I walked into the temple, and it is indeed the sixth dungeon, known as the Fire Sanctuary. Soon after entering, I noticed these large spiky seed things. They are filled with water; hit them and a large drop of water comes out.
If it falls onto lava, a temporary platform is formed. Many of the puzzles in this dungeon involve them. At one point, I saved this guy:
To thank me, he upgraded my digging mitts into Mogma mitts. They actually let me burrow underground in certain places. This ability is used to clear gates and reach new areas.
I eventually ran into a couple of that guy’s brothers, and I got a new piece of heart from one of them. After a while, I decided to stop and save my game. I’m quite far into the dungeon; I’ll try to finish it up next time.
She gave me permission to take her water basin that she was recovering in before. So Smurf-Fi called in the flying robot and he came in and hauled the big bucket of water away. I went back to the sky and made my way to the opening for Eldin Volcano. Usually when you go down to the surface, you are able to choose which bird statue you want to fall to. But not this time. Instead, I was forced to land at the entrance to the volcano, not the summit where I needed to be! What’s up with that?
And the robot refused to go back up and land at the correct spot!
Even worse was that I had to protect the robot. He followed behind me and wasn’t allowed to get hit by enemies. So I had to go all the way back up the volcano. I really like Skyward Sword a lot, but this is one of those parts of the game that just screams “filler.” There’s no logical reason for forcing us to land at the bottom of the volcano when we easily could have just landed at the summit. It’s just an extra task thrown in to artificially lengthen the game.
Fortunately, that happened right after I saved my game at a bird statue, so I didn’t have to start completely over. I then made it through and the robot dumped the water basin over the flames that blocked my path, allowing me access to the temple. But I didn’t have much time, so I stopped there (without going inside) and saved my game. I’m guessing it will be the sixth dungeon, but I’ll find out next time.
I then had to thrust my sword into the symbol on the ground and I was transported to the third trial, Din’s Silent Realm. As in the other trials, I have to find 15 tears to fill up my spirit vessel without getting hit even once. Collecting each one freezes most enemies for 90 seconds, but when time is up, they are brutal in attacking you. Those times are as intense as you’ll find in a Zelda game. You feel like you’re really running for your life when they start coming after you.
This third trial was the hardest one yet. It took me a few tries, but I did get through it. My reward was the fireshield earrings, which protect me from intense heat. I’m not sure exactly how earrings can protect your whole body from the heat, but okay.
I’m now looking for the third and final sacred flame. I solved a couple puzzles involving thirsty frogs and putting fires out to advance.
But I ended up at another fire obstacle that couldn’t be solved the same way. I apparently have to go back to Lake Floria and talk to the water dragon. I will do that next time.