Afternoon of Saturday, February 24, 2018 ~ 2
[[In which Contraltissimo cheats by reviewing game footage one more time instead of relying
solely upon memory and notes, since it has been so, so dread long]]
I walked across the stones, and....
there was the Sword. It demanded my attention through a brief cinematic.
The Master Sword.
It stood in a triangular pedestal,
and Silent Princess flowers grew all
around it....
I.... took a pictograph, for the
Compendium, before coming closer.
The
Master Sword!
I reached forward and touched it to
draw it out.
Flash!
Images—Zelda’s voice—Ganon—the rain—I was hurt—
And I was backing away, reeling....
dazed....
“Well, well,” the giant tree in the
middle of the woods spoke, “It’s . . . you.”
Or some . . . what . . . I . . .
I mean I knew I’d been getting
closer to the middle of the forest and I knew there was that giant tree there
and I’d seen its branches from far away and I always thought it kinda looked
like a cherry tree in bloom but
everything had seemed so dead but—
My gosh, I had not been expecting
this giant tree to .... talk to me.
“I was beginning to lose hope that
you’d ever show up. Even my patience has limits, you know.” Or some . . . such
. . . words?
“Pocahontas
. . . that tree is talking to me,” I said....
or thought.... I think....
The voice was slow, deep, airy....
and decidedly affected.
Well, they were big lips to match.
Koroks gamboled about the woods.
This was the Deku Tree, a being who
had watched over Hyrule since time immemorial.
He knew who I was, but I had no memory of him.
But he told me about the sword—the sword with the power to seal away the
darkness. He told me it was I who
had wielded the Master Sword one hundred years ago against Calamity Ganon. And
that it could only be wielded by the knight—the Hero—worthy to defeat such an evil.
I
had been that Knight.
But the Deku Tree warned me even
so: the Master Sword was not to be taken lightly. It still exacted a test of
and a placed burden upon any who would dare to possess it.
It
felt as if.... it had a fierce will
all of its own....
If I tried to take it in any kind
of weakened state, I would lose my life where I stood.
I might have reached into my
pockets for an apple or something at this point. Just to get up to full hearts.
I had a good number of them....
Well....
If I had wielded it once before....
I set my hands around the hilt . .
. . and pulled.
Dyoop
. . . Dyoop . . . Dyoop . . .
My hearts began to drain out. Fast.
....
Alarmingly
fast.
Dyoop
. . Dyoop . .
And
faster still....
THE
SWORD BUDGED.
Dyoop.
Dyoop. Dyoop. Faster and faster—
The
sword budged bit by bit—
And as my hearts neared their lower
limit—
I
pulled it out.
And I raised it up.
And that fanfare—that iconically
Zelda fanfare played in so grandiose and great and terrible a
crashing as I never had heard it before—
The screen went white.
“Your master will come for you,”
said Zelda’s voice.
The Master Sword lay on the
triangular pedestal.
It was....
It was a wreck. Battered and stained
and with deep gouges and notches and cuts
into its blade.
And Princess Zelda....
She looked no better off.
She wore the same white dress she
had worn as she prayed in the Spring of Power, but now it was all muddied and
dirty. She was filthy; there were
smudges on her arms, her shoulders, her face, dirt and grime browning her
hair.... She looked a mess—What had happened to her?
The Princess had brought the sword
here for safekeeping, until I could come to claim it again—she was so certain that I would come to claim it
again, though the Sleep of Restoration would drain me of my memories.... so certain....
They exchanged some words, the
Princess and the Tree. There was something else yet that she had to do, but she
asked the Deku Tree if he could deliver a message to me for her. “Tell him I—”
she started. But—
“Now then,” the Deku Tree’s voice
interrupted, resonating deeply and warmly, “Don’t you think it would sound
better in your own voice?”
The Princess smiled. “Yes,” she
said.
The Master Sword still lay battered
on the ground. When Zelda finally did bend down, it was with the utmost
tenderness and a Grecian grace that she laid her hands on the hilt.... raised
it high, the tip pointing downward.... her eyes closed in penetrating
meditation for a moment.... and then lowered it slowly into the
pedestal—sealing it in place with a last downward thrust.
Holy light seemed to shine up from
the earth in a tiny shaft about the blade where the sword stood alone, in the
grove of the Deku Tree....
I lowered the sword and moved
through a few vigorous practice-swings before sheathing it—in that blue sheath with the golden trim—
The Deku Tree seemed to know that I
had just relived one of my memories. He told me that when I had become
separated from the Sword, the Princess had thought to bring it here, where she
knew it would be safe under the his watch.
But as for herself.... she was
still fighting, trapped within the confines of the castle, waiting for the time
when I would be able to free her again.
“She has a smile like the sun,” the
Deku Tree said, and for just a moment, the affectation melted away, and I could
have sworn the great trunk of him bowed back in a wistful skyward glance, “I
would do much to feel its warmth upon me again.”
A
smile like the sun.
That
was beautiful . . . .
But the lovely spell was shortly
broken and gave way to a giddiness I didn’t quite
expect, when that four-note theme, indicating a new acquisition, played in a
somewhat slower, hammier style than I
think I’d heard it before. “Yooou geeet
theee thiiiing!” I was always wont to sing along with it....
Oh my gosh....
I
HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.
I HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.
The Deku Tree told me not to rely
too much on its power, and to avoid overusing it when I didn’t need to, or I
would have to wait for its power to recover.... but....
I HAVE THE MASTER SWORD.
When I had come through quite every
cinematic, I moved slowly forward. The woods, Korok Woods, sprawled temptingly
in every direction, several Koroks standing here and there and everywhere whom
I knew would not disappear at my approach. Some of them were tailed by little
exclamation marks, indicating quests or tasks they might ask of me. They
perched among the giant tangles of the Deku Tree’s roots, or stood by the heads
of trails that led off to who knew
where, into this forest that seemed so enormously
youthful as it burst with life and water and color, flowers and mushrooms and
strange luminescent pods growing in the jovial celebration just short of a
tendrily riot—
But....
Not
yet....
I stepped forward, regarding the
chirruping creatures kindly but not pausing to speak with any of them. My
shrine-locator was still brreeping, and it wasn’t until I had locked down the Keo Ruug Shrine that I allowed myself to
relax at all.
And relax I wanted to.
Though I’m just a little sorry to
say that one of the first things I did was muster the gall to go climbing up the Deku Tree—all up the
side of his face now, really—until I
had reached the top.
There was a Korok up there.
The color of his face and the fine
shape of his hinted moustache made me nickname him Colonel Mustard, right there.
But when I spoke to him, he asked
me if I were ready to take on some kind of super-challenge.
What?
No! I backed out. What did he want of me?
But Colonel Mustard only laughed at
my poor timid hesitance—a wicked little
cackle that made David laugh, too—“I’ve never heard him do that before!” he said.
Enough.
I paraglided back down to the
ground, and climbed a gently sloping root until I came to a kind of large knothole
in the Deku Tree’s front. It seemed to be some kind of hub....
The
Deku Tree’s Navel? That was the name of this place? Um. ._.
There was a hollow space inside,
the ceiling a bit low, but not oppressive; it was rather cozy—and there was a lit wok in the center.... and a small Goddess
Statue to one side.... and two alcoves manned by two Koroks selling homely
forest goods—and somehow Shock Arrows—I
bought those right up.... and one alcove more....
“This is my favorite character in
the game,” said David.
“Really?”
He had been hinting that his
favorite was around here somewhere....
This alcove contained what was
unmistakably a bed, formed from
perfectly twisted, shapely segments of natural wood, blanketed with broad,
soft-looking leaves, and nestled among great fungusy shelves growing from the
barked walls like bedside tables while one of the luminescent pods kept vigil.
I spoke to the attendant Korok,
Pepp, who.... well now I think about it had kind of an ironic name for how
sleepy he was. XD
Pepp had been waiting for me ever
since I had gone, keeping this bed ready for whenever I should return. And it
was with the tiniest, most helpful, eager, sweetloving vocalizations that he
expressed his dear little hopes to me that I, the Hero, would lie down in the
bed that he had been making and keeping and freshening just for me for a
hundred years. How hopeful he sounded
that I would like the thing that he made. <3
It was these noises that had struck
David so, and given him such a liking for the little guy.
And hearing him for myself....
kinda gave me a liking for him too. :3 My gosh he was so cute.... X3
And so, as it was late, I fulfilled
little Pepp’s dearest wish, and lay down in his leafy bed, asking him to wake
me in the morning.... before drifting off to sleep.
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