around, they found Sheik now here. They didn't even hear him enter!
"We meet again, Link... Sweetie Belle..."
"Seriously, he's a ninja..." muttered Sweetie Belle.
"If you came here to meet the Zoras, you wasted your time... This is all there is... With one exception, the Zoras are now sealed under this thick ice sheet..."
The two heroes sighed in relief. "So they are safe... in a way," Link said.
"I feared for a moment that it was like for the Gorons," added Sweetie Belle.
Sheik nodded at them before he continued. "I managed to rescue the Zora princess from under the ice, but... she left to head for the Water Temple..."
Link groaned, covering his face with a hand.
"This ice is created by an evil curse..." continued Sheik again. "The monster in the Water Temple is the source of the curse. Unless you shut off the source, this ice will never melt..." He then fully looked at Link. "If you have courage enough to face the danger and save the Zoras, I will teach you the melody that leads to the temple."
Link nodded and prepared his ocarina.
But before, Sheik continued to talk. "Time passes, people move... Like a river's flow, it never ends... A childish mind will turn to noble ambition... Young love will become deep affection... The clear water's surface reflects growth... Now listen to the Serenade of Water to reflect upon yourself..."
At this, he finally took his lyre and taught Link the song.
Between Sheik's words as deep as the sea and the song, Sweetie Belle couldn't help but reflect on her own personal growth since... Since that accident. Time sure passed since then, and Sweetie Belle was now a very different filly than she was back then. It certainly wasn't the Sweetie Belle of back then who could have snapped the neck of a wolf without even giving a second thought. The Sweetie Belle of back then would have frozen in horror at the sight of the Dead Hand. And she knew that these changes will continue as time continued. How different will she be by the time she finally becomes a Goddess? She could only guess. She just knew that, when she will be a Goddess, she will be beyond Time, but did it mean that she will stop changing? Stop growing?
After they were done, Sheik left like he always did, leaving them to continue, both their journey and their reflections.
"He sure knows how to make us think upon our life," commented Sweetie Belle.
Link nodded. "Yeah..."
Continuing, they approached a hole full of water and Link equipped the boots before jumping in it, followed by Sweetie Belle. At the bottom of the hole, Link opened a door that led to a path eventually coming out of water and leading back to the first room where they fought the first Freezards. There, Link took off the boots before they left the cavern.
"Wait!" then shouted Navi. "We need blue fire to unfreeze the King Zora!"
They both groaned. "Give me the bottle," instructed Sweetie Belle. "I will join you at the throne room."
Link nodded and gave her the bottle before she teleported. While she went to fill the bottle with the fire, he returned in the throne room. He entered it just as Sweetie Belle melted the red ice with the fire, freeing the king.
"Oh! I've come back to life!" shouted the regal fat fishman before he looked down at the filly who jumped on the platform facing the king, followed by Link. "Is that you who saved me?"
Sweetie Belle nodded. "Uhuh! We got the blue fire in the cavern behind the Fountain! Uh, speaking of, I should return to get more fire to melt the red ice blocking the shop." She then bowed to the king before teleporting away.
The king then looked at Link. "I think I recognize you. You saved my daughter seven years ago."
Link nodded. "And now, I must go to the Water Temple to save your people trapped under the ice."
"Aah... The Water Temple. You will need to breathe underwater to enter it. There. As an expression of my gratitude, I grant you this tunic. With this, you won't choke underwater."
And so, Link received the blue tunic that he needed.
With it and the boots, he was now ready to enter the Water Temple.
Sweetie Belle then appeared beside him. "It's done. The red ice blocking the shop is gone. The shopkeeper Zora is still in it, so you will be able to buy stuff in it if you want. I also filled the bottle with another flame just in case."
Link nodded. "Thank you Sweetie Belle." He took his ocarina. "Now, let's go to the Water Temple."
And he played the Serenade of Water, warping to the Water Temple.
Sweetie Belle sung the Serenade too, following Link.
They both warped in Lake Hylia, or what remained of it as they then found out.
The lake was almost entirely drained!
"Seems like the Domain isn't the only place that has been affected by this monster," noted Sweetie Belle.
Link nodded before he put on the blue tunic. "Can you breathe underwater?"
"Yeah. Don't worry."
With another nod, Link approached the edge of the island they had warped on, equipped the boots, and jumped, disappearing in the little water that remained. Sweetie Belle followed, deciding to turn into metal to also walk at the bottom without problem.
They landed just in front of the entrance to the temple.
"Alright! You two cleared the first two temples as if they were nothing! I'm sure you will have no problem in it too!" said Navi at this moment.
Sweetie Belle groaned. "You just had to say this..."
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Sweetie’s Shadow
...... the shadow of a hero
It's "We fairies".
You forgot the "d" in "red".
It's spelled choke.
10665921
I bet you 5 Rubees that she uses her magic to tame her shadow thus granting her a new skill: Shadow Fighter. It'll let her send her shadow to attack her foes shadows, and any damage done to the shadows will be reflected on their owners.
P.S. The bet is for her gaining a new skill, not the one I described. That's only the skill I hope she gets.
10665976
... friend hearts? Also that works!
10665990
I said her magic. The friend hearts are something of the Dream Universe, so they don't count.
10666106
No, use on shadow.
A man cannot cross the same river twice; it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Also, a couple untranslated "lac"s in the chapter. (I'm not fluent in French, but I've picked up words here and there)