Something’s wrong with the swamp. The Tourist Agency sent an advisory to Clock Town that the area is growing toxic and hostile. Most troubling of all is reports of some half-glimpsed creature no one’s ever seen before, with an indistinct body and the face of a white wolfos...maybe even a true wolf.
Kafei’s father, the mayor, rightly observes the swamp to be a bit far away and isn’t particularly concerned. The Curiosity Shop man, meanwhile, reads opportunity in the situation. Kafei doesn’t closely follow the details of the Curiosity Shop man’s greedy operations, but he has to lend a hand with the legwork sometimes in return for being consistently allowed to borrow a key to the backroom and use it as a part time living space. Some weeks after the news broke about the swamp, Kafei was asked to accompany the crook to the swamp for some underhanded business. Apparently the Tourist Agency in the swamp is facing a steep drop in business? And the Curiosity Shop man was able to pressure them into selling some valuable artifacts for less than they’re worth? “You’re bookish,” was the explanation Kafei got. “You’ll know more than me if they’re trying to turn me away with a fake.”
Kafei hates jobs that put him in too much danger and he hates jobs that take him too far from Clock Town. This one checks both boxes, and he shows the Curiosity Shop man a perfectly sullen front for the whole journey, even despite the owlish stare of the mask he borrows to hide his face on the job (a curious mask known by some as the All-Night mask). It’s been dark for a while by the time they reach their destination, and the man from Tourist Agency isn’t too thrilled to be at the meeting either. The Curiosity Shop man is all smiles conducting this little orchestra of dissent, tickled to have so much power and happy to return a richer man.
Kafei and the Curiosity Shop man don’t encounter a swamp creature with the face of a true wolf as they make their way home in the dark, artifacts in hand. But they do encounter a garden variety wolfos. One of the hungry ones. And there’s not a puppet string in the world that could keep Kafei from running for his life, with exactly the level of consideration for the Curiosity Shop man that the two of them showed the man from the Tourist Agency only an hour earlier.
In the context of being chased by a hungry animal, the direction you want to run is away from it. In the context of being between home and a toxic swamp, the direction you want to run is towards home. Unfortunately, these directions don’t line up for Kafei. When he manages to escape the wolfos, he keeps running just in case, giving no thought to direction. He finds a tree that looks climbable and situates himself in its branches for good measure. At this point he’s exhausted. It’s still dark, and the most sensible thing he can think to do is sleep as best he can. He isn’t aware that his borrowed mask has any particular effect on its wearer, and doesn’t know to take it off. He spends a miserable four hours staring sleeplessly into the dark. To make matters worse, there’s a bad smell in the air, and he can’t risk climbing down the tree and going somewhere else in case the wolfos finds him.
Day breaks, revealing toxic swampland in all directions.
Kafei hadn’t spoken at all during the meeting with the man from the Tourist Agency. He figures he might be able to weasel a night’s stay out of them if he shows himself as belonging to the Mayor’s family (of course he wasn’t able to fall asleep in a tree!). He climbs down from the tree and prepares for such a meeting, rearranging his clothes as best he can (the cloak can stay in the tree). He takes the mask off and arranges to carry it more discretely. Now, which way was the Tourist Agency...?
An hour later, the smell is worse, and Kafei’s practically asleep on his feet.
