And Twwiiiiiiins

Outside the shrine, I decide to continue along this side of the river. As I glide down, I see another classic Zelda enemy: an Octorok! They’ve gotten...floatier. Further up the path, I see a bokoblin encampment, and before that, another cliffside path. This one looks like it extends to the end of the mountain, so I go ahead and climb on up. The gathered bokoblins are all seated right next to a number of explosive barrels. It would be silly not to take advantage. I toss down a Remote Bomb and before they have a chance to react, boom. All except one are gone, one of the darker, heartier fellas. I leap down and finish him off quickly and open the unlocked chest to gain a Boomerang! Hey, I forgot about these things. Cool.

JUSTICE RAINS FROM ABOVE!

I climb back up the cliff to finish my journey. I notice an abundance of these black sparkling rocks. Like an red blooded American, I did the most sensible thing to figure out what it was: I tried to blow it up. Amber! And a Ruby! Holy crap! Turns out it's an Ore Deposit. I quickly blow up a couple more, netting a few more precious stones. Fuck it, if it's going to be that easy to find these things I might as well sell a few and not have to worry about money for a bit. Cha-ching.

Eventually, my pockets are full and I’m on the other side of the mountain(s). The scene ahead of me is gorgeous. There’s a large open green field with a forest alongside the river. A building of sorts with a large wooden statue of…I’m not sure what it is, but some kind of creature, sits alongside the road, across a bridge. Just down the cliff, I can see a shrine surrounded by shallow water next to a waterfall.

Still very much in love with this game. I float towards the structure.

Dueling Peaks Stable

OOOHHHHH! It’s a horse head! That makes sense. I wonder how they got that thing up there? Do they have cranes in Hyrule? It’s the morning, and this place seems to be pretty active. I see Mezer walking up the path, I’m happy to see he didn’t suffer anymore Lizafos attacks. There are people milling about, almost like an actual town. I speak with a woman, Sagessa, who sits by the campfire and talks to me about making potions – I need to do that more – and even hands me a Hasty Elixir! She also gives me the recipe, a Hightail Lizard, and monster parts. That’s just how she says it too, so I’m guessing the monster parts don’t really have an effect on the potion, except maybe for how long it will last. Next are a pair of twin boys, Darton and Shibo, who are kinda bratty, but still give me some info on catching a horse.

Oh yeah, apparently you have to catch your own horse.

Second place is just first loser.

I move to the front of the stable and speak with Rensa, one of the proprietors and possibly the twins father. I say possibly because his brother Tasseren is the one manning the counter, and who I will register my horse with once I catch one. Rensa also offers me directions to a few different places from here. There’s another village nearby, Hateno, pretty sure that name is totally new. Talking to him again, he was apparently the second-place winner in the Hyrule Horse-Taming Competition, and he offers me a challenge.

Sure buddy, I’ll kick your ass in just a minute.

Misko, the Great Bandit

I pick up my first sidequest! It’s weird even having formal sidequests like this, but I can dig it. I also appreciate that the quest markers don’t actually give away anything. First another set of brothers (that’s 3 in this one location) are hunting for the hidden treasure of Misko, the Great Bandit. Which is also the title of the quest. There’s a riddle they are trying to solve that reveals the location of a treasure stash. They will only tell it to me after I cough up 100 rupees for the info. Whatever, I can spare the cash.

Why are there so many twins? Is there something in the water?
Wait. Is this just a stupid twin theme because of the mountain?!

I’m gonna find that treasure and then rub it in their fat fucking faces.

The riddle reads like this: The little twin steps over the little river. My cave rests above that river's source.

I look at my map again just to be sure, because I’m pretty sure I’ve seen names similar to “little twin” near here… Ha! That bridge I just crossed over there is Big Twin Bridge, and just southeast of it is another called the Little Twin Bridge. Seeing as bridges cross over rivers, I just need to follow that one to its source and I’ll have my treasure. There’s still plenty to do here first, though.

WE ARE FRIENDS

I meet a gentleman named Hino, who is watching the sky. He’s also the first person I’ve talked to that ALSO seems concerned about all this “Blood Moon” business. He tells me about the current phase of the moon, and presumably will know whether or not a Blood Moon is coming. We’ll see how useful that is. That seems to be just about everyone heeeOHMYGOD DOG! THERE’S A DOG! I can’t interact with it directly, sadly, but he follows me around and stuff! I JUST WANT TO PET IT.

Can’t pet it. But I can feed it. And so I do. Probably a little too much but who cares DOG. I’ll just have to go hunting. I “play” with the dog a while longer, not exactly clear as to how I can interact with it, but things like feeding it and just staying close to it cause some kind of…affection chime to go off. And once I get enough of those, the dog stops following me, and gets me to follow it.

Where we goin pup?

BEST BOY

He leads me over towards Hino, then the large tree next to the stable. He’s digging at the ground? There’s a mossy green object in the ground he’s pawing at. Is that a chest? I switch to Magnesis and sure enough, that’s a fucking chest stuck in the ground. After I yank it out - rather violently - I open it for a Silver Rupee! Good dog! Can I take you with me?

Ooooo I need to remember to use Wolf Link, free puppers. Will play with any and every dog I come across now. There’s a few random animals and item pick-ups, but that seems to be it for the stable. Until I look up, that is. I see another pinwheel, on the nose of the "horse" above the stable. After some particularly careful climbing, I carefully walk down the nose of the head towards the pinwheel, and a...cloud(?) of leaves. When I get close enough, I can interact with it, and out pops another Korok!

Now, let’s go check out that shrine!

I walk close enough to see the name - Ha Dahamar Shrine – display on the screen, but I also see that it’s surrounded by these…spikes? Spikes that hurt when I touch them, and aren’t affected by my Remote Bombs, or any other runes. The fuck am I supposed to get in there? Bombs don’t work, and the other runes don’t seem interact with them either. I guess the only thing to do is go over them.

Big Twin Bridge

I almost made a huge mistake.

Because I took my cliffside stroll, I skipped crossing over this bridge the first time. On the other side I see a large lookout post that’s calling my name, so I float back across the river to take a look. It’s tall, but at least it has a clearly visible ladder unlike some of my other climbing attempts. And on top there is...a Rusty Broadsword. Thanks. -_-

Without anything else to do up here, I say my prayers to Hylia and jump, aiming for the shrine as I float across the river, just making it over the spikes safely.

Wait, how am I supposed to get out of here?

---

Heart Containers: 4
Shrines Completed: 6
Koroks Found: 15
Rupees: I have a literal stack of ruby’s
Rocks: Exploded
Stable: Discovered
Twins: Everywhere