An Ice Way to Die

It involves angry moms.

The Yiga Clan entrance hall cave antechamber foyer whatever area made a good place for a permanent teleport relay point. It was not too cold for an outer cave without lava in it. The shadow arts involved in teleporting weren't as good as the lost Sheikah tech. It was convenient that any initiate with the Yiga talisman and a bit of know-how could get back here with some shadow magic. It was a pity there wasn't a way to teleport somewhere without a relay point: Being able to get into the Divine Beasts would be grand.

A Yiga Sorcerer was on duty watching for incoming injured guys. Since the days when the real Link roamed the land, the colossal stockpile of bandages wasn't necessary.

Or so they thought.

A little after Veran left on the fool's errand to burn the forest, Kishgal of all people poofed in. He was a mess. Feathers and peck-marks covered him. Rage seethed in his eyes and he silently grabbed a heart elixir before storming out. He was not the last man. Men and women of the clan who had been stationed on hero ambush duty rapidly filled the room. One man repeatedly and inconsolably sobbed "The Cuccos! Everywhere!" A woman asked for help splinting a broken leg and a Blademaster covered in a rotten fish scent obliged. Scraped, battered, bruised, slimed, pecked, and traumatized Yiga trickled in on a tide of confusion.

Two days prior, Not-Cawlin let Linebeck pick up the bill on a fortune. Sparrot had been gazing for what seemed like eons and it was unnerving. Ravio hoped for treasure. Ravio wondered if he'd be able to sell in town a bit before the crew traveled elsewhere.

"My eyes... They see..." Ravio nodded for Sparrot to continue. "I see a sister! You will see your sister and mother soon." Sparrot rested his hands on the table and leaned back. Ravio raised an eyebrow. He was an only child last time he checked. Veran killed her ex-husband after all. She liked to brag about it. Heck, it was a miracle he hadn't been sacrificed in a ritual long before he deserted. Ravio paid little attention to Linebeck's fortune which was a little more verbose. Old acquaintances coming back to see him and settle up old disputes. Burying the hatchet or not. That sort of thing.

Linkle's fortune shook him. It was possible, if unlikely, that Veran would have remarried in the past years. Any little sister would be long dead, or worse. Ravio prayed he was just being paranoid and this was fake.

Death awaited him here in Hyrule. Ravio was taking a major risk even coming here to deliver a letter. He should flee now. He could just flee the country with Linebeck. Veran could not kill him if he was on the other side of the ocean. He double-checked with Sparrot to make sure the clairvoyant wasn't misheard.

But if the fortune teller was right... he had a sister. One either dead or living in the shadow of the Yiga Clan. Less than seven years old. Ravio agreed to take Linkle to the forest despite all self-preservation instinct screaming doom. Maybe the Deku Tree would have a plan? Maybe he could help a hero stop Veran?

Now here they were, in the one part of Hyrule where Ravio thought he would be safe, and his nightmares were waiting for him. The ice rod and the Cane of Pacci were both rather low on power. In a fight, he would have to start drawing on his own stamina if he was to get more than a small blast out. The fire rod would only make things worse here for the forest, but they didn't have much choice here.

The first thought on Linkle, Strich, and Groose's mind was, Wow that is a stupid looking hat. That was Ravio's third thought after Oh fudge it's my mother and What do we do now? They did see the smoke but it was another thing to be right in front of the people who would maim them without a second thought.

"Why Ravio," Veran purred. It grated against his senses like a ship running aground. "My dear little boy... Where have you been?" The Yiga ahead of them had fanned out to cover the entrance. Groose's companions were exhausted and somewhat scorched. Strich was surprised when Ravio handed off the fire rod to him. A new long-range weapon would be useful if Strich had no arrows. The archers were a major hazard for the Rito if he tried flying, however. "You traitorous brat."

"I-I-I shoul-should have run earl-earlier." Groose sized up the opponents to get an idea of where they could break through the line. The hard part would be getting everyone through without being fried. Veran laid on the grating sweetness that promised a lot of pain.

"Why would you betray your poor loving mother? Why-"

"EAT CLAYMORE!" Groose yelled and chucked the massive hunk of steel into the faces of the Yiga clan. Veran vanished faster than the guy who had a chunk taken out of his shoulder. The goal wasn't to emerge victorious in a fight, and he would find it easier to run without the hunk of steel. "DON'T LET THE LADY WITH THE STUPID HAT KILL YOU!"

A wall of flames sprung up between the treeline and them as Veran screeched back, "I'll burn your idiotic hair into cinders!" Linkle and Strich had to skid to a halt to avoid incineration. She'd been so close.

"Lay off my hairdo! Ravio, you didn't say the evil witch was your mom!"

"It's awkward!" Ravio yelled by way of explanation. Yeah, that would be awkward.

With elemental rods, most people used the energy stored in the elemental crystals until they ran dry. People with the magic talent needed to fuel magic rods usually didn't due to the nasty side effect of potentially draining their own life force if they overdid the channeling. The Cane of Pacci had no crystals to run off and had a similar side effect when overused. Ravio swung the cane and Veran's hat flipped onto the face of an archer mid-draw. "What do we do about the fire?!" Strich asked frantically. He jabbed his spear into another place where a Footsoldier had been a moment ago.

"Working on it!," Linkle yelled as she chased flying talismans about the place. The Guardian dragging itself around the corner caught her eye. She yelled a warning, "GUARDIAN!"

Groose said an actual curse word when the dot of doom graced his chainmail. Groose dove as the beep hit critical beepiness and got incredibly lucky. Due to the inherent trickiness of fighting against people that teleport about, it was hard to tell but there was one less Yiga in the field now. The beam had chased him off quite efficiently.

The beeps demanded attention but trying to fight unarmed was taking a lot of focus for Groose. He saw Ravio swish the ice rod on the flame wall but didn't see any results. The childhood feeling of being utterly helpless returned. He'd trained so hard and now this?

The now-familiar sound of Ravio screaming was accompanied by a crackling sound. Ravio was down with a shock arrow in his side. Groose spun to the source of the crackle and grabbed an archer from mid-air. A couple of shock arrows were snatched before the infuriated archer teleported away. A fireball from Strich set a guy on fire before the ninja fled from Linkle's scimitar. The Guardian started targeting Yiga but then settled on people that didn't vanish. Groose tossed the arrows underhand to Strich as the laser sight drew trouble like it was the worlds weirdest shaped cat. Ravio would have to wait for medical attention until Groose wasn't a pile of ash.

Groose was happy to have shock arrows at least. Veran's cackling made him turn and see the jerk hiding behind the firewall with an unbearably smug expression. Groose decided if nothing else, he would keep fighting for a chance to wipe that smugness off. It was a kind of smugness that inspired revolutions for the sake of removing it from a face. Crushing helplessness got conquered by that rebellious drive. Veran reveled in the smugness even as she hid behind the wall. She would never admit it even to herself, but she expended way too much power incinerating this section of forest. If she hadn't retreated behind the wall, she might've had to teleport out with some standard villain excuse. That would have been totally unacceptable.

Strich ran and ducked as best as he could. He wasn't getting a clear shot as he wanted. It did not help to have the smoke mix with the creeping infamous fog.

Veran dropped the smile when she realized what was going on. Groose was positioning himself right before hitting the ground suddenly. Veran stepped aside with an angry yell. It would have saved a couple of chapters of drama had the ploy succeeded. The explosive beam missed Veran.

Linkle chased an attacker away from the downed guy. Ravio was back up now and the new target for the Guardian. "H-Hey! Stupid hat! I'm not-I'm not letting you kill my friends!" Ravio said in a speech. It earned an A for effort even if the phrasing needed work.

"I'll teach you your place, Traitor!" Ravio sprinted as a dark spot appeared on the burned grass under him. He may not have been much of a fighter, but he felt very confident in his running-for-dear-life ability even after the shock arrow had fried an organ. Veran forgot about caution and wasted some magic on the impudent deserter. The dark spot coagulated into a spider shape and chased him.

"W-Wow you have aged old- old hag!" Ravio yelled back while running. Groose did not have time to appreciate this tactic was working to distract Veran. They needed that shock arrow now.

Ravio waved the Cane of Pacci in Veran's general direction. It flipped over an attacker by mistake. That Yiga retreated in confusion when he saw the Guardian laser dot on him. Linkle's foot sent another Footsoldier into the side of a tree and Groose swiped a dropped sickle. At least the Guardian did not seem to be targeting Strich. The arrow missed when the ground exploded under Strich. He cursed Yiga Blademasters as Groose saw more conjured shadow spiders popping up. Linkle screamed, "Oh come on! We took out your minions, evil witch! Just give up already!" Veran cackled.

The chances of survival were next to nothing, Ravio realized. He was instinctively clutching the ice rod. The cane was quite draining when used on larger things so the ice rod would most certainly kill him if he was to break the barrier. The guardian was charging another laser for Linkle. Ravio muttered a quick prayer to the Goddesses and channeled everything he had.

Ravio screamed, "Stop burning my home!" It was time to join the choir invisible. Ravio prayed Veran wouldn't take his dead body to resurrect as an undead.

Veran was not expecting her weakling coward of a son to be a threat. The Guardian was flipped over even as the blast of ice slammed into the firewall. Veran stumbled back in surprise. It was a massive power surge that came from Ravio's life force. Frost formed on the trees and ashes all around them. The second blast broke the barrier as Veran teleported back to the hideout with a curse. Ravio collapsed. Groose yelled for a limping Linkle to grab Strich; Groose hauled an insensible Ravio into the woods by the back of his Hylian tunic. The remaining Yiga opted not to give chase when the wall of fog ate the fleeing teens. They teleported out as Veran had.

The captain of the Woodland Guard station was NOT happy. Also, a Guardian was missing. How did one lose something of that size? He was almost done for the night with some midnight paperwork when the crowing began. Guard Captain Raven reached next to his desk and, instead of the grip of a Sheikah slate, grasped a cold scaly tail. The slate was later located in the empty cell where the alleged spy had been chained up. At least it didn't seem a Yiga took it, they preferred ominous messages written in blood to Porgys. Porgys were an ambiguous message. It wasn't like flower bouquet language where you could throw some violets in a bundle with a durian frond to declare your undying hatred for wet socks.

It spoke volumes of the man's skill at leadership when he was able to restore a vague order within an hour. While cleanup took place, people were dispatched to find the Guardian and found large drag marks leading down the road to the forest. What could have overridden the Guardian's directive to guard the Woodland Watch Tower? Captain Raven thought. A few taps on the slate later he fixed the issue and made a beeline for people with the administrative codes. If they'd been coerced or tortured, the codes had to be changed immediately. He stopped and set an alert just in case. The Criminal Compendium would not have the Laser List tampered with again. He groaned when he saw an unwelcome face hanging about scribbling in a notebook. Journalism had suffered after Traysi's retirement and here was a prime example. Much to his everlasting disappointment, the journalist gave a wide range to the sparkling green rupee on the ground.

Captain Raven slipped up behind Rita and grabbed the notebook to read. Rogue Gerudo Sorceress Summons Cucco Familiars to Terrorize Watch Tower! Raven's mouth twitched. Knights Helpless in the Face of Vile Anti-Prince Slanderers! Raven ignored the angry woman trying to retrieve her stuff. He felt oddly compelled to keep reading in the early morning light. It was slightly better quality in terms of a headline than he'd hoped. Is the Pompadour a Conduit for Dark Magic Signals!? Okay. Maybe not better.

"I see you still are rather cavalier with your commitment to facts. This is a crime scene. Your contribution to evidence is appreciated for what little in the way of truth it may hold." Shad peered over Captain Raven's shoulder. He'd finished sending a ton of information over to the Castletown library and came to report to Raven.

"Wow, those drawings are something," Shad said after catching sight of the unflattering stick figures. "Are those supposed to be Yiga or trees?"

"That's mine. The public has a right to know! It would know more if the tech labs would give me a proper camera slate too!" She looked behind the captain. "Oh, hey, look behind you, that lady looks mad. Oh, is that the blacksmith?" Captain Raven rolled his eyes in disgust at the obvious distraction attempt.

"Where is my daughter?" Medilia asked with folded arms. Rita wondered if it was worth sticking around for an interview with the mother of an accused suspect. It was time to create some chaos. In the interest of journalism, of course.

"Oh, she's joined the Yiga and attacked the Woodland Tower Station. Reliable sources say she smeared the good name of Prince Sidon! Ask the Captain, he was in charge of the arrest here." Medilia did not like Rita's tone. Her attention did turn to the Captain for an explanation. Raven would have to navigate carefully.

"Nothing can be confirmed, we are fairly certain rumors have gotten out of hand and there may have been some misunderstanding. She seems to be under the impression she's the Legendary He-"

"Oooo was she used as an unwitting pawn?!" Rita purred. Shad, Raven, and Medilia all glared at the unwelcome gossipmonger.

"Shad? Would you please check the pictures of Li-Aryll with Medilia, make sure it is Aryll?"

Rita protested when her arm was grabbed. "I-The public needs to hear this!" Raven dragged her out and allowed himself a bit of catharsis. Slamming the gate behind Rita was very satisfying. He came back to find Medilia even more worried as she stared at a picture on Shad's slate.

Medilia's eyes initially went from worried curiosity to outright murder very quickly. "That kid! He looks a bit like Arn... My daughter is being deceived by Veran's demonic spawn!?" Captain Raven realized his mistake and winced. Arn's murder by the previous wife was a very sore subject indeed for Medilia. He'd heard about that nasty divorce. It wasn't every day a guy found out he'd married a Yiga spy by mistake. Today kept getting worse. Raven let Shad do the talking when another Knight came back from the direction of the drag marks.

"We uh, found the Guardian. It's only got one leg now. The forest had a large part burned and there's some massive chunks of ice around the area. Judging from the damage, there was a battle. There's broken rods, blood, a cane..."

Minor edits 9/6/19