It wasn't much longer when there was some knocking on the heavy wooden door to the apothecary. It was followed by Ayls' charming voice as she leaned in and called out to the alchemist. "Orup? I'm here," she announced, pushing the door open gently. She'd changed into some a blouse and old trousers at Rua's suggestion, knowing they'd do her well if they had to make a run for it at any point, never mind the heavy brush they'd find in the forest. She had a large satchel slung over her shoulder, but its partially deflated appearance showed that there wasn't too much inside of it.
Orup beamed at Ayls as usual, welcoming her in quickly and shutting the door to preserve heat in the room. Mornings in the caves could be cold, after all. It was still early, but the man had managed to overcome most of the morning grog, so he set to work at once. For the next hour or so, he and Alys would scurry around the room, Orup showing her different things and instructing her in simple tasks. Nothing in it was particularly challenging, and for the most part the entire ordeal went smoothly, with Orup only making a couple of mistakes because he was still tired. After an hour's time, he felt sufficiently ready to depart from his shop, his timepiece showing that the sun was probably already on the move. It occurred to him, though, that he had not actually chosen a specific location to meet, so he turned to Ayls with a casual laugh, scratching the back of his head passingly, "I think that will about do it, Miss Larawn. See? Nothing too taxing about that, though the real work should be a bit more interesting when it comes! Well then, shall we depart?" He gave her a satisfied nod, signalling that he would follow her wherever she thought Rua might be. Pulling the straps of his rucksack in a little bit tighter, the man adjusted the large bulk of traveling equipment that he figured he would need, though it was probably a bit excessive still. While he'd given Ayls a good portion of the ingredients, he felt apprehensive about saddling the woman with any real weight, so he would have to make the best he could with the weight. He liked to imagine it wouldn't be an issue, anyway.
As Orup had promised her, learning how to perform the tasks she'd be needed for wasn't really that difficult for her to figure out. In some ways, it was even similar to the process of brewing she'd learned from her father. That in itself bothered her a bit, at the back of her mind--brewing was harder than it looked, especially when you're working with poor equipment and trying to make decent alcohol. Orup had told her beforehand that all of what he was teaching her was really basic stuff for alchemists. Just how hard did this profession of his get? After a while she'd learned what she needed to know, and Orup's excitement ensured he was ready to head off to the forest, and he'd handed her some of the packed gear they'd need before before she lead him out of the apothecary and through the tunnels. "Rua's waiting on us. He's a bit lucky, since he doesn't need much to get ready," she remarked with a forced smile, knowing that Rua's frequent trips meant he never had much to pack, and was always ready to leave at a moment's notice. His life was so transient, she wondered if it could be called a life at all. "I packed us some meals to last us the night, but Rua says he'll have to hunt for the remainder of the nights we're in the Kokiri Forest."
Following Ayls through the tunnels, Orup all but rubbed his hands together in pleasure when he found out that she had brought them all food. He was no glutton--certainly not! but he did love a good meal whenever he could get his hands on it. Already his stomach was craving that morning breakfast that he'd crammed into his bag before he'd left. Thankfully this time he had thought ahead enough to pack it in a way to where he could eat it while walking, since Rua seemed to hate stopping for anything, even an old man's legs. Orup hoped he would be a bit more reasonable now that Ayls was here, at least, but by the way the two interacted sometimes, he was not so sure. Many in the caves thought their promiscuous relationship to be nothing short of appalling, but Orup found he was in no place to judge them. In public he would wrinkle his nose like all the rest if it came up, feigning some amount of disdain, but truthfully he couldn't bring himself to condemn the thing. For all his flaws, Rua was doing a better job than he had. Sighing, he knuckled his mustache and noticed that they were nearing the exits to the caves already. Putting on his best smile for Rua, as always, he prepared to be blinded by the morning sunlight.
Rua was waiting for the two of them just outside of the caves, leaning against the side of its entrance. The mercenary was clad as usual, his blue coat held down by various straps. His ragged cape was held down by his sword, now strapped to his back rather than his waist, and the shield he'd won was leaning against one of his legs. As Ayls and Orup came into view, he corked the bottle of soup in his hands and stowed it away in his own satchel. "Ready to get going?" he asked, pushing up from the wall and picking up his shield. Ayls nodded quickly to him. "We can go whenever you like," she replied, knowing he'd immediately set off to lead them to the forest. He didn't disappoint.
And of course, Orup bumbled along after them, savoring that early-adventure stamina for as long as he could. The man kept his energy up as high as he could, making plenty of a show that he was excited to go. He'd found that people tended to like it when others hand energy, but it could be overdone. Rua tended to act like that was always the case, unfortunately. Ah well, he did the best he could to try and chat up the mercenary, hoping against hope that the man might feel like talking so much. It wasn't that he felt the desperate need to talk to the man or anything, but goodness those silences were so long! He also felt a little strange only talking to Ayls, though perhaps the man wouldn't care. Still, he'd make the effort. "So Rua," he said after they had been walking for a short while, "what are you going to do once you find these monsters you're looking for? You think it will be just them?" There, that was mercenary talk, right? Talk about monsters and their ilk and stuff. He adjusted his heavy pack, trying to convince himself that his legs weren't getting tired already. Thankfully he wasn't out of breath yet, at least.
Rua threw a curious look over his shoulder, right at Ayls, who blushed slightly and looked down. She might've mentioned Rua's goal for the trip in light conversation with Orup during their preparations in the apothecary. He let out a brief, barely noticeable sigh before looking back forward to their path. "It depends on how many are in the forest," he told his employer. "If it's a whole pack of moblins, we get the hell out before we're spotted. I can take one moblin on my own. Two's manageable. Three, I have to bail. They're too dangerous in packs, and I have more than just myself to worry about. I don't think it'll come to that, though. At most we might see that wounded goriya again. And if that's the case I'll kill it as quick as I can."
"Nasty things," Orup said blandly, rolling his tongue through his teeth in distaste as Rua talked about the Moblins. He knew he certainly couldn't handle facing up against one of those things. Certainly they looked dull and senseless, but that was no excuse to underestimate one. They were quick with their weapons and savage to boot. If he found himself faced against one of those on his own, he'd probably just throw down his belt knife and beg for mercy from the thing. He disdained that part about himself, but he was getting too old to try and fool himself. If he tried too hard to lie to himself, maybe someday he'd actually believe it and get killed for it. Lovely train of thought, that was. "But the goriya? You don't think the thing's just bled out by now?" Orup asked hopefully. It would be most gainful if they arrived in the woods with hardly a foe to fight. That would mean all the time in the world to go hunting for materials. If they were worried about Moblins of all things coming and threatening their camp, then Rua would probably insist on him being guarded while he gathered materials. Perhaps he could not blame the boy, though, after the last instance of him trying to go out and get materials on his own.
Rua only shook his head and returned his gaze forward. "Moblins and the like might look stupid, but they're smart enough. Especially if they're able to organize an army," he explained, his voice darkening at the reference. Ayls lowered her head a bit, also remembering that fateful week in Kakariko. "Still, no reason to hope that they're stupid enough to bleed out. And there's plenty of things it could use to heal itself in the forest, I imagine." "You think we'll be okay if it's just that, though?" Ayls questioned. Rua nodded. "One goriya's hardly a problem. And maybe its scared of me. It saw what I did to its friend." Hand lopped off and a sword slammed through its mouth. Yeah, he was certain that that goriya would remember him.
He certainly hoped that Rua was right. Orup was just fine with this being a relaxing trip where nothing particularly life-threatening happened. Maybe he would test a poison brew on some of the animals if he was feeling dangerous. Well, maybe he might risk a bit more than that. A few months ago he would've been willing to go that far, but now? Now he felt as if he could perhaps try something even greater than that. The plants, animals, and poisons he'd been looking at the last month or two had taught him more about alchemy than he had learned in ten years studying on his own. Could he not take that a step further? As he walked, he maneuvered to his pack a bit, pulling it across his stomach a ways so that he could reach at where he had stashed his breakfast for the day. After a moment he managed to wrestle it out. Within a minute or so, the man was happily eating, thinking of some things he could try with alchemy, running his head through his journal for all the places he had marked as open ends. The possibilities seemed quite endless, and now that he had an assistant? Perhaps he could convince Ayls to work for him during the day, if this all went well. He'd be pulling in the red rupees in no time.
Orup wasn't the only one there who was feeling a bit peckish. Ayls was also rummaging through her pack in a womanly manner, bringing out a small portable breakfast to eat while they walked to the forest. They ate for a few minutes in silence, enjoying the peaceful airtime as they walked, with wet grass springing underneath their footsteps. After a moment or two, though, Ayls swallowed her current mouthful and broke the silence. "Was there anything in particular you're hoping to find the forest, Orup?" she asked, looking over at him. "Not Scrubs, I hope," Rua muttered, perhaps a touch too loud.
Orup had to wait a moment to swallow his mouthful as well, though he gave Rua a reproving look, finally responding, "What's wrong with the Deku?" He brushed his mouth a moment later, and he continued on to answer Ayls' question, "A few things, actually. In general, mostly anything related to trees or streams, to be completely honest. Those are certainly the most difficult resources to obtain in the caves, despite their abundance over to the east. Merchants are very stingy when it comes to saps and roots from the woods. And the streams... from everything I've read the amphibian life is something to behold." Scratching his neck idly, the man added as an afterthought, "I've always wanted a pet toad." He took another bite, though a thought struck him halfway through chewing it that he couldn't suppress, "Oh, and top-soils! I think some of the plants Rua and I have run into recently could be replanted given the right circumstances, but most of the soil near the caves is fairly dead. If I can take some samples then maybe I can figure out a way to recreate the living conditions..." Orup continued to drone on for quite some time, quickly wrapped up in his thoughts and unwilling to let them go without saying them. It had been a while since anyone had cared at all about his profession, and he did so enjoy talking about it when he could. He understood that most people had their own worries, but now that Ayls was going to be his assistant, it couldn't hurt to give the girl some exposure.
Orup's initial remark to Rua sent the sellsword muttering again, this time a bit too low to be heard clearly. Ayls did hear something about "spitting bushes" in there at one point. She didn't pay it much mind. She and the alchemist bantered back and forth for some time, often Ayls asking for clarification on something she didn't understand about the details of Orup's profession. She ended up not paying much attention to their surroundings as a result, despite how long it'd been since the last time she'd gotten to venture this far from the caverns. Rua kept an eye on them, glancing back over his shoulder at them every once in a while in-between watching their path for any inherent dangers. It wasn't long before the dark green swathe of the forest could be seen up ahead. Rua lowered the bottle of soup from his lips and snapped his fingers over his shoulders to draw his employer's and girlfriend's attention. "How far were you intending to go into the forest?" he asked.
"...you see, when the reproductive portion of a Deku is cut off and put into water, the swelling is absolutely tremendous. I've been reading what I can on it, but I think some of those cells could be used to foster plant growth at a tremendous speed--" Orup was saying until Rua turned around to talk to the two of them and the alchemist shut his mouth quickly. Rua tended to not make idle chit-chat, so Orup always felt very on-the-spot whenever he was asked a direct question by the man. Scratching his head, he thought about it for a moment before responding. "Well, I uh... hadn't really thought about too much," he began shakily, but he gained a little confidence as he went, "but I'd say twenty or thirty miles would probably do it just fine." He finished with a smile, hoping that the distance would satisfy the mercenary. Given the chance, Orup probably would have liked to go in and explore the entire thing over the course of months, if not years, but he doubted Rua would go for that...
The mercenary stumbled at the answer, and quickly caught himself before he could fall. Twenty to thirty miles? Rua got the feeling that Orup normally had an assistant or a knowledged scavenger venture into the forest to get his components. "Twenty to thirty miles?" he remarked, looking back at the man. "Were you planning on combing the whole forest before we left?" Even Ayls looked like that was too much.
Immediately flustered, Orup blew out his mustaches like he'd been doing it his entire life, "W-well, sure. I mean, you know, what we have time for." His cheeks flushed crimson in embarrassment. Was thirty miles really so far? His already aching legs seemed insulted that he couldn't respect that amount of distance. Trying to recover, the fat man blustered back in to the conversation, "Look, w-we don't have to go so far, I guess. I just wanted to take a look around and see what I could find." He shuffled around uncomfortably, dropping his eyes to his feet and feeling a bit like a fool. He tried again to smooth things back over, gaining a bit of a reign on his shakiness, "We can just see when we get there. The forest has all sorts of things to look at, so we don't have to go too far, I guess."
"We're not going far," Rua said, sounding almost like he was giving the two of them an order. "We don't know what's lurking in the forest and they're too big to comb through. Hell, for all we know those faerie brats will kick us out if we try to go in too far." He uncorked the bottle of soup again and drank some of the liquid from it, giving Ayls a moment to speak. "How far do you think we should go then?" she asked. He lowered the bottle. "That's up to Mepple and what we see when we get there," he said. "I'd suggest he figures out what we need the most and look for that, then we'll what else we can gather. If I can't find anything about those monsters, then we'd best not stick around too long." Gods knew what would happen at the caves without the alchemist to help the people and the bartender to keep the peace.
And so they walked. Orup did his best to smooth over that little blip, but things proceeded much as expected. The aging man was not the greatest of all traveling companions, and Orup spent most of the time talking with Ayls about things related to alchemy, trying to keep everything in his head at once and not really considering that she'd probably forget most of it. Nevertheless, the man kept up a friendly babble, doing his best to keep conversation alive, regardless of the subject. By the time that the sun was beginning to set, they were still a good seven or eight miles out of the forest, unfortunately, and Orup was completely exhausted. First thing in the morning, they were up again, and within a few more hours the trio could make out the treeline from one of the higher hills, causing Orup to break off from a story of a Hylian who had tried to eat Deku Nuts raw once and lost his head for it. The forest was pretty big--well, bigger than anything Orup knew--and excitement lit in him the moment he saw it. The possibilities there were endless, and only a mile or so away! Beaming, he turned to his companions, forgetting his weariness in short order. "Would you look at that! It really is beautiful, like they say."
"I haven't been here since I was a girl," Ayls remarked, looking out over the woods. Her gaze looked distance, lost in thoughts and memories of a happier time. "Our parents grounded me and my friends for a month when we got back..." Rua kept his thoughts to himself, however, and said nothing about the view of the forest. They could tell his line of thinking, though, just by looking at his face. Thoughts of what could be lurking in the forest, be it the creatures that had wandered too close to the settlement, or of the infernal plantforms that had troubled him every time his clandestine travels had taken him here. Luckily for the others, his hands did not wander near his sheathed blade, so he appeared calm, for the moment. "Well, we better get a move on then," the mercenary spoke up. "We still need to find something to eat for tonight too."
Orup watched the forest thoughtfully as they began their walk to it. Why was it that he had never been to this place, especially when he had called Kakariko home? He supposed he hadn't been the most adventuresome or ambitious, and most of his acquaintances hadn't been either. On paper the forest wasn't the largest thing around, but standing right in front of it made him respect the thing all the same. Without care, you could easily lose yourself to a place like this. Oh, the things that he could find there! Would they see any of the fairy-kin, he wondered? Turning to Rua, he asked the man. "Do you have any notion how deep into the woods the Kokiri are, boy? I wouldn't mind meeting one, myself. Such long lives, always spent with nature! They would probably make the greatest guides to a place such as this." Perhaps Rua would know nothing, or perhaps he'd only offer a difficult answer, but Orup was interested all the same. There were a hundred things he'd like to see in the forest, so many that he could not name them all for memory, and he itched to be in the midst of it already.
