The rattle of dried branches and the sharp keen of the mourning caught his attention, and he let himself drift off of his path and into the tangled depths of the Lost Woods without a thought. Torn gossamer threads whispered after him, disturbing the silent wait of skulltulas nesting above. Ikana should have been his only concern—the canyon was festering, wounded so deeply he could feel the aching of it even in Hyrule—but to hear such a sorrowful noise in the Lost Woods of all places was a mystery unto itself even coming from the dead, and it interested him.

"But that's against the rules!"

"Saria broke the rules!"

"We have to fix it!" He reached over his shoulder, tugging his blade free as he came to a stop beside a tall oak, leaning against it as the tip of the ebony sword rested in the loam at his feet. There was a small clearing in front of him, and a slow smile curled his lips when he saw what lay bleeding in its center.

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Saria had always been more observant than the other Kokiri and she claimed she'd had him for five autumns when the Kokiri discovered him—so, by all estimates, he was about five when he met Sheik.

Kokiri were evanescent by their very nature, but there were two rules that had been locked iron-hard in his memory by Saria from the moment of his first breath. When lost, follow the music—and never, ever, ever leave home unless Saria was there, unless she said it was alright.

But that morning…he'd heard something, a whispery sort of crooning beckoning him out into the dappled sunlight of the Lost Woods.

The Lost Woods never spoke to him, but sometimes he talked to the spirits, and every so often that made the Lost Woods sing back to him—but this noise…it was different. Spirits were silent, though he could always sense them…and despite that, the noise he was hearing…it was just what he'd always thought the spirits would sound like.

A warning.

The only Kokiri he had ever seen was Saria—the only person he had ever seen was Saria—but he had known the moment he saw them that the creatures clustered at the bottom of the ladder were Kokiri too. They were tall and willowy and small, childlike and waiflike with the smooth polished wood of their skin. Saria didn't have hair like him, but he saw locks of oak and carrot tangled in the ferns and vines tumbling from the tops of their heads. Circlets of bramble and flowers rested on their brows, and their moss tunics were belted at their waists with green branches, still sprouting leaves and buds. He eyed them curiously, clutching the doorframe tightly.

They were…different. Spirits flashed agitatedly about them. They ignored Saria, swarmed around him. He'd never seen anything upset them before.

Nerves flashed, sharp, hot as lava. Fear.

He moved back into the house quickly—too quickly. The flash of movement caught the Kokiri's attention, and he heard the trilling shouts echo up from below. His terror spiked, heart stopped for a moment, and he found that his lips were moving, whispering to the spirits frantically, begging them to find Saria because he was terrified—

"A Hylian!"

"A what?!" Link scrambled away from the door, until he tumbled into the nest he slept in.

"It's a Hylian! Saria's got a Hylian!" The chatter disoriented him, and Link drew his knees to his chest and huddled into his blankets, squeezing his eyes shut.

Please please please please—

Hands grabbed at him and he let out a cry, flailing his limbs as he was dragged from his bed and out into the sharp sunlight, the hard grip of wood around his forearms bruising.

The floor beneath him disappeared.

"Why would Saria have a Hylian?"

"Where is she?" The grip holding him loosened and he tumbled free, falling. His eyes flashed open, just in time to see earth flying towards him and he turned, twisting midair—

Air exploded from his lungs, vision going black as his head struck something. He lay dazed, gasping for breath that wouldn't come. The spirits began humming, louder and louder until their clamoring was a roar so overpowering Link began to lose awareness of what was going on around him.

He woke to sharp pain in his arm, drawing a cry from his lips as he was wrenched to his feet. His terror was sour in the back of his throat, pounding in his ears in time with the spirits. The Kokiri's cries filtered in, faint but growing more distinct as he caught his breath and shook the fuzz from his head.

"Saria kept the Hylian alive, though!"

"But that's against the rules!"

"Saria broke the rules!"

"We have to fix it!"

And the spirits sang as something black shot free of a tangle of tree branches, and something swept the Kokiri holding him away. None of the Kokiri made so much as a sound, and Link lay there still where he'd fallen, crumpled in a heal, shocked by the vibrancy of the spirits as a series of thumps echoed from behind him.

And then absolute silence reigned for the longest time. He kept still for a long moment, and then scrambled up and stumbled as he tried to catch his balance—and there was a hand on his back, steadying him. He looked up, startled, scared, at the figure kneeling at his side.

Red eyes stared at him, dark and curious and critical.

"…They're…gone." The last word was spoken hesitantly, when Link threw himself at the stranger and hugged them tightly, squeezing his eyes shut as he buried his face in the stranger's chest. The spirits laughed at the stranger's surprise, sparking and flitting. It wasn't that Link could see them—the spirits were always invisible—but he could feel their presence with his mind, and he knew they were bouncing around.

It was a long moment before his heart stopped racing and the lump in his throat finally vanished. Link let out a slow breath, pulling back just enough to look up at the stranger.

"How come the spirits like you?"

"How come the spirits like you?" There wasn't much amusement in the stranger's voice, and it wasn't friendly, but it wasn't mean either. His face was mostly hidden—a thick grey cowl covered the lower part of his face and bandages were wrapped around his right eye, masked by pale locks of sun-colored hair. His visible eye was a brilliant red, and Link stared in fascination. He'd never seen anyone without blue eyes before. Something brushed his throat and Link blinked, startled—but it was just the stranger, tilting his head up slightly, eyes narrowed.

"…Hmm?" It was a prompt, and Link frowned at him. His voice was quiet and sang with those of a thousand spirits, echoing slightly in Link's ears.

"They're my friends. They tell me stories if I ask nicely. But you can't tell Saria!" He grabbed at the stranger's hand, eyes widening in his fear.

"And who is this Saria?" The stranger asked, very slowly standing, pulling his hand out of Link's grip. Link frowned at him.

"I don't know where she—whoa." Link stopped talking and swayed unsteadily as his vision suddenly blurred. The next thing he knew he was lying on his back, blinking at a wooden ceiling. He was in the house? On Saria's bed, he realized.

"Does it hurt?" Link turned his head and blinked at the stranger, curious. He was sitting beside Link, rapidly unwinding a thread of bandages from his arm. Why…?

"Why would it—" The stranger didn't look at him, but reached over and pressed down on Link's right arm. The pain was immediate—he cried out, and would have thrashed about had the stranger not held him down until the pain ebbed. Wordlessly, the stranger rolled up Link's sleeve and began tending to his arm.

It hurt more than anything Link had ever felt before, but he managed to keep himself silent by squeezing his eyes shut and holding his breath for as long as he could before taking another breath, and repeating the process. But when the stranger was done, there was only a slight ache to mark the pain.

"…You are brave." The stranger murmured, and Link felt fingers brush against his forehead idly. He opened his eyes wide, blinking up at the stranger in surprise as he sat up, his wounded arm held to his stomach.

"Really?" And he nodded, tilting his head to the side slightly as he did so.

"'Cuz Saria says I'm—"

"Link!" The sound of something scrabbling against wood rose up from below, and the stranger was on his feet before Link had even registered that he'd heard something.

Saria's head popped up from the ladder hole, and she froze, eyes wide, terrified. The stranger had a long black blade in his hand, its tip leveled at Saria.

"That's Saria." Link said quickly, scrambling out of the nest and tugging at the stranger's leg with his good hand. For a moment, no one moved—and then the stranger lowered his blade, and Saria flew past him, scooping Link up. By some miracle she didn't jostle his arm, but Link let out a squeak of protest.

"Who are you?! What do you want with Link!?"

"…What use do you have for a Hylian child?" The stranger replied, voice as cold as ice. Saria stiffened, and Link took the opportunity to wriggle out of Saria's grip.

"What's Hylian?" Link asked, huffing as Saria grabbed at him again. The stranger leaned his blade against the wall behind him, copying its position with his own body. Both of them ignored him, and, sullen, Link plopped down onto Saria's bed again.

"Link's—I smell blood." Saria spun around violently to face him, hand shooting out to grab him.

The spirits sang again, and a flash of obsidian obscured Link's vision. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes there were bandage tails fluttering in front of him.

He scrambled to his feet, and threw his arms around the stranger's leg, hugging him. The stranger gave a strange sort of flinch, shifting, but Link refused to let go.

"Don't hurt Saria."

There was a moment of absolute silence, stillness, and then long, bandaged fingers touched his head, slid through his locks and rested, nestled at the base of his skull.

"…What is the child here for?"

"Living. This is his home, you—"

"He's Hylian."

"He's the forest's!"

And the stranger's fingers shifted, slid down the line of his jaw and tilted Link's head up, gripping his chin tightly enough to leave marks behind.

Blood-red orbs met his, sharp and vibrant in the shadows swathing the hut.

"…No. He belongs to the dead."

Sheik left after the sun had set, when the forest wound its branches together to ward out the moonlight and it was so dark Link had to rely on the spirits to follow him.

He wouldn't see Saria again for six years.