Dodongo Hunting Season [Chaos James, Gabby, Onyx Leo, SaberLynel]

Dodongo Hunting Season, BEGIN~~~

The mid-morning sun shone overtop of the mountain range, illuminating the fire-scorched grass at the edge of the path up the hill. The air smelt like a fire pit as lingering smoke still billowed up from the nearby field that use to grow wheat. The pathway towards the cavern home of the fire-breathing lizards known as Dodongo led all the way up it's winding way to the entrance had obvious signs of clawed footprints in the dirt. Standing at the bottom of the path was the four sell-swords who had been hired to deal with the Dodongo horde within, each with a torch in hand ready to go.

Standing tallest among the group was the red-haired warrior, Terentia, with her torch held firmly in her right hand as her shield adorned her left. She looked to her left, then her right, measuring up her companions once more. They hadn't had long to acquaint themselves before being loaded up on a wagon and dropped off at their current location, so she took the time now to gauge their skills. She wagered her best ally was going to be the Rito woman, questioning the young Hylian's armor choices and unsure of the plant-cucco's abilities. Even then, she'd rely first and foremost on herself before trusting her life to them.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" she asked, ready to head towards the cave once everyone was prepared to go.

Ciska was approached for this job just a few days prior. She was already conducting research in Mido (It being the closest settlement to her home in Dragon Roost.) about the local monsters, when she overheard a pair of farmers complaining about the rising Dodongo population. Intrigued, she gathered more information from the two. Quickly discovering that there was a cave just north of town that was absolutely teeming with the beasts. Dodongos were always a favorite subject of hers, so she practically jumped at the chance to explore the caves for herself and study the monsters with her own eyes.

The money she would receive from the job was just an added bonus.

She wasn't aware that other adventurers would be joining her, until they all loaded themselves onto the wagon that would carry them to their destination. At first she was disappointed. In a group, she wouldn't be able to take the time she wanted to research these creatures. However, after witnessing the destruction these monsters caused to the local farmlands? She was glad they were there. "Hooo... This is a problem alright." She whistled as she craned her neck back to get a better view of the scorched landscape around them. "Definitely Dodongos. No doubt about that."

She did a quick once-over on the three individuals that stood at her side. To her right was the Gerudo, who was absolutely massive, being a full foot taller than Ciska was. She seemed to come prepared as well, wearing full armor and carrying multiple weapons for the occasion. She silently marveled at the sword strapped to the woman's back, it appearing larger than almost any weapon she'd seen before. To her left was a Hylian boy who seemed more lost than anything else. He had a furry raccoon as a companion, which was an odd animal to keep as a pet.

Lastly was a creature that called itself a Kikiwi. She wasn't sure what to make of it, only that it it looked weird and would probably be eaten by a Death Mountain range Dodongo before this quest was finished. She glanced at the torch she firmly held in her hand, sighing slightly because she knew the cumbersome item would limit her abilities with the spear. Hearing the Gerudo speak, she turned her attention back to the tall woman. "Are you kidding? We're heading inside a dark cave that's absolutely filled with giant impervious reptiles that breathe fire!" She paused. "Let me savor this moment."

Ciska closed her eyes as she deeply inhaled, then exhaled out her mouth a few moments later. With a broad grin, she answered "Alright, now I'm ready!"

A few weeks ago, Gabby would have never believed he would be about to enter a dark hole of fire-breathing monsters, as he was soon about to. If he was honest, he felt a bit under prepared, especially in comparison with the other adventurers.

Gabby had never actually planned to stop in Mido, but when he had returned to Impa from Castle Town, the only ship sailing to Southern Hyrule was set for Mido first. He had time to kill before it set sail again, and there was talk going around of fire-breathing lizards to the north. He had never really heard of Dodongos beforehand, except for maybe in stories, so he wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

The fact that more experienced adventurers were joining him was reassuring. The Gerudo woman was more than surely prepared to fend for herself, and the Rito girl seemed to know more about Dodongos than any of them.(Certainly more than Gabby.) The plant-bird with the lute didn't look as impressive as the other adventurers, but Gabby knew looks could sometimes be deceiving.

And now Gabby stood, looking into the mouth of the monsters' nest. He had opted to leave his shield outside with Cody, partly because having a torch was a necessity here, and he couldn't hold both items in one hand, mostly because a wooden shield wouldn't protect him very well from fire-breath. And did the Rito girl say they were impervious? He had heard the word used for metal and stone, but never for monsters. He was feeling even more under prepared than he did before.

Everyone seemed to be anxious to get the task started with. "I'm about as ready as I'll ever be," he stated, his voice dangerously close to quivering. He stood a little straighter and put on a courageous face as compensation.

Chai stood almost trembling before the entrance of the cave, his eyes fixed on the maw of the great opening in the side of the mountain. He'd dreamed for weeks; months, even! of joining a party of stalwart adventurers on a quest, and this was to be his first. His first adventure, and his first ballad. So the trembling was more a sign of excitement than fear. Yes, definitely of excitement. Why was his mouth so dry? Mouths shouldn't be this dry., he told himself as he fidgeted with the hilt of his short sword, sheathed at his hip, his other hand gripping the child-sized torch he'd been given.

It was about a week ago that Chai first landed in Mido. What better place to find adventures than a port town? he had thought to himself. Rather quickly, he was told of a dodongo problem in the nearby mountain caves. It sounded like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, the Kikwi was certainly not prepared to take on hoards of fire-breathing crocodilian geckos by himself. Not wanting to embarrass himself by outright waiting for other sell-swords to show up, he had spent his time busking on the corner near the quest office, playing songs of brave adventurers of ages gone by, in hopes of rousing the spirits of the townspeople so they could fight the creatures while Chai stood back and wrote a song about it. Yes, a bard's life for Chai!

He had even earned a bit of pocket change, enough to buy a bag of earplugs. Ah yes, the earplugs! Upon remembering this, Chai promptly reached into his compaction bud to retrieve the bag. He opened his mouth, rather excitedly, and emitted a short, "Kwee!" Looking around to see how much he had been noticed, he cleared his throat and addressed the group, "I have an offensive song or two, so you'll likely need these at some point. As long as you have them in you'll feel a bit uneasy, but you won't be nearly as crippled as our enemies." He handed a pair out to each of his party mates, noting the apparent combat prowess of each one.

The Gerudo was clearly the brawn of the group, and could likely carry them to victory if need be. This was good, Chai would make sure to stand behind her. The Rito woman appeared not quite as combat ready as the Gerudo, although Chai was sure she could take on a lizard or two. Plus, killing fire-breathing reptillians with a spear? How thematic! Last was the Hylian. A young boy who wore a pot on his head, Chai thought him most likely to be roasted, run away, or be crazy enough to kamikaze one of the dodongos. Either way, it would add a nice comedic element to his song. Yes, this would be a fine first ballad, indeed.

Terentia accepted the earplugs from Chai and put them in a pouch for later, listening as the others confirmed their preparations. Once everyone was set to go, the colossal warrior took her first strides forward up the path, unlit torch held in hand like a club in lieu of her sword. She glanced back once to see the others following before continuing upwards, keeping an eye on the entranceway to the caverns in case their prey came to them. While no Dodongos showed themselves, Terentia's attention was soon brought to some spider-like creatures she hadn't noticed from the bottom of the hill.

"Tektites," she growled, bringing her shield up in a defensive stance, torch at the ready to bludgeon the monsters. About four or five Tektites could be seen now, chattering between each other with their mandibles clicking, bouncing in place and ready to pounce. Moving forward, the warrior kept her shield up as she watched for the flicker of movement as one leaped through the air. Stepping forward, she met the monster's attack with her shield at an angle, deflecting the leap to the side and confusing the beast. A swift kick at the beast to off-centre it, Terentia turned to the next Tektite that was leaping at her, the beast bouncing off her shield as she continued to attack.

Ciska received the earplugs from the odd creature, studying them closely in her palms before slipping them into her brown satchel bag. “So then this means you're a magical minstrel then, huh?" She asked with a small grin. Only just now noticing the musical instruments strapped to his back, she finally had an idea of what part the wimpy-looking bird would play in the party. "In that case, I would suggest keeping that dagger of yours sheathed." She said, bending over slightly to point at the small blade attached to the bard's hip. "It probably won't do you much good against a Dodongo's hide, aside from getting yourself deep-fried." The girl then paused, mulling over her words before grinning again. "Hey, that rhymed! You should put that in a song." She added, placing her free hand on her hip and nodding in satisfaction over her newly discovered rhyming prowess.

She then turned back around to see the Gerudo already moving forward. "Oh, wasting no time at all I see." The Rito commented to no one in particular before she began to follow suit. The woman was already a short ways ahead of them, but Ciska was close enough to be able to hear her call out a familiar monster's name.

"Tektites?" She swiftly dug into her satchel and withdrew an old and weathered black book. Ciska quickly flipped through the pages as she’d done hundreds of times before, knowing the book well enough to to find the exact page she needed within a matter of seconds. “Right, we should try avoiding them. They're a bit territorial, but in open farmland like this it's actually more beneficial to keep them-" She glanced up from her book to find the Gerudo Warrior already knee deep in blue spider blood. “Oh, or go right in and start killing them. That's fine too."

She rolled her eyes as she slipped the old tome back into her bag. Adventurers were always the same, stab first and ask questions later. Since the monsters were already riled up, she had no choice but to join in the attack and support her comrade. She charged towards the group, drawing the spear off her back as she began to pick up speed. “Heads up!” she warned Terentia

Ciska pushed herself off the ground and into a front flip, leaping higher and farther than what should be humanly possible thanks the Roc’s Feather in her possession. Her arms outstretched to her sides as she soared through the air, passing over the Gerudo’s head and positioning herself directly over one of the attacking Tektites. “THERE!” She cried out! Within the instant, all of her forward momentum was lost as she plummeted straight down and spear-first into the unsuspecting insect.

The poor bug was instantly crushed beneath the force of her downward strike. Not wanting to waste a single second, she leapt up again with a short grunt and used the same strategy on a second Tektite several yards away. The girl only stopped once she found herself ankle deep within the innards of her second crushed tektite, deciding then was a good place to catch her breath.

She panted, smirking slightly as she balanced some of her weight on the spear that was imbedded through the tektite’s head. “There’s a joke about squashing bugs hidden somewhere in here, but that would be incredibly distasteful.”

"Thank you kindly," Gabby replied as he took a set of earplugs from the plant-bird. As he stuck his unlit torch in his belt to put the plugs in, he decided that the little creature's voice was the most adorable thing he had ever heard. He immediately took them out and put them in a pouch with his supply of deku nuts, realizing how silly it was to have earplugs in for no reason. He had even missed something the Rito girl was going on about. Hopefully it was nothing important.

What was important was the mob of Tektites leaping up the hill towards them. Drawing the crossbow from his back, Gabby took aim at one of the larger creatures, shooting a bolt at its eye. Meanwhile the Rito girl was reading out a passage from a book rather than taking care of the threat at hand. Also, why would killing a bunch of bugs be bad? If anything, a little blood in the fields was good for crops. It kept them green.

With farming factoids running through Gabby's mind, he didn't think of reloading his crossbow until another Tektite was already within hopping distance. A bow without a bolt wasn't going to help him, so he dropped it on the ground in favor of his sickle, using it to knock the spider-creature aside.

Chai squeaked in surprise at the ambush of tektites leaping down the hill toward his merry band of adventurers. He watched in awe as the Gerudo woman rushed forward, club in hand, brutally smashing one of the bugs to the side in true Gerudo fashion, while the Rito leaped elegantly into the air, spiralling down into what was now a fireworks show of blue Tektite blood. The Hylian boy stood next to Chai, spouting some metaphor about farming or something. Chai didn't know. What Chai DID know was a list of dozens of adjectives, now racing through his mind as he had already begun orchestrating his ballad. Oh, that Hylian was a good shot...

As the shower of innards rained down around Chai, it occurred to him that if he didn't take action himself, red Kikwi blood may soon be joining the show. Or green...? Purple maybe? Chai didn't remember, Kikwis don't bleed often. He scurried off to the side of the fray, behind Gabby, taking what little shelter he could next to the charred remains of an old thorn bush as he hurriedly pulled his songbook out of his back. "Let's see, spells, spells spells...fire...earth...plants....ah, plant control!" Chai beamed with pride at himself for finding the page as he brought his lute out in front of him. This song was one said to make the very roots in the earth spring forth to entangle any that heard it, other than the player of course. As Chai was busy beaming, he did not immediately notice the red cyclopic carapace bounding toward him until its tiny (relative to its body), screaming mouth was upon him, and evidently quite hungry.

Chai turned tail and bolted whichever direction he could, hurriedly trying to remember the melody he had just been observing. Oh, and it had been so complicated, too! A...A minor...or was it E minor? Chai wondered aloud as the Tektite gained upon him and he remembered his other merry band of bought swordsmen. Ah, yes. Best to warn them. Chai thought as he shouted to the group, "EARPLUGS!!! EARPLUGS!!!" This served to attract the attention of several more tektites, as well as distract the Kikwi long enough for the one that was chasing him to run him down. Still scared, and now possibly soiled, Chai gazed into the maw of the beast, furiously kicking and pushing his feet up to keep the spindly foe off him as he began to play. Suddenly, a miserably dissonant, ear-wrenching screech shattered forth out of his lute as he attempted to play the song. Many tektite around the field began to scream and stumble in pain from the sound, and the one on top of Chai, being closest to the source, arched what could be assumed to be its head and fell on its back at Chai's feet. As the song ended, or Chai's fingers just got tired, he stared out at the field, grinning as big as a Kikwi can grin at his work. But where were the vines...? Oh well, he must have missed them while he was playing.

Terentia brandished the unlit torch warily as her shield was held up between her and the Tektite before her. As she waited for the next lunge of the beast, prepared to bash it with her shield to unbalance it then crush it's skull with her torch, she didn't note what the Rito was doing. A sudden shout from Ciska drew her attention upwards as the spear-wielding bird-lady came crashing down into the Tektite, crushing it completely with the weight of her spear and body. As the woman leaped off to her next target, the Gerudo turned to take stock of the battlefield.

Another beast laid dead nearby, blood was already dripping from it's large eye, what she assumed was a crossbow wound from the strange little Hylian, who was already fighting another with a sickle. Terentia was about to charge to help when she spied the little plant-bird being terrorized by another Tektite, and his command to use the earplugs stalled the warrior as she retrieved them and put them in. With torch back in hand, she started to chase after Chai as he kicked away the beast playing a song. Not that she could tell if it was actual music. Her head pounded, despite her earplugs, and she felt almost sick by the strong resonance that was coming from the bard.

Even with his horrid playing though, Terentia was still able to catch up with the stumbling Tektite, whom seemed in pain, slamming her makeshift club into it's skull and causing it to collapse.

“VALOO’S SCALES, THAT’S HORRIBLE!”
Ciska’s hands quickly shot up to cover her ears to protect them from the reverberating sound, despite already having the earplugs in place. The effects of the music were obvious, the few straggling monsters that were left didn’t stand a chance against the bard’s terrible playing and were quickly picked off by the rest of the group. As the sound faded away, Ciska let out a heavy sigh of relief before removing the buds from her ears. At that point she was heavily reconsidering the benefits of having a Bard on the team.

“G-Great playing!...” She stammered while trying to tune out the ringing in her ears. “Just, can I offer a quick tip? Never do that again. Ever. Ever.” She reiterated a third time. Now that she was finally able to gather her thoughts, she scanned her eyes across the area to assess the damage. The land was soaked in the Tektite’s blood as the messy remains of their meat and organs laid strewn across the battlefield. After stepping out of the shattered carapace of one of her own kills, she placed a single hand on her forehead, took a deep breath and let out another heavy sigh. “Well, that was a nice, healthy nest of Tektite’s that we just slaughtered…”

Gabby kicked the Tektite as it lunged towards him, sending it hurling several feet away. The creature needed time to recover, giving Gabby a chance to pull out his earplugs and put them in, just before the plantbird's lute played what he could only hope was very off-key. Gabby had reflexively cringed, so when he opened his eyes, he was quite surprised to find that the Tektites had all dropped dead, not that he was complaining. Speaking of complaining, the Rito girl was saying something about the creatures. "I'm sure there are more Tektites running around besides these," Gabby offered, "But perhaps we can pass on waiting to see if there are?" He wasn't too fond of the idea of more Tektites. Not only were they dangerous to people, but he knew of a few that would eat crops as well. Of course, the other option was fire-breathing monsters, but that's what they had come here to find anyway.