Safety First
Inspiration: Eagle Eye
Challenge: Include a forest scene
It was just a harmless little game... all in good fun! The fact that it resulted in a black eye for each participant, one sore nose, and numerous bruises and scrapes was just an unfortunate side-effect.
Perhaps not an unseen side-effect. Just an unfortunate one.
Really, the two had been getting along quite well before then. Sure, Link and Mido had their spats, and their prank war had no definite end in sight, but they could be civil to each other.
In retrospect, Saria mused, Hit the Apple might've been too good an opportunity for Link to pass up.
Every year, the Kokiri held a festival celebrating their home and everything in it. There were numerous games to play, like Hit the Apple and Catch the Scrub, and every year, the final part of the festival was a play, performed in front of the Great Deku Tree.
The preparations for the festival were settled weeks in advance; everyone knew how many apples they would need for Hit the Apple, they all had enough materials to make their masks for the play, and the Apple Tree for Hit the Apple and the Deku Scrub in Catch the Scrub had been voted for and chosen. Saria had even made sure to invite the Skull Kids to the festival (though they mostly played their flutes, rather than joining the games).
The festival day began brightly, with Catch the Scrub taking place during the morning. Fado, that year's Deku Scrub, led his chasers on a memorable race, with the highlight being his bridge run. He had led his pursuers across the bridges (Mido nearly fell off) and, when cornered at the end, tossed one of his Deku Nuts (as the Scrub, he was allowed five) at the other Kokiri. They were blinded, and he scampered off, laughing. In the end though, Teach, from the Forest Training Center, kept up his five-year win streak, and caught Fado.
In the afternoon, it was time for Hit the Apple.
In Hit the Apple, one Kokiri was chosen to be the Apple Tree. That Kokiri would have an apple tied to a branch, and they would move the branch around, to try and make the person shooting the apple miss. Each shooter had three tries to hit the apple with a slingshot.
That year, the Apple Tree was Mido.
Hit the Apple started out well enough. All of the Kokiri were fairly good shots, although only one of the Know-It-All brothers had managed to get a perfect score so far.
Then it was Link's turn. Mido, who had been nice enough to the other shooters, began to move the apple every which way, bouncing it in the air, swinging it around wildly, making it a truly difficult shot for Link. Link, however, simply stayed calm, and waited for the right time... and let loose, striking the apple and breaking it into pieces.
His second shot went much the same as the first, though Mido tried his hardest to make him miss.
The third shot, however, Link had a mischievous glint in his eyes. Mido, too busy making this last apple an impossible target, failed to notice Link aiming at different target.
Of the Kokiri, Link had the best aim, and any one of them would admit it—even Mido, however grudgingly—and once again, his aim was true, hitting Mido square on the nose.
What followed was one of the two's more spectacular brawls, and the Kokiri looked on, some placing bets as others cheered.
Saria sighed as she grabbed the Red Potions, waiting for the end of the fight. Really, it was a good thing the play's performers had to wear masks. Who knows what the Deku Tree might have said otherwise?
I started doing these prompts things (yesterday, to be honest) and today's prompts just kind of led to Zelda, so here we are. Just to explain the format at the very top, I use one blog for a main prompt, and then I use Wysp's drawing inspiration page thingy as kind of detail prompts.