CHAPTER 2
Beginning of The Long Journey
and the
Making of Unusual and Unlikely Friends
Ten years passed since that day in the woods, Hyrule had defeated the Western nations, and had increased the size of the land by more than two hundred miles. Anya was buried with her husband in the royal cemetery where they lay in eternal slumber, and Idien was made Commander soon after their victory. And after a heart wrenching, unfruitful six years of searching for his friend's son, moved away from Darin and Anya's horse ranch by the Lake, and into the safe walls of Castle Town. Link was now old enough to live on his own, Saria had taught him well how to be able to care for himself. He still knew nothing of his true heritage, and somehow always felt a slight longing for what was outside the borders of the forest. Saria had kept her promise that she made to the Great Deku Tree ten years earlier, and had kept Link safe from anything and anyone outside the village, and sometimes, the ones within it.
On this particular day, Mido had returned from a visit to the Deku Tree, and was very upset about something. He would not tell anyone what the Deku Tree had told him. On Link's last night of staying in Saria's home, Link had gone to bed earlier than Saria, who was still up and quietly sitting near a lit lamp thinking about what was to come now that Link was only a couple years away from being older in appearance than any of the Kokiri. It wasn't something she enjoyed thinking about, but Link getting ready to move out of her house had brought these feelings up in her mind, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake them. Link wasn't asleep, but he instead lay awake, also thinking about everything. As he lay in bed silently, he heard someone knock on Saria's front door. " Yes? Who is it?" Saria said quietly.
" It's Mido, Saria. Can I come in?" Mido answered. Saria got up from her chair, walked to the door, and let Mido in.
" What is it, Mido. Is something wrong?" Saria asked him as she closed the door behind him.
" You know that I went to see the Great Deku Tree today, don't you?" He asked her.
" Well, yes. What happened, did he say something to you?" Link sat up a little in his bed to listen to them, he could hear that Saria was worried.
" He said.." Mido paused and quieted his voice almost to a whisper. " He said that something is going to happen, something very bad. Involving Link.." Mido told her. Link's heart began to race as he heard this, and he could hear Saria's voice begin to shake.
" Oh no, it's happening.." She said.
" What's happening, Saria?! Don't leave me in the dark, the Deku Tree didn't tell me hardly anything!" Saria was silent. Mido put his hands on her shoulders, Link could hear that Saria was crying quietly. " Saria, what did the Deku Tree tell you about Link?" Mido asked her calmly.
" He.." Saria murmured. " S-said that, there would be a new terror in Hyrule one day soon, and, he sensed something, within Link." She told him.
" A new terror? Did he mean that Link was going to be the new terror?" Mido was now getting a little anxious. Saria gazed up at him with large, tear filled eyes, and whispered.
" I don't remember…" She said. Link was now breathing heavily, and absolutely terrified at what he was hearing.
" I knew there was something not right about him, Saria. The very first day you brought him here, I knew that something was off." Mido said.
" But Mido, he's just.." Saria tried to speak.
" He has to leave, Saria. He's old enough to be on his own now, he needs to be back where he belongs." Mido told her. He opened the door to leave her house. " .. I'm sorry, Saria. It's just the way things have to be." He said, and shut the door behind him as he left. Link did not sleep at all that night, he instead lay awake in his bed, pondering what in the world Mido had meant by " Back where he belongs". He could not even imagine.
The next day, Saria and Link both tried to forget what had happened the night before, and since Saria assumed that Link had been asleep at the time, they both pretended that nothing had happened at all. That whole day was very busy, Link had just moved out of Saria's home, and the other villagers, with whom he was now great friends, had helped him build his own house in the village. There was a large tree in the village that they had hollowed out and made the inside to be quite nice. It was high off the ground, and had a balcony at the door with a ladder to the ground. It was just big enough for Link, and he was very grateful for the help of the others. As they all celebrated Link's new house, Mido sat at a distance and quietly brooded over what he had just learned about Link. He had always resented Link, but now he was closer to hate, and was afraid for the safety of the village. Mido knew nothing of Link's life before he had come to the village. All he knew was that Link had stolen Saria's love and affection from him, and also felt as if the Deku Tree no longer thought of Mido as the most important one in the village. He sat alone all day, watching his fellow Kokiri doting on this imposter.
That night, Link slept in his new home for the first time, and although he did sleep this time, he had a terrible nightmare. He dreamt of a large white stone wall that had a draw bridge. He stood before the bridge as it was lowered down and a white horse carrying a tall person and a young girl galloped past him. As they rode away, the girl turned and looked at him, her eyes looked very sad and worried, and she gazed at him as if she knew him and was terribly afraid for him. Then he looked around, and standing before him was a mighty black stallion. On the stallion was a large, fierce person like Link had never before seen. Link could feel the evil in his eyes, and see a deep hatred in his expression. The person looked at him, and Link could feel his evil gaze piercing through his mind, it was as if all the hatred and evil inside him was being brought forth from the deepest corners of his mind. He grabbed his head and screamed in pain. He felt his heart racing as the pain subsided, and he looked up to see if the person was still there. The person was gone, and he instead saw a boy standing in front of him with a sword in his hand and an evil smirk across his face. The boy looked like him, but only, like his shadow. His body was totally black, and he did not cast a shadow himself. His eyes were what Link saw the most. They were a dark, evil, glowing red, and they glared back at him. He let Link see the blade, he laughed, and before Link could run or scream for help, the boy pulled his arm back and quickly lunged the blade into him…
Then he woke up, with a cold sweat on his brow and the feeling of terror and shock you have after a terrible dream. The dream seemed so real. he looked at his chest just to make sure it wasn't. He sighed with relief after realizing that he was alright. He got out of bed, put on his boots, and stepped outside on his balcony, Saria was down below waving at him. It was nearly noon, and the sun poured out it's warmth onto him. It was a great relief after having such a dark, cold dream.
" Good morning, Link! did you sleep well in your new home?" She asked. Link climbed down the ladder.
" Yeah, but I've slept better before." He answered her with a look of sarcasm out of the corner of his eye as he stepped down the ladder.
" Well, sometimes it takes time to get used to a new place, it'll get better." Saria said. " Listen, I need you to do me a favor. The Deku Tree wants you to go into the forest and find a very special item." She said. Link was a little worried when she said that. Was she trying to get him to leave? He then perked up a bit when he saw that she didn't look upset. He waited for her to tell him what it was. " There is a chest near the Deku Trees meadow, find the chest and bring it back here. Could you do that for me, please?" She asked him.
" What? you're not going to tell me what's in it?" Link asked her.
" Not yet, but you'll find out soon enough." She told him. Link huffed at her, annoyed to have to be patient.
" Alright, I'll get your chest." He said and rolled his eyes with a "whatever" smile.
" Thank you very much." Saria smiled at him. " All you have to do to find it, is take the path to the stone wall, turn left and keep walking. You will reach a line off trees that will block your path, once you get there, look at the wall. At eye level, there will be a brick with a very small carving of the Kokiri Emerald on its front. Find a rock and break the brick, then you should be able to pull the chest out by the handles." Saria explained. Link just stared at her.
" Um, ok so.. Path, left, trees, wall, Kokiri Emerald, rock, chest… I think I got it." Link repeated the directions to her.
" Great. When you get back with it I'll have something for supper made, so hurry back!" She said to him as he walked off towards the forest.
" Okay! I'll try!" He said back to her. He was about to enter the forest but was stopped at the tree line by Mido, who was hiding behind a tree.
" Where do you think you're going? Nobody see's the Great Deku Tree unless I say so! And I'm not about to let anybody through right now, ESPECIALLY you!" Mido said. Link knew why Mido was so cross with him, but he figured that he had a good enough reason to get through.
" Saria said the Deku Tree wants me to go into the forest and find a certain chest, now will you please let me through?" Link was trying not to be too angry at him.
" So, you think that saying that would make letting you through more likely? What makes you think that I'd trust you so easily?" Mido asked him. Link just stared at him angrily. " And I just can't seem to figure out how someone like you ended up being the favorite of both Saria and the Great Deku Tree. Especially since you.." He paused. " Well, I'll let someone else break it to you. If you heard it from me, it would probably hurt your feelings and you would cry, and the last thing I want to deal with is a crybaby right now." He continued. Link was getting quite angry with him, although he did his best to hide it, and instead of satisfying Mido with an argument, he stayed quiet. " And besides the point, if anyone was to go and find that chest, it should have been me! But oh well, even with what's in that chest, a wimp is still a wimp, huh?" Mido glared at him. " Well, I've decided that I'll let you pass." Mido said. Link was surprised that Mido wasn't going to beat him up or something. " BUT.." Mido said before he moved. " You will NOT go near the Deku Tree. If I find out that you have, I will personally throw you off the forest bridge and let whatever creatures that are out there have you for a nice snack. Okay buddy?" Mido smiled. He had never said one nice word to Link since he had lived there, not even on the day that Saria had brought two-year-old Link to Mido's house and Link had said " Hi Mido!" in the cutest little voice you would ever hear. Mido didn't even break a smile, but Link, fortunately, didn't remember that day.
" Yeah, sure." Link answered him mockingly. Mido moved out of his way and he passed through into the trees. He knew that Mido was watching him carefully, but he didn't turn to see him, for fear that he might look suspicious. Link hadn't been this deep in the forest in almost ten years, and nothing looked as he had remembered it. All of the trees were much bigger, and new trees were growing. The path however, was still nice and clear, and Link found his way through the woods quite easily. He eventually came to the stone wall. The sight of the large, dark grey barrier brought back a few memories of his first trip to the Deku Tree when he was a baby. And as Saria had said, it only opens for Kokiri, so it didn't open when Link touched one of the hard, cold bricks. Link didn't notice, he had thought that you had to do something special to get it to open, and he didn't know what it was. He admired the handiwork and turned left just as Saria had instructed him. After he had walked along the wall for about three minutes, he came to the line of large trees that he was told of, and turned to the wall to search for the Kokiri Emerald carving in stone. "…Oh" Link said as he saw that the entire wall, as far as he could see, had tiny Kokiri Emerald carvings in the center of every brick. " There must be thousands of them!" Link thought aloud to himself. He looked up and down the wall, and remembered what else Saria had said
" You will reach a line of trees that will block your path, once you get there, look at the wall. At eye level, there will be a brick with a very small carving of the Kokiri Emerald on its front" He remembered. He went right to where the closest tree touched the wall, and stood straight in front of it. There was a slightly darker brick directly in front of him.
" There you are." He said with a smirk. He picked up a large rock that was on the ground next to him, brought it back behind his shoulders, and threw it at the stone as hard as he could. There was a loud SMASH, and a cloud of rock dust filled with pieces of the broken stone flew as the stone impacted the brick. Link coughed and tried to fan away the dust with his hands. As the cloud of powder cleared, Link could see wood and metal behind what was left of the stone. He quickly began to clear away the rest of the brick, and saw a large dark-wood chest neatly placed within the wall. He was so exited to see what was inside. He pulled and pulled, the chest was extremely heavy." What in the WORLD is in here?!" Link growled as he gave another big tug on the handle. Suddenly the handle of the chest ripped off, and Link was sent to the ground and fell on his behind with an awkward " Oof!" He looked at the handle still in his hands. It was still attached to the rotten wood that it was bolted to. " What a piece of junk!." Link scoffed. He got up and dusted himself off. He saw in front of him, a large and growing pile of sand coming from the chest. The piece of wood that he had pulled off had left an opening almost big enough for him to fit his head in. He stepped up to the wall and scooped the remaining sand out of the chest. It was very dark inside it, and he couldn't see whatever was in there. He was a little cautious to stick his hand inside and feel for anything, but slightly reluctantly he did it anyway, slowly feeling around its bottom for its contents. As he inched his hand over the wood, he thought he felt something cold and steely. He was going to grab it and pull it out, when suddenly he heard an extremely loud, earsplitting roar coming from the other side of the wall. He quickly yanked his hand from the chest and covered his ears.
He could feel the sound vibrating everything around him, and he saw pebbles and dust crumbling off of the wall in front of him as he fell to his knees, not daring to remove his hands from his ears. The noise went on for only about seven seconds, and as instantly as the roaring started, it stopped, and everything was in utter silence. Everything went from earsplitting noise, to ear ringing stillness, and Link slowly got up and waited for something to make a sound. The only thing he could hear was the fast beating of his heart. He was terrified to even breathe, he thought the world had just stopped. Then he did hear something, a rustling in the bushes quite a ways down the wall in front of him. He could hear that it was getting closer though, and he began to breathe heavily. He felt frozen to the ground as the rustling got louder and louder, and as he could see that whatever it was, was going to be right in front of him at any second, he leapt to the wall and snatched the item out of the chest. He didn't know what was inside it, but maybe whatever it was, it could help him somehow.
And just his luck, the secret in the chest turned out to be the Sacred Sword of the Kokiri. An ancient weapon used by the very first Kokiri Chief, locked away safe just waiting for it's next heroic wielder. It was sheathed in a polished, wooden cover with gold edgings, and attached to a leather shoulder strap with a buckle on its front. Link quickly unsheathed it and gazed at the sword. It was the very first time he had held a weapon in his hands. The blade was about two and a half feet long, it was a shiny silver. The hilt was polished wood, and there was an engraving of the Kokiri Emerald near the blade with actual emeralds embedded within it. He stood with the sword in his hand and waited to face whatever came at him. The bushes were now moving directly in front of him. Link continued to breathe heavily and a cold sweat dripped down his forehead. Link could see the top of someone's head through the bushes, the person wasn't very tall, and he or she was running very fast. Suddenly they jumped through the bushes, they both screamed when they saw each other and jumped behind the trees nearest them. They only got a short glimpse of each other, but from what Link saw of the person, it was a boy about his age. They peeked their heads from behind their hiding places and looked at each other. Link had never seen this boy before, he didn't think that he was a Kokiri. " Who are you?!" Link asked him.
" Who are you?!" The boy asked him back.
" I asked you first!" Link said.
" You don't have to be such a grump!" The boy said. " But I'm not telling you until you tell me!" He said.
" Fine!" Link paused silently for a moment, and the other boy did the same. As they heard each others voice a strange sense of familiarity swept over each of them. Link thought nothing more of it and stepped out from behind the tree with his sword still ready in his hands incase the other boy tried anything. The boy gasped when he saw him. " I'm Link. There! I told you! Now who're you!?" Link asked him. The boy stepped out from behind the tree, and they both stood staring at each other in disbelief. They were both wearing the exact same tunic, and they were both wearing the same hat. They looked like twins, except the other boys clothes were black and Links were green, his hair was a dark white while Links was a dark blond. Link eyes were also blue, and the other boys eyes glowed unnaturally red.
" My name's...Dark Link…" The boy said.
" What kind of a name is that.." Link stopped talking and
realized what the boy had just said. " Dark... Link?" He repeated in a sort of shock. They were both silent and stared at each other for the longest time.
" Nu uh.. That's not your real name.. is it..?" Link asked with a disbelieving smile. Dark Link nodded slowly. How could this be possible? How could there be a totally separate dark side of a person? Not to mention, how could there be Link, AND Dark Link, without one of them ever knowing anything about the other? " DARK Link?!" Link repeated again. " This is too weird, where did you come from?" Link asked him.
" I don't know, it was like I just woke up from a nightmare, and I was lying against a tree holding a sword." Dark Link explained " I have no idea where the sword came from either, or why I was holding it." The boy explained. " I don't even remember anything from before I fell asleep… nothing at all." Dark Link paused staring blankly at the sword. "I was just walking around the forest for a couple of hours, and I heard voices. So I started walking through the forest and got to a busted wall, and an enormous tree on the other side. I was going to get a little closer to it, but there was a man there. He was huge too. Well, for a man. He was yelling at the tree, I though he was crazy, but then the tree argued back!" He said. Link was silent. He was still utterly shocked and puzzled by this boys arrival, but he was also concerned with what he was now telling him, He knew Dark Link was talking about the Great Deku Tree.
" Then what did you do?" Link asked him.
" I though I was crazy! But then I started listening to them talk. I couldn't hear very well, so when he had his back turned, I ran behind the tree and listened. The man wanted something from the tree, but the tree wouldn't give it to him. I don't remember what it was. So the man got very mad, and all of a sudden his hands were glowing in a huge ball of purple light, and he shot it at the tree. I was standing right next to it, and I could feel the shockwave after the light struck him, and the horribly loud noise that almost blew my eardrums. That's when I ran for it, I didn't want to see what would happen if that guy found me there… Then I found you." He explained. " You know, its funny, but I think I remember you from somewhere. Like a dream or something." Link remembered the dream he had, this boy looked almost like the shadow boy from his dream, he might have been. He was totally baffled. Then he remembered what the shadow Link had done in his dream. He didn't say anything. " Hey, never mind, forget it." Dark Link noticed the change in Links mood and the expression of fear on his face.
" Uh, yeah." Link came to from his deep thought. He wanted to know more about this boy, how he got here, and why he was real. But a terrible concern for the Deku Tree weighed against what he wanted at the time. " Anyway, what did the man look like?" He asked Dark Link. " Um, he had dark skin, and really bright red hair, which was weird, and he was wearing black armor." Dark Link explained. Link thought for a minute. The man he described sounded just like the man in his dream, he was the man that was on the black horse, the one with the evil stare. Link wondered what it all meant.
" Was he still there when you left?" Link asked him " No, well I don't think so." He answered. " Is the tree a friend of yours or something?" Dark Link asked him.
" Not really, I've only seen him once, and that was when I was only a baby, so I don't really remember him much. He's the guardian of the forest, he protects the forest and watches over our village." Link explained. " He's also the protector of the sacred Kokiri Emerald, so I've been told." He said.
" You know, now that I hear it again, I think that's what the man wanted from the tree. He said if he couldn't have it, then he'd curse the tree so the Hero of Time could never have it, whoever the Hero of Time is." Dark Link said. " Anyway, he's gone, and I don't think he's coming back. So.." Dark Link held out his hand. " Now that we're not terrified of one another, let's get properly introduced." He said. Link was caught slightly off guard by this notion. He was still in deep thought about everything that he had just learned, and was thinking now of running as fast as he could away from this boy to go and get Saria. He looked up from the sword still in his hand and cautiously reached out his free hand to grasp the boys.
" Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Link" He said.
" Hi, it's nice to meet you too, I'm.. Dark Link" Dark Link said with a snicker. " Sorry, that just sounds too weird." He said trying not to burst out laughing. " Hey I didn't name myself, and I may not remember anything about myself, but I do know that that's my name. I didn't think it was weird at all until I met you."
" Um, OK then. Why don't you change it to something… not so weird?" Link suggested.
" Hey, that sounds like fun, OK!" Dark Link agreed. They both thought for a minute. Link had never thought of a name for anything, and wasn't very good at it.
" I got it! How about Dink? You know Dark link? The D, and Link? oh you get it. So how about it?" Link asked.
" Well, it sounds like Dinky but I couldn't come up with anything, so alright. don't get hurt feelings if I only use it for a little while, I may grow out of it." He said with a grin. " So, now that that's taken care of, what you got there?" He asked Link.
" Oh, my friend Saria asked me to find this, I don't know why, but the Deku Tree wants me to have it I guess." Link answered.
" Oh, so Saria's your girlfriend? Dink asked.
" No! she raised me since I was a baby after she found me in the woods." Link said back. " All Kokiri's are found in the woods as baby's, and then when they get to be about ten, they stop aging." He explained.
" So there's a village near by? Can we go there, I'm starving" Dink asked.
" Well, I don't think they would take to well to you. They don't like outsiders, and well, you look kinda creepy." Link told him. Dink looked a little disappointed, and Link felt sorry for him. " Well alright, if you're going to look all pitiful about it, we can go." Link finally gave in.
" Yay!" Dink exclaimed, trying to act like an excited four year old.
" But remember, you're DINK, not Dark Link, got it?" Link pointed his finger at him.
" Right. From now on I shall be known as, Dink! The guy who looks creepy!" Dink said, in a deep dramatic voice. Link laughed. They had almost completely forgotten about the Deku Tree and what happened to him.
" Ok, most of the rest of the Kokiri are friendly, but I have to warn you about Mido." Link said.
" Who? Mido?!" Dink asked " What a wimpy name!" Dink laughed. " So who is this Mido that I should be afraid of him?".
" Mido, he's , well he says he is, the village chief. He was jealous that I was asked to find this sword, instead of him. He said even with this sword I'd still be a wimp." Link was kind of annoyed.
" Well, where is this Mido jerk? I'll show him who's who around here! Nobody messes with us now!" Dink growled, his sword in his hand.
" No Dink! Its ok! Geez, He's just a bully, you don't need to do anything like that." Link was shocked at how angry Dink got, but then he calmed down afterwards. Suddenly there was a loud crash, and it echoed off the trees and sent flocks of birds swarming up into the air. Then it was silent. It was so silent in fact that it made their ears start ringing again.
" What was that?" Dink whispered.
" I don't know, it came from the other side of the wall." Link pointed towards the Deku Tree's meadow. They waited for a while.
" Come on." Dink said, and began to walk quickly through the bushes, back towards where he had come from. Link wrapped the leather strap around his shoulder and fastened the buckle as he began to followed him. He had only just now wondered how Dink had even gotten through the wall, in or out. Dink now quickened his pace to a jog, and Link tried to keep up.
" Hey, Dink. How did you.." Link began as they ran, but stopped when they reached the place that Dink had entered this side of the wall. The ground was severely disturbed, and trees were blown down all around them. But what shocked Link the most was the appearance of the wall itself. The entire section of stone bricks was blown to pieces, leaving a very large opening.
" What, Link?" Dink asked him. Link didn't answer, he picked up a small piece of what was left of a brick.
" Who could have been able to do this?" He asked.
" I have no clue. It was like this when I came from the meadow, my guess is that that big red headed guy did it." Dink scoffed. Link dropped the stone onto the burnt dirt. " Come on, let's go check out that noise." Dink sighed. They continued through the opening in the wall and walked through the trees into the meadow. Link's jaw dropped.. Again.. At the sight of the tree that he hadn't seen for years. " Yup, it's a tree alright." Dink smirked when he saw the look on Link's face. It wasn't only the tree that took Link's breath, but also the enormous scorch mark on its front and a broken branch, the size of a large tree itself, lying on the ground near the Deku Tree.
" Oh no! Deku Tree, your branch fell off!." Link said. Dink crossed his arms. The noise had been one of the Deku Tree's enormous branches breaking off and crashing to the ground below. The tree looked sickly, and his leaves seemed to be turning brown. Suddenly the tree began to move and bend over, as if looking down at them. They both jumped backwards and gasped, ready to run if the tree fell over.
" Link?" The tree asked in a deep booming voice.
" U-uh huh.." Link nodded slowly, still staring at the tree and shaking slightly.
" You have grown much since I last saw you as a baby. Saria has take good care of you" The tree said to him. Link loosened up a bit. Dink however, was still in a ready-to-run stance. The Deku Tree raised one of his barky eyebrows as he noticed him. " Tell me, Dink." the tree said to him. Dink was even more surprised and didn't make a sound. " Do you yet know of how you came to be? Do you still think that you are inside your own dreams?" The tree asked.
" Um.." Dink answered, not knowing how the tree even knew his name, or how he felt about what was going on, but expecting the tree would clue him in somehow.
" Do you both remember the dream you had last night? The one with the white stone wall?" The tree asked them. They both nodded. Neither of them knew it, but they had both shared the same dream, and Dink had also been trying to avoid what he had done to Link in his dream.
" As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it. Surely, you have felt it." The tree explained. " As a result of that dream, the evil man that Dink saw here, the same man in your dream, was able to access your mind, Link." Link's eyes became wide as he gave the tree a look of shock. " Once he had entry, he unknowingly unlocked all the evil that was bottled up inside the deepest parts of your heart. It built up until it was so whole that it became an almost completely new person. Dink, you may not like this, but you never should have came into existence, how you are only came to be by chance." The Deku Tree explained. Link and Dink both looked at each other, both very confused. Suddenly Link saw a change in Dink's expression. He was very upset at the Deku Tree.
" You giant bark-covered waste of dirt!, what a thing to tell a ten year old kid!" Dink yelled. Link jumped at the sudden outburst. The Deku Tree didn't budge. It was almost as if he expected this reaction. " Oh I'm sorry little child, but you shouldn't be alive!" Dink continued. " Why didn't you just tell me go jump off a cliff at my earliest convenience?!" Dink mocked him. " Hey! A.S.A.P., little buddy! Don't just stand there, jump! Rid the world of yourself and correct the mistakes of nature!" Dink continued.
" He told you that you might not like it." Link said quietly without looking at him.
" you just shut up over there!" Dink pointed at him. Link just raised his eyebrow at him as he looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Dink stood and glared at the Deku Tree silently. After a moment to give Dink a chance to calm down, the Deku Tree continued to talk.
" Finished?" The tree asked Dink calmly. Dink just crossed his arms and huffed as he looked away. " There is something else you both must know." He said. Dink looked back at him. " The way you have come to be, Dink, has also come with a terrible price." They both now were very interested in what he was saying and stared at him intently. " If Link is injured, or something befalls him to take his life.. the same will befall you, Dink. Your fate is tied eternally to Link's." He said seriously and solemnly. They both now were in serious thought, and Link felt especially burdened at this new knowledge. He now had an enormous responsibility, to have to take care of two separate lives at the risk of killing now not only himself if something did happen, but Dink as well.
" OK, so what happens to Link if I do something, like, get my arm cut off, or something?" Dink asked the tree. Link couldn't help but give a quiet chuckle at Dink's response, then they were all silent for a moment. The Deku Tree was a little irritated that Dink was taking this so dismissively.
" ..nothing.." The tree answered him just as smartly and straight to the point as Dink had asked. Dink scoffed and shook his head.
" Man, you had better take care of yourself!" Dink said to Link. Link turned to him. " I'm serious! If I find out that you're being careless about dangerous stuff, I'll mess you up!.." Link winced and gave a nervous chuckle. Dink looked away and did the same after he realized what he had just implied. Suddenly another huge branch snapped from the tree and smashed to the ground right next to them. They both yelled and jumped.
" YEEEOUCH! That would have hurt!" Link said as a shock induced, spur of the moment, obvious comment.
" Link, the time has come for you to test your courage." The tree was now speaking very weakly and nervously. " The man from the desert has placed upon me a curse. You must enter the dungeons below me and destroy the great evil that resides there." The Deku Tree said. " Take this also, it is a wooden Kokiri shield, may it protect you with all its power." As he spoke, a large door opened in his trunk and a piece of bark fell off him. It suddenly transformed before their eyes into a shield with the symbol of the Kokiri emerald painted on its back. Link picked it up.
" But.. Great Deku Tree.. I-I I can't!" Link stuttered.
" What are you talking about, sure we can!" Dink walked up to him and put his arm around Link's shoulder.
" If you cannot, then this forest will soon cease to exist along with all it's life, and our world will be utterly destroyed and overwhelmed by evil." The tree told them.
" No pressure there.." Link said quietly to himself.
" We can do it, right? You and me!" Dink said to him. He stepped in front of Link and put a hand on either of his shoulders. " Besides, I'd like to scratch some naughty words in some of his bark with my new sword." Dink whispered to him. Link crookedly and nervously grinned at him, and saw the Deku Tree raise an eyebrow and frown over Dink's shoulder. They turned and saw that it was very dark inside the tree, and a slight breeze wafted out of the opening. It smelt of a fragrant pine. They both took a deep breath and began to walk inside.
" Link, keep a close eye on your new friend here, I sense a great evil in this boys thoughts." The Deku Tree told him.
" Hee hee hee hee" Dink hunched over and gave Link a creepy and toothy smile over his shoulder as he rubbed his hands together, jokingly pretending to be some sort of troll or something. Link laughed under his breath at him. " We shall see you later, master" Dink turned and said to the tree in a scratchy cackling voice.
" Hmmm." the tree frowned. Still hunched over, Dink began to limp into the doorway of the tree. Link shook his head at him with a smirk and followed him as he hooked his new shield to his sword sheath.
It was about nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, and Saria had been waiting all this time. She figured that maybe Link had camped out in the woods after it had gotten dark, but he should have been back by now. As she was sitting at her table in her house worried sick, one of the Kokiri girls came running in. " Saria! Link's back! Mido says he's leaving the forest, and you wont believe what's happened, come on!" The girl said. Saria got up and ran outside. Everyone was out and gathered together in a crowd around Mido.
" I told you, Saria! Didn't I say he didn't belong here?! Now look what he's done! He's lucky that he left on his own before I woke up, otherwise I would have beaten the tar out of him! A Hylian has no place here and I say good riddance!" Mido yelled at her, pushing his way through the crowd.
" Where is he?" She asked him.
" If you're fast enough, you might be able to catch him on the bridge just outside the village." Mido answered her. " But If I was him, I'd be running so fast out of here that I'd be long gone." Mido said. Saria huffed at him and ran away from the noisy crowd to find Link. Mido crossed his arms and watched her run past the gate and out of sight. Link was standing alone at the exit to the forest.
" Link?.." She said to him after catching her breath. She saw that he had the Kokiri Sword and a Kokiri Shield on his back, and wondered what he had been doing out in the woods all this time. Link turned around.
" Some trip into the woods that was… I found what the Deku Tree wanted me to.." Link said quietly with his back to Saria.
" What happened, Link?" She asked. Link put his head down.
" ..He died" Link said quietly.
" What?" Saria couldn't hear him.
" The Deku Tree, he's dead. And Its all my fault." He said louder. " I couldn't save him. I tried, but I just couldn't." His voice was shaky. Saria gasped and almost stopped breathing. After a long pause, Saria walked up to him.
" Link, it wasn't your fault. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, he's been here for thousands of years. You shouldn't blame yourself for trying to help him." She said. Saria knew that something terrible must have happened in the forest, and she now felt an awful feeling of regret sending Link in there alone. Link assumed that she thought that he had died of natural causes, and didn't tell her otherwise.
" Did he tell you anything before he went?" Saria asked.
" He told me to go to the castle in Hyrule to see the princess, and she would tell me what I need to do from there. So that's what I'm doing." Link pulled from his pocket a large green stone set in a gold design. " He also gave me this." He told her. Saria stepped back and gasped to find that it was the Sacred Kokiri Emerald shimmering in his hand like a glorious star. Saria walked up to him and closed his hand over it, holding her head.
" The time has come for you to leave this forest. I knew it would someday, but I did not expect so soon." Saria began to cry. She now knew that it was destiny that she had found him in the forest meadow that day ten years ago. It was Link who was to be the one that the Deku Tree passed the Sacred Stone of the Forest to, and Saria knew no matter how hard she tried, she could never sway the path of destiny. She had to accept that Link was leaving, and may never return. " I will miss you, Link." She looked up at him with a sigh of sadness. " Take this to the princess, if that's what the Deku Tree wanted you to do. This must be what he was talking about on the day he met you, he said you had a great destiny and would lead Hyrule to freedom one day, and it appears that day has come." Saria said, and gave him a hug. " This is your destiny, Link, but don't let your destiny keep you from your friends. Take care of yourself, and come and visit us anytime, the world is a lot different out there and you will always have friends here who love you." She said. They were both silent for a moment, and all that could be heard was the chirping of crickets on the ground below, and the singing of forest birds above.
" Thank you, Saria, for everything.." Link finally said. " Goodbye.". Then turned around and left the forest silently. Saria watched him fade into the mist of the dark trees, heartbroken that she was now having to let him go.
" Goodbye, Link" She said quietly. She wiped her tears and turned back into the village.
" Well?! Where is he?!" Mido asked her when she came back through the village gate. She looked up at him with red, wet eyes.
" He's gone.." She said quietly. All of the other Kokiri's around them gasped and began to murmur amongst themselves. Mido scoffed and turned to go back to his house. Everyone gathered around Saria to try and comfort her, some of the other girls also began to cry. Their little Hylian baby boy was grown up and gone, and they all felt a loss. But it was not goodbye forever, he would come back someday.
