A Game More Dangerous

Evening of Tuesday, September 4, 2018 ~ 3

A Game More Dangerous

I touched down on the warp pad of the Ishto Soh Shrine, and was met with the buzzing sound of hundreds of flies.

I’d forgotten how much garbage Moza had piled up here.

But I dashed past it all and peered down into the Lynels’ Corridor! I had plans to try out my new toy.... On went the Lynel Mask and Link once again adopted a beefy, stoic stance. X-)

The canyon floor was too far distant for me to make out any creatures prowling along it, and so I relied on the skull stamp I had placed on my map—that was where the southern Lynel would be.

I floated down—there it was—and circled wide, landing some distance further south. Somewhat far away but not too far away.... but pretty far away....

The Lynel still stepped so grandly and paused so ponderously and roared.

And then it turned and SAW ME. FROM FAR AWAY.

We stared at each other. Usually when a bad guy sees its respective mask it starts walking toward you. But neither of us moved. We just stared. For a moment.

And then the Lynel circled round in a canter, faced my way again and nocked a Shock Arrow.

Nope! It was Ishto Soh for me again! I warped the heck outta there! :D

So wow, the mask really didn’t fool the Lynel for very long....

Well they were powerful creatures of many abilities.

But still....

I wanted to try again.

So I ran and jumped and floated down to the left this time, northward toward the mid-Lynel near the base of the Talus’ butte. I spied him as he walked among the baobabs....

With a crunch and a rush I hit the ground running through the long yellow grass. I wanted to get close this time....

It was a White-Maned Lynel, and when he saw my fast approach, he turned to face me, and stood his ground.

I just kept running. If things went south I could always just warp back to Ishto Soh....

The Lynel stood still until I had run right up in front of him, and could physically no longer move forward for his person. He had only looked at me the whole time. The way his head just dropped at the end.... looking down at me....

I was a tiny creature.

We looked at each other only briefly before I walked round to his left flank to see if there was a get on option. There wasn’t. Those zebra stripes. Broad tapers. So high over my head, the body so tall, so BIG. Thick, muscular legs, feathered hooves....

The Lynel turned as well; he wasn’t having me behind him. And we faced each other once more, staring just a bit longer. I was on the north, facing south now. The long south reaches of the Lynels’ Corridor stretched away into the distance behind my.... companion. The baobabs stood in the yellow grass. The Gerudo Highlands glowed bright ruddyrust in the daylight away to my right, the shade of the Zokassa Ridge cooling to my almost immediate left.

At precisely the same moment, I threw the game into a semi-pause by toggling toward the Stasis function, and the White Lynel reached behind his enormous back and fwipped out his gigantic spear.

Oh my.  ._.

I was able to Stasis him and get in a few hits.... But that charm works only briefly on living things, and briefer still on powerful ones.

I could have warped away, but....

Well I did need Lynel bits.... and I was here, wasn’t I?

I stayed.

I stayed, and stood, and fought. And remembering the Shock Arrows this one had pelted me with before, I tried the Thunder Helm for a spell. But apparently the Lynel only resorted to those at a distance, and no range I could give him on the ground would suffice—the ill-defending helmet was not helping. And so I switched to something more justifiable. Real armor. My strongest clothes.

Stasis could only help me so much between rechargings, but I employed it as best I could, capitalizing on every chance to land a Bomb Arrow right between the brute’s eyes. Head-shots dealt double the damage, or so I’d heard and witnessed elsewhere.

This one didn’t stun like the lesser foes did, though. Any Bokoblin would have been bowled over backward with a shriek, and not regained itself for precious seconds....

But a Lynel....

I don’t think he ever even had to shift his footing.

Then again he did have four of them. A leg at each corner. Huh!

I was a mouse to him.

Well the mouse could still bite!

More than once, more than thrice, more times than I counted, really, he sent me flying and tumbling and rolling across the grass with a groan—Get up get up get up, Link!—And I found myself chewing through my stocks at a vigorous pace!

But I gave him his own headaches in return—a Bomb Arrow could slow down a galloping charge! Even if I had to take a bit of it myself at close range—he moved so fast....

It became inescapably dicey however whenever HE BLEW FIRE FROM HIS MOUTH AT ME. The fireballs were broad, far-reaching and enormous, and they set the grass alight all over. Remembering the Big Yiga Clansmen, I used the flames more than once to slip away into the air, a bit singed nevertheless. The Lynel watched me with patient, hungry eyes in one such maneuver as I glided over him, released a Bomb.... and then detonated too early.

Well, that happened sometimes. Good thing nobody else was in the room.

The fire kept coming. I never had the thought of a linear retreat, but rather circled round him in evasion as he kept blowing and blowing and BLOWING! It was deadly and dangerous!—And the best opportunity to get close enough for a strike.

I pulled weapon after weapon from hammerspace as my blades gave their all and shattered in glory. Daruk had leant me three good helping hands that had evaporated pretty early on. And Mipha saved me from the brink before she too had to withdraw her power for a time whose end I would not see in this fight.

But when that monster hit me, ripped me, shredded me so hard that I saw that gleaming little winged orb come swirling up out of my pockets to my aid—

THAT WAS A FAIRY YOU JERK! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW RARE THOSE ARE?

I’d had enough!

I spared no provisions in maintaining my health from then on, and GAVE NO QUARTER in hammering my foe! I did not relent until his mighty, immovable hooves finally gave out from beneath him, and his proud knees sank at last into the ground below his bowing head, wild with mane and horn, heavy with defeat and death.

His carcass was mine.

When I’d pocketed his remains, I looked around at the aftermath of the encounter.

....It was ugly.

The grass was scorched black in great hatching swaths, or shorn clean away in places by blade or hoof. What a ruin. We’d all but burned the whole valley down.

....

It did feel kind of epic, though.

I visited Tera once more in the chill of the desert night to do up my Radiant Gear. The tights were already at level two, but with the shirt and mask enhanced to that level as well....  surely there would be a perk.... I was pretty sure.... it had to be....

IT WAS A DISGUISE I KNEW IT. AND MY ATTACK POWER WITH BONE WEAPONS WAS UP BUT THIS SUIT WAS NOW A DISGUISE I COULD USE TO WALK AMONG STALCREATURES UNDETECTED. I KNEW IT.

AUGH BUT IT WAS TOO COLD TO WEAR OUT HERE IN THE DESERT.

SOON.

I warped to the Deku Tree’s Navel in the three o’clock hour of the morning.... and slept until noon.

GOOD NIGHT.

From: Andrea

To: David

2018-09-04 11:43p

By the way I killed a White Lynel

tonight. On foot. It was ugly. The

whole valley burned down.

From: Andrea

To: David

2018-09-04 11:43p

Love you good night. <3

Frozen Goods

Waking of Friday, August 3, 2018

Frozen Goods

I slept at Outskirt Stable until morning, and when I woke up, it was raining.

From there I warped to Cotera to get an idea of what I needed—in essence, to have a look at my shopping list.... White Chuchus and Ice Keese Wings. Those would strengthen my new Desert Voe Gear. Cool. Well I knew just where to look for those....

And I warped to a shrine in the eastern Gerudo Highlands, just beyond the Death Hole Arena.... and started walking westward.

The frilled backs of camouflaged Lizalfos humped out of the snow in blatant arches; I dunno who they were trying to fool. I killed them and collected.... hhhh.... their icy white tails—I wished the normal ones would drop tails for me so readily.

There weren’t very many White Chuchus to go on, but I did find a few Ice Keese as I meandered over the icy plateaus. There were also quite a few treasure chests stuck in the frozen ground up here. I guess since it was such a harsh environment.... hardly anybody had ever come a-looting.

Some sights were familiar, some were new.... and then I came to that giant Lightning Symbol. I had seen it from many directions at many distances, bur now I walked along the shelf at its very foot. It was carved or painted, or both, into the stark red stone of the naked cliff, at least fifty feet above me. At the heart of the radial design was a Sheikah dais....

Along the cliff’s bottom, about a half a stone’s cast to the right, an icy Lizalfos watched me as I started to climb. I decided I would leave him be as long as he wasn’t raising any ruckus.

The way was slow, and I think.... I was not able to employ my Climber’s Bandana—I needed my Ruby Circlet to ward away the cold.

Either that or I just forgot. Like I do sometimes.

It seems I’ve become a man of many hats.

I climbed all the way to the upturned dais, and though I had a decent amount of stamina left, I nevertheless tested whether the tiny shelf of rounded stone would support me.

It wouldn’t.

I clung like a spider to the red, snow-dampened wall, swiveling the camera about me at the views. It was simply a Sheikah dais, turned up sideways and set into the heart of this.... lightning motif. The painted bolts stuck out in four distinct directions.... mmmm Skies of Arcadia woulda had five....

Shock Arrows.

I concentrated before jumping—sometimes I only let go when I mean to leap—and in midair I drew my bow, twisted back round, took aim, and snapped a spattering, zapping bolt of crackling electricity right into the dais.

On the shelf below, the Keeha Yoog shrine erupted from the snow, and I received the monk’s blessing.... as well as a completion notification to an either unwarranted or completely forgotten shrine quest. When had I spoken to this “Geggle”....?

Well that’s embarrassing I mean usually I take such note....

When I exited the shrine, the Lizalfos was gone.

I continued westward until with a shock I realized I had reached the northern end of that saddle—the Risoka Snowfield it was called. I found where the little Taluses had guarded the Meteor Rod, but the chest had not respawned.

Well.... no worries there; I still had the weapon.

I still hadn’t gotten enough White Chuchu Jelly, though. I fished for them all over the snowfield, tangling with Lizalfos, with Bokoblins, with wolves, with no blasted shortage of stalmoblins.... with all kinds of things.

And then I checked out that skull-den....

I don’t like to venture into those if I can help it. I’d much rather draw the fiends out of the structure to play. But I was surprised when I drew near to this one’s mouth and saw that it was empty anyway. Empty save for one solitary chest in the middle of the space....

Huh.

I approached the chest and HALF A DOZEN WHITE CHUCHUS EXPLODED OUT OF THE GROUND. Huaghh. Gave me a start I tell YOU what.

But when I had recovered from the shock, as I backed up from their freezing attacks, I grinned to myself—these were just what I needed....

I killed them all and turned over a plentiful supply of White Chuchu Jelly. And by this time, I had gotten my fill of Keese wings, too.

Satori Mountain was alight. For kicks, I warped to it, subdued the Lord of the Mountain, and rode him to the Outskirt Stable. Here I dismounted and tried once again to take its picture, being careful to keep it in my view the entire time. But evidently even just raising the pictobox counted as looking away from it; it snorted, galloped away a few paces and vanished.

Ah that was all right.

I knew where it lived.

I had my frozen goods; it was time to visit Cotera. She raised my Radiant Outfit one level—when had I picked up those Luminous Stones?—and she upgraded my Desert Voe outfit to level two. And two levels of course meant the outfit got a perk.... and the Desert Voe perk.... was shock-damage resistance.

Well wouldn’t THAT have been nice! |D

One Last Hitch

Waking of Saturday, May 27, 2017 ~ 6

One Last Hitch

I pranced past the wolves again—you know, if you zap one with a Flame Rod, the rest’ll leave off sure enough but.... there won’t even be any cooked meat left—and down round the cliffside to the little wood with the pond.

And there in the pond was a large green cocoon.

I stepped up on the toadstool pedestal and addressed the being inside.

She was likewise afflicted by the lack of well-wishers and gift-offering devotees, but could have her powers restored if I gave her.... five hundred rupees.

Well. I was loaded enough for that. Chump change.

I handed it over—brought myself below six thousand again but no matter—and the Great Fairy’s cocoon blossomed and opened into a beautiful deep blue flower. (Cotera’s had been pink.) She burst from the large mystic pool in the center of the blossom, huge, gaudy, sparkling....

Her name was Mija and she was decked much as her sister Cotera had been, but in garb and jewelry of light lavender, rather than pearly white. And her hair matched: she sported an absolutely voluminous purple pompadour, which looked big enough for me to legitimately get lost in if she leaned over too far.

I just love the Great Fairies’ designs. X-)

She thanked me for restoring her power, and I set her loose on my wardrobe. One by one she upped the defense of my garments. Cotera had worked her magic by blowing over her palms at me, as though to dust me with mystic glitter. Mija simply kissed her forefinger and then gave me a cutesy loving tap that made me blush.... whether in embarrassment or patient disgust I couldn’t tell—WHO DESIGNED THESE ENCOUNTERS they’re so adorable.... though Mija’s elegantly painted fingernail looked big enough to scratch my face clean off....

She was able to modify all of my garments except for one—the Champion’s Tunic.

To fix it up, she needed a few Lizalfos horns, which I had; some other variety of monster-bits I don’t remember, which I also had; and—

I coughed.

Two shards of Farosh’s horn?

O.O

Well that.... would be an epic thing to collect! OuO!!!

But right now there was no more time for delays! It was time to head north!

It was time to find Robbie!

Down the sweeping mountainside I jogged, the seashore creeping in on my right side. I ran from wolves; I ignored Lizalfos. I had somewhere to be. Strange landmarks I had seen in my map passed in and out of view as the land leveled out just above sea level. The beach pressed close along the grassbound road, and I huffed beside the waves, both 10,000 Miles and Chariots of Fire ringing simultaneously through my head as I jogged through the yellow-grey grass....

There were road signs to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. I was getting close.

The land began to climb again, and off in some trees on the east side, a woman tried to flag me down.

Eh, I hadn’t practiced in a while....

She asked me something about Lord.... Lord.... Lord Somebody. Must’ve been some Yiga bigwig. Oh, how I was tempted to give the insulting response, but.... I thought to probe for information instead.

But the woman only fawned a bit more over this person and then....

(Ah, and the Piano always drips the same high chill down the back of your neck!)

“I will take your life!” she hissed.

We fought.

I won.

“And I will take your bananas!” I answered.

And I did.

Further on there was yet another Stable! The East Akkala Stable. And there was a man there who sold hot buns for ten rupees apiece—each one granted an entire extra temporary stamina wheel.

I’ll have to remember that.

There was another man there, a soldier-looking type of fellow, who asked me if I had heard of Kilton.

! As a matter of fact I had! From that Chabi woman I met at the parade grounds. But she’d seemed so genuinely interested in the man....

But Soldier Fellow impressed upon me that this Kilton was some kind of menace, and that he was the source of many awful rumors and much disquiet. A general disturber of the peace.

He asked me, if I ever met Kilton, to very carefully note his appearance, so that I could describe it back to him in detail.

Eh.... I agreed.

Seems this Kilton is taken for good and ill.... I do wonder what all the fuss is about....

But I would not wonder now.

Robbie was right up the road. Just a little father!

I hoofed it up the hill!

I was so close!

I could see the outline of the laboratory! A giant telescope and great bits and shapes sticking out in all angles—

A red targeting laser needled onto my shirt.

The Piano turned wicked....

Cover. Run, I thought. Keep running.

But no, there was no cover in my course. Where was it coming from? Recalculation would take precious time....

I turned wildly—I had passed a large red rock jutting out of the earth to the right of the path.

The rusted Guardian had been right on the other side of it.

No one coming from the direction of the stable would have been able to see it.

That was dirty! D:

I ran back to regain the other side of the rock—the laser flickered—that high beeping—

I didn’t make it in time.

The blast sent me rolling.

But I was still alive. Probably thanks to Mija’s very recent upgrades!

But only just. How many hearts did I have left, three? Four? Not enough to take another hit. I got back to my feet as the Guardian began to recharge its laser, and dashed back round the boulder to skid to a panting halt on the other side.

Three hulking Stalmoblins popped up out of the ground to keep me company.

Man.

The Piano turned a different flavor of wicked as I quickly reached into my pockets for something to eat; I rather wanted a few more hearts on my side before I dealt with these bozos....

Once they were dead the Piano left off and it was quiet. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I could still hear the Guardian swiveling its head around on the other side of the rock. Looking for me.

I climbed a bit onto the red stone—thank goodness it wasn’t too steep to stand on—and had a careful look.

The guardian seemed fixated on the road. Just swiveling back and forth, glowing a vigilant blue....

Huh.

Well, first I appealed to Ja Baij. Purah had upgraded my bombs after all. I decided to see what they could do.

I chucked one over the top of the rock. But I detonated it too soon and the Guardian took no damage. It was tricky without being able to see the shape of the ground on the other side.

I chucked another one, waited a little longer.... and detonated again.

The Guardian’s health went from 500 to 498.

It shot a blast at nothing and swiveled harder.

Well that wasn’t very encouraging.

I chucked a few bombs more, gnawing away at the Guardian for a while and making it blow up bits of earth near the path at every turn, but....

This was taking too long. I had to hit it with something harder.

I consulted my bows and equipped the strongest one, and readied my Shock Arrows. I had quite a few to spare.

And after a deep breath, I jumped forward, stood up tall on the top of the rock, drew back my bow and waited for its eye to turn my way.... If things went sour, I could just back up and fall back into cover....

But it never turned. It just kept swiveling at the road. Creeping thing....

I put the Shock Arrow away and loaded a regular one. Just to test it.

It tunked off the back of the Guardian’s head, and it turned to see me.

I shot its eye!

AND IT STUTTERED! Shaking and swiveling as though trying to clear itself, trying to reset!

I shot its eye again!

The damage was mounting up considerably faster!

I shot it again and again in the eye! Sometimes it swiveled too far to the side and I lost my target but.... I was patient.... I could wait....

Did any of my bows break? I don’t remember. But I had plenty of equipment with me....

And every time its eye turned my way I shot it again.

Its energy dropped farther, and farther again until.... with a whirring and a crackle of shattering light.... ITS SHELL BUCKLED AND IT EXPLODED!

I KILLED A GUARDIAN!

I KILLED A GUARDIAN!

HAHH.

Now . . . . I will know

. . . . whether GUARDIANS . . . .

RESURRECT AT BLOOD MOON.

The Akkala Ancient Tech Lab was waiting up the hill.

I followed the path just a little bit farther—more rusted Guardians glowered at me all around the house—

They were dead.

Dang it, Robbie.

I approached the door, and let myself inside.

A pot-bellied.... machine of some kind, with a stylized, slit-eyed face and a mouth that looked like it could open, stood in the middle of the room.

“I... It’s...” it juddered in a hollow metallic voice. “An... It’s...”

What did that mean?

“What are you doing here?”

Two Sheikah stood behind me: a well-built woman of average height, and a tiny little old man wearing the strangest goggles.... Could that be....?

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....

Dance with the Devil

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 7

Dance with the Devil

(In the pale sunlight as it happened)

As I ascended the mountain, I thought I saw yellowish shafts protruding from the high pines. Stray discarded Shock Arrows.

It started getting cold, and my nose and cheeks turned rosy and my breath came out in little clouds. I wondered if I would have to switch to my Warm Doublet.

Higher up, a weak sunlight managed to penetrate the clouds and water—I could see Vah Ruta far below me in the Reservoir, casting it all up into the sky by its trunk like a smokestack. So much water.

But in the slightly stronger light I could see clearly: these were definitely Shock Arrows stuck in these tree trunks. I plucked a few of them out, tucking them away for later. I would need quite a few. I hoped I could get this over with quickly and deftly....

Sunlight reflected off the long wet grass into my face, glowing the ground into a blinding aura near the high, wide meadow.

Would it be like Talus Junior? Would I be able to see it? I moved slowly, very slowly.... taking my time at every step, keeping my distance, holding back....

But all at once a cinematic made the introduction for us.

Save me there it pawed the ground: six-limbed, four strong hooves, two brawny arms, muscly, horned, thick red-maned, and armed. What was its face but a terrible dark blur with glinting eyes?

The cutscene left me waiting round the side of a large boulder as the Lynel approached from the meadow.

I stepped out where it could see me—and I could see it—and raised my Sheikah Slate as it charged.

I think I captured the last sight any number of good men may have seen. If Laflat didn’t like that photo, I didn’t know what she would.

And after that....

After that....

....

Y’ever play ring-around-the-rosie with the Devil?

It was big. And it was fast. And its weapons were many, for what little implementation it possessed. Sword and shield to be sure—and claws—and fangs—and horns—and kicking, trampling hooves like flints. And snapping, crackling Shock Arrows.

I ran. You bet your sweet Canadian mullets I ran as hard as I could. Fast it would come charging at me, the swing of its gigantic sword missing me by inches as I tore to the side. I just needed to get those arrows I saw sticking out of the ground and out of the trees everywhere.

Have you ever stopped to climb a tree when there’s a giant man-horse-lion beast galloping at you?

Other times I was not so lucky—if I could not clear its path in time, if its sword caught me, or its swiping hands found me—

I know at least one fairy came to my aid.

More than once I was sent flying, reeling and wheeling head over heels through the air, spinning, spinning to slam back onto the wet grass below—

“Get up get up get up, Link, get up!!!”

Where was it? And it would make another pass, come at me again. Stop, raise its bow—I would hear the crackling of yellow lightning in its hands—I leapt from the puddle I had stopped in—the arrow stuck in there wouldn’t do me any good if I got fried trying to retrieve it—barely made it out before the zapping explosion erupted behind me—

The Lynel was so fast, both on its feet and in its tactics, and I was small. I was eating through my restorative provisions at the fastest rate I had ever done—I’d cooked so many meals in Zora’s Domain beforehand that even my hammerspace pockets couldn’t hold anymore.... Well they’d have more room now, I thought.

And Holy DIN when I jumped aside from one of its attacks to see it skidding to a vicious halt, its claws and teeth chewing and RIPPING into the grass, into the ground, into the low prey-space I had vacated by only a fraction of a heartbeat—it meant to rend me asunder and then devour me.

Only a few more arrows....

But I couldn’t keep this up forever....

Uphill, uphill, UPHILL!! It had left some arrows below its meadow.... maybe there were some higher up as well....

Uphill, Link, uphill, run run run faster, Link, faster....

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.