Chapter 1—Link's Story

A tear rolled down his cheek. He was almost surprised to see that one had fallen, and he quickly wiped it away.

Link smiled when he heard Epona neigh sadly and turn back to him. "I'm fine, girl," he cooed to her while rubbing behind her ears. "You always know how to cheer me up." Link sighed happily. Epona whinnied contently at Link's words and affections. One of Link's hands once again found Epona's reins while the other patted her side gently. "Come on, let's keep going."

The small smile on his face soon died out. His eyes tingled when he squeezed them shut, willing them not to look back at the shrinking Hyrule behind him. It would hurt me more staying in Hyrule than leaving, Link said to himself once again in his thoughts. He remembered the image of the teary-eyed Zelda when he said those exact words to her.

…

"Where will you go?" she asked him, her eyes shining intensely.

"The forest."

"But…you've only been here two years."

Link couldn't help but grin a little. "Technically, nine years." Zelda laughed prettily. Link remembered the lurch in his heart when she hugged him and wept quietly into his shoulder. After sniffling softly, she said exactly what was on his mind.

"You're going to go look for Navi, aren't you?"

He tensed the slightest as he held her. "I have to find her again." he said dryly.

"You love her?"

"Very much."

Zelda gently pushed away from him, placed her hands in his, and looked up into his celestial blue eyes. A sad smile formed on her lips. Link returned the look Zelda was giving him; he had been happy to be with her, yet it hurt knowing he had to leave her. A small part of him wanted to stay there in Hyrule with her forever. But suddenly, Zelda's eyes became huge.

"I almost forgot to give you something!" she shouted. When she gave a small bow to Link, her long, blonde hair draped over her shoulders. It had grown over the years. "Excuse me," she said hurriedly, and dashed past Link to the hallway in front of them.

When Zelda returned, her hands were behind her back. "Close your eyes," she said gently, "and hold out your hand." Link did as she said, and he immediately knew what it was as soon as it touched his hand and Zelda placed her warm hand on his.

Link's eyes were sad when he looked at Ocarina of Time he now held. This was the sacred musical instrument of the Hylian royal family, the device he used to transcend time and space traveling forward and backward seven years in time, open secret doors unknown, and communicate with the spiritual sages. Its rich, deep shade of sapphire shone beautifully in the afternoon light gleaming down on it through the castle window.

The expression on Link's face suddenly became hard to read. The boy shook his head and flipped his hand to place the ocarina in Zelda's.

"No, I want you to have this," Zelda insisted. "I feel as if…you'll need it on your journey somehow."

Link looked hurt when she put the ocarina back in his possession. He looked down at her, his expression serious. "Zelda, take it back."

Her small smile shrank. "You really don't want it?"

Link's hands tightened around the ocarina. It was hard for him to look at Zelda all of a sudden, so he stared at the floor. After a long, solemn silence, he spoke. "If I take this…what will you have to remember me by?" he whispered, genuine worry in his words.

Zelda's smile returned. "Link, I won't need the ocarina to remember you. I'll always treasure the time we've spent together." She couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face, but she still managed to keep her smile. Suddenly, Link snatched her into his arms.

"Thank you," he cried. Zelda could feel Link's grip on her tightening as he mustered all of his strength to keep himself from crying. After a few seconds, Link's embrace softened, and he pulled away from her, having made his expression as stoic as possible.

Zelda grinned at the look on Link's face. His eyebrows were furrowed and his pouting lip was quivering madly. She placed her hands on Link's shoulders, closed her eyes, and brought her lips to his cheek. Link closed his eyes as a soothing warmth flooded his body. She then held his hands tightly.

"It's been wonderful knowing you this time around." she said beautifully.

Link nodded sadly. His heart broke when he slipped his fingers out of her grasp and began to walk away from her. Zelda frowned. Link waved to her goodbye, his heart aching, and Zelda returned the wave.

Then he walked out Hyrule Castle without looking back.

…

"Epona, I'm fine!" Link shouted when she turned back to him again. The horse whinnied sadly at his tone. "I'm sorry, girl," he sighed softly. A long silence passed as Epona continued to trot through the wilderness, Link growing increasingly lost in his thoughts. He was too deep in contemplation to realize that he and his horse had entered a dark realm of the forest he had never seen before.

Link subconsciously pulled out the ocarina from his pocket, and looked at it emptily. "I miss Zelda already," he said aloud to no one in particular, "and I also really miss—"

His eyes found a glowing ball of light floating just a few yards ahead of him, its luminescence faintly lighting the trees and bushes by it and the forest path ahead.

"Navi."

Link immediately sprung off of Epona, not daring to take his eyes off the fairy—like she would disappear even if he looked away from her for a second—and sprinted to her. The fairy turned to him.

Link jumped and snatched the fairy from the air, forcing her into a huge embrace. "Navi! I missed you so much!" Link cried, the fairy smooshed against his chest. Her screams were muffled and her glow became bright pink. Link was confused when he felt her wrench and squirm her way out of his hands.

"Get off me!" she screamed while gasping for air, her embarrassed rosy glow now fiery red. Link cringed away from her and her wild look.

"Ooh, sis!" a playful voice said to the fairy. Link noticed for the first time that there had been a fairy right beside the Navi look-alike; one with a dark purple glow, appearing to be male. "Looks like you've got a boyfriend!" he sang.

"Shut up, Tael!" she squeaked, fiercely punching him. The purple fairy whined while he rubbed his arm.

"What's wrong with you, Navi?" Link said, completely confused. He squinted hard to see past the fairy's vibrant glow to look at her face. This was Navi! Link could confirm that the tiny, winged young girl staring at him was indeed the fairy he had been looking for. "Aren't you happy to see me?" he said, his smile faltering.

The two fairies exchanged confused glances before gawking at Link again. "What are you talking about? Who is Navi?"

Link's heart broke and sank to his feet. With the fairy's blush gone now, Link could see that the glow emanating from her was undeniably a light yellow color—not the shade of Navi's sky blue. His beloved fairy was still yet to be found.

"Well," the female fairy huffed, fixing her newly disarrayed hair, "it's been nice meeting you and all, kid, but we've still got a job to do." The two fairies flashed devious grins at each other, and they then zoomed over to Epona. The fairies circled around the horse's face as fast as they could, making Epona neigh madly.

"Hey!" Link shouted. He leapt onto Epona's back and began to shoo away the pesky fairies from his horse's face. The fairies swiftly dodged the swats of Link's hands and continued to whirl around Epona. Epona neighed crazily and threw Link off her back in her rampage. Link screamed and fell to the hard ground with a skidding thud. Pain seared through his body. He gritted his teeth as he slowly sat up off the ground, and gasped. Epona was rampaging on through the forest without him.

"Stop!" Link screamed while sprinting towards his tranced horse. His fingers just managed to grab the end of her saddle, but he was unable to steady himself onto her. "STOP!" Link screeched at the annoying fairies who still continued to fly around the horse. The female one giggled in response and shouted "Nope!" Link groaned with agony as his legs skidded against the rough, rocky forest floor.

The purple, male fairy flew away from Epona and hovered over Link's fingers holding on for dear life onto Epona's saddle. "Come on!" he grunted, using all his might to pull three of Link's four fingers up off the saddle. "Let GO!" he shouted, prying off Link's final pinky finger.

The fairies giggled again when Link fell to the floor for the final time, his ribs, arms, legs, and fingers now bruised and aching with cuts and gashes. He laid down motionless on his side on the ground, the bottom of his Kokiri tunic slightly bloodied and boots dirtied from skidding across the ground.

"Good job, you guys!" a new voice cheered.

Link could hear the fairies laughing, saying "Thanks!" in response.

"Now let's see what this guy has on him!" the voice shouted. It sounded like a young boy. Link was cast in shadow as the stranger carelessly flipped him over and perused through his pockets.

"Whoa!" This kid's loaded!" the boy said, emptying the contents of Link's wallet and greedily shoving all the various colors of rupees into his pockets. He then eyed something on Link that was shining brightly in the darkness of the forest. "What's this?"

The robber snatched the mysterious item from the pocket in Link's tunic. He and the fairies eyed the most beautiful ocarina they had ever seen. "Cool!"

The robber brought the Ocarina of Time to his mouth and began to play it. The sound was horrible; the notes were off-key, squeaky, and horribly loud. The two fairies covered their ears and shook their heads in discontent. Link's eyebrows furrowed as his eyes began to tingle and slowly open.

"Oh no! He's waking up!" the female fairy wailed.

"He probably woke up because of your awful playing!"

"Shut up, Tael!" the robber barked at the purple fairy.

Link's eyes widened when he saw his ocarina in the robber's hands. Apparently, the thief of his prized possession had been a stray Skull Kid. An uneasy feeling rose from within Link when he looked at the mask covering the Skull Kid's face. It was a violet heart, with spikes of various colors coming out the top and sides of it and bold, black markings around its cheeks and muzzle-like mouth. The creepiest-looking parts that Link felt forced to look at were the hypnotizing, bulbous red and yellow eyes of the mask with small, green irises.

Link dismissed his uneasiness and filled with anger. He quickly shot off the ground and stood tall, harshly staring down the masked Skull Kid. The two fairies cowardly flew behind the Skull Kid's back.

"Give me my ocarina." Link ordered in a bone-chilling tone.

"What ocarina?" The Skull Kid inquired, hiding the Ocarina of Time behind his back. Link was not amused. He narrowed his eyes at the Skull Kid.

Link grunted angrily while he dove for the Skull Kid, and he flew above him. "Huh?" Link uttered before tripping forward.

Link was on the ground now, dumbfounded as he stared in disbelief at the Skull Kid defying gravity before him. The Skull Kid, laughing, flew and flipped about in midair before landing onto Epona's back. Epona was suddenly taken back to the possessed trance she had been in and crazily charged forward.

"Epona!" Link screamed, sprinting after them furiously. Sweat filled his eyes, and his already aching body screamed with agony even more. He willed himself to go faster, even though Epona and the giggling Skull Kid and fairies grew farther away from him. The fairies' light ahead of him became even fainter until it disappeared completely.

Link slowed to a walk, no longer hearing the Epona or the Skull Kid and fairies, only the sound of the grass crunching under his boots, the faint, chilly wind, and his heavy panting. He sighed deeply and blindly walked forward, despair filling him. Link trudged through the darkness, his head hanging lowly, until he suddenly found that his foot met no ground when took his next step. Link's heart stopped when he felt himself falling forward. He flailed his arms madly in a hopeless attempt to gain his balance, but fell off the edge of the cliff he had been walking on.

He belted out a deafening scream as he fell hundreds of feet, terrified of what would meet his freefalling body at the bottom of the pitch-black abyss. After a few, long seconds, he plopped heavily on a cushiony surface with a loud thud and bounced roughly on it before coming to a stop. Link groaned groggily as he carefully lifted himself into a sitting position, his head and body now sore as well as aching.

"You sure are a persistent one!"

Link looked up and saw the Skull Kid levitating above the ground, on the other side of the pond that laid in between them. The fairies floated silently by his sides, eerily lighting the face of the mask in yellow and purple light in the darkness. Uneasiness lurched in Link's stomach.

He stood tall. "What did you do with Epona?" he shouted.

"Oh, that dumb horse?" the Skull Kid responded slyly. "It wouldn't listen to a thing I said, so I got rid of it for you! You're welcome!" he giggled. "You won't be seeing that thing again!"

His heart stopped. "You killed her?!"

"Maybe!" he sang, and the fairies by his side snickered madly. Link was furious. He clenched his fists by his sides and glared through the Skull Kid.

The Skull Kid was offended by Link's piercing gaze. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he said with genuine innocence. "Stop that! I'm—I'm not a monster, you know!" he whined defensively. Link's expression softened instantly.

The Skull Kid suddenly filled with rage. "You're a monster! You're a stupid monster! I'm tired of looking at your ugly, stupid face!" he shrieked. Balls of fire suddenly burst to life in his hands, illuminating the entire cavern in golden, burning light.

Link didn't hesitate to reach for the Kokiri sword clad on his back, but something fell on him and sent him tumbling down to the floor before he could grab it. When he saw what it was, he was shocked.

A little girl, no more than nine or ten years old, appeared out of thin air. She had a short bob of disarrayed, dark brown hair, scattered in all directions with her head buried in Link's chest. Her skin was also dark, and the clothes she wore were very strange-looking. After a little while, the girl stirred to life and slowly got off of him and opened her eyes.

When she found Link's eyes, her mouth widened in a silent gasp, and her gaze became so intense and wondrous, Link felt as if she was staring into his soul. The way she looked at him immediately made him think of—

"NOOOO!" Link jumped at the Skull Kid's sudden scream. He was shaking with anger. "This can't be happening! It can't be!" The Skull Kid's boyish voice became unnaturally deep. The Skull Kid zoomed to the very center of the pond between them, the water beneath it now furious and raging in surging torrents around him. The little girl let out a frantic wail. Link swallowed back his fear by standing tall while moving in front of the girl to protect her. He unsheathed his sword.

"I'll destroy you before you have the chance to destroy me!" he roared, his booming voice shaking the cave. "DIE!"

A strange force made him stare into the bulging, now glowing eyes of the Skull Kid's mask. The little girl behind him screamed. The Skull Kid's face was unmoving, yet the glowing mask itself shook from side to side. Link's vision became hazy and dim, and his head screamed with pain, his heart thudding heavily and beating faster and faster the longer he looked at the Skull Kid. The sounds of the water rushing around him and the fairies screaming, begging the Skull Kid to stop, all faded into black.

"She'll die, master. They both will. The boy and the h…" Link couldn't make out the last word the Skull Kid said when the sounds around him muffled into nothingness.

…

He didn't remember closing his eyes, but when he opened them, Link saw he was in a void of darkness and silence. Confused, he took one step forward. He couldn't feel any ground beneath him. Am I alive? he thought.

Oddly enough, the little girl was there too, a few yards away from him. She looked just as confused as he was.

A Deku Scrub appeared in front of her. She shrieked silently while scurrying away from it and backed up into him. She said…something as she looked up at Link with terrified brown eyes, but no sound came out her mouth. Link was confused, and the girl eventually noticed that she couldn't hear herself speaking either.

Link looked up past her and saw hundreds of Deku Scrubs materializing where the first one was, all around them. There was no way he could manage to slay all of them, and he doubted the girl could defend herself very well.

Link yanked the stranger girl by her hand and sprinted towards the shrinking opening of the circle of Deku Scrubs. He dragged the girl alongside him and managed to make his way past the Scrubs before they closed in on the two of them.

His heart skipped a beat. The Deku Scrubs, apparently angry that they hadn't trapped their prey, began to pursue the two of them. Link ran as fast as he possibly could with the girl holding his hand, noticing that when he dared to look back, the Deku Scrubs weren't getting any farther away. The collected, squeaky chattering noise they made was getting louder and louder, pounding against his head. I need to keep running!

When Link's lungs screamed for air and it was impossible for him to evade the Deku Scrubs any longer, they immediately huddled closely around him and the girl, singing their awful and squeaky chattering song as if they were laughing at him. Link could feel the girl shaking behind him as she held onto him tightly. He screamed, but he couldn't feel his throat making the sound. The Deku Scrubs around him were growing larger around them…or maybe he was shrinking…

…

Link opened his eyes.

Something was not right.

All of a sudden, the Skull Kid seemed larger to him, as well as the world around him. It was a labor to turn his head for some reason; it felt so much heavier. For some reason, the Skull Kid looked at him, dumbfounded underneath the unchanging eyes of the mask. "No!" he shrieked. "Y-you…you two should have died! Why did you become them?"

Link heaved his head around to the pond water beneath him, and looked at his reflection with utter disbelief. His head was larger and heavier and he had an elongated snout for a mouth. His blonde hair was mostly the same, but his green hat was now the full length of his body and his Kokiri Tunic simply a small green cloth around his waist. He no longer had flesh, but wood for skin, and his body was much smaller.

He was a Deku Scrub. The Skull Kid had turned him into a Deku Scrub.

He screamed, but his voice was not his own; it was warbled and high-pitched. He stared at himself long and hard in the water, big, glowing, orange eyes staring back at him sadly.

Suddenly, another shriek tore through the air. Link tore from his reflection to see that the girl too, had been cursed as a Deku Scrub.

"I guess it doesn't matter that you aren't dead just yet. You are powerless in this state." the Skull Kid huffed darkly. Link's confused glare shifted between the cursed girl and the boy with the magical mask. Why would he want to kill her?

"Ha!" the Skull Kid laughed with a new, cheery tone. "Good luck trying to stop me! You'll be stuck like that forever!"