Breath of the Wild: Link and Friends

Chapter 21

   That night, Link awoke randomly.
    Since it was near midnight, Link turned on his side and tried to go back to sleep but as he turned he noticed the moon.
   It was blood red.
   Link frowned looking at it. That's a little weird, Link thought. He tried to ignore it and turned away from it but then he heard his name on the wind.
   "Link..." He looked around but everyone was looked like they were asleep. "Link..."
   He thought he recognized the voice from his memory and when he awoke in the Shrine of Resurrection. "Zelda?" Link whispered.
   "Link...be on your guard. Ganon's power grows...it rises to its peak under the hour of the blood moon," her voice said, coming from nowhere. Link looked around again and noticed that the blown apart chunks of the guardian were glowing a bright magenta, black and red smoke surrounding it. They were converging on each other. "By its glow, the aimless spirits of monsters slain in the name of light return to flesh. Link...please be careful..."
   Oh no.
   Link watched as the chunks of metal from the guardian converged and the smoke covered it all for a moment before dissipating. Left in its place was a full live guardian.
   It, of course, spotted Link immediately.
   "Guys!! Wake up!" Link yelled scrambling for his broadsword. He grabbed it and dashed to the side so that the guardian wouldn't shoot his sleeping friends who were starting to wake. "Get out of the way!!"
   Link dived behind a rock as the guardian shot its beam at him. The rock around him exploded, sending up chunks of rock. Link peeked around what was left of the rock. The guardian as looking around for him and turned its head and spotted Link's friends. It targeted them.
   "Guys, RUN!" Link screamed at them. They all had noticed the guardian and were already dashing away, leaving their stuff behind. Link glanced at the guardian and ran after them.
   The guardian followed them but they hid behind the arching big rock and the guardian couldn't get around it. They waited silently until it went dark and walked along the path.
   "I thought that was dead! Didn't you kill it?" Elyza asked Link.
   "Yeah, I did!" Link responded.
   "Then why is it alive?" Elijah demanded.
   "It was the blood moon," Link whispered.
   "What?" Zalie asked.
   "The blood moon. When the moon turns red. It brought the monsters back to life. Zelda told me," Link explained.
   "Zelda?" all three said incredulously.
   Link nodded. "At least it sounded like the other voice I heard like that. It was Zelda. She warned me shortly before."
   "So does that mean all those monsters you killed are back?" Zalie asked. He nodded again. "Oh, Hylia. You nearly died last time fighting all those monsters." 
   "Well, really just the guardian was the problem. I'd never fought one before now like that. Walking I mean. I've fought stationary ones."
   "Will we have to fight it?" Elijah asked.
   "We could sneak past I suppose," Link replied.
   "We need our stuff," Zalie said.
   "Well, we'll grab it as we run," Elyza responded. Everyone nodded. "Ok. Ready? Go!"
   They all dashed out over to where they had camped and snatched their bags off the ground, throwing them on their backs. The guardian was luckily turned around as they ran and didn't notice them as they ran up the steep incline with the big overhangs.
  There were fire keese and chuchus that were all around but they just ran around the chuchus, and Elyza picked off the keese with her bow. They reached the top of the incline and stopped near a sign, breathing heavily.
   "Ok, I vote we go back to bed now that we've got that over with," Elyza said, sitting down.
   "Agreed," Zalie said. She dropped her stuff and curled up on the ground.
   Elijah shrugged and put his stuff down as well. "'Cause we'll totally be able to sleep now that the adrenaline is pumping."
   Elyza threw a bag at his face, which he caught, and scowled at him and lie down on the ground, turned away from him. Elijah glanced at Link, smirking and threw the bag back at her and lay on the ground too. She did not react.
   Link smiled and put his stuff down and lie on the ground until his body calmed and went to sleep.
   In the morning, Link and his friends set out again in the heat to Goron City. They'd had some breakfast and were ready to make it up the mountain. They all had had the fireproof elixir because, according to the sign near them, the heat would soon be too hot to handle without. Link couldn't feel much of a difference in the heat with it but he hoped that was just because he wasn't going to catch on fire at the moment.
   Link cautiously led the way up the rocky path, climbing up some rocks. His friends followed behind him and followed his lead. There was lava at the top, coming down in a waterfall (or lava fall) and looking at the bottom. They steered clear of the lava and kept walking forward. Link noticed that the air was speckled with hot ash but Link felt fine. Cooler actually than he had before. He could only assume that was because of the elixir.
   Link heard metal against rock.
   He froze, Elyza bumped into him, and motioned for his friends to be still and follow him. He snuck to the side and hid behind some rocks and peeked over them. Another guardian.  
   Great.
   "Guardian ahead guys," Link told them quietly.
   "Are we fighting it this time?" Elijah whispered.
   "We can take it with all of us easy," Elyza said softly.
    Link thought a moment. Finally, he nodded. "Ok. Elyza, shoot it in the eye whenever you can. It'll momentarily stun it. The rest of us, go for its legs so it can't follow us if we run."
   They all nodded and so Link peeked over the rocks, took a deep breath and pulled out his knights broadsword. He counted down with his fingers and jumped out and dashed to the guardian.
   Its rotating head saw him quickly and walked toward him, red targeting beam centered on him. Unfortunately for the guardian, Elyza's arrow nailed it in the eye. It's magenta glow faltered and lost track of Link and his friends for a moment. They took advantage of it and all went for separate legs.
   Link frantically slashed a leg, desperately denting the leg. The guardian focused again, however, and backed away and targeted Link again. He ducked and rolled under it to the other side and it targeted Zalie instead. Zalie noticed and ran to the side as it shot and narrowly missed her, the beam shooting to the side and blowing up some rocks. Elyza nailed it in the eye again as it tried to target Zalie once more and it lost focus.
   Link charged it again going to the leg he dented. He slammed his sword into it and the leg broke and blew apart, leaving what was left sparking. It seemed to lose focus again and Elijah blew a leg, as did Zalie. The guardian regained focus as they attacked its other legs and dragged itself away, half of it dragging on the ground.
   They kept on it, using the same strategy. Eventually, they got all the legs and it was forced stationary. They attacked from all sides, Elyza shooting it in the eye consistently so it couldn't target them. Soon, they damaged it enough that it started to make a weird noise and they all backed away as it blew apart. What was left was a couple shafts and screws and then a silver glowing yellow ball. It looked like it was its core so Link grabbed it and pocketed it. Link sheathed his increasingly battered sword and walked back to his friends.
   "See? That wasn't so bad with all of us helping," Zalie said. "It couldn't shoot us all."
   "Well, it was definitely easier than last time," Link agreed. "Anyway, we should get going again. I'd like to make it to the city today."
   The group nodded and they started walking again, in the direction of the sheikah tower. They had to walk around little mini volcanoes in the rock, as they were leaking lava, and around different rocks. They reached an area with a bunch of metal boxes and a lone lizalfos in the center of them, which Elyza simply nailed in the eye and Elijah walked up and stabbed. Link waved for them to stay there and climbed up the tower and got the map of the area from the pedestal.
   Link looked around as it worked and noticed the Divine Beast walking around on the side of the volcano. Its feet were on fire and it glowed the magenta that Link knew was because of Ganon. Ruta had glowed the same. He also saw a big lake of lava with a couple islands of rock in it and a cavernous overhang full of active volcanic rock. They glowed with a fiery heat that didn't look very friendly.
   Link looked back to his sheikah slate as the map of the area popped up. He glanced at it and put it back on his side and jumped of the tower with his glider. He floated down to his friends.
   Link brought up the map and showed where they were. "It looks like we don't have a super long way until we get to the city. We could probably be there within a couple hours if we aren't going very fast," he said.
   "Great! I'm tired of being in the middle of nowhere," Elyza said. She started walking and the rest fell in behind her.
   Link ended up next to Elijah when Zalie went to talk to Elyza.
   "Sooo...you excited to see Goron City?" Link asked casually.
   "Yeah. I'm hoping that they have something interesting I can make. You know, recipes or special foods," Elijah said. "It's one of the reasons I'm actually here for myself for."
   "Cool. I'm sure they have something," Link replied.
   They continued on with awkward silence. The two boys didn't hate the other, they were kind of friends. They just didn't have anything to say to the other. Elijah had made it clear before that he would rather be in Hateno Village than with them. Honestly, Link was a little surprised that Elijah hadn't left. The guy seemed like he was always at odds with someone, though that wasn't the case. Link was observant enough to know that Elijah was actually quite friendly, when he didn't have a predisposition to not like you.  
   Finally the silence grew awkward enough that Elijah spoke. "So, um, how do you feel about Zelda?"
    Link glanced at him and shrugged. "I don't know. Can't really remember much of her to have an opinion."
    "Oh. Right," Elijah replied. "What about your legendary sword? Don't you need that for fighting the Calamity?"
   "Yeah, probably, but I don't know where it is."
   "How do we find out where it is?" Elijah asked.
   "Dunno. But, I'm sure we'll find it. Probably are a bunch of rumors about it," Link said musingly. Elijah nodded.   
   They continued down to that cavernous overhang and walked in the steamy area, walking around the rocks with trails of lava on them. They walked near a big rock like that and past it a little when he ground started to shake a little. (Oof) Link whipped around to see that big fiery rock ripping itself from the ground.
   It had a ore deposit on its..."head" and a small "body" and "arms." It didn't really have a face but it turned to them anyway.
   The group yelped and scattered.
   "Why is everything trying to kill us today?!" Elijah groaned loudly.
   "What is that thing?!" Elyza shouted.
   "A talus! Big rock monster!" Zalie yelled. "But not a normal one!"
   "What's that supposed to mean?" Elijah called as he dodged a fiery rock thrown at him.
   "This one is specific to the area! I'm not sure how to fight this one!" Zalie answered, ducking another rock.
   "How would you normally?" Link shouted at her.
   "Attack the ore on its back! Destroy it!"
   Link stared at the ore as he ran. He looked at his sword then at the talus. Link prepared to throw his sword and called to his friends, "Ok, be ready to climb that wall over there! I'm gonna throw my sword at the ore! It'll probably stun it and we can run!"
   The others nodded, so Link ran towards the talus, aimed, and threw his broadsword at the ore on its back.
   It hit and the talus stumbled and fell to the ground for a second in which the four of them scaled the wall as fast as they could while going around the fiery rocks. Link glanced back at the talus to see it getting to its "feet" and walk towards them. He yelped as it threw its arm at them. Link lunged upward and grabbed the top and pulled himself up on top with his friends.
   Breathing heavily, Link peeked over the edge to death the talus walk back over to its spot and put itself back in the ground. Link sighed and got to his feet.
   "I think I'm tired of being surprised with things trying to kill us," he said, sighing again.
   "Me too," Elyza said, patting him on the arm.
   "Right, well, we should go guys," Zalie said. She started walking over a metal bridge and over to a sign in the other side. "Oh, guys, this is the Southern Mine, by the way."
   The rest of them walked over and joined her, walking through the mine. They saw a bunch of Gorons hard at work and decided not to bother them. They walked right through the mine, scattering some black and red colored lizards, and kept on the road.
   They walked over another bridge that was on top of a flowing river and waterfall of lava, with a big lake of lava to their left. There was a bunch of updrafts in cracks of rocks and a camp ahead of them. When they got to it they simply stayed on the path that went around it and kept walking. They were soon walking on a relatively thin strip of land in the middle of the lava lake with towering rocks curving above them.
   As they neared one of them, they felt the mountain shake as the Divine Beast moved and heard rocks start to fall from the sky. Elyza screamed and they all ran for the rock and took cover under its overhang and waited for the magma bombs of rock to stop. Link looked up at the mountain before shakily waving for his friends to keep walking with him.
   The rest of the trail was uneventful as they saw the gate of Goron City come into view and so they walked up to it but on their way, a piercing but low cry sounded in the air. Link covered his ears but recognized it as similar to what Ruta had done as they had neared it. He saw that it's feet were still aflame and it was crawling around the mountain. It looked like a big lizard, with a hammer like tail.
And I'm gonna have to go inside that thing and beat it, Link thought.
   Link's friends didn't say anything; they probably remembered Ruta had done the same thing. They walked with Link as he walked up to Goron City.