A/N:

Hello and welcome to my novelization of The Legend of Zelda- Ocarina of Time. Given how many novelizations there are of this awesome game, I have taken some liberties with this story. As such, this contains some elements of an AU including some original characters, locations, and alterations to the established canon. Regardless of what a certain annoying owl by the name of Kaepora Gaebora might say, this is not a standard repeat of the story.

All characters featured in Ocarina of Time, major and minor, will appear.

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Cover by ImberLapis at Wattpad

~ The_Eagle1989

Update 10/2/17: Final edit and revision completed. I think it's time to shelve this story for good, and with a new Zelda title coming out soon, this seems an appropriate time to move on to other projects. Besides, real life calls, and I won't have much free time anymore.

If you leave a guest review, you'll find a reply on my profile.

Also, I started making this into an audiobook. After some thought, I decided to upload the first few chapters and continue it. So, if you'd prefer to listen to this story, look for 'DragonRand100 Audiobook' on YouTube. If you'd like to volunteer and narrate either a chapter or POV character, let me know.

When the fates of gods and mortals intertwine, legends are born..."
-Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Prologue

This is but one of the tales of which the people speak: a tale of an ancient land with verdant meadows, lush forests, and tall mountains- a land blessed by the Goddesses, where the powers of light and shadow existed in perfect balance. This is the story of a king who sought to control the power of the Goddesses themselves in its entirety; this is a story of a boy without a fairy. It is a tale that through generations became memory. With the turning of Time's Wheel, memory faded to legend, and even legend became a whisper riding upon the winds of time...

Navi, the fairy, watched as a comet blazed across the heavens above her home. It streaked through the darkening sky, high above the kingdom of Hyrule, its tail spreading far behind it, blazing like the curling tongue of a dragon's fire. It was nearly half the size of the moon and was just as bright.

Those who lived beyond the forest viewed a comet as an omen of evil. Navi didn't understand why; it was nothing more than a star passing by on its journey through the heavens and into the realms beyond. Yet amidst the populace of Hyrule, it was a messenger of the gods, a bringer of dark tidings.

Navi wasn't surprised by this. Her leafy abode, the Lost Woods, inspired just as much fear as the star blazing across the starlit sky. So much so that most people wouldn't dare go near it.

To the Gerudo, who heralded from the desert in Hyrule's west, the woods were a place of shadows, where the trees grew thick and their heavy boughs intertwined, blotting out the sun. To the Hylians, it was a place of mystery, where monsters lurked and the spirits of old roamed, guarding their sacred groves. But to Navi, her people, and the Kokiri folk, the woods were home.

The Kokiri were a legend amongst the people of Hyrule, and their existence was a subject of sometimes heated debate amongst Hylian scholars. It had been centuries since anybody had actually seen one. Since the oldest Kokiri appeared to be no older than twelve, many Hylians called them the children of the forest. But despite their youthful appearance, most of the youthful-looking Kokiri wouldn't appreciate being called a child.

As dusk fell, the jubilant melody of their songs would hum through the ancient groves they called home. Each of these groves were presided over by a spirit that took the form of a Great Deku Tree.

The ancient sentinels of the woods were said to have originated from cuttings of a tree found somewhere in the Lost Woods. Just like the Kokiri they watched over, these spirits seldom liked to be found. They could warp the minds of travelers, making them lost. More often than not, the unwitting trespassers were sent walking back to the edge of the woods, leaving the poor souls to wonder how in Hyrule they had ended up back where they came from. Most of the Great Deku Trees were benevolent, but it was said that some would curse any Hylian who wandered too close to their homes.

Navi's home was the oldest known of the ancient groves, as well as the most sacred. The Hylians called it the Kokiri Forest since they knew of no other dwelling that those folk inhabited. It was home to the eldest of the tree spirits, known to all simply as the Great Deku Tree. It was said that he had created the Kokiri to tend to the forest, allowing them to spread to the other glens within the Lost Woods.

If a Hylian somehow stumbled upon this grove, they would have thought the Goddesses had made themselves their own secret garden. Visitors who found their way to the ancient glen of the Kokiri were greeted by vibrant hues of green, hanging vines, and moss-covered rocks. Ferns nestled along the banks of a small stream. Holly, hazel, honeysuckle, and bramble bushes adorned the edges of the glen, while sycamore, beech, and oak trees could be found scattered amidst the edges of the village and beyond. Perhaps the most breathtaking sight was the enormous Dekus where many of the Kokiri made their homes. These were the giants of the forest. Each of these trees could have accommodated a few houses within their enormous girth, yet none of them were quite as big as the Great Deku Tree himself. A small village could have been comfortably built within his trunk, if he were hollow.

As night fell on the woods, smoke wafted through the dense forest canopy from the dying embers of cook fires. Enchanted lanterns hung from the trees, their sparkling light illuminating the wide, winding staircases that seemed to almost be carved into the Dekus' trunks.

Wide platforms lay in the canopies; bridges of woven vines connected them to neighboring trees, linking an intricate network of tree houses. Fireflies danced amidst a tangle of tree limbs, and music drifted through the air. Only a few of the Kokiri were still outside; almost all of them had retreated to the shelter of their tree houses as the crisp autumn night set in.

Stirring from her resting place amidst the gnarled branches of an old tree, Navi shivered. The comet still blazed through the heavens. Like her, the relatively carefree Kokiri paid no heed to it. Something else bothered the little fairy. Her brow creased in concern as she recognized it. She could sense a disturbance in the air, but there was no sign of a storm coming...

A faint crack made her jump.

Get a hold of yourself, Navi, she scolded herself inwardly. It's probably just an animal looking for somewhere to sleep for the night.

She glanced down to where the sound came from. Curious, she flew from her resting place to perch on a lower branch and hide in the shadowed limb.

Snap.

Another stick cracked. There was a slithering sound, a cloak trailing along the forest floor, dragging the leaves on the ground.

"Odd," Navi murmured, "Where is that coming from?"

She doubted she was hearing an animal. Whatever it was, it disturbed her that she was not able to see it.

Listening harder, Navi was sure she heard boots crunching through the litter of leaves. The fairy realized the sound was getting louder, and she looked down at the ground to see footprints appearing in the soil. The boots were far larger than a child's, but for the life of her, she could see no sign of their owner.

As the footsteps came close to her hiding spot, several things happened at once. The insects stopped chirping; everything became eerily silent, and something sapped the warmth from her body. As it grew colder, Navi shivered, fluttering her wings slightly to keep them from potentially freezing. Every instinct told her to fly away - to flee from this unknown force, but she found herself paralyzed on the tree branch, only able to helplessly watch the scene unfold with barely concealed fear.

Whatever the terror was, it didn't take notice of her. In fact, the being walked straight by Navi's tree without pausing in its strides. There was still no sign of whoever owned the footprints. Navi guessed the cold-bringing being was invisible. It was strange. The only beings that could make themselves invisible were spirits, yet the fairy knew that spirits never left footprints on the ground.

Suddenly, the horrible chill that froze her to the core was gone, and she gasped.

What was that?

Navi had experienced something like this before when she last left the woods. It was then that she recognized it.

Shadow magic.

Without hesitating, she took off in hot pursuit of the shadow magician, keeping hidden as best she could amongst the tangled branches of the trees. She knew where those tracks were headed, and fear threatened to overwhelm her. Whatever this creature was, it was no friend of the Kokiri or the forest.

Navi thought it was odd. The woods were protected by magical wards, so the creature moving amidst the trees should not have been able to enter the woods at all... Right?

The trail of boots ended at a clearing. At the center of this enormous glen stood a huge, ancient tree. Its canopy took up most of the clearing, and the edges of some of its branches touched the trees on the fringe of the surrounding forest. A giant face appeared to have been carved into the trunk, and anyone discovering the tree for the first time could have easily mistaken it for the work of a master woodcarver.

This was the Great Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the Kokiri. He was their protector, assigning each of the forest children with a fairy that looked after them.

All except one, Navi recalled.

There was one child who did not have a fairy. She had never actually seen him, but the other fairies knew him. Navi thought they pitied him, just as they pitied her. Unlike her kin, she wasn't bonded to a Kokiri- at least, not anymore. Not since...

Navi shut her eyes to fend off the memories intruding on her thoughts.

The fairy focused on the trail of footprints. The marks suddenly came to an abrupt halt in the clearing, any further trace of the being's presence disappearing with it. Navi fluttered in the air for a moment, unsure of whether or not to continue. She was afraid to go near the point where they ended for fear of being paralyzed again. Making a compromise, she instead found a hollow within a tree nearby, close enough to watch any potential action yet far enough to be away from most of the danger... hopefully.

Navi sensed the forest guardian acknowledging her presence. An emotion emanated from the tree spirit, as it touched her mind. It was an emotion she never expected from it.

Fear.

She was right; something was wrong. She wanted to call out to the Great Deku Tree, but a warning flashed through her mind before she could even beat a single wing.

"Beware, Navi."

Navi wanted to ask what was going on but froze as two words intruded her thoughts:

"Stay hidden."

Alarmed, Navi let out a small squeak of fright and hastened to conceal herself as best she could against the inside of the hollow. Still anxious to know what was happening, she peered back out towards the forest guardian.

She gasped as the air in front of the Great Deku Tree shimmered, rippling and coalescing in the fractured moonlight. As the air cleared, a man appeared right where the trail of footprints ended; the shadow magic affected her even from her hiding spot. With red hair and green skin, Navi recognized him as a Gerudo - one of the inhabitants of the desert in Hyrule's west.

What is he doing here? Navi wondered. How did he get here?

A million more questions charged through her mind. An outsider in the forest? It was supposed to be impossible. It was not the man who got her attention so much as the mask he removed from his face. A white mask in the shape of a human skull with the lower jawbone missing. It looked repulsive.

Navi's blood ran cold as she looked at it; surely those eyeless slits were staring at her. Despite the mask being off the man's face, those slits seemed to drill into the fairy's mind, calling her with their captivating darkness. Then suddenly, she tore her eyes away from the mask, as hard as it was to keep herself from being lost in the skull's depth.

And then the man spoke, his voice as cold and venomous as a viper.

Navi could sense a growing apprehension from the Great Deku Tree. The tree spirits communicated by melding with the minds of those around them, so she was not privy to what was said. More words were spoken, and the man stepped forward, raising a hand he placed onto the tree's trunk. She wanted to scream, but the same cold from her first encounter with the man struck her again. Her teeth rattled from the bitter cold, as every last bit of warmth left her. The evening birds paused their song, the insects stopped chirping once again, and Navi was sure she could have heard a leaf fall in the silence that followed. She watched in horror as the bark where the man's hand was touching the Great Deku Tree went black, as though dead. The grass around the man withered, turning black before her very eyes.

As fast as it had begun, it was over. The man took his hand from the tree and the bark returned to its normal healthy brown. The Gerudo stepped away from the tree, pausing halfway towards the clearing and turning around. He was in earshot of Navi this time.

"Hear my words, ancient one!" The man's voice carried distinctively across the clearing, "Your time is done. You have but a month to grant me my request, or else I will take it by force. You cannot stop me! Even now the creature within you is sapping your power."

"A curse?" Navi clasped a hand to her mouth, as she stifled a cry of horror.

Her tiny voice must not have been heard because the man continued, "It will be slow and painful - even for you. I can stop it; all you have to do is give me that stone."

The man frowned, and Navi sensed a renewed wave of determination from the Great Deku Tree - a desire to do all within his power to stop the man and his curse. The Gerudo smirked, amused by the tree's response, "So be it. You will reap the rewards of your defiance, as shall the Kokiri. The wards that guard this forest will not protect them for long."

The threat was not idle. Navi realized the man intended to harm the Great Deku Tree and the Kokiri. He had possibly even already done something dreadful to the forest guardian. Hyrule was a realm wrought with suffering - something the forest wards protected them from; Navi had discovered this from her own experience of leaving the forest. The Kokiri would be unprepared for the grim realities of the world beyond the forest - should the wards fail. The forest was a relatively peaceful abode, and the Kokiri were naturally carefree - a stark contrast to the rest of the realm. Hyrule trembled with memories of its recent war, the ghosts of its bloody past haunting the night.

The man donned the white Skull Mask, and as quickly as he had appeared, vanished. Navi watched his footprints leave the glen, heading towards the forest edge and leaving nothing but a cold silence in his wake.

Navi looked back up at the comet, blazing red and malevolent as it streaked across the heavens.

As she shivered from the lingering cold, she idly wondered if the Hylians were right this time - if the star blazing through the night sky truly was a warning from the gods.

Acknowledgments

Intro inspired by The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson.