Kass' Promise

Waking of Saturday, February 23, 2019

Kass’ Promise

I warped to Washa’s Bluff and just climbed up to Kass’s house, because I could now, with my enhanced Climber’s Gear and three full wheels of Stamina.

Kass was not there. But I read his journal. I thought I’d gotten all the shrines he mentioned....

He said he would return to his hometown once he’d learned all the ancient songs.... So I warped to Rito Village. But again, Kass was nowhere to be found. I did meet with Molli, and she told me one of her stories. And I saw Cree, Kotts, Notts, Kheel and Genli running around. They were going to sing on the landing by the shrine. They’re so cute.... But there was no sign of Kass.

So I sailed down to the stable.

Kass was there.

He asked and I allowed him to sing his song for me. Same as it ever was.

....I was missing something. And I thought I had a pretty good idea what it was....

I warped back to Kass’s house again, sailing in this time via Satori Mountain just for the thrill of it.

Combing through his diary again, I saw that I had gotten all of his shrines.... but not the treasure in Kitano Bay.

I had.... seen David get that one. On another occasion.

I guessed not all of Kass’s sidequests were shrines after all.

So I warped to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab, visited with Purah.... and then paraglided down off the mountain, right down to the pillar in the sea where Kass stood playing his accordion.

I had Kass again sing the song of that region, and though the telltale shadow in the song did in fact point toward Eventide Island.... the solution was much closer than all that.

After the song, I sailed down to a spot along the more closely encompassing stones jutting from the surf, until I was in just the right position to spot something with my Sheikah Slate’s Magnesis.

It was a chest in the water, with 300 rupees inside. The Hero’s Cache.

I collected it.... and then blinked.

For all I knew.... I could have left this here for myself. o_o

I climbed back up the rockspire to report to Kass again and, the songquest now complete, I took my leave, on foot. Er, by swimming, then on foot.

I just jogged all the way back to Hateno. I don’t know, I just.... didn’t want to appear hasty.

I have a house in Hateno. But is it my home? Hmm.

Safely out of view, I warped to one of the shrines outside Totori Lake and Rito Village.

Baddies, yup.

I ran.

More baddies.

Land Octoroks, what a hassle....

Tabantha certainly was a very hairy environment.... But I made it to Rito Stable without taking a hit.

Kass was not around the stable any more.

He must be in the village, I thought.

It was early in the morning. I walked the bridges and entered the village and started up the spiral boardwalk.... and I saw Kass near the shrine! And I realized as I approached him that.... he was playing the Rito Village Dragonroost music on his accordion! 8D

Oh it sounded nice. ^_^

And Cree, Kotts, Notts, Kheel and Genli, the little singers, came running up in a happy little gaggle, Blue, Yellow, Red, Purple and Green (though they lined up Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow and Red, as they faced the master musician, as he saw them), AND THEY ALL STARTED SINGING TOGETHER WHILE KASS PLAYED, OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO CUTE.

I spoke to Kass then. I’d just been listening but now I wanted in.

“Oh! I’m just taking some time from my calling in order to enjoy some musical frivolity with my daughters,” he said, or some such words.

These are your daughters!

^_^

But, says he, he has a favor he wants to ask of me. Only he wants me to come back here after dark to talk about it.

I meandered around the village in the meantime. Amali was Kass’s wife. A pretty, green Rito. She was happy that I’d brought her husband back to her. How does she know it was me?

I looked at the children’s colors again, out on the landing. So their first child was blue, like Kass. But it wasn’t until their fifth that they got one looking like their Mom.

I did not really pass the time anywhere. I eventually just went back to the shrine landing, and listened to them sing and play for the rest of the day.

I love Rito Village.

When 9:00 struck, the girls all turned and ran excitedly back to their house.

Leaving me alone to speak with Kass.

When I approached him, he stilled his playing, and the night was quiet. Only crickets and nightbirds sounded in the chill pine air.

He said he had a song he needed me to hear. He said he wanted to tell me about his teacher. But that it would take a while.

I told him to go ahead.

He said his teacher was a Sheikah, and that he had been the court poet of the Hyrulean Royal Family before the Calamity. At that time, there was a beautiful princess in the royal family, and they were even around the same age, the teacher and the princess.

And even though he must have known it would be doomed to be unrequited, his teacher grew to be deeply, deeply in love with the princess.

But the princess only had eyes for her escort. The appointed knight who accompanied her. Her own knight attendant.

!

.... Did.... Did she now?

Kass’ teacher became quite jealous. He came to hate the princess’ knight. It stung him that the knight was neither nobility nor royalty....

But then the Calamity struck.

“...My teacher believed a hero would appear to beat back the Calamity. He poured that belief into a song. And that song is what I need you to hear,” said Kass.

And he raised his accordion again:

An ancient hero, a Calamity appears,

Now resurrected after 10,000 years.

Her appointed knight gives his life,

Shields her figure, and pays the price.

The princess’s love for her fallen knight awakens her power

And within the castle the Calamity is forced to cower.

But the knight survives!

In the Shrine of Resurrection he sleeps,

Until from his healing dream he leaps!

For fierce and deadly trials await.

To regain his strength. Fulfill his fate.

To become a hero once again!

To wrest the princess from evil’s den.

The hero, the princess—hand in hand—

Must bring the light back to this land.

The song ended and the night was quiet again. Kass spoke, “My teacher fled the Calamity and returned to his hometown of Kakariko Village. But on his way, he witnessed the knight sacrifice his life to protect the princess.”

I’d heard people talk about me before, talk about my past life before.... But this one hit so.... heavy.

What had happened to me?

“The elder of Kakariko Village, Impa, explained these circumstances to him, and his mind was made up. He would seek the songs of the hero who sealed the Calamity away in an age past... so they could be passed on to the knight once he returned. All so that the princess might be saved...”

Kass’ beautiful bird eyes were so low, somewhere far away. “Those were my teacher’s last words, passed on now through me,” he said.

Then he turned to face me.

“So... appointed knight. Will you accept this song from my departed teacher?”

I stood. “You know,” I said. And then.... “Yes.” My only option.

“Thank you so much!” Kass’ eyes cheered slightly in the dimness. “I knew you would. I was sure of it.”

Through a soft smile he reminisced further, “My teacher would often speak of the princess’s beauty. I would love to meet her and craft a song worthy of her...”

And with a final warm nod, he told me, “Thank you for spending this time with me.”

And the moment broke and slipped away like a cut ribbon.

....

“You knew.”

How did he know?

But somehow.... it didn’t surprise me. That it would be a musician. Someone who feels the pull of so many more strings through the world. Someone attuned to see the wondrous, unrevealed. And moreover he was well traveled. He’d seen me around....

And for whatever other poems came out lumpy or lopsided from the localization team.... this one was splendid. And I appreciated that.

And the Women Better Singers

Waking of Sunday, January 6, 2019 ~ 8

And the Women Better Singers

I went talkin’ around, talkin’ around, and found the Rito Villagers to be happy again. :)

But it was most adorable when I caught one Rito woman, Bedoli, in mid-song. She was so happy that Vah Medoh had finally been appeased, she said, that she hadn’t even realized she’d been singing that old song....

It was an ancient Rito song.

“Teach it to me!” I said. :D

“Oh, well that’s embarrassing,” she answered, but she cleared her throat and sang:

The pride of the Rito, pillar in the sky,

its heart lights up when the sun is high.

And then, “...Uhhh. There’s more to the song, but I forget the rest of the words.”

XD I know that feeling, Bedoli.

She directed me, if I wanted to learn the rest of the song, to speak to her sister Laissa. And a Shrine Quest banner flashed across my screen: “The Ancient Rito Song”.

Well! :D

I ran back to the boardwalk, searching for this Laissa, and I found her in a house just lower down. She had the same plum-colored plumage as her sister....

Laissa said she would sing me the second half of the song, but only if I could recite the first half from memory.

And what followed was one of the most adorable tiny little dialogue guessing games I had ever played. X-)

I was given four response options, one of which was “The pride of the Rito”, and the rest of which were very similar. And in four consecutive parts of four choices each, I was made to reconstruct the verse that Bedoli had sung for me. And the rhyme fragments the localizers had invented were so lovely and clever! XD THIS. WAS ADORABLE.

Once I’d gotten the multiple-choice lyrics quiz right, Laissa sang me the second half of the ancient Rito song:

The heart shines upon a path not whole,

but a warming flame can stir its soul.

Hmmm.... but I thought I might know what that meant.... The “pillar” was surely the Neck of the Crane.... And I had seen a few pedestals around the edge of Lake Totori in the many times I’d taken in the view.... shadow games, perhaps?

This was further along that SHRINE QUEST anyway....

But.... first....

Kheel’s mom was looking for her.

In further meandering about the village, I had come across a light-green Rito lady named Amali. She was looking and calling for her daughter Kheel, but couldn’t find her. Did she go to the Warbler’s Nest? Amali wondered....

We were standing on the landing beside the shrine, and Amali pointed out the Warbler’s Nest to me—it was just across the lake, over on the shore: a group of tall, oddly-shaped stones encompassing a pedestal.

So that was the Warbler’s Nest. I’d seen it through my scope a few times.

Well, I’d be happy to go and take a look! I thought, :D and jumped off.

I paraglided over, and found the little Rito child straight away.

“Kheel what are you doing?” I said, “It’s late and your Mom is worried.”

“My sisters are big dumb dummies!” Kheel started. She lamented that they were all supposed to rehearse at the Warbler’s Nest, but nobody showed up. They were supposed to sing their song for the Elder here.

Then she looked at me more closely and said that I looked like somebody.... she could use....? What did she say? XD

“Thaaaaat is to say you look like a guy who likes to help people in need.”

That little snot! XD

Though now that I think about it, she did kinda have me there....

She told me to go get her sisters.

“They won’t listen to me, but they might listen to a scary-looking Hylian like you.”

Oh thanks, Kheel! XD

Heh, scary, huh? I guess it made sense.... What are Hylians to these bird-people? Weird little naked gremlin-things with squashed faces and stunted fingers? Our toes all facing in the same direction.... creepy!

And a new Shrine Quest was underway: Recital at Warbler’s Nest.

So many musical Shrine Quests! :D

Excellent! X-)

I let Amali know where Kheel had gone, but it was trickier than I thought chasing down all these little Rito sisters EVERYWHERE around the village, reminding them all of their promises to rehearse with Kheel. One was in the shop looking at ingredients, because another one, Genli (the youngest I assumed), was in the kitchen and wouldn’t rehearse until she’d had some Hearty Salmon Meuniére.... One was out actually catching the salmon from a pond on one of the rockspires leading out of the village how.... did a breed of salmon get up there?

And of course I was completely roped into helping make this dish—fortunately they provided the ingredients for me; all I had to do was cook it....

And the last sister.... was practicing on her own up on an obscure crag of the Neck. And she had the last ingredient, so I had to find her first before I could cook for Genli....

My goodness.

Once I seemed to have wrapped up all of their problems, I paraglided over to meet them at the Warbler’s Nest—I’m moving, I’m hustling, I get over there, I think I’ve got them ALL squared away, but—HOLD THAT THOUGHT—

The shadow of the Neck was about to pass over the other pedestal. That shadow-heart thing.... Gotta go do that....

I left the little sisters standing there and paraglided off the Warbler’s Nest ledge and down to the path that led around the lake, running as fast as I could to overtake the shadow....!

When I got to the pedestal, I hurriedly dumped flint and faggot onto its surface and lit it up with a strike of my metal sword—and it was burning. And the shadow was coming. It would cross the pedestal in just a few seconds.

And—wouldn’t you know it.... The shaft of sunlight spearing through the Hiker’s Hollow up in the Neck.... really did light up the ground in the shape of a heart! ^_^ How Friendly. ♡

When the Neck’s shadow completely encompassed the pedestal like the eye of a needle, the pedestal lit up blue beneath the little fire I’d made, and....

The Bareeda Naag Shrine rumbled up out of the earth just a half a stone’s cast inland!

Excellent! ^_^

Cannon was the name of the challenge inside. Just Cannon. Much fun with projectiles and a LOT of lucky shots.... Got through it in a breeze.

All the better. Once I was out, OKAY, I thought, now RUN BACK TO THE GIRLS! I even used Revali’s Gale to go faster and to get up onto the Warbler’s Nest ledge again. Handy! Thank you, Revali. ^_^

The five Rito girls were there. Kheel was so grateful for all my help getting her sisters to rehearsal that she gave me a Korok Leaf. I didn’t have room for it, but I just picked something to drop in the meanwhile so I could at least hold it. For Kheel said that if I were to use it to blow wind at the stones.... the stones would sing.

The girls meanwhile practiced their own song. They stood in a neat little line, but not in age-order—or at least, not in the order I’d seen them in when I’d passed their house at night and saw them in their little hammocks, which I assumed was age-order....

No, they stood in rainbow-order, making a lovely gradient between them all. ^_^

I spoke to Kheel again as they practiced, and she said that she didn’t understand all the words, but that there was one line that always caught her ear: “When the wind convinces the stones to sing, open the monk’s door will swing” or something like that.

Ah, I have to listen to them.

Out of their standing order in line, which seemed to be based on pitch, each one sang a single note in turn: 4____ 5____ 3____ 1____ 2____.

But.... the intervals were so constricted....

They repeated the pattern.

4—5—3—1—2....?

No, that last one wasn’t two, it was the tonic! It wasn’t 4—5—3—1—2.... It was 3—4—2—7—1!

Mi____ Fa____ Re____ Ti____ Do____.

Small steps. It was a cute little tune.

I stood on the pedestal between the stones. Each stone had a hole in the middle—reminiscent of those howling stones from Twilight Princess—as well as an identifying number of knobs on top. Useful....

Wielding the Korok Leaf, I swung it to send powerful air-thrusts at each of the stones in turn. Four knobs.... It resonated the first girl’s note an octave or two lower in an airy, bass-flute kind of tone. Quite a pleasant sound actually.

Five knobs.... Three.... One....

Two!

And on the final resonation is that even a word? No it’s not—And on the final resonance.... what should come up from a nearby spot of ground further inland but another shrine!

The girls all turned around at the commotion and reacted—“Whoa! Was that weird house always there?” “No!” “Who knew Warbler’s Nest was hiding such a secret?” And other such words.

They were adorable. ^_^ Not many people ever got to see me scare up hidden shrines. Much less children at that.

They all decided to fly back home to tell their mom all about it—“Last one back is an unhatched egg!” and such. XD And with a running start back toward the lake, they all fluttered into the sky, bright little rainbow in the sun....

Ah, those girls were sweet. ^_^

But I turned toward my LONG-CHASED PRIZE.

IT HAD BEEN SUCH A BIG DAY.

AND FOR SOME REASON I WAS STILL MOVING.

I AM GOING INTO THE SHRINE NOW.

THANK YOU GIRLS, BE GOOD, AND GOOD NIGHT.

I entered the shrine as the evening was turning the world to gold—the Voo Lota Shrine. The trial within was called The Winding Route.

I was just confronted with a ladder leading upwards out of a tight space.

Hm.

I followed it; the shaft was also very constricted, with no other opening but at the distant, distant top. And once I reached that.... there was only a narrow hallway going forward to a switch....

Not wanting to wear down my weapons any more than absolutely necessary, I simply laid a Bomb, backed up, and flicked my own switch, thank you, Ja Baij....

And right where I had laid the Bomb, right where anyone would have been standing who decided to strike the shrine switch more directly.... a trap door opened up.

Oh my.

I stepped forward and looked down.

Oh.

Ugh.

Freakin’ lava pit. @_@

It was a dicey but fairly maneuverable paraglide between the sparse structures, mostly by power of fan-drafts. But I got the Spirit Orb all right.

Okay, I really needed to get to bed.

Ran back to Rito Village. ‘Cause I liked it here.

I had 27 Spirit Orbs to my name.

I thought of all the places I had been. Kakariko. Hateno. Zora’s Domain. Goron City. Gerudo Town. Lurelin Village. Rito Village.

Mmm Kakariko Village was nice.

But this place was just calming to my heart.

I would pray to the Goddess Statue here.

The one with a crown of flowers.

But....

If I had just one more Spirit Orb....

That would put me at seven sets....

Seven.... That’s a good number....

Hmmm....

Another day.

Good.

Night.

All.

I’m sleepin’ in a Rito Down Bed from noon-fifty until tomorrow morning.

Good night.

<3