There was a stable not far from the Mo'a Keet shrine, and since Link wasn't in any need to do any cooking he was about to just bypass it – until, that was, he heard a familiar accordion.

Suddenly interested, he loped down from the hill, and there was a sort of clattering rush as all the Hylians in the area ran inside the stable and hid behind the door.

Link stopped, gave them a curious look and a wave, then continued towards Kass.

"Oh, hello there!" Kass said. "We seem to run into one another a lot, don't we, wolf?"

He pumped his accordion a little. "I have a song that I sing here in stables, as well… and I think I recognize that expression on your muzzle, wolf. You'd like to hear it, wouldn't you?"

"Are you actually friends with a wolf?" someone asked, from the stable, then hid as Link looked in her direction.

"We've met before, and it's been fascinating," Kass answered her, then returned his attention to Link. "This one's a little longer than normal, so I hope you won't get bored."

He played a few notes, limbering up.

"The Kingdom of Hyrule is a vast and storied land, oft grasped in the palm of a villainous hand…"

Kass had correctly warned Link about the length of the song, and it wasn't anything specific to this location or even to a stable – very unlike the previous two songs he'd heard from the musical Rito.

It was more of a song for all of Hyrule, telling the tale of Calamity's defeat many thousands of years ago, and part of Link marvelled at just how long the song must have lasted… or the stories that led to the song, since it could hardly have been written to talk about things ten thousand years ago when it was actually ten thousand years ago. Then it would have been talking about things last week.

The rest of Link, though, was just listening to the song and the notes. It was longer than the other songs as well, and at first it seemed like it didn't have the same connection as Kass's other songs… but as the Rito kept going, that same feeling began to come. Little by little, humming through Link's fur, sparking something in his heart and bringing ghost-memories of grassy plains and wind and long, flowing motion.

Link didn't push. Didn't try and force it. He just listened, and leaned into the sensation, letting the repeated refrain of Kass's song touch him deep in his heart – then Kass finished, and with his words done the music faded away.

Except for the tune that still hummed in Link's nerves.

Now Link pounced. Before it could fade away, he threw back his head and howled – a sequence of three descending notes, then the same three notes again, then a five-note variation on the first three.

Link felt the magic, that time, pulsing outwards in a rush that caught at his fur and ruffled Kass's feathers, and the Rito put down his accordion to applaud.

"It's always a delight to see what you can do, my friend," he said. "You cut to the core of my music, just as before, and found the tune that was hiding within. I wonder what it did?"

Link was curious as well. He looked around, carefully checking on everything he'd seen already, then tilted his head slightly when nothing seemed to have changed.

"What was that?" one of the horses asked.

"No idea," Link admitted. "I can change the wind with a different song, but that one doesn't seem to have done anything."

Kass waited politely until Link was done, then shrugged and picked up his accordion again.

"Well, I'm sure we'll find out eventually," he said. "Or maybe we won't! But the journey is as interesting as the destination. Always a pleasure, my friend."

"I'm up, I'm up," someone said, from inside the stable, then gasped. "Wow! Is that a wolf?"

"Of course it's a wolf!" another Hylian replied, as Link turned to look. "What did you think it was, a Gerudo?"

The speaker didn't seem to pay much attention. "Excuse me? Wolfie? You seem like an agreeable sort!"

Link watched, somewhat surprised, as the speaker came out of the stable – more-or-less a first when he'd been around – and turned out to be lugging an enormous backpack, bigger than he was.

"Allow me to introduce myself!" the man said. "I'm Beedle! But you can call me… actually, let's go with Beedle!"

Someone still in the stable made a strangled noise. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No!" Beedle said, cheerfully. "I'm out to trade! Are you out to trade, wolfie?"

In reply, Link sat down and got out his Slate. He got out a pile of Rupees, which made Beedle look delighted, then began flicking through the things that he had that he was fairly sure he wasn't going to need – or that he could get more of in future.

He had a lot of wood, for one thing. And far more body parts of Bokoblins, Moblins and Lizalfos than he'd need any time soon, even if they turned out to be needed to improve his clothes.

"Amazing!" Beedle gasped, as the pile grew. "Yes… yes… I can give you a very good price on that… keep it coming! I'll buy aaaanything!"

With a much emptier Slate, and a lot more money, Link was then almost immediately approached by a Hylian woman.

She seemed to be quite nervous about the whole concept, but said that he could clearly understand normal speech and so perhaps he'd be willing to listen to a suggestion?

Link sat down, and nodded.

"Good," she declared, still sounding uncertain. "That is… I don't suppose you're going to be going to Death Mountain, are you?"

Link hadn't had any plans to go anywhere near somewhere called Death Mountain, largely on account of all the death, but since he wasn't sure where Death Mountain was he just made an encouraging noise and cocked his head quizzically.

The woman didn't seem to get it. "Figures," she said. "Tourists."

Link made another quizzical noise, and the woman sighed. "It's an active volcano," she said. "Gorons live there, but – look, most people don't think about this, but going to Death Mountain means going somewhere where it's incredibly hot. So hot it would set your, um, your fur on fire."

Link put two and two together, and hoped that the answer was four. He pointed up towards the volcano, and the woman nodded.

"That's right," she said. "And if you went up there you'd end up crispy fried, but there's ways to solve that. Flameproof elixirs, they're called… you won't need one just yet, but once you get past the second gate if you don't have a flameproof elixir you'd just outright burst into flames. And, luckily for you, I sell flameproof elixirs."

The woman held out a bottle with a charcoal-black liquid in it. "They're cheap and long lasting. It's sixty rupees for one, a hundred and ten for two, and a hundred and fifty for three – it pays to buy in bulk here."

Link still wasn't certain if he'd be going to Death Mountain, but if the Gorons lived there then it sounded like the sort of place he'd have to go at some point. He was flush with cash, now – while he could hear the delighted but worried sound of Beedle trying to work out how to hoist most of a ton of wood onto his back along with the rest of his oversized backpack – and after some deliberation took out a hundred and fifty rupees.

That got him three elixirs, and he put them carefully in his Slate before throwing in an apple as a bonus.

"They're applied topically," the woman added, as he left.

Link wasn't sure what that meant.

It was probably about how they tasted.

Despite now being equipped to head up to an active volcano, Link didn't go there just yet.

In the first place, he wanted to avoid making a mistake and accidentally setting fire to his stockpile of wood, but in addition to that he'd spotted another shrine on the way down from the citadel and wanted to investigate.

That turned into a significant digression as he dealt with an entire large supply of monsters on the cliff over the shrine, running back and forth and avoiding being pinned down by the toughest of the monsters, then dropped down to enter the shrine itself.

I am Sah Dahaj, the monk told him. In the name of the Goddess Din, I offer this trial.

Link made a confused and interested noise, because that was a new one on him and it sounded a lot like Dinraal.

I'm a traditionalist, the monk replied, but gave no other explanation.

Shugging mentally, Link looked around.

There were patches of dried leaves on the floor, and a pile of wooden crates, and a flaming torch dangling from the ceiling.

Link considered the situation, then opted for the most reasonable solution that came to mind.

Well done, the monk Sah Dahaj said, some minutes later. I can see that you bear the true mark of the Hero.

Link tilted his head, coughed slightly in the smoke, then raised his paw.

Oh, that as well, Sah Dajah noted, interested. I actually meant that you set everything on fire. It's the mark of the Hero, you know.

Link looked back into the rest of the Shrine, where he had indeed set everything flammable on fire and had a good go with the rest of the walls, then gave a lupine shrug.

After the Apparatus shrines, he wasn't complaining.

Link got back to the stable area, considered his options, then headed up the road towards Death Mountain.

Then he caught sight of a big six-limbed and fully functional Guardian, turned around, and headed down the road away from Death Mountain.

Not feeling up to facing a giant laser cannon, yet, Link instead decided to head southwest. There was a lot of Hyrule and he'd so far seen significantly less than half of it, so exploring further to see what he could find looked like the better option.

There were arguments both ways, Link was sure. And he wasn't going to dawdle, because Zelda could only hold back Calamity for so long… but Zelda was also able to contact Link, for a moment, during each Blood Moon. And he felt sure that she'd warn him if there was a risk that she would fail in the near future.

Reasonably sure.

After considering that a bit longer, Link wondered if he should maybe make some kind of sign to show Zelda the next time a Blood Moon threatened.

Either way, though, he now had a plan that would hopefully not involve lasers, and before long his Slate began to ping – letting him know about a nearby Shrine, up in the hills over a broad, grassy valley.

Link turned straight for the Shrine, loping up the hill, and triggered it to see what the challenge was this time.

Several minutes and a lot of fire later, Link loped up a ramp to reach the monk.

Why did you do that? Tah Muhl asked. You just set everything in the Shrine on fire!

Link looked puzzled.

It was supposed to be a puzzle you solved with thought! Tah Muhl protested. Not just setting alight everything in sight…

He folded his arms, and sighed. I knew it was a bad idea to set up my Shrine near both a volcano and Sah Dahaj's place. It just gives the wrong impression.

Link didn't know about that, but he did know he'd reached the Monk and that meant he was supposed to get a Spirit Orb.

Don't know why I bothered with anything else, really, Tah Muhl grumbled. I should have made a shrine built entirely out of wood, with vines across it spelling out, Burn Before Reading, and made it so that the only solution is to set it on fire. That would have been about as hard as this one for you.

Still complaining, he grudgingly gave Link a Spirit Orb.

Upon emerging from the shrine, Link spotted a wooden platform down in the valley, and loped over to find out what it was.

It had a leaf symbol on it, so he patted it, then his head flicked around to the right as he saw a circle of glowing lights appear in the distance.

One of the lights slowly shrank, then the one next to it did the same.

Link took about three seconds to decide that it couldn't represent anything but a timer, and then no more than another second or two before breaking into a loping sprint. Head down, paws drumming the ground, pelting from the wooden platform towards the circle, and he jumped through the circle while at least half the lights were still lit.

For his troubles, he got a Korok seed, to go with the large collection in his Slate, then decided to keep going in that direction because he didn't have any better ideas about which way to go.

It was a pleasant afternoon, shading towards evening, and Link's stride ate up the distance. He went west, then northwest, following the foot of the ridgeline that surrounded the volcano, and it was getting on towards full night when his Slate blipped at him again.

Ears perked up, and Link checked left and right before homing in squarely on the Shrine. It was by the side of a lake, so Link swam across, then descended into the Shrine to find out what this one was.

The Shrine of Mirro Shaz, as it turned out, was based around golf.

Link, as it turned out, was not very good at golf.

Abandoning his efforts to solve the Shrine after breaking both hammers trying to do the second part of the challenge, on the grounds that otherwise Link could see himself running through every weapon he had and still ending up frustrated, he got told by Mirro Shaz that his ability with golf was very under par.

He didn't know what that meant but it had the feeling of a joke at his expense.

Making a mental note to perhaps come back later for the extra challenge, Link headed to the nearby stable and got an unexpected surprise.

"Shakala!" Hestu said, waving a maraca. "Hello again! Do you know the way to the Korok forest?"

"Sorry, no," Link replied.

"Aww," Hestu said, slumping. "I am very lost… but I'm sure I'll find the right place eventually!"

He perked up. "...though do you have any more Korok Seeds? Shakala! I'd be happy to expand one of your stashes for them!"

"I've got a lot," Link replied, taking out his Slate and pouring them out in a pile. "Weapon stash, keep going until there's not enough."

"Okey-dokey!" Hestu said, and began dancing.

About halfway through the process, it occurred to Link that as far as anyone else was concerned he was probably just staring off into space.

Hopefully he didn't look too weird to anyone watching.

Weapon Stash expanded, Link kept going the way he'd been going, and reached a river.

His Slate alerted him that there was a shrine up on top of the hill he could see, and there was a raft right there, so he was about to howl up a wind when a shape in the water caught his eye.

It looked a lot like a chest, so Link got out his Slate and went through the painstaking process of activating the Magnesis rune and pointing it at what he wanted to pick up. That meant balancing it on a convenient bit of riverside rock, so he could slowly and carefully lift the chest out of the river, and then it turned out to just have a bow in it which made a bit of a mockery of the whole thing really.

Miffed, Link crossed the river by raft, then loped uphill and unlocked the shrine. The lift took him down, and when he reached the bottom floor a voice spoke to him

I am Namika Ozz, it said. I offer a modest… okay, look, I know I've been preparing for this moment for a very long time, I'm not sure of the exact number because the light down here is artificial but it's a lot of years. I've been rehearsing exactly what to say, but this is just an open question. Because, I'll be honest, I was expecting a twink.

Link stepped forwards, wondering vaguely if his reincarnations had undergone some kind of name drift over the centuries, and Namika Ozz kept talking.

Wait, wait, I haven't told you what the test is in the first place! he protested. At least wait until I tell you what kind of test it is, I'm only going to get one chance to say this… actually, you do understand what I'm saying, right? Because you haven't said anything yet and I'll be honest I don't trust the shrine entry scanner after this long, you might just be an actual wolf. In which case, well, I suppose this is probably going to solve itself but it's going to be messy. If you're not a normal wolf, bark once?

Link barked.

Oh, good, Namika Ozz said, significantly relieved. Anyway, um… I offer a modest test of strength.

The door closed behind Link, and he took one of his Ancient weapons out of his Slate as the Guardian Scout rose up on the big moving platform.

Then he beat the Guardian Scout repeatedly with a glowing blue axe until the axe snapped, and followed up with an arrow. Then he threw all the tree branches he'd collected over the kilometre or two since he'd expanded his weapon stash, and finished it off by hitting it with a bomb.

I'm not really sure how to react to that, but it really does seem like you know what you're doing, Namika Ozz admitted. Still not sure where the change of plans happened so you reincarnated as a wolf, unless you're on some kind of secondment program?

He paused. I should not have doodled all over my notes during that lecture.

The Monk formed Link a Spirit Orb, and he took it gladly.

It was nice when things were simple.

After taking two looks at the nearby Hyrule Castle – one focused mostly on the visible aura of Malice around it, and the other on the full-scale Guardians patrolling the plains just outside – Link decided that, no, he was not going to the castle just yet.

Instead, he headed south, and after a surprisingly short amount of time he found another stable with another Shrine not far away.

Link wondered if there was some sort of cultural reason that stables were usually next to Shrines, then thought that it could just be that he only found the stables that were next to Shrines because he had a Shrine detector but not a stable detector.

Then he wondered how long it would take before he could decide conclusively that stables really were only next to Shrines, assuming he didn't find a counterexample.

Then he decided that he was probably being influenced by a scientist on some subconscious level, and decided to see what the Shrine actually was instead.

The Shrine of Kaya Wan began with a waterfall facing Link, one which drained into a pool he had to cross before reaching it.

Deciding that this was going to be one of those Shrines, Link froze himself a pair of ice blocks in the waterfall itself after more than a minute of alternating between careful aim on his Slate and muffled, mouth-open cursing.

Then he had to actually get to the ice blocks, which meant the muffled cursing was interrupted by splashing, and by the time he lunged out of the water to get his claws on the lowest bit of the ice he was a very wet wolf.

Really, it was a fortunate thing that the giant blocks of ice didn't feel as cold or as slippery as they probably should be, because otherwise Link would have very much not enjoyed himself as he hauled himself out of the water by his claws. Instead, he only didn't enjoy it a little bit as he hoisted himself up to the top of the first ice block, then the second, and sat down to recover – then noticed a little red dot appearing on his nose.

Looking up revealed a second pool, and that a Guardian Scout on a pedestal was pointing a beam of light at him. Link lunged forwards and to the side just before the Guardian Scout fired three bolts of coherent light at him in succession, managing to avoid two of them entirely and feeling the third whip past the tip of his tail.

Retrieving his Slate, Link scrabbled at the controls before freezing himself a barrier against the attacks of the Scout, then considered his best course of action and opted to simply lob an arrow at the Scout – a move which, fortunately, pushed it off the plinth it was resting on and sent it splashing into the water.

Whether the arrow or the sudden plunge was what broke the Scout, Link didn't know, but he unfroze the various frozen cubes he'd made before retrieving both the bits of the Guardian Scout and the contents of a nearby treasure chest.

It turned out to be an Ancient Core, and Link was very pleased to see it – if this Shrine was doing anything, it was reminding him of how useful it would be to have that haptic interface thing that Purah had talked about.

Link's next step was to use more ice blocks to get up to a ledge at the far end of the second pool. A sort of artificial river waited, with two more Guardian Scouts posted like sentries, and this time Link was ready for them so he used arrows to defeat them both.

By the time he'd finished, a wooden raft was drifting out of the spring that fed the artificial river, and Link stepped onto it. The raft bobbed up and down a little, and Link jumped up and down on it to confirm that before noticing a gate to the side of the river.

The base of the gate was at water level, not below it, and there was a chest behind it. Since that meant it was part of the same kind of puzzles as the rest of the Shrine, Link got his Slate out and balanced it to aim for another ice block.

He missed, the first time, and by the second time – making the gate slide up – he was already past, so it would be tricky to get to the point he could get there and find out what the treasure was.

And there was a rushing sound…

Link turned around, did a double-take, and at that point the raft finally slid far enough over the edge of the waterfall to tip him into the air. There was nothing but a bottomless void below him, and Link raised his paws as quickly as he could to summon the glider.

The monk Kaya Wan watched him as he came gliding in for a landing, paws touching down gratefully on the monk's platform.

Is there a problem? Kaya Wan asked, blithely.

Link glowered at him.

This didn't seem to help.

You're supposed to put an ice block at the end of the river, Kaya Wan told him. To stop the raft, that is. I was quite proud of it.

He formed a Spirit Orb, and Link took it with bad grace.

Still quite annoyed as he left the Shrine, Link went south through a nearby forest, and collected radishes and blew up trees until he felt better.

Stopping off at the nearby stables meant that he met Kass again, which helped, and the Rito played him the stable song again. Link listened, hoping that it would teach him a new song – ideally one that would help with waterfalls – but though he tried he just ended up howling the same song from the stable near Death Mountain.

"Worth a try, wolf," Kass said, nodding. "And thank you for trying! But I wonder what that song's trying to do… your other ones have done something, after all, even if I don't know what."

Link nodded, considering, then made himself a mushroom and radish dinner and followed that up by heading south along the Hylia River.

If someone had asked, Link would have said that he wasn't actually sure if going south along the Hylia in this part of it was going upriver or downriver. Or if the current went in a different direction at different times of day or year.

Actually, if someone had asked, Link would have barked, since that was less threatening than howling. But either way, before long he saw a shrine in the middle of a small river island, and paddled across from the eastern shore to check it out.

"Hey!" a Hylian woman shouted, as he shook himself off. "You see the flowers? Aren't they lovely?"

Link looked at her, confused, then down at the grass of the island.

Now that she'd pointed them out, he could see that there were flowers planted around the shrine. A lot of flowers, actually… all kinds, in a riot of colour, in carefully planted beds across most of the island.

Link nodded, and the woman smiled. "I wanted to see how the shrine would look with flowers, and it's wonderful!"

She waved her finger at him. "Just don't step on them, wolf!"

The problem Link then had was that, while the flowers might indeed be pretty, they formed an almost-complete circle around the shrine that was his actual objective.

Link took a run-up, jumped over the first circle of flowers, then skidded a bit too much as he tried to halt. One of his paws brushed a flower, and he winced.

"What did I tell you?" the Hylian woman asked, fuming. "Stay off the flowers!"

Link looked around just in time to be hit on the forehead by a rake thrown like a javelin.

It was only on Link's third attempt that he managed to get through the impromptu maze without being shouted at and bombarded by garden implements, and fortunately after his last few hours the Shrine of Hila Rao was much less objectionable.

Oh, he had to run across floating platforms, float bombs through the water to destroy a stone blocking his way, and there was a chest to lift out of the water with the always-fiddly Magnesis, but by contrast it was quite a break.

You know, you could have used your Stasis rune to freeze some of the floating platforms, the monk Hila Rao said. Any reason you chose not to?

Link jammed his Slate into his mouth.

Fair point, Hila Rao admitted. Well… well done?

On leaving the Shrine Link found himself face-to-face with the Hylian woman from before, who shook a hoe warningly at him.

Not wanting to be turned into fertilizer, Link spent the next few minutes scrabbling to get onto the top of the Shrine, then howled up a wind and used his glider to fly as far away from the flowers as he possibly could.

The wind helped, and he landed outside the circle of flowers, which based on the expression of the gardener was about the safest place for him to be right now. Link breathed a sigh of relief, then looked for where he should go next.

The Great Plateau was visible in the distance, and Link mulled it over before deciding that it was probably a good idea to go around and visit Kakariko again. It was the only place he could think of that had a Goddess Statue and wasn't inaccessibly high in the air, and he actually did know the way from where he was to Kakariko.

Mostly.

It involved going through the mountain split by a river, and from there he was clear, but about all he knew apart from that was that he should head south along the Hylia river like he'd been doing already.

To his surprise, there was another stable on the west bank of the river, and Hestu was there.

"Shakala," the big Korok said, scratching his head with one of his maracas. "I was sure I was going in the right direction…"

"I think you've come south since I last saw you," Link frowned, getting out his Slate to double-check.

He'd seen Hestu not far from Mirro Shaz, which – true to his guess – was much further north. Actually looking at the map screen really pointed out how few Sheikah Towers he'd actually visited so far, and even though it was a real pain to get up there Link decided that he'd simply have to change his tune on that.

Trying to navigate based on a mostly blank black map was entirely too difficult.

"So I go… that way!" Hestu decided, turning to face down one of the roads. "Right?"

"I think… go back the way you came, to the place we last met," Link guessed. "But that's my best guess."

"Okay," Hestu nodded, in thanks. "Buh-bye!"

He waved, and began toddling off to the south.

Link raised a paw, ready to protest, then lowered it again.

If that actually was Hestu retracing his steps, it was a bad idea to interrupt… and if it wasn't, then just pointing Hestu in the right direction would not help.

That decision come to, Link went over to the Shrine.

It was not a good Shrine.

It also wasn't a Major Test of Strength, which was something, but Link had found himself in yet another one of those Shrines that was not built for a wolf. The central cachet of the Shrine of Wahgo Katta was that three large cage-like blocks could be moved around to form a tower, that the Hero could climb the tower, and that everything else worth noticing in the Shrine was up at levels you could only reach by climbing the tower.

Link, being a wolf, had trouble with the bit about moving the metal blocks. It took him several minutes and got the Slate quite slobbery, but he got them next to the corner platform he could actually reach.

Then, Link – still being a wolf, as that hadn't changed – had to actually climb the three metal blocks. The woven cage structure making up the sides of the blocks was conveniently arranged for handholds, but for paw holds it meant stuffing his paws awkwardly into the gaps and then hauling himself up while trying not to whine at the pressure of the metal on his pawpads.

Panting extravagantly, Link reached the top of the three-block tower, then found out what was on the corner platform he'd been aiming at.

It was another piece of metal. This time, a long plate with the same design as the cage-sides, and Link stared at it for several seconds before huffing and getting out his Slate again.

He could see how this was supposed to work. Move the tower closer to the platform with the altar on, make a bridge with the plate, and then climb the tower again… it was going to take ages and leave Link very annoyed.

Unless…

Wahgo Katta watched as the lupine Hero finished arranging the tower, and used his Magnesis rune to lay the plate on top of it – making a nice ramp-bridge to lead up to his altar.

Then the wolf backed as far away from the bridge as he could get, still on the elevated corner platform, and broke into a sprint. He made a flying leap out across the gap between the platform and the bridge, landing on the tower with a clang, and scrabbled up onto the bridge before climbing it just as the whole metal assemblage crashed to the floor.

You couldn't have climbed the tower a second time? Wahga Katto asked.

In reply, the Hero of the Wild held up his paw.

Yes, I suppose that is a good point, the Monk admitted. Maybe I should have made more of a seesaw design...

Shrine complete, Link went back to the surface, then followed the riverbank south.

That resulted in a fight with some Bokoblins, which were worryingly enough the stronger ones he'd been noticing, but enough application of explosives coupled with stealing half their weapons resolved the situation efficiently and effectively.

That was Link's view, anyway. He'd have asked the Bokoblins but there were certain difficulties with that.

Continuing a little further got him to terrain he recognized, though, and Link turned east to head through the split mountain again. This time he remembered to check his map, and saw that the river he was walking next to was the Squabble river, while the split mountain was called the Dueling Peaks.

It was nice to know the names to places, though mostly for curiosity's sake.

It also didn't look like there was a great way to climb either of them even for someone who could climb, at least from this side, but Link decided he wasn't bothered by that because he was going to Kakariko Village anyway. If there had been a Shrine at the top of the mountain, he might have been bothered, but…

...now Link thought about that, there probably was a Shrine at the top of the mountain.

Now he was bothered.

More immediately, though, there were monsters at a camp on the northern side of the river, and Link dealt with them in the usual way – before coming to a less usual problem, which was an old challenge he hadn't been able to successfully resolve before.

A shrine in the middle of a lake, surrounded by spiky thorns.

Last time he'd been through, Link had just decided to not bother. This time, though, he had more experience using his Slate, and combined all the tools at his disposal to produce a solution to the thorns… which was to make an ice block, swim to it, and use it to jump over them.

In hindsight he felt a bit embarrassed about missing that one.

In what was either irony or clever Shrine design, depending on your point of view, the Shrine of Ha Dahamar turned out to be all about the Cryonis rune. Link had to make ice blocks to climb a waterfall, then more ice blocks to climb a second waterfall, then the final challenge of the Shrine was to place ice blocks on a waterfall wall to make sure that a large ancient ball fell into the right slot.

It probably would have been an easier challenge if it hadn't been so hard for Link to aim Cryonis, but he got it sorted out eventually, and padded down to the altar to get his reward.

So! the monk Ha Dahamar began, brightly. What did you think?

Link made a confused noise.

About the Shrine, Ha Dahamar said. I tried to make it all thematic, you know, to teach a lesson about how you could make ice blocks on waterfalls and that even when the water is flowing the ice block is still, because that is part of the essential nature of ice. Admittedly there are some edge cases where that doesn't apply, but the basic principle is thoroughly sound… anyway, it's my first Shrine, so I was hoping you could give feedback? Maybe a review?

Link slowly tilted his head on his side.

Well, if you don't want to say anything that's fine too, Ha Dahamr replied, with a shrug. I was just hoping to get some tips for what I do next time. Any idea about what you liked would be good too… I'm not fussed about what kind of feedback I get, it's just nice to get some.

After Ha Dahamar had finished talking, Link was silent for a long moment.

Then barked.

...fair enough, Ha Dahamar admitted. Well, I hope you like my next Shrine anyway. I might try doing a combat one next, that would be a change of pace…

AN:

I want to point something out specifically to one of my readers, which I would normally not do but I feel that in this case it's important as I have no other way to contact them.

To the person who calls themselves Thunder Dragon:

Stop using the reviews of my stories as a board to post your challenge ideas.

I do not want them. I will not do them. I would have told you to stop privately, but I can't because you're reviewing anonymously.

You clearly have a lot of interest in your very specific story ideas, so write them. Or if you don't want to write them, pay someone to write them for you.

Now, with that out of the way…

It's been interesting coming up with ways for Link to do all this stuff. And also interesting playing BotW with restrictions in place to research this.

No teleports yet!