Part Two- Unlikely Bonding

In this dream, there was a ceiling of rock over his head in place of a sky. He was creeping over and around uneven, jagged, black stone in intense heat and the weight of an unknown object resting across his back made him feel like he was suffocating. Suddenly, a great rumbling and shaking coursed through the cavern and he turned to and see the rocks piled up around him begin to writhe into the shape of an enormous monster. With a roar, the great beast rose and reared up on its hind legs, showering spittle of molten rock around the cave before its feet crashed down upon the ground with a thunderous sound. Its teeth, like stalactites, parted once again and the back of its huge throat glowed like embers, brighter than the sky, brighter than Saria's eyes, brighter than even the glow of the fairy dipping and weaving around the monster's head...

Link sat at the foot of his tree house, happily carving away at its base. He'd finished a sloppy caricature of himself and a shaky orb that was meant to be a fairy companion and had started on the head of his rock dragon. If only he could get the teeth just right, then it would be perfect to show Saria.

"What's that?" A dreadfully familiar voice made Link drop the rock he had been carving with as he turned to face the speaker. Mido, the self-proclaimed boss of the Kokiri, stood behind Link, watching him draw. Link knew, with an insight few children had, that Mido was nothing but a bully who liked to throw his weight around and not a true leader. He decided to try to ignore him in the hopes that Mido would go away.

However, Mido's persistence continued to be as boundless as his disapproval of Link.

"Hey, fairyless, I asked you a question. Or are your messed up ears the reason you don't have a fairy?" It was true that Link's ears were slightly rounded on the end, but it was barely perceptible to the casual onlooker.

"I'm drawing," Link mumbled.

Mido ignored Link's answer, his attention changing to the whereabouts of the girl he liked. "Where's Saria?"

"She's with the Great Deku Tree," whispered Link.

Mido pouted. "She's always with you or with Father."

The name the Kokiri called the great tree at the edge of the forest meadow was Father, as he protected them from harm and taught them the stories of the forest. In fact, Link was the only one to call the Great Deku Tree by his full title, as Mido had told Link that he wasn't a real forest child and unworthy of being a son to the deity. And even with all of his doubts on Mido's authority, Link believed him.

"The Great Deku Tree is really smart and tells her stuff," Link retrieved his rock and resumed the teeth on his picture.

"I'll bet you can't go because Father doesn't trust a boy without a fairy. Grinning cruelly, Mido saw that he had again hit Link's biggest weak spot. "Yeah. He knows you'll become a Stalfos for sure."

Link gave an involuntary shiver. Stalfos were the twisted forms of those who were lost in the ancient woods without a fairy. Secretly, Link was terrified that he would become one during his many expeditions into the woods. Saria had always told him not to worry so, but the awful though was always was nagging at the back of his head.

Gazing at his monster drawing, Link pretended that Mido's comments hadn't bothered him.

"Is that s'posed to be you?" The bully gestured to the carving.

"No," Link lied.

"Yeah, it is. It's even got your dumb hat."

Link frowned and absentmindedly adjusted his emerald cap. It had once been short and square like the one Mido wore, but was now elongated from being mended so many times by Saria after Link had repeatedly torn it on their excursions.

"It isn't dumb," defended Link weakly.

"It isn't the way it's supposed to be. You couldn't even keep it in the right shape." The bully snatched Link's hat off of his head.

With a yell of upset surprise, Link forgot his picture and dove to get his hat back. Mido began to play keep away with the smaller boy, but stopped when he got a better glance of the monster Link had been carving.

"Whoa!" He knelt down to get closer, abandoning the hat. Its owner quickly snatched it up before Mido noticed. "What is that?"

"It was in a dream I had." Link shoved his green headwear back where it belonged and started again on his masterpiece.

Completely mesmerized, Mido watched Link continue his drawing until he found something else to criticize the artist for.

"Wait a minute! You're too dumb to use the right hand!" At Mido's outcry, Link looked at his fingers and wiggled them. He turned his palm over, thinking that there might be something stuck on it that had grabbed Mido's attention, but didn't see anything unusual about it. He decided the other boy was pulling his leg and began to draw again.

With a cry of exasperation, Mido tore the stone from his hands.

"Use this hand, stupid!" Mido started adding stripes to the beast with his right hand before moving onto the stick man.

"What are you doing?" Link tried to pull Mido's arm away. Being bigger, Mido easily shoved Link off.

"Geez, fairyless, you really are stupid. You gotta fight that thing with something." He furiously engrained what appeared to be a letter 't' into the stick figure's hand.

"What is it?" Link peered at it suspiciously.

"It's a sword, stupid."

"Huh?"

Mido's eyes began to twinkle.

"I heard a story once. A lot of people ran into the forest, see? And when the adults became Stalfos, the children helped the forest by killing the monsters with a sharp cross thing they found. It wasn't rock or wood, though. It was made of metal and called a sword. And then, the forest was so happy that the kids became Kokiri!"

"What happened to the sword?" Meek though he was, Link's curiosity had gotten the better of him.

Mido answered with a thwack to Link's back. "Father hid it, stupid, so we wouldn't hurt ourselves!" He paused. "It was really powerful."

After examining the picture one last time, Mido stood up and turned to go.

"It looks better since I fixed it," He declared, tossing the rock at Link's head.

"Ow!"

"Bye, Mr. No-fairy."

Link watched Mido's retreating form and picked up the rock that he had thrown. Idly, he pocketed it before looking at the picture on his tree house before realizing that was the nicest Mido had ever been to him.

Maybe he would tell Saria about it later.

As I have said, I am revamping and re-uploading a few of these chapters to make them better- I write fanfiction for both fun and improvement. If you see something you like or hate or want to see (read?), please tell me! Thank you!