A/N: Hylians! Let it be heard that the time has come for the seventeenth installment of The Legend of Zelda - Soul Song! I know you've all been waiting ever so patiently for this day to come, so with out further ado, I present to you Part Seventeen!
This part is dedicated to 4EverAndMore for being Link_is_SexyXD's lucky 26th fan! Congrats!
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Part Seventeen
The door between the rooms creaked as it swung shut, giving a muffled thud as it hit its mark. He looked around, noticing puddles of water on the floor, and a clear crystal on a pedestal across the room.
He stepped further into the room as the wisp began to talk to him.
That crystal is a switch, Link. If you trigger it with enough force it will activa- Watch out! The wisp cried suddenly.
He looked up just as she did, and what he saw made fear rise in the pit of his stomach. It was a false wooden ceiling, complete with lethal and sharp looking spikes jutting out, ready to strike. To make matters worse, it was falling to the floor, a shiny silver spike protruding right over his head.
In a flash he jumped sideways, skidding to a halt, sending a spray of water from where he landed in the puddle. He'd already noticed that a large gaping hole from some sort of leak in the ceiling that rotted the wood away, and make the puddle he stood crouched in.
What he didn't notice was the dark lines on the floor, that were actually void space, so he was completely caught off guard when bursts of flames flared from the floor on three sides, the only side that didn't was the side that he'd come through.
They're triggered by motion, Link. Be careful of where you step and don't get caught beneath the ceiling.
The ceiling had already slammed onto the ground, sending small sparks from the impact of the metal on the stone, and it began to rise up again.
He nodded as he watched it rise and fall again, timing it so he'd know how long he had until it fell to the floor again.
See if you can find a path to the next puddle. Try throwing one of those rocks to make the fire light.
He scooped a pebble into his gloved hand, weighing it, and he tossed it across the room to the closest puddle of water. He watched closely as the fire flared up in an easy path, waited until the false ceiling rose high enough for him to walk under, and the he jogged over to it, his boots making small splashes as he stepped safely into it.
But this puddle only lead him further away from the switch.
He looked around again for another puddle. This was just in his reach with the time limit he'd set for himself. He took up another rock, tossing it in the straightest path there was to the other puddle. The rock ran through four walls of fire.
With another rock he tossed it in another path. This one went through three fire walls. Then he got an idea. He picked up a handful of the pebbles that were scattered around him. When he threw them, he used his hand and arm to fan them out, he watched carefully as the firewalls lit up in a complicated path that turned multiple corners, going back and forth across the same span of space until it reached the puddle.
He took a position in the puddle, ready to push off the ground when the ceiling rose to an appropriate height. Then it was time. His feet pushed off the ground, sending a spray of water out behind him as he took off. He ran, weaving expertly through turns and corners. It wasn't until time was running out and he came across a fire wall that hadn't lit up before that he panicked. It was right in front of the puddle, blocking his path so that he couldn't get to it.
Link, do something! The wisp shouted.
He looked up. He had seconds left. With one final effort he turned. Crouched down, bending his knees slightly, and used all his strength to push off the ground and into the air. He performed a back flip that he didn't even know was high enough to avoid the fire. His back skimmed the flames, and he landed with a splash in the puddle, putting out the beginnings of a fire on his back, turning his tunic and blue effectively knocking the breath out of him. He rolled onto his hands and knees, coughing, the feeling of triumph returning as the false ceiling slammed onto the ground, sending sparks flying.
That was close. The wisp sighed. Don't scare me like that. You need to be more careful.
He nodded his head in agreement, still coughing and out of breath. After a few minutes he was able to breathe again and stood up. He looked around for another puddle closer to the switch. He followed the same pattern, throwing rocks and making a run for it, eventually making it to that puddle as well.
There was only one more puddle closer to the switch, and the rock skidding across the floor told him it was almost a straight shot from where he was to there. He sprinted in that direction as soon as the ceiling was high enough, but he only made it half-way before he heard a sound he'd heard once before.
He jumped back just as the Skulltula's body slammed the ground where he was standing. When it realized it missed him it hissed, spraying green colored venom out of it mouth, and advanced towards him.
With the fire wall barrier, he had no where to go but back, and he did so, inching backwards, his boots sliding across the stone as it advanced on him. He was getting closer to the puddle he'd come from, the ceiling was getting closer to the floor, and he planned to let the Skulltula be crushed by it, but then his boot hit something, and he looked back reflexively. He realized it was just a rock by the skipping sound it made on the floor before he turned to look but he'd already lost eye contact with the Skulltula and it took that time to strike.
It was tackling him to the ground before he had a chance to react, sending both of them flying, Link's back skidding through the water as it tried to get at his neck. He held it back with all his might and he tried to think of another plan. The ceiling slammed the ground behind his head and then the answer was obvious.
He waited for the false ceiling to go back up, his arms struggling to hold the Skulltula’s fangs back. When the ceiling finally began its decent, he used the same technique he used on the first Skulltula he faced on the one he faced now to launch it over his head and onto its back, struggling to get up.
He heard it scream as the ceiling struck the floor, and he rolled off his back and into a standing position just in time to see the Skulltula disappear in a puff of purple smoke, and then watched as the smoke dissipated into thin air.
He turned back to the task at hand without a second glance, already quite used to the mysterious things that happened in the tower. He sprinted to the next puddle with ease, now that the Skulltula was out of the way. He was then at the puddle of water nearest to the switch, just close enough to sprint over, activate it, and sprint back, but the rock he threw told him that the switch was surrounded on all four sides by the fire walls.
The switch should be activated by contact, try throwing something. The wisp suggested.
Link picked up another small rock, this time aiming for the switch, but it did little more than glance off of the crystal and skitter across the floor.
Maybe something a little bigger? There's a clay pot over here by this puddle. She moved over to where the pot was to show him.
He walked over to the puddle she told him about with ease, and picked up the clay pot. He turned back to the switch. It was bit further away than it was at the other puddle, but he knew he could throw far enough to make it there either way.
He held the clay pot in his left hand, weighing it, and then he reared back, and launched it across the fifteen foot span of stone floor, and it hit its mark exactly, shattering and clanking to the floor.
The switch activated, the falling ceiling slowed to a stop in mid air, and then it began to rise up again. When it reached to a stop, Link heard some noises, like a lock clicking into place. He waited, but the ceiling didn't come down again.
Looks like the switch shut it off. The wisp said. See if it shut the fire off, too.
He did, and the rock skittered all the way across the floor, with no sign of a fire wall at all.
"Do you think that's all it did?" He asked as he walked back to the door he came from, as it was the only one in the room.
I highly doubt it. She said. If that switch doesn't open the way to a new room, it would be a dead end. There would be no other way to navigate the tower.
"So you think it opened one of the doors in the hallway we came from." He stated.
Yes, that's what I think.
"Then let’s go."