Linkguistics

Part 21: More Sidequests

In retrospect, Link felt kind of bad for not thanking Revali despite the insufferable level of smug. Link had compiled a to-do list of things he wanted to, well, do before he went to kill Ganon. Again.

It didn't help that there had been a few spots on the mountain where Link head the Shrine sensor beeping. He could ignore the shrines and the conversation but he wanted to take every advantage he could reasonably have. Link didn't relish the idea of being stuck in the Dark World with Ganon for another few thousand years. He wondered if tying the Master Sword to his hand would be too much restriction on his freedom of movement or worth the risk. Half-formed plans kept Link up much of the night. He had another go at trying to reactivate the armor link to the slate. The only function he had functional was the heart rate monitor. He really wanted to get the secondary tech power supply running. The additional power for ancient weaponry would boost chances of survival.

Once he managed relaxation, Link slept soundly He woke up to the sound of the concertina and made sure to thank Kass before saying goodbye. There were a lot of people to visit. Link decided to start with something easy while he finished planning.

The first stop was the tower visible from Rito Village. The blank spot on his map irked him even though he didn't have plans to explore the snow-covered mountains. Link had some time as he rode up to his destination and a desperate need to talk to someone. He decided to check out the cabin visible from the tower. After that he was gonna ask Cotera where her other two sisters were located because he would feel bad if they were stuck without power for much longer. This would have to be weighed against Zelda being stuck in the castle, of course. Link wanted to look for more supplies while traveling to the remaining fairies.

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Pondo had just finished setting up the pins for snowling. Most people would have decided to use a smaller scale for normal bowling. Normal bowling was boring and this was snowling. Pondo was of the opinion that if the pins were anything less than four feet tall and had no carved moose heads it wasn't worth it. It took a very long time to drag the gigantic carved log pins into place for a new round. If he ever had a visitor that joined him, he was going to charge good money.

So engrossed was Pondo in the moving of wooden pins that he didn't see the guy coming.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, Hi! Nice to meet a fresh face in these parts. It's not every day I get company this high in the hills. This snowball is for this game I made up!"

"Game?"

"Yeah! Snowball bowling! Or, as I call it, Snowling!"

"Snowling? How does it work?"

Link watched with interest as Pondo demonstrated. He helped reset the pins and Pondo gave the odd foreigner a free try after introductions. Link didn't understand the language too well but he had a big grin on his face and was willing to play while he let stew simmer inside. After a few rounds Link got an even bigger grin.

"OH! Hey, can we make a smaller one? Smaller snowling?"

"Why would you want a smaller game of Snowling?"

"For the, um, what word was it, the tree children?" Pondo had no idea what Link was talking about until Link showed him sketches and fumbled more words. "Small tree children! Forest spirits? Korok! That was the word!"

Pondo shrugged and decided to play along. He helped Link make a smaller sized run with sticks stood up in the snow. Pondo absentmindedly started to carve a piece ofthe wood Link had provided for this project. Link dashed uphill, then came back minutes later. Pondo decided he could tolerate a little bit of imaginary friends for the sake of this new one. Pondo watched as Link left a small snowball on the ground. What Pondo wasn't expecting was to see the snowball hover around for a little while before being tossed downhill at the smaller pins.