Before The Storm

Afternoon of Sunday, May 5, 2019

Before The Storm

As I stand in the field....

The Piano plays The Legend of Zelda theme, small at first, delicately....

A muffled:

“...

Link...

Link.

You have recovered all of your memories

of us from 100 years ago...”

Her voice sounds.... weary. A weary kind of relief.

“I am here...inside Hyrule Castle.

It is now time for you to defeat Ganon.”

And the Piano stretching across many octaves resounds the last refrain.... as I clench my firsts and set my brow against the storm to come.

I am ready.

*

Lost Memories – Complete

*

WHERE IS THE LAST SHRINE?

I searched all around Nirvata Lake, suspicious of that line of three trees up on the cliff above the waterfall. Nothing.

I CLEANED OUT the Deplian Badlands, killing three Lynels along the way, but found no shrines there either. (That first Lynel didn’t even land a hit on me. Noice.) I did find some Koroks though. That Korok circle back by the east Lynel.... I had to kill the Lynel to get the rock for the circle. Well, to get it safely at least.

And west into the Drenan Highlands was the third Lynel. Forgot it was there; I hadn’t left a stamp for it.

Killed it. In the rain. With Shock Arrows. I had rather a lot of those. They come in handy.

I went east to west across the entire Deplian Badlands. And then some into the foothills. But couldn’t find any shrines, or any explodable rockfaces.

Got a few pieces of Dinraal, though.

And I was getting better at killing Lynels.

Hm, how about the Eastern Reservoir Lake? Vah Naboris had blocked a shrine when it was running wild; maybe Vah Ruta had done so, too....

Mm, but I didn’t explore the reservoir too deeply.... I drifted into the Domain proper and....

Well, it was my bedtime.

For once.

I was short on sleep the previous night. I did need it tonight. Had some goob shadowing me the next day about Top-Up, in which I just was not an expert.

Oh well.

No new words of wisdom from Prince Sidon or King Dorephan.

But lots of familiar faces I hadn’t visited with in ages.... Rivan, Dunma, Torfeau; Tula, Toma and Laruta, the Prince Sidon Fan Club.... little Tumbo and Keye running around the square.... Tumbo more full of energy, Keye more.... low key. And he said he hoped, if anything ever happened to them again, that I would be around to help again, aww.... ^_^ .... Mei.... Ledo.... good old Bazz. Was it Tula’s or Toma’s older brother Cleff who ran the inn? No, some other shop. I love that name....

And Cleff had married.... Kodah, who 100 years ago had asked me to choose between Mipha and her.

She apologized for doing that.

She still calls me Linny.

Went to the Seabed Inn, It was 3:something in the afternoon.

I slept on a regular bed until morning.

The Day The Hero Fell

Waking of Saturday, May 4, 2019 ~ 3

The Day The Hero Fell

Night is falling.

I step into the light....

Fire and Rain.

Guardians.... Guardians.... so many guardians.... so many Guardians, crawling, crawling....

One of them senses.... something....

Zelda and I.... we stand in the midst of this hell.

Filthy and ragged.

I.... am in a bad way.

We are all in a bad way.

“Link, save yourself, go!” The Princess’ hands are on my shoulders from behind as I kneel in the mud before her. We are both filthy and ragged.

My clothes are torn. I only pant in exhaustion....

“I’ll be fine! Don’t worry about me,” she sobs, “Run!”

But I bow my head in pain.... and then struggle back to my feet, hauling myself up with my sword, and stand unsteadily in front of her.

The Guardian sees us in earnest, and comes.

It comes closer, it targets its laser upon us—upon me....

“NO!”

Zelda—

She stands in front of me Princess what are you—and raises her right hand in strong warding and—

That light.

A brilliant, pure, golden light emanates from her open palm, the holy Triforce gleaming through her hand—

And bursts forth in a sphere, ever expanding, light shooting toward the heavens in a rupturing pillar—

And the Guardian stops, freezes up.... and wilts with a mechanical juddering.... And the Malice is purged, cast out of the Guardians all around.... it dissipates feebly into the air before evaporating with an evil hiss.... and the Guardians collapse and die....

Zelda’s Lullaby thrumming through soft women’s voices on an ooh....

Zelda stands bewildered.

“Was... Was that... the Power....?”

Thud.

I’ve fallen onto my left side.

I’m on the ground.

“Oh, no, no!” Zelda runs to me and rolls me to my back, puts her left hand under my nape and lifts me. “Link! Get up!”

She calls my name and lifts me up—I cough—and my eyes open, and I look at her but.... oh my wincing brow and . . . . I am . . . . no . . . . this is pain . . . . this is . . . .

“You’re going to be just fine...” she calls to me, but....

And I groan, but....

But....

And with a last sigh I fall limp in her arms.

There’s.... nothing....

And Zelda.... “No, no,” she cries—

And back down.... my form is heavy and she lays me back down onto her folded thighs where she kneels, her face crumpling into my chest. Muddy boots, gashes all over.

No.... no....

But the Master Sword....

Still clutched inverted in my left hand.

It....

It pulses. Gleams and pulses rhythmically a few times....

And it sounds like.... Fi....

The Princess hears it, lifts her head and sees it.... bright and anomalous in this nightmare world.

“The sword?” Zelda croaks.

As if it speaks to her.

“So he can.... he can still be saved?”

Dares she believe it....

“Princeeeess!”

Two strong Sheikah men come leaping over the field to her. Swiftly in and then quickly knelt down. Ready. Sharp and able. “Princess! Are you all right?!”

Princess Zelda snaps to. She is the Royal Sovereign and she is decisive. She instructs them, “Take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection! If you don’t get him there immediately we are going to lose him forever. Is that clear?!”

The masked Sheikah Soldiers nod firmly.

Her voice is strong. Commanding.

Stronger than I’ve ever heard it before.

“So make haste and go! His life is now in your hands!”

As the last crimson light fades from the ruined Guardian’s wasted shell....

Most memories I only let myself watch once, but....

This one I will spurge it again and again, and crystallize its essence in word.

Sand Seal Rally!

Waking of Saturday, July 28, 2018 ~ 8

Sand Seal Rally!

I continued talking with everyone I could around Gerudo Town, looking for more days to save, until I came to one gateway guard who mentioned the Sand Seal Races. She told me where they normally took place, and said that, now that the Divine Beast was gone, they could race again.

Oh could they now?

I ran out in the indicated direction, just to a little hill in the sand with some palm trees. I could see no discernible racing track, but near an ancient Sheikah dais I found two Gerudo vai just kind of standing around.

One of them had shaded goggles over her eyes, and the reddest fro I had ever seen.

This was the legendary sand seal racer Tali, and beside her was her elderly trainer, Shabonne.

When I spoke to them it was Shabonne who answered—she blew and blustered on about how sand seal racing was a fast-paced, hardcore sport, and how difficult it was, and that a little vai like me couldn’t really hope to be any good at it, especially against somebody like Tali, who was their most celebrated racing champion, and who held all the records, and who was generally the best of the best and why the heck didn’t I just fall down and start worshipping her right now. Dang.

Tali just said, “...”

XD

But I pressed, and for twenty rupees there was an option to race! I wondered how it would go.... Would there be multiple other racers? Would it be just me and Tali? Would we have to jockey for position?

But it turned out that I alone had only to race against Tali’s winning time.

Well that wouldn’t be so bad. :)

A minute and a half to beat....

But where was the course? Would it be marked? How would I know which way to go?

Perhaps it wasn’t quite like me, to go rushing into something so fast, but before I knew it the screen faded out and I had set the sequence in motion: I stood poised on my shield behind a tame sand seal, all hitched up and ready to go. The timer was counting down—

Ah, I could see it now.... Those were gates!

In front of me, two tall posts were bowed toward each other, tied at the top with ropes and flags to make a shape like a Gothic arch. Similar sets of posts marched off into the dunes in the distance and beyond obstacles....

I could do this! :D

And the timer wound down and I was off.

I don’t remember what distracted me from making my seal dash right off the start.... Maybe just the novelty of the experience. Through the gate, darting ahead between a mess of rocks, down through a narrow little sink where the boulders rolled around—and the music! What a happy, flutey little jig was the music! ^_^ Made all the more charmingly amusing by the fact that as my sand seal put out bursts of speed it seemed to snorfle along right in time to the beat. XD

There was a cool stretch that curved right underneath a giant ribcage that bent round a large rock—and then it was straight through a Lizalfos camp? What the heck??— But there was the next gate just beyond the three skull-dens—I urged my sand seal onward....!

And I burst through a drop with my sand seal leaping through the air like a salmon and the finish line sounded and I had completed the race in a minute and seventeen seconds! I beat the record! ^_^

The sequence brought me right back to the little sand hill, where several Gerudo had turned out to watch me race. Tali finally spoke up and offered me a gracious congratulations, and the crowd all cheered as I was awarded the trophy they had handed down through the years—a Sheikah orb.

Well I knew just where to put that!

I set it down in the glowing orange dais and the Raqa Zunzo Shrine rumbled up out of the earth.

Cool.

Once I had collected the Spirit Orb, I spoke to Shabonne once again.

She was pretty wound up that I had beaten her champion. And she challenged me to another go, this time with a little wager.... If I could beat the time I had just set, she would give me three hundred rupees.

But I had to put up a hundred rupees of my own to start.

Well, considering my sloppy start the previous time....

It was a deal.

And I did the race in a minute sixteen this time! The extra rupees were most welcome—I had been a little low on cash.

Shabonne conceded that I had some skill, then. And Tali opened up a bit as well. She spoke about the trophy, and told me that, though it had been awarded to her before, she was never really sure she would be the one to awaken the shrine I think that’s what she said or something like it.

Had each winner been attempting to summon the shrine?

But there was something about me, she said, that she felt was different. When she looked at me. And I had been the one to awaken the shrine.

Wait just how Chosen was I, if the Sheikah relics were reacting only to me?

That was something new to think about....

I went back to town and visited the guards again.

Barta was still down in Dragon’s Exile.

Did I want to do that tonight? It’d been a long day....

And then one of them shared with me the rumor that THERE WAS A FAIRY AT THE LEVIATHAN SKELETON SOUTHWEST OF TOWN.

OH for—

. . . .

No, this day was too long.

I went to just stay at the inn. Romah’s inn. The Hotel Oasis.

Standard, please, I said, not the spa plan—and handed over twenty rupees.

Besides if they spa me they might find out I’m a man.

It was 4:05 in the morning, game time, and I’d seen two Blood Moons in this town, consecutively.

I asked the innkeep to wake me at noon.

“Sav’orr” she bade me as I went to bed.

Good night.

Riding the Dragon

Waking of Thursday, May 25, 2017

Riding the Dragon

Hm, maybe I’m getting too in-depth with these entries. I feel like they might be stressing me out. Maybe I’ll try and sparse ‘em up like they were at the beginning....

I warped to the Dueling Peaks Tower, paraglided through the rain over to Giro’s Woods, and made my way back to Deya Village Ruins. It didn’t take too long to recolate the Two Statues memory. Luckily the sun had come out by then, and I was able to get a few decent pictographs.

A wonderfully scudded sky blew indecisive sun and shadow over the hill as I remembered....

But in my memory.... it was raining after all.

Zelda sat beneath the tree, beside the statues. “This won’t let up any time soon,” she said.

I was standing. Moving. Honing my skill. My sword was in my hands, and I cut and sliced through various stances, ending on a deep exhale as I brought the blade in before me.

“Do you ever wonder if you’ll wake up one day and realize you’re not a fighter?”

I didn’t.... quite understand.

I think I still don’t understand. What she was talking about.

Of all the memories I had revisited, I recall this one the least vividly. Perhaps because there was one thing she said that seemed to blot out all others—so strong, I don’t even remember the way she worded it. Just the raw concept rings in my mind:

She said I take after my father.

I have a father.

I was born into a house of the Royal Guard. It had been expected all my life that I would become a Knight.

Then why was Princess Zelda saying these things....?

I took after my father, I had great skill, prowess....

“It’s no wonder that you would be the chosen one,” she said.

Chosen one?

It was always expected that I would become a Knight.

That was how I was raised.

“But if you had been told that your entire life....” she said.

Why did she look so.... sad?

“Do you think you would have chosen a different path?”

Why did she look so sad?

I came back to myself in the half-sun, took a few more pictographs, forgot to scare up the Korok that would have photobombed them, and moved on.

Now that I was so close to it again, I really was curious about that huge, dark-stoned bridge. I climbed the tree over the Two Statues, and leapt from its branches to paraglide across the river toward it....

I bypassed the bokoblin’s treehouse and went for the bridge’s north end. The Bridge of Hylia it was called. An impressive structure.

But the whole time as I crossed it, I kept looking over the edge, and straining my ears for that beautiful erhu.... Where was Farosh? Wouldn’t he rise? He did for David....

I had a brief party with three Lizalfos in the middle of the bridge, and a troublesome scuffle with their stal-counterparts at the south end, and some stalbokoblins. Nearly knocked me off into the lake! That annoying one with the swinging spear....

But I put them all down, and considered the nearby Sheikah Tower....

Nnnnnghyeahhh I would do the tower north of Upland Zorana first. I was pretty sure that would show me Akkala.

But while I was on the bridge I decided to climb up on top of the south bridge-tower just because of.... curiosity.

“That’s a good reason,” David affirmed.

As I climbed onto the last parapet—“Hey there’s an updraft!” I said. It had blown up out of nowhere.

“That’s because—!” David started, but he didn’t need to continue.

As I got on top, Farosh was right there, twining before my eyes!

“Isn’t that a sight!” I beamed.

I remembered—how David had said he’d encountered a simliar updraft when Farosh flew by, and followed it out of curiosity. How he’d said he’d gotten too close to Farosh, and been zapped by one of his little lightning balls.

Well, the next time Farosh came around, erhu in tow, I decided that.... I wanted to see where that updraft would take me too!

I leapt after Farosh and it was a turbulent affair! Getting close! LIGHTNING BALLS! Dodging, dodging—and how he twined all about! And I was too low and he was above me! And there were so many lightning balls! Beeeennnding to the right to follow his course—and I zipped around one lightning ball so close I thought for sure I’d had it—

And then Farosh dipped lower—I was weaving, darting, dodging and—wonder of wonders—I got above his back.

Maybe it was just the lightning balls that were dangerous. Maybe he’d acknowledge me somehow if I actually made contact....

Now or never—I let go of my paraglider.

SIZZLE.

I bounced off his back with a painful choking sound.

But his back was still beneath me.

SIZZLE. “Hlck!”

I bounced again as he continued in his perfect, sinuous course.

SIZZLE. “Agck!”

Bounce.

SIZZLE. “Gmff!”

Bounce.

SIZZLE. “Hrack!”

Bounce.

“Oh my gosh, Farosh! Let me OFF!” If I could just tip down over his flank—

“It doesn’t keep hurting you!” David pointed out. And I looked at my hearts. I was down one from those stal-fiends on the bridge, but I wasn’t going down any further.

SIZZLE. “GYAAAH!”

That was so comforting.

Farosh’s long, long body and tail finally passed out from under me and I fell through the cool, soothing air, and parachuted toward a little dock on the central southern shore. “I RODE THE DRAGON!” I cheered. 8D

“I wouldn’t exactly call that riding,” said David.

I warped to the Bosh Kala Shrine—the shrine by Proxim Bridge—and had a nice visit with Brigo. He wasn’t so skittish this time, but dutifully patrolled the bridge, as it constituted part of an important route.

After that I decided to chase down a beacon I had left in my scope—I had placed it on a shrine just a little north of Proxim Bridge, between Proxim Bridge and the Floret Sandbar.

And heading north from Proxim Bridge, sporting with a few octoroks and a rich little camp of bokoblins, I came upon the Riverside Stable.

So this was the Riverside Stable that bored kid at the Wetland Stable had mentioned!

A couple of people spoke to me, such that I gained a couple of new sidequests:

Gotter, a food connoisseur who was strangely obsessed with beauty and whose grandfather’s grandfather had been the Royal Family’s chef, asked whether, if I ever got inside Hyrule Castle, would I please keep my eyes out for a cookbook?

“Gotter.... you nuts,” I said, and fled inside the stable, where I met Parcy.

She told me she used to sneak inside the castle all the time for all the cool treasure there.

ò__O ????

But no longer, ever since it had become so dangerous.

But she asked me, if I ever went inside the castle—what was wrong with these people?—would I keep my eyes out for the Royal Guards’ gear?

Hey, I was a Royal Guard—you filchin’ my stuff, Parcy?

I spoke to the innkeep, thinking maybe I’d just take a little nap. His name was Ember.

Huh, Embry had been the name of the one at the Outskirt Stable.... I hadn’t been keeping track otherwise. Were all their names somewhat similar?

It was in the nine o’clock hour. I slept until noon.

It was overcast when I woke up.