As Terrance snuck around the castle, he could not shake the eerie feeling if being watched, no matter how many times he checked his map seeing nobody near him, hairs on the back of his neck kept prickling like a being had set a malicious gaze upon him.
He was slowly going paranoid, the creaking and other noises of the abandoned castle setting him on alert causing him to jump as a piece of the ceiling or walls fell. He soon came across a small armory, and to his surprise, instead of more rusted and rotten equipment, he found a few items of worth, he found arm bracers and grieves used by Hylian Soldiers, as well as a surprisingly sturdy chestplate free of rust.
He also found a Royal Halberd within a storeroom alongside a Royal Guard's bow. Besides equipping the armor pieces to bolster his defence, he did not examine the equipment too closely other than making sure it was in decent condition before either strapping it to his back or tossing it into his gate.
As he snuck around, he came across many rooms he swore weren't in the game, the castle was much larger than he expected. Reality greatly expanding the places the game had simplified. The last room he discovered seemed to be a small museum of sorts, there were a few items on pedestals and papers mounted onto the wall. One of which was a large map of the castle and it's underground passages. While the details of the upper castle didn't quite match the memories he had of how the castle looked prior to the calamity. Most of the rooms lined up with ones he had explored, and upon further investigation, he discovered a back passage that had once been used to covertly bring goods into the castle.
Turning around he was about to leave when something caught his eye. There, displayed between a compas and a length of rusted chain, was a boomerang. Sure, he had seen pleanty of boomerangs in the game they were almost a dime a dozen. This boomerang, however, did not match any of the depictions he had seen, walking over, he looked at the card, only to be disappointed by the text too faded to read.
The boomerang looked familiar, it's wings carved from a strange white substance to look like bird wings, with a softly glowing green gem in the center of the boomerang.
Picking it up, he tossed it into his reality marble for Great Sage to analyze.
[Notice: analyzed item is an object called the "Gale Boomerang." Per the data stored, this item was used by the hero of Twilight in his adventures, and is capable of moving small objects, carrying regular, and ice flames, and stunning opponents upon making contact with them. ]
Oh, I knew it looked familiar, I wonder how it looks so good for something that has existed since the twilight princess era. Thought Terrance as he listened to Great Sage's analysis.
[Notice: item "Gale Boomerang" has the indestructible property]
"The what?" Asked Terrance to Great Sage.
[Answer: through unknown means, either through techniques used in its creation or through enchantments, the item "Gale Boomerang" is impervious to damage and will not degrade. Skill(s) {Great Sage} and {Gate of Bladeworks} are unable to analyze further due to their limitations.]
"I see, is there a way to bypass these limitations?" Asked Terrance in his mind
[Answer: to bypass current limits skill {Great Sage} must incorporate more data, and host must fulfill conditions for {Skill Evolution}. Skill {Gate of Bladeworks} has its own developmental path unknown to skill {Great Sage}.]
"Alright, thanks Great Sage." Thought Terrance.
As he looked around, he could not find anything else of use the rest of the items in the museum has either been word down by time or served no functional purpose.
With a path in mind, Terrance headed back to where he had left Purah to inform her of the possible route he had found.
She was still weary of him, on guard in case he was a yiga in disguise, about to pounce on her at any moment, but at least, when he brought the map she was willing to look it over with him.
"That passage is close to where my team was ambushed. We didn't use that entrance on our way in, and instead scaled the wall to a hole that was blown into the castle during the siege." She said as she pointed at a spot on the map.
"I see, do you know how many of your people fell over there? I made a promise to bring momentos back to their families." He asked.
"Three, three of my team fell to those traitors. They dropped a group of lizalfos on top of us before picking at us with their bows." Purah replied while grimacing.
"The one you sent back made it to the village, but what happened to the other two who remained with you?" Asked Terrance.
"They suggested we split up. We had managed to lose the monsters and take out some of the group of yiga trailing us, of the original group there were only a bowman and blademaster left to pursue us. Since I am not much of a fighter, they chose to cover my escape and catch up if they survived. Thing is I have no clue where they went." Purah said, downcast.
"At this point we have to assume they are dead. My directive is to get you back to the village safely, gather belongings where possible. I will not jeopardize you to search for people who might still be alive." Said Terrance some of his war born pragmatism bleeding into his tone.
As he spoke he pulled a shield off of his back and handed it to Purah.
"Take this, we will need to be careful and avoid direct confrontation as much as possible. However, if all else fails, I will engage the enemies, I just need to know you won't get injured in the crossfire." He said.
Purah pouted as she took the shield, "you sure know how to make someone feel useless."
"Feelings are irrelevant, your injuries make you a liability in a fight. Your mobility is compromised, and even if top condition you said you weren't much of a warrior. I can handle my own in a fight, I just need to not juggle between fighting and blocking attacks aimed at you." Said Terrance.
Purah sighed, "Yeah yeah, doesn't make it better though. I am the chief's sister after all I should be more capable in a fight."
"We each have our own specialties, just because your talents lay in a field other than battle does not make you useless. However I can understand where you are coming from, save dealing with it until after we are out of this ruin though." He said
Purah snorted, "I can see what you were trying to do there, but honestly you're terrible at trying to bring morale up."
Terrance shrugged, "I was simply stating facts. Now I am going to scout ahead and make sure the passage is still open, I'll be back in a few minutes."
As he headed out Terrance followed the path they had selected. There wasn't much except skeletons and the remains of monsters. As he neared the exit, he came to a stop and dove for cover behind a wall as he spotted the shape of a familiar construct.
When there was no explosion or sound at all, he poked his head out and peered at the still form. It seemed that the guardian had long been deactivated, it's once gleaming metal parts having resulted and it's lights dark.
Mentally reading to launch Giant's Bane from a gate, Terrance walked over to the machine and poked at it with the halberd.
No reaction.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Terrance stepped out and looked at the surrounding area, nothing but forest and a cloudy night sky. He noticed small curls of smoke seemed to be rising from the ground, but it didn't seem dangerous as it quickly disappeared into the air. Maybe a fire slime had made its way past?
With the way clear, Terrance turned around and headed back towards where Purah was to guide her out.
...
It was unfortunate that he headed back so quick, had he stayed, Terrance would have seen as the clouds passed to finally reveal the moon, bright and full.
But instead of it's normal pale color, the light it was emitting was an ominous crimson, and what was worse, it was nearing its apex in the night sky.
-To be continued.