World Tree MUSH

  The road back down to Goron City was awful for as long as it remained overland, contending with blizzards, wind, and winter in Peak Province. Eventually 'Sheik' guides her party down into the subterranean tunnel-roads, but where she's finding her markers, it's anybody's guess.

  In fact, 'Sheik' has been abnormally quiet for the entirety of the trip down from the mountains, day in and day out. She's seemed deep in thought; distracted, even, easily startled by friends and allies addressing her unexpectedly. Thankfully, the great tunnels hewn beneath the mountains are wide and tall enough for beasts of burden or personal vehicles.

  A day or two ago they'd all been given the chance to meet with Darbus and the Elder Gorons. Unfortunately, none of them had new information. The best any of them could do was point the party in the right direction. They seemed awfully reverent of 'Sheik' and treated her a lot better than a mere handmaiden might have been treated.

  Today, the right direction leads the party into a breathtakingly beautiful and alarmingly huge crystal cavern deep beneath Death Mountain. To those who know the local geography, these mines must start beneath the ruins of Kakariko Village and run northward unchecked.

  'Sheik' is even more distracted here, looking to every shadow, every movement; every hint of sound. For once Lynel, the big foul-tempered war horse, is more at ease than she is. He may at times flick an ear at a sound, but does no more than swish his tail and keep plodding forward.

  The dragon, or whatever it is, had been spotted here in a great basin of crystal. Mining implements lie scattered about. There are no Gorons here: It looks like most of them even dropped their tools and their cargo. Barrels of mined crystal lie in various states; some still upright, others toppled with their cargo strewn across the cavern floor.

  Zelda tugs the reins to a halt and slides off the giant horse, thinning her lips.

  Her eyes are dark. It could be blamed on the low light of the cavern, lit intermittently by strange glowing mosses and reflective crystal facets, but she's tense and edgy.

  There's something down here, and it's not that far away.

  "We are not far now." 'Sheik's' voice is a distracted murmur.

    It's a fortunate biproduct of his inhuman origins that Valerian can see in the dark! Therefore he is undeterred by any darkness in the caverns or the usual need for a torch has he walks along beside the horse Zelda was riding. He stretches a bit as they come to a stop, folding his hands behind his head as he grips the wrapped bundle across his back and adjusts the strap he uses to secure it. 

    "It probably stayed real deep, out of sight in some forgotten caverns, till it got big enough that it didn't have to fear a predator. That's usually how dragons work. Want to stay out of sight until they can accrue enough power to defend themselves. Most monsters and major predators do that too. It's why deep caves are so dangerous."

    "Sheik? Sheik? Hey are you paying attention?"
    Rydia is, of course, here. Mounted on her ever trusty chocobo steed, the green-haired Summoner is nearly prodding Zelda physically to get her attention, with how distracted the princess is. "You're paying attention to everything except me, and I was in the middle of the story about that one time with the zora."
    Rydia's super cool story aside, the Summoner tugs her chocobo to halt when Zelda halts Lynel.
    "... How far is not far?"
    For the record, Rydia can't see in the dark and the glowing mosses are making her squint and rub her eyes to reduce the strain.
    "Because my eyes are starting to kill me."
    Are we there yet?

    Though Yumi Tachibana can't see in the dark, she has the next best thing: a built-in light source. Or it's more accurate to say that she is the light source. She's technically carrying a torch, but rather than light it up, the magical girl has infused it with her solar magic, causing it to glow with a much brighter and more vibrant light. It won't be difficult for anyone to see with her there.

    As they arrive at the crystal cavern, however, it becomes a little more necessary for her to have both hands free; so, she looks around for a moment, and then leaps up to a particularly high spire of crystal, where she can wedge in the glowing torch and leave it to illuminate the cavern. As the magical girl touches back down, she's already summoning Prominence to her hands, and the blade begins to glow softly with sunlight as well. "The question that most worries me is, will it still be sneaky when it tries to attack us? We ought to assume it knows we're here." Says the girl shining light all over the cavern. "Dragons are usually pretty prideful, but if it's been hiding down here... hard to say, really."

  In spite of the dark, 'Sheik' doesn't seem disturbed by it. She's got basically a party full of the best people to take along to someplace very dark, after all. Never mind that the slightest shift of any and every light source causes the crystals to reflect and light up in the most breathtakingly beautiful manner.

  In the meantime, the huge plodding war horse Valerian walks beside has left him alone. It's either a small miracle or Lynel is smart enough not to bite sleeping dragons.

  "Oh." People are talking to her. Wake up, 'Sheik.' "Sorry. I was not..." Listening. Yes. Everybody knows this already.

  She looks like she's searching for something. It's Rydia's question she answers first, blinking back to reality. Even though she's more focused, Zelda still seems like she's on the edge, like something's got hold of her and won't let go.

  How far is not far?

  Rydia starts rubbing her eyes. Zelda glances at Yumi, with a faint, apologetic smile. "Sorry. I've been a bit distracted. Yumi Tachibana; do you mind? It is dark down here." She prods at a burnt torch with the toe of her boot, frowning. "I don't know. But something is here." She can't help a shiver. It's the kind of loony behaviour she shows when there's something heavily corrupted by the Twilight nearby. Whatever this is, it probably isn't good. "And I know that it's close. I--I'm sorry. That's all I can tell you..."

  The earth shudders. An impossibly low sound fills the tunnels ahead until it seems to resonate in the very bones, building until it trails upward in the tormented shriek of a Twilight-infested creature. The past enemies they've fought have sometimes been large, but this--

  It sounds huge.

  At the sound, Zelda stops. She freezes. The Hylian stands like a hind poised to spring, trembling, bow in hand and arrow fitted to the string, breathing hard. Her eyes are so dark as to seem nearly black in the darkness. Why is her hair a shade or two lighter than it's supposed to be? And why does she seem to radiate Power with a capital "P," the scathing presence of something closer to gods than mortals?

  Rydia and Yumi might want to be ready to grab Zelda. She looks like she's a heartbeat or two away from lunging forward into the darkness, straight towards whatever's making that awful racket.

    "Dragons are prideful because not a lot predates on them. Apex Predators don't show a lot of concern for their environment, once they've established their position in the ecosystem," Valerian says as he adjusts his goggles and lowers them over his eyes, covering them up in case they come across anything splash-y like acid, blood, or the like. 

    "Whether what's down here is a dragon or not, it's definitely a threat and a disruption to the balance of the area. If you leave it unchecked, it will displace local inhabitants and disrupt the ecosystem. It's not natural," Valerian continues as he walks along, following after Zelda and keeping an eye on her, "If it were, it would not be disrupting the natural course of the area the way it has been. It is unnatural because it creates an imbalance. Because it is unknown." 

    Valerian concludes, "Therefore, what is down here needs to be removed for the good of this world. Otherwise it could, potentially, become a Thorn if it were allowed to fester."

    'A bit distracted'.
    "That's an understatement." Rydia notes with a frown. But Yumi handles the issue of the darkness and Rydia's eyes are no longer bothering her. This is all well and good! But the Summoner sighs. "Fine fine, I'll talk about the zora thing later when your mind isn't on dragons and junk, and-"
    That sound makes her trail right off.
    "Cripes that sounds so... Big..."
    Zelda looks ready to book it into the darkness-
    Rydia grabs her by the shoulder.
    "Not so fast, we're going together. ... With Yumi and Valerian in front, preferrably."
    Pause.
    "I'm not scared."
    She motions Valerian and Yumi to go on. You know. Ahead.

    The cavern reverberates with immense enmity, and Yumi tenses. "This... almost feels like a youma, in a way. Not the reality-warping magic, so much, but the way it feels like it's everywhere..." She brings Prominence up into a cautious guard, and nods in Valerian's direction. "Agreed."

    It's about when Rydia puts a hand on Zelda's shoulder that Yumi notices what's going on with the Hylian woman; there's a hint of relief for a moment, and then a nod to Rydia as well. "Right, yeah. Got it covered." A hopping jog is all it takes to get the armored magical girl up in front, although she does glance over her shoulder a few times. It's still hard to tell where the thing is coming from, even with the senshi's huge sword glowing gold-white.

>> GAME >> Zelda spends an Edge for: Arrows of Light. Also, Hylia-ing out. SMITE THE IMPURITY.

  This cavern system is vast, and there's no way to know how deep it runs. What was excavated seems far less than what was naturally channeled through the slopes. The caverns and chambers are huge. The amount of distortion done to the sound suggests it's a chamber or two away.

  Close enough that the Hylian woman does tremble beneath Yumi's hand, but the reaction isn't one of fear. Her shoulder is so tense as to feel like a rock even through layers of clothing and her thick mourning robe. Her eyes are wide and unseeing, but the way they track something just out of sight suggests she's relying on senses less than ordinary.

  It takes incredible, visible effort for her to listen and reply.

  "There are dragons in Hyrule's history that are gods, and also monsters. Whatever this began as it is lost to us now. A Twilight-infested monster. Mister Railton, here is your chance; we must kill or be killed." She huffs a breath. Whether it's a voiceless laugh or a forceful sigh is hard to say. "Forgive me. I cannot--"

  Speak. She cannot speak. She is so drawn to this thing that she can't focus on anything else. Ancient instincts have come roaring to the fore, and the protector-goddess in her veins screams at her to kill the threat for the safety of her people. It also screams for the blood of the corrupt; for the demonic and the twisted and the wrong. Even the sound of this thing's voice is wrong.

  The Twilight-corrupt dragon bellows, thundering in voice and in movement. A sinuous reptilian creature swings around the corner of the cavern mouth ahead, howling in pain and rage. Black geometric patterns are superimposed over its scaled hide. Its eyes are a blank red. Though the wings are furled tight to its body, its tail is a hazard, crashing against crystal formations with enough force to crack them and send deadly huge hunks flying.

  All that to say, the damn thing is as big as a house, at least. A modestly large house. It's also very, very loud. Its horned head tilts this way and that, before tilting down towards the party, triangulating straight at Zelda, and opening its maw to emit a piercing shriek. It lunges straight for her with a hateful snarl.

  She wrenches free from Rydia's hand with what may seem surprising strength, out of proportion to her delicate frame. Zelda throws her hood back, baring her teeth and snarling, completely out of proportion to her size, alleged genteel upbringing, and supposedly noble vocation. Wait a sec, her eyes are white. And glowing. Not only glowing, but blazing. Her presence fills the cavern -- more even than the corrupt creature, like a blazing torch throwing back the shadows.

  Skidding to a halt, she raises her bow, firing directly at the charging creature, with no apparent heed to the people in front -- because she's good enough to miss them and try to hit the Twilight-infested creature hurtling towards them all.

  There's no speaking to her, anyway, to go by her thunderous expression. Zelda's not there.

  Rydia and Yumi might recognise who is.

  Hylia.

  Whoever 'Sheik' is, apparently she neglected to tell Valerian about the part where she's a demigoddess. Right now, she's pretty much the walking incarnation of divine righteous fury; Light and warmth and righteousness wrought into the scathing rage of a goddess.

  When a snarling Zelda slaps an arrow made of blazing light onto the string of her bow, setting all the gold filigree to glowing, the thing blazes so bright, crackling like lightning, that it's almost impossible to see its shape clearly. It leaves afterimages for the light-sensitive. It's the fury of a goddess distilled into the shape of an arrow.

  Also, Lynel screams, rears, and books it the hell out of there.

  Smart horse.

    "Well now." 

    Valerian covers his face a bit as he can hear the roar bellow through the cave and the creature comes around a corner, "Looks like we found what we're looking for." 

    Of course, then Zelda is manifesting some new power, one that Valerian was never privy to in the first place. The Dragon Juicer spares a look sideways at Yumi, "Is this new for her or has she always been able to do this? It didn't exactly come up when she was interviewing me as a hired gun," He comments to the magical girl standing next to him. 

    Still, he's also not one to let an opportunity go to waste. So as the godess-powered Zelda fires an arrow powered by divinity and wrath at the dragon, he darts in right on the heels of his attack. The bundle across his back vanishes in an instant as the chainsaw screams to life. 

    Trailing after that arrow, Valerian attempts to slice the chainsaw right across the same spot on the dragon's body that Zelda's arrow just struck, hoping that her super-arrow will weaken the hide enough that the blade of the Juicer Chainsaw can find purchase and split open the flesh.

    Yeah. Yeah that's definitely reminiscent of a youma, in a lot of ways. Some of the most worrying ones. Huge, practically oozing malign magical power, angry, and with a corrupt roar that seems to reverberate everywhere, from everything. And Zelda is losing herself in her goddess's reaction to that horrid creature.

    Yumi grimaces, tightening her grip on Prominence. She drops into a ready stance, and the light infusing the greatsword grows brighter. The heat coming off the blade is noticeable, small tongues of flame dancing around it as magical sunlight fills the weapon. of course, it goes right for Zelda, and of course, the way she is right now, Zelda can't do anything but fight back, with extreme prejudice.

    Yumi tenses in preparation, and throws a side glance to Valerian. "I don't think I've ever seen this much of it out of her, but it's... expected," she replies. "We're gonna have to cover her."

    And much like the juicer, the senshi goes on full attack right behind that arrow of light. While he swings the chainsaw as a direct followup, however, she's using it as a distraction. She lunges to one side, and then forward, swinging Prominence with a tremendous amount of force. Her intent is to launch herself alongside the dragon, hurtling down its length while whirling her sword around, so that she can unleash slash after sunlight-infused slash.

    And there goes Zelda. Ripping from her grip like that, Rydia curses under her breath as the princess bolts forward and...
    There's the dragon.
    "Oh sh-..."
    Between the twilight corrupted great wyrm roaring and Zelda giving way to let Hylia overtake her once again, the Summoner ducks and covers as Lynel wheels right around and goes thundering out the cave.
    "This isn't new, no." She admits to Valerian while trying to get her bearings amid the chaos.
    She's not just hunkering down though; hands moving in a series of somatic gesturs as she mutters words of power under her breath...
    Before a great bolt of lightning lances from her fingertips at the dragon with a clap of thunder.

  The former dragon doesn't seem to expect to meet any resistance, but its mind must truly be gone. It shows no surprise as the scathing arrow slams into it, searing into its shoulder and pinning that wing to its side.

  And then there's the chainsaw. Given its incredibly... messy... nature, we'll spare the details. But it's messy. And there's not much resistance.

  All that to say, between the Hylian's divine arrows, Valerian's chainsaw, and Rydia's lightning, the dragon goes down fast. It might even be weakened by the corruption -- they're big mojo on the Hyrulean food chain, and they're strong. It may have been fighting Zant's influence for years. Well, it's out of its misery, now, one supposes.

  Zelda stays where she'd planted herself, shivering. She takes a halting step forward as the bow falls from nerveless fingers, shuddering, stammering hysterically and cursing softly. The words are very un-aristocratic and very... illustrative. The Hylian sounds less like self-assured aristocracy and more like a frightened young woman feeling particularly small and vulnerable. Whoever she is, whatever her story is, and whatever lies surround her identity, this right here is something true.

  Shrinking into herself, Zelda pulls the robe tighter around herself, shivering harder and cursing again. "A dragon." Her laugh is just shy of hysterical. "Goddesses, what low will he not stoop to? Oh, merciful Author of Law."

  Slowly, she looks over to Valerian, and then the corpse of the dragon; then between the two several more times.

  Zelda sighs. It sounds like the sigh of an old, old woman; a very tired one.

  "I'm afraid I'm not who I've made myself out to be, Mister Railton, and you deserve to know the truth. I feel I can trust you; at least for the moment, and you already know the most dangerous information: Where I am located."

    Yumi skids to a stop on the other side of the dragon, stepping around and dropping into a defensive stance in one fluid movement. She's prepared for a counterattack... but one that never comes. For a few seconds, she holds it anyway, watching the corrupted beast until she can be reasonably sure of its death; only then does she relax, and then only enough to shift Prominence onto her back. The glow fades from the weapon, but she keeps it manifested, stepping around the corpse and jogging over to where Zelda stands - and after a second or two of hesitating, the senshi reaches out, carefully circling the Hylian woman's shoulders with an arm. "We'll get him. We will get him."

    She'd say more, but Zelda herself seems to be taking the lead on explanations. And it's Zelda's explanation to give. So, she refrains.

    Quick work is made of the dragon. Which is actually good for Valerian, since quick work means a cleaner kill, which means a more efficient harvest for him. So as the dragon falls, the mercenary starts to reach into the pouches at his waist. Apparently they have some functionality that allows them to work as bags of holding, because he is soon producing what appears to be tubing, plastic pouches that would appear to be designed to hold fluid, and a scalpel. 

    "I mean, from a philosophical standpoint, Miss Sheik, is anyone who they make themselves out to be?" He pontificates as he makes a small incision in the neck of the dragon and runs the tubing into it. The blood begins draining down the tube and slowly filling the bag up with blood as he does so, "I believe it was the Psychologists Eckhart and Friesen who said that we wear many social masks to cover up our true identity, and that the mask is also part of our identity when we are with appropriate social groups." 

    "But my ruminations on the nature of humans aside," He comments as he starts making several more incisions in the hide of the dragon. He appears to be almost like a true hunter, wanting to waste no part of the buffalo, so to speak. Because he is pulling off large strips of the hide and piling them up to the side to let them dry off a bit, "I do take your meaning. You had your secrets and you did not know if you could trust me, maam." 

    He looks towards Zelda, wiping some blood from his goggles with a gloved hand as he smiles towards her, blue eyes shimmering a bit, "If you wish to elaborate upon anything, I will listen. If you wish to further keep your secrets, I will not pry." He sucks on the fingertip of a glove briefly before turning back to the dragon. 

    "But do not let my work dissuade you here. I am listening, even if I am also working. I want to make sure to do as much as I can before stiffness sets in."

    "O-oh."
    Oh that was fast.
    Rydia didn't expect it to go that fast.
    Not that she's going to look a gift chocobo in the beak.
    "It's okay. What Yumi said, we're going to get that bastard." She says to the princess. But then she's rubbing at the back of her neck.
    This is awkard. They have to tell this Valerian guy the truth now don't they?
    Rydia opens her mouth.
    Valerian starts skinning the thing.
    Well she can't complain, she's skinned things while talking to people too.
    It's how she got her fancy wolfos skin cloak.
    "Soooooo yeahhhhhhhhhh..."
    Very well said Rydia.
    Very well said.

  It speaks to Zelda's exhaustion that she lets Yumi put an arm around her shoulders, and she stays there. She trembles like a leaf in a storm, but she stays there, using Yumi to stay upright.

  "One could make that argument," she agrees mildly, in the face of Valerian's pontification. Her gaze wanders away from the messy business of reagent-gathering. Gruesome business but a necessary one in some circles. "No. I did not," she agrees, to the matter of not trusting him. "I think I do, now."

  She's silent as he continues working, before thinning her lips and making a little 'carry on' gesture with both hands. Ew. "By all means," she says, in a tone that sounds just a tiny bit queasy.

  "My name is not Sheik, nor was I ever a handmaiden of the royal family." She straightens, although as pale and trembling as she is, it doesn't do much for her dignity. "My name is Zelda. I am the last in the royal line of Hyrule; that which has held the throne since its creation, whose royal women trace their ancestry back to the Goddess Hylia." She sighs and shrugs, gesturing toward the dead dragon. "Well. Until some years ago, that is. That son of a bitch murdered my family, slaughtered the castle staff and guard, and now he sits the throne of Hyrule. I would have been another victim if I hadn't been out riding at the time."

  "My friends here and I have been working towards liberating Hyrule Castle. I would appreciate your help in the endeavour, whenever you have the time. I'm afraid pay is a bit... sporadic; living in that frozen hell-hole means that I spend a great deal to import the supplies we need to live in such a climate."

    Valerian is pretty fast with the whole reagent-gathering thing. He has to stop partway in to swap out the bloodbag on the IV that is extracting from the dragon, but overall it is a pretty smooth process that goes without much fuss. He eventually points towards the pile of hide, "Take that hide. Cure it. Turn it into armor for your troops. Take the claws and put them on the ends of wooden or metal poles to make polearms and spears. Take the teeth and put them on the ends of arrows. That's your share of the hunt." 

    He wipes the sweat from his brow and then grins a bit, "I'm really just here for the two or three gallons of blood I can get from this thing. It's worth my share of the loot. Plus, I already have Dragon Hide armor, so I don't need more of it. But your troops can use it to help you in your rebellion, Princess Zelda. That's about the best buy-in I can give you to show you that I'm going to be on your side." 

    "And realistically, you netted me a dragon today. With these three blood bags, I'm probably gonna get..." He scratches the underside of his chin, "Five... five and a half years added onto my life. You can call that my payment. If it takes you more than 6 years to solve your dictator problem, we'll talk about a fee then."

    "That's us," Yumi says, finally relinquishing her hold on Prominence as Valerian gets to work. "Vive la resistance." She even gives it a halfhearted little arm-pump with her now-free arm. Valerian's offer of raw materials causes her eyes to widen a little, though; they don't quite have a lot of manpower, but that's still pretty useful. When they do, they'll have arms and armor for them. "That's... that means a lot, honestly. Thank you."