Elder Lytous set up the final items in preparation for his shop stall and stood them out for the customers lined up as they were eager to buy and trade for them in exchange for ingredients and Rupies. He was hopeful of that this year he was able to save enough for a branch in Kakariko to expand his business. Quite the capitalist as he was, he knew that money just hoarded up would mostly do nothing, allowing whatever excess wealth be put back into whatever services the kingdom needed, and paid his fair share of taxes. His eye turned to a rather friendly competitor, Kokiri Potions, run by the “The Witch of the Forest" as she was known in Castle Town that ran a similar shop albeit she was a lot more mobile than he was.
He got up on a stool and told one of his assistants, Raivo, to watch over the stall as he decided to take a visit to her stall. With his cane, he walked through the crowd that towered over him as he was the size of a child compared to the others, but then, he and Mila were almost the same height compared to each other. As it took little time to get to her stall, he waited in line behind the children to look at the wares out of curiosity, over a stool placed on the side of it. As it was his turn to walk up he fixed a bit of his beard and climbed up with his cane as he happily smiled at the Korkiri running the stall.
“Ah, Kokiri Child! How goes the sale of your wares? I happen to be nearby selling my own as we make friendly competition for good sales.” He said as he gotten up and looked at her with a friendly smile. “Also, I do remember that I came across a toad of sorts, and I wonder if it’s native to the Forest, because I believe it can be useful in catching a good fish, or at least be able to trade for one.”
As the creaking and shadowy cloaked figure walked up to the counter next to him, he heard the voice from the figure. He felt a very dark energy radiating from the figure that made it a bit uncomforting for him.
_-_-_
Kaiver kept watch of the person at a distance, hoping that he would catch him off guard and be able to arrest him, but perhaps the Shiekah knew better than to simply cause a ruckus, and after all, he did end up waiting at a bench next to the surgeon’s office where he waited, glancing back at Kaiver, as if he was watching him back. Still, he did not trust the man even if he acknowledged his bias against his kind. He figured simply to let him be, as he kept the dark ranger within his sight. He started to watch the first caravan of carts from Castle Town arriving with their passengers, as the townsfolk were guided off the carts.
Watching from the cliff, he noticed the passengers eventually gave him sight of his two daughters dressed in the Hero’s clothes for the festivities rush out to play with the other children. A masked teenage man in what looked like a crude Gannon costume came out of the cart and started to playfully roar and snort in attempt to scare the children, became the victim of his hijinks, being chased by the children with their wooden swords and shields. Kaiver let out a playful laugh. Perhaps all is not doom and gloom awaiting Hyrule, even during these dark days.
It didn’t take long for him to see his wife, Mariha, was beautifully dressed in what seemed like a faux-twin of Princess Zelda. However, the distinction was obvious due to her middle-class, yet, tasteful attire. Colored in Forest green, sage, emerald, decals with hints of brown, topped with a silver tiara with an emerald embedded in it caught his attention. He did not expect her to dress up like this, however beautiful she was in casual clothing. He walked down from the stairs and headed towards his wife as he put away his bow, moving in close to grab her attention.
“Ma’am. Do you require assistance, or shall one our ‘heroes’ guide you throughout this fine town?” He jokingly spoke to his wife as he held her hand.
She blushed and smiled at his gesture, accepting her husband’s offer lovingly. “I most certainly do require assistance, perhaps to the one that has given me such an offer!”
Kaiver smiled back and looked in his loving wife’s eyes as he wrapped his hands around her.“Then, shall we be off, or is there anything you request from your chivalrous hero?”
She giggled, knowing fully well that he was now being silly, but she would grab something out of a messenger bag she had with her and opened it to grab a green cap from it in response to his playful gestures. “Perhaps. Here, this a token of my gratitude.” She told him as she reached up and topped his head with a green cap that matched his ranger garment. She now considered him worthy of letting him being her ‘hero’ as they walked throughout the town and enjoyed the Festival together. As they went through the town, they talked for a bit, browsed the shops, and enjoyed the various entertainment in the festival, ending up sitting at a bench in a market plaza.
“I didn’t expect you to dress up like this. Why the fancy attire? Perhaps you did know you would get my attention, or impress me on a day like this?” Kaiver said to his wife.
“I think for both of those reasons...” She said with a smile on her face, but then her smile soon faded to a frown, stopping for a moment as she turned to him and looked up.
“Kaiver…But for so long, I have been waiting for you to come to your senses, in which your life does not revolve around hunting beasts and bandits. I fear for your life most of the time when your daughters have a father figure that is gone for days on end, but your time in the Town Watch has helped, but… I still worry about you being hurt, or worse, killed by a senseless thug.” She said to him in a concerned voice. Innocence and concern could be felt in those words she spoke to him.
Kaiver looked into her and held his hands on her cheeks. “I know you worry about me. But what I do is for your protection, and for your safety. I sacrifice my own in order to do things that would seem impossible to comprehend. I do this not out of some mere mission that the Goddesses set forth to test me. I do this out of love…so we may have a future together, so we may cherish the times, both good and ill, together. Someday, you can understand that I will sacrifice even my own life… for this love we have.”
Mariha started to tear as he finished his speech with her, as Kaiver wiped the tears away as to not ruin his wife’s makeup. “Don’t cry my love…as much as I will lay down my life for you, I am no fool, and won’t simply throw my life away.” He said to her to cheer her up.
“Perhaps that is why you’re so stubborn…” She remarked as a smile came across her tearing face.
“Oh please…” Kaiver chuckled as he held her in his arms. His head turned to the cries of the fish stall where the fisherwoman was being harassed by the masked man, only to have a reekfish planted in his face and to have him back off in response, saving him the moment to intervene. “Perhaps when we met, did you think we could be such odd pair such as those two?” he asked as he pointed to the fisher and the masked man.
She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think that your words would mean anything if that were true.”
Kaiver smiled at her words and kissed her on the lips, but broke it as he heard a child’s cry out form the crowd, giving him reason to abandon his wife at the bench for a moment and took off the cap he was wearing. “Stay here, this shouldn't take long.”
He went to where the scene was and saw the child embraced by her mother, with the crowd standing clear of the large figure yet slender figure of the Chilfos, and felt the cold aura of the entity radiating from him.
This can’t be good, thought Kaiver as he headed towards the woman holding her child as he kept his eye on what seemed to be the main cause of the problem. "Is this creature giving you any problems, ma'am?" he said to her as he looked at the child's hand, as it was quite red and a bit frosty, giving evidence of the child's curiosity of the figure caused such a shock.