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....