*THIS IS A TRANSITION*
Sand. Sand was everywhere. That was the first thing Link noticed. They were inside, but you could practically taste the sand in the air in a dampish way you couldn't when you were out in the actual desert. It was dark; that was the second thing he noticed. A torch on two walls. That was it. He could just barely make out the sight of a door on the other side of the room.
Across the pit of sand.
Link had a feeling he was going to be tasting sand in his throat for weeks after he left this place. Ugh.
The next thing he noticed were that those stupid sand things were in here, too. The ones that burrowed in the sand and only popped out when you got near. That would make getting through here so much fun.
"How are we supposed to get across?" Caden asked.
"Walk there," Link said bluntly.
"We can't do that," Caden said. "It's quicksand."
Link rose an eyebrow. "How do you know?"
Caden pointed in the sand pit, and Link followed his gaze to a small section of sand that was caving in, like a whirlpool but made of...sand. A black center indicated it went pretty deep.
"Well, fuck," Link swore under his breath. He looked around. Broken down pieces of wall and stone surrounded the outside area of the room, and a few platforms looked pretty safe to walk on scattered around.
Then something on the wall caught Link's eye - it was gold, and looked like it should have supported a torch, but it did not have one. More importantly, it was mesh.
"Midna," Link said confidently. "Clawshot."
It materialized before him, and Link firmly grasped it in his hand. Caden stared at it in awe.
"Where'd ya get that thing?" he asked.
"Water temple," Link muttered with a shudder.
"That bad?"
"Zora's are cool and all," Link said, "but let's just say that moving staricases to change the water level is not my idea of a good time."
Caden chuckled. "So what does it do?"
Link grinned. "Wanna find out?"
"Well, yes, because I just - "
"Hang on tight."
"Wh - "
And they were zipping through the air in an instant. Link hated the feeling of leaving the ground, but it was for such a short second that he barely had time to process it. The clawshot wasn't so bad. They landed on ground barely a second after they'd left it.
"Link!" Caden gasped as he recovered. "You could have given me some warning!"
Link just laughed. "I did!" He started laughing harder, and soon Caden joined in. They hadn't seen each other in a while... It was nice that they could still be so comfortable around each other.
