Ruul's ZRP Party: Thread 6.2

Ruul bit his lip. What Calcifer was saying wasn't true, but in his current state Ruul knew there would be no reasoning with him. "Calcifer," he said quitely but with as much finality as is possible in monotone. "Let's go." His eyes remained on the burning pyre that had been his second love.

Calcifer was about to open his mouth to say something to Kairo when he was stopped by what Ruul said. He looked at the fire and the body enveloped in it. The thought rose up in his mind how she always followed him. It was like abandoning her here.
But, then, that wasn't true. Now he saw it from a different perspective. Ever since the War, from the first time he ever left home, he was the one following her. She was who convinced him to stay with her in the party with all those misfits years ago. She was why he felt so empty when they parted. She was why he was here in the first place.
It was true, she wouldn't want him like this. And would she want him to continue to be dependant on her, when he always drilled it into her head to get tough? "Stop sniveling," he'd say, "Quit acting like a dog, you're your own source of strength. I can't do it for you."
Calcifer stood up, wincing at the gash in his left palm. He took a step and looked back at the decimated shell of what was Aero. If she were there, he wouldn't have needed to say anything. They would just look at one another and know. So, he looked at her, turned, and walked away to the portal that was still there. He didn't look back.

Ruul looked at the flames, then at the portal, and then back again. Finally, he, too, followed. Blue light enveloped him and he was back in the biting cold wind of Snowhead Mountain.

"The swamp's this way, right?" Ruul asked, heading south.

"Yeah, just follow me." Quint motioned, taking the lead. "We shouldn't have any trouble, unless those slavers show up for some reason."

Calcifer clutched Aero's bag by his side. "So we're dealing with a bunch of slavers? Heh. At least I've encountered those before."

Kairo cracked his knuckles as he stretched his arms above his head. "Be nice to work out the kinks," he said.

"How long will the walk take?" Darem asked, following close to the others

"About 2-3 days. It took me less to get Trace back due to his condition."

Darem nodded, "Then as long as we don't loaf about, we should be there in no time." He put his arms behind his head, "How long have all of you guys known each other?"

"Ruul and I go back the longest here. Five years." He paused. "We met, uh... through Aero. Knew her for eight." He didn't want to end his statements with Aero. "Ice and I didn't get along very well at first, did we?"

Ruul smiled a little. "Your fault."

"Out of the ones of us who are here at the moment I'm the newest," Kairo said. "Besides you, I mean," he added to Darem. "It's kind of hard to say how long I've known everyone for though. Stuff happened and I got confused."

"I like to think that it was equally your fault as it was mine." Calcifer retorted.

"Keep telling yourself that," he said with a teasing smirk, then he addressed Kairo. "Yeah, what with time travel and all, it does get confusing."

"...Huh...?" Darem tilted his head at Ruul's comment. "Time...travel?"

Calcifer's expression darkened, and he turned his eyes down and away.

Ruul nodded, seriousing up. "I mentioned I'm the Oracle of Ages earlier. It's not just a title. We came back from the future to stop a crisis. I take it you weren't filled in."

"Maybe...they neglected to mention a few things." Darem shrugged, "'s not really a big deal though. I'm here to help regardless."

"That makes things nice and easy," Kairo said. "I still don't understand most of it and I've been here since before we went back... Came... back... Whatever."

"Did you just join out of boredom then?" Ruul asked, quirking a brow.

"Hm. Wouldn't say that." Darem thought for a minute, "The way that the other four acted and worked as a group told me that this wasn't something to be taken lightly, but I knew that they weren't bad people." He rubbed the back of his head, "It's stupid to sit back while others are workin' on something important. I'd rather help, especially if it's as big of a uh...crisis as you put it."

Ruul nodded. "Understandable. I ought to fill you in as we go, then."

"Do as ya will." Darem replied.

Ruul kept things simple. "I arrived here in Clock Town originally a few days from now, where I met up with... an old friend. We went sightseeing, and kept on running into Chaos and his group, gradually getting to know each other, until we met at Snowhead's Goron village. From there, we bore witness to a mage delivering an ultimatum to all of Termina. Fenrir was his name. He'd discovered a powerful ancient mask and used its magic to give himself enough power to destroy the whole land, and planned to use it to create an army of slaves with which to conquer his own kingdom." He took out his harp. "I'd been given this harp long ago, in Labrynna, where I was told I could become the Oracle of Ages. At the time, I wasn't ready for it, but I figured that the best shot we stood at taking the mage down was by stopping him before he got the mask. As it happened, one of our party members then could open a portal to get us there, which saved us a good deal of trouble." That wasn't exactly the most pleasant part of their journey, though. He remembered all the headache convincing everybody the portal was the best way had been. Largely his fault, actually. "In Labrynna I underwent the rites of becoming an Oracle, and then took us back in time a month. We're gathering masks here now because I found out in a book I read that they can be used to grant someone the power to use the mask that Fenrir used. Without them, he can't do it."