Should've Been Lily [Eevachu + Chaos James][Skyreach]

Quest Thread: Should've Been Lily

Bursting through the trees, Rika was met with a sight he had feared for ages, something he never wanted to see. Windows were busted in, door curtains were torn to shreds, and worse of all, corpses littered the ground. They were small and humanoid, wearing green clothes, they could only be one thing; Kokiri. Mad Scrubs giddily ran the grounds, leaping over and onto corpses as they went. Deku Baba littered the ground, snapping and chewing at whatever was in the immediate vicinity, even if it were a Mad Scrub. Rika couldn't believe his eyes, just what happened here? He had just recently left, and although he was gone for a short time, it hadn't been that long.

Furthermore, he had been saving the forest, how had this part gotten in such disarray? Rika, with the help of a Hylian named Lucian, had successfully purified a vicinity to the south of Kokiri Village that had become fairly tainted and cursed. While there, Rika had obtained a bunny ally. However, on the way back to Kokiri Village, Lucian displayed signs of a high fever and other symptoms of sickness. Luckily for the two of them, they came across a small tribe of Mad Scrub who lived between the two effected areas. They had agreed to treat Lucian in exchange for some sort of payment, but Rika lacked rupees on him, as he had left them at his home in Kokiri Forest. To make up for this, Rika left him his red Bunny Hood hat he had just obtained, a magical item, as a sort of down payment, with promises to return and exchange it for actual rupees. While there, however, Rika was informed by the Mad Scrubs of some horrible happenings going on in Kokiri Village. He immediately rushed back to the village, leaving Lucian behind to be treated.

Drawing his scythe, Rika ran forward, slicing through the Deku Baba and ignoring the Mad Scrub who seemed to also ignore him, minding his own mad business. Though he wanted to figure out the situation at hand, the most crucial thing at this moment was to get back to his house and make sure Wollo was safe. After that, he would work from there.

It was sort of a symbolic sight to behold. Death corroded the air as a single lone Kokiri, surrounded by the corpses of his brethren, beheaded the antagonistic seed-like creatures with a long, bladed scythe, as if the reaper were claiming its lives to replace the ones lost previously. Aside from the occasional Mad Scrub, who all seemed to be doing rather silly things, Rika didn't see a single sign of life. All the other Kokiri bodies were simply corpses, and any living Kokiri were probably in shelter somewhere. Rika tried to mentally block away the corpses; He may have hated the other Kokiri, but he didn't want them to die, or especially see them dead.

Soon, Rika reached his house. At the feet of the ladder leading up to his house rest the corpse of the Kokiri. Perhaps he tried to flee to Rika's house for shelter, and was assaulted mid climb? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Regardless, he climbed up the ladder, cautious to not make any sort of sound. As he reached the top, Rika heard shuffling from within the house, causing him to quickly jump to the side next to the entrance. Peeking in, Rika saw a trio of Mad Scrubs dancing on his floor, stuffing their faces with the small quantity of food Rika had collected since he arrived at the village. Wollo was nowhere to be seen.

Gripping his scythe, Rika ran in the room, shouting, "What are you all doing?!" The Mad Scrubs squeaked loudly and panicked, running around madly in circles. They seemed to attempt to speak, but their snouts were too stuffed with food to make out anything legible. The running soon stopped, however, as the Mad Scrubs slammed into each other, falling to the ground like a pile of bowling pins. As Rika neared them, scythe drawn, one managed to clear his mouth, squeaking out a hasty reply.

"P-Please don't kill us mister! We're not crazy like the rest, w-we just hid ourselves in here! P-Please spare us!" Rika looked at them with a glance of confusion. Like the rest? What did they mean? It was true the Mad Scrubs he had encountered were acting very strangely. . . Were they the cause of this? Wrapping his scythe blade around the Mad Scrub's neck, Rika stared at him fiercely, causing the Mad Scrub to flinch. If he had sweat glands, he would be sweating profusely.

The Kokiri spoke clearly, without any real sign of emotion. "Explain, now." The Mad Scrub squeaked again. "W-W-W-We don't know what's going on! Well, no-" He was interrupted as Rika moved the scythe closer to his face. "That's not what I want to hear." The Mad Scrub almost jumped, but managed to contain himself, less he slice himself open on the scythe.

"W-W-Well, a strange plague appeared and started eating up all the trees, r-right?! I'm sure you noticed!" Rika nodded slightly, before waiting for him to continue. "Well, this strange miasma formed all of a sudden, killing all the plantlife around it, and it started spreading! What's left is this nasty marsh, killing all the life inside it!" The Deku squeaked, still nervous that the scythe was right by him. "I see, this isn't the first I've encountered of that. . . But what of the village, why is it like this? Furthermore, what did you mean by 'crazy like the rest'?"

"It's the Mad Scrubs! The mist, it's driven them crazy!" He shouted, before quickly interjecting himself. "N-Not all of them of course, we're normal! Please don't kill us mister!" Rika glanced at the two cowering beside him, before looking back at him. "I have one final question. Where is the Octorock?" The Mad Scrub's face turned into a mixture of fear and confusion.

"O-Octorock? I don't know what you're talking about, mister!" This caused a somewhat violent reaction from Rika, his voice raising. "Don't screw with me, where's the Octorock?!" The scrub's voice got a bit quieter out of fear as he responded. "I-I'm telling the truth mister. . . When we got here, we didn't see any Octorocks. . ." Rika stared at him intently for a moment, before removing his scythe, causing the Mad Scrub to collapse to the ground.

"Fine, I'll spare you guys, but don't do anything suspicious or you might find this scythe at your neck again." The Mad Scrub nodded meekly, as Rika turned his attention to the rest of the house. If they didn't see Wollo, then where could he be?

As Rika moved his blade away from the Mad Scrub's neck, he heard a voice call out from behind him. His name. It was a deeper voice, so not a Kokiri, but it was his name. Instinctively, Rika turned around, pointing his scythe forward. However, as he did so, he saw it was the dumb guy that charged at Jagon alone. What was his name? Rather, what was he doing here? As he spoke his name, Rika lowered his scythe away from Nicholas, but still kept a steady grip on it. He probably wasn't hostile, but Rika wasn't sure anymore.

"Nicholas? What are you doing so far away from Impa, weren't you a soldier. . . ? Wait, more importantly, do you have any idea what's going on here?" He inquired to the Hylian, though the Mad Scrubs behind him had a much more terrified reaction. They jumped at the sight of the menacing Hylian, with his gauntlet that probably had splashes of Deku Baba blood on it. They ran around in a panic, squeaking as they did before colliding with each other. Before they could move again, Rika did. "Shut up!" He shouted to them, before continuing, "We don't need to attract more attention, so stop doing that and sit down over there!" The Mad Scrubs instantly froze, planting themselves, figuratively, on the ground to the left.

They were surrounded by such scary people, what were they to do? At least the scary people were probably strong, so they would be safe. . . As long as the scary people were on their side, anyway.

Rika eyed him suspiciously as he told his story. He got lost on his way home, and wound up here? Didn't he live in Northern Hyrule? Such a story would normally seem really fishy, but all Rika could think was one thing; He really WAS an idiot. Rika seemed to relax his guard slightly, but sighed unpleasantly when Nicholas informed him that he had no clue what was going on. Well, that was to be expected if he just wandered here.

"Well, that makes two of us. All I know is what these Scrubs told me," Rika said, motioning towards the three Mad Scrubs, who squeaked to attention upon being mentioned. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there's some sort of. . . curse, spreading throughout the forest. The wildlife is dying, and turning it into a poisonous miasma. It spread pretty far, even all the way south. I just returned from there and managed to cleanse the problem there, but it seems it may have been unrelated to the problem here. Along with this, some Mad Scrubs have gone crazy, as you've probably noticed." Rika said, before turning to look at the trio in his house, unamused. ". . . These three are too dumb, though. That's about all I know right now, the first thing I did is run here." He finished, turning back to Nicholas. As they talked, Nicholas would notice a look of shock wash over one of the Mad Scrub's faces.

Shortly after, the skittish plant-like creature jumped up, squeaking, running off to the other side of the room and slamming into a small shelf. Rika turned, angrily, but stopped just before he shouted. His anger turned to a look of pure bemusement at the sight he saw before him. A large, pink circle sat on the ground, four tiny little nods sticking out of the front of it. On top was a large, round snout, not unlike that of the scrub's, with a long, wavy leaf moustache resting on top. A hastily gathered patch of long blades of grass stuck out of the snout pointing upward, as the legs kicked themselves furiously to turn over, but to no avail.

All Rika could do is stare, completely shocked. A few moments later, words finally escaped his lips. ". . . Wollo?" He said, continuing to stare blankly. ". . . What are you doing?"

As Nicholas inquired about the moustache, all Rika could do was nod. "Yes, that's right. It's an Octorok with a moustache." Walking over to the Octorok, Rika pushed his squishy body to the ground, causing him to walk forward slightly before realizing he stopped moving. Rika stared at Wollo for another second or two before slapping himself in the face. "Just. . . what were you doing, Wollo?" The Octorok looked at him confusedly, he couldn't tell? Was it not very good? "Uhh. . . Wollo heard plants coming, so. . . Wollo hid as a pot." The Octorok told him almost too sincerely. He disguised himself. . . as a pot. A pot. Rika looked at him for a moment, with a face that clearly didn't understand. Why, Wollo? Why couldn't you be the smart one in the room? Rika wasn't even going to dignify that with a response.

Letting out a deep, somewhat ashamed sigh of air, Rika turned back to face Nicholas. "I'm not quite sure what we're dealing with, but for now, I think. . . we should focus on finding as many surviving Kokiri as possible. Did you see any on the way here, other than me?" Rika asked, turning to the Mad Scrubs too. "N-No mister, I didn't! None alive, anyway! I-I mean, eep!" The Mad Scrub quickly interrupted himself, though Rika didn't seem to care.

"With the bloodbath outside, any survivors are probably held up in houses and other shelter. I also wonder what the Great Deku Tree is doing in all of this. . . Okay, Nicholas, we'll go around searching for any survivors. As I said, they're probably held up in houses, so I'd search there, just be a bit more cautious popping in than you did at my house, or you might find a knife swung at you. I'll go meet with the Great Deku Tree too, as I know the way, and try to figure out what exactly is happening. We'll meet back here later. As for you four. . ." Rika said, turning to the Mad Scrubs and Wollo, who jumped- Wollo included, for some reason- at this.

"Y-Yes mister, how can we help?!" He hesitantly asked. They probably didn't actually want to help, but they didn't really have a choice. ". . . Just stay here and keep the place safe, you'll probably die if you go out. If you see any survivors outside, tell them to come up, but don't let any Deku Scrubs up, we don't know who can be trusted. . . Although a Mad Scrub couldn't climb a ladder anyway." After saying that, Rika briefly wondered how the trio of Mad Scrubs got into his house in the first place without any arms. However, there were more important matters at hand than that, so Rika soon pushed it to the back of his mind.

". . . Anyway, does that plan sound fine to you, Nicholas?"

As Nicholas ran off, Rika headed out of the door soon after, turning back to look at the Mad Scrubs and Wollo briefly before leaving. Would they really be fine by themselves? Wollo had already started trying to disguise himself as a pot again, the Mad Scrubs pushing him up onto his back and desperately trying to put the blades of grass in his snout despite the distinct lack of hands. Well, if something did show up, they were all dead for sure, hopefully nothing would.

Leaping off the side of the balcony, a gust of wind seemingly pushed Rika up as he jumped a second time, slowly gliding to the ground as small strings of wind formed from his shoulders and gently flew upward above him, reaching a foot or two above his head before disappearing. Although he'd keep an eye out for any surviving Kokiri, the most crucial thing was reaching the Great Deku Tree. After all, it only seemed logical that the Kokiri would go to him too, so there would probably be a number of them there.

Stealthily sneaking from one house to another, Rika quickly peered into the windows before moving on as he made his way towards the Great Deku Tree, though he had not been lucky in finding survivors. He sliced up the occasional Deku Baba or Mad Scrub in his way, but for the most part he either managed to sneak around them, or they were too preoccupied with each other.

Reaching the entrance to the Great Deku Tree's doman, Rika's theory had been confirmed; Other Kokiri had assumed the Great Deku Tree was safe, and that they should head there as quick as possible. However, they could not have been more wrong. A towering wall of thick, sharp thorns blocked the entrance, so deep- or thick- that Rika couldn't even see the other side. However, what he did see were Kokiri. It seemed as if some few had attempted to enter through the thorns regardless, and they were met with a horrible fate; Death. Their skin was shredded to pieces by the multitude of razor sharp thorns, and the thorns themselves almost seemed to be. . . moving, as the vines shifted and turned slightly inside.

However, there could be other reasons for this movement as well. As Rika pondered this, and whether or not he could slice through the thick vines, his train of thought was broken by a loud, high pitched scream. Rika rushed along the vines, intent on finding the source of the scream. From the sound of it, it was the voice of a Kokiri girl.

His eyes scanning the ground and nearby vicinity as he ran, Rika saw a tiny, soft hand sticking out of the vines. It was definitely the source of the screams, as he could hear her very clearly. Running over, a small, brown haired Kokiri girl was trapped in the vines. She had small cuts covering her body and brown dress, vines entangling her and squeezing tightly, as Rika saw them wrapping tighter and tighter around her body. Tears ran down her red cheeks as she saw Rika, crying out to him. "Please. . . Help!" She screamed, her voice cracking apart in fear.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out!" He shouted, gripping his scythe and slicing at the vines around her. Though they were thick, a clean cut of the scythe made short work of them, slicing through any of the thorny vines in its way. This seemed to have the opposite reaction, however. Instead of cutting the vines around her, they seemed to tighten, as if out of anger, the girl crying out louder in pain as the razor sharp thorns pierced her flesh.

This confirmed one thing for sure with Rika; The vines weren't just there, they were sentient. He DID see them move earlier. He would have to cut the vines directly holding her, but he'd have to be careful, or he'd simply slice her open and do more damage than the vines. As he contemplated his next action, he suddenly felt a small drip of blood run down his arm, as a vine shot out, a thorn slicing his skin. "Shit!" He panicked, as the thorn wrapped around his arm, pulling him in. The thorns cut at him slightly as he was pulled, but that was the least of his worries. They were minor at best and would only present a threat in large numbers. It was the vines pulling him in he was worried about, pulling him into the other vines and having them slowly wrap around and slice him open, while crushing him.

It was quite the predicament he had gotten himself into.

As Rika was pulled in, he spun, slicing at the vine latched onto him and severing the connection it had to him. However, he was now trapped inside. He couldn't simply crawl out through the vines, they would just envelop him and slowly squeeze the life out of him. This explained the Kokiri corpses spread about the vines; There was no way they would have simply died by getting scratched up, they probably weren't dumb enough to just keep going and bleed to death. There were only two explanations; Either the vines themselves kept the Kokiri trapped within, or the thorns were poisonous. Although the former being true didn't exclude the latter, Rika sorely hoped that wasn't also the case, or he'd be dropping dead in a little bit.

Waiting as a vine dashed toward him, Rika spun, slashing and slicing it in midair, while also cutting himself. Another shot out behind, and he spun again, striking at it and sending the green, thorny vine to the ground. Next, multiple vines shot at him from different directions, causing him to spin as a circle, using the scythe's wide radius to slice against those. Although perhaps not as powerful as the energy infused spins used primarily by the guardsmen of Hyrule due to being your average spin, it wasn't bad, slicing up most of the vines. Most.

One of the vines darted underneath the scythe's radius, wrapping around his arm holding the scythe by the top and locking it in place. These vines weren't just sentient, they were learning and adapting. Just what was controlling them? Opening his mouth, a ball of fire launched forth, slamming into a vine dashing towards him. He didn't want to start a fire, but it might be necessary at this point. However, to his shock, the vine wasn't effected in the slightest. In fact, it almost seemed to be empowered by the fire. Rika quickly moved to dodge it, but felt his arm twist slightly as the vine latching tight to it gave little leeway. He winced in pain as he gripped the scythe with his right hand, swinging it at the vine and slicing a small piece of it off.

However, it was difficult to use such a large weapon with one hand, especially when it wasn't your dominant hand. Slicing forward to cut a small vine blocking the way, Rika threw the scythe straight, the lithe bladed pole spinning through an opening and crashing onto the ground outside. It was useless to him right now, and if he lost it in here, he wouldn't be able to retrieve it. It was better off out there, for now. Rika just had to think, how could he get out of this situation? Fire didn't seem to have any effect, and in fact it almost seemed to hunger for more. He didn't have his scythe, but in this scenario, perhaps resorting to his daggers would be better. His other available spells were Ice, Wind, Spire, and Aqua Grenade. Aqua Grenade would be virtually useless here, as it would likely pop before it could travel distance safe enough to not kill him along with the nearby vines. So, three spells. What to do. . .

With his resources becoming limited, Rika had to resort to his somewhat seldom used backup weapons. Gripping at one of the two blades with his free right hand, Rika drew the blade, a light, brief snick was heard as the vine darting at Rika was met with a small, steel blade. Unaware of the newly added combat usage, the vine didn't react, the thin blade slicing through the vine's thick but easy to slice exterior, slicing through and past as the vine collapsed to the ground, unmoving. This confirmed another detail about the vines for Rika; They did not seem to analyze and think individually, but rather they acted due to information processed and gathered in real time. As such, it was likely that rather than the vines themselves being alive, there was something, some sort of host body, controlling them indirectly.

Suddenly, a noise filled the air as the Kokiri girl screamed out in pain. Glancing towards her, a large thorn had embedded itself into her arm, digging deep as blood ran down onto the floor. It was probably quite a bit of pain, and if left in there for a long time could have quite the extended aftereffects. Rika was so focused on merely not getting grabbed and dying, he still didn't have time to rescue the Kokiri girl. However, she would be getting more and more injured by each passing moment, and her screams of pain weren't exactly encouraging.

Turning his mouth to face her, he couldn't afford to fire out of his hands and risk leaving himself open to being grabbed. The area around his face chilled as Rika felt the cool air stir around his lips and nose, bringing a slight moment of discomfort to him. However, it would soon pass, as a big chunk of ice launched from his face, slamming into the vines wrapped around the girl's stomach. She cried out in pain, the impact still visibly causing her pain despite the vines covering it. However, Rika didn't think it would cause severe damage, and hoped it would cause the vines to lessen up on her. It worked better than expected.

Despite causing her pain, it seemed to have an abhorrent effect on the vines. They retracted instantly as the cold ice froze over top, seemingly petrified by it. Was ice their weakness? It seemed to be rather effective, as the vines hit by it, and even the nearby vines, seemed to be figuratively frozen by the ice, paralyzed into stillness. The girl laid on the ground in pain, also seemingly paralyzed, before Rika shouted to her. "Hurry up, run out!" She looked around for a brief moment, dazed and confused, before realizing she wasn't held down.

The girl quickly darted for the exit, thorns cutting against her, but she didn't care, she wanted to escape. Penetrating the exterior of the thicket, the girl burst into the outside, collapsing on the ground as she exhaled heavily, relieved to not be slowly dying. However, the fun wasn't over for either of them. A serious of quiet, nefarious laughing was heard, as a trio of Bulblin slowly approached, though apparently unaware of the duo so far. The girl hadn't seemed to notice, but Rika did. "Quick, hide!" He shouted to her in a panic, but his concern put himself at risk.

Another vine shot at Rika from behind while he was watching the girl, wrapping around his other arm and causing him to drop the Dagger in pain as it squeezed tightly. Rika winced in pain as both of his arms were now disabled, and he was effectively trapped. He probably should have focused more on freeing himself first, then going for the girl.

As the Kokiri girl looked around, she noticed the Bulblin slowly approaching. She tried to stifle her cries of pain, but tears still dripped down her face. Ducking behind the nearby building to hide, she peeked out from the corner as the Bulblin approached at a slow pace. Their interests seemed to liven up as she heard murmurs among their group, before they ran towards the vines. It seemed they had noticed Rika. They seemed to talk amongst themselves briefly in some sort of language the girl didn't understand, or perhaps their voices were too distinctively different for her to make out. Either way, it didn't seem good for Rika. One of the Bulblins laughed as he drew his bow, notching a lit arrow and pulling it back. Were they going to fire at Rika?

The Kokiri girl couldn't let that happen, he risked himself to save her, and now he was going to die for her? She had to be able to do something, anything to save him. Looking around among her feet, she saw the large, black scythe Rika had wielded. Though she couldn't wield it properly and would more likely just injure herself trying, it would serve as a distraction at the very least. Picking it up, she chunked it at the Bulblin, the scythe clunking against its head as the middle of the pole collided with the back of its skull. The arrow whizzed out as it did, but it had succeeded in saving Rika.

The arrow zoomed past Rika's body, striking a vine. The flames quickly seemed to be sucked up as the Bulblin looked around, confused at what had just hit him against the back of the head. This confusion turned to fear as the Bulblin started screaming, a large, thick vine shooting out of the thicket and grabbing him by the leg, picking him into the air and dragging him in. The second Bulblin stared deathly at Rika, as he charged forward, club in hand, swatting at the vines in his way to get the Kokiri who had just dragged away his ally. He got about a foot in before the vines around him started collapsing, but the Bulblin didn't seem to notice. Soon, he was trapped and screaming as the vines tore away at his skin. The final Bulblin was smarter, and seemed to learn from the first two's mistakes. Rather than assault the Kokiri inside of the thorns, he decided to instead locate the source of the scythe.

As he turned to look in the direction the scythe had seemingly come from, the Kokiri quickly poked her head out of the corner and desperately tried to climb into a window in the house. Due to the Kokiri's short houses, she had managed to get through, but not without the Bulblin seeing. He would try to follow her, though with a bit more difficulty due to his massive club. The Kokiri definitely had the advantage in this chase, but she seemed to lack any sort of combat experience and was injured moderately, and definitely couldn't win in an actual fight.

Meanwhile, Rika thought deeply about a plan to escape. The vines seemed to ignore him as he didn't struggle while they focused their attention on the Bulblin, giving him time to think. They despised the ice, it caused them to revolt in disgust upon even being in the vicinity of that. However, with his position, the Ice spell wouldn't be enough to escape, he would need more ice. More ice. . . Furthermore, he couldn't do anything while both his hands were bound, finding a solution for that would be the most prominent action. His brain raced as he contemplated how to free himself, and what he could employ to do so.