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Pons appeared in the air of Ikana, falling rather unceremoniously to the ground as the tune around him faded. He sat up and rubbed his head, looking around. Yup, the valley was just as gloomy and full of monsters as he remembered it. The mummy-like gibdos were meandering around without a purpose as usual, not having noticed Pons yet. Surely this place would constitute as dangerous. Perhaps the little skull kid could even find someone called a Hero here? With that intention in mind, Pons set off to find someone amidst the ruins.

Pons ran all around Ikana, searching for somebody sentient among the Gibdo and sand. For a while, he found nothing. A few times he thought he heard voices, but didn't see anybody. Just some crumbly old ruins and an old-looking research facility, which likely was empty, as few were brave enough to leave civilization and study among the ruins. There were some crazy enough though.
He eventually stumbled upon the outside of the Stone Tower Temple, or what was left of it anyways. It was mostly in ruins, as it wasn't like there was maintenance to keep it maintained over thousands of years. Pons stopped to look at the ruins, wondering if someone might be hiding in them. Surely a Hero wouldn't be hiding, although he wouldn't be surprised if they were lurking around in abandoned ruins. That sounded like something a Hero would do. Perhaps it would be worth a l-
He spun around, startled by someone calling out -- probably to him. He stared at the girl in front of him, long black hair, thick rimmed glasses, and a white lab coat. Pons took a few steps back, putting a decent amount of space between them. "....Hero?" He asked, staring up at her. She didn't look like the type of rugged adventurer he was imagining, what with the crisp white coat, though you could never tell in this world. And besides, she was in Ikana seemingly without any fear of the creatures within, so Pons had to give her credit for that.

Pons stared at the woman, not quite sure if she was just awkward or out of breath or what. He tilted his head, frowning at the mention of some Hero's Test of Courage requiring you to be older than fifteen. He wasn't quite sure what she was referring to, but didn't like that she thought he was some child... even though he totally was. "Much older than fifteen! Older than you! Probably." He said, crossing his arms with a certain smugness. Though, thinking about it, he had no idea what a Hero's Test of Courage was... maybe it would help him find a hero? "...What is, Hero's Test of Courage?" He asked, dropping the irritated feelings from before.

Pons bit his cheek, glaring up at the woman. It was evident that she didn't believe him, and though it took a stab at his pride who could blame her? Skull Kids were small, and literally had 'kid' in the name. He also hadn't matured very much due to a number of things, so even claiming to be fifteen was hard to believe, and claiming to be 'much older than Nami' was even harder.
Still, he wanted to know what this Test of Courage was. Not only because he was just interested, but he also got the feeling that if he could find someone who'd completed and done well on it, they might be a good Hero. "Hmm...." He said, crossing his arms and looking around him in thought. He thought back as far as he could, and tried to count the days. "Ten... fifteen... nnnn..." It was obvious he was struggling. Finally, he gave up and lashed out. "I don't know! Hundreds!" He was practically shouting at her. He stared for a minute, then sighed. "Lost track. I can't remember." He said in defeat.

Pons kicked at the ground in defeat, staring at a bug crawling by. He glanced up at Nami as she began, his face brightening as he gave him another chance. He tried to think back as far as he could, looking around at the rocks. Staring at the ruins of the stone tower temple, he had a thought. He'd remembered upon entering the location that it had been a long time since he'd been here, definitely well over fifteen years. Probably more than fifty. Or over one hundred years, even! Surely he could convince her with that!
The oldest thing he could remember. Pons pointed at the remnants of the temple. "Long time ago! There was a temple here! Really crumbly now, but... looked like this!" Pons leaned down and started carefully drawing in the dirt with his finger. The drawing was rough, but had the shape of the long abandoned stone tower temple, from the outside of course. "I was playing flute! And..." He paused, staring at the ruins for a moment. "Oh! There were people here! Other than Gibdo. Maybe exploring, maybe living here... I don't know." He said with a casual shrug. "They talked about 'get the treasure before those filthy Gerudo get here!' ...or something... But they ran at me with a sword, so I had to leave. And I have not been here since!" He said with a happy-go-lucky smile, promptly ending his story.
He looked at Nami once more, eyeing her to see what she may be thinking, then turned back to the ruins. "Long time ago. Very long. Never seen so many hylians here." He said with a frown, knowing that the area had been completely devoid of civilization for quite a long time. Like Pons said, he'd not returned to this place since he was attacked, presumably for treasure or some such trivial thing. Pons didn't have his mask at the time, so it wasn't like they were just attacking a kid, though they were definitely out of line.

A smug smile crossed Pons' face, glad that he'd proved his age. For a split second he thought she was just appeasing him, but it soon became evident that at the very least she knew now that he was older than fifteen. "Mhmm." He nodded along, kicking the sand at his feet and scratching out the drawing of the old Stone Tower Temple.
"Thank you." Pons said sweetly as she commended his bravery, relishing the praise that just seemed to keep coming. In fact, he was thinking about it so much that given enough time he would have grown concerned that it was just a trap set by this woman so that she could capture him and eat him or make him her personal servant or Nayru knows what! Of course, her sudden mention of Champions took him away from this thought, and he only had the thought flicker across his mind before dismissing it.
He was just about to ask why she would need a champion, whatever that would entail, when she offered for Pons to take the Hero's Challenge. That was what Pons came here for, after all. He eyed her for a moment, then cautiously nodded as the wind kicked up again, sand blowing around them. "Okay. What the challenge?"

Pons followed behind the woman as she described this challenge that he would be partaking in. The adjectives that may have been fright-inducing to some only made him more curious. What sort of challenge could be so dangerous, yet they could keep it up and running? And what sort of person could complete said challenge? Surely the Hero he was supposed to be looking for could!
She brought him to a large tower, albeit it was no grand structure like the word might imply. In fact, quite the opposite, this building looked like it was going to crumble at any moment, making Pons wonder what sort of challenge this really was. Anything he was picturing would surely cause the building to collapse in on himself. "Zombies?" Pons said questioningly, his flute appearing in his hand. "Yes, I am ready."