Disclaimer and Notes: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo. No profit is being sought from this story. This tale takes inspiration from a short comic that originally appeared in a German Nintendo publication – it's been scanned and translated to English and can be found at some Zelda websites. It is a little prequel to Ocarina of Time. The story of it goes like this: Link's parents discuss escaping to the Kokiri Forest so their child does not have to grow up in the midst of war. Link's father is killed defending the king of Hyrule. Link's mother ends up at the Kokiri Forest with him, but, while Link is able to pass, the forests' energies turn her into a tree. Its canon nature is dubious, but it had elements I found interesting.

TREE OF SORROWS

A Legend of Zelda Fan Fiction by Shadsie

"I wonder when Link will come back to us. I miss him," said Lati. The small Kokiri girl looked up to Saria, who was about a head taller than she was. It had been many years since a child of the village had left them, but everyone's memories were still sharp.

Saria pointed to a tall, slender tree. "As long as that tree lives, we know he's okay. Whenever you miss him, you can look to that tree."

If Saria could tell her the truth, Link had been back to the Kokiri Forest many times, it's just that none of the Kokiri besides Saria recognized him. She suspected that Mido knew who the strange Hylian adult who sometimes came around really was, but the others could not fathom a forest-child like them ever growing up. It was something of a horror to them, though there was one boy who wished he could be strong like that tall, brave Hylian. It was strange for an outsider to be allowed into the deep forest, unaffected by its harsher magical energies. That Hylian had saved them all from some encroaching evils and thus was seen as a guardian spirit.

Link came and went, meeting with Saria in the meadow and sometimes venturing into the village. He was always ready with tales of the outside world and sometimes… tales of other worlds. The Kokiri took to calling him Mr. Knight because he was the head of the Hylian Knights over in the outside kingdom. Sometimes, he brought everyone presents.

Saria alone heard the more frightening tales. She'd learned of the world with the falling moon. She'd heard a tale of souls and swords and Link told her of how he'd almost lost his soul in that adventure. Saria also knew, intimately, of the time-outside-of-time, another time and another Hyrule in which a tyrant had taken over the country and she herself had been killed. She dreamed those memories and knew that Link told the truth when he spoke of being a time-traveler who'd lived and fought in another timeline.

All of the Sages knew of that other time. She had awakened in a gentle way in this gentler era – she'd been praying outside the Forest Temple when she'd realized her special wisdom and power to be the keeper of the forest. In her dreams, she was awakened after she'd been murdered by a dark, phantom creature and Link had broken the seal it had placed over her. Link had been too late to save her in the then-time, but had saved everyone in the now-time. Being a living Sage meant that Saria had more power than she would have had as a mere spirit. This was a good thing as the forest depended upon her now.

She knew she could be a good Sage. She was as old as the Kokiri Forest itself, after all, which, in turn, was nearly as old as Hyrule.

Lati ran off to play when Dore' ran up to her and tagged her. Saria remained, looking up at the tree with its delicate leaves and slender branches. She was worried about Link lately. War had broken out between Hyrule and one of its neighbors. It had started as a trade-dispute and had turned into an invasion. Holodrum was pressing its forces into Hyrule. Link, being a knight, had been called upon to fight. She knew that as long as that tree lived and flourished that so lived Link.

Saria had never told him the truth about that tree. She and the other Kokiri who knew had been instructed not to by the Great Deku Tree. He had not wanted Link to grow up distressed and that tree had a sad history, indeed.

It was many years ago. The outside kingdom was wracked with a civil war that the Kokiri Forest was well-shielded from. Matters of the outside world did not concern the forest's residents, at least not until outsiders were allowed into their midst. A woman had staggered into the forest in the middle of the night, bleeding down her dress from a wound in her back. She hunched over, shielding a small burden. She fell in the dirt and beseeched those present to take care of her baby. Saria was there.

The Kokiri knew what a baby was. While most Kokiri were born the ages they would always remain, sometimes the Great Deku Tree created small Kokiri who would grow into their destined ages. Occasionally, when he felt that his children were responsible enough, he would create a baby. Saria had raised many of her friends.

Faso took the baby in his arms and the woman let out a shuddering breath. A flash of light encompassed her and, in an instant, instead of her body, the spot where she'd fallen hosted a new, sturdy sapling. Saria asked the Great Deku Tree about it. He told her that Link's mother was not yet ready to completely depart the mortal world even though she had a mortal wound. He could not save her life as a Hylian, but he was able to grant her a place in the forest. Her remains had become a tree in order to house her dormant spirit. She was still, in most respects, dead. She was unable to communicate and was not even fully conscious, her spirit existing as person might exist in a coma. However, her love remained and, her spirit bearing a connection to Link's, radiated love whenever he was near her.

Growing up, Link was drawn to that tree, though he did not know why. Whenever he was feeling down, he would sit beneath that one tree for a while and he would feel better quite quickly. He even seemed to heal faster from sicknesses and injury if he snuck out from his house to rest beneath the tree. The Great Deku Tree told Saria that the tree would remain alive for as long as Link's soul was in the world to watch over, that Link's mother would not move on until Link moved on – in other words, the tree would live for as long as he lived.

Saria had hoped that Link would live forever – as a Kokiri. She was certain that he would stop growing up sooner or later. She knew that a fairy would come to him someday, but she thought that day would signal when he had become a true Kokiri – in body as well as in heart. She knew that the Great Deku Tree was capable of "fully adopting" him. Kokiri usually received their fairies when they had reached their destined ages – the age at which they would remain for as long as the forest lived, presumably stretching on into eternity.

She remembered with a small amount of discomfort, wondering about Link whenever he sat beneath his mother's tree. To the Kokiri, fairies served a function similar to that of mothers – even the rare male fairy. The Great Deku Tree was the father to them all and the fairies acted like mothers, or at least, that is how it was according to their understanding. They knew that animals had mothers and fathers and that people in the outside world had mothers and fathers. They had their Father and their fairies. Link, it seemed, had two trees instead and did not even know the function of one of them. Saria used to worry that Link's lack of fairy was because he, without being aware of it, received love from that graceful tree. He desperately wanted a fairy just like everyone else.

He borrowed Saria's frequently to help him to read.

The boy without a fairy became a boy with a fairy and had to follow his destiny to leave the forest. He never became a true Kokiri and never became immortal. He lost his fairy along the way and one day came back to the forest with his own children, twin girls and a baby boy that the forest allowed in. Even Mido liked "Mr. Knight's" very Hylian children. He flirted with the two girls in a strange, chaste Kokir-ish way and made them giggle.

Link always came back a little bit older and a little more scarred. Saria knew that he had lost something long ago that he could never replace – not his fairy, but his innocence. He'd become a protector of Hyrule, a killer for their sake and the sake of other innocent beings. The Kokiri were peaceful forest creatures with everything provided for them by the growing things in the forest. They never killed meat and, aside from skirmishes with the occasional pushy Mad Scrubs, they were not cut out for fighting monsters. Link had been chosen of the gods to be a slayer of fell beasts. That alone made him different from anything Saria could fully understand.

He was like the other Sages that way, possessed of a maturity that Saria could never quite touch. Saria communicated with the Sages on occasion. She was left most confused after her conversations with Nabooru about love. The Sage of Spirit talked of sweat and silk and how none of that compared to that true love that comes from connecting soul-to-soul with someone. All of it was completely lost on the childlike Sage of the Forest, although she surpassed Nabooru in living by centuries. So, too, was she confused by the talk of responsibilities between Ruto and Darunia. Saria was responsible for the forest and the Kokiri, but the Kokiri never had much need for complex politics. She perhaps found Impa the most confusing. Impa was the Sage of Shadow, which meant that she had connections to death, including her duties as an agent of protection to Hyrule's Royal Family. Like Link, she knew what it was to slay monsters and did so coldly, without pity. She also spoke of how in the time-out-side-of-time, during the siege of Hyrule Castle, she had to kill two people – Gerudo warriors – to protect Princess Zelda. She felt less cold about that, but had considered it a solemn duty.

Saria wondered about Link and the war. Link was a slayer of monsters – creatures of chaotic evil. He had once told her that he'd learned that not all monsters were monsters. He'd met a few who'd switched sides and was much disturbed by it, as it meant that he had put to death many beings that might have found redemption. The army of Holodrum was mixed, he'd said, before he'd left the forest last – a mixture of monsters and men. He knew very well that to survive and to protect his country he probably would have to kill beings of his own kind, people. He did not relish the prospect and said he'd do his best to spare as many lives as possible.

And, of course, there was his life to worry about. The visit before the last visit had brought Saria a piece of horror. Link had walked into the Sacred Meadow, decked out in shining armor, golden-colored and heavy. He'd looked quite formidable. Saria had smiled, thinking that he looked quite handsome and joked that he would scare all of his enemies away without a fight, looking like that. Then she saw the green silk sash covering one part of his face.

He'd lost an eye, he told her. He was healed up now, but still got headaches. He'd been defending Kakariko Village from an uprising of the undead. A Stalfos had gotten in a nasty slash to his face and his eye had been too damaged to save. The medics had even tried a healing fairy on him, but the eye was too far gone to be rebuilt.

With his permission, she'd gently unwrapped the silk to get a look at his scarred face and the empty socket. He held her as she cried, lamenting the loss of one of his best features, worried over his pain. He told her that he was okay and that he would be just fine in battle because Lady Zelda had taught him a magical seeing-spell that he could use when he closed his good eye. Link said that it was the way spirits and undead beings saw things – all washed out and strange – and he could not use the spell for long. He could use it for small intervals when he needed depth-perception. Most of the time, he'd said, he always winked when aiming arrows, anyway.

Saria sighed and turned away from the tree. Before he'd left last, Link told her that he'd take care of himself. He'd also stood before the graceful tree and bowed his head. Saria wondered, then, if in some small fashion, he knew the truth. In any case, all the Kokiri who remembered Link, even though they did not know him anymore, could know that he was well.

One night in the forest was cold – unusually cold for springtime. Frost was left upon the ground. Saria slept fitfully, plagued by a terrible dream. Within the dream, she saw Link, lying on his back upon the ground amid many dead bodies – of monsters, men and horses. Epona was not among them. Blood ran from between the plates in Link's armor and he moaned. He groaned out various names until, reaching his hand up toward a shining star, his voice became small, like the voice he had when he was a child. "Navi," he called with voice cracked and strained, "Navi…"

Saria's fairy sensed her distress and attempted to soothe her by stroking one of her ears. Saria kicked and fidgeted before awakening and jumping out of bed. Grabbing up her blanket and using it as a cloak, she ran out to the place in the forest where Link's Tree grew.

She breathed a sigh of relief – watching it freeze on the air. The tree was fine. The sun began to rise and she watched its pale light reach over the forest, illuminating all of the green, frost-dusted leaves.

Link's Tree began to wither – suddenly. The leaves, green and lush, became brown and dry in an instant. The branches drooped and the trunk became twisted and dry. Tears trailed down Saria's face as she stared in shock.

The Great Deku Tree once said that Link's spirit would always return – whenever Hyrule most needed him in another age and another life.

Saria bowed her head. "I am glad that you were able to move on, at least," she said to the withered tree. She brought out her ocarina, played a soothing song said to heal hurts and souls that Link had taught her long ago, turned away and went back to her own house.

END.