On The Joys Of Mountaineering

Waking of Friday, October 12, 2018

On The Joys Of Mountaineering

From the Spring of Wisdom and the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine I swirled my snowy way down and around the mountainsides, tracking Koroks—I hadn’t known they could hide in ice! And during one sweeping paraglide, the wind began to pick up, and I knew....

Turning, I saw that Naydra had descended again; he was twining westward, toward the Lanayru Road.

I’d had to sacrifice his scale to the Spring of Wisdom before, but this time.... I wanted a piece of him and I wanted to keep it!

I sailed after him. But he already had such a head start, and he was such a gigantic creature and his head was already so far away.... I’d wanted a hornshard, but.... A scale would have to do.

I pelted his crystal Caribbean hide with an arrow and chinked off a scale. It glittered for a moment before breaking off and sailing down toward the earth.

And I realized I might have made a terrible miscalculation.

We were still so high off the ground, Naydra and I. We were essentially floating out from the peak of one of the tallest mountains in the game. The ground.... was an immaterial thing, at these heights.

But it quickly became material, as I saw the scale break off and arc, and arc, and arc down through the sky, on a trajectory that took it far beyond the icy mountain, away from the Lanayru Road, away from anywhere I’d ever been before....

It smashed against an unfamiliar mountainside on the other side of a large, dark body of water.

I kept sailing toward it, casting an unsure glance at my stamina wheel....

I had to paraglide all the way over Lanayru Bay to a place called Trotter’s Downfall, shedding altitude in great chunks near the end, for I wasn’t sure I was going to make it....

I hit the sodden green earth on my last red sliver of strength, and David and I laughed in relief. A short jog later, the scale of Naydra was mine.

But I made a mental note to not try knocking off pieces of dragons at high altitudes again, before warping back to the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine.

My wanderings over Mount Lanayru brought me easterward until, in a saddle near the sea, but still high enough to be snowbound, my shrine detector started going off. I ignored it for only a little spell, just to climb a certain Walnot Mountain while I had the altitude on my side.... and then headed back toward the lower spot where the signal was strongest.

A Korok distracted me something sadistic along the way. It was a race. From the saddle down to the lower crag’s edge.

Paragliding? No, I couldn’t sail down there fast enough.

What about a long, straight paraglide followed by a sharp drop at the end? That almost worked.... but not quite. And it hurt on the landing.

I tried a few combinations of paragliding and shedding altitude.... all to no effect.

What about the straight up bone-breaking approach of just running down the mountain? No good. That didn’t work either. And it hurt even more.

Difficult Korok....

I stopped to get the shrine partway through my efforts for the Korok just to quiet the brreep-brreeping of my Slate. It lay behind some explodable rocks between the saddle and the crag; I’d been flying over it at each pass to get the Korok.

The Tahno O’ah Shrine it was called. And when I finally unearthed it, the shrine quest banner title Secret of the Cedars flashed across my screen, with a Complete status now affixed to it. Who knew! I’d forgotten.... Somebody had told me long ago.... those three trees on the mountain.... Line them up and they’d point to a trial encased in stone....

Guessed that was the shrine.

Tahno O’ah was kind enough to simply grant me his blessing, and in the accompanying treasure chest, I found....

CLIMBING BOOTS. SWEET.

So the Bandana was part of a set!

And I thought.... I’d found that Bandana nestled back in the Dueling Peaks, in the Ree Dahee Shrine.... And here on this mountain were the Climbing Boots.... Hmm, climbing gear found on mountains.... Maybe on another mountain somewhere, I would find a climbing shirt!

I exited the shrine and once again made the arduous climb back up the snowy hillside to the race’s start on top of the saddle. I hadn’t been able to use my Climber’s Bandana, on account of having to wear both the Warm Doublet and the Ruby Circlet to stay warm. Unfortunately my new Climbing Boots couldn’t help me out much either; I needed my Snow Boots to maintain a decent mobility.

Soon.

I tried for the Korok again. Got close but just not quite there....

Enter David. “Oh THAT one,” says he.

“Why what a knowing grin you wear,” says I.

I asked him if he’d used the paraglider. He said he hadn’t. It was a simple trick, he said.

But I had only complicated guesses. “You started the race up here, and you finished with your actual person down at the finish? There wasn’t like.... some kinda Ben Statue trick?” “Did you use the Ninja Suit?” “Did you ride an animal?”

His brows shot up and he frowned at that last one. “Good guess,” he said. But no, it was simpler than that, he told me.

“You didn’t paraglide?” I almost pleaded for the umpteenth time. This Korok was driving me crazy. “And it wasn’t clothes?”

“....You’re wearing it,” he finally said.

I immediately thought of the Sheikah Slate. “Did you Stasis something? Magnesis?”

“No.”

I was flicking into my menus; I studied my person....

And with a groan I saw it—my shield.

“You shield-surfed?”

“Yes!”

“Augh....” I’d forgotten all about shield-surfing.

I went to the map.... There, around to the left. That topo looked smooth enough to try it. It bowed wide of the target, where I would have preferred a beeline. But.... I’d give it a try....

And I did.

And it worked.

“Good job!” said David, “I’m so proud of you!”

Hahh. “Thaaaaanks,” I said. |D

The Lamb

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 5

The Lamb

I was brought back to the top of the mountain, to the Spring of Wisdom.

The Goddess statue spoke again.

“Thanks to your efforts, Naydra, the spirit

of Mount Lanayru, has been freed from

the grips of an evil power.”

The dragon was once again coiled atop the mountain, but he looked much better, the arching curves of his long body more alive, less weighed down, his great taloned feet strong on the snow and ice beneath him. His great head he held, low and docile, above the spring. Eyes so bright....

“But a single ceremony remains. Now...

Loose your arrow through the body of

Naydra to free the spirit of this region!”

What?

Naydra still lay.... stood.... coiled, there, head hung low beneath his beautifully arched neck. I’d never seen a dragon still as this before. And getting a chance to actually look at him, he was.... just....

His eyes so bright and yet so calm, wells of peace, outward facing as a deer or a horse, such long beautiful eyelashes, drooping, funneled llama-ears hanging down, and his flexing, moving, unsplit, camellike muzzle.... Was he really a scaled creature? It looked almost like a fringe of fur, hanging down from his upper.... lip. Whiskered. Fuzzed. So that the mouthline could not be seen. Like a grazing creature. Patient. Peaceful.

In that moment especially, the blue spirit Naydra really did seem.... as a lamb.

And I held the knife.

I did take a few pictographs first, some of them, I’m only a little sorry to say.... somewhat irreverent. Like standing as if in deep and oblivious thought with his man-sized, all-rending claws behind me....

It was funny.

And I tried to touch him, too. But, even when he was still, the force and chill of his body sent me sprawling back, taking a tiny bite from my health each time.

All right.

I went back to the platform. If it was to be a bowshot, I wanted to try for a hornshard. Giving the honors to the Phrenic Bow that had served me so well, I took careful aim, and landed a shaft in the crystal-blue horn a third-way up from the dragon’s brow.

At the contact, Naydra took off, this time rearing straight up into the grey, grey sky, and for a worryingly long time, or what seemed like it, nothing happened. But after a moment, a gleaming something broke from the glittering mark I had left on the horn, and came streaking back down to earth, landing on the platform before the Goddess statue.

It was a dragon scale.

Well.... that was good enough, I thought.

“That is the spirit Naydra’s scale.

It fell when your arrow struck.

It serves as proof of the courage you

received from the one who served the

spring since ancient times.

Come... Offer a scale from the blue spirit

Naydra to the Spring of Wisdom.”

Naydra....

He was flying away. Up into his vortex in the sky.

Like they do.

I picked up the scale. The first and only one I had ever held from the blue dragon Naydra. So precious and wanted a thing, but.... I needed to sacrifice it to another, first.

I stepped down into the spring, waded forward to where I could see the royal family’s crest engraved upon the submerged stones, and let fall the scale into the water.

A plash and a golden light.... and a door opened behind the Goddess statue.

“Your path has shown itself. Now go forth.”

I glanced into the sky once more before entering the cavern. Freed from the shackles of evil, Naydra flew away in peace.

And I crossed over the threshold, and entered the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine.

And when I stepped back out of it, it was noon, and the mountain knew it.

And the high, cold music was playing again.

Clarion as ice.

The Erhu Profane

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 4

The Erhu Profane

The obvious next destination after passing through the East Gate of the Lanayru Road was the grand and imposing Mount Lanayru.

But I didn’t quite pass through the gate after all, because there was a Lynel out there, stalking through the aspens. White-maned no less....

Rather I skittered up into the hills to the south, to see if I could bypass it, in the process climbing above a landmark I had long regarded with awe and reverence on my map: Purifier Lake.

A fat red Hinox snored in the spray of its waterfall, occasionally scratching its moldy bellybutton. How putrid! OH how I longed to kill the offending brute—but with that Lynel so close....

....

I didn’t feel like tangling with it just now, but at least decided that this was as good a time as any for a certain.... field-test....

I climbed to a prominent part of the hillside where the Lynel would just be able to see me, and started jumping up and down to get its attention.

And it saw me all right. And as I’d hoped, at this range, it drew its bow, nocked an arrow, and pulled back the string. On went my Thunder Helm....

The Lynel at Shatterback Point had nearly zapped me into flash-fry with its Shock Arrows. The one down in the Lynels’ Corridor had shocked me into dropping my items with the same. But here.... I’d be able to see what the Thunder Helm was really capable of....

Or I would have.... if only this Lynel hadn’t been using.... ICE ARROWS?

Fortunately the projectiles came up short, spawning wicked but harmless frosted stalagmites that erupted out of the rock with a rumbling.

I booked it, retreating higher up into the hills. No arrows connected. I was safe.

But....

....

Well.

Another time.

With another Lynel!

I trudged over the hillsides and down into the Naydra Snowfield in the foothills of the mountain, safe and barriered from the Lynel by a sharp ridge of stone. Snow lay thick upon the ground here, and the Chillshrooms grew everywhere! They seemed to spring from the base of every stark or naked pine, and there were quite a few of those.

I only wandered and swept from side to side for a bit, checking for Koroks and other interesting things while heading in a vague, forward direction. The clothes I was obliged to wear—my Ruby Circlet and Warm Doublet—together protected me from the intense cold, but offered me poor defense against Ice Chuchus, Ice Lizalfos and wolves. Well, the Ruby Circlet was strong enough. But the Warm Doublet only had one defense point. Whereas my Champion’s Tunic currently had fourteen.

I suppose I could have saved myself an awful lot of trouble, and monster encounters, if I had only climbed the mountain the way I had climbed up Death Mountain for the first time, when I’d realized there was that memory up there.... That time, I had gone straight up the side, caring nothing for the road, for I hadn’t even realized there was one. But here in the snowfield, as I neared the other end, and as the land began to rise, I looked at the ground I was heading to tread on and—

“Stairs!” I thrilled to David, “There are stairs!” There was an old road beneath the snow! The ancient architecture enthralled me as ever.

The land was so blanketed here that the road could not be discerned, except for the sharp corners of stone stairs peeking through the snow at the occasional sharp rise.

And I remembered the Lanayru Road, and how the path had continued, and wound away through the aspens where the Lynel prowled, and how there was even that cut through the natural stone barrier to the snowfields—the road must have come through there as well, though I hadn’t. And now here, at the foot of the mountain, and seemingly for a great distance yet, fine stonework showed through the frost.

That it should be so developed! I flicked to my map and found where I was and looked and.... Yes, yes! There it was in the topo! The road led all the way to the top! And if it was like this all the way up the mountain....

Augh, the ruins would be fantastic.

And I could only imagine it in its prime glory days.

Of course, it wasn’t until I had already come a long way along it, batting off wolves and Chuchus and Lizalfos all the while, that I recalled how few monsters I had encountered while climbing off the beaten track toward my first recovered memory back in Eldin. That is to say, almost zero. And here on the icy road, against the more populous foes, my clothes could not protect me very well....

But there wasn’t really anything for it now. I supposed I could have veered off and started climbing the walls, but.... No. I would be all right. I had meant to come this way.

Besides, partway up the mountain, I was distracted by something so chilling it made me forget my road-woes entirely.

Night was falling. Though under the cloud cover of the high mountain, it made little difference to the light or the visibility. The Ice Lizalfos hunkered thick along the trail. I was paragliding round to duke it out with one camouflaged one, when—

....Strange music?

Upon landing I turned. Another Lizalfos I hadn’t seen was behind me, likewise camouflaged. Neither of them made a move, but I still didn’t care for being surrounded.

What was that.... music? It sounded like that music that heralds a dragon, but.... no, this was something else. What was going on?

The tune was the same, but the music, the chords, the intervals had changed. Why did it sound so diminished? So distorted? It felt sick and ungodly. A perversion of the sublime erhu I had heard before.

I reached a broad point where the road switched back and a few pillars stood sentinel or leaned in frozen tottering. I checked them for Koroks, and in climbing to the top of one of them, paused for a moment and looked up toward the mountain’s top—closer now. And there among the jagged crags and icy protrusions I thought I could see.... something....

And I gasped when I knew. MALICE? HERE? No!

But it was worse. It was.... heaving. And I saw the bluish horn coming off of it.... never seen blue Malice before.... And I saw another horn, and another, and more slowly rising and falling curves of a serpentine body, and.... No! It—it couldn’t be!

I grabbed my Pictobox. Aimed it.

....Naydra....

This was Naydra. Naydra was.... something was on it.... a parasite.

A Malice Parasite.

Naydra....

I hurried.

And of a sudden I was there. The final switchback had been so abrupt.

Naydra.... he looked.... horrible. The Malice was globbing so huge and heavy onto his head, like a cancerous growth. I could feel the weight of his wilting neck, his eyes forced near to closing beneath the drooping mass.

The long coils of the dragon’s body looped heavily among the topmost crags of the mountain. Further globs of burning, cruel Malice clung onto its scales, the magenta bleeding into the deep blue, staining it, tainting it, infecting it....

And then the Goddess statue—or the Goddess, through the statue—spoke.

“You have done well to find your way to this spring.”

The statue stood at the back of a spring of water, templed and paved with stones as the Spring of Power had been. This was....

“You who have overcome numerous trials

and obtained the Spirit Orbs...

The one you see before you is an

attendant to the Spring of Wisdom.

This is Naydra, the blue spirit of Lanayru.”

This was the Spring of Wisdom. I knew it. I knew it from my map and from Sanadin Park memories and from all the hearsay of Hateno.

“This servant of the Goddess has looked

over the spirits of this land for ages,

unknown to the world of man.

However, the dreaded Malice unleashed

by Calamity Ganon has possessed its

body and reduced it to this state.

You who have received the Spirit Orbs...

Free Naydra from this Malice.

Show what your power can achieve!”

And at the statue’s last words, an enormous, popping yellow eyeball OPENED UP and swiveled ponderously from the heart of the mass on Naydra’s head.

I was free to move and Naydra had not stirred, except for the lumbering of its panting breaths as its head bowed and wept. The eyeball still gaped all around like a demonic blinking baby.

A large target.... and fairly stationary.... Would it really be that simple?

I took as many steps forward as I dared, and reached for a Phrenic Bow I had been keeping in reserve for a long, long time. I hadn’t really known what for. But if not for this, then nothing.

“Don’t fail me now....” I crooned as I took aim at the distant, house-sized globe....

The arrow struck true, and the eyeball-mass mouthlessly screeched before dissolving in a pruff of evil. Naydra’s head seemed to come alive—it pulled heavily, strongly upward, his eyes opened, his indigo skin was free and open and cold and—

He kept rearing. Higher and higher he arced, and then the coils of his long body followed him. Slithering through the air between the cracks, he mounted up into the sky and twined and writhed as the remaining Malice globs burned still upon his skin.

Uh? Was he coming back? It didn’t look like it—I hoofed it up the one remaining trail to the right, the one that led right up to the mountain’s crest—Naydra twined in the sky above the cap—

But he was so big and he moved so fast and there was so much of him—I tried cutting beneath an arc of his body as it slid over the path, so low.... But I must have made some contact, and the force bowled me off my feet and back down the track.

The Malice masses were being pulled along so quickly and so sinuously through the air—it was hard to take aim—but my Phrenic Bow did not fail me—I pierced another eyeball! Giant as the first had been.

But Naydra’s flight did not slow or calm. He began to twine away from the peak, lower down the mountain. And I was hesitant. Such altitude would be difficult to regain, if I followed him down there only to have to chase him back to these heights....

But he wasn’t coming back. Only rolling and weaving and twisting in monumental agitation further down the slopes. And there was nothing else for it, and so....

Uhhh—

I steeled myself and leapt from an icy crag to sail down after the poor beast.

Then as I exited the cloud cap and came into clearer airs, I saw I needn’t have worried—every crag and crack and dell and glen thrust a powerful updraft into the night. They were far below me now, but the sight was comforting.

I sailed closer and attempted to head the dragon’s twining—and one of the Malice globs. But Naydra’s course and speed were impossible to predict. How many masses were there? Five in all? I took a chance when a glob passed close, drew my bow, time slowed, had to watch my stamina.... carefully, CAREFULLY....

I struck the eyeball, but had expended too much strength to do it and my stamina wheel was empty and I was falling toward the black earth and the updrafts wouldn’t help me but no—somehow—SOMEHOW....

How did I catch myself?

Where had that stamina come from when I was able to just deploy my paraglider right above the crag to keep myself from becoming a greasy smear on the rocks....? And I touched down and—

Where was I?

....

Somewhere low. Down the mountain.

It was a big playing field tonight.

It seemed that, like the glowing and strengthening of the Master Sword, sometimes, if you executed things just right.... you could regain your strength, and sail safely away from the point of exhaustion.

I climbed to the point of the black rock where I stood, and leapt off into an updraft. The valley was alive with wind.

“Naydra!” I chased after him. “Naydra!”

And still he twined so massively in his circuitous writhing.

He flew around, I rode the airs, I chased him all the way back down to the Naydra Snowfield where he tore up the trees with his passing.

“Naydra you have to hold still!”

I took careful aim.... thank goodness for this Phrenic Bow....

Two more globs....

One more glob....

And I shot the last one.

The indigo Naydra huffed, breathed.... and blinked its big bright colorful eye. He flew up into the air again and with a strain or a stretch, burst from the last darkness that I hadn’t realized was still holding him—the indigo exploded from him and turned to dust—that was not his true color? He arced and reared higher, and as he rose he glowed and gleamed brighter, brighter, BRIGHTER, into an astonishingly brilliant ice-teal the color of a frozen Caribbean bay, his crown of many horns shining the blue of an ancient glacier.

Oh he was beautiful now....

He was glorious.

Lanayru Road

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 3

Lanayru Road

When Tera had upgraded my new Barbarian Armor as much as she could, I puttered around the rest of my wardrobe like I do.... Naydra horn, huh....

I still didn’t sort my closet, but left it bungled as ever, and after that....

Kakariko. It was time to venture beyond Cotera’s Woods once again. It was time to explore that inland lake. I had a sneaking suspicion I could find the scale I was looking for there.

I hurried through Cotera’s placid stand of trees, veering only to pick a few of the finer plants and scattering the wildlife before me. In the bare, cliff-flanked road beyond I didn’t bother with the Traveler who’d told me strange stories before, nor did I take the way to Rabia Plain (save for just a little to snatch a Korok I’d somehow missed).

No, this time it was the straight fork, the rightward avenue that dipped lower, and wider, as the land sank into water and stone....

This was the Lanayru Road, West Gate.

And there was indeed a high span of weathered stone bridging the way up ahead.

It looked very much like a gate in one of the pictographs in Princess Zelda’s album. But not quite. But if there was a west gate.... then there must surely have been an east gate....

I went in. There was a memory ahead of me. I knew it. Somehow I’d known it and marked it on my map.... maybe a clue from Pikango or something.... He was always painting landscapes....

The stony corridor widened; the road clave to the north face while the water started by the south; the tumbles of rock meshed through the ancient stonework so that I could hardly tell between what had been, and what was left.

I walked on. Encountered some sleeping Bokoblins. Dispatched them under the quiet of my Stealth Suit; best not to raise a ruckus. Though sometimes it couldn’t be helped to beat them down or knock them over the burm and into the water—for the paving stones rested high on pillars and supports now. Going into the drink to retrieve monster bits would be complicated from here on out....

So much stonework rose all around me, FAR too pocked and hollowed and intricate, in layers upon layers above—to explore it all would take days.... though I tried to search a little. Some minerals here, a Korok there.

But when the day turned grey and it started to rain, I switched my Climber’s Bandana for the more covering Hylian Hood, and only continued walking.

Just walking.

I loved this feeling.

Broken pillars and carven arches with incidental alcoves, all cracked and weathered, all tumbling into ruin, splitting and parting in further holes and crevices, blossoming and burgeoning with surfaces never meant to be walked upon, and yet all the more welcoming for the shelter they provided for creatures like myself to hide in.

I climbed up a bit on the north side, vaulting the slippery stones in quick, powerful bursts for the downpour, and found a little hollow that was just receded enough to be out of the rain. The blocks were straight and cubic against the dark and leaning overhang of foundation or cliffside I did not know, where the sprawling moss joyed in the moisture as it dripped down and slicked over the stone.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon.

Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to just light a fire and rest here for a while?

Dang I love this game.

Shortly the rain let up and I climbed further and higher until I reached the topmost northern hills where I was distracted enough to kill a Hinox. As I ran back toward where I had been, I inadvertently chased a goat before me, and—I thought I saw something—

I turned and was surprised to see that the goat’s tromping had cut a trail through the grass! And I found the thing I had seen.... it was.... Hylian Rice?

But.... I thought.... I’d thought that was a crop! That it didn’t grow in the wild—I’d only ever seen it from merchants, but—If the goat had cut down the grass—and I didn’t see how else it could have gotten here—what—was all grass like this? If I cut it would.... Would it yield certain grains?

A more placid world began to swell all around me....

I was still discovering new things. Even this far in.

Dang I love this game.

I made my way back down into the canyon to continue along the Lanayru Road, and I began to see great carvings in the walls. What.... were these.... effigies.... These....

They were cracked and worn and broken but.... these were loftwings. I was sure of it. Shoebill beaks and everything. I was sure.

Because I was recognizing shoebills before Skyward Sword was even a twinkle in its daddy’s eye.

Those were loftwings.

How old was this place?

The canyon widened and the southern cliffs and carvings bent away toward that waterfall beneath which I’d found a shrine before, and this open central watered court.... was the Lanayru Promenade.

What a beautiful sight it must have been once. The path ran down close to the water here (part of it submerged now), and a dead fountain stood in the center of the widest part of the lake. I could imagine it playing merrily as beautiful Hylian holy men and women must have strode about....

Now the only thing stirring were some Lizalfos circling around the fountain.

I drew the green one away first to dispatch it privily. But when I went back for the other three....

They were all silver.

Huh, I thought in my mask as I gathered their attentions to get them onto solid ground (they were hard to kill in the water), three Silver Lizalfos.... at once....

This would be interesting....

And it was.

I called upon Urbosa first as they all gathered close about me, and her furious lightning rained down and kept two of them screeching in frozen electrocution while I grabbed the other and started pummeling his lights out. But presently the other two recovered and they were mad—I pounded one of them into next Tuesday in time to turn and trade blows with the other up against the wall—and then that first one was upon me again—but I moved before they could surround me and slashed that one in the tail while the second one was climbing back out of the water—and then there they stood regrouped and ready but I was fast—I could take these guys....

I have since learned to try and kill silver monsters as far away from water as I can. Tails and talons and horns and eyeballs will float. But rubies and sapphires and diamonds? You can kiss those goodbye if they fall into the water. And nothing your Slate can supply will help to call them back.

They’re gone, man. Gone.

When I had quite eradicated every monster from the Lanayru Promenade, I took my time giving the area as thorough an exploration as I could, turning up treasure chests behind tumbles of stone or sunk beneath the waters around the fountain. I also took another short break away, this time up on the southern hilltops, cresting the tall mountain, the Peak of Awakening, which lay just east of the high pond that fed the waterfall. As I’d suspected.... there was a Korok.

Back down on the Lanayru Road I kept heading east.... The path was rising, and I was beginning to leave the water behind, when something possessed me to take out my Pictobox. I’d seen something further ahead, and wanted to zoom in to see what it was. I knew if my Compendium recognized it, it would flash the name of the thing across the screen.

And as I swiveled the lens around carelessly toward the east, Mount Lanayru towering in shrouding clouds in the far distance, I saw, for just an instant, the name of NAYDRA.

And then it was gone and I could not relocate it.

WHAAAAAT?

Naydra? The Dragon?? What? But!

Had it flown across somewhere? Was it even now in the air, somewhere around the bends of the cliffs further to the east? I longed to plunge ahead, but....! Did I just catch the tip of its tail as it vanished out of sight? For I could see nothing of any dragon now!

Naydra??

Where was it??

But point and swivel as I might, my Pictobox could not detect the dragon again.

But it was near.... somewhere very near....

The road continued to rise as I left the great monumental stoneworks behind me.

And then I had come to.... the Lanayru Road, East Gate.

Mount Lanayru stood in might and majesty beyond the weathered stone portal.

I stood in the light, and remembered....

It was sunset.

The Champions were waiting on the water side of the gate—where I had just been. I and Zelda were coming back from the mountain.

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” said Daruk, “How’d it go up there on the mountain?”

Zelda.... shook her head.

“You didn’t feel anything? No power at all?” said the bird man Revali.

“I’m sorry, no.” Zelda didn’t look at any of them. Just the ground.

Urbosa stepped in. “Then let’s move on,” she said, her voice strong and steady as always, “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t help anything.” She offered a seemingly tireless encouragement to keep looking for.... that thing, that.... something.... “Anything could trigger the power to seal Ganon.”

“If I may...” It was Mipha. She spoke! And she.... fumbled a bit, her voice dainty as a fluttering leaf, wanting to say something, but she was embarrassed to say it. “I was just thinking about what I do when I’m healing. Sometimes it helps if I think... if I think about—”

RRRRRRRUMBLE!

A roaring cacophany tore the air and rattled the earth.

Everyone stumbled and shook as the ground heaved beneath them, until Revali regained himself and SHOT into the sky.

A hundred feet up he maintained a steady flapping as he looked into the glowing, flaming western sky and the sinking sun.

Ganon was erupting out of the castle.

“He’s here,” said Urbosa as Revali touched down again. The earth had stopped shaking, though the roaring remained.

“It’s awake,” said Zelda.

“Are you sure?” said.... probably Mipha?

“Positive,” said Revali.

Daruk rallied everyone, “Champions! To your Divine Beasts! Link, you get to Hyrule Castle—” He barked their long-laid plans. It needed to be a unified assault. “Link will need to meet Ganon head-on when we unleash our attack.”

Revali scoffed quietly at this last and looked away. Even now.

What did he have against me?

“Come, let’s go,” Urbosa addressed Princess Zelda, “We need to get you somewhere safe.”

But—“No,”—Zelda pulled away. “I may not be of much use on the battlefield, but there must be something I can do—”

She wanted to help.

She wanted to be useful....

OHHHH MUUHHHH GUUUSHHHH....

The Desert Colossi

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 2

The Desert Colossi

When I came out of the South Lomei Labyrinth, I skirted the hillsides all around once more for good measure, paraglided over the Champion’s Gate corridor, and headed north, continuing to comb the foothills between the highlands and the desert. More Koroks, more Violets.... and there were so many pillars to investigate.... surely there had to be a Korok on top of one of ‘em....

I stood sightseeing from the top of one of these pillars when.... PIANO. There was the Piano, and there was the laser, and a Guardian was after me, and I hopped off quick! Better to stay in motion—

I sailed wide as the bolts shot through the air, until I could reach the ground and have it out, and kill the thing.

When it was dead I looked up, saw how many pillars I had passed and left unsearched.... and decided to kiss that swath of land goodbye for the present—I was busy. Those Colossi were just ahead....

I continued north to the Land of the Goddesses—those gigantic statues so enormous they showed up on my topo—they must have been the legendary Seven Heroines....

I jogged over the sand to the break in their imposing circle.

The East Gerudo Ruins these were called.

Oh there had to be Koroks in here....

(And there were.)

It was one of the cleverer puzzles I had yet encountered, and it took a little bit of searching to riddle it out!

At each Heroine’s foot was a long extension of stone with a hollow at the end, near the center of the circle. A few metal orbs lay scattered about the area, each emblazoned with a mysterious symbol....

I found that one of the statues had a symbol corresponding to one of the orbs, carved into its foot. But most of the other statues didn’t even have any symbols.

But ah, they did, but theirs were carved into different places!

Inward from the outside, the Heroines bore symbols carved upon the Foot, the Breast, and the Hilt, while the central Heroine’s symbol was carved upon her Crown. And after an awful lot of climbing, I found out what each Heroine’s symbol was—clockwise from the break, I called them Yang, KOA, Donut, Twodots, Swipe, Flame, and Pause.

As it turned out there were seven of the corresponding metal orbs hidden all over the construct—some of them high up on the Heroine statues themselves! It was an ordeal and a half, full of a lot of Magnesing, to find them all and get them down to the sandy sink in the center. And I got quite good at scaling the large stone statues in the meanwhile, right up to the tops of their heads—Pardon me, Ladies.

!

I wonder if the Eighth Heroine has a symbol....

Oh now I must go check.

When I finally, finally aligned all the orbs in the ground-level hollows of their corresponding Heroines, WHAT SHOULD COME UP IN THE CENTER OF THE CONSTRUCT but.... the Korsh O’hu Shrine.

And it was a Blessing Shrine as well.

That was four Spirit Orbs.

Guessed it was time to pray again.

Another Maze

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018

Another Maze

I had come back toward the Suma Sahma Shrine until I was close enough to trigger an autosave. Now from the shrine I wanted to go south to the Devil’s Own Highway, and thence to that big mysterious maze between the mountain and the desert....

But....

That King Of The Mountain Syndrome.... KOMS.... I just wanted to explore a bit of the northern parts of Mount Granajh first....

And we all know how that goes.

I wandered and wandered until I came all the way to Spectacle Rock, catching Koroks, Violets, and Guardians along the way.

But I did come back, and ended up on the north side of the Champion’s Gate canyon anyway, down low to the ground. And so I just decided.... to approach the maze via the Gate, as I had originally intended.

It was called the SOUTH LOMEI LABYRINTH.

Another Lomei Labyrinth. How interesting....

From ground-level it looked much like its Akkalan counterpart, just a large, very tall cubic thing of ancient stonework. The encompassing geology meanwhile was either exceedingly convenient.... or this gigantic depression had been carved out some time beforehand.

Then again the land was old. I thought of the Forgotten Temple far to the north, and the pressing collapse of the canyon all around it. Anything could have happened in the history of this South Lomei Labyrinth. At any rate the surrounding crags concealed it perfectly from any eyes below the tops of the foothills.

I circumnavigated it first. It was big, and all the while my shrine-locator was going off like crazy. I knew what had to lie within, somewhere near the center by the sound of it....

There were no sweeping Guardian Flyers here, but rather I saw, from some higher vantage points, a couple of Bokoblins patrolling the tops of the walls! Interesting....

When I’d made a round of its outside and encountered no other baddies, I came to the opening nearest the Champion’s Gate, and set foot over the threshold and inside.

A monk’s voice sounded: To you who sets foot in this place, my blessing awaits you at the labyrinth’s end.

Or some such words.

Well.

I knew how to play this game.

I started running the maze....

It wasn’t like the Akkalan island; on my map the maze looked downright symmetrical, which was why I had wondered if it would just be a big flat enclosure similar to the top of the Forgotten Temple. There was a straight shot right to the middle that I could see, but....

Well the Akkalan Lomei Labyrinth had also had a wide open central court.... with a Guardian running around in it.

The straight corridor stank of ambush, and so I plunged into the lesser tunnels to try my luck there. The avenues still twisted and turned, but I could still feel a bit of the symmetrical order in their arrangement, which was nice.

I continued running the maze, senses flared for any minor baddies or Decayed Guardians. But I never encountered anything that actively sought to hurt me.

However, around one corner, in the distance down the hallway—

“Malice,” I hissed.

I’d have to be careful in this place.

It made for some interesting climbs and a tight watch on my stamina-meter, but eventually I found the shrine—the Dila Maag Shrine—without too much of a struggle.

It was a blessing Shrine. And I remembered winning the Barbarian Helm at the Lomei Labyrinth north of the Akkalan Ancient Tech Lab.... and I wondered....

AND MY WONDERING WAS JUSTIFIED—Inside Dila Maag’s treasure chest was BARBARIAN ARMOR.

And when I put it on—OOOOHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHHH DID I LOOK AWESOME. 8-) All fur and bone and cord and a wicked right bracer and there was even vicious purple paint splashed up my midriff in thuggish, primordial shapes! XD I looked like I fell out of a Mad Max movie or something! Oh my gosh so cool....

There were at least three more areas on my map that I had yet to fill.... And I decided then and there to keep my eyes open for any more mazes that might show up once I hit those towers....!

Like Prayer Flags in the Wind

Evening of Wednesday, September 19, 2018 ~ 3

Like Prayer Flags in the Wind

I was heading to the Champion’s Gate! That narrow canyon on the east of the desert, leading up into the foothills of the Gerudo Highlands.... That would lead me right into the valley that held that strange, rectangular structure.... Would it be like that stonework above the Forgotten Temple? What would I find there? I wondered....

The glik-glik-glik of my boots on stone was sharp in my ears after so long shuff-shuff-shuffing over the sand! The canyon walls drew in close about me; it was a bit like Satan Canyon, but smaller, more constricted, and with more obstructions. Big boulders and things strewed about the way. And hiding behind these obstructions were hecktons of Lizalfos in camouflage, whom I dispatched. Got a few tails....

I continued up the canyon, but.... wanting to stock my pockets, and being my distractible self, I kept chasing Swift Violets, climbing and climbing again—and catching a couple of Koroks!—getting higher and higher.... until....

Well I could SEE the giant structure down in the depression there. It was a maze. Like the Lomei Labyrinth.

....

I’m going to call it King of the Mountain Syndrome. KOMS for short.

I wanted to float down and explore the structure; it was what I’d come for.

But.... I was so high up, and the altitude, once lost, would be hard to win back....

....

The terrain was rugged, but manageable. And by now, as I could see on my map, I was nearer to the mountain’s top than its foot.

I wanted to climb Daval Peak, and Mount Granajh....

....

I kept climbing.

I’d wanted to climb up here before, when I was on the other side of the mountain, on the high steps west of the Lynels’ Corridor. But I hadn’t been able to abide the altitude then.

But now I had gear made for such climates! I wanted to see what was up there.... That tall stone standing like a beacon....

In due course I changed from my Champion’s Tunic to a Warm Doublet, and donned my Ruby Circlet to ward away the cold. And soon.... on came the Snow Boots....

There are two types of Cold Music that I have heard in this game.

The first plays at the chill’s initial encounter, when the air bursts into frost around you, and Link begins to shiver. It sounds out in a slow pulse: high, clustery, and ringing like ice. It feels like a warning. It feels like danger. It feels like a call for caution. An intolerableness you could face if you had to.... but you really shouldn’t.

It does feel like an easy escape. Like you have time left....

But even so you shouldn’t waste it.

I have heard this music play at altitudes just above the frost line, irrespective of what clothes you pack. Maybe you can stand it, maybe you have to retreat. But the sound intimates a change, and with that change a challenge, or even a threat.

You have entered a new environ.

The second type of Cold Music I have only heard play at much, much higher altitudes. And, perhaps because the element of change is no longer a factor.... or perhaps for the emotional underpinnings of the concept of the pinnacle....

The sound.... sails so pristinely clarion, when the sky is blue.

It sings like prayer flags in the wind over virgin snow.

And you just feel.... like an eagle. above the world.

It is likewise slow, and beatless. One piping flute soaring like a bird while the Piano rolls little chords and cascades beneath it like sunlight off water.

The first time I heard it in the game, I recognized it.... It had played in the beginning of one of the trailers. That peaceful, serene one that just showed the beautiful, beautiful lands in gentle passes. Fields and mountains, rivers and rills leaping with deer, even the traquil lumberings of a Stalnox away up on the ridge.

A beautiful choice to showcase the land of Hyrule.

But for me, for now.... it only played upon the highest, highest caps.

And on that semi-accidental chiasmus....

I climbed up into the high, beautiful music where the snow was so white and the sky was so clear.... and came upon the ruin of a cabin. Right up on Daval Peak. What was this place?

As I drew nearer I could see a few household items still protected by the remaining bits of wall and roof: some barrels, a woodpile for fire, a table, and—a book?

Excitement thrilled in me.... What did it say? Who could have lived up here?

I heard the shuffling in the snow, and the spat, and the impact and crumble of rock against wood. Freakin’ Octorok.... I went to convince him to let me have some peace before coming back to the book on the table....

I read it eagerly – Mountain Peak Log it was simply entitled.

This man was researching the shrine atop the high Gerudo peak. In the entry marked Day One, he said that he’d found the pedestal, and that it glowed for a time each day, at the same time. But he couldn’t quite work out the riddle, part of which said to “cast a cold shadow”....

I had to look for a bit myself before I saw the pedestal—it had been on a little face of rock right behind me as I’d climbed the last rise. A tiny saddle-pass, maybe fifteen feet deep and wide, lay between it and the Mountain Man’s stead.

On Day Seven, the man said that he was eating through his reserves faster than he anticipated, and I felt a sinking chill. What had happened to him?

He was frustrated, in that entry, due to that he had reached the place where the shrine should be, he was so close, had been close for days, and yet he could not solve the riddle. Did it involve throwing something? He puzzled over a few possibilities, none of which had worked for him.

I read on.

And then there was an entry marked Day... lost count.

He was.... losing hope....

I was feeling a strong upwelling of hnnnng for this man. Who could it have been? I could just imagine him up here, in the cold and the dark and the wind....

There were no more entries after that.

I thought about cracking open his barrels, wondering what I might find inside, but.... I didn’t disturb them. I left them for him instead.

Outside the cabin, near the little saddle-pass, was a little pool of.... liquid water. Strange, for so high up. And in the pool was a large.... snowball I guess. It wasn’t a stone; it was much rounder than any rocks I had seen. As a matter of fact there were quite a few of these snowballs around up here.

I saw what to do straight away. In a matter of hours, the sun would sink and sway and, if I stayed near the saddle-pass, cast my shadow across to the other side, where the pedestal was.

The pedestal glowed for a time each day.... I could guess which time that was.

I grabbed the big snowball and tromped as near to the stead’s edge as I could.... and waited.

And very near the appointed time, as my cold shadow crept closer and closer toward the heart of the pedestal.... a Blue Lizalfos came to have a disagreement with me.

Dang Lizalfos! I at least had the presence of mind to let the snowball fall well away from the edge before I knocked the brute off the stead. He was still alive down there, but.... I was busy.

I grabbed the big snowball again, stood back in my place, and waited just a few moments more, until the shadow cast by the snowball darkened the entire innermost circle of the pedestal....

A blue glow—that sheening ring—and the Suma Sahma Shrine erupted from the hill behind me! Not even over near the pedestal, but on the Mountain Man’s Stead!

Cool! ^_^

I’d get to it.... just as soon as I took care of that hopping, chirruping lizard just down the mountain....

I actually led myself on quite a merry chase before coming back to the shrine, paragliding down even lower to come around the southern horn of the mountain to pick up a Korok I’d just spotted on my map. A wrack of snowy clouds descended upon the range and I bumped into some Decayed Guardians SO frozen that they didn’t wake up until I was quite literally nearly upon them—gave me a start.... And then I swung back up to the saddle from the other side.

Once the Spirit Orb was mine I finally, finally trekked the short jog up to the highest crest in the soft grey din, and climbed to the top of the stony spire of Daval Peak. I had seen it from so many directions, marked it so many times through my scope.... now I could finally stand on top of it....

I uncovered a Korok from beneath a rock up there, and the two of us stood King of the World. It was an invisible world lost in the grey, but that made our perch no less a pinnacle.

I waited.

I waited, and turned, and swiveled, and watched Link nod off in the deep watches of the swirling, icy night.

But I wanted to see....

I let the hours pass, and the day crept nearer, and as morning broke the clouds parted and the snow vanished away and the sun touched all with a glowing, ice-gold clarity.... and we could see the whole world....

Do you ever slowly swivel the camera around Link, just to indulge in a little cinematography?

It’s the best place to do it.

High up there in the beautiful, beautiful clear day.