The creatures screech harshly as they rush at Aloy with their weapons. She leaps away from them and rolls; even though she is wearing the Shield Weaver, she does not want to become dependant upon it over concern of having her reflexes and fighting prowess dulled. Aloy spins around as she rises with her spear slashing outward, managing to catch one of them across the face so that it falls down, and is quick to follow up by thrusting forward to stab another in the stomach so that it falls while shrieking with pain. The other two hesitate, showing their lack of discipline. Aloy takes advantage of their hesitation so that she rushes forward with her spear sideways to catch them both in their ugly faces and continues her momentum, making them fall backward onto the ground. She turns and capitalizes on their fall by stabbing first one through the chest into its heart, then rapidly plucks her spear out and stabs the other through its chest into its heart as well. Both scream long and loud, and their cries fade out as they die.

Aloy faces down the last two just as they are getting up with their weapons. One now sports a gash across its face and wields a spear and the other now sports a gash in its gut and wields a club. Instead of fleeing, they face Aloy with even greater anger.

These things are tough, and as bold as any machine! Aloy thought.

The club wielder suddenly leaps high into the air toward her while shrieking with its club raised high, this in spite of his gut injury. Aloy is quick to take advantage as its attack reminds her of a watcher's attack by firmly lunging upward with her spear, feeling the tip piercing its chest just underneath its sternum and into its heart. The metallic twang of her Shield Weaver sounds, due to the other creature attempting to stab her. Its speartip merely bounces off, throwing it off balance. Aloy thrust kicks her now dying opponent off her spear while pulling it out, then faces the last one and they end up circling each other.

"I gotta hand it to you, whatever you are, you certainly don't scare," Aloy said with sarcastic respect.

The creature stabs at Aloy with a snarl, not caring that her Shield Weaver will protect her. But Aloy instead dodges and grabs its spear.

"My turn!" Aloy snarled as she stabs out with her spear, only to have hers grabbed in return. They both have the other's spear gripped tightly and end up playing tug of war.

Grrr! Strong! Aloy thought.

The creature lets go of its spear and immediately tackles Aloy, causing her to fall backward onto the ground with the creature atop her. Her Shield Weaver will protect against fast-moving mass and falls even, but will not protect against inertia. Aloy is quick to grab the creature by its throat with her left hand. The creature is strong as it squirms against her grip. Its nauseating smell fills Aloy's nostrils.

"I guess you freaks don't know what bathing is!"

The creature lets go of her spear and starts pawing the air toward her face and throat. It's eyes shining with a demented look. Aloy lets go of her spear and begins punching it in the face. It muddles the creature, but it does not stop its attack. Aloy stops punching and instead jabs it firmly in the eyes. It works as the creature cries out while covering its eyes with both hands and arches backward. Aloy pulls her legs upward and kicks it away with both feet, sending it flying backward. She quickly gets up while grabbing her spear and lunges downward with a shout, stabbing the creature through its chest with so much force that her speartip goes through its heart and spine and out through its back. The creature shrieks long and loud, then finally goes silent.

Aloy pulls her spear out and cleans it off in its loincloth. She gags upon smelling the worst of its smell wafting from it. She puts her spear away and looks around at the now dead creatures.

"First that massive freak back there. And now these things. Whoever this guy is, he definitely will need help. I just hope I can reach Kakariko Village and find him there."

Aloy walks across the bridge. Although its torches are still lit, the bridge is in a state of disrepair as one of its posts is broken off. Chunks of stone either lie about it or are missing from it. As she approaches the end, she notices a man staring off intently at something.

Didn't that jerk even notice my battle with those things?! She thought incredulously. He probably did and was too timid to help out. So what's he looking at now?

Aloy notices that he is looking at some sort of conical object. At first she thought it was another Sheikah Shrine, but it was not such.

"The end is near," she heard the man say upon getting close enough to him, as he is yet to notice Aloy. "I may be somewhat used to seeing bad omens, but that . . . Well, let's just say it's badder than most."

The man finally notices Aloy and quickly turns to her. He has short brown hair with an even bang.

"We're doomed!" He proclaimed, then changes his tune. "I mean, don't panic!"

"Ah, okay," Aloy mused whimsically. I almost did with those freaks back there.

"Sorry, who are you?" The man asked. "Have we met? Well, doesn't matter who you are, really. I was getting tired of talking to myself, so you've come at a good time. By the by, those strange things that popped out of the ground . . . Did you see them?"

"Yeah, I-" Aloy began.

"I'm not talking about mushrooms here!" The man interjected. "I'm talking about those towers! They seem to have popped up all over the place! And that's not the only strange thing that's happened. Those long-deserted shrines suddenly started glowing!" As he points past her and Aloy looks back at the Sheikah Shrine she had passed. "You know what this means, don't you? The end is here! With all this craziness happening, I've been keeping an eye on that thing. Just to see if it suddenly starts moving, ya know!"

"What thing?" Aloy asked.

"I'm talking about that Guardian of course!" He stated. "Haven't you heard the old stories about Hyrule? See that thing over there?" As he points to something near the bridge at the end she was walking toward. "The one shaped like an overturned urn? That is what I'm talking about." The man looks at her intently once again and in a low tone. "Did you know some of them can move? One of them once chased me down and tried to kill me!"

"This one here?" Aloy asked whimsically while casually gesturing at it.

"No, it was a different one," the man continued. "That one was closer to the castle but before the forest . . . When they spot you, they shoot blue beams of light at you. Man, I was so sure that was the end for me. I was prepared for the worst. But I somehow managed to escape into the nearby woods. You think it was my lightening fast reflexes that saved me?"

"Was it?" Aloy mused.

"Ha, I wish," the man answered. "Truth is, I just got lucky. Anyway, I hear Guardians like that still wander around Hyrule Castle. Be careful."

"I will," Aloy said. "Gotta go."

At the end of the bridge is a simple shelter of a roof on poles over a fire where Aloy decides to stop for a moment to sit in the shade. She takes out some of her rations, or what is left of them, and a bottle of water. Aloy stares at another Guardian just up ahead, silent and rusting like the other.

"Guardian," she said, so that her focus can read it. "And if what that man said is true, then they are the dangerous machines of this world. I better be on my guard. Ah, I can't believe I just said that." Snickering over the pun she had made.

She finishes her lunch and is on her way once again. Aloy meets up with the river that she crossed earlier. Up the river and across it are one of those towers looming ever so high. She is still too far from it to see any of its details.

Two objects suddenly leap up out of the water as they expand. The one closest to Aloy spits something directly at her, causing her to jump aside on a reflex and hear the crash of a rock that lands where she had stood. She looks at what it was to see that the floating object in question is some sort of creature with hollow eyes and a tube for a mouth with a bag-like head that repeatedly inflates and deflates.

Once again, it spits a rock at her and once again she has to roll out of the way to avoid getting hit. She whips out her war bow along with an arrow and quickly takes aim. The creature closest to her rises out of the water once again and Aloy releases. Her arrow strikes the creature, causing it to quickly wither and fall back into the river from where it does not come back up. The other one in the back is too distant for it to spit a rock at her, but Aloy nocks another arrow and takes aim then releases. The other creature also falls back into the river and does not rise again either.

Aloy sighs with relief as she lowers her bow and puts it away. "This is going to be tedious. I wonder what else is going to attack me?"

As she continues her walk, she encounters a large boulder in the middle of the road. There is a fire with a cooking pan over it, along with two spears near it. As she gets closer, she hears a series of grunts and squeaks from behind that boulder. Once up to the boulder, she peeks around it to see another group of creatures like the ones she had battled earlier before the bridge, and there are red barrels near them. Aloy ducks back before any of them could see her.

Not wanting to have to take on a whole group like the last one, Aloy takes out her Lodge Rattler, a projectile weapon that shoots a sonic blast, and rushes from around the rock. One of those creatures reacts to her and calls her out to his comrades, Aloy unloads on those creatures, causing one of those red barrels to explode, setting off a chain reaction that blows Aloy back onto her bottom and blows those creatures to pieces.

Aloy puts her rattler away. She notices a large sword on the ground and examines it, but leaves it behind. She nexts takes note of a simple raised platform with a ladder leading up. On top of it is a chest that has a skull-like appearance. She climbs that ladder and opens it to find some sort of shield and examines it.

"Of no use to me." And she puts it back, then gets down and continues up alongside the river.

It is evening when Aloy reaches the threshold of the valley she was told about. The road is actually a riverbank.

"I bet Kakariko Village gets cut off everytime there's a storm," Aloy mused, then glances up and around. "This place is perfect for an ambush too."

Down in that valley, she can see two high peaks directly across from each other. Nearby is a tree with an elaborate platform built throughout it. And across the river is that tower. Now that she is so much closer she can see more detail to it. The tower has a glowing orange core surrounded by grating. There are platforms upon it at even distances going up, showing that the tower is scalable. At the top is a platform with two arches intersecting as a bulb-like design that has a point on the top.

"I wonder what they're for? Watchtowers maybe?" Aloy mused as she tries to read it with her focus, only for it to read, unknown. "Or like Meridian's spire maybe?"

As she enters the canyon, she looks up and around at the cliff walls. She spots another Sheikah Shrine across the river, its orange coloration also glowing as well.

"They must be connected to those towers somehow. No stable yet, but I have yet to see any open space too. I guess it must be further in."

The sound of splashing gets her attention and she sees movement in the river of something trying to swim against the current. Two creatures swim ashore on her side to reveal that they are very large creatures, which remind her of snapjaws. They stand erect and look like lizards with buggy eyes and a single horn on their head. Aloy takes her spear out.

One of the lizard beings flicks its tongue at her, and it bounces off of her Shield Weaver. The other runs at her with head low, attempting to gore her. Aloy is quick to jump aside, then thrust outward and stab it through its chest, though not deeply enough to kill it. The creature rasps in pain as it falls and Aloy parries the lunge of the other creature. She knocks it off balance and Aloy takes that opportunity to viciously slash it across the throat, opening it up and spilling its blood. The other creature recovers, only for Aloy to stab it up through its chin and into its brain, causing it to go limp.

Aloy kicks the lizard monster off her spear and puts it away. The other thrashes for a bit until it finally goes still. She pulls them away from the river and places them up against the cliff wall side-by-side.

"These things really do look like lizards!" Aloy mused as she touches one of them gingerly.

She next straightens and continues onward up alongside the river. She later encounters a man with a dark complexion and black frizzy hair.

"Huh? What's the matter with you?" The man asked. "You look right tuckered out. You know, Dueling Peaks Stables is real close. If you're feelin' a bit peckish, I've got just the thing to get your strength back. A nice hunk o' meat! I carry only the finest meats. I guarantee these are top-choice provisions, or your rupees back!"

"Ah, sorry, I don't have any . . . rupees," Aloy answered, not knowing what rupees were, so she figured that she should just deny having any.

"Oh, that's too bad. Do you have anything that you would like to sell to me?"

Aloy ponders that for a moment. For the merchants of her world, she would have had something to sell to them. But in this world, she has no idea what they could want.

"Sorry, I have to be on my way," she instead answered.

"Very well."

Further up ahead, Aloy encounters another camp of those pig-like creatures, only this time they are situated across the river. They notice Aloy and end up screeching and yowling as they jump and wave their weapons with fury at her, but have no boat and make no attempt to swim that river.

"I better get rid of them anyway." As she takes out her sharpshot bow and a fire arrow for it after taking notice of red barrels next to them. She takes careful aim and releases. The flaming arrow flies across the river and into one of those red barrels. It explodes, sending those creatures flying everywhere as they scream their dying death throes.

Aloy puts her bow away and continues her trek.

It is sunset by the time she encounters a very tall thin pole with a ladder on it and a platform at the top. Next to it is a simple wooden bridge stretching across the river.

"I'll probably need to cross that bridge."

As she gets closer to that bridge, she sees a meadow on the other side. The first thing she sees is a building that looks like Outskirt Stable with people milling around outside, along with more animals, including those horses. Behind the stable is a pen with more animals. Some of the people take notice of her. As she walks further along, she sees another Sheikah Shrine directly across the road from it up next to the mountainside. It is upon a tiny islet ringed by pointy stones within a pool being fed by a small waterfall from off that mountain.

"That must be Dueling Peaks Stable. So Kakariko Village must be up that road somewhere. Gonna have to ask there for more specific directions."

Aloy stares down at the bridge for a moment. It is crudely built, as pieces of board were simply nailed together to merely form a bridge and give it extra strength. And hastily too, as it looks to be a bridge that was replaced. And is probably a new one every time a rainstorm passed through. Silt had built up alongside the bridge, catching other things that had washed down the river such as a large piece of black metal, along with a rusty sword and shield; both of which she ignores as she continues crossing the bridge to head toward Dueling Peaks Stable.


Note:

A story is very different from the storyline of a video game, especially an open-world one such as Breath of the Wild. It means it has to be more "realistic"; such as enemies not simply vanishing like in the game, and sequenced so there can be a plot and conclusion.