When Lightning Strikes

Waking of Saturday, October 13, 2018 ~ 2

When Lightning Strikes

I felt the nearness of my journey’s end. There was only one Divine Beast left. And I didn’t want any more blank patches when I faced it. If I was coming full circle, that circle had to be full.

It was time to fill in my map.

It was time to venture into the jungles of Faron.

I traveled by horse this time, deciding to give Brown some riding time; he’d done such a good job. We headed out from the Highland Stable, into Faron Woods, traveling slowly. Even on the road, and with a horse, I still preferred a cautious church mouse’s pace.

We found ourselves crossing paths multiple times with one Chumin, a vendor, and his donkey. He looked cool in his vest and shorts and said he hailed from Lurelin Village—that habitation I’d heard tell of around here before. His attire made it seem.... like a laid-back kind of place. Maybe it was a beach town....

We met a few other people along the way, Meeshy, and someone called Totsuna.... And....

An “Oh noooo!” floated to me from over a hill. I dismounted and ran, and found two Black Bokoblins, one of them beating up.... Tye!

I saw it pummeling him against the thick trunk of a tree; I saw him take hits—

What it does to a hero’s heart.

I killed it! And ran. Sorelia was down. I killed that one too!

And they were safe and ran to each other to huddle together like they do.

Those two....

It was a long way through the jungle, with many detours, a good deal of Koroks, and a nigh unplumbable heckton of mysterious ruins, towers and treasures. But after an age of walking the road beneath a downpour of thundery weather, we made it to the Lakeside Stable.

And dang that Shai Utoh Shrine behind the stable was a head-cracker!

I decided to board Brown. He’d had some good exercise, but.... I really preferred to travel on foot. There were still a few resident Koroks to chase, and they led me out from the rattling jungle and toward the overlook—and a Floria Bridge.

Floria? I wondered.... And I walked further, and—the name flashed across the screen.

IT IS LAKE FLORIA, I realized.

The Ancient Lake Floria....

I had.... kind of heard it was here.

But discovering it was still cool nonetheless.

I crossed Floria Bridge as the rain still hammered the world, and dang Farosh was just.... this was just his playground or something. For the first time from this low angle, I saw him swoop over the watery valley. He came quite close to the bridge, as did his attendant aura of ball lightning.

This place was hazardous.

Fortunately I still carried the Thunder Helm. But I made it to the other side of the bridge without incident.

And my shrine-locator started going off again.

One of the stablehands had said there was something strange on top of the waterfalls on this side of the bridge....

The road was so long, the Koroks so plentiful, the enemies so insistent, and my pace so slow. The distance was mounting in my mind and I wondered where this path would even take me. But I received some assurance from one Letty, who looked like a Sheikah girl in Hylian clothes, that Lurelin Village was indeed this way.

I was way off my map.

Hmm, maybe I should have gone for the tower, first....

I continued. My shrine detector was still brreep-brreeping; I was sure it must have been on top of the tall cliffs to my left. But there was no getting up there in this weather.

And as I continued along the path, with a tremendous rumbling, the sky turned fiercer still.

That was thunder.

OH LIGHTNING! C8

“Uh, you need to—” David started.

BUT I DIDN’T. I’d been waiting for this. I’d switched to metal weapons in the course of my frays, but I was still wearing my Thunder Helm.

I stood still on the path, and my sword and shield spikked and spacked and zapped and crackled!

David watched but I didn’t move!

TESTING.... TESTING.... TESTINNGGG....

Kracka-BOOOOOM LIGHTNING CRASHED DOWN ON ME AND I JUST STOOD THERE IN THE SHAKING EXPLOSION WHILE THE EARTH ERUPTED ALL AROUND ME AND I WAS LEFT STANDING AMIDST THE FLAMES AND UPDRAFTS RISING THROUGH THE FALLING RAIN STANDING SO STILL AND STOIC YET. The Master Sword still in my hand.

“DID YOU SEE THAT?” says I.

“Yeah I did.” He eats cereal.

SO COOL. I LOVE THE THUNDER HELM.

A little further and of a sudden I was out of the jungle and.... in a rather pleasantly sunny little valley between mountains.

But my shrine detector had stopped. Well I couldn’t have that.... I turned back. Where was that shrine? It had to be up on top of those cliffs. The road had skirted around to the right of them.

The little valley was refreshingly open and bright after the pouring din of the jungle. But it was a soggy sunshine. The rain came in patches—the most inconvenient patches! I tried every nook and overhang, took advantage of the highest rises in the ground that I could find, just trying to gain one of the lower steppes, for the cliffs were not sheer.... But always that rain! I COULD NOT CLIMB IN THIS RAIN.

And the blasted Yiga Clansmen hounding my footsteps were no help.

This was ridiculous. I would step away from the cliffs, and the sun would peek through, as if to check on my progress. I would return to the cliffs, and the clouds would just POUR! WHAT!

I looked down the road; the cliffs seemed to give way to a more sloping geography further on. It might be a long jog, but.... their tops seemed to connect to the clifftops back here. And if this blasted rain wasn’t going to let up—

Fine! I’d take the long way round.... I ran down the road. I ran for a long way but there was still no sign of this Lurelin Village.... How far away was it? And when the slopes turned gentler I hoofed it up into the hills, cutting my arc as tightly as the land and the rain would allow, passing four-legged bovines along the way—if they could get up here....

I traversed craggy ridges that melded into the tops of red buttes until I had come back toward the waterfalls, where I found.... Kass.

I actually had to paraglide down a butte to reach him. My shrine locator was once again brreeping like mad, and nearby there was a most obtrusive, yellow-cracked mound, standing on the edge of a large drop-off above the lake. Huh.

My gosh, I dared say I must have been at that place the stablehands had pointed out from the other side of the bridge—the place above the waterfalls with the big weird.... thing. This rock formation.

I walked to the edge and scoped into the rainy haze at the distant twinkling lights to check, dropping markers to be sure, for the rain was still too thick to make anything out for certain. And sure enough, that distant glimmer away below the drop-off and more than a few bowshots out was the Lakeside Stable.

Time to see what their mysterious rock formation was about....

“Very impressive,” Kass said, “Not many could make it all the way up here in such rain.”

You’re telling me! I thought.

“Me? I stay nice and dry,” Kass went on, “My feathers repel the rain rather well. And my instrument is designed to withstand extreme moisture.”

Well that was handy. I considered.... If I’d seen a real instrument out in the rain.... even an accordion.... ugh I couldn’t abide such abuse.

“When your living revolves around ancient songs, you’ve got to be prepared for a few raindrops!” He smiled.

Kass sang the song handed down in this region for me. Heh.... I guess he’s kinda like.... Oh what is that guy’s name.... He even has his own -isms! Because he refuses to use the Italian. Is he dead....? Oh, what was it.... I keep thinking Purcell, but it’s not Purcell. That guy is definitely dead. He stayed out too late and his wife wouldn’t let him back in the house and he froze to death.

CONFOUND IT—it’s got a G in it, I’m sure of it.... ohhh.... GRAINGER! PERCY GRAINGER! Auwgh! That kinda sounds like Purcell!

Grainger?

....

Hm, he’s quite a handsome chap. Gads that photo looks old.

....Oh yeah, he’s dead.

I have forgotten more music theory and music history than most people will ever know.

Ah but PRESERVING SONGS HANDED DOWN.... Heh, why is it only now reminding me of Grainger?

I feel a sudden and renewed rush of affection toward Kass. Well done, mate.

AHEM! Where was I?

Kass sang his song for me!

When a lost hero calls down lightning from the sky

The monk responds from a giant mound on high.

Lightning, huh?

Heh.... This was gonna be good....

Through some persistence I was able to climb up on top of the rocky mound, where I re-equipped my metal trappings. (I’d taken them off while talking to Kass, because I didn’t want to inadvertently blow him to smithereens.)

After that I just had to wait for it....

So this was why it kept raining in this area.... NICE.

I waited.... and waited.... until.... snap-crackle-pop.... Kraka-BOOOOOOMmmm!

The mound explodacrumbled beneath my feet while I, the human lightning rod in my Thunder Helm, nonchalantly dropped onto the top of the Qukah Nata Shrine.

This dang shrine had been so hard to get to. I was ready to complete it and save and quit; my body was very tired. But first.... before he depopulated....

“Ah, so there was a shrine inside that crag split by lightning...” Kass said when I returned to him. “The bolt was so ferocious that I worried I might be struck down myself!”

You only weren’t before because I kept you out of danger, Kass!

“I’d say that’s worthy of being immortalized in song. Anyway, may the light shine ever on your path.”

Aw, with his lovely bird-smile with eyes half closed. ^_^

Love that guy.

Okay, let’s do this. I entered the shrine. And happily enough it was a blessing shrine! And inside the treasure chest were—

Rubber Tights?

Gotta say, I hadn’t been expecting that. What the heck....? XD

“These invaluable tights are resistant to electricity. They’re made with something called “rubber,” an ancient technology that no longer exists in this modern age.

WAT.

....

Okay. XD

That was.... very anomalous. It was four Spirit Orbs anyway. I came back out of the shrine and.... it was not.... storming?

The ground and grass still shone with moisture, but the world had opened up, and it was just that plimmering, shining, wetland music.... that happy Piano....

Deepest Woods

Afternoon of Saturday, February 24, 2018, noted the same day, written and edited properly beginning Tuesday, May 29, 2018, and I am pained

I am so, so pained.

Deepest Woods

It had been too long.

Too long.

I started my game. David was with me.

I was on top of the Dragon’s Head, the giant tree breaking through. The Spring of Courage, that’s where this was. The soothing spring music played; some ringing, resonating, sustained thing that I cannot name—somewhere between harpsichord and glass armonica—only rolling through clustery chords that felt nevertheless.... unhurried.

It’s a restful fill for the air.

What was I doing here again?

I went to my map. The blue ribbon of the dragony river grinned at me.

Oh yes. I remembered. I was looking for Mister Hestu. Fooling myself he was in Faron Woods.

All right.

It was time to get serious and find him.

I had already completed a quest for pants; and now the game was late; I really needed to go questing for pockets before I had no room left for anything.

I needed Mister Hestu.

And I knew where to find him.

Somehow, in my heart.... I think I’d known for a long, long time.

I warped to the Woodland Tower in the treacherous bog, and paraglided thence down into the path running hard against Death Mountain’s foot, upward into the hills, into the trees, in between those grassy shelves where I had first encountered wolves....

And I passed through the grey-walled bottleneck, down into the grey-green, living softness, and the light dimmed with the curling mist, and the Piano came to heel.

It was quiet.

Although I was cautious, I proceeded with a slowness borne more of reverence than of fear. This was a momentous place.

The torches were in plain view and easy enough to see, clear and empty swaths of grass or bare earth between them as they led round tree and hill and boulder, twining deeper. I always followed the embers. The tiny, glowing specks from one torch always seemed to drift toward the next. I did not stray from their path this time, but was strict to adhere to the zephyred directions.

There were a few animals about, a fox, some deer.... Once I even thought I heard the yawning squeal a wolf makes when it stretches. But I dared not pursue any of these and risk losing the path.

And then I came to two torches standing near each other, their parallel embers blowing away into dank and tangled woods where there was no other light to be seen.

For how bare and sad and dead so many of the trees looked, stark and naked, it was amazing how dense the place still felt.

I walked on, following the course of the twin ember trails, and just tried my best to keep moving in a straight line. There were no more obvious borders to keep me in line, like rocks and banks. There was only the close circle of ground about me, defined by the mist, and.... the trees.

The terrible, terrible trees—

Brreep-brreep! went my Sheikah Slate! o_o Gave me a bit of a start, but.... well that was something good at least!

It continued to beep as I kept moving ahead. I thought about turning it off; the forest didn’t seem to like it. But.... I let it go.

The larger trees took on.... a terrible look. Great twisted cracks in their barrel trunks like grimacing mouths with teeth.

Then the mouths began to gape....

I hid in one of them briefly, all full of the willies.

After a moment I climbed out again, and came to a clearing.

Which.... direction was I going in? I turned....

“Are you lost?” said David with a grin in his voice.

I walked back to the maw-tree, tried to line myself up.... The mouth had been unseen just around the right side....

I walked to the clearing again.

Those two trees there.... looked sort of like a gate of some kind....

I kept walking, right beneath their touching boughs. On and on I kept walking, the incessant brreep-brreep from my Slate doing me no psychological favors in the listening dark.

The clock in my HUD told me that it was nighttime, but I wondered if a bright shining sun would have made any difference here.

I kept going. Straight line. Brreep-brreep. No deviation.

And then, as the morning came on.... perhaps the sun did make a difference. Or perhaps....

The fog at last began to thin, and there was music: the doppelganger of Faron Woods—Skyward Sword’s Faron Woods, the Kikwi Home—it sounded so similar but I just could not place how it was done.... or perhaps was only too bewildered and bewuthered to think about melodies and chord progressions.

Warmer colors began to appear, sun-yellows and honey-browns and flowers.... The wildlife was no longer furtive and afraid. The birds chirped and the leaves sang.

Korok Woods was this place; the name gleamed over the screen.

“Are you serious?” said David.

And there were Koroks in plain sight! Not hiding! :D

“Do you know how many tries it took me to make it all the way through?” Or some such words.

Apparently he’d been watching me the whole time just grinning with anticipation for when I would.... when I would....

Well I didn’t experience it, whatever it was, so I’m not sure how it would have gone. I just made it end to end in one go. But I guess he’d had a harder time, and kept being transported back to the beginning of the Woods. I remembered the screen whiting out, and that childlike laughter....

He told me it took him forever to figure out the embers. HA! But that was such a Zeldic device, David! If I may make up words. XD

Well, like I’ve said before: sometimes, where I suck, David excels, and where he sucks, I excel.

What a team.

A few steps more and I seemed to enter a new wood proper. The trees looked healthier here. And the Koroks were soon all around me—though any particular one would disappear if I ever got too close. Heh.

And a few steps more again, and I caught sight of the tall, bobbing figure of Mister Hestu over a rise to my right! I’d found him! It’d been so long since I’d seen him that I’d almost forgotten his face....

And I did approach him, and we did visit, and he was happy to see me again, as I was to see him. And I did upgrade my carrying capacity. I upgraded the CRAP out of my carrying capacity. Weapons, bows, shields.

But there was something else further up the path.

Just a few steps more ahead.

Over the little stepping stones in the water.

Right there.

Right there.

Fooling Myself

Waking of a Saturday, February 3, 2018 ~ 2

Fooling Myself

There were too many people around.

I tried to figure out the password to that place behind the clothing shop again. And who was Pokki? Nobody in town that I could find.... or at the Ice House.

And why wouldn’t that other Gerudo in the bar wake up? I wanted to talk to her....

I went to the Ice House, I went back to town, I went to the Bazaar, and somehow.... found that I could take the heat in my Gerudo clothes now? I thought I couldn’t before.

I couldn’t find out the password.

Mmm not all my clothes were enhanced. A trip to Cotera remedied that.

I didn’t want to do anything important with all these people around.... and so decided.... to just look for Mister Hestu.

I rode Memory from Dueling Peaks to Faron Woods, and walked him cautiously in among the trees.... But after a while of encountering a few too many Bokoblins and other nasties, I rode him back to the Highland Stable to board him—No more endangering the horses.

After that I warped back to that shrine in the woods I had unlocked so long ago—the one near which I’d saved Tye and Sorelia in the shallow, dappled water—it was near to the path—and continued into Faron Woods on foot.

I wandered around and onward, meeting a few other travelers, some of whom claimed to hail from a nearby village. And I was sorely, SORELY tempted by the prospect of discovering a new, friendly habitation, but.... Hestu.

And I could see on my map—there was something about this forest that had piqued my curiosity every time I looked upon it: the river which twined through it in great looping curves and which ended in (or sprang from; I wasn’t really paying attention to the direction it flowed) a box canyon....

It had always looked like a dragon to me. The long course of it like a serpentine body, and the last distant pool of it shaped like open, toothy jaws. Perhaps more akin to a typical charicature of a venus fly trap than anything else.... but drawn there in the geography and hinted at all the same.

I had often imagined myself traveling into this forest, wondering what I might find at the dragon’s maw. But now that I was here, my intentions of being so straightforward began to melt away, and I was longing to maintain a stealthy distance from the road as is so my wont.

The deciduous trees gave way to palm trees, tall and thick, and a racket of birds and bugs began to fill the air. This was the jungle I had always seen from the Talus’ sporting field on the slopes of the southern Dueling Peak.... but never ventured into.

There were a few more Bokoblins; a lady called Meeshy, whose words and wants I didn’t really catch because I was giggling at her name—it’s the name I call the neighborhood cat (an Anglicized variant of the Spanish for “Kitty”) when she comes around and wants something to eat; and—

That accordion!

Kass!

He treated me to a song about a dragon’s mouth, and I was sure of it then—something important had to be at the end of that river.... And I wanted to find it for certain, but.... the road to get there twined among the trees in almost as circuitous a route as that of the river. Great place for an ambush or three....

I was wary of roads.

Leastways those upon which I’d never traveled.

But then again.... what else was new?

Pausing only to solve an INFURIATING Korok Puzzle involving metal balls tethered together by a chain like enormous bolas—infuriating!—I plunged into the foliage to the left and kept well off the track, clinging to the hills on the edge of the giant jungle-bowl instead.

The whole valley seemed to be nestled between the foothills of the Dueling Peaks and an appreciable red mountain of steps and buttes which I had never explored. Or at least, that’s what I had always surmised by the view from Talus Junior’s Field.

I set the high rim to my left and the cascading, sweltery depths to my right, and crept forward, ever cautious. Tropical rain came down in sheets to claps of thunder and lightning, and I quickly found myself having to unequip anything metal. The palm trees rattled in the din. They really were huge, and they grew more and more thickly as I pressed on.

And then of a sudden I emerged from the leaves and was confronted by a level clearing set with a weathered old square of foundation ruins.

It positively stank of Korok to me.

A number of large, flat paving blocks made up a hollow square shape on the ground, with grass and foliage filling its wide center. On three of the cornerstones of this formation sat three very large stone boulders. Where was the fourth....?

And at each corner of the grassy central space, a huge pillar towered out of the earth. Three of these were empty, but atop one of them—SOMEHOW—was the fourth boulder.

Oh boy....

Stasis and arrows didn’t make it budge. And I didn’t want to spend any specialty arrows.... Or maybe I just didn’t have any left after that last Lynel encounter. I would need something more powerful....

I didn’t want to throw any of my heavier weapons and damage them in the process. A Bomb would do, but.... I couldn’t throw them so high. Mm, but I could drop them....

I set myself to climbing the pillar in the rain, slipping again and again, but forcing myself onward. This course was made even more difficult by the fact that the boulder was so huge and the column just thin enough that there would be no place to stand until I had scaled the boulder itself, crawling up around to its top like a spider!

It took a few tries, but I made it, standing at last in sodden triumph at the top. The view from up high was nice, even in the rain. I could see over some of the trees and deeper into the valley....

But now for this boulder.

What I did next also took a few tries, to get the timing right. But fortunately Ja Baij is a gernerous chap, and I had an infinite number of Bombs to play with.

I Stasised the giant boulder beneath my feet, took out a Bomb, rolled it over the edge, and detonated it while it was close enough to exert some force upon the boulder, but far enough away that it wouldn’t blow me up!

And when the Stasis let go.... over the boulder keeled and finally fell to the ground (I paraglided down after it) where I could manage it with a bit more ease.

Ha, yeah—ease. Surely. The thing was still huge.

I tried pushing it toward the empty cornerstone. No good; it was too big. So I tried Stasis and another Bomb. Not enough force. Stasis and two more Bombs.... got it on the square!

And the Korok appeared!

YES! ^_^

That had to be the heaviest Korok I’d ever chased up. Epic.

There was something supremely satisfying about that one.

Really made you work for it.

THE WAYS

Waking of Thursday, June 8, 2017 ~ 2

THE WAYS

I activated the Sheikah Tower. This was the Lake Tower. Finally those shrines I had been to when I came down here looking for Mei had some landscape to nestle in on my map, instead of just floating out there in the blue.

The new map showed plenty of interesting things.... one of the most conspicuous of which was a very large, perfect circle of what looked like stones, some distance to the southeast. The biggest Korok circle in the world....

And nearby that was—

Lake of the Horse God?

“David!”

“What?”

“Lake of the Horse God?” I looked at him expectantly.

He showed no expression.

David had once had a horse named Shaq. And at some point, he lost poor Shaq somewhere.

So I told him about the horse icon that shows up on the map. That would tell him where his horse was.

But he said he couldn’t find it anywhere.

So I told him to just go catch another horse, board it, and then take the freshly-caught horse out again, and the Stables would find his old horse.

I don’t remember if this worked or not. I think he said it did not work.... What?

And then I’d heard something else from Madman Joseph about “something something blah da da da UNLESS YOUR HORSE DIES blah blah something—”

D:

Did horses.... die?

Did poor Shaq....?

No horse icon, no Stable tricks.

Shaq was nowhere.

Oh dear....

I’ve been hesitant to take my horses on untried roads with me, but.... now I was NEVER going to let them out again! Oh my sweet Babies....

BUT THEN one day David said he got his Shaq back!

“Where was he?” I asked. :D

But David didn’t elaborate. “I just got him back. There are ways,” he added mysteriously.

“How?” I really wanted to know where he found his horse.

But he would only say that there were ways....

“Teach me the ways!” I said, not really wanting him to. :D

And he didn’t.

“Who told you about the ways?”

“Nobody, I just found them.”

“Did anyone.... talk about them at all?”

“No, I just went to a place and.... there were the ways,” he shrugged with a smile. “You can find any horse that way. Even if it’s dead.”

WAT. ._____.

“One time one of my horses died, and I already knew about the ways, and so I went there right away and.... got my horse back.” He shrugged loudly.

He was trying to impress and it was working.

“....Teach me the ways!” :D

But he just laughed....

There was something else out southeast—a marker I had left down in this region, back when I was in Faron Woods south of the lake with Tye and Sorelia. It marked another shrine I had seen, but not gone to claim.

I could see the shrine from the top of the tower—and from this height I could see it was next to a stable! Excellent.

Actually there was quite a lot I could see from this height; it was rather like looking at the map in my Slate.

It looked like there were two ways to get to that shrine and stable: one was a road that seemed to wind through Faron Woods, somewhat to my left. And the other.... well the air was quite clear, and I was quite high up.... and just in case I wasn’t, the ground looked most navigable....

I took the second option, and jumped for it, paragliding through the air....

Of course I wasn’t high enough; I should have known. Ahh, but you just feel so good when you’re so high up and the land lies so plain all around you!

I came down onto some bald, pointy hills crawling with Lizalfos—landed almost right on top of one, with no choice then but to whack him off. But with his health bar visible to me, I wasn’t worried. The Champion’s Tunic really is quite handy. No surprises.

At David’s suggestion I climbed to the top of that pointy little hill, and again paraglided toward the shrine and stable. I crossed over a wide open green field prowled by mounted bokoblins, the creepers.... But my angle this time was such that I didn’t have to worry about them either: I landed within breathing distance of the stable—the Highland Stable.

And that big circle I’d seen on my map wasn’t a giant Korok circle.... it was a circle of young cypress trees encompassing the stable! It made for quite a comely effect, I must say. Maybe they planted it as a barrier against the bokoblins so close....

Well! No time for the stable just now—I had a shrine to lock down. “The Ka’o Makagh Shrine!”

I read the name with such fierce enunciation that David laughed. “Sounds like ‘Leggo my Eggo’ when you say it like that,” he said. XD

I again felt only slightly cheap inside as I became aware of small Guardians around corners before I saw them—thanks to my Tunic. The first one had 100 health. The second one had 13. 13! Maybe that was the kind I’d faced in the shrines back on the Plateau so long ago. 13.... What a pitiable number....

I cut it down in one hit with a 14 Lizal Boomerang. And it gave me Ancient Gears. “Why thank you!” I told it. ^_^

When I’d claimed the Spirit Orb and exited the shrine, I took only a brief skip around the stable to meet the locals before heading into the stable’s backyard—opposite the wide green field, a similar lawn stretched away between two tall grey cliff faces, bending out of sight to the right. The Lake of the Horse God was back there....

The lawn rose up a bit before coming to an abrupt end and a short drop into the water. But there was nothing there but a Korok. The dry-ish waterway continued on between the two cliff faces and away out of sight....

What were The Ways....?

I tried bringing one of my horses to the edge of the sward before the water.... but still nothing happened.

Above the water, rather over the far end of the little lake, a wooden bridge extended across from one cliff face to another—a path seemed to cut through the mountain just there. I boarded my horse again, ran back to the lake—the wild horses which haunted the backyard were getting tired of my passing by now—and climbed up to the bridge.

Horse God Bridge it was called. But the path beyond it, to the left, didn’t lead anywhere except to a nameless little pond at the end of a tiny box canyon.

Hm, but the topo there had a strange symmetry to it.... Maybe it was worth a look, as long as I was there.

I followed the trail and found.... another Fairy Cocoon! :D

Well that was dandy! ^_^

I approached the cocoon. The same low, mournful, distorted voice rumbled out from inside it. But it said....

“Hast thou... I mean... Have you ever felt the pain of losing a horse companion?”

And one half of me thought, Oh my gosh it’s The WAYS!! 8D

And another half thought, No wait please speak all archaic to me, I love it! D:

“Hast thou... I mean... Have you....” XD

I wondered how the original Japanese must have read.

Well, it seemed this fairy had the ability to resurrect any horse companions I might have lost.... but first I had to hand over a thousand rupees. Through a crack in the cocoon, she held out a snappy, expectant hand like the others had done.

I’d done a little business back at the stable, making just over a thousand on my monster parts collection. Easy come easy go I guess. I handed it over.

The cocoon pulsated and rippled apart into a flower, mystical water splashed in its center, and up came—oh this one’s hair was different—no was it a headdress of some kind?—like plates, or scales, shingled over her head—no there were too many pieces, too much to the form—the whole form—her whole body—so textured—banners and braids and trailing things—what shape was this?

This wasn’t like Cotera or Mija.

The Horse God had a long neck like cloth dancing in the wind, and its face was a rustruddy, stylized mask engraved with many designs.... a horse’s face. Rather like the shape of the stables themselves.... And although the face was static, it still moved.... queer little jerks and twists and shakes, like the movements of a bird’s head, though perhaps not quite so sharp.

The hands however were still the same robust, womanly hands with elegantly painted nails.

But the arms....? There was just.... a misty, purplish kind of.... something....

“Ah, if my arms were corporeal, they’d surely be all cramped up by now!” the Horse God said as she.... he.... it.... stretched.

The voice was still low and warbly.

I’ll just say it was a she. And her name was Malanya.

She pondered for a moment on how to repay me before leaning in quite close and saying, “Shall I make you my meal?”

But then she leaned back out with a laugh.... only kidding.... haha.... hahhhh.... .__.

She seemed to read my experience with horses and pronounced me to be in some kind of good standing I gathered.

Well my horses are quite closely bonded with me.

She said if I ever lost a horse companion, she would be able to bring it back for me.

But if she sensed any kind of foul intent.... in the death of my horse....

She leaned in close again, her sharp-nailed hands floating creepily. “Then you shall suffer my wrath!”

o__o

Sounds like she means bidness....

“You found the ways!” David patted my shoulder.

Well, I could handle that well enough I think.

“I found the ways!” ^_^

Old Friends

Waking of Thursday, May 11, 2017 ~ 4

Old Friends

Beyond the tree was a little gully running up over the hill of the shore. It looked like I could shinny up there....

I did, and came to a wooded land, indecisive between forest and marsh, for it seemed as much flooded as not.

This was Faron Woods.

The sun rose again as I wandered into the trees, the framerate keeping a valiant pace amid all the wood and water and floating leaves. I thought of the Yiga Clan. Would I run into any of them here? The place seemed quiet for the most part; I only encountered one Octorok I think, hiding in the ground, and I blew him up easily enough.

The silence otherwise was.... disquieting.

I pressed on into the woods, but.... was there any point, if I was getting so far away from the water? Or were these little pools and puddles remnants of Vah Ruta’s flooding? Dared I hope?

Where was Mei?

Had she been kidnapped by the Yiga?

Oh gads was this like a Kafei-type quest, that I wouldn’t be able to resolve until nearer the end of the game?

My mind drifted through what Yiga Clan minibosses might look like....

The land twisted through the trees; I found some huge crumbled statuary—of the dragon, I think—and another shrine. But.... I was getting too far.

I had to consult my Sheikah Slate to head back toward the water. There was no map, but the compass still worked, and I could register the direction of the Ya Naga shrine. I wended back between the trunks—

And a commotion played in the dappled water ahead.

There was a man.

And a bokoblin, a blue one.

“Come get some!” the man yelled bravely, even as he splashed a few steps back from his foe.

I ran in—what confusion was the sun through the trees in the splashing, shadow-spotted water!—and cut the offending brute down.

I turned, and spoke to—

“Tye?” I gasped.

He stood panting, gripping one arm. “Oh Sorelia please be all right—” he grunted.

Oh no.

I whirled around—there a stone’s throw away, a red bokoblin capered over her as she lay collapsed in the shallow water.

I bolted forward, hopped a fallen log in my way, and a few sloshing strides later collided with the monster, beating him back.

When the bokoblin was dead, Sorelia staggered to her feet—Tye joined us—and we moved to a dry spot where we could catch our breath.

Those two do seem to get around.

They were still searching for their elusive Silent Princess flower. But they hadn’t seen any Zoras along the way.

Satisfied they were at least out of harm’s way for the present, I bade them goodbye, and continued back toward the lake.

My raft was gone.

Hhhh, I’d known it would be, when I first ventured into the trees, but....

Well, there was nothing for it but to start sweeping the coastline. The ridge of big rolling hills to my right seemed an easy place to start. I hiked up to their crest and started back along the lake.

This proved largely uneventful, until very late into the night, when I came upon the ruins of a Deya Village, in a shallow little valley just over the other side of the ridge.

A chill stole over my soul at the sight of its rickety remains, the overturned wagons, the charred and splintered house-frames.... but my heart leapt to see that it was all flooded.

Would Mei be in there?

I moved in—cautiously. There was a very large dead tree beside it—I mean VERY large. I’ve seen these blasted hollow stumps here and there in my travels, especially along the road near the Honeydell. I’m not quite sure yet what they portend, if anything, but they give me the willies.

But this one near the Deya Village Ruins just had a few baddies hiding around it—and a Korok inside the adjacent fallen log. And that was all.

One end of the great hollow log lay near the flooded valley floor; I walked quietly down through it until I stepped out into the water. The village was big....

But in the end, after an extensive search, I found only two poorly-equipped Lizalfos lurking about. And a few well-hidden treasure chests.

But Mei wasn’t there.

I climbed all over the surrounding cliffs, stole a Flame Rod off a Wizzrobe, found out just how ineffective it was against stal-creatures, paraglided back into the village....

No sign of her.

Then I saw a cleft in the hills surrounding the Deya Village valley.

The water snaked away through it.

Follow the water, I thought.

I’d been following the water for weeks.

Just keep following the water....

But the water in the cleft ran dry after only a few score paces.

The only thing left was another camouflaged Lizalfos. They’re pretty talented, the Deya Lizalfos; they produce a most convincing mottle....

But there was no sign of Mei.

What was left?

I moved into the area beyond the cleft. Wound my way through a few more trees. Came upon a campfire. Saw a man there. Spoke to him and—it was—?

“GIRO?” I gaped.

My gosh, I hadn’t seen him in forever! :D Giro! Buddy!

Wait where the heck was I?

I opened my map.

I had wandered back into West Necluda.

It was the selfsame campsite I had cooked so many dishes at, long, long ago with Giro, before the night of my first Blood Moon.

The very same.

To think that I had been so close to the lake back then.

But I wasn’t looking for Giro, I was looking for Mei.

And I couldn’t find her.

I couldn’t find her.