Chalk, A Legend of Zelda fanfiction

Chapter One: Child's Play

Excluded. Bored. Yearning. These are the three things Link felt as he took a small slab of chalk in his hand. Not knowing what new activities were available for him to do in the seclusion of the small forest, he sat at the base of his treehouse. Suddenly, an idea struck him. what if he, Link, who was so young and alone, were to become a hero? He gleefully smirked at the idea, and began to pick bark off of the trunk. Once he had made a decent canvas, he began to illustrate his thoughts. Being young, his artistic abilities were quite crude, and he drew a stick figure holding what was meant to be a sword and shield. Pausing, he reviewed his drawing. He smirked, drew a pointy hat on the small man.

[Better not get cocky.] He thought, running his hand down his own pointy Kokiri hat.

He rubbed it away and frowned again. Slowly, he drew a dragon. It was twice the size of the man, and had stick arms. Its back was lined with triangular scales, as most dragons have. Satisfied, Link stood, wiped his tunic clean of dirt, and began to trudge towards the Lost Woods. As he climbed the first ledge, he had a thought.

[Why are there random ledges in an inhabited forest area?]

He disregarded that question when he looked to his right and saw two blue rupees sitting behind Mido's house.

[Rather, who leaves all this money lying around? Stupid Mido, probably. He won't let me see The Great Deku Tree without a sword and shield! I won't give him the satisfaction of knowing I listened to him quite yet.] He proclaimed mentally, looking over his shoulder at the Kokiri Sword.

Link chuckled to himself as he picked up the money, and swung his feet around in the dirt. With a sigh, he started walking towards the vine ladder. Once he reached the top, he slashed at the Gossip Stone, and it gave off a low whirring sound, causing Link to hear the current time in his head.

When he sat and thought about it, he hadn't seen Saria lately... in fact, he woke up rather late today because she hadn't run up to his tree and greeted him like she did any other morning. He had seen -not to mention heard- Mido scheming and sneaking around the forest the past week, apparently trying to woo Saria, but to little avail. Link thought he was still just an immature boy. He just couldn't get over Mido's annoying pranks, such as making Deku Stick slingshots and shooting Link from across the forest and filling his tree house with Deku Nuts, (which Link wouldn't mind much, because they smelled good... (if only Mido would fill it when Link wasn't inside, sleeping) and now he was trying to make Saria, Link's sole and best friend, fall in love with him? He put Link through all this, only justified by the fact that Link had no fairy. Come to think of it, why was it "justified" for lack of a fairy? Why did that make him inferior? Link thought it would make him seem more mature, more... independent. Link had heard of outsiders keeping red fairies in jars.

[I'm so pathetic! Even non-Kokiri folk fairies...] He trailed off as he remembered where he was.

As he stared into the entrance of the Lost Woods, he remembered the stories he heard about getting lost. He sure didn't want to become a Skull Kid... using a piece of bark he had torn off his tree earlier, he decided to make a map as he went along,in order to avoid confusion. He rummaged around in his pocket for a few minutes, his hand grazing slingshot ammo, a bottle of milk, and a rusty silver key he found behind his house before grabbing the chalk. He was beginning to like this chalk, as it was proving to be useful in more than one instance. He took on quick look before he went in, seeing Mido at the entrance to the Deku Path, A girl sitting on the shop roof, and a boy guarding the exit of the forest. He took a deep breath, made a dot on his map, and slowly walked through.

Beauty. Link could barely take in just how beautiful the Lost Woods were. He looked down at his bark map and drew another dot half an inch above the original one, and carefully connected them with a line. There were three options on which direction to go in, and he decided to go straight again. He winced, not knowing what to expect. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the Kokiri Forest! Not stopping to think about what had just happened, he entered the Lost Woods again, this time going left. As he entered, he saw a Skull Kid dancing on a tall stump. He approached it very carefully with the intent of befriending it, but when he got close, it backflipped off the stump and vanished.

"How the Holodrum?" He asked to nobody.

Seeing that there was only one exit, he took it and gasped when he saw the bridge.

[That must be where the other hole leads!] he thought, with an intelligent feeling. He marked the two clearings with dots and lines, putting an 'X' where the strange hole was. Easily, he made his way back to the original area, and went straight. He saw an old, leafless tree with what seemed to be a crude, one-colored target hanging from its only branch.

"If only I had a slin-" he began.

[Mido's slingshots!] he suddenly remembered.

Looking at his bark chunk, he decided to draw a small star instead of marking this woodland clearing with a circle, and connected the star and the original circle with another line. With a new sense of determination, he ran back to the Kokiri Forest, and jumped on top of Mido's house.

Well, that wasn't the entire truth.

As he climbed the small railing that sectioned off the forest cliff, he got his foot caught in one of the top rungs of the railing. He fell, and narrowly missed a concussion and instead scraped his arms and legs on the rough, pixellated edges of the wall. Slightly bleeding, he limped over to Saria's house for some Deku Gauze. Saria was, to an extent, Link's personal doctor. He once had a bad cold and fever, and she came over, bringing a large pot of soup. She told him she had made the recipe herself, and was thinking about sending it to Castle Town for the annual soup cook-off. He smiled at the idea of the King's messengers dragging a giant trophy through the entrance of the forest. He tried a spoonful of soup , remembering to blow on it first. It tasted like coconut, lime, and barbecued Cuccoo. He poured himself a bowl.

"Is that Cuccoo I taste?" he asked Saria, a sly grin forming on his face.

"Link, killing Cuccoos is illegal, let alone butchering them and putting them in a soup! But yes. I thought it might cure your current ailment."

Link gaped in disbelief, blinking as he held an open-mouthed smile.

"Saria! You badass! I can't believe you would do that!" He exclaimed, breaking into laughter.

Saria blushed.

"Link, I... am I really one of those?" She asked, pulling her skirt down, half-wondering if he meant her butt was ugly.

"Saria, it's not a bad thing. And listen! I can breathe again! I think your soup worked!" He hungrily had two more bowls.

Getting a bowl for herself, she kissed him on the cheek. He considered himself lucky to have such a great friend.

Back in Saria's house, he found the Guaze, but Saria wasn't in her house. He hated to think she was avoiding him...

[What if she's with Mido?] he asked himself.

"Why would she be with Mido? She's not stupid! Shut up, me!" he replied, angry at himself for thinking such a thing.

Now, he had two objectives. Find Mido's slingshot, and find Saria.

He missed her already.