A Hinox Encounter
Young Link was quick to saddle up his horse and meet them. He was eager to get started. "I'm here!" He called as he slowed Grace to a trot.
Charlie waved, "It's good to see you! I've heard some good things about you recently."
Henry was there, he only sighed.
Lucas agreed, "Hell yeah! We heard about how you busted up the best kid from the second class. I mean, you're out here working with us so it should be a no-brainer, but it's still impressive considering they've got proper years of training and you've only just showed up if I remember."
Kevin nodded, "That's been a while ago from now, but yeah that was pretty cool to hear about. Especially the part where you broke the wooden sword. Like," He took a moment, "You just don't hear about that kind of stuff from the academy all the time." Isaac agreed as well.
He blushed a little, waving away all their praise, "Well thanks, though to clarify, Link handed me a pretty used sword, but that second class guy did hit pretty hard."
Isaac's face lit up, "That made me remember! You caught Link's sword!? Dear Hylia dude!" That riled up Lucas and Kevin too.
"I didn't even hear about that!"
"That, hands down, is the end-all be-all of awesome. Holy crap."
Charlie smiled and shook his head, "Okay men, settle down. Let's not lose our focus here." He continued through the gate, "Let's get through town and get to where we're going."
They followed him out, Young Link again noticing that he was kept in the middle of the group, 'Hm, it's been a while but they still remember. That's nice of them.' It reminded him about the Yiga. He asked once they were in Hyrule Field, "So how is the stuff with the Yiga clan going? Have they gotten any worse?"
"Now that you mention it, they've been a little too quiet," Charlie said, rubbing his moustache, "Believe me, I appreciate it when there aren't innocent people getting attacked, but it feels suspicious at this point."
"Interesting, good to know." 'Unfortunately, this really makes me think that they definitely tore out that story and they're trying to find a way to use it.'
"We did hear about some weird stuff going on near Giant's Forest, though," Lucas explained, "We're heading out to see what the problem is and then keep watch over the area in case anything happens."
Kevin nodded, "There's been multiple groups out to check the area too. They keep coming back and saying that there's nothing there, but then in turn there are more and more people saying that there's definitely something in the forest."
"None of the locals go near the forest at the moment due to whatever it is supposedly killing a few of their livestock," Henry noted, "Seems vicious to me."
Young Link shrugged, "Well I can't think of anything. I also don't know what all kinds of monsters you guys have in the first place. I know about bokoblins, moblins, lynels, and lizalfos, but I've only heard mild descriptions of the others."
Isaac happily elaborated, "Well the bats that fly around in packs at night are called Keese. They have one eye and a pair of fangs. Then Chuchus are these big blobs of...well jelly—slime I guess? They can be a handful because they sometimes split into smaller versions after slicing them with your sword, but otherwise they're pretty easy." He rubbed his hands together, "Now, the ones you really wanna look out for are Hinoxes and Stone Taluses—and Lynels of course, but you already know about them. Hinoxes are basically giants with one eye, and, from what I've read, they'll try to stomp on you or use trees to hit you. Apparently they sleep pretty often. Taluses are just big, unsuspecting rocks until you accidentally walk by one and wake it up. They can use their rock arms to swing at you or throw said rocks at you."
"Gee, they sound impossible to fight."
"Exactly! They pretty much are. That's why we're instructed to simply run from them. Luckily they don't give much chase and they won't search or go after other people. They'll just lay back down."
He heard the other teammates let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness for that. Also, since you seem to know so much about monsters, what about the Yiga? Obviously they're basically deadly ninjas with twisted morals, but I feel like I heard somewhere that they can impersonate people. What would be their tell if that were the case?"
Isaac sat back in his saddle, "The book I read actually didn't say too much about them, only that they have a weird love of bananas. Which is only more odd considering their base is in a desert, and yet bananas only grow in the Faron region."
"Huh, that is weird. Thanks for telling me, though." 'I dunno if them liking bananas is information I'll hold onto, but something is better than nothing.'
Their conversation ended there as they continued cantering through the field. The sky was rather clear that day, a scarce amount of clouds being speckled across it. It was pleasantly warm as well. When the path converged with a few others, they turned left, now heading southwest.
"See that, men?" Charlie pointed at an approaching forest, "That's supposedly where our monster is. When we reach the trees we'll split into groups of three. I'll take Henry and Isaac. Lucas, you take Kevin and the kid."
"Sir!" They all said.
They did as their captain instructed when they broke through the trees, slowing to a trot and keeping together.
'This isn't much of a forest,' Young Link thought to himself as he looked around, 'There's a big patch of open grass right in the middle and the trees somewhat thin out from there.'
"Yo," Lucas held up a hand, motioning for them to stop.
"What is it?" Kevin asked, trying to find what he was seeing.
"Over there, look." He pointed through the trees at a large, dark-ish figure.
"Looks like something, also looks like a big shadow."
'Huh? Kevin, there's no way that's a shadow.' "I think it might be the thing those people were talking about," he got off Grace and slowly continued toward it on foot.
Lucas got his attention, "Dude, what are you doing? We should go back and tell Charlie."
He gestured to the other side of the forest, "I bet he's already seen it by now. We could push a bit further just to confirm if it's actually a big deal or not. We're not gonna do anything brash, c'mon." Kevin quickly joined him, Lucas sighing before doing the same.
"Just for the record, I think this is a bad idea," he whispered.
"I'll happily lay down my pride and admit to your face that you're right if something dumb happens."
"I'm counting on that then."
Luckily, they were downwind of whatever was ahead. They eventually went from walking to sneaking, the tall-ish grass providing decent cover even though none of them were dressed to blend in. Young Link was wearing his purple tunic that day.
Aside from birds chirping and the wind blowing through the grass, it was rather quiet. However, it was quickly disrupted when the distressed bleat of a goat caught their attention. They snuck a little faster, sharing the thought that they could perhaps lure the goat toward them and get it away from whatever was distressing it.
"Surely it would come to people, right? I mean goats are pretty domesticated." Kevin said in a hushed voice.
"I'm surprised you even know what 'domesticated' means."
"Lucas don't harp on me right now, you're gonna scare it away with your negative energy."
That clearly worked on one of his nerves, "I swear to Hylia, Kevin, don't make me hide your stuff again."
The young hero was trying not to snicker from their bickering, even if it was sort of putting them at risk. He looked back at them with a smirk, "Lucas what happened to being careful?"
"Well, it's not a bad idea unless I make it one."
He was shocked at hearing the response, "Okay, well I'm gonna tell Charlie to never put you two together in a group again."
"Damn, that's a little uncal—"
The goat's bleat got their attention again, this time it sounded even more distressed. The figure from before was nearly in their full sight, so they ushered forward until they got near the edge of the trees, each of them hiding behind one and peaking around it.
"Holy Hylia."
A huge black mass of a monster looked like it was sitting down, the goat they were hearing stiffly standing near the base of it. Turns out the monster would try to grab the goat, and its cry, along with it trying to headbutt the meaty fingers, would keep it from doing so.
'I think he's starting to get a little tired of that though.' Observing the area, Young Link spied places in the grass where there was some kind of brown residue along with...chunks of some kind? The wind blew again and a foul stench hit their noses. "Bleh! What is that!?" He hissed. When he looked back, Kevin and Lucas looked terrified. "What? What's wrong?"
"L-Link that's rotting—" Kevin had to keep himself from hurling, "—Ulk ugh—that's rotting flesh."
When he went for a second look, he could now see what they meant. 'That's definitely where the stench is coming from too.' They heard the goat cry longer than it did before, their eyes switching back to the monster.
To their horror, the nasty beast had managed to pick it up, holding either end of the goat horizontally over its now open mouth. With no warning, a stomach-churning crack cut the air. It had pulled the goat apart and let its guts fall into its mouth!
Young Link didn't realize he was running at the beast until he was dodging the thrown lower half of the goat's body and heard his teammates screaming his name. Without thinking he cut at the beast's toes, its huge single eye narrowing and it hollering in pain.
Despite the bleeding feet, it got up and grabbed one of the thinner nearby trees. He swung it around, missing the young hero the majority of the time. Only the leaves ended up hitting him when he couldn't get away fast enough. There were plenty of scratches, but it was nothing that could kill him.
Yelling again, it threw the uprooted tree at him and stomped its feet. Young Link's only option was to dodge roll forward, the trunk just barely passing over his back. 'This is getting a little too close for me!' His mind was racing for ideas, 'The big freakin' eye is clearly where I should hit him, but I left my bow because I don't even have a quiver! I can't just throw my sword either! Something tells me that even with my sword lodged in its eye, it would still come after me!'
The giant started to grab for another tree, Young Link taking this as an opportunity to dash forward and slash at its exposed stomach. To his dismay, while it certainly hurt, its skin was so thick the slashes didn't even spurt blood! It was like protective blubber!
He started to back away, 'Okay maybe it's time to retreat. I doubt even stabbing it would go in as far as it would need to in order to make a difference. Hell, it might get stuck. At this point, those might even heal into tough scars!' He was about to run into the trees for cover when the yelling of his teammates pierced back into his ears again, causing him to look over.
"WATCH OUT!"
"RUN! DON'T LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
He could see that Charlie and the others had galloped to where the other two were. He did as they said and started to make a break for the forest, his legs running as fast as they could before his ankle suddenly rolled on a rock. Young Link couldn't keep himself from falling, his priority now being to keep his sword and shield on him.
Before he could get back on his feet, the three-fingered monster grabbed his legs and he was pulled into the air, his cap flying off in the process. "The hell!?" He looked down and saw the monster's tongue and gaping throat. It still had the goat's blood mixed in with its saliva, he could even see pieces of its guts between its teeth! 'God! It smells awful too!' He saw the other hand coming up to grab his upper half, him getting a good enough slash on it to where part of its finger hung off.
"OH SHIT! " 'I shouldn't have done that! Now he's going to let go!'
Just like he predicted, the monster started to wail and it dropped him from where he was hanging. Young Link managed to grab its bottom lip, the rest of his body being in its mouth.
It's screaming was making its fat tongue move, and when it felt him hanging on, with one heave upward, the Hero of Time was sliding down it's slick, goopy throat. Blood and spit covering him as he went down.
'Shit! What do I do, what do I do!? I can't get my arms lower because its stupid throat is too small! His lower half started to feel the bottom of its esophagus start to get wider, meaning he was nearing the stomach, and quick. 'I could try to keep myself from going down, but what good would that do? He would probably just swallow harder!"
He started to keep himself from going any further, but then a large jolt caused him to fall anyways. He landed in something mushy, wet, and soft. There was a standing pool of liquid that rose to about 2 feet high as well. As disgusting as it was, he immediately gathered his footing and stood up. His ankle's pain was the least of his concerns. Young Link attempted to slash at the walls of the stomach, his sword barely leaving a gash.
To his disdain, the air quickly started to feel thin, not to mention the god awful smell and sounds of the neighboring organs. 'I should just put all my effort into stabbing through. Even if I'm stabbing towards the back instead of the front.' With his mind made up, he started using all of his strength to thrust his sword through its stomach lining. The hole getting bigger and bigger each time.
To some degree of satisfaction, the monster was howling in pain like it never did before. Though it caused the slick surface to be even harder to stand on because its vibrating vocal cords made the stomach shake. "Is..is that?!" It was the tiniest speck of light that came from one of his slashes at its stomach earlier. It managed to get through only a little. Fueled with a bursting amount of vigor, the young hero continued to stab away, even as he had to hold his breath. He could feel the triforce shining, and his hand felt like there was a flame underneath it.
It didn't matter, within a few seconds his sword shot through the thick skin as the giant fell onto it's back. The motion sent him down back into the monster, but Young Link had an iron grip on the opening. Using the last of his strength and his dire need to breathe, he hoisted himself out, gasping for breath and rag-dolling down its round belly. He hit the ground with a thud. The air was much appreciated, but the light caused him to squint his eyes.
The next thing he knew, there were people over him and his ears were flooded with their urgent voices, but nothing they said made any sense and their figures were blurry. He could only groan in response, 'Uuugghh, I'm gonna need a nap after this…' His hearing and eyesight started coming back right as he saw Link nudge the others out of the way and stand over him. His voice came through crystal clear.
"Are you okay?"
'Finally, someone who's not nearly yelling at me.' He slowly blinked, barely nodding. Now that his eyes and ears were back, so was some of the pain. Young Link could acutely feel the soreness in his ankle along with some weird burning feeling going up and down his shins and arms, not to mention his torso felt oddly warm. His eyes were starting to roll back from wanting to fall asleep, but a light tap on his cheek made them open again.
"Try to stay awake, alright? I'm sure you're gonna be fine, but no sleeping until we get back." His hand felt like it was getting squeezed.
The young hero squinted in pain, "That hurts...my hand feels like it's on fire." For a split second he could see a yellow glint reflecting off Link's eyes, "Oh." 'I mean yeah , that kind of hur—wait...wai-wait OW! ' He immediately sat up, taking his left hand from Link and holding it with his right, "Holy!—Ah! This really freakin' hurts! Dear Goddesses above!" He held his hand in front of his eyes, keeping the back of it covered. Young Link witnessed his acid burnt hand, his pupils narrowing as he watched the renewing skin cover the last bit of exposed flesh and bone. He looked back at the monster he crawled out of, nearly giving himself whiplash, "The stomach acid?! Really!?"
'Then again,' the more rational part of his mind spoke, 'I was slashing at something that would be covered in it. Not to mention I was standing in it too .' He could feel that the triforce stopped glowing. Now that his lower half was mainly hurting, he took a broader look at himself, internally cringing at the amount of blood that covered his—"My tunic!" He nearly yelled, causing others to turn their heads (not that they gazed for long, he looked pretty graphic).
The acid from the monster burned massive holes in his purple tunic. His right sleeve was basically gone along with the front and back portions that would have covered his torso. The skirt of his tunic was in tatters, though the shorts underneath them only had the edges eaten away at. Luckily the strap to his sword's scabbard was fine, along his boots, though they'll both certainly be stained for a long time. To top it off, his hair was soaking wet and stuck to his face like glue.
His tunic destroyed, on top of nearly suffocating from the lack of air and the sheer strength it took to escape took a toll on him. He could feel tears start to prick out and well up, "This was my favorite, and now it's—!" Young Link's eyes looked dangerous.
Link was concerned, but his tone remained calm, "Listen," He started to make him lay back down, "I get that you really like this one, but you're injured, you need a doctor, and most importantly you need to take a breather."
He glared at him, "I'm breathing in goat blood and monster spit, Link ." Removing his descendant's hold on him, he tried to get back up, a small commotion starting to rise from the people in the distance.
But Link was quicker than him, his hands firmly on his shoulders and keeping him on the ground, "I'm serious, you're going to make things worse."
"What's making me worse is hearing that thing still breathing! Link!" He barked, his voice getting louder, "And now that it isn't throwing trees at me I think it'll be even easier to get rid of it!"
His descendant's grip didn't get any lighter, "I understand how bad you want it dead considering everything you just went through, but you're not going to make anything better by hurting yourself further trying to kill something that's already dying! " Now his eyes looked a tad dangerous, and Young Link knew he was in no position to fight with that.
He heaved a semi-disrespectful sigh, "Fine. You're right." He winced as his ankle tensed, the pain clearing his head a bit, "I actually really don't want to make my ankle any worse. I already had to stand on it while the thing was moving around, and it was slick as hell in there." Young Link lowered himself back to laying down, looking up at him, "Look, I tried to—"
"—run away but you rolled your ankle and got grabbed. Kevin and Lucas told me and the others what happened. Don't worry," he wore a faint smile, "It's not your fault. The bright side is you're still alive, you've got all your limbs, you haven't lost your mind, and," Link leaned in, there being a small twinkle in his eye as he whispered, "You took down a Black Hinox, all by yourself. They're the toughest ones out there and here we are with one laying practically dead behind us."
He crossed his legs, playfully nudging his bare shoulder, "I should be a bit more mature than this, buuuuut between you and me: I'm kinda proud. I'm a little annoyed that you somehow recklessly ran out to fight it, since I know you're better than that, but if there's one kid who'll run head on into danger, get eaten, and live, it's you."
Young Link's laughter was unexpected to the others standing around, "Oh trust me, if it knew how to chew, I'd be a goner! Also, I thought Isaac had said something about Hinoxes, but it clearly left my head. In fact, it felt like the time between me watching it eat the goat and then slashing at its toes was mere seconds. Like the next thing I knew, I was running at it."
"You need to hone that in then," Charlie's voice came. His captain's expression was attempting to be professional, but it was easy to tell that he was trying to hold back his nauseousness. "I assume this was just your body taking over, which is normal. It happens to everyone. The oddest part is that in my seven years of being a captain, I have never once seen a knight whose innate response was to run into danger rather than run away from it."
"Yes sir," he responded, "I don't know how to explain why, but I'll try my best not to let it happen again."
Now the captain was on the verge of puking, so he only nodded and walked away.
Which reminded him, "Wait, Link why are you bothering with sitting next to me? Ew, you've put your hands on me and everything! I'm absolutely disgusting right now! Do I not smell awful? Are you nose blind?"
The knight tried to hide his smile, "Yes, I'd say you stink to the high heavens if it didn't smell like you came from hell. You look moist from blood and spit, and I bet you've got bits of that goat in your shoes." He stood, "Now that you seem fine, I'm actually gonna go stand over there. The doctors should be over soon to check you out and take you back. I doubt you'll be in there for long, but if you are, I'll try to visit at least once."
"Thanks, see ya."
As Link left, the doctors came over and assessed him, finding minor to slightly major acid burns covering different parts of his body. He told them about his ankle and how he doesn't think it's broken. They appeared to believe him. After explaining to them what happened with the Hinox, he was put onto a carriage and taken back. He was told he could fall asleep on the way, so of course he did, but when he next woke up it was dark outside and there was nobody in the recovery room.
He was in a patient gown and could feel that his legs and right arm were wrapped in light bandages. 'Strange, I'm not in as much pain as I was before.' The young hero looked around, the low light not permitting much sight. He sighed, thinking back to his fight with the Hinox, 'Geez, I really shouldn't have ran out and tried to take that thing on my own. Even worse, I did that right after watching it rip the goat in half! The first thing I'm going to do after I get out of here is request a quiver and some arrows. I really could have used my bow and silly circumstances got in the way.'
Young Link wanted to take one last look at his left hand before going back to sleep, "You're crazy," he thought aloud to the back of it, "You either can't help yourself or you want people to know. Clearly my sword hand has the most healing priority too, unless it was my heart or brain I guess." He scoffed at the idea of letting either of those injuries reach him, "Like I'd ever let it happen. In fact, maybe instead of going to Link, you should slap yourself on Zelda. She's trying pretty damn hard and not seeing any results, y'know. I bet she gets enough crap from higher-up people; this is just salt on the wound." The triforce remained dim on his hand.
He moved it to his side, 'I think this is one of the first universes where I'm talking to my dumb hand. It doesn't appear to listen either. Why should it?' He closed his eyes, another wave of sleep coming on.