Story Time [Closed]

[MIFF]

"I thought for sure he'd be in the swamps," Miff said aloud as he trotted along the green forest floor. He had just journeyed north from Ordona Province with a cold front following at his back. The small Deku was searching for a certain guitar-playing Zora he'd left up here. "The guy was set on catching a giant Faron Frog."

Miff huffed a small puff of air from his spout. He'd been walking for a long time and usually at a brisk pace to keep Isolde's personal chilly climate away from him. If Zafun had failed to find a suitable frog in the swamps of Faron Woods had he moved deeper into the Sacred Grove? Miff had mentioned that they sometimes wandered in there to enjoy the cleaner water before the two had separated.

"Well, I'm tired. Let's take a break and look for that cowboy later," Miff announced with authority as he spun his Propeller Leaves for emphasis. The Mad Scrub then made a series of hops to land atop a fallen tree trunk and sat down there, leaning back.

[isolde]

There were more than a few times that Isolde had accidentally wandered off on her own. She was easily distracted by pretty things. Actually, she was easily distracted by just about anything new to her, which was basically everything. Lucky for her, Miff's orange petal thingies were pretty easy to spot, so she always managed to find him again. Good thing too, because if she didn't, he might very well leave her on her own.

She had just caught back up to him again when he suggested they take a break. "Ok!" Isolde replied in an annoying chipper tone, then proceeded to plop down into a sitting position across from where Miff had chosen to rest. The 'plop' had been violent enough to shake the ground, of course, threatening to dislodge Miff from his position.

[MIFF]

Indeed Miff did become unbalanced as the tree trunk he laid back upon shuddered slightly. After a few half rolls from side to side that almost sent him back to the ground, however, the Deku managed to regain his balance by sitting up straight. He gave Isolde a pointed glare for her misdemeanour but she had proven imperceptive of those so far. The Mad Scrub sighed. She wasn't going to just sit still. He may as well make the best of it then.

"Well then, since we're taking a small break, how about I tell you a story?" the Mad Marksman said as he turned to face Isolde while still remaining perched upon the fallen trunk. No small amount of pride was within the Deku's voice. "You could stand to learn a thing or two about me, after all. I am practically the most important person in Hyrule."

[isolde]

Miff was correct. The glare had no effect on her whatsoever. Were he not such a hothead, her innocence might even be considered cute. Instead, it was found to be quite annoying. Ah well! It's not like she cared.

Isolde's eyes lit up like candles as soon as Miff mentioned a story. "Yes! That'd be wonderful!" The icy blue goron exclaimed, beginning to clap thunderously in support of his suggestion. "Does it involve monsters? How many people did you save? It was you that saved everyone, right?" The questions began pouring out of her in a mad stream before she suddenly had a stroke of intelligence and shut up so Miff would be able to tell the story. Her enthusiasm and eagerness, though, remained present in her expression.

[MIFF]

"Ho ho ho ho ho," Miff chuckled at Isolde's enthusiasm. She was indeed bothersome on occasion but, unlike most people he had met, this Goron knew her place in the grand scheme of things. When he spoke, she listened. That was how it should be, after all.

"Well how about a story to let you get to know this Zora I'm looking for," Miff suggested. "I told you he was looking to catch a giant frog, right? Well, actually, at first we went looking for one together. I wanted to beat it up to make sure all the smaller frogs stayed in line and didn't cause any trouble in the forest, of course, but that silly minstrel wanted to tame one for us to ride around on."

The Deku laughed again at Zafun's silliness. Well, it was still a better idea than when he'd met the man at Ordon Ranch and he'd tried to learn riding a horse. To Miff that image was just plain hilarious.

[isolde]

Isolde nodded in agreement, both to the nature of the story and that he had mentioned the frog. She had been prepared to ask what a frog was, for she had never seen nor heard of one before, but decided it was best to keep quiet. She wanted to hear the story after all, and had surprisingly made the connection that she needed to hush or she wouldn't hear anything at all.

Like Miff, she laughed that Zafun had wanted to tame a frog, but it wasn't quite for the same reasons. She didn't know what a frog was, so she didn't really know how silly Zafun's intentions were. Isolde only laughed because it was what Miff was doing. If she wanted to be as strong and heroic as he, she should mimic his actions, right? It made perfect sense to her.

[MIFF]

"Now you see, even though frogs have four legs they like to swim and hop instead of walk around. Pretty dumb of them, right? Anyway, those little guys are usually small enough to fit in your hand but this cowboy insisted on getting one big enough to carry him. He must be pretty lazy, I think."

Miff had caught on earlier that Isolde knew absolutely nothing about anything. She didn't even seem to realize how how bad being cold is, that's how ignorant this particular Goron was. He'd take some time, when he felt like it, to explain things to her from his superior understanding of the world.

"Well, since we wanted to catch a frog we needed to go to a place in the forest filled with lots of water, so we headed for the swamp. That's where everything is all wet and half of everything is underwater. I heard a loud noise as we approached and knew something was up so I jumped into action! Of course my dutiful minstrel followed after me as well. The noise also drew the attention of a couple of other people, Humans I think. Humans are like you except made of meat instead of rock. Anyway, I knew they would be in trouble so I told them to leave it all to me but Humans are a stubborn bunch."

[isolde]

Immediately as Miff began his rendition of the adventure he and Zafun had, Isolde fell into a sort of hypnotized state. It was like she was five years old, listening to the stories of a wise old grandfather. It really was a funny sight. Anyone looking in on them would find it odd and see it to be more fitting for her and Miff's roles to be reversed.

"Humans." She murmured, vaguely recalling the word from back home. It was a familiar term, but she couldn't quite place it. Miff's description of them didn't help jog her memory, which wasn't surprising since his definitions were quite harsh and judgmental. Isolde propped her head up on one hand as she waited for The Great Deku to continue his story.

[MIFF]

"Well, before anybody knew it a bunch of arms shot up out of the swamp and just starting tearing everything up and tossing everyone around. Naturally I was able to avoid the attack myself, but the others who ignored my warnings got tossed into the swamp," Miff explained, going over his most recent battle exactly as he remembered it happening. "Then, out of the water comes this huge, ugly frog. It was wrinkly-est thing I ever saw!"

Miff leaned forward toward Isolde before he spoke again, trying to sound wise and insightful.

"Let me tell you something good, Frosty. The oldest frog in a swamp is the oldest because its the strongest. So that means that old thing was definitely the strongest frog in the world. I knew I had to put it down there before it could get out of the forest."

[isolde]

She gasped loudly without shame. What a horrible thing to happen! The Humans sure were lucky that Miff was there to take care of things. Goodness, how awful it must have been. The people must have been terrified. She probably would have been a little frightened herself it that had happened to her (that is, if she realized how dangerous it was, more than likely she'd think it was playing a game).

Isolde's head tilted curiously when Miff leaned forward. That was an odd thing to say... "Miff, what do you mean by 'put it down?'" She really was rather dumb when it came to the real world. Though Miff probably wasn't the best influence on her, she was rather lucky that someone had taken her under their wing, or leaf, or whatever.

[MIFF]

"I had to defeat it of course!" Miff answered without hesitation, hopping to his feet on the log and holding his spout high. "When things get too strong they get arrogant! When things get too big they think they can push smaller people around! It's my responsibility as the strongest Deku to make sure everyone remembers who is really the most powerful so that they don't hurt each other thinking it could be them!"

Miff apparently liked to describe things in a way that made him seem like he was doing things for himself because it was in everyone's best interest. The Mad Scrub certainly didn't think of it that way in the middle of the actual battle, that was for sure.

[isolde]

Isolde nodded her head vigorously to show that she understood now. Of course that was what he meant. What else would he mean! My, she was getting dull. Isolde gave her head a good mental shake to clear her mind, not that it'd do any good. If Isolde had any sense, she'd notice how contradicting Miff's words and actions were.

"I hope I don't ever get like that." Isolde confessed, in a slightly fearful tone. Sure, she wanted to be strong and powerful like Miff, but what if it got too far? What if she turned out like the people Miff went after to punish? Having her new bestest friend ever come after her because she had gotten out of hand wasn't something she wanted to have happen. No, that'd be awful!

[MIFF]

"Just stick with me and you'll be fine," Miff said sagely as he sat back down on the tree. "It only happens to others because I can't be everywhere at once. With me always around you'll have a constant reminder to stay humble."

The Mad Scrub was quite pleased with himself today. He had found someone in Hyrule who actually possessed enough intelligence to recognize his greatness. Besides the Mad Scrubs that had occupied the same forest floor as he for the first year of his life only Zafun had accomplished this before. Perhaps the people of the world weren't all as ignorant as he had been led to believe so far. He would have to do his best to enlighten the ones who were, though.

"Anyway, this old frog was as mean as he was ugly. My minstrel of course immediately got to playing some great music for me as I danced with ease between all of its quick attacks. The poor Humans tried to fight but they really should have listened to me. They got pretty beat up."

[isolde]

Silly Goron. Miff's encouragement easily washed away her fears. Just how gullible was she? And just how long would it last? "Alright!" She responded, her relieved smile brightening up her face tenfold.

Unable to sit still, the antsy woman shifted positions so she lay on her stomach, her head propped up on both her hands as she gazed up at the wise storyteller with amazement in her eyes. Anything could easily hold her attention, it seemed, no matter how ridiculous it sounded to the common ear. All one had to do was spin words into a slightly attractive manner and she was hooked. Her simplicity was pretty impressive.

[MIFF]

"So I sprung into action!" Miff declared, jumping to his feet once more and taking what he thought was a heroic pose. The Deku proceeded to punctuate his tale now by striking various action poses as he spoke. "Not wanting it flee before it learned its lesson I first slowed it down with a bubble! Then I expertly jumped and dodged around its whipping tentacles. Just as my minstrel played a fresh blast of music in my honour I devastated the giant frog with a nut shot from behind! After that it knew who the real one to watch out for was and kept its attention on me, just whipping at the others as a second thought. I knew he had to learn that being big wasn't enough to make you strong though so I kept him at a distance and played around, made him know that I had it easy against even an opponent of its level."

Miff nodded with closed eyes, quite pleased with his perfect recollection of the battle against Tiddly Wink. He was just getting to the good parts too and Isolde was already hanging on his every word. Miff was learning that he rather enjoyed having a captive audience like her, even if she was too freaking cold.

[isolde]

Could she become any more enthralled by Miff's tale? Of course she could, what a silly question. His emphasis via strong and heroic poses were only dragging her deeper into his web of exaggerated words.

Ah! The bubble, of course! She remembered those bubbles. They had been so much fun to pop, but made her so slow. An excellent idea! It must come naturally to him by now, those wonderful ideas. Such a pro. What luck she had by running into him. The nut shot, she remembered as well. Those she didn't really find so impressive because they certainly didn't hurt her. But she didn't let that ruin her enthusiasm as she continued to listen to the wild adventure.

[MIFF]

"Then, just as the beast was whipped into shape, i took my place gallantly atop it!" the Deku continued, hopping atop a bump on the log that would have to serve as a stand-in for the Tiddly Wink's head. "I made myself its master and commanded it forward so that the creature would know its proper place in the world was serving others and not destroying swamps."

Miff was pretty sure he had successfully tamed the monster... he was having a bit of trouble remembering what happened after that though because the images that came to mind didn't see,m to match that obvious fact.