Mother Maiamai

Mother Maiamai is a character in. She is a Maiamai who asks Link to find her missing children, in exchange for item upgrades.

Biography
Mother Maiamai resides at Lake Hylia, in a cavern located behind a Bombable wall. When Link encounters her, she explains to him that she was traveling the worlds with her children when she lost all 100 of her babies. She asks the young hero to locate them, informing him that they will be crying out for her. If Link accepts, she gives him the Maiamai Map to help locate her children.

In exchange for locating and returning her babies, she gives Link upgrades to his weapons, turning them into "Nice" weapons. For every 10 Lost Maiamais that Link brings back, she will upgrade one item that Link owns himself (as she cannot upgrade items that Link is renting from Ravio's Shop). The upgrades she gives improves the performance and attack ability of the weapons. For example, the upgraded Bow allows Link to shoot 3 Arrows at once, instead of just one. When all 100 babies are returned, she will upgrade Link's Spin Attack to the Great Spin.

When enhancing an item, ten of her babies form a semicircle around her and chant while she inhales the item and spits it back out, upgraded. When the Great Spin is earned, she inhales Link and spits him out.

If Link speaks to Ravio after learning the Great Spin and returns to Mother Maiamai, she will say that she and her children are leaving for a different dimension. When Link returns to the cave, there is a lone Maiamai left behind, the 72nd one that Link saved. She states that she remained to become her own Maiamai, and asks Link to wish her luck on being as good of a mother as Mother Maiamai was.

Etymology
Her name "Maiamai" comes from the Japanese word マイマイ maimai, meaning "snail". The name is also a play on the phrase "My, oh, my!"

Trivia

 * Mother Maiamai bares a close resemblance to the Storytelling Octopus from, as well to the octopi-shaped targets in the game's Shooting Gallery.