“We’ve got to do this now.” The panic in Igari’s voice spoke for itself. This was it; there was no time left.
Without even a second of hesitation, Darunia leapt over to one of the many bomb piles and grabbed an armful. He set them carefully at the foot of the statue and, with a sudden effort, pushed it slightly out of place. The statue made a loud scraping sound on the rocky floor and sent a shower of sparks everywhere—including over the five or so bombs he had placed nearby. Darunia smelled the distinct odor of smoke as each of the fuses crackled to life.
“What the hell was that?!”
“Your Excellency, that statue just moved!”
Darunia pushed it a little bit more, creating more scraping noises and more sparks. He had definitely caught the Gerudos’ attention. The point now was keeping it long enough to get in and get Igari’s mother out of there before the Gerudo could do the unthinkable. By now, the fuses had nearly burned out; Darunia knew he didn’t have much time before the bombs would go off.
“Igari, duck!”
She complied; unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one that had heard Darunia’s statement.
“Someone is behind that statue. Pull it out and kill whoever it is.”
He took that as his cue; with a powerful shove, he pushed the statue completely out of the passage opening and curled into a tight ball to protect himself. Seconds later…
*~BOOM~*
A woman’s scream intermingled with the sound of the exploding bombs. Once the smoke had cleared enough to see again, Darunia caught sight of two Gerudo soldiers lying unconscious on the floor of the chamber. Two drawn swords lay near them, slightly dulled from the force of the blast, but even that didn’t obscure the definite traces of red on one of the blades. Small drops of blood trailed from the sword back to one corner of the room. The prone form of a middle-aged Goron woman lay on the ground at the end of the trail.
“Oh, no. Mother!” Igari cried out. She scrambled past the two unconscious Gerudo soldiers and knelt by her mother’s side. What blood there was issued from a long cut on one side of her neck; Igari tore a piece of her own skirt off and pressed it against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Almost immediately, the injured Goron gasped.
“Owww…” She winced in pain. Lavana opened her eyes just wide enough to see the worried expression on her daughter’s face. The pained look in the older woman’s eyes gave way to one of astonishment. “Igari?! You…you’re alive? Or am I…dead?” Igari chuckled ever so slightly.
“You’re alive, Mother. We’re both alive.”
“Dear Igari, how did you ever surv-“
“Shh. Let me take care of this wound.”
Darunia could only stand guard and watch as Igari and her mother finally reunited after almost losing each other. A slight twinge of jealousy made its way into his mind; reunion was something that could never happen again for him, at least in the land of the living. Such a thought made Darunia’s heart ache. But at least I was able to help prevent Igari from losing her mother.
“Big Brother, is there any water in any of these jars over here?” Igari pointed at the collection of clay jars adorning the many tables on one side of the king’s chamber.
“I believe so. Hold on a sec.” Quickly Darunia walked over to the tables and started opening jars, revealing everything from random pebbles to dried bomb flower leaves. A few moments later, he finally found what he was looking for. Darunia handed a small jar of water to Igari and smiled.
“Big Brother?! You survived as well?” The astonished look on the older woman’s face only deepened when she caught sight of Darunia. “My, you look so much like your father did at that age.” Igari looked up at Darunia with an awkward grin on her face; she gratefully accepted the water and finished cleaning the gash on her mother’s neck.
“There. That should do it.” Igari chimed, carefully helping her mother to her feet. “How are you feeling?”
“There’s still a bit of pain, but not too terribly much.” Lavana gently touched the cloth around her neck and heaved a sigh. “I feel much better knowing that the two of you survived that terrible rock slide. But, as you can see, you didn’t exactly come home to the best of circumstances.”
“So we discovered.” Darunia interjected. “How many of them are there in Goron City?”
“I’m not completely certain. There aren’t all that many of them, which is the scary part. We couldn’t really defend ourselves against them when the Gerudo finally entered Goron City. They stormed the city and took every weapon we had. A Goron’s strength is nearly double that of a Gerudo soldier, but the Gerudo are far too quick for us to fight them without any weapons. Within hours, they had rounded up everyone in the city and imprisoned them in a cave on the top level—the one with the Sheikah stone. I think there are somewhere around ten or so guards watching over them with another dozen or so roaming the city. Their leader, a woman by the name of Thaliah, keeps her headquarters on the high platform.”
“Where the Goron’s Ruby usually sits?” Darunia inquired.
“Yes, and they’ve been looking for it ever since they got here.” Igari’s mother continued. “Something about a King Ganondorf wanting it. But no one knows where it is, and even if we did know, no one would tell them. That’s why those two soldiers over there were about to kill me. It’s a good thing you two got here in time…”
“We’ll have a much better chance against the Gerudo if there’s more than just the three of us fighting against them.” Darunia mused. He looked over at the giant pile of bombs hidden just inside the secret passage to the Death Mountain Crater. “We have enough bombs to get by for now, I think. But we need to get everyone out of that cave without getting anyone else killed, including ourselves.”
“But how?” Igari looked at Darunia with almost pleading eyes.
“I do not know.”
Silence. Darunia opened his mouth to speak again a few moments later, but stopped when he heard voices just outside of his chamber door. He tiptoed toward the closed door and listened; the young monarch could make out several distinct voices, none of which belonged to a Goron. Various, distinctive sounds like the clinking of swords and marching footsteps confirmed this as a fact.
“What do you hear out there?” Whispered Igari as she tiptoed toward Darunia. “Gerudo.” Darunia whispered back. “Judging from the voices and the footsteps, there must be at least six or seven of them. And they’re coming our way.”
*RAP RAP RAP*
“Captain Firaë, Corporal Avara, Crown Regent Thaliah wishes to speak with you immediately. Are you finished interrogating that Goron yet?”
Darunia’s heart practically stopped. It wouldn’t be long before the group of Gerudo outside would realize what had happened and storm the chamber. And the odds weren’t particularly in favor of the Gorons once that finally happened. Six or seven well-armed and nimble Gerudo soldiers against three Gorons, one badly injured, two recovering from recent injuries, and armed with only bombs and brute strength.
They only had one thing that the Gerudo didn’t have.
The element of surprise.
And Darunia intended to take advantage of it. Motioning for Igari to join him, he quickly and quietly walked over to the pile of bombs just inside the secret passage. The two of them gathered several bombs together and carried them to the door, taking care to make as little noise as possible when setting them down. Once that was done, Darunia made his way over to the collection of jars on the other side of the room; he pulled a single bomb bag out from underneath one of the jars and began to fill it.
“Captain? Did you hear me? The Crown Regent wishes to speak to you immediately!” The voice sounded a bit more urgent this time. Darunia ignored it long enough to finish filling the bag with bombs and hand it over to Igari’s mother. With a small nod of affirmation, she took the bag and slung it over her back.
“Igari, take this.” Darunia tossed one bomb to Igari, who barely caught it before it touched the ground. “When I tell you, hold it to the torch and light it. And…” The young monarch remembered the two swords lying on the ground beside the still-unconscious Gerudo soldiers; he gently lifted the twin blades from their resting places and held one of them out for Igari. As she grasped the handle, their hands briefly touched, causing Darunia’s heartbeat to quicken slightly. But less than a second later…
“Trona, open that door. Something isn’t right.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Light the bomb.” Darunia calmly whispered. Igari raced over to the only torch in the room just as the door was beginning to slide open. She quickly lit the fuse and tossed her bomb into the pile, then took a defensive stance alongside Darunia and waited for the inevitable to happen.
An explosion rivaling the one that had caused the rockslide a few days earlier blew the door into thousands of pieces and created a ball of smoke large enough to obscure any light in the room. Various cries of shock and pain emanated throughout the smoke and debris-filled chamber. Swords in fighting positions, Darunia and Igari stormed through the cloud, ready to fend off any Gerudo that may have endured the blast; Lavana took up the rear, clinging onto the bag of bombs with every bit of strength her arms had.
If the Gerudo didn’t know that they were there before, they surely knew now.
“Quickly! Up to the top level!” Darunia bellowed. The three intrepid Gorons ran past the rotating clay vessel and up the staircase, surprisingly meeting no Gerudo resistance along the way. They reached the end of the staircase only a few minutes later, pausing momentarily to retrieve a few bombs from the bag before proceeding further. Just before they reached the corridor leading to the prisoners’ chamber…
“Stop right there.”
