No Poultry, Guaranteed [Doc Genzo]

The boomerang seemed to snap into place, almost like it was made for the job. Ruairi couldn't say if that truly was the case, or if it just was close enough for the mechanism to work. He straightened his back and looked at his handiwork, not even having considered taking a step back. A bad idea, that, but he most likely would not even have been avoid to what happened had he distanced himself. A sudden wave of energy suddenly pushed at him with force, sending the light Rito flying backwards and landing rather unceremoniously onto his behind – that did, thankfully, cushion his blow somewhat. He did grimace, the pain forcing his eyes shut and a little yelp out of his mouth.

He was annoyed, but when Ruairi opened his eyes, it was quickly forgotten. There was another strange sight right in front of them, the shimmering visage of a place they had yet to see anywhere on the island. This one was clearly indoors, like… Like a temple of some sorts! Excitement started to build up within Ruairi again, as his eyes sparkled from this new discovery. He was quickly up on his feet again. It must have been a portal!
"Would you look at that! It worked!"

The Rito first jogged over to grab his boomerang that had been spat out onto the ground, giving it a quick examination. It didn't seem like it had even gotten a new scratch on it, so it should still be working. Now that it seemed like the boomerang might be important, he slipped it into its holster on his hips so he wouldn't have to keep digging through his bag. Now the question was, would they dare to enter the portal?

Eve was the first one to try, being careful about it and just touching it with her hand. But the moment she made contact, she was gone. Ruairi blinked, rather surprised – that wasn't how he expected portals to work!

He had to try it out.

Taking a running start, the Rito jumped into the portal for a stylish entrance. He hadn't considered that perhaps it would be possible for him to jump through the thing, if it took some time before the portal's magic worked, but luckily he did not slam head first into the rocks behind it. No, he found himself landing on a stony floor in a darker room, something that matched the image they had seen on the portal. Even Eve was here, in one piece. Ruairi took a quick look around, but there was a sound that stuck out to him. He would have expected a place like this to be quiet…
"…Doesn't that almost sound like it's coming closer?"

"Of course we are!" Ruairi replied awfully boastfully at Eve's seeming worries about their little teleporting trip not being safe. Who would even make a passageway like that if it wasn't meant to be used? What a waste of time and effort! But right now, he did seem rather keen on listening to the grinding sound that he heard, even placing his ear on the stone wall in front of him to see if that would help. It… Didn't. It was a thick wall, he couldn't hear through it. He was pretty sure he could feel the vibrations on his skin, but that didn't really give him any insight he was looking for. Ruairi pulled back, his fingers tracing the shapes etched on the wall.

"Huh? Oh, right. I mean, left. Left is fine!" He called back to the girl, prying himself off the wall and jogging over to her through the stony hallway. He of course did not even think about which way would be better – it was completely random, a coinflip between two possible choices. Any ulterior motives were clearly lost to the Rito, so he was perfectly fine with the option Eve picked for them. He peeked in over the corner to see what was ahead of them, but of course there was nothing very interesting in there. People who made dungeons really should put the main attraction close to the entrance, so they didn't have to pick things blindly…

Ruairi seemed to be ready to take the lead, striding in and taking the left path without hesitation, only slowing down to look over his shoulder to see if Eve was coming.

Another split path. Were all dungeons built to be like this? Ruairi looked back at Eve before peeking into the hallway they were headed towards. He was unsure if this was the sound of the rumbling he had heard from earlier, but the rolling stone logs with spikes definitely produced a lot of noise as they rolled about – and they looked quite dangerous. They wouldn't just be squished, they would also be impaled. Not a great way to go.
"Just how many paths is this place going to have?" The Rito sighed as he retreated, trying out their other option.

It didn't look like a way forward, either. They were instantly stopped by a steep drop into nothingness, a drop so high he couldn't even see the bottom! Oh, if only he could fly! They would be on the other side in no time! …That did make him wonder if there might have been something his hookshot could have attached to, his eyes scanning the room as he imagined the two of them soaring through the air. It was looking awfully empty and high, though. Other than the strange orb-like things, there wasn't all that much in there.

Ruairi looked back down at Eve's idea as she threw a knife into the nearest orb. Just like that, it swallowed the thrown object, vibrating and bubbling as if something was about to happen… Only for it to unceremoniously spit the knife out like a meal it disagreed with. The Rito looked rather disappointed, the build-up that excited him leading up to nothing. So it wanted something proper to spit out, huh.
"Well. The boomerang got us here. I don't know, maybe it's their signature thing?" Ruairi shrugged, looking out into the distance. If the boomerang ended up being thrown across there somewhere by the spitty orbs, it would kind of be stuck on the other side. A bad idea if they needed it for something else. He did glance behind them as well. Maybe the right path was the right path after all?

"…Is there something there we're trying to hit?" He asked, a rookie when it came to all these odd dungeon puzzles, but he had heard about there sometimes being switches that would open the way!
"Because if we can see it, we can just… Ignore all the spitty orb things. We can just go straight for the killing blow!" The Rito offered a solution, perhaps just further cementing that he was not one who liked to play by whatever ground rules a puzzle might have wanted to set down when there were just so many other possibilities. To demonstrate, he grabbed his boomerang and threw it in the air, where it would have done what a boomerang did and return back to him with a gentle curve – but he could do much better than that. With a few whistles, he was able to just suddenly change the boomerang's course, sweeping through the air in much more intricate loops before he held up his hand for the boomerang to return to. He basically expected an applause at that point, staying in his finishing pose for a moment.

"Of course!" Ruairi just beamed with pride, returning the boomerang back to its holster. Telling her the reason he had to control it with magic was because he did not know how to get it to return otherwise did not seem like something Eve had to know. But as amazing as his ability was, the girl didn't seem to think it was of use here. That was another disappointment, a frown appearing on the Rito's face when they had to return to where they had come from with their tails between their legs because they couldn't do a stupid puzzle…

But the entrance that was so empty when they had appeared was suddenly less empty. The first thing he heard was the odd flabby slaps like a soft, meaty ball being bounced against the floor, and when he saw what the source of those sounds was… Well, it was exactly like it sounded. A ball. A furry, flabby ball. Soft, jiggling as it bounced towards them. It had large ears and a cute little face, overall looking like a big, soft, cuddly bunny rabbit. Ruairi stopped in his tracks, just staring.

A big smile appeared on his face soon after. He was nowhere near as concerned as Eve. How could something like that be dangerous?
"Aw! It's a little bunny! Well, a pretty big bunny, but… It's so cute! We should keep it!"

Ruairi nodded, clearly too enthusiastic at the prospect of having a giant squishy bunny pet. He wasn't as pleased with the idea of being the strange girl's new best friend, but once he realized what she was doing, all that enthusiasm came back. He oohd and aahd as he watched Eve lasso the monster successfully, giving her some quick, soft claps as encouragement. The poor monster was soon tied up and at the mercy of the terrible duo – a fate that surely would make most feel sorry for the poor thing, even if it was a monster.

Even if it struggled – and it couldn't really struggle all that much, seeing that it lacked limbs – the rope stayed on its body now that it was tied around it. Ruairi seemed to be completely oblivious to both its discomfort and the scowl it was making as he approached it with a coo.
"Oh, you caught it! I want to feel if it's as soft as it looks!" The Rito clapped his hands together in his excitement, ready to strike. He reached out for the bunny once he got close enough, wanting to pet it and stroke its fur and poke and prod and squish its flabby body…

Ruairi even the poor monster's life even worse as he poked and squished it, squeeing as he felt his hand go further and further into its round body. There was just so much… Softness! It was like a bag of the finest sand!
"He'd make for an amazing bed!" The Rito exclaimed – both of them were in agreement about the monster's big and fluffy status. They certainly needed to name it! But what would be a fitting name for this magnificent specimen? It was enough to keep Ruairi quiet as he thought about this most devious of dilemmas, walking alongside Eve as the monster was dragged along whether it wanted or not.

The dungeon provided them with more dungeon-y things. A puzzle? Or perhaps this one was more of a feat of physical prowess! Unfortunately, the place also seemed to be crawling in pests. Ruairi frowned. He didn't really like the idea of trying to do anything while keese were flying at them and they could dirty their clothes in jelly. Using their newest member to their advantage seemed like a good idea, but the monster didn't seem to care for the idea! The Rito circled the rabbit-like creature and knelt in front of it, squishing its cheeks together.
"Don't be like that! You're such a big, strong monster. You could just roll down there and mow down all those other pesky little things! You wouldn't want to be dead weight on our little adventure, right?"

Even Ruairi's encouragement – or threats – didn't manage to make the monster budge and fight for them. A pity. Eve's idea of rolling the very heavy and round monster made him made him hit his palm with a fist as if that was the best idea ever – and hopefully the poor monster didn't even understand their language, or surely it might be quite horrified to hear what the two thought was a good use for it. But as the Rito looked around, he realized there was no incline they could push the bunny down to get a good rolling start. He didn't think they could build up enough speed without that extra help…

But by now the keese had taken note of the duo, their squeaks and flaps of the wings growing louder as they approached. Ruairi hadn't really thought about that or what he'd do when monsters did attack, so all he could do was managed a squeak as he backed away and shielded his face as a group of bats swooped in. He tried to get a few pitiful swats in, but the keese were relentless! He felt the slaps of their wings against his sleeves, and he was pretty sure their claws and teeth would start to draw blood as the cloud of keese kept picking at him.
"Heeeelp!" Ruairi eventually squealed out, barely even wanting to open his mouth lest one of the bats would find their way in!

Ruairi did his best to stay still as the bats kept nibbling at him, his eyes squeezed closed. Small, sad whines and whimpers emanated from underneath his arms that were shielding his face as he was forced to deal with the assault and listen to the horrific squeaky sounds that felt so deafening this close to his ears. But then, he was able to start picking out different squeaks. One by one, there was a different sound that lessened the wing beats hitting him, until the keese gave up and allowed the Rito to finally emerge from his protective embrace and take a look. Eve was grabbing the bats and throwing them around, even using magic and her dagger to vanquish the enemies. It was almost impressive, considering how quickly Ruairi had gotten himself into a bad spot.

He looked at his arms and gave them a rub. The clothes he had picked were thick, luckily, so it didn't seem like there was too much damage. His forearms felt sore still, though, so he didn't believe he had managed to escape completely unscathed. Ruairi let out a sigh, feeling a bit more cautious about this whole exploring a dungeon bit now that it had actually gotten dangerous…

Eve's voice made the Rito snap out of his thoughts and look back at the girl. Her face was scratched, but she didn't even seem upset about it – had she even noticed? All the squeaks had died down, so somehow, she had managed to get rid of all of them. And it had felt like there were so many of them when they were all up in his face, swarming like a cloud of pointy teeth and claws! Ruairi pursed his lips as he considered her lesson – he definitely did care about getting ripped apart by monsters unlike her, but maybe she was onto something. He'd have to strike first, be faster, so they wouldn't make him unable to act like that again!

Ruairi pulled out his boomerang, looking a lot more confident this time around. That was probably a sign to worry.

Ruairi could hear the wet squelches as things slithered and moved about. Even he had trouble seeing the monsters when there were so many things they could hide behind. Though the blocks that acted as the walls in this room were short enough for him to try to peek over them if he stretched, they still were, well, blocky. Thick. There were so many blind spots, and the darkness didn't help. But he could hear them… And that made Ruairi worried. Everything always sounded worse when the source was unknown.

Then, he saw it. A silhouette, a shape that shifted and squirmed as it slid and bopped around the corner, coming to view. A slime-like creature, with a simple expression – almost like it didn't even know where it was, its eyes not even focused onto anything. The Rito swallowed and felt his fingers wrap around his boomerang harder. Eve seemed to be intentionally slowing her pace and sticking to the back, causing Ruairi to frown. Was she honestly throwing him at this monster…

Ruairi took a deep breath and threw the boomerang at the chuchu. For once, his aim wasn't off and he actually hit the thing, causing it to… Wobble in place as the boomerang was deflected. Ruairi was quick to react, whistling to have the boomerang pick up speed as it was still in the air, making a curve around the monster and returning to hit it again – with similar results, as the slime jiggled like jello and the boomerang bounced off of it like nothing had happened. The Rito called his weapon back with another whistle, holding his hand out for it as it looped around for him to catch.

By now the chuchu seemed like it had realized something was going on. Probably. It still seemed like it was… Drooling, and its eyes were wiggling about, but it had started to crawl in their direction. Ruairi was not a fan of that development. Perhaps he hadn't thrown the boomerang well enough? Perhaps there had to be more force behind it to cause damage to the monster? He put this new theory in action as he threw his boomerang forward as hard as he could. It no longer sailed through the air like a boomerang should, thrown in a straight line right at the monster with the most amount of strength the Rito could muster.

It hit. This time, it didn't even bounce. Instead, the chuchu now had a boomerang stuck right in the middle of its face, half of it embedded inside. It seemed to have pierced whatever membrane was holding its form together, some sort of goo oozing out of the wound.
"Did… Did that do it?" Ruairi asked, hopeful.

The slime was still moving. Ruairi frowned as he watched it – by now its movements had become even more eccentric, basically bumping into the walls and sliding around in circles, leaving behind a goopy trail from its leaking head hole. The boomerang looked like it was well stuck, proudly sticking out of the chuchu despite its movements.

Eve's voice caused the Rito to look over his shoulder to see what was happening behind him. The bunny monster had disappeared, but the rope attached to it easily betrayed its position as it was dragged across the floor. Luckily the bunny was captured and dragged back without issue – much to its chagrin, for sure.
"Could you go grab my boomerang, too? I really don't want to go touch it when it's all… Well… Like that."