What Garill Knew

Waking of Saturday, May 4, 2019 ~ 2

What Garill Knew

It’s 8:40 in the evening.

I’ll go out and get Dragmire.

Oh, but not before snagging a Korok behind Impa’s house first.

After that I come back to the broad thoroughfare before the house; I’d left Dragmire there to graze and lounge beside Cado and Dorian.

I give him a carrot.

And we are on our way.

Dorian says it’s dangerous to travel at night, but....

I’m going.

I round onto Hestu’s Hillside and can see the Dueling Peaks Stable in the far distance.

Very close.

Dragmire and I continue down the road at a trot.

Talk with Brokka.

Talk with Bugut.

Old friends.

But still keeping my eyes peeled for enemies.

I see the disguised Yiga by the foot of the mountain. In your dreams, creeper.

I pass by, and cross Kakariko Bridge.

And.... there’s another lady walking on the road. I suspect her, but—I hear them.

Stal creatures. And a Yiga man, laughing as he foregoes pretense and somersaults from nowhere to have it out with me....

I put on my Radiant Gear—too late—and kill the Stalkoblins, and the Yiga Archer....

And with the threats put down I see the lady breathe a sigh of relief....

I collect the spoils, and then go to check on her....

.... But she is yet a Traveler?

I must say, this is a trick I had not seen them use before.

Fine. What.

“Hey, buuuuuddy!”

“Me?” My response.

“Awwww! You’re so cuuute!”

Really.

“Want to spend some.... tiiiiime with meee?”

My choices: “OK...” and “I refuse!”

I’d rather not, lady.

“I refuse!”

“Whaaaaa—?! But whyyyyy?” she pouts. “Don’t you like meeee? If you doooo, please cloooose those eyes!”

Choices: “Well...OK, then.” or “No, I don’t like you.”

I’m not going to play your games.

“No, I don’t like you.”

“You’re so meeeean. Well, theeeen... Hylian Champion...”

The tissue-thin guise dropped and her face contorted into a snarl.

“Begone, enemy of my Master!”

YOU begone!

It’s on.

Aaaand it’s over quickly.

Not tonight.

I am busy.

So near the stable.

I’ll put Dragmire to manger first.

And I do. Thanks, Tasseren.

It will be light, soon.

....

I think I’ll go find Garill.

I kill things that get in my way. But that Bokoblin.... it went after someone else. I pursue and kill it anyway.

Still wary from the bridge I do not talk to the other man this time until I’m sure I know him. It’s Agus. And his donkey.

Don’t think the Yiga keep donkeys....

I buy all his milk and butter.

Thanks, Agus.

Heh, and as I continue along the winding road.... here comes Joute, the old Witcher III guy who spooked me in the rain before on his pale horse. Joute.

“White horsies, giants, and bony ones too. They’re out there for catchin’, and that’s what you should do...” he sings. “You like my song about the legendary horses? There’s only one of each, but I took some liberties to make it musical.”

I do like it, Joute.

The Guardians grow thick now. Here in the Valley of Terror.

I heard that.... Octorok....

Found it. Killed it.

So close to the fort now.... I’ve surely passed where the memory lies....

But I continue....

Garill. My friend. ^_^

“Incredible!” I hear him say.

And I visit with him.

“The more I see of this place, the more it hits me just how hard the old tragedy struck here. But even knowing that, seeing so many Guardians... It boggles the mind. That warrior must have been some threat to the forces of darkness, huh?”

Huh. Well, I would like to think so at least.

Garill doesn’t say anything else.

....

Good old Garill.

I’ll take his pictograph.

I coax him to speak again; try and get him to look up....

“If I’d been alive 100 years ago...I like to think I’d have fought these Guardians here, right at the warrior’s side.”

More....

“The warrior and his soldiers at Fort Hateno risked their lives to protect the world. I wasn’t there at the time, but I’m alive now because of them, and I’ve got to make sure future generations know it!”

Now there’s a good smiling face! ^_^

Got a good pictograph.

Now.... to find that memory....

Heh, I see Toma heading back toward the crossroads too, on her horse.

More familiar faces than I’d realized, around these parts.

Wander, wander.... back into the field.... I won’t be able to tell until I’m within a few feet of it.... There was a Guardian’s husk in the foreground of the painting on Impa’s wall. I look around all the clusters of Guardians, but.... No.... Must be further out....

I might have to kill all the central baddies....

And I do. That Frostspear did come in handy!

Searching, seaching.... Not in any of these clusters near the wall, then....

Perhaps that cluster farther back. Is that the one with an active Decayed one in it?

I go. Find three more Bokoblins, but.... nothing else.

I won’t be able to tell until I’m within a few feet of it.... Was that a trick of the setting sun’s glare? Or....

No.

It’s here.

It’s right here.

My memory.

!

And.... a lot of.... swords. In the ground. Oh....

Oh...

What....

What happened in this place?

....

It’s been two years and two months and two days.

It’s time for me to find out.

Impa's Final Message

Waking of Saturday, May 4, 2019

Impa’s Final Message

It was still the waking of Saturday, May 4, 2019, but I was into the morning of May 5, 2019, because that was two years, two months, and two days since this game came out, and DANG IT if I wasn’t gonna get some time in on it today. I wanted to see Impa. And so help me after so much bloody laundry and dryers and other chores and the sucking black hole of the following circuses of self-medicinal YouTube and its inebriating memes and vines for ever I WAS GOING TO FREAKING PLAY THIS BLOODY GAME.

I was already in Kakariko.

It was 8:00 pm.

Paya was polishing the guardian deity statues.

I decked myself out to look presentable. No beast weaponry.

Now. Impa.

I went up the stairs. I went through the door.

I had all Divine Beasts. All memories.

What would she say?

She sat cross-legged on her little tower of pillows.

I spoke to her.

“I sense it... Their presence.

Daruk. Urbosa.

Revali. Mipha.”

Her old face furrowed. “A hundred years ago, I put my life on the line to fight alongside everyone. But...I could not protect them. They died without fulfilling their destinies. I have lived all this time thinking they died in vain.” She looked so downcast, and then, “But this energy I feel from their presence...” she trailed off.

“It seems they have not given up,” she smiled. “I can also sense...that they were all overjoyed to see you again,” she said, still smiling.

Heh, even Revali?

Well.... guess he can’t hide it from Impa.

That’s comforting.

And then suddenly intent! “Now you all serve the same purpose! Now it is time to attack Calamity Ganon, while he is weak! Hurry to the princess! Go, now!”

Oh, my map opened. And there was a new dinger at the castle.

“I believe you will find Calamity Ganon in Hyrule Castle.”

And I came back out of the map now.

“Even with blessings of the Divine Beasts on your side, you must be careful,” Impa went on, “Calamity Ganon will be well protected. Be prepared for anything!”

And then, “By the way... How are you faring thus far?” A bit jarring. And with a dynamic little zoom out in the cinematography, back to my person and then coming in close.... all dramatic.

Ah, on to the other quest, I see.

I gesticulated my response.

“No... All twelve pictures already? You’ve visited every place?!”

Was it really that shocking, Impa, with how long I’ve taken? |D

“Hmm... Then I suppose it’s time.” The camera zoomed in toward her face. The music had changed. An eerie, haunting, mystical version of some Sheikah tune.... “I will reveal the location of the final memory,” she said, and there was another zoom in toward myself.... in such a beautiful shot....

This is what I have been waiting for. I’ve seen the empty place for the last memory. I remember flashes of trailers. I’ve heard the stories from all the people in the land.

But will it be where I think it is?

“Here is what happened.” Impa.... got up off of her cushion!—I’d never seen her move from that spot before—and walked over to... where are we going? I followed.... “Lady Zelda asked me to wait to show you this. She gave me very specific instructions.” Or some such words!??

“This is the final picture.”

What is it....?

I looked....

The painting on the wall.... illuminated by a small standing lamp.

It was a rolling green field full of.... Guardian husks....

I knew it.

The flashing final stand in the rain beneath my hood.

Watching the lurching, gleaming beasts from the highest battlement.

The Valley of Terror.

Garill’s Haunt.

Fort Hateno.

“Does it look familiar?” Impa asked, “From this village, you should be able to get there in a half day’s time. Now go, child. Seek out what Lady Zelda has shown you.”

And the music went back to normal.

Free the Divine Beasts – Complete.

The long, long-awaited banner gleamed across my screen.

....

How did Zelda.... tell Impa.... that it was....?

....

I will go. And regain my final memory.

....

Impa still won’t let me touch the orange orb though.

How....

Big Sticks

Waking of Saturday, August 11, 2018

Big Sticks

It was always nice at Dueling Peaks. My very first stable.

Poor in both money and supplies, I thought about taking a horse out to ride over to Faron Woods, combing the land for materials along the way. There was also that pesky leaf stamp I had left over there; couldn’t remember what that was about; needed to clear it up....

I chose Memory, and we started out well enough, but on the way we ran into a Big Yiga.

I’d seen David duke it out with these guys. They were slower than their lithe and lean, scythe-wielding counterparts, but thick and tough as old jerky. And they had a few nasty tricks of their own, one of which sent some burrowing devil-flame toward you through the ground....

Fortunately I’d seen David deal with that too.

I leapt as the flame came near and rode the updraft as it combusted beneath me, sailing toward my assailant to get in a few hits of my own....

He went down in due time, and at the end of it all I came back to Memory and found him unharmed; that was good. We weren’t even safe while riding....

The Yiga had dropped a Windcleaver, its long blade shimmering in a ripple as if from water-reflected light....

Nebb wanted to see that. It was a long way to Hateno, not to mention in the opposite direction from Faron Woods, but.... as long as the Windcleaver had just fallen into my lap like that.... I decided to head that way anyway.

However, I was still combing for materials, regardless of my destination. And I found that you can’t really make good progress in any direction when you make it your top priority to chase every little thing you spy along the wayside.

I became VERY distracted near Fort Hateno, climbing all over the hills to the north after Rushrooms and Swift Violets and mineral deposits and critters.... I wandered all OVER those hills and all the dips and climbs beyond....

For certain it did slow me down, but I definitely did not come away emptyhanded—for aside from my scroungings I discovered another Meteor Rod. It was held in the clutches of a prancing Fire Wizzrobe whom I sniped with an Ice Arrow from a high hill. Poor devil never knew what hit him.

I wonder if it respawns when he does at the Blood Moon....

I’m pretty sure that was the case with that insanely powerful Trilizal Boomerang in the western desert. The one with which the Silver Bokoblin zlashed me in the face.

That brute could hit.

The Meteor Rod Wizzrobe danced at the head of the river that ran beneath Kakariko Bridge. I’d definitely have to see whether he’d come back later.... and what heat he’d be packing.... No pun intended.

I eventually came back to the deep-grey clifftops at the south end of all the ranges I had wandered, and looking down to the valley floor saw poor Memory still standing, waiting for me between Fort Hateno and the ensuing forest. He’d been so patient with me. Good boy.

I sailed down and we continued to Hateno, where I showed Nebb the Windcleaver, for which privilege he dropped a sweet hundred rupees. Cool.

Fort Hateno Again

Waking of Friday, March 10, 2017 ~ 2

Fort Hateno Again

As I was saying, there were a series of old pictographs of different locations around Hyrule stored on my Sheikah Slate. Purah recommended I go talk to Impa about them.

So I did. Brown and I went back to Kakariko, and Impa had a look. And she recommended I try and reach some of these locations, and perhaps that would unlock some of my memories. Because Princess Zelda had probably taken these pictures herself, and I had been her appointed Knight. So it was quite possible I had been to those locations with her.

Maybe I’d find something....

One picture showed a view of the Dueling Peaks as seen from the west, featuring a body of water with aspens in the foreground. I tried to line myself up and have a look at all the bodies of water I could find, but.... nothing seemed to fit. I needed to be further north. And that would take me off my map. I wanted to first see if I could find anyplace I’d already charted....

Next I tried a picture that featured a statue of a horse. It looked kind of like the centerpiece of an ornate fountain. I recalled that I had seen a fountain back among the ruins on the Plateau. But when I went there and compared the two.... it didn’t line up as well as I’d thought it might.

There was another picture that showed some kind of gatehouse or enclosed turret along the top of a battlemented wall. I thought of Fort Hateno.

I’d done all this through warping and left my horse in Kakariko, so I warped to Dueling Peaks Stable and it was another long jog through the Valley of Terror to get to the old fort.

But when I got there, those ancient structures didn’t line up either. There were more stone buildings in the pictographs.

I felt just a little bit deflated. I’d been excited at the prospect of learning what might have happened to me here, if everything Garill had said about the old Champion were true.

Ah well. I climbed about a bit, found another Korok (they’ve been hiding everywhere), and just.... thought.

I didn’t know where else to look.

It started to rain.

I turned about, and looked again on the field of frozen Guardians crawling toward the fort. I was standing on a raised turret, above the lower parapets. This.... seemed like the highest point on the wall.

Had I stood here before? This very place?

Shouted commands to others in my charge, perhaps?

The rain fell harder.

Flashes in my mind brought the imagined past into vibrant, terrifying focus, and the great lumps on the battlefield moved and lurched, slowed but still coming, and their lights pulsed dangerous blues and reds, and their terrible lasers cast crimson explosions into the stone, into the air, in cacophonous minglings with the storm’s thunder.

And the same flashes—lightning or my mind?—brought me back to myself, made me shake my head and rub my face as the rain slicked down my hood, skin and clothes.

Did I have such Courage once?

By the Fire

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 ~ 5

By the Fire

It started to rain again. It certainly rained a lot in this region.

I saw Garill running for cover from the downpour, making for the campfire with its wok, which was situated beneath a great pine tree with generously overhanging boughs.

I followed him.

We merely stood for a while in the fire’s warmth as the rain rattled a treble din all around us.

Then Garill said, “I used to think the old Calamity was ancient history, nothing to do with my life, but.... when I think that my life is only possible because they fought tooth and nail for us.... Well it sort of brings a tear to my eye.... though that could just be the rain....” He brought one hand toward his face.

I’m rather beginning to like this Garill.

A Friendly Forest

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 ~ 4

A Friendly Forest

I was getting to meet some interesting people on the road. I decided the ones that walked the roads were safe enough. I even saw the white-haired man on the pale horse from before. Seen up close and without the haze of rain, he didn’t look anything like the guy from The Witcher III. He was just a guy. I don’t even remember what he said to me.

Just another friendly face.

The trees beyond the gate seemed pleasant enough, full of apples and beehives. There was even a house in there. With a bed! I slept in it for about an hour and I recovered all my health! ^_^

After that it was an excellent game of dodge-arrow with the bokoblins under the Cliffs of Quince. Eventually I was able to dispatch them all and claim their treasure.

I went back to the house in the woods to rest up.

There was already a man inside. A thin old man I’d seen on the road before.

So the house belonged to him. He introduced himself as Doctor Calip, and told me he didn’t have time to talk with me.... until I happened to address him as “Doctor Calip”—you see, it seemed most everyone he knew or met was always forgetting that he was, in fact, a doctor, and had worked hard to become such.

At my show of respect he opened up a bit more, and told me he was studying some ancient texts regarding a “Cursed Statue”. I wonder what it means.

Ears Burning

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 ~ 3

Ears Burning

Okay, it was time to walk the road from Dueling Peaks Stable to Hateno Village. And it started off once again.... with a walk through the Valley of Terror. This time without my horse, and without Brokka [Toma].

David told me to search the Guardians at whiles. And.... I did. For ancient parts.

The ones very near the road anyway.

I ran most of the way through the Valley of Terror—yes, I think that name fits—but I slowed down for Fort Hateno this time. The place with the big wall, the portcullis, the scaffolding, the campfire.... and the woods beyond.

I saw one man on the road very shortly before I got there. His name was Garill. He seemed to take quite an interest in the old fort and its history. He spoke to me of the old tales people told of the war, and the Champions that had fought.

“But oh,” he said, “One of those Champions lost his life here, didn’t he?”

I listened.

“Though some say,” Garill went on, “that Champion was put into an enchanted sleep....”

My attention spiked. He was talking about me.

Lost my life here?

“Wouldn’t it be interesting if that were the case, and if the Champion could awake in my time?” said Garill, “It would be amazing to meet him.”

....Ah-huh.... my churning mind thought in bewildered fondness.

I passed through the fort’s gate, and had a look about the scaffolding. The view over the wall at all the frozen Guardians was.... still frightening. What could men do against such machines? Who would even stand where I was? An archer? What good would that be?

Had I really been here before?

What had happened?

A Proper Exploration

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017

A Proper Exploration

You know, my map really was an intriguing thing to look at—I’m crazy for topo; probably get it from my dad—and the names of all these amazing places! The Cliffs of Quince.... Mount Lanayru.... the Sahasra Slope.... Oakle’s Navel? What the heck was that? XD

Maybe I had felt less agile on my horse. Even though he was good for making hasty getaways.

But I really did want to explore more.

And so leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once ag—are you serious, Word? You’re not underlining that? That was just a guess; I didn’t know “excursion” had its own verb—this is really okay with you?

Goodness.

Where was I.

AND SO leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once again out over the rolling hills of the high ridge.

I really wanted to explore the Cliffs of Quince. Brokka [Toma] and I had ridden beneath them on our long trek through the rain; they were huge, and hollow beneath, held up by gargantuan pillars and natural bridges. But I wanted to see what was on top....

It turned out to be a wide, pleasantly grassy plateau, though baddies crawled over it like lost ants.

My Iron Sledgehammer nearly died in battle against a moblin.

I’ll have to pick one of the other ones up soon.

I also saw a few large holes where the shelf of rock had worn through, and you could see down into the giant hollow where the bokoblins made their camp.

Some mushrooms were growing on the rock a little way down from the top.

I had never seen anything so not worth it in my life.

Other wanderings brought me to crags overlooking Fort Hateno.

I could see the advance the Guardians had made, and a chill settled into my stomach.

Ughuhuhh.... those things....

I even had a brief peak into Oakle’s Navel, though I did not explore it.

Once I’d had my fill of the immediate area, I decided that I couldn’t be afraid anymore.

I would leave Brown behind, and Travel back to the Dueling Peaks Stable via the local shrine’s warp platform, and I was going to travel the road as I should first have traveled it, as I had meant to travel it: with a fine-toothed comb.

There may have been shrines I missed!

Safety in Numbers

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 13

Safety in Numbers

I had wandered back into the spread of hills by the stable some time before, looking for I don’t know what. But oh what a beautiful all-black horse I had seen. I followed after it day and night, trying to tame it.

The first time I’d crept up on it, I had approached it from directly behind.

It kicked me in the face before I had a chance to jump on. Sent me rolling and took off some hearts.

I was more careful in the future.

But no matter how many times I mounted it—four? five? six?—I always ran out of stamina before the thing stopped bucking.

I even considered using a stamina-replenishing potion to try and hang on a little longer....

But as I followed it and its fellows deeper into the hills, they began to wander among the big rusted Guardians.

And one of them came to life.

“NOPE. No thank you, goodbye, gotta go, the end, I think NOT.” Or some such ramblings I spat as I crept away backwards, staying in the sight-shadow of a really dead Guardian.

Those hills were bad enough with the octoroks in the river, but.... with Guardians on the other side?

....

I didn’t like that place anymore.

Unfortunately that little valley was right what the road to Hateno Village wound through—Through scads and heaps of these Guardians, on all sides, frozen in their stretching, reaching, crawling.... All of them dead?

Or just waiting?

Brokka [Toma] came along the road again, back on her brown-spotted horse, and I followed her on my own horse at the same walking pace. Surely she, a non-player character, would only tread where those terrible still-living Guardians would not be nor attack.

Brown knew to follow the road. I didn’t need to guide him.

The Guardians loomed on all sides as we walked in silence.

It was a slow and torturous terror passing each one, not knowing as we approached whether its gears would start to grind, its eye would gleam in searching blue, its head begin to swivel looking for things to kill, to incinerate....

Our horses so slow and steady, the air so very still, everything so quiet.... The road felt like a tightrope....

Oh gads I couldn’t stand it....

However, Brokka did make a break for it when a couple of bokoblins jumped out of the brush.

So did I.

I couldn’t stand it! When we had escaped the bokoblins Brokka slowed down again, but I did not pull Brown back from his gallop—through more and more and MORE of the Guardians—until I had passed through the ruin of a portcullis in some kind of large stone wall. There were trees beyond—

I pulled back on the reins, but Brown’s momentum was too great. He had to jump over a small boulder before he came to a halt, whinnying. I patted him, and he gave me a little more love.

He’s a good horse.

The place was called Fort Hateno. There seemed to be some shambling wooden stairs and scaffolds on this other side, I guessed so people could more easily defend it.

Clouds began to brood, and the rain began to fall.

Brokka caught up.

There was a campfire, and plenty to explore.

But I did not want to linger.

Those Guardians, even dead, were too close.

I stayed with Brokka as she continued toward Hateno Village.