What Garill Knew

Waking of Saturday, May 4, 2019 ~ 2

What Garill Knew

It’s 8:40 in the evening.

I’ll go out and get Dragmire.

Oh, but not before snagging a Korok behind Impa’s house first.

After that I come back to the broad thoroughfare before the house; I’d left Dragmire there to graze and lounge beside Cado and Dorian.

I give him a carrot.

And we are on our way.

Dorian says it’s dangerous to travel at night, but....

I’m going.

I round onto Hestu’s Hillside and can see the Dueling Peaks Stable in the far distance.

Very close.

Dragmire and I continue down the road at a trot.

Talk with Brokka.

Talk with Bugut.

Old friends.

But still keeping my eyes peeled for enemies.

I see the disguised Yiga by the foot of the mountain. In your dreams, creeper.

I pass by, and cross Kakariko Bridge.

And.... there’s another lady walking on the road. I suspect her, but—I hear them.

Stal creatures. And a Yiga man, laughing as he foregoes pretense and somersaults from nowhere to have it out with me....

I put on my Radiant Gear—too late—and kill the Stalkoblins, and the Yiga Archer....

And with the threats put down I see the lady breathe a sigh of relief....

I collect the spoils, and then go to check on her....

.... But she is yet a Traveler?

I must say, this is a trick I had not seen them use before.

Fine. What.

“Hey, buuuuuddy!”

“Me?” My response.

“Awwww! You’re so cuuute!”

Really.

“Want to spend some.... tiiiiime with meee?”

My choices: “OK...” and “I refuse!”

I’d rather not, lady.

“I refuse!”

“Whaaaaa—?! But whyyyyy?” she pouts. “Don’t you like meeee? If you doooo, please cloooose those eyes!”

Choices: “Well...OK, then.” or “No, I don’t like you.”

I’m not going to play your games.

“No, I don’t like you.”

“You’re so meeeean. Well, theeeen... Hylian Champion...”

The tissue-thin guise dropped and her face contorted into a snarl.

“Begone, enemy of my Master!”

YOU begone!

It’s on.

Aaaand it’s over quickly.

Not tonight.

I am busy.

So near the stable.

I’ll put Dragmire to manger first.

And I do. Thanks, Tasseren.

It will be light, soon.

....

I think I’ll go find Garill.

I kill things that get in my way. But that Bokoblin.... it went after someone else. I pursue and kill it anyway.

Still wary from the bridge I do not talk to the other man this time until I’m sure I know him. It’s Agus. And his donkey.

Don’t think the Yiga keep donkeys....

I buy all his milk and butter.

Thanks, Agus.

Heh, and as I continue along the winding road.... here comes Joute, the old Witcher III guy who spooked me in the rain before on his pale horse. Joute.

“White horsies, giants, and bony ones too. They’re out there for catchin’, and that’s what you should do...” he sings. “You like my song about the legendary horses? There’s only one of each, but I took some liberties to make it musical.”

I do like it, Joute.

The Guardians grow thick now. Here in the Valley of Terror.

I heard that.... Octorok....

Found it. Killed it.

So close to the fort now.... I’ve surely passed where the memory lies....

But I continue....

Garill. My friend. ^_^

“Incredible!” I hear him say.

And I visit with him.

“The more I see of this place, the more it hits me just how hard the old tragedy struck here. But even knowing that, seeing so many Guardians... It boggles the mind. That warrior must have been some threat to the forces of darkness, huh?”

Huh. Well, I would like to think so at least.

Garill doesn’t say anything else.

....

Good old Garill.

I’ll take his pictograph.

I coax him to speak again; try and get him to look up....

“If I’d been alive 100 years ago...I like to think I’d have fought these Guardians here, right at the warrior’s side.”

More....

“The warrior and his soldiers at Fort Hateno risked their lives to protect the world. I wasn’t there at the time, but I’m alive now because of them, and I’ve got to make sure future generations know it!”

Now there’s a good smiling face! ^_^

Got a good pictograph.

Now.... to find that memory....

Heh, I see Toma heading back toward the crossroads too, on her horse.

More familiar faces than I’d realized, around these parts.

Wander, wander.... back into the field.... I won’t be able to tell until I’m within a few feet of it.... There was a Guardian’s husk in the foreground of the painting on Impa’s wall. I look around all the clusters of Guardians, but.... No.... Must be further out....

I might have to kill all the central baddies....

And I do. That Frostspear did come in handy!

Searching, seaching.... Not in any of these clusters near the wall, then....

Perhaps that cluster farther back. Is that the one with an active Decayed one in it?

I go. Find three more Bokoblins, but.... nothing else.

I won’t be able to tell until I’m within a few feet of it.... Was that a trick of the setting sun’s glare? Or....

No.

It’s here.

It’s right here.

My memory.

!

And.... a lot of.... swords. In the ground. Oh....

Oh...

What....

What happened in this place?

....

It’s been two years and two months and two days.

It’s time for me to find out.

A Proper Exploration

Waking of Tuesday, March 7, 2017

A Proper Exploration

You know, my map really was an intriguing thing to look at—I’m crazy for topo; probably get it from my dad—and the names of all these amazing places! The Cliffs of Quince.... Mount Lanayru.... the Sahasra Slope.... Oakle’s Navel? What the heck was that? XD

Maybe I had felt less agile on my horse. Even though he was good for making hasty getaways.

But I really did want to explore more.

And so leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once ag—are you serious, Word? You’re not underlining that? That was just a guess; I didn’t know “excursion” had its own verb—this is really okay with you?

Goodness.

Where was I.

AND SO leaving Brown safe in Hateno Village at “our” house, I excursed once again out over the rolling hills of the high ridge.

I really wanted to explore the Cliffs of Quince. Brokka [Toma] and I had ridden beneath them on our long trek through the rain; they were huge, and hollow beneath, held up by gargantuan pillars and natural bridges. But I wanted to see what was on top....

It turned out to be a wide, pleasantly grassy plateau, though baddies crawled over it like lost ants.

My Iron Sledgehammer nearly died in battle against a moblin.

I’ll have to pick one of the other ones up soon.

I also saw a few large holes where the shelf of rock had worn through, and you could see down into the giant hollow where the bokoblins made their camp.

Some mushrooms were growing on the rock a little way down from the top.

I had never seen anything so not worth it in my life.

Other wanderings brought me to crags overlooking Fort Hateno.

I could see the advance the Guardians had made, and a chill settled into my stomach.

Ughuhuhh.... those things....

I even had a brief peak into Oakle’s Navel, though I did not explore it.

Once I’d had my fill of the immediate area, I decided that I couldn’t be afraid anymore.

I would leave Brown behind, and Travel back to the Dueling Peaks Stable via the local shrine’s warp platform, and I was going to travel the road as I should first have traveled it, as I had meant to travel it: with a fine-toothed comb.

There may have been shrines I missed!

Shrouded

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 15

Shrouded

The rain came down in a thick grey haze that swallowed the world.

We couldn’t see far. We just kept riding the road, passing rocks where bokoblins jumped out at us, galloping away from them.

And I kept looking around.

Places another me would have stopped to go explore.

Which was worse, the Guardians or these Yiga Clansmen?

The Guardians. Definitely.

But that still didn’t make the road feel any less threatening.

On the road to Kakariko it was just the monsters that were coming after me. Now there were people, too?

I remembered I had been so pleased to first see Brigo’s face on the road to the Dueling Peaks—

Back through the haze to my right, up on a hill against the rocks, a white-haired man sat still on a pale, grey-mottled horse.

Was he waiting for me to come speak to him?

Waiting to try to kill me?

I couldn’t make out his features through the downpour.

Actually he reminded me of that guy from The Witcher III.

He just sat there on his horse.

Watching us as we walked.

I had been happy to find people, but now....

Who could I trust?

This is why all Heroes are called Fools

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 14

This is why all Heroes are called Fools

The rain slicked over my Hylian Hood.

Brokka [Toma] and I walked on, soaked, our horses’ hooves endlessly clopping, clopping, clopping over the dirt and slush.

There was so much we were passing by, so much that.... I would have wanted to explore. But I somehow felt safer in Brokka’s company. Safer in the footsteps of a sprite for which the game must always have an escape, surely....

As we passed by some towering cliffs on the other side of a wide river to our right—the Cliffs of Quince, beneath which some bokoblins capered about their campfire—I saw a woman sobbing by the side of the road.

Brokka didn’t stop.

I paused.

Brokka kept going. I didn’t want to lose her.

But who was this crying woman?

This didn’t feel right. This didn’t feel right at all.

Surely this woman needed help.

But I wanted to stick together with Brokka.

What if this was a trap?

Brokka moved further and further ahead through the rain, without me.

Two Roads Diverged.

“All right Brown stay here,” I murmured, and dismounted. I wanted to make this quick.

But the woman had no name.

She was only a Traveler.

Uh-oh....

She was crying because she wanted some salmon.

“And.... and also....” she stuttered.

“The life of the Hero!”

She transformed just the same, into the lithe and lanky thing, reddish, quick, deadly.

Well I’d taken the scythe of the last one—and his bananas and his rupees!—and we fought blade against blade.

Or was this where my Eight Fold Blade finally wore out and shattered?

I don’t remember....

I defeated her. And took her scythe and bananas and the rupees she dropped.

The bananas were from somewhere called Faron.

I wondered if that’s where this Yiga Clan was based....

I climbed back on Brown and raced ahead to find Brokka again.

Safety in Numbers

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 13

Safety in Numbers

I had wandered back into the spread of hills by the stable some time before, looking for I don’t know what. But oh what a beautiful all-black horse I had seen. I followed after it day and night, trying to tame it.

The first time I’d crept up on it, I had approached it from directly behind.

It kicked me in the face before I had a chance to jump on. Sent me rolling and took off some hearts.

I was more careful in the future.

But no matter how many times I mounted it—four? five? six?—I always ran out of stamina before the thing stopped bucking.

I even considered using a stamina-replenishing potion to try and hang on a little longer....

But as I followed it and its fellows deeper into the hills, they began to wander among the big rusted Guardians.

And one of them came to life.

“NOPE. No thank you, goodbye, gotta go, the end, I think NOT.” Or some such ramblings I spat as I crept away backwards, staying in the sight-shadow of a really dead Guardian.

Those hills were bad enough with the octoroks in the river, but.... with Guardians on the other side?

....

I didn’t like that place anymore.

Unfortunately that little valley was right what the road to Hateno Village wound through—Through scads and heaps of these Guardians, on all sides, frozen in their stretching, reaching, crawling.... All of them dead?

Or just waiting?

Brokka [Toma] came along the road again, back on her brown-spotted horse, and I followed her on my own horse at the same walking pace. Surely she, a non-player character, would only tread where those terrible still-living Guardians would not be nor attack.

Brown knew to follow the road. I didn’t need to guide him.

The Guardians loomed on all sides as we walked in silence.

It was a slow and torturous terror passing each one, not knowing as we approached whether its gears would start to grind, its eye would gleam in searching blue, its head begin to swivel looking for things to kill, to incinerate....

Our horses so slow and steady, the air so very still, everything so quiet.... The road felt like a tightrope....

Oh gads I couldn’t stand it....

However, Brokka did make a break for it when a couple of bokoblins jumped out of the brush.

So did I.

I couldn’t stand it! When we had escaped the bokoblins Brokka slowed down again, but I did not pull Brown back from his gallop—through more and more and MORE of the Guardians—until I had passed through the ruin of a portcullis in some kind of large stone wall. There were trees beyond—

I pulled back on the reins, but Brown’s momentum was too great. He had to jump over a small boulder before he came to a halt, whinnying. I patted him, and he gave me a little more love.

He’s a good horse.

The place was called Fort Hateno. There seemed to be some shambling wooden stairs and scaffolds on this other side, I guessed so people could more easily defend it.

Clouds began to brood, and the rain began to fall.

Brokka caught up.

There was a campfire, and plenty to explore.

But I did not want to linger.

Those Guardians, even dead, were too close.

I stayed with Brokka as she continued toward Hateno Village.

Travelers Like Me

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 8

Travelers Like Me

Farther away from the Great Plateau, I saw more people on the road. They walked easily along, and it was refreshing to see other friendly faces.

Brokka was a lady merchant who gave me a few good tips on mining the ores around the area. Bugut specialized more in.... meats, was it? I think. Possibly. That may have been someone else.

Bugut I always saw on foot, but occasionally I would see Brokka riding a brown-spotted horse.

It was just nice to have company now and again.

[But I should mention....

It took me a while to realize that the woman with the brown-spotted horse was not Brokka after all, but a different woman named Toma, who fancied herself a great fashionista and was always remarking on my attire.

Maybe I’d gotten the two ladies mixed up in a town somewhere.... for Toma was never astride her horse when conducting business in a town. And Brokka didn’t have a horse.

Ah well. It was still just nice to have company now and again.]