In the ocean! Apparently! He makes a small splash as his feet and then the rest of him goes under the warm water. He gets a brief image of a cliffy coastline with some trees and maybe some buildings before he's in the water.

He holds his breath when he goes under but that's not enough warning for him to get a good breath first. He surfaces gasping. This is also not really what he expected but at least he's seen an ocean before and knows how to tread water. Just how far is the shore?

Probably a bit far. He can't see the beach anymore with his head this low to the ground. The waves are pretty gentle, at least.

This is really not how he wanted to spend today but clearly he doesn't get much choice. He hopes he didn't get turned around and remembers which direction the beach was when he caught a glimpse of it on the way down. Not that he can probably make it there but he can try. He mutters something to try to catch the attention of anyone scrying and tries to swim beachward.

Swimming takes practice.

A couple of minutes in, a ??? Giant thwilit ??? flies into view and shouts down at him, "Ho! I can't pick you up out of there, I'd just get soaked and be just as stuck! Can you tread water for a while?"

...That's not Hari, or any language he knows. But he understands it just fine.

"I can do that!" He can in fact do that.

An alien. Aliens aren't supposed to exist. Maybe he's dreaming. Maybe he's in a different universe. With different magic. And a new language.

"There's a boat not far from here! I'll get them to come get you!"

And he flies off again.

A few minutes later, a rickety-looking wooden boat with a big sail comes into view. It's proceeding along pretty quick despite there not being much wind.

Probably force magic. He treads water and tries not to end up under the boat or anything.

The boat contains a couple of dark haired dark skinned shirtless human men, and that bird! One of them is using a giant leaf that makes wind to move it along. The other throws a rope out to him and then starts hauling it in.

"You in trouble, sha. Lucky we were in the area, man!"

"Yeah, I bet I am. What do I owe you for the rescue?"

"It's a rescue. That's not how rescues work, sha. I guess you can help us unload the fish when we get back?"

"I wouldn't mind a break," the one who was swinging the leaf says.

"Or you can swing the Deku Leaf for us for a while. How'd you get out here, anyway?"

"I have no idea how I got there, I think someone teleported me. Are you guys some kind of coast guard?"

"Nah, we're just two guys fishing. And a Rito who saw you and went and fetched us. Sea people help sea people, ya know? 'Cos I'd want someone to come get me if I was drowning."

The bird makes a chirping sound. "Speaking of which, gentlemen, no offense but this boat is getting a little crowded. I'm going to fly back to the village now."

"Safe travels, sha." And the bird lifts off.

"I think I'm not from anywhere near here. I've never seen a Rito and I've never heard of a sea person." But if they're some kind of extended family it would sure explain why they would rescue him for free. Maybe now they'll throw him overboard or demand payment.

"Yeah, Rito live way up north most of the time. Kass there is a wandering bard I think. And sea people just means people who live by the sea. But I'm not sure I can help you if you're lost, man."

"I can try to help you unload your fish. Since we're helping each other. I don't know where I'm going after that but unless you know any teleporters it's probably not home."

"Teleporting? That sounds like a real miracle. I guess it's not one if it dumped you here, Goddess Hylia wouldn't do that."

The other guy starts swinging the leaf again with a slight grumble. It creates big gusts that drive the boat.

"I've never heard of Goddess Hylia in my life. You don't think it was a... what's the local word for someone who moves things by magic?"

"Goddess Hylia loves everyone and tries to protect us, but she's not all-powerful, so she helps where she can. Man, I dunno what word we'd give someone who did that job. Hauler, maybe? Magic to move stuff would be pretty complicated, sha."

"Where I'm from all magic is pretty complicated, even if it sounds simple. What kinds do you have here?"

"Well, we got the Deku Leaves, we got elixirs and magic food, we got elemental tools. Those are expensive. There's monsters, there's the old shrines... Sometimes if you sing a song right it can do stuff, but it's pretty subtle stuff... You can make magic clothes. I don't know how."

"I've never heard of any of that. The only magic I know how to do is killing things."

"You mean, like, fighting magic?"

"I don't use it for that, at home I use it to heal sick people - I don't know how it is here but where I'm from most diseases are caused by very tiny parasites."

"I don't know about that. People mostly don't get sick unless they ate something bad."

"Or they're old."

"Or they're old, yeah."

"If it's different here I'll have to get a different job. Do you need anything to die?"

"Monsters." They both say at once.

"They're a menace, attack anyone who comes near, ruin the plants, kill all the fish and wild game. The swimming Lizals are the worst, they lurk near the coast and ambush boats."

"I can probably kill those. Point some out to me if you see them?"

"You don't usually see 'em until they're trying to stab you, sha. We mostly manage to keep the big villages clear of 'em anyway." He shivers.

"Thanks for telling me about them."

"Everybody should know about monsters, man. It's basic survival stuff. We got lots of kinds."

He can tell Mahan about them on the way back to the village.

Well, on the bright side, it's an adventure.

How does unloading fish even work, he's never done that before.

It mostly involves carrying things!

The village is a fairly big place holding maybe a few hundred people, all wooden houses, all dark-skinned humans, lots of piers and boats, lots of fish, some kids running around bracelet-less. That Rito from before is playing music on a strange instrument and singing in a clear area and a bunch of people are listening.

He can carry things. And if the Rito is still playing after that he'll go and listen.

The Rito is still playing! He's singing a song about how the Goddess made the coast like gentle sweeps of the hand, but made the cliffs like sharp chops of the sword. How she made all the people starting from her own image, but changed them to suit their needs and wants. How she struggles against the Dark God Ganon and will always defeat him in the end, even if monsters roam the land for now.

There are monsters that need to die. This is the best place he could possibly have been stranded!

When the song is over he bows with a flourish and puts his instrument away. Everyone claps, and some people toss little colorful crystals into the little bag open at his feet. Presumably money.

He comes over to Mahan after. "I see you made it back safely! I'm glad to see that. My name is Kass. I am a wandering bard - and I wonder if it was Hylia's guidance that I was wandering above you in time to find you, hmm?"

"I wouldn't know. Thank you for telling the sea people about me, is there anything you'd like me to do for you?"

"I have a simple life and few needs - thank you, but I don't need anything in return. Though I am curious, what is your name? And where are you from?"

"I'm Mahan, from Har. It's an entire continent where as far as I know no one has ever heard of this place or Goddess Hylia or your species. What about you?"

"Perhaps the reach of Hylia's mercy is not infinite. Alas - That is sad. She does many great things for us, in her subtle way. I am Kass, of Rito Village. Far north-west of here, at the foot of the Hebra Mountains, thousands of my kind live."

"Thank you. I couldn't even begin to tell you where Har is relative to here - I'm very lost - and it's good to know where anything is."

"This land as a whole is called Hyrule. There was a great kingdom that ruled all of it, before the Calamity. I have wandered it for quite some time, so perhaps I can tell you of it and then give you directions to where you would wish to go."

"I'd like that. How would you like me to pay for it?"

"Hmm, you won't have any rupees. And I'd feel strange asking for money anyway. Perhaps you can sing me a song you know? I will not have heard it before, and expanding my musical knowledge will be good."

The only song Mahan knows well enough to sing for Kass is the lullaby his dad came up with when he was a baby. It's in Hari. And it's not all that long. But he sings it anyway.

Deliberately speaking Hari suppresses the translation effect. "Hmm... That's a very different style. And you are from far away indeed - I could not understand the words. People in Hyrule all speak the same way, aside from the Gerudo, and even they are mostly understandable. I can think of no other explanation than that is it part of Hylia's blessings. How interesting!"

"Yeah, I think that's some kind of ambient magical effect, landing here made me suddenly know your language. I'd never heard it before."

"Well, it would make things very difficult if you could not. Ahem. As to geography... This is the Faron region, the southern coast. The sea is calm and there is good fishing. A little bit inland is dense jungle - off the main paths there are many monsters, unfortunately. North of here is the Necluda region, holding many settlements. The most notable of those are Hateno Town and Kakariko Village. I would not be surprised if someone told me Hateno Town was the largest single group of people in Hyrule, though I do not know it for fact. It's a peaceful and prospering place, the Necluda. I would advise against trying to go directly north, however. The terrain is difficult and strong monsters are common. Sailing around the corner of the coast and north may work, but I recommend following the trails inland and crossing the great bridge over Lake Hylia, then heading through the Dueling Peaks. Bands of soldiers and adventurers try to keep the roads clear most of the time, and the Dueling Peaks pass is an important one, so it's usually safe. The Necluda also holds a sacred mountain, Mount Lanayru."

"North of that is Zora's Domain. It's a beautiful city carved of blue stone in a large lake. The Zora are an aquatic people, excellent at swimming, so they made their home in that region of lakes and swamps. Further north yet are the Akkala and Eldin regions. Gorons live in Eldin, near the volcano, Death Mountain. They can withstand the heat natively, but any other visitors need magic to sustain them. Akkala is difficult terrain, sparsely populated, and rather infested with monsters. Far to the west of here are the Gerudo Highlands, a tall series of mountains, and the Gerudo Desert, where the Gerudo people live. There is only one easy passage through the highlands, and soldiers there earn their living by guiding people through and defending against monsters. There is a thriving trade post a few miles outside of Gerudo Town, but the settlement itself admits only women - and they're very strict about that law."

"In the central region of Hyrule is the dark castle. Do not go there. It is very dangerous. You will probably die if you do. The open plains south of it are also tempting. It's good, fertile, beautiful land... But the dangerous monsters called Guardians roam freely there. Mostly, only adventurers and scavengers go there. Far north-east of here, as I said, is the Tabantha and Hebra regions, where we Rito live. It's cold and mountainous, but I think, beautiful. The stables and trails go as far as Rito Village, but not into the Hebra Mountains. Following the trails and staying at stables will usually be the safest way to go somewhere, if not the quickest - though I confess I'm not sure how long it takes for you ground-bound folk to get places." He ruffles his wings. "Ahem. That was a bit of a speech, wasn't it? Any questions?"

"Will the monsters still be dangerous to me given that I can magically kill any living thing that tries to attack me? Because if not maybe I could help with that."

"If you can kill monsters with a thought, you would surely be pretty safe. I would not advise you to just assume that you can do that, however."

"Are they different from other animals somehow?"

"Yes - monsters have magic in them. They are animated by Ganon's malice. When killed, they turn to dark smoke. And some, like Guardians, don't even look and act like animals."

"Yeah, I might not be able to kill something like that. Thank you for the warning, I owe you one."

He bows. "You should see Rito Village some time. I'll also tell you that monster parts can be sold, and tend to fetch good prices. You can use them to make useful elixirs."

"I have never heard of an elixir but I'm sure I can learn."

"I'm sure you could find a teacher. And you can also just sell the parts, and buy elixirs. I think it's about time I moved on, however - I want to see an interesting bay I heard about. Good luck!"

And with that, Kass flies off without collecting any further payment than that song.

Okay, so he'll have to show up at Rito Village with monster parts or elixirs for Kass at some point.

He looks around for anyone who looks like they know anything about elixirs or monsters. Or anyone who looks like they could use some help with something.

Nobody looks particularly demanding? There's a bunch of people loading or unloading boats. There's some people cooking. There's some people building things. Someone is selling baskets. Someone else is selling cooked food. There's a woman trying to control two rowdy kids through cajoling. The village is big enough you can't see it all from one spot, though admittedly, not much bigger than that.

He picks whichever of the basket and food sellers looks less busy and goes to try asking that one questions.

"Hey, I'm new here and lost, if you happen to know who needs work done around here I'd remember that when I have anything to pay you back with."

"Depends on what kind of work you want, man. I mean, Brilu goes and gets palm leaves for me, but he's freakin' lazy. So, bring me a bunch of palm fronds and I'll pay you for 'em. Some of the fish guys hate dealing with fish guts, so maybe they'd pay you to go dump them in the compost pit for 'em."

"Thanks! Do all the palm trees here belong to you or just some of them?"

"...What? Just go past the village a ways, man, and try not to kill any of 'em by taking too many leaves at once."

"Oh, thanks, I can do that."

...He can probably do that. How many leaves do they need, anyway. Probably better to err on the side of leaving them alone. He heads inland to look for some good trees.

There's a trail up the cliffs at the rear of the village, and beach on either side. The beaches hold occasional palm trees. They seem to have a lot of leaves, at least.

Well, maybe the beaches are a better bet, then. He assumes the ones closest to the village have probably been harvested from already, so he'll keep walking for a while.

He sees a few people for the first few minutes. Lounging in the sun, or carrying a crab trap, or fishing from little rafts. Eventually they get more sparse. The trees out here don't look much different than they did by the village.

...He sees something that might be a monster in the distance. It's got red skin, and a giant head, and a crude wooden spear. But it's roasting a fish over a fire, which is more the sort of thing people do.

He keeps an eye on it and doesn't come any closer.

Time to... climb the palm trees? That seems like the way to get to the leaves, probably.

It looks like it has two friends, who are sleeping sprawled on the sand.

The palm trees are fairly easy to climb! The leaves break in response to enough pressure just fine, too.

He takes two and then goes looking for another tree. And keeps glancing at the red creatures that might be monsters.

The maybe-monsters seem content to just sit there for now. Someone approaching from further out from the village is walking towards them, but gives them a very wide berth as they approach.

That makes it more likely they're monsters. He stops and watches the person trying to go around them, in case there's any trouble.

The monsters notice the girl! She swears, and drops the fruit she was carrying, and sprints at top speed away as the monsters snatch up weapons and chase her with wordless, grunty growling!

Time to find out if the monsters can die after all.

These monsters can die pretty easily, turns out. They turn to clouds of dark smoke with small whoom sounds after a few seconds, leaving behind weapons and a couple of claws and horns.

Running girl keeps running for a few seconds before realizing he's no longer being chased. Then she looks around in confusion.

This is not even slightly what he thought it would be like to kill three people.

He heads for whatever's left of them, figuring that's probably more valuable than palm leaves anyway. But he won't fight the other person for the spoils if it comes to that. Not this time.

"Woah, dude, did you do that? Nailed those bokos without even touching 'em?" The woman picks up her fruit but doesn't move to claim the monster parts.

"Yeah. That's my magic. Want to walk back to town together?"

"That's... Some powerful stuff. Hey, not like I'm going to tell you to get lost. 'Specially if you can do that to monsters."

"Great, I'll just grab the spoils and we'll head back. I'm Mahan, by the way."

"Uh, I'm Yanna." She's kind of nervous of him, on account of the whole 'strange powerful killing magic' thing.

"Do you know how to recognize the local monsters? I'm not from around here and we don't have everything you've got here, I wasn't sure those three were monsters till I saw them go after you."

"Uh... Those were bokoblins. Those, and lizalfos, and octoroks are the ones that bother us the most around here. Lizals are tall and have a horn and use camoflauge. Octoroks have a giant balloon head and like to spit rocks or water at people. Oh, and sometimes keese. They're small and have wings and fangs. Only come out at night."

"Thanks, that's way better than guessing while they come after me! You know, if you ever need something dead, I don't really have a job right now."

"...I don't really need things dead. Maybe someone has weeds? And there's always monsters, just, not right around here."

"Thanks anyway, that's still good to know."

This strange guy, still half-soaked from his encounter with the ocean, has magic killing powers. She won't keep talking to him if he doesn't have anything else to say. She'll just hold her fruit close and walk quickly back to the village.

Okay, he guessed wrong about what was scaring her before, clearly. He has no idea what it could be but probably it's something about him. He avoids looking at her at all.

He didn't get as many palm fronds as he meant to but he brings the ones he got back to the person who sent him after them.

She flees into a house when they arrive!

The basket guy is still there, weaving baskets. "Cool, sha. There's like two dozen... Not as much as I hoped but it's something, yeah? I figure this is worth thirty rupees, you cool with that? Also, you gonna keep doing this or is it, like, a one-time thing?"

"I might keep at it, I don't know yet. Got a little side-tracked dealing with some monsters, are you in the market for claws or anything?"

"Nah. Go find Bubo, he's a little kooky but he does monster parts and elixirs, bet he'll buy 'em." He points vaguely towards the other side of the little village.

"Oh, and here's your rupees." A small red gem cut into a hexagon, cold like glass, and two small blue ones. Each are about the size of a fingertip to the first knuckles.

"Thanks!"

He doesn't look for Bubo yet, though. If he hangs out maybe he can eavesdrop on some people buying things. Maybe he can figure out how much a rupee is worth.

A piece of fruit is worth three rupees. A decently sized cleaned and gutted fish is five. A cooked meal of fish and fruit and something else he doesn't recognize is twenty, but gets haggled down to fifteen. A small basket is twenty rupees. A small knife is fifty, the guy selling it refuses attempts to haggle down. A little kid earns one rupee for running a message for someone.

Cool, she didn't cheat him! Now he goes looking for Bubo.

People can point him to Bubo's house. It has dark smoke coming out the chimney.

He doesn't actually know the locally polite way of getting people's attention from outside a building but he tries knocking.

"Yes, yes, come in, come in, but don't touch the pot!"

He's a slightly less dark-skinned guy than the rest of the locals, staring tensely at a bubbling pot over a firepit in the middle of the house, full of... Some kind of goop.

"Who are you anyway? I don't recognize ya."

"Mahan. From Har, not sure how I got here and very lost. I kill stuff and I heard you were in the market for monster parts. Any of these the kind of thing you'd like?"

"Hmm, bokoblin horns, bokoblin claws. A little pedestrian, these, but they're well enough for low-level brews. Yes. Three rupees per horn, five per claw." That gets him 48.

"You sure you can't do sixty for all these? Since you're getting this many at once, I'm guessing you won't have to wait for more before you can use them for something."

"Well, they're just bokoblin parts. I'd give you a premium on some rarer monster bits, or if you'd killed a blue or black one and gotten the dark heart, but I'm not having a terrible shortage of bokoblin claws. Fifty."

"Fifty's fine, I guess. Which ones are blue and black?"

"Blue bokoblins are blue. Black ones are black. You obviously killed some red ones, since you only got these parts. Here, fifty." He hands over some more gems. "Put them on that shelf over there, would you?" He goes back to staring at the pot, muttering. He gives it a single stir. He's not paying Mahan any attention anymore.

He puts them on the shelf and takes the money and leaves.

Do any of the buildings look like hotels or apartments?

There is exactly one inn. Twenty rupees a night, a sign says. Though, the proprietor seems to be missing.

Missing, huh? Missing like they've stepped out for a shopping trip or missing like the place is abandoned?

Probably the first thing. The beds are all neatly made. And this village seems like a really, really laid-back sort of place, from what he's seen so far.

Then he'll find someplace nice to sit and wait for a while and see if the proprietor comes back quickly.

He comes back eventually. "You want a bed, sha? Twenty a night. The private room is thirty."

There's something weird about these aliens.

"I'd like the private room. - What are the public beds for?"

"They're cheaper?"

"People here sleep in public?"

"Sure, sometimes, why not?"

"Where I'm from that's unthinkable. Anyway, I'd like the private room. What time do I need to have another thirty rupees by to rent it again tomorrow?"

"Uh, by the time you want to sleep in it tomorrow? I guess someone could reserve both rooms before you get back. Probably not though."

"I'll just hope someone doesn't do that, that would be horrible."

"Huh. If you're that bothered about it, you can probably rent someone's house. Or walk into the wilderness some and sleep alone there."

"Are you alone if there are monsters around?"

He shrugs. "Monsters are trouble any which way, yeah."

"Well, anyway, for tonight." He offers the proprietor the rupees.

And the guy gives him a room key and points out which one is his. "Feel free to come and go as you like 'till about noon tomorrow."

He checks that the room is actually safe to sleep in.

And if it is then it's time to see if he can get anything to eat before the day's done.

Food is totally acquirable! The locals have started a big fire where Kass was singing earlier and are dancing and singing around it. Food is all over the place. Some kind of party?

Does anyone look open to being asked about it? Because he'd like to know what's happening. And if he's invited.

One woman is a bit apart from it all and will tell him, "It's the festival of the moonless sky! New moon, no clouds. The stars are going to be so bright. It's beautiful. We celebrate like this whenever it happens. The stars are how the ancestors navigated the seas, you know."

"That sounds great! How much is the food?"

"It is! It's great fun. Well we usually just share it all, but you're an outsider. Hmm... I don't think there will be a problem if you give one of the cooks twenty rupees or something. Maybe the one whose food you liked best."

"I can probably do that!"

He's starting to figure out what's up with these people and their weird generosity. They're just a family is all. A really big one that's not used to strangers.

That actually seems to be a pretty good model! They're all friendly to one another, they all seem to know each other. There's an argument, they're not perfect, but it gets smoothed over.

Cooked food is an innovation that Har has not seen, and despite an ingredients list consisting mostly of fish, these villagers are pretty good at it.

He has ever seen a food that was heated, actually, but nothing like this at all. ...Which does make it a little hard to tell at a glance which things are likely safe for him to eat. He tries the things where the ingredients are the most obvious.

Well, it's all humans here. They're alien humans, sure, but they seem pretty alike. So presumably it's all safe to eat.

But either way, it's pretty tasty.

He gives one of the cooks twenty rupees. This is a great place. It would be kind of nice if he could convince these people to adopt him into the family, but even if not this is a great place to stay for a day or two while he figures out what he's going to do on this planet.

One of the women invites him to dance! "And don't worry about not knowing what to do, the point is just to move."

He'll try! He can definitely move! He tries to copy what other people do.

They can dance circles around the fire. The one who invited him into the dance breaks off after a couple of minutes. More people dance with him. Mostly women, some of the guys. A few of them turn him away or only seem to be dancing with him because it's polite, or because he's shiny and new. They try to teach him the songs but continue on regardless when he can't keep up. Eventually, he gets pushed to the edge of the dance circle again.

He's included, but not really part of this little family celebration. Nonetheless, it's a fairly rousing party.

It keeps up for a good while, but eventually, the fire burns lower, the food is mostly gone, the sun starts to set. A whole bunch of couples have paired up, holding hands, watching the sunset.

Couples, huh. Well, he can watch the sunset fine without a partner. But he looks for any other people who are by themselves, just in case he has any options here.

Well, very few of the couples are the same gender, there's only two of those. A few people are alone, but it's not like anyone has a label saying 'available and interested'.

And he just lost all his savings, there's no way he's going to pay one of them if they're not interested in doing it for free.

Hard to tell who might be interested if asked, though.

He asks one of the men who's alone how people find partners here.

"Oh, you lookin' for a girl, sha?" He shrugs. "You get to know people, I guess? Lotta folks get together when the other villages come visit, or we go over there. You're, like, new, I'd say chill out for a while, talk to people."

"Not a girl, but thanks, I'll do that."

"Not a- Ohhhh. Right." He nods knowingly. "That's different. That's just having fun. Not my thing, but," He gives three names and points out one of them, standing alone looking at the sunset.

"Thank you!"

He sure is accumulating a lot of people he owes favors to now. But whatever, he'll deal with that later. At the moment he goes to say hi to the guy watching the sunset alone.

The guy barely glances at him. He seems... Sad? Distracted, at any rate. "...Hey, new guy. Mahan? I'm Sebasto."

"Hey, Sebasto. ...I was going to proposition you but you look like you could use some kind of help with something, are you okay?"

"Eh, don't mind me. I'm just worried about something." He takes a better look at Mahan, up and down, shakes his head a bit, and smiles wryly, "...Brine-soaked clothes, that doesn't look comfortable at all. I bet you want to get out of them, right?"

"Oh, you want to see what's underneath?"

"Sure do. I've got a little special spot just outside of town. Real comfy. Great place to watch the stars, too. Wanna see it?"

He sure does.

It's a while before he feels like going back to the inn.

The village is quiet at night. There's a few torches burning and a few people still chatting around the remnants of the bonfire, but it's pretty quiet. His inn room is waiting for him.

The next morning, the village is a lot emptier, and a lot of the boats are gone. Presumably they're all out fishing?

Might be. Either way he needs more rupees, he can just pay for another night if he doesn't eat anything today but obviously he does need to eat. Maybe if he heads out a ways he'll find more monsters. Or at least more leaves.

There's plenty of trees. There are some crabs and snails and clams on the beach, similar to some of the things that were being eaten yesterday, he could catch those?

If he walks for long enough, there's some more monsters.

He eats a clam raw on the way and eventually he finds the monsters. If he sees them before they see him he'll watch for a while. Who are they, anyway, and what do they do when they're not at war with the sea people?

They don't display anything resembling language. They loaf around, they wander, they sleep. They shout and chase a bird that lands nearby, but lose interest immediately when it flies off.

And then someone dressed in some kind of leather armor and a swoopy red cloak swoops in from above on some kind of glider thing, flying in from the cliffs, drops a glowing blue orb that - explodes with force magic? - and then lands and systematically demolishes the scattered and panicked monsters. They don't even manage to swing at her.

Must be nice to be able to do that, that's so cool.

He sure hopes she's not going to aim for him next. At best he'll just go somewhere she hasn't been and be quicker next time - make the decision to kill the monsters with less hesitation, be less curious what they're like and who they are...

Yeah, that's not cool at all, actually. He waits to see what she'll do next.

Her alert posture relaxes, she collects various loot and starts walking towards the village. She waves at him, looking tired.

He waves back, then he turns his back on her and pretends to ignore her. He listens carefully while he gets himself another clam. She's probably not from around here and there's no telling what kind of relationship her people have with the locals.

Friendly guy.

She just keeps walking towards the little village, which is slightly out of sight around a curving cliff from here. She picks up into a jog after a minute or two.

He moves a little closer to the village and listens for screams. In the mean time he'll just start climbing the leafiest tree, since that stranger got the monsters he was going to kill.

She chases down crabs as she jogs, and when she grabs them they disappear with little blue flashes of light. Soon she goes around the cliff to the village.

No screams are in evidence.

He stays leaf-hunting longer this time, since someone made sure he can't get another fifty rupees for monster parts. He'll have to feed himself with just the palm leaves. And save up to repay that Rito and everyone else.

He doesn't wish death on the stranger but only because he literally never takes risks like that with his magic.

The stranger is fitting right in, back at the village, chatting happily with the fishermen who rescued him yesterday, gesturing towards a Deku Leaf!

(He can have another fifty rupees for the leaves he got.)

Eventually he comes back and sells the leaves and looks for some relatively cheap food for sale. He avoids doing anything that could possibly be construed as staring at the stranger, but he listens in on her conversations.

She's selling gemstones that appear from nowhere with that same blue flash after she pokes something with an illusion screen from her belt! Gemstones fetch... Pretty high prices, apparently. She's buying food. She buys a Deku Leaf. She talks with one of the moms about how cute her little girl is. She asks people if they know about any other monster encampments in the area - the only ones they mention seem to be pretty far away. She chats about her travels and says that the Hebra Mountains are beautiful. She offers archery lessons to a guy and gives them and doesn't demand any payment for it, but the guy gives her some fruit anyway. She tries to sell a big shiny sword, but can't find a buyer.

She heads inland, up the steep switchback path, but branches off to the curious dark structure sitting on a little alcove of the cliff. The one that the locals call the shrine.

Clearly she's on friendly terms with the locals. Like a family friend. Maybe if these people have that kind of relationship with a lot of strangers they just start assuming that anyone they don't know belongs to one of the groups they're on good terms with. Even when told otherwise. Well, it's convenient for him that they do.

Shame he's not a structure mage. Clearly none of the locals are either.

If they know of any other monster encampments nearby maybe he can try to beat her to them, especially if she's going to take a long time in the shrine.

There's a band of Lizalfos this one guy knows about. He'll sail Mahan there if he'll kill them all - they're sitting on a prime fishing spot. They killed them a year ago, but haven't got around to it since the last Blood Moon.

"I can probably kill them. What's a Blood Moon?"

"Every couple of years or so the full moon goes blood-red, dark clouds rush through the sky, and there's a feeling of evil everywhere all night. All the monsters come back, strong as ever. It's probably the evil god Ganon that does it, the blood moon is when he's too strong for the good spirits to hold him back."

Okay, no more worrying about the monsters, clearly they don't lose much when they die.

"We don't have anything like that where I'm from. Do the good spirits raise you if you die too?"

"No. You hear different things about what happens if you die. Some say you're reborn into a new body later. Some say your soul goes to Hylia's paradise. I dunno, I never hear any answers when I pray."

"At home no one has any reason to think you can recover from being dead or do anything after you're dead. We don't have gods and spirits there, it's... very different."

"Yikes. Sure sounds like it. It's not perfect here, but I think we've got a good life."

"Yeah, this place seems nice, I guess your gods and spirits are pretty useful. ...Why do they do all this stuff for people, anyway?"

He shrugs. "Well, we revere them, we pray to Hylia and thank her and stuff. Maybe she likes that. Or they just, like, love everybody? I think good spirits are supposed to love most everybody. Hey, let's get going. It's a couple hours sailing to the Lizal nest."

"Yeah, let's."

Everything about this place is weird, but he can chew on the loving everybody idea later.

Sailing out doesn't involve the Deku Leaf right now, there's a nice steady wind mostly in the right direction already and this boat is more elaborate than a simple raft, designed so that it can make good progress with this.

"You're probably gonna want to swing the leaf on the way back, though. I'll have to do slow switchbacks otherwise. You don't know how to steer the boat and nobody else wanted to come with, or I'd suggest trading off."

"I've never seen a deku leaf before I came here, can just anyone use one?"

"Yeah, sure, why not? It's only the tree people who can make them, is all."

"Well, that's convenient. Yeah, I'll get us back."

"Cool. Off we go, then."

Off they go indeed. The trip takes a couple hours, and this guy, Veegal, will keep chatting if Mahan is up for it along the way.

Yeah, he's up for it. He has a lot to learn about this place.

He doesn't look at Veegal much on the way, mostly just at their surroundings.

Veegal mostly knows things about boats and fishing, but will tell him about monsters or whatever too if he is curious. Their surroundings are sea to one side, beach and cliffs to the other. At one point an Octorok, balloon-headed monster, pesters them by shooting water at them.

How they fish here is useful information. It lets him know a few things about what kinds of magic they have, for one thing.

"Should I kill that thing?"

Not force magic, that's for sure. Most of their magic seems to be in tools, there's little magic people do directly.

"Octorok. Little pests, they are. Sure, why not."

And if it can die like anything else then it does. "Do they have body parts that are worth anything?"

It does. "Their balloons are worth like ten rupees? If you want me to cut around and grab it I want half though."

"Works for me."

He maneuvers the boat around and Mahan can pick up the Octorok's balloon, floating on the surface, as they move slowly past.

And then back on course for the Lizalfos camp.

They've built a whole rickety fort out here, multiple platforms, stick-based stairs, a lookout on a tower with a bow and arrow...

And they can all die, not that it'll make much difference to them.

"Are any of the things they had besides their body parts worth anything?"

"Hylia's grace... That magic is scary strong, sha... The junk weapons, not really. I mean, maybe you'd get a few rupees for them. You can have all the monster parts. And we might as well take those fish they were gonna eat, but I want some of 'em."

"Sure, take all the fish you want. How does that weapon with the string on it work, anyway?"

"Oh, right." He clambers out of the boat and picks it up. "You put an arrow on it, like this, pull back, aim, and let go. Arrow goes flying and the sharp bit hits something. You can use it to hunt stuff... Not that you'd need one."

"Sounds like fun!" Sounds like evidence that nobody here is a force or death mage! Or heat or sun or structure...

He goes looking for intact lizard parts. More claws?

Claws, horns, and tails!

Tails. Great.

He rounds up all the body parts, including the entire severed tails.

At least they're strangely non-gory. There's no blood at all. Though there is a bone. "Tails are pretty good," comments Veegal. "At least twenty per or you're gettin' cheated, but don't tell him I said so."

"Thanks!"

Uncanny bloodless wrong tails, great. At least they're worth having to pick them up.

"Hmm... I kind of want to stay here and fish for a while... Since it's fresh cleaned out of Lizals and all..."

"Will the tails go bad if we stay?"

"Nah. Monster parts keep for weeks. Years, for the bony ones."

"Then I don't mind staying a while. Mind if I watch you fish?"

"Whatever you want to do, sha."

He spends a few minutes unpacking, baiting, and setting up some kind of fish trap, attaching it to the undersize of the Lizals' fort. Then he wanders the perimeter of the boat and little fort with a barbed wooden spear, occasionally stabbing at the water, and even more occasionally pulling it back out with a fish on it.

Mahan sits and watches. This is fascinating.

"Does anyone ever use magic for fishing here?"

"I don't think the magic we know is all that useful for fishing? Ooh, Jeebil once got a shock arrow from up north somewhere and shot it into the sea near a big school, it killed like thirty fish. That was pretty cool."

"That sounds fun, what's a shock arrow and where do I get one?"

"I think the Rito make them. It's an arrow with an enchanted tip. When it breaks, it lets out tons of electricity. There's also fire, ice, and bomb arrows."

So they - wait, what.

"Different kinds of magic are common to different species here?"

"...Sometimes? I'm not sure how it all works, sha."

"Where I'm from all species have equal proportions of each kind of magic, but I guess this place is different. Does one species rule the others here?"

"...Hylians like me are most common? The Rito, Zora, tree-people, and Gorons all have their own cities? Huh, your ears are weird or I'd say you look like us. You look like a Gerudo actually, with the ears, except you're not a girl so that can't be right."

"What's a Gerudo and why can't I be one if I'm not a girl?"

"Gerudo are the kind of people who live in the Gerudo Desert. They're all women and they don't have pointed ears. They wander Hyrule looking for husbands and have a couple kids and then go back to the desert."

"Why do they have round ears and no one else does?"

"I dunno, man, it's just the way it is."

Spear-stab. He gets another fish.

"Ooh! Look at the scales, this one's got good magic in 'im."

...Okay, so they mutilate their ears and murder their sons. Cool.

"Who's enchanting the fish?"

"They just happen to be magic. Bunch of things are. Doesn't do much for the critters, but if you cook 'em right, you can use the magic."

"That made so little sense I'm not sure we're even talking about the same thing when we talk about magic."

"Magic is stuff that breaks the rules of what happens most of the time. You can make magic metal that does stuff metal doesn't usually do. Tree people can make magic leaves that make more wind than they ought to when you swing them around. You can sing magic songs that do stuff singing doesn't usually do. You can cook magic food or elixirs that make you tougher or faster or whatever. Magic."

Stab. Miss.

"Where I'm from magic is something that takes a person's will - picking something up with your hands isn't magic because any animal could do it, picking it up with your mind is magic because only a person can do that. I guess you could say it breaks the rules for how nonmagical things happen but I'm not sure that isn't a tautology. ...Can you run out of your kind of magic? And just not have any?"

"I dunno, man, I'm just a fisher. A lot of that magic theory stuff goes over my head." He sighs. He checks his trap - it's empty. "Eh. Time to go back."

"Yeah, let's. How do I use the leaf?"

He'll just try not to keep dwelling on this really horrifying train of thought.

"Hold it at about chest height, broad side forward, swing and want it to blow. Gotta want it to or it won't."

Now that's more like magic should be. When everything's on the boat he tries the leaf.

And it makes a proper strong gust of wind!

It takes a minute or two to find a good rhythm. It's not extremely strenuous, but it's not a casual stroll either. They're going pretty fast, at least.

This is pretty great. Maybe it's a little weird around the edges but this world clearly has the better magic over all.

They get back to the village in about an hour and a half! His escort runs his boat up onto an open dock at the far end. "Good trip. Monsters gone, got fish. Have a nice day, Mahan."

"You too!"

Well, off he goes to sell his monster parts.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm... Lizalfos... Good specimens, these... Unfortunately for you I do not have enough, ahem, liquid capital, to make purchasing all of these a good idea at the moment."

"Well, I'll figure something else out, I guess."

And if he's not stopped he'll walk away.

"I'll buy some of them at a slightly reduced rate if you like. Or if you're willing to accept payment partially in elixirs, I have several varieties I would recommend."

"What kind of elixirs?"

"Most popular around here are speed elixirs for running faster and improved agility, heat elixirs that let you resist overheating, energizing elixirs that restore physical stamina, healing elixirs that quickly mend wounds. They come in a variety of effect strengths and durations - typically lasting two to eight hours. I also have electrical resistance, sneak, cold resistance, fire resistance, and defense."

"Do the heat elixirs resist sunburn or just overheating?"

"...Sunburn? What's that?"

"It's the thing that happens when you're exposed to the sun for a while and even though it's not burning hot your skin starts cooking. Then it hurts and after a while it starts peeling off. It's less likely the darker you are."

"No, I don't think that happens to Hylians. I heard from a Zora customer once that it prevented burns on her feet from the hot sand? But I cannot predict if it will help with this... Sunburn."

"What do the sneak and defense ones do?"

"Sneak ones make you aware of how to move quietly and suppress some of the sound you make. Defense ones make you tougher."

"If you use them over and over and pay attention to what they're making you aware of do you eventually learn to move quietly on your own?"

"I tried that. It doesn't help nearly as much as I thought it would."

"I need cash to pay for food and a room in the inn more than I need to be sneaky but it's possible you can offer me enough elixirs to be worth it."

"Feh. If you don't want any elixirs, I'll buy..." He makes a lowball offer for about half of the monster parts. Still comes out to 120 rupees.

"I don't suppose you could go as high as a hundred thirty-two?"

"Why a hundred and thirty two? A hundred thirty. Rounder."

"Sure, a hundred thirty. I was just adding twelve and twelve is round where I'm from."

"Interesting. It's ten, here. Ten fingers, see?" He waggles them. "At least, that's what my father told me when I asked why it's ten. It's a deal, then."

He hands over more money and collects his half of the monster parts. "You're sure you don't want any elixirs?"

"Maybe. Just how many elixirs are you offering for the rest of these?"

Some quick mental math - ten short duration weak ones, three or four more potent ones.

He'll take the ten.

"Deal, deal! How many of which effects of that potency?"

"I could have one of each kind, right?"

"Sure sure sure certainly. You'd have to come back in about a couple of hours to pick up your low-potency sneak and fire resistance elixirs though."

"That's fine. The others are ready now?"

His organization system seems to be 'what's that?', but he produces them presently, labeled in scrawled handwriting that is definitely not Hari but is readable if he focuses.

Alien writing! Cool! He hands over the rest of his monster parts.

"See you in a couple hours!"

"Why? Oh! Right. Yes. I'd better go make those..."

Mahan has no confidence that he's going to actually get the other two elixirs but at least he's not going to die today probably.

He heads off to find Veegal and pay him his five rupees for helping with the octorok.

"Oh, I forgot about that. Thanks, sha. Hey, you hear about that adventurer from up north? I heard she has some kind of crazy magic box that can eat stuff."

"I hadn't. ...Is she friendly?"

"Seems nice enough. Keeps talking about some kind of quest, wants to find more shrines like that one." He makes a vague gesture.

"Thanks. Any idea how long she's staying here?"

"I dunno, man. Go ask her. I'm not her dad."

(The shrine changed color at some point, the dull orange glow turning blue.)

"Thanks anyway!"

...She might be on good terms with these people but that doesn't mean she can't beat him to the inn and steal his room. He heads over there to make sure she doesn't.

His private room is still available if he has the cash for it now.

Good. "Is it possible to pay in advance for more than one night?"

"...Sure? Heck, if you're staying here for a while, I'll give you three days for a purp, sha. Eh, that's fifty."

"Sounds good." He hands over fifty rupees.

"Let me know if you want something for the room or anything, yeah?"

"I'll let you know if I do!"

Link is outside, walking towards the inn, looking  more tired than earlier. But also - kind of satisfied? She's still acting kind of friendly to everyone but is also obviously exhausted.

He politely looks away. He's not actually rude enough to stare at someone who's not up for facing other people.

She comes into the inn. "Bed's twenty?"

"Yep."

"Greaaat." She hands over cash, glances at Mahan, and proceeds to more or less crash into the common room bed that's furthest back.

Oh, okay, she's some kind of insane person who doesn't care who sees her like this.

He goes looking for someone selling food.

(He's seen the locals napping in the open here and there, too.)

Food is plentiful!

Maybe everyone on this entire planet is insane.

He gets himself something interesting, preferably fish or something with fish in it.

Steamed fish in (edible) seaweed wrap with some kind of salty sauce meant to be dribbled on it?

That'll do! He lets the cook know this is more interesting than any food they have back in Har.

"It's all in the sauce, sha. All in the sauce. Northerners have all kinds of food but fish is cheap here so you learn to make good stuff with it."

Sounds legit.

He hangs around watching the water and listening to goings-on in the village while he waits for Bubo to (probably not) have finished with the other elixirs.

Bubo did manage to finish the other elixirs! Or so he claims. Here they are.

That stranger has woken up from her nap and is wandering around again, asking people about monster nests! Apparently that other guy has monster-killing magic already got at least one. She'll keep an eye out for him. Oh well, what about shrines?

Convenient, he's been wondering about her.

"Hey there."

"Hey. I saw you earlier, out on the beach? I'm Link. Probably."

"Yeah, it was cool how you killed those monsters back there. I'm Mahan, a death mage from far away."

"Yeah, I've learned a thing or two. Death magic, huh? Sounds scary strong. I'm guessing it kills things?"

"Yeah, I can kill anything. How about you, what's your magic?"

"I'm blessed by Goddess Hylia. Or do you mean the Sheikah Slate?" She grabs the little rectangular thing and appears an apple from nowhere, to demonstrate. "I'm not sure how it works, but it likes me, I guess."

"You don't have your own?" Obviously she has her own.

"Hmm... I can move really really fast and reflect attacks sometimes, but it's pretty unreliable? Most of the cool stuff is the Slate or Hylia's blessing."

Oh, it's just hard to get big accidental effects from the local magic, that explains a lot. Kind of a relief to realize it's that simple and everyone's definitely a mage after all.

"You know, local magic seems a lot harder to screw up by accident, at home no one's native magic is that convenient! I bet it makes raising kids a lot easier."

"If all the kids had death magic... Yeah. Yikes."

"Yeah, exactly. At least we have command magic, I can't tell if you have that here."

"Doesn't sound familiar..."

"You're better off without it if you don't have a lot of magical accidents or criminals. It's useful at home but we have a lot of both of those."

"Well, criminals are a thing. And the Yiga Clan. Bandits and sometimes murderers. Damn Yiga. But anyway, most magic is kind of hard to understand and only a few people can really do it, yeah."

"What's the Yiga Clan and would it improve anything if they all dropped dead?"

"They worship Ganon instead of Hylia. They're... Misled, I think. They don't understand how evil he is, how he'd kill them all given the chance. I don't really want to kill them. But they still hurt people. I don't know."

"We don't have gods and spirits at home, what's worship?"

"It's... Thinking at them, talking to them, thanking them for things, or making sacrifices? Treating them as important, I guess...?"

"Thinking at them? They hear your thoughts?"

"I don't know. Hylia only answers me if I really really need her, or a lot more easily if I'm at a shrine or temple."

"Is there a way to make them definitely not hear your thoughts?"

"I, uh, don't know? I don't think they hear you if you're not praying."

"So you have to choose to send them your thoughts? Can you send other people your thoughts?"

"No. Well, maybe someone can, I don't know. Gods are different."

Wow explaining this is surprisingly annoying?

"Thank you. That's... thank you."

So they're probably reading his mind all the time and lying about it. Great. He hates them all.

"Hylia wouldn't read minds even if she could, I'm sure! She does so much for people. But anyway... Death magic. If you just got here you probably don't know about the Great Calamity?" 

"Not much yet. What is it?"

"Ganon's moment of triumph one hundred years ago. He... Controlled all the mechanical soldiers. Guardians. And. Told them to kill everything. Hylia couldn't stop him. We couldn't stop him. They destroyed lots and lots of stuff before eventually getting stopped. They were pretty good at their job. Killed me, or nearly, anyway."

"He sounds obnoxious. I hope it turns out I can kill him."

"Yeah, that's the idea. Ganon deserves it if anyone does. I don't really think it's likely but it's definitely worth trying, right?"

"Yeah." And then all of the others so he can stop having his mind read. "How far away is Ganon?"

"He's trapped in the Great Castle, in central Hyrule. Locked in time by the Princess's power, somehow? A week or two to get there."

"Past the Guardians?"

"Yeah... They're not fun. I can probably deal with them one at a time. Sometimes he comes out as a giant black serpent thing?"

"I probably can't kill mechanical things with magic. Might be worth learning to do it another way if I'm going to go play in central Hyrule."

"That's called 'learning to use a sword'. Or a bow, or spear, or a claymore... Swords and bows are probably the most practical."

"Thanks. How do I learn that, are there teachers?"

"Well, there used to be a Knight School. I'm the only one who was there left now, though... I guess I can probably teach you?"

"How much do you charge for lessons?"

"...Come with me and see if you can kill Ganon for me while I teach you? And maybe kill monsters in our way along the way. It'll make the trip faster."

"How soon do you want to leave?"

"Probably tomorrow. I kind of had to pull an all-nighter, running away from a Hinox. Be nice to get at least one night's rest in an actual bed first."

"And I paid for a few nights already and this place is nice. So what's a Hinox and are any of its body parts worth anything?"

"Fair enough, I could use a bit of a break. Ganon is - contained, for now, it's not urgent on a scale of days. Hinox is a giant cyclops thing. Probably valuable, yeah. But Hinoxes are serious stuff. If some monsters can't be death magicked they'd be one of 'em."

"And Ganon wouldn't? Or it's just worth trying anything that might kill him?"

"Yeah, that. I don't actually expect you to be able to kill him. But it's worth trying. And maybe you could help me get to where I can kill him faster, even if you can't." She shrugs.

"Can you? If we get you to him, is that it, will you win?"

"Maybe. But risky, very risky. Thing is, I need to claim the Master Sword. Created by Goddess Hylia a long long time ago, magically designed specifically to defeat Ganon. But it will kill me if I'm not strong enough first, so I have to find shrines, complete their challenges, and gather spirit orbs. Hylia has been using up the spirit orbs to make me stronger. I know it sounds crazy, but it's what I've been doing for the last... While. Also, the Divine Beasts, how do I even start to explain those...?"

"Why will the sword kill you? And what are any of those other things?"

"It's part of the magic, I think? That only a mighty hero shall wield this blade? I know the Deku Tree told me so, and I don't think he's lying. Uh. Shrines are those." She points. "The ancients made them and a few of them are still sleeping in them even though they're dead? And they make me do these elaborate tests before they'll give me the orb thingies. The divine beasts are... Giant mechanical weapons? That were meant to fight Ganon, but Ganon turned them into monsters instead. Sort of."

"I probably can't help with the divine beasts, then. Does it even make sense for me to try to help with Ganon now? If I end up needing your help to get close to him, maybe you should be as ready as you're going to be in case I can't do it and we can't get away."

"You know, I'm used to sort of doing whatever seems right at the time and it's never been that much of a problem before, but you have a good point. I don't think Ganon actually knows about you right now, thank Hylia. Well, either that or he doesn't think you're a threat. Anyway, it'll probably be a while until I feel prepared for the final battle... I'm not afraid - well, I am but that won't stop me - It's only that I probably have one chance. If something goes wrong..."

"If something goes wrong, do things get worse than they have been since he first showed up?"

"Almost definitely. I think he'd kill me, kill the princess, finish exterminating everything in Hyrule and then continue on to the rest of the world."

"Why hasn't he done that yet?"

"I don't really understand it, but the royal family has divine ancestry. Princess Zelda did... Something. She and Ganon are stuck in the castle together, stopped, but she can't keep it forever."

"So there's a deadline."

"Yeah, it's worrying. But I didn't get the impression it was a deadline of like a few months? I pray to Hylia sometimes, and ask her to warn me if time is getting short. She hasn't warned me yet."

"Then maybe you should finish preparing and I should spend that time learning how to survive dealing with monsters I can't kill, and then you find me when you're ready?"

"That'll work. Though, where you gonna go? Hyrule is a big place, could be tricky to find you again if I don't know where you're hanging out."

"I don't know. Where should I go? I don't know Hyrule well at all."

"That sort of depends on what you want to do and see? There's a lot of Hyrule out there... Most of it can be kind of dangerous. The monsters. Sometimes bandits too."

"First priority is to be able to get through central Hyrule. Which probably means learning a lot of new skills, but I don't know what skills or whether it matters where I am, or if instead I should be focused on stockpiling elixirs or something. And secondly I should pay Kass back for saving my life at some point."

"Kass! He's cool! The mysterious wandering bard - it's kind of a romantic notion, isn't it? I bet he sees lots of interesting things."

"I bet! So if you don't have any better ideas maybe we should set a date to meet back here?"

"I can check all the major towns in a day because they all have shrines. The Sheilah Slate lets me teleport to shrines. So we could also set a date for you to be by the shrine in one of the major towns, it'd let you explore more."

"Sounds good. I don't know enough to pick a date, how long do you think it should be?"

"The day of a new moon is easy to remember. Maybe two or three moons from now? I guess you don't want to travel with me. Fair enough, I get into trouble a lot."

"Would it be better if I did? I was assuming I'd slow you down a lot, at least at first, but I wouldn't mind."

"You might slow me down some but I also think your death magic will be, like, really extremely useful against monsters. We can go through places faster, probably. I don't have death magic, you don't know the lay of the land, it just seems like a good combo for us to travel together. Also, teaching you how to do stuff makes sure you don't die and also like me a bit better, yeah? If it turns out we can't stand each other we just separate next time you're somewhere safe, no big deal."

"That sounds good, yeah. Where are we going next?"

"I was thinking I'd relax for a day or two here. This is one of the bigger sea people villages, and it's nice and warm, and I've been hiking hard through the wilderness for a while. After that, I heard a rumor of a hidden shrine to the east, at a point that juts out into the sea, I want to investigate it."

"That sounds interesting. Are there a lot of shrines?"

"At least dozens. I'm not sure how many there are in total, but I hope there's plenty."

"I wonder why they made so many."

"Well, the spirits of the dead monks that live in 'em say they're there to test the prophesied hero's strength. Which is, uh, me. I think."

"...Prophesied hero?"

"I don't like talking about it too much because it turns out nobody ever believes me, but..." Sigh. "Here we go. I almost died a hundred years ago, broken and bloody I was put in some old Sheikah magic bath, and woke up just fine about one year ago, missing most of my memories. I've gotten some back in - fits and starts - and the prophecy that predicted finding Sheikah stuff and Ganon's return also said that the princess of divine blood, the one bearing the hero's soul, and four great heroes from the far corners of Hyrule would come together to defeat him. I'm the hero - a talking tree spirit recognized me - and that's why I have to get the Master Sword and go defeat Ganon."

"I never heard of prophecies before I came here."

"They are... Stories about things that haven't happened yet, but will. Sometimes they're fake prophecies, just stories with no power, but sometimes they can tell what the future holds. This one came true. Exactly as the prophecy read, the signs came... That the events told in old legends about what happened ten thousand years ago would repeat themselves. The prophecy said the power prepared by the ancients to oppose Ganon would be found underground. They looked and found the Guardians, ancient weapons. The prophecy said Ganon would steal a great power. He did - he took control of the Guardians, the very thing meant to oppose him. The prophecy said that the Divine Beasts would stop moving and great storms would form over the ocean and the moon would turn red like blood as he rose. Those things happened."

"At home sometimes people can tell what's going to happen but not by magic, just by knowing what's already happened."

"I am pretty sure prophecies are magic. They're revelations from Goddess Hylia. Or Naydra, spirit of wisdom. Or something."

"It's weird that magic can see the future."

"If you say so. I'm no scholar, that's the princess's kind of thing."

"I haven't studied anything related to this either, I'm just speculating. Anyway, so you're a hero - that's another thing I never heard of before coming here - and dead people are waiting in glowing buildings to test you. Do they tell you how hard they think their tests are compared to what you need to do to beat Ganon?"

"They say things like 'overcoming this trial proves you have the resolve of a true hero' and give me a spirit orb... I'm not sure what the spirit orbs are, but Goddess Hylia can take them and make me stronger. That's mostly why I want to find as many shrines as possible. The challenges are weird. Sometimes it's fighting something, but usually it's some kind of strange puzzle instead."

"Maybe they can't communicate as much as they want to so they need you to be able to figure out something important that they can't tell you?"

"Well, they don't answer questions... And they're not even making sound, it's like when Hylia answers me... I'm not sure what the puzzles mean if they mean something other than 'you're not an idiot at least, if you got this far'."

"That makes sense except for how nothing in Hyrule makes any sense."

"Your world has insanely powerful magic everywhere and hasn't exploded or anything, sounds like!"

"And it's been centuries since we sank any continents in wars!"

"Well, no matter how much sense it doesn't make, I've just gotta do the best I can with what I have and what I know. Right now, that means getting stronger and then saving the world from Ganon. And today, that means relaxing at least a little bit because burnout is definitely real."

"Yeah, meet you back here in a couple days when we're ready to get moving again?"

"Sure, I'll stop by the inn every morning and we'll decide when to go a bit later."

She waves behind her as she walks off.

He looks for chances to do more miscellaneous work for people. And maybe Sebasto will be around and free at some point.

Someone will give him lunch if he helps cook for half an hour, just carrying and cutting things. The elixir guy wanders out of his hut at some point and shouts, "If you want your last two elixirs they're ready!"

Sebasto is nowhere to be found. A whole lot of people on at least a dozen boats are all lining up on the shore together, though.

Cooking is good, if he ever gets home it'd be nice to be able to recreate some of what he's had here. After lunch he wanders over to the shore to see what's happening.

They're loading up tools, baskets and bags, boat parts, food and elixirs, and other random things onto the boats.

"They're goin' to Cebali." Some kid who can't be over ten comments to him as he approaches, "It's a meet. Ma won't let me go even though I want to go play wif my friend Cibi."

"A meet?"

"Yeah. A meet. They go meet everyone from Cebali. Trade, an' play, an' maybe some kind of ritual." The kid looks at Mahan. "...I dunno if I'm supposed to talk about the rituals though."

"Well, I don't want to make you. Tell me about your friend instead?"