The Princess Irate

Waking of Saturday, January 5, 2019

The Princess Irate

It was raining in the morning when I woke up at the Tabantha Bridge Stable.

Happy though I was for my new mount Knight, I left him boarded as I set out for the day. This was exploration time, and I would be more agile on my own.

I crossed the Tabantha Bridge to the west, no longer afraid of the Guardian Flyers patrolling between the ridiculous rocky hills on the other side. Their range of vision was nowhere near as far-reaching as I’d initially thought.

I still gave them a wide berth, though.

I climbed up the cliffs on the left, and found at their rolling, grassy crest... the Ancient Columns. Just like Pikango had said. And there was the shrine as well. The Tena Ko’sah Shrine. This was the spot depicted in Princess Zelda’s pictograph.

I’d known this place was here. I’d even heard the shrine’s siren signal brreep-brreeping as I’d crossed through this area looking for the fairy fountain before. I’d left it alone, then.

But now I was here for the land.

I was here for the map.

I was here for Divine Beast Vah Medoh.

The light of the lost memory was easy to find.

I stepped into it....

Zelda stood before the shrine’s pedestal, and held the slate up to it.

The unchanging breeze blew on in its whispersong.

“Nothing. Just like before.” She looked disappointed as she drew the slate back and continued to murmur to herself. Something about that it seemed the structure would only activate for the master of the sword....?

“How can I get inside?” she wondered aloud....

They say Hylians have long ears to better hear the voices of the Gods. I guessed mine must have been extra long to pick up even the princess’ murmurings, because I then came galloping up on my horse from over the hill. My brown horse.

Zelda’s white was already there. Had she ditched me while riding somehow? Couldn’t really put it past the abilities of the white steed....

Zelda saw me coming and.... she looked kind of pissed....

Link dismounted and came up to her.

“I’ve already told you I don’t need an escort!” she started. And like the growl of a harried cat she lowered her volume but not her venom: “It seems I’m the only one with a mind of my own.”

Or some such words.

Looking anywhere but at Link, she blustered on and insisted from so many angles that she was fine on her own, no matter what the king’s orders were.

“Go back to the castle,” she told me.

But Link didn’t. He only followed softly after her as she stalked angrily away.

She turned around—“And stop following me!”

So angry....

Hhhhh.

The Black Stallion

Waking of Tuesday, January 1, 2019

The Black Stallion

It was the Rose Parade.

It was seeing all those danged beautiful horses with the luscious garlands of brilliant, colorful flowers hung all around their necks and flanks....

Augh.

I’d taken enough pictographs to somewhat flesh out my Compendium. I’d seen the animal section. There were horses, white horses, giant horses, donkeys, the Lord of the Mountain, stalhorses.... and I think that was it for the equines if you could count the Lord of the Mountain as an equine.

I knew I could register up to five horses, and I still had room for one more.... But it didn’t look like there were any more special horses to find, the one blank space yet to explore on my map notwithstanding.

I wanted a new horse.

I wanted a steed to wear my Extravagant Tack.

It was late, it was past my bedtime, and I had work in the morning, but.... I wanted to culminate the little zeitgeist I felt about it.... zeitgeistchen? Zeitgeistlein—I DON’T KNOW GERMAN.

I skimmed around my map. Where were there horses? I blinked as I realized it was never really something I took any special note of. I knew they could be found somewhat near to stables most of the time. And I knew where I’d seen that black one that one time....

It was the Valley of Terror then. Though the terror was all but gone for me, I think. If I did bump into the one decayed Guardian out in the field, I’d be able to take care of it.

I ran out to find the herd, but there were no all-black ones. A second herd grazed a bit to the north, but that one didn’t have any black ones either.

Where else could I warp? I really didn’t pay attention to where the horses were.... I’d always just stuck to talking to the people, waiting for clues about where the rare breeds roamed.

Those fields north of Jeddo Bridge looked promising, so I warped over to the Odyssean Sheem Dagoze Shrine, and started truckin’ it up the hill.

There were a couple of herds here as well, but again I could find no black ones.

From here I could think of nothing else but to warp back to the Ha Dahamar Shrine at the Dueling Peaks Stable, and again check the herds in the Valley of Terror. Their coats had changed upon the reload! But there were still no black ones.

I wanted a black one.

I bounced back and forth between these two fields for a while. It was most troublesome at night; it took a couple of incidents before I remembered to anticipate the dark with my Radiant Gear. That still didn’t stop the keese, though. And the dang Yigamen didn’t care what time of day it was.

At some point I added another field to search to my cycle: the Fural Plain just adjacent to the Highland Stable. I had been hesitant to go there because every previous visit to that place, at least via the road, had been plagued by that little troop of mounted Bokoblins. But it was the only other place I could think of that I was pretty sure had horses....

I was happy to discover this time, however, that the Bokoblins seemed to have gone! It had been quite a few Blood Moons since I’d cleaned them out.... but they hadn’t respawned. Huh. They reappeared in other get-rid-of-the-monsters sidequests—why hadn’t they reappeared here?

I didn’t know.

I was just happy to see them gone.

And happier to see that there were indeed horses here!

None of the ones I saw were black, though.

Poop.

I warped back and again, around and around, Ha Dahamar, Sheem Dagoze, Ka’o Makagh, Ha Dahamar, Sheem Dagoze, Ka’o Makagh....

I did this for so long—How else do you think I memorized these shrine names?

At some point I cut out the Sheem Dagoze Shrine, though. It was too long a jog to get to the horses; and the stal-creatures, keese and Yiga seemed to appear more frequently there.

So it was back and forth between the Valley of Terror and the Fural Plain. I saw reds, creams, greys, piebalds, skewbalds, appaloosas, gypsy cobs....

There!

There was a black one in the Fural Plain! But.... it had four white socks.

I chased it for a while, desperate. Had I only imagined that all-black horse before? No I hadn’t imagined it; it had kicked me in the face pretty hard. But had I imagined the color....?

I thought about just.... letting the socked horse suffice me. Maybe there were no all-black horses.... Just like there were no common all-white horses.

But....

No.

I kept warping.

And after a great, weary long time.... LO! There really was an all-black horse!

FINALLY!

It showed up on the Fural Plain on a sunny afternoon, and the flamerosy glow played havoc with my view of it through the scope—was it really black? Or was it a brown or a grey, only painted darker by a trick of the sun’s glare?

But I got closer and it was all black. There were subtle color variations on its muzzle and around its hooves.... but so were there for Memory. I didn’t think I’d find a blacker horse than this.

This chase was on.

The problem with the Fural Plain was that the grass, most of it, was remarkably short. This made sneaking up on the black horse deucedly difficult, especially as he had one other horse friend on the lookout with him. Several times I sent him trotting and galloping away into the boundaries of the field, many of which were comprised of sizeable stone cliffs. But it was a real fear of mine that the horse might come to an open spot and bolt down a road or somewhere leading out of the field. But I wasn’t sure how justified that fear really was.... Would the game keep it hemmed in?

I chased the horse for [game-] days, trying to maneuver it into one of the grassier spots where I could approach it more stealthily. The intermittent Yiga did not make things any easier.

But at great length I was finally able to mount the black stallion and soothe him into submission, whereupon I took him straight to the stable for to register him before anything else could happen.

I thought for a long time about his name. Jett? No, too literal. This was one of the harder conniptions I’d had over naming a steed! I wanted something strong-sounding, something ancient, something kingly, something like one of those archaic words that has a CH pronounced like a K....

Archeantus?

Mmm.... I didn’t even type it in. A strong name, but.... maybe not the strongest namesake.

Archibald?

That wasn’t a K sound....

I was just stuck on this Arch- usage....

Somehow in all the archaisms I swayed into the possibility of Oberon. Mmm, the deep vowels matched his coat and color.... and the reference matched the mystique of an all-black horse!

But I also thought of the name of Knight. Strong and royal to be sure.... though the pun was perhaps not as sophisticated.

I swiveled between these two for a while. Oberon and Knight. But Knight felt more alive, sharper, keener, and faster. Not so serious or reserved as Oberon. Or as wise-sounding, but that was okay.

Knight it was!

I rode him around the Fural Plain until his trust in me was such that I could alter his mane and other trappings. And back at the stable.... on went the Extravagant Tack.

....

Knight looked embarrassed in it, too.

Hmm.

I.... fiddled with it....

....

A look at Knight’s statistics showed me that he had.... four of five points in speed.

That was faster even than Memory.

Dang he was a fast horse. I could see the difference as I rode and spurred him into a gallop—how fast the land flew by around us!

Hah hah, he truly was a Knight!

I rode him to the Dueling Peaks Stable, just to get a look at him in motion in this momentary tack and mane-style....

And then I remembered upon arrival Uh, no mane-changers here.

So I rode to Outskirt, took him to the girl by the manger, and played with his mane some more....

“Oh my gosh you’re ridiculous, you spend three hours finding a horse and playing dress up with it. This is why I’m ahead of you in getting shrines.”

Beautiful lines from David.

In the end, I just stuck with the mohawk and the Extravagant Tack. The mohawk suited his wild temperament. And Knight could stand the Extravagant Tack. He could make up for the flamboyant red feather springing from his crown. He was the fastest horse in my team. And a glorious, powerful midnight black besides!

Knight could wear the Extravagant Tack with welcome challenge to any who scorned.

But a horse named Oberon would never have been able to abide it at all.

I rode to the Tabantha Bridge Stable.

I was ready.

At Tabantha Bridge

Waking of Friday, August 11, 2017 ~ 4

At Tabantha Bridge

After visiting with Branli I continued down the long road that wound around the Seres Scablands—the place I’d seen north of Satori Mountain, the place with those strange mushroom-like treethings sprouting up out of the earth.

I’d seen a Mount Rhoam nearby on my map, and I wanted to see if that little body of water on it was a Fairy Fountain....

Before I got there however, I came to a crossroads beside which a signpost stood in the grass. It warned me to beware of suspicious characters I might see on the road, of bandits in the area who might attack me.

A woman stood OH SO CONVENIENTLY nearby.

....

Well I wouldn’t be the Hero if I weren’t a proper Fool.

I spoke to her.

Her name was Traveler.

“Dang it!” I shouted.

She threatened to kill me and we had it out. She gave me quite a bit of trouble, this one, but I struck her as I was able. She kept dancing just out of reach....

“Nimble little minx, ain’t she?” said Dad, who was in the room, and I laughed. XD

In the end I took her down and stole her bananas and hurried on up the road to a new stable—the Tabantha Bridge Stable. And a shrine. Which I had trouble accessing at the first by dint of it being up over a small ledge which I was obliged to scale in the rain. But I did get to it, and locked down the warpable.

Did that shrine have Guardians in it?

Where did I get.... more gears....?

Three men stood in a conspicuous huddle outside the stable, just begging to be eavesdropped upon. I approached them and they told me about the Leviathans that used to roam the land, and the giant bones they had left behind.

Ah.

So perhaps those weren’t Dodongos after all.

They asked if I would scout out the three Leviathan skeletons that were known in the land, and then come back and report or show them pictures or something....

At least I knew where one of them was....

Well I checked out Mount Rhoam, but there weren’t any Fairy Fountains on it. Conveniently enough, however, there was another man at the stable, name of Toren, who gave me a clue about a Great Fairy nearby! And he asked, if I were going to go looking for her, would I please make an offering to the Great Fairy for him?

I agreed and he gave me five hundred rupees.

He said something about the Sheikah Tower across Tabantha Bridge—some time in the afternoon, its shadow would point to where the Great Fairy lived....

Hmmm but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get that tower just yet, and so was hesitant to go near it and be tempted....

Do you find it ridiculous?

Why do I play the way I play?

What.

I’m savoring.

I’m breadcrumbing.

I’m exploring.

WHAT.

Instead of chasing after the tower’s shadow, I went back to my map, and studied the Gerudo Tower. I remembered standing near that one all day waiting for its shadow to crawl to where I was. Studying my map and recalling where that shadow had passed, I concluded that any afternoon shadow would be cast first southward, and then sweep counterclockwise to the east as the sun sank lower.

By sight, I placed a marker on the tower across Tabantha Bridge. On the empty blue map in my Sheikah Slate, I added two more markers at healthy distances south and east from the first marker. This pie-slice would be my search area....

And I plunged across the bridge....

A Guardian Flyer seemed to patrol near the road that wound off toward the left. And so as was my wont I took to the hills. I thoroughly searched my little grid around what seemed like it would be the midway point of the shadow’s afternoon course, but to no avail. At length I stood frustrated on top of a high rock, scanning all around me for those bright orange toadstools, that big green cocoon.... but saw nothing.

Disappointed, I moved to the rock’s edge to float down.... and saw the cocoon directly below me.

There was no water nearby.

I floated down, and spoke to the fairy inside.

A thousand rupees she asked for. But that was easy enough, especially with Toren’s help! I handed it over.

The cocoon burst open into a beautiful golden bloom. This fairy’s name was Kaysa. She had slightly darker skin, and sported a gaudy collection of pink-accented jewelry, the bangles on her necklace stark and triangular.

And then there was her hair. It was light pink just the same to match. But if Mija’s pompadour had been the pleasantly proportioned fluff of a strutting prairie-grouse.... Kaysa’s streaming fountain of bangs was more like a long-necked flamingo.

I had her work her magic on some of my clothes, and rather than blow magic at me or bop me with a kissed finger.... SHE LEANED RIGHT DOWN AND KISSED MY FACE.

Link covered his face in a fright before that cinematic was over. XD And it left him gasping and panting like he does when he runs out of stamina! XD XD XD

When I’d had all the clothes enhanced that I could, I went back to Toren and he gave me his thanks.... and I thought of some other clothes I rather wanted to acquire....

I’d recently collected a few more Ancient Gears.

It was time to pay Robbie a visit, and see if Cherry could forge anything for me....