Homeward Bound (END)

[Jin Reno]

His cloak was pulled around his body, the brown coloring of it doing just enough to protect him from the heat of the middle of the day, and his few canteens of water also helping out. It was the hottest part of the day, and even Jin knew it was crazy to be traveling out in this weather, but it was also a smart move.

Less people and monsters would be out at this time, and it was perfect for him to made his way back to his home without anyone finding it. In the distance he could see the two landmarks that would help lead him home, making sure to keep both of them just at the edge of his vision as he walked forward. When they both vanished from his eye-sight at the same time, Jin would have to look for the next path.

His home was hidden and hidden well in the dessert, right in the middle of an area not often visited or searched. The small hole that made up the entrance to his home cavern was well hidden, and a rock blocked the entrance as well. Something that he had added at a later date to protect what was inside. He had maybe two miles left too go, and hadn't seen a single soul.

Granted, that didn't mean someone else wasn't watching...

[ruma]

It wasn't often that Ruma left the comfort of the fortress, but today she needed some new parts. Typically the pirate's bay had what she was looking for, but she had heard a report of an ancient burial somewhere around here. Those burials usually held some sort of magical power, as well as a redead or two. She was ready though, and it was good she came out in this weather. Her Gerudo blood helped her withstand such harsh conditions.

She walked down what appeared to be a path, noting a couple of landmarks that must have some significance to the shrine, burial, or whatever it was. The sand was kicking up, so the visor on her helmet was down, shielding her from its grainy effect, at least on her face.

Ahead she noticed another figure a few paces ahead. So she wasn't alone out here. Making sure her hammer was in place, she started to walk up close to the mysterious figure, not sure if he was a mirage, a poe guide, or something malicious. She decided to wait behind and see what he would do.

[Jin Reno]

Soon Jin was walking along a small crack in the desert floor, sand dripping down into it, with no bottom in sight, but he did not look down. He barely even noticed it, only jumping over a small portion of it near the end before heading toward a collection of standing stones. They stood, each of them leaning toward a different direction, three in all. Jin walked over to them, stood in the middle of all three, and walked the way that they were not pointing.

The path was a little tricky for someone who might have been new too it, but Jin had come this way so often that it was almost second nature to him. A few left and right turns at some seemingly pointless rocks and soon Jin approached a cliff face, walking along it, trailing his fingers along the wall for a few minutes. At one point though, he stopped moving and seemed to slide his fingers into the cliff itself.

With a pull, a rock moved out of the way and a small entrance into the cliff opened up, and Jin entered it, faint light coming from the hole.

[ruma]

Jin's movements were closely followed by Ruma's. She wasn't sure if he really existed, let alone whether or not he knew of her existence.

As Jin pulled a lever to open a secret door from the cliff face, Ruma ducked in right behind him. This must have been the ancient burial chamber. A secret door usually held valuable secrets, and Ruma would be sure to dismantle them or something like that.

However, Ruma's curiosity started to get the better of her. It still might have been a ghost, but she had to know what exactly the humanoid in front of him was.

Getting as close as she could, or wanted to, she poked Jin in the back, wondering how the figure would respond. The finger may have gone straight through him, but it did not. Rather, she felt his back and nodded. "So you do exist. Very interesting. But what are you doing in ancient burial grounds?"

[Jin Reno]

Jin didn't feel the poke to his back, but a light force that pushed him forward. Next was the voice that rose up from behind him, and he took a few steps forward, finishing his lighting of a lantern. "Well... if this was an ancient burial ground, I wouldn't have much to say when answering." Jin said, looking over his back at the figure.

From what he could tell, she was probably a Gerudo warrior who had been wondering around the desert and followed him. He guessed he didn't actually pay attention to what was behind him, so that was his fault really. "I was just returning home. You are more then welcome to actually take a look around us, though this is just the entrance tunnel." He said, before walking off into a side room.

The room he entered opened up into a wide room with a couple of hand-made pieces of furniture, a carpet on the ground, and a few bookshelves carved out of the cave wall itself. "You might want to come in here and relax for a while, a sand storm is going to be arriving soon." He called out, his voice echoing in the cave. He took a seat in one of the chairs in the room, removing his cloak and putting Lisa on the ground, the small tortoise going off too the side examining something.

"So, you followed me back to my secret house. Welcome." He said, the room he was in actually carved out into a box shape with plenty of headroom. The lantern sat on the table in front of Jin, glowing softly.

[ruma]

Ruma was a bit confused. She wasn't expecting to find someone's house around here. A strange place for a home, to be sure. Of course, this was coming from someone who had her home in the desert against a cliff facing, so the comment would ring a bit hollow.

"My information told me that there was an ancient burial ground around here. I was expecting to find redeads and lost poes, but instead I find the home of a human. You wouldn't happen to know of any place around here that used to house the dead, would you?" She raised her visor and walked down the hallway with the strange desert figure. Taking a seat on the floor, she removed her boots and began to shake the sand out of them. She may be immune to harsh weather, but no one was immune to sand in the boot.

"So tell me, what inspires a man to build his home out of a rock facing? Kind of far away from everything don't you think?" She wasn't exactly desperate for the answer. For all she knew she had just walked into the home of a serial rapist. It was quite well-furnished for a room carved into a rock though.

[Jin Reno]

"Hmm... no clue. I mean... there is a poe somewhere in this place, but he really isn't such a bad guy. Just wants me to get revenge for his death on some guy I am not even sure is actually alive still." Jin said, rubbing his head and chuckling a bit. Even though he was home, he kept his shields on, not sure if she would turn hostile at a moments notice.

"If this is the place your information meant... well there isn't much too it being ancient... he died maybe 20 years ago, and he was pretty aged anyway." Jin said, rubbing his chin a bit before looking around them.

He got to his feet and walked over to a small section of wall and pulled out two cups, walking back to the table and setting them down. "Thats the thing..." He said, filling both cups with water from one of his canteens and looking at her. "I woke up in one of the back rooms here several years ago with no memory of who I was. I was young, too young to have done this, so I think the poe was the one who had done this."

"Him and his partner. They wanted a place they could go to escape something that was supposed to happen, but I never learned what." Jin said, before shrugging and drinking some of his water. "Who goes around raiding ancient burial grounds anyway? Do you have a redead fetish?"

[ruma]

Ruma listened to the story of the small alcove and how it came to be somebody's home. She concluded from the story told that it was likely not the burial ground she was hoping for, though if a poe lived here it would make sense for someone to believe it was. However, it meant that Ruma would not find the treasures or parts she was hoping for.

Accepting the cup of water with a nod, the pieces finally started to come together. "Okay, I think I see the issue. One of the scouts must have seen the poe enter, and as a result they relayed information on the possibility of burial grounds based on that. Understandable, though it seems to be incorrect. Tragic, but that's how it is. The information is appreciated though." She took a sip of the water. Crisp and clean, a nice break from the sandstorm. Her guard was lowered now that he was shown to be hospitable and outgoing. Maybe not enough for some, but enough for her.

"Actually I was kind of hoping for some salvage. I need more parts to make the plating secure. Ancient burial grounds are usually stripped of their valuable loot but what I'm looking for isn't considered valuable by treasure hunters and adventurers." Examining the surroundings, the only places that seemed to hold any value to her would be his shields, and despite her racial tendency to pillage and raid, she wasn't going to swipe the man's shields, not after this hospitality.

[Jin Reno]

"Yeah, that seems like a logical explanation for what caused all of this. But yeah, this is my home, not some ancient burial grounds. So if you could possibly keep other Gerudos from coming here when I am gone that'd be nice... this is the one place I can go and just relax now a days. You are welcome to use it if needed, but I would like to keep the number of people who know about it to a minimum." Jin said, the sitting room they were in only a part of the cavern that his 'home' was. In fact, a small map was set up on the wall, showing many different caves along the 'main hallway' were the two entered.

Jin rubbed his chin a bit before thinking about his house and things that were contained within. He couldn't really remember anything that she could possibly leave with once the sand storm cleared up, so he couldn't help her there. "There is nothing here really. Wooden beds, chairs, couches, a few dry storage places for drying food, and a library. I'd rather not have someone take the books away from the library actually." He said.

[ruma]

Ruma shook her head as he explained what was here, noting each thing as not salvage. It was a lost cause, there was nothing here for her.

"I'll leave things where they are, I have no intention of disturbing this hideaway. The Gerudo do not need to know about this. Your secret is safe with me." She flashed him a thumbs-up and smiled. "Though, with your permission, I would like to browse your tomes. I have no intention of leaving with them, but I would like to look at them, for they may contain valuable information, which is greater than any treasure." The sounds outside began to intensify. A sandstorm had kicked up. Ruma was stuck here for the time being, though she could walk it if necessary.

"From the sound of it, I am stuck here for the time being. Shall I begin to peruse the books in hopes of finding something of note?"

[Jin Reno]

Jin let out a semi-pleased sigh and nodded his head at her, sipping his water a little before rubbing the back of his head. "So what exactly do you intend on doing now? I mean... I'm not much of a host, and I wasn't expecting any guests, not that you aren't welcome." Jin said, before he got his answer in the form of her asking to see the books that he had in the library.

"I don't see why not... I look through them now and again to relearn things I might have forgotten, but I don't see any reason I can't let someone else take a look at them." Jin said, getting too his feet and looking down at the Gerudo before picking up the lantern. "Grab your water and what you'd like and follow me. The library is further in, to keep the elements away from the books."

With that, he led the way out of the room and walked past several other rooms; one seemed to hold a large cubbard which was closed tightly, while the next one had a bed and a carpet, followed by a room that was sealed by a door, though the smell of meat and fruit could almost be picked up by a passer-by. The two would turn a corner and pass an even bigger bedroom, and a couple of tunnels branching off from the main one.

It was when Jin got to the end of the hallway and pushed open a door, Ruma could see the treasures of knowledge lining all the walls of the room with a large desk in the middle. The desk had two dark lanterns sitting securely in the corners, built in so they could not tip over, and put far enough from any book too keep them from catching ablaze. A chair, made in such a way that one could sit in it for hours, waited for someone to take a seat.

"The ones on the wall next to the doors are all stories, while the other books range from simple classwork, to advance theories. There are tomes of history, books about races, writings that seem to border on myth and reality, and a few other things." Jin said, the room itself not very tall, but for Ruma to get at the books at the top of the shelves carved from the walls, she would have to stand on her toes and stretch.

He rubbed his chin, and chuckled, "Maybe you'll find a treasure here."

[ruma]

"Thank you! Ruma's smile lit up the room, knowing she had access to whole new volumes. As Jin led her to another wing of the caves, she decided to introduce herself.

"Name's Ruma. It's nice to meet you. It's rare to find non-gerudo living in the desert." She casually followed him to the archives and her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Look at all of them! All my brother has are a bunch of old war texts. But this...this is something else. Now let's see, where to start..." she went over to some of the more advanced texts and found something that tickled all of her fancies. "Ooccan Tech." The Ooccans always made the best stuff. She looked up to their tech as the pinnacle of modern technology. After all, they made a city float. She quickly began to flip through the book, finding many new inventions she had never heard of before now.

[Jin Reno]

"No problem. I get wanting to learn more, plus its probably more entertaining in those books then talking with me." Jin said with a laugh, taking a look around once more. It wasn't that he was really that boring, but he had come to his home to relax.

Jin offered her a small bow and smiled at her, motioning to the books around them. "Nice to meet you Ruma. I was raised here pretty much, so I've gotten used to the desert, at least as much as a simple human could." He said.

"Your brother? Do you mean Merik? I wonder when I'll get to meet him... I heard he can be quite a handful sometimes." Jin mused, leaning against the wall and watching as Ruma found one of the books he couldn't really get into.

He pulled out a book to his side that had different recipes and flipped through a few pages. "I could never get my head around some of the concepts in that book... I just stayed closer to the ground and cooking. A little easier." He said with a chuckle before, closing the book. "Would you like something to eat? All I have is dried fruits and meats, but they all taste good." Jin offered, trying to be hospitable.

[ruma]

Ruma was flipping through the book. A lot of this was very complex material, even by her standards. That being said, it was incredible stuff. She reached into her bag and pulled out paper and her writing implements to start copying down some of the information.

"Merik's a handful. He's always paranoid about everyone not trusting him, not to mention delusional about saying the last king was betrayed and stuff. Still, he cares deeply for his people and I love him to death. He's doing what's best for us." For some reason, Ruma didn't even think twice about telling Jin such information. She was an open person, and everyone she knew already knew about it.

"Haha. I can't cook at all. I work with machinery, not culinary. However, some food sounds good. I accept your offer." She wasn't going to say no to free food. She was getting hungry from the traveling she was doing today. She continued to copy preliminary data on what appeared to be a dirigible carrying a ship. Fascinating data, but it wasn't complete. "Hmm, this design never finished. Let's see...I'll copy this and see if the design is feasible."

[Jin Reno]

"I want to meet him though, even if he is a bit of a handful." Jin said with a smile, looking at Ruma. "Though I am only one of the Human Wardens, not the Human Champion." He added. "I must say though, I am glad to hear that he is a nice person, though a little strange from what you say. He seems like he is a good leader."

Nodding his head, Jin quickly left the room and returned with a plate that held a few pieces of dried apple, pineapple, and meat. He placed the plate on the table next to Ruma, and Jin pulled a seat up and sat off to the side. "I saw that one once, it looked like it would be fun to ride upon." Jin said, watching as Lisa crawled into the room and to his feet.

Picking her up, Jin took a piece of dried pineapple for himself and one for his tortoise and they both ate the food happily. "I'm pretty skilled with cooking, but there isn't much I can do with that here, the location and ingredients are a little limited."