The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

Inside Lord Jabu Jabu

He stopped. "Ruto!" Link yelled, cupping his hands around his lips, his voice echoing off the moistened walls of the stomach.

There was a slosh of liquid with the step of a bright white webbed foot. There, from behind one of the columns, appeared a girl about Link's age. She was clearly a Zora, but much like her father, her appearance was different than the other Zora. She had ribbed fin-like ears on the sides of her large hammer-shaped head, which somehow complemented her deep violet eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked in a timid voice. "Why are you here?"

"My name is Link," he replied, "I've come to rescue you."

"Oh, I'm a damsel in distress, am I?" she retorted defensively.

Link was taken aback. "I... found your letter in a bottle... it ended up all the way down in Lake Hylia..."

"'Letter in a bottle'?" She scrunched her face in confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"You mean to tell me that note... that wasn't you?"

She smirked and said, "I don't need rescuing!" She turned and waded deeper into the stomach.

Link was puzzled. Why did she not want to escape such an awful place?

"Ruto!" Link began to wade after her.

"That's Princess Ruto to you... Keeyaah!" She sunk into the stomach fluid, disappearing from Link's sight.

Link ran to the spot where she went under. He suddenly felt a yank at his feet. A violent current sucked him under, into a passage that was even tighter than the throat. He was forced to hold his breath as he was swiftly squeezed through. Finally, he was spat out onto a dry squishy surface, where Ruto lay, shocked at what had just happened.

"Are you alright...Princess Ruto?" Link asked, gasping for breath.

"You're really worried about me..." she said, in a half-statement, half-question.

"Well, yes... I didn't know where you went!" Link reassured her, "I couldn't face your father if anything happened to you..."

"Are you doing this for my father, or for me?" Ruto stared quizzically into Link's eyes.

Link had always had a heart for others; after all, it was his motivation for his quest, to protect the Hyrulean kingdom from the horrors of the Desert King experienced in his dreams. Link was genuinely concerned for this girl's safety, but there was something larger at stake, and he felt that he should come clean about it. "I'm trying to get the Zora Sapphire..."

Ruto's purple eyes widened with a look of shock, but that look soon turned to one of worry.

"What's wrong?" Link asked, wondering if she knew that Ganondorf was after it as well.

"I lost my precious stone in here," she answered in disappointment.

Link's mouth gaped open, speechless.

"That stone has been in my family for generations. It was my mother who gave it to me before she died. She got it from my father when they were married. I've worn it around my neck ever since she passed," Ruto said, tearing up, "I've been going in Lord Jabu-Jabu's mouth for years, cleaning it. But recently, he's been ill. It's the only reason I can think of for what happened... he swallowed me up! I guess I passed out, because I woke up in his stomach... with my stone missing."