A Cloudy No-Good-Very-Bad Day (Eternis, UnnamedDude, closed)

(OOC Edit. Treasures/rewards for group are as follows:

Fates End/Jax and Sib Thrace: 60 rupees, 30 to each
Eternis/Holle:Water walking and 25 rupees
UnnamedDude/Abby: Arcane Bolt and 20 rupees )



Sib couldn't stop her teeth from chattering. That they hadn't killed any of the Bok's was bad enough. But then that . . .stupid trap. And she'd been tired, it had been a long week and Whuups there she'd gone into the freezing water. That she was soaked to the bone on an already brisk, rainy day was worse than the loss of the Bok's trail. But their food supplies had gotten lost in the murk, (icing on the cake of misery) and there'd been a passing band of creatures which had forced them to move off before searching.

Soaked, out of food and at least two days away from the Western caves . . . Sib now walked, a few steps behind her husband, both of them keeping silent. Were they going to die of starvation? No. Not in two days. But they operated on a meager supply at the best of times, considering how often they ranged from the refuges on their own. They could find enough food, probably, to make it back without too much trouble. But she could already feel the chill settling into her bones like an old friend, permeating everything about her. They needed to find shelter, soon. She didn't relish dying of hypothermia.

The only thing that kept Jax from making some snide comment about her tumble into the water was the possible presence of nearby enemies. And Sib knew for a fact that he was saving it all up for a time to really use it. Probably the next time they were in one of the refuges. That was alright, she already had a plan in mind to make him squirm, next time they were somewhere warm. This brought a small grim smile to her lips and took her mind off her freezing body, if only for a second. That particular plan was going to be fun.

There was a soft hiss from up ahead, Sib's icy eyes locked on her husband's form, taking note of his half-raised fist and sudden halt to movement. She grimaced and focused herself mentally, forcing her chattering teeth to the back of her mind. Hoping that he'd seen whatever it was in time, a fight right now, when she could barely feel her fingers, let alone her sword . . .

In either event, she gripped her sword as best she could and waited.

A stone came flying out of the brush, bouncing off of what looked like a rock and landing somewhere in the branches of a nearby bush. Jumping down from his position in the higher branches of a nearby tree, Holle flipped a somersault twice on his way down to the headless body of the snake he had just decapitated with a stone from his sling.
"Nasty beasties, these. Their name is something like a red-venomed spiker or something, but that doesn't actually matter. You get bitten by one, and your skin goes all red, like you're really drunk or something. Then you get into a kind of rage. You try and smash everything around, and here's the weird bit:"
Holle picked up the still twitching body of the headless snake, looking at it somewhat forlornly as the tip of it's tail flicked back and forth through the air.
"The snake wraps itself around one of your limbs as you're doing it. Everything around either flees or gets demolished, but at the end, when you've exhausted yourself, this little buddy just digs into your flesh and chows down. Good eating, though, if you avoid the venom sacs."
Holle grimaced, ripping the spine and guts out from the flesh of the snake, blood spattering onto Holle's cloak, face, and tunic.
"Fortunately, these snakes travel as far as possible from each other. I suggest you set up shelter here. Too many experienced hunters have died to these things to risk such dangers."
Holle looked down at the blood on his clothes, then flicked his eyes back to the two strangers in front of him, then notices the lack of gear the couple had.
"Oh, right. Where are my manners? I'm Holle Dagdon, Western Caves. I've been on an extended hunting trip around this area, and I'd be more than happy to help you set up camp if you're in need of equipment."
Holle opens his rucksack, revealing multiple sets of semi-treated skins sewn roughly into the shape of a folded tent, then slings it back over his back and extends the non-snake filled hand.
What are you two doing around here? I thought that I was going to be the only one in this area…"

Clouds shrouded the sky and allowed only the tiniest specks of light in this particular area of Southern Hyrule. In the gloom of this dark, rainy day, a small, lithe figure advanced as quietly as possible. The lands were alive and very much hostile. Earlier she thought she saw signs of a Bokoblin party, and gotten far out of the way. She figured she had enough supplies for a few days, and she was learning the terrain well enough.

This figure was known as Abigail. She kept her hiking stick very close to her even as she traversed the loneliest areas, and made certain she kept an eye out for everything. The outside of the caves quite frankly enamored her; weather and the like were foreign in her home. Now, of course, she had less appreciation for it; it was wont to get her very wet and very cold. She hoped she could find something to get her out of the worst of the elements soon.

Abby heard some sort of rustling, and crept closer to the source. It was a bad idea, she knew; but she felt at this distance she needed to know what to plan for before it found her first.

She tried to find cover that was reasonably safe to poke her head out of and saw three strangers before her, one standing upon a slain serpent. They didn't... seem antagonistic, but the girl didn't reveal herself just yet.

By the time the snake was dead, Jax had an arrow notched and ready, ignoring the feint chill in the air as he decided exactly what it was he was seeing. Already behind him he could feel Sib turning her back, hopping a step over to him so as to cover his rear from unknown attackers. Even from the few feet away, he could hear his wife's teeth chattering, that water really hadn't done her any favors.

And now . . . this snake-killing chil---no, he corrected himself mentally. Appearance of a child, maybe. But the skill with which the snake had been slain indicated some competency in survival-skills. This teenage hunter was acting as though they'd just run into each other on an afternoon stroll.

His steely eyes skewered the young man in a wary stare. Being Hylian didn't mean automatic friend, in Jax's book. Not that he . . .well, had anything really like a friend in the first place. But if he had such things as friends, being a Hylian would not be an automatic entry, even in this war-torn land.

It was his wife that saved him from having to speak, even as he lowered the bow just a tad so as not to make a tense situation worse. Her clear, icy voice, with just the barest of waver as she fought the cold, spoke out as she turned her head towards the young man. "We were hunting a Boko group. They got away."

Jax inclined his head the barest of inches, agreeing with his wife's words but not adding anything in. Eyes darting to scan the trees and brush again, wary of any attack.

Holle frowned, berating himself. There was a Bokoblin group this near to him the entire time and he hadn't noticed? He'd gotten lax. He'd been hunting herbivores, prey, not good thinkers, not hunters. He needed to up his game.
"Do you want any help in tracking them down again, or would you just like a place to camp down?"
Holle looked back the way he had come, the rocky path deeply shadowed even on this overcast cloudy day.
"There's a rocky clearing back that way, with a small cave network just off to the side. If you just want the safe camping location, there's not much better you can do around here."
Holle turned back to the couple in front of him, looking carefully. The well-armed, if somewhat under-equipped, pair looked rugged and hardy, their clothing well-worn.
"An additional upside is that I have a stockpile of firewood and most of my smoked rabbit and deer meat in there, so if you're cold or hungry, you can warm up and grab a bite to eat"

Abigail leaned forward at this. Even she, who was becoming somewhat infamous for her wandering outside the caves, had never purposefully hunted Bokoblin hordes. She avoided them if she could and ran when she couldn't; fighting them in any great number had never occurred to her. The prospect was frightening, but it somehow evoked a perverse fascination in her.

Surprised as she was by their discussion, however, she slipped and fell through the brush. She found herself looking at the figures upside down from the ground, and immediately backpedaled. "Uh... hi! I, um, heard your conversation. You guys were... hunting Bokoblins? As in, those things that like to kill us for fun?" At first the girl had attempted to maintain amiability; but her curiosity got the better of her and crept into her voice for the latter question, giving away her mystification at the idea.

It was all Jax could do not to roll his eyes at the heavens. One young man, now a young girl came stumbling out of the forest? He and Sib had managed to run into not one, but two separate young Hylians at almost exactly the same time in this godsforsaken speck of land. And considering the dangers of the surrounding countryside . . . He didn't want to hear these children getting torn apart by the nearest beast with a taste for Hylian.

Again, however. Sib saved him from replying, allowing him to play the steely archer, as opposed to annoyed adult.

Now standing by his side, she gave the two young Hylians a steady once over, forcing her chattering teeth to the barest of "click click click's" as she put the cold to the back of her head. First, to the young man she spoke, "We thank you for your kind offer." She replied in a flat tone, "But we prefer not to owe people. There's an old outpost, about a mile further, we're making for that to spend the night and get warm. Assuming something doesn't get in our way first."

Trailing her gaze to the girl, she finally let a grim smile cross her face. "They kill us for fun, we kill them for fun. You might say both get equal enjoyment."

"Whelp, if you're sure, then... Which way to this outpost?"
Holle sighed exasperatedly at the looks on the couple's faces.
"Look, you're obviously military types. That's great and all, when you're dealing with, or tracking, monsters, armies, and gigantic beasts. But, as evidenced by your soaking wet state and lack of gear, you don't have that much experience with the surrounding countryside. With the additional fact that we-"
Holle paused, turning to look, and point, at the fellow teenager in the clearing.
"-were able to sneak up on you two, seperately, without even knowing you were here... well, in my case anyway...
I'd reckon that, at the very least, you'll need someone to watch your back until you've recovered a bit."
Holle grimaced, slapping a bug out of the air against his thigh.
"Oh, and in terms of debt? You won't owe anything to me. It's thanks to people like you that I'm alive, that I've managed to hunt this meat. It's thanks to warriors like you that there actually is a new generation of refugees in the Western Caves, that we even managed to escape from the assault on Rauru at all."
Holle turned to the new element that appeared in the situation, the teenage girl.
"And as for you, my dear... How would you like a big, strapping-"
Holle broke out laughing, his scrawny form shaking for a few moments before somewhat recovering his composure, a wide grin on his face as we wiped a tear from his eye.
"Sorry, I couldn't even say that with a straight face. What I mean to say is, how would you like someone, and by someone I mean me, to help you around this terrain if these two decide not to let us help them."
Holle nodded towards the corpse of the snake he was still holding in his hand.
"At the very least, I'll be able to give you a meal you're unlikely to have tasted elsewhere. The red-venomed whatsit doesn't live anywhere close to the Western Caves, and it's meat doesn't last too long. Which is a shame, because it's quite tasty and, with the right seasoning, makes quite a delicacy. Fortunately, I have a store of pepperberry and saltbush from some of the more arid areas I've been, and the local mustard plant is flourishing in some rocky areas."
Holle smiled cockily at the three strangers in front of him.
"So, what d'you say? Up for some grub?"

Abigail blinked. To see such levity in the world outside, oft-toted as a place full only of death, was both heartening and... somewhat confusing. She'd always made sure to be very careful whenever she ventured outside the caves, keeping an eye out for anything that wanted to kill her.

She shook her head for a moment. Quite a trio she'd stumbled upon... "Oh, sure," she mumbled, still having trouble fully comprehending what had just happened. She supposed that a meal had never done anyone wrong...

She turned to the others, though. The woman looked pretty wet. "Are you all right, by the way?"

"We'll all be dead if the boy keeps laughing." Sib muttered, releasing her grip on her blade. "The outpost is another mile west. Should take half an hour to reach it, given the terrain."

Her husband gave Sib a long look, noticing the shiver to her body. The barely controlled chatter of her teeth. "Think you can survive that long?" He questioned with a hint of dark amusement.

Sib rolled her eyes to the man, "Bite me." She snapped back before glancing to Abigail and Holle. She resisted the urge to snap at Holle. The young man was . . . apparently trying to be kind. In her view, kindness got you killed out here in the wild, and much like her husband, she'd rather not be around if a ravening horde of something with sharp teeth came by."

It took her a moment more, fighting the cold as she was, to realize that the girl had actually inquired as to her state. "I'm soaking, it's freezing and I haven't killed anything today. I'm not all right."

"And she didn't see it coming. The boko's little present that tossed her into the stream. How . . .careless of her." Jax added on, reorienting himself, preparing to head on towards the outpost. Staying in one place for too long made him uneasy, especially with all the talking.

Holle raised an eyebrow at the couple.
"Really? No response to my offer? Well, I'll cook the serpent, and when it's done, you can eat it if you want. Then, we head off to that outpost of yours."
Holle turned to his fellow teenager, a smirk forming on his face.
"Well, my dear, come along this way for a meal that you're unlikely to see matched in a while. The wilds aren't exactly known for their high-class cuisine, after all."
Holle took her left hand in his right, non-snake-filled hand and turned back to the pair.
"If it's really just half an hour away, then the fifteen minutes it'll take to cook and eat this won't matter too much, and honestly? I'll need a little time to pack the meat anyway. We don't want it falling into the wrong hands."
Holle winked, then turned back to face his path.

"What?" She asked him, looking at him quizzically. "We're not going to leave them like this, are we?" The girl's concern was written on her face. "I think we should prioritize getting her dry first. Especially with weather like this..." Abigail gestured to the overcast, showering sky. She liked the rain, in small doses--it was wonderful to experience any sort of weather outside the caves, really--but she knew that being wet all the time did no wonders for health.

"Let's just go for now. I think it'd be best not to have a soaked snake anyway."

"Have fun eating snake. Don't get yourselves killed." Sib muttered as she stretched her neck, flexing her hands and breathing out slowly.

Behind her, Jax drew an arrow and kept it handy as he stalked off, their path angling gently away from the youth, heading for the abandoned outpost. Sib gave one last look to the two, her own body still shivering, teeth chattering softly despite her best efforts.

But then, they seemed capable. And she didn't want to take on responsibility for two more souls. Hers and her husband's was enough trouble for her, thank you very much. "Don't get yourselves killed." She repeated tersely, backing away from them and after her husband, keeping eyes on the two out of habit, rather than any actual worry they'd try to cause she or her lover harm.

"Bah, no time for this delicious snake? Fair enough."
Holle swung the snake as he had his sling, then flung it behind his head, the corpse sailing through the air, landing somewhere a short distance off in the forest behind him. Shrugging slightly, Holle turned around and walked the way the couple was going.
"I just hope that this is going to be interesting. My dear, as you have suggested, I will follow these two. Might I have your hand?
Holle extends his own, raising his left eyebrow, then his right, then both with a grin.
"It would be an honor."

Abigail shook her head softly, both flattered and a bit confused as to how to react to such attention. "No, but thank you for the offer," she said hesitantly, "I think I prefer to have my hands free out here." She loved to explore, but she never treated it lightly; there were still monsters out here, and plenty of things that wanted nothing more than to tear through an unsuspecting hylian.

"I'm sure we'll have time to talk more when we've reached someplace dry, though. I'll watch out behind us, okay?" She tailed the others, making sure she had her walking stick at the ready in case of any danger. It wasn't the best weapon, but it would do.

"Are they following us?" Jax muttered softly back as he forged a careful, silent pace through the dreary copse. Following a seeming meandering that wound back and forth through the trees. A studious observer could possibly note that though the path was winding through the trees haphazardly, it was definitely edging firmly in one direction.

Behind him, Sib spun and glanced back. Still her teeth chattered, though now the cold in her clothing had seemed to seep into her bones. "Yep." She replied with a soft sigh. "Were we that trusting, when we were young? Follow a pair of grouchy mercs . . ."

A "mmph" and a shake of his head was all Sib got in reply from her husband. She rolled her own eyes, "Maybe you were." She added on a moment later, "Mister well-loved, "no sir, I really do love your daughter sir.""

Before he could think up a reply, she glanced back to the two younger Hylians following. "The urge to follow us just that great, eh?"

Abigail shrugged, momentarily glancing over her shoulder to make sure nothing unsavory was following them. "You're soaked and shivering, and the weather certainly isn't going to help. It wouldn't be right to leave you alone, and it wouldn't be wise to try and leave in this anyway." The girl consciously did not bring up the fact that they had been nonchalantly hunting Bokoblins before. She doubted they'd like it if part of her reasoning was that as they hunted the monsters, the monsters hunted them.

She gave silent thanks that this area was well-forested... much of the fields gave no cover. That was deadly for the unsuspecting hylian. As the group proceeded she wrapped her fingers around her magic lens, a nervous habit intended to keep her calm. At least she wouldn't be deceived, she knew that much... now the problem was, would they run into something that didn't need to bewitch her senses?

Holle chuckled, his attention diverted away from from the group at large, and more at the slight rustling he was hearing in the trees up and to his left. Pushing some power into his legs, he leapt up into branches of the tree above and startled the small partridge that had been nestled between the base of the branch he was standing on and the trunk of the tree itself.
"Normally, it would. You're people I didn't expect to see, and as such, whether I would introduce myself or not, I would follow you. It is standard procedure, you know.
Holle shooed away the small fly buzzing around his face.
"On the other hand, it's possible that I'm just incredibly bored by the lack of action and direction we seem to be taking. We've only made 500 metres of distance. See? Here's the snake I flung.
Holle shook his head, making the fly-covered corpse of the snake jiggle in the wind.
"Honestly, I was trusting you to at least know fast way to this outpost of yours. Meh, whatever, at least this way I'll be doing something more useful than over-stuffing my pack with meat. Lead on, good fellows!"

The pair froze as Holle startled the small bird from the tree. Jax immediately notching an arrow, Sib's sword coming half-way out of its sheath.

"Following us." Murmured Sib with a vicious glare to Holle. "Is bad for your health. Would you kindly stop hopping about like a mad fool and stay quiet?"

Her husband, meanwhile, kept quiet, eyes watching the surrounding trees. A few cracks of branches in the distance, a muffled grunt. Something had taken notice of the bird leaving its roost. "Get them to stay soft. Something's up ahead." He hissed, dropping low.

Abigail clutched her hiking stick and frowned. She was no warrior; she had not, at all, approved when Holle had jumped up into the trees. A Hylian's form was far more noticeable there, where it should not be, and where there was a multitude of things that would cause noises... which was not what they needed. Especially since she, herself, was not of much use in a direct fight.

Her skin tingled at the presence of something else. She slipped behind a tree and tried to peek out around the trunk, to see if she could make the form of anything...