The Long Way Back

Waking of Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The Long Way Back

I shared a somewhat.... irksome exchange with David the other day, as I lamented to him about all the dead-ended rivers I had searched. I told him I had searched every waterway downstream from the wetlands, and that none of them led to Lake Hylia.

And in a terrible digging voice and with shrewdly narrowed eyes he answered, “Are you sure?”

Well.

I did wonder about that lake beneath Digdogg Suspension Bridge, and I hiked to the actual bridge (upon which I had never set foot) to have a look. In skirting round the sleeping Hinox and peering down over the edge, the water really did seem to come to a dead end just there.

But I wanted to be thorough. I pressed on into the desert landscape of the other side, had it out with a couple of mounted bokoblins—and one of their horses, a pretty, peach-dusty thing with a sandy mane, decided he didn’t want me on his back, and promptly jumped us both into the drink.

David lost it completely.

I just.... blinked.

....

The horse looked like a good mount, but I had no stamina for swimming after him, and so warped to the shrine just away beneath the bridge. After that it was a boat-ride back to the waterfall, a quick ascension in my Zora Armor, and.... I was still quite far away from where I had been....

But, as I was so close to the Great Plateau, I simply put on my Warm Doublet, warped to the shrine on the icy mountain, ENCOUNTERED A STRANGE TREASURE CHEST with the letters “EX” on it—for a moment I was terrified it might be a T-shirt or something.... but it was Bomb Arrows—don’t ask—and PARAGLIDED back to Digdogg Suspension Bridge.

I’d dealt with the bokoblins, and I finished off their friends in a nearby treehouse—David got quite a kick out of the Great Thunderblade I had acquired from Sheem Dagoze.

And after a good look about the place.... I decided that Yes, this really was a dead end to the river.

Ignoring my shrine-locator’s beeping, I ran all the way back to the Outskirt Stable.

It was....

It was time to start back. And set my face toward Akkala. And Robbie.

I did still decide to do this all on foot, however.

“Aren’t you gonna just.... Beam-Me-Up-Scotty?” David asked.

“I don’t wanna Beam-Me-Up-Scotty,” I said.

“You’re gonna walk the whole way?”

Well, maybe I’d Beam-Me-Up-Scotty just a little. I warped back to the Sheem Dagoze Shrine, and started north, for the Elma Knolls.

But first I came to that big toothy crack in the earth, found a shrine in the bottom of it, and completed that—I’m up to nine Spirit Orbs now; I really should find a Goddess statue....

And after that it was a very long jog past that sparse ruin over the water where I’d played hide-and-seek with the Korok—The Ancient Laboratory Ruin or something like that—aaaaall the way across the Elma Knolls with their endless wolves, and those mounted bokoblins with the fire arrows or whatever they were.... Got hit a couple of times there—

I didn’t feel like chewing through my food, but decided that, if I fell, I would just rely on Mipha.

What good is a gift avoided? And Mipha’s was a very good gift.

It was a very long trek, and the bokoblins cut me down to one heart, and a mob of giant blue chuchus cut me down to one quarter heart—but I kept running. And I kept killing wolves, never shying.

And it was raining, and I found Mils and Mina—not Nina, as it turned out—fighting against some bokoblins on the road, and I helped them out, and—

“Well there’s a split off the river,” said David.

I looked toward the castle. Beneath the unholy Calamitous Clouds, one fell fork split off and meandered away into the blackened landscape. It looked just like another part of the moat.

“I don’t think Lake Hylia’s in there,” I gestured to the castle lands.

“But.... open your map; maybe it connects with.... these down here.”

He indicated some rivers along the vein that ran between the Dueling Peaks.

“ . . . . Huh,” I said, “Maybe.” Perhaps.... this warranted some looking in to.

Also I had the feeling David was . . . . mmmm maybe nudging me around a bit.

The sun came out like a bad cliché when I finally jogged onto the friendly grounds of the Woodland Stable. It was 11:15 in the morning. I decided to take a forty-five minute nap to rejuvenate my aching one-quarter-heart body, and at noon, I took Thrice out for a ride.

We took the Thims Bridge road, over the mossy mounded hills and past the Honeydell—saving Leekah from a bokoblin on the way of course. But I stopped at one junction of the road I had never explored.

“Stay here,” I told Thrice, and climbed a bit over the rocks beside the long stretch of a T-junction. The stretch that pointed toward the castle....

“In my experience,” said David, “The closer you are to the castle....”

The farther you are from harm? I thought hopefully.

“The closer you are to trouble,” he finished.

“I’m just gonna take a little look,” I assured him, inwardly thinking how VERY like Famous Last Words those sounded....

I crept among the rocks until I was high enough to peer into the central plain before the castle. There at the base of the hill I was on.... coursed a little river. Flowing north to south. One that very probably could only have come from that split David had shown me earlier, among the big cubic stones surrounding the castle.

. . . .

Maybe....

Maybe....

I looked at my map again.

The river system near the Dueling Peaks.... the river that this one by the Honeydell may have connected with.... was called the Hylia River. And it was joined by the Squabble River from the Dueling Peaks....

But further downstream it was still called the Hylia River....

And then it ran away southward off of my known map.

Could it be . . . . ?

I came back to Thrice, and we pressed on to the Wetland Stable—saving Leekah again on the way—and I stopped.

Oh I was aching to go on. I had arced all the way north around the castle again in a great upside-down U, and I still had the drive and energy to keep going....!

But it was late again, and I did have to get up early.

But to be absolutely sure....

To see those waterways....

There was one more thing I could do in pursuit of the hapless missing Mei.

And it lay at the top of the alleged scariest Sheikah Tower in all the land.

At Jeddo Bridge

Waking of Tuesday, May 2, 2017 ~ 2

At Jeddo Bridge

Toffa was the man’s name. The old man at the stable who had asked me to go find the white horse.

I didn’t dare show him until after I’d registered him though; he is willful.

A proud and powerful beast. <3

Toffa was shocked and delighted and dumbfounded and just full of joy. The sight of the pure white horse!

“Son, you just made my life,” he said, “I guess staying alive in this godforsaken land was worth it after all.”

The stories from his grandfather were true. This must have been some grandchild of that stallion from long ago, and it was magnificent. He became wistful. “They say the sight of the Princess riding her white horse was a beauty beyond all words,” he said.

He was so happy to have seen the white horse, that he gave me—the Royal Family’s saddle and bridle?

They were the very same. The same from my memory.

Augh, and how splendid Memory looked wearing them.

Regal and handsome.

I do wonder where and how Toffa came by that tack....

I rode Memory over the road north, all the way to the base of a big hill where we saw a moblin lurking around a bit higher up, and then back again to the stable. Just for us to get a bit more used to each other. The piano rollicked along in our wake all the way like sunlit raindrops, cadencing perfectly when we stopped.

But after that I boarded him again; there were no guarantees of flat ground where I was headed. The Stables would take good care of him while I was out.

I headed north again on foot, crossed Manhala Bridge, crested Sanadin Park Hill, and jogged across the skirts of Satori Mountain. A wide green field lay at its foot to my left—it again looked like a gorgeous place to have a row with something big and mean....

I didn’t stray into it, but kept near the river.

It was quite a long trek, and the rain came again before the end of it, this time with lightning. Strange, it’s become second nature to just switch to non-conductive gear; and if the ground beside me is flash-fried in an earthshaking bolt of electricity, I hardly even bat my eyes anymore at the little grassfires that may be left over.

I neared a very sticky bridge—I mean the sight of it made it seem comprised of just such a mess of sticks.

Was this the rickety-looking bridge I’d seen from below....?

Jeddo Bridge it was called. And shortly before I set foot upon it, I heard once again the sweet, poignant little waltz played on an accordion....

Through the downpour’s haze I could just make out, on the other side of the bridge, perched atop a big craggy hillock like a one-man stage.... Kass. Joying out his song to the wild wild rain in sweetloving abandon like he does. I love that guy. <3

As I crossed the bridge I could tell it wasn’t as rickety as it looked—but did it ever look it. If I didn’t know any better I’d say something huge had taken bites out of it.

Come to think of it, I guess I really didn’t know any better. o.O

I could see the river far below. This was the split that I had been looking for! Excellent.

But I had little time to celebrate because just before I reached the other side of the bridge, three stalmoblins burrowed up out of it and laid me out flat. I very nearly plummeted into the gorge, but only just managed to cling onto the stone just below the bridgeplanks—but I wouldn’t be able to hold on for long in this rain....!

But I looked, and there was a little ledge just below me. I dropped down onto it and sheltered beneath the northern end of the bridge for a while, the stalmoblins jabbing stupidly in my general direction with their spears. But they lost track of me momentarily and only snorfled around for some sign of anything else to harass.

I couldn’t very well climb back up.... I’d make a beautiful target until I reached the top. And besides that it was still raining.

I guessed I’d just have to wait for a change in the weather, or daybreak. Or both.

At length the stalmoblins disappeared and I did make it up to see Kass.

He hadn’t heard me come up on him; he was thinking about his teacher, who had passed away a long time ago. He played me the last song his teacher had taught him, and it spoke a riddle of a single arrow passing through two rings to make a shrine appear....

“Do you suppose it means all these strangely-shaped rocks?” Kass suggested, for there were numerous rings carved from jutting stones all around.

An Odyssean challenge!

Well! :D

I went to it.

It was tricky, as the land was so hilly and angled, and some blue chuchus interrupted me, but eventually I found a couple of rings I could thread a single arrow through. And as I did, the shrine of Sheem Dagoze rumbled out of the earth....

“Kass, look what I did!” I ran back to show him. He was politely astounded. ^_^

I had a warpable right at the root of the split I needed to search. Excellent!