Ruairi raised an eyebrow at the statement – though honestly, he was fine with spending some time just relaxing himself. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be what Eve meant when she suddenly twirled and another… Her appeared, ready for the beach. Ruairi just blinked, looking at the two Eves before one was sent away, his gaze still lingering on her as she went over to relax. "…Wait," he started, looking back at the original Eve. At least he was pretty sure that was the original, as she was wearing the same clothes. He had never seen a spell like this before… "Does that… Actually work? If you send a copy to relax, do you… Feel relaxed?" The Rito was starting to look quite curious and that sparkle in his eyes made him look rather hopeful. It was one thing to be able to split one's self into two – handy, yes, but if the other copy could be used to rest while the other one was doing something else… The possibilities were endless, especially to a performer like himself! Vacation or the stage whenever he wanted! For once, Ruairi was focused on Eve, giving the Rito that walked past them just the passing glance – a rather longing one, when he noticed the other taking flight, but he knew that too was just a matter of time before he would have his own and spread them to take to the skies. But once he had turned back to the girl, the loud crash of shattering wood made his eyes turn wide, forcing him to look back. The ship. It was… Sinking. "W-W-Wh-What?!" He squawked, jumping back and looking around, his legs uncertain which direction they should be running in. Should they help? Could they help? "Wh-What is happening?! Pipsqueak! Explain!" As if the girl knew any better, but the chances of her knowing were much higher than the chances of him knowing…
"HUH?!" Eve yelped, hearing the word pipsqueak. The truth was that she probably should have used her main copy to relax because she would be experiencing that while the copy went off on a dangerous adventure. She wasn't quite that savvy yet. "Shite the boat! That'll take forever to repair." she added, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't see anything about what happened to it. "Oh that's a Spire spell! Does that mean the Red boy is here?" Eve looked around at the scrambling smugglers/fishmongers. It seemed like the had some sort of backup for when the boat broke. Eve sighed, knowing the two of them doing everything they could wouldn't exactly get the boat fixed. She also knew they probably had a lot to do to get their mission done and over with. Maybe it would be fixed, maybe another boat would land, they would only find out if they came back later. "We should leave that to them for now. At least it got breached at the dock so it can't sink very far." she replied, giving Ruairi a look of disconcertment like they probably couldn't help them right now. Turning her back on the boat, Eve noticed the assortment of colorful thatched-roof houses. To find out where the dungeon was they would probably have to ask around town. It looked like the villagers were all busy with their daily lives. She spotted a young man with a somewhat bulbous-jawed looking head walking down the main path of the housing development. He seemed just as busy as the others but he was notably empty-handed. The perfect person to ask copious questions. "We need to find that temple I think. Let's ask that guy." she murmured just enough so that the man in the distance wouldn't hear.
"What red boy? Who is this… Red boy!" Ruairi demanded to know, his eyes flicking frantically between the boat and Eve. It was… Sinking. Luckily, the sailors on board weren't left completely without help, as a sinking ship was quickly attracting attention from others nearby. That helped him calm down somewhat, knowing that he didn't have to come up with some kind of a solution – and knowing that the ship couldn't sink too far in. The sea was deep, but so close to the shore… Well, the ship would hopefully still be more or less there when they came back. Ruairi did frown as he gave out a sad little whine. "B-But I can't stay here for too long. I have a show…" The Rito let out a sigh, deflating. He had hoped for a relaxing vacation away from the theater, but he hadn't hoped for it to be, well, long-lasting! He didn't have that kind of time! Oh he would be ruined if he couldn't make it back for tomorrow's show. With something like that, how could he even relax? It didn't seem like Eve had similar worries – Ruairi was a bit jealous as he looked in the girl's direction, hoping that he too could have been so carefree… He did turn to look at a man the Kokiri pointed out, following his path for a moment with his eyes. The dungeon… That was the reason they came here, after all. Maybe the riches inside could cheer him up. "Leave that to me," the Rito replied, his voice again filled with that usual bravado of his as he allowed himself to straighten up and look like his wonderful, certain self again. Eve was weird enough to probably scare most off, so it seemed like it would be better for him to do the talking. With a confident stride, he walked up to the man, brushing his hair off his own face for an entrance with some flair as he made eye contact. "Ah, a local of this wonderful, quaint village! Please lend an ear to this lost traveler, sir. I happened to hear that there was a, ah, a temple of sorts nearby?"
"Lost already?" the man said, looking in the direction of the mangled boat. "Pardon me." he corrected himself. "My name is Romanus. Nice to meet you." his round jaw moving up and down as he spoke. "My grandfather was a great Wayfarer. Between my daily chores I actually seek to make sense of his notes and clues." he continued, almost giving away his life story. "Then ya know where the temple is?" Eve interrupted. "Ah, the temple." he remarked, looking down at the weird yellow-eyed brat. "My grandfather told us all of its existence. His clues are the key to finding its entrance. I was looking for someone to help, because the opening leads to great danger like none of us have ever weathered. Needless to say I did not expect you two." he postured inquisitively. "But we need to find it, right? Someone said somethin' about trouble coming from the temple. There's no black fog or acid rain or anything! What's troubling the village that they would send us to fix it?" Eve interrogated, leaning way forward. "I was getting to that. So rude." Romanus interjected. "The villagers are all suddenly lacking the motivation and energy to finish all of their daily activities. As you probably noticed we have to buy lots of fish from those sailors because our local fishermen are lacking even the basic courage necessary to go out on a boat. That's what it is, the Temple of Courage. We've been looking for it for over a century. Whatever has taken control of the temple is blocking energy from the most basic concept of the human spirit." "Will we lose our energy and courage if we find the temple?" Evelyn asked, her tone a bit nicer this time. "It didn't happen right away for most of us. I estimate you'll lose energy if you're around this part of the sea for more than a whole day, two days at the very least. Before I leave you alone I should show you my assortment of clues." Romanus added, scratching his head and thinking about the shape of the island. "The Red boy would be a big help. He's a Kokiri kid who usually solves all the puzzles for me. He's a magician too." Eve mentioned to Ruairi, almost forgetting to answer his question. Romanus led the pair out to one of the houses and pulled them through to a wide-open, almost serene yard with a sizable grave stone. It was his grandfather's grave, emblazoned with a text-heavy assortment of information. His dedication to the safety of the island made him immortalize his findings on his own grave. "These are my grandfather's notes, and all of his final conclusions. I've been reading them all since his passing but I could never make sense of it." Romanus concluded, waving one arm toward the large stone. "WOW. This looks like my Fairy wrote it." Evelyn brazenly asserted. What ensued could only truly be called nonsense. The three of them gathered around the stone and started reading. Below the writing was a full map of the island with an X marked somewhere to the north. There was a stone roof that poked out over the hills of the island that seemed to line up with the location of the marking. "Maybe there's something he never got to try." Evelyn added, thinking over the mountain of clues.
Ruairi fluttered his eyelashes to work up his charm – surely a big strong man like this would find someone like him so vulnerable that he would help them as much as he could. Of course he wouldn't deny getting lost on the very short journey from the boat to the man – that was a part of the schtick! It seemed to be working, and once the words started coming, they didn't stop coming. The Rito gave some nods throughout to make it obvious that he was listening, but as the story went on, a frown started to appear. Courage and the human spirit that had suddenly been sucked from the villagers? By the… Temple of Courage? And it would do the same to them, too? "I-I can't have that happen!" Ruairi exclaimed in horror. He was a performer! It was literally the only thing giving him money! And with the ship in the state it was… Could they escape in time?! "Don't tell me you knew about this and lured me into something so dangerous!" He continued his lamenting, with a very dramatic swoon that was reminiscent of a fainting lady, his hand on his forehead. It didn't sound like Eve was completely in the dark, but… It almost seemed like she had known something. The Rito was clearly not having a very good day, as he pouted the whole way to the stone. A whole century of studying clues that didn't lead anywhere. How did anyone expect the two of them to do any better? It was hopeless. He was ruined. Ruairi sighed – but wait! Did that mean he was being affected by whatever curse this island now had? Was it already getting to him? He had to fight back! "S-So," he straightened his back and cleared his throat, "The temple entrance… Should be there, right? Where the map leads us. Are there any issues with that?"
"I didn't know this would happen!" Evelyn argued. "I thought it would be something silly like a miasma slowly choking everyone." Eve looked at where Ruairi was pointing. It seemed like the map wanted to point out that location for a reason. Eve grabbed a piece of paper from her adventure pouch and started to rub the crayon over the gravestone to transcribe the entire picture. . . . Was THAT why she carried paper and crayons everywhere?! No, it had to be a coincidence. With the picture completely copied and the outline of the island re-traced, Evelyn looked around for any weird symbols or clues. There was that crescent moon that always appeared on all of the notes. Maybe that was something to consider. It was entirely possible the 'X' marked the roof of the building and the entrance was somewhere completely different. If it was exactly where the roof was, this grandpa fellow would have entered easily. "Buff guy. Is there more landmarks around the island? Something like a monument or statue that could last for centuries?" Evelyn asked the man who was looking weary at this point. "I actually was thinkin' of taking a nap." Romanus moaned as he stretched his arms and shoulders. "Ugh. This is exactly why nobody solved this!" Eve barked. "Just tell me already." "Monuments? Well there are a number of extremely old gravestones with weird old writing all over the island." Romanus admitted, shrugging and looking like he wanted to leave as he tapped his foot. "Chicky we have to stop this before everyone doesn't care to death." the Kokiri embellished. She started leading him down the main street of the naturalistic path through the community. The nutty girl had a feeling there was going to be a few of these stones closer to the edge of town. Was she the only one crazy enough to understand such a vague and completely unclear puzzle?
Ruairi gave the girl a huff, but seemed to accept that perhaps she had been ignorant and didn't intend for something like this to happen, as he didn't argue any further. Some kind of gas slowly choking everyone honestly sounded like the worse option, though – that would have been outright deadly… He had to admit, when he saw her take out those crayons of her and use them to copy the relief, he was… Almost impressed. Almost. He didn't want to admit it to himself, knowing what kind of a crazy person Eve was. "This stone is just filled with crazy talk. We don't care about any Ghost Ships or whatever," he brushed the ramblings off as exactly that. Only the map seemed to be really useful – but unfortunately, Ruairi had to come to the conclusion that it couldn't be that easy. As lazy and unmotivated as this man seemed, surely he wouldn't have been able to avoid the obvious location. So, what else… "…I suppose he made a mention of something like that. Crescent moon glyphs," the Rito hummed, having taken another look at the stone. Gravestones could have something useful on them – though he had hoped for a bit of a more useful location than all over the island. He grumbled as he was practically pushed away and herded through the village. "Would have saved us a lot more time if he had carved the location of everything else he thought would be important, too. This… Isn't a large island, right…?"
"No, it's not a very big island. How did they fit a whole dungeon here?" Eve pouted. Without much time at all they were finding themselves at the beach opposite the village. There were several stones already visible along the coast, most of them near the grass or the dunes. They tread the sand for a little while, trying to count the stones. Eventually, Evelyn walked up to one of the monuments poking out of the dunes. It had strange writing on it in an outdated style of text. It was at least a century old. "Hold on buddy boy I have to try to read this." the Kokiri raised her voice so he could hear it over the beach winds. Evelyn grabbed a thick green text out of her Adventure Pouch. It was the Book of Mudora. Inside its pages were the secrets to translating the engraved text. The book had changed hands during its lifetime and had ended up in the child's hands as a result of some holiday gift-giving. Receiving said book was not by any means confirmation that she knew in any way how to use it. She was already significantly not especially good at reading and writing, although not altogether illiterate. That was to say she did not have the skills required to meaningfully decipher something like this. Waving Ruairi over, she pointed to a section of the book she didn't understand. "You can read this, right?" she asked with her finger squarely on magically shifting letters. To Ruairi, it would immediately be at least a little legible. Although it was a lot like a captcha image, he'd easily be able to make out what it was saying.
"A small temple then too, perhaps," Ruairi hummed, actually seeming like he was less annoyed now that he knew the journey to find the tablets wouldn't be too awful – and there was the added bonus of the temple itself maybe not being so bad, either. Surely it had many riches when no one had been there in, well, for what seemed to be ages. "Unless it has been dug very deep…" A horrible thought he made sure to try to ignore as quickly as it had come to his mind. The stroll was uneventful, but once the Rito's eyes fixated on the sandy beaches ahead of them, he seemed to grow rather excited. His pace quickened as he practically frolicked to their destination, watching how his boots sunk into the sand. Such beaches had been rather rare in his life, a sign of something exotic and something made for pure relaxation. Ruairi closed his eyes for a moment as he allowed the sun to warm him up – just like how it had heated up the sand he was currently standing on. Oh how he hoped they could relax here before the sun went down… He caught up with the Kokiri after a moment, taking note of the stony objects that seemed to be poking out from the ground all over the landscape. If those were what they were looking for… Well, they weren't hard to find, but there certainly would be many of them to track down. Ruairi stopped beside Eve, tilting his head as he looked at the stone with a frown. He couldn't really understand what was written on it. It wasn't so worn down that it was impossible to make the words, no – it was the words themselves that didn't make much sense. It was almost like he could understand some of it, yet he always fell short. He was pretty sure it was Hylian, but… No Hylian he could understand. The Rito was snapped out of his thoughts when the girl waved him closer to show him the book she had pulled out of her bag. With the way she had said it, he had expected something just as confusing to be on its pages when he leaned over to look at it. Yet… Well, the writing was odd, that much was sure, but the words weren't. "Mind the gap…?" He read it out loud, questioning what he was even reading. He looked around. "What gap?"
"Gap?" the Kokiri wondered. In a puzzle scenario language like this usually had to do with a shape or a number. Eve was already hot on the heels of this outcropping of stones. She had a paper out with markings spaced out between the locations of each stone. They walked to the second stone, and it appeared to have the exact same thing carved onto it. Eve tried to remember what Ruairi was saying about moon glyphs. Each stone had the same small crescent moon carved into the very top and center of the monument. They followed several stones toward the front of the beach. There was a beautiful scenic view of the colorful village as they circled the warm, sandy environment. The warm salt air was pleasant as well. The locations of the stones were beginning to form a semi-circle on the paper. Soon, as they made their way around the cheery buildings, they came in view of the pier with their boat. A large amount of men had surrounded the boat to patch it up. Ironically it looked like they had made progress, and that other Rito had probably wasted his time. Most boats had several compartments in their hull designed to section off leaks, so a simple patch-up would probably make the boat functional again so long as they removed water in the process. There was the issue of the very solid Spire still penetrating the side of the boat, which would make it difficult to fix by the end of the day. Next they spotted Fake Eve. She was still reclining under a parasol, seeming to enjoy herself. She was giggling at the sight of the sailors running about. Even the copy was a spiteful, sneering dullard. At least she was having fun. Once again, it was clear that Eve would have had a much better time if she had just swapped places with the copy. The real one was marking yet another stone as the two continued along the beach. "You might be right about the moon, these stones are just forming some kind of circle." she nodded, making another small X on her paper.
Ruairi shrugged, just as confused by what it could have meant. There was no gap he could see – but perhaps the text on the other stone tablets would be helpful in trying to figure out that puzzle. Perhaps there would be some sort of a message they made together. That had been his hope, but… No. Once they got to the next one, it was basically identical aside from the natural wear and tear. Same text. Same markings. The third stone was the same, too. The Rito had realized that this would be the pattern they'd see throughout them all by then, so the messages weren't going to give them any information at all… Marking down their locations seemed like the next smart thing to do, in case that would be the clue instead. And there were so many of these stone tablets! Who had gone through the effort of cutting, carving and placing them everywhere? The world when these were made must have been a very different place indeed, one that wasn't as busy. Perhaps Ruairi should've been worried about Eve being the one marking everything down, but it seemed like she was doing her job properly. The stones did feel like they could have formed a circle or something, so her comment on the matter was comforting. "Let's hurry and mark down all of the stones, then. Maybe we'll realize what they meant about the gap then."
After he said that, they made their way to the end of the beach. The open surface of the sand abruptly stopped along a green-and-grey collage of stones tinted by seaweed and moss. Above this landscape of rocks were several beautiful palm trees which mirrored the landscape of the rest of the island. As they climbed the stone shore carefully they discovered one last monument before the line seemed to end. They took a shortcut through the reeds, a man-made path worn in by boots. Eventually they reached the back end of the isle. Which was to say, the shore opposite the pier and village. The steady curved line of monuments continued from here as Eve marked them one by one. "Looks like it does make a circle." Eve noted, pointing to the map. "But it doesn't form a solid line. . ." The map waved in the wind on the crusty set of parchment. It was clear as day. Perhaps the old wayfarer had just avoided the rocky coast when he made his notes. It would be foolishly easy to just assume the monuments formed a closed circle. As the two continued marking stones, it slowly translated onto the paper as a massive circle with a missing piece. It was a huge connect-the-dots of a crescent moon. "We should check the rocky shore again, it looks like we missed some stones." Eve sighed, her back was arched from the droll hike.
Ruairi was starting to get winded from the long trek in the sand – and actually did once the sand changed to uneven rocks that were much harder to walk on if one wanted to keep their balance, especially on ones the waves licked smooth and wet or the ones with slippery algae growing all over them. The sun that had been so warm and pleasant was starting to feel sweltering – the clothes that he had picked for a windy cruise were not fit for a sunny day, it seemed, the Rito forced to occasionally fan himself while he let Eve do most of the work. There were so many rocks… Oh how much easier this would be if he could fly and see them all from above… It seemed like they had finally managed to complete the circle – well, almost. Ruairi leaned over the Kokiri once she presented the complete map, indeed noticing the incompleteness of it. If it was even supposed to be a circle in the first place. That thought made the Rito's eyes sparkle. "Oh, maybe that's a gap we're looking for!"
"The gap?" Eve asked, suddenly befuddled. It looked like as they combed the dangerous rocks there was less and less evidence of more monuments. She thought about what Ruairi said and looked back at the map. There was what looked like a large circle with a "gap" at this part, almost as if this were the moon that all of the symbols were referring to. There was one thing that stood out to them as they remembered the line written on the stone. There was most likely something hidden here in this large stretch of rocks. "We should look for some sort of ruins or entrance." Eve noted. It was starting to make sense why there didn't seem to be a temple, there was a good chance the entire thing was under the isle. They went to the center of the gap on the map. There was a set of olden pillars in a sheer pewter color that matched the outcropping of stones. They found at the center of this arrangement of crumbling pillars a sort of pedestal propping up a stone circle made of individual bricks. This hollow circle was built of curved blocks all the way to the top where several of the stones forming the circle were missing. This was probably a result of decay but it made a sort of circle with a gap like what they had drawn on the map. "This ain't an entrance love it's just a shape." the girl complained. It was most likely some sort of warp point seeing as it didn't lead to any steps or a tunnel. There was faded, salted writing on the pedestal, probably providing some sort of hint on how to start up the warp. Eve pulled up her Book of Mudora again. Using the same method as before, she ran the faded words through the book's cipher. Perhaps there was some meaning to this. It certainly looked like the portal entrance had fallen apart naturally. Maybe there was some secret to that as well? It was perfectly possible it was all intentional. But what would they use to put the circle back together?
"The gap!" Ruairi replied enthusiastically, clapping his hands together. It didn't really answer the question or anything, but Eve seemed to be getting what he meant anyway. He peeked over her shoulder as she looked at the map again, trying to figure out where the gap was in reality. Near the coast, it seemed – but he still let the girl lead him to them, not wanting to try his luck at figuring out which coast that was. He skipped back over to the slippery rocks, trying to give them another look with a fresh mindset. The rocky environment did hide the remains of something made out of stone rather well – especially when there had been so many other odd stony objects all over the island. It was no match for their detective work, however. The Rito seemed to be quite excited now that their searching was actually producing results. Clearly there was something important about this place, and he was pacing around trying to look at everything for their reward. But that, unfortunately, seemed to be more difficult to produce… He seemed to be a bit less excited as he shuffled back towards Eve, hoping that she had managed to find some kind of a hint. Ruairi frowned as he looked at the words on the page. The gap again… He looked up at the scene ahead of them. There was that strange brick-thing, but was this what they were working with…? "Do they want us to make a circle or a crescent-y shape? Everything here has those strange moon marks," he pouted, straightening his back and walking back to the pedestal to take a better look at the thing on top. He ran his fingers over it. "What are we even supposed to use?"
"This puzzle bombs." Eve snickered, kicking the stone circle. She looked around, unable to see anything with the state of the rock coast. If there was some sort of replacement stone it was lost in this pile of stone or lost to the tides. The girl propped her hand on the stone portal. "What're we supposed to do? Glue rocks to the thing?" she grumbled. She looked at the crumbling structure. How else were they supposed to "close the gap?" Wait. . . it was crumbling. Her lizard-like thought process went straight to breaking it apart. Maybe if she smashed it the right way it would close the hole. Maybe that was the hard way, and it was possible they just had to make a closed circle with anything. "What if we just have to stick something there to make a circle. Do you see anything we could use?" she asked Ruairi, out of options.
Ruairi crossed his arms and frowned at the question. What could they use to close the gap? No obvious piece had been conveniently laid in front of them – though he figured that would have been a rather poor way to make an entryway. Either make it hard to open by requiring something specific, or just make it a normal entrance anyone could walk into! If all it took was moving a single stone or something, that would just be silly. And he was pretty sure anything loose would have been washed away by the sea by now. Surely whoever built the place didn't want to risk it. Well, they might as well try to stick something in there, he supposed, now that Eve had brought the idea up. "Like what? I don't want to remove my hookshot from my arm – it takes some time to strap it back in securely, you know. My makeup pouch? My boomerang? My charming smile?" Ruairi gave his suggestions – or more like, the list of things he could provide.
"What did you say? A boomerang? That's brilliant! That's just the right shape we need!" Eve sputtered, completely surprised. To the shock of everyone involved a regular sized boomerang would probably fit perfectly in the gap where the stone was missing. Eve was hopping up and down. She had an odd history of just grabbing things from people, but doing so right now seemed especially inappropriate. This Rito was on the cusp of learning just what adventuring was all about. It was usually about fitting odd things into slots and spots that were just as unusual. "That boomerang probably fits right there! If we connect both sides I think it will work again." Eve pointed extravagantly at the already established object. Of course, there was no guarantee it would actually do anything. Right now, this was their only good idea. It was probably worth a shot, and they would get the boomerang back assuming the portal didn't forcefully suck them in. Eve was on pins and needles staring at this hot mess of a portal. It seemed way past the point where she should have stopped bouncing around, too.
Ruairi tilted his head and took another look at the rock pile after Eve got excited about a possible idea. He supposed so, yes, that the missing part was about the size of a boomerang, and it had that pleasant curvy shape… His fingers opened the flap of his bag as he rummaged through for the boomerang. He hadn't even expected to need it yet! He held it between his fingers, taking yet another look and comparing the two. Yes, maybe… "I suppose a boomerang is sort of like a crescent moon shape," the Rito hummed, blurting out his thoughts out loud. Could it really be the intended key all along? He leaned over, bringing himself closer so he was able to line up the ends of the boomerang with the edges of the rock circle, and gently placed it in the spot it seemed to fit in.
There was, all at once, a snapping noise as the boomerang connected the two sides. It seemed their hare-brained theory was somewhat correct. A wave of force ejected from the round stone assembly, and pushed the pair of travelers both directly onto their ass at the same time. When they both got back up, a wavy and deeply purple window into another place became visible in the circle. The boomerang was safe, on the ground in front of themselves. The view into the portal was as expected, a view into a wide indoor expanse. It was most likely given the stone roof at the end of the island that the interior of the Temple was somewhere directly under the island. "Goid avongus." Eve babbled, spitting the shock from her mouth. She walked over slowly to examine the device. It was probably beyond both of their expertise levels to have figured this out so fast. It was still unclear if one could just stick a single hand into there. Eve reached out and jammed in her arm past the wrist. In a blink her whole body fizzled purple and vanished. It appeared that this portal wasn't a smooth gateway, but that wasn't to say Eve had much experience with strictly portals in the first place. That was that, she was in there somewhere. . . On the other side, Eve was free to take in the atmosphere. There was a basic stone main corridor which was square as the entryway. The somewhat greenish walls with a sort of labyrinth pattern engraved into it stood out in comparison to the average dreary grey fare of tombs and more generic dungeons. The first thing that hit her however was a dull rolling sound of stone that was worryingly nearby.
