As I descend the stairs into the dungeon, I am met by the smell of stale air and old cook fires long since burnt out. The air was drier than I expected. Most dungeons in the Dark World are damp, dank, and smelled of rot. The twisted souls that dwell here at least keep the space somewhat livable, or at least livable compared to the rest of this world.
The stairs spill out onto a high ledge. The main room just beyond the entrance is huge. The space is divided by two levels supported by giant brick subsections spanned by stone bridges. There are guards everywhere, patrolling in no particular pattern. A scout on the outside must have spotted me and warned them I was here. The guards are clearly on alert. I'll have to move quickly and quietly.
Sneaking towards the edge of the ledge, a piece of tile cracked under my foot. I ducked down, and peered over the ledge, the guards were oblivious to the sound. The piece of tile was completely dislodged from the floor. I took the debris and slung it to the first floor down one of the left most corridors. The guards are quick to react and run towards the clattering sound. This is my chance to begin to make my way into this dungeon and locate the maiden trapped here, I take full advantage.
Hoping off the ledge I make a quick dash to the right most corridor, go around the corner and sneak into the next big section of room. A small corridor opens before me covered by a stone bridge. I slowly creep along the wall down the corridor when a swirling yellow light materializes at my feet. The light fully devours me, leaving every nerve in body tingling and numb. As the light fades, I have to wait for my eyes to readjust to the darkness of the corridor. Everything is blurry, my head is spinning, and I can't feel my extremities. I fall to my hands and knees completely disoriented, using what what little strength I can muster not to collapse.
As my eyes begin to focus and the white haze in my vision fades, I can see bright pink furry animal arms where I know my arms should be. I have paws. Pink paws. Good gods, not again.. Last converted to this form during my initial crossover from the Light World to the Dark back up on Death Mountain, fear sets in. Not now, I'm useless in this form.
Down the corridor where I first entered this room, I can here the guards heading towards me. "Get up, get to your feet, RUN." I command myself under my breath. I awkwardly stumble and lurch forward using the wall as a support. I find my footing and run. Just as I turn the corner I bounded right into the path of one of the guards. He is tall, hideous, some cross between an alligator and lizard with wild hair, blue scales, all clad in heavy leather armor with a ratty stained cape. He chortles at me "Eh, another one of the towns folk wander'n a bit out o' bounds are we? Cute fuzzy bunny come to die? You will make a tasty treat our captive won'chya?"
Without thinking I hopped away from the guard as fast as possible. Passing under an arch into a new section of room. The walls close off access to any further escape. In the distance somewhere off in the dark, the guard playfully taunts "HERE bunny bunny bunny!".
This looks like the end. I begin thinking aloud, "I could attempt to flee wildly back the way I came. If I can just make it past..". At that moment I notice a small chest on the ground. I quickly pop it open and it contains this dungeon's master key! What a lucky find, but what good will it do me now? I can't fight my way through this dungeon in this form, I can't even grasp the hilt of my sword. The only option I have is to charge forward and try and make it topside.
I press on not because I think I stand a chance now, because I must.
The guard comes into view. He has a double headed axe firmly clutched in both hands, a fiendish grin on his face. He can see the determination in my face and he is inviting me to try my luck. I advance. I brace myself to charge then suddenly I feel that familiar tingling in my extremities. My hands, arms, feet, and legs all begin going numb. My head becomes heavy. I start to collapse. My vision blurs with a brilliant white light and I just catch myself before I fall. Everything comes into focus. I look down and see my hands are my own again.. I've changed back to my proper form!
I don't hesitate. I draw the Master Sword from it's sheath, and do a dash charge straight at the guard. His eyes are wide and full of fear. I hear him gasp briefly as I swing my sword around in one fluid sweeping slash. A one hit death blow. The guard bursts into brilliant white light and silently vanishes. The master sword makes quick work of entities harboring such pure evil. With a renewed sense of drive and hope for saving the maiden from this dungeon, I press on.
I work my way up to the second level and cross a long stone bridge. A door with the lock and seal for the master key of this dungeon is in sight. Continuing to creep along trying not to alert any more guards, I make my way to the door and open it quickly. Before me sprawls a long hall lined with pillared torches. At the end of the hall, an open door. This reeks of the typical grandeur reserved for the approach to a dungeon boss' room. Without hesitation I rush in.
The room is empty. I hesitate briefly, anticipating the door to slam shut and lock me in with the boss. That event never takes place. Befuddled, I begin to inspect the room. Octagonal in shape, mostly dark save the room spilling in from the torch lit hall, and a speckling of light on the floor in the center of the room. There appears to be cracking in the ceiling above allowing light to leak in, the room is too dark to discern any real detail. I had noticed some other doors off of the hallway so I go out of the false boss room to go explore further.
One of the other doors lead through a series of minion infested rooms. I stay to the shadows and carefully sneak my way through. The rooms wound up leading me down another floor to a long room full of jail cells. A woman is locked in the furthest cell back, could this be the maiden trapped in this dungeon? She hasn't noticed me yet. All of the jail doors bear the mark of the master key for this dungeon, so I know I have a way in. The room is full of guards, but they don't appear to be on alert. It looks like they aren't expecting me, a break at last.
Before I could even begin to come up with anything somewhat resembling a plan of attack, the maiden sees me and shrieks. The guards all at once set their gaze on my position and rush me. I'm forced to engage them. The fight goes quickly and I only suffer a small bit of damage. Not the clean rescue I was hoping for, but I'll take it. With haste I make my way to the maiden's cell and unlock the door.
"I'm so sorry for the shriek, I've been trapped here for what feels like ages. I was just so relieved I.. I.." Tears well up in her eyes.
"Please, don't worry about it. Everything is fine, I'm here to take you back to the Light World."
She wipes her eyes, gives me a nod of approval, and hope returns to her face.
"Let's get moving quickly", I urge. "We can't be out of this dungeon in five minutes if we move quickly and quietly"
"No!" She blurts, "I mean to say, there is another maiden here yet to rescue. We shouldn't abandon her."
"I can't fight nearly as well with you here, I will need to come back after you are returned to safety. Let's head back to "
"NO!" The maiden's expression darkened and I could swear something seemed to move beneath her face if only for an instant. Quickly she composes herself. "We must keep searching. Please."
I oblige and we continue on. Something is strange about this maiden. All of the others have been encased in crystals, why is this one not? A dungeon with two maidens? None of this is adding up. We continue to explore the dungeon for far longer than I would have liked to. The dungeon was easier to explore without her, now with her on hand there seems to be increased danger around every corner. We wind up in a hallway on the upper floor, one I had not been in yet. Day light is streaming in through the small bared windows up near the ceiling. As we traverse the hall, I notice the maiden is very particular about her footing. She avoids the light on the floor as carefully as possible. She is completely fixated on the patches of sun light. This riddle begins to come together all at once...
That's it! The boss room was dark, an old hole in the ceiling must have been patched so that light couldn't get through. The patch had deteriorated, that is why some light was leaking in. That is why that boss was not in his room. Light must weaken him! This is a thieves' lair after all, and what proper thief operates in daylight? When we move into the next room, I know without a doubt that we are in the room above the boss room. There is a crumbling patched spot in the middle of the floor with light pouring onto it from a huge barred window.
As we move into the room, the maiden seems anxious.
"Link, this room is clearly empty, we should leave and keep exploring." She begins to anxiously fidget with her hands.
I nod and as she turns her back to me to leave the room, I grab her and hip throw her onto the sun drenched crumbling patch in the middle of the room. Her face darkens. Her eyes glow an eerie white. She screams. Her skin begins to smoke and steam. Her teeth become monstrous fangs that jut from her mouth as she howls. She positions to lunge at me and falls through the floor. I draw my blade and dive in after her.
What remains of the maiden breaks my fall and I quickly bounce back into an attack position. The maiden is now a white eyed wolf demon cloaked all in white. It's massive hands begin throwing fire balls while the eyes seem to randomly shoot blast beams of energy. I'm done with this. I lunge in for the attack. I am partially singed but land a clean blow on the demons head. The cloak falls and the head separates and begins spewing fireballs chaotically around the room. A new head grows where the old one was and the monster is back up again relentlessly attacking.
It's becoming difficult to dodge all of these projectiles. I'm taking far more damage than I would like but I sacrifice myself again to land another death blow. The entire sequence repeats again. I don't have much left to give. My vision is blurring. I'm losing a lot of blood. There is no leaving, I am locked in. I can only go forward. Taking more hits I dive in once again and land what I hope is the final clean hit I need.
The monster shrieks and violently explodes. I collapse near where I fell the beast. When the smoke clears, a crystal containing one of the seven maidens is floating where the beast once stood. I try to stand but slump over. I can see the maiden smiling at me. A blue light washes over me. I can't fight it any more. My head flops against the tile floor and everything fades to black.
Link awakens back in the town outside the dungeon with his tights missing and his boots on the wrong feet. The quest continues!
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