More Loose Ends

Evening of Sunday, April 14, 2019

More Loose Ends

I was in my Hateno House.

....

I didn’t even remember what I was doing.

So I decided to wrap up the sidequests.

First.... Kula’s Ice Rod. That Korok who was like another Nebb. He wanted to see an Ice Rod....

I searched Hebra, and had no luck, just a lot of Blizzrobes. Wrong rod. I searched the Gerudo Highlands, and found another Blizzrobe.... no good.... but then—!! There was an Ice Wizzrobe! That one had what I needed!

I killed it, and took its Ice Rod. I also tried for the swooping Farosh, but he took off before I could shoot him.

Well, if I’d chased two rabbits, both would’ve escaped.

I got what I came for.

I warped to see Kula in the Korok Forest, and showed him the Ice Rod.

He gave me a hundred rupees.

Cool.

Next.... Dugby’s Stick. Dugby that little Goron kid who was always hanging out in the hot springs near the Bridge of Eldin. He’d hidden something, probably a weapon, somewhere near there. And he said I could keep it if I found it....

I warped to the shrine near the Bridge of Eldin and started poking around.... hahhh, as I’d poked around many times before. Where was this thing? Dugby said it was between the hot springs and the Bridge of Eldin, but I’d never yet been able to find any hidden special “schticks”!

I just kept my eyes peeled for butterflies in the meanwhile.

At length I got up on top of that stretch that overhangs the railtrack, and wandered back to the far side of it, and—

ROOOOOCKS?

They were hidden around the back of a big upjutting protrusion of the red volcanic stone. A big grey clump of what was decidedly the explodable variety!

How long had these been here?

I blew it up.

In the hollow behind lay a Drillshaft. Heh, hadn’t seen one of those in a while. I took it back to Dugby.

He was amazed. Yeah he thought he’d heard a loud noise, he said.... XD

Well, I found it, so he’d let me keep it.

Cool.

I’d also found three Smotherwing Butterflies while I was there. That was enough for the Flamebreaker Armor, plus one for to keep in my pocket. Who was the closest Fairy?

Mija.

I warped.

Oh, but I needed Hinox guts for the Flamebreaker Armor as well, and.... I was short one. Dang.

But I could upgrade either the Soldier’s Armor or the Barbarian Armor. I’d run out of Naydra Horn if I did the Barbarian, BUT.... I did have enough Lynel Guts for it. Finally.

But which to choose....

Naydra Horn....

....

I chose the Soldier’s Armor. Got it up to 84 Defense! Sweet.

Next.... Shrines.

I just went to Kakariko. Checked those woods. That pedestal. Back up on the hill in Cotera’s Forest. There MUST be a shrine there. And there MUST be a Shrine at the Eldin Great Skeleton.... but how....?

I chased Naydra’s tail as I climbed further up into the mountains, but.... he gone.

Went back to the village.

Visited Impa. Didn’t save.

Reload.

One more memory, and that’s in the castle.

Ain’t got time for that, bro.

Pepp’s and bed.

GOOD NIGHT.

SNOW DAY 3: WRESTING THE BEST ERE THE QUEST TO THE WEST

Waking of Friday, November 16, 2018

SNOW DAY 3: WRESTING THE BEST ERE THE QUEST TO THE WEST

FOR A TEST PER BEHEST OF THE GODDESS MOST BLESSED.

That’ssss a little carried away.

BECAUSE I DO NOT JEST WHEN I SAY I’M HER GUEST

‘CAUSE THIS WORLD IS ALL MESSED; I’VE KILLED MANY A PEST—

I don’t even like rap, what am I doing—

*AHEM*

I put on all my cold clothes and was ready to go back to Hebra to try out shield surfing and I warped tooooo.... Mount Lanayru.

I sailed down to the Lanayru Road; couldn’t see a thing on the way down for the snowclouds....

But I was gonna get me some hornshard.

It took forever. The dragons never show up when you’re looking for them. I ran around looking for other useful things in the meanwhile, and found the most enormous Korok circle I had ever seen. By which I mean the circle itself was typical, and not extraordinary in shape or pattern. It was just made of BOULDERS. BIG rocks! I grunted and huffed and puffed to roll the one from the center over to the empty spot in the ring.

Whoof.

Well played, Korok. Well played.

I also took the opportunity to kill a Blue Hinox, and that so quickly that it was dead before its music even started! By the time its life bar showed up, only a tenth of it remained, if that. Two more hits with whatever dragon-bone Big Stick I was wielding, and he was down. It’s astonishing what Urbosa’s Fury can accomplish when I wear my Barbarian Armor....

But these my diversions were not without their own frustrations—like HOW does a 300-foot dragon sneak past you? TWICE?

I tried to be more attentive, and was rewarded with some scales, but EVENTUALLY.... I did get a hornshard!

That was two hornshards. I could have upgraded my Champion’s Tunic if I wanted to.

But....

I didn’t.

I just went to the Plateau to pray.

I went all the way to the Temple of Time again, before I remembered that I only had 11 Spirit Orbs and I wanted to wait until I had 12. Just one more....

I went back to Pepp’s. I almost went straight into the Deku Tree’s Navel, but I stopped to actually talk to the Deku Tree first, as it had been a while.

And the Deku Tree told me something most illuminating—he said that the Master Sword glowed when it was near Ganon, or those touched by his Malice.

Well that explained it.

And that meant that.... the Guardians must have had the Malice in them too.... judging by my encounters in Ordorac Quarry.

It was 4:55 in the morning when I went to check in with Pepp, and so I slept five minutes until the morning proper, and then quit for a while.

When I came back, I warped to Hebra again, and continued my Snow Day! :)

I didn’t go shield surfing after all, but continued south from the northwestern corner of the map, where I had climbed low down the cliffs nigh to falling off the edge of the world.

Saw many things along the way! Found a bear and killed it—and it was a much more drawn-out fight than I would have thought! I could see now how David had once been killed by one of these. Found a Hinox and killed it—Urbosa’s Fury in the Barbarian Armor once again brought down the house! Found a Lynel and.... skirted it. They’re all White-Maned now.

I kept meandering southward until I found, hidden deep within the black stony cliffs beside a deadly icy lake brooding with malevolent Octoroks and planked by pointless and rickety boardwalks to nowhere.... the Maka Rah Shrine! Whose resident challenge was called Steady Thy Heart.

DANG.

If Hawa Koth were like the sparky younger cousin of Kaam Ya’Tak.... then this Maka Rah was surely.... like the sadistic older sister who punishes you for intruding on her CLEARLY-boundaried privacy.

That was my one-hundredth shrine.

I was ahead of David now.

Huppenwoop

Waking of Saturday, November 3, 2018 ~ 2

Huppenwoop

With the controller recharged I started up at the Serenne Stable again, ready to head to the colder climates of the northwest....

But....

....Was there some kind of buzzkill risk? What slowed me down?

I warped away to Cotera instead.

I had her upgrade some of my Desert Voe Gear, not that it would do me much good north of Serenne.... But....

Mmm I wanted to upgrade more things but when you upgrade things it flings them to the back of the closet; didn’t want to max out too many items before I got to my Champion’s Tunic; wanted to max that one out sooner so that all the other items being upgraded and flung to the back would push it forward onto the front page again....

Dratblast it I didn’t have any Naydra horn! I needed Naydra horn to enhance the Champion’s Tunic....

I had tried to set myself up at the perfect launch point to head into the cold northwest and finally fill in my map.

But I wanted that Naydra horn....

I warped to Mount Lanayru instead, and LOITERED.

I was waiting for the dragon, and it took forever. I paraglided down a bit, and then climbed back up and then climbed up on top of the ice pillars and then paraglided some more.... Down the slope of the mountain I stood on a pedestal of ice. Just stood. Lookin’ cool. Swiveling the camera.

“You know,” I said to David, “I’ve seen you, and everybody else, climbing around tall mountains with that friggin’ Wingaling Hat on your heads.” Just something I’d seen from further unintented glimpses.

David briefly gave me a funny look and then, “Oh,” he said knowingly.

“What do you think of me just climbing around in my Ruby Circlet and Warm Doublet?”

He thought for a moment, then said in a chiding voice, “Inefficient.”

“I killed a Lynel in this thing.” I nodded toward the Warm Doublet. “How do you like me now?”

“I said inefficient, not insufficient.”

“Have you ever killed a Lynel in this thing? It’s got, like, one defense.”

“I’ve never killed a Lynel.”

Well that made me feel right hoity-toity.

I climbed around some more, making Link jump and burning my stamina. “Hup! Hup! Woop! Huhn!” said Link.

“Careful you don’t run outta hup,” said David.

Link wooped.

“Or woop,” I said.

“Hupp ‘n woop,” said David.

“Huppenwoop—that sounds like a band. Like.... Steppenwolf. Huppenwoop.”

“Like a band?” David laughed. “Huppenwoop.”

“Why do I know that name? Didn’t they do....?”

“Magic Carpet Ride,” David supplied.

“Yeah, yeah, I knew it was something from Star Trek.” I had that soundtrack. Good one.

I made sure not to run out of huppenwoop.

I stood some more, waiting for the dragon. I scoped in to look at the layout of the land, and where Lanayru Road was, and what lay between here and there. I told David about the big gross Hinox snoring away in the place with the pristine-sounding name of Purifier Lake. “Nice,” I sneered.

I looked at the low snowfield in the foothills and the little forested area beyond.

“I could go and kill the Hinox. And kill the Lynel.” I considered.

“Gosh!” David burst, “What the heck, I mean you used to be the person that, like.... a speck of dust might move across the screen and you’d be like ‘Oh my gosh what is that run away!’”

“Or that thought a goat was Beast Ganon?” I reminded him with a grin.

“Yes!”

I paraglided down to Lanayru Road a couple of times. I was sure Naydra would make a pass there, or at least I had my suspicions....

And eventually.... HE DID! And I GOT that Naydra Horn! Huzzah! I KNEW he made passes through that valley! I knew that had to be him I’d seen reflected in the microwave door that one time....!

On The Joys Of Mountaineering

Waking of Friday, October 12, 2018

On The Joys Of Mountaineering

From the Spring of Wisdom and the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine I swirled my snowy way down and around the mountainsides, tracking Koroks—I hadn’t known they could hide in ice! And during one sweeping paraglide, the wind began to pick up, and I knew....

Turning, I saw that Naydra had descended again; he was twining westward, toward the Lanayru Road.

I’d had to sacrifice his scale to the Spring of Wisdom before, but this time.... I wanted a piece of him and I wanted to keep it!

I sailed after him. But he already had such a head start, and he was such a gigantic creature and his head was already so far away.... I’d wanted a hornshard, but.... A scale would have to do.

I pelted his crystal Caribbean hide with an arrow and chinked off a scale. It glittered for a moment before breaking off and sailing down toward the earth.

And I realized I might have made a terrible miscalculation.

We were still so high off the ground, Naydra and I. We were essentially floating out from the peak of one of the tallest mountains in the game. The ground.... was an immaterial thing, at these heights.

But it quickly became material, as I saw the scale break off and arc, and arc, and arc down through the sky, on a trajectory that took it far beyond the icy mountain, away from the Lanayru Road, away from anywhere I’d ever been before....

It smashed against an unfamiliar mountainside on the other side of a large, dark body of water.

I kept sailing toward it, casting an unsure glance at my stamina wheel....

I had to paraglide all the way over Lanayru Bay to a place called Trotter’s Downfall, shedding altitude in great chunks near the end, for I wasn’t sure I was going to make it....

I hit the sodden green earth on my last red sliver of strength, and David and I laughed in relief. A short jog later, the scale of Naydra was mine.

But I made a mental note to not try knocking off pieces of dragons at high altitudes again, before warping back to the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine.

My wanderings over Mount Lanayru brought me easterward until, in a saddle near the sea, but still high enough to be snowbound, my shrine detector started going off. I ignored it for only a little spell, just to climb a certain Walnot Mountain while I had the altitude on my side.... and then headed back toward the lower spot where the signal was strongest.

A Korok distracted me something sadistic along the way. It was a race. From the saddle down to the lower crag’s edge.

Paragliding? No, I couldn’t sail down there fast enough.

What about a long, straight paraglide followed by a sharp drop at the end? That almost worked.... but not quite. And it hurt on the landing.

I tried a few combinations of paragliding and shedding altitude.... all to no effect.

What about the straight up bone-breaking approach of just running down the mountain? No good. That didn’t work either. And it hurt even more.

Difficult Korok....

I stopped to get the shrine partway through my efforts for the Korok just to quiet the brreep-brreeping of my Slate. It lay behind some explodable rocks between the saddle and the crag; I’d been flying over it at each pass to get the Korok.

The Tahno O’ah Shrine it was called. And when I finally unearthed it, the shrine quest banner title Secret of the Cedars flashed across my screen, with a Complete status now affixed to it. Who knew! I’d forgotten.... Somebody had told me long ago.... those three trees on the mountain.... Line them up and they’d point to a trial encased in stone....

Guessed that was the shrine.

Tahno O’ah was kind enough to simply grant me his blessing, and in the accompanying treasure chest, I found....

CLIMBING BOOTS. SWEET.

So the Bandana was part of a set!

And I thought.... I’d found that Bandana nestled back in the Dueling Peaks, in the Ree Dahee Shrine.... And here on this mountain were the Climbing Boots.... Hmm, climbing gear found on mountains.... Maybe on another mountain somewhere, I would find a climbing shirt!

I exited the shrine and once again made the arduous climb back up the snowy hillside to the race’s start on top of the saddle. I hadn’t been able to use my Climber’s Bandana, on account of having to wear both the Warm Doublet and the Ruby Circlet to stay warm. Unfortunately my new Climbing Boots couldn’t help me out much either; I needed my Snow Boots to maintain a decent mobility.

Soon.

I tried for the Korok again. Got close but just not quite there....

Enter David. “Oh THAT one,” says he.

“Why what a knowing grin you wear,” says I.

I asked him if he’d used the paraglider. He said he hadn’t. It was a simple trick, he said.

But I had only complicated guesses. “You started the race up here, and you finished with your actual person down at the finish? There wasn’t like.... some kinda Ben Statue trick?” “Did you use the Ninja Suit?” “Did you ride an animal?”

His brows shot up and he frowned at that last one. “Good guess,” he said. But no, it was simpler than that, he told me.

“You didn’t paraglide?” I almost pleaded for the umpteenth time. This Korok was driving me crazy. “And it wasn’t clothes?”

“....You’re wearing it,” he finally said.

I immediately thought of the Sheikah Slate. “Did you Stasis something? Magnesis?”

“No.”

I was flicking into my menus; I studied my person....

And with a groan I saw it—my shield.

“You shield-surfed?”

“Yes!”

“Augh....” I’d forgotten all about shield-surfing.

I went to the map.... There, around to the left. That topo looked smooth enough to try it. It bowed wide of the target, where I would have preferred a beeline. But.... I’d give it a try....

And I did.

And it worked.

“Good job!” said David, “I’m so proud of you!”

Hahh. “Thaaaaanks,” I said. |D

The Lamb

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 5

The Lamb

I was brought back to the top of the mountain, to the Spring of Wisdom.

The Goddess statue spoke again.

“Thanks to your efforts, Naydra, the spirit

of Mount Lanayru, has been freed from

the grips of an evil power.”

The dragon was once again coiled atop the mountain, but he looked much better, the arching curves of his long body more alive, less weighed down, his great taloned feet strong on the snow and ice beneath him. His great head he held, low and docile, above the spring. Eyes so bright....

“But a single ceremony remains. Now...

Loose your arrow through the body of

Naydra to free the spirit of this region!”

What?

Naydra still lay.... stood.... coiled, there, head hung low beneath his beautifully arched neck. I’d never seen a dragon still as this before. And getting a chance to actually look at him, he was.... just....

His eyes so bright and yet so calm, wells of peace, outward facing as a deer or a horse, such long beautiful eyelashes, drooping, funneled llama-ears hanging down, and his flexing, moving, unsplit, camellike muzzle.... Was he really a scaled creature? It looked almost like a fringe of fur, hanging down from his upper.... lip. Whiskered. Fuzzed. So that the mouthline could not be seen. Like a grazing creature. Patient. Peaceful.

In that moment especially, the blue spirit Naydra really did seem.... as a lamb.

And I held the knife.

I did take a few pictographs first, some of them, I’m only a little sorry to say.... somewhat irreverent. Like standing as if in deep and oblivious thought with his man-sized, all-rending claws behind me....

It was funny.

And I tried to touch him, too. But, even when he was still, the force and chill of his body sent me sprawling back, taking a tiny bite from my health each time.

All right.

I went back to the platform. If it was to be a bowshot, I wanted to try for a hornshard. Giving the honors to the Phrenic Bow that had served me so well, I took careful aim, and landed a shaft in the crystal-blue horn a third-way up from the dragon’s brow.

At the contact, Naydra took off, this time rearing straight up into the grey, grey sky, and for a worryingly long time, or what seemed like it, nothing happened. But after a moment, a gleaming something broke from the glittering mark I had left on the horn, and came streaking back down to earth, landing on the platform before the Goddess statue.

It was a dragon scale.

Well.... that was good enough, I thought.

“That is the spirit Naydra’s scale.

It fell when your arrow struck.

It serves as proof of the courage you

received from the one who served the

spring since ancient times.

Come... Offer a scale from the blue spirit

Naydra to the Spring of Wisdom.”

Naydra....

He was flying away. Up into his vortex in the sky.

Like they do.

I picked up the scale. The first and only one I had ever held from the blue dragon Naydra. So precious and wanted a thing, but.... I needed to sacrifice it to another, first.

I stepped down into the spring, waded forward to where I could see the royal family’s crest engraved upon the submerged stones, and let fall the scale into the water.

A plash and a golden light.... and a door opened behind the Goddess statue.

“Your path has shown itself. Now go forth.”

I glanced into the sky once more before entering the cavern. Freed from the shackles of evil, Naydra flew away in peace.

And I crossed over the threshold, and entered the Jitan Sa’mi Shrine.

And when I stepped back out of it, it was noon, and the mountain knew it.

And the high, cold music was playing again.

Clarion as ice.

The Erhu Profane

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 4

The Erhu Profane

The obvious next destination after passing through the East Gate of the Lanayru Road was the grand and imposing Mount Lanayru.

But I didn’t quite pass through the gate after all, because there was a Lynel out there, stalking through the aspens. White-maned no less....

Rather I skittered up into the hills to the south, to see if I could bypass it, in the process climbing above a landmark I had long regarded with awe and reverence on my map: Purifier Lake.

A fat red Hinox snored in the spray of its waterfall, occasionally scratching its moldy bellybutton. How putrid! OH how I longed to kill the offending brute—but with that Lynel so close....

....

I didn’t feel like tangling with it just now, but at least decided that this was as good a time as any for a certain.... field-test....

I climbed to a prominent part of the hillside where the Lynel would just be able to see me, and started jumping up and down to get its attention.

And it saw me all right. And as I’d hoped, at this range, it drew its bow, nocked an arrow, and pulled back the string. On went my Thunder Helm....

The Lynel at Shatterback Point had nearly zapped me into flash-fry with its Shock Arrows. The one down in the Lynels’ Corridor had shocked me into dropping my items with the same. But here.... I’d be able to see what the Thunder Helm was really capable of....

Or I would have.... if only this Lynel hadn’t been using.... ICE ARROWS?

Fortunately the projectiles came up short, spawning wicked but harmless frosted stalagmites that erupted out of the rock with a rumbling.

I booked it, retreating higher up into the hills. No arrows connected. I was safe.

But....

....

Well.

Another time.

With another Lynel!

I trudged over the hillsides and down into the Naydra Snowfield in the foothills of the mountain, safe and barriered from the Lynel by a sharp ridge of stone. Snow lay thick upon the ground here, and the Chillshrooms grew everywhere! They seemed to spring from the base of every stark or naked pine, and there were quite a few of those.

I only wandered and swept from side to side for a bit, checking for Koroks and other interesting things while heading in a vague, forward direction. The clothes I was obliged to wear—my Ruby Circlet and Warm Doublet—together protected me from the intense cold, but offered me poor defense against Ice Chuchus, Ice Lizalfos and wolves. Well, the Ruby Circlet was strong enough. But the Warm Doublet only had one defense point. Whereas my Champion’s Tunic currently had fourteen.

I suppose I could have saved myself an awful lot of trouble, and monster encounters, if I had only climbed the mountain the way I had climbed up Death Mountain for the first time, when I’d realized there was that memory up there.... That time, I had gone straight up the side, caring nothing for the road, for I hadn’t even realized there was one. But here in the snowfield, as I neared the other end, and as the land began to rise, I looked at the ground I was heading to tread on and—

“Stairs!” I thrilled to David, “There are stairs!” There was an old road beneath the snow! The ancient architecture enthralled me as ever.

The land was so blanketed here that the road could not be discerned, except for the sharp corners of stone stairs peeking through the snow at the occasional sharp rise.

And I remembered the Lanayru Road, and how the path had continued, and wound away through the aspens where the Lynel prowled, and how there was even that cut through the natural stone barrier to the snowfields—the road must have come through there as well, though I hadn’t. And now here, at the foot of the mountain, and seemingly for a great distance yet, fine stonework showed through the frost.

That it should be so developed! I flicked to my map and found where I was and looked and.... Yes, yes! There it was in the topo! The road led all the way to the top! And if it was like this all the way up the mountain....

Augh, the ruins would be fantastic.

And I could only imagine it in its prime glory days.

Of course, it wasn’t until I had already come a long way along it, batting off wolves and Chuchus and Lizalfos all the while, that I recalled how few monsters I had encountered while climbing off the beaten track toward my first recovered memory back in Eldin. That is to say, almost zero. And here on the icy road, against the more populous foes, my clothes could not protect me very well....

But there wasn’t really anything for it now. I supposed I could have veered off and started climbing the walls, but.... No. I would be all right. I had meant to come this way.

Besides, partway up the mountain, I was distracted by something so chilling it made me forget my road-woes entirely.

Night was falling. Though under the cloud cover of the high mountain, it made little difference to the light or the visibility. The Ice Lizalfos hunkered thick along the trail. I was paragliding round to duke it out with one camouflaged one, when—

....Strange music?

Upon landing I turned. Another Lizalfos I hadn’t seen was behind me, likewise camouflaged. Neither of them made a move, but I still didn’t care for being surrounded.

What was that.... music? It sounded like that music that heralds a dragon, but.... no, this was something else. What was going on?

The tune was the same, but the music, the chords, the intervals had changed. Why did it sound so diminished? So distorted? It felt sick and ungodly. A perversion of the sublime erhu I had heard before.

I reached a broad point where the road switched back and a few pillars stood sentinel or leaned in frozen tottering. I checked them for Koroks, and in climbing to the top of one of them, paused for a moment and looked up toward the mountain’s top—closer now. And there among the jagged crags and icy protrusions I thought I could see.... something....

And I gasped when I knew. MALICE? HERE? No!

But it was worse. It was.... heaving. And I saw the bluish horn coming off of it.... never seen blue Malice before.... And I saw another horn, and another, and more slowly rising and falling curves of a serpentine body, and.... No! It—it couldn’t be!

I grabbed my Pictobox. Aimed it.

....Naydra....

This was Naydra. Naydra was.... something was on it.... a parasite.

A Malice Parasite.

Naydra....

I hurried.

And of a sudden I was there. The final switchback had been so abrupt.

Naydra.... he looked.... horrible. The Malice was globbing so huge and heavy onto his head, like a cancerous growth. I could feel the weight of his wilting neck, his eyes forced near to closing beneath the drooping mass.

The long coils of the dragon’s body looped heavily among the topmost crags of the mountain. Further globs of burning, cruel Malice clung onto its scales, the magenta bleeding into the deep blue, staining it, tainting it, infecting it....

And then the Goddess statue—or the Goddess, through the statue—spoke.

“You have done well to find your way to this spring.”

The statue stood at the back of a spring of water, templed and paved with stones as the Spring of Power had been. This was....

“You who have overcome numerous trials

and obtained the Spirit Orbs...

The one you see before you is an

attendant to the Spring of Wisdom.

This is Naydra, the blue spirit of Lanayru.”

This was the Spring of Wisdom. I knew it. I knew it from my map and from Sanadin Park memories and from all the hearsay of Hateno.

“This servant of the Goddess has looked

over the spirits of this land for ages,

unknown to the world of man.

However, the dreaded Malice unleashed

by Calamity Ganon has possessed its

body and reduced it to this state.

You who have received the Spirit Orbs...

Free Naydra from this Malice.

Show what your power can achieve!”

And at the statue’s last words, an enormous, popping yellow eyeball OPENED UP and swiveled ponderously from the heart of the mass on Naydra’s head.

I was free to move and Naydra had not stirred, except for the lumbering of its panting breaths as its head bowed and wept. The eyeball still gaped all around like a demonic blinking baby.

A large target.... and fairly stationary.... Would it really be that simple?

I took as many steps forward as I dared, and reached for a Phrenic Bow I had been keeping in reserve for a long, long time. I hadn’t really known what for. But if not for this, then nothing.

“Don’t fail me now....” I crooned as I took aim at the distant, house-sized globe....

The arrow struck true, and the eyeball-mass mouthlessly screeched before dissolving in a pruff of evil. Naydra’s head seemed to come alive—it pulled heavily, strongly upward, his eyes opened, his indigo skin was free and open and cold and—

He kept rearing. Higher and higher he arced, and then the coils of his long body followed him. Slithering through the air between the cracks, he mounted up into the sky and twined and writhed as the remaining Malice globs burned still upon his skin.

Uh? Was he coming back? It didn’t look like it—I hoofed it up the one remaining trail to the right, the one that led right up to the mountain’s crest—Naydra twined in the sky above the cap—

But he was so big and he moved so fast and there was so much of him—I tried cutting beneath an arc of his body as it slid over the path, so low.... But I must have made some contact, and the force bowled me off my feet and back down the track.

The Malice masses were being pulled along so quickly and so sinuously through the air—it was hard to take aim—but my Phrenic Bow did not fail me—I pierced another eyeball! Giant as the first had been.

But Naydra’s flight did not slow or calm. He began to twine away from the peak, lower down the mountain. And I was hesitant. Such altitude would be difficult to regain, if I followed him down there only to have to chase him back to these heights....

But he wasn’t coming back. Only rolling and weaving and twisting in monumental agitation further down the slopes. And there was nothing else for it, and so....

Uhhh—

I steeled myself and leapt from an icy crag to sail down after the poor beast.

Then as I exited the cloud cap and came into clearer airs, I saw I needn’t have worried—every crag and crack and dell and glen thrust a powerful updraft into the night. They were far below me now, but the sight was comforting.

I sailed closer and attempted to head the dragon’s twining—and one of the Malice globs. But Naydra’s course and speed were impossible to predict. How many masses were there? Five in all? I took a chance when a glob passed close, drew my bow, time slowed, had to watch my stamina.... carefully, CAREFULLY....

I struck the eyeball, but had expended too much strength to do it and my stamina wheel was empty and I was falling toward the black earth and the updrafts wouldn’t help me but no—somehow—SOMEHOW....

How did I catch myself?

Where had that stamina come from when I was able to just deploy my paraglider right above the crag to keep myself from becoming a greasy smear on the rocks....? And I touched down and—

Where was I?

....

Somewhere low. Down the mountain.

It was a big playing field tonight.

It seemed that, like the glowing and strengthening of the Master Sword, sometimes, if you executed things just right.... you could regain your strength, and sail safely away from the point of exhaustion.

I climbed to the point of the black rock where I stood, and leapt off into an updraft. The valley was alive with wind.

“Naydra!” I chased after him. “Naydra!”

And still he twined so massively in his circuitous writhing.

He flew around, I rode the airs, I chased him all the way back down to the Naydra Snowfield where he tore up the trees with his passing.

“Naydra you have to hold still!”

I took careful aim.... thank goodness for this Phrenic Bow....

Two more globs....

One more glob....

And I shot the last one.

The indigo Naydra huffed, breathed.... and blinked its big bright colorful eye. He flew up into the air again and with a strain or a stretch, burst from the last darkness that I hadn’t realized was still holding him—the indigo exploded from him and turned to dust—that was not his true color? He arced and reared higher, and as he rose he glowed and gleamed brighter, brighter, BRIGHTER, into an astonishingly brilliant ice-teal the color of a frozen Caribbean bay, his crown of many horns shining the blue of an ancient glacier.

Oh he was beautiful now....

He was glorious.

Lanayru Road

Waking of Friday, September 21, 2018 ~ 3

Lanayru Road

When Tera had upgraded my new Barbarian Armor as much as she could, I puttered around the rest of my wardrobe like I do.... Naydra horn, huh....

I still didn’t sort my closet, but left it bungled as ever, and after that....

Kakariko. It was time to venture beyond Cotera’s Woods once again. It was time to explore that inland lake. I had a sneaking suspicion I could find the scale I was looking for there.

I hurried through Cotera’s placid stand of trees, veering only to pick a few of the finer plants and scattering the wildlife before me. In the bare, cliff-flanked road beyond I didn’t bother with the Traveler who’d told me strange stories before, nor did I take the way to Rabia Plain (save for just a little to snatch a Korok I’d somehow missed).

No, this time it was the straight fork, the rightward avenue that dipped lower, and wider, as the land sank into water and stone....

This was the Lanayru Road, West Gate.

And there was indeed a high span of weathered stone bridging the way up ahead.

It looked very much like a gate in one of the pictographs in Princess Zelda’s album. But not quite. But if there was a west gate.... then there must surely have been an east gate....

I went in. There was a memory ahead of me. I knew it. Somehow I’d known it and marked it on my map.... maybe a clue from Pikango or something.... He was always painting landscapes....

The stony corridor widened; the road clave to the north face while the water started by the south; the tumbles of rock meshed through the ancient stonework so that I could hardly tell between what had been, and what was left.

I walked on. Encountered some sleeping Bokoblins. Dispatched them under the quiet of my Stealth Suit; best not to raise a ruckus. Though sometimes it couldn’t be helped to beat them down or knock them over the burm and into the water—for the paving stones rested high on pillars and supports now. Going into the drink to retrieve monster bits would be complicated from here on out....

So much stonework rose all around me, FAR too pocked and hollowed and intricate, in layers upon layers above—to explore it all would take days.... though I tried to search a little. Some minerals here, a Korok there.

But when the day turned grey and it started to rain, I switched my Climber’s Bandana for the more covering Hylian Hood, and only continued walking.

Just walking.

I loved this feeling.

Broken pillars and carven arches with incidental alcoves, all cracked and weathered, all tumbling into ruin, splitting and parting in further holes and crevices, blossoming and burgeoning with surfaces never meant to be walked upon, and yet all the more welcoming for the shelter they provided for creatures like myself to hide in.

I climbed up a bit on the north side, vaulting the slippery stones in quick, powerful bursts for the downpour, and found a little hollow that was just receded enough to be out of the rain. The blocks were straight and cubic against the dark and leaning overhang of foundation or cliffside I did not know, where the sprawling moss joyed in the moisture as it dripped down and slicked over the stone.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon.

Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to just light a fire and rest here for a while?

Dang I love this game.

Shortly the rain let up and I climbed further and higher until I reached the topmost northern hills where I was distracted enough to kill a Hinox. As I ran back toward where I had been, I inadvertently chased a goat before me, and—I thought I saw something—

I turned and was surprised to see that the goat’s tromping had cut a trail through the grass! And I found the thing I had seen.... it was.... Hylian Rice?

But.... I thought.... I’d thought that was a crop! That it didn’t grow in the wild—I’d only ever seen it from merchants, but—If the goat had cut down the grass—and I didn’t see how else it could have gotten here—what—was all grass like this? If I cut it would.... Would it yield certain grains?

A more placid world began to swell all around me....

I was still discovering new things. Even this far in.

Dang I love this game.

I made my way back down into the canyon to continue along the Lanayru Road, and I began to see great carvings in the walls. What.... were these.... effigies.... These....

They were cracked and worn and broken but.... these were loftwings. I was sure of it. Shoebill beaks and everything. I was sure.

Because I was recognizing shoebills before Skyward Sword was even a twinkle in its daddy’s eye.

Those were loftwings.

How old was this place?

The canyon widened and the southern cliffs and carvings bent away toward that waterfall beneath which I’d found a shrine before, and this open central watered court.... was the Lanayru Promenade.

What a beautiful sight it must have been once. The path ran down close to the water here (part of it submerged now), and a dead fountain stood in the center of the widest part of the lake. I could imagine it playing merrily as beautiful Hylian holy men and women must have strode about....

Now the only thing stirring were some Lizalfos circling around the fountain.

I drew the green one away first to dispatch it privily. But when I went back for the other three....

They were all silver.

Huh, I thought in my mask as I gathered their attentions to get them onto solid ground (they were hard to kill in the water), three Silver Lizalfos.... at once....

This would be interesting....

And it was.

I called upon Urbosa first as they all gathered close about me, and her furious lightning rained down and kept two of them screeching in frozen electrocution while I grabbed the other and started pummeling his lights out. But presently the other two recovered and they were mad—I pounded one of them into next Tuesday in time to turn and trade blows with the other up against the wall—and then that first one was upon me again—but I moved before they could surround me and slashed that one in the tail while the second one was climbing back out of the water—and then there they stood regrouped and ready but I was fast—I could take these guys....

I have since learned to try and kill silver monsters as far away from water as I can. Tails and talons and horns and eyeballs will float. But rubies and sapphires and diamonds? You can kiss those goodbye if they fall into the water. And nothing your Slate can supply will help to call them back.

They’re gone, man. Gone.

When I had quite eradicated every monster from the Lanayru Promenade, I took my time giving the area as thorough an exploration as I could, turning up treasure chests behind tumbles of stone or sunk beneath the waters around the fountain. I also took another short break away, this time up on the southern hilltops, cresting the tall mountain, the Peak of Awakening, which lay just east of the high pond that fed the waterfall. As I’d suspected.... there was a Korok.

Back down on the Lanayru Road I kept heading east.... The path was rising, and I was beginning to leave the water behind, when something possessed me to take out my Pictobox. I’d seen something further ahead, and wanted to zoom in to see what it was. I knew if my Compendium recognized it, it would flash the name of the thing across the screen.

And as I swiveled the lens around carelessly toward the east, Mount Lanayru towering in shrouding clouds in the far distance, I saw, for just an instant, the name of NAYDRA.

And then it was gone and I could not relocate it.

WHAAAAAT?

Naydra? The Dragon?? What? But!

Had it flown across somewhere? Was it even now in the air, somewhere around the bends of the cliffs further to the east? I longed to plunge ahead, but....! Did I just catch the tip of its tail as it vanished out of sight? For I could see nothing of any dragon now!

Naydra??

Where was it??

But point and swivel as I might, my Pictobox could not detect the dragon again.

But it was near.... somewhere very near....

The road continued to rise as I left the great monumental stoneworks behind me.

And then I had come to.... the Lanayru Road, East Gate.

Mount Lanayru stood in might and majesty beyond the weathered stone portal.

I stood in the light, and remembered....

It was sunset.

The Champions were waiting on the water side of the gate—where I had just been. I and Zelda were coming back from the mountain.

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” said Daruk, “How’d it go up there on the mountain?”

Zelda.... shook her head.

“You didn’t feel anything? No power at all?” said the bird man Revali.

“I’m sorry, no.” Zelda didn’t look at any of them. Just the ground.

Urbosa stepped in. “Then let’s move on,” she said, her voice strong and steady as always, “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t help anything.” She offered a seemingly tireless encouragement to keep looking for.... that thing, that.... something.... “Anything could trigger the power to seal Ganon.”

“If I may...” It was Mipha. She spoke! And she.... fumbled a bit, her voice dainty as a fluttering leaf, wanting to say something, but she was embarrassed to say it. “I was just thinking about what I do when I’m healing. Sometimes it helps if I think... if I think about—”

RRRRRRRUMBLE!

A roaring cacophany tore the air and rattled the earth.

Everyone stumbled and shook as the ground heaved beneath them, until Revali regained himself and SHOT into the sky.

A hundred feet up he maintained a steady flapping as he looked into the glowing, flaming western sky and the sinking sun.

Ganon was erupting out of the castle.

“He’s here,” said Urbosa as Revali touched down again. The earth had stopped shaking, though the roaring remained.

“It’s awake,” said Zelda.

“Are you sure?” said.... probably Mipha?

“Positive,” said Revali.

Daruk rallied everyone, “Champions! To your Divine Beasts! Link, you get to Hyrule Castle—” He barked their long-laid plans. It needed to be a unified assault. “Link will need to meet Ganon head-on when we unleash our attack.”

Revali scoffed quietly at this last and looked away. Even now.

What did he have against me?

“Come, let’s go,” Urbosa addressed Princess Zelda, “We need to get you somewhere safe.”

But—“No,”—Zelda pulled away. “I may not be of much use on the battlefield, but there must be something I can do—”

She wanted to help.

She wanted to be useful....

OHHHH MUUHHHH GUUUSHHHH....