Reaching for the sky [Skyreach]

Sirron walked through the forest, the nighttime sky reaching in all directions. The Kikwi looked around, realizing the area surrounding was completely devoid of any of the usual life. He saw a few Deku Baba, but with his camouflage, evading around them was quite simple. Eventually he came to a small clearing, overlooking a small pond. From here, he could see a tall tower, secreting a feeling of pure dread and evil.

He looked down at the water, kicking in a rock. He was met with a strange bubbling noise, indicating this wasn't really water he wanted to touch. Alas, he still needed to rest, so the fuzzy creature folded his plant over his body, keeping a good gauge on his surroundings as he took a short nap.

Eria aimlessly wandered through the Kokiri Forest, dragging her body as she went. This is stupid, she thought. She may not have made the best decisions on her journey to the forest, but those couldn't be changed now could they? She was already so tired that she could barely fight off the occasional Deku Baba, a creature well adapted to the environment who was barely visible until the moment to strike. But they weren't the only creatures well suited to the area. She had heard that Skulltulas, in cavernous parts of the forest, waited high above the ground in narrow passages, and dropped down when anything tried to get through. And their shells were hard enough to survive a blow from almost any weapon... Eria shook herself around. Her lack of sleep was getting her mind running, and it was imperative to not stop until she at least found out where she was.

But she did permit herself one question: why did she bother to do this? Oh yeah, some people in the caves were complaining about some water in the Kokiri Forest, and it was killing them or something? At least that's what she heard. They were also saying that some people should go over there and help them, because they wouldn't be able to protect themselves on their own. Yeah, that's when it all came back to her. It was at that moment where her hubris pushed her ahead and told them that she would go and help the residents of the Kokiri Forest. As much as they wanted to argue, they knew that Eria's mind was set, and quite a bit of people in the caves gave her the equipment and a horse that would last for the journey. But the thing is, it did last the journey. She was careful to not draw the attention of any of Ganon's wandering minions while she slept—gratefully, none of them found her—but crossing the river was the hardest part. Luckily, Eria and the horse lent to her managed to cross the river without getting swept away—at least to so much that she would end up in Hyrule Bay.

When she and her horse finally made it to the caves, she had just enough rations for another day and a trip back to the Eastern Caves for both her and her horse. The horse refused to move any closer than the start of the forest, no matter how Eria pulled on the reins. Eventually, she gave up, and moved her horse somewhere where she believed nothing would find her at first sight, and tied up the reins. She left food and water for the horse at a distance where it could reach, and set off for the forest. She didn't even realize that she would just spend that whole afternoon wandering through the forest. Some places, she even felt like she was going in some sort of circle. As much as she wanted to lay down and take a nap, Eria pushed foward until at last she found a small clearing she was unfamiliar with. There was a small pond that looked really strange, and a large tower-like structure stretched toward the stars further down. At the sight of this, she almost collapsed into the grass, and in seconds wasn't even conscious enough to be grateful that she wasn't near the water.

[[Sorry, didn't see the thread]]

"Blurbledeeblee," Loft said, balancing on an old log above a slimy cess-pit of purple goo. He hopped forward, landing on a small patch of shrivelled brown earth. "Blurbledeebloo," he said again, twisting on the spot and doing a little jig there. All around him was the bubbling poison march of the Forest; above him, stretched out like the greatest of tapestries, was the night sky. The stars reminded Loft of sugar sprinkled all across dark chocolate treats. This made Loft hungry- he hadn't eaten since he wandered into the marsh.

His yellow bunny ears flopped around while he danced, their energizing power speeding up his movements to an inhuman level. He'd just been fired out of the Forsaken Fortress' cannon the previous night, and he was still super psyched over the trip.

His dancing eyes caught sight of something lying in the grass a ways off from the sludge around him. He paused in his glorious motions, wondering what it was. Using the dead logs and forlorn brown lily pads, he quickly crossed the sludge and came to whatever the thing was. Really really really long red stuff was coming out of the thing's top, and it's body was tough and tanned. Loft poked it with his foot. "Hey," he said, "hey. Let's play a game- are you an animal, a vegetable, or a mineral?"

Eria bolted awake when she had been hit, and his seconds she shot up and drew her swords at her attacker... This was odd. He didn't seem threatening at all, and seemed to like her. Eria was so confused, that all she could manage to get out of her mouth in her sleep-deprived state was "Buhwwhaaat?"

No matter how innocent he looked, however, Eria didn't want her crosshairs—swords, rather—to make sure he didn't try anything funny. The strangest part was that he was in such a dangerous area and didn't seem phased by anything. Then again, she did fall asleep in the open, so...

(Sorry about the wait. Been having issues with HC. Am I the only one getting lots of errors?)

Sirron heard a noise in his slumber, a hand grasping a knife and looking out from his plant. Apparently nearby, a sword had been drawn. The kikwi put his bush into his back, taking out his bow and rushing into the foliage, looking down on the situation. He loaded up an arrow, seeing that a fight was unfolding, potentially. It'd be a waste of effort to jump in now. Better to wait until one of them was victorious.

((I haven't been having any problems. Are they still going on? Also, can you shorten your sig for the time being? Spoilers aren't working atm, and it's a long scroll down, lol.))

Loft jumped back, giggling as shiny, sharp objects were pointed at his chest. The marshy ground squelched a bit underneath his feet, and he wrinkled his nose and looked down. "Eww," he said, "gross!" The bunny ears on his hood wobbled in agreement; they didn't like the mud and muck anymore than he did. Loft was alright with it, though, in the end; they made funny sounds that made made him laugh.

Something tingled on the back of his neck. His Hylian sense was kicking in, that little cucco alarm in his brain that went 'squack squack!' whenever something mean and nasty was nearby. "Shhh," he said, putting a finger on his lips and smiling at the sleepy red-headed warrior, "there's something watching!" He laughed, his index finger tap-tapping on the hilt of his throwing knife, which was strapped to his belt. "Wonder what it is?"

Eria just managed to make out the words that this lunatic was saying. First he's laughing, and not even a second later he says that there's something dangerous. Continuing to keep her swords pointed at this character, she darted her eyes around the area. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary through her double vision, and thought that he must've seen a deku baba or something.

Eria got agitated at the boy, since her brain wasn't rested enough. She tried to demand answers from the boy, or at least command him to go away and let her sleep, but all that came out of her mouth was a yawn. She drew back her left arm to cover her mouth as she did so, and thought she saw something out of the reflection of her sword.

Sirron heard the boy below say something, and froze. Was it him that he was referring to? The Kikwi was completely motionless, his small frame and dark fur making him difficult to see. Hmm... Well at the very least they didn't appear to be evil. They both seemed normal, if one of them a bit crazy.

Dropping from his perch with a plummeting blade, Sirron held his knife tightly, barely moving, but keeping his eyes on the two. "The tower. I take it you both are here because of that?" He asked lowly, his tone strangely low for a Kikwi.

"Big yawn," Loft crowed delightedly, dancing up and down and making little 'squelch squelch' sounds with his feet. "Someone needs a nap!" He remembered what it felt like to need a nap, the warm mists of sleep curling themselves around his eyes and singing soothing songs of sleepy serenity... but he didn't need a nap right now, so why did she? It was a beautiful night in the blackened and poisonous bogs of Kokiri Forest; the marshy gas pockets were popping, the crows were squawking, the Deku Babas were snapping... how could anyone want to sleep?

Just then, a small, fuzzy meteor crashed down from the trees and slammed silently into the boggy ground. Loft jumped back from surprise, his throwing knife reflexively brought up from his belt and raised to point at the sudden intruder. He didn't register the words it said, too busy staring at its small, cute, fuzzy form, its adorable little eyes, and its comfy fur.

"Kikwi!" The delighted scream was accompanied by the squelch of pounding footsteps as Loft raced towards the adorable fuzz-ball, his arms outstretched to take it in a huge hug.

Eria turned to where she saw some unusual reflection, but was so slow that she was looking at a Kikwi after the boy did. She could barely make out the boy yelling "Kikwi" as she watched him run toward it. She scowled at the fact that she was useless in her current state, but so much was happening that sleep would be impossible. Hopefully those two would leave so Eria could get some sleep and explore the area in the morning. As much as she needed to keep her focus on those two for her own safety, she could barely concentrate on anything, and didn't even notice when her eyes closed.

(So... I'm putting my dog to sleep today so... short post...)

Sirron saw the boy running towards him, and didn't like one bit of it. Especially because he had pointed a knife at him moments before. The kikwi used Helm splitter to jump high, landing on the man's shoulder and pointing his knife at his throat. "None of that boy..."

((Aww, Tsu, I'm so sorry ))

Loft was totally surprised by the Kikwi's actions. It jumped away from his hug, denying him of a warm fuzzy hug, and leaving the thief in a state of abject rejection. Before his face could do more than pout, the cute little critter landed on his shoulder and pointed a shiny metal object at him.

"Your heart," Loft said to the little Kikwi, his bottom lip definitely jutting out as he pouted and sniffed, "is just so cold! I just wanted a hug!" He sniffed again, but he had a secret. He was acting! Loft wasn't really upset at all! He had been initially stunned and hurt by the cute animal's rejection, but then the super-smart thief realized that the plushy was now standing on his shoulder! Oh, happy day!

He looked back over to where the red-headed snooze-fest was, and he tilted his head to the side and frowned. "Is you really that tired?"

(offers ooc hug )

Multiple times over the course of about a minute or two, Eria rapidly drifted in and out of sleep. She would wake up for a few seconds not even realizing that she fell asleep, only to repeat the process several seconds later. She could not perceive anything around her except for what little she saw when her eyes were open. Finally, her eyes closed and she collapsed onto the grassy bed.

Sirron saw the woman drifting in and out of sleep, scoffing at the Hylian's words. "A cold heart is just what a creature what myself needs... Now then... I've taken my own sleep, so I shall go scout. There are many dangers here, so can I trust you to watch out for her while she rests? A team may be the best opportunity we have of taking this tower down."

"Course!" Loft swung his arms back and forth, rocking to and fro to show his eagerness. "I napped earlier, so I'm all good. Have fun out there!"

[Nothing else I can really do, lol. Slink, think you could pull a time-skip outta your hat?]

(OOC: I don't have a hat. I have baggy clothes. )

A bright light illuminated Eria's eyelids, and instinctively shot up from where she slept. However, she quickly remembered that she wasn't back at camp, and she was at the forest. The sun had just started to peek its head through the leaves, casting rays of light on various areas on the ground. She didn't really believe that what happened in the night had happened, but at the same time it had to be real.

Eria adjusted her clothing and her jewelry, since they had been laying on moist grass for at least a few hours. She began to stretch and limber up for the morning, as she usually did, but when she tilted her head behind her... There before her sat the kid from last night, just watching her with his creepy smile. Eria was caught off guard and let out a girly yelp before falling to the ground—rather awkwardly. So everything I saw was real. Well, at least I'll have some people who can command instead of doing it on my own, she thought to herself. She started at him for a few seconds, with a look resembling one of confusion, puzzlement, anger, fright, shyness, and disgust, before finally addressing him. "Who are you?" she asked. "What are you doing here," trying to emphasize the fact that he was questioning his presence in the vicinity, not the general area.

Sirron went towards the tower, stealthily avoiding all the creatures in the way, though what he saw was strange. Several Aeralfoses were going in and out of the tower near the top. That may have been important. Then again, Sirron didn't ponder going up the tower for two seconds without thinking they'd need to reach the top of the tower. With that, the Kikwi moved back to where that girl was sleeping, dropping down silently next to her fromt he trees above when he saw and heard her awaken, asking the boy there a question.

"When you're ready. The top of the tower contains Aeralfos. I saw five or so. Now, may I ask all of your abilities? I wish to know who I can count on for what. Sirron, by the way."

Loft laughed and bounced up, dropping into a sweeping bow. "Loft," he said happily, smiling up at her. He straightened his back and waved. "I'm Loft, and I was making sure that no bad Baba came along and snap!-" he clapped his hands together in a sharp crack- "off with your head!" He laughed again and rocked back and forth from heel to toe, shifting his weight every half second or so.

Then the cute plushy came along, and Loft really really wanted to rush up to the fuzzy thing and give it a hug, but he thought better of it. Last time he'd tried that, it'd nearly given Loft a new smiley face: on his neck! That wouldn't be fun at all!

"Abilities? What do you mean? I can whistle- does that count?"

Eria questioned the fact that the boy was so cheerful at everything, and it was really creepy. But despite that, she couldn't help but crack a small smile at his enthusiasm. She stood up and took a normal stance—which happened to be her guard stance—to address Sirron. She knew what he was asking, unlike Loft. She had grown accustomed to people asking each other about their new abilities or moves at the cave—more commonly, they asked her. "Eria. Eria Talevev" she answered. "As for my abilities... well, it's much easier to show them than to explain. But if we're going to be fighting in the tower, you'll get your answer soon enough."

"Oh," Loft said, comprehension dawning at her words. "Like, fighting stuff?" He puffed out his chest and stuck out his chin. "I'm a ninja," he said proudly. "Silent but deadly!" He twirled his knives all fancy-like and put them back on his belt. "That's me," he said, smacking his chest with a closed fist, "Loft the sneaky ninja!"

"The Tower?" He looked up to the massive thing thrusting up from the deadened ground of the Kokiri Forest. "Ew," he said, "looks like it's trying to grab the sun or something. Are we going now?"