The twilit skies were gone by the time that the two of us found a town. And by town, I mean more like a really small village. A couple of houses here and there, all made out of wood, were strewn about, almost as if they had been placed haphazardly by a child playing with toys. Well, at least the people who lived here probably didn't have a problem with it.
As my friend and I walked down the path, Zach was the first to talk;
"See that big building across the stream?" He nudged me and pointed, lifting his finger towards a large building. "If there was any sort of leader for the village, then we'd find him there." I nodded in agreement.
Hopefully the townsfolk would be able to assist us in preparing for this utter doom that was to befall the land, which due to the colored lights being particularly unhelpful, we still didn't know what we needed to do or how to help the land.
"Yeah," I said. "Maybe we can figure out where exactly we are, maybe get a map and some supplies." While I personally had no doubt in my personal survivability chances, we still needed supplies, maybe a fishing pole or a bow with arrows or something in order to hunt.
Zach nodded and we made our way to the large building. A couple of people were walking around here and there, taking little notice of us as we walked down the road, letting the townsfolk do their daily morning activities.
We approached the building, and knocked on the door. Nothing happened for a moment, but then the door opened slowly, revealing a portly man with an odd looking mustache.
"Hello there, how can I help the two of you?"
Zach and I looked at each other and Zach shrugged.
"Hello, my name's Russell, and this here is my friend Zach. We are travelers and we've run out of supplies, nor do we know the area. We were wondering if there was any place to stock up on things, and we figured that your building was the biggest, so it would probably be the best place to meet someone who could help us."
The large man looked at the two of us before smiling. "Pleasure to meet you Russ, Zach. The name's Bo; I'm the mayor of this village. You guys need supplies eh? Well Sera runs the shop in town, over that way yonder," He pointed at one building near the entrance to the town.
"If she doesn't have anything that you need, you can come back and talk to me, and I'll see if there's anything I can do to help you guys." He spread his arms, "Welcome to Ordon Village."
We thanked him and headed over to the store that he had pointed out to us. We entered the building and were greeted by a woman who was half leaning, half laying on the counter.
"Oh, newcomers?" The lady yawned. "We're not open yet… I'm just so upset about my cat." Zach perked up at the mention of the cat.
"Oh? What's wrong with your cat?" He asked the woman.
"My cat ran away this morning. I'm sure eventually he'll come back, but I haven't fed him any breakfast yet and then he took off before I could feed him."
"How about I help out with that?" Zach asked her. "I'll find your cat for you and bring him back to you."
The woman stopped leaning on the counter and perked up at the offer. "Oh would you? That's awfully kind of you to help a stranger."
Zach smiled. "I hav- had cats myself, and I know that I'd be worried if either of them ran away as well. Don't worry, the village is small, it can't have gotten too far."
We left the building. "Zach," I started. "Do we really have time to be looking for some lady's cat? Not that it isn't important to her but, she even said that he would eventually come back anyways."
Zach looked at me and gave me a smile. "It's the little things that matter Russell. Sure if we manage to somehow save the world, that'll give us some publicity, maybe a little fame and appreciation, but it's really the small acts of kindness that makes someone a Hero. Helping a lady find her cat, that's a small thing, easily looked over." He pointed past me as we walked, directing my attention to a cat that was watching a young kid try to fish at the pond.
"Looks like the kitty's hungry for some fish huh?" I smiled, Zach wasn't necessarily a nice person by nature, but when it came to animals he tended to have a soft spot. We made our way over to the kid, and after a little hassle involving Zach trying and failing to reel in some fishes for the cat, I finally made a catch and we ended up feeding the cat and brought it back to the shopkeeper.
"Oh, there's my boy!" She exclaimed as Zach placed the cat down on the counter. It instantly started lapping up the milk that she had laid out for it, and both Zach and I grinned at the sight.
"Thank you both so much for finding him, there must be something that I can do for you?"
"We need supplies; maybe if you have any travel backpacks. We're also going to need a map of the local area at the very least, we're not exactly from Hyrule and we weren't able to secure a map before coming."
Sera smiled at the two of us once more. "I've got just the things you two are looking for." She stood up from her seat and walked into the back of the shop. She came through the backdoor a minute later carrying two backpacks.
"These are for you. I took the liberty of putting some food and water inside them, as well as a spare change of clothes that was lying around. You'll find the map that you asked for is in one of the side pockets."
"We couldn't possibly accept all this." Zach said as I nudged him in between the ribs.
"Nonsense!" Sera exclaimed. "As much as I would like to believe that my cat would've come back by itself eventually, I don't actually believe that he would have. He's a very stubborn cat and we've been trying to feed him less; he's been getting a little fat. He hasn't been taking the lessened diet too well, and probably would've stayed out there until he was feasted on fish. Giving you guys a little food and some spare backpacks that nobody uses anymore is the least that I can do for the two of you!"
We thanked her and made our way outside. By this point in the day, the sun was high in the sky. A couple of kids ran into us. The oldest looked no older than eleven years old, another one was seven or eight, and the last looked like he could've been five.
"Hey sirs! Are you new here! My name's Talo! And this is my brother Malo, and our friend Beth! It's nice to meet you!"
The looked up at us expectantly. Zach turned to me and sighed, "I'll see you later, meet me by the entrance to the village come twilight if we haven't met back up by then." He walked off. I looked at the kids with a smirk on my face.
"It's nice to meet you guys." I said to the children. "The name's Russell, and my friend Zach and I are just passing through the town. What're you guys up to this fine day?"
The kids looked somewhat excited. "We just finally got a wooden play sword from the town blacksmith, Rusl. Now we're going to go play in the woods with it, show those monkeys who's the boss in the village." Talo said very animatedly, waving around the aforementioned wooden sword.
Rusl eh? His name was almost exactly like mine. That was a weird occurrence. "I'm in need of a sword, so maybe I'll go and check out his shop then." I told the kids. "Could you point me in his direction?"
They were happy to point his forge out for me, and once I got there I could tell that this was a man of integrity.
"Welcome," said a man with blond hair and no older than thirty years of age. "The name's Rusl, we don't get many travelers around these parts. What can I do for you? Looking to buy a blade, or perhaps have one fixed or sharpened?"
I extended a hand, which he shook in his own, before replying. "The name's Russ. My friend Zach and I are travelers and we don't currently have any means to defend ourselves on the road. If you have any suggestions…" I trailed off, watching as Zach walked in carrying an armful of Rupees.
"Hey Russ, look at what I found, just hiding under some rocks, too! Sera said that this is the currency of Hyrule, so I figured we'd need a lot of them." Rusl turned to Zach, and appraising the general worth of the Rupees, walked back into his forge before coming out with a plain looking broadsword.
"With the amount of Rupees you have there, I'd sell you two of these broadswords. Not too shabby, and they certainly need to be cleaned and kept for, but you could certainly do a lot worse, like simply buying a dagger or something like that."
He handed the sword over to me, and I gave it a couple of swings. It seemed almost a little heavy in my hand, but I also didn't have a lot of muscle, considering the lights gave me a brand new body. I made a 'not bad' face, and handed it over to Zach, who had given the Rupees over to Rusl. He also gave it a few practice swings and I was astounded by the ease that he swung the blade with. It was almost like it was made for him.
"This is very well made," acclaimed Zach. "It's weight is very well centered, allowing for primarily slashing techniques. How much did you say for one again?" He asked the blacksmith.
"For the amount of Rupees you gave me, I'll give you two of them, plus I'll throw in a wooden shield for free. It won't protect you much against fire, but it's been treated to withstand quite a lot of damage."
After a minute of him getting the things together, we purchased the two swords got the wooden shield, which we agreed that Zach should use, given that we both knew that he was going to be rushing into battle a lot more than I was.
We were walking toward the entrance to town when a small child with blond hair ran up to us and said, "You gotta help! Talo's been grabbed by monsters!"
I looked at Zach and he nodded, and we both broke into a run out of town.