Sidequests again? Link does need to prepare for the assault. I probably missed a few good NPCs. A lot of them. Sorry.
In retrospect, Link felt kind of bad for not thanking Revali despite the insufferable level of smug. Link had compiled a to-do list of things he wanted to, well, do before he went to kill Ganon. Again.
It didn't help that there had been a few spots on the mountain where Link head the Shrine sensor beeping. He could ignore the shrines and the conversation but he wanted to take every advantage he could reasonably have. Link didn't relish the idea of being stuck in the Dark World with Ganon for another few thousand years. He wondered if tying the Master Sword to his hand would be too much restriction on his freedom of movement or worth the risk. Half-formed plans kept Link up much of the night. He had another go at trying to reactivate the armor link to the slate. The only function he had functional was the heart rate monitor. He really wanted to get the secondary tech power supply running. The additional power for ancient weaponry would boost chances of survival.
Once he managed relaxation, Link slept soundly He woke up to the sound of the concertina and made sure to thank Kass before saying goodbye. There were a lot of people to visit. Link decided to start with something easy while he finished planning.
The first stop was the tower visible from Rito Village. The blank spot on his map irked him even though he didn't have plans to explore the snow-covered mountains. Link had some time as he rode up to his destination and a desperate need to talk to someone. He decided to check out the cabin visible from the tower. After that he was gonna ask Cotera where her other two sisters were located because he would feel bad if they were stuck without power for much longer. This would have to be weighed against Zelda being stuck in the castle, of course. Link wanted to look for more supplies while traveling to the remaining fairies.
Pondo had just finished setting up the pins for snowling. Most people would have decided to use a smaller scale for normal bowling. Normal bowling was boring and this was snowling. Pondo was of the opinion that if the pins were anything less than four feet tall and had no carved moose heads it wasn't worth it. It took a very long time to drag the gigantic carved log pins into place for a new round. If he ever had a visitor that joined him, he was going to charge good money.
So engrossed was Pondo in the moving of wooden pins that he didn't see the guy coming.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, Hi! Nice to meet a fresh face in these parts. It's not every day I get company this high in the hills. This snowball is for this game I made up!"
"Game?"
"Yeah! Snowball bowling! Or, as I call it, Snowling!"
"Snowling? How does it work?"
Link watched with interest as Pondo demonstrated. He helped reset the pins and Pondo gave the odd foreigner a free try after introductions. Link didn't understand the language too well but he had a big grin on his face and was willing to play while he let stew simmer inside. After a few rounds Link got an even bigger grin.
"OH! Hey, can we make a smaller one? Smaller snowling?"
"Why would you want a smaller game of Snowling?"
"For the, um, what word was it, the tree children?" Pondo had no idea what Link was talking about until Link showed him sketches and fumbled more words. "Small tree children! Forest spirits? Korok! That was the word!"
Pondo shrugged and decided to play along. He helped Link make a smaller sized run with sticks stood up in the snow. Pondo absentmindedly started to carve a piece ofthe wood Link had provided for this project. Link dashed uphill, then came back minutes later. Pondo decided he could tolerate a little bit of imaginary friends for the sake of this new one. Pondo watched as Link left a small snowball on the ground. What Pondo wasn't expecting was to see the snowball hover around for a little while before being tossed downhill at the smaller pins.
Link said, "Sorry, I have to go do important things. Have fun guys!" then left. Pondo scratched his head and reset the pins for his new, invisible, bowling buddy.
Barta sighed and muttered one word under her breath.
"Tourists."
Looking down at the blond weird foreigner which lay on the sand, she was able to spot the cause of near-death. There was a bottle half-full of dark-grey and black fluid. Not only that, he was wearing flamebreaker armor instead of proper desert clothing. She took pity on Link and poured a little sun-protection elixir down his throat. It was the least she could do for the guy that got her out of the cell.
Link came to and squinted up at Barta. "Nggggh whath appe ned? Barta? What happened?"
"You drank the wrong elixir. You are really lucky, you know. Even I'm not stupid enough to travel the desert without proper sun protection and chilly stuff on hand."
"But I drank elixir!"
"Wrong elixir. It was fireproof. Not chilly."
Link had bewilderment written on every inch of his face. "I drank fireproof elixir! It protects against heat!"
"It wasn't a cooling drink."
"But the elixir protects me from heat!"
Barta ended up having to carefully explain this concept over and over to Link. Why people assumed stuff that would protect them from the burning fury of Death Mountain would work was beyond her. Eventually, Link understood.
"So fireproof elixir only works if it very very hot. Not if only very hot?"
"YES."
"WHY."
Barta shrugged. She gave Link the rest of the bottle to get him back to the bazaar. If she had looked back, she would have seen Link putting back on the rest of the Flamebreaker gear which was upgraded twice. He tucked the bottle into his inventory. She also would have seen him strapping a lot of wood to the armor, guzzling fireproof elixir, setting the wood on fire, then continuing on his way to the Great Fairy. Scruples temporarily died in an earlier skirmish with Lizalfos, or he might have died of worry.
The craziest part of this idea was that it worked to protect Link from heatstroke.
"Here's the rupees, now how about that helmet?" Link looked expectantly at Robbie.
The old Sheikah researcher grinned at the glittering treasure being offered. "All right, now we put the gears and cores into Che... the forge."
"Gears and cores?"
"Yeah, we can't make the helmet without material."
"...I sold stuff to get the cash after helping out the fairies. Why didn't you guys get materials from the deactivated machines outside?"
Robbie stared back blankly as Link threw up his hands and fast-traveled to mine some diamonds or luminous stone.
Link wasn't looking forward to this. He, after some consideration, decided that it would be best to thank Revali after all. The first impression Revali had of Link was less than stellar and had contributed greatly to Revali's dislike of Link. Link would have been wary of anyone who crawled from the ground wreathed in dark chaotic energies. The nearly dying because of Revali waking the Blight was not cool, but how could Revali have foreseen that?
Link crouched on the ground and as he was rising said, "Iforgotto-OW" The thud of forehead on stone echoed in the air. Link rubbed his head and moved away from the cliff he'd been trying to scale. He crouched again and waited for the power to start stirring the air. As he sailed up, this time he got the next part out. "Thankyoufo-Oof!"
The cliff Link could have blamed on his lack of steering but this particular gale had launched him right into a tree. Link detangled his clothing from the branches and tried to avoid landing on the wolf or horse below.
The third gale did not slam him into a cliff or snag him on a tree. Link finished his sentence that had been started as he saw Revali's folded wings and raised eyebrow. "ForhelpingsaveHyrule!" This time there was no cliff crash or branch bashing. Link got back in the saddle and rode off to the arrow merchant.
Link rode on Epona across the bridge. He was on his way to complete the last task before he went to Hyrule Castle. Link, Malanya, and Epona had a pleasant chat as the wolf watched. Link told Malanya about Vah Medoh and his preparations. "...So Robbie made me a helmet now but I'm still feeling like he was cheating me somehow. You think the scientists who've been studying my gear would have restored the power amp functionality for my armor but noooo. You'll never guess what actually got the circuits repaired on my cuirass."
"Are you gonna tell me?"
"The fairies. It took a lot of stuff though. It would have taken less stuff to do it properly instead of magically but we didn't have a good soldering iron."
"That's unfortunate. Did they at least agree to get working on the horse armor designs? I'd love some of those for my friends here."
"They said they'd maybe give it a go, which probably meant they were too polite to say they don't think it as important as their other projects... Hey, can you do me a favor? I've left a few pictures and a recording on my Sheikah Slate. Purah's Sheikah Slate too. Just in case there's a repeat of last time."
"Last time was a bit of a disaster, yeah. That can't have been fun, getting sealed with Ganon. Should we change subject?"
"Probably. Best not to dwell on that one. I'm pretty sure I was unconscious for most of it at least." He was guessing this on the assumption that if he and Ganon hadn't been in hibernation or something he'd have been a lot less sane when the Champions met him. "Epona is really mad about this, but she is not going to Hyrule Castle. That whole area is covered in haywire Guardians. If I go down, you'll take care of her." Link knew he didn't need to ask that.
Epona snorted. Malanya could see Link's point, even if Epona did not want to.
"Are you leaving her here with me then?"
"Yeah... I'll be back after this whole mess is over. If not, well, you know."
"You better come back or SUFFER MY WRATH!... I jest."
After Link left to go ruin Ganon's day, Malanya and Epona looked at each other.
Malanya said, "Well, I would love to stop you from throwing your life away but... Just be really careful you don't end up giving Bokoblins a ride, please."
Epona gave him a look that said 'I would get rid of any of those little wimps in no time.' She galloped off to the Castle and Malanya's blessing aided her speed.
Notes: Thank you for the reviews people! Especially the new reviewers. The fireproof elixir vs. cooling elixir mechanic is just so wrong. SO WRONG. So I fixed it.