[center][color=darkgreen][h3]Linkle[/h3][/color]

[color=darkgreen][b] Level 5[/b][/color] - (5/50) + 3

[color=darkgreen][b]Location:[/b][/color] Lumbridge ~ The Land of Adventure ~ Southern Exit ---> South

[color=darkgreen][b]Word Count: 1,263 [/b][/color][/center]
[@ProPro][@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN][@Stern Algorithm]
[hr]

Linkle turned and took one last wistful look in the direction of her cuccos as they left town. "I don't know what to say. Thanks." she said to her companions. She had kind of expected Din to offer her help, but the gunman was something of a surprise. After all, he'd mostly come along because this was a job, right? It touched her that he was agreeing to help with a problem that was so personal to her. She already had the notion of an idea of how to get them back, but considering everything else that had come of her brilliant strategic thinking having a solid plan be was a good idea.

She had been so engrossed with the thought of her girls that she hadn't even noticed the cat eyed hunter had joined them until he spoke up, causing her to jump slightly. Apparently he'd found the quests to the south more agreeable than escorting the koopa king on his hunting mission. As he shared a little about himself and the monsters he thought they would be after she sort of got lost in his eyes. The red of them. She wondered what might be the best time to do something about that, especially considering how dangerous the Witcher made himself out to be. Super strength, super speed, super toughness, potions, [i]bombs[/i]. He even had an entire silver sword, which in her opinion completely beat out the silver arrow the hero used to finish off Ganon in the oldest legends.

He also had good taste in crossbows, though his was slightly smaller. She whipped out her pair, spinning them in her hands before leveling them at the sky. "I run in close and shoot monsters with these. Sometimes twenty or thirty monsters at once, I just get into the middle of the group and spray. Or get in front and spray. Or I shoot bombs at them, and they blow up." She considered something for a moment, and her confidence seemed to falter as she lowered her bows. Lately that hasn't been working as well as it used too, but I think that's just because we've been fighting so many powerful commander types instead of groups of regular monsters. Good news is I learned how to aim these recently thanks to a helpful rabbit." She spun with the bows in hand and fired off three bolts from each at a nearby tree, where they formed a shaky but mostly straight line up the trunk. She did this just by pulling the triggers, without drawing the bow strings back or loading any bolts in compleat defiance of how a crossbow was supposed to function. She grinned, oblivious to this. "See. So I should be able to do something now even if my usual moves don't work so long as the monster isn't made of metal. Or a turtle."

She holstered the bows back into her boots crossed her arms, pensively. "I'm not so good at thinking, though. Most of my ideas have ended up blowing up in my face." she said, thinking back to the Bastion. "I'm better when someone else is telling me what to do, so if one of you guys has a battle plan shout it out and I'll follow it. I've got really good hearing."

After a while of thinking about the monsters Geralt had described Linkle piped up again. Ih he needed to know about monsters to fight them effectively there was no reason she couldn't share some of the information she had. "We have fish people back where me and Din come from too. They're called Zora, but I'd never talk about them like that Sheriff did. I've never heard of them being a danger to travelers or being 'sag-mouthed.' The only Zora I've ever met was beautiful." Then again, she was becoming more and more convinced by this mixed up world situation that that one Zora had been [b]the[/b] Princess Ruto talked about in the legends and not just a Zora named after her so maybe the others were more ugly than that. "If they are Zora, this could just be a misunderstanding. Unless they're River Zora, those guys are really territorial and they look like exactly what he described except for the walking like men part. I've heard they have fish tails, so all they can do is pop out of the water and shoot magic at passing travelers. So if you're ever near the shore and see a whirlpool suddenly form in the water, look out because that's a River Zora about to get'cha."

[hr]

It wasn't long before they were out in the wilds, and it wasn't long after that that the Courier waved down a few of those giant birds. The man had a way with birds that she was starting to get a little jealous of as she saw the wariness in the birds eyes regarding the rest of them. Not to be outdone she slowly extended a hand. "Tsk tsk tsk, c'mere girl. Coo coo." she wiggled her fingers enticingly as the bird approached, reaching up to scratch the feathers of its neck the same place her girls liked being scratched. The thing shuttered, and let out a delighted [i]KWEH![/i]. "That's a good girl. You're just a big old cucco, aren't you? Aren't you girl?" The chocobo stepped up to her, shoving its body into her face. Lickle stepped back with a cough, holding her nose with her free hand while continuing to rub it with the other. "A big old stinky cucco."

The courier, though, ignored the smell and hopped on up on the birds back. Linkle, not to outdone in a contest of bird handling, ignored the smell and pulled herself up onto its back. The creature went [i]WARK[/i], and stumbled uneasily back and forth before Linkle patted it on the side a few times to calm it down. After that it went surprisingly docile, as though it was used to this. "It's fine." she called to Din and Geralt. "I think she likes it."

A thought occurred as she looked at them. She glanced between the pair and the one remaining bird. Of course, the passenger to bird ratio wasn't the problem. After all, Din had a magic goat that she could ride. Would that really be for the best in this situation, though?

"Sorry Din," she said, turning back to look at them as the bird started to move off to follow the Courier. "This one's really eager to get moving, it looks like you're just going to have to share with Geralt." She was right in the middle of giving Din a conspiratorial eyebrow wiggle when the bird suddenly picked up speed, jerking her back and almost off before she re-settled herself amd held on a bit tighter. "Good luuuuck!" she called back to her.

She was grinning like an idiot as the bird bounced along, the wind flowing through her hair. She wondered it maybe she could breed cuccos that were this big, or even bigger. They were already strong enough to act as a parachute if you were falling from a high place, and if she were able to give them as helpful and gentle temperament as these birds had they might just be the best mounts in Hyrule. Chocobos must have been a dream pet back in whatever world they came from.

"Oh no!" she said, remembering the shopping list and burying her face in the chocobos neck feathers. She was never going to be able to kill one of these things now that she was friends with one.