TOTK: The Lonely Hero

To The Depths

After fusing some monster parts he'd collected with some of the weapons he'd taken from the armory, as well as cooking up some food for the trip ahead, Link climbed out of the emergency shelter. As he was about to leave though, he spotted something sitting in Robbie's lab. Entering through the front, he found to his surprise, a small set of zonaite pieces and brightbloom seeds.

"How did they get these?" he pondered, as he reached his arm to grab one.

"Hey!" Robbie called out from behind him, startling Link, "Don't touch that, that's mine!"

"Oh, sorry. I'm surprised that you have these," the knight stated.

"Oh, know what these are, do you?"

Link nodded in response.

"Ah, excellent! Guess that Purah Pad really helped you out with that. Purah and I worked together on the design, but I'm the one who put it together you know," Robbie bragged, "We should've called it the Robbie Pad, technically speaking-"

"Goggles!" Josha called out from overhead, interrupting his monologue.

"Oh great, what is it now?" the old man groaned. Josha quickly hurried down the stairs and inside the lab.

"Remember what I told you earlier?" she asked him.

"We talked earlier?

"Come ON, Goggles! Did you even listen to me?

"Oh! Uh... Yes! What did you say again?"

"I was SAYING that I want to go investigate the Depths. Look, if you're not gonna listen to me, I'll go jump into a chasm myself!"

Robbie was taken aback at her statement, before retorting back at her:

"No way, no how! You can't do that! The Depths are far too vast for you to explore on your own. And we've only barely begun to look into them. I'd love to go gallivanting around there too, who knows what wonders are at the bottom of those chasms! But no matter how wondrous they may be, it's far too dangerous for you. I'm not about to allow our young prodigy to go wandering around somewhere so unknown, so foul! If anything were to happen to Purah's favorite student, it'd be the end for me! The END!"

"But I need more on that figure!" Josha protested, "If we have more info on it, then it should help us better understand the Depths!"

"What figure?" Link asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Oh, Swordsman!" the Sheikah girl exclaimed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to leave you out of the conversation. Let me get you up to speed. After the Upheaval, several chasms in the ground appeared that lead to a whole world underground! Our survey team brought back some artifacts from a journey into the Depths. One of them caught my eye."

She turned over and pointed to a stone slate leaning against the wall atop a wooden desk. It depicted what seemed to be some odd looking, humanoid figure, with one arm raised above its head.

"This piece of slate. Specifically, the image depicted on it. I think that a mysterious people once lived in the Depths. That's why I want to go down there, so I can see if there are any more depictions like this one. I want to see it for myself!"

Just as she finished her ecstatic explanation, her face fell into a frown as she lowered her head in disappointment.

"But Goggles here says it's too dangerous and he won't let me go."

"Josha, come on now..." Robbie attempted to console her. Before he could though, Link beat him to it.

"I can go in your stead," he volunteered.