A Walk with Yunobo

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017

A Walk with Yunobo

David’s been kind. He stayed away from the volcano’s Divine Beast until I’d had a go at it. But now he felt free to plunge right up Death Mountain, and I watched him for some of the time.

He cleverly defeated those first Moblins at Eldin Bridge by climbing up a nearby crag and bombing the living daylights out of them. And as the second one finally died, he jumped off the rock to float down and collect its spoils.

But the cinematic started before he could deploy his paraglider.

And as the camera centered on the bewildered Yunobo, looking around to see if the coast was clear, David and I watched a dark shape swip down right in front of him and off the screen out of sight.

“Was that Link?” we both wondered, laughing incredulously at each other.

The cinematic ended, and the camera pulled back a gentle distance, and there was Link, on the ground.

Which was just . . . . great. XD

With a little more effort than I had taken the time for, David was able to destroy the Sentries using Yunobo as a projectile.

I didn’t know you could do that!! D8 ??

But I did feel a little clever in that I had thought to Stasis them, when this did not occur to David.

He also ran right past the first cannon without firing at Rudania. He was wearing full Flamebreaker Armor, and I wanted to see what would happen if he climbed up near Rudania’s big flaming right hind foot.

David was kind to oblige. XD

And the result was that he burst into flame. ÓuÒ;;

Maybe Vah Rudania was just too hot, even for the Flamebreaker Armor. Or maybe David hadn’t upgraded his armor to be fireproof yet.

After a bit either I told him or he figured it out that he should use the cannon on the Divine Beast, and he progressed on his way.

I watched him all the way up the mountain (he never once was spotted by a Sentry) and into the volcano until.... the trapdoor clamped down behind him and locked him in the darkness.

And on that grinning bombshell, I left to go attend to some other things.

When I came back some time later, he was about to face off against Fireblight Ganon, but he first left to regain full hearts by sleeping at his house.

Which I told him was LAME. And like some crotchety old geezer I told him that back when I did the Divine Beast I did the whole thing at half hearts, and I never warped away or even ate any of my meals!

But he went to rest at his house anyway.

I don’t have a house yet.

It was fun watching him defeat Fireblight Ganon. He was quite stumped for a while, but he was brave and kept psyching himself up to venture out from behind the posterior structure to try a new tactic . . . .

I stepped out for his ending cinematics. It was his fourth beast, and we suspected there might be something extra, and I didn’t want to be spoiled.

And there was something extra, he said.

But I did watch the part with the ghostly Daruk.

And after a little more time, David insisted that I play.

He really does want me to catch up.

And I believe he wants to talk about more of the game with people. And I know that feeling.

Hah. Welcome to my life, David.

I played from the activation of Vah Rudania when I started. Because I wanted to see it again. And.... I was still logging, and I wanted a refresher for the scene.

Sometimes I go through the game faster than I intend, and.... I lose some of the finer details.

Dang this log.

The bright, gold-tinged light that had borne me off the beast brought me down into Goron City.

I can never bring myself to make the avatar run, after things like that. I just can’t.

It just feels so.... uncalled-for.

Being thrust back into normalcy after the brutally insane places I’ve been?

It’s like being on another planet.

It’s a kind of dazedness, a kind of triumph, a kind of relief, a kind of sorrow, which for me will forever require a walking pace.

Yunobo told me the Boss had summoned me, and that that kind of thing couldn’t be refused.

And he rolled away.

I walked after him, toward the Boss’s house.

Bludo said Yunobo had told him everything. And he was amazed and grateful that we had subdued the Divine Beast.

“But did you have to wait until my back finally felt better?” he griped, pressing that now I was making him look like big fibber!

In the end he rewarded me with a gift he said I could find in his house: a blade once wielded by the legendary Daruk himself.

“Take it. Keep it. It’s yours,” he said.

I couldn’t fit it in my inventory.

So I left it there.

Which was just as well, I figured; one block of my weapon inventory was already taken up by Mipha’s spear, which I dared not use any further lest it break.

Made me think of getting that house again. Maybe weapons could be stored in houses....

Why hadn’t I gotten that house yet? Well.... I had my reasoning. Although to be honest I’d since been “spoiled” on that point—I knew by then that it was—

Mm but maybe you don’t.

....

In which case I’ll just say....

....

I just wanted to wait until I had seen all the land first, before choosing a place for me to live.

I was wandering around Goron City, still at a walk.

I saw Yunobo. He was walking too.

I went to speak with him.

“I’m going for a walk today,” he smiled, “Want to come?”

And that was all he said.

And he continued in his slow and easy NPC pace.

Well, he wasn’t like that tour guide back in Hateno, huffing and puffing and making me jog. He was just.... walking. Slow as Uli from Twilight Princess.

But he had invited me, so I followed him.

After a very brief climb, he came to a stop in the middle of a short bridge over the thoroughfare below, and turned toward the volcano.

I spoke to him again.

“Welcome to my secret hideout,” he grinned to me, “This is the best place to get a good view of Vah Rudania.”

We both looked at it, perched way up there at the mountain’s top, lasering toward the castle.

“To think we actually fought that thing...” Yunobo continued. “I’ve never been afraid of it... until just now.”

I guessed it was all hitting him at once.

“It’s strange, but ever since we defeated Vah Rudania, I’ve felt like my ancestor Daruk is somehow with me all the time.”

He turned to me.

“Link, I did good, didn’t I?”

“You did your best!” I said, and this seemed to give him a little more confidence.

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I.”

Or some such words.

“And with Daruk’s Protection I know my ancestor will never let me down.”

Or some such words.

Or some such words.

Sometimes I forget the exact things people say.

Sometimes I prefer not to go back and check.

Sometimes I just try to do my best, too.

Dang this log.

Daruk's Protection

Waking of Friday, October 13, 2017 ~ 4

Daruk’s Protection

With the demonic apparition defeated, I was finally able to activate the main control unit on Vah Rudania’s back. And when I did—

“Great work, little guy!”

I turned and there stood the spirit of Daruk, all ghostly teal.... but grinning hugely and with his arms spread wide.

Similar to what Lady Mipha had said, but in much gruffer terms, he explained to me that since I had slain the monster that got the best of him, his spirit was finally free. “Sorry that my resting with the rubble caused so much trouble for you...” he added, “But now Vah Rudania is back under our control!” He pounded fist into palm with palpable force and I daresay a small shockwave.

Man, I bet even Goron ghosts could knock you out if they tried.

Daruk went on to say that he wanted to give me something.... a power he had, called “Daruk’s Protection” . . . .

Oh yeah, I knew.

It wouldn’t do him any good as a spirit, he said, but maybe it could help me.

“Ready? Here it comes!”

These Gorons don’t do anything small. ._.

With a strenuous roar he seemed to summon a ball of energy between his giant palms, and with a “Hah!”, clapped in my direction—

And his power plunged into my chest and I was surrounded with a burning, powerful light, my feet again momentarily losing contact with the ground on which I’d stood as I closed my eyes and took it all in.

And when I was myself again I tried it—I planted my feet and rammed the knuckles of my fists together—feeling all the more impressive being ironclad in the FlameBreaker Armor—and the shimmering, lava-colored dodecahedron flared into being around my person.

I was invincible.

And I let go of it and flexed my gloved fingers....

Daruk continued, “I’m gonna take this thing down the mountain where I’ll have a clear shot at Calamity Ganon. And when you get inside the castle . . . we’re gonna light that place up!”

Or some such words he said....

Hadn’t Mipha said something about.... draining Ganon’s power?

What did he mean ‘light it up’?

And there were parting words—more encouragement I am sure.

I like Daruk’s temperament.

But I remember the very last thing he said before the light swallowed me up to transport me away—

“And.... Give my regards to the Princess,” he said with a grin.

Vah Rudania, lit a purer blue this time between its joints, instead of the corrupted red, clawstomped its powerful way out of the crater and perched atop an impressive crag. Its head moved, lizard-like, getting a fix on the castle I assumed—for the six segments from nose to neck then shuddered apart, splitting the whole of it wide open like a flower. And inside, a great bronzy barrel telescoped out into menacing life, charged with a mighty whirring, and let loose the enormous red beam. Straight into the calamitous clouds about the castle.

Little halos of the same energy ringed in and out of being along its length....

“Well, that about does it!” Daruk spoke to the Divine Beast or maybe a bit to himself. Or maybe to the player. “All we have to do now is wait for the perfect shot.”

Perfect shot?

Hadn’t Mipha said something about sapping Ganon’s power?

What were these beams, anyway? Wouldn’t they just work to weaken—

Red circles.

A red imploding circle on the target. Repeatedly shrinking to the center and then reappearing.

It . . . . was familiar . . . . ?

Oh my Hylia.

The Divine Beasts were Sheikah technology.

Like the Guardians.

THAT LASER . . . . IS A LASER OH MY GOSH WAT THIS I CAN’T—

Daruk took in the landscape.

“Hyrule looks good even after a hundred years,” he said, “The old rollin’ grounds sure are a sight for sore eyes.”

His eyes and his tone fell a bit.

“I wonder how the Gorons.... fared after the Great Calamity. I hope they’re still going strong even after every—”

But the camera had angled behind the figure of Yunobo, on a crag further down the cone, as he gazed up at the Divine Beast, and the ghostly teal figure on top of it.

Daruk had seen him too.

Yunobo gasped in wonder.

“Well would you look at that . . .” Daruk mused, “Still going strong indeed!”

With a manly grunt, he thrust his huge right fist straight up into the air in a rugged salutation.

And with that kind of delight you only feel when you know you are the sole partaker of the rarest of gifts.... Yunobo shouted and waved his hand vigorously back, laughing his exultation to the morning sky . . . .

Hylian Charbroil

Waking of Friday, October 13, 2017

Hylian Charbroil

You know, Goron City can be confusing. Absolutely bewildering down on the ground, where the geology is all the same color, all jutting up in a million variations of the same craggy shapes.

It took me a while before I gave up on my HUD and just consulted my full map. And even then.... I took the cheap way out and simply warped to the shrine near Eldin Bridge.

When I hiked up the hill I found Yunobo cowering beneath Daruk’s Protection; two Black Moblins were harassing him.

Well! I had just the mask for that! C:

I donned the Moblin Mask and dashed up the trail. The Moblins turned at my approach and eyed me suspiciously....

I hadn’t quite thought through what exactly I intended to do. Sure enough I was able to get close. Very close. Right up next to them. Which gave me the element of surprise. But there were two of them. And surely they wouldn’t take kindly to any suddenly violent turns on my part. Hmm.

In the end I just did the best I could—I Stasised one of them, and just started walloping away, fortuitously landing the same blows on his fellow as well. They both went down but there would be no more taking them off guard after that.

Moblins can hit. @_@

When I had dispatched them both, the camera swiveled back to center on the trembling Yunobo, and I suddenly hoped that I wouldn’t be forced to move through an otherwise epic and momentous cinematic while wearing.... a Moblin Mask.

But Yunobo only stood up to look around and see that he had been saved, and the game released me to approach and address him on my own.

PHEWF. ouo;

There was a cannon nearby, like the ones at the North Mine. But when I rolled a bomb into it and tried to fire, nothing happened. Huh....

So I turned to speak to Yunobo. He thanked me for my help, and asked where Big Boss Bludo was.

“He’s not coming,” I said.

“What?”

I explained to him about the painkillers not having any effect, and Yunobo looked downcast and fretted about what they were going to doooo.... Yunobo had Daruk’s Protection, and it was the only way to drive Vah Rudania up into the volcano, but Bludo had to work the cannon....

“I’ll do it!” I said.

Yunobo was shocked. He impressed upon me how dangerous this was. Especially for a Hylian.

But with that wonderfully unscripted series of animated mouth movements and gesticulations that Zelda games have become SO fond of lately.... I explained to him I assume that I actually did need to get inside that Divine Beast.

That seemed to lend him a little courage. Heh, for a Goron he just seems so.... youthfully tender.

Yunobo told me that Eldin Bridge was kept raised to bar Vah Rudania from coming down and across from the upper cone. Actually I wondered whether the Divine Beast would even need the bridge.

Likewise, with the bridge in such a position, we wouldn’t be able to cross further upward. But Yunobo said I could knock the bridge into its lowered position by firing him at it with the cannon.

And he hopped in.

:I

So I rolled in a bomb, took aim and blew it up.

You ever launch someone into the sky in a rolling fiery arc?

I’d thought it might be a trick shot, an angle somewhere between set firing directions, and so almost shot him off too early! But he just barely nicked the upper corner of the raised bridge.... and brought it swinging down.

He landed back nearby on the rebound, a little unsteady and with stars dancing around his head. We could go into the mountain now, he said.

I had wondered if it would be anything like it had been with Prince Sidon—hard and fast and in a desperate rush!

But Yunobo was saying—what—we just—

....

On foot??

I’d wondered if perhaps we would have to do cannon acrobatics together but WHAT we just—the bridge is down and then—what, just—over we go? Onto the mountain? WHERE THE GIANT FRIGGIN’ LIZARD IS?

I dunno there was just something off-putting about climbing up after it, into its territory, on our own measly feet.

But that seemed to be the only option. Yunobo followed after me as I moved. Heh, I like it when the NPCs do that. ^_^

He was a bit slower than I....

Near the far end of the bridge we were thrust into a cinematic—Vah Rudania spotted us. The four large circular vents on its back dilated, and a host of smaller, buzzing, propellered things came swarming out.

Oh great, I thought, Those things are gonna come after us and I’m gonna have to shoot them, how many arrows do I have—

Yunobo lamented this new development as well. Evidently Vah Rudania did this whenever he and Boss Bludo came close. If those sentries spotted us the Divine Beast would go into a rage and cause the volcano to erupt; landslides of fiery boulders would come raining down. Bludo could just smash those boulders to bits with his fists.... But he wasn’t here....

I would lead and Yunobo would follow me, but with those sentries in the air.... he proposed we should decide on a signal for when we should move and when we should stop.

My options to respond were

A wink!

A whistle!

Mind powers!

XD

I suggested a whistle, and Yunobo said that was a good idea, even though it was a little like calling a horse....

The cinematic released me and, still fearing those sentries, I ran for cover like a self-respecting coward. But nothing came after us.

So I tested the whistle. It came out different! A short drill of three quick peeps brought Yunobo snapping to a rigid standstill with a “Hup!”

I moved away a short distance and whistled again. It was longer with a rolling pitch this time.

“Coming!” Yunobo called, and ran to where I was, stopping beside me with a triumphant “Ha-ha!” as if we’d just outwitted something.

Heh, that was for when we’d have cleverly gotten past something I guessed. His dulcet tenor voice is so tender....! XD

The whistle alternated between these two patterns, and when in earshot Yunobo was strict to heed it.... but I wished he’d had a slightly quicker reaction time....

We started out tentatively enough, but it seemed the sentries were not actively seeking us out, and so after a short time I had us plunging up the hill and into the crags.

Well.... plunging as fast as Yunobo could go, anyway. He would always catch up to me panting, and even gasped once, “Wait up!”

Poor guy.

The sentries shone bright red searchlights directly below where they hovered or patrolled. They seemed simple enough to slip past at first—though I did have to work on Yunobo’s timing! Under one of the first sentries, before we could reach the shelter of an overhang—before Yunobo could reach the shelter of the overhang—the beam caught him and—

Some buzzing alarm.

“This is bad!” Yunobo cried.

And Vah Rudania hammered the mountain with its enormous club of a tail, sending red-hot rocks cascading down in a thick and terrible rain of crushing DEATH.

They didn’t seem to reach us beneath the overhang, though, where I crouched down and Yunobo shivered beneath Daruk’s Protection.

But much of the rest of the mountain was not quite so forgiving.

The sentries were tricky! The beam of one stationary one I had to block with a large metal plate propped between two rocks. Clever. Others I discovered could be destroyed by casting bombs into nearby updrafts, and detonating when they reached the sentries’ level. Cleverer!

I had Yunobo stay put when I saw more Moblins in the distance, and put my mask on to go and have it out with them.

Turned out they were guarding another cannon! Yunobo hopped in, and I tried launching him at one of the sentries....

I’d say he overshot it by at least a quarter mile.

But he came bounding back and uncurled from his rolling posture, and told me to watch where I was aiming.

I guessed the sentries couldn’t be dealt with that way.

And I guessed.... it was to be a shot at the Divine Beast then—we did seem to be following it counter-clockwise up the cone. I aimed the cannon and fired, Yunobo struck true, and Vah Rudania groared and clambered further on, Yunobo rebounding back a moment later with more stars around his head. He was pretty pumped at our progress!

There were two more cannons, each guarded by two Black Moblins. We jogged our way upward and onward, skirting the sentries we could manage. Whistle. “Right!” Whistle. “Hup!” Whistle. “Coming!”

And other such noises he made.

.... “Wait up!”

Heh, there was even a little icon for Yunobo on my HUD map.

It even had his same fretting little face! XD

But it was deucedly difficult getting him past the last cluster of sentries before the third cannon. That one sentry going round in circles.... the one I couldn’t bring down with any air-drafted bombs....

Alarm.

“Oh no!”

Red-hot boulders.

Alarm.

“It saw us!”

More rib-shattering chunks of flaming rock.

Alarm.

“This is bad!”

Just bury me in the molten rubble rolling on the ground getting my SKIN seared off, no cover from this unrelenting, cacophonous—

It would have been helpful if Yunobo had run ahead to duck and cover, but he kept running back to that little outcrop. And I.... just did the best I could staying close to the cliff walls, trying to let the rocks bounce over me.

Isn’t that what they teach you for hiking?

I tried hunkering down near Yunobo once.

I was BOWLED RIGHT OFF THE MOUNTAIN. The cascade of hot earth blew me cartwheeling through the open air, down, down, high over the endless dark spires like the reaching pits of hades. It took me a moment to recover enough to deploy my paraglider—and turn myself back toward the mountain’s face where I clung like a bedraggled spider.

It was a bit of a climb to reach Yunobo again—thank goodness I had the stamina. But my hearts couldn’t take much more of this. I’d lost Mipha’s extras plus about half my normal red ones climbing this blasted volcano.

In the end.... I forgot the whistle, and just had him follow close after me as I timed a winding path beneath that infernal circling sentry.

And we made it to the last cannon.

Two dead Moblins later, I fired Yunobo at the Divine Beast again, and it seemed that Vah Rudania had had enough. It clambered over the jagged, oozing lip of the cone, pushed itself over the edge to fall into the crater, and—

THE VOLCANO ERUPTED.

With a tremendous rumble, a titanic spray of hot lava ejected out of the caldera.

But it didn’t hit us. And nothing more terrible happened after that.

The Divine Beast had only finally settled down into the very heart of Death Mountain, lizard legs splayed as at rest . . . . or recalculation . . . .

“That was so cool!” Yunobo crowed as we crested the top in cinematic, “You really put a licking on that thing!”

Oh I just love this kid. XD

I don’t remember much else of his parting words. I just remember his voice still so slight and tender, so hopeful as he bade me good luck in finishing the job, as I leapt off the lip after the beast, paragliding down, down, down into the core of fire, and Yunobo still stood there above, back meekly hunched and clasping his low hands before him like he does, blue neckerchief ruffling in the surging, embered heat....

Fiery Portents

Afternoon of Tuesday, September 19, 2017 ~ 3

Fiery Portents

Fresh out of any more wardrobe excuses, I warped back to Goron City, giving Bargoh a warm greeting on my way down to Boss Bludo’s house. Yunobo would surely have handed off the painkillers to him by now....

He had. Bludo was back in action and ready to go. “No disrespect to Daruk’s legacy or anything,” he said, “but it’s time to go beat back that Divine Beast.” Or some such words.

“Daruk?” I said.

Bludo was incredulous that I’d evidently never heard of Daruk. “Look,” he said, pointing to the huge carved stones overlooking the city, “That is a statue of Daruk.”

I looked.

And looked....

Daruk and I stood atop the mighty Divine Beast Vah Rudania, as it poised upon the mountain in the sunlight. “I’m really getting the hang of this thing!” he said, or something like it, “Yep, the other Champions better eat their gravel if they want to keep up with Daruk.” His voice was as gravelly as his hide.

“Great view!” Daruk said, looking around the jagged landscape, “All those delicious rocks....”

Gorons.

“Congrats on becoming the Princess’ appointed knight,” he went on, impressing that it was a big deal, protecting the king’s daughter. Not to mention a tall order, given her personality. “She’s the kind of person who can’t see the mountains for the peaks!” he alleged.

But he stopped short as an ominous rumbling began coming from the mountain.

Huge boulders rained down, one gigantic one right for us—

But Daruk threw up his fists and stopped it with some.... dodecahedral red field of some kind, which glowed like fire in a soft rotation. Stopped it dead. He protected us both.

And after a moment the tremors had passed, and we were in the clear, and Daruk released his magical shield, and we stood straight again.

“Strange,” Daruk mused in a troubled rumble, “The volcano’s been quiet for decades. But if it’s shaking enough to toss boulders that size at us, then...” He paused for only a moment, and then, “No, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

I came back to myself.

Boss Bludo explained that Yunobo was a descendant of Daruk, and that he had inherited Daruk’s Protection. It was a power he could use to shield himself from any attack or bombardment.

“It’s the only way he can protect himself when we fire him at the Divine Beast.”

WHAT.  .__.

Bludo explained that normal boulders wouldn’t do it; they had to launch Yunobo himself at the Divine Beast by means of the cannon oh my gosh wat, just— D:

I guess Gorons are made of pretty tough stuff. o_o

And it was time to get to it. Bludo made ready to go. “Well, time to head back to the—”

Crunch!

He stiffened with a painful jolt.

His back was out again.

He couldn’t believe it. This was getting to be a bother. “Oh, look, I’m sorry to have to ask you this,” he said, “but would you go tell Yunobo that we’re going to have to cancel for the day? He’ll be at Eldin Bridge.”

Eldin Bridge. I’d seen that place when I was catching butterflies with the girls. It had seemed.... a Rubicon of sorts, leading into the higher steeps of the cone about the caldera.

Except this crossing was over hot lava, instead of water.

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

Waking of Saturday, August 12, 2017 ~ 4

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

On my way to the North Mine, I encountered a few of a breed of Octorok I’d been seeing lately. They’ll pop out of the earth, look around like they do, the little swear words.... But these kinds wouldn’t start spitting rocks at you the minute they saw you. Instead, they would spend a long moment inhaling, to pummel you with one big hit I imagine. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never seen it happen. I always drop a bomb into the sucking draft first, and when they swallow it—

Well, you get the idea.

There was one Goron I met at the mine, but it wasn’t Yunobo. His name was Drak. Or, as he said it, “Draaaaaak”. He had a funny kind of drawl. X-)

The mine was blocked off. But Drak directed me to where the supply store was located: on one of those few baddie-infested craggy islets jutting up from that giant lake of lava behind me.

Skull-dens, boomers, and treehouses full of bow-weidling Red Lizalfos no less.

Well.

(Okay so perhaps they weren’t technically tree-houses, but great elaborate platforms anyway. But I’m still calling them treehouses.)

For a while I progressed by my superior archery skills, but after a time.... I did become curious about the great big.... mechanisms placed here and there. Things the Gorons used in their mining, no doubt.

I inspected one of them. It had a great big wide barrel, angled somewhere between thirty and forty-five degrees up from the horizon, on one end, and on the other end.... why that looked just like....

I took out my Sheikah Slate, and called upon Ja Baij.

The round bomb rolled perfectly into the little hole.

I backed up for safety, and detonated—and a hulking chunk of flaming hot rock came BOOMING out of the barrel! It arced over the lava lake and.... exploded pointlessly on the molten surface.

It was still pretty cool, though. I did it a few more times just for fun. X-) It turned out I didn’t need to back up for the bomb-blast; the mechanism seemed to contain it. Nifty!

Still, there had to be more to it.... There was one other part of the mechanism yet. It looked like a handle. But I couldn’t throw it. The A button didn’t work. Bombs didn’t work. In desperation I tried my sword—that worked. Though I hated to shorten the life of my weapons.

At the turn of the switch, the whole mechanism rotated. And wouldn’t you know it, why, I do declare, the barrel looked like it just about lined up perfectly with that there treehouse full of Lizalfos now.

Hmmm.

I rolled in another bomb, and set it off.

You ever blow up—just blow up—a whole treehouse before?

It feels good, man.

Some of the baddie-nests were situated between the set angles of the cannons, and so I had to get creative with my timing. But all in all, I’d say I got the hang of using the cannons pretty well down.

My gosh what pandemonious delight.

Riot! XD

Once I’d cleaned out most of the whole smattering of islets, there was just one more cracked stone barrier to breach, at the top of the final mountaintop. One cannonblast took it out easily enough. And holed up in the back of that cavern.... was Yunobo, I presumed.

“Oh man, oh man, oh man—” he whimpered, fearing the monsters had broken through and were now come to get him....! His voice was young, and light. Especially for a Goron.

But it wasn’t monsters; it was just me.

We exchanged some words, about who I was, and what Boss Bludo had asked me to do. Aside from the light blue neckerchief, Yunobo looked like most other Gorons, though his eyes were not quite so large. He also had a funny little cowlick on his crown that hung over to one side. How old was this . . . dare I say kid?

With the way cleared of monsters, Yunobo took the painkillers and went back to the town.

But I stayed to satisfy my shrine-detector.

It was difficult to get a fix on the signal’s direction, with so little footing beneath me. But I couldn’t see the shrine anywhere anyway; it had to be hidden.

There were some metal rails leading into a cave beneath that rockpile-island that resembled a crab.... and the signal did seem strongest in that general direction....

David was most anxious to watch me figure out the railcars.

Ever see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

Yeah it was kinda like that. O_O

All my flashbacks were of zipping unbalanced over hot lava and sailing over gaps in the rails, Indy grabbing a hank of that curly blonde hair and shoving everyone’s heads down into the cart. I was legitimately frightened that I might flip over if I went too fast! But I made it to the crab island without incident, and there indeed was the shrine. I beat it, went back, wandered around town a bit more.... but did not speak immediately to Bludo again.

Rather—as is so my wont—I decided to take a detour, and go and visit the Great Fairies to spruce up my new Flamebreaker clothes.

Kaysa first—she blew her magic on me. Cotera next, and she bopped me with a kissed finger.

And then I realized: it didn’t seem to matter which fairy magicked up my wardrobe. The first level up would always be done with a blow, the second with a bop, and the third with a giant kiss right to the face.

I guessed any given fairy could just as well do more than one level too, and I didn’t have to travel between them.

But I couldn’t see Mija or any other fairy about upping my Firebreaker armor a third level just then anyway, because I was short a number of something called Smotherwing Butterflies—and that was a critter I’d not yet encountered.

In fact, it seemed there were lots of ingredients I was short of to have my wardrobe enhanced anymore.

Ice Keese wings. Well certainly those were easy, I thought, and warped to the Keh Namut Shrine on the Great Plateau. I went hunting around those peaks and Mount Hylia.... but was only able to harvest one Ice Keese wing in the end.

What other cold places did I know?

Hunting around, hunting around.... as the hour grew later.... hunting around....

Until....

....

I didn’t quite remember where I stopped.

Big Boss Bludo

Waking of Saturday, August 12, 2017 ~ 3

Big Boss Bludo

That was probably the fastest I’d ever bought clothes.

!

My male friends should be proud of me. XD

The Firebreaker Armor was thick, and ruddy, the Greaves looked like robot legs, and the Helm covered my whole head but for a bar-guarded visor in the front for me to see through.

I still really wondered whether I’d just made a big dumb purchase. I was moving so fast—did I want to replay any of this? Savor it more somehow?

But I was here now. And here was where I’d meant to come.

I’d forced my way in.

Hoo.

I decided to take a little walk to catch my breath. I talked here and there, I saw items for sale, food for sale, I met a young Goron selling Fireproof Elixirs in the thoroughfare (he became quite waspish as I regrettably refused him). There were a few other shops I saw as I wandered around, as well as an inn.

This inn didn’t offer regular beds and slightly more expensive soft beds, as I’d seen elsewhere in Hyrule; but rather regular stays and—for a similar extra fee—body massages. Allegedly this would leave you feeling more rejuvenated and energized in the morning, although.... it was hard to keep from imagining, rather, what a pitiful pulp I’d be mashed into beneath those huge Goron fists....

Perhaps what surprised me most inside the inn, however, was the sight of a Gerudo kicking back in a chair by the window.

I spoke with her. Yamella I think was her name.

“Sav’aaq,” she greeted me, “Flirting in the middle of the day are we? Bold.”

WAT.  ._.  “That’s not what I—” Who the heck was this lady? “Aren’t you hot?” I asked her.

But she said she had slathered fireproof elixir over her skin. “There’s a Goron brat outside selling it, if you want any,” she said.

Yeah I’d met him.

Yamella was a jeweler, visiting here for the minerals. But again, Vah Rudania slowed up her business as well.

After a short walk around town, I followed my shrine-detector up to the resident Sheikah Shrine, and beat it. On the walk back, a Goron named Bargoh made me grin when he asked, “What are you doing here, little guy?”

Little guy? It was like something I’d say to a small animal.

Heh, I guess Hylians are kinda tiny compared to Gorons.

Well.... Goron City was reached, the heat was averted, and the natives were restless.

It was time to talk to that elder Goron beneath the blinking yellow dot on my map.

Bludo was his name. He was huge and old, and stooped, and he was the boss of this town.

Heh, “boss”. That’s what they called him. There was something.... charmingly blatant about that title.

Vah Rudania itself allegedly didn’t pose much of a problem to the Gorons—they could handle the Divine Beast.

It was the fact that it kept coming back.

No matter how many times they beat it back with their giant cannons, it always returned to stomp around the volcano’s cone.

But there was another problem. Bludo seemed to have overstrained his back, and it was very painful for him to move, let alone operate the cannons. Even as he spoke to me, there were a couple of times his muscles spasmed and his back emitted a superlow hardcore flesh-coated CRUNCH.

Ouch. >_O;;

He had sent a young Goron named Yunobo to fetch some painkillers from the store of supplies up at the North Mine, but Yunobo hadn’t come back yet.

Three guesses what he asked me to do next.