Fiery Portents

Afternoon of Tuesday, September 19, 2017 ~ 3

Fiery Portents

Fresh out of any more wardrobe excuses, I warped back to Goron City, giving Bargoh a warm greeting on my way down to Boss Bludo’s house. Yunobo would surely have handed off the painkillers to him by now....

He had. Bludo was back in action and ready to go. “No disrespect to Daruk’s legacy or anything,” he said, “but it’s time to go beat back that Divine Beast.” Or some such words.

“Daruk?” I said.

Bludo was incredulous that I’d evidently never heard of Daruk. “Look,” he said, pointing to the huge carved stones overlooking the city, “That is a statue of Daruk.”

I looked.

And looked....

Daruk and I stood atop the mighty Divine Beast Vah Rudania, as it poised upon the mountain in the sunlight. “I’m really getting the hang of this thing!” he said, or something like it, “Yep, the other Champions better eat their gravel if they want to keep up with Daruk.” His voice was as gravelly as his hide.

“Great view!” Daruk said, looking around the jagged landscape, “All those delicious rocks....”

Gorons.

“Congrats on becoming the Princess’ appointed knight,” he went on, impressing that it was a big deal, protecting the king’s daughter. Not to mention a tall order, given her personality. “She’s the kind of person who can’t see the mountains for the peaks!” he alleged.

But he stopped short as an ominous rumbling began coming from the mountain.

Huge boulders rained down, one gigantic one right for us—

But Daruk threw up his fists and stopped it with some.... dodecahedral red field of some kind, which glowed like fire in a soft rotation. Stopped it dead. He protected us both.

And after a moment the tremors had passed, and we were in the clear, and Daruk released his magical shield, and we stood straight again.

“Strange,” Daruk mused in a troubled rumble, “The volcano’s been quiet for decades. But if it’s shaking enough to toss boulders that size at us, then...” He paused for only a moment, and then, “No, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

I came back to myself.

Boss Bludo explained that Yunobo was a descendant of Daruk, and that he had inherited Daruk’s Protection. It was a power he could use to shield himself from any attack or bombardment.

“It’s the only way he can protect himself when we fire him at the Divine Beast.”

WHAT.  .__.

Bludo explained that normal boulders wouldn’t do it; they had to launch Yunobo himself at the Divine Beast by means of the cannon oh my gosh wat, just— D:

I guess Gorons are made of pretty tough stuff. o_o

And it was time to get to it. Bludo made ready to go. “Well, time to head back to the—”

Crunch!

He stiffened with a painful jolt.

His back was out again.

He couldn’t believe it. This was getting to be a bother. “Oh, look, I’m sorry to have to ask you this,” he said, “but would you go tell Yunobo that we’re going to have to cancel for the day? He’ll be at Eldin Bridge.”

Eldin Bridge. I’d seen that place when I was catching butterflies with the girls. It had seemed.... a Rubicon of sorts, leading into the higher steeps of the cone about the caldera.

Except this crossing was over hot lava, instead of water.