Back in Skyloft, I dowsed for the gate to the “great trial.” Turns out it was actually in Skyloft itself. Once I found it, I whipped out my harp and played it. It transported me to the final trial, The Goddess’s Silent Realm. Ugh, I thought I was done with these.
It took me a couple tries, but I did collect all 15 tears and complete the trial. My reward was the Stone of Trials, which will lead me to the Triforce. Smurf-Fi told me there is something else in Skyloft that has a similar marking; I must combine the two to open the way to the Triforce.
While looking around, I saw Fledge with a “…” speech bubble. I went to talk to him, and he had a game to play. He tosses pumpkins into the air, and I have to shoot them with my bow and arrows. He told me to get 600 points to get the high score, so I kept playing until I did.
My reward was a piece of heart. I then continued my search… and then I remembered a strange statue over by the waterfall where I first rescued my bird very early in the game. After placing the Stone of Trials in its missing eye socket, the statue spun around, opened up, and a cannon appeared! It shot cannonballs at the neighboring island where the goddess statue was! It broke off huge pieces of the island, revealing a temple on the underside of the island! Shocking!
It also shot out some floating things that I could use my clawshots with, to cross the gap to get to the temple. I was not going to attempt the temple tonight, but I decided to go inside and check it out real quick. It’s called the Sky Keep, and it is where the Triforce is located. It seems to be the final dungeon, but I am not sure about that. Oddly enough, the very first room has a large treasure chest. It contained the dungeon map. That’s extremely unusual for a Zelda dungeon to have the map in the very first room.
The map itself was just as odd. It consists of eight square rooms which seem to be out of order. I’m guessing this dungeon is going to have some serious puzzles. But since I wasn’t going to tackle it today, I went back out to Skyloft.
Instructor Owlan wanted me to find a rare plant for him. I was able to dowse for it, and I decided to seek it out. The search led me to Faron Woods, and oddly enough, to one of the Kikwis. This Kikwi was stressed about monsters in the area and wanted to live in a more peaceful place. So Smurf-Fi jumps out of my sword and utters this epic line:
“I can verify with only 40% accuracy that this person is a plant.” 😀 😀 😀 Anyway, she calls in the flying robot to lug the little plant person up to Skyloft. Instructor Owlan is thrilled with, and intrigued by, the little Kikwi.
I got five gratitude crystals from him. That gave me 52 in total, so I went down to Batreaux’s house to get my latest reward. He gave me a giant wallet, which can store 5,000 rupees!
He said to return to him when I have 70 gratitude crystals…he hinted that he may be able to become human at that point. We’ll see. I made a quick stop at the bazaar to sort out my items…I took my 5th bottle with me and filled it with red (life) potion. After that, I saved my game.
Since I was in Skyloft, I upgraded some of my equipment before heading for Lanayru Desert. It actually let me choose my landing spot for this area, and I chose Lanayru Mine Entry because I remembered seeing clawshot targets there, way back before I even had the clawshots. Those targets did indeed lead me on the right path, and I soon found myself in Lanayru Gorge. I found a very large set of bones that oddly had a “…” bubble. Whatever it was, it was dead. But I figured I needed a timeshift stone and that thing would speak to me.
At first, I didn’t see anywhere to go but dead ends. But after closely looking at my surroundings, I found the key to my problem. The area basically forms a large circle, so I started off on my journey.
I found a timeshift stone embedded in a mine cart. I struck it with my sword and had to follow it as it circled around.
This area is well-designed and a lot of fun. You have to be quick to figure out how to advance. Go too slow and the mine cart will pass you up, turning the past into the present, and grass into quicksand. You will use almost all of your items in this area. I really enjoyed this area, especially compared to the volcano part yesterday.
Unfortunately, he was sick and unable to sing me his part of the song. He said the robots planted a seedling from the Tree of Life, but he didn’t have enough time left to wait for it to grow into a tree so he could eat the fruit, which can cure any illness.
I knew exactly what to do with it. Someone at the Sealed Temple mentioned wanting a sapling to plant a tree there before. And by going to the past to plant it, clearly the fruit would be ready by the time I got back to the present. So I did, and it was. I took the fruit to the Thunder Dragon. He was completely revitalized and sang me his part of the Song of the Hero.
I then had to return to Levias in the thunderhead. The dragons joined us and they sang the complete song.
It opens the door to a great trial. Smurf-Fi gave me the ability to dowse for it. I will save that task for next time. But before I saved my game, I went and recovered a few treasure chests that have been unlocked by hitting goddess cubes. One of them contained a 5th bottle, which is very helpful. Although it went directly to storage, since my adventure pouch is full, I’ll have to equip it next time I’m in Skyloft.
The eruption blew me off course and apparently knocked me out. I awakened in a jail cell with none of my possessions. The Mogma creature named Plats dug up through the ground and told me what happened.
He brought me my Mogma Mitts, so that I can dig underground. I dug out from my cell and found myself at the base of the volcano. Once again, I had to scale the entire mountain. But this time, I have no weapons and I have to avoid the guards that are all over. I’m really not a fan of having to use stealth in video games, but this wasn’t exactly Metal Gear Solid. Sneaking around the guards wasn’t overly difficult.
But this journey would be a long one regardless. Many of my possessions were placed in treasure chests scattered around the volcano. I had to wind my way around to get each one, then figure out how to reach the next one. Slowly, I re-acquired my gust bellows, clawshots, whip, and bombs. A while later, I saw it…my sword! At last!
It was so nice to be able to attack enemies again instead of having to sneak past them. Further on, I got my adventure pouch back, with all the rest of my belongings. Finally! I stopped to score a goddess cube, and then made my way to the fire dragon. He sang me the second part of the Song of the Hero.
Just one more to go… Lanayru Desert is next on the list.