Lakebed Temple [BP/UD]

So he had wasted all that effort expended to climb up here? Triton was about ready to drop his head and climb back down when Scyllis pointed out the other platform. That one and the one they stood on were connected by nothing, but a rising and falling geyser offered ocassional passage. "I may be able to help with that," the scholar said. "Hold on." Stepping forward, he observed the geyser. It stayed up for quite a long time, long enough to walk across if they could just find something to put on top of it.

Fortunately, water was a very funny thing. While in its liquid state, it was rarely capable of sustaining any sort of weight even when pressurized, it became very sturdy when forced into a solid state. And it just so happened to be that Triton had exactly the means required to do so. "Give me a few seconds." He raised one hand, focusing magic in it for a few seconds as he waited for the geyser to come back up. At this point, he pointed his palm down at the water, expelling freezing cold for about an arm's length.

He finished his work just as the geyser fell again, and the sound of something solid hitting the ground was heard. When next the water came back up, it carried at its top a platform of thick, solid ice. "Ladies first," Triton stated, gesturing that Scyllis could cross first.

"Ah, y-yes," Scyllis hesitantly agreed as the frozen platform rose again. Her friend certainly had myriad skills, it seemed... She jumped onto it, shivering as she did so. The cold was... uncomfortable, for a zora such as her. She was used to temperate waters, not frozen chunks. Still, she'd been given and opportunity and she needed to take it.

...All that said, of course, there was no reason to dally on it longer than necessary. As soon as she saw the chance she leapt again off of it and onto the other platform. She shook her feet a little bit, attempting to bring some more feeling into them. That accomplished, she turned to wait on her compatriot before exploring again. She subconsciously laid a hand upon the capsule and it slowly shuddered to life, a hatch opening to her surprise.

When Triton followed Scyllis over the ice, he was at once wishing to have his cane to stabilize himself and grateful that he DIDN'T have it so he had both hands free to get on the rock platform. Like Scyllis, he tried to shake the freezing sensation off of his feet. Unlike his companion though, he did so not by shaking his flippers but by pounding them on the pillar repeatedly, the webbing slapping against the slate audibly. "Good work, Scyllis," he said when the female Zora accidentally opened a hatch. "It's a way forward," he explained, "Or at least a way to a place we couldn't reach otherwise. May I?"

Looking at the hatch, he quickly concluded that both he and Scyllis could fit through it and decided to focus his attention to what lay beyond it. The hatch appeared to be stuck in the wall of the next room over, and below them Triton saw nothing but water. "We're on the right track," he said, "There's water below here. Maybe we can find a way to divert it to the main room, thus allowing us access to the tower. Sadly, I can't gauge the depth from here."

Scyllis tried to look around Triton, but her height--or lack thereof--made it difficult. She could hear it when he reported the presence of water, though, which was a sweet sound to hear. The water never failed to calm her. Though, she wasn't certain that she wanted to drop into it without knowing it would break her fall... or what was in it. Curiously, the Zora knelt down to pick up a rock, and heaved it through the hatch.

There was a satisfying plunk, followed by silence. There certainly seemed to be enough water to dive into... but Scyllis couldn't see deeply enough into it to see if there were any monsters lurking in it. She waited and watched, but no signs of life grated against her eyes or ears. Hesitantly, she dove, and slipped down into it, allowing her eyes some time to adjust. Light filtered differently through water... but for now she scanned the place, looking for anything that might help. Her eyes eventually settled on a switch near the corner of the flooded room...

Scyllis found a way to measure the depth of the lake below them, and Triton looked around the other room one last time before diving down after her. For a few seconds, his slender form soared down through the air, until his fingers breached the water's surface and the welcome, cold wetness overtook him. Once fully submerged, he turned over, his face scrunched up towards the surface. He switched to his underwater breathing apparatus with ease, one flipper giving a good kick against the water to catch up with Scyllis.

Talking underwater was hard, but Triton followed Scyllis' gaze and found the switch. He hesitated- was it wise to hit it? Honestly, one of a couple of things could happen- maybe the room would drain, but he found it equally likely that it would unleash a flurry of monsters upon them... personally, he'd like to investigate the room further before activating any switches, but he had no real way to communicate that to Scyllis quickly...

Scyllis swam down, trying to scope out the room as she approached the switch. She saw a few hatches that resembled the one they entered, so was it possible that they would drain the water if she pulled it? Nothing else about this room stood out, though... and it was somewhat dark in the water.

She flipped it and looked around, trying to see if that had had any effect. She wasn't sure what to expect...

But two shellfish dropping down into the water from above was most certainly not it. One of them opened a toothy, sharp...mouth? at her and sprayed bubbles as it fell. She recoiled and swam back, leaving the Shellblades to continue sinking, and her perspective allowed her to see that the hatches had, indeed, opened; however, rather than draining the room as she had hoped, were instead allowing in monsters, one of which in particular caught her eye.

That was a Bombfish. Wait, that was a Bombfish! She frantically tried to warn Triton of it with a gesture.

Huh? Scyllis had chosen a strange moment to do jumping jacks, Triton thought when he saw the smaller Zora waving at him franatically with arms and legs. Still, when he looked over to her, he saw movement in his peripheral vision and jerked towards it, diving out of the way of an ugly, spherical fish with a large black appendage in its mouth. A Bombfish! Good thing he'd gotten out of the way, setting that thing off would have broken all his bones! Other monsters were swarming around them, too; Shellblades, Skullfish, the occasional Bari...

Triton mentally reviewed his mastered spells and tried to remember which ones he could use underwater and would be of any use in this situation. Fire was useless, without projectiles fired at him Nayru's Affection wouldn't do much... but Electric Aura and Blizzard should work, somehow. When a Shellblade leapt up at him, he thrust his palm forward, forcing the water between it and him to freeze until it struck the muscle in the back of the clam, freezing it solid and sending it to the bottom of the room.

Triton propelled himself up, swimming towards Scyllis and stopping when he found himself back-to-back with her. Now if he could only communicate his plan to her...

Scyllis jolted when she felt something touch her back, but calmed slightly when she turned to find Triton there. That said, she still was far from comfortable in this situation. There were still more monsters than water in the room in which they were swimming. Worse, she didn't have much that she could use underwater. Maybe if the water was sufficiently pure she could use the Electric Aura, but... she didn't want to chance it yet.

Rather than that, she swam ahead a little bit, drawing the attention of a skullfish and a bombfish away from Triton. He looked like he had a plan from the look in his eyes, anyway... She tried to get a little further away, narrowly avoiding the Skullfish's lunge. The Bombfish, meanwhile, kept steadily swimming. Scyllis's eyes narrowed. If she could just...

The Skullfish took off again. She twisted and turned once more and kicked hard, trying to get as far away as possible before--

There was an explosion behind her as the two fish collided. That was something, wasn't it? She kept swimming to try and regroup with Triton.

When Scyllis left, Triton exhaled, a steady stream of bubbles being expelled from his gills as he relaxed his shoulders and fixed his gaze on something in the wall. Then, he kicked the water, propelling himself up, and turned over to swim, belly-up, towards a peculiar rock formation in the wall. His streamlined body cut through the water like a blade through butter, as to be expected, and he had his hands free to toss something away.

The small pebble hit a Bombfish. It didn't have enough of an impact to set off the bomb, but enough to draw its attention. It turned around, immediately following the male Zora. It was exactly what Triton had hoped, and the reason he carried something else in his other hand. Once he reached the formation he had been aiming for, he turned, swimming up and letting the Bombfish catch up to where he had just been.

Once it caught up, he threw the larger rock in his other hand with all his might. The water resistance slowed this large rock down far more than the little one from before, but finally it impacted the abomination... which promptly exploded, taking at least half of the rocks in the wall with it. The other half caved further in, falling into a hollow behind it...

It was like pulling a plug out of a bath.