Link was well-rested and ready to obtain his last spirit orb. The old man pointed Link toward a snowy mountain in front of them. "Follow that trail up the mountain to the last shrine. You'll need that warm doublet." Link wrapped the warm but somewhat itchy covering over him as he made his way to the path.
He felt a slight chill as he ascended, even with the pullover jacket on. The icy atmosphere was a jarring contrast to the warm sun in the lower elevations.
As he climbed the mountain trail he heard the familiar sound of grunting once again. He stepped forward a few steps, and he jumped as a loud trumpet-like horn sounded ahead of him. He looked over to see an entire camp of Bokoblins built around a large tree, with the one who sounded the alarm holding an instrument and a set of bow and arrows. It was standing as a lookout on top of a platform.
Link pulled out his Traveler's Sword and rushed at the approaching Bokoblins, striking the red ones down easily. The remaining Bokoblins were blue, and he knew instinctively that they were going to take more hits to defeat. He moved quickly to avoid the fire arrows being shot in his direction and he jumped wildly and smacked his sword right on top of the head of one of the blue Bokoblins several times in a row until it disappeared. He quickly took its spear it had been trying to hit him with and held it against the slate, and it vanished. He saw that there were only two blue enemies left - the one on the platform and another he could barely see that was at the very top of the camp, seemingly not paying any attention to the melee below.
He quickly decided to rush up the ladder of the platform and strike offensively. The archer Boko was looking around frantically trying to find him with its back turned away from where Link was climbing up the ladder on its platform. He performed a perfect sneakstrike just before the creature turned around, and it disappeared with a scream in its standard puff of purple-black smoke. Link picked up a bundle of ten fire arrows and Traveler's Bow. One more.
Unfortunately, that sneakstrike was strong enough to break his Traveler's Sword. Back on the ground he reached to pick up what looked like a regular Boko Club but with spikes on it that belonged to one of the red monsters. He stole the weapon and decided to keep that one equipped.
Oddly, Link heard nothing from the last Bokoblin as he carefully climbed the wooden steps of the camp around the tree. As he rounded the corner he realized that the last Bokoblin was on its back, snoring. It was sound asleep! What luck!
He drew his bow and decided to use the sleeping creature as target practice. He drew his bow and stood as far away as he could, and he shot the arrow, missing it. He definitely needed more practice, but he decided now was not the time. I probably shouldn't risk waking it up. With yet another perfect sneakstrike, Link walloped the sleeping creature across the head with the spiked club, killing it instantly as it vanished into thin air. It never knew what hit it.
As soon as he killed the last Bokoblin he heard three strange dings, as if from a bell, coming from the direction of a second platform he hadn't noticed before. His eyes were drawn to a chest that looked like a skull with a purple light coming from the holes that suddenly changed to a golden glow. Curious, he walked back down the winding steps around the tree to the ground and up the second platform. He opened the seemingly magical chest, and to his surprise it contained a Throwing Spear, according to the Sheikah slate.
With the danger averted, he went around the camp collecting all of the monster parts and worthwhile weapons that had been left behind and added them all to his inventory. He noticed a cracked area in the side of the mountain, and he thought of his remote bombs. This could be fun.
He switched to the remote bombs rune and materialized one of the bright blue bombs from the slate.
He threw the bomb at the wall and walked away a safe distance, then tapped the word "Detonate" on the screen. With a loud boom the bomb exploded, breaking the weak wall with a great crash. He walked over to where the wall had been and was surprised and delighted to see a treasure chest inside the newly-formed hole in the wall.
Link opened the treasure chest, revealing an opal that had been inside. He could probably sell it!
He continued up the mountain, noticing a curious block of ice that seemed out of place, even with the layer of snow covering the ground. An idea came to him. I'm going to hit it with some of my fire arrows. I need to practice my archery skills anyway.
He drew his bow and aimed a normal arrow for practice at the large ice block, which he shot, and it missed. Picking up the arrow again several times, he did this until he was able to hit it from a reasonable distance, as if it were an enemy. Switching to the fire arrows, he did the same thing, watching the ice block shrink each time due to the heat of the flaming arrows. He was getting better!
As the ice got smaller and smaller, it became more challenging for him to hit it, so he switched back to regular arrows again. He had over thirty normal arrows now but only five fire arrows left. He wanted to save at least some of them for later.
He aimed a normal arrow at what remained of the block of ice, and his bow vibrated as he let it go once again. It hit with a satisfying thunk against the, now small, hard ice. Now I just have to do that again with a fire arrow!
Switching once again to the elemental arrow, he carefully took aim at the small ice block that still stood in the snow awkwardly. He was sure if he hit it the ice would completely melt.
He made sure his aim was spot on, and he let the fire arrow go. It hit its mark, melting the ice! Link let out a whoop as his archery skills had much improved. An unexpected deep pop-like sound came from the direction of where the ice block had been, and Link suddenly found himself staring at a curious little brown and green creature he had never seen before.
"Ya-ha-ha! Hee hee hee! You found me!" The creature sang in a fast-paced, high-pitched voice as it hopped up and down in excitement. Link laughed at the sight of the funny little being in front of him. It appeared to be wearing a mask over its face made out of a large green leaf, and it was holding a stick. It was a tubby little sprite with stumpy rounded triangles for arms and legs. It reminded him of some sort of weird plant.
"Who are you? Or what are you?" Link asked the creature, who was still hopping up and down and laughing its silly little laugh. The creature abruptly stopped laughing and jumping and stared up at Link.
"Huh? You're not Hestu! But you can...see me? Most of your kind can't see the Children of the Forest! Well, if you run into Hestu, please return this to him."
Before Link could respond the creature handed him what appeared to be a small yellow rounded, semi-triangular seed. He held his Sheikah slate tentatively over the seed and it disappeared into the slate. Curious, he flipped through his inventory and finally found it in the Key Items section. It was labeled "Korok Seed x1."
"What is a Korok seed?" Link wondered aloud.
"Hee hee hee!" The creature laughed but didn't answer.
"No seriously, I'm a little confused here. What is a Korok seed?" Link asked again.
The creature looked curiously at him (well, as far as he could tell since it was wearing a mask), and he laughed once more. "Hee hee hee! All I'll say is Hestu needs them for his maracas. If you see Hestu, please give it to him…and I wouldn't sniff it if I were you." The Korok stifled another laugh.
Link's eyes widened. Now he had to. He tapped the screen to get it into his hand again, and it reappeared. Curious, he took a whiff of the yellow seed and the rather unpleasant smell nearly knocked him backward.
"Hee hee hee! Hee hee hee!" The little creature laughed at him harder than it had laughed at him before. "I warned you! Hee hee hee! Hee hee hee!"
Annoyed, Link placed the smelly "seed" back into the inventory and studied the creature. Still confused, all Link could think of to say was, "I assume Hestu looks like you?"
"Hee hee hee! Like me. Only bigger. Much bigger." The animated creature made wild motions with its arms and legs in an attempt to look bigger than it was, and it was making an exaggerated rounded motion over its belly.
"So, you are a Korok?" Link was still trying to wrap his head around the odd little thing.
"Yes. I am a Korok," it said in its fast and high-pitched voice, "a Child of the Forest. I am a forest spirit." A spirit, huh?
"Are there more of you?"
"Hee hee hee! Yes, many more. My friends are aaaaaall across this land. We love to hide and play!"
Link thought for a moment that maybe one of the Bokoblins got a hit on him over his head. Still a bit bewildered but needing to move along, Link said goodbye to the Korok and started to walk away. He heard the creature's high-pitched voice once again as it was almost out of earshot.
"Goodbye, Chosen One."
Link whipped his head around to face the direction of the voice. "What did you call me?" He yelled toward the Korok.
"Hee hee hee! Nothing! I said nothing!" The singsong voice trailed off as Link shook his head. He secretly looked forward to finding more of those funny little beings. He continued walking on toward the orange glow of the shrine that was just ahead of where he had found the ice block.
A handful of minutes later, Link emerged victorious from the final shrine with his last rune and Spirit Orb tucked within the Sheikah slate.
This rune was Cryonis, which gave him the ability to manifest large ice blocks out of any body of water, and he could climb on them and shatter them. He was sure all of these runes would be very useful, and he smiled to himself knowing he had finally earned the paraglider.
Just as he was thinking of the paraglider, the hooded stranger came floating in his direction once again, gliding down to him as he held onto the flying contraption.
"Oho ho! Extraordinary! You've collected all four Spirit Orbs. That means it is finally time for me to tell you everything, Link."
Odd. I don't remember telling him my name.
The old man continued. "Do you remember the area where that old temple is that I pointed out to you yesterday? I shall wait for you there." To Link's astonishment, the old man vanished right in front of his eyes in a teal-green haze of light. He remembered the Korok. Is the old man a spirit, too? Things are sure getting weird around here.
Not knowing what else to do, Link opened up his map. He remembered that the temple was near the Shrine of Resurrection, so he selected the blue icon on his map and tapped the screen. Moments later he was again inside the place where he was when he woke up, and he made his way out and headed in the direction of the ancient temple.
On the way he came across another blue Bokoblin that was ahead of him. It was holding a bow and some arrows, but it hadn't spotted him yet. He drew a fire arrow and his Traveler's Bow, setting his sights on the unsuspecting creature. Link let his arrow fly with a loud twang, and the fire arrow hit the Bokoblin straight in the face, setting it on fire and killing it. Yes!
He ran over to where it had been standing and picked up a bundle of ten bomb arrows. He tried to pick up the other bow, but the Sheikah slate wouldn't allow it to dematerialize. He studied the screen and noticed there were no empty boxes with a message at the top that read "You cannot carry any more of those."
He noticed he had four Boko Bows, so he selected one of them and pressed the "Drop" button. To his amusement, the weapon disappeared from the slate and materialized on the ground a few feet in front of him. This thing never ceases to amaze me. He put the new bow into the now-empty inventory box, and it was labeled "Soldier's Bow." That was his strongest bow yet!
Finally reaching the temple, he opened his Sheikah slate again and saw that his location was labeled "Temple of Time."
He suddenly noticed several teal green beams of light at the end of the room that caught his eye. Walking closer, he realized that the glow was surrounding a tall statue. A twinge in his head told him he was getting another memory back, and he suddenly remembered that it was a statue of the Goddess Hylia. Feeling a little out of sorts from the strange occurrences of the day, Link decided to kneel down at the statue to pray. As soon as he did, gentle rays of sunlight showered down upon him, and he heard a familiar female voice calling out to him again.
"You who have conquered the shrines and claimed their Spirit Orbs: I can offer you great power. In exchange for four Spirit Orbs, I will amplify your being. So tell me what it is that you desire: Heart Container or Stamina Wheel?"
Without thinking, Link said, "Uhh…heart container?" As soon as the words left his mouth he remembered he was supposed to give the Spirit Orbs to the old man. "Wait!" Link shouted.
The female voice sounded again. "I shall grant you the power you seek."
Oh no! What have I done? He suddenly noticed a large spinning red glowing heart adorned with swirls of gold on the outside coming toward him, and as soon as he touched it, it disappeared into him like the Spirit Orbs did; however, it wasn't anywhere to be found within the Sheikah slate, to his disappointment.
The female voice spoke again.
"Your life force has been strengthened, increasing your maximum number of hearts by one." He had no idea what that meant, but he felt stronger than he had before.
The female voice spoke once more.
"Go and bring peace to Hyrule."
Link sat there on the ground kneeling under the statue for a few more moments. He really hoped the old man would still be willing to give up his paraglider without the Spirit Orbs to exchange, but he wouldn't hold his breath.
"Ahoy there!" the old man's greeting sounded again. Link wasn't sure where it had come from until he looked up, surprised to see the old man above him on what was left of the ruined roof, the man still glowing with a strange green glow.
"The blessing of the Goddess has made you that much more resilient, I see. Here I am! Get up here. Quickly!"
Link noticed a tall ladder on the outside of the building that allowed access to the roof, so he ran to it and climbed up the ladder. The man was standing across from him at the end of the roof, inside one of the broken turrets. Link walked forward.
"Well done there, young one! Now then. The time has come to show you who I truly am."
Link shielded his eyes as a sudden bright light in front of him nearly blinded him, coming from where the old man was standing. As the light faded, he saw that he was surrounded by multiple small teal-green flames, dressed in a regal red royal coat and a king's golden crown, only he was slightly translucent.
He looked into Link's confused eyes. "I was King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule, the last leader of Hyrule – a kingdom which no longer exists."
Link gasped. So I've been talking to a spirit again. Is this really happening?
King Rhoam began speaking again.
"Allow me to explain. The Great Calamity was merciless. It devastated everything in its path, and my life was taken away from me a century ago. And since that time, here I have remained in spirit form. I did not think it wise to overwhelm you while your memory was still fragile. So rather than that, I thought it best to assume a temporary form. Please, forgive me."
Link still couldn't quite wrap his head around what the king was saying, but he squeaked out a "I understand, sir. I-I mean, Your Majesty."
"Oho ho!" He laughed his familiar laugh. "That is unnecessary, Link. I think you are ready to hear exactly what happened one hundred years ago."
King Rhoam relayed the events of the Great Calamity to Link, explaining everything that had happened, including the fates of the Champions and the Divine Beasts. He then told Link of how the princess' appointed knight had been defeated during the conflict, but the princess survived and sealed Ganon with her power. He projected a moving image with sound into Link's mind of a faceless woman speaking.
"Link, you are our final hope. The fate of Hyrule rests with you." The princess turned toward Ganon who was swirling around above her, and rays of golden light beamed from her extended hand.
King Rhoam continued, the shock on Link's face readily apparent.
"Yes. That princess was my own daughter, my dear Zelda. And the courageous knight who protected her right up to the very end, that knight was none other than you, Link. You fought valiantly when your fate took an unfortunate turn. And then you were taken to the Shrine of Resurrection. Here you now stand revitalized, one hundred years later. However, my daughter's sealing power will soon be exhausted. Once that happens, Ganon will freely regenerate himself and nothing will stop him from consuming our land. Considering that I could not save my own kingdom, I have no right to ask this of you, Link…but I am powerless here. You must save my daughter and do whatever it takes to annihilate Ganon. Somehow, Ganon has maintained control over all four Divine Beasts, as well as those Guardians swarming around Hyrule Castle."
Link wanted to head to the castle right away, but seemingly reading his mind, King Rhoam interrupted his thoughts.
"I believe it would be quite reckless for you to head directly to the castle at this point. I suggest that you make your way to the east, out to one of the villages in the wilderness. Follow the road out to Kakariko Village. There you will find the elder, Impa. She will tell you more about the path that lies ahead." He gave Link a new yellow pin on the Sheikah slate map, which was flashing on Kakariko Village.
The king continued. "I suggest you make your way past the twin summits of the Dueling Peaks. From there, follow the road as it proceeds north. You may wish to rest your head at the Dueling Peaks Stable along your way. Go on. Here is my paraglider, just as I promised. I have no use for treasure as a spirit, so I will not be needing the Spirit Orbs. Forgive me, as I was only testing your resolve and perseverance."
Link was in shock over all he had heard. He had so many questions. Who did the mysterious voices from the castle come from? The princess, perhaps? The second one sure sounded a lot like the statue of Hylia I prayed to not thirty minutes ago. Was that the voice of the Goddess? He forced himself back to reality and suddenly remembered to thank the king for the paraglider.
"You are most welcome. I have no use for it anymore. With the paraglider you will be able to safely fly off the cliffs surrounding this area. Oh and Link, I know you wish to set out immediately, but it appears as if there will be a blood moon tonight. I suggest you stay one more night in my cabin. You may freely use it whenever you'd like."
Feeling a little sad, Link told the king, "Thank you for all of your kindness and supplies, and for all of your help, sir. You were my first friend out here. So, thanks."
"Oho ho! Link, you are most welcome. You have a good heart. It is no surprise to me that you would be the Chosen One."
Link jumped a little at what the king called him, realizing that was what the Korok had called him, too.
King Rhoam smiled kindly at Link. "The time has come for me to leave this land. I have told you everything I can. Farewell, Link. And I bid you good fortune."
As the king started to fade away in an aura of teal-green light, his voice rang out once more.
"Link…you must save…Hyrule…"
Link stood on the roof of the temple for a few minutes after the king had left him. His mind was swimming with questions, and he was unsure how he was ever a knight with how rusty he was with his fighting skills, and how he tired so easily. Then again, I was asleep for a hundred years. No wonder these muscles are so weak.
He checked his map and saw the newly-placed pin over Kakariko Village, but the map around it was not complete. He decided he would activate more towers when he came to them along the path King Rhoam had advised him to take.
With the sun dropping below the horizon on the Great Plateau, Link descended the ladder and made his way back to the now-abandoned log cabin. As he settled into the bed, he decided in the morning he would gather more supplies, cook some meals, and set out toward the Dueling Peaks Stable as King Rhoam had instructed.