Link had to stop himself from continuously gazing up at the mountain's peak as he started his climb. He felt if he kept looking at it, he'd get intimidated by its height and it'd slow down his progress. With a limited amount of supplies and no guarantee he could replenish any of them, he had to make good time and reach the shrine as fast as he could. Of course, the start of the climb was easy. The temperature was still normal, and there was no snow to slow down his progress. Really, the only obstacle was the incline, and he knew his legs were going to be especially sore when this was done, more than the rest of his body.
He had to wonder if Bokoblins, or other monsters, were on the mountain at all. Could they survive up there? In the back of his mind, he knew that air got thinner and it'd be harder to fight. So surely the violent and stupid Bokoblins wouldn't make camp in such an environment. There was just the question if something else dangerous wasn't lurking on the snowy peaks up above. While Link had gotten more and more used to fighting, he didn't think he could handle such things where he could barely breathe…
There shouldn't be anything too dangerous so high up, but on the other hand, he did just encounter a creature that seemed to be made entirely of stone. For all he knew, there was another one somewhere on the mountain, and it'd be far more camouflaged and harder to avoid. He hadn't even thought of that until just that moment! Feeling paranoid, he stopped in his tracks and scanned the area all around him. No unusual rocky outcrops that he could see, though he accidentally glanced at the mountain's peak and just how far away his destination was and felt his legs throb just from the sight!
Another thing he had to keep his eye out for was caves. Once he got to the snowy part of the mountain, he couldn't spend the nights out in the open, freezing air. He'd have to find an opening the mountain to bunker down in and make a fire in. On top of that, falling asleep was his worst enemy on this climb. If he lost consciousness, it was over, and though he couldn't remember why he knew that, his brain kept reminding him of the fact. No guarantee the fire would last all night, and if he went to sleep and didn't have its warmth, he'd never wake up. It'd take at least two full nights to reach the shrine, so he'd have to simply forego sleep all the while, and just collapse once he entered the shrine proper. At least…he hoped he could, surely it'd be the usual neutral temperature in this last shrine like the others…
If not, he knew he couldn't make it four days without sleep…
But that was then, he had to focus on climbing in the present! He wasn't anywhere near the snowy part yet, it'd take him hours to get that far. While he doubted there was anything lurking on the mountain, at least that he could fight like a Bokoblin, he kept his club at the ready, just in case. There could be non-monster dangers too for all he knew, such as wolves, and he didn't want to fight an animal, but he'd kill a predator if it meant his survival. Link couldn't help but think of potential scenarios of ways things could go wrong or what sort of dangers he could potentially face no matter how much he tried to shove the thoughts away!
He kept checking the Sheikah slate every so often, not wanting to accidentally veer off course. Naturally, he couldn't remotely see the shrine from where he was, and he didn't want to get lost on a mountain, so he had to be cautious. Link knew this part of the hike was a nonissue compared to what he'd have to deal with later on, and he hoped the clothes he had were enough to let him deal with the cold. His head and face were unprotected, and the gloves he wore weren't exactly made for warmth, so those were the parts he worried about the most. If he had a torch, he could have that lit for extra heat, but only the Old Man would've had something like that on the plateau, and he seemed somewhat stingy on how much he was willing to help Link out. The young man wasn't about to turn around and go back and ask at this point, that was for sure!
An hour passed, and Link's legs were already getting a bit sore from the incline. He went at a steady pace, not wanting to exhaust himself as he climbed the mountain. It'd take him about two days to reach the shrine no matter what, so there was no use in rushing and tiring himself out! To take his mind off of things, he sometimes glanced off towards areas outside the plateau when he was sure the area around him was safe. Link wasn't high up enough to get too much of a better view of the surrounding world, and he hoped the Old Man could point him in the right direction once he got his paraglider. If he was going to save Hyrule, he sure had no idea where to even start! No way he was going to just beeline towards that castle where that monstrosity lurked, he'd die for sure…
His legs were already getting sore, and he took a moment to sit on a rocky outcrop for just a few minutes. There was still plenty of daylight, and he knew as the sun started to dip towards the horizon, he'd have to make it a priority to find a cave. If he didn't…he had no idea what he would do. Going up a mountain in the dark sounded like a recipe for disaster…
After his rest, Link went on, the time slowly ticking by as the air around him started to get colder. Not so much that he needed the doublet he was wearing, but it was a noticeable drop in temperature. Looking up, he saw the snowy parts of the mountain growing closer and closer, wishing he had some snow shoes. He then realized he even knew what snow shoes were and could even imagine how it felt to wear them. Once more, he had to really wonder what he got up to in his old life. Was this the first time he climbed this high on a mountain? He could fight, climb cliff walls, and at one point it seemed he went up thousands of feet up a mountain and beyond.
Regardless, he hoped that muscle memory would kick in once more as he got to the more dangerous parts of his climb and allow him to make it through this in one piece. Another thing he had to consider was when to cook up one of his warming meals. He had all the ingredients he needed, but did he cook it up once things got snowy, once the sun set, or when he simply couldn't stand it anymore? Link was leaning towards the last option, and he wasn't even sure how effective that dish the Old Man taught him would be in such a harsh environment. It made him comfortably warm down below, but for all he knew it'd barely help him thousands of feet up a mountain!
To his side, Link saw a small band of mountain goats walking along, the smallest one giving Link a curious glance as they passed by. Once more, the young man wondered if there were wolves about to hunt these mountain goats along with him. His seemingly selective memory told him that some wolves could live over ten thousand feet on top of mountains, so he wasn't going to be safe from predators for a good long while. Again, he'd keep an eye peeled for danger, and his ears open for the sound of howls…
Trying not to think of hungry wolves, Link had to wonder if he had any normal, happy things he could recall. Combat was something that came naturally to him, obviously hinting towards a violent life. His survival instincts told him he spent a lot of time in the wilderness, possibly alone, and cooking could easily tie into that. But wasn't there anything he did in his past that just brought him joy? Was there a time in his life that he was normal? Or was he just a soldier, or some sort of hermit that survived off of nature and killed monsters every day to stay alive? There wasn't going to be anyone out there that knew him, not after a century of his slumber, so he'd never know if he didn't regain his memories. Why a hundred years, though? Why was he asleep at all? Was there some greater purpose to it…?
The frustrating part was he couldn't think of any reasonable explanation as to why he'd be in such a state for such a long period of time. If he truly had the ability to combat Calamity Ganon, why was he sealed away? Why for an entire century as the horrid beast remained alive? It made him even more annoyed at the voice in his head, that woman's voice, but he had no way of communicating with her, and it seemed like she wasn't going to speak to him anymore. It had been quite a while since she gave him any sort of message…
Link could only hope the mysterious woman would reach out to him once he left the Great Plateau, acting as a guide and telling him her location. Heck, if she contacted him again, he had half a mind to stop in place and declare he won't move another inch until he got some actual answers. A childish way to handle things, but Link felt so frustrated at the lack of answers that he really didn't care. This was assuming she ever spoke to him again, her interjections seeming to come mostly at random. Was she the Goddess Hylia that the monks mentioned? Who else could know who he was after a century of slumber…?
Pushing these thoughts away, Link focused on the climbing, ignoring the pain that coursed through his legs. The more time passed, the colder it gradually became, though the doublet he was wearing was doing a good job of keeping most of his body warm. It wasn't cold enough yet that he had to worry about his exposed face, but he knew that'd be a problem soon. As high up as he had gotten, several thousand feet high, it didn't feel like he had made any progress at all, as if there was still the entire mountain to climb. Heck, he hadn't even reached the snowy parts of it yet! At the very least, he was grateful that the trail was relatively easy. It was at a slope, yes, but he didn't have to constantly climb over rocks or reach areas so steep he had to climb up them with his hands and feet. It didn't seem like anything like that was coming up, but he had to be prepared for it.
Did Rushrooms happen to grow this high up…?
Time went by at an agonizingly slow pace, the only thing Link could do to distract himself was think. Yet his thoughts always turned sour, whether it be about the trip he was on or his situation in general. Because of that, he tried not to think, to disassociate and let his legs move. Then he quickly realized how foolish that was, as he still had to look out for danger! One thing he began to notice was that the air was starting to slowly thin, which meant he was roughly five thousand feet above sea level. Again, he had no idea why he knew this information, but it was something he knew was correct.
The higher he went, the harder it'd be to breathe. Link wouldn't be able to push himself, but he also had to reach the shrine as fast as possible. Unlike the cold, there was nothing he could do to fight against this, he'd just have to deal with being unable to take full breaths the higher he got. This meant if some creature attacked him as he neared the shrine, it'd be terrible for him, fighting without being able to breathe properly spelled death for him! At the very most, he could try to snipe his target at a distance with his bow, assuming he saw it before it saw him.
He started to focus on taking breaths as deeply as he could, knowing that this was just the start of things and it'd get worse the higher he went. Someone had to build that shrine way up there, so it had to be a place a person could survive. Though that raised the question of how it was handled. Building those shrines had to take a great deal of time and effort, so how was one constructed so high up a mountain where the air would be thinner and the temperatures so low? It was clear these structures weren't normal in any way, so maybe some sort of magic was involved.
Link's legs throbbed as he continued up, and the snowy parts of the mountain started to grow closer, and he made a mental note to start keeping his eyes open for pepper plants so he could make the proper dish later on. The air grew slowly thinner as well as colder. For the moment, the doublet was still keeping him relatively warm, but his nose was beginning to grow cold, and he knew things were going to get freezing pretty fast. He swore he heard the howl of a wolf nearby, but when he stopped to gather his surroundings, he saw no signs of life anywhere. His imagination, some wind through some rocks, or was there really a predator out there that he'd hopefully never come across?
Alas, he didn't come across anything as he went on, not even as he finally caught up to the snow. It came in streaks and patches at first, then not long after that, the crunching came beneath Link's feet as he marched upward. Snowflakes batted lightly against his face, and he could practically feel his nose and face turning red from the lowered temperature, the blood rushing to his head to try and fight off the cold. Another fact that, for some reason, he knew. Once more, he wish he had something to protect his face, because he knew this was only the start of things. He certainly had to light a torch at some point using some of his firewood, if the wind would allow it. It wouldn't be much, but it'd provide just a bit of warmth for his face as he went along. But he'd wait until it was totally necessary before he'd start to use his precious resources. There were bound to be evergreen trees along the way, they could grow much higher up than he was now. A problem was the wood would be wet and unable to be used right away. Not to mention the effort it'd take to chop one down and turn it into firewood…
There were only a few more hours of daylight by this point, so Link had to keep an eye out for caves, deep ones to get away from the cold winds as much as he could. He had spotted a few openings in the mountain, but he had to make as much progress as he could before stopping for the night. He had to rest his body, even if he couldn't actually sleep, because tomorrow was only going to be worse. Sadly, he didn't spot any Rushrooms, and he doubted he'd find any in the snowy part of the mountain.
As the wind gnawed on his face, Link kept glancing towards the sun, knowing things would get far worse once it started to kiss the horizon. Though they were so sore they were practically numb, the young man pushed his legs onward, thankful the snow wasn't deep enough to hinder his progress, at least not yet. Once more, he found himself yearning for snow shoes to aid him, with the assumption the snow would get deep enough to need that further up his climb.
He was thankful the doublet was effective even at this point, as he knew it'd start to get so cold that it wouldn't make much of a difference. As warm as it was, generally, it wasn't enough to protect him from single digit temperatures or going below zero. That wasn't even taking wind chill into account! By that point, he'd have no choice but to utilize the meal that the Old Man showed him. Thinking back on it, it did seem vaguely familiar, at least the idea of a meal or consumable giving him such a strong warmth inside. Probably just something from his past they he can't even remember…
Before Link knew it, the sun was getting ready to set. The reflection of light against the onslaught of whiteness ahead helped keep things a bit brighter than normal, but he realized he had to stop for the night. It was already getting colder, and his body was starting to quake a bit from uncontrollable shivering. He had to find a cave and fast!
Large and deep. Not too deep. Could be creatures living deeper inside.
It had to be the right cave at that, yet he couldn't spend a lot of time trying to find one that was entirely perfect. He may have to settle for a shallower cave if it meant getting to rest by a fire sooner. Though he really felt like camping inside a complex cave system was too risky, there always being the chance of bears, wolves, or even Bokoblins living deeper inside the mountain, waiting to pounce at him as he rested.
Moving at a quicker pace, Link kept scanning about the area, looking for a good opening to duck down in. The sun crept at the horizon, very nearly touching it, and the air around him continued to grow colder. After checking two caves that didn't meet his standards, he began to worry, nearly running up the mountain until he came across a third one. It was deep enough, but not so much that something could be lurking in it. A perfect place to rest for the night! Not wanting to risk anything, the young man ducked inside the opening, wincing as he sat against the far wall. It was only a few meters from the cave opening to the back, but it was just far enough to satisfy him.
He wasted little time in preparing for a fire himself, placing a bundle of food between the cave's entrance and himself. It was doubtful anything such as an animal would wander in due to the fire, but Link wasn't about to take that risk. If something decided to wander into the cave, he wanted eyes on it the instance it entered. After the wood was settled, he took a stick and began to rub it against the small twigs he gathered for kindling, letting his muscle memory take over as the wood began to eventually smoke and then eventually go alight. He gently blew on it, feeding the flames oxygen as they caught fire, which slowly started to spread to the proper firewood.
As the flames started to engulf the wood, the cave started to be filled with warmth and the sound of the crackling fire. Link let out a sigh of relief, holding his gloved hands up to the flames, only realizing at that moment just how numb they were. His nose and cheeks were sore from how cold they were, but the heat started to lessen that as the moments passed. The billowing smoke from the campfire eased its way out of the cave's entrance into the blackness outside, the sun having set and creating a dark void that Link didn't dare to enter.
The crackling that filled the cave gave Link a sense of ease, second only to the warmth he was feeling, the numbness making way for a pleasant heat spreading through his entire body. Of course, at the same time, it started to really hit him how exhausted he was, and while he had time to rest, he couldn't sleep. He had to make sure the fire kept going all night, he had no idea how cold it'd get at night, even this far down the mountain, and he couldn't risk dying of the freezing temperatures in his sleep. It was going to be a long, long night, and he had nothing to do to pass the time, unfortunately. After a few more minutes of warming up, he started to shed his gear, getting a bottle of water from his bag and gulping it down. He had to wonder if his water would be safe from being frozen if it was in his bag as he went further up the mountain…
Taking two apples from his bag, he pretty quickly consumed them, core, stem, and all. He only left the seeds, which he spat out into the fire. He decided not to eat anything until this point to conserve his food. As the air got thinner, the quicker he'd grow exhausted and the more energy he'd need, so Link felt it best to save as much food as possible for the harder parts of the climb. Link also checked on the fish, and they still seemed fresh enough to cook later on. At the very least, they weren't too rotten to be salvaged. Only problem was he hadn't seen any of those pepper plants, so he could only hope they just grew higher up on the mountain…
In the meantime, there wasn't much for him to do, and that was extremely unfortunate as he had to find some way to stay awake until the sun started to peek over the horizon again. He hadn't taken an exact note of when the sun set and rose, but he assumed it was at least eight hours. Walking around was the most obvious answer, the issue with that being he had to rest his legs for the continued hike. If he just paced around all night, he probably wouldn't get very far tomorrow! Already, he felt his eyelids drooping, the heat from the fire making him a bit drowsy. Perhaps being a bit too drastic, he slapped himself in the face, the stinging sensation stirring him out of slumber, if only a bit.
For a while, he tried to wrack his brain for memories about his past, personal things that he could grasp onto. Every so often, he swore he recalled the fleeting sound of a voice or the murky visage of someone's silhouette in his mind's eye. Yet as soon as he heard or saw these things, they vanished, and he wasn't able to recall any concrete details. He even tried to conjure something specific, like the faces of his parents, but that didn't help in any way, and eventually his head began to hurt, and he stopped.
Feeding the fire a bit more fuel, he sighed and was at least thankful he got to remain warm. He didn't hear any sounds of creatures outside, and felt rather confident he'd remain undisturbed in the cave all night. Yet his eyes kept darting to the yawning opening in the mountain, the outside all but pitch black. Sometimes he thought he saw something shift just beyond the veil of darkness, but it never amounted to anything and was assuredly his imagination and nothing more. Still, he made a mental note to check for tracks in the morning…
The hours went by at a sluggish rate. A few times, Link nearly fell asleep, but always managed to catch himself, or at least he thought so. Sometimes it seemed like he passed out for a few minutes, but he couldn't ever be sure. To try and stave off his sleep, he'd pace around every so often to get his blood bumping and his senses working again. After six hours, he even desperately went to the cave's edge and grabbed a handful of snow, stuffing it in his face to give him a jolt to really wake him up. He even took the time to refill his water bottle with more snow. Not the cleanest source of water, but he figured it'd do.
Link had nothing to occupy his mind with, at least not anything he hadn't thought over at great length before, so it was really only the physical things that he could use to stay awake. Thankfully, though, it worked out, as eventually he saw the outside start to brighten, the sun peeking out over the horizon. On top of that, he had managed to keep the fire lit, but his eyes were burning from exhaustion, and his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton! Unable to hold back a yawn, he took out an apple and quickly devoured it to give him some energy before he put the fire out. As low as the sun was, he wasn't going to waste any time! Gathering his things, he exited the cave, looking around and seeing no tracks, the movements he witnessed clearly being in his head. Without wasting any more time, he started to climb the mountain once more.
His goal for that day was to find a pepper plant. The Old Man never told him just how cold it had to get before he could find one, but if there was anywhere on this plateau it'd grow, it'd be this mountain. Link tried not to rush too much, the thinning air making it harder for him to get a lungful of oxygen. The cold scratched at his face, and he was already missing the warmth of the fire as the wind bit at every bit of exposed skin. He did his best to ignore it, as it was the only thing he really could do at the moment, at least until he found a pepper plant…
Link remained focused as time slowly went on, he needed to conserve every bit of energy he had, and he was thankful he didn't run into any additional obstacles. He had no idea if he could even fight with how thin the air was, unless it was something simple like a Bokoblin or two. Gritting his teeth, partially to try and stop their chattering, he pressed on, thankful for how shallow the snow was thus far.
It was around noon when he finally spotted a pepper plant! He had to stop himself from sprinting towards it, still needing to save his strength as it had only gotten harder to breathe. Unlike the ones he cooked with the Old Man, the peppers on the plan seemed visibly warm. Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, but he swore they were actually glowing red from the heat they were giving off. Not that it mattered, he was taking them all! There were about a dozen peppers big enough to be of use, and Link carefully took each of them from the plant and put them in his bag. They were sure to stay good enough for the rest of this short trip…
Feeling good, Link sighed in relief as he started to march onward, still wanting to save the peppers for when it was too cold for him to go on. That'd probably happen by the end of the day, and after checking the Sheikah Slate again, he figured he'd arrive at the Shrine around dusk the next day if all went well. There was still plenty of daylight to burn this day, so he wasn't about to stop…
The wind's teeth grew sharper and hungrier the further Link went, to the point it didn't seem like the doublet or the gloves were helping in any way. It felt like the cold simply snuck through any crevice it could to take hold of his flesh. His entire face was red and despite his body's efforts, it was entirely numb from the wind. To try and counteract this, he desperately covered his face with his inner elbow, but he didn't really notice any difference as he did this. The sky had turned grey, and it was actively snowing at this point, the snow on the ground roughly ankle deep. It was at this point that he was looking for a cave to duck into to cook. The snowfall made it harder to see, but he was staying alert for any openings…
It wasn't too long after this, around three in the afternoon, that Link came across a cave he could use. Roughly the same size as the one he hunkered down in for the night. He double checked to make sure it wasn't any deeper than it appeared and then he got to work. While he didn't have the setup that the Old Man had, he knew he could improvise. In this cave, he found a rather thin slab of rock, and he was going to hoist it up with smaller logs he had to act as a place to cook. It wasn't perfect, of course, but without that stone bowl the Old Man had, it was the best he could do. Setting up a fire and the cooking rock, he quickly got to work.
Thankfully, the fire brought warmth back into his body, his fingers having been numb even with the gloves on, making it easier for him to work on the meal as he prepared the meat and one bass before placing them onto the rock, making sure it was stable enough to work with. Enjoying the warmth of the fire, Link doted over the meat and fish to ensure they were cooked thoroughly before adding the peppers to the mix. He resisted the urge to scarf it down in moments, wanting to pace out his meal and make it last. It wasn't as good as when he made it with the Old Man, but it was a welcome treat after the climbing he's had to go through the last day or so, and when he finished the peppers, he felt a comforting warmth spread through his body!
As tempting as it was to take a rest, he couldn't let a single second of the heat he was getting go to waste! Getting his things together, even taking the flat rock for further use, he put out the fire and went back out into the snow. Immediately, he could tell the difference in how he felt. It wasn't perfect, he was still cold, but it felt like how it was yesterday and was far more manageable. Though the fact the warmth wasn't absolute meant it'd get colder for him as he went up. Still, he had to be thankful for the aid he was getting…
With the snow around him, it was hard for Link to see too far ahead, so he couldn't get a good glimpse of the horizon or the areas surrounding the Great Plateau. He couldn't see the mountain's peak or its base either…so he really had no idea how high up he was. All he knew was it was getting increasingly harder to breathe, and his legs went beyond being sore and he pretty much couldn't feel them anymore. Exhaustion struck him harshly, and he thought the cold wind would keep him awake better, yet he still found his eyelids drooping as he went on, his lack of sleep deeply impacting him! He had to reach the shrine by tomorrow, he really didn't think he could go on with three nights of no sleep!
Still, Link went on, focusing on getting as far as he possibly could before the sun went down. The warmth from his meal was keeping him going, and it did so for hours. Thankfully, it kept on until the sun began to set. Link couldn't actually see the sun nearing the horizon, but from how dark it was getting, he could tell he had to find shelter and fast! The warmth was still lingering, but it had gotten even colder, so it felt like it had just before he made his meal. And the peppers weren't helping with the air, it seemed like every few feet was the same as walking a mile at that point!
The area started to grow darker, and though Link looked, he wasn't able to find a suitable cave. One went on and had numerous forks in it. Another was simply too shallow. The sun was already set by then, and Link felt the temperature dropping even further. When he spotted another cave, it was almost too dark to even spot it. Without warning, he felt the pepper's warmth leave him, the frigid cold hitting him like a slap across the face. The wind and cold temperatures actually felt like that, the stinging, biting gales making him flinch as he hurried to this newer cave. By some miracle, it was just the right size to use!
Hurrying, Link got some more kindling and logs from his bag and managed to start a fire. As the flames started to grow, he let out a sigh of relief as he gently blew into the warm salvation, letting his breath feed it just a bit more. As it grew into a proper fire, he let out another relieved noise and just basked in its heat. He took deep breaths, or as deep as he could with the thinning air. His body felt like it was about to just break apart. Now that he was sitting, the feeling came back into his legs, and he ached from where his legs met his hips all the way down to the tips of his toes! They hurt so much that he didn't even move them from when he sat down, even though the position wasn't too comfortable. He'd try to stretch them out a bit later once he got some more of his energy back…
It was a long, miserable night, Link having to get up and pace numerous times just to stay awake. He massaged his legs a bit and stretched them, but it didn't help very much, and he figured they wouldn't feel much better until he was able to rest for a good day or two, if he even got that chance. Maybe he'd just stay in the shrine until he was all better, though he was worried about running out of food in that situation. He'd have to just play it by ear…
When the sun came out, Link decided to simply go out as he was instead of preparing a second pepper dish. There was still the climb down to consider, so he had to preserve his resources as best as he could. When he stepped outside, he once more felt like he was being slapped in the face from the wind! Immediately, he covered his lower face with his inner elbow, his entire body quaking as he went on. If he really felt like he couldn't make it, he'd make another meal, but for the time being, he was focusing on making sure he had the supplies for the entire trip up and down the mountain.
Checking the Sheikah Slate, he saw he was still primed to arrive at the shrine by dusk that very day. If he had to go a bit in the dark, he'd just have to do that. At the very least, he hadn't encountered any obstacles aside from the weather itself, and he doubted he'd find any monsters or dangerous animals this high up! Still, it almost felt like he was walking through waist-high water at this point, his movements sluggish and heavy, draining his strength and stamina as he went up.
Yet he went on, hours passing as he trudged up the mountain, his body quaking from the entire time from the sheer cold, his eyebrows forming frost on them and almost every part of his body feeling numb. It was around noon when he finally relented and stopped in a cave to cook up another pepper dish. He hadn't seen any other pepper plants since the first one, so he didn't use as many this time around, making the time it'd warm him up lessen. It didn't help very much, he found out, as it was simply too cold for the dish to contend with. The only reason he knew it was working at all was the hot feeling in his gut that came with consuming the meal, though it may have been his imagination and exhaustion telling him it was colder than it truly was. Speaking of which, his eyes stung horribly from two days without any sleep, and he knew the second he entered the shrine, he was going to simply pass out.
He kept checking the Sheikah Slate, both because he was worried of getting lost in the heavy snow, and also because of how desperate he was to just get to his destination. It crept ever closer, the anticipation building in Link's chest as the beacon grew ever closer. As he predicted, it was nearly dusk when the shrine started to come into view, the orange glow of the structure piercing through the snowy mist. If Link had the energy to sprint to it, he would have, but his legs pulsed with a horrid pain, and the air was even thinner, making the young man have to stop every ten minutes or so to catch his breath.
The dish was wearing off at that point, the icy winds piercing every square inch of his body to the point that the doublet wasn't doing a single thing to aid him. Visible breath was pumping out of his mouth like a chimney as he desperately tried to get a lungful of air. His fingers started to feel stiff, but that may have just been his imagination. He couldn't feel his nose, his face…or much of anything really except the pulsing soreness in his legs.
Closer and closer that orange light became, like a beacon in the frozen air. Link knew he was imagining things because he swore this orange light seemed to warm his bones. That, or it was the start of paradoxical undressing, which he for some reason knew about. Alas, things didn't go that far, and for that the young man was thankful. He seemed to breach out of the snowy fog and into a clearer part of the mountain, the shrine perched mere feet above him at the mountain's top. Looking around, he saw the rest of the Great Plateau beneath him, even the Sheikah Tower seeming almost like a speck from how far away he was.
Alas, he only stopped to look for a moment before he made a scramble to the shrine, nearly slamming the Sheikah Slate onto the small pedestal outside of the structure. For the smallest of moments, a paranoid thought crossed Link's mind that the slate simply wouldn't work for some reason and the trip was all for nothing. Thankfully, he was proven wrong, and the device beeped and the shrine opened up for him. He practically stumbled inside, stepping onto the elevator and struggling to stay on his feet as it descended.
Thankfully, he felt the air warm up almost instantly as he descended, his worry that the inside of the shrine would be frigid proven entirely wrong. The air was just like how the other shrines were, which compared to the outside was a warm paradise, and it wasn't thin either, so he was able to get easy lungfuls of air. When he reached the bottom of the elevator, he didn't even look at his surroundings, and he heard no voice in his mind. Instead, he stumbled to the nearest corner, sat against it, and passed out.
An unknown amount of time later, Link's eyes cracked open. His body felt stiff, his legs throbbing horribly. At the very least, he was warm, and a lot of his exhaustion had melted away. Not so much that he was entirely better, but he was able to function, at the very least. Sitting up with a bit of a wince, he took out a bottle of water and emptied it, then took out an apple and practically inhaled the entire thing. It was only when he finally stood up that he heard that familiar voice in his mind.
To you who sets foot in this shrine...I am Keh Namut. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial.
It seemed the monk knew of his exhaustion and let him sleep before giving his introduction. How polite of him. With the test officially starting, Link looked around the first room of the structure. He was still very tired and needed more rest, but he still needed to clear this trial…and then he'd rest some more. After all, he felt a bit too stiff to go right back to sleep anyway.
There was the device that'd give him another rune as per usual. Ahead of him was a small pond, with a ledge beyond it too high for him to reach, and no visible way to reach it. Strangely, looking up, he actually saw the monk, Keh Namut, in his box on a higher balcony behind a railing. He didn't expect to lay eyes on the final monk quite so easily. Either way, he approached the device and placed the Sheikah Slate on it, prompting that same voice to speak up like with the rest.
Sheikah Slate authenticated. Distilling rune...
Like before, the device began to glow, a droplet of liquid forming at its bottom and dropping onto the Sheikah Slate. As usual, a new symbol appeared on the device, this one of a snowflake. The two sets of text appeared like always, and the one Link could read spelled out 'Cryonis' which Link vaguely knew meant something with cold.
Rune extracted.
A rune that dealt with some cold. That was certainly fitting for where the shrine was located, and Link wondered if Keh Namut just had a bad sense of humor. Already, he was beginning to piece together what he had to do. Cold-centered rune, assuredly ice specifically, with water nearby…it wasn't very complicated. Link just had to work out just what it did exactly.
Approaching the nearby water, the young man activated the rune and pointed it at the water. He saw a square hologram appear over the water, seeming to be the area the Cryonis rune will affect. Activating it, Link watched as a pillar of ice appeared in the water. The sight of ice made him involuntarily shiver a bit, but he quickly got over it. Looking closer, he saw there were grooves in the ice, clearly for climbing. On a whim, he trade to make an ice pillar outside of the water, but it didn't work. Made sense, he supposed, the rune was somehow freezing the ice into a pillar…
He tested things further, making two more ice pillars before seeing he couldn't make more. Three at a time, then. Pointing at one of the pillars, he saw it turn red on the Sheikah Slate's screen, and tapping it caused the ice to shatter! Okay, it was coming together! Smashing the three pillars, Link formed another three to form a bridge to the upper ledge. Climbing the first pillar, he hopped to the second two, and then onto the ledge, breaking the chunks of ice behind him.
Going down a ramp, he found himself in very shallow water, only about to his ankles, with a gate blocking the way, with gears on its sides indicating it could be raised up. Even in his tired state, Link saw the answer fast and raised an ice pillar below the gate to raise it, assuming the test was to show the pillars can actually lift things up. Moving under the gate, Link shattered the ice and kept going around a corner.
In the hallway ahead of him was another of those smaller Guardians. The robotic entity saw him instantly and started to move towards him. Thinking fast, he raised a pillar of ice beneath it, raising it up. Apparently, the reflexes of the Guardian weren't the best as it kept walking and fell off the pillar, landing upside down on the wet floor. As it tried to get back up, Link rushed at it with his club, slamming onto its underside until it stopped moving.
Taking a breath, Link went around another corner and up some stairs, finding himself on the balcony he saw before, standing before the fourth monk. It seemed this was the easiest test so far, and a part of him wondered if it was Keh Namut showing a bit of mercy given the lengths Link had to go just to reach this place. As he stepped up to the monk, the blue cage around him vanished, and the young man saw the tester was just as shriveled as the rest, his hands forming a triangle like the other three.
"So, you're the last one. It was a real hassle to get here, you know." Link couldn't help but mention, not caring too much about his manners at the moment. His body was still very sore, and he still needed a great deal of sleep…
You have proven to possess the resolve of a true hero. If you could not reach this shrine, you had no business in attempting to save Hyrule. With this, all the shrines upon this plateau have been cleared.
It didn't seem like the monk was particularly amused with Link's minor sass, but the young man really couldn't care less. He had been pushed all around the Great Plateau for a quest he never even asked for or fully understood. If anything, he was mentally patting himself on the back for staying this calm for this long. "I take it there isn't anything extra I get for this. No answers about my past, is that right?"
That would be correct. I have no answers to give, nor a prize. The runes you collected will be valuable for your journey ahead. Feel free to rest here as long as needed. Now that you have finished this trial, my duty is fulfilled. Go, take the rune I gave to you, and bring peace to Hyrule. May the Goddess smile upon you…
Like with the other three monks, Keh Namut was enveloped in light and slowly faded away. Link let out a sigh, figuring it'd be useless to press him for any further answers. It was like the monks liked to just torment him. The young man scowled at himself, annoyed at his own immaturity. He just couldn't help it; he was tired and annoyed at what he had to go through to get to this shrine alone.
Still, he was about to gladly take Keh Namut's offer. He quickly made his way back to the entrance of the shrine, had a bit of water, and fell asleep in the far corner, practically passing out as soon as he got settled in. When he awoke, he of course had no way of knowing how much time had passed or what time it was. He did know his exhaustion was mostly gone, and his legs felt a lot better.
He wanted to check what time it was outside first before anything else, not sure if he could come back into the shrine once he left it. Link wasn't sure if he should make his pepper dish right here in the shrine or wait until he got to a good cave. If he made the dish and it was the middle of the night, the peppers would just go to waste! After a moment of thinking, he decided to just check things out, and just hope the shrine could be entered again after leaving…
Link braced himself as he stepped on the elevator and rose back to the surface, feeling the frigid air of the mountain coming down to meet him and he once more found it quite hard to breathe. Going to the neutral temperature of the shrine to the mountain's top was like a punch to the face! At the very least, when he reached the top, he saw it was the early morning, and he assumed his internal clock was helping him out. As he prepared himself and stepped out of the shrine proper, he stopped in his tracks.
The Old Man was standing there.
As casually as could be, his breath not even showing in the sheer cold, the elderly stranger was standing there, staring at Link as he came out. "Ho ho! I see you cleared the last shrine. Found a valuable treasure, I assume?" He showed no signs of being cold at all, or winded from the thin air nor the taxing climb a man his age shouldn't be able to handle.
For a few seconds, Link just stared at the Old Man. "Are…Wait…" Was all he was able to mumble out, assuming this had to be a hallucination of some sort. Maybe going from the shrine to this horrid temperature so fast messed with his head.
As if reading his mind, the Old Man shook his head. "This isn't a hallucination, Link. I am very much real. You have done a marvelous job getting this far, and it is right time I tell you everything. But not here." He turned a bit, pointing to the temple far off in the distance. "We will meet there, at the top of the temple.
"There? Why there? How…did you get up here…?" Link asked, finding it a bit tough to talk as he could barely even breathe.
"I will be waiting there…" Was all the Old Man said, a green glow surrounding him, ghostly wisps of the same color surrounding him. Then, before Link's eyes, he vanished along with the wisps, leaving the young man alone on top of the mountain.
Link blinked a few times, so shocked he practically forgot about the cold. Was that truly real? What was the Old Man? Was he a person at all? He didn't have time to stop and think this over, not in this weather. Looking far off towards the temple, he carefully placed a beacon on it for extra assurance…and then started his way down the mountain, knowing he had a lot to think about on his journey back…
A/N: The final shrine is cleared, and Link can soon get his answers. It's crazy to think that at about 50k words, this is still the "prologue" of sorts to the main story. And Link will assuredly not leave the Great Plateau until that 50k wordcount has been passed. This chapter was a bit tough to write, Link not interacting with anyone else until near the very end. I decided to make the shrine really short partially because Link's theory on it being small to compensate for hard it was to reach it. Also, partially, I'm sure anyone reading is tired of shrine puzzles, so I wanted to make it nice and brief. I will say that when it comes to Link's travels, I'll generally be detailed like this the first time he goes to places, but when he goes back somewhere again, unless a major event happens, it'll be glossed over. So no worries, no several thousand word long trek back DOWN the mountain.