Finally On My Own! (Cyrus Solo Quest)

Even from outside the city you could hear the hustle and bustle of Castle Towns marketplace. It was by far the largest marketplace in all of Hyrule. The large crowd was the best cover for scouting out guard rotation with in the city itself. If Cyrus was going to break into the mansion of one of the nobles he was going to need to gather as much information as possible to plan his infiltration strategy as well as multiple exits plans in case things took a turn for the worse.

He had to pass by two guards on his way into town, and he could count at least half a dozen guards moving through the marketplace at any given time. I don’t like the fact that they have at least a dozen guards on seemingly roving patrols specifically to keep a presence in the marketplace. That means I won’t know where half of them are when I make my escape. If I screw up while inside the mansion I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of town.

With a sigh, Cyrus would slip through the crowd silently and unnoticed as he moved towards the richer part of town where the nobles lived. The moment he exited from the crowd and started looking around he felt the eyes of the guards on him. He clearly didn’t belong in that area of town and the guards knew it. While they may not feel that a child was a threat, they would have no idea how wrong they were. Of course had he taken this stroll with his short swords on his back the guards would have definitely stopped him by now.

Cyrus did his best to move like a normal teenager that was doing nothing more than admiring a life he couldn’t have. The young Hylian hadn’t realized just how difficult it was to push his training from his mind and move like everyone, to move like he hadn’t been carefully training for multiple years. The more veteran guards on the road had certainly taken notice of Cyrus’ careful and deliberate movements. With a few subtle nods one of the guards would leave their post and start towards Cyrus.

Upon catching up with him the guard would rest his hand gently on Cyrus’ shoulder to stop him. ”I’m sorry to tell you that you can’t just wander around here as you please boy. This is the Noble District. As such only nobles, their families, their guests, and the assigned guards are allowed here. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The guard that had stopped Cyrus was one of the younger guards, and while he was probably less skilled than some of the more veteran guards, he was probably one of the quicker guards.

Of course Cyrus had heard the man coming up behind him, but for the sake of his cover as a just a normal teenager he had let the guard catch him. Wouldn’t do to put the guards on alert over a suspicious person being spotted in the noble quarter when he wasn’t even close to being done with his planning. Turning around to face the man he wouldn’t look up at him right away, instead looking down at the ground as if he was embarrassed. ”I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. The houses here are just so big and fancy.” Finally he would look up at the guard looking as if he was about to cry. ”I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I’ll leave now.” With that he would walk past the guard and start heading back towards the marketplace. The guard would turn and follow behind the boy as he made his way out of the noble quarter. He wouldn’t follow him the entire way out of the quarter, stopping once he reached his post.

Once he made it out of the immediate line of sight of the guards Cyrus would bite his lip and curse under his breath and he moved to blend in with the crowd once more. Damn it! I didn’t even get to the mansion I’m going after. Looks like I’m going to have to wait until night and try scouting again. Slipping out of the crowd Cyrus would head into the Goron Slums and head towards his and his masters hideout. There was still more than a couple hours until the sun went down and Cyrus knew he would need his rest, and something to eat, if he was going to be up all night scouting. The young Hylian would waste no time once entering the hideout to fix himself something quick to eat before laying down to take a nap.

The howl of a Wolfos would wake Cyrus a few hours later once the sun had gone down. The young Hylian would sit up with a stretch and a smile on his face. It was time for him to get back to work. Exiting the hideout via a ladder that lead to the roof Cyrus would scan the streets below looking for the light from the torches carried by the guards. He couldn’t see any such lights in the streets below him as he came to understand that the guards didn’t patrol the Goron Slums, at least not at night

Taking off in a sprint Cyrus would start leaping from roof to roof silently, his ring preventing him from making any sound. As he neared the marketplace he would come to see the light from far more torches than he had been expecting. He counted at least two dozen guardsmen moving through the marketplace. Well not like I was expecting it things to be easy in Castle Town. This challenge is why I choose it for my first heist that I don’t have to share the reward with master. The smile on his face would only grow wider as he reveled in his decision.

Now wasn’t the time for him to stand around and do nothing though. He only had a few hours to make it to the mansion and start scouting. Jumping to the roof of the building next door before quickly making his way down some boxes that were stacked up on the side of the house. Now that he was at street level things would be much harder for him. He would have to keep in mind the positions of all of the guards around him. Oh how he wished he still had that birds eye view while moving forward.

Running from the cover provided by the boxes Cyrus would stop at a tree pressing himself close to it so that he could hide within its shadow as he waited for a guard to walk past the path he was planning on taking. Once the guard was far enough away not to be able to spot him Cyrus would make a mad dash out of the marketplace and to the entrance of the noble quarter. He could clearly see the pairs of two torches along either side of the road. Each mansion had two guards standing watch at their closed gates.

With no alleyways to take advantage of making it down the road to his destination would prove almost impossible. No he was going to have to scale the walls and cross through multiple properties to reach his desired location. With a sigh Cyrus would place his back to the wall next to him and run towards the wall on the opposite side of the road as fast as he could. While most people wouldn’t make it a habit of running full speed at a solid brick wall, the young Hylian didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. As he grew closer to the wall he would take a high step up onto the wall, his second foot following quickly as he tried to run up the wall. His arm was outstretched above his head ready and waiting to grab the top of the wall so he could pull himself up.

Unfortunately for young Cyrus this idea didn’t play out the way he wanted. He wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of the wall, in fact he had been a good three foot short of reach the top of the wall. If he couldn’t reach the top of the wall unassisted from this side, he had no chance of doing so from the other side of the wall when trying to move to the next property. Kicking the wall, and doing nothing other than succeeding in hurting his foot, he would make his way back to the marketplace. Once again he would take cover at the tree until his path to the stacked boxes was clear so that he could get back to the rooftops away from the roving guards.

Once he was sitting down on top of the roof he would let out a sigh and look towards wall that surrounded the closest mansion. They don’t allow any boxes to be stacked on the sides of the houses across from the walls, so that’s out. Even if they did I wouldn’t be able to get back over the wall from the inside. I could just use a grappling hook, but that’s risky. If I screw up and alert any guards once I’m in I wouldn’t be able to use that to escape quickly. With another sigh Cyrus would lay back and stare up at the stars as he continued to think about how he could get over the wall from both the outside and the inside.

What else could I do to get over that stupid wall? Wait, doesn’t the mansion closest to the marketplace have a tree near the wall? Quickly Cyrus would sit up and move to the opposite side of the roof he was on and look along the inside of the wall for the outline of a tree. It does! I could always aim a weighted rope for one of the branches and then anchor it to the roof. Wait no, a guard would easily spot the rope when he went walking by. Damn it! Why is this being so much harder than it’s supposed to be! Letting out a grunt of frustration Cyrus would stand up and make his way back towards the hideout. Maybe he could find something in it that would be able to help him get over the wall from either side quickly and quietly.

Cyrus wasn’t quite hidden as he went leaping from rooftop to rooftop on his way back to his hideout, due to his ring of silence keeping his landings perfectly silent the guards had no reason to look up. Once he reached his hideout he would slide down the ladder and frantically start looking for anything that would be helpful. All he was finding were useless, mundane items that his master kept in the hideout. After a good thirty minutes of searching Cyrus would finally come across a box that had all sorts of different items inside. Each item had a note attached to it in some way explaining what the item was and what it did.

After a few minutes of digging through the box and the items within Cyrus had apparently settled on four items that he could potentially use. The first was something called a Longshot. While reading over the description of the item he came to realize that he wouldn’t be able to use it on the wall, but he would be able to use it on the tree on the other side of the wall. Once on the inside of the wall he could target the house and immediately be back on the rooftop. He didn’t like the fact that the Longshot would leave a mark on the tree though. Even if it was only a cut into the tree, any evidence that he had been there was a bad thing.

The next item was this strange white feather, the note attached to it said it was called a Roc’s Feather. According to the note if he were to focus on it that his weight would be reduced. His master had made a few notes about how the reduced weight could be used to achieve a number of different effects such as a Goron using it to stay afloat, but the reason he had kept the feather was that with his reduced weight he was capable of jumping three times higher than normal. Cyrus would do some rough math in his head and even at triple his jump height he might not be able to reach the top of the wall. While the feather wouldn’t leave any sort of evidence about how he had gotten in and out, it wasn’t a guarantee that his jump would suffice.

The next item he had chosen was even stranger than the last one. The note said it was called a Superpusher. The item itself was a simple looking silver cylinder that was around three inches long and three inches wide with a button on one of its sides. The note stated that pushing the button would cause the cylinder to slowly expand over the course of a minute with enough force to bend or break most materials. While the Superpusher might come in handy if he were to get caught, the only way he could see to use it to get over the wall, without breaking it, would be to use it to potentially vault over the wall. The problem with that was that the item would end up left on the other side of the wall and he wouldn’t be able to use it to get back out. Not to mention that without him holding it the cylinder would fall and cause enough noise to attract the attention of the guards.

The final item that Cyrus had taken out of the box was the only of its kind. It was a strange gem that had a note attached to it. Unlike the previous items the note didn’t have any sort of name scrawled across the top to indicate what the gem was. It was this oddity that had caused him to pull it out without reading the note. Pulling the note from the gem the young Hylian would start to read the note while holding the gem in the other hand. ‘This gem is the condensed knowledge of the Wall-Scaling Technique often used by Miniblins.’ Puzzled Cyrus would look away from the note and back at the gem in his other hand. Just how the hell is THIS supposed to be knowledge of anything. Don’t tell me you got ripped off by someone master. Letting out a sigh and shaking his head the boy decided to finish reading the note even if he thought that it was useless to continue. ‘While holding this gem with the want for the knowledge of Wall-Scaling the gem will sink into your body and you will suddenly find yourself able to use this amazing technique!’ That was it. That was all the note had to say. Cyrus would fall over backwards laughing. ”Oh wouldn’t it be wonderful if what that note said was true. If I could scale walls I wouldn’t have any problem getting in and out without being seen!” The Hylian was so caught up in laughing about how his master had gotten ripped off that he didn’t notice the gem sink into his hand, though he certainly noticed when his hand closed in on itself forming a fight.

Abruptly sitting up Cyrus would look at his fist. Slowly he would open his hand to see that the gem had truly disappeared. Standing up Cyrus would walk over to the wall of the hideout and place his hand on it, the knowledge of how to scale the wall flooding his mind like he had known how to do it his entire life. Mentally gripping the flat wall as if it had some sort of protrusion the young Hylian would start up the wall. While the climb up the wall wasn’t easy, in fact it was probably harder than climbing up a normally climbable wall, he could do it. Once he reached the top of the wall he would slowly make his way back down and lay down on the floor a smile on his face. This was perfect! Now he would never have to worry about another wall again! Cyrus would once more be lost to laughter, overjoyed that his master had such a precious treasure in the hideout.

Standing up Cyrus would head back up the ladder of the hideout and make his way back towards the marketplace once more. With his new ability he would take a different route than before, this time coming down the side of a building near the far back of the wall running along the property. This mansion wasn’t his original target, but climbing over so many walls, and avoiding a currently unknown amount of patrols, would take too long and be far to draining. Cyrus had changed not only the building that he was targeting, but what he planned on stealing as well. The treasure he had been after would have to wait until another time when he was more prepared to get it. For now, he was going to go after the mansion closest to the marketplace. It was an easy target, but that didn’t matter to him right now. No right now he just needed to earn some rupees, and this mansion was as good as any other for that purpose.

He had timed his descent down the building so that he would have ample time to climb down the house, and then climb up the wall without being spotted. Once on top of the wall he would quickly climb down and start towards the tree had had thought about creating a zip line to. Pushing himself close to the tree he would look around carefully, but wouldn’t see any guards or any torches. Running along the wall towards the front of the property Cyrus would quickly come to realize that this particular mansion didn’t have any guards patrolling the property. I guess these people think that with their high wall and two guards at the gate no one could get possibly get in and steal from them. A cocky smirk would spread over his face as he pushed away from the wall and started towards the mansion itself. This had just gone from a scouting mission to the perfect chance to walk away with some loot.

Once he had his back to the outside wall of the mansion he would quietly slide open one of the windows and peer inside. Just as quickly as he had peered inside would he duck away from the window in front of him. While this noble family didn’t have any guards patrolling outside they apparently had them inside the house. When he looked through the window the first thing that Cyrus saw was a guard patrolling the hallway. He knew that if there was one guard inside of the mansion there were sure to be more. The worst part was that he didn’t know what room he would be able to find any rupees in.

It was at that moment he noticed that the color of the sky had changed. Morning was fast approaching, and if he wanted to get off of this property without being seen he needed to go now. Cyrus would run away from the house as fast as he could, not stopping for to so much as take a breath once he reached the wall. The moment his hands found themselves on the wall he was climbing up. The boy would only slow down once he neared the top knowing that if he rushed over the top he could easily land on top of a guard. Peeking over the top of the wall Cyrus would see that there wasn’t a single guard in sight. He would take this chance to slip over the top of the wall and up the side of a nearby building.

The young Hylian didn’t immediately set out for his hideout to rest. No he stayed upon the roof watching the mansion. He was going to lay on the roof until the sun was up and the guards changed shifts. He planned on counting how many guards walked out of the house, and if any walked in. After about an hour of fighting to stay awake a cucco could be heard in the distance signaling that day had truly broken. Only a few minutes passed from the cry of the cucco and three guards leaving the mansion and being relieved by three more. A smile on his face Cyrus would stand up and hightail it back to his hideout. Once back inside his hideout he would draw the curtains closed and lay down. He needed to get some sleep before planning for the next nights scouting mission.

Cyrus would wake up close to noon, unable to stay asleep due to the anticipation of what he had to do the next night. Standing up he would stretch and yawn as he walked towards the kitchen. His body ached all over. He wasn’t use to climbing anything other than trees, and his new wall-scaling ability was more akin to climbing up the side of a cliff. He would pilfer a stale roll from the kitchen, holding it in his mouth while he looked for something else to eat alongside of it. The hideout was a bit on the bare side, only a few strips of dried meat left aside from the stale bread. It would have to do for now, he could go buy some fresher things to eat a little later before the marketplace closed down.

Walking over to a nearby desk with his half eaten stale roll in one hand and a few strips of dried meat in the other he would sit down in the chair stationed at the desk. Setting his food down on the desk he would gather some clean scraps of paper as well as a quill and some ink. He would start to sketch out some rough shapes on the paper. The first set of lines he drew were for the wall surrounding the property, including the gate and the two guards stationed at it. Next he would add the path that lead from the gate to the mansion itself, followed by a rough outline of the mansion itself. He could only add in one more, small bit of detail to his drawing, and that would be the hallway that he had seen when he had peeked through the window the night before and the room that it opened up to. He added a line in the middle of the hallway with a question mark next to it to indicate where he had seen the guard. He wasn’t sure if it was only that hallway that the guard patrolled or if there was more to his route than that. Ah well, the rough draft of his plans had been drawn up. Tonight when he returned he would be able to finish mapping out the house, as well as learning the patrol routes of the three guards inside.

Putting the quill down Cyrus would finish off his food quickly, almost choking as he did so. He would rush to the kitchen and get a small glass of water to wash down his food before leaving the hideout and heading towards the marketplace with only a few rupees to spend. He needed to buy enough food for supper tonight and tomorrow night as well as something for breakfast tomorrow. It didn’t take long for him to haggle with the local merchants for just enough dried meat and bread for three meals. It wasn’t a balanced meal by any means, but it would be enough for the next few days and that was all that mattered.

He would return to his hideout to drop off the food and be greeted by an unwelcome surprise. His master was holding up his unfinished plans with a sour look on his face. ”Just what do you think you can do with such poor information? Why didn’t you grease some pockets to at least get the full layout of the building?” The older Hylian was tapping his foot on the ground quickly showing his apprentice just how agitated he was.

”I did!” Replied Cyrus before pulling out a large stack of papers that included the layout of the building, the guards patrol routes, and all of the different ways to safely enter and exit the building. Though an eye as skilled as his master’s would quickly pick up the difference between the plans that Cyrus had just pulled out and the ones that he were holding. ”I just didn’t account for a way over the wall and I didn’t have enough rupees left to get a way over the wall and now I have to do a different job!”

A vein in his masters’ forehead would bulge as he stood up and approached his young apprentice. ”So you spent all your rupees on a heist you can’t even complete, but tell me one thing. The wall around your new target and the wall around your old target are identical, so how are you going to get past the wall to complete this half-cocked heist of yours?!” It was official, his master was angry at him. Just how many times had he told him to be sure he had enough rupees to overcome any problem he might encounter.

When his master asked him about the wall he couldn’t help but look away from his master as he whispered his answer. ”I was going to borrow one of your weird items that you keep here, but I accidentally used your wall-scaling gem.” He was in for it now. Had he just settled on the Longshot he would have been able to complete his original heist, and he would have been able to return the Longshot without upsetting his master.

”You used what! I was planning on selling that!” Throwing the plans he was holding in his hands into the air the older Hylian would turn around and walk away from his apprentice. There was nothing he could do about the gem being used, but that didn’t mean that his apprentice wasn’t going to pay him back. ”Looks like I’m going to have to help yo…”

”NO! I don’t need your help! I’ll do this on my own, and I’ll pay you back for the wall-scaling gem. Just give me a few more days. Remember I passed your test. I’ve already made it out of a nobles house once before with no plans. I’m taking time to gather my own information tonight, and then I’ll finish my plans and do the heist the next night. Don’t interfere!” The young Hylian had never been so intent on doing something on his own before. His master was more than a little surprised by it, and his sudden outburst. Letting out a sigh his master would walk past Cyrus and stop at the door. ”Fine. You have three days. If you haven’t done this by then, I’m going to help you regardless of it you want it or not.” With that said his master would leave their hideout and probably head back to the Lost Woods.

Stuffing his plans for the other heist back into his adventure pouch Cyrus would let out an annoyed groan. Master is such a killjoy! Though he does have every right to be angry at me for using up that gem. I’m sure that’s not something you can find just anywhere. Oh well I’ll make enough on this heist to pay him back for it. While Cyrus was thinking all of that he had picked up the partial plans that his master had thrown into the air. Luckily these plans only consisted of two pages so far. The first page was the outline for the property and the ground floor, the second page was mostly blank, containing only the outline for second floor of the building. He didn’t even know where the stairs from the first floor to the second floor were! Boy did he ever have his work cut out for him tonight.

As night began to fall Cyrus made his way through the streets of Hyrule Castle Town back towards the marketplace. Taking a quick look around all the nearby corners the young Hylian would make sure the coast was clear before quickly climbing up the wall. He would perch along the top of the wall for a moment to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary before climbing down the wall and rushing towards the tree for cover. Peering around the tree he would see the coast was clear and make a bee-line for the side of the house.

Crouching down just to the side of the window the small thief would retrieve a small mirror from his adventure pouch and hold it up so that he would see through the window without the risk of being spotted. The guard that patrolled the hallway was close to the window, but was walking away. Now was the time for him to make his move. Cyrus would slowly stand up and slip the mirror back into his adventure pouch.

As quickly and quietly as he could the young thief would slide the window open. As soon as he was sure that the guard wasn’t going to turn around Cyrus would climb through the window and as soon as he landed on the floor of the mansion he would pop a small violet colored pellet into his mouth. The already small Hylian would rapidly shrink down to the size of a Picori thanks to the compaction seed he just ate.

It would take him longer to get through the building at this size, but the chances of him being seen had been drastically reduced, especially if he stuck to the shadows. Cyrus would make his way down the hallway the same direction the guard was moving while sticking to the wall. By time the guard reached the end of the hallway Cyrus had made it to the first door in the hallway. Laying down he would be able to roll under the crack between the door and the floor.

It was hard to make out what was in the room at his current size so he decided to wait for the effect of his compaction seed to wear off. He had been forced to eat a second one while following the guard but they didn’t last for long anyway. After about thirty seconds the young Hylian was back to his normal size and able to look around the room for anything of value.

Unsurprisingly he didn’t find anything worth grabbing in this room. It looked as if the room itself was just a storage room for towels and blankets and such. Seems like only the maids would come to such a room and unless they had been stealing themselves, there was nothing in here for Cyrus. Turning back towards the door he would eat another compaction seed and crawl under the door slowly to see where the guard was. Soon as the young thief saw the guard had passed by he would make a mad dash across the hallway to the next door. Rolling underneath the door Cyrus would spot multiple beds filled with people. Looks like he had just rolled into the maid’s quarters.

As soon as that realization set in the small Hylian would quick chomp down on another compaction seed and crawl back underneath the door to look for the guard. While he had no qualms about stealing, he wasn’t here to steal from the ones that work for a living. No he was here to steal from a pompous noble who had more than his fair share of riches. Unfortunately Cyrus would find himself stuck underneath this door for a few minutes, forced to continue to eat compaction seeds so he didn’t crush himself under the door.

Once the guard turned around and passed back by Cyrus would dart back across the hallway and into the last door in this hallway. He wasn’t very hopeful about finding anything, but one can never be too sure. As he crawled under the door he would spot a lone guard sitting in a chair, spear in hand watching the door. Luckily there was a cabinet next to the door that Cyrus could dart behind. As he did so he heard the guard call out. ”Damn bugs! With a quiet chuckle Cyrus would circle around the room slowly, sticking to the wall behind and under anything he could.

If there was a guard in this room he might have just hit the jackpot, there was only one thing left to do in that case. Once he had made it behind the guard Cyrus would draw one of his short swords and wait for the effects of his compaction seed to wear off. As soon as he was back to normal size Cyrus would quickly slit the throat of the unaware guard and grab hold of his spear before it fell to the ground. Cyrus would gently set the spear on the ground, followed by the guard’s body.

He didn’t have a choice anymore. He had to find the treasure tonight. Come shift change they would discover this guards body and increase security. Luckily there seemed to be quite a few different things of interest in this room. A strange red pocketwatch, a fistful of rupees, quite a few different rings each with some interesting designs, and finally a couple of different looking bracelets. Something among all of this had to be worth something right? He didn’t have the knowledge to know what any of what he had just grabbed was, but he could figure that out back at the hideout.

Master gave me three days before saying he was going to help. Wonder if any of these would make up for the wall scaling gem? He knew that the rupees he found wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost of the gem. That was when he had an idea. Turning back towards the guard he would begin to rifle through the guard’s pockets and over his body in general. The guard had a quiet a few rupees on him, he was probably paid better than the others to guard the items in this room. The guard had a handful of trinkets on his body as well that seemed like they might be worth something. Stuffing everything into his adventure pouch Cyrus would make his way towards the door before noticing that the blade of the guard’s spear shone differently. IS THAT MIRROR SILVER!? That will be enough to pay master back for sure! The young thief would quickly stuff the mirror silver spear into his adventure pouch before eating a compaction seed.

He was sure he had enough to pay back his master, now all that was left was getting past the guard in the hallway and back out the window. Crawling back under the door Cyrus wouldn’t see the guard at either end of the hallway. This worried him, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would slowly creep out into the hallway and head back towards the window he had come in through. Just as he reached the window he would realize that his compaction seeds weren’t close to wearing off. With a sigh the young Hylian would start climbing up the wall. If he were to be seen right now he would look like nothing more than a bug, he just hoped he didn’t end up getting swatted like one. He was about halfway up the wall when suddenly his compaction seeds wore off causing him to fall off the wall with a muffled thud thanks to his ring of silence.

Cursing under his breath Cyrus would hurry out the window, only to come face to face with the guard that had been patrolling the hallway. ”STOP THIE…” As the guard spoke he had begun to ready his spear, but Cyrus wasn’t going to be stopped now. In one quick movement the young thief would unsheathe his short sword and swing it upwards as he ran past the guard. His blade would connect with the guard’s throat stifling his words and screams.

Not waiting around to see if any other guards heard the commotion, Cyrus would run towards the wall as fast as he could. He wouldn’t stop to look around and just began climbing it as soon as he reached it. Once he reached the top of the wall he realized that he didn’t hear any sounds of search and slowed down as he climbed down the wall and made his way back to his master’s hideout.

Once in the hideout he would fish all the trinkets, and mirror silver spear, from his adventure pouch and place them down on a table with a note that read, ”This should cover it.”. Things hadn’t gone exactly as planned tonight, but he accomplished what he set out to do.