Under The Sentinel Sun

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018

Under The Sentinel Sun

In the morning I bought all of Shailu’s arrows—normal, Fire, Ice, Shock, and Bomb. The Bomb Arrow was.... expectedly more expensive, though expecting it did little to soften the deal.

And then Shailu was out of stock.

She’d only had one of each.

....

So outside, I bought all of Beedle’s arrows.

I still was not giving him my Energetic Rhino Beetle, though.

After this I explored a part of the bazaar I had not gotten to before—the part that first made me recognize the place as holding one of my memories. I’d seen it from way, way far away on the backside of the Gerudo Highlands, long, long before:

The large, characteristically bulbous rock formation jutting high above the inn, draped on all sides with rugs on ropes so that it almost resembled a hot air balloon.

It was easy enough to find the couple of ladders that led up to the top. But when I got there.... nothing was there.

That was strange, I thought. David had seemed so full of anticipation for when I climbed up there.

Then again it wouldn’t be the first time we gave each other puzzled looks over game happenings or non-happenings that didn’t line up between our separate playthroughs.

Seems the event programmers rather did the thing properly in this open world....

With nothing left to do in town and daylight starting to burn, I set out for Gerudo Town to the southwest.

But not far from the oasis, I started to pant and sigh—it was too hot.

So I put on my Flamebreaker Armor.

It didn’t help.

What? :c

I ran back toward the cool shade of the bazaar—Why didn’t my Flamebreaker Armor help? It could withstand the heat of the volcano. It could keep me from spontaneously combusting! Couldn’t it do anything to insulate me from the desert heat?

Or did it perhaps act like an oven instead?

Ughh....

On the way back to the bazaar I struck up a conversation with a Gerudo who was running in my same direction. Kyra was her name.

“Okay... it’s a voe. You can do this. Remember your training,” she muttered under her breath.

Oh my gosh what. X-)

She then launched into a romantic introduction outlining how she was going out into the world searching for her dreams. “You’re a part of my dreams, aren’t you?” she asked with a cute, girlish bounce in her posture.

The available responses made me laugh:

“You’re my dream girl!”

. . . . or . . . .

“Just a guy takin’ a walk.”

XD

Eh in the end I decided I didn’t want to lead her on. “Just a guy takin’ a walk,” I said, and she immediately dropped her girlish air like a sack of potatoes.

“If that’s the case then there’s no more point talking to you,” she deadpanned with all the tenderness of a cactus.

Dang.

I guess.... she had good training at least. She had seemed like such an eager young n00b....

Why didn’t my Flamebreaker Armor work?

I guessed I would need to make some cooling elixirs for myself. Or only travel at night.

At the bazaar I found some other people to talk to, including one Robsten, who said his caravan leader had gone to Gerudo Town to negotiate entry, but had not come back yet.

Hmmm....

Another young man standing on a little scaffold behind one of the piles of goods said he was watching the sandstorm around the Gerudo Highlands, waiting for it to clear, so he could go for the treasure it concealed....

Hmmmm....

Huh!

I tried running back toward the mountain. Maybe that would be different—

Nope. Too hot that way, too.

I was stuck.

Well, not really. But I didn’t want to warp away; there were no shrines nearby.

Hmm.

I made a cooling elixir. But....

Well I’ve never been one for elixirs.

I decided to wait for nightfall.

In the meantime I spoke to Kyra again, wondering if she had anything different to say. She didn’t, and I was once again “Just a guy takin’ a walk”, and once again dismissed just as coldly.

It was an interesting hobble, being held captive by the desert sun. And nothing I could don would form a permanent solution against it!

Well, I guess it does make sense.

And I would know.

But when the sun finally began to sink and the desert began to cool off I ran out for Gerudo Town, wearing my Lizalfos Mask, just in case.

I once again met Kyra running the other way.

“You again?” she said, “I’m on my personal journey of learning and discovery so it would be great if you could not disrupt it.” She paused. “Unless... Do you think you’re part of my destiny? My dream life?” Or some such words.

Eh, third time’s the charm. Just to see what would happen, I answered with a big hearty “You’re my dream girl!”

Kyra straightened up at once and said, “My vaba always said nothing’s so shady as a voe who talks about dream this and dream that. I guess she was right.”

OUCH. XD

I felt kind of pathetic in the Lizalfos Mask.

Why are Gerudo so tall....?

“Run along, voe. I’m busy,” she said, and left.

Wow.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Carrying on.

Kara Kara Bazaar

Evening of Friday, January 5, 2018 ~ 3

Kara Kara Bazaar

Situated round the hub of a cool oasis, ringed with palm trees, Kara Kara Bazaar seemed rather much like a stable: a sprinkling of merchants and other characters, a place to sleep, a lit wok, a local dog.... and Beedle.

I still wasn’t handing over my Energetic Rhino Beetle to him.

There were, however, no horses in the vicinity; all traffic here seemed to be on foot or not at all.

Most of the residents were Gerudo, and most of the Gerudo seemed concerned in some degree with expressing their loathing of the Yiga.

Well I guessed we were somewhat closer to that winding Satan Canyon with all the frogs and ant lion traps.

The merchants sat out in front of tents and tarped piles of boxes with their goods—fruit, mostly. “Good...day...” said the first one I talked to, “That’s how you say it where you come from, right?”

So cute! XD

The one elderly Gerudo merchant I saw had her hair (still very red!) pulled back in an elaborate updo adorned with beads and jewels. She complained so sorely about the heat, for a desert dweller, that I felt a little bad not buying anything from her. But I wasn’t interested in fruit just now.

And then I saw another Rito.

A thrill took me—I had never met any other Rito besides Kass before! I hurried to where this other lazed back on some rocks beside the water. Are you a girl bird or a boy bird....? David and I wondered....

The Rito’s name was Guy.

“Oh you’re a man-bird,” I said, and David laughed.

Apparently Guy had not been fully prepared for the pounding desert heat—if he just had a cooling elixir maybe he’d be able to continue on his travels....

The sidequest name flashed across the top of the screen: An Ice Guy.

....

I once read that groaning has been the appropriately appreciative response to puns since the days of the Roman Empire.

....

Yup. XD

I’d never made a cooling elixir before, but I certainly had enough darners for it. I made one now at the wok, and took it back to Guy. Oh, he was happy to get it—and he gave me a purple rupee for my trouble!

And then.... he taught me how to say ‘thank you’ in Gerudo: “Sarqso”.

Heh. Cool. >u<

Another Gerudo sat on a rug beneath some propped up, textile shade. “Mother wouldn’t be all right with a delicate voe like you,” she said of looking at me.

These Gerudo....

We talked. Her name was Rhondson, and she was looking for the love of her life.

Why the rush? I asked her.

“It’s incredibly rare for a male to be born to the Gerudo, so we travel to find husbands,” she said. And she wondered if there was someone out there for her....

Hang in there, Rhondson.

I stepped into the inn—which seemed to double as a shop, for my eyes fell on—

BOY DO THEY GOT THE ARROWS. C8

There they were, lined up in a neat little row along the wall, every variety except for Ancient. Shailu, the Gerudo behind that little counter, couldn’t be bothered much to chat about them, though—she was too absorbed in a book.

I would definitely have to remember this place—and so placed a bow-and-arrow stamp on my map right then and there.

By now it was about 8:30 or just past in the evening. I spoke to Kachoo, the actual innkeep, whose name I thought sounded like a sneeze, and.... aw heck.... asked for a soft bed, with a wake up call in the morning.

“Soft bed it is!” said Kachoo, “Sleep well!”

“Sarqso,” I told her.

. .  .   .    .     .       .

The time-passing music was different for the soft bed sleep—much embellished and quite fancy.

David turned in my periphery and stared at me intently during the little refrain.

But I did not stare back.

We weren’t playing Skies of Arcadia.

A Climb about the Canyon

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017 ~ 7

A Climb about the Canyon

It was well past midnight, and I really, really did need to get to bed and to sleep.

I wanted to end the session, but.... maybe just one more thing first....

I rode a bit further on from the Gerudo Canyon Stable, and the canyon came to an abrupt end at the edge of a vast and sandy desert scape. I tried Dragmire at the edge of the desert, but he would go no further. There was something of a small ledge that dropped down several feet, and so I tried him again at the high end of a ramp that seemed meant for foot traffic.... but he wasn’t having it.

So I ran him back to the stable and boarded him.

That would be the last thing I did. Maybe.

It didn’t seem like it would hurt just to talk to the stable people first.

Beedle was there—no, I wasn’t going to trade him my Energetic Rhino Beetle; most of his trades seemed like not such great deals anyway. And Kass was there—he said he was impressed with me for having come so far! “Even I, blessed with the gift of flight, had trouble getting here,” he said.

I did not stay to listen to his song, though.

A man named Sesami told me he and his friends had been jumped by some baddies around such-and-such plateau, and they were lost and would I please go help to find them. Their names were Oliff, Flaxel, Canolo and Palme.

What an oily-sounding bunch. XD

And then there was an old man who was in need of Rushrooms. He wanted to gather a bunch of them, but he was too old and frail to climb up to where they grew on the cliff walls.

AND WOULD I PLEASE HELP HIM.

Well that.... didn’t seem like too much work.

Maybe I would just dart up and grab him the Rushrooms—they grew everywhere around here it seemed—and I would make THAT the last thing I did before I went to bed.

It turned out he needed quite a few of them—certainly more than I had on me; I never gather those things....

And so I climbed a few hills, climbed a few cliffs, up the one side of the canyon, the side overhanging the ground where the stable stood.... And then I decided to check out the side across the way, the hilly side that mounted up beyond the Kay Noh Shrine.

I’d been curious about that side. Huge and angular steps of grey stone stood in stark contrast to the beigeruddy, windswept curves of the rest of the canyon. A castle among the cliffs.

No, not a castle—a fortress.

It was hard not to see the old Gerudo’s Fortress in those shapes.

There were no doors in these stones, though. Only a few ladders and pulleys led the way to the top.

Up and up and up I climbed.... losing track of everything. Weird scapes opened up before my eyes. Strange lands and monumental shapes. It was as if I had entered a Land of Goddesses; a ring of Desert Colossi stood ancient and imposing, facing inward together as if in prayer.

Away out in the desert, I saw the Divine Beast stomping around.

And looking up.... there was the Sheikah Tower.

It was quite close.

Should I....?

....

I debated.

.......

The hour was so late....

. . . . . . .

Was that the sun?

Off-White Memory

Waking of Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Off-White Memory

I stepped out of the Outskirt Stable, it was five o’clock in the morning, the sun was shining.... Time for a new adventure!

Time to go find that other split of the river!

After consulting my compass and buying every arrow Beedle had in stock (it was my first time purchasing arrows), I took off northward, crossing to the west side of the river when I came to Manhala Bridge.

I didn’t care for the path, as usual, but instead scrambled almost straight up the rocky sides of this big hump of earth. Always head to high ground!

It was grassy on top, and—wouldn’t you know it—as I continued north, I did catch a glimpse of a white horse off to my left, just trotting through the rolling flowers. Very pretty.

It wasn’t pure white—its mane was a kind of cream-color.

But I’d say it was definitely a one-color horse.

Still.... I had my own business to attend to. I didn’t change course as it came trotting in my general direction. Would it see me and stop? Whatever it did, I had to keep moving north.

But I paused when I saw some structures just ahead on the other end of this big hill.

Baddies?

I didn’t see any movement. I came closer.

The place was called Sanadin Park Ruins. But it didn’t seem very ruinous. On the contrary it looked.... well quite pleasant still, even after all these years.

Maybe monsters had never come here.

And then, up on top, in the center of the structures, I saw a bit of statuary—a horse.

It was the horse statue from one of Zelda’s pictographs!

I climbed up and took a few more pictographs myself. I’m not sure how the Princess must have managed the angle she got before, but I tried to recapture it as best I could.... I fell over the railing a couple of times.

After one of these times, I ran back round to get on top again, and—

“Glendo?”

Glendo was there on his horse! Out of nowhere! I often saw him at the Outskirt Stable, warning me of the monsters that come out at night....

“Glendo could you clear off, please? I’m trying to have a moment here....”

I milled around on the grass for a while until he finally scooted his horse back toward the stable, muttering something about “something seems off....”

I stopped, thinking to ask him about it, but.... in that moment he got too far away.

I turned back to the statue. Now that I was properly alone with it again, I could get a few more good pictographs....

But very shortly after Glendo had gone, the daylight began to dim. The blue began to brood into a creamy haze, and then a light grey, and then a dark grey, and then.... rain began to fall.

Well.

Not the picturesque reunion I’d been hoping for, but....

Hhhh and all the gay little flowers so sodden.

-_-

But I couldn’t wait there forever.

I stepped in front of the statue, and looked at Zelda’s pictograph....

The sun hung low and the sky was shot with gold. Sunset I think.

Princess Zelda and I rode our horses along that very hill above Manhala Bridge, toward Sanadin Park. Just at a walk.

Her horse was white—it was just like that one I had seen.... all white with a creamy mane. My own horse.... heh, looked kinda like Brown, actually. Dark, with four white socks.

She was just talking. About her horse’s saddle and bridle—very lovely tack, all gleaming and befitting a horse who bears royalty on his back. She said he wore it well.

My horse’s gear wasn’t so splendid—I even had a bedroll behind my saddle. What kind of life did I lead?

She thanked me for some advice—about riding I guess—and then we came to the little deck by the statue, and dismounted.

She stepped toward the railing, and the sun’s light haloed her in a brilliant red glow.

“Do you see that mountain? That is Mount Lanayru, named for the Goddess of Wisdom....”

It was far away.

Zelda said she had prayed at both the Spring of Power and the Spring of Courage, but that neither instance had awoken anything inside her.

She also said that no one under the age of seventeen was allowed to—

She looked again at Mount Lanayru, at whose top was the Spring of Wisdom.

It was a tall mountain, I knew. Treacherously tall.

And then she turned to me again and told me that tomorrow was her seventeenth birthday.

Would she climb the mountain, then?

Her hair was so red....

Rain dripped down my face, and the grass was wet and the flowers were soaked under the grey, grey sky.

Under cover of the downpour, I found the white horse again. The white horse I hadn’t thought much of. But now that I knew what it was.... And it looked just like him, too.... Just like him....

He bucked me off once, and as the rain thinned out and stopped, it was a long crouch through the moonlit grass to sneak up on him again.

The second time I didn’t let go.

It took nearly every stamina-based meal and elixir I had to stay on his back—but I did.

He is strong. He is fierce.

He is WILD.

And I brought him back to the Outskirt Stable. And I registered him there, and I called him....

Memory.

Oasis in the Water

Waking of Friday, April 14, 2017 ~ 3

Oasis in the Water

Well.... I did feel somewhat silly for passing over this entire little settlement for.... gosh I dunno how many Blood Moons.

But from here on out, it looked like visiting Tye and Sorelia was going to become a whole lot easier.

This was the Wetland Stable, and it seemed a laid-back, easy-going place. An older kid named Yorelo was playing swords against a dummy—except he was using a torch. “The Master Torch!” he called it, “Burning away evil with its flames of justice!” or something along those lines. It wasn’t even lit....

Well that was.... cute. Wished I could’ve pat that kid on the head, even tall as he was, close to my own height. Oh, you dear sweet child. XD

Yorelo’s younger brother Ami had somehow been resigned to assist visitors like myself, and he was bored out of his skull for it. He only let me ask of the compass directions, and gave me the barebones directions of what was nearby. East?

“Zora’s Domain. That’s it.”

North?

“Death Mountain. Duh.”

West?

“Well Mr. Perceptive, that would be Hyrule Castle.”

Or some such words from this kid. Really, this place was just charming. XD Wish I’d found the middle-brother; Ami said they had one....

When I asked him what was to the south, he said I’d just have to go there and ask at the Riverside Stable to find out.

Huh, so it seems there are more stables about than I’d realized.

I had seen disconnected snatches of roads on my map, but so far I had only been keeping to the veins whose entire lengths I could see. I didn’t go trying to make connections between the pathways—and what if I’d just kept following whatever road I came across? I’d had business I was about, and roads have a tendency to keep going. I might very well have been swept right off my feet and away.

Maybe that was why I’d never come upon this Wetland Stable. Or the “Riverside Stable”.

Just trying to stay focused.

Hm. Though now I’m wondering about how I shall approach Akkala.... I’d been thinking about just paragliding down from Toto Lake in the Upland Zorana, but.... come to think of it, I think there was a road that must have gone that way.... yes, if I go downstream from Inogo Bridge and hang a sharp right.... yeeaahh.... And I think I saw another stable through my scope along that way, too....

Well, there were a few more people about the Wetland Stable. A man named Kazul rode his horse along the road; I think he might have warned me about the dangers of the lands so close to the castle....

There was a Doctor Spoone, whose name made me smile. Seemed he was one to travel around instead of holding down a practice in one location. Seemed like a nice man.

Beedle was there again, and as we perused each other’s goods he flipped out at the sight of my . . . . well I can’t remember the name but it’s some kind of golden rhino beetle with special properties, and it’s apparently quite rare....

It’s not the first time he’s asked after it, offering to trade me elixirs and other things.

I haven’t given it to him though. Not least of all because I’d hate to trade away the only one I have of anything in my inventory. We’ll see what the future will bring.

Inside the stable, on a tabletop, was an open book belonging to one Staysi, who seemed to produce these Rumor Mills (this was volume five)—and this one made just one claim, based, from what I gathered, on some hearsay from young children: DRAGONS ARE REAL.

(David has asked me more than once if I’ve seen any dragons. Huge, HUUUGE dragons, he says. And I just keep telling him, No, no I haven’t. Has he seen any rock-monsters? Like.... Gorignak-style rock-monsters? He keeps saying No.... no he hasn’t.)

And then there was QUINCE.

Quince was standing a little away from the stable, in the company of a shepherd-dog, both of them gazing intently into some distant hills.

When I approached him, he started, “What the—seriously? Another guy?” And he lamented to me that that was all there were around here. Just guys.

And I raised my eyebrows as I recalled—he was right; I hadn’t seen any women. I guess we were quite close to Hyrule Castle. Womenfolk probably wouldn’t want to come out here....

“And when we finally were visited by a Zora,” Quince continued, “turned out it was just some manly prince guy who’s a dude.”

Oh, so Prince Sidon had come all the way out here, too....

I asked Quince about the Zora.

“The Zora? They’re like.... slippery fish people,” he so eloquently explained.

Hm, seemed I may have been meant to come to this stable some time much earlier.

But no worries.

Quince also told me about his dog. Natty, I think, was its name [it was Satty]. He asked me if I wanted to know how they met; it sounded like it was an involved story....

But I told him I’d listen.

There was a mountain, he said, Satori Mountain I think he said it was called. At certain times on Satori Mountain, animals of all kinds would appear, and so Quince had gone there to go hunting for game.

He asked me if I was bored. I told him to keep going.

Did he say the animals all disappeared at one point? Or could he just not find them to begin with? I don’t remember. He said at some point there were no animals, but there appeared before him a large, glowing beast.

“And then?” I prompted him when he paused.

He ran for it, and this glowing beast chased him through the mountain I gather, until at some point he was cornered. The beast loomed over him....

“And then?”

All of a sudden this tiny little pup comes out of nowhere, jumps between him and the beast, and starts yapping and growling, and the beast, ten times its size, pulls up short, startled.

“AND THEN??”

In that split-second when the beast took pause, Quince gets up, grabs the pup, and bolts down the mountain and he made it away to safety.

PHEWF.

And that was where his Natty came from, and they’d been together ever since.

Heh, Quince was quite a good storyteller.

....

I’ve seen a strange mountain sometimes when I scan the horizons with my scope. It’s quite plain and dun, a little lumpy but otherwise fairly conical. Something.... glows at its crest. I wonder if that’s the same mountain....

Perhaps an excursion for another day.

Kass had been the first person I had spoken to at the stable, in another life, in another save. (I’d quit the game under some intrusive buzzkill. It was only a little deviation....)

Now he was the last person I spoke to.

Because he did what he did before, and asked if I’d like to hear another song of his.

And I said Yes.

It was longer, this one, and it told the tale of the Hero of ten thousand years ago, same as Impa had told me. How the land of Hyrule had been prosperous, and advanced, and protected.... and how they had prepared against Calamity Ganon by building the Guardians, and the Divine Beasts.... and how the Champions who piloted the Divine Beasts had aided the Hero, and how the Guardians had protected the Hero, and how the Hero had struck Ganon down, and how the Princess with Goddess’ blood had sealed Calamity Ganon away with her holy powers....

Very nice song.

Seemed the Wetland Stable was just full of good storytellers.

Kass returned to his counterpoint (which I’m pretty sure included sections of Epona’s Song) as I parted ways with him.

I’d had a fine time familiarizing myself with some of the stable people, but I really did need to do that shrine. It’d be nice to have another warpable here off the wetlands.

Free Enterprise

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017 ~ 2

Free Enterprise

I hung around the stable a bit longer, visited with the people again, loved on the dog some more—it started following me around a bit....

And then I went inside, and found Beedle snoozing away on the floor in the back. I remembered I wanted to check on the price of ten Luminous Stones versus the price of one Diamond, and so nudged him gently awake.

I did not expect his reaction then.

I don’t even remember how or why it happened; I didn’t feel like we really knew each other that well, but he just seemed so excited to see me....

He gave me an Ancient Arrow.

8O

I recognized it.

I recognized it from the teaser I’d seen ages and ages and ages ago! The one with Aonuma’s introduction—the one where Link was running from that terrible Guardian, riding away on a horse until he was cornered, whereupon he vaulted from his horse’s back, nocked the baffling arrow to his bowstring—it whirred and moved and glowed—and let fly.

Oh my gosh, Beedle just gave me one of those.

He told me he got it from a man named Robbie, at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.

!

Oh my—Robbie....? Purah had recommended I visit one called Robbie.... I’d forgotten all about him.... And I’d heard the name Akkala said here and there, but I wasn’t quite sure where it was.

But Beedle clued me in—he said Akkala was waaaay north of Zora’s Domain, and he told me that this Robbie was completely obsessed with ancient technology, always studying and experimenting and constructing things like this arrow....

North of Zora’s Domain? Those shrines I had seen from the clifftops of Upland Zorana.... And that Sheikah Tower patrolled by the hovering, red-lighted terror....

Were those Akkalan lands?

o__o

I certainly had a lot to think about.

But.... to the business at hand....

I looked at his wares and he looked at mine, and the going price for a Luminous Stone was seventy rupees, but a Diamond’s worth was five hundred.

So the Luminous Stones were more valuable by the tens.

Huh, perhaps I wouldn’t trade them all away to Ledo after all.... but I didn’t want to sell them to Beedle either.

I don’t know, I felt like I might want to keep them for something, their elemental values.... I felt like they must be used for something else, later....

Then again I know it is a bad habit of mine to hold in reserve, hold in reserve, hold in reserve for the WORST emergencies, until I simply find myself with unused hoards of stuff.

But I decided to lighten my pockets at least a little. I could spare a few Ambers, and I was not short at all on monster-bits. Bokoblin fangs and lizalfos horns might go for cheap, but when you’re carrying several score of each.... it adds up pretty quick.

And then suddenly I had over three thousand rupees.

I could buy that house in Hateno.

And instantly my mind began to make war on itself—Did I really want the house? Did I like the flavor of Hateno? Were there other places in Hyrule for me to live? Better places?

Because for some reason Hateno had always left a weird taste in my mouth. Maybe it was that I was so exhausted when I first got there. Maybe it was the sense of unease I’d had at the time. Maybe it was the proximity of the Yiga encounters, or the dread close hills haunted by that dratblasted Piano....

Maybe it was that encounter with SATAN.

But.... there were nice folks there, too, like that man who’d been so happy to show me around town. Or.... or.... um.... Karson and his fellows; they’d seemed pretty decent. And I guess that little kid who’d shown me the horned statue was pretty cute, albeit seemingly misguided in his sculptural preferences.

I guess I hadn’t really taken a lot of time to get to know the people there, either.

Except for Purah.

And she was weird.

But, with three thousand rupees in my pocket, the option was now open to me.

And that was more for me to think about.

The Stables

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 4

The Stables

It really began to rain as I continued along the higher track on the lee of the north peak. There were two shapes that kept swimming up and down the river. Gyorgs maybe. I didn’t want to get close enough to find out.

Visibility was awful. Everything was grey. And climbing the rocks became much more difficult in the rain, even with my bandana on.

But when it did clear up, I saw a large structure, out on the green on the other side of the pass between the peaks.

I paraglided over to the south side of the river, where the proper road was, and climbed a tall wooden tower (there was a chest with a boomerang on top). And from there I observed this structure.

It looked like a circus tent, the upper reaches of which were shaped like the gigantic head of a horse.

And there was the bridge.

I crossed it – and there were people. And animals! And smoke and fire and bundles of hay and pitchforks and provisions and a pen full of goats—

There were people!

And Beedle was there with a great backpack full of goods to sell!! 8D

The first person I reached was a young woman, and her name was Sagessa. “This is the life,” she said of standing near the cool little pond against the mountain, in which stood another glowing shrine.

What a very pretty sight and greeting, after so long on the rough, rough road.