Chapter 3: Paraglider

NOTE: This story can also be found on Archive Of Our Own. Click here read it there.

Link fell backwards in sync with Zelda as the world shook. He could hear the flapping of bird’s wings and the grunt of what had to be bokoblins.

Then, the structure they were in rose up through the rocks surrounding it. It pierced the rocks and the sky and continued to shake.

Around the world, similar towers were rising. Link could faintly see one to the north, off of the Great Plateau. Soon, the tower stopped its ascent and let off a blue mist.

Slowly, Link and Zelda stood. Link looked around, and everything was smaller now. They were as high as the mountain on the great plateau, and it felt strange.

Zelda walked around the tower, examining it from different angles, before she walked back over to Link, who stood by the pedestal. “The engineering that went into this is truly remarkable!” Zelda mused.

Just then, words appeared on the slate. 

Great Plateau Tower

Distilling local information.

“What does that mean?” Link asked. Just as he ended his sentence, the gray icicle-like structure that hovered above the pedestal began to glow blue. Strands of what seemed to be runes from a forgotten language began to flow down the icicle. They collected into a small drop of what appeared to be pure energy, before it fell onto the Sheikah Slate.

Link peered forward, with Zelda leaning over his shoulder behind him. The Sheikah Slate opened onto the map area. While it had once been a plane of pure blackness, with a few light blue lines indicating borders, the symbol for what the Slate called the ‘Shrine of Resurrection’, the glowing dot, and the arrow that symbolized them, it had changed a lot.

The Slate now displayed a map in varying browns inside one of the blue borders. The colors got light as they increased in elevation, and it even seemed to have the same amount of trees as there were in real life. A new blue icon had been added too. It was in the same shape as the top of the tower they stood on.

Regional map extracted.

The pedestal whirred and offered the Sheikah Slate, and Zelda took it, tucking it into her pouch.

Remember…Try…Try to remember… Ruta’s voice echoed all around them, and Link’s head turned towards the castle looming in the distance. A faint pale blue light pulsed from it.

Link and Zelda ran to the edge of the tower as Medoh began to speak, changing the light green. You two have slept for the past 100 years.

Rudania’s stalwart voice spoke as Link had begun processing Medoh’s. The beast of Hyrule…When It truly awakes and gets its true power, this world’s gonna face the end. Red glowed from inside the castle.

Purple and black energy rose out of the moat in Hyrule, before swirling into something that could be considered a body. It snaked around the castle, and a beast head formed. It had pointed horns and pink, glowing eyes. The beast roared and seemed to stare straight at them, before it began to circle the castle again.

You two need to hurry. Naboris’ voice sounded troubled as a yellow glow appeared in the castle. Please hurry. Before it’s too late…

Link and Zelda walked back to the center of the tower and Zelda looked around. “How do you suppose we get down?”

Link walked around the tower and pointed to an area that led down. He could see a series of platforms that resembled a staircase shape. Link jumped down onto the first platform and called, “Follow me!”

Link and Zelda leapt down the platforms on the tower, until they had reached the bottom. Zelda looked around the Plateau curiously. “What do you suppose we do now?”

Link pointed to two bokoblins that were standing atop a hill near the tower. “Take those guys out?”

Zelda nodded and pulled out a tree branch. Link did the same, and he charged into the fray.

Link swung his branch at one of the bokoblins, hitting him square in the chest. He ran over to the incapacitated monster and swung once more.

The branch connected and exploded into shards of blue. The bokoblin faded into dust, and Link quickly grabbed the bow the bokoblin had held. He also grabbed the horn, fang, and arrows that had remained after the monster’s dust blew away.

Link turned towards Zelda, who was struggling with her bokoblin, yelling, “Stay back!” Link knocked an arrow and let it whistle through the air, striking the bokoblin straight in the skull.

The monster collapsed into purple mist, and Zelda jogged over to Link after she had grabbed the bokoblin’s old gear, wiping sweat from her brow. “Thank you! I don’t think I’m very apt at fighting monsters.”

Link opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud, “Oho ho!” The old man flew in, literally. His hands gripped around a red glider of sorts, and he landed on the hill Link and Zelda stood on, dust billowing around him.

“My, my…It would seem we have quite the enigma here.” Zelda nodded as the old man gestured to the tower. “This tower and others just like it have erupted across the land, one after another. It is almost as though…a long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly.” Link’s mind flashed to the glows of color coming from the castle when Medoh, Rudania, Ruta, and Naboris had spoken. “If you do not mind me asking,” the old man continued, “Did anything, hmm, how can I put this, odd, occur while you were atop that tower?”

Zelda nodded as Link said, “I heard four voices.”

“Well, now! Voices, you say? And did you happen to recognize any of these mysterious voices?”

Link opened his mouth, but closed it as shame burned at him. He wanted to be able to say yes. But he couldn’t. Even when he combed his mind for a memory, all he saw were the events of the day. At a glance, Zelda seemed to be feeling the same way.

“I see.” The old man paused as he turned to the castle. “I assume you caught sight of that atrocity enshrouding the castle. That…is Calamity Ganon. One hundred years ago, that vile entity brought the kingdom of Hyrule to ruin. It appeared suddenly and destroyed everything in its path. So many innocent lives were lost in its wake. For a century, the very symbol of our kingdom, Hyrule Castle, has managed to contain that evil. But just barely. There it festers, building its strength for the moment it will unleash its blight upon the land once again. It would appear that moment is fast approaching…”

He trailed off and turned to Link and Zelda. “I must ask you, courageous ones…Do you intend to make your way to the castle?”

Zelda nodded as Link said, “We do.”

The old man turned towards the edge of the Great Plateau. “Here, on this isolated plateau, we are surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs, with no way down. If you were to try to jump off, well…No death could be more certain. Or more foolish. Of course, if you had a paraglider like mine, that would be quite a different story.”

“Can we have it?” Link asked.

The old man began to laugh a full-hearted one while Zelda turned to Link, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Link!” She admonished.

“Certainly! Why not?” The old man said. “But, I am afraid, there is no such thing as a free item in this world. Let’s see now…How about I trade it for a bit of treasure that slumbers nearby? Come. Let me show you something.”

The old man walked over to the edge of a concrete wall, which stood over a lake. “That has been here a long time,” he said, pointing at a structure in the distance that glowed brightly orange. “But only now did it light up. How curious that it would occur right after the tower rose.” The old man turned back to Link, seeming to bore into his soul. “There is rumored to be treasure inside of that. Bring it to me, and we may discuss an exchange.”

Link nodded and accepted the deal, before he and Zelda began to walk around the lake to the building. After a few minutes, they reached it, and Zelda tapped the Sheikah Slate on a terminal that was similar to the one that had been in the Shrine of Resurrection.

The door, which was a series of metal beams, swung open slowly as the shrine’s glow became a mix of orange and blue, revealing what seemed to be a device that caused automatic descent. Link and Zelda stepped onto it, and it slowly lowered. As they entered a new building, a voice echoed.

To you who sets foot in this shrine…I am Oman Au. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial.

Story Notes

Chapter 3! Whoop!

I hope you all are enjoying TOTK. Personally, I have not started yet (long, long story…), but I have heard from family playing that it’s really good. Since I am not playing yet, please do not spoil it. I haven’t played the game in a while, so it’s nice to get a refresh of the story before I play TOTK. If you’re curious, I have a YouTube video on how to 100% the game that I watch to give me dialogue, and just events of the game.

I’m sorry that the chapters are pretty short. I was originally going to have this be called Oman Au and be the shrine, but I was here on Tuesday, my updating day, with a third of the chapter written down. So I shifted my sights to just the paraglider deal, and Oman Au will be Chapter 4.

Buh-bye, as the Koroks say!

-bakergamerwriter