Making the Journey

"Damnit," Guy grunted. "Din damnit," he immediately corrected himself, then glanced to the small crowd behind him as Victus had beckoned. The Hylians themselves were already scurrying away like the helpless sheep they seemed to be, and it was quite unlikely he would be able to help them hide or run anymore than they already were. After all, those were cowards' greatest skills. But no, Victus couldn't just swing across with the last of the rope and run away with the rest of them. He had to be a damn martyr.

For a moment he considered just scurrying off without Victus. It would certainly be the easier choice, yes. But at the same time... if he saved the life of that fellow, he would inevitably owe him a favor; he seemed the sort who would honor it, too. Being owed a favor of that depth from someone who seemed competent, if obnoxious, was always a good thing.

With a sigh over the fact he was about to do this, Guy slumped his shoulders for a half-second, before taking a deep breath and pumping his little body with as much of his vigor as it could hold. He bounded up onto Gordon's back, then kicked off the horse, swung off a branch of the pine tree it was adjacent, and landed with his feet deftly upon the rope itself. With what could have been perceived as nearly superhuman skill, the lightweight Scrub dashed up along the entire rope's length at a sprint, each placement of his foot pristine.

Much to Victus's surprise, Guy leaped off the rope over him. "It would just have to be Stalfos when I don't have any bombs!" He landed into the snow with a heavy thud, then glared at the one beside him, "How many have bows?!" He glared into the distance, trying to answer his own question, noting one... two... damn, all the Moblins did... and for Stalfos, at least one... two... "Damnit, let's just kill them all."

Holding up the Defiance, Guy managed to break an otherwise lethal arrow against it, but not before the squadron of Stalfos was already upon him and his comrade. The stalfos squadron easily found themselves pushing the duo in an even more disadvantageous position, with their backs against the cliff of the gorge...

Victus was surprised to see Guy cross the gorge with such reckless skill he couldn't help but be impressed. Charging forward, Victus planned to engage the Stalfos with his hammer in hand, when he heard the sound of bow strings twanging. He was about to lift his hand to block the projectile with his spell, but the arrows got knocked off course and fell to the side, which is when he saw Dante had also joined the fray.

Skidding to a stop as the Stalfos swung his blade down, Victus brough the head of his hammer forward to intercept the next blow, the end of it being wedged into the ground to take the bulk of the attack. Pulling near the top of the hammer, he moved back as the Stalfos tried to chop him in half. He let the hammer's weight fly back as the handle slid through his grasp until it was back in a good position. The head landed as he twirled left, leaving the hammer in place as he avoided a deadly downward slash.

With an wordless cry, Victus swung the Wrath of Nayru in a large arc over his head and slammed it into the front of the Stalfos, shattering bones as the being collasped to the ground. It attempted to continue fighting, but Victus followed up with a second mighty swing, crushing the skull of the undead creature before turning his attention to the next Stalfos.

Victus took a moment to scan the field of battle, checking on the two other Deku Scrubs who fought beside him.

As the arrows were knocked aside, Guy saw a green-and-brown something-or-other from his peripheral vision, and already knew exactly what happened. However, the Stalfos themselves were bewildered. That uncertainty--that split-second of helplessness--was all Guy needed.

Throwing the Justice into its sheath and whipping a throwing dagger into each hand, the Deku Scrub shot across the snow with the speed of an arrow and towards the Stalfos. By now they had regained their wits, but still had not yet drawn their blades--and were forced to at most kick the obnoxious little blur that dashed between them. Guy's speedy trajectory was quickly halted as his little body was punted to the side. After spinning several times through the open cold air, his little body smashed down into the icy cushion of snow... soft enough to prevent any real injury, yet freezing beyond comprehension to his bare wooden flesh. After rolling several times, he managed to dig his fingers into the snow and catch himself, nimbly shifting the last roll to end up crouched on his feet.

From this vantage point, behind the Stalfos squadron, Guy could see that two of them were being handled by Dante and Victus at the moment--rather deftly at that. But the pair which Guy had scurried between had turned away from the others, and were now focusing on him. No doubt, the three Moblins from behind would be upon them as well, Guy feared.

...But in a moment, his plan would be set into action. The Scrub, recovered enough from the blow by now, abruptly dashed towards the two Stalfos again--but they were prepared this time. They had already discarded their bows, and each was now attempting to draw a broadsword and a battleaxe from the sheath at their side... only... nothing was there? The two Stalfos in unison glanced down at their hips in bewilderment, only to discover their sheathes flat on the ground behind them--the belts once tying them in place cleanly severed. "VICTUS!" Guy shouted in mid-stride, while unleashing one of his two throwing daggers towards the Stalfos nearest his comrade.

Meanwhile, the Scrub himself sprinted towards the other. It attempted to intercept with a kick, but Guy had already predicted that response from the last action, and was already busy watching which foot would move to strike him. Right on cue, he deftly weaved to the side of the strike, and clasped both of his hands together before bringing the full force of his momentum into his leg, before sweeping and smashing it into the skeleton's ankle. As the monster began to fall, Guy clasped hold of its femur and quickly scurried up along the back of its ribcage as if it were a ladder. The Stalfos was busy using its hands to catch itself on the ground, but just as it did, the little wooden demon on his back was already in the midst of smashing the throwing dagger into the back of its frail spinal neck as hard as he could possibly muster.

The skull plopped off, and the Stalfos' body became limp. In an attempt to prevent the creature from obnoxiously reforming, as he well knew they were capable, Guy leaped into the air before bringing both boots into a vicious stomp on the undead monstrosity's head, crushing it like a grape... and spraining his ankle in the process. Not only that, but he began to clench the side of his abdomen, the bruise of the earlier kick quickly forming upon his wooden skin.

Wincing from the injuries, Guy glared over at Victus, hoping he or at least Dante had already smashed asunder the other Stalfos while it was unarmed. "Don't you know a healing spell or something?! Cast it before the Moblins get here!"

He shouted the words, but the Moblins were within a dozen paces by now, and already had their sights set on a certain freshly-injured individual who had so foolishly turned his back to them while taking care of their skeletal allies.

Victus could see that Guy was in trouble, but he was still dealing with a Stalfos that had attacked him. He lifted the head of his hammer to block the Stalfos' battleaxe, but the creature had learned from his allies that kicking worked better, and punted Victus to the ground, the little Deku tumbling about in the snow. Growling to himself, Victus lifted himself up and charged forward, diving to the side as the Stalfos tryed to chop him in half. The hem of his robes were chopped cleanly off, but luckily the blade had missed him.

Taking notes from his companions, Victus darted forward once more pulled off the little wooden buckler he carried around. It was getting on in years anyways, so with a quick thanks, he tossed the buckler at the Stalfos, who swatted it out of the air. In doing so though, it was just the second Victus needed to get behind the Stalfos' leg, and started to scale the undead monster's back like a ladder. Using all his might, he grabbed the spine and placed his feet firmly on the skeleton's waist and pulled. With a sudden snapping noise, the spine started to crack and Victus lost his footing, falling to the snowy ground. Whirling about, the Stalfos lifted its battle axe with a sinister chuckle, but its expression quickly changed as the force of lifting the axe over his head, his spine finished snapping and he fell backwards, leaving his legs standing around confused as his body hit the snow. Victus quickly grabbed his hammer, and with a quick rush he ran over and smashed the skull.

Turning his attention to Guy, he quickly rushed towards the fallen Deku. Dante was giving support with his bow, and Victus quickly smashed out a leg of the unarmed Stalfos as an arrow pierced its head. As the Moblin's advanced, Victus ran over to Guy and kneeled down beside the injured Deku. An explosion of wind knocked the Moblins down, snow flying everywhere, and Victus silently thanked Dante for the time he bought them. Placing his hammer down beside him, he extended his arms and started to pray to the Goddesses to help this Deku Scrub in pain. Soft light lingered in the air for a few seconds as light snaked around Guy's wounds, warmth cascading over the scrub as the lights mended his injuries and restored his health.

As the spell finished, Victus turned quickly as the Moblins recovered from being knocked about. Lifting their bows, the Moblins all started to fire. Arrow after arrow, most of their bows snapped, but the arrows still flew through the air. Victus lifted his arm to deflect one with Nayru's Affection, but another one sunk into his shin. Had he not been kneeling already, he would of probably collasped. The other arrows sunk into the soft snow and disappeared from sight, but Victus didn't worry much longer. "Let's go, I hope you can walk," Victus said as calmly as possible, trying to ignore the reflex to cry out in pain, as he reached down and snapped most of the arrow's shaft off. The vibration the movement sent through cause he to let out a cry of pain, but he quickly ignored it as he turned towards the gorge. Limping, Victus lifted his hammer to his shoulder as he moved as fast as he could towards where the rope was.

"Dante, can you whip up any of this snow to create a cover for us, it would be really handy right now!"

With his ankle rejuvenated and free of his sprain, Guy leaped up and abruptly chased over to Dante. In mid-stride, he practically snatched up Victus and shoved both the cleric and himself behind the shield Dante had taken, taking cover from the rain of arrows the Moblins were unleashing. Though there wasn't quite enough room for all three of them to fit, Guy managed to compensate with a second shield taken from one of the other fallen Stalfos, propping it up with his left arm.

"Don't even think about trying to cross that rope until they run out of arrows," he spat at Victus, completely neglecting to thank the fellow for saving his life. "They're archery isn't the best, but it would nonetheless be easy for them to shoot at least one of us down if we made ourselves so open to attack..."

Guy abruptly popped his head out, glancing at the Moblins, before immediately withdrawing. An arrow abruptly whizzed past where his skull was a half-second ago. "I can't tell how many arrows they have left... but they don't seem to have any close-combat weapons, strangely." The Scrub repeated the process of using his head as bait, before ducking back down, causing a second arrow to be wasted, "I assume that is why they haven't blitzed us already, considering they must not even be five yards away."

With that said, Guy whipped from his belt two throwing daggers, one in each hand, "I could hit them solidly from this range, if only I could get a clean shot... Dante, could you do that snow-screen trick again?"

Victus took many deep breaths while he weighed his options. It didn't take him long to decide that the time it would take for him to heal himself would give the Moblins too much of an advantage. Taking a few more deep breathes, Victus waited for Dante to blast snow everywhere, then hopped to it, literally. Since his leg was in too bad to walk on, he had to hop out from behind the shields, his hammer held in both hands infront of him, not wanting to further throw off his balance by resting it on his shoulder.

As the Moblin he had chosen as his target had charged forward to try and get out of the blinding snow, Victus took a deep breath and spat out a Deku Nut, which smashed into the Moblin's face and blinded it. The Moblin continued to stumble forward as Victus stopped to make his stand. Gingerly placing his right foot down, he repositioned his little wooden hands on the shaft of his hammer and waited until the Moblin was close and swung with all his might.

The Wrath of Nayru rang out as it crashed into the Moblin's shinbone, and the scream from the Moblin's mouth following the loud cracking sound was as much indication that Victus needed as he dove out of the way of the falling beast. Victus tumbled in the snow, crying out in pain as his wounded leg twisted on the ground. Sap ran from the wound and landed in the snow, but Victus had to ignore that for the moment while he hefted his hammer up and crashed it into the stunned Moblin's back.

With the Moblin taken care of, and trust that the other Deku were doing well, Victus took a better look at his leg, and with his little fingers pulled the arrowhead and the rest of the arrow's shaft from his leg, then pressed tightly and painfully against the wound with the hem of his robes. He was going to have to cast Life now, and prayed that he wouldn't be interupted. Should one of his allies call out for help though, Victus was prepared to interupt his spellwork and dive once more into battle.

The snowscreen was up, and his allies had already chosen his targets. Guy deftly hopped over the shields and charged headlong for the Moblin in the center. In mid-stride, he let loose a knife like a missile through the air, with a second one following it just for good measure. Recalling exactly where the Moblin was, the Scrub's first projectile could be heard bounding off something or other... not a good sign... but the second's impact was shortly followed by a howl of a Moblin's agony.

Guy smirked, knowing he had an opening now. Charging through the field of snow and covering his eyes, the miniature warrior whipped out his trusty Justice. The Moblin's form, blood spurting out its arm, came into view. Giving it no time to react, the already-sprinting Denzrita charged and scrambled up the length of the beast's torso, using a bit of Wall-Walking in the process, before reaching up to thrust his blade straight through the creature's exposed chin, slashing clean through its throat...

With blood oozing out its hoarsely-groaning gullet, the beast collapsed backwards onto the ground, with Guy riding it the whole way down. A moment after impact, he whipped out his knife and quickly wiped it clean of blood upon the snow, then stood upright upon the slain creature's chest to get a better view. His eyes darted between the two of his comrades, their positions clear now that the snow had fallen from the air. Victus handled himself and his Moblin excellently, and after confirming that, Guy's gaze flung over towards Dante...

Without either ally calling out for help, Victus was able to finish the Life spell and mend the wound in his leg. As the searing pain subsided, Victus rose, with his hammer once again resting on his shoulder. "How is everyone doing?" he asked to the others, wanting to be sure they were ok or if they needed any medical aid. Other then exhausted from combat, the group seemed to of faired well against the band of larger and dangerous foes. As soon as everyone was ready, Victus moved to the rope, turning back to the other two with his left hand outstretched.

"I've put Feather Fall back in place, so we should be safe crossing. I lost it after I was hit, but we're fine now. I really don't know how to thank you, but I'm sure this was just an inconvience and for that I'm sorry. Hopefully the Goddesses will watch over us and keep the rest of the trek uneventful."

While Victus was busy apologizing for the ambush, for reasons Guy himself could not at the moment comprehend, the Scrub was busy searching through the pockets of the various corpses and soon-to-be-corpses which littered the now-vacant battlefield. Poor as a brick. Nothing here. Empty. Even their weapons were incredibly shoddy, and one of the bows was already broken; with such sub-par equipment, no wonder they lost.

The few items that might have been worthwhile to bring to a merchant, mainly the Stalfos' steel weapons, were far too cumbersome to bring across the gorge. Sure, Gordon could probably be summoned over here to carry the extra weapons... and then summoned back... but in all reality, Guy was pretty fed up with loitering around. He managed to convince himself no one in Nabooru would be interested in purchasing such sub-par weaponry, anyway.

"Right, right..." Guy flicked his hand, rudely shooing away Victus' frivolous words as he shoved his way into the conversation. "You two head on across, I'll bring over the rope," obviously with his wall-walking ability, "as I'm sure someone will start whining if they don't get their clothes back. The last thing I want to hear for the next six hours is a whining Hylian brat."

While the two Deku Scrubs seemed to not mind the distraction, Victus still felt bad he had involved two strangers into his own business, but dealing with that would have to wait. Sliding the handle of his hammer down the back of his robes, the way he chose to carry the hammer the few times he does not carry it in handy, and grabbed onto the rope and started to climb across the rope, at lot less artfully then the other two, but as long as he got across, that's all that mattered.

Once he was across, he looked at Dante for a moment and shook his head while chuckling. Pulling his hammer out and back into his hands and resting on his shoulder, he turned to the gorge to check up on Guy. "Well sir," he said, refering back to Dante, "if you wait here for Guy as I assume you are, I'll go on ahead and catch up with the Hylians." With that, Victus turned to the path and started down, a brisk stride as he wished to catch up with the Hylians before they got too far ahead. Especially with the horse, he safely assumed the two Deku would catch up soon, and with the Feather Fall spell still in place, Guy would be safe holding onto the rope while he threw the concept of gravity to the wind.

A minute or two later, Guy strolled up over the nearest side the gorge and immediately proceeded to haul up the hemp rope and dozen-or-so-lengthy garments tied to the end of it. Once it had all been collected, he turned about to where he assumed everyone would be waiting, "Finally--"

He paused for a minute, then sighed, then growled, then threw the ropes onto Gordon. "We save their lives twice, get them across a gorge, and give them all of poor Gordon's damn apples, yet they don't even fucking wait up for us." The Scrub clambered up onto his horse, in part with aid from his wall-walking ability, given the thing was twice his height. Once there, he promptly stuffed the ropes into the mostly-vacant pouches adjacent the saddle. "I am extremely tempted to mug the entire lot of them," he boasted in pointless rage towards one of few individuals he would have bothered venting unto, "But I doubt prisoners of war would have anything useful. Continuing their pathetic existence is punishment enough, I suppose."

Guy somehow managed to maneuver his steed over towards the second Scrub, with mild success. There was still anger in his voice, "Dante, get the hell up here," though it seemed to have faded almost completely already. He bent over and reached out a wooden hand as far down as he could, knowing his comrade couldn't just walk up the horse.

Guy was in the midst of repair some form of meager rebuttal to Dante's comment, but was thrown off by the time he brought the subject back to Gordon. With his head forward one hand on the reigns, the Scrub pushed the steed steadily forward through the snow and down the mountain.

"I'm pretty sure you know my Disguise skill never worked that well," he half-chuckled out the words in the form of a bad joke, apparently forgetting that he was supposed to be enraged. "But as you've noticed, Dante, he likes me, yet dislikes practically everyone else," the Scrub boasted mid-trot, trying to keep his attention on the path. Gordon himself was taking care of maneuvering it quite well, however, with or without his assistance. "That's more than enough reason for someone such as myself to like him."

Silently, Guy mused on how well-trained his horse really seemed to be. He had no real problem being rode, and was handling the terrain like a pro. Though Dante was one of few individuals whose word he trusted--and so he believed Gordon was indeed taken from a Moblin, but he couldn't help but wonder where his true origins lay. It was difficult to imagine one of those swine raising a horse, let alone this effectively, compared to simply stealing it from someone else. He knew Kokiri were capable of speaking to beasts such as his horse... and wondered if that would be a worthwhile pursuit someday... or if the language barrier between them was best kept closed.

As he pondered further on the matter, the snow beneath Gordon's hooves gave way to mud and then grass. The horse had maneuvered himself and his two passengers to the rear of the Hylian crowd by now, and the lot of them were beginning to enter the wooded area south of Nabooru. It was now about five miles to the town, or so Guy assumed.

"So, Dante," he glanced back to his fellow rider, "Tell me more of these plans of yours--of your seeking of allies. I assume you know me well enough to be aware I want to be know what I'm doing."

"The... what was it called again... the... Great Deku Flamboyant Mechanism? I only remember the acronym, GDFM, not what it actually stood for." Guy quickly moved on, not caring too much for that tiny detail, "Yes, I remember that ambitious design of yours. Not being able to see it's completion was actually one of several reasons I dreaded how our paths split ways.

"However... I'm sure you realize that the cost of the materials for such an endeavor would cost hundreds, if not thousands... let alone the man-hours a lone individual would need to construct it. Before something like that can be completed, we're going to need at least a few competent and loyal comrades."

Guy smirked, and his eyes turned away from Dante and out into the forest. "Luckily for you, I've known well dozens such individuals throughout my years. It might not be the army for which you seem to be looking, but it'll be a good-sized brigade--and that's a start." He shrugged, "...Unfortunately... most of them are as wander-lustful as I. It may be difficult to track them all down, let alone in a timely manner. A few lesser contacts in Nabooru may be able to aid us in finding some of them, however."

The Scrub paused for a moment, reflecting on the matter, "Actually, while this brigade of ours forms, it might be best if you stick to one home base area and work on constructing the GDFM, while I and our other comrades spread across Hyrule in search of members. We would need some form of long-distance communication to be efficient, however. Having all of us learn telepathy seems out of the question... obviously. However, have you ever heard of devices called Communication Shells? Commshells?"

Guy began to motion with his free hand in attempting to describe them, "They're seashell-shaped devices which can transmit audio waves over long distances... When you talk into the opening of one shell, the sound of your voice will come out the others. I'm sure someone in Nabooru will be able to give you more details on them, as they're relatively common." He shrugged, and once again returned focus to the path ahead of them, "If you can build a Flamboyant Mechanism with nothing but wood, I'm sure you can comparatively quickly construct a few of those."

While his riders bantered away, Gordon was handling the path like a pro and following behind the crowd. Every once in a while, some sort of feral fauna or flora would startle the Hylians up ahead, but nothing was concerning. It was mostly just Deku Babas and the like, not even a Wolfos. Even if something nasty did appear here, it would likely be something Victus--who still seemed to be leading the group--would be able to handle solo. Or so Guy assumed.