Author's Note: This is a story inspired by one a game that needs no introduction, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a game which I hold dear. You're probably already thinking of leaving this fic right now but I pray that you will give a chance this latest novelisation of this old favourite, for I intend for this to be not a retelling of the game's tale but a literary reimagining of the events within and surrounding it. In-depth backstories will be explored and major characters will be given full personalities (and hopefully be relatable to you, dear reader!) and interact with each other in ways far more meaningful than a Nintendo 64 game ever allowed (friendships, loves, hatreds, tears, the lot). Moreover, the script is not directly lifted from the game and places (particularly dungeons) aren't room-by-room recreations of the game, but will be rewritten so it reads smoothly and provides character development It's a drastically new version of an old Hyrule, and multiple new events, conversations/interactions, characters, places, dungeons and plot points of my own will be thrown into the mix too!
This is in NO way intended to act as a half-baked walkthrough, nor as an esoteric bit of writing appreciable only by longtime fans of the game; this is meant to be a standalone, literarily respectable (I hope!) novel for any reader, Zelda fan or not. I will strive to keep the spirit of each of the game's locations and characters true (which means absolutely nothing that goes irrationally OOC with a character's representation in-game) but otherwise my vision is to strip the game's story down to its barest bones and use that to build a tale that will hopefully be both quietly personal and sweepingly epic enough to earn the "Legend" in its title.
And please please please review! I've had this fic going for some time but it's got a LONG way to go, so I would absolutely love all the feedback and constructive criticism I can get!
Disclaimer: I do not own the intellectual property of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time nor any of the characters featured in it.
Chapter One:
The Boy With No Fairy
Smoke. So much smoke.
An ashen cloak billowing beneath a forlorn sky, pierced only by the blinding shock of lightning above and the roaring bursts of the fire in its core. Where was he?
The soil underfoot, sodden; the grass, limp and browning. Dank earth sprawling as far as the darkness let him see. The land; dying, drowning, burning, suffocating.
Hopelessness.
Something ahead, gargantuan, rigid and obscured in churning black. Flames rearing their heads and belching out more and more smoke, bearing down on the land, smothering it amidst the high screeching that wailed in the distance.
Magnificent spires collapsing and walls of solid stone crumbling; foreign things, falling to a heap before his eyes.
But of all he saw one thing took to him, the levitating, winged glow beside his head: a fairy.
A fairy, with him…
"LINK!"
Who could possibly-?
And bursting from the black mass was a bright creature of majestic white clothed in purple regalia, speeding forth on four legs. As it dashed past he caught the slightest of glances; there they were, two figures riding the beast: one at the fore, tall and clad in metal; the latter cradled by the former, much smaller, in flowing dress…
"LINK!"
He snapped up, eyes wide and breath heavy. It had ended. Earlier than usual, too.
But it happened. Against all his efforts he'd been dragged back into slumber, and it had returned to haunt him. A sigh; for all its darkness and terror, it couldn't touch him here; he was back with the woken. He pushed himself from the pillow of his arms, the left of his pointed ears red and aching from the weight of his head. He propped his elbows up against the table and his jaw against his hand, giving a groggy gaze to the mess of drawings, scribbles and little carved, wooden figures that looked back at him.
"LINK!" rang a voice once more. He turned; eyes wide again; the voice, here! He bolted across the singular, round room of his home, feet pitter-pattering on the raw wood beneath them. He burst out onto the balcony into the light of day and eagerly looked earthward to find –
"Link! Where've you been? I couldn't find you anywhere in the meadows, what have you been do-"
There she stood at the foot of his tree; arms crossed and eyes reproachful; short, leafy green hair framing her face and ocarina dangling from her necklace. Close by her side fluttered a little ball of emerald light. "Oh, Saria," he thought; light and vague disappointment manifesting in a tired exhalation. His muscles loosened and rubbed his eyes in the daylight that glowed through the village.
"-ing? Oh Link, don't tell me you were sleeping; it's afternoon! How many times has this happened in the last month?" chided Saria.
Link yawned loudly and stretched his arms, stepping away from the hollow trunk of the tree he called home. "Hi, Saria," he said, words mingling blurrily with the yawn, "Must've overworked yesterday, or my bed was too comfortable or something," trailing off meekly as the ladder came close.
Saria cocked an eyebrow and looked up at him with those glimmering greens meeting his deep ocean blues. "Sure. Either way, get yourself down here now, you've missed out on so much work and to be honest I don't know how many more excuses I can make to get Mido off your case!"
Brushing the blond of his fringe from his eyes he glanced up; the sun was high, it was close to noon. Still he hefted himself to the ground with nary a hint of urgency; "Good afternoon to you too, Saria" he said with a small, weary smile.
Saria uncrossed her arms and returned a little grin herself, unable to remain annoyed at the boy dismounting the ladder. "Here, Link" she said, in a gentler tone rather more suited to her. She threw a small parcel of twined grass to him, "It's not a lot, but there wasn't too much left, especially at this hour. Better than nothing, though, right?"
Unfurling the grass, he found two cream-coloured slices of bread nestled within, and his stomach purred with delight. "Thanks, Saria!" he said before hurriedly stuffing a whole slice into his mouth, crumbs flying and pattering to the ground. Saria giggled as he shamelessly ploughed through the bread, all the while fiddling with the strange musical instrument hanging from her necklace.
"Come on, Link, you've got work to do, I'll see you by the river in a few hours, okay?" she said, as she clasped his hand.
"See you then!" he said, dashing off past his friend. She turned and watched him, bounding away with such unusual energy for such a tired Kokiri child, traditional green tunic rippling behind him and long, green, pointed cap wagging atop his head. For just one moment she leant on the foot of that tree, a smile on her face.
"Saria, we've got to get back to work. These detours you take just to make sure he's getting to the meadows take long enough, and you don't exactly help by just standing around doing nothing!" rang the glowing green ball hovering by her side.
She sighed and left the tree behind, walking off to the meadows.
Long have I served as guardian of the vast southern forests of Hyrule; and long have I served as guide, father and patron to the ones who hide within it: the Kokiri. A curious race, thou would say no doubt, if not for their ways then certainly for their appearances. Look upon their faces and form and thou wouldst judge that they fail to age a day past their childhoods, confined to a permanent youth in the forest they call home.
Though perhaps thou couldst find the traces of childlike behavior one would expect of their stature, let not their appearance deceive thee. Verily, they live and learn through their lives years beyond what the lines of their faces may show, and one would be foolish to make light of their skills and their experiences, for their charge is a great one: the forest itself. So entwined are they to the forests that the dwell within its trees and live only within its boundaries, and indeed, as go the legends that thou may once have heard, they say that any Kokiri to leave the magic of the forest are condemned to an abrupt and agonising end.
But perhaps most curious of all are the fairies, minute spirits of the forest, each entrusted to a Kokiri and that Kokiri entrusted to it; a friend, a guard, a companion for life to each and every child.
Each child save one.
"Navi, where art thou? Navi, come hither."
"I'm here, Great Deku Tree, you've been looking for me?"
"Indeed. Navi, I have brought thee here to warn of a task soon to be set out for thee, a task that thou must soon undertake. I pray that thou dost wish to fulfill my request."
"Of course, Great Deku Tree, of course!"
"Then listen, and let my loyalty lie in thy most prudent hands. These past moons of mine have been plagued by a grave malaise; dost thou feel it, the darkness that dare encroach upon us all? We have always stood strong against those that muster their machinations against Hyrule and its blessed forests, and yet surely thou sees even my powers cannot withstand that which rises against us. It doth grow ever stronger with each day that passes."
"Great Deku Tree, what are you talking about? What could there possibly be in the world out there that would want anything from us? That would come to seek anything from here of all places?"
"A threat that none of the Kokiri could fathom nor stand against. I fear I may have to call on thee again shortly, I beg that thou remain vigilant in thy waking."
"… Yes Great Deku Tree, I shall."
He watched the clouds float by, letting his legs dangle from the tree beneath him, its branches clean of seeds and berries by his efforts. No doubt Saria was finished in the meadows and would be on her way to the river, that distinct emerald head ready to bob into sight any moment now.
In all his watching and waiting he only wished he'd had the foresight to bring something to draw the peaceful scene laid out before him: the little enclave of Kokiri Village basking in the forest's warmth and glow, the cliff walls lit in soft, creamy hues; the Lost Woods' trees tickling the sky in the wind; the houses dotted through the village: the twin trees of the Know-It-All Brothers to the right, the stout house of Mido to the left, and the diminutive abode of Saria on the far side near the clefts in the border, not far off from Link's own home.
The view was barely given time to soak in when he felt something fly past his head, "Damn it! Just missed!" blared a familiarly nasal voice, "Oi you! Your turn!"
"Sure thing, Boss!" sounded a lower voice, and with it came a sharp knock to Link's shoulder blade. He jerked forward and felt the branch lurch worryingly; gripping it tight, he slowly turned himself around, facing straight into the sun. And though he was squinting, there he saw three blurred figures on the ground, one short, two tall, looking up at him.
"Hah! I knew it was him, I can recognize a moron any day," rang the nasal voice, "Gimme another shot." Link saw the short figure bend over slightly before standing up with a raised hand; he knew what was coming. Reflexes pulsed and he swung leftward, slamming flat against the branch. He heard the stone whiz over his body, almost thinking himself lucky enough to let go a sigh of relief.
And then came the strange sensation of the branch beginning to drop ever so slowly, that small crackle of cracking fibre and bark overshadowed by the loud giggling coming from below. He moaned in disdain and shut his eyes tight; "This may hurt a little."
A sharp crunch and snap accompanied his face into grass before his ears were blasted by raucous laughter. "Jeez, No-Fairy, if you were gonna go and do that yourself we wouldn't have wasted them good rocks on you!" came the nasal jeer, the stomps of heavy footfalls blundering past, that obnoxious laughter and snorting following it off into the distance, lingering for what felt far too long.
He made it a point that he couldn't hear them before rolling himself over and looking up to the jagged point that jutted out pathetically from the tree he'd only just been perched on. It was a low branch, he told himself, you could've been a lot worse off. For the moment he needed only to nurse a numb nose, an aching right hand and a bruised pride.
With a resigned huff he blew the strands of grass from his face, stuffing this latest incident into that box he kept stowed away in the back of his head. It's not like he should've been surprised, he thought, Mido hadn't done anything to him in the past few days, it was really more his fault for not seeing it coming. Figures, I pick the only branch in this village that can't carry one lousy Kokiri. Just my luck.
He sat up and took stock of the assorted debris scattered around him from the fall, flotsam on a grass sea. There lay a sizeable section of the branch feebly lying feebly next to him. And there along the length of the branch it caught his eye; a stocky offshoot, poking up out of the grass, prodding at his attention and his imagination.
He snapped the segment free and twirled it over and over, its intriguing shape holding his mind's eye, an almost straight stick that split itself into a perfect 'Y'. Upon the wood he saw the beginnings of an idea float to the front of his head; if only he had his knife…
"Link, what happened?"
Link looked up from his hands to see Saria standing with a blonde Kokiri beside her, confused by the spread of small timber surrounding him. "Oh hi Saria," he said, "I'm okay, just fell out of the tree, that's all. Those branches sure look sturdier than they are," He hastily straightened himself up and tried to rearrange his face into a smile as best as he could.
"Really? Are you alright?"
"It's alright, I'm fine. No, really, it's alright!" he put up his hand to stop her as she moved forward. "If I could just say one thing, I really don't recommend the grass here, it tastes awful," he said as he spat lightly, little strands of grass flying off his face and drifting to the ground, "But hey, I think it might've just been worth it, check out what I've found!" and he brandished the little, wooden 'Y'.
"Ooh, Link! What're you going to make out of this one?" she asked, eyes running up and down the segment.
"I've got something a little different in mind for this; it's going to be perfect." He mimed, pulling something taut between the prongs of the stick; he shut one eye and feigned consternated aiming. "And then bam, right in the back of Mido's head! This might just be my best yet!"
"A slingshot? Don't you go causing too much trouble around the village, Link, I'm not sure that many Kokiri would appreciate its ingenuity while it's smacking rocks into their heads," said Saria.
"What? I just want to honour 'The Great Mido' with the blessing of my latest creation."
As Saria giggled, Link noticed the blonde Kokiri standing aloof, keeping her distance from where he sat, an odd sort of look on her face as she eyed him from afar. Saria stopped laughing and turned, only then remembering the presence of the blonde. "Oh, Fado, forgot you were there, silly me," she said, giving a half-hearted laugh, "Guess I'll see you around this evening, right?"
Fado turned to her and gave a wry smile, "Sure thing, see you then." She took a last glance at Link and added with a smirk "Take care, Saria," before taking off down the hill.
Saria leant forward and offered her hand as if Fado hadn't said a thing, her ocarina swinging down to dangle beneath her head as she stood with an outstretched arm, "Need some help?" she asked, and Link clutched her by the palm, dragging himself to his feet.
"Well, looks like you've managed to make your way here without falling out of anything, how's the day been treating you?" said Link.
"Managed to plant nearly half a bagful today!" said Saria, "I know that's not exactly an entire a meadow; I mean, you've planted more before; but it's more than I could say for most of the others! Especially Fado back there, spending the whole time chatting away with Lati."
"Oh and you didn't talk to anybody at all? Careful now, you sound as if you could be turning into me!" jested Link, smiling.
"Hey!" said Saria, playfully pushing Link, "Worse things could happen than that; we've all got to work hard. Or at least look like we are; I don't think any of us wants to give Mido a reason to try and boss us into weeding out the front of his house like he did with Remi, do we?"
"Hah," he scoffed, "If he could actually make me do anything, he'd have me weeding his house and cleaning out all the rocks from the front of it; he'd probably have me shining his shoes too, knowing him."
"He'd have a whole group of people dedicated just to shining his shoes, that silly Mido."
"Yeah, 'silly'…"
It was a leisurely walk to the river, one of chatter and laughter, carrying them downstream alongside the banks. And so it seemed the further they followed the little stream, the more Link found himself fixated upon its flow, endlessly pondering. "Where do you think it goes?" he asked, watching the bubbles and ripples slipping around the rocks that lay along the banks, winding its way throughout the village.
"You mean after the Lost Woods?" said Saria, looking up to find her friend gazing so intently.
"Yeah; what's beyond the trees? Who do you think is out there, all the time, while we're in here? Do you think they drink the water? Do you think they needthe water like we do? I mean, we know so much about the forests, but think about all the stuff that's going on out there, think about what the world could be like," spoke Link in rapt wonderment.
"We'll never know, Link; you know just as well as me, Saria, or any of the Kokiri that none of you could ever make it beyond the trees before the life of the Forest deserted you!" chimed Aelie, Saria's bright green fairy.
"But wouldn't it be something if we could…" said Link.
"I'd say you'd best do like everyone else and just keep your head down and focused on the Forest, it's not like we don't have things to deal with here," said Aelie sternly, "I don't see why you dream of things like this".
"I know, I know. But I can't help it! Think about it!" He turned to Saria, voice picking up speed, "The things that we could be missing! I mean, they could be beyond anything we could ever imagine, what with us stuck in the forest all the time. All the creatures, all the people, all the places that there might be, if only we could see through the trees; with all those possibilities we'll never know, there's no end to what can be out there. Heck, Imight even find a place out there.
"Hm, Link? 'A place'?" asked Saria.
"Oh just, y'know, bigger house, bigger village, just kind of stuff like that," he said hastily, tacking a laugh to the sentence's end.
"I see… Well we've heard stories, Link," reminded Saria, "Remember? When the Deku Tree used to get all the Kokiri and fairies together at dusk, and we'd sit in the meadow as he went through all those fabulous tales about the world? It's been so long since then…"
"Longer for me," Link mumbled, turning his head to the river again, "Mido and his goons tied me to a tree the last time the Deku Tree told the rest of you a story."
"Oh…" Saria said, embarrassed, "Well it's been long for me too! It's been an age since the Great Deku Tree told any of us a story! In fact, it's been an age since we've heard much from the Deku Tree at all; I wonder what he's been up to?"
Link took his gaze away from the water and back to the path they were traveling through Kokiri Village. He watched the tiny village market go by, a sparse smattering of shops and stalls arranged in a haphazard circle, hawking a variety of rudimentary wares and forest foods. "Do you reckon he really meant them, the stories? I remember when he used to tell us about the places without trees, places even bigger than the meadows, markets that could cover the whole village twice over…"
"And houses carved from stone," Saria continued, "some rising taller than the tallest forest oaks..."
"And the creatures!" said Aelie distantly, melting to the nostalgia.
"Ones that lived off of huge, rocky mountains," said Link, "Ones that lived under the waves. Some creatures with two legs like ours, some with four…"
"And we'd sit by the Deku Tree's roots," said Saria absentmindedly, gazing at nothing in particular, "And the sun would slip through his leaves and the fairies and fireflies would light up the grove, and we'd fall asleep right there on the grass."
Link sighed faintly, "Oh if we could hear one of his stories again…"
"It can't be too long now, right?" said Saria, "I mean, he's overdue and he knows it!"
"Maybe I'll ask him just what it's like out there, whether the stories were true, whether one day I can see that world and all those places and creatures," pondered Link.
Saria paused momentarily, her eyes stopping on Link, "I'm sure there must be a way out of here," she said, "Don't you remember when the Great Deku Tree told us about what the world used to be like, when the Kokiri used to go out there beyond the forests? Of course there had to be some way they left the forests back then. And the stories! The one about the Lost Stone Child of the Mountain, who wandered through that passageway in the woods, remember that? Sure they might be stories but you never know. He must know about some kind of secret to seeing the world; we can't all be meant to stay cooped up in the Village forever, can we?"
"Do you really think so?"
"Yeah," said Saria kindly, "Why not?" and with that she turned her gaze to the ripples weaving along the river's surface
"I hope you're right," said Link, sighing a little. Saria merely smiled back and put a hand on his shoulder.