Castle Town

While the delegations between the King and Queen of Hylians were winding down, the accompanying friends and family of the visiting leaders were visiting the castle town while leaders hashed out the finer details of peace over the land.

At the center of the market town, a few Gorons were sitting on the ground, while a few others were standing or walking around to take in the view of the Hylians and their castle town. It was starkly different from how their homes in Death Mountain looked for how they lived in the caves, generations ago it was a different story, but for the present generation of Gorons, it was a novelty to see the sights.

Amongst the group of Gorons waiting for their Chief Goron, Darunia, to return from the castle, two Gorons were talking to each other beside the center water fountain. Dumog spoke with his younger Brother Pippin, scratching his stomach that was marred with battle scars, "Feels like it's getting chilly these days." he commented as he looked around.

Pippin nodded in agreement as he reached back and scratched at the itch he was feeling, before bringing his arm back around to cross his arms. His expression was quiet while his eyes were a bit closed, "hmmm." He hummed in agreement, wordlessly agreeing with his brother.

Dumog grumbled a bit before speaking more with his brother, giving the sky a glance before looking back at Pippin, "I think the summer is almost over, probably just feeling an early fall breeze…not sure how these Hylians cope with the cold." he quipped.

Pipping reached up to scratch his cheek, before returning his arm, "hmm…they wear clothes…" he simply answered, having observed over the years of the war that the soldiers would layer up with their clothes.

Dumog nodded, "Makes sense, how else would they retain their body heat from leaving their small thin bodies." he commented back, viewing the many different fabrics each Hylian wore.

When their brothers first arrived at the castle town, they received many gawkers, glares, and curious glances; but after a week, with the Hylian Royal Soldiers making sure peace was kept amongst the populace, the Hylians returned to their normal activities. Sure, they received some idle glances every now and then, but the novelty was slowly losing its luster after a while.

As the two brothers remained quiet for a bit, Pippin fully spoke up with a curious tone, "Shame brother Bakmi wasn't able to come." he commented.

Dumog looked at his brother, and nodded in agreement with a somber smile, "He's still healing at home in the hot springs, you remember how that boy stood up to him and cut into his stomach." he remarked.

"...hmm…" Pippin agreed, rubbing at his forearms, large scars were etched into his rock-like skin. He still remembered when he faced against a boy as well on the mountain, a battle that involved their people getting pushed back. He even spoke with his healing brother, and described what the boy looked like after that battle was over.

Both brothers had in fact faced the same Hylian boy, the same boy that was part of a mercenary gang; if he heard right, most if not all mercenary gangs were forced to dissolve after the war, so he wasn't sure what became of the boy after the war.

Dumog noticed his brother was thinking, and commented on it, "Thinking about where that boy is now?" he questioned Pippin.

Pippin nodded, "...hmhm…" he answered, never losing his quiet expression, "...haven't seen his face around here…" he noted.

Dumog offered his brother a shrug, "If he was lucky, he escaped to someplace better, probably took shelter at a ranch or something." He offered as an idea, before giving his brother a curious gaze, "Why…plan on exacting revenge?" he asked.

Pippin remained quiet while gazing across the entire castle town market, his squinted eyes never opening, "...no…just curious about the kid…" he mumbled, rubbing at the scars again on his forearms.

A Year ago

Just a few months after the defensive battle of the Lon Lon Ranch, a battle was taking place at the foot of Death Mountain. The war cries of both opposing factions rang out with the clang of swords and spears against the rock hard exterior bodies of the Gorons, amongst it all, a more personal battle was taking place between two combatants.

"HAAAH!" The Hylian boy yelled as he was tossed over the ground and landed across an outcropping of bomb flowers, his body rolled before he quickly picked himself up, his grip on the hilt of his sword firm the entire time. The boy snarled with his teeth bared at Pippin, as the Goron himself marched towards the boy.

Pippin wordlessly charged at the boy, while the boy himself seemed to be thinking on his feet; the boy looked exactly as his brother Bakmi described, allowing him to target the lad and meet out some justice for the injury the boy put on his brother.

It was petty, and they were at war, but it pained Pippin's heart to see his brother injured like that; so his irrationality left him to seek out the boy and give him an equal injury, and fortune favored him when the battle began at the base of Death Mountain.

As Pippin continued his charge, the Hylian boy glared at him before reaching down to grab one of the Bomb flowers. 'There's no way a mere boy could pick a bomb flower out.' were Pippin's thoughts as he was soon within reach of the boy.

With a quick grunt of effort, the boy pulled the bomb flower out with bloodveins beginning to show on his neck from the strain he was getting after pulling the bomb flower out of its petals, and tossed it at Pippin's incoming form. 'WHAT!' Pippin thought to himself, 'But now he's going to get caught in the blast radius as well!'' he finished thinking, as his charging form smacked against the bomb flower.

BOOOM

Pippin felt the heat of the blast scorch his arms, legs and face as he held his hands up defensively against the blast; his charge was halted while the blast wave caused him to trip and fall in. "hhmmph." he grunted as he quickly picked himself up, soot covered his face and other parts of him, but was nonetheless fine. The slight burns from the explosion was superficial at best.

As the smoke from the exploded bomb flower settled, Pipping tensed himself as he heard the sound of the boy's feet on the other end of the dissipating smoke, and witnessed the boy leap up over with his sword raised above his head for a downward attack at Pippin's head.

Clang!

"Hrrggnnn!" Pipping grunted in pain as he brought his arms up to defend himself from the boy's attack, he took a step back from the force of the blow on his forearms against the blade the boy swung down at him.

The boy followed up his attack with a boot to Pippin's face to spring board off from the Goron, allowing the boy to leap back and land to charge back at Pippin with a running stab at his bare stomach.

Already aware of what became of his youngest brother, Pippin let out an annoyed grunt as he quickly slammed his fist down at the incoming blade coming at his stomach. "...no…" He denied the boy.

CLANG, BOOM

The sound of both the boy's blade connecting with his fist and their attack striking the ground echoed off around them; Getting a better look now at the Hylian boy, Pippin looked through his squinted eyes at the damage the boy sacrificed on himself after throwing the flower bomb so close.

With a blackened and burnt face on his left side, with scorch marks on his limbs, and partially blackened blade, Pippin could only assume the boy did his best to quickly block with the flat of his blade while leaving parts of him unprotected.

"Hnrrrngh!" The boy snarled in anger as he pulled his sword from the ground and quickly swung at Pippin, making the Goron bring his arms up again to block the blows, making clanging noises as the boy started to back cuts into Pippin arms.

'What sort of strength does this boy possess!' Pippin thought to himself with a calm but focused look on his face, "...enough…" Pippin spoke with a grunt as he deftly caught the boy's sword in midswing, and yanked it, only to pull the boy with it as he kept an iron grip on his hilt.

"...stubbern…" Pippin acknowledged the boy as he swung the sword around by the end of it, before finally swinging it down to impact the boy into the ground.

"GAH!" The boy grunted in pain as he was slammed into the ground with his sword, letting it slip from his grasp as Pippin tossed it behind him down the cliffside; the boy glared up at Pippin with a snarl, before he picked himself up and ran up at him.

'There's no way you can tackle me to the ground or anything, so what are you intending to do?' Pippin thought as he brought his arms up to throw a punch at the lad.

Once the boy was within enough distance, he leapt up into the air while pulling something out of his pockets, '...what?...' Pippin questioned, before finding his answer as the boy threw something at him that blinded him in a flash, 'Deku nuts!' he stated, and felt his vision go white, before feeling the boots of the boy kick him in the face.

Feeling himself helplessly stumbling back from being disoriented, combined with the kick by the boy, Pippin grunted in annoyance while quickly reaching out to pull the boy down with him by his leg, 'I'm not going down alone!' he mentally affirmed, hearing the boy cry out in surprise.

As Pippin felt himself fall down the cliff side while periodically bumping against the side, his vision returned to him, enabling him to see the boy with his eyes not far from him while letting out an angry shout, "Dammmnniiiit!" The boy yelled with a snarl as he impacted a lone withered tree that long lost its life ago in its attempt to grow on the side of the mountain, "Gah!" The boy let out a grunt of pain as his boy caused the withered tree to collapse and fall with him while slowing his descent a bit.

CRASH

Pippin grunted in pain as he felt his back impact the ground, while he watched as the boy continued to fall with less velocity after falling onto the lone dead tree, while making it fall with him in the process after its roots could no longer hold it up into the side of the mountain.

"MPH!" The boy grunted in excruciating pain while rolling over on the ground holding his ribs in pain, while at the same time keeping an eye on Pippin with his eyes bloodshot and harshly glaring, "f…uck…" he breathed out, keeping a hand on his ribs, while picking himself up with great difficulty, his limbs shook in exertion.

Pippin too grunted in discomfort as he steadily picked himself up, and watched as the boy too picked himself up to face the Goron, 'he doesn't have a weapon on hand now…or does he?' Pippin thought to himself as both of them faced each other down.

A harsh roar echoed from the right of them, making both combatants quickly look at the source of the noise, making Pippin realize where both he and the boy had fallen, 'We fell on the far side…' Pippin thought to himself, realizing they had woken up a nest of Red Dodongos, a breed of Dodongos that walked on four limbs and had three prominent horns on their skulls for impaling their prey with.

"...boy…" Pippin spoke out as both he and him found themselves in a possible fight to the death for survival against the wildlife of death mountain.

"What!?" The Hylian boy snapped back in a snarl as both he and Pippin stepped back a bit from the tunnel that held the nests of Red Dodongos, the lad quickly stepping back onto his sword and kicked the hilt up for him to defend himself with.

"...ceasefire now….fight these things to survive…" Pippin requested the obvious, as he did not favor a fight where he had to focus on the boy and Red Dodongos at the same time.

As he watched the dodongos stomp their way out of their hole to attack the trespass of their territory, he saw the boy keep an eye on the dodongos with a glaring look and a savage bloody smirk. "Fine, I can work with that." he agreed, wiping his mouth of the stray blood in the process with his arm.

"Hmmm." Pippin nodded and held his fists up to be ready.

Present

Reaching to feel the bite mark on his side from one of the red Dodongos leaping at him to try and take a bite out of him, Pippin still remembered how the boy jumped across his own fair share of dodongos to pierce the one biting him through the top of its skull; either the boy was being pragmatic so that he did not have to fight on his own, or he had some sort of code of honor or something, all Pippin knew was that they were stuck down in the nest of Dodongos fighting for their lives.

By the end of the day, he was sure they practically wiped out the entire nest of Red Dodongos, which suited Pippin and to a larger extent his Brothers just fine; the Red Dodongos were an invasive species that hailed from further north, no one knew how they traveled down south and made their nest there, but Darunia had awarded Pippin with the title of 'Red Killer' once he returned home after the battle and evidence was proven that the red Dodongo nest was obliterated.

He also let it be known his enemy combatant was with him to fight them as well, he was no glory hog or anything, much less needed the glory, but Pippin figured Darunia deserved to know he wasn't alone in the feat.

Of course, the boy and him split ways by the end of the fight, both too tired and battered to finish the fight between each other.

Pippin reached up to rub at his head, 'Never did catch his name…hope he is still alive so I can know it…' he thought to himself. The kid was tenacious to survive that entire day while injured, and walk back to his people. Pippin glanced at where all could see Death Mountain in the distance, 'At least next time, we won't be enemies…the kid was pretty good in a fight…' he finished thinking.

Lost Woods

As much as he withheld his frustration back, Guts simply opted to express a bored look as Mido ranted his mouth off as he led a defensive group of Kokiri for the trip into the Lost Woods. "Just watch, outsider, you think you're hot stuff, but watch how we Kokiri handle ourselves." he announced proudly his keeping his wooden shield and sword out along with a few other boys.

The defense troops of Kokiri were walking with the one Guts was walking with while Saria led the way forward; While Mido was speaking from the left of Guts, Pici who walked to the right of Guts snickered a bit before leaning over to Guts to whisper something.

"Watch this." he spoke in a hushed voice, while Guts watched as the know-it-all brother cupped his mouth to holler over at Mido, "Hey, Mido, since when did you act so brave? Remember when you turned tail when we went into the woods the last time?" he snickered, making Mido stumble over himself and curse under his voice before shaking his fist at Pici with a glare.

"Shut it! I'd like to see you face off with a Wolfos wisecracker!" Mido yelled back, before both boys began getting into an argument of whether it was better to face off against the Wolfos at the time or not, leaving Guts to deal with the two interacting with each other while he was in between them.

Sighing to himself, Guts sped up his pace to catch up with Saria, shifting his Axe onto his other shoulder in the process to get rid of the uncomfortableness he was feeling from resting it against his one shoulder for too long; As Guts reached and walked beside Saria, he spoke to her with a bored look, "So many how Wolfos are we expecting if there are any this time?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Hmm?" Saria questioned with a sideways glance at Guts, while they all kept walking, Mido and Pici still arguing in the background, "Oh, well, it's usually a pack of two or just one, but I don't think we need to go that far back into the Lost Woods." she shook her head in denial of needing to look for the fallen trees they needed for making target circles with.

All they needed to do was find a few good fallen trees, cut them down into appropriate sizes, and finish them down into more even sized ones with hand saws.

"Hmm." Guts grunted in acknowledgement, before speaking his mind on the matter, "Well, just to be safe, I should take the lead, I'll stay within everyone's eyesight." he offered.

Turned her head as she walked beside Guts, she gave him a surprised look, before giving him a mock glare, "What? No! There's no need for that!" she insisted with a shake of her head and grateful small, before focusing her head forward, watching where they needed to go in the Lost Woods, "Trust me, it's best if everyone sticks close, people can get lost real quick in these deeper parts." she assured him.

Guts offered a shrug, "whatever." he responded sticking with Saria's plan.

"Yeah!" Mido's smug tone broke into the conversation as he made his way up to walk up beside Guts and give him a sneer, "It's best you just stick close with us! Or better yet, go right ahead and get lost! Doesn't matter to me!" he remarked with a smug look, before he found his ear getting pulled by Saria. "AAAHHH" he yipped in pain.

"Really now, must I really be the only sensible and responsible one here!?" Saria questioned the boy with a glare as she had walked over to Mido from around Guts's back and pulled Mido's ear down painfully.

While most of the group paused in their walking to watch Saria admonish Mido like a real child, the girls giggling and boys snickering at the self proclaimed boss getting punished by Saria, Guts had continued walking for a bit before stopping to turn around and see the little interaction between the two.

"Okay Okay, I'm sorry!" Mido professed as Saria finished pulling at his ear, and finally let go, but not before giving him a slap on the back of his head, and giving him a cross look while crossing her arms.

"Honostly, I don't know where you get this attitude of yours!" Saria remarked, while Guts watched her tap her foot and give Mido a stink eye.

"Honest! We can't trust outsiders, we don't know what trouble they bring with them!" Mido Professed, making Saria eye roll at him as he rubbed at his ear with a wince of pain.

For Guts, he really didn't care if Mido trusted him or not, and to be fair, he was some strange kid more than a week ago that Saria found collapsed beside a tree; he didn't expect any of the Kokiri to quickly warm up to him, and he especially didn't know if he'd stay long enough to get to know everyone.

As Guts was about to open his mouth to suggest that Saria just ignore Mido, as he didn't care about Mido's hangups with him, a dense fog soon rolled across the woods; what made it more strange was as none of the Kokiri were reacting to the dense fog rolling across the woods until it he could barely see anything.

Walking forward, as he highly doubted he'd lose the others with how close they were, he ended up not finding them, leaving him in the middle of a wide open space of the woods, where a wall of fog surrounded him on all sides. "What?!" He asked himself while getting defensive, putting both hands on the axe's handle.

"But they were just there…and none of these trees were here!" Guts snarled in frustration as he held the axe out, as anything was better than just his fists. "What the hell is going on!?" he questioned himself, keeping himself rooted in place lest he get lost in the woods. It was better to wait and see what was going on, not to mention make it easier for the others to find him than to wander around the woods aimlessly.

Before Guts thought of anything else to do, the sound of wings flapping echoed from above, large ones in fact, judging by the sound, "...what…" the boy's eyes widened as he witnessed a large skeletal bird land down on the ground in front of him, putting him on edge.

And that wasn't the half of it, a man in green garb sat atop the skeleton bird, the being's eyes glowed bright red in his eye sockets as he held onto the reins of his…bird. 'Who the hell rides something like that!?' Guts questioned himself, as he sweated a bit, but snarled at the potential threat, "...w-what are you…" he asked aloud, glaring at the entities, the probable due causes of the dense fog.

The skull rider stared down at Guts for a few more moments, before speaking without his jaw moving, "Take heed, young struggler, you have a tribulation ahead of you, beware of the one that seeks power…" The Skull Rider warned him cryptically.

Guts glared up at the Skull Rider, snarling up at him in anger, "What the hell does that mean!? What are you! What's going on!?" he demanded, keeping the axe at a ready position to strike at a moment's need.

The Skull Rider did not respond to his requests, but spoke otherwise of more cryptic words, "The curse of Demise is not to be ignored, do not falter, or this world will fall to ruin…the weight on your shoulders will feel immense, but persevere as you have done from birth…" The Skull Rider spoke, before he yanked the reins on his skeleton bird, making it flap its bone wings to begin its ascension into the air.

Guts glared at the Skull Rider flying off into the sky, "Wait, wait!" he demanded while reaching out at him, only to watch as the dense fog soon faded away.

"...What the hell was that all about…" Guts muttered with a glare as the fog wall faded, "...and who was that…" he followed up muttering to himself.

"Guts!" Saria's voice chimed in from behind him, making Guts express a look of surprise as he lowered the axe and looked over to see Saria look at him in confusion, "Try not to get too far away, okay?" she asked him.

Guts gave Saria a confused look, and nodded while relaxing his grip on the axe to let it lean against his shoulder; he had just turned around to look for Saria and the others, but now here he was with his back turned to them.

Giving Saria a grunt of acknowledgement with a minor nod of his head, she returned to giving Mido an earful of being nicer to everyone.

Guts turned a bit to look around the woods, either the place was haunted, he was hallucinating, or some mystical shit was going on…he did not know what to do with whatever that Skull Rider said. It was too cryptic for him to understand. 'Curse of demise? Weight of the world?' Guts was not sure if he should ask Saria about what he experienced, or defer to that Giant Tree.

Whatever the case may be, he was going to be more on guard in the woods.