Chaos' party: Thread 6.1

Reina flinched at the question. Darem had saved their lives, and not expecting anyone to be in the area she hadn't worked out a lie but the truth was dangerous, she looked to Chaos to see what he would say.

"I'm here for the beautiful scenery, and friendly locals." Jillian joked to try and lighten the mood.

"We have business in the stone tower." Chaos said. He wasn't going to reveal everything, but that much seemed okay and if their host had been living here for so long he might know a safe route over there.

Dares hummed and reached for his stone tower carving. He mindlessly spun it around in his hands before offering, "I'd be willing to go with you if you'd like. May keep some of the baddies away."

"Have you been there before?" Fist asked Darem curious about what he knew of the place

"Well, sure. I've trekked out there to get details for my latest piece." He held up the carving. He looked down before adding, "The last few times I've gone out there, something hasn't felt right. Like there's something there telling me to leave. But if you're absolutely sure you need to go, then ill be glad to help."

"If you can lead us there with minimal undead attack then by all means." Chaos said as he looked at the tower in the distance again. This team up could prove to be beneficial for their mission in Ikana. If Darem could lead them to the tower safely and assist them inside then they would be in good shape by the end of this.

Jillian shook her head, being safe and deceitfully luring people in were two different matters, Darem had to make informed decisions with his life, and someone had to inform him. "If he's going with us he needs to be allowed a little more than that." She protested. "That dangerous feeling you get inside the tower, that's why we're here. There's a monster possessed by a powerful relic and what we're doing is incredibly dangerous. You seem like a capable fighter, but this doesn't have to be your fight unless you want it." Kairo had deserved that as well, she wasn't going to let history repeat itself.

Darem looked at the tower. "Well, If you guys are going to stop whatever it is in there, then I'd better help right? I mean, this is my home, I can't let something like that take over. If you'll have me, I'll be there."

Chaos closed his eyes for a moment and bottled up his mild frustration so nobody could see it. This was just something he needed to get used to with outsiders and information. Perhaps it was just him who was too mistrusting after all that had happened in the past. "As soon as you're all rested we should get ready to move again. I want to have this tower taken care of by tomorrow night." He said as he sat down and started inspecting his weapons again. He picked up the mace he'd collected from the stalfos and did some maintenance on it with what he had. It showed clear signs of age with dents and scrapes all over from use. Taking a rag, he started removing some of the old blood stains and dirt off it.

Reina could feel Chaos's frustration at Jillian's outburst. And why wouldn't he be? He was trying to keep everyone safe. On the other hand, he did actually save their lives this afternoon. Reina sat down next to Chaos with her new hammer. It looked old and worn and blood had rusted the surface. "I took this off one of the stalfos, do you think there's any hope for repairing it?"

Jillian sat to Darem, "We're really not trying to drag anyone involuntarily into danger, but we need to keep ourselves safe as well." It was sort of an apology/ explanation. "I just want to be done with seeing people get hurt by these monsters. Someone...someone very important to me lost their life already to one of these things." She looked over to Chaos, Fist and Reina sitting on the other side of the cave. "You had a right to know, but don't blame those three, they don't trust much of anybody."

Chaos took the hammer and looked it over head to toe. "The handle could use some repairing, but it seems usable enough. It's harder to ruin a hammer beyond repair than it is a sword." He gave the hammer back to Reina. "Might be a bit big for you though."

"Just make sure to use both hands" Fist added

"Right" Reina nodded, she'd have to practice swinging it a few times to get a feel of the weight and balance before she tried using it in a fight. Feeling tired she set the hammer aside for the night and decided to get some sleep. She curled up next to Chaos and, just then realizing how tired she actually was, she fell asleep faster than she thought she could have on a cave floor.

Darem looked sadly at Jillian. He and she had more in common than she thought, but her thought of monsters were probably different than his. "I...I'm sorry. But I promise we'll stop this thing. So others won't be hurt." He sat there a moment before adding, "I don't blame them for not saying anything. If I'm completely honest, if something bad did happen to me, it wouldn't be a huge loss. But at least now I'm a bit prepared." He grinned, "Not saying I'll jump in the middle of danger, but just don't fret over me. I'll be fine." He looked over at chaos and Reina, "I could always do something about the mace. I have a lot of experience in blacksmithing."

Jillian sighed and stood up. She walked over to where Reina had decided to sleep and threw her cloak over the little girl. She watched the girl shiver and pull the cloak tighter around her before she smiled and walked off to sharpen her own blades. Placing the small carving in her pouch she found something she had completely forgotten about until right then. "Hey look! It's that spin ring. This might actually have been useful this afternoon." Jillian placed it on her finger and remembered to keep it in mind next time they were ambushed by stalfos.

"I've got some experience with weapon work myself, but I think this one is fine as a temporary skull cracker for now." Chaos said as he finished cleaning it off.

"My ring is useless to me" Fist said as she pulled out her blade ring and looked at it unenthusiastically

Before they knew it, it was time for the group of five to head off to the stone tower. They spent several hours making the hike to their destination. The only noise made were heard was the winds blowing around them. The skeletons seemed to be staying put in the ground where they belonged too. In a few hours, they were at the base of the gigantic tower that cast a foreboding shadow over them.

"Well... here we are." Fist said as she looked to the top of the tower

Darem exhaled, a chill running down his spine, "Do...Do you feel it?" He whispered, "It feels like it's trying to physically push me away with just a thought." He held his forehead against his palm. It felt like something was trying to get inside his head. "Needless to say, we should be as careful as we can. If it can do this to me mentally, I can't imagine what kind of creature it is inside."

It was wrong, Reina didn't need Darem to tell her that. She looked up at the foreboding structure and listened carefully. Too quiet, it sounded like despair. The place reeked of ancient grudges and dark secrets. She wanted to turn and run in the other direction, even being in the shadow of the tower felt wrong. She took a step closer to Chaos, practically hiding behind him.

Chaos at the tower from top to bottom. They had quite the climb ahead of them. He felt like there was a dark presence before him, but he ignored the feeling. A building's a building and they had a job to do. Without wasting any more time, he lead the group into the entrance. Not long had they been walking when Chaos abruptly stopped them by extending his arm to the side as the floor suddenly stopped and was replaced with a large chasm with no bottom in sight. On the other side of the chasm was a stairway spiraling up and down. In between the two sides were platforms littered across the chasm."

"Well that's comforting, we'll have a way back up if we fall..." Fist said sarcastically while looking down at the fall below.

Reina looked at Darem in awe, "You go in there, through this? How do you do it?"

"Sure hope it's 'the easy way'." Jillian joked.

Darem's brow furrowed as he looked around, "I...I don't remember this chamber. It's like it's changed since I last came in here." He walked towards the edge and looked down, "This place just gets weirder and weirder."

Chaos took a step back and dashed forward, jumping onto the first platform. It seemed stable enough, but he was still uneasy due to its unnatural suspension in mid air. He quickly hopped to the next platform close by. "I don't know how much these can hold so let's not have more than two people on one of these at a time." He glanced over at Darem "It might be best if you don't share when you jump."

Fist jumped onto the first platform, and then the second. "Easy enough." She said as she kicked her heel against the hard stone.

Chaos jumped to the third platform. It was a bit farther apart than the first two. "Take it slow" He said as he judged the distance to the next platform. There were still a few more left.

Reina jumped to the first platform, then the second with Fist, the third being farther away scared her though. Sure jumping from tree to tree had often resulted in falls, but she'd always been able to see the ground with few enough bruises being a harsh lesson. Here only the abyss greeted her, If she failed she wasn't sure she'd make it back up.

Jillian leaped to the first platform, then looked back with concern for Darem, she wasn't sure about the jumping ability of Gorons but with such a body shape she was sure they weren't built for leaping.

Darem nodded in response to Chaos and turned around, walking back a few paces.

"I see," Jillian said softly, "I'll try finding another way across for you." She turned around and made a slight dash before doing an acrobatic flip to the second platform and then gracefully leaping to the third one, sure she was showing off but she had been trained in acrobatic swordfighting, she was confident in her steps.

Reina, still standing on the second platform stuck her tongue out at Jillian. "Show off!"

Jillian winked.