Fire and Flurry

Evening of Monday, May 13, 2019 (comprised of raw note editings from April 5, 2023 through April 14, 2023 that I really hope sound consistent because I left it alone for too long)

Fire and Flurry

Dottie and the twins were over for a short visit, while Ben and Cami went to another store to try and find the right formula.

Mom and Dad were all over the twins. They are so—frikkin’—adorable.

But Dottie gravitated my way and kept telling me, “PLAY ZELDAAAA!”

So.... we played.

We started in my Hateno house, still in my pajamas. But Dottie chose a new outfit before we continued: King Rhoam’s green Warm Doublet, the Sapphire Circlet.... and Rubber Tights.

She just liked the look of those ones together.

Then after consulting my map, and letting Dottie know we were on the hunt for a shrine, we decided to go to Akkala to check out Tempest Gulch....

It was good; I had wanted a better run of that valley, just to make sure I’d covered all my bases. But with that Lynel in the way....

Mmm it was the same one I had been unable to kill before, when my friends were over to celebrate my birthday. Come to think of it, it had even been a blue one that time.

I hadn’t been strong enough then.

But now....?

Now it was only a very rigorous chore, and I was up to it.

It wasn’t a blue one this time, though.

On our approach, I showed Dottie the best way to sneak up on this particular Lynel, and climbed up into the bone-bleach crags. The land was cracked here, and toothy, like the Breach of Demise. Though perhaps it didn’t look quite as unearthly as that.

We climbed one of the most prominent rocks until we were high above the golden grassy valley below, where the Lynel prowled among the aspens. After that it was only a leap and a quiet sail downward.... some minor course correcting as needed.... and a properly affronting fwump onto the proud beast’s back where we rode it like a bronco.

It bucked us off after a bit though, and I conceded to fight it down on its own turf.

I had become much better at dodging the monsters’ swinging weapons and enormous, swiping claws.

“Flurry, flurry, flurry!” Dottie would say whenever time slowed down and a flurry-rush opportunity opened up.

We killed it, reaped the bounty of its innards....

And Tempest Gulch was ours.

We ran around the rocks as we twined our way up the canyon, combing here and there until we came to the lake, checking out more crevices, more hidden bends, more alcoves in the winding geography, but.... we found no shrines.

Well.... up into the volcano then. The rocks turned from white to red but were no less jagged as we ascended. Wandering, wandering, wandering....

Still no shrines.

I wanted to check out that ruin-looking place I’d left a marker on from the time when I was further south on the eastern flank.

Dottie told me to warp up higher to get to it; it would be faster.

I could see a somewhat nearby shrine, and Vah Rudania of course. Could be worth our while....

But I told her I’d have to put on fireproof clothes first. “Is that okay?”

“Can you still wear the crown?” she asked. The Sapphire Circlet.

“Mmmmaybe....” But I didn’t. It was the volcano, after all.

We warped to the Lizard, hopped a few crags and then sailed down toward the ruin. As we drew near, we could see some kind of Fire Wizzrobe prancing about the tottering beams and blackened foundations. Meteor, I saw. I knew that weapon. That was a Meteor Rod.

This was one of the stronger Wizzrobes, then....

I did not engage it at that moment, however.

Ben and Cami came back. And of a sudden it was time for Dottie and the twins to get ready to go home.

I kept the game paused as the children were gathered up. It’s always rough to step out mid-adventure. But we’d see each other again.

We said goodbye for the night....

~

Left to myself once more, I killed the Wizzrobe in mid-flight with a slow-motion ice arrow. But there was nothing at the ruin.

Well, no shrines anyway. Just the mystery of what poor settler or settlers used to live there, and the hope that they were able to escape the fiery havoc of Ganon’s minions.

That spot crossed off, I warped round the volcano’s cone to the Bridge of Eldin. For in paragliding from the top all the way down to the ruin, I had caught sight of that old road that wound up the side of the peak. Hadn’t taken that road since Yunobo and I had stormed the caldera....

So from the shrine near the bridge, I crossed over into the blazing central peak of Death Mountain, and once again hoofed it up on foot over the ash-blasted, embered trail.

But comb and search as I might.... I still found no shrines hidden in the volcano’s upper reaches.

Oh, fed up with everything I decided to PARAGLIDE TO ROBBIE’S PLACE.

From the top of the old caldera-road.

The mind-boggling distance slowly but steadily gnawed straight through all three of my stamina wheels, and I had to take a stamina-boosting skewer on the fly. But I did make it. Or close enough to it—I wanted to check out Bloodleaf Lake in the ravine below the furnace....

But there were no shrines there either. That I could see.

I climbed up to Robbie’s place....

He and Jerrin said much the same things as they normally said, but—what was....?

Robbie’s Memoirs, the book on the little desk was entitled.

Had I—? Had I ever....?

Had this always been here?

Huh, I’d.... I didn’t think I’d ever read his diary before.... no but maybe I did.... once.... maybe....

If so it was a looong time ago. Yeah....

Or maybe I’d just been so transfixed by that Cherry could craft armor for me....

Had I really never seen this before?

 

 

The Hunt for Red Lizalfos

Waking of Sunday, January 6, 2019

The Hunt for Red Lizalfos

When did I explore the rest of Rito Village? When did I climb the Neck? That tall, distinct spire of rock I had seen from so many angles all over Hyrule....

The weathered yellow stone gave pretty good purchase to stand on and catch my breath at whiles, carved by the wind maybe. One spot near the top even had a large hole that ran right through, making a little tunnel. It was shady, and pleasantly charged in there, with that energy only hikers can find in the little hollows they bond with and break bread with and part with at once.

I climbed right to the crown and walked out to the tip of the beak. It did make for quite a stunning view....

But after playing binocular—monocular—er.... After playing Slate games, at some point I went to the Great Fairy Kaysa, whom I felt I had visited least of all, here in this lastly-mapped frontier, and had her do up my Snowquill Ensemble as far as she could.

We enhanced the entire set three levels, but I was short two red Lizalfos tails before we could reach the fourth.

I wanted these clothes to be strong. I finally had the Wingaling Hat, it looked like I was going into the cold again, and I’d never had anything thicker than my 1-point Warm Doublet to protect me from the frost.

So I warped to the volcano, set my sensor to detect Smotherwing Butterflies in the meanwhile, and got to hunting Red Lizalfos.

Heh. The Hunt for Red Lizalfos. That’d be a good title.

I searched out both critters until I got three more tails, which put me at a total of thirty-one. Kaysa only needed thirty, but I always like to keep at least one spare of anything in my pockets. When I can.

Now I could upgrade my clothes to the fourth level. But.... while I was here.... I decided to stop by Gorko Tunnel to see if I couldn’t solve it and figure out what was behind that giant pile of rock at the end....

That, and.... I’d recently seen David do this.

Gonguron was the name of the mad Goron who had been digging in Gorko Tunnel, and he was still in there. But unlike the other times I had seen him, this time he had completely run out of energy, and was lying flat on his back on the ground. What had been the trigger? I never figured that part out.

At any rate, his big brother Bladon was wondering where he was, and I let him know. Bladon then asked me to fetch a rock roast from a little spot down the hill from the tunnel, near a little lava pool which, I guess, was a good place to cook rock roasts.

What was a rock roast? It was a big hunk of.... rock.... which resembled Raw Gourmet Meat. There were six or seven of them down there.

I made sure to kill the handful of Moblins crowding the path on my way down to the lava pool, but.... I should have known it was never going to be that easy.

Hefting the giant rock roast high over my head, I started the long trudge back up the hill, and lo, the way was an absolute minefield of Moblins, Fire Chuchus, and other nasties no doubt, along with the occasional rumbling of the mountain beneath my feet and the cascading of giant boulders down the hill.

It was basically an uphill, hotter, louder and more crowded version of the Rist Peninsula.

But I made it back to Gorko’s Tunnel all right, rock roast safely in hand.

When I set the roast in the little resident wok per Bladon’s instructions, and Gonguron caught the scent of it cooking, well that perked him up all right. He got up, grabbed the rock and started taking great, thunderous bites out of it. Holy Din, what are their teeth made of? And as soon as he had chowed down, with his renewed strength, he went at the last bit of bedrock in a fat and happy fury, until the wall finally collapsed and the Kayra Mah Shrine was revealed.

The trial inside was called Greedy Hill, and it was an absolute riot of boyish diversion.

Heh.

Okay back to birdland....

The Eldest Fairy

Waking of Saturday, August 4, 2018

The Eldest Fairy

I warped back to Outskirt once again to hit up Trott.

Plus three hundred rupees.

Then to Goron City to see if Ramella had changed her mind, but she still wanted Sapphires.

No way.

From there I warped.... to Gut Check Rock. Perhaps there wasn’t a plethora of rupees this way, but being on the volcano had reminded me....

The last time I had crossed the Deplian Badlands, my shrine-detector had not been active. I wanted to comb the north skirt of the volcano again—I thought there MUST be another shrine somewhere that I had missed! For it was a difficult area to get to, and bordered only by the shrines at Gut Check rock far to the east, and the dark Thyphlo Ruins far to the west—and that shrine wasn’t even worth warping to for the dark way you would have to make out of the maze and over the bog! Dang you, Ketoh Wawai, what were you thinking?

I started westward from Gut Check Rock and climbed up and down all over the mountainside. I killed overly-ready supplies of baddies and collected tons of loot; I got a great pictograph of the Eldin Great Skeleton for those chumps at that Akkala Stable; I nicked off two shards of Dinraal’s horn! didn’t play with the Lynels, though, nope—but still.... I could not find another shrine.

Deplian Badlands.... Too bad even for any Sheikah monks?

....!

Hm. Only now do I consider how the cliff descends into the northern chasm.

I wonder what’s down there....

Although.... doesn’t my sensor detect in lateral directions just the same despite any differences in altitude? Surely I would have heard something already.... Though I’ve never put that to a rigorous test....

As I meandered back to Goron City on foot, I was at least grateful for one thing—there had been a HECKTON of rare ore deposits on the north side of the mountain. And with my new supply of baddie-bits I went to visit Tanko again and sold him a bunch of stuff, and even some Topaz.

That kicked me over ten thousand.

Okay.... hoo.

I warped back to the Gerudo Great Skeleton, and the Great Fairy Tera’s cocoon.

“I got the stuff,” I said, “....This has not been easy.”

I held it out....

The way they always grab the money from you—and just like that—

My hard-sought ten thousand rupees disappeared.

I was poor again, in goods and money.

It was the thinnest I’d felt in a while.

The Great Fairy was rejuvenated, and her cocoon pulsated and opened into a white flower with pink-orange speckles!

And up came Tera AND HER HAIR WAS SO BIG it just wouldn’t STOP—VICTORIAN—WHAT A POMPADOUR! White hair, looming in a HUGE and luscious poof to lean into a dip on her right side—and she had bigger fairy-fin ornaments behind her ears than I had seen on any of her sisters! <3

She was decadent.

She gave a watery cough before properly introducing herself as the eldest of the Great Fairy Sisters. And she said that she had seen my efforts from within her bud.

Well that was heartening. :]

She said that she sees everything. In fact, she said, she was going to predict what I was thinking at that moment!

...

...

And after a moment she said, “I bet you’re probably thinking, ‘Can’t we just get to the part where she enhances my clothes?’”

Haaa lawl. |D

“What an impatient person,” she said. But she impressed that she really did appreciate what I had done for her. And she said that now.... she could enhance my clothes TO THE MAX.

But.... I’d noticed this pattern with the clothing enhancements. My wardrobe was becoming quite extensive, and whenever I took something to a Great Fairy for an enhancement, the item was returned to me waaaay at the back of my inventory. This made it a little difficult to keep the various sets near each other and together, but I was managing that pretty well.... mostly.

I had never employed the Sort button within those menus.... Not on purpose that I can recall anyway. But you know how it is when you accumulate so many messy piles—you know where everything is.... until you clean.

But this was getting to be a lot of messy piles....

Hrmmmrmm....

Maybe I’d try it.... I walked toward the shrine until I got an autosave, after which I entered my menus and sorted my clothes.

Heh, sounds like a chore I’d been neglecting.

I observed the results, which came in two orientations: one by body part.... and oh! one by sets! :) Well that was nice! Perhaps I could utilize that....

Oh I should just do it, I thought. Besides, Tera could work on seventeen of the forty-two items of clothing I had.... I may as well.... eh?

But.... I just.... couldn’t. Not yet.

I paused again, reloaded from just before I had sorted and kept my messy closet.

Mmmmm but to start I would let her enhance the Climber’s Bandana—that one wasn’t part of any set that I had....

It was already up to the third level, so this should have maxed it out then.

So I turned it over to Tera and she leaned in close and HER MOUTH WAS OPEN WIDE AND OH MY GOSH SHE JUST GRABBED ME IN HER GIANT FIST AND SNOODLED ME SO HARD AGAINST HER SWEETLOVING FACE AND THEN PLUNGED BACK DOWN INTO HER WATER INSIDE HER FLOWER WHAT—

Link’s scream so quickly faded away and the screen went black.

My mind instantly conjured up the deep blue, rippling, colorful world inside her home, and I wondered.... What would I see? Inside her flower?

But the screen only came back a moment later, above ground as ever.

When I came to, I was lying face down on the petally platform where would I normally speak to any Great Fairy.

I got up with a groan.

My Climber’s Bandana was enhanced.

“Want me to enhance any others?” she asked me in some such words of her own verbiage.

And I would have imagined the answer to be NOPE NO THANKS, THANKS BUT NO.

OH MY GOSH I THOUGHT SHE WAS GONNA EAT ME.

But.... I upgraded a bunch of clothes anyway. And those pieces ended up all out of order in my inventory but.... that was okay. I couldn’t complain with the results; they were so strong.

“Sometimes I’m so good it’s scary,” Tera said.

A Walk with Yunobo

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017

A Walk with Yunobo

David’s been kind. He stayed away from the volcano’s Divine Beast until I’d had a go at it. But now he felt free to plunge right up Death Mountain, and I watched him for some of the time.

He cleverly defeated those first Moblins at Eldin Bridge by climbing up a nearby crag and bombing the living daylights out of them. And as the second one finally died, he jumped off the rock to float down and collect its spoils.

But the cinematic started before he could deploy his paraglider.

And as the camera centered on the bewildered Yunobo, looking around to see if the coast was clear, David and I watched a dark shape swip down right in front of him and off the screen out of sight.

“Was that Link?” we both wondered, laughing incredulously at each other.

The cinematic ended, and the camera pulled back a gentle distance, and there was Link, on the ground.

Which was just . . . . great. XD

With a little more effort than I had taken the time for, David was able to destroy the Sentries using Yunobo as a projectile.

I didn’t know you could do that!! D8 ??

But I did feel a little clever in that I had thought to Stasis them, when this did not occur to David.

He also ran right past the first cannon without firing at Rudania. He was wearing full Flamebreaker Armor, and I wanted to see what would happen if he climbed up near Rudania’s big flaming right hind foot.

David was kind to oblige. XD

And the result was that he burst into flame. ÓuÒ;;

Maybe Vah Rudania was just too hot, even for the Flamebreaker Armor. Or maybe David hadn’t upgraded his armor to be fireproof yet.

After a bit either I told him or he figured it out that he should use the cannon on the Divine Beast, and he progressed on his way.

I watched him all the way up the mountain (he never once was spotted by a Sentry) and into the volcano until.... the trapdoor clamped down behind him and locked him in the darkness.

And on that grinning bombshell, I left to go attend to some other things.

When I came back some time later, he was about to face off against Fireblight Ganon, but he first left to regain full hearts by sleeping at his house.

Which I told him was LAME. And like some crotchety old geezer I told him that back when I did the Divine Beast I did the whole thing at half hearts, and I never warped away or even ate any of my meals!

But he went to rest at his house anyway.

I don’t have a house yet.

It was fun watching him defeat Fireblight Ganon. He was quite stumped for a while, but he was brave and kept psyching himself up to venture out from behind the posterior structure to try a new tactic . . . .

I stepped out for his ending cinematics. It was his fourth beast, and we suspected there might be something extra, and I didn’t want to be spoiled.

And there was something extra, he said.

But I did watch the part with the ghostly Daruk.

And after a little more time, David insisted that I play.

He really does want me to catch up.

And I believe he wants to talk about more of the game with people. And I know that feeling.

Hah. Welcome to my life, David.

I played from the activation of Vah Rudania when I started. Because I wanted to see it again. And.... I was still logging, and I wanted a refresher for the scene.

Sometimes I go through the game faster than I intend, and.... I lose some of the finer details.

Dang this log.

The bright, gold-tinged light that had borne me off the beast brought me down into Goron City.

I can never bring myself to make the avatar run, after things like that. I just can’t.

It just feels so.... uncalled-for.

Being thrust back into normalcy after the brutally insane places I’ve been?

It’s like being on another planet.

It’s a kind of dazedness, a kind of triumph, a kind of relief, a kind of sorrow, which for me will forever require a walking pace.

Yunobo told me the Boss had summoned me, and that that kind of thing couldn’t be refused.

And he rolled away.

I walked after him, toward the Boss’s house.

Bludo said Yunobo had told him everything. And he was amazed and grateful that we had subdued the Divine Beast.

“But did you have to wait until my back finally felt better?” he griped, pressing that now I was making him look like big fibber!

In the end he rewarded me with a gift he said I could find in his house: a blade once wielded by the legendary Daruk himself.

“Take it. Keep it. It’s yours,” he said.

I couldn’t fit it in my inventory.

So I left it there.

Which was just as well, I figured; one block of my weapon inventory was already taken up by Mipha’s spear, which I dared not use any further lest it break.

Made me think of getting that house again. Maybe weapons could be stored in houses....

Why hadn’t I gotten that house yet? Well.... I had my reasoning. Although to be honest I’d since been “spoiled” on that point—I knew by then that it was—

Mm but maybe you don’t.

....

In which case I’ll just say....

....

I just wanted to wait until I had seen all the land first, before choosing a place for me to live.

I was wandering around Goron City, still at a walk.

I saw Yunobo. He was walking too.

I went to speak with him.

“I’m going for a walk today,” he smiled, “Want to come?”

And that was all he said.

And he continued in his slow and easy NPC pace.

Well, he wasn’t like that tour guide back in Hateno, huffing and puffing and making me jog. He was just.... walking. Slow as Uli from Twilight Princess.

But he had invited me, so I followed him.

After a very brief climb, he came to a stop in the middle of a short bridge over the thoroughfare below, and turned toward the volcano.

I spoke to him again.

“Welcome to my secret hideout,” he grinned to me, “This is the best place to get a good view of Vah Rudania.”

We both looked at it, perched way up there at the mountain’s top, lasering toward the castle.

“To think we actually fought that thing...” Yunobo continued. “I’ve never been afraid of it... until just now.”

I guessed it was all hitting him at once.

“It’s strange, but ever since we defeated Vah Rudania, I’ve felt like my ancestor Daruk is somehow with me all the time.”

He turned to me.

“Link, I did good, didn’t I?”

“You did your best!” I said, and this seemed to give him a little more confidence.

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I.”

Or some such words.

“And with Daruk’s Protection I know my ancestor will never let me down.”

Or some such words.

Or some such words.

Sometimes I forget the exact things people say.

Sometimes I prefer not to go back and check.

Sometimes I just try to do my best, too.

Dang this log.

Daruk's Protection

Waking of Friday, October 13, 2017 ~ 4

Daruk’s Protection

With the demonic apparition defeated, I was finally able to activate the main control unit on Vah Rudania’s back. And when I did—

“Great work, little guy!”

I turned and there stood the spirit of Daruk, all ghostly teal.... but grinning hugely and with his arms spread wide.

Similar to what Lady Mipha had said, but in much gruffer terms, he explained to me that since I had slain the monster that got the best of him, his spirit was finally free. “Sorry that my resting with the rubble caused so much trouble for you...” he added, “But now Vah Rudania is back under our control!” He pounded fist into palm with palpable force and I daresay a small shockwave.

Man, I bet even Goron ghosts could knock you out if they tried.

Daruk went on to say that he wanted to give me something.... a power he had, called “Daruk’s Protection” . . . .

Oh yeah, I knew.

It wouldn’t do him any good as a spirit, he said, but maybe it could help me.

“Ready? Here it comes!”

These Gorons don’t do anything small. ._.

With a strenuous roar he seemed to summon a ball of energy between his giant palms, and with a “Hah!”, clapped in my direction—

And his power plunged into my chest and I was surrounded with a burning, powerful light, my feet again momentarily losing contact with the ground on which I’d stood as I closed my eyes and took it all in.

And when I was myself again I tried it—I planted my feet and rammed the knuckles of my fists together—feeling all the more impressive being ironclad in the FlameBreaker Armor—and the shimmering, lava-colored dodecahedron flared into being around my person.

I was invincible.

And I let go of it and flexed my gloved fingers....

Daruk continued, “I’m gonna take this thing down the mountain where I’ll have a clear shot at Calamity Ganon. And when you get inside the castle . . . we’re gonna light that place up!”

Or some such words he said....

Hadn’t Mipha said something about.... draining Ganon’s power?

What did he mean ‘light it up’?

And there were parting words—more encouragement I am sure.

I like Daruk’s temperament.

But I remember the very last thing he said before the light swallowed me up to transport me away—

“And.... Give my regards to the Princess,” he said with a grin.

Vah Rudania, lit a purer blue this time between its joints, instead of the corrupted red, clawstomped its powerful way out of the crater and perched atop an impressive crag. Its head moved, lizard-like, getting a fix on the castle I assumed—for the six segments from nose to neck then shuddered apart, splitting the whole of it wide open like a flower. And inside, a great bronzy barrel telescoped out into menacing life, charged with a mighty whirring, and let loose the enormous red beam. Straight into the calamitous clouds about the castle.

Little halos of the same energy ringed in and out of being along its length....

“Well, that about does it!” Daruk spoke to the Divine Beast or maybe a bit to himself. Or maybe to the player. “All we have to do now is wait for the perfect shot.”

Perfect shot?

Hadn’t Mipha said something about sapping Ganon’s power?

What were these beams, anyway? Wouldn’t they just work to weaken—

Red circles.

A red imploding circle on the target. Repeatedly shrinking to the center and then reappearing.

It . . . . was familiar . . . . ?

Oh my Hylia.

The Divine Beasts were Sheikah technology.

Like the Guardians.

THAT LASER . . . . IS A LASER OH MY GOSH WAT THIS I CAN’T—

Daruk took in the landscape.

“Hyrule looks good even after a hundred years,” he said, “The old rollin’ grounds sure are a sight for sore eyes.”

His eyes and his tone fell a bit.

“I wonder how the Gorons.... fared after the Great Calamity. I hope they’re still going strong even after every—”

But the camera had angled behind the figure of Yunobo, on a crag further down the cone, as he gazed up at the Divine Beast, and the ghostly teal figure on top of it.

Daruk had seen him too.

Yunobo gasped in wonder.

“Well would you look at that . . .” Daruk mused, “Still going strong indeed!”

With a manly grunt, he thrust his huge right fist straight up into the air in a rugged salutation.

And with that kind of delight you only feel when you know you are the sole partaker of the rarest of gifts.... Yunobo shouted and waved his hand vigorously back, laughing his exultation to the morning sky . . . .

Hylian Charbroil

Waking of Friday, October 13, 2017

Hylian Charbroil

You know, Goron City can be confusing. Absolutely bewildering down on the ground, where the geology is all the same color, all jutting up in a million variations of the same craggy shapes.

It took me a while before I gave up on my HUD and just consulted my full map. And even then.... I took the cheap way out and simply warped to the shrine near Eldin Bridge.

When I hiked up the hill I found Yunobo cowering beneath Daruk’s Protection; two Black Moblins were harassing him.

Well! I had just the mask for that! C:

I donned the Moblin Mask and dashed up the trail. The Moblins turned at my approach and eyed me suspiciously....

I hadn’t quite thought through what exactly I intended to do. Sure enough I was able to get close. Very close. Right up next to them. Which gave me the element of surprise. But there were two of them. And surely they wouldn’t take kindly to any suddenly violent turns on my part. Hmm.

In the end I just did the best I could—I Stasised one of them, and just started walloping away, fortuitously landing the same blows on his fellow as well. They both went down but there would be no more taking them off guard after that.

Moblins can hit. @_@

When I had dispatched them both, the camera swiveled back to center on the trembling Yunobo, and I suddenly hoped that I wouldn’t be forced to move through an otherwise epic and momentous cinematic while wearing.... a Moblin Mask.

But Yunobo only stood up to look around and see that he had been saved, and the game released me to approach and address him on my own.

PHEWF. ouo;

There was a cannon nearby, like the ones at the North Mine. But when I rolled a bomb into it and tried to fire, nothing happened. Huh....

So I turned to speak to Yunobo. He thanked me for my help, and asked where Big Boss Bludo was.

“He’s not coming,” I said.

“What?”

I explained to him about the painkillers not having any effect, and Yunobo looked downcast and fretted about what they were going to doooo.... Yunobo had Daruk’s Protection, and it was the only way to drive Vah Rudania up into the volcano, but Bludo had to work the cannon....

“I’ll do it!” I said.

Yunobo was shocked. He impressed upon me how dangerous this was. Especially for a Hylian.

But with that wonderfully unscripted series of animated mouth movements and gesticulations that Zelda games have become SO fond of lately.... I explained to him I assume that I actually did need to get inside that Divine Beast.

That seemed to lend him a little courage. Heh, for a Goron he just seems so.... youthfully tender.

Yunobo told me that Eldin Bridge was kept raised to bar Vah Rudania from coming down and across from the upper cone. Actually I wondered whether the Divine Beast would even need the bridge.

Likewise, with the bridge in such a position, we wouldn’t be able to cross further upward. But Yunobo said I could knock the bridge into its lowered position by firing him at it with the cannon.

And he hopped in.

:I

So I rolled in a bomb, took aim and blew it up.

You ever launch someone into the sky in a rolling fiery arc?

I’d thought it might be a trick shot, an angle somewhere between set firing directions, and so almost shot him off too early! But he just barely nicked the upper corner of the raised bridge.... and brought it swinging down.

He landed back nearby on the rebound, a little unsteady and with stars dancing around his head. We could go into the mountain now, he said.

I had wondered if it would be anything like it had been with Prince Sidon—hard and fast and in a desperate rush!

But Yunobo was saying—what—we just—

....

On foot??

I’d wondered if perhaps we would have to do cannon acrobatics together but WHAT we just—the bridge is down and then—what, just—over we go? Onto the mountain? WHERE THE GIANT FRIGGIN’ LIZARD IS?

I dunno there was just something off-putting about climbing up after it, into its territory, on our own measly feet.

But that seemed to be the only option. Yunobo followed after me as I moved. Heh, I like it when the NPCs do that. ^_^

He was a bit slower than I....

Near the far end of the bridge we were thrust into a cinematic—Vah Rudania spotted us. The four large circular vents on its back dilated, and a host of smaller, buzzing, propellered things came swarming out.

Oh great, I thought, Those things are gonna come after us and I’m gonna have to shoot them, how many arrows do I have—

Yunobo lamented this new development as well. Evidently Vah Rudania did this whenever he and Boss Bludo came close. If those sentries spotted us the Divine Beast would go into a rage and cause the volcano to erupt; landslides of fiery boulders would come raining down. Bludo could just smash those boulders to bits with his fists.... But he wasn’t here....

I would lead and Yunobo would follow me, but with those sentries in the air.... he proposed we should decide on a signal for when we should move and when we should stop.

My options to respond were

A wink!

A whistle!

Mind powers!

XD

I suggested a whistle, and Yunobo said that was a good idea, even though it was a little like calling a horse....

The cinematic released me and, still fearing those sentries, I ran for cover like a self-respecting coward. But nothing came after us.

So I tested the whistle. It came out different! A short drill of three quick peeps brought Yunobo snapping to a rigid standstill with a “Hup!”

I moved away a short distance and whistled again. It was longer with a rolling pitch this time.

“Coming!” Yunobo called, and ran to where I was, stopping beside me with a triumphant “Ha-ha!” as if we’d just outwitted something.

Heh, that was for when we’d have cleverly gotten past something I guessed. His dulcet tenor voice is so tender....! XD

The whistle alternated between these two patterns, and when in earshot Yunobo was strict to heed it.... but I wished he’d had a slightly quicker reaction time....

We started out tentatively enough, but it seemed the sentries were not actively seeking us out, and so after a short time I had us plunging up the hill and into the crags.

Well.... plunging as fast as Yunobo could go, anyway. He would always catch up to me panting, and even gasped once, “Wait up!”

Poor guy.

The sentries shone bright red searchlights directly below where they hovered or patrolled. They seemed simple enough to slip past at first—though I did have to work on Yunobo’s timing! Under one of the first sentries, before we could reach the shelter of an overhang—before Yunobo could reach the shelter of the overhang—the beam caught him and—

Some buzzing alarm.

“This is bad!” Yunobo cried.

And Vah Rudania hammered the mountain with its enormous club of a tail, sending red-hot rocks cascading down in a thick and terrible rain of crushing DEATH.

They didn’t seem to reach us beneath the overhang, though, where I crouched down and Yunobo shivered beneath Daruk’s Protection.

But much of the rest of the mountain was not quite so forgiving.

The sentries were tricky! The beam of one stationary one I had to block with a large metal plate propped between two rocks. Clever. Others I discovered could be destroyed by casting bombs into nearby updrafts, and detonating when they reached the sentries’ level. Cleverer!

I had Yunobo stay put when I saw more Moblins in the distance, and put my mask on to go and have it out with them.

Turned out they were guarding another cannon! Yunobo hopped in, and I tried launching him at one of the sentries....

I’d say he overshot it by at least a quarter mile.

But he came bounding back and uncurled from his rolling posture, and told me to watch where I was aiming.

I guessed the sentries couldn’t be dealt with that way.

And I guessed.... it was to be a shot at the Divine Beast then—we did seem to be following it counter-clockwise up the cone. I aimed the cannon and fired, Yunobo struck true, and Vah Rudania groared and clambered further on, Yunobo rebounding back a moment later with more stars around his head. He was pretty pumped at our progress!

There were two more cannons, each guarded by two Black Moblins. We jogged our way upward and onward, skirting the sentries we could manage. Whistle. “Right!” Whistle. “Hup!” Whistle. “Coming!”

And other such noises he made.

.... “Wait up!”

Heh, there was even a little icon for Yunobo on my HUD map.

It even had his same fretting little face! XD

But it was deucedly difficult getting him past the last cluster of sentries before the third cannon. That one sentry going round in circles.... the one I couldn’t bring down with any air-drafted bombs....

Alarm.

“Oh no!”

Red-hot boulders.

Alarm.

“It saw us!”

More rib-shattering chunks of flaming rock.

Alarm.

“This is bad!”

Just bury me in the molten rubble rolling on the ground getting my SKIN seared off, no cover from this unrelenting, cacophonous—

It would have been helpful if Yunobo had run ahead to duck and cover, but he kept running back to that little outcrop. And I.... just did the best I could staying close to the cliff walls, trying to let the rocks bounce over me.

Isn’t that what they teach you for hiking?

I tried hunkering down near Yunobo once.

I was BOWLED RIGHT OFF THE MOUNTAIN. The cascade of hot earth blew me cartwheeling through the open air, down, down, high over the endless dark spires like the reaching pits of hades. It took me a moment to recover enough to deploy my paraglider—and turn myself back toward the mountain’s face where I clung like a bedraggled spider.

It was a bit of a climb to reach Yunobo again—thank goodness I had the stamina. But my hearts couldn’t take much more of this. I’d lost Mipha’s extras plus about half my normal red ones climbing this blasted volcano.

In the end.... I forgot the whistle, and just had him follow close after me as I timed a winding path beneath that infernal circling sentry.

And we made it to the last cannon.

Two dead Moblins later, I fired Yunobo at the Divine Beast again, and it seemed that Vah Rudania had had enough. It clambered over the jagged, oozing lip of the cone, pushed itself over the edge to fall into the crater, and—

THE VOLCANO ERUPTED.

With a tremendous rumble, a titanic spray of hot lava ejected out of the caldera.

But it didn’t hit us. And nothing more terrible happened after that.

The Divine Beast had only finally settled down into the very heart of Death Mountain, lizard legs splayed as at rest . . . . or recalculation . . . .

“That was so cool!” Yunobo crowed as we crested the top in cinematic, “You really put a licking on that thing!”

Oh I just love this kid. XD

I don’t remember much else of his parting words. I just remember his voice still so slight and tender, so hopeful as he bade me good luck in finishing the job, as I leapt off the lip after the beast, paragliding down, down, down into the core of fire, and Yunobo still stood there above, back meekly hunched and clasping his low hands before him like he does, blue neckerchief ruffling in the surging, embered heat....

Fiery Portents

Afternoon of Tuesday, September 19, 2017 ~ 3

Fiery Portents

Fresh out of any more wardrobe excuses, I warped back to Goron City, giving Bargoh a warm greeting on my way down to Boss Bludo’s house. Yunobo would surely have handed off the painkillers to him by now....

He had. Bludo was back in action and ready to go. “No disrespect to Daruk’s legacy or anything,” he said, “but it’s time to go beat back that Divine Beast.” Or some such words.

“Daruk?” I said.

Bludo was incredulous that I’d evidently never heard of Daruk. “Look,” he said, pointing to the huge carved stones overlooking the city, “That is a statue of Daruk.”

I looked.

And looked....

Daruk and I stood atop the mighty Divine Beast Vah Rudania, as it poised upon the mountain in the sunlight. “I’m really getting the hang of this thing!” he said, or something like it, “Yep, the other Champions better eat their gravel if they want to keep up with Daruk.” His voice was as gravelly as his hide.

“Great view!” Daruk said, looking around the jagged landscape, “All those delicious rocks....”

Gorons.

“Congrats on becoming the Princess’ appointed knight,” he went on, impressing that it was a big deal, protecting the king’s daughter. Not to mention a tall order, given her personality. “She’s the kind of person who can’t see the mountains for the peaks!” he alleged.

But he stopped short as an ominous rumbling began coming from the mountain.

Huge boulders rained down, one gigantic one right for us—

But Daruk threw up his fists and stopped it with some.... dodecahedral red field of some kind, which glowed like fire in a soft rotation. Stopped it dead. He protected us both.

And after a moment the tremors had passed, and we were in the clear, and Daruk released his magical shield, and we stood straight again.

“Strange,” Daruk mused in a troubled rumble, “The volcano’s been quiet for decades. But if it’s shaking enough to toss boulders that size at us, then...” He paused for only a moment, and then, “No, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

I came back to myself.

Boss Bludo explained that Yunobo was a descendant of Daruk, and that he had inherited Daruk’s Protection. It was a power he could use to shield himself from any attack or bombardment.

“It’s the only way he can protect himself when we fire him at the Divine Beast.”

WHAT.  .__.

Bludo explained that normal boulders wouldn’t do it; they had to launch Yunobo himself at the Divine Beast by means of the cannon oh my gosh wat, just— D:

I guess Gorons are made of pretty tough stuff. o_o

And it was time to get to it. Bludo made ready to go. “Well, time to head back to the—”

Crunch!

He stiffened with a painful jolt.

His back was out again.

He couldn’t believe it. This was getting to be a bother. “Oh, look, I’m sorry to have to ask you this,” he said, “but would you go tell Yunobo that we’re going to have to cancel for the day? He’ll be at Eldin Bridge.”

Eldin Bridge. I’d seen that place when I was catching butterflies with the girls. It had seemed.... a Rubicon of sorts, leading into the higher steeps of the cone about the caldera.

Except this crossing was over hot lava, instead of water.