Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda.

Also, as a side note- I periodically reread my stuff and proofread it again, so this chapter is the revamped (and better) version of the old one. The others will be likewise improved soon. For those of you looking for what the plot is, this is a retelling of Ocarina of Time with lots of details, side stories, and speculation added, as well as some fan theories that I am particularly fond of. The chapters can be read as individual 'one-shots', but they all go together as a set, if you want to follow the story.


Part One-Secret to Everybody

There, in his dreams, the sky was blue and as pure as a robin's egg, disturbed only by the occasional puff of white drifting across its perfect surface.

Here, where he opened his eyes, the sky was a yellow haze marred by the trees jutting up into it like the quills on a porcupine. He looked out past the woods and to the valley, following the sparks of nymphs as they danced on each other's heels.

Yes- In the forest played many spirits, and with the spirits played many children.

Some of the little mortals had wandered in on their own, some had been abandoned inside, and still others had been pulled in by the imps of the wood and the promises they whispered. Once the children had entered, the forest proved to be not only dark and tricky but possessive of whatever came into its clutches, wrapping its visitors in its own ancient magic and bending them to its rules; they would never grow past ten nor would they ever leave the enchanted woods. This did not bother the children, however. All the adventure and excitement they could ever want was in the expanse of trees that protected them from harm. In fact, if you asked the Kokiri children how they got there, not one would be able to tell you. To them, life began only after they had been guided into the forest by the glow of the fairies and the song of the leaves.

And guided the children were- to further enforce the mutual love and understanding of the forest and its adopted kin, each child had a beloved companion in the form of the very fairy that had illuminated the path through the dark woods to the forest meadow they now lived in. Like everything else in the world of magic, the guidance of a fairy had a dual meaning to the wise woods.

Creatures that failed to be good enough to befriend a sprite would be lead in circles until they lost their minds and became a monster, doomed to spend the rest of eternity searching for the exit in madness…

Indeed, a fairy was the symbol of being a Kokiri forest child. No Kokiri was without one, as it was impossible to get to the core forest meadow in the first place unless a fairy was guiding you.

Alas, every rule has its exception.

Link was a child who did not appear particularly outstanding in the crowd of Kokiri - his hair was a common shade of blonde, and his skin was the same color as everyone else's. His long ears had been stretched and shaped by the melodies of the wood as all the others' had been, and his height and young features were a Kokiri standard. Everything about him was perfectly normal for a forest child, but he was still never accepted by the other children.

The long and short of it was that Link had no fairy, and that made him an outsider.

On this particular day, Link was napping in the woods beyond the Kokiri's meadow, dreaming of a perfectly cyan sky. He thought it odd because he had no memory of ever seeing one outside of his dreams, but in them they were almost constant. As he slowly opened his eyes to see the yellow blanket spread above him, he pondered the thought of another sky actually existing.

He often did wonder if he could rise above the saffron of his world and see the blue skies that were beyond it.

A loud thud interrupted him from his reverie, and he rolled over to see if his one and only friend Saria had arrived.

Link was disappointed to see a redheaded boy searching awkwardly through the grass. The newcomer was not anything like Saria, and Link wondered if the boy was planning a mean prank. He watched him in silence as the other grunted in effort as he tramped through the grass.

After a long while of the other boy's oblivious pillaging of the earth, Link decided that he wasn't in any danger of being picked on. He stood up and walked toward the other child.

"What are you looking for, Shad?"

Shad's freckled face popped out of the grass in surprise, his green fairy bobbing around behind him. He considered Link's sudden appearance for a moment before answering.

"I am looking for a caterpillar." Link inquisitively cocked his head to the side.

"I want to watch it turn into a butterfly. Linder," Shad nodded to the fairy, "says that's what a caterpillar does. It goes into a cocoon stage first, but…" Shad was a know-it-all like his two brothers, but Link knew that he rarely got the chance to be the center of attention. He took advantage of showing off whenever he could. "… Anyway, I want to watch it."

"How are you going to watch it for that long?" Link asked. "Are you going to stay out here with it for days?"

Shad looked like he had been caught doing something bad. He searched around the immediate area and whispered to Link only when he was certain that nobody else was around.

"I'm gonna put it in this." Shad pulled out a glass jar with a stick and several leaves in it.

Link had only heard stories about glass from the fairies. According to them, the evil adult man had once come and ruthlessly captured the fair folk in clear prisons of it before leaving the woods. This display of malicious intent was the basis for the forest's rejection of grown people. But that was just a fairytale, right? Link dubiously reached out his hand and was amazed when he did indeed come into contact with a smooth and nearly invisible surface.

"Where did you find this?"

Shad grinned. "It's a secret to everybody."

Link shrugged and began to help Shad find his test subject. He went over to search a nearby tree, Linder following to help examine the nooks and crannies.

Linder was a chatty sprite, even more so than his child. In about five minutes, Link found himself laughing and joking with the little green fairy and all his shyness and earlier suspicion forgotten. The caterpillar was found and Link, Linder, and Shad began to walk back to the forest meadow together.

As they talked, Shad realized that he liked Link's company. He couldn't understand why all the Kokiri picked on him- Link was smart and fun to be around once he came out of his shell. In fact, Shad was beginning to think that a fairy wasn't the only marker of a kindred forest child.

"Y'know, Link, I don't think I've ever heard you talk so much," Shad mused aloud.

As they crested the hill above the village, Link's shyness began to reemerge. "You probably won't ever again," he mumbled.

"Huh?" Shad wasn't able to hear him clearly. Linder had, and changed the subject as to dominate the conversation and distract both children. He wavered to and fro around the glass prison and reminded both boys of the terribleness of being imprisoned.

The fairy's words had quite an effect on the two Kokiri. Shad had just finished promising to Linder that he would release the caterpillar if it didn't like living in the jar when he tripped on a tree root.

Slick as the glass it was made of, the jar flew from Shad's hands and crashed on the ground, shattering in pieces. With it, the lighthearted mood was destroyed and the companions forlornly gazed at the fragments.

The trio kept still until Link regained his wits. Cautiously, he wandered over and scooped up the unharmed caterpillar, careful to not scare it any more than it already had been.

Shad got on his hands and knees and continued to stare at his mess.

"Shido and Malo are going to be so mad," he whimpered. "They're gonna yell at me and never let me borrow anything again." His sniffing evolved into tears.

"Whad' am I gonna do?" He wailed to Linder.

Link looked from the broken glass to the weeping Shad. It wasn't fair for his brothers to punish him for an accident.

"Why don't you just tell them I did it?" Shad looked at Link like he was sprouting another head.

"No! I can't! They'll be mean to you!" His lower lip trembled.

Link smiled sadly. "They are already mean to me. Let me do this for you."

Shad stood up slowly, his childlike innocence showing in his eyes. "I don't want that to happen to you. You're my friend."

"You were nice to me and talked to me today. I want to do this for you."

Shad looked like he wanted to argue, but Linder gave him a gentle push towards the forest meadow. At his guardian's urging, the boy ran to his home with Linder following only after giving Link a nod.

Turning back to the glass, Link admired how its surface made the light from the yellow sky turn a light blue, like the skies in his dreams. He reached down to take a piece so he could show Saria and tell her about what happened today, but he decided against it when the sharp edges cut his hand.

He'd just have to keep it a secret to everybody.


Thank you for reading- I hope you will be kind enough to review!