Stranger Things
Link opened the door, stepping inside...
House of Skulltula
Inside was...dark and spooky. The home had no rooms, just a vast single space with four supporting pillars near the center, some crates and unused timbers here and there. Big cobwebs mapped the corners and ceiling, creating an eerie sight.
Link stepped forth, footfall softly echoing. Scratchy sounds came, arachnid legs clicking along the ceiling. A skull-bodied spider with a human arm dropped from above, Link's heart skipping a beat.
Instinctively, Link withdrew sword and shield. "Hoh! Hah! Hyaa!" His blade sparked against the bone, the monster swaying.
Link jumped behind the creature and swung at its soft belly, blood spattering out.
"HHUUHHHHHHAAHHH!"
The monster...screamed like a human?
Link reared.
The arachnid creature was stunned from pain, immobile, only his eyes wincing. "UHHUAHH!" The monster spun around, knocking Link back.
"AAAHHHH!" The boy picked himself up, shaking his head.
"Link!" Navi exclaimed, "Wait!"
The spider faced him...calmly? Upon closer inspection and with the help of Navi's light, Link noticed a man's eyes and forehead in place where a Skulltula's forehead would be.
Link put away his sword and shield.
"We all look like this because of the spider's curse. If every Spider of the Curse in the entire world were destroyed, the curse would be broken. When you destroy a Spider of the Curse, a token will appear. Collect it as proof of your achievement."
He then explained the Spider's icons and numbers, and their meanings.
"Look for them not only out in the open, but also inside the dungeons. Of course, this is just our dream... You don't have to do it if you don't want to... If you break the curse on my family, we will make you very rich..."
Still rather spooked, Link could only listen. He walked on, another Skultula appearing, smaller than the central man, nevertheless having a partial human face.
"Yeaarrgh! I'm cursed! !"
As Link walked along the wall, it seemed the cursed man had five sons, cursed like him. The six cursed men dropped to floor level, haplessly staring at their visitor.
"This won't be just a dream," Link assured. "I will hunt down every Spider of the Curse and free you all!"
They stretched, human bones popping against Skulltula carapace.
The father nodded. "If you could someday free my sons... I would be eternally grateful."
Link nodded. "I promise." At that, he left.
Once outside, Navi shook her wings. "What a spooky place! I feel that breaking their curse will take us quite a long time, but we can do this."
Link tilted his hat back. "We will." He looked towards the well, his steed resting still. So, Link went up the stone stairway leading to the windmill...
?
Music echoed inside the windmill, a winged column with a floor rotating in the center, contraption rumbling. Despite being a large windmill, there was no place for storing ground grain, nor any means to process grains. Curious, Link hopped upon the rotating flooring, running against the circumference until spotting the source of the music.
A strange yet happy bald guy with a goatee stood by the wall, wearing a teal shirt and blue shorts. knees bent. He was winding a phonograph of some sort, the instrument pipe going between his legs, up behind him and into another box, then a flaring trumpet revolving above himself. The phonorecord was catchy and memorable.
"Go around! Go around and around and around! What fun! I'm so happy! I'm a music man who loves to go around and around! Go around and around! ! !
I'm trying to come up with a musical theme inspired by this windmill...going around and around around! ! !"
Link scratched his head. Aren't you playing a song right now?
The man kept operating his music box without a thought in the world.
Navi was just as confused. "Looks like he's stuck in a loophole. We may as well move on."
Link agreed, leaving the windmill.
Outside, Link was met by a carpenter with purple shorts. "Have you seen Mr. Dampé, who lives in the graveyard up ahead? It's 15:24 right now, so he's probably asleep in his hut. Why don't you go out into the field and kill some time?"
Link's ears pricked at the thought of a graveyard.
Navi flew in. "Link, I think that we should focus on reaching Death Mountain."
"But Navi, a graveyard sounds too cool!"
"Uhh, alright... Maybe we'll find something useful."
Link and the carpenter headed towards a corner of the town, where a stone wall met a cliff.
A sign, pointing at a cutout in the wall leading to a pathway, read,
Kakariko Village Graveyard
Link headed down the pathway, the carpenter stopping to wipe his brow and watch Link go.
Kakariko Graveyard
The entryway consisted of large timbers with inscribed text, below that a suspended sign with additional script. The graveyard had various gravestones, separated by rising tiers and fences. Forested cliffs surrounded the graveyard, thunder sometimes rumbling in the cloudy skies.
The sign to the right of the entryway read,
Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour!
From 18:00 to 21:00 Hyrule Time
-Dampé the Gravekeeper
Navi winced. "That sounds like graverobbing. Gross..."
Up ahead was a tall memorial, reading,
R.I.P.
Here lie the souls of those who swore fealty to the Royal Family of Hyrule
The Sheikah, guardians of the Royal Family and founders of Kakariko, watch over these spirits in their eternal slumber.
To the right was a shack. Strangely enough, the woodstove was outside, flue going through an extended section of roofing.
Link approached the door...
"Be quiet! It's only 15:33! I, Dampé the gravekeeper, am in bed now! Go away and play! Maybe you can find a ghost in the daytime?"
Link looked around. "Ghosts?"
"Apparently," Navi added.
It was not long until Link stumbled upon a little boy, bald except for a tuft of hair on the front of his head. The little boy wore blue shorts and white T shirt, trudging along with stick in hand.
The little boy stopped before Link. "Little kids can't go on the "Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour" described on the sign. Since I can't do that, I'm just imitating Dampé the gravekeeper all day. But with my cute face, I'm not heart-pounding at all, am I?"
"No, not at all," Navi agreed.
Link explored the graveyard. "How do we find ghosts?" He tried pulling the gravestones back, though the little boy got upset and threatened to tell Dampé, so Link stopped.
Link walked farther up the graveyard, thunder and lightning sounding, followed by rainfall. At the end, a large tombstone loomed, flanked by two common gravestones. Before the tombstone was a patch of dirt, where grass grew into the shape of the Trifroce.
Link read from the monument,
Royal Family's Tomb
Despite being such a large marker full of inscriptions, there wasn't much else to read.
Beyond the tombstone, a fence blocked a section of lower cliffs. Other than that, the rainy graveyard was calm and solemn. Link read from a nearby gravestone,
Royal Composer Bros.
Flat the Younger
R.I.P.
"Wehhehhehhehhehheh!"
Wahwahwahwahwahwoh!
An apparition appeared from thin air above the gravestone, Navi flying over the ghost. It appeared to be a legless man wearing a grey robe with green collar, an amulet of the Triforce hanging on his chest. The ghost had curly ginger hair and mustache, glowing green eyes, ghostly skin as black as night, and wore a tall cap with a symbol of a crescent moon curling over a green dot. In his left hand he swished a dagger. He held a lantern in his right hand, fount golden and set with an emerald.
Link withdrew sword and shield, feet gently shifting. He swung at the monster, though the ghost parried the Kokiri Sword with his lantern!
Thunder rumbled, lightning cracked, intensifying the situation.
Navi spoke through the rain, "Poe of the graveyard?
If you stare at it with Z Targeting, it will disappear..."
Indeed, while the ghost slowly spun around, he faded away, just as Navi warned. Only his lantern remained visible. Amid rainfall, the floating lantern whirled, whooshing through the air and flailing towards Link!
Although he raised his shield...
"Uhuhh!" Link reared from the hit, the lantern bouncing off him. Link and the lantern regained themselves, the light flailing again.
Annoyed, Link wondered what to do. He looked back, seeing the fence, which he promptly climbed upon—THHD!
"AAAHHH!" Link flew off the fence, crashing on his back. He sat up, shaking his head, the lantern floating along ominously.
Frowning, Link stood, slashing at where he thought the ghost was, to no avail. The lantern whirled. Link backflipped, evading the improvised weapon. Upon landing, he firmly knelt behind his shield and aimed it, lantern bouncing off with a clash. Link Jump Attacked, sword flying through...thin air. The lantern swung around, hitting him across the face.
"Nnahh!"
Navi flew back to the boy. "You'll have to remain defensive until he returns, Link!"
"How long will be be invisible?!"
"Don't know! I'll remain flying over him so you don't lose sight of him!"
Link kept his shield up, blocking the ghost's only weapon.
Wuhwuhwuhwuhwuhwoh!
"Wehhehhehhehhehheh!"
The ghost reappeared.
Link slashed wildly. "Hahh! Hohh! Hyaa!"
The apparition reared, hands up. Chittering, he spun around, fading invisibly again.
Link scowled, slashing at the air, Kokiri Sword sometimes clacking against the lantern. The improvised weapon whooshed once more, whirling after Link. The boy reared from the hit. "Haa! Haa! Hyaa!"
"Link!" Navi exclaimed, "Learn to be patient!"
"No!"
After receiving quite a few bumps and bruises to the face, Link got tired, panting in the rain.
"Wehhehhehhehhehheh!"
Wahwahwahwahwahwoh!
"HYAAAHH!" Link's Jump Attack screamed into the ghost.
The apparition reared, hands up, eyes big. Blue flame briefly whooshed up the ghost, leaving behind a black, skeletal form that disintegrated.
Wihwihwihwuhwuhwoh...
The lantern fell, shattering against the ground. A green, fiery smiley face appeared.
"GYAAAAH!
YOU KILLED ME...Unbelievable!"
Link raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, what? You're not one of Ganondorf's men, are you? Because of my role as a ghost, I had to act like that. I apologize. Now then, let me introduce myself.
Ahem...
I am one of the ghostly composer brothers of Kakariko Village. All the people in this village are born to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule. We brothers also served the Royal Family, and were assigned to study the hereditary mystic powers of the family.
Though we never could figure out the power of the Triforce,
we had almost completed our study of controlling time with the tones of ocarinas. Uh, I mean..."
Flat the Younger seemed like a pretty chill dude despite being a ghost.
"Actually, we did complete that study! We would have been famous, if that hateful Ganondorf had not tried to steal our results. We could never let him reap the fruits of our research! That's why we gave our lives to protect the secret. Do you want to hear what I said again?"
Link needed a few seconds. Not that I even asked you to tell me a story to begin with... "No."
The face of green fire giggled, fading away. Thunder rumbled.
"Link!" Navi cried, "You're soaked! We really should get you dried up before you catch a cold."
"But Navi," Link complained, "I wanna find more ghosts!" Link turned around, seeing the smaller boy nearby, staring cutely.
"Are you messing around with those gravestones again?!" the little boy whined. "Stop! Or I'll tell Dampé!"
Navi hovered by Link's ear. "Now you have to move on..."
Link looked up, seeing the back of the windmill beyond the graveyard. "I can always come back later."
The fairy rang. "Of course, Link!"
Link walked away, leaving the little boy to trudge around with his stick...
Kakariko Village
The fairy child meandered around, soon coming upon a stairway he hadn't seen before. Up he went, appearing at the back of the large house.
A soldier stood by the entrance door. "This used to be the great Impa's house, but she doesn't live here any longer. It is now open to all villagers. You are free to go on in. This village used to be a Shiekah village, but the great Impa opened it to everyone."
Link entered to have a look. The spacious home had no rooms, though did have a large bookshelf at the right wall, and even a caged cow below the upper floor. A fired-up oven was by the wall, a dinner table in the center. Underneath the upper storey, behind the stairs, nearby the caged cow, was a table for study.
Link ran over to see the cow. "Why is there a cow inside a house?"
Navi shrugged. "I suppose to Sheikah just had a differnet way of living?"
"I guess so, but still... A cow in a house? That's kinda dumb."
"Maybe, one day, you'll have a cow in your house, too?"
"Pfff, yeah right!"
Upstairs, another table then a bed. Overall, nothing eventful, so Link made an exit.
Once outside, Link went to the other side of town. There, he crossed paths with another carpenter at some tall stairs, wearing a blue vest and green shorts, a big mound of hair on his head.
The worker wiped his brow. "All day long, we are working on many construction projects in the village. It's going to take awhile before everything is done. Our boss works us very hard!"
They parted ways.
To the right stood a tall, narrow watch tower, nearby the roof of the the kindhearted lady's house, which was adjacent to the raised ground here. Link climbed the ladder. After a lengthy climb, well, nobody else was atop the tower, and the railings were quite small. However, Link had a good view of the town and Death Mountain. From up here, Link noticed a guy lying back on a roof, who had red hair, white shirt, and purple shorts. So, Link went down the ladder to see what was up.
Link walked over the roof, looking up at the guy.
The guy on the roof said, "I can't get down, so all I can do is look at Death Mountain."
Link found that rather odd. Well, you could jump down...
Link went up another round of stairs, now flanked by two buildings. He went to the one of the left, checking the door.
A voice sounded from inside, "My little boy isn't here right now...
I think he went to play in the graveyard..."
The cute little boy popped in Link's mind. Oh, him? Yeah, already met him.
Link turned around, entering the other house. Inside was a rather empty store, shelves empty. A carpenter with red shorts stood at the left side. "I heard that our boss's house is just behind this house. He doesn't want any of us to know, though."
"Sounds as though you don't like your boss or your job," Navi remarked.
The carpenter wiped his brow. "A job where you can make a lot of money without much effort... The only thing I can think of is thievery... Is that a bad idea?"
Link looked at his guardian fairy.
She answered, "Yes, that's a bad idea."
"Hrrmm..."
Navi looked at Link. "Ughh... I hope you don't become like him!"
Back outside, Link went up yet another set of stairs. Up ahead was a gate, a soldier standing guard on the left. To the right, a sign read,
Death Mountain
No passage without a
Royal Decree!
Link happily approached the guard,
"The road is closed beyond this point! Can't you read the sign over there?
Eh? Oh, I see. You're just a kid, and you can't read yet. Ha ha hah!"
Link stared stupidly, wondering what he had done wrong.
A few seconds passed.
...And a few more.
The gate wasn't opening.
Umm, what do I do? Hm... Do I play Zelda's song? Right, that must be it!
Link plucked out his Fairy Ocarina, closing his eyes. Mellow and somber, he lulled through his ocarina, playing the notes perfectly.
Zelda's Lullaby softly echoed down the village, the carpenters definitely preferring ready to not start working.
Link slowly opened his eyes, lowering his instrument.
The guard stood with his spear, not giving a damn.
Link blinked a few times. Why didn't it work?
Navi hovered close, whispering, "Link, the letter..."
"Hunh? What do you mean?"
Navi sighed. "Did you already forget about her letter..."
Link pocketed his ocarina, rummaging around. Eventually, he presented Zelda's Letter to the soldier.
The guard let his spear lean against his collar while he read the letter. "Oh, this is... This is surely Princess Zelda's handwriting! Well, let's see... Hmm... OK... "This is Link... He is under my orders to save Hyrule." "
Link just stood there, staring.
"Wah ha ha ha hah! What kind of funny has our Princess come up with now?! OK, OK, alright. You can go now... Just be careful, Mr. Hero!
Wah hah ha ha hah!"
The guard pocketed the letter then struck the butt of his spear into the ground. At that, the gate slid open by itself, until clunking to a halt.
"By the way, Mr. Hero... If you're going to climb Death Mountain, you should equip a proper shield! It is an active volcano, after all! If you go back to Hyrule Castle Town Market, you should check out the Bazaar. They sell the shield you need there. Tell 'em I sent you and they should give you a special discount! If you think you're good to go already, don't worry about it.
Now, I'd like to ask a favor of you. No, I don't expect you to do it just because of the great tip I just gave you! I'm just asking! Have you been to the Happy Mask Shop that just opened in the Hyrule Castle Town Market? Everyone is talking about it! My little boy pesters me for a popular mask, but I don't have time to go there... So, could you go and get the mask for me next time you are in the Market? If you don't feel like it, that's OK, but... Well, I have no choice, this is my job...
...sigh..."
Navi frowned. "Ohhh, now he's being all nice..."
Link shrugged, taking his first steps up Death Mountain Trail. "Grown-ups are just weird, I guess."