Sand Seal Rally!

Waking of Saturday, July 28, 2018 ~ 8

Sand Seal Rally!

I continued talking with everyone I could around Gerudo Town, looking for more days to save, until I came to one gateway guard who mentioned the Sand Seal Races. She told me where they normally took place, and said that, now that the Divine Beast was gone, they could race again.

Oh could they now?

I ran out in the indicated direction, just to a little hill in the sand with some palm trees. I could see no discernible racing track, but near an ancient Sheikah dais I found two Gerudo vai just kind of standing around.

One of them had shaded goggles over her eyes, and the reddest fro I had ever seen.

This was the legendary sand seal racer Tali, and beside her was her elderly trainer, Shabonne.

When I spoke to them it was Shabonne who answered—she blew and blustered on about how sand seal racing was a fast-paced, hardcore sport, and how difficult it was, and that a little vai like me couldn’t really hope to be any good at it, especially against somebody like Tali, who was their most celebrated racing champion, and who held all the records, and who was generally the best of the best and why the heck didn’t I just fall down and start worshipping her right now. Dang.

Tali just said, “...”

XD

But I pressed, and for twenty rupees there was an option to race! I wondered how it would go.... Would there be multiple other racers? Would it be just me and Tali? Would we have to jockey for position?

But it turned out that I alone had only to race against Tali’s winning time.

Well that wouldn’t be so bad. :)

A minute and a half to beat....

But where was the course? Would it be marked? How would I know which way to go?

Perhaps it wasn’t quite like me, to go rushing into something so fast, but before I knew it the screen faded out and I had set the sequence in motion: I stood poised on my shield behind a tame sand seal, all hitched up and ready to go. The timer was counting down—

Ah, I could see it now.... Those were gates!

In front of me, two tall posts were bowed toward each other, tied at the top with ropes and flags to make a shape like a Gothic arch. Similar sets of posts marched off into the dunes in the distance and beyond obstacles....

I could do this! :D

And the timer wound down and I was off.

I don’t remember what distracted me from making my seal dash right off the start.... Maybe just the novelty of the experience. Through the gate, darting ahead between a mess of rocks, down through a narrow little sink where the boulders rolled around—and the music! What a happy, flutey little jig was the music! ^_^ Made all the more charmingly amusing by the fact that as my sand seal put out bursts of speed it seemed to snorfle along right in time to the beat. XD

There was a cool stretch that curved right underneath a giant ribcage that bent round a large rock—and then it was straight through a Lizalfos camp? What the heck??— But there was the next gate just beyond the three skull-dens—I urged my sand seal onward....!

And I burst through a drop with my sand seal leaping through the air like a salmon and the finish line sounded and I had completed the race in a minute and seventeen seconds! I beat the record! ^_^

The sequence brought me right back to the little sand hill, where several Gerudo had turned out to watch me race. Tali finally spoke up and offered me a gracious congratulations, and the crowd all cheered as I was awarded the trophy they had handed down through the years—a Sheikah orb.

Well I knew just where to put that!

I set it down in the glowing orange dais and the Raqa Zunzo Shrine rumbled up out of the earth.

Cool.

Once I had collected the Spirit Orb, I spoke to Shabonne once again.

She was pretty wound up that I had beaten her champion. And she challenged me to another go, this time with a little wager.... If I could beat the time I had just set, she would give me three hundred rupees.

But I had to put up a hundred rupees of my own to start.

Well, considering my sloppy start the previous time....

It was a deal.

And I did the race in a minute sixteen this time! The extra rupees were most welcome—I had been a little low on cash.

Shabonne conceded that I had some skill, then. And Tali opened up a bit as well. She spoke about the trophy, and told me that, though it had been awarded to her before, she was never really sure she would be the one to awaken the shrine I think that’s what she said or something like it.

Had each winner been attempting to summon the shrine?

But there was something about me, she said, that she felt was different. When she looked at me. And I had been the one to awaken the shrine.

Wait just how Chosen was I, if the Sheikah relics were reacting only to me?

That was something new to think about....

I went back to town and visited the guards again.

Barta was still down in Dragon’s Exile.

Did I want to do that tonight? It’d been a long day....

And then one of them shared with me the rumor that THERE WAS A FAIRY AT THE LEVIATHAN SKELETON SOUTHWEST OF TOWN.

OH for—

. . . .

No, this day was too long.

I went to just stay at the inn. Romah’s inn. The Hotel Oasis.

Standard, please, I said, not the spa plan—and handed over twenty rupees.

Besides if they spa me they might find out I’m a man.

It was 4:05 in the morning, game time, and I’d seen two Blood Moons in this town, consecutively.

I asked the innkeep to wake me at noon.

“Sav’orr” she bade me as I went to bed.

Good night.

The Bravest

Waking of Saturday, July 28, 2018 ~ 3

The Bravest

I was still dressed as a vai when I pulled up to the island of rock in the desert sands—the Eastern Lookout Post. I wanted to look around a bit myself first, and found a Gerudo named Sudrey inside. Guess she was there to man the place.

She said she hadn’t expected the Chief would call for the help of someone so.... short.... as I was.

Ouch. XD

Maybe it was this affront to my physique that reminded me to change into something a bit stronger—I ditched the girl clothes, and decked myself out for maximum strength.

Outside the outpost was a ladder up to a high platform. I found Riju up there and spoke to her as the late sun cast everything into red fire.

“So that’s what you really look like,” she said upon seeing me. And I don’t know why it should have, but it took me by surprise—she had only seen me as a vai before then after all!

Riju set to explaining her plan, and I wondered.... Would it be hard and fast with speed on our side, like with Prince Sidon? An approach on foot from a safe distance, and a volley of heavy ranged attacks, like with Yunobo?

What would Riju’s plan be?

Vah Naboris drew energy from the earth through its feet, she explained. If we could disrupt that process, we could subdue it. We would go out by sand seal, Riju wearing the Thunder Helm to protect herself and anyone near her, and I employing Bomb Arrows—Riju supplied these as well, twenty of them—and they would be for Vah Naboris’ feet.

The Divine Beast would rain lightning down on us once we drew near. But if I could stay close enough to Riju I would be safe. However, if at any point I felt it would be better to retreat and regroup, Riju told me not to hesitate to say so.

....So that was it then. Just....

Up close and personal.

We readied our sand seals back down on the ground; I was afforded one of the redder, tamer, faster ones to use. But before we got going, Riju asked me to back up a bit first.

She was wearing the Thunder Helm (which was a little big, she had conceded). But she wore it confidently now and offered aloud an unashamed prayer to her ancestors and the great Champion Urbosa. She called on their aid in her time of need—her people’s time of need—and asked for their protection in the dangerous endeavor we were about to undertake....

And a crackling, shimmering field emanated from the Thunder Helm—pale, energetic yellow—a wide, protective bubble.

And then....

We started.

“Stay close,” Riju had told me, and I tried to now. Our sand seals plunged ahead through ancient ruins and between tottering towers of stone—easy enough to dodge. But it was more difficult to stay inside the Thunder Helm’s protective circle. The conflicted weavings of our passage aside, it seemed that Patricia was slightly faster than my own sand seal....

And then we entered the dust cloud.

Arizona Fog I would have called it.

The horizon vanished, distance disappeared, and we were inside the night.

I could only stay close to Riju; at least she seemed to know where she was going.

What were we doing? We couldn’t see anything, the world had closed around us, we were shooting off into the oblivious blank of an ocean of tiny grit, all the while nearing a Divine Beast that was FREE ROAMING where it would—

Brreep-brreep! Brreep-brreep!

I shut off my shrine detector.

The boundaries of the universe only swirled darkly around us in an impenetrable sphere.

What were we doing?

Chief Riju stopped by the ruin of an ancient stone wall, and I followed suit. The dust thinned a bit and we could see Vah Naboris tromping gigantic through the gloom.

So big....

We started our run—it was so difficult to make my seal keep pace with Patricia—too far forward, too far back—A chill burst over the screen in a cloud of cold and I switched to my Ruby Circlet—blasted desert climate—The Divine Beast walked, left legs, right legs, left legs, right legs, paying such little regard to two insects like us—but as we pursued after its massive, slow meandering with all our tiny and furious might, we could feel its attack charging and incoming—a powerful, precise reticle centering on my position—my position—come on, seal—and still the Divine Beast walked and we two tiny worms dared to charge closer—

Kra-KKAAOOWwww! Lightning shattered down—but at that very moment I was safe inside the Chief’s protective aura. Nothing happened. We were untouched. Invulnerable.

Excellent.

But it wasn’t always so easy.

I was pulling backward and forward of Chief Riju’s position as if connected to her by a yo-yo. Vah Naboris tromped ahead so slowly, so deliberately—so hugely—I couldn’t keep up unless I made a dash for it with my seal, but Riju held Patricia in reserve—The Divine Beast was gaining—

And the lightning loomed again and I had to fall back—and I didn’t always make it.

Kra-KKAAOOWwww!

My hearts vanished by more than half. Gone. In a flash.

Lost my sand seal—it popped up out of the sand a little way ahead and stood still, waiting.

Riju wheeled round and came back to me—the protective field was there.

“Link! Do you want to fall back for now?” Or some such words she said.

But I never gave up.

My stocks were plentiul; a few well-prepared dishes saw me strong and on my feet again—and then it was the rush of reality back in my face as I dashed beyond the Thunder Helm’s protection to reclaim my sand seal once more.

Riju and I charged closer, and closer.... and I fired Bomb Arrow after Bomb Arrow—but I was a poor judge of distance and my shots always came up short—the monumentality of this thing—how far did I have to dash toward it before it stopped growing in my view?

But some of my shots connected—in the rushing, tumbling push-and-pull between me and Riju, I let fly my explosives and two of Vah Naboris’ house-sized feet went dark—please tell me they wouldn’t regenerate if I delayed....

And lightning reduced me to a sizzling heap again.

How many times did it strike me down like that?

“Do you want to fall back for now?”

No.

This Divine Beast....

This Chief....

What were we doing?

We two humans—well one human, one Gerudo—but she was short enough—but technically I was a Hylian—

WE TWO tiny things.

We were using what was at our disposal.

The Chief was using what was at her disposal. And what was at her disposal were sand seals and nerve.

She felt like that shot from the old Xena opening sequence, standing unafraid on the rocky shore and crying defiance at the rising Poseidon, the Force that could crush her in a heartbeat....

We two tiny things.

She was surely the bravest child I had ever met.

Vah Naboris was far away now, but I came back to my sand seal, and we surfed through the dark sand once more, in pursuit.

I stayed close to Riju and waited this time for lightning to strike.... and only after it did, and immediately at that, did I shoot my sand seal forward, stopping for nothing and spurring it onward until I was at the monster’s very feet—not house-sized—HILL-sized—They pounded into the earth all around me, the sand exploded, one step equalled death, and they moved—so far and fast they moved at one stride from the beast—but my arrows caught them—

Kra-KKAAOOWWwww!

Riju circled to my position and kept me safe until I could regain my feet....

The strategy was sound.... but.... and I had the meals to spare.

One more run waiting for the Divine Beast’s attack to deplete itself of energy, and another mad dash forward.... another brush with ten thousand tons of crushing, beigebronzy death.... Bomb Arrows away....

And the last foot went out, and the mighty Divine Beast Vah Naboris sank to the earth—we had literally brought it to its knees.

....It had the same face as that on the Thunder Helm....

What followed then were some of the most beautifully animated and charged cutscenes I had seen thus far: the two of us, the Chief and I, surging the final distance to the subdued Divine Beast, Link swinging off his sliding shield as his sand seal came to a halt, leaping deftly into a run to join the Chief where she stood, and imparted a few final words.... There was only so much Chief Riju the leader of the Gerudo could do—the rest was up to Link now.  And Link as he hurried to board Vah Naboris.... clinging fingers and toes in a kneeling position to that slanted surface as the beast began to rise again.... I could feel the strain and balance in his muscles oh if he could just hold on....

These were the best cinematics.

In The Breezy Shades Of Night

Waking of Saturday, July 28, 2018 ~ 2

In The Breezy Shades Of Night

I warped to the southern steps of the Gerudo Highlands to dig into that weapons cache I had found so long ago. Found and then left buried behind a mass of boulders like a big expensive squirrel-horde. Those blades were shiny....

!

I shall call it....

Magpie Rock.

Yes.

Armed with the good stuff, I then warped to Gerudo Town, and proceeded to cook up a few extra meals in one of a couple of unused woks just off the square.

After that....

The only thing left was the Throne Room.

I entered slowly. Buliara was there. But Riju was not. However, the bodyguard informed me that I had been given special permission to visit the Chief in her sleeping quarters, upstairs.

I took the stairs on the left (there were two staircases), and the guard on the halfway landing remarked that the Chief must have thought pretty highly of me, a foreign vai, to be allowed up there.

I continued up to where the staircases met, on an outer balcony overlooking the city. Riju stood there.

“You needn’t say a thing,” she started, “As Chief of my people, I can feel my heirloom’s power radiating from you.”

Or some such words.

She went on to explain that she could feel worry, in the eyes of all her people. She was such a young chief. And to have lost the Thunder Helm in the first place....

It must be hard to have so many expectant eyes upon you.

I handed over the helm, and Riju put it on, then turned to face me.

Her eyes could not be seen; the helm seemed more like a mask. Six embossed tendrils sprang over the front before ending in little blue-jeweled spots like eyes, gleaming in two columns of three apiece. The ornamental vertical halo cresting the back radiated with lightning motifs.

“Well, how do I look?” she asked.

Like a spider, I thought, and lost myself to memory....

Vah Naboris towered still and quiet in the desert of the night. Link’s tiny figure walked across one of its expansive decks, toward a low huddle of.... nondescript humanity....

Then the camera caught up and took better note, and I saw the Champion Urbosa turn her head slightly at my approach, and take the most.... beautifully animated regard of me as I drew near.

But she moved softly, and spoke more softly still—she wasn’t alone where she sat on the deck, on a makeshift throw of rug and pillow. Princess Zelda leaned, dead asleep, against her left side.

“Well you got here fast,” Urbosa said to me, “She’s been out on a survey all day today.”

What did Urbosa ask me then? Whether I noticed something in the princess? The exhaustion? The frustration? I don’t remember.... and because I was Link, I didn’t answer either.

“Your silence speaks volumes,” said Urbosa.

Hurr. |D

She went on to explain, in her low and lilting voice, how the Princess just got frustrated whenever she saw me wearing that sword on my back. “Don’t worry, it’s not as if you have any fault in any of this,” she added. Or some such words.

The Princess had just been working so hard.... “She once passed out in the freezing waters searching for this sealing power,” Urbosa said, “That’s the kind of motivation that drives her research.” The Gerudo stroked the little Hylian lightly on the cheek. “She really is special.”

And yet she felt like a failure....

Hhhh.... why? I didn’t understand....

“The night brings a chill; it’s time we bring her in,” said Urbosa, but then she paused. “Or....” she said, this singular floating conjunction running a rogue operation outside the ever-present text-boxes.... what?

And rising in Urbosa’s green eyes came a light just as mischievous....

What...? o__o

Urbosa extended her right arm out toward the desert.... and snapped her fingers.

The sound came loud and crisp in the silence before being immediately dwarfed by the shattering Kra-KAOWWww of a bolt of lightning! Right out in the desert next to us!

Zelda gasped and sat bolt upright. “What was that?” she panted, “Urbosa? Did you feel that?”

And as she turned about on the rug her eyes fell on me.

“What are you doing here?” she shrieked. She sounded embarrassed.

But Urbosa threw back her head and let out a low and HEARTY laugh.... for honorary contralto points.... while Zelda’s head continued to spin between the two of us....

“What?” said Riju, “You’re just staring...”

There were two choices. I tried to be nice, and said, “It looks good!” ....instead of “It’s a little big...”

Riju smiled.... and shifted the large helmet to a more secure position as she moved her head.

The Chief aimed to stop the Divine Beast. She had researched its power, and confided to me that her people would be entirely helpless if it made it to the town.... And she once again asked for my aid. “Will you help me?” she said.

Sometimes I feel like the contrast between the yes-answers and the no-answers can be a little bit extreme. That wasn’t quite the steady, manly, heroic response I felt like giving, but.... I wasn’t gonna leave this girl in the dust.

“I will!” I said.

And Riju gave a shaky laugh, “Who knew that just a simple, confident pledge of support from you was all I needed to set my mind at ease?”

Heh, she could disguise it so well, though.... Even so, that felt good. <3

Chief Riju asked me to meet her at the Lookout Post, east of town. “Take a sand seal,” she advised, “You can get in some practice with them that way.”

And so I did....

. . . .

But not before I gave myself a proper tour of the Chief’s bedroom. Oh my gosh so many cartoon sand seal prints everywhere and the stuffed sand seals on her bed were so cute!!

The City Again

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018 ~ 9

The City Again

Dang it, where had my sand seal gone? Hopefully back home....

No matter; I could just warp back to town.... And I did, Molduga guts in tow, before doing myself up like a girl once again and heading for the gate.

Before I got there, however, I bumped into Bozai.

I guessed this was the first time he’d seen me as a girl; he positively fell all over himself making an introduction.

“So yeah, hey, the name’s Bozai. I’m 35, single, and I LOVE jogging. Especially on sand.”

Oh yeah those Sand Boots! He said he might give them to a girl!

At once I started trying to weasel them out of him, and I heard him mumble something to himself about a golden chance to woo.... But he seemed quite attached and he kept playing coy, and in the end he said he’d only give them to me if I could first do him the favor of finding the legendary Eighth Heroine, somewhere in the Gerudo Highlands.

And to help me out he lent me a pair of.... SNOW BOOTS?

Well HANDYSAUCE I guess! ‹8D

I checked my map—I’d heard tell of the Seven Heroines, and I was pretty sure I knew what those had to be. I found that circle of Desert Colossi I had seen, and counted—there were seven.

And if those Colossi were big enough to register on my topo.... my eyes swept over the Gerudo Highlands....

Ah! There it was. :) Way up round the north side where I hadn’t been able to reach before.

But with my new Snow Boots, and my Warm Doublet AND the cold-resistant circlet from that nice lady back in town....! 8D

But.... that was an excursion for another time; I had some business at present.

As the day became stronger I stepped into the city, and immediately got lost in the sprawling tangle. Where was Malena? I went looking here, looking there, looking for Malena—no, the area full of guards was the wrong place—I needed the front of the palace....

And even as I veered to correct my course, I bumped right into her as she walked up the street!

Malena! ^_^

And I gave her the Molduga guts.

And she was in disbelief, she was so grateful—“OH, SARQSO!” she cried! and promptly became all sniffly with emotion. “This will save him...”

She wished she could give me more in thanks, but I graciously accepted her proffered 300 rupees.

“I never asked your name, did I?”

I told her it was Link.

“Sounds like a sturdy voe name to me,” she said.

Ah, hehh.... ^_^;

“May I... possibly... name my vehvi after you? If I ever have one, that is!”

AwwwWWW! There was a Gerudo word for BABIES!  ^___^ <3

“Deepest Sarqso, Link. I’ll never forget about you.”

Dang that felt good.

As I moved further about the city I found yet more areas that I had never encountered. One odd corner of town brought me to an old woman named Muava, sitting alone on a rug, and further along the wall, on the other side of.... what looked like a pile of rubbish.... a Goddess Statue.

I spoke to Muava, and she recognized me for a voe! But she wasn’t going to tell anyone. Actually she liked the idea of chatting with a voe once again.

She said she was quite a trveler, and a beauty, when she was younger. She had looked all over for the Lover’s Pond, but she never found it—I knew where that was—and before she knew it she was old.

Now.... she was just lonely. Lonely and alone, and she appreciated the time I spent talking with her.

Hhhhhhh, makes me want to.... I don’t know. I don’t know any cut-off and detatched elderly people. Though I suppose if they were cut off, how would they inform anyone?

What a cruel joke.

....

I wonder if I’ll end up like that, since I’m not very outgoing.

....

At the very least we could Christmas carol to a nursing home again.

Oh, the way their eyes light up and their smiles come to life....

I prayed at the Goddess Statue, and received another stamina vessel, which made now for two complete wheels.

Back at the clothing shop—Armor Shop?—I attempted to explore a little deeper beyond the front stall—but the attendant told me that door was “for employees only”.

Huh.

So I combed the outside of the building until I found another door. But when I attempted entry here, a voice from within asked me for a password.

! So this was the password door!

I had a wild guess at it anyway. Not unexpectedly, I got it wrong.

The voice chided me and told me to go back to the tavern and order.... milk or something or some such words.

I turned and ran back to the square, passing Jules in the street—we momentarily reveled in our sharing the secret. Hee.

But I hurried on to the tavern—I wanted to learn the password!

As it turned out there was indeed a new option to order milk from the bartender—but when I tried it she told me off just the same!

I got the feeling both the bartender and that voice behind the door each thought the other were playing tricks on her....

The only other things the bartender talked about were one Pokki and some purported Ice House which aided in their business. Of neither of which I found any sign as I looked all over.

I spoke to another patron in the bar, Pritana, but she only said I didn’t look old enough to be in there. “How old are you really?” she asked.

“I’m over 100!” I answered, selecting the answer before I realized the dialogue had given me options.

Pritana laughed and told me what a funny vai I was. “When you’re older,” she said, “let’s have a drink together!”

Fed up and unable to squeeze anything further from the canteen, I threw the barrel at those lounge ladies once again before plunging back into the city.

I think inwardly.... I only wanted to put off my quest for a little longer. I wanted to play, and yet I also wanted to keep from doing the important things in the game.... because I was always behind on my log, and I wanted to catch up on my writing first before playing deeper into the main storyline....

Though I’m sure you can see the lot of good that has done me in my writing. Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether it’s important or inane, main storyline or not. The moment that strikes you has no preferred time or place or shape or color or taste. It manifests when it wants to, and you can only try your best to bottle it with your words.

Like that whole Molduga chapter.... How did two or three sentences of notes become three or four pages of log?

I guess because the moment was familiar.

Maybe I am the spider in the web, perservering motionless for endless hours.

I am Buck in the wilderness.

I’m Pangur Bán hunting mice.

I’m the scholar, hunting words.

Hunting mice is his delight,

Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men

‘Tis to sit with book and pen...

Translated from the Irish by Robin Flower (1881 – 1946)

A walk around some very high walls with enormous planters and palm trees in the corners gave me a view of one more sand seal paddock, containing only one animal.

I floated down—this sand seal was different, and had a stronger color.

Padda, the single Gerudo standing by, informed me that this was the chief’s favorite sand seal, Patricia.

I regarded the creature.

She had a tiny red bow at the front of her scruffy mane, but I think.... it only accentuated what great hulking squash-faced beasts they are.

Padda further explained that Patricia was an oracle.

WAT.  ._.

“Offer her fruit, and she will give you words of wisdom,” says Padda.

So I gave her an apple.

She ate it, and then proceeded to bark and grunt and flap her big flippers with a great deal of show.

Padda translated for me: “‘The southern desert is...searing hot during the day! Bring gear made for it!’ I’ve spared you the painful seal pun,” she added.

OH GOSH. |-D

Thanks, Padda.

I think.... I’d had enough.

I got out of town, grabbed a seal, sealed back to the Bazaar, headed to the inn....

And went to bed.

Good night.

That Patience Which Holds Motionless for Endless Hours the Spider in its Web

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018 ~ 8

That Patience Which Holds Motionless for Endless Hours the Spider in its Web

In the dark of the night I sailed out west behind my rented sand seal, skirting giant bones and Lizalfos habitations.

My trajectory was vague at best and I had no idea what I was looking for—what did Moldugas look like?

Were they gigantic and woolly? Did they walk on their knuckles? Did they have tusks? Would I know one when I saw it?

As it turned out I did—I knew it before I saw it.

The music gave it away.

Like the Talus and its pounding percussion, the Hinox and its fatshnazzy brass band—the Molduga’s name and life-meter appeared at the top of the screen, accompanied by an insistent, repetitive, Phrygian ambush of cellos, arpeggiating sans the third beneath a dancing tambourine pacesetter as if it had been a race!

I banked hard in a panic—the arc was too wide and slow—and charged back the way I had come—!

And the music did not follow me.

I try to be a good steward; I did not want to bring the sand seal to any harm, especially as it was not my own.

But I think it would be a lie to say I was not also fleeing to save my own skin.

Once I was sure I had put a sufficient distance between myself and the monster, I stopped, and had a look back.

The Molduga was somewhere in among those stones, I was sure of it: Great, gargantuan juts of sandstone pushing up out of the earth like enormous toadstools. —And there was movement.

I scoped in.

As the day began to dawn I could see: Something large was.... swimming beneath the surface of the sand, casting up a wake. Burrowing. I could see the hump of earth rolling along, indicating where it was.... but what did the thing itself actually look—

It breached the surface. Whale. Crocodile. Jaws. Teeth. Spoonbill. Little arms waggling. Manatee tail. Thrash. Twist. Snap. Huge—HUGE—

And it was down burrowing again.

Oh my Hylia that thing was—how could I—so big—could it sense me even here?

I watched it. A long, long time I watched it; and it did not stray beyond the confines of its great stone toadstool ring, but only cycled around within it.

It must have been moving so fast and yet.... every circuit took.... what seemed like several minutes. With a few breaches along the way.

So big.

Was the Compendium lying, when it said the Hinox was the largest monster to call Hyrule home?

Or was this not a part of Hyrule after all?

I eased my sand seal toward it again, timing our pace to arrive at one of the gigantic rounded rocks just as the monster was on the far side of its circuit from us.

The cellos were nowhere to be heard.

I left the sand seal near the stone, on the outside of the ring. Removed enough to be out of harm’s way, but close enough to be called at short notice.

I meanwhile climbed up on top of the squat rock formation, and watched.... and waited.

I dared not move a muscle as the Molduga came pummeling back round the circle, clockwise, coming in hard from the right.

It would pass near me soon; I would have an opportunity to strike. And given the enormity of the circuit, I could see just how sparse and precious that opportunity would be. No time for test shots here—it would be imprudent to attempt anything less than maximum damage.

I selected the strongest Lynel Bow I had, nocked a Bomb Arrow, and prepared to demand the attention of a carnivore one hundred times my size....

And with perfect timing the Molduga flew up out of the sand before my eyes, blue-grey-green and enormous, huge jaws snapping, tiny limbs flapping pointless, and I took my best guess at distance, at arcing, at my quarry’s momentum, and let fly—

I wonder how much was skill at this point, and how much was luck.

At least in part, the tripled Bomb Arrow connected! and the huge whale of a creature slammed onto the surface of the sand and lay there heaving in its blubbery vastness.

My gosh I couldn’t believe it! A direct hit on the first go! Great shot! ^_^ And I looked at its life-meter.... It had gone down a bit! Maybe not an overly substantial amount, but—

What was I doing it was immobile I could hit it again—

In the folly of my hesitation I got off only another shot or two before the Mulduga regained itself and burrowed back into the sand, safe and untouchable once more.

And off it went around the circuit.

And the music went with it.

The day became lighter and I was alone. On a few of the other sandstone towers to my right and left and into the distance, little camps of monsters could be seen. On the central hub, a large, wide stone like my own but on a greater scale, seemed to be the biggest party of them all, with a fire, a few storage crates, and no small supply of boomers. On the sands in between, camouflaged Lizalfos crouched still as statues.

The Molduga breached away in its course.

The timing was off—it did not breach in the same places on every revolution. It wouldn’t breach directly in front of me again for . . . . I didn’t know how many cycles.

Landing those hits really had been fortuitous.

But how long was this going to take?

I waited for it to pass by me again, and the arcing sun grew stronger.... I watched my thermometer tip further and further toward the red until it was too hot for me to stay where I was. My clothes could not protect me. I didn’t want to guzzle elixirs, not that I had that many. What could I—

Hm.

The Molduga was far away. I stepped forward and dropped onto the sand on the inside of the ring, landing in the shade.

There was something about letting myself down into the territory, the element, of my enemy that felt.... unnerving at best.

But at least I was protected here.

Well . . . . protected from the sun.

I didn’t like that Lizalfos half a stone’s cast away from me, though. I took the time to dispatch it before returning to the little strip of shade beneath the brim of the toadstool rock, where once again.... I waited.

And waited.

The Molduga slowly arced back around, breaching, as I had anticipated, well out of range of my arrows. How many circuits would it have to make before it would breach where I could reach it again?

I considered. I could try for the central stone hub....

But there were so many baddies there; it could take a moment too long to do away with them all—the Molduga might very well detect the ruckus, and then what? Or would it just as soon detect me making a break for that spot in the first place? To say nothing of what to do with all the Lizalfos in between....

The Molduga’s senses were sharp; I had stepped and jumped around in investigating this, when I was still on top of the rock, and my movements had caught its attention over impressive distances. And every time, I had stopped and ducked before the question mark could develop into anything further, stilling in time to let the monster be on its way. But I dared not shift my footing again down on the sand.

The day passed.

My sliver of shade narrowed. But the cool of the evening returned before it disappeared completely.

I had long since plucked what scanty plants there were in the vicinity. A Rushroom. Some Safflina.

The monster arced around.

Some breaches were nearer, some I could hit, away at the edge of my range, where as many arrows missed as hit their mark. Maybe more. Couldn’t risk a direct hit with something uselessly weak.

And the Molduga’s life-meter would drop by a small degree.

Chip by chip, piece by piece.

By and by the thought came to me, as I employed my projectile weaponry.... The Molduga responds to the faintest vibrations.... I can’t move when it’s near.... But perhaps.... my BOW.

The Molduga came round again. Its breaches would be far out of reach I could see.

But before it came even with me, I nocked a normal arrow into a weak, wooden Bokoblin bow, and fired off into the sand before its path.

The dread question mark appeared again, and this time—the monster breached where the arrow had struck!

I scrambled to switch out my equipment for something stronger again! Lynel Bow! Bomb Arrows! Fire! FIRE!

I could induce a breach from the beast.

I cut down its life-meter by a much more gratifying portion before it was able to escape again.... though my bow-work was become a bit sloppy in my excitement. I knew Bomb Arrows didn’t come cheap, but by this point I would rather have lost arrows than lost time spent refining my aim. Enough had connected that I was sufficed.

And I waited for the beast’s return.

And waited.

And waited.

Round and again the great Molduga came, and I lured it up each time, unmoving in my pocket of shade, in my refuge from the chill, and cast arrow after arrow after arrow.

Quivers ran dry. Bows broke. It was becoming increasingly expensive....

But the desert was not unfeeling toward my plight.

Once as I stood through the long and lonely night, watching and waiting as the stars winked overhead and the Molduga thrashed soundlessly in the far distance, something glimmered over the sand out in front of me.

There was a kind of twinkling, a little way off, but it vanished almost at once. And then it came again, in a different spot—and disappeared once more. Pulsing like a satellite. What in the world....?

Another sparkle, and I could see faint dark movement against the bluebeige of the moonwashed sand. Something was making that light.

And it was coming closer.

And then I recognized the glittering—that was an item I could grab!

But.... moving? Smooth as a shark-fin—was it a lizard?

And as it came nearer, listing away to my right, I saw it clearly: The kindly desert breeze had found one of my stray arrows, and blown it back toward me, rolling it over the dunes.

I ran to collect it as it blew against a far section of my rock, and then trudged back to the place where I had chosen to wait.

The sand—it slows you down.

It was in the nighttime that the mighty Molduga finally succumbed to my Assault of a Thousand Arrows, writhing in the air on the last hit with an almighty bellow before crashing to the ground in an ignominious explosion of wasted darkness.

I was running straight away—already the fickle wind was beginning to toy with the leftover parts and blow them about.... I picked up so many fins, AND . . . . the guts!

Got it! Molduga Guts! HAHHH, that was a HARD-EARNED PRIZE.

And there were yet a few lingering Lizalfos from whose claws I had to pry it.

After this I was not waiting for the next Blood Moon—I stormed and looted the central hub for all that it was worth. And I realized that while I had been hunting the Molduga, some of my incendiary arrows must have ignited a few of the boomers strewed about the sand. For there was a great swath of them missing where I had made my attacks.

Inadvertently handy!

I rejoiced in my spoils, I felt mighty in my accomplishment, but after days and nights in the wilderness of the Wasteland.... the time really did feel ripe to head back.

I trudged back toward my squat little hunting rock to harness up my sand seal once more.

It was gone.

Forbidden City, Take Two

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018 ~ 7

Forbidden City, Take Two

I tried again. And this time, I did not remove my Gerudo garb.

Some ladies at the Canteen were driving me nuts—muttering to each other about some secret password to some secret place. But every time I listened in, they shut up about it and told me to get lost.

Fed up I grabbed a loose barrel from the corner of the room and chucked it into their general midst before turning to leave.

I derived a really wonderful juvenile pleasure from their shrieking reactions then.

But on my way into the other room, I met and spoke with one of the few Hylian women I’d seen wandering around.

Jules was her name.

“Say, are you, uhh... I really don’t know how to say it... Might you be... A boy?”

Link jolted back in surprise!

“You are! I knew it!”

Who was this lady?

“It’s really impressive—you getting in here without anyone else noticing!” she said, “No need to worry. I won’t tell a soul. Just a little secret between us Hylian vai, right? Hehehe.”

Oh my gosh this was awesome. X-)

I left the Canteen and continued to climb around, until a guard kept me from inadvertently entering the palace, whereupon I wound up back at the entrance of said palace and saw....

“TRAYSI?”

That was the name. That was her. In the flesh. A Hylian.

The author of all those volumes of the Rumor Mill.

She looked nothing like I had imagined. Her writing sounded more like a hyperactive teenage girl, but she was.... rather a well-filled out, wide-faced woman.

She seemed to be arguing with one of the palace guards, maybe over entry into the building, maybe over something else. I forgot very quickly, because I was more interested in the plight of another nearby Gerudo.

Her name was Malena. But I might have first called her Shorty. Her stature really was quite small, especially next to those guards.

Malena had asked them for help, but they were still on high alert after the theft of the Thunder Helm, and couldn’t spare time or energy for the citizenry.

Malena’s husband had fallen very ill, and I caught from her that only the innards of a Molduga would cure him.

....What the heck was a Molduga?

Malena told me it was a monster so fierce that even other monsters fled before it. She said that it lived to the west, and the south, and that it was impossible to approach for it was sensitive to vibrations in the ground, and that any who drew near it would surely be KILLED.

Wo . . .

. . . was her.

The sidequest banner flashed over the top of the screen.

What the heck was a Molduga?

Dazed, I continued combing the endless city.

I discovered that I could in fact make it to the top of the central stone formation without the aid of the Zora Armor or my Climber’s Bandana—and was rewarded with a Korok at the top for my trouble!

The view from the topmost waterspring was excellent. And I’ve just reached three hundred pages. What in even the heck.

The view from the topmost waterspring was excellent, and after taking a look over the city I sailed down into a partition I had not yet explored—a training area of some kind.

The Captain Teake I met there, and her subordinates, said much the same thing the other guards had been telling me: the Thunder Helm was stolen. Everyone was on high alert.

Aside from this they didn’t say much. Except perhaps for some minor grumbling from the low-rungers now being overworked, and practicing endless spear-jabs.

Further wandering brought me to a little paddock with a few sand seals in it. They were more ruddyrose-colored than the ones out in the dunes, and they wore harnesses.

These ones were domesticated, and wouldn’t burrow away if you left them alone.

Frelly’s mother, Kohm, was renting them out.

Twenty rupees.

....

....Molduga . . . .

“I’ll take one,” I said.

Treasured in the Desert

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018 ~ 5

Treasured in the Desert

Well, I was decked out in Gerudo attire, and therefore theoretically able to venture inside their forbidden city.... But I looked up and noticed one thing—the sandstorm against the Gerudo Highlands had abated.

And I remembered what that young man had said—there was treasure hidden somewhere over there.

It was 1:30 am.

Gerudo Town? Or sandstorm treasure?

....

I warped to Gerudo Town and took a sand seal. The opportunity was ripe; I thought I may as well go for it.

I had already semi-triangulated the treasure’s whereabouts when I had circumnavigated Gerudo Town before. One of the entry guards had told me about the statues that peppered the desert, one of which I’d seen near the town: Gerudo Swordswomen. Allegedly their outstretched weapons pointed the way toward the treasure.

Part of my circumnavigation happened to have taken me directly behind one of these statues, and so.... I’d dropped some map-markers. The treasure had to be somewhere along that line.

And so having jumped a fresh sand seal I plunged into the sparkling, starlit vastness of the sea of sand and stone—only a moment later to be clouded into an oblivious pocket of browny beige at the roaring storm’s return.

Oh for—Fine timing—

And my Sheikah Slate malfunctioned again!

It hadn’t been the boundaries of Hyrule before—it had been the storm.

I just tried to keep the insistent sand seal on a straight course—and I still had the thought to consult my map, switch the markers to beacons if need be; those would show up on my HUD to guide me—but my HUD showed only static of course.

The seal kept pulling, fast as a chariot. And there were baddies—the Lizalfos Mask leapt to my face—and rocks to dodge—this was going to throw me off course. What could I—

Another Swordswoman statue hazed out of the gloom, arm and sword outstretched, pointing.

I veered in the direction indicated. This is crazy! I thought. And nowhere near the vector I’d started with—not that I could tell for sure. Where was this going to lead me?

More rocks. More Lizalfos. Ruins looming in the dimness, and every so often.... another sword arm proclaiming the path.

It was a long and dizzying drag in the murk....

But when I swirled suddenly toward the orange glow of a shrine—

With a wrench I let go of the seal; it burrowed off into oblivion. Sorry, treasure, I thought. But this was one detour I wasn’t willing to pass up. Not even for treasure.

I trudged toward the glow through the din. The shrine was caged beneath the ruin of an ancient ribcage—this must have been the one I saw from the mountain before.

The Kema Zoos Shrine it was called. But when I approached it, the completed sidequest banner flashed across my screen—?

This Shrine was the treasure of the Silent Swordswomen.

....Huh.

Okay then! :D

I hopped inside, and beat it. And when I came back out, the sandstorm had passed, and the sun was shining.

....

I wanted to climb on top of the skeleton.

I wandered around to get on the outside of the spine, but no sooner had I done so than I began to pant in the heat!

I ran back under the ribcage. Maybe it was like the other locations in this area; if I stayed close to it I would be—I was still swaying and wincing.

In desperation I ran for cover beneath the shrine’s overhang. I was fine here.

....Was here where I had to stay to be safe? How close did I have to be to the shrine to stay cool?

I stepped out, and took a few paces. Still beneath the ribcage, and everything seemed in order. Beyond the ribcage, too hot. Back under the ribcage, just fine. No, not just fine—I was heatsick again. What in the world was—was this one of those overlapping boundaries depending on your direction—

No I was fine again. I was fine under the shadow of the skeleton. The ribs cast thick dark lines of shade across the ancient paving, slatting the scorching sunlight.

Wait a second.

No.

No way.

I stayed beneath the ribcage, but stepped out of the shadow, and into a glaring sunbeam.

—And my temperature gauge flared and I began to sweat and pant—

Back in the shade . . . . and I was better.

Back in the sun . . . . and I was in trouble—

The shade . . . . sweet cool solace—

Sun . . . . burning up—

Shade—I’m safe—

Sun—I’m frying—

Shade—It’s nice—

WAIT.

I stood still, and watched the shadow crawl beneath my feet with the arcing of the day, the lip of it slowly approaching to dump me back into the daylight.

And when the sun struck my boot and began to crawl up my leg—I OVERHEATED AGAIN.

WERE THEY SERIOUS?? THAT WAS SO BOSS I COULDN’T EVEN BELIEVE IT MY GOSH THESE GAME DESIGNERS WOW JUST WOW WOW WOWWWWuh!

THEY TRACKED THE SUN.

They tracked the sun and shade, that is just—

That is amazing.

I’ve never seen that before.

There was something I had never seen before.

HAHH.

My sand seal was still there. Or a sand seal was. But.... I was still stranded until nightfall. Hm.

Ah blow it.

I drank my first ever heat resistant elixir, and sand sealed back toward Kara Kara Bazaar!