A Rocky Path

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 ~ 2

A Rocky Path

There was a shrine on top of the southern mountain of Dueling Peaks, and I wanted to get there.

And boy, was it a long climb. And wet with pouring rain.

I had wondered just how well my hood would protect me from the elements, as the shop in Kakariko had advertised. But.... as it turned out, it did not shield me from the cold all that well.

I had climbed so far, so high, on such slick, steep surfaces.... and I must have been so close.... But.... I turned around.

Running downhill was definitely easier.

I saw one little field below me, all grassy with a huge stone in the middle. And the thought honestly occurred to me, You know, that looks like some kind of boss-arena.

I kept running, and leapt up onto the big rock in the center of it.

And the rock started moving.

The whole gigantic boulder juddered to life and stood up on unseen little boulder legs and with stubby little boulder arms—like that creepy little golem I had encountered when I went to chop wood!

Music started.

Oh great, I thought.

Nope!

I was out.

I ran for the edge nearest the other peak and jumped onto the wind.

The boss’s name even appeared before I made it too far away—TALUS.... “Junior”, did it say?

Even the music followed me around the great mounded corners of the mountain. The pouring storm took a long while to swallow it up.

Would Talus too follow me down the mountain?

Oh gads....

A Proper Exploration

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017

A Proper Exploration

You know, my map really was an intriguing thing to look at—I’m crazy for topo; probably get it from my dad—and the names of all these amazing places! The Cliffs of Quince.... Mount Lanayru.... the Sahasra Slope.... Oakle’s Navel? What the heck was that? XD

Maybe I had felt less agile on my horse. Even though he was good for making hasty getaways.

But I really did want to explore more.

And so leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once ag—are you serious, Word? You’re not underlining that? That was just a guess; I didn’t know “excursion” had its own verb—this is really okay with you?

Goodness.

Where was I.

AND SO leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once again out over the rolling hills of the high ridge.

I really wanted to explore the Cliffs of Quince. Brokka [Toma] and I had ridden beneath them on our long trek through the rain; they were huge, and hollow beneath, held up by gargantuan pillars and natural bridges. But I wanted to see what was on top....

It turned out to be a wide, pleasantly grassy plateau, though baddies crawled over it like lost ants.

My Iron Sledgehammer nearly died in battle against a moblin.

I’ll have to pick one of the other ones up soon.

I also saw a few large holes where the shelf of rock had worn through, and you could see down into the giant hollow where the bokoblins made their camp.

Some mushrooms were growing on the rock a little way down from the top.

I had never seen anything so not worth it in my life.

Other wanderings brought me to crags overlooking Fort Hateno.

I could see the advance the Guardians had made, and a chill settled into my stomach.

Ughuhuhh.... those things....

I even had a brief peak into Oakle’s Navel, though I did not explore it.

Once I’d had my fill of the immediate area, I decided that I couldn’t be afraid anymore.

I would leave Brown behind, and Travel back to the Dueling Peaks Stable via the local shrine’s warp platform, and I was going to travel the road as I should first have traveled it, as I had meant to travel it: with a fine-toothed comb.

There may have been shrines I missed!

Concussive Logging

Waking of Monday, March 6, 2017

Concussive Logging

Well, Bolson wanted thirty bundles of wood? I’d get him thirty bundles of wood.

I left Brown by the house we wanted to buy—heh, I seem to have been including him in my first-person pronouns lately—and took off into the hills. That house (it takes a great deal of concentration to not say “my” house), being way up near the end of the village, opened right onto a grassy, hilly wilderness. And I knew there was a big stand of trees somewhere along the ridge....

There were also some moblins. Whom I bombed. Because I didn’t want to deal with them up close.

They are quite large, the moblins in this game.

Besides, I didn’t know just how long my Iron Sledgehammer would last.

But I know where two more of those are....

From dawn to dusk I was about this endeavor. But I didn’t know how long my axe would last either—and then it dawned on me: In bombing the moblin, I had accidentally knocked down a tree or two....

!

I could just blow up the whole forest! :D

And so some time that day I put away my axe, and only let the wild wilderness resound with the Gift of Ja Baij.

They’re very talented bombs. They could even turn fallen logs into wood bundles.

Cool.

And when the sky was darkening and I had felled every single thin tree in the vicinity (I left the thick ones alone), which came out to exactly the thirty bundles I needed, I climbed a hill to paraglide back toward Hateno Village again (it takes a great deal of concentration to not just say “home”).

As I sailed I saw someone with a lantern walking along the ridge through the tall grass.

“Who’s this?” I wondered, and slowed my flight, angling downward.

I landed next to her, and she was trying to think of a word.

Her name was Traveler.

Oh no....

“It starts with L and ends with K.... What was it again....?” she wondered.

I tried to, uh, help her out with suggestions such as Lurk, Lick and Leek, but none of those were it and.... soon there was only one option left.

“Link?”

As Luck would have it, that was the right answer. She looked happy as a Lark—a very evil Lark—as she dropped all pretense and gave me battle. She went down easier than the others had, but not for Lack of trying; I was just catching on to their fighting style. When they stand still, charging up an orange energy cloud, then is a good time to go Lunk ‘em on the head or slash ‘em with your sword or use whatever you’ve got. Dang Lank creepers.... Do they all keep finding me by chance, or is there some kind of information Leak among my friends? How do I keep my whereabouts under Lock and key....

Okay, Look, fine, I’ll stop. Gosh.

The Third Tower

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 17

The Third Tower

Away beyond the hills and dales by the house I had just asked for.... was another Sheikah Tower. I was so tired, the road had been so long and fraught with danger, but.... that tower was so close....

I went for it—and I tried to just avoid any conflicts I could help avoiding. Just to get to the tower, and activate it.

As I was climbing the last great big hill, I saw there was one moblin I could not avoid. And it was talking to some unseen companion—a bokoblin I could barely see beneath the roll of the land.

I still had my hammer. My trusty Iron Sledgehammer. My but those moblins were enormous....

Instead I tried my Phrenic Bow, and a few Fire Arrows.

Three hits took down the moblin, but the bokoblin I had to deal with in person. Easy enough, I just needed to get through....

But when I approached the tower—

Briars?

There were briars all over it! I couldn’t get close at all! I tried smashing them, I tried bombing them—they would not be destroyed!

FINE!

I found the one surface I could ascend and got up onto a platform. So it was to be a vertical maze with my stamina-meter ticking, was it? Well I had a few elixir-tricks up my sleeve....

It was a tight race, but I did reach the top, and when I did, and activated the tower, and it turned blue....

I

just

decompressed

for

a bit.

I was very high up—this tower was situated on a most prominent little spiraling kind of mountain in the midst of a huge span of valleys and canyons. I could see the whole world for miles and miles around me.... I could even see my (soon to be) house!

When I was ready, I set my face back toward Hateno Village and jumped off, paragliding to the brink of my stamina before I touched down again—it was a long, quiet, airy float.

And I found that, having launched from such a height, it brought me practically all the way back.

Well, a slope nearby the village anyway.

How neat. <3

Hateno Village

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 16

Hateno Village

Much of the end of the road was taken at a gallop; Hateno Village could not come soon enough, but come it did, under the dreary downpour. It was a weary end to a long journey.

Tired and wet, I rode straight through the village proper, walking Brown slow beneath me, sufficed only to glance numbly about as we moved. There were so many people, so many buildings to inspect and see what they could offer me—

But there was a shrine here, and, wrung out by the long road, I wanted to stick first to the essentials.

The Myahm Agana Apparatus gave me absolute fits.

I came out of the shrine in a higher part of the village where it was less crowded. A signpost stood nearby.

It advertised Bolson Construction homes, with an invitation to look at their model homes.

I turned to my left.

They were IKEA houses.

That put a tired little eye-rolling grin on my face.

I went inside one of them.

Unbelievable.

These were definitely IKEA houses.

My gosh.

Across a small bridge over a grassy little ravine, there was a nicer, more traditional-looking house.

As I drew closer I saw a man hammering away at one corner of it.

His name was Karson and he told me this house had been abandoned for some time, and that he and his fellows were demolishing it.

I went around back and found Mr. Bolson himself. He told me much the same thing; the empty house needed to make way for more of his live-inable lunchboxes.

The option arose to say.... “I’ll buy it.”

What the hey! I thought.

“I’ll buy it.”

50,000 rupees he said.

Now, rupees were scarce here. I hadn’t even seen so much as one blessed green one until after I had left West Necluda!

“Impossible,” I said.

“All right look....” he said again, and he offered to slash the price to 3,000 rupees IF I could also bring him thirty bundles of wood. Building materials, you know, he said.

So I said I’d do it.

And we parted ways.

I did speak to the third and last man first, though, and his name was Hudson. He told me I looked pretty strong, and that maybe I could work for Mr. Bolson too. But when he found out my name was Link, he said that was too bad, and they couldn’t take me on anyway. When I asked him why not, he said Mr. Bolson only hires people whose names end in “-son”.

“‘Builds team unity,’ he says,” said Hudson.

Shrouded

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 15

Shrouded

The rain came down in a thick grey haze that swallowed the world.

We couldn’t see far. We just kept riding the road, passing rocks where bokoblins jumped out at us, galloping away from them.

And I kept looking around.

Places another me would have stopped to go explore.

Which was worse, the Guardians or these Yiga Clansmen?

The Guardians. Definitely.

But that still didn’t make the road feel any less threatening.

On the road to Kakariko it was just the monsters that were coming after me. Now there were people, too?

I remembered I had been so pleased to first see Brigo’s face on the road to the Dueling Peaks—

Back through the haze to my right, up on a hill against the rocks, a white-haired man sat still on a pale, grey-mottled horse.

Was he waiting for me to come speak to him?

Waiting to try to kill me?

I couldn’t make out his features through the downpour.

Actually he reminded me of that guy from The Witcher III.

He just sat there on his horse.

Watching us as we walked.

I had been happy to find people, but now....

Who could I trust?

This is why all Heroes are called Fools

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 14

This is why all Heroes are called Fools

The rain slicked over my Hylian Hood.

Brokka [Toma] and I walked on, soaked, our horses’ hooves endlessly clopping, clopping, clopping over the dirt and slush.

There was so much we were passing by, so much that.... I would have wanted to explore. But I somehow felt safer in Brokka’s company. Safer in the footsteps of a sprite for which the game must always have an escape, surely....

As we passed by some towering cliffs on the other side of a wide river to our right—the Cliffs of Quince, beneath which some bokoblins capered about their campfire—I saw a woman sobbing by the side of the road.

Brokka didn’t stop.

I paused.

Brokka kept going. I didn’t want to lose her.

But who was this crying woman?

This didn’t feel right. This didn’t feel right at all.

Surely this woman needed help.

But I wanted to stick together with Brokka.

What if this was a trap?

Brokka moved further and further ahead through the rain, without me.

Two Roads Diverged.

“All right Brown stay here,” I murmured, and dismounted. I wanted to make this quick.

But the woman had no name.

She was only a Traveler.

Uh-oh....

She was crying because she wanted some salmon.

“And.... and also....” she stuttered.

“The life of the Hero!”

She transformed just the same, into the lithe and lanky thing, reddish, quick, deadly.

Well I’d taken the scythe of the last one—and his bananas and his rupees!—and we fought blade against blade.

Or was this where my Eight Fold Blade finally wore out and shattered?

I don’t remember....

I defeated her. And took her scythe and bananas and the rupees she dropped.

The bananas were from somewhere called Faron.

I wondered if that’s where this Yiga Clan was based....

I climbed back on Brown and raced ahead to find Brokka again.

Safety in Numbers

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 13

Safety in Numbers

I had wandered back into the spread of hills by the stable some time before, looking for I don’t know what. But oh what a beautiful all-black horse I had seen. I followed after it day and night, trying to tame it.

The first time I’d crept up on it, I had approached it from directly behind.

It kicked me in the face before I had a chance to jump on. Sent me rolling and took off some hearts.

I was more careful in the future.

But no matter how many times I mounted it—four? five? six?—I always ran out of stamina before the thing stopped bucking.

I even considered using a stamina-replenishing potion to try and hang on a little longer....

But as I followed it and its fellows deeper into the hills, they began to wander among the big rusted Guardians.

And one of them came to life.

“NOPE. No thank you, goodbye, gotta go, the end, I think NOT.” Or some such ramblings I spat as I crept away backwards, staying in the sight-shadow of a really dead Guardian.

Those hills were bad enough with the octoroks in the river, but.... with Guardians on the other side?

....

I didn’t like that place anymore.

Unfortunately that little valley was right what the road to Hateno Village wound through—Through scads and heaps of these Guardians, on all sides, frozen in their stretching, reaching, crawling.... All of them dead?

Or just waiting?

Brokka [Toma] came along the road again, back on her brown-spotted horse, and I followed her on my own horse at the same walking pace. Surely she, a non-player character, would only tread where those terrible still-living Guardians would not be nor attack.

Brown knew to follow the road. I didn’t need to guide him.

The Guardians loomed on all sides as we walked in silence.

It was a slow and torturous terror passing each one, not knowing as we approached whether its gears would start to grind, its eye would gleam in searching blue, its head begin to swivel looking for things to kill, to incinerate....

Our horses so slow and steady, the air so very still, everything so quiet.... The road felt like a tightrope....

Oh gads I couldn’t stand it....

However, Brokka did make a break for it when a couple of bokoblins jumped out of the brush.

So did I.

I couldn’t stand it! When we had escaped the bokoblins Brokka slowed down again, but I did not pull Brown back from his gallop—through more and more and MORE of the Guardians—until I had passed through the ruin of a portcullis in some kind of large stone wall. There were trees beyond—

I pulled back on the reins, but Brown’s momentum was too great. He had to jump over a small boulder before he came to a halt, whinnying. I patted him, and he gave me a little more love.

He’s a good horse.

The place was called Fort Hateno. There seemed to be some shambling wooden stairs and scaffolds on this other side, I guessed so people could more easily defend it.

Clouds began to brood, and the rain began to fall.

Brokka caught up.

There was a campfire, and plenty to explore.

But I did not want to linger.

Those Guardians, even dead, were too close.

I stayed with Brokka as she continued toward Hateno Village.

Encounter at Kakariko Bridge

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 12

Encounter at Kakariko Bridge

There was one other thing Impa had told me about the calamity.

There had been some, indeed there still were some, who had fled, deserting over to Ganon’s side. They called themselves the Yiga Clan.

She warned me to take care on my travels, for they might come after me with whatever devious, underhanded methods they could devise. For the Yiga Clan’s aim was to bring down the one that most threatened their dark lord Ganon—the Hero of Legend.

Me.

After coming down the mountainside where I’d met Mr. Hestu, I’d thought it was just another friendly cinematic ensuing. There was a man, in the mountainshade just north of Kakariko Bridge. He waved me down from a great distance.

I’m not sure if there would have been a way to avoid this, come to think of it.

Every person I’d talked to in this game so far had had his name displayed at the top left of his speech-boxes. But this person was just called “Traveler”.

Oh, would he introduce himself to me? Was this a sidequest?

He brought up the Yiga Clan.

Yiga Clan? I asked.

He told me their aims. He asked if I wanted to join.

I said No.

When was the turn....?

When did he suddenly look at me hard, and say....

“I will take your life!”

And his disguise fell away—was he even human still? His form became tall, lanky, lithe and deadly. His face was masked in a red design on white, and he carried a viciously carved blade.

I was in a battle for my life—he was so fast—he was hard to reach—he kept leaping out of range—running at me—striking me—disappearing and reappearing right overhead to cut me—

But I took his life first.

I panted in the shade of the mountain, and saw movement to my left.

“Brokka?” I called.

She was walking slowly down the stone steps of Kakariko Bridge, onto the dirt road.

I guess she hadn’t seen.

I greeted her when she came close, and we talked about ore, but....

That Yiga Clansman.... it had been so vicious....

I didn’t think they would be after me so soon....

So they knew who I was.... maybe knew my face....

I whistled for Brown to come from where I had left him further up the incline, and mounted up.

A New Quest

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 11

A New Quest

Impa also looked at my Sheikah Slate, and told me some of its functionality was.... off. She said to go see her mentor away in Hateno Village, at the end of a very long road to the east. All I had to do was go back southward the way I had come, and then turn left at the crossroads, just before the stable.

But I decided to stay near town for a bit to gear up first. It would likely be another long, long road.

I played with some little girls, Cottla and Koko, the children of.... was it Cado or Dorian? One of Impa’s doorguards anyway. I helped Koko cook a dish (“KOKO’S KITCHEN”?? I SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE. XD) and I tried so hard to play hide-and-seek with Cottla, but.... gosh I could never find her.

I also went to see a Great Fairy the villagers told me lived above the village.

Her name was Cotera, I think, and I was nervous and cautious as ever as I entered her high forest. I moved so slow, treading so carefully and far away from that thing I saw in the water over there in the middle....

As it turned out, it was only a frightening-looking cocoon of some kind the fairy was buried in. Her power seemed to have dimmed and she would not come out.

Not until I brought her a hundred rupees anyway. And then! Out she leapt, blonde, pretty, face all made up, covered all over by the gaudiest jeweled chains and links and scales and ornaments, and.... only a little on the husky side. Huh!

Well no matter. In return for my generosity, she offered to upgrade my clothing, granting it better defense against unfriendly attack.

I told her to hold that thought, and went into town and bought some new clothes. I’d found some Hylian Trousers long ago on the Plateau, in a chest, but now I got a Hylian.... tunic? A top anyway, and a Hylian Hood.

And then back up the hillside I went, and she blew her fancy magic all over my clothes, blessing them with stronger defense.

The roads were long and scary.

I figured I’d best be prepared.

Impa's Message

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 10

Impa’s Message

Impa told me much of what King Rhoam had told me back on the Plateau. Hyrule had fallen, and Ganon had slain the King, and the Champions, and taken over the Sheikah relics of the Guardians and the Four Divine Beasts.

She told me there was a message that the Princess Zelda herself had asked her to deliver to me. But I had to be ready to hear it. Was I willing to risk my life?

What did she want me to do? I thought, Is there some kind of task I need to do right now? Some baddie I need to go fight on my what four measly hearts here?

She told me that she would not deliver Princess Zelda’s message to one without the resolve to do what needed to be done.

Well—

I thought about the weapons I had with me....

Yes, I told her, I would hear the Princess’s message, and do.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” she said with a smile at my determination to do what was right, to fight for justice, even though I didn’t have a memory to my name.

The Princess’ words to me were....

Free the Four Divine Beasts.

So I needn’t have worried for the immediate future.

Free the Divine Beasts.

That thing David and I had seen on the volcano. That was one of them. Had to be. Looked like the picture Impa had showed me in her tale. And that thing far away in the sky, that thing I thought looked like the Valuans or the Delphinus and that David thought looked like the Avengers. That was another one.

And Impa used the word infiltrate.

But those things.... they must have been huge.... gargantuan. Massive beyond all imagining. From the Plateau Tower the Dueling Peaks and the great volcano in the distance had seemed nearer the same size. But in my long, long travel, the enormity of the peaks had come and gone, and still the volcano loomed.

And still that thing crawled upon it.

My gosh.

Just.

My gosh.

Kakariko Village

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 9

Kakariko Village

The road veered toward the left, and towering canyon walls rose up on either side of me. Strange, decorative posts and ropes with flags and things began spanning the road, anchored into the stone overhead. And before I knew it.... I had arrived at Kakariko Village.

The first person I saw was a woman named Nanna. She seemed to have twisted her ankle, but when she saw my Sheikah Slate, she insisted that the first thing I do be to go to Lady Impa’s house. She showed me which one it was, the big one just in front of the waterfall.

I walked my horse down into the village. All the people—Sheikah, I assume—had white hair. The atmosphere was very.... Japanese.

I dismounted in the center of town, and approached Impa’s house. Two men, Cado and Dorian, stopped me as they guarded the stairway. But like the woman Nanna, urged me to hurry inside at the sight of the Sheikah Slate.

This thing must have been very important.

At the top of the outside steps, on the wrap-around patio just outside the front door, a girl saw me and covered her face, trembling, and stammered, “A man!”

I wondered what the culture here was like.

Her name was Paya and she suffered from a bad stutter. But she was kind. And kinda cute.

She invited me into the house.

Impa was a bent, tiny old woman, a little reminiscent of the ancient shamans I had seen in the shrines I had visited.

She asked me if I recognized her.

I didn’t.

How old was this woman....?

Travelers Like Me

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 8

Travelers Like Me

Farther away from the Great Plateau, I saw more people on the road. They walked easily along, and it was refreshing to see other friendly faces.

Brokka was a lady merchant who gave me a few good tips on mining the ores around the area. Bugut specialized more in.... meats, was it? I think. Possibly. That may have been someone else.

Bugut I always saw on foot, but occasionally I would see Brokka riding a brown-spotted horse.

It was just nice to have company now and again.

[But I should mention....

It took me a while to realize that the woman with the brown-spotted horse was not Brokka after all, but a different woman named Toma, who fancied herself a great fashionista and was always remarking on my attire.

Maybe I’d gotten the two ladies mixed up in a town somewhere.... for Toma was never astride her horse when conducting business in a town. And Brokka didn’t have a horse.

Ah well. It was still just nice to have company now and again.]

Mr. Hestu

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 7

Mr. Hestu

As the land climbed quite sharply on a deep-green grassy slope, I approached an unmistakable figure, subtly bobbing and bouncing rotundly to the right of the path.

It was a very large Korok.

I approached him. He had great, uh, bushy eyebrows? Made of bark? And a giant goatee of a single Deku Leaf hanging from his nose.

It was, indeed, Mister Hestu.

He was sad because some monsters had stolen his maracas. He pointed where they went, and Link was on the job!

I’ve become quite fond of attacking bokoblins from higher ground. This makes it easier to roll bombs down at them while also avoiding detection.

It took a while but eventually I had blown them all up and retrieved the maracas.

Hestu was so pleased to have them back. But! he said, the Korok Seeds inside them were missing. Oh, he lamented, Leave it to his fellow Koroks to play such a dirty trick on him! He sniffed.

And then he perked up and sniffed some more—he could smell the seeds I had! For I’d collected quite a few of them from the Koroks hiding all over.

And so I gave him Korok Seeds and he upgraded my carrying capacity! MORE WEAPONS, huzzah!

But he had to go after only two transactions. It seemed he was wanted somewhere, or late for something. But he told me to come find him, in.... what did he call it... the Korok Forest?

I do hope I run into him again.

Fearful Nights

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 6

Fearful Nights

I’d been able to explore far off the road when I was just on foot. But I decided to ride Brown the rest of the way to Kakariko Village.

It was night when I started out.

I started out very slowly. Just a walk, really. Because I didn’t want to miss anything. And also because I didn’t want to plunge headlong into dangers.

I started following the road to the north....

Beast Ganon from Twilight Princess barreled left to right far ahead across the road—

I must have vocalized somehow before I sighed with a shiver and said, “Oh it’s just a goat....” It had been much closer to me than I thought. Not as big, not far away. Just a goat.

David sniggered at me.

And, knowing the brotherly ridicule this would bring, I said, “I thought it was Ganon.”

“Why are you so afraid of everything in this game?” he laughed, “It’s not a horror game.”

Huh. Tell that to the Dead Hand. Or the Silent Realms. Or perhaps all of Majora’s Mask.

I rode on, still slowly, stopping now and again to climb a hill or a rock, finding apples, mushrooms, bugs, lizards, minerals and other things, and a treasure chest or two.

Brown

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 5

Brown

This was a stable. One of a network of stables, really, though I don’t remember their name. I don’t think they had one; this one was just the Dueling Peaks Stable. It seemed to be run by some twin brothers. In fact, as pointed out to me by Sagessa, most of the people there were twins. “It’s kind of creeping me out,” she said.

They said you could go out east into the little spread of hills and find a wild horse to catch and tame, for they were easy to be found out there, though allegedly not in the numbers they used to be.

The little kids told me spotted horses were easier to tame than one-color horses.

Somehow.... I guess I must have talked to one of the main brothers too long—I became involved in some kind of horse-taming contest. The time-limit was two minutes.

And suddenly I had to go catch a horse.

Uhhh... okay, I’d thought. And off I trotted.

They were easy enough to find. A group of four was grazing near the river. One of them was a beautiful red color, with a slightly lighter red mane. Oh I wanted that one. I snuck up behind it easy enough, but when I got on, I didn’t soothe it—I pushed the wrong button—and it bucked me off and ran away.

Well, the contest clock was still ticking, so I went after a nearby brown one instead, with a dark muzzle and four white socks.

I snuck up, got on, pushed the correct button to soothe it down and seemed to.... remain seated.

I steered him back toward the stable, but he turned and slowed and chuffed and snorted at me—I didn’t want to try to go too fast, but I got him going mostly in the right direction—I had to correct him at whiles.

I didn’t make it all the way back before the time ran out though.

The cinematic whisked me straight back to the stable, where the brother told me I’d lost.

Well, whatever, that was fine with me; I’d wanted the red one anyway.

But when I looked toward the first hill, the brown was still there.

I went up to him, and he didn’t run away.

Oh no, had I broken him?

I was able to mount him without a problem.

Could I return him to the wild in this state?

Could he still live out there?

But I’d really wanted that red one....

Well . . . .

This one had come with me, and had shown me affection, even if only a very little bit, as I soothed him as he did the right things....

I couldn’t leave him abandoned out here.

I registered him with the stable for twenty rupees, and they threw in a locally-made saddle and bridle for him.

And I named him . . . . Brown.

The Stables

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 4

The Stables

It really began to rain as I continued along the higher track on the lee of the north peak. There were two shapes that kept swimming up and down the river. Gyorgs maybe. I didn’t want to get close enough to find out.

Visibility was awful. Everything was grey. And climbing the rocks became much more difficult in the rain, even with my bandana on.

But when it did clear up, I saw a large structure, out on the green on the other side of the pass between the peaks.

I paraglided over to the south side of the river, where the proper road was, and climbed a tall wooden tower (there was a chest with a boomerang on top). And from there I observed this structure.

It looked like a circus tent, the upper reaches of which were shaped like the gigantic head of a horse.

And there was the bridge.

I crossed it – and there were people. And animals! And smoke and fire and bundles of hay and pitchforks and provisions and a pen full of goats—

There were people!

And Beedle was there with a great backpack full of goods to sell!! 8D

The first person I reached was a young woman, and her name was Sagessa. “This is the life,” she said of standing near the cool little pond against the mountain, in which stood another glowing shrine.

What a very pretty sight and greeting, after so long on the rough, rough road.