The Scoundrels of Virtue

[Knuckle 484]

Gerudo Desert was a miserable stretch of wasteland, to be sure. The sand appeared to flow in rivers as the wind blew it across the bedrock just inches below the surface, while columns and cliffs of stone jutted out of the desert landscape at odd angles. Curiously, there were many chasms in the region; legends spoke of monsters that had dug tunnels beneath the sands long ago, but their underground maze had collapsed with time, leaving what were actually artificial sinkholes running miles deep.

 

What was certain to Endel and the group was that this place was crawling with Leevers, keeping everyone on their toes. The sound of one could be heard from a great distance, but their lethal jumps were less predictable, so everyone had to make a run for the nearest solid ground or hop over one of the chasms to dissuade the beasts. Undaunted, everyone still managed to reach their destination in one piece, and more importantly, quick enough to witness just what they'd expected.

 

One of Kazdan's accomplices from the courts, a rather tall and severe looking woman, was negotiating with a Bulbin over what seemed to be a pack of their Bullbo mounts. There was no way to tell, but Endel was willing to bet she was a monster-hybrid in disguise just like the woman at the orphanage. Her eyes had that familiar look of malice as she seemed to reach an agreement with the beasts.

"Alright guys, on my signal we're going to ambush them. Torianna ad Lorcan, deal with the Bulbins. Maia, see if you can untie the Bullbos and get them riled up, that'll cause a distraction. Skallin, you and I have to confront the woman. Everyone ready?"

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

Before Lorcan could even give his agreement, Torianna had taken him by the arm and was dragging him at a steady run to where the Bulbins waited, unassuming. Lorcan tried to signal frantically so they could formulate some sort of plan, but it seemed this really was to be a headfirst charge into enemy territory.

Leaping over the smaller sinkholes and skirting round the larger ones, they closed in on the Bulbins in good time. Lorcan grabbed Torianna then, hoisting her off of the ground and setting her down behind him. 

He bent low, behind a decaying tree that had fallen quite some time ago, he pulled Torianna down next to him and signalled for her to be quiet. She looked about to protest, but said nothing to Lorcan's relief. 

Squinting, Lorcan observed the Bulbins, one of them giving orders in it's language of grunts and incoherent noises. Lorcan waited patiently in the silence, ignoring Torianna's routine shift of weight from one side of her body to the other. She seemed antsy, eager to do something, but this needed to be timed well.

Lorcan set a hand on her arm to balance her when she came close to keeling over, pulling her upright and signalling again to remain quiet. She gave him a derisive shake of her head, as if to say 'I know, I know.' Lorcan just smiled.

Just as Torianna drew her hand away, the leader of the Bulbins finally turned his back to them. Lorcan gave Torianna a little pat, and they rose slowly, slowly.

"Now," Torianna whispered.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

The two leapt over the fallen tree and charged onto the unassuming Bulbins. They were strange looking creatures by every definition of the word, tall and broad, with hulking bodies but proportionally tiny heads. Their round, bug-like eyes widened in surprise as they saw the two attackers advancing on them. There were three Bulbins and only two scoundrels, but they knew what they were doing. Torianna watched as one of the Bulbins lumbered towards her, and already she knew the advantage.

"They're big and they're heavy!" Torianna called out to Lorcan. "They rely on brute force - we need to be quick and we need to be agile!"

Lorcan nodded as he leapt to the side to escape the reach of a heavy axe. The weapon knocked into a tree trunk, and became jammed into the wood. Lorcan used the distraction to his advantage to land a good number of slashes on the beast.

Meanwhile, Torianna was busying herself with another Bulbin. She darted round, scuttling left and right around the creature with every attack. Her quick movements seemed to be disorienting the creature. His attacks became slower, and it gave her a good opportunity to land some nasty hits.

Then suddenly, she was knocked to the side by a heavy blow to the arm. She hit the dusty earth and just managed to avoid knocking her head. She looked up wearily, to see the third Bulbin wielding a brutal looking wooden club. She didn't have the time to delay. With resounding determination, she spat the dust from her mouth and pulled herself to her feet.

"You messed with the wrong thief, buddy..." she growled.

[Knuckle 484]

While Torianna and Lorcan dealt with the Bulbins, Endel and Skallin made a dash for Kazdan's subordinate. She made no move to attack or escape as they drew their weapons, only scowled at them as they drew their weapons. "You're not supposed to be here..." She uttered. "Not that you can possibly inconvenience us."

 

Just as Endel had expected, the woman began to glow with intense white light before revealing her true form; a wretched, brown Moldorm of great size and vaguely human features. It's head mostly consisted of two green eyes and a large mouth full of teeth, while it's human arms were tucked into its soft underbelly. The thing let out a screech before rearing its head and diving into the sand. He and his knight companion made a run for the solid ground just as their foe leapt out of the ground like a fish. They had to run almost constantly making retaliation impossible.

 

This was going to be tougher than he had bargained for.

[Franne 2]

Maia ran quickly to the mob of creatures that Endel had called Bullbos. They were each tied with a rope without their necks and secured to a wooden pole. The beasts were rather large, and grunted at Maia when she walked past them. She needed to find something to cut the rope with. She looked around and saw a shard of glass, buried half into sand. She picked it up carefully and ran towards the beasts. She started cutting the rope, but they were very thick so it took her long. Finally, one of the beasts was set loose, and it ran away immediately. It began to shriek and bump into things, which took the attention of their enemies, which was exactly what Endel and the rest had hoped for. She had to continue on the rest of them, and after quite some time, the beasts were all running around, causing all kinds of uproar. 

Maia decided to watch from a safe distance, since she didn't know what else to do. She was a bit ashamed that everyone was so skilled at fighting, and she was scared immediately, which had caused some sort of annoyance from some members of the group, but she understood them. She thought it was annoying too. 

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

Lorcan breathed a small sigh of relief as the Bulbos darted about causing havoc as they went. The Bulbin he faced went down with a swift slash, falling unceremoniously with a dying shriek. 

Lorcan wasted no time, turning to look for the remainder of the Bulbins and finding Torianna caught somewhere between their leader and the other crony. Lorcan dashed over to her, ramming his sword into the gut of the smaller one and twisting ruthlessly, pulling his sword out and letting the creature fall to his feet. 

"I don't need your help!" Torianna yelled irritably, diving under the club of the Bulbin leader. Lorcan just shook his head in exasperation, jogging over to her and ducking to avoid having his head knocked off of him.

Torianna moved under the creature's arm, slashing mercilessly at his side with two of her daggers in hand. Lorcan darted round in an attempt to keep the creature occupied with him, waving his sword about a little to confuse it before jabbing at it's gut.

"Wait for my signal!" Torianna called to him from the other side. Lorcan nodded despite not knowing exactly what she meant. He decided to focus on keeping the creature facing him, attempting to knock that massive club from his hand. The Bulbin howled in pain as Torianna worked her skills behind it, but everytime it turned Lorcan was there to face it while Torianna rolled to it's back once more.

"Ready? Stab when I say!" she yelled. After another moment, it finally came. "Now!"

Lorcan rammed his sword into the Bulbin, and was surprised to find a large, sharpened piece of wood slicing through the creature's front at the same time. Lorcan withdrew his sword as the other weapon was removed from the creature. 

It fell at long last, and Lorcan was left to stare at Torianna, caught somewhere between breathlessness and relief. She just grinned back.

[Knuckle 484]

The battle against the Moldorm-Hybrid was going terribly; both Endel and Skallin couldn't penetrate the hard skin of their foe. It was more of a constant retreat from the burrowing beast than a fight, given it had a huge advantage in defense and offense. "Skallin, got any ideas to kill this thing?" Endel shouted to his partner desperately.

"I may have one, if you will just follow my lead." the darknut replied, to which Ended nodded approval.

 

The two of them made a run for one of the cliffs encircling the bulbin camp, clambering up the tallest of them just in time for the Moldorm-Hybrid to leap at them. It wasn't a fool though, and barely cleared the wall in pursuit. Anticipating this, Skallin gave the leaping monster a powerful shove just as it leapt past, knocking it off-course and tumbling down the wall. For a moment it lay there on its back, giving the perfect opportunity for a fatal blow. To everyone's surprise however, neither of them got a chance to make the leap before a furious Maia grabbed one of Endels' spare blades and dived onto the prone creature. Even with her lack of skill, the maid was able to land a grisly slash under its mouth before hacking away like mad until her foe was still.

 

Everyone rushed to the scene in a panic, but by that time Maia had gotten back to her feet and was looking exhausted but fine.

"Wow... nice job!" Endel said, a little annoyed at her for taking such a risk but mostly proud. He forgot about being annoyed completely when she gave everyone a smile and stood up straight.

"It's the least I could do... for  Zelda" Maia said with confidence.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

Torianna couldn't help but smile at Maia's sudden outburst. The fact that she could be useful in a fighting situation, even if only when the work that needed doing was completely unskilled, made her a little bit less annoying to Torianna. It was good to see her stand up for herself.

"Nice work, Maia," Torianna said, patting her on the arm. Maia smiled, blushing a little bit.

"Indeed," Endel said, looking thoughtful. "It's clear from that demonstration that you've got some nerve... especially when it comes to defense. Have you ever considered learning to fight?"

Maia paled at the mere thought. "Me? Fighting? I really don't think that's a good idea..."

"Nonsense!" Endel continued, smiling. "Torianna could teach you!"

Torianna cut him a glare, placing her hands on her hips. Sure she liked that the girl stood up for herself, but that didn't mean she wanted to be lumped with tutoring her.

"Why couldn't you do it?" Torianna said.

"Because I'm a man," Endel replied simply. "Men and women have different fighting physiques." He looked around at the two women. Torianna was giving him her worst stare, and Maia looked uncomfortable at the very least. "Perfect!" he said, rubbing his hands together."

Lorcan nudged Torianna in the ribs, gloating. She gave him a dark glare but he just smirked in the response. The boy was getting entirely too arrogant for her liking.

 

((Just to give you a heads up, I'm heading off on Holiday to Cornwall for a week! I have no idea what internet access will be like there, but I'll try to reply if I can.))

[Franne 2]

Maia felt proud of herself. Because of her sudden action, the group seemed to accept her a little bit more, since she finally showed some bravery. And now that she would get sword training from Torianna, she might get a little bit more useful. She wasn't going to admit that the moment itself she almost collapsed in fear, but she felt that she should do something, at that very moment. So when she saw an opportunity, she decided to go for it. 

The idea to give her sword training didn't seem appealing to Torianna, especially since she was forced by Endel. Maia only hoped that Torianna would be nice to her, and Maia was determinant to show her that she wanted to learn, that she wanted to be useful. 

[Knuckle 484]

The Scoudrels of Hyrule couldn't have asked for a better day; they'd gotten the drop on Kazdan's next move, killed a serious threat to Hyrule, and started Maia on the path to becoming a warrior. That evening they camped out on the grassy desert border, falling asleep as soon as the tents were ready. Endel was slightly embarrassed the next morning when he realized nobody had been assigned to watch duty.

 

"So, what's the plan?" Torianna asked the next morning. She'd been giving Maia some preliminary advice on sword-fighting a few hours ago, to see what kind of weapons the other girl might prefer to learn. He'd been partially joking about leaving the training to his fellow thief, but still decided not to pry about their progress until their next battle.

"I think we need to keep doing missions for now," Endel told her. "Ashei gave us a few options and I told her I would try to do as many of them as possible over the next few weeks." Everyone else had wandered over at this point, and Lorcan in particular was looking anxious to get back to the castle. "I know you want to debrief at the castle," Endel continued, "but we can't risk being seen by someone from the network or another of Kazdan's men."

 

Everyone seemed to agree with Endel on this point, or at least didn't argue with him. "Okay, our next objective then is Kakariko. There's been reports of suspicious characters in the village lately, and we need to check it out."

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

The group returned to their carriage after a short walk, and Endel took to the reins with Lorcan as they set their sights for Kakariko.

"Busy day, huh?" Endel remarked. Lorcan nodded his agreement, leaning back against the seating.

"Maia sure surprised us all," the thief said, a hint of pride in his voice. Lorcan glanced over to him, eyebrows raised a little.

"What with finishing off Kazdan's underling like that, you know?"

Lorcan nodded, smiling softly at Endel.

"And you and Torianna had some nice co-operation there too, you know!" Endel said with a grin. Lorcan nodded again, though reluctantly. "Oh, come on Lorcan."

The guard shrugged, looking out at the horizon. He didn't like the thought at all, but Endel was right. They'd finally co-operated and simply worked together, and it had paid off so well.

But he wasn't going to admit that to anyone.

[Franne 2]

"I really appreciate it that you want to help me," Maia told Torianna. 

She shrugged. "Guess it's better for you to be somewhat useful."

"I agree," Maia replied. "I'm sorry if I'm really bad..."

"We'll see how well you do in battle. Only then we can decide if you're bad or not. Just, don't freak out while fighting, okay?" Torianna advised. 

"I'll try," Maia answered. 

When they got out of the carriage, Endel walked up to Maia. 

"How was the training? Was Torianna to hard on you?" he asked.

Maia shook her head. "No, she was helpful. And I can't expect her to be really nice to me, she doesn't know me and I probably seem very weak to her. I don't mind it if she doesn't want to be friends." 

Endel laughed. "I don't think she can be friends with anyone. But you can't blame her, look at the father she has... And hey, I hardly know you, and I'm nice to you right?" 

"Yes, you are," Maia smiled. "Thank you, Endel." 

[Knuckle 484]

((I missed your announcement Nayru, hope you're having fun in Cornwall!))

 

"You're welcome!" Endel happily replied. He was becoming more fascinated by this girl the more he got to know her. They were from very different backgrounds and had such different personalities at first, but Endel was beginning to enjoy learning from her example. And he had a lot to learn from her about putting your destiny in someone else's hands.

 

"Look alive everyone, we're just around the corner from Kakariko now!" He announced. "The objective is to sneak into town and look for clues unnoticed. This place is so small, we should be fine if we spread out." The others began filing into the village one at a time, as Endel gave them places where they should go and investigate. He'd admittedly saved the most suspicious place for himself; a building on the cliff that loomed over the city square.

 

After scaling the cliffs and sneaking along the red rocks undetected, Endel was able to get a glimpse at some of the seedy activity he'd hoped to find. Sure enough, there were two thieves from the network loitering around the building, but something about it all didn't feel right. They weren't doing a good job as guards or deterrents; if anything the two men seemed to be trying to attract attention. But if these thugs were trying to get his attention... oh no. Whoever was in charge of the network in these parts wanted to draw them all here. They'd fallen into a trap, and the minute the network knew Torianna and her Scoundrels were here... well, Ended didn't intend to find out their plans.

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

((Hey guys, sorry for the slow reply. I've been crazy busy starting back up in school this year! I'll do my best to keep up.))

 

After being stopped by a much too curious Renado who received no answers from Lorcan, the guard's hunt to find some information regarding shady characters was turning up nothing whatsoever. Thoroughly unimpressed with the lack of findings, Lorcan kicked pebbles and stones as he stormed along, sending debris skidding wherever he went. 

It was only when a stone kicked too hard knocked into the leg of one of two men standing outside the Malo Mart that Lorcan regretted his actions. One man turned with a scowl to look Lorcan up and down.

"What was that about, you little rascal?" he demanded. Lorcan tried to come up with some sort of gesture with which to apologise, but that was a wrong move.

"Can't you speak?" the other one sneered, and then realisation dawned on him. "You're that kid, the one the boss told us about!"

Lorcan glanced quickly about him, looking for an escape. At the sound of their footsteps, he darted left and ran as fast as his feet could carry him.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! he thought, guilt weighing down on him as he sprinted in fear of his life.

[Knuckle 484]

((No problem! All of us are getting busy now I think. Come to think of it, has anyone heard from Elwayguy?))

 

It was hard for anyone to miss the cloud of dust someone was kicking up as they ran from what looked like two other figures. Endel couldn't make out the people, but he was almost certain one of them was a member of his team. He saw that others were heading out to intercept the runner as he made his way down the cliff; there was Torianna and Maia, but also a number of shady looking people. Skallin couldn't run at this speed, so the only person that could have been pursued was...

 

"Lorcan!" Endel hollered. "STOP RUNNING!"

 

Somehow Endel was able to convince the quiet guardian to stop in his tracks, which created the reaction Endel had hoped for; both his pursuers tripped over themselves in a hurry to stop. Torianna and Endel knocked them out cold before they could get up. The remaining stragglers chasing after Lorcan were easy to defeat as Skallin came barreling over a nearby fence to join the fight.

 

"Well, now that we've knocked out half their agents," Endel said with slight exasperation, "I think I found their base. We should be able to sneak in easily enough. Follow me!"