I both love and dread the fact that BOTW2 got a new trailer at E3. On one hand, yay, news! On the other hand, oh god the canon I'm working with is changing aaaAAAAA
This week, it's miniboss time! Group 2 is fighting Deku Champion (and husband to the Deku Queen), Narcissus! I posted a fancy cel-shaded/painted illustration to the garden-eel-draws tumblr, so just check the navigation post at the top under the "dungeon 3" tag. I've also illustrated in fancy graphics what a Mad Deku Scrub looks like in this fic~
Content warning for blood/significant injury and the Harrys' wack childhood.
Yellow walked through one of the two available doorways, saw the water and golden hooks, sighed, and left. "Are you sure we aren't missing something?" he asked. "Because that's the third room we can't do anything in, and I don't get it."
"We have the compass, so I'm sure we'll find whatever the new item is soon enough," Blue said. "Now we just need the map."
A clang and a curse came from below them, where Ron had blocked a Deku nut with his shield and gotten the angle slightly off. The red-leaved Deku Scrub that had been targeting him laughed madly in its shrill, trilling voice and spat another nut. Its fellows joined in a moment later, causing the boy to stagger from the combined force. "Not that I think planning isn't important, but could you stop talking and deal with these things?" Ron called across the room.
Hermione, who was half-crouched behind Ron as they edged toward where the Potters stood, admonished, "They're sapient beings, Ron! They aren't conjured creatures like Moblins or Octoroks. I won't have Harry killing people!" She had all but pushed the Harrys up the ladder leading out of the pit when they'd come at the Deku Scrubs with their swords. They had only been intending to bat Deku Nuts back at the forest creatures, but Hermione had insisted that the risk of them unintentionally lopping off an important body part ("Not even the leaves, Blue! They might photosynthesize!") was too high. Yellow agreed that slashing them with a sword would be going too far, though he liked to think he had enough control of his blade not to go around chopping off limbs by accident.
These Deku Scrubs, while a bit off-color from the greener ones living in the Forbidden Woods, definitely resembled the soldiers that had been guarding the way to the temple. They had the same arrangement of leaves and petals, but in a dying red that made Yellow worry for their health. "They're probably under Vaati's spell, and that's why they're being mean," he called down to Ron. "Once we solve the temple and get Princess Belle's people back, I'm sure they'll go back to normal!"
A nut ricocheted off of Ron's shield and slammed into its sender, knocking the Deku Scrub sprawling on the ground. Yellow felt even worse for the little plant-person, seeing how dried-out and faded his uniform was. The Deku Scrubs wore Shakespearean-looking clothes made out of leaves and flower petals that matched their "hair", and it appeared those fancy outfits withered with their wearers.
The Deku Scrub sprang up, shaking his head dizzily, and then pulled a wooden sword out of the narrow sheath at his side. His glowing orange eyes curved upward and sparkled with crazed glee. Ron and Hermione turned heel and ran—not that there was much space to move. They were trapped in a three-meter-deep dirt hole in the middle of the room, where a pitfall on an upper floor had dropped the entire group a few minutes ago. Blue and Yellow had been lucky enough to land right next to a ladder leading out, but Ron and Hermione had been caught in the middle of a quartet of hostile Deku Scrubs who weren't letting them move an inch. Now one of them was chasing them around in circles, taking frenzied swipes at their backs while the other three did their best to trip the two humans up.
Yellow jumped into the pit. Things were getting too serious for him to stand around feeling sorry for the beings attacking his friends. He circled his arms to cast a landing spell and took off running once his feet hit the ground. Unsheathing his sword as he sprinted, he turned the flat side of it forward and swung it at the Deku Scrub's wooden head with all the strength he could muster. Then he immediately regretted that decision, because Deku Scrubs weren't nearly as heavy as he'd assumed.
The poor creature went flying like a ragdoll, screaming all the way. He bounced off the wall on the other side of the pit with a hollow clunk, flopped to the ground, and lay still. Only the fact that the soldier's eyes were still aglow reassured Yellow that he hadn't killed the little being.
Before the other mad Deku Scrubs could recover from the surprise of seeing one of their own so brutally attacked, Yellow stowed his sword, grabbed his friends, and pulled them toward the ladder out of the pit. They all climbed as fast as they could without trampling one another, flinching when Deku Nuts started thudding against the dirt wall and pinging off of the ladder.
"I didn't know you had it in you," Blue remarked to Yellow once he was back on the temple's purplish-white tiles.
Yellow shuddered. "Trees are heavy. Shouldn't Deku Scrubs be heavy?"
"Oh, that's why you used so much force? No, Deku Scrubs are much lighter than they look. Some of them are even flight-capable, using propellers a bit like the ones Peahats fly with," Blue explained. Yellow silently vowed to spend more time studying Blue's translation notes on the Hylian Bestiary. Clearly he had some studying up to do concerning Hylian magical creatures. "They're more durable than you think, though. I'm sure that one will be fine." He put a reassuring hand on Yellow's shoulder.
The group sidled around the crumbling tiles on the edges of the pit to reach the door on the other side. Yellow was relieved by the lack of golden hooks. They'd actually be able to make some progress now!
He scanned the new area, a habit he had been forcing himself to establish since the last temple. Barging into a room without looking first could result in walking into a knife-trap or the revolving gaze of a Beamos, so he stood in the doorway to peer around. The first thing he noticed was that the flooring was rather sparse. There were clusters of tiles here and there, interspersed with just as many patches of dirt. He wasn't sure whether that was suspicious, though. There was one door on the other side of the room, some thick curtains of vines creeping down the walls, a few Keese, a knife-trap in one back corner, and a Peahat they'd have to keep an eye on. That was it, though; the room had a perfectly flat, simple layout with no architectural obstacles in sight. Yellow breathed a relieved sigh. An easy room meant less time spent struggling through the temple.
Hermione and Blue, who had similarly paused to check their surroundings, seemed to come to a different conclusion. Blue went from standing tall and stiff to hunching with his arms crossed, glaring suspiciously at the vines covering the walls. Hermione eyed the Peahat with frustration, deliberately lowering her Hylian staff. She'd shot a spell at one earlier, after seeing the Harrys' swords skid off the monsters' propellers, and suffered another burned hole in her robes after the spell had been deflected in her direction.
Ron hung back while the others stepped farther in. "D'you reckon some of those bits of dirt might be pitfalls?" he asked tentatively.
Oh, that was a good question. Yellow stopped a meter before the edge of the tiles and scrutinized the moist, close-packed earth under the stone. It was a strange purplish-beige color, but it looked natural enough. The pitfall they'd fallen through had been a square section of tiles on an invisible hinge, much like the ones that appeared in Hogwarts. He'd never seen a pitfall hidden under anything other than stone. Just in case, Yellow inched closer to the edge and slid one foot out to check for anything suspicious.
Something big erupted from the ground and narrowly missed his outstretched extremity. Yellow shrieked and scuttled back like a crab. That thing could have taken his head off if he'd just walked into it!
He dropped onto his rear by the entrance of the room and stared with wide, startled eyes and what had almost ripped through his foot. It was a thick, spiky tentacle. A...plant tentacle? It had wicked spines and a glossy dark green color that reminded him of a rose stem, making unnerving slimy sounds as it writhed like a dying snake.
Blue and Hermione stood in front of the tentacle, scrutinizing it from a slightly unsafe distance. When the former took a swing at it with his sword and was thrown back by an annoyed wriggle from the man-sized plant, the bookworms erupted into a round of interested muttering. Ron, meanwhile, drifted back to stand by Yellow while the boy got his wits about him. "I wanted to shoot it, but they told me not to," Ron said with a bit of irritation. "If Blue asks to take it back with us, I might shoot him." He reached down to help Yellow to his feet.
Yellow accepted the help and stood. After doing a pat-down to make sure the plant hadn't secretly injured him somewhere, he said, "You know, Blue might actually do that. He's done a lot of studying about Hylian monsters; Hylian plants might be next."
Ron grimaced. "Yeah, that's why I said what I said. Someone around here needs to have some common sense."
Off to the side, Blue's and Hermione's mumbling conference ended with a jet of white fire and twin yelps. The spell had reflected off of the giant vine and splashed against the ceiling above the bookish duo, forcing them to duck out from under the falling droplets of flame.
"How is it that fire doesn't work against Peahats or vines? Wouldn't it be extra effective?" Blue complained, slapping at his smoldering shoulder.
"Maybe it's more of a banishing spell against dead and dark things and its resemblance to fire is happenstance," Hermione said. "Given its effectiveness against ghosts and ghouls and relative lack of effect on anything else, that explanation would make the most sense."
Blue crossed his arms and scowled at the writhing vine. "These infernal temples had better give us a decent spell soon, or I'm going to…" He pursed his lips, looking like he was legitimately considering aiming a kick at the spiky plant.
Yellow skipped forward tugged his brother back by the collar. "You'll be patient and wait for the temple to give you what you need, is what you'll do," he chided. "In the meantime, no kicking the cacti, please." He stepped around Blue and lined up his toes with the edge of the tiles next to the vine. "I'll go first, since I'm less likely to cast spells willy-nilly."
"It wasn't 'willy-nilly'," Blue groused as he stepped behind Yellow. Hermione and Ron queued up after him.
Yellow tentatively slid his foot onto the dirt about half a meter from the vine. No reaction. He took a step off of the tiles, then felt around again. Nothing attacked, so he moved forward again—
An explosion of dirt to his left heralded the appearance of another vine. Yellow forced himself to stand still rather than run. If there was a second vine, there was probably a third and a fourth. He didn't want to meet those plants by sprinting into them.
After a deep breath, Yellow edged forward again. More vines popped up as he slowly made his way across the hazard-ridden span of occasionally tiled floor, and he gained a new understanding of the room. It wasn't a minefield, but a maze. The "walls" of wriggling tendrils popped in and out of view as his group passed them by, making navigation as much a test of memory as it was of reflexes. He wondered what was better—an invisible maze with hostile walls, or one with passive walls you couldn't see past.
When the Peahat lazily circling the room decided to swoop at Hermione, causing her to almost fall into a line of spikes that jumped up to catch her, Yellow decided he preferred hedges to tentacles.
The tiles definitely helped, though. They were like the opposite of hedges, showing where one could go instead of where one wasn't supposed to be. He tried to stick as much as possible to the islands of purplish white stone. It reminded him of one of the few childhood games he was familiar with, though he'd never been allowed on enough furniture around the house in order to play it properly.
Yellow nudged Blue with his elbow. "The floor is lava," he said in a low voice with a cheeky, secret smile. He didn't know whether Ron and Hermione would appreciate his sense of humor.
Blue snorted. "You know, in one of these temples, it may very well actually be lava," he muttered back. "This is probably good practice."
That was very far from the response Yellow had expected. Maybe he needed to learn to expect Blue to randomly start dropping facts he kind of didn't want to know. "What? Really?" he squeaked. "Did people build these places in volcanoes?"
"If people could build these things out of corpses, I imagine carving one into a volcano was probably pretty doable for them," Blue said. "Especially since Gorons live in volcanoes and dig through solid rock all the time."
It was still something he was getting used to, being intellectually outclassed by himself. Not that Yellow was particularly perturbed by the feeling—it wasn't uncommon when one was friends with Hermione. "What's a Goron, and how do they do that?"
Hermione, who had been visibly eavesdropping, opened her mouth to answer. Blue waved a hand at her to hush. "No, this is a study opportunity," he said to her. Clapping Yellow on the shoulder, he said, "After this temple, I'm giving you and Red a cram session so you don't, say, electrocute yourself on a Buzz Blob or stick your hand in a Peahat's propeller."
"If Red tried to pet a Peahat, I'm pretty sure we'd know."
"That doesn't mean he wouldn't try it anyway."
Ron spoke up from the back of their single-file line. "Y'know, it'd probably be easiest if you just gave everyone in Gryffindor a copy of your notes," he suggested. "That way you wouldn't have as many people trying to get you and Hermione to share the beastie-book and all of us would have a better idea of what's going on."
Blue stood straight, his mouth half-open, and then pressed his lips together. His expression of surprise and indignation made Yellow giggle. "You never thought of that, did you?" he teased.
"It isn't in my nature to share," Blue muttered sullenly. "It's a good idea, though, I'll admit." Behind him, Ron flashed a victorious grin.
The next room featured another innocuous stretch of dirt floor interrupted by a wide, two-meter-tall cylinder of white stone that stuck out like a mushroom in the middle. A couple of Peahats meandered around its perimeter.
Yellow frowned. Something about this room felt…suspicious. It seemed like there should have been more than just a couple of Peahats and a buried maze to deal with. He wondered whether Green's trap-sensing instincts were rubbing off on him.
Like before, he led their little line through the maze. The walls of writhing vines were easier to avoid than before—too easy to avoid, in fact. They formed a smooth spiral toward the back of the cylindrical platform. Yellow was tempted to turn back, just in case the tentacles started closing the path behind them. His group was definitely being corralled.
One of the Peahats noticed them and went in for a dive. Yellow dropped into a crouch on the spot and it went over him. Ron yelped when the monster's propeller sent sparks flying from his hastily raised shield, but was unharmed. Blue and Hermione, meanwhile, had instinctually dodged to the sides. Yellow lunged, hands outstretched—
Agony seized him, four spots of hot pain flaring to life along the back of his shoulder. The sudden jolt of sensation made his vision temporarily white out. It was shocking, breathtaking—he was too taken aback to scream.
Once he could think again, Yellow took a deep breath and blew it out at a measured pace. He hated being in pain, and was actually somewhat terrified of incurring it, but he knew how to manage it. Besides, the sensation would pass soon.
Gritting his teeth against the fading fire in his arm, he reached out and wrenched his brother up from the ground and away from the plants agitatedly thrashing behind him. Blue sagged heavily, forcing Yellow to guide him into a sitting position before they both toppled backward into the other line of vines.
Yellow hugged his brother tightly to keep him upright and took another controlled breath while he took stock of the situation. The pain was almost gone. That was good. Hermione was standing. That was also good. She was clutching her side, though, which was decidedly bad, and the Peahat was swinging back in their direction.
"Ron! Behind—"
The redhead spun around with his shield raised before the cry had fully left Yellow's mouth. He bashed the shield against the underside of the monster as it went for a second flyby, sending it on a wobbly retreat with its turquoise eyes blinking. Yellow watched it until it had flown to a safe distance, then started looking Blue over.
His brother was conscious, though breathing through his teeth with his eyes tightly closed. Yellow propped Blue's front against his shoulder and picked at his brother's dark robes, looking for holes among the wet stains slowly seeping through the fabric. The bleeding was serious enough for several stitches, but far from fatal. He pursed his lips, considering whether to use a few Severing Charms to get the robes out of the way or attempt to pull them over Blue's head. 'He'll need a new set anyway and a weak enough Diffindo shouldn't hurt him,' Yellow reasoned, getting out his wand.
Blue grabbed his wand and lowered it. "Don't you dare," he growled. "We didn't spend a whole summer learning darning stitches to let clothes go to waste."
Hermione knelt down at his back him, Ron holding her around the waist to keep her steady. He stood up behind her with his eyes to the sky and his shield at the ready. "Blue, you can afford new robes easily and it's risky to cast healing spells on wounds you can't see," she admonished. "Sit still so I can cut these off of you."
"No." Blue aimed his wand at his back with his left hand. "Reparo." The punctures in the fabric closed, though the faintly visible bloodstains remained. He started wrestling with his robes one-handed, swearing generously and yanking none-too-gently at the swathes of fabric now draped over his head. Yellow started feeling around for a hemline before Blue could rip his clothes again in his impatience.
Hermione fluttered her hands uncertainly before reaching out to guide Blue's injured arm through his voluminous sleeve. "Why on earth would you put yourself through more pain just to save a set of robes?" she demanded. Her eyebrows came together in a frown that promised an incoming scolding. Yellow could empathize, but now really wasn't a good time.
"We don't have a lot of clothes that fit, so we don't like wasting them," Yellow explained. "We can both tell Blue why that's silly later. Maybe after he goes to Madam Pomfrey and we all have a good nap!" He finally found the lower edge of Blue's robes and gently worked the garment off of his brother's torso.
Blue breathed a sigh of relief once he was reduced to wearing a faded gray hand-me-down sweater from Dudley and slightly too-small uniform trousers from second year. The blood that had just barely shown through the black fabric of his robes now stood out with alarming clarity. Seeing it made Yellow's stomach flutter uneasily. "Okay, now you can cut my clothes off," Blue said. "I don't give a toss about this old thing." He tugged at the sagging neckline of his sweater.
"At least you're not completely barmy," Ron commented while Hermione leaned over Blue to cut open his sweater and do medical things. He still had his eyes and shield up, his head slowly swiveling across the room. "Even my mum isn't that cheap."
"It's not being cheap, it's being sensible," Blue sniffed. He was hunched over his knees, wincing as Hermione layered low-level healing spells over his injuries. Yellow peered over at what she was doing and hissed softly through his teeth. Those punctures went deeper than he'd thought; closing up wounds like that was much more difficult than sealing a simple gash.
"You think it's sensible to flail all over the place when you've got a bunch of holes in your back?" Ron asked, looking down just to raise an eyebrow at Blue. "Not to sound like Malfoy here, but you have money and an owl. Just buy a new uniform."
Blue rolled his eyes. "Well, now I can definitely tell you've never been locked in the cup—in your room for the weekend for ruining your best shirt."
The silence that followed made Yellow want to hide behind the vines waving at his back. Ron's head had snapped down and he was now giving Blue and Yellow the dreaded Chess Face. Hermione had paused in her spellcasting, horror flashing in her eyes. While Blue had said something that Yellow thought was a tad too close to whingeing, he hadn't been expecting Ron and Hermione to respond to that statement with such intensity. Getting locked in the cupboard for a couple of days was hardly anything for him. That was why he knew not to whine about it, because it would only lead to real punishments if his relatives found out he'd been acting like an ungrateful brat.
"What?" Blue glanced between Ron and Hermione. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You were going to say something else before you corrected yourself," Hermione said. There was a tentative tremulousness to her voice that Yellow didn't like the sound of. "What was it?"
"Er…" Blue seemed to have run out of words.
Yellow rummaged through his vocabulary to find something with "cup" or "cub" in it that wouldn't sound too strange. All he could think of was "cubby", which wasn't any better than the word he was trying to replace.
One of the Peahats swooped in to save the day. Yellow was guilty to feel relieved by the sight of Ron swinging at the monster with his shield and missing. Anything that delayed him having to talk about his relatives to other people was a good thing in his book.
"Hermione, do you need help with fixing yourself up, or would you rather do it yourself?" Blue asked briskly. "We've got to get to the center platform before one of those bloody helicopters pushes us into the vines again. They aren't going to stop until we're out of their sight."
"Oh! I, er, I can do it myself," Hermione stammered. She pulled up her robes to check. "It isn't too severe."
"Good," Blue said. He cast a few unenthusiastic Mending Charms to seal up the cuts in his sweater. The garment knitted itself together partway, but there were some slipped stitches and frayed strings sticking out. Now a little more clothed, he gingerly slid his bloodied robes back over his head and got to his feet.
Yellow stood up as well. He sent a pinched look at Blue and flicked his eyes down at Hermione. "We're in trouble," he silently telegraphed.
His brother's eyes and mouth tightened. "I know," his face sent back.
The two kept their lips firmly buttoned once the group started moving again. If one random statement from Blue was enough to make Ron and Hermione act that weird, they didn't want to accidentally freak out their friends even more by saying another wrong thing. In the middle of a temple with mad Deku Scrubs, invincible Peahats, and mazes of living spikes, now wasn't the time for a sensitive discussion. Though, if Yellow had his druthers, that discussion would never happen at all.
Following the vines the rest of the way was easy as pie. Honestly, the real challenge of the room was in dodging the persistent flying pests hovering around their intended destination. The dual lines of vines ended at the base of a set of stairs that curved around the back edge of the raised platform as they went up. Yellow hopped up the stairs two at a time, impatient to be done with this room. He hoped the next one wasn't yet another section of maze, because he'd had quite enough of Hyrule's hostile plant life.
In the center of the platform lay a patch of dirt, and from that dirt grew an unusually large, sickly-looking yellow flower.
A defeated slump pulled at Yellow's shoulders. He honestly kind of missed the last temple. Dodging guillotine blades and tripping over invisible spikes hadn't felt nearly as tiring as just looking at this Deku bud after going through that maze.
'Yes, yes, get on with it,' he thought at the temple in general once his group had congregated behind him. Once four sets of feet had left the stairs, a tangle of stiff wicker tendrils burst from the ground around the platform and wove themselves into an intimidating bramble thicket to prevent any escape. Yellow just sighed.
The Deku bud trembled, then opened wide to admit the form of a lanky Deku Scrub much bigger than any he had seen so far. He was taller than Yellow, carrying a wooden mallet whose head was the size of the boy's torso. The dead-looking wood and shriveled flower petals forming his clothing resembled a gladiator cuirass and skirt, with a thick leafy cape fastened at his neck.
With a trilling shriek, the Deku Scrub hauled the hammer over his shoulder and slammed it into the ground. Yellow's feet briefly kissed the air before he was sent staggering toward the center of the platform. Seeing this, the Deku Scrub lifted his hammer again, this time pulling it back for a sideways smack that would send the boy flying.
Hermione saved the integrity of Yellow's ribcage with an Incendio from her Hylian staff. The spell went wild, spiraling and spitting sparks like a firework before exploding against the Deku Scrub's chest. He took an unbalanced step back before falling to one knee.
Well, that was his cue. Yellow tiredly unsheathed his sword and ran toward the downed warrior. His weapon felt like it weighed twice what it usually did, the grip sticking to the tacky blood he'd forgotten to wipe off of his hands. With fury borne of impatience, he swung his sword at the Deku Scrub's head. It left thin lines of purplish smoke in its wake as it scraped across the wood.
When the Deku Scrub swayed to his feet, Yellow skittered back toward the edge of the platform. On the other side of the creature, he saw Blue do the same. He hadn't even noticed Blue joining in his attack, so focused had he been on getting as many swipes in as possible. Blue was holding his sword left-handed, his right hand folded behind his back. Yellow set his jaw. He was going to have to do his best to keep his brother from aggravating his injuries.
"Incendio!" Ron shouted. His spell hit the Deku Scrub in the chin and did no more than make the creature's head momentarily jerk upward. "Dammit, of course wands don't work," he cursed, trying the Hylian purifying spell anyway. The jet of white fire ricocheted off of the Deku Scrub's leaves and splashed against the bramble.
The oversized warrior turned toward him and, after a dramatic inhale, spat a Deku Nut. Yellow could barely see the thing, it moved so fast! If Ron hadn't already had his shield up, he would have definitely suffered a broken bone or organ damage. The projectile slammed into the Hylian Shield with the piercing sound of a bell and a spray of disintegrating splinters. Yellow dove to catch his friend before the force of the Deku Nut could send him tumbling into the web of spikes beyond the platform. His flying tackle was definitely going to leave bruises on them both, but at least it sent them tumbling in a much less hazardous direction.
WHAM! A heavy blow from the Deku Scrub's mallet sent a shockwave through the platform. Yellow and Ron bounced into the air and Blue tripped and fell hard in the middle of a running step. Yellow felt an echo of his brother's pain through his knees and arm. He gritted his teeth. Feeling the injuries from the maze again meant Blue might have just reopened something! They needed to finish this quickly.
Where was Hermione? Oh, there she was, running from sweeping swings of the Deku Scrub's hammer and drawing the creature away from Blue. She wasn't in much of a position to cast another fire spell. Yellow thought for a tense moment and then summoned his magical lantern. It didn't provide much distance for throwing fire, but it had a chance of working if he put himself well into hammering range.
Yellow ran behind the Deku Scrub with his eyes locked on the warrior's flapping cape. Was it clothing or something growing from him? He hoped it was the latter, otherwise he was putting his neck on the chopping block for nothing. Pouring on a burst of extra speed, he dashed up and swung the lantern hard, throwing a spray of liquid fire across the thick blanket of woven ivy.
The Deku Scrub leapt into the air with a pained squeal. He dropped his hammer and danced in place, the wooden material of his arms hampering his efforts to pat the flames out. Yellow wavered for a moment, uncertain. The creature wasn't down, just distracted. Was that enough for him to—?
Blue ran in and started slashing, answering the question for him. Yellow joined in with him, their attacks quickly synchronizing. A deep ache pulsed at the base of Yellow's skull. All of him should be here doing this, it seemed to say.
A deep inhale from the Deku Scrub made Yellow grab Blue by whatever limb was closest and give a hard yank. A cloud of wooden shrapnel appeared where Blue had been standing. The two of them ran as the warrior once again rose to his feet and jumped this time when he brought down the hammer. They landed without any stumbling at all. Yes, sweet success! Only now the Deku Scrub was coming after them with murder in his orange eyes and his mallet swinging at their backs.
They blew past Ron and Hermione during their frantic lap of the platform. "Somebody save us!" Blue yowled.
Hermione responded with an "Incendio!" that slammed against the back of the Deku Scrub's head and toppled the creature like a tree. Blue and Yellow screeched to a stop, turned around, and pounced.
'Stay! Down! Stay! Down!' Yellow thought in time with his sword swings. He was tired, he had his brother's blood on him, and he was starting to hate plants now. With every smoking furrow he put in the Deku Scrub's hard skin, he got closer to the tantalizing goal of going to bed.
The downed warrior gave a violent shake that threw the boys off. Yellow bit his lower lip almost hard enough to make it bleed, curses piling up on his tongue. Couldn't it just be over? If he had to do another round of running and slashing, he was going to lay down and take a nap right there in the middle of the temple, Peahats be darned.
Oh wait, was it over? The Deku Scrub wasn't getting up, only vibrating. His body started gushing purple and black smoke, then fountaining triangular gemstones in a glittering rainbow. Yellow halfheartedly waved his sword around to collect them, then more enthusiastically when he felt some of his energy come back.
The purple smoke became briefly blinding, then lifted away. When it had cleared, the warrior still laid where he'd fallen, but with his clothing now in healthy shades of green accented by cream-colored flower petals. A large treasure chest sat in front of him, at the center of the platform. The bramble was gone, having vanished under the cover of smoke.
Yellow leapt into the air and pumped his fist. "We did it!" he cheered. "And look, we fixed him! I guess hitting them hard enough knocks the bad magic out."
Blue sent a narrow-eyed look at Hermione. "So that means we can fight the other Deku Scrubs properly now, right, Hermione? I told you they were tougher than humans."
She scuffed her heel on the floor. "Yes, you can sword-fight the Deku Scrubs," she allowed. "I was only looking out for their health, you know, not trying to be a bother."
Yellow sensed an incoming mean comment and clamped a hand over Blue's mouth before the boy could voice it. "Yes, we know, Hermione. It was nice of you to be so worried about them!"
She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You really think so?"
While they were talking, Ron opened the treasure chest that had appeared and leaned in to fetch its contents. He emerged with a leaf-handled wicker whip. "Oh, finally. Here's the thing for the temple!" he called, waving the whip. "Another one popped up in here, so all of you can get one."
Blue rushed over so fast that Ron barely had time to get out of the way. He pulled out a whip and raised it up with a gleeful grin. "I know exactly how to use this." The boy shot a wicked look at one of the Peahats circling the platform. "Revenge."
A message for the more timeline-conscious Zelda fans reading this:
*MILD SPOILERS FOR LATER CHAPTERS*
We got a new trailer for BOTW2 and, uh...I thought I was being clever, setting the Hyrule side of this story in the big gray area between Spirit Tracks and the height of the Sheikah civilization, but now it looks like Nintendo is going to start filling that blank spot in, and maybe even explain how Sheikah tech works. At this point, I'm going to declare that this story has its feet set in the Great Flood timeline, with elements from other timelines brought in (because they canonically merge at some point), so we can pretend Sheikah tech just works differently in different timelines. I have a particular idea for Hyrule as it relates to the British Isles circa 1993. You know how Wind Waker was kind of 18th-century and Spirit Tracks was vaguely steampunk but still Medieval? I'm extrapolating from that—translating the clunky-but-modern technologies of the 90s into prototype Sheikah techno-magic and a Medieval setting—and coming up with my own explanation for Sheikah tech as it functions in this AU.
I'm also still going to have the Zonai show up despite having no idea what Nintendo is up to. I really want Red to get the Barbarian Outfit, so I'm just gonna keep on with my plans and have the Zonai be cool barbarian dudes who live in thunder-jungles and hunt Lynels and Hinoxes for sport. I'm intentionally not putting a number on how far back this story is set from the Sheikah civilization, so it'd be plausible that they just haven't developed their own magic tech yet.