At Jeddo Bridge

Waking of Tuesday, May 2, 2017 ~ 2

At Jeddo Bridge

Toffa was the man’s name. The old man at the stable who had asked me to go find the white horse.

I didn’t dare show him until after I’d registered him though; he is willful.

A proud and powerful beast. <3

Toffa was shocked and delighted and dumbfounded and just full of joy. The sight of the pure white horse!

“Son, you just made my life,” he said, “I guess staying alive in this godforsaken land was worth it after all.”

The stories from his grandfather were true. This must have been some grandchild of that stallion from long ago, and it was magnificent. He became wistful. “They say the sight of the Princess riding her white horse was a beauty beyond all words,” he said.

He was so happy to have seen the white horse, that he gave me—the Royal Family’s saddle and bridle?

They were the very same. The same from my memory.

Augh, and how splendid Memory looked wearing them.

Regal and handsome.

I do wonder where and how Toffa came by that tack....

I rode Memory over the road north, all the way to the base of a big hill where we saw a moblin lurking around a bit higher up, and then back again to the stable. Just for us to get a bit more used to each other. The piano rollicked along in our wake all the way like sunlit raindrops, cadencing perfectly when we stopped.

But after that I boarded him again; there were no guarantees of flat ground where I was headed. The Stables would take good care of him while I was out.

I headed north again on foot, crossed Manhala Bridge, crested Sanadin Park Hill, and jogged across the skirts of Satori Mountain. A wide green field lay at its foot to my left—it again looked like a gorgeous place to have a row with something big and mean....

I didn’t stray into it, but kept near the river.

It was quite a long trek, and the rain came again before the end of it, this time with lightning. Strange, it’s become second nature to just switch to non-conductive gear; and if the ground beside me is flash-fried in an earthshaking bolt of electricity, I hardly even bat my eyes anymore at the little grassfires that may be left over.

I neared a very sticky bridge—I mean the sight of it made it seem comprised of just such a mess of sticks.

Was this the rickety-looking bridge I’d seen from below....?

Jeddo Bridge it was called. And shortly before I set foot upon it, I heard once again the sweet, poignant little waltz played on an accordion....

Through the downpour’s haze I could just make out, on the other side of the bridge, perched atop a big craggy hillock like a one-man stage.... Kass. Joying out his song to the wild wild rain in sweetloving abandon like he does. I love that guy. <3

As I crossed the bridge I could tell it wasn’t as rickety as it looked—but did it ever look it. If I didn’t know any better I’d say something huge had taken bites out of it.

Come to think of it, I guess I really didn’t know any better. o.O

I could see the river far below. This was the split that I had been looking for! Excellent.

But I had little time to celebrate because just before I reached the other side of the bridge, three stalmoblins burrowed up out of it and laid me out flat. I very nearly plummeted into the gorge, but only just managed to cling onto the stone just below the bridgeplanks—but I wouldn’t be able to hold on for long in this rain....!

But I looked, and there was a little ledge just below me. I dropped down onto it and sheltered beneath the northern end of the bridge for a while, the stalmoblins jabbing stupidly in my general direction with their spears. But they lost track of me momentarily and only snorfled around for some sign of anything else to harass.

I couldn’t very well climb back up.... I’d make a beautiful target until I reached the top. And besides that it was still raining.

I guessed I’d just have to wait for a change in the weather, or daybreak. Or both.

At length the stalmoblins disappeared and I did make it up to see Kass.

He hadn’t heard me come up on him; he was thinking about his teacher, who had passed away a long time ago. He played me the last song his teacher had taught him, and it spoke a riddle of a single arrow passing through two rings to make a shrine appear....

“Do you suppose it means all these strangely-shaped rocks?” Kass suggested, for there were numerous rings carved from jutting stones all around.

An Odyssean challenge!

Well! :D

I went to it.

It was tricky, as the land was so hilly and angled, and some blue chuchus interrupted me, but eventually I found a couple of rings I could thread a single arrow through. And as I did, the shrine of Sheem Dagoze rumbled out of the earth....

“Kass, look what I did!” I ran back to show him. He was politely astounded. ^_^

I had a warpable right at the root of the split I needed to search. Excellent!

The Entry With No Name

Waking of Saturday, April 22, 2017 ~ 6

The Entry With No Name

“They’re ALL DEAD ENDS??” I howled.

I sputtered, trying to think. What had I missed? WHERE WAS THE LAKE?

“No, there was still that other split,” said David, “Open your map.”

I did.

“Right here.” He pointed to some squiggle of map line north of where I was.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

(Actually it wasn’t until the next day (technically later that same day) that I realized he meant that first split: between the flow that followed the map line southward, and the flow that wandered off west between the tall cliffs.)

(I was very, very tired.)

I ran around. Somehow there was stable music. David might have steered me toward it. The Outskirt Stable. To think there were people living so close to that dread coliseum....

My head was full. I couldn’t take in anymore.

I met a guy named Trott. He was so exhausted.

Ha, me too, buddy.

He worked at the stable, but the stable meals he said were all vegetarian. He really needed some meat to help him feel better.

Gourmet Meat he asked for. Maybe we could share it he said. I think? Did he?

Did we even share it?

I don’t know.

But I did have one Gourmet Meat. The one and only Gourmet Meat I’d ever harvested. Fresh from the wolves of the Elma Knolls.

I handed it over.

I’ll just say we each ate half and felt like kings.

I like that story better. <3

Another of Staysi’s Rumor Mills was inside on a table. Volume three this time, and it spoke of the mystical creatures known as Koroks.

Hm.

That’s pretty neat.

I also spoke to a lady who stood under a nearby tree—was it raining at the time? She was liable to be struck by lightning if she wasn’t careful....

But she just clapped her hands and jumped for joy and said, “I knew the Hero of Legend would meet me under THIS TREE.”

Ever unassuming, I just gave her a bleary “What?”

“Oh,” she said, “Come to think of it, you do look a bit scrawny to be the Legendary Hero.”

Scrawny?

“And you don’t seem to have his legendary weapon, either....”

Aw geez would this broad just lay off, I was doing the best I knew how....

Another person at the stable told me about Satori Mountain, and the “Lord of the Mountain” that lived there. Hm, may have been Quince’s glowing beast....

Satori Mountain was that dun, conical mountain I had seen through my scope. The one with the occasional glow at its crest at night. I was quite close to it here at the Outskirt Stable.

And I could see there was a shrine up there, too....

Yet another person told me about some place nearby where I could find an elusive pure-white horse. He guessed it might have been descended from a horse that once belonged to the Royal Family.... and he asked me if I could bring it to him.

I agreed without even thinking.

People told me what was around. Hyrule Ridge. Rito Village? Was it here that someone mentioned a Rito Village?

Where even was I, that a Rito Village could be so close?

And what was Hyrule Ridge?

I didn’t retain any of the directions people gave me. Everything went in one ear and out the other.

I wanted to start back up the river, keep looking for Mei, trusting in David’s imagined split that I could still follow, but....

It was so late....

And I was so, so tired.

I had to think about tomorrow. I had to go to bed. I had to get up in five hours to get ready for church. The sun would be up soon anyway, oh gads....

I’d done three shrines along the way I think.... no towers, though.... But no matter, I just wanted to hurry....

But wouldn’t maps prove so useful?

“Hey what’s that? That tower down there?”

David kept taking the most transparent SUDDEN NOTICE of this tower on the plain that he wanted me to go climb.

He’d told me earlier that that one had been.... most intimidating.

Just scary.

Do I go back up the river? Or do I do the intimidating tower to get another map? Or do I climb Satori Mountain? Or do I chase a white horse?

All of Hyrule was my oyster.... I mean.... my shellblade....

But....

But I needed to sleep. I needed it....

I had to stop.

I had to stop.

I wandered back to the Outskirt Stable....

And booked a bunk.

And slept.

And in my dreams, the Princess’ voice came back to me again, warning me it was another Blood Moon, and I had to be careful....

Never slept through one of those before. Excluding the previous century of course.

And in my actual dreams, in my actual bed, I was fighting a lizalfos, and I killed it, and its awesome weapon and AWESOMER shield went tumbling down, waaaay far away from me, into this sunny little grassy dell beneath a tall grey cliff, where no fewer than FOUR Sheikah Shrines sat very close to each other amid the shallow pools of water at the bottom.

I had been hunting EVERYWHERE for that shield....

I ran down, rooting here and there to find it, batting away more lizalfos and caring nothing for activating the shrines—I WANTED THAT SHIELD.

“That shield is an army of swear words,” I grumbled in my sleep.