Free Enterprise

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017 ~ 2

Free Enterprise

I hung around the stable a bit longer, visited with the people again, loved on the dog some more—it started following me around a bit....

And then I went inside, and found Beedle snoozing away on the floor in the back. I remembered I wanted to check on the price of ten Luminous Stones versus the price of one Diamond, and so nudged him gently awake.

I did not expect his reaction then.

I don’t even remember how or why it happened; I didn’t feel like we really knew each other that well, but he just seemed so excited to see me....

He gave me an Ancient Arrow.

8O

I recognized it.

I recognized it from the teaser I’d seen ages and ages and ages ago! The one with Aonuma’s introduction—the one where Link was running from that terrible Guardian, riding away on a horse until he was cornered, whereupon he vaulted from his horse’s back, nocked the baffling arrow to his bowstring—it whirred and moved and glowed—and let fly.

Oh my gosh, Beedle just gave me one of those.

He told me he got it from a man named Robbie, at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.

!

Oh my—Robbie....? Purah had recommended I visit one called Robbie.... I’d forgotten all about him.... And I’d heard the name Akkala said here and there, but I wasn’t quite sure where it was.

But Beedle clued me in—he said Akkala was waaaay north of Zora’s Domain, and he told me that this Robbie was completely obsessed with ancient technology, always studying and experimenting and constructing things like this arrow....

North of Zora’s Domain? Those shrines I had seen from the clifftops of Upland Zorana.... And that Sheikah Tower patrolled by the hovering, red-lighted terror....

Were those Akkalan lands?

o__o

I certainly had a lot to think about.

But.... to the business at hand....

I looked at his wares and he looked at mine, and the going price for a Luminous Stone was seventy rupees, but a Diamond’s worth was five hundred.

So the Luminous Stones were more valuable by the tens.

Huh, perhaps I wouldn’t trade them all away to Ledo after all.... but I didn’t want to sell them to Beedle either.

I don’t know, I felt like I might want to keep them for something, their elemental values.... I felt like they must be used for something else, later....

Then again I know it is a bad habit of mine to hold in reserve, hold in reserve, hold in reserve for the WORST emergencies, until I simply find myself with unused hoards of stuff.

But I decided to lighten my pockets at least a little. I could spare a few Ambers, and I was not short at all on monster-bits. Bokoblin fangs and lizalfos horns might go for cheap, but when you’re carrying several score of each.... it adds up pretty quick.

And then suddenly I had over three thousand rupees.

I could buy that house in Hateno.

And instantly my mind began to make war on itself—Did I really want the house? Did I like the flavor of Hateno? Were there other places in Hyrule for me to live? Better places?

Because for some reason Hateno had always left a weird taste in my mouth. Maybe it was that I was so exhausted when I first got there. Maybe it was the sense of unease I’d had at the time. Maybe it was the proximity of the Yiga encounters, or the dread close hills haunted by that dratblasted Piano....

Maybe it was that encounter with SATAN.

But.... there were nice folks there, too, like that man who’d been so happy to show me around town. Or.... or.... um.... Karson and his fellows; they’d seemed pretty decent. And I guess that little kid who’d shown me the horned statue was pretty cute, albeit seemingly misguided in his sculptural preferences.

I guess I hadn’t really taken a lot of time to get to know the people there, either.

Except for Purah.

And she was weird.

But, with three thousand rupees in my pocket, the option was now open to me.

And that was more for me to think about.