Shouldn't It Stand To Reason?

Friday, May 10, 2019 ~ 3

Shouldn’t It Stand To Reason?

Having cleaned out the Lockup, it was back to the tall chamber with the Moblin....

The Shaft.

It seemed to be directly below Princess Zelda’s Study and bedchamber.

Bracing beams supported the dark stonework for.... what must have been several stories overhead. Drainage came in from somewhere in a waterfall. A number of grates were set into the floor for this; the torrent sluiced in and gurgled away beneath them. One part of the stone wall stuck out like a barrel, all round—tubular more like, bound in by more beams and struts. I could just spy the Moblin on the other side of one of these supports. Malice glopped onto the walls and floor behind him....

But first.... there was a hidden bombable wall.... and that led to....

The West Passage?

I followed it into a rougher-cut tunnel; no bricks. There was a pool down here.... and.... moldy rotten Guardians lined up as if they were growing out of the walls, what—what—? Augh, they were dead, thankfully, but.... Ugh. The sight was.... It was like those robots from Castle in the Sky, all growing, all moldering.... only.... What did it mean? Hadn’t the Guardians come from those five Pillars somehow? Or had they been buried like fossils in the soil? Is this where the Royal Family had unearthed some of them? Er, had had some of them unearthed....? And so close to the passages they walked.... How.... creepy....

I proceeded cautiously until, Oh, I saw as I got closer—the pool was a hot spring.

And there were three little pools before three little statues on the other side of it.

Hard boiled eggs bobbed in each pool except the middle one.

I dropped an egg into that one, and it boiled. The Korok appeared.

Hadn’t seen that trick before.

Noice.

I soothed myself in the spring. Seven or eight hearts back up to full. It was a welcome respite.

Continuing along the dark passage, I encountered some Keese, but.... nothing else.

A minecart track led its way out of the passage, but.... there was no minecart.

I guessed this was as far as I could go.

Okay then.... back to the Shaft....

I turned to start back, but—

NO. I was probably not going to come this way again. Just go! I told myself. The rest of the passage didn’t extend that far, judging by the map....

I climbed outside! With nothing else for it I crawled along the bare bleak stone beside the anchored minecart track until I got into the other tunnel. More Keese. Frost Pebblits? Easy enough....

I walked a little further to what seemed to finally be the end of the passage.... and.... Okay, it was just another outside entrance guarded by a Flyer.

Due diligence done, it was time to go back.

I took the Goron Minecart this time. Heh, hadn’t done that in a while.... and had never dared do it in the Castle! But, as I’d already cleaned out the passageway.... why not!

I had seen these tracks from far away across the moat before. Many times. How they arced around the great bald patches of stone surrounding the castle’s lower foundations. I could never see myself actually riding them, but now.... I wondered what it looked like from afar....

Back to the Shaft.

I killed the Moblin, and was able to have a proper look around the tall, tall space.... There was so much Malice in the way, how was I supposed to—

Ah, I see. The drainage waterfall was clear. I cast Cryonis on it a few times to make my own stairs up until I could reach that ladder.... And the ladder went up.... And where did this little passage lead?

But I stopped. What was this place? It looked like a little study or something. No. A little table more for like reception or something like it. Book-keeping of some kind. Recording. A little bookshelf.... once-ornate hangings like those in the Guards’ Chamber....

What or who passed through here? Market-goods on their way to the royal kitchen? Smithed wares for the soldiers? Visitors’ registry? A cleaning service? There was no way to know.

Something was lurking on the other side of an explodable wall. Something with 288 hit points. What could it be....?

The noises it issued made it out to be a lizard.

I killed it.

Oh, the Master Sword was running low on energy.

....

What about that shield?

What about the shield?

I wondered....

....

It was only a little alcove where the Lizalfos had been hiding; not really anywhere else to go. Okay what was that lizard guarding.... what was this.... treasure chest....

Oagh!

It’s a Shard of Dinraal’s Fang!

What in the heck! These are amazing! Will I find more? I DON’T KNOW! 8D

Onward!

I sniffed around and zeroed in on the only thing left I could find to mess with in the little record-keeping room.... a switch.

I flicked it.

WHAT! It activated an updraft back out in the Shaft!

I went and took it.... and oh it took me up high.... Twice as high as that first little record-keeping room.... to yet another room above, near the top. One passage from this new room led away outside, and another looked like it connected back to that corridor off which the giant circular staircase stemmed!

I checked the outside first.... and found that I could access a stairway that went back up toward the Outer Track—the area below Princes Zelda’s study and bedchamber.

I’d been around there already though.... Back inside. I would go back through the inner corridors.

There were horns and globs of Malice everywhere....

NO. Wait....

There was another passage, up near Zelda’s Chamber, that I could see on my map. An inside-corridor not connected with anything else, only accessible from the outside, right there. I’d go get that first.

And I did, and....

Oh, it was Princess Zelda’s room. Two layers. I forgot.

All right....

Back down then, to the Outer Track. I followed it clockwise, bending round to the north side of the castle.

-

Blast these log-notes.... blast my procrastination in finessing them.... Look I’ve been chasing the following paragraph all over and around the document for MONTHS because I could not remember when I first encountered its described architecture. What Castle-visit it had been.... Actually I think I had been going counter-clockwise at the time....

“I scooted around the bulky obstruction to continue, and there was a strange, sheltering overhang, pillared about the road from the living stone, familiar from a dizzy dream I had had before.... But I could only go so far before there were Guardians again, didn’t want to go that way....”

Yes it . . . . must have been an earlier visit.... with how I reacted to the Guardians.... drat.

Rest in peace here on page 600, Dizzy-Dream Pillar Paragraph.

-

Now I passed through the sheltering stone pillars going the other way, rounding the gentle bend to the right, until I came to a Guardian embedded high up in a bleachy hill of rockfall and rubble on the right side of the road, spilling from some higher level of the castle grounds.

I killed it where it stuck out from the rocks at an odd angle; its Ancient bits and spoils came tumbling down, scattering over the landslide.

Across the road from where the Guardian had been—or what remained of the road beneath the rubble—I could see a dark passageway leading into a small hill. A brief consultation of my map let me know that this was one of the passageways into the Library.

! Then that Guardian.... It must have been the one I had seen back when I had come up out of the Library for the first time. The one that had frightened me back inside.

I’d stood my ground well enough this time.

Yes the “bulky obstruction” must have been that landslide outside the Library.... must’ve been heading counter-clockwise....

With the Guardian dead I was free to explore a bit further now. The mound housing the entrance to the Library was straight-sided, and tiered, with a little copse of dead pine trees at its humble crown. It must have been lovely once.

Up on top of the hill over the Library entrance was another chest....

Naydra’s Scale. Very nice.

I looked back. From this vantage point I had a better view of the rubbleslide; it really was massive and it covered the outer track. But.... above....

I wondered if I could scale that cliff. The one the Dizzy Pillars were carved from; the one with the sheltering overhang. It seemed to go right up to the back of the Sanctum. The back of the Castle. The back of the Sanctum....

On went my Climber’s Gear, and though it came to a close call with my stamina, I found that I could. Scale the cliff.

The air turned blustery with Malice.

Globs of Malice everywhere so thick....

This was the uppermost Earth. Everything above here was man-laid brick and stone.

Is there.... Is there....

It would stand to reason....

There must be a Shrine somewhere....

I peeked a little bit into the architecture.

Sanctum flashed on the screen....

I saw a large empty space.... looked like a boss room....

NOPE! NOpe. Nope noep noep I ran back out of there.... climbed around a bit, looked around...  [[Do you see how nervous I was? Never mind the spelling errors—I forgot to add the wonted fourth dot in my ellipsis!]]

But....

I wondered....

I.... WONDERED....

A big, flat empty space....

I....

....

Wondered.

Climbing again, on up into the brickwork, and I came upon.... What?

That little round crosscut of a tree-trunk, with a leaf-shaped pointer on it.

A Korok Race.

Even here.

I stepped on it. It targeted a nearby spire of the upper Castle architecture.

“You’re joking!” I hollered.

But I did it. Running off the edge and sailing over the sky.

“Bloody Koroks!”

Got him.

Okay this is really frightening, I thought. Couldn’t the Guardians see me from here? I felt so exposed on the spire top out in the open. But nothing targeted me.

I could go back down.... maybe....

The front door to the Castle Very Proper was just below me if I dropped.

But.... NO. I was NOT doing that yet. I was going back around to the back!

I paraglided back onto the level I’d been on, climbed around on the brickwork a bit more.... and....

This.

A window into the architecture.

This might have been the selfsame window I saw before. The one with a ladder inside it, leading down into a hole in the floor.

I crept inside.

No cinematics started; nothing jumped out at me.

I took the ladder down.

This was uncomfortably too far inside.... quieter, closer, and full of that unsettlement of when you’re out of the wind and in the den of the beast....

But when I reached the bottom of the ladder, there was too much Malice blocking the way further inward. But two other passageways stood open to the air on either side; I could walk instead around the encompassing ledgewalk. The cross-section of the castle was so narrow now.... It seemed there were three similar ladderways just like this one, inside similar buttress-like towers, leading back up.

This wasn’t a walkway I had been on before.... I could glance in windows here....

THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE.

OH GOSH.

WHY.

Tentacles—what?

I GET BACK DOWN TO THAT FLAT SPOT!

OKAY I’M BACK WHERE I STARTED WHEN I’D SCALED THIS BLOODY CLIFF.

“NOOOO I DON’T WANNA DO IT!” I hollered to no one.

I’ll.... I’LL SAVE IT FIRST. OH GOSH.

I crept closer to a broad opening to the inside.

NO THERE IS A BIG EYEBALL UP THERE OH GOSH

WHERE IS THE LAST SHRINE?

WHERE IS IT?

IS IT IN HERE?

THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT THERE FEELS LIKE TOO MUCH DANGER.

I CAN’T EVEN GRAMMAR ANYMORE.

DEVIANTART THUMBNAILS.

I felt more comfortable perusing the art because I’d gotten past most of the spoilers, but—

HOW DO I KNOW?

OH GOSH WHAT IS IN THAT ROOM?

I DON’T WANNA DO IT.

I’M JUST LOOKING FOR A SHRINE.

IS IT IN HERE?

SHOULDN’T IT STAND TO REASON?

SHOULDN’T

IT

STAND

TO

REASON?

ASDFGHJKL;

Two more steps.

....

Black out.

....

That’s not a shrine.

....

Things.... started.... happening.....

NOPE! C8

I’M CHECKIN’ OUT OF THIS GAME.

WIIU MENU PLEASE!

Shrine for a Rainy Day

Waking of Saturday, December 8, 2018

Shrine for a Rainy Day

It was time to fill in another unexplored spot in my network of shrines....

I warped to the Tabantha Bridge Stable, and set out east, away from the bridge, to explore the Seres Scablands—the land of those gigantic, anomalous, strange, otherworldly.... treeshrooms. And the land over which I had always—ALWAYS—seen a dark and pouring thunderhead, flashing from within with lightning.

The sky was actually clearer in the Scablands near the stable and the ensuing road. The eternal rain only really seemed to hover over the deepest heart of the enormous treeshroom sprawl, in a place my map called Ludfo’s Bog, back where the land flattened into a broad valley surrounded by tall mountains on all sides.

The topo had always seemed to indicate a kind of artificial rise in the middle of that valley.... I was positive there would be a shrine there....

I had traveled the road past the Seres Scablands a few times before, and I had seen the alien treeshroom forest. But for the first time I now indulged myself in plunging headlong into it in earnest, searching about its cracked and erupted earth, scaring Koroks out of the large, odd pocks in the ground, rainwater pooling in their bottoms.

What had made the ground this way? The land looked like it had boiled and then been left to sit, full of hardened bubbles like crusty cheese. But the rampant grass and unworrying flowers with their butterflies still left a gay feeling in the air. And the only beasties about were Chuchus, Keese, and the occasional Octorok.

I chased out a few more Koroks until I came to the Thundra Plateau—where the rain started.

A monk’s voice sounded: You who have come to this thunderous plateau... When the four spirits are settled in their places, the way to the trial will open. Or some such words.

Upon entering the darkness of the thunderhead I had caught sight of these strange, small, beacon-lights of differing colors, shining steadily through the gloom between the treeshrooms. Bright as lamps and somewhat above ground-level. Were those the “spirits”?

As I pressed on deeper into the storm, I saw that a couple of these beacon-lamps—orbs, I could see now, with strange emblazoned patterns on them—were perched atop imposing columns of more dragon-headed statuary. I also found the artificial rise indicated on my topo; it seemed to be a great, walled barrow of some kind. A Great Plateau in miniature, its raised surface upheld and bound in by an encompassing wall of dark stone.

I circumnavigated it first, like I do, the lightning crashing down on my Thunder Helm at whiles; I couldn’t be bothered to switch out my gear. The barrow was so big around that it took a good few minutes to complete one circuit. The wall had worn and crumbled down in a couple of places, leaving exposed slopes of rock and earth that gave easier access to the top. These were handy as it was difficult to climb the walls in the rain. Not impossible. But definitely hampered.

But first, I went after the red orb. It gleamed atop a relatively short dragon-totem, which stood beside another one of the Scablands’ jutting ruptures—a perfect stepping stone to give me a leg up. It took some hard climbing and leaping up the surface between slippings down, but I made it to the top in fairly short order. I picked up the orb and chucked it down to the plain before paragliding down after it.

However, when I tried to carry it up one of the crumbled slopes and onto the barrow.... well, the slope wasn’t quite so smooth as that. One jutting lip of hardened earth impeded me yet from reaching the top without climbing, and I could not climb while carrying this orb. Nor could I simply throw the orb over the lip and up on top—it was just high enough to prevent that.... and it knew it too....

Try every angle and starting point that I might, I could not get this orb up onto the grassy top of the barrow.... A couple of times I only succeeded in accidentally dropping it on my own head. ☆☆ -_- ☆☆

After a while I decided to leave off the red orb for a bit, and I climbed up on top of the barrow to just go and see about the other orbs up there, for I was sure I’d seen some....

A purple orb was just sitting there, in the midst of the four inward-facing dragon-totems. Each of these totems had a colored symbol on its neck, and a waiting depression in front of it. So I picked up the purple orb and set it in its place before the dragon with the matching purple symbol.

Nothing happened. Just as well; there were more orbs to get.

Some rusting weapon or other was stuck into the wet earth up here, and it too drew the occasional lightning explosion. But after a time even I got tired of all the fireworks, and just put off all my metal trappings.

The green orb was a little trickier, as it sat up on top of one of the dragon totems, and there were no handy stepping stones of ruptured earth to give me a boost here. However, I did have almost three full wheels of stamina, and a lot of Climbing Gear.

I knew I could climb seven or eight steps or grips before the rain would send me sliding back down. And so it was grip, grip, grip, grip, grip, grip, JUMP! Sliiiide.... Which would have produced a net gain each time if I could just rinse and repeat that pattern. But sometimes I could only make a couple of grips up the stone before slipping back down to the ground. The results to my efforts were annoyingly random, but I kept trying....

And all the while the rain lashed and the wind blew and the thunder kept up a constant grumbling overhead, the Piano lazing all over the sodden grass, contentedly picking its nails as it watched me work.

I scrabbled and slipped and hit the ground repeatedly, panting and out of breath. But with much persistence, I eventually did make it to the top of the totem. And the green orb was mine to toss down onto the grass.

The green orb went into its place before the green-marked dragon.

Now for that red one....

I hadn’t wanted to use Stasis, as I didn’t like wearing down my weapons. But I could see no other alternative. Back on the crumbled slope to the barrow-top, I found a bit of earth that looked like it could serve as a ramp.... and there was just enough rock for the orb to sit without rolling down, too.

I tried a Bomb first, to see if that would do it.... then two Bombs.... But Ja Baij had neither the force nor the aim to get the orb where I wanted it.

So I picked a single-handed weapon to sacrifice....

I set the red orb down once again in the nook above the rock, positioned myself just downhill, Stasised the thing, and started whackin’....

This approach was much more controlled, and I had soon imbued the orb with enough force to send it rocketing up the ramp and high over the barrow like a golf ball.

I scurried up once again, was relieved to find that I hadn’t whacked the orb clean over the barrow, and set the red orb down in its place before the red-marked dragon.

One more.

The final orb, orange, was set atop another dragon-totem down on the plain off the barrow. The tallest totem yet....

I got to it, jumping, climbing, scrabbling, grabbing, slipping, falling, panting, running out of energy again and again and again.... until my persistence paid off and I got on top.

I cast the orange orb back down onto the plain, and went to position it on the makeshift earthen ramp....

Huh.... this corresponding dragon’s motif looked yellow, not orange....

I wondered for only a moment, and then placed the orb.

And in the flat grass in the midst of the dragon-totems on top of the rainy barrow.... the Toh Yahsa Shrine came rumbling up out of the earth.

The trial within was called Buried Secrets. And WOW that was a lot of big blocks to knock around and blow up. Much fun.

Definitely Not Girl Stuff

Waking of Thursday, November 22, 2018

Definitely Not Girl Stuff

I considered, at the shindig at Ben’s house. I was too far behind with logging, but.... what the hey. I brought Mary home for a visit, and we played Zelda anyway. By which I mean I played Zelda, and Mary watched. She enjoys it—she asked for it. I assume because it’s the next best thing when I don’t let anybody touch my consoles!

Besides, I had been holding off on something fairly large in the game, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to do it. I dared say it would be entertaining enough, even for someone just watching.

It was when I watched David do it.

After picking up just a few more Koroks in the Hebra region, I warped to the Muwo Jeem Shrine on the tall cliff overlooking the sea, and paraglided to a lonely little island I’d seen more than a few times. Just a speck of rock, really, made visible only by the brilliantly glowing orange shrine that took up most of its surface....

I’d seen it there many times. Don’t know why I’d never gone for it. Maybe because I hadn’t gotten the Faron map yet, and I wanted to wait. Maybe because it was too far out of the way. Maybe because it was just a waypoint to that bigger island out there, paying a visit to which would become almost obligatory, if you were already out that far.... But I’d already seen that place, through David.

Maybe it was because I’d seen that bigger island.... and I knew what a hassle it would be....

On the tiny island, Tenoko Island, we found the Chaas Qeta Shrine, which turned out to hold a Major Test of Strength. I beat this all right, and was rewarded with.... THE CLIMBING SHIRT!!!! SWEET! 8D

HA! And here I thought I’d surely find it on some mountain!

It looked cool! Ropes and straps everywhere with dangling carabiners swinging when I turned.... X-)

I had the set now! ^_^

Upon exiting the shrine, I chucked my Dragonbone Boko Club out to sea, blew up the resident palm tree, and collected from its remains a Korok Leaf. Because of course it would drop a Korok Leaf.... as there was a raft to use right there! Convenient.

Dealing with only a few Octoroks along the way, we sailed out to the big island. I knew the name of it before it loomed across the screen:

EVENTIDE ISLAND

And the moment my feet touched the shore.... those low, heralding bells sounded.... along with the echoing drone of the monk’s summons.

As well as.... some inane, irreverent commentary from Mary, which jarred the moment and I didn’t like it, but.... I didn’t shush her. I’d brought her over so she could enjoy this and well.... THEM’S THE FRIGGIN’ HAZARDS. :p

To you who has traveled to this island...

I present you with a challenge. In your

travels, you’ve relied on the equipment

you’ve found along the way.

Here, you must cast this equipment

aside and face this trial with only your

wits and whatever you can scavenge.

And after a brief blackout of the screen, I stood naked and barefoot on the beach, with no weapon or shield. Just an empty bandolier and the Sheikah Slate still resting against my sleek blue undershorts.

Offer up the orbs to the three altars on

this island. Only then will I acknowledge

your skill and return your items.

And the Shrine Quest title flashed across my screen: Stranded on Eventide, and I was free to move again.

I checked my inventory. As it had been with David, everything I had was gone. Weapons, shields, bows, clothes, items, monster bits, food....

Everything.

Well, I did at least still have the paraglider, though.

Hoo, and I’d thought things were skinny after freeing the Great Fairy Tera....

It had been more shocking to David and I when we’d both watched him play this part. But I’d been expecting it now. Time to get down to business, I thought....

I combed everything I could from the beach, besting a meager camp of three Red Bokoblins with something like a tree branch.

Thank goodness they were only red ones. The weakest kind. A fair marriage to what humble weapons there were to be found. I still felt somewhat spoiled by how many hearts I had by this time, though. David had done this island on a much shorter life-meter.... and shallower pockets....

I found the first orb at the top of a small treehouse guarded by mostly Red Bokoblins. I was able to snipe the lookouts using a very basic bow I had taken from another Bokoblin, and for the rest of them, well.... for each one I put down, that was another dropped weapon for me to pick up as the ones in my hand shattered. Bats and clubs and spears, all glorified sticks, really, and not very hard-hitting. But they sufficed. There was the occasional sword as well.

I had no protective clothing, but the island provided for if I should take hits—crabs along the beach, a smattering of banana trees in the dense patch of jungle, fish already roasted on spits and swiped from Bokoblin fires.... I was confident I’d be just fine.

With the treehouse cleared I picked up the orb, tiptoed past the snoring Blue Hinox slumbering in the sunny open dell in the middle of the island, and made for the pointy end of Eventide.

Half a stone’s cast from the beach, an outcrop of black rock jutted out of the sea. And on that rock was the first of the pedestals. I had to put the orb in there.

Now DAVID.... had done this in a REALLY AMAZING WAY—he had Magnesed the Woodcutter’s Axe from the stump in the middle of the little bog back in the jungle, taken careful aim, chopped down a palm tree so that its log extended between the beach and the outcrop, and then WALKED ACROSS THIS LOG while carrying the orb.

And THAT.... was friggin’ amazing.

I, on the other hand, I did what we’d later seen PB & Jeff do: threw the orb in the water and lifted it up by Cryonising an ice pillar beneath it. It was still tricky, mind! But nowhere near as hardcore as David’s method had been.

Once I’d placed the orb, it vanished away in a melt of blue light, and the pedestal likewise lit up blue. One down, two to go!

I considered confronting the Hinox next (it wore an orb around its neck), but.... No. I went in search of the other orb first. And I found it perched on a tower in the midst of a much stronger baddie camp, a fair distance up the highest hill on the island.

Night had fallen by the time I’d properly scoped out the place. I tried for a stealth approach, and was able to sneakstrike a few of the Bokoblins, but when that last Black Moblin spotted me, well.... we just had to go at it the old fashioned way.

Fortunately my deep pockets and growing collection of crude spears and clubs saw me through, until the run of the high camp was mine. I collected the orb, whacked the impeding slab off the pedestal with a bit of Stasis, and claimed the second pedestal.

Now all that was left was that Hinox....

And for this I had long planned to emulate what David had done....

The Hinox snored in the low spot between the two highest hills on the island. I’d already dealt with the highest hill, but for this I would need the second highest. And the second highest hill held another baddie camp, this one with Electric Chuchus. David’s encounter with them here on this island had been the first time we’d ever seen them. But even then I’d been able to pass on some words of wisdom from Madman Joseph—don’t attack them directly, because they’ll explode.

That was one spoiler I was glad of at least.

And so I spent a few more of the precious arrows I’d collected to blow up the sparking green Chuchus and subsequently flash-fry most of the remaining enemies. And the second highest hilltop was mine.

This hill was important not only for the third pedestal which rested at its top, but also for its craggly, rocky surface on the side leading toward the Hinox’s dell. For partway down that slope was the perfect shelf from which to play Bomb-Golf....

There were also a few large boulders at the crest, and I pushed these off as well as I could toward the slumbering Hinox. At least one of them made contact, and that put a damper on his day all right. He woke up and stood up and found me and started throwing rocks and roaring unintelligible curses I’m sure. And down I scrambled to that one broad stone, just out of reach of the Hinox’s projectiles and just big enough for me and a Deku Leaf....

I must say, Mary was most unimpressed with this pansy approach, and I don’t blame her. But once I’d set up camp I doggedly planted Bomb after Bomb at my feet, whiffing them off into the blue with the Deku Leaf’s gusts of air, and detonating them as they landed in the Hinox’s vicinity. It took a loooong time, but eventually the Hinox succumbed to its inevitable death by a thousand small explosions.

I paraglided down, collected all the leftover bits, and picked up the third and final orb. This I marched back up to the top of that second highest hill, and planted in the final pedestal. And at once across the way, on the tallest grassy top of the highest hill, the Korgu Chideh Shrine came rrrumbling up out of the earth.

The monk spoke again.

You’ve done well to complete the trial.

I will now return your things, as

I promised.

And a brief blackout, and I had all my clothes and gear on again.

Huhh, I’d become.... rather fond of the wild boy look. :c

Though I guessed I could adopt it any time I wanted to.... the climate allowing....

Come, enter the shrine.

It was a Blessing.

*

That romping shrine quest was just enough, and shortly after we’d finished I took Mary back home.

When I got back, I booted up the game again and, feeling aimless like I do, I found myself simply enjoying the day up on top of the highest hill of Eventide. The spot, close to sea level as it was, had that high cold music. That prayerflag song. Huh....

!

I stiffened as I realized that someone was sitting just a bit down the hill from where I was.

A Rito.

The feathers looked dark, though that may simply have been an effect of the sun setting in the sky beyond.

I approached him.

His name was Mimo. Oh hey his sidelocks looked.... like Link’s did when he wore the Wingaling Hat.... all bound up with that anchor-shaped weight on the end.... Was the Wingaling Hat a Rito item then?

Mimo spoke to me about flying, and, wouldn’t you know it, he ran a certain little minigame....

And I spent the next half hour or so throwing rupees at this Mimo in exchange for the pleasure of jumping off the hilltop to navigate through a series of floating hoops Mimo had placed all over the airspace. Aided by a few updrafts that hadn’t been there before, I was able to rack up a higher and higher hoop-count until Mimo acknowledged my mastery of the air and rewarded me back with a hefty sum of rupees of my own. It was much fun! XD

When I’d had enough of the flying course, I went back to Hebra, Koroked a little more and then.... put it to bed.