Spirit's Grave [Cataphractoi & Chaos James]

Spirit's Grave
- Layla Shula El-Amin, Least Stealthy Woman Alive (5/1/2 Gerudo) [Cataphractoi] Reward: Knight Errant Levels 2, & 3 (25 rupees) + 30 rupees (15 quest + 15 profession at end)
- Freeja, Literally Fiery Teenager (1/5/3 Hylian) [Chaos James] Reward: Scent (40 rupees from quest + 15 rupees from pocket)

The walls of the dungeon echoed with the clanking of Layla's armor as she stepped through the entrance. Immediately she was greeted by half a dozen blue statues, eyes following her every move. She stepped up to one, tapping the eye curiously, but it failed to react.

Probably nothing. Probably.

Dust and decay assailed Layla's nostrils as she further examined the room, noting roots reaching down from the ceiling and a few ominously empty coffins lined up along the far wall, with no sign of their occupants readily apparent. The room she was in had two doors, one of which seemed to be sealed at the moment. Briefly, she considered just applying force to the sealed door, but she quickly ruled against it. It looked like a solid ton of stone and metal, locked in place by some sort of mechanism visible only in the form of a keyhole beside the door.

Opposite that door was another, which lay open, but was so dark she couldn't see into the next room. Noises were emanating from the entryway, however- dull sounds reminiscent of bones striking stone tile. Stalfos, then- and almost certainly of the mindless variety, if they were bumping about in a dark room like that. Layla expected little trouble from them, in all honesty, but had no intention of letting her guard down just yet.

She turned to the only other person in the room, a young girl whom she had just met not far from the dungeon that had introduced herself as a pyromancer. Layla drew her enormous battleaxe and gestured towards the next room.

"It would seem we have but one path available. If you would be so kind as to light it, I shall bring the fight to our enemies," she stated exuberantly, grinning beneath her mask and helmet.

Normally carefree, Freeja had barely taken two steps into the dank crypt before she started to gag. She pinched her nose tight and fought back tears as the smell of a decrepit tomb assaulted her senses. It took her a moment to compose herself, finally able to see clearly and look about the room. It wasn't a pleasant environment, by any stretch of the imagination, but what was one to expect from a place of the dead. Creepy eyes and daunting doorways aside, Freeja at least felt safe being around the hulking mass of metal that she only assumed was a person. They smelled like beach sand under a burning summer day, plus very sweaty and metallic. Freeja glanced up towards the towering figure as they spoke about the next room.

"Ghot hit," she nodded, nose still held tight. As she walked to position herself in front of the door, she twirled one of her hands towards the warrior's axe. The weapon began to glow with a dull red heat, enhanced with a fiery spirit. Inhaling deeply through her mouth, she released her nose and drew her head back as a ball of flames formed in front of her face. She jerked her head forward as the ball of flames bolted out of her mouth and crashed into the next room. As she ducked out the way, hit or no, she moved to allow the towering suit of armor to rush in. Once out of the way, Freeja planted her feet and held her hands out as her breath held. A bead of glowing heat slowly started to move into the room, and she held her concentration as it gained speed.

Layla would easily be able to rush in and begin attacking before Freeja would be able to detonate her spell.

Layla stepped forward...then rocketed to a sprint far faster than a three-hundred-fifty pound mass of steel and muscle had any right achieving. In an eyeblink she was through the intervening space, past the door, and inside the next room, her mighty battleaxe trailing magical fire all the way. One Stalfos blundered into her path and was scattered across the room like a set of ten-pins, and another was blown apart by a weapon that probably weighed and order of magnitude more than it.

She skidded to a stop, throwing herself into a spin in the process and swinging her weapon in a wide circle around her. It failed to hit anything, but that wasn't the point- the flames on her axe illuminated the room as she spun, allowing her to get a brief look at her surroundings and note anything moving. No one would be able to get a lot of detail out of such a spin, but it gave her an idea of what to do next. The room was big, and there were surprisingly many enemies left. She opted for the closest clump.

Unfortunately, she chose wrong.

Assuming the room to be full of nothing but Stalfos, she turned towards the largest pocket of them in sight...and missed entirely the ReDead Knight now standing behind her. In the midst of winding up for the next swing, a scream pierced her ears, rendering her as immobile as the average statue. Her stance was firm, and kept her on her feet, but Layla couldn't move her limbs no matter how hard she tried.

Several blows rang off the back of her armor, attracting a trio of nearby Stalfos. It would take something much stronger to get through her armor that way, but enough uncoordinated attacks would, eventually, manage to randomly hit the right place and bypass her armor. The Stalfos were her main worry, as a result. Precious moments passed as she waited for the paralysis to wear off, and then...there. Layla half stumbled, her battleaxe suddenly completing its swing, eliminating all three Stalfos in a single blow. Then she turned slightly, bringing her axe up, over, and through the ReDead, cleaving it entirely in twain and barely stopping her axe before it sank into the stone.

That done, Layla turned to examine the room in detail. She thought she had defeated at least half the of the monsters present, and could see another Knight just out of range, but Freeja had probably had time to do some damage of her own by now, so hopefully this room would be finished with shortly.

It only took mere seconds for Layla to dash into the room to begin the battle, with another few seconds for Freeja to reach the limit of her spell. The little glowing bead erupted into a much larger explosion of flames as it caught a nearby Stalfos in its fury. The sudden burst of fire engulfed half the skeleton, searing and shattering bones as its spine gave way and it collapsed. Exhaling with the explosive spell, Freeja breathed in again and gagged once more. The stench of the crypt was still too foul for her liking, but she had to get over it. Layla was making quick work of some of the other foes despite a momentary snag against the screaming undead knight. Calming herself, she gripped her staff tightly in hand and charged into the room.

Scouting the room, she could see Layla laying waste to some undead, so Freeja turned her attention to another wandering Stalfos who had noticed her. She might not be good in a straight up fight, but her advantage came in the naturally fiery magic that flowed in her veins. Her metal staff began to glow with the familiar red of her magic as she darted forward and thrust the staff at her foe. As soon as the metal clanged against the skeletal foe, a great geyser of flames leaped from the enchanted weapon and engulfed the Stalfos in an instant. The charred remains crumbled as Freeja sighed in relief, having been really unsure about charging head first at such a foe.

Two down on her end, but it was starting to seem like one person was pulling more weight than the other.

Mentally acknowledging Freeja's contributions, Layla turned towards her next target...the final ReDead Knight. Which was now on fire, apparently from her spell. As she watched, the Knight's bandages fell away, revealing bones underneath. She started towards it, thanking Freeja for frying its what had passed for vocal chords.

Suddenly, the ReDead- Stalfos, now, she supposed- leapt into the air, startling Layla with the action's abruptness. She swung her as it came down, but her blow had started too soon and the jumping pile of bones remained intact. It leaped again almost immediately, and her helmet rung as it flung one of its bones at her head. Layla moved to target its next landing spot, only for it to jump back into the air before her weapon arrive. She noted with slight satisfaction that another Stalfos fell to the blow instead, but her more annoying prey remained unhindered by her attacks.

Grunting with irritation, she put her battleaxe away and drew her backup weapon- the claymore she stubbornly insisted on referring to as a longsword. Her brute strength and size allowed her to use it as a one-handed sword, and made it far more maneuverable in combat than it would be otherwise.

Sword in hand, Layla lashed out with her left arm and removed the head from her foe in a single attack. From there it was an easy matter to remove the last two enemies from this plane of existence. She grinned inside her helmet as the door to the next room lifted, seemingly aware of the room's sudden emptiness.

"I don't suppose you know how that works? Ah, no matter. Onward!"

Layla stepped into the next room without a second thought, noting its apparent emptiness. The room was oddly colored- a pastel red- and no distinguishing features were in sight...until a pair of eyes came sailing in from nowhere and latched onto her arm. She cocked her head at the sudden development, and then-

Eyes everywhere. Dozens upon dozens of disembodied eyes popped up out of nowhere, latching onto her armor and unbalancing her before she realized what was happening. Layla tried to counterbalance, but it was too late- she fell backwards with an enormous crash, and found herself unable to stand back up even with her muscle band.

"...help?"

The small Hylian girl kept her distance from the fighting, though staying vigilant in case the large Gerudo woman needed any help. Which she didn't, as the warrior made swift work of the remaining foes with her sword. Freeja was in awe at the absolute ferocious power the towering metal woman held. With the chance to catch her breath, the girl realized she was breathing a bit easier despite the stench, so things were looking up for their further exploring. The next door slid open by some magical command, so the metal warrior stormed off to the next room. Freeja followed quickly on her heels, not wanting to be left behind.

The sight, she found, of Layla swaying backwards and crashing to the ground was shocking, to say the least. Furthering her position from the warrior again, Freeja watched in awe as the Gerudo was swarmed by tiny little blob creatures. "Help?" she muttered, before realizing what was going on. "Oh! Me, help! Umm..." Freeja trailed off as she considered what to do. Inching closer, she held out her staff as it started to glow red again, "maybe I can poke them off?" As she poked one of them, a burst of flames erupted from the end of the staff, incinerating a handful of the little monsters. Once the flames died down, Freeja surveyed the situation.

Angry eyes.

A swarm of the little Zol leaped off the warrior and bounced after the startled pyromancer. A few that had been further from the blast of heat had only split into two smaller foes, but those weren't her main concern. The Hylian scrambled away, dropping her staff, and started to run as far as she could through the empty room. This had not gone well at all, it seemed.

With several Zol having chased after Freeja, Layla suddenly had the strength to stand. She swiped at a pair of eyes, only for it to hop out of range. Layla sighed, and tried again. Miss. She switched to her sword, and...miss. The damnable things were too small for her to hit. Pegasus Boots active, she charged at another one, hoping to stampede it, but when she turned around it was still there, seemingly undamaged.

Worse yet, she now had no idea where the remaining Zol were. Either they were facing away from her, or they had just closed their eyes. The room looked just as empty as when she had entered, save for Freeja's assailants.

Scratch that. Even as Freeja fled her own opponents, they vanished, leaving the room empty except for a black-lined square in the direct center of the room. Both doors were sealed, now, leaving them in a seemingly empty room full of harmless, but annoying monsters. Layla lifted one gauntlet coated hand as if stroking her chin.

"That was embarrassing. I confess I've no clue how to injure these damnable things. Or find them. Maybe, ah, you could ride on my shoulders and throw fire at...the room?"

Freeja kept running, having quit looking back at the angry eyed horde as she continued to circle the room. The poor Gerudo lady had barely finished her sentence before the young Hylian had darted and scampered up to her shoulders like a cat chased up a tree. Holding on to the warrior, catching her breath in her moment of safety, Freeja began to look around the room. She glanced around to find their hated foes but to no avail did she see any of them. Not keen on the idea of getting another big whiff of the dank tomb, she began to tentatively sniff at the air, turning her head left and right as she tried not to burst into tears at the stench. She patted on Layla's shoulder as she muttered for her to turn her body a bit. Impatience led her to just climb higher on the iron tower as she sniffed the air.

"Mphf," she exhaled, a glint in her eyes. The little buggers would get it now. Inhaling sharply as she bared her teeth, a ball of flame snapped to life in front of her open mouth. It swirled and grew to form, then she jerked her head forward and snapped back as the fire whizzed through the air, slamming into a black tile of mass and erupting across a half-dozen Zols. The little creatures leaped to life as most of them torched, a few bursting into tiny gels as they barely survived.

"Sword!" Freeja cried out to the towering warrior as she leapt from Layla's back to the ground, the warrior's sword glowing hot with the Fire Enchantment's fury. One good slash should incinerate the rest of the Zol, at least that's what the young girl thought as she tumbled to the ground.

Layla hardly even noticed Freeja's minuscule addition of weight. Nothing happened as Freeja clambered up, leading Layla to believe the Zol were mostly interested in remaining hidden for the time being. She tried to locate them amongst the sea of red, but it was almost like looking for a specific drop of water in a pond. Hopefully, Freeja had a solution to that quandary.

She wasn't disappointed when the smaller woman let loose a blast of fire upon the room, incinerating some of the Zol outright. Several divided into smaller Gels, only to burn to death seconds later. Her sword ignited even as the little Hylian dropped off her shoulders, and Layla wasted no time in stepping forward and sweeping the sword across the remaining Gels, which, somewhat preoccupied by being on fire, failed to avoid the new threat.

As she brought her sword back in, the doors swung open. Layla grinned within her helmet.

"A fine performance! At this rate we'll conquer the dungeon in no time at all." She advanced towards the next door, slightly more cautious than before, but it appeared to be empty. As she stepped through, she was greeted by an empty room with plants growing in the corners, and a smell more like fresh dirt than preserved bodies. The floor was cracked in places, and she saw a hole straight through it off to one side. No doors were readily apparent, but across from their own entrance she could see a spiderweb of fractures in the wall, its appearance too patterned to be naturally occurring.

Layla shrugged- a massive and noisy gesture in all of her armor- and walked right up to the cracks. She examined it for a moment, flexed one massive, gauntleted hand, and punched a hole straight through the wall. The obstruction crumbled like sand, revealing a mostly empty room with another door off to the right. In the center of the room was a depression, a good foot on each side, surrounded by several torches. A network of short obstructions dotted the room, making navigation difficult- for her, at least- and after a moment of observation, she noticed a small multi-colored cube.

"A simple task, this time, it would seem," she snorted, stepping over to the cube. She lifted...and nothing happened. Perplexed, she pulled harder, but the cube would not budge. Now slightly annoyed, she kicked it- it lifted slightly, but otherwise stayed in place. She stepped back, allowing Freeja access. "I spoke too soon. Evidently the designers of this place had someone of my size- or perhaps of sub-par intelligence- in mind when they designed this room."

She patted Freeja's shoulder, and probably a bit too hard, as if to indicate she was being tagged in. And, at the same time, indicated her faith that the girl could figure out this puzzle.

Freeja pulled herself to her feet as Layla swiftly dispatched the remaining monsters, looking around cautiously to ensure no other things jumped at her. Her fear was unfounded though as the doors soon opened at the last Zol's demise, so she quickly fetched her dropped staff before more showed up. Things were going well again, so Freeja quickly took to pattering behind the massive iron lady as she cautiously approached the next room. An empty, earthy place stood before them, and personally Freeja found this a relief. The smell of dirt and roots was, figuratively, a breath of fresh air compared to the dusty crypt-like rooms beforehand. Looking around the room as Layla crossed it, Freeja was taken back by how nonchalantly the woman punched through what had looked to be a solid wall.

Just a little bit scary if you asked her.

The room before the destroyed wall was odd, though lit. It still smelled a little earthy, though she could detect some of the stale air of death edging its way through the room. She intently watched Layla fiddle with a colorful cube, but when that didn't work, she seemed to decide to crush the poor Hylian girl without a second thought. Freeja's knees buckled under the weight of the blow, and she nervously staggered over to the colored block. She sniffed at the block, paced around it, and even inspected the torches with an admiring curiosity. Snapping out of her fire-watching, she went back to look over the block and give it a few more sniffs.

"It smells of stone, I guess?" She shrugged to the warrior. She had no idea what to do.

Layla almost- but not quite- failed to stop the sigh of disappointment. Ah, well. Everyone had to learn somewhere. If not for a particular old and wise Hylian knight, where would she herself be? She would just have to take the (slightly) younger lass under her wing! First, block puzzles.

"Your first puzzle, I gather? I shall teach you, then!" She removed the mask of her helmet, revealing the Gerudo face beneath to be smiling and enthusiastic, rather than condescending. That was important. She needed Freeja to trust her, and believe her next words.

"The sconces match one of the colors on the sides of the block, and there's an indentation in the floor. We have to manipulate the block into the hole, so that the right color faces up, but without lifting it. Some sort of enchantment I expect. For this one..." she paused, examining the room and the obstructions forming rough lanes for several moments. It was difficult for her to visualize the track she needed to follow- she was a hands-on type- but she managed it with some difficulty. "Forward. Back. Left. Right," she said, indicating what she meant by each direction as she said it.

"You'll need to move the block yourself, as I'm too big. The order is...forward, forward, left, back, left, left, forward, forward, right, forward, forward," she instructed, giving Freeja time to perform each successive roll before telling her the next direction. Following that path, the block would be on blue when it reached its final position, matching the sconces. A nagging suspicion told her it wasn't the most direct nor efficient path, but it would work all the same, and it was the best she could manage without quill and parchment and time.

Freeja stood and patiently listened as the towering woman tried to teach the young girl how exactly the puzzle would function. It was all very involved, it seemed, but the Gerudo was patient in her explanation. The Hylian girl followed alongside the warrior as she nodded, focusing on the instructions and trying to memorize them. Hopefully it would be as simple as the steel-clad woman claimed, but Freeja couldn't be certain until they started out. The little pyromancer stood in front of the colored cube with a determined look now, having set her staff aside so she might push the block as Layla told her.

Despite all the force she thought she would need to put into it, a simple tap of her spindly little arms was all it took to flip the block forward, shifting which color was on top. Eyes alight with understanding, Freeja tapped the block from whichever direction the metal giant indicated, until finally it landed on blue on the sconce as Layla expected. The torches flared for a moment, then a clicking sound echoed from across the room as the door swung open. The path ahead led into darkness once more, but Freeja wasn't worried about it. The smell, though, was starting to waft back again, indicating they were leaving the earthy smell of the broken ruins and back into the crypt-like tunnels.

"You lead," she told the giantess with a flick of her hand. The warrior's weapon began to glow red with the Fire Enchantment's fury, but would continue to just glow dimly as long as Layla didn't have to attack anything. Picking up her staff, Freeja took her customary position behind the iron Gerudo, following just close enough to hide if something attacks them.

Layla nodded in approval as Freeja completed the task laid before her. Hopefully the young woman (not much younger than Layla herself, but young all the same) would take this lesson home with her. She replaced her mask and stepped up to the next door, which seemed almost oppressively black. As she stepped through, it became apparent the door itself was shrouded in darkness, as if to obscure the room just past it.

The room they now stood in was big, but mostly empty. Torches sat in each corner, and the far wall was partially given over to a cave, recessed into the wall itself, within which Layla could see a large, ornate chest. There was no apparent mechanism to open the cage, leading her to believe it had some sort of trigger within the room itself.

Resolving to examine the cage more closely, she steppe forward...and found herself face to face with a truly enormous ghost which materialized form nowhere at all. Alarmed, she swung her axe in reflex, only for it to pass through the spirit harmlessly. Several satellite ghosts began to orbit the bigger one, too small for her her to hit deliberately, but if she swung enough times-

Then the lights flickered, and died entirely.

Freeja had followed closely behind Layla as they entered the next room, but she stood by the door to look around as the warrior searched. She was taking in the surroundings when a large ghost and its brethren appeared before the Gerudo, easily avoiding the woman's attacks. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the large specter cackled and disappeared as the room grew dark. All the torches had been snuffed out, likely by the spirit's meddling, which meant the pair would be forced to fight without sight if they couldn't relight the sconces. Magic danced through the young woman's hand as her staff came dully alight with fire's red energy.

She could smell the smoldering remains of a torch to her left, so she quickly darted along the wall until the metalwork came into view. She jabbed the head of her staff into the tinder and ducked away as the fire exploded, lighting the torch once more. If the other torches were in the corners like she though, she quickly turned as her head reeled back. A ball of flames formed in front of her face as she fired it across to the next torch sconce. The little ball blasted off the wall as the flames licked around the torch, reigniting the dead flames.

Panting, she was starting to make out features of the room now, and could see Layla again. She started to rush for the third sconce, following the wall she was against as her staff flickered alight again. "Get last one!" she shouted to the warrior woman as she ran. The Gerudo's weapon should still be lit up with the fiery power of her spell, so a good swing into the last torch should be enough to put the fight back into the light. Freeja slammed her staff into the third sconce, leaving Layla to be the one to finish lighting the room.

Then, all they had to do, was be prepared to deal with the giant Ghini and his tricks.

Layla ducked as one of the smaller ghosts came at her, but she was a huge target- the proverbial side of a barn, really. The Ghini phased through her armor, and she felt a chill pass through her scalp. A centimeter lower...but no, now was not the time to think about that. She bounced backward to avoid the next pass, and felt her arm go numb as another of the mini-Ghini passed through it. From her forearm down, it was as if she had no arm at all- she could no longer feel or move the limb. A temporary effect, she hoped.

Each time Freeja activated a torch, though, the Ghini seemed to become a bit more substantial. The first had gone through her helmet with no resistance, but the second had been noticeably slower to do so. In that case...

"Get last one!" she heard Freeja shout, and the plan coalesced in her mind. With the aid of her Pegasus Boots, she danced to the side and darted toward the remaining sconce. Out of the corner of her eye- a difficult method of watching, under her face mask- she could see one of the Ghini coming after her. Layla lowered her weapon into the sconce with her working hand, and through her numb hand toward the Ghini simultaneously.

With the last torch lit, the Ghini became corporeal, but it had no time to adjust before getting swatted out of the air. A sensation like placing a freezing limb in hot water passed through her hand when it connected, and the Ghini dissipated and vanished.

"Area attack on the last two! Quickly!"

Freeja spun about as her staff struck the sconce, flaming energy already returning to the metal as she looked around. The room was lit now with the glow of the torches, as Layla deftly lit the last one, swatting a once-incorporeal monster out of the air. It seemed they were vulnerable now to their attacks, which meant Freeja had to go on the offensive. The Gerudo's command turned the girl's attention to two remaining Ghini, so the Hylian drew herself up and focused her hands in front of her. The intake of breath stopped as a tiny bead of flaming orange energy flickered to life in front of her outstretched arms. She guided the ball of flame slowly at first, as it began to pick up speed. It was hard on her, more taxing then it had been before since she was out of breath as it is, but she held on and forced the energy to keep going.

One of the two Ghini stopped floating around to admire the small glowing orange ball. He floated alongside it, admiring it from all angles and utterly fascinated by the speck of fire. The other Ghini came over to admire it as well, watching as the first one reached out and poked it. Neither saw what happened next, as they were both engulfed by the flames of the spell as Freeja let out a sharp exhale, followed by inhaling deeply. Among her gasps for air though, she caught the scent of something big.

Beneath that expressionless mask, Layla grinned...and then jumped.

In full plate, she weighed around 350 pounds. With her Iron Boots, summoned with the intention of going down rather than walking, she could easily top a full ton. At 2,350 pounds, her terminal velocity was somewhere in the neighborhood of 54 m/s, and her total kinetic energy was approximately 1.5 million Newtons. If anyone in this world knew what a car was, that would three quarters the force of getting struck by one at the same speed. At that speed, and with that amount of force, anything that isn't a literal wall will either get out of the way, or paint her armor.

The Ghini was looking at Freeja. It didn't see her coming, removing one of those options.

Technically Layla's axe hit the monster first, but at that point the weapon was essentially an after thought. As was the Ghini. And part of the floor. Tiles cracked, but the floor remained otherwise intact- in reality, it takes much larger forces than that to destroy solid stone, and in a meeting between concrete and the aforementioned car, the concrete wins. Since Layla was spared such unpleasantness by her own technique, she was left alive and undamaged...and alone in the room, save for Freeja.

"A glorious victory indeed! Your fire scoured its minions, and my technique vanquished the beast itself! Normally that's a bit more messy, I admit, but today I am clean and we are victorious. And with this key," she said, opening the chest to withdraw the boss key, "we shall gain entry to the final challenge and give to it a worthy end."

A portal opened in the center of the room, and through it, a sound came- as if a door had opened on the other side. The way was clear.

The young woman slowly recovered her breath and looked on as Layla did what she imagined most dungeon-delving adventurers do. Slaying, looting, and then a bit of chatting at a magic portal. Either way, Freeja just nodded along with the Gerudo giant's explanation as they stood at the portal. It smelled of a thick, dusty mix of magic and a sharp sour note of electricity. But she could hear a click of a door, and the warrior treated it as normal, so she went into the portal with the iron Gerudo to find herself in an earlier room.

The waft of the tomb air returned, but Freeja managed to suppress her urge to gag and instead looked around, staff at the ready. She quickly noticed a new door had opened in the room, and almost absent-minded she waved her hand and caused Layla's weapon to glow red again. It was becoming reflex for her to alight the warrior's blade so she could lead the way, leaving the small Hylian girl to follow behind with her own damaged weapon at the ready.

"Dead are ahead," she growled as she turned her direction down the new hallway, warning her companion when a foul stench finally reached her nose.

Layla stepped toward the newly opened door without hesitation.

"The only way past them, is through them," she said simply. It was immediately obvious to her, though, that this next room was far less packed with the undead than the first. The next door wasn't even locked; the Stalfos in this room were hardly more than an annoyance. Instead, there were pits and cracked tiles throughout the room, and a yawning chasm making the door inaccessible. Another, thinner chasm surrounded a switch in the middle of the room- presumably a mechanism which would allow access to the door. "Hm. Not a terribly hard challenge this time. Jump the chasm and flip the switch; I'll deal with the Stalfos."

Moments later, the room held noticeably more scattered bones than before.

The tiny girl peered out from behind her massive wall of a companion, surveying the crumbling room. Rattling Stalfos wandered around, and the dark void below was almost soul-crushing. But no matter, for the mighty metal being would deal with the monsters, so all the young Hylian had to do was hit the switch. Not to difficult, besides the soul-crushing pit jumping part, but Freeja had always been a sure-footed and agile girl, so it was with a certain grace that she was able to dash out from around the warrior and sail through the air.

Her landing, however, was less than graceful. Too many distractions and being headstrong led to her not seeing the bones piled on the platform. Her footing failed, and she ended up crashing to the ground, saved only by tumbling into the side of the large switch, stopping her momentum with a dull 'thud'. She was slow to push herself up, groaning inwardly, until a moment caught her eye. The bones she had tripped on now stood in front of her, a spooky Stalfos standing with arms reaching out. Instinct kicked in before her urge to cry out in shock, her head jerked back as a ball of flames shot from her mouth and blasted the skeleton to pieces.

Trying to scramble back to her feet, she stumbled back and fell on the switch, triggering the mechanism as two more Stalfos rose on either side of her. She didn't notice the clicking sound of the switch doing it's job, as she had more pressing concerns ahead of her.