Deepest Woods

Afternoon of Saturday, February 24, 2018, noted the same day, written and edited properly beginning Tuesday, May 29, 2018, and I am pained

I am so, so pained.

Deepest Woods

It had been too long.

Too long.

I started my game. David was with me.

I was on top of the Dragon’s Head, the giant tree breaking through. The Spring of Courage, that’s where this was. The soothing spring music played; some ringing, resonating, sustained thing that I cannot name—somewhere between harpsichord and glass armonica—only rolling through clustery chords that felt nevertheless.... unhurried.

It’s a restful fill for the air.

What was I doing here again?

I went to my map. The blue ribbon of the dragony river grinned at me.

Oh yes. I remembered. I was looking for Mister Hestu. Fooling myself he was in Faron Woods.

All right.

It was time to get serious and find him.

I had already completed a quest for pants; and now the game was late; I really needed to go questing for pockets before I had no room left for anything.

I needed Mister Hestu.

And I knew where to find him.

Somehow, in my heart.... I think I’d known for a long, long time.

I warped to the Woodland Tower in the treacherous bog, and paraglided thence down into the path running hard against Death Mountain’s foot, upward into the hills, into the trees, in between those grassy shelves where I had first encountered wolves....

And I passed through the grey-walled bottleneck, down into the grey-green, living softness, and the light dimmed with the curling mist, and the Piano came to heel.

It was quiet.

Although I was cautious, I proceeded with a slowness borne more of reverence than of fear. This was a momentous place.

The torches were in plain view and easy enough to see, clear and empty swaths of grass or bare earth between them as they led round tree and hill and boulder, twining deeper. I always followed the embers. The tiny, glowing specks from one torch always seemed to drift toward the next. I did not stray from their path this time, but was strict to adhere to the zephyred directions.

There were a few animals about, a fox, some deer.... Once I even thought I heard the yawning squeal a wolf makes when it stretches. But I dared not pursue any of these and risk losing the path.

And then I came to two torches standing near each other, their parallel embers blowing away into dank and tangled woods where there was no other light to be seen.

For how bare and sad and dead so many of the trees looked, stark and naked, it was amazing how dense the place still felt.

I walked on, following the course of the twin ember trails, and just tried my best to keep moving in a straight line. There were no more obvious borders to keep me in line, like rocks and banks. There was only the close circle of ground about me, defined by the mist, and.... the trees.

The terrible, terrible trees—

Brreep-brreep! went my Sheikah Slate! o_o Gave me a bit of a start, but.... well that was something good at least!

It continued to beep as I kept moving ahead. I thought about turning it off; the forest didn’t seem to like it. But.... I let it go.

The larger trees took on.... a terrible look. Great twisted cracks in their barrel trunks like grimacing mouths with teeth.

Then the mouths began to gape....

I hid in one of them briefly, all full of the willies.

After a moment I climbed out again, and came to a clearing.

Which.... direction was I going in? I turned....

“Are you lost?” said David with a grin in his voice.

I walked back to the maw-tree, tried to line myself up.... The mouth had been unseen just around the right side....

I walked to the clearing again.

Those two trees there.... looked sort of like a gate of some kind....

I kept walking, right beneath their touching boughs. On and on I kept walking, the incessant brreep-brreep from my Slate doing me no psychological favors in the listening dark.

The clock in my HUD told me that it was nighttime, but I wondered if a bright shining sun would have made any difference here.

I kept going. Straight line. Brreep-brreep. No deviation.

And then, as the morning came on.... perhaps the sun did make a difference. Or perhaps....

The fog at last began to thin, and there was music: the doppelganger of Faron Woods—Skyward Sword’s Faron Woods, the Kikwi Home—it sounded so similar but I just could not place how it was done.... or perhaps was only too bewildered and bewuthered to think about melodies and chord progressions.

Warmer colors began to appear, sun-yellows and honey-browns and flowers.... The wildlife was no longer furtive and afraid. The birds chirped and the leaves sang.

Korok Woods was this place; the name gleamed over the screen.

“Are you serious?” said David.

And there were Koroks in plain sight! Not hiding! :D

“Do you know how many tries it took me to make it all the way through?” Or some such words.

Apparently he’d been watching me the whole time just grinning with anticipation for when I would.... when I would....

Well I didn’t experience it, whatever it was, so I’m not sure how it would have gone. I just made it end to end in one go. But I guess he’d had a harder time, and kept being transported back to the beginning of the Woods. I remembered the screen whiting out, and that childlike laughter....

He told me it took him forever to figure out the embers. HA! But that was such a Zeldic device, David! If I may make up words. XD

Well, like I’ve said before: sometimes, where I suck, David excels, and where he sucks, I excel.

What a team.

A few steps more and I seemed to enter a new wood proper. The trees looked healthier here. And the Koroks were soon all around me—though any particular one would disappear if I ever got too close. Heh.

And a few steps more again, and I caught sight of the tall, bobbing figure of Mister Hestu over a rise to my right! I’d found him! It’d been so long since I’d seen him that I’d almost forgotten his face....

And I did approach him, and we did visit, and he was happy to see me again, as I was to see him. And I did upgrade my carrying capacity. I upgraded the CRAP out of my carrying capacity. Weapons, bows, shields.

But there was something else further up the path.

Just a few steps more ahead.

Over the little stepping stones in the water.

Right there.

Right there.

Divine Beast Vah Rudania

Waking of Friday, October 13, 2017 ~ 2

Divine Beast Vah Rudania

I landed on an open platform on the Divine Beast’s bronzy back.

“Hey, little guy. Long time no see.”

It was the voice of Daruk.

He greeted me, encouraged me, believed in me and, like Lady Mipha had done, directed me on where I’d be able to find a map of “the guts of this place”, for I wouldn’t get far without a map.

I looked around and knew he was right. I literally could not make heads or tails of where I was. It took a little bit of trekking to discover that my landing platform was somewhat above the base of the Divine Beast’s tail, behind its hips.

The main control unit stood on the center of its back, beneath the arcing spine of spikes.

So that was to be the final arena.

Well.

From the platform, there was a doorway into the interior; a hallway ramp led down into what looked like a wide space.... befouled with those rancid eyeballs again.... But that was the chamber where the guidance stone with the map was.

I stepped across the threshold—

And a door slammed down fast behind me, Rudania’s dorsal vents contracted all the way, and it was lights out.

I couldn’t open the door again.

At the bottom of the ramp, two lit braziers cast a few blue lumens dimly into the space, and beyond in the inky blackness, malice pools glistened evil dark magenta while wicked eyeballs popped yellowy-orange here and there. Aside from these three visions, the darkness was absolute.

....

Blue Lumens should be the magic shop across the road from The Groggy Moblin.

I saw that with the Divine Beast’s interior closed off from the volcano’s heat, the temperature had decreased significantly, and so changed into some clothes with lesser heat-resistance but greater defense.

I would see to the nearer eyeballs first. But I was low on arrows....

No, I was low on normal arrows. But I had over sixty Ice Arrows.

Waste not, want not.

I switched to Ice, and took out what eyeballs were closest. They crystallized and shattered with a satisfying keeeeshh!

My weapons inventory was full, but I momentarily dropped something in order to grab the torch beside the brazier—this offered much better lighting than the couple of glowing elemental weapons I had tried.

My way was slow. There was no telling what I would find in the darkness. Only all around me dripped that weird Blood Moon haze up into the air, smoking like unholy demons while the music tapped out a creaky-eerie rhythm on a subdued chorus of drums.

But aside from the pools of malice, and a few treasure chests, the chamber seemed empty.

Lighting further braziers with the ancient flame opened new doors, ways through the dividing walls in this huge space. I did meet one small Guardian deeper in, but not much else on my way to the pedestal that gave me the map.

And upon that upgrade to my Sheikah Slate, the dorsal vents reopened, and a burning rusty light filled the gigantic room once more.

But I did not spontaneously combust in the exposure; it seemed the interior of the Divine Beast remained somewhat temperate. Even so, I switched back to my Flamebreaker Armor.

The map indicated there were five terminals to activate this time. And just as with Vah Ruta, it seemed I could manipulate this Divine Beast to some extent to help me on my way. But there weren’t any individual moving parts. Rather, I COULD TURN THE WHOLE LIZARD ONTO ITS SIDE.

I had wondered about that, when I had first passed through the darkened room with nothing but that blue torch. For in the darkness I had come upon strange holes in the floor, barred openings, trapdoors with extraneous protrusions beside them—ledges to stand on.

I found a nice, tight little corner to hide in the first time I tried turning the lizard—you had to be careful not to be standing on the wrong surface and dump yourself into the lava when you did this.

I hit the button, and Vah Rudania went into a slow, sideways creep up onto the wall of the caldera and clung there, settling to stillness again with a resounding groaarr....

The loose treasure chests meanwhile tumbled around the inner chamber. I wondered if I would inadvertently dump any of them into the inferno.... Hard to keep track when the whole room tilts....

To be honest, I found Vah Rudania’s terminals much easier to activate than Vah Ruta’s. Perhaps they were easier. Or perhaps I simply had more experience and could better apply my skills to my situations by then. Perhaps it was, so to speak, just a whole ‘nuther animal.

At the activation of the first terminal, the creaky-eerie drumbeats evaporated and the music once again took on a darker, more sinister, noticing tone. Quicker. Watchful. Aware.

Like the place was on to me.

Just like in Vah Ruta.

But unlike in Vah Ruta, I found myself gratifyingly bounding through the terminals. Tipping the beast here, placing an orb there, activating doors and rollicking through obstacles. Reading the Rube Goldberg like an interesting novella.

A fire arrow there, some Magnesis to follow through.... But there was one terminal which stood in a small, enclosed alcove with only one entrance. And the threshold of that entrance was comprised of a line of fire-spewing vents in the floor. The flames reached up to the ceiling, and there was no way around.

But after only a moment of consideration, I remembered, and stepped up, quite literally, into the line of fire.

The Great Fairies’ handiwork stood firm.

It did not even faze me in the slightest.

“I’M FIREPROOF, SUCKAS!” I sang out, relishing my upgraded Flamebreaker Armor set.

I was having quite a good time. I found a spare treasure chest way out on the club of the tail, and I even ventured out onto the tip of the nose to take a smiling self-portrait with the beast. :)

Soon, though, I was closing in on the final terminal.

Daruk’s voice had been encouraging me forward.

I carried the blue flame on a long walk outside to light another torch on the Divine Beast’s back, which released another orb, which I then guided through its track inside the tilting beast with gravity games....

The orb landed in a pedestal, which tripped open a door, which gave me access to activate the last terminal, which I did, and—

“Great work, little guy!” Daruk’s voice sounded, and he instructed me to proceed to the main control unit.

It was the only place left to go.

It was late, I was on a cusp, and I wanted to eat a bowl of cereal.

But I was in the moment.

Putting it off would wreck it.

I looked in the fridge, settled for the dregs of a bottle of prune juice to be my liquid courage, and activated the main control unit.

Afraid of the Dark

Waking of Saturday, July 8, 2017 ~ 3

Afraid of the Dark

As I continued around Death Mountain I offhandedly scoped out a few of the mountains in the distance and saw.... my blue marker? But I had left that far northwest of the Elma Knolls!

It seemed I was already north of the volcano.

Well, I had followed Dinraal’s course, and that was the whole reason I had come this way, to track where he went. And I did get a piece of him out of it, too.

I’d wanted to go to find.... that Kilton fellow....

But this place had its sirens, too.

Could I reach my blue marker and pick it up? I didn’t even remember what I had seen out there....

I kept going west, and passed another White Lynel my gosh.... Maybe this was the place Joseph meant when he said he knew where all the Lynels were....

And beyond the Lynel, a single, solitary Korok—the first I had seen in ages—hiding at the top of a dead and blasted tree in a dead and blasted ruin that shone like Eden for the starkness of the encompassing wasteland. Even the puzzle it offered seemed tired. But its presence was refreshing.

A little further and more blessed vegetation began to appear—including what seemed to be an epic treehouse in the distance. But I didn’t want to go play with any bokoblins just now; I was more interested in.... what looked like an enormous, fat black boe.

A strange, large dell was before me. Water filled its bottom and tree branches bloomed from its middle, but—

Everything was obscured by a thick blackness.

Perhaps it would have been less maddening if it were only mist, but—it was so black. The sheer unnaturalness of it made it just . . . . Augh how I wanted to see! The laws of nature demanded that daylight, even moonlight, penetrate those depths and yet . . . .

All remained concealed.

I considered trying to paraglide in, but was glad I didn’t when I came closer and found the water to actually be a bog.

However—I was back on my visible map, now, the Woodland Region, and I could see if I just circled a little bit farther around the dell, there would be a bridge I could use to access the center.

So I found the bridge, crossed it, entered the blackness, and....

A monk named Ketoh Wawai invited me to find the shrine in the middle of the darkness if I could. The Shrouded Shrine. It was a Shrine Quest.

Remembering David’s island off the Hateno coast, not wanting to be trapped, I immediately backtracked and—

Found that I could easily come out on the bridge and back into the light.

I went back in again.

Ketoh Wawai did not address me this time.

Mmmm maybe that was lame of me. It definitely killed the drama, that’s for sure. But.... that’s okay.

I walked on ahead.

It was so dread dark in here. Two lit bird-shaped torches flanked the inner end of the bridge, but beyond that....?

Nothing. Just blackness.

I couldn’t even see my own person.

An unlit torch rested nearby, but.... I had no more room in my inventory. Not caring to enter another which-weapon-do-I-discard fit, I walked ahead using the light of my Great Fireblade, step by step into the darkness.

Barely-discernible shapes loomed in the shadows, punctuated at long whiles by glowing mushrooms or ore. I tried following one boundary, hugging weathered stone and bubbling shore to see where it would lead me, but.... the place was a maze.

In truth I was reminded of Faron Woods, and the crumbled dragon-head statuary I’d seen there, for there seemed to be more of it here. Was this a similar kind of place, or the ruins of one, just.... dedicated to Dinraal instead of Farosh?

There were also more bird-statues standing here and there, unlit, and I realized.

Hahhhh, and I decided I’d better go back and get that torch; it’d be easier.

I don’t remember what I dropped in order to pick the torch up, but the bird-lights were handy. The beak of every one I lit pointed the way to the next one.

Heh, thanks, Zelda. X-) I turned off my HUD just to make it more interesting....

It was a bit alarming when I heard a wolf howl from the darkness—I ran back to the last torch I had lit and readied a sturdier weapon....

My gosh their unseen forms prowling the black just beyond the edge of the fire’s light.... the wicked shine of their hungry eyes.... I couldn’t see them—

There was something primal there. That encounter.

That was a well-conceived encounter.

But it wasn’t what struck me deepest.

What I thought most wondrous and beautiful.... was the Piano.

In the darkness of the shrouded island, like a frightened dog the Piano came at once to heel and repetitively pattered only a tiny spread of notes in my wake. Key of G with the eeriest high pedal points lost in the dark.... it was so dark....

Beautiful, beautiful music befitting the range of my sight.

I’d heard the Hinox snoring now and again as I crept through the black. Maybe that was worse than when I actually came upon it. Waiting for something is always worse than the thing itself.

Then I saw that the orb I had to plant in the pedestal across the way was strung up around the Hinox’s neck.

Dandy.

My tactics were.... varied. It’s one thing to shoot arrows at a Hinox from a high and clear vantage point. It’s another thing entirely to do it on level ground at close quarters in the dark. At least its single, huge eye glowed in the dark. Its movements were still deucedly difficult to lead, though. Retreats were frequent.

I tried scaling a row of columns by the light of an Ice Rod—it worked better than my Fireblade—and shooting arrows from this higher point.

It seemed the Hinox had better eyes than I did, though; it pelted me again and again with huge boulders it scooped from the dirt. Dead on. I couldn’t keep this up....

Ice Rod? No. Stasis? That worked, but I didn’t want to stay too close to the thing....

At length, to the left of the main path, I found a slim crack between two tall pillars that I could fit through, but that the Hinox had no chance of penetrating, which opened right onto the Hinox’s clearing. Excellent.

I lured it in close to this crack and then backed up quick; I didn’t want that thing’s giant mitts coming after me! Roarings and rumblings would ensue from the far side of the thick, thick pillars.... and then the Hinox would finally show its bulbous yellow eye peeping through.... closer, closer, closer.... very close.... and I’d fire.

The pattern worked! And I was safe behind thick stone, keeping arrows tightly nocked and reminding myself irresistibly of an art piece by Katsuya Terada. The Hinox roared and stamped and snarled—what was it doing? I could hear it scratching, grabbing, swinging, smashing—was it ripping trees out of the ground, as my Compendium had said was its wont?

During one such obscured wind-up-and-attack, I even saw its life-meter go down a smidge. Did it accidentally smack itself in the face with a tree?

I could only imagine.

A few more carefully shot arrows, and the Hinox was down. I killed a Hinox in the dark. Oh my gosh. And I collected the orb—and all the Hinox’s goodies—placed it in the pedestal, and the Ketoh Wawai Shrine rumbled out of the earth a short way away.

Kinda wanted to call it the Ketoh Wha-WHY? Shrine.

I received Ketoh Wawai’s Blessing, exited the shrine, watched the game auto-save.... and quit.