Waking of Thursday, May 11, 2017
Visible from the Wetland Stable,
just across the river and toward the castle, there was a small, jutting
plateau, something left over from erosion, looked like, in the otherwise wide,
rolling plain.
From the stable grounds, I could
see a distant fire, and smoke, rising from a spot on top of that plateau. And I
wanted to find out why it was there....
Perhaps I was becoming more the Hero, more the Fool.
It wasn’t far; and I’d been on the bridge that led to it
before—I’d saved Leekah from a bokoblin on that bridge.
Of course, I’d saved Leekah from
bokoblins in most places....
A short jog across the bridge, a
dash through the rolling grass, a little skip around a gang of stalbokoblins,
and I was climbing the stony wall of the plateau, which was only a little unnerving due to the fact that
one of the stalbokoblins seemed to be packing a bow—but he was a lousy shot, thank goodness.
On top of the plateau was a small
lean-to beside a jutting hillock of stone that was half again as tall as I was.
A woman rested there, beside a campfire and an unlit wok. She seemed well at
ease considering her location; an apple and a bunch of some kind of grainstalks
lay ready beside a log bench.
Her name was Benny, and she
remarked to me that she and I were two of a kind, brave adventurers, and that
there probably weren’t many like us roaming about—few people ever ventured out
to where she was.
She invited me to climb the little
hillock and have a look about—I might see some interesting things. So I did.
And I saw the fields and trees all around, the distant mountains, maybe the
eerie glow from Satori Mountain, perhaps a few unvisited shrines.... But I
suppose the most interesting thing that I saw was just the pack of three
stalbokoblins still doggedly throwing rocks in my general direction, their mean
little red eyes aglow.
I was stalling, I knew that. David
knew that.
I had a scary tower to get to.
When I’d taken in my fill of the
surrounding views, I warped to the shrine of Kaam Ya’Tak. From there I
approached a little hill that was near the Sheikah Tower, and before I ascended
it—I caught sight of a loose six-legged Guardian free about the roads around
its right side.
And with many vocalizations that I
really can’t remember, I dashed behind the cover of the stone and up to the
crest of the hill in a right frenzy.
I—don’t—like—Guardians.
At the top of the hill was a little
statue, to which I offered an apple, and thus brought a Korok out of hiding.
Its cute little twee-hee giggle was
small comfort before the task I was about to perform.
I peered down at the Sheikah Tower
through my scope. It seemed to be surrounded by a smattering of old ruins and
scattered detritus—and then I caught the faintest glow of blue....
“UHHHH—”
“What!” David asked.
“It’s alive! That Guardian down
there is alive!”
For there was a rusted old one
crumbled into the earth near the tower—but its eye was still lit up, still
functional.
Still deadly.
I looked further and saw with a
most unpleasant thrill of horror that another
rusted-but-functional Guardian lay roughly a hundred and twenty degrees round
the tower from the first!
And somehow....
Somehow I didn’t need to see it to
know that a third one must lurk where
I couldn’t see it behind the tower.
David grinned horrible knowing
grins at me. He’d already done this tower.
“How long did you say this took
you?”
“Not long at all,” he said, “I
just—” He moved his pointed index finger through the air and gave a little swoosh sound through his teeth. “—did it
all at once.”
I entered into a frenetic bout of
pacing side to side and round in circles, groaning
for what lay ahead—
“Do it for Mei,” David urged in half seriousness.
o____o
....Well that steeled me right up.
At length I started down the hillside—
“Where are you going?” David asked
with some urgency.
I stopped.
“You should paraglide in!”
“Seriously?”
“They won’t be able to hit you.”
Somehow I doubted that, but....
I climbed back to the highest point
overlooking the tower that I could.... and jumped for it.
And after an all too short sail
through the air.... the piano began to pound in rapid triplets.
The first Guardian’s targeting laser
settled onto a spot over my heart and stuck there like a tight, red needle. I
wanted to turn back—
“Just keep going straight!” David
said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
And so I kept going straight for
the tower.
I could hear the Guardian’s
targeting systems beeping now. The laser began to flicker—
“It won’t hit you,” David assured
me.
And in the split second the laser
disappeared, the Guardian locked on to the position I occupied in space . . . .
and fired.
The hot blue pulse whizzed behind my back by a good five
feet—it seemed the Guardians—the mighty,
terrifying, indiscriminately destructive Guardians—had not even the humble
octorok’s foresight to lead their targets.
It still didn’t stop them from
trying, though; and I couldn’t maintain my sufficiently fast flight-speed
forever. The targeting laser came back, and I reached the tower, and crumpled
onto a platform, ducking low—
And the Guardian lost me.
Oh
Farore it lost me.
NOW
WHAT? 8C
David directed me to ascend the
tower, and to just jump in my
climbing right before the Guardian fired. For the same effect I had just
achieved while flying.
Oh
gads I downed a speed elixir and just screwed up my courage and up I went....!
Mipha was getting overworked.
“That didn’t work, David,” I said.
“Oh....”
I crouched again on the platform.
“No wait, I think what I did was
jump to get onto the next platform before
the Guardians could shoot me.”
I looked at him.
My speed elixir was still coursing
through my veins, becoming thinner by the second....
I reloaded a save from back on the
hill with the Korok, and sailed to the tower again.
Now
as I crouched on the first platform, the same speed elixir fresh down my
throat, I stood up and leapt up the tower wall—the mad triplitive piano started
up—and I scrambled, scrambled—jumped once straight
up—scrambled a bit further—the lasers
beginning to flicker—came level with the next platform—JUMPED SIDEWAYS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY MEMORY—came
above the platform—GOT DOWN FAST AND DUCKED—
And oh my gosh I made it.
The lasers disappeared and the
piano left off.
Well this was.... TERRIFYINGLY DOABLE.
Many platforms and a great deal of
palm-sweat later, I reached the top of the Sheikah Tower. I ran to the center
and activated the pedestal—I did NOT want to go through any of that again....
And the rune distilled down into my
Sheikah Slate, AND . . . .
THAT SPLIT OF THE RIVER WHAT LOOKED
LIKE JUST ANOTHER PART OF THE CASTLE MOAT—IT REALLY DID TRAIL AWAY SOUTH PAST THE WETLAND STABLE, DOWN TOWARD THE
DUELING PEAKS AND RIGHT UNDER PROXIM BRIDGE.
THERE WAS MY MISSING WATERWAY.
“So warp to that shrine and follow
it!” said David.
But no, I had expended a great deal
climbing this tower; I wanted to have a proper look around first.
I gazed foolishly at shrines
peeping out of the earth, away on dangerous ground, surrounded by who KNEW what....
There was one in the general
direction of the castle.
“Did you get that one?” I asked
him.
“No,” he said, “But I went for it.
I paraglided down into a forest, and then a Guardian showed up—it got really close to me—”
“All up in your grill?”
“Yeah, so I just warped away.”
Hm, after my reload back on the
Korok’s hill.... I hadn’t seen that loose, six-legged Guardian about.... Where
had it got to?
The shrine glowed like a
tantalizing torch. I thought.... What
would be the harm in just seeing? I could do what David did, and if any
Guardians caught on to my movements, I could just warp away too....
I leapt for it, north toward the castle. And as I lost
altitude the rusted Guardians on the ground set their lasers into my back.... Uhuhuhuhh it was a terrifying float to
the ground—with my angle increasingly parallel to their targeting lasers—did I dare try to weave?
But I touched down on the grass
without incident, and the piano heralded no more stray Guardians out for my
blood.
There were however three great
Stalmoblins that popped up right in front of me—heck with those things, I was mad-dashing it!
I ran for the stand of trees just
ahead, sprinting as I could until I was safe beneath their boughs.
Ha—and
what exactly was the definition of safe
in these parts anyway?
Near one of the last trees—the
northernmost—I could hear the telltale clinking wooden sound of a Korok. And
that last big tree had a large hole in its side, with something that looked
like an enormous acorn in it.
Somehow I’d always figured these
were Korok puzzles, but I’d never taken the time to figure this particular kind
out—but I was never coming back here
again; if I wanted it I’d have to do something now.... Acting on instinct, I drew my bow and shot the acorn.
Just as it exploded in a happy
little shower of confetti with a bang and a tiny fanfare, I noticed the loose
Guardian up the hill to my left.
“Yahaha!” chirped the Korok, “You
found me!”
I backed up hastily behind another
tree. “Shut up Korok you’re gonna give us
away!” I hissed.
But the Korok only tossed me a seed
and giggled, “Buh-bye!”
I peeked round my tree.
The Guardian was gone.
This had been a silly outing, just
a game, an experiment, a test—I’d
meant to beeline toward that shrine, but....
Well I’d made it to the trees, and no Guardians were after me.
Maybe I could make it a bit farther. But I’d need to stay low....
I bent away toward the right,
sinking with the land, trying to hide with the folding of the hills as I dashed
on ahead.
There was a bare, dead kind of
riverbed crossing the way ahead of me, and beyond it a blasted stone ridge of
some kind—perhaps earth thrown up and baked into crater-rings in the tumult of
a hundred years ago.
Rusted Guardians littered the
riverbed.
“Oh my gosh what if they’re aliiiive?” I groaned to David.
“Use your camera.”
“What?”
“Zoom in; it’ll show you if they’re
an enemy.”
“UHH—” Taking my precious attention
off my surroundings to peer into the constricted pictobox, I zoomed in to look
at the Guardians—
“They’re dead,” said David.
I took his word for it, and kept
running.
“Oh my gosh, you’re insane,” said
David.
“Did you get this far?”
“No!” he gave a high-strung laugh.
There was a low, level spot between
two sections of the ridge—the way to get to the shrine. But there were Guardian Flyers patrolling that corridor. I veered
instead toward the section on the right, and scrambled up the stone.
“Oh my gosh you’re crazy!” said David.
As if I didn’t already feel it....
.__.;
One lonely red fox sniffed around
the bare top of the ridge. I sank into a crouch as I moved toward it, wanting
to get away from the ridge’s slope. I was on such a prominent jut of the land,
but perhaps if I stayed low, I could still hide from anything close by down on
the field....
The fox let out a little bark of
surprise at my approach, and then darted away with a squeal. I hoped it
wouldn’t attract any attention....
The shrine, I could see, lay on the
other side of the left section of the
ridge. And it was further hedged about by mounded earth on all its other sides.
Two Guardian Flyers circled it in a clockwise pattern; they came north-to-south
through the little corridor gap. One of
them was coming right now.
“Oh my gosh it’s right there....” I croaked to David, my stomach
tight.
The
droning of it as it passed so near to where I was.... I could see the
mountings of its propellers.... If I’d wanted to.... I could have run out and jumped
on top of it....
“Those kind have fifteen hundred
health, just so you know,” said David.
“Oh GREAT.” Thanks, David.
The Guardian Flyer passed so close,
so close.... and then, miraculously,
beautifully, perfectly, turned away to hover down the bare riverbed, toward the
west, after the other flyer, which was already down that way—
The window was opening. This was
the biggest chance. They were both looking the other way and it was the start
of a whole cycle before they would come
this way again—
I ran for it. I stood up, I bolted,
I leapt off the ridge, and paraglided across the gap and toward the other
section.
“ANDREA!” David yelped.
A laser settled onto my back.
The triplitive piano woke up—it
sounded different than before....
My heart felt as if it pulsed to twice its normal size at every beat,
harder and faster.
Another laser settled onto my back.
The
flyers hadn’t seen me, the flyers
hadn’t seen me....
“Oh my heart.... oh my heart’s
goin’ that fast....” I strained.
A section of brickwork wall, a
parapet, branched northward off the west section of ridge—was there a gate
beneath it? A way through?
I didn’t check, and took the higher
way.
Did one laser lose me?
One laser was flashing.
Sprinting, sprinting, sprinting—up
to the crest—past the brickwork parapet—I
leapt—
Crunch
onto moldy sodden grass at the bottom—
“UH! MY HEART!” I cried.
There
was the shrine. I bolted again. Forward, forward, up, up—Katah Chuki was its name—dashed to the
pedestal—activated it—the door-opening
cinematic was the longest I’d ever seen
it....
“You’re CRAZY!” said David.
“Oh my gosh....” I clutched my chest. My limbs were shaking.
I ran to the elevator and hit the
down button repeatedly, and after I descended and when I stepped out into the
chambers of Katah Chuki....
David laughed.
It was a Combat Shrine.
