Eyes Dongo Cavern 3 & Pooky

"Here's your payout." groaned a voice from behind a little window.

In the Quest Bureau a scraggly looking arm reached out and put a small set of rupees into Eve's oven mitt. She had to do something about her outfit, and soon. She danced out of the building with her rupees, cold and comfortable roop. She made her way down the street. It was actually decently likely a defense building was nearby, the Quest Bureau would get more business in the proximity of well-meaning soldiers.

To her surprise, the soldiers were actually out in full-force looking for recruits. There was a ton of danger at the time with the many fragments appearing, something she didn't really know much about. They weren't even right in front of their barracks. They were desperate for recruits and stationed themselves a good ways away from the entrance. She approached them warily.

"Uh, sirs, I would like to join the force." she said nervously.

The two at the table looked her up and down. They seemed to be deep in thought and confused. She tightened her blindfold a bit, making certain not to screw up her chance.

"We don't usually take, uh, Kokiri. But we do our best to outfit every recruit with a uniform. See, we have tried to strap leftover helmets to Gorons' heads. It almost never works unless we make custom ones. Now give us a good reason we should look for a uniform that fits you, miss." one of the guards stated sternly.

"I've got these giant angry arms that spew from my eyes and great swirling flames that come out of my arms." she replied plainly.

The soldiers looked at each other. This scene had surely reminded them of something. They whispered to each other and tried to come up with an answer. One patted the other on the back as they came to some amazing solution. The stern guard looked back at Eve and cracked a smile.

"We have a division on the force for magical and unusual attack. The Special Tactics force is actually in need of some more people after we came short on members recently. There's not a lot of them, because a lot of our mages are ordinary and usual. Simply put, plain soldiers. You're likely not going to be deployed often, either. Do you mind sitting on the bench, miss?" he asked, grinning.

"Actually, that's what Captain Julius wanted. He didn't want me to cause too much trouble either. I'll take the position." she answered, not a doubt in her voice.

"Then prepare yourself for training, you start tomorrow morning." he chuckled, ushering her toward the gate.

Training had begun rather awkwardly. They weren't sure whether to test her with or without her equipment. The Power Bracelets and Muscle Band made it difficult to gauge her real strength, or to even figure out if she was gaining strength by lifting and exercising. Besides that, her job on the stamina and reflex tests weren't very fruitful. But the drill crew was no doubt impressed by her unorthodox abilities. They sent for someone to get her a uniform.

"Twenty years ago, they were bad times. We do have a child-sized uniform but it's severely outdated and a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down. You probably won't look like a regular soldier but you're not in the core regiments anyway." one of the soldiers explained, handing her a filthy crate. "That's it, put it on."

art by Electronic Ink (open) art by Electronic Ink (close)

She put on the armor, layering her golden clothing carefully underneath. The thick, resistant gloves were perfect for her new hands. It certainly was outdated, the feathered tassel on the helmet wasn't even the right color. Better yet, the visor covered her eyes just enough to keep people out of harm's way. She would still need to keep something under the visor but it was certainly a start. She stood proudly in the outfit, smirking.

"Don't get too happy, miss. You've got a lot of training and waiting around ahead of you. In fact we expect you to get back to work." the soldier explained, eyes beading down on her.

Soon, Julius would be sent notification that a new recruit would be appearing before him, in need of training. Julius already knew who that was-- or should have been, anyways. But, as soon as he arrived home, his mind was already on track to make something... wonderful. With his new skills, or rather the skills he already had, he quickly set to work on the Mirror Silver.

He was going to make a shield, that much Julius already knew. But how would he make it... Well, he thought, still concentrated on his work, I could always come up with something... With that, he spent the next several hours perusing various molds, before finally deciding on a heavier six pointed shield. With this, he would finally be able to efficiently deflect attacks from any angle.

Until he finished his new sword, that is. But still, it was a nice addition to his arsenal.

The next day, as he was pounding away at his shield, two Sergeants came up to him, informing him of a new recruit in the Special Tactics force. Asking who it was, he was greeted with a familiar name.

"A recruit by the name of Evelyn, sir. She mentioned you, specifically." And so she had. With this, he dismissed the two Sergeants, praying that she would be safe. Of course, Julius knew this well-- he was in a fair amount of contact with their Commanding Officer, after all.

But, this was also when he'd learned of a place called Sunwell-- that, if not taken care of immediately, could potentially wreak havoc on Hyrule proper. They would, incidentally, give him the length of a month to decide.

Julius thought about it. More than once, actually. What he had witnessed in Starsend, hearing Askoval's story... That just made him even more chilled, right down to the base of his spine. He would have at least four weeks to make a decision.