Trouble in Little Yetiville [Snowpeak] (Genzo with Devilsteel)

Having a similar idea to the others, Eve had quickly grabbed a nearby lit torch. She was preparing a wide toss, hoping to enhance the torch with her new magic. As she wound up for the swing, Pooky appeared like a specter behind her. She howled as his cackling form appeared out of nowhere, twirling his devilish little fork. Aghast the Kokiri mis-threw her torch and sent it flying in some other direction, the flaming hand appearing briefly and enhancing the height of the flames. The fire-engulfed object soared out one of the many holes in the wall that Casara had created. Soon enough, there was black smoke rising in the distance. There may have been a new source of trouble for them to worry about after this monster was stopped.

Indulging in the healing waters, Briggson turned back to the enemy. It seemed his brief respite was welcome, but the others were doing a number on the boss Yeti in the meantime. Maybe from this distance he could also throw something? He wondered how effective his help would be. The magical villain swirled in the air, largely out of reach of many of them. But it seemed she was one her last few layers of ice, at least. Briggson picked up a rock, or rather a stone brick that had fallen, hoping to strike the final blow. With the numerous spikes Casara had been sending, he could only hope to hit in a way that would actually be helpful.

Gyoma then recovered with the healing drink. His lithe body would be helpful if another of those icicle attacks came. He returned to the frontlines to keep harrying the flying enemy with his wildly spinning boomerang. At this point, Pooky had reappeared closer to the enemy. Pooky appeared to be setting up decoys or something. Gyoma sighed as his boomerang returned to his hand. That little imp really wasn't helping much.

Blizzeta remained in the air, attempting to reclaim her thick ice armor. Although she was freezing the air around her pretty efficiently, the repeated attacks from every angle prevented her from getting full layers back. Out of desperation, her magic conjured another round of icicles. The group of adventurers deftly did each of their own methods of avoiding or blocking the icicles. Except Pooky, who had been pierced through chest-to-back with a long spike. No, that was his decoy it seemed. The little Elegy of Emptiness statue really did look like him though. Albeit with a more cartoonishly evil little face.

Their last round of attacks chipped into the boss, exposing flesh. Briggson dropped his large brick at this point, seeing the flames outside rising worryingly high. He had up until this point not expected a castle in the snow to be something this vulnerable to be burned down. He was certain they had miraculously hit one of the wooden support structures somehow. As the ranged allies knocked the Yeti bloodied, her last shreds of frozen armor cracked off and spilled like glitter all over the chamber. Blizzeta fell out of the air in a shadow-encapsulated, dark shape dripping blood. As the shadows dispelled, it seemed her magic necklace had been shredded in the attack.

Unsure of whether to focus on saving the Yeti, Briggson had already hurried over and picked up Eve under his massive arm. He'd worry about the others but his priority was getting the bizarre Kokiri out of the rapidly oncoming blaze. Gyoma had already rushed to the curled, injured Zzeta on the floor. He looked around, assured everyone had done their part. But the Lizalfos knew the attack was mostly to be blamed on that corrupted artifact thing. He didn't want to think that peaceful boreal creature would have done any of that under different circumstances. Then, much to everyone's awareness the flames became higher and closer.

"We should get her out of here! Then, some healing fast!" The kind reptile yelled. He was sure the others would understand.

Following up the entire pack, Pooky leapt from stone to wall. He took note of how the tower was falling to pieces because of what they had done to it. Now, the other side of the facility was on fire to top it all off. It would have been pretty exciting. Those Yetis were quickly losing major parts of their house, though. It was probably fine, though. The entire entrance part of the castle was much like a huge house already. If they were careful enough the fire probably wouldn't spread to there. That was of course barring their total lack of firefighting abilities.

Briggson continued to lead the way, keeping the weird Kokiri out of the way of the growing flames. He used this whole opportunity to look for areas he could clear a path for the whole group. With his free arm, he shoved various objects and furniture out of the way. If there was a problem with that, they could worry about it later. Then was the doors, all of which he made sure were open. As far as everyone being able to squeeze through. . . they had made it inside so he also wasn't worried about that.

Then was the topic of the enemies. They had plowed through a majority of the monsters and threats in this place already. Though the Goron was aware of the concept of monsters respawning he was sure it was too early for any of that. Further back, Gyoma held pace with the others, making sure the corrupted Yeti would continue to heal as they got her to safety. The Outcasts were a kind and stable group to work with. They were all very dedicated at keeping the innocent safe. Even this creature that had been fighting them to the death just minutes before. He made sure he spared no drop of his own energy to make sure the others were being careful. However, with the bigger, stronger of them holding the Yeti he knew he would be of no help adding his strength to propping her up any further.

Gyoma appeared around the corner. It seemed he was likely the candidate to explain what happened to Yetter. His unlikely kind bearing was probably just what the group needed to spring the news on this poor guy.

"Zzeta is not doing well! She wore an evil necklace and we had to stop her by force. She's hurt and needs help and we are very sorry. I will do anything I can for you in this time of need!" Gyoma announced, shaking his head sorrowfully.

Yetter looked up from the thing he was reading. It seemed like a pamphlet or magazine of some sort, he had previously looked really bored, unaware of anything going on despite the noise. He looked deep in thought for a second. His big, kind eyes looked into the Lizalfos's. Something warm about his face gave the reptile confidence.

"Yeah. Uhh. Soup will help her. No hurties if you eat the soup." he calmly explained. His quivering lip showed he was worried, but his understanding was that they were not in any trouble.

The large Yeti slumped off to the kitchen to grab more soup. The soot-crusted female Yeti was lifted carefully onto the sofa, wounds still shockingly fresh. Yetter returned moments later with a hearty batch of soup. He carefully sat aside his wife and began to feed the practically magic soup to her. Having had the healing water earlier, her spine perked up a little and her wince transformed into a peaceful and almost comforted expression. While the ashes and dripping wounds wouldn't just magically vanish it seemed she had otherwise stabilized and would be fine after a lengthy period of recovery.

"Wait, where did the others go?" Gyoma inquired aloud.

He was suddenly certain they had either escaped or had otherwise turned around to fight the growing fire. On that note, he wondered what he could possibly do to help stop it. In that same breath, Pooky appeared around the corner and hopped closer to the growing group.

"Fire is not spreading much more." Pooky grinned. A devil like him probably wanted the whole mountain to burn down. "The tower though, that's gone." he added with a short chuckle.

Hurriedly returning to the room, Briggson heard Corbin's announcement. Eve was limp under his arm still, not out of injury but sheer laziness. She was taking advantage of his volunteer-ship as a vehicle for her. She playfully dangled her feet around, pretending to be a rag doll. Briggson did not by any stretch of the imagination notice this at all. At this point he also spotted Pooky, who was chilling by the very safe chimney fire nearby. The Miniblin was prodding some kind of food on his pitchfork near the flame to cook it. Briggson wiped a finger on his brow, lamenting the unchanging fact that none of the companions he had brought to the party seemed at all serious about the situation. That was, except Gyoma who was still tending to Zzeta's wounds. He didn't think he'd ever meet a group as kind and as dedicated as the Outcasts and this particular Lizalfos. Shame about the other two, though.

Knowing the fires outside were cooling, the Goron awkwardly met the odd Kokiri in his arm with the floor. He hesitated to speak on the matter but all around him seemed occupied. Once again the exception being the girl who maintained her position on the floor in the bizarre lump Briggson had placed her, a finger extracting soot from her nose. This perturbed Briggson who was almost entirely certain she hadn't been in contact with the flames, smoke, or wreckage in any way. He curiously tried to remember all the moments she had practiced that Flame Control technique, but was going blank in the mind puzzling over why he had to care.

Suddenly Gyoma's gaze met Briggson's. One of the two instantly remembered why they were here. As their eyes locked a word entered their heads. "The Herbs." Checking frantically with each other, the pair confirmed that they did in fact secure what herbs they could find. The children of Darunia would surely be saved if they could make the trip back. Said trip would be no issue in comparison to the disaster they just witnessed, however.

"We lucked out, Corbin." Gyoma hissed. "Stopped milady from dying we did, and got these herbs to treat the townspeople. Not that I don't feel bad, but we did it!"

Briggson remained silent. He nodded in agreement at what they had accomplished. He just, didn't want to address the two near his rugged feet who could be identified as goblins. Pooky had already turned to the girl and started poking some kind of cooked meat in her face as she rolled on the floor. Briggson's very awkward expression told the whole story. He knew at the very least the party should get moving. A glisten in his eyes met Corbin, then Gyoma, and his pupils darted to the herbs they were carrying. He wasn't going to be the first one to say anything, though. The Goron stepped forward, trying to distance himself from the other two. A few small steps was all it would take.

"Seems like. . . we have the horse caravan. The inn to go to. . . oh brother. With the weather this good our return trip should be much faster." Briggson announced as he collected his unlikely companions and joined the Outcasts.

After playing on the floor or whatever the nine hells Eve and Pooky had been doing, they seemed to be less like mortal enemies after the events of the trip. Which wasn't to say they wouldn't start slapping each other on the way back. Thinking about it, Briggson wasn't even sure why they hated each other. Though he wasn't clear on either of those miscreants' backgrounds and it was probably better off that way.

Gyoma double checked, seeing how Hanno handled the situation. The Lizalfos still waited for everyone else to leave before turning back to the Yetis one last time to say his goodbyes. He hadn't been as phenomenal a help to them as Hanno was, but by far he was the most sentimental of the group. He had left a little gift on the sofa. . . a small package of valuable cheese he had in his pack. It was lucky he had it, but he knew it would be appreciated a lot more by these Yetis. In terms of adventuring it wasn't much to leave behind, they would make better use of it for sure. He wished he had time to write them a letter even, but that wasn't in their schedule right now. Closing the door behind him, he joined the large group.

The crew made a diligent effort down the mountain. As Briggson had said, the weather was much clearer now that they gave it time to warm up and the wind to die down. They didn't have much more time before the sun set though, so they had to rush to the inn. Back to his old tricks, Pooky made sure the rooms were all open to them. The Koroks in charge were actually quite glad to see the faces from the day before. Without the Holiday antics of last time, the night seemed to go by very peacefully. That said, the group was pretty happy no soot-covered Anouki came down their chimney in the middle of the night. Though most of them were relieved for other reasons.

Gathering their boarded mounts in the morning, the group prepared for the hard trip back to Darunia.

At that moment, Briggson seemed pensive. He seemed wistfully thinking about something.

"As a matter of fact. It occurs to me I'm not doing awful much but training for the next few months. Trying to incubate some of these herbs would be no problem, on my off-time I'll be doing such things anyway. So long as Corbin has no problem with it, I'll dedicate some real time into making them available to the public. Would really weigh on my nerves if we didn't try to, even. Consider yourselves honorary brotherrrs." the Goron elaborated.

The Goron paid mind to all of the Outcasts, even Sandal who had been rather quiet for some time. His face went awkward as a mild bump called attention to his belly. Eve was sitting there, right in his lap. She was doing some godawful thing with yarn and her head happened to sail back. She appeared to have catastrophically failed once again trying to make Cat's Cradle. Her unfocused eyes lit up and the crooked irises landed on Hanno.

"Ye did a right good job healin' that Yeti thing, and savin' the town. Yer a great zora ye are!" she yelled, unable to keep her voice down.

At that moment the Goron wrapped a massive hand around the loud Kokiri's body and placed her onto her own horse as they rode. He wasn't sure how she got there in the first place, little fairy buggers didn't have logic. Despite his very obvious feelings about her shouting, she had said a very poignant thing just now. The stony man smiled and tugged his mustache with two fingers. He was gonna miss all these crazy people. Though, thinking on it, he'd probably be fine not seeing that "Pooky" creature again. The damn thing gave him the willies. He didn't know where the imp was but he was sure that Miniblin was pissing in the woods somewhere. He was sure to beckon him back as they had to make some progress today.

It was then that he spotted Gyoma saddling onto his Bullbo. They'd be on their way proper to Darunia in minutes it seemed. They just had to keep in mind, it would be at least one day making camp on their journey. But judging by the weather, it once again seemed they'd be making great time on the return journey.

With little trouble, the group managed to make its way back to the base of the mountains, and thereby set foot on Hyrule Field once again. In this time, Eve managed to get her arms tangled up in yarn. Between clumps of yarn was her lead, very loosely controlling her mount as they moved. Her eyes also looked very heavy, as Briggson was belting off tales over the course of hours. His insight into Hyrule's inner workings were beyond boring, and the girl was almost certain she had seen much weirder over the decades. Oftentimes he'd mention a strange looking rock or how beautiful he thought the horizon was while he was atop a mountain. Which, they all just saw the horizon for many hours on the way down and his descriptions were vague enough to numb Eve's facial muscles. She was sure she had started drooling at one point.

These two also frequently kept tabs on Gyoma, who was reflexively patting his mount and giving it treats now and then. The group never thought they had seen a happier Bullbo before. Next of course was the elephant in the room. Pooky was spotted in the distance, keeping near enough to the little caravan to find his way back if he had to. Briggson then squinted and spotted him having draped his mount with fine silks and having an interesting looking hat atop his head. Though considering that creature to be part of their group to be debatable, Briggson figured the creature had gathered his fill of curiosities on the adventure. Something about how basic the imp's needs were, ended up being kind of charming.

The new day whittled away as they continued to the road between the Lost Woods and the swamp. They would likely have to set up camp as the sky grew dark and the canopy of trees would surely become dense. Mysteriously, although he had made it clear he was in this for profit, Pooky converged with the group on his mount. He seemed to have some additional business with all of them. . . or not. The strange diminutive businessman was ahead of the game in his dealings but also in being completely unpredictable. He'd be there, for better or worse.

Unaware when they were stopping, Eve had a sudden thought as they started setting up camp. She kept it in the back of her mind as the group put together tents, bedrolls, and of course a cooking fire. She hurried over to Briggson tilting her head way back to meet his eyes. The beady eyes glared down at her, sensing something in that Kokiri's out-of-place face.

"You don't think th' trees r' cleared out for, y'know." she hesitantly informed the Goron.

"An outdoorsy type too? You don't look like it in that getup." he mentioned, referring to her outfit after shedding that winter coat into her pack. "Yeah I noticed too. Monsters use these clearings as a hub of sorts. This one, if you look at the tracks and droppings, is frequented by boars and nothing more."

"AW ROIGHT! I could go for some boar meat!" the jaunty Kokiri yelled into his face, perhaps alerting the entire continent.

"Wasn't gonna say anything but you really got to hush down kid. I didn't say it was absolutely only boars. Oh Brotherrr." he grumbled, suddenly watching his surroundings.

They had gotten jumpy, particularly both of them as opposed to the entire party. Later they saw Gyoma's Bullbo in the dim light and almost went into a panic. The look on their faces when Briggson's knees went weak and Eve jumped into his arms was priceless, though. Embarrassed, the two separated and kept to themselves for the rest of the night. Gyoma and Pooky sat by the fire enjoying the food and conversation, however. It was odd seeing the two creatures enjoying the flavor of pumpkins though, as that had otherwise seemed to be a Hylian thing until now.

"And that's how we made our investment back! A little hostile takeover is Pooky's specialty." the Miniblin barked, having a hearty laugh. Gyoma didn't really get it and presumably the other Outcasts were clueless about the tiny beasts' corporate dealings making all that much sense. Gyoma was still puzzling over the idea of flattening a stretch of land with black tar. For what exactly? They'd never do it.

"You're crazy little man." Gyoma inflected. "Stores don't need 'departments.' There's not even enough people in Hyrule."

Their conversation went nowhere for hours. Hopefully the outcasts had something more meaningful to chat about over stew. All things considered, the light coming through the canopy had been calming until the very cover of night came through. They'd likely make good progress in the morning. Half the team seemed to be turning in early, and Eve was prepared to bother everyone awake at a specific time the next day. Aware of her plans, Briggson found something like a couple of rocks to plug his ears with as he dozed off. So long as they were almost at their destination, the Goron wanted to get his forty winks in.

With the Outcasts covering for each other, the transition into morning went over smoothly. It was, however, sunrise. The small glare of light poked onto a certain Kokiri's skin and eyelids. Her eyes shot open, and were they not strange magical prosthetics, would have probably been bloodshot. An eerie smile shot onto her face.

The girl bent upward, at a ninety degree angle. Curling around, she swept into her bedroll like some terrifying worm and somehow swapped into her adventure clothes from inside there. Uncurling like some horrible budding plant, she emerged with some pans in each of her hands. Then, she menacingly pranced around camp banging the pans together. They should have expected this. . . this cruelty.

Already having put pebbles in his ears, Briggson was having trouble hearing the racket. That was, until she put her boots squarely on his chest and started pounding the pans together over his head. Yes, they were all in a big hurry to save the town's children. But this was kind of overkill. Having taken the children in danger personally, the Kokiri had made it her mission to rush the final stretch of their adventure.

Gyoma arose, holding his head as if he was hung over. This was quickly getting aggravating. The Lizalfos awoke to the sight of his Bullbo. She was sitting, curled up and asleep to what appeared to be a team of Bullbo sleeping next to her. They knew this was an area where the wild creatures inhabited, they just didn't think a few would peacefully appear and all sleep as a group overnight. This was not so bad, Gyoma had some feed packed for his own Bullbo and sought to feed the lot of them as they awoke one by one.

As the non-Outcast members collected one-by-one, they discovered Pooky was already gone. He had, as they had calculated, taken his share of the herbs and vanished to some other nefarious purpose. There was one trace of him in the party, however. Eve found a threatening little piece of parchment with a single black spot painted onto it. Very funny, Pooky.

In reverence to the freshness of the herbs, they'd have to make some haste getting back. But with half the forest behind them already, this morning's trip should have ended with little trouble. With Eve's pans squarely put away, the group focused on clearing the camp and getting mounted up. Gyoma lined up his face with the Kokiri and offered to get her a Cuccoo one day if she really wanted a suitable wake-up call. Somehow the image of her being followed around by a chicken sounded almost just as obnoxious. Briggson pawed his own face again and paid no more mind to his companions.

"You've done good work gentlemen. I appreciate your skill too, Hanno. Would you like to prepare the medicine with me when we reach the town? We have little time to waste." Briggson offered to the Zora.

With that said, the group had lined up their caravan to make full headway to the town of Darunia. Not too many hours would be left in their trip any longer.

Eve would begin the trip with a well-deserved welt on her head from something hard being thrown at her. She had the magic knife of hers pressed to the welt to reduce the swelling, though it would still be an hour or so before it stopped sticking out. Briggson walked alongside Hanno, he would prepare his Goron Roll for when they set pace. He thought about making the herbs a stew and stumbled upon a problem.

"For the amount of herbs we have. . ." Briggson began, thinking hard on what they were doing. "It will water down too much. We're going to have to set up a type of extract. It won't take too long to make either."

He did not however, have the lab equipment necessary for such a thing with him. The components were too fragile to be stored in a pack he had used specifically for adventuring and climbing dangerous mountains. He'd left those supplies carefully packed in a safe box in Darunia, put away some time before he chose to depart.

"That kind of filtration system is. . . back in the town though. I'll go unpack it when we reach town." Briggson elaborated, sure his equipment was safe and sound.

The others began to make pace, running the winding road to the major town. At a proper gallop, it seemed they would see the town come into view before noon. Soon enough it seemed, the light became brighter through the canopy. The long day of saving the town had then begun.