Evening of Monday, May 13, 2019 (comprised of raw note editings from April 5, 2023 through April 14, 2023 that I really hope sound consistent because I left it alone for too long)
Fire and Flurry
Dottie and the twins were over for a short visit, while Ben and Cami went to another store to try and find the right formula.
Mom and Dad were all over the twins. They are so—frikkin’—adorable.
But Dottie gravitated my way and kept telling me, “PLAY ZELDAAAA!”
So.... we played.
We started in my Hateno house, still in my pajamas. But Dottie chose a new outfit before we continued: King Rhoam’s green Warm Doublet, the Sapphire Circlet.... and Rubber Tights.
She just liked the look of those ones together.
Then after consulting my map, and letting Dottie know we were on the hunt for a shrine, we decided to go to Akkala to check out Tempest Gulch....
It was good; I had wanted a better run of that valley, just to make sure I’d covered all my bases. But with that Lynel in the way....
Mmm it was the same one I had been unable to kill before, when my friends were over to celebrate my birthday. Come to think of it, it had even been a blue one that time.
I hadn’t been strong enough then.
But now....?
Now it was only a very rigorous chore, and I was up to it.
It wasn’t a blue one this time, though.
On our approach, I showed Dottie the best way to sneak up on this particular Lynel, and climbed up into the bone-bleach crags. The land was cracked here, and toothy, like the Breach of Demise. Though perhaps it didn’t look quite as unearthly as that.
We climbed one of the most prominent rocks until we were high above the golden grassy valley below, where the Lynel prowled among the aspens. After that it was only a leap and a quiet sail downward.... some minor course correcting as needed.... and a properly affronting fwump onto the proud beast’s back where we rode it like a bronco.
It bucked us off after a bit though, and I conceded to fight it down on its own turf.
I had become much better at dodging the monsters’ swinging weapons and enormous, swiping claws.
“Flurry, flurry, flurry!” Dottie would say whenever time slowed down and a flurry-rush opportunity opened up.
We killed it, reaped the bounty of its innards....
And Tempest Gulch was ours.
We ran around the rocks as we twined our way up the canyon, combing here and there until we came to the lake, checking out more crevices, more hidden bends, more alcoves in the winding geography, but.... we found no shrines.
Well.... up into the volcano then. The rocks turned from white to red but were no less jagged as we ascended. Wandering, wandering, wandering....
Still no shrines.
I wanted to check out that ruin-looking place I’d left a marker on from the time when I was further south on the eastern flank.
Dottie told me to warp up higher to get to it; it would be faster.
I could see a somewhat nearby shrine, and Vah Rudania of course. Could be worth our while....
But I told her I’d have to put on fireproof clothes first. “Is that okay?”
“Can you still wear the crown?” she asked. The Sapphire Circlet.
“Mmmmaybe....” But I didn’t. It was the volcano, after all.
We warped to the Lizard, hopped a few crags and then sailed down toward the ruin. As we drew near, we could see some kind of Fire Wizzrobe prancing about the tottering beams and blackened foundations. Meteor, I saw. I knew that weapon. That was a Meteor Rod.
This was one of the stronger Wizzrobes, then....
I did not engage it at that moment, however.
Ben and Cami came back. And of a sudden it was time for Dottie and the twins to get ready to go home.
I kept the game paused as the children were gathered up. It’s always rough to step out mid-adventure. But we’d see each other again.
We said goodbye for the night....
~
Left to myself once more, I killed the Wizzrobe in mid-flight with a slow-motion ice arrow. But there was nothing at the ruin.
Well, no shrines anyway. Just the mystery of what poor settler or settlers used to live there, and the hope that they were able to escape the fiery havoc of Ganon’s minions.
That spot crossed off, I warped round the volcano’s cone to the Bridge of Eldin. For in paragliding from the top all the way down to the ruin, I had caught sight of that old road that wound up the side of the peak. Hadn’t taken that road since Yunobo and I had stormed the caldera....
So from the shrine near the bridge, I crossed over into the blazing central peak of Death Mountain, and once again hoofed it up on foot over the ash-blasted, embered trail.
But comb and search as I might.... I still found no shrines hidden in the volcano’s upper reaches.
Oh, fed up with everything I decided to PARAGLIDE TO ROBBIE’S PLACE.
From the top of the old caldera-road.
The mind-boggling distance slowly but steadily gnawed straight through all three of my stamina wheels, and I had to take a stamina-boosting skewer on the fly. But I did make it. Or close enough to it—I wanted to check out Bloodleaf Lake in the ravine below the furnace....
But there were no shrines there either. That I could see.
I climbed up to Robbie’s place....
He and Jerrin said much the same things as they normally said, but—what was....?
Robbie’s Memoirs, the book on the little desk was entitled.
Had I—? Had I ever....?
Had this always been here?
Huh, I’d.... I didn’t think I’d ever read his diary before.... no but maybe I did.... once.... maybe....
If so it was a looong time ago. Yeah....
Or maybe I’d just been so transfixed by that Cherry could craft armor for me....
Had I really never seen this before?
