The Missing Husband

Rudolf continued up the dark creepy hill. As he traveled slowly he realized all the grass turned into to dirt and all the trees began to slowly look more dead until they finally all lacked any leafs. The trees were very fragile too, he was sure a heavy storm would blow their rotted trunk in half.

He walked past one true and it gained a face and smacked him to the ground with a branch, upon inspection Rudolf realized nothing was there. It was as if the tree turned back to normal, or as normal as a dead tree can get. He wanted nothing more but to find this mansion quickly.

This job was definitely outside of Kinoso's comfort zone. But it was worth the cash. 50 rupees to find some stupid husband in some stupid house. With his faithful companion leading the way and dragging his merchant cart and his equally faithful but more annoying companion floating around his head, Kinoso plowed forth with glee on his face. The day was simply too perfect, and nothing could go wrong.

Unfortunately, the glee and happiness started dying as the environment started dying the closer Kinoso got to his destination. "Odd," said the Kokiri, "Hey Le'ip, what do you make of this?" His question stemmed from the curious nature of the grass. The patches grew smaller and smaller, and farther down the road, he could only see a few blades of grass growing in the barren dirt. The trees, sparse as they were, were all naked. As Kinoso rode forth, all forms of life seemed to be snuffed, which gave the atmosphere a very desolate and ominous feeling. Not even the bugs and other scavenger organisms wanted to be in a place that invited only death.

"I have no idea, but it's giving me the shivers," said Le'ip. Her cheerful float around his head turned into a fearful hover next to his cheek.

The horse didn't like it either, but Kinoso urged the horse forth. "Come on," he said to the frightened beast, "There's no reason to be afraid, nothing's gonna hurt you. I'll make sure of it."

Castus moved through the trees, leaf-less as they were, they could still harbour the enemy, ready to ambush the young warrior. The road was too obvious a choice any bandits or animals to stalk, so sticking to the woods would let him turn the surprise, an advantage he couldn't pass up.

He had decided to come to the house because of a spirit that had kidnapped a man from the village, and was supposedly quite powerful indeed. The type of quest and opponent he couldn't pass up. The experience of fighting a supernatural entity was too much, that knowledge, that test of skill and strength could do more for him than any normal being ever could. There doesn't seem to be an end to what he could learn from it.

Soon he came across a child on the ground and seemingly injured, and cautiously approached; not knowing what form the spirit would take.

A haunted house... What an excellent research opportunity... The Crane knew very well that regardless of the validity of these rumors, people would be attracted, and people would be afraid. Oftentimes it's patients minds played more tricks than it did itself. 

The shadowy entity waited in darkness near the house, taking note of it's desolation from civilization. Oh, the information it could get from this... People would flock to it and weep their fears to it, begging the Crane to banish the illusions they thought far too real. 

The claw dug into a tree as beneath the golden mask, tongue darted over eager lips and ears perked, at the ready to hear the screams and fears of it's new patients. 

Rudolf continued into the mansion and noticed it's creaky floorboards, dusty interior, broken ceilings. This was definitely run down to saw the least. Rudolf of course pretended to be perfectly fine, but was quite frightened. Suddenly Rudolf heard the door creek behind him. He quickly hid behind some furniture. The sofa was wet, and moldy. The smell was disgusting, but Rudolf had to focus, who or what was entering the house.

Eventually, the horse no longer wanted to continue forth, which was not too much of a problem since the house was not too far off. He gave the horse's rear a good thwack with the flat end of the sword, which sent the horse running back to the stable outside Hyrule Castle Town.

Kinoso walked towards the house, and as he got closer, his stride lessened. By the time he had reached the house, he was silently tip-toeing. He crept up to a window in the side. There were sharp shards of glass that remained, and the frame was completely deformed through age. A musty smell radiated through the window and caught Kinoso's sensitive nose. Mold. Lots of it. Which meant that the roof was leaking water horribly. The wood had aged poorly as well, so he would have to watch his step.

Suddenly, he heard something. The creak of the old wooden floor squeaked its way through the house. Someone or something was in the house already. Whoever was in there was on the first floor, so he went around the house to get another view of the house. There was a small mound underneath another window, so Kinoso stepped onto the mound ...

Only to realize that it was the entrance to the cellar underneath the manse, and it did not take much weight for the cellar doors to give way.

Castus soon had the house in sight, it was obvious that it played host to little more than rats or the occasional lost travel in the last hundred years. Even to the secluded martial artist knew such architecture, much less condition, of the building made it at least a few generations old.

Creeping close to one of the broken windows, he peered inside; the interior was worse than the outside as the dead mouse in the corner quickly gave away, much less the disintegrating furniture, rotting walls and displaced floorboards. Still, it was what he was told, and climbed through the window and into the dingy mansion.

The floorboards made sure that anyone else knew he was inside.

The Crane moved up to the mansion's porch, then chuckled as it saw people begin to arrive. "Like flies to a carcass..." With a swish of it's billowing cloaks, the being went into the mansion before the others arrived.

First it would go to the basement, to get a bearing on where her patients were dispersing to. As it reached it's position, a crash was heard to it's left, the kokiri crashing through the cellar doors from the outside. 

The Crane immediately took to the darkest shadow it could find, muttering it's foul incantation under it's breath as images and thoughts of that terrible day flooded it's mind. With fear being focused on, fear poured out, seeping into the air in that familiar miasma from the corner where the Crane lurked, it's cloaks forming the perfect camouflage. 

(OoC: Kinoso has C5, so it's fully up to you what happens. It could literally have no effect on him if you so desired.)

Loading a bow into his quiver he used the arrow as a sight of a gun, aiming at the door. What creeped in? Nothing other than a Hylian, a large one at that. This opposition seemed to let off some kind of aura of arrogance. Rudolf didn't quite like this guy, but facts were facts and he hasn't threatened anything as of now.

Taking up the gruffiest voice he could possibly make, "What is your business here?" The Kokiri's voice seemed totally out of place with such a harsh sounding phrase. The Boy still had his bow aimed at the Hylian who would probably be caught of guard at the very least.

It wasn't a big fall, but the surprise and the landing on his shoulder did not prevent the aching in his body. He got up slowly and surveyed his surroundings. The room was dark, but several windows were flooding light in. Several old support beams were scattered appropriately throughout the cellar, but they were in such bad shape that Kinoso was concerned at whether the house would collapse on him or not. Old furniture littered the cellar. Since most of the moisture from the rain collected at the bottom, the musty smell of mold was strongest here. Kinoso could almost feel himself getting sicker with every breath he inhaled.

An earsplitting creak. Whoever made that noise was big and was on the first floor. He dashed behind an old dresser and withdrew his dagger.

Nothing in sight yet. He silently crept from furniture to furniture so as not to be seen by whoever was in the house, but he realized that was the least of his worries. A dark gas was creeping towards him, and its source seemed to be taking a shape of its own. As it formed, he recognized the form. It was the man who once owned the slaver business who planned on selling Kinoso. It was also the first Hylian Kinoso had ever killed. This was the man who started Kinoso on the track to become a killer. He revived the killing instincts again and dashed towards the gaseous figure. On the way, he drew his longsword, and then he swung the dagger upward followed by a powerful sword swing. The figure disappeared, but the gas was still there.

He quickly realized that the gas was no place for him to be, so he quickly dashed out of it and used his cloak to hide in the dark, shadowy parts of the cellar. The gas continued making its way, covering the various couches, dressers, and other tables.

Castus instinctively ducked and pushed off to the side as the high-yet-gruff voice filled the air. Chancing a glance to the voice, he saw the source was just a small child with a bow and arrow, the arrows were probably blunted too. After all, who would send their 8-year old son, alone, to a spooky mansion armed with real weapons?

He left his safety and calmly walked over to the not-so-threatening boy, ruffling his green hair when he approached. "You shouldn't be here kid, go back to town and play. There are things here that'll rip you apart if you look away for even a moment..." The Hylian trailed off as he noticed the arrow in the bow was in fact real and sharp, he soon saw a much larger bow on his back and knife that looked all too real.

'Looks like someone does send their kid with real weapons.' he thought, and was about to ask about it when a loud crash came from the floor below them.

The Crane examined the kokiri's motions. Drawing his blade with no hesitation... It'd seen people lash out at their visions, but few with such confidence. It wrote, silent and in flawless penmanship, noting that his fear was perhaps someone who'd scorned him or hurt him. Revenge was likely somewhere in the equation...

It lightly closed it's notebook, the Crane a little too close for comfort to the kokiri boy. Picking up a small piece of glass, it threw it onto the other side of him to distract as the specral being dashed from one shadow to another further away, a light swoosh from it's cloaks. Hopefully the glass distracted him well enough...

He took the words the man spoke in his head and decided to not take his eyes off the stranger. "First of all I am not a kid and second of all do you have men attacking from the basement?" quizzed Rudolf. "Is this some sort of ambush?"

Rudolf was concerned with the crash but who had time to react to anything, Rudolf was concerned with this man and his strange swagger. "Now I asked you a question, what is your business here?"

A piece of glass hit the ground. Then the soft sound of a swoosh came from the opposite direction. The shard of glass was obviously a decoy, but the dark gas was not very helpful in locating his new "friend". Kinoso dashed towards the source of the sound, dodging past old furniture on the way, but when he reached the relative area where the source of the swoosh came from, there was no one there. "Damn," he cursed aloud to himself. Well, there was no sense in staying in the disease-ridden basement anymore. He looked for the nearest exit. The stair leading out of the cellar were destroyed, so he would have to go upstairs to exit and find out what made the creaking sound.

He stepped onto the first step, and a loud crack resonated throughout the house. There was almost no way he could maneuver through this house without making a single sound.

"Not a child?" Castus chuckled to himself "So you think that coming to the big, scary mansion will make you a man? Not if you need those things to face a few rats and 'ghosts', use your own fists to fight, so that way it's you fighting, not the sword." He advised, almost mockingly and turned toward the stairwell leading down.

"Well you came here by yourself, you did it, now go home kid; I'm going to find out whats downstairs, there's apparently someone stuck in here and I won't carry two people back." He spoke behind him, dismissing the Kokiri as a mere adventurous child.

The Crane gave a soft breath of relief when it's newest subject got so close to finding it. But alas, he still failed. As he hurriedly walked away, it noted in it's book that he seemed to display excellent perceptions of his surroundings, though whether these were natural or due to paranoia was yet to be seen.

When the kokiri went upstairs, the Crane knew that it would follow in a few minutes. Too soon and it risked being caught. The house itself would reveal their locations anyway. Speaking of 'they'... perhaps whomever was also upstairs could provide as good of information. Putting the notebook away, it prepared to follow. The Crane's questions would be answered shortly.

Rudolf shot off an arrow which narrowly missed the arrogant adult, or course the miss was on purpose. The arrow whizzed by his left ear and stuck into the wall. "I won't miss next time. And I am going to be the one saving the man from this mean ole house. And afterwards I'll carry him AND you out of here!" Rudolf yelled back excitedly at the man probably alerting everything in the mansion of their whereabouts.

Yofa popped out from Rudolf's collar and began to scold him. "Just because he is being arrogant doesn't mean you can walk around like you're on a pedestal."

Kinoso froze when the wooden board on the steps screeched. By some luck of the Goddess of Fortune, a loud thunk was heard elsewhere at the same time the creak happened. He had no time to figure out what made that sound, so he took a bold leap up the steps, took another leap, and opened the door as quickly as he could. Of course, the door's creak also revealed to everyone in the mansion where Kinoso was, but that would only be relevant if he stayed there.

Without looking, he dashed to his immediate right and intended to roll to safety in a dark corner where he could blend in with the darkness. But as he was about to start his roll, he bumped into something solid. He looked up and saw a tall, skinny, and old man wearing something formal. "Remember what your father said, master. There is to be no running in the house!" the old man said while shaking his finger.

Another voice captured his attention. A child's voice bellowed from the opposite side of the house, "And afterwards, I'll carry him AND you out of here!" This house was already starting to live up to its rumors. Kinoso turned his head back to the old man, only to find that empty space had replaced his presence. Then who the hell did he just run into just now?

That wasn't important now. Kinoso needed to investigate the other voice coming from the other side of the house. He pressed himself against a wall and peered around the dusty corner. Then he saw the large, topless Hylian. Whoever he was, he wasn't the one was screaming just now. Then again, Kinoso had seen enough things in his life that if the man had a child's voice, he would not be too surprised. He saw an arrow buried into a spot on the wall which was close to the man's head. Kinoso peered around the corner even more, risking more exposure, and saw ... a kokiri.

The surprise hit him hard. Other than Keiliegh, he had not seen a Kokiri in four decades, let alone one outside of the Kokiri Forest. He hid around the corner again and took a deep breath in to calm his nerves. However, he inhaled quite a bit of dust from the walls as he turned away, and then felt a sneeze coming in. Not now, not now, he thought and finally let out a stifled version of his sneeze ... next to the large, possibly aggressive, Hylian. Crap ...

Castus calmly stopped as the arrow nearly grazed him, "You'll need a hell of a lot better aim if you mean that..." In truth he knew that the archer probably missed on purpose, even the worst of bowmen could hit such a target at a few feet. "And what the hell are you gonna carry? You can barely lift that bow. Now go home squirt, I've gotta find out what made that noi- gesundheit"

With that he noticed another small child at the door... with real weapons. He pinched his nose in frustration, who the fuck is giving small children swords and pointing at the scary mansion on the hill? "There, take him, you have your friend or brother or whoever the hell he is, now you can go chug milk with your little friends while I do what I came here for." he retorted; brushing past the second one.

'I swear, if there's one of these then they're the ones doing the kidnapping.'

(Sorry for taking so long, school and some personal things happened)

The Crane moved up the stairs, a shadow drifting amongst it’s brethren. It took a position nearby the other people, all of them too distracted with eachother to focus on it. The creature then took out it’s notebook once more, noting these new people. Another child, somewhat similar to the first in build... Perhaps some relation? And the man was scolding them, but seemed to not know anything about them... He seemed rather ignorant... The Crane knew those people screamed the loudest. So sure fear could never touch them...

But alas, an arrow went right by his head and there was nary a reaction. It’d have to deal with his fears later. For now, it would continue watching, making sure to note all three people’s emotions, and any changes. The first boy possible still had the miasma in his system, so he may see a few things every now and then... Then again, some had been known to have the stuff leave their bodies after just one terror.