...into the room. As Link peered through the doorway, his eyes widened. He dropped to the ground in the entrance as a hard nut sailed over his head. It went careening out over the pit until it hit the wall with a loud snap.
The echo of the impact floated back up to Link. He swallowed hard as he inched his way into the room, still on his stomach. Dirt pooled into the front pocket of his sweatshirt and under his shirt until Link pulled himself to his feet out of irritation, quickly brushing himself off.
As Link righted himself, he heard a rustling from the bushes. Link reached for his sword, slowly drawing out the cold, steel blade from its sheath as he watched the bush intently. It would stir, and then rest, and stir again, with no real consistency. As he continued to wait, Link started to wonder if it was just an odd air current in the building shifting the bush. Then he remembered the shell that had been lobbed at him and wondered where the projectile had even come from.
A head popped out of the bush. Its solid, wood face rocked back and then rapidly forward as another nut launched itself from a cylindrical protrusion from the thing's face. Link raised his sword, the blade cutting through the nut with ease. Instead of just cracking though, now there were two halves of a nut traveling right at him.
While the swipe had perhaps been enough to make the blow less lethal, it still sent Link staggering back a few steps. One half had hit his shoulder and the other his rib. Link winced from the blow, his free hand reaching for his shoulder, though the twist caused his side to sting. He grabbed at the shield strapped to his back, pulling it over his shoulder as the shrub with a face disappeared back into the ground.
Shield raised, Link skirted around the bush until he passed it further into the room. He felt the ground begin to descend beneath his feet as the floor sloped down and away from the room with the bush. Part of him wanted to ask what that thing was, but the majority of him wanted to avoid talking to the Restoration at all costs.
The slope continued down until Link found himself in another room. From the entrance had had walked through, Link stared across a long, wide pit. It was only a few feet drop, but Link wasn't keen to fall into the murky bog water that pooled below. A platform floated back and forth across the water, on a current Link couldn't see. As Link continued to study the space, he returned his weapons to their holders on his back.
Towards the middle of the room was a switch. It hung upside down from a beam higher up than Link could have reached from the floating platform, but it looked important. As it stood right now though, Link could only go forward across the pit. He would have to figure out some way to get to that switch.
Dropping down on the platform, Link stared up at the lever above him. He was so concentrated on figuring out how to get to it he almost missed the ledge to his right. The platform he was on rocked as Link turned towards the ledge. While he balanced himself on the ever drifting raft, he noticed a chest on the ledge.
Link looked down at the space between the raft ledge. It wasn't very far, but he wasn't sure his horizontal jump was that long. He stuck a hand into the water as he drifted back and forth. It was cold and heavy with dirt, but it wasn't like Link wasn't already in the thick of it being trapped down here. His clothes were already looking like he had been working with animals all day, and his body was sore from swinging his sword around at giant spiders. It was better than landing in spikes or falling down that massive pit.
He jumped as the platform passed by. One hand clapped the top of the ledge while the rest of his weight swung full force into the wall beneath it. Link managed to turn his head before he hit the wall, but his cheek still stung as it hit, as did his shoulder and side. Still holding on, Link ignored the sting and gripped the ledge with his other hand, pulling himself up over the top. As he swung one leg up, he growled at the chest, "You better be worth it."
When Link had both feet up on the ledge, he squatted in front of the little wooden chest. He cracked open the lid and stuck his hand into the container, his fingers hitting something cool and smooth. Clutching at the object, Link pulled it up to his face.
It was a key, small and simple. Its prongs were so ordinary Link would have been surprised if whatever lock it had been designed for hadn't already been broken into by tomb raiders. Not a very effective key, but a key nonetheless. And Link was remembering a few locked doors at the top of the pit that could do to be opened, perhaps with even a simple key like this.
Shoving the key into his bag, Link stood back up. He stretched, already feeling himself growing increasingly more and more sore. He would have been in bed hours ago, and sleep was weighing heavily on his mind. If he wasn't so worried about being attacked by violent plants and giant spiders, he might have taken this corner to rest for a few hours. With the number of hazards around though, Link settled with splashing some of the water on his face after he jumped back down to the floating platform.
Link pulled himself up at the far side of the room. There wasn't anything of interest between the ledge and the door, so Link opened the door back into the room with the pit.
Now about halfway down the pit, Link craned his head up to get a good view of his climb up. What he got was an unsettling view of the ceiling. He wouldn't have been able to see it at the top. There was a lip in the ceiling, and once it was parallel with the floor of the uppermost level, it curled up. But the ceiling of that, Link couldn't see, not through what occupied that space. Curled up in the space between the lips of the ceiling was a gigantic plant, with a maw large enough to swallow an elephant. Link was a fly compare to its mouth.
For the moment, the plant was sleeping. Link's shouting earlier hadn't woken it up, but he held his breath now that he had seen the monster. Link remembered the iron grate at the bottom of the pit, and realized that moving it was going to make a lot of noise. Likely enough noise to actually wake that monster up.
And Link was trapped here, until he got down beneath the grate.
Maybe I can outrun it, Link thought, unable to break eye contact with the bulbous shape. He knew it was only wishful thinking. He didn't even know where the switch for the grate would be, much less if there would be an exit right next to it for him to jump down into to the ground below. Not to mention a jump like that would be reckless, and could leave him prone for the plant demon to catch up.
With no other ideas, Link climbed up the one path he could find dodging the skulltulas. The massive spiders chittered at him, a few charging across the vines. Link pulled himself up to the top of the pit before they caught up to him, but he would still feel adrenaline pounding his heart as he took a moment to rest from his pursuers. He wished he could do something about them to clear out the vines, but his sword would just bounced off, and he couldn't fight and climb at the same time.
His breath slowly returning, Link looked around the top ledge at the three doors. All of them were locked. Based on the one closest to him, he guessed that would be the room above the ones he had explored already. He looked at the other two. He hadn't explored the rooms below them, but he imagined they would be similar. Fishing out the key from his pouch, Link wondered what the harm was in checking out a different room. He had a key, he could probably use it on all of these doors.
Link walked over to the door to the door left of the one he was at. A few skulltulas dropped from the ceiling, but after seeing the monster above, Link found these considerably less frightening. He still took them seriously. Their long mandibles reminded him what would happen if he didn't. In comparison, these were weaklings compared to the true boss of this dungeon. At least the monsters weren't coming back, giving him some breathing room for retrekking.
Fishing out the key, Link snapped open the lock hanging from the door. It and the heavy chains holding it up fell off with a loud thud. Link reflexively looked back over his shoulder and let out a breath of relief when he heard nothing from the monster. It didn't seem like anything was going to wake it up, other than maybe that grate. At least that gave Link time to figure out how he was going to fight it.
It was about this point that Link found that his hand was empty. He flexed his fingers, but the key was gone. Link looked down at the lock, where the key was still sitting. He pulled it out of the lock, and found its shaft broken. He scowled at the wrent lump of now useless metal before pushing the door open into the next room.
Nothing attacked him this time as he stepped in. It was almost too quiet as Link took a few more steps into the room. At the center of the room was a large switch, and at the back was a ladder that swung down into the floor. Link glanced back at the door and debated just going to look for more keys. He had no idea what this switch would do. Maybe it would have been smarter to go to the room above the ones he had already explored.
He was here now though, so Link approached the lever. He wrapped both his hands around it and pulled it hard towards him. The metal switch creaked in protest as Link pulled on it until finally it rocked all the way back on its track. It was like turning on a humidifier. There was a gurgling from beneath the switch, followed by the sound of running water. Link looked around for any sign of leak, but found none. Dropping down to the ground, he pressed his ear to the floor. The water gushed beneath the surface, where to, Link couldn't see.
Standing up, Link turned to the ladder. He wished he had some gloves on him for all this climbing, but for now his bear hands would have to do. That meant climbing down the old, wooden ladder the normal way, one prong at a time.
When Link reached the base of the ladder, he found himself on a ledge overhanging the room below. He could see water cascading down through a large hole in the middle of the room, falling down to the floor beneath this room. Link could see a pool like the boggy pond he had crossed earlier, though the stream of water coming in now from above was washing away some of the murk from the pool.
From his perch, Link could see a lever against the side of the wall of the hole. It was difficult to make out with the current of water, but it would have been almost entirely been blocked from view if he had come in through the main entrance to the room. However, at the moment, Link still couldn't reach the lever without flinging himself over the side of the pit.
Swinging down from the ledge, Link dropped a few feet to get to the floor. His knees bent under his falling weight, but didn't buckle. They groaned a little as he stood back up though.
Link took a deep breath, trying to reason through the puzzles he had seen. He refused to ask the Restoration for help. If the patterns he had seen held, then there would be a third pool of water in the other chamber. The top floor of the pit had springs of water in locked rooms. The second floor had a slope down to the third floor, but no consistent designs. The third floor had some kind of pool in it, but since Link hadn't explored the third floor of this third of the dungeon, he couldn't say anymore than that. The fourth floor down he hadn't seen, but he knew the fifth floor was beneath the grate, and his overall objective.
Guess I try to get a look at the fourth floor, see what part it plays in all this, Link thought, looking over the edge of the pit at the pool below. If the drop wasn't so far, he might have jumped. But with the platform passing below, he wondered if he would hit the water or the wood.
Taking the slope down to the third floor, Link looked around the pool. There ought to be a chest in here like in the first room.
"Link Sayre, do you need any assistance? I may provide hints and guidance in your quest."
"No, I think I'm good," Link answered, spying the chest across the pool. The ledge it was on was higher up than the first one had been, and would have been inaccessible if the new stream of water hadn't raised the water level up. Link hopped onto a similar platform carrying him across the pool until he was in jumping distance of the chest.
As Link lept for from the raft, the Restoration asked, "There is no data to support your current state of mind. Would you kindly explain to me the reasons for your agitation?"
Link fished another key out of the chest, refusing the comment. He turned around to jump back onto the platform when he heard a skittering above him. A skulltula dropped from the ceiling just as Link turned around, plunging down on its web in front of Link, almost catching him off guard. But it met Link's sword, which sent the monster spiraling around until Link thrust his blade forward into its soft underside.
The Restoration had created that monster. Was it because Link had refused to explain himself? "Trying to kill me won't get me to talk to you."
"My task is to challenge you. If you do not express to me the objections you have with my programming, then my data assesses you are being consumed by rage and malice, which are only tells of evil controlling you. If that is the case, I must either present a trial for you to overcome it, or allow evil to become victorious and wait for a new Hero."
"You want to talk to me about evil? You brainwashed my friend because he had the same name as some historic villain, and you're wondering about why I'm mad?" Link demanded, trying to make his words bite. In his exhaustion though, he didn't think he sounded horribly threatening. "Can you really not expecting me to be angry about what's happening? You're torturing Dwarf, you're holding me hostage in this dungeon until I solve whatever puzzles are in here, you're dragging the princess into this business for no reason--"
"There is always a reason, Link Sayre, and there are no coincidences."
"You're asking someone who can count the number of real fights they've been in on one hand to fight monsters, real monsters, to fight that thing at the top of the pit, like some legend out of history," Link retorted. "I think I'm allowed to be mad, and a little scared. My life is on the line here, and so's my friend's."
"Yet you persist. The signs of true courage are already showing--"
"Can it, would you?" Link pulled himself up to the door at the end of the room. "I'm trying to get out of here alive."
The Restoration was silent...