@GrantGreif: About the wand, it sounds great! Just make sure that the wand is located somewhere in the equivalent of Lanayru Province in the Dark World. I’d say that includes from Hyrule Castle all the way down to Lake Hylia, so there are a lot of options there. (I’m not sure if the Gerudo Desert was part of it, since it was on a separate map in Twilight Princess, but Lanayru Province is the one that’s closest to it. I’ll leave it as your call on that one if you desire the wand to be there in the Dark World. I believe Misery Mire is the Dark World equivalent of the Gerudo Desert.)
@klop422: I could definitely add it to the map. Where was Fizleon when he encountered it? Once I know that, I’ll be able to figure out where on the map to put it.
(@everyone: ) Okay, I finally have my next post ready for you! Here it is:
---------------------------------------
Jaron
Day 7 - Afternoon
After descending the rope ladder, Rido and I went down the path toward the Kokiri Forest a little ways before I stopped. A couple steps later Rido noticed me and asked “What is it?”
I looked at him thoughtfully. “We don’t need to walk all that way back to Faron! Remember that tune the monkeys taught us?”
Rido thought a minute. “You mean that funky beat they played?”
I smiled. “Right! I don’t know if I told you this, but the monkeys said that the Hylians who played that tune were transported back to that big stone slab in their woods, the one that looks just like that one back there!” I pointed back at the stone slab before the entrance to the Forest Temple. “We were warped there with the tune that the Great Deku Tree taught us, so we should be able to warp to the monkeys by playing their tune!”
“Hey, yeah!” Rido exclaimed. “Great idea, Jaron!”
I pulled out my Deku Ocarina. “Okay. We’ll do this just like last time. Hold on tight to me while I play, and it should warp you along with me.”
“Got it,” said Rido. He got into position behind me and grabbed onto me.
I then played the song:
---^---^-----^-
----------->---
-A---A---A-----
You played the Monkey Rumba!
Warp to Aril Nom?
-No
>Yes
The same type of flash that had whisked us back to the Forest Temple, but more of a grayish light than a greenish light, transported us in a flash back to the stone slab in the monkey’s woods. I felt Rido holding on to me, making me relieved that the trick had worked again. Rido released me. I put away my Ocarina, just as Rido spoke up.
“Say, does it seem kind of… quiet… to you?”
I stopped moving and listened. No crickets chirped. I heard no abnormal rustling of leaves, branches or anything; just the light rustling of a gentle breeze blowing through the trees. All seemed quiet. A little too quiet. I whispered to Rido, “We should go check on the monkeys.” Rido agreed and we quietly hurried west, towards the big tree around which the monkeys had spent the night while we were here last.
As we approached the large tree, we saw that the nests the monkeys had made were all scattered. I saw drag marks in the soil here and there where leaves no longer covered the ground. I then saw, in a bare spot of ground, some sort of footprints. Now, I was no tracker, but I could tell that they weren’t monkey prints; they were the outline of a clothed foot with no separate toe marks. I pointed them out to Rido. “Monkeys don’t wear boots!” I whispered.
Rido saw the prints and gasped. “What if…” he whispered back, stammering. “What if… those goriyas got them?”
That’s what I was thinking, too, I thought. “Maybe…” I whispered, “Do you think that… those goriyas that passed by us the other day… ?”
Rido read my thoughts and looked back at the ground in horror. He didn’t reply.
I started thinking. Then I remembered something. “I know how we can know for certain!” I whispered.
Rido looked at me with a surprised look. “How?”
“Their leader Oonak said that if we played the Monkey Rumba here in the forest, we won’t transport but the monkeys will hear us and he’ll send one of them to us.”
Rido looked hopeful. “Then let’s do it!” he excitedly whispered.
I took out my Ocarina quickly and played the tune again:
---^---^-----^-
----------->---
-A---A---A-----
You played the Monkey Rumba!
Do you want to call a monkey?
-No
>Yes
In a moment, we heard movement in the trees at the far end of the clearing, on the other side of the large tree from where we were standing. As I looked toward the sound, I eventually saw the form of a monkey, swinging through the trees toward us. I started to run toward it, but stopped because I didn’t want to alarm it. I figured that they might be scared after whatever tussle they had to endure here. Rido had followed suit, and stopped where I’d stopped. We waited for the monkey to reach us. After reaching the clearing, the monkey saw us, swung down to the ground and raced toward us. I guessed that it could tell we weren’t goriyas and had recognized us. The monkey ran up and began chattering, gesturing and hopping up and down with an upset look on its face. I listened for a bit, but without the Mask of Translation, I couldn’t understand a thing. I had to break it to the monkey.
“I’m sorry,” I interrupted, “but I can’t make out what you’re trying to say.”
The monkey stopped its chattering and hopping. It looked down for a minute, thinking. Then he looked up, as if he had an idea. He chirped, hopped into the air and then raced toward the large tree. He stopped, chattered for a second, and pointed at one of the torches that I lit before. It was the torch to the left of the entrance to the big tree, and it had fallen back down. As I neared it, I saw that the other torch was lying down as well. Thinking quickly, I raised the torches, one by one, back into their positions. Then I pulled out my flint and quickly lit one of the torches. Pulling out a Deku stick, I quickly ran and lit the other torch. Soon the chest appeared again as before. The monkey jumped and clapped, cheering me that I’d done it again. I went to the chest and opened it.
You got the Mask of Translation (again)! Equip this mask to talk to animals.
After examining it to see that it wasn’t damaged, I put it on and turned to the monkey.
“Oh, thank goodness you’ve returned!” the monkey began, almost hysterical. “The Foxcats invaded our home here in the forest after we had settled down to sleep! We tried to escape, but there were so many of them that almost all of us were captured!”
“That’s terrible!” I stated.
“I managed to escape shortly after they attacked by going back eastward. However, they tracked me down and captured me, too!”
“What???” I exclaimed. “So you managed to escape?”
“YOU helped me escape!” the monkey replied. “Remember? I was in that clearing? Then I helped you find the chest?”
My eyes grew wider. “That was you???”
“Thank you, ever so much!” the monkey continued. “However, I didn’t know that everyone had been captured until I returned here afterwards. I was hoping to find some that had escaped, but I haven’t found anyone yet!” The monkey stopped jumping around, looked down and quietly murmured, “I fear the worst.” Tears formed in his eyes.
I felt sorry for the poor thing, and felt my own tears welling up. I lifted the mask a little to wipe them away. “I’m so sorry,” I began. “If you can tell me anything you know, I might be able to help you find them.”
The monkey looked up a little and wiped away a tear, sniffing. “Well,” he sniffed again, “I know that the Foxcats normally come from the southeast. … I was searching for the others in the trees to the west when I heard your call. I’ve searched to the south, too. … I haven’t seen any Foxcats in either of those directions.”
Just then, we heard another monkey calling from the southeastern end of the clearing. With the mask on, I could barely make out what sounded like: “Hello! … Hello! … I’m coming!”
The monkey next to me brightened up. “It’s one of them!” He started jumping and calling back, “Over here! Over here!”
Pretty soon, I could make out another monkey swinging through the trees. As it came closer, I could see it was the monkey with the green flower in her hair! The monkey next to me… Oh, why don’t they have names??? … The monkey next to me, upon seeing the girl monkey, began hopping up and down and headed toward the girl monkey. She hopped to the ground and met him halfway to the treeline. They embraced each other for a minute. I figured they needed a moment, so I didn’t approach them. After a minute, the boy monkey brought the girl monkey over to see me.
“See? See? He’s back!” he exclaimed excitedly.
The girl monkey looked at me with sad eyes. “Thank goodness you’ve returned! Oonak and the others have all been captured by the Foxcats!”
“I’m glad to see you’re alright!” I exclaimed.
The girl looked down slightly, sadly. “I managed to climb up and slip out of one of their big cages. The others tried to follow, but the Foxcats blocked off my exit after they saw me get out.” I saw a tear form in her eye.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
She wiped it away and sniffed while the boy monkey tried to comfort her. “It’s okay now. He is back! He wants to help find them!”
The girl monkey looked up at me. “I know where to find them, but it won’t be easy.”
“What won’t be easy?” I said, confused.
“It won’t be easy rescuing them because…” she sniffed again. “Because… they are in the Land of the Foxcats!”
The boy monkey almost jumped backward in surprise and fear. “Oh no! Not the Land of the Foxcats!”
I didn’t know what this “Land of the Foxcats” was, but I had a feeling it was their headquarters. “So… Forgive me for not knowing, but… what is the ‘Land of the Foxcats’?”
Both the monkeys shuddered at the mention of the name again. The girl spoke, “It only the Land where there are many, many Foxcats! Too many to know! No other monkey has ever gone there and come back!”
“Well, at least you came back,” I said, trying to comfort her.
“But… do you know what Foxcats will do to us if they catch us???”
I cringed inside at the thought. I could very well imagine what they might do, since the goriyas we’d met seemed almost like savage wild beasts. Eek! I thought. I didn’t even want to think it. “Uh… yeah, I think I have a pret-ty good idea…”
I could tell they could tell I understood their plight. The girl monkey looked down and started to cry. The boy monkey tried to comfort her.
I felt terrible inside. I don’t know if it was the mask or not, but I could almost feel what they were feeling.
I looked toward Rido. Oh yeah, I thought, he can’t understand them. I took off the mask, and then noticed a tear in his eye as well. “You know what’s going on?” I asked him.
“No,” he sniffed, “but I can’t help but feel sorry for them.”
I could tell I wasn’t the only one who was a bit empathic for these poor monkeys. “The other monkeys are in the ‘Land of the Foxcats’, as they call it.”
Rido looked confused. “’Foxcats’?” he asked.
“Sorry, I keep forgetting you don’t have a mask. The goriyas. That’s what the monkeys call them.”
Rido thought a minute, and his expression grew stern. “They must’ve taken the monkeys to their homeland!” he remarked.
“Right,” I confirmed.
“Well, we’ve got to do something, Jaron!” Rido blurted out. “We can’t just sit around here while the monkeys are held captive!”
“I know, Rido,” I tried to calm him down. “But, the Great Deku Tree said…”
“Forget what the tree said! We’ve got to help the monkeys! They’re our friends!”
I’d never seen Rido so upset. I hadn’t realized that he considered the monkeys his friends. I put my hand on his shoulder. “You want to help them, right?”
Another tear appeared in his eye. “Of course!”
“Well, I would think that Faron would want us to help them as well, don’t you?”
He looked up at me, sadly. “Faron? … Yeah… Yes, of course! Why wouldn’t he? He’s in charge of them, isn’t he?”
“I think so, too,” I replied. “And I have a feeling when we go see him, like the Great Deku Tree said to, that he’ll want us to go help them. He may even give us something we need to help them!”
Rido looked down, wiped his tears away. “Okay… okay…”
I put my mask back on and went to the monkeys. They had been listening, though I could tell they didn’t fully understand me and Rido, similar to how I could only partially understand them without the mask.
“I’m going to see… the Great Monkey,” I told them.
They stopped crying and looked at me with wide eyes. It seems this was something they hadn’t considered. They looked at each other, and then back at me. “Please,” the girl monkey said, “will you petition the Great Monkey for help? We are in dire need!”
“I will most definitely do that,” I replied.
The girl monkey looked up to the sky. A hopeful look came over her face, as well as the boy monkey’s face, too. Then they both turned to me. “Oh, thank you, thank you!” they both said.
I smiled at them, even though they probably couldn't see it from under the mask. Then I looked toward Rido. “Let’s go! We’d better hurry!”
Rido looked at me with a half-blank, half-confused expression.
Oh, right, I thought, I keep forgetting!
I was about to take off the mask when I heard, “Wait!”
I turned around. The two monkeys approached me. “Yes?”
The girl looked at the other for a second, then said “Oonak will probably hate me for this, but… Take the mask with you… Just in case you need it.”
I smiled at them again, even though I didn’t think they could see it. Maybe they could feel it, because they smiled back at me. “Thank you,” I finally said.
“You’re welcome,” the boy monkey replied. “I’ll watch over her while you’re gone. We’ll keep out of sight in case the Foxcats return, so just call us when you return.”
“I will. Thanks!” I called as I turned toward the east. I removed my mask and motioned for Rido to follow me.
To be continued…