First thing to do after the Fire Temple was to give that large Goron a piece of my mind. Unfortunately, all he would do was sell me another one of those swords for the same price. Ugh. To take my mind off this negative event that had come to pass, I ventured to the top of Death Mountain and was surprised to find a rather large Goron. Large, is perhaps an understatement, as the Goron was the size of a mountain. Awe inspiring, perhaps... Yet, the truth of the matter was that he had sort of good news, he would forge me the ultimate sword, but first I needed to attain for him some eye drops. (This is part of the epic Biggoron Sword side quest that began with waking Talon) I needed to bring the prescription he gave me to King Zora, and considering Zora's Domain was one of the places I needed to head for next, (the alternative was the village at the base of the mountain, which would most definitely involve some sort of grave intrusion for sure) that became the destination of choice.

Zora's Domain seemed different from when Gary first visited. For one thing, like the city of the Gorons, there was no one around. For another intriguing difference, the place was frozen solid, perhaps it was a sign of a coming ice age? No, it must be the work of Ganon.

Although his subjects were gone, the king still sat upon his throne, albeit encased in red ice. With no other leads, I plunged ahead behind the king into Zora's Fountain which was also experiencing a sudden frosty state of affairs. Using the ice platforms, I managed to reach an alcove that sat just out of if one were to swim to it. The alcove was in fact a cavern, an Ice Cavern. It was a dungeon of sorts, more accurately a mini dungeon that focused on ice with the Iron Boots and Sheik waiting at the end. The latter gave another interesting speech on time and taught another warping song. The former allows one to sink and then walk underwater. It is such shame that Gary is not able to breath underwater though.

Also within the cavern, I was able to attain some Blue Fire which can be stored in a bottle and melt red ice. It was through such a method that I unfroze King Zora who preceded to bestow Gary with the Zora Tunic. This blue tunic would allow Gary to breath underwater. Now there remained one more task to accomplish before heading to the Water Temple that resided in the depths of Lake Hylia. I completed the Biggoron sword side quest, effectively attaining the strongest blade in the game (I now laugh at the puny Master Sword). With the Biggoron sword in hand (should really be "hands" as it takes two hands to wield this weapon of mass destruction), I headed for the bottom of Lake Hylia where the Water Temple awaited.

The Water Temple has be infamous within the Zelda community and not without reason. For those who are looking to dash in killing everything in sight, they are most likely to become distraught over this temple. The main difficulty of the temple comes from the confusing layout and the need to change the water level to complete a specific objective. One must commit to this segment with a calm mind and cool logic much as water itself tends to represent. It is important to have such a perspective to keep one's self from becoming frustrated. With that out of the way, Ruto makes an appearance within the temple rather early on. She speaks of how Gary was supposed to marry her and such (this was where I truly began to fear for Gary) but, (luckily) this was not the place and time. She then swims away and disappears never to be heard from again. At least until the boss of the temple was defeated. (Yes, Ruto is the Sage of Water) Another interesting note was the mini boss of the temple who protected the Longshot. Dark Link... errr... I mean Dark Gary proved to be quite difficult to defeat, at least using the traditional method. Not someone who was bent on displaying honour in battle, I quickly switched to the Biggoron Sword and began using the stab technique. Dark Gary was never able to dodge the attack and I quickly walked away the victor.

Now for the boss, who proved to be simple as well with the power of the Biggoron Sword even with its water controlling abilities. The water medallion was soon mine and I met with Ruto once more who told Gary that they could not wed (that was a close call) due to her being a sage and all. She also somehow knew that Zelda was still alive. (For those who don't remember, back in the past when Gary was seven years younger, he got himself mixed up with some crazy princess that basically caused the current events in Hyrule to occur. Moral of the story is, when some ten year old girl starts telling you that she has prophetic visions and you are the only hope to save the land from some evil lord, ignore her. Chances are, if you get involved, you'll end up helping the evil lord in his or her quest for world domination instead of preventing it.)

Ether way, the evil that Ganon unleashed upon Hyrule is starting to be driven back.