Link doesn't know what to do at first, but then notices a bomb flower right beside the wall. He picks it up and puts it at the end of the cave. After waiting a few moments, the bomb explodes and Link enters the true Dodongo's Cavern.

There is a huge lava pit in the middle of the area with pillars raising and lowering. In the center of the lava pit is a decent sized platform, and right behind it, implanted in the wall, is a huge creature's head. Its mouth is closed and its eyes are hollow, making Link shiver despite the hot atmosphere. "Is that a dodongo?"

"I can't detect any signs of life coming from the structure." Navi slowly flies up to the dinosaur's head and is relieved when she sees it's not moving. "I think it's dead... like a fossil."

"Okay." Link takes a deep breath and puts his sword away, knowing he has to jump the platforms to cross the lava pit. "We have to check every room until we find the missing girl. Along the way we can defeat any dodongos that come along."

"Great plan!" Navi tries to be optimistic, but if she was telling the truth, they say she was really scared. She's never heard of anything called a dodongo before, and she's nervous that Link is too young and inexperienced to tackle the beasts. It was a miracle that he was able to defeat Gohma!

Despite how scared the duo are on the inside, they trudge onward. Link hops across the pillars and gets to the center platform. After looking to his left and right, he sees that there are two weak sections of the wall on the right that he can blow up with bombs. Carefully, he jumps to the right and uses the local bomb flower to clear away the weakened wall. Nothing is there except a map and- "A switch!"

"That's awesome, Link! Just press on it and maybe it'll open up a new path," Navi explains, hoping that a door will open once the switch is pressed.

Link stomps his foot on the switch and surely enough, a door opens. However, this one is on the other side of the room. Link gets suddenly confused when he hears a weird noise coming from the ground. "Navi, do you hear that ticking?"

After a moment of silence, Navi understands what the ticking is, and her voice holds a sense of urgency. "It's a timer! Hurry, Link, get to the door!"

Not needing to be told twice, Link dashes for the door. He jumps on a pillar and onto the center platform. After that, he jumps on the next pillar and bends his knees to jump onto the side where the door is, but the floor crumbles at the edge of the pillar. Link only jumps half as high as he meant to, but he manages to outstretch his arms to grab onto the ledge. Only looking down for a moment to stare fearfully at the lava, he drags himself up onto the platform, lifts the door, and rolls inside right before the bars could drop down.

Link takes short, shaky breaths as he sits in the ground, staring at the door where he just came from. "Well... at least we made it."

"But, now we're locked in here. We'll have to find another way out." Navi says with a bit of concern in her voice. She doesn't want to be a downer, but they need to be prepared.

"Come on, we have to keep going." Link stands up and starts walking to steady his legs. He can't help but think of how lucky he is. If he didn't manage to climb up the ledge, he would be literal toast right now.

The hallway is narrow, but the ceiling is high. At least Link doesn't have claustrophobia, or he definitely wouldn't be able to walk this way. Luckily, the path widens out into a room with a door on the left. A blue switch is in front of the door, which Link steps on. The door opens, but when Link steps off the switch, it locks again.

Navi flies over to the locked door and thinks hard on what they can do to get past. "We need something to rest on the switch so we can go through the door, but we don't have anything heavy enough!"

"Hmm..." Link looks around the room, a bit at a loss until he spots two small and weird looking statues. "I can use these!"

"Great idea!" Navi smiles and claps her little hands together. She watches as Link slowly pushes the statue over onto the switch. It takes a little longer than expected, but he finally manages to open the door for good this time.

The next room has a bit of a maze, but Link manages to get through it easily. Thank goodness he found the Dodongo Cavern's map, or else he'd be completely lost. All he has to do is weave around a few walls and get to the other side of the room. Thank goodness this door is actually open, and Link has no trouble getting through it. It's the next room itself that proves to be difficult.

The temperature goes up a whopping thirty degrees, and that's being generous. Link almost falls over due to the intense wave of heavy heat ramming into his body. The floor and walls are bright red, and many zig-zaggy streams of dark red lava flow around the ground. There is a door to the left, right past a couple streams of lava, but of course it's locked. Adding to the stress, the door behind Link locks as well, metal bars dropping from the ceiling and preventing him from going back.

"N...avi... too... h...hot..." Link starts panting just by standing there. The poor boy's collar gets itchy with sweat, and the only thing that keeps him from kneeling over is two lizard creatures falling from the ceiling.

Link does the best he can to grab the slippery handle of his sword, and just in time too. One of the lizards stands upright on its back legs and takes a long dagger out of its side holster. Navi flies out of the way before she can be chopped in half. "I know these! They're called Lizalfoses. Watch out for their tails!"

Just as Navi says that, the second Lizalfos spins and whips its tail at Link. Thankfully, he manages to jump backward a good distance away from the attack. "Okay, Navi. How about a weakness?!"

"Looks like..." Navi quickly scans the enemies with her sharp eyes, picking out tiny details in their armor and movements. "They leave their right sides open! Find a way to get close enough so you can attack their sides."

"Can do!" Link says in the most confident voice he could muster. Right when the next Lizalfos strikes, Link rolls toward it instead of jumping away. The boy stands up and slashes his Kokiri sword upward. Just as Navi advised, the Lizalfos is defeated and turns into smoke. Link smirks, getting a bit of energy back. Now that it's brethren has been defeated, the second Lizalfos isn't as confident. Link runs forward, dodges an attack, and finishes off the last monster. Upon its defeat, both doors unlock. Link doesn't hesitate before running over to the exit, careful to jump over streams of lava when needed.

"When will I get a break?!" On the bright side, the temperature has gone back down to just barely tolerable. The downside is that there is another huge, seemingly impossible puzzle in the center of this room.

There is a staircase, but the first step is too high for Link to reach, even when he jumps. Around the staircase is a line of bomb flowers with a gap in the front. Once Link takes a breath and thinks about the puzzle, it becomes really simple. All he has to do is get a bomb flower and put it in the gap. Conveniently, there is one lonely bomb flower on the left wall.

Link bends down to lift the flower, but before he manages to pluck it from the ground, he hears a faint whistling sound. Navi looks at Link as he stands up and says, "Did you hear that?"

Link's ears twitch whenever the whistling starts playing. It's extremely quiet and fragile, but it's pleasant to listen to. Link feels the wall in front of him and presses the side of his head to the dusty surface. If just a tiny bit, the sound gets louder. The whistle is surely coming from inside the wall.

There are a few cracks that line the wall as well, which means it's weak. A bomb flower would do the trick, but if he uses it then he won't have one for the staircase puzzle. Taking one last look at the row of bombs, Link picks up the flower and puts it beside the weakened wall. The bomb explodes and the wall crumbles away, revealing a tiny room.

The whistling stops as Link peeks his head inside the room. There are small torches on the walls that provide light, but other than that it's completely sealed off from any light source. On the far corner of the room is a small girl curled up and looking at Link with utter shock.

The girl's eyes are bright grey and shine in the torches' light. Her chocolate brown hair is up in a high ponytail, and the ends just reach her shoulders. Her clothing consists of a light grey long sleeved shirt, a short brown shawl over her shirt, a light orange skirt with grey tights, two brown belts that tie around her waist, brown pouches on her belts, and brown boots that go up to her knees. A vibrant green fabric is tied around her upper left arm, and she holds a silver stick close to her chest.

She looks like she wants to say something, but nothing comes out of her mouth. Instead, Link breaks the silence and says, "H-hello... My name is Link. Is yours Peyton?"

The girl nods and slowly stands up. A smile replaces her surprised face and she walks up to Link. "I knew a hero would come and save me!"

Now that Link can get a closer look at Peyton, she looks way worse than how his eyes first interpreted. Her fair skin is covered in a thick layer of dust along with her clothes. The green fabric around her arm is dark red in one area, indicating that she wrapped up a wound. Her shirt and tights are torn, and her eyes keep blinking, probably to keep the dust from falling in them.

"Achoo!" Peyton sneezes into her elbow, making a bunch of dust get disrupted and fly off her head.

"Oh, you poor dear!" Navi quickly flies over to Peyton and starts clearing her face with water. She also tries to get as much dust off her head as possible. "There, does that feel better?"

"Yes, thank you Miss Fairy!" Peyton curtsies at Navi and turns to Link. "How did you find me?"

"I heard a quiet whistling sound that was coming from behind the wall," Link explains as he leads Peyton out of the dark cave and into the lit room with the staircase. "The villagers told me you were trapped in here after an avalanche."

Peyton puts her hands over her heart and her eyes widen. "Rocks were falling and my friend, Kaiden, pushed me out of the way. I saw him get crushed, but I couldn't move the rocks! So, I walked deeper into the cavern to try and find another way out, but rocks started falling again and I had to hide in that dark room. When the rumbling was over, I was trapped. To help me be brave, I started playing my piccolo."

"Is that what the silver stick is?" Link points to the shiny metal thing that Peyton still clutches with her hands.

"Yeah! My mama gave it to me. She said that if I'm ever scared and alone, I should play my piccolo and a hero would come and save me." Peyton holds out the instrument for Link to see clearer. On the top there's buttons that can be pressed down to cover holes and create different pitches. It's like his ocarina but metal, longer, thinner, and with buttons over the holes. Peyton puts the small instrument in a specially made pouch for it and jumps on her toes. "Are we going to defeat the monsters in here and go back home?"

"Yeah, I promised the chief of the Gorons that I would defeat the dodongos in here." Link puts his hand on his chin and frowns. "But I haven't run into any yet."

"I think they're up on the next floor because the rocks keep falling down." Peyton points up the staircase.

It all makes sense after Peyton's comment and Navi agrees with her. "Of course! They're the ones causing the avalanches! We have to find a way to lower the staircase so we can get up there and defeat the dodongos."

Link looks behind Peyton and sees that the bomb flower he used to free her has grown back. He smiles and picks it up. "This will work!"

The boy in green throws the bomb over to the gap by the stairs and it blows up. The line of bombs explode as well, causing a chain reaction. Once the last of the bombs is gone, the staircase rumbles and falls down one notch, just enough for the kids to climb up.

Peyton follows Link up the stairs, having to hoist herself up every step because of how short she is. When they get to the top, they walk around and find the next door. Link learns that Peyton just turned ten years old, so she is only a bit younger than him. Her parents live in Kakariko Village, and she's best friends with Naomi. No wonder the blonde farmer was so upset when Link saw her last. Since she doesn't have anything to protect herself with, Link gives her his Fairy Slingshot to use for the time being.

"This is perfect! My mama is an archer, so she told me she'd teach me how to shoot a bow and arrow someday!" Peyton attaches the Deku Seed pouch to her belt and continues onward.

The next room is lined with creepy, cold blue stones. Stalactites and stalagmites shoot out of the floor and ceiling, some even connecting to each other. Around one of the stalagmites, Link and Peyton come face to face with their first dodongo. When it sees them, it sucks in air and breathes it out. A blast of fire comes out of its mouth, making Peyton and Link sprint away. When she gets a chance, Peyton notches a seed and shoots it right into the dodongo's eye, but it bounces off after making a clanging sound. "Its entire body is covered in armor!"

Link looks at the dinosaur and tries to think of something else. The dodongo sucks in air again and turns its head at the duo. The only thing that doesn't seem to be guarded is inside its mouth. Then it clicks. "I have an idea!"

Peyton pushes an ecatic Link out of the way before he could be blasted with fire. Link runs over to the side of the room and picks up a bomb flower. When the dodongo opens its mouth to breathe in air again, Link throws the bomb and the dinosaur swallows it. The bomb explodes and the beast dies. Peyton claps her hands after she gets over her shock. "That was amazing! Now we know their weaknesses, and we can tell the Gorons how to defeat them if they ever come back."

"I hate to be Navi the raincloud here, but I don't think one small dodongo is enough to cause a mountain avalanche." Navi tells the kids, making their hopes diminish a tiny bit.

"Well, that's okay because we know how to beat them now." Peyton smiles and tries to lift Link's spirits.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go!" Link walks with Peyton to the end of the swirly, blue stoned room and runs into a treasure chest. Without hesitating, he opens it and pulls out a bag full of bombs.

Peyton pumps her fist in the air and claps her hands. "Now we don't need to rely on bomb flowers! If we are in a room where the flowers don't grow, we can use these!"

"This is so cool!" Link holds up a bomb and shows it to Navi. "Look, Navi! We have our own bombs!"

"I see them." Navi giggles, loving how childish the two ten year olds are being. "I'll hold onto them for now and if you need a bomb, I'll give you one."

"Awesome!" Link lets his fairy partner dissolve the bombs and he continues on, going through into the next room.

Peyton and Link almost fall backward once the door opens. A wave of heat fills their lungs and snatches away all their energy, making them wanting to lie down and go to sleep. Once they step into the room, the door closes and locks behind them.

"Not again..." Link's eyes become watery when he looks around. A door is on the left side, the floor is bright red with streams of lava flowing around, and two Lizalfoses jump off the ceiling and onto the floor. "I just want to... get out of here..."

"Come on, Link. We can... do this." Peyton's arms shake as she tries to raise the slingshot. She pulls back the seed and manages to hit one of the Lisalfoses in the gut. The Lizalfos dodges all other shots and hops over to the girl. Peyton has to duck before the monster can slash at her face. As she does that, she loads the slingshot again and fires upward, hitting the Lizalfos in the jaw. Link runs over and stabs the monster in the chest while it's stunned. The other Lizalfos hesitates upon seeing its partner turn into smoke, so Peyton uses this moment to shoot it in the middle of its forehead. Link runs and slashes it across the side, rendering it defeated. The two kids smile in victory and sprint over to the now unlocked door, more than glad to get out of that room.

There is a bridge up ahead that overlooks a giant pit of lava. A platform rests in the middle of the lava, however, which eases Link's fear. As he walks across the bridge, he realizes something. "This is the main room! Look, we are standing right above the dead dodongo's head!"

"Hey, you're right! Look here, this stone says: When I see red, the path will open. What does that mean?" Peyton brushes off the stone to see if there's anymore words written. Unfortunately, nothing else is readable.

"That's weird. There's two gaps in the bridge that are right above the eyes of the dead dodongo." Link points out, and then he gets an idea. "Navi, give me some bombs so I can drop them into the dodongo's eyes."

"You got it!" Navi gets what Link is going to do and makes a bomb appear for him. Link catches it and drops it into the gap of the bridge, making it land right on the dodongo's hollow eye. When it explodes, the eye turns red. Link does the same thing to the other eye, and then the entire room starts shaking.

Peyton screams as she slips and hangs off the bridge. Link tries to get over to her, but he loses his footing as well. After another big shake, the two kids feel their fingers slip and they fall onto the platform. The mouth of the dead dodongo falls open, revealing a new path just as the stone plaque said.

Link and Peyton shakily stand up and face the new doorway. The brunette gets a shiver down her back, and out of instinct she grabs Link's hand. The boy in green is grateful for the comforting gesture and the two enter the mouth of the dodongo.

Right when they step inside the barren room, the entire floor crumbles and the two fall once again. Link helps Peyton stand, and he observes where they have fallen. A huge pool of lava covers the center of the room, leaving the circle of dirt by the walls the only place that's safe to step. Peyton hugs Link's arm as a huge crash is heard behind them followed by two more. The duo turns around to see a fifty-foot tall dodongo with grey skin and deep blue eyes. Blue gems seem to be growing out of its back like a poky spine. The beast roars loudly and Navi is the only one who finds words through the fear, "Infernal Dinosaur, King Dodongo..."

The monster sucks in air and blasts an undodgeable stream of fire at the kids as it exhales. Link thinks quickly and jumps in front of Peyton, grabbing his shield and crouching behind it. The edges of his clothes get seared, but when the fire dies down, he's still alive. He can't say the same for his shield, however. Since it's made out of wood, the Deku Shield only holds up for one attack before it turns to ash.

"Oh no! Your shield." Peyton scoops up some black ash, getting her hands all dirty. "I'm sorry, Link."

"It's okay, Peyton." Link sighs, sad that one of the only relics he has from Kokiri Forest is now gone. "I still have my sword. We can beat this thing!"

"Okay!" Peyton says right before the dinosaur roars again. "How do we - oh I know! Feed it bombs!"

"Right. Navi!" Link yells over the roar. Right before the monster takes another breath of air, Navi forms a bomb and drops it in Link's hands. The boy gets ready and throws it into King Dodongo's mouth. It swallows the bomb and roars in pain once it explodes.

Instead of turning into smoke, the monster gets back up and rolls into a ball. It starts rolling toward the kids and fairy. Link grabs Peyton's hand and starts running, leading her away from the monster. King Dodongo rolls behind them, but slams into the wall once the kids make a sharp turn. It unravels itself and inhales once again. Link catches a bomb from Navi and throws it. Right as it enters the dodongo's mouth, Peyton shoots the bomb with a seed from her slingshot.

King Dodongo falls on its side, stunned from the impact of the powerful blast. Link runs toward it and takes his sword out, stabbing the small blade into its neck. King Dodongo roars louder than before and then goes still. Its body turns black and burns in bright red flames. Peyton runs up to Link and hugs him. "You did it!"

"You helped me stun it, so we both did it!" Link hugs the brunette back and a blue light forms on the ground. Link leads Peyton to the light and says, "This will take us out of the temple. We have to go back to the village and tell everyone you're okay."

Peyton wipes her eyes as she starts to cry tears of relief. "My mommy and daddy are probably so worried! I have to see them!"

Link follows Peyton as she runs into the light, and the two feel their feet leave the ground. Everything around them fazes out for a moment before they find themselves at the entrance of the cavern. Peyton looks at the horizon and sees the rising sun. She must have been trapped in there all night.

From the trail above them, Darunia falls in his rock form and stands up once he reaches the ground. He grins widely and pats Link on the head so hard that the poor boy falls over. "I can't believe it! You managed to take down the dodongos in the cavern! Kid, you really are a hero."

"He saved me too!" Peyton folds her hands behind her back and smiles at Darunia.

The chief laughs loudly, startling Link a bit. "What a wild adventure, it'll make an incredible story! All those dodongos suddenly appeared in such large numbers. And that big rock blocking the cave... This was all because of that Gerudo Thief, Ganondorf."

"Ganondorf?" Link stands up and brushes off his tunic. His heart beats quicker than when he first faced King Dodongo when he hears the name of the desert king.

"Yeah that was his name." Darunia nods grimly and exhales loudly. "He said: Give me the Spiritual Stone. Only then will I open the cave for you. You, on the other hand, risked your life for us. Kid, I like you! How about you and I become sworn brothers?"

"Uh... sworn brothers?" Link smiles weakly, not exactly knowing what Darunia is talking about.

"There's no big ceremony involved, just take this as a token of our friendship!" Darunia holds out his hand and the Spiritual Stone of Fire forms. He hands it to Link who stares at it in awe. The red gem looks like it houses a flame inside. After admiring it, Link puts it in his side pouch where the Spiritual Stone of the Forest is.

"No fair! Can I get a pretty gem too?" Peyton asks the chief.

Darunia is about to say something, but another voice sounds from behind the kids. "I don't think he has another gem, but how about a hug instead?"

"Kaiden!" Peyton turns around and squeals in delight when she sees the older man. She runs over to him and jumps into his outstretched arms.

Kaiden lifts Peyton up, ignoring the pain in his leg. He doesn't care how hurt he is as long as Peyton is safe. "I'm so glad you're okay. Wanna go home? Your parents are waiting."

Peyton nods frantically and Kaiden smiles. He turns to the Goron Chief and thanks him before turning around and carrying the girl back to the village. Link thanks Darunia as well and follows Kaiden back down the mountain.

Almost everyone in the village woke up bright and early in order to help get Peyton, and they are all flabbergasted to see Kaiden walking down the Death Mountain path and entering the village with her in his arms. Link tails him, excited to see how happy Peyton's parents are when they see her. He isn't disappointed when Peyton's mother takes her from Kaiden's arms and hugs her baby girl close to her chest. Peyton's dad hugs his wife and his daughter, and kisses the top of Peyton's dusty head.

"PEYTON!" Link looks over and sees Naomi slam a door open and run out of a house. She sprints up some steps, hoisting her dress up a bit so she doesn't trip, and hugs the brunette. "Don't ever scare me like that again!"

Peyton giggles and rests her chin on her best friend's shoulder. Peyton's parents haven't had enough hugging yet, however, and they embrace both Naomi and Peyton in their arms. Link smiles as he watches Malon, Carol, and Valerie walk out of the same house and run over to the quartet of hugs.

The rest of the day is spent by Peyton telling everyone what happened. When she gets to the part about Link saving her from her room of isolation, her parents stare in awe at the boy and say endless thank yous. Link doesn't know what to do about all the attention, so he tries to tone down his side of the story. He explains that Peyton helped him fight the monsters to try and get rid of some of the attention he's getting. It's a bit unsettling for him.

Once the story is over, everyone is wiped out. Peyton, Link, Naomi, Malon, Valerie, and Carol all sit in a circle and play with some of the cuccos. When the day is over and everyone is tired, the villagers all start to go to bed. Since they were all so stressed the night before, no one got much sleep.

All of the kids' parents have agreed to let them stay the night at the village once again because of how late it's getting. Naomi knows that she's way behind on her chores, but it's dangerous to try and go home after dark. Peyton's parents allow Naomi, Malon, and Link to stay at their house for the night since they have a few extra beds. Naomi takes Peyton's bed while the younger girl sleeps with her parents for the night. Valerie and Carol spend the night at Kaiden's house since he has one extra bed, which the girls share.

As the lights turn off and the candles are blown out, everything is quiet and peaceful. However, it must not last as darkness is where true evil lurks. Even though her parents hold her tightly, Peyton feels herself being ripped from their grasp by her ankle. Not much is seen, but the last thing the girl can recall before blacking out is cold, dark water filling her lungs and surrounding her body.