The Darknut and the Desert

The day had only just begun, but the sound of work could be heard coming from one of the rooms upstairs at the local inn in Fort Ruto. The sound of metal sliding across a whetstone echoed through the hallway as Samanosuke tended to his weapons after his previous mission a few days ago. Once he was done sharpening his blade he would lift it up to inspect it. All of the nicks and scratches were gone, but his blade was noticeably smaller than it had been before. Of course these are the same blades he had originally set out from Gerudo Fortress a few years ago. It was understandable that his weapons had clear signs of wear and tear on them.

The wraps on the hilt were tattered, the guard had numerous nicks and gnashes in it, and the blade was about one fourth smaller than it was when he set out. He had taken great care of each of his katanas, but they were on their last legs of life. If he didn’t get them replaced soon it could very well cost him his own life. The problem was that none of the weapon shops in Ruto sold katanas. So his next stop was the Kasuto Stronghold. If they didn’t have any katanas for sell in Kasuto then he would be forced to return to Gerudo Fortress to get them replaced, and probably get a lecture while he was at it, or venture all the way to Hyrule Castle Town.

While he could make the trip to Kasuto relatively easily, if they didn’t have what he was looking for there then he would be out of luck. The monsters that roam Hyrule Field would surely finish off his already worn out blades. He just couldn’t make the trip and didn’t have the rupees to spare to buy a couple of longswords to use as temporary replacements just to get him to Castle Town. Standing up the young samurai would sheathe both of his katanas and let out a sigh. Even his sheathes had seen better days, but what did he expect when he routinely used them to attack and block with.

Once Samanosuke had finished tending to his weapons he would change into his normal adventuring clothes and head downstairs and sit at the bar of the inn. He would quickly be greeted by Vargus and Malory.

”Good morning Samanosuke!” Malory was always happy to see the young samurai, even if she did see him every day since he lived where she worked. The young Hylian lass was absolutely smitten with Samanosuke, and from the looks of things, he felt the same as she did.

”So what’ll you have this morning Samanosuke?” Vargus was the owner of the inn that Samanosuke stayed in. He also handled all of the cooking, but since it was still early there weren’t many customers downstairs at the moment.

”I’ll take the chef’s special this morning Vargus. Thank you.” With his order placed he would turn to look at Mallory who was standing on the opposite side of the bar from him. She had already gotten him a glass of water and was just waiting patiently to talk to him.

”So what are your plans for today? Another dangerous mission I’m guessing?” Malory had a displeased look on her face as she spoke. She hated how often he went off risking his life, but she understood that people across Hyrule needed help and he was someone capable of helping them.

”Don’t worry. I’m only going to find a weapon smith capable enough of making me a new pair of katana today. I may not even end up being able to find what I’m looking for today.” He wasn’t just trying to put her mind at ease like he normally did. No that really was all he had planned on doing today. He hadn’t received any news from Yousef that needed to be handled since his last mission the previous day.

Just then Vargus would appear and hand him his breakfast, a thick, creamy stew. As the young Hylian was getting ready to dig in the door to the inn would open and Malory’s face would sour as a familiar group walked in. The look on her face told Samanosuke everything he needed to know about who had just arrived. Looks like he was going to have to work after all.

”Vargus, four orders of you special if you please.” Shouted Jared from across the inn as he and his elder siblings made their way towards the bar to join Samanosuke. Per usual Jared was accompanied by his elder brother Ban, and his two older sisters Elizabeth and Alia. The four of them were Samanosuke’s friends and traveling companions for missions. The five of them made for a fierce team and worked very well together.

Each of the group would take a seat at the bar, with Jared and Ban taking the seats closest to Samanosuke. ”Good morning Malory. Please don’t look at us like that. While we did come with a mission in mind, it’s just an escort across the desert. Normally we would have handled this without Samanosuke but….” Ban would trail off for a second as he shifted in his seat to look at Samanosuke. ”It’s a travelling weapon smith that requested the escort, and I knew that Samanosuke was needing to get some work done by one.”

The news that it was a traveling weapon smith would cause Samanosuke to perk up and turn towards Ban, clearly intrigued. Before he could speak up though, Malory would start to speak. ”I don’t care if it’s an easy mission. Every time I think I might get to spend the day with him y’all always show up and ruin it.” She didn’t truly resent the group as she knew they kept him safe on their missions, she was just pouting.

”Now now Malory. None of that. It’s not their fault. We all take our orders from Yousef. They always have to travel down here to join me on missions in Southern Hyrule, while tackling missions in the north without me. It’s not fair to guilt trip them about it. It’s not like they do it on purpose.” Samanosuke would reprimand the young waitress.

”Besides Malory, with Samanosuke’s special eye and my compass we can avoid any trouble on this trip both on the way there and on the way back. The only tough part of this mission will be the desert sun, but we all know how to deal with that well enough.” Elizabeth was quick to speak up to try and set the girls mind at ease and diffuse the situation that was building up before her younger brother made a scene.

”She’s right Malory. This is a simple escort with a weapon smith. We would want to avoid combat to prevent any injury from falling upon our charge during this trip. We can all go and get our weapons fixed up as payment and then take this smith where they want to go and be on our way back. We’ll have Samanosuke back without a hair out of place this time.” Alia would give the girl a smile, finally causing her to relax.

”Okay. I’m sorry everyone. I know it’s not y’alls fault too. We just don’t get to spend much time together with how much goes on down here. I wish there were more groups like y’all that could handle some of the requests that need to be done. All of you deserve some time off after all.” Malory really was a kind and caring person, she just had a bit of a selfish streak when it came to Samanosuke.

Vargus would return from the kitchen carrying a tray with four bowls of stew and four glasses of water for Samanosuke’s companions. Under normal circumstances it would have been Malory handling the food delivery, but this seemed like a chance for Malory and the mercenary group to better understand each other so he cut her some slack. Besides it wasn’t like he had any other customers this early in the morning.

”Thanks Vargus!” The siblings would all speak in unison showing just how much time they spent with each other and how close they really were. For once they weren’t in a rush, they had already stopped by Kasuto on their way to Ruto and accepted the job before coming to pick up Samanosuke. They were all looking forward to being able to move slower and take their time on a mission for once. There was no sense of urgency in them today as there wasn’t some strange danger that they needed to take care of.

Once the five of them had finished their food Ban would pull out some rupees to pay, but Vargus would stop him. ”You four will always eat for free here so long as you keep that young man safe. I can’t even imagine what would become of Malory if anything ever happened to him.” Not to mention with their leader paying for room and board in his establishment he wasn’t losing out on much letting them have a free meal before or after a mission. They helped keep things safe in the south and he appreciated everything they did. He would never admit to that part though.

”VARGUS! That was all the blushing Hylian lass could manage to say while the four siblings laughed at his comment. With a wave of his hand Ban and his siblings would all say their goodbyes to Vargus and Malory and leave the inn, letting Samanosuke have some privacy for his goodbye. Of course they couldn’t get out the door without Jared saying something. ”Don’t take too long lover boy!”

Samanosuke would shoot Jared a half embarrassed half annoyed look as he left the bar. Turning his attention back to Malory he would just smile. ”I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I’ll be sure to avoid any roaming enemies that I see.” He could see the worry in Malory’s eyes had returned and would take her hand and pull her closer to the bar. He would quickly lean of and kiss her on the cheek before giving a wave to her and Vargus and catch up with his companions.

No sooner had he stepped out the inn before he was greeting by the four of them letting out a long ‘ooohhhh’ in unison. ”I’ll be sure to remember this when each of you finally find someone you like.” His hawkeye would dart to the side to focus on Jared. ”Especially you Jared. I’ll be sure to thoroughly embarrass you with yours.” If the five of them weren’t as close as they were all the playful banter and roasting wouldn’t be possible and their teamwork would suffer as well. No their closeness only made them a better team.

With that said the group would make their way to the stables. Normally they never took mounts for their missions as they didn’t want to have to protect rented animals, but since they weren’t going to be fighting this time, they felt they may as well save as much of their own energy as possible. ”So do we know where this weapon smith wants to go?” Questioned the Hylian Samurai.

”Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to meet and talk with the smith before we came to get you. So when we get back to Kasuto we will have to discuss where we are going, the path we are going to take, and our pay once we meet up with them.” Elizabeth knew what information their leader was going to want from their leader without him having to ask multiple questions. A side effect of all the time they have spent together.

”I don’t know about the rest of you, but perhaps we can just get the smith to fix all of our weapons before we set out as payment instead of a normal rupee reward. This smith is supposed to be very talented and I think having him make us new weapons, or at least fix our current ones would be of more benefit than getting rupees and having to find another smith to do so. Our pockets will probably come out better for it as well.” Ban knew his blade could use some work, and his mirror shield needed a special touch of a smith to properly maintain it.

”I’m fine with that idea myself. My blades wear out fairly quickly with the amount of techniques I normally use. Especially when I’m using them to tear down buildings like I did on that last quest.” Jared was their offensive expert and put a ton of strain on his weapons while fighting. While his older brother might know a more powerful technique than he did, he knew more and made use of them often.

”It sounds good to me as well. My spear has seen better days that’s for sure. I’d like it to be in tip top shape before our next mission.” While Alia only knew two techniques and couldn’t use one of them as often as she liked, that just meant her weapon was the one that came in the most contact with their opponents weapons, shields and armor.

”I don’t mind. All of you do your best to protect me while I cast my spells from the back so it is beneficial to me if all of you are in the best shape.” Elizabeth didn’t directly confront enemies, instead staying back and casting spells with her Cane of Mago from the safety of the backlines protected by her siblings and Samanosuke.

”Then I think our reward is settled. I need two brand new katanas. These two are on their last leg after all. Now we just have to manage to convince the smith to accept that as a form of payment.” Samanosuke didn’t have as many techniques as Jared, or any as powerful as Ban, but he fought in a much riskier way than any of them, often putting himself and his weapons in harm’s way.

As they finished discussing what they would like their pay to be, they would reach the stables. The stable master had seen them coming and prepped the four camels that the siblings had shown up on and the one extra that they had asked for. It helped that they were known throughout Fort Ruto and most of the shop keeps gave them preferential treatment. ”Here you go. Be careful out there now, ya here.”

”We always are. Thank you for taking such good care of our camels while we filled our bellies.” The stable master would just give Ban a nod as the group set off on their trip towards Kasuto Stronghold. The group would stop at the edge of town momentarily while Elizabeth retrieved her compass and Samanosuke scanned the distance for any signs of danger. They didn’t need to rush and get caught off guard, or lose their way in the desert after all.

As the group set out Jared would be the one to break the silence. ”In all seriousness though. When are you and her going to actually start dating lover boy?” Jared probed while stifling a laugh. It was lucky for Jared that they were riding camels and not walking otherwise Ban would have elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.

”I think a better question little brother would be when are you going to stop pestering him about his love life and find one of your own?” Ban was quick to shoot back at his brother in an attempt to quiet him. He knew all too well how hard having a relationship was with their type of work. He had tried, but the girl couldn’t handle the stress and worry every time Ban went on a mission.

Elizabeth and Alia gave each other a look before nodding and speaking up in unison. ”I mean we could always start looking for some strong boyfriends.” The girls would let out a laugh before Elizabeth continued on. ”Once we do that we could let them come along instead of you Jared so you can go look for a girl.” Alia would let out a loud laugh and correct her sister. ”What do you mean Liz? Whenever we have down time all he does is practice and train. It’s like he doesn’t want to find a girlfriend." The girls would see Jared getting red in the face, a mixture of embarrassment and anger, and laugh louder.

”That’s enough you two. I know it’s all in good fun, but it’s clearly getting to him. Lay off.” Surprisingly the one that came to his defense was Samanosuke. Although Jared liked to give him grief over Malory, the young samurai never took it personally. He knew it was all in good fun, normally something to lighten the mood when everyone was a bit tense.

”Thanks Samanosuke. Besides I don’t want a girl that’s gonna just stay at home and worry. I wanna find one that’s gonna join us out here. Fight alongside me. I protect her, she protects me. You can’t tell me either of you would ever date a shop keeper, or a librarian or anything like that.” Jared wasn’t letting the conversation go, but he wasn’t angry any more. Now he was just out to have a serious talk with his sisters.

The girls would sigh in unison. It wasn’t often that Jared of all people made a good point. They always looked at him as a hot-headed, stubborn, battle junkie after all. ”I don’t know bro. Most of the guys we meet out in the field are weaker than we are. They try to show off in front of us. They don’t keep their head about them. I would hate to see that happen to you if you got a girlfriend and she joined us out here. I’m not sure fighting alongside them is a good thing. At least not for a little while.” Elizabeth was as level headed as always. She always gave everything a lot of thought, and this was something that had definitely been on her mind before now.

”Enough with the romance talk. Save that for when we are at home. We need to keep our head in the game when we are out here. Never know when a Lizalfos group is gonna try to ambush us.” Ban had stayed out of the previous conversation, as had Samanosuke. Both of them keeping watch for any signs of enemies. Lizalfos, Leevers, and Like Like’s could be lurking anywhere out here after all. It was then that Ban noticed something strange about Samanosuke. ”Hey Samanosuke. Why are you carrying around two masks all of a sudden? Worried you’re gonna lose one mid battle and need to replace it?”

”I was wondering who was going to see the second mask and ask me about that.” Samanosuke would pull a strange looking ring from his adventure pouch and hold it up for the rest of them to see. ”It’s the ring that bandit leader had from our last mission. Yousef told me to go ahead and hold onto it. Said it’s an extremely rare and powerful ring known as a Ring of Deuce.” As he continued to speak he would place the ring back into his adventure pouch.

”When I put it on it creates an exact copy of me. It has all of my gear, and can use all of my techniques. Can speak, act, and think on its own. It’s like I have a twin brother while wearing it basically. The only difference is that the copy is like a mirror image. Physically, not morally. I’m right handed he’s left handed. Things like that. There are some downsides with the ring that I have to be careful about. If either I or the copy die then the other one falls into a comatose state. It takes very powerful healing magic to bring us out of that state. That said, if we touch our rings together we reform and keep all the knowledge, memories, etcetera that the other made when we merge. So technically I could have put it on and left the copy with Malory, or sent it with y’all. I’m just not quite comfortable doing that yet.” It was a bit of a long explanation for just one item, but it seemed well worth it so that his companions would understand the risks of him using in the future.

As Kasuto Stronghold came into view Samanosuke would slow his camel and let Ban take the lead. He knew where they were going to meet up with the weapon smith after all. Ban took the lead and his first stop. The stables. Their camels needed to be swapped out before they headed out again with yet another extra member on their team.

Elizabeth headed towards the stable master with the camel in tow. ”You four go ahead and meet up with the weapon smith. Since my weapon doesn’t need any work I’ll take care of things here and catch up with you at the forge.” With that said Elizabeth would move past her group and up to the stable master. She knew that there wasn’t going to be any arguments from them after all.

”Good afternoon sir. I have five camels here that just made the trip from here to Ruto and back again. I’m going to need to turn them back over to you and swap them out for five fresh ones, and add a sixth. We are going on an escort mission and will need an extra when we return. Is that going to be any problem?” Polite and courteous as always Elizabeth’s words charmed the stable master.

”No problem at all missy. No extra charge for the new camel either. You and your friends always do so much around these parts after all.” The old stable master knew of the groups exploits in Southern Hyrule and had already given them a discount, and was now throwing in an extra camel free of charge.

”Thank you so much. I better be going then. We will see you tomorrow morning to pick up our camels. Have a good day sir.” With that Elizabeth would start making her way towards the forge that the rest of her companions should be at already.

While Elizabeth was dealing with the merchant the other four had left and made their way towards the local forge where the weapon smith had taken up residence while waiting to find an escort across the desert. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle himself, but rather that he didn’t know the area and didn’t want to get lost.

As the approached the forge the sound of a hammer striking an anvil echoed out, and once they entered they would spot a large, armored smith hard at work. The sound of footstep caused him to halt his hammer and look up at the group. ”You must be my escorts. How much is this expedition going to cost me having a four man group take me across the desert?” The smith didn’t want to waste any time and cut straight to the heart of the matter.

”Actually there are five of us that will be escorting you. Our other member is handling things at the stable right now. As for cost. We discussed this on the way here and would like to make a deal with you. All of our weapons could use a smith’s touch to get them back to pristine condition. My weapons in particular need to be completely reforged anew. So total that would be three longswords, two katanas, a spear, and a mirror shield we are asking you to work on as payment. How does that sound to you?” Samanosuke being the leader was the one that had to handle the negotiations and had stepped to the front of his group.

Taking a moment to eye their weapons the smith would see the sorry state of the two katanas in question, but noticed that the rest of the gear wasn’t as badly damaged. ”Sounds fair. Leave your weapons here with me and I will have them all finished by tomorrow morning. We can set out for my destination then.” The smith would stand up straight and take a few steps towards the group before realizing that he hadn’t given them his name yet. ”I’m Benkei Waghond, a traveling weapon smith. Good to meet you all.”

Samanosuke would remove his katanas from his belt and hold them out to the smith. ”I’m Samanosuke Shinomori, with me are Ban, Jared, and Alia Neldem. Joining us will be their sister Elizabeth.” As he spoke their names the samurai would motion towards each of them.

”A pleasure.” As he spoke Benkei would take the katanas from Samanosuke and walk back towards the forge. He would draw one of the katanas and start to inspect it. He was already focused on the task before him.

Ban, Jared, and Alia would set their gear down on a nearby counter and head out with Samanosuke. They were free for the rest of the day, but decided to wait at the forge for Elizabeth to join them before setting out to find the inn they would be staying in tonight. They didn’t have to wait long though as Elizabeth had only been a few minutes behind them and the stables and forge were fairly close to each other.

Now that their group was whole again they would set off moving through Kasuto looking for the inn. Samanosuke moved through the city like he had lived there his entire life. Once they reached the inn the young samurai would stop and look at his companions. ”Ban why don’t you, Jared, and Elizabeth get our rooms sorted out, while Alia and I go and procure the supplies needed for the trip. Need to get enough for six people for an unknown amount of days after all. We did forget to ask where we were going to be escorting him to.”

Ban would nod his head as Samanosuke and Alia headed off towards the marketplace. Meanwhile he and his other two siblings would head into the inn. They would approach the counter and be greeted by the female Hylian on the other side. ”Good afternoon! Two rooms, or three?”

”We need two rooms. One double and one triple. We have a few other members that will be joining us after the get some supplies for our upcoming mission.” Stated Elizabeth dryly.

”Coming right up. Just give me a moment.” Turning around the female Hylian would flip through a few pages in a book checking the room availability. Once she was done with that she would retrieve two keys from their hooks and set them down on the counter.

Jared would retrieve the keys and set some rupees down on the countertop in their place. He was in a bit of a rush to kick back and relax after travelling across the desert twice in one day. He couldn’t wait to take a shower and go to sleep. He really wasn’t looking forward to spending an unknown amount of days in the desert, but a job was a job.

Heading upstairs Jared would find his room and head on in and head straight to the shower, while Ban sat down on one of the beds and began to remove his armor. Once he had shed all of his armor and his boots, he would lay back on his bed and slowly drift off to sleep, somehow managing to block out his brothers horrible attempt at singing while he showered.

Elizabeth would enter her and her sister’s room and sit down at the desk and begin reading a book on magic. There was still plenty of time for her to get in some light reading before she needed to turn in for the night and she had recently found a book detailing a technique that becomes easier to learn after mastering all six of the basic elemental spells. It was definitely something that she was wanting to look into. So far she had mastered both the Fire spell and the Holy Bolt spell. Only four more elements to go before she wanted to attempt to learn this cannon shout technique.

While Ban, Jared, and Elizabeth were getting comfortable in their rooms, Samanosuke and Alia had been walking through the marketplace picking up a variety of supplies. From food, snacks, and bandages to healing salves and snacks. On their way back towards the inn Alia would speak up. ”Hey Samanosuke, do you think I could be more helpful in battle?”

”What are you talking about Alia? You’re plenty helpful in battle. What made you bring this up so suddenly?” Samanosuke had a feeling he knew what this was about but wanted to hear it from Alia herself.

”Well compared to Ban, Jared, and You I only know two techniques and one of them is really difficult to use most of the time because I don’t want to hurt any of you.” Alia was no longer looking at Samanosuke and instead was looking down at the ground, obviously a little embarrassed.

”While that may be true you handle your spear very well. It’s true that Urabosa’s Fury has a very wide range making it difficult to use when we are around. If that’s how you feel though why don’t you ask Jared or Elizabeth to help you out. You could learn some more combat skills, or maybe you could even learn some other lightning based magic’s with your sister’s help.” The way he answered her couldn’t be seen as he thinks she needs to learn more skills to use, but rather if she feels she isn’t helpful that she could learn more to help ease her own mind.

”You’re right! I can just learn more! Then if I have the chance to safely use Urabosa’s Fury I still have the option of using it. Thanks Samanosuke! I’ll talk to Liz about this when we get back to the inn.” Alia’s mood had completely changed. She was happy and excited by the thought of learning a few new skills to help her be more useful in battle. Now all she needed to do was talk to her sister about it. Maybe she would even know a few good spells or techniques she could start with.

As they stepped into the inn Alia would rush towards the desk with a smile on her face. ”Three guys came in a little earlier, should have said they had a few more people coming. Can you let us know which rooms you gave them so we can jo….”

Before she could finish her sentence Jared came around the corner and spotted the two of them. While seeing Alia happy wasn’t an unusual sight, but the jittery happiness that she was giving off right now was. ”What’s got you all happy sis? Meet the man of your dreams?”

”Oh shut up Jared. Just tell me where the rooms are I need to talk to Liz. Like right now!” Jared wasn’t going to be able to bring her mood down. Not when she finally had the solution she should have come up with ages ago. She wasn’t even going to bother with their typical back and forth banter like she normally would have. No, she needed to talk to her sister about this and the sooner the better.

”Alright alright, jeez. Up the stairs fourth door on the left for you. Fourth on the right for you Samanosuke if you’re in a rush to get to the room too. Ban is already asleep.” Jared had no idea what was going on but fully intended to ask Samanosuke as soon as Alia took off.

Soon as she heard which door was theirs Alia would bolt up the stairs as quickly as she could and into the room with her sister. ”LIZ! I need your help! Teach me some magic. Something anything. I’m not picky!”

Elizabeth would quickly set her book down and spin around to face her seemingly frantic sister. She was worried something had happened. ”Slow down Alia. What’s going on? Why the sudden interest in magic? Why do you need it?”

Taking a deep breath Alia would calm herself so she could better explain things to her sister. ”Okay, listen. I’ve been feeling useless on the battlefield when comparing myself to the rest of you. I want you to teach me some magic that I can use more freely than Urabosa’s Fury so that I’m not just stuck with my spin attack and spear each battle. Think you can help? I know you’ve read up about all different kinds of magic.”

Shaking her head Elizabeth would give a small laugh. Here she was. Worried for nothing. ”Of course I can help, but I’d hope we could start by narrowing things down a bit instead of thinking of all the different magics. How about more lightning spells? After all Urabosa’s Fury is one and it is quite the feat to have mastered that already. Why not expand upon you magic by keeping it in the same family as what you already know.”

The younger sister would stop and think for a moment. ”Why do you want me to specialize like that when you know both fire and holy magic?”

”It’s because I think lightning spells come to you more easily than others. If they do, why not double down and learn them. For me no magic comes to me more easily than others, which I actually like. It will allow me to pick up an array of different spells to support the party with. I plan on extending this into healing magic as well as support magic possibly. It’s my job to be in the back Alia. You are one of our front line fighters, so I’d also like to start you off with closer range spells, or possibly techniques, that won’t change up our formations. We can expand upon things after that. Does that sound good to you?” She knew it probably wasn’t the answer her sister wanted to hear but it was the answer she was giving.

Soon as she heard which door was theirs Alia would bolt up the stairs as quickly as she could and into the room with her sister. ”LIZ! I need your help! Teach me some magic. Something anything. I’m not picky!”

Elizabeth would quickly set her book down and spin around to face her seemingly frantic sister. She was worried something had happened. ”Slow down Alia. What’s going on? Why the sudden interest in magic? Why do you need it?”

Taking a deep breath Alia would calm herself so she could better explain things to her sister. ”Okay, listen. I’ve been feeling useless on the battlefield when comparing myself to the rest of you. I want you to teach me some magic that I can use more freely than Urabosa’s Fury so that I’m not just stuck with my spin attack and spear each battle. Think you can help? I know you’ve read up about all different kinds of magic.”

Shaking her head Elizabeth would give a small laugh. Here she was. Worried for nothing. ”Of course I can help, but I’d hope we could start by narrowing things down a bit instead of thinking of all the different magics. How about more lightning spells? After all Urabosa’s Fury is one and it is quite the feat to have mastered that already. Why not expand upon you magic by keeping it in the same family as what you already know.”

The younger sister would stop and think for a moment. ”Why do you want me to specialize like that when you know both fire and holy magic?”

”It’s because I think lightning spells come to you more easily than others. If they do, why not double down and learn them. For me no magic comes to me more easily than others, which I actually like. It will allow me to pick up an array of different spells to support the party with. I plan on extending this into healing magic as well as support magic possibly. It’s my job to be in the back Alia. You are one of our front line fighters, so I’d also like to start you off with closer range spells, or possibly techniques, that won’t change up our formations. We can expand upon things after that. Does that sound good to you?” She knew it probably wasn’t the answer her sister wanted to hear but it was the answer she was giving.

Alia would give a sigh as she flopped down onto one of the beds. ”Okay fiiiiiine. Do you already have something in mind?”

”I do actually. The first is the shock enchantment spell for your weapon, and the second is thunder breath. I’m actually glad you agreed to my suggestion as both of these will not only make you more versatile, but also allow you take on heavily armored foes, which will reduce the burden on Ban as he is currently the only one that can handle them in our group. Lightning is a powerful element. Once you have mastered these, I can give you a list of other lightning based spells and techniques and let you decide which you would like my help in learning.” Elizabeth had a smile on her face as she looked over at her sister laying back on the bed. It may not have been what she originally thought she would learn, nor as powerful as what she probably wanted to learn. Still in time she would come to realize just how powerful of a force lightning is.

Meanwhile in the lobby Jared had begun pestering Samanosuke about his sister. ”Alright spill it. What’s going on with Alia? I’ve never seen her THAT happy before.” It wasn’t a bad thing that his sister was happy. He was just curious about what it was that she wouldn’t tell him.

”It’s not my place to say Jared and you know that. Just ask her again tomorrow. I’m sure she is planning on telling you and Ban about it. No need to have her say it once for each of you though is there?” Samanosuke would place his hand on Jared shoulder as he walked past him towards their room. ”Don’t stay up too late. We have a mission tomorrow and don’t know exactly where we are heading just yet.” Once Samanosuke reached their room he would do the same thing Ban did. He would remove his armor and lay down on one of the open beds and slowly drift off to sleep.

”Okay dad, I won’t.” Jared was the older of the two of them and the youngest of the siblings. Samanosuke had been appointed their leader due to his more fast knowledge in strategy and tactics over his older brother Ban. The siblings had been in agreement to it, but there were times that the youngest of the group being the leader felt odd. Moments like just now in fact.

Shaking the thoughts from his mind Jared would set off out the door to the inn and towards the forge. As the forge came into site he would notice that the large doors to the forge were closed. Stopping in his tracks Jared would realize there was no further point in moving forward. The client clearly didn’t want to be disturbed while working and there were no windows for him to look through to see how much progress had already been made.

With a sigh he would turn and head back towards the inn. There was nothing no longer any reason for him to be out anymore. He had planned on peeking on the smith’s progress and seeing about getting some information on where they were headed before tomorrow. Oh well it was no big loss as they were told their weapons would be done by morning and that was when they would find out their destination anyway. Heading back into the inn Jared would head straight up to their room, remove his boots and lay down on the third bed.

The night would pass by quietly while the five of them slept soundly in their beds. As the sun began to peek through their windows they would all slowly wake up one at a time. The first to wake up was Ban who would sit up in his bed and rub his eyes. He would slip his boots back on before putting his armor back and on heading downstairs to wait for the rest of his group to wake up. He would sit down at the bar and order himself a drink and some eggs for breakfast while he waited for everyone else to wake up.

The next to wake up would be the girls. Of course they wouldn’t be in as big of a hurry to get ready and get downstairs as Ban had been. They took their time to get ready while picking up their conversation from the previous night. ”Hey Liz. Let’s keep this between the two of us. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up if it turns out I can’t learn the spells you are wanting to help me learn.” Alia felt like a burden to the group, even if no one else that she traveled with felt that way about her.

”Listen here little sister. You wouldn’t be getting anyone’s hopes up telling them about this, but if you want to keep it between us I will abide by your wishes. You are the only one that doubts your usefulness though. Just remember that.” Elizabeth was once again trying to set her sisters mind at ease, though she felt like until Alia learned these new spells, she wouldn’t stop being so harsh on herself.

”Thanks sis. I know you’re probably right, but I still want to keep it between the two of us for now.” Her sister’s words did make her feel better, but they didn’t erase her sense of inferiority that she felt when comparing herself to the rest of her family and Samanosuke. Until she learned more spells or techniques to use in battle Alia wasn’t going to stop being so harsh on herself. The girls conversation would switch from serious to more lighthearted girl talk after that as they continued to get ready for the days ahead of them, laughter filling the room.

Samanosuke and Jared would wake up about the same time. The two of them would get ready in silence and head downstairs. As they stepped into the hallway they could hear Alia and Elizabeth laughing, but didn’t bother to knock on their door to rush them knowing full well they would get an ear full from Elizabeth if they attempted to do something like that.

The two of them would join Ban at the bar while they waited for the girls to join them. They would both order the same thing that Ban had. ”So are the two of you ready to see how our equipment turned out? Hopefully forgoing a monetary reward doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass and this smith is skilled at what he does.” Jared had harbored doubts of this unknown traveling smiths skills, but had kept them to himself knowing that Samanosuke had needed two new weapons more than any of them. Voicing his thoughts now wouldn’t make much of a difference since the deal had already been struck.

”Too late to complain now little brother. If you had doubts about the smith’s skills you should have voiced those concerns when we first discussed him tending to our weapons as a reward, not now that he should be done with them.” Ban would refute his brother’s complaints. They were all for nothing at this point in time anyway. The deal was made, and that couldn’t be changed as the smith had most assuredly held up his end of their bargain already.

The boys would continue their discussion calmly and civilly, clamming up once the girls showed up on the stairs. None of them wanted to get an earful over arguing about something that couldn’t be changed by Elizabeth. The girls would sit down at the bar with the rest of their companions and each order something to eat. It seemed like none of them were in too big of a rush to get back to the smith and start their trek through the dessert.

There was silence for a moment before Samanosuke spoke up. ”I hope everyone slept well. We know what we have planned for today so I’m not going to bring that up. I just wanted to say thank you for bringing knowledge of this smith to my attention. I really was dreading the trip to Castle Town that I was going to have to make. I’m honestly not sure my weapons would have held together long enough to get there. I don’t know how far this escort mission is going to take us, but I know we will be able to get through it without issue. I’m going to head over to the forge to meet with the smith and see if I can’t find out where exactly we are taking him and start planning out a route. Once each of you are done eating and ready come join me there.” After saying his peace, Samanosuke would stand up and walk out of the inn and head for the forge.

The family of four would just watch him leave, not saying a word. There was nothing that they needed to say to him after all. Once Samanosuke had left Jared would immediately turn and face Alia. ”Alright sis, spill it. What had you so happy yesterday and in such a rush to talk to Liz?” Jared had been pondering on it most of the night and all of the morning since he woke up. He just had to know what had caused such a change in his sister.

The look that Alia shot back at her brother was nothing short of one that could have killed him. ”It’s none of your business! If I was going to tell you I would have told you last night when you asked. Just drop it!” The reason for her silence was due to her embarrassment over feeling useless compared to her companions. Her mother did teach her a powerful ability, but it was one that she couldn’t utilize in the middle of a team fight. It was best for if she were to get ambushed while alone and she didn’t like that. She felt like their parents failed her, by limiting her usefulness to her siblings in battle.

As Jared went to speak again he felt a firm grip on his shoulder while catching a much deadlier look from Elizabeth. It seemed like his two eldest siblings were thinking roughly the same thing causing Jared to stop and take a deep breath. He would shrug his brother’s grip from his shoulder and turn back to facing his meal. He would eat in silence without another word. Alia would spin around in her seat and get up and leave the inn without a word leaving her meal only half eaten. She was headed to join Samanosuke at the forge.

With Alia gone Ban would smack Jared in the back of the head. ”Way to go. There’s a time and place to be pushy little brother. Just before a mission isn’t it. We need everyone to work together if anything happens. I know neither of you would ever let anything happen to the other over something like this, but with you two on the outs you may not look out for each other as much as normal.” Ban would sigh as he stood up. ”You have to apologize to her before we leave this town. Do you understand me?” Ban wasn’t happy with the situation, but wasn’t going to wait for Jared to respond before he himself headed out of the inn.

Jared would look over at Elizabeth, but before he could speak she would cut him off.”Before you ask. No. I’m not going to tell you what we talked about. She isn’t going to talk to anyone about it. You just have to be okay with that. Everyone is entitled to their own secrets so long as they don’t impact your mission performance. We may be family but we don’t have to tell each other everything all the time. This is why you’re single you know. You don’t know how to handle women.” With that Elizabeth would stand up and leave the inn and make her way towards the forge.

Jared was left alone at the bar. While he wasn’t stuck with the bill for everyone, he was left with a lot to think about. ”Was I really so out of line for asking her again?” The young Hylian was just musing out loud and wasn’t expecting an answer to his question, but that is exactly what he would get is an answer. A Kokiri from a nearby table would speak up to answer the young man’s question. ”Yes you were. When a woman doesn’t want to talk about something, telling her to ‘spill it’ is a horrible decision really.” Spinning around in his seat Jared would look down at the Kokiri and force a smile.

”I see. Thank you for your input, but I was just thinking out…” The female Kokiri would cut him off with a stern look. ”I know. I also know that you really don’t want to talk to me about this, but I suggest you shut up and listen boy. After all how often do you get to talk to someone with century’s worth of knowledge on a subject that also happens to fall in line with the gender you need help with? That’s a rhetorical question, don’t answer that. I overheard everything that was said just now, and frankly if she wanted to talk to the other girl in private about something then that’s where you need to leave it alone. If she wants to talk about it with you after you have already asked about it, let her bring it up first.” With all of that said the female Kokiri would stand up and vanish from sight via magic not giving the boy a chance to respond. That seemed to be the pattern for the day, but Jared didn’t seem to mind. His mind was cleared up and he knew he owed it to that Kokiri. Standing up Jared would leave the inn and head for the forge.

As Samanosuke approached the forge it was eerily quiet. Stepping in he would find Benkei waiting beside a table with all of his groups gear laid out neatly. Each piece sparkling like they were brand new. ”Good morning Benkei. I hope you managed to get some sleep last night.” The young Hylian continued forward towards the table as he spoke.

”I slept enough, do not worry about that. Please take your katanas and inspect them. See if my work meets your standards.” The smith would wave his arm over the gear on the table as he spoke.

Samanosuke would pick up both of his katanas and slide them through his belt and adjust them on his hips. They felt lighter than before, which was a little worrisome. Turning away from Benkei he would quickly draw both of his blade and give them a few good swings before holding them up to examine the blades. After inspecting the blades he would return them to their sheathes and turn back towards Benkei. ”Their balance is perfect, but I will admit I’m a little worried about their weight. Will they be any less durable with the reduced weight?”