Unwarranted Reserve

Waking of Friday, June 29, 2018

Unwarranted Reserve

Mary and Dorothy were over, and they wanted me to play, but I didn’t want to do the main quest.... And so from a save I had cast at the entrance to Chief Riju’s palace, I warped to the Forgotten Temple, and PROCEEDED TO CLEAN—IT—OUT.

It was awesome. Always good to get more practice in parrying Guardian shots. c: ....Though I must say it does tend to run my shield supply down right quick.... :c It’s harder when they’re far away.... and Daruk’s always having to help me.... I find the timing much easier when they’re.... hahhh.... RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU. 8(

It was a lovely hard drudge pushing the infestation out toward the canyon.... but well worth it. Did you know there are treasure chests down there in hidden cavities beside the air-fountain cracks in the ground? Rich ones, too! :D To say nothing of the treasures of Ancient Tech leftover from the slain Guardians.

It was nice to have my own run of the place when they were all gone. So spacious and cool.... It must have been a retreat most beautiful and serene once.

I paraglided back to the giant Goddess statue at the back, and offered a long overdue prayer, to receive another Heart Container. That was nice. :)

That particular exercise bumped me up to twenty-two gears, and so it was time for another visit to Robbie’s place.... and Cherry.

I spoke to her and she beeped and bwopped and I got through her menus and I scrolled down and—

....

I could get the pants. If I wanted to.

I could afford them.

But.... wait.

I quickly warped to Kakariko to check with Cotera, to see if there were anything else to which I could put my gears.... Oh, what was I thinking of? The difference betweeen a strong but partial set, and a weak but complete set? The Great Fairy told me what materials I needed.... But it looked like the higher Ancient upgrades would require more cores.

And I was short on cores.

....

Sooooo I warped back to Robbie’s, spoke to Cherry, dropped another great honking wad of cash.... and got the Ancient Greaves.

I had the set! 8D

My gosh when I put them all on I looked.... all dark and awesome and intimidating! ^_^ Especially when I put on the helm and you couldn’t see my eyes. X-)

So cool. XD

I had enough lesser parts to have Cotera upgrade my new Greaves by one level. But I only had two Ancient Gears left, and would not be able to upgrade further until I’d done a little.... mmmm.... shopping.

Or rather, a lot of shopping. A lot of shopping between Dueling Peaks and Hateno, looking for Teli and his miraculous wares....

I also took a moment every day to check with Hino in regards to the next Blood Moon. But I never did catch him at the right lunar phase.... there was a shrine waiting for me on Washa’s Bluff, I was SURE of it.... If I could just be there on a Blood Moon Midnight....

One thing I was very happy to discover was that, if I found Teli on the Hateno road, and it happened to be raining.... to lift the gloomy mood he would put out all his best wares! Including gears and cores! 8D

Ah, the rain in Hateno would be so sweet to me now....

....

Hateno Rain should be a song.

. . . .

Didn’t the Hateno Rain so depress and spook me once?

.  .  .  .  .  .  .

I do believe it did. Back on that long, weary road punctuated by my first Yiga Clan encounters.

Ah but I needn’t’ve let the rain spook me anymore. I was braver now, and the road was haunted anyway, rain or shine.

Because.... the Yiga were attacking me in the open now.

I guess my little trespass in Satan Canyon and the whole incident with Kohga must’ve.... not sat well with them.

I’d be jogging along a path, and that telltale orange glow would coalesce off to one side or another, that wicked cackle would clatter through the air.... Once in the bottleneck west of Teli’s Slope, I employed the Meteor Rod to fend off a Yiga Clansman, and the ricocheting fireballs nearly killed us both.

Travel was going to become a whole lot more.... interesting.

....

Well.... they wanted me to go full Curare—

I’d go full Curare.

I visited Kakariko to buy some carrots for one of my upgrades, played an arrow game for one Rola, and as long as I was there, decided to visit Impa.

She saw right away that I had reclaimed the Master Sword—my sword, she called it—and impressed upon me that Princess Zelda had sacrified everything to protect that sword and me, and told me not to forget it.

Well that was a sobering note.

Hhhh, in truth, I had not been using the Master Sword much, or at all. Barely.

I hunted Lizalfos, I hunted more Guardians....

Maybe I was subconsciously treating it like one of my other special weapons, like Mipha’s trident or Daruk’s hammerclub—no wait did I even pick that one up? I never used them because I wanted them to last, to stay pristine. They took up my pocket space.... If I bought that house in Hateno, would I be able to stow them there?

I bought more gears and another core. Or two.

I knew the sword wouldn’t break like any of my other weapons. I knew it could briefly lose its power.... But I had never taken it to that point. Why was I leaving it alone so much?

I showed Nebb the Duplex Bow. He gave me fifty rupees.

There’s a good lad.

I suppose there was the point that some of my other weapons were, in fact, stronger than the Master Sword.

But why was that?

I hunted still more Guardians.

I had seen David play, and his Master Sword had a damage-dealing level of sixty.

But my Master Sword.... had only a level of thirty.

No but sometimes it glowed with a brighter strength and a higher level....

No but then it was weak again.

Why did it do that?

Not that thirty was all that weak, mind; for a single-handed weapon that was pretty good....

But why did it change?

What was the pattern?

I visited.... Kaysa, to upgrade my greaves one more time; I had amassed the ten required gears. She kissed her giant finger and bopped me with it in a small explosion of magical dander, and that brought my third of three Ancient Armor pieces up to level two....

I put them all on.... Full sets of clothing that were double-enhanced came with a perk.... usually....

And this perk was.... Ancient Proficiency?

What did that even mean?

Or was it really a perk after all? Or simply a pronouncement of my own skill? I’d killed a lot of Guardians to get this far....

I supposed I’d find out soon enough.

I checked with the Great Fairy to go over my shopping list: Naydra horn, Molduga fins, diamonds, and cores.

I’d just figured Naydra was the name of the third dragon, the one I had not met.

For surely there must be three.

Well, I knew where to find the diamonds easily enough, and warped to Zora’s Domain. But before I found Ledo, I came across Prince Sidon not on his usual balcony above the square, but down near the fountain, before the statue of his sister Mipha.

I heard him murmuring to himself.... or to her....

“Mipha, are you still inside the Divine Beast?” He looked so heavily pensive. “Are you aiding Link in his fight?”

And then he turned—

“Link!” He started at the sight of me. But he made no pretenses. “So you heard that, huh? I’m afraid you caught me in a moment of vulnerability.”

He said.... something more, about his sister, though I don’t remember the words.

He was just a man missing a loved one.

And that’s all right.

“I’m sorry you had to see me in a weak moment,” he finished, or some such words, and I moved away.

Everyone’s weak some time. Even the Prince of the Zoras.

Even my sword....

Sure, I wielded it now, but did I really own it?

I needed to figure this out....

I found Ledo, traded him some Luminous Stones for a Diamond, and saved.

Zora's Domain Again

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 14

Zora’s Domain Again

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

Rivan was the first person I saw.

He marveled to me at the clearness of the sky.

I felt different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And I told him.

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

What could I say?

What do you say to a father?

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

“I’ll never forget her,” I said.

AND THEN SOME

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 12

AND THEN SOME

I’m sorry to say that David and I kind of giggled irreverently at the placement of the final map marker. Well, we supposed it was near the end of the dungeon after all.

It was one more long, slow walk down the middle of the floor as I approached the terminal at the far end. I watched the time as I went; it was nearing midnight. I stepped in front of the pedestal just on the stroke of twelve, and held out my Sheikah Slate. But just before I made contact, a dark force repelled me, and then coalesced in the center of the room into a hideous, grotesque creature, seemingly composed of the same black-and-purple substance I’d seen all over the Divine Beast. Long, gangling—did it have legs? I only remember its cruel, spidery arms, one of them wielding an enormous blade of blue light. A dark red mane ran down its neck and spine.

This was Waterblight Ganon.

This was the thing that had murdered Lady Mipha.

For a time I shot him with arrows from behind the great pedestal while he cast his magical spear at me repeatedly—it rematerialized in his grasp every time.

Moblin’s Magic Spear, I thought ridiculously.

But my arrows weren’t doing enough damage. “I can’t keep this up,” I said. I’d have to face him directly. The biggest stick I had was a double-edged blade that dealt 38 damage a blow. I equipped it, and ran at him—

But he took offense at the strokes I dealt, and began to flood the chamber. It had been full of ankle-deep water before, but now.... there was nowhere to stand but on four isolated raised platforms.

He started casting huge blocks of ice at me, just as Vah Ruta had done. They were easy enough to dodge.... sort of. At times they knocked me into the water—they hurt me. And it was so slow to swim back and get back on my feet—

“Use Cryonis!” said David.

But would it work?

I aimed my Slate at the next volley of ice blocks—and I could break them.

And I felt like a FOOL for wasting so many arrows outside with the Prince!

Mipha’s voice came dimly into my mind: If only the ice could be used as a weapon.

“Try Stasis!” said David at the same time I thought it—

I shattered all but one of the demon’s next volley, and then stopped the last one in its tracks just before it collided with me. I hammered it four times with my Special 38 before the Stasis broke, and the stored kinetic energy hurtled it back into the beast and wounded him considerably! He sagged into the water, hanging onto one of the pillars for support.

And as he floated dead in the water there I took out my arrows once more and shot the blazes out of him—and this time they had a much greater effect. Flame Arrows I shot at him, all I had, which was about ten, as well as the one Bomb Arrow I had ever seen in my life—the explosion rocked the room.... “Die, die, DIE, DIE, YOU PUTRID—” I shouted at him, reveling in the volume I could attain with no sleepers in the house—

The monster was very weak by the time he regained himself in a last wind—he cast ice at me again, and again I shattered them all but one, and hurled that one back in his face, and that one did it. That one finished him.

Oh the ungodly screams and cries that issued from this.... abomination.... as it writhed and curled and melted and evaporated into oblivion—it was grotesque....

I wished it would die faster.

Even the thing that had killed Lady Mipha.

TWO HEROIC MEN TOO AWESOME FOR WORDS

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 9

TWO HEROIC MEN TOO AWESOME FOR WORDS

I stood a while with Sidon on the dock before we spoke. When we did he turned and flashed his winning grin at me—a bit more subdued this time.

I don’t suppose waiting would have made it any easier. But then.... somehow, with Sidon there, in all his mad grinning confidence, his unwavering surety.... maybe it didn’t seem like such a hard thing after all.

He leapt into the water, flipping like he does, and called me in. I would ride on his back. He would get me close, and with my Zora Armor I would be able to ascend the four waterfalls spilling from Vah Ruta’s back, to land my Shock Arrows on the orbs above.

And away we went, slicing through the water at incredible speed! Prince Sidon’s dulcet tenor spurring us onward, steady as a rock—that guy could move. And when Vah Ruta reacted to our presence—I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t that!

How it trumpeted, crying out so loudly—pulling huge blocks of ice from the water, hovering them up as if by magic, and hurling them at us one after the other.

“Get rid of that ice!” the Prince shouted to me. Two of the bergs struck us, and it hurt—Sidon punched through—before I got my fumbling bow into my hands, whereupon I started dropping them out of the air one by one as Sidon flew through the water in a wide curve, arcing round the beast. Spray flew, rain slashed at our faces, and when Vah Ruta’s opening volley had run dry, Sidon darted in toward its side—“Do you have those Shock Arrows?” he called.

Man. His voice so fair and princely even here.

I readied them in my quiver. Sidon came right up against the raging beast’s side, maintaining a swift movement—no static targets here—as he bounded back and forth between two of the waterfalls. “Now, Link!”

I took the fall on the right side, I leapt from his back, spearing upward, upward, leaping in and out of the current like a fish, testament to the handiwork of Lady Mipha—until I broke through the upper surface and shot into the air—high above my target. I drew my bow, looked down, and time seemed to slow.... There was the orb, huge and pink, I drew, pulled back, let fly.... everything crackled and yellow and then I was falling....

I plashed back into the water with jarring violence, back in the tempest, back in the storm, back up to speed—“Nice going!”—there he was—and I grabbed onto the Prince’s back again and he hauled us outta there—Vah Ruta had collected more ice to try and crush us with—grateful I was carrying so many arrows.... though my bows couldn’t take all the firing.... grateful I was packing more than one bow....

Again and again, THAT VOICE.

WHO VOICED THIS GUY?

“Can you stop that ice?”

“Get those Shock Arrows!”

“You did it, Link!”

“Shock Arrows ready?”

And as I plummeted from the final orb—“Marvelous!”

AND YOU KNOW? It’s possible it’s not even a stupendous actor and he’s just lucky to be riding on the writing and animation of a character who already bleeds charisma! But I just like him!

Just channeling through the water like a mad torpedo on the back of the Prince of the Zoras, diving up waterfalls and sailing into the sky for freefalling archery with that friggin’ dulcet tenor still playing the cheer squad and EAUGH!

Do you know how hard I pumped my fists, how high I pranced and skipped as I went to close the curtains because it was getting dark, how convicted my affirmations to the house at large that “THAT WAS SO COOL”?

GAUGH.

Yes, I think the voice acting did add something, thickened the atmosphere of the charged, charged moment.

And as the Divine Beast Vah Ruta quieted, as the waterflow cut off and the sky became brighter.... Sidon took us in close—there was a platform....

“You wanted to get inside that thing, right?”

I did want to get inside it.

I still had to infiltrate its depths, and retake it for Princess Zelda.

“Finish the job, Link,” Sidon urged, low and even from the water below as the Beast began to float higher and I was lifted away, higher and higher....

Shatterback Point

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 8

Shatterback Point

I could see the Lynel down through the pines, still prowling over his meadow.

That was a beast so fierce....

I’d gotten my twenty shock arrows. Plus four more I found stuck in the highest tree on the mountain—near which I saw a sign jutting out of the rock. It read:

JUMP AT YOUR OWN RISK

For there was the precipice.

I still wore my Zora Armor, and was not catching a chill.

Shatterback point, it seemed, was still in an accessible altitude.

The sun was brighter up here, and far, far below in the Reservoir, the Divine Beast Vah Ruta still spewed and churned its endless surge of water up into the air.

My gosh the views from up here.... I could see a few unvisited shrines! But such a strain to look back over the long miles I had traveled since my awakening. The Dueling Peaks lost in the surging waterspout. These were landscapes unfamiliar to me. I was far from.... well anywhere really.

I took several moments to catch my breath.

The force to be reckoned with here....

But.... eventually I had nowhere else to go.... but down.

I knew if I jumped over water, I would arc into a dive.

And this was a good diving spot, Gruve had said. His favorite.

And I could see the Reservoir below me. Misted over by mere atmosphere, my gosh....

And screwing up my courage.... I leapt.

Plummeting, plummeting, spearing down through the air and—a diagonal line of contrast cut across my view almost directly below me. Dark on one side, light on the other.

It was the shore, no, I was going to land in the shallows—Gruve was this part of your diving thrill?

It rushed toward me as I joysticked upward and could not deviate from my course and—no, it was not the shore—it was the mountain’s shadow on the water—

Splash!

I had arrived at the—in the Eastern Reservoir.

Thank goodness there was a shore, though, just a short swim behind me now. I made for it....

Once on solid ground again I hiked back westward over the paths and craggy rocks toward the Reservoir wall above Zora’s Domain. There was a long pier there—one of four, I think, about the Reservoir—hewn of the same light blue stone as all the other Zoran architecture I had seen. A hop, skip and a jump more to a big bald shelf of stone, and I came even with it.

Prince Sidon was standing there at its end, gazing out over the grey water.

I called out to him, but I don’t think he could hear me. Probably the roar of Vah Ruta’s constant waterspouting.

But it was only a few more moments of climbing, and jumping over some guardrails, before I made it to the pier myself.

It was quite nice, broad and spacious, with a kind of ramada on the wallward side, away from the water, with a bed underneath it. A soft bed, sheltered from the rain....

Sidon was keen to my presence by this point, but I’d decided I needed to rest up for a bit before we did this, and he respected that.

It was some time after seven in the evening. I figured a full night’s sleep would do me good—I’d just about had it with that Lynel.

I rested until the morning....

The Tale of the Dread Octorok

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 6

The Tale of the Dread Octorok

I saw one more stone bearing a carved history, as I made my way up the mountain.

This one was actually about Prince Sidon.

He traveled to—I don’t remember the name of the bay—to confront an enormous octorok that had been terrorizing the populace there, and wreaking havoc on the fishing trade.

He battled with it valiantly to be sure, but in the end—it swallowed him whole.

Many a brave Zora had gone that way, and none had ever returned.

But just when all seemed lost, the octorok began to writhe and twist in pain—its stomach distended and bulged—Prince Sidon’s spear tip pierced its side.

The beast could suffer no further wounding, and so coughed up the Prince onto the beach and fled away into the sea.

And none had ever seen it again.

....

Why do I have a feeling that might be about to change....?

Hundred-Year-Old Memory

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 2

Hundred-Year-Old Memory

I donned my new Zora Armor, and went downstairs to find Sidon and Muzu by the statue of Lady Mipha.

The Prince seemed a little hot-headed about something, seemed to be holding something in.... and it was in the pattering rain, with narrowed eyes that he finally said it plain to Muzu’s face:

I, Link, was the one Lady Mipha had loved.

I reeled.

I didn’t move, but I reeled.

What? Me? How? But—

“I didn’t know it at the time of course, being only a child,” the Prince went on, “But for years after her death I had always heard the tales from my father about my sister’s undying love for a Hylian named Link—”

“Until you can show me one shred of proof—!” Muzu contended.

I felt.... so guilty then as I looked up into her face in the statue.... staring, staring.... I gasped—

A sunny time in the Reservoir when Vah Ruta was quiet, and Mipha and I sat atop the very tip of its trunk raised high in the air—so tiny on its bronzy, gargantuan form....

Just talk. Just talk as she moved her hand over my arm, the pulsing blue-white glow from her palm swaying gently over the deep gashes in my flesh.

And she was reminded of when I was just a reckless child, and she was always willing to heal my wounds, and how I looked grown-up so fast....

And maybe if Calamity Ganon did come back, and we could seal him away.... maybe things could go back to the way they used to, she said, and maybe.... maybe we could spend some time together—

“You’re shivering like a hatchling, what’s wrong with you?” Muzu spat.

“Mipha.... I remember,” I said.

“Oh don’t tell me you remember her now, when it’s most convenient.”

“Don’t you get it yet, Muzu?” the Prince interjected. “The proof is right in front of you. Look at him.”

It slowly dawned on both Muzu and myself that.... the Zora Armor crafted by Lady Mipha.... fitted my body perfectly.

My human body.

She had made it for me.

Muzu quieted.

If this was really the one Lady Mipha had loved....

He told me there was a great monster, on Ploymus Mountain—a Lynel.

Oh dear.

Prince Sidon gasped. “It’s a man-beast!” he shouted.

Muzu told me it had the Shock Arrows. They could be found high on Ploymus Mountain. I could collect them there. They were scattered all over.

But, he confided to me there was a chance I might not survive.

But I had to help the Prince. And retake the Divine Beast as last instructed by Princess Zelda through Impa.

And.... for Mipha’s sake.... I had to do something.

Sidon flashed his winning grin and called me to the plan—he would head for the Eastern Reservoir, where Vah Ruta was, and I could use the Zora Armor to take the shortcut up Mikau and Lulu Lakes to the high meadows of Ploymus Mountain—and after I got the Shock Arrows—at least twenty of them, Muzu suggested—we could meet up at the piers on top of the Eastern Reservoir.

Right now? I thought. I felt like I’d just lived a hundred years.

I had lived a hundred years.

And by the way who was he to address me as Young One when we first met when I may very well have been his same age or even older—

That grin.

He’s a good leader, Sidon is.

“I’m in. Let’s do this!” I chose the bold response.

I just needed to take a couple of detours first....

Lord of the Zoras

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017

Lord of the Zoras

Well, it was time to follow Sidon, and go and speak with the Zora King.

I found him in the high throne room.

He was massive. Royal blue body and back, pale moon-white front and face, and a bulging lobe like a beluga’s with a lighter-colored slash across the front—the mark of his battle with the Guardian. Jeweled silver armor and regalia spilled over his great, pleated barrel chest, and his trailing head-fin—longer than many trees I had ever seen—had been pushed to hang down his left side. Towering, towering above me, he sat proud and tall between his son Prince Sidon on his left, and a bent old green-skinned, ray-headed Zora on his right.

He recognized me too. And he said so.

But Prince Sidon had not. “That Link?” he said, “THE Link?” He had thought my name sounded familiar, I remembered he had said before.

That the Hylian Prince Sidon had found to aid them would turn out to be no less than the Champion Link.... King Dorephan concluded that our meeting, then, must have been nothing short of destiny.

But I told him that I had lost my memory. He seemed aghast that I could not even remember his daughter, Lady Mipha. Shocked.... but not unsteadied.

All the Zora elders seemed to hate me because I had taken away their Lady Mipha—and here was Lady Mipha’s father. Perhaps the one with the most reason of all to despise me. And yet he showed no trace, gave no sign.... I had.... a great admiration for the civilized tone he still used with me.

He seemed a goodly king; had his head on straight—he was trying to think of all the people of Hyrule. Vah Ruta had the ability to create an endless supply of water, and if it wasn’t stopped soon, not only would the resulting floods wreak havoc among the Zoran kingdom, water-breathers though they were, but it would also affect countless Hylian lives in the lands downstream. Already the effects were showing—I had even seen Ledo, and an apprentice of his named Fronk, trying to work repairs on a number of support pillars that had become damaged in the downpour.

Vah Ruta needed to be dealt with, very soon, and the truth, King Dorephan conceded, doing me the courtesy of being bluntly honest, was that the Zoras could not handle the Divine Beast alone.

The four orbs upon its back, which controlled the waterflow, were offline and out of control, and they needed an electrical current running through them to stem the flow of water.

This was what I was here for.

Because my body was more insulated against the Shock Arrows they would need to stabilize the orbs.

They asked for my aid.

Well, I had good news for them: Princess Zelda had tasked me with nearly the same goal.

King Dorephan—the unbelievable bulk of him—shot forward in his throne. “Princess Zelda is alive?” he asked.

“Yes, in Hyrule Castle,” I said.

He concluded once more that our meeting must have been fated. If there was a chance to retake Vah Ruta, there was also a chance to seal away Calamity Ganon for good....

He would give me all the help I needed—and he gifted me a set of beautiful Zora Armor, which has been crafted by Zoran Princesses for generations.

At this point the ray-headed Zora, Muzu, had had enough. Hylians, he argued, were the reason the world was in the state it was in in the first place, ever since they had sought out and abused the ancient technology of the Sheikah one hundred years ago.

To give one of them a Zoran Princess’ armor—armor that was traditionally supposed to be crafted for the one the Zora Princess would marry....

And Lady Mipha had crafted that armor herself! How could King Dorephan just hand it over to the very one who led Lady Mipha to her death?

Prince Sidon rebuked him, telling him to watch the way he spoke to the King and his guest, and reminding him that working together with the Hylians was their best chance of stopping Vah Ruta.

But Muzu wouldn’t have it, and he left the throne room.

Prince Sidon followed him.

The King asked me to follow as well, to try and talk to him.... because Muzu was the resident expert on just where and how Shock Arrows could be found.

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.

The Deviated Hero

Waking of Friday, March 17, 2017

The Deviated Hero

I once again meandered about the beautiful Zora’s Domain, and on this occasion took my sweet, sweet time.

“You’re female, right?”

The single option available for Link to select when he speaks to Dunma.

“Why, yes. How observant you are!” Or something to that end, she replies.

“How old are you?”

“....That’s not a question appropriate to ask a girl you’ve just met.”

The game does.... Well I think it is the least blank I have ever seen Avatar Link before. And not just in Zora’s Domain; there have been other places where a definite attitude all his own has cropped up, in his various response options.

By which I mean it’s a little bit of a tighter fit for the player to impress his own image into the Avatar—sometimes I haven’t cared for any of the responses I’ve had the option to give! (I think Skyward Sword offered a better variety of personality for the player to assume.) But.... I suppose it’s easy enough to pick the responses most appropriate—or least unappropriate as the case may be—to the persona you wish to project into the gameworld.

Not to say Link’s hinted personality is not, at times, charming in its own right.

And I do.... respect it....

As I respect the semi-voiced dialogue—spoken words during important cutscenes....

Dang you Prince Sidon that dulcet tenor timbre and the winning grin just—

....

It’s always tough to match up the lip-flaps.

Unsaved

Waking of Monday, March 13, 2017

Unsaved

I only walked about. I was weary from my long hike up the river.

I talked with some of the other Zora I saw moving about—and saw a few familiar faces! Ledo and Torfeau.... I found out Tona actually worked in a shop up here, but I didn’t actually see her until I bumped into a group of Zora girls downstairs on the other side of the . . . . do I call it a square? It seems to want a more elegant word than that, so high pillared above the beautiful waterfalls.

The group of Zora girls, it seemed.... were members of a Prince Sidon Fan Club.

Seemed the prince was quite popular with the ladies around here! Somehow I didn’t find it surprising. The man bled charisma.

Tula was the name of their club president. Laflat was the name of the secretary I had met before. Dunma was the name of Rivan’s.... daughter, it turned out. Not a son.... I had met so many Zora.... and a Goron.... There were a lot of people up here.

I suppose it was comforting to find so many goodly folk all together, and safe, in one place, but.... maybe just a little bit overwhelming for a small-town guy like me.

A small-town guy?

Maybe I only thought that because small towns were the only places I’ve been—or the only places I remember being.

I’m not a small-town guy. What am I?

A Resurrection Chamber guy?

I hope I can find my memories soon.

Not the least reason for which is because every aged Zora I spoke to in Zora’s Domain was unhappily disgusted to see my face.

What had they thought I’d done to their beloved Mipha?

....

What had I done to their beloved Mipha?

I couldn’t vouch for myself—I had no memory.

What had I done?

I went to see the king, and quit without saving.

Rivan

Waking of Saturday, March 11, 2017 ~ 7

Rivan

The road to Zora’s Domain was the longest and most dangerous I had encountered yet. But I did make it to the top.

Near the end I found a couple of large stone tablets bearing records of ancient deeds—the first recounting one Zora King’s triumph against a Guardian that no other Zora soldier could best.

The second was very worn down, and told of the Ancient Hero’s defeat of.... something that was always missing some letters due to time and erosion.

Had I done something?

The first time I saw the word, I could only make out the first and last letters—both L’s—Ah, “Lizal”, perhaps? It would make sense with all the Lizalfos around.

But at the next encounter of that word, the second letter was Y, not I. And I think the one before the final L was an E.

Oh no.

I think I might know what Joseph’s centaurs might be.

I have never played a game wherein I had to fight one. But....

It seems they are powerful but I must not be daunted.

I must remember my old self.

I made it to the top. David asked if that were Minas Morgul. “See the glowing walls?” he said.

“Yes. That is Minas Morgul,” I said, and continued on.

At the far end of the final long bridge, Prince Sidon met me, grin still flashing and eyes still burning and strength still exuding from his royal person. He said it was time to meet his father, and to come this way—

I would.

At a walk.

The road had been long.

Two Zora guards were the first people I encountered. The one on the right seemed.... piqued by my appearance. “Hmm?” I heard him murmur. And when I turned to him— “MASTER LINK!” he shouted, “It’s me! Rivan! We used to swim together when I was but a child!”

Oh my, this was—

But I didn’t recognize him.

He conceded that.... perhaps that was understandable, given that it had been a hundred years. “Come to think of it,” he continued, “shouldn’t you be dead?” And then he backtracked murmuring something about perhaps that question being too personal for a Hylian....

His son, the other guard, reminded him they were on duty.

This.... Rivan.... He said he was now a hundred and thirty years old....

How long do Zora live?

Oh I wished I could stay and talk to him, but....

Farther on there was a fountain with a statue of what I learned to be Lady Mipha, who once controlled the Divine Beast Vah Ruta. The personal secretary of the Zora King told me this—I don’t remember her name.

She told me Mipha’s skill at healing the wounded had been unparalleled, and that all the aged soldiers who had fought by her side so loved and revered her above all others.

Lady Mipha.... someone I had known....

I was running out of juice.

I just needed to keep following that orange glow just ahead....

I made it to the shrine, went inside, was you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me’d by the goings-on inside, solved it all anyhow, received the Spirit Orb....

And saved.

Cheer Squad Prince Sidon

Waking of Saturday, March 11, 2017 ~ 6

Cheer Squad Prince Sidon

I really think I should have used Prince Sidon’s elixir more effectively—that is to say at all.

Because I tend to save special things until I really, really, really desperately need them, and I’m afraid to waste them because what if something worse lies farther on?

And so they never get used.

But those Lizalfos archers with the Shock Arrows....

They cost me a very important shield I had picked up earlier—it could deflect Guardian blasts!

DANG THOSE LIZALFOS—NO MERCY HENCEFORTH SHALL THEY FIND FROM ME.

But....

At whiles, Prince Sidon would call to me from the water, and let me know how I was progressing, how far I was along the route....

And he would always end with encouraging words for me.

“DON’T GIVE UP! I BELIEVE IN YOU!”

“KEEP GOING! YOU CAN DO IT!”

That sparkling Zora grin now REALLY....

He really does make a fine leader among his people I think. Or I expect he would; I’ve yet to find out. But I can only imagine what manner of respect a Prince would give his own people, who treats an outsider with such praise and encouragement. It seems no facade to me. And he came downriver to search too.

On a high bridge very near the end of the road, he gave me further guidance and encouragement—and then suddenly broke off to warn me that an enemy approached from my rear....!

I turned—

Black moblin—

Oh no, I’d avoided these ones, always managed to avoid these ones except with bombs or arrows, but now....

I had nothing for it, I unsheathed my strongest, fastest weapon and went to it—and....

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been finding stronger and stronger weapons lately.... he did manage to strike me once or twice—and it hurt—but he went down smoother than that first one with the hammer had done.

Well that was encouraging. I could handle them after all.