The Temple of the Deku Scrub
(Dave’s P.O.V)
The two of us walked casually through the forest (well, I was on his shoulders, and he was carrying me). We were chatting happily, with me talking and him writing. It was peaceful and quiet in the forest, with hardly any monsters around.
Whenever we did see a monster however, we leapt into strife, he with his hammer, and I with my shitty sword.
These strife’s didn’t happen very often, and we put it down to all the monsters feeding off Rose’s grimdark energy in the Temple.
After not many strife’s and a lot of chatter we arrived at the Deku Temple. It looked absolutely terrifying compared to its surroundings. The building itself was very old looking, and built into a tree, but what made it terrifying was the shadows spilling out of the temple itself. Purple runes coated the outside of the building, making it glow and retreat into darkness at the same time. It looked really trippy. And scary.
“Ugh bro is this it?”
‘I don’t know. I’ve never been’
“What! I thought you’ve been here before? Don’t you live around these parts?” He laughed, and it was a sweet sound to hear.
‘No, I live in the Ordon Province. This is the Faron Province. Besides, this is Deku Scrub territory, and they’re uh…kinda hostile.’
“Oh joy. And we have to navigate their holy grounds without a knowledge of where we are going? This is going to be fun.”
As we continued along the path towards the temple, it began to get colder and darker. I was used to the temperature, but John wasn’t, and I could feel him shivering beneath me. But the pyjamas he was wearing were keeping him warm. Hopefully, my tiny body was keeping him warm too, just like his was to mine.
The entrance loomed in front of us, shadows spilling out from the gaping hole in the old stones and tree bark of the temple before us.
The shadows curled out, in tendrils, wrapping themselves around us, forcing us inside.
John’s chest glowed a bright green light for a few seconds before faded a way to a dull glow.
“Wow starshine, you look like a fucking torch. You’re my own John-sized torch.” He chuckled quietly. “No seriously maybe that’s why the light spirit gave those powers to you, to be my torch.” The light was dim, but I could still (barely) see what he was writing.
‘Hey! I don’t think the Light Spirits want me for that…’
“Nah starshine you make a pretty good torch”
‘I do no-wait…do you hear that?’ he stopped walking along the narrow path and put his ear forward, listening. I stopped and listened too, and heard a faint, nervous voice call out through the darkness.
“uHH,,,i COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE” John took off, bolting down the path like a bullet from a gun. I clung onto his hair, yelling loudly.
“Woah bro slow the fuck down”
But he didn’t. He ran towards the voice, twisting and turning past monsters and obstacles and doorways, going by sound alone. All I could do was cling on tightly and hope not to fall off.
Finally, we reached the room where the voice was coming from. John burst through the door, brandishing his hammer.
Inside the room, an orange fairy with large wings was darting around, desperately ending some horrifying looking monsters, who were swiping at the fairy, attempting to knock him out of the air. Upon our entrance, the brutes turned their attentions to us, charging forward, snarling, and spittle flying from their mouths.
John and I leapt into strife, brandishing our strife specibus threateningly. He smashed the monster rushing up on the left on the head with his hammer, black, shadowy blood spilling out with a sickening ‘CRUNCH’. I dealt with the one charging on our right, slicing its head clean off. The final monster let out a guttural roar at the defeat of its allies.
Together, we surged forward. He smashed it on the head at the same time I stabbed it in the heart. It died with a screech on its lips, its corpse smashing down to the ground.
“uHH,,,tHANKS FOR SAVING ME,,,i GUESS” the fairy said, fluttering down from the ceiling. “uHH,,, mY NAMES TAVROS,,,iM ONE OF THE FAIRIES WHO LIVE IN THE TEMPLE” he settled down in the grass beside us. John sat down next to him and started writing.
‘You know how to get around is right? Can you help us find our way around?’ Tavros fluttered us to it, illuminating the blue words with soft orange.
Tavros’s eyes scanned the chalkboard before he backed up, shaking his tiny hands in denial, brown eyes blown wide. “nO WAY UH-UH NOT GONNA HAPPEN,,,tHERES MONSTERS EVERYWHERE,,,i THINK ILL STAY HERE”
John looked down sadly. ‘oh that’s ok…but could you at least-‘ I cut him off, floating towards the fairy so we were face to face.
“Oh fuck no. You’re helping us”
“uHH ,,, nO IM NOT”
“Yes you fucking are. Look bro, I’ll rap battle you for it.”
Tavros considered this proposition before reluctantly nodding.
“uHH ,,, it’s a DEAL,,,”
“Motherfucking great, John’ll decide the winner, lets do this.”
We then launched into the best motherfucking rap battle in the universe ever. It was so rad that the audience was silent, in awe, staring at me with an amused expression on its face.
“John likes it I win you have to help us now”
“uHH,,,nO HE DOESN’T I MEAN LOOK AT HIM HE IS NOT IMPRESSED”
“Well that means he thinks we’re both shit”
“uHH ,,,nO ,,,pROBABLY JUST YOU”
“Excuse me? I am the best rapper to ever grace this world” I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around.
‘Boys, you’re both shit ok? But we really, really need to get to the centre of the temple, I mean, you could lead us there, and we’d protect you, or you could maybe draw us a map and stay here, where more monsters would come, and we won’t protect you this time’
Tavros froze, looking at the words with terrified eyes.
“uHH ,,,i UM,,,oK FINE,,,bUT ONLY TO MAKE SURE YOU GET THERE AND ONLY TO THE CENTRE”
‘Thank you, that’s what we need. Don’t worry, the light will be back soon and it will be safe for you again’ John grinned at him and stood up ‘we need to go to the deepest part of the temple, can you take us there?’
I floated back to John and placed myself on his shoulders, legs hanging off and fingers and face in his hair. His response was to immediately wrap his tanned arms around my legs, holding me in place. Tavros fluttered besides us.
“wE UHH,,,lOCKED IT OFF,,,tHERE WERE TOO MANY MONSTERS,,,tOO MANY TURNED FRIENDS”
“Oh that’s just fucking great, where the fuck is the key?”
“iTS UHH,,,wITH THE DEKU KING”
‘Oh! Then we could just ask h-‘
“bUT HE WAS,,,uHH ,,,tURNED BY THE TWILIGHT,,,sO WE UHH,,,lOCKED HIM UP TOO” I groaned loudly in frustration
“And where is the key?”
“i WAS THE LAST ONE LEFT SO I TOOK IT” Tavros said, and procured from his sylladex, a silver key that gleamed orange in his light. John took the key from Tavros and placed it in his sylladex, as Tavros’s tiny form was struggling to hold up the key.
“iLL LEAD YOU TO THE ROOMS,,,bUT I DON’T WANT TO GO INSIDE”
John nodded and headed towards the door, with me on his shoulders and Tavros flying nervously besides us. Pushing open the door, we stepped out into a high-ceilinged room that was covered in vines and other plant life. Before, when John was bolting through the temple too rescue Tavros, I didn’t have much time to look at my surroundings in detail. So now, as Tavros led us through the wooded forest of the temple, I had a better look at the scenery.
Each room held something different, something Prospitian, ruined by the shadows of Derse (but, vice versa, Dersian objects would be ruined by the light of Prospit).
Some rooms held once glittering waters, now frozen over. Others held golden idols praising the Ancient Hero of Old now covered in cobwebs and dust (at which Tavros got angry with, and tried to clean off desperately, tears in his eyes whenever he looked at us and apologising). Pretty much all rooms held monsters, which we defeated easily.
After the first few rooms, John realised that I was admiring the temple, and slowed down so that I could take in more. I denied it, but he looked at me with a knowing smirk.
After a while of exploring the temple together, we found the room in which the Deku King was held. The door was ordinary looking for the temple, with the Kokiri symbol etched onto the door. The only difference between this door and the others was the door was locked tight with chains.
John got out the key and unlocked the door, stepping inside. Tavros fluttered around, agitated and John took a step back. Inside, the room was dark, and it seemed to radiate around a black lump.
“it’s the DEKU KING” Tavros cried out.
The Deku King began to rise from his slumped position on the floor, all the darkness in the room began to swirl around him, as if a shield. I knew John and Tavros wouldn’t be able to defeat him like this.
“COVER ME” I yelled at John before leaping off his back and settling, cross legged, on the cold grassy floor. Using my senses, I reached into the Twilight and found my sisters presence.
{‘Hey sis how’s it hanging’
‘She’s dead because of me.’
‘Woah sis that wasn’t your fault’
‘You couldn’t even protect your own mother how can you protect your kingdom’
‘It’s not your fault’
‘But it is it is it is it is it is’
‘No. It’s not your fault. It’s the Condesce’s. She was the one who killed her, not you’
‘But I couldn’t protect her’
‘I’m pretty sure that old lady could handle herself. And it isn’t your fault the Condesce killed everyone. But we’re gonna make everything right and make her pay’
‘Yes…make her pay’}
I felt the Twilight disperse and opened my eyes. The room was light again. The Deku King was dazedly blinking, collapsed on the floor, Tavros was excitedly fluttering around the Deku King, making sure he was ok and John was watching the scene, smiling and clutching his stomach. With alarm, I realised that on his chest, there was a sticky red substance that was coating his fingers and stomach. I rushed over to him and pressed my fingers to his wound.
“You’re hurt! What happened? Are you ok? What happened? Where are you hurt? Who hurt you? Are yo-“ John cut my panicked ramblings off with a breathy laugh and started making the hand movements again (which I now know to be sign language). I blushed, hiding my face even further with my mask, embarrassed because now, when he needed me, I couldn’t understand him.
“I-I don’t know what you’re saying”
“hE SAYS HE’S FINE,,,hE JUST NEEDS TO DRINK A POTION AND HE’S GOOD” Tavros said, fluttering besides me. John nodded at me before procuring a bright red potion from his sylladex.
Tavros turned his attention to me, glowing angrily.
“yOU REALLY SHOULD LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE,,,iTS MORE CONVIENIENT. wE ALL KNOW IT”
I frowned at him “who’s we-“I was cut off (again) by John hugging me from behind. He then let me go and held out his chalkboard for me to read.
‘See? I’m fine now.’
He then turned his attention to the Deku King. ‘We need some help to find Dave’s sister, apparently you have the key.
The Deku King was only now getting up, still dazed, but nonetheless, unharmed. The Deku King himself was a hulking mass of wood and leaves, with a crown of twisted twigs, leaves and flowers. He blinked back at John, before nodding and handing him a golden key encrusted with a large emerald.
“This key will unlock the door, and also lead you to there, because magic” The Deku King said, waving his hands in the air.
“Riiiight” I said sarcastically before muttering “I think he’s high” into John’s ear.
^ ^ ^
(John’s P.O.V)
Getting to Roses room was relatively easy, as the key glowed the closer we got.
Finally we got to the door. The door itself was large and golden, with delicate green emeralds encrusted on the side. Cautiously, I padded to the entrance and unlocked it, pushing it open.
Inside, the sight I was greeted with was not one I was expecting, but I could tell Dave was.
Sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a glittering lake surrounded by grass sat a young girl.
She was small, but I suppose that was only because of the curse the Condesce placed upon her. Like Dave, she had white-blonde hair, but hers was slightly longer, and kept in place with a headband. In her hands was her mask, an orange, sun shaped thing with yellow swirls. Similar, glowing purple swirls were on her arms, cheeks and stomach. Black shadows hung off her in the shape of a long, elegant dress. She turned to look at us, purple eyes glowing slightly.
“Oh hello David. Hello John, it is nice to finally meet you.”
‘How do you know my name?’ I signed back, (forgetting once again about my emergency chalkboard).
“Oh I know many things. I’m a seer.” She replied, getting up and floating over to us. (I was really relieved she knew sign language, it would be really embarrassing if she didn’t). She held out her hand for me to shake, which I did. ”And hello to you to brother dearest, nice to see you are well.”
Dave mumbled something about snarky broads and mask cosies?
Rose turned to smile at us with painted black lips. “Shall we go?”
We came here to save her, but it appears she was perfectly capable of handling herself.