Fan Fiction Friday: The Era Without A Hero – Part 20

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Osmond pressed closer to Zelda. They both held their breath. Their hearts pounded.

The monster lingered, then abruptly turned and left.

Osmond and Zelda remained pressed against the wall for a few moments more before relaxing. Osmond stepped backward and sat down on a bench that sat near the middle of the room.

Zelda, catching her breath and resting against the wall, asked the obvious question, “What was that?”

Osmond shook his head. “I found the generator, looked through a crack in the wall, and that thing began chasing me.”

“What about Fado?”

“I got him on the elevator and had to come get you. Did you find any bombs?”

“Not yet, I came in here because of the chests over there,” she pointed to the far wall where some half opened wooden chests were.

Osmond nodded, and stood up to check them. As he raised the lid, his shoulders slumped at the sight of decades old rocks and dust.

“I thought this place was open more recently? Why does everything look like it’s not been touched since the mid-century?” Zelda asked, her hand wiping a thick layer of dirt off a helmet.

“Maybe this is an older corridor?”

A heavy crash, like a building collapsing, erupted from out in the hall forced the air in Osmond and Zelda’s lungs to flee, as they raced to the wall again. The noise faded and didn’t return, so they relaxed again.

“Come on, we can’t stay here,” Osmond said.

Silently, the duo moved into the hall and began back towards the elevator. There were new circular divets in the stony ground through the middle of the hall. Zelda and Osmond avoided the footsteps, and stayed close to the wall.

When they made it back to the room with the elevator, they discovered the source of the crashing sound. The iron supports that held it up, looked like candles after a long night. The wood floor of the cell lay at the bottom of the shaft in burnt and smoldering. Thankfully though, there was no sign of Fado.

“Now what?”

Osmond shifted uncomfortably as he looked up the shaft, then back down the hall to where he’d first encountered the monster.

“The room where that thing came from… maybe there’s a way out through there.”

The small hole that Osmond had crawled through to escape, was melted into a larger and smooth stone tube. He and Zelda made it through with ease, and entered the dust filled ventilation room. Many of the pillars were laying on the ground, but the ceiling seemed to be unaffected by their absence.

“Over here,” Osmond led the way to the small generator alcove.

The machine had fallen silent with the gauges on its side lay flat on their displays. It was still warm though, indicating it hadn’t been off long. Osmond walked past the unit, and approached the now larger fissure.

Like the stone earlier, it was melted outward and created a gap just large enough for them to slip through.

The room was essentially laid out like a long storage room. Shelves covered in melted rocks infused with gemstones, lined the outside walls. Some of the shelves sunk down into the ground at the near end of the room, and appeared more stable at the end of it. A large round iron door was set into the stone at the far end as well.

However, both Zelda and Osmond were focused on the large amber statue in the center of the room.

“Is that…?”

“A Goron…” Osmond said as he slowly reached his hand out.

The wrinkled face of the Death Mountain inhabitant was frozen behind the orange-colored gem. His eyes looked as if they had been slammed shut in reaction to a blinding light. His mouth bore gritted teeth. One arm was held up shielding his face, while the other was raised over his head and was holding a large hammer.

“Look there,” Zelda pointed to an insignia that was marked on the shoulder of the Goron, “it’s just like the mark that Huron, Erie, and Claire all have.”

“It’s their family crest!” Osmond said, remembering the tale of the late Sage of Fire, Darunia. “I remember Aldwin telling me some of the history. Link, the son of Darunia, went searching for his father’s remains and a sacred family treasure. He was apparently raving mad in his elder years, and was haunted by dreams of never-ending fire.”

“Death Mountain certainly has its fair share of eternal flames,” Zelda remarked.

“Right. According to the story, Darunia lost his life when the miners discovered an unbreakable stone and he was called to try and break it. He spent 40 days and 40 nights beating on the rock with his hammer before it finally cracked at dawn of the 41st day. But it unleashed some powerful magic and he was never heard from again.”

“The hammer…”

Osmond’s eyes, which had been fixed on the agonized face, moved up to the great hammer suspended by the amber in an attacking motion. He looked carefully at the weapon and then turned to look where he would have been swinging it. The only thing ahead of the Goron, was the round iron door.

“What do you think’s in there?” Zelda asked.

Osmond, who was already trying to pull the door back, grunted an unsure response. Zelda, glanced at the petrified Goron a moment more, before joining Osmond at the door and helping to pull it back. Their fingers strained, and slipped free a few times, before their combined strength was able to roll it partially open.

An alcove, smaller than the room with Goron, came into the dim light. There was a chiseled pedestal that looked as if it had been grown out of the dark domed and cracked floor of the room. It was surrounded by luminous stone that jutted upward like swords pointed at the flat surface. Hovering just above the top, was a small key bearing a flame emblem in its base.

Osmond turned to look at the Goron, then back at the key.

“It’s just like the one from the forest,” Zelda said.

“Another key?”

“Do you think it’s what created that monster?”

“How would it? According to the story, the monster came from the mountain after Darunia broke the stone…” Osmond trailed off. He thought a bit longer on the question. “Unless he had the key with him.”

“And his son would have gone looking for it, if he thought it could stop the monster…”

“Because the monster never died…”

The key, floating ominously before them, drew their attention back to it as it began to glow. Zelda reached out and took it.

As soon as her fingers had wrapped around the brass shaft, the cave shook loudly. A terrible roar went up. The pedestal retracted into the cracked rock as it began to erupt, a magma arm forcing its way out.

Osmond and Zelda turned and began running, but were quickly knocked to the ground as the heavy door ripped away and soared through the air. It collided with the amber Goron and shattered him to pieces. Shards of the orange stone went everywhere. The door had destroyed the wall between them and the generator room, on its way into the generator itself. Gears were locking up and the cavern was beginning to fill with black smoke.

“Go!” Osmond shouted pointing past the generator.

Zelda coughed and ducked down, trying to avoid the smoke. She was about to make her way for the larger room, when she saw something silver laying on the ground. The hammer.

Osmond struggled to his feet, and he soon realized why. A shard of the amber was lodged in his calf. It forced him back to his knees as he crawled to what he hoped would be safety. The terrible roar from behind him though, told him otherwise.

The magma monster was almost fully materialized and had begun to step free from the black stone. Osmond looked over his shoulder and could see Zelda with the hammer, attempting to stand up to the monster.

It pulled back its fiery arm and swung it wildly towards her.

It missed, but only because Osmond had managed to pull Zelda to the ground in time. The hammer shook the ground as the head of it slammed onto the earth.

“I can take it!” Zelda argued.

“Water!” Osmond shouted, coughing and pointing to the cavern with the pillars.

Before she could move, Osmond shoved her backwards and rolled clear himself as a flaming magma arm slammed down between them.

Zelda climbed to her feet and raced out into the larger room. The magma monster followed closely behind.

She ran to the center of the room, where a cluster of stone supports stood tall. As the monster rounded the corner, she raised the hammer up over her head. With all her might, she slammed the Goron weapon down and the pillars gave way. Like a hot knife into butter, Zelda broke four or five of the supports before the monster flew in with an attack.

Luckily, it glanced off the face of the hammer and not Zelda, but the force of it was enough to knock her off her feet. The hammer thudded to the ground a few feet away. As the next attack came in, Zelda dashed for the tool, and slammed it into another support.

A gush of water began to pour in from the ceiling.

The magma monster lunged upward and sealed the hole, but the part of him that came into contact with the liquid, turned to brittle black stone almost instantly. It began to pull back and separate its arm, but it couldn’t.

Zelda smashed through a few more pillars, and soon more water was pouring into the cave.

Instead of attacking her, the monster was desperately trying to free itself and stop the water. Each time it did though, sprouting a new arm from its torso, it became petrified by the water.

Zelda approached the center pillars again, stared down the monster, and swung the hammer one final time into the pillars. A cascade of clear water rained down and the monster roared in agony.

The only sound that remained, was the sizzling of water.

---

“Tremendous! Stupendous! Fantastic!”

Zelda smiled widely as Fado’s praises flowed out like a river. Osmond, with a fresh bandage wrapped around his leg, couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Guess that makes us even,” he laughed.

“You’ve still got one on me,” Zelda shrugged.

“Suppose I’ll have to stick around a bit longer.”

“I suppose you will.”

The two laughed shyly, not catching the eye rolls from Fado and Claire.

After the monster had woken up, Death Mountain had begun to erupt. Suspecting they might have been in danger, Claire and a few other Gorons came to the mine’s entrance and blasted it away. Just as they made it inside, Zelda had was delivering the final blow to the magma monster.

“And how upset was your brother?” Fado asked.

“He’ll get over it. And if he doesn’t, Huron should be back soon enough to set the matter straight,” Claire winked. She turned to the hammer that rested near the door she was standing in. “Still can’t believe you could wield that, kiddo.”

“Neither can I. All I can think is that it was the pressure of the moment,” Zelda said, looking at her hands.

“Could have been,” Claire doubted, lifting the hammer and reaching its handle out for Zelda, “let’s test it. Here.”

Zelda flexed her hands for a minute, then took the smooth leather in her hands. Claire could only smile when the Princess took the weapon with ease.

“Looks good in your hands, your Grace.”

Zelda blushed and motioned for Claire to take the hammer back. She refused.

“It’s yours. There’s only been one other Hylian to wield such a weapon, and I think its time another did. Good things seem to happen for our people when there’s a legendary weapon in the hands of Hylians.”

Zelda set the hammer down and threw her arms around Claire.

“Thank you!”

“Where is it?” A booming and bitter voice entered the room.

“Oh, hello Erie,” Fado huffed. “What is it you’re looking for?”

Erie’s face stiffened, “I thought I’d heard that there was some treasure recovered from the mines, and under Goron Law, I would like the chance to determine its connection to our history.”

“Goron law?” Claire’s eyes flared as her hands hit her hips.

“It is my right, as our leader.”

Claire raised an eyebrow.

“What treasure did you find?” Erie glared at Osmond, doing his best to ignore his sister.

“What treasure do you think we found?” Fado asked, an accusatory tone lingering in the question.

“I-I-I don’t know! Just show it to me!”

“There is no such law that you may enforce, my dear brother,” a different and intimidating voice said from behind Erie.

Erie stiffened more. When he turned, his eyes met level with Huron’s.

“Br-brother?! When did you arrive?!”

“A little sage with some wondrous magic alerted me to your actions and I used my own magic to get here to set things straight. Seems I arrived just in time.”

Fado was grinning as Erie struggled to find a way to extract the metaphorical foot lodged in his mouth. Osmond too found the moment to be rather amusing, but Huron’s tone as he continued gave Osmond something more to think on.

“Erie, I do not take these warnings lightly and having to depart from my duties to deal with these matters are not something I care to bother with. I have responsibilities, not just to our brothers but our Hylian brethren as well, and the Zora, and the Kokiri, and all the other races of this land. If these foolish attempts at displays of power do not cease, I will be forced to remove you from stewardship.”

Erie’s eyes fought back a rage that seemed to boil up. His clenched fists and gritted teeth gave him an almost menacing appearance. Huron softened then, as he placed one of his massive hands on the also massive shoulder of his brother.

“You are a strong leader, sometimes too much so. Please, open the mines and repair the hot springs as our father and ancestors would have.”

Erie’s shoulders slumped and he nodded. Before he left, he turned to Zelda, Claire, Osmond, and Fado and muttered, “I apologize.”

After he’d gone with Claire following closely behind, Huron turned to trio with a defeated look on his face.

“What’s wrong, Huron?” Zelda asked.

“I was allowed to return, not to deal with my brother but to pass on a message from Lords Kalia and Sagesse. It seems that key you found… It holds a lot more magic than being a conduit to the other side.”

Osmond looked to Zelda.

“What do you mean?”

 

David Wayne Nystrom is a Staff Writer for Zelda Dungeon. This story is an imagining of the final days in Hyrule prior to the Great Flood talked about in the opening cinematic of The Wind Waker. The first six chapters are available in audio podcast form and there’s a complete soundtrack for the first volume here. Head over to erawithoutahero.wordpress.com where you can keep up on information regarding the future of the podcast, soundtrack, and other TEWAH news that will be coming soon! David’s top three Zelda games are Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Link’s Awakening. He’s also an avid Smash Bros. fan. Every Era Has Heroes…