Deep within the Lost Woods of Kokiri Forest, Saria opened her
eyes as the first specks of morning light invaded the ancient temple's
courtyard. With it came a song akin to the falling of rain drops
that she knew heart and soul. Though it almost never rained in the forest,
a mist always had covered the woods somewhere akin to a after shower fog.
Today it seemed to retreat from the seemingly forever-standing stone platform
which bared the swirling mark of the Forest Temple in the heart of
the court yard.
On that same piece of stone laying before the temple's destroyed
steps, the music filling the air seemed to condense and solidify until
it formed into two teenage Hylians, Link, and Princess Zelda. A number
of people were not with them. Lord Darunia had returned to oversee the
repair to his Goron City following another earth quake in the rock men's
capital city. And Princess Ruto had been gone too long from Zora's watery
domain, and though she did not admit it, she missed her father dearly.
As for Nabooru, 'Gerudo come and go as they please' was a saying among
the amazon thieves of the desert.
Zelda had decided against wearing her royal clothes to these
mystic woods, instead she had on her Order of the Sheikah uniform she had
worn during the War of Imprisonment minus her turban so her gold hair flowed
freely behind her back. Saria was as clean as she ever got, with grass
stains on grass stains along her belt, green long sleeved shirt and dark
green shorts, a befitting companion to her blue eyes and plant green hair.
Link's hiking outfit was cleaner than it had been in a long time thanks
to Hyrule Castle's royal garment cleaners.
Ganon was trapped in his Dark World. Hyrule was safe. But no
one would have been able to tell this from the expression on Link's face.
His face wasn't the least bit sad, but it wasn't very joyful either. It
just seemed tired. Not tired physically, for he had had a good night's
sleep before setting out. It seems Link was just pushing himself spiritually
to go on. In contrast Zelda seemed as strong as ever, and just as mysterious
in those scarlet eyes.
The music faded away as Link put his wooden ocarina back in his
pouch.
Saria had waited at the temple's courtyard all night awaiting
the pair's arival, but when Saria's eyes met Link's neither said a word
as if each had formed a silent agreement to keep their exchange of words
down to a minamul.
Zelda decided it good manners to repect this decision between
the two.
The trio walked though the narrow entrance to the temple courtyard,
out past the clearing it was based in and into the Lost Woods and its ever-confusing
pathways, but Link and Saria had been though these woods many times and
soon entered Kokiri Village. They hadn't taken the main forest entrance
because Link didn't want the forest children who had raised him, to have
false hopes. Zelda had never grown tired of looking upon the innocent village
with the ever changing light coming through the tree tops and the great
fireflies flying through the air, but this time they were here on serious
business. Sneaking past the Kokiri tree craved houses, they entered the
Great Deku Tree's meadow, looking upon the Deku Sprout in front of the
remains of the first Deku Tree who even in death was a brilliant symbol
of wisdom and kindness. What Link -or was it Saria- had come for however
was behind the Deku Tree, Mido's grave.
After a rude comment from another Kokiri that Mido was just a
bully and a coward and his empty position as Kokiri leader was a joke,
Mido set out prove him wrong by entering the least gone to part of Lost
Woods, another secret reason for Mido doing this crazy stunt was because
he been trying to catch Saria's eye, for even after what seemed like years
her every thought had been on Link. Love between a he and a she was an
alien emotion to the forest children, just as much as lovers' jealously,
but Link had been a foreign element, and his childhood stay with the Kokiri
had had a unforeseen effect on both Saria and Mido. After entering
the darker part of the forest Mido had run into a wolf, a very hungry wolf
who had seen Mido for a quick kill. After hearing Mido's far carried screams
a rather bold Kokiri named Farso had come running with a Deku Stick that
was about as hard as iron wood, the wolf had been so preoccupied with it's
meal that it didn't notice as Farso brought the stick down the wolf's head
smashing it's skull in. But Mido had already been injured beyond any hope
of healing and died within the hour. Though Saria and Mido were never on
best terms for the way he treated Link, Saria was one of the few people
Mido had ever called friend. So she sat there with him, watching the life
fade away from him and then at last his suffering ended.
When Link had heard about Mido's death from Saria through the
song they shared, Link was filled with remorse, Mido had changed since
he had blamed Link for the death of the first Deku Tree and he found the
thought of him no longer repulsed him. Strange how Link's entire adventure
had start out in that forest, and had ended in that final battle with Ganon,
that was when Link remembered how his Triforce fragment had saved him from
serious injury during that fight, allowing him to strike the blow that
had fell the Dark King.
Link knew what he was going to attempt was a long shot at the
very best, but he had to try, for Mido and for Saria, who they both had
loved.
The evil Ganon had been able to command the Triforce of Power
since
the King of Thieves had taken the it from the Sacred Realm. The
Sacred Realm that was now the Dark World, thanks to Ganon's wish. Zelda
had unlocked the secret of the Triforce of Wisdom during the Imprisoning
War, the seer like and magical abilities of which she was still trying
to understand. Link, The Hero of Time, had ironically been the only one
unable to understand the abilities of his Triforce, the Triforce of Courage.
This is why I has come back: to find out if I can in some mad attempt give
life to death.
Mido, the leader of the Kokiri chosen by the Deku Tree, had been
Link's rival during the would-be Hero of Time's stay in the forest. The
rivalry was due mostly to two facts. One was that Mido looked down on Link
because Link had been the only 'Kokiri' not to receive a fairy from the
Deku Tree. The second was that Mido has always jealously been attracted
to Saria, and Saria to an very unsuspecting Link.
When Navi the fairy came to Link from the Deku Tree to fetch
him, Mido wasn't happy. After the Great Deku Tree's death, Mido blamed
it on Link, even though it was Link who had defeated the parasitic monster
Gohma who had nested inside the the giant tree's roots. Gohma's defeat
broke the curse placed on the tree by Ganondorf. But the queen of spiders
had already injured the Deku Tree beyond recovery before Link had begun.
When Link returned to the forest seven years later, Mido and the other
ageless Kokiri hadn't recognized Link in his new grown-up body. Mido told
the stranger that if he ever met Link to tell him that he was sorry for
being mean to him and that Saria "really liked him and not Mido." The Deku
sprout had emerged after Link had broken the curse on the Forest Temple,
and told the Hero of Time of his lineage and destiny. Link had learned
that he was not a Kokiri but instead was a Hylian raised as one, and Saria
had been chosen by fate to be the Sage of Forest so they could never be
together.
"Do it now," Saria said in a solemn voice.
He tried to mentally command the Triforce to do his bidding .
. . nothing. Why wasn't it working, he thought. Saria was discouraged and
Zelda disappointed. Link thought about the last time he and Mido spoke
during the Imprisoning War.
"If you see him, tell him I'm sorry for being mean to him. Tell
him that too..."
If only Link could somehow do it. He knew he could, but how was
he supposed to use a skill meant for a creator of Hyrule? Link knelt to
the ground putting his left hand down on the grave's moist dirt, and in
a soft whisper said, ". . . please Mido, leader of the Kokiri, it's me,
Link, I forgive you. . . You weren't meant to die. You are supposed to
be alive. . . please Mido for Saria's sake!"
The Triforce symbol on Link's hand appeared and glowed. The golden
triangle containing Farone's essence, glowed blue. The blue energy flowed
down Link's fingers into the ground and disappeared. The Triforce on Link's
hand vanished. He felt drained, as if something had in him had been pulled
out of him. Saria's eyes brightened with hope but then faded with dismay.
The meadow remained silent and unmoving. Zelda had the ultimate look
of pity on her face. Link stood up and turned away.
"Mido!" Saria cried happily.
Mido gasped for air as he climbed out of the loose earth. Link
turned to see him and both Link and Zelda were amazed and joyful. Mido's
fairy counterpart, sensing his return, flew from her resting place in the
late Deku Tree and rested once again in an orbit around him. Mido was before
them, healthy, whole, complete, and very confused. His
Kokiri tunic was ripped and tattered, but together.
"What happened? The last thing I remember was a wolf. Then it saw me
and..." Mido's mind recalled the last moments of his life, then he had...
Mido looked around where he was and at the hole in the ground he was just
in.
"I was dead, wasn't I?"
"Yes, you were, Kokiri leader, but thanks to the Hero of Time,
you live again."
Mido looked stupidly at Link, who he failed to recognize, again.
"Well, thanks mister. It is strange, I could swear I heard a
voice belonging to someone I used to know. He left the forest one day and
never came back. Well, he did a few times but then stopped coming. He must
of died leaving the forest ('cause the Great Deku Tree said a Kokiri's
life will end if they)... Hey! Can you resurrect the Deku Tree like you
did with..."
"No." The sprout said. The young tree was taller than Link
and more massive, but the face present in the sprout's bark was always
happy and cheerful, except now.
"When I emerged, his life-force along with the forest's were
transferred into me. There is nothing in him to resurrect. There is no
force in Hyrule that can bring my father back to life, he was a victim
of the curse placed on him by the desert man."
"Ganondorf." Link said.
"Quiet, Hero of Time, he maybe trapped in Dark Realm, but is
not good to mention evil such as his in this sanctuary." Zelda said quite
seriously.
"You're right, but he is trapped and peace is in Hyrule again,"
Link replied.
But, there is no peace in you, Link, none at all. Zelda thought
looking with her scarlet eyes into his bright blue ones and into his soul.
When Mido entered the village, surprise was nothing compared
to the expression on everyone's face. One of the Twins thought Mido was
a ghost. But the Kokiri soon realized Mido was indeed alive again by some
act of this stranger and the princess.
There was so much commotion about Mido once again among the living
that no one noticed as Link and Zelda backed away from the crowd of forest
children. All except one, Saria. As the duo walked across the Lost Woods
Bridge, Link noticed Saria standing by the forest entrance. He approached
her and she spoke to him in a voice like someone who knew they were terminally
ill.
"I guess we're saying good-bye again."
Link couldn't bear to say it, but he knew that he did not belong in
Kokiri Forest nor in Hyrule Castle. He didn't belong anywhere, except maybe
on the road, forever moving, never in the same place for long.
"Yeah . . ."
"Good-bye Link, visit often, ok?"
"You know I will," I just Lied to her.
"OK, see you then," Never.
Link and Princess Zelda walked out of the forest leaving Saria
alone at the bridge. Saria sat there for a time, then wept. A part of her
knew Link would never return to the forest. He was not a Kokiri and she
and he were both destined for things that would separate them like a chasm.
She was now the Sage of Forest one of the six sages who had helped seal
the evil king in the void of the Dark Realm. But was that to come at the
price of her and Link? Ruto had come to terms with the fact that the Zora
princess and the Hero of Time were not meant to be. Why couldn't she? Because
you know the feeling is mutually stupid and with Ruto it was puppy-love,
with you, . . . Saria's mind couldn't go further.
Mido had managed to wriggle away from the crowd, despite being the
main
attraction. He saw Saria on the bridge and went to her.
"What's wrong Saria?"
"Nothing, just give me some time and I'll be . . ." Saria stopped.
"Mido, it was nice to see you again, but I have to go now."
"Where?" Mido said, perplexed by the tone in the ever-young girl's
voice and the look on her twelve year old face.
"Just away. Good-bye." Saria hugged him and ran into the woods.
Mido somehow guessed to which part.
"Sariaaa!" But she was already gone.
"Not another one!" Mido began to wonder how long it would be
before he would give up hope on her return as well.
I need to find the will power to finnish this.