The scarecrow in the astronomy tower has a counterpart in the town’s trading post. In addition to teaching Link tricks he can do with the Song of Time, they respond if Link shows his ocarina and encourage him to play a melody for them. I chose one of the unused songs from Ocarina, Saria’s Song (extended by two notes), and the scarecrow promised to show up if Link played the melody. There are two useful places I found to play it: one on the road to Snowhead, which also takes the Lens of Truth to get, and one near where the pirates’ fortress is, which also requires riding a magic bean plant (which can be grown quickly with the Song of Storms). There’s heart pieces in it for both.
On the way to the beach is a boulder that can be exploded to reveal a hole. In the hole is a pond, and by sinking to the bottom, Link can get another heart piece here.
There are two aquaria in the lab, one to hatch zora eggs and the other with a couple big fish that Tatl notes look hungry. (I didn’t notice the egg aquarium at first, so I spent a bunch of time trying to drop the eggs in to get eaten. Fortunately, it wouldn’t let me, and my frustration eventually led me to the right place.) The hungry fish want Link to bottle fish and drop them in for him. After four, they reward him with another heart piece.
The next stop is Zora Cape, where a couple zoras have set up a pot-breaking game, as if Link needs the incentive. Actually, this one has a bit of a disincentive, threatening to fine people who recklessly break the pots. In other words, it costs 10 rupees to play, but that’s taken after the game is played, not before, so if you come to this broke (or go broke trying to win), there’s no punishment for failure. The pots are set up in a W shape, and there’s a spot and throwing angle where if Zora Link throws at the center pot with the double boomerangs, they’ll smash the other four pots in their return arc. The setup allows for small-scale corrections to Link’s starting position/angle. The reward for this is 100 rupees, minus the pot replacement charge – for the one good throw only; he doesn’t remember all the other times. If I still needed rupees for the bank, this would be the way to make them now.
The last point of interest for this collection is the waterfall at the end of the cape. Under the waterfall is a like like that drops a heart piece when killed. Above the waterfall are a series of ledges with single trees on, which means Link needs to find the lowest one and make his ascent with the hookshot. Finally, he enters a cave and finds a beaver, who doesn’t want to talk to Link. Link presses the issue by putting on the Zora Mask and pursuing the beaver underwater.
The beaver knows Link’s after a bottle, and promises one if Link can beat his swimming challenge. Said challenge involves following the beaver through a river and passing through all of the rings, in order. This gave me fits at first, because I hadn’t gotten a grip on the swimming controls, so if I moved fast enough to make it to the end of the course, I didn’t have enough control to pass through the rings, and if I took my time on the rings, I didn’t have enough to make it through all of them. It was a happy accident that let me stumble on the fact that if I held down the swim button, Link would continually be in swim mode and could be guided with the control stick. So I’m really glad for this minigame, because not knowing how to swim would probably have made the next dungeon miserable [1]. Once Link beat it, the beaver summoned his older brother for help. The brother also challenges Link, and his race has more rings and a trickier path. Once that’s done, the beavers give Link the promised bottle. Link can challenge them again, and after making it through both courses with a stricter time limit, gets a heart piece.
If Link stops the thief from stealing the bomb bags on the first night, the Curiosity Shop owner has a mask on the third night that won’t let the wearer fall asleep. It was apparently used as a torture device, but Link has a different use for it. He starts a new cycle and goes to the inn. The innkeeper’s grandmother mistakes him for her son, and she loves to tell stories, but Link doesn’t find them interesting and falls asleep when she tells them. The All-Night Mask lets him stay up through the stories, and she awards him “candy” (heart pieces) for listening so well. The stories seem to be about the guardians/giants and… the Skull Kid? If so, he’s really old.
Now it’s time for the temple; the stories already took up half a day, so Link resets time to have a fresh cycle.
Next: What is it about water dungeons?
[1] Miserabler.
