Author's Note: Check my profile page for additional info about this story and/or the titular character. Rules that govern this story's universe can be found there, as can an explanation of its technical "crossover" status. Short version: Zelda story with occasional Kingdom Hearts influence. Author's Notes will be linked to in my profile rather than cluttering up the story. Thanks and enjoy. ;)

Strands of Fate

It was a cool and misty night in the small forest clearing that stood between the open fields of Hyrule and the infamous Lost Woods. Not a single person stood there, yet the clearing teemed with life, just as it always had, ever since the land was blessed by the Goddess Farore in mythical times. Small bugs and glowing wisps flew around everywhere, just as they had for all known time.

For almost as long, the Great Deku Tree had also existed, watching endlessly over the forest in silence. For it was no ordinary forest, it was a fountain from which the power of Farore continued to flow, enriching life everywhere. The forest also stood as a barrier, protecting Hyrule, chosen land of the Goddesses, from outsiders that would seek to threaten it and steal the Golden Power, hidden within.

The Great Deku Tree was the guardian spirit of the forest, growing tall and wide and seeing everything that happened within its boarders. He was wise and old beyond reckoning.

He was also lonely.

Although he lived in the shape of an immense tree, the Great Deku Tree was blessed with the heart of a father and had enormous capacity to protect, teach, and love. Apart from that, though, he knew that all things would pass someday, himself included. Yes, his long strand was growing shorter every year that drifted by. He would have a successor of course, but he worried that more would be needed.

He needed a legacy. Life that would continue to blossom and thrive long after he was gone.

With that, he began the spell, the spell that would pour some of his own life energy into the wandering forest spirits. As he did and as his children of the forest, the Kokiri, began to take on faint stirrings of life of their own, his second sight, his foresight saw strands of destiny branch out from each one, like so many beautiful trees. He saw them, like multi-colored threads, weave together to form a beautiful tapestry of greens, blues, and browns, the colors of the forest. They weren't all consistent colors, of course, they were just children, but the overall pattern was the same.

However, he soon noticed a difference. One strand broke free of the tapestry and flew off, mingling with others that were too far away to see clearly. As it did, he noticed that it had an odd silvery sheen to it, something that was present in the original tapestry yet was hidden by the strand's normal colors until he sought it out specifically. He had never seen anything like it before. It was something... unworldly. This one shall be... Different, he concluded.

He continued watching the strand of destiny that would belong to one of his daughters when something else happened. Another strand from outside the tapestry flew in, taking the place of the one that had left and assuming its colors briefly before leaving again. In its absence, the patterns of the tapestry suddenly darkened and spun out of control, threatening to tear apart. Before that could happen, though, the two strands returned, one with a silvery sheen and another with a new lining of gold. Together, they joined together with one that had remained all along, one that now glowed a brilliant green, and wove a new pattern, one that restored order, balance, and beauty.

Almost as soon as they returned, the two were gone, and the Deku Tree caught a brief glimpse of another tapestry, one larger and more complex than the one he had been watching. This new tapestry was covered in ugly splotches of black and red, yet together the two strands flew towards it.

The Great Deku Tree lost sight of the larger tapestry then, but he knew that the two strands sought to bring order back to it as well. He could still make out the first strand, though, the one with the special silvery sheen. He watched as the thread of her destiny spun out far in front of her, weaving and dodging with others that were yet unknown to him and that he couldn't see. He watched as other colors crept into it. Not just forest colors anymore, but all colors shifted through the wayward strand as well. Whites, yellows, pinks, purples...

Oranges, reds...

Black.

The strand was now so far away they he couldn't see it anymore, even with the newborn Kokiri girl that it came from sleeping in the grass with her brothers and sisters mere steps away from him. He stared at her, loving them all yet knowing of the pain that she alone would face. Wondering if there was anything in his suddenly insufficient-seeming power that he could do to avert her destiny.

For the fate of this newborn daughter, he wept...