Skyview Temple (Panther, Raz and Tsu)

Skyview Temple
Thria, Ill-tempered Guard of Jabu-Jabu (3/3/3) [Blonde Panther] Reward: +40 Rupees.
Jayden Darrah, Hylian Specialist Guard (4/2/3) [Tsubori] Reward: Bomb Arrow, Magnetic Boots.
Sayomi Rei,Clumsy Knight (4/2/1) [Razgriz] Reward: Mirror Shield.
Music for this Classic Dungeon Thread.

Thria stopped, pulled up her foot and pulled a thorn out of the webbing between her toes. THAT. HURT. Stupid forest. Thorns and branches everywhere. But hey. If this was where that servant of Ganon was hiding out, then this was where she was going. Just as she wanted to step forward, the Siblings' Stone around her neck lit up.

"Sister?" She tried to ignore him. "Thria, I know you're there."

She sighed. "Fine, Triton. What do you want?"

"Are you almost there?"

"No, brother, I'm not." She rolled her eyes. "I took a wrong turn between Zora's Domain and Lake Floria, satisfied? Of course I'm almost there. In fact I've got a visual on the temple as we speak."

"I'd tell you to be careful, but that would both be obvious and useless considering this is you we're talking about."

"Hurr hurr."

"Don't overestimate yourself, sister. Your fins and aura alone can't protect you from all harm."

"Sure, sure. Don't worry. I'm not anywhere NEAR as frail as you are, brother."

"Wipe that smug look off your face."

"What? How did you-"

"I wasn't born yesterday, sister. Regardless of anything else," she thought she heard the faint rustling of papers, "I've found something that might hint at how to open the doors to the temple. You want to shoot at what the bird taking flight is pecking."

"Wut?"

"I'm sorry, sister. Without visual material, that's all I can give you." Then, the stone stopped glowing.

Thria walked up the steps to the large, double stone doors that closed the entrance to the temple. She supposed the carving on the doors looked a bit like a bird. Following the line of the beak, she found a crystal on the ceiling. "...are you serious Triton." Raising one arm, Thria extended the cartilage of her fin and made an upwards throwing gesture. The cartilage came right off, slammed straight into the crystal, and re-attached itself to her arm.

Several smaller, colorless crystals clattered at the Zora's feet and behind her, the double doors slowly opened, creaking.

Jayden had been walking for quite some time now, and he and Sayomi were both beginning to feel quite tired. “Just keep going… it should be… There it is.” He pointed ahead to the rather nice looking building. Denolle had sent them here, merely on a hunch that something was wrong. He was very strange in that, but he was usually right. The young knight turned to Sayomi. “Five rupees says the inside wont be nearly as nice as the outside. And what… Bokoblins? Baba snakes? Skulltulas? The usual, eh?” He then noticed someone standing in front of the temple, and she’d just opened the door. Jayden silently motioned for Sayomi to get into position and snuck forward a bit, drawing Heko Pesaga. He notched an arrow, pointing it at the figure.

“Stop where you are. Hands in the air…” He remembered what he’d been taught about zora’s and he’d seen how she opened the door. “And don’t try anything with the fins. You’re interfering with a HAREON special operative assignment. I’m going to have to ask you to vacate the premises.”

Sayomi crouched and hid from view, letting Jayden show himself and do the talking. 'He's soooo much better at it anyway' she thought, almost forgetting not to say it aloud. She might have been hidden and silent, were it not for her chain mail armour.

The chittering of the rings bumping each other and the contrasting colours of the armour to the forest would surely give her away. Indeed realizing this, she moved toward the Zora, sword drawn and careful not to break Jayden's line of sight; stopping about 5 metres from the being in a defensive stance, ready to block or dodge (hopefully) anything it threw at her.

Just as Thria started to turn in order to enter the temple, she heard a voice behind her and turned around. Two Hylians had shown up, a man and a woman, both well armed and armored. Thria sighed. HAREON, huh. She hadn't heard of the division, but even if she had, it had nothing to do with her. She was a guard of Jabu-Jabu; not a civilian. Instead of putting her hands in the air as she had been told, she put one on her hip and left the other hanging at her side passively- a position from which shooting fins was difficult if at all possible.

"It's not my problem whether the two of you work for Hare One or Hare Two." She stuck her chin up. "I'm not some civilian you can just up and tell to leave. I am a professional and recognized guardswoman of lord Jabu-Jabu, the protector of Zora's domain. I've been sent to inspect a potential threat to His Reverence that could reach Zora's Domain through Lake Floria if left unattended."

She turned around. "If you don't shoot at me I see no need to dispatch my fins." She started walking down the stairs into the temple, which felt damp but also seemed to have plenty of strange plant life in it. Triton would give his arm to study this place safely. "Just leave this to me. I know what I'm doing."

"What was that all about, Thria?" Triton's voice echoed slightly in the hall at the bottom of the stairs. Thria sighed.

"Nothing important. Some Hylian soldiers thinking they're better than Zora ones. Now shut up, I'm starting my inspection."

"Could I convince you--"

"Yes, brother, I will bring home any form of minerals or unusual plant material I can find and keep safe for the duration of the travel from Faron to home."

"Thank you." Thria ignored anything else her brother said as she brought her arm up, using that motion to dispatch the fin on it to cut through a spider web up ahead.

Inspection started.

Jayden sighed, but kept his bow up. Great, this one was defiant. And he certainly couldn't shoot her for it... Killing a guard of Jabu-Jabu probably wouldn't fly. The man looked briefly to Sayomi as he contemplated what to do.  "Well, I believe you're outside your jurisdiction. Jabu-Jabu's guards only have their actions justified within Zora's domain. HAREON is Hyrule-wide. Leave us to our job and you return to yo- and she's gone." 

Jayden frowned as Thria went deeper within the temple, to which he simply put away his bow, coming up next to Sayomi. "If she gets hurt, that's on us. Let's go, if she's too damn headstrong to leave the temple, we have to ensure nothing happens to her." he said, knowing to himself that this was beginning to be a long day.

Sayomi only nodded wildly at Jay's revelation, and moved with him into the cave. The place was oddly quiet, and lit by a peaceful glow given off by the plants and fungus within.

Even their breathing seemed out of place in the temple, much less the clank of armor against the stone steps leading downward.

Engrossed by the new environment, Sayomi kneels to examine one of the various mushrooms growing around the area, tilting her head as she does so. Tuning out the world around her and slowly outstretching a finger and quickly jabbing it; the others could only hear a loud scream as she falls back and falls down the stairs and into the web.

Thria jumped out of the way when the Hylian girl fell straight into the web, a few strings of which she had managed to cut, but which was still largely intact. She had been jabbing at a few of the mushrooms which seemed to serve as lighting in this dungeon, and somehow she had been thrown back by them. "Be careful," the Zora sneered, "if you get hurt on the first flight of stairs, I suggest you leave this to the professional."

The Hylian had opened up a massive hole in the web, and Thria passed through it effortlessly, holding still a few steps down the road to survey her surroundings. She knew there would be monsters in here... the path curved slightly here, and while Thria looked around the bend, she reached out and grabbed a Keese by the throat.

Tossing it at a Deku Baba around the bend, she rushed towards it and kicked it in the head, the force of the impact sending it reeling back and detaching it from its stalk. The head slammed against the wall, drawing Thria's attention to the door behind it. She knelt, slipping her fingers under it, and with a little effort, raised it up.

Holding the surprisingly light door above her head, she peered into the next room. There seemed to be shallow water on the floor, although Thria was standing on a bridge of sorts. A few barred doors blacked her way further ahead, and closer to her, the bridge upwards was out on both her left and her right side. However, the Zora warrior did spot a couple of vines near a log, vines that she could possibly climb if the water level had been high enough to jump there from the log...

She put her free hand on her hip and turned to look what was keeping the Hylians. Despite her temper, and not knowing of Hare One, she accepted that they looked like capable warriors at least on par with her own skills.

Jayden calmly walked to the bottom of the stairs as well, not really fretting for Sayomi's safety. The girl had taken worse, many times before. Thus Jayden passed by, going into the room himself. "Sayomi, you good?" He then joined Thria in the next room. "So, if you're going to disregard all signs of protocol, we may as well swap names. I'm Jayden Darrah, and the girl back there is Sayomi. Don't worry, she's fine." He then looked around all the doors, one open with two blocked with bars, but Jayden could figure out easily enough where to hit to open them.

"Huh, what say we split up to cover each room faster?" The knight said with a casual tone. "That way we get deeper in more quickly."

Sayomi entered the room immediately after Jayden, without any limp or obvious signs of injury. In fact, if the Zora hadn't her fall, she likely wouldn't have believed it. The Hylian only shouted "OKAY!" at Jayden's suggestion and ran to the left barred door.

There was an obvious switch above the door, but she had no weapon with which to open it. Thinking for a moment, she spotted a rock, pretty even and round; and could easily fight into the palm of her hand. Grabbing it she pulled her arm back, never thrown a rock made it difficult, but the shot was easy: nothing in the way, short distance, decent size target and time to aim. Slinging her arm forward, the stone flew and hit it's target dead centre, causing the switch to break apart.

But before she could jump for joy, the stone returned almost along it's original path and struck Sayomi right between the eyes, knocking her on her but with a sharp pain on her face.

But at least she opened a door.

The male Hylian felt the need to whine about protocol. Thria rolled her eyes. "Don't whine to me about protocol. I'm gonna be hearing that from my husband and his partners when I get back home. I go by the name Thria."

As Jayden suggested to split up, Sayomi immediately went to open one of the barred doors and get hurt in the process, provoking another eyeroll from Thria. Good thing she'd come to inspect things herself. Hyrule Castle Town clearly did not take the threat seriously, sending two children to take care of the situation. One of which looked like she could hardly tell which end of her sword was supposed to go into the other guy.

Thria hopped off the bridge into the shallow water, looking for something to open the other door with, seeing as she couldn't spot a switch above it. As she looked up at the bridge, she saw another crystal hanging from it, a crystal she could reach without her fins if she just punched up. She did so, and a sound from above told her the bars had been lifted. Building up momentum, she placed one step on a pillar of the bridge, grabbing on to the edge and pulling herself back up.

"You two lovebirds figure out what you can find in there," she said, "I'll be fine on my own." With that, she opened up the door she had just unbarred, and went in, demonstratively dropping the door behind her.

Jayden’s face dropped when Thria said lovebirds. “Ha ha, very mature.” He then walked over towards Sayomi. “Alright, I’ll clear the room in here. You hold position and take down anything that tries to come through.” Almost as if on cue, Jayden turned and saw three bokoblins start running in from the way they’d come from. “You’ve got this, right?” The man then walked into his door.

Inside, Jayden stepped forward a bit and saw a bridge to his right. Unfortunately, it was taken up by an absurdly big spider. It hadn’t become aggressive yet, so Jayden instead decided to look for another way across. Just to the right, the man saw one vine drooping down, maybe low enough to swing to the other side. He shuffled his Pegasus boots for a moment then dashed forward, jumping off the edge and grabbing the vine at the bottom. As he thought, it was long enough to give him the distance he needed to get to the other ledge. Now with a better angle, Jayden turned towards the spider, stabbing it in it’s very glowy purple spot. It fell off, leaving the web clear after a few sweeps with his blade. Jayden then saw a crystal across from him in the wall. It was one of the same ones that were opening the doors, but he couldn’t see any around.

Drawing an arrow, Jayden saw the water level begin to rise underneath the bridge. That really didn’t seem to have much of a point, but maybe it would be helpful later. Now with that, Jayden jogged towards the end of the hall and noticed a staircase with a door atop it. Walking through that, Jayden found himself above the central room. There was a chest there too, so he opened that, finding a map inside. It had the whole dungeon layout and a few treasure chests drawn in. He then looked at how Sayomi was doing down below.

Sayomi returned to her feet after being knocked to the ground by the stone, not by it's force or pain, but by the mere surprise of it returning on such a direct route, thankfully hitting the helmet instead of her head.

A playfully poutty face crossed her face as Jayden denied and put down the idea of the two of them being lovers, even wrapping her arm around his in a mockery of the real thing. Her playful face however, quickly turned to a real poutty face as he left her behind to fight and wait while the others explored. Facing the Bokoblins, she heard the door slam closed behind her, Sayomi drew her sword and braced for their charge.

The first to reach her found it`s club deftly parried by her long sword, quickly followed by a swift knee to it`s gut that made it squeel and lean over her leg. Withdrawing the attacking appendage, Sayomi swung her sword toward it`s head, but not as one would expect. The blade of the sword ran almost parallel to the girl`s arm, with the strike lead by the pommel, releasing a loud sickening crack as it made contact with the unfortunate one`s temple, killing it instantly.

While the first died in a mere instant, that still gave the second enough time to close the distance and make an attempt on her life. It`s wild attack with a flint ax was clumsy, but under the circumstances, effective. Realizing she couldn`t dodge or parry the incoming blow left few options for the girl, but she still had one. Lifting her other knee, the guard struck the first Bokoblin`s corpse hard with it, sending it into the air about 8 inches. A crimson arc grew from the ax as the telling blow was struck not on it`s enemy, but on it`s former comrade. The surprise and shock of the block left the ax-wielding monster an easy target, and a quick slash to it`s abdomen ensured that it`d stay that way, having nearly bisected it.

The final Bokoblin looked to be the leader, as was the largest, most well equipped (with an old, seemingly looted sword and improvised shield) and apparently the smartest as he didn`t simply jump into the fray like the bodies that now surrounded Sayomi; this one was going to be harder than the others. The next few seconds had little action between either of the combatants: each alert, ready to deflect an incoming blow, sizing up their opponent and trying to feint an attack so the other would go first. Finally, Sayomi lunged forward, her weapon pulled back as if ready to stab. Placing his shield between them, the Bokoblin had taken the bait and raised his sword in response to the wild charge. Sayomi`s hand then shot out, grabbing the monster`s wrist and preventing the sword from lowering, leaving the being unable to attack and restrained close to his opponent. Realizing it`s folly, the leader swifted his shield to cover it`s left torso and head from Sayomi`s right handed strike. This too was expected though and the incoming went low, severing the thing`s leg just above the knee. Howling in pain, the crippled opponent received only a fast kick to it`s left chest, spinning it 180 degrees and causing it to fall forward off the edge. Flipping once as it went down, the weighted creature fell face first into the now rising water below. Having a shield quickly became a liability rather than an asset as the heavy metal and wood object quickly sank to the bottom, taking the crippled and heavily bleeding monster strapped to it down as well, stealing any chance of survival.

Heart still racing from the battle, Sayomi turned upward only to see Jayden enter the room on a previously unseen platform. She waved her hands above her head and jumped to catch his attention, blood still dripping from her blade.

"...hmmmm." Thria set her hands to her chin, surveying the room she had just entered. As she descended the small flight of stairs, she took a deep breath, taking in the silence and loneliness. Much better. Reaching level ground once more, she came across another spider web, cutting it before proceeding.

As she turned the corner, she came across another ruined bridge, this time with a Skulltula hanging from the ceiling, blocking her way to the other side. When the Zora's steps resounded on the puddles on the floor, it reared its head, clicking its jaws at her. "Don't use that tone with me," Thria snarled, throwing a fin to snap the thread it was hanging from. Immediately, it started to scuttle towards her, getting kicked in the face and send soaring. The thing landed on its back and Thria hardened her fin, ramming it into the purple core. "Bug."

As she did so, the water level suddenly raised, just as she caught sight of a narrow passage near ground level. She leapt off the bridge into the water, swam into the passage, and came out in a room containing a chest. She put her feet on the bottom, walking over to said chest, and pulled the lid open. In it was a small silver key, which Thria took. She then swam back up, spotting a switch on the wall next to the vines she was climbing. "...switches are there to be hit," she muttered, lashing out and kicking it.

She then clambered further up, eventually walking around a bend, falling down and ending up in front of the door to the central room. She took a deep breath before going back into the room where Jayden and Sayomi were.

Jayden jumped down from the overhanging tree section, landing in a combat roll. He gave a high five to Sayomi, smirking with the dungeon map. “Nice going, Say!” This was exactly why he didn’t mind bringing her. She may have been as clumsy as a no-legged moblin, but she was an absolute monster in combat. This made her a solid companion to have. Jayden then noted the door needed a key, and unfortunately for him, he’d never found one. “I certainly hope Thria managed to find a key…” He mumbled, standing next to Sayomi.

Seeing Thria emerge from the door made Sayomi jump in suspense and expectation. "Did you get it?! Did you get th- YOU DID!" she yammered out and lunged toward the shiny key in the Zora's hand; unfortunately tripping off the walkway and into the depths beside. Only a scream and a splash could be heard of the girl.

Scrambling to reach a vine as she sank, they tore as she she grabbed them, as if was grabbing at nothing the water itself. She felt the pain as air escaped her mouth and water rush in, she could swim, but in full armor any attempt to do so would just waste air and exhaust her. She'd always thought that her mind would be full of thoughts as life left; instead only a single word echoed through her skull as she felt herself as her exhausted body hit the bottom and light and dark blur together.

'Cold'.

Jayden was shocked when Sayomi fell into the water. "What the hell?! Sayomi?!" He started moving to get his armor off so he wouldn't drown too, trying to move as fast as possible. She wouldn't last long under there.

Under the water, a terrifying looking fish had spotted Sayomi, moving in for a snack. Just as it was about to reach the girl, it was split in half. Sayomi felt a lifting feeling before being sprung up to the surface and laid down on the stones. 

Jayden caught his breath at the man who'd saved her. He had black hair in a short ponytail and a blue and black face mask, covering his upper face. His somewhat tight fitting armor looked formidable and sleek.

"WH-who are you?!" Jayden said, however, he didn't draw his weapon. After all, this man had saved Sayomi. 

"A fellow Hylian. That is enough." He was still holding his katana from when he cut the fish, and seemed to show no motion to sheath it. "I have saved my kin. But you..." He looked at Thria. "You're lucky I have things to do. I'd love to spill your blood on these walls." And with that, this mysterious man vanished in a flash of a wizzport. 

Jayden rushed to Sayomi's side to see if she was okay, and when he saw she was unconscious, began giving her mouth to mouth.

Sayomi slowly regained consciousness, the world was still blurry and spinning, she couldn't think clearly, there was a massive pain in her chest and her whole body felt heavy, not just her armor.

Still, there was sweet, warm air in her lungs.

After coughing water into her savior's mouth, her head fell to the side. She was thankful for her unstable breathing and the water that covered her, as it did well to cover the fact that she was crying. She'd done it again, her clumsiness had put her in danger again, but this time if they hadn't been here, if they...

She didn't want to think about it.

Still breathing erratically she stood up again, "l-*huuh* let's go" she muttered with her head down, in clear contrast to her usual personality. This time, she wasn't sure her breathing could cover her state.

Thria was... not sure what had happened just now. The clumsy girl had thrown herself at the Zora, had fallen into the water and nearly drowned. Jayden had wanted to dive down after her, but another Hylian had been swifter.

And racist, from what he said. He had saved Sayomi and paid no heed to Jayden, but he said he'd have loved to spill Thria's blood here. She considered shutting him up, but then he teleported out. For a few seconds, while Jayden reanimated Sayomi, Thria only stared at the place the man had just been. She might have to talk to Triton or Kasuul about that later... But not right now.

When Sayomi regained consciousness, Thria snapped back into reality and walked past them. "Look." Ahead of them was more water, and it had pushed the log up. It was only a hop, a skip and a jump from the bridge to the log, and from the log they could walk onto the plateau in front of the locked door. "Good thing we raised the water level... otherwise we'd have had to climb up to that."

Walking off the bridge and hopping on to the log, Thria unlocked the door and walked back, extending her hand. "Jayden, you first. Then we can both pull Sayomi this way so she doesn't fall in again."

Jayden shook off what had just happened with Sayomi and continued onto the log, and doing as Thria said, helped Sayomi across. He then went through the door, coming upon a massive room. There was a single structure in the middle, and unlike the temple so far, which was rather plant filled, this new area was less overrun, though still broken looking in a few spots. 

The HAREON knight looked around, seeing a few doors, though when he looked at the map, he saw that there was something marked inside the structure. Peering at the entrance, Jayden saw that the entrance was barred and he didn't see any levers. "How the hell do we get in there?"

Sayomi followed Jayden into the next room, head hung low with shame. She was supposed to be a skillful, fearless knight, instead she was simply a walking deathtrap with some skill of sword. This was her dream come true, and yet she... she fucked up, bad.

The thought pushed her into a barely contained rage, what she wanted so badly, what she had been given, she didn't even deserve. Her fist clenched so hard that jointed made snapping noises and the very bone itself began to strain, it undoubtedly would've drawn blood without the armour.

Then Jayden's comment seemed to push her over the edge, she wasn't sure what about set her off. Maybe it simply disturbed her train of thought, maybe it was the voice of someone who was secure in their position, even she never figured it out. But the uncontrolled rage did something of it's own volition, picking up a handful of rocks and throwing them at the switch above. Her aim didn't matter here, there were enough pebbles that even the poorest aim would suffice.

Without a second thought, it charged through the opening, not caring for the rain of stones nor the door that suddenly sealed and straight into the Stalfos. The skeleton held it's weapons strangely, one vertically the other up and horizontally, putting the tips together. That didn't saved from a immensely strong, heavily armoured warrior shoulder bashing it and crushing various ribs with a sickening sound akin to a survivalist breaking kindling for a fire.

That didn't even come close to the volume or revulsion of the sound of the armoured gauntlet pulverizing the skull and what was left of the chest. The Stalfos defeated, Say feel back, tears streaming from her face, in her hand a small pouch. It must have come from the Stalfos, but she just couldn't remember taking it.