Sweaty Palms

Waking of Saturday, April 15, 2017

Sweaty Palms

“I found Gorignak,” said David.

I just said, “Ah!” and we looked at each other for a moment, both of us knowing I was afraid of spoilers—from either end.

“It’s probably the same one you found,” David said, “I’m pretty sure.” The words were so confidently weighted.

I still didn’t say anything.

“Where did you find yours?” he pressed, “It’s fine.”

“....The South Dueling Peak,” I finally said, “Just below the frost line.”

“Yeah. That’s where I found it.”

“And it asploded into a million Ambers.”

“Yup.”

“You know,” I went on, “I remember coming upon that field, and thinking This just LOOKS like a place for a boss fight....”

David laughed.

He’s ahead of me in the game I think. Sometimes I’ll come in the door and hear things I know I shouldn’t be hearing, whereupon I’ll plug my ears and dash away to my room. Other times I have to occupy the same space out of necessity, making a lunch or something, and I’ll just refrain from looking at the TV, and he’ll keep from initiating any important cutscenes. It’s easy enough, until David starts reacting in blustering whattheheckitude at whatever he is seeing.

At one such time I stood where I could not see the TV, just David’s face. He’d just ascended some kind of big, bald, sand-stony mountain I think, and from the sounds he made and the faces he pulled, you’d think he’d just come upon a giant marble statue of Tingle.

“Gold, actually,” he said.

“Gold statue of Tingle?”

“Yes.”

It’s.... maddening.

“I really want to watch you play this part when you get here,” he told me.

Sometimes I’ll watch him play, but only when he’s in places I’ve already been.

I saw him climbing around Zora’s Domain. Ralis Pond, actually! He barely saw the Hinox in time before blundering into it (it was raining). He climbed all over until he paraglided down onto the bridge and into the Domain proper.

And Rivan and Dunma were the first Zoras he had ever laid eyes on.

“What?” I was incredulous. “HOW? How did you even—? Where did you even come from?”

“The south,” David said, “It took me a really.... REALLY long time.”

I told him I’d let him watch me play that other part, if some day he would show me just how in the world he made it all the way into the heart of Zora’s Domain without bumping into any Zora.

And he had to climb down to get to the Lanayru Tower, because he had never even been to the wetlands.

What in the.... just.... ?

One thing I was sad about for him though was that once he did climb Lanayru Tower, Gruve was not at the top. He didn’t get to see that little exchange. Pity.

Sometimes I’ll watch him play even when he’s just near enough to places I’ve already explored.

I saw him sail far out to an island off the coast near Hateno Village once.

(That was probably when I developed Korok Leaf Envy.)

But ah, what another charming animation we found there—have you ever tried to kick open a treasure chest when you have no shoes on your feet?

Oh dear me. Poor Link! X-)

Made us laugh something grand.

We try not to spoil each other, but we’re okay with giving each other little hints, I think. There were electric green chuchus on that island—the first I’d seen in the game—and I passed on Joseph’s warning that those kind blow up. David appreciated that. He also was glad for the tip I gave him on just setting bombs down beside those hidden land-bound octoroks, and then backing up and blowing them up once they show their ugly faces.

And of course I was happy for the extra brainstorming he offered when I was stuck inside Vah Ruta.... and a few shrines....

But there is one thing he always—

Actually there are probably a lot of things he makes fun of me for.

But there is one thing so constant, that his opportunities to poke fun at me for it are far more numerous than the rest, and that is that.... sometimes when I play the game, my palms sweat more profusely than they’ve ever done before in my LIFE.

As a matter of fact, after I started the game, my palms seemed to oversweat wherever I was—for like two weeks straight. Probably longer.

I did feel slightly vindicated once he started his game file, and said to me at one point as he scaled a giant cliff face, “I can see why your hands sweat.”

But he still digs me for it when I get it going bad.

Very occasionally, my father has seen me play this game. And simply due to the law of averages, he’s therefore seen my hands sweat too.

I’ll keep pausing and apologizing for no reason as I wipe my palms down on my sleeves or the front of my shirt....

And Dad will always say “We’ll have to get you some flight gloves.”

And I’ll laugh.

Or.... that’s how it used to go.

Because on this day, Dad made sure to watch me, and beckon me, as I came up and looked at the entertainment center cupboard where my WiiU lives. Because he wanted to see how I would react. Because there draped over the cupboard door were two long green flight gloves.

“What?” I laughed. :D

“Those are for you!” he smiled.

“What the heck??” I laughed some more.

“Try ‘em on! They’re brand new.”

I did.

“Oh they fit great. You look awesome.”

“Where did you even get these?”

“At the store where helicopter pilots know to look for flight gloves.”

“What the heck, Dad?” XD XD

We hugged.

The flight gloves happened to match the mud-green T-shirt I’d been wearing.

And they came halfway up my forearms.

I felt like a superhero.

He used to do a lot of search and rescue, Dad did.

Maybe that’s why.... I’d been trying so long.... so hard....

Had it somehow become.... a familial trait?

Was it just something in my blood?

Oasis in the Water

Waking of Friday, April 14, 2017 ~ 3

Oasis in the Water

Well.... I did feel somewhat silly for passing over this entire little settlement for.... gosh I dunno how many Blood Moons.

But from here on out, it looked like visiting Tye and Sorelia was going to become a whole lot easier.

This was the Wetland Stable, and it seemed a laid-back, easy-going place. An older kid named Yorelo was playing swords against a dummy—except he was using a torch. “The Master Torch!” he called it, “Burning away evil with its flames of justice!” or something along those lines. It wasn’t even lit....

Well that was.... cute. Wished I could’ve pat that kid on the head, even tall as he was, close to my own height. Oh, you dear sweet child. XD

Yorelo’s younger brother Ami had somehow been resigned to assist visitors like myself, and he was bored out of his skull for it. He only let me ask of the compass directions, and gave me the barebones directions of what was nearby. East?

“Zora’s Domain. That’s it.”

North?

“Death Mountain. Duh.”

West?

“Well Mr. Perceptive, that would be Hyrule Castle.”

Or some such words from this kid. Really, this place was just charming. XD Wish I’d found the middle-brother; Ami said they had one....

When I asked him what was to the south, he said I’d just have to go there and ask at the Riverside Stable to find out.

Huh, so it seems there are more stables about than I’d realized.

I had seen disconnected snatches of roads on my map, but so far I had only been keeping to the veins whose entire lengths I could see. I didn’t go trying to make connections between the pathways—and what if I’d just kept following whatever road I came across? I’d had business I was about, and roads have a tendency to keep going. I might very well have been swept right off my feet and away.

Maybe that was why I’d never come upon this Wetland Stable. Or the “Riverside Stable”.

Just trying to stay focused.

Hm. Though now I’m wondering about how I shall approach Akkala.... I’d been thinking about just paragliding down from Toto Lake in the Upland Zorana, but.... come to think of it, I think there was a road that must have gone that way.... yes, if I go downstream from Inogo Bridge and hang a sharp right.... yeeaahh.... And I think I saw another stable through my scope along that way, too....

Well, there were a few more people about the Wetland Stable. A man named Kazul rode his horse along the road; I think he might have warned me about the dangers of the lands so close to the castle....

There was a Doctor Spoone, whose name made me smile. Seemed he was one to travel around instead of holding down a practice in one location. Seemed like a nice man.

Beedle was there again, and as we perused each other’s goods he flipped out at the sight of my . . . . well I can’t remember the name but it’s some kind of golden rhino beetle with special properties, and it’s apparently quite rare....

It’s not the first time he’s asked after it, offering to trade me elixirs and other things.

I haven’t given it to him though. Not least of all because I’d hate to trade away the only one I have of anything in my inventory. We’ll see what the future will bring.

Inside the stable, on a tabletop, was an open book belonging to one Staysi, who seemed to produce these Rumor Mills (this was volume five)—and this one made just one claim, based, from what I gathered, on some hearsay from young children: DRAGONS ARE REAL.

(David has asked me more than once if I’ve seen any dragons. Huge, HUUUGE dragons, he says. And I just keep telling him, No, no I haven’t. Has he seen any rock-monsters? Like.... Gorignak-style rock-monsters? He keeps saying No.... no he hasn’t.)

And then there was QUINCE.

Quince was standing a little away from the stable, in the company of a shepherd-dog, both of them gazing intently into some distant hills.

When I approached him, he started, “What the—seriously? Another guy?” And he lamented to me that that was all there were around here. Just guys.

And I raised my eyebrows as I recalled—he was right; I hadn’t seen any women. I guess we were quite close to Hyrule Castle. Womenfolk probably wouldn’t want to come out here....

“And when we finally were visited by a Zora,” Quince continued, “turned out it was just some manly prince guy who’s a dude.”

Oh, so Prince Sidon had come all the way out here, too....

I asked Quince about the Zora.

“The Zora? They’re like.... slippery fish people,” he so eloquently explained.

Hm, seemed I may have been meant to come to this stable some time much earlier.

But no worries.

Quince also told me about his dog. Natty, I think, was its name [it was Satty]. He asked me if I wanted to know how they met; it sounded like it was an involved story....

But I told him I’d listen.

There was a mountain, he said, Satori Mountain I think he said it was called. At certain times on Satori Mountain, animals of all kinds would appear, and so Quince had gone there to go hunting for game.

He asked me if I was bored. I told him to keep going.

Did he say the animals all disappeared at one point? Or could he just not find them to begin with? I don’t remember. He said at some point there were no animals, but there appeared before him a large, glowing beast.

“And then?” I prompted him when he paused.

He ran for it, and this glowing beast chased him through the mountain I gather, until at some point he was cornered. The beast loomed over him....

“And then?”

All of a sudden this tiny little pup comes out of nowhere, jumps between him and the beast, and starts yapping and growling, and the beast, ten times its size, pulls up short, startled.

“AND THEN??”

In that split-second when the beast took pause, Quince gets up, grabs the pup, and bolts down the mountain and he made it away to safety.

PHEWF.

And that was where his Natty came from, and they’d been together ever since.

Heh, Quince was quite a good storyteller.

....

I’ve seen a strange mountain sometimes when I scan the horizons with my scope. It’s quite plain and dun, a little lumpy but otherwise fairly conical. Something.... glows at its crest. I wonder if that’s the same mountain....

Perhaps an excursion for another day.

Kass had been the first person I had spoken to at the stable, in another life, in another save. (I’d quit the game under some intrusive buzzkill. It was only a little deviation....)

Now he was the last person I spoke to.

Because he did what he did before, and asked if I’d like to hear another song of his.

And I said Yes.

It was longer, this one, and it told the tale of the Hero of ten thousand years ago, same as Impa had told me. How the land of Hyrule had been prosperous, and advanced, and protected.... and how they had prepared against Calamity Ganon by building the Guardians, and the Divine Beasts.... and how the Champions who piloted the Divine Beasts had aided the Hero, and how the Guardians had protected the Hero, and how the Hero had struck Ganon down, and how the Princess with Goddess’ blood had sealed Calamity Ganon away with her holy powers....

Very nice song.

Seemed the Wetland Stable was just full of good storytellers.

Kass returned to his counterpoint (which I’m pretty sure included sections of Epona’s Song) as I parted ways with him.

I’d had a fine time familiarizing myself with some of the stable people, but I really did need to do that shrine. It’d be nice to have another warpable here off the wetlands.