Chapter 1

The windmill was old; built of bricks with one of the arms half broken off there was nothing appealing about the building. Few would guess that it was the entrance to the Temple of Dust. Which is likely why it had fallen so low as to be put on the list of temples to clear out. Shaking his head and loosening his limbs, Link figured he may as well get started. Whatever the reasoning, the temple had to be cleared and there was no advantage to waiting.

The doors opened as he approached revealing nothing more broken milling supplies. There was no light beside the rays of sun streaming through the open temple doors, casting long shadows. There was nothing to guard against, no puzzle. Not a single trick to start off the temple. On the watch, but rather unconcerned, Link left the entrance. Immediately, the doors slammed close.

Link could feel a scowl forming. Not usually a problem, but he hadn't bothered to refill his extra oil bottle before coming. Reaching back for his lantern, he felt his hope sinking at its light weight. He gently sloshed it around anyway and listened carefully. Sounded about a third full of oil. Temples didn't tend to like leaving players in the dark, so it should last until he found a torch.

It took only a second to light his lantern. The room was as lacking as before. Skirting the edge of the room, he found the access point to the temple; a ladder descending into the dark. His footsteps echoed as he walked over, the ceiling high enough the lantern light didn't reach it. Leaning over, Link could see nothing dangerous. No obvious monster lurking, but no torch lit with a warm glow either. Shallow enough he could see the ground, meaning no damage configuration. Switching his lantern to his right hand, Link pulled out his sword and stepped up to the edge. Nothing happened. Shrugging, he jumped down.

Upon hitting the floor, no monster jumped him. No monster jumped at him as he explored behind the ladder to find a couple of dusty boxes stacked haphazardly. No monster jumped at him when he stumbled due to tripping over a pebble. No monster jumped at him when he returned to the ladder and stared at the black of the path he had to take.

Of course, considering the room was large enough that his flickering lantern didn't reach the wall on either side, let alone in front of him, hypothetically a monster could be lying in wait. Unlikely, yes, but possible.

To his great sadness, no monster jumped at him as he ventured forth into the darkness.

Link had cleared enough temples that design features built to inspire fear or panic barely had him noticing, but it was no reason to be careless. As he headed forward, he walked slowly and held his sword at ready waiting for a trap to trigger or monster to appear. Seven steps in, two torches on either side of the room lit directly behind him.

Link spun sword already starting to swing, expecting a back attack, only to be met with nothing. Frowning, he looked over his shoulder in the direction he had originally been heading, but nothing. No sounds, no sights, only the faintest hint of mustiness. As if the temple had been shut and forgotten about. Extinguishing his lamp, hoping to spare what little oil he had, Link took one of the wall torches. New players, he was aware, were often too hesitant to truly interact with the temples. Even some veteran players he knew didn't like to move anything about in the temple. Link never understood it. Why waste his own supplies?

Torch in his right hand, Link continued down the hallway. It was strangely long, and it didn't take but a few steps to notice the walls were slowly closing in on each other. Soon enough, if he were to stretch his arms to either side, Link would be able to touch both walls. Still no sign of monsters, but now he was relieved, fighting in such a narrow hallway would not be easy.

Before Link had cause to truly worry, the hall ended at a door. A fairly weak looking and poorly constructed door. Still, the room beyond it was as dark as the hallway had originally been. Deciding to take no chances, Link kicked the door in, sword on guard and stepping over the threshold even as it clunked against the wall. For a breath, nothing happened. Beginning to relax his stance, Link leapt back as four torches lit at once, far brighter than flame alone could be.

The room revealed was nothing special. Normal sized, good for a battle against two or three foes, with a door on each wall. Some crates and jars were shoved in the corners of the room. Water was pooling into puddles in a couple places.

Avoiding the first puddle, which seemed strangely deep, Link dropped the torch to unlatch his shield. Settling it into position with the ease of practice, Link went fully armed and armored to kick over the jars and nudge the boxes looking for any spare items. Nothing. He entered the center of the room, which he had been skirting, but still nothing. No additional torches, no puzzles, no activated monsters. It was strange, but not the worst thing he's come across. When temples went unused for long periods of time monsters had a tendency to congregate, it's just usually they didn't like too large of crowds and so spread across the temple. Here, it was likely they were hidden deeper in the temple.

Walking forward, to the door directly across from the one he had entered, he tried the handle of the much sturdier looking door. There was no keyhole, but the door refused to budge. Perhaps a one-way door, a quick exit from the end of the temple then. Unworried, he tried the door to the left of where he entered. It gave easily, and he was three steps inside the room before the torches lit, revealing another empty room. Unlike the one he just exited, there were no other doors, only an opening to a shadowed area.

Slightly concerned, Link searched about the room. This was the fourth room of the temple, surely he should have come across monsters or a puzzle by now. He headed for the open doorway expecting a trap, but he crossed the room without trouble. Staring into darkness, he doubled back to retrieve a torch off the wall. His new light source revealed a curved wall covered in ivy, leading up to darkness. Link couldn't see a ceiling. Perhaps this temple was finally starting to pick up.

The floor here was mostly dry, so he dropped his torch on the ground and pulled out his lantern again. Swishing it, then glancing up, Link figured it'd be just his luck to had the light go out as he was climbing. He had been so busy lately he hadn't made the time to prep his gear as carefully as usual. And had been cocky enough to not bother with restocking for this mission. A mistake. At least his magic reservoir was fine and his spells primed for use. That, at least, he had made time to see to. Scrolling through his list of spells, he selected the simple spell light and cast it to his lantern. Another trick most newbies took forever to figure out. The lantern helped reflect the small light, allowing for less consumption of magic and more light. Attaching the lantern to his belt blocked some of the light, but it allowed him both hands for climbing.

Scaling any wall always impressed townsies, but in reality was very simple. The grate ivy grew on in temples were very sturdy, unlike the lightweight ones used in town. Monsterless as this temple might be, lacking puzzles as it was, the grate proved strong enough for climbing.

It didn't take long to scale the wall, but after going up to what should be the ground level outside the temple Link found himself stuck. There was a small wooden platform, but after pulling himself up onto and sitting on it, he looked about in confusion. There was no chest, no further path, no level - not even an eye to shoot. No trick to continue on. Just an empty platform at the top of an empty room.

This temple was proving rather unsatisfactorily empty.

Something was definitely wrong.

Scooting over so that his legs could hang off the edge, Link could faintly make out his flickering torch. Nothing appeared different. Nothing was triggered by his climb here, but perhaps the main room - the one with four doors, was affected? Nothing to it but to check, so Link lowered himself off the platform, allowing himself to hang by his fingers. The drop was no more than what the ladder had been, not far enough for damage to be configured, so he let himself drop.

Landing was nothing spectacular. No monster attacked while he was retrieving his sword and shield, readying them again. Shrugging, he dismissed the light spell and banished the lantern, shouldered his shield again and picked up his torch. No reason to waste magic and considering the slow response of wall torches so far, he wasn't going to trust their reliability.

He left the half circle room that led nowhere for the connected room, taking a moment to search it again. It was the same; still empty. Sighing, he returned to the main room at a faster pace wondering if he was just going to walk through the entire temple with nothing to do at all. He opened the door and paused, hand still resting on the handle. The door across the way, the only door he had yet to try, was now open. Shifting slightly, as if feeling a breeze in this still environment, the door creaked.

Link carefully set the torch down, not making a noise, and adjusted his shield and readied his sword once more. Perhaps the climb had been a trigger after all.

Carefully stepping into the room, his survey showed nothing else changed. Avoiding puddles, he approached the open door but could see nothing of the room or corridor beyond it. The torches seemed to dim as he closed in on the door. Finally. Something was happening.

He crossed the threshold cautiously, sure now something would attack him. As he was turning to glance behind him, he caught glimpse of the spear from the corner of his eye. Jumping to the side, into the wall, he avoided it. It stopped and drew back into the darkness, no torches lighting the way. The monster left nothing to question however, stepping boldly forward as Link scrambled back into the previous room. Dim lights were better than none.

Link lifted an eyebrow as the light fully revealed the monster - a goblin. The giant pig faced monster snarled as it slowly followed Link into the new room, his leather armor creaking. Link kept pace, making sure to always be beyond reach of the spear. A goblin? A bit big for the low ceiling of an underground temple and out of place. He had never seen one outside of a forest or prison themed temple.

The goblin charged and Link dodged easily to the side, watching the monster ram right into the wall. Taking advantage, Link attacked the open back of the goblin, cleanly slashing and causing a bellow of pain before jumping back as the goblin spun swinging his spear. Link's foot hit one of the puddles and slipped out from beneath him, causing him to crash into the wall.

Definitely not enough room in here for a team of fighters, meaning the goblin was not the monster that was supposed to be attacking.

Unwilling to waste time, Link regained his footing and went for a head on attack, hitting the spear up enough he could duck beneath it as it came swinging towards him, leaving the goblin wide open for an attack. Link took the opening, plunging his sword into the goblin's chest. Pulling out, he finished the monster quickly with a slash to the neck. Link jumped back as the goblin exploded into smoke, only to slip again as he landed in another strangely slick puddle.

Already sitting on the floor, Link checked the water he slipped in twice now. It looked and smelled like water, but to touch it was thicker and slimy. It clung to his fingers, like grease. Curious, he retrieved his torch and set it to a puddle, but the strange liquid did not catch. Pity, he could have filled his oil bottle with it.

Looking around the room, he noticed the additional puddles. Where before there had only been a couple small ones, now they had grown in size and quantity. Half the floor had to be covered.

Rather than shouldering his shield, Link left it to dangle on his arm. A bit uncomfortable, but it would allow for a faster response. Considering the goblin, the extra speed might just be required.

The torch proved useful as he passed through the opened door. No wall torches lit to show the way, and his own torch seemed sadly lacking. Something had to be interfering. The floor, at least, was dry.

He reached the end of the hallway without another attack, and turned the corner to find the ceiling dipping a bit lower. It appeared almost to be sagging. Luckily, a door was in sight on the left. He headed directly for it and didn't wait upon reaching it, kicking it down and shoving his torch forward for light. For once, the room had something inside.

Giant boxes.

The room was filled with giant boxes. Walking the perimeter, Link found a barred door on the wall opposite his entrance. The boxes filling the center of the room were lined up four by four for a possibility of sixteen boxes. Deciding to check it out, for what else was he to do, Link gently threw his torch, still his only source of light, atop the nearest box. In the shadowed darkness he ran up the side of the box and caught the edge with his fingertips, hauling himself up. The ceiling was low enough not to allow him to stand, rather he proceeded with a crouching walk. He kept his head low enough to prevent it from scraping against the grime on the ceiling. Picking up his torch, he crawled about to see what he had to work with.

There were three boxes missing, the spots where two of them would have stood were giant switches. Nothing terribly difficult. Why bother? The puzzle seemed more a waste of time than test of skill. Likely, as was the rest of this temple, it was broken.

Leaving the torch at the top of the block, Link jumped down to pull a box over one of the switches. Hopefully it wasn't time or order dependent because he wasn't sure how many switches there were. Yanking at the block, he frowned when it didn't shift. Considering there were three handles provided on each side of the box, it was unsurprising one man couldn't move it, but it would have been nice if he could have. A bit annoying, but easy enough. Looking over his spell list, he selected strength and put only a trickle of magic in. Strength enough for two men and rarely did a box need more.

Pulling, once more the box failed to shift. Frowning, Link increased the strength of his spell, pouring in enough magic to bring it to its second level but still the box didn't shift. Not cool. Taking a slow breath, Link gathered his magic and poured it into the spell, maxing it. Yanking once more, the box begin to move into place. Despite its movement, Link had to truly struggle to get it even halfway. Jumping up, he dropped back on the other side of the block to push it fully into place.

Once the box was correctly positioned, Link released the draining, fully powered strength spell. He felt strangely exhausted, the spell hadn't been in place long enough to tire him so thoroughly. Something in the room must be affecting how magic worked, similar to how something was dimming the torches. Perhaps to add to the difficulty of the task? Considering the lack of anything else in this temple that might be it.

In an attempt to cover the last switch, he uncovered two more. Three boxes later he was sitting in the shadowed alcove, back against the block and panting, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Okay, maybe not broken, just annoying. Had he gotten lucky in his pick? He was starting to believe the entire floor was switches and it lacked only three - one for each missing boxes. But what would be the purpose, no one would stay in this temple if they had to deal with this.

The release on the barred door reminded him of his purpose. Despite being so late, at least it opened and progress was being made. Taking a slow breath, calming his heart and restoring a sense of balance, Link climbed the boxes one last time to grab his torch. It had been left sitting safely above to provide what light it could while he had been busy moving boxes. He moved until he could jump down directly before the recently unbarred door, but stumbled the landing due to his exhaustion. A quick check of his magic revealed its low levels, all but an impossibility for him. His magic now matched most of his gear, practically empty.

Stepping forward, he opened the door and looked around the new room. It was empty but for a chest, sitting in the direct middle. Unfortunately, the chest fit the theme of the temple, it was laying open and empty. It was a fairly large chest, implying something of importance had laid there at one point in time. This was a situation he had never come across in a temple before.

The report for this temple would prove rather long. He was usually only sent for over-spawning of monsters, not for temple bugs. Typically temple bugs caused the temple to be shut down, not left open for players to stumble across. There was nothing to do but continue on and see what else might be working or not in this temple. It'd have to be shut down, but perhaps whoever had to do the repairs would appreciate the thorough report. Especially considering the error report that originally sent him to clear this temple appeared wrong, lacking even a hint to the problems in this temple.

Exiting back to the hallway, Link continued on. He kept an eye out for anything strange, but the hallway was as bland as the first room had been. It continued on for a ways, before ending and leaving only a second door on the left. He opened it slowly, too tired to slam it open and draw attention of all who might be in the room. Before even entering, he could tell it was different. There was the loud rumble of a large collection of people: metal clanging, voices mumbling, enraged calls. Edging inside, there was no direct light, but the far wall proved to be a balcony instead. Light from underneath it - whatever it was overlooking, gave off a dim glow.

Leaving the torch near the door, Link quietly crossed the room and got down on his belly to inch to the very edge of the balcony. Staring through the pillar supports for the railing, his eyes widened at the sight.

Whatever purpose the room below originally had was lost, filled instead to the brim with monsters. In the one room alone there had to be eighty, if not a hundred. The monsters stood on top of each other, one, as Link watched, grew offended and battled another. There was barely room enough to swing their weapons. When one was killed, disappearing in smoke, the smoke cleared to show a new monster had spawned in its place.

More than that, the monsters had destroyed the walls, leaving gaping holes into the rooms beyond it. Rubble was everywhere and the monsters spilled between rooms, each as packed as the one next to it. Keese hung from the tops of broken walls, a couple taking flight when brushed against and screeching. Goblins were spread lightly throughout, grunting and muffing as they swung their spears for walking room. Stalfos, Lizardos, Dinolfos - all were in great numbers trying to walk around, almost as if they couldn't see the other monsters blocking their way.

Making the decision to back away - with no gear or magic it was an impossible fight, Link started to wiggle back.

For what happened next, there was no warning. The ledge he was hiding upon simply gave up the fight. With nary a noise, the ground beneath him crumbled sending Link toppling into the middle of the room below. With his sword beneath the rubble and struggling to free himself, his death was quick.

A gasp smells wrong it's all wrong smoke and burnt flesh and dim it's so dim oh and his eyes they hurt they hurt and hurt and he can't breath his chest something is wrong with no his arm can't move green soft pulsing green like the mouth of a river across the sky and why does it HURT dizziness but he's laying he hasn't moved and what is below him why is it so hard so soft and his head and it's toxic his noise can't handle it and there's something in his muscles there's something there what what what HURTS and the noise where has it gone wood it's wood and it's unlike anything why HUR-

Link bolted upright, hand reflectively against his chest, "What… what was that?"