When Darunia awakened again, nothing had changed. The cave was still as dark as it had been however many hours before; he was still in pain, but a lot of it had subsided, much to his relief. He sat up and looked around; what little light there was didn’t offer much of a view. Rubble ranging from pebbles to giant boulders still blocked the entrance to Dodongo’s Cavern, completely isolating it from the rest of the outside world.
Why is the entrance still blocked? Darunia mused. Dodongo’s Cavern is our main resource area. Even if they think that no one survived the rockslide, they would still clear the blockage as soon as possible... The young monarch listened for any signs of the outside world, scraping rock, quiet voices, anything that would indicate that someone was out there. Only the faint sound of his own heartbeat penetrated the deep silence of the cavern. Nothing. Where are they? Darunia turned around, expecting to see Igari nearby; to his surprise, she was nowhere to be seen.
“Igari?”
No response.
She must have gone deeper into the cavern. The young monarch thought. He waited, listening intently for any sign of his companion. As more and more time passed, Darunia began to worry. Did something happen to her? Why isn’t she here?
“Igari?” He called out again, this time a little bit louder; Darunia strained to hear a reply, but once again his call went unanswered.
I can’t just sit here. What if she’s hurt somewhere in the cavern? Taking the initiative, Darunia got to his feet and started toward the next room in the cavern. He still felt rather dizzy, a fact which almost made him fall a few times, but he continued undaunted. If something had happened to Igari, he needed to find out.
Darunia entered the next room in the cavern—a sequence of islands amid a lake of molten rock. Even with full command of one’s balance, the area was rather dangerous; as dizzy as Darunia was, he didn’t know if he could cross over the magma lake safely. He considered turning back, but the mere possibility of his companion being injured was enough to make him continue. A couple of times Darunia nearly lost his balance, but amazingly was able to cross the lake without falling in. But he seriously doubted his ability to make it back without help.
As he entered the next chamber, he heard the sound of moving water. Listening more closely, he could barely make out the sound of someone singing. Quite beautifully, in fact. Darunia caught sight of Igari sitting by a small underground stream in the far corner of the room; as he slowly approached her, he noticed she was fumbling with a piece of cloth, trying to tie it around her arm. She suddenly stopped singing, clearly frustrated with the task at hand.
“Do you need help?”
Igari gasped and jerked her head up, obviously startled by Darunia’s query.
“Big Brother, you—“ She tried to catch her breath. “—You’re finally awake! How are you feeling?”
“Better. I’m still a bit dizzy.” Darunia replied as he sat down on a nearby boulder. He turned his attention to the square of cloth loosely draped over a section of Igari’s upper right arm. A small amount of blood was clearly visible on one part of the cloth and the young monarch grew concerned. “What happened to your arm?”
“I slipped on the side of the stream and cut myself on a rock.” Igari explained. “It’s nothing too serious. My arm has already stopped bleeding for the most part.” She picked up the cloth and tried once again to tie it around the wound. The attempt failed miserably, much to her chagrin. “I just can’t seem to tie this thing…” Without hesitation, Darunia took the cloth from Igari and carefully tied it around her arm.
“It isn’t too tight, is it?” He asked.
“No, it’s just fine. Thank you.” Igari gently ran her fingers over the cloth bandage and smiled.
“Just out of curiosity, why were you here in the first place? There’s plenty of water in that first cave.” Darunia inquired after a short silence.
“I was actually looking for another entrance.” Came Igari’s reply. “ I noticed that the main entrance is still completely blocked. So while you were still asleep, I figured I’d explore the rest of the cavern to see if there was another way out of here. Unfortunately, that rock I sliced myself on had other ideas….”
“Another cavern entrance.” Darunia scratched his chin and looked around the small chamber he and Igari were in. “I haven’t seen one, but…” His voice trailed off when he looked down at the stream; the young monarch followed it with his eyes to the cavern wall, where it surprisingly disappeared into the rock. Quickly Darunia stood up and made his way over to where the stream intersected with the wall and reached under the water.
“Do you think there might be another chamber on the other side of that wall?” Igari asked.
“I don’t know.” Darunia replied, pulling his hand out of the water. “But I intend to find out.” The young monarch grabbed a bomb flower and placed it on the side of the stream close to the cavern wall, then curled into a ball and rolled to the other side of the chamber. Igari quickly followed him. Seconds later, the bomb exploded, sending water and shards of rock everywhere.
“Oh, my gosh…” Igari spoke once most of the debris had settled.
“I guess cutting yourself on that rock wasn’t entirely a bad thing.” Darunia chuckled slightly. What had been a wall of rock mere moments earlier had crumbled with the force of the bomb, leaving a gaping hole directly above the stream. The pair of Gorons slowly walked through the new passage; this chamber was significantly warmer than the rest of Dodongo’s Cavern had been. Darkness gave way to the orange glow of freshly erupted lava from a series of small vents on one side of the chamber. The stream Darunia and Igari had followed ended in a large bubbling pool not too far away from the vents.
And on the far wall of the cave was exactly what they were looking for—-a way out. Without hesitation, both Gorons walked toward it and soon found themselves blinded by a burst of sunlight. Once their eyes began to adjust to the sudden change, they realized where they had ended up—on a wide ledge above a giant lake of molten rock.
“The Death Mountain Crater…” Darunia was the first to speak. He surveyed his surroundings and noticed their close proximity to the Fire Temple. And the secret passage to Goron City wasn’t much further. “There’s an entrance to the king’s chamber just on the other side of this bridge.”
“We made it.” Igari breathed. The pair gazed into each other’s eyes for a short time. “We found another way out of Dodongo’s Cavern.” Feeling a great sense of accomplishment, the two Gorons made their way across the wooden bridge and into the secret passage. Darunia placed his hands on the statue to push it out of the way, but the sound of voices on the other side made him stop.
“They all refuse to talk, Your Excellency.” A timid female voice echoed from inside Darunia’s chamber.
“You’d better find a way of making them talk, soldier!” Came a much harsher voice, also female. “If King Ganondorf comes up here and finds that we haven’t gotten the Spiritual Stone of Fire from these idiots, do you know what he’ll do?”
“Dear Nayru….” Igari’s voice was audibly shaking.
“Kill a few of them if you have to. I want that stone found and I want it found NOW!”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Silence. The two Gorons slowly backed away from the statue and returned to the crater. They stared at each other in shock for a few moments, dumbfounded at the conversation they had just heard. In their brief absence, the unthinkable had happened…
“The Gerudo have taken Goron City.”
