Author's note: I don't know if I really need a disclaimer because I didn't actually reference anything directly. Just in case Legend of Zelda and the skull kid belong to Nintendo.
I got the idea for this when I was playing Twilight Princess and going through the lost woods a second time. Poor skull kid. I feel sorry for the little bugger because he was turned into a skull kid while still a child and just doesn't have the capacity to understand very much. I want to give him a hug.
Loneliness
Someone once told me, so long ago I don't remember who, not to go into the woods or something bad would happen. I did not listen. The little people went into the woods all the time and were fine. One day I entered the woods and this is where I have been since.
At first I was scared. I was different, but I do not remember how I was before. I was confined to the woods with others like me. There were only two others like me. We played and made music. One of the little people would visit us. She was nice. She taught us a song that I still play. I made friends with a boy who knew her song, but he only played with me a few times and I never saw him again. The little people did not leave the forest either, but their territory was bigger than ours.
One day the little people left. They no longer came to visit me after the great tree went away, but I still could not leave. It was just me and the other two. One said he found new friends and new place, one where he wasn't bound to the forest; and so he left. I was sad without him, but I still had another friend. We played in the woods for a long time. One day he said he was starting to forget everything, and that made him sad. I think he forgot me, maybe even forgot himself because one day he was simply gone.
I was alone. I was sad. I had no one to play with. I did not sleep. I did not eat. I had done neither since entering the woods, but I had not noticed until I was alone. I did not cry, but only because I could not remember how. I wandered alone in the woods. I played by myself, which wasn't much fun. I learned to open and shut the doors of the woods that the great tree used to control. I learned to make puppets, but they were not much fun to play with.
Sometimes someone managed to enter the woods and I was happy. I would play the song for them. I would make puppets for them. They danced with the puppets and sang. The singing sounded funny, but I had forgotten what real singing sounded like. I would play with them until they fell asleep. They had so much fun they were so tired and couldn't wake up again. The great tree was no longer around to make them into friends for me so I watched them sleep until they turned skinny and white.
I do not know how time passes anywhere else. These woods have been my entire world for as long as I can remember. I think there was a time before I can remember; because I can remember a time I was not alone. The only way I can tell that time exists is the secret place. It was once really pretty. I could not go inside, but I could look at it. I watched as it slowly fell. There isn't much left now, but I still like to visit. I look forward to when someone else will come and be my friend. For now I will wait. I don't get hurt but I'm not sure I am alive. I suppose my life is spent forgetting and being forgotten. I simply exist. Alone.