Previously, on “The Legend of Zelda: The Sacred Gems”…
“Well…that’s one way to hide a secret hideout!” Thani smiled. “Let’s go get the Sun’s Diamond back!” Link nodded and followed Thani down a magical ladder of flower petals she had conjured into the lake basin.
He quickly shielded his eyes from a blast of sunshine that beamed down upon his face. Once he had adjusted to the light, he took a moment to look around the room. Save for the patch he was standing on, the entire floor was covered in moss, as were a number of branches that coiled around the walls and other branches and snaked skyward, poking a few holes in the earthen ceiling. Some of the mossy branches even had flowers on them, and a tiny waterfall spilled into the room from presumably the next room over.
“If this is where your next challenge is, it certainly doesn’t look like one…” Thani noted as she glanced around the room. “In fact, it’s rather peaceful down here.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned on my travels, it’s not to let appearances fool you.” Link replied as he studied three exits from the large room. “However, I’m curious as to which way the Deku Scrub went…”
Episode 13: Secrets of the Lakebed Grove
Thani studied the three exits, her lips pursed in thought as to where the Deku Scrub had gone. “Do you see any footprints at all, Link?”
“Not at all.” Link sighed. “I’m more concerned as to what this place is…”
“I believe this is the Lakebed Grove, a place where fairies would come and relax while they visited the human world.” Thani mused. “But seeing how determined that Deku Scrub was to get here, I have a feeling Arthan’s dark power has reached down and begun corrupting the plants here.”
Link swallowed hard at the thought of monsters catching him off guard. “So, which way do you feel we need to start from to find that Deku Scrub?”
“I propose we go down each route in turn until we find a map or a clue to where the Deku Scrub went off to.” Thani replied. “So let’s go!”
Link obediently followed Thani down the left hallway, amazed by the variety of plants around him. This wasn’t anything like the monster infested dungeons he usually traveled through–this was more like a secret glen where weary adventurers could come and relax.
He was snapped from his awed daydream by a shadow in the darkness, but when he turned back to look, all he saw was a large pink rose-like plant that didn’t look ready to bloom. I must be seeing things… he sighed as he turned to follow Thani again, only to see the shadow looming overhead.
When he turned around again, the flower seemed to open in bloom–but no normal rose would have a face, forboding yellow eyes, and a mouth full of tiny sharp teeth. He drew his sword in preparation for battle, but the rose-monster lashed him with a vine, sending him flying onto a mossy branch. His blade landed a few yards away with a thunk.
“A Raffelrose…” Thani noted as Link scrambled to retrieve his weapon, fending off the rose-monster’s barbed vines with his shield all the while. “If you have any fire magic or flame producing items, those will be very helpful in here.”
Of course! I have Din’s Fire! Link thought as he snatched his blade away from the Raffelrose’s vines. Maybe I could stun it long enough to cast the spell!
“Link! Catch!” Thani called to him as she heaved a Deku Nut in his direction.
Link heaved his boomerang at the Deku Nut, making the boomerang catch the nut in mid air. “Thanks!” he smiled as both items returned to him. The Raffelrose lunged again to lash at him, but Link hurled the Deku Nut at it, making it stumble backwards in surprise from the sudden flash of light. With his opponent stunned, he reached for the clear diamond in his bag that held the red orb containing the spell. “Goddess of Power, show me your fire, and help me to drive this evil away!” With that, the orb began to glow red, signaling it was ready to use. The Raffelrose, now recovering from its daze, had no time to react as Link hurled the glowing orb to the ground, surrounding him in a dome of flames and setting some of the Raffelrose’s vines ablaze.
The flames then began to move away from Link, consuming the Raffelrose, but not harming any of the other plants in the room. After a few moments, the magical flames died out, and a chest dropped into the room.
Thani flitted over and inspected the chest. “It doesn’t look like there are any traps on this, so it’s safe to see what’s inside.”
“Okay!” Link replied as he gathered his gear. Once sure he had everything he hurried over to the rock the chest was on and opened the chest, carefully lifting the folded map from inside. “It’s a map! Just what we needed!” he smiled, giddily holding the map aloft in pure euphoria.
“Let’s see here…” Thani motioned for Link to unroll the map, then studied eavch of the three routes. “Of the three initial routes we had, the center appears to be the only one that would allow us to make any progress. Left and right would only lead to dead ends.”
Link nodded, pocketed the map, and followed Thani out of the room and down the center route. What awaited him in the next room made him gasp in surprise.
The large, spacious room appeared to look like a minature rain forest, with a number of exotic plants, mossy branches, and logs floating in a massive pool–but complicating the matter further were the number of ways out of the room–every flower, tree, vine, and stump in the “rainforest” appeared to have an exit! Having to choose between three routes was bad enough, but the room had seemingly hundreds of them–and only one was the way foward.
To Be Continued…
o^-^o: Will Link find the right way out? Don’t miss Episode 14 on this Web site next week!
