(Continued from Gerald Laden Part III)

The two carts sped through the village (or village-in-progress anyway), drawing attention to themselves, but nothing more than a few curious glances – most villagers who had spotted the carriages simply assumed that the materials had been loaded off anyway. Thanks to Nora, they had avoided being chased by all available guards stationed at New Kakariko and for that, Shark was glad that he had someone else with him that had her wits about her. What he did not like, however, was that they were all cramped up with the corpse rotting amongst them.

“Canon” Shark then called out to everyone in the carriage, reserving his spot on the front seat of the carriage next to the driver, Nora, as he glanced momentarily at the macabre shirtless corpse that was bleeding among everyone in the carriage. Taking into consideration that space was limited because of the barrel of skull, there was no way to avoid neither the stink of the currently rotting corpse, nor the trailing blood.

“I heard kissing someone will close off your sense of smell” Shark bantered with a chuckle as he ruffled Cleo’s blonde hair before stepping over the corpse and making his way to the back of the carriage, opening its back doors. Turning towards the rest of the group and blowing them a kiss, he climbed out the carriage and onto its roof, before slowly making his way towards the front seat, where Nora and Marcus were sitting.

“Pecking order” Shark said simply as Marcus sighed and relinquished his seat to the mobleader, before going back solemnly to the corpse-infested carriage. “Oh and make sure to send Jaws here when you get there” Shark then called after Marcus, before taking out his pipe and lighting it up.

After a couple of puffs from his pipes, Shark glanced sideways at the fuming Nora. He could tell she was really angry, even if he could not see her face in the dark veils of the night. If there is one thing he managed to learn in all his years of womanizing, was the talent to read and gage any woman’s immediate feelings or emotions, without knowing a thing about her. It was talent worth much more than any spell a wizzrobe could cough up and he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world…except maybe a certain short Gerudo. Shark’s mind drifted momentarily on the image of Kyo, before he finally snapped back to reality.

“Get ahead of Itzal there, we need to lead him in this dark” Shark commented as he nodded towards the black path they were undertaking. Away from the lights of the village, it was almost impossible to navigate up the mountain trail without hitting anything – thus both carriages were moving considerable slow.

Shark lifted the lantern he had grabbed from inside the carriage on his way out and held it above a small map he slipped out of his trench coat inside pocket, before unfolding it under his navy blue eyes. He guided Nora as she passed Itzal in a very business-like manner, holding out on the witty comments and jokes for the first time since they began working with each other. It was only when Jaws showed up that Shark took his eyes off the map.

“Hey boss, you rang?” Jaws asked as he crept up towards Nora and Shark on all fours, holding himself carefully on the roof of the carriage so that he wouldn’t fall off.

“Yeah, something’s wrong with this lantern, can you check it out?” Shark asked casually as he lifted his arm up and dangled the lantern under Jaws’ nose, who simply blinked as he stared at the item; dumbfounded.

“I don’t see…anything wrong with it…” Jaws said uncertainly as he scratched the back of his head.

“Look closer, there at the top” Shark said lazily as he continued to hold the lantern near Jaws. However, when the mercenary leaned closer to the lantern, Shark violently smacked him in the face with it, before rising up to his feet to grab him by the shoulders and pull him down roughly. The man yelled as the mobleader swung him off the carriage, but maintained a firm grip to prevent him from completely falling off the cart – Jaws’ face inches from the carriage’s right front wheel.

“Boss, boss, what are you doing?” Jaws yelled out in alarm, as his eyes fixed the spinning wheels with fear.

“Did I mention I really don’t like civilian casualties?” Shark asked casually as he maintained Jaws squirming body hanging inches from severe pain. “It’s too much paperwork to deal with after”

“What paper work?!” Jaws asked loudly.

“Eh? What did you say? I couldn’t quite hear that.” Shark asked innocently as his grip starting to loosen, causing Jaws to drop slightly closer to the wheel – his nose practically rubbing against the spinning wheel.


“I mean I’m sorry boss, I’m sorry, I’ll never kill another innocent civilian again!” The mercenary yelled with a voice almost similar to Roy’s when he panics. Shark smirked with satisfaction before pulling him back onto the driver’s seat. He turned to Nora and instructed her to take a right and stop at the small clearing off the trail that was barely visible under the moonlight. He explained that they were going to continue their rest here until morning.

“No sleep for you until you give that man a proper burial.” Shark shot at Jaws who simply nodded quickly and jumped off the stationary carriage, before making his way to the back in order to fetch the corpse of the man he had killed in New Kakariko.

Everyone started to step outside the carriages, Roy demanding what they were doing in the middle of the mountains at such a time. Old Man Tom then informed Roy that he should not talk so loudly, lest the boogy man come out and eat him; causing everyone else to roar in laughter. As Jaws busied himself trying to dig a big enough hole to bury the corpse, Number 2 found a small tent in one of the tents, which he handed to Nora and Cleo under Shark’s instructions – everyone else grumbling that the women were getting better treatment, though not daring to directly confront the mobleader about it.

“Hehe, looks like our fearless leader is angry about the earlier fiasco” Number 2 joked around as he handed the folded tent to Nora.

“OF COURSE I AM, I MISSED OUT ON A NIGHT OF HOTSPRINGS AND VILLAGE GIRLS!” Shark shouted after Number 2, who continued to laugh in amusement.

Using whatever unimportant items they could salvage from the carriages (mostly from Nora’s as Itzal threatened to murder Sawyer for getting near his carriage), they piled it up and used it to start another campfire, which a few men lied next to and dozed into a well deserved sleep. Others slept in the carriages until only Shark and Number 2 remained awake – or so they believed. The two man climbed on top of Nora’s cart and lied down on the roof, gazing at the night stars, which were so clear from the mountains.

“Since when do you treasure something a woman gives you Shark?” Number 2 joked as he softly elbowed the Hylian who was gazing at an open locket that had a small pictograph of a girl. “It’s completely unlike you.”

“She’s my first and only true love, my sister Vivian is.” Shark chuckled as he closed the locket and slipped it back into his trench coat. Number 2 raised an eyebrow and stated that he had no idea Shark had a twin sister, then joked whether she was pretty or looked like him.

“So…do you often see her?” Number 2 then asked more seriously.

“Nah, she lives with the family. She always had her head on her shoulders. She’s the good and honorable kid, not like the trouble-maker and disowned defect younger brother.” Shark answered and when Number 2 raised an eyebrow, he added; “I came out second.”

Number 2 scoffed that at least someone was making proper rupees out there. Number 2 then asked if he still continued to support his family financially, even though the parents had turned down his rupees on the basis of ‘dirty money’.

“Yeah I hire this guy to go to mum’s bakery in Ordon and buy everything off her shelves, every month, and pretending that he completely adores her baked goods” the mobleader answered as he took a puff of his black pipe.

“Always the sly one, even with the family” Number2 jeered as Shark simply chuckled and placed his cowboy hat over his face, covering his eyes from the moonlight.

As the two men continued to converse, Sasha got up from next to the fire sleepily, and walked off away from the camp – intent on relieving his bladder. Finding a satisfactory far away spot from everyone, the man unzipped his pants and began spraying a boulder happily as he hummed a song. He then heard shuffling behind him and turned around, wondering who might have followed him all the way here.

Suddenly, his heart bounced as he realized it was probably Cleo, who had changed her mind from when they were in New Kakariko. After all, who could deny his charming physique? Squinting in the darkness, he made out the silhouette of her and called out Cleo’s name as he approached her with a heated cat roar.

---

As the sun rose into the sky the next morning and lit up the mountain trail, both Shark and Number 2 riled up everyone in order to continue on their path up the rocky mountain chains of Death Mountain. The actual Death Mountain volcano, home of the Gorons, could be seen stretching out into the distance – its base housing what used to be Kakariko Village.

“Why is the rendez-vous so high up in the mountain?” Sawyer complained, though it fell on deaf ears.

“Your complaints fall on deaf ears in Death mountain! Get it?!” Liam laughed as he attempted to lift the mood in the crowd, but all he was a roll of the eyes from Old Man Tom. Liam crossed his arms indignantly, stating that at least Sasha had a sense of humor.

“Speaking of Sasha…where is that bloke?” Jaws asked suddenly as he gazed at the small group trekking up the mountain trailed, and surveyed it for a sign of the incomprehensible man. Suddenly, they heard a screech from above and the group looked up to see a red tektite shuffling on the cliff above them.

“Shoo! Get outta’ here!” Old Man Tom shouted at the creature, in an attempt to scare it off.

“Hey Number 2” Shark asked curiously as he squinted at the spider-like creature. “What’s that it’s carrying in its mouth? It kind of looks like a human arm.”

“…….didn’t Sasha have a tattoo of a dodongo dragon on his bicep as well?” Marcus asked in a horrified as he pointed at the drawing on the bloodied bicep.

The group fell silent as they pressed on forward, no one daring to comment on what had just transcended. Instead they focused on climbing up the ever so steep mountain trail that became harder and harder to navigate through the treacherous path, which was also getting narrower. Afterwards, Sawyer made the dumb mistake of asking what could possibly get worse and suddenly an avalanche of rocks rained on the group. Although they had managed to escape and get pull out the carriages in one piece, it was at the expense of the lives of Nora’s horses and Itzal’s horse ran away in the opposite direction out of fright, back down the trail towards New Kakariko.

Shark consoled Swift that horses were smart animals and could always find their ways back to their masters, but also delivered the bad news that he would now have to help the men push his own carriage from now on. Everyone, except Shark who was leading the group through the maze like paths through the mountains, worked with great effort to bring the carriages up the trail. The good news was they didn’t take more than 2 hours to finally reach the rendez-vous point; a dark cave that used to be an abandoned old mine.

“You have got to be kidding me…” Liam swallowed loudly. “Your client…G-man…is in there?”

“Pretty cozy hideout right?” Shark said with a chuckle as he walked towards the entrance of the eerie-looking entrance. There was an old sign next to the entrance, though the words were unreadable because of red stains, which could assume was blood. “I asked myself at first why a Skull-dealer would station himself so far into the mountains, but I guess it’s a guaranteed way to never get caught by authorities. Maybe he also knew New Kakariko was going to be built eventually not too far away.”

The group looked at each other hesitantly, despite Shark’s little trivia story. No matter how one looked at it, it was like the beginning of one of those horror stories they heard as a kid.

Cleo’s eyes widened as the corpse was thrown into the back of the cart, and she jumped up and onto her feet as she stared down at him. Her stomach began to turn as she couldn’t manage to pull her eyes away from the site of his shirtless dead corpse laying face down, the red open wound still throbbing slowly blood seeping out. Shark ruffled Cleo’s hair as he pretty much told her to lock lips with someone to avoid the smell. Thankfully the body was still fresh so there wasn’t much of a smell, it was more the way it looked, and the fact that in mere seconds of the body being in the back of the cart again, blood was everywhere, already gathering on her boots.

“You’re going to stand the entire time?” Of course, it was Liam who asked her this question. While being one of the best behaved amongst the men, he was obviously trying to get back at her for her comment about the hike up the mountain. Cleo didn’t answer at first, too absorbed in the fact that the men just sat there, letting their pants soak up the blood, not even with question, disgust, or trying to solve the problem. Her skin began to grow pale as she slowly nodded her head yes to Liam’s question. The men laughed easily at this, they knew she wouldn’t last very long standing in the cramped back of this cart. Sure enough, the second they took off, she fell to her knees, her hands planting on the ground as she tried to support her body and stop herself from landing on the corpse. Her jaw dropped when her face stopped inches from the back of his head, and she shrieked as she closed her eyes tightly throwing herself backward and against the wall.

It must have been all of them, Marcus, Number 2, Liam, and Sawyer, all of them, just laughing at what had happened to her. Sawyer was sitting next to her and happened to be what she wiped her freshly blood stained hands onto. Starting from his knee, she wiped her hands down the side of his pants, but despite wiping the blood off, her hands remained tinting, and her sobs turned into cries as she closed her eyes tightly, shaking her head. Sawyer wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Cleo gave in to the comfort seeing as she thought she really needed it at this point. It wasn’t too much long after that they listened to the sounds of Jaws screaming as if his life at risk. The men’s heads popped up like sprouting flowers, and Number 2 smirked and shook his head.

“Don’t be an idiot, follow the rules, and you won’t be crying like a baby.” Despite this not being a threat to them directly, and not being their boss, they all nodded in agreement. It was true, if they followed the rules, they wouldn’t be a hair away from being run over by a cart. They heard the whole thing too, minus some small details because of Cleo’s uncontrollable cries, right from the crush of the lantern in his face to the apologizing and promise he made to Shark. There was nothing to say to any of that, and they all felt it was fair for Jaws to be the one to bury the body.

They stopped finally; Jaws pulling open the back doors and tugging on the foot of the dead corpse until it slumped out of the cart. A look of disappointment and shame was on his face as Liam and Marcus patted his shoulder, but not out of pity, but mocking him on his high-pitch shrill when he was talking to Shark. Number 2 got off next, and Cleo dashed off the cart after Number 2, pushing his shoulder out of her way as she moved a little downwind from the cart, falling to her knees and throwing up. Sawyer got off the cart slowly shaking his head, saying he wasn’t going to be the one to hold her hair. None of the men in fact went to see her at all. None of them watched either, and none of them seen her until she came back to where they were all gathered.

Cleo sniffled as she hung her head, stopping in the circle of team members. Her legs were caked with blood, some of it still fresh and other parts beginning to dry up. Her hands were red despite being clean and her blue outfit now a maroon. Slowly she looked up to the group; some of the strands of her hair were strung together with dried blood that must have gotten on her when she leaned against Sawyer. There was no fight left in her eyes, no spunk in her pose, she pretty much accepted the defeat of the mess that Jaws had made. The men didn’t look anywhere near as bad; dressed in dark colours you couldn’t even notice that their pants were wet. Nora was lucky she was driving, and Jaws lucky he was summoned out of the back before he had to sit back there for so long.

Number 2 walked over to Nora and handed her a tent, looks like the woman had won themselves a night in doors, which was great since they wouldn’t be exposed to the men, and could possibly relax a little. Marcus offered to make the tent, and while Nora looked like she didn’t want him to, Cleo took the tent from her and handed it to Marcus, saying yes please. Sawyer walked over the moment Marcus left them and asked if Cleo wanted help wiping off the blood from her legs because he knew how to make it hot. She simply narrowed her eyes at him before giving him a good shove, sending him backward and onto the floor. Number 2 roared with Old man Tom as they pointed and in between laughing made sure to throw insults at him for being pushed over by a girl.

Sawyer decided to give up for the day even though he had believed he was getting somewhere back in the cart, but instead he retired to making a fire with Liam as Marcus joined after setting up the ladies tent. Roy decided he was too good for the floor and invited himself into Itzal’s cart for the night. No one dared to go into Nora’s, seeing as the wood panels had yet to soak up the blood. Jaws soon finished burying the man and slumped down next to Marcus and Sawyer, dozing off to sleep. Soon everyone was sleeping, Nora in the tent, the men around the fire, Roy and Itzal in their cart, but Cleo couldn’t sleep, not with how she looked, not knowing that she was lying there in blood soaked clothes. Feeling uneasy with even being in the tent, she left, and found herself a nice rock and sat on the ground, leaning back on it.

She heard a creaking from behind her, and turning, she peered over the rock to see two men perched on the top of Nora’s cart. They were easily identified, no one, not since Hank, was the size of Number 2, and the coat that Shark wore was easy to spot from what everyone else wore. Cleo returned to her before position, leaning against the rock, and she closed her eyes, allowing the breeze to play through her golden strands of hair. Soon she heard them talking, something she didn’t expect or account for, but when Number 2’s voice rang above the dead silence, despite being hushed, she couldn’t help but listen in. Turning around, she peered over the top of the rock once again, crossing her arms and leaning her head in the bend of her elbow.

After all the time she had spent near him, she never seen that locket, or heard a word about his sister. Shark’s tone of voice changed as well, becoming deeper and a lot more serious. The usual uplift in his sentences were gone until he explained how he hired a man to simply buy everything in the shop at the end of the month, just to make sure his mother and his family was getting by okay. Cleo smiled at the thought of seeing him possibly watch as his mother watched her store’s product get sold to just one person. It was definitely something that she wished she had someone to look after her like that. He wasn’t who she thought he was, he was definitely someone completely different, with a lot more to him than she knew. This was just his job, and if there was one thing she learned from bar keeping, it was that she wasn’t that person and hated to be defined as the typical server. She thought about going over and joining in on the conversation, or going over and just hugging him, or making a small comment, but she couldn’t get herself to move from behind the rock.

She ended up sleeping there, her direction of view right at the top of Nora’s cart.

---

A hand rested on her shoulder, shaking it slightly trying to stir the sleeping Hylian. It worked because Cleo was startled as she looked over her shoulder to find Sawyer standing behind her. She smiled slightly as she stretched out her arms.

“You should have come slept over by the fire, you would have been warmer. You know you always have a spot right here...” he said as he opened his arms up. Cleo groaned rather displeasingly as she rose to her feet and shoved Sawyer. She stormed off to the other men, where Marcus made a comment about having told someone else to sleep in the tent if she wasn’t going to. Now that the sun was up though, they all got a good clear look at just how much damage the blood pool from the cart had done. They all looked a mess, the back of the cart and Cleo mostly. Roy refused to look at or touch any of them, shaking his head and saying something about how they were voodoo witches.

As they stood around, Liam made one of the lamest jokes that any of them ever heard, and Sasha’s disappearance was brought up. No one knew where he was until Old man Tom spotted the red tektite with his arm hanging out of its mouth. Cleo turned away shaking her head unclear as to why everyone was dying around them. She had gone her entire life without seeing anything like this, and yet, here they were watching one drop right after the other. Sawyer went to comfort Cleo again, but she pushed him away, simply getting on to the back of Nora’s cart in tears once more. Marcus and Liam shook their heads, muttering that she was a cry baby and didn’t belong here with them. Number 2 just slammed them both into the cart and told them to shut up. Once they all loaded, they began their journey again, only to be stopped this time by a rock slide.

They lost the horses, either because they died or ran off, but either way, they were pushing from here on out. Old man Tom didn’t do much, too old to push a cart, but he wasn’t old enough to yell at the young ones at they tried to get him into trouble and pull their weight. Cleo decided to leave all the other men and help out Jaws, Roy and Itzal, with much of Roy’s displeasure. This left Sawyer, Liam, Marcus, Nora, and Number 2 to push the other.

But it was only two hours of doing this, Shark leading, not doing much anything but read a map, that they reached a small cave, an old abandoned mine of some kind. Apparently, inside was where this Mr. G was hiding. Cleo stepped out from behind the cart and looked at the cave’s entrance.

“So what you’re saying is that we all have to go into that creepy mine, possibly get lost, or attract some kind of flesh eating monster because we’re all drenched in blood?” She put her hands on her hips, one hundred percent upset with what she was being told. By now, the blood was still clinging to her skin, some of it had flaked off since it was dried out, but either way, she still had red tinted hands from landing in the puddle hands first.


The Player Characters



The NPCs

Itzals quick dark eyes sought a safe path until Nora’s wagon overtook them and led the way. He followed cautiously, hearing uproarious laughter towards Cleo while he also saw the whole incident with Jaws coming close to being run over, while still being on the wagon, at the Hands of the mob leader. His crew however now rode in silence after the words of Tom to Roy.

Finally the wagons stopped for the night and the girls were given a tent to shelter in for the night as Jaws set about burying his victim in a shallow and rock strewn grave halfway up a mountain. Swift hated the thought that his family would never know what happened or where he was buried. It rested heavily on his heart but he knew there was nothing he could do.

The air was still warm on death mountain trail as they stopped to make camp once more, the air smelling of heat, sulphur and dust. He pulled the looser fabric of the neck scarf up and over his face to shield against the airborne dust and hide the smirk at the comment to Roy about the Boogeyman. The young acrobat scanned the horizon and down the mountain trail, there showed no sign of being followed at all and he sighed in relief before returning to his home to aid in the building of the fire.

Once the fire had been set he stayed with the men a while, keeping more or less to himself but he was watching everything he could. It wasn’t long befor the men started to drift off into the realm of sleep and swift made his way back to his caravan and Hauled Roy from the bed, dropping him to the wooden floor with a loud thump and saying “You should have better manners then that “Sire”. I don’t recall saying you could bunk on my pad but there’s a chair in the corner your more than welcome to or a perfectly good floor that you seem to be enjoying right now.” He shot a snide smile at Roy who simply sat there on the wooden floor, agog at the fact he had just been turfed off the bed.

Once settled once again swift rolled over and opened the small window that was immediately behind the drivers seat, and the view it looked out on was Cleo, sat with her back against a rock and looking almost tearful in the darkness. He had observed her running for the cart to empty her stomach contents but had had his hands full of agitated horse at the time. She cut a sorry sight in the moonlight, bloodstained and lonely, subconsciously wringing her hands to remove the blood that now dried upon them, staining them almost like rust would a pale fabric. He sighed and closed his eyes as the warm breeze ruffled his clothing until finally sleep overcame him.

*****************************
The morning came through in hints of red and gold over the red stone of the mountains, washing the world in golden light and warming the bones of those who had sleep out in the night chill. Despite baking in the sun each day and keeping some of that heat into the night, the temperature always plummeted low in the early and dark hours jet before dawn. Breakfast for Roy and himself consisted of a couple of rolls of now staling bread and the last of a jar of pear preserve. When they finally stepped out into the morning and readying themselves to head off once more, this time deciding to walk at the side of his horse and lead the animal and its load up the trail, he was surprised to see the rest of the group looking shocked and shuffling around their duties in daze. His keen eyes looked around and finally he sidled up to Liam, leaving Roy to his own devices and asked quietly;

“What happened?”

“Sasha’s dead” came the almost numb reply.

“What in Din!” Swift hissed quietly “What happened?”

“Dunno, but we just seen a red tek runnin’ of with and human arm, with a tattoo like the one ‘e had. And ‘e aint here this morning.”

Swift looked up at the rock face where Liam was now pointing, but the tektite was long gone.
The pale faced man chewed is lip for a moment before shakingoff the feeling fo dread and starting out with the others once more, all of them now alert and somewhat paranoid by every little movement that was not their own.

After walking in silence for some time Sawyer broke the unease by saying “How could this get any worse?” but with those words came the distant rumble. Withing secongts the boulders were raining down upon them. Noras horses were the first victims, crushed by a stone that almost took out the cart as well.

Weg, Swifts horse, panicked amidst the rockfall, breying a cry of terror as another rock rolled past and splintered the wooden slats of the carriage and snapped the leather binding from their place. The horse bolted for freedom, panic in his eyes, and vanishing down the mountain before Swift could stop him. The entertainer watched in horror as his companion sped away in a cloud of dust and stone. He prayed to the goddesses that that horse would make it back to the new village safely before turing baleful eyes to the 2 dead animals and the new task at hand.

After a few minute of organising they started on their way once more, hauling the wagons themselves, some pushing and others pulling, using what was left of the leather rigging and the wooden poles to wheel their cargo up the rest of the trail. Swift said nothing through the whole section of that journey, the others seeming to sense his dark mood at the loss of the animal, even Roy had nothing to say as he hauled alongside the acrobat, even Shark showed a different side as he tried to cheer swift up by teling him that horses were smart beasts, but this remark was greeted with nothing more then a dark glance from fiery red brown eyes. After 2 hours of hard work and navigating the newly carved landscape left by the landslide, they made it to the opening of an old mineshaft where Shark stood proudly.
“You have got to be kidding me…” Liam swallowed loudly. “Your client…G-man…is in there?”

“Pretty cozy hideout right?” Shark had responded with a chuckle as he walked towards the entrance of shaft before saying “I asked myself at first why a Skull-dealer would station himself so far into the mountains, but I guess it’s a guaranteed way to never get caught by authorities. Maybe he also knew New Kakariko was going to be built eventually not too far away.”

The group passed around uneasy glances as they looked down the mineshaft. Until Cleo spoke, hand on hip and looking more than a little irritated. “So what you’re saying is that we all have to go into that creepy mine, possibly get lost, or attract some kind of flesh eating monster because we’re all drenched in blood?”

It was only then swift noticed how bloodstained she was in comparison to the men. He wondered what on earth had happened but voiced nothing. Instead while the others murmured to one another about how dangerous the whole thing looked he went back into his wagon and opened the stage chest that housed some of his own things. He pulled out a shirt, an over tunic and a pair of breeches and finally a belt. Silently he closed up the chest and hung the clothing over one arm as he filled a 4 canteens from what remained in the water barrel and hung those about his waist. Finally he picked up the 3 dirks and slid all 3 back into the hidden places about his person before making his way back out and holding out the clothing to Cleo.

“It’s not pretty and it’s not a dress but at least you won’t reek of old blood. You can change in the caravan.” He gave her a faint smile, a look that suited him much more then the constant almost sour expression he had worn most of the journey. It was a smile that played in the corners of his mouth and in his eyes, more friendly then the leering smiles of the other men that had been cast her way the last few days.
He had to admit.. it felt good to smile again after all the worry he had been under the last few days.

Nora stood over Jaws as he began burying the body of the dead New Kakariko villager. "Bastard," she growled. She didn't care if it was an accident. There were no excused for murdering another human being just because he was doing his job. She held her lance over her head, and it took everything within her to not beat the hell out of him and bury his body somewhere on the mountain. But then she realized how hypocritical that would probably be. And the last thing she needed was for everyone else to think she had finally snapped, or something. She had been acting like an emotional wreck this entire time, especially in front of Shark. She needed to get herself together. She realized that. Once Jaws had finished burying the body, while completely ignoring her, the sun had begun to set. People were getting ready to set up camp. She walked over to where Cleo and the others were, and the two of them were handed a tent. "You don't need to treat me any differently because of my gender," she insisted, but no one really listened to her. They were all... very lovely company. She enjoyed every second of it.

She tried to stay out of everyone's way, as usual. As others sat around the fire, she just went into the tent designated for her and Cleo and lay down like the night before in New Kakariko. If anyone else turned up dead she was going to probably have a mental breakdown. It had been another trying day. Fleeing from the new town without saying goodbye to Adrian, pissing everyone off by taking the corpse with them, finding Sasha's arm in the mouth of a random mountain creature... And now they were here. Resting so that they could sell drugs in the morning. She wanted to cry, but she didn't. If anyone found out she was starting to crack she would never hear the end of it. She was committed to this now. The cart was absolutely ruined. As she drifted off to sleep, all that filled her mind was how dire this situation was. How badly this could turn out for her. Or she could be the next stupid mercenary to end up dead. It was all really up in the air at this point...

Nora rose with the sun. She was up a bit earlier than the others, but she didn't leave the tent. Looking over to her left, she noticed that Cleo had never come in the night before. At first she was a bit hurt -- did she not want to sleep in the tent with Nora? Did the guard make her nervous? She shook her head, grumbling a bit, before realizing that this could actually be... a dangerous situation. She rose to her feet, grabbed the lance that she had placed down next to her, and emerged from the badly erected tent. She should've done it herself. She looked around and noticed that Cleo was still asleep by the fire. She shook her head again. So she hadn't been in danger. She just... didn't want to sleep in the tent. She didn't know how to really feel about that, but she would just have to move on. As she waited for the others to wake up she looked out over the edge of the mountain. The sun wasn't shining its brightest. Gray clouds were coming in. It looked like it was going to rain later on. Hopefully, just hopefully, they didn't get caught in a storm. She didn't feel like dragging the carts anywhere else, and rain was going to mean just that happens. With her luck, though, the Goddesses probably planned on flooding the entire land today.

Hours passed and their journey continued. As the rockslide hit and both of her horses died all she could do was... not be surprised. She let out a sigh as she helped the others begin the trek with the two carts. Of course Swift's horse didn't die, but he didn't have the fortune she did. Honestly she was surprised the rockslide didn't take out her legs as well. By the time they stopped with the carts, Nora could feel the sweat pouring from her body. She had helped push the carts as much as any man, and was a bit surprised to see Cleo doing her part as well. Maybe she had been wrong about the girl. She still wasn't sure that Cleo was the best person for this mission, but she couldn't judge. She herself had been floundering the entire way. It would be stupid to even attempt some kind of self-righteous crusade against the girl coming with them. They were all committed now, whether they liked it or not. And with two of them dead, it seemed like this mission was even more dangerous than she at first imagined. "Where the hell does this guy live, Shark?" she asked after a while, standing close to the mob leader. She asked loudly enough so that everyone heard her, but only Shark could possibly answer. She had no idea what to expect. People began speaking of a G-man and she was just confused.

She was a guard. How had she never heard of this drug dealer? Was he new to the business? She was exceptionally confused. A bit worried. She held on to her lance tightly. She had absolutely no idea what to expect this time. She wondered if Shark had a plan. She then immediately wondered if she was turning into the other idiots she had surrounded herself with. Of course there was no plan. Nayru forbid.

((OoC: Sorry. Eddy informed me that I messed some things up continuity-wise... I've been feeling kinda bleh the last few days and forced myself to post so I'm not surprised I messed it up xD Just ignore what doesn't make sense please. I promise to post better quality things in the future <3))

(Ooc: So yeah....BEWARE LONG POST)

There was an eerie atmosphere that settled around the group as they gathered at the mouth of the ominous looking cave. The entrance was pitch black and seemed to stretch for ever into the darkness, while the mouth of the cave loomed over the group like a dodongo getting ready to bite into its prey. They could hear the wind blowing into the hollow entrance of the cave, resonating and echoing against the stones wall as it created a sound not unlike that of the howling of a redead.

“So what you’re saying is that we all have to go into that creepy mine, possibly get lost, or attract some kind of flesh eating monster because we’re all drenched in blood?” Cleo asked and everyone seemed to be thinking among the same lines. Roy’s legs were shaking slightly as he stood gaping at the cave, while Liam and Marcus exchanged significant glances.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anything wrong with this place.” Shark replied casually, as a couple of keese bats soared straight out of the cave’s entrance, and flew over Roy’s head; causing him to quickly duck in panic.

"Where the hell does this guy live, Shark?" Nora then voiced out loud as the group started to follow Shark who seemed like the only one willingly walking towards the entrance, with a certain strut to his pace. Shark took a couple of seconds before answering Nora, quietly scratching his head under his black Ordonian cowboy hat.

“Well, never really knew where G-man’s headquarters was exactly.” Shark answered with a shrug, as if he was merely brushing off a simple question about the origin of the stars. “I guess it’s somewhere round’ the mountains”.

“You don’t know where his head quarters are? What is that supposed to mean?!” Sawyer demanded as he followed behind Shark, trying to show his confidence to Cleo by putting his arm around her in comfort; though it only earned him a push backwards and a mocking laugh from Old man Tom.

“It’s been the same contract with G-man since we started the skull smuggling business.” Number 2 explained as he took the lead of the conversation from Shark, who seemed more than happy to not having to need to waste his energy by doing trivial explanations. “Every year, we bring 15 barrels of skull drug to a rendez-vous point in the mountains. We have no idea what he does with the drug, not who he resells it to. Our only guess was that he distributed skull to the Gorons of the mountains or something, but that seems like a dangerous hobby. Others say that G-man is the one who manipulated the reconstruction of New Kakariko to happen near here, so that he could expand his market. But, if you ask me, that’s just a load of moblin dung”

“G-man eh?” Liam asked out loud as he rubbed his chin and gazed at the mobleader who was walking calmly ahead of the group. “Seems like all y’all mobsters has a nickname righ’? G-man, Shark…Number 2?”

“No, that’s just because our fearless leader is an idiot and can’t remember my name.” Number 2 replied to Liam with an irritated sigh, as his face fell to his palm momentarily before gazing back at Shark who had momentarily stopped dead on his tracks right at the edge of the entrance – causing the rest of the group to halt momentarily.

“Something wrong?” Marcus asked curiously as he cocked his head slightly sideways at the sight of Shark standing stiff, almost as if he had suddenly chickened out from the mission and couldn’t move anymore. The mobleader turned towards Marcus, with a grave expression on his face; dramatically placing his gloved hands on the ex-guard’s soldiers.

“I just had this premonition, that I missed something….of great importance.” Shark then said in an unnaturally serious voice, shuddering slightly.

Before anyone could ask what the hell the mobleader was talking about, Shark managed to shake off the feeling and casually enter the dark cave like nothing just happened. Everyone looked at each other momentarily before simply shrugging and following him inside the abandoned mines.

They made their way past broken mine carts and followed mine rails stretching down a path deep within the cave. The path was slopping downwards, so it made it easier for the people pushing the carriages, though it did not help much with shaking this unnerving feeling that they had just walked into a cursed temple of some sorts. The place reeked of sulfur and the only source of light were the feeble torches hanging off the cave walls, seeing as Shark had destroyed their last lantern by smashing it into Jaws’ face the other night.

“So…what is this place…?” Roy asked meekly, trying to stir up a conversation that would drown the noise of the wind blowing into the entrance of the mines, and noises of moving creatures that wasn’t them.

“It was a mine for both silver and platinum ore” Number 2 explained as he circled around a turn-overed mine cart.

“However, it’s been abandoned for about 16 years now, during the time the Gerudo King reigned over Hyrule. Apparently, the miners had discovered a tomb full of re-deads in their digging and were all slaughtered by the undead. They say those monsters still roam around these mines, even today.”

“….is that true?!” Roy asked in a whimper.

“Nah, that’s not quite right” Shark said calmly, reassuring Roy. “The mines also had a bit of gold ore too” He then added, causing Roy’s spirits to sink again.

“Smart move tha’ G-man bloke” Old man Tom spat as he limped behind Nora. “A place like this, no one is ever gonna come ‘ere and bother him!”.

The path seemed to go on forever, the group occasionally walking through areas where there was a lack of torches and thus, pressed on through pitch black tunnels. Twice or thrice they encountered a skullwalltula which tried to attack them, but they managed to dispose of without too much injuries or trouble. Eventually, they finally arrived at one of the large digging sites. A sign was planted at the entrance to the digging site, where the mine cart rails split into two separate tracks, saying;



“The last digging site to have been opened up in this mine before the zombie feast” Shark informed everyone with a chuckle of this little trivia, before entering the huge clearing.

This room wasn’t nearly as dark and dusty as the narrow hall ways they had walked through, but large and open, with ceilings that seemed to go on forever into the darkness. They entered on what would be the main floor of the room, and as they scanned the room, they could see there were many levels above them, spiralling into a darkness that would engulf anything whole. The ground in here was well travelled, the pebbles and rocks scattered along the ground were pushed into the dirt from the weight of everyone who walked on them. The walls around them were uneven, rounded and in no way built for stability and viewing pleasure.

Just ahead of them, in the center of the room, was a pit as deep as the ceilings tall, making it impossible to see anything further than 20 feet down, no guard rails or any kind of protection to stop anyone from falling in. There were stacks of old moulding wood sitting on the ground in sloppy piles or thrown in old mine carts, and pick axes and helmets were scattered, leaning against walls or just lying on the ground, rusted and useless now. It was clear the mine hadn’t been in use for many years because even the technology being displayed in here was very little. Old candles and lanterns scattered the room, all unlit and lacking oil.

Wooden stairs lined some of the walls of the mine, leading up to sub levels that had the controls to some of the old wooden structures used to move dirt from one place to the other. From these sublevels there were ladders and stairs leading further up, allowing access to the higher levels. The group was silent, in awe at what their eyes were witnessing.

On the other side of the room, beyond the scattered pile of abandoned mine cart stood 2 figures, which the group took a couple of minutes to notice. Although everyone seemed reluctant to approach either of them, for fear that the stories of the redeads might be true, Shark pressed forward without hesitation, followed by Number 2. Eventually, everyone else also caught up just as Shark and Number 2 stood facing the two men who were sitting on a large grey boulder.

The man on the left were wearing black robes adorned with red markings, symbols which Shark could not really decipher – they might be Goron symbols, but he wasn’t too sure. He had pure white hair which was sleeked and greased up to the back of his head. The robes were open at the front, revealing his muscular body covered in scars and wrapped in what looked like a metal chain. The chain ended in a spiked ball which lay innocently next to him on the boulder. He had extremely icy cold grey eyes that seemed to be void of any kind of sympathy or humanity, sending a shiver down Liam’s spine upon momentary eye contact. The man sitting on the right was garbed in a strange ensemble of white dirty bandages and brown robes, his head and face covered – revealing nothing but pitch black eyes. They were strange men indeed.

Shark and Number 2 stood in front of them quietly for a couple of long minutes, while everyone else waited in the background; watching and wondering what was going to happen next. For most, save Sawyer, it was their first time watching a drug transaction happening under their very eyes. Marcus looked from the black robbed main with the ball and chain, to the strangely garbed fellow who reminded him of those strange ‘Garo Ninjas’ he had once heard about in a children’s fairytale. He wondered quietly which one of these two would be ‘G-man’, though he was relieved to see that at least they outnumbered the opposing party, despite losing some members along the way.
Meanwhile, Roy quietly nudged Swift, whispering that this was the moment they had waited for. Once the transaction took place and Shark seized the rupee payment for the drugs, they had everything they needed to busy that flimsy mobleader and crack this case wide opened. “Don’t screw this up…” Roy then muttered to Swift, but before the acrobat could answer, Shark finally spoke;

“G-man…” Shark said with a chuckle, as he opened up his arms like he wanted to hug the man with the ball and chains, though the latter did no movement to reciprocate. “Otherwise known as Gunther Zamora. It’s been so long buddy.”

“One year, as usual Shark…” Gunther replied in a low slightly rattling voice, that gave the creeps to both Liam and Roy, as he took out small brown pipe and lit it up, before smoking it. Offering his flame to Shark, he also lit up the Hylians black pipe and both men started to smoke quietly in the most awkward stand-off Jaws had ever seen. You could cut the tension with Hank’s giant battle axe; may he rest in peace.

“I see a lot of new faces here” Gunther continued as he nodded towards the group behind Shark and Number 2, a look of bemusement stretching on his heavily scarred face as his grey eyes trailed from Cleo, to Nora to Old man Tom and finally Roy. “Where’s Lest and Jacob? I thought this was’ gonna be our usual group dealing with each other. I didn’t realize I was supposed to bring my senile grand-father, the retarded cousins and the family slut to this meeting.”

“The hell is going on?” Marcus muttered to Sawyer who simple placed a finger on his lips to signal the man to keep his trap shut.

“I guess I’m just a family man like that.” Shark chuckled as he took a puff from his pipe before nodding at Number 2 who made his way back to Nora’s carriage and pulled out a barrel of skull, opening the lid for both Gunther and his strange lackey to look at its content. “Fifteen barrels of Skull, just like I always delivered, like a man of my word” Shark then continued as he tossed his pipe sideways.

“Yes but since when do you bring a circus along with you?” The strangely robbed man, who turned out to be named Vektor barked angrily, as he gazed menacingly at the hired people Shark had brought along to this exchange.

“Since when do you show up to a rendez-vous without the rupees?” Shark retorted calmly as his arms unfolded and lightly fell to his sides, his right hand stroking the hilt of his sword softly.

“Hehehe…” Gunther chuckled morbidly as both he and Vekto got up and stood on the large boulder, towering over both Shark and Number 2. “This is why you were always Lance’s second-hand man, Shark. You were always his favorite because you were always on top of things. Yet, I turned out to be the most loyal one there eh?”

“Yet you seem to be wanting to put a black mark on that honesty record there, G-man” Number 2 said through gritted teeth, just as Gunther broke into a laugh and clapped his hands.

Suddenly, several figures appeared from the higher level right above the main floor of the digging site. Most of the other men were pointing their bows nocked with arrows at Shark and his men, while others descended towards the group with swords and axes. Loud footsteps echoes resonated from another tunnel leading into their site and the group turned their attention to the entrance to their left, where a large fierce-looking Goron emerged, held down by two chains – attached to each arm and each held down by a man.

Although most Gorons usually looked peaceful, this one had a crazed look upon its face, as it gazed at Shark’s group with bloodshot eyes and revealed its massive round teeth as it gritted them against each other loudly. On its stomach, a large red skull had been tattooed onto the Gorons skin; Shark recognizing it as Gunther’s groups’ sign.
“GOR SMASH! GOR WANT SMASH!” The Goron suddenly roared as it raised its massive fists excitedly into the air – the two other men doing all they can to maintain their hold on the Goron’s chains to control the crazed rock-eating mountain dweller.

“Drugged up a Goron a Skull for control….how creative…” Number 2 muttered under his breath as his gaze went from the archers that surrounded them from above, to the approaching swordsmen, to finally the crazed Goron, which was inches away to just losing complete control.

“Heh, he reminds me of your ex-girlfriend. Remember the fatty you used to date?” Shark asked in a laugh, seemingly the only one who seemed to not be concerned by their predicament. Jaws made a quick count and saw that in total, they were outnumbered two to one – excluding the gigantic Goron.

“LET’S SEE HOW LONG THAT COCKY MOUTH OF YOURS WILL KEEP SMILING SHARK” Gunther roared as he untied the chain around his body, and began spinning the ball above his head, his grey eyes murderously gazing down at Shark; who remained unphazed.

“This is a bad business decision.” Shark announced with a simple shrug.

“Your way of doing things is old school, you cheap women-chaser.” Vektor answered darkly as he drew two of his knives and spun them playfully around his fingers. “As the Gerudo King once showed, the only thing that matters in this world, is power.”

“Hey!” Shark finally yelled out angrily. “My women are not CHEAP!”
Finally, the Goron managed to overthrow the two restraining men, before it charged at the group with a final “GOR KILL!” roar.

“Secure the carriages and leave NO survivors!” Gunther announced to his men.

Itzal had disappeared for a moment and returned with clothes hung over his forearm, offering them to her for her to take and change into. Her facial expression change immediately, from being upset and angry to happy and grateful. Reaching over, she took the clothes from him slowly, a red sleeveless shirt and an orange long sleeved blouse. Itzal was right, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t quite a dress, but it was far better than what she was wearing now. Smiling, Cleo skipped a step closer and wrapped her arms around the hylian’s neck. “Thank you so much!” The hug was brief as she didn’t want to pass on the blood to his attire but also because she simply could not wait until she was able to get out of the clothes she was currently wearing either.

Running off to his cart, she quickly closed the door behind her, locking it from the inside so that the men wouldn’t even dare to try and sneak a peek as she changed. Without much hesitation, she quickly changed her outfit, and unlocking the door, bounced out of the cart. Blood still clung to her legs but overall, her appearance improved drastically, to the point you couldn’t even notice the blood much. The outfit she wore now wasn’t the same in length, actually an inch shorter being the shirts of Itzal acting like a top and bottom, and in order to keep her feminine form, she used his brown belt around her waist. Once she stepped out, she was in a much better mood, until Shark spoke about the cave again.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anything wrong with this place.”

She knew, even without looking around, that everyone was making a face wondering what the man was thinking, all but Number 2, but then again, Number 2 seemed to have been with Shark for many years, and this was some probably something he was used to, meeting in such distant odd locations such as these. The group stood there for a moment more before Shark finally led them into the dark cave.

They travelled through the dark and damp cave until they reached their destination. There was a sign posted just off to the side, what it said, Cleo had no clue, and as she stared at it, she remembered what all this was for, and hoped that this would soon be over so that she could leave and move forward in her life like she had planned to do before all of this. Slowly the group approached two men on the other side of the digging site, and from there on out, Shark talked all business, and a couple of details about all of this came out like who he was, how long they had done business, where Shark had worked before and just a lot about their past together.

Everything turned sour fast though, from Number 2 opening up the barrel of skull, to asking when he started to bring a circus with him, to questioning about the rupees... but that was the least of their worries as men with arrows pointed at them, to men with swords in their faces, and a rather huge goron breathing down on them came out from behind the shadows. Cleo at that time slunk herself back a couple of steps, scared of what was about to happen and knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to defend herself very well at all. The group stood in between this Gunther and their carts, and so when this opposing leader yelled to secure the carts and to leave none alive, every main weapon on the bodies of Shark’s crew drew and immediately clashed with opposing swords.

Number 2’s voice rang above the sound of battle, directing the party to close in to the carts and defend the skull. Cleo was first to run back and into one of the carts, not knowing what else to do. Sawyer, Old man Tom, Marcus, and Jaws all slowly backed up, tightening the gap between their backs and the entrance to the carts. By doing this, they effectively hid themselves from some of the eyes of the archers, but still they had men on foot to worry about.

Cleo pushed through the contents of Itzal’s cart, not making a mess but simply trying to find something that she could use to defend herself. She did not have much luck, finding only his personal belongings and items in which he used for entertaining. Her heart began to race as the sound of battle increased outside of the cart, and Cleo finally emerged but only in hopes of getting a means of helping the rest and protecting herself. Cleo was about to call out to someone for something, and anything for that matter when Nora rushed past her, shoving bow and arrow quiver into her chest. This was something she knew she could use, something she remembered using when very young. It has been many years since, but to have the chance rather than none at all.

She had to step out of the cart a little, and took a place behind Sawyer and Jaws who were defending four men and quite well at that. Taking aim, she let arrow cut through air at one of the archers, and sadly under shot. Cursing under her breath, she reached over her shoulder for another and taking quick aim, managed to hit one of the archers in the shoulder. Cleo smiled a little until she was shoved back by Sawyer, who then stepped in front of her stopping blade from hitting her. He looked back to smile at her as he pushed the guy off of his sword and extended a hand for her to take. As he had turned his back though, the guy recovered, and once Cleo had taken his hand with her right, reaching down into her boot, she grabbed a small dagger with her left, and once getting to her feet, stabbed the man approaching Sawyer from behind in the throat, and kicked him backward to the ground.

Sawyer’s jaw dropped as Cleo’s eyes widened, the two completely unsure of where it came from. Sawyer only commented on how she should save it for the bedroom, in which Cleo shoved him back into battle, in which he had to instantly push a man away from Jaws.


(I gives up)

Nora was extremely tense. There they stood, in front of this man who gave her the complete creeps. Not in the same way that Old Man Tom or any of the others gave her the creeps, but in a real way. Like instead of just being a creepy old man, these guys were shady. Like they would stab her in the back the second she turned around, if she wasn't surrounded by other people. Something about them all was just off. As Shark talked to him and seemed to be almost antagonizing him, Nora could only sit back and watch. From time to time she would make nervous eye contact with one of the others, and she made sure to watch over Cleo who was completely out of her element. Nora was as well, though. While she had dealt with drug dealings, it had usually been in the form of breaking them up. Never actually selling the drugs herself. This was all exceptionally new to her. But that should go without saying.

When the archers and the Goron appeared, it became clear that this wasn't going to be a happy trade-off. No, this was going to be one of those situations where the ever-friendly drug traffickers were going to scam and kill the other drug traffickers. Perfect. She couldn't even think of all the times she had gone to a drug bust just to see dead drug dealers. They were usually killed quite brutally, as well. For the first time in a very long time, Nora couldn't get the nerves of battle to leave her. A giant goron, a bunch of archers, and her companions had been slowly dying off. They weren't trained warriors like her, they were just hired muscle that could've had absolutely no training, for what she knew. This was all so useless. Them surviving was... looking slim. She surveyed everyone she was with, because she realized that these were the people she would be dying with.

"Well this is it," she muttered to no one in particular. "See you all in the afterlife, then." She gripped her lance tightly, but with archers surrounding them and a few fighters down below, it wouldn't be hard for them to be picked off quite easily. They needed another archer with them. As the goron broke free and the group was charged, she thought of something to do. She had her lance in her hands, and her bow and quiver against her back. At first she thought of staying back and sniping away at archers, but she couldn't find anywhere that would keep her covered enough. And it looked like the others would need as much help as they could get against the Goron, who wouldn't even feel the arrows unless they were perfectly placed. It just didn't seem worth it.

"If we let that Goron behemoth get too close to us, it won't matter how well we try to defend the carts!" she said, protesting everyone running back towards the cart. It didn't seem like a very good plan. It did keep them safe from some of the archers, but it also left them open for when the Goron would come charging forward. As everyone else began occupying the melee fighters on the ground, Nora eyed the Goron that was dead set on crushing them all. And it was so giant... Well, whatever. If the others wanted to sit back and defend the Skull, that was fine. She wasn't going to let herself get caught in that thing's giant fist. As Cleo emerged from the cart, Nora ran over to her, removed her bow and quiver from her back and shoved them towards the girl. She accepted, so Nora ran back towards the fray. She figured the girl would need them more than her.

She managed to make eye contact with only Marcus and Liam, and pointed towards the Goron. They looked at her like she was crazy, but another look convinced them that she was right. If the Goron kept coming forwards, it would completely ruin all of their plans. With Cleo occupying the archers, Shark and Number 2 dealing with the leaders, and the rest of their friends taking care of the others, the three of them could manage to charge forward without being worried about too many people trying to stop them. As they reached a small clearing that wasn't very well covered but would work, the Goron finally met up with them. "GOR KILL!" it bellowed for the second time, and while on some level this was completely absurd, it did its job of completely intimidating the three of them. But they couldn't stop moving. They all realized this, as there were archers and a Goron after them. There would be no time to stop.

As Nora eyed the Goron it began charging forward, as if its plan was to smash her against a wall. She kept skipping backwards, trying to stay ahead of it, until at the last second she could jump out of the way (an arrow whizzed by her head) causing the Goron to hit his head against the strong rock wall in front of him. The tremors ran through the entire dig site, and Nora could only laugh at his stupidity. While she got ready to recover, Marcus grabbed her hand and threw her back up onto her feet. She smiled a thanks and looked for Liam. He had successfully managed to avoid an arrow while managing to smack his mace against the back of the Goron. The great beast separated them. The two ex-knights were on one side, and the Kakariko villager was on the other. "Just be careful! We'll get over when we can!" she called out to him, and he nodded in response.

But the Goron was out for revenge. It went slamming after Liam, showing its back to Nora and Marcus. It was the man that charged forward, doing his best to try and slash through its rocky back. But it was no use. The beast didn't even seem to notice, and Liam was forced to turn tail and run as fast as he could from the Goron, who seemed willing to do anything to get the kill. Eventually Nora managed to get her lance to poke the back of his ankle, which caused him to quickly whip around. She just managed to get him to miss her, but her lance wasn't so lucky. It was ripped from her hand, and flung haphazardly across the floor. She looked up at the thing with complete horror. There should stood without a weapon, with Liam completely terrified and Marcus doing his best to fend off arrows with his shield. She actually wasn't sure where Marcus was, as she had her back to him. The Goron began striking again, and it got harder and harder to make sure she wasn't in the path of his giant fist. Just one hit from that would break a few bones, or worse depending on where it happened.

As he went to strike again, a figure appeared out of nowhere, brandishing his usual sword and shield. As Nora kept dodging, the Goron took his other hand and let out a loud "GOR SLAP!" and swung it forward, which Nora had not seen coming. The hand hit her straight in the side, which sprawled her out on the ground. She watched as an arrow slammed into her breastplate. She let out an agitated gasp as she realized how close she had just been to death. But the archers seemed to leave her alone, for just a few seconds. As the Goron ignored Marcus and lifted his fist up into the air, right above Nora who was too debilitated to move, she watched as a sword came out of nowhere, and at just the right time managed to swing upwards, causing the blade to slice through part of the Goron's fist. This ended his pound meant for Nora, but still had enough force to dislodge the sword from Marcus' hand, as it was stuck in the Goron's, and led to him spending just a few too many seconds standing still. An arrow pierced his lower back. He let out a painful gasp as he turned to Nora.

"I failed you..." he said. She managed to jump up into a crouching position before getting back up to her feet. The newfound adrenaline kept her going. She gave him a quizzical look. Another arrow pierced his back. "He told me to... look after you..." he groaned.

"Who?" she yelled towards him desperately. Confusion took her over for a few seconds, but was replaced by the need to survive. She made her way over to Marcus and grabbed him before he could fall down to the ground, which would've caused the arrows to shove their way completely through his body. "Who?" she asked again, but he just stared up at her, groaning. With some kind of last wind he managed to stand up on his own and point towards the Goron. Nora snapped her head around to see that the Goron was recovering, his deep bellows of pain stopping. His eyes set on Marcus he managed to make his way over to the two of them, and at first Nora tried dragging him away from the great behemoth, but it would be no use.

"GOR SMASH!" the giant fist came down, slamming into Marcus' thighs which rendered a horrendous, blood-curdling cry from the man before he immediately passed out if not died. Nora lost her balance and fell backwards, just managing to catch herself with her hands and push herself upwards. This movement caused the two arrow shafts that had been still sticking out of his back to break, but push the arrows further into his body until they stuck out of his stomach and chest. There was nothing she could do for him. She and Liam could both just look on as the Goron began pounding the corpse of Marcus into the ground. Blood spattered everywhere, and it didn't take long for Nora to notice that she was covered in it as well. With the few seconds she had while the Goron got his revenge for his hand, she ran around the scene and grabbed her lance. It had taken a little damage but was still useable.

With her weapon back in hand and a distracted Goron, Nora charged forward.

[[Soooo sorry this is late and rubbish but at least we can move on...]]

Swift hung back in the shadows of the carts while the banter between Gunther and Shark was being muttered and the pipes were lit. Something didn’t bode well, he had a gut feeling and he didn’t like it one bit. His keen eyes sought through the torchlight and into the shadows above them, above the line of torchlight. Things moved up there, bigger then keese. He had seen this situation before not long ago and he groaned inwardly, feeling the pang of the still healing wounds from his previous escapades.

Suddenly he heard the arrows being knocked and the sounds of giant footsteps down a passageway, from which a large and angry Goron appeared, restrained by chains.

“Oh shit…” Swift said flatly before turning in his heel and bolting as the should of “leave no survivors echoed around the site.

He wasn’t sure why but everything seemed clearer, almost like time had slowed a fraction. As Swift made his way towards the cliff face he spied a pile of old timber, which led to an old piece of scaffolding. Immediately he changed his trajectory and darted up the pile before leaping form its highest point and landing on the lowest level of the old framework. He skittered along that for a few metres before launching himself up to the next level.

As his feet made contact with the second framework the old floorboards cracked and gave way, falling loudly to the stone floor below. As the floorboards gave way beneath him Itzals body contorted and twisted quickly, enabling him to catch the still relatively sound frame and prevent himself from joining the boards in their rapid descent to the floor.

As the boards hit the floor a few of the archers and a few of Gunthers goons turned their attention to it for just a second. This momentary distraction enabled Old Man Tom to run through on of his assailants with his blade. The old got still had it in him.

Swift had not gone unnoticed after the boards had fallen. Several arrows zipped past him as he darted further up the framework and out of the range of the torchlight. Once he was out of their feild of vision they turned their attention back to the frey below. 

Carefully the entartainer edged along a ledge not far above one of the archers. He narrowed his eyes and silently drew one of the dirks before withe one carefully calculated movement he deftly dropped from the abyss, landing behind the archer and sliding the razor sharp blade across his throat. 

The poor archer was dead before he had chance to scream, and Itzal was already skidding towards the next archer, after having grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows from his first victim. Within moments another archer met the same fate and slid forwards, dropping from the ledge and plummeting down into the darkness of the pit in the center of the floor. Knowing that this would probably ruin his cover, the acrobat darted back to the rockface, narrowly avoiding yet another barrage from the archers still left.

Skilled fingers and keen eyes found the acrobat moving deftly up the almost shere mineshaft wall. He climbed with all the elegance and grace of a well practiced cat burgelar, making his way once more out of firing range.

“Heh..” Shark muttered simply as Gunther spun his ball and chain above his head vividly. The mobleader jumped sideways and rolled to the ground, avoiding having his head smashed with the heavy spiked ball. Rolling behind a turned over mine cart and leaning his back against it, he yelled out to Gunther who drew his chained ball back towards him before spinning it once more; “Again with that silly weapon! Are you really that afraid to get close to me?”

Meanwhile Number 2 turned to help out the others who were in a pinch, since they were greatly outnumbered, but was forced to duckeas he saw an incoming attack from his left. Dodging repeated strikes from Vektor, Number 2 finally managed to firmly grab a hold of the man’s arm and halt him from stabbing him in the eye socket.

“Your opponent is me.” Vektor hissed simply before swiping at Number 2 with his other free hand bearing a sharp knife, forcing him to release Vektor in order to avoid the fatal blow to his neck. With this annoying opponent slicing endlessly with his two knives, Number 2 was forced to remain on the defensive as he dodged and evaded each attack. He was unfortunately weaponless, as he had left his metal bat in the carriage in the middle of the fray. “Shit…” Number 2 then cursed as he jumped backwards, his eyes watching as the tip of Vektor’s knife sliced through his white shirt.

“Damn those archers!” Jaws yelled to Sawyer after having jumped under the carriage to avoid a barrage of arrows. With only Cleo firing on their side, they were greatly in the disadvantage. However, as Jaws peered from behind the carriage, he noticed that the archers were suddenly distracted by Swift who had seemingly managed to climb up there somehow, in an insanely short amount of time, and dispose one of them. Not wanting to miss out on this chance, Jaws silently thanked Swift and ran up to the men circling Roy, Old Man Tom and Sawyer. Slamming one of them between the legs, he turned around and grabbed another one’s sword arm; preventing him from defending himself as Sawyer stepped in and stabbed the held man into the stomach.

“Take this and this, and THAT!” Old Man Tom yelled in a croaky wheeze as he repeatedly slammed the enemy in the face with a metal pan he had taken from Itzal’s carriage. The enemy bandits stepped backwards slightly, as they glanced at each other with a confused look on their faces, wondering why that old man was full of spunk. Roy simply fearfully hung back as he backed up against the carriage, fearfully hoping none of the bandits would notice him as they ferociously clashed with Sawyer, Jaws and Old Man Tom a few feet away. Cleo was right next to him shooting her bow, while Nora and Liam where a few yards away dealing with the deranged Goron. Both Shark and Number 2 were on the other side, dealing with the leaders of the enemy’s band.

“This…this wasn’t supposed to happen…” Roy stuttered as his eyes fearfully scanned the area, wondering how they could ever survive this. They were supposed to have simply traded the goods and went back so that he and Itzal could then turn them in to Spade. “Not…this…”

“SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!” The Goron shrieked like a behemoth as it continued to pound away at the bits and pieces of Marcus’ remains. Liam ran behind Nora, following her in her plan to attack the Goron while it was still distracted. As he circled behind the Goron, he unhooked one of his two throwing axes and quickly tossed it at the enraged beast. The small axe spun into the air before lodging itself firmly into the rock-dweller’s thick neck. For a moment Liam thought he might have had finished it off already, but the Goron simply looked up towards him as it stopped beating on Marcus’ corpse, as if simply being stirred awake by someone.

“GOR PLAY!” The Goron suddenly yelled, both confusing and terrifying Liam, before grabbing a large boulder from the ground and tossing it into his general direction. Luckily, Liam was able to jump sideways and dodge the rolling boulder – though some of Gunther’s men fighting Sawyer and company were not as fortunate, as the boulder crushed them into oblivion.

“BEHIND YOU IDIOTS!” Sawyer yelled at Cleo and Roy, who was still fixing the boulder pinned against the cave wall. Roy turned behind him and looked past Cleo, noticing a couple of Gunther’s men who were entering the carriage and sneaking out barrels of skull. “DON’T LET THEM TAKE IT, IF IT’S THE LAST THING YOU UUUHH….” Sawyer then trailed as an arrow hit him right into the back of his neck and pierced him all the way through; the tip of the arrow sticking out of his bloody throat. The man gurgled and chocked on his own blood, before falling face forward on the floor.

“SHIT!” Jaws cursed as he grabbed Old Man Tom and pulled him downwards to avoid another arrow from the archers. Although Swift was up there, he still had not disposed of all the archers yet. Now they were sitting donkeys between dodging arrows, fighting off more swordsmen or chasing the few men that had reached the inside of the carriages. He wanted to turn for more help, but Nora & Liam where already preoccupied with the behemoth, while Shark and Number 2 were still fighting away from them. For the moment, it was only himself, Old man Tom, Roy and Cleo next to the carriages.

“Attacking from afar, just like a wuss!” Shark teased as he continuously ran in zigzags and jumping around in order to avoid Gunther’s chain and ball. With each time he sent the spiked ball after Shark, Gunther grew more and more enraged at the mobleader’s taunt. He wanted nothing more than his chain to wrap itself around Shark’s neck, so that he may choke the life out of the man. From the corner of his eye, Gunther watched with satisfaction , however, that they had the upper hand. His men were unloading the carriages of Skull, and soon enough they were going to be disposed of. It didn’t matter that he lost a couple of men in the process, soon enough the Goron behemoth would crush all of them.

Swift was on the move yet again, scaling the scaffolds that supported both the archers and himself. Arrows zipped through the air, aimed at him but falling short, as he zigzagged across the framework. Expertly his hands and feet found strong holds where others would not have done, seeking them out through the soft leather of his boots and his keen fingertips, and as he did so he moved with all the skill of his profession. The dirks were now once again stowed in their sheathed beneath the waistcoat, leaving his hands free for his bizzar acrobatics.

He deftly pulled himself up behind another of the archers, who aiming down at Roy and Cleo. This poor mans life ended when a well placed high kick to the neck sent him reeling and then plummeting to the stone floor with a sickening, bone crunching thud. The young man didn't have chance to stop and see just what had happened to his victim. The barrage of arrows meant he had to be on the move yet again, so as to uto avoid meeting his own death. 

As Itzal bolted along the frame he realised that the arrows now tracing his steps were coming from another framework a fair distance away. The gap between the 2 scaffolds loomed ever closer, but the gap itself was large, possibly too large to leap. In order to get there any other man would have thought he would have to get down from his current location and climb from the ground again, to avoid being shot if he tried scaling the wall again. It was either that or jump. As swift was running he could see the gap was large, but something in his mind told him not to falter, to up his pace and make the leap.

Many would have considered making a leap across a gap that size would have been suicide, but Itzal sped toward the gaping expanse, his eyes blazing in the torch light. Several of the archers watched as the young man approached what would seem to be his impending doom, running off the end of the scaffold, as he was now running to quickly to be able to stop in time. 4 of the archers gathered at the one end of their platform, jeering on at the lad running towards the expanse that seperated then, waiting to see him fail his leap.

Swift left the platform, leaving behind a small dust cloud, that plumed for a moment in the stale air before falling back to settle once again. Swift however soared through the air, his eyes fixed on the platform he was aimng for and the 4 archers that stood there. As he soared gracefully his colourfully wrapped braid trailed behind him like the tail of some stand colourful comets tail and inwardly his mind raced. This was what he was made to do, and he was loving it. Admittedly he wasn't enjoying the killing, what sane person would.

 As it became apparent to the archers that this man was actually going to make it onto their ledge they began to draw their bows, but by that point the young man had made his landing amongst them. Immediately Swift dropped to foot level and spun a kick out that sent all of the archers stumbling. One of them slipped from his perch and dropped his bow in favor of using both hands to catch onto a ledge, where he hung helplessly. In a fraction of a second the pale haired youth was on his own feet, stood tall once again and landed a blow to the jaw of the archer closest to him who was also trying to get back to his feet.  This punch sent the archer reeling, spitting a mouthful of blood and teeth into the chasm below where the melée was taking place.

Somehow through all this Swift managed to keep smiling, even if it was a strangely twisted smile coupled with narrowed eyes. His mind had sharpened and it almost felt like the whole world was slowing down. His thought patterns became even clearer as he seemed to plan his actions before even completing his last action. As he had punched the one archer, the 2 that remained managed to get to their feet and leaped forward to pull the assailent away from their comrade, but as they grabbed the young mans wrists he spun on the spot, using their hold on him as support and vaulting over them to land behind them. His movement had caused their wrists to twist and their arms to raise as he soared over their heads. Once he landed behind them, they let go, their muscle and bone structure not allowing them to keep a hold on the strange boy, the discomfort on their own arms too much to bear. 

It only took that breif moment for them to let Swifts hands go free for the entartainer to draw 2 of the 3 hidden blades and plunge them deeply into the archers backs, severing the spine and causing them to drop to the floor. The final archer, the one that had been punched, whimpered as the bloodspattered figure of the young man advanced on him in the torchlight, but his fear was quickly cut short by the kick to the face he suddenly recieved before falling backwards and, like the others who had fallen, the sudden stop as he landed on his skull amidst the figting, ending all his worries. 

Swift stood on the scaffold, silhouetted in the torchlight, spattered in blood and his chest heaving as he hungrily sucked in air. He carefully leaned down and picked up a bow and a quiver from his fallen opponents. Carefully he knocked an arrow to the weapon and pulled the string back. Finally he looked over the edge of the frame and aimed at the archer still clinging on for dear life a few feet below. With a sad look across his bloodied face he looked down at the man and said "I'm sorry, it's you or me, and it sure as hell is not going to be me."

The archer plummeted to join his friends at the bottom of the scaffold, the arrow embedded in his chest. The last of the archers at the far end of the pavillion, who had watched in shock as one man felled 4 archers in one fell swoop, now knocked their arrows to their bows and took aim at the figure once more, now the shock had worn off.     

(( hope people don't mind me breaking the unwritten posting order but I wanted tomake up for the dire opost I made previously... Also made some edits to this and re posted just for you Li.. If people don't like it I'll take it down buri wa svery pleased with this scene... I'll delete if anyone objects ))

(This post is incredibly not like me. Dunno what got into me ): )

She couldn’t believe how fast they all were falling. One minute, they were 13, standing somewhat proud and trying to act like they were the toughest out of everyone, and now, they were a mere 9, their numbers being depleted by some guy who just wanted the skull and not have to pay for it. Unlike when Hank had been eaten alive, she managed to not look directly at the person who was being trashed to death. It was Marcus, and he was one of the good ones, crushed but the rather huge Goron. It was a horrible way to die, especially when it just keep smashing his body and none of them were going to stop it because what were they to do? Cleo’s body began to shake slightly, scared for herself and everyone she knew in here. The mine walls and floors were beginning to drip in blood from both sides of the fight. Cleo took a step forward, foot landing in one of these puddles, but she did not look down, she didn’t want to find out it was what it was.

She tried to keep an eye on the archers, firing arrow by arrow at them to get rid of them so that the party could try to handle the men on ground, and this huge Goron. But something broke her concentration, someone had yelled out to her, Sawyer. She looked to him before turning in the way he was motioning, and she noted the men leaving with the barrels of skull. Cleo turned to look back to Sawyer as he continued to talk starting off about how they shouldn’t let them get away, and unluckily, she watched arrow pierce through skin on the of his neck back, driving deep and protruding through the other side. Cleo’s body grew heavy all the sudden as she watched him fall face forward, the sound so horrid and the bubbled blood that poured through his lips. She covered her mouth has she gasped, taking steps back rather than forward knowing it was too late and running to his aid would worsen it for her. Eyes stinging, she shook her head before turning her attention to the carriage like he had told her to in the first place.

She passed her arm and head in between the string and wood of the bow, draping it the weapon as she sprinted off towards the carriage not too far away. The men were bigger than her, clearly, and she would need something other than her bow to help defend her and the skull. As she ran, she scanned the floor looking for something, and that is when she spotted what she could use. It was gross, she barely wanted to touch it, but what else was she to do? Cleo quickly came to a halt, feet sliding on the dirt floor as she bent over and picked up Marcus’ sword. It was covered in blood, tainted to the point it lacked shine and had something else she couldn’t quite tell on it, but she needed it. As she held the hilt in her hand, she continued the rest of the way to the carriage not sure what she was going to do with this sword since she never really used one before.

Once she got there, the men were preoccupied and barely even noticed her. Thankfully, there was only two, and she seemed to get a little of an advantage as one had their back turned to her. Cleo figured she would do it just as Jaws had killed that man before, flipping the sword around, she held the hilt downward as she stood behind the man. Bringing it up above her head, she smashed it downward, though once she watched the body dropped, she realized she had hit him in the nose, crushing the bone causing blood to pour out. She gasped at what she had done, stunned for a moment as she watched him drop to her feet. She just looked downward at him but Liam called out, reminding her that there was still another as he looked on from the corner of his eye, trying to rid the ones that battled him. Quickly, she looked up to see the second male standing before her, a swift punch hitting her in her cheek bone sending her backward off of her own feet.

Sitting on the ground, she groaned as her head ached from the hit, not quite expecting it. Looking up to the man, she started to push herself backward along the ground as he took steps towards her. His sword was now at hand, and he was moving faster than she was. Bending her knees, she rose and extended one to kick him just below the belt. He quickly held himself in pain, but not before grabbing her ankle disallowing her from getting away. She struggled up until she watched another man with sword drawn running towards her. Reaching for her sword, she readied to protect herself, yet he stopped, dead in his tracks, and toppled onto her, dead. Where he once stood now stood Roy, terrified look spread across his face as he held the sword of Sawyer, now covered in the man’s blood.

Roy bent over to pick up the body as Cleo kicked the man clung to her ankle in the head. Getting help up from Roy, Cleo took her bow from off of her shoulder, knocking an arrow to it before aiming toward Gunther. She didn’t want to hit him, it was Shark’s battle, but as her aim proved true, the arrow landed right where she wanted it to, just past the ankle of the man. She hoped it would distract him, if even the smallest bit so Shark could have a starting advantage.


(Sorry once more ): )

With her weapon back in hand and a distracted Goron, Nora charged forward.

As she threw Marcus' death into the back of her mind and advanced toward the Goron, her trusted lance by her side, she tried shuffling through possible plans in her mind but nothing seemed very worthy. Liam was close by, willing to help her in any way she needed, but it was definitely Nora Bishop that was taking the initiative between the two of them. She focused her vision, honing in on her senses, and ignored everything going on in the background. The fighting drug-dealers, the sloppy archers... They both had the opportunity to kill her, but both had either lost that chance or proven their incompetence. The only one she could worry about was the Goron. It had taken someone that she had slightly respected, brutally murdering him to the point where she could see pieces of him lying around. She would have to avoid those, as well.

With the small woman and the large Goron running towards each other now, at the last second Nora dodged to her left, causing the Goron to continue running for a few seconds, since it would take longer for him to catch his balance and turn around than it would for her to be able to dodge him. With her lance outstretched, she kept going for his legs, watching the blade slice through a thin bit of his skin. It didn't draw blood, but she could hear his angry cries as he began swinging around desperately, trying to get her to lose her balance so he could smash his fists through her body. Luckily he didn't manage to land any blows, as she backed away as far as she could immediately after the lance had made its contact.

As Nora was slicing one of his legs, Liam reached the scene, and he instantly knew what Nora's plan was as she veered to the right. As the Goron began swinging furiously in her direction, he ran up to the Goron's right side, on the opposite of Nora, and stabbed his sword straight through the monster's thigh. This was a much more brutal blow than Nora's had been, and caused the Goron to teeter and crumble to the ground temporarily. While the beast was debilitated he began pulling on his sword, dropping his shield to the ground momentarily as he tugged on his sword. This only agitated the Goron, who began struggling to get back on his feet. Finally the sword was dislodged, and Liam was greet to a gush of Goron blood spouting into his face and onto his clothes, painting a gruesome picture that wouldn't leave Nora's mind for a while. He fell backwards, and it was at that moment the Goron managed to get back to his feet.

This seemed to spell out doom for the poor Kakariko resident, but luckily Nora had ran to his side and picked him up onto his feet. Unlike Marcus, this escape attempt was much more successful. "GOR REVENGE!" the thing bellowed, and he slammed his fist down onto Liam shield, but this wasn't exactly the best idea either. Luckily Itzal and Cleo had distracted the archers enough to keep Nora and Liam safe for a little while, as for a second they were stunned by the Goron's stupidity. When Liam had dropped his shield, he had done so forcefully enough so that one of the semi-sharp, metallic edges had manage to stick into the ground. When the Goron had punched it, his fist had gone straight through one of those edges until it had gotten too dull. One of the Goron's fingers fell like a rock itself onto the ground, quickly surrounded by a crimson pool.

Nora and Liam looked at each other. The Goron held its fist, and for a while it seemed like the thing was crying. Like a baby. It was crying like some sort of giant, mutated... baby. For the first time this entire battle, Nora began feeling a bit sorry for the big creature. For a split second, she wanted to console the thing. Then she remembered it had killed Marcus. The man that she thought was just another smuggler but... then he had told her that someone had sent him. To follow her. To keep an eye on her. Who would do that? Why? Were they trying to protect her? Who would do that? With these few moments of calm surrounded by all of the chaos that was going on around them, Nora began to think for the first time of what had occurred. She had saved those thoughts for later, for a time like this. He was here to keep an eye on her, and now he was dead. She looked around. Itzal was deftly taking care of the archers. Cleo had managed to stop the cart from being robbed with the help of Roy. Shark was fighting Gunther. She and Liam were watching to see what the Goron would do next.

That was all they could do. As the Goron began nursing his hand, which had a finger severed and was severely bleeding, along with a deep wound on its thigh, a slice on its opposite ankle and a few other wounds, the poor creature had forced its way through a lot of damage. She had thought he was completely averse to pain, but now she was wondering otherwise. How had they created a Goron like this? How would it react to their fighting? It was a toss-up. Nora waited in anticipation. "I say we just kill it now," Liam suggested, his voice sounding like a deep growl. She looked over to him and gave him an unsure expression. "He killed Marcus. Destroyed my shield. Before he ruins something else."

She knew, deep down, that he was right. They didn't know how the Goron would react to everything around them, especially once it got its bearings. It could attack again. Catch them all off-guard. They had only been managing to keep it away from the carts because it had been expecting to kill the three fighters. It had only managed one. But if the Goron decided to charge the carts, it would be over for all of them. Their entire mission would be destroyed. Nora contemplated. "You're right. We have to take him down." Holding her lance forward with both hands, she took her eyes off of Liam who had begun bracing himself with his sword. The two would have to continue working together.

Once again, they charged towards the Goron.

The man had almost made it, with the barrel of skull, to the spot where Gunther and Shark were dueling, but was suddenly engulfed in darkness as Cleo struck him from behind; crumpling to the mine’s cold stone floor dead. The barrel of skull hit the ground and dented under the force of the impact, allowing the powdered drug to leak out on the floor in a trail as the barrel rolled back towards their carriage, just as Roy and Cleo managed to deal with the other man who attempted to sneak out a barrel as well. Cleo had then shot an arrow at Gunther, but missed – though it caused the man to stumble forward a couple of steps.

“That brat…” Gunther cursed at Cleo when her arrow made him screw up his next attack, as the ball missed Shark who ran towards the man to close the distance between them, striking him vertically with his sword. G-man grabbed the metal chain and held it horizontally above his head, in order to deflect Shark’s sword strike, before veering to the left and kicking Shark in the ribs; sending the mobleader tumbling on the ground. “Give it up Shark, there is no way for you lot to get out of this alive.”

One of Gunther’s goon placed his foot on the rolling barrel of skull and stopped it from progressing all the way to the carriage where Cleo, Roy, Old man Tom and Jaws were. Jaws was sporting a broken arm inflicted by the large hammer of one of the henchmen, and found himself and Old Man Tom forced to retreat towards the spot where Cleo and Roy were. Before they knew it, they realized that they were cornered by the remaining henchmen whom were still outnumbering them.

Cursing, Jaws gazed at the large man holding the hammer that had broken his arm with one hand and his foot placed on top of their barrel of skull; an annoying look of satisfaction on his face.

“We’re cornered!” Roy stated the obvious in a panicking voice as he gazed at all the men that were standing around the larger man with the metal hammer. Backed up against the carriage, there was nowhere for them to run to; and with Jaws’ added handicap, they were in serious trouble. Old Man Tom looked expectantly towards Nora and Liam, but the two were still keeping the deranged large Goron busy. His old eye gazed backwards, noticing the archers were also busy trying to deal with Swift’s crazy acrobatics – at least that bought them some time from the arrows so that they wouldn’t meet an end like Sawyer.

“Drop your weapons and hand over the barrels” barked the man brandishing the large metal hammer, as he cheerfully swayed the barrel of skull under his foot in victory. “Also hand us that cute girl there and maybe we’ll consider not killing you slowly.”

“It’s over Shark!” Gunther barked again at the Hylian who was still laying flat on his stomach on the ground, his Sharktooth sword held in one hand.
Number 2 attempted to run towards the carriage to assist the others, but yelled in pain as a knife pierced him in the left shoulder blade, causing him to stumble forward and fall onto his knees.

Cursing, he looked backwards and rolled sideways just in time to avoid getting his neck slashed by the robed Vektor. Jumping back to his feet, Number 2 cursed under his breath – that man would definitively not let him get away. He needed to finish him now, but he was a much tougher opponent than he had anticipated. Number 2 momentarily glanced back as he saw Shark getting kicked to the ground – even the leader was having trouble with his own fight. They were in big trouble.

“In the name of the Garo code, I will not let you get away” Vekto hissed as he spun his knives in his hands and held them in a strange stance.

“The hell you talking about?” Number 2 muttered in a growl before reaching around his back for the knife and pulling out swiftly with a wince. Throwing it towards his opponent who skillfully dodged it, he used the momentary distraction to dash forward and attack. Just wait a few more minutes for me guys...

“Look at your men, they are sitting ducks.” Gunther boasted in a loud laugh as he watched with satisfaction Shark lying down at his feet. As he started to pull his balled chains back towards him,
Shark placed his hands on the ground before pushing himself back up. As he did so, he noticed the white powder that had leaked from the broken barrel of skull earlier, which had rolled back towards the others. His gloved fingers slipped a smudge off the ground before bringing it to his nose, which he whiffed silently before his handsome face cracked into a smile.

“You know something Gunther…” Shark said calmly as he stood back up on his feet and placed his black Ordonian cowboy hat back on his head. Spinning his sword leisurely, his fingers went for the trigger which released the oil from the valve embedded in the pommel and eddying down the silver blade. Pressing another trigger and a small piece of metal swiftly slammed itself against the blade, causing a spark which ignited the oil surrounding the sword. Looking straight into Gunther’s frigid and unimpressed eyes nonchalantly, Shark held his flaming blade with both hands – pointing towards the ground. “You were always terrible at Gerudo Hold em’ poker”.

“Huh?” was all Gunther was managed to grunt as Shark plunged his flaming sword into the ground where the powdered skull lay. Suddenly it rapidly caught on fire as the spark quickly travelled around Shark’s feet and followed the trail left behind by the barrel. Gunther’s eyes widened with shock; Skull was not flammable.

“MURTAH!” G-man suddenly yelled to the man who had his back to him and one foot on the barrel at the end of the trail of white powder which was quickly being overtaken by the spark Shark had ignited. The man quickly turned his attention away from Cleo and the others as he looked over to his boss. “GET AWAY FROM THERE! THAT’S NOT SKULL YOU GOT THERE!”

“What?!” Murtah replied urgently in confusion, but noticed the spark too late as it reached powder keg he had one foot on. Instantly, he was engulfed in a violent explosion which also took the lives of all the men in direct proximity to him. Jaws and Roy were knocked backwards from the explosion, while Old man Tom grabbed Cleo and dived down to the floor, to protect her from any loose sharps that would fly in their direction.

“Just how many steps ahead does this Shark guy think…?” Jaws muttered in awe as he looked up from the ground after the smoke of the explosion started to dissipate, revealing the surviving men who were also attempting to get back up. Silently thanking Shark, Jaws wasted no time to run towards the remaining dazed men and slamming his morning star into the skull of the first one. Old man Tom also got up and instructed Roy to join him and finishing the remaining men, while Cleo should help Swift take out the remaining archers.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Gunther shrieked in an exploding fit of anger as he swung his metal chain around
Shark’s sword, in an attempt to disarm him. However, the Hylian quickly plunged his ensnared sword into the ground; locking the chain in place. Pressing another trigger, he unlocked the second sword from the combined form and drew it back; leaving the other counterpart still pinning Gunther’s chain to the ground. With the tables turned, Gunther was now disarmed as he was unable to call back his metal chains and Shark dashed towards him with his now slightly-smaller version Shark Tooth. With no other weapon to parry Shark’s attack, Gunther attempted unsuccessfully to dodge; which earned him Shark’s sword deeply plunged into his gut.

“G-man!” Vektor yelled as he caught sight of his leader getting stabbed into the gut. However, his unwise moment of distraction merited him an upper cut to the jaw, which instantly broke it. He tumbled backwards onto the ground and found himself pinned under Number 2.

Meanwhile, Liam had charged towards the Goron which was sporting an injured hand; convinced they could finally finish off the beast. However, right before Liam managed to reach the behemoth, it suddenly recovered at the last minute; backhanding Liam with brute force which sent him flying sideways to the ground. Coughing in pain, as the wind was knocked out of him, Liam was momentarily incapacitated to help Nora as the goron charged towards her and grabbed her spear and lifted her off the ground, before flinging her backwards into the air as she let go of the weapon.

As she fell to her back, the large shadow of the behemoth’s silhouette already covered her body as the gargantuan Goron towered over her; raising his huge fists above his round head; ready to punch her all the way down the bottom of Hyrule – the same as Marcus’ fate.

“NORA!” Liam yelled as he attempted to painfully get back up to his feet, but knew that he would be too late.

“GOR STORM OF DEATH!” The Goron shrieked in a loud low voice, which echoed louder than the previous explosion from the powder keg. However, the Goron’s fists never came down towards the felled Nora; instead the behemoth remained frozen in his stance, seemingly unable to move.

“Gor…gor….gorrrr” the Goron muttered as it struggled to fight against its muscles which had suddenly tensed up. However, it was no use and soon the goron was starting to hunch its back as it crouched against its own will before eventually curling up into a large ball, coming to a complete stillness. Liam blinked a couple of times in shock at this strange display, unable to comprehend what sort of amazing luck the Godesses had bestowed upon this knight.

“Are you okay?” then came Liam’s voice as he ran over to her and extended his hand to pull her back up to her feet.

Nora let out a quick, few breaths. Her life had just flashed before her eyes, and it had been completely terrifying. Her head swung from the Goron, who was now completely incapacitated, to Liam and then back again. She kept looking from one to the other, trying to understand what the hell had just happened. Then she realized. He was a Goron on Skull. She let out a small laugh, which grew into a chuckle, which turned into her rolling over onto her side, laughing uncontrollably. Liam stared at her in shock, not feeling the same sense of humor that she obviously was. "Nora, get up. This is still a fight, you know..." Liam said with pressing urgency, and she slowly began to stop laughing and looked up at him.

"Do you realize what just happened? He was doing his whole... GOR..." and then she broke out into laughter again. She stopped. "GOR SMASH!" The laughter began again. She held her sides as she could feel them begin to clench up. She hadn't laughed this hard since childhood. "This is so absurd!" Laughter. "We're selling drugs to these completely crazy people..." Another pause to laugh more. "And now we're in a warzone! What is going on here?" She jumped to her feet. The laughing stopped, and she surveyed the battlefield. As quickly as she had gone from near-death to laughter, she went from laughter to completely serious. Within seconds. She turned to her lance, walked over and picked it up gently. It wasn't faring so well, but it would manage for now. She looked over to Liam again. "We should probably go help the others defend the Skull, or something. Since everyone is basically dead, I don't see this fight going anywhere."

She led the two of them nonchalantly. She heard the cries of 3 archers, and that meant all of them were dead except the second-in-command. It would be fun questioning him... Finding out what had just happened. They had lost a few more men, and this was getting out of hand. She thought this was going to be a simple drug trade. Not a random blood bath. She had gotten way in over her head. And she still kept thinking about Marcus. Who had sent him? She wouldn't be able to rest until she found out. Was it Ryan? Was he on to her? Who else could it have been?

The two of them reached the others, and Nora sighed. "I see we got a prisoner. Good work, everyone." She looked around. Other than Marcus, it seemed like Sawyer was the only other one to bite the dust. Considering their odds, that wasn't so bad. Just losing two? It was unfortunate, but there was a time when Nora thought they would've all been completely murdered with no one to ever tell what had happened. Ryan would've never found out... She couldn't even imagine. She was just happy they were a little safe. She doubted that would last long with Shark's leadership. She could only fathom what he had planned next for them.

As she and Liam gathered with the rest of the group, she looked back to the Goron. For some strange reason, even though it had killed Marcus, she felt a pang of regret for the poor creature. He had tried to kill them, but she hadn't known he was on skull at the time. She knew the horrible effects it had on Gorons, and she doubted he had used the substance willingly. It usually had fatal results, and this one came close to those. Hopefully it would manage to find its way out of the caves safely. And didn't feel too bad about its missing finger.

The arrows left the bowstrings just a fraction to late, the Gorons shriek had distracted the archers just long enough for swift to turn and drop from the platform and into framework. The acrobat swung himself athletically down the frame, his entire body working to find the safest path across and beneath the archers. He knew they would now be aiming down at the group and the wagons again, and he knew he would have to stop it. As he neared the far end of the framework, that part beneath the archers, he drew one of his dirks once more and started to slice the rope bindings that held the frame together. When he deemed enough of it was loose he wedged himself between the rock face and the frame, using his strong legs to push the frame away from the wall. As he did so Jaws spied the action from his place with the wagons and ran to the young mans aid.

As swift pushed from his perch in the rafters, Jaws found a clear area and heaved. The scaffold came crashing to the cave floor in an eruption of splintered wood and dust. The archers were flung form their perch and vanished, down into the pit, their screams resounding and cutting through the air until finally they died away completely.

Jaws stood amongst the wreckage of the ruined scaffold, looking around frantically for Swift, fearing he had gone down the pit with the last of the archers. He was however greeted by the sound of swifts voice from somewhere up above calling “Incoming!” before launching himself from his precarious perch on the rock face. His body twisted as he somersaulted through the air before his feet hit the dirt, which created another small cloud of dust alongside the soft thump as he landed. Dropping in such a way he landed on his feet and one hand, the other raised into the air out of sheer showmanship habit.

Jaws grinned down at him and swift in turn cast a smile in return. His face still spattered with blood and the dark red liquid still stained his hands and the fabric around his wrists. Slowly the 2 walked back over to the group at the wagons before turning to Shark to await their orders.

Swift cast a glance to Roy, wondering how he would react now that their mission was not going to happen quite as planned. He knew from the start that if shark was involved it would most certainly not be easy. He knew that they would have to wait until the time was right to make their move, but with G man dead it was looking less hopeful.

Roy broke the silence as all eyes turned to Shark and Number 2 and he pined in a nasal voice “So now what are we going to do?”

[At least its an advance… sorry guys]]