Divine Beast Vah Medoh

Waking of Sunday, January 6, 2019 ~ 4

Divine Beast Vah Medoh

“Well now,” said a well-polished voice as I stood on the Divine Beast, “I think I’ve seen that face before.”

Revali!

“I had a feeling you would show up eventually. But making me wait a hundred years is a bit...indulgent.” The rapier glimmered in deigning to even prick me.

“You’re here to wrest control of Medoh away from Ganon, correct?”

I was.

Revali pointed me toward the interface and Sheikah Stone from which I could distill the local map, asking at the last if I thought I could make my way there.

Huh, didn’t sound like he thought any more of me, after all these years.

I made it to the map terminal just fine; it was in the bird’s head, seemed like. Two large, circular windows—Vah Medoh’s eyes—were set into the walls on either side of the chamber, which was surprisingly smaller than I’d have thought.... this being a Divine Beast.... I feel.... like I’ve written this before....

Once I’d distilled the map into my Slate, Revali ran down the control terminals, stating that I would need to activate them all. And then, again, “Think you’re up to it?”

Even now, his voice bore a tinge of.... snideness.

Well.... Better start makin’ my way around, I thought.

I checked out the Divine Beast’s controls. Tilt? It looked like I could rock the wings....

And I regarded the inside of the torso. I’d seen it getting to the head, but now studied it more closely in light of how the Divine Beast might move.

A number of large blocks were suspended in the central space, far removed from both floor and ceiling, but all on the same horizontal plane parallel to the ground. The two metal blocks were attached to two rails that spanned the space from fore to aft. The three stone blocks ran on rails crossing between starboard and port.

I could see—the metal blocks I could move with Magnesis, but the stone blocks would slide according to the tilt of the Beast.

OH this could really screw things up. I hated disrupting their discovered orientation, and knew I probably wouldn’t be able to restore it, but I wouldn’t let that stop me now! Besides, it looked like different orientations would give access to different areas. So I started moving, Vah Medoh cried out at my commands, and I made my way into the port wing.

With the bending of the world inside the Beast, I found that the tilt of the inner decks was at a steeper grade even than my paragliding angle. This meant I could fly farther and longer, but it was dizzying—never paraglided up to something before....

Inside the port wing—MALICE MOUTHS?

OH GOSH WHAT—THIS WAS UNHOLY!

I KILLED IT.

Ugh. ._.

Also, the music sounded.... poisoned.

This place did NOT want me here.

I came to the first terminal and activated it.

“There are four terminals remaining,” came Revali’s voice, “Still a ways to go.”

And that was when it all.... turned.

Oh my gosh, this music was so freaking.... the strings....

THE STRINGS. I CAN’T.

THE DESPERATION.

THE HOPE.

As the music of the early Beasts had been open, and neutral.... and then turned dark and insidious once it caught on to me activating the terminals....

And as the music of the following Vah Naboris had started out in seething anger at my presence.... only to give way to a brighter, stronger sound as I claimed more territory, returned hope to the ancient contraptions....

Now the music of this final Beast—what the harmonic minor....—at first poisoned in the wretched wrath and fury of a cornered, dying thing.... at my DARING to move forward for the kill and the entire reclamation, was now running, now flying, now clinging and willing and praying in the desperate heat of a final bid for freedom from the darkness. Undauntable not by choice but by necessity. Surely this music had to be the culmination.

There is hope for the world, I thought.

There is hope for this world.

I found the second terminal behind a gusty, howling puzzle involving a very large, round porthole in the wall that I’d had to open.... and activated it.

“There are three terminals remaining!” Revali’s voice echoed, “Keep going.”

And Hey! I could see Shatterback Point out the window! And Death Mountain! As we wheeled through the sky....

I can’t take this music, it’s.... it’s too amazing.

I couldn’t find the lower terminal in the port wing indicated by my map, so I went to the starboard side and locked down the third terminal there. Paragliding upward to find treasure chests was so strange....

“There are two terminals remaining. You’re almost there.”

He sounded.... surprised.

I looked out another porthole I’d opened, and I could see Mount Nero! And the Tabantha Tower! Clear as day.... Right there.... As if I were only paragliding very, very high.... All the world stretching out before me.... So many familiar landmarks.... all close enough to fly down and touch....

The music was not changing anymore with the different terminals.

It was still just that strong, determined, indeterrable, indomitably swelling string section.

There is still hope for this world.

My Compendium already had pictographs of Cursed Bokoblins and Cursed Moblins.... Now in the lower part of the torso, down on the floor, I finally got a pictograph of a Cursed Lizalfos.

Gross.

There was a Malice Mouth down there, and it would occasionally spit these undead floating skulls out into the room.... It was.... really alarming, when the Cursed Lizalfos saw me and just.... rushed me in this distorted flying lurch—

I prefer the live ones.

After I’d gotten the pictograph and killed the skull, I found and accessed an outer deck via a large open hatch on the starboard side. This deck wrapped around to the fore in a broad and happily uniform kind of walkway. The arc of it passed beneath Vah Medoh’s neck and continued round to the port side, where a similar hatch led back into the central chamber.

That was where the eyeball was. The eyeball to that mouth what’d been spittin’ out gross things.

I shot it.

That cleared up the central chamber all right, or it cleared it up enough—there were always little rogue Malice Pools you couldn’t get rid of, and which you just had to watch your footing around.

But after that I went back outside, for I had seen something else along the outer walkway....

There were launch points out here. Like grandiose diving platforms, complete with ornate little railings leading up the steps to nowhere. I could imagine the ancient Rito who must have manned this thing diving off them into the sky....

And beyond the port side launching platform, I could see, there, in the belly of the port side wing.... there was the next terminal. Standing in an open belly hatch near the wingtip.

I would have to fly to get there.

Oh my gosh.

So—I tilted the bird—rocked the port wing down into a dip—the Rito Rock was RIGHT THERE below—I had stood on that rock—the angle aligned and the port wing was down—and—

I flew.

Oh my gosh this music COULD NOT be more.... appropriate.

I did not want to let go of my paraglider until I was WELL inside the little hollow of the belly hatch. I landed on the pedestal itself, in a deep recess far away from the door, and ACTIVATED.

“Just one terminal remaining!”

And he laughed a little huff.

“What do you know?”

Still sounded surprised.

I rocked Medoh’s wings the other way and paraglided back to the main deck. Now I’m dropping the Vah....

Starboard side? The last terminal was in that wing, but.... I hadn’t been able to reach it via the inner decks....

I jogged through the Beast and out onto the other external walkway.

There. It must have been in the same, opposite belly hatch.

And that was guarded by a Malice eyeball.

The last terminal must be in there....

It took a few arrows, but at the proper tilt, I was able to shoot the eyeball at long range. And once its attendant cluster of Malice had evaporated, I scoped in and could see....

There was a gondola!

The track ran above, attached to the underside of the starboard wing!

I tilted the Beast, brought it to me.... and rode it.

I stepped inside, rocked the wings back the other way and it started moving my gosh I was.... I was in the air with so little to hold me.

“Don’t fail me, Gondola....” I murmured.

The apparatus seemed so spindly. Somehow I didn’t trust it as much as I did my paraglider....

But it held firm, and took me well into the starboard belly hatch. At the far end was an upward ramp leading back to the inner deck. The last terminal was up there....

I’m here, Revali.

I activated it.

“That was the last terminal! Now you just need to start the main control unit!” Revali’s voice echoed in what sounded like impressment. But he quickly brought the rapier under a fine-tuned control again, “I want you to take a good look at your map. There should be a new glowing point on there. Well?”

Still condescending a bit.

But I don’t mind.

“Flap to it!”

And the aforelocked door between this last terminal’s antechamber and the rest of the starboard side wing-deck opened. I was free to move back into the interior of the Beast, bypassing the gondola.

The music has changed.

This is desperation. This is some kind of wire.

Have I gotten all the chests? I think I have....

I feel like I need to hurry.... This music....

This is it.

The Last Frontier

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019 ~ 2

The Last Frontier

From the Ancient Columns and down the gentler, grassier back of the hill, I sported with a few Moblins and a lily-Korok before striking toward the Sheikah Tower.

The tower stood at the crest of a rocky hill to the north, across an empty gorge where the road bent and twined. Malice crawled all over the stones around the tower’s base. It was at a lower altitude than where I was, but I could tell I wouldn’t be able to paraglide directly onto the tower. The best I could hit was partway up the slope on the gorge’s far side.

Mom was with me during this part. I enjoy.... just being with my Mom. Even when she still starts and warns and cautions whenever I run along the edges of cliffs or take flying leaps into the air.

She is a Good Mom. <3

I floated over, scrambled up the far slope, and came to where the tower was. Malice completely encompassed its base; I couldn’t access it. There were a few tall stones standing here and there; I thought perhaps if I could get on one of those.... I could paraglide from one to the other.... maybe paraglide onto the side of the tower, but.... No, the distances were too great. I’d fry in the slime.

“Gooped. Ya got gooped.” –PBG

I couldn’t climb a stone and float over to the tower, but....! There!

I found an eyeball. :)

I shot it, it poofsploded and evaporated, taking a lot of the Malice with it, and the column it had been surrounding collapsed against the tower! Access!

And a long climb through the fargazing music later, I was at the top.

This was my last Sheikah Tower. The Tabantha Tower.

I set my slate into the pedestal, distilled the rune, and.... ♪You get the thing!♪ ....The last blank space on my map populated. This was the Tabantha Frontier.

Complete Map of Hyrule Extracted, said my Slate.

Wow! ^_^

The Rito Rock—that tall, oddly-shaped spire—Heh, Oddly-shaped indeed—it looked like a bird!—Although.... that Oddly was probably a mockingbird or a grackle; this rock spire looked more like the neck and head of some kind of crane or stork....

*AHEM*

The Rito Rock, I could see from the tower, was so close now, standing tall and straight, its neck hewn all up and down with odd angles from erosion, and its “beak” jutting out at a stark perpendicular angle at the top. I could see, both from the tower and on my map, that the spire actually stood in the middle of a sizeable lake. Huh.

Okay!

I considered, as I was so high up and could see all the world laid out before me. I could have struck out on a more direct route to the Rito Rock, but.... I decided to follow the road instead. Rather unlike me, now that I think about it.

It was rife with Lizalfos.

But after cutting and dodging my way through so many belligerent hoodlums I came at length to the Rito Stable. This was the one I had seen from the edge of Hebra.

Kass was there.

After talking with some of the other people there, I approached him.

He was happy to see me in one piece! The feeling was mutual as always. ^_^ And here so close to his hometown of Rito Village, he said he was feeling terribly homesick, and confided to me that he’d had to leave his wife and children back in the village.

Kass has a wife and kids? I thought. My goodness!

I never knew.

“But I can’t go home until I fulfill my promise to my teacher,” he said.

“Promise?” I asked. It was my only option.

“My promise to... No, perhaps now is not the time.”

He said he would tell me, in Rito Village, once he learned all the ancient songs.

So mysterious, Kass.... I’d heard him talk about his teacher before.... What promise did he mean....?

I decided to sleep the night at the stable before moving on. And in the morning, I headed toward the village.

The lake—Totori Lake—was different from most other lakes I had seen, in that its “shore” consisted mostly of two-hundred-foot dropoffs all the way around. The water shimmered distantly below in the enormous, sunken, beigestony pit. A few other rock spires stood attendant to the mighty bird-shaped one in the center, but none it seemed were half so tall. I could see the occasional updraft blowing here and there as well, in the event I should paraglide around and sink too low, but aside from those.... there didn’t seem to be much down there....

Not that I had reason to worry: well kempt, handsome bridges of dark wood spanned from shore to spire to spire to spire, high above the water. It was at the beginning of the first of these bridges that I met Gesane of the Rito as he patrolled the path to the village.

He introduced his home and kin for me: “The Rito of Totori Lake. Where the men are fine archers and the women better singers.”

Heh.

^_^ I liked it.

The tops of the spires were grassy, and pleasant, with birds and flowers and pine trees and even the occasional little water pocket pond. This really was beautiful country. Breezy and beautiful.

As I crossed the third bridge after the second rock, there were.... Malice drips and a sudden blackout? Would I meet the Divine Beast? I’d forgotten these bits! But it was.... a BLOOD MOON CINEMATIC?

“The Blood Moon rises once again,” came Zelda’s voice.

BUT IT WAS DAYTIME.

“Please be careful, Link.”

THE SCENE ENDED. It was six-something in the morning.

What the heck?

Afraid I had missed the proper cinematic on a glitch, I reloaded from the stable, and went toward the village again. I stopped to pick the same peppers or berries or whatever it was I had grabbed before. I moved forward at the same pace, had the same talk with Gesane. Began crossing over the water and came to the same bridge and....

Nothing.

Huh.

But.... I had reloaded.... Was the game acting like I had saved?

I kept moving slowly and shoot that was a bear over there, didn’t want to get its attention, what was a bear doing on one of these rock spires—

But nothing else happened. And.... I.... finally just kind of accepted that.... the game had somehow deprived me of the cinematic.

I resigned myself to just find it on YouTube later.

I sighed, relaxed my guard, and just continued on AND THEN THAT TERRIBLE BIRDLIKE SHRIEKING FROM THE SKY.

Then came the Divine Beast introduction cinematic.

. . . . Whoof.

That was alarming. I told David about it later and we laughed.

On into the village, and I was really liking the look of this place. Lush grass, sweet flowers, breezy pines; the dark, comely wood of the bridges-turned-staircases and -boardwalks intermittently broken by soft earthen paths under the gentle sun; the wilderness on all sides and above and below....

And the music. Rito Village’s music....

*-!-*

And in a soft jolt, I was both surprised and not:

It was DRAGONROOST. <3

It was the musical theme from Dragonroost Island.... only settled cozily in a cabin in the woods, instead of flying fiercely about a wild island in the bluster of an untamed sea.

Of course it was Dragonroost.

Ahhh. <3

The handsome boardwalk continued straight inward and upward, ending directly against the base of the central pillar of the Rito Rock, the Neck of the Crane. At this landing, the wooden path continued to the right, winding upward and away around the Neck. But for a moment I was more taken with the sight just in front of me.

At this juncture, a gentle alcove had been carved into the light stone of the spire, and a small Goddess statue erected in the hollow. The little shrine was laid with decorative cloth; offerings of flowers lay thereon at the statue’s foot, and a crown of similar blossoms rested gaily upon its head. All bright and fresh-looking as if they’d just been picked.

Of all the shrines to the Goddess I had seen, this one was surely the fairest in its happy simplicity.

*

The pine trees smiled and the wind and wood breathed.

The earth and the sun had never been as content.

The world was at ease here.

*

Well at this point I was pretty sure I’d finally done it. I had seen every major habitation Hyrule had to offer. Just in case.... Just in case....

Just in case of that notion I well knew by now to be only fancy, but which I had still decided to humor through to the end: I had made sure, or sure enough, that there were no other houses to be bought aside from that one in Hateno.

So that was the only place.

Hahhhh.

But if I had had a choice.... the pines, the grass, and open air, the open-walled homes in cozy simplicity, village full of flyers and all musically inclined....

Yes.

I think I would have lived here.

I think I would have lived here.

TO HEBRA!

Waking of Saturday, November 3, 2018 ~ 4

TO HEBRA!

I went back to the Serenne Stable!

I was gonna go north!

AND I DID!

I took the road to the northeast and ran! Beyond Mount Drena, the Blue Marker Mountain from long ago! Past the place where I had met that nice lady merchant with her donkey! Past the spot where I saw my first Tabantha Moose!

The road bent around the head of the canyon of the Forgotten Temple, curving back to the west, and the mercury plummeted. The trees became stark and sparsely-leaved. More moose and rhinoceroses started appearing! And it was a surprisingly short jog until I came of a sudden.... upon the Snowfield Stable!

I quickly locked down the neighboring Rin Oyaa Shrine—Cool!—before visiting with the locals. What in the world were people even doing out here in the icy nothing?

Harlow spoke of swords—They were cool, he said, but he asserted that a sword didn’t make a hero.

But Danton talked about the Sword of Legend.... now that was a cool sword.

“This sword here?” I showed it.

“That’s the sword of legend?” Danton said, “It’s slimmer than I imagined. I thought it’d be as big as me! With, like... jewels everywhere.”

And I legitimately wondered whether one of the writers must have based that exchange on an actual recounted history of some semi-knowledgeable non-fan getting his first glimpse of The Legend of Zelda’s fabled Master Sword.... XD

Danton was grateful anyway. “I’ll never forget this day!” he said. Aw, he had such a nice smile and a genuine face. :)

I went inside the stable, where the temperature did not improve—gosh this place was just cold all over—and one Juannelle told me about a.... STALHORSE? WHAT ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

She wanted a picture. ಠ_ಠ Or some notes. What in the ACtual crap.

And she told me where to find it. Oh I needed this region’s tower....

I could see the tower further to the southwest, up on some low, dark crumble of snow-covered rock. It looked easy enough to get to....

I KEPT GOING.

I clambered up into the rocky hills with the tower looming closer and closer above me—they were rarer now—until I came to a place where the road forked off to the left.

Huh? There seemed to be some kind of habitation over there.... nestled against the mountain....

I went to investigate.

This place was called Pondo’s Lodge. It was homey, and comfy. And the sole resident Pondo for whom it was named must have been someone’s father. Because only dads can crack out that many bad puns in such rapid succession.

It was amazing.

Near Pondo’s home was a little sunken dell, the far end of which held a smattering of peacefully leafless winter trees, cozy in the grey. The near end of the dell.... Pondo had transformed into something else.

A long, heaping ramp of snow (or earth covered with such) led from Pondo’s stead all the way down to the floor of the dell, where it transitioned smoothly into a large, circular mound with a flat top. And on this platform was where Pondo liked to set up his gigantic, moose-headed, totem pole pins with which to go.... Snowling.

I paid that man so many rupees. You got three big snowballs per game, but that ramp was so bumpy! It was difficult to anticipate how the snowballs would bounce or what little bumps might dump them over the side edge completely. My snowballs—though they grew encouragingly in size on the way down—kept veering off to the right....

But eventually, I got a strike! And Pondo gave me a prize for my efforts, rupees again, I think.... I can’t remember....

That guy.... so punny....

I thought about stopping there for the night. It was an inviting, comfy, warm and friendly place.... And the hour was getting so late, and I was tired.... And I loved all his moose-decor....

BUT THE TOWER WAS RIGHT THERE....

I kept climbing.

There were no great enemies about on guard, but the base of the tower—the Hebra Tower—was surrounded by a bristling ring of ice. And as the ground was so uneven, it was a little difficult to lay a fire. But eventually I found a spot of ground level enough to set down some wood and flint and set it alight without it rolling or sliding away.

It.... exercises your patience, the ice does. Unless you want to blow a ton of Fire Arrows all at once. But I just waited for my fire to melt the ice chunks until a big enough hole opened up for me to reach the tower.

The climb to the top was blissfully uneventful. And as I studied the new map data, I saw that.... THERE WAS ANOTHER LABYRINTH HERE. HEE.

My eyes roved over all the cool new places to explore, until eventually I paraglided back to the stable. I thought to save it then, it was getting so late, but....

Stalhorse....

It was night.

I went to look for it.

Juannelle had said it was to the north.... I set out across the stark and naked snowscape, only pulling up when I saw a Lynel in the distance. I didn’t want to get too close.

I searched up and down the north end of the plain, but couldn’t find any trace of a stalhorse. No, but hadn’t she said it would be near some ruins?

The labyrinth!

But.... those freaking Lynels in the way!

The night was burning fast. In desperation I ran up onto the bordering mountain to skirt the eastern Lynel before the morning came. And paragliding back down through the everpresent fog and mist, I caught sight of some movement on the road to the towering labyrinth....

I came closer and FOUND IT OH MY GOSH. I snapped a pictograph. A Stalkoblin was riding a Stalhorse!

....

I WANTED IT!

I dashed in, dispatched a loitering Lizalfos, killed the Bokoblin rider, and.... approached the skeletal equine.... It had glowing eyes and the rags of ancient trappings. Its tail was scraggly, and it had no mane.

I mounted it, and it uttered the rippling, gurgling ghost of a whinny as I tried to soothe it.... And what was more my surprise and my dread.... it calmed down and I sat still upon it. .__.

It was nearly morning! I wanted to take it back to the stable—could I make it?

I turned it about, and we got on the road, and I spurred it forward, but it bucked me off—had I spurred it too forcefully?—reared in throat-tearing agony, and DIED as the sun rose. Its bones separated and crumbled and turned black and disintegrated in the rising light, and it was gone.

....

Man.

....

I warped back to the stable—still didn’t want to deal with that Lynel—and Juannelle gave me like a hundred rupees or something for the picture.

That was enough for today. I was savin’ and goin’ to bed. It was late.

And all my two hours of sleep were full of Lynels in the snow.

Faron's Five-Cent Tour

Waking of Saturday, October 27, 2018 ~ 4

Faron’s Five-Cent Tour

I warped to the Shoda Sah Shrine in the rainy jungles of Faron, and went up the plateau. I’d seen it from the top of that mountain above the Twin Bridges.... the Lynel. Except it was a White Lynel now.

It had stood between me and the tower. I remembered....

I killed it. Awesomely. I don’t think I even got a scratch.

And I floated down a level to the next broad shelf, and found a Red Hinox.

I killed it, too.

Down another level and I ran into a nest of Lizalfos.

Killed ‘em.

And there, out from the edge of the next shelf downward.... was the crown of the Sheikah Tower. I could have floated over and it would have been a very short climb to the top, but....

I looked down.

An Electric Wizzrobe pranced around the tower’s base, and a cloud of Keese swarmed about its middling heights.

A few appeals to Ja Baij and they were all gone.

I sailed down and ran around the base for a little bit, scaring up what Koroks I could, before giving the tower a proper climb.

And the Faron Tower and local map were mine.

Cooool. I could see the places I’d been to—that pointy sandbar was called Cape Cresia, with a Soka Point at its tip.

All the Floria names were cool. I made my way north to a Keelay Plain—which was one of the very few places I’ve found that have gravel—enjoyed the foley—played some dangerous bog games looking for Koroks in Tobio’s Hollow, then up to the Jia Highlands and Angel Peak.

I was getting quite good at clearing out entire camps of Moblins and Bokoblins before they even knew I was there.

I remember paragliding in to the very last Bokoblin in my mask, his start of surprise and then friendly approach to come talk Bokoblin to me, and how I cut him down in two rapid strokes the instant he was close enough.

Didn’t even give him time to blink.

“I’m a heartless murderer,” I said to myself.

Of course, that very night was a Blood Moon and they all came straight back. In the high meadow I killed the stray Guardian one more time before getting out of there and paragliding all the way to Dueling Peaks Stable—I’d wanted to do that since I first climbed up to Misko’s Cache above the Twin Bridges. I was in roughly the same area....

But I couldn’t think of any business to see to at Dueling Peaks Stable, and I was getting tired, which meant.... it was another warping meander back to the Great Fairy Tera.

I upgraded a crapton of clothes.

And I considered....

I considered.... sorting.... for a while....

Sooorrrrt?

No.

Not cleaning my closet yet

GOOD NIGHT.

Firefooted Flight

Waking of Tuesday, June 5, 2018 ~ 2

Firefooted Flight

Hateno Tower was fabulously tall. And it overlooked that stretch of road where I had met Teli.

Actually.... it overlooked a lot of things, and I had to play marker games on my map and through my scope before I was able to locate the miniscule strip of beige between a tiny cliff and a pinprick lake that I was looking for.

But the distance wasn’t too great for my paraglider.

I swooped in, shed some leftover altitude and perched on a great big spire of stone beside the small lake. I felt like some bird of prey as I scanned the little valley.... and there was Teli on the path, just making his way into the bottleneck preceding the Cliffs of Quince to the west....

I swooped down to catch him before he could get too far, and found that he was carrying different wares this time, but no cores.

Hmmm.

I warped back to Hateno Tower and tried this approach a few times. The results were variable, but.... it seemed a bit of patience was in order....

In the meantime I warped back to Dueling Peaks. Maybe I was thinking again of going to the desert. Maybe I was just continuing to look for ways to waste time. I don’t really remember, because the latter won out, and was then therefore free to rewrite the history of my inner battles as it saw fit.... had I had any.

I decided, after a very long time of avoiding it, to once again take on Rensa in his horse-taming challenge—the same challenge that had brought my beloved Brown to me, if you recall—or rather, that had left the brown horse standing stark in the field, caught between the wild and the domestic, which I had then decided out of a sense of duty to take on and care for as my own.

You know I do not like to attempt to take a horse out of the wild lightly.

My efforts this time would have to be perfect.... Or close enough to it.

Rensa started the clock and I was off. Sprinting into the fields I quickly found a small herd grazing.... I was wearing my Stealth Suit for an extra edge, but as I neared the herd, I really wondered how much good it would do me. I didn’t have to worry about making a sound, even at high speed—But not every horse would turn its gaze away at the same time, and so I found myself pinned in a crouch afterall.

Some horses trotted away, but I was able to come close behind one handsome red one....

And on I jumped, and soothed it to a huffing standstill before urging it back toward the stable!

I would make it this time.... I would make it....

And I did. With twenty or thirty seconds to spare, no less. Out of two minutes. Not bad.

And Rensa rewarded me with a fifty-rupee purse.

Cool.

But I did not register the horse.

Instead, I rode him all the way to Gerudo Canyon, admiring his form from all angles as he picked up the road and followed it. He was a handsome beast: red body, white socks and muzzle, fiery mane and tail....

I woulda called him Firefoot.

But I didn’t.

I sold him to a man named Zyle, for three hundred rupees.

I had met Zyle many, many moons previously, in Gerudo Canyon. He was stranded halfway from anywhere in a little alcove against the canyon wall, just waiting for someone who would be willing to sell him a good, strong mount....

As the one who had tamed it and ridden it so far already, I felt a certain amount of responsibility toward the fiery steed. It was hard to hand him over.... But....

Zyle would take good care of him.

After the exchange, Zyle thanked me for my help, and started walking his new horse toward the Gerudo Canyon Stable.

I walked with him.

Ah what fine screens of the two of us traveling and glancing as though in friendly conversation on the long and dusty road.... I wished I could still save screenshots.

I had thought to see what would happen if I walked all the way to the stable with Zyle, but.... well, the NPCs, they just move so slowly....

I’m afraid I became impatient, and got a little ahead of myself running circles around my companions, and in my haste.... I lost them.

Once they fell out of proximity, the game depopulated them.

Hhhhh.

Well....

I continued on foot to the Gerudo Canyon Stable, arriving there just after midday, the one or two o’clock hour, and.... I slept until the evening.

Wasted in the Wasteland

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017 ~ 8

Wasted in the Wasteland

It didn’t look as if.... sleep was going to be a big option for me tonight.

I went for the Sheikah Tower. 熬夜！Aoh yeah!

As soon as I saw this tower, I recognized it from something Joseph had described, long, long ago.

This tower stood in a bog, beside an array of tall stone slabs. Fierce winds prevented approach by paraglider. But a few Magnesable metal boxes littered the shore—I could use those to construct a footpath.

In Magnesising—Magnesing?—the first box, I saw that an additional host of other metal boxes lay beneath the bog’s bubbling surface—it seemed it was deeper than I had realized.... and there were also a few chests hidden down there!

In laying the foundations for a step beside the stone slabs, I accidentally knocked them over, thus creating the domino-ramp that would ultimately give me access to the Sheikah Tower.

Huh.... I’d thought Joseph had used a Bomb.

I guessed a flailing metal box could work, too.

The depth of the pool necessitated some precarious stacking and a great deal of guesswork and patience, but at length I had fashioned five somewhat level stepping-stones across the bog. Then it was a shinny up the fallen slabs, a climb up to the top of the tower, and....

I was rewarded with a map of the Wasteland.

The farthest southwestern reaches populated in my Sheikah Slate.

!

There was a Leviathan skeleton down there.... in a place called Dragon’s Exile.... wow....

And that Satan Canyon that had been full of all the Yiga Archers—that part filled in, that singular little canyon, creeping like an encroaching tentacle into the Gerudo territory map.

And there were all those rock-spires at the canyon’s mouth.... and strange, huge archways of stone.... and giant bones littering the emptiness.... and that circle of Colossi I had seen!

And away to the southeast, there was the Devil’s Own Highway, where I had placed those three star-stamps ages ago! Just above Moza’s cooking disaster, at the mouth of the Lynels’ Corridor....

The area was vast, and looked just full of places and things to explore! Oh I wanted to head for that Dragon....

But.... it was so, so late....

I considered, shouldn’t I just close on the activating of the Sheikah Tower? That was a good achievement to stop on.... I’d have to get ready for church soon....

Then I saw on my map the name Kousok Plateau, and remembered—that guy.... that guy back at the stable, the oily guy, Sesami—hadn’t he said that’s where he had lost his friends?

I could just.... head back toward the stable via that.... plateau and then.... and THEN I could call it quits.

A Climb about the Canyon

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017 ~ 7

A Climb about the Canyon

It was well past midnight, and I really, really did need to get to bed and to sleep.

I wanted to end the session, but.... maybe just one more thing first....

I rode a bit further on from the Gerudo Canyon Stable, and the canyon came to an abrupt end at the edge of a vast and sandy desert scape. I tried Dragmire at the edge of the desert, but he would go no further. There was something of a small ledge that dropped down several feet, and so I tried him again at the high end of a ramp that seemed meant for foot traffic.... but he wasn’t having it.

So I ran him back to the stable and boarded him.

That would be the last thing I did. Maybe.

It didn’t seem like it would hurt just to talk to the stable people first.

Beedle was there—no, I wasn’t going to trade him my Energetic Rhino Beetle; most of his trades seemed like not such great deals anyway. And Kass was there—he said he was impressed with me for having come so far! “Even I, blessed with the gift of flight, had trouble getting here,” he said.

I did not stay to listen to his song, though.

A man named Sesami told me he and his friends had been jumped by some baddies around such-and-such plateau, and they were lost and would I please go help to find them. Their names were Oliff, Flaxel, Canolo and Palme.

What an oily-sounding bunch. XD

And then there was an old man who was in need of Rushrooms. He wanted to gather a bunch of them, but he was too old and frail to climb up to where they grew on the cliff walls.

AND WOULD I PLEASE HELP HIM.

Well that.... didn’t seem like too much work.

Maybe I would just dart up and grab him the Rushrooms—they grew everywhere around here it seemed—and I would make THAT the last thing I did before I went to bed.

It turned out he needed quite a few of them—certainly more than I had on me; I never gather those things....

And so I climbed a few hills, climbed a few cliffs, up the one side of the canyon, the side overhanging the ground where the stable stood.... And then I decided to check out the side across the way, the hilly side that mounted up beyond the Kay Noh Shrine.

I’d been curious about that side. Huge and angular steps of grey stone stood in stark contrast to the beigeruddy, windswept curves of the rest of the canyon. A castle among the cliffs.

No, not a castle—a fortress.

It was hard not to see the old Gerudo’s Fortress in those shapes.

There were no doors in these stones, though. Only a few ladders and pulleys led the way to the top.

Up and up and up I climbed.... losing track of everything. Weird scapes opened up before my eyes. Strange lands and monumental shapes. It was as if I had entered a Land of Goddesses; a ring of Desert Colossi stood ancient and imposing, facing inward together as if in prayer.

Away out in the desert, I saw the Divine Beast stomping around.

And looking up.... there was the Sheikah Tower.

It was quite close.

Should I....?

....

I debated.

.......

The hour was so late....

. . . . . . .

Was that the sun?

Bird-Man Returns

Waking of Saturday, August 12, 2017

Bird-Man Returns

One of the folks at Tabantha Bridge Stable had heard tell of some kind of platform out on a place called Washa’s Bluff. I could see the spot plain enough on my map. So I gave it a visit.

It was near those scablands with the mushroomy treethings. The platform turned out to be another one of those orange pedestals I’d seen here and there. And nearby, atop the largest treething in the vicinity, there came that dulcet waltzing accordion....

“Kass!” I said.

I tried to climb up to him.

The treethings (I really don’t know what else to call them) stood in a fairly dense little cluster just there, and it looked like I might be able to climb from one to another to get to him....

But those things flare out wide as you go up. The trunks bell outward like a trumpet. The surface was soon so inverted that I lost my grip, and fell.

Rather missed my paraglider that time. Ouch.

How could I get up to where Kass was?

I cast my eyes about my surroundings, and they fell on Satori Mountain.

It seemed.... tall.... I supposed....

I looked again at Kass’s treething, and at Satori Mountain.

Maybe....

Yes, it seemed like an angle similar to the one I’d exploited to paraglide from that other mountain to that Sheikah Tower so easily.

Which by the way had been David’s least favorite tower. Those Wizzrobes, he said, he couldn’t handle the Wizzrobes.

I did not draw any happy faces from him when I told him how quickly and easily I’d done it.

My turn to be smug for once!

But the height of Satori Mountain seemed like it might just be enough to get me up onto Kass’s treething by paraglider.

I warped to the shrine near Satori’s peak, and gave it a shot.

I clambered up to the very highest point I could get to, one of those three tall jutting stones at the crest, and got my bearings, reorienting myself to this new angle. There was Washa’s Bluff waaaay down below me, with its little cluster of treethings. It was the very same; I made sure on my map. That was the bunch where Kass stood and played his accordion.

I stood tall and regarded my intended destination. Hm. Looked like it might be close. I’d definitely need a good start....

I jumped, deployed my paraglider at the highest.... and started to sail.

It was a long way.

You know, sometimes you can tell, as you near a target, whether you’re going to make it or not. But as I drew nearer and nearer to Kass’s treething....parallax did not draw the choice landing-zone up or down my range of sight. It stayed fixed directly in front of my waist as I flew down through the air. Course corrections became costly and precious. I was on a razor’s edge.

I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it! It was a close thing.... But at last I came to the end of my long, long paraglide PRECISELY on the very outer lip of the big mushroomy top of Kass’s giant treething.

I’d made it!

And with a song, Kass told me the platform had something to do with the Blood Moon. I guessed if I stood there during the next one I’d find out more.

But there was more atop this treething than just Kass—there was a little hut of some kind, pleasantly open to the air and with a few simple furnishings and a bed.... and with Kass’s journal in it.

I read it; it contained the lyrics to all the songs his late teacher had taught him. Some I recognized, some I didn’t. Seemed there were many shrines yet to scare up.

Ah, I do love crossing paths with Kass. ^_^

Bird-Man

Waking of Friday, August 11, 2017 ~ 3

Bird-Man

On top of the cliff west of Serenne Stable I heard another shrine, but just like the one in the Forgotten Temple, for the life of me I could not pin it down!

It took a couple of flying leaps from the cliff top for me to notice—and get to—an explodable bit of rock halfway down the sheer rock face.

A Blessing Shrine was inside.

I was feeling just dandy by this point! ^_^

I kept climbing the mountain until I got just about to its crest, from which I had a clear and open view of a Sheikah Tower somewhere between south and east.

I knew this tower. It stood in the center of a body of water atop a roundish, bald plateau. From a distance it had always looked easy enough to reach, though I was certain there had to be some trick or riddle to it. For I had passed this tower many times in my wanderings, but never yet attempted to climb it.

It was time to try it now. I considered my altitude.... and took more direct approach: via PARAGLIDER! 8D

As I sailed toward it I wondered whether I’d come up short and land in the water. I hoped not; there could be baddies in there, maybe creeping evil things I hadn’t even encountered before. Deep water does things to your mind—you don’t know what could be lurking in the depths....

But as I drew near, I could tell that my course would keep me from getting wet. Only just! But that was good enough. And it was a good thing, too, because I saw what the resident obstacle was: the water teemed with awful things that would surely wish to do me harm at first sight. Electric Lizalfos churned through the surface, wielding strange Thunder-weapons I’d never seen before; more Lizalfos patrolled the shore; and a handful of Lightning Wizzrobes skipped gleefully around the lower airs.

Hm, wish I’d been able to come in a little higher.

I wondered if this were the tower David said was his least favorite....

I landed on the lowest platform, and waited only long enough to regain my stamina. Lucky for me Wizzrobes like to skip around invisible for a while after they spot you. If these had been flying wolves.... I’d’ve had problems. But I climbed as quick as I could, resting only as long as I needed, and the shots from their Lightning Rods were easy to dodge.

Still.... I couldn’t help but recall my experience at the Lake Tower. Would they cook up some kind of super lightning storm if they couldn’t catch me after a while?

Plink! Plink! Plink! They continued to stalk me invisibly, ascending as I did up the tower...

I might’ve taken just one hit, but it wasn’t bad, and there was a platform just beneath me. Otherwise I made it to the top in a trice without a hitch.

There was a man up there.

His name was Branli, and he seemed to have been stranded a la Gruve as the Sheikah Tower burst out of the ground.

Dear me I take too much time wandering; this Branli could have starved to death—

Branli was very into studying the Bird-men. In fact, he asked me if I were one of them, as he wasn’t sure how else I could have gotten onto the tower. We got to the topic of how to get down, and he was shocked at my claim to be able to simply fly down. He asked me to demonstrate—I put him off for only a moment, so I could activate the tower—

Hey, it was an easy way down, but there was no telling whether the game would bring me back up to the top!

I downloaded the map, was delighted to finally have an image of Satori Mountain and a setting for all my stamps and shrine-icons, glanced over the features of the land with all their interesting names—and shuddered as I FINALLY discovered the name of that great toothy CRACK in the earth just north of Jeddo Bridge....

The Breach of Demise.

Uhhhuhuhuhuhhh....

I thought of the proximity of the Forgotten Temple.... and that giant Goddess statue.... and wondered....

But at length I came back to myself, and this Branli, and agreed to demonstrate flying on my paraglider for him. He told me to go for distance, and so I flew directly into the lower lands of the Breach, touching down, as it happened, just about in the middle of that nest of Bokoblins with their two skull-dens....

But fortunately, the game did zip me right back up to the tower, and Branli’s report: I had flown over six hundred meters! He was quite impressed, and invited me to come and give it another go whenever I had the chance.

Heh, funny man. ^_^