Great Deku Tree (Blonde Panther and Tsubori)

Lyra felt bad. Keiliegh was obviously upset at her success with the Dekus. however, the blonde cheered up almost instantly when she got the Kokiri Emerald, lifting it up high above her head. "That's it, Keiliegh!" Lyra said, laughing, "Okay, let's get out of here and-"

The skittering above their heads increased drastically after Keiliegh removed the Emerald from its resting place. Suddenly, Hector jolted up and shouted, drawing Lyra's shock and attention. "What is it Hector? Did you fly into a thorn?"

"N-no... THERE!" Lyra looked to the far end of the room, from where a veritable sea of small monsters skittered towards the Kokiris. "Skullwalltulas!" Hector said, "I- I think they're poisonous, too!"

"I repeat!" Lyra shouted, "Let's get ourselves out of here!" she grabbed Keiliegh's wrist and started running, the Skullwalltulas coming closer and closer as they were somehow much faster than the girls. Finally, Lyra reached the door, went through it, dragged Keiliegh with her and slammed the door shut. She heard several of the monsters hitting it in their speed, unable to stop in time.

"Whew... that's-- eek!" the Dekus she had just defeated had gotten back up, and shot Deku Nuts at her. Lyra grabbed her staff, ready to deflect the nuts again, but was hit in the hand right away. The Dekus had changed to rapid fire, apparently, as they shot much faster and much more accurately.

To make matters worse, when Lyra bent forward to pick up her staff, she was bitten in her hand by a Deku Baba popping up form the ground. Screaming, she slammed her foot into it so it let go, and ran towards the water. "Run!"

Keiliegh made it just in time along with Lyra, getting out of that room and out to the water. She thought she was doing pretty well when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back. She swatted behind her, hitting off the skullwalltula that had just bitten her. Hector had said... Poisonous? Ignoring that for now, Keiliegh went into the water, beginning to climb up the vines. "Keiliegh! Look out! There's too many above!" 

Lookng above her, the kokiri saw at least nine skullwalltula climbing down at her. She had reached a decent height up, so she took a katar, slamming it into the vine covered wall  and hoisting herself up to sit on it. She then pulled out her slingshot. "Hector! Leronah! Target for me!" 

With Leronah and Hector covering seperate halves of the hole, Keiliegh fired one shot after another in rapid succession, taking down all the skullwalltula in about six seconds. She then climbed down, pulling her katar out of the wall and equipping her other one, using them to climb up the wall faster with a higher reach. "Come on Lyra! Let's go before more come!"

On the vines, there was a true horde of Skullwalltulas. Fortunately Keiliegh was better prepared than Lyra, having her slingshot and using it to shoot them all down. Lyra was not smart enough to step back from the vines, instead having to jump from the left to the right and back to the left several times to dodge the arachnids falling down. She then hurried up the vines with her partner.

"Where did those Skullwalltulas come from?!" she said as they reached the first Basement floor, "They weren't there when we jumped down a minute ago, I'm sure of it!"

"I don't know," Hector said, "But I have the feeling that if we stay in here for too long they'll come back and- look out!" Lyra screamed, diving to a side as a Big Skulltula came down from the ceiling, attempting to crash into her. She managed to dodge it, but was then instead jumped by five sticky, one-eyed things.

"Ewwww! Get off!"

"The water!" Hector shouted, "Gohma larvae hate wa-" he was abruptly shut up as a Deku Baba snapped shut with him in its mouth. Lyra followed her fairy's advice and jumped into the deeper part of the water, where the Larvae immediately let go of her. On the vines leading up to the ground floor, she saw more Skullwalltulas and even a bigger, gold-plated one- but that was concern for later.

"Hectoooooooor!" She leapt back onto the higher ground using the block, picked her staff up from the ground and started whacking the Deku Baba. "Let- go- of- my- fairy!" she shouted, in time with the whacks from her staff. Finally, the Deku Baba 's stalk bent backwards, the head coming to rest on the ground and opening up. hector fluttered out, shaking.

"That was scary..."

Keiliegh reached the top and made sure to not put her katars away. She'd need them, she was sure. When a ton of the Gohma larva came down and started attacking, Keiliegh used her hover boots, gliding and sliding between each, slashing at the beasts. Leronah let out a soft yell when Hector was eaten, but Keiliegh was pretty preoccupied with all the larva around. 

When the fairy had been freed, Keiliegh ran to the water, beginning to climb up after shooting down a bunch of skullwalltulas. "We're almost there Lyra!" She began climbing and it all seemed like it'd be okay. Vision blurred... Hands fumbled... She was just about at the top when she couldn't see. Her body first tensed up, then released as the venom in her body forced her to go limp, the girl plunging back down into the waters below. "Keiliegh!" Leronah screamed.

When Leronah called out, Lyra hurried over to Keiliegh, slamming her staff into the soft underbelly of the Big Skulltula from before. "I'm coming!" She used the arm with her staff to keep Keiliegh above the water level, dragging her to the shallow water before starting to channel magic through her free hand.

"Where was she bitten?" When Leronah pointed her to where the Skullwalltula had bitten the Kokiri before, Lyra put her hand there. It was best to start the magic at the same point as the poison. She needed a few seconds, but then cast the Life spell to start purging the poison from Keiliegh's body. She then left the blonde sitting in the water, her head resting on the dry land.

She immediately had to drive the butt end of her staff into the mouth of a Deku Baba to keep it from biting Keiliegh. Still pushing the head of the flower monster back and forth to keep it occupied, she looked up at the vines. The golden Skullwalltula had moved up, now sitting near the top of the vines as new Skullwalltulas seemingly came out of the wall.

Just as Lyra was starting to wonder how she was going to keep herself safe from the mosnters coming from all sides AND climb up with Keiliegh, she heard voices. "...two, one! Bombs away!"

Lyra shut her eyes and looked away at just the right time. A couple dozen Deku Nuts came falling down, one exploding and setting off a chain reaction. When Lyra dared look again, all spiders had fallen and most monsters in the room were at least dazed. "Who in the..."

Keiliegh could only see bits and pieces of what was happening, the girl's vision being blurry. Lyra was fighting off enemies, when suddenly with a loud snap, they were all stunned and a few kokiri dropped from up the hole, sticks or slingshots in hand. 

They took care of Keiliegh pretty well, using a rope around her chest to bring her out while just having two kokiri cover Lyra as she climbed. Were Keiliegh able to see, she'd be downright stunned by who sat in the main room... Everyone. 

When Lyra, under the cover of her fellow Kokiri, climbed up the vines to the circular room they had started in, stopping on her way to pick up the golden token in the resemblance of the golden Skullwalltula she had seen before, she saw the entire village in the trunk of the tree. It was a testament to just how enormous the Great Deku Tree really was if every last Kokiri and Fairy in the village could (rather comfortably, she might add) fit in its trunk.

"What's happening?" she said, "Why is everyone here?"

"It's evil," a boy said, "Monsters are attacking the village! They're everywhere, and then everyone's Fairies told them to take refuge inside the Great Deku Tree!" When Lyra looked at the entrance through which she and Keiliegh had entered the tree, themselves, she saw it was shut. "A few of us are still out there, though..."

"What?" Not even awaiting an answer, Lyra went towards the exit, slamming her staff into it. The Great Deku Tree, maybe mistakenly thinking she and Keiliegh were both exiting with the Kokiri Emerald, opened up and let her out.

Immediately, she had to block a swipe from the claw of a Stalchild and push it back. The boy had not exaggerated when he had said 'they' were everywhere. Keese seemed to swarm the skies, blotting out most sunlight, while the by now familiar Gohma Larvae and Stalchildren trampled everything beneath their feet and proceeded towards the protective deity.

Going into the village to save whoever had stayed behind was useless now. Lyra was pretty sure of that. However, when she took her staff into two hands and swung it towards the Stalchild who had attacked her, casting Life to keep it at bay (Apparently the smaller, weaker Undead creatures somehow FEARED the healing spell), she spotted something that froze her over.

Behind or amidst the smaller monsters swarming the village, there was one large, looming figure. A yellow eye with an unusually large pupil glowed a good ten feet above the Stalchildren, turning red when it spotted Lyra. Hector swallowed, and unlike what she usually did, Lyra followed his example.

Why had she thought this was a good idea, again?

When Keiliegh finally found herself able to see think straight, she stood up, if a little wobbly. She prepared her hover boots, steeling herself for the fight that may end her life. She may just be some kokiri who everyone thinks is popular, but this is her home. She will die to protect it if that's what it takes. 

Drawing both katars, Keiliegh followed Lyra out of the deku tree, starting to slice up a few stalchildren. The things went down easy, but there were a lot of them. Deep down, Keiliegh knew that without a miracle, kokiri forest was doomed.

Just as a bunch of Gohma Larvae started creeping towards Lyra, she snapped out of her shock when Keiliegh ran out from the Great Deku Tree. Her Life spell had done its work, purging the poison from the other Kokiri's body and once more rendering her capable of moving and fighting.

However, the largest monster had now taken a real interest in Lyra and with its eye still red, it raised one claw, swiping it upwards and knocking Lyra up and back in the process. She slammed into Keiliegh, causing the Kokiri Emerald to fall out of her pocket.

The Emerald rolled a few feet, before coming to a halt about two yards in front of the Great Deku Tree. Then, for the first time since entering him, Lyra heard the tree's voice again. "...thou didst well..." Suddenly, the Emerald started levitating, and Lyra felt a tremendous magic force surrounding it. "I will create an opening for thee... there will not be much time."

"What are we supposed to do?!" Lyra screamed, "It's just the two of us! We can't fight back that entire army!"

"Defeat Gohma... She containeth the magic required to keep the other monsters here. Gohma's demise is the demise of her minions."

"How?!" Lyra screamed, scared, "How are we supposed to-"

"There is no time." The Kokiri Emerald, slowly spinning around above the Kokiri's heads, started glowing brightly and Lyra suspected that by now, Keiliegh could feel the power pulsing from it as well. Suddenly, with one, enormous and visible pulse, Gohma's entire army was sent sprawling to the ground, leaving Gohma herself staggering.

The road to Gohma was free... And Hector had flown over to Leronah, undoubtedly brainstorming an emergency plan to killing the monster.

Keiliegh let out a shriek as Lyra came flying and knocked her down, but after the deku tree destroyed most of the force attacking, it left only Gohma and the two girls alone to fight it. Why didn't the deku tree just shoot up a root and impale it or something? 

Keiliegh got to her feet, preparing to fight the beast. It, however, was also ready, and immediately made a huge slash right, sending Keiliegh sliding along the ground on her hover boots. Keeping her balance, Keiliegh pulled out her slingshot, pelting the beast with chill seeds. 

Unfortunately, these didn't have too much of an effect. Leronah then chimed in. "The eye, Keiliegh, go for the eye!" So the girl aimed at the eye, but when Keiliegh's sliding unexpectedly rammed her back into a tree, she lost her aim and accidentally put a seed into Lyra's direction. "W-watch out Lyra!"

When Leronah shouted to target the eye, Hector shotued along with her, much to Lyra's surprise. Come to think of it, he had been shouting a lot to get her attention in dangerous situations today. What was up with that Fairy?

"Meep!" Keiliegh's Chill Seed hit Lyra right between her shoulderblades, freezing and numbing both her shoulders. Fortunately a second one hit Gohma in the eye, which caused her to scream out in pain, a monstrous cry that made the hairs Lyra's neck stand on end, and fall to the ground.

Lyra grabbed a Deku Stick lying on the ground, nothing more than a branch that had fallen off the Great Deku Tree when fall had set in a few days ago. leaping forward, she stuck the stick in Gohma's eye two times before the monster reeled, pushing Lyra off of her and leaping on to the Great Deku Tree.

Hanging there, her eye turned red once more, this time with something that resembled... constipation? No, she was laying eggs. Out of a stinger-like appendage, Gohma sprayed about five eggsacs, each of which, upon hitting the ground, hatched into two Gohma Larvae.

Lyra cast Life on herself in hopes of getting the numbness and burning pain out of her shoulders. If she didn't suffer under this, she could stab many more times she was sure. Hector flew back to her. "Be careful Lyra... you're past the halfway point with your mana."

"Thanks for the warning, Hector. But I'm more concerned about beating this thing," she emphasized the last word while squashing a Gohma Larva with her staff, "than I am with conserving my mana." It seemed the newly hatched specimens were a lot less resilient than the ones she had ran into inside the Deku Tree.

Gohma herself leisurely hung from the Tree, watching as her children attacked the two Kokiris.

Keiliegh saw Gohma lay her eggs and looked on in disgust when the eggs hatched into larva. The things started rushing towards the girls, but these things were pathetic. More like a distraction than anything.

Keiliegh slashed through a few of the critters before drawing her slingshot and letting loose a few shots on Gohma. The creature shrugged off almost all the damage, until the last larva jumped onto Keiliegh, trying to bite her... Or claw at her... Or something.

It didn't really matter though, as the girl soon flipped onto her side, taking the light larva with her. Once they were on equal ground, Keiliegh drew up her hand, plunging her katar deep into the small beast. 

When Gohma saw all her offspring destroyed by her two enemies, she came back down to the ground, enraged, trying to smash the two girls together again. Undoubtedly to finish them off at the same time. However, when Gohma brought her eye down to gauge the distance, Lyra grabbed the Deku Stick still stuck in the monster's eye and started stabbing again.

This time she managed a good few stabs, before Gohma reeled and crawled back. While the monstrous creature stepped back to start crawling up the Great Deku Tree again, a couple of Stalchildren had risen again from the ground and grabbed Lyra so she couldn't attack Gohma.

Meanwhile, Gohma brought a pincer up to her eye and snapped the Deku Stick off, so that even if Lyra could manage to get close, she couldn't use the stick to hurt her anymore. Once at an apparently comfortable height, Gohma's eye changed color again. "She's gonna do it again!" Lyra said, at the same moment Hector shouted:

"She's vulnerable! Shoot her!"

Keiliegh heard the instructions from her companions, along with a "What they said!" from Leronah. She brought up her slingshot, letting loose a bunch of shots, one of them finding it's mark. Gohma shrieked, tumbling down the great deku tree until it was at the ground. 

Keiliegh knew now was her chance, so she dashed toward the enemy leader, completely ignoring the slow moving stalchildren. When they become unavoidable, Keiliegh used her hover boots and fell back, sliding between the legs of one stalchild with a knees-high powerslide. Now with nothing between her and Gohma, the girl made a flying stab with both of her katars, making deep stabs into it's eye. She pulled out and back in many times until green fluid she imagined to be blood came out instead of the clear stuff prior. 

Gohma let out a shriek, and started flipping out all over the place, lashing out with it's tail. Keiliegh jumped forward, just close enough to grab on and be far too close to sting with the stinger. With a few more stabs, the great foe had fallen. 

Keiliegh stood on Gohma's back, turning and seeing that the many stalchildren were indeed still there. "Mr. Deku tree sir! I thought those would go away when we killed big tall and ugly!"

"They will," the Great Deku Tree said, unmoved by Keiliegh's indignation. "Lyra. Cast yon healing spell."

"I'm actually kinda busy..." she muttered, trying to smash the Stalchildren off of her but facing difficulties. "Oh, come ON!"

Another pulse came forth from the Kokiri Emerald, throwing the Stalchildren back against the ground. Then, the Emerald flung itself through the air and into Lyra's hands. "Thine spell," the Great Deku Tree said, "Quickly. Target the most central Stalchild."

Lyra did as she had been told. Raising the Kokiri Emerald and her staff above her head, she cast Life... only to feel the remainder of her mana being completely drained, the air being smashed out of her lungs and all her muscles temporarily losing strength, resulting in her going to the ground. The Emerald remained in the air, though her staff fell with her, and released multiple pulses, this time white power instead of the former green rushing towards the Stalchildren.

Lyra lost consciousness for a brief minute, so she didn't know what happened next.

When she regained consciousness, Hector was lying on her face and the Kokiri Emerald in her lap. Sunshine peeked through the clouds and the Kokiris from the village were emerging from the Great Deku Tree, happy to see their village largely unharmed by the monsters. "What... happened?"

The Kokiri Emerald started hovering again as the Great Deku Tree spoke. "The Spiritual Stone of the Forest is a portion of my power given physical form and crystallized. Had this not happened, then mighty sorcerers and magicless Children of the Forest alike would not be able to stand before me without suffering the consequences of my magic. I kept it safe underground, guarded by fierce traps and creatures, to protect it from greedy hands..."

"What I just did was add a spell feared by the Stalchildren to my own power. It sufficed to drive them back into the ground from whence they came." Lyra looked around as several Dekus came forth from out of seemingly nowhere. Some of them bore weapons, others armor, some both. One of them, with a pink headband, took the Kokiri Emerald in her hands. "Thou hast done well, Lyra and Keiliegh... Captain Prici and her men will now return the Stone safely." Captain Prici saluted, before fearlessly heading into the tree, her men behind her. Lyra could only watch, stunned.

"...it's over..." Hector said, flying up, "The forest is safe again. I don't sense anymore evil..."

Keiliegh watched the stalchildren be erased by the kokiri emerald's awesome power, amazed by how badly it crushed them all. Keiliegh was still concerned though, when Lyra collapsed. She sat next to Lyra, and once she saw her wake up, she dove onto her, glomping her. "LYRA! You're okay!" She yelled, happy to see her friend okay. She then watched the dekus come in, ready to clean up the mess.

Hector declared it was over, and Keiliegh laughed. "Yeah, it is. And all we've got to show for it is frizzy hair and a ruined outfit." She sarcastically looked towards the deku tree. "In all his infinite wisdom... He can't hand out any chump change for the saviors of the forest?"

The Great Deku Tree remained silent in response to Keiliegh´s remark. Hector swallowed. "K-Keiliegh... the Forest is safe... isn't that enough reward?"

"Wait," Lyra said before Keiliegh or Leronah could explode in the poor guy's face, "I might have something." She put her hand in her boot, pulling out the small, skull-shaped token. "This was dropped by a golden-plated Skullwalltula... maybe it's worth some Rupees?" She extended her arm towards Keiliegh. "Go on, take it. I have the bribe money from that Deku Scrub."

"Bribe money?" The Great Deku Tree's voice boomed, causing Lyra to jump. She prepared to make excuses, but Hector had started laughing. Lyra wasn't sure why, but she started laughing with Hector. Eventually the Great Deku Tree's own voice chimed in with something that resembled a chuckle.

It was over. And Lyra had a map of the insides of the Great Deku Tree, drawn with pencil, so not ruined by the water she had swum in, and several notes on the Tree's power. That little bit of information about the Kokiri Emerald was INCREDIBLY valuable for her research.

Not bad for a day's work.

Keiliegh smiled when Lyra offered her the golden skulltula token, giving the girl a tight hug and slipping the gift into her pocket. "Thanks Lyra! I wish I had something to give you too..." 

"Oh, Attagirl Lyra," Leronah started sarcastically. "Encourge her to be a spoiled brat, why don't ya?"

Keiliegh then released the hug, looking at Lyra sadly. "Wait, when are you leaving Lyra? There's time for a party, right?"

"Well," Lyra said, a little flustered from the hug, "I can't exactly go back to Castle Town looking like this. I need at least a bath and a clean dress..." looking at Keiliegh's puppy eyes, she sighed. "Let me take care of that and sure, I'll party."

"Are you sure about that, Lyra?" Hector muttered, probably remembering an incident in Castle Town a few years prior.

"It's Kokiri Village, Hector," Lyra replied, "I don't think they serve ale here."

The four left the meadow of the Great Deku Tree, being the last ones to do so, and once she arrived at her house, Lyra put down the messy notes she had made on her desk. She could copy them neatly later, before leaving. For now, she just needed to freshen up...

Keiliegh followed Lyra, but split off from her and went towards her house. "Lyra! I'll stop by in an hour or so!" she called after the girl before heading to her own house. 

Along the way, she stopped and did a Lyra instructed, selling the skull token and fetching a nice sum of 25 rupees.

The second she got inside, she saw her brush on the drawer "You!" she said, pointing at it. "Next time, you're coming with me!" She picked up the brush, brushing her hair frantically, attempting to settle the frizziness. "Leronah, can you do me a favor?"

"I'm not going into your hair to get rid of knots. Not again. By the tree, NEVER AGAIN."

"Oh no no, just... Go spread the word that in the middle of kokiri village, there's gonna be a big party for Lyra. She deserves a big event for coming in and saving our sorry asses."

Leronah flitted about. "Alright. BYOD?"

Keiliegh smirked. "BYOD. Now shoo. I have to take a bath and get dressed up fancy. "


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