A Healthy Encounter [Squishy Panther] [COMPLETE]

A Healthy Encounter
- Horus Falconer, Ikanan Swordsman (3/2/4 Hylian) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Mortal Draw, -40 Rupees.
- Luna, the Ice Princess (1/5/3 Hylian) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Ice Loftwing, -85 Rupees.
- Morgan Liesmith, Ikanan Refugee (2/1/5 Hylian) [Squishy] Reward: Longshot, +40 Rupees.
Discussion

He exhaled, his eyes shut, focused on the blood coursing through his veins carrying oxygen to the muscles in his arms. Oxygen, and maybe a little bit more. The fingers of one hand grasped the sheath around his waist tightly, raising it slightly to bring the hilt of the blade within it in an easier position to grab. The fingers of the other hand had grasped that hilt, tightening around it so hard that his knuckles had turned white. As he exhaled, he forced himself to relax his hand ever so slightly- this was what he always did wrong, he knew it.

Suddenly, without prior warning, his eyes flew open and he unsheathed the blade, stepping forward as he violently swung it diagonally upwards to form one line with his right shoulder. The improvised training dummy he and Bernard had fashioned from straw and wood snapped in half and fell over, as normal, but it didn't splinter and shatter as Horus had expected to see. "...damn." He sheathed his blade again as Luna came over to gauge the damage. She'd been watching him practice and took the top half of the training dummy in her hands as Horus shook his head. "I just can't get it right."

"You should stop for today," Luna said, looking at the row of at least five dummies Horus had maimed in a similar way to this one. "You're getting tired, your swings are becoming less powerful. You should rest and try again tomorrow."

Horus wanted to protest -he was so close!- when Bertrand's voice resonated from behind them. "Trying to get Pierce's special technique down?" Horus turned around to see the blonde bear of a man approach them, his massive axe over his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. If I can't pull it off, I don't think you'll be able to anytime soon either. You're probably better off going to the higher areas of Ikana and finding a green, vine-like herb."

"What?" Horus said, so startled by the strangeness of that request that he forgot to kick Bertrand for doubting him. He WAS trying to learn the move his father had used several times as they had come to Ikana. he had seen Pierce kill unusually tough enemies within the motion of unsheathing his blade a few times, and wanted to be able to do the same thing- it'd save him strength and time in the long run, make him a more efficient protector for Luna. But the reason he was mad at Bertrand was because the same thought had crept up on the redhead. Maybe he wasn't good enough to learn his father's special move. He shook the thought and continued, having gotten no response from Bertrand. "That's oddly specific. You trying to get high?"

"I wish." Bertrand shook his head. "It's Freddie. Remember how he got bitten by a zombie before you, Luns, and Little Miss Priestess set out for the castle and all the drama that ensued from it?" Horus nodded. "Well, it's gotten worse. He can hardly move, and the wound's getting really nasty. Probably best if you stayed away from it, Luns. We don't eat enough that we can afford for you to lose your lunch." He smiled as he said it, but Horus knew his godfather was dead serious. "Anyway, Allison once told me that the cure for Redead bites is a green, vine-like herb that grows in Ikana's highlands, and that we'd recognise it when we saw it. We can't leave Freddie unattended, so only two of us can go- and I know better than to think I can separate you and your better half."

Horus turned red in the face. Bertrand had been saying things like that about him and Luna for the better part of the past year and it never failed to embarrass him. "F-fine," he said. "Let me get my crossbow and we'll be off. If you don't mind, of course, Luna."

"I know what herb he's talking about," was all the Ice Mage said, "It shouldn't be too hard to reach."

"I'm just gonna take that as a yes."

"C'mon, give me your hand." Horus held out his own hand for Luna to grab, pulling her up the ledge. They'd been walking and climbing for at least twenty minutes now, stopping on occasion so Horus could take aim at a passing Guay. He'd only hit one of the four he'd taken aim at thus far, and Luna now carried the dead bird over her shoulder, its talons tied together with a tough vine she'd found and held on to. If they could shoot another one, they'd have a feast tonight. "So, where's this herb grow?"

"Not much farther now. Do you see that?" Luna walked over to a lonely tree that watched over the river below the cliffs, and bent down to grab a large-leafed weed that grew around its roots. She snapped its stalk and showed it to Horus. "The leaves on the herb are similar to this one," she explained as she held out the leaf to show him, while putting the stalk in her mouth. She swallowed it before she continued. "We should be at the right height. Now it's just a matter of finding a tree that it grows from..." She turned back to the tree, inspecting its branches.

"Step back," Horus said, stretching an arm to illustrate his words. "I'll go see." With those words, he took his grappling hook to hand and started spinning the rope, looking for a good spot to latch the hook onto.

"Well," Horus said, jumping back out of the tree and using the rope of his grappling hook to help break his fall, "I don't know what you've been researching, but there's nothing in that tree that looks remotely like what you showed me before." He unhooked his hook and took it back, although not putting it away because they would need it to climb further.

Luna only shrugged. "Then this particular tree doesn't have one. There should be more of them up ahead, higher up on the cliff." She looked up against the side of the cliff, examining it along with Horus. "Do you see any footrests we can use?"

"You're pretty hardcore for a girl your size, you know that?" Horus chuckled. "I wasn't looking for footrests, but I can't find a passage that we can climb relatively easily so those may be our only option. Do you see anything I can--" He cut himself off, turning around abruptly and scanning the hill behind them.

"Horus?"

"Sht. I heard something." Luna elected not to tell him that between birds, Stalfos, and other creatures, she would be more worried if he HADN'T heard something. If he felt the need to point it out, then he had heard something out of the ordinary. "I think we're being watched." Taking his hook and its rope in one hand, he drew his sword with the other. "Who's there?"

Horus wasted no time. When the skinny, blonde man popped up from behind the rock he had wanted to stand on to get a better view of the area, he dropped his grappling hook to grab him by the collar. "There you are," he said, sounding far calmer than he had expected. He dragged the man to more level ground and dropped him there, between Luna and himself. Not giving him time to get up and defend himself, the redhead lowered his sword, very lightly pressing the tip against the blonde's throat.

Luna wandered off towards where Horus had dropped the hook, picking it up so he wouldn't have to collect it later. As she straightened herself again, however, she frowned. Were those traces of magic she sensed..? It was vague, and very far away, but something felt funny. She turned back to Horus, just in time to see him start to interrogate the newcomer.

"Who are you?" he asked, "Why were you following us?"

The man's behaviour took Horus aback, and he glanced over to Luna, who had started to walk over to them with his hook in her hands and her attention somewhere off to the side. He spared a quick look in the same direction as her, but seeing nothing, turned back to the man. His behaviour reminded him of the Ice Mage a bit. After speaking with his male companions on the subject several times, he had learnt that Luna's often strange mannerisms were caused by an illness of sorts, something that went wrong in her mind rather than in her body.

"Are you..." he started, trailing off as he lowered his sword. "Then you're probably harmless. Come here." He held out his hand to help the man up. "I can assure you we're real. Did you say you lived in the canyon?" He looked the man over again. He'd been seeing a lot of outsiders lately, but this guy looked about as run-down and used to hardship as he and Luna were. "Huh. We live just down the cliffside here, not far from the castle actually." He didn't bother pointing as the man would likely misinterpret the gesture. "I'm Horus, and this is Luna, my..."

He trailed off again and almost bit his tongue off to keep him from forming the word he'd started to make. Luna gave him a look and finished his sentence for him, tilting her head as if he was the slow one: "...companion," she said, and Horus felt the relieved sigh leaving him more than he realised he physically made it.

He turned back to the blonde, not bothering to hide his embarrassment because neither would connect the dots anyway. "Let me ask again, who are you? How have you survived in here on your own?"

Crap. The stranger DID catch on. Horus turned his face away from the stranger and Luna, regaining his composure. He did hear Morgan's question, but took a while to respond. Would he tell him? He was used to the people surrounding him knowing his life story- growing up in Rauru until the invasion, fleeing to Ikana, and losing his parents- when he got to that point, he felt his jaw clench and he decided that no, he did not want to talk about it. He turned back to Morgan. "Long and boring," he brusquely said. "Not something I'm keen to tell."

Luna, in the meantime, had spent some more time looking around waiting for Horus to finish up his conversation. She stopped and focused her attention on a small tree on the top of a cliff yet above them and sighed, prompting a sound from Horus that she recognised as indicating that he had redirected his attention to her. "There's another one up there," she said. "We might have more luck there."

"Right," he said. He then turned back to Morgan, raising his hand once more in greeting. "We should be going. One of our companions is suffering from an infected ReDead bite and the reason we're here in the first place is to find a cure. Unless you have a long, dark green vine with heart-shaped leaves that bleeds a clear, thin sap when snapped, we'll be going now."

Morgan knew where to find it! Horus immediately spun as the stranger invited himself into their company, and raised an eyebrow when he pulled out a hookshot and connected it to a tree on the ledge above them. Climbing that ledge would take a while, Horus figured, and there was no way all three of them could travel by hookshot at once. He knew better than to think Morgan would throw it down towards them so they could get up there, themselves, too, so there really was only one way to go about this. "Luns," he said, turning to the mage, "Go with him." To Morgan, he said, "Take her with you up there, I'll take the long way around."

Luna gave a quick nod, then walking over to Morgan and very hesitantly putting her arms around his neck, hoping she didn't impede his movement that way. "Don't worry about me," she heard Horus say, "I'm a decent climber. I'll meet you two up there." With that, the redhead hurried off, looking for rocks to serve as footholds so he could climb up there.

Luna held on in silence as the two flew up to the top of the cliff, and let go as soon as she knew they were on stable ground. She was always a little uneasy when Horus wasn't around to protect her. At least, however, Morgan seemed to have no ill intentions, but she still felt the strong urge to keep a leg or a spell ready. She only gave a nod when he asked her to confirm her name, and looked away when he asked how long they had been here.

How long had it been..? She didn't remember much of the day she had been forced to flee her home, although she suspected magic had been involved. Horus had found her and taken her with him as his family fled to Ikana, she remembered that... but how long ago was that? It was so hard to say. How old had Horus been when she had first met him? How old had she been? That was impossible to say with certainty. "...years," she only answered. "We haven't counted." Unsure of what to do now, she fiddled with the ring on her finger as she looked in the direction she knew him to be in. He wouldn't take long- between his Roc's Feather, his Dolphin Slash, and his grappling hook, he was good at travelling vertically. But should she wait for him or continue their search..?

She shook her head. "And you?" she asked, almost hesitatingly. Fair was fair; she was as confused as Horus was to see another living person here.

"Yes," Luna said. "There are four of us: Horus, myself, Frederick, and Bertrand." She hesitated, but figured she might as well kill the time until Horus arrived. He wasn't far. "Frederick is the one who was bitten by a ReDead. He's become terribly ill as a result, which is why Horus and I are looking for a cure. Bertrand is watching over him in hopes that it won't get worse until we return." She hoped so. Having an odd number of them would mean they'd have to stick together with the three of them, meaning she and Horus would no longer have time alone. "Horus and I usually work together. We complement each other."

Speak of the devil: Horus suddenly launched into view, managing to manoeuvre himself above the ledge before making a hard landing. "Sorry about the delay," he said, pointing over his shoulder. "Ran into a bunch of Bubbles halfway up. Wouldn't listen to reason so I had to take them out." He sheathed his sword, walking over to the others. "May want to keep an eye out for more of them. It's been a while since I saw them this active. What next?"

Oh boy. Horus remembered those mountains all too well, and he was none too keen on revisiting them. Last time he had been there, they had lost the vast majority of the people travelling with them to Ganon's troops. "...we don't have to go over them into Southern Hyrule Field, do we?" he asked. "I mean, Ikana is no Paradise, but if memory serves it's a hell of a lot safer than what's on the other side of those mountains."

"Barely anything grows in Southern Hyrule Field," Luna reassured him. "What we're looking for must be in the mountains themselves."

"Good. In that case, I suggest we get a move o-" Horus stopped in the middle of his sentence, turning around. "...crud. They brought their friends." He gave no further explanation before jerking his crossbow off his back and putting a bolt in it, leaving Morgan and Luna to turn around and see the problem for themselves.

A sizeable flock of Bubbles in varying colours had shown up, hovering over the edge that Horus had come into view through as well, and paused to take in the three Hylians. Luna reached for her whip, not sure if it would be any use, but at least it had slightly more range than her legs and would allow her to attack more safely.