Forbidden Forest - (Tsubori/UNLM)

Keiliegh steeled herself for Mothula coming at her, and though she was dazed, she had a plan. The creature scurried quickly towards her, and as she saw it lunge, the kokiri did what came naturally. Falling down. She fell, putting her Katars up behind her. This made it so that when the Mothula tried to hit her, it impaled itself on her blades. 

As it oft is though, momentum was indeed a bitch. The insect fell on top of her, pinning her to the ground. That was certainly not good for the cracked rib she probably had. Leronah hovered next to Kinoso's head, motioning towards Keiliegh. "Sweet plan. Let the cripple do the fighting."

Kinoso grunted as he shook off the last of the morths. They were most unpleasant, and the process was quite uncomfortable. When the last morth was off, he saw Mothula impaled nicely on top of Keiliegh's katars. I guess that's one way to do it, he thought to himself. Mothula had eaten away a good chunk of his stamina, so he stopped to catch a nice breath, especially since his combat high was going away. Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion was attempting to overcome him. He wasn't sure if he had passed out for a few seconds, but in the end, he found himself looking towards Keiliegh.

Her injuries didn't show, but he could from the way she was breathing heavily that she was hurt. "Hey Keiliegh," he called out, "you okay there?"

Keiliegh remained motionless under the Mothula, having found a way that the full weight wasn't pressed on her chest, which was still in deep pain. She hear Kinoso speak, though Leronah cut in first. "Oh, of course, she's smiles and rainbows."

She tried to push Mothula off of her, but the adrenaline from the fall and the fight had long worn off. Weakened arms pushed a seemingly unmovable force until she gave up. Quietly, and strained to feel defeat, the girl choked out a short answer. "N-no... I'm not..."

Kinoso jogged over to her. It was the fastest that his body would allow him to move. He lifted the large bug and threw it off of her. Keiliegh wasn't bleeding, that was just about as much as he could assess from her. From the way she was clutching her chest, he surmised that she had broken a rib too. Needless to say, their situation was not the best. They were hungry and tired, Keiliegh was injured, and Kinoso had no idea how to treat her. None of them knew. But he had to do something.

Kinoso realized that the two of them had tumbled blindly into this dungeon, only looking forward to the exit, which may or may not even be there. Their haste led them in this dire situation. His carelessness had led them to this dire situation. It was time for him to go about this with the patience and forbearance he had when he planned for a job. "Le'ip," he said, "scout ahead. As soon as you see any kind of food or water let me know." The most important thing he needed was information, and Le'ip agreed by flying off into the next tunnel.

But even with a good plan such as this required a bit of luck. As Kinoso wondered how to fix up Keiliegh, he was hoping that there would a more suitable place for them to rest nearby, one that had food and water hopefully.

Keiliegh tried to get to her wobbly feet and stabilize herself, though she turned out to not have very much success. She leaned on Kinoso's arm, turning her head to Leronah. "You too... Try to find anything useful."

"Well, I saw a little room thing in this flower before you sent it to hell. I'll check there." The fairy then vanished below the water, looking inside the room in the flower platform. It seemed there was nothing... Wait! The fairy saw a glimmer of red, and made out the shape of a bottle. 

She emerged from the water, flying in front of the two kokiri. "Now, I don't want to say its guaranteed, but there's a bottle of red stuff down in there, so I think it's a red potion. Never know though, could be a bottle of blood."

Keiliegh shook her head, trying to tough it out. "I-it's fine, I don't need it. Im just a little bit winded." she said softly, even though she knew it was a lie. She could feel one of her ribs in her chest, bending where it shouldn't be. "I just need a breather..."

Kinoso perked up at the sound of "red potion". He had never used one before, though it was because he could never afford it. Precious as they were, they were hard to find, but everyone knew that red potions were the doctors' ultimate healing tool. He submerged his hand in the water moving his hand around to look for the bottle. Finally, his fingers felt a smooth texture and pulled the small object into his hand. When his arm emerged, he saw the red potion that Leronah was talking about.

He opened the cork and swished the contents around. It didn't seem to have the same viscosity or color as blood, but he took a small sip to make sure. Sure enough, he energy returned to him. The sword in his hand felt lighter, his focus returned, and he felt like he could fight another two Mothulas (though not that he wished for that situation). With his eyes wide open, he smiled and handed the bottle to Keiliegh. "Try this!" he said, "It's the real deal!"

Keiliegh took the red potion in hand, chugging the contents inside. Red potions were surprisingly tasty…” Quickly her energy returned to her and the pain in her ribs vanished, leaving Keiliegh feeling giddy. She glomped Kinoso, laughing. “Yay! No more pain!” She stood up and left the top of the flower, going onto the platform and through the door. Stepping inside, Keiliegh found herself in a tunnel. And as she stepped forward, she saw a ton of eyes open in front of her.

“What are…” They pounced. “Ahhh! What the heck?! Get them off! AHHHH! Theyrealloverme! Getemoff!” She shouted, her words becoming more frantic as the morths were all over her. Unfortunately, they’re very bristly, and Keiliegh is very ticklish.

Those red potions are amazing, thought Kinoso, instead of thinking about the recovered girl or the endearing glomp, If I ever make it out alive, I should invest in them. Still hungry, he at least had his energy returned to him. he eagerly followed the girl out into the tunnel ahead of them.

When they emerged, there were morths everywhere, waiting for them. Fortunately, Keiliegh's haste caused most of the morths to pounce her instead of Kinoso. He chuckled to himself and then said to her, "Don't worry, these things are harmless. Just roll around on the ground and they'll come off you. Also, don't use your hands, they'll just stick to your hands."

By this time, Le'ip had just returned to him. "Hey!" she called out, "Next room up is just a huge room with lots of vines attached to large nuts with thorns on them and some of those flying monsters with the propellers. I couldn't get past the door though. Too heavy."

"No worries. Good work," he complimented. He made a running jump, and when he was about to land on the platform, he swung his sword, so all the morths that were stupid enough to jump onto the boy were swept away or cut in half. He looked back to Keiliegh. "I'll clear a path for you!" he said.

Keiliegh kept freaking out, even after Kinoso gave her instructions. Then she had an idea. Water! Things like these usually hated water! So in she jumped, and as expected the morths released, giving Keiliegh her full mobility back.

Unfortunately, Keiliegh didn't look before leaping, and was now drenched in the strange purple water. "Ewww!" She squealed, climbing out, a glistening layer of slime visible on her. "Th-That is SO gross!" she used her hand to try to get it off, but having a goop covered hand try to get goop off a goop covered body tends to not go well.

Even while Le'ip was giving instructions, Keilight kept letting out the occasional "Ew..." and such, trying to get clean.  "L-Let's just go! Real fast! I want to get out of here and have a bath!" she said irritatedly.

He chuckled to himself at the comment. Kinoso hadn't taken a bath in a long time, and his idea of a bath was simply diving into a pool of water without even a bar of soap. If he were to fall in the slimy water that Keiliegh had fallen in, that would be his hygiene maintenance for the day. Right when he cleared the ledge, several morths hidden in the grass jumped onto Kinoso. Cursing, he tried rolling around to get the morths off.

In the midst of his rolling, he didn't notice the deku baba rearing its head, ready to strike. Kinoso saw the deku baba in time, but he couldn't roll away in time. It snapped onto his leg, and then it threw him to its other side. He struggled to get up, as the morths made the act more difficult. "Kino!" yelled the concerned fairy companion.

He spun around in time to avoid the deku baba's next attack. Doing so also shook off a majority of the morths, though not all. He then brought down the large blade onto the thin stalk, which took the head off nicely. "I'm fine", he assured her. But he didn't notice the next deku baba ready to strike him. The deku baba wasn't close enough to bite him, but it was enough to headbutt him and send him to the wall. He groaned in pain from the impact. His experiences certainly did not prepare him for multiple enemies.

"Kino! Stop focusing on one enemy already!" Breaking old habits was definitely easier said than done.

Keiliegh saw the deku baba hit Kinoso, and immediately drew her katars. She stabbed the baba through the head, pinning it to the wall, and let go of her blade. Now with a single unmoving stem being all she had to cut, she slice the baba at the base, the vine lashing out and whipping Keiliegh in the leg. "Ow!" She cried, pulling her katar out of the baba as it died.

She then walked over to Kinoso, helping him up. "You okay, Kino?"

"Thanks, I'm fine," he groaned as he stood up, brushing the dirt off of his black breeches. The impact wasn't that hard, but it was still far from pleasant. He stood up and nodded at Keiliegh, and then he turned and opened the door into the next room. As Keiliegh had scouted out previously, there were a few peahats and several vines that dangled from the ceiling. At the end of each vine was a large nut with thorns all over. On the other side was the door that they needed to go through.

Kinoso saw the boots on Keiliegh and figured that she would have an easy time getting across gap. He would have a harder time, and the peahats would only serve to complicate things. He made a running start, leaped and caught the first vine. "Keiliegh!" he cried as he used to his body weight and momentum to reach the next vine. The feather fall spell and cloak helped. A peahat was drawing near, and he needed both hands just to stay on. "Take care of these peahats if you can!"

Keiliegh nodded at Kinoso's instructions, getting a handful of chill seeds ready for firing. "Leronah, give me targeting!" She said, firing at the first Peahat. It hit the thing right on the center of it's leaf blades and made the thing fall into the abyss below. 

At this point Leronah had made her way over to the swarm and was helping Keiliegh take potshots. Before too long, the Peahats were all dead and Keiliegh had made her way over to the door alongside Kinoso. She opened the door to the next room and walked inside. "See Kino? When I'm not bleeding all over, inside and out, I'm actually pretty effective!" 

This next room was strange. A massive hollowed out tree stump was in the middle of the room, with steel bars blocking entry and six pillars around it with grey crystals atop them. 

Crystals were always an indication of what you had to shoot, so Keiliegh struck one with her slingshot, making it glow white. After a few seconds, though, it went back to grey. "Hmm... Weird. It's like I have to get them all within a time limit." She then looked at the two fairies. "Leronah, Le'ip, could you two cover different halves of the crystals and go to the next one each time I shoot the one you're at? I need your targeting so I can focus on fast shooting." 

Leronah nodded. "See, we need to put your life in danger more often. You don't act like a total dipshit."

The plan went off without a hitch, with Keiliegh shooting off six seeds quickly enough to get all the gems lit up. Along with the bars lowering, two moblins were airdropped and immediately set their sights upon the two kokiri.

Moblins. Scum of Hyrule. These guys were brutishly strong, but died as easily with a sword through flesh as any other living creature would. Kinoso raised his sword to land the first strike on the moblin. It was too easy and too simple of a strike to land on the brutish warrior. Unlike all the monsters that Kinoso and Keiliegh faced before, these guys knew that the weapons that the Kokiri wielded were dangerous. The moblin sidestepped the blow and then swung his arm around, trying to backhand Kinoso since his spear was too long to be of any use in close range. Kinoso recovered his composure from his momentum in time for him to duck beneath the attack.

He counterattacked with an upward swing that was easily dodged. The moblin jumped backwards to distance himself from the longsword, which also gave him the advantage. Kinoso needed to close the distance, but every time he charged towards the moblin, he was met with a jab, and he was always forced to stop his charge to allow for enough time to parry the blow. The moblin's size definitely hid a monstrous agility. Kinoso needed to find a solution quick.

Keiliegh winced as she saw what they were facing. Two moblins against two kokiri? In almost any situation that was sure to be a quick butchery. She actually found herself a little afraid, hesitating to react, but she suddenly drew her slingshot, firing a shot right into the back of the head of one of the moblins. 

She'd heard Kinoso was better at one on one combat, so she had to make sure he got just that. Now with a brainfreezed moblin paying attention to her, Keiliegh kept firing off shots from the top of this high ground. This made the moblin eventually lose patience and start coming at her. While it continued up the spiral, the kokiri kept lighting it up with shots until it got close, letting loose a frustrated swing that would have nailed Keiliegh off the platform were she not able to jump in time to dodge.

When she rolled in, landing directly in front of it, she took her slingshot and gave it a chilly willy by firing a chill seed directly into it's gonads. The moblin hunched over, reeling in pain, so Keiliegh pushed it off the stump, watching it fall to the ground. It was stunned, but far from dead, so Keiliegh stuck her tongue out at the thing, taunting it to try again.

An idea came into Kinoso's head. He attempted a final charge at the moblin who, as before, responded with a quick jab. This didn't stop Kinoso, as he simply ducked under the blow and continued his charge as the moblin backpedaled to maintain distance. The monster aimed his next stab at Kinoso's stomach. Kinoso had to parry the blow and take a step back to avoid the spear point, but in the process, he lost his footing and slipped. The moblin smiled and snorted and then lunged forth, falling for the ruse. This time, the spear fell upon Kinoso with deadly force behind it, but Kinoso was expecting this. He spun around in time to catch his blade onto the shaft with a diagonally upward swing. Kinoso put enough power behind the swing to sever the spear point from the rest of the shaft. With the sword raised high, he brought it down onto the moblin's skull, his sword meeting flesh and bone.

Blood spurting forth and a pathetic roar were the moblin's only responses. Kinoso used his hands to wipe off the blood that had splattered onto his face, but only succeeded in smearing it across his cheeks. It wasn't what he wanted, but it also wasn't anything new to him. He attempted to pull the sword out, but it was stubbornly lodged into the to corpse. He used his foot to help him pull the blade out by kicking the moblin away. Finally, the friction gave way, and Kinoso was able to slide the blade out, only this happened with more blood getting onto his clothing.

He turned over to Keiliegh to check on the progress she had with the other moblin, only to see it tumbling down the stump. "Nice work," he muttered under his breath. He looked at his bloodied clothing again and said a little more loudly, "So, about that bath."

Keiliegh slid off the edge of the stump, going down directly onto the moblin below. She then took the fact that it was stunned to grab her katars and do a cross cut, slicing it’s throat. She then dove to the side quickly to avoid a torrent of blood that came out, though it got her shoulder a little. She stood up, jumping ecstatically. “Did you see that?! We just beat two moblins! Not one, TWO!” She then quickly ran over and grabbed the massive key from the chest and went out to Kinoso, seeing that during the fight, the door had been barred.

“H-hold on… how do we get out?” Keiliegh asked, starting to worry.

“Up here!” Leronah shouted out, allowing the two to notice a door that had been unblocked. It still had a massive keyhole though.

“Alright, on my way!” The girl ran towards the wall, using her katars as climbing equipment to get up to where her fairy was. She then turned around and dropped her weapons into the ground below for Kinoso to use. “Come on Kino! Use those!”

Kinoso grabbed the two katars and began to climb up the wall with his heavy sword sheathed in back. Using the katars was a bit awkward and new to him, but it was the only choice he had. He was used to climbing with his heavy equipment. But no matter how good he was at climbing, there was no use to his skills when the wall was very smooth. He jabbed one katar, pulled himself upward, and then jabbed the next one in. Through this tedious process, he finally reached the top and returned Keiliegh's weapons back to her.

The door was massive. It seemed like the way out or whatever was so important about the dungeon was beyond the door. "Well, looks like there's no other way but onwards," he said under his breath. He took the key from Keiliegh's hand and inserted it through the keyhole and then turned. With a jolt, the hole swallowed the key and shrunk into the door, and then the door was magically opened. Kinoso sighed and took the big step forward.

The room was very large but empty. It was not as big as some of the previous rooms, but there was nothing in there save for some shining blue object closer. When the two kokiri and their fairy companions were far enough from the door, the door closed behind them and was barred afterward. It did not surprise Kinoso too much, as this dungeon was full of doors that liked to prevent him from going back. Instead, he focused on what was in the center of the room. As he stepped closer, he slowly saw that it resembled a little child.

Suddenly, he noticed that the consistency of the ground had changed significantly. The small hairs standing in the back of his head told him not to continue any further. "Something's not right," he said, not being able to place his finger on what made him feel so uncomfortable. Then he felt dirt underneath him move a little bit.

"Oh quit being such a worrywart." The kokiri said to her companion.

Leronah then came up, drifting about. "Oh joy, you said it. Now something bad is guaranteed to happen." Keiliegh crept close to the strange flower, not entirely sure what to expect. When she was just outside the petals, it stirred, making Keiliegh jump back next to Kinoso.

"Okay you win. Bad stuff." She said , frozen in place as a blue baba reared up inside it, picked up the massive petals of the flower, and suspended itself to the ceiling using a ton of vines. The baba was hidden within it's flower, and several more vines shot into the ground. Keiliegh pulled out her slingshot, taking a few shots at the flower. Unfortunately they did very little, if anything at all. 

The kokiri was unfortunately so focused on shooting that she didn't notice the ground lumping towards her, and was totally defenseless when a vine thrusted from the ground, fastening her arms to her as it began to tighten, crushing the air out of her. 

Fortunately, he saw the underground movement of the vine before it emerged. As soon as it wrapped around Keiliegh, Kinoso had the sword high above his head and swung down onto the vine around Keiliegh's arms. The sword only dug itself about an inch into the thick vine, which, from the thickness, resembled wood almost. Then, Kinoso realized that the vines were thickening at where it wrapped around Keiliegh, and they was still relatively thin where they were emerging from the ground. He raised his longsword again and struck downwards at the skinny part of the vine, and the sword cleanly went through. When the vines were separated, the one around Keiliegh began to shrivel up and die due to its loss of its nutrient source, while the other vine shrank back into the ground.

Instead of making sure that Keiliegh was okay, he wasted no time in dashing towards the large plant. He saw another vine come from underground, so he strafed left quickly. Kinoso thrust his sword forward at the petals with a powerful stab, but the petal was strong enough to resist the piercing attack yet soft enough to soften the blow. Attacking it with the conventional hack-n-slash was not going to work. He supposed it would be too easy that way.

He ran around the flower all the while rolling out of the way of the incoming vines to look for a weak spot, and then noticed that there were smaller, blue vines that were keeping the petals from opening forth. The problem was that the vines were attached to the ceiling and suspending the flower upward, while Kinoso was stuck on the ground. He rolled backwards to avoid the vine bursting forth in front of him. But the vine that emerged from the ground was just a small one, a dud to distract Kinoso from the real attack behind him. He was recovering from the momentum of his roll when he suddenly felt the ground behind give way.

And then there was a sharp pain that ripped from his lower back to his shoulder as he was knocked forth onto the ground. But there was no time for pain, so he got up as quickly as he could.