A weary traveler passed over into the dirt paved streets of Rauru Town, face conceled with a layer of dirt, and clothed likewise flithy. She was hunched over, exhaustion on every dirt crusted feature, ice blue eyes covered slightly by a few stray strands of raven black hair. Although she would have preferred being not so covered with the grime of the forest, it provided the nomad with a way to concele herself from the other villagers.

The young girl had traveled far, and was in no mood for the frivolities of everyday life, but she had spotted the town and decided to stay there for the night. The sun was setting lazily behind the far reaches of western Hyrule, casting a brilliant pink and peach light throughout the sky. The air was becoming cool and she accepted the brisk wind with pleasure, her cheeks flushed under the grime from the long, hot hike.

Sasha took out her leather water pouch and poured a few precious drops of water onto her hands then over her brow. She emptied the remaining drops of water into her parched throat and took a sigh, heavy with loathing and procrastination. Yet what was to come, would come, and she wasn't about to try to stop fate, or the angry rumbling of her stomach. As the traveler continued into the town she heard a cucco's bawk in the distance...

* * * *

Sasha walked past endless rows of houses and small buildings, mostly constructed from wood, but a few consisted of a series of cobblestones. The girl kept the hood of her cloak over her head, and mouth and nose wrapped in cloth, her eyes downcast. Once in a while she would glance up at a building, checking the signs of shops and inns, eyes searching for the local tavern. The rows of houses were devided by small alleys, just wide enough for a single body to go into, the perfect size for someone to hide in, and not be seen, shrouded with shadow.

She looked up a few buildings later and her face lit up, the sign reading:

' RAURU TAVERN --- travelers welcome'

Sasha laughed mirthlessly to herself at the original name of the tavern and dug into her tunic, fishing around for the pouch of money tied around her neck. If you asked Sasha later, she wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what happened next, just that she saw a flurry of pure white feathers fly towards her and peck her sharply in the face, opening a gash in her cheek and causing a flow of deep red blood to fall into her mouth and she held back a wail. As the cucco dashed behind her she drew her dagger and peered into the narrow alley, weapon held at the ready infront of her, should another fly at her again.

Sasha stood at the mouth of the alley for several moments, breathing deeply and trying to block out the pain in her cheek. What a horror I must look. she grimaced, Caked in dirt and face covered with blood. Sasha shook her head, cursing the damn bird and headed back towards the tavern, once again reaching for the pouch at her neck, and stopped dead.

Where was her bag?

(((OOC: Where was the bag? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN!!!!)))

~Rauru Town. This town was once on the brink between North and South, a thriving center of trade. However, once the road had been blocked by a giant boulder, and travel between North and South Hyrule was shut down all together, trade had collapsed in the town. The once busy trade quarter was now relatively empty, with only a few people moving between the different shops, buying their daily goods and wares.

The block on the North-South road had one other significant consequence. One old man was trapped in Rauru, away from his home, far to the south-west, Saria Town. He appeared old and weak, but in his youth he had monstrous strength, greater even then that of his ancestors and any children that had proceeded him. Some of that strength still survived, and even though he looked old, he could still defend himself, the halberd hanging on his back an indicator of that strength.

He strode down the street his old and warn grey tunic, his white hair and gnarled features clearly displaying his age. Garodo was his name, of the Ikanus bloodline, whose mighty hero was Pyralin Richard Ikanus, the long deceased founder of the clan. His grandson, who he had promptly disowned as soon he started to develop.... bad habits, was named Pyraline. This grandson had no surname.

The sights and sounds of Rauru Town were typicaly uninteresting, but today, the scene was a bit different. It appeared that a lone girl was being assaulted by mad cucco. Garodo looked upon this seen with relative indifference, as he slowly approached Sasha, planning on just passing her by, and continuing on his way, not aware that his day was about to be interrupted...~

((OOC: Okay, not much to go off of...but i'll do my best))

Sasha just stood there for a few moments, breathing hard, trying to regain control of her temper and trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. A cucco...just stole her money. Okay, yeah, she could deal with that. Cucco's stealing money? No problem, no big deal. The nomad girl took another big breath and turned on her heel, scowling furiously at an old man who was coming her way, trying to put the blame on someone else. As she passed him she sniffed in contempt and faced the dark alleyway, head held high and dagger clutched in her hand, the remaining light from the sun glinting off of it and giving her the courage to go into the dark abyss of the alley. Not entirely trusting her body at the moment, she forced her leg to sted forward. Then another tentative leg took her even further into the narrow pass.

She almost laughed outloud with nothing happened and took another step in the alley, her step filled with more courage. Something 'mmm'ed, like someone talking with something over their mouth, causing her to jump back several feet and thrash her dagger around into the darkness, "Who's there?" she demanded into the alley. She heard the feathers before she saw them, a loud flapping of wings and sharp talons dug into her skull from behind her. She cursed a string of profanity and almost cried out as the full pain of the strike crushed onto her like an avalanche. Sasha sucked in air and brought her dagger down where the cucco had been, but nothing occupied the space anymore.

Swiriling around on her barefoot, she brought her weapon up and took a quick step into the darkness, lunging and coming back. Once again she lunged forward, even farther and steel made contact with feathered flesh.

"Give."

Another lunge, another strike.

"Me."

This time feathers flew into the air as she brought her blade down.

"MY MONEY!" she yelled at the cucco. Something jingled and a crimson pouch 'thumped' on the ground. Yes! Sasha fell to the ground and picked up her bag, clutching it in her quavering hands. She heard a child's laugh and before she could look up something was smashed over her head. A thousand daggers seemed to plunge into her head as she cried out in pain this time, dropping to the ground like a dead weight.

Somehow, in the back of her head, Sasha knew she was hurt as she struggled to hold onto her remaining conciousness. But it was like something was dragging her down to the bottom of a river, and after thrashing wildly for serveral minutes, she gave into the darkness and slumped into the cool ground.

~The old man walked more and more slowly, as he observed the antics of the nomadic girl. She had drawn a weapon, and apparently afraid had strode towards the entrance of an alley way, blade held out in front of her. It appeared that some of her belongings had been stolen; why else would someone wander into the dark placed between buildings. He chuckled weezily to himself. Ah the exuberance of youth... chances were she was ultimately only going to get robbed and injured farther, but at least this girl had spirit.

Garudo's steps came to a complete stop when Sasha was attacked by another Cucco. From his spectating position, it was actually quite a humorous situation, despite the blood. Not many people were attacked by cucco, and the old man didn't often get to observe them in combat. It was not in Garudo's character to stop a fight between any two people. Battle was the only way to grow stronger, and thus one should relish any combat one manages to find.

The fight was rather one sided however. The nomad did indeed manage to get rid of the Cucco, but that was no great feat. Sasha's true enemy had remained hidden all along, and when she lowered her guard, the theif had chosen that opportunity to attack. There was nothing he could do about the theft of the girl's valubles, the man had won them fair and square, so Garudo would of course let him leave unscathed, but the girl appeared to be harmed. There would be no problem with helping Sasha out. Unlike the legendary Orca, he refused to teach anyone in the Dojo, but instead used it as a private area. Absolutely no one was allowed to enter it except for Garudo himself.

The old man strode forward, putting away his walking stick, in order to make use of both hands. He lifted Sasha up like one would a feather, and with seemingly little effort, carried her back to his house, which conviently was quite nearby. There, he placed her in a bed, and dressed her wounds, waiting for her to awake.

The house was a humble residents. It was a one story building with three rooms. A "Living" room, the room where all the living requirements were, such as food, drink, an area to cook; a Bedroom, where a single bed lay, which Sasha was currently occupying; and the "Dying" room. The Dying room was the largest room in the house, and took up most the space. It was a large dojo where Garudo trained to keep up his strength everyday.~