Fugue Of The Filly [Closed: Carmine, Collin, Mabel, Ashley]

[LuckyBlackCat]

A fifth fountain nearby, huh?

Swooping over the riot of amber, gold and green foliage that dotted Akkala's landscape, Carmine kept a look out, sharp eyes darting this way and that. If the rumours were true, the giant bud was somewhere around here. And according to a certain quintet, the best way to coax out a Great Fairy was via song.

Music, his great-uncle had told him, was akin to magic even when not used for spellcasting. It kept tales of the past alive over thousands of years. It moved people, brought them together, granted hope in the bleakest of times. Its effects were nothing short of minor miracles. And he could well be about to witness one such miracle for himself.

He could picture the looks on his brothers' faces when they found out his playing and singing had impressed the likes of a deity. For all their tough talk, could they hope to match such a feat, if he put his all into this and pulled it off? A chuckle left his beak at the thought.

First, though, he'd need to do a little more asking around, just to make sure this was indeed the right place. And if he could get some busking in, all the better. Flying in the direction of the smoke rings puffing into the air, he descended towards East Akkala Stable. At the sight of several familiar figures clad in their signature jolly red, black and white attire, a grin lit up his face. "Hey if it isn't my favourite travelling troupe! How's touring goin- Oh."

Taking stock of the situation as he landed gave him the answer. His expression soured when he noticed the state of the Stable Heroes' prized wagon. A stablehand crouched at the Breezer's side, attaching a wheel, while Eustus pulled arrows from the back of the cart. Mastro, Violynne and Pyper sat dejected around a wooden table, while Beetz flipped crepes over the campfire, a taut smile on his face as he cracked jokes in an attempt to cheer them up. "Looks like there's been quite the downtempo turn!" Carmine hurried over. "What happened?"

Mastro looked up, his round face flushed, his usually neat hair and moustache dishevelled. "Ah! Carmine! Just the person who could help us out, if you don't mind."

The willingness of such renowned musicians to talk to him still struck Carmine as somewhat jarring. He'd learned how approachable they were from chatting with them after shows, once he'd gotten over being uncharacteristically tongue-tied, but it still took effort to put up the confident, high-headed air that would raise their spirits. "Always happy to lend a wing."

Mastro's face brightened a little. "You see, we were on our way here to investigate a rumour when Bokoblins attacked! We managed to outspeed them, only for our poor old Breezer to give out on us, and for the reins to break! Our horse, Quaver, went and ran away again." He gestured towards the north-west hills. "Dragging the Breezer here took everything out of us."

Beside him, Violynne gave a heavy sigh, chin propped against her hands as she rested her elbows on the table. "Thankfully all of us except the Breezer got out unscathed, but Hylia only knows where Quaver is. It took us forever to find her last time. So we could do with someone keen-eyed to look out for her. A grey mare with a white face, a black mane, and a red and black striped saddle... She shouldn't be too hard to spot from above."

As long as she isn't hiding somewhere, Carmine thought, and as long as I track her down before dusk. He suppressed a squirm as his father's words echoed in his mind, that he should give up trying to be any use to anyone. But no, he wouldn't let the Stable Heroes down. "No worries!" He squared his shoulders, puffing his chest up. "It'll be a piece of seed cake!"

"Oh thank you!" With a relieved smile, Violynne stood. "Here, before you go, this should help. Horses find this song soothing, so if you play even just the first few bars, you'll have an easier time approaching her." She took her violin and started up the same relaxing tune the Stable Heroes played most often on their tours. The same song Kass had sometimes played back at Rito Village before he'd left to travel again. The one that made listeners' stresses and strains melt away like the Hebra blizzard as the Upheaval's effects had settled. "Can you believe Epona's Song goes way back? Legends say an ancient hero used it to summon his steed to his side."

A song an ancient hero played? Carmine's eyes widened. "Huh, that's neat! If you can tell me more about that later, count me interested!" As intriguing as the song's history was, however, now wasn't the time to inquire. He grabbed his lute from his back and strummed his pinions against the strings, replaying each note, repeating each part a few times to commit the motions to memory.

He couldn't exactly say he knew much about horses, but he did know about music, and hopefully his speciality would come in useful here.

[AmJanky]

Collin

A moody grunt exited the horse, he had refused to go any faster than a walking pace.

He had wanted to make a left turn at Thims Bridge. He had wanted to make a left turn at Cephla Lake. He sure as hell hadn't wanted to go through the Akkala Parade Ground Ruins. His rider had said no to the chance of crossing the bridge with the monster hunters that they met along the way. But when they even passed on making a left turn to cross the bridge to Tarrey Town and went straight on... he'd called it quits.

Not that he knew what all those things were called, but he knew the routes. He knew where the good grub would be, and they hadn't visited even one stable or inn and he was getting hangry.

"I know you're done," Collin tried appeasing the beast with a pet, but even that got him more grunts, "so am I. A bedroll is hardly comfortable, you know."
As he shifted in the saddle every other vertebrate chimed in with a pop. He'd have followed up on all the left turns he didn't allow Fox to take, but he wanted to beat them to their destination.

"Look at all the rolling green hills, though, this place is a buffet for you. You don't get to complain about not getting snacks either." He gave up when he only got more and more impatient grunts from the nag.


After a while a soft melody started to sound from the distance, the telltale puffs of smoke wafted from the giant horse's head built on the roof of the tent. The stables could be seen for miles on a clear day. There returned a bit of pep to the step of the horse and when the notes of the melody started making sense Collin smiled.

Fox would have trotted up to the Rito that was playing the sweet little ditty. One that the musicians that banded around him often did, The Stable Trotters. Although at the moment they looked anything but stable, rather at the verge of a breakdown. The thing that had already had the breakdown stood with three-quarters of its wheels intact.

The angry grunts Fox exclaimed earlier got replaced for a curious blow out of his nose.

"He likes your song." Collin said, swinging a foot over the horse's neck and slid out of the saddle. "But this hardly looks like a scene where such a laid back tune is fitting."

He slung the rein loosely over his shoulder, Fox duly following his steps while he made his way over to the Rito that was playing.

[Sav'saaba]

With a flourish of her pen, Mabel marked the location of the latest cave she and Ashley had explored on the map spread out before her. She did so not with the little heart symbols she liked to dot her script with and that she had gotten really good at drawing on account of all the letters she had sent off to Kakariko over the years, but with a frowny face. Well-deserved, she thought with more than just a little indignance.

This exploration had turned out a dud, just like all the other caverns they had ventured to explore. So far one could still count their number on one hand, but Mabel recognized a pattern when there was one, unlike her twin. Who was a tailor. Fancy that.

Ashley was adamant that there had to be a kernel of truth to the rumours he'd picked up along the road from his fellow fashionistas, and insisted they would have to keep checking out every single subterranean monster den or forgotten grotto they would come across.

If those fabled treasures indeed were hidden in gloomy, dank caves all over Hyrule by some legendary thief, shouldn't there be a way to tell them apart from the regular gloomy, dank caves?

Mabel looked up from her ponderings, glancing at the siblings' travel packs sitting expectantly against a beam in a corner of the roadside safe haven. She reminded herself to not forget taking their swimwear off their make-shift clothesline before they hit the road again.

Bloodleaf Lake had made for a welcome diversion from musty caves and red herrings -herrings being saltwater fish after all- the day before, but the impromptu pool party was ended by a massive thunderstorm rolling in from the east. Akkala's weather had proven to be terribly temperamental. Zzzap!

A vague annoyance drove Mabel to fold up the map and stand, and she wondered just how long he was going to make her wait. She wasn't about to go and look for him just yet.  How far could he have gone, anyway?
Shortly before Ashley had gone missing from the stable, he'd been animatedly chatting with some other traveler staying at the stable, and it wasn't unthinkable they had gone for a stroll together. Possibly the aforementioned traveler knew something about Misko, and was pointing Ashley into the right direction. Something like that. She respected her twin's privacy.

While she waited for Ashley to return, she set out to pack up their swim clothes and moved from the Stable's tent onto its outside premises, only to be greeted by the aftermath of some mishap involving the Stable Trotters and their wagon.

A Rito decked in rufous plumage and carrying a lute was engaged with... Uncle Lin?! Although his back was turned to her, it was unmistakably her family member, even if the big butt of his beloved Fox standing beside him almost obscured him from her view. As she approached her uncle to languidly slink an arm over his shoulder, she interjected into the ongoing conversation, taking care to keep it out of earshot of the troubled troupe. She had caught that thankfully no one got hurt.

"I know you're not their biggest fan, but was that really necessary, unkalin?" she muttered, taking stock of the damages.

[LuckyBlackCat]

Carmine was just getting the hang of the song, the serene rhythm beginning to flow as smoothly as Violynne's, when it proved itself to work as stated. A Hylian rider astride a russet and white horse approached, the mount craning its neck and exhaling with curiosity. As he dismounted, the newcomer minced no words in making his opinion of the tune known.

"He likes your song. But this hardly looks like a scene where such a laid back tune is fitting."

With a click of his beak, Carmine paused his playing, holding back a caustic comment of his own. Best not to render the scenario any more fraught than it already was, no matter how set on doing so this guy seemed. Besides, someone else was quick to call him out on his unneeded sass, a young teal-haired Hylian woman who emerged from the tent and surveyed the damage.

"On the contrary, it's just the song for the situation," Carmine replied, extending a wing towards the horse, putting up the assertive demeanour he used to de-escalate incidents with troublesome spectators. "As you can see, it goes down well with audiences of the equine variety - appears to attract them, even. Which is what you want if you're searching for a horse that's up and bolted."

Violynne, giving another weary sigh, turned her head towards uncle and niece. "If you're wondering what happened, monsters happened. We were lucky to get out unhurt, and our Breezer should be good as new in no time, but our horse, Quaver, is still out there somewhere."

The stablehand by the wheel looked up. "I'll be honest, fixing it up won't take too long, but good as new may not be the most apt description. This old thing looks ready to fall apart if the wind so much as picks up. You sure you don't want us to build you a new one?"

Mastro gave him a stare of pure horror as if he'd just uttered blasphemy. "Whaaaat?! How could we even consider such a thing? Our Breezer is just as much a troupe member as any of us! It's priceless! Irreplaceable!"

While Mastro continued his fervent defense of the rickety old wagon, Violynne let out a soft groan and shook her head, the exhausted slump of her shoulders even more pronounced. "We're good with just the basic repairs, thanks. Anyway..." Her eyes turned back to the blue-haired Hylian, her expression growing hopeful. "You know a thing or two about horses, so you wouldn't be able to help us out if you have the time, would you? We'll recompense anyone who finds her."

"If you're up for that, company's always welcome!" Carmine chimed in. It'd make the whole not-letting-the-troupe-down thing a whole lot easier, especially if said company had experience with horses... so long as he didn't make any more uncalled-for quips. "Grey and white, black mane, red and black saddle. I'll keep a look out overhead." He adjusted his lute strap and resumed strumming Epona's Song, making sure he'd memorised each note.

Eustus, once he'd plucked the final arrow from the weathered planks of the Breezer, shuffled over. "Here, this should make things easier." He reached into his jacket pocket and held out a swift carrot. "Between her favourite song and her favourite snack, approaching her shouldn't be too much of a challenge."

[AmJanky]

The last few nights roughing it with the stars as his canopy and the days spent travelling - all the while praying to Farosh that the dragon would see fit not to unleash Akkala's usual weather and at every crossing cursing Malanya for making this awful horse have a tendency to veer left - didn't leave Collin in the best of moods, he admitted, but he'd simply made a remark, no harm meant, for once not even a hint of jest in his tone.

He had gotten off his horse and then couldn't help but feel beset upon; first by the Rito with a sharpness to his words and his feathers a bit ruffled and then his niece couldn't help but add coal to the fire, while he was still processing why that particular tone had to be used on him. He blinked at her statement a couple of times, not that she was particularly wrong, but he'd still never outright attack the troupe.

The breath he drew between his teeth did come with a smile, so far this not entirely great mood hadn't been anyone else's problem but his - and he wasn't at a point yet where he would consider making it anyone else's problem. He gave her a sideward glance and a nod towards the last arrow getting yanked out of the worse-for-wear buggy.

"Good to see you, as well-" Adopting her notably softer tone, "evidence does suggest it to have been Ash, though, and I don't see him around to receive this scolding." Leaving that Ashley wouldn't and it must have been those pesky bokoblin on the wild horses unsaid but evident. The buggers sure were resourceful and on horseback just that much faster and more dangerous as their grounded counterparts.

He knew of one other resourceful bugger that was just that much faster and more dangerous on horseback than his grounded counterparts. And was about to make a remark when the bard changed his tune and enlisted their assistance.

His attention drawn back to the songbird, left him unaware that at that very moment Eustace - the troupe's hornist - casually held out a carrot.
Collin was just a split second too late to grab the mindless menace of a mule's muzzle when Fox did take note of said carrot. He could have all the horse knowledge in the world, a nag like Fox wasn't going to let him prove it. The horse sure got a carrot out of it - with the possible addition of a finger or two - but paid that no mind while happily munched down on what Collin assumed was meant to be used to lure their missing mare.

"He'll take his payment up front, I guess..." His shoulders sagging, giving up the momentum of trying to grab the reins in time to pinching the bridge of his nose, while scrunching his face in defeat. Fox had a tendency to make any possible profitable situation into an I owe you.
"Let me just get this beast of a burden out of the way."

==

After having left Fox in a stall and with some proper nutrition, Collin made his way back to the distressed musicians. The Rito had once more grabbed his lute and played the same ditty again. He refrained this time from making any remark; might it be taken as another excuse to start a Riot. He did take time to properly greet his niece with a hug. That Ashley was off for a bit wasn't a weird thing - he'd follow some shiny trail of buttons or be out repairing a poor stablehand's pants that got torn - that was his business, and Collin figured the tailor would join them soon enough.

He stepped around the broken down cart while the crew busied themselves with replacing the wheel and other repairs. That the old beast of a cart still ran at all was a miracle, it had more dinks and dents than Collin cared to count - even in places that would suggest the thing had flown or floated at some point. But the most recent scratches told him enough.

"I'm guessing it were Boko archers that got to you?" He looked in the general direction they'd usually hang out, "I hear they're driving carts now too, thankfully they didn't steal yours. But if they got your horse, we're in for a treat."

[Sav'saaba]

Mabel exchanged a playful look with Collin after he had remarked on Ashley being the possible culprit, but at the same time it alarmed her to the fact that he had yet to see her twin around as well. She didn't get a moment to ask for the suspicion to be confirmed, however.

For all his bulk, Fox was a surprisingly swift horse. Mabel had learned not to have greens around when her uncle's trusty steed was not hitched and within a radius of a Lynel's territory, give or take. She had worked so hard on that salad, too, gathering the ingredients around camp and chopping up every vegetable to perfectly uniform size...

Eustus had not been privy to that insider knowledge. She could not suppress a giggle when the animal swiped the swift carrot to demonstrate its favorite party trick of making leafy things disappear to the gathered audience. The horse was, after wee Kio, her uncle's absolute pride and joy, and she knew Collin had a knack for dealing with beasts of burden. If anyone was cut out for returning a spooked horse back to its senses and its stall, it was him. The Stable Trotters would be performing again before nightfall, Mabel thought with a soft smile.

While her uncle had taken it upon himself to temporarily secure his delinquent dobbin, Mabel approached the Rito bard.

"I'll come, too," she told him. "I would've asked my twin to come as well because he's pretty good with a bow and arrow but he seems to be elsewhere right now..." she trailed off, her eyes darting around the premises to make certain he still wasn't around. It was then that Collin emerged from the stable and greeted her, properly.

After giving Collin a nice ol' squeeze of a hug, she crouched by the cart as her uncle assessed and voiced what they were looking at, aware that his guesstimation was more than likely correct.

The young mage was ready to set out.

[LuckyBlackCat]

Both Carmine and Eustus reeled back in surprise, the hornist letting go of the swiped snack a fraction of a second before the horse could nibble his fingers. "Skies above, are you alright?" Carmine asked. Were horses generally as chaotic as the winds he himself rode? He knew little about the beasts, aside from what he'd observed of the wild ones in Hebra's pine forests, and the few tame ones he'd seen at Rito Stable before its closure. Not that he'd let this on to the Stable Heroes.

Eustus chuckled. "I'm fine, and there are plenty more where that came from." Once the blue-haired man had secured his unruly steed in the pen, Eustus produced two more carrots, one of the bright orange swift variety, the other paler and double-rooted. An Endura Carrot. "It was just a reminder that it wouldn't be a bad idea to take along a spare."

As Carmine accepted the lures and tucked them into a belt pouch, the young Hylian girl approached.

"I'll come, too. I would've asked my twin to come as well because he's pretty good with a bow and arrow but he seems to be elsewhere right now..."

"Thanks!" he chirped. "Let's hope it doesn't come to blows, but if it does, I know a few songs that can give you an edge in combat." A frisson of envy simmered in the pit of his stomach at the healthy sibling dynamic it sounded like she had, heartwarming as it was. Were she and her twin like Kass and Amali's kids, prone to bickering yet close-knit and willing to look out for each other? Her warm family bond with the older Hylian she hugged, however, he could relate to, much like that between him and his own uncle.

In response to said Hylian's question as he strode past the battered cart, Violynne nodded. "I do hope they didn't catch her," she sighed. "All we know is she ran northwest."

Carmine, once he'd practiced the ditty one more time, strapped the lute to his back. "And between the three of us, we'll get her back faster than this other horse here can snap up a carrot!" He gestured to the russet-and-white stallion in the stall. "I'm Carmine, by the way. Carmine Levantera, a name you'll want to remember!" He drew himself up to his full not-so-impressive height, the grin tugging at his cheeks and the corners of his eyes hinting he was only half-joking. "And your names are?"