10That shrine was odd… to say the least, The whole place was one big puzzle… and not a very good one either. I feel very awkward about the whole thing, and the Spirit Orb thing felt really weird. Leaving the shrine with a sleepy Tsuna on my back, I came out to the sun going down. Which explained the little one being so tired nicely, poor kid must have likely never been up so late before.
Not long after I exit the shrine, the Old man comes floating back down on his Paraglider to land in front of the both of us. He turns to us and starts speaking. "It seems you managed to get your hands on a Spirit Orb. Well Done!" he says
"How did you know what it was?!" I reply really confused on how he knew what was in there.
The Old Man states matter a factly, "Clairvoyance! Oho, or perhaps just something similar." Which gave me the feeling he is tricking me, but without proof on the matter I let it slide. The Old man continues with, "As one gets older, it can become more difficult to see what is right before one's own eyes… However, that which was once hidden from view can often be crystal clear. But perhaps that is not true for everyone! Oho ho!"
'No kidding really?' I think my thoughts dripping with sarcasm wishing the old man could just hurry up already so I can find a safe place for the kid to sleep and to cook some food for the two of us. But just leaving is super rude and his words may be important later. I just what the glider and go, please this kid needs to rest in a safe place.
"The appearance of those towers and the awakening of this shrine..." the old man continues as I had been mentally complaining, "It is all connected to that Sheikah Slate you carry on your hip there."
"Umm," I start, "Paraglider, Please? The kid really needs a safe place to sleep, and he is falling asleep on my back at the moment."
"Patience young one, I am not finished speaking yet. now where was I? oh yes." The old man replies causing me to mentally cry out for the kid who is now fast asleep on my back. "Long ago, a highly advanced tribe known as the Sheikah inhabited these lands. The great power of their wisdom saved this kingdom time and time again but their ancient technology disappeared long ago… or so it is said."
I interrupt with, "This is very interesting sir, but I have a child that needs sleep, and I have to find someplace for us to sleep for the night, away from the monsters as well as a place to cook some meals for the two of us. I appreciate the history lesson but if you could get to the point of all this it would be very much appreciated."
"Rude! Young man have some patience I understand the child needs a safe place to rest, how about this I will tell you where my cabin is for your use while your up on this plateau in return you listen to what I have to say." The Old man says and I nod my agreement it's a good deal despite how annoyed I am about just standing here, "Now as I was saying, It is interesting that these have last so long in the shrines that are hidden across the land. On this plateau alone, I believe there are still three more. Bring me the treasure from each of those shrines… and I will give you my paraglider."
"So I need more, now?" I question resigned to my fate, I got the feeling that it was something like this, the old man wouldn't have been nearly been this confrontational otherwise.
"I said 'treasure,' but I never said there would be one treasure." the old man says.
'The word treasure implies one, you crazy old man you should have said treasures with an 's' which implies more than one but I'm not going to fight you about it,' I mumble under my breath, but the old man notices my mumbles and asks.
"What was that?"
"Nothing sir, please continue."
He gives me a strange look that I can't place but continues with, "Whether it's one treasure or four, what's the difference for a young go-getter like yourself and even that child? I will also teach you a trick for finding shrines. It's always best to survey the area by looking around from a high point. Now lets see… How about you make your way to the top of that tower again?"
Are you Joking!? It took me half an hour to climb down from it the first time!" I exclaim
"Oho ho!" the old man laughs at my expression, "I am afraid not." I know I must have made a face at that because he says, "But do not worry! I have another little trick to share with you for your effort. Take a look at the map on your sheikah slate."
Nugging the nodding off child out the way to reach the sheikah slate woke the child up and curious Tsuna looks over my shoulder at the map with me, as the old man says, "See those blue icons? You should recognize the cave where you woke, the shine you just came from, and the tower. You can travel instantly to any of those places with the Sheikah Slate." I look up from the map just in time to see the old man turn around. "Or so I heard some time ago… I do not know if it actually works as such. To find my cabin travel past the temple of time towards the birch forest my cabin is inside. I will see you their."
I set off with a run hoping to get to the cabin before night fall. The little one holding onto me tightly to keep from falling off. I make it to the base of the temple before the Keese start coming out. Lucky Keese are not very fast flyers so spriting allows me to lose them. My questioning of my knowledge about this can come later as I don't know why I know this. Quickly passing the temple I see the birch forest I was looking for. Unfortunately there was no path so I have to run down the mountainside to the path below.
Reaching the Forest quickly though calling it a forest is a bit a miss normer it's more of an area with a lot of birch trees that are not really close together but close enough. It takes a bit to figure out where to go afterwards but I just kept running while I was doing so as the sun had just fully fell below the horizon and the stelkobins where coming out of the woodwork. Lucky with a bit more running through the trees for a half hour later I could see the rundown log cabin with a cloth roof though the trees, and with a bit of a run I reach it quickly leaving the monsters of the night behind clearly marked by the change in background sounds.
At this point Tsuna who had been napping on my back fell off and seems to pass out in the dirt but a load low growl comes from the kids stomach area reminding me that the kid has only had an apple for the entire day to eat. Waking up Tsuna and picking him up I carry him to the log beside the cook pot roaring while listening to his tried, not understandable mumbles into my chest. Poor kid, must be exhausted.
After placing the child so that he is leaning against the log I pull out my slate and take inventory of my supplies. 'Okay I have 9 apples, 6 common shrooms, 1 green shroom, 3 herbs, 10 eggs, 5 acorns, and 6 common bass. Acorns and eggs are out, Acorn because most kids can't eat them, eggs because I really don't have the time to poach them I wish I have some rice or even butter but grilled fish and mushroom with and Apple herb side will have to do. First step cleaning the fish.' Decision met I take out two fish and I am surprised to find that the fish were still alive even after hours of being stored in my slate. Some kind of status maybe?
Well killing the fish wasn't hard with a quick pull on the gills and a quick swipe of my sword to remove the fishes' head. Taking the same blade I descale the fish for grilling and remove the organs. I then place the now ready fish in the pot with some water to prevent burns and with a little water I clean the blade of blood as well. Next I pull out 4 common mushrooms and using the sword I slice the mushrooms into the pot. Humming to myself as I get ready to do the apple herb mix, I look over to see the child sleepily watching me cook. The kid mumbles something but I don't understand it, so I just shrug and continue cooking. The apple mix was cooked in the same pot after cleaning it out of fish water the herb and apple cooking themselves in the apple's juices.
When the food was done using a few large leaves I seperate the meals I go sit by Tsuna handing him his meal and sharing my last full waterskin between us. The kid had issues eating it at first but with a little showing on how to use the leaves to hold the food for a bite quickly change that. Soon the two of us were happily eating under the stars and moon. Tsuna finishes his meal quickly and mumbles "Big brother" sleepily to himself as he curls into my lap and falls asleep… 'well I'm not moving anytime soon then' I think as I finish up my meal.
There is just something calming about Tsuna being here in my lap I complatate while patting the fluffy mass of brown hair on his head. There's just something totally relaxing, *yawn* about this…
Next thing I know there is sunlight warming my face as dawn's first light ends up right in my eyes bringing me to full wakefulness. Stretching out with a yawn I start to shake Tsuna awake as well. Tsuna wakes with a start and confusily looks around and quickly cycling through a mess of emotions that I can't put into words before settling on a determined expression, but then there is an orange fire on his forehead again. With a slight panic I try to put out the fire with my hand not my best idea admittedly, lucky it doesn't burn me but Tsuna does look at me weirdly. What with his gleaming orange eyes that quickly fade to dark amber color. I must have made a face because the little one starts to laugh his little butt off.
Feeling tricky, I grab the kid and playfully mess up his hair and tickling him despite his squirming and laughing making it a bit difficult to hold on to him, and our playful wrestling makes a whole bunch of birds fly away. It takes a while but eventually the playing stops though by them the Old man is awake and was looking at the two of us with an unreadable expression on his face. He quickly changes it to a neutral expression when he notices me watching him, which both confuses me and makes me wonder. 'What is the old man hiding,' with a raised eyebrow.
After thinking for a bit on it while watching the kid fix his hair with his fingers still red-faced from laughing so hard and a smile so wide one would think that Tsuna's face would fall off I decide that the old man doesn't need my attention really. I look around eggs are a good breakfast but not on their own. I notice some birds in the distance and with a quick shot of an arrow I killed a bird and then another with another arrow unfortunately the birds were so small there is not much usable meat under all those feathers but I quickly grab both anyway by the legs anyway grabbing a few more edible mushrooms finding 1 common red and 2 green on the way back to the old man's little shack, though while I was hunting the kid had explored the inside of the shack and came out to great me while holding 3 red peppers, a half eaten baked apple that the kid clearly was snacking on before I came back, and another green mushroom.
Laughing and messing up his hair again while collecting the kid's spoils while letting him keep the baked apple. I feel so proud, the kid is already becoming a little survivalist. When I finish putting Tsuna's finds in my slate, the kid starts to drag me inside the hut and tries to push me over to the table.
Letting myself be pushed along by this little kid feels strangely familiar I think, as the kid leads me over to an open journal. Curious I look it over and I take a moment to be thankful that I remember how to read. Feeling surprising very little guilt, likely because the old man was a pain yesterday and this is some petty revenge, I read through the old man's diary. He even calls it a diary on the first page it's hilarious though why I find it funny I don't know.
Most of it was junk stuff but near the end about where the old man was writing I found out that in exchange for a recipe for and meal he called a spicy meat and seafood fry I could get a sweater he calls a warm doublet. It's pretty easy to tell what he forgot as he said he remembered meat and peppers but it clearly needs fish as well as there is seafood in the name. So with a little more hunting I can get a shirt from the old man. Which will be nice thinking about clothes though reminds me I still need to fix Tsuna's outfit. Well I can do that after I make food.
I take out the two birds and sit on the stump in the hut to pluck the birds of their feathers making sure to separate the unbroken feathers and the down layer from the damaged ones from the arrows used to kill the birds, the unbroken feathers and down will be stored in my slate for later to be sold when we get off this plateau. Hope it's enough to get an outfit made for the kid those old ratty clothes offer near zero protection from both the elements and monsters. At least the kid has some kinda of fire magic to protect himself with, though maybe I should teach the kid how to fight for at least as long till I get him to a village were it would be safe.
Before I knew it the plucking was done and Tsuna who had been watching me in fascination up until this point jumps when he sees me looking at him. Smiling at the child's curiosity I wave him over and he hesitantly comes over and sits in my lap. I then proceed to show Tsuna how to use an arrow to gut small animals and remove bird heads for when your stuck without a knife. The kid's face at the messy work was funny, you would think the kid has never seen how meat was processed before.
By the end I had two processed birds with all organs but the heart, lungs, and liver removed and ready to be cooked. I put one back in the slate for later today and took the other to the cook pot outside, but then I realized an issue both my waterskins were empty. I look around hoping there was some water nearby but there wasn't any. At this point, Tsuna had came out to see what's going on. At his questioning look I lift up my empty water skins as an answer, Tsuna the amazing guesser that he figures out what was wrong right away, runs up and grabs one of the waterskins from my hands and takes off with it. This leads to a chase as I try to get my second waterskin back for about ten minutes until Tsuna lead me to some good sized puddles of water that surprising don't any mud in them or looks tainted in any way.
Tsuna on his part looks slightly out of breath but proud to have led me here. I smile widely but mess up the kids hair again and fill both water skins as much as I can, and take a drink from the puddle with my hand and on one knee still, though I notice from the corner of my eyes that the kid was awkwardly trying to copy though he wasn't doing a good job at it, what with the water visibly slipping through his fingers.
When we finish I walk over to Tsuna and get him to ride on my back as I walk back to the old man's place. Food, Doublet, then figuring out how to get to the rest of the shrines, today is going to be a good day.