The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

Shadow Temple

There was another ornamental skull mounted at this fork in the path. Below it was a plaque that read,

"Here is gathered Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred."

'Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred...' Link mouthed to himself. What did the ominous plaque speak of? The war?

It had to be, because these catacombs all had Hyrulean crests, followed by the names of men with militant prefixes, such as Lieutenant, Commander, and General. Presumably, most of the dead there had lost their lives in the Hyrulean Civil War, or perhaps had long been buried in the secret wing. Was it out of honor, though? The plaque didn't make it seem like it.

The tunnels converged once again, and led to something especially interesting. There was a door leading to a room... filled with another pile of bones... underneath a chest. The familiarity was all too real, as the guardian of this treasure came forth, in the same way it did in the bottom of the well.

Link vanquished this Dead Hand with a bit less effort, thanks to both the gained experience, and a regained Master Sword he did not have the first time. But it was no less jarring... It was curious there existed one there to begin with.

This invaluable chest held a pair of boots; they were made from a brown tanned leather, just like the ones he had been wearing since he was a child in the Kokiri Forest. But the soles of this pair were of gilded bronze, adorned with small ornaments of miniature wings branching off the ankles of each.

"Link, I think you've found something that will get you across the chasm!" Navi announced, with in mind what she thought he had uncovered.

He slid them on, ditching his childhood pair. Wearing them felt incredible, as they not only fit his adult feet better, they made him feel super light...

"You can't mean, Navi..." Link suspected what she meant... what they could do... The magic it would take to do that, though...

He strode back to the entry room with the condor, seeming to float on his own feet. He looked over the chasm, and saw an inscription on the other side:

"Only one who has sacred feet can cross the valley of the dead."

"First the eye, and now... feet," Link said about it. Trusting Navi, the inscription, and his own gut, he nervously ran full speed towards the edge. Like the bottomless pit wasn't even there, he ran safely across, onto the sculpted tongue of the demon with the wide mouth, which was open for passage through.

"Hover Boots," said Navi, "though take caution... they can only carry you so far."

The magic of these boots was incredible, but it wasn't like anything Link had never seen. Still, it was exhilarating running through the air like that.

The next room was a circular chamber with alcoves sprouting off of it, with what looked like empty prison cells, with wrought iron bars and sliding gates, much like the ones he rescued the Gorons from in the Fire Temple.

Similar empty cells could also be found in the room ahead of that. Only... these cells had no doors. In the center of the room was another statue... this time of a pair of hooded skeletons holding sharp sickles out in opposite directions... and it was spinning around, slowly, but swiftly, reminiscent of the windmill just yonder. The curved blades swooped in circles as they swept over a litter of timber pieces bolted to the floor, about two or three feet high. Link managed to sidle along the side wall to get by. It made him further ponder the affairs of this peculiar place. Other than the insurrectionist leader, were there others who were imprisoned there? Was this temple fully converted to a wartime prison like the Fire Temple was?