Of Royal Blood - The Legend Of Zelda

[X] Link
[X] Irene

"Well, I suppose I do have the most experience dealing with farmers..." Irene mutters, taking off her hat and hanging it up on a hat stand by the door, "I don't look too suspicious, do I?" She asks you as you head towards the door.

You stop, looking her up and down while rubbing her chin before finally concluding, "Irene? Is that you? I scarcely recognized you! What a brilliant disguise!"

You then rear back trying to contain your snickering, rubbing your shoulder where Irene punched you, "Fine, at least I can look normal with ease Mr. Smarty-pants. You think no one's going to notice the shiny obviously magical sword hanging from your back?" She asks with a scowl, her ears a bright crimson as she points to the Master Sword.

You shrug, and with one smooth motion slide it off before holding it in front of you, "I'll keep it hidden under some furs in the wagon. Besides, it'd... I dunno it feels weird to leave it behind."

Irene raises a quizzical eyebrow to that, "And your Dad's dagger?"

"Under my shirt, almost didn't bring it," You say.

Irene gives you a concerned look, one you don't blame her for having. Even you felt a bit troubled when you had almost left the dagger on your bed but had so easily taken the Master Sword with you. It didn't seem like it was due to any magical influence, the Master Sword was just... somehow more comforting to you.

Unable to think of a way to really communicate it you gesture to Irene to follow outside and she does so with a sigh where the two of you immediately see Malon, who waves you over.

When Malon sees your sword however she freezes, before nervously asking "Bringing your sword? You don't think there's going to be trouble, right? They might harass us but not to that extent haha... ha..."

"I'm just being careful," You tell her, hopping onto the wagon as she scoots over, "I'll keep it out of sight, but if it does get drawn that means we'll have to flee immediately. Hopefully, if anyone does start anything that pitchfork you have in the back will make them reconsider."

Malon takes a deep breath and lets it out in one long burst, "Going to the market with a high risk of violence, this is my life now. You know how to direct the cattle right?" She asks as Irene climbs in beside you, putting you in the centre.

"Yeah, I took a couple farming jobs while growing up," You say, cracking the reins and directing the wagon forward onto the main road.

"Other's aren't coming to wish us luck?" Irene asks, looking to and fro as she tried to catch sight of Paya, Mipha and Zelda.

"Not if they want to be done by sundown," Malon chuckles, "To think, Princess Zelda, Princess Mipha AND a Sheikah working on my ranch. This is the craziest thing..."

"We're all willing to do whatever we can to help people," You say, sparing a glance back to the ranch, just barely catching a sight of Mipha comparing a pitchfork to her Trident with what you can only assume from this distance was a look of utter confusion at the wooden tool she had been handed.

"Link," Malon says quietly, putting a hand on your knee as she leaned to look directly at your face, "This is more then anyone could imagine being offered to them. Even if this is just what you're all willing to do for anyone, I couldn't possibly be more grateful."

"Be grateful after we leave this place, we're chancing far more danger then you realize just by being here," A familiar voice states coldly from underneath you, making the three of you jump.

"WHA- Midna?!" Irene shouts, looking at the shadows of the cart, "What are you doing here?!"

"I can't exactly move freely around in this wretched light now can I?" Midna's sardonic voice responds, "Besides, I'm sure you will all need guidance as you try to navigate past whatever foes are waiting for the red-haired girl."

"I...I'm right here..." Malon mumbles, slumping in her seat with a huff.

"Let's keep an eye out but not immediately look like we're expecting trouble," You point out, keeping an eye on the town ahead of you. While the roads were beginning to be filled with people none of them looked to be travellers, merely locals beginning to go about their business and there was a distinct lack of guards, with you just catching one with a pipe in his mouth and a piece of jerky in his hand at a small post at the side of the road.

"That's easy for you to say, these people are my neighbours. Even with the rumours, the departures... I never could understand how they can ignore what's happening at the Ranch..." Malon mutters, a scowl on her face tempered with a visible look of grief and uncertainty.

"Hey, maybe there's something else going on?" Irene says, leaning over to loon at Malon, "We're new here, so maybe we can get someone to talk to us?"

The corners of Malon's mouth twitch upwards in a small smile, and she gives Irene a smile, "I hope that's the case Irene. Though wouldn't you need to be super stealthy? The guards might arrest you for snooping around."

Irene just gives Malon an evil grin, "Hee hee hee, just you wait. I can brew elixirs that could let you walk up to people and take things from their hands without them ever noticing. Hee hee hee, you'll get to see the true power of a witch!"

Malon blinks, "O-oh... o-okay."

A sharp elbow nudges your side, and you glance over to see Irene looking at you with a smug smirk, her amethyst eyes sparkling, "You were tearing through those Bokoblin's with Grandma's Elixir Link, bet you never experienced anything like that!"

"You're right, it was nothing like the elixirs I've made," You say with a nod, focusing on the path ahead. When the elbow fails to be removed from your side you glance over to Irene, who's eyes had gone wide.

"W-wait, you make elixirs?" Irene asks, "I thought one of the others handled it before you guys met me!"

"Nope, was all me," You respond with a chuckle, "Not that I'm an expert or anything. I just kinda let the Chuchu jelly dissolve everything in a pot."

Irene recoils back, surprised "You don't prepare the ingredients beforehand? The jelly might not dissolve all the pieces and then there's the heat-"

You shake your head, "I always find I left some behind and it didn't become as potent, especially when I prepared healing elixirs as topical ointments. Besides, you can just treat it like you would a sauce, slowly stirring as it dissolves."

Irene perks up slightly, "Oh! I can show you my technique, greatly improves the effectiveness of elixirs without reducing potency," A thoughtful expression then passed over her as Irene contemplated what you said, rubbing her chin, "But making it into an ointment and you said you treated it like a sauce? That's really different from what I'm used to."

"Well, you see..." You begin, launching into an explanation as you continue to make your way into town. You and Irene begin to talk adamantly about elixirs, comparing both your experiences with them as fields began to turn into dwellings. Malon watched the entire way, Malon's elbow on her knee, hand under her chin and the biggest grin possible stretching across her face as Irene and you talked and talked and talked...

Each merchant you visited, save the final one, acted much like the merchant you had first met and sneered and disparaged Malon until you dropped a ton of rupees down. Then all they could do was sputter indignantly at you, until the last one who only silently glared at you evidently being informed ahead of time of your arrival. Still greed won out, and for that you were thankful. Finally, as you cracked the reigns and the much heavier cart began to move forward you all collectively breathed a sigh of relief, finally free of this pla-

"HALT!" A guard said, stepping in front of your cart that you with a great deal of mental cursing of your fate slowed to a stop.

"I-is something wrong?" Malon asks, smiling at the guards with an expression that seemed much more like a grimace.

The guard gives an infuriating smirk to Malon, "Inspection, you really believe you could just stroll into town and leave?"

"As much as your masters dislike it, I signed for all of this," Malon snarled, "Even they aren't stupid enough to cheat Imperial taxmen."

The guard looks for a moment like he'd strike Malon and slowly your hand begins to reach for the hidden hilt of the Master Sword, before the guard steps back, "I'd warn you to be careful with your words, but I do a circuit by the manor. Lookin forward to seein' you there, all straightened out," He then turns back to his fellow guards, "Look over their receipts! Make sure everything they paid for is in the cart," He then jabs a finger at all of you, "and you lot don't think of stepping off it."

This is an issue. While Malon seems confident they won't confiscate anything there is the issue of the Master Sword hidden underneath you. You aren't sure having an incredibly magical sword is contraband, but that's something these Gorman brothers would probably be VERY interested in. While they aren't specifically going to look at what's under your seat if they get frustrated once they realize Malon did everything completely legitimately they might decide to tear the cart apart to try and find anything. Looking over to Irene, you see her hand hidden under her sleeves, moving slightly as if ready to cast a spell. Fighting them or running is also out of the question. You could very easily dispatch them all, but it would be a giant alarm to make every soldier the Gorman's have descend on the ranch, and... well monsters were one thing, people were quite another.

Still, a lot of these guards looked bored with the situation, they didn't seem to care at all about Malon and a few even rolled there eyes as the leader ordered them to inspect the cart and proceeded to go about it in a tired, half-asleep manner. Perhaps you can exploit it...

So what do you do?
[] Strike up a friendly conversation, create a distraction that they'll just wave you on through rather then thoroughly inspect the cart.
[] Stay still, just let the guards look the cart over and don't antagonize them. They aren't looking where the master sword is for now.
[] Have Irene trip the commander with a root, embarrassing him in front of his men and thus create a distraction from the inspection.
[] Write-in.

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So my computer fried. Luckily had a bunch of backups but yeah... that's what I was dealing with. Oh yeah for those that didn't see it: