Secret of the Spirit Tree [Quest] [Starsend]

We meet our two intrepid heroes as they stand outside an odd door, which exudes a thin white mist that is chilly even in the cold section of the bog their deku guide has brought them to. The disturbing part of this isn't the mist, though. The disturbing part is that, although the door is ajar, there's white mist coming out, and it's about as thick as what remains of the wood of the tree... The deku stationed inside the tree has reported no opening, no changes to the inside of the tree that he can see. Ztacie, the deku that brought them to this village hops agitatedly along the ground behind them.

Holle knocks once on the door, purses his lips, then nods.
"Okay, I vote we go inside. The spirits have been seen coming out from the tree, we're at the tree and there's a creepy door. There's no WAY the problem isn't behind this door, which means we can solve it. Come on come on come on!"

Once again Sandal had gone and gotten himself lost. He was supposed to have met his new client near Kakariko Village and here he was being lead through Morgue Swamp by a Deku. The Moblin wasn't quite sure what he had gotten himself into this time, but he wasn't about to turn away from those in need. As they approached the strange tree a Sandal would feel a slight chill, though with his thick fur under his armor, it would only be a passing sensation. Sandal would look from the Deku to Holle to the Deku just standing within the tree. "We go." The Moblin typically wasn't scared of much, mostly because the fear such a situation like this tends to inflict is lost upon his simple mind. Without any hesitation Sandal would step into the tree, once again leaving his fate up to the Goddesses.

Holle nodded to his partner, swinging the door open wide, to reveal-
Creepy white mist. In the space of the doorway. It was swirling and shifting, and was pretty obviously deeper than the entire tree, but...
It was still just mist.
"Huh. That's a bit of an anticlimax..."

Holle contemplated for a moment, then nodded.
"Either way, works for me!"
He took a running jump at the swirling mist, diving in head-first as he tumbled through the air, clothes growing mildly damp with the mist as he went.

Predictably enough, Holle fell face-first into a smooth stone floor, his face red from the rubbing on the surface, but not strictly damaged. Upon taking his bearings, and pulling himself up from his sprawled position, he let out an elongated whistle.
"Ddddamn. Did not expect this."

What Holle did not expect, dear reader, was that he would end up in an impressive white-marble hall, opening onto what appeared to be the very top of a giant tree, one almost as large as the Great Deku Tree itself. Lines and lines of carvings are etched into the structure, leading the eye to the entryway to the next room.
"Yeah, I'm going to wait for my buddy."

As Sandal stepped through the doorway filled with white mist he would find himself falling, small beads of water forming on his suit of armor. While some would scream in a situation like this Sandal was far to confused to do so. One moment he was stepping into a room with a Deku, the next he was falling like he had just stepped off of a cliff. Before he could even wrap his head around what had happened he would land on the ground back first.

Though it felt as if he had been falling for minutes his impact was more akin to that of having simply tripped. Even though his impact hadn't done any harm to him, it had surely caused quite a racket. With a groan the Moblin would stand up. He was rather disoriented by the whole ordeal, and had yet noticed the rather stark difference between where he had been a moment ago and where he was now. The only thing had managed to take notice of in this new area was his newest comrade Holle. "OK?" Was he asking if Holle was OK or was he saying that he was OK? While it wasn't really clear, as is usually the case when Sandal speaks, the slight questioning tone to his voice was surely asking Holle if he was OK.

Holle nodded, rubbing his stinging cheek and patting his companion on the back of his armour.
"Yeah, buddy, I'm okay. And, uh, I'm glad you're okay too."
Thank goodness for covering one's bases.

"Now, I don't know about you, but personally, I think those symbols are pretty suspicious. They seem to be leading us into the next room... Then again, this does have the look of a dungeon about it. There may be something important over there..."
Holle tapped his foot on the ground, tapping his chin as he examined the writing.
"What do you think?"

The large suit of armor that concealed Sandal would turn towards one of the walls and just stare at it, the helmet moving ever so slightly. Turning around the Moblin would examine the wall behind them as well. After a moment of actually taking in his surroundings Sandal would finally respond to Holle. "Pretty." It may not have been the answer he was looking for but that was exactly what Sandal thought of the carvings on the walls. Of course Sandal couldn't read so he had no idea that it was writing inscribed upon the walls. Ever so slowly Sandal would start moving down the hallway towards the next room, though he wasn't actually headed to the next room. He was just moving down the hallway to look at the rest of the pretty carvings on the walls.

Holle looked shocked, then looked back at the carvings.
"Huh. They are pretty... Man, I can't believe I didn't take the time to actually think about that."
Holle took a deep breath, walking alongside Sandal as they just stared at the carvings, enjoying the aesthetic quality.

"Stop and smell the roses, and all that."
Holle sped up slightly, entering the next room first, just in case a trap that's harder for heavy or armoured people to deal with. But all there seemed to be was just a small plaque with writing on it. He turns back, motioning for Sandal to enter before returning to gazing at the delicately engraved slab, his thoughts trying to decipher the meaning behind them.

Although Holle had motioned for Sandal to come into the room he continued down the hallway at his own pace. Perhaps he was trying to remember the design of the carvings to try out as an engraving on a set of armor later? Regardless the Moblin was clearly not paying much attention to anything other than these carvings. This situation was much the same as the first time he laid his eyes up Blue Fire, something that was still quite peculiar to him in fact.

As he made his way into the large, almost empty room at the end of the hallway he would feel a little disappointed that there wasn't anything similar to the carvings in the room. No statues or suits of armor. No furniture nor any paintings. The lone object in the room was a small plaque that Holle was already inspecting. Though with nothing else for him to do in this room he would walk up next to Holle and look at the plaque as well. Who knows maybe it had some new pretty engravings for him to look at.

Almost the moment Sandal entered the room, Holle blacked out for a moment, before blinking back awake.
Or at least, that's what he thought. What had really happened was that his eyes rolled up into his head, he fell backwards, and his invisible spirit floated above his body.

He got that as soon as he looked down, but he really felt like an idiot for not recognising that he couldn't feel the vast majority of his sensory input.
Also the fact that the door behind him had sealed shut with mystical white energy. That was pretty huge.

Sandal was too far away to do anything as he saw Holle's body fall to the ground. There was nothing in the room, no enemy or gas. There was absolutely nothing that could have harmed Holle and caused him to fall to the ground like that. Cautiously the Moblin would make his way towards the plaque and look at it. He couldn't see anything strange about it in the slightest. It had carvings similar to those on the walls in the hallway, though different as it was a different message on than on the walls.

It didn't take long for the same thing that happened to Holle to happen to Sandal. As his spirit left his body, his body would fall backwards onto the ground landing only a few inches away from Holles body with a loud and heavy crash. A few more inches to the right and Holle might have been crushed! That didn't currently matter to Sandal though as he floated there staring not at his unconscious body, but rather his own Spirit Form. It was unsettling to say the least, but not for any normal reason.

No the Moblin was scared because he couldn't see the gauntlets that usually covered his hands, which meant Holle wouldn't see it either. No in his Spirit Form Sandal could be seen for what he truly was and it terrified him. Holle was a Hylian, and almost every Hylian that Sandal has ever met has reacted to him the same way upon seeing him outside of his armor. They attacked him! He would have done nothing wrong and they would attack him. He had a few lines of fur missing on his left arm due to scars, with the same across his back. Sandal feared Hylians because they treat him like a monster even though he wasn't one. Sure he may look scary, but he was probably kinder than most Hylians.

In his panic Sandal would attempt to hide behind his unconscious body and would instead return to it. Sitting up abruptly he would look over at Holles unconscious body, his hand instinctively moving to the club on his hip. It would be easy for him to kill Holle while he was unconscious then he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked. Shaking the thought from his head he would slowly stand up and move away from Holles body before he could wake up. Sandal couldn't, wouldn't, kill someone just for finding out what he was, that would only make him into the monster all those Hylian's had said he was. No he was going to have to wait and see what Holle did, he could only hope that Holle would react something similar to his friend Lamont.

Holle's eyebrows raised in shock as the moblin rose from the armorer body of his companion. Holle saw that he looked like himself, so obviously there weren't any way that Sandal couldn't be a moblin. His first reaction was, as any self-respecting rat would agree, to back into the corner. The solid feel of the walls against his spiritual form failed to calm him down, but then something strange happened.

The moblin fled back into Sandal's body. Holle was at first terrified when Sandal sat up, and moved his hand to the club, but when he didn't immediately smash his unconscious head open, Holle backed away from his instinctual five back into his body. Before dealing with his companion face-to-face, he was going to do some thinking, and maybe experiment a little as well.

There was no doubt as to how to get back into his body, and something made him feel like he wouldn't have to look at the words again to get back into this spiritual form, just a little concentration would do. With that settled, it was time to focus on the urgent problem of what the hell was he going to do about his moblin companion? Holle categorised the potential situations which could possibly apply. First, the moblin as an evil, raving monster, which was blatantly false. If he had been evil or cruel, he would have just smashed Holle's head in there and then. He'd obviously thought about it, which brought Holle to option number two; he was spying on the civilised races. But hat made less sense... After all, Holle had seen his real identity. If the moblin were truly spying, there would be no reason at all to let someone who knew his identity live.

Which left only one option, really. Having decided on his course of action, Holle focused on his hand, trying to recall the bead of force he occasionally- read always- uses in combat. It felt a little off, unusual, and Sandal didn't seem to react in the slightest so it exploded near the door. So next, he tried exploding his foot. A little stupid, considering the circumstances, but when Holle had a hunch, he had a hunch. Fortunately, this time it paid off, and his body was entirely unaffected by his spell. Upon confirmation that his spells would function with limited capacity in spiritual form, he dropped back down into his body.
"I've gotta say, I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting to be underneath that suit of armour, but it definitely wasn't a moblin. Still, you seem like a pretty nice guy."
Holle held out his hand, smiling wider as his glance at the doorway confirmed that it was only blocked in spiritual form.
"So, nice to meet you face to face."

Sandal couldn't help but feel hesitant to walk up to Holle and just shake his hand. People always smile the biggest as they stab you in the back after all. Though it's not like that was what was crossing his mind. No he was far to simple to think about such a complicated saying as that. He was hesitant due to his own past experiences. Unfortunately Sandal knew that if he didn't face this problem head on it would bother him continually while he was around Holle.

With a gulp Sandal would slowly start towards the man. He would stop just a foot shy of the handshake. His hands moving towards his helmet. He would remove his helmet slowly so that Holle would be able to see up close and personal without any shadow of a doubt what it was that he was. This was likely the first time that Holle had been so close to a Moblin that wasn't trying to kill him. He might notice that while most Moblins had pig like features, Sandal's face was more dog like. Taking his last step forwards he would reach out with his armored hand and grasp Holles hand. "Me Sandal. You no afraid?" His voice held only kindness, no aggression to be found. After all Sandal was probably the most peaceful Moblin you could find, until you attacked him at least.

After the handshake Sandal would put his helmet back on and look around the room. "Where go now?" He wasn't even sure where they were, let alone where they were supposed to go.

Holle let out a tense breath, his sigh quite loud. Although the moblin freaked him out a little, the expression on his face made him look more like a giant puppy than anything else. A giant puppy that's part of the race that has been threatening his home for the entirety of his life, but, still. Puppy.
"If I'm entirely honest, I'm terrified. I've always been told that people like you are irredeemably evil. Thing is, when I ignore all that subjective opinion, all I can be certain of is that you're a guy with talents he's been making use of, and you didn't kill me when you had an amazing opportunity to. If I didn't trust you at least somewhat after that, I'd be an idiotic bigot, and I'd rather not be one of those."

Holle nodded towards the empty archway they came through, clear now that they were back in their normal bodies.
"As to where we're going, there are more rooms back that way that we'll need to explore."

Sandal could only nod his head and act like he understood everything that Holle was saying. There was nothing he could do about not understanding some of the words that were used. With his identity out of the way, and it having been discussed Sandal would follow Holles directions and turn back towards the hallway. "Move on." With that Sandal would start walking towards the hallway, although this time he wouldn't be distracted by the engravings as he moved down the hallway.

Holle followed Sandal back into the entryway, contemplating the dungeon. So, if he had this straight, there were two worlds positioned in overlay in this place. First was the normal, the physical, which you could see and interact with normally, and the second spiritual, which could only be viewed in that odd, out-of-body experience state-
Ooooooh.

Holle walked in front of the moblin as they made their way to the centre of the room in which they first came in, holding out his hands in a gesture of 'stop'.
"I've had an idea; I'll need you protect me while I'm out of my body."
Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and lay down on the floor, bringing to mind the strong sensation the words had given him when he viewed them. It took a short while, but it finally clicked, his spirit popping out of his body into a room vastly different.
First and foremost, there was no door to the room with the words they couldn't understand. It was just a marble wall that continued the carvings in this plane. Second, though, was the disturbing and disgusting black liquid splattered all over the walls. It pulsed, almost as if alive, black as pitch and thick as tar. Holle got close, for a closer look, only to trigger a trap. Two ghostly being fell from the ceilings, rough-looking fellows with sickly sharp, rusty swords and bronze shields.

What Sandal could see were the two stalfos in their physical bodies rather than the ruffians they originally were.

Sandal was a little confused when Holle stopped him, but as the man spoke the Moblin came to understand. Before Sandal had a chance to object Holle was already laying on the ground and he didn't know if he was still in his body or if he was already in that Spirit Form.

Sandal was left standing in the hallway with no way of knowing what was happening with or to Holle. It didn't take long however for two Stalfos to drop down from the ceiling. Sandal would start towards the Stalfos, but would stop a few only a few steps past Holle. If he walked to far away from Holle and one of the Stalfos got past him he might not be able to catch up to it. The Moblin would position himself in the middle of the hallway blocking the path to Holle. He wasn't worried about being able to safely handle the Stalfos alone, his armor being more than enough to handle their rusted swords.

Holle scowled, glaring at the two new individuals. They had a sort of misty feel to them, one he couldn't quite explain, but was similar to how Sandal had felt when he was out of his armour and in that odd spirit form, except, well, different, twisted, oily, and black. The annoyance was just piling up, which he sent their way in the form of a ball of lightning-ish magic...
Which didn't work. It made the hair on the one he'd hit stand up, but nothing more than that. Giving a little sigh, Holle returned to his body, and 'returned to his body'.

He stood up, giving an exaggerated yawn and a stretch to a) audibly alert Sandal to his sudden change in spiritual location, and b) to start revving up the sensations in his body again. This could get incredibly annoying if it had to be used repeatedly...

As Holle yawned and stretched it was almost as if he had let Sandal off his leash. With his companion back in his own body the Moblin didn't need to remain close to protect him any more. Running forward with his club down to his side Sandal was ready to take down the two Stalfos without wasting anymore time. After all they were an enemy he had run across time and time again, their old rusted blades rendered useless against his armor.

As he approached the two Stalfos the one on the left would bend backwards and launch one of his ribs at Sandal. It would strike his chestplate with an audible clang before falling harmlessly to the ground. Since it had decided to be the one to engage him first Sandal would bring his large club up in an attempt to break the left most Stalfos into nothing more than a pile of bones as he ran past. At first Sandal had thought he had been successful as he heard the bones fall to the ground, though the tell tell sound of a bone jumping along the ground told Sandal that he had failed.

Turning around he would sure enough spot the skull of the Stalfos hopping along the ground in an attempt to escape from the large Moblin that was now marching towards it with a purpose. Unfortunately for Sandal he hadn't been paying enough attention to the second Stalfos which was pointing its hand at him as he walked up. Once Sandal was close enough a purple mist would be unleashed from the palm of the Stalfos directly at Sandals helmet. The miasma would send Sandal stumbling backwards. He was dizzy, and couldn't stop coughing from the small amount of poison he had inhaled. Even though he wanted to stop and catch his breath, he wouldn't. He would continue to move backwards away from the Stalfos that had released the miasma. If it thought the poison was going to give him an easy kill he had another thing coming.

Holle frowned. This was a most disappointing situation; He shouldn't have to make a decision like this!
It was vital he got straight on to smashing the hopping skull, because otherwise it would turn into a fair fight, two-on-two, and Holle couldn't have that. That said, that gas looked really nasty, and obviously had some effect on Sanda, which he should probably do something about.

Never one for hesitations due to indecision, Holle leapt towards the skull, grasping it in his hands.
"Youch!"
The thing had bit him! Kinda to be expected, really, but that was enough for Holle to leap up and smash the skull to smithereens against the floor on his way down. Shaking his bitten hand, he turned back to his armoured companion and his bony foe.
"Hmmm..." Holle leapt up, bouncing off one of the walls and landing behind the skeletal thing, which ceased its miasma and turned, menacing Holle quite effectively.
"Wait, hold on, what was I meant to do now again....?"

While the Stalfos had indeed ceased using its miasma, the poison still lingered in the air between it and Sandal leaving the moblin very few options to help Holle with. His first thought had been to throw his club at the Stalfos, but there was a good chance that Holle wouldn't see what he was doing and get hit by the club as it flew through the Stalfos. Next he thought of lobbing his club so that it would come down on the Stalfos, but he was more likely to miss the Stalfos or hit Holle instead so that wouldn't work. The moblin didn't have any means of ranged attack so his only course of action would be to move through the lingering poison if he wanted to help Holle. Moving through the poison cloud wasn't something that Sandal was keen on doing, so hopefully Holle was able to protect himself from the Stalfos long enough for the poison cloud to dissapate. Of course if he were able to defeat it that would be even better.