Spin, spin, the clock at the center of the world continues to spin, a wheel spinning out new hours, six, then six, then twelve again and dawn rises as it always does.
No one from the world disturbs its little basement. It's a calm place, filled with gears and water wheels, a little bit outside time, as this is where time is spun.
No one from the world comes here, but it's not currently unoccupied.
"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
"I haven't any fate. Don't you think that's a poor way to introduce oneself?"
"You haven't been cursed?"
He has a perpetual, fixed grin. Pointy ears, a backpack festooned with masks... the narration really wants you to call him the Happy Mask Salesman, for some reason.
"I was expecting someone cursed to pass this way. And you're as good as transformed into a spider, aren't you?"
That's a ridiculous moniker, and the narration should know its place.
"I was born a spider, so to speak, and I don't feel that it's a curse."
She glances around; performatively, there isn't anything to learn she doesn't already know.
"Not many are going to pass this way, are they?"
"I expect just you and I. Oh, but what am I to do, if you don't have a curse to lift?"
He grins solicitously.
"Won't you hear me out?"
"It would be my pleasure, if you can contain your prejudice against spiders. Perhaps I'll break the mold and you'll see us in a new light? And I have no doubt your words will be a great help in getting myself oriented."
He pantomimes some sort of... exuberant grinning dance of joy.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! I'm in a predicament, you see. I'm the Grinning Mask Salesweirdo, a merchant who trades in masks!"
"Oh, forgive me. If you've decided to introduce yourself properly after all, I can hardly object to your choice of name, can I? Please go on."
"No, no, the fault is mine. Ahem."
"I'm the Happy Mask Salesman, a merchant who trades in masks! Not long ago, I went to considerable lengths to acquire a very rare, very valuable mask. But, oh, misfortune fell upon me! I was waylaid by an imp, and robbed of this precious mask."
"I suppose if I step outside, I can gainfully track down your thief and recover your stolen goods, then? I'm pleased to have such clear direction at the outset."
"As you count gain, spider, perhaps. I was to offer the breaking of a curse as incentive; now I can only prevail upon your better nature."
Grin (not that he was ever not grinning). "Or your curiosity?"
"But the matter has some urgency! You see, I am always travelling, and I must depart this place in three days."
"I shan't ask if your ominous emphasis relates to how you're to be found hiding outside of time."
"Time is not eternal, after all. Please value your time."
"Dearly. I'll take my leave, then."
She pushes open the door. As is her habit in an unfamiliar place, she invisibly weaves a strand of brightest shadow as she goes, to mark her path.
(It may be a door from outside the world to in, but she's climbed a strand of web across the void beyond voids itself. She hasn't met the metaphysics that can break her thread, and doesn't ever expect to.)
That's quite charming, actually!
What does this dawn look like?
– First Day
– 06:01
It sounds like something before it looks like something: hammering and sawing, and of course the clockwork running behind her, ticking out the seconds. Shouting, from the carpenters swarming the square, hard at work on their tower.
This is a walled town; not that large, estimating from the curve of the wall to the south. Assuming it's circular, but how could it be anything but?
Radial is the best sort of symmetry! This place seems pleasant and orderly.
Additionally, a blue haired boy wearing a yellow fox mask is walking into the square.
Standing out is dangerous; it might get you talked to.
She realizes around now she doesn't particularly have a description of this "rare, valuable" mask, or the "imp" accused of stealing it. Not that this boy or his mask particularly seem to fit; he's a child wearing what looks like a simple toy for children. But would she know if it did?
Hurrying across the square, dodging carpenters.
"Pardon me."
She's ignored. The boy drops something in the mailbox, then runs off back where he came from.
Some children prefer not to talk to strangers, as ever.
Might she want to follow up on this? Or is she just tempted to stalk some poor boy out of sheer nosiness? Well, web is free. She pursues in shadow.
– First Day
– 06:04
He ran off to a little back alley. It's not very shadowed, but he's not paying much attention, hurrying back very urgently.
There's a sort of artificial pond built back here, clear and fed by a waterway, sedately filling and draining with the passage of time. Some flowers grow nearby, a lone frog relaxes improbably nearby.
The boy is crossing a bridge; there's a door on the other side, which is the only place he can be going, unless this town reveals some very well-hidden secret doors in its walls.
She doesn't need to mark the lad himself. But his probably-unrelated mask is now webbed, in case children's toys become unexpectedly relevant.
He's just headed inside, where he'll stay put.
However, a tiny floating sprite hovering above the water has taken notice.
"Your Majesty?" she(?) says timidly. "Please hear my plea?"
Majesty? She's probably sending the wrong kind of signals.
"Don't worry, child," she replies. "I don't feed on your kind. You may call me 'lady', if you'd like. What is your plea?"
"My lady, the masked Skull Kid has broken me apart and scattered my pieces," the sprite explains, still timidly. "Please, would you carry me to the fairy fountain in North Clock Town and reunite me with my sisters?"
Despite the request, she's still fluttering at a nervous distance.
Masked? How fortuitous!
"Of course, little one. Though perhaps you'd prefer to follow at a distance? I promise you're safe with me, but I don't take offense if you're frightened."
"No, I'd just get lost," she says sadly. "I'm used to being so much bigger, but I'm just a tiny part of me now. And I've never met a spider your size who wasn't cursed before! I'll go with you."
She flies forward bravely, and perches on a part of the spider's larger body, outside the ordinary space of the world. A mortal wouldn't notice, except for feeling a bit more lighthearted.
"Perhaps when you're back home, you can tell me all about these cursed spiders," she replies.
North Clock Town is no doubt to the north. Fortunately, this is the sort of world with an Inherently North Direction rather than a messy magnetosphere and social convention, making the direction obvious. She heads back out of the little alleyway.
(The compass is aligned with the clock tower, of course. This is an orderly, aesthetically pleasing little world, radially symmetrical about the clock tower, endowed with an inherent polar coordinate system. A spider finds this sort of thing charming.)
– First Day
– 06:11
But it's along her way, glancing up at the clock tower spinning out the hours, that she sees it.
That's not a moon; not exactly. It's neither a satellite at a great distance, nor a luminescent deity driving a chariot, nor any of the other typical things a moon is. Perhaps it once served the function of this place's moon and has been subverted; perhaps it's a fellow interloper from elsewhere.
It's a very large rock, easily larger than Clock Town even if not properly planetary in size, and it has a face, a face twisted into a terrible, pained grimace, and it's hard to look at beyond that. Something's wrong with it, beyond the ghastly expression on its face.
It's not a moon, because—
I descend.
—because it's descending.
Moons travel across the sky.
Perhaps the mask salesman buried the lede, here.
She wants a better look at it, if possible. That isn't the face of a moon that's happy to be falling from the sky, she thinks. It genuinely is difficult to look at, though it's hard to nail down why that is; it's not repulsive (more fascinating, in fact), and it resolves perfectly well visually.
However, she has an errand to the north! Tearing her eyes away, she circumnavigates the clock tower; there's an internal gate north of it, up a little ramp.
– First Day
– 06:17
Snap, snap, snap.
It's like a little park, perhaps. It has trees, and grass, and something that might be a slide for children, and the snapping noise of a little boy firing woefully ineffective projectiles at a balloon. It has the city's north gate to the north, manned by a sentry.
No fairies or fountains?
"Pardon me," she says to the small boy. "Do you know the way to the fairy fountain?"
"Hey, I'm playing here!" he replies indignantly. "Whoa, miss, you have a scary voice! Are you a Gerudo pirate?"
"Thank you," she replies. "No, I'm not a pirate. Stealing is awfully rude, isn't it? And it can make people much angrier than whatever you stole was worth. I don't think I'd like to be a pirate."
"Pirates steal stuff?" he asks. "I thought they sailed ships? I heard from a Zora that the Gerudo pirates are a bunch of scary women who sail ships around the Great Bay."
"Pirates are scary because they attack other ships to steal from them," she explains. "Sailors and people who live by the sea have to watch out for them. I bet if a Gerudo pirate were in the city right now, she wouldn't be able to walk up and talk to you, because the guard over there would want to arrest her. But just in case, be careful."
"I'll be careful, miss. You asked about the fairy fountain? It's up there. The Great Fairy's not in right now, though."
He points to a passage into the wall to the side, hewn of natural stone which the city must have been built around.
"Thank you for the directions," she replies with a little flourishing non-bow (it uses too many extra spatial dimensions to be one, but it looks elegant in the three usual ones).
"Perhaps you won't know of one, but when my errand at the fairy fountain is done, I'd like to find a wizard, or an astronomer, or anyone who knows about the stars and planets. Is there someone like that you've heard of?"
He looks miffed. "Nice try, miss! You're not getting into our secret clubhouse! No adults allowed!"
"Wait, are you even an adult?"
"I am, yes. Do you mean there's a child in your club who knows about the stars and planets?"
"No, he's the Professor, and he's an old man! He has a big telescope that can see everything in the sky."
"I should very much like to meet him. Don't other adults ever meet with him sometimes?"
"Well, not really... it's just us Bombers. He lets us play with his telescope, too! He's super smart and knows all about everything."
He considers. "I guess... if you really want to meet the Professor that bad... we could make you an honorary member! But you have to pass our trial!"
"I would be honored to be an honorary member," she says with a little smile. "May I hear more about the trial I'd have to pass when I return from my errand at the fairy fountain? It'll only take a short while."
"No problem, miss! I have to get the rest of the Bombers anyway!"
He runs off. His balloon continues to float, undamaged.
He looks like he's having fun! Her feelings about this are more mixed than they ordinarily would be, considering the crisis overhead.
Up a little ramp to the cave, she briskly walks. Time continues to pass.