A/N: This was a request by tumblr user selahexanimo I submitted to zeldaau for a Secret Santa Fanfic/Fanart Exchange. I held off uploading it to fanfiction because there's always an influx of updates around Christmas break...and it's just nice to have your modest little one-shot stick around on the front page for a solid 20 hours before getting sucked into oblivion.

It's been a long time since I wrote anything other than comedy, so I would love to know whether this had an effect on anybody or not. I always feel like my serious stuff falls flat, but that might be because I don't enjoy writing gloom/doom as much as humor. Oh well. Thanks for reading!

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BECAUSE HE LEFT

An Ocarina of Time Fanfiction

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In the Lost Woods, time seemed to stand still.

Only the sound of boots crunching over gnarled roots and fallen twigs disturbed the thick forest air, which was alive with the glow of millions of fireflies. At first, Link had been relieved to find the forest exactly as he remembered it, surrounded by the same incessant hum of crickets and cicadas, and thick tree trunks so numerous they seemed to create a wall of wood that stretched before him endlessly. The place seemed resilient to the flow of time; if any change occurred in the forest, it happened so gradually that it went unnoticed. Even after a gap of seven long years.

Seven years. Had it really been that long since he last set foot in these woods? If it wasn't for this grown up body, he wouldn't have believed it. Now in the secluded forest, far away from the ravaged and battle scarred lands that were once Hyrule's great plains, he was taken back to a time so short and yet so long ago, when his biggest concerns were avoiding Mido's fists and chasing deku scrubs out of Saria's vegetable garden. A rush of gratitude came over him when he thought of Saria. With her, it was never awkward to have long lapses in conversation. She had always been so patient and encouraging, and she had believed in him in a time when he was too afraid to believe in himself. She truly was his best friend.

With a stab of regret, he realized he had never actually told her that.

I knew that you would leave the forest someday, Link…because you are different from me and my friends...

Their goodbye on the bridge seemed a lifetime ago now, even though to his conscious mind it couldn't have been more than a few months. Something about the somber expression on her face had given him an awful sense of finality. There were so many things he could have said to her in that moment, but in the end, he had settled for nothing. With a simple nod, he turned away from her and ran across the bridge without looking back. He still didn't know why he hadn't said anything. Maybe it was because anything he could have said meant acknowledging that their parting would be a long one, and he couldn't bear to think of that. Or maybe it was because he was afraid he would cry if he spoke, and he didn't want her to think he was weak.

He winced internally, disgusted with himself. If that was true, it was a selfish reason. Maybe it was for all those reasons, or none of them. To this day, he still wasn't sure why he hadn't told her all those words that welled up inside of him that day on the bridge. But he wished he had.

Link took a drawn out breath and unsheathed his sword, cutting down some vines in his path. This was no time or place to let the guilt of the past weigh him down. Saria was out here somewhere, and he had to find her at all costs. Blue eyes shutting tight, he silenced his footsteps and paused to listen. He thought he could hear the ghost of her song upon the breeze, so soft that it could have been a figment of his imagination. The lighthearted tune sounded strangely haunting, broken and distorted by the whistling wind. Moving as deftly as possible, he took a tentative step, then another, in the direction it appeared to be coming from. If the legends were true, each step deeper into the Lost Woods put you at a higher risk of getting lost forever. One thing was for certain: standing in the same place would never got anybody unlost. And so he pressed on, letting the music guide him toward the place he knew she must have gone.

As he forged deeper into the woods, a change came over the environment. A feeling of dread stole over him as he looked around at his surroundings. The trees in these parts were sick, diseased. Swathes of thick, silky film—skultulla webs—stretched between them, and their twisted branches choked out what little sunlight had been filtering through the high canopy. Carnivorous deku babas lurked in the hazy undergrowth, and the air reeked of death and decay. The forest had not gone untouched by evil after all.

He began to worry, his pace quickening to match his heart rate. He could still feel Navi snuggled inside his green cap, and suddenly he was more thankful than ever for her companionship. Somehow just knowing she was there with him gave him courage. He sliced into a sticky cob web, tearing through it as fast as he could lest the owner come to investigate what had disturbed its home. His head spun as he ripped the sticky substance off him, running toward the eerie sound of the ocarina. The music seemed to be growing louder and louder, until it drowned out his own footsteps and he could no longer tell which direction it was coming from. Blindly, he burst through thick foliage and into a clearing. All at once the music stopped, and he was met with total silence.

"Saria?" he called out, but all he heard was the sound of his own voice echoing back to him. He sprinted through the tall grass toward the far end of the Sacred Forest Meadow, expecting her to be sitting on the old tree stump playing her ocarina, her eyes closed, her legs gently swinging back and forth. He slowed when the stump came into view. It was abandoned.

Catching his breath, Link slowly approached the stump, staring at it intently. As if his friend might appear there if he looked long and hard enough. It was then that he noticed it wasn't empty.

There on the stump lay the tiny and broken body of a forest fairy, the light gone from her fragile form. Dull sun beams reflected off translucent wings, shredded and bent out of shape. The sprite was curled neatly on her side, as if she had been laid to rest there. A deep sense of foreboding pooled in Link's stomach.

"Hee hee."

Suddenly, a soft voice from behind startled him. He whipped around, pointing his sword at the owner. It was a little girl with blonde hair done up in two buns, a pale red guardian fairy resting on her shoulder. Fado, Link mouthed her name, lowering the Master Sword. The Kokiri girl hadn't even flinched when he pointed the five foot blade at her. She simply stood there and folded her hands behind her back, smiling her devious smile. A smile that concealed secrets.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," Fado said with a light giggle. It was a high tinkling laugh, like wind chimes. Her blue eyes glinted. "You just…piqued my curiosity, that's all."

Link furrowed his brow. Upon seeing his confusion, the girl smirked and explained, "big people who enter these woods usually turn into monsters by now."

He tried to ignore the chill that went up his spine. Fado just stared at him with calculating eyes. If she recognized him, she didn't say so. His thoughts drifted back to the fairy on the tree stump. He tried to appear calm.

"Did Saria come this way?" he asked without thinking.

"Hmm?" Fado arched an eyebrow inquisitively, tilting her head. "Do you know Saria?"

Link didn't answer. For some reason, he felt like he shouldn't. He didn't trust the girl at all; he never had. Even now, towering over her in his adult body, she still gave him the creeps.

"Saria…was waiting for someone," she went on when he didn't respond. "Someone she liked very much."

Link's chest tightened. Fado turned and began pacing across the grass, avoiding his gaze.

"She waited, and waited, until she couldn't wait around anymore…but he never came." She paused thoughtfully, still gazing down at the ground. "I wonder what happened to him?"

The question lingered ominously. Fado's devious eyes shifted past him to the stump, widening slightly when she saw what was there.

"Oh no, what a shame," she said, with the merest hint of sadness. She came forward until she was right beside him, leaning over the stump. She gently picked up the dead sprite, cradling the little body in her hands.

"Someone will be missing this," she said after a long silence. She placed one hand over the other, shielding the fairy from sight. "We Kokiri aren't safe from these woods either, you know…not without the deku tree's protection," she said so quietly it was almost a whisper. "Without our fairies to keep us company, we would all just…fade away."

Link's eyes widened, his heart pounding in his chest. That wasn't true. She had to be lying. Blank-faced, Fado looked up at him and stared straight into his eyes, a little too closely for comfort.

"Or not."

She laughed and skipped away, taking the abandoned fairy with her. Before she reached the tall grass, she paused and looked over her shoulder. "See you later. Hopefully."

Link blinked once, and she was gone. He was alone again. All sorts of morbid thoughts assaulted his mind. His throat closed up with grief. No. He shut his eyes and shook his head. He could not, would not believe what Fado said. The girl couldn't be trusted, she was just trying to frighten him. His friend was still out there somewhere, waiting for him. He knew it.

Link flew to the back of the meadow, grabbing a fistful of vines heaving himself up toward the defiled Forest Temple. He would find her and he would tell her she was and always would be his very best friend. He would tell her he didn't say goodbye to her because no words could convey his gratitude for what she and she alone had done for him. And that he didn't spare her a backwards glance because he didn't want his last memory to be of her standing so far away from him.

He reached the top and barreled into the darkness. He would see her again, and he would tell her everything.

Far across the meadow, someone watched the hero enter the temple. From a distance, the creature appeared to be nothing more than a shadow, with a face shrouded in darkness and two dimly glowing points of red for eyes. Spindly wooden limbs and green rags blended with the surrounding trees, so much that the creature could have been apart of the woods themselves. At her side, she clutched an ocarina.

She knew that he would never find what he was looking for, that he would search and search and turn up with nothing. And yet she could not bring herself to face him. She wanted him to remember her as she was, always and forever his best friend.

The skull kid turned away and disappeared into the forest.

—END—