Well, they told me the quickest way was to take a brave dive off of the sky island, so that’s what I did.
Near the ledge where I had saved my game last time, there is a little one-square tile of a rivulet or spring, cascading over the edge. I reason that below must be a body of water, accumulated from this waterfall, so I jump here.
I fall a great distance, for what seems like more than a minute, and as I descend I can see the ground coming up to meet me. In the center, a small pond. If it’s not deep enough, this will have been a short adventure. I try to aim for the center, but not too far away from the edge, so I can make it to the shore without drowning.
I manage to splash down safely, and just barely with enough endurance meter to make it to land.
I step onto the shore, and am in Hyrule. Near the pond, there’s a large wood crate or something, covered by a tarpaulin. I walk over to look at it more closely, there are materials for construction, and a sign saying that they are for Hyrule Restoration, courtesy of Bolson Construction. I remember Bolson from BOTW. There are wooden sections of what would seem to be pre-fabricated walls for buildings, and some wagon wheels. I realize that I could probably assemble these parts with my Ultrahand ability to create a vehicle, but presently there’s no actual need to do that, and I feel more like exploring. As I’m looking at the construction materials, a Bokoblin comes up and attacks me; I whirl around and face him, smacking him with a thick wooden stick, which does not break after I hit him several times. He goes down quickly, and I’m pretty satisfied.
I cross a little bridge and follow the road away from the pond for a bit. Before too long, I come to a stand of trees, and spot a Bokoblin standing among them. I crouch down low to become stealthy, and sneak up, being careful to keep a tree trunk between the Bokoblin and I. I get close enough, and nail the bokoblin in the head with an arrow. I sit back and observe for a bit to see how the Bokoblin reacts. He seems angry and alert, but he can’t seem to find me. Eventually he settles back down, so I hit him again with another arrow, and follow up with several more shots until he drops.
I run up to collect some loot, when suddenly two of the trees uproot themselves and attack me!
I try to fight back, first with an arrow, but although I seemed to have had good aim, the arrow just passes through it. Could I have missed? Or perhaps are arrows not the best weapon? OK, I try running up to hit the tree up with my club. This proves poor strategy, the tree is much taller than I am and has a considerable reach advantage, bending over at near the ground to club me with its entire body. This hits pretty hard, and I lose more than half of my health.
I decide to run away at this point, but the trees give me a good chase and keep up with me for a bit. But eventually I’m far enough down the road that they give up and decide to leave me alone.
I’m further down the road from the direction I’d come from, and up ahead I can see a Bokoblin camp, and in the field a distance away from the main camp there’s a Bokoblin on horseback.
I decide I want the horse, and I try climbing up on a rock to get a good shot with my bow. The range of the bow is far less than I expect, though, and my arrow lands well short, about halfway to where I had been aiming.
I decide to just run up and shoot the Bokoblin off the horse, and this plan works just fine. The Bokoblin is dismounted and disarmed, and I rush up and finish him off with my club. Then I pick up his weapon and approach the horse, who seems to be already tame, and lets me mount him immediately.
I go back to the road and head back in the direction I came from. The map shows a point of interest marked, and apparently that’s where I’m supposed to go.
A few minutes at a moderate gallop, past some more Bokoblin camps that I just ignore, and I’m at the destination. It’s a little settlement just outside of the location of Hyrule Castle, or what would be Hyrule Castle if it wasn’t floating above in the air.
I walk in, and it looks like a shop, or an inn, there are some items for sale, and a little statue that I can pray to. I spot some arrows and go to collect them, when a little old man admonishes me not to touch them. I talk to him, and he recognizes me, and tells me to go at once to talk to Purah, who is waiting for me upstairs.
I do as he says, and the story advances a bit. Purah recalls the events thus far, and tells me that I should proceed to meet up with the search party that went to Hyrule Castle to search for Zelda and me when we disappeared, and to look for their leader, a man named Hoz.
So I guess that’s the next thing to do.
There seems to be quite a bit more around here for me to explore and do, but I’m feeling strangely impatient. In BOTW, I was exploring every little thing that looked interesting, that looked like it might be a thing; here I’m eager to press on and advance the main quest and storyline. I wonder why that is; do I expect the game to have so little new to offer me in the way of world and ambiance? Or am I simply familiar enough with the basics from playing BOTW that I am more ready to simply get on with it now?