"regular speaking"

'thoughts'

Flashback

Sacolo was watching from the woods. Those two animals had done a service to the local animals by defeating the monsters in the meadow. She was nervous about approaching them, but she also needed there help.

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Epona was the first to wake up from her rest. She smiled at seeing Link sleeping. He had not rested often while trying to save Hyrule. A few naps here and there were all he seemed to need. It crossed her mind briefly if it was more nonsense about being a divine beast but decided not to think about it too hard.

Getting up without waking up Link was a little difficult, but she managed. Looking over it seemed her wounds from the fight were healed up and the local wildlife seemed to have begun to move back. It would be a while before all was normal in this section, but the disruption had been stopped before it could get out of control. She knew from Link that a camp this large could leave nothing but barren earth before long.

Moving out of the camp area she began to have her breakfast. She got lucky and found a carrot among the grasses. Link came up beside her before long and just watched the surrounding area. He had finished munching on some meat he had found in the camp. The sun had already risen a bit into the sky making it late morning.

"Do you think we should make sure there are no more of them wondering around the woods?" Link asked. "I don't think so we got most of those while we were doing our little chase tactic." Epona responded. Link just nodded his head at that. He was thinking that doing this had felt good. He wondered what that meant that storming a monster camp was more normal then farm work.

A little more thought had him realize that he honestly liked helping people. Doing this had protected not just Ordon but the local animals as well. To him there was little difference between helping the local animals and helping save Hyrule. Both had needed help and he was willing. Looking over at Epona he corrected 'Me and Epona both.'

"Wait!" A shrill voice called out. Link and Epona began looking towards were the voice had come from. They saw a hawk flying towards them. The hawk landed in a tree nearby and beckoned them to join it. Epona and Link shared a look at each other and then looked around to make sure it was them that was being addressed. When it became clear it was them, they walked towards the hawk. As they approached the hawk Link got the feeling it was female. This ability to see things like that was one he had discovered during their break after seeing Old One.

Once the two heroes got to the tree, they waited for their guest to speak. The hawk looked nervous with them being close. "Thank you for talking to me. It's a great thing you've done here and you both seem strong. Oh, my name is Sacolo. I, well we, need your help."

Link and Epona stared at Sacolo before Link stepped forward. "What do you need help with?" Sacolo relaxed a little when seeing that they were at least willing to listen to her. 'Maybe we can get the help we need after all.' "Well, you see the mountains to the east are home to the main nests of my kind. Recently some of the kargaroks have become to harass the nest. Would you be willing to help us?"

The two of them looked at each other and held a silent conversation. After a moment they looked back to Sacolo. "We will do what we can to help." With that the two of them started walking east in the general direction of Death Mountain. Sacolo quickly flapped her wings and guided their journey.

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Link and Epona both reached their destination approaching the end of day. They had to take a tough route through the gorge at Eldin Field. They both decided to rest for the night before pushing on to the actual mission. In the morning the two ground bound creatures began the hard task of climbing up cliffs to were the hawk nests were.

Link could already smell the kargaroks but could see no sign of them currently. Upon reaching a more open plateau top they were met by a group of hawks. The hawks began to circle the ground bound pair while Sacolo flew up to explain them being brought here. While that was going on Epona was deep in thought.

She knew that she was at the nearing the limit of where she could go in this kind of terrain. She was good for a horse but she could not climb near vertical ledges in disregard to gravity. Unless the kargaroks came to where she was currently she would not be able to help Link. This gave her an uneasy feeling inside of her that was slightly different from the normal feeling she got when Link went out on his own. He would have no problem, she had seen him jump from outcrop to outcrop in a rapid ascent that left her dizzy.

While Epona was settling her thoughts, the hawks had begun to land. The new hawks watched the two visitors with wariness. Finally, an older hawk began to speak up. "Sacolo says you are able to help us with the attacks on our nests. The monsters are laired in the mountain over there." The aged hawk gestures to a nearby mountain. Link can see a series of stone arches that would help him get over, but a few looked too thin for Epona to safely cross.

Link looked over to Epona and wondered why he felt unease at this fact. He had done many dungeons and events without her being able to follow. Yet now things were different. He looked around and saw nearby nests hidden among the nearby overhands that obviously belonged to the hawks. They were nearby the level that they were currently at, and gave him an idea of how Epona could help.

"Epona can help by guarding the local nests." He began. "Since she is doing that you could provide support to me as I head towards the den is. I'll have problem if they start to attack me on the way there. Once inside I should have an advantage against them."

The hawks looked at each other then at Epona directly. "That seems like a good plan." Said the old Hawk and with a flap of wings began to ascend. The other Hawks soon followed and began to circle above Link. Link turned and looked up to Epona. "Be careful." He said. She let out a huff of air and responded "That's my line, you're doing the dangerous stunts again." Link just smiled and began to head to the first bridge.

It was not until they got over the second bridge that they ran into problems. A group of kargaroks had flown out of the cliff side and was heading straight for the group. Since Link was on stable ground he took his stance and waited for the enemies to get to them. The first of the foes dived down towards Link. Link responded by jumping up and grabbing its long neck and biting down. The monster instantly died and turned to dust. Seeing this the hawks with Link began to drive the following kargaroks towards the waiting hero. The fight was over soon but a few of the hawks headed back towards the nests with injuries.

Moving on they had more trouble with kargaroks and some Guay that had flocked at one of bridges. When link was finally over the last bridge the only hawk still with him was Sacolo. The rest had to retreat due to injuries. Link himself was unharmed because of all of their hard work. Looking ahead he could see a series of overhands and cliffs imbedded in the mountain. This is where the kargaroks had made their lair. He looked up at Sacolo who seemed determined to stay with him, and then moved forward.

Inside the cave was a winding tunnel that would occasionally open up in other rooms. Link could smell nothing but the stench of foul meat. The first room that opened up to them reveled the source of the smell. A nest had been made out of the carcasses of various animals. A kargarok was resting inside of it. Upon entering the room, the creature instantly woke up and faced the pair with a screech. The beast suddenly lunged with its beak in a rapid snap. Link barely had time to jump out of the way.

Sacolo dived down and scraped her claws against the back of the creature. The creature turned to follow the hawk's movements and Linked tried to attack. The walls of the nest were to high for him to effectively get over and so was forced to ram into the barrier breaking it apart. This instantly turned the creature's attention back on him and forced him to do a jump back. The beak of the creature dug into the ground where he had been standing, and was immediately removed. Getting back into position the pattern was repeated and the creature was killed by link diving through the hole he had made.

As both the monster and nest turned to ash the two moved on to further explore the area. In some rooms they found old chests tucked into corners. None of them had anything that Link could use but he found it odd just how many chests were scattered all over the land. They found more of the nesting kargaroks in other rooms. A few had their nests on the external cliff sides, while fighting those he had to be careful of avoiding the edge and flying kargaroks.

As they entered the last room suddenly a stone door fell behind them. Inside was three of the nesting kargaroks with the nests pushed up against the walls. As the fight began Link realized that this was going to be a problem. The creatures kept pushing him towards the center of the room where all three could strike him at will. During the fight both Sacolo and him were injured. Link took a long gash to his side and Sacolo was thrown into a wall.

As the last of the monsters finally turned to ash both the door behind them and another door opened. The smell from this new door reeked even more strongly then anywhere else in this place. Link also thought he smelled something else, something he could not identify but was familiar. Turing towards his current partner who was standing dazed he said "You should stay here, I'll finish this up." Sacolo was in no condition to argue.

Moving inside the door closed around him. The room was a large circular open room with a rough domed ceiling. There were outcroppings and small ledges scattered around the sides of the room. At the center rested a single kargarok perched atop a black pillar. As link watched the Kargarok turned towards him and screeched. The black pillar suddenly glowed with red energy that billowed up like smoke and began to infuse and cover the creature.

The smoke cloud began to grow until fading away to show the kargarok had grown to a huge size with glowing red lines etched over its body. It also had a mask like bone plate attached to the front of the creature's face. With a flap of its wings that caused link to brace himself from the blowback the creature took to the air. Link wondered why this kept happing to him, exactly like this!

Not wanting to waste any time Link began to circle the room. The king kargarok began to make diving attacks at him, scraping its talons against the ground and then flying up as it approached the wall. Seeing an opportunity Link baited the creature to make another attack run and then quickly began to climb up the side of the wall. Once in position he focused on the creature's head and lunged forward. Only to be knocked aside when he could not gain purchase upon the bone plate covering the creatures face.

Trying to think of a different plane link moved under one of the larger overhangs to keep himself safe from the creature's attack runs. The king then landed and approached Link on his feet. Link was forced to dodge its beak as it was repeatedly stabbed towards him into the ground. During one such attack it got its beak stuck into the ground. Link began to attack its head in earnest but could not do any damage. Then the king pulled its head out and began to attack again.

Looking around for something to help Link noticed the overhang above them. After getting the creature's beak stuck again he quickly climbed up to the overhand and began to dig into it. With a howl of surprised Link found the overhand quickly falling underneath him directly onto the king. Coming up from were he landed Link found the king kargarok also standing up but with his bone mask broken from its face.

With new determination Link shook off the pain and again darted into the center of the room. With an angry screech the king took to the air again. Link once again began to climb up the outcrops only for the king to abruptly abort and turn to the side. With a growl Link took to the ground again and baited. When the king tried another pass, Link took to the wall and began to run to the side along the outcroppings. Luck was with him and he was in position to try another strike. With a cry he jumped at the creature and dug into its face.

Clinging on he began to tear at the creature until he was thrown off. Link kind of knew how this was going to follow. With a taunting howl link began to keep up the pattern. After the second time the king began to lose feathers that exploded when hitting the ground forcing link to dodge them for a while. Eventually though the king kargarok died and exploded, leaving the pillar which then also exploded into nothing.

Very tired and done with this Link went out the opened door and put the still dazed Sacolo onto his back and made his way outside. He was planning to ask if anybody knew what was up with that pillar, its destruction had left a different feeling in the air. One that left him breathing in easier. Behind him a small spring began to darken the bottom of the room.