The Least Dangerous Game

Waking of Friday, October 12, 2018 ~ 2

The Least Dangerous Game

Eventually I floated down all the way to the Afromsia Coast.

I had reached the sea. At last I could switch out my one defense point Warm Doublet for something stronger.

There were more Koroks down here, hiding beneath huge stone slabs on the beach. And it had already been quite a fruitful Korok hunt up on the mountain! I was on a roll....

I started southward along the shore, using my Zora Armor to swim for it whenever the beach ran out and gave way to rocks, until I came to a certain Mapla Point.... and its resident Talus.

I recognized it. This was the first Talus David had ever defeated. I had helped him that time.

Now I took my own turn killing it, after which I continued to scare up a mess of Koroks, as well as a lot of new seafood: crabs, fish, porgies.... Lizalfos....

Following the coast, which bent in a general westerly direction now, I swam across Deepback Bay—which I’d always thought was a cool name whenever I saw it on my map—to reach Hateno Beach, which I traversed, and traversed, scaring up Koroks and killing baddies all the way, until I finally came to a landmark I recognized: the Hateno trailhead.

But I saw something else that piqued my interest, even further west.

Way up on top of a lone spire of rock standing out in the water.... was Kass!

So I swam out to meet him—killing an Octorok, in the water, along the way! Felt so boss.... Its Lizalfos pal proved to be a bit more trouble, though. Never mind him then! I swam out to the rocks, the Lizalfos buggered off, and I climbed up to visit with Kass.

He sang me a song about a Hero’s Stash, located at 17 of 24.... and said that this rock would show the way....

Well anything of twenty-four had to be a time of day.... and it was half past three! An easy wait.

And when five o’clock rolled around, the rock spire’s shadow pointed to.... Eventide Isle.

Well.... I knew what was over there.

I’d seen David do it.

Hadn’t done it myself yet! But....

Well.

Soon.

Before I took my leave from Kass’ rock I wanted to check if there were anything Magnesable in the surrounding waters. I took out a Bomb instead on accident.

“Wah!” Kass jolted with a start! XD

I put the Bomb away, switched to the appropriate Slate function, and swept the area.... but could see nothing. Well.... no worries.

I paraglided back toward the shore, coming up short and splashing down almost on top of that pesky Lizalfos I’d run into before. And this time, I killed the beast—in the water! In its own element! Excellent.

For old time’s sake I hiked up to Hateno by the grassy seaside switchbacks. I even considered the house. But once again I left it alone. I didn’t have the money for it at the moment anyway.

I’d picked up an awful lot of Luminous Stone in my travels thus far. Breaking from the Korok hunt for a spell, I warped to Cotera to see about my clothes. I had her do up my Radiant Suit, but.... not the Climbing Pants yet. I still wanted to show Siara all the funny animations, especially that fourth one. Later.

As long as I was in the neighborhood I paraglided across Kakariko Village and headed out the back door to the Sahasra Slope—and had the easiest time I’d ever had killing all three Guardians out there—and got a core for my trouble!

Life was just a bowl of cherries today! ^_^

From thence.... it was just a big crawl around the Dueling Peaks and all the western foothills and surrounding regions looking for more Koroks. It was, once again, pretty fruitful! Though the Silver Bokoblins down in that silty monster-nest did give me a bit of trouble. I thought I should see Hestu again soon.... maybe....

But before I did, I decided to warp over to Gerudo Town and check on Pokki.

She was in the canteen.

“I ask you, Furosa, is there anything better than a taste of Noble Pursuit?” she asked as she leaned against the bar.

“You were at death’s door and you ran all the way here for that! Good grief... You’re in incredible shape,” said Furosa in response, “Does that mean you don’t plan to investigate that shrine anymore?”

“Definitely. I never dreamed that kind of work would be so dull...”

Dull. Hah....

“I’m not surprised you found it dull,” said Furosa, “That sort of thing isn’t really “you”.”

“Yeah, you know what really is “me”? Drinking.”

HAH! XD That made me laugh! It was.... a little bit refreshing to have conversation so uncoddled from the NPCs!

While I was there, I went to see what those three gossips—Heh, Three Gossips—in the other room had to say. They spoke of one Perda, who had gone to find the Lover’s Pond.

Hmmmm....

Maybe I would make it an adventure for another day.

But for now....

It was time to head to Korok Woods. And Hestu. I’d accumulated an awful lot of Korok Seeds since I’d last seen him. I wanted to see what he might be able to do for me.

“Shaka-kala!” he exclaimed as always. With music notes flanking his speech.

“Weapon please,” I asked. And he obliged.

And when he had finished, “Dah-na-na-na-naaaaaaaa!” OH YEAH HE SANG THE SONG! With more music notes flanking! XD I’d forgotten!

Ah! Delightful times. ^_^

Well I’d had 99 Korok Seeds on me, and that expansion had cost me 45. And I asked, and the next weapon expansion would cost 55. And I only had 54 left.

Rats! Heh.... Guess I cut my Korok hunt only just a little too short....

Did I want to get another shield slot in the meanwhile? I could afford it. But.... only one more Korok Seed and I could get the weapon; it’d be a shame to let the opportunity go to waste.... Besides, in normal play I felt the need for expansion more in my weapons inventory than in my shields.... Still, maybe if I expanded my shield inventory some more, well, maybe it would run out of upgrading room, like my bows had. Why not....?

Nah. Not right now. I decided to wait.

It’d been a great hunt, but.... I was done for now.

I went to Pepp’s, and slept.

Good night.

The Last River

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017 ~ 3

The Last River

You know those Stables really are amazing. I’d registered Thrice and boarded him there at the Woodland Stable, but when I went to take him out again, the man said, “Okay, so you want us to take Brown into our care?”

o__o They could do that?

Well.... I answered in the affirmative, and he said, “All right, wait just a moment,” the screen went black, and then I had Thrice and I guess.... they had Brown.

(Though how they fetched him all the way from Kakariko, I dunno. Are they packin’ their own Sheikah Slates....?)

I spoke to the man again, and asked to take out Brown this time.

And a similar scene ensued, and then Thrice was gone and Brown was there.

He looked at me like he knew something.... like I’d been out riding other horses....

“Oh, buddy....” I soothed him. He’s my boy; I still loved him.

But I boarded him again. Kakariko’s a nice place, but maybe it’d be nice in a proper stable too. Besides, the way I was headed, there was definitely no room for horsing around.

I warped back to the Lanayru Tower. There was just one more river to sweep—the long river that curved back east toward the Reservoir.

I clambered over the mountains along the north bank for a time, but the river was so far below me I couldn’t see it. The air seemed too fogged by distance and moisture.

Across the canyon, on the south bank, the mountains seemed almost as high—you know, maybe I shouldn’t even call it a bank; the river was flanked on both sides by sheer cliff walls in a deep ravine.

At any rate the southern cliffs seemed high, but it looked like there was a little grassy shelf a bit closer to the water that I might reach by paraglider. Maybe I’d be able to see more from there. I made sure to get plenty of altitude before I made the attempt to cross. If I came up short and ended up in the drink, I doubted I’d be able to do much besides warp back to the tower and start all over again.

But I made the crossing without a hitch and with a good two feet of landing-zone to spare. Steadying myself on the new surface, I turned around and peered back down into the ravine.

I was still quite high up.

But the river seemed to be empty.

There was nowhere to go but on toward the Reservoir. If Mei wasn’t here.... I scrambled up the cliff face, startling a few herons, and it started to rain. It was a slick run to get to the top but I made it all right—and immediately wondered if I had come up on the clifftop near some kind of settlement, for I heard music. An accordion. Was there some kind of carnival going on? I looked around wildly for some sign—

And I saw, some distance away, near a great jutting crag over the water, a figure standing on a little hump of grass, swaying gently, his arms full of something. That seemed to be the source of the music.

He wasn’t a bokoblin or any other kind of monster. I approached.

But as I came near, I saw through the haze of rain and gasped—there were feathers—blue feathers—cresting from this person’s head; the arms, the forearms were too broad, because they were wings, also blue—and a great grey parrot’s beak so prominent on the front of the face—

(“Rito?” I whispered.)

I approached him slowly—it was a him, right?—and only stood beside him for a moment as he played on. I watched his colorfully striped feather-fingers as they pressed the keys.... This was so weird....

And then I engaged his attention and he startled slightly, blustering something about having thought he was all alone up here—

And then, as so many seem to have done all along my road, he sputtered out, “Wait.... that thing there on you waist!”

My Sheikah Slate.

“No, but it couldn’t be....” And then he caught himself and apologized, “I’m sorry, it’s nothing, I don’t mean to pry.”

It was my turn to say something.

And I wanted so badly to ask him, Are you a... bird?

But....

He had been kind enough to stop himself, to calm down, to try and be polite. I thought.... I would give him the same courtesy.

I only smiled and said, “No worries.”

He introduced himself as Kass—just Kass—and told me about the song he had been playing.

Oh but I sort of wished I’d asked him about his race....

But I did listen to his song. It was a lovely tune, really. Plaintive, melancholy chords; it was just really wonderful. But the lyrics were somewhat cryptic. It spoke of a beast with a crown of bone, running through the lush green, and if you mounted it on its throne, then the shrine could be seen.

The actual rhyme was smoother than that, but that’s something how it went.

Hm, I wondered what kind of “beast” could be roaming around these parts—for it was very green here. Kass and I both wondered, really. And what kind of shrine could be revealed by one mounting a beast on its throne? It all reminded me of Doctor Calip’s research, actually.... hidden shrines....

But perhaps it was a mystery for another day, for I was very near the end of combing through every single waterway of Zora’s Domain.

I bade Kass goodbye, and he played on as I trekked ahead through the rain. The southern cliff-bank gradually began to roll lower and lower toward the water level, until the land became quite flattened out in a little sunken dell and I saw something I’d completely forgotten about: a shrine I had marked!

There was a shrine, just outside the Eastern Reservoir.

There it was, at the water’s end.

And it was surrounded by lizalfos.

With a Fine-Toothed Comb

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017

With a Fine-Toothed Comb

I spent a little time at the Woodland Stable. This one wasn’t crawling with sets of twins like the other one, and the man behind the counter seemed.... a bit more easy-going as well. There was a friendly dog shepherding over some goats in a pen—we became good buddies <3—er, the dog and I, not the goats and I—and I found a really lovely new labrys to swing around.

I saw a man come riding a grey horse along the road in the direction I’d been going; his name was Zorona and his heart was set on the mysteries of the world! Whether solving them or just reveling in their existence I wasn’t quite sure.

There was another man, with white-blonde hair dangling in his eyes, who hung around the stable. He introduced himself as Molo and it was his ambition to go and loot Hyrule Castle. I did not encourage him in this endeavor as we conversed.

He admitted that every person he’d ever known who had ventured there had never come back.... but he guessed it was because they were all too busy being rich! I don’t doubt there must have been great treasures left behind there.... but so many people I’d met had warned of how dangerous it was.... and I’d seen a few Guardians. Uhuhuh.

Molo, don’t say YOLO, just stay where you are.

One other older gentleman whose name I can’t remember informed me about the surrounding areas near the stable—this was the Eldin region. This was the home of the volcano. To the north was the great forest, but he warned me against straying too deeply into it, something about the Lost Woods at its heart.... And Hyrule Field was.... in another direction near here, south or east I think he said. And there was a third feature he directed me to, I’m sure of it.... maybe it was the volcano itself.

Well, it’s hard to memorize the whole map, as I discovered when I warped back to the Lanayru Tower. That other river I’d thought ran back toward the east off the wetlands was actually the other runoff from the East Reservoir Lake. I suppose it flowed into the wetlands. Or it would have, if not for the big dam wall in the way.

But it was, in essence, what I’d thought it to be: another extensive dead-ended waterway for me to search.

Starting from the tower I began a broad, clockwise trek around the entire delta proper, scouring the islets as I went, but saw no sign of Mei.

I did, however, near the southeastern reaches of my circuit, spy a GUARDIAN “STALKER” AS MY COMPENDIUM CALLED IT, LOOSE AND MOVING THROUGH THE MARSH OH GOSH NO PLEASE NO WHY JUST—

It had six legs, and it was very much alive—oh my gosh was this the one I’d seen loose on the Sahasra Slope, made its way down to the marshes now?

Oh gads....

Off came the Zora Helm, on went the Climber’s Bandana, and I climbed up into the mountains to give it a very wide berth as I continued my circuit of the wetlands. I did stop on a little grassy shelf with a single large tree to see if I could shoot it with arrows and chuck bombs at it, but.... well, I did give it a very wide berth. I couldn’t come close to hitting it with anything. I’m not sure whether this disappointed me or not.

If only I’d had a Korok Leaf.... I could do that bomb-golfing thing I’d seen David do....

I kept to the hills until I came to another little deep-water spot tendriling off the marshes in the southwest. It was near a sad little abandoned homestead ruin, with trees, and a well, and a single Korok spriting around in the grass. There were some rusted weapons here and there.... maybe it had belonged to a soldier. Maybe he’d had a family.

It started to rain.

There was a little raft-boat with a sail down near where the little waterway broke off.

But I didn’t have a Korok Leaf!

I’d never really made room for one in my inventory, but seeing David play.... hhhh I kept seeing more and more reasons to pick one up now. I’ve never yet bothered with the boats I’ve seen but I want to now....!

I felled a tree near the old homestead but got nothing but wood. Go figure.

Well, I couldn’t see anything down the short little waterway, and so moved on. The mountains crumbled away, the land leveled out, and became a smooth sweep off the wetlands.

I think this was where I ran into those mounted bokoblins.

I felt a little bad for their horses.... because you see, in my long searching trek through all the islets and the ruins therein, I’d run into a few more of those skipping lightning-ghost things. They could be tricky customers but I’d taken care of them, and stolen their Lightning Rod weapons. And it was one of these weapons I used to stop the charging bokoblin riders.

The peachy, skewbald steed I hit first seized up, neighing high and loud, and the bokoblin fell off and we had it out on the ground. I brought down the one on the brown horse in roughly the same manner. And then....

Well I got on the peachy one, and he bucked for a bit before calming down, but.... mm, the brown was closer to being a one-color horse, and so I got on that one instead.

He bucked too, but I soothed him and saw—this one had three speed-bursts at a gallop.

Brown only had two.

Well that could be useful....

I let this new horse carry me for a bit. His body was all brown, mane and tail black, with four black socks and a white muzzle. I don’t suppose he was anything fancy, but he was just dandy fine for moving across this flatter part of the land.

I left him at the shore at times, to go in and scout out more islets, or to kill lizalfos or bokoblins. And when I’d come back to him he’d wander a bit before I got on.... but he was a good, patient horse. Even when the lashing rain came back.

I rode the horse the rest of the way around the marshes and the surrounding areas. I even came across Tye and S.... Ssss—uh, Saaalisa? Salisa? I came across Tye and his sweetheart again. And killed their bokoblin assailants once more. I rode and searched and searched and rode until I came all the way back to the Moor Garrison Ruins, near where I’d first met Ledo.

I’d circled the entire marsh, and not seen one lick of the missing Mei.... I had even cleaned out every bokoblin nest I had come to and searched among all the buildings. I’d combed through the ruins, I’d left no stone unturned, no box unexploded.

I had not gone up the long waterway toward the Eastern Reservoir; I’d thought to save that for last as it was so extensive. But....

There was no sign of Mei.

Maybe she really was further down the river.

And this horse....

This chuffing, wandering horse was starting to grow on me just a little bit.

I decided to take him up to the Woodland Stable and have him registered.

I rode him into the marsh; it was quite shallow. But.... huh, to get him across to the north bank....

I consulted my map. The water was pretty deep on the north side of the big island. I might.... dear me, I might have to ride him through the boardwalks—

But then I remembered! Thims Bridge! Northward along the river! I could cross him over there.

And so I took the new horse along the other bank now with me, still keeping an eye out for the missing Mei. We had a nasty run-in with another bokoblin camp—the horse got stuck over a rock on the ground as they closed in around us—I did the best I could with a sword until they knocked me clean off. The horse made a break for it, but I could only turn my attention to the bokoblins and pray he didn’t run too far....

Turned out he didn’t. Also turned out the camp was full of high explosives, and I felt quite lucky none of them went off or was employed during the scuffle.

I bombed them just to clear the area, scooped up the spoils, and the horse and I moved on.

He moved at a nice clip, and the ever lurking Piano picked up on the change of movement and plinked happily along around us, sounding like raindrops in the sunshine. At such a pace it was only a short time before we came to Thims Bridge. But just before we did.... I heard a sound I hadn’t heard before. I slowed the horse, the Piano shied and flitted away, and I scanned the sunlit slope to my left, but could only see a couple of foxes.

And there it was again. High, soft.... kind of whistling.... it sounded like.... howling....

But no I was sure those were foxes. And as I came nearer, there I could see the red of their coats. And they scampered away at my approach.

Were there....

Are there wolves in Hyrule?

(I ain’t gonna lie; I seen a few fanarts with ‘em.)

Horsey and I crossed the bridge, and from there it was just a short trot back to the stable. I spoke to the man at the window, and registered my new steed.

I called him.... Thrice. Once for his three-fold endurance, and once for what I imagined must have been his third life—a life before bokoblins, a life with bokoblins.... and now hopefully third time’s the charmed life with Link.

I’ll take good care of him.

Besides, the name Mudfoot for his black socks seemed too sloggish and slow.

Sirens of West Necluda

Waking of Saturday, March 25, 2017 ~ 2

Sirens of West Necluda

Long ago on the Plateau, as I went to meet the Old Man for the last time, I stopped inside the lower halls of the Temple of Time to visit the statue of the Goddess once more.

I had collected four spirit orbs by that point, and in exchange for those four spirit orbs, the Goddess offered to gift me with my choice of either stronger health or greater stamina. I chose health, and received another heart container.

I have been collecting spirit orbs and praying at Goddess statues for this purpose ever since.

But all throughout Upland Zorana, and for a long time before that, I’d only had three orbs to my name.

I knew of one shrine that I had left alone for a long, long time, back in West Necluda. It lay far to the north of the road, on the other side of a tree-smattered spread of hills I had not wanted to stray into, across a little bit of river, and on an island. I’d marked it with a marker in my Slate so long ago, but I had never gone back to it.

Considering the increasing treachery of the monsters in my path, I figured it was time to pay it a visit, and thus attain a fourth spirit orb. But I was in luck: my map of the Lanayru region, home to the Zoras, showed that I could more easily approach that island from the north bank of the river. It would be just a little dash across the wetlands I had already explored, over some mostly bare land, and it should be just right there. Easy in reach.

I warped back to the shrine in which I had weathered the lightning storm. There were still lizalfos lurking about; I killed a few. There was also one of those prancing spectres with the lightning rods—I’m sorry to say I rather ran away when he shot an electric keese at me—I couldn’t ready my bow in time to take it down, and I didn’t have any wood or bone weapons....!

But after I’d given myself some distance, I ran back in again and laid that skipping D-cell to waste.

The.... well I guess you could call it a boardwalk—was completely submerged in places, but I semi-followed it to some dry hills—and my shrine locator started beeping at me.

But.... it was in a different direction....

There were more shrines, it seemed.... very nearby.... but just off my map a bit....

I found a road as well, and people walking and riding along it! People I’d never met before. One man on a horse told me I might want to get close to Hyrule Castle thinking of finding treasure there.... but that I might lose my life along the way. It was too dangerous.

This world was so big.... No but what was I doing out here? Just the shrine. Just the one shrine and then I needed to get back to the Zoras; I still had all Ledo’s rocks in my pockets.... Though it wasn’t a bad thing venturing about for shrines, expanding my map.... after all, I had to find the other races and their leaders, and I had to find my memories....

Oh who was I fooling? —

This was a Zelda game.

The Sirens were singing.

I wanted to wander....

Maybe some of the Courage of my former life was coming back to me.