The first thing Link did, once he'd mentally recovered a bit from dealing with Purah being Purah, was to check the map on his Sheikah Slate.

The second thing was to wonder why he'd done the first thing, because he was in the middle of a great big swath of black emptiness on the map at the moment and it was doing him no favours whatsoever.

With that out of the way, though, Link had a long-term sort of objective which was to try and get hold of parts from Guardians. He'd seen the occasional broken Guardian on the Great Plateau, and more occasionally since then, but he didn't have much idea of where to even start looking for parts from them… and if the parts of a working Guardian were required, he had even less idea where to start.

So, Link shrugged, stowed his Slate, and went down to head through Hateno again before going exploring. Maybe he'd be able to find a Shrine or two, or something along those lines, and then he could eventually even find the Guardians he was after.

And possibly a way to beat them in a fight. Actually that was probably something he should seek out first.

As he went down through the village, though, someone called to him from a shop.

This was a bit of a surprise, firstly since most of the rest of the villagers were steering clear of him and secondly because she'd shouted "Customer!" at him, and Link looked in her direction. "Rrf?"

"Yes, I do mean you!" the Hylian woman replied. "Just go in and talk to my husband!"

Mystified but interested, Link went past her, and a Hylian man with an apron raised a hand to greet him.

"We don't see many customers like you around here," he said. "I suppose that means that your kind have mostly dyed out! But if you're looking to add some colour to your coat, well, I don't ink you'll find a better day to dye hard!"

He clapped his hands together. "Now! I've got plenty of colours I can apply, of course, but I need ingredients to do it! I hope that doesn't tint your enjoyment of the process!"

Something about Link's confused look must have conveyed itself to the man, and he tapped his chest. "Sayge is the name. And I've got a passion for pigments! So, interested in a fresh paint of coat?"


Link tried out red, then blue, before deciding that it probably wasn't for him at the moment and returning to his original fur colour.

Sayge was quite good at mixing up and applying the dye very quickly, and also washing it off, and Link had to admit he was impressed at how completely the dye had replaced his base fur colour. Still, he preferred his greenish-grey look right now.

Plus, it was better camouflage, though loping up to a Bokoblin while dyed bright purple might have confused them long enough for him to launch some kind of surprise attack.


Link climbed up on the roof of the dye shop to get a better view, then began heading southwest past the shrine.

As he did, he saw a set of strange-looking houses, made of cube-shaped bits and in lots of different colours, then caught the scent of a Korok. That took a moment to resolve, but by the time he'd finished there was someone standing outside a nearby house brandishing a sledgehammer.

"You'd better stay back," the Hylian man warned. "Or I'll get you with this!"

Link nodded, then got out an apple and nudged it with his muzzle to roll towards the man.

That seemed to confuse the man, and he grounded the sledgehammer to pick up the apple and bite into it.

"Hmm," he said, chewing. "Well, you seem like you have good manners, but… be warned!"

The Hylian man finished his apple, then turned and hit the house with the sledgehammer. It went thump, not really doing anything in particular to the sturdy construction, and the man whirled. "Aha!"

Since Link hadn't moved yet, there wasn't really much to say aha about.

The lupine hero did point towards the house, though, and make a curious noise.

"Oh, well, I'm demolishing it," the man explained. "It's been here for a long time without anyone in it, and it was finally decided to demolish it since it's not doing any good where it is."

He hit it again with the sledgehammer, which bounced back this time, and winced. "Though it's not going to be easy…"

Link nodded, sympathetically, then got out a hammer of his own to help.

As he got closer, though, he stopped, and put the hammer down.

Something about this house was… familiar.

He went inside, sniffed deeply, then shook his head.

There wasn't a scent he recognized, at least nothing unique to the house, but when he paced up to the raised area there was something about the view that he recognized too. Not much, but it was there, and…

Link shook his head, then went back down and out the door.

As he did, though, the man with the hammer spoke again.

"It almost seems like you're interested in that house," he said, and Link stopped before nodding in confirmation.

"Now, isn't that peculiar…" the man added. "It's been standing here empty for a hundred years, and not once has anyone shown any interest in it beyond wanting to keep it in place. Some kind of… memorial, I heard tell once. But now the boss, Bolson, he says it's not making him any profit and a hundred years is too long to keep it around."

He grounded the hammer again. "Then again, I wonder…"


Ten minutes later, Link was listening to an explanation about how the property was excellently located for the shops, had a lot of potential, was a real fixer-upper, a diamond in the rough, unspoiled, easy-to-maintain living space, tremendous scope for improvement, and offered with no onward chain.

And that it had character.

Link… wasn't really sure what all of those terms meant, or really any of them, but what he did get out of it all was that he had three months to turn up with three thousand rupees and about a small forest worth of lumber, and if he did then the house was his.

He held out his paw, and the construction manager Bolson shook it.

"Marvellous!" Bolson said. "I don't suppose your name ends in son, does it?"

Link shook his head.

"Oh well, worth asking…" Bolson sighed. "Pleasure doing business with you. You know, some people just like to listen to themselves talk, but I don't get that impression from you at all."


As Link headed onwards on his interrupted trip out of Hateno, he made a mental note to explore the area more thoroughly once he'd mapped it out – then loped along to the nearest road, and trekked along it for a while.

There was a lake on his right, at the bottom of a high cliff, but Link noticed that there was also a kind of rudimentary wooden fortress near the road.

A fortress which had Moblins in it.

Link thought for a long minute, considering his plans, then began slowly prowling forwards. His coat's green tint helped him hide in the grass, the patterning breaking up his outline, and with ears pricked and eyes alert he moved slowly and carefully – only a few steps at a time, always making sure he hadn't been seen.

There was no sign that the Moblins, or the Bokoblins, had noticed him by the time he reached the stairs of the closer tower – the only tower which had stairs, which was a bit strange – but Link was fairly sure that there was no way they'd overlook a wolf actually on the structure they'd built. So he surged forwards, taking the steps two at a time, and pounced on one of the Bokoblins to knock it off the tower with a yelp of shock.

That sounded the alarm, all right, and Link picked up the club the Bokoblin had dropped before snapping his head around sharply to hit the first Moblin in the head. It wobbled, complaining, and dropped a sturdy-looking broadsword, so Link exploited the opportunity and ran forwards to take the sword.

That meant now he was armed and the Moblin wasn't, and he swiped twice left-right to keep the Moblin off balance before pouncing and attacking with both claws and sword.

A Bokoblin archer up on top of the tower tried to snipe at him during the battle, but Link dodged aside from the first arrow, then dropped his sword long enough to snatch it up and hit the second Moblin in the head with it. The second arrow got the same treatment, then he retrieved the sword, slashed at the Moblin twice, then discarded it once more as it broke and pelted up the last set of stairs to attack the archer.

That done, Link looted the chest at the top, then as he stowed the result the remaining Moblin came running up to attack him. He retaliated by knocking the monster off the tower, then went back down to the middle level so he could run across and attack the other monster fortress.

As he got down there, though, he saw one of the Bokoblins was holding a large red barrel marked with a skull.

A very familiar design of large red barrel.

Link's ears went flat, and he jumped off the tower just before the Bokoblin threw an explosive barrel at him.

The explosion slapped at his fur, and he rolled before shaking himself out – then saw that another of the Bokoblins up there had already got a second explosive barrel ready to lob in his direction.

Making a whining noise, Link dodged out of the way. Then the barrel landed where he'd been and exploded with enough force to knock him over, set the grass on fire… and set off the remaining two explosive barrels on the tower.

The problem had thus solved itself by the time Link picked himself up again. But there was a rushing plume of rising air over the grass fire, and Link tilted his head as he considered it – then jumped into the fire, snapping his glider out in mid-air, and rode it high into the sky before the artificial thermal faded out.

That could be useful.


The ground rose to the west, leading up to the tower, and Link diverted his time between thinking about how he was going to climb the tower and focusing on battling his way up through a mixture of Bokoblins and Moblins.

Some of them were armed with clubs, others weren't armed at all, and Link made use of the tall grass to hide his position both before attacking and between attacks.

He also flicked a spherical bomb up into the air, then batted it forwards, and the two Bokoblins he'd targeted yelped in fear before it exploded and blasted them off the cliff.

Feeling quite pleased with himself, Link rounded the lip of the road and got his first close-up look at the tower.

And stopped.

It was surrounded by thick, ropey vines, all of them covered with enormous thorns, and after inspecting them for a minute or so Link had trouble seeing a way he could even get to the tower – let alone climb up it.

He sat down, a bit put-out after having psyched himself up so much, then tilted his head slightly as he thought.

Clearing the vines would be hard work with a weapon, and perhaps take more time than he'd want to spend on it. But. If he could clear the vines by burning them, then not only would he be able to get close to the tower but their being on fire would give him an updraft… possibly one powerful enough to ride it up the tower, especially as the thorns that were on the tower itself burned.

Link paced around in a circle, thinking.

The question was… where was he going to get any fire? He had a torch in his Slate, but to pick up fire from Hateno Village would mean having to go for miles, then on the way back he'd have to avoid going too quickly or he might blow the torch out.

There was a cooking pot nearby, under an apple tree, but the firewood underneath the pot was cold and unlit. Link took the apples from the tree anyway, and had some venison from his Slate while he thought, then flicked back and forth through what he had available.

An idea suggested itself.


Two minutes later, Link had concluded that bomb arrows didn't actually light anything on fire.

He'd tossed one at the firewood and failed to get anything started, then held the second in his jaws and tried to press the fizzing friction-ignited fuse against the firewood.

That hadn't worked, though the fuse had certainly done what it was supposed to, and after picking himself up Link gathered up the lumber that he'd turned the apple tree into.

Then stopped, looking at the pile of wood, and went through his Slate again.

Flint and steel could make sparks, and he had some flint… but no steel weapons left, after fighting his way up to the tower.

Link huffed, annoyed, then stowed the wood and loped downhill again to find some more bokoblins.

Hopefully with a steel weapon, this time.


Advancing down the hill, Link ran into a pair of Bokoblins on horseback, armed with sturdy wooden bows.

"Hey!" he called. "Can you help me out?"

"Are you talking to us or the Bokoblins?" one horse asked, then the Bokoblin riding on her back fired an arrow at Link and Link dodged away. "Because they don't understand and if they could they'd just do the opposite!"

"I mean you!" Link replied. "If you can throw off their aim or mess with them, I can get them off your back and deal with them!"

"Wait, you're that wolf we heard about, right?" the other horse asked. "Something about Epona's Chosen?"

Link wasn't quite sure how to take that particular title, but shrugged and nodded.

The next arrow thudded into the ground just in front of him, and Link snatched it up with his jaws before whirling. The mare had stopped moving while they talked, and Link threw the arrow right back at the Bokoblin's head to knock it out of the saddle with a very final Bokoblin wail.

"Thanks!" she said, then the male horse reared up. His Bokoblin nearly fell off too, then Link pelted forwards to pounce and finish the job of unseating the foul creature.

"Well, I'm impressed," the male agreed. "I guess those stories were true after all, huh? You don't need us for anything, right?"

Link shrugged. "Can't think of anything, unless you've got some source of fire or steel."

The two equines looked at him blankly.

"We're horses," the stallion pointed out.

"Worth asking," Link said, gathering up the last of the arrows, then wandered off to keep looking.


Eventually, after a lot of work, Link had a blade of Sheikah design from a treasure chest, and he went right back up to make himself a fire.

He also made some fruit and mushroom meals with the cooking pot, now that that was an option, then switched to his torch and lit it from the fire. He loped over to the vines, set them on fire, then extinguished and stowed the torch as the little blaze built to a roaring inferno.

Taking several steps back for a run-up, he sprinted forwards and opened the glider – using the updraft to lift himself into the air, then hovering there as high as the air would blow him and following it as the blaze moved towards the tower.

And… stopped, before actually reaching it.

Link slowly drifted back down to ground level, shook himself out, then went back to the fire.

Maybe if he lit an arrow on fire that would work better?


The flaming arrow worked to light the next set of thorny vines on fire, and Link rode the air current about halfway up the tower, but he was dangling there with the ladder next to him when he noticed that the vines he'd lit on fire had burned out – there either hadn't been a connection to the rest, or the connection had been tenuous enough that it didn't let the fire jump from one part to another. And there were still vines choking the tower.

Making an annoyed whining noise, he drifted down to the highest clear platform, then fiddled with his Slate to get out another piece of flint, his eightfold blade, and another pile of wood. A few seconds of work lit him another campfire, and this time he lit his torch and gripped it in his muzzle before jumping off his platform and opening the glider again.

The next few minutes involved some very fiddly work, drifting slowly down right next to some spiky thorns while trying his best to use the flaming torch to light the thorns and ride the air currents. It eventually worked, and Link did feel a happy triumph about it, but he also felt annoyed at how hard the whole process had been.

Still, he was here now, and he extinguished the torch before using the Slate to activate the Sheikah Tower.

Less than a minute later, and while he was still looking through the map, it started raining.

Link mostly felt grateful that the rain had waited until he wasn't relying on torches any more, and made notes about a few interesting spots he'd found before setting off southwest through the rain to start gathering some of that wood he was going to need.


Ten minutes later, Link found a chest with five self-igniting fire arrows in it, and felt quite miffed.


Since it was getting late, and he was hungry, Link went back to the cooking pot near the tower. He'd picked up quite an eclectic collection of ingredients, and while he wanted to keep some of them and he might sell others – he had an enormous collection of Bokoblin teeth and he couldn't see many uses for them – it seemed like a good idea to cook many of the ingredients, if only because the Slate kept anything stored in it well preserved.

Even nice and warm, if it was a cooked meal. So Link cooked himself some mushroom skewers, fruit mixes, greens, fish meals… the scent of cooking wafted over the crag, and he felt quite proud of himself for having cooked so well.

Despite the lack of hands, that was. It was something he seemed to have a knack for, at any rate, and it was going especially well tonight… like the mixed banana and carp dish, which Link's excellent nose concluded had a real bite to it.

Then he noticed there were swirls of reddish smoke rising from the ground, and looked up to see a bright red moon overhead.

Link… Link! Zelda's voice came to him, and his ears perked up.

Be on your guard. Ganon's power grows… it rises to its peak under the hour of the blood moon. By its glow, the aimless spirits of monsters that were slain in the name of the light return to flesh. Link… please be careful.

She paused. I would also appreciate knowing why you are a wolf at some point, but there is no rush.

Link made a sort of bark noise, trying to convey that he'd tell her as soon as he'd worked out both what to say and how to say it, but it was a lot for a bark noise to get across and he was fairly sure she wouldn't get all the nuances.

Then the reddish smoke coalesced around him into three Bokoblins and a pair of Moblins, and Link snatched the last meal he'd been cooking out of the pot before picking up a club.

This was going to make his job a lot harder… though, then again, something told him that the moon could have been much worse news.


Link cleared out the nearby monster base again, partly because he could and partly to confirm that they had indeed all been spawned anew by the blood moon, then checked his new map and decided to head southeast.

There was a harbour marked there, which might be useful, and even if not it was as good a direction as any for now. Plus, there were some sections of forest on the way, and that would be good progress towards the lumber he needed to help buy his house.

That meant taking a sort of meandering path, along the road, to get onto the high plateau and then follow it along. Link battled several more monsters along the way, Bokoblins and Moblins both, and picked up some more Korok seeds in the woodlands, then passed through a ruined settlement.

Looking at it, Link sighed a little.

Seeing monsters camped out in the ruins was… sort of insulting. Like it was something the formless malice was doing deliberately, having monsters live in the places they'd emptied of the various races of Hyrule without doing anything new with them. The monsters could make things, he'd been reminded of that just earlier today, but here… they were just lazing around in the ruins.

Then he smelled something tasty up ahead, and shook off his melancholy thoughts before pouncing into the nearby lake and catching every fish he could get his jaws on. That turned out to be about eight of them, mixed between two different types, and Link stored them in his Slate before shaking himself violently to shed the water.

It splashed everywhere in sheets, dripping down the nearby rocks, and Link felt a lot better.

There was a cooking pot nearby, but it wasn't lit and Link didn't feel like going through all that again. Cooking the fish would have to wait.

The pool was also in a little side path off the main route to the harbour, though Link was starting to wonder if there actually was anything worthwhile in the harbour to begin with. Still, he was curious enough to have a look, and went back to the road.


It was a maintained road, at least… Link was fairly sure, anyway, though he wasn't exactly trained in how roads worked… but not far off the turn off back down towards Hateno it became clear that Loshlo Harbour was just a natural harbour instead of one with a population there.

Mentally shrugging, Link looked around, then spotted an interesting-looking cave to the south. He hopped up onto a natural stone arch, loped for a couple of minutes, then went stock-still as he heard a very loud snore.

Ears flat and paws light, Link prowled forwards a little further, and saw an enormous giant – a Hinox – sleeping in the cavern.

He might have just turned around and left right then and there, but the giant was very asleep and it looked like the cavern was another one of the natural tunnels in the area.

And there was something he could see on the other side of the tunnel… enough to make him curious.

Slowly, alert enough to turn and bolt if anything changed, Link went sneaking carefully through the cavern. He wasn't confident in his ability to defeat a Hinox – not yet – but he was fairly sure it wouldn't go from asleep to able to beat him in seconds, and that would be all the time he'd need to run for it.


By the end of the cave, Link had revised his opinion slightly.

The Hinox hadn't woken up, but getting that close had probably been dangerous anyway. Mostly to his ears, which were ringing from the sound of the snoring.


The far side of the cave let out on a ledge, with a headland leading out into the ocean to the east, and Link clambered carefully up onto the top of the cliff before stopping and curling his lip in a silent snarl.

Then he stopped snarling, and glared instead.

There was one of the stone skulls often used as a home by monsters, and Link could see several sentry Bokoblins standing on platforms around it. It didn't look like they'd seen him yet, so Link sunk lower to the ground and prowled around to get a good angle – looking through the mouth of the skull, and seeing several more Bokoblins crowded around inside the skull.

And a number of explosive barrels.

Link considered for a moment making use of the fire arrows in his Slate, but held off on that for now. Instead he turned around and slunk back the other way, hiding in the grass, and confirmed what he'd only had a brief sight of before.

The Bokoblins were lit by a flaming lantern, dangling by a chain from the roof of the skull… and there was a perfect view through the skull's stone eye socket, both of the lantern and of the chain.

Getting out his Slate, Link retrieved some arrows. One at first, then he rethought and got out a total of four – holding one in his muzzle, and the other three in a quiver which he chinched around his right foreleg.

Then he began creeping closer, one slow step at a time, making sure not to leave an obvious trail of flattened grass and moving only when none of the Bokoblins were quite looking in his direction.

It took several minutes, much of that time spent stock-still and waiting for a chance to move, but then Link decided he was close enough. One of the Bokoblin guards had none of the others looking at it, and Link flicked his head sharply to hit the monster squarely between the eyes with an arrow.

That sent the creature toppling backwards, and Link snatched out a second arrow before repeating it with the second guard. The thump from his victim landing made the third guard look over, then start with surprise, and rather than try and get that one before it raised the alarm Link instead took two quick bounds forwards and flicked his third arrow through the eye socket.

The chain broke with a clink, dropping the lantern into the skull, and there was a rumbling boom a moment later as the barrels all detonated at once.

Link used his last arrow to slay the third monster, then picked up one of the bows dropped by a sentry, and threw it like a boomerang to knock the fourth and last sentry off their wooden platform.

Then the Bokoblins from inside the skull came running out, three of them, with patterned hides and waving swords. Link blocked the first Bokoblin sword blow with another bow, wincing as it splintered to bits under a stronger blow than he'd been expecting, then jumped back to open the range for long enough to let him draw his Sheikah blade from his Slate.

The trio of Bokoblins spread out, making threatening noises, and Link growled deep in his throat – then feinted left and pounced right, bowling over one of the Bokoblins, and stabbed with his blade.

Surprisingly, that wasn't enough to finish off the Bokoblin, and it retaliated with a shove before bringing down its own sword in an overhead chop. Link rolled, blocking with his sword, then had to dodge out of the way as another one of the Bokoblins tried to take advantage of his distraction.


A few minutes later, panting, Link decided that the last of the Bokoblins probably wasn't going to get back up again.

That had been a much harder fight than he'd expected, especially after blowing them up almost straight away to open the battle. They'd been tougher than he'd experienced so far, and a little smarter, and on top of that they'd been very well armed compared to most of the Bokoblins so far – sturdy broadswords, sharp and heavy, and good enough that Link had at least got some useful weapons out of the whole thing.

Well, then. If these Bokoblins were anything other than unique, Link would have to improve… and perhaps get hold of some armour that actually fit, preventing the cuts and bruises that he'd accumulated over the course of the fight.

Shaking himself out, Link had some of the roasted meat he'd cooked earlier and then decided to head to the nearest Shrine he could see.


The shrine awoke in the usual way, and Link took the lift down to the floor level. When he got there, however, he saw a slightly familiar layout – four pillars, a square central room, and a hole in the middle of the square room.

Are you sure you're supposed to be in here? asked the monk, and Link nodded. Very well, then… I am Muwo Jeem, and I offer a modest test of strength.

Link got one of the good swords out of his Slate, then thought for a bit and got out a shield as well. That went slung over his side, and he adjusted his grip on the sword before stepping through into the body of the shrine.

With a subliminal hum of Sheikah mechanisms, a Guardian shifted up to floor level, and rotated to bring a blue shield into alignment with Link while a large blue axe waved threateningly.

Link rolled his neck, pawing at the floor, then the Guardian began moving and Link sprang forwards.

The ancient robot blocked his first two strikes, and Link reared up to wrench the shield aside with a paw before striking the body with his sword – once, twice, three times, then the axe raised and Link backed away.

It slammed into the ground in front of him, and Link attacked again. He got two more good blows, then the axe swiped across and Link only just jumped over it in time.

The shield sprang back into place, then the Guardian began spinning its middle body. Link backed a pace, turned, and ran – but not blindly.

It was following him, and he led it into a pillar with a crash.

This time, Link had the chance to get around behind the stunned scout, and hammer away at it with a metallic crash-crash-crash… until his sword broke, at least.

Unfortunately, the Guardian recovered from its stun at the same moment, and Link had to run away as it tried to hit him with a laser.


Four minutes later, fur scorched and cut, fragments of weapons and two quick snacks littering the floor of the shrine around him and panting with fatigue, Link slapped away a laser beam with his Sheikah shield.

The impact made the shield split in half, but Link snatched up an arrow and flung it into the Guardian's eye. That finally did it, and the Guardian went clunk before exploding.

Link's flanks heaved as he gathered his breath, then he flicked the Slate to the storage mode and scooped up the bits of the Guardian into it. The shield and axe had come loose too, and he took them both – he could do a lot worse than those particular items – and took care not to lick the energy core he'd got out of the battle.

Then he went up to Muwo Jeen, and sat down.

...I did say it was a modest test, not a minor one, Muwo Jeen said, defensively. You could take it again later if you wanted, the Guardian may not be under the control of Calamity but it's still replaced every blood moon.

Link nodded his thanks for the clarification, then opened the chest.

It was a bow.

This time, Link glared, and Muwo Jeen had the grace to look contrite.

I didn't exactly know you were a quadruped, he mumbled, then formed the Spirit Orb. Link took it, sighing as it healed his wounds, then headed for the exit.

Once out of the shine, Link looked around, and spotted another nearby shrine down in the heart of the great bay where Loshlo Harbour was marked on his map.

After that experience, Link was quite ready for a nice relaxing puzzle, and he loped ahead before jumping out over the cliff and gliding down to the tiny island and its shrine.


At the bottom of the elevator shaft, an extremely familiar shrine layout greeted him.

I am Chaas Queta, the monk informed him, levelly. I offer a major test of strength.

Link turned around and went right back up the elevator again.


AN:


Fun fact, I have been playing through BotW for inspiration. It's led to some of the comedy moments… well, okay, a lot of them.