Sheer Bad Cluck

We see where Strich went, and that he's actually a pretty good friend. The Woodland Guard Station is not ready for the Koroks.

Strich desperately wanted to walk and give his wings a rest but after having been attacked by Like-Likes twice that night, he was not about to try it. The Stable wasn't that far away; the plan was to request a morning wake up for once the guard station was open for the day. Strich had spent hours trying to gather enough things to sell to make the bail for Groose. He'd have to sell some of the bugs he'd picked up. Strich decided that he didn't have any other recourse at this point, and childhood friends were more important than rhino beetles. He'd worry about Ravio and Linkle later.

He belatedly realized when he was almost there that if he spent money on a bed, there would not be enough rupees in the morning. Strich found a tree that looked like he wouldn't fall out and settled in. He hoped the Cucco at the stables would be loud enough to be heard from here.

Strich did indeed awaken when he heard the first crow. Odd: it didn't look that bright out. He, despite good intentions, drifted a little. It was four in the morning after all.

The second crow had his full attention. Strich frantically stumbled upright and took to the skies.

On the third crow, he pinpointed the direction. He could see a cloud of birds surrounding the stable from where he was flying. There was a good deal of yelling and obscenities as a blond man sprinted for his life. He wasn't the only one. A Goron tried his level best to curl up under a table while a Hylian sprinted for the trees. The blond man ran right into a strange piece of pottery which had not been there half an hour ago. He was swallowed by the Like-Like hiding underneath.

Even worse, the Cuccos did not seem to be limited to the stable. Some had left off the attack and usually, a Cucco horde was maybe fifty birds in a particularly bad set. The storm of birds was in the triple digits. They had Cuccos scratching in the dirt road, perched on the roof, and some poultry flapping about the windows of the guard station up the hill.

Furthermore, the ground was covered in potential Like-Like lures. Strich didn't dare land anywhere. Objects and small denomination rupees littered the grass and judging from how many stable visitors were being accosted by slug things, at least ten percent of the objects/rupees concealed Like-Likes.

Speaking of the guard station, there was yelling coming from there too. Strich landed on the wall and tried to snipe some monsters. Where he was, he was hoping to make sense of some of what was happening. As a fellow knight ran past he called out,

"What in Hylia's name is going on here?!"

"I don't know, I woke up and there's Cuccos and Like-Likes everywhere! Someone greased the rooftops and a Sheikah slid off during patrol! It came in handy, we managed to catch a couple of Yiga. Don'tstepbackwardstheresacuccorightbehindyou." Strich gingerly turned around and shooed the Cucco away as gently as he could. A loud drill-sergeant type voice yelled across the courtyard demanding to know who put glue on the doorknobs. A purple and black-clad fellow was launched backward from a bush into a red rupee, then slimed by a Like-Like. Every direction Strich turned, it seemed some sort of chaos was occurring. Most of it seemed to be directed towards purple and black wearing ninjas but some people, such as that Goron, seemed to have become collateral damage.

A voice that sounded vaguely familiar called out Strich's name. Strich turned to look down at a cell window.

"STRICH! Hey, someone is going to hurt those Cuccos! You have to help the poor little things!" Linkle yelled from the bars. It took a moment for Strich to catch on.

"You're worried about the chickens?! What about everyone else? Are you mad?"

The next cell over had an orange patch appear in it.

"WAIT WHAT." Groose peered out at the localized chicken/Like-Like apocalypse. "What is even going on out there?!"

"Those innocent little birds are in danger!" the Gerudo girl said with panic in her voice. She startled and turned to look in her cell. "Wait, I'm coming to help the Cuccos. See you soon, Strich! The Koroks are busting us out of here!" Linkle disappeared from view.

"HEY. " Groose said angrily. "We should not be breaking the law like this and-Hey!" The orange patch vanished too. Strich flapped over to the window and cautiously looked in. A small Sheikah slate floated past the open cell door at about a foot off the ground as Strich's beak stayed hanging open a few centimeters.

Linkle dragged Groose along as she explained the plan to him. "All right; so the plan is we follow the Koroks so we don't run into any of the Like-Likes. Don't ask how they managed to do this. They were planning more but the impostor woke up before they were done." Linkle and Groose ran face-first into a purple and black-clad Blademaster. The idiot was trying to use a Windcleaver in a narrow corridor so Groose tackled him while Linkle smashed a chair over the Blademaster's head. Groose followed Linkle as there didn't seem to be many other options and he was worried about Ravio.

"Are these guys here to kill us?!"

"Think they heard the commotion from over by the forest and came to see what's up." Linkle seemed to have a sixth sense for not ticking off Cuccos. Squawks echoed through the hall as they headed into the higher security area. "We get our friend, get to the forest, get the sword, unmask the fake, get my membership reinstated, and kill Ganon!" Groose looked about the veritable minefield of creatures of death and material goods munching.

"How are we going to get out of here alive?! Also shouldn't we be helping the guards?!"

"We are," Linkle said as they repeated the takedown process for yet another idiot trying to swing a Windcleaver in a narrow corridor. This time, a passing guard finished that one off and the Yiga teleported out.

The guard and Groose nodded at each other but before the passing guard could ask anything, Linkle resumed her train of thought which had been interrupted by a ninja. "Saving Hyrule is going to be a snap!" Linkle snapped her fingers for emphasis.

A thunderclap rent the air and left their ears ringing.

Groose and the passing guard both jumped backwards and then stared at Linkle. The now startled guard said, "I didn't see any clouds, did you do that?!" Linkle stared at her hand for a moment then snapped again. The lightning bolt hit the roof with the lightning rod and she laughed.

"Great fairies are the BEST! Sorry about scaring you, sir. I need to go get the Master Sword." Linkle ran on and Groose continued following her.

Groose said, "Sorry, gotta go stop a friend from being assassinated."

The passing guard started to give chase, then stopped. These people were probably not Yiga and did he want to fight someone with Urbosa's Fury at her beck and call? He settled for hunting Like-Likes and Yiga instead.

The door to Ravio's cell had some average locks. It seemed most of the effort in the security went into the manacles. Groose suspected the Yiga in the halls were headed here to cut Ravio's windpipe. The noise had awakened the guy they'd come to rescue. Ravio had been holding his breath and waiting for the inevitable assassins after he realized it was too early in the morning for it to be official knights. The Sheikah Slate floated on in and settled on the ground next to a stammering Ravio.

"Thank-thank-thank you, wha-what's happening?"

Groose handled the chains as he was much more familiar with the tech guards used. "Your Korok friends brought a lot of Cuccos and Like-Likes with them."

"Tha-OH If you would get my stuff back that would be great, Macca!"

It was much easier getting out than getting into the high-security area. They ignored the prisoners asking to be let out during their mad dash. Ravio continued to stammer gratitude as they fled down the stairs. Clucking white things were sidestepped. Groose thought that Linkle's affinity for Cuccos alone could count as a Champion ability. There was one brief, terrifying moment when Groose trod on something feathery. Linkle scooped up the bird and calmed it down.

Screaming still happened in places and saliva covered people chased down Like-Likes. Tripwires were set in odd locations and something was burning somewhere. The smell didn't seem to be coming from anywhere they could pinpoint until they left the walls and looked to the sky.

Strich caught up to them. "I'm out of arrows. Did you see that lightning?!"

"That was me," Linkle said gleefully as they scrambled towards the woods and an ominous plume of smoke. Ravio kept muttering the word 'no' over and over again.

"It shouldn't even be possible to burn the Lost Woods," Strich said in disbelief. Small fires happened but they sort of stopped after a while.

"Think it's that Veran witch Ravio told us about?" Groose asked. He felt exposed without his claymore and suspected from the way Linkle's hand twitched that she was missing her armaments too. Ravio had returned to the usual look of mortal terror. Linkle and Ravio both turned to listen to what Groose assumed were Koroks. Otherwise, it would have been weirder to see gear floating along towards them. Strich jumped backward.

"Macca, you are the best! Were you only able to get the cane and my ice rod? Oh, here's my fire rod." Ravio frowned at the state of his pouch. He seemed to be missing some stuff judging from the look on his face. Groose happily strapped his sword back on. Linkle joyfully swung her scimitar a few times. "Hey, if we get separated... just follow the breeze. If the woods want you to get through, it'll lead you in."

There was a beeping sound increasing in frequency.

Ravio shrieked and pointed at Linkle. She looked down at her chest where a red dot had appeared. The sound of the universe may well have been a piano solo at that moment.

Everyone dove for cover as the beeping sound of certain death turned into a laser. Strich yelled something that no one could make out. Linkle snapped as the beeping started again. A weak little lightning bolt slammed into the rotating turret.

The dot of doom was projected onto Groose. He hacked at a robot leg. "This is NOT supposed to happen to people brought in for normal questioning!" Ravio waved his cane about and the Guardian flipped like a coin. Groose would have liked to ask what the heck that was but chopped at a flailing leg instead. Linkle was snapping with no effect. Sword violence would have to suffice.

She and Groose chopped off another leg and then the group, as one, ran through the trees. They didn't know how fast the Guardian could drag itself on two legs. They did not think it wise to find out. Ravio seemed to be the best at running. He had enough lungpower to keep talking at a dead sprint.

"Okay, whatever happens, get the sword. If it's Veran, we won't stand a chance without it. Don't stop for me. I can lose anyone in the fog."

Veran chuckled as she called forth another column of fire. It had taken hours of prep work for the teleportation here. She'd left that to the other Yiga sorcerers while she'd completed a few talismans and rituals for extra firepower. Henchmen watched from behind her in awe. True it wasn't as fast as it should be, but she was actually burning the Lost Woods. A foot soldier ran into the newly made clearing.

"Mistress Veran! Ravio's alive! Kishgal got him locked up by the knights!" He maintained the salute. Veran spun around.

"Really? I thought he drowned in the lakes or got turned into a Stalfos." She said. The column of fire kept burning even with her attention divided. "Are you sure?"

"He's certain. Ravio will be dead in his cell by now. There was some girl and a town guard with him. They seem to think the girl is the Hero of Legend! Honestly, I think she's just a little weird but we should probably make sure she's dead too, just in case."

"Will be dead? You didn't make sure to capture him or kill him yourself?"

"Well... um..." All the Yiga soldiers present looked away. Veran's gaze burned into their masks.

"You did at least kill the others, too? We can't leave loose ends." She knew the answer from the sudden silence. Idiots. Kishgal would have happily done the deeds but if he was to maintain the illusion, he couldn't go around chopping off heads. "Speaking of Kishgal, do we have guards stationed to make sure no one picks up the sword when he isn't looking?" The five footsoldiers relaxed a little. This they had a good answer for.

It was while she was asking about the security details that Groose, Strich, Linkle, and Ravio stumbled around the corner of the road. Ravio screamed in spite of himself when he saw and sensed Veran.

Edited again as of 9/6/19