Stubborn Arrow Minded People

Groose finally reaches the first stable and we learn a bit about forest warfare tactics. We also see Linkle is in serious trouble.

Few debates were raging across Hyrule more fiercely than the crossbow versus longbow debate. It was the greatest ideological schism since the Sheikah/Yiga split. Friendships were torn as surely as if people had been playing Cadence of Hyrule on co-op fixed-beat mode. (Don't do it.)

Strich had arrived at the stables and had not spotted the warning signs of an impending debate. After passing on the message to add to the Gossip Stone Network, Strich was blindsided by a raving crossbower. A well-meaning but equally fanatic longbowman came to the rescue. Things sort of snowballed from there. Strich made numerous attempts to flee the battle but was cornered in such a manner that he would have to shove at least two persons aside to get out. Strich was cursed with an acute awareness of certain social conventions and so remained imprisoned.

Groose and the not-quite-sidekicks were a very welcome sight indeed. Cawlin had his hood up, Strich assumed to avoid sunburn. Groose was making a note on the map. Linkle broke off to go give horses to a stable hand. Vah Ruta in summer would not have provided such relief as did the familiar orange head plumage and commanding voice. This voice was not quite loud enough to be heard over the longbowman's set of unsavory epithets about the inelegance of bolts. Groose had to repeat himself several times. Each repetition increased in volume. Finally the appropriate decibel level was achieved on the fourth attempt.

"HEY! IS THERE A GUY NAMED STRICH AROUND?!"

"No need to shout, lad! I'm just educating these here idiots on proper shooting."

"Hah! As if! You wouldn't even know-"

"Oh hey, there you are Strich! Come on, let's go get lunch started," Groose said. He had no qualms about pushing aside two crossbowers and a longbower to extract his friend. Their moving out of the building meant Groose's bulk was no longer obscuring the doorway. This had the unfortunate effect of revealing Linkle's approach with her crossbow strapped to her side. Groose and Strich escaped to the cooking pot outside. Linkle was accosted by the debaters calling for either her repentance or her support. Ravio was already brewing some elixir. He hastily hid some of the ingredients when he saw Strich coming. Something about the way Strich talked about bugs earlier made it obvious cooking darners in front of him was a bad idea.

"Hey buddy! What is all the fuss about in there?"

"Hey, Cawlin? Don't go in there if you value your life... It's bow controversy in there," Strich sighed as he sat down and relished the tranquility. Ravio got the faraway look in his eyes. It was the one Groose had seen before Ravio went after the blue rupee. He set down an empty bottle on a stool. Fear of talking to people was slowly replaced by silent machinations and then a smile.

"I think I'll go propose a demonstration. A friendly competition should solve things. Of course, they'll need ammunition for a shooting contest... Here's a bottle for when the elixir is done." The dark haired boy seemed to have forgotten his haste and paranoia for the moment. He still had his hood up but was actually humming a little as he went to go do some capitalism.

It did not take long for Groose to fill Strich in on what he'd missed. "... and to add insult to injury, I had to pay the fee to have the stable hand do a quick watering and feeding of the horses. Linkle spent her savings on the fairy and R-Cawlin insisted it should be considered business travel expenses for contractual whatever." He spilled a bit of elixir over the sides as he poured. Strich had agreed to stick with the fake name too if Yiga could possibly hear them.

Strich was thinking it over. "Oh." He remembered something he heard from the messenger Rito earlier. "Maybe that girl is the Legendary Hero if she sees Koroks? It doesn't make sense though. I heard from Medli that the Hero has been going around rescuing people and doing some trials. He's got the Sword that Seals the Darkness!"

"WHAT?!" Groose's exclamation was loud enough that some people inside the stable heard despite the debate.

"I guess we've been wasting our time trying to get to the forest. Hope Linkle doesn't get mad." Strich threw in some duck meat with radishes. "Medli also said the guy might be on this road. We'll probably run into Link."

"I want to see if this is the real deal, too. He has the sword?"

"People can't pick it up. Link hasn't officially met up with the Royal Family but he rescued Ana's little brother and sister from Yiga a few days ago."

Groose was a little jealous now; he wished he could have been the one to help Zeldana's beloved siblings. Oh well. At the moment, he was more concerned about the mission Gustaf assigned him.

Strich took a bite of food before giving Groose the next bit of news, "Oh, and someone is saying that there's Like-Likes in the Woodland Region. Just so you know. Some guy claims that they ate his pants. People are being warned not to wear blue or red clothes."

Groose did not like the sound of that. Losing a shield or rupees was bad enough but that was just humiliating. He looked back to the stable, "Should we go rescue Linkle and Cawlin from the fanatics?" Neither of them were looking forward to that. Also there was something bothering him about this particular stable. All stables had a set of comforts designed for catering to travelers. This was a new stable, carefully constructed in the same manner, but something was still missing. The Hateno tech lightning rod was still affixed to the roof and there were cooking pots out for public use so that wasn't it. Something was lacking and not right with the universe around this particular location.

If he'd asked Ravio or Linkle, they would have been able to spot it sooner. The lack of dog was a major oversight in a Stable. As Groose and Strich were talking, Ravio managed to get a good sale of ammunition out and was carefully stowing away his profits. Linkle would normally have been happy to participate, but the arguing was fairly distracting. They both wanted to get back on the road as soon as the horses were taken care of. Ravio was sorting the pouch when he heard the voice of a Korok.

"Hey! Ravio! Rown said you're back!"

That word already spread here before their arrival did not surprise Ravio. "Hiya Birch. Good to see you, little buddy. When I get back home, I wanna hear any new songs you came up with. Why are you so close to a Stable? I thought you avoided them."

"There's no dog here right now! Oh, it's awful; The Woodland Stable has PUPPIES! There's so many of them and they want to play fetch!" Having a horde of loud creatures that wanted to chew on him was unsettling for the Korok. The little face looked up at Ravio with a very important question after he calmed down a little. "Can we play?"

"First I need to get back to see Grandpa. It's really important."

"Oh yeah! Just be careful, there's been a lot of bad guys hanging around at the forest entrances."

"What!?"

"Yeah, it's been really fun. See, we found your old clothes and mask. It's half rotten and we make sure to keep it in the mists. The Skull Kid stuck some strings on it and made a puppet for us. It's really scary! They are all really scared of it! The other day, Mekar managed to replace all their food with leaves, so they had to go buy more at the stable. And you should hear what we did with some vines and fish the other night..." It seemed that Yiga did not scare the Korok as much as dogs that wanted to chase them.

"As if it wasn't scary enough being back in Hyrule. Why are they there? Did Veran find out I'm alive?!"

"I don't think so. We heard them talking. The bad guys want to try and catch the Hero before they get the sword. We're not letting them do that."

"What if they catch us going in or out? By the way, I think I found our Hero."

"We've got more fish and a lot of cucco feathers!"

Ravio raised an eyebrow at the confident little guy. He would have preferred stronger anti-ninja measures but the prank wars of the Koroks were taken rather seriously. The Deku Tree forbade going into the Yiga Clan hideout for safety. When the forest itself was under assault, restrictions were much more relaxed. He was dying to hear the details but before he gave in to curiosity the Korok kept going. "Oh yeah, Rown forgot to tell you. Some of the bad guys said Veran is in charge of the bad guy group now."

At this, Ravio nearly fainted.

The most notable thing about Ashei was that she had a sword AND shield. This was no small matter given where she was stationed and many asked her what she did. Few were able to boast they had not lost a single bit of gear to the Like-Like blight.

First - Be aware of your surroundings. This isn't just for avoiding Like-Likes, yeah?

Captain Ashei was enjoying her day off and unwrapped the sandwich. Her enjoyment of this lunch was not to last uninterrupted. She heard the telltale squishing sounds and sighed. If she went to kill it chances were likely the goo would get on her hands or food. This was going to be done the hard way and besides, might as well mess with the monster for a bit.

Second - If you see one or hear one, remain calm. Sprinting makes it likely you will trip on something and if you panic it might corner you somewhere. They're slower than flowing honey. Just walk away.

The captain got up and moseyed in the opposite direction of the Like-Like that was making its way across the field. There was no need to rush. This was a good sandwich and there was even some goat cheese in it.

Third- Like-Likes don't climb. Just walk up some stairs or climb a wall if you need to. Once you are up there you can poke it to death from a safe distance.

Ashei found a favorite spot of ruins wall where she could watch the road and have a seat. The Like-Like below did not express any opinion regarding the manner in which it had been thwarted. Ashei saw a red ponytail approaching from the south and waved. It would be bad if the monster ate passerby, so it was time to take it out after all. Ashei wrapped up the sandwich, then jabbed the creature until it disappeared in a puff of black-purple smoke. The owner of the ponytail called out in greeting.

"Ashei! Have you seen my Aryll?"

"No, was she distracted on the road or did something happen?" Ashei recognized the blacksmith. Medilia was one of the people which the Knights would hire for making and repairing armor. She did an amazing job, although keeping up with the workload was much harder after her husband's death. It was not uncommon for Medilia to send Aryll on errands so she could keep working and give the girl a chance to travel. Lately Medilia was more careful about where she would send Aryll. Aryll had not outgrown childhood fantasies of slaying dragons.

"She left a note, said she needed to go save Hyrule! She knows she is not allowed to go adventuring until she's at least sixteen!" Medilia showed the note to Ashei as she fussed. It read:

Mom,

I'm going to save Hyrule from Ganon. It'll be fine, I'm the Legendary Hero! I've got Grandma's crossbow. I also have my shield and scimitar too in case I want to practice before I get the Sword that Seals the Darkness. I'll be home soon. I can't let Yiga bully anyone else

Love, Aryll.

P.S. I think I might start asking people to call me Linkle and make it easier for people to recognize me.

"If monsters are on the move, then the Yiga are going to be out there too!" Medilia nearly wailed. Ashei nodded. She'd heard Medilia tell Linkle these rules. Linkle was not allowed to go adventuring until 16, not allowed to go solo adventuring until 18, not allowed to hunt Molduga until 21, and not allowed to date until she was at least 25.

"Aryll's head is way too full of those silly nonsense stories from my mother-in-law. What if she gets caught by Arn's killers?!"

Ashei was worried too now. Aryll was way too gullible for traveling by herself. Medilia had already lost one person too many to those fiends. "Last I heard, Medilia, she was going to the Woodlands. With her sense of direction, she's probably at Zora's Domain. I'll help get word out for you, yeah?"

"Thank you. I already asked the Rito messengers to keep an eye out for her when she didn't come back with the supply cart. If anyone asks, I'm going through Castletown, then on the eastern road." Medilia said before spurring her horse onward. "May the Goddesses keep you."

"May the Goddesses keep you, too. Be careful out there; you might be descended from a Champion, but you aren't invincible either."

Note: The Lumpnoggin assisted edit has been made. The New Super Mario Bros comparison was switched to Cadence of Hyrule. It might be replaced properly after I decide if it should be replaced with Cucco Cricket, or the Totem Team game I haven't actually played but it sounds like an appropriately friendship destroying game. Hmmm.