A/N: Well hello everybody. This is my first Zelda story, so I hope it's to your liking. Just for reference, I always assumed Link was nine in Ocarina, which made his older self sixteen, and makes him about eleven in this story, which takes place two years after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. I know some people think he's older than that, but that's what I always got out of it.
This chapter is basically an introduction to the actual story. The pairings will reveal themselves as it goes on.
Any kind of review is welcome, as long as it contains constructive criticism. So please, review! Reviews make me want to right more!
I hope you guy's have as much fun reading this as I've had writing it.
Regards,
Futures.
_On With the story!_
A slight wind rustled through the trees of the Kokiri forest that night. The young child-like creatures inhabiting the quaint village were asleep, save for one.
Link was restless. He was not sure why, exactly, but something seemed different about tonight. Whenever he tried to close his eyes, they snapped open again, seemingly of their own volition. No matter how he tried, he could not fall back to sleep. He decided to go for a walk: that often helped in these sorts of situations.
He had returned to the Kokiri village about two years ago. He had been happy about it at the time, and it had been nice to see all his friends again. Their memories of his leaving the forest had been wiped. Things had returned to normal. He was once again a small child who had no say in the events of the world.
In other words, he was bored out of his mind.
He did not hate the peaceful life to which he had returned. It was nice. Even the fights he would get into with Mido from time to time were rather enjoyable, now that he had a wider frame of reference. The problem, he supposed, came with the fact that he was too good at everything. After he defeated Gannon, Zelda returned him to the physical form of a child, but his memories remained unchanged. There was no task in the village that was beyond him.
All the work was now his because he was the best at it. The villagers didn't give him compensation, either. All he was given was what he needed.
He shook himself clear of this moment of self reverie, and walked outside.
The village at night looked like a collection of small stones tossed thoughtlessly across an open field, each house laid seemingly without order. As Link walked out onto the porch of his tree-house, he took a strange pleasure in this enchanting view: everything was quiet and peaceful.
He climbed down the ladder slowly. The whole village was still asleep; there was no sense waking everyone up.
When his bare feet hit the village's soft grass, a strange sort of reverence overtook him. It was as if the community, fox holed so easily into the woods, had become one of the great temples of Hyrule: there was a strong energy pervading each surface that he crossed, flowing through his very skin. He liked the feeling.
The thick vines held a pure silence as he clung to them. Perhaps it was merely the fact that he was mounting them without any noise in the background, but the lack of sound was almost eerie. He had always remembered fondly the scratchy clicking of his body against the heavy plants; no such comforting noise existed in this night.
As he reached the top of the vines, he realized the direction in which he was headed. Night was not the time to be in the Lost Woods. It was the time during which all the skull children rose out of the trees where they hid. During the day, Link had only ever seen one or two of the strange ethereal creatures. He didn't want to think how many would be there during the night.
And yet, something was drawing him that way. It was one of those sensations that a man simply can't fight: the overwhelming feeling that the lost woods was where he needed to be, regardless of the danger. He sucked in his gut, and moved forward into the thick, dilapidated mess of trees. The feeling he had noticed before was growing stronger now. Trees on either side, his heart was beating slowly and carefully, like a metronome, and the only other noise in the forest was a single owl, hooting away in the top-most branches of the evergreens and oaks.
He knew now exactly where his feet were leading him. He was moving towards the forest shrine. To the best of his knowledge, the forest shrine had been uninhabited for many years now. He wasn't sure what he could possibly want there, but he continued anyway, with the hope of satisfying the strange sense that now kept him moving.
As he walked, he witnessed all forms of phenomena. The skull kids were everywhere, dancing or singing or playing the flute or resting by campfires. Twice he saw them having moments with each other that are too intimate and strange to be mentioned in a story such as this, and once he even saw one of them writing away in some long forgotten tongue on a piece of old parchment that looked like it must have been stolen from a foolish passerby.
Finally, just as he had begun to think he never would, he reached the shrine that had been his goal. Walking up the staircase he saw the very same triforce symbol that had borne him to and from the temple many times in the past. It seemed absolutely nothing had changed.
Then, he noticed. Floating roughly a foot above the triforce-emblazoned platform were two small glowing balls of light: one light blue, and the other white.
Slowly, he inched his way up to the platform. It could not possibly be true… could it? He did not even dare hope…
As he neared the platform, the balls of light flew towards him. Two very different voices sounded off, voices he had not heard for some time The voices of Navi and Tatl.
"Link!" shouted each of the two fairies, flying forward as quickly as they could. They hugged his neck as best they could, and he smiled; glad to finally be back in the company of his old friends.
The rest of the night was spent in the eerie glow that the forest shrine had always held, swapping stories and remembering the many moments that comprised their adventures. That is to say that the fairies talked and Link, who was not exactly the talkative type, continued smiling, remembering all the times he had shared with each of them.
They told him how they had met each other late one night, and they had talked and learned of their common ally. They had journeyed, then, for many miles to reach the forest shrine, where they waited and hoped.
As the night drew onwards and morning approached, Link could think of one thing only: tomorrow, he would go to the Great Deku Tree. He would tell the tree that he would leave the village later that day. He would ask the tree to allow Link to exit peacefully. Regardless of what the tree told him, he would be gone from the land that had raised him by the next morning. With each story that passed, he became surer and surer of this fact.
So they continued telling their stories until the early hours of the morning, and they fell asleep there in the growing dawn, the fairies resting comfortably on Link's chest.
The Next Morning
"You… You wish to leave?" The great branches and leaves that comprised the Deku Tree's hair shook slightly, as if a slight breeze had blown through the clearing. No such breeze was present.
Link nodded his head slightly. He had known exactly how difficult this would be from the beginning, but he had to get away from the village. He had to get back into the world.
"You know that the moment you leave this village, you will no longer share in the eternal life of the kokiri?" The nose of the tree twitched slightly, giving him an abject appearance of sadness.
Link nodded again. He had considered this fact repeatedly, and come to the same conclusion: He did not want to live eternally in this world. He would rather be mortal in a world where he could live freely and as he wanted to live. He wanted adventure. He missed the heat of the desert; he missed the architecture of the Goron's mountain, and he missed the cool calm that pervaded Zora's domain.
The Deku tree was talking again, but he had already made his decision. As the tree finished talking, Link nodded one last time.
"Very well then, Link. You are free to leave. I wish you luck in your travels, wherever they may carry you." The Deku tree watched as Link left the clearing. He had a feeling that he would see Link again sometime soon. 'I hope he finds what he is looking for out there…' Thought the tree.
Meanwhile, Link had gathered the few things he imagined he would need in the outer world. Once again he felt the cool grip of the Kokiri sword in his hand, and the swollen wood of the Deku shield sat strongly against his palm, a reassuring force in a world he had not entered for some time. He had brought a few other things with him as well; a pair of fine glass bottles that he knew would be unendingly useful, and a slingshot, just in case he encountered some wayward Keese. Each of these items he packed away into his trusty old carry-all, a bag that had been enchanted by the deku tree to give endless storage.
With this in hand, he padded slowly across the log that would carry him away from the home of his childhood, and out into the world beyond. As he came to the bridge, he saw a green haired girl. He had of course been expecting this. She had been here the first time he left. It was only natural for her to be here now.
"You're leaving, aren't you, Link?" Of course she already knew the answer. The whole village knew. Several of the other children were considering leaving as well. Link knew that the Deku tree would dissuade them from this, though. "No, you don't have to say it. I won't try to stop you, either. I know it's no use." She sighed, a heavy, troubled sigh. "Just please, come back and visit sometime, will you? It's going to get really lonely around here without you." She walked a few steps closer to him. "And Link…" she planted a kiss on his cheek. "Please be safe." She ran back into the village.
The kiss made him feel a bit guilty. It was clear that she had feelings for him. He had loved her once. To some degree, he still loved her. However, he could not bring himself to risk losing their friendship. He should not have accepted the kiss in the first place. It was a bad idea.
Besides that, he loved someone even more, such that every thought of her raised an ache within his stomach. He had to see her; he had to feel her touch again.
Forcing himself not to linger on the thoughts of the forest he was about to leave, he walked the rest of the bridge, and moved out into the fading sunlight of daytime in the real world.