Tengu Reporter Quest (Touhou) (World 7 - Wheel of Time)

Take a nap, see what the morning brings.


Somewhat forewarned by Hatate's flop, you sit down on your bed and glance toward the door. Sure, you're curious about things here, but you're not really that curious right now. Hatate starts to undress, then scowls at the door and huffs before turning onto her stomach and stretching out. You look around the room once more, checking to see if you missed anything interesting, then shrug and stand back up. You lower the lantern and blow it out, then return it before returning to your bed. Really, they probably would have let you go to sleep with it still burning – and then either tried to make you feel guilty for letting it burn what is probably a very scarce resource, or turned it off themselves at some point. Which kind are these people …? Well, hopefully you'll find out sometime over the next day or so. You turn over, adjust the flat pillow into something slightly resembling comfort, and let sleep take you.


Crowing roosters draw you awake, and you look at the still-open door. There is some light advancing through the sky, so dawn is coming, but Hatate is still asleep, so you just lay your head back down and close your eyes, listening to the distant sounds of the half-slumbering village. Not that you can hear much just yet; if Impa's assistant did notice your trick with the wind last night, instead of being startled by something else, then at least one of your guards is probably capable of noticing something like that, too. And with the door so narrowly open, they wouldn't even need to be particularly good at it.

After a few minutes of Hatate's light breathing and roosters engaging in dominance duels, you quietly swing off the bed and change. You consider the Italican clothes for a moment, but you aren't too invested in secrecy right now, and they aren't designed with your wings in mind so you'd have to explain that, too. Leaving your bag where it is, but taking your normal journalism supplies, you put on your geta at the door and push it open. The guards appear to be the same ones who took you hear, and you smile and bow your head at them before stepping outside and breathing deeply. And, of course, you listen.

Now that you're outside, you can hear more things. There are horses, neighing and whinnying, and they must be around the fields. Perhaps they're farming horses – you don't hear cattle, although they may just not be awake yet. Children are waking up, escaping their houses and parents, wanting to go fishing or playing or fruit- or berry-picking. Their parents, calling for them, threatening them with more chores and less food if they keep running off. And when dawn breaks into the village, it's already active: people are moving about purposefully, doing chores and making sure they all stay fed. … It's different from the Human Village. In the Human Village, work starts in spurts, but here it's all at once. A reflection of the difference in size, perhaps. More relevantly, though, the Human Village believes that youkai can't attack the village itself, and that they're safe from true malice as long as they stay near its warding walls. This place … many of its inhabitants must know that they aren't safe, that it only takes a bit of effort from the man who conquered the castle nearby and they will all die. There is some stubbornness in the air – a desire to not only not lay down and die, but to make him actually put forth that effort, to tell the invader that he must take the field himself if he is so keen to wipe away the traces of his failure. But you can also see that the people know that if he does take the field, they will die.

"What is this village called?" Your wardens blink at you, brows furrowing only slightly, and the one to your left shrugs.

"Kakariko," she says, her voice light and musical. "Our home, before Impa let outsiders dwell here." No inflection in her voice, which would normally be a sign of disappointment in humans, but you don't know these people very well. It could simply be the way they talk, or she might be less skilled in whatever language you happen to be conversing in. You nod and begin sketching the village in your notebook. You'd need a better vantage point to do it properly, though, and your gaze moves to the tall observation post. There are already two people up there, keeping a watch on the field below the mountain. And then the children arrive.

A small group of them, perhaps a dozen, all old enough that they should be working, but are either finished with their chores somehow or shirking them. Instead, they're approaching hesitantly and gawking at all three of you, whispering about 'Sheikah' and the 'bird lady.' Your guards' tension increases, and you wonder if it's children or the fact that they're considered outsiders that's causing it. Kind of a shame that Hatate is still sleeping; giving out her candy without even waking her up would probably make her upset. The children mutter among themselves for a minute or so, trying to get someone to go forward and talk – apparently Sheikah are never seen, except for Impa and her assistant – and eventually a young boy with light brown hair is pushed out of the group in your direction. Which is a bit of a problem, really, because anything you say to him is going to get back to Impa. It's fine if children spread a bunch of stories about the strange new outsider – that might even help, since the locals will know that kids are willing to come near you – but what you say and how you say it can have a big impact on how lenient she is to you going around asking questions. The boy walks up to you, but stays several arm-lengths away, clearly scared despite your smile.

"Um, are you a Sheikah, too?" You smile and shake your head.

"Nope! I'm a tengu." The boy frowns and looks at your guards, then back at you.

"But you have red eyes like them. I – I mean, you have wings, and that's different, but Sheikah can get anywhere, no matter how far away, so – so … I mean …." You shake your head again.

"I am not a Sheikah. My name is Aya. What's your name?" The boy clutches the front of his dirty tunic and looks back at the blob of his companions, then back at you, and then turns and runs back to the group, unwilling to face you anymore. Eventually, one of the ringleaders steps up, a slightly larger girl with red-gold hair and numerous freshly-healed wounds on her arms and face. The tip of her left ear is missing, too, but she grins at you arrogantly.

"Hey, Sheikah lady! Did you come from Princess Zelda?" Ah. That would explain Impa's reaction last night. The king did have a daughter, apparently, and she was surprised you didn't ask about her.

"Who is Princess Zelda? And what is your name?" The girl stares at you, thrown off-balance by your questions, then grins again and claps her hands together.

"Right, right! Yeah, good one! I almost believed you for a second. Fine, we won't ask about your secret missions for the princess." She skips forward, then hops up to give your arm a friendly slap. Your guards are less than amused, and she sticks her tongue out at them. "Heh, I like you. You're not a huge stick-in-the-mud like most Sheikah. I'm Mallory. Hey, can you come with us? We wanna go down near the river, but the guards say we have to have an adult with us." You don't need to look to see the displeased expressions on your guards' faces. Even if they aren't making them right now.


What do you do?

[ ] Agree to go.
- [ ] If Mallory and her friends will show you around the village when you get back.
- [ ] Make sure to bring Hatate.

[ ] Decline to go.
- [ ] Ask if Mallory and her friends can show you around the village instead.
- [ ] Explore the village on your own.

[ ] Other?

Agree to go.
- If Mallory and her friends will show you around the village when you get back.
- Make sure to bring Hatate.


Well, if they really don't want you to go, they can say something. You smile at Mallory, and she grins back in anticipation. "We'll go with you – on the condition that you and your friends show us around the village when we get back." Mallory's grin splits her face, and she slaps her hands together happily.

"Yes! Come – wait, we?" You chuckle and motion for her to wait, then head back into the guest room. Hatate is still snoozing, and you shake her until she wakes up.

"Wha-? Aya? Aww, come on, it was just getting good!" You snort and roll your eyes. She must be a slow dreamer. Are those Nightmare Dream Pills still good …?

"Well, your dreams are going to have to wait. We're going out for a bit, so hurry up and get dressed." Mallory is still waiting patiently outside, but one of your guards – the musically-voiced one – is gone. You wink at Mallory. "Should just be a minute or so." The rough little girl squints at you, then grins and shrugs before waving her pack closer. None of the kids are poorly dressed, although it's equally true that none of them have on anything that would count as finery. Clothes that are a bit worn, a bit threadbare, but still brightly-dyed and serviceable. Some carry woven baskets, and you wonder if this is just a playing expedition, or if they're really trying to help in even a limited manner. Mallory starts naming them for you, but after the explanation regarding the unfortunate boy called Cowpie, Hatate walks out.

"Alright, Aya, what's gooo~" You roll your eyes dramatically – was she not listening as she walked to the door? As she got dressed? You lean over and flick her forehead, then turn to Mallory as your subordinate rubs her wounded pride.

"Alright, we're ready. Lead on." She claps excitedly, eyes wide and bright as she studies you and Hatate closely, and you follow the group as they head toward the lower gate. For her part, Mallory doesn't just barrage you with questions; instead, she bounces around her pack, making sure everyone is ready and feeling well, and in one case sending a boy away because he had actually skipped doing his morning chores instead of getting up extra early like everyone else. Rough and feisty she may be, but Mallory definitely seems committed to the village and isn't just taking a bunch of kids off to have fun.

The other Sheikah guard returns as you begin crossing the 'plaza' by the gate, wearing a quiver and carrying a short bow, and she hands a similar set of equipment to her partner. Opportunity to hunt, or is the area that dangerous even in daytime? The guards at the gate look over the group worryingly. "Mallory, what's this?" She reaches back and pulls you to the front; you smile and nod at the guard, who isn't one of the ones from this morning.

"You said we needed to have an adult with us; she's an adult. So we're gonna go down to the river, 'kay?" The guard stares at her, turns a hopeless expression toward you, then looks past you and to your guards. Whatever expressions they look back at him with work, and he sighs and nods, then turns and lifts the gatebar.

"Alright, alright. Just … don't try to bring back another 'pet,' okay?" Mallory just laughs and shepherds her pack through the gate before waving for you and Hatate to follow. You nod at the guard and catch up to the rowdy pack of children, keeping an eye on the path and the damage that is now much easier to see. It's old, but it's quite clear that some heavy fighting occurred here at some point.

"I found a baby tektite once and tried to take it home. It was a long time ago, before all this," she waves her hand to encompass the castle, and you nod somberly. You'll have to find out what a tektite is, of course, but for now -

"Is that how this happened?" You tap her maimed ear and she laughs.

"Hah, no, that was the cuccos. And all these, too." She waves at the injuries on her arms. "Stupid birds don't know who's boss around here! I'm gonna show that Cucco Lady that I can get them to listen to me!" You nod again, and she grins up at you. "I'll show you what I mean when we get back. You seem like a nice lady, so you've probably never been bothered by cuccos, huh?"

"I can't say that I have, no," you say, and she nods. Leaving aside the whole 'nice lady' part, anyway …. Mallory skips ahead to walk in front of the group, walking backward to keep an eye on everyone, and leads them in a few songs and then spotting games, keeping them occupied for the walk down the path. And then the path makes a sudden turn, and there are actual steps constructed at the base connecting it with the field. The kids, even Mallory, whoop joyfully and start running around. You look around approvingly; there's actual grass growing, even if some of it is yellowing, compared to the village, which has clay and red dirt as its main ground cover. The trees are sparse, but there are enough large ones around to provide reasonable amounts of shade. Perhaps a kilometer to your left the opposite bank rises well above the surrounding landscape, so an enterprising individual could perhaps leap to the ground, but apart from that the only way across is a bridge to your right that's even farther away. The kids scramble forward, only half-heeding Mallory's directions, and you take the relative freedom from her attention to take some pictures of them, the landscape, and even your Sheikah guards.

Once Mallory establishes some order, however, it turns out that she does have at least some plans for real work. Several of the older boys stand or sit near the river at her direction, strings trailing from their fingers and into the water – fishing lines, even without rods – while the smaller kids are helped onto the smaller tree branches to look for potential edibles. Now, are those fruit-bearing trees, or are they looking for bird nests? After a few minutes, Hatate goes down to the river and lays near the bank, and you watch as, barely a minute later, her arm lashes with barely any disruption and she comes out with a modest fish that she tosses to one of the boys when Mallory isn't looking. She gestures furiously for you to keep quiet about it, too. Whatever are you going to do with her, now that you've finally gotten her – more or less, anyway – used to humans?




The kids spend perhaps an hour working before Mallory finally has enough of wrangling and lets them start playing around – including, relevantly, swimming in the river. She is quite impressed with the amount of fish the boys managed to gather, and they, with surprisingly straight faces, claim that Hatate is a good-luck charm. All that time, you were simply watching, as were your Sheikah guards. Nature is almost gone from these lands, though. You saw only a single bird, a massive owl that landed on a tree on the rise across the river and watched you for a few minutes before flying back across the field. You've seen no small game, either – no rabbits or rodents, no deer or pigs. Is that 'natural' here, due to the presence of the castle and the fortified outpost, or is it a result of the sorcerer's invasion? You'll have to ask Impa, or perhaps your guards ….

For now, though, you enjoy the small blue and red butterflies that flock around you and Hatate – and grudgingly around the kids as well – and the fresh breeze that blows from the forest. You'd like to be higher right now, at the top of a tree at least, but you should maintain some degree of subterfuge this early in the game. The kids swim or chase each other, playing little human games, and the Sheikah watch you and the surroundings and stubbornly refuse to be drawn into conversation or even tell you their names. It's difficult to tell if they're being professional, unsociable, or just rude.

And then you see the horse and rider on the rise over the river. Cloth-draped as they are, all you can really make out is long, brilliant red hair on the rider, and a bow and quiver attached to the saddle. You turn to point the rider out to your guards, but they're already drawing their bows toward a dozen or so riders who are approaching across the river. "Gerudo!" The musical voice rings out, and most of the kids look around fitfully before scurrying back toward the path. The remainder are less frightened, but still very wary, and remember to grab their spoils before following the other kids. Only Mallory stays, and for a moment you wonder if it's curiosity that's keeping the soaking girl by the riverbank. But then you see the stones in her left hand, and the loop of leather in her right.

Ordinarily, you wouldn't feel obliged to stop someone from engaging in a suicidal fight, especially if it gave you a good story. But if you let her start slinging at the riders, you could lose access to stories – and she still owes you a tour of the village!


What do you do?

[ ] Pick her up and haul her back to the village. You can take a few arrows in the back, if necessary.

[ ] Stay with her and make sure she stays safe. Maybe you can tell these horse-archers to scram without giving away too many secrets?

[ ] Other?