The Hunt for Red Lizalfos

Waking of Sunday, January 6, 2019

The Hunt for Red Lizalfos

When did I explore the rest of Rito Village? When did I climb the Neck? That tall, distinct spire of rock I had seen from so many angles all over Hyrule....

The weathered yellow stone gave pretty good purchase to stand on and catch my breath at whiles, carved by the wind maybe. One spot near the top even had a large hole that ran right through, making a little tunnel. It was shady, and pleasantly charged in there, with that energy only hikers can find in the little hollows they bond with and break bread with and part with at once.

I climbed right to the crown and walked out to the tip of the beak. It did make for quite a stunning view....

But after playing binocular—monocular—er.... After playing Slate games, at some point I went to the Great Fairy Kaysa, whom I felt I had visited least of all, here in this lastly-mapped frontier, and had her do up my Snowquill Ensemble as far as she could.

We enhanced the entire set three levels, but I was short two red Lizalfos tails before we could reach the fourth.

I wanted these clothes to be strong. I finally had the Wingaling Hat, it looked like I was going into the cold again, and I’d never had anything thicker than my 1-point Warm Doublet to protect me from the frost.

So I warped to the volcano, set my sensor to detect Smotherwing Butterflies in the meanwhile, and got to hunting Red Lizalfos.

Heh. The Hunt for Red Lizalfos. That’d be a good title.

I searched out both critters until I got three more tails, which put me at a total of thirty-one. Kaysa only needed thirty, but I always like to keep at least one spare of anything in my pockets. When I can.

Now I could upgrade my clothes to the fourth level. But.... while I was here.... I decided to stop by Gorko Tunnel to see if I couldn’t solve it and figure out what was behind that giant pile of rock at the end....

That, and.... I’d recently seen David do this.

Gonguron was the name of the mad Goron who had been digging in Gorko Tunnel, and he was still in there. But unlike the other times I had seen him, this time he had completely run out of energy, and was lying flat on his back on the ground. What had been the trigger? I never figured that part out.

At any rate, his big brother Bladon was wondering where he was, and I let him know. Bladon then asked me to fetch a rock roast from a little spot down the hill from the tunnel, near a little lava pool which, I guess, was a good place to cook rock roasts.

What was a rock roast? It was a big hunk of.... rock.... which resembled Raw Gourmet Meat. There were six or seven of them down there.

I made sure to kill the handful of Moblins crowding the path on my way down to the lava pool, but.... I should have known it was never going to be that easy.

Hefting the giant rock roast high over my head, I started the long trudge back up the hill, and lo, the way was an absolute minefield of Moblins, Fire Chuchus, and other nasties no doubt, along with the occasional rumbling of the mountain beneath my feet and the cascading of giant boulders down the hill.

It was basically an uphill, hotter, louder and more crowded version of the Rist Peninsula.

But I made it back to Gorko’s Tunnel all right, rock roast safely in hand.

When I set the roast in the little resident wok per Bladon’s instructions, and Gonguron caught the scent of it cooking, well that perked him up all right. He got up, grabbed the rock and started taking great, thunderous bites out of it. Holy Din, what are their teeth made of? And as soon as he had chowed down, with his renewed strength, he went at the last bit of bedrock in a fat and happy fury, until the wall finally collapsed and the Kayra Mah Shrine was revealed.

The trial inside was called Greedy Hill, and it was an absolute riot of boyish diversion.

Heh.

Okay back to birdland....

Brazen Peacock

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019 ~ 5

Brazen Peacock

How fitting. He would take the top of the five-hundredth page.

The Divine Beast hovered massively up in the sky. I could see it from where I stood on the Painted Landing. Alone.

But a RUSH over the railing, a howling whirlwind straight up into the sky, and Revali came up from below, stalling out at the top with a careless flourish before dropping perfectly onto the rail, gripping it surley beneath his avian toes.

“Impressive, I know,” he crooned. That rapier voice.

He spoke smoothly of how few could achieve a mastery of the sky. But with his artful technique he was able to create a powerful updraft that allowed him to soar up into the heavens—“A superior and masterful skill, even among the Rito.” Or some such words. He lovingly admired his handsome, blue-grey wings.

“Now then,” he said, hopping lightly down onto the landing, “pardon me for being so blunt, but let’s not forget the fact that I am the most skilled archer of all the Rito.”

He was almost.... circling me.

“And yet, I have only been tapped to merely assist you, just because of that darkness-sealing sword on your back.” The rapier twisted a bit. “It’s just... asinine.”

I drew my head back where I sat on the couch.

Whoa.

With his skill, he said, he didn’t see why we couldn’t easily dispense with Ganon.

“Of course we could just settle this one-on-one,” he leaned in close to say. “But where? Hmm...” He cast about in grand mockery. “Oh, I know, how about up there!” And he threw one wing toward the Divine Beast as sunlight glinted off its bronzebeigy form in the brilliant day.

“Oh, but you must pardon me!” The rapier glinted in razored jolity.... before plunging once more into my forehead. “I forgot you have no way of reaching that Divine Beast on your own.”

And with a spread of his wings, he thrust up into the sky, that updraft of his.... And as he powered away so hard and fast—“Good luck sealing the darkness!” he called back.

And he was gone.

Man....

“CHAMPION DESCENDANT!” Saki yelled again, and I snapped to. “Are you all right?”

I was.

He seemed.... a little full of himself.

Mipha loved me.

Daruk was friendly with me.

Urbosa respected me.

But Revali?

....

I didn’t know what to make of Revali.

He’s neither crazy nor blind, I finally thought in Mr. Harris’ voice.

He’s just vain.

Poor, vain fool....

Harth opened up to me a little more then, too. He told me about Teba, and said that yes, he could be hot-headed, and a little rude. But he and Harth, they looked out for each other.

I.... probably needed to go to bed.

I did. At the Swallow’s Roost. A lady Rito named Cecili checked me in.

“Only stalkoblins are up at this hour, traveler,” she said.

Don’t you know it.

I took the Rito Down Bed for the higher price of 80 rupees. Didn’t often get the softer beds. This one had sound in the blackout. Soft fluffing and even breathing sounds. Ahhhhh.

I woke up with full hearts plus three extra, and an extra stamina wheel.

Naaaaaice.

GOOD NIGHT.

Wise Old Owl

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019 ~ 4

Wise Old Owl

There was only one more Rito house before the spiral of boardwalk finally came to an end. And in this house, resting in what might have been a wooden rocker—I wasn’t entirely sure; there were a lot of feathers in the way—was the largest Rito I had ever seen.

He was aged, with a gentle demeanor, honeynut plumage, and great, cream-colored brow-feathers you could clean a pipe with.

Just as Kass was more parrot-like than most of his kin, this elder Rito seemed more like a great horned owl, with luminous eyes and a fine, pointed beak. Beneath his creamy brows and covering most of his face and neck was an equally creamy beard, brushed grandly out to either side, and braided thickly downward for a foot and a half before it ended in a gigantic bob. Was it feathers or was it hair? He stroked it as he greeted me.

“Ah, a visitor. Welcome to...” But he trailed off before—“Oh. OH! That object on your hip. Could it be...?” But he caught himself. “Forgive me. Where are my manners? I am Kaneli, Elder of Rito Village.”

He asked about the Sheikah Slate, and when I confirmed that that was indeed what it was, he leaned forward in excitement, and his already large eyes widened to an alarming size! Owl indeed!

“Then it is true!” he exclaimed, “You must be a Champion like Master Revali! One of the few people able to board Divine Beast Vah Medoh!”

But here he paused and murmured beneath his breath that the Champions had all been dead for a hundred years.... and shortly concluded that I must be a “mere descendent”. An inheritor of the Sheikah Slate.

He begged my pardon once more before asking if I would listen to the request of this old man.

Here we go, I thought....

And he told me straight up that he would like me to deal with the Divine Beast Vah Medoh.

“Only Champions were able to control the Divine Beasts,” he stressed again. And he told me how he had tried to impress this upon some of the more headstrong Rito Warriors of his tribe, but they didn’t heed his warnings.... He could not stop Teba and Harth from launching an assault against the Beast. And.... it hadn’t gone well.

Harth was badly injured.

And the other....?

“Teba escaped unscathed,” said the Elder, and I was relieved— “but I fear he now plans to face Medoh alone.”

—and just a little bit disappointed at the same time.... No derring-do, dashing rescues of the desperately wounded here. That was okay.

“As a descendant of Champions, you might have a chance,” the Elder went on, “Please, find Teba. If you work together, you may be able to stop Divine Beast Vah Medoh.”

And that seemed to settle it.

Hahh.

I thought about the other places I’d been. The grandness of King Dorephan, Lord of the Zoras, the seclusion of the protected Gerudo Chief.... But this old owl, he seemed more.... grandfatherly than anything else, here in this rustic place of small wooden lodgings.

It just seemed so.... humble.

I kind of liked it. c:

I spoke with the Elder for a little bit longer to get more details. I learned a little about Vah Medoh, not much I didn’t already know, and some about the old Champion Revali. He had been a skilled warrior, wielding a bow twice his own size with ease. Kaneli wondered what could have happened inside the Divine Beast a hundred years ago to defeat such a celebrated warrior....

I also learned that, evidently, attacking Vah Medoh had been Teba’s idea to begin with. Oh gads, that made it even worse that Harth was the one who was injured. Shot down, the Elder said.

Elder Kaneli suspected that this failure may have only strengthened Teba’s resolve to make another run at Medoh, and that he was likely preparing for the assault. Ah, so he had gone missing of his own accord, it seemed....

The Elder directed me to speak to Teba’s wife Saki—oh, that pretty one just next door—Saki, he said, might be able to offer me clues regarding Teba’s whereabouts.

So, I went back to the boardwalk, walked a ninepace downspiral and turned back into Saki’s house. Teba’s house, I guessed.

But Saki had already overheard me talking with the elder. Their dwellings were so close, and these homes.... they were so open.

Saki opened up to me then. She told me she thought her husband was somewhere in the Flight Range, a place where the Rito would go to practice aerial combat. (She gestured over the lake and toward the icy Hebra Mountains.) At least, that was where Tulin, their son, had said his Dad had gone.

She said, assuming I had a means of air-travel, if I took off from Revali’s Landing it would be a straight shot to this Flight Range, and I would easily be able to find Teba.

I looked where she pointed this time.

Revali’s Landing was only a little way down the Neck, and it was one of the larger landings off the spiraling boardwalk. So large it had little landings of its own, stepping off into the sky. The dark planks of its broad platform were painted with a stylized, flying kind of design in white....

I had been here before.

Memory took me....

Rito Village

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019 ~ 3

Rito Village

I had a feeling I was going to like it here.

Mazli was the next Rito I met; he seemed to patrol the boardwalks about the townward end of the series of bridges. He told me Vah Medoh shot down anything that flew too high, and that it was frustrating for the Rito to have to fly so close to the ground.

I looked up. Now that I was here, on the Rito Rock, I could see that the Divine Beast seemed to be set in a circling course around it high in the sky. Like the biggest buzzard in the world....

Another Rito, this one with seagreen plumage, lazed on a larger landing as the boardwalk veered off to the right and began to circle the Neck. He seemed down; I guessed the oppressive Divine Beast had everyone in low spirits.

Like they do.

There were shops branching off this lowest circuit of the path, and they all seemed similar in build to that house I had seen of Kass’ up on the treeshroom, only bigger. An ample, circular floor, a short wall rising up to about waist-height around the circumference (excepting at the door), and above this, enough vertical supports to hold up the high roof, which was conical, rustically shingled on the outside, and warmly raftered on the inside. The resultant open views onto the lake and the yellow mountains beyond were spectacular.

Each shop seemed to have its own clappercaller standing outside, hungry for custom. There was the Swallow’s Roost, which was the local inn. Two honeymooning Hylians were staying there, but the wife thought this town was a hole; I told her she didn’t know what she was talking about. Then there was the Slippery Falcon, which sold all the goodly foodstuffs you couldn’t find out in the field, like milk, wheat, and butter, as well as some pretty good arrows. And then there was the Brazen Beak, which was the clothing and armor shop. And they sold....

“THE WINGALING HAT!” I gasped. 8D

This set was called the Snowquill Trousers, Shirt, and Headdress. WOW! And they imparted a cold-reducing effect. Excellent! I bought the whole ensemble, and oh did they look smashing.

The basis of all the clothing I could see the Rito wearing included a front-lacing, corset-like girdle that reached all the way up to the breastbone and ended in an acute chevron just below the waist. It looked very aerodynamic, and its design was echoed in the Snowquill Shirt fit for Hylians. The shoulders and waist-back also sported decorative feathering, and the whole outfit was trimmed with the soft-spoken diamonds and gentle geometric patterns of the Rito aesthetic, which I’d seen painted neatly along the boardwalks on my way in.

And with my head at long last under the Wingaling Hat, my sidelocks were now bound into pristine little tresses, completely enclosed at the bottom by those decorative, anchor-shaped jewelry-weights. And leaping up behind my pointy left ear, the namesake of the thing: a single, wing-shaped piece rising white and glittering from the circlet. The asymmetrical design gave the headdress.... an archaic, sylvan kind of grace.

Now these would be good for cold climates!

Further along the winding, rising boardwalk as it wrapped counterclockwise around the Neck, I met more Ritos, in their open, circular dwellings, more Ritos, talking about the Divine Beast, more Ritos, wishing they could give it what for, and—oh my gosh—BABY RITOS! Oh my gosh they were so cute! ^_^

One little one I spoke to told me tales about how “Molli’s dad got hurt—” ( Uh!? D8 ) “—and Tulin’s dad went missing.” Oh my gosh....

Maybe some of them had tried to give the Divine Beast what for, and their efforts had gone awry.... I’d seen that with other peoples. I hoped they were all right—I wanted to help—I can’t help it—when I hear about people getting hurt—

My shrine-detector had been brreep-brreeping at me, and I found the shrine, partway up the spiral, at the end of a little jutting tangent of the boardwalk, on the broad, grassy top of another great thrusting shoot of yellow rock. The Akh Va’quot Shrine.

A dizzying windmill puzzle lay inside. My sleepy mind couldn’t handle much more of this....

I locked it down all the same, and continued along the path.

The spiraling boardwalk just opened up on the right side at whiles, sometimes plainly with simple breaks in the railing, sometimes grandly in broad landings. I guessed these were an airfaring people after all. Perhaps the spiraling path wasn’t so linear as it looked, if you included the airways....

And then I came to the dwelling of one Harth.

Harth sat on the floor at the back of his house, head bowed, holding one wing. “Owwwwwwwww...” I heard him murmur. This must have been the one who was injured.

All of the other Rito I had seen had plumage in a modest rainbow of colors; the children were more and especially vibrant. But Harth was black as soot, with long crest-feathers drooping in a brooding sulk from his head.

I asked him what the matter was, but he didn’t really want to talk to me about it, only muttering about that cursed monster. When I pressed, he introduced himself as the village bowsmith. But he couldn’t raise his arm just now, so business wasn’t that great at the moment.

He left it off at that.

“Are you all right?” I asked him once more.

“Not really... If this is what we are up against, we should have put more stock in the elder’s words.”

I couldn’t get anything else out of him, and on that enigmatic note he dropped his head again and returned to cradling his wing.

What did he mean ‘we’ should have....?

Did he and someone else attack the Divine Beast?

“Molli’s dad got hurt, and Tulin’s dad went missing.”

But where else could one go who went missing? After attacking a Divine Beast?

I hoped missing only meant missing, and not DEAD. For the child’s sake. Though.... some romantic in me hungered after higher stakes and drama.

I left Harth alone. I could only go back to the boardwalk and higher round the Neck in hopes of finding out more from someone else.

But I only found more of the same, Ritos sighing and lamenting about the Beast overhead. And then I came to the home of Saki.

Saki looked different from the other female Rito—for oh she was definitely female, stunning in light, roselavender plumage with bright pink crest-feathers set back into a voluptuous bouffant, upcurled ends in pleasant, bouncing layers. Her face was somehow softer, not as sharp as other Rito faces, her eyes like wells.

Similar to other female Rito, she wore the decorative hoop-bangles where the men wore their anchored sidelocks. But her double-breasted oversash (the men’s sashes were single-sided, as was the one on my Snowquill Shirt) was white, instead of the seemingly traditional red. The rest of her ensemble was also lighter.

Surely now, I thought, maybe this one will open up and tell me something....

“Can I help you?” she asked when I approached.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“Never mind. Forget it.” And she broke off.

Dude....

I approached her again.

“Hello,” she said, “Please. Now is not a good time.”

Nothing.

I was really curious and concerned about the fate of that missing Rito....

And I was quickly running out of Rito houses to call on....

The Last Frontier

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019 ~ 2

The Last Frontier

From the Ancient Columns and down the gentler, grassier back of the hill, I sported with a few Moblins and a lily-Korok before striking toward the Sheikah Tower.

The tower stood at the crest of a rocky hill to the north, across an empty gorge where the road bent and twined. Malice crawled all over the stones around the tower’s base. It was at a lower altitude than where I was, but I could tell I wouldn’t be able to paraglide directly onto the tower. The best I could hit was partway up the slope on the gorge’s far side.

Mom was with me during this part. I enjoy.... just being with my Mom. Even when she still starts and warns and cautions whenever I run along the edges of cliffs or take flying leaps into the air.

She is a Good Mom. <3

I floated over, scrambled up the far slope, and came to where the tower was. Malice completely encompassed its base; I couldn’t access it. There were a few tall stones standing here and there; I thought perhaps if I could get on one of those.... I could paraglide from one to the other.... maybe paraglide onto the side of the tower, but.... No, the distances were too great. I’d fry in the slime.

“Gooped. Ya got gooped.” –PBG

I couldn’t climb a stone and float over to the tower, but....! There!

I found an eyeball. :)

I shot it, it poofsploded and evaporated, taking a lot of the Malice with it, and the column it had been surrounding collapsed against the tower! Access!

And a long climb through the fargazing music later, I was at the top.

This was my last Sheikah Tower. The Tabantha Tower.

I set my slate into the pedestal, distilled the rune, and.... ♪You get the thing!♪ ....The last blank space on my map populated. This was the Tabantha Frontier.

Complete Map of Hyrule Extracted, said my Slate.

Wow! ^_^

The Rito Rock—that tall, oddly-shaped spire—Heh, Oddly-shaped indeed—it looked like a bird!—Although.... that Oddly was probably a mockingbird or a grackle; this rock spire looked more like the neck and head of some kind of crane or stork....

*AHEM*

The Rito Rock, I could see from the tower, was so close now, standing tall and straight, its neck hewn all up and down with odd angles from erosion, and its “beak” jutting out at a stark perpendicular angle at the top. I could see, both from the tower and on my map, that the spire actually stood in the middle of a sizeable lake. Huh.

Okay!

I considered, as I was so high up and could see all the world laid out before me. I could have struck out on a more direct route to the Rito Rock, but.... I decided to follow the road instead. Rather unlike me, now that I think about it.

It was rife with Lizalfos.

But after cutting and dodging my way through so many belligerent hoodlums I came at length to the Rito Stable. This was the one I had seen from the edge of Hebra.

Kass was there.

After talking with some of the other people there, I approached him.

He was happy to see me in one piece! The feeling was mutual as always. ^_^ And here so close to his hometown of Rito Village, he said he was feeling terribly homesick, and confided to me that he’d had to leave his wife and children back in the village.

Kass has a wife and kids? I thought. My goodness!

I never knew.

“But I can’t go home until I fulfill my promise to my teacher,” he said.

“Promise?” I asked. It was my only option.

“My promise to... No, perhaps now is not the time.”

He said he would tell me, in Rito Village, once he learned all the ancient songs.

So mysterious, Kass.... I’d heard him talk about his teacher before.... What promise did he mean....?

I decided to sleep the night at the stable before moving on. And in the morning, I headed toward the village.

The lake—Totori Lake—was different from most other lakes I had seen, in that its “shore” consisted mostly of two-hundred-foot dropoffs all the way around. The water shimmered distantly below in the enormous, sunken, beigestony pit. A few other rock spires stood attendant to the mighty bird-shaped one in the center, but none it seemed were half so tall. I could see the occasional updraft blowing here and there as well, in the event I should paraglide around and sink too low, but aside from those.... there didn’t seem to be much down there....

Not that I had reason to worry: well kempt, handsome bridges of dark wood spanned from shore to spire to spire to spire, high above the water. It was at the beginning of the first of these bridges that I met Gesane of the Rito as he patrolled the path to the village.

He introduced his home and kin for me: “The Rito of Totori Lake. Where the men are fine archers and the women better singers.”

Heh.

^_^ I liked it.

The tops of the spires were grassy, and pleasant, with birds and flowers and pine trees and even the occasional little water pocket pond. This really was beautiful country. Breezy and beautiful.

As I crossed the third bridge after the second rock, there were.... Malice drips and a sudden blackout? Would I meet the Divine Beast? I’d forgotten these bits! But it was.... a BLOOD MOON CINEMATIC?

“The Blood Moon rises once again,” came Zelda’s voice.

BUT IT WAS DAYTIME.

“Please be careful, Link.”

THE SCENE ENDED. It was six-something in the morning.

What the heck?

Afraid I had missed the proper cinematic on a glitch, I reloaded from the stable, and went toward the village again. I stopped to pick the same peppers or berries or whatever it was I had grabbed before. I moved forward at the same pace, had the same talk with Gesane. Began crossing over the water and came to the same bridge and....

Nothing.

Huh.

But.... I had reloaded.... Was the game acting like I had saved?

I kept moving slowly and shoot that was a bear over there, didn’t want to get its attention, what was a bear doing on one of these rock spires—

But nothing else happened. And.... I.... finally just kind of accepted that.... the game had somehow deprived me of the cinematic.

I resigned myself to just find it on YouTube later.

I sighed, relaxed my guard, and just continued on AND THEN THAT TERRIBLE BIRDLIKE SHRIEKING FROM THE SKY.

Then came the Divine Beast introduction cinematic.

. . . . Whoof.

That was alarming. I told David about it later and we laughed.

On into the village, and I was really liking the look of this place. Lush grass, sweet flowers, breezy pines; the dark, comely wood of the bridges-turned-staircases and -boardwalks intermittently broken by soft earthen paths under the gentle sun; the wilderness on all sides and above and below....

And the music. Rito Village’s music....

*-!-*

And in a soft jolt, I was both surprised and not:

It was DRAGONROOST. <3

It was the musical theme from Dragonroost Island.... only settled cozily in a cabin in the woods, instead of flying fiercely about a wild island in the bluster of an untamed sea.

Of course it was Dragonroost.

Ahhh. <3

The handsome boardwalk continued straight inward and upward, ending directly against the base of the central pillar of the Rito Rock, the Neck of the Crane. At this landing, the wooden path continued to the right, winding upward and away around the Neck. But for a moment I was more taken with the sight just in front of me.

At this juncture, a gentle alcove had been carved into the light stone of the spire, and a small Goddess statue erected in the hollow. The little shrine was laid with decorative cloth; offerings of flowers lay thereon at the statue’s foot, and a crown of similar blossoms rested gaily upon its head. All bright and fresh-looking as if they’d just been picked.

Of all the shrines to the Goddess I had seen, this one was surely the fairest in its happy simplicity.

*

The pine trees smiled and the wind and wood breathed.

The earth and the sun had never been as content.

The world was at ease here.

*

Well at this point I was pretty sure I’d finally done it. I had seen every major habitation Hyrule had to offer. Just in case.... Just in case....

Just in case of that notion I well knew by now to be only fancy, but which I had still decided to humor through to the end: I had made sure, or sure enough, that there were no other houses to be bought aside from that one in Hateno.

So that was the only place.

Hahhhh.

But if I had had a choice.... the pines, the grass, and open air, the open-walled homes in cozy simplicity, village full of flyers and all musically inclined....

Yes.

I think I would have lived here.

I think I would have lived here.

The Princess Irate

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019

The Princess Irate

It was raining in the morning when I woke up at the Tabantha Bridge Stable.

Happy though I was for my new mount Knight, I left him boarded as I set out for the day. This was exploration time, and I would be more agile on my own.

I crossed the Tabantha Bridge to the west, no longer afraid of the Guardian Flyers patrolling between the ridiculous rocky hills on the other side. Their range of vision was nowhere near as far-reaching as I’d initially thought.

I still gave them a wide berth, though.

I climbed up the cliffs on the left, and found at their rolling, grassy crest... the Ancient Columns. Just like Pikango had said. And there was the shrine as well. The Tena Ko’sah Shrine. This was the spot depicted in Princess Zelda’s pictograph.

I’d known this place was here. I’d even heard the shrine’s siren signal brreep-brreeping as I’d crossed through this area looking for the fairy fountain before. I’d left it alone, then.

But now I was here for the land.

I was here for the map.

I was here for Divine Beast Vah Medoh.

The light of the lost memory was easy to find.

I stepped into it....

Zelda stood before the shrine’s pedestal, and held the slate up to it.

The unchanging breeze blew on in its whispersong.

“Nothing. Just like before.” She looked disappointed as she drew the slate back and continued to murmur to herself. Something about that it seemed the structure would only activate for the master of the sword....?

“How can I get inside?” she wondered aloud....

They say Hylians have long ears to better hear the voices of the Gods. I guessed mine must have been extra long to pick up even the princess’ murmurings, because I then came galloping up on my horse from over the hill. My brown horse.

Zelda’s white was already there. Had she ditched me while riding somehow? Couldn’t really put it past the abilities of the white steed....

Zelda saw me coming and.... she looked kind of pissed....

Link dismounted and came up to her.

“I’ve already told you I don’t need an escort!” she started. And like the growl of a harried cat she lowered her volume but not her venom: “It seems I’m the only one with a mind of my own.”

Or some such words.

Looking anywhere but at Link, she blustered on and insisted from so many angles that she was fine on her own, no matter what the king’s orders were.

“Go back to the castle,” she told me.

But Link didn’t. He only followed softly after her as she stalked angrily away.

She turned around—“And stop following me!”

So angry....

Hhhhh.

The Black Stallion

Waking of Tuesday, January 1, 2019

The Black Stallion

It was the Rose Parade.

It was seeing all those danged beautiful horses with the luscious garlands of brilliant, colorful flowers hung all around their necks and flanks....

Augh.

I’d taken enough pictographs to somewhat flesh out my Compendium. I’d seen the animal section. There were horses, white horses, giant horses, donkeys, the Lord of the Mountain, stalhorses.... and I think that was it for the equines if you could count the Lord of the Mountain as an equine.

I knew I could register up to five horses, and I still had room for one more.... But it didn’t look like there were any more special horses to find, the one blank space yet to explore on my map notwithstanding.

I wanted a new horse.

I wanted a steed to wear my Extravagant Tack.

It was late, it was past my bedtime, and I had work in the morning, but.... I wanted to culminate the little zeitgeist I felt about it.... zeitgeistchen? Zeitgeistlein—I DON’T KNOW GERMAN.

I skimmed around my map. Where were there horses? I blinked as I realized it was never really something I took any special note of. I knew they could be found somewhat near to stables most of the time. And I knew where I’d seen that black one that one time....

It was the Valley of Terror then. Though the terror was all but gone for me, I think. If I did bump into the one decayed Guardian out in the field, I’d be able to take care of it.

I ran out to find the herd, but there were no all-black ones. A second herd grazed a bit to the north, but that one didn’t have any black ones either.

Where else could I warp? I really didn’t pay attention to where the horses were.... I’d always just stuck to talking to the people, waiting for clues about where the rare breeds roamed.

Those fields north of Jeddo Bridge looked promising, so I warped over to the Odyssean Sheem Dagoze Shrine, and started truckin’ it up the hill.

There were a couple of herds here as well, but again I could find no black ones.

From here I could think of nothing else but to warp back to the Ha Dahamar Shrine at the Dueling Peaks Stable, and again check the herds in the Valley of Terror. Their coats had changed upon the reload! But there were still no black ones.

I wanted a black one.

I bounced back and forth between these two fields for a while. It was most troublesome at night; it took a couple of incidents before I remembered to anticipate the dark with my Radiant Gear. That still didn’t stop the keese, though. And the dang Yigamen didn’t care what time of day it was.

At some point I added another field to search to my cycle: the Fural Plain just adjacent to the Highland Stable. I had been hesitant to go there because every previous visit to that place, at least via the road, had been plagued by that little troop of mounted Bokoblins. But it was the only other place I could think of that I was pretty sure had horses....

I was happy to discover this time, however, that the Bokoblins seemed to have gone! It had been quite a few Blood Moons since I’d cleaned them out.... but they hadn’t respawned. Huh. They reappeared in other get-rid-of-the-monsters sidequests—why hadn’t they reappeared here?

I didn’t know.

I was just happy to see them gone.

And happier to see that there were indeed horses here!

None of the ones I saw were black, though.

Poop.

I warped back and again, around and around, Ha Dahamar, Sheem Dagoze, Ka’o Makagh, Ha Dahamar, Sheem Dagoze, Ka’o Makagh....

I did this for so long—How else do you think I memorized these shrine names?

At some point I cut out the Sheem Dagoze Shrine, though. It was too long a jog to get to the horses; and the stal-creatures, keese and Yiga seemed to appear more frequently there.

So it was back and forth between the Valley of Terror and the Fural Plain. I saw reds, creams, greys, piebalds, skewbalds, appaloosas, gypsy cobs....

There!

There was a black one in the Fural Plain! But.... it had four white socks.

I chased it for a while, desperate. Had I only imagined that all-black horse before? No I hadn’t imagined it; it had kicked me in the face pretty hard. But had I imagined the color....?

I thought about just.... letting the socked horse suffice me. Maybe there were no all-black horses.... Just like there were no common all-white horses.

But....

No.

I kept warping.

And after a great, weary long time.... LO! There really was an all-black horse!

FINALLY!

It showed up on the Fural Plain on a sunny afternoon, and the flamerosy glow played havoc with my view of it through the scope—was it really black? Or was it a brown or a grey, only painted darker by a trick of the sun’s glare?

But I got closer and it was all black. There were subtle color variations on its muzzle and around its hooves.... but so were there for Memory. I didn’t think I’d find a blacker horse than this.

This chase was on.

The problem with the Fural Plain was that the grass, most of it, was remarkably short. This made sneaking up on the black horse deucedly difficult, especially as he had one other horse friend on the lookout with him. Several times I sent him trotting and galloping away into the boundaries of the field, many of which were comprised of sizeable stone cliffs. But it was a real fear of mine that the horse might come to an open spot and bolt down a road or somewhere leading out of the field. But I wasn’t sure how justified that fear really was.... Would the game keep it hemmed in?

I chased the horse for [game-] days, trying to maneuver it into one of the grassier spots where I could approach it more stealthily. The intermittent Yiga did not make things any easier.

But at great length I was finally able to mount the black stallion and soothe him into submission, whereupon I took him straight to the stable for to register him before anything else could happen.

I thought for a long time about his name. Jett? No, too literal. This was one of the harder conniptions I’d had over naming a steed! I wanted something strong-sounding, something ancient, something kingly, something like one of those archaic words that has a CH pronounced like a K....

Archeantus?

Mmm.... I didn’t even type it in. A strong name, but.... maybe not the strongest namesake.

Archibald?

That wasn’t a K sound....

I was just stuck on this Arch- usage....

Somehow in all the archaisms I swayed into the possibility of Oberon. Mmm, the deep vowels matched his coat and color.... and the reference matched the mystique of an all-black horse!

But I also thought of the name of Knight. Strong and royal to be sure.... though the pun was perhaps not as sophisticated.

I swiveled between these two for a while. Oberon and Knight. But Knight felt more alive, sharper, keener, and faster. Not so serious or reserved as Oberon. Or as wise-sounding, but that was okay.

Knight it was!

I rode him around the Fural Plain until his trust in me was such that I could alter his mane and other trappings. And back at the stable.... on went the Extravagant Tack.

....

Knight looked embarrassed in it, too.

Hmm.

I.... fiddled with it....

....

A look at Knight’s statistics showed me that he had.... four of five points in speed.

That was faster even than Memory.

Dang he was a fast horse. I could see the difference as I rode and spurred him into a gallop—how fast the land flew by around us!

Hah hah, he truly was a Knight!

I rode him to the Dueling Peaks Stable, just to get a look at him in motion in this momentary tack and mane-style....

And then I remembered upon arrival Uh, no mane-changers here.

So I rode to Outskirt, took him to the girl by the manger, and played with his mane some more....

“Oh my gosh you’re ridiculous, you spend three hours finding a horse and playing dress up with it. This is why I’m ahead of you in getting shrines.”

Beautiful lines from David.

In the end, I just stuck with the mohawk and the Extravagant Tack. The mohawk suited his wild temperament. And Knight could stand the Extravagant Tack. He could make up for the flamboyant red feather springing from his crown. He was the fastest horse in my team. And a glorious, powerful midnight black besides!

Knight could wear the Extravagant Tack with welcome challenge to any who scorned.

But a horse named Oberon would never have been able to abide it at all.

I rode to the Tabantha Bridge Stable.

I was ready.

Korok Trials

Waking of Saturday, December 29, 2018 ~ 2

Korok Trials

Augh.

On that unhappy note and yet with plenty of energy left to play.... I remembered David’s blatant tut-tutting over my sparsely-filled map of the Great Hyrule Forest. The look he’d given me....

There were shrines to get there.

I didn’t feel like getting them then. That memory had been heavy. But they were there to get, and I knew I wanted to get them eventually. So.... I went to get them.

And, upon warping to the Korok Forest, for the very first time I acknowledged that little Korok near the entrance to the Navel who was always trying to get my attention—Chio was his name—and he told me all about the Korok Trials.

There were three of them, one each to the southwest, to the northwest, and to the east. These must have been the ends of those paths I’d always seen meandering off into the trees beneath the giant bean-pods....

Well.... I went to it.

The first trial, to the southwest, was the Trial of Second Sight. A Korok named Zooki stood a little along the path and gave me a few pointers....

I don’t suppose I really knew what I was expecting. I guess I’d just imagined that the warmly lit forest simply extended further out, rolling into grassy wilds and forests full of animals and useful herbs.... I was only a little surprised when, moving away from the Great Deku Tree, the oppressive, curling mist returned, darkening the world while the Piano once again closed on its repetitive G in petrified focus.

I had to find my way again. But this time, instead of following embers in the breeze, I had to follow metal. There were more of those gape-mouthed trees—nothing but those gape-mouthed trees—and some of them had great stones in their mouths, and some of these stones were metal.

Activating my slate’s Magnesis, I could see the metallic glow through the mist like flags through a sandstorm, and I followed it into the gloom....

At times it became a little tricky. Once I had to climb to the top of a tree in order to spy the next path-marker. But after a short time (and only a few baddies) I made it to the edge of a small lake—Lake Saria.

There was a bit more Magnesing and moving things around between the horrible, gaping trees; and for a time, and in light of some of the local signposts, they seemed almost a friendly, relatable lot....

And then after a short, leaf-powered raft-ride across the deadly still and silent lake, and one more placement of a metal chest inside a tree’s mouth.... the Kuhn Sidajj Shrine came towering up out of the earth with all the ungodly, earth-shattering tempestuocity of a rising Morla.

The Piano didn’t like it....

I guess nothing so still and focused ever would.

It was a Blessing Shrine.

After I’d come out, I saw on my map that I was quite close to the edge of the island—the Hyrule Great Forest, it’s surrounded by a misty lake on most sides.

Hm, I guess technically that’d make it a peninsula.

Anyway, I pressed on into the misty trees to see if I could make it to the shore; I could see the gaps through the last standing trunks, or I thought I could....

But the fog swallowed me again, as it had when I’d strayed from the path into the woods.

I turned up back at the shrine.

I think I just warped back to the shrine in Korok Forest.

The second trial, to the northwest, was called The Lost Pilgrimage.

This one was a bit more challenging, in that somebody else was already taking it. One Korok, Tasho, wanted me to watch over her little one, Oaki, as he made his way to the shrine at the far end. The only catch was that she didn’t want him to know about it! Because if he found out someone was babysitting him.... Well he’d just have to quit and start over and do the thing properly.

Can’t say I blame him.

So I had to stay out of sight. The curling mist made this fairly easy.... but it also made it exceedingly difficult to keep track of him whenever he had a spurt of confidence and dashed forward and ahead. He was a short little thing in the grass!

Most of the time I was just crouching through the grass behind him, and could overhear him muttering encouragements or questionings to himself.... More than once he squeaked something like, “What was that?” and whirled around. Once he even backtracked to have a look.

He caught me.... more than a few times. And he started over each time.

But I kept trying and Tasho kept putting me up to it and Oaki kept waddling off into the gloom.... And he was a slow walker.

Well, I guess his legs were shorter. Can’t fault him there.

Stray tree branches dropped. Oaki whirled. And I hid myself.

Oaki paused and ducked down. “Ooh, what pretty flowers!” I heard him say. And I just had to wait.

Once, a wolf howled.

糟糕透了！ಥ⩄ಥ

I don’t think Oaki saw it. But it saw me.

How do you engage a feral beast on eggshells?

How do you swing your sword (for which Link always emits a shout) when you’re pretending to be a tree?

I don’t know, but I seemed to have done it. Fortunately I’d lately become more expert at battling wolves. You can’t Z-target onto them, you know. Er, L-target.

When they bark, they’re about to lunge. When they lunge, just sidestep to avoid it, and while they’re close.... slash!

Did Oaki hear me? It had only taken one cut, maybe two, to put the thing down....

I found him again and kept following.

Late on the third or fourth or fifth attempt, I caught the shrine’s orange glow in the distance, and followed after Oaki very carefully. After how many times he’d discovered me I wasn’t going back to the beginning now!

And so I waited, and waited, and waited, until the Korok was completely done moving, before I approached.

“Guess what, Mr. Hero! I did the trial all by myself! Aren’t I brave?” he chirped.

Oh son.

He went on. “Oh, you’re probably here for the shrine. Why don’t you go take a look?” he said, or something like it.

And I went and claimed the monk’s blessing from the Daag Chokah Shrine.

And after I came back out, I just found my own way back to Korok Forest. I’d walked the route enough times.

The third and final trial, to the east, was called the Test of Wood. At this trailhead, a Korok named Damia presented me with a series of Forest Dweller’s gear—a sword, a shield, and a bow. They were all made of wood. The Forest Dweller’s Shield was quite stylish, actually; I’d seen David with that one....

He said all I had to do was keep these items equipped and intact, and get from where I was now, to the shrine at the end of the trail. It sounded simple, he knew, but he said most people thought this was the most difficult of the Korok Trials.

“I said it was SIMPLE, I never said it was easy!” I thought of the Witch of the Walls again.

What was down this path....?

As I moved ahead and the mist pressed in once again, I soon found out: it was an absolute nightmare of lesser monsters, manifesting a variety of elemental affinities. Common garden Keese and Blue Chuchus gave way to Fire Keese and Electric Chuchus, a host of Octoroks leapt up from boggy pitfalls to spit rocks, and the branches above were crawling with bow-wielding Bokoblins.

Indeed it was dicey for the first little while, even at church-mouse speeds. I could handle the brutes as they came one or two at a time, but I wasn’t sure how many monsters there would be to defeat—I didn’t want to lay too many strokes to my wooden sword, or pounds to my wooden bow. But eventually I did get to an especially boggy spot where the lower beasties tapered off, and it was just me and the Bokoblins.

But then.... I’d had them fooled from the start.

Damia hadn’t said anything about Masks.

In the swamped out area just before the shrine, I traipsed a winding and circuitous course across half-sunken logs in the bubbling bog, under the watchful and curious gaze of no fewer than three armed Bokoblins in the tree branches above.

Thank—you—Kilton.

Once I was clear of the muck I entered the Maag Halan Shrine for the final blessing of the Korok Trials.

After reporting back to Chio, he gave me some prize I don’t remember, and I decided to climb up to the crown of the Deku Tree to have another visit with that Colonel Mustard....

Walton was his actual name. Walton the Korok.

There was one more trial up where he perched, I knew. I’d declined taking it before. But I’d been a few places by now. I felt more confident I’d be ready for his Ultimate Challenge....

At it turned out, the Ultimate Korok Challenge didn’t even entail going anywhere. Walton simply recited a series of riddles for me to solve. The riddles gave clues to certain objects, and if I could lay those objects down on the platter-sized leaf in front of him, he would give me prizes!

And, I must say, these were some of the cleverer rhymes I’d seen in this game—and some of the rhymes were subverted on the last word, a la Sweet Violets! It was hilarious.

There were five riddles in all, I think, and my inventory was so full (I almost always made sure to keep at least one of every item I’d ever found), that I had very little trouble laying down the items Walton was looking for.

An apple.... a certain breed of fish....

The fifth and final riddle I had actually seen previously, while David had been playing:

If stepped on by this, you will go poof!

It starts with an H and ends with an oof!

I’d known what it must have been right away.

But David had never killed a Lynel.

I’m only a little sorry to say I took some pleasure in watching him crack his head over it. What could it beeee? he wondered.

I didn’t spoil him too bad, but after only minimal nudging on my part he came to the conclusion on his own that it must indeed be a hoof from a Lynel.

He’d never killed a Lynel before....!

I wanted to watch him complete this last test for Walton.

I was happy to offer guidance on where to find good Lynels to fight, and he took it. And that is how I got David to FINALLY talk to the Zora Laflat so he could get the Zora Pants.

But first he had to climb Ploymus Mountain and have it out with the Devil....

Fortunately for him, I had already carried out enough trials and errors to know how to stand up to them decently enough.

He did well! Though, like me, he did burn his fair share of restorative items through the fray. But that was kind of to be expected, when it was a matter of Lynels.

And so it came to pass that David slew his very first Lynel. And when he brought the hoof back to Walton, he was able to finally complete the Ultimate Korok Challenge.

Just like I was going to do, now....

And after that....

After that....

Didn’t know what to do. Hhhh, how the heck was I gonna find an Ancient Battle Axe+ for Nebb? I had 21 Spirit Orbs; maybe I should have prayed.... Wandered around. Gorko’s Tunnel on the volcano? Still couldn’t solve it. Asked around Goron City to no avail. Saw the sleeping Gerudo. Was jealous. I just wanted to sleep....

I dipped around for only a little bit more before.... I headed back to Pepp’s, and bed.