Errands in Zorana

Evening of Tuesday, September 4, 2018 ~ 2

Errands in Zorana

It was time to smarten up—I could at least aim for what materials I wanted. And Luminous Stone from Zora’s Domain was a pretty easy place to start.

I wandered around to Upland Zorana—finally spying on my way, via Magnesis, the Ceremonial Trident at the bottom of the channel beneath the western bridge. Trello had said it had fallen down there....

But I only took a mental note of its location and continued up into the hills, ranging all over, collecting Luminous Stone.

On a paraglide back down toward the Domain proper, I saw that Kilton had parked his balloon near Ralis Pond, so I went to pay him a visit.

Upon approaching him I noticed that the back of his hood (he always faced away from the counter at first) seemed to have.... a hole in it? What?

So I spoke to him, wondering if he had anything new.

And LO AND BEHOLD his hot new item tonight was the LYNEL MASK.

And he confided to me that he had recently nearly been killed while studying actual Lynels to design this mask! Well that explained the hole then! XD

Lynel Mask?

YES PLEASE!

I sold him monster bits for Mon—999 Mon!—and then exchanged again and the Lynel Mask was mine.

SWEET.

I tried it on right away—and laughed so hard—for similar to how he had done with other masks, Link immediately took on the stance and air of its.... what was that word.... exemplificator....

He stood up tall and puffed out his chest and held back his arms like some beefy bodybuilder posing for a film ad! XD Oh my gosh.... XD

Kilton warned me, though.... Lynels were smart. The mask might not fool them for long.

Well I’d just burn that bridge when I came to it then. :)

With my pockets full of Luminous Stone and my Lynel Mask in tow, I sailed down to try and pick up that Ceremonial Trident....

It was a bit of a chore to reach it. But only because I so often forget and neglect the Sheikah Slate power of Cryonis. With a little persistence I was able to ice-bridge my way out to the center of the channel, grab the Trident and get back to solid ground.

But I still didn’t know how to plunge it into the pedestal at the Veiled Falls. I spoke to Trello, I spoke to Laruta, I spoke to Keye.... Keye gave the same demonstration he always had: you jump up high and then slam your spear into the ground.

But I had already tried that with Lady Mipha’s Lightscale Trident, to no effect. And I gave it a go with the Ceremonial Trident. Still nothing.

What was I doing wrong?

I didn’t like damaging these weapons....

Jump up high.... jump up high.... Did I have to go higher? There was a way for that....

I put on my Zora Armor and jetted straight up the Veiled Falls, bursting out the top to hang in the air by my paraglider. Then down, down, down I floated....

I took care to center myself directly over the pedestal. And when I was still high up, but not so high that I’d injure myself.... I let go and plunged down with the weapon....

I didn’t hit dead center, but it was enough.

The Dagah Keek Shrine rumbled out of the earth just up near Ralis Pond!

Well that would make an excellent waypoint up into the hills! It would save a long jog up the stairs and across the bridge anyway.

I entered the shrine and received the monk’s blessing. Excellent.

Trello later mentioned something about a similar effect the Lightscale Trident might have on.... Mipha’s pedestal?

What like the one in the square?

Which I considered and.... might have even tried once or twice.... but....

I don’t like damaging these spears.

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

Waking of Friday, March 17, 2017 ~ 2

Zora’s Domain

I took my time meeting all the Zoras I could. I even found Gruve! So he’d made it down off that tower after all—dived off into the river, he told me. Said he was so deeply moved seeing his reflection in the water as he came down. Said a Zora’s diving form is his most beautiful form, the very pinnacle of grace and beauty. Diving is his favorite thing, you know, and he loves looking for diving spots. But his current favorite is Shatterback Point, at the top of Ploymus Mountain overlooking the Eastern Reservoir. I couldn’t help have seen that one on my map, with a name like that.

But, as Rivan had suggested, in meeting the people I tried to stay away from the elderly—they really didn’t like me around here.

But there was one wizened old dust-red Zora I found gazing into a pool beneath some waterfalls. Kapson was his name, and he told me he tried to condemn the action rather than the person, that he wanted to try to forgive, and that was comforting. He didn’t scowl or sneer or hiss at me like most of the other elders did. “Mortality lays claim to all,” he said, or something like it. I gazed with him a while into the pool, too.

And there was one little girl from the Prince Sidon fanclub, what was her name.... Laruta or Laruto? One of those. She kept singing a song about a scale of light cleaving or separating a veiled fall.... And I’d heard of a Lightscale Trident, and on my map I saw the Veiled Falls....

Things I wanted to keep in mind....

Something else interesting I noted.... Rivan and the elders didn’t seem to be the only ones who recognized me. The innkeeper, a pinkish lady Zora, addressed me excitedly as Linny.

“Linny! It is you, isn’t it!?”

Oh how I grinned at the response which simply read, “Precisely.”

But that wasn’t who I was in this game.

And one of the guards before the throne room, Bazz—though he seemed a little abashed to ask me outright to verify my identity, simply hinted to me that any member of the Big Bad Bazz Brigade would know their secret catchphrase or passcode or whatever it was.... “Fluffy white clouds, Clear blue....”

“Zora?” I supplied.

That was it. Somehow I’d known.

I think.... he said I used to train him. At the sword.

I must have come here often in my previous life.

I wish I could remember....

Whenever I tried to ask people about Mipha, they told me a little bit—she was the Zora Champion, she was Sidon’s elder sister, she had fallen to Calamity Ganon....

“But,” they kept telling me, “you really should hear this from King Dorephan.”

Dorephan. I recognized that name. That was the name of the Zora King who had defeated the Guardian. The account had said he still had a scar upon his head from the battle—a mark of his bravery.

How long do Zoras live?

I also caught a little of what the Zoras—or Prince Sidon anyway—possibly wanted me for. I’d heard that some of the Zoras had tried to quiet Vah Ruta’s ceaseless water-raging by using Shock Arrows. Bazz’s father, the former Demon Sergeant Seggin, was in fact hunched at the top of a staircase poking at a Shock Arrow repeatedly in an attempt to up his tolerance against them—the Zora are weak against electricity you see. They have trouble even touching them. And I recalled that Goron I’d met in the general store saying he was there because Prince Sidon has recruited him to help deal with Vah Ruta “because I can touch Shock Arrows!” He clenched his massive fist and grinned. But Prince Sidon had told him he’d ‘never be able to carry you on my back’....

What did it all mean....?

I wondered....

I really wondered.