Don't Drown

Navina cringed when her sword clanged against the wall. She felt guilty, even though she knew that it wasn't her exact fault that the Deku almost got decapitated. She finished picking herself up, cursing her armor again. It was both a blessing and a curse. What was she even to do? If she couldn't reach her foe, she couldn't beat it. She watched the beast run after Guy and her body went cold as she saw the bubble encase the wooden creature. Traditional methods of fighting were failing her, and because of her failure, someone was going to die. Her failure, her fault.

She allowed herself to intake a breath when the Deku wasn't dead, and instead propelled himself out of his watery prison. The color flowed back into her face and a feeling of relief flashed through her. She looked in the opposite direction of Guy and noticed - there. She pulled out her short sword and rushed towards the beast. It hopped desperately to get back to its protection, but Navina was faster. Her sword went unused, however, as Navina jumped into the air, the loud clang of her boots hitting the ground was accompanied by the satisfying sound of exoskeleton cracking. She grinned, lifting up her boots to see the crushed remains of the green creature. The guts would fall off of her boots if she walked enough, she was sure. In the moments she was reveling in her kill she had completely forgotten about Guy, and the sudden realization that he was in the room and probably either dead or dying snapped her out of her victory.

"Are you alright?" She said, rushing towards him. She got on one knee and looked him over, checking for any obvious injuries. "I saw yo--" She began to speak, but then stopped mid sentence. A strange feeling of dread overcame her. She was concerned about his health... but the fact that he wasn't dead was seriously weirding her out. When she was satisfied that he wasn't suffering from any critical injuries, she rose to her feet. In fact, the more Navina looked Guy over, the more unnerved she got. She stared directly into Guy's eyes for a moment, trying to understand the feeling clawing at her in her stomach. This man had just cheated death, a very rare feat that should be celebrated. Navina should be ecstatic. But for some reason, she wasn't. Something ... something didn't feel right.

One of the panels on the wall sprung up, revealing a door. Temples did have a weird way of telling you where to go. She awkwardly stepped towards the door and slowly opened it without a word to Guy. As she peered into the room, she spotted two Lizalfos sharing a meal made out the insides of a Shell Blade and slowly closed the door again before they could notice her. Great.

"Y-Yeah," Guy said, trying to calm his breath. It wasn't the first time he had grazed death, but it certainly did feel like the first time in years he had come so close to it. He flicked droplets of water off his hands, then legs. Even if he was safe now, that didn't stop that cold, wet feeling from being creepy as hell. It felt like a Chilfos was stabbing its icy fingers into his chest--and it was still giving him chills. This only made him all the more adamant that he needed to find a Zora Tunic, or at least something that could've been made into one. He was getting a good feeling about the silver scale, hopefully with a few more--...

Guy looked up, eyes widening a bit when he felt Navina leaning over his body, staring into his eyes. It was slightly unnerving. Was she worried? About... him? Thankfully Guy was physically unable to blush, though he did feel a tiny bit flustered. "D-don't worry, I was only in there for a second." His eyes averted somewhat nervously, then stood to his feet after she did. "If a Hylian--or a Gerudo, I think--inhaled a bit of water, it would be extremely unpleasant but you wouldn't die. It's similar... I think." He rubbed his neck a bit. Was that a similar sensation? He supposed extremely few people, if any, would know for certain.

He pushed off a bit more droplets of water. He vaguely remembered becoming immune to water, decades ago. Would getting a Zora Tunic prevent this chilly wet feeling? He certainly hoped so...

Navina seemed satisfied, considering she was already headed for the door. Guy felt a strange feeling in his gut, though, watching her walk away--and it wasn't for the most obvious reason, either. It was the way she looked down at him, or... something. It almost seemed like she was disappointed he didn't die. He hoped he was merely being paranoid, but the thought still echoed in his mind. As he approached the same door she did, however, she abruptly closed it. "...Don't tell me... there's another one?"

The last thing he wanted to do right now was be submerged in water again, even if he could propel out of it.

She felt better, now that Guy had explained it, but the feeling in the pit of her stomach still remained. She turned towards the Deku, then towards the crushed remains of the beetle. She looked down at her hands. For some reason, they were shaking. Her eyes widened and she finally pinpointed the feeling: Helplessness. It wasn't one she felt often enough to recognize right away. It didn't matter that he had cheated death now, the issue still remained that this was no place for a Deku Scrub. She should have told him to leave forever ago, said it wasn't safe, tha-- She inhaled deeply, quieting her thoughts. People were free to make their own choices. She had to keep reminding herself of that. So Navina did what Navina did best: shoved that feeling deep, deep down inside her and focused on the task at hand.


"No," she said, her demeanor relaxing. "Just some Lizalfos." She walked over to her curved sword, almost forgetting it in her haze of anxiety. She had also had forgotten the feeling of guilt from when it almost knocked Guy's head off, but luckily as soon as she touched the hilt she was reminded of it. Navina needed to stop getting invested and blaming herself for the random actions of the universe. If only it was that easy.

"I apologize if my ... concern seemed overbearing," she said, moving towards the door again, this time fully equipped. "It was unprofessional of me." She didn't give Guy a chance to respond before she opened the door fully, alerting the Lizalfos to their presence. She again rushed in, raising her sword and meeting the strike of the Lizalfos's axe with a clang. She kicked it, knocking it off its feet. It quickly jumped up, and Navina fully focused herself on the beast. She waited for it to strike, then quickly dodged towards the beast. Another hop and she was close enough to slam her arm down onto its neck, knocking it onto the ground in a daze. She contemplated whether or not she actually had to kill the beast and looked towards its club wielding companion who was of course targeting the Deku. When she noticed the creature beside her beginning to stir, she slammed her foot down onto its neck, again paralyzing it. It was a technique she knew well, and even though Navina could do this all day she knew she was simply delaying the inevitable. With a sigh, she cleanly and quickly cut the disabled creature's throat. Population control.

It seemed strangely reckless for Navina to just charge in, and she suddenly seemed far less talkative. She was distancing herself. She thought he was going to die, didn't she? Guy couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed--but supposed it made sense, considering he almost did just die, if only to be saved by an ability he gained far too recently. Oh well. He didn't particularly care for killing Lizalfos, but had an easy time hardening himself to the task.

The monster lunged towards him with a heavy, horizontal swing of his club--at least it smart enough to do that instead of a vertical strike. Still, Guy's body launched skyward with enough velocity to clear the low swing--and his body flashed just quick enough to propel blade-first into the Lizalfos' torso. Guy's leg stomped downward into the Lizalfos' swinging forearm, kicking the weapon out of its grip. It flinched just long enough for him to rip the blade out of its ribs and stab where he wanted it to land in the first place--into its throat. Using his blade as a lever, Guy quickly pulled both feet up to his chest, and used them to backflip off the monster's chest. It stumbled backward, its claws desperately raking forward in its death throes. Guy landed on his hover boots, sliding backward slightly... Propel made fights like this almost too easy. If it wasn't for that, he would have been forced to block the Lizalfos strike with his own shield--a blow powerful enough to send him flying--or leap backwards, sacrificing any opportunity to counterattack...

Out of the corner of his eye, Guy had already seen Navina take down the second one. He tried not to wonder why these things were attacking them in the first place. Navina had a purpose for killing them--but he lacked one, and lacked the sort of heartlessness his sister seemed to have. He'd known Lizalfos and Aeralfos in his time, too... It was difficult to just write them off as easily as he could most of the monsters here. A sigh escaped him.

He momentarily considered looting their corpses--but wasn't sure if that would be against Navina's "code" or something. Still, they might've had more of those silver scales... Instead, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pouch, and wiped the blood off his blade--while quietly watching Navina in his peripheral vision, wondering if she would consider looting them herself. Maybe she would consider it a waste not too? He didn't assume to understand a knight's honor.

Navina wasn't an idiot, she knew that Lizalfos were at least mildly intelligent.... although these didn't seem as clever as the ones she had interrogated in the past. She wondered if the Lizalfos would have opted to instead have a conversation with her if she hadn't ran in guns blazing. She shook her head, those kinds of thoughts were dangerous. The more likely result would have been them attacking her based on her outfit alone. And to be fair, them attacking her on sight would have been completely justified, considering how members of the guard often treated their kind.

It wasn't against Navina's code to loot corpses. In fact, it was what she was doing right now. But she wasn't looking for treasures like a normal adventurer. Memos, notes, pictures, items like this were what she searched for. This type of bloodshed was the type that Navina couldn't stand, but one she felt obligated to fulfill. Orders were orders. Her personal feelings on the matter didn't change that. She found no evidence of anything that would indicate who this fellow was before Navina had murdered him. Navina looked down at the corpse again, realizing that she in fact had no idea if how to tell if this creature was male or female. She walked over to the lizard her companion had slain, examining the second body in the same way. Her eyebrows perked up when she discovered a thin journal hidden in the inside pocket of its vest.

"... I don't find many mementos on Lizalfos," Navina said, flipping through the pages. A look of surprise crossed her face and she held the book out with the cover facing her so Guy could see what was inside. It wasn't a journal, but instead a small sketch book. The pages were filled with intricate and beautiful drawings of scenery. From the professionalism of the art there was no doubt that the person they had just killed had honed their craft for years, if not decades. Such a waste of talent. She assumed that this wasn't a treasure Guy was interested in and didn't bother to ask whether or not he wanted it before she slipped it into one of her own pockets. The thought crossed her mind that he might think of it as taboo or disrespectful to delve into the personal life of the dead, but Navina thought the opposite. Bodies died. Memoirs lived forever.

Navina cleared her throat and rose to her feet. "I'm ready to go when you are, Mr. Bugman."

After his blade was clean enough, Guy sheathed it and stowed his own handkerchief. With Navina looting one of the corpses, Guy felt no reason not to do the same with the other. He managed to find and pocket a blue rupee, as well as a small bit of netting, and a strange Lizalfos-shaped statuette he imagined would be worth something to someone. The club wasn't worth taking, and the axe was already crude before it became damaged in the battle. This loot wasn't worth killing them over, but he tried not to think of it. He had steeled himself too many times to carry about one or two unnecessary deaths. As he stood up, his eyes beheld the page Navina was holding out to him. A slight sigh escaped him, and he looked away. He didn't need to see that. Glancing down, he adjusted his trousers slightly... He told himself to think like Sienna. Even if she's a demon, she's unstoppable. Nothing could stop her. Why would he need to hesitate on this? His eyes looked up again, and moved more intently around they room they occupied.

Finally, he towards the entrance from which they came. "Looks like this is a dead end..." His voice felt hollow. It didn't matter. He moved towards the exit, flipping open the door and returning from whence they came.

This room seemed even more empty than before. Two of the four doors had been explored. One seemed to be locked down with chains. "Probably need a key," he offered, glancing behind to Navina. He figured if there were any monsters here, they likely would have already attacked. Maybe it was that, or perhaps it was the Silver Scale, or maybe it was the hollow feeling in Guy's chest--but this time, he didn't too much mind hopping directly across the water.

The room seemed devoid of foes, which would have been a relief--were it not for the geysers of water shooting all over the place. Yes. Guy didn't quite understand it, but there were three geysers of water raising and lowering three solid platforms up and down out of sync. He supposed it was supposed to be some kind of elevator to reach the incredibly high platform that hovered at the peak of this narrow-wall, high-ceiling sector. As luck would have it, the decorations lining some of the walls were beds of spikes. Lovely. Because of someone's bad taste in interior design, "I can't walk up there..." He gestured to Navina, pointing out several rows of spikes. "...It doesn't look like I can just jump around them, either."

Navina took note of Guy's change in demeanor and frowned. The majority of dungeon crawlers and adventurers she had encountered would care little about some split blood. Well, to be fair, most dungeon crawlers she encountered weren't exactly prime examples of having a righteous moral compass. She followed him out the room, taking careful note of his movements and the intonation of his voice. She couldn't help but feel responsible for his malaise. She nodded in acknowledgement to his statement before he began hopping across the water. Why would he bother walking around on the ceilings when he could just hop across the water like that? Navina touched her hair absentmindedly as a small hint of jealously hit her. She looked at the platforms she had traversed before and prepared herself for another workout. When she finally made it across to the one door they had access to and entered the room, she stopped to catch her breath. She had been here for longer than she had intended to be and it was taking its toll. The late guard duty yesterday didn't help. When she finally looked up, her lips pursed. More jumping, and the Deku just said he couldn't save them the time and energy by walking up the walls. She inhaled deeply and let out a loud sigh.

"Stay here," she said. Navina looked down at her armor then back to the platforms. She watched them rise and lower for a few rotations before she hopped onto one. The sensation of being rocketed into the air made her stomach turn and the platform rocket unsteadily with her weight. She knelt down in an attempt to balance and shot a look to the Deku. Why was she doing this and not him? .. Probably a combination of control issues and guilt. She leapt to the next platform and as she landed nearly lost her footing. Her body surged with adrenaline in the anticipation of her death as she skittered around the platform, desperately trying not to fall off. The next platform couldn't sync up with hers soon enough, and she barely had time to finish steadying herself before she jumped again. One more, just one more time. She lept again, finally reaching the hovering platform. On it was a chest. Of course. Navina kicked it open, grabbing a silver key from the inside. Then the jumping. Always with the jumping...

She finally made it to the bottom and she felt like lying down for a minute. She instead opted to remain on her feet, albeit she clutched at her chest and held up her other hand, asking the Deku for just a moment. When she was done with this a nap was in order. She grabbed her knees and looked down at the ground.

"Guy," she said suddenly without looking up, her breathing still strained and heavy. She made eye contact before she continued. "The two Lizalfos, did th-- Did I upset you?"

A bit of a confused expression spread across Guy's face as Navina leapt up the platforms instead of him. It wasn't exactly hard to tell that she had a difficult time getting airborne in armor like that. Meanwhile, not only was he barely wearing anything--but he could use propel to save himself from a whiffed jump. It would've been practically effortless for him, by comparison. That armor really didn't look like it was made of Litonium. Nonetheless, he didn't object to her order--or what seemed to be an order, anyway. If she wanted to do the labor, he wasn't one to complain.

When she returned, Navina seemed as exhausted as he feared she might be. He considered informing her that he could've gone instead--but figured she already knew that. She did, right? Considering she did all the work for seemingly no reason, he didn't much mind waiting for her to catch her breath. His hands slid into his pants pockets, glancing down at the floor. His eyes wandered back up to the platform, then to the platforms, then to Navina again--he noticed the key. Temples could be so predictable, sometimes.

The look on her face made things kind of obvious. Navina was that sort of type, after all. He let out a bit of a sigh, crossing his arms. Breaking eye contact, he thought for a moment about how to address this. 'Don't worry about it'? 'I've dealt with this before'?

He looked back to her, settling with, "Don't blame yourself." For a moment, Guy considered her with a long, pensive look. What did she even know about him? "I'm probably older than you think I am. I've done this... many times." A long sigh seeped out of his mouth, "Unfortunately, I've also gotten to know... many different kinds of people... and what death does." He also knew justice was a lie, and everything was ultimately pointless, but didn't quite feel like mentioning that. Even if it was true, it never really justified action or inaction.

"I'm guessing you found the key?" His voice brightened a little, though it did mostly for her benefit. "We can move on whenever you're ready. I'm not sure how much more 'population control' you need to accomplish..." He was also unsure whether he'd find anything else of value. At this point, at least, it would still be pretty easy for him to bail if necessary. Hopefully they just wouldn't run into another one of those damn water-beetle things again.

Navina eventually caught her breath, but her shallow breathing didn't stop her from listening to Guy's words intently. At the mention of his age she looked him over and cocked an eyebrow. Now she was curious, but it would be more than rude to ask how old he was. Guy was lucky he didn't mention justice being a lie. It probably would have caused Navina to go into a long, impassioned speech about due process, objectivity, and the pursuit of what's right. No one wanted to deal with that. She caught the change in Guy's voice when he asked about the key, although it didn't really do much to change her mood. She stayed silent for a good while before speaking again, long enough that most people would find the silence awkward.

".. I found a key, yes," she said. "I've covered most of the temple, I just have one more thing to take care of." She reached into one of the pouches on her armor and pulled out a large, ornate key. Temples. Navina didn't question the why or how behind them. That type of impractical thinking was for academics. She looked Guy over again, realizing the Deku had been surprisingly resourceful despite Navina's original concerns. "... You don't have to join me on this last excursion, but I'd appreciate the help." Knowing adventurers he probably would have come along for the loot regardless...

She exited the room and was again greeted with her new favorite thing: the large pond and platforms. One deep breath later, another quest of jumping began and soon ended with Navina panting next to a locked door. She shoved the key into the lock and turned, expecting a room filled to the brim with creatures and monsters. Instead, opening the door she found a staircase ... leading up and out of the temple? She looked around. There was no way that this was the last key, the last door. Didn't every temple have some sort of behemoth guardian that one would happen upon eventually? Navina was certain she had explored every room in this place besides this one. She could feel sweat beading up on her forehead. This was going to bother her.

She looked down at Guy, and then the large key in her hands. Was it worth it to retrace all of her steps just to get 100% completion on a job she didn't even want to do in the first place? She again looked back at the Deku. Maybe the temple was sparing them the fate of fighting something they couldn't possibly handle. This was definitely a sign, possibly even a divine one. She looked back towards the platformed filled lake and chucked the ornate key into the water.

"... don't tell my boss," she said with a smile. If the Deku could see her eyes, she would have winked. However her grin faded once Navina realized that she had just disobeyed a direct order in favor of taking a coincidence as a sign from the heavens. Heinous. "... I'm serious, you know."

Guy smirked at her, softly. It seemed unlike her, but, she was probably right to toss it. If she had truly already explored most of this place, it was unlikely he would find any more scales in one more room. Besides, this temple was hardly safe for him--and he had probably spent all of his luck just getting away from that damn bubble beetle thing. Well, that, and keeping Navina herself from arresting him. "Don't worry, I'm excellent at keeping secrets." He didn't much want to elaborate on how he would sooner kill himself than get too cozy with whoever her boss probably was. He was comfortable with too many Hyrule Guards as it was.

"Let's get out of here," Guy said cheerily. Indeed, he was ready to leave. He led the way towards the staircase. As he walked through the doorway, however, he got a better look at the ceiling. A grimace spread across his face, and he slowly unsheathed his sword. "...Guess we have one more."

A colossal Deku Toad--although, all Deku Toads seemed to be colossal--abruptly dropped off the ceiling, hitting the staircase so hard part of it crumbled. The entire temple seemed to shake with its impact, and Guy almost had trouble keeping his balance. A loud, deafening croak flooded the room. Guy supposed he should be thankful there wasn't any water here, but he still wasn't keen on having to battle this giant thing. He gave a sidewards glance towards Navina, hesitantly asking, "...Population control?" He let her decide if they would fight or flee.

Navina looked over the grotesque thing that had just landed in front of her. She hadn't even noticed it on the ceiling - maybe she was more excited to leave the temple than she thought. The thing took up the majority of the staircase. What an awful place for it to engage them. The beast seemed to writhe and pulse, and Navina shivered when one of its eggs plopped onto the floor. The beast shook, more eggs falling onto the staircase. She didn't appreciate the squishing, oozing noises that the eggs made when they began to hatch either.

"Do we have a choice?" Navina said, drawing her shortsword. Of course they could both just run around the thing and towards safety, but in her mind that wasn't an option. She had already disobeyed her orders once.

She targeted the newly hatched creatures, her sword sliding into them easily. The large toad jumped onto the ceiling and Navina made sure to watch it out of the corner of her eye as she assaulted its children on the stairs. It crawled towards them before it let go of the ceiling in an effort to squish the pair. Navina rolled out of the way - one of its children was not so lucky. She looked around and realized she had lost track of her companion. Before she had a chance to strike at the toad, it jumped high into the air again and Navina once again had to roll out of the way.

Guy had fought too monsters to bother with the tiny cretins flopping towards them. Maybe it was reckless, but he just wanted to go straight for the source and get this over with. Navina tore into the bouncing tadpoles, as Guy himself leaped drastically, blade-first into the gigantic toad. His sword stabbed hilt-deep into its slick hide--even though it barely even seemed to mind, much to Guy's unease. Not only that, but it abruptly soared onto the ceiling--taking the Deku Scrub along for a terrible, terrible ride.

...Looking down at the floor, Guy got a sudden realization of just how high this ceiling was. He tried flipping himself onto its surface for safety, as the toad spat out its ugly, would-be children at Navina like projectiles. Just before his feet could reach, the toad abruptly plummeted like a damn meteor, slinging Guy down along with it. As it fell, Guy's blade fell out of its hide.

Dindamnit. His arms and legs stretched out. He was skydiving 200 feet. He reached his maximum falling speed quickly, with the Toad spearing down through the air even faster than him. A second after it crashed down, Guy was a short distance away--he abruptly propelled right towards it, wildly, with his blade outstretched. By some sheer stroke of luck, he tore across its lip and its tongue--before bouncing bouncing off his shoulder, and tumbling onto his skidding Hover Boots. He rubbed his shoulder with a groan, looking back over towards the beast. The monster seemed dazed--its eyes rolling in its face as its tongue laid open.

"Weakpoint!" Guy motioned wildly to Navina, trying to scurry back over to the monster--though dozens of feet was difficult for him to cross quickly without a fresh use of Propel. "Strike the tongue!" Hopefully she could get at least one good attack it before it leaped away again...

Who knew Deku Scrubs were so aerodynamic? Certainly not Navina, who wasn't really paying attention to Guy's feats of heroism. Instead she was finishing off the last of the small creatures on the ground. Navina shot her attention towards him when he began to shout and furiously wave at her. Without responding, the Gerudo dashed at the creature, her sword and shield drawn. A response would take time, and Navina had to work quickly. She jumped, and with a considerable amount of effort she dug her sword deep into the dazed creatures tongue. A grin flashed across her face as it flailed wildly at the sudden sharp insertion.

However, her eyes grew wide when she realized that her sword wasn't coming out as cleanly as she hoped. She put her foot on the tongue - her sword was stuck. In muscle. Her entire body shivered at the thought of what sort of disgusting tumors and tissues must be inside the tongue for a metal sword to get stuck in it. She didn't have much time to contemplate it, however, as the large toad was knocked out of its daze and was now shaking off another batch of children. How did it even do that? Did they just... ... grow out of its back?

Navina's refused to let go of her sword as the toad shook. She was thrown back and forth, genuinely surprised that her sword was still stuck. From the way that the toad was jostling her she expected to be thrown painfully against a wall by now. However it wasn't a wall that Navina was thrown to. With one final and extremely vigorous shake the toad's tongue shot the Gerudo into the air right above the creature. Finally, her sword was free. Even though she was no longer on land getting her sword back from tumor hell made it worth it. Navina looked down. She was heavy, she had no time to adjust any sort of trajectory and she was feet above - No. NO.

The Deku toad opened its mouth wide and let Navina flop into its mouth. This time she had air to unleash a piercing scream into. This was the second time she had been consumed by a creature in this dungeon, let alone the second time she had ever been eaten alive in her nearly forty years of living. This was also the last time she was ever going near Lakebed. Before the beast could swallow her, she dug her sword again into its tongue. It was a welcome return to tumor hell, considering the beast's tongue was keeping her from dropping into stomach acid.

She tried not to think about the seventy-two baths she would need after this. The deku toad flailed around in pain from its internal attacker, its children paying it no mind and choosing to swarm Guy instead.

Guy grimaced in mid-charge. Not only Navina's predicament utterly revolting, but this little family of monstrous amphibians was utterly horrifying. The speed he managed to build up on his hover boots enabled him to leap over most of the throng with a dramatic long-jump, landing onto one with a ferocious downward kick to its face. His blade cleaved through one, before it abruptly sheathed at his side. In its place, he whipped out a throwing knife--and aimed quickly but carefully. Navina was to the left, the Deku Toad was to the right, and the tongue was in the center. Even as his feet stopped moving, his body slid forward... launching the knife with careful precision, tearing across the tongue, clanging across Navina's sword.

Ew. It just swallowed his steel knife. That... couldn't have been healthy. He was pretty sure he never wanted it back.

Retching in recoil, the Deku Toad finally spit Navina back out of its mouth, as it tried desperately to spit out something that seemed like it was caught in its mouth. Apparently having a razor-sharp blade rolling around under your tongue was a painful experience. Who would have guessed? In desperattion, it finally shoved its tongue out in disgust, seemingly trying to dislodge the blade, its tongue now profusely bleeding. Guy nearly leaped towards it, only to be abruptly smacked into the ground by one of those damn tadpoles leaping at him from behind.

"Damnit!" He called out to Navina, fighting off the beast, "Finish it off!" He struggled to push the monstrosity off with one hand, while the other reached for his sword. Ugh, it was just so slimy and wet, so utterly disgusting. This is what he got for not paying these things much mind... Finally, he managed to stab his blade into its gullet and kick it off. Scrambling to his feet, he looked towards Navina, hoping she had already cut the damn thing's entire tongue off.

Navina didn't pay attention to the throwing knife that came perilously close to her. Her eyes were closed. Right now, she was trying her best to close her eyes and forget about the fact she was in a giant frog's mouth. Forget what she said about the wet hair, she would much rather have soaked hair than goopy, spitty, slime covered hair. She didn't want to think about her appearance right now.

Luckily her iron grip never left her weapon and when she was finally spit up her sword joined her. She lay on the floor momentarily, partially stunned from having endured such a horrific experience. She began to sit up and shook her head, shivering when a large glop of goop slipped off of her. When Guy yelled out to her again, Navina jumped onto her feet. Gerudos were known for their quick recoveries after all.

She ran towards the stunned beast, her sword in both hands. Wildly, she began hacking at the beasts tongue. It screamed out in pain, but Navina paid it no mind. She felt the tumors in its tongue every time she hit one, the tissue becoming hard and dense as her sword struck against it. How did such a mistake of nature manage to survive, let alone reproduce?

Finally, with one final swing, the tongue came flying off. The creature flailed, splashing both Guy and Navina with copious amounts of discolored blood. Great. Its movements soon ceased, however, and its body slumped and started to slide down the staircase. Navina sidestepped out of the way and allowed it to slide all of the way down. It was almost comical the way that it also brought most of the corpses of its children down with it. Almost.

Navina stared at the pile of corpses at the bottom of the stairs for an inordinate amount of time. She then looked over her armor; her slime coated, bloody, disgusting armor. She didn't even want to think about the hair issue

"... .. toads... blood is... supposed to be ... good for your skin," she said, her voice shaky and weak. At least she was trying to find some sort of silver lining in this situation. She looked over at Guy, realizing that even if what she said was true such benefits would be lost on someone without flesh.

Even Guy wasn't exactly happy about being splashed with grotesque blood he could only assume contained every disease he'd ever imagined. Thank Din he managed to cover his snout at the last moment. The last thing he wanted was for some of that to end up in his mouth...

At least it was finally, hopefully over. All he had to do now was track down Sienna and hope to the goddesses one scale would be enough.

With a sigh, he looked to Navina. She seemed even dirtier than he felt, which was certainly saying something. At least she seemed alive and uninjured, which by now Guy supposed was a good thing. Her comment made absolutely no sense however. His face skewed, "Good? Is it... supposed to make my skin harder?" He momentarily considered how effective his wooden skin would function as armor, if he lathered it with this stuff. Merely imagining this putrid gunk seeping into his bark made him want to vomit--but thankfully he hadn't eaten in so long all he could do was gag.

"Tell your bosses to give you a bonus," he said, almost playfully. With a bit of a groan, he moved towards the now-clear staircase. "Let's just got out of here, Navina." He realized as soon as they left, he would probably never see her again. On the off-chance they did meet again, it would probably be under less favorable circumstances... He made a mental note to be thankful that he didn't completely fall for her, as that would have ended in disaster, and his judgement would probably still be clouded by her beauty.

He glanced over his shoulder, looking down at her from the stairs. Even if Gerudo were strangely gorgeous when wet, they certainly weren't when covered in the rancid, off-color blood of a hideous toad...

"No... it's... forget it," she said, not really wanting to explain the benefits of having soft skin to a Deku. He probably wouldn't get it. Navina looked over at Guy and chuckled. At least she could still laugh while being covered in blood, guts.. and.. whatever else she didn't want to think about.

She nodded, happy to finally be climbing the stairs and out into sunlight again. When she finally reached the top, she held out her hand for Guy to shake... only to retract it when she realized it was still dripping with frog spit. She instead opted to bow before saying goodbye, letting him know that if he was ever in the area he should drop by her post and say hello.

((Shit post to end the thread because my character isn't a jerk and wouldn't leave w/o saying goodbye))

((A good ending to an awkward encounter. I'm just posting our gains for the dungeon.))

Navina gets 40 roops, which I assume is her payment.

Guy gets 40 roops, which are immediately exchanged for a Silver Scale (20r), and an advancement to Lv4 in his Profession, Thief (20r). Because he's now Lv4, he gets an extra 20 bonus roops at the end of it all.

Oh, by the way, this was Lakebed Temple from Twilight Princess, in case you couldn't tell. We fought the Deku Toad as the final boss because our characters couldn't really... swim very well to fight the normal final boss.