Chapter Three
Follow the Spiders?
Inside the Great Deku Tree
"Uh. Hey, Arthur?"
"Yeah?"
"That's a lot of spiders."
"…yeah. It is."
Arthur held a flaming Deku Stick aloft and surveyed their surroundings as Linkle shuddered and subconsciously grabbed onto his tunic. As far as they could see, the inside of the Deku Tree was completely hollow, filled with various tunnels connected with walkways seemingly grown by the Tree's own body. That was normal, as far as Arthur was concerned.
What wasn't normal, and what had Linkle shuddering was the sheer number of literal person-sized Spiders crawling around and hanging from the walkways and ceilings. There were at least thirty of them, probably more lurking in the tunnels of the Tree.
"I don't like spiders. The way they skitter around…" Linkle says, stepping behind Arthur, shivering.
'This is Hyrule's heroine?' Arthur thought to himself before frowning and mentally kicking himself, 'She's just a kid, not some robot controlled by a nerd behind a screen. Plus, this is pretty scary by anybody's standards.' "It's alright, Linkle. Just remember a simple basic fact about spiders." He turned around to look at her, firelight dancing in his eyes, a manic grin on his face, "They hate fire!" he shouted, turning and running forward to the nearest set of webbing attached to the walls. He touched the flaming stick to it and watched it burst into flames, quickly catching the surrounding webs ablaze, soon spreading around the interior of the Tree.
Linkle's eyes widened in awe and slight panic. "Arthur, are you sure that was a good idea? What if you hurt the Deku Tree?" she asked in concern.
'Well, according to the original story, this Tree was donezo before Link got here, so I'm assuming it'll be the same here. Plus, I bet it isn't that easy to hurt this guy.' Arthur pondered to himself before answering, "I'm sure it'll be fine, Linkle. I bet the Great Deku Tree is too tough to even feel these flames."
"If you say so…"
They watched as the flames spread through the whole interior of the Tree, burning the spiders to a crisp but leaving the wooden interior weirdly unharmed.
Arthur raised an eyebrow incredulously, "I know I said it'd be too tough to feel it, but not even a scorch mark?" 'Is that game mechanics in real life? Weird.' He thought after voicing his incredulity.
"Well who cares? That's the best outcome, right? Send those spiders to hell and keep the Tree safe! I see it as an absolute win!" Linkle said happily, watching the fiery doom of the spiders with twinkling eyes. "I mean, I wouldn't have even cared if the Tree had been hurt. Those spiders were an affront to existence itself. Mr. Deku would understand. Umu." She added, nodding with her hands on her hips confidently.
Seeing the adorable Linkle in front of him grinning so confidently, he couldn't help but chuckle and ruffle the top of her head.
"Hey!" she shouted, pulling back with a red face and an 'angry' pout. "Who gave you permission to touch my head?" she demanded, irritable.
"Heh, sorry, sorry. I can't help if Miss Linkle acts so cute." Arthur replied with a gentle smile and a chuckle. "Anyway, we should start heading further in. There's a weapon here you'll need. Plus, those flames didn't spread through the tunnels. You know what that means." He finishes, getting serious as he spoke.
"Oh…more spiders." Linkle says, getting a bit pale.
"And I think we should switch to more…conventional methods for fighting as we move further in. I doubt the tunnels share the same immunity to fire as the heart of the Tree." Arthur added thoughtfully, not noticing the increasingly pale Linkle trembling behind him.
"Conventional…methods…?" Linkle stammered as she stared at Arthur's back, fully shaking now.
"Yeah, you know. Swords and stuff? Hero stuff isn't just about setting things ablaze and walking away in slow motion, you know? Sometimes a situation needs a blade, not a bomb." Arthur said, nodding sagely to himself.
"Why do I feel like that statement is going to bite you in the ass in the very near future?" Linkle asked as an odd feeling passed through her at his 'sagely' advice.
Death Mountain
"Oh, when will a capable Hero come and blow up that giant rock blocking the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern?" a mournful voice could be heard from the top of the trail leading up the mountain.
Inside the Great Deku Tree
"That's just your imagination." Arthur said, staring blankly at her. He then started walking towards one of the tunnels leading deeper into the Tree, "Come on, let's get moving. Draw your sword, you'll need it." He finished, drawing his own plain sword from his waist.
She nodded and followed along, drawing the Kokiri Sword from her back and settling it in her hand comfortably. As she drew the blade, a subtle, warm current flowed from her hand through her body, making the instinctual fear she had for spiders retreat to the back of her mind; not gone, just ignored. Her trembling stopped and her eyes firmed.
'Seems like that sword has some interesting properties.' Arthur mused to himself. "Oh hey, looks like we're about to exit the tunnel! Wonder what we'll find. You ready, Linkle?" he said aloud, looking back to Linkle as he finished.
"Yeah, let's go!" she said, determination flashing in her eyes.
3 Hours Later
"They can't all be filled with spiders, right? Like, there has to be something else in here." Linkle mumbled, eyes hollow as she trudged behind Arthur, the determination from before now long gone as they traversed the Tree's insides. Both of them were splattered with various spider fluids that they really cared not identify.
"You know, you'd think that would be the case, buuuut…" Arthur replied, trailing off as they entered yet another chamber filled with skittering noises that were sure to invade their nightmares for weeks to come, "*sigh* well shit, here we go again.."
"Wait! I see a box!" Linkle shouted, pointing at a box at the other end of the chamber, the first object they had seen in this place that wasn't either spider or tree based. Of course, that shout also attracted the attention of the ten spiders currently hanging off the ceiling and/or crawling on the walls.
"You know…" Arthur sighed as he started cutting spiders down as they dropped from above.
"Sorry…I just got excited seeing something different…" Linkle replied sheepishly, stabbing any spider that got too close.
They worked together, the time spent going through the Tree serving to give them synergy in their actions. Easily clearing the room of spiders, Linkle walked over and opened the box.
"Seriously? A slingshot? That's what we've spent all this time looking for?!" Linkle shouted in exasperation as she stared at the object in her hand.
"Oh my god finally!" Arthur threw his hands up in celebration. "We finally found it! Now we can kill the big bad and leave!" he added, grinning at finally making progress, "Now, let's get back to the central chamber! You remember the way back, right?"
Linkle blinked, "Huh?"
2 Hours Later
Arthur and Linkle stumbled into the central chamber of the Tree, panting and shuddering.
"Ok, so that's on me." Arthur said, trying to catch his breath.
"Which part? The one where you didn't keep track of where we were going? Or maybe the part where we seem to have found ever soider filled chamber we missed before? Or maybe it's the one where we spent hours in the spider verse looking for what amounts to a forked stick with a string?!" Linkle asked, getting progressively more hysterical as she went on.
"Okay so that's fair," Arthur said, raising his hands in surrender, "But you know it'll come in hand-"
"I will stab you."
"So let's go get the big bad!" Arthur says brightly, steering the conversation away. He led Linkle to the very center of the room, where a circular hole covered in webs was visible in the floor.
"Its gonna be another spider, isn't it?" Linkle asked in a deadpan.
"Technically?" he started before noticing a dark glow starting to take over Linkle's eyes, " Ok yes. Big fucking spider. Not 8 legged, but basically big ass spider."
"Let's just get this over with." Linkle sighed as Arthur walked over with another flaming stick. He quickly set the webs ablaze and they quickly burned away, allowing them to drop down into the hole. Before Linkle could do so, he stopped her and dropped the stick into the hole. It wasn't long before it hit the floor below with a clatter.
At Linkle's questioning look, he shrugged and said, "Well, better to be safe. Imagine if it took a full minute to hit the floor, how were you planning on landing safely?" he finished with a question that made Linkle go pale.
"Yeah I see your point. But let's go since its safe." Linkle said, gaining color back on her face quickly and dropping into the hole before Arthur could respond. He sighed and dropped behind her.
Heart of the Great Deku Tree
As they dropped, they noticed that the chamber they were now in was silent. There was no chattering, no scuttling noises indicating that there were any spiders. Linkle sighed in relief as she turned to Arthur, frowning as she noticed his grimace as he stared at the ceiling. She followed his eyes and froze.
From the ceiling, a large glowing eye stared at them. In the shadows Linkle could barely make out the shape of a massive spider attached to the ceiling.
Arthur looked down at her and smiled wryly, "I know I said giant spider, but really? Hey, Linkle, looks like I was right about that slingshot, huh?"
She looked at him, confused, "What do you mean?"
"Well, where others might see a glowing demonic eye, I see a very convenient target!" he said with a small grin, getting Linkle to nod in understanding and line up a shot with her slingshot. Arthur drew his sword in preparation to run to the spot in which Gohma, the giant spider boss, would fall, giving him the best chance at killing it quick. "Ready!" he said firmly, watching the spider as Linkle let the shot loose.
With a bit of a squelch and a loud chittering screech, Gohma dropped from the ceiling with green ichor spurting from the eye. Arthur ran directly forward, a slight blue glow surrounding his figure as he dashed and stabbed his sword directly in the eye. Without prompt, almost instinctual, he tightened his grip and felt a warmth flow from his hands into the blade. "Mana burst!" a voice shouted in his head, and a golden glow suffused the blade, condensing into a large blade of light that instantly burned the spider from the inside out. It didn't even have time to screech as its life was ended in an instant.
To be continued…