Hyrule Adventures 2

Walking across the field of Hyrule, the middle of day, sun beats down on your head. Usually on a day such as this, the wind provides some consolation in the form of cold. As a cloud passes over the sun, the heat gradually leaves, always a comfort during a day like this, and darkness slowly eats the ground, moving as if following the sun, what worries you though, is that the darkness is black. Pure black, as if all light was abolished inside, and after about 10 seonds, the entire field around you has been consumed. You can't see, the darkness infests your mind. Soon something calls out to you, a lifesign, calling you. But as you search the darkness, something more sinister reveals it's presence.

Decay, devestation, the smell of burning overwhelms your senses like a punch in the face. Even from a distance where vision is lacking, you can tell death touched this spot as if through a sixth or possibly seventh sense. As your mind tells your body no, your legs oblige the opposite as if listening to some greater force that draws you in. The grasses of the plains fly by at speeds never seen during a walk, trees run past as if in a hurry to take you to the smell, and the burning enlightens now a second sense. You can feel the heat now, pulsing. Hot, not; on, off; as if being controlled by external means. The heat is almost unbearable as you make your way closer.

A crackle erupts, like a volcano from hell before siphoning every other noise from the sky. The eeriness creeps into your mind; what causes such a sensation, there is no logical explanation. As you get even closer to the spot, your senses seem to be reduced, or could this be leaving, taunting you as if saying that you will not catch it. As your legs seem to be speeding up in a feeble attempt, all of a sudden they stop. Momentum changes almost causing you to fall, and the heat comes ever closer.

An explosion happens in your head as the senses return, angry and more powerful than ever. As the heat seems to reach your flesh, a crackle enters your ear with harmful intentions. A cackle, evil yet supressed, but happy, content. A disturbing sound when presented in such a positive way. As the sound of the cackle rattles off into the distance, it seems to draw the darkness with it, and the sun commandeers it's reign over Hyrule. Now that there is vision, pure honest sight, you move your hand in front of your eyes. They tell the truth, and each combination registers correctly in your mind, this is when you notice the red flames dipping and weaving through the sea of green not two feet in front of you...

When Denning casts shield, the blue aura settles around the flames. What results is a spectacle unlike that which has been seen before. As the flames beat upon the walls of the shield, what could best be described as a test of will occurs between the shield and the fire. A pushing match of sorts as the fire struggles to get out. Each consecutive attempt to move outside the shield is unsuccessful and the fire is pummeled back in. The fight against the shield seemed to draw the strength from fire as it slowly started dying down, and the shield closes in around it. As it gets closer, the shield become a darker almost stronger blue. With what could almost have been a scream, the fire explodes, and after a cloud of smoke disappears, the fire is gone. Where the fire had previously been, the grass was desecrated, the outer edges black, surrounding a dark brown layer of soil.

Seeing the flame die, Denning lets out a sigh of relief.

"Well, I wonder what that was all about. Perhaps a clue can be found where the flame was."

Denning kneels down and examines the dirt of the scorched ground.

When Denning examines the text closer, the blacks and browns fuse together tightly, and can be seen to reveal something that appears to be Shiekan. As a result, Denning can read it. Upon translation, there are actually two messages the first:

Mother owns the Deku.

a smaller more precise message sits near your feet:

Meet Scythe by the Desert tree; bring all you can, deku free.
Meet there in 9 by one third; before you do, spread the word.

"Mother owns a deku. Hm, perhaps its refering to a slave or hostage?

Meet Scythe be the Desert tree. Castus, perhaps? Ill have to search for this tree.

Bring all you can, deku free. Bring all the free deku? Or bring folk to free the deku, im going with the second one.

Meet there in 9 by one third. Meet in by 3, now 3 weeks, days, hours? Ill have to figure it out.

Before you do, spread the word. I should spread word of this, and soon, but firt ill have to better figure it out."

It sure is hot out here...

Blank been travelling for days, searching the lower region of North Hyrule for treasures that fit his needs, foes that needed a good beat-down, and perhaps a woman or two. Sadly, he had found nothing. As he traversed the grassy South Greens, the sun beat down on his face, his sweat beading off his forehead and trickling onto the green blades below him. Blades, he thought, groaning. The nomad was not accustomed to carrying two swords, and the extra load was something he would have to get used to.

I could sure go for a good meal...

Blank had not eaten in quite some time. Twenty-four hours is not a lengthy stretch of time, but the Hylian had not rested much in its entirety. The hunger ripped at his stomach, like five ravenous hounds attacking a single steak. Now, five vicious canines would be capable of doing a great deal of damage to such a small portion of meat, and Blank's gut felt no less mangled than the steak would be. It was as if his stomach acids had run out of food to digest, and had grown bored, focusing their concentration of stinging vapour on the inner walls of Blank's ravaged torso.

That sure is an unexpected sight...

Coming to a stop for the first time in hours, Blank watched the cleric ahead of him pondering unknown bits of information. He looked by Denning's feet to see a fair sized chunk of land had been burned, but by what he was unsure of. He watched Denning examine the scorched section of earth, and when he saw the look on the Sheikah's face, a look that seemed to say "Hm," he knelt down and read the inscription.

Standing and facing Denning, Blank smiled and pointed to the writing in the ground. "I see you've already read it. No doubt there are few places to meet this "Scythe" fellow. There aren't many trees in Parapa or Tantari at all. One thing is for sure, 'bring all you can, deku free,' means no Dekus are allowed to be there." Blank stood with a puzzled expression on his face, wondering if the description of "When" was measured in days, weeks, or perhaps hours, just as Denning did.

"Ah, hello, Blank, how are you? Yes, this is a quite tricky puzzle. What is your interpretation of it?"

Denning says this, expecting Blank to have heard his own.

"Well, like I said, "deku-free" could only mean that if we are to meet with this Scythe guy, we'll have to be sure that no Dekus are with us. Which shouldn't be a big problem. Grenada is the only Deku I can say I know, and I don't see that mercenary all too often. So, we should gather a group together to proceed to this 'desert tree.' A cactus, maybe, but I would wager it means one of the few trees that stand stand in Tantari or Parapa. Unfortunately, we don't know which.

Now, by 'Mother owns a deku,' I'm stunned. I can't see what that could mean. Seeing how Grenada is the only Deku I know, I can only think that someone holds some kind of sway over him. An employer, perhaps? But that 'mother' part bothers me. We'll just have to gather a group to brainstorm a solution.

And we'd better be quick about it, too. 'Nine by one third.' Can't say if that means three days, weeks, or any other span of time. But should it be days, we should get our group together right away. Any ideas on how?"

crambert walks in and see's denning
Hey Denning Long time no see, what happened here?

Cloud was just passing by, but seeing the small crowd gathering, he decides to come over.

Hey guys! What are you loo-

Cloud immediately saw the scorch mark and the writing. He examines it and thinks for a while.

Maybe...it would be 9:20 that we would have to meet this Scythe person. Because it could be nine, then one third of an hour, which is twenty minutes.

Xokorn walked by with concern, noticing a small group of people gathered by a place in the field that had been burning. He could still make out smoke where there no doubt has been a field fire. It spread across the field to a certain point...a point where it looked like it had been controlled. It was there, though, that burns had been the greatest of all.

He walks up to the group of people. "What has happened here? Is something wrong?"

"Somehow the 9:20 idea doesn't seem right to me. It says nine by one third. If it was implying that a third of nine were to be added, it probably would have said plus or and. It was a good thought, though, Cloud." expressed Blank to the scholar. "No matter when the meeting is, we'd best get cracking on finding the place, hm?"

It was then that he noticed the Goron. He had never met Crambert, but he could easily derive from the man's question that he and Denning knew each other. Still, the Goron had addressed the cleric, so the nomad turned to Xokorn.

"Well, I got here after Denning did, so it seems as though he successfully put out a fire of some sort. Then there's the writing," said Blank, pointing to the inscription in the ground. "We've guessed that we're supposed to attend a meeting, but no Dekus allowed. I still have no idea just what's going on, but maybe the "Scythe" character spoken of in the riddle will indulge is with those details."

The Hylian stood still for a moment, before his head jerked to a more upright position. His eyes twinkled; he was on to something. Without saying a word, he sped off, forgetting to let the others know just where he was going. As he reached a point in which he could no longer see the gathering, he realized that it would have been wise to tell them. But they were all capable adventurers; they'd figure it out eventually.