Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017
I spent a little time at the
Woodland Stable. This one wasn’t crawling with sets of twins like the other
one, and the man behind the counter seemed.... a bit more easy-going as well.
There was a friendly dog shepherding over some goats in a pen—we became good
buddies <3—er, the dog and I, not the goats and I—and I found a really lovely new labrys to swing
around.
I saw a man come riding a grey
horse along the road in the direction I’d been going; his name was Zorona and
his heart was set on the mysteries of
the world! Whether solving them or just reveling in their existence I wasn’t
quite sure.
There was another man, with white-blonde
hair dangling in his eyes, who hung around the stable. He introduced himself as
Molo and it was his ambition to go and loot
Hyrule Castle. I did not encourage him in this endeavor as we conversed.
He admitted that every person he’d
ever known who had ventured there had never come back.... but he guessed it was
because they were all too busy being
rich! I don’t doubt there must have been great treasures left behind
there.... but so many people I’d met had warned of how dangerous it was.... and
I’d seen a few Guardians. Uhuhuh.
Molo, don’t say YOLO, just stay
where you are.
One other older gentleman whose
name I can’t remember informed me about the surrounding areas near the stable—this
was the Eldin region. This was the
home of the volcano. To the north was the great forest, but he warned me
against straying too deeply into it, something about the Lost Woods at its
heart.... And Hyrule Field was.... in another direction near here, south or
east I think he said. And there was a third feature he directed me to, I’m sure
of it.... maybe it was the volcano itself.
Well, it’s hard to memorize the
whole map, as I discovered when I warped back to the Lanayru Tower. That other
river I’d thought ran back toward the east off the wetlands was actually the
other runoff from the East Reservoir Lake. I suppose it flowed into the wetlands. Or it would have, if
not for the big dam wall in the way.
But it was, in essence, what I’d
thought it to be: another extensive dead-ended waterway for me to search.
Starting from the tower I began a
broad, clockwise trek around the entire delta proper, scouring the islets as I
went, but saw no sign of Mei.
I did, however, near the
southeastern reaches of my circuit, spy a GUARDIAN
“STALKER” AS MY COMPENDIUM CALLED IT, LOOSE AND MOVING THROUGH THE MARSH OH GOSH NO PLEASE NO WHY JUST—
It had six legs, and it was very
much alive—oh my gosh was this the one I’d seen loose on the Sahasra Slope,
made its way down to the marshes now?
Oh gads....
Off came the Zora Helm, on went the
Climber’s Bandana, and I climbed up into the mountains to give it a very wide berth as I continued my
circuit of the wetlands. I did stop on a little grassy shelf with a single
large tree to see if I could shoot it with arrows and chuck bombs at it,
but.... well, I did give it a very wide berth. I couldn’t come close
to hitting it with anything. I’m not sure whether this disappointed me or not.
If only I’d had a Korok Leaf.... I
could do that bomb-golfing thing I’d seen David do....
I kept to the hills until I came to
another little deep-water spot tendriling off the marshes in the southwest. It
was near a sad little abandoned homestead ruin, with trees, and a well, and a
single Korok spriting around in the grass. There were some rusted weapons here
and there.... maybe it had belonged to a soldier. Maybe he’d had a family.
It started to rain.
There was a little raft-boat with a
sail down near where the little waterway broke off.
But
I didn’t have a Korok Leaf!
I’d never really made room for one
in my inventory, but seeing David play.... hhhh I kept seeing more and more
reasons to pick one up now. I’ve never
yet bothered with the boats I’ve seen but I want to now....!
I felled a tree near the old
homestead but got nothing but wood. Go figure.
Well, I couldn’t see anything down the short little
waterway, and so moved on. The mountains crumbled away, the land leveled out,
and became a smooth sweep off the wetlands.
I think this was where I ran into
those mounted bokoblins.
I felt a little bad for their
horses.... because you see, in my long searching trek through all the islets
and the ruins therein, I’d run into a few more of those skipping
lightning-ghost things. They could be tricky customers but I’d taken care of
them, and stolen their Lightning Rod
weapons. And it was one of these weapons I used to stop the charging bokoblin
riders.
The peachy, skewbald steed I hit
first seized up, neighing high and
loud, and the bokoblin fell off and we had it out on the ground. I brought down
the one on the brown horse in roughly the same manner. And then....
Well I got on the peachy one, and
he bucked for a bit before calming down, but.... mm, the brown was closer to
being a one-color horse, and so I got
on that one instead.
He bucked too, but I soothed him and
saw—this one had three speed-bursts
at a gallop.
Brown only had two.
Well that could be useful....
I let this new horse carry me for a
bit. His body was all brown, mane and tail black, with four black socks and a
white muzzle. I don’t suppose he was anything fancy, but he was just dandy
fine for moving across this flatter part of the land.
I left him at the shore at times,
to go in and scout out more islets, or to kill lizalfos or bokoblins. And when
I’d come back to him he’d wander a bit before I got on.... but he was a good,
patient horse. Even when the lashing rain came back.
I rode the horse the rest of the
way around the marshes and the surrounding areas. I even came across Tye and
S.... Ssss—uh, Saaalisa? Salisa? I came across Tye and his sweetheart again. And killed their bokoblin assailants once
more. I rode and searched and searched and rode until I came all the way back
to the Moor Garrison Ruins, near where I’d first met Ledo.
I’d circled the entire marsh, and
not seen one lick of the missing Mei.... I had even cleaned out every bokoblin
nest I had come to and searched among all the buildings. I’d combed through the
ruins, I’d left no stone unturned, no box unexploded.
I had not gone up the long waterway toward the Eastern Reservoir; I’d
thought to save that for last as it was so extensive. But....
There was no sign of Mei.
Maybe she really was further down the river.
And this horse....
This chuffing, wandering horse was
starting to grow on me just a little bit.
I decided to take him up to the
Woodland Stable and have him registered.
I rode him into the marsh; it was
quite shallow. But.... huh, to get him across to the north bank....
I consulted my map. The water was
pretty deep on the north side of the big island. I might.... dear me, I might
have to ride him through the boardwalks—
But then I remembered! Thims
Bridge! Northward along the river! I could cross him over there.
And so I took the new horse along
the other bank now with me, still
keeping an eye out for the missing Mei. We had a nasty run-in with another
bokoblin camp—the horse got stuck over a rock
on the ground as they closed in around us—I did the best I could with a
sword until they knocked me clean off. The horse made a break for it, but I
could only turn my attention to the bokoblins and pray he didn’t run too
far....
Turned out he didn’t. Also turned
out the camp was full of high explosives, and I felt quite lucky none of them
went off or was employed during the scuffle.
I bombed them just to clear the
area, scooped up the spoils, and the horse and I moved on.
He moved at a nice clip, and the ever
lurking Piano picked up on the change of movement and plinked happily along
around us, sounding like raindrops in the sunshine. At such a pace it was only
a short time before we came to Thims Bridge. But just before we did.... I heard
a sound I hadn’t heard before. I slowed the horse, the Piano shied and flitted
away, and I scanned the sunlit slope to my left, but could only see a couple of
foxes.
And there it was again. High,
soft.... kind of whistling.... it sounded like.... howling....
But no I was sure those were foxes. And as I came nearer, there I could see the
red of their coats. And they scampered away at my approach.
Were there....
Are there wolves in Hyrule?
(I
ain’t gonna lie; I seen a few fanarts with ‘em.)
Horsey and I crossed the bridge,
and from there it was just a short trot back to the stable. I spoke to the man
at the window, and registered my new steed.
I called him.... Thrice. Once for his three-fold endurance,
and once for what I imagined must have been his third life—a life before
bokoblins, a life with bokoblins....
and now hopefully third time’s the charmed life with Link.
I’ll take good care of him.
Besides, the name Mudfoot for his black socks seemed too
sloggish and slow.
