Lost and Lost - Eri, Lonely Arsonist (1/4/5 Skull Kid) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Fireshield Earrings, +10 Rupees. - Piers Garetson and Kezryn, (1/2/4 Kokiri) [Spirit Adept] Reward: Slicker, -10 Rupees. Eri slowly walked through the fog bank, her lantern raised above her head, but not too high. After all, she had to light the way. Behind her was a lost soul who had to go home lest he become like her- a lost orphan. However, when Eri looked behind her, she let out a scream. The boy wasn't following her anymore! This was bad! If he didn't follow her and got out of the light circle, he would be grabbed by- Oh, it was already too late wasn't it? He'd already been grabbed! She put her lantern over her shoulder, only needing to light her own path now, and started running like the wind towards the nearest town. As she reached it, she hopped from one foot to the other and back. Should she go in? People didn't like her... But that boy had to be saved! She ran into town, finding the first tree she saw and swinging her lantern above her head. When she swung it down, a fireball came out of it and hit the tree, engulfing it in flames. This was a surefire way to get people's attention! ...heh. Surefire. Eri giggled to herself.
"Hmmm..." Piers searched through the shelves of the bazaar, taking in the sights of strange and foreign objects. He got the feeling that they were pretty mundane to the shop owner, who was impatiently drumming his fingers on the counter, but the little Kokiri couldn't help it. Lamps that burned oil, bows the could fire with just the pull of the trigger, and an assortment of liquids that he could only begin to imagine what they did. The shop owner made it very clear that he wasn't going to be selling those to a 'little runt like you'. Eventually, the sight of a small pile of neatly wrapped tiny bags caught Piers's attention. He wanted to ask what they were, but the shop keeper was giving him the stink eye and the Kokiri knew he outstayed his welcome. A lot of shop owners were like this, they didn't like little kids to linger about and got really angry if they didn't buy anything. "I'll take some of the little bag things please!" Piers cheerfully made his request, causing the shop owner to throw up his hands in exasperation. "Finally! How many do you want?" "How much will this get me?" Ten green rupees landed on the counter as Piers shook them out of his wallet, which elicited another growl of frustration from the shop owner. "This many!" He cried as he tossed a handful of bags into a pouch and tossed at Piers. "Now get out of my shop, I have actual customers to sell to!" It was an awfully mean thing to say, but the Kokiri still gave his thanks and walked out with a smile. He had something new to play with after all, something sickly sweet that stuck to his fingers like glue Piers discovered. ...But it looked like it any sort of experimenting with it was going to have to wait. It looked like there was some sort of commotion going on outside of town. Something was on fire judging by the glow and smell of it. Piers rushed over to where he saw everything going on, it was never good when something was on fire and Piers wanted to find out what was going on.
As she'd hoped, a lot of people came to see what she'd done. However, most of them just yelled at her and one of them even grabbed her! That was not what she wanted at all! Fortunately Eri soon caught sight of a little boy in the crowd. He was not much bigger than her, looked more curious than angry and had a cute Fairy next to him! Eri leapt forward, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him with her, back out of town. Once outside the walls, she wildly pointed in the direction the mist bank was, indicating where they had to go. They had to hurry, so she immediately took her lantern to hand and took the boy by the other hand. She then started walking towards the mist bank, fully expecting the boy to follow close behind her.
"Gah!" Before he could make heads or tails of what was going on, Piers felt himself being pulled forward at an inhuman speed. The only thing he could make out was that he was headed out of town and that the adults were chasing after him. Adults were dependable like that, it didn't matter who you were if you were a child. There was usually a few good people that would leap forward in your defense. As such, the little Kokiri wasn't too worried about being abducted. It wasn't until they stopped that Piers was able to get a look at his abductor. Under normal circumstances Piers would have tossed a deku nut and ran off at this point, but one look at the person who grabbed him froze Piers in place. "Wait...you're a Skull Kid!" Piers all but shouted in realization, nearly missing her frantic gesturing. He had learned a lot about Skull Kids during his stay in the Lost Woods. A lot of them were dangerous, even more utterly insane, but every now and then there was one or two that could be counted on to not immediately be malicious. Maybe this one was one of the latter ones, after all she seemed to be panicked by something. Piers imagined that it she wanted to hurt him, she'd of done so by now. Piers got to his feet and allowed himself to be pulled along after a small stumble. Being dragged for so long had not done his legs any favors. "Do you need help with something?" He asked curiously, hoping to get an answer.
Eri nodded fervently, leading him towards the fog. There, she turned around and stopped him with two hands, Grabbing her lantern, holding it in front of her and vigorously waving it back and forth. The light of the lantern slowly caused the fog to dissipate a little, and Eri shoved the boy forward before following him, now lifting her lantern above her head so they wouldn't be grabbed from behind, either. Movement was slow, but that was okay. Right now it was more important that they were safe, rather than that they moved quickly. They couldn't help that boy if they were grabbed as well! To her side, she heard growling. With a scream, she hoped to get the boy's attention as she swung her lantern to the side she had heard to noise in, and she saw the scariest thing of that day. In front of her stood two large dogs, snarling at her and growling. Eri screamed louder this time and turned around, curling up into a ball with her lantern above her. She hated Wolfos...
Piers didn't need to be told that staying out of the fog was in their best interest. Something about the winding mists didn't seem right to the Kokiri. He was no stranger to fogs that showed up in the morning but those always smelled of dew and life. This fog didn't smell like that, it had a more pungent odor that reminded him of what rotting piles of leaves smelled like. Nothing good was beyond these mists. "Soooo...what is it that you need help with?" Piers asked carefully as the trudged along slowly. The only answers he had gotten so far were in the form of body language and he was starting to worry that this Skull Kid couldn't talk for whatever reason. It bothered him a bit because it meant something bad had to of happened to her. Of course, she was dead, so perhaps that went without saying... Much to his disdain though, Piers received a half answer towards whether she could talk or not in the form a sudden scream from her. The noise almost made him jump out of his boots it was so surprising! He turned behind him to chastise the Skull Kid for doing such a thing but one look at her face told him that something was wrong. Piers looked where she indicated with the lantern and realized what was going on. "Wolfos..." Piers muttered as he braced himself for the second scream. No wonder the Skull Kid was so scared, anything was scary when it was just as big as you were. At least she didn't run off, you never run from wolfos unless you want to get caught. Piers decided to do what he always did with these things, they couldn't be too different from what they found in the Kokiri Woods, right? Holding up his hands in front of him, Piers took a deep breath. "NO!" he shouted at them as sternly as a small child could. "Stop it!" For a moment the wolfos stopped and looked at each other confused. Piers had discovered that most animals got confused when they found something that could talk to them that wasn't one of them, but in the end they usually listened still. For a moment it looked like they were going to leave them alone, but then they bared their teeth again and started growling. Piers knew what that meant, these wolfos were hungry and there was no stopping a hungry animal from eating what it thought was easy prey. It was time for plan B... Walking back slowly, Piers positioned himself in front of the Skull Kid to shield her with his body. He thrust this hand into his pouch to grab his escape plan and with another deep breath, scrunched his eyes closed as hard as he could as he tossed a deku nut right at the feet of the wolfos. The two yelps told him it worked and the Kokiri spared no time in grabbing the Skull Kid and dashing off. There wasn't any hope in running away, the wolfos could just track him down anyways. They needed to get somewhere the creatures couldn't reach them. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find a tree that looked easy enough to climb, even in this creepy forest. "Quick! Hold on to me, I'll carry you up!" Piers told the Skull Kid as he grabbed her arms and tossed them around his neck. Normally this would have been quite a feat even if it was just another Kokiri he was carrying, but it didn't take long for Piers to realize how light she was. Gripping the right branches was still a trial, but he was still able to climb the tree quick enough to avoid being eaten. At least...if only barely. The wolfos had found them by the time he was halfway up the tree, one used its running start to jump up and grab Piers's leg. Its claws grazed across his skin and drew a little blood, but at worse Piers simply lost one his boots. Once safely on a high branch, Piers deposited his passenger next to him and took out his slingshot. As the wolfos circled around the tree, he launched a few shots at their heads. Not too hard but not exactly softly either, he just wanted to send them a message. "I can do this all day, I have lots of seeds!" Piers shouted at the enraged wolfos, frustrated by their inability to fight back or dodge the hits. He gave them a few minutes to think on it before launching a few soft shots at their backs. Piers knew that all wolfos hated being touched on the back. "Please don't make me shoot you in the back, I know that hurts you." The wolfos took a moment to consider their options before conceding defeat. They knew their prey was right, and that he had been practicing way too long with that slingshot for them to have any chance of walking out of this unharmed. They offered up one final annoyed bark before vanishing off into the mists with nothing to show for their efforts. The Kokiri waited a few minutes before thinking about climbing down, just to make sure they had really gone away. "It's okay now, the wolfos are gone!" Piers told his companion triumphantly as he reached into supply pouch to find some bandages. After wrapping up the small wound, hoping down from the tree, and retrieving his boot, Piers was ready to continue on with whatever the Skull Kid needed.
When the howling of the Wolfoses retreated into the distance and the Kokiri told her it was safe, Eri stopped shaking a little and pulled out her leaf. She was afraid to just jump out of the tree, as she could land on a monster or break a leg or something, but that was the entire reason she had her Leaf Warp, right? As the small leaf touched the ground, it created a POOF which, when gone, revealed Eri standing on the ground and picking the leaf back up. Swinging her Lantern back and forth in an attempt to get rid of the mist immediately around her, she grabbed the Kokiri's hand, smiling at him widely (although most people would have called it a maniacal, diabolical grin) and walking off in the direction of the cave once more. She now knew that she'd made her choice well. If he could fearlessly fight back wolves, he would protect her in the cave! As she found a lot of water at her feet, she made a sharp turn left and walked straight ahead. It should be around here somewhere...
And off they were again, already the Skull Kid was tugging him along again into the mists. She looked happy at least though, so Piers felt like he had a better idea why he had been abducted. The girl must have needed something in the forest but couldn't get to it because of the forest creatures. Although what she wanted he was still trying to figure out. "What is it that you're looking for?" Piers asked kindly as he stepped into some water and mentally thanked his sturdy boots for keeping his feet dry. "If you tell me what it is, I could help you look for it. I'm a Kokiri after all." His face beamed with pride as he spoke, he couldn't think of a thing he'd rather be then what he was. "When it comes to stuff in forests, I know a lot of stuff about it."
Eri didn't know very well what a Kokiri was, but the boy said he was good in forests. That... could become a problem. She shook her head, still walking briskly out front of him until she reached the place where she had realized she'd lost track of the other boy. She recognized that stump and that rock over there, and she walked to the exact spot where she had stood as she turned around and saw that she was alone. Suddenly, she started swinging her lantern wildly in front of her, and a white, formless thing shot away from her. She screamed after it, telling it to go away, but finally clamed down and pointed in the direction it had disappeared in with both hands. That was it, she was sure of it. If they followed that thing, they would find the boy!
No? Why was the Skull Kid shaking her head? Did she just not want to tell him or did she mean something else? Piers felt that if only she could tell him about what was going on he might be able to help better, but he was already this far into their little adventure so he wasn't going to back out now. He had to admit, he was pretty curious as to what was going on. Answer came to him in the dual form of a large shriek and a... "A ghost?! You need to do something with the ghost?" Piers took the Skull Kid's enthusiastic pointing as a confirmation and looked off in the direction it fled. "Lead the way, I'm right behind you!"
Eri wasn't stupid, understanding the boy's words and nodding feverishly in response. She wasted no time in running off after the ghost, lantern held in front of her not unlike a dowsing rod, but in such a way that if she collided with something, the Deku Stick it was hanging from would plunge into her stomach. She didn't think of this and the danger it posed, herself, merely running onward. Finally, she reached a cave. Squinting into the darkness, she decided she was sure this was where the ghost had fled to. It seemed just like the dark, creepy places were ghosts often hid. She nodded once more, and looked around. She wasn't impulsive enough to go into the cave with a half-empty lantern. She turned around to the boy, holding up her lantern and pointing at it. After a few seconds, she lowered the lantern, holding her hands a bit apart. "Chu!" she exclaimed, telling the boy what she was looking for.
