Gaia's Ice Cavern... [RP w/kasumu_sekai]

[feathered_mages]

The dripping sounds and occasional gurgle of running water are more noticeable inside the Ice Cavern. A few patches of bare rock show through, but in most places the ice is still thick. The water and slush make the floor even more slippery than solidly frozen ice would be, as the Magelets soon find out. They seem to find it fun, though, not bothered at all by the cold as they look around.

Mistral looks around as well. He can see the place falling apart with the underlying magic gone, making it look changed and somewhat unfamiliar - but not as unfamiliar as it should be for someone who's never been inside it. He knows the way through, if none of the paths have been blocked by the thaw. And if they had, ice spells should let them make a way around.

Comments

[feathered_mages]

"They're bomb flowers," says Mistral. "The Gorons make bombs out of them."

"They blow up?" says Luca, as the Magelets back away cautiously.

Mistral nods. "If you can pull one up, they do. Or if something else blows up near them, or they get set on fire." He'll step into the main room and look around. It looks more or less the same as the last time he was here, hot lava rock for floor and all. "We'll have to cast Float to get around to the ladder."

He'll hop down to the right of the platform near the entrance, where the floor is still safe to walk on. And then he'll glance up at an entrance to a cut stone tunnel right next to him, but up above the floor on a walkway around the room. "If there was a ladder here, we wouldn't have to go around." He briefly tries to make one using ice spells, but it just melts too fast. Oh well.

[feathered_mages]

The lava rocks are very hard, and the hot section of floor no more than a few feet away if someone should take a tumble.

Kaze has tried casting float on himself, but that doesn't let him bob high enough.

Mistral nods. "I could fly up, but I couldn't carry the rest of you."

[feathered_mages]

"It would take all of us," says Teo.

"Black Mages can't lift very much," adds Tavi.

Mistral gives the Tektite a look, and shrugs. "I don't know. I never had the chance to try climbing on one, the last time I was here."

[feathered_mages]

The Tektite doesn't seem to mind the weight at all. Both crabs and insects are known for being surprisingly strong for their size and weight, and this crab-bug-thing is no exception there.

[feathered_mages]

Mistral will flutter up onto the ledge, and Galen will snuggle hug Rydia.

It takes a second for the Magelets to completely work this out, then Kaze says, cheerily, "Because it bounces!"

[feathered_mages]

The Magelets and Mistral are giggling as well, and Lono gives the Tektite a hug. "It's a good bouncy bug," he says.

As soon as he's recovered, Mistral will turn to the hallway. The floor inside it is sandy, and they won't be able to go in more than a few steps before there's a sound of something moving under the sand. Two baby dodongos, legless things the size of dogs, unbury themselves and start to wriggle towards the 'intruders'. Mistral will just cast sleep on one, allowing the other to approach for Rydia to claim.

[feathered_mages]

And the baby dodongo that isn't snoozing wriggles to a stop and looks up at her.

Mistral smiles and gives it a pet. "Dmitri was this little at first. They get legs when they get bigger, and their hides keep getting tougher. I don't know if there's a limit to how big they can get."

[feathered_mages]

It's just a little wriggly legless rock-chewing iguana thing at that age.

"Maybe. They're not really magic creatures like Eidolons, though," says Mistral, thinking about it. "It might depend on how much they eat, or what kind of rocks and things they eat, or just about anything."

The Magelets, meanwhile, are 'tucking' the other, sleeping, baby dodongo in for it's nap - by covering it up with loose sand with only the head sticking out.

[feathered_mages]

Mistral nods. "Maybe. Or maybe the Gorons would know. I don't know if they really try to get them to grow bigger, though, because one of them told me the really big ones might eat Gorons. They make bomb bags and things out of them, too. The Gorons do, I mean." Mistral thinks that's kind of sad, and wouldn't want the cute little Dodongos hurt.

Luckily the Magelets aren't really listening as they cover the other one up. Or, if they did overhear, they didn't understand.

[feathered_mages]

Mistral nods. "Their city is just a little further up the mountain. We can ask there. And there's a really good place there that lets you see a view of the whole valley down below, so we can decide if we're going anywhere else here." He'll start to head back to the entrance.

"Bye bye, dodongo," Lono says to the one they've covered in sand. Juro will give it a little kiss on the head.

[feathered_mages]

The Goron City is only a little further up the mountain. It's mostly inside a cavern, but outside the entrance is what can only be called a rock garden - a raised platform filled with sand, and a bunch of small pyramidal rocks in a circle, with another in the center. Rather zen, really. It's from here that Mistral will point out a good place for landscape viewing.

Far below, the river they'd passed to reach Kakariko flows past Hyrule Castle and into the distance. There's a glimmer over that way that might be ocean or a large lake. Hyrule field itself is large and green. Other than the Castle with its surrounding town and Kakariko, another structure is near the center of the field - a mostly oval structure with tall walls. The first edges of a forest can be seen in one direction, and a hint in another of the landscape drying out and possible distant desert.

Magelets are just going 'Ooooo' at this.

[feathered_mages]

Mistral nods. "Things are always pretty from this high up." Not that the Waltzlet is biased, no, not really.

"What's the round building?" asks Kaze.

"I'm not sure," Mistral admits. "We didn't get to look at much of the rest of this world the last time."

A Goron near the entrance to their city watches them for a bit, but doesn't seem too alarmed. It's likely he remembers Mistral from before. It's a little hard to forget someone who asks around for what to feed their baby Dodongo.

[feathered_mages]

The Goron will be able to tell her that, until they reach adult size, how fast a dodongo grows is mostly dependent on diet. The ones that become giant-sized, though, they're not entirely sure what causes that. Some kind of magic, something they ate, or maybe they're just very old. Sometimes, the same thing happened to Gorons. Biggoron who lives on top of the mountain is so big that no one has ever seen all of him at one time. But getting that big is very very rare, and only Biggoron and his smaller brother Medigoron are of such unusual size.

He'll also be able to tell her some things about the surrounding areas of Hyrule, though he admits that he's never actually been down off the mountain. He's heard of the Gerudo that live in the desert, and don't like anyone in their territory. The Zora live behind a waterfall at the beginning of the river, though some of them are found in Lake Hylia as well. And the forest is said to be home to fairy children that never grow up, and other things that get lost in the woods and change.