Calling it Quits

Waking of Thursday, May 11, 2017 ~ 5

Calling it Quits

I started back toward the lake. I had climbed everywhere. I had searched everything. I even found a familiar-looking tree at the top of one hill, two little statues standing beneath it....

I didn’t have to consult my pictograph album; I’d looked at it enough that I knew this place. Besides, I could see the place to stand that would unlock another memory of mine. It was right there. I even stood in it for a moment.

Actually I was glad to have stumbled upon this one so accidentally like this. The pictograph reflecting this memory location showed the mighty bridge in the background. And I had seen that bridge and realized the connection during a time David’s Link was dinking around on the Plateau. But my Link wouldn’t have known about it then. He was probably off somewhere in Zorana still.

So that was a lovely happy accident.

But.... as I stood there.... the memory gleaming before me....

My heart just wasn’t in it.

I couldn’t recall it yet.

I needed to find Mei.

But I retained a rough idea of this hill’s location—and that of the aspen wood by the water I had seen before. I would recall those two memories soon enough.... but....

I was running out of juice either way.

“Is this really the end of the waterway?” I said, “Is this Lake Hylia?”

David was passing through the room. Knowing my aversion to spoilers, he nonetheless wordlessly raised one hand to about ear-height, threw it at the screen, held it open there for one second in blunt gesture, and then let it fall back to his side with a slap.

I took it as a Yes.

She had to be somewhere down there.... It had been such a long rummage all over this lake and the woods and the valleys and the hills and the clifftops.... Where was she?

I decided.... to call it a day, and warped from the hilltop back to the Ya Naga Shrine. I would rest there and.... pick it up later.

The sun was still shining when I rematerialized. Seemed like it would be still for quite a while. I climbed up out of the shrine’s grotto (it was below the lake’s water level) and just.... had a look around. They were quite blank little islets. The green must have come from algae and moss.

I hiked a little higher, just stalling; it never feels good to go to sleep with a job unfinished.

Something moved in the water between the island I stood on and a smaller slip of land just adjacent to it. A duck, looked like. I scoped in with my Sheikah Slate.

That wasn’t a duck, it was—it had a weird light blue tail hanging down behind it like some Arcadian Moonfish.... WAIT, that was—

My eyes—this had to be—

The light blue thing walked up onto the islet—tall, limber and erect on two feet.

It was a Zora.

IT WAS A ZORA.

She stood on the island, light blue skin, looking around—lost?

“Oh my gosh....”

I hopped up and ran to collect David, who was hiding away marathoning through Bond James Bond as he had taken to calling it.

He came with a sigh and an eye-roll; he’s been mad trying to get me to forget Mei and just CARRY ON WITH THE GAME ALREADY....

I leapt from the island’s little crest to paraglide to the strip where Mei was—AND THEN STOPPED, dropped, and saved....

“Oh my gosh....” David rolled his eyes.

....And leapt again from where I stood!

I landed beside her.

She seemed in fair health.

“The fish certainly are biting today!” she said, or something like it.

What was she talking about?

“Do you know Fronk?” I panted.

She stared at me.

She stared at me a little too long....

“He’s worried sick about you!” I pressed, “Your kids are worried sick about you!”

“Oh my goodness!” she started, her posture juddering inward, tensing up.

She’d.... gotten carried away. Fishing.

I mean Tumbo or Keye or Fronk had told me she was a fisherwoman, but....

“Here you can have these!” —she thrust a bunch of the fish she had caught into my hands— “I’ve got to get home!”

The screen briefly darkened. Came back to life.

And I was alone.

“That’s it?” David drawled through an incredulous grin.

I didn’t say anything.

He scoffed a laugh at the big dramatic conclusion to my long search.

I wanted him to go now, and told him so. “Go back to your Bond James Bond,” I said.

He did.

It felt.... soured.

Should’ve just left David to his movie.

But....

Would it have made a difference?