The woods were quiet; cool and deep. A silence had been ushered by the monkeys chasing the other creatures of the world away. For the moment, the woods were theirs. Link knew this; Epona knew this; the kids, drunk off their newfound stick brandishing power, seemed to not know this.

First rule of the forest: never chase something if it is going into an area it knows better than you. Granted, a monkey wasn't a wolf, it wouldn't try to eat your flock, but it was still dangerous. And it still knew the area better than them. And it still had sharp little claws. And a bunch of buddies, with sharp little claws.

He was not catching up to them; Epona was many times faster than any human could be, and they were not catching up to the kids. Link shuddered.

Epona shuddered because he did. "Ha, girl." And she dashed forward.

Through the trees, through the shadows: running; galloping. No wolves, no vicious trees. Both horse and rider's nostrils flared. It could be worse. But he still didn't know where they had gone.

But then a stick, some bark worn away, looking like it had been used to hit something. A play sword. And a little while later another stick snapped in two. Link had crossed into Faron province, still the forest, but different. Somewhat malign when it wanted to be, and wolves roamed freely here. Link followed a well worn monkey trail.

To the left, behind a tree--something was there. He dismounted and quietly pulled his own practice sword, and climbed the nearest tree to wait for it. The creature came out from behind it's tree: blue skinned, at first he thought it was a stray goat until it came into full view. Bipedal, with a club, it was a few heads shorter than Link (and Link was short). It saw Epona and grinned, cawed, motioned to something Link couldn't see. Another one? It came to Epona, then the other one. Epona panicked, crushed the creature under her feet then, wild eyed, rearing kept the other creature back with flailing forelegs. Link took aim and hurtled his practice sword towards the creature's chest. He missed, but it still hit its head. Link jumped down. The first one killed; the second, unconscious. He whispered to Epona till she gained her bearings.

Link froze.

He had used his own horse as bait; that's what he'd done. He knew she could defend herself better than himself, but she was easily frightened. He cooed to her, and she stopped pawing the ground. Link bit his bottom lip and climbed onto her back again, begged her forgiveness, that he wished he could fight for her and everyone else, but her master was weak and unprepared. She shied away from the creature's bodies. And he urged her to leap over them.

That behind them; the kids ahead.

Ahead, chasms began to open in the earth. The trees grew big, and aside from Epona's hooves, it was silent. No wind reached here. No birds. Nothing. This place had to be near to the lost woods and the sacred forest meadow. Only magic could make the forest like this. He had to get the kids and get out as fast as he could.

They approached a tree, biggest one Link had ever seen, a smooth clay bridge connecting the path to the front gate over a deep chasm. A cage out in front of the tree. There, that's where they were. Link spurred Epona forward, nearly flying. Two more beasts, Link turned Epona sharply, his sword following his horses spin. He cut through the two creatures in a single motion.

Link dismounted, worried, giddy.

"Talo? Beth?"

The two were huddled together: wide eyed and unspeaking, unflinching. Behind them, was the monkey, pounding its small hands against the wooden bars.

"Keep down, both of you. Keep that monkey down, too." He took his sword and hacked through the wooden grate, ruining the blade's edge. The kids tumbled out as soon as enough bars were loose, the monkey only came out when Link lay his sword down and manually lifted the creature out. It clawed his hand and ran away, up the tree.

"Link," Talo whispered. "Those creatures got us. We wanted to fight 'em off. We tried. We really did."

Beth broke down, "Link, they were probably gonna eat us!"

"Only you came along." Talo said, quietly.

"Link, that monkey, she tried to fight with us. She wasn't a monster!" Beth cried, grasping the situation. "I though . . ." She whimpered. "I--I thought . . ."

"You're going to ride Epona back. I'll lead her." Neither of them argued. He helped them up onto Epona, trying to think of something to say, anything. "It'll be ok." or "I won't let it happen again." Only, the goats were trying to get loose, because there were probably wolves, or those monsters around. He could not be there the whole time--he just couldn't. There were strange signs in the forest, none good: he couldn't even say something uplifting for the future. He only managed to say, "I'm just glad you're alright."

He led them back through the monkey path and out of Faron. Rusl was there: "Link, you have them?"

"Yeah." Link breathed, tired.

"Colin ran to find me. He said he found Malo practicing sword play against a scarecrow, alone. He came to get me, thinking something was wrong."

Link showed Rusl his battered sword in agreement.