Procrastination

Waking of Saturday, July 29, 2017

Procrastination

I came out of the Tah Muhl Shrine and headed northeast to another shrine I had marked: the Sah Dahaj Shrine. This one lay in a deep hole beside a mad treehouse full of nasties. I cleaned them all out—after I completed the shrine.

Was it just me? Or did all these Eldin shrines contain fire-based trials? ¬.¬

I’d been picking up Koroks here and there, but THAT CIRCLE—that circle of stones behind the treehouse—for the life of me I could not find a spare stone ANYWHERE that would complete that circle and tease out the Korok!

I climbed all over the mountain above, and found nothing but more Fireproof Lizards—dandy for making more fireproof elixirs and made me wanna have another go at Bayge & Co.’s endurance challenge in the Gerudo Highlands but that wasn’t what I was looking for just now.

I even backtracked to another Korok I’d found hiding under a rock.... but that rock had long since vanished. Dang it.

I knew where there were more rocks.... somewhat nearby....

They were down in the shallow lake, near another Korok puzzle I’d solved: throw the rock in the water-goal.

Rocks for those kinds of Korok puzzles never run out.

There was only one problem: that lake was about a hundred feet lower than where the treehouse Korok Circle was—separated from it by terrain that was steep and ill-suited for walking. And walking.... was the only way to carry a rock for a Korok Circle. You couldn’t climb with those things.

....But those were the only rocks anywhere....

....

Yeah, I used one of those.

Yes, it was a chore.

No, the Octo Balloons weren’t that helpful—and I injured myself more than once.

Turned out I didn’t need them anyway.

NO I’M NOT TELLING.

ANYWAY!

I climbed a little more around the mountain—and found just one more Korok in a very frightening location, in a pool right next to a Guardian that patrolled back and forth along a section of road that passed beneath a delicate arch of stone.

Well, when the Guardian’s back was turned, I paraglided in and ran for it! I got to the little hot spring and ducked behind a large rock just in time.

It was tricky picking up that Korok—it was another rock-in-the-water-goal puzzle. I missed with the first rock I picked up—my nerves were on edge with that Guardian so close! But I got the second rock right where it should be.

I know when the Korok is interacting with you, the world of the game is frozen. But.... man, you still feel a pressure to hurry up when you’re on such dangerous ground!

I collected the Korok seed, started for the cover of the rock, and the Guardian saw me. It turned glowing hot red. “Oh man that thing’s agitated,” I muttered.

But it did not enter the spring to look for me.

Maybe they can’t walk on water.

I climbed a little more, started going up a pathway haunted by too many Fire Keese.... but, deciding I didn’t want to burst into flame anymore in the volcano’s heat, I hopped over the mountain’s arm and climbed into Akkala.

I came down almost right on top of the South Akkala Stable! I played some bug games with the stablehands there; they were cute. ^_^ After that I took the road north through a place I’d been curious about for a long time: Shadow Pass. I wondered what was in there....

Turned out it was just a lot of game. And of course all the beautiful Akkala plant life. <3

I also ran into a bear.

It growled at me, its eyes shining green in the moonlight....

I quickly jumped onto a big rock and climbed right to the top in a trice!

But the bear was already running out of sight.

Maybe we scared each other.

I continued north, looking for I don’t even know what....

I saw Karsh again. “Sav’saaba!”

I saw Chabi again. She’d heard Kilton was on the move now.

I basically just made a big circle, coming back toward the South Akkala Stable via the road that ran through the wetlands.

Those wetlands were another fine Valley of Terror, let me tell you. I set my detector once again to Decayed Guardians. And it chirped a foreboding beat....

I scavenged all the dead Guardians I dared, only backing off when I saw that I was nearing the live ones—I mean the ones that move. There are two of them down there. I’d seen them when I paraglided out of the Akkala Tower.

It was a fairly good haul anyway. Made me want to go visit Robbie again, and see what Cherry could make for me.

Back at the South Akkala Stable I met a guy whose dark skin was at odds with his platinum-blonde hair, and his name was Rex.

Rex said he was looking for that Legendary Sword. I chatted with him about it. He said he reckoned the sword was somewhere near the volcano.... but not on this side. He said it was probably closer to the Woodland Stable.

Huh.

You know.... I’d had a feeling about the Lost Woods for a long, long time.

When I chatted with Rex about it again, he became defensive, aggressive, saying he was going to be the one to find it! And I’d better just stay out of his way....

Huh.

....

Well now that my on-screen avatar had received a proper clue about it....

....

Well.... I do like chasing the scripted breadcrumbs.

Eh.

I took Memory from the South Akkala Stable, and rode him all the way to the Woodland Stable.

That.... was a pleasant ride.

And the Piano came out to accompany us, splashing in the wake of Memory’s hooves in its sunlit-raindrop song, and swaying and dipping its lovely Violin dance partner as they told us some of Koji Kondo’s best stories....

Zelda’s Lullaby.

The Legend of Zelda.

Beautiful themes.

I kept a sharp eye as we clipped along the riverside leading out of Lanayru.... and there she was, flailing away from a Bokoblin.

“Leekah.... Memory stay here,” I said as I dismounted....

When I’d escorted the disaster-prone girl back to the Woodland Stable, I checked up on Memory’s stats.... and saw that the last seven percent had finally filled up to max out our bond to each other.

He is willful, and wild.

And he is mine.

Somewhere around the stable I saw Laroba, another Gerudo. “Sav’aaq,” she hailed me, and then said something about where to find all the strapping voe.

Voe....?

....

I wondered if it was some concise term for boyfriend material.

I’d momentarily forgotten that the Gerudo couldn’t possibly find mates among themselves, as they are all women.

Hmm.

I wondered how they’d receive me once I ventured into their lands.

Well I ran up the hill to the Lost Woods and, more confident against wolves, even ventured inside a bit.

The mist was weird, curling in unnatural scud all across my view. The Piano came to heel again, tapping out once more those repetitive descending notes in a watchful key of G. It sounded more.... assertive this time, as though it knew there was something to be sought after hard in here.... though that may only have been my imagination.

I followed a few lit torches into the green misty gloom....

But....

I considered my surroundings. I mean my surroundings. In my house.

There were too many people around. The buzzkill risk was too high. And this seemed too important.

I didn’t want to do it right now.

I backed out.

But on my way I thought I saw something faintly glowing in the distance, something.... orange or pink....

I tried to climb a rock to get a better view and—

EVERYTHING WENT WHITE—and I swear I heard some.... someone.... laughing....

And I wound up back at the entrance.

....

Unlike Ketoh Wawai’s shrouded island.... it seemed the path in here.... could not be strayed from.

I came out and decided to climb north around the volcano.... looking for more shrines maybe. I found that epic treehouse I’d seen before [or rather what I thought was that epic treehouse I’d seen before—there’s a couple of them on Death Mountain’s western slopes], got up behind it, and cleared it out with an equally epic game of Bomb-Golf.

You know.... I really.... really love having infinite bombs in this game. =3

After I killed the treehouse.... well the volcano was just so massive....

What was I doing, anyway?

I changed course, and started to go after my blue marker instead. As far away as it was, it was probably closer than any north part of the volcano I thought about exploring—Death Mountain was huge.

I hiked west around the north side of the Lost Woods, getting quite close to the edge of my visible map. I could see the way to where I’d put my Blue Marker. It was so close!

But.... as I’d suspected, it did get too cold before I got there. Too cold even for my Warm Doublet. I could even see the boundary where the falling rain turned into falling snow.

I met a nice lady merchant walking along the road there. Yammo was her name. But she and her donkey didn’t have any cold weather clothing I could buy....

The two of them just kept walking toward the freezing air.... and a moose. A Tabantha Moose. I snapped its pictograph as its head was turned in my direction. It had the same green eyes as that bear had had....

When Yammo and her donkey got close to it, it spooked, which spooked them, and they all ran away from each other. XD

Well, the way up the road and toward my marker was too cold, but I could plainly see a shrine and a stable far away in the west, amid a grassier, gentler clime.

But.... I could also hear a shrine beeping much closer than that....

It was in that place I’d seen in the northern reaches of my Woodland Map. Those huge, huge angular structures in that low valley....

I wanted to find it....

Good Friends

Waking of Thursday, July 20, 2017

Good Friends

Good friends really are wonderful. Alison, Jenenne and Jenny came over and took me out for a burger to celebrate my birthday. They couldn’t do it on my actual birthday because.... it’s just been so busy at work.

It’s rough when for your birthday you gotta drive a longer commute, to a less sanitary building, with ventilation systems ill-designed for the desert environment, which don’t really work anyway, to sit in a smaller cubicle, at an earlier hour than usual, to do mandatory overtime.

It’s been some long and hard days. But....

Good friends really are wonderful.

After food they brought me back and we all wondered what to do next. “Games?” someone proposed.

And frankly I probably just panicked. Games like the kind you play at parties? Parties full of people, crowds make me nervous....

I don’t know when the last time I just plain.... played a game was. With other people. I know I used to. Lots of people. But....

When did it become so uncomfortable, so dangerous, in my mind?

That just someone saying the word Games could.... make me want to back out and run away.

And so I brought up something else that I had heard my friends express an interest in: “You guys want to see my Zelda game?”

“Ooh yeah!” said Jenny. I turned on the console.

Alison wanted to start her own game but when we came to the rigamarole of that she would have to create a profile on my WiiU first.... she told me to just go ahead.

Just for kicks I found my own way out of Ketoh Wawai’s shrouded island. Even remembered to turn my HUD back on halfway through, oops.

Our mission, I told them, was to Collect the Blue Marker and Find Mister Kilton.

And so we wandered west, toward my blue marker.... but it was quite far away. And zooming in with my scope, it looked like there might be a danger of my freezing to death before I could reach it.

Well.... not wanting to be all night, we decided to forego the blue marker for the present, and wander back east around the north of the volcano, toward Gut Check Rock, and Skull Lake.

But that was quite a long distance, too.

And so after looking at some wildlife—Alison enjoyed the cranes; she asked me to take a picture but I didn’t.... I should have—after looking at some wildlife I simply warped straight to Gut Check Rock.

From there I paraglided toward Skull Lake, found the highest jump-point I could and then paraglided again toward the shrine on the spire island. My friends were wowed by the vastness of the world! Jenny was right glued to the screen. And Alison was right glued to Jenenne’s snack she had brought: some kinda sticky-sweet puppy chow mix, which I tried to partake of carefully because I didn’t want to gum up my WiiU gamepad!

It was delicious.

“Here, take it away from me,” said Alison, and Jenny and I obliged.

The shrine was named for one Zuna Kai, but I don’t remember whether it was a puzzle shrine or a blessing shrine. Might have been a blessing shrine.... Yeah.

After that it was a slow float down all the shelfy rocks to find Kilton. There were so many crags to explore.... Killed a few baddies....

In the lake at the bottom there was a boat, and I showed my friends how to blow it around with a Korok Leaf! That was pretty cool. B)

I blew it the short distance to Kilton’s island....

And WAITED.

The water in the lake was full of giant flowers, submerged some feet beneath the surface. Made me wonder if there could be a fairy nearby....

Night fell, storms came and went (the foliage-obliterating lightning was quite transfixing!), and Kilton didn’t show.

After 2:00 am and with still no Kilton I jumped off the island and swam away for a distance. And then upon turning back—

BOOM! There’s a huge balloon of some kind parked there?? (Seemed I just had to step away so the game could populate it!) All in dark spooky colors in the patchwork of its envelope and the ramshackle tent beneath it.... at first glance it made me think of some Halloween-themed version of the Wizard of Oz!

I swam back!

After scrambling onto the island, I approached the figure moving behind the tent’s tiny counter.... He seemed.... bird-like in appearance—no it was the torn back of a hood—

I got his attention and he turned around and spooked and HOWLED at my appearance! And then he said, “Oh... just a Hylian.”

What.... was he? His face was huge, and grey-skinned. Actually I was reminded of nothing so much as.... oh let me check the spelling.... Ben Quadinaros. The Star Wars podracer whose power coupling failed at the start line. Quadinaros also had a huge face.

Kilton’s face was large, with pronouncedly curly eyebrows and very wide eyes. He asked me what I thought of monsters.

I told him the truth: “I hate them.”

And, looking very much, well, deflated, he cut off the conversation.

Oh dear. I.... kind of pitied his poor timid manner.

So I spoke to him again, and this time claimed, “I like them.”

He asked me how much I liked them.

There were four possible responses, and I only remember the most intense one: I ADORE THEM!

But I chose the lowest response.

Whereupon Kilton jumped into an overbearing pose and screamed, “I LOVE THEM MORE THAN YOU DO!”

o__o;

Guess he was.... anticipating a little bit of contention there. Guy gets excited! ^_^;;

But he apologized and quieted down and introduced himself properly and then rattled off the names of a few villages (some I’d never heard of!) that he might like to do business in in the future—at night.

And then.... he was on his way. Back in his balloon and off into the sky.

And that was Mister Kilton.

Well that encounter was.... shorter than I’d thought it would be. Seemed it was just an introduction, to get to know him.

Guess I’d see him around.

What even is he....? If not a Hylian.... I wonder....

Well, we’d completed our mission of Finding Mister Kilton, and so set about getting into what tomfoolery was readily available. I wandered....

From Skull Lake I wandered into Rok Woods, and quickly discovered it was not named for a giant bird, as I had wondered. I did however get a Korok for my.... heavily concussive troubles. And then I climbed up on one of the jutting rocks above Tempest Gulch. And after grabbing another Korok there, I considered the Blue Lynel prowling down near the aspens....

Under a bit of peer pressure from the ladies, I paraglided down and RODE IT! HAHA!

Wasn’t gonna let David one-up me entirely! ^_^

After it bucked me off, I had a fair tussle with it, too! I employed Stasis most effectively, but.... in the end it proved stronger than I was, and so I warped back to the Zuna Kai Shrine on top of the Skull Lake Spire, and then back to Gut Check Rock.

I showed them the cooking pot up near where Bayge sat, and after consulting my ingredients Alison insisted I should make a Speed Elixir. So I did, and they loved the cute little animation of Link cooking, just as they had loved the animation of him eating to up my hearts before I faced the Lynel. ^_^

But the Lynel had taken just as many hearts back off, and then some, and so it was a paraglide down to the hot spring for a nice, healing soak.

We ran around a bit more until we found.... a BLUE HINOX, snoring out there on the hot rocks. I moved in so they could see the creature up close, and got closer, and closer.... until the Hinox woke up, and then it was a comical run for our lives as it chased after us! XD

Ah it were such a delightful time just romping around on the screen. But....

Well, I was the Hero. And I had followed the breadcrumbs as far as I could. Perhaps not in a direct course, but hey, I was trying. Go see Impa. Go see Purah. Go see Robbie. Murmurs about Kilton.

And I’d found Kilton, and then he’d gone and—

There were no more breadcrumbs.

That was the end of the breadcrumbs.

....

But....

I was here at the Volcano.

....

Maybe it was time to see whether I could....

DO THE VOLCANO?

D8

I proposed a new quest to my companions: find, reach, and activate the local Sheikah Tower!

They were all in as I scrambled up the craggy stones and ashfalls, occasionally bursting into flame....

Good friends.... really are wonderful.

Somehow the house became quite the hot spot that night. John and Siara were there, had been there since about the time my friends and I got back from In-N-Out. They gave me a sweet birthday card, too. :3 <3 ^_^ And later Ben and Cami showed up! What kind of party was this?

Spontaneous, I guess.

Alison, Jenenne and Jenny didn’t see me reach the tower; it was getting late and they bowed out before then. I thanked them for the birthday visit, and they departed.

But once I got very close to the structure, I asked Ben if he’d like to see, and he did.

It was nice to find a tower that wasn’t swamped in a bog, covered in briars or surrounded by Guardians. There were just a few Bokoblins in the way on the hill just below, and they were easy enough to dispatch.

The Eldin Region map was.... TREMENDOUSLY INTERESTING. OuO I studied it for quite a long time, noting the places I’d already been, like the Eldin Great Skeleton.

As it turned out, there were a few more GIANT RIBCAGES smattering the sides of the volcano. Perhaps not as complete or grandiose as the Great Skeleton, but.... my gosh, still....

WHAT IS WITH ALL THESE GIANT BONES? o__o;

But then I saw something that truly made my insides shrivel up and die in horror just a little bit....

There was a giant ribcage in a pool of lava.... and just about where the head would have been was.... one of those Bokoblinish skull-dens?

The ones shaped like enormous skulls?? O___O

WAIT, wait.... I mean I’d figured the Bokoblins just liked to carve them that way, but.... then again I’d also seen weird squished mossy ones that looked.... a little more disturbingly organic than that. Or like they fell out of a Studio Ghibli film.

Were they actual skulls?

But I thought of the Eldin Giant Skeleton—THAT one.... that one had not been humanoid, as the skull-dens seemed to be. That one DEFINITELY was probably.... something more like a Dodongo. It had the long tail and everything.

Actually that was the only long tail I’d seen accompanying those ribcages. I mean I’d seen the ribcages everywhere: Lanayru, the desert, distant mountains I’d not yet climbed.... and now here in Eldin.

But maybe the long tails just didn’t survive in any of those other skeletons—and I didn’t see any other bones either, no femurs or pelvises or phalangies how do you spell that—just.... ribcages and vertebrae.

And those skull-dens everywhere.

And a massively boggling thought entered my mind.

Dodongos are native to Eldin; they’re native to the volcanic region. And Dodongos can grow to great size. And judging by the Eldin Great Skeleton, it could have been that giant Dodongos once ranged all over Hyrule.

But....

I remembered one other creature native to Eldin that I had also seen reach enormous sizes—and this creature.... was humanoid—

The Gorons.

The Gorons themselves.

Oh my gosh.

Were those Giant Goron skulls dotting the land all over?

Was there some tempestuous age of Giant Dodongos and Giant Gorons rumbling all over the land in titanic clashes of dominance?

DUDE? D8

Well, Ben and I had fun surveying the landscape from the top of the Eldin Tower. But soon I wanted to move. I tried paragliding down onto where my map said there was a road, but.... a few seconds after leaping off the tower, the wooden club on my back burst into flame with a little woof!

So I warped back onto the tower.

Ben, unfamiliar with the HUD, wanted to see the temperature gauge.

So I jumped off again.

There was something kind of hilarious about sailing quietly and serenely through the air and then woof!—bursting into flame.

I warped back to the tower again.

Ben said even the gauge itself burst into flame!

“Really?” :D I’d never seen that!

So I jumped off again.

Woof! There went the temperature gauge.

I warped back again.

I did this no less than four times, and we laughed every time. XD

Ahhhh.... X-)

Presently I tried jumping the other way—downhill over the face of the volcano—and started making my way toward a shrine I had marked long ago from the heights of Upland Zorana. I’d forgotten all about it. And it was a little tricky to find because my detector was still set to find Decayed Guardians.

Mmm makes me wonder if there are any shrines on the north face of the volcano.... I hadn’t been detecting shrines there either....

I came to the Tah Muhl Shrine, and completed it, and saved.... and went to bed.

Good friends really are wonderful.

And so are good family.

It was a good evening.

Just.... nice.

Nice to sit back and do something simple and fun the night before my doctor would infuse my blood with ketamine. What kind of person would I be after that?

I didn’t know.

Maybe I ought not to panic next time.

I remembered games.

I used to play them all the time, with other people. Lots of other people. And I liked it.

Why hadn’t I even been able to remember Apples to Apples?

It’s a good one.

Maybe next time.... I’ll invite the girls to play Apples to Apples.

And we can make cookies just for good measure.

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.

The Badlands

Waking of Saturday, July 8, 2017 ~ 2

The Badlands

From Gut Check Rock, I began a counterclockwise circumnavigation of Death Mountain. Dinraal looked like he got to some pretty low altitudes.... and if Farosh dropped things when you shot him with arrows.... then surely Dinraal would, too.

I paraglided, I jogged, I climbed—sometimes I would see the DIVINE BEAST crawling in a parallel course higher up the mountain. My gosh it was so big . . . . its feet were on fire . . . . and it had four eyes oh my gosh....

Madly inhaling Rock Octoroks.... Eldin Ostriches.... a few Red Lizalfos.... Ice Arrows took care of them.

And I saw....

Hhhhh.

There was land, over there. North of the volcano, across a huge gulf. Beyond the northern edge of my map.

I’d seen the distant mountaintops. Maybe from all the way back on the Plateau. There were some far, far peaks whereupon if you centered your scope.... the central reticle would remain empty, instead of lighting up red.

You couldn’t place markers there.

I’d always imagined they’d be just part of the grand scenery beyond as soon as I came up against the impassable mountain borders, which surely would be there....

Well.... I suppose the gigantic gulf was border enough. Though it still made it somehow more tantalizing.... Agh there was grass over there; there were hills and slopes and plains and mountains and . . . . hhhhhhh . . . .

It was comforting, and a little heartbreaking, to know and see that there was land over there.

Hahhhh. </3

I tracked Dinraal’s course through the most barren landscape of any I had yet visited. Naked stone and crusted spills of ash. No Koroks.

None.

Only monsters. And ostriches.

And a queer little breed of pigeon I took a pictograph of—apparently it’s no good to shoot it for game; it burns away when killed.

Okay so perhaps the land was not so barren. But the utter lack of Koroks was disconcerting.

The Deplian Badlands.

That’s what this place was called.

I stayed high, working from jutting crag to jutting crag, until I saw something . . . . unexpected, unbelievable, impossible: far away, in the lowest reaches, the farthest skirt of the volcano, right up against the dropoff into the impassable chasm, in a place with grass . . . . a long, broad, crestlike slab of bleachy grey: a skull.

And behind it, vertebra after vertebra, and great bowed ribs spidering into the earth. It was too big. It couldn’t be that big.

I thought of the StalHinox of Satori Mountain.

It couldn’t be that big. It was too big to be allowed!

And on his very occasional slow twining westward passes, Dinraal would snake low through the air above it, a crocodile, and he only the python.

How could it be that big . . . .

A Dodongo, I thought, it had to be a Dodongo, long-dead from some forgotten age, some terrible forgotten age.... And memories of Volvagia, and what would have happened had he not been killed.... And those giant bones I had seen in the dusty desert.... And visions of the volcano erupting endlessly, and lava covering the land, and dread colossal Dodongos reigning in blood and fire . . . .

What a terrible, terrible world.

It turned out the skeleton really was that big—I hiked for what felt like ages, and it seemed barely to come any further into my view. So slowly it crawled by at my passing....

But after a very, very long time, I did manage to get somewhat above it.

I thought again of the StalHinox, and was afraid to go down there. But.... at David’s encouragement....

I paraglided in.

Crag by crag, anyway. And then I was close enough to know: this was called the Eldin Great Skeleton.

IT WAS NOT A STAL-CREATURE. OuO;;

Well that was a relief.

I floated down onto the great mountain-shelf of its head.

There were baddies camped out beneath its spine! Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos.

Well. The high ground was already mine. All I had left to do was appeal to Ja Baij.... I picked a nice angle and chucked my bombs one after another through the gap between two of the skeleton’s ribs. The monsters ran around in an irate fret, trying to find the source of the commotion, but they never failed to either come back toward the center, or run in to try and kick the bombs away.

Either way.... they blowed up real good.

And they left me a few presents! I snagged another Great Fireblade, a few bundles of arrows, and plenty of monster bits.... until these latter treasures began rolling away toward the skeleton’s tail with a sudden gust of wind.

David directed my attention upward: Dinraal was making another pass! I ran but could not catch his head. And so I fired an arrow at the only place I could—his underbelly.

I still had Ice Arrows equipped—sorry, Dinraal!

And a scale streaked glowing toward the earth like a falling star.

“What?” said David, but I didn’t answer him; I just collected the scale.

Cool. X-)

I had quite a time exploring the entire giant skeleton, let me tell you. I climbed back up the tail and jumped from vertebra to vertebra—each singular bone took a few jogging strides to cross! And I crept up the neck beneath the huge armored skull—almost fell all the way through to the front but climbed back up and went backward again.

How could it be this big.

But after a time I moved on, and continued my counterclockwise traversal of the mountain.

And I saw something else. Something that seized my gut and just about made my heart stop—a White-Maned Lynel.

That’s what my compendium called it. I snapped its pictograph just as it threw a startled question-mark glance in my direction—and then I ducked back down behind the rock I was on.

Oh my gosh.... 8C

Its body was black and white. Striped. Like a zebra!?

So that was what was up with that thumbnail I kept decidedly ignoring in my DeviantArt messages.... there really were zebra-Lynels....

Yeah it was time to get high again. Oh that came out so wrong. It was time to get to high ground! I climbed up the backside of a large jutting rock, away from the Lynel’s view, until I was back amid the ashy crags of the mountain’s side.

And I continued round the mountain.

From my high road I saw Dinraal make another low pass over the farthest skirts of the mountain—this time over the barren piece of earth the White Lynel haunted. Anywhere else I might have sailed in to try for another scale or shard, but here?

Hah, NOPE! C8

GUT CHECK

Waking of Saturday, July 8, 2017

GUT CHECK

On the Great Plateau, King Rhoam had advised me to go see Impa.

In Kakariko Village, Impa had advised me to go see Purah.

In Hateno Village, Purah had advised me to go see Robbie.

On the way to Robbie’s, people had whispered about Kilton.

Those were the breadcrumbs as I tasted them.

That was why I wanted to stick to Akkala for now.

And that was why when I left the Spring of Power I headed straight for the Skull Lake, which Kilton was said to haunt. I could see the shrine high at the top of one of its ridiculous islands, even at this distance.... Perhaps I’d snag that first; it looked like there was some higher ground I could climb to in order to paraglide in....

I started in a somewhat northward direction through a high valley full of beautiful aspens in fair colors, the highland cliffs of the coast on my right, and the foothills of the volcano on my left.

But I did not get very far before I was interrupted—by an erhu.

I swiveled madly around, searching.... Where, where? And finally looking straight up.... I saw it, high, high in the sky above my head:

A Red Dragon.

I snapped the distant creature’s pictograph, and my Compendium told me this was Dinraal, a spirit of fire taken the shape of a dragon. The rest of the entry was very much similar to Farosh’s. But, benign as he might be, I somehow didn’t think if I rode on this dragon’s back that his flames would be so . . . . forgiving.

I didn’t take but a few steps more before I was interrupted again—by a Lynel.

That’s what that moving shape in the distance was—and when its head jolted in my direction I quickly got behind a tree trunk!

A Blue-Maned Lynel.

Tougher than the Reds. Tougher than that one on Ploymus Mountain.

Dear me.

So I backtracked around and up into the high eastern hills, giving it a wide berth. But there was a Lynel up that way, too.

It was a trick to tread between them! But I fared well enough until I got high around the east or northeast part of the cliffs surrounding Skull Lake. It would be an easy paraglide to the shrine from here....

But I saw something further to the west. Another orange glow beside an immense pillar of rock.

But it was so faint and so distant.... Was it really a Shrine?

I considered: If I paraglided down to the Skull Lake Shrine, it would be a long climb back up here to investigate that other orange glow....

And so I put Skull Lake on hold and plunged on ahead, up into the dread forbidding foothills of Death Mountain.

The land was bald, the trees scorched and dead. Not even any Koroks gamboled around here. It was an awful place to wait out another Blood Moon....

I saw as I drew closer to that great rock spire that the glow did not come from a shrine, but from fire. Campfires, torchfires. Something else anyway. And soon I came upon some walkways crudely plated with metal sheets, and jagged fenceposts and an archway. This led onto a narrow part of a wide and many-chambered pool of water so crystal blue....

And bubbling, I saw with a closer look.

Some rocks sat half-submerged in the water just after the archway. For jumping across I imagined.

Would I boil alive if I fell in there?

How brave was I feeling about jumping over those rocks?

“Andrea,” David piped up as I hemmed and hawed.

“Yeah?”

“This is about Zelda.”

Huh. “....‘Kay?” I said.

He hesitated and then said, “The water won’t hurt you.”

Oh, I thought.

“It’s a hot spring,” said David.

OH! 8D “A hot spring?” I smiled, and walked right ahead and into it until I was treading water.

But I already had full hearts. And then some, thanks to Mipha when I’d run into that treehouse north of the Lynels. It had been full of bokoblins with bomb arrows, which I harvested, as they were firing in the rain.... but then the sun came out and they’d blown me up before I could kill them all.

Never could figure out how to get up onto that treehouse....

Anyway I’d heard hot springs could fill you up some hearts. <3

I got out of the water, and headed for that giant rock. There was a signpost. It read:

GUT CHECK ROCK

WAT. ò.Ò

A couple of Gorons were at the base of the rock pillar, one standing, the other flat on his back. I went to check on this one, a bit concerned for his wellbeing.... and it was—

“KABETTA?”

“So sweaty... brother...” he groaned.

Heehl was the Goron on his feet.

It was those same Gorons. Accompanied by that same drunken Skyloft Trombone no less.

They both recognized me as “that guy who backed out of the endurance challenge”.

But here was another challenge for me it seemed. I ascended to the top of the rock pillar via air current, and found Bayge at the top—and a Shrine after all!

Bayge also recognized me as that quitter from before. Dang it, Gorons!

I asked him to move so I could get in the Shrine, but he said first I had to pass the GUT CHECK CHALLENGE.

“THIS IS WHERE GORON BOYS BECOME GORON MEN, BROTHER!” and oh so many other manly encouragements he spouted. XD

Well, I wanted in that Shrine, so I did their challenge, climbed the pillar, got enough rupees, and made it to the top before the time ran out. I really wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it! But I gave it a try and lo! it worked. And they made me their sworn brother to boot! ^_^

And the Shrine was mine.

And I received Gorae Torr’s Blessing.

Cool.

I think there might also be a Korok hiding up on top of that pillar but I’m not sure.

But with how high I was, I had quite a view! And I could see Dinraal twining through the sky.... It seemed he came down to a lower altitude as he bent westward, around the north side of the volcano.

Mmmm perhaps I really should have gone back and just gotten the Skull Lake Shrine, but....

I followed the dragon.

Close to Home

Waking of Monday, July 3, 2017 ~ 3

Close to Home

After a lengthy pause to spend some sweet-lovin’ time with my family <3 I came back to the center of the Rist Peninsula, and decided to make my exit by alternating jogging and swimming straight toward the mainland. Chariots-of-Fire Beach was right there and that seemed to be the quickest way to it.

I ran a few paces north along the road to Robbie’s before remembering and veering off to the left, plunging into the huge sweeping bowl of grass to cut my way inland in a direct course toward the Quarry.

There was a memory there.... there had to be....

The shape of that strange little water body up in that higher alcove....

I came upon some Guardian remains to salvage, as well as another Korok inviting me to race off away from my intended destination. I almost just passed it by to come back later, but—augh, I ran up a little hill, grabbed it, took its seed and continued in my course.

A Flying Guardian loomed in the distance, almost directly in line with where I needed to go. There was another great crack in the earth between me and there.... very similar to that one by Jeddo Bridge, all with rocky teeth on either side....

I veered more north to give the Guardian some space, and found myself climbing a great grassy hill. Akkala is so hilly....

I guess everywhere’s so hilly, but.... augh. Akkala just feels so lush and leafy, but still with beautiful open space. It’s like a perfect lawn, but.... oh the word lawn just feels so insulting to describe it! It’s the kind of grass you just wanna lie down on and nap.

Akkala does hills right. X-)

Up on top of the hill was a sloping depression. Rather, the hill was shaped something like a donut. And from its center came the roaring rush of spilling water....

This was the Spring of Power.

!!

I floated down onto the bordering first level, an array of inward-spilling waterfalls—and saw there was a Goddess statue in here!

And down into the lower level.... simple, angular walks of stone.... a clear, enveloping pool....

And there in the center that pearl-soft glow, afloat with slow refractions and fairylike flares, that indicated there was a memory here.

I shed all my equipment and took a few snapshots. Beautiful snapshots. <3 The light was just perfect and the shimmering memory glow may just as well have been a part of the spray cast up by all the waterfalls.

What a most enchanting place to stand. ☼

But perhaps Zelda didn’t think so.

It was night, and a clear moon reflected off the water’s gently rippling surface.

Princess Zelda stood in the pool, the water up to her waist, praying before the statue of the Goddess.

Link stood some distance away at the last convergence of the little stone walks, in the proper entrance to the spring—a stone passage opposite the statue, leading straight off under the hill. His back was turned and his stance was broad as he kept watch at the tunnel, hands resting on his sword hilt, the tip of the weapon planted squarely between his feet.

He barely moved the entire time.

She was so frustrated—her praying words seemed pained and hollow. Was she really even praying anymore, addressing the Goddess? Or was she only lamenting to herself?

Or to the only other pair of listening ears?

She could not hear the Voices heard by her mother, and her grandmother. The promises of her lineage.... where were they? Hadn’t she always been true and faithful to the spirits that served the ancient gods? “Curse you,” she croaked as she let her hands splash into the water.

Her father only told her to stop playing at being a scholar. But things were supposed to awaken inside of her, she knew they had to.... Why couldn’t she hear them?

When would she hear what she was supposed to hear?

“What is wrong with me?” she cried.

My gosh that hit so close to home.

How often have I felt.... things similar to that?

When you are so assured by the ones you love of the precious gifts and joys to come—calmings when you need it; answers when the path is shrouded; surety on shaky ground.

And yet.... hollow.

You feel hollow.

And you wrestle within yourself Where is my peace?

The tales and experiences of so many close ones and trustworthy ones couldn’t have all been fabricated just to tell a Big Fat Lie to you.

And deep down.... you do have faith in the Goodness of the Universe, that life is not a sadist, and that things will work out in the end.

Because that is the nature of the world.

And you know that it is unfailing.

You know it.

It’s a Truth so sure you know it must be there, even surrounding you already, enfolding you on every side.

And yet.... if you can’t feel that grace in your own heart.... that grace so sure and certain....

Then the problem must lie in you.

All those promises you’ve known in the wells of your mind since before you can remember—of course they become fulfilled.

You’re just too deaf and blind to see it.

You just.... don’t work.

Maybe you were broken from the beginning, or maybe you’re just trying too hard. Or maybe it’s just your lot to walk in the dark longer than the people around you.

Nobody knows.

What is the line between seeing the light at the end.... and imagining it.... and wondering if your eyes were only playing tricks on you?

Something better has to be waiting on the far side....

But it’s hard to lean on that thought when you feel nothing but the shadows.

Korok Guides

Waking of Monday, July 3, 2017 ~ 2

Korok Guides

I was ready to charge north toward the low grassy lands by the sea. But first I met a man heading for the Goddess statue. His name was Stamm, and he was a traveling chef. “They say hunger makes the best sauce. Or is it love?” he said. “But then what does that make us but hungry chefs or fools in love?” he added.

I didn’t buy any of his food, but I sold him a bunch of my monster parts. That kicked me over ten thousand rupees!

And then I got distracted by a Korok. It was hiding on the natural bridge to the Goddess statue, and grabbing it was dastardly difficult! But grab it I did, almost down on the complete underside of the red, red stone.

And then I got distracted by a rock.

It was actually the top of a ruin, just over the hill, on the east side by the sea. A dreadfully fast Korok lived there, and it was tough work catching it! The Impossibly Fast Ruins Puzzle.

And then I got distracted by another Korok.

I chased this third one all the way down the slope and nearly to the seaside before I caught it in some ruins.

And then I got distracted by an ORB.

There was a sign next to it. It seemed.... if I carried this orb all the way out to the end of Rist Peninsula.... it sounded like.... Why it sounded like a shrine might just appear!

I looked up. The base, the root of the Rist Peninsula seemed to be just off the grass where these ruins stood. And out into the bay the peninsula stretched and swirled in on itself like a giant, sandy tendril. And as I scoped in on its far distant tip in the center.... I could indeed see a waiting pedestal.

The peninsula looked a lot bigger from here near the beach. ._.

I considered: the journey was probably fraught with all manner of nasties, no doubt designed to slow me down, to delay. Would it be worth it to run through the peninsula first, and clean them all out? It would take time.... and there was no telling when the next Blood Moon was.... All that work could be for naught. Would there be a time limit to this....?

Ah just blow it, I thought, and picked up the orb and went for it.

There was no time limit—it seemed more like an epic trek than anything else; the outer swirl of the peninsula was so huge, enemies wouldn’t even populate until we were at most.... mmmm forty-five degrees away from each other I’d say.

There were moblins on the sand, lizalfos in the sea, octoroks keeping them company, and occasionally some mounted bokoblins. I bombed, I brawled, I Stasised, and I dodged. And picked up a few crabs along the way....

I remember near the center, tired of cutting my way through, I huffed it past some baddies just to get further down the spiral with the heavy orb held over my head while a great dark moblin lumbered after me, keeping pace quite close on my heels! We both stopped at the same time, I to finally deal with him, and he.... I’m not sure why. Had he reached the limit of his territory? Did an octorok accidentally pelt him?

I never knew and he never said, and I cut him down.

At the rainy end of a very long walk, I finally came to the pedestal in the center, and set down my burden—and up rumbled a shrine. The Ritaag Zumo Shrine.

And there it was that I entered my first non-puzzle, non-combat shrine, and received a Spirit Orb without any further obstruction: Ritaag Zumo’s Blessing.

Or had Kass’s shrines held Blessings in them?

No I think this was my first one. The Into The Vortex Shrine Quest. I had already proven myself by getting the orb to its pedestal, and so the monk gave me his Spirit Orb freely.

Cool.

Okay.... thanks for bringing me here, Koroks.