It had been a stressful and busy day that day on the market streets of Castle Town. The sun beat down on the asphalt ground like light rays under a magnifying glass. And the ground was hot enough to cook an egg on if desired. People were either in a hurry to get home or to other locations, few only stopping at shops when they saw something they needed. The hustle and bustle of city life was always more unbearable on hot days. People were rude and pushy, or down in the dumps and careless. Today, a small-time deku merchant had set up his shop in town. The deku was three feet tall, so tall for normal deku. His head was the common round shape, and his bare body was a bit tear-shaped and round as well, as if he were just a little fat. He had tall legs and very large feet. At his elbows, were three cute hanging green leaves on each. Around his waist, he wore a small rope to tie his wallet to. He also wore what looked to be a necklace with a molar on it. It was actually the molar of a wolfos.
He also bore on his upper chest just below his neck a small wooden protrusion, and at each of it's sides were three discolored leaves. This gave the look of him wearing a bowtie, keeping a gentlemanly and kind look to match his normally gentle personality. Lastly were his leaves on his head, which were a bold green, each leaf tipped with a lighter green. They were pretty widespread and long, his leaf-hair's length reaching to the center of his back. And spiking off the top-back of his head was a ponytail. He had bangs as well, three thin leaves which could look much like a cucco's comb if they were thicker. But they were still long enough to hang in his face.

He could only sigh as he waited hopelessly for business… Only money he'd made was a green rupee offered by a child, whom was nice enough to notice that the deku had been there all day, so gave the deku what little the boy had on him after spending most of it on something prior. The deku was thankful, but couldn't do much with a green rupee…

The deku sat on his sales-mat in the square of Castle Town. Children would run by him wanting items and such, including a nice looking slingshot. They would beg their legal guardians for the items they saw, but as usual, the adult's reply would be something along the lines of "I could buy this at such-and-such place for cheap". And the occasional homeless folk would wander up and hopelessly stare at the goods the deku had, before moving on. Some attempted to run off with a couple of things. And what was taken was normally something of worth… The poor merchant just wasn't aggressive enough to get the items back. Sometimes he wondered if he was cut out for his family's long running merchant business. His parents were no longer in Hyrule, so he was on his own, but wasn't doing well. After waiting long enough, he decided to pack up his stuff.

"Today was a bust…" the merchant growled as he carelessly tossed some items into his travel bag, then folded his mat. The mat was incredibly hot from the asphalt, and hardly did it's job to comfort from the ground.
"'Ey! Get yer aster out of the way, Aster!" a cranky old man from a nearby shop called. "Let a real merchant show ya how it's done!" he finished with a laugh, his stand full of people. Though this man's stand had something Aster's little mat didn't; Shade. The merchants around Castle Town were rough on those poor in business, and Aster was no exception. Not to mention deku racism was a pretty big thing during this time. Not many deku merchants were brave enough to set up shop in human towns… And Aster had listened to this old man taunt and tease all day, among other businesses. The deku simply glared as he threw his travel bag heavily over his little shoulder. But unlike he normally would, he decided to reply.
"You know what old man? Suck a deku nut, you can have the business, I'm outta here…" he finished, fed up with getting picked on by successful businesses. "If everyone here is gonna be a immature and lack morality, then they don't deserve my merchandise anyway. The children have more respect than the common adults and guards, and that's just sad… Maybe I'll have better luck among my own kind…"

Aster walked out of town beneath passersby, with his burden of items weighing heavily over his back and shoulder. At this point, he was used to it, but the dry heat made it a bit hard. Sunlight; good. Excruciating heat; bad. As he stopped on Castle Town's bridge to gander out yonder across Hyrule Field, his glowing orbs- which were dimmed from the ever-brighter sun, looked out across the vast grassy plains. His eyes pointed toward the mass of trees far out along the hills, where his ancestral home was. To be honest, he hardly went there at all! His family was made up of traveling salesman, so it never really interested him to live in the primitive homelands of his people beneath the forest canopy. He wasn't even sure if things changed much there. For as long as he could remember, finding modernized scrubs there was a rarity. He was about to find out though, as he planned on setting up shop under a nice big shady tree, hoping forest folk would be interested in his goodies… If they even had money…

After taking a swig of a bottle of water, Aster set out across the field. The trek was miserable, and he wished for a horse drawn carriage. However, the chances for something like that were slim. He spent a few hours just making it across the field to the forest. The moment he reached the entrance, he stopped for a while and rested. But a lovely tree was awaiting him, and he welcomed the shade. Nonetheless, he didn't want to spend very much time resting. He did what he needed and sat back a while, while getting a drink, before hopping back up and walking on through. As he passed through a huge log entrance, the other side was nothing but towering trees as far as the eye could see. Around these Lost Woods borders, humans could still safely traverse. According to legend, those who are not of the forest can't go too far in, for they would be lost and never return. Some even say they get turned into stalfos… Luckily, Aster was a folk of the trees. Such a fate, be the legends true or not, does not apply to him.

As he wondered further, he found that even he was not familiar with the surroundings, and he'd quickly become lost. All the trees looked the same, no matter where he turned. He even lost sight of the entrance that he came through. "How embarrassing… I'm a deku, and I'm lost in the woods." he mumbled. He finally just decided to cross bridges when he came to them. Speaking of which, he eventually came upon one… At the front of the bridge, was a little lazily made sign with "Kokiri Forest -" written on it. Looked like a child wrote it. Across the bridge was another log entrance to supposedly Kokiri Forest. He could see tree homes on the other side, proof that a civilized culture lived here.
He inspected the sign, taking him a bit to actually read it due to it's poor appearance and age-worn surface. But his face lit up and he sighed a sigh of relief. "Finally, I'm getting somewhere. Maybe I can find some interested folk here?"

He situated his bag, before walking across the bridge. Beneath the bridge was a lower area with small trees and such. He took a gander downward, and he actually saw a few mad scrubs hop into their flowers out of fear. He knew them as mad scrubs, but they were brethren all the same. In the midst of him looking around, he was pushed right over on his back against his pack of items roughly. He squeaked in shock, before looking for the culprit. There was a child in a green tattered shirt and green tattered shorts blocking the entrance to the nearby village, looking angrily at Aster. The boy had ginger hair that covered his face, so you could not see his eyes well. But where had the child come from? He wasn't there before!

"Parden me little one, what is your problem?! Pushing people around like that… That is no way to treat an adult… As a matter of fact, where is your mother? Does she know you go around shoving strangers?" Aster scolded as he got up with effort.
The child looked at him weird for a moment for how well Aster spoke. Not many deku tried to get into Kokiri Forest unless they were super dumb and wild. He spoke so well, so if he's THAT smart, he should know that Kokiri don't often allow many outside races to mingle around through their village.
"I don't know what you're talking about, deku…" the Kokiri replied. In truth, he was not a normal child- these guys remained young for eternity. This Kokiri could be well over a hundred years old. He soon picked up where he left off. "You're not allowed to stay in our village, Kokiri and fairies only!" he blew a raspberry at Aster rudely. It wasn't until now that Aster noticed the fairy with the child, whom was fluttering around the kid's green pointed hat.

"Well, that's quite rude! Can I at least pass through to get further into the forest? I am in need of rest, and there's no where out here where I can find that…" Aster sighed, rubbing his aching shoulder.
The Kokiri boy crossed his arms. "You're a weird scrub… Don't you know your way around these woods? What kinda deku are you?"
"I came from the lands beyond these woods. It'd be nice if I could pass through… I originally wanted to sell my wares, but I first need to find some place to rest."
The Kokiri was leaning on believing him, curious about the deku's talk of a world beyond the forest. Kokiri are forbidden to leave the woods, so it was a mystery what lied beyond them. Soon, the fairy rang loudly and got in Aster's face.
"You liar! You deku are all the same! All deku live in these woods and should know their way around! You probably filled that sack with deku sticks and deku nuts, and maybe even a few rocks, just to have an excuse to come in by saying you sell things. Then once you come in, you'll start treating the place like you own it! Go find a deku flower, we don't need freeloaders!" the fairy quite nearly hissed during her shouting. She was somewhat right about him having deku nuts in the travel bag at least… But those things were harder to come by outside the forest, and people actually bought them… It didn't occur to him how easy they are to come by in the woods.

The poor deku was actually a bit intimidated by the fairy getting in his face and yelling. He backed away. The Kokiri quickly sided with his fairy, shooing Aster away… The deku did not fight, but merely walked his away across the bridge again, before heading off into a random direction frustratedly. He simply mumbled to himself… What he didn't know was that someone had been watching him since he first arrived in the woods. And even now, they were watching him from the trees. They followed him for the next hour, till he finally gave in to his weak knees and fell to sit on his rump roughly.
"I can't walk anymore. This gods-forsaken forest has no end… I have no idea where I am anymore…" he complained sadly. He placed his hand to his forehead and sighed. "I'm a pathetic excuse for a deku."

He leaned back, before pulling his mat out of his travel bag and laying it out for him to lay on beneath the welcoming canopy of the forest. Or currently, the unwelcoming canopy, given he'd rather be outside at this point. Castle Town suddenly didn't sound so bad aside from the skillet-like streets. As he laid there a moment, he was awoken after shortly drifting off when the sound of rustling caught him. He looked to the side of himself to find a little armless deku having knocked his travel bag over, where it's goods had been spilled across the ground. He soon noticed that a few nosy forest folk had been tampering with his belongings. A Skullkid was currently playing with his slingshot- which was sadly one of his few remaining worthwhile items for sale.
"H-hey, you gotta pay for those!" he called out.
"Pay? For this junk?" a deku with arms asked gruffly, holding up a deku nut. "I could make these in my sleep!" he finished, tossing the deku nut down. Aster quickly scrambled over to catch it before it hit the ground so it wouldn't explode and blind everyone. It was still an active deku nut, very liable to explode if enough force is thrust upon it.
Then the armless chimed in, him lacking fluent speech. "Junk can be found in woods, why anyone waste rupees on them?"

Aster was slightly offended, and even embarrassed… "Well… Outside the woods, this stuff is harder to come by… I normally do business out with humans and Hylians."
"Humans and Hylians? Great, you're one of those desperate Deku Merchants… Your kind would sell your own deku nut gland if you had no other choice…" The armed deku retorted. He was soon to walk away, the armless soon leaving in another direction...

The Skullkid walked up to Aster, tilting his head curiously at the Slingshot. "What about this? How much is it?"
Aster smiled, happy at least someone was being reasonable. "Ah, you got a good eye my friend! This is a hand carved slingshot! I made it, actually! Works wonderfully, and can shoot quite far. I'd normally say two hundred rupees for the work I put into it, but I'll drop the price down for you, to a hundred." he assumed since these are the woods, people aren't gonna have as much money… The Skullkid grinned happily, handing Aster a sack full of what sounded to be rupees. It was just as heavy, too. the Skullkid pattered off and up a tree, as he toyed with the wooden toy.

Aster felt happy to sell his most favored product, and went to look at his pay… Only to dump the contents of the sack out and find rocks and tree bark. The only rupees present were a few green rupees, and some were cracked and broken. "…" he stared, before angrily looking up and shouting, "Kid, these aren't rupees, you better pay me now or I'm taking that thing back!"
The Skullkid giggled. "No!"
Aster tensed up, his fingers out and curled like claws angrily, as he fumed before going "AGH!" loudly. "Don't make me come up there! I'll even shoot a nut at ya! I may be a city-slicker, but I got the aim!"

The Skullkid didn't know what a city-slicker was, but he only laughed again. "I wanna see you try!"
Aster wasted no time, and spat a deku nut into the tree. But after the loud pop and flash ended, the forest child was gone… With the stolen hand carved slingshot… The deku ran around looking for a long time, before finally returning to his bag of now useless junk and sitting down with his head in his hand. "I got robbed. I can't believe… I was dumb enough to fall for that brat's trick… I'm such a boob. Son of a baba..."

In his sulking, he no longer had the company of annoying and judgmental forest folk. He leaned back against his travel bag, and realized that he was better off listening to the old man in Castle Town than here… At least there, his only real issue was being insulted; not insulted, lost, AND stolen from… Aside from by the hobos in town, of course. He gave a deep sigh, just wanting the day to end. He'd been to these woods once as a child with his father, but he didn't remember it being this bad… Then again, his father was the merchant then, not him. He suddenly admired his father's tolerance levels far greater than he did before. He'd remained on the ground with his head in his hand grumpily…

A ways away, the figure who'd been watching him all this time finally silently climbed down the tree they were currently in, and began approaching Aster slowly. The female deku had an elongated head. She had bright autumn leaves covering her forehead and part of the way up her elongated head. At the tip of her pointed and curved head, were purple leaves in the formation of a flower, and long darker autumn leaves hanging down gracefully in curly, long layers. At each side of her "hairdo", leaves curled upward like small wings, which would probably look like tiny wings if you were facing her head-on. She had only three digits on her hands, and rather dainty feet. Her ankles and wrists were very fat, easing into her hands and feet cutely. Her whole body was bare, mind the vines that wrapped around her right upper arm, right upper leg, her hips, wrapping her left shoulder and ending in a curl around one side of her chest. Tiny green leaves grew off the vines on her right arm and on the curled vines on her chest. Large leaves hung off the vines around her hips at the front, reminiscent of a loin cloth.

Aster looked up to see this female looking at him with the utmost curious look on her face. But he was quickly startled given she was so quiet. He hastily stood up, pulling his belongings to himself. "If you have no money, then you wont be getting any merchandise, I-I'm sorry… Miss." he paused for a moment to see her rather feminine appearance, allowing himself to be sure.

She ignored his obvious intimidated appearance and continued approaching him. She got in his face, causing him to lean back. "Uhhh, ma'am, p-please don't get in m-my face like that…"
She didn't seem to be taking his words. He started to wonder if she knew normal speech. She acted so… Primitive, and strange… He soon realized that she was sniffing at him, and he backed away. She walked in a circle around him smelling the air, before she leaned close to him and smelled him again around the sides of his face. He was freaking out by now internally. Was she sizing him up for something? Did he smell bad?

She then backed away and looked him over with a raised brow.
"U-uh… Me… From out of woods…" he pointed his hands out toward where he thought the forest exit would be. In his assumption that she couldn't speak well, he was trying to communicate. His words flowed together slowly, as if he were talking to a child. "I am business scrub…" he held up his bag. "I sell things in exchange for shiny gems called rupees!" he put his bag back down. By now, she looked utterly unimpressed. Her eyes were cut coldly. If a look could freeze someone, Aster would be a block of ice right now.
"I am Aster! What be your name? You friendly?" he urged her to try an talk, now done.

She stared at him for a good long while, before groaning in disgust. "You really are an imbecile… I can talk, you dipstick. You smell of humans, and you act like one, too… And here I thought you may actually be a bit intelligent. Then again, you got stolen from by a Skullkid, so maybe not… You thought I was some kind of neanderthal?"
Aster's face flushed. Not only can she talk, but she used big words, too. He rubbed his head, his hand shaking. "W-wow, ma'am, I am… Really sorry… I didn't mean any offense, I just… Last I checked, walking up to and SMELLING people is… Something a neanderthal would do."
She rolled her eyes. "It's also a way for me to know whether I can trust you. If you smelled of monsters and hunters, I'd have acid-spat you right here, right now… So be thankful you're just stupid, that's the only thing that's truly irritating me."

Aster was quickly burned by her sharp tongue, metaphorically speaking. He felt a bit awkward for having introduced himself that way. "You have a point. Being out among other people, I don't make it a habit of smelling people normally. Out there, it would be considered uncouth. And a bit weird. I apologize, may I retry my greeting?"
She crossed her arms and leaned her hip sideways. "Go on."

Aster cleared his throat, before speaking up. "My name is Aster. I'm not from around here... As a matter of fact, I haven't been to these woods in a very long time. Safe to say, I'm very lost. I have been trying to sell my items all day... But the humans and Hylians never stop for my items, and here in the forest, it's all useless... All I want at this point is a place to stay and rest up..."
The wild scrub gave him an intrigued look, before sighing. She'd been watching him since he got here, and he had a bad time from the start. "Well, there's a decent place I know right next to where I live, and it's vacant. I guess... I guess I could let you stay there and rest."

"That'd be very helpful, thank you." Aster bowed slightly in appreciation, before gathering his things. However, Alo had already begun walking off. Aster noticed this, and took off after her while trying to hold onto his items. He caught up with her and was silent.
"I've actually been following you since you got here." she replied calmly. Aster was, however, a bit disturbed to hear that.
Y-you stalked me?" he questioned.
She chuckled. "It sounds bad when you put it that way... You just looked odd, but I kinda figured you were a merchant. But when I saw you trying to get into Kokiri Forest, I knew you were some unfamiliar fool from the outside world. Either way, you seemed interesting. Don't take my watching you the wrong way. I wasn't trying to be a creep."
Aster calmed down a little. "Oh..."
She soon added. "I gotta watch that entrance sometimes. Hunters like to poach near the exit, and it becomes troublesome. I usually run 'em off. I had to make sure you weren't bad news. You do seem very suspicious, after all. You reek of humans and Hylians, but just turns out you were an idiot."

He grunted. "Yeah, you got that point across already..."
Alo soon looked over Aster again. "So... Why do you bother with the fleshy tall folk?"
"Well... I want to aim my business toward other races, not just my own. Mostly, I'm trying to show the Hylians and such that us deku aren't all that bad, and give us a good name on their society. It's always been a thing with my family... Safe to say though, they don't pay much attention to me. It's hard to sell anything when I'm competing with big shops in the city."
She'd mostly only dealt with hunters, and only saw the city once when she followed some poachers back to town, so her view of the Hylians was smudged. "You're wasting your breath. They only care about what benefits them, and the only thing that benefits them is money. Besides, the only thing they'd see you useful for is for them to get what they want; not gain you as a friend. Of course they're gonna ignore you, you don't have the ability to sell what others of their kind sell. You're better off forgetting about those dishonorable fleshbags..."

Alo's words stung a little, even though Aster himself wasn't Hylian or anything of the like. Her words were full of salt, which she'd poured right into the wounds of his hopes for business and a better future for deku kind. With behavior like hers, it was no wonder most humans were mean to deku, but he wasn't quite aware of her reasoning for hatred toward them exactly. "I know some of them can be unkind, but not all of them are like that."
"Yeah? I'll believe that when I meet one." she said coldly.

"... Well... Even with the bad folk... There are still good people out there, Alo, because I've seen them." Aster responded.
Alo sighed. "I'm sure there are... But it's still best that you just keep away from them, it's hard to tell a good heart from the bad ones till it's too late. Aim your business somewhere else. Gorons, zoras even."
Aster decided that this conversation was becoming... Depressing. So he decided to change the subject. Alo seemed tense, and he didn't want to get on her bad side. Truthfully, she intimidated him.

"Well, I'll think about it..." he began, to at least acknowledge that he was listening to her. "So, how long have you been here? Seems to me, you have good knowledge of the outside world for such a wild deku."
Alo twitched a leaf and looked to the merchant male. "Well... I came here a long time ago. My tribe migrated here for a while, before leaving when I was seven."
"Aw... Were you left behind by them?" he asked.
Alo laughed, before looking to him. "No. I decided to stay here. It was a neat change of scenery, and I always wanted to see new forests. I originated from a tropical area far outside the borders of the country of Hyrule. I've lived here since. And aside from the crummy neighbors, it's nice, quiet, and dark here in this forest."
"You're tropical? So that explains why you're so different. Well, I'm afraid I can't give you an interesting backstory of my childhood. We're just merchants, haha." Aster felt a bit awkward. There was nothing too interesting about him as far as backstory went.

"You business scrubs are all weird, anyway." Alo remarked, in no way intending for what she said to be rude. Aster didn't take it wrong either. He would admit, business scrubs were a bit weird.

As time went on, Alo and Aster arrived at a thick wall of thorned vines... Alo was approaching it, when Aster found himself staying where he was. When she heard the footsteps of her follower stop, Alo turned to Aster. "What's wrong?"
Aster scratched his arm, "Um... Are we going in there?"
"... Yeeaaahhh." Alo replied shortly. "Don't worry, the thorns are only on the outside..."

The male merchant went to raise his hand and speak, but Alo had already taken off, moving a few different vines to reveal an opening just big enough for them to fit in. Aster was hesitant, but went in anyway. Once inside, it was very dome like. And the plants were so grown over by the thorn walls, it would take effort to get poked by them from inside. "Oh wow, is this where you live?"
Alo sat down by a berry bush and tossed a few berries in her snout, before answering. "Yep. Protected from the outside by thorns, but highly cozy on the inside. Nothing dares come near my home. You're lucky I even showed you where it was. Then again, you're not a threat... Even if you wanted to be."

Aster wasn't sure whether to be thankful or insulted. She was basically saying that he was too weak and not worthy of fearing in any way. He awkwardly stood at the entrance still as he examined the place. Alo was quick to get irritated by him standing around, then remembered why she brought him here to begin with. She hopped to her feet and finished off a berry. "C'mon."

Aster flicked a leaf, and Alo began heading toward more vines at the right of the dome when faced from the entrance where Aster stood. He followed her yet again through vines and found themselves exiting in a small clearing. It was still protected by walls of thorns, though it had an open sky. It was like a neighboring yard to Alo's house. Aster looked across the clearing, then to the small cave at the back. Instead of it being a cave in a rock wall, it was a cave made of thick vines and other plants which were tightly woven together and through each other. It was deep and dark, but not so dark that you couldn't see anything.
"Is it safe in there?" Aster questioned lowly. Alo walked him toward it and looked in.
"It should be, nothing can get passed the thorn walls outside, so I can't see why there'd be any undesirable visitors here, unless they used my home to get here. But no, it's safe."

The merchant walked inside, laying his belongings down. He found it kinda comfortable now that he was in here. It was shaded and cool, and there was even water trickling through at the back. After examining the home a while, he finally turned to tell Alo thank you; but she was already across the clearing and about to head back inside her own home. He walked out a ways before calling out to her.
"Hm?" she turned to him to acknowledge him. "What?"
Aster paused, before finishing. "I appreciate your hospitality, and I do apologize for intruding. It was kind of you to allow me temporary shelter here."
She stared for a little, before nodding silently and going back inside. Aster could only watch, before slowly turning and heading back to his cave to sit down. Maybe while he rested, he could start working on making another slingshot... His mind kept wondering about Alo and why she was so nice to him. It made him smile and he chuckled to himself, feeling the utmost gratefulness.