Once upon a time… a time before there was earth and ocean, and, of course, any life… upon this chaotic world of Hyrule, three goddesses of the Golden Land descended. The goddess of power, Din… with her strength and her hands of fire, she cultivated the land and built the red earth. The goddess of wisdom, Nayru, poured her knowledge into the earth, giving the world its order. Lastly, the goddess of courage, Farore, with her rich heart, gave life to those who would protect the law of the land. When the three goddesses finished their task and returned to the heavens, they left behind them the sacred triangles of the Golden Land, the Tri-Force, and that place became the Sacred Realm.

To protect the wish-granting Tri-Force from the evil-hearted, the sages built a temple and sealed it at the Gate of Time. “He who collects the three spiritual stones, stand here and play the Song of Time. If done, then the gate should open”.

‘This is the kingdom secret passed down by the Hyrule Royal Family,’ Zelda finished.

‘Then are you sure it’s Ok to tell me such an important secret, Zelda?’ Link asked.

‘My mother told me it before she died. She told me never to tell anyone about it, or about the ocarina. But you believed what I had to say… even my own father wouldn’t do that. Therefore, I believe in you, too!’

‘Oh.’

And then it was that Zelda’s eyes once again looked over his shoulder, forcing Link to turn around cautiously, but all composure was lost when he saw the terribly masculine woman he saw at the market standing only inches from him. He took a step back, startled, before Zelda comforted his fears.

‘Don’t worry, she’s Impa, my nanny,’ Zelda informed him. ‘Hey, Impa! This is the messenger from the forest that I saw in my dream.’

‘I am the one entrusted with the protection of princess Zelda,’ she said to Link, almost ignoring Zelda. ‘I saw everything yesterday in the marketplace. Especially your fight with the thieves.’

‘You were?’ Link asked.

‘I saw you to be a courageous boy who diligently follows through with princess Zelda’s wishes.’

‘Aw,’ Zelda said, ‘you can see through anything!’

‘By the way,’ Link disrupted, ‘do you have any clue where the two other spiritual stones are?’

‘Well,’ Impa answered, ‘I don’t know where the Spiritual Stone of Water is, but I’ve heard that the Spiritual Stone of Fire is kept by the chief Goron, Darunia.’

‘OK, then,’ Link declared, turning around to walk out.

‘Wait, Link,’ Zelda implored.

‘Don’t worry,’ Link assured her, ‘I will find the stones before Ganondorf does and will bring them here!’

Link was smiling his boyish little smile, reassuring Zelda with every passing second that he would be able to do this.

‘…Right, and in order to keep the ocarina out of Ganondorf’s hands, I will likewise do my best.’

An awkward silence passed between Link and Zelda, Impa standing in the background, smiling down at how cute and funny this would look to anyone watching who didn’t realise what was at stake. She was fighting back a laugh when Zelda leaned in to Link’s cheek to lay a small little peck of a kiss on it, all the while Link looked completely confused as to what she was doing.

‘Please be careful,’ she half-whispered to him.

‘Come with me and I will show you where you should head next,’ Impa requested.

Leading Link over, Impa walked out of the courtyard to a window looking east. From the forest branching out from the castle, as unexpected as a pimple, was a deathly looking mountain. A ring of smoke, resembling a halo, circled around the tip of the mountain/volcano, adding a peaceful component to the steep cliffs that made up the mountain.

‘That is Death Mountain, where the Gorons reside,’ Impa informed him. ‘We must protect our beautiful Hyrule,’ she added as if Link, in his naiveté, didn’t understand the consequences riding on his shoulders. ‘Link, this country’s peace rests on your courage. We’re counting on you.’

Link was determined, and with renewed confidence that people actually believed he could accomplish this task. With his face reflecting his confidence, he started towards the corridor leading to the front gate of the castle.

‘Leave it to me!’ he called behind him.

Taking the exit at a run, and stunning guards he dashed past, he made for the east, where, apparently, a village existed, and from there he would tackle the slopes of Death Mountain.

‘We’re off, Navi!’ he said excitedly to her. ‘To Death Mountain!’

‘OK!’ she answered.

If I told Saria I was gonna protect Hyrule, I wonder what she’d say? He sighed then, and taking out the ocarina Saria had given to him, he reminisced of his life before the previous day. ‘Play it sometimes and think of the forest’ she had told him. I wonder what everyone in the forest are up to? As he walked, he randomly strung notes together in the ocarina, trying to occupy himself to prevent boredom, but he had picked up a follower because of it. Hoof sounds in the ground caused Link to turn and regard, with surprise, the young horse following his music.

‘I think she likes that,’ Navi said, buzzing around Link’s ocarina.

‘Yeah, I guess so.’

Coming right up to him, the foal lowered her head, obviously wishing for Link to mount her for a little ride. With a little reluctance and a lot of caution he put his leg around the back of the small animal and sat on it, feeling rather proud at how adult he would look, sitting astride a horse. But with no warning the horse started galloping off in the direction of Death Mountain, so, once the initial shock had worn off, he sat back and enjoyed the ride, content that he would reach Death Mountain in no time at all.

Skirting around the buzzing Kakariko Village, the Death Mountain Trail beckoned to Link. The path was carved into the steep mountainous cliffs; so as to make the gradient walkable, but still, the going was tough for Link seated atop the young mare. Boulders frequently rolled down the trail on the steeper parts, creating the loudest noise Link had ever heard in his life, while testing Link to manoeuvre the horse around the dangerous debris.

‘How can people actually live in a place like this?’ Link asked Navi, who was floating around his head, instead of inside his hat, now that they were on flatter ground halfway up the mountain. ‘There’s nothing but rocks!’

‘Well, that would probably be because people don’t actually live here,’ Navi answered.

‘What do you mean?’ Link asked, jumping down from the horse and standing next to a rock. But Navi didn’t answer his question with words. Instead, she fluttered around the coarse rock Link was standing next to. Link leaned in; trying to get a closer look at the rock Navi was concentrated on. With a sudden rush, the rock, to Link, looked like it exploded, but, a second later when he recognized that a form lay in front of him, he changed his mind. A teddy-bear-like figure, with large, black eyes and wide, fat lips all on a rounded face positioned on top of a round body with rocks almost grown onto the back.

‘They’re Gorons,’ Navi finished, ‘Rock eaters.’

‘My, how rare,’ the Goron said in its slow dopey voice. ‘Is this a visitor?’

‘You are a Goron, yes?’ Link asked.

‘Well, I could have told you that,’ Navi whispered to him.

Ignoring the fairy’s remark he said, ‘Please show me where you live, I must meet with your chief, Darunia.’

With a groaning kind of sound, the creature turned and walked slowly toward what looked to Link like a rock wall. But, closer to the wall, Link noticed a crevice that now seemed so big that he didn’t know how he missed it earlier. Following the Goron through the wall, they found themselves in a subterranean city, consisting of three levels. But before they went any further, the Goron turned around, stopping Link from continuing.

‘This is a dangerous place for children,’ the Goron said, in his same drawling voice. ‘What do you want Darunia for?’

‘I’m looking for the Spiritual Stone of-’

Interrupting Link was the rolling boulder screaming past them, only to stop ten metres from them and turn around to come back to them. Again, what looked like a rock was actually a Goron, but one with more defined facial features, hardened as if he was angry. As well as the beard on his face, this Goron’s body was very well defined, muscly and veiny with the trademark Goron birthmark on his shoulder, looking like a block footprint.

‘What?’ the new Goron demanded. ‘The Spiritual Stone of Fire?’
‘Yes!’ he said, comforted that someone knew what it was. ‘The princess sent me here to get it so we can-’

‘Ridiculous! That stone is the heart of the Gorons. Do you think that I’d give it to a kid so easily?’

‘But… do you want Hyrule to be conquered by Ganondorf?’

Darunia’s only answer was a scoff, turning to pick up a rock from the ground and examine it. Link watched in wonder as Darunia made up his mind to place the rock inside his mouth and chew down hard on it. With a disgusted face he spat out the pieces of chewed rock like a man would when eating dirt.

‘That’s nasty,’ Darunia said before realising Link’s bewilderment. ‘We are a race that eats rocks,’ he clarified. ‘The dragon which lives inside Dodongo Cavern has begun to act violently, so we’ve been unable to reach our favoured rocks,’ he said with sadness. ‘So, unfortunately, I don’t have time to bother with you,’ he said with renewed annoyance.

Link’s head dropped and he began to turn towards the way he entered the underground city.

‘But,’ Darunia said, as if realising something, ‘you said that you want the Spiritual Stone?’ With a sigh, he continued, ‘Go beat the giant dragon, King Dodongo, and prove that you are a man!’

Link’s spirits suddenly heightened at the Goron’s request, and the sickly looking Gorons around him, all visibly starving to death, made up his mind with an iron will.

‘Tell me where the cavern is and I will go,’ Link asked of Darunia, who, looking to another Goron, made his order known with an expression. The Goron’s face saddened as if to say ‘why me?’ But he subdued and started walking to the exit of the city, stopping on the way to grab a lit torch from the wall.

‘I wish you good luck,’ Darunia said as Link walked past him, who went by without a word, already mustering his courage.

*

The Goron led Link down the mountain a fair way to a large opening in the cliff face that was a long, dark cave, the inside walls rugged and gloomy.

‘Are you really going in?’ the Goron asked. ‘It’s already eaten five other Gorons who couldn’t stand the hunger any more.’

Link didn’t answer the question, not liking the look of the dark cave, either. Taking a big swallow, Link stepped slowly into the cavern, waving the torch in front of him like a weapon, until he noticed a growth on the wall to his left. Looking back to the Goron, who was still only ten metres away from him, Link motioned for him to come over.

‘What are these?’ Link asked, waving the torch at the plant-like things ahead of him.

‘Those are flowers that grow only in Dodongo Cavern,’ he answered.

‘Flowers?’ Link reiterated.

‘But,’ the Goron said, stopping Link from getting closer to them, ‘if you pick them, they’ll explode.’

Link stood up properly and gazed again inside the cavern, having second thoughts about facing a dragon. It’s for the protection of Hyrule, he told himself before sighing and starting to walk again. But stopping him in his tracks was the terrible roar from deep within the cave, reverberating around the walls with a thunderous volume. The Goron, almost next to him, became incredibly frightened, displaying the timid nature of the majority of his kind.

‘I’m going back!’ the Goron screamed, twisting and dashing out of the cave.

‘Wimp,’ Navi said, emerging from Link’s hat at the roar. ‘Well, let’s go and fight this thing!’

Link started running down the corridor-like cave, coming out into an open room with an impossibly tall roof and lava dotted around the walls, seeping out from holes. But a huge lizard-like monster with teeth as large as Link himself, and a covering of iron-hard scales drew the main focus of the room.

‘There’s no way my sword or slingshot can harm that thing… and those teeth!’ he yelled at Navi, struggling to be heard over a bigger roar from the dragon. Navi sped off carefully toward the dragon, searching for weakness in the impenetrable scales. The dragon took no notice of the fairy pestering him, curling up into an armoured ball and rolling dead straight at Link.

‘Run!’ Navi screamed from twenty metres away.

Link did an about-face, sprinting for his life and trying to hide his body behind rocks to escape the ranting beast pursuing him. Successfully hiding, Link watched the lizard steam past, not slowing down in the slightest. And then Navi was back, next to his ears, flapping her wings with desperation.

‘The flowers!’ she shouted.

‘The bombs?’

‘Yes! When it roars, again, throw it inside its mouth!’

Link, now with a plan, lunged for a crop of a few flowers next to a wall. With a thundering shudder, the whole room shook with the impact between the dragon and the wall. Link, reaching the flowers, yanked a bomb flower and turned, feeling the flower sizzle in his hand, only seconds from explosion. Like a miracle, the dragon was on all fours again, walking toward Link with frightening speed, its jaws wide apart, giving off a mighty, booming roar, just what Link was waiting for.

With immense co-ordination, Link lined up a throw, hurling the flower with force through the gaping maw of the threatening dragon. Visibly, the dragon swallowed the bomb, realising what he had just consumed after a dull, muted explosion shuddered the hulking creature. Pain crossed the face of King Dodongo, before its legs gave way beneath it, and it came crashing into the ground, not moving. Alright, I did it! Link thought.

*

‘I almost forgot how good a decent rock tastes!’ Darunia bellowed with a mouthful of crunching stones. The cavern, now devoid of the hulking beast, seemed to glow with more light and radiance than before, although nothing had been done to it other than the Gorons coming in for a feed. Link stood aside, watching the population eat happily, content, almost shocked, at the feat he had accomplished.

‘Actually,’ Darunia said, remembering Link’s request, ‘not long ago a guy named Ganondorf stopped by here. He and his flunkies had the nerve to order me to hand them the Spiritual Stone. After I refused them, that giant dragon started acting atrociously. However, in exchange for that stone you did all that for us. You are a man among men! Now take this.’

Darunia twisted his down-turned palm, exposing the shining red ruby Link had been searching for.

‘It is a sign of my gratitude, and a seal of our friendship.’

‘The Spiritual Stone of Fire,’ Navi said eagerly, ‘the Goron Ruby!’

‘From this day on,’ Darunia continued, ‘you and I are brothers!