Boulder Dodging. A Lot of It.

Oh boy. This trial is...busy. As the monk Owa Daim welcomes me to his trial, I can see giant gears, spinning platforms, Indiana Jones-style boulders. Very…extra.

Stasis Trial

~Owa Daim Shrine~

I am Keeseman.

I head right over to the rune pedestal for my magical water tablet upgrade. Stasis, just as it sounds, is the power of stopping time. Not a power I would have guessed, but I probably wouldn’t have guessed Magnesis either though, so what do I know. Similarly to Magnesis, anything I am able to use Stasis on begins glowing yellow when the rune is switched on. Reminds me of detective mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum, actually. Which is probably a comparison that’s been made a million times by now.

My first obstacle is a previously mentioned giant gear attached to a rotating platform. Turning on stasis, the gear glows, and once the platform is horizontal enough for me to cross the gap on, I freeze it. The visual effects for this rune are spectacular – chains of light appear from nowhere and hold the gear in place while a timer ticks down. I scurry across before the gear starts moving again, the chains of light shattering when the timer runs out.

At least it’s not snakes?

Next up is a narrow hallway/ramp with a not-so-narrow boulder rolling down it periodically. About halfway up there’s a path to continue, though the ramp continues on further back. I wait with the rune for the boulder to be released and stop it cold once it’s in range. I run up the ramp as the timer ticks down and move out of the boulders path.

Before moving on, I wait until another boulder has passed and freeze it further down the path, allowing me to walk up the rest of the ramp safely. My exploration is rewarded at the top with a chest containing a Traveler’s Shield. But my inventory is full so the shield gets put back in the chest. I remember a similar problem in Twilight Princess: if your wallet was full, any rupees pulled out of a chest would be put right back in. In theory, great idea, you don’t waste money. But in practice, it lead to a lot of completionists like me having to leave the dungeon to blow some money, because leaving the chest icon on the map was just too annoying. Luckily in this game, all I have to do is drop one of my crappy shields and I can pick up the new one.

Up next is…another giant boulder. Boulder isn’t the right word, these are clearly man made, giant smooth stone orbs, but saying “stone orb” just sounds weird and vaguely sexual. It’s blocking my path. Between me and it, leaning against a wall, is an Iron Sledgehammer. I take a look at the Stasis description again, remembering that it mentioned kinetic energy. They really aren’t fucking around with the physics in this game. I freeze the boulder with stasis, and then start swinging my new sledgehammer. Each time I hit it, the color of boulder turns from yellow to red, and an arrow points in the opposite direction. Once the timer ends, it launches towards where the arrow was pointing. Wow.

And that’s it. I cross the chasm and proceed forward to the monk and my 3rd Spirit Orb. Thanks Owa Daim.

Sensing a pattern with chests outside the Shrines needing
the Rune inside to retrieve.

It’s night-time when I exit the shrine, and I am startled (only a little this time) by a group of skeletons just waiting for me to show up. I make quick work of them. To the left of the Shrine is a boulder (an actual boulder this time) on top of a chest. I uses Stasis and my sledgehammer again, and retrieve a Traveler’s Bow from the chest.

Only one more Ssrine to go. I climb back up the mountain and into the snow again, looking towards the direction of the last shrine. I can’t see it from here because of the big-ass mountain in the way. So I head off in that direction.

It’s a largely uneventful climb. Lots of snow, a few more skeleton attacks in the final hours of night. Not much in the way of animals, and even bokoblins must not like the cold much. As I get higher and closer to the mountain, I actually see what looks like an off-color bokoblin. His skin isn’t red, it’s black? Black-ish (which is a pretty good show actually). He’s asleep when I approach, but he wakes up with dawn before I’m close enough to get a sneak attack in.

You call it cheesing, I call it being conservative with ammo.

First thing I notice is that he’s stronger than other bokoblins – he can take a lot more hits than any of his red cousins. The second thing I notice is that when you knock these guys off a ledge, they aren’t very smart about getting back up to you. I finish him off with remote bombs, not wanting to waste the arrows trying to pick him off from up here. The chest he was asleep next to contained an Amber. Onward!

Mount Hylia

That is indeed a big ass mountain. I wander around the base for a little, inspecting the snow covered rampart walls, and picking up the occasional blue mushroom for some future cooking. I start climbing the peak, and as I get close to the top I can see a second path around the mountain, that must start from the base on the opposite side.

You’re not even pretending to be cold.
I hate you. You’re not my real dad

I also see a certain white bearded motherfucker who has no reasonable explanation for being up at the highest point of the plateau, possible the world.

I give up.

I can see the final shrine from here, fairly close. There’s also a strange rock formation that gives me another Amber when searched.

I climb back down, taking the other path and ending up on the other side of the mountain. Still largely empty, the only animals I see is the occasional flock of birds flying overhead. It’s pretty peaceful when monsters aren’t bursting from the ground to kill you. On the south side of the mountain I see a ring of stones, with one missing.

Korok puzzle.

Not far from the stone ring is a lone rock I can pick up – none of the stones in the ring are able to be lifted. I carry it back over to the gap and place it down in the space, which triggers the Korok trumpet. In a poof, the little leaf guy is there to give me another seed. How are you not cold?

There’s still a lot of mountain to explore, but large swaths of it are just...empty. I head towards the last shrine in the distance, sitting atop a small rocky hill. I can also make out a small bokoblin camp about halfway up the path to it. I’m not really seeing a back way up, so this may get messy.

WHERE DID YOU GET BOULDERS FROM?!

As I climb up the hill, I’m ambushed with a series of boulders being sent down over the cliffs edge. I run to the cliffside and start climbing up, letting all the boulders pass by me. I continue to climb the cliffside to bypass the bokoblins entirely, the Shrine name flashing on my screen once I am close enough. Before I enter, I use my bombs to cheese the bokoblins. Fuck them for pushing those boulders, even if it was a scripted event.

Ain’t got time for that nonsense.

---

Heart Containers: 3
Koroks Found: 7
Shrines Completed: 3
Timelord Status: Achieved
Mountain: Climbed

Killing Snow 'Koblins and Finally Finding Owa Daim Shrine - Screenshot Roundup 14

Koroks, Magnesis, & Bottomless Bogs - Screenshot Roundup 13

Shrine Hunting in the Snow

Back at the campsite, I eat one of the meals I made to regain my last health, and plop down next to the fire until morning. That was intense. And terrifying. You see, I’m extremely jumpy in real life. I’ve been scared by my own roommates just walking into a room. As a result, I am terrible at survival horror games, and can frequently be heard shrieking when enemies suddenly pop-up in FPS games. Sometimes during very action-heavy moments, I just freak out and manage to hit ALL the wrong buttons. I’ll have to record me playing Silent Hill or something one day. People would pay for this shit.

After some rest (and beer), time to get moving again. We’re just…gonna ignore the rest of the forest for now, until I feel more confident about fighting the Talus. Another heart container or two and some stronger weapons are needed at least, wouldn’t say no to more armor either. In the meantime, I supposed it’s time to head back to the mountains with my warm doublet equipped. I pull up the map, and use a stamp to mark the clearing with the Stone Talus. Not letting that happen again.

You're not even trying.

I’m actually pretty close to the first shrine again actually, it’s just to the northeast. Brief pitstop first! I follow the winding paths through the forest until I’m dumped back out on the northern plains. I’m immediately drawn to a strange boulder formation with a single rock underneath to pick up. I know what happens next! I say hi to the Korok and collect my seed.

Between my current location and the shrine is a marsh the loading screens refer to as a Bottomless Bog, which functions a lot like water does in early Zelda games before you get the flippers, spitting you back out on the shoreline when you fall in, one heart weaker. In the middle of this bog is a raised platform with two wooden chests. Since they’re wood, my Magnesis does nothing - to the chests at least. When I trigger the rune, I see something along the southern edge of the bog in the water, glowing red.

Okay you're trying a little.

Moving closer, I’m able to grab it with the rune and lift it out of the water. It’s…a metal boulder, attached by a chain to a hollowed out tree. Hrmm. There’s a hole in the tree’s trunk that looks big enough to fit the boulder… After some finagling and a few muttered curse words, I manage to get it in the hole. Another Korok! Okay, at least they’re not all just gonna be “here’s a rock or pinwheel have a seed,” there are a couple actual puzzles. Nifty.

Still don’t know how to get to the chests though. I run around a little more, eyeing the landscape for anything that might help. I approach Oman Au Shrine again, surrounded with its clear, non-murky water. There’s a chest at the bottom I forgot all about when I finished the shrine. Two actually! I switch on my Magnesis and fish them out. One contains Amber, and the other an Opal. The chest with the opal had a long metal bar along the top of it, holding it down… Idea time!

Is this Jenga?

I grab the metal bar with my rune and carry it back over to the bog. It takes an annoyingly long time – long enough that I’m starting to think this may not be the actual solution – but I eventually get the bar placed just right, so it acts as a ramp for me to get from the shore to the platform safely. My rewards are Ice and Fire Arrows, 5 each.

Carefully crossing the bog again, I run around the area to make sure I haven’t missed anything else. I pick up a few herbs to cook with and a bug or two, but don’t find anything else of value. I think this area has been pretty thoroughly explored now, so do I move on to the mountains, or keep on backtracking?

I’m going mountain climbing. Which has nothing to do with me not wanting to deal with those laser-equipped terrors or rock monsters hiding in forests. It’s just obviously much smarter to wait to go back there after I’ve finished gathering more runes, weapons, and heart containers. So, I head off back to the path behind the Temple of Time.

---

I pass under the archway and head into a wintery wonderland. I mean the only building I see is completely destroyed, and there USED to be a bridge for a dock here, and the river is labeled “River of the Dead,” but still. Winter wonderland.

...A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking...

I inspect the building, which seems like it was some sort of cabin. What’s left of the wooden walls does little to protect from the cold, though I do find a Korok Leaf. It’s completely useless as a weapon, but by swinging it around I can fire off a blast of air. Probably come in handy later. There’s also an axe partially sticking out of a tree, but my inventory is full and it’s pretty weak compared to some of my other stuff, so I leave it. There is a river in front of my – the aforementioned River of the Dead. It goes north, to my right, with a path following alongside it. However my shrine is to the southeast of my current location, so I’ll be heading the opposite way for now.

The boulders kept missing.

There’s a number of bokoblins here, mostly split into groups of 2 or 3, with the occasional loner. I’m not sure how ANY of them can stand the weather, considering they are wearing literally nothing but a loincloth. I couldn’t even walk through here without being bundled up. Maybe they’re cold blooded. In any case, I fight my way up the snowy slopes, dropping the occasional boulder onto an unsuspecting group of ‘blins, and making sure everyone else gets a Remote Bomb to the face. Or skeleton arm, whatever. Along the way, I find a couple of chests with arrows in them.

At the top I find…nothing. On the map it looks like I may have actually passed it, but I didn’t see any pathways or obvious locations to climb up. They really don’t want me to find this place.

*screaming internally*

Time to pull a dad move and refuse to ask for directions. I use my map to navigate me towards the shrine. And I see it! Below me this time, probably enough of a drop to kill me. *sigh*

I see a series of cliff-tops I can take to get down to the shrine. I still don’t see a clear path so maybe this was the plan all along? In any case, I make it to the shrine, unlock it, and enter.

That hang glider better be pretty sweet, Old Man.

---

Heart Containers: 3
Koroks Found: 6
Shrines Completed: 2
Annoyingly Hidden Shrine: Found
Directions Asked For: Never

Blowing Up Bokoblins & Running from Fock Monsters - Screenshot Roundup 12

Hunting, Cooking, and Koroks in the Forest of Spirits - Screenshot Roundup 11

Forest of Shenanigans and Pants Shitting

Sidenote: For a brief second here I used my Wolf Link Amiibo, because I am a sucker for any game that let’s you have a dog as a party member/team-mate. Fallout, Persona 3, EarthBound – just gimme a puppy. However, he immediately ran off and started slaughtering everything in sight, killing bokoblins in a single hit. So, I reloaded without summoning him, as I didn’t want the game to start off too simple. Totally summoning him later though.

Big Buck Hunter Hyrule

Forest of Spirits

I head towards the smokestack sitting just outside some small ruins in the middle of the forest, with a fire and another cooking pot. Not far away is the Old Man, scouting some boars for hunting. He asks that I crouch so as to remain silent and not scare away his prey. After watching him fire a few arrows and hit nothing, I notch one of my own and attempt to take down a boar. It takes a couple of hits, but I manage it – and look, it dropped the very generic sounding “Raw Meat” that I needed!

Let’s make this seafood fry, eh? I walk back over to the fire and cooking pot, and use a nearby Torch to light it. I grab the fish, the red pepper, and the meat from my inventory and throw them in the pot. I like the little cooking jingle that plays every time. I like that I cooked the right thing even more: the Spicy Meat and Seafood Fry. Woo!

Before I collect my reward from the Old Man, I decide to give cooking a couple of other things a shot. I go ahead mix up another Fruit and Mushroom Mix. Then I get a little curious – you’re not supposed to combine something inedible with food, but it can’t hurt to see what happens. I grab an Apple and a Bokoblin Horn and throw them in. The cooking music is…less than cheerful, and the game won’t even show me what I ended up making – just some censored monstrosity.

Worth it.

No living being could maintain a beard like that in the wild.

It’s gotten late, and the Old Man has left his hunting spot to come back to the campfire. I talk to him, and show him the dish. He happily hands over the Warm Doublet right there, doesn’t even take the food from me. Probably because he can’t eat it because he is definitely a ghost.

Now, I could head back to the mountains and continue my shrine hunting…but there’s a lot of forest to explore, and I’m already here… After finding the first Korok, it couldn’t hurt for me to spend a little more time exploring the area, and even re-examine some of the places I’ve already been for what I might have missed.

I use the campfire to wait until morning again – skeletons are still annoying and eat through weapons way more then they should – and then I explore the forest around the campsite. I climb a few trees and find some Bird Eggs. I find more boars and gather some more meat. I also kill a squirrel and a couple birds, leaving behind acorns and Raw Bird Thigh for cooking. Just for reference, that means we have fish, poultry, and “meat.”

I find a tree with roots large enough for me to walk under, with a mound of leaves underneath. Hmmm. The leaves look out of place, like they aren’t just a part of the environment. The game has been pretty straight forward with some of the physics stuff, so I run back over to the fire and drop one of my more well-used weapons to pick up a torch, which I then light and walk back over to the leaves. Not long after and the leaves all burn away, leaving only a rock. When picked up, another (less chatty) Korok, and another seed to give to this Hestu fellow.

It's like if leaves were a Scooby Doo villain.

Back near the campsite, I see a weird rock formation begging to be climbed. At the top is another rock, which when lifted…Korok!

…Fuck there’s like hundreds of them, aren’t there? My completionist ass won’t be happy until I find them all. *sigh* Yay?

The paths wind through the trees up hills and through valleys. Deeper in, I come across giant trees, or at least what’s left of them. Some have been hollowed out, creating a tunnel in the middle of the forest. There’s a…pinwheel in the middle? I approach, and touching it triggers a chime and causes the pinwheel to teleport further away in a poof. I repeat this two more times until…Korok! No rock lifting required.

North of the giant tree’s I see a bokoblin camp in a small clearing. I haven’t really weaponized my Remote Bomb’s just yet, and I’d since I basically have an infinite amount, let’s see what they can do. I climb to a decent vantage point atop the giant trees. Three bokoblins, one on a tower and the other two paired together on the ground. I sneak over towards them and back up another tree. My first attempt misses the mark a little, but it doesn’t end up mattering - upon noticing the bomb, they both rush over to inspect.

Dance, puppets, dance.

Boom goes the dynamite, or however these magic glowing things work. They fall for it a second time as well. After that, I just take aim at my remaining foe – who by this time has noticed me – and watch as the chest switches to that pleasant golden color I’ve come to love. I net a nice Opal.

I’m somewhat close to the northern edge of the forest, so I turn around and explore in the other direction. As I near the forest’s southern border, I see the cliff that was the path I took down when I first awoke. I also see a pile of bombable rocks, with a chest containing Amber beneath the rubble. Lots of precious stones but still not a single rupee. There’s a joke about millennials hating diamonds in their somewhere but I’m too lazy to write it.

Then I see something kind of weird...off in the distance, a glowing green light. I can place a pin on it, obviously, but the mountain it’s coming from is off-plateau, so out of bounds for me for now. I change the marker to a stamp - I’ll have to check that out later.

I love shit like this.

A little further northwest I spot a clearing, unlabeled on the map. There’s a decent amount of resources around it – I gather up mushrooms, apples, even some honey. Nothing too fancy but, pleasant. As I continue to gather items, the ground starts to shake. And then a giant boulder in the middle of the clearing, near where I am standing, starts moving. And then the music changes.

What the fuck is happening?

A BIG ASS FUCKING ROCK MONSTER IS WHAT

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

Of course, my immediate response is to immediately start running around like a spaz. My fingers having completely forgotten the button layout, Link start whistling and then crouching while running into a wall.

HELLO GAME COULD YOU PLEASE STOP
DOING THIS TO ME THANKS

That’s a mood.

According to the Boss health meter at the top of my screen, this thing is a Stone Talus. The location is also noted. It looks like a large boulder with several smaller boulders acting as its arms and legs. Arms which it is currently firing at me in rapid succession. There’s a smaller black rock on it’s back, maybe a weak spot, but I’m not exactly going to get closer to check.

I am in no shape to try and fight this thing. So I run, back towards the Old Man and presumably safety, all the while dodging giant boulders being flung at me by a VERY angry rock monster. Eventually the music calms, the health meter vanishes, and I’m safe again.

---

Heart Containers: 3
Koroks Found: 4
Shrines Completed: 2
Warm Doublet’s Earned: 1
Rock Monsters Awoken: 1
Boulders to the Head: 1

Bokoblin Slaughter & Korok Diving - Screenshot Roundup 10

The Woodcutter's House & Sneaking Into a Bokoblin Camp - Screenshot Roundup 9

The Birds and the Bees and the Fish and the Plants

I nurse on my beer and reflect on the choices I made that led me here. Probably drinking beers in the middle of the day on a Sunday.

The next shrine is due south from the abbey. I cross a large open field to get there, finding some bugs and lizards along the way. For the hell of it, I try to shoot a squirrel and am rewarded with an acorn. Not sure that makes sense but okay.

As I get further south, I spot a couple of bokoblins around a campfire. I also notice a beehive in a nearby tree. I remember seeing in some of the trailers that beehives were something you could use to distract your enemy, so I notch an arrow and knock it from the tree. The bees come out with a fury and the bokoblins immediately lose their shit. Literally running away from the campfire without their weapons or a shield. While the bees get in a few licks, I run up and finish them both off. I take their weapons and some Courser Bee Honey as a reward.

Beeeeeeeeeees!
*Oprah hands*

While I’m here, I run over to a nearby wall to do some exploring (something I should really be doing more of) and find a chest with some Bomb Arrows! I guess special arrows aren’t that uncommon this time around. I turn back towards the shrine and I see a cabin. Not sure how I missed that. It’s on the way, so I decide to check it out.

Woodcutter's House

I find some green, stamina healing mushrooms, Stamella Shrooms, around the outskirts. As I get to the front, I see the Old Man not too far away, chopping down a tree. He gives me some lumberjack tips - apparently, it’s all in the hips. That's what she said? I think he’s hitting on me. And also want’s me to cut down a few trees for him. I mean, I was headed that way anyways but sure.

Actually, I feel like I should be much closer to the shrine by now. I open my map to take a look, and it should be right in front of me.

And it is. Kinda. I have to actually move back towards the cabin a bit, so I can look up through my scope. Waaaaaay up. Forgot that the other two were both up pretty high, in the mountains. I don’t see an easy way up there either. There’s a chasm I can cross with a tree, I guess, but I’m not seeing much in the way of climbing up. Stamina has its limits. I pull out the Woodcutter’s Axe the Old Man lent me earlier and find me a nice tree. I position myself as instructed (*cough*), and swing the axe. After a few chops, it comes down neatly on the other side. I cross, but all I find on the other side are a couple bokoblins, a tree full of apples, and a chest with some more fire arrows. Boo.

I head back towards the cabin and talk to the Old Man. He gives me a few tips on cooking, and invites me to use his fire and cooking pot to practice. This is supposed to be a pretty big part of the game, so why not. I don’t exactly have a lot, but I grab a few apples and mushroom from my inventory and throw them in, making a Fruit and Mushroom Mix, a nice vegetarian dish I would never, ever eat if given the option in real life. Also, turns out that “critters” + monster parts = elixirs.

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.

I check the inside the cabin and find a journal belonging to the Old Man. He really seems to like cooking. And also is very forgetful. His favorite dish is spicy meat and seafood fry, but he can’t remember how to make it. Specifically, he knows there’s meat, a spicy pepper, but not what else.

It’s fish dude. It’s fish. Seafood is in the damn title. Come on.

He’ll also give his warm doublet to the person who helps him remember the recipe, so I make a mental note to return once I have all the required ingredients. I find some Spicy Peppers on the table, so that’s one down. Not sure what it does exactly but I bed that warm doublet is probably gonna come in handy.

I explore the outside of the cabin a bit. There’s some weak weapons and a pot lid for a shield, and also a giant wooden barrel that I can hide under Solid Snake style when I stop moving. Heh. I spot a bokoblin camp nearby. Might as well kill a few things while I’m here.

---

A few moments later, I’m slowly inching my way towards the bokoblins underneath a barrel, waiting for the lookout to turn around and moving forward. I am 100% sure this is taking more time than I need to, but who cares – this is fun. I wonder if all these dummies are like this, or if the AI will get smarter as the game gets harder.

*hums the mission impossible theme*

Once I’m close enough, I ditch the disguise and start the slaughter. They don’t last long. I finish off the last of them – the lookout - with a nice headshot from one of their own bows. I gather up my treasure (a Throwing Spear), including a chest that’s hidden behind some wooden walls (5 Bomb Arrows), and head back north to try and find another path to the shrine. As I make my way north, I see a way up towards the Temple of Time, and then a path further west, into the mountains. That’s probably how I can get to the next shrine. As I walk up the path, I kill a few keese and stalkoblins that have spawned in the night.

I can see the telltale white of snow on the ground as I run through the archway, and a warning flashes on my screen. It’s too cold. Poor Link is freezing. I run back before I start to take damage. Fuck. Clearly I need to find some way of surviving the cold long enough to get through the snow. If only there were someone who had a piece of clothing that probably specifically does that very thing.

I look back at the snow one more time, and then I notice something...odd. A column of light. I try to drop a pin on it, but it doesn’t seem to be solid. I try and mark it on my map, placing it somewhere west of the last Shrine.

What is that?

So, looks like I’ve got another sidequest, making that spicy meat and seafood fry. I already have spicy peppers - on top of the two I found in the cabin, there are bushes of them right outside the entrance to the snowy area. So, I need Meat, and a Hyrule Bass. I’m assuming anything that isn’t fish is gonna count as “meat.” Haven’t seen much yet though.

I pop open the map - there’s a lake just north of here. It’s the lake I passed as I left the Shrine of Resurrection, just behind the Old Man’s cave. Lakes have fish, right?

There’s another small bokoblin camp, this time with everyone fast asleep. I use the lack of a lookout to my advantage, and sneak up and finish all of them off before they can even wake up. I’ll have to remember to take advantage of that. There’s nothing too fancy, lots of ingredients though. More peppers, a decent amount of mushrooms, and some Sunset Fireflies I might be able to make some stealth potions with. I go ahead and use the campfire to wait until morning. Avoid the skeletons while I can.

---

Come morning, I take a look at the lake below. There’s an island in the middle with a s word sticking out of a rock. New weapon! There’s also a weird ring of lilypads right below a cliff. Looks like I’m learning how to dive. I circle around the edge of the lake, back to the path I took when I woke. I climb the small hill overlooking the ring of lilypads. I can see fish jumping in the water, the reason I came here. I really hope Link can swim…

Getting tired of shit like this jumping out at me. Even when it's cute.

I gracefully swan dive into the lake - way to go Link. Almost immediately, I hear a high-pitched squeal, before a Korok pops up, floating in the air from a spinning leaf. The hell. He seems surprised that I can see him, and assumed I was someone named Hestu. He gives me a seed to give to him if I find him. I wonder how many of these little guys there are - I may need to do some backtracking to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

After our chat, I swim towards the center of the lake and pull myself up. Womp-womp, it’s just a Rusty Broadsword. I swap it out for one of my weaker weapons - I don’t think I’m gonna have any trouble finding more if I’m already full.

On the edge of the lake, I see what looks like bombable rocks again. I dive back in and swim over, planting a square one, and revealing a small cave with a chest containing some Opal. this is neither a critter, monster part, nor food, so I’m not sure what it does, but it goes to the same inventory slot. Guess I’ll find out later.

I turn back towards the lake and try and spot some fish. Doesn’t much matter, because everytime I get close enough, they swim away. It takes me a few minutes, but I eventually manage to corner a couple of fish - Hyrule Bass - and nab them. Okay, maybe it took me more than a few minutes. You can’t really be stealthy and swim at the same time. I hope these are the right kind of fish, because they seem to be the only kind I see floating around other than the a couple of frogs.

...Hopefully they're friendly?

That just leaves the meat. I swim towards the shore near the temple and pull myself out. I look at the map again. The entire southwestern part of the map seems to be taken up by Mount Hylia, which is the area that was too cold for me to enter. There’s the Forest of Spirits to the north, hopefully I can find some meaty-type things in there.

As I walk out of the temple ruins and towards the forest, I see a smokestack in the distance - someone else must be in the forest.

I hope they have meat.

---

Heart Containers: 3
Rupees: Still 0
Koroks Found: 1
Shrines Completed: 2
Meals Cooked: 1
Balls Frozen: 2