Cold Cocked by the Cheating Enchanter [Genzo]

Not unfamiliar with great injury, Eve had indeed sought medical help in the days prior. But now she had entered a horrible pact, almost written entirely by her own hand, to venture out into the freezing cold.

In the day preceding this one, she had secured a method of travel. In her previously introduced winter coat, Eve rode atop a small horse. Besides her hood and scarf barely blocking her face from the dust of ice flying in her face, she also had a delicate parasol partially blocking the wind. Her obsession with fashion had somehow made all of this worse, and made her look kind of ridiculous in the current weather.

All the while she had also stopped plenty of times to make the annoying trip up and down the horse to feed it. She would never admit it, but Eve was kind of a horse girl at heart. She just, depended heavily on others to know how to care for one. She had washed and cared for horses before, usually ones not her own. These particular adventures usually involved very tall step stools.

Having a journey into the mind about how she liked horses, she made decent time up to the crossing. One thing was for certain. There would be a temple of some sort and some decent loot. Then, depending on their success, she hoped to weasel more payment out of that manager guy. Their shared hatred of each other made the girl all the more interested in guilting money out of him? She wouldn't call it guilting even, it seemed the manager being pissed about them breaking the store's floor meant he would want the money to flow in the other direction. Remembering their mission more clearly, she recalled wanting to give him the ice as a sort of apology? She could have paid for the broken floor even. But the serpentine mind of the Kokiri couldn't arrive at the conclusion that falling through that floor was their fault.

Failing at understanding her mission even slightly, she took solace in the fact that she could gather treasure for her new friend. Evelyn kept a smile off her face, in respect to the horrid weather blasting her every surface. But she smiled internally over the idea of dressing Ruairi up like a king in full regalia. Her new obsession with helping him was no longer about apologizing. Although she owed an entire town an apology at this point, her mind drifted ever closer to the image of a pimped out wagon covered in velvets and gold. Daffodil completely decked out with treasures and cool diamond armor that cost an arm and a leg.

"What on earth is wrong with me." Eve blurted out through her scarf as the colorful images blurred out the wagon she was quickly approaching.

The insane woman prepared herself for a casual conversation or perhaps confrontation with the very cool Rito.

"Oh, my apologies Mr. Rito." Eve conceded. "My little horse here was the only way to get out here in time."

She thought briefly about the process of renting a horse. It was kind of a miracle she got around everywhere without one most of the time.

Seeing Ruairi in his blanket and hot beverage made her a little jealous. Her dimb parasol wasn't doing much to shelter her from the weather. The guy seemed right and ready to head up the mountain at this point. They made it side-by-side for a moment before the mad Kokiri spoke up again.

"We'll have to go up that mountain, mounts or not. Though I must admit I'm really so glad you made it out here to join me. I really can be a pain sometimes but I'm working on being better at it." the girl admitted, getting ready to make the trip. "Gya-hahaha!" she laughed at the end, unintentionally making it awkward.

"Although, I haven't been all the way to the mountain before. . ." Eve began, trying to keep her mount in pace with him.

They already seemed to be much closer to the base of the mountain, the current path being very stable and flat. The wind died down for several seconds at a time, usually to get somewhat worse for minutes at a time. There was a certain hesitation in the girl's speech as well to accommodate the chaotic winds.

"I know about half way up the trail is a famous smith's shop the Captain showed me several times. Not that I didn't need it for my weapons all those times. There's a place right in that clearing we can store our mounts and your wagon. Though there will probably be a few rupees involved if we want them to hold the wagon." Eve continued to explain. Her tone of voice was a lot more put together today.

The two, and the wagon of course, gradually approached a mountainous path. There was, as Ruairi guessed, a major path cleared for mounted travel. They weren't quite at that point yet, but Eve expected danger. But, more importantly, Eve expected the wind to be seriously less of a problem when they reached the rocky area. Her face was thankfully still covered by the parasol and her scarf but it was only doing so much of the work.

"You know. . ." Eve started, meeting Ruairi's glance with one of her eyes. "Maybe you're right, we can just park the wagon elsewhere."

She had somehow avoided his last question. Not on purpose, but out of overthinking their situation. She remained silent for a moment longer, dwelling on what she had done for a bit. Her face was peaceful however. Like an embalmed corpse, sort of. The tiny curve in her mouth made her look especially not-angry in this moment. With her scarf pulled down all the way, an expected burst of powder breezed by and clocked the smile off her face.

"Ow! Anyway. . ." she started, swirling her parasol about. "It seemed a good idea at the time. It's not every day I get a hook for a good adventure, especially when I'm doing something BORING like being at the store. And imagine the look on his face when he really gets the ice. From the real temple. Gyahahahaha!"

Stopping her face from freezing she quickly lifted the scarf back up. She also was getting kind of concerned about her own laughing fits, as if it was a nervous response of some sort?

"Never mind that I made such a mistake, I guess? You certainly seem interested in collecting the treasure we find. It was awkward beyond my own ability the way that I had set this up, but we're already here. It would be a waste even for me to turn back now." she added, palming her face out of embarrassment for herself.

I'm never going to live this down. Me or that dumb illusion version of me. Centuries will pass and Ruairi's great grandchildren will be making fun of me for the ice cubes adventure. Eve lamented to herself. At least something entertaining was happening at her expense, although that was just par for the course at this point. But luckily for her, there might have been some serious incidents going on up this mountain. Things that would make walking into a summit temple for some ice cubes seem like not such a bad idea. While she thought of such possibilities, there seemed to be something dangerous leaping about the roadway in the rocky path coming up. It looked pretty clearly like a White Wolfos. But Eve wasn't yet going to put her rupees on that being the case.

"Well that's an interesting question." Eve began, twisting her focus off the Wolfos. "I had presumed it was for their teas and lemonades. Which, I mean, good of them to want that in the midst of winter. But that's on them. I also wanted to bring some back for my juices. Have you ever heard of passionfruit before? It's to die for. Oh-ho-ho-ho!"

At this point, they had spent so much time looking at each other and charging forward, that the initial Wolfos dove to the side to get out of the way. The creature stumbled away and puts its head in its paws, contemplating its own mortality. That was a close one! The two travelers and their mounts continued to pass big snow banks as they reached an incline going up the rough terrain. What was all that about juice, anyway? How could anything the girl had said have made it worth it to confront the manager and go all this way up a mountain for?

The scenery started to get same-y with all the snow banks and identical snow-covered trees starting to blend together. While the girl was right in a way about them having come very far that it wasn't really worth it to stop. Her logic for having gotten all this way had already fallen apart so many times. But maybe there was something to it? Perhaps the full blocks of ice up this mountain were bigger or better than others in some way? On that note, it seemed a lot better than trying to get said ice from a pond or the ocean or something. There was all of that, or this annoying kid was really up to something after all.

"I've been trying to say that! Those workers were sweating their very essence out. They need all of their drinks to be cold or we may not even find them when we go back there! It's that damned miniblin I know he's behind this somehow." Eve blathered, and with her last statement pulled out a wide piece of parchment.

There was a map-like unfolded parchment in her hand. It was undeniably covered in abject madness. There was a bunch of red lines connecting various statements and clippings, all the lines converging on a circled snippet of the face of a kind of pinkish Miniblin. That must have been "Pooky." Something was immediately certain in all of this. There was absolutely no way that creature was the mastermind behind everything. It was, at most, a very elaborate plot of the blin creature to put his own markings and involvement into as many things as he monstrously possibly could. Even that chest they had found in the basement was probably planted there as "evidence."

Eve puzzled for a bit, piecing apart the dichotomy of the "pet" Pooky she had met, and this fictional "mastermind" Pooky she had developed with this elaborate diagram. Was the problem that the creature was too dumb to be this smart or the other way around? The animals continued to clop up the path. There was surprisingly smooth paths, possibly due to the snow being blocked by the higher rock walls out here. There was more monster activity, as well. Several White Boes teased around the area. In addition some more White Wolfos seemed to be about, the majority of them sleeping. Maybe it was better not to aggravate them? They seemed somewhat harmless when a group was travelling through.

"O-oh! Never mind. Guess we can just move along through." Eve mentioned, having already put her weird papers away.

"Adventure this, adventure that." Eve quietly joked to herself.

The two were making good progress, and their presence on the mountain path was decent at dissuading the local Wolfos. No doubt in great credit to Daffodil, as none of the land's creatures should dare challenge an ox no matter how peaceful. Though one Wolfos jumped out from behind a bush, taking a stance of intimidation. Eve turned her head and unleashed her Gilt Glower at the creature. Its courage and intentions kept it mildly immune to her attack although it became dizzy and backed off from the otherworldly glare of light. Within seconds the strange light subsided, Eve wincing her weird eyes and succeeding in making them look dull and stupid again.

Eve steered down the next turn, revealing the clearing she had spoken about. There was a building in the distance spewing smoke, incidentally the popular smith's workshop it seemed. There was ample room in the area, a flowing stream in the distance. It was white as far as the eye could see. There was as Ruairi had suggested, space to simply stake up their mounts and continue on foot. They would manage upon a local, who was making quite a lot of noise.

"Oh brudda there's nothin' up here!" yelled a voice in the distance or perhaps close by, it was hard to tell.

Eve cocked her head and found herself looking up a snowy cliff at a shaking Goron. She held her breath, afraid of berating the aloft creature entirely too soon for her own good. The Goron looked down, waving. On his head was an adorable animal themed hood. From his cadence of voice to his bodily movements it was almost entirely certain and completely too true that the bozo was stuck up there and unable to get down.

"Ugh. What do you want?! Can't you see we're busy?" Eve barked up the stony wall.

"Well some food would be nice there's nothin' close to an edible rock up here." the Goron calmly replied down to the safe ground below.

"I think my Rito friend collects those!" Eve whispered, almost yelling it up the cliff. Also mistaking Ruairi for some sort of rock collector?

"Bubby do you have eat-able rocks?" she turned and asked to her companion.

"Like not that I've seen your rocks but hypothetically if I did they would have seemed to be very edible." the Kokiri girl blurted out. She had definitely seen his gem collection somehow.

"But don't tell that goron we can't actually risk you losing those things." she added hastily, suddenly worried about her friend losing something so important.

Eve got up and walked back towards the cliff. Her horse was now staked up in what she had considered a safe location. The girl, in her bulky coat, started to make gestures and poses as if she was trying to communicate with a ship. The Goron scratched underneath his hood, also as a gesture of scratching his head in confusion as the stony skin on his head was not ideal for feeling his own hand scratch it.

"Fuck sake just come down from there. Just jump!" Eve yelled, frustrated with the Goron's little display.

"No freakin' way it's dangerous. Do you see how high up I am!" the Goron yelled back, adjusting his hood.

"We have stuff to do and we can't promise we will be back with food for a goron! Your best bet is to jump down and if you get hurt we will heal you!" Eve shouted back, visibly frustrated.

"I'm scared of heights you can't make me do it!" he yelled back, waving an enormous hand.

"How in blazes did you get up there in the first place?! Aren't you paralyzed with fear just standing up there and looking down?" Eve shouted back, getting seriously annoyed.

"I climbed up but I was looking straight up as I went up and now I don't like the down going part." the Goron explained back, kind of visibly perturbed by looking down now that he had mentioned it.

"Then climb back down slowly and look up the entire way! You can clearly hold steady to the cliff!" Eve spat back, her voice getting fast and loud as she walked him through his predicament.

Eve knew they were already in deep with this silly mission and couldn't risk it all being more pointless and insane because of this one Goron. She was getting awfully close to just attacking the cliffside and making him crash down with it.

"Wait a second. . ." Eve interrupted, slowly figuring out what Ruairi had. "Goron food should be nearby Rolling Ridge is down the road from here."

She also, hearing him loud and clear, sort of agreed that the guy should just curl up and try to roll down to safety somehow. But his insisted danger was entirely imagined. All it would take would be for him to fall asleep on his little perch and he would probably painlessly fall to the comfort and safety of the ground. The Kokiri's completely weird eyes did their normal jotting around as she tried to figure out how they could more easily just get him down and end the conversation.

Eve thought about some hypothetical slingshot and bomb combo that could possibly knock the piece of turf off the side of the cliff. Even a bow and arrow, with some small detonator. She didn't have any of those with her right now. But despite everything it was all she could think about. Now however, she was full of anger and pretty annoyed.

"Maybe don't? If you just take our advice you'll get down, be safe, or even get food! There's plenty of people nearby and we're busy!" Eve yelled back up at the Goron.

"Let's go Chicky we need to get ice cubes." she finally admitted, waving friendly-like at the cool Rito.

Knowing well enough their mounts were safe and happy, Eve started to wander off down the path. That was, presumably to where they needed to be going. Or not, they didn't have any obligation to feed into the needy Goron's demands. So Eve could have really been going anywhere. She kind of wanted to find out if there was some major disaster responsible for them needing to go to the temple like usual. But she also had no desire to double check such a thing when she had only made a verbal deal to come back with some ice that was appropriate for a few drinks so that some very dedicated and tired employees could stop being as dry and near death.

A worthy and heroic endeavor.

There was Goron's towns all around this region and many possibly in need from the random snow storms and ice troubles. But it was also the dead middle of winter and neither of the two travelers had considered such a thing to be off or even a possible concern in the slightest. In fact from their perspective nothing could be wrong at the moment aside from there being maybe some wizards and ice on the horizon of their little outing. This resulted in another of Eve's little headaches where she started over-considering what they were doing and kind of getting dizzy about it.

"Ye, think it's thissway." she responded, double-checking her surroundings. "Other path is just Rolling Ridge an' I think we can agree we don't hafta go o'er there."

Eve continued up the trail, noticing odd weather and uncomfortable temperatures. Soon enough there was what looked to be another Goron on the path. His head was poking out of a wide shell of ice up to his neck. He otherwise seemed pretty pleased with himself. But he was very clearly in immediate danger. Eve was getting tired of these carefree characters. . .

"Saw you're comin' through. Weather's gettin' pretty bad goro." the Goron interrupted as they approached.

"Well it's winter and we're on thee mountain it seems." Eve badgered, trying to shut down his line of thought.

"Thee? Mountain? No this weather is unnatural. Somethin' in the temple is messing with the point of freezing, the storm's gettin' worse, among other things! I'll get out of this eventually anyway. . ." the Goron explained, making sure not to be turned down.

"Well not with that attitude! I'll get you out, you numb idiot." Eve replied, still sick of his slothley attitude.

Eve slipped her bag down and pulled out that sledge hammer looking thing of hers. Not without courtesy though. She looked back at Ruairi to see if he had any input. Before she could break a bunch of ice with a big hammer, though at this point she could start cracking down at any moment.