Beyond the Ashes: Chapter Two -- Heading South

OoC: ...didn't we just have a dramatic encounter with this guy?

7:48, Southern Swamp, Morning of the Third Day

Zerrin didn't like it. Most of the party seemed convinced that there work was done, but he could still feel...something. Something was still going on here. But he'd kept his mouth shut and followed the others. This was far too easy for his taste.

As they continued even more towards the entrance to the Swamp, he started hoping something would happen to show the others that they still had work to do. The day before, they rain had appeared in seconds. Maybe something would spring up again.

Suddenly, he heard movement farther ahead. They were walking past the cave from earlier and some of the bushes were rustling. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, he waited for the attack. When nothing came, he stared confused while Markus walked forward. Peering over the bushes, he spotted a small, hunched over old women holding a broom.

"Kotake!" said the group, almost simultaneously. Markus continued, "Are you alright?" Zerrin just stared at the old witch in shock. She looked wet, and tired. Maybe she could explain to these numbskulls that they weren't done yet.

OoC: Muhaha! The Janitor is BACK!

Kia, too, just stared at Kotake as though she had never seen the old woman before. She looked frazzled, like she had seen something, but still composed -- the way she was holding her broom indicated that she possibly had to fend something off. Kia looked around the Swamp, what else was out there that they didn’t know about?

Kotake relaxed when she saw who it was that had startled her even more, lowering her broom in the process. That was more of a first response -- the Sheikah supposed it was to keep any potential thieves from knowing her true power. The rest of the group, too, relaxed, Kia as well; she hadn’t realized she had her sling in her hands until then.

“No need to worry about me, I should be asking why you all are here.” The hag looked around at them with some amusement. “Don’t you finish what you start?”

“We already did,” Markus said, pointing to Karick and the ocarina he held. “See, Karick used this ocarina to get rid of whatever was in this Swamp.”

Kotake did something that no one in the group expected her to do: she began to laugh. “Silly, stupid boy. Do you really think that playing a song will make everything better in the long run?”

“But…” Karick started before Kotake hit the Scrub on the head with her broom.

“I knew something was happening when the sky lightened up yesterday and some of the fog lifted, but that was only a temporary measure. You just made whatever it is that has a hold on the Swamp, very angry now.” She looked around at the group again, this time she had a more serious look. “This calm won’t last for long, I made the mistake of thinking it was over myself when I went out to investigate -- it may last for a day, a week, a month, I don’t know. But you need to head to Woodfall and go through that Temple --”

“The Temple here is gone,” Kia interrupted suddenly. “Well, it’s not gone gone, but it’s not accessible. I don’t think that going to Woodfall will help.”

“I figured that the Guardians wouldn’t want what happened six years ago to repeat itself, I just didn’t know what they did.” Kotake rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “I don’t go into Woodfall that much by myself anymore, I’m too old and only stay around the outer edges. But if what you say is true, then whatever is causing this taint is pulling the strings elsewhere in the Swamp. Whatever instrument that Scrub has will help. Now that we have a sort-of understanding, I think it’s high time to get back to my shop and you all back to figuring out what’s causing this to happen.”

“I’ll go with you,” Alina offered, but held up a hand to stop all protests. “I can be of better use with Kotake then with the group at this point, at least trying to figure out some more potions to help the group in the long run. Plus I’m getting a little low on supplies, I don’t know if any of my current potions would last.”

“Alina,” Kia started but the Zora shook her head. Kia felt a pang of fear go through her, Alina had been the first person she felt comfortable so far with traveling and now she was going to sit this out. “O-kay. I guess, whatever you have to do --”

“And you do what you need to do, Alina will be in steady hands.” Kotake did not protest this sudden change, it was like she already knew what was going to happen and just accepted it. The rest of the group didn’t protest it either, Kia silently staring at Alina for a moment before she turned her gaze away, who else would be leaving just as suddenly?

“I won’t leave any of you empty-handed, don’t worry.” Alina smiled as she pulled out several bottles of liquid and put them in Kia’s shaking hands. “Keep them safe, Kia, you need something to keep your mind on this. You’ll be okay.”

Kia managed a weak smile but it did little good for her, she felt as though this was just another ten steps back in the process. All she could muster was a simple nod as Kotake and Alina started to head towards the potion shop, Alina waving back at the group as they soon disappeared through the thick foliage.

“Well that’s just nice,” Thurop said, before turning to Kia. “So, what did she leave us?”

“I don’t know,” Kia admitted, before looking at the three bottles Alina had given her. What were these potions? Would everything really be alright? “More importantly, where are supposed to go now?”

Zerrin could only stand dumbfounded as Alina faded out of sight. Why was she leaving? Her healing was the only reason they had ever made it this far! He could manage working on his own wounds but he was certain that Kia wouldn't be able to, and his healing methods were...unpleasant, to say the least.

Turning away from the fading forms of Kotake and Alina and faced the rest of the group. Just standing in the swamp was probably a bad idea, especially with whatever was poisoning this place angry at them. "Well, we really should get someplace safe. I have a terrible feeling we'll have some less than pleasant company soon." He started walking back to the ruins of the Deku Palace, hoping the others would follow.

Alina's departure didn't phase Karick much. In truth, the best thing about her was her knowledge of the rarer potions and herbs that Karick loved to collect and sell. She did seem helpful, though, and Karick hoped that she would try to help from a distance. Maybe send them medicines they might need.

Karick still didn't care much, though. The ominous feeling that overtook the swamp when he played the ocarina was shrouding him in uncertainty. A lot seemed so much better, but just as much seemed infinitely worse. There was still something they needed to do. Karick heard the melody, much fainter before, coming from somewhere near the Palace. He was sure he was the only one who could hear it, this time.

"Come with me, everyone," he said, motioning for them to follow him toward the palace. He hadn't even noticed that Zerrin was already leading them there. He didn't care much either. Any protests that might have been had were lost on him. He didn't say a word, and floated, almost aimlessly, towards the ruins of the Deku Palace.

Kia was the last one of the group to actually start walking back into the depths of the Swamp. She had hung back and just stared where Alina and Kotake had gone off to, feeling lost and confused all over again -- there was an assumption that the group would stay together, act as one. Alina's sudden departure from the group made a big hole then Kia's father leaving did; then again, she hadn't had much of a relationship with her father since her mother died and she had started to take care of her brother.

Sudden flashes of Ryi's innocent face flashed in her mind, the whole reason why she was in Termina to begin with. As she followed behind Tyra with eyes lowered to the ground, the conversation she had with her father back in the Palace came back to her. The knot in her stomach that she had when they first arrived in Termina had lessened, perhaps because she knew where Ryi was and that he was in good hands. The few trips to Kakariko with her mother and meeting with the few Sheikah in the village allowed her some peice of mind that he would be better off there.

But that did little to lessen the fear that she would never see him again. Even now she felt the need to prove that she could take care of him, if she could help with saving Termina then there was that chance that she could be his guardian and he still could get the proper Sheikah training. The kind that she had started but had not finished, she was barely past being able to use the most basic of Sheikah magicks. Why would she be better off taking care of him over the ones that finished their training?

"Kia, watch it!" Suddenly she felt someone pulling her back. Gasping out, she tripped and fell onto her backside -- or, rather, onto someone. Quickly scrambling up to her feet, she turned around to find Markus doing the same as he rubbed his back. Kia turned halfway around to find that she had nearly wandered into a large, deep patch of marsh water, of which everyone else had walked around.

"Markus, I'm so sorry! I just -- I mean --" Markus and the rest of the group just stared at her, but he waved it off as he hobbled to the others. "Really, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking and --"

"Kia, don't worry about it, let's go," he said in a low, deep tone as the Sheikah rushed to keep up with the group. "Karick seems to know where we're going, where we need to go."

Kia didn't respond, glancing behind her as she kept up with them. She didn't meet Markus' gaze when he looked back at her to see if she was alright, she felt embarresed that she hadn't seen that large puddle and had almost fallen through it -- or was it something else that made her blush? There was an assortment of feelings she had to sort through -- her doubts, her fears, what she felt towards the others.

To put it mildly, she was confused.

Zerrin was getting nervous. He hadn't noticed it when they were leaving but as they got deeper into the swamp it became noticeable. It felt almost like the swamp was trying to devour them. Had that pond even been there on the way over? He didn't remember it.

Suddenly, he tripped on a large root stretching across the path. His head smacked lightly into the soggy marsh ground. But it was like the light impact had jogged something in his mind. He could see the ceiling of a building and smell the familiar odor of red Chu jelly. It was his house...well, his first house. He'd stayed here until he was around four and was sent away to...them.

He could hear screaming and knew it was coming from him. His field of vision was moving constantly and his limbs were twitching uncontrollably. His mother...his first mother, the nicer one, was rubbing his head with a damp towel and trying to get his movements under control. He could hear her pleading with him and trying to calm him down but it didn't work.

But then he heard the door open. His mother tried to calm him down and patted the little hair he had. She walked behind a counter...she was a storeowner? He hadn't remembered that. He saw someone walk up to the counter and could hear the dropping of rupees into a glass jar. A girl, just a little older than himself, was holding a newly purchased bundle in her hands.

He didn't understand much then, but he could hear his mother pleading in her mind he would not freak out or start screaming louder. So he tried. He managed to supress the screaming into a light whimper and tried to hold his limbs in place. He stared straight up at the ceiling, sweat collecting on his brow from the effort. Suddenly he felt something in his tiny little hand. He strained to see and saw that a small...candy? He thought it was candy. It was definately food, and it smelled like honey.

But how did this make sense? He knew for a fact that nobody in Kakoriko had done anything like this. That was why he ran away! But here was this girl giving him candy and his mother was worried about him...he tried to look up at the girl's face. Who was she? As her face came into focus he saw a flash of her eyes...he'd seen those eyes. But where? He tried to focus more but he could feel his concentration breaking. Suddenly, the entire room turned filthy and the women behind the counter was replaced by some fat lady in an armchair. The girl was vanishing, and that was when he heard the drums.

The entire memory was being...corrupted? Destroyed? He could see darkness spreading across and knew if it covered it all he would never remember this, or he would remember something crul happening to him. This thing was changing his memories! How many of these moments were gone? And why was the dark thing changing his memories? The darkness was almost total, and he resigned himself to forgetfullness. But he was suddenly jerked out of the memory entirely. He was in the swamp and he was being pulled to his feet. He didn't bother looking at who it was, and kept walking to his destination. He could already feel the memory slipping away, but he had snapped out of it just in time. He didn't remember most of it. But he did remember the smell of honey-candy, and the mismatched eyes of the girl who had given it to him.

After pulling Kia away from the mire and brushing himself off, and as they waded deeper into the swamp, Markus could feel the peace he had seemed to feel earlier slipping away, a darkness deeper than before coming in it’s place. Were we really meant to do what we did? He thought. Or did we only make matters worse?

He rubbed his left wrist which- while it had healed- was still sore from the injury he had taken in the dungeon. My fighting style should be more dependent on agility, with the equipment I have, but the way I do fight is way different, and I don’t think I could change it that quickly. Maybe if I could pick up a buckler or gauntlet or something when we get back into town...

As they were walking, Markus saw out of the corner of his eye Zerrin tripping on something and collapsing. “Zerrin!” He yelled, running carefully over the increasingly hostile ground toward him. He pulled him to his feet, but he had lost consciousness already, and seemed to be dreaming.

“We need to keep moving.” He said simply. “The longer we wait, the worse this place is going to get. I’ll grab Zerrin- Tyra, maybe you ought to stay nearer to the front?”

She nodded and led the way further in, followed by Karick and Verix and Turop, then Kia. Maruks hefted Zerrin’s limp body over his shoulder and dragged him along nearer to the back. The vague outline of the Temple was finally in sight.

She made sure that she still had her slingshot with her, she had barely enough small Deku Nuts to get through at least one Temple, maybe one and a half. If she conserved them, at least -- she felt embarresed to ask Karick for some, especally at this time. Maybe if they got through one spot, she'd collect some on the way back to Clock Town.

A dark hazy fog had begun to fall upon the Swamp, it wasn't like any other fog they had encountered since coming here. Perhaps they should've gone to the Ocean first, or somewhere that wasn't full of swampness and bog. Despite having to wade through a few slimey pits -- of which she didn't remember seeing before -- it wasn't so bad. Kia just made sure that she didn't trip again. She looked back at Markus dragging/carrying Zerrin's body, she hoped Zerrin was alright.

"We're almost there," Karick said, as they drew closer to the Temple. They had gone almost the same path to the Deku Palace, Kia squinted her eyes -- she thought that she saw some form of odd-shaped outline as Karick flew over the marsh -- perhaps that was it. It was certainly large enough to be the entrance to a Temple or other such thing No, that wasn't it -- it was just a large, misshapen tree, one that even Karick in his flying had to look up at. Even if the entire group that was present stood on each other's shoulders, they would not have reached the top -- even then they would have to quadruple themselves just to see the top.

Now that wasn't something they had seen on their first trip this deep into the Swamp.

"Are you sure this is it?" Kia asked, as Tyra held up a hand to stop walking. Karick had landed on a small strip of land in front of a small cave, he seemed to be calmer here.

"Yes, yes it is." Karick turned half way around. "So, what are we waiting for?"

"What about Zerrin?" Kia asked, glancing over to Markus as he set down Zerrin on the firm ground. "We can't just let him be. I think -- I believe we should wait until he wakes up."

Yes, that was a good idea -- the less time spent in a dark, murky cave the better. The others seemed to mentally agree on that, a cold, bitter wind moved from the cave's entrance and went right through them. They would wait a few minutes to not only wait but to catch their breath, if Zerrin didn't wake up by then they would have to forcibly wake him themselves -- but at what cost to Zerrin's sanity? Kia shuddered, hoping that the rest of the group thought it was because of the wind.

Kia and Karick, while waiting for the group to also check their supplies before heading in, took a few steps towards the entrance. She peered inside, her eyes shining in the dark -- if there was one thing she was thankful for her limited Sheikah training, it was her sight in darkness. While she couldn't see fully in there, she made out a few forms here and there; it was nothing big, just a long corridor and a few doors to the right. Nothing at all like a Temple.

"Karick, are you sure this is it?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. "It looks nothing like a Temple, all it is --"

Kia didn't get to finish before a high pitched scream echoed through the Swamp. Both she and Karick turned to Zerrin to see if it was him, they did not notice that there was something moving out from the darkness of the cave: two giant, ghostly hands and arms. Before the two of them even turned around, boefre the rest of the group took notice or react, before anyone had any time to do anything, the giant hands wrapped themselves around Kia and Karick and pulled them into the darkness of the cave.

OOC: The Temple is within the cave where the Butler gave Link the Mask of Scents. I am taking the liberty of also using the same general floor plan of the Woodfall Temple, but expanding it to be about two times bigger with three times the amount of rooms inside. Think of the Woodfall Temple with at least three floors and about fifty rooms in total, with the boss chambers on the very bottom. How you guys think the Temple should look like is up to you.

Markus jumped up to run in immediately, but had to stop before he dashed in aimlessly. What do we do about Zerrin? He turned, and saw that he was still unconscious. Tyra and Verix appeared just as anxious to get moving, but they all realized that trying to drag Zerrin along with them would slow them down considerably.

We could always leave one behind, and have them go in later, but... is it really a wise move to cut our numbers again? All of a sudden, Tyra spoke up, seeming to have made up her mind about something.

"Ah, I'll stay back, try and wake him up. You two should go and scout out the area inside. We'll catch up later."

As reluctant as he was to leave some of the group behind and cut their fighting force even further, at the same time he was border-line desperate to get in there and rescue the others. “Alright. I guess we don’t have much choice. Verix and I will get in there and scout out further in, try and find the others. Tyra, yeah, just come and find us when Zerrin’s awake.”

The other two nodded, both seeming to share his premonition about splitting up, but neither seemed able to come up with a better plan. Markus and Verix prepared themselves, divvying up their remaining supplies with Tyra. Each took a handful of Deku Nuts with them, and fashioned a bundle of torches out of Deku sticks, vines, and some of their limited supplies of oil, which they had grabbed some of back in town.

The three nodded, and the two entered.

I really need to stop doing this.

Zerrin was thinking to himself. What was going on? He used to be so good at controlling his episodes and now he was fainting at least twice a day! It gave him time to think, but it was starting to annoy him.

Another thing that was starting to annoy him was this wierd...mindscape thing. It used to be when he fainted it was normal and his next thoughts would be waking up. Now he seemed fully concious while he was out, just not in reality. How long had it been since he tripped? It felt like an eternity. He didn't really have anything to measure time with in here, as there was no wind or sun. He wasn't even really seeing anything, actually. Just a sort of...alertness.

And he'd had some stuff to think about. If this weird head shadow was screwing around with his memories, that meant it was trying to hide something. Thinking back wasn't any good as the shadow thing could make his memories whatever it wanted. He had to take what he knew it was hiding and try to solve it in the present. But who was the girl? He knew she was what it was hiding...at least one of the things. He remembered there was something about her eyes...something odd. But what?

As he continued to ponder the girl, he failed to notice his sense of awareness was returning. He could feel the stone ground of the cave entrance and the wind started to blow. When he finally woke up, Markus and the others had been gone for at least an hour. Pushing himself up, he looked around. The only person nearby was Tyra, and she was looking down into the tunnel.

Walking up, he started talking. "Where did all the others go?" Tyra continued looking into the tunnel. "Something came out of this place and snatched Kia and Karick. The others went in after it and I stayed back to watch you."

Zerrin just stood there. Kia and Karick were gone? His eyes narrowed. He had no idea how old the Deku was, but Kia was just a girl. He pulled out his sword. "Get up. We're going in there and finding Kia and the Scrub." He started walking in to the darkness of the cavern. He wasn't even sure why he was on this quest...if something wanted to destroy the world, he was fine with that. But he couldn't let these people die. Not like this.

He could feel condensation beneath his bare feet. The walls of the tunnel were covered by a wooden covering and he saw a fork in the tunnel ahead. "Tyra. Which way are we going?"

There was a faint memory of sakura petals and the scent of jasmine, of faces looking down and tears of lonelyness. All before the darkness of death came and took something away, that did not last as long as the life had. There was some confusion as to why the world beyond life had not come, there was something blocking the ascention....something horrible.

Something, deadly.....

The first thing Kia heard was something stirring around her. She slowly sat up and opened her eyes, rubbing her midsection where the ghostly visage had grabbed her. There were no marks, no nothing to indicate that there had been a giant hand there -- but her eyes stung and her head hurt. Then she looked around and found herself in a medium-sized room, two locked doors on either side of the room. There was a pond of water in the middle of the room with two giant lillypads in the middle, herself and Karick were beside the water.

Karick had already been up for some time, he had made sure that Kia was fully awake before he retreated to a corner of the room with his ocarina in hand. He had, thankfully, kept that inside once they had reachead the cave's entrance; whatever had grabbed them had not taken the object with it. Kia found that her slingshot and her bag of Deku Nuts were gone, she had no weapons to defend herself -- no nothing. She suddenly felt naked without.

"Where are we?" Kia asked as she stood up on wobbly legs. Taking two steps forwards she suddenly fell to her knees, her legs were weak and her stomach growled. She was hungry, tired, and weak -- and noticably defenseless. "We aren't in the cave, are we?"

"Afraid so," Karick said, looking down at the ocarina. "This thing, it feels cold. Before I blacked out, it felt warm -- hot even. Those hands, they must have done something."

Kia looked around, attempting to stand on her legs again and managed to get to one of the walls. Using the wall as a crutch, she fingered the limestone wall and made her way to one of the locked doors. She was thankful that there were four torches around the pond, otherwise they would be in total darkness. And she was thankful that there was a barred window on the door, so that she could see out into the other room beyond the door. Grabbing the handle to the door, she tugged it as the Scrub got up and walked to the edge of the pond.

"Kia, look," he said, pointing to the water. The Sheikah turned around and walked to the pond, to the spot where Karick was pointing. At the bottom of the pond there was a silver object, of which looked remarkably like a....key? Kia couldn't be sure, the pond was deep enough for someone to just barely get to the object in time. "I think it's our way out."

"The water doesn't look so bad." She then looked at Karick. "Care to drop something to make sure it's not posionous?"

"Don't you have any of your Sheikan magic to that?" In return for that question, he recieved a glare. He sighed, opening his body cavitity up and putting the ocarina inside. He then pulled out a Deku Stick, closing himself up and then throwing the stick into the water. The stick floated down to the bottom of the pond, but nothing happened to it -- it was, for all intent and purposes, fine to take a quick bath in.

But the lilly pads -- the small ripples from the stick going in caused the lilly pads to suddenly become....alive? What Kia thought had been simple lines from lack of sunlight, turned out to be a mouth, jaws almost, as the pads suddenly shot up and closed into a mouth-shape. The lilly-pads were connected to something beneath the water and couldn't come close to the two on the edge, the mouths snapping like venus fly traps. It took about five minutes for the pads to calm down and resume looking like innocent lilly pads.

"Oh dear," Karick said, looking up at Kia. "So, how are we going to get past that?"

Verrix and Marcus entered the temple and noticed a split in the path. "which way do we go now?" Asked Marcus.

"I'm going to see if I can locate Kia and Karrick" replied Verrix. He searched with his mind but was soon suprised by something. Marcus saw the confusion on Verrix's face and asked "whats troubling you?"

"This temple has magic I've never seen before. I can't sense anything outside this room." Replied Verrix. "I guess we just pick a direction and go with it." He began walking to the left, soon followed by Marcus. He was faced with a door and opened it. He walked into the room and was about to walk forward when Marcus grabbed him.

"You may not be able to see it but there's a sheer drop in front of you." Advised Marcus.

"So now what?" asked Verrix.

Ooc: Yay, I'm posting again!

9:00 AM, New Woodfall Temple, The Third Day

Tyra walked forwards, and then pointed to the right. "Let's go this way." Zerrin nodded and started walking down the corridor. They began walking up a set of stone stairs leading upwards. It had been fairly light down in the corridor, but darkness slowly began to swallow them. Zerrin strained his eyes, staring into the inky blackness. Suddenly he felt something brush past his arm. Looking for Tyra, he could see her glowing eyes just behind him.

Three more things brushed against him. Looking once more at the ground, he felt the brushing increase more and more. Suddenly, little dots of red light appeared across the entire floor. Tyra noticed them and he could hear her sword being drawn. Trying to reach his own sword, he felt the tiny Black Boes swarm around him. How many of them were there?

Tyra started slashing at the tiny dark enemies as Zerrin tried to focus. The room was too dark for him to do anything...he had to focus. He could feel the influence of the thing in his head but he tried to work past it. He had to summon something to light up the room, and he'd already had some experience with this spell.

A ball of fire encircled his right hand, and he could see that the entire floor was covered with the monsters. Swinging his small flame around, he managed to free his arm from the Boes. Pulling his sword from his sheath, he started slashing at the little dark orbs. He could see the faint outline of the door across the room, but the door was barred.

More of the things were appearing from the shadows in the room. "Tyra! Do you have anything that can hurt these guys?" he yelled. The Boes continued to latch onto them, and they were starting to get more aggresive.

This...is very bad. thought Zerrin. Very, very bad.

The hallways and rooms of the Temple were silent, quiet, and seemingly peaceful. The walls were made out of mud, stone, tile, and roots from the naturally growing trees of the Swamp. The stone and tile had been made by something that did not reside in Termina, something that possibly didn't even reside in this plain of existance; it was unknown and no one among those inside cared enough to find out at the moment.

There was a cold wind that moved through the corridors of the Temple, even this was silent as the rest of the Temple was. The chill the wind brought only made the silence even more eerie, there HAD to be some noise for them to listen to. Something to tell them that they were on the right path to find their missing companions. There wasn't and wouldn't be for a little while longer.

There was something lurking in the shadows of the hallways, in the rooms, and just beyond the reach of the oil lamps and torches that dotted the walls and rooms. A pair of light purple eyes had watched the other companions enter, a pair of lips faintly cracked into a laugh. It was, like the rest of the Temple, completely silent -- it was waiting for the group to enter.

It was angered by the song in which the Business Scrub had played on that ocarina, but it didn't know why. It should have soothed the weariness and let the taint vanish --- just like it had been promised oh so long ago. But why was it still there? Why hadn't it just left? There was no understanding of what had happened.

There was a scream of rage, again silent, as the eyes vanished from a flame that watched over the Business Scrub and what looked like a young Sheikah female. Perhaps it was time to bestow the companions what the taint really was like.....


"You're crazy, you know that?" Karick said as Kia took off her left boot and put it by the right one. It had been decided, after ten minutes of thinking it over, that someone had to dive in to retrieve the key -- Karick couldn't do it. As a Scrub, swimming in water deeper then his ankles just wasn't possible and there wasn't anyone else but Kia. Oh she knew how to swim -- she had been taught at least that much -- and she wasn't going to wait for the rest of the group to find them. They didn't know how long that would take.

"It's either we wait or I get the key," she said, standing up and pushing her boots towards the Scrub. She disrobed to her undergarments -- a green bra and underwear -- and had put them to where she had pushed her boots to. Kia felt more aware of the temperature drop without her clothing, she shivered as she crept to the edge of the small pond. The lily-pads weren't moving, she noticed the sharp, jagged teeth around the outer edges of the pads. What was she thinking? Whatever it was, she wasn't thinking clearly. "I just hope I can get in and out before those things start to go crazy."

Sitting down onto the cool floor, the Sheikah inched her way to the edge and dipped a toe in before she put her feet in to the ankle. As she slowly climbed into the pond -- all the while keeping an eye on the lily-pads -- she moved slowly to just above the key was. There was another few feet of water between her and the key, she would need to dive in to retrieve the key. How she was going to do that without making the lily-pads go crazy, she didn't know.

"Karick, if they start to snap again, find a way to get them under control. I'm going under." Kia took in a deep breath and dove under, causing a ripple in the water. She didn't realize how much of an impact that was as she swam quickly to the key; it only took her a few seconds to get the key. By then the lily-pads had gone into a rage, there was no time for her to stay underneath long enough for the things to calm down. If she waited, she would drown. If she went up, she would be snapped in two.

She had no choice but to quickly swim around to the other edge, away from where Karick was keeping the lily-pads occupied. When she surfaced the lily-pads were in full rage, snapping and hissing at the Scrub as he pelted them with nuts and sticks. Kia smiled, triumphant that her plan had worked as she quickly and with as little movement as possible, got out of the pond with the key in hand. The lily-pads hadn't noticed she had gotten out and she felt relieved that it had gone well.

If only it had been that easy to get the key. Before Kia could even stand up, one of the lily-pads suddenly turned around and lowered it's massive jaw towards her. Screaming, Kia bolted up and threw her left arm up just as the lily-pad closed it's gaping mouth -- right over her left arm. Everything went into slow motion after that, she barely registered the blood that was oozing from the mouth of the lily-pad. Or that it just as suddenly let go of her four feet off the ground, or that Karick had hit the creature over the head with a large Deku Nut.

She remembered hitting the ground with a thud and blacking out for several minutes. When she awoke not even ten minutes later, she found Karick sitting beside her, wrapping up her left arm in her clothing; the arm was still there, but the lily-pad had bit rather deeply into it. There were no broken bones from what she could tell in her dazed and delirious state, just a lot of blood and a rather large, open gash. Karick was saying something to her, Kia couldn't make out what he was saying.

Then she blacked out.

Very...very bad.

Ouch.

The things had only been attacking for ten minutes, but it felt like three months. Zerrin wasn't exactly sure how they were even hurting him, but he didn't really want to find out. He had to get out the door.

Forcing his head up, he started pushing up. The little Boes were like tar, weighing him down. The door was barred, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He started dragging himself towards the door, and as he got closer the monsters seemed to relent their grip on him. As he got near the door, he found out why.

There was some sort of connection...magic of some kind....between the Boes and the door. If he wanted to open the door, he would have to kill them. But he didn't have time for that. Tyra was still buried under the swarm somewhere and he couldn't kill the entire swarm in one go.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. If the door and the Boes were connected...the shadows seemed to sense his line of thought and started swarming in his direction. But it was too late. He could feel the spell building up, and he slammed his hands into the door.

The searing flash of the explosion blinded him, and the noise was still ringing in his ears after two minutes. As the room came into focus he saw that splinters of the door were scattered across the entire room, as well as the iron bars. He couldn't see Boes anywhere.

Tyra was lying in the middle of the room, unconcious. Zerrin brushed some of the wood chips off of her face and dragged her into the now open doorway. He could see that the next room was lit, and he noticed some floating platforms. But he decided to wait a little before going across. He was exhausted, and he had to wait for Tyra to wake up.

The little Boes had proved to be formidable enemies when gathered in a swarm. Tyra found her sword to be quite useless when that many rushed them.

“Tyra! Do you have anything that can hurt these guys?” Zerrin yelled.

Tyra’s mind raced… besides her blades, her only weapon was her telekinesis. She could use a repulse attack to drive them all back, but it would surely knock Zerrin back with them in the tight confinements of the room. She didn’t have a chance to respond as the creatures were beginning to overtake her as they furiously tried to fight them off and get to the door. It was only a matter of minutes until the pirate was covered and dragged down to the floor. She could see nothing but darkness and the Boes’ beady little red eyes. She felt suffocated, desperately trying to lift her limbs to break away for just a gasp of air, but it was to no avail.

Why hadn’t she just repulsed them all back? Was Zerrin really that important that she couldn’t risk him some bodily harm? It was the harsh training of the pirate clan that was putting this train of thought in her mind, and her mother’s teachings that responded back that no one should be compromised in such a manner.

The lack of air started to blur the red eyes of the Boes away, and she saw only darkness then.

------------------------------------------------------------

”They haven’t forgotten me… they wouldn’t…”

She rocked back and forth, her arms enclosed around her folded legs, and her childish form a mere speck in the growing night with trees closing around her.

“Mother… Father….”

Back at their house in the windmill. The steady creaking sound. So soothing, like a song. Around and Around…

“Shisou, don’t worry… our daughter can handle her powers…”

“We don’t know what those powers could BE… we’re not NORMAL….”

“You say that like its bad… your power was increased from your inheritance…”

“And yours… you pass yourself off as a normal Hylian, but we know better… maybe she will be lucky and she live normally… without our curses..”

“…without MY curse, you mean…”

“…you know I don’t mean it like THAT… it’s just that a Hylian is far from a….”

Creaking and echoing off the walls. Around and around.

Shaking and shivering. A breeze.

“They’ll come for me… I know they’ll come for me…”

--------------------------------------------------------------

There was a hand brushing across her face. She was moving. Or was she? She was out of it. Was she dead? A small breath of air… no, she was alive. A moment later and Tyra’s eyes inched open, and she was staring at a musty ceiling. With a groan, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, seeing Zerrin seated not far from her looking tired.

“What happened…?” was all the words her mind could manage.

Nonchalantly, Zerrin responded, “I opened the door.”

It was then that Tyra noticed the splintered fragments of the door scattered about.

“How did…” she began, but decided halfway through that it wasn’t important. They had a group to catch up to. “…I guess that’s one way of doing it.”

The pair staggered to their feet, eyeing the floating platforms before them questioningly, not sure if it was safe or a trap.

“I suppose we should cross?” the pirate asked Zerrin.

Zerrin looked at the nearest platform, trying to gauge the distance. The whole temple was rather dark, and he was having trouble telling where it was. Ten, maybe twelve feet? It was hard to say. How were they going to get across this?

"We should cross. I'm just trying to figure out how." he said, as he started to scope the area near where they stood. Some large flowers were scattered across the room, filling the whole area with the smell of pollen. The temple was obviously designed with Deku in mind.

As he searched for some other way across, he noticed something slightly off. There was some noise, a buzzing, that was getting steadily louder. He could hear the buzz of static and started searching the room for the source of the noises.

Suddenly, he felt something touch his shoulder. Jerking his head around, he saw Tyra was motioning for him to stay quite. She was pointing towards the ceiling, and as he looked upwards he could see why.

The entire ceiling was covered by giant hornets.

And they were all focused intently on the door they had entered from.

There were strangers still in the corridors, in the rooms, all around. They were not together as one, that made everything simpler to do -- even without the dark, ugly taint, the natural wonders of the hollow cave were working against them. How long they would last was a mystery, they were a bunch of mismatched misfits -- how could they survive?

Would they?


When Kia regained consciousness again, she found herself huddled in a far corner with her clothes on -- the only thing she didn’t have on were her boots, which were put next to her -- and her left arm wrapped in some sort of bark-like material. Karick must have bound it in something his Deku-like body created, yet it still stung and felt like her arm was on fire.

Her entire body ached as she pushed herself into a sitting position, her right hand moving her forehead; her skin felt warm to the touch and her vision blurry. She remembered the lily pads clamping down on her arm and dropping her down onto the ground, but that’s all she remembered. She didn’t even remember Karick talking to her after she had blacked out and awoken the first time around.

Speaking of the Business Scrub, when Kia’s vision had become less blurry she took a look around the room to gather her wits. In a moment of panic she stood up, a big mistake in it’s own as she staggered forwards two steps before falling down flat on her face. That sent a wave of pain through her arm, as she tried to get into a kneeling position.

It took her fifteen minutes to get into that kneeling position, by then she was in even more of a state of panic. From what she could see, she had been left alone -- the door to the room was left open, the key that she had retrieved having fallen to the ground not far from where the door was. Karick was nowhere to be found, he must have left sometime while she was out cold. But where had he gone and why had he left her while she was blacked out?

“Karick?” The Sheikah called out weakly, crawling towards the door. That, too, wasn’t a good idea either as her arm stung with every inch she crawled forwards. But at least she wasn’t falling down like she had consumed a full bottle of Hylain ale. “Karick?”

Despite having limited knowledge of how the mind of a Business Scrub worked, Kia didn’t think Karick would just leave her there in her state. Then again, hadn’t everyone else she called family or friend left her in some way? Her mother had died, her father abandoned her, most of her friends had long since gone on with their lives, and her brother -- the whole reason why she had gone to Termina in the first place -- was out of her reach.

As she crawled back to her boots, Kia realized how hungry she was -- and how there was nothing for her to eat. She had to laugh at her predicament despite tears staining her dirty cheeks, her sorry self worrying about who had stayed with her over food. How did she know anyone was coming for her?

Or if they wanted to find her?

Tyra kept completely still after alerting Zerrin to the danger that hovered just above their heads. Now what? All the ruckus they had caused smashing through the door had definitely not improved the wasps’ temperaments. Whatever they were going to do, they needed to do it quickly.

Barely moving her lips as she leaned in towards Zerrin’s ear, she whispered, “In exactly 5 seconds, we make a break for it.”

“We can barely see what’s in front of us…” he hissed back, a bead of sweat visibly running down his face as the buzzing seemed to grow louder.

“I don’t see us having much of a choice…” the pirate’s eyes darted back and forth as a last-ditch effort to find an alternative means of escape. But the floating platforms looked to be their only salvation.

“NOW,” she whispered gravely as the pair took off.

They ran forward as the hornets on the ceiling gathered into a swarm. A split second later, they made their leap of faith across the emptiness and were rewarded with the first floating platform under their feet. But they were not out of the woods yet. No time to feel joyful or to even take a long breath, they were running and jumping again into the darkness. Then again. And again. But the deafening sound of the hornets behind them pushed them forward. Then in the distance, a torch could be seen, like a light at the end of the tunnel. It was a good thing too, as their lungs felt like they could burst any moment. Another jump. Another. Again. They were nearly there. And soon they landed on the last platform and were gazing across the last stretch of nothing that separated them from solid ground. But this time it was a few feet wider. But the buzzing had become so strong they already felt like swiping their hands above their heads.

Tyra had to take a second to inhale as Zerrin leapt first, his hands barely nabbing the edge, as he began to pull himself up. Glancing behind her, the pirate saw the winged creatures were only a few feet away, so she took off, leaping with all her might… but it wasn’t quite far enough. If not for Zerrin’s outstretched hand grasping hers in a catch of sheer luck, she would have been falling. But now they both looked up in horror as the bugs began to close in.

At this point, Tyra didn’t even think – instinct took over as the hand that was not holding the man above hers for dear life rose up and made a pushing motion. Suddenly, the last platform swung up as if being struck with an enormous hammer, causing the swarm to slam into it, most falling into the abyss dazed. Still breathing extremely hard, Tyra dropped that hand, her mind swimming from the exertion of running and now telekinesis on top of it. But she forced herself to grab the wall with her free hand to try to help as Zerrin started to pull her up.

There they were, still searching and moving through the hollow walls as though they were invited guests. Though one would believe that they had been invited, the darkness surrounding the Swamp -- and the new Temple -- had taken two of their own. That gave them the right to barge in like they had, with what little they knew of what was going on and knowledge of how they were going to defeat this taint. She didn't have to like it, not one bit, but that's the way it was.

There was movement all over the Temple, springing to a life that hadn't been there since well before the cursed Mask had taken hold of Termina six years before. Few knew that there had been other inhabitants of the previous Temples before the Mask had taken hold, in fact there were even fewer that knew that the Guardians and the beings that had been twisted by the Mask had been seperate entities all along.

The Mask had been that strong to fuse the Guardians into a Mask, put them onto the then slumbering creatures, and then awaken the things when it suited the Mask. Those bodies were long since gone now, some had been brought back from ash and bone in order to play the Mask's twisted game. They had housed something different, something that had not been so evil.

At least in her case it wasn't, she couldn't speak for the other parts of the taint. Even she couldn't speak for herself, why she -- after her second incarnation -- hadn't gone up to the Heavens. All she remembered of that time was the glowing eyes of the Mask and a darkness as she had been pushed out of her present body, a cold wind and a rattling of clay. Then the numbness as her last container was broken, the sounds of a battle raging between creature, hero, and Mask.

Then this. Now she was stuck in the reincarnation of the Swamp Temple, twisted into something that she fought constaintly but would eventually lose in the end if there wasn't another person to stop it. She could feel the taint twisting her as she silently moved through the Temple walls as a quiet wind, looking around for something to pick up on. The darkness was about to take her over again, this was one of the few rare moments where she still believed there was no darkness. No taint. No nothing.

Perhaps soon she would be able to find a right form to appear in front of them again, she knew it would happen. What twisted form she would take, not even she knew.