The Legend of Zelda: The Gods of Old

Chapter 2: When Disaster Strikes

The scorching winds of the Gerudo Desert whipped across sand and rock, burning everything it touched with its merciless heat. Nabooru, the leader of the Gerudo people, trudged across the Haunted Wastelands in a determined quest to the Spirit Temple. As she walked, the strange dream that had come to her the night before haunted her thoughts. She had dreamed of a young girl, no more than four years old, sealed in some kind of amber-looking crystal deep within the bowels of the Spirit Temple. The Spirit Temple...now largely abandoned due to angry spirits within and an influx of monsters over the decades. The Gerudo women knew better than to meddle there. However, being the naturally curious adventurer Nabooru was, she felt obligated to visit the temple to see for herself what may or may not have been real. It was only a dream, a fevered figment of the imagination and yet Nabooru felt the need to see the truth with her own eyes.

After a seemingly endless trip across the perilous sands, slicing away at monsters who dared to leap from their homes in the sand to attack her, Nabooru had finally made it to the Spirit Temple. She made her way inside, wary of the unwaveringly burning torches that lined the walls. She knew that the spirits of this temple kept the flames alive, but she had never seen such things as this. Eternal flames were not natural, of course, and the ever flickering torches disturbed her, making her skin crawl with the feeling of being closely observed. Nabooru walked farther into the temple for what seemed like an eternity, around twisting corridors, up and down massive sets of stairs and solving puzzle after puzzle before finally halting at the end of a long, narrow and dusty hallway. At the end of the hall sat a massive set of stone doors, oddly decorative and clearly out of place in the temple. This was it.

The doors were decorative in the traditional Gerudo way, being encrusted with gold and jewels, but more closely resembled Hylian designs with smooth, carved patterns that snaked their way about the surface of the doors. Nabooru tried the doorknob, but it was locked. It was no surprise for a multitude of reasons. The only issue was the lack of keyhole or puzzle to unlock the door with in the first place. Whatever was behind the door was obviously meant to be hidden, and was intended to remain that way. But that was no problem. Nabooru had a knack for finding things that were never meant to be found.

Nabooru stood back from the door with her hands resting on her hips, puzzling. She was no expert in Hylian history, in fact she wasn't an expert in anything save for thieving and combat, but the designs on this door were incredibly old. Ancient, even. It was likely that this had been built with the temple, not added on in renovations done by her ancestors. Either way, the presence of Hylian designs, and even the existence of these doors in the temple, was beyond odd.

Nabooru sifted through her memories, searching for any scrap of information she could remember from any Hylian scrolls she had snagged. When and where she got the scrolls from didn't matter, though she had a surprisingly large collection from a travelling merchant who dealt with potions and spellbinding and had a particular knack for collecting scrolls and books on the history of magic in Hyrule. There was a point in time when keys were not used, but instead magic seals and passwords intended to keep thieves from being able to pick a physical lock. It was entirely possible that this was the kind of lock these doors had, but what in the hell would the password be? An idea struck Nabooru like a stone to the head.

Nabooru began brushing away the layers of dust and dirt collected on the doors with her hands in the hopes of exposing any kind of clue. Dust flew into the air, obscuring her vision and soaking into every crevice of her skin. It was in her lungs, in her clothes, in her mouth, but after moments of frantic brushing it was finally done. Nabooru had wiped away all of the dust that she could reach and stepped back to observe the doors as the dust settled to the floor around her. No words came to mind to describe what she saw as Nabooru stood before the door, in front of this colossal piece of ancient architecture in awe and confusion.