Waking of Friday, August 3, 2018 ~ 4
More Koroks.
More Guardians.
All around the wetlands and up the
Sahasra Slope....
I was a little beyond the Pit when I saw the red moon rising....
“Dang it it’s a Blood Moon!” I
warped to Satori Mountain and scrambled near enough to its top as fast as I
could.
“What?” David asked, confused at my
agitation.
But I had already launched off
toward Washa’s Bluff.
My paraglide.... could not be fast enough.
“I’m not gonna make it,” I moaned.
“Not gonna make what?” said David. I don’t think he
knows about that shrine....
The air began to redden as I was
still sailing, approaching the bluff’s edge.
“I’m not gonna make it....”
“What are you trying to do?”
I hit the grass and the strange
music began to weep and howl and unholy smoke dripped up into the air—I could
see the dais—it was glowing—I was
sprinting—the Piano was rumbling—I was
almost there—
And the vision started and Zelda’s
voice sounded in warning and I came back to the present and the dais went dark
and....
I had missed it.
Dang
it.
I traveled back to where I had
been, shooing up Koroks around a lake southeast of the Pit. I got a few more of
them before attempting to swim upriver toward Kakariko Bridge. But the current
was stronger than one would think, for just running into a little dead-ended
lake like that.
I couldn’t quite make it, even in
full Zora Armor....
Just before I ran out of stamina, I
warped out of my predicament to the nearby Dueling Peaks Stable, and thought.
I’d already done some shopping to
find bits for the Great Fairies to work with.... but I hadn’t seen Hestu in a while. What could he do for
me? I had certainly collected a lot of seeds since I’d last seen him.
I warped to Korok Woods to have a
visit. But he could offer me no more room for bows. I didn’t want any more shields just now, and
another slot for a weapon was still too expensive.
Poop.
I climbed up the Deku Tree’s giant
roots and into the Navel; a Korok named Peeks had been waiting for me to show
him a pictograph of a Blupee. I did, and he liked that. He liked it to the tune
of a hundred rupees, to be precise.... and I liked that.
The day was only just dawning, and
so I slept in Pepp’s bed until noon, at which point I decided I had been
meandering around long enough.
At noon, I warped to the Sand Seal
Rally in the desert.... and started
walkin’.
I was going to find Dragon’s Exile.
“Only those who have walked through
the desert can truly know its size.” The line from a certain, ah.... Bellena, from Skies of Arcadia,
immediately came to mind.
I’d started in a fairly westward
direction. The dunes stretched endlessly before me, melting into a blinding ruddybeige
haze and rippling in the heat. Fortunately my upgraded Desert Voe Gear was
enough to deal with the temperature. I
could wander anywhere down here....
The sandscape was not devoid of
obstacles, however. There were Lizalfos galore, and more often than not I found
myself wearing my mask to keep them at bay. The real trouble came when the Lizalfos began taking up with other
breeds of baddies, for I could only wear one mask at a time.
At a giant ribcage I had to stay
out of sight up on top of the spine whilst I dropped bombs on a gang of
Moblins. But once the Moblins were gone, I had no trouble floating down and
looting the place completely. Lizalfos still frozen in sandy-colored camouflage
watched me from four feet away, movement betrayed only in their gleaming eyes
as I cracked into their treasure chests and carried on my way.
A long jog later, at a tunneled
rock formation set low into the sand, I had to hide again while lobbing Bomb
Arrows at a small troop of Bokoblins. Some well-placed boomers helped a great deal at the opening volley. But man, that
one Black Bokoblin kept wandering off, and took forever to bring down.
But afterward, my mask was enough
once again to walk freely among the remaining Lizalfos.
Dusk fell, the sand became a wash
of purple-green and grey, and I had to switch from my Headband to my Ruby
Circlet.
The desert was truly vast.
In the cool of the night I
encountered two men tangling with a couple of Bokoblins, and I dashed in to
give them a hand.... but the nighttime came with its own added challenges.
I saw the tiny, crackling, flapping
shapes descending fast upon me—“NOT THE KEESE, NOT THE KEESE!”—and immediately
ran to put some distance between us. I still had not forgotten that Electric
Keese in the rain outside the Honeydell. My
GOSH what
an ordeal that had been....
From a greater distance I was able
to drop the little fiends with my bow, and
take care of the Bokoblins. But I rather lost sight of the two men. I ran back
toward where I had seen them, near a couple of lonesome palm trees, and I found
them standing easily.
They offered me no goodies, though.
Seemed I’d run so far away, the game had depopulated them.
Ah well, that was all right. But
dang, that Silver Bokoblin could hit.
In the end I could only suffice
myself with the said Bokoblin’s weapon—a Trilizal Boomerang with an added
attack-bonus like crazy.
At length I came to a long, low
shelf in the bedrock, maybe a little taller than I was; the topo lines were
gentle here. Toruma Dunes was the
name of this place. I jogged along the edge on the upper part, and in the lower
portion, out some score yards and burrowing around in a circle in the sand, was
a Molduga.
There was something....
peculiar.... about its path....
I didn’t want to get close and I did not want it to sense me down in its
own element. But there was something there.... I was sure of it. The Molduga
was going round and round within the confines of four small, jutting stone
formations, and these formations seemed to share a kind of radial symmetry with
each other. Equally distanced.
And I could see on one stone, there
was a small, dark shape. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, but....
I
needed to get closer.
I dropped onto the lower sands when
the beast was farthest away in its tiny circuit. Uhuh, it was terrible
approaching it! My steps were slow and light and even, but how long would I be
able to flout the Molduga’s superior senses?
In the end I curved wide until I
had centered one of the stone formations between the Molduga and me.... and
then made a mad dash for it.
I made it onto the stone without
incident, and the Molduga continued on its course.
You know I think it may actually
have been much smaller than that
Molduga I had killed for Malena....
Huh.
But I didn’t wonder about it for
long. The object I had seen on the stone stood plain before me now: it was a brazier. And I could see on the stones
to my left and right, more braziers waiting to be lit. I assumed the one across
from me had one as well—they were situated on the outward-facing edges.
But I couldn’t very well light them
up with this brute in the way....
So I drew it up with normal arrows,
and blew it up with Bombs.
....That has a nice ring to it.
Time to write a song stop rhyming.
With the Molduga dead I was free to
light the braziers, and when all four of them were lit, up in the center came
the Tho Kayu Shrine.
Excellent.
