I searched for hours in the woods looking for Laurel. There was no sign of her. I mentally banged my head. Stupid! I thought to myself. Why didn't you follow her when you had the chance? It would be another two hours until I finally found her at sunrise. She called down at me from the orange covered trees. "Link! Up here!" I had to focus to find her. She carefully jumped out of the tree. "Follow me!" I followed her out deeper into the forest, until we reached a tree house in the largest tree I ever saw. "Well? Do you like it?"

I was speechless. "Laurel, did you…? How did…?"

Laurel giggled. "No, Link. I just found this tree house here while I was wandering. We can use this as our home for the next few days." She started to climb up the makeshift ladder nailed to the tree, and beckoned me to follow. I started climbing up beneath her. As I poked my head through the trap door of the tree house, I saw that the floor was littered with various items. "Chips?" I took some from Laurel as she munched on the rest. "So, how many times did you come here?"

"I came here, a lot. Sometimes, I hear something when the wind blows. It's very relaxing." I tried to listen but I couldn't hear anything. "Well, the wind isn't blowing as hard now."

"Hmm." I took her anecdote with a grain of salt. Laurel, well, she's a bit too idealistic for her own good. "So, what are our plans?"

"Well, I don't know… maybe we could explore. I mean, didn't you ever want to know what was in our own backyard?"

"That sounds nice, but…I would like something to protect myself."

"Well, um…" Laurel rummaged around and produced a long sword. "Maybe you could use this."

I looked at her in disbelief. "Laurel. That's a sword. Don't you have anything more, potent? Like a gun or something?"

"Come on, Link! Don't you play those games?"

"Yeah, but playing a game doesn't usually substitute for skill."

"Come on, just try it."

I pondered it for a moment, and I took the sword. I unsheathed it, and started swinging it around, away from Laurel of course. The sword seemed well balanced. I tried to do all those moves that Link could in the games. To an extent, I could pull them off. Laurel clapped for a moment. "Well, done Link."

"You know, you don't have to keep calling me that." I said.

"But I can't! With that sword, you look a lot like a Link to me, Ben." Laurel replied.

I sighed and decided to go along with it. I sheathed the sword and slung the scabbard across my chest so the blade was strapped behind my back. "I don't know, Laurel. I still don't feel safe with just a sword. Do you have a shield or something?"

Laurel rummaged through the things and retrieved a wooden shield with an indiscriminate symbol on it. I looked at it and took it. It wasn't splintery, so that was good. At least it won't fall apart with too many hits. It wasn't very heavy, so it was easy to use. I strapped it onto my back as well, making sure I could easily and quickly pull it off my back. With practice, I was able to pull it off my back with ease. "All right, so if you're finally ready, let's go!"

"Let's grab some food, first." Laurel grabbed as much food as she could and stashed them in her bag. "We should also get a map, too. This way, we won't get lost." Laurel and I looked around, and I saw a parchment with a map of the relative area with an ornate compass sitting atop it as a paperweight.

"Did you find one, yet?" Laurel said as she walked over to me.

"Yeah," I said as I rolled up the map and placed the compass in my pocket. Laurel looked quizzically at me. Reading her expression, I explained, "We should take the compass, too. We can find our way easier this way."

"But how do you know it points north?" she asked.

I looked out the window. "The sun rose and it's in that direction, right?" Laurel nodded. "Well, the sun always rises in the east. The arrow on this compass points north. When I point the compass that way…" The arrow turned counter-clockwise as I turned it. "it points this way. So that way is north."

"That's amazing, Link!"

I was flattered. "Well, you're lucky I have an amazing sense of direction!"

"Well, now that we're ready, let's go!"

Excited, and a bit impatient, I climbed down and let go of the ladder. I hit the ground with thud as I whimpered a bit as I sprained my ankle a bit. Laurel laughed at me as I started walking it off. I can take damage easily. I'm tough like that. After all, I grew up in an orphanage! Laurel climbed down slowly, and she jumped off when she was close to the ground. "Well, where to now?"

Laurel walked around for a bit, and she pointed toward a cave. "Let's go in there!"

It was my turn to look quizzically. "Why?"

"Well, haven't you wondered…?"

"Yes, yes, I remember… 'what's in our backyard?' But, I'm a bit wary about going into unfamiliar caves."

"Aw, but I thought you would be braver than that!"

"Those were games! This is real life! There aren't any continues, or healing fairies, or 1-up's or anything!"

Laurel decided to ignore me and started running into the cave. "Laurel!" As an aside, a mentioned, "She's going to drive me crazy." I rushed in to catch up with her.