Showdown at the Shokay Corral [Doc Genzo]

"Don't think you're just here to stand on buttons Chicky, you're an amazing adventurer now." Eve encouraged, remembering that amazing magic spell he had done before.

When the door popped open, the group filed out of there. It was no use trying to go over the ledge to the stairs anyway. It was likely the thief was leading them this way with good reason. Besides, a dead end or a trap would expose the thief before the two could be trapped properly. At least, the girl wasn't taking that risk. Secretly, she had hoped they obliterate her boss--who had just unfairly imprisoned her possibly indefinitely. She was getting tired of giving the greedy oaf her handouts anyway.

What lay before them as a set of wooden scaffolding. The platforms unevenly led across the chamber. Atop the platforms were some rats holding tight to the wood and mindlessly exploring. Immediately noticeable in the dim light were some massive fans embedded into the walls on either side.

"There's no override switch in here." Colorblind explained. "You have to ride the wind of those fans to go across the scaffolding."

"No. Nooo. No." Eve complained. "We need to get all of us across. That drop is deadly. Do you hear me?! All of us?" she whined. She was honestly hoping Ruairi would bail the two angry girls out of their dilemma.

Eve grabbed onto the Rito and held on for dear life. The truth was, Eve was a little heavier than a normal Kokiri. She was still pretty small though, and effortlessly rocketed across with him. That left one unresolved problem: the thief girl was back across the gap. Eve thought about leaving her back there, but there was no way she was leaving this place without the other half of her Cheval Rope.

Eve grabbed onto the platform. They had made it just below the scaffold because the Rito guy's hook had aimed at the platform. The dense wood at the very least applied to the hook as an anchor. The strange girl flopped on the edge and pulled herself up. Standing up, she reached down a hand to make sure Ruairi was able to get up. An idea came to her as she looked across.

"Oh but we do need that rope back. Could you try aiming the hook at her and pulling her over?" Eve insisted brazenly. "If the hook digs into the tough ropes she shouldn't get hurt either."

The rats started bouncing and jumping across the platforms. Outnumbered, the rats fled into holes in the walls. On the far side of the room, a Korok came out of the door. His visage was slightly altered to make him look like a tough guy. The Korok yammered from across the room at them.

"Why you no good kids, you little rugrat little beasts! What are you doing in my domain?! I've had it with you young little, stuck up little entitled brat ass little dumb . . ."

The Korok continued talking like this in the background of everything and anything they did next.

In plain view of the ranting Korok, Eve laid down the thief girl and started to untie her. It was certainly not silent with the little guy running his mouth. Undoing the knot on her back, Eve started to unravel the rope. The girl was groaning and struggling all the while.

"You definitely cut me with that thing you daft couple of brats!" the girl wailed, struggling and flailing.

She checked her torso, and as she had said there was a small cut and a bruise where the item hit her. Her flailing stopped and she finally got up to look around. Eve was already leading Ruairi out the next door. They had stopped momentarily so that Eve could stare at the Korok. She was fascinated by the little thing, but it was no use dwelling on it.

Colorblind stifled her words. She was ready to yell something ahead. . . but she swallowed her words. The two would likely continue ahead on this route without her, now that she showed them the direction of the boss. As a member of the thieves, she also didn't want her head bitten off by that Korok geezer. The girl sat there on the platform to catch her breath, and possibly consider her next course of action. . .

They made their way down a dark stairwell. The curving staircase brought them back around, facing the other way on the bottom floor of the facility. There was a short stairway visible from where they appeared. In addition to that they could see many conveyor belts in the distance. It was no mystery they had seen so many Koroks, they could probably Korok Copter over most of these obstacles. In fact, some could be seen travelling back and forth up near the top, very small openings made for them being used. When Eve squinted, she could barely see the tops of the scaffolds from upstairs. It was likely they could have found a way to float down here if they had the right abilities. Eve went straight up the small staircase, spotting the lid of a treasure chest.

"Don't mind me Chicky I think I see something. . . important." she bluffed. The girl took a valuable purple rupee out of the chest and met back up with him quickly.

Making it to the series of conveyors with the Rito, Eve noticed something. Her kind of stubby legs may not allow her to cross the belts quickly enough. Panicking, she looked around the wide room for some kind of point that could connect to the Hookshot again. Eve scanned the room, and found something remarkable. There was a dark purple crystal orb, right next to the set of conveyors. They had made it too easy if that's all it took to slow the belts down. Maybe some of these traps were truly for idiots who didn't know any better.

"Just this thing Chicky. Get used to these crystal ball things." she mentioned, swatting it violently with a knife.

The belts slowed, but only by a few ticks. It would be possible, although mildly difficult to run across them now.

Running for the exit, Eve swore she had almost tripped several times. She looked like she was having an especially bad time. When they reached the stone archway, she was completely out of breath. She teetered on her legs, as one does after a long run. Her face had turned red under her mounds of foundation, making just her neck look red instead.

In the open chamber coming up, they could see a pair of Sluggula slinking about. The slow monsters would not prove a challenge, even to a fresh face like Ruairi. Their pathetic crawl along the ground would make them easy shots with his Hookshot, even. But Eve charged through to examine the room. She stared at the slow monsters, still trying to catch her breath. With one final gasp she regained her composure. The room consisted of a raised platform above a small stairway like the previous room, containing a crystal switch. In the back corner of the room was a still conveyor higher up. Between all this was a Bawb lurking along the back wall. The bomb-like monster was probably part of the puzzle. Eve went up the stairs and looked down, seeing the conveyor leading to the back corner.

"This is dumb. I'm gonna do this faster." the gremlin-like girl menaced.

Eve pulled a pretty polished smith's hammer from her bag, and a raggedy doll. The doll looked just like her, a purple and yellow button for eyes and a little green dress. Eve put the hammer in the Ghastly Doll's little mitten-like paws. Clutching the tool like a weapon, Eve kept the doll tightly in her hands. She placed the doll down as she reached the bottom of the small stairs. Eve gave one last acknowledgement of the Rito before unfurling her plan.

She shoved a handful of knives between her fingers, tossing them haphazardly at the Sluggulas. They rolled over, stuck full of sharp objects. With another twist of her heels, Eve tossed her Kingfisher at the Bawb. The bomb-monster burst in flame and disappeared. Eve tossed her Ghastly Doll onto the frozen conveyor. It ran at her command and smashed against the crystal orb in the corner. The heavy stone door at the end noisily raised open.

"Don't worry Chicky, you didn't miss anything. This room was meaningless." Eve encouraged, looking back.

Ahead of them and through the door was a mysterious corridor. It went on for a long time ahead of the two troublemakers. It contained a simple floor-opening trap of some kind, possibly contained to trip up small raiding parties at once. The two were goofy enough to maybe accidentally trip it as they went by though. Having ignored at least one crystal switch so far, Eve was likely to ignore it. Beyond that was a long hallway full of stone tablets that looked like blank paintings. It was eerie how little there was ahead, but it would make a good amount of downtime for talking.

"Whoa, this goes on forev'r." Eve grunted.

They passed the obvious trap, looking down the dark and looming corridor. The silence was perfect for a conversation. Eve thought for a moment, coming up with some questions for the performer companion of hers. The painting-like structures came into view. Their flat stone surfaces reflected dread onto the hallway. There seemed to be a lot of things in this facility--built under mysterious circumstances--which implied some sort of wall-clinging ability. Certain things had random depictions of rupees and the sort, as if a cartoon person was to pick them up on the wall. An ability like this was heard-of, but rare. Perhaps those cartoon rupees were real rupees in some other dimension?

"I have some questions for you Chicky." the girl started, confounded by the large architecture.

"What was your childhood like? Is the big dragon friendly?" she asked inquisitively.

"Number two: why did you get into acting? Why don't you have rito-wings yet?" she added, throwing more into the mix.

"I guess there's lots ya could ask me, too." she finished, keeping things going.

There was some silence mixed in with nothing else churning in the distance. The loud machines from before had become silent with distance. There was, perhaps, a branch ahead as well. The dark hallway hid the openings from view, a foggy shadow in the distance. There was a lot to think about before what came next. There was another, conceptual shadow hanging above them. It was possible more characters and monsters were just around the corner.

"Oh yeah." Eve commented, taking in his words.

"To be honest I only know of the dragon because I used to sail the seas." she added, thinking about it. "Yeah, it's like those sailors said on our nice vacation. I'm gonna buy a new boat soon, since I can't keep myself away from the Great Sea. It's pretty much the best place in the whole world."

"Did you know pirates are only pirates if they wear pirate clothes? I was almost first mate but the captain said I couldn't earn first mate if I wore a dress. I think she's dead now though. I'd like to be a pirate that wears a dress. The golden outfit I have has magical properties, it would be a waste if I didn't use it as much as possible. It was such a pain trying to get it re-stitched from its previous form too. 'Used ta be a bundle of rags made into a gladiator outfit. I couldn't be seen in such a weird thing for too long though, it really got on my nerves."

She kept explaining random stuff. A ton of weird facts that the poor Rito had not at all asked for.

"It's not like someone has to be dressed as exactly what they do anyway. Just because I hit things and stole pirate treasure doesn't mean I had to be dressed like a barbarian. I'd rather be known as someone who makes a lot of money and looks really rich. I'll never be as rich as that annoying miniblin though. That guy runs his own stores all across the world. I had to sell so many cool artifacts just to get my own cottage in town. If it wasn't for my trip back to Kokiri Forest, I'd still have an old tree-house to store all my rubbish. Me an' that corny kid in the red outfit burnt it down by accident. Then, the miniblin appeared and asked for insurance payments. I really can't catch a break." she rambled on. The hallways wasn't getting any shorter, at least.

"Don't be jealous of home-ownership. Your wagon is completely fine. I have so many bills now I have to raid every rupee from whatever dungeon I find. . . and sell some monsters too." she continued. It was likely she would keep talking unless the sly Rito could interrupt her.

"Oh these, yeah." Eve replied. "I stayed away from the thieves in Kakariko. Boy that's a trip. Ganon's forces obliterated that place so bad. Even the Hylian Captain couldn't hold them back. A real shame."

They reached the end of the hallway, the mysterious frames now behind them. They had passed one doorway already, choosing to enter the one at the end of the hall instead. There was likely a mystery behind this structure they would soon uncover. They crossed the darkness, revealing a large section of the hideout. Gears whirred and machinery screeched in the distance. All the stuff they avoided before appeared to be in the distance. Platforms turned bright red and blue as they went up and down, and the ever-lasting hum of the conveyors filled their ears. Rats swirled around the corners of their vision. Two or three of them convened to surround a single figure. The person lit two torches beside themselves with a boko stick. Seeing visitors, the creature began rambling.

"Do you seek salvation? Do you want to be saved? I have come from the town of sinners to lift up the spirits of the lost. The beast inside everyone must be let loose! All sinners must wear their Mask to receive clarity in life! Wearing a Mask will be redemption for all who stand! You are never alone when the spirits are with you! You are never lost when your Mask lets forth the beast inside! You are all to be saved! Mumbo-jumbo, mumbo-jumbo." he blathered, ending in a bow with folded hands.

"No you stupid idiot, we want to see the boss." Eve complained. The pair had suddenly become threatening to the preaching man.

"The boss has locked himself away. You would do well to Mask your hostility. I will give you one chance to repent before the boss. Take this key and enter his chambers." the masked lunatic explained, producing a large key from his robes.

"Here it is Chicky." Eve handed the shining implement to the Rito. "We need to go get that piece back."

Hastily running along, the two found the branch in the hallway. They walked the punishingly long hallway and entered the door. There was a gleam from within the chamber. Four Zazaks repelled down the wall, filling the room with movement. They moved slower than the previous one, holding gloved hands out in front of themselves like braindead zombies. There was, expectedly, another crystal orb in this room. Eve was certain it was another room-wide trap and rushed the orb herself.

Smacking the orb with her already-regrowing crystal dagger, a loud sound like a falling ton of bricks was heard in the room. There was a loud whirr afterward, and the floor opened up like a giant pair of doors. The Zazaks all fell into the dense blackness below. There was another loud snapping sound, and soon the floor pieces clamped back up together.

"I'll take that key." Eve asserted. She swapped the big key in her hands with the Rito.

Escorting the beautiful boy across the now-sturdy flooring, they reached the big locked door to the thief boss' chambers. There was a silence as Eve hesitated. Were they going to steal from a normal man? Were they going to fight a man to the death for the treasure? Then there was the third option, that the man may not be normal at all. Eve remembered how they dealt with the murderous Crayk. Ruairi had really held his own in that terrible fight. So did the big bunny character they had found.

"I've made up my mind, I'm going in." Eve explained to the poor boy, who had heard more than enough babble for an entire adventure.

"Wait!" a voice yelled from behind them. "You don't understand. You don't know what kind of guy you're dealing with."

The thief girl shouted as she came running. It seemed she had finally caught up with them. Her bearing changed, and she leaned herself on the outer doorframe. She had tired herself out entirely by running over here. There was a hush as the two stared at her.

"No we killed Crayk. This guy probably isn't even a crab." Eve explained wisely. Her smartness was unrivaled.

The door unlocked behind her. Eve shoved the massive double-doors open. Inside the spacious dark temple-sized opening stood a single tree in the distance. The snow-covered grey tree appeared to be something one would expect outside. The deciduous tree seemed to imply something about how empty the massive hall was as it stood on its lonesome. Behind the tree was another of those massive frames, and most notably before the tree was a massive unwieldy looking sword buried into the stone floor.

Steadfast Boreal Miser
Snowblind​

There was an abrupt silence. The thief girl behind them, outside of the room started to shout. Her scream was silenced as the door shut loudly behind the two troublemakers. The snapping of the branch persisted, the tree erupting in a constant crackling and snapping noise. The snow started to scatter all over where Ruairi was standing, in a big circle around the tree. The frame of the tree continued to move and shape-shift as a body covered in rags appeared-almost the same size as the tree! A blue, frost-bitten head appeared atop the rags. The man they were chasing was some sort of horrible lich.

"That's not a crab." Evelyn responded in the middle of what was happening.

The towering figure lifted the sword effortlessly, and then proceeded to lift the massive picture-frame. The frame was thrust before himself as a type of tower shield. Snowblind screeched, waves of sound pulsing through the unwitting Rito next to him. Eve started throwing metallic tools at the creature, trying to draw its attention away from her beloved friend. Its first attack was expected. The undead hulk swung the massive greatsword, flailing it around with one hand. The tomestone-like weapon at least seemed pretty dull, its power rooted in its size. Expecting to be hit at least once, Eve prayed she wouldn't be chopped in two instantly.

Eve looked around frantically for some sort of weakness to this undead maniac. Something stood out in the room, now lit by Ruairi's flaming branch. There was a small swinging rope with a loop in it. Eve ran to the rope as Snowblind chased her. She grabbed the rope with both hands and pulled it down with her body weight. Suddenly, without fanfare, treasure rained from the sky. Baubles, rupees, coins, structures made of precious metals, and more all fell down on top of the thief boss. His entire hidden stash at once. Among the blinding amount of treasure was Ruairi's Kinstone piece, although at this moment it would be impossible to see.

Buried in heavy treasure, Snowblind struggled. Eve checked her most valuable weapon. Kingfisher was restoring its own edge, and it appeared to be nearly complete. The girl was unsure if her ice-powered weapon would do much damage to the chilly, snowy enemy. Eve ran over to the buried lich and equipped her mighty battle hammer. Eve jumped up and hefted the horrible weapon over the boss's grotesque head. Snowblind screeched again, clearly hurt. The monolith-like greatsword scattered treasure as it erupted from below. Eve jumped back, running and letting her hammer rest for the moment. Snowblind shifted his shield, aiming its face at the dangerous girl. This opened his back to attack from the Rito guy's direction.

Smoke erupted from Snowblind's backside. What seemed to be a hopeless situation turned bright as Ruairi appeared to discover a weakness to the monster. A crackling noise started as the creature's head twisted around to look behind himself. Spotting his assailant, Snowblind swung his greatsword in a large circle. The twisting spin of the blade acted like a fan and blew the flames off of his cloak. It was such an expected attack, it was likely avoided by the clever Rito.

As he scrambled to fend off the mischievous Rito, Eve sneaked up to the huge shield. Wrapping her dagger's cord around her arm, she clung to the flat of the giant frame. Turning back around to monitor his dual-attackers, Snowblind peered over his guard to see no such child. Taking his eyes off the Rito once more, his guard was down. Eve unleashed her chain-dagger and its deft splinter-crystal edge ripped an unsightly hole in Snowblind's sword-wrist. Dropping the greatsword, Snowblind panicked.

Out of his twirling free arm, a gust of snowy wind blasted out in front of him. The gust spewed in different directions, finally catching Eve and blowing her clear off his attacking range. She tumbled into the treasure, dizzy and now hurt. Turning to the Rito, Snowblind started to prepare his next magical assault. . .