Right Under My Nose

Waking of Friday, April 14, 2017 ~ 2

Right Under My Nose

I reset my Sheikah Slate’s sensor to look for shrines again, and heard the beeping.

Oh yes, I thought—I’d forgotten. There was a shrine very near here that I’d been too preoccupied to go after before.

Well, if I couldn’t get Tye and Sorelia to look at my flowers, maybe I’d just go claim whatever shrine that was while I was here; it didn’t sound too far off.

Behind Tye and Sorelia’s camp there was a rolling hill studded with trees and peppered with chest-high grassy hillocks or raised mounds of earth like miniature plateaus. Strange geology, and with tempting little herbs and mushrooms springing out of the ground between them, leading a neat little path into the unknown shade of the woods....

I’d always thought it stank of ambush, and so had never ventured into it.

Then again, the biggest dangers in the area already seemed to gravitate to Tye and Sorelia’s place, so.... perhaps I was worrying over nothing.

Besides, the shrine was that way.

I went in.

The scariest thing I saw was an encirclement of br—oh wow, really? I didn’t think “encirclement” was a real word. That’s cool. Thanks, Word.

The scariest thing I saw.... was an encirclement of briars surrounding a large, flat stone covered with moss. With another rock on top of it.

I could guess what was hiding under there....

I climbed a tree to drop into the middle of the briars, overturned the rock, and out popped a Korok.

They are.... spritely little fellows. Such a childlike exuberance and playful spirit. Like the whole world is a game.

He gave a little cheer like they do, said, “You found me!” and gave me a Korok seed.

That’s another to trade to Mr. Hestu if I find him again.

I pressed on through the woods. The environment was tight, to be sure, but nothing jumped out at me. Actually I thought I could hear something.... something pleasant....

Like music....

With.... a flute? Playing Mi-Fa-La-So—

WHAT.

And an underlying guitar—THIS WAS THE STABLE MUSIC—?

I stepped out of the trees, down from the hill, and there it was. High horse-head canopy, little fence posts, people walking around—

And Kass was there. Kass the bird-man, gently swaying as he played a sweet counterpoint on his accordion.

What was....?

Was this for real?

Had this been here the entire time?

Where the heck was I?

Probably looking for Mei.

Bad Blood

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017 ~ 4

Bad Blood

I came upon three of them camping on a south beach near a little dock with a boat. Favoring stealth, I threw bombs at them from an overhang until I became impatient, whereupon I dashed in and just brought it all to fisticuffs. When they’d been dealt with I searched all over their campsite but there was still no Korok Leaf to go with the boat!

Where in Hyrule was I going to find one??

Just a couple of hills more brought me to a small, weathered ruin with a few more lizalfos, alert and patrolling this time. I was grateful for the din of the rain; it made it easier to stalk the nearest one and cut him down in one stroke as he lay camouflaged in the blustered grass. The one by the little inlet was trickier as the land was so folded—and his Eightfold Longblade slipped into the water with him before I could grab it, drats!

There was just one more across the ruin and against a hill that I had it out with before I could properly inspect the shrine. It seemed to be surrounded by a hedge of briars—much as that other shrine on the Floret Sandbar had been surrounded by flowers.

But something told me a careful footing would be much more crucial here—those briars looked sharp.

At one point there was a lull in the rain, and so I attempted to burn the hedge out of the way—I’d wondered if the weather would prevent that, but luck was on my side it seemed.

But I broke two flints trying for a spark, and so instead went back and set off the powder-keg I’d seen in the ruin, and then used a torch to carry the flame over to the hedge.

For a time this worked quite well, but then the rain came back and quenched the flames I had started.

This was going to be tricky.

I didn’t know the half of it—

That sound.

That tone with the soft crescendo and a dead stop. The eerie echoes of whole-tone flutes. Ash and embers rose from the ground.

Oh no....

She’d always told me to please be careful....

But I’d never been in the middle of a hostile camp when the hour of Blood Moon struck.

I ran for it as the deep piano strings began to roar and rumble, up the hill slick with wet grass, just hoping for a clear patch of ground to claim, hoping there were no more lizalfos up here.... Oh I could kill them. But I preferred to do it from a controlled approach, and one at a time if I could manage it. I didn’t want to be thrust into the middle of a fresh gang of them....

The Blood Moon glowed ripping hot and the world turned crimson—

And all my work was for naught.

The dell crawled with lizalfos again. Alive. Armed. Healthy.

Just.... back.

How frustrating.

But there was nothing for it.

I moved in again, I killed them again, and I finally made it through a path in the briars to the shrine.

Five Flames.

That was the challenge offered by the monk.

A tricky one. Most invigorating.

But when I came back out, when I climbed a small pillar to paraglide out of the briars, when I dispatched the last mean lizalfos and scanned the final end of the water beneath the towering Reservoir wall....

There was no Mei.

She wasn’t here.

Rompered

Waking of Saturday, March 11, 2017

Rompered

I just had a thought, and David voiced it as it began to percolate, “Try setting it on fire.”

It was my first time using flint. But.... wouldn’t you know it, it worked! The briars burned away, and I was able to get into the shrine!

And that was the start of my troubles.

I don’t remember the name of the resident shaman, but the name of his trial was Speed of Light.

It involved a laser. Mirrors? I thought.

Nope.

Not even close.

There was plenty of ice-pillaring, though. And getting to the shaman was easy enough. And I’d already gotten one chest but there was one more. And I WANTED it.

I must’ve spent almost an hour in there trying to figure out how to get it.

At one point I did identify the sequence I needed to use, and I wasn’t fast enough; the gate shut in my face right before I could cross the threshold.

Wow, when they said speed of light, they really meant speed of light!

But as my head was already thoroughly rompered over the entire affair, I finally, gloriously snapped it just one step further, and I cheated.

And I got the second chest.

Maybe you can guess how.

Ledo

Waking of Friday, March 10, 2017 ~ 5

Ledo

There were two more warpables relatively nearby. One was another Shrine, the other a Sheikah Tower.

The Shrine seemed to be just a ways across the flat wetlands—I would go for that first.

There were a few ruins in the way—and some prancing, skipping spectre that made me start something awful. My bow-work was.... insufficient against it, but when I went up to chat with it personally.... it was weaker than I need have feared it for. It went down and I took its weapon—a Lighting Rod. How interesting....

There were more bokoblins in the way as well; I didn’t bother tussling with them just then.

The last sprint brought me past some.... very large oxen or yaks or some breed of longhorn buffalo grazing in the shallow riverbed.

They were all facing me.

I gave them a wide berth.

After that I veered over to solid ground—the water looked deeper ahead, but it would only be a short swim to the Shrine—

And a voice called, “Hoy, you there!”

I looked around.

Centaurs?

“Over here!” said the voice.

I looked in the river.

It was a Zora.

He was long, and limber, with a sleekly pointed nose like a shark’s, deep turquoise skin and a pale front and face, and golden eyes with slit pupils. And sharp teeth.

He introduced himself as Ledo, and he said it was fortunate he had found me, because his master, Prince Sidon of the Zora, was in need of a good, strong Hylian.

Prince Sidon, eh? Named for the mighty river, perhaps? How appropriate.

Either that or because it sounded like Poseidon. Maybe when he’s a daddy people can call him Pa Sidon.

I am so not sorry for that.

He said it would be good for me to meet with this Prince Sidon, who was away upstream beyond the Sheikah Tower, near a bridge—because, as he was royalty, he would be able to reward me handsomely for any service I could render him. Ledo and his prince would get the help they needed, I would get a reward.... win-win, right?

“But.... Mister Zora....” I explained that I really wanted to reach that Shrine first. It was right there. And it was surrounded with briars.

There was a tower to paraglide from nearby, but it couldn’t get me over the thatch.

Ledo was a patient fellow waiting there for me, but he didn’t offer any hints about the Shrine.

He was very polite, an elegant fellow. I did want to help him. Impa had said to meet with the leaders of the four races, after all. But....

That Shrine was right there.... How was I supposed to get in?

The Third Tower

Waking of Saturday, MARCH FOURTH, 2017 ~ 17

The Third Tower

Away beyond the hills and dales by the house I had just asked for.... was another Sheikah Tower. I was so tired, the road had been so long and fraught with danger, but.... that tower was so close....

I went for it—and I tried to just avoid any conflicts I could help avoiding. Just to get to the tower, and activate it.

As I was climbing the last great big hill, I saw there was one moblin I could not avoid. And it was talking to some unseen companion—a bokoblin I could barely see beneath the roll of the land.

I still had my hammer. My trusty Iron Sledgehammer. My but those moblins were enormous....

Instead I tried my Phrenic Bow, and a few Fire Arrows.

Three hits took down the moblin, but the bokoblin I had to deal with in person. Easy enough, I just needed to get through....

But when I approached the tower—

Briars?

There were briars all over it! I couldn’t get close at all! I tried smashing them, I tried bombing them—they would not be destroyed!

FINE!

I found the one surface I could ascend and got up onto a platform. So it was to be a vertical maze with my stamina-meter ticking, was it? Well I had a few elixir-tricks up my sleeve....

It was a tight race, but I did reach the top, and when I did, and activated the tower, and it turned blue....

I

just

decompressed

for

a bit.

I was very high up—this tower was situated on a most prominent little spiraling kind of mountain in the midst of a huge span of valleys and canyons. I could see the whole world for miles and miles around me.... I could even see my (soon to be) house!

When I was ready, I set my face back toward Hateno Village and jumped off, paragliding to the brink of my stamina before I touched down again—it was a long, quiet, airy float.

And I found that, having launched from such a height, it brought me practically all the way back.

Well, a slope nearby the village anyway.

How neat. <3