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In the Zelda universe, sometimes a race that is just enemies to fight in one game will be characters with their own stories and speaking parts in another. Yet the one race that has consistently been so beautiful, I stop fighting just to admire the handiwork of the artists and animators behind them. never has been anything but monsters to fight. Yet they make weapons and armor, use tactics, and obviously have intelligence...

What is their story? What does an encounter with the Player look like from their perspective? Why are they even in those Temples anyway? Here's my answer...

Story by Rune

The Legend of Zelda, Link, Lizalfos, Moblins, and the setting of Hyrule copyright Nintendo

* * * * *

The mountains were euphoria.

They first spotted their faint wisps of volcanic smoke shimmering faintly across the sea of sand, appearing and disappearing as the dunes brought their eyes higher and lower. Distant clouds of sand blew across the horizon, often obscuring their view. As days of long walking brought them closer, the black mirage appeared more frequently, and the desert air and sand grew warmer.

The warmth of the air gave their green reptilian bodies welcome energy, and they needed less and less of their rations. Small nibbles on the tubers they brought with them, and sips on their waterskins. They dared not touch their jerky: it took too much water to digest. Better to save it for the springs, which would be scattered across the volcano... if the tribesmen had told the truth. They were known to mislead settled folks with tales that shifted the locations of prime hunting grounds, or were simply out-of-date secondhand rumors.

Yet the nights were icy cold, and as the sun set, they dug into the sands, worryingly cool a few inches below the surface. Each evening, as they lay side by side in the wide trench they'd just made, pushing sand over each other, Ra'eep wished they'd worn their platemail, or at least the insulating skins underneath it, but they'd never have made such a long journey weighed down by it. Finally, she and Enk hugged, white belly to white belly, touching green snouts tenderly while their metal shields, still hot from the sun, soothed their backs with warmth.

Each morning, they woke up, unburied each other, and greeted the sun. As the Giver of Life warmed them, they shook the sand from their loincloths and pressed on towards the distant smoke. She wore her shield on her left arm and tended to drift right when walking, Enk on his right arm and tended to drift left. Together, they corrected each other and traveled nearly arrow straight, shields flanking them in case they needed to fight.

One day, they glimpsed the crimson peaks beneath the smoke. Then again, and again, until the towers of smoke became a fixture, impossible to miss sight of, and the volcanoes were the mirages shimmering just above the dunes. Each day they grew larger, until the red volcanoes were always visible, even in the dips between dunes.

Sometimes hot winds blew from the mountains, invigorating them while blowing sand rubbed and cleansed their scales. As the heat grew, the sand became coarser, with rocks between, and life appeared. Scraggily brown weeds and bushes at first, but then cactus they could cut open for water. Enk bashed their spiny green flesh with his tail mace and they licked up the brackish water within. It tasted foul, and sometimes the spines poked Ra'eep as she leaned in to drink, but it saved them from emptying their waterskins. Insects came after the plants, buzzing in the hot air. They weren't easy to catch even with the energy the heat gave them, but they were a welcome supplement to their rations, mild-flavored but satisfyingly crunchy. Most had enough juice inside they didn't need to drink any water to digest them.

The volcanoes kept growing and growing, always seemingly just a day's walk away but always out of reach. The desert warped all sense of perspective, as if everything in the distance was close enough to be touched if one just stretched their arm out, and a mirage that could never be touched. Even as the volcanoes loomed overhead, they never quite reached them.

Finally, as if something out of a dream, came a magical moment when Ra'eep felt the sand give way to hard, unyielding stone slabs under her paws. She paused to stretch her toes out, reveling in the new texture, and smiled to see Enk doing the same. There was nothing but crimson stone slopes ahead, and a few boulders sprinkled the sea of sand behind. They continued walking, uphill, and the smoke of the closest volcano cast jagged shadows that rushed over them.

They were at the mountains!

True to the tribesmen's word, there were springs: tiny pools of hot mineral water supporting clumps of brown grasses. Some were nearly evaporated in the heat, and they emptied them in just a few slurps. It was enough to allow them to eat their jerky, and Ra'eep felt herself wake up with every bite, as if walking across the desert had been a long dream.

The heat grew until it seemed to bathe Ra'eep in a dry bath of air. She was glad they hadn't taken any armor or clothing: it would have simply gotten in the way of basking in the heat.

The rotten smell of sulfur filled the air, and streams of glowing lava appeared ahead. As they neared the rivers of fire, they radiated power into their bodies. This was no longer the Giver of Life's domain, it was now mountains of Din: the Goddess of the Land, of Earth, Fire and raw strength. Their fire-warmed bodies could move faster, their minds react quicker, than ever before in their lives. They hopped over boulders and scampered up sharply-angled slopes. They licked up even the most skittish insects easily. No detail, from the slightest rumble of the earth, to the subtlest pebble underpaw, escaped their notice.

They both spotted the three-forked river of lava the tribesmen had spoken of at the same time, telling each other with an exchange of glances. They followed it up wordlessly, to peaks where shimmering heat made everything seem to dance magically. In some places, the heat grew so intense the metal of their maces and shields grew hot and soft.

This was why the shields they took on this expedition were built out of tiny metal scales around their hands. Not only did they become an extension of their heat-enhanced bodies, but the expanding scales overlapped each other a little more as the heat expanded them, giving each other support so the whole became stronger even as the metal became softer. A metaphor for the way they were trained to fight.

As Enk leapt up to the top of the next peak, gripping it with one hand, while perching on his paws, he became fixed on something. Ra'eep scurried around the slope to see, the shield on her left hand scraping rock.

There, shimmering in the heat, was the ruin.

What was once a grand entrance had been blasted to rubble by the ravages of time. Towers made of the same crimson rock as the mountain had toppled, one at an angle in front of the door it once flanked, while the other was a jagged broken base, its pieces completely vanished. Shards of rock that had once been a facade over the door now half-buried it, some of their sides a broken shell of pale white and faded yellow that hinted at its former glory. In front of it all stretched half an arch that had once been a bridge stretching across lava, a glowing crescent-shaped lake... that was in their way.

Enk leapt from the spire of rock down the shore of the lake of fire.

Ra'eep followed, pushing off the red slope and landing on her paws, sprawling her toes out and bending her whole body to take the landing of a jump far longer than any she'd ever made before. Invigorated by the volcanic heat, their bodies made amazing feats instinctively.

She walked to the edge of what had once been the start of the bridge, peering down at the lava.

"Well, the moat still works," Enk frowned.

"What moat? Oh, you mean this lava?" questioned Ra'eep.

"Yeah, even now, with everything ruined, it can keep intruders out," he chuckled.

"Intruders like us," she mused, "So how do we get in?"

It was too far to jump to reach the broken end of the bridge. Even though their heat-fueled bodies were able to jump further than normal, it was a big gap to cross, and if they didn't make it, they'd fall into lava. Better not to risk it. Someone had made the trip before though, judging by the blackened posts of wood and rope that had once been the ends of a makeshift bridge spanning the gap in the original stone bridge. Even if they found a way across, it would take days to clear away the rubble from the door, and for all they knew it might still be locked tight after that.

"Well, I wouldn't want to try to jump that, and I don't see any way to climb around," Enk sighed.

"I don't think we should press our luck," she said, "Maybe there's a back door?"

"It's worth a look," Enk shrugged, and headed towards the shallowest slope on the banks of the lava lake.

They scampered up and began climbing up and down the peaks of red rock again. Some of the slopes were slippery sand or ash. On those they treaded carefully hand-in-hand so if one began sliding the other could keep them from falling. Enk yanked her up once, and she did the same for him a couple times.

In other places, plateaus were criss-crossed with deadly vines sprouting blue exploding fruit. The slightest touch would detonate it, so they tip-toed around, literally one step from death.

Finally, over another peak, they spotted crumbling stone terraces flanking a river of lava. It poured out of a slit bordered with cracked carvings and wandered off into ruins and hills. On either side lay the rubble of toppled towers, battered doorways, and fragments of bridges, overgrown with enormous heat-loving vines.

Ra'eep whistled in amazement, "Looks like a city."

"I dunno," replied Enk, "Some ancient temples are huge."

They continued on, leaping to the slope and half-walking, half-sliding to the stone tile of the terraced pathways. The flat, smooth path under their toes was a relief from the crumbling slopes.

"If this was a temple, it had an army of priestesses," she said.

"And priests," added Enk, "Who knows? It might have been both."

"Priestesses and priests?" she suggested.

"I mean, maybe this was city with temples?" he offered.

"Or a holy city?" she countered.

"Aren't those basically the same thing?" he puzzled.

A strange off-key horn blew in the distance.

"What the..." Enk muttered.

"Eyes open!" Ra'eep hissed.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, Enk on her right so their shields flanked them: her left-handed shield on their left, his right-handed shield on their right. As they each scanned one side with darting eyes, a whistling in the air above them caught her attention and she whipped her shield up and crouched behind it in one fluid motion, Enk mirroring her movements, just in time to be rewarded with arm-wrenching impacts. She let the force of the blow carry her shield back to her side, deflecting a projectile to skitter across the ground behind her.

An arrow with a black iron head.

More arrows whistled through the air, and she mentally traced their arcs back to two distant red figures perched on the edge of a destroyed tower on the other side of the lava river.

"Moblins?" questioned Enk.

"What are they doing here?" Ra'eep snarled in annoyance.

The annoying pests were awkward, dim-witted barbarians that came from cold, wet forests few had ever been. One could only go there with rare forms of magical protection against the cold. The second volley from the pair of red archers impacted their shields, an arrow lodging itself between the scales of Ra'eep's shield with painful force wrenching her arm.

"Forward!" commanded Enk.

They darted ahead in near-unison, Enk slightly ahead as more arrows clattered on the tile just behind their tails. They leapt down the terrace to the shore of the lava river, next to an intact stone bridge. Green and blue figures on the opposite shore were shambling like someone struggling to run with both legs asleep. More emerged from a cluster of roughly stitched-together hide huts.

"I can flame them!" said Enk.

With the archers on their left, she would have to shield him.

"I'll cover you!" said Ra'eep.

She angled her shield to deflect one archer's arrow, then the other. Moblins had no coordination in battle, and they pelted them with wild shots, some missing completely and splatting in the lava or clattering on the tile.

Enk crouched low on her right, shaded from their arrows by her shield, and began controlling his breathing while he readied the flames building in his throat. The pudgy, horned green and blue moblins, clad in ragged loincloths, trickled up towards the stone arch bridging the lava. They paused on the other side of the bridge, chattering in their language and waving spiked clubs and iron blades in a sort of demented dance.

Another arrow stuck in-between the scales of Ra'eep's shield, straining her aching arm. She couldn't keep this up forever.

"We have to get out of the open!" she shouted.

As the last moblin reached the group, all five started across the bridge. Enk leaned forward and vomited out a sheet of flame, craning his neck to sweep it across them all. What was normally a simple fireball spell was amplified by the heat into a firespout, turning the whole mob into screaming silhouettes in auras of fire.

One staggered and fell into the lava, its death mercifully cut short. Another ran back up towards their encampment shrieking in agony, while a third writhed in place, fell, and crumpled up.

Only the two at the back remained unburned. Having seen the fate of the others, they hesitated, and moved back to the other side of the bridge.

"Get them!" growled Enk, his voice hoarse from breathing fire.

He leapt into action and crossed the bridge in two bounds, the little pests in front of him just slightly taller than his waist. As he knocked the one on the right down with a sweep of his tail, Ra'eep started into her lunge, another arrow clattering off the stone where she was just standing. She turned and whipped her tail mace into the body of the left moblin.

"I'll cover!" Enk shouted hoarsely, hopping behind her while raising his shield.

While he gave her aching arm relief from deflecting arrows, she jumped onto the moblin he knocked down, making its death mercifully short by landing her full weight on one paw on its neck, breaking it. Without turning, she pummeled the other with her tail mace, turning it to a bloody pulp.

At the sight of this, the archers gave shrill cries of anger that echoed across the ruins, and one blew his off-key horn again.

Enk paused, his body twisting as he frantically scanned the area.

"This way!" he said, darting to one side and heading up a stairway towards the ruin the archers were standing on.

Ra'eep moved with him, once again side-by side. She raised her shield towards the archers but it didn't matter. Their shots bounced uselessly off of bits of rubble. The red Moblins screamed in anger and started running to new positions, searching for clear shots, but they leapt up to them, shields raised.

As their paws touched the broken stone, the archers took their last desperation shots squarely into their shields, and they let their bodies be whipped around by the force, each pirouetting on one foot to strike with their tail maces. Moblins chose the smallest and weakest among them to be archers, and the frail creatures crumpled around the spiked balls. She sent hers slamming into a stone block, breaking its neck, while Enk's slid across a section of intact tile in a bloody mess.

A growl from the encampment drew their eyes to a hulking red figure, with a spear twice its height and a shield made from scraps of wood. Moblin chieftains were always the biggest and strongest, but the bigger the moblin, the slower it moved.

Ra'eep started towards him, and Enk fell behind her. The chief was a bit smarter than the others and had positioned himself in a narrow passage between slabs of rubble so they couldn't get alongside him. She charged faster than she'd ever run before, air rushing over her body like a hot wind, and leapt over the moblin's head, while Enk slid to a stop just in front of him.

She spun around on her toes and tore a chunk of the chief's flesh out with a whip of her tail mace, causing the towering brute to moan in pain and surprise. He turned to face her, filling the trail with his mammoth shield.

...his shield was made of wood, and wood burned!

She built up fire within her lungs and exhaled it, so hot it burned worse than vomit. The stream engulfed the enormous planks and the chief moblin roared in pain as he held onto the burning mess, letting it scorch his hand rather than dropping it. A few moments later, he held a burning handle over a pile of white ash.

With the moblin's defenses gone, they upped the tempo of their strikes, slapping their maces into his bloody body from both sides.

In pain and fury, the chief thrust his spear at her, his movement so slow she only had to lean out of the way. She slapped her mace high on the moblin's flesh, hitting a fresh part of his back. He turned to thrust at Enk, and he darted below the spear.

They flogged the creature until he turned into a lump of meat held up only by their blows.

"Back off!" commanded Ra'eep.

They leapt back in unison.

The bloody pulp teetered and fell on its face with a crash she felt through the ground.

It didn't move.

"Well, that's that," Enk said with a hint of satisfaction.

"Let's make sure there's no more around," she replied, and he followed her into the encampment.

They trotted up into the middle of the moblins' encampment. One of the small huts was smoking. Ra'eep tore a piece of animal hide aside to peer inside, and saw the body of the moblin that had run back after Enk flamed it. Nobody was in the other huts. The moblins had brought nothing of value with them: they had been sleeping on the same bits of hide the huts were made of, and their food was foul, some of it starting to rot.

"Well, I think this area's clear," she said.

He nodded, "Let's go in the ruin, I saw a door on the other side."

He pointed her at one of the few intact and unburied doorways, leading into the red rocky slope, on the other side of the lava river. They trotted back down across the bridge and hopped up the terrace to it. A strange crest was carved into the door.

Together, they pushed the solid stone slab aside, and were rewarded with a burst of hot sulfurous air. They walked in one after the other, the doorway a square that gave no hint as to which race built the ruins. While sometimes a building might have doors shaped a bit like the creatures that made it, this one was large enough to comfortably fit them, or perhaps was something on an epic scale built by a smaller race.

The chamber was round and spacious, lit by the orange glow of flowing lava, just beyond a doorway of metal bars... with a pale eye in a brass fixture. A living disembodied eye, giving off a heavy, chill feeling.

"What the..." said Enk.

"Careful," Ra'eep said, "I sense black magic."

"Me too," he said.

"So now what?" Ra'eep wondered aloud.

"I think we have to destroy it to get through," he said.

"Why?" she questioned.

"It's tied to the door. Its aura," he explained.

"Ah..." now that he told her what to look for, she could feel its taint in the metal bars in the doorway below. The magical guardian was probably made to recognize only certain kinds of people, or those who knew a certain symbol. Without knowing what its magic was keyed to, they would have to break their way in.

"Let me," she said.

Enk stepped back and she leapt at the evil eye, whipping her tail at it... a brass eyelid suddenly slammed shut and her mace scraped against it in the shrill sound of metal upon metal. She landed on her paws, twisting her body for balance. The brass eyelid lifted, and it was watching them again.

"That won't work," said Enk, "Stand back."

He choked out flames which rushed over the eye... but after they passed, the brass eyelid opened again, its evil eye unharmed.

Enk growled, pacing around the room, glaring at the eye, which stared unblinkingly back at him, following his movements. But there were two of them, and it couldn't follow both of them, could it?

"I wonder..." Ra'eep thought aloud.

"What?" asked Enk.

"I got a crazy idea," she said.

"Well, we tried everything sane so far," he smirked.

"Just keep pacing," she said.

"Ok..." he said.

She mirrored his movements in reverse. When he went left, she went right. Each time they moved apart, the eye jiggled between them.

"Move faster," she commanded, "Circle the room."

They trotted in circles around the room, the eye darting its gaze around almost at random in its effort to follow them.

"It's getting messed up!" said Enk, "Run!"

As they ran in a mad, heat-fueled circle around the room, they eye spun in its socket, and then disintegrated, its remains oozing out the brass socket. A dark aura flashed out of it like a puff of smoke as the spell broke down. The socket crumpled in on itself as if squeezed by an invisible hand, and the brass rods slid down into holes in the floor, having been held up by nothing but magical force.

"Why did that even work?" Enk puzzled, his face straining in thought.

"I guess whoever made it was an idiot," said Ra'eep.

They chuckled as they stepped into the next room.

The vaulted cavern was aglow with lava, casting shifting amber and crimson light on everything. Broken slabs of stone dotted the lake of fire like islands. Possibly once a path, or a set of bridges...

Chattering and flapping caused them to turn their heads up in unison. A flock of firebats swirled down from the ceiling, circling them. They turned to face them back-to-back, tail maces tapping together.

Enk vomited out flame, and Ra'eep turned her head to see a couple of the burning creatures pass through it unharmed. One of the bats shrieked and dove down at her. She ducked down behind her shield and pushed the tiny thing away with it. It fell from the air onto the fragment of cavern floor they were standing on.

As she flattened it to bits with her tail mace, she heard Enk cry out in pain... then it was her turn as another firebat singed her back. She whipped her tail up, and the spikes from her mace tore the creature apart, the shreds of its body falling into the lava.

With no more firebats in front of her, she turned so see Enk flail his arm into the last one, crushing it between the stone floor and the metal scales of his shield. His shoulder and the side of his head were blackened.

"You all right?" she panted.

"It's just a scratch," he replied, "Let's keep going."

The fragments of the path across the lava were scattered and possibly too far to jump between... but the bit of floor they were on extended, hugging the wall and leading to a door on the side of the room. She walked towards it and he followed.

"What made you think fire would work on flaming monsters?" she asked.

"It was the only thing I could do to hit more than one of them," he replied, his voice gravelly from breathing fire three times in one day.

They pushed the stone slab open, revealing a spacious round room with a geometric metal grating on the floor, a flame motif painted on the walls in shimmering gold, and luminous amber gems in the ceiling. The whole room seemed to react to them... their auras...

"Treasure!" Enk darted towards a chest on a shelf across the room.

"No! Wait!" Ra'eep ran out and grabbed his arm, pulling him back, "It's..."

Heavy iron spikes emerged from the ceiling in front of the chest, and the door.

"...a trap," Enk finished her sentence.

Enk rushed at the door in a panic, attacking the iron spikes in front of it. He battered them with his tail for several minutes of fury, until a couple of spikes broke off his mace, but all that only dented the large hunks of metal in front of the door.

"No, no, no..." he held his head low, panting.

Ra'eep walked up to the door, cautiously, and felt the iron spikes carefully... and the metal grating underpaw. It was all very absorptive of magic... of aura... life force... The whole room was a collection chamber, the metal acting as a conduit...

"What is this? Who would make a room like this?" she growled at whatever ancient builders created this.

"It's a sacrifice chamber," said Enk, "It won't open until it gets a massive dose of life force..."

"What do you mean?" Ra'eep questioned, her mind reeling.

"Whoever's in this room has to die before it will open," he replied.

As she felt the door's magic more carefully, she realized he was right. The door's dark magic was keyed for life force, and would use that energy to lift the spiked lattice... until another living thing entered, triggering the energy to release and then the spikes would fall again. And beneath the floor grating, in the shadows beneath her paws... bones.

Moblin skulls, animal bones, bones and skulls from she knew not what... even lizalfos skulls!

"What is it?" Enk gave her a worried look.

"Look down," she answered.

He hissed and growled, "What kind of sadistic people would do this?"

"Probably whoever was into black magic enough to make that eye we saw earlier," she realized.

"What race could be so cruel?" he snarled.

She shrugged.

"There's so many different kinds of creatures here," she thought aloud, looking over the bones, "Any one of them could have created this place."

"Or maybe whatever race isn't in those bones," said Enk, "Maybe they only sacrificed other kinds of creatures."

"Or this is just a trap to guard that chest," she looked at the ornate gilded box, separated from them by another grating, as if caged and trapped itself, "And all these are the creatures that wandered in here over the centuries and got trapped."

"Possibly..." Enk looked around.

There was an awkward silence.

"Now what do we do?" he asked.

"I guess we die," she said, slumping to the grating.

"Oh, come on!" he shouted, "We have to do something!"

"We should hammer that door with our maces until they break, or it breaks," he demanded, "And if that doesn't work, use our shields too!"

The large spikes bore the gashes and scratches of countless beatings... and the shards of broken blades glinted among the bones beneath the grating, some in lizalfos patterns with the styles of various tribes, or bearing the emblems of forgotten kingdoms.

"I think that's been tried before, many, many times..." she said.

"What?" he snapped.

"Look at the spikes," she explained, "See how they've been pounded on? Look at all the broken blades and weapons under them."

His eyes darted around.

"If only we had a wizard!" said Enk, "Or a dark priest! Someone who could work with black magic and undo this..."

The chest caught her gaze, locked behind its own spikes, mockingly out of arm's reach... but maybe within the reach of a tail or leg? And what if whatever was in it was a magic relic or master-crafted tool? Something they could use to escape?

"I wonder..." she hopped to her paws and walked up to it.

"What?" he said.

"I think maybe, if you use a tail, or a leg," she explained, "You could reach..."

He shrugged, and followed.

"Might as well see what we died trying to get..."

He turned around and bent down to all fours, looking back and sticking his tongue out in concentration. He raised his tail towards a gap in the spikes, but the mace clinked against them.

"Hang on..." she sat down beside him and leaned back, lifting one leg and carefully threading a paw between the barbed hunks of metal. She could barely keep her position with her leg extended.

"Wait!" shouted Enk, "Let me..."

He knelt down behind her and brought up his arms into her armpits, pressing her back against his chest. She folded her arms over her chest and gripped them. With her body supported by his, she leaned back without fear, fully extending her leg.

The chest was just out of reach of her toes.

He wiggled his legs and inched forward, until her hip was resting against one of the spikes between too barbs.

She touched the warm metal box with the tips of her toes... she pressed her toes around the latch to grip it, and turned her ankle to work it, getting a glimpse of silver...

It slammed shut as she lost the grip with her paw.

Enk groaned as he reared up slightly, supporting her butt with his knees, her tail between his legs and brushing against his.

This was as far as they could go. It was now or never!

She raised her other leg and slowly brought it up to the chest. Her full weight ached against his arms in her armpits. If he lost grip now, and she fell, her thighs would be shredded by the barbs.

One paw turned the latch, while the other lifted the lid...

A key!

A large steel key!

Enk laughed bitterly, and slowly backed down.

As he pulled her back, her toes slipped away from the chest, and the lid slammed shut again.

"It's the key!" she said, "We can use this to get out!"

"Do you see a keyhole in the door?" Enk said, "Anywhere in this room at all?"

"No..." she admitted sheepishly.

"Then we're finished," he said, leaning back and slipping her legs out of the chest's cage.

Her heart sank as she realized the truth to his words, and she pulled her legs up to her body and leaned over. He slipped his arms out of her armpits and she landed sideways on the grating, dead bones beneath her.

"It's probably for a door somewhere," she thought aloud, "In another room."

"And this is just a test, a security measure, before the real treasure deeper in," he added.

They made themselves as comfortable as possible, sitting on the metal grating and leaning against a spot on the wall. Her on the left, him on the right. Shields on the outside and bare scales on the inside. He wrapped his bare arm around her back, and she around his, feeling his heat-warmed side. She pressed her side against his, and leaned her head on his shoulder, feeling her crest scales part around his neck. He leaned his head in her direction, snuggling the bottom of his snout against the top of her head.

They had enough water and food for days in their pouches, and with their bodies heated up, needed much less than normal. They had nothing but time... time to think of a solution, or find a way out they missed.

She considered bashing their way through the grating to all the bones and scraps of old adventurer's tools. Maybe something in there would prove useful, but the thought of crawling through all that death... she shuddered. Enk cuddled closer to her to comfort her, and they crossed legs, absent-mindedly playing with each other's toes.

Besides, if anything down there could be used to break out, whoever had it in the first place would have used to escape, and wouldn't have ended up among the ones stuck in this room to die.

If one of them died. That was the only solution left. If one killed the other, releasing their life force. But killing Enk was more than she could bear.

She could sacrifice herself. Let Enk kill her. Then at least one of them would escape. But how could she ask him to do that, when she couldn't bring herself to kill him?

The grating was so uncomfortable they rarely fell asleep, and when one of them did fall asleep, started awake. Either Enk would move and wake her up, or the patterned grating pressing into her flesh became unbearable and she had to shift positions.

Their water ran out before their food. They still had some jerky left, though they dared not touch it without the water to digest it.

Enk touched her lower jaw with his clawed finger, and brought their lips together. They kissed deeply, long tongues slithering over each other like snakes, then exploring around their jagged teeth, then slithering over each other again.

They kissed many times. It caused them to salivate, keeping their mouths from drying out, and it was just plain enjoyable too.

"Ra Eep?" Enk said slowly, waking her up from another shallow nap.

"Mmm?" she opened her eyes to the amber gems in the ceiling, faintly providing magical illumination. Her head and its crest scales were pressed against his warm belly, and she didn't want to move, even though her legs and tail were aching in the shape of the grating.

"I've been thinking," he said sadly, "One of us is probably going to die before the other..."

"I guess," she said automatically, then added, "Well, wouldn't that release the door?"

"Probably, but it doesn't matter," he replied, "If you die before me, I... I wouldn't be able to go on."

"What do you mean?" she questioned, "One of us could get back home!"

"I can't," he said, almost in tears, "I'd rather be dead than live the rest of my life without you. If you die before me, I'll just walk into that pool of lava. At least it'll be quick. Take your body with me, so it won't be left with the rest of these... improperly buried..."

He choked up, but dehydrated as they were, didn't have the moisture left to cry.

She sat up and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her chest and snout against his.

She tried desperately to think of something to say to comfort him.

"We..." we could kill each other. She couldn't bring herself to say it. Seeing him like this, she felt like crying, but tears would not come.

"What?" he said, hugging her back with both his bare arm and the shield built around his right hand.

"Maybe we should kill each other," she whispered in his ear, "Get it over with before we suffer."

He started, and pushed away from her.

"I couldn't bash you!" he snapped.

"Not with a mace. Maybe choking..." she gathered her courage to finish telling him the idea, "I hear it's not that bad, at least compared to death by starvation. We got big shield hands, we could lock them in place."

"Around your neck?" he said, horrified, "Our necks?"

She nodded solemnly.

"No! I won't!" he snarled.

"I'm sorry I mentioned it," her words had offended him, hurt him, "I just..."

"C'mere," he said, raising his arms.

They hugged each other again, bellies heaving as they cried dry, invisible tears onto each other's shoulders. They lay down together, locking toes and fingers, and kissed each other deep... one last time...

They would die here together, in Din's realm, one soul departing two bodies to face not the Giver of Life, the Sun above... but the Goddess of Strength, the Fire and Earth around them...

A shrill metallic scrape came from the door, then the chest.

The spikes had lifted!

Enk pulled away from her and jumped to his paws.

She leapt to her paws, her heat-warmed body still quick and agile, and they ran to the door...

The door slab slid open with the sound of high-pitched grunting, and a shoulder-high figure completely covered with red and brown clothing appeared in the doorway. Whatever it was, the door had unlocked to let it enter this Room of Death.

As long as it stayed in the threshold, all three of them could escape!

Ra'eep gasped, "Don't take another step forward!" she shrieked.

"Stop right there!" shouted Enk.

At their words, the creature started, and unslung a blue shield with a white bird crest from its back into its right hand, then unsheathed a long sword with a blue hilt in its left... and charged.

The spikes slammed shut behind it, and it stopped in mid-stride, to look back quizzically at the locked door... then at the cage shutting in front of the chest.

"Now look what you've done, you stupid..." Enk paused, "What is this thing, anyway?"

"Our ticket out of here," replied Ra'eep, "If we kill this monster, it'll feed the magic..."

The red creature charged wordlessly at them, a bit faster and less awkward than a moblin, sword raised to one side.

They instinctively closed together, Enk on her right and their shield arms on the outside.

It swiped at Enk with its blade, its movements slow enough he ducked and dodged its blows almost as easily as a moblin's. Ra'eep spun on one paw to whip her tail at the creature, but it deflected her mace with its shield.

Grunting a few words of high-pitched gibberish, the monster slashed wildly at her in retaliation. Its sword and shield were finely-made but crudely-designed, held in its hands rather than extensions of its body, giving its blade deliberate motions she followed and ducked and leaned away from.

Enk whipped his tail, but the red creature gave a counter-swipe with its shield that sent him reeling off balance. It raised its sword to strike while his guard was down, but she slammed her tail into it... and met mail underneath the red cloth. It staggered from the blow, shouting and slashing at her again... its red tunic wet in a couple places with blood.

They were two bodies dancing, and the dance made them one warrior, a stronger warrior than either of them alone.

Enk regained his footing and crouched under his shield.

"Warglbarglbarglblargl!" he slobbered his tongue tauntingly at the monster.

Anything with such blind rage was easy to provoke.

It turned towards him and brought its blade down right on the middle of his shield. Enk pushed the sword aside, and as the creature struggled to regain its footing, they slapped it with their tail maces almost in perfect unison, slamming it through the air to land on its back.

Enk vomited flames over it while it was down.

The final blow. It would burn to death.

The beast staggered up, coughing and gasping, fleeing to the edge of the room.

The fire went out!

"Fireproof clothing..." Ra'eep glared.

"Of course..." Enk rolled his eyes.

The creature whipped out a bow from somewhere in its red clothing, and took a shot at her. She barely had time to duck behind her shield, and the force of the arrow wrenched her shoulder. Then it fired shots at Enk, one high, one low, trying to get around his shield, but he blocked each one. It's aim was good, but it tilted and pulled back on its bow as slowly as it swung its sword, making it obvious where each arrow would go next.

The monster gave up on its bow, sheathing it in a pouch that wasn't even half as long as the bow. Then it pulled a large blue ball out a small pouch on its belt.

"Magic pouches!" said Ra'eep.

It flicked a brown gloved finger on the ball and it began to smoke.

"What the..." said Enk.

As they shifted balance, unsure whether to leap back or pounce on the monster before it make its next attack, it rolled the smoking ball across the metal grating towards them.

"Exploding fruit!" shouted Ra'eep.

They leapt back just in time to avoid the bulk of the blast. Ra'eep felt the hot shockwave pulse across her body.

It was a wonder they hadn't set the stuff off when they whacked the creature with their maces. It was crazy to carry something like that on its body!

The creature pulled out and lit more smoking fruits frantically. It rolled one blue ball on either side of them, and they pressed together shoulder-to-shoulder. Then one up the middle, which bumped into Ra'eep's right paw!

"Oh!" she said.

"Shit!" hissed Enk.

They leapt across the room in a single bound, landing behind the creature, so it would shield them from the blast.

Its pale face screamed something in its gibberish language just as the fruits exploded almost in unison, the first blast setting off the other two. The shockwave from all three bowled them over in a pile. As they lay there, dazed, metal floor grating, blades, shields, warm scaly skin and cool cloth touched her skin.

The monster's frenzied blade cut her leg and side and Enk's body in several places. He smashed his shield in its face and she kicked it away with one leg.

It flailed on the floor, but before it could rise to its paws, Enk leapt on top of it, perching his full weight on one paw on its neck, which broke with a crunch.

The red creature was limp.

It was over.

...but the door remained sealed.

"Why isn't it opening?" snarled Enk.

"Maybe it didn't have enough life force..."

A cork popped in one of the creature's belt pouches, clattering off the wall and grating as it fell down onto the bones. A red speck floated silently out of the pouch, sprouting wings.

"A pet fairy?" Ra'eep froze in shock.

Circling the body, it sprinkled red specks of healing magic, and with a groan, the monster rose to its paws, its neck red and sore but mostly healed. Then the red fairy darted off and vanished in mid-air.

"Son of a bitch!" shouted Enk.

It charged at him, but stopped short and raised its shield. They raised their shields too.

For a moment, they faced off with the creature, shields raised.

Enk ducked below his shield to taunt it with his tongue again, "Garbleblarglblarglblarg!"

Ra'eep stepped sideways, but this time so did the creature. It wasn't going to let them surround it anymore. And it wasn't falling for his taunt.

"It's learning..." Ra'eep said in a bit of a sing-song.

"I know..." Enk sang back.

Enk choked out a stream of fire, and the creature jumped back, just out of range.

"This thing's clever!" Enk scowled.

"We'll just have to do this the hard way!" said Ra'eep.

Enk leapt into a spin at the monster, whipping out his tail. The creature pushed off against his mace with its shield, and he did an extra half-turn, landing flat on his back.

Ra'eep followed with her leap, but before she impacted the beast, it slashed at Enk's belly, and he screamed in pain. Then her mace hit its back, sending it flying over Enk's body.

Enk got up a bit slowly, hissing. He now had a nasty red cut to go with the other bleeding wounds scattered on his body.

Her turn. She slapped it with her tail... now it was her turn to have its shield unbalance her, but as her body spun down to the metal grating, it didn't attack her. Instead it kept its shield up and blocked Enk's blow, slashing his back as he went down.

It was singling him out!

A wave of adrenaline rushed cold through her veins.

"Bastard!" she shrieked and leapt at the monster again.

Anything to get it off of Enk for a moment.

Her tail skidded off its shield but she managed to land carefully and keep her footing.

Enk struggled to his paws and once again they faced the beast as one warrior, her shield on the left, his shield on the right... and his body bloody. The creature kept its shield raised, keeping up its new defensive strategy.

It made a sudden low swipe at Enk, but his wounded body moved too slowly. His belly cut open and his body fell to the floor, rattling the grating.

"Enk!" she screamed, whipping her tail at the monster with all her fury.

...the greater force only made it easier for the beast to push her tail mace with it shield. She spun, and fell on her face. Its blade cut her back apart with hot cuts.

She jumped to her paws and backed away, feeling her hot blood dipping down her back.

"You killed him! I'll kill you!" she cried at the red monster.

She started into lunges, but it started to tilt its shield to push her off balance. She started to swipe her tail, but it tilted its shield at the right angle to counter that, too. She vomited out flames, and it ducked behind its shield, getting up unharmed.

The dance was broken. Without Enk, she was a warrior with a missing limb.

Suddenly, the red creature thrust its blade and speared it right through her in a flash of pain. She lost the strength to stand and fell to the metal grating.

"Ra'eep! No..." Enk sobbed.

The creature turned on him.

Enk moaned as the creature cut him up more.

The red monster stomped up to her, the end of Enk's tail, mace and all, dangling from its belt as a sick trophy!

Ra'eep hissed in defiance, looking the smooth-skinned creature in the eyes. She wasn't quite dead when it knelt down behind her, lopped the end of her tail off, and hung it on its belt next to Enk's.

The spikes in front of the door and chest rose with a shrill scraping, as room disappeared in a haze of pain.