Can a Fairy Heal This Curse? [Eevachu + Doc Genz]

Viole glanced curiously at Eve's words of a nearby house, but Rika was quick to interject. "Ah, she uh, hasn't been in the village a long time." He bluffed. Viole seemed to hold suspicion at his words, but the topic had already changed as Eve brought up another house.

"I see, um. . ." Viole seemed to be at a loss for words, for a moment. "Then, that would be helpful! Thank you, Eve!" She exclaimed, smiling at the girl though she couldn't tell. The other Kokiri seemed a little offput by the idea- what kind of house would a monster girl like this live in?-, but they didn't say anything.

The air grew silent as Viole seemed to contemplate something. "S-so, Rika. . ." She choked out, waiting for him to say something though he looked at her expectantly.

"There's, um. . . been a problem recently." She stuttered, as if afraid to speak about it.

"You see. . . fairy guardians have been going missing, recently." She kind of glanced away.

"Many were taken by the tower, right? Is that not it?" Rika questioned, to which she nodded.

"Yes, that's true. Some, including my own. . . " She paused, playing with those words in her mind. "They were taken, but you were also able to rescue many, right?" He nodded. "But, you put a stop to that, right Rika? Right?" She seemed to plead for an answer.

"Yes. . ." Rika paused. "Ganon's evils should be no more." He lingered on that word as he said it. Should.

"That's what I thought." She seemed relieved, for just a moment. "Then, that's what scares me. Some fairies have been disappearing recently, still, even some that you rescued." Her tone was quiet and fearful.

"What. . .?" Rika questioned, surprised. While the forest was certainly far more dangerous than it once was, such powerful evil magic should be gone now. He had partially expected something bad to still be happening- after all, there was no way he could completely purge the forest of the threat that had encompassed it, and its security had been weakened and compromised. But still, why would fairies specifically still be disappearing?

"And. . . my fairy is gone again, too." She choked out, trying to hold back tears. "I thought she was saved, but Brixy, she's. . . gone. I don't know what's happening, but please, help her Rika." She pleaded, her voice solemn as she covered her mouth.

Rika took a deep breath. "I can. . . look into it." Truthfully, he hadn't a clue where to start, but it was difficult for him to simply ignore something like this.

"R-Really?" Viole wiped her tears. "Bapi has been trying to look into it. . . I'm not sure what she's found out so far, but if you talk to her she may tell you what she knows."

Rika regretted saying he would help- the last thing he wanted to do was talk to that little brat. Sighing, he relented to the fate he had agreed to. ". . . Got it." Truthfully, he doubted Bapi had even discovered anything- the girl was not exactly the brightest. Still, though, it was probably worth talking to her.

Glancing back at Eve, Rika called out to her. "Ready to go, Eve?"

Eve surely was ready to go, in whatever measure of ready involved marching about with the Snouts. While still trying to convince even herself that the house was real, she mindlessly ushered a few of the Mad Scrubs out the door.

"Ready as ever. Let's get going." she motioned to them, and the crawled out the door.

With a misguided jump, she hopped down from the hut and landed on something large. It seemed to be another Kokiri. Eve rolled off of the person and found that it was Getselle. This terror from her past was also spying on her? Seemed just enough. The Mad Scrubs continued to hop after Eve and landed on Getselle one-by-one. Not wanting to start any conversation between her yelps of "ow," Eve hurried along in another direction. As she was going to have to wait for Rika, she stared back and waited for him to jump out of his own house.

They were also going to have to find Bapi, and Eve wasn't familiar with whatever generation she came from. She peeked and waited for Rika to come out. Although talk of missing fairies reminded her of her own. Where had Alice gone? A shiver went up Eve's spine. Alice was probably still hiding in her clothes as usual.

The Deku were coming with them. At first, Rika was somewhat displeased by this, but that quickly faded away- he had no clue where to find Bapi, and it was possible that they did. Once they had made their way down- Rika noted the Kokiri girl they had all helplessly pummeled, but did not care enough to say anything,- they began walking in a certain direction.

. . . And walking.

"Where are we going?" Rika spat out, causing the Deku Scrubs to freeze. "Ah, um. . . You see, mister master Rika sir, we were following you." Rika glared at them, causing them to jump in fright.

"Do you know where Bapi is?"

"Ah, yes, of course mister mast-"

"Then why don't you know where we're going?!" He shouted at them.

"Eep!" They squeaked, spinning around one another in circles as they cried out, "W-We never sent out the brigade order!"

"Then do it and take me to her!" Rika frustratedly boomed at them. He was getting sick of their antics.

They stopped running for a moment, though they kept shivering. They stood in front of Wollo, as they saluted him. "You too, cadet Eve!" One of them squeaked out, all fear seemingly fading from their minds.

"Our mission is simple, brigade; under the direct command of Commander Wollo Sir, we shall seek out and find the Kokiri named Bapi! Failure to complete this mission is unacceptable, and to do so is to accept all punishment Commander Wollo Sir chooses to bestow upon us! Understood, brigade?!" The Deku around him all let out a squeaky 'Understood!' at that.

Wollo couldn't help but stare at them. They sure were funny friends, they liked to smack their heads with their arms a lot. Rika just sighed. He had resigned to dealing with this, so long as it furthered their cause.

"Now, at your command, Commander Wollo Sir, the brigade shall move out!" They stared at Wollo expectantly. "Uhh. . ." Wollo responded. "Ok." He said after a few moments of silence. Rika immediately interjected, "He said ok now let's move already!" He shoved the Deku Scrubs along.

One of the Scrubs leaned closer towards Eve. "That's our Commander Wollo Sir for you. A foolish leader would let his men leap into a mission without a plan, but he considered it thoughtfully before sending us out. It shows how much he cares."

Wollo liked being around these guys.

. . .

The Deku Scrubs had led them to some small, dome-like building. Once they reached the entrance, the Deku Scrubs let out a salute once more. "Status report, brigade! This is the training dome Bapi is known to frequent when she is not scouting the village or forest! We believe it is a prime location for her to hide, so we should move slowly and st- eep!" They were cut off as Rika barreled past them into the place.

"Bapi! Are you in here?" He called out as he entered. "Who's there?" A voice called back, and a couple moments after, a Kokiri girl stuck her head out from a corner. Her face instantly dropped to a frown. "Rika. You're the last person I wanted to see." She charged up to the Kokiri angrily.

"Why do you think you can just barge into my place, you think you're some kinda hotshot? Ever heard of knocking?" She got in his face and scowled at him for a moment, before stepping back and glaring at him.

Rika really wanted to punch her.

While Eve was glad the Scrubs were so enthusiastic, she was still afraid she would accidentally shake their hand and send them up into a cloud of ash. She followed Rika into the training dome, mistakenly pulling off her blindfold so she could see what kind of place it was. It was then that she had just managed to sort her way into the building, a bit later than Rika.

"Ever heard of knocking?" a voice came from across the room.

In the reflection of a tiny fist-shaped pupil was Bapi, right at the center of the bullseye. A sick feeling crawling into her, she cried out to her liege. Her feet were already pulling her toward Bapi, dragging her quickly across the room.

"Commander Wollo!" she yelped as she lost control of her stance.

Her arm swung, bandages flying everywhere and a sinister swirling flame engulfing her arm. The hand of red fleshy bone came into a fist, and two huge arms crunched into the floor and propelled her further. From speaking the word "Commander" the room had blurred from the door way to the other side.

"Punch!" she wailed as caution to everyone in the room, hoping Wollo could intervene or something.

Her fist like an angry skeletal fireball crashed into Bapi and threw her into the wall. A fading swirl of flames dissipated into tiny slivers of smoke as Eve tried to brake herself. Though she did get a good look at Bapi, she had effectively ruined the whole scene and created a whole set of actions she had to explain, but hoped she didn't have to. It was only her luck the set of disastrous Twister urges didn't send the poor Kokiri into oblivion. She had to seriously consider putting them under wraps before her next mission, as she had promised Julius they would meet again.

"WHOA! My dreadful condolences! Force of habit." she explained, wiping a nervous half-smile off her face. She would have helped Bapi up but now risked setting her on fire. Some bad luck had hit Kokiri Forest today.

A mix of noises flooded the air- first, the shocked and pained cries of Bapi as she vaulted backwards into the wall. Next, the nervous apologies Eve hastily spoke. Finally, the booming laughter and joy of Rika. Was Eve some sort of mind reader? Here Rika was, wanting to deck Bapi straight in the jaw, and Eve just barrels forward, unprovoked. Did she hold some sort of grudge against the girl? Rika was hesitant to believe they were familiar with one another, but he wouldn't be surprised that there was someone else who didn't like her. There were some weird things that had happened with Eve at the moment- ignoring that she assaulted Bapi for seemingly no reason, her fists exploded in flames and imposing, and glowing fists shot out of her eyes to vault her forward. They were certainly things he noted, but he was unconcerned at the moment.

"That was great, Eve!" He exclaimed, clapping at her performance as he neared the two of them. "A solid punch, too." He nodded, glancing down at Bapi who was spread out across the ground. The girl was out cold. "It would've been better if you used one of those eye fists, though." He joked, laughing as he spoke. He scratched his head, as the excitement began to die down and it dawned on him why they were here in the first place. "Ah damn it, we were supposed to ask her about leads." He frowned. There was no way they were going to get anything with her unconscious.

--

The Deku Scrubs were absolutely mortified. Frozen stiff like an actual tree, they could do nothing but watch Eve's display. "C-Cadet. . .?" One squeaked in a hushed tone. They glanced down at Commander Wollo. Though a great fear had infiltrated their hearts, they knew they could rely on him in these troubling times.

. . .

Eve was such a scary friend. Wollo metaphorically felt the ends of his moustache singe as Eve rushed the Kokiri girl. "Uhh. . ." He could not help but wonder what to do. She sure was scary, but Rika seemed to laugh. Was it a joke? It seemed like Bapi got hit hard though, and she was his friend too. Was she ok? At least Wollo knew Eve was his friend. Even if she was scary, she wouldn't pick him up and grill him in her palms like some lemon-marinated dish. That was true.

--

"Dekus!" The trio jumped in absolute terror at Rika's cry. "Take her to a bed or something- I don't really care where honestly, the ground is acceptable if you want- until she wakes up." He ordered them. The Deku trio quickly shuffled over- intentionally taking a wide crescent to avoid Eve's trajectory- to move Bapi's body.

"I'm still working on that one." Eve mentioned ominously as she avoided setting off the Deku Scrubs. "I think there was a way to reverse the on-sight punching thing but I couldn't remember even if I wanted to. Just one person smacked in a whole village is like a new record for me, actually."

She seemed slightly more confident in Fist Eyes in light of her recently getting the painful flaming death hands. Walking around stupidly avoiding looking at people's faces was actually vastly preferable to what she was stuck with now. It still stung her arms, and hitting Bapi actually made her flinch a lot in pain. It seemed the use of it wasn't to hit people with a bare hand, but maybe to find a way to control the flames that came out. Eve would have to get used to making it into a positive thing even if it took a really long time to do so.

"Do you want to talk about anything Reds? I can greatly vouch for there being some pretty terrible things deep out in the woods. I don't remember it well but it's this foggy nightmare that comes back to me now and then." Eve began, going back to wrapping her hand up to prevent further disaster.

"Better idea, let's use that girl's tea set and get some refreshments going. I can't horribly say I respect her, either. I had another painful and foggy past with all of the Kokiri that came before her. I can't say for sure, but they all put me on edge for some reason." she recommended, keeping the conversation flowing.

There would no doubt be a lot of input for Rika to come up with now. Eve was putting a tea kettle full of water onto her smoldering hands. The heat was more than enough to make the water boil, and it would serve to help her control the heat output like she had previously mentioned. Making tea would probably become a lot more helpful in the long run.

On-sight punching? The way Eve spoke, she made it sound as if she were obligated to punch Bapi. Again, not that he would blame her. The idea of some forced assault seemed strange, but everything about Eve was nothing but. There were too many questions to ask, though, jumping immediately into it would prove to be scattered. While Eve prepared the tea- an impressive application of her molted arms, to be fair,- Rika pondered what he could ask. A massive jumble of inquiries about everything he had learned washed through his mind, and then, he spoke the most obvious of questions.

"What. . . happened to you?" He asked somewhat bluntly. "The last time I saw you, you weren't like this. Your arms, your eyes, even your personality. You seem more subdued, almost. . . broken." Rika played with the end of his words a little. For a moment, he considered saying more- he had his own thoughts and questions about some of those aspects, and there was more he wanted to ask. However, it would probably be better to have Eve respond first, and work his way through the conversation from there.

"That's a really good question, actually. A Gerudo took me aside before I got here. The being that makes these changes on people is apparently known to other people too. I didn't imagine it though, or these things wouldn't be on my body." she started, looking a little worried.

"She called him the Twister. He must be some alternate dimension-thing like that Sen creature was. But the Twister seems to have a purpose, a business. He's not to be messed around with. If you don't like what he does to you, you've got to solve these riddles to undo it after you've paid him already. The riddles are probably supposed to be easy but I'm really bad at those things." she continued, looking a little upset.

"I'm so stupid." she spat, pounding a fist into the table. A small tear streaked down one of the previous tear marks on her eye shadow.

The tea kettle started to whistle, and she poured it carefully over the tea bags. She hadn't actually explained what the twists were, as if anyone actually knew.

"The Twister. . .?" Rika questioned. And he was like Sen? Was he some sort of all powerful mage, who traveled around, causing misfortune to others? Wait, though. Eve had mentioned something about 'paying' him. And a business? "What do you mean, a business?" Rika inquired in a somewhat confused tone. The impression he had got up to this point was that it was some sort of curse he bestowed upon others, but Eve's explanation seemed to carry a different tone. "Do you pay for him to curse you?" The idea that there were riddles you could solve to undo these curses seemed strange, as well- was this nothing more than a game to 'The Twister'?

"Uh, Twister, right. . ." Eve reiterated.

She was looking at the passed out Kokiri in the corner as she sipped her tea. There was a slight movement, a gasping breath. Was she stirring? Eve started to get a little nervous. Surely there was some way to explain what happened, and hopefully Bapi did not remember.

"I think she's waking up!" she shout-whispered to Rika.

Bapi started to move and groan, pushing clutter aside as she tried to get up. Knowing that Bapi would probably show them where to go, Eve didn't want to mess this up.

"Oh dear! You must have passed out when that shelf fell and hit you! You should be more careful with your furniture, darling!" Eve explained to the waking girl. She sucked on her tea nervously, not wanting to have to say much more.

Rika took a calm sip of his tea. At first, he felt hesitant to sip tea made from a bundle of things Eve had been lugging around, but it actually turned out to be somewhat pleasant. It was pretty clear to the Kokiri that Eve was uncomfortable with the topic. There was more he wanted to inquire upon, but pushing the girl would do nothing but make her choke up even further. Perhaps he would change the topic for now, and come back to it later.

. . .Or so he thought, but the topic had changed by itself once Bapi began stirring. The discussion would have to be tucked away for now, but Rika's curiosity was too emblazoned by this point to let it die permanently.

"Haha, yeah, that shelf came out of nowhere. . ." Rika bluffed, chuckling innocently at Eve's lie. It was a terrible lie, was she stupid? Where would a shelf be coming from?

"Ugh. . .A shelf. . .?" Bapi groaned, clenching her forehead as she brought herself upright. "Is that what happened. . . ?" She questioned absentmindedly, glancing from Rika, to Eve, to the Deku, then to Wollo. If Wollo was there, that must have been what happened.

Suddenly, a scream filled the air. "Bapiiii!" A voice cried out, as a small, wisp-like creature darted into the room. "Outta the way!" She demanded, zooming past everyone and over Bapi. "Oh, Bapi, are you ok?! What happened here?!" She demanded to the others. "Beppo. . .? A shelf. . . fell." Bapi muttered woozily.

"Yeah uh. . . a shelf. It was awful." Rika struggled to say it with a straight face. There weren't even any shelves in the room to fall on her in the first place. What was next, was Eve going to say she magically summoned a shelf?

Eve was just glad she only had to say she was just glad Bapi was okay.

"I'm just glad you're okay." she blatantly lied through her teeth.

Eve thought for a moment, or in her case a few minutes because she was a little slow. There was no doubt Bapi had a lead on what they were looking for. It was a slow start but Eve was actually on track for caring about helping people. A shiver went up her spine as she considered helping the fairies over sitting here with Bapi. She had her own fairy that she barely cared about, after all. Maybe, she thought, they would even find out why Rika didn't have a fairy.

Eve dug through her clothes and yanked out a dazed, sleepy fairy. The resemblance to a moth was almost immediate. Eve waved the giggling comatose fairy around.

"We have to find out what's happened with the fairies." she announced, patting a demonstrating hand against the mind-broken creature. "If you know at all where they were disappearing around, any hint will help." she continued. "By the way, what is this building?"

Eve was a terrible, absolutely horrid liar, but Rika had to give her credit- even he could not lie about being worried for Bapi. Luckily, she was still so dazed it seemed to have worked somehow.

"Haha, thanks. . . It really came outta nowhere, huh. . .?" Bapi woozily let out as she began to come to. Before she could ask any further questions and uncover Eve's awful lie, the girl managed to actually change the topic. Pulling out a seemingly snoozy fairy- it was probably a fairy, anyway- and waving it around, she began to speak about their reason for coming there, the missing fairy incident. Ah, right, Rika had almost completely forgotten about that.

"Ah, yes. That is our entire reason for coming here." Rika nodded, his eyes narrowing towards the giggling fairy in Eve's clutches. He had come to believe she did not even have one- after all, what fairy would let their Kokiri end up in such a bastardized state-, but its apparent eternal sleep brought an answer to that. It raised another question for Rika, of how it became that way at all, but he supposed a tainted Kokiri would have a tainted fairy. While he was curious of the answer, Eve already seemed hesitant to answer his questioning, and his curiosity had not yet been sated- it was something to keep in mind, but perhaps he would not bother with it in lieu of his other thoughts.

"Ahh. . .the fairies? Ah!" She bolted up, her senses seemingly flooding back and overwhelming her for a moment. "The fairies!" She cried out, a sudden realization of her duty seeming to hit her.

"Yes, that's right. Viole said you were looking into them, and the two of us are as well. Unfortunately, because we do not know anything, we have to turn to you. Tell us what you know." Rika commanded, causing Bapi to glare at him.

"You know, usually when you're asking someone for help, you don't act like such a huge asshole towards them." She spat, though she seemed to concede after. ". . . But, UNFORTUNATELY," she emphasized, "I know you can get somewhere with it." Rika pondered if Eve's fist eyes would hit Bapi again.

"I'm not positive, but I may have a lead. You know how during the attack, the forest had turned into that awful poisonous swamp?" Rika nodded. "Well, those spots went away pretty quickly after the tower was destroyed. But, there's one area that stayed swampy, and it feels. . . I'm not sure how to explain it, there's something that feels awful about it, like this terrifying, evil aura telling us to go away, so we haven't looked into it yet." She mumbled, though Rika interjected. "You're probably just a coward."

"Shut up you asshole, I'm trying to help you! And you wonder why no one likes you!" She shouted, frustrated. As Rika began to speak, he was quickly cut off. "ANYWAY, my point is, there's something wrong about that spot. I don't know if it's connected, but there's something not right with it."

Rika pondered her words for a moment. His feelings towards Bapi aside, he did not doubt her words- there was likely some sort of malevolent force or aura pervading that area, perhaps one that was pushing weaker spirited individuals away. "Mm. Well, whether it's connected or not, it is an issue nonetheless. Take us there, and we will seek out the source of the corruption."

Eve kept her eyes under tight wraps-- haha, no she didn't. After smashing Bapi's face in, there was almost no way her eyes would act up again unless somebody new appeared. It was quite bad enough already with the state of her old hands, she was prepared to keep herself in action at all costs. The group had almost immediately begun their trip. With any luck, Bapi would be in a great hurry to not see Rika for a while. Man, even I'm not that tense. Eve thought about Bapi being either irreparably bitter or completely tsundere. Eve was leaning toward the latter, although she wasn't quite sure what tsundere even was.

They started on the trail, and it seemed to be the right way through and through. For the path was already becoming soppy and muddy. It was fortuitous that Eve had her eyes open, or she would have tripped and got stuck in the mud many times. It was already bad to a cruel level even with her tall boots. A loud sucking noise happened every time she tried to lift her foot out. Eve sort of wished she could just float around and hover over everything-like that would ever happen!

"Poopy soil, poopy dreams." she said aloud. It may have been the deepest thing she had said in a long while.

If the earth itself was so crude, perhaps the aspirations of man were also crude and without meaning. What a thoughtful statement it was. Evelyn flopped and slopped about, hoping to get to the swamp some time in the current month. Her tongue sneaked up the side of her face, licking away a dribble of mucus like a windshield wiper. Whatever Bapi was leading them to was not going to be in sight for a good while. The bologna-colored fairy flew away in plain sight of Eve. Oh yes, she didn't care where it was going. It likely wandered off a great many times, as if the two weren't related at all.

It was fortuitous that Bapi seemed to have some inkling of where this disturbance was, but did it have to be so far away? Surely there was a quicker route to where they were headed. Still, though, it was clear they were going the right direction, as the trio's surroundings began to grow thicker and wetter. That was right, the trio; the Deku- sorry, the Scrubs n' Snouts Brigade- had given them some poor excuse about how they had to remain behind with Commander Wollo Sir, and how a great leader such as him had no need to step on the battlefield when his subordinates could handle it. It would come as no surprise, though, that they were not the subordinates to handle it- someone would need to stand behind to receive orders from Commander Wollo Sir, after all. Thus, Rika and Eve were left to handle things with Bapi as a guide.

There was likely some deeper meaning to Eve's words, something even Rika was not capable of understand, but he paid it no mind, his attention instead drawn to the seemingly drunk bologna fairy fluttering away. It came as no surprise to him that it was just leaving.

. . .

"We're here." Their silent trip was interrupted by the sound of Bapi's voice. It was clear that their surroundings had certainly taken on an appearance perhaps more akin to Morgue Swamp, but Rika would hesitate to call it as traumatic or severe as it was during Skyreach. "And this is where I'm stopping, the two of you have to explore ahead on your own." Rika was about to make some sort of backhanded or sassy comment, but his lips were shut as he stepped forward. He felt a vicious wave of malevolent magical energy wash over his body, tickling at his muscles and screaming at his brain. The message it delivered was loud and clear.

"Go away."

If Rika were a weaker being, this would be more than enough to force him away, both physically and mentally. He had to give Bapi some credit, then- though she was a weak coward, it was not her fears that dissuaded her from exploring the depths of the hell they were in, but this sickening aura that propelled most beings away. The fact that she had come even this far was worth commending.

"Then leave. We'll continue on from here." Rika somewhat coldly called out, though unlike before his words did not seem to carry a bite with them. He simply did not want to waste any further time. With that out of the way, he began moving further into the swampy forest.

. . .

. . .

At this point, the change in scenery had become drastic, and it reminded Rika much more of the conditions Skyreach had tainted the forest with. Thick, sludge-like goop- poopy soil, if you will- clung to their ankles from below, leaving Rika no choice but to hop from one log or branch to the other if possible. He would consider taking to the trees like before, but the Kokiri doubted Eve could follow suite, even with the enhancement of the Double Jump ability. Still, he imbued her with the gentle blue aura in the hopes that perhaps it would speed up their travels.

Strangely enough, the nestled marsh they had been accustomed to seemed to open up. The condensed trees spread out, lightly dotting what seemed to be a wide, bubbling pool of sludge. Other than with trees, it seemed to be decorated only by the scarce log or rock large enough to reach out of the grime.

Following as closely as possible, and it was not very possible, Eve tried not to let Rika's effort down. She climbed up some rocks as they approached some seriously difficult terrain. The murk reached out around them, creating a sort of maze out of the fallen logs and rocks. It may have been perfect for some sort of obstacle course. Eve didn't want to speak too soon about that.

Something smelled awful, not awful in the traditional way that was coming from the mud. The smell was mystical and toxic like a miasma. Eve squatted down as she saw something poking out of the murk. She waved her hand around trying to make out what was poking through. It was green and stinky, and had multiple stubs coming off of it. Was it a hand made of moss? That didn't make much sense to Eve. She hadn't been to this neighborhood long enough to know about what happened.

A lurching sound exploded across the swamp. Many shapes crawled out of the goop. Such odd shapes, oblong and branching. The muddy, wet shapes of moss were familiar. They looked like Koroks. The hand below Eve reached out and snapped at her leg. Zombies! The Koroks screeched out of the slime on Korok Copters, screaming "Yahaha" like banshees. There were thirty or more of them, what a disaster. The hands also multiplied, Eve knew by correlation that the hands were probably of the dead Kokiri.

Eve sniffled while making an awkward face. They would have to fight their way out.

"We've got to kill them Hat Boy. Again! We have to re-kill them."

Ugh, zombies. The rotting stench of their sickly flesh hit Rika's senses almost as fast as their gaze did. He probably should have cautioned Eve against randomly poking through things, but it was a tad too late for that, and admittedly the end result here would have likely been the same with that girl no matter what she did; zombies. A lot of them.

The first thing they'd have to do is clear out a few of the zombies before they got completely swarmed. Even with the drastic differences she had succumbed to, Rika doubted that Eve had learned how to much more than thrash around with a hammer still, so that was his duty. First, with his left hand, he chucked a clear orb off into the distance. His goal was haste over accuracy, so only a small handful of the Koroks were shredded by the Aqua Grenade. With his right hand, he thrust it forward, sending a chilling chunk of ice colliding with an oncoming Kokiri and freezing his legs into the murky swamp below, along with another directly behind him. Finally, he thrust his hand into a pouch at his side and pulled out a small, hand-sized packet. Channeling the Ignition Powder with magcal ice energy, he chucked it forward at a wave of Kokiri and Koroks stomping towards Eve. Immediately on collision, the packet unleashed its own tundra of frosted force, sending shards of ice outward like shrapnel and violently coating the once living creatures in tiny icicle fragments. They were dead. Well, they were already dead, but now they were dead. Again.

All that left was for them to secure more favorable ground. The trees would likely prove to be the best option, though as Rika was still unsure if Eve could climb them he would essentially be leaving her to be swarmed if he went alone. Still, it was undoubtedly their best option, unless the zombies were able to climb- or worse, if the undead Koroks could fly.

The hands got closer, reaching out to Eve's ankles. Rika was already doing a pretty good job of keeping down several of the now-emerging Kokiri corpses. This was the time to prove herself, or at least to "prove" that her now flaming hands were not a huge waste to have tried to get. Did she even try to get them? Her memory was hazy on the whole process. She shook the bandages off her hands and let the fire crawl higher. What she was really trying to prove was that she could get some form of control over the flames, before it was too late.

She formed an open palm and swung it at one of the Koroks which had got over to her face. A small shower of embers bounced off the collision and the Korok fell like a little bug. The charred Korok sparked and flashed into a steaming heap in the swamp waters. She crouched, curving her arms down to grab at the rising undead hands. A disheveled Kokiri face rose to meet her eyes. Half of the poor face had fallen and rotted off already. Eve wasn't likely to recognize any of these people anyway. His little wrists began to burn to the bone, soon resembling Eve's own arms. It was almost ironic that she would be doing this to others so soon. Surely Meryem didn't like that Eve was getting good use out of the flaming arms either.

With his hands beginning to turn to ash, Eve slugged him back into the swamp with a heavy fist-eye to the face. The gooey arm shifted back into her eye socket and she started to focus on the oncoming swarm of Koroks. Kicking the Kokiri hands away wasn't too hard. She just had to make sure these Koroks didn't crowd the nearby tree Rika was walking near. She hopped further back onto a boulder, avoiding a few Kokiri hands. Eve winded up her left arm and swung down onto another Korok. Several followed up as they began to spot Eve. She began to alternate arms and arm-eyes to swat at different Koroks as they flew over slowly.

"Don't mind me yet, Boy. I'll take down a few more of these Koroks before I join you over there!" Eve shouted over to the wizard guy.

Eve slid her battle hammer out of her pouch. With a wide-angled swing she dropped several Koroks from the air. The revenant Kokiri began to crawl around her boulder. She whacked their heads like little moles in a carnival game. Then, something else caught her eye. There was a pair of feverishly hot red eyes poking out of the fog at her. What emerged stood on a protruding log, looking like a figure of wrinkled cabbage or cactus rather than a real person. The standing figure was made entirely of disfigured moss instead of flesh, as if its entire body had formed back together after being vaporized.

"Uh, mage guy! Do you recognize that one over there?" she asked. Eve was already sure they would probably kill it without asking any more questions.

Chloroplastic Librarian Doppelganger
LUCIA VERDE​

"It doesn't look very strong."

The trees were a bust. Eve was already getting swarmed- though she was holding her own quite well-, and the Koroks had proven themselves capable of fight, their bodies draped across the marsh like corpses hanging from the trees. Staying on the ground would likely be about as effective, and they wouldn't be split up.

With his hands already on his scythe, Rika could feel his feet gently lifting just ever-so-slightly off the rough wooden ground he stood on. This space was more than open enough to glide around on his Hover Boots- and he wouldn't be as constricted by the sludge or by having to hop from platform to platform.

That's when his attention was brought to the Kokiri Eve called out. "What? Why would I?" Eve had been away from the village for a long time, so it was likely she wouldn't know any of them, but so had he. At the very least, she looked far different than the other Kokiri that had met such tragic fates. Rather than a moving pile of rotting flesh clinging to bone, she was almost like some sort of plant-like parasitic being. Yet, she was not alike the rotting wood dangling by their heads, either.

And now, a large handful of Koroks had made their way to the red-garbed Kokiri. They would prove easy to take out, though. After all, he wielded a scythe, the perfect weapon to take care of weeds. Gliding forward, Rika spun into a mid-air Deku Pirouette, slicing and dicing several of the Koroks apart into an assorted pile of undead plant-flesh. Was it still considered flesh if it was from a plant? Either way, they were dead. Again.

Continuing his high-speed catapult forward, Rika's vault ended and he stabilized, though his slide did not end as his momentum carried him further. At least he hadn't hit anythi- SPLRHGD.

His body dropped and fell into the marsh, submerging him up to his waist in poopy soil. It was disgusting.

Eve was having difficulty concentrating. She was smashing the head of a Kokiri zombie onto the rock she was standing on. Was she supposed to keep attacking the swarm or drop everything and aim at the rather terrifying looking one that had just emerged? Muscled eye-arms slammed down on more approaching Koroks. She saw Rika stumble into the goop of swamp.

"Quit playing around. Let's get out of here." she announced at least loud enough for him to hear.

Lucia Verde whipped a trail of vines from its hands. If anything they had found just the right enemy for their elemental advantage. Eve skirted around the vines and touched her burning hands to the surface. Root-shaped lengths of flame tore up the tissue of the vines, and Lucia jerked away. Unable to control her new ability, Eve got a better idea. If she couldn't get the flames in range of the zombie, she could just get the wizard to do it.

"But hit that one with some fire first. We can't have it following us around!" she added, getting ready to escape the area.

Evelyn started to take off before another word could be said. She began to move roughly toward the opposite of where they had entered. She rather liked the exercise of skirmishing with baddies, but this was a little much for a casual stroll through the woods. A couple of burly Wolfos would have been more manageable.