Shrine Out Of Time 1 - Relent

Evening of Monday, December 30, 2019

Shrine Out Of Time 1 - Relent

Something happened.

I was at Impa’s. Just.... staking the place out. In my Sneaky Suit to boot. But the old lady’s sleepless eyes, even deceptively closed, could not be evaded.

When I asked Paya about the ball, she gave responses with red text.... that meant something important. It mentioned the Hero chosen by the Heirloom or some such words.... The only other place I had seen such verbiage was the little book near the door of Impa’s house—the Journal of Various Worries or something like it.

This journal seemed to have entries from the people about town. Like the cucco guy.

I went outside to see if I could gather all the cuccos again, a la Anju’s brood in OoT’s Kakariko Village. It would be a headache, I thought.... they were in such odd corners of the town.... But I went at it anyway.

Except.... after I tossed one in, and then went looking for another.... I came back and saw that the first one I had grabbed.... had repopulated to its original place beside the woodfire by the thoroughfare. The coop had likewise reverted to containing only three cuccos.

Huh.

I tried another cucco, and upon gaining a sufficient distance.... the same thing happened again.

So I guessed the cucco game was over and done with for good.

Even so, I stalked the village, waiting for the day to turn, waiting for the cucco guy and his wife to show up back home.... Or at least the cucco guy; the Worry Journal said he’d chosen the cuccos over her.

But I became impatient. Only Cado and Dorian pattered up the street, Koko and Cottla running around....

I went back to the Journal. Most of the entries mentioned issues that I seemed to recall already dealing with. There was one, though, the shop girl. Barking customers into the store all day. The Journal said she used to find solace after her work days by walking among the fireflies. Except now, she and the other villagers were being advised not to go wandering about, especially after dark. She didn’t know how she was going to deal....

I didn’t think I’d seen to her yet.

So off I went to the shop. I didn’t even remember what shop it was. Was it the general store? It was the only one with a clappercaller anyway. My but she did have such a pretty face for it. Nice smile.

Lasli was her name.

She beamed and hollered at me about the wares inside, and.... I just stood.

I waited there for [game-] hours.

Until finally, as night fell, around eight or nine, she turned and high-tailed it up the street.

I followed her. At my usual jog.

But the problem with being the athletic Hero whose globetrottings put arctic terns to shame was that.... well my metabolism ran just a little bit HOT. I ran faster than everybody else.

Maybe it was that hundred-year nap. I did certainly find myself walking feverishly jittered circles around my house all night after a bout of sucking morphine at the hospital that one time. But that’s another story (it was a kidney stone).

At any rate, as I followed Lasli up the slope, trying to anticipate her turns as she wound between the fields and fences, I kept accidentally running into the poor girl. I’m sorry!

So I slowed down, kept my distance, and at length I finally found the house she was heading for, nestled deep back up against a high nook of the village. Nanna’s House! I had discovered in my mad village stakeouts. I’d been wondering where Nanna had gone.... Her foot had long since seemed to have mended at least.... Was Lasli her granddaughter?

I followed her in.

Nanna was sleeping on a bed in the far left corner.

But Lasli walked in a few paces, turned, sat down on a stool, and her hat disappeared.

Huh.

She looked at me.

So I spoke to her, and she told me much the same thing I had read in the Worry Journal. Work was tiring, and if she could only just find her peace again among the beautiful fireflies at night....

As her lamentations petered out, the sidequest banner flashed across my screen: Something About Fireflies....

I barely registered the new red exclamation mark beside her before I spoke to her again.

“What? That glow!” or some such words. She could see the gleam of my collection of fireflies all the way at the bottom of my hammerspace pockets.

She begged me to show them to her.

Into the pause menu I went. I grabbed one, unpaused—

....Just one? Was I really that stingy? What was I gonna do with all these fireflies anyway?

—went back into the menu, and loaded up my arms with fireflies!

I could only carry five. But it was enough.

It was the world....

I released them right into the house, my HUD fled the event, and it was just Lasli’s bright smiling face taking in that beautiful green glow.... Oh how happy she looked....

She was so overjoyed, and the bright little insects floated so serenely around the room, not darting away like they did when I brushed by them in the wild.

Lasli didn’t have much, but she told me to please take the fifty rupees she offered, and I did.

It was true, it wasn’t so much. But it was something. But I didn’t need it.

Just seeing her joyous smile was enough.

“I wish Claree could see a picture of this!” she said, or something like it. Claree, I’d heard that name before. I think it was the shopkeep.... “They’re so pretty!” Lasli went on, beaming about the enchanting room.

“You’re pretty too,” I said.

Oh that was so cute! XD <3 ^_^

Because there was no way in all the pits of Ganon’s VoidRealm that I was was going to choose the other response, “They won’t live long.” Ugh!

Lasli only smiled and smiled at the sailing green stars in her room.

I did take a picture.

The night was waning when I walked back down the thoroughfare toward Impa’s house. I could see Cado and Dorian straight ahead.

They seemed to be.... reacting to something?

Oh my gosh.

I ran.

“Who could have done this?” they kept gasping to one another, and other such takings-aback. “Who could have stolen it?”

This was it.

Ah, I see. So it’s like Riju and the Thunder Helm. I had to clean up all the rest, first.

I rushed into the house.

Paya was a wreck, nigh on weeping on the floor before where the ball had—

The ball was gone.

Impa commanded my attention. But I don’t remember the words she said, just.... apprisings, information....

But Paya, “I only looked away for a moment!” or something like it. She was so distraught—

Impa said, “Paya believes that the thief may still be nearby. Would you mind staying with her for the rest of the day?”

Of course I nodded....

Would all this frigging buzzkill knock it off?