Nat 1 Stealth Check [Eevachu + Doc Genz]

As he fell, his hands slid past the ledge, his feet over his head as he started tumbling down. Reaching forward, his arms pushed against the size of the mechanical pillar holding up the platform, latching onto some sort of lever or ledge. The lever moved downward as he grabbed, letting out a faint clicking noise, but Rika had no time to wonder what he just grabbed. His short legs spun behind him as he gripped tightly onto whatever contraption he had touched, falling in the direction of gravity and slamming against the side of the pillar with a crash. The Kokiri winced in pain as he felt something jab at his leg, some sort of sharp edge. Luckily for him, it seemed to be a blunt strike, for the most part, as whatever jagged object was below didn't slice his leg up. The crash of the impact was still painful, however.

As he felt himself a somewhat more stable footing, he heard Eve's voice boom from above. A witch? What was she talking about? Rika had met a witch before, and they certainly existed, but there was no way he was one. How could she think he was a witch? Was she going crazy? Furthermore, what was up with her face? This girl was an abnormality, for sure. "I. . . " He began to speak, but his voice shot dead as Eve continued. Did. . . Did she know him? "I. . . " Rika's voice quivered as he thought this through. Burn her house down? When did that happen. . . ?

She knew him, though! Damn it, he shouldn't have trusted another Kokiri, she was from the village, wasn't she? He was trapped in here with her, too, so he couldn't get away. No, he didn't want to deal with that, he wanted to get away, he'd had enough. As Eve reached down to grab him, Rika wasn't going to have that. "Shut up!" His voice echoed through the room, causing Wollo to crouch down in fear. "I don't. . . I don't want to be with you, Kokiri, so just go back to the village!" There was a moment of silence as his voice settled. Was she done, would she leave? She'd probably go back to the village and laugh. 'Oh, I met poor little Rika, it was so funny. He yelled at me like a little kid, hahaha!' They'd all laugh at him, but let them laugh. He would keep accomplishing something, saving people, instead of staying shut in the forest for the rest of his life, 'safe'. I mean, safe? They weren't safe, they may as well have just been dead.

Eve seemed to completely ignore his cries, however, and continued speaking. He didn't want to listen. She was telling him about her, why would he care? He didn't care about her, she was just another Kokiri, she should go away. "Shut up, shut up, shut up. . . " He muttered to himself as she continued.

. . . Wait, safe? Rika looked up, as if he was engulfed in the truth. She spoke of not staying in the forest and being safe. . . What was she talking about? Was she not one of them after all? Wait, what was she talking about then, when did Rika meet her? He did get a strange sense of deja vu when he first met her, like it wasn't the first time, but he couldn't place it. . . With a moment's hesitation, his hand slowly reached out to hers, jumping back as his hand touched hers. She was a Kokiri, wasn't she? Finally grabbing Eve's hand, Rika pulled himself up, pushing against the pillar with his feet to bring himself onto the platform.

He didn't say anything.

"Now you're probably wondering"

Eve smacked the Helmasaur with her bare fist. It pushed back a little but didn't hurt it. It was clear in the dim light of her armor that there was an enemy there where Rika couldn't quite see. Eve put her hands on the helmet to stop the Helmasaur from charging again.

"why is this crazy lady telling me about her scars and witches"

She gave it a kick, and then another punch. The helmet was too thick for it to do much. Her gloves and boots just barely stopped the force from hurting her. A little more to the left and she could push it off the ledge.

"and that's why I ought to tell you. I don't belong to that Deku Tree anymore. I went rogue."

She grunted and grabbed both rims of the helmet. She lifted the Helmasaur halfway up the length of her body and then threw it down into the chasm. Eve clapped the dust off her hands and continued.

"You see, the difference between you and me"

She kept walking forward. The floor was dimly glowing under them, showing where it was safe to step.

"You control all those elements, and I"

The girl approached a doorway. It was hard to see but easy to walk through. There was a loud noise inside. The sound of something large and heavy rolling across the floor.

"I've not mastered a single element. I'm working on the secrets of Light currently. It seems to be what I can most easily manipulate. This getup I have on, it's made of a concentrated material that conducts Light very well. I mean, I stole it. So that means I didn't do a good thing to obtain it. But that's where it contradicts itself. Light and Good are not actually as connected as it would seem at first. I found out the secret: you have to have a strong will and a brave heart. It lets you command Light as if it were an extension of your body, or it should when I learn how. So far the only extension is this gold rag I stole. But that's the thing, I've always been bad at Shadows. To have an affinity with darkness is to have sneaky, sly intentions. I'm just not good at that kind of thing. I'm loud and ignorant. That's why the light loves me so much. See this glow? It's responding to my feelings."

Eve kept walking, and bumped into a railing. There seemed to be a stairway on both of their sides. The rolling of the heavy objects became much louder. Eve went down the left stairway and continued to talk.

"That's the thing though, some elements aren't bound to a specific thing. There's some horrific things that are based on lights. I first found this out when they took my eyes out. But that's beside the point."

Eve took out her battle hammer. She flourished it in the air a bit, and then smiled.

"You see, Red. I find that these things come naturally to me. The bright gold I had plated onto this hammer reflect my will. I'm going to show you how I roll."

She swung hard and fast. The head of the mallet connected with one of the boulders and cracked it in two.

"I break things. You might think me single-minded but that's my strength. Just wonder to yourself how much I can break for you even."

She broke another boulder. They kept appearing from the other side of the room.

"Now if I'm correct, these boulders should be circulating from a mechanism under the floor. If I break all of them there shouldn't be any more to come out of the machine."

She swung again and shattered a third stone. Her strength was remarkable. It must have had something to do with her power bracelets, as there was no other sign of her being all that fit. Pick up, and then drop. This is what she did to make her weapon effective. It wasn't so much a swing on her part as much as it was picking up a rock and dropping it.

"Now you're probably wondering"

"Not really."

"why is this crazy lady telling me about her scars and witches"

"Didn't I say I didn't care? Cause I really don't."

"and that's why I ought to tell you. I don't belong to that Deku Tree anymore. I went rogue."

"But-" Rika stopped and let out a small groan. Just like everything else she did, she was going to tell him no matter what, wasn't she? "-. . . Fine, tell me your story, I'd absolutely love to hear it." It was clear by his tone that it was a completely sarcastic statement, but it wasn't like he was going to put his hands over his ears, so he'd be listening anyway.

As she kept talking, shattering object after object, Rika couldn't help but be a little impressed, even if he could tell it was at least in part due to her Power Bracelets. "Well, it's not so much simple-minded as it is a one track mind. You seem to do whatever you want without caring what other people want. . . Not that I mind, that's how I operate anyway. Your strength is remarkable though, it's not what I would have expected, to say the least. . . That's what most people say about me too, though." Holding his hand forward, a small, clear orb formed inside, his arm gently motioning forward as the aqueous orb was lightly tossed forward.

It collided with a rolling ball it came down, exploding in a violent torrent of water and breaking the stone ball to pieces.

"You're wrong about something, though. Magic isn't quite like that. You are right that Light is not necessarily connected to how Good you are, but it goes further than that. Spells like Light magic, as you say, is more like. . . How do I explain it. . . It's more like a complex understanding of the inner workings of magic and how to apply that understand. It's something our brains can do naturally without actual thought of magic, to differing degrees of effectiveness, though some, like me, have learned how to manipulate it more efficiently to create magic yourself. Perhaps you may be right in some regard, however. All types of magic differ, so some creature's brains may be more attuned towards different types of magic compared to others, though I'm not entirely convinced personality traits factor into this. I wouldn't really know, though, I'm great at everything." The Kokiri somewhat smugly finished as he pointed his fingers ahead of them, from where the balls fell.

A large Spire launched out of the ground, angled to point in the direction the balls were rolling from. One of the balls collided with the spire, crunching the point of the spire. However, it was successfully stopped. A crashing noise was heard, as a second ball seemed to have crashed into the first one. "Go wild if you want." The spire was being crushed by the backlog of balls, and would probably be destroyed after one or two more, but it could hold these up, at the very least.

Eve was having difficulties paying attention. She barely managed to hear Rika say "Go wild if you want." before she ran wildly into the balls to smash them. Eve was in disbelief.

"If you're going to make a dungeon trap make unbreakable balls."

Eve swung down at the first ball. It crashed to pieces and released the second one which bounced a little before rolling into the spire. Eve slammed the second one, causing it to spin. With another whack she cause the ball to crack. A third slam brought the sphere to pieces. Eve was proud of her work. Just as she said, the ball machine stopped churning out balls. She didn't question how an aqua grenade crushed one of them. She just moved along to one of the doors.

"Let's go left. C'mon Reddy."

Eve passed through the leftmost door. Immediately upon entering the room, it became apparent that the room was full of Baris. The jellyfish spawn hovered neatly around all the platforms in the room. Eve noticed at first that there was a strangely moving pillar twisting up and down in the middle of the room. A perfectly timed hop could get them onto it if they could just avoid the Baris. Eve climbed a stairway on the right and hovered her head just below the top of the stairway. She positioned it so that the Baris would float over her as she spied on them.

She reached out to strike one. "AUGHHH" she shouted as the Bari's electric pulse ran up her hammer.

"OW OW OW YOU BETTER TAKE CARE OF THIS RED."

She was picking the doors? Was that really a smart idea? She couldn't even find her way around the maze. Well, it's not like Rika had any better idea, it was a straight fifty-to-fifty guess either way. Following after her as she ran in, she would surely draw the attention of any enemy in there. Well, she would, if there were anything but a sea of Bari. Such a boring, boring monster. They didn't do anything except shock you, they didn't even seem aggressive. Such predictable and easily dispatched enemies, Rika was hoping this place would be more fun, but so far it was just a complete bore.

As Eve went out to strike one, the Bari she struck, and the surrounding Bari, lit up in sparks. Loud crackling filled the room as Eve was sent violent jolts of electricity; Not enough to seriously harm her, but they certainly disabled her. Did she really fall for that? Rika couldn't believe it. Well, he could. She didn't seem to be the brightest person in the room, that was for sure. Sighing as she told Rika to take care of it, it looked like he'd have to handle them. Could he get something challenging next time?

Gripping his scythe and holding the blade downward, Rika waited a few moments for his time to act. As soon as the Bari's electricity stopped, he leaped. His blade tore through the jelly-like bits, slicing it in two. Continuing his arc upward, the blade pierced through a nearby, soft Bari, piercing it and harshly tearing the creature in half. Twisting the blade in a half circle to face the opposite direction, Rika brought it down once again, pulling it back and raking through two Bari with his motions.

What was left were eight floating pieces of jelly, still seemingly alive. Indeed, each Bari had split into two, but they weren't dead yet. It would be a quick disposal, however. With one quick motion, Rika swiped forward, attempting to tear into the small wave of Biri formed. However, something unfortunate and unplanned happened. The opposite, pointed end of his long, bladed weapon came into contact with a nearby Bari who had floated over. Due to the length of the weapon and the large number of Bari, this would've been virtually unavoidable. However, at that very moment, the Bari sparked alive with electricity, thereby sending it pulsating through Rika's body. His fingers twitched as he struggled to let go of his scythe and break contact, but they wouldn't move.

There were no words for the shame he felt.

Eve jumped up and down and threw a tantrum.

"NO! NO NO NO!" she pointed and wailed.

Eve turned her attention to Wollo.

"Wollo! You fight them instead! You must lead us to victory!" she screamed.

Eve slammed the floor tiles all the while. Her lack of patience was escalating. Her face was beet red and contorted.

"KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM."

Wollo looked at Eve curiously. He was supposed to fight them? "Uhh. . . Yes." He responded, not really quite sure what he was agreeing to. He attempted to spit out a rock at the Bari, though it merely flew in a straight line for a few feet before dropping harmlessly below the Bari. Even if he were to attack, he seemed to be at a severe disadvantage, as the Bari were out of his range. "Uhh. . . Too strong." Wollo called out, defeated. If such an adversary was too much for even Wollo to defeat, then who could?

. . .

Finally able to move, Rika was getting annoyed by these easy enemies giving so much trouble. Taking a step back, Rika formed an aqueous orb in his hand, violently tossing it forward. With a quick explosion, it caused many of the Bari to vanish as it tore their fragile bodies apart, water lightly raining across Rika, Eve, and Wollo as an aftermath. A few small Bari were all that remained, hovering harmlessly through the room. However, they were unlikely to actually get in the way, and Rika was satisfied enough with his violent display of magic to not kill the rest of them.

With that done, Rika examined the pillar in the center of the room, twisting and turning up and down. It seemed to go further up into a hole in the ceiling, and taking a glance upward, it appeared to be a shortcut to another room rather than a death trap designed to squash any foolish person who chose to take it. Still though, Rika wouldn't put it past them to try. However, there didn't seem to be any doors or alternative paths in this room, so this was either the way to go or a dead end.

Glancing back at Eve, and then at Wollo, Rika suggested, "You know, I have to carry Wollo to the pillar too, so you should go first Eve." If there were any enemies in the above room, she would catch their surprise and he could enter afterwards. It may have seemed mean, but based on how she smashed apart the boulders, she was probably capable of taking- and delivering- a hit or two, so she would be fine. Probably.

The explosive pop of the Aqua Grenade splashed Eve's face with a veil of water droplets. Her red face quickly lost color as she snapped out of it. A white stream of steam billowed off of her head. As Eve expected, Wollo had saved the day. His natural charisma was all that the two Kokiri had to guide them. Still breathing heavily, Eve attempted to wind down as Rika examined the pillar. Of course, there were still other Baris amok. Eve's cooling head lent her the will to try another go at hitting them.

As Rika was telling her to go on ahead, Eve took the fresh chance to get another attack in. This time, she sought to crush one with her Flame Choke. Eve recklessly charged another Bari and grabbed its sides tightly with her hands. A bright strobe lit up the room. It was an alternating flash quick enough to leave some with seizures. A powerful jolt perpetuated through Eve as a circuit was made between each of her arms. The others would see her vibrating wildly with the Bari in her arms.

"HAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA!!" the girl roared as Ohms rushed through her torso, disabling her movement.

As Eve slowly roasted, she finally lost her balance and flopped over. The Bari ripped off of her as she fell, an actual ripping sound audible from her seared gloves tearing away from the invertebrate. With her body away from the dreaded thing, Eve could finally move again. She slowly lifted herself, mostly with her legs as her hands were now charred. Her eyes were clearly watery as she tried to gain composure. Her head turned toward Rika, a twisted line marked her face as her mouth contorted.

"You know Red maybe. . . maybe we should just walk up there and ignore these." she finally admitted, coughing out some ashes afterwards.

Eve hobbled up the stairs, a potent stench of burnt rubber coming off her body. She quickly was out of the vision range of Rika and Wollo as she rounded the spiral stairway. There was a quick thumping as she impatiently began to run up the stairs. However, this noise came to a sudden stop as a familiar sound assaulted their ears. A bright flickering came from higher up the stairwell.

"HAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA!!"

Eve had exploded again into a series of repeated painful screaming. She had run headfirst into another Bari and was stuck up there with it, lodged between the staircase. The pungent smell of burnt hair made its way down to them. Several minutes went by as they heard her limping up the last few stairs. It seemed she had reached the top.

Eve finally peered into the new hall with reddened eyes and blackened, torn clothing. Anything she found would be less of a threat to her than Baris, which appeared to be her weakness. Lucky for her, what stood in the room lined with blue stone pillars, was a pair of guards that were hopefully not Baris in disguise.

The pair we Goriya, muscular anthroids with jackal-like heads. One was musing at his large ornate boomerang. The other, who was a little unorthodox, carried an imposing sack of bombs over his shoulder. This could end up being tough after all, Eve thought. The pair jumped on the spot when they saw the smoking maiden materialize before them.

The pair was guarding a massive door, covered in chains. That appeared to be some sort of treasure trove, as the door was bulky and thick like the vault of a Castle Town bank. The Goriya with the large sack quickly hid something behind his back as he noticed her. It was clearly a large key. The brute had no tact in hiding the damn thing, and it was rather large to boot. Eve prepared herself, as well as a smoked turkey could prepare itself for a fight.

As Eve grabbed another Bari and let out violent screams of pain, Rika internally and externally facepalmed. This girl was like a child- which made sense, he supposed- who didn't learn from her mistakes. She would burn her hand in the fire then stick her hand in even further a few moments later, probably. ". . . Yeah, let's get going." Was all Rika said. He didn't have much else to say at this point; he could make fun of her if he wanted, but he didn't even feel like it anymore. If anything, he almost felt bad for her, with how dumb she was. His amount of pity began to simultaneously increase and decrease as he heard her cries echo down the stairwell. While it was possible she was caught in some sort of horrific trap or attacked by some vicious enemy, Rika highly doubted that. At least she was very good at taking hits, it seemed, even if almost all of them were completely unnecessary.

As Rika reached the top of the stairs, he saw a pair of Goriya, with one of the Goriya hiding an object far larger than his head behind his back. ". . . We can see that, you know." Rika called out to the Goriya, who glanced at his ally, panicked. "N-No y'can't! I-I mean see what?!" The Goriya nervously glanced back and forth between Rika and his ally, as if he was looking for some sort of escape. "No, really, it's a giant key. It probably goes to the door directly behind you. Kind of a bad place to hide a key, anyway." The Goriya's face sunk with shock and fear as he heard this. "N-No, who told you?! D'we got a snitch?!" He cried out. "Look just let us through, or-" He was promptly interrupted by the other Goriya. "No! We are sworn to protect this place, no one shall pass!" Rika shrugged and looked at Eve. "Alright then, if you say so. Just do your charge in without thinking thing Eve."

Readying his scythe, the Goriya with the boomerang threw it in a wide arc, going around to hit Rika, then Eve, then returning back to him. With his feet magically enchanted, Rika leaped high into the air, the boomerang flying underneath his feet and towards Eve. Whether she was able to avoid or not was not really his concern right now, as he had to go on the offensive. The Goriya with the sack withdrew a bomb from his bag, chucking one at Rika as he landed. The Kokiri swung at the bomb with the blunt side of his scythe as he moved forward, bouncing it back to the Goriya. Panicked, the Goriya hit the bomb back with the key. "Damn it!" Rika shouted, snapping and swinging his fingers. A ball of fire launched from his fingers, colliding with the bomb and having it explode mid-air. Rika shielded his face from the explosion, which was mostly harmless from the range it exploded at for both parties. He began to close in on the two Goriya to fight them in melee range.

Fully expecting Rika to block, Eve turned her head as the boomerang whizzed around the room. The vivid hue of Rika's clothing surprised her when it suddenly vanished. He jumped incredibly fast, and she was soon staring a flying weapon in the face. The wooden devil gyrated and impacted with Eve's soft cheek.

Expectedly, Eve was thrown onto the ground painfully while Rika was busy with his approach. At the behest of her own senses, she tried to get up as quick as she could. All this, despite her face feeling like the skin was peeled off and hanging to the floor. It was an unusual pain. A vast array of colors broke her vision as she tried to move.

Loud booms entered her now-visualization of sound and pain. She slapped herself to snap out of it, forgetting about the boomerang wound. Rika would hear a high-pitched screech from behind. Seeing Rika enter melee combat with the Goriyas gave Eve confidence, though now wasn't perfectly safe for her to advance. She targeted the boomerang thrower, knowing Rika would be after the key. A quick dig around revealed Eve's weapon, a pretty top-heavy sledge hammer. Waving cool air onto her searing cheek, she tried to mentally prepare herself for a throw-down. Though the unyielding stinging she was feeling would probably contribute to how hard she could hit.

Without another thought, Eve teetered herself into the brawl. Deafening screams that would probably ring in Rika's head for months after filled the room. Eve swung wildly in front of her. Her attacks powdered the floor on impact and forced the Goriya to dodge and avoid until his back was against the wall. His rabid enemy was upon him, and he had only just caught his boomerang and positioned himself. He moved in to deflect the next hit. The boomerang shabbily vibrated and contorted when he blocked with it. It was no good, how could he honor his weapon while fighting off this maniac child?

But it was too late, Eve's next swing splintered the defending Goriya's boomerang. Without his weapon, he immediately resorted to body blows. A hefty kick was more than enough to swat the little bugger away from him. His beastly eyes lit with fury seeing his prized weapon broken. Eve rolled backward, with her head as the crux of the rotation. There was a bit too much face whacking going on for Eve to continue tolerating. Her now-numb face rest in her hands as the Goriya swore he could see flames shooting up. Her hands actually were ablaze, she intended to dash into him with Flame Choke. If he was stuck without a weapon, Eve would just discard hers for some old fashioned close-combat.

Beating at his wolfen face, Eve wrestled his neck into her hands. His muscular arms wrapped around her, grabbing her in ways unkind. His attempts to pry her off were ill-advised, as another strike would have pushed her away again. With his neck now coiled in a boa of flame, Eve's flickering grip overpowered the monster. His heavy arms started to loosen as she stole his breath through determination. With Eve's end looking well, it went back to Rika...

As Rika closed in on the sack wielding Goriya, he did something that astounded the Kokiri. With a swing of the sack, he slammed the sack against Rika like Santa delivering presents to the naughty kids. Rika and Eve were the naughty kids. Caught completely off-guard by his actions, Rika was sent to the ground by the impact. "Ugh. . . " He groaned, pushing himself to his feet as he glared at the Goriya. Was this Goriya mad or just stupid, using a sack full of deadly explosives as a melee weapon? The two of them were lucky it didn't erupt in their faces and kill them both! Wiping blood from the side of his face, Rika wouldn't make that mistake of underestimating the Goriya's recklessness again.

Trying his assault again, Rika rushed at the Goriya, who swung his sack in a wide swipe yet again. However, Rika was prepared for it this time, and with a push of his feet, jumped high into the air, the bag flying underneath Rika's feet. With a downward crescent swing of his scythe, Rika tore at the leather making up the bag, severing the connection between the bag and the Goriya's hands. The bag went flying off into the corner, a couple bombs scattering out onto the ground hazardously.

As Rika landed, the Goriya panicked as he looked for some sort of weapon; he didn't have anything except the bombs on him. Except. . . As Rika swung to finish the Goriya, he found his attack guarded against by the gigantic key it was gripping. Rika growled frustratedly, swinging his scythe again as he shouted, "Stop improvising!" His blade tore into the Goriya's side, mutilating it as it lifelessly fell to the floor. With a sigh, Rika glanced over and saw that Eve had dispatched the other Goriya. With that done, he went to pick up the key. . . and struggled. It was heavy. With a grunt and a heave, he lacked the upper body strength to lift it off of the ground. Eve was swinging around that giant hammer, so perhaps she could get it.

As he turned to Eve, he saw her poor shape. "Uh. . . Are you. . . doing okay?" He asked, immediately freezing as the words left his mouth. What, was he showing concern for her? She was obviously fine, she was moving! She had taken so many hits she was clearly durable, though she WAS a Kokiri. Even if she was kind of annoying, and dumb, especially dumb, he didn't really want her to die on him. "Also. . . why do you scream so much?" She had endured a lot of injuries up to this point, but it seemed like some of her screaming wasn't even due to the wounds inflicted upon her. It was possible she enjoyed screaming, but if she did it at the wrong time she could alert others to their location.

Eve hissed as her ghostly flames withered her enemy away. "My face feels like it's falling off of course I'm shouting." she retorted.

As extra punishment, she squeezed a small gash on her cheek and let it leak into the Goriya's face. What dripped out didn't look or smell like blood. It was a sickly jam that smelled like a mixture of strange plants and used coins. The ruddy concoction dripped into the mouth and eye sockets of the monster. There was a faint echoing shriek like ghosts were dying inside him, before the monster began to evaporate in a cloud of green flames.

Eve reached into her Adventure Pouch and pulled out a tiny bag. She undid the strings and reached out a yellowish powder. She lifted this powder up to her face.

"I came up with this a little while ago in the mountains. There's not a lot of resources around so I ground up some of my Deku Nuts. I use it to plug up my wounds haha it stings like a bitch though." she said before shoving the ground nuts into her bleeding face.

A high-pitched grunt came from her as she stepped back. The strange girl looked like she was going to lose it. Unless maybe, she lost it already? What was she doing living in the mountains? With a yellow smear on her face and her eyes looking wild, she limped over to the key.

"Maybe if we get the treasure here. . . I can afford good-looking clothes again." Eve mused to herself. She suddenly had a strange flashback. There was a vivid picture in her head of a long closet full of fancy clothes. A vision of fire. . . it was probably nothing. She lifted the key high over her head. A yellow shine came from her wrists- Power Bracelets. She began to twist it into the lock.

Rika shrugged. She kind of had a point, but it didn't make the shouting get on his nerves any less. At least it was a good way to know she was still alive. As she applied this weird, yellow powder and explained what it was, Rika was hesitant to speak up, but did. "Is that. . . safe? It seems like a good way to get an infection and die." Rika commented, though he wasn't going to stop her. Maybe he was wrong and it actually did work, it just didn't seem smart to him. As Eve turned the lock to open the door, the lock collapsed to the ground with a loud THUD!, the door slowly creaking open. Peeking inside, it was far more grand than Rika would have imagined; elaborate treasure was spread around, from large mounts of rupees to priceless gold artifacts, to magical or expensive looking items, it was like the Goriya's own Cave of Wonders. It amazed Rika; for once, the colossal sealed door actually made logical sense to have, as a sort of door safe to protect all of their riches.

"First, let's find what I'm here for, then we can take whatever we want." Rika commanded to Eve. Though she hadn't agreed to the old noble's job, she was here with him so she may as well help look. "It's supposed to be a long, purple belt with a diamond encrusted buckler, or something like that. If you find it, give it to me." It would be difficult to search, however; the room was quite large, and some of the mounds reached high to the ceiling. In fact, it was difficult to see some parts of the room.

Wollo slowly and nervously stepped into the room, nervous about the large piles of rupees threatening to consume him- quite literally, in Wollo's mind. As he walked in, Wollo bumped into a small, nearby pile, rupees collapsing on the Octorok. Wollo could do nothing except kick helplessly to try to push his body through to get out, but it would take a bit of effort.

As Rika traversed through and examined the contents of the room, he came across something strange. It was like a large, raw crystal sticking out of a pile of rupees. In fact, there were several different types of gems; sapphires, rubies, emeralds, all different kinds of large rocks, almost the size of Rika appeared to be buried underneath the massive pool of rupees. Digging through the pile a bit to see what was underneath, he then felt the mound begin to rumble. The rupees began to fall off as what was underneath the pile moved. It was like a walking collection of gems, all attached to, unknown to Rika, a large beast underneath. The creature moved as it was awoken, spinning around to face what had touched it and sending rupees scattering across the room. Face to face with Rika, it roared at the Kokiri aggressively and prepared itself to attack.

"Wollo look out you'll get buried under all that. . . money." Eve began as she noticed the value of the room shoot up in her eyes.

She glazed over the room with wonder. Evelyn nodded her head as the fancy mage boy told her about the belt. Over the vast landfill of valuables she grazed. While Rika was moving up the pile, something lower caught Eve's attention. Something sparkled in the shallow base of the pile. It sparkled white, so it stood out among the colorful rupees. Eve headed toward it, knowing it was probably the belt. She slid down the pile as it started to rumble.

"Hey there's a pretty diamo- HOLY SHIT MY BOOK!" Eve suddenly stifled and shouted.

A gold-painted mahogany vanity sheltered an indentation in the pile of rupees. Nearby was the belt, but underneath the vanity lay something far more valuable. Drooling, Eve slid under the vanity and held up a small book from a scattered pile of other reading materials. It all must have fell out of the drawer of that priceless vanity. The panting Kokiri sniffed the cover. It even smelled like the right book. Not that there was any chance the book would smell differently. She pored over the entire cover, the pages, it was all so familiar.

A huge monster was currently stepping out of the pile as Eve stuffed her face in the story. "The Queer Adventures and Times of the Hylian Loach: Abridged and Illustrated" read the cover. It really was. It was a semi-picture book about a green-clad, whiskered, fresh water fish. It chronicled his strange and often embellished journeys. His journeys were embellished in the sense that it lacked anything that would be present in a non-fictional novelization of the life of a real loach. This was her favorite book, however. The book was not only responsible for Eve's ability to read, but also her only true friend as most people hated her shit. She lost that best friend in a house fire many years back.

As Wollo begged her to defend herself, Eve was soon toppled over by a wave of rupees and scales. Gripping the book as if it was her very soul, Eve landed on her back and rolled to protect her find. This monster would have another thing coming if it though it could take away her book again. Eve slipped the book in her pouch and grabbed her hammer out again. She'd have to be more careful this time, another good hit could cost her life. Maybe there was something nearby that could help. . .

Eve looked around, dashing away from the charging monstrosity. There was piles of dumb treasure as far as the room went, though the pile was immensely smaller without that huge lizard holding it up. The shifted pile brought even more goodies to light, however. Between the junk ornaments and soft-metal plated weapons lay something useful. Eve spotted it quickly, as something like a gold sword or a decorative armor statue weren't worth looking at right now. Loosely draped over the sparklies was a masterfully crafted headband that reminded her almost of life in Kokiri Forest. Back then, clothes could look good and be functional and nobody cared what they thought it might cost by looks alone. That's what she thought, anyway. But it was true, ordinary clothes had no place in a pile of valuables. It had to be magic. She strapped it to her head immediately.

Immediately was the right choice, as Gemesaur King was charging through again. Eve jumped out of the way to the side, barely slipping past the massive flank of the thing. Something did feel different, but what was it?

As Gemesaur King spun its body around and stomped at the ground aggressively to charge at Rika, the Kokiri pushed off the ground. With a leap that could not be accomplished except through magical means, Rika jumped high into the air. As he reached the peak of his jump, his foot pressed against air as if it were solid ground; in doing so, a semi-transparent, semi-hallow glowing white circle akin to a magical platform appeared underneath his foot. Pressing off, the Kokiri went even higher into the air, albeit not as much so as previously. Stepping onto the Gemesaur King's mask, Rika pressed off of it once again, leaping above the lizard as it charged forward underneath him. Gliding to the ground, the Gemesaur King trampled valuable after valuable as it rushed forward, seemingly having little to no regard for the priceless amount of wealth around it.

Stomping around in a circle to face Rika, it prepared to charge at him once more. "This again. . . is it all it can do?" Rika muttered as he formed an aqueous explosive in his palm. With a swipe of its feet, it repeated the same action it had just done, as did Rika. It went mostly similarly, up until Rika pressed off of its mask. As he did, he dropped the orb of water onto it, which bounced forward as it charged. Then, it exploded. Water was sent splashing across as the high pressure blasted away at its front, though the beast did not seem to be particularly dissuaded by the attack, as it continued its charge forward.

As it reached the end of its charge, the beast crashed into a pile of rupees, sending it toppling over. Turning once more to face Rika, the Kokiri was somewhat shocked. The Aqua Grenade seemed to have done very little damage; small chips and cracks had visibly formed in Gemesaur King's mask, but it was largely negated and absorbed. The mask was a lot more durable than it first looked.

The room shook despite how well reinforced the walls were. Eve knew there wasn't really any time to test out what the magic thing did. Although wearing it did immediately make her feel like a tool. She hoped not to go deeper into that subject. Shinies spilled around as the monstrosity of fused gems chased her new comrade. She tried to snap out of it.

Eve waded through displaced pools of gold. What were these things anyway? Eve had never been anywhere that didn't use Rupees as currency. While she enjoyed the style of gold, she knew it was a bit too heavy in coins and bullion to make an effective trade. The idea carried her to some more dumb logic. It was certainly more effective to mint official coins than to just assume people didn't cut their Rupees from crystals for free. A cheesy smirk appeared on her face. The rampaging monster was made of that stuff! It was all the motivation Eve needed to pulverize the creature.

Eve made sure to keep her weapon pocketed in her Adventure Pouch. The hammer itself was large enough to actually take up most of the inside of the pouch. With her hands free she was going to sprint after that creature. She was the hunter, the hungry. Eve wanted to watch the reptile's spiked flail-like tail writhe disembodied on the floor. She wanted to see if its blood tasted like rupees. Her current clothing was just freeing enough to make running not the giant pain in the ass it usually was for her. Have you ever tried to run in a dress? I bet you have. You know it. Don't give me that look.

The sharp, spiny tail waved wildly, faster as it charged. As the monster went after Rika and subsequently got hit, the tail would swing quickly near Eve's face. More than a few times she dove into the floor to avoid it. This awakened the numb pain in her face. It took a couple seconds to get up and start running again. She was having a lot of trouble.

Suddenly, her outfit began to speak to her.

"Keep not for hit, as the long tendon of life savors the foam of the fertile goat-mother's sap." came a voice from Eve's chest.

"That. . . that isn't advice. D-damn it is that my Fairy?! I thought you stopped talking! Shut up you nasty ass bug." she complained to her chest.

There was an opening as the Gemesaur King turned the corner after an explosion cracked its mask. Seething with frustration, Eve brandished her weapon in place as a batter takes his stance before a pitch. The rampaging monster rushed into her, as she used some kind of newfound strength to slug the beast in the beak of his helmet. The mask corroded at the center of her slam, and she was tossed away from the impact center. Something changed after her swing, the monster seemed to change colors from a light within the mask. Sorcerous mist came out as it began to roar.

His glowing mouth quickly devoured the light from all the torches in the room, its eyes becoming glaring beacons of light. The darkness seemed to make it stronger. Eve could see a cold looking smoke from her spot in the treasure pile. It was coating the monster like a cloak. She winced in pain, propping herself up and hoping the creature lost attention to her for the time-being. It seemed they had nearly powdered the helmet. They would have to believe in Wollo's leadership skills and strike the last blow when the light came back.

As the room began to dim then darken, the only source of light came from the bright, glowing flashlights that were Gemesaur King's eyes. The various rupees and gold let off a bright shimmer as the light impacted them, illuminating the area its eyes gazed over against quite well. However, the rest of the room was as dark as Gemesaur King's chances of winning versus Wollo's command, providing Rika an ideal opportunity to slip away. With a snap of his fingers, a ball of fire went soaring across the air and crashing into Gemesaur King, evaporating as it made contact with the light coat of mist hovering gently around it. Turning to face where it had came, Gemesaur King's eyes shone on an empty spot; angered, it charged recklessly forward, crashing into a treasure pile and toppling it over. It seemed that this was nothing more than a stalemate then; that mist seemed to provide a strong defense, but aside from the lights in its eyes, it's vision could not cut through the darkness to chase Rika. Due to this, and the Kokiri's small size and agile movements, it would make it near impossible for it to run Rika over, should he take care with the placement of himself.

With a wave of his hand, a ball of wind went crashing against Gemesaur King, meeting a similar fate to that of the fireball. As he did so, Rika moved across the ground, sliding from treasure pile to another. His attacks were essentially pointless, and served little more than to aggravate the creature; in fact, that was mostly what he was doing. If it seemed to be impervious for now, he would simply tease and play with it until it no longer was. At least then he might derive some enjoyment from this fight. Hopefully they didn't trample and crush the belt during all this.

Wollo's eyes opened to see darkness. Did the treasure eat him? He did remember lots of valuable objects falling on him, but usually that didn't prevent him from seeing, so he had to be dead. That was it, he had been eaten. You know, being eaten wasn't as horrible or painful as Wollo had originally expected it to be. Maybe he could get used to it, if this was what being eaten was like. Though, he still heard sounds from outside. Was he eaten, and Rika and Eve were fighting valiantly to save Wollo from the horrible treasure monster? What great friends he had. Wollo truly was blessed by the goddesses.

Quickly growing bored of toying with the creature, Rika would have to put an end to it soon. If the darkness gave him invincibility, creating light should likely negate that. The only issue is, what was there to set alight. . .

Eve rolled around, no longer feeling it for the running thing. She really wasn't feeling it. While she got hurt often, (as she's usually unprotected) it was never so many blunt blows to a single spot. Eve could feel her face thumping. As it was unbelievably dumb that she kept falling on her face by accident, she struggled to blame something else for the pain. She also struggled to see.

Gemesaur King charged around, mostly after Rika now. Eve had to continue rolling and sitting still in order to avoid the enraged thing. Truly, this was all the monster's fault. The guards kicking her, falling over so many times. . . it had to be his fault! Eve crouched herself up and sniffed around for the mostly-extinguished torches. It slowly occurred to her that she had no way of re-lighting them. Her face wrinkled up again. She'd have to tell the red guy where the torch was so he could throw fires at them or whatever it was mages did. How did they get the fire to leave their hands? So mysterious, she thought. It was still unsure what was at work when she used Flame Choke, but she knew damn well she couldn't launch the weird colorful flames away. This also reminded her of the little lecture she gave Rika before. Maybe it wasn't so much that a person could have an affinity for one type of magic, as it was that someone like Rika was just better at magic in general and not affected whatsoever by what kind it was. Could it be that Rika was a genius, or was Eve just stupid? Eve wondered for a bit if Eve was stupid as she sniffed the air like a total dumbass for smoke. She remembered something she was told before.

"Where there's smoke. . . where there's smoke. . . they pinch back? That's not it."

It slowly occurred to Eve that the room was indeed big enough that she would never smell smoke. It would be more efficient to just look for cooling embers in the torches. She figured she would definitely have been stupid if she hadn't considered that at all. She looked around, remembering that she was at least a little close to the corner of the arena. In a small degree of turning she spotted a dim orange spot. That had to be it.

"Excuse me Red! There's a torch right here!" she yelled across the room.

The Gemesaur King had actually also noticed her shout and immediately turned to charge her. He barreled over, kicking up treasure and wildly shoving apart the pile Wollo was under. Eve smiled and laughed nervously as she quickly ran out of space to escape. This was it, she would totally die. Sweat drops poured off her face as she hopped away. Remembering the torch stand, she flopped onto the thing and crouched. The huge head of the monster ran out of room and smacked into a wall as he charged in. Eve was missed entirely. Her tiny frown and wide eyes poked out from the corner she was hugging desperately. That may have been a closer shave than that one time she was stabbed like five times with toxic spears. Eve figured she'd have to make tiers for them as those were both extremely close times and it was difficult to differ them. She'd have to buy new crayons when she went to blow all these rupees on new clothes.

As Eve called out for the torch, Rika glanced over, before realizing he couldn't see anything. He had the general direction she was in, but it was difficult to see anything precise. Gemesaur King was happy to provide assistance as he charged, though, madly rushing towards Eve with total disregard for Rika. That bastard had far too much confidence in his invulnerable mist, Rika thought, to simply turn his back to the Kokiri.

As he stomped across, Wollo felt his body being lifted up as his pile was blown back. Luckily for Wollo, he was shielded by a combination of wide gems and the objects in front of him, as he was flung aside. Gems went flying into the air, and Wollo landed, his body slightly bruised from the impact. Small treasures rained down on his body, causing the Octorok to tear up in pain. This sure was painful, it would have hurt less if Gemesaur King just ate him for lunch. In reality, the Octorok was mostly fine outside of some soreness, but it was still unpleasant.

. . .

As Gemesaur King crashed through the wall, Rika found the room lighting up once more, the scattered torches slowly sparking to life one by one. Though his initial reaction was confusion-they had not lit any lights, after all-, it quickly became apparent what the source of this reaction was. Smoke began to billow in the room as the previous doorway began to burn and crack, fire spreading across it. The Gemesaur King rushed back in, wisps of flame flickering off his body and sparking a pile of treasure alight. The mansion was on fire. "The mansion is on fire." Rika glanced at Eve as he spoke. She did this, it was her fault. There was no way they could have kept the fire under control, much less put it out before the dry hedge fire spread rapidly towards the mansion, so he should have expected it. Yet, it was still surprising.

However, one positive came out of it, at least; there was no longer any mist preventing an assault on Gemesaur King. With a chuck, Rika send an orb of water sailing at the lizard-like creature. As it splashed against its shell, the ball erupted, tearing into the hard armored shell shield and forcefully ripping a wide crack into it. As the water began to settle, numerous other cracks began to follow, the satisfying sound of breaking filling the room as his face shell shattered, the many broken metal pieces collapsing to the ground and leaving Gemesaur King completely exposed, showing the roots of its many large gem structures on its back which dug deeply into its back. Whether it was natural or a mutation was not entirely clear, but it was a little creepy to look at.

Having gotten her book and her strange new power, Eve considered her options. It seemed the mansion was on fire. Having been thrown around and smacked up, it felt like the best time to retaliate. After all, she didn't have much time before the fire would spread. Accepting her fate, Eve rushed back into the room. She saw Rika toiling at the monster's armor. His spells were very effective, and the light that the approaching fire created was dispelling the dark haze that kept it safe.

With some careful movements, Eve kept her aching feet from dragging her down. As much as she wanted to practice her dance moves on this horror, it probably wouldn't happen this time with all her injuries. She struggled to see straight amid the chaos and her several head wounds over the course of the day.

As she approached the monster, it was still reeling and enraged from that last attack. This was her best chance to strike! While the disorder was going on, she would run in and get some of that beautiful roop. There was a bit of an issue with how much taller the monster was than her. She would have to jump on her bad legs to get a decent hit in. Eve rolled her eyes. It was either jump, throw her hammer, or flail around like an idiot.

Running out of options, she braced for the pain of jumping. A good running start would launch her at the flank. She twisted her arm and slammed the heavy metal into the stones jutting out from the monster. The Gemesaur King continued to screech as many colorful rupees shattered off from his mighty flesh. Bright hatred burned in his glowing eyes. Eve knew she would have to pick up some of that loot and run before the fire got too bad. Her landing after the jump wasn't helping with her movement. She rolled to the ground as the creature thrashed. One wrong movement could let a giant dino foot crush her skull. She carefully tumbled over, sharply gliding her body toward some treasure. She took great armfuls of the gems. Eve stuffed them into her adventure pouch as fast as she could, knowing she couldn't take many if she wanted to avoid getting trampled or burned to death. It seemed like the time was finally dawning to get up and run.