Never The End

Evening of Wednesday, June 19, 2019 (comprised of many raw note editings from May 1 through May 10, 2023 that I really hope sound consistent because I left it alone for too long) ~ 5

Never The End

Credits.

It was really the Credits.

The game was done.

The game.... was done.

I let them wash over me.

And as they rolled, Mom asked, “Are there going to be any more Zelda games?”

Ah-heh, well.... I knew just the thing to show her.

But for whatever reason I kept it inside and only probed what she knew....

“Why do you ask?” I said, letting just a little tightness into my voice, and wondering what she suspected.

“I don’t want you to commit suicide.”

Oh.

Oh Mom—

I don’t remember if—I don’t think I responded, but only.... went back into the credits.

We were looking at the pictures, and I was identifying them.... And I saw the American’s name! Wow! He was one of only two programmers for the wildlife! They did such a wonderful job. ^_^ And I was so happy for him for going so far to follow his dream....

....

Mom.

....

I guess if someone who loves you sees you wounded, and hears you name your salve, even in dark jesting.... they don’t forget it easy.

I don’t even know if the cure is real or psychosomatic.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

These were the most relaxing credits I had ever seen in my life. At least, that I could think of just then. Slow through the serene iterations of familiar musics.

I gave a little cheer at the name of Eiji Aonuma! And did some up-and-down worshipful bowing from the couch. Mom laughed.

And I gave another at Shigeru Miyamoto!

And at.... Satoru Iwata.

I told Mom that he’d passed away.

Still glad to see his name in this beautiful game.

The Legend of Zelda ~ Breath of the Wild

Copyright 2017

Or some such words.

This last segment came to a stop and hung still in the middle of the screen.

2017.

Two years ago.

I can still remember standing in the cold outside the GameStop. I was first in line. And that employee with the glasses and the handsomely-trimmed scruff had been so friendly. Despite that he almost forgot to give me my amiibos as well.... See the preorder receipt.... ?

It’d been a long journey.

The serene credits finished into a breathless black.

And then.... the Castle....

I had never seen it so still and sunlit before.

Birds even chirped.

Zelda and I stood before the ruined gates in the sunlight. I in my blue Champion’s Tunic, she still in her beautiful White Dress.

The malice was gone.

And the Castle was in ruins.

But.... it was quiet now.

It was at peace.

We looked on it.... and then turned our backs to go.

....as high above among the spires, the spirits of the Four Champions.... and lastly of Her Father....

                                                                                    ....departed from this world.

Seeming to sense something, Zelda stopped and looked back.

So did I—

A blue breeze was blowing through the air....

The sky was full of Silent Princess petals.

But the Princess only gazed up at her once home, the sun beyond beaming it into a silhouette.... into a line.... into a memory....

The Piano that had softly accompanied us, having had no real aim for the spotlight anymore, now turned the final notes of its wanderings to the familiar ascending Theme of Legend, as the view arced up into the blue, blue sky....

The End

But it wasn’t.

We were on a hillside. Zelda and I.

Somewhere southeast of the castle, seemed like....

Zelda once again wore the blue tunic and dark trousers in which she had so often traveled in my memories. Boots and all. She held the Sheikah Slate in her hands.

“We’ll make our way to Zora’s Domain. Divine Beast Vah Ruta...looks like it stopped working. Let’s investigate the situation.”

There was something there, I thought. Something in that last sentence. A kind of spark.

The Princess was still a nerd.

And confident, and brilliant, and determined.

She was going to make it.

But her glittering eyes softened after a moment, and she looked up.

“Mipha’s father...” she murmured, “I believe he would like to hear more about her. The least we can do is visit him and offer him some closure.”

The Piano and the Pipe courted about the hillside on the simple Hero’s Theme, as the sun shone so brightly on the rolling grass.

“Although Ganon is gone for now, there is still so much more for us to do.”

Some clouds still rolled between, though.

“And so many painful memories that we must bear.”

The Princess took a few steps forward down the hill, standing confidently.

“I believe in my heart, that if all of us work together... we can restore Hyrule to its former glory. Perhaps...even beyond.” Right on that hopeful secondary dominant, Pipe, you dastardly genius.... “But it all must start with us,” Zelda finished.

The dancing pair on the grass invited the rest of the Orchestra to the theme.

“Let’s be off,” Zelda said. And started walking straightaway.

Like she did.

And.... I followed. That gilded sheath still bearing the Master Sword on my back.

Ah.... our horses. Grazing higher up the hill.

And hers so white—was that Memory she was riding, then?

It suited her.

....

It suited them both.

Zelda came near to them, but.... stopped before she got there.

I was once again faced, as I had been many times before, by only her unreadable, lovely blonde mane of hair....

It wasn’t long before she spoke.

“I can no longer hear the voice within the sword,” she halted again.

I knew that she had yearned for some connection, some awakening. To lose it again....

“I suppose it would make sense if my power had dwindled over the past 100 years...”

Princess Zelda turned then and looked at me, and even the Orchestra took pause.

The wells of her eyes ran for a thousand miles and looked.... tired of it.

But she allowed the sorrow only a moment’s heaviness on her gaze before softly blinking it away with a little turn.

“I’m surprised to admit it...” she started, and something else shaped her lips now. Something brighter, as she faced me directly. “But you know? I think I’m all right with that,” she said.... and smiled.

And the Deku Tree was right.

She did have a smile like the sun.

And I jogged just a few paces to come even with her, and follow her to the horses, as the camera swept back from the beautiful, sunlit hillside, up the slope to where the Silent Princess flowers grew all over, in the lofty heights overlooking the ruggedly beautiful kingdom of Hyrule.

The End

.....

There’s a star by my last save file.

....

I’ma look at it.

2 Spirit Orbs

118 Shrines

534 Koroks

2089 Rupees

In the castle.

And I have the pictograph of Ganon’s butt.

So.

Do I go seek shrines from here?

Or from a previous save?

If I wish to maintain this choice....

I cannot move.

....

Hm.

I quit for now.

.... Soon.

If I were to go back to a previous save, wherein I had not beaten the game yet....

That would do no justice to the adventure I just completed.

.... I feel as though I faced the same thing in.... Skyward Sword.... somewhere....

Yes. I quit for now.

....

I’m still short two shrines.

But.... should I say....

You know?

I think I’m all right with that.

 

 

 

Divine Beast Vah Medoh

Waking of Sunday, January 6, 2019 ~ 4

Divine Beast Vah Medoh

“Well now,” said a well-polished voice as I stood on the Divine Beast, “I think I’ve seen that face before.”

Revali!

“I had a feeling you would show up eventually. But making me wait a hundred years is a bit...indulgent.” The rapier glimmered in deigning to even prick me.

“You’re here to wrest control of Medoh away from Ganon, correct?”

I was.

Revali pointed me toward the interface and Sheikah Stone from which I could distill the local map, asking at the last if I thought I could make my way there.

Huh, didn’t sound like he thought any more of me, after all these years.

I made it to the map terminal just fine; it was in the bird’s head, seemed like. Two large, circular windows—Vah Medoh’s eyes—were set into the walls on either side of the chamber, which was surprisingly smaller than I’d have thought.... this being a Divine Beast.... I feel.... like I’ve written this before....

Once I’d distilled the map into my Slate, Revali ran down the control terminals, stating that I would need to activate them all. And then, again, “Think you’re up to it?”

Even now, his voice bore a tinge of.... snideness.

Well.... Better start makin’ my way around, I thought.

I checked out the Divine Beast’s controls. Tilt? It looked like I could rock the wings....

And I regarded the inside of the torso. I’d seen it getting to the head, but now studied it more closely in light of how the Divine Beast might move.

A number of large blocks were suspended in the central space, far removed from both floor and ceiling, but all on the same horizontal plane parallel to the ground. The two metal blocks were attached to two rails that spanned the space from fore to aft. The three stone blocks ran on rails crossing between starboard and port.

I could see—the metal blocks I could move with Magnesis, but the stone blocks would slide according to the tilt of the Beast.

OH this could really screw things up. I hated disrupting their discovered orientation, and knew I probably wouldn’t be able to restore it, but I wouldn’t let that stop me now! Besides, it looked like different orientations would give access to different areas. So I started moving, Vah Medoh cried out at my commands, and I made my way into the port wing.

With the bending of the world inside the Beast, I found that the tilt of the inner decks was at a steeper grade even than my paragliding angle. This meant I could fly farther and longer, but it was dizzying—never paraglided up to something before....

Inside the port wing—MALICE MOUTHS?

OH GOSH WHAT—THIS WAS UNHOLY!

I KILLED IT.

Ugh. ._.

Also, the music sounded.... poisoned.

This place did NOT want me here.

I came to the first terminal and activated it.

“There are four terminals remaining,” came Revali’s voice, “Still a ways to go.”

And that was when it all.... turned.

Oh my gosh, this music was so freaking.... the strings....

THE STRINGS. I CAN’T.

THE DESPERATION.

THE HOPE.

As the music of the early Beasts had been open, and neutral.... and then turned dark and insidious once it caught on to me activating the terminals....

And as the music of the following Vah Naboris had started out in seething anger at my presence.... only to give way to a brighter, stronger sound as I claimed more territory, returned hope to the ancient contraptions....

Now the music of this final Beast—what the harmonic minor....—at first poisoned in the wretched wrath and fury of a cornered, dying thing.... at my DARING to move forward for the kill and the entire reclamation, was now running, now flying, now clinging and willing and praying in the desperate heat of a final bid for freedom from the darkness. Undauntable not by choice but by necessity. Surely this music had to be the culmination.

There is hope for the world, I thought.

There is hope for this world.

I found the second terminal behind a gusty, howling puzzle involving a very large, round porthole in the wall that I’d had to open.... and activated it.

“There are three terminals remaining!” Revali’s voice echoed, “Keep going.”

And Hey! I could see Shatterback Point out the window! And Death Mountain! As we wheeled through the sky....

I can’t take this music, it’s.... it’s too amazing.

I couldn’t find the lower terminal in the port wing indicated by my map, so I went to the starboard side and locked down the third terminal there. Paragliding upward to find treasure chests was so strange....

“There are two terminals remaining. You’re almost there.”

He sounded.... surprised.

I looked out another porthole I’d opened, and I could see Mount Nero! And the Tabantha Tower! Clear as day.... Right there.... As if I were only paragliding very, very high.... All the world stretching out before me.... So many familiar landmarks.... all close enough to fly down and touch....

The music was not changing anymore with the different terminals.

It was still just that strong, determined, indeterrable, indomitably swelling string section.

There is still hope for this world.

My Compendium already had pictographs of Cursed Bokoblins and Cursed Moblins.... Now in the lower part of the torso, down on the floor, I finally got a pictograph of a Cursed Lizalfos.

Gross.

There was a Malice Mouth down there, and it would occasionally spit these undead floating skulls out into the room.... It was.... really alarming, when the Cursed Lizalfos saw me and just.... rushed me in this distorted flying lurch—

I prefer the live ones.

After I’d gotten the pictograph and killed the skull, I found and accessed an outer deck via a large open hatch on the starboard side. This deck wrapped around to the fore in a broad and happily uniform kind of walkway. The arc of it passed beneath Vah Medoh’s neck and continued round to the port side, where a similar hatch led back into the central chamber.

That was where the eyeball was. The eyeball to that mouth what’d been spittin’ out gross things.

I shot it.

That cleared up the central chamber all right, or it cleared it up enough—there were always little rogue Malice Pools you couldn’t get rid of, and which you just had to watch your footing around.

But after that I went back outside, for I had seen something else along the outer walkway....

There were launch points out here. Like grandiose diving platforms, complete with ornate little railings leading up the steps to nowhere. I could imagine the ancient Rito who must have manned this thing diving off them into the sky....

And beyond the port side launching platform, I could see, there, in the belly of the port side wing.... there was the next terminal. Standing in an open belly hatch near the wingtip.

I would have to fly to get there.

Oh my gosh.

So—I tilted the bird—rocked the port wing down into a dip—the Rito Rock was RIGHT THERE below—I had stood on that rock—the angle aligned and the port wing was down—and—

I flew.

Oh my gosh this music COULD NOT be more.... appropriate.

I did not want to let go of my paraglider until I was WELL inside the little hollow of the belly hatch. I landed on the pedestal itself, in a deep recess far away from the door, and ACTIVATED.

“Just one terminal remaining!”

And he laughed a little huff.

“What do you know?”

Still sounded surprised.

I rocked Medoh’s wings the other way and paraglided back to the main deck. Now I’m dropping the Vah....

Starboard side? The last terminal was in that wing, but.... I hadn’t been able to reach it via the inner decks....

I jogged through the Beast and out onto the other external walkway.

There. It must have been in the same, opposite belly hatch.

And that was guarded by a Malice eyeball.

The last terminal must be in there....

It took a few arrows, but at the proper tilt, I was able to shoot the eyeball at long range. And once its attendant cluster of Malice had evaporated, I scoped in and could see....

There was a gondola!

The track ran above, attached to the underside of the starboard wing!

I tilted the Beast, brought it to me.... and rode it.

I stepped inside, rocked the wings back the other way and it started moving my gosh I was.... I was in the air with so little to hold me.

“Don’t fail me, Gondola....” I murmured.

The apparatus seemed so spindly. Somehow I didn’t trust it as much as I did my paraglider....

But it held firm, and took me well into the starboard belly hatch. At the far end was an upward ramp leading back to the inner deck. The last terminal was up there....

I’m here, Revali.

I activated it.

“That was the last terminal! Now you just need to start the main control unit!” Revali’s voice echoed in what sounded like impressment. But he quickly brought the rapier under a fine-tuned control again, “I want you to take a good look at your map. There should be a new glowing point on there. Well?”

Still condescending a bit.

But I don’t mind.

“Flap to it!”

And the aforelocked door between this last terminal’s antechamber and the rest of the starboard side wing-deck opened. I was free to move back into the interior of the Beast, bypassing the gondola.

The music has changed.

This is desperation. This is some kind of wire.

Have I gotten all the chests? I think I have....

I feel like I need to hurry.... This music....

This is it.

Another Storm

Waking of Sunday, June 25, 2017 ~ 2

Another Storm

Vah Naboris was so far away now....

The desert below was vast.

Still I clung to the bottom of the frost line, high on the mountain range.

David was absolutely boggled why I didn’t just go to that place out in the desert, the one with the shrine right next to it.

But I didn’t want to.... not yet.... I felt more drawn.... to the Volcano. The breadcrumbs seemed to pull me there.

These Gerudo Highlands? This was just a lark, this was exploring....

Mmmm this was not the determined Hero I thought I’d be playing....

Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I let myself slip from being the farthest along in the game. I know it’s not a race, but.... there’s something in that, I think....

Hm.

I ventured into the freezing snow to solve a magnetic Korok puzzle. I climbed up the back of a Talus to show David how it’s done. I didn’t even know how many Talus kills that was for me. Felt like a boss.

Creeping shrinelight shone from the desert floor far below, looming out of a gigantic ribcage lost in a cloud of sand.

“Why don’t you go get that one?”

“You mean that shrine that got eaten by some giant thing?”

No, David, I wouldn’t even go get that one—

A sandstorm blustered up out of nowhere and obliterated the world. Everything was lost in a greenbeige haze.

The map in my HUD went static.

“What?”

David groaned a knowing groan.

“Have you seen this?” I asked him.

He had.

I opened up my Sheikah Slate.

Static. Blue-on-black static.

Nothing. It was nonfunctional.

I put it away.

I couldn’t see anything. Only the ground for a few yards around me.

I pressed on, forward into the raging din, but then—

That soft little xylo-cowbell tap, that chime that means No.

And

You can’t go any farther.

Words at the bottom of my screen.

“Nooo!” I howled, running against the press of nothing, feet not going anywhere.

I paused and—if my map was malfunctioning, how did I place that stamp?

I marked the spot with a Star.

And with nowhere else to go.... I headed down the mountain.... and with a new spot of ground to stand on veered hard into the west once more!

And once more I could not move any farther.

And I marked that spot with a Star.

One more drop in elevation, another press against the edge, another Star....

Could I even see these stamps on my static map?

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. Everything was gone. Storks flew away into the howling wind. Wolves loomed out of the airborne murk. My Great Thunderblade became my flashlight.

I came to a rock ledge overlooking the desert I could not see.

“I’m at the edge of the universe,” I said.

There was nowhere left to go but back counterclockwise around the mountain. I had to jog quite far before the sandstorm let up and the air cleared enough for me to see.

My Sheikah Slate came back to life and I looked at the stamps I had placed.

They formed a perfectly vertical line near the western edge of my map.

“You should do what I did,” said David, “I just went to my map, scrolled aaaall the way down to the bottom-left corner, and put a marker, then I unpaused to see where it was!”

Ugh! “Nooo!” What a ghastly thought!

So that was the end. I couldn’t circumnavigate the Gerudo Highlands after all. The highest, westernmost plateau continued off into spaces and areas over which I could not pan.

And I felt a little sadness again . . . . but not like before.

Before, when I saw the sea, there was something more awful there. Woeful. An empty isolation.

But here on the sandblasted mountainside.... something inside me joyed to know that....

The land went on.

I don’t know, I just....

I liked that thought.

There was a kind of dread finality when the border was the sea, but when you can see the land goes on?

There’s something hopeful there.

When more is left to the imagination.

I went back round the mountain. I found more Koroks here and there. I saw the lower entrance to that Satan Canyon with all the frogs.

I paraglided to the other side of it—boggling David further still as to why I did not just go down and explore the sandy desert floor.

I did take a look at a couple of treasure chests down there. One of them was Magnesable, but the other....

“Maybe you’re not close enough,” said David.

“Oh, I’m close enough,” I said, and it was my turn to have a knowing groan in my voice.

David was confused. “What, are there things that disguise themselves to look like treasure chests?”

I only narrowed my eyes as I regarded the chest on the screen. Oh I’d love to see his first encounter with one of those....

I climbed further up the rocks, still counterclockwise back around the mountain, and found some amazing ruins haunted by three Lizalfos and an Ice Wizzrobe. I bombed the Wizzrobe from a nearby cliff, and killed the Lizalfos up close; looting the place turned over a bunch of SWEET bows, man. I left a bow stamp there for later.

A hop, skip and a jump further around the mountain and all at once the screen flicked to an interrupted connection message from my WiiU.

My controller had run out of batteries.

Well.... it was just as well. It was getting pretty late, and I had to pack anyway.

I set the controller in its cradle and set to filling my suitcase....

I’d never run my battery completely dry before. I checked in every few minutes until there was enough juice to at least put Link safe in the pause screen for a while. And there he sat while I went through my packing list.

And by the time I was done.... I really should have just gone to bed. But instead I justified myself in playing just a little bit more by reasoning that after all that packing, I really deserved a little cool-down time....

But I played much like I got ready for the family reunion: with much procrastinatory wandering.

I only wended my way back toward the Gerudo Tower, exploring some of the lower reaches of that spiral path around the Tower hole—I really think there must not be a floor there—finally just warped back up to the Tower platform, saved.... quit.... and went to bed.

I got a good twenty minutes before my alarm went off.

The Tallest Tower

Waking of Tuesday, June 20, 2017 ~ 2

The Tallest Tower

After a while the canyon widened.... and got wider.... and kept widening. I was getting farther away from the visible tower.

But I kept on my course around the Gerudo Highlands—that’s what these were.

I don’t know why. I just wanted to explore.

It’s a Zelda game.

It was that fever again.

You just want to wander.

I wanted to circumnavigate this mountain range.... probably come back around near Satori Mountain or the Plateau after a big clockwise path....

I got higher and higher until I had to put on my Warm Doublet.... and higher still until even that was insufficient and I had to come back down.

And far away stepping around in its clouds of what David said was dust, I could see the Divine Beast Vah Naboris.

“That’s the Giant Golden Tingle Statue,” he said.

It had been Vah Naboris.

“Well how would you react if you came up over a mountain and saw a three-hundred-foot camel walkin’ around?” he laughed.

I guessed I’d be as flabbergasted as he had been.

The desert stretched out below me, far, far into the distance.... littered with ominously gigantic ribcages and vertebrae—what had those come from? And beyond the sandscape....

Beyond that....

Hhhh.

I saw the sea, and it made me.... sad.

I thought of San Andreas.

I thought of Pacific City.

And I just felt.... sad.

I guess there was something about just the impassable mountains and cliffs you always see in other Zelda games. Those boundaries.

Just the thought of Hyrule—that beautiful land!—nestled somewhere in the vast, indefinable world. Lands and worlds unknown, unseen. Left to the imagination.

But here, on the western edge of the map—and having been to Hateno on the east, and having seen the sea there—and having seen it in the south, beyond the Highland Tower—and seeing it again, here in the west—

I just felt . . . . a sadness.

“Why don’t you go get that shrine?” David pointed to the settlement-looking place I had been watching for a while, way, way out in the desert.

“It looks.... like it could be a friendly place,” I conceded.

“Is the front door open?”

I laughed.

UHF. Fun movie.

Oh, there was plenty down there that had looked intersting to me. That settlement, plenty of ruins, a bit of treasure.... even what appeared to be the location of one of Princess Zelda’s pictographs.

But something still kept me away.... And it wasn’t just this mountain I was exploring....

My thoughts were still back in Akkala. I still had business there.

How had I even gotten this far? All I did was go climb the Lake Tower just to give David a kick and then—suddenly I’m wandering the backside of the Gerudo Highlands.

And then ahead, over a little shoulder of the mountain I saw.... some kind of shape that looked familiar....

It was.... a tower top?

I moved in close. A couple of Bokoblins tried to signal my approach but I rather cut their horn-blasts short. A big black Moblin stepped in to investigate but I Stasised him in his tracks before laying him out flat.

“Nice,” David grinned.

Cool. X-)

I’m feeling quite a bit more confident in combat.

I hiked over the shoulder and it was a tower top. A Sheikah Tower hiding right here in the folds of the mountain! Seemed to be standing in a lower spot in the middle of a ring of cliffs.

There were only a couple more baddies to deal with in the little clifftop camp I’d stumbled upon, but they weren’t too much trouble. And as I raided their spoils, breaking open metal boxes with Magnesis, I was MOST gratified when David shouted in surprise, “Those things BREAK?”

8D

Oh yes they do—and I turned over quite a few rupees that way!

Sweet.

I approached the cliff’s edge to have a look at the Tower’s base. But the hole in which this Sheikah Tower stood was so deep.... that I saw an atmospheric haze before I saw the bottom.

My gosh, this was the tallest Sheikah Tower I had ever seen. o__o

And it had only a handful of platforms on which to rest, all clustered near its top.

And there was something else, up at the crown—a bad guy on top? A top-heavy silhouette moving against the bright sky....

I scoped in.

No it was Kass.

I paraglided over from a high wooden jumping platform, and climbed my way up. Kass sang me another song from his old mentor, this one about shooting an arrow from the tower’s shadow during a certain time of day.... something about piercing heaven’s light....

Shoot for the morning light, I thought fondly.

I could see the platform from which to let fly on a cliff far below....

“Aren’t you gonna activate it??” said David.

“Oh yeah....” I turned to the pedestal. “Almost forgot....”

I dunno what was wrong with me.

I activated the Sheikah Tower—the Gerudo Tower—downloaded the map, and saved.

All Heroes

Waking of Thursday, May 11, 2017 ~ 6

All Heroes

One thing left to do.

I warped back to Zora’s Domain.

I found Mei hiding in Kapson’s pool away behind the stairs. She told me her husband had given her a stern scolding. Well, good on Fronk. What had she been thinking?

I found her children in the square; Tumbo only ran in his hyper little circle as children do, carefree as anything, and Keye was still playing with Laruta beside Lady Mipha’s statue—imaginary spear practice.

They both seemed untroubled.

But where was Fronk?

As always it was a trek around the entire Domain before I found him, hard at work on one of the many pillars along the stairways and ramps.

“Oh Link... LINK... LINK!!” he shouted when he saw me, and promptly began almost to melt at my feet, words spilling, tumbling, cascading out of his mouth—

I honestly don’t remember the specifics of any of the things he said to me, though I know there were many Thank yous.

But—I remember his gratitude. His sincere, unadorned.... unfathomable relief and gratitude to have his family back together again.

And that was all.

And.... it was enough.

Maybe I had been a fool.

I knew setting out to find Fronk’s wife wouldn’t necessarily bring me any closer to resolving the ills of the world.

But I did it anyway.

And I knew Robbie was waiting. And Purah. And Impa. But....

I kept searching anyway.

I put the whole world on hold.

Why?

....

Well to find one slippery fish woman, that’s why.

I did it because I wanted to.

I did it because.... families should be together.

I did it because—

That’s what Heroes do.

They help people.

Even when it’s foolish.

Even when they’re laughed at.

Even when the thanks are small.

Even when it’s terrifying or painful....

They do it because it’s what’s right.

Maybe I’ll try on the flight gloves next time. Seems like Dad’s old occupation may just sum up my whole job as the Hero of Hyrule, my whole experience just playing this game:

I Search, and I Rescue.

Maybe I hadn’t been a fool, whatever all Heroes may be called.

I don’t regret anything.

Waking of Tuesday, May 23, 2017

After all the places I’d been, all the towers I’d climbed, all the memories I’d found, all the shrines I’d combed, and all the friends I’d made, at the end of my Fool’s Errand, I prayed once again before the Goddess Hylia, and received a Hero’s Reward, manifold greater than any yet that I had gained.

Because I am a Hero.

Zora's Domain Again

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 14

Zora’s Domain Again

I coalesced into myself near the gates of Zora’s Domain.

Rivan was the first person I saw.

He marveled to me at the clearness of the sky.

I felt different.

I walked inward, passing familiar faces, Fronk, Trello, Laflat....

I showed Laflat the pictograph I had taken of the charging Lynel, and she made a rather undignified squeak at the sight of it. But she was grateful to see it; it would help her scare the young Zoras from going near the mountain.

Scare away, Laflat. The terror of that thing was completely justified.

In return for my high-stakes pictography, she gave me a pair of Zora Greaves. She said they used to be very common—Zoras had gifted them to visiting Hylians after the Hylians had collaborated with the Zoras to construct the Eastern Reservoir wall. Now, however, you didn’t see them all that much, because Hylians didn’t visit so often anymore. The very pair she had given me was the last one in the stock room before her father had to close down their armor shop.

Well, I could certainly look the part now, couldn’t I?

But I didn’t don them just yet. It felt.... a little presumptuous, on my way to see the King once again.

Back in the throne room before King Dorephan. Sidon and Muzu were there, too, as were many of the Zoras I had met. A small throng of blues and greens and reds and blacks—I could pick out a few individuals....

There followed from the King some pomp and circumstance, but.... beneath all that, I think what struck me as perhaps the heaviest honor—or perhaps the most dearly bought by its bestower—was Muzu, repentant. He hoped, he said, that I would be able to forgive him for his words to me before, if not now, then some day.

Many of the elders I passed on my way back into the Domain still resented me for stealing away their princess. And I don’t suppose I can blame them, trying to see it from their side. But.... Muzu’s olive branch was a gracious and most welcome gesture.

The King awarded me with a treasure that had belonged to Lady Mipha—the Lightscale Trident—which reminded him....

“Where is your trusty sword, Link? The one with the power to seal away the darkness?”

I looked at him. “What sword?” I said.

“...So you have forgotten that as well,” he replied mysteriously, his eyes shrewd. He assured me that it was a weapon only I could wield, and that it was no doubt only resting somewhere in Hyrule, waiting for its master’s return.

The King lauded me a little further until the meeting finally dissolved into the cheers and shouts of gratitude and relief from the attending Zoras....

I spoke again with the King after everyone had left, and he asked after his daughter. After all, she had not returned with me. So the King had held out some hope yet....

“I met her spirit,” I told him after a moment.

He leaned forward all at once toward me again—that one his size could move so....

“Her spirit, you say? Did she say anything?” he asked.

And I told him.

“I see...” he said, “so she really is....”

What could I say?

What do you say to a father?

“She really loved you, Link,” he said to me. And he asked me to promise to him that I would remember her always.

“I’ll never forget her,” I said.

Impa's Message

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 10

Impa’s Message

Impa told me much of what King Rhoam had told me back on the Plateau. Hyrule had fallen, and Ganon had slain the King, and the Champions, and taken over the Sheikah relics of the Guardians and the Four Divine Beasts.

She told me there was a message that the Princess Zelda herself had asked her to deliver to me. But I had to be ready to hear it. Was I willing to risk my life?

What did she want me to do? I thought, Is there some kind of task I need to do right now? Some baddie I need to go fight on my what four measly hearts here?

She told me that she would not deliver Princess Zelda’s message to one without the resolve to do what needed to be done.

Well—

I thought about the weapons I had with me....

Yes, I told her, I would hear the Princess’s message, and do.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” she said with a smile at my determination to do what was right, to fight for justice, even though I didn’t have a memory to my name.

The Princess’ words to me were....

Free the Four Divine Beasts.

So I needn’t have worried for the immediate future.

Free the Divine Beasts.

That thing David and I had seen on the volcano. That was one of them. Had to be. Looked like the picture Impa had showed me in her tale. And that thing far away in the sky, that thing I thought looked like the Valuans or the Delphinus and that David thought looked like the Avengers. That was another one.

And Impa used the word infiltrate.

But those things.... they must have been huge.... gargantuan. Massive beyond all imagining. From the Plateau Tower the Dueling Peaks and the great volcano in the distance had seemed nearer the same size. But in my long, long travel, the enormity of the peaks had come and gone, and still the volcano loomed.

And still that thing crawled upon it.

My gosh.

Just.

My gosh.

The Old Man Again

Waking of Friday, March 3, 2017 ~ 3

The Old Man Again

The spot.... was the Temple of Time.

I found him in the high chamber, and he was not merely an Old Man.

He shed his guise of solid form, rose off the floor and was once again bathed in that pale green light—and he told me who he was.

He was the King of Hyrule.

King Rhoam.... Rhoam.... I don’t remember the rest of his name.

He told me that the kingdom of Hyrule—this lush and dangerous land I was in—had fallen, one hundred years ago.

In preparing for the return of Calamity Ganon, the Royalty, their most courageous Knight and the people had unearthed the Sheikah relics—the Guardians—which were those crawlers; as well as the Four Divine Beasts—great machines piloted by four Champions from across the realm, which were used to fight against Ganon.

But they had underestimated their foe. Ganon somehow seized control of these relics and turned them against the Hyruleans instead.

The King had been killed.

And the heroic Knight had collapsed gravely wounded while defending the Princess.

And the Princess.... had remained to stand alone against Calamity Ganon....

That Princess, said King Rhoam, was his own daughter, the Princess Zelda. And the Knight . . .

Was Me.

King Rhoam told me it was the Princess’ voice I had been hearing inside my head.

She with her power had sealed Ganon inside Hyrule Castle—we could see his foul magic and dark form swirling about those grounds—once beautiful, I am sure....

But she needed my help now.... We needed to defeat the Calamity Ganon before his power burst forth and consumed all the land in his evil darkness....

Go to Kakariko Village, the King told me. He said to travel eastward, beyond the Dueling Peaks, and then to cross the bridge and take the road north, and that should lead me to Kakariko Village.

He asked me to seek out one Impa, the elder there; she could tell me more.

He was counting on me.

She.... was counting on me....