"If I bricked it it wouldn't be able to reawaken. But you're right that I'd have to be extra careful the ownership was changed before I turned it on. I can also do the turning-on part remotely, which would help."

Impa seems conflicted. "You truly think you can do this? There is something that may help you, but I hesitate to tell you about it yet. I have to think on this. Paya!"

A youngish teenaged girl squeaks in surprise in a back room and nervously walks up front. "Y-Yes, grandmother?"

"Paya, this is Naomi. This visitor is our honored guest for now. Please go introduce her to Trissa and get some food for her belly. Perhaps she would like Steen to teach her spearfighting. Naomi, you can come back tomorrow morning. I will have decided. Do you have enough money for the inn?"

"I think so? One of the shopkeepers said I'd have enough money if I sold these flowers.

And wow. Thank you."

Impa nods. It almost looks like a bow with that giant hat. "Good. You should try to find some way to earn your keep - foraging is one such way. Have a good evening, young lady."

"Uh, if you'd like to, follow me?" Stammers out Paya.

"Yeah!" Naomi can definitely get behind free food and spearfighting lessons. Not that she expects to be very good at those. "Yeah. Paya, is it, I'm Naomi, I don't know if you caught my name."

"Y-Yeah, I'm Paya. Well, follow me?"

They go out of the house. That spear-armed guard nods politely at Paya and glances at Naomi. "Lady Impa says she is our honored guest, f-for now."

"I see. Well, you can have your stuff back. Please don't shoot at anything in the village."

"I won't, don't worry." She collects her stuff, which has been sitting on a pile in front of the guards feet -- hmmm -- exactly as she left it, according to a picture from her eye-camera. How polite of them.

"So! Where to now?"

"The, uh, general store. Trissa's store. I'll tell her that- That Lady Impa asked me to feed you. She'll give me something to cook with."

Paya is really quite nervous, isn't she?

"Are you okay?"

"I don't... Talk well. And- And- You're an important guest and everything. I'm sorry I'm nervous!"

"It's okay. I'm a bit nervous too, honestly."

"Oh. Okay. Well anyway, here's Trissa's store." Paya walks in. Trissa is a portly middle-aged woman. "Good afternoon, T-Trissa."

"Good afternoon, Paya. Who's this?"

"Ah, Lady Impa's guest. Naomi. I was told to get some food for her..."

"Of course, of course. Free of charge for Lady Impa's guest," she sounds the tiniest bit sarcastic as she says this. "Perhaps a few eggs and some carrots, those are going spare. Nice to meet you, Naomi."

The shop's items are mostly food, but there are a few stranger things... One of the displays contains what look like claws and teeth, as well as gruesome-looking purplish masses that occasionally twitch.

Naomi's not used to eating anything fresh. She's been eating manufactured, largely soy-based food with artificial flavors since she was in diapers. She frowns at the shopkeep's admission that she'll get bad eggs, but she has no clue how to judge them, and anyway some food is better than the no food she'd get trying to make it in the wilderness.

"Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate it. Do you happen to know where I could sell these flowers? I need the cash to stay at the inn."

"I'll buy all those off you. Decent for elixirs. Let's say, forty rupees for the lot."

Paya timidly asks, "P-Perhaps some butter or rice as well?"

"Ah, not so much of a surplus of that. You'll have to actually buy it. Sorry, Paya."

"Hey Paya, forty rupees is enough for a night in the inn, right? And it's fine if we don't have butter or rice." She does note the prices of everything though, where they're displayed.

Paya hesitates. The shopkeeper answers, "It's twenty rupees a night, dear. So forty's plenty."

Prices vary. The claws-and-things, monster parts, are the most expensive, thirty and above. Most of the food items are in the five-to-fifteen rupee range.

"Oh, perfect!" She pays for ten rupees worth of additional food items, letting Paya pick because she has no clue how to cook.

An exchange is made. Paya picks rice. Then she heads outside to where there is a little fire and cooking pot and borrows a bowl nearby. The eggs are cracked into the pot and start sizzling - she puts the rice in the bowl and carefully places it above the fire. Then chops up the carrots and lays them on the hot pan as well. By then, the eggs are ready to be mixed up and around.

Cooking is some kind of relief from - interacting with people - her hands are steady and her expression focused, but as soon as she stops that nervous posture and demeanor comes right back. "We have to wait a few minutes for the rice to finish. D- Do you have any questions about Kakariko Village?"

Naomi watches and records the process carefully. She can't rely on the matrix to teach her anything she would want to know anymore.

"Are people generally happy here? Do they feel safe?"

"Uh- Yeah. Mostly. If monsters or the Yiga Clan ever come, the guards are ready fight them away. Uh, they got a Bokoblin a couple weeks ago and it was a piece of cake apparently. And, there's a journal anyone can write in, called the Book of Various Worries, and- and only about ten pages are filled in for this year's even though it's already autumn."

"Oh, people all write! That's great!"

"...Why wouldn't people write? It's much better than trying to, to remember everything important."

"In some places in my world's history not everyone knew how to write. I don't know much about what kinds of priorities societies in this world have, and it's good to know that they value writing."

"It'd be weird not to have everyone know how to read. I mean... I mean I guess you don't need to read to farm? But it'd be weird."

"It would be weird for me too, honestly."