“Oh well...It's tough to be a working man.”

- Ingo

Mara took the young boy in the colorful shirt to the heart of Veritas, a center of instruction and conflict laying in wait. Unable to hide her elation and relief coupled with Link’s destined coming, the Lady of the underworld couldn’t help but show a smile on her chalky face as they passed by the common folk, curiosity in their eyes.

“Here we are.” Mara said, stopping just short of a darkened archway that seemed to stretch into improbable nothingness. “And this is where we part ways....for now. There, in the tunnels of woe, you must prove yourself worthy of our art.

“I won’t lie to you, Link. This is a dangerous place, even for us shadows, and you must be ever careful that you don’t fall victim to it’s treachery.”

Lady Mara stepped just inside the arch. Her presence seeming to drive the very darkness away from it’s feral haunt, the gloom opened up to a large descending staircase of stone and iron, beckoning unwise souls to dare enter.

“It is an evil place, the tunnels of woe. Keep your feet in front of you, and I will see you on the other side. But do not trust a dream while within it’s grasp. It would only destroy you from within.”

Link pulled out an arrow and strung it on his bow’s loose string, not one to blindly enter such a place without constant readiness.

“No.” Mara interjected. “Only a fool would enter here with anything more than strength of heart and spirit. Arms such as this would but lead you to your death.”

Unsure of it, Link relented and passed the bow and quiver to the shadowy Lady. Taking a deep breath, Link steeled his nerves and pushed his feet on.

Mara stood by as Link passed through the archway, her eyes never leaving him. “Farewell, Link....and....good luck.”

Link turned to face her, but saw only a solid wall of rock cutting off his return to the light. Sealed within the tunnels, the shaft slowly lapsed back into that stifling darkness that Link knew all too well. His Hylian eyes adjusting, he could see a hazy flicker of a torch at the base of the stairs, beckoning him to enter this maw of duress.

Unshaken, Link boldly made his way down the stairs. He didn’t know what to expect. He had explored countless dungeons, underground temples, and lofty peaks of molten rock, but this place was different. It was cold. The kind that settled deep within your bones and chilled you to your very soul.

His breath was steady and even, creating clouds of hazy mist in the crisp air. The smell of old memory was prevalent, even more so the deeper he went. Like traveling back through time, places meant to be forgotten once again broached into the world of the living.

Reaching the base of the stairs, Link found himself at a rotting door of oak and antiquity. It’s patina hinges creaking like a ghoulish lament, the boy swung the gate aside with all the strength he could muster and entered into the tunnels of woe, taking the faint torch with him.

Sprawling before him were three archways, each inscribed with crudely chiseled symbols above their lofty arcs. Unsure of their meaning, Link chose to take the left path first, as he always did, and slowly passed under the damp stone.

The corridor underneath was long, straight, and unadorned. The scene was quiet, save the gentle rushing of air that passed through Links’ ears and the soft plodding of his boots. Taking each step cautiously, as who knows what could by lying under his feet, Link followed the endless tunnel for a time until he came upon a dead end.

Looking back behind him, a black hole from whence he came, Link placed a hand on the rough surface of the tunnel. Confused with the direct path to nowhere, the boy was about to turn around and return to the triple archways when he heard a modest scuttling noise, coming from deep in the black.

Holding the delicate torch high, Link squinted his eyes and desperately scanned the empty for the source of the sound. Nothing ever came.

Shrugging it off as an invention of the mind, Link started to walk back to the entrance when the ground started to rumble.

Far in the distance, the boy could see a shape drawing dangerously near. He couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was traveling fast, faster than anything he had ever faced before, a red-glowing lantern bobbing in the air.

Backing up near the wall, Link was trapped with no exits other than the way he came in. Hurriedly glancing about the tunnel for hidden doors or hatches, he found himself boxed without recourse.

Entering into the offensive glimmer of the torch, Link could now see the fiend in full light. A skeletal warrior, covered in rusty chains and barbed plates of cancerous steel, charged at the boy with a bloodied iron club that looked as if it had bludgeoned an entire army. The vermilion light of the creature’s lantern created an eerie haze all around as it danced, causing Link to feel disoriented.

With no weapons to speak of, Link kept his mind focused but braced himself for the worst.

The creature swinging that barbarous cudgel with a gruesome screech, Link instinctively jumped backwards to avoid the blow and found himself falling into shadow, the torch blowing out as he fell. Passing through the solid wall that once held him prisoner, Link could see the brute howling it’s enmity towards the boy and then rushing off into the tunnel.

Falling for what seemed an age, the boy’s mind dizzy with the aftereffects of the shadow people’s Eventide, Link finally hit the bottom as he splashed into a chilling pool of dirtied water. Luckily conscious enough to return to the surface, Link pulled himself out of the basin and rolled over onto the grainy rock floor.

Finding himself in an immense underground chasm, Link stood to his feet and shook the water from his ears. He was curious of where the light was coming from, this deep in the underworld, but couldn’t identify any given source. It was as if the rocks themselves were emitting slight traces of radiance into this normally blinding darkness.

Glancing about, Link noticed his situation hadn’t improved much; no exits anywhere in sight. His vision sliding back into focus, he could see an ornate wooden chest fortuitously lying but a few feet from him. Moving towards the chest, Link reached down and lifted up it’s lid, the dust of a era crumbling and billowing across the soft conical shapes of the underground formations that were strewn about the chamber.

Looking into the chest, Link was both astounded and confused at what he saw. It was empty. Nothing but a couple of cobwebs and a boxful of air.

His mind wracked, he looked around the room for clues, anything that would give him a sign he was on the right track. Getting down on the floor, he saw what looked like hoofprints, faintly etched into the glassy floor.

Following the tracks, Link traced them to the far end of the room, one of the stalagmites rising up from the floor at the end of the trail. Inspecting the formation, he could see plainly a slot near the tip - a scar within the rock. Then he saw a slight glimmer, coming from behind.

Reaching back, Link gripped the item and pulled it from it’s derelict tomb. Brushing off the dust and earth, he had found a small curved dagger. Intricately inscribed with knots on the blade, it was a superb piece of craftsmanship. Still sharp after being buried in this dark place for who knows how long, Link stood back to his feet and eyed the blemish on the formation.

Accustomed to simple riddles as such, Link carelessly dropped the blade into the slot.

For a moment, nothing happened. But then, erupting from the pool of water like a fountain of crimson mortality, a thrashing beast exploded into the chasm. Gargantuan in comparison to the small boy, Link crouched down to get a steady look at the monster, as it’s heaving footsteps were churning the floor.

Decrepit and mutilated, it was a horror within itself. With sickly long arms and legs, it was a cadaverous-looking giant with the face resembling that of an Octorok, squid-like and choleric. Deep-red it’s muscular skin, the beast flexed and bellowed out it’s intentions at the boy, saliva dripping from it’s tentacle-laced mouth.

The particularly interesting feature of it was it’s eyes. Bandaged with a rotting strip of cloth, the monster was either unseeing or sensitive to the faint light of the chasm. A possible weakness Link knew he would need to exploit if he were to survive.

Retrieving the dagger from the slot in the formation, Link brandished it towards the monstrosity, it’s blinded face reacting with a huffing cackle. Somehow able to sense Link’s motions, the beast tracked his every movement as if it were perfectly tuned for such subtle instinct.

The boy with his meager edge standing firm, the beast charged with it’s clawed hands flailing wildly, talons capable of shredding even the darkest of steels. Link dodged the best he could and looked for a way into it’s defenses, but the fiend’s speed was astounding. Rolling around, Link backed away towards the pool of water to make some distance between him and his foe, his stance cautious and determined.

Spinning, the beast howled at it’s missed target and readied to assail the intruder again. Seeing no opening in the monster’s strategy, Link desperately looked around the room for possibilities. And there one was.

Dangling ever so precariously above the center of the room was a downward-pointing spire of rock, signs of previous attempts to bring it down ever-apparent on it’s chipped face. Taking dagger in hand, knowing he might only have one chance, Link waited for the beast to charge.

Doing as anticipated, the monster spurred forward with carnal rage.

Reacting with perfect timing, Link threw the dagger, which seemed to take on a life of it’s own once in the air, flying into that deadly-looking column. The thin blade slicing clean through the rock with arcing sparks of blue and green, the spire came crashing down. The blade’s path seemed to slightly curve as it flew through the air, sticking into the floor but a few feet away from the hero.

Seeing the boy’s intent and it’s own demise at hand, the horror sidestepped and flung itself into the near wall, narrowly avoiding an assured death as the rock buried into the ground.

Link’s eyes grew wide. His one chance, and he missed.

The beast cackled again, knowing his victory was but moments away.

Diving for the dagger, Link quickly snatched it up and hurdled the collapsing rubble. Taking a flying leap, the base of the spire his platform, Link swung the dagger with all his might at the chimera. A deep slicing cut was made across it’s blindfolded eyes, drawing out a vile and rancid substance that seemed to eat through the stone floor.

The beast screeched in anguish, falling backwards onto the pile of rock. It writhed unnaturally for a few moments, but soon fell still, the piece of dirtied cloth falling to the ground. Link was taken aback at the sight: a small imp laying inside of a hollow void within the creatures face.

The boy stepped forward, eying the bizarre symbiotic creature with a neat slash across it’s throat. Getting closer, the beast suddenly twitched, giving Link’s heart a jump and causing him to nearly fall off his feet. But there, draped around the monster’s neck, was a square piece of smooth stone. Cutting the cord around it’s neck, Link took the stone in hand and again eyed the slotted formation at the back of the room.

This time a little more cautious, Link carefully dropped the small chink of stone into the breach. As if coming alive, the entire room eclipsed from it’s twilight state into a bright haven of whiteness and tangible ecstasy, small fairy-like creatures emerging from the stones.

“Well done, Link.” Mara’s weightless voice could be heard from some nether realm. “Well done.”