Waking of a Saturday, February 3, 2018 ~ 3
I pressed forward through the
jungle again, as the rain-haze came and went. And the foliage and brush were
still so thick that it came once more as a surprise when the leaves suddenly
parted and I was presented with a wider view of the valley.
It took me a moment to understand
what I was seeing.... I could see on my HUD that I was very near to the
riverhead—I thought I should be able to make out the shape of the toothy mouth.
But that wasn’t what caught my eye
first.
Looming in the dimness—was it daytime or nighttime?—a large, very large shape of stone thrust from
the deepest wall at the back of the box canyon, thick, and heavy, and greened
with atmosphere or moss. It was enshrouded and entangled by the sprawling
plants, and hazed by distance and mist, so that it was difficult to say where
the stone ended and the canyon wall began. Everything
was so dim....
But even in the darkness, the shape
was unmistakable—mountaining over the
last grinning lake of the dragony river, flanked by two taloned paws of the
same immense scale, stood the masoned head of a dragon.
Dodongo’s
Cavern, I thought, seeing the enormous lower jaw there like a ramp into the
Inferno. The Lizalfos that guarded it were so tiny....
Surely this must have shown up on
the topo—I checked my map and could see it now, even the claws. How had I never seen—?
But it had always stood just
adjacent to the gaping, bright blue mouth of the ribbony dragon river. Of course. How could anything stand out juxtaposed
against that?
I decided to pick off a Lizalfos or
two with my bow before venturing too far from the shelter of the trees. The range
made it tricky, but I couldn’t have them alerting any of their friends to my
presence.
Scoping in to examine the dragon’s
head further, I saw part of a cubic Korok puzzle standing on the back of the
big right paw.
Well,
I could do that at least, I thought, and moved ahead through the gloom.
But as I drew near, something beyond the puzzle caught my
eye—something.... glowing.
A MEMORY?
I bypassed the puzzle—the light was
coming from behind—inside—the
dragon’s neck. It seemed much of it was hollow. That made sense, with the
gaping jaw-ramp.
But as I clambered closer over the
mossy, sloping terrain, I could see it was not a memory.
It was a Goddess Statue.
IN—? WHAT?
—the
name of the place gleamed over the screen—
IN.... THE SPRING OF COURAGE.
THIS
WAS THE SPRING OF COURAGE.
I
HAD FOUND ANOTHER SPRING.
I killed the Moblin keeping the
inside of the Dragon’s Head—and waded through the water to pray before the
Goddess.... I think.... Oh, was there some kind of sign in the stonework or was it.... Her?
Whence
came those instructions?
Hhhh, I must
not put off the keeping of the log for so long....
-_-
Said to offer Farosh’s Scale to the
spring.
I had two scales on me, and I
parted with one.
Light
shone where I dropped it into the water, right in the center before the statue
of the Goddess. Golden light shooting
straight up from the tiny concentric ripple....
And a mighty stone door opened in
the grey canyon wall behind the Goddess.
Inside was a Blessing Shrine. The Shae Katha Shrine.
After collecting the monk’s Spirit
Orb, I came back out and proceeded to climb the Dragon’s Head—a gigantic tree
rooted among the springwaters inside came bursting through the top of the neck.
The views from its upper boughs were excellent, and aside from that I found a
Korok!
But.... it was getting late.
From the treetop I saw the other
half of the cubic puzzle I’d seen on the right paw—it happened to be on the left paw, and that one held the
Magnesable piece.
I paraglided down, and studied the
structure very carefully before
removing the spare block and trekking back behind the Dragon’s Head to the
other side again. After inserting the block correctly into the first puzzle,
the Korok appeared, I got a seed and....
I called it a day.
I climbed back onto the Dragon’s
Head for a safe perch, settled down somewhere near its right ear, saved, and
quit.
I was done.
