Forest Temple [OOT] (BP and Tsub)

Autumn, Guardian of the Lost Woods (2/2/5) [Blonde Panther] Reward: +40 Rupees.
Stjarnstill, Lost Redeemer (1/5/3) [Tsubori] Reward: +25 rupees.
Keiliegh L’Archa, Drama Queen Kokiri (2/2/5) [Tsubori] Reward: +25 rupees.
Music for this Dungeon Thread.

At a first glance, the Lost Woods may have seemed peaceful. However, for someone who had lived there all their life like Autumn, they were all but. Something was wrong... Not so much with the Woods themselves but with their protectors.

The Kokiri Forest and its inhabitants in the south was guarded by the Great Deku Tree, Hyrule Bay and its Zoras were guarded by lord Jabu-Jabu, and Dragon Roost Isle and its Ritos in the Great Sea was protected by the dragon Valoo. Many thought those were the only major guardian deities, but Autumn knew better. Hidden away deep into the Lost Woods was the Forest Temple, a sacred place where, as far as the Guardian knew, the most powerful entities in Northern Hyrule resided.

As far as she was aware, the Forest Spirits had erected the Lost Woods themselves to hide away the Forest Temple... and then accepted and raised her to be their Guardian, holding off all intruders that could not be held off by the Woods. Normally, it sufficed. However, Autumn knew that danger could come not only from outside the Lost Woods... but even from within the Forest Temple itself.

As she looked upon the entrance to the ruined mansion, she was overcome by a feeling of dread. It sent a chill down her spine and that of her four-legged companion. She looked down at it, seeing it shake and back away with its tail between its legs. "So it's happening," she muttered.

She drew her bow, notching an arrow, as she stepped up the first step of the stairs to the temple. However, as she did so, she heard an explosion not too far away and the scent of flames found its way into her nostrils.

For the first time in her life, she hesitated. What took priority..? Stopping Stjarnstill or the Forest Temple..?

Keiliegh stumbled through the thick trees, not knowing exactly where she was. Her blind wandering had started to annoy her fairy companion too. "Would you just stop for a minute and think?!" Leronah snapped at her.

"Think about what? We're lost!" 

"And I'm lost with you. Joy." Keiliegh swatted at Leronah for the rude comment. 

"You don't have to be mean about it." Keiliegh continued walking forward, hoping she wouldn't be lost for much longer. She'd heard stories of those who remained lost in here for too long. 

"Wait..." Her fairy started. "I feel something strange. Go that way." 

"What is it?"

"I don't know. But something is better than this." Keiliegh accepted this and setting off in the direction Leronah had indicated. After a few minutes, she had started to doubt the fairy. 

She then saw something strange. It had stopped being normal forest and was a strange clearing with the entrance to a building in view. Keiliegh slowly walked forward, unsure of what this place was.

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"Where the hell is she..." Stjarnstill muttered angrily, holding a tied kikwi in front of him. He'd started a small fire, hoping to draw in the guardian and play with her again. He glared all around him, eventually realizing she wasn't coming. "Lame, lame LAME!" He yelled, casting Din's burst on the kikwi several times over. He then started walking off, leaving the smoldering pile of flesh that was once a kikwi behind.

While walking, he saw something unusual. A kokiri walked through the woods, and so he decided to follow her. Oddly, she seemed to know where she was going, so all he did was keep quiet and stay hidden.

If she went after Stjarnstill now, she would be occupied for hours. Hours the Forest Temple would not last without her intervening. Leaving Stjarnstill would result in the loss of life, but leaving the Temple in its current state would result in more losses. Autumn pulled on her bowstring once more, setting another step up the steps to the entrance.

It was then that Wolfos turned around, barking. It drew its mistress' attention and she, too, turned around, aiming her bow at the figure at the edge of the clearing. She fired, knowing she would miss, and used the time the arrow needed to travel for pulling down her Hawkeye and zooming in on the intruder. Sadly, it was a young child. It filled Autumn with sadness, but if the girl had made it to the Temple entrance, she had to be eliminated.

Thus was the task placed upon her by... huh?

She lowered her bow and took a second look. Was that a... yes. She wasn't mistaken. it was a Forest Fairy accompanying that child. "Huh..." When the Forest Spirits showed themselves to Autumn, they usually did so in the form of a Forest Fairy. That this child was guided by one... it explained how she got here. And that might mean she was less of a threat...

Keiliegh looked up at the large mansion, unsure of what she would do now that she was here. Leronah was more quiet than usual, and almost entirely motionless. "I have... A bad feeling Keiliegh." 

"Really? I didn't figure that out when we were lost in a death for-"

"Shut up, you stupid child! You... Were brought here. This building is calling me to lead you inside. Take this seriously, please." Leronah said, flitting around the entrance. She then noticed the woman with a bow pointed right at Keiliegh. "Keiliegh! Watch out!" 

"Ah!" The girl immediately dove to the side, but it wasn't from Autumn, it was actually from a torrent of flame coming from behind her. The girl patted her back, some of her clothing having caught fire a bit. 

Stjarnstill then picked Keiliegh up, his hand wandering her throat. A point blank Din's burst to the throat was often a good show. "Autumn, get out here!" The boy yelled. He was behind Keiliegh and had her arms secured behind her, preventing her escape. He was obviously enraged. "You know I HATE HATE HATE getting bored, don't you, Autumn?! Like when I make a new game and wait for you for a damn hour! "

Keiliegh struggled a bit, but couldn't reach her Katars to fend off the boy. "P-please, let me go..."

Leronah flitted down to Autumn, drifting next to her. "Hurry! Do something!"

Autumn cursed out loud when Stjarnstill showed up, enraged, and took the Kokiri child by the throat. She was helpless, and her Fairy flitted over to Autumn to request help. The Guardian couldn't remember ever having seen her mortal enemy this mad... because she had left him and his games waiting? "Hush, Fairy. I won't let him hurt her, I promise."

Wolfos had dived behind Autumn's legs, as per usual when it saw Stjarnstill. Forest creatures were extremely scared of fire. "Stjarnstill," Autumn said, trying to appear calm. "As a mage, I'm sure you've sensed something as well." He wasn't as closely tied to the Forest Spirits as Autumn was, but Autumn was not a mage. All in all, he should have felt the same sensation she did.

"In case you did not know, I was not made to play with you. I was raised to protect the Forest Temple, and not just from you. I apologize, but you are just not that important to the Forest Spirits." She pointed her bow at him. "Let the Kokiri go. I don't have time to play with you. I have duties to carry out." And she had to carry them out quickly. "Fairy. Are you familiar with targeting magic?"

"Do I look retarded?" the Forest Fairy said, a little more loudly than Autumn would have liked, "Of course!"

"Good. Here's the plan..." Autumn lowered her voice, hoping to stay under Stjarnstill's radar. "You fly back over to them. I will try to shoot at you as much as I can. However, you have to draw my arrow towards you and position youself in such a way that I hit his right shoulder... right for us."

"Okay, should be okay. And if he realizes what we're doing?"

"Then he will warp out, letting go of your mistress. He cannot warp carrying something as big as a Kokiri child." At least not when angry. She knew his magic got more destructive, but also harder to control.

The fairy was not impressed. "Or he kills her THEN leaves. Nice going on planning it in full, genius."

Autumn had no time to argue with the short-tempered sprite. "You underestimate me. It is how we will do it."

"She dies, that's on you. Then you're dealing with one pissed off fairy." That was the least of her concerns considering what she had been summoned for. Fortunately, the Fairy wasn't going to waste even more time. "Let's go."

Autumn pulled on her bowstring again. "Go."

Leronah did as instructed, flying behind Stjarnstill and getting ready to draw Autumn's arrows. Stjarnstill smirked under his mask, knowing what the fairy was trying to do. He heard the familiar whooshing of a fairy on his... Left side? Yeah... He heard the snap of a bow being shot and immediately swept Keiliegh to the left, forcing her to take the arrow in her arm. This made Keiliegh cry out in pain, and Stjarnstill laughed, though when he abruptly cut it off with more yelling, it was obvious it was forced.

"Nice try Autumn! Do NOT try to outsmart me, you tool! I should blow her head up right now for that! But... I have felt it. There's something strange going on in the temple... And you know what? We've been playing for three years now. What say we shake things up? Truce? I keep my word, remember that."

Why did that Fairy not do as she had been told? Autumn put her bow away, settling for the explanation that the fairy was new to targeting magic, and crossed her arms. She tried to remain calm, tried to banish it to the back of her head that Stjarnstill had defeated her once again. ...the back of her head was getting awfully full with that knowledge.

Fortunately the child was being wise for once, having used his inherent magic to sense the disturbance in the Lost Woods. He offered a truce, and Autumn suppressed a huff. If someone had told her a week ago that she would be co-operating with her mortal enemy, she would have dismissed it as Lost Woods-induced madness. "You keep your word when it comes to burning the forest and murdering its inhabitants, yes." She shook her head. "But I have need of your magic... and in the temple, I have the advantage."

She nodded to the Kokiri. "Fairy, I expect you to lead your ward safely out of these woods. I'm breaking rules as I am, for no one but me is supposed to set foot in the temple."

Stjarnstill let go of Keiliegh letting her run back over near Autumn with Leronah in tow. “I would call that equal advantage. And I’ll help you until I get bored. So… might I suggest keeping me entertained?” The boy cracked his neck and stretched his arms. “So let’s have a look-see at this secret place of yours, Autumn.”

Leronah, despite normally being a total bitch to Keiliegh, was comforting her, walking her through how to get the arrow out. “Okay… Keiliegh, snap the arrow there…” She did as instructed and pulled out the arrow, dropping it to the ground below. “Good girl… I’m going to take you home now.”

“N… No… I was brought here for a reason, and I’m staying.” Leronah was shocked to see such maturity, and simply turned towards Autumn, waiting for a reply.

Autumn shut her eyes. Stjarnstill being a demeaning little brat and the Kokiri insisting on breaking the rules further was getting rather taxing already. Then again the fairy was technically a Forest Spirit herself. Autumn decided that would be her justification. "Urgh. Fine. Get in here, all three of you. Kokiri, I need your name."

Walking into the halls of the Forest Temple, Autumn was immediately approached by two ghastly creatures in the vague shape of Wolfoses. However, her own Wolfos growled at them loudly and even went as far as to bark, and they attacked her as opposed to ignoring her and going for Stjarnstill and the Kokiri, so Autumn put an arrow into one, causing it to disappear in a puff of black smoke, and with the other one having come too close, she dissolved that one with a downward strike of her sword.

"I need someone to go up using those vines," she said, sheathing her sword but not turning around. "Near the second floor there's a key woven into them." She had done that, herself. The first door in the temple was locked tight and by her logic, hiding the key to it rather high up and invisible from the ground at a place like this, which was vine-covered year-round, would be a good way to keep intruders out in the off chance they got past both her and the Woods' own defenses.

Keiliegh had started freaking out a bit when she saw the ghastly wolfoses, and even more when she saw Autumn’s. She HATED wolfoses… Freezing in fear, Keiliegh’s hands trembled with her katars on them, feeling useless. Stjarnstill knew Autumn would take care of it and that spirits weren’t fun to kill because of the lack of ooey gooey gorey bits. When Autumn destroyed both, Keiliegh stayed entirely frozen, just staring at Autumn’s wolfos, backing up slightly.

Stjarnstill, on the other hand, chuckled softly. “Oh, here I was thinking I’d get a one time look into the temple, but now you’re showing me the proverbial key under the doormat? I think sometime I’ll invite a bunch of people in and throw a party. You know those gorons. No party like a Goron party.” He then climbed up the vines, and upon reaching the top, found the key Autumn had mentioned. Seizing it from the ivy vines, the child jumped down and turned on feather fall, gracefully landing before unlocking the front door. “Come on ladies.”

Autumn marched past the fire mage. "If you think I will hide the key in the same spot again once we are finished here, then you are sorely mistaken. Not that I understand why you would want to go into the temple freely... odds are you'd never get out alive."

Stepping into the first hallway of the temple, Autumn took her bow and shot an arrow into the ceiling. Immediately, a Big Skulltula came falling down, the arrow firmly lodged into an eye socket in its armor. Wolfos whined -it'd never liked the Skulltula species- and Autumn walked on. "Kokiri, Fairy, I should explain to you." At the other end of the door, there was a balcony of sorts, with stairs leading down into a large room, with balconies like this one at twelve, three and nine o'clock relative to them. Square in the middle of the room was an elevator, amongst four torches, each lit with a different color flame.

"You stand in what is known to most people as the Forest Temple. It's where the Forest Spirits, protectors and masters of the Lost Woods, reside... unfortunately it is also home to less savory creatures, and it is one of those creatures that I have been called to put back in its place." She looked around the room. The door at three o' clock was still locked... the doors at eleven and one were barred... "It seems most of the Temple has not been stirred yet. I suggest we hurry to the basement."

Keiliegh looked at Stjarnstill curiously, feeling her arm wound. "So... Why did you hold me hostage again?"

The warlock chuckled under his mask, pointing at Autumn. "She ignored me."

"Oh.... So what's with the mask?" 

"It makes me not have to sleep. Plus I like to keep Girl Guardianõ in the dark about what I look like."

"Oh... So can I see?"

The kid sent her a small glare. "If it makes you stop all these random questions, yes."

"Deal!"

Stjarnstill peeled up his mask with his back facing Autumn, Keiliegh's eyebrows immediately raising. "Oh, wow~!" she said, giggling a bit. Placing the mask back down, Stjarnstill walked out to the center of this grand room, leaning on the strange railing. The kokiri girl followed him, literally gliding across the floor on her hover shoes as she swooned. 

"Keiliegh! Get your head on straight! The punk shot you!" Leronah said, darting between Keiliegh's eyes. 

"Awwww, oh well! Forgive and forget, right?"

"You, girl, are the dumbest thing to ever live. Of all time." The fairy went back into Keiliegh's pack, getting gradually more annoyed. 

Stjarnstill looked at Autumn, sliding his finger across the rail, oddly collecting no dust. "So Autumn, what's the plan? I could probably come up with something myself, but it's much more fun to see what you think up."

"What we have to do is simple." Autumn pointed at the elevator. "We take the elevator to the basement. Once there, I'll undo the seal the Forest Spirits have placed on the evil spirit... and then we defeat it so it can be sealed once more."

However, as she descended the stairs and approached the elevators, something happened. The elevator was... not supposed to go down on its own. And once it was down, four Poes appeared, encasing the four flames in their lanterns. This immediately darkened the room as the four Poes flew off.

"...change of plans. We catch the poes before we can take the elevator." She looked around. The doors they could reach were locked. Except... "Follow me." She walked up to the door opposite the one they had used to get into this room. It was unlocked, and Autumn was fairly sure she knew where it went.

"If I know the tricksters, then they're going to be hiding in the temple, in places chosen specifically so we have to cross the entire thing to find them." She walked up the stairs to the door. "I just hope we find them before the evil breaks out."

Stjarnstill laughed at Autumn's misfortune in the ghosts taking those flames. "Well, the forest spirits aren't so nice when they're busting your ass, are they, Autumn?"

He laughed a little, then looked in all the directions the poes went. "Well. If it's up to me, you two ladies go kill two and I'll kill two. When I finish first, I don't mind just waiting on you girls for a few."

Keiliegh then chimed in. "Or, how about me and Stjarny kill two and Autumn kills two?"

The warlock looked over at Keiliegh with a sigh. "....Please don't call me that."

Autumn quickly turned around, her eyes glinting, when Stjarnstill proposed to split up. "Splitting up to find the Poes more quickly would be a lot more efficient, yes," she said. "But you're out of your mind if you think I'll let you set a single foot in this temple unsupervised. No, Stjarnstill. You are coming with me."

Stjarny? Something was obviously not right in the Kokiri's head, so Autumn addressed the Forest Fairy instead. "Fairy... I don't know about sending you and your ward into the depths of the Temple alone. Do you think you will be able to survive?"

She took her bow to hand, walking towards the barred door at one o' clock. Just before walking into the alcove the door itself was in, she aimed her bow up and shot an arrow into the eye-shaped switch above her head.

"Whatever we do, be it staying together or the Kokiri Child going separately from Stjarnstill and myself..." She crossed her arms. "I advise extreme caution. The spirits that barred our way are not Forest Spirits. They are lesser evil spirits supposed to be sealed within the chambers. It is very well possible that we might run into something more than the guards the Forest Spirits themselves instated."

Stjarnstill shrugged at Autumn and paced a bit while the guardian gave an explanation to Keiliegh's fairy, who seemed to actually be paying attention. 

"Alright. I'm sure she can handle it. Meh. Maybe not, but if she gets butchered by whatever's in here, can I stay with you? You're competent."

"Hey!" Keiliegh interrupted. "First you're tryna steal my Stjarny then my fairy? You're mean! I'll take down those two poes. And I'll prove I'm capable!" She then ran towards the unlocked door with her fairy in tow. 

Stjarnstill then laughed. "Oh you. Always upsetting people. So, shall we get to work? I really want to slaughter something. Even a ghost is fine."

Autumn sighed -"I'm not the one who invited her in"- and walked past Stjarnstill, grabbing his arm to ensure he'd follow her. She walked to the door at nine o 'clock, going up the stairs and letting go of Stjarnstill, opening the door and letting him go in first. "I'll be watching you, Stjarnstill. It's bad enough that I've had to let you enter this place... I'm not going to let you destroy it as well."

When she walked ahead, she was approached by a Blue Bubble. It cackled as it flew towards her, but suddenly found itself on the ground, rather dizzy, with the Guardian's sword coming down on it. Sheathing it and tossing her boomerang at the other Blue Bubble in the room, she finished that one off with an arrow. "Get up there," she said to Stjarnstill, motioning her head towards the ladder right ahead of them.

----

Meanwhile, Keiliegh would have found a courtyard of sorts at the other end of the door she had passed. At her right hand, but a little walk away, was a well filled with water, in front of her a moat-like canal, although behind it at a first glance was nothing of interest, just some ruins.

More worrying was probably the Big Deku Baba lying in wait just down the two steps, ready to lunge at the Kokiri when she'd set foot on the grass.

Keiliegh walked into this strange section, all on her own, her past confidence fading. "Why didn't you just go with the others? You've never been able to do anything without SOME help."

She glared at Leronah. "Shut up! I can do this alone! I'll prove it. I'm not just some useless brat."

"...Nine times out of ten, you are." 

The kokiri started ignoring the fairy's comments, waliking forward until she saw a snap towards her in front of the girl. Jumping, she evaded the baba's attack and landed behind it, pulling out her katars and cross chopping the stem, making the baba snap for a few seconds then die and wither. Keiliegh pointed a finger accusingly at Leronah. "See! I can do this! I've fought a baba ten times that size!"

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Meanwhile, Stjarnstill was chuckling at Autumn's accusations. "I've given my word that I wouldn't, so I won't, but you and I both know there's nothing you could do to stop me. If I wanted this place burned, it'd be scorched." He did as Autumn said, then waited for the woman to climb as well. "25 rupees that we find the kokiri's bloody corpse later?"

Stjarnstill mocker her, drawing from their past together to accuse her of being incapable of stopping him if he wanted to do anything to the Temple. He forgot that this was a home game for Autumn, who had not only memorized the layout of the Forest Temple well but also had powerful allies inside it. One wrong move, or even a suspicious thought on Stjarnstill's part...

"You'd like that wouldn't you... 'Stjarny.'" She followed him up the ladder, leaving Wolfos at the bottom and looking to a side to find a narrow hallway entirely taken up by an enormous block. It was a good thing the Kokiri had gone the other way- she and Stjarnstill would need to combine their strengths to move this gargantuan block of granite. The arrows painted on the floor helped chart their course, thankfully.

Pulling her gloves on more tightly, she gestured her head at the block, walking in its direction. "Suddenly the warlock of the Lost Woods is reduced to a little child. You're not so scary when you have a little girl fluttering about you."

Stjarnstill silently glared at Autumn out of his mask, and if looks could kill, this would be the one time he made an attempt on Autumn's life. "I have no idea what that stupid little brat keeps going on about. And don't call me that. I thought you were supposed to be the mature grown up here." 

The boy assisted Autumn in pushing the block, though to be fair, he didn't help much. His body weight and lack of general strength only helped to keep momentum. "I'll be perfectly content if I win our bet and we never see her again." He then chuckled deeply. "Hey Autumn... Is this the first time we've ever spent more than five minutes together?"

(OoC wrote in car and forgot what Keiliegh's encountering xD sorry)