It's Morthin' Time!!! [Forbidden Woods] [Cloud + Genzo]

They landed on an island. It wasn't really a specific island-- just kind of a... nondescript island. Not nondescript in the way that it was your usual island-- no, this island had... simply nothing on it!

Julius began to give unloading orders, noting someone outside their ship. Odd, considering the only other island around was one haunted by a supposed 'corrupted spirit'. Julius decided to go up to the man -- who he was sure was a man, considering the person's race was a Yeti.

The Yeti was only a little taller than him, so that was no cause for alarm. If anything was, it was the amount of pure wonder that he was likely gibbering about. Julius waited, a fair distance away from the Yeti, and spoke. "I am a Knight of Hyrule. What business have you here? Surely, you know that the only other isle around these parts is being corrupted by a forest spirit, yes?"

Tom stood on the little island, as if he had always been there. He knew why he was here. He wanted to help, and he wanted to find rare cheese. But what would he tell the soldier? He wasn't going to lie about the cheese, maybe just stretch the truth. There was no stopping it. He had such an urge to get that cheese that he needed to tell everyone.

"I'm a handyman. Uhhh, I am looking to help out. I really want to search for a secret cheese, you see." he huffed.

Julius had put up with much harder partners, and this guy was honest. The Yeti scratched his head. He didn't have the means to get up to that scary island. He was sort of hoping the soldiers would have a way up.

"I actually can't get up there. Can you help a brother out?" he posed the question as he rubbed together his bulky hands.

"...Searching for cheese, huh?" Julius thought that this guy wouldn't be able to handle himself well in a fight. In fact, he knew that he'd be unable to do it. "...What kind of cheese is it?" He asked, overlooking the cursed isle.

"Well, if you really want to help out, then so be it. Take this," he said, handing him a Deku Leaf. "Mind, that's mine. I fully expect to receive it back as soon as we get up to... there." He pointed upwards at a ledge that he had read about in order to make absolutely certain that he would be able to complete the mission.

A small cyclone circled the isle. "On the count of three, you're going to jump into the cyclone. Into, got it?" He had mixed feelings about this, but what else was he going to do? Waiting for 'the handyman', as he had introduced himself, to make the leap made Julius more nervous than it should have.

Tom's legs were stubby. He took the instructions pretty well, of course. It just happened that he probably wouldn't do it the way that was expected of him. On the count of three, he fumbled and rolled off into the cyclone with his arms spread wide. He needed to stretch the leaf out extremely wide for it to catch enough wind to lift himself.

Before Julius could wish he brought somebody else with him, the leaf took flight with the Yeti after. He had stretched it into a very huge parachute. His Hover Boots didn't really help, because he wasn't technically falling. But he did seem to gain some horizontal movement by activating them. Little gusts of hot air whistled out of the strangely shaped boots. He looked like a huge, slow-moving Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. He really did look like a gorilla sometimes.

He looked down at the island as he landed on the ledge safely. Julius was following close behind on his Sailcloth. It was good he was close, Tom really wanted to not leave him hanging on the cheese question. He scratched his head and remembered the locale. It was a pretty uneventful week so he was pretty sure he had been thinking about it fondly.

"It's got to be in here." he said calmly. "I'm looking for the famed Korok Smoked Gouda. The Koroks are known for their great leaps in cooking, brewing, and alchemy. Their cheeses should be top-shelf." he continued, seemingly excited.

"Cheese, Captain!" he announced, wiggling his hands excitedly.

"Well, if it's cheese you want, then it's cheese you'll get, I suppose." He wondered where the Yeti had learned of cheese from-- obviously from somewhere... important, considering he was willing to risk life and limb for it. "As compensation for your... rather unexpected aid, I'll make sure the Hyrulean Guard pays you in one way or another."

He walked in, not knowing what to expect.

As one would expect, the ceiling-- or what could be called that, given the lack of one-- was rather close to them, only being about thirty feet above them. Already, there was sign of habitation-- namely, footprints. These were unlike any Moblin or Bokoblin he had ever seen... No, these were Hylian footprints. But why would Hylians be aiding a corrupted forest sprite..? Deciding that they'd eventually find out, he chose to ignore these footprints for now.

The floor was littered with plant life-- as expected, considering this area was close to the sun. Deciding that he ultimately would have a better chance leaving alive, he somewhat unconsciously chose to not burn it all. How he would have loved to die, were it not for his second skin.

Weaving in between trees, he was somewhat following the footprints-- mostly because he wanted to see if they lead anywhere of importance. Noticing they cut off at the grass, he stopped. "Wait. I'm not certain we should be going this way," Julius said, noticing a tripwire. It was probably connected to something. He spied an alternative route, that would ultimately get them to the same place. He pointed it out, and told Tom to go that way instead.

"Ah, so this is a canopy. There's not many jungles in Hyrule." he put a thick rigid finger to his lip.
"Uh. But there's not many ways. If they're all full of traps we maywell spring a few." he added, inserting "Uh" just for the fuck of being a Yeti.

Tom reached his trunk-like arm up to a branch and then snapped it cleanly off. Tom reached into his tool belt. He procured a long strand of tensile string. He wrapped the end of the branch with the string and bent it a bit like a bow. He then reached for a small crank from out of his belt. It was the pulley crank for a fishing pole. . . what was that even doing in his belt? He strung up the other end of the string into the crank. He then demonstrated to Julius that twisting the crank would extend and contract the branch.

"If we wiggle this device along the grass in a zig-zag pattern, we can find traps a decent distance from us. Uh. If we spring a trap, I'm sure the branch will take a beating. But that's better than it happening to us." he explained.

There was no indication that the contracting branch was any bit better than waggling a ten-foot pole in front of them instead. It was more likely Tom was just showing off his practical skills. It proved actually faster than swinging around a pole, as Tom's swift turning of the crank covered a surprising amount of ground in seconds. He swept the ground and made his way down the trail that Julius had recommended.

"Great judgement Sir Gate. There were no tripwires at all on this path." he cheerfully announced. he was quite unaware that he was probably going to get a mouthful from the guard in a second.

"Sir Surgate," he corrected Tom, staring at the contraption he had jury-rigged together. He was a smart guy after all, it seemed. "That device... it sure is something," he spoke, observing around them. The Hylians should be here... but, if not here, then perhaps they were below.

After clearing most of the immediate path, Julius spoke again. "The Hylians clearly aren't up here. They must be further below." Saying that much seemed obvious, but clearly someone was listening. They dumped an absolute boatload of Morths on them, almost taunting them.

This surprised Julius, who let out a panicked shriek, and flailed wildly attempting to get them off. Eventually, he calmed down, and realized what he had to do. Naturally, this just encouraged him to freak out even more. These things were bugs, and Julius didn't like bugs. He didn't like them so much that he outright did a Spin Attack-- anything to get those bugs off of him!

Thankfully, with his panicking and that Spin Attack, they came right off. Julius breathed a sigh of relief, turning his head to notice how Tom was dealing with all this. He was frozen stiff; Julius asked why, and Tom's reply was that if he moved, the Morths would just get stuck even deeper into his fur. Julius didn't even like touching bugs, but it looked like he was going to have to.

Several minutes passed by, with Julius tugging on the Morths. They came off-- along with clumps of Tom's fur-- but they were all out, Julius was sure of it. "I hate bugs," Julius remarked off-handedly. "I hate bugs." With that, the duo continued into the depths of the jungle.

"There's no way I could have pulled those all off by myself. Thanks for that, champ." Tom replied to the elderly guard.

They soon came upon a wall of sorts. Really densely packed tree trunks and logs collected together in an interwoven set of walls that spread a decent way back into the jungle. They came together at one point, a doorway at the center. A huge circular slab of wood served as the doorway, with burnt markings in the center.

"That's the Kokiri emblem. We're really getting into the proper architecture of this place now." Tom remarked, checking the door for which way it opened.

It was uncertain if he had learned the Kokiri emblem from his travels or his books, or more likely a cheese wrapper he got from Kokiri branded cheeses. He used his huge hands to wrench the door slab to the side and make his way in. He threw caution to the wind and didn't even wait for the captain to scout first. Upon what he saw when he entered, he allowed Julius to come through with him. He put a large arm around Julius's shoulders and pointed.

"Peahats. Peahats everywhere."

A large force of diminutive Peahats with stylish golden feathers hovered around the spacious inside of the area. Notably many platforms made of massive trees lined the perimeter of the area and led to many more doors. Somewhere near the center was a strange structure that looked like a giant flower with a hollow inside, held up by many vines that stretched far up into the canopy. Tom was certain they would have to explore first to figure out what to do here. But sooner he would have to help Julius vanquish all these Peahats.

"Stand back, boy-o. I've got this." Unsheathing what could only be described as something probably incredibly dear to Lucia, it was her Boomerang, enhanced by Fire Gems. "With this, I shall clear the way."

He threw it... missing them completely. "Hah," Julius snorted, "sorry. Guess we have to move further to actually hit them."

They moved together, on constant guard for Morths... or whatever else may pop up. They never really knew what was in these woods-- just that they had to focus on the Peahats at present. Julius aimed at one. He threw the boomerang... and clipped one, the fiery gale around the Boomerang burning its feathers off.

Catching it, he aimed more carefully... Now that it was on the ground, at least. Aim it... throw! The Boomerang left his hands in a gust of fire, and successfully struck the Peahat. Shitty vision, he thought to himself, cursing as his eyes grew aged, filled with probable cataracts.

He aimed at another, this time aiming far more carefully than he had the first. He threw it, and struck successfully. The patience this took was astounding, when he could have probably just used his Deku Leaf and dispatched them with his sword. But this way was more challenging, he thought, so he sought to improve.

He aimed for one that was a middling distance away-- close enough for many others to hit, but not Julius. He aimed... aiming... throw! But, at the last second, it moved downwards, noticing what its mind likely comprehended as prey. Julius cursed under his breath, before resigning its fate to Tom. He was getting steadily swarmed by the Peahats, now-- it would be as difficult for Julius to get out of this regardless of whether he had expert boomerang skills or not. Julius threw his 'rang once, successfully knocking at least three out of the air. He kept tossing his boomerang back and forth, until all but five or so had leaves left to fly. With that done, he turned to Tom, who was punching the Peahats into oblivion. "Tom! Use this!" He gave him his Deku Leaf once more so he could reliably knock the feathers off the plants.

Peahats were very delicate creatures, you see.

Small Peahats made their way around Julius, gaining on the top-heavy Tom. He managed to throw a few fists down into their noggins, but one of them slipped through his radar. A single one had made its way past Julius and dive-bombed its little spiked body into Tom's flesh, putting a gash in his upper arm. Tom groaned, raising both arms to defend his body.

Julius tossed a Deku Leaf to Tom, and he caught it swiftly. With his massive arms, he swung down the leaf with certainty. Swirls of wind rang out with every thrust. The gently flying Peahats seemed to not be able to handle the gusts. Some of the enemies seemed to clear to the other side of the area, slowly falling down on their lost air. Tom made his way toward the center, trying to see if there were any ways out of the strange area.

It was hard to really tell what to do here. Tom gave a major Yeti Punch to one of the Peahats. He was getting frustrated. A door did seem to be off to the side, but it probably wasn't the way forward. He opened the latch to the door and looked into a room that didn't look like it had an exit. It was probably a trap but he entered anyway. He led the way for Julius who would probably enter just in time to see a pair of wingless Mothula waiting for them. They seemed to be guarding a chest of something.

Well, they were just bugs. Large, horrifying, bugs. Julius didn't want to go near them, but it seemed to be the only way to actually... progress? Why were they here in the first place, even?

Well, if Julius had to guess, it likely involved whatever was in the chest. Well, the best they could realistically do to someone armored in plate was... spew Morths? That and run away. He puckered his lips in disgust. Of all things, why couldn't they have let someone else take this mission? Probably because they were all just as horrified at bugs-- big, creepy bugs, mind you-- as he was. He frowned. He really didn't enjoy this. Mostly because... Wait, why was he even here again?

That's right. He was here to slay the corrupt Forest Spirit, not that that was, uh... especially necessary.

He eyed the single eyed Mothulas each, having not moved since he set foot into the room. He put his hand to the hilt of his blade, preparing to draw in case it was absolutely necessary. He really did not, absolutely not, want to do this. Bugs. He was afraid of bugs, even after having been through the hell that was Starsend. Had he the time and energy to facepalm, he would have done it.

But he didn't do it. He feared that would cause the bugs to react, and spray him with Morths. He really hated how they stuck to him, how they felt when he was having to pick them off... Ugh. It was a wonder that Mothulas would spray their own eggs at you, but they did whatever had to be done in order to survive. "Tom, I really don't want to do this." Julius said in kind of a whiny tone. But he was going to do it anyways.

He drew his blade, Advancing quickly, he attempted to strike the Mothula-- but it was too quick for him, and he was sprayed with Morths as a result. "Gross," Julius whined, feeling their barbs dig into his armor. This was going to be disgusting. "Tom, use the leaf to blow me," Julius said in a tone of frustration, not realizing the innuendo in his hastily formed sentence. "Now, please."

Tom scratched the back of his head. This was what he had always imagined outer space to be like. Giant angry looking bugs, which clearly had no respect for Yeti life. He took the Captain's plea in stride, somewhat hazy still on even holding the Deku Leaf.

"UHH, of course! I'll help you out no problem." he responded while hefting the leaf in his massive arm.

His explosive strength formed a tempest of wind that was almost painful to endure. The Morths were forcefully torn off of Julius and jettisoned across the room. Tom shoved the Deku Leaf into his oversized tool belt. He jammed a fist into his open palm in order to signify that he was about to "help out."

Tom brandished his arm in a dynamic pose. He was about to unleash his signature technique that had never been seen before. His left arm crumpled into the dry soil erupting the ground with cracks. His right arm swung back and began to charge up a blue energy. With his left, he ripped violently at the ground to launch him into a wicked slide across the floor on his Hover Boots. Careening forward, sliding recklessly on momentum, he pumped his arm like a mighty piston. A cold burst pervaded the room as he whipped out a mighty high-speed Yeti Punch into the leftmost Mothula.

A flat, almost cardboard-like frozen sheet of compressed Mothula had buried itself nicely into the jungle wall. Tom caught his breath and flashed a pair of bright-red glowing eyes at his next target. His municipal duties in construction and engineering were starting to subvert as he grasped the second Mothula and lifted it over his head with both arms. With a swift and understated pile-driver, he buried the bug head-first and abdomen-deep into the earth.

Tom brushed some dirt off of his shoulder. He swung his deformed body on both his fists using his little legs to kick open the lid of the chest.

"Uhhh. Come take a look at this." he motioned to Julius.

A gleaming golden light poured from the opening of the chest. He looked down inside, adjusting his goggles over his eyes to shield the glare a bit. It was glorious, important, and perfect. Such an object had never before graced his young eyes. The raw time it was taking just to behold such an item was grandiose.

Julius was awestruck as he watched Tom effortlessly subdue the two Mothulas. Then, he told him to come over-- a chest that he was already drawn to, considering the glow that was emitting from the top of the chest. "We're gonna carry this to the end," Julius spoke, still in awe of the chest. "I think you'd better carry the chest, though. After all, I..." He stared at the golden glow more. Truly tantalizing.

"Anyways, I uh," Julius stared at the chest more. "I think you'd better carry it," he said, tantalized by its glow. "Come on," he said, leaving the room.

Entering back into where they had faced the Peahats, Julius was glad to see it mostly deserted by now. He walked along the incredibly long hallway. It almost didn't seem to have an end; but when they finally came to it, Julius was not surprised to find a large door. It was almost like every 'dungeon', as he called them, had one like this. Regardless, he opened it up and had Tom walk through first, then himself.

Inside... was an incredibly obese Octorok. Julius had recognized this one; he was in that ungodly fish's stomach, he thought. Weird, since he thought he had slain him; but that didn't matter. Or maybe it did. Julius was far too tired (ironic, considering he was wearing an All-Night Mask) to be assed to figure out a solution at this point.

Anyways. Julius stepped forward. He knew this beast was (largely) immune to attacks, and had a weak spot on his backside. He informed Tom of this, before getting to work.

He approached the Octorok, still not having drawn his sword. Instead, he leapt over the rotund Octo with his Roc's Feather, before performing a Plummeting Blade down onto it. It was a direct hit; because of this, the fight probably wouldn't last too much longer. It squealed in pain; but not to the point where it had noticeably been defeated. Instead, it puffed its chest up and charged towards Tom.

Oh boy, Julius thought, retrieving his sword from the ground. "This is gonna be a hell of a fight," he spoke to himself.

The Big Octo slammed headfirst into Tom. He blocked the fleshy noggin with the treasure chest. It was a chest so sturdy that he would never have to worry about its contents. That is, if he shook the chest too much maybe he would have reason to worry. He wrestled with the Big Octo, whose round body began to roll backward.

Tom considered trying to let Julius get another attack in. This was because even with his raw strength, the size of the Octo was too hard to balance. He struggled with Yolo(which seemed to be his name, oddly) and managed to slide the chest out from below his feet. He stood on the chest and held the Octo steady with his broad-palmed hands.

"Uhhh. Can't keep balance Captain. Need help." he communicated, his tinkering skills useless in wrestling.

He braced his legs and focused. The Yeti flexed his arms and began to hold Yolo slightly off the ground. This sort of lame-Atlas pose would stop the Octo from wiggling, giving Julius a clear shot to unleash a stronger attack.

"Right, hold it still for... I don't know, maybe five seconds?" Julius said, sheathing his sword, then beginning to focus intently. He was in a deep state of thought, when suddenly, he struck.

It was a textbook example of a Mortal Draw. Something you could nearly learn just by watching it and having enough material energy, at least; and, assuming you knew to focus all of said energy into your weapon, of course.

The fight ended not long after that; Julius could sense some vague form of life energy emanating from the obese Octorok, but... didn't necessarily feel like ending it. Perhaps Eve was correct when she'd said what she'd said about him becoming a recurring villain; but this could hardly be the time or place to consider these things. With a shove and a push, they dumped the Octorok onto a surprisingly level surface. He thought about how many orders for weapons he'd have once he returned home, and, unsurprisingly, was stressed as all get out by it. Mind, because he didn't have a whole lot of dedicated customers, he'd still get the odd order from the wacky adventurer every now and then; most times, though, he was stuck forging and crafting blades for Guardsmen and fellow Knights to use. Occasionally, he'd forge a weapon or two for the Royal Guard-- but that was a rare occurrence.

He looked around the room, until eventually spotting a way to progress through the bottom of the floor. "I've found a way down below," Julius spoke to Tom, clearly wanting to leave this place as soon as feasibly possible. "Come on!"

Tom followed Julius down a trail-like mess of rocks and sticks. They would have preferred a real stairway but this was some sort of intermingled jungle. It didn't really follow the rules of a building. They emerged upon a lower floor, and Tom beheld some sort of fluid. The purple river seemed to be, if any of them could guess, toxic. This body of dank water seemed to go on for a decent while, cutting out the walkable floors as it went into the distance.

Tom noticed a crowd of Morths immediately waiting for them. This time he was prepared. Tom removed Julius's Deku Leaf from his tool belt and gave it a swift horizontal wave. The close group of Morths flew back lightly on the wind and far into the wall, sinking down into the purple liquid. Tomate looked over at Julius, hoping to see a sparkle of approval in his heavily masked face.

Noticing a large pad shaped like a flower,(or made of a flower?) Tom clamored up as it hung from the ceiling by some vines. He just casually ignored how high it was using his lanky arms. Using a pair of pliers, he snapped it off the ceiling and let it go into the purple water.

"Nothing wrong with a little improvisation, huh buddy?" he remarked to the Captain.

He let the special armor man onto the power flower. The pioneers used to ride these things for miles. Tom swung the Deku Leaf around to whisk up some wind. The pad powered through the splashing fluid like a leaf on the rapids. They traveled a bizarrely long amount of time given how little footwork it took to make it this far. The pad snapped to a halt as it reached a sort of hub area. An alcove with standable ground, and filled with enough Peahats to keep them from turning the flower pad back out.

Tom impishly carried the treasure chest away from the impending fight. Remembering the twisting tornadoes of fire that Julius used to kill aerial creatures, he made especially sure the chest didn't accidentally get lit ablaze.

"Good work, though I could have just burnt it down with my boomerang," Julius commented, enjoying the ride for a while.

Eventually, what with all the Peahats showing up and everything, he decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. He took aim; he knew that Lucia's boomerang would fly in an arc, so he readied his aim and hurled it as precise as he could. With only slight deviations, too; it struck two Peahats, not a far cry from three.

Catching it, he threw it again-- this time aiming for five. He aimed carefully-- before unleashing it, the blazing inferno surrounding the gale naturally produced by the boomerang. It spun with the winds; striking one, two, three; a total of four Peahats were hit. Their numbes were thinning, but not by a noticeable amount. "I think it might be wise if we get to higher ground; there, we can probably look around for an exit or something," he said, still unleashing a dervish of flaming gales.

"UHHH." Tom began, carefully watching the attack.

"Let's just ride the flower again when the air is clear. I think I see something down the river." he explained, carefully peering down the thickets into the distance.

He allowed the Hylian back onto the flower, then whipped up another whirlwind. They careened into a large opening, appearing somewhat like a lake. A glorified pond, at least. Above was the oversized flower-like chamber; as seen from below. From this angle it looked a bit different, but it was clear they needed to do something with it to proceed. A big pop-up switch stuck out from the purple liquid. It was also clear that large gates were barred tightly shut around the area.

Tom began to swing large gusts of wind at the chamber pod in the canopy. It was no use. The thing would either need a lot more force to come down, or they would have to backtrack for a long time to cut it loose. Tom scratched his head, surely there was a way to cheese this. A shitty rudimentary light bulb appeared over Tom's head. What he needed to solve this might be closer than expected.

"Let me see your gear sir, I'm going to have to find something that can solve this. I find it probable that there is something you have that might just be perfect for this. I have no idea what though."

"Uh, sure," Julius responded, taking off his belt that held his Adventure Pouch. Whatever he had was in there-- whether it be his Lens of Truth to Lucia's Infinite Novel. In fact, it would probably do him more good to have that than him, as he'd used it precisely zero times.

"Hey, Tom. There's something known as an Infinite Novel in there-- that'd probably do us some good in this situation, right?" He said, while focusing on the Peahats of various sizes. There were some that stood nearly three feet high-- impressive for a Peahat, sure, but not nearly impressive enough for it not to be slain by his fire-wreathed Gale Boomerang.

He kept focusing on the Peahats; he would be surprised if they came any closer.

Tom rustled through the bits of gear.
"I would use my Superpusher but it would probably just knock the thing above to the side and keep pushing upward. It would also get lost back here if we went ahead without it." he observed, allowing Julius to understand what sort of situation they were in.

"Rules to the Infinite Novel." he read aloud. He pushed through the first page and understood it as well as he could. Tom paddled the flower as close as he could to the massive switch. They couldn't cut the large chamber down from above without backtracking for a long time. So Tom was looking for something of Julius's that might either move the center of mass of the fluid in the room,(which wasn't likely) or a magic item of some kind that could create mass. The best situation Tom expected was a bunch of shields or something to try to weigh the switch down with. But Tom struck the jackpot with this Infinite Novel. According to the rules of the book, he could make a mundane item of half his own mass.

He took a pen that was clipped to the interior of the novel. The Yeti began to describe a really crude cube made of metal. Metal would make a smaller cube, but focus the downward force of the item to the center of the switch. Tearing out a page, he dropped a metallic cube onto the switch. But he wasn't done yet, the book didn't say he needed to stop at one cube. He kept writing in his short description of a metal cube. Over, and over, and over again. He amassed a ridiculous amount of metal cubes stacked atop each other in the center of the switch until it started to creak.

"Don't worry about the Peahats at the edge of the lake, we can get out of here in no time at all." he assured as he clasped another cube in his hands and carefully placed it on the growing pile of duplicate cubes.

Tomate kept the treasure chest close to his body and got ready to push the flower off again. One more cube and the massive switch slowly sunk down and snapped into position. The large gates at the other end of the lake swung open slowly and noisily. Tom paddled himself and the armored guard, then created another series of gusts to get them past the gate. They entered a new section of poisonous river. It looked like the river turned into shore far off ahead. They wouldn't have many obstacles from here on out when approaching that shore.

"Maybe the poisonous water is only poisonous because of something in these woods. Could it have anything to do with that Spirit?" he mentioned as they cruised along.