#this is about the jeweller quest in gerudo village

[endykelopaedia]

how do i explain to people that collecting rocks in a video game was an essential part of my self discovery as a lesbian. Isha i will never forget you

[webhead3345]

Hero of the Dunes Chapter 2

(Read on Ao3 here!)

Link is given a quest, accidentally impersonates a ghost, and we are introduced to Ralim and the beginning of the Gerudo side of this story.

The Beginning of a Journey

“The Soul’s Voice has been shattered into three pieces,” Voice said as she hovered lower over the pedestal to lay her hands on either side of the round pink jewel, gilded in gold. “Through the power of this relic, I can speak with you more clearly and presently, but even now it drains my strength.”

Link leaned a little closer to get a better look at the jewel, in the bright sunlight it let off a dazzling glow that reflected on the stone around it.

“Once all three pieces have been put back together, I will be able to speak to and guide you with much greater ease. I may even be able to summon some more strength to aid you at times.” Voice gestured at it. “Take it. The first thing you must do is to gather the three missing pieces so that we can begin your quest.”

A quest to begin a quest? Link lifted the jewel off the pedestal and stared into it. The round edges distorted the room around them, but it was clear and flawless. “Where will I find the others?”

Voice crossed her arms and the pink mist forming her seemed to fade a little. “Do you really know nothing of the legends and history?”

Link flinched at the tone, like Mama when he was failing badly on a lesson they’d already reviewed three times.

“The closest location with be the Temple of Seclusion in the northwest. It’s hidden in the barren rock lands behind Kakariko village.”

Kakariko village? Link’s lips pressed together. With the first temple being so close, he’d expected the other to be the same. Kakariko was a full two days from here, walking.

 Rift and Papa took weeks to get to and from Castle Town. Should I really be surprised at a couple days’ journey?  He tightened his hold on the jewel, and then he stuffed it into his almost empty rupee pouch.

Voice’s figure was becoming less distinct by the second.

Link glanced back at the door behind him and then looked at her again. “Will you speak to me again?”

“When I regain strength, perhaps,” Voice said, “but until you finish collecting all of the Soul’s Voice I won’t have the strength to stay for long.”

Link clenched his jaw and looked back at the door again. “How can I get out of here? I don’t see any exits other than the door that’s closed.” Not to mention the masked woman who very well may be on the other side that he definitely didn’t want to run into.

“A secret tunnel lies under this pedestal,” Voice said. “It will let you out of the temple. Hurry. You need to put together the Soul’s Voice. All of Hyrule is relying on you.”

Then with a pop like a log on the fire, the pink mist dissipated and she was gone.

Link pressed his shoulder against the pedestal and pushed. He couldn’t think right now. All of it was way too much.

It heated against the floor, more difficult than the brazier, but still giving to his touch.

Surely enough, a dark tunnel yawned before him. He stepped in, almost as hesitant to move into that darkness as he was to remain here where he might be found and killed.

The monsters were after  him.  That woman wanted to kill  him.  Now the strange pink ghost who claimed to be a messenger of fate claimed that he was destined to be the Hero of Courage and save Hyrule.

He wagged his head and dove into the darkness, resting a hand on the rough stone wall to guide him as he went.

It was all too much and it was too wild, and a part of him expected to return home to talk to his parents about it. To hear their wisdom and thoughts. Part of him wished he could brush it all off as some big joke and laugh along with whatever village boys had put this one on.

The other part was knotting up his stomach and making him sick.

He wouldn’t be returning home. He knew that much. Voice story was corroborated by the experiences he’d had before entering the temple. If he went back, he’d be putting Mama and Papa in danger. Danger they were no longer in any shape to face.

The safety of his home, of the protection of Papa and Rift, crumbled around him and he met the end of the tunnel. It was up to him to keep them safe now. Up to him to protect Mama and Papa and to find Rift.

He swallowed, then his boot bumped a step and he started on his way back up. The top was another stone slab, sleek, unlike the underground walls.

Link found a hand on one side and pulled, desperately ready to be out of the encroaching darkness.

Light poured through the slit and he squinted even as he climbed into the open, too eager to be consider with his surroundings until his eyes adjusted.

Stone slabs were lined all around him in intentional order. A bald man with a bulging jaw stared at him with eyes popped wide from where he stood in front of one of the slabs.

One of the graves.

Link started, stumbling away from the tunnel equal measures embarrassment and disgust. “O-oh!”

The man, Dampé, took a shuddering step back from him, then he gave a shout and spun to run away, back through the graveyard and out into the open beyond the temple.

Link flushed and rubbed at the back of his neck, but he sped his way after the gravedigger anyway. A haunted graveyard was the last place he wanted to be.

However, when Dampé caught sight of him following, he gave another shout before doubling his pace down the road back toward town.

Link stopped outside the graveyard and watched him go. He could’ve tried to say something, he supposed.

His red face didn’t stop a snicker at the idea of saying something like, “I live!”. Then again, it was probably best he held his tongue.

Link ducked his head and turned the other way down the road, but he paused at the sight of the front door of the temple. Lying on the ground before it were the two halves of the shovel he was supposed to return to farmer Dull.

Link cringed as he carefully picked his way over, keeping an eye out for danger, before he snatched the shovel and bolted away.

Whether or not he’d destroyed it, he needed to return it as he was asked, at least. Maybe he could give a note to farmer Dull for his parents, too.

Then it would be off to Kakariko on his own. He fingered the jewel in his pouch and his chest grew tight around his heart, but he made a fist around the Soul’s Voice and steeled his determination.

He would do this, and the sooner he did, the sooner all of his family could be together again at last.

===

Her fingers ran over the worn fabric of the stuffed coyote. The seam on its front leg was ripping, soon it would be spilling the stuffed beans and seeds everywhere if it wasn’t fixed.

Still, Ralim set it back on the shelf with solemn care.

 Three years today.  Her thoughts drove in wild circles of politics and regrets.  Have I really failed him so fully? 

Once his stoic expression had looked to her for guidance. Once a young boy bereft of all family had cried on her shoulder. Once he’d looked to her in a fevered state and called her vaiba.

Ralim straightened her stance before the sting in her eyes could advance.

She served no one by mourning here while he was still alive. Nothing would stop her from saving him. Nothing would stop her from turning all this around. There was still some piece of him left. He fought against this so hard, there had to be something there.

“Captain Ralim?” The  tacking  of beads against each other announced the woman behind her voice.

Ralim steadied her expression and turned to the warrior.

“The expedition is set to leave.”

“Good.” Ralim drew her bag off the floor beside her feet by its long strap. “And what if the Beast? Where is it located currently?”

The warrior stepped to the side so Ralim could exit the room before her, then fell into step a pace behind and beside her. “Our scouts spotted it just on the border of Hyrule once more.”

“Has it crossed?”

“No.”

Ralim’s fist tightened. Why did he never cross? Why did the Dark Beast remain always in the Gerudo Desert, as if trapped? Was there some part of him in there still, calling it home?

But no. If he had even an ounce of control, half the people who had died to this monster already would not have. “Causalities?”

“The border towns have long been evacuated and the scouts have stayed back by your order,” the warrior reported. “None.”

The tension in Ralim’s shoulders relaxed some at that. Whether or not they’d found any way to fight against this Beast, or in Ralim’s case, a way to cure it, they had grown quite skilled at avoiding it in these last years.

Surely the Hylians were laughing at their neighbor’s misfortune. War had already been close, and while this disaster had put things on hold, Hyrule was in nowhere near as bad a predicament as the desert alone.

Whatever power held him here, she didn’t know, but at least it gave her the chance to protect him—at least to some extent. She had researched and experimented and tried everything she could think of in these last years, but the legends all pointed to one thing she had no way to access.

The Master Sword. An artifact with a holy power perhaps able to conquer the curse put on her king.

Ralim stepped out of the building and into the glaring sunlight to find more Gerudo Warriors gathered at the base of the staircase.

Ralim paused at the top. “None are to engage this Beast without my command,” not that any of them had the power to hurt it anyway. “We march for the border on the anniversary of this monster’s arrival-“ the monster that had once been like a son to her “-and we will face it once more.”

The women before her whooped and cheered as they turned to the gate and started on the way out.

The warrior who informed Ralim hurried down the steps past her to join them.

She watched her forces move, none of them any wiser of what it was they truly faced. What would become of them if they knew it was their very own missing king who terrorized their lands?

What would they think of the search parties Ralim still had sent out made up of eager volunteers if they knew.

Ralim knew exactly where Ganondorf was. None of the others could ever know.

[thegeminisage]

time for MORE ZELDABLOGGING hell yeah today’s stream of consciousness:

i’ve decided that i wanna go south bc like im never gonna catch up with my brother and im Not in the mood to do heat-resistence stuff so i might as well see a thing he hasn’t, right?!

if i get too bored i can always turn around and go north!!

furthermore he’s getting closer to hyrule castle and i dont wanna lol

fast traveled to the dueling peaks and found the tower already

ooh and lake hylia is south as well! tho ofc im doing the southeast one first

and i’ll probably get tired of storyless exploring before i get out that far hahaha

wow the tower is close to the border, i can see the lake hylia province from here

there’s an Immense palm tree lookin jungle and i think i see a giant armos?

but the mountains divide it pretty neatly so it looks to be an easy walk assuming those guardian statues don’t move

ah. of course they move.

at least they can’t get up and walk around :|

too bad you can’t play around in the menu while you wait out rain. i’d rewatch m memories and shit

i climbed this one red looking cliff and the sky went green and the weather changed to all cloudy forever so im probably about to die

and just like that, glided to the tower. easy peasy

ah, the faron province!! cooool

ah wow!! it’s bigger than i realized *w*

watching a lightning storm from one of these towers is fucking terrifying

that lightning does Not fuck around

the maddening thing about this game is seeing so much cool shit in the distance and you can’t check it out yet, or it would be such hard work

i see some glowy shit and a giant pink tree and i wanna explore everything but also it’s so Much

it’s kind of creepy out here :/ maybe i want to go do story after all lol

im ging back to the shrine you hang glide off of so i can start from  somewhere familiar >_>

idk why im so cautious playing this game. like. its a game. its not like it can hurt me

im having trauma flashbacks looking at eventide island

wait is this a

i hear town music!!! omg omg

PEOPLE ;_;

ohhhh my gosh what a beautiful peaceful beachside town

reminds me of bodhum/new bodhum and bits and piece of ff11, which i say with the greatest reluctance

i love everyone in this village just bc they are here

oh god it’s so beautiful i love beaches so much i want to live here

oh my gosh there’s a gerudo here!!!!!! OH MY GOD I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU SINCE MM TALK TO ME

she’s asleep in the inn lol

oh hey the painter dude is here too

some of these hylian npcs are poc which is so do cool and overdue

ooh a chest game

i lost lmao

OH MY GOD

the gerudo lady is awake and she is. so tall oh my god

im gay

i am Gay

I Am Gay

oh, man. oh man

are they all  so beautiful. so Strong. good god

i wish this village was bigger i could have happily stayed here for hours

omg

someone a long time ago was standing on a mountain that looked like a broken heart and was like, is this not the place to find your soulmate…? but i haven’t found mine yet

someone mentioned a similar legend here and on the map i see a mountain with a whole heart on it pfffft

im so sick of seeing these stone cirlces everywhere…i can’t blow them up..what do you DO with them? complete the pattern maybe??

oh my god it worked

i’ve passed by so many…how will i ever get all these seeds……..

i know the game wants me to sail here but i hate sailing, it’s tedious, i want to control my boat with the fucking control stick

holy fuck dude the sword im using is so strong?? it cut down a palm in a single swipe!!

the longer i play the more i hate the blood moon

oh no i found a hinox

i was going to avoid him but he has an orb….

idk where it goes tho so there’s no point there’s no point the blood moon will bring him back okay Okay

hes a red one anyway so no big, when the time comes

oh my god ANOTHER hinox with an orb

i bet they go to the twin shrines near the village

but i’m supposed to find a tablet before i do that…….i don’t wanna skip another quest like the zora helm also thats a Long walk jesus christ

NNNONONONO GOD

GUARDIAN THAT CAN WALK OVER THERE NO FUCKING THANKS SO GLAD IT DIDN’T SEE ME

so fucking glad

exploring is so dangerous Why

why do i suck SO much at combat

oooh a bokoblin camp with a black mobiln :/ Yikes

aaand bomb arrows takes care of THAT

i love seeing farosh flying around here but i can NEVER CATCH HIM

i was just a few minutes too late to getting him at a really good spot

but the dragons seem to take the same route over 24h, so there’s that

oh hey im back at green cloud plateau

okay Um am i crazy or did i just hear something roar? was that the wind??

oh god i see a question mark from here something already knows im close

oh ogd oh god why i bet it’s big and awful

IT’S A LYNEL LOL

i dont have any healing or defense stuff no way

oh no i think there’s a shrine up there where he is ): but i can’t get it

AND A HINOX RIGHT NEXT TO HIM? NO THANKS LOL

jesus i knew i’d die here

at least there’s no orb on this one

oh noooo more lightning god the storms here are brutal

omg i found shelter behind a waterfall and there’s the shrine i was sensing!! yes!!!!!

holy fuck im not safe here either i nearly just got fried

in the shrine we go holy shit

may the weather be better when i get out

damn i keep finding ore today… #blessed

I SAW FAROSH AGAIN HE WAS SO CLOSE BUT I WAS STILL TOO SLOW…okay they DEFINITELY take the same route everyday i think

or at least if not at the same time, the same places

ugh i went over to this one place and the weather turned to all lightning forever

KASS? HOLY SHIT DUDE YOU’RE GONNA GET FRIED

im so glad to see him ;_; it’s creepy out here

uh…i think…i have to get struck by lightning…on this hill…oh my god i’ll die???

maybe my lightning rod will work……? please…………..?

aaaaand it did nothing. great. ok

/saves game

……../dons metal armor weapons and shield

LMAO IT WORKED HOLY SHIT

oh my god im alive!!!! i had mipha’s grace just in case but i took an electric elixir

jesus FUCK

yes nice i didnt even have to do anything just get the…chest…….

B R O

i got rubber tights!!! electric resistance!!!!! NICE

ah and when i came out the storm was over :3

but kass is gone ): i wanted to tell him i figured out his song!!!

i knew i should have talked to him before i went in :/

lol i find a boat after playing in the water for 100 years…..not that i wouldve used it, but

aw i met and saved a traveling couple, i’ve saved them before

oh my gosh a STABLE!! all the way out here!!!!

THERE ARE PEOPLE

man i wondered what that couple was doing out in such a remote place

oh wow beedle gave me a single ancient arrow…apparently it deals huge damage even to guardians

maybe this is what the start screen meant by the right tools!!!!

but there’s only one…

robbie from akkala gave it to him…NICE i’ll remember

ah some guy here said there was something glowing at the top of floria waterfall…i gotta check that out

ooh a shrine back here too…nice

god there’s a chest in here that’s REALLY hard to get bc camera angles but it has an ancient core (looked it up) and i need one to upgrade my runes………smh

man…nah. im out. there will be other cores & this is crazy ridiculous

its just the stasis rune anyway and i use that one the least

five big hearty radishes means TWENTY FIVE EXTRA HEARTS

but you can only have a max of 30 lol so

AAAH HERE COMES FAROSH AND IM FINALLY AHEAD OF WHERE HE’LL BE OH MY GOD

I HIT HIM I HIT HIM

I FINALLY GOT A SCALE

almost died for it but. i got it. he throws electricity involuntarily and it’s major stuff i shoulda worn my rubber gear

i kinda wanna wait and see if i can get another……..but i have shit to do

holy shit farosh came back around & i got another scale…wish i could hit his horn

AAAH NO A GIANT STONE THING IS HERE….i have no idea how to fight them im leaving

well idk if the stone thing or the dragon or the shrine was what was supposed to be glowing up here but i don’t see anything new

im almost done exploring this province, actually

gotta walk along one beach and climb the heart mountain and that’s it!

a little tempted to grab my horse since it’s such an easy direct road, but i’d be getting on and off all the time ):

fml there’s a guardian on this beach…pls dont move pls dont pls dont

oh thank god its stuck in the sand

omg there was a chest in the sand but it WASNT A CHEST it was one of those yellow octoroks!!!! but!! i shot it! and got money!!!!!!!! #nice

NOOOO another stone thing!!

but you know the last one took a lot of damage from one accidental bomb so maybe

how do you fight it?? i can’t damage it???

OH OMG THE ORE THING!!! OKAY LET’S DO THIS SHIT let’s go i cooked up so much good food

oh my god i took him down in just a handful of bomb arrows…THATS what ive been running from?

not nearly as scarly as lynel tbh

and i’ve been marking the minibosses on my map so now i can look for jewels there if i ever need to

i found a fuckton in this region but lol i sold them all

i know one great fairy needs 10k rupees and like…..Yikes

im getting pretty good with my bow, i can hit far off targets bc i know how high to aim and shit

i’ve kind of been wondering what happens if you get to the edge of the map

but the wind gets so strong on the beaches i bet you just either run out of stamina if swimming or can’t make the boat get past it if sailing

but what happens if you get to a land edge though…?

i actually dislike getting to edges of maps haha it creeps me out. that disreality unrealization shit. no thanks

in la noire the edges of the map have u-turn streets and you realize the cars are all just on one endless track and no one is in them and no one ever goes home and you start to wonder if this actual universe is a simulation and it freaks you out

anyway.

omfg someone from the yiga clan selling bananas like i actually could have bought some if i wanted LMAO

he actually had me fooled for a moment even though i know what npcs named “traveler” mean

why do they all give me bananas when they die anyway………whats going on with this.

oh my god this dude at the heart shaped pond is in love with this gerudo lady here. and like. same oh my god she’s so Big

but lol you can choose to say “yeah talk to her” or “nope, rival time!”

me: aggressively wants to flirt with the gerudo lady but not in a straight way

pls this cutscene was so cute

but she deserves better than a weirdo like this guy

he like, gave me a twenty, and she fussed at him for being stingy, so then he have me a hundred, and THEN

HE ASKED FOR HIS MONEY BACK LMFAO no way fucknuts

wow and with that im All Done with this province O:

i mean yeah i got quests and shrines to come back and do, but i’ve SEEN everything, yk

maybe now i’ll go up to death mountain haha i feel so slow ): i hope what i saw and did made up for my slow story progress

whoa this weapons guy said he’d remake mipha’s trident if i ever broke it!! what a relief

ah i finally figured out the shrine puzzle by zora’s domain…gotta give that thing a dragon scale. but i like my dragon scales too much so i won’t. maybe later

oh hey the death mountain region tower! that was easy

uhhh what…is that

oh my god a FLYING GUARDIAN are you KIDDING me??? why???????

and they’re everywhere! fantastic!!! my ass is DEAD

oh okay this region is called akkala

at least i get guardian arrows here eventually :|

oh my god ONE SAW ME FUCK

oh my god

I RAN UP TO THE TOWER AND IT’S COVERED IN THE BLIGHT

what is that thing crawling all over death mountain?!

what is happening OH my god!!! so much!! everything!!! all at once!!!!!!!!

wait

that’s the divine beast

oh my god

oh my god.

oh my god it’s so big but even still it looks tiny in comparison to the mountain, oh my god

omg it gets cold up here only at night?? omg

NO there’s a still guardian up here too ;_;

i’m gonna try to kill it!!! good first try it can’t move and there’s cover RIGHT here

second try really but im stronger now

now, i have bomb arrows and lightning rods

ok lightning rod does nothing, bomb arrows dont work in the rain, but i killed it with shock arrows!!

and it wasnt v hard bc i was behind cover the whole time lol

but like, with those arrows - i used maybe 9 or 10? and that was all i used, i threw a couple of bombs at it too i guess

now to figure out how i even get IN here w/ all this gunk…..

fuck a bokoblin near a cooking pot saw me and accidentally set itself on fire lmao

ok i can’t climb past the blight, i tried, but how the fuck do i get rid of it i dont see any eyeballs )))):

……………………….w ait

this bokoblin has a shield with the hylian crest on it. the HYLIAN crest

these ruins have the red carpet with the double line of gold on the side

i’m crying this was someplace special

i don’t know what it was bc it can’t be the temple of time or hyrule castle but it was someplace real i recognize the style of it so faintly and it’s COVERED IN BLIGHT

oh my god………..this is so Much

ah ok a beam fell when i shot the first eyeball and i was like why arent there anymore?? but apparently i can magnesis it

oh wow i found a piece of a room…….totally trashed, jesus christ

must’ve been a lab or library

omg its thundering outside…..that has nothing to do with zelda but it makes this creepier

THERE’S A GUARDIAN AT THE TOP SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME

its not alive tho thank christ

jesus fuck the divine beast is SO BIG and the mountain is still SO MUCH BIGGER i feel so tiny every time i look

anyway it’s 5am and there’s lightning so i gotta unplug for many reasons, this is a fine stopping place, can’t wait to get my ass kicked by that thing and rescue a goron, holy fuck