Amongst The Ashen Air

 <---Index

The group neared the area known as Death Mountain and traveled through the ashen wasteland. Link yelled, “This place is an absolute mess! I can hardly see a meter ahead of us!” Sheik yelled back, “We'd better stick close together! We don't want to get separated in this mess!” Saria replied, “Easy for you to say! I can't even see any of you!” Shadow remained silent. Looking around, Link yelled, “Shadow! Where are you?” Still no reply.

“Great,” Muttered the female elf. “We lost him.” Flint's voice came from the darkness, “No you didn't. He's asleep!” The fairy's comment suddenly made the group realize just how tired they were. They had been up for several days without rest and it was beginning to take it's toll. Navi yelled, “Link! This is not the time to doze off! We have to save Hyrule!” the elf shook his head violently to stave off his weariness. He shook his head and said, “No, I think Shadow has the right idea on this one. We can't fight if we're too tired to keep our eyes open. We need to rest.”

The group came to a stop and plopped to the ground. Saria and Sheik fell asleep almost instantly. Letting out a sigh, Link decided that he was on guard by default and kept as watchful an eye as he could through the ashen air. Several hours passed when Shadow's voice said, “Hey, you should get some rest, Elf.” Link turned and saw the dark elf standing there. “You look like you could use some.” Smiling, Link replied, “Yeah, that sounds really tempting. You standing guard?”

The warrior laughed and replied, “Not much of a choice there. Everyone else is out cold.” Letting out a chuckle, Link said, “See you in a bit.” with that, he drifted off to sleep. Shadow sat there, keeping a watchful eye to the distance. Even though the air was too thick for any normal creature to see through, the dark elf did not have that limitation. The air around Death Mountain was very similar to the air where he came from back in the Dark World. The Ash Fields were a forbidding land that was where the Kokiri Forest stood in this world.

He glared in the distance, his keen eyes seeing a massive, round bipedal creature staring in his direction. Judging by the fact that the creature could definitely see him allowed him to conclude that the figure was native to this area. If he remembered correctly, the creature was called a Goron, a denizen of Death Mountain... And it didn't look too welcoming towards the four intruders. Shadow averted his gaze to another direction to prevent the creature from concluding that it had been seen. If these creatures were aggressive, he intended to keep his knowledge of their spying on the group as secret as possible.

After a fair amount of time, the rest of the party woke up. Running her hands through her hair, Saria muttered, “This air is giving me split ends.” Link looked at his and replied, “No, it's not. You already had those.” Turning to Shadow, he said, “Any trouble while we were out?” Shadow glared out the peripheral of his vision and said, “We're being watched. There's a Goron hiding to the North of our location.” Link tried to see through the ash, be failed. “I don't see it,” he muttered.

“That's the idea,” Shadow snipped. “There's a reason it's called Hiding.” Sheik looked at them and said, “Good eyes. I can barely make it out, but it certainly seems like a Goron for sure.”
“Now what?” Link asked. “We can't let it distract us, but we can't exactly ignore it either.” Shadow put his hand on the elf's shoulder, saying, “If that thing was going to cause trouble, it would have done something by now. It looks to me like it's more curious about us than an actual threat.” Thinking about what the dark elf said, Link concluded, “Okay. We'll ignore it for now. But we're going to keep an eye on it just in case. I don't want any surprises.”

Saria looked at him and said, “As if it spying on us the entire time we were asleep wasn't enough of a surprise!”
“Enough.” Link declared. “We have to get to Death Mountain before sunset. If you think it's hard to see now, I don't want to be riding when there's no light.” Sheik mounted his horse saying, “You mean there's a difference?” The blond elf decided not to grace that comment with a reply, since it was actually quite valid. It was impossible to tell if it was day or night in this mess. Mounting Epona, he said, “We have six miles to cover until we reach the foot of Death Mountain. We'd better be quick if we don't want to be found by the natives.”

The group rode several miles towards their destination when Shadow yelled, “Stop!” Everyone reared their horses to a stop. They watched as he looked ahead of them and said, “The path is blocked. Looks like a small party of Gorons.” Link looked ahead and said, “Where? I can't see a thing.” Sheik peered into the ash and said, “He's right. Ten Gorons, maybe more. I don't think there's any other road nearby either.”

Expecting a fight, The party slowly reached for their weapons when a heavy voice called, “Do not be alarmed, Brothers! We Just wish to talk!” Saria looked at Link and asked, “Can we trust them?” The elf shook his head. “Does it matter? This is the only route to Death Mountain. There really is no way around.” It was true. The path leading to Death Mountain was enclosed by steep cliff walls and any other direction was blocked by a river of molten rock that was impassible. To get to their destination, they had to go through the band of Gorons.

Link looked at the others and said, “Wait here. I'll go see what they want.” As he rode closer to the rock-like creatures, the ashen air started to clear. He now had a good look at the forbidding, fire spewing landscape that had earned it's well deserved name. When Link arrived at the Gorons, one of them said, “We are not fond of outsiders in our domain, but we have no choice but to ask for your help, Brother.” Link replied, “What seems to be the matter, and how can we help?”

“The sacred Idol in the center of our home has been angered,” the Goron replied. “We tried to calm her down, but all it did was anger further. Now a creature from the depths of the darkness that she called upon has chased us out of our home. Please, warrior, Calm the angered Idol of the Goddess Din so that we may return to our homes in peace.” Link nodded and said, “The Idol of Goddess Din it the reason we're here. We'll calm her rage.” He headed back to the group with the Gorons shouting their thanks.

Once he returned, he said, “They wont stand in our way.” Sheik looked at him and asked, “How can you be sure?” Saria smiled. “Because,” he answered, “What we came for is what they WANT us to do, right?” Link nodded. “Right. But there's a problem. The statue is guarded by a Phantom, and we can bet on there being lot more inside.” Shadow looked troubled. As everyone else looked at him trying to guess the problem, he said, “The only reason that Ten met us outside the Mountain is because...” the group didn't like where this was going just by his tone. He took a deep breath and finished, “The rest of them have been possessed by the Phantom as well. We don't have a lot of time if that's the case.”

Without another word, the four warriors steered their mounts to Death Mountain and headed in a full run. Time was running out a lot faster then they had ever hoped to imagine.