Reforged [Darkrider/Invite]

Learning the streets of Hyrule Castle Town was a tricky business, given the immense size and the way they crisscrossed over miles and miles in a spidery fashion. Broad streets and narrow alleys, run down ghettos and polished limestone--if you didn't know where you were going, you could accidentally slip from the nicest neighborhoods to the filthiest ones in only a few minutes of confusion. Their intricacies seemed almost natural, like the floods of people had cut out on street after the next from a large mound of stone; they were confusing like nothing else, but simply let them take the course with a slight sense of direction and you usually found your way to where you wanted to go.

Unfortunately for Boko, the man simply didn't fit in enough of the streets, especially crowded ones, and his paths had to be very particular and chosen. To learn the warren was something of experience, not really mental aptitude, so he had finally been able to master them after a number of years of patrol. Thankfully, this knowledge had proven quite effective so far, despite his own limitations. He could feel himself getting closer to the part of town he was aiming for, and ever few blocks he checked out the picture one of the guards had drawn of the shop he was looking for. He had the name of it, but it didn't mean particularly much for him.

About eight months prior he had lost his weapon when had nearly died to a number of street thugs. The thing hadn't been particularly beautiful or balanced, but his hands had felt most comfortable with his own weapon. Since losing his weapon but somehow not his life, Boko had been forced to borrow from the Hylian Guard armory. The weapons were fine, but with his size a specific kind of weapon was greatly appreciated. Good news for him, he had finally gotten a note from his commanding officer that certified him for an upgrade discount from a local blacksmith that had connections with the Guard.

The crowd gave the man as wide a berth as could be afforded, but when he stopped in the middle of a street to look around, the flows finally seeped in a little bit. Boko glanced down at his piece of paper and then back up to a shop that looked about right. Well, it looked like the best option anyway.

Echoes, echoes resounded from within the building, sounding muffled from the outside. A Forge boy busied himself at work, pounding out bars of irons into weapons suitable for the Hylian gaurd. In the times since his last incident, Forge removed his distress by concentrating his focus yet further, allowing him to achieve a higher rate of progress. With the help of his master, he could attempt more refined works, such as large swords.

Forge's mentor, however, left the boy to work the iron for the time being, having been told to expect a unique customer referred to their services. To Haris' view, his master looked tense, strictly professional, and for all intents and purposes, preformance oriented. He stood by like a sentinel behind the door, while Haris' hands continued to fall with the hammer upon the red hot metal.

As Boko took a step forward, the crowd shuffled a little bit now that the man was moving again. There were likely Hylians still larger than he was, but it was an uncommon sight, and it certainly made a difference when he was in uniform. With a touch of apprehension, Boko entered into the smithing shop, relieved when he heard the sounds of an anvil that affirmed he was in the right place. At least, the right type of place. Word had been sent ahead of him, so Boko didn't suppose there would be much of issue with the whole process; he carried a letter from his commanding officer that affirmed his identity, though it was rather difficult to fake, and also detailed the instructions and materials required for building the blade; some of the materials were slightly on the rarer end, he had been told, but apparently those had been sent long ahead of him as well.

Stooping to clear the doorway as he entered, the man lumbered over to the counter where another waited. Good, no need to try and find them. Boko wondered if their business was slow to cause him to be standing by idly, though. Grimly nodding his head, he raised a hand in greeting to the man in the shop and reached his other hand into his pocket to pull the letter out and hand it to him. The letter would hopefully detail the weapons dimensions and grip as well as the materials to craft it, but Boko did feel slightly strange not saying anything about it, so he added on rather lamely after the hand-off, "Please make this weapon, blacksmith."

Haris' master, visibly a bit offset by his client's giant posture, nodded quickly and took the letter from Boko's hand, reading it over and engrossing himself in the ingredients needed, going behind the shop and various racks of swords and polearms. Haris made the latter, and his master, the former.

Forge himself stopped his work temporarily to look at the tall Hylian, who's words, he noticed, were few. He seemed to be a man who spoke through action...clearly in power. He stood somewhat in awe, rather than fear. He enjoyed his own silence, though his sense of politeness fell short; he continued to gaze at Boko in wonder, before his master re-emerged from the back of the shop, whereupon he quickly set back to work on the series of flat, relatively broad points for a spearhead. He overheard his master bow deeply and utter an apology that the expected shipments needed to construct the two-handed weapon had not yet arrived. They would need to retrieve it from the armory in the keep. Because Forge's master was busy, the man dismissed the boy to accompany Boko as his temporary squire to retrieve the elements needed. Forge nodded, leaving the hammer by the counter and the iron bar on the anvil, and walked over to the Hylian gaurd to start the journey. He said nothing in greeting, only bowing his head slightly in a nod.

Silently, Boko took a step back and let the blacksmith carry out his job. The letter seemed clear enough, but he found out quickly that not everything had been taken care of as promised. Part of him wanted to leap up and voice his irritation at it, but another part reminded him simply accept it as more work to do for that day. Many things were not as easy as they ought to be, after all. According to the blacksmith, they would need to travel back to some of the Hyrule Guard's storehouses to pick up the supplies themselves before going all the way back to the blacksmith. Boko accepted the burden with a silent nod.

What was more, though, apparently this child apprentice was going to be coming with him. A companion for something like this was welcome to reduce the possibility of making a mistake, but the boy seemed about as prone to speaking as he was. Boko liked to keep his mouth shut, but usually that was because there were more than enough people talking for all the rest of them, and he could keep to himself. It just made things much simpler.

For now, though, he just nodded right back at that apprentice. Perhaps he felt silence was easier as well. Retrieving the letter he had shown to the other blacksmith, Boko handed it instead to the man's apprentice with nothing more than a prompting, "Let's go, then."

Haris responded quickly with a lame "yes," and walked out the door with him, his eyes adjusting somewhat for the natural sunlight. The crowds were out again, and although Forge lacked skills at communication in large crowds, he found it easy to slip through them, even moreso with his proximity to Boko. Throughout the stroll, the young blacksmith stole a look at the two-story stone buildings, and of the people that milled about, observing things about that he would keep away in his heart to ponder. Ever so often, he would also keep tabs on the Hylian Gaurd he accompanied, making sure he could still see him whenever they had passed through a dense crowd of people.

After some time had passed, a sudden realization hit Forge's mind, of which he felt he should communicate to Boko. "Is this the way to the armory?"

As the buildings passed on either side, the Hylian Guard navigated the streets casually, making turns that might appear arbitrary or spontaneous, but the man still had an adequate feeling for the progression. Eyes followed him on every side, but he did his best to let that lanky hair of his blind his peripheral vision from them. It wasn't anything new, after all. Unfortunately for the man, though, his plan had not involved him staying this long on this task originally, and it had been at least an hour and a half since he had last eaten. Needless to say, he was officially starving.

Every once and a while he would look back toward Harris the apprentice to make sure he had not fallen behind. His own stride was much longer than the boy's. While the streets bustled around the two of them, though, Boko could feel the silence between the two. While it didn't particularly put him at a discomfort, his social awareness had kicked in as sure as any training he had received throughout his life. People were uncomfortable without conversation, and you were obliged to give it. Surprisingly, his partner spoke before he could. Boko slowed his pace to make sure that he could stay within talking range of the boy. "One of them, yes," he spoke, meaning one of the ways to get there. His stomach growled again and he shook his head while frowning, "It's at least two miles from here still. Eating before then would be appreciated. Do you mind?"

Haris' eyes widened slightly. He never though of Castle Town to be quite so large...but he had never ventured far from his neighborhood before. Two miles...the thought continued to boggle his mind some before he rememberd Boko asking him a question, causing the boy to shake his head to regain his thoughts, before he added sometime later. "Um, sure! I haven't actually eaten lunch yet, either..."

At this, Forge realized he didn't know what Boko liked to eat, and his shyness reassumed control of his speech, leaving it to the Hylian guard to choose where to go. "I'll let you choose. I haven't been to this particular part of town."

"Kabobs," Boko said shortly, pointing his finger across the street to a place that he knew pretty well. The first time he had taken advantage of their all-you-can-eat challenge they had been thoroughly disappointed to see him plow through a tremendous amount of food, but as he'd become a regular customer it seemed they'd grown to like him. They had also raised their price a fair bit. Boko turned toward where his finger had pointed smoothly, winding his way across the street. After waiting for a cart to pass in front of him, he approached the shop, beckoning Harris to do the same.

It was an outdoor bar type setup, with five old stools sitting on the edge of the street and facing into the shop where they cooked the food and took the orders. The short Hylian woman in the front shouted frantically into the kitchen to fire up the grills the moment she saw the returning customer, and Boko sat down carefully on one of the stools. "The kabob challenge, if you wouldn't mind." The woman offered him a wry smile, nodding and taking his money before turning to Harris to take his order. Boko interjected before she could speak though, "He goes on my bill."

The woman looked at him curiously for a moment; she'd never seen him with anyone but a friend she knew was no longer around. Since that time he had always come alone. Boko returned her look flatly, though, and she hastily reverted her gaze back to Harris. "Get the Cow on a Stick," Boko suggested to his companion, gesturing toward the sign. It was a lot less food than he usually ate, and he hoped it would be manageable.

Haris remembered his manners enough to utter a quiet, but audible "thank you" to the larger Hylian gaurd, before taking Boko's advice, making the request with a meek and gentle tone. He never paid notice to the fact that people were probably staring at his rather ashen features and soot-ridden clothing. For now, his focus was on maintaining the proper attitude, and a grateful smile. He took a look around the shop, which seemed to be rather small, local. He preferred such places as opposed to larger, more crowded vendors. The taste, he knew by experience, would be authentic.

When the foot arrived, Haris took a slightly cautious bite, and satisfied with the resulting taste, began to ate normally, his gaurd let down, for the moment. With a question to help pass the time, Forge asked Boko, "So how did you get so tall?"

The platter with at least twenty kobabs appeared in front of Boko a moment after Haris had asked the question, and he responded simply as always, "By eating like this, I guess." He picked up a kabob, blowing on it briefly and then sliding all the meat and vegetables off it. His monstrous mouth caught each and every piece quite skillfully, beginning to chomp on them a moment later. Only a minute or so passed before his mashers had shredded the meat far enough to be swallowed, and he turned to Haris to ask the boy a question, "Will you be the one making my sword?" He returned his gaze back to his food, not particularly concerned with a receiving a response immediately. Instead, the man picked up another kabob and downed that one as well. There had to be at least four pounds of meat on the table in front of him, plus vegetables, but he figured he was hungry enough to down it.

Haris glanced between the platter and Boko, before asking the waitress for a mushroom and vegestable kebab, and uttering his reply.

"No. Not entirely, at least. My master makes swords, usually. I can make the basic parts of it...the blade itself, at least. The handle and crossgaurd, my master can handle."

When the waitress came with the other two sticks, Haris nodded in thanks and ate each peice by itself. He chose to savor the flavor before swallowing, and then waited patiently for the giant beside him to finish.

The man merely grunted in approval at Haris' words, choosing to focus instead on the still massive pile of food in front of him. Over the next several minutes Boko would plow through a substantial amount of food, cleaning off the stick of every kabob and just barely finishing that last one. Every time he ate here he was filled by the time he left; such a meal would likely keep him filled until dinner, but that might depend on how much he did during the day. Dropping the last stick onto the platter, the man leaned back and wiped his face off, thoroughly sated. For a moment there, he had forgotten the task that they had come to do, but it quickly dawned on him.

Slipping off his stool, Boko nodded to his companion shortly, "Sorry about the delay. We should be going now." His large hand deposited a tip on the counter-top, and he stowed the small bag of rupees and faced the streets once more. They were still a good two miles from the location, but it wouldn't take terribly long provided they didn't run into any more detours.

The citizens of Hyrule still flooded the streets, and Boko almost smiled as he watched them all trek up and down so peacefully. Most of his life had told him that Hyrule Castle Town was a place of darkness, deceit, and disparity, but being a part of the Hyrule Guard had given him a sense of pride when there wasn't violence everywhere. It meant they were doing their job. Having a familiar sword on his back or side again would be quite welcome though. With that thought, Boko took off down the street again.

Haris noticed the smile on Boko's face, causing a similar reaction to stir on his own features. For once, everything seemed right, at peace. He looked up, and his eyes met an equally calm sky, a few lazy clouds rolling overhead, as if pushed by a gentle wind. Any hint of darkness here, lay not within the boy's sight. "It's peaceful..." He said this mostly to himself, and he wasn't even sure if he said it out loud. His pace seemed lighter of step, and his features seemed fair, admist the ash. He walked with the Hylian Gaurd in a pleasant mood, in harmony with the various people surrounding them.

If the guard heard Haris' remark, he made no response that he had, but his spirit certainly agreed alongside it. Taking a longer stride, Boko flowed through the crowd, traveling with ease as most people moved out of the way of his steps. The day was warm, and the humidity was bearable; for all intents and purposes, it was quite a lovely afternoon. As they walked, though, the man turned a few times into other slightly less crowded streets, the buildings closer together and hiding the sunlight more effectively. You didn't have to be a Hylian Guard to know that this was a slightly less winsome part of town, but Boko felt comfortable enough in it. There weren't a good deal of places left that Hyrule Guards truly disliked traveling through, but it didn't stop the nasty people from harassing other folk.

Boko's ears caught the sounds of trouble from two blocks away, and his eyes narrowed at it. The sounds weren't very distinguishable, but it certainly sounded like two people having a row. Scanning the street revealed that this part of town was quite desolate at this hour, and that bothered him even more; no one to report or stop anything from happening down in this part of town. He had no weapon and no uniform right now, but Gaer has always said those things didn't make a man a Guard. Breaking into a jog, Boko rushed down the streets, completely forgetting about his companion for the moment.

Skidding around a corner, Boko's eyes finally met his ears. For a moment he was relieved to only find two people, and they seemed only intent on one another. One was a man, the type of which Boko knew all too well from experience, and the other was a woman who seemed young enough to be significant prey for the man. The guard's stride slowed as he realized the confrontation seemed to be completely verbal, not something to be in a huge hurry about but certainly not anything to approve of either. They seemed oblivious of Boko and Haris, and the man thought about turning around and leaving them be, but a moment later the man moved forward and struck the woman with a resounding smack, flinging her onto the dirty cobblestone street.

The hackles on his neck rose, and Boko growled, barreling down the street now in direct assault on the attacker. The angry man who had struck the woman turned just in time to see the three hundred pound behemoth on top of him. Boko grabbed the man by his shirt, lifting him up and slamming him into the wall of the house they had been arguing in front of.

A look of shock, panic, but then anger came across the man's face when he realized where exactly he was and that a complete stranger held him against his will. Boko's own voice held debatably more anger, "Never. Never! You cannot attack people like that!" Rage bubbled through his words, and Boko stared at the man menacingly, debating whether or not to smash his face into the wall with his fist.

"Wait!"

The woman had scrambled to her feet, pushing aside the dirty hair from her face, looking at her so-called 'rescuer' with some irritation, "Look, he doesn't mean it. Jus' let him down and leave us be, would you?" She shot the pinned man a fearful look for a fraction an instance, but Boko missed it.

The man was confused; why did she want him to release her aggressor? Had he misunderstood the situation? It would not be the first time. A tinge of red, all but unnoticeable, crept into his sun-darkened cheeks at the thought. He still didn't understand why she would be okay with him attacking her, but his training told him to try and avoid being rash. Slowly he let the man down, releasing that death grip on him when his feet touched the ground. Boko glared at the man suspiciously, but his look was retorted with an infuriating sneer.

The aggressive man turned his back on Boko, walking over to the woman and grabbing her arm roughly, "Come on, you whore. See what happens when you shout so loud?"

Crack. The man crumpled to the ground, Boko towering over him. The woman looked aghast, scrambling inside the house before Boko could stop her, leaving the Hylian Guard with a red fist over an unconscious citizen. He looked at the man regretfully; he hadn't meant to hit him that hard. Looking up to find Haris, Boko apologized, not to the man he had wounded but to his companion he realized he had dragged into this, "Sorry."

Haris, at the first sign of Boko's jogging, tried to keep up with him, though by his urgency, the blacksmith felt uneasy, knowing it probably wasn't a good thing. The violence that soon met his eyes, he shied away from instictively, being reminded of the last debacle. It wasn't nearly as violent as a bisection, less bloody and with less gore, but it was still an unpleasant experience that he remembered to turn his view away from, and cover his ears from the dull thumps and the sound of red droplets impacting on the floor.

When it was all over, Forge kept at a distance, peeking his head from behind the corner and his hands around the edge, before backing a bit of a larger distance from Boko, a feeling of intimidation coming over the boy, though he managed to muster the courage to speak when the giant apologized. "There's nothing to be sorry to me for. It's your job. Just...let's just get to the armory."

With that, Haris clammed up once more, and resumed a more silent pace towards their original destination, his expression now sullen and depressed. "I hate seeing suffering." he whispered to himself.

Boko looked at the boy dolefully for a long moment before dropping his eyes to the man on the ground again. He would be out cold for quite some time, but Boko knew he couldn't just leave him there. Stooping down, the large man picked the unconscious body up easily, tossing it over his shoulder and making a quick pace to catch up to Haris. He wasn't an expert in reading emotions or people in general, but he could tell that he had put him at a significant level of discomfort. Part of Boko wanted to speak up and try and talk him through it, like his mentor had for him before, but another part reminded him he didn't know those kinds of words. He opted to just keep his mouth shut; it was much easier that way, and things tended to fix themselves.

He dropped the body off with a couple of other guards who were actually on duty, explaining the situation and asking if they would check on the woman to make sure she was doing fine. The day seemed lazy still, and they agreed, allowing Boko and Haris to continue their journey still. After about a mile's walk, Boko had spent most of the time thinking hard to try and come up with a way to repair the situation with his blacksmith companion. Unfortunately, the best he could come up with was, "What do you do for fun, blacksmith?"

Haris pondered the moment, successfully distracted by Boko's question. "I like to walk up on the walls of Castle town, and stare out at the sunset and the trees...enjoy life away from the indoors, and the cool temperatures in the night."

After a long silence, Forge became quiet again, with a question that nagged at the boy's mind. "...Will he be alright?"

Nodding at once, he responded firmly, "Yes. Hopefully better than before, if he learns his lesson. People are difficult to change, though." Boko smiled slightly at Haris' response still. Perhaps he would have turned out similar to Haris if he had not been born into this size. Hyrule truly was a beautiful place, and getting away from the chaos of life was not so difficult, really. You could even stay in the city, though lately Boko had been wanting to get away from that a little bit. Maybe it was just that it now held some sour memories, or maybe he was just growing restless, but he very much wouldn't mind seeing some of the other parts of the world, if the city could spare his absence. What if Haris... Boko spoke before he even realized he was doing so, "Have you ever traveled out of the city?"

Haris shook his head. "No. I haven't even been to this part of it...I didn't venture out much from my neighborhood when I was little."

The blacksmith added after awhile later, "I don't think everybody is difficult to change. Some people can be quite wishy washy..." He said this mostly in spite of himself, knowing he was easily swayed by many things, but he left that note unsaid, for fear out of Boko taking advantage of such a fact. Forge looked on at the Hylian gaurd, observing the soft smile. He wasn't sure of it, but he thought he caught a bit of...sentimentality, within the giant. His own gaurd relaxed somewhat as a result.