Everyone Dies

Ch 13

Here is the thirteenth chapter in my story. And the conclusion to the Dodongo Cavern Dungeon, but not the Goron Ruby arc.

I I would like to thank Insane Certifiably, brown phantom, ZeldaRubix, Twilight's Shad0w, onyxpilot, SuperSaiyanParadoxx, sendicard, and CryingCicada for their reviews. I would like to thank sendicard in particular for his many reviews and critiques. I am quite grateful for the support and I am quite pleased that you all enjoy the realistic twist that I am adding to the series.

I am sorry for the long waits between updates, but since it is now summer, I look forward to being able to devote more time to my writing. I would like to warn you readers though I started writing this chapter a few months back, but school started and so on so forth. Just want you to understand why the chapter might seem choppy.

This chapter picks up immediately after the previous, with no elapse of time whatsoever, with the point of view still with Brad and Naomi, but switches soon after. Enjoy.

I don't own Legend of Zelda. I do own this story though, Ha!

-Last chapter-

Passing into the next chamber Brad and Naomi found that the door leading forward was blocked by steel bars. In desperation Brad and Wraith began to cut through the bars with their unique brand of magic. After what seemed like an eternity the doorway was opened, together the group of four rushed through the doorway and found themselves back in the main cavern looking upon a scene of war.

-Main Dodongo Cavern-

The scene was terrifying. Fully grown matured Dodongos by the dozen were flooding through the doorway on the western side of the cavern, along with their smaller brethren. They came marching and trumpeting their presence with loud guttural roars that promised death. Some of the more courageous Dodongos were leaping onto the stone pillars that led to the stone island. It was these lizards which Link and Saria concentrated their attacks on.

Flashes of green lightning flew from Saria's hands towards the mighty lizards, but more often than not, Saria would tilt the stone pillar in such a way that the Dodongo would slide off and fall into the lava bellow, its dying screams adding more noise to the battle strewn cavern. Meanwhile Link kept his war sling in almost constant motion, only stopping the whirling motion as he either released a stone bullet, or reloaded his sling. Loud cracks resounded throughout the room as the stone bullet impacted with, and often broke through the Dodongo's thick scaly hide. At times Link would pull out a bomb and charge it with his magic before throwing it out towards the Dodongos as Saria would then whisper a spell guiding the bomb towards the lizards. When the bomb detonated the sound alone deafened all in the cavern for a minute. When the smoke from the bomb cleared, the Dodongos were not dead, but merely stunned. It was obvious that these were the enhanced bombs that Brad and Naomi had heard earlier.

From above there was even more danger, as Baby Dodongos were flinging themselves off of the upper bridges in a constant stream attempting to land on the main stone island. But before the small Dodongos even neared the two Kokiri, they were intercepted by both Altair and Kairi. The golden fairy had both of his swords out and glowing with light, while his partner was slashing the little Dodongos that neared her with her knives, but mainly focusing on throwing blasts of emerald magic at the falling lizards. The dead and dying bodies of the young lizards fell to the ground in a mass of green scales, many ending up falling in the lava, while a few landed near their target and did some damage to the barriers that Saria had erected with their explosive deaths.

From their view, Brad and Naomi saw this as a battle of attrition, and considering the numbers of enemies they had to fight, Link and Saria might just be overwhelmed by the armored lizards. And then, things had begun to change as the last magically enhanced bomb had sent the mature Dodongos into a cold frenzy. Several more mature Dodongos had proceeded to attempt to cross the pillars to the stone island. While the increased amount of lizards to cross was becoming a problem, the real trouble began when the mature Dodongos began to toss the Baby Dodongos across the lava pit and onto the island.

In response to the new threat, Link quickly wrapped his war sling around his waist as he drew his sword and began to hack at the flying lizards. But within a mere minute it became clear that they would not be able to hold off this new wave of attack as they are. Saria drew on her magic again and raised the wall that encircled the main island by several feet. With the temporary protection Saria drew Link to her side as they hunkered down by the wall.

"We can't keep this up we need some more help!" Saria exclaimed.

"I know, but where are we going to get any from? Brad and Naomi are off trying to explore the area, while Altair and Kairi are stuck in the air doing all they can to keep those living bombs off our backs. I think we're on our own for a while Saria." Link said with a heavy sigh as he rested for a moment.

Saria grabbed Link's left hand and squeezed it for comfort. Link turned to his best friend and gave her the best smile he could manage in the situation. Saria gave a strained grin back before glancing down at their joined hands.

It was then that she saw the answer. Engraved on Link's Goron bracelet was the image of a howling wolf. "Link! Get your ocarina out."

Link gave Saria a strange look but did as he was told, and brought out his dark green ocarina. As his eyes caught sight of the golden howling wolf imprinted on the shell, he finally caught onto Saria's line of thought. Bringing the ocarina to his lips he played the song Midlight's Echo, from the ocarina came a haunting sound like a lone voice calling out all alone, but as the song progressed more and more 'voices' joined in with the original, until there was a great loud wolf howl that echoed throughout the cavern, chilling the blood of the Dodongos. From the middle of the island and a deep golden doorway appeared, and through it stepped a familiar wolfos, Perrin.

The massive dark grey forest wolfos stepped through the doorway allowing the magical door to vanish. As soon as he was through though he stopped and sniffed the air. The smell of sulfur and brimstone featured prominently, but it was the smell of blood that dominated his attention. The smell indicated that some kind of lizard was killed, but there was a strong smell of magic lacing the blood, strong magic, but warped and twisted in a way that it wasn't originally meant to be used in.

But Perrin quickly stopped his musings as a wave of smoke reached his nose. Perrin crouched down low and snarled in anger. Smoke meant fire, and fire meant death. To one who lives in the forest, fire is the one element that is feared and hated above all. As the seconds ticked by Perrin felt himself being swallowed up by his anger and hate.

Link and Saria were quickly becoming nervous, as the large wolfos, for the first time since they had known him, was showing a deep and dark anger. Nonetheless Link spoke up to grab Perrin's attention. "Perrin we need you to help us kill these Dodongo's. There are too many of them, and they are swarming us."

"Dodongo's? Fire breathers?"

"Yeah, they breathe fire, so be extra careful." Link warned. And as he saw Perrin's golden eyes gleam in the red glow of the cavern, he felt a fear creep over him as he saw the most calm and level headed wolfos he had ever known become overwhelmed by a murderous rage.

Saria quickly lowered the defensive wall allowing the great wolfos to bound from the island and onto one of the pillars that would lead him across to the western side of the cavern.

The Dodongo's paused as they saw this great large grey beast running and jumping across the pillars like it was child's play. The agility of this strange furred creature astounded the large lizards, as did his sudden appearance. But when he was only about twenty feet away did the Dodongos begin to understand what was about to happen. Roaring and hissing in anger the Dodongos prepared to meet the wolfos in battle of teeth and claws.

With one final leap, Perrin was across to the western side of the cavern and amidst the lizards. Lunging forward Perrin snapped his jaws around the neck of a Dodongo, his teeth biting only half as deep as they should have. With a quick and powerful jerk Perrin brought the great lizard's neck to the breaking point as he twisted. Just as the lizards neck was about to snap Perrin jumped aside as a wave of fire passed where he was just standing.

Glaring hatefully at the green and pink scaled lizards Perrin ran at them watching carefully as the Dodongos breathed deep and unleashed a wave of fire towards him. Perrin didn't slow down. He simply leaped high over the fire and pounced on one of the Dodongos, his claws sinking deep into the scaly hide. Quickly adjusting his paws so that they were on the underside of the beast, Perrin began to rise to his hind legs. Finding that his claws were digging into the Dodongo's hide far easier on the belly, Perrin rose to his hind legs with the lizard's blood running down his claws. With one great heave, he tossed the creature over the edge and into the lava. The Dodongos were temporarily stunned, for not even a Goron, with all of their lauded strength has yet to manage to toss one of them around with his strength alone. As Perrin turned to glare at the Dodongos, his yellow eyes gleamed with a hatred that matched their own.

Perrin released a long loud howl that echoed throughout the caverns that chilled the blood of all the lesser Dodongos. With that the battle between the Wolfos and Dodongos had begun. Perrin dashed forward and slashed at a pink and green Dodongo across the ribs, leaving several lines of bleeding and ripped flesh. With a quick movement Perrin dug his claws into the female Dodongo's side and flipped it onto its back, whereupon he quickly ended its life with a powerful bite at its throat.

Before Perrin could begin another attack, he was hit in the side by a large powerful tail. Rolling across the ground, Perrin quickly got to his feet, and leaped to the side as he avoided a large stream of flame from a Dodongo. Glaring with hatred at the lizard Perrin dashed forward and gave a slash to the face of a Dodongo, disorientating it while he gripped it by the shoulders of its two legs and lifted it up, so that he could get to the underside of its neck. All too soon the neck of the great lizard was exposed, and with a flash of teeth, the lizard fell down dead as its throat was torn out.

With this death, a Dodongo threw aside caution as he charged towards the large wolfos, intent on avenging its friends. With a great lunge it snapped its jaws at Perrin, narrowly missing the leg of the wolfos. Perrin had leaped to the side to avoid the bite, but suddenly he was back into the fight. He leaped onto the back of the beast and started to dig his claws and teeth into the hide of the great lizard, ripping off large numbers of scales and leaving long bleeding marks across the creatures back. But before Perrin could get his teeth around the neck of Dodongo, he was rammed in the side by yet another Dodongo.

Glaring at the fresh Dodongo and eyeing the injured Dodongo like a piece of meat, Perrin knew what to do. Dashing forward at the injured lizard, he was met with a tail swipe from the fresh Dodongo. Expecting the swipe, he lowered himself to the floor, allowing the tail to pass harmlessly overhead before turning on the fresh Dodongo and flipping it onto its back and going for the throat.

With its backup dead, the injured Dodongo stared into the eyes of what he knew would be his killer and roared a challenge. Lifting his tail high into the air the injured lizard charged at Perrin with unexpected speed. Perrin managed to take the charge in stride, sidestepping the charge before landing an upper slash to the Dodongo's body, flipping the creature onto its back and sending it skidding across the edge and into the lava below. Glaring at the horde of Dodongos left, Perrin raised his head to the ceiling and let out another blood chilling howl before dashing into the midst of the Dodongos.

Meanwhile Link and Saria, who had briefly watched Perrin fight, suddenly had to deal with another problem. From up above two high pitched cries were heard. Glancing up Link and Saria saw two Lizalfos standing on the upper bridge with their rough swords drawn, leering down at them like they were prey. With a great cry the two humanoid lizards leapt onto the center island, swatting at the fairies as they rushed to defend their charges. Unfortunately for the fairies, the humanoid lizards were able to land a lucky blow that ended up sending them crashing at Brad and Naomi's feet.

Landing with a heavy thud that caused the two Kokiri to stumble a bit, the two Lizalfos roared out a cry of challenge that merely added more noise to the cacophony that filled the cave. Quickly regaining their footing Link and Saria prepared to fight the creatures. As Saria looked around she quickly realized that their defenses had made the small island an impromptu coliseum.

Drawing her knife from her sheath, Saria whispered a few words that caused her small blade to spark briefly. Beside her, Saria noticed that Link had drawn his sword and shield, despite the fact that he had never used his new shield in combat yet. The gleaming wolf head and star glinted brightly in the fire lit cavern, drawing the attention of the two Lizalfos.

All too soon the fight had begun. Working in tandem, the two Lizalfos leapt from their spots to land on opposite sides of Link. Quickly the two humanoid reptiles slashed at the young boy. With the increased size of the shield, Link did not have to do much to catch the first blade, and his constant practice had enabled him to catch the second blade with his sword. Before Link could attempt to employ his magically gifted strength, the Lizalfos who had attacked his shield side slammed a clawed foot into the boys shield, sending Link stumbling back, freeing the other Lizalfos blade. With a quick slash the armored monster delivered a blow that would have cleaved Link's head in two, had he not turned his stumble into a roll allowing him to escape the Lizalfos. Completing his roll, Link scrambled to his feet to see the two Lizalfos turning to him to finish the fight while he was off balanced.

As soon as the Lizalfos made their move towards Link, Saria rushed towards the green armored lizards. In the few seconds it took for the Lizalfos to make their attack on Link, Saria had closed the distance between herself and the nearest Lizalfos. Lunging forward, the green haired forest girl drove her knife into the unarmored left shoulder of the monster, causing the creature to cry out in pain, bringing him and his partner to a halt as he thrashed about in pain, allowing Link to regain his balance. With a shout Link moved to attack the unoccupied Lizalfos, darting and slashing at the green monster causing it to leap away before beginning his own attack.

With Link and the other Lizalfos currently engaged in a battle that would ultimately be decided by agility, Saria quickly focused on her own problem. The wounded Lizalfos had dropped his sword to the ground, and had started to claw at his back trying to reach her. Yanking her knife from the monsters body, Saria quickly dropped to the ground and rolled away from the tail swipe that would have broken her ribs. In a rage the Lizalfos grabbed its dropped sword with its left hand, as its entire right arm was too damaged to fight with, and stalked towards the green haired pest.

Saria quickly glanced down at her knife before she charged at the injured Lizalfos. With a quick slash the Lizalfos attempted to slow the girl, only for its sword to be easily batted away by Saria's knife, causing the small blade to spark. Saria grinned a little as she entered the creature's guard. With a lunge, Saria made to stab the monster in the chest, only to be brought to a halt as the Lizalfos brought its knee up into her small body causing all her breath to leave her. Gasping for air Saria felt a stinging pain in her face as she suddenly found herself skidding across the ground and slamming into the wall that she had erected around the small island.

Still desperately pulling air into her lungs, Saria raised herself up and staggered to her feet only to stumble aside as she noticed the Lizalfos leaping towards her. As the humanoid lizard landed and turned towards the Kokiri, Saria stilled her panic and managed to get a half breath. Then she pushed herself forward to attack, knowing that if she let the Lizalfos gain the momentum she was finished. With a slash to start her offensive, Saria began to attack the creature's sword. Gaining speed, momentum, and breath with each attack Saria, continued to direct her attention towards the enemy's sword, making no move to attack the creature itself. With every clash between Saria's knife and the Lizalfos's sword, the knife would spark.

Bewildered at the girl's strange attack pattern, the Lizalfos played defensive, turning her slashes aside with his crude blade. Her slashes at first seemed random, but he soon enough found a pattern in her movements. With a wicked grin, he deflected her latest attack and thrust his blade towards her heart.

Saria knew that given enough time, the lizard would find a pattern in her attacks and then make a move to finish the fight. Sure enough the monster did what she wanted it to do. Sidestepping the thrust, Saria quickly stepped in and delivered an almost casual slash to the Lizalfos's arm creating only a shallow bloody line before stepping back as she let the Lizalfos fall dead to the ground with remnants of lightning coursing from its body to the ground. (1) With a tired smile Saria turned her attention to Link's fight. The Lizalfos, was sporting numerous wounds across its body while Link remained relatively unharmed; his agility, blade work, and shield allowing him to avoid and deflect virtually all of the Lizalfos's attacks. Then before her eyes, Saria watched as the Lizalfos slammed both of its feet into Link's shield causing it to fly away from his body, twisting his arm as it did so. Link glared at the monster before him, as he let his right arm hang limply by his side. Raising his sword before him, he prepared for the fight's end.

In desperation and panic Saria reached out with her magic to stop the Lizalfos, with no plan whatsoever in mind, except to stop the monster. From the earth burst a flurry of thick tree roots that wrapped around the Lizalfos before pulling it to the ground. Snarling and writhing in rage the Lizalfos struggled to free itself from the roots. All of that stopped as it felt a shadow pass over it. Standing above it was Link with his sword raised high. Fear and panic froze the twisted lizard till the end, as the Kokiri Sword was buried in the Lizalfos's skull.

As Link stood there leaning heavily on his sword he glanced up towards Saria with thanks shining in his eyes. Link was relieved to notice the relief, joy, and some warm emotion decorating his special friend's face. The two Kokiri's quiet moment was interrupted as multiple baby Dodongos impacted against the wall surrounding the island, startling the two children into action.

-With Altair, Kairi, Brad, Naomi, etc.-

As soon as the Dodongos resumed their attack on the island, Brad finally got over the shock that had frozen him and Naomi to the spot. Shaking his head to clear away any doubts that were fogging his mind Brad prepared to cross the stone columns that lead to the island. Just as he raised his foot to move, he felt Naomi grip his shoulder and pull him back.

"Naomi, what was that for? We need to help them, they're getting swarmed!" Brad whispered harshly, trying to not alert the Dodongos to their presence.

Naomi glared at her boyfriend and gestured to the ground before him. Turning around Brad looked down and saw both Altair and Kairi lying on the ground completely oblivious to the world around them. Naomi smirked in satisfaction as Brad cringed, realizing that he had nearly crushed Link and Saria's guardians.

"Carefully pick them up and hold out your hands." Naomi instructed as she searched through her pack for something.

Brad nodded and carefully lifted the fairies into his hands, being extremely careful of their delicate wings. With the task complete he turned around and noticed that Naomi had removed a flask of water. Catching onto her train of thought he held out the fairies and allowed his girlfriend to drip water on the unconscious fairies.

After a few drops on the small creatures, the fairies awoke with a start and flew back into the air, although it was quite noticeable that they were struggling, which was no surprise considering that their delicate wings had gotten wet and were weighing them down. Glancing around wildly Altair and Kairi quickly took stock of the situation, and acted in two extremely different ways.

Altair summoned his swords and prepared to dash off to the battle, only for Kairi to lay a hand on the collar of his coat and jerk him towards her. Kairi looked into his eyes and noticed a wild and excited light in his eyes. Gathering herself Kairi spoke up. "Now you listen to me Altair, we need to come up with a plan. We cannot win this battle the way things are going. We need to think, not rush off and fight!"

Brad and Naomi glanced at each other confused at what was happening between the fairies. Brad stepped forward. "Look the problem is that Link and Saria are trapped on that island. The tunnels on this side of the cavern lead only to a dead end. We need to move. If they stay where they are, they will be overwhelmed."

"What do you suggest?" Altair snapped. "If these tunnels here lead nowhere, then they are safest where they are right now. At least they have the option to move instead of being trapped like rats."

As the fairies and Brad argued, Naomi received a mental image from Comet about the writing they had found in the caves. Glancing around for something that might explain the strange message, Naomi found her eyes drawn towards the massive Dodongo skull that decorated the far wall of the main cavern. Looking closely, through the smoke and falling Dodongos, Naomi thought that she saw something like pivots or gears at the jaw of the skull. Inspiration and understanding struck.

"Hey!" At Naomi's whispered shout, the two fairies, Brad, and the familiars turned their attention towards the red haired archer. "When we were traveling through the western caverns we found some writing on a stone pillar. It read, 'When the King's rage is again lit with red, then the way unto the rulers shall open. Beware their wrath.' The 'king' is the skull." Naomi said as she pointed towards the massive blue and green skull. "I think that behind the jaws are another set of caverns."

Kairi nodded as she recalled the writing on the tablet on the upper level. 'Giant Dead Dodongo … when it sees red a new way to go will be open.' "Of course, all that we need to do is make the skull see red."

Brad nodded in agreement. "But the problem is how do we make it see red?"

Everyone looked puzzled for a moment until Altair spoke up. "We paint its eyes red with the blood of its descendents." Kairi and the others gasped in shock at the rather brutal idea. "Look nothing makes a parent angrier than seeing their children injured. I guarantee that nothing is likely to incur a Dodongo's rage more than death of their family." (2)

Brad, Naomi, and their familiars cautiously nodded their agreement, before the two Hylians turned to their familiars. Brad pulled out two of his knives and their sheaths, which were still dripping with blood from the Dodongos. Handing a knife towards each familiar Brad and Wraith exchanged a look before the small fox bounded away with the knife and sheath clenched between his teeth as he raced for the cavern's far wall and began to bound from ledge to ledge as he climbed toward the skull. Naomi ran a hand across Comet's back before she urged the little raptor to follow after Wraith.

While the familiars made their way towards the skull, Kairi took a good look at Altair. Once again she saw that same strange light enter his eyes as he turned towards the battle. At that point she knew that she would have to speak with the gold fairy once they had escaped this evil cavern.

As soon as Wraith and Comet reached the skull, Kairi and Altair felt a change in the cavern's atmosphere. Ancient magic was waking up. The pressure from the magic quieted and stilled the baby Dodongos while it only agitated and increased the fury of the mature Dodongos. As Wraith and Comet laid the bloody knives and sheaths in the eyes sockets of the ancient skull, the blood that dripped and pooled from the knives was quickly absorbed by the dark sockets, turning them an angry scarlet.

All noise and commotion stopped, even Perrin's attack, as the jaw of the skull slowly opened onto the stone island in the middle of the cavern, crushing the stone wall around the island effortlessly. At the back of the skull's throat was a door that led further into the caverns. Once the way forward was open, two roars shattered the silence and reignited the small war that was going on.

Link and Saria quickly made their way towards the doorway, eager to escape the approaching horde of lizards. Wraith and Comet lightly leapt down from the skull onto the island before turning and making their way towards the two Kokiri. Across the cavern Altair and Kairi nodded at each other before flying off to join their partners. All that was left was for Brad and Naomi to race across the pillars towards the new passage before the Dodongos could make their way onto the island and continue their assault on the group of friends.

As the blue and red clothed teens raced across the pillars, the Dodongos began to attempt to cross the pillars. A task that was made more difficult as Perrin, despite his bloodied and smoking body, made himself a nuisance as he took to hamstringing as many of the adult Dodongos as possible, making it difficult for them to move, much less leap across stone pillars. Unfortunately, with the fairies with their charges, there was no one to stop the baby Dodongos from dive bombing the island and from there make their way towards the injured group.

Once Brad and Naomi reached the island, they quickly dealt with the baby Dodongos before making their way towards the others. But before the two teens entered the skull passage they heard more thumps behind them. Turning around they realized that despite the new passage, the Dodongos would not stop following them.

"Link, Saria! We need some way to stop these lizards from following us!" Brad shouted back to his friends as he fought off the small lizards.

"What do you have in mind?" Link shouted back as he and Saria clambered back to their feet.

Naomi who had been scanning the area suddenly noticed a fault in the ceiling above them. High above, in the shadows, was a crevice that looked weak. "Hey! If I can get an explosive up to that crevice on the ceiling, I think that I'll be able cause part of the cavern to collapse!"

"If we start a rock slide what's to prevent the whole cave from collapsing on top of us?" Brad shouted back.

"We don't have much of a choice; if we do nothing then we're going to die!" Naomi argued. "Besides, the bones should help brace the cavern and prevent the total collapse of the cave!"

Saria and Link, who had returned to the mouth of the tunnel, looked up to where Naomi was pointing. But all that they could see was shadows. "How are we going to get a bomb up there?" Link asked. "If we attach a bomb to your arrows, they would only throw off your aim."

"I know what to do!" Saria exclaimed as she rushed into the tunnels mouth and took a seat near a bomb flower. Pulling an empty bottle from her pocket, Saria placed the glass container next to the explosive plant while she took out her knife. Whispering words, Saria turned her attention to the plant causing the raw explosive to glow green. Carefully Saria inserted her knife into the side of the plant, opening a hole in the plant's side. Immediately she grabbed the bottle and held it next to the hole to collect the amber liquid as it leaked from the plant. In a matter of seconds the bottle was half full of the liquid. Quickly rising to her feet Saria rushed as fast as she was able back to her friends. (3)

Reaching out, the green haired Kokiri snatched an arrow from Naomi's quiver. Ripping off a piece of her tunic, Saria wrapped the fabric around the dart before dipping the arrow in the liquid drawn from the bomb flower. Handing the arrow back to Naomi, Saria quickly explained. "The liquid is a sensitive explosive. If you can ignite the arrow just before it hits inside the weak point, the shock from hitting the ceiling should set off the explosive in the crack causing the ceiling to collapse."

Naomi nodded in confirmation as she lined up her target. In the background she could hear Link and Saria scrambling back into the skull tunnel, while Brad took a position near her in preparation of rushing her off towards safety. Ignoring all of this Naomi raised her bow and took sight of the target. With hardly a pause she let loose the arrow. And moments later murmured a spell that ignited the explosive liquid on the arrow.

As soon as the very small explosion went off in the ceiling's crevice, Brad grabbed Naomi and pulled her towards the tunnel at the back of the giant Dodongo skull. Link and Saria, who were already safe inside the tunnel watched in stunned awe as the ceiling began to collapse. Huge boulders fell from the cavern's roof crushing lizards and destroying the stone pillars that littered the cavern. Cries of agony and terror echoed through the chamber as the lizards desperately tried to escape from destruction that was raining down on them. In a flash of insight Link realized that Perrin was still out there. In desperation Link reached out with his magic and smothered the magic that had transported Perrin to the caverns. Amidst the thick dust and falling rocks the two Kokiri saw the large wolfos freeze as a bright golden light engulfed him before shattering with explosive force as clouds of rolling dust blotted the view. The effect was strange and it left Link with no knowledge of what happened to the wolfos one way or the other.

Link simply stared in the direction of where he last saw Perrin as the roof continued to collapse crushing the fleeing Dodongos. All he felt was shock and confusion. As the collapse started to slow Link felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up he saw Saria standing there with empathy shining in her eyes despite the fact that her face was covered by a large bruise. "Come on Link, we need to keep moving." Shakily Link got to his feet and gripping Saria's hand, he moved forward and made his way towards the door at the end of the tunnel.

Brad and Naomi glanced at each other and followed after their younger friends with their familiars keeping pace with them. Above the group hovered the fairies as they gazed out at the tons of rock completely burying and crushing all the Dodongos beneath. "Death on a large scale is never easy to get over is it?" Receiving no response Kairi continued on. "And yet death on such a scale is harder to get over when you are the one who caused it."

"What are you talking about?" Altair asked his voice low with shame.

"You know what I mean, but we'll talk about this later. For now let's keep an eye out for our charges." Altair gave a nod and flew after Link with Kairi close behind.

As the group approached the door, their bracelets let off a soft glow causing the steel shrouded door to rise and open the way into the next chamber. The room was a stone chamber that had three passages leading off from it. The left most passage contained another steel shrouded door which was barred. The passage to the right was easy to access, but the one straight ahead was higher than they could reach on their own. In the middle of the chamber was a depression that held a pressure pad that likely unlocked the bars on the left passage.

As the tired and weary group of friends wandered the chamber they noticed that the Keeses that were fluttering above them were doing their best to be invisible. Apparently they smelled the blood of the Dodongos on their weapons, and the little bats had no desire to attack anyone that could kill a Dodongo.

Gathering together around the depression the group took a seat as they rested from the lengthy and exhausting battles. As they sat there resting, all the aches and pains that had been forgotten during the battle began to catch up with them. Brad's burns began to ache as the recent exertion had agitated them beyond what Lon Lon Ranches' famous milk could heal. His ribs, while tender, were still fine. Link's right arm began to make its presence known with a vengeance as the badly twisted arm throbbed with every beat of his heart. Saria's bruised stomach and face pulsed in time with her heartbeat, clearly telling her that it would be best if she found a bed and slept for a day. The fairies sat on Link's hat as they continued to dry their wings. Wraith and Comet lied curled up to each other in front of their partners as they licked Wraith's fur clean of the blood that was matted into his coat. Amidst all these aches and pains, Naomi alone was uninjured.

Shifting to her knees, Saria turned her attention to the earth. Using her magic she shifted the ground so that instead of stone, there was actual dirt. Reaching into her belt pouch Saria withdrew several seeds before planting them into the newly created dirt. Reaching out with her magic Saria encouraged the seeds to take root and grow. Within seconds the seeds had sprouted and reached maturity. Kairi fluttered from her spot next to Altair and moved over to the plants. With tenderness and care the green haired fairy started to remove leaves and flowers from the plants before placing them in Saria's waiting hand along with several more seeds to enable the Kokiri girl to repeat this feat at a later time.

Reaching for her pack Saria removed a wooden mortar and a stone pestle. Selecting some of the freshly grown herbs Saria placed them in the hard wood bowl before grinding them up into a fine paste. Link, Brad, and Naomi's tired minds grasped what Saria was doing and reached into their packs and removed some bandages.

Saria looked up and smiled at her friends before reaching out for Link's bandage. Grasping the white fabric Saria smeared on some the paste onto the bandage, while simultaneously applying a large amount of magic into the herbal mix causing it to glow a healthy green. Completely non-pulsed Link moved closer and extended his right arm for Saria. With a practiced ease Saria wrapped the bandage around Link's arm and tied it off before reaching for the bandages that Brad and Naomi offered. Smearing on the paste, Saria passed the bandages to Naomi before explaining. "You need to add some of your magic to the herbs to speed up their healing abilities. After you do that I want you to wrap them around Brad's arm and his chest. We are going to be resting for about half an hour before doing anything. That should be enough time for the injuries to mend themselves enough that we can continue on without too much hindrance."

Naomi nodded before applying her magic causing the healthy green glow to appear although far paler than the bandage that Saria applied to Link. Brad quickly shed himself of his coat and shirt to allow Naomi access to his ribs.

While Naomi tended to Brad, Saria grabbed some of her own bandages and prepared them. Link quickly moved to Saria's side to help her with what she needed to do. After smearing the paste onto the bandages and charging the medicine with her magic, the green haired girl turned to Link. "I need you to bandage my stomach for me."

Link nodded and picked up the bandages, once Saria lifted her tunic revealing her heavily bruised stomach Link's eyes sharpened in anger as he saw what that monster had done to his friend. As careful as he could with one good arm and a bandaged arm, Link applied the dressing and wound it around the female Kokiri's stomach several times before tying it off with a knot. Finished, Link looked up at Saria's face and noticed that her face was flushed red, which caused Link to blush red as well as he realized the position that he was in. Looking into her eyes Link saw a great warmth shining in her blue depths, a warmth that was unknowingly reflected in his own eyes. Before anything could come of this moment the two Kokiri were jolted back to reality as their fairies fluttered in front of their faces.

Blushing, the two forest children scooted away and rested on the soft dirt as they let their bodies recuperate. Before she drifted off asleep Saria heard Link's voice. "It's your turn to keep watch Altair."

-More than a Half an Hour Later-

Coming awake to Altair's small hands rapping on his head, Link quickly sat up swiping the fairy away from his face. Letting out a yawn Link got to his feet and realized that while he and Saria had napped, Brad and Naomi had climbed up the high passage and had pushed a large block to the edge of the passage. Seeing Link awake, and Saria stirring the two Hylians began to push to block over the edge.

When the block fell over the edge, landing with a loud crash that sent reverberations through the floor of the cavern causing Saria to jolt awake and leap to her feet. Laughing at his friend, Link found himself face down on the ground as Saria tackled him. Immediately the two children began to horse around.

Rolling their eyes Brad and Naomi began to push the block over to the depression. While Altair and Kairi gazed down at their charges with both worry and amusement fluttering in their eyes.

With one final exertion Brad and Naomi sent the stone block falling into the depression with another loud crash that caused the two Kokiri to stop fooling around and get serious again. The familiar childhood wrestling and laughter ceased as the reality of their situation again crashed down on them. Rising to his feet, Link reached down and helped Saria to her feet as they watched the bars on the door slowly rise.

After a moment the group started to pick up their weapons where they had dropped them during their short rest. Soon enough everyone was armed and if not fully healed, hopefully strong enough to face what was ahead. Stepping towards the door they made their way forward as the massive steel shrouded door opened for the group of kids.

As the group of eight entered the new chamber they were met with a blast of hot air. Glancing around cautiously the boys moved towards the center of the chamber from which was coming a plume of steam that rose high to the roof of the cavern causing the chamber to be both hot and humid. While the boys approached the center of the cavern, the girls began to explore the walls of the chamber.

As the girls reached the far side of the chamber they noticed that there was a large hole in the wall, a hole that was letting in an air flow, meaning that it was a passage.

"Hey guys! We found a passage!" Naomi called out as she turned towards the boys, who were nearly completely hidden by the rising steam. Before Naomi could even turn around a shriek pierced the air.

Whipping around Naomi saw what had caused Saria to scream. Two large red eyes glowed in the shadows of the passage that shined with a hate that knew no bounds. From the passage issued a roar that rattled the chamber's floor and shook the ceiling. Leaping from the passage was a large green and pink scaled lizard. The giant lizard landed with a large thud that shook the floor even more, shaking Link, Brad, and Wraith into the rising steam cloud. Immediately afterwards the boy's screams could be heard, before stopping suddenly. Altair could be seen flying into the steam column following after his charge.

Turning to face the large lizard Naomi, Saria, and Kairi knew that they were facing a Royal Dodongo, while Comet simply got into a defensive position in front of Naomi. Swiveling around to face them, the pink and green scaled royal gave the girls a frightening smile as her lips pulled back and her razor sharp teeth were revealed. Opening her mouth, the giant Dodongo spoke "You will pay!"

-In the chamber below-

As Link, Brad, and Wraith recovered from their unexpected fall they saw that Altair had followed them down. Climbing to their feet the group realized that the temperature had risen immensely. The reason being was the large lake of lava that was in the center of the cavern.

From the ceiling rocks crumbled down and fell into the lake of lava, causing it to boil and burble releasing steam into the air. As Link and Brad looked around the new cavern, Altair and Wraith examined their charges making sure that they were not injured.

"Altair I'm fine!" Link hissed as he noticed movement on the other side of the lake. Altair quickly stopped his check and turned his attention towards what Link was seeing.

Tremors shook the ground as a giant green and grey scaled Dodongo cleared the steam and turned his attention towards the group of boys. What he said would forever echo in their minds for what would follow. With hatred in his eyes he spoke, "Welcome."

Well that is the end of chapter 13. I hope you enjoyed it. There are a lot of cliffhangers in this chapter, but hey it adds to the suspense. Anyway I hope that you enjoy this chapter. The next chapter will finish off the Dodongo Cavern as well as setting up the next mini arc, which should only take a chapter or two. After the next chapter I am going to take a break from this story and start writing my sequel to my only completed story.

I won't be starting writing the next chapter till probably next week. The reason being is that I am going down south to visit my cousin and her new born baby.

1) What happened here is that the spell that Saria cast on her knife was one that built a static charge that grew every time that it impacted metal. When she lightly cut the Lizalfos, she released the electric charge which was more than enough to overwhelm the monster's nervous system and kill it.

2) I have changed the requirements for opening the way to the boss. The reason for this is that I feel that it fits well with the bloodlust and rage of the Dodongo race. Besides, how is a bomb going to make an eye socket red?

3) Plants that are highly explosive do not exist in real life. Since bombs are made from bomb flowers there must be some kind of explosive material that exists in the bomb flowers. I have decided to make it a liquid, kind of like nitroglycerin. The reason that Saria was safely able to extract the liquid from the bomb flower is that she was originally the Great Deku Tree's first choice to be the next Forest Sage, if anything happened to him. Saria's magic is strong, but it is particularly strong in reference to plants and the earth. Thus she was able to apply her magic and stabilize the bomb flower enough to safely extract the explosive liquid.

Well that is it. I hope that you have enjoyed this latest chapter. Be sure to leave a review. I will respond to any questions that you have, and any thorough review. Later.