Kaladin flew off the plateau, using the paraglider to conserve stormlight. He didn't know when he would be able to get more, and the paraglider seemed sturdy. He made a safe landing and started heading toward the nearby sheikah tower. As he walked, he wandered south just a little bit and found what Zelda called 'apple trees'. He took a couple, eating one of the sweet fruits and pocketing the rest. He turned to leave when all of a sudden a strange little tree person popped out of a cloud of smoke.
In a strangely squeaky voice, it said,"You can see the forest children?"
"Is that what you are?" Kaladin said as he stared at the being.
"The hero of prophecy used to be the only one who could see us. Are you him?"
"Actually I swapped places with him, I think. So I'm going to Impa to see if she knows anything about how to get me back home or how to fight Ganon. I'll help out with that until Link returns, I guess."
"Whoever you are, take this!" The forest spirit was beaming up at Kaladin.
It gave Kaladin a gold seed. Kaladin stuck it in his pocket for later.
Zelda chimed in. He was starting to get used to her, with her occasional comment about this fish or that plant (which was how he had managed to live off foraging, so far), but he didn't think he'd ever get used to her sudden intrusions. She said,"That seed is a korok seed. Did you find a korok?"
"The child of the forest? With the tree-like body?" Zelda gave assent and Kaladin said,"Yes, but it seems to have disappeared again."
"Kaladin, Link was the only person who could see the koroks. You seem to have inherited some of his powers. You really might have a shot at defeating Ganon." Zelda quickly corrected herself, and added,"If that's what you chose, of course."
Kaladin tried to say that's what he was doing, but Zelda's voice didn't respond.
He walked a little bit farther, down a bright green hill, until Syl stopped him.
"Hey, Kaladin! I wonder if there's something under this rock, it's kind of in a weird place," Syl said, gesturing to a stone that did look out of place.
Kaladin was unsure, but he knew that Syl wouldn't let him leave without checking the rock. "Okay, I'll lift it up. If it's a bug, warn me before it scuttles out." He didn't mind bugs, he just wasn't interested in getting bit by something poisonous only to off-worlders or something else weird and horrible on this strange planet.
Kaladin jumped back as a forest spirit appeared, and ended up with a seed.
Not five minutes later, Kaladin bumped into a strange flower right below dueling peaks. When the flower moved, Syl chased after it, until another forest spirit appeared. During a similar exchange to the last one, Kaladin gained another seed.
A few hours later, Kaladin managed to climb up the dueling peaks tower and collected another portion of his sheikah slate's map. It was getting dark, so Kaladin rented a small room at the nearby stable for the night. Before Kaladin slept for the night, he talked to a few of the people around the stable, in an attempt to understand Hyrule better. Most were travelers and merchants, including one named Beedle who sold, well, beetles for some reason. One of the people, named Greta, actually approached him, in the stable's main room.
"You're not from around here, are you?" she said after they exchanged pleasantries. She claimed to be of the Gerudo, a civilization run by women in the east.
"In what way?" He said,"I'm just passing through the dueling peaks area, for the first time."
Greta said,"No, I mean this world. Roshar maybe?"
Kaladin was shocked. Nobody else had guessed that he was an off-worlder all night. Who was this strange woman? "How did you know?"
"I didn't. Not for sure, but you look Alethi, and I know for sure that Roshar had a perpendicular. I doubt it's still working though. Which begs the question, how did you get here?
"I/m not entirely sure. The last thing I remember is sitting down by Urithiru's Oathgate." Greta looked confused so he clarified,"It's a Rosharian teleportation device. They usually only drop people off at other gates, but I'm not sure if anything is impossible with those. Can you get me off this world?" He wouldn't break his promise to help, but he needed to know that there was a way out of Hyrule.
Greta shrugged. "There's no way off right now. I'm just as stuck as you are. Worse, I was supposed to leave for Scadrial months ago."
"Scardrial? Is that another planet?" he tried to ask but Greta had moved on. They talked for a little while longer, about the Gerudo and Hyrule, meaningless things. Greta ran a shop in Gerudo Town and she jokingly offered to give him a discount but,"They won't let voe into the city." Eventually, they both walked away to sleep, and as Greta turned, Kaladin could just make out a tattoo on her arm. In the shape of a Ghostblood symbol. He shivered.
Kaladin didn't know much about the Ghostbloods, only that Shallan had run into them a year or two ago. Veil had been the one to warn him about the symbol, but even she was unusually tight-lipped about the affair. Both had warned Kaladin that Ghostbloods were bad news, but that's all he'd been able to pry out. He slept half-awake that night.
The next morning Kaladin set off for a point on his map Rhoam had said was where Impa lived, called Kakariko village. Along the path, he met a tree person named Heshu, one of the koroks, if a bit taller. He asked Kaladin for help getting his maracas back, from a nearby camp of bokoblins. Kaladin obliged since Heshu looked so sad. As sad as a tree person could appear anyway. Kaladin snuck into the camp but was quickly noticed. What followed was a short fight, as Kaladin did his best only to injure the bokoblins. But they were relentless, and after all was said and done, Kaladin had killed five but was holding the maracas.
"Thank you so much! I owe you one," Heshu said, as Kaladin handed them over. He then explained to Kaladin how the children of the forest, koroks, had hidden around Hyrule with korok seeds that would make his maracas "more shakalaka." Heshu needed to head back home, but many seeds had been stolen.
Kaladin reached into his magic pockets and pulled out a few dozen korok seeds. The koroks kept popping up and granting him the things. "Good news, I already found a few."
"Wow! Did you get that many already? Thank you! Do you want me to upgrade your ability to carry weapons?"
"Sure? I'm not sure how that works though. Can't I just stick whatever I want in my pockets?"
Heshu said,"It's magic!" which didn't really answer his question.
Heshu pulled out his maracas again and did a strange dance to music that seemed to come from him.
"Thanks," Kaladin said, though he was still confused.
After he was out of earshot of Heshu, Kaladin asked Syl,"So the pockets have a limited ability to carry weapons, but can hold fifty korok seeds?"
Syl only replied,"What a strange world we end up in."