Friggin Frigid Cold [Bepu and Tent]

"Woah," Tent blinked. That seemed much easier than he expected, "By Din's life-giving womb, man, give him the sandwich!" Tent was tempted to snatch it away from Bepu and shove it into the Yeti's mouth himself. He was still mostly distracted by those red-eyed little icicles, however... It was dangerous to so much as even touch them. It was an unfortunate burden, he supposed, and it was perhaps through that pity he decided to spare them... so long as they were good little abominations and behaved themselves.

Tent moved towards the hefty fuzzy Yeti, trying to help him up into a sitting position... which was significantly harder that it sounds. "Are you alright? I didn't mean to," he hesitated, "Uhm... fall onto you, there." The Yeti still seemed to be in quite a daze, his eyes not fully focused. Tent's guess is that he was either starving, or had his head struck even harder than expected.

"Well... first things first," Yetu admitted, grinning through his injury. "I can't take this sandwich for free, but my wallet's upstairs." He pushed off the ground. One hand rubbed his presumably sore temple, as the other brought the colossal sammich to his mouth for another bite. He audibly groaned--but it was difficult to tell if it was because the sammich was so satisfying, or because his head was so sore. Bepu's tip hung in the balance, resulting entirely on this colossal creature's satisfaction and generosity. At the very least, he seemed to have forgotten the delivery man was far later than he should have been.

Tent tried not to marvel at the beast of a man. Although he liked to think of himself as a ventured person, he had never seen such a colossal humanoid creature. His entire body seemed like it could have fit in Yetu's forearm. Even the Mini Freezards seem to be cowering from him. "Please, sir, lead the way." While he wanted to help with whatever that sound was, he supposed it would be rude to intrude more than they already have. Instead, he quietly followed him into the next room. He glanced towards Bepu, giving him a slight smile.

Upon entering the next chamber, what seemed to be not unlike a colossal wine cellar lit by dim lamps, a myriad of giant Skulltula--at least half a dozen--dropped from the ceiling and crawled towards them. Yetu didn't even seem to mind. Had he been hit too hard? "Uh... hey... hey Yetu... you see those right?" Beginning to panic, Tent abruptly set his gauntlets ablaze, assuming a fighting stance.

The flames on Tent's fist were abruptly extinguished, much like the excitement he had at the prospect of fighting Skulltula. It was a bit humbling to know what Tent saw as worthwhile foes, Yetu seemed to consider akin to cockroaches. With a sigh, he admitted to himself that even insects--or whatever those creatures are--don't need to die needlessly.

. . .

From the corner of his glowing eye, Tent spotted Bepu's little fist-pump and smirked himself. He wasn't sure how much the sammich would actually cost, but that did seem like a fair pile of rupees. He, too, was surprised when Yetu asked for something else...

"Uh," Tent began, before realizing he was at a loss for words. Needless to say, the intricacies of affection and love were not exactly his forté--much less what was considered normal social graces among potential Yeti couples. Maybe a disciple of Nayru would have greater experience with that. Still, he couldn't exactly say no--if this man was asking them, then he surely must be desperate...

Rubbing the back of his neck, Tent tried to hide his unease as he eventually said, "We could... we could at least help you look for her, for a little bit, I suppose." He gave an uneasy glance to Tent, realizing suddenly he more or less volunteered the little guy into it as well. With a bit of a sigh, he turned back towards Yetu, "Where have you already looked...?" Surely this mansion couldn't be so large that a maiden could hide it in for very long.

Yetu began to explain the general layout of this apparent mansion, though to Tent's dismay he didn't seem to have any kind of physical map. Furthermore, the way he discovered White Wolfos as 'pups' was... at once both marvelous and disturbing. When Yetu finished, Tent turned towards Bepu with a bit of unease. "Do you want to start in the attic...?" He really wanted to ask the Korok if he just wanted to get out of here, but was uncomfortable doing so right in front of the Yeti he had reluctantly agreed to help.

"I'd imagine so. At least he paid you--and it seems there will be some kind of bonus for this as well." Tent glanced at him with a smile, trying to cheer him up, "I mean, I'd have to imagine it would be rather large, considering the man uses a chest as his 'wallet.'" He assumed a working man could appreciate the value of rupees, or at least more than Tent himself could. While he himself was helping Yetu due to a feeling of obligation, he couldn't deny he was a little bit excited to explore this area a bit more. If some monsters wanted to battle, well... he supposed Din wouldn't mind if he obliged them.

...

After knocking down a couple Keese and one Skulltula, the duo neared the third set of stairs. Tent found his eyes wandering towards the surroundings, however. It seemed everywhere they went, there was furniture built for monstrous creatures almost as big as Yetu, and all of it seemed so elegant... or at least, that it had been elegant at one point in time. It would have been beautiful in a way, but the layers of dust, the countless holes, the roaming monsters, and the sheer cold seemed to tarnish it all in such a tragic way. Tent couldn't help but wonder, aloud, "What caused this place to fall into such disrepair...?" Even Yetu didn't seem to live here himself.

Tent took a slight divergence, announcing, "Just a second. Sorry, Bepu, I want to look into something." He approached a colossal bookcase, which must've been over a dozen feet tall. Each book seemed so massive a Hylian child probably couldn't even carry it. As Tent reached for one, he was almost forced to let it fall onto the ground instead of his arms, landing with a potent THUD. A giant cloud of dust kicked up in its wake. Before Tent could look into the pages, however, there came a sudden scurrying sound... Making such racket in this place suddenly seemed like a very bad idea.

He whipped around just in time to see a giant ice spear launching towards his face. It glinted off the side of his barbute--thank Din for this helmet!--with enough force to almost topple him over. The frozen javelin stuck out of the book he had dropped. Tent scowled down at the book, before turning towards the Chilfos who threw it. A tiny bead of light was already launching in its direction... Just as the monster aimed another javelin at Bepu, a burst of flame exploded in its face (or lack thereof). The upper half of its body melted so quickly it seemed to vanish into thin air--a disembodied pair of legs flopped to the ground, audibly hissing as ice became steam.

"...Sorry." Tent glanced towards Bepu with an apologetic look. "Do you want to press on? I don't need to waste your time with my curiosity, I suppose." He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily, and glanced again towards the stairs. It almost felt as if Din herself was telling him not to be so nosy...

Tent perked up at Bepu's words. The Scrub was afraid he was being a nuisance, but apparently his curiosity turned out to be more of an asset--at least in the eyes of this particular sammich delivery man.

"Oh, no problem." Tent strode over to the icy corpse as well, looking over it. It was rather difficult to be pitiable towards a creature that seemed to be made of nothing but ice. He supposed that was Din's way of saying not to worry about it. "I've heard Chilfos can be ferocious foes, but... whenever I've faced them, they melt rather quickly. I suppose that's to be expected, though."

He listened carefully to Bepu's theory. In truth, he hadn't actually considered that possibility himself, but it did seem to check out. "Some of those books didn't seem to be terribly old, either," he recalled, "Not that I'm an expert on literature. Even so... that begs the question... what caused all this destruction? None of the monsters we've met so far would just tear giant holes in a place like this without reason."

Tent eyes the surrounding area with a pensive look. It had been the same case as with most of these ruins--giant, decaying furniture that seemed as though it was once rather ornate. "I can't help but pity whoever once lived here." His brow furrowed, slightly, "They must have spent two fortunes on this place..."

"B-by Din's life-giving womb!" Tent nearly shrieked as he barely managed to weave out of the way of one javelin, only to feel another shoot from behind him, so disturbingly close he felt the ice slick against his neck. Bepu and himself were surrounded--even if he was an experienced fighter, he wasn't going to be able to dodge javelins coming from five directions at once. Their only chance was to end this battle as quickly as possible.

Tent flung a Din's Burst to his side, aiming at the only Chilfos that hadn't thrown yet. As he feared, there was a javelin already in its icy grip. Just as it was thrown, Tent's attack blasted into its front--sending not a javelin, but a harmless flurry of water sprinkling over Bepu. Bodiless legs fell to the ground.

Tent darted forward towards the nearest Chilfos, hearing another javelin land behind him. He made a wild, reckless leap towards the creature. It attempted to block his attack with the blunt side of its icy spear. Even so Tent's flaming superman punch broke and melted through it, before stabbing through the monster's frail waist, effectively slicing it in half.

Tent whirled around just in time to see a javelin flying towards his face--it struck the center of his helmet, covering his forehead--with such power that he was flung backwards, skidding over the snow. Even with a terribly aching skull, the adrenaline pumping through Tent's body hastened him to his feet. He hoped Bepu was holding up, but didn't have time to even glance in his direction as another Chilfos came at him with a spear thrust...

Tent aimed to block as the Chilfos came at him with another strike, only to have Bepu's Ember Seed unexpectedly burn into it. As if that wasn't enough to finish it off, Tent threw a ferocious shoryuken flaming uppercut as the monster stumbled forward, quite literally melting its face, and sending it stumbling forward onto the snow, audibly sizzling.

He whirled around towards the last Chilfos--the fool was backing his ally into a corner. Needless to say, such an act would not go unanswered. A ferocious Din's Burst tore into the monster's backside, giving Bepu room to launch an Ember Seed into it. As if that wasn't enough, Tent charged up and literally broke its body in half with a righteous, fiery hook across its waist. It was certainly a good thing these monsters were so skinny and frail right at fist-level...

Breathing heavily, Tent glanced around the room to make sure that was all of them, then looked down at Bepu with a smile. "You alright?" Tent reached beneath his helm, softly rubbing his forehead. That... that was definitely going to be another bruise by tomorrow. He supposed there would be plenty of time to rest it off afterward, however. "That was certainly... unexpected. I wonder if Yetu could handle those things, too?"

"You might be able to get a Sage of Nayru to take care of scars." Tent offered a slight shrug, "It isn't my area of expertise. Scars, in my opinion, have a lot of character--especially when they're attached to stories as wild as this one." He smiled towards Bepu. In truth, Tent's armor left him with relatively few visible scars, outside of the numerous ones on his legs. He was almost a bit envious of Bepu, for that.

Glancing towards the door, Tent nodded, "It's our best bet, so far."

He carefully approached, standing next to the Korok as he slowly pushed open the door. What stood before them was... wholly unexpected. Despite the ruin of the rest of the mansion, this one room was almost luxurious by comparison. A stone fire was situated in one corner of the room, lit with a smoldering flame. Portraits of various landscapes lined the walls. Bookshelves were neatly arranged in every corner. The strangest thing of all was near the room's center, a particularly large canopy bed with violet veils and gold trim. Though it seemed too small for Yetu, it also seemed impractically large for a Hylian. Through gaps in the veil, there could be seen a body lying beneath the covers--large, the size of a tall Goron perhaps--heaving up and down with smooth, steady breaths.

Tent gave his companion a wide-eyed, curious look. His words were hushed, "I didn't actually expect to find her... I mean, who else would it be other than the fabled lady Yeti?"

Tent shuddered slightly at the thought of what would guise itself as a sleeping woman--a truly monstrous creature that would be. Hopefully that suspicions was false, however. Surely to a Yeti this room wasn't very cold--and perhaps she didn't mind things being a bit messy? "Of course," he whispered in return, "It could just be a wanderer who fond a dry, relatively cozy place to nap for the day..." Were Yeti nocturnal? Probably not.

Hopefully it would just be the female Yeti for whom Yetu searched--hopefully that would be the end of the story, Bepu could get paid, and Tent could accomplish a good deed and put a quiet end to this adventure. Tent hoped that, but he somehow knew this story wouldn't end so quaintly, not with a pretty pink ribbon that tied it all together in one nice package. Such thoughts ran through his mind as he quietly sneaked around to the other side of the bed, and gently pushed open the curtain to try to get a close look at what he hoped was the creautre's face...

...She actually looked pretty cute, or what Tent assumed to be cute by Yeti standards. That was, until her eyes abruptly shot open, glaring into his face with no irises, no pupils, but just blood-red orbs where eyes should have been. "DIN'S WO--" he stumbled back, landing square on his ass.

A swarm of snow shot towards the bed in all directions, whirling past Bepu and Tent to focus on whatever monstrous creature this actually was. Before Tent could even figure out what was going on, the snow seemed to concentrate into a single colossal ice crystal, smashing apart the bed. At the center of the crystal stood the Yeti(?), her form faintly visible. The huge slab of jagged ice began to float ominously into the air, soon surrounded by other slabs of pointed ice--all of which were larger than either Bepu or Tent. The creature oozed an overwhelmingly malicious intent, utterly murderous, for reasons Tent couldn't even begin to understand.

Tent's hands lit aflame, thanking Din and all she stood for that ice could be melted by the only weapon he wielded proficiently. The entire floor was broken apart by the floating crystals, leaving one Terrifying Ice Mass floating above two little wooden creatures on the remains of a second-story mansion. Tent had a feeling that, before this was over, there would not be much of a mansion remaining...

Tent offered a slight nod. With the warm light now filling the room, he felt more comfortable approaching the slumbering beast. His boots slid carefully and quietly over the floorboards. Was this really a Yeti? Or something else entirely, like Bepu feared?

Before Tent even got close enough to tell the difference, the steady heaving breaths abruptly stopped. The huge body began to quiver violently, sending rickety noises echoing throughout the small room.

Tent's eyes shot wide, before he abruptly doubled back, scurrying over to Bepu. "I-I don't think it likes that fire you've got going...!"

Before either of them could do anything further, the figure abruptly convulsed and shot upwards, sitting in bed. It appeared almost like the Yeti they met earlier--except for those huge, glowing red eyes. Its fangs shot apart with a huge shriek, forcing Tent to over his ears. Its body quivered and quaked wildly, before it abruptly shot high up into the air, shattering the ceiling into countless splinters.

Tent couldn't help but gasp, looking up into the air to see a blizzard tearing through the sky. Somewhere within it, the creature--the Yeti?--was wrapping itself in snow, hardening into a bizarre crystalline structure that soared effortlessly overhead. Even from this immense distance, Tent could feel a horrible malice radiating from it. The ceiling seemed like it would only be the beginning of this creature's destruction.

"H-holy... mother of Din...!!" His eyes shot towards his companion, "Bepu, what the hell is that?!"