Nat 1 Stealth Check [Eevachu + Doc Genz]

Finally she was useful again. Eve smashed the Gemesaur King across the head, sending many of its gem protrusions scattering across. The first thing she did was try to pick them up, though. Rika shook his head in disbelief. He wanted the rupees as much as the next guy, but the thing was still alive and thrashing right next to her. There was treasure everywhere, surely she could get something valuable after it was slain. He supposed she was waiting on him to finish the job, though, and Rika was growing bored. Plus, with the spreading fire, it left them with limited time to find the belt then escape, so he could not mess around any longer. Looking at the Gemesaur King, Rika looked for any possible point he could use to execute it. Glancing at his head, Rika found just the spot- what was hidden underneath its mask were those gems, but placed even further beneath those was a large, red spot on its forehead that looked somewhat sensitive to the touch. It must have been being protected by the outgrowth of the gems. He could see it, but it would be difficult to get a clean swipe with his scythe, as Eve hadn't cleared out all of the gems blocking his way.

Running forward, Rika leaped into the air, waving his hand forward and sending an orb of wind barreling forward and crashing into the crystals, shattering them and sending more rupees raining down on the ground. Then, continuing forward as he basically fell on the rampaging Dodongo's head, Rika spun in midair, performing a Deku Pirouette and slashing the spot repeatedly. It popped like a bad zit as his blade sliced it open, the creature roaring in pain as it rushed past Rika and collapsed into a pile of treasure, twitching before resting motionlessly. With the Gemesaur King gone, however, Rika had no footing to land on, so he harshly fell to the ground. "Ugh. . ." Rika grunted, slightly disoriented by the impact, as he looked at the room. The fire was still there, but it had yet to spread in this room, at the very least- there was not a ton in the way of flammable material, though it would find its way in due time. "Hey, Eve!" Rika shouted to the girl who was undoubtedly stuffing rupees into her adventurer's pouch nearby. "Let's find that belt then get out of here!" He ordered as he brought himself to his feet and glanced around at the piles of treasure around him. So much wealth, and he would have loved to go through it and take his pickings, but he just didn't have the luxury of doing so right now. He would get a sizable reward from his job anyway, so it was not the worst result.

--

As the monster was slain, Wollo cheered triumphantly internally. His friends did it! Wollo helped too. . . sort of. Wollo knew his friends could beat any adversary together, no one could defeat their friendship, except for maybe that scary cook who always eyes Wollo whenever they go through Castle Town. That fire looked scary, though. Usually whenever Wollo saw big fires it was because Rika made a volcano erupt. Hopefully he and his friends would be leaving soon, so they would not have to be burned by the fire. Burns always hurt his sensitive flesh the most.

At this point in the house adventure, (which was becoming a tragedy at an alarming rate) Eve had no longer any cognition that she actually saw the belt already. Even if Wollo had the belt by now, it didn't matter blocked out by Eve's short attention span like this. She carried on in a dazed state, daft from the increasing fumes and tired from the fight. Not mentioning the mass of rupees she just picked up to waste later.

"Hey why were we here again?" she coughed.

Maybe it was a result of the smoke, but she sounded like an old maid. Her feet dragged her through the wreckage. She couldn't help thinking that something was off. Besides the fact that she lit a huge fire and forgot the mission. There was something bizarre about the shape they saw near the entrance. Lumbering around, it was a miracle she remembered the scenery but not the reason she was there.

"Oh yeah, where's the belt?" her hoarse voice inserted. She may as well hadn't asked why they were here, although Rika probably couldn't hear her fading voice over the fire anyway.

"The belt!" Rika called out, though he did not completely catch what Eve had said following that, as he was too focused on his own search. The smoke was starting to billow in, and though it would take time to spread due to the small entryway and the pure size of the room, it was still a worrying threat that would not allow them to linger. Frantically, Rika began digging through piles and tossing treasure after treasure aside; he had no real guidance for where to find the belt, so all he could do was guess and hope that he got lucky. Unfortunately for the Kokiri, after a few moments he learned that his luck was not bearing fruit. "Damn it!" He cursed, running between piles and blowing them apart with magic. He didn't care about the other treasures right now, even if they might be worth a pretty penny on their own; the job was more important.

He had run out of time, though. His search would have to come to an end, as any longer and he would be suffocated by the smoke pouring in. "Rgh, we have to leave!" He shouted to Eve and Wollo, before he began moving toward the northern wall, opposite of where they had entered. "There's another path over here we can use, let's go!" He informed as he moved, and upon reaching the door, came across another door. Unlike the one they had come in, this one was not a hulking paragon of steel. It was smaller, and appeared to be made out of stone, but Rika did not want to risk opening it. Quickly forming an orb of water in his palms, he chucked it forward, blasting the door to pieces instantly.

--

Wollo waddled over the piles of treasure as Rika called out. He wasn't sure why there were so many knocked over piles. Did that big gem monster do that? He was pretty scary, and even tried to eat Wollo, but luckily he had his friends by his side to protect him. He waddled and occasionally rolled over piles to reach Rika, but luckily for the Octorok he was too low for the smoke to bother him in such a large room.

Shaking the edge off, Eve tried to catch up to the spot Rika found.
The door was already shattered by a water spell. Eve felt a little uneasy.
As she was about to peer inside, a voice came from the flickering blackness within.

"A→"

"What? Is somebody in there?" Eve groaned in reply.

"A→"

"Aaah? Aaah what? Are you in trouble?" she snarled back.

The voice echoed back, this time a little bit clearer but with no visible source.

"Are you lost?" the suspicious voice asked.

"Um, no?" she answered sarcastically.

"You must whisper. Follow me." it spoke back, in a soft voice.

As Rika was probably about to say something, Eve skipped into the door. She didn't seem happy.

It started to feel like they were going to have a difficult time.

The girl flopped through the darkness as if it were a thin sheet. There was another side of the flickering sheet, a lit room behind it. Eve stumbled, and saw a large piece of door that flew off from before. On the tablet was written "W.C." in large letters. Eve sneered at it. Why would they disguise this room as a water closet if the letters were on the other side of the door?

The omnipresent sound of the voice from before steadily breathed and echoed as if being ready to speak at any time. Eve looked around, and she saw that there was something of an office with a writing desk. There were bookshelves, displays, the works. But most curious of all was a large window behind the seat of the desk. The window expanded the view to outside the room, of course. But the scenery outside was replaced by a vast expanse of swirling colors.

Eve's mouth hung open, as the view built heavily on the fact that nobody else was standing inside the room. Eve drew closer to the desk. There was a rather oversized title card facing away of the books and papers on the desk. The upright card just had one word on it: " Sen' ," which she read out loud. Almost immediately after saying it, the voice came back.

"A→" it wailed into the room. "Follow me."

Eve was shocked, and she had to urge the others to come in and help.

"Red! Get in here. We can at least escape the fire!" she called across the thick blackness that covered the door.

If they were really in some other dimension, Eve figured there could be another way to escape.

"But what does the "sen" mean? Where is the voice?" she added.

Rika was caught off guard by the pitch darkness in front of him. The room was not simply dark; the light shining on the opening from the room Rika was in came to a halt at the opening created, as if it were a wall all on its own. No, looking at it, this was far more than just a doorway to another room, it was a portal; but to what, Rika could hardly guess. It would be dangerous to carelessly run through, but he would have no other choice but to- Eve just went through the portal.

That was one way to discover what it was, Rika supposed. If there was one thing Eve was useful for, the Kokiri had learned, it was that she was great at running ahead and discovering all of the dangerous traps. Rika found it a bit dull to stand around, but regardless, she had already acted. After a few moments of waiting, there was no response. If it was a portal, Rika likely could not hear anything; even if Eve were crying and begging for his help against the horde of monsters she most likely fell into, they would become mute once they crashed into the portal. At the very least, though, he didn't want her to die.

"Well Wollo, let's go." Rika called out to the Octorok before stepping into the darkness himself. The pink bulb nervously shuffled behind Rika, terrified of walking through the doorway- he was scared of the dark, after all.

Rika was surprised by what he saw. There were no monsters or beasts of any kind, and aside from the mess of a window across from him, it appeared to be an office. As Eve spoke again, Rika glanced at the nameplate resting on the desk. ". . . Just who is Sen?" He questioned aloud, stepping forward to examine the many books on the bookshelf as he did. "Perhaps there is something interesting here," he mused to himself as he skimmed the different shelf layers. Sen, though, it was that powerful figure they encountered earlier, as they referred to them. Was this their office, then? They did appear to be well respected by the Goriya, but did that make them their leader? None of this really made much sense yet. Was Sen even a Goriya?

"Where did he go? I have to find him..." Eve muttered to herself.

She waddled over to the window, still numbed from the fighting. The wear and tear was real, it would be meaningless to continue trying to fight tougher enemies. Eve put her knuckles to her temples. How would they even be able to run away if that "Sen" attacked them? A thought occurred to Eve. Though it wasn't smart at all, the answer could lie within the very window she was looking out of.

It was so risky, she had to value the small break they'd afforded by finding the peaceful office. Evelyn turned her head, seeking out Wollo. Their leader remained among them. She sighed, knowing all would be okay.

A brief look around the room brought a few things to her attention. There were books, yes. But she already had her favorite book back in her possession. What interested her more about the room was the strange set of taxidermy and creature skeletons on display. There was a small array of different skulls on one of the shelves. She tried to identify each one.

From left-to-right it seemed like: Bombchu, Moblin, Goriya, and then a set of some she did not recognize. The other skulls were so strange looking, she somehow doubted they came from Hyrule at all. Eve rubbed a lumpy trail of running eyeliner off her face. The difficult-to-identify creatures these skulls belonged to seemed to insist there were other lands unexplored. Maybe even the horizon that lie beyond that colorful goop out the window masked other lands.

It was much to think about. Eve knew if they took a detour out that window and looped around, there could be a way to land back in a different part of Hyrule. She spotted a pictograph above the skulls. . . it looked like a lit cigar with expressive glasses and feet. Now she'd seen everything.

Rika furrowed his brow furiously. His search of the books was proving undubiously a waste of time; his scans had revealed that not only were the books written in a text he was unable to decipher, it wasn't even one he could recognize! Rika couldn't even begin to surmise the subject matter of the books, but it was completely worthless what they covered if they were unintelligible. Shoving the book he was skimming back into place, Rika moved his attention over to the wide desk to his side; perhaps something here would keep his attention for longer.

His attention was first drawn to the top of the desk; numerous sheets of black paper were scattered haphazardly across the desk. Some appeared to have mad, unrecognizable white markings scribbled across their surface, as if the artist who drew them had suffered a fit of insanity while drawing. There appeared to be writing underneath the markings, but the scribbles were too complex to make them out- Rika figured they would be undecipherable not unlike the books-, so Rika discarded them from his mind. A fancy feather, strangely rough-looking to the tough, rest in a glass vial filled with a white liquid, which Rika assumed to be ink judging by the markings on the paper.

Rika circled around the table to investigate this further. After all, who would write on black parchment with white ink? It was certainly uncommon, though nothing about their situation seemed common. As Rika reached the opposite side where the chair had rest, his eyes gazed upon what was on the ground. A stretched rug rest just behind the chair tucked into the desk, a lightly tinted mix of orange and green coloring its back. Upon closer inspection, Rika noticed the rug to actually be some sort of pelt; it was certainly fur he was feeling. It was quite reminiscent of a bear pelt nobles often used to accessorize their living quarters, though its unique, to say the least, coloring left doubt in Rika's mind of what it really was.

"What is the deal with this place. . . ?" Rika inquired aloud, glancing up to see Eve similarly investigating the objects in the room. Taxidermy, was it? It was not especially abnormal, at least in comparison to regular taxidermy, but it left the room thick with the sensation of unrest.

. . . Wollo was scared. Things were not burning or crashing on top of him any longer, but this room gave Wollo the heebie-jeebies. As Rika had run off behind the desk, the Octorok inched closer to Eve, brushing against her leg and clinging to her like a parasite, but in a positive sort of way. She would protect him.

Wollo inched over to Eve, wrapping his heroic arm onto her leg. He would protect her. She felt safer knowing the great hero was with them. His burly mustache granting her hope where there normally was none.

Eve strained herself to get back to focus. It was difficult to ignore Wollo, but she had to nonetheless. Breathing deeply and holding her head, Eve made her way to the books. One of the tomes made its way to her hands. She chose it because it was thick and had stranger markings than most of the books. Thumibing through it, Eve could tell her attempts to read it were going nowhere. But running on the inspiration she got from Wollo before, she decided to keep the book to study later. She crammed it into her inventory with the Loach book.

"Awrighty Reds, let's escape this letdown museum. I had an idea before! I think if we break into that void we can pop back out in a different part of Hyrule. We just have to make a U-turn on the way out the window." she explained, making gross gestures with her hands.

It was a huge stretch, but Eve's totally bonkers logic seemed like it would actually work out here. She made her way to the window with Wollo, and started to smash parts of the glass out with her hammer. The first part of her theory would rely on the ground being tangible in the void. She didn't have any stories or rumors to go on, but she had a feeling she saw something once involving walking through these portals. The myths of a Dark Hyrule always seemed far-fetched even for Eve. But anyone who even mentioned it usually explained it was done by walking. Somewhere out in the color-mashed void lay a totally functional world parallel to theirs, probably the source of this random office as well.

Eve jumped out the window, aiming her feet at some of the colors. It didn't make any sense but she managed to land on something. Struggling to keep her balance, she walked sideways on the invisible surface until her footing stuck. She looked back up to confirm the office was there. Like she thought, from this angle the office seemed to be suspended in the mess of flickering darkness. Using the office as a point of reference, she turned herself back in the direction of the door they came through. If they moved far enough to the side using the U-turn method, they would probably pop out somewhere in or around the palace.

Waving back up to Rika, she signaled that she was on her way back to the other side, the light plane.

Moving his attention back to the desk in front of him, Rika's eyes caught a glimpse of yet another book buried underneath some of the sheets of parchment. Curiously, Rika went to move the paper resting atop the book, but as his fingertips brushed against the side of the book, he felt a rush of magical energy extinguish from it. Entranced by the sudden shock it had stored, Rika quickly moved the sheets resting on top and looked over the cover; strange symbols were carved into the hardback outer casing, and they looked reminiscent of what he had seen skimming through the books mere moments ago. Reaching his hand forward, Rika cautiously opened the front casing of the book to view its contents, irregardless of the risk carelessly glancing through a book coursing with magical energy might hold.

. . . Nothing happened except for the disappointment Rika felt upon seeing it was in the very same characters he could not translate. He should not have gotten his hopes up; after all, if every other book in this room was indecipherable, why would this one be any different? As he went to set the papers he had picked up back down, his eyes caught a glance of the writing on the papers- to his surprise, something he could read! It was at this point that Eve said something, but Rika was too absorbed in what he was doing to give her his full response. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." He dryly responded, giving the girl as little attention as he possibly could. To be honest, it was not a good plan- far from it, actually, and normally Rika would tell her she was being foolish. He honestly did not care right now, though.

Skimming through the papers in his hand, it appeared to talk about, with the little he could decipher at the moment, a translation for the book. Why would that exist in the first place? Even still, it seemed largely incomplete, and what was done was difficult to make out among the mad scribblings. This would not be easy to learn from, if there was anything to learn from at all. Still, though, the idea of the secrets the book may have held made Rika excited, and he was not one to pass on a challenge such as this anyhow. Stuffing the papers inside of the book, Rika lifted the book up just in time to see Eve go through the portal. He supposed he should follow her- even if it was risky, going back through the door would be an even worse idea, as the room was likely billowing with smoke by this point.

Lugging around this book would not be very helpful, however; it would notably impact his ability to fight and run away, which would make escaping difficult. Glancing around for something- anything- that could store the book, Rika's eyes caught wind of a small, leather sack resting under the desk. It was not the best option, but it would serve its purpose for now. Grabbing the sack and stuffing the book inside, Rika's eyes widened with surprise as he began to realize exactly what this bag was; it was no normal bag, far from it, it was a magical bag- an Adventure Pouch. They were relatively common magical items, so it wasn't exactly that Rika was surprised by the fact that it existed, he just didn't expect to find one here so conveniently. He supposed it was that Sen figure's bag, judging by the fact that it was in what appeared to be his room, but Rika would be taking it as his own now.

With that business settled, Rika turned to the dazzling array of colors behind him. With a shrug, Rika leaped into the window ahead, feeling his body squish and morph as if he was being flattened and spread out across a palate sheet, yet it didn't feel uncomfortable or painful at all. His perspective was incredibly skewered, and as he started moving- how was he even moving?-, it became increasingly difficult to tell exactly where he was. Though he could see the office when he first entered, once he began moving past it, he was surrounded by a bright expanse of swirling, blurring colors. Nothing was intelligible or made sense around him, other than the fact that he could somewhat vaguely spy Eve and Wollo slightly ahead.

Eve fell about six feet, once again directly connecting her front side with the ground. Wollo fell out above Eve, landing safely on her backside and bouncing off. They appeared to fall out of a newly-formed portal whose cracks and light now poured out of the trunk of a large tree above them. Getting used to falling at this point, Eve pushed herself off the gorund to check her surroundings. She rubbed her sore ass, the girth of which was hidden intently under the draping golden fabrics that "protected" her. This echoed her flawed logic of needing speed over armor to wield a weapon whose very nature slowed its wielder down. An observer might call her fighting style that of a barbarian or an amateur.

She hustled to about where Wollo was. She now expected Rika to fall in the same spot, which would have in all likelihood killed her. She could finally see the bright rising flames of the building from where she stood. Upon further inspection, many creatures were fleeing from the area. Something very obvious caught Eve's eye. Were it less obvious, she would have missed it, of course. A large Goriya with dark, shadowy eyes came running. He had something large and shiny over his shoulder, and he was covered in soot and smoke. Eve stood up fully and stopped rubbing her ass. She turned, making sure Rika made it safely down. This was going to be a hell of a fight that she didn't want to take part in.

Eve started skipping in the opposite direction. She didn't get too far before a familiar sign floated up ahead: Sen'. Why was he following them? Rather than try for a straightforward answer again, Eve charged at the dark shape. As she got closer, the nothingness began to take shape. As ugly, discolored faces started to peek out from the darkness, it spoke.

"23
45"

"Yeah, I can decipher that." Eve replied sarcastically.

A disembodied, hooded head replaced the garbled nonsense. Eve knew what to do. She lunged in at the scowling face and punched it. The world twisted around her, everything went gray for a second. During that second, she heard something familiar.

"-been following me." Eve said out loud as she fell, as if she was in the middle of answering someone.

What was that place? Eve grabbed the ground with her hands, she pushed herself back up again for the Nth time today. She didn't know what sentence she was finishing, but it was true. Something was following her. Given, she had never seen this "Sen'" until today, it felt like he was just an errant part of something greater. Like the sound a scratch makes on a gramophone. There was something this projection was connected to, a power. But it was clear to Eve at this point that the creature she was trying to punch wasn't physical. Not yet, anyway.

The thing was long gone, and Eve felt like she was done doing anything for the day. She reluctantly turned to see how Rika's fight was going.

The disorienting madness quickly came to an end as Rika felt his body seemingly pop back into existence and sick down towards the earth, his feet landing firmly on the earth below. They appeared to be outside of the mansion; like a switch had been flipped in his head, the radar in Rika's mind blinked to life, though the area around them appeared to be mostly blank, which confirmed to the Kokiri this was a new location. The various trees towering above them told Rika they were in a forest; there was one to the east of the manor, so that was probably where they were. Rika had to admit, Eve was right about that being an exit, even if it was likely nothing more than a guess- not that he would tell her.

"Yahoo! I got ya!" Rika's train of thought was interrupted as a booming voice cried out towards him. It was obvious where it had come from; the tall, burly Goriya barreling towards Rika, of course it was. The Goriya's reckless charge was somewhat easily avoided, the mustachioed rat-like creature crashing into the tree the Kokiri had come from with a resounding shake. It let out a harsh growl as it stumbled back to its feet, the fur on the back of its neck standing. "Y'can't keep squrmin' forever!" It barked at the Kokiri, who just shook his head. This entire venture had been a failure, and he just wanted to leave. He didn't really feel like playing with any more Goriya. "Look, don't you have, like, a fire to extinguish or something? So why don't you deal with that." Rika commanded, his eyes narrowing and firing daggers at the Goriya.

He seemed to be completely unfazed, however, as he huffed, "That's m' men's job! As th' cap'n, I gotta stop ya, th' thieves!"

"Captain? I thought Sen was their leader?" The man's body froze and his fur began to shake, before he violently turned around and shouted, "Don't mention tha' yellerbelly's name 'round me, thief!" He bellowed, before his tone turned remorseful, "I was th' cap'n, then tha' no good snake in th' grass came in n' took m' men, m' trust, m'. . . m' everythin'!"

"I can see why. . . " Rika complained. He could have cared less about this guy's sob story. "Anyway, go fight Sen or whatever then, just leave. . ." His voice came to a quick halt as the Goriya turned to face Rika, and he got a good look at the rat. His body was decked out in plate mail- quite unusual for the typically lightly armored, agile Goriya, Rika added-, and draped down his face was an impeccably long handlebar moustache, which seemed to be around three feet long. Most important to Rika, though, was what was slung over his shoulder; it was a long, purple belt with a diamond encrusted buckler, which sounded awfully familiar to Rika- wait that was because it was exactly what he was looking for.

"That belt! Give me that!" The Kokiri burst out, somewhat to the surprise of the Goriya. "Eh? No, this is m' belt, for th' cap'n! A thief like y' can't have it!" Rika narrowed his eyes further at the Goriya, before drawing his scythe. "Fine, then I'll take it." The Kokiri immediately lunged at the Goriya, who, surprised by the sudden assault of the Kokiri, thrust his hands forward. Immediately, a glowing, intricate circle formed underneath Rika's feet. His eyes widened in surprise- was his own spell being used against him? The Kokiri leaped back to avoid it, but it triggered quicker than he had expected; he had guessed wrong on what spell it was.

A torrent of water exploded from below, violently tossing the Kokiri into the air. The Kokiri struggled to catch himself, pushing off the air to break his fall, but it was too sloppy of a jump. While he had lessened the full impact, he was unable to glide down and went tumbling onto the ground. Now bruised, frustrated, and soaked, the Kokiri groaned and pushed himself to his feet. He had underestimated the Goriya, and he didn't expect them to possess magic. The Goriya's expression of surprise seemed to have morphed to hardy confidence, as he laughed, "Ha. . .ha ha, yes, take that y'thief! No'ne can beat th' cap'n of th' Goriya!" Rika let out a growl at the Goriya's display, before rushing at him again. Once again, though this time more arrogantly than before, the Goriya thrust his hands forward and made a glowing circle form underneath Rika. It was less effective this time. Rather than stop and be surprised by the circle, Rika charged through it, completely avoiding the geyser erupting from behind him. Enchanting his blade with chilling ice energy, the Kokiri turned into a Deku Pirouette and sliced at the Goriya with a vicious spin. The Goriya's platemail mostly protected him from being sliced and diced, but the ice enchanted spin froze at his joints, locking his body in place. Furthermore, his moustache began to crack and fall off, the brittle hairs being severed. "M'. . .m' moustache!" He cried out, unable to react as he fell to the ground in a frozen daze. "I'll be taking this." Rika reached over towards the belt and grabbed it. It was cool to the touch- likely from his attack-, but seemed to be in otherwise fine condition.

Rika went to toss the belt in his newly found Adventurer's Pouch, having finally accomplished what he came here for- he was the true champion now. With that, there was no reason for him to stay any longer.

. . .By the way, where did Eve and Wollo go?

Eve wobbled back over toward Rika, impressed. While she was really tired and hurt, that show of dominance drew her back over for a few more minutes.

"That was pretty bold of you, Red. Putting that phony 'leader' in his place. Your Octorok master followed me, but I will give you back to him. A handsome mustachioed hero needs his servants, after all. But I also have a gift for both of you." she explained.

Her villainous grin widened as she dug through the various gems she scooped up before. From somewhere on the top of the mess in the bag she pulled out some rounded shards.

"These are Kinstone pieces. I used to find these out in the Great Sea to pawn off for the pirates I worked with. There's one for me, and one for Wollo. The sea people said that each shard has a matching half. So look for it! It's supposed to be magic or some noisy garbage like that. I'm going back to my campsite now." she half-heartedly explained before sticking the shard on Wollo's head.

Evelyn gave Rika a wink with her soon-to-be more cursed eyes as she wandered off inot the darkness. She would then proceed to go to jail for choking a ho, escape, find her money hoard to buy mundane clothes, and hide out in town. Not long after she would begin to suffer from painful hallucinations of a strange entity following her.

The next time Rika would see her, Eve would be changed. Her punishment would be instantly apparent.

"Uh. Okay." Rika was somewhat surprised she hadn't demanded some of his reward- though to be fair, she did receive quite a bountiful harvest from the treasure room. What she had said did not really make any sense, either, but nothing about her seemed to make sense, so Rika did not really linger on it. He felt a tad uncomfortable as she winked at him, however. That was not something he would forget anytime soon. Still, a Kinstone piece, huh? He had seen them before, but nothing particularly interesting had happened for him. She said she used to take them. . . when she worked with pirate? Just what sort of Kokiri was she? Rika could not exactly claim to be normal, either, but she was on an entirely different level. Regardless, he didn't really want to meet her anymore.

Turning to face the blazing manor in the distance as he picked the Kinstone piece up off of Wollo's back, he could tell it was surely irrecoverable by now; the flames had spread too much and there was no stopping them, soon the mansion would be completely incinerated. Well, it's not like that was his problem. For now, he had to return this belt and claim his reward.

Walking off into the forest, Wollo followed closely behind. His new lady friend was gone, but surely they would see each other again- the bonds of friendship were too strong to be overcome by something as insignificant as distance or time. Wollo knew sometime soon they would be reunited.

. . . Come to think of it, hadn't Rika met that girl before? She seemed awfully familiar, now that he had time to consider it. . . well, it was of no consequence now.