[EDITING] The Legend of Zelda: Goddess of Secrecy

Mini Dungeon 3 - Frostbar's Favor

...into the cave that waited for them. It was dim on the inside, and slick with frost. Ice lined everything Link could see. Light reflected from somewhere further in the den, but from what, he didn't know. And yet, there was a heat in the chamber that didn't match the temperature outside.

Bruce skidded in behind Link as he stood scanning the entry. When the knight recovered, he said, "Well, I wasn't expecting something warm. Not compared to that storm."

"It's very really clever," Freya stated as she skipped in, a figure up as she found her remarks informative. "It's a trap for prey. If something wanders in here, it would slip down that tunnel, and right into the den until a hunter can come along."

"Then that would be the quickest route down to them," Bruce replied, pointing down the tunnel in front of them.

"If you wanted to fall for the trap too. There must be another route that the wolfos use to get down there," Freya answered, searching the area around them.

"Do you not wait?"

Yore flew in through the cave entrance. He landed on a stone and watched them.

"We may be in a hurry, but not so much of a hurry that leaving your guide behind would be of any use."

There was a growl down the hall. Everyone froze as a shadow began to come up the slippery trail. Link slid the Master Sword of its sheath, trying to make as little noise as possible. The blade came out without a sound.

A white wolfos came around the corner, clawing through the ice. It walked on all fours presently, its yellow eyes standing out in the weak light. Snow whirled around its sides and it looked like a ghost from a distance. The wolfos raised its nose up, its mouth parted a little. The snowy swarm parted and the wolfos disappeared.

Link turned, his sword parting the wolfos down the middle. When the snow settled, a puff of smoke came up from the earth. Link shuffled the snow beneath his feet. Anywhere, one of those creatures could spring up and attack.

Walking up to the edge of the tunnel, Link said, "The wolfos came up this way, which means this is the only way down. There must be something that separates the trap and the den that the wolfos know about as a pack. But there's only one way to find out what that is."

Bruce asked, "You don't mean we have to dive in there blindly? We've got nothing for grip. We'll slide right down there."

"Yore could fly in."

"Then they would know we're here," Link replied, shaking his head. "He'd bring them back to us as soon as he found out."

"Then we just chance it?" Bruce inquired.

"There don't seem to be many other options," Link stated as he motioned around them. The tunnel wasn't giving them a whole lot of options.

Freya said, "I don't know about you, but I can get down there without sliding. I could tell you which way to go."

"What if you run into a wolfos?" Bruce asked.

The Anouki confidently patted her antlers. "I think I've got it. Besides, I could just dodge them. Even the wolfos would slip, but I won't." Freya walked up to the edge by Link. She said, "Just follow closely."

With that, Freya stepped onto the icy path. Her boots gripped to the ice, walking over the ice without issue. Link and Bruce watched her go around a bend, before they decided to follow. Link stepped out onto the ice first, Bruce cautiously behind. Immediately, he felt his balance going, but he managed to hold onto his footing for a few steps. Brue toppled over almost as soon as he hit the ice.

Bruce's fall knocked Link off his feet. The knight slid on by and down the slope. Link kept his sword out and he followed suit down the slant as he tried to use the point to slow himself some. It was largely futile, both racing downhill fast. They caught up with Freya shortly after that. She watched them go, before she skated down after them with ease and grace. As she passed them both, she scouted ahead to help them steer. Some of those leans were close calls.

After a bit of sliding, the three came out on a pile of snow. Link looked up cautiously, worried that they might have alerted something. Nothing moved. Ice crept down from the cave roof. Snow slid over the clear ice floor. Link pulled himself out of the snow pile. They were on a frozen subterranean lake.

Freya jumped up out of the snow, landing lightly on the ice. She asked as she skated around the lake, "Should he cross it?"

"I'm still awake, guys," Bruce replied as he struggled out of the pile. "And I'm not that big, thank you."

Yore glided down to the tunnel.

"This place has not seen the light of day in years, centuries even. This ice should be strong enough to hold up most anything."

"Then there is something that could break the ice?" Link asked.

"Most definitely. Something of substantive heat. Gorons probably would do some damage to it."

Something moved beneath their feet. It was a dark outline, and Link couldn't tell what it was. Pairs of eyes would glance up at the surface, before going down deeper into the mountain lake.

Freya inquired, "What's down there?"

"I dare not even guess what evil lurks down there. There are somethings even older than the evil we face now. Some things that have endured time, and somethings left out of legend and tale. Some things that even the present darkness would avoid."

Link looked down at the shapes once more, before looking out across the cave. Deep moans and wails faintly echoed from beneath him. He said, "We should move on."

Skidding across the ice, the three made their way deeper into the system. Eventually, they left the frozen lake behind, and everyone's nerves eased. The sounds from beneath the ice faded. Endeavor's words echoed in his mind as he wondered what could possibly live down there.

They began to find wolfos in the halls. As they went, the more the wolfos became solid, and the less likely they were to disperse into snow. That didn't make them any easier to defeat. The less magical wolfos were tougher than the snowy ones, but their own numbers were significant. Freya was not shy of fighting herself, antler, claw, and ice magic of her own. And so they progressed.

Many of the wolfos would halt in front of Link, pace for a step, before continuing to attack. It was odd, because out in the snow, now of them had hesitated to attack him, and they still didn't hesitate to attack Bruce or Freya.

The snow piled up as they got deeper into the cave. Overhead, they heard wind whistling down through the tunnel from the entrance. Animals complained and cried for help from some pit mixed with yelps of pain and injury. These animals were caught in a trap, and Link doubted many of them would get out.

Wolfos loomed around every corner now. Yore drove off some when they began to circle to slow the tide before the fighters could confront them. There was nothing advanced about the cave's design. It was inhabited by wolfos, what did one expect? Its challenge came from the sheer numbers of those who dwelt within it.

Eventually, after many hours of searching and fighting wolfos, they found themselves in the heart of the cave system. The snow lay in piles around the walls. Link got an uneasy feeling about it. Of course, after so many jumping snow wolves, that wasn't really a surprise.

A shadow stalked out of the back of the cave they were in. The whole room shook from the huge step. Bruce sighed, raising his sword, "Are these things always so big?"

They couldn't even see it, but Link knew it was big. He could sense it. This was the thing they had come to fight and this was the thing that would appease Frostbar. He gripped his sword a little tighter, not ready to let something get the best of him again. The shadow continued towards them...