Demon Slayer

Marcus jogged down the beach, trying to ignore the clanking cacophony caused by his clumsy companion. He glanced at her outstretched, windmilling arms. He somehow doubted that she would be capable in combat; if she couldn't jog lightly without falling over, how could she pull off complicated battle maneuvers? Whatever.

The ground beneath his feet gradually shifted from hard grass to a soft sand, and he slowed unconsciously. The sun was setting, casting its shafts of red-orange light dancing across the waves of the Eastern Sea. His breath hitched in his throat; as a child, he had rarely ever experienced a sunset, and never one over water. This was his first time. Sunsets, after all, required being above ground, and one never left the Western Caves unless on a hunting party or something similar. After all, the lands of Southern Hyrule were largely populated by marauding bands of murderous Moblins, and a weak child such as himself was rarely ever allowed to leave the security of the caves.

Marcus knew that sunsets were amazing. The Elders had rarely ever stopped talking about the wonders of above-ground life. But, it had never really struck him just how much he had missed. The glowing ball of light had begun to sink into the sea, turning its waters golden as the skies above burned red.

What a sight...

Something was casting a shadow in front of him, an object that was not a rock or some other natural formation. A man was standing on the dividing line between land and sea, and Marcus' lips twitched at the symbolism.

"I suppose," he said, "that this is our contact."

The man was almost completely covered in voluminous black robes, and only his eyes shone out from underneath his wide hood. The evening was warm, with only the sea's breeze to cool any passersby, yet the man seemed completely comfortable in his many layers. The robes themselves were simple, unadorned by any identifying stitching or designs, and if asked to describe them, Marcus would only be able to say that they were 'black hooded robes, nothing more, nothing less.'

"Greetings," Marcus said. "I was told that you had a business proposition for us."

"Hello," said a pleasant, youthful voice. Marcus blinked. He was expecting a low, gravelly rumble, not a bright, almost peppy cheer. "Yeah, I know," the man said, sounding slightly sheepish. "It's not at all impressive, mysterious, or dramatic, is it?"

Marcus cracked a smile. "It's a nice departure from tradition."

"I guess," the voice said. "Still, it's horrible for the mood." The man shifted his weight to his other foot, and raised a robed sleeve in salute. "I'm Roy."

"That's not your real name, is it?" Marcus asked.

The youth chuckled. "Sure it is." Marcus rolled his eyes, and gestured for the man-child to get on with the interview.

The robed figure cleared its throat. "Right. Well, I'm sure you know why you're here. My Master is attempting an ancient, forgotten spell. The problem is that ancient, forgotten spells have a tendency to go wrong. So, she told me to-"

"Wait," Marcus interrupted, "she? Your Master is a woman?"

The robed figure scratched its neck, somehow managing to keep any skin from view as he did so. "Yeah... better to get that shock out of the way now, when she's not around. Just don't say anything about that around her- she's very, um,"

"Touchy?" Marcus asked.

The figure laughed. "I guess, though don't tell her I said that."

Marcus nodded. "Alright, I won't. This seems simple enough. You're resurrecting an ancient spell from the halls of antiquity, and you wanted a few people around to keep things under control."

The robed youth nodded. "Yep! So, you may have already told one of us this, but what exactly can you two do?"

Marcus glanced at his companion. "Well, I don't know about her, but I have magical healing powers."

((Feel free to write his responses, Raz. I'm not claiming him as my NPC or anything, so go crazy. As a side-note; I love alliteration ))

Phiorra looked perplexed when Jacob said he'd improvise, but also bowed her head lightly in thanks for his helping her up. Upon seeing his chosen method of flight, Phiorra frowned a little. "Are... You sure that's entirely safe?" She asked, but they soon took off, flying through the air towards their destination. 

This being her first time flying, and with no flight attendants to give her instructions, Phiorra was slightly uneasy. As Eysseth powerfully flapped her wings, the priestess found herself clutching the dragon tightly, afraid to fall off.

Rogue didn't quite appreciate Jacob touching her, but what was done was done. She couldn't scold him now, like it or not she needed his help. Rogue followed suit and grasped the wyvern tightly, awaiting the sweet relief of land. "How does this thing know where to land?" questioned Rogue as she cursed under her breath.

The girl stumbled and fell on a wet patch of sand as she reached the contact. She could only vaguely hear the conversation go on as she either spit sand out or tried to get up and fail. Only when the conversation turned to her did she really pay attention. "I fight" she said cheerfully as she was getting up on one knee, only to hit the floor once more.

"Yeeeeeeeah, I'm not too sure she can help with this." said the cloaked figure, "I don't even think she can walk in a line, much less a straight one."

"I can too!" replied Sayomi, in a slightly annoyed tone and with the same expression she used while first meeting Marcus, while finally reaching her feet.

"All right, but you'd better be able to fight... and not fall a set of stairs or something. Well, if she's the only one you brought, she'll have to do. And we really need to leave, we're late as is." Directing the last part to Marcus.

And so the party left further down the beach, where there seemed to be nothing but old caves.

Behind them, a sea of fiery gold and glistening waves. Before them, a solid cliff face overlooking the Eastern Sea, its dark rocks cast into sharp relief by the rays of the setting sun. They were being led to a small opening in the rocks, barely visible from a distance, which stood no taller than a crouching child, and no wider than a doorframe.

"In we go," their guide said cheerfully. "After you."

Marcus headed straight for it. He certainly had no problem with crawling into a small hole in the rocks. He wasn't sure about how his companion felt about them, but he wasn't afraid. If anything, he felt safe, encompassed by the dark rocks. The tunnel slowly grew taller, and he was eventually able to stand up straight. This was where his childhood had taken place, between their dark surfaces. He was much more comfortable like this than he was beneath the vast, endless skies.

He stretched, his muscles feeling a little cramped after crawling, and moved forward, out of the way of his companions. Around ten feet in front of him the tunnel opened up onto a larger room, and Marcus walked forward, through the room's entrance, and looked around. There wasn't much to see here, only more rocks. There were three other tunnels branching off from the cave, which was around the size of a poor man's house. In the center of the cave was what resembled a stage; a raised floor about two feet off the ground, around six feet in diameter.

Behind him, he heard their guide say, "the others will be here in a minute. Please, make yourselves comfortable."

"Earlier ya said, 'That crazy lady just told me it was north o' Impa on tha beach o' tha bay.', so that's where Eysseth's gonna drop us at. Speakin' of." Jacob said as he saw the sands of the beach starting out under them. "Eysseth! Put us down over there! N' be careful we don't wanna spook anythin' like last time!" Eysseth nodded as she began to descend towards the sandy beach. Once a few feet above the beach Eysseth let go of Jacob who tumbled into the sand. Jacob stood back up and dusted himself off as Eysseth landed. Jacob walked over to Eysseth and offered to help the two riders down while saying, "Now. Where we headin' exactly?"

Phiorra listened to the other two with a grin. This dragon-riding thing was fun! She knew it’d end soon though, so she didn’t get too excited. When Jacob helped her down, she bowed her head in thanks and beamed. “So gentlemanly! And the ride was so fun too! Next time I should bring snacks!” Then when she heard Jacob’s question, she placed a finger on her chin in thought. “I… Don’t quite think I know. This is all really general to tell the truth.”

Sayomi smiled as the robed child suggested crawling into the hole, after all, she couldn't fall while crawling and her armor and the cannon fodder in front of her would protect her from any baddies' ambush; barring a full cave collapse there wasn't anything that could go wrong... until she got stuck, turns out heavy metal armor wasn't the best equipment for crawling through tight spaces in.

Even as she forced herself further through, that only got so far, and before long she barely move at all. "H-help...please?"

Rogue wasn't quite certain what to do either but she couldn't play dumb she was the one that had the most to lose. [color=804000]"Lets just follow the shoreline. The lady seemed like they needed water to complete their spell."[/color] Rogue didn't quite remember how much they had heard from the lady and what she heard. They all seemed to roll together at this point, all she wanted was to finish this quest and get out of that strange town.

"H-help... please?" The girl's voice echoed through the tunnel, and Marcus hurried over to the bottlenecked entrance to examine the girl's plight. She was caught fast at the tunnel's narrowest point, which, ironically enough, was directly before it began to widen out again. He knelt down, tugging on her armour- useless, as he already knew. He was skinny, his musculature was distinctly underdeveloped. The odds of him successfully yanking this armoured girl out from the rocks were slim.

Marcus ran through his list of spells. Naryru's Affection. Useless, as the girl had no momentum to reflect. Life. Also useless, unless he planned on slicing off some skin to get her out. He had a Blue Candle, which he could-

His brain buzzed as the electricity within sparked, a brainwave pulsing through his mind and seizing hold of his imagination. He felt the rocks with his hand. The outside air had been hot, and the rocks themselves were warm. He pulled out his Blue Candle, igniting the steady blue flame with a thought. He passed a hand over the fire, feeling the intense cold radiate from the wick. He looked back over at the girl, stuck like a fly in a web, and grinned.

"Alright, here's the plan," he said. "Rocks contract when they're cold, right? So, I'll use this Blue Candle to cool the rocks around you just enough for you to wiggle out. You only need to wiggle a few inches forward before the tunnel widens out, so if everything goes according to plan, this'll give you enough room to break free."

He held the Blue Candle up to the tunnel around her shoulders, and watched as it began to slowly freeze the surrounding rocks. Truthfully, he wasn't sure if this would work. It was a neat idea, yes, but he didn't know whether it would translate well to real life.

"We'll give it a minute," he said, "then we'll start pulling. How do you feel? You're not claustrophobic, are you?"

"Welp. If that's tha best we got, better follow tha shore then." Jacob pets Eysseth on her folded up wing. "Let's keep an eye an' ear open. 'Kay Eysseth?" Eysseth snorts and nuzzles Jacob with her nose a bit before nodding. Jacob motions for everyone else to follow. Jacob holds his hand on the hilt of his sword ready to brandish it at a moment's notice.

Eysseth begins to slowly walk down the beach watching for anything out of the ordinary. Jacob walks beside his Wyvern at the same speed. Jacob starts whistling a small tune. Eysseth looks down at Jacob for a few moments with what appears to be a Wyvern's version of a smile on her face. Eysseth's smile instantly vanishes and her eyes widen as she starts growling bearing her teeth. Eysseth starts looking around frantically, wrapping herself around Jacob to protect him from an unseen presence. "Eysseth? What's gotten in ta ya girl? Phiorra! Yer a Light Priestess right? You sensin' anythin'?"

Phiorra walked casually next to Jacob, Eysseth and Rogue, not really ready for combat should it occur. The priestess herself, though, knew if she needed to she could raise an arm, summon her bow and be ready to fight right away. She must have seemed rather unarmed and helpless to the others though.

When the wyvern began freaking out, Phiorra too was startled. She closed her eyes and began focusing on finding where the evil was. By the time Jacob had asked her if she felt anything, she’d opened her eyes. “Yes… It’s faint, but there is an evil force in that direction…” She said, pointing the way they’d been going. “We need to hurry… I’ve a bad feeling…” She then didn’t really wait for the others, starting to jog along the shore, a dread feeling starting to arise in her.

Sayomi tried wiggling out of her predicament, something she was good at; in a metaphorical sense anyway. In a literal sense, well... the last time it brought down the cave around her. She could feel the cold of the candle radiating through her armor while the stone growled and cracked around her.

The armor slowly closed around her muscular frame, burning into her flesh as she struggled to escape it's clutches. Finally, after being frozen like a beer left in the freezer, the stone released it's ancient, life-less grasp around the girl, letting her out of the fear-inducing tunnel...

"So, um? why am I here?"

Marcus helped her up, and glanced around the large room. "Our guide seems to have left us," he said mildly, "probably to get the others. Whoever they are." Too late, he wondered if that stunt with the Blue Candle was a good idea. Even if he had taken care not to touch the freezing flame to the armour's metal surface, he wondered if the intense chill radiating from the candle's wick would have caused her some discomfort. He shook the worry off. It was too late to worry about it, and as long as she was wearing proper undergarments, she'd be fine. If she showed any nasty after-effects, like hypothermia, then he would simply shoot her full of healing magic. He grinned. Magic made things so much easier.

"So, um? Why am I here?" She asked.

Marcus looked at her. "You don't have` anything against healing magic, do you?" He raised a glowing hand, and held it cautiously in the air before her. Confusion was a symptom of hypothermia, although, he reflected, two other symptoms seemed to be omnipresent with her- stumbling and an overall lack of coordination.

"We are in this cave," he said, "waiting for our employers. Our guide has gone to fetch them, and we will soon be overseeing a magical experiment. I will be the emergency medic, and you will be the guard, ready to step in if anything goes awry."

"Finally, people are telling me things! When I get sent on missions, they don't say anything!" Sayomi moaned, clearly happy that someone was taking her seriously. "They sent me on a mission to find a group of bandits that didn't exist, or to clear out an abandoned temple or... Sorry; I'm just really happy!" She cried out, hugging Marcus.

"And thanks for helping me, the last time I got stuck I lost the stuff that covered my bum, even if it was cold..."

Marcus stiffened as the girl hugged him. Physical contact. Oh boy. He had been hoping that he had left behind "hugging" when he had left Loft, but apparently he was doomed to be constantly accompanied by hug-loving lunatics.

"Right," he said awkwardly, and pressed his glowing hand against her skin, "we should probably make ourselves comfortable. There's nothing for us to do until our employers return." He sent the healing magic into her body, setting the energy to a general heal-all, but still focused on hypothermia duty. He was unsurprised to find that she was relatively unharmed, and definitely was not afflicted with hypothermia.

"Why," he thought as he sat on the ground, "am I always paired up with lunatics? Can't I have an actually sane companion, just once? Just for a change of pace?"

((I read somewhere that it is a valid style to treat thoughts as actual speech, and to replace 'said' with 'thought.' This made sense, so I'm trying it out.))

"Nope, just us crazy ones!" She joked, hugging him again "And you can't escape the huggles!" blissfully unaware of how uncomfortable it made him. "Thank you for helping me with you magi- YOU KNOW MAGIC!? SO DO I! Watch!" she said excitedly, and began chanting "toidi ma I ,cagim lear ton siht; toidi ma I ,cagim lear ton siht; toidi ma I ,cagim lear ton siht!"

The girl waited excitedly for something to happen, waiting, waiting, waiting...

"Damn it! They said it'd turn stuff into pie!"

This time, Marcus didn't struggle against the hug. He wasn't even listening to her magic chant, or to her pouting exasperation that it hadn't produced any delicious dairy products. That girl... how had she? Marcus swallowed, his heart thumping in his chest. He had thought that to himself- he had lamented, safe within the depths of his mind, that all of his companions were absolutely insane. And this girl... what was her name? Sayomi, wasn't it? This girl had penetrated his mind with absurd ease, peeling aside the many complicated layers of brain tissue and overcoming the natural barriers preventing normal people from telepathy.

"Sayomi," Marcus said, his voice shaking as the full implications of this sent his mind spiralling into panic, "are you-"

He was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps echoing off the rock walls. He turned, distracted from the phenomenon that was Sayomi, and saw three hooded figures entering in from the far tunnel. "Here they are," he said quietly, "it's time."

"What are your names?" A cold voice asked from underneath one of the hoods. A woman's voice. That would be their guide's master, then.

"I am Marcus," Marcus said, bowing slightly to his employer, "and this is Sayomi." As he spoke, he felt the barest tinglings of magic probing his body, and his own magic automatically swelled up and rejected the tendrils of foreign energy.

"You will suffice," the voice said. "Now, stand ready. The sun is setting. It is time." The three of them glided towards the stage, stepping up and forming a triangle on it. One of the other figures bent down- a slow, laboured movement, and Marcus guessed that an elderly individual was concealed beneath the robes- and drew a thin wand from the depths of its sleeves. With swift, practiced movements, it slashed the air before it, and matching markings were slashed into the rock floor.

A circle, with a pentagram contained within. Marcus frowned. That wasn't generally a good sign. Pentagrams weren't usually used for benign magic- they were most often drawn only for dark magic. When the third figure, whom he presumed to be his former guide, began pouring a dark red liquid into the carvings from an ornate chalice, his suspicions intensified. What kind of magical experiment was this? Still, he knew better than to ask. Magic, especially complicated magic, was extremely touchy. The slightest mistake, or lapse in concentration, could lead to... problems.

The figures- the Mistress, the Ancient, and the Apprentice, as Marcus called them in his mind- drew back from the pentagram, which was now filled with what Marcus suspected to be blood. They held their hands to the pentagram, and Marcus noticed that while their hands were extended towards it, they did not actually break the circle which contained the pentagram. They began to chant, in an ominous tongue, which had no doubt been long-forgotten by the majority of the world of man. The symbol, carved onto the rock, began to glow a deep, fiery red.

"It has begun," Marcus thought to himself, feeling goosebumps rising on his arms. "The circle has been drawn, the chant has started. For better or worse, their spell will be completed. Attempting to prevent it would be risking the lives of not only us, but any nearby innocents. This is a powerful spell, extremely powerful, and it cannot be interrupted." He gave Sayomi a meaningful look, and warned her with both his thoughts and his eyes to stay put.

"Shit. If tha Light Priestess says somethin's bad, then it's bad. Come on Eysseth. Let me go girl." Jacob struggles himself free of Eysseth's grasp and begins running to catch up to Phiorra. Eysseth takes to the sky and follows them in the air.

As Jacob catches up to Phiorra he calls, "'Ey Phiorra. You got any idea what exactly yer feelin'? I mean no offense, but ya don't look like a fighter. I gotta know what we're up against." What looks like a large cave looms on the distance. "I'm guessin' that's where we need ta go. Stay behind me alright Phiorra? Don't know what we'll be dealin' wit in there."

Rogue began to smirk a bit, if they only knew what they had all gotten himself into. They can be used as fairly decent meat shields for the time being and with any luck they are the best chance of getting rid of this demon before it hatches. Rogue wondered if she should tell them more about what the old lady told her when they were alone, but she wouldn't want to risk those gastly hands to grip her throat again. "Haven't you ever heard of the phrase ladies first?" she rudely scoffed as she entered ahead of the big strong Hylian Guard. She never liked chivalry, men are all pigs and chivalry is just an act. A ploy to get what they want. Rogue despised men who used such cheap tactics, well she despised men period but that is besides the point. Jacob acting all macho flared up her temper.

The cave was pretty small and bleak looking, Jacob would probably bring down the hole thing if he wasn't careful. Rogue continued crawling, getting her clothes ripped and torn before seeing something up ahead, was this what they were looking for?