I resumed my game and headed off for the first dungeon, the Eastern Palace. Once I got there, I saw a symbol that showed a bow and arrow on it. A sign told me I had to go to an “item shop” where Ravio would let me rent one! Rent? Don’t you know who I am?
The item shop was actually at my own house, and Ravio is a rabbit that I let stay there last time. But he agreed to lend me the bow for free, at least this time. The interesting thing is that the bow doesn’t use regular arrows that you would buy or pick up. Instead, it uses an energy gauge. Shooting an arrow will lower your energy gauge, and you can shoot until it’s empty. However, the gauge refills itself, so you won’t have to be without arrows for long.
With my bow and infinite magical arrows in hand, I returned to the Eastern Palace, where I was able to unlock a door to progress further. Once I reached the palace, some old guy with a ponytail named Osfala was there. Link told him what was going on (wait, how does Link tell people things if he doesn’t talk?) and he revealed he’s one of the original seven sages. He went inside the palace, and I followed behind. I soon reached an area I recognized from A Link to the Past: Bowling balls!
This room was an awful lot like A Link to the Past, but to be fair, the dungeon overall is not identical. There are new puzzles, new rooms, and new traps all around. Once I made it to the boss room, the bad guy Yuga was making Osfala hover in the air in apparent discomfort. Yuga then turned Osfala into a painting. It was time for me to fight Yuga!
I fought him and beat him, but then he did something unthinkable: He turned ME into a painting. Oh no you didn’t!
Well, at least this is one way to slim down after eating big holiday meals. But then, a bracelet I was wearing (from Ravio) saved me somehow. I popped out of the wall and felt human…err…elfy again! I now have the ability to merge into walls by turning into a painting. I can then fit through cracks in the wall to reach new places. But this ability uses the energy gauge, so I can only use it for a limited time before allowing it to recharge. Even though I collected the heart container from beating the boss, I wasn’t done with the dungeon.
I was in a new area on the outer walls of the palace. I got a bit lost for a few minutes, but I eventually found my way back out of the dungeon. Sahasrahla met me there, and I filled him in on the details. After hearing a loud crash, we automatically made our way to Hyrule Castle, which had a mysterious barrier around it. He told me I needed to get the two other pendants, one in the House of Gales and the other in the Tower of Hera. So I’ll be headed to one of those locations next time. But for now, I saved my game and quit. See you next time!