Skyview Temple (Panther, Raz and Tsu)

"...are you absolutely certain that girl is with the same institution you're with?" Thria scratched her head when Sayomi kamikaze'd into the door Jayden had pointed out to them. "I'm having a hard time believing any Hylian military branch would work with people as... volatile as her."

She probably shouldn't say more about it. Maybe Hylians were just less organized than Zoras or couldn't afford to put higher requirements on their military. "At any rate, I'm not going in there after her. I'll survey the room." This room was not as comforting to the Zora as the ones before had been. The first rooms of the temple had been made out of greenish blue bricks, lit by blue mushrooms the shine of which reflected off of the water. For her, that had been a fairly calming, cool atmosphere to be in.

This room, however, had more of yellowish red bricks and there was no water to be seen. Even though she had just come out of the water minutes ago, Thria suddenly felt as if she hadn't swum in days. The place was dusty, too, as evidenced by the red sand she kicked up as she walked along the perimeter of the room. "Hey, now..." she muttered as she reached a door in the far east of the circular room.

It was guarded by a trove of Deku Babas hanging from the ceiling, but those were no challenge for her. She simply tossed her fins at them, snapping their stalks and sending them to the ground.

Jayden let out a sigh in regard to Thria's remark. "Well, she's one of the more specialized members. Throw her in a battlefield and she's unstoppable. But say... an obstacle course? Run for cover, because it doesn't matter what the thing's made of and what components there are on it, she WILL break something. And it will come flying towards you." The knight lifted his sleeve, revealing a scar with a solid inch of diameter in a circle. "I had the misfortune to supervise her entry and... Well... Let's just say concrete shrapnel hurts like a bitch. As a side note, Sayomi doesn't use explosives, nor were there any on the course. Figure that out." He finished with a smirk.

When he looked inside to see Sayomi having defeated the stalfos fairly easily, he went up to the girl who'd falling on her back and patted her hair. "You okay, Say?"

Say at first didn't seem to notice the hand on her hair, her mind was elsewhere. Tears still flowed freely from her face, now she had only put herself in danger from her clumsiness, she had done so again from her emotions and with them her teammates. And both within five minutes of each-other. She might've hated it, but doubt seemed to be more a companion than reason. Was she cut out for this or was she just a merchant's daughter who got lucky in some bouts?

"I... I'm fine..." she sputtered in a raspy voice and feigning a smile, while pulling herself to her feet; though her tears clearly betrayed her true state.

But as the two began leaving the room, Say suddenly hugged Jayden, hoping Thria was far from them. A whimper escaped as her lips parted, "I'm sorry" while tears flowed from her face. Jayden seemed to be the only one with faith in her, now that even included Sayomi herself. Her parents doubted her skill with a sword, her comrades doubted her balance and speed, and she doubted her own ability to survive. That is very unsoldier-like.

"Can the two of you hurry it up?" Next time, she was bringing Kasuul or some other Zora Guards with her. Or Triton. Hell, Kasumi would have been of more use in here and she was an actress, not a warrior. "I kinda wanted to finish things up here sometime today."

From what Jayden had said, the problem with Sayomi didn't lay with her but with the organization. Clearly Castle Town didn't have the resources nor the available people to put decent requirements on their military branches, resulting in militiamen who were a danger to their own allies. She shook her head. She was starting to worry about Triton, who liked to be around this race.

She heard the Deku Babas writhing on the bottom of the small pit below her. She wasn't afraid of them, but she did want the Hylians to hurry up so they could proceed. "Make it quick or I'm leaving you both behind."

Jayden was surprised when Sayomi hugged him, but pet her hair comfortingly. She'd always acted like such a goof, so it was odd to see this from her. "It's okay Say... We've gotta keep going though. The mission's got to get done. Let's go."

He led her out to the balancing beam. Oh joy. Sayomi's forte... "Sayomi... You go first, I'll follow behind and keep you stable, okay?"

Sayomi aligned her feet and slowly moved forward, the beam groaning as she began putting more weight on it. Balance was never her strong suit and it wasn't not now; especially as she was depressed, unfocused and with such low confidence that she was sure she would fall anyway.

Which is of course exactly what she did, right out of the gate (platform thingy). Most would simply have gone back and tried again, but Say just hung there thinking if this was an obstacle she just wasn't meant to pass... In a few minutes, she decided that she couldn't just hold on here forever, and Say knew that she just didn't have the skill to do it. Yet another thing beyond her, another limit.

She began shimmy-ing to the other side and pulled herself up, then moved through the door without glance or word.

Once the Hylians had made their way across, Thria put her hand over her fist, sticking her arms out to her sides so her fins could stabilize her. She then strolled across the tightrope rather easily, dropping her arms and shoving open the door at the end of it.

At the other end of the door was hell. Or rather, a Hydra. Three heads lined up horizontally, the single eyes in the heads glowing red. Thria wasted no time lashing out, running her sharp fin across the necks and severing the heads all at once. "That's weird. I don't remember Hydras being THAT easy to kill."

Further into the room was a large chasm with a tightrope over it, with at the end two Bokoblins and an enormous double door. Straight ahead, Thria saw an elaborately decorated chest, undoubtedly with something important in it. "There's a fence in the way," she said, "Need to find a way around that..."

Jayden looked at the fence, then at the bokoblins, drawing his bow. “First take out hostiles, then go after objectives.” He saw the bokoblins start trying to cross the tightrope towards them, but that just made it even easier. He planted an arrow into each bokoblin’s torso, not sure if it killed them, but sure the fall would. Once he ensured there were no other enemies in the room, he crossed the tightrope, inspecting the door carefully.

“What a weird shape for a key... Now how do we get to that treasure chest?” He said, looking around.

Sayomi waited for Thria to cross before attempting to herself, at least that way if she fell or broke the rope Jayden and the Zora wouldn't be separated. That turned out to be a master-stroke on the young knight's part as well, as the rope snapped soon after she stepped on it, sending the rupees from earlier into the deep darkness of no return.

'Another failure' she thought to herself, slowly managing to climbing the now vertical rope to the other side. Avoiding either of her companion's gazes she too began searching for a way across to the chest. What her companions had yet to see however, was that there seemed to be two thick, old web strands between the two platforms. She knew she had to attempt it; if she made it they had the key to the last area, and could finish the mission; if not, then she wouldn't slow them down, embarrass, or endanger them anymore.

A sprint, a jump, a flight... or was it a fall? With her eyes closed she couldn't tell, only the feel of the air against her body let her know she was still alive. For a moment, to her life and death were one in the same, neither really mattered. As long as she could feel, no even just imagine, this breeze, this wind, it didn't matter.

Then the feeling of web.

Barely grabbing the end and swinging towards the next, she released her grip and once again the air took hold of her form. But this time; she felt alive. In one last, ultimately destructive swing she clears the remainder of the chasm, and collapses the tree branch holding the webs, creating a convenient pathway across. Wasting no time she threw up the lid of the chest and reached in, grabbing the key and an unexpected surprise... a mirror shield, with the emblem of a defunct Hylian order on it.

She jumped for joy at her new discoveries, it seems the old Sayomi is back.

"Do you Hylians SELECT on lack of brains?!" Thria shouted at Jayden as his companion leapt before she looked once more. The Zora warrior had crosses the tightrope with ease, and good thing she had, too. "How do you suppose we're gonna get back there now?" Her question was answered when Sayomi used what seemed to be vines to cross the chasm, and quickly returned with a new shield and something resembling a carving of a dragon.

Thria quickly snatched said carving from the girl and turned to the massive double doors. "Weird shape for a keyhole indeed. Rest assured though, I know what I'm doing. I've read the first draft of a scholar's paper on locking mechanisms like this. He's had to re-write parts of it, but at the core things should work like he wrote them..."

She held the item at eye-height, the same height as the lock, and let it rest on her flat hand. She then started picking it up to turn it and palce it back down, comparing the shape of the carving to that of the lock. Finally finding the right position in which to hold the carving, she slotted it in, the double doors opening slowly and with a creaking noise. "You people sense anything in there with that sixth sense of yours?" she asked, not even awaiting an answer before she went in. Worst-case scenario she could always throw up her Electric Aura.

Jayden sighed as yet again Thria asked something he didn’t have the patience or will to answer. It was better to just ignore it sometimes. Jayden drew Korteklauw, staying right in behind Thria. “Yeah, my senses are going a bit crazy right now... Let’s expect heavy resistan-“ Normally when working with Hylians, his comrades would all have a sense that prevented such situations. Thria had no such sense. A skeletal arm lashed out at Thria with a sword, which Jayden blocked for her, slipping his blade down for a chop, cutting off the hand from one of the stalfoses.

One of? Aw fuck. Jayden put his back to Thria’s, annoyed that he only reached her shoulderblades. He was destined for shortness his whole life, wasn’t he? Why did people have to be so tall? Oh well. “Ready for some fighting?” The stalfos put it’s hand back on as all three started walking forward.

Say couldn't help but giggle at their Zora friend; after all, it's common sense that if you think there'll be an ambush you should actually find out about it from someone who knows, or at least be prepared for it, and Thria had done neither of those things that even Say would've. Hell, it seemed really ironic that the "lack of brains" Thria had insulted Sayomi about had also prevented the knight from warning her about the imminent threat behind the doors.

Well, it was still fighting-time, the one thing Sayomi excelled at. She joined the circle that Thria and Jayden had made... well she would've if there was still room for her. Her expression of anger (which made her look more cute than intimidating) was plan for all to see.

At least she could take one on her own, using her shield and neigh indestructible armour to her advantage, Thria had her electric aura and Jayden... Well Jayden could survive the electric aura; probably.

More Stalfoses. Go figure. Jayden blocked the sword coming for her, but Thria had already seen it coming, kicking the owner in the ribs to force him to stand back. When the short Hylian slammed his shoulders against her midriff, she grinned, hardening her forefins. "Three versus three," she said, "I like those odds. What say the two of you each picks a dead guy and sticks to it?"

Once again, she did not await a reply before leaping forward in the direction of the Stalfos that had attacked her earlier, throwing her fins at it. The skeleton effortlessly blocked them, but left a massive opening near its right hip, which Thria rammed her heel into from the side.

The Stalfos didn't learn its lesson, now covering its right side but leaving its skull wide open. As Thria shot a fireball at the skull, she couldn't contain her laughter. "These guys are a joke!" she shouted, "Can't evil send someone who can actually stand up to me?!"

Jayden nodded. “One undead shouldn’t be so bad.” He reached into his bomb bag, pulling out a bomb. He lit the fuse and waited for about three seconds, then threw the bomb at the Stalfos. It exploded, sending bone fragments everywhere. Jayden smirked and looked at Thria. “Nothing liberal application of explosives doesn’t solve.” Upon looking back, he saw that the skeleton had reformed, walking closer with it’s swords. “Bullshit!” Jayden said incredulously, drawing Korteklauw.

He had his sword at the ready, blocking a swing from one of the two blades. He tried to counter attack, but the other sword was in his way. Oh great... Jayden backed off, pulling out a bomb. This time though, he also pulled out Heko Pesaga, strapping the bomb to the tip of the arrow. He'd seen Ilona use this type of attack with bombchus before, how hard could it be? If explosives didn’t work on the skeleton... Then...

He aimed high, shooting the ceiling of the room. Cracks fragmented all around that spot, gradually growing until a large chest burst through the floor above, falling directly on the Stalfos and reducing it to a fine powder. Jayden paused for a moment, wondering if that had actually just happened the way he’d seen it. Walking over, he opened the chest and pulled out a pair of strange metal boots. “Hey Thria, ever seen anything like this before?”