"Anything new?" Bo asked, as the mail courier slid off his horse. The painfully skinny man adjusted his hat, as he searched through the side bags on his horse.

"Hmm… well, I've got… lets see… three… letters," he mumbled, somehow pulling three pieces of folded parchment from the mess of papers.

"One for you… one for your daughter… and—"

"You're not going back out tomorrow!" someone snapped. Both men tried to look as small as possible.

"Who's going to watch the goats if I don't?" Link asked, as he leaned on his staff heavily, slowly limping towards Rusl's house.

"Fado and Talo can take care of it," Ilia asserted.

Link stopped, and stared at Ilia.

"That's not a good idea," Link pointed out.

Bo agreed. Vehemently.

"I don't want you on that leg tomorrow," Ilia said firmly.

"And I'd rather not have the goats running amok," Link said quietly… almost too quietly to hear. Almost.

"Those goats will get along without you for one day," Ilia snapped.

"It's the fences I'm worried about," Link replied.

"No goats," Ilia said with finality.

Link sighed. No one argued with Ilia. Not successfully.

((()))

"I saw the courier was here," Ilia said, finding Bo sitting in his chair, squinting at the small letters on the page.

"Three letters… this is… another complaint from Mayor Fran…" Bo realized. He could read. Slowly.

"Same complaint?" Ilia asked.

"…yes," Bo decided.

"If it bothers him so much, why doesn't he fix it?" Ilia asked, curious.

"Because he's not going to change his sign," Bo grunted.

Everyone called it Ordon Village, but it was really just a ranch. Some wiseass had made a sign that read The Ordon Village, since originally the ranch didn't have a sign. He'd intended to take the sign down… but hadn't gotten around to it. Needless to say, this had caused some confusion, and the Mayor of Ordon Village, (with a population of three hundred) perhaps twelve miles distant, had heard about it… and had ordered Bo to change the sign.

Bo was a very large, very passive aggressive man.

He hadn't changed the sign.

Bo handed the parchment to Ilia, she could scrape and treat the page to remove the ink… and she was always using parchment for her notes on herbs and whatnot. Parchment was expensive… which was another good reason to keep the sign up. It ensured at least a page of parchment a week… sometimes two, if Mayor Fran was feeling particularly irritated.

"If Fado is watching the goats… I'm going to have to help with the barn," Bo told his daughter.

"Hanch said all the heavy parts were done," Ilia protested.

"The cross beams weren't seated properly," Bo informed her.

"We can use ropes and pulleys for that," Ilia said.

"That'll take time… and it looks like that storm will be here in the next couple days. If we keep that many goats in the main barn, they're going to break out during a storm from fear… and if the storm lasts more than a couple days there won't be anything left of the barn," Bo said grimly.

Ilia nodded, taking the second letter, the one addressed to her.

"Who had the third letter?" Ilia asked, curious.

"Hanch. Something about bees," Bo shrugged. He liked the honey… but the bees themselves didn't like him… so he stayed away from Hanch's hives.

"So… how bad is it?" Bo asked his daughter.

He didn't have to clarify what it was. He might be near sighted, but he could see that Ilia was thinking of something else at the moment. Or rather, someone else.

"The bleeding has stopped, and I cleaned the wound. But it obviously hurts… and he's going to try and sneak out, to help watch the herd tomorrow," Ilia sighed. Here, with only her father, Bo saw beneath the sharp words. He saw the worry.

"He's had worse. Remember when that goat broke his arm?" Bo reminded her.

"I know," Ilia said ruefully, "It's just… I'd rather my knowledge of healing didn't come from practicing on Link."

"He probably doesn't mind," Bo chuckled. For some reason, that made Ilia blush.

((()))

The day after an injury always hurt more, Link knew.

Still, that morning was… interesting.

Especially when he began hunting for his sandals.

He'd left them on the chair so he wouldn't have to bend over…

But they were gone. Link frowned, and searched the dark room, again, mostly by touch, which required a rather awkward position to keep his leg from stabbing him in new and eye-watering ways.

Very well… he could technically go barefoot, he supposed…

His carry-all was missing too.

And his sling.

And the pouch of stones.

Link scowled.

Ilia.

((()))

"Good morning Link. Since you won't be watching the goats, I thought you might be willing to help me," Ilia said brightly. Link focused on what was dangling from her thumb.

His sandals.

"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a sister," Link muttered darkly, taking the sandals with poor grace.

Ilia's smile turned wintry.

He was used to it.

((()))

"I was thinking… last year Fado and Hanch took the tithe to the castle…" Bo said slowly.

"And this year you want… who?" Rusl asked, bemused. That had nearly ended in disaster. Both had a terrible sense of direction.

"Ilia has been exchanging letters with a physician in castle town, and would like to compare books… she wanted Link to come with her, but his leg, being as it is… he'd be of limited use protecting the wagons…" Bo said.

"And the children have been hounding you all month to see the castle," Rusl grimaced. Not all the children. Just Beth… but she'd organized the other children as ruthlessly as any general into a merciless campaign of nagging and whining.

"I'd like to send them along… perhaps gain some peace and quiet… for three weeks, at any rate," Bo sighed.

"And if Beth refuses to leave the city?" Rusl asked.

"Would that be such a terrible thing?" Bo wondered. He honestly wasn't sure. Sera, Beth's mother, would certainly attempt to kill Bo in such an event… but still…

((()))

Link wrapped the herbs in the string, then hung the tied bundle from the drying rack. He was nearly twitching with anxiety… he had no idea how badly the goats were behaving. Not knowing was worse.

Ilia watched Link with mounting frustration. He wouldn't stay still. He kept getting up, pacing to the edge of the porch, and would glance, worried, up the road that led to the southern pasture.

Yes, he was helping her prepare the herbs and plants… but he was aggravating his injury too. She'd meant for him to do something that would occupy his hands, and his mind, but not his legs. At this rate, he was putting more exertion on his leg than if he'd just been standing around, watching the goats.

"Fine!" Ilia snapped, tossing down the bundle of grasses in her hands.

"Grab your staff," she growled, moving towards the stable with Epona.

"Thank you," Link said.

The depth of sincerity in those two, softly spoken words made her trip a little in the dirt as she stalked away.

But he didn't notice. He was preoccupied.

((()))

All was not as it should be. Link saw that immediately. There were only six goats in the pasture… two-thirds of the herd was missing… as were its two shepherds.

"The billies must have bolted… taking most of the herd with them…" Link hissed, frustrated. They'd burst the pasture's fence as well…

Link shifted position behind Ilia, so that he was standing sideways in the right stirrup, all of his weight on his good left leg, clinging to the saddle-pack with his left hand… as he leaned out, scanning the ground as they passed. It was also more comfortable for his right leg, since it was straight now, and didn't have any weight on it.

Ilia didn't use stirrups anyway. It's not that she couldn't, she simply didn't like them.

Link didn't like what he saw.

"A large number of tracks lead into the forest," He reported.

Ilia nodded. She wasn't a tracker.

"Do you have my sling?" Link asked pointedly.

"Yes," Ilia said, reaching into her carry-all.

"—and my knife?" Link pressed.

Ilia reached back into her carry-all.

Ilia cocked her head… a distant noise wafted at the edge of hearing. It sounded like—

Link shoved two fingers into his mouth and returned the whistle, loud enough to deafen Ilia for a moment.

"Let's go," Link said sharply, pointing with his staff.

"Climb back on," Ilia ordered.

"I can get off faster this way," Link argued.

"Especially when aided by a passing tree limb," Ilia snapped.

"Don't run into any trees then," Link advised.

The whistle drifted through the air again.

"Now," Link said.

((()))

Fado kept Talo behind him. This was a bad idea. But it had sounded like a good idea. That it was Talo's idea should have been a warning sign, Fado acknowledged.

Another bokoblin lunged forward, and Fado dealt it the same treatment as its predecessor. He slapped the descending wooden cudgel aside with one large hand, grabbed the creature's bundle of white dreadlocks, and threw it like a bola. In a field, the creature might have traveled thirty feet.

This was a forest though… with lots of things to crash into… things far less yielding than dirt and grass.

"Yah!" Talo howled, starting to lunge out from behind the giant, wooden sword in hand.

Fado wasn't the smartest in the village… but he had quick hands.

A moment later, Talo was behind Fado again, where he belonged.

Link was coming. Fado had heard the return whistle.

Until then, Fado would make sure nothing bad happened… at least, nothing bad to them.

The problem was the bokoblins. They just wouldn't accept that they couldn't beat down Fado.

Consequently, they might succeed through sheer stubbornness… and a couple of them had knives… and axes… probably from the cannibalized bulblins.

Fado could hear some rather strange bird calls overhead, but he didn't have time to see what kind of bird was making the noises.

A lot more bokoblins were arriving too though.

Too many.

"Talo, RUN!" Fado roared, grabbing two bokoblins by their belts, and throwing them backwards into their reinforcements.

Too many! Too m—

Talo ran. He ran as he never had before.

Because it finally dawned on him, as he saw an axe bite into Fado's massive shoulder.

He was going to die.

He wasn't the hero.

And this wasn't one of dad's bedtime stories.

Talo ran away. For a long time.

Something he'd bragged to Beth… that he'd never run away. He wasn't a chicken. He was brave!

Yeah… that was probably a lie.

Talo tripped, and skinned his knee. But he didn't cry.

They might hear him.

He didn't move, he just breathed, fighting to do so as quietly as possible.

It was harder than he thought…

But he couldn't hear anything. He peeked up from the dirt with quick, furtive motions.

He could see dirt, tree roots, and ferns…

No monsters.

Dad said bokoblins couldn't climb very well… so Talo thought it would be a good idea to get as high as possible… so he could see which way the edge of the forest was.

He picked a tree with a lattice of vines growing up its bark… some were anchored poorly, and tore free… but the thicker ones held. It was hard, but Talo was very motivated.

He took a break half-way up, surrounded by leaves. He was safe, the monsters wouldn't be able to see him up here… not from the ground.

"You're bleeding on the tree," a voice pointed out, annoyed. Talo spun around, and came nose to nose with a snarling creature. He screamed (like a girl, but he wasn't thinking about that), and tried to get away.

Into empty air.

((()))

Fado kept his back to the tree, warily eying the creatures that had encircled him.

They were hunting him like a bear… with spears. And he couldn't really lift his right arm. He could still raise and move his forearm, but he couldn't move his shoulder… couldn't thrust out. A spear came at his throat. He managed to grab the weapon, just behind the head, and push back, throwing the bokoblin off balance… but he didn't have the leverage to break off the spearhead, or yank it from its wielders grip. Not with just one hand.

More spears were coming. He let go… and slapped another spear aside…

More spears. Even knives tied to sticks…

More spears.

And the birds were getting louder.

((()))

Zelda remained sitting within her personal chambers, by her luxurious glass window. A window that gave her an unimpeded view of her fallen capital. A capital that seemed to grow darker with every passing hour… as those that once held fealty to her family fought… and died.

"Why are you sad?" the little girl asked, from where she sat in a corner of the room… playing with some of Zelda's childhood dolls.

Zelda did not speak.

Porcelain clattered on stone… and Zelda ignored that as well. The little girl studied the decapitated doll in her hand curiously, then picked up the severed head, and turned it over.

"Play with me," the little girl complained.

Zelda did not.

The small child casually closed her hand… and when it opened the porcelain head was gone… reduced to a nightmarish mixture of shadow and sludge, the dripped carelessly to mar the beautiful wooden floor.

"Play a game with me…" the dead echo of little Ilisa whined.

An echo… of a murdered child. An echo that was rapidly mutating, as the creature digested her spirit… and incorporated her into itself. She could see the monster peek out, from time to time… leering… hungry.

Zelda instead chose to turn her gaze to the horizon… and not upon her jailor. Killing it would serve her no purpose… regardless, her powers had been negated somehow. She supposed she could blind it with a sharpened quill… but saw little point in it… as the abomination would heal its wound within minutes.

"Play with me!"Ilisa screamed, a terrible mix of petulant child and diseased spirit, the interloper leapt onto the windowsill, blocking Zelda's view, snarling with misshapen, serrated teeth… something the precocious child had never possessed in life.

Zelda stared into the eyes of literal darkness.

"I would sooner die, I think," she hissed, the sheer intensity of her hatred causing the monster to rear back in surprise.

"I'll play with you," a voice offered… before a tentacle snared the jailor, and dragged it out the window.

The unseen voice sounded… hungry.

The scream cut off wetly a moment later.

((()))

Link did not whistle again. He could hear the screams. Fado was close.

Ilia could hear them as well, and urged Epona to greater speed… despite the trees. It was a stupid thing to do… they might easily be unhorsed by any of the tree limbs whipping past, and then no one would come to Fado's aid.

But take too long, and they would do Fado no good either.

A branch laid open Link's cheek as he lean out of its path. They crested a small hill in the track beneath the trees, and Link knelt heavily on the stirrup, his bad leg hitting the ground, and making him hiss… but his teeth were clenched too tightly to actually yelp, and Ilia did not hear. His eyes focused on something else beneath the green twilight.

Fado.

The giant was leaning against a tree, panting heavily, blood running freely from several wounds. Bokoblins stood arrayed before him in a semi-circle, but they had pulled back, with hasty spears, milling in agitation and fear.

Sticking from the dirt in front of Fado were a dozen objects…

Short arrows… their shafts were angled, as if from a high vantage point.

"Gee! Gee!" Ilia cried, pulling back on the reins. Epona planted her powerful, massive hooves, trying to slow down, obeying the bridal, and the voice commands to halt… preferably before running into the midst of armed enemies. Link lost his staff in the desperate scramble to keep from flying forward.

With the sudden appearance of the horse, the bokoblins fled. They knee Epona's hooves… had seen them, and (a few) had even felt them before.

Link hastily let go of Epona, (he was practically hanging by his arms from the saddle anyway, toes inches above the ground), and limped towards his staff.

"Watch out," Fado croaked, hand clamped to a wound on his neck. Link froze in his crouch, despite the agony it caused his leg, fingers inches from his staff.

A foot rested upon his staff. A green foot… like that of a child. And something sharp was pricking at his throat warningly.

Ilia stared at the child-like warrior, replete with snarling wooden mask and bark armor…

And this creature held a dagger of stone… pressed against Link's throat.

It seemed that more than just bokoblins called this forest home.

Bird calls filled the air… but the song matched no bird Ilia knew.

Signals.

This creature was not alone. It looked up, as if startled by a command.

"Go away," the creature commanded, stepping back, frustrated. It motioned to Fado as well, pointing in the direction of the forest edge.

"We cannot," Link grunted, slowly picking up his staff.

"Go now!" the creature barked.

"A boy is missing. We cannot leave without him," Ilia explained quickly, terrified of a short arrow suddenly sprouting from Link's chest.

The creature raised a hand, and Link could hear the creak of bows being drawn in the trees… a lot of bows.

They would do Talo no good if they were dead.

"Link," Ilia urged softly.

But the one she loved understood already the cold truth of the situation.

Link helped steady Fado, as the giant weakly climbed onto Epona… and the group retreated. For now.

((()))

"You can't leave," the monster said.

"Why not?" Talo demanded.

"This is the Lost woods. Any child that enters here belongs to the Kokiri," the monster shrugged.

"You're going to… eat me?" Talo whispered, terrified.

"No," the monster replied, irritated.

"Then why can't I leave?" Talo whined.

"Because there are not enough Kokiri as it is… and there have been no lost children for a long, long time," the monster said, sounding almost… sad.

"I want to go home."

The monster looked at Talo for a long moment. "So do we."

Then it took Talo by the wrist, and led him deeper beneath the trees. Unknown to Talo, his were not the only tears to fall upon the leafy loam.

This was the Forest of the Lost… but not all had become Lost by choice.

((()))

"We can't just leave him there!" Jaggle cried, pounding a meaty fist into his palm. He was a little shorter than Link, but his shoulders half-again as broad, most of it muscle.

"We don't even know what they are," Ilia retorted.

"What difference does it make?" Jaggle asked, exasperated.

"It makes all the difference… if they are Kokiri," Mayor Bo said, finally speaking up from a corner of his house… which had been designated for this meeting.

"What is a Kokiri?" Link asked, looking to his uncle, but Rusl shook his head, he was unfamiliar with the word as well.

"This was not always the Faron Forest… once, it had a different name, the Kokiri Forest," Bo said, scratching at his head. He barely remembered his grandmother's bed-time tales… the details had become hazy, and blurred.

"What are Kokiri?" Pergie asked sharply, as Bo's silence stretched.

"I'm not exactly sure… I only heard a few stories of them, from my grandmother…" Bo said uneasily.

"If they are Kokiri," Ilia reminded Pergie.

Bo scowled, concentrating.

"They… are forest spirits… or demons… I can't remember which, but they live somewhere in the forest. Nobody knows what they look like… but they are dangerous to adults that trespass within their territory… I can't remember if they have any specific powers… I know they use arrows…" Bo trailed off, trying to separate true memories from half-guessed thoughts.

"What do they do to children?" Jaggle demanded.

"I don't think they kill them… but I think they might steal them… maybe," Bo shrugged helplessly.

Pergie wailed in frustration, clearly desperate to damage something, anything, to get her son back.

((()))

"I don't want to be one of you. I want to go home," Talo cried, trying hard not to cry. He wasn't crying because he was a sissy… he couldn't help it. Not see mom or dad again? Ever?

The girl (and it was a girl, even if she was weird looking and had a tail), that had taken him by the wrist scowled at him. She'd lifted her wooden mask earlier.

"You don't have a choice. Magic protects the Lost Woods… it prevents those that enter from leaving… unless they are Kokiri, or a skull kid," the girl snapped.

Talo yanked his hand away from the girl's.

"No! I'm going home!" he shouted, his terror flashing from despair to rage.

"You will become lost without me," the girl warned, crossing her arms.

"I don't care, you're mean, and I'm bigger than you," Talo threatened, backing away.

"I have killed bokoblins before… even moblins. They're bigger and meaner than you," the girl snorted.

Talo turned, and ran.

Cali watched as the boy fled into the deepening gloom. She wished she could go home… but both it, and her family were gone. There likely was no sign of where her house had even stood… nor where her family had been killed. Their bones had turned to dust long ago.

She wished she could go home.

But she had no home.

Unlike the boy she had watched from the forest edge.

She was alone.

((()))

"We drove off some bokoblins… and a few of the goat-people," Mido said.

"Mmm…" Saria said, studying the distant clouds. The darkness was drawing near.

"One of them… bore a striking resemblance… to our son," Mido said, uncomfortable.

"Ookan?" Saria asked, surprised. The hybrid kokiri lacked the green pigmentation of his parents… instead his flesh was brown and pebbled, like bark itself… the only born kokiri… born of Saria's magic, and not biology… as their bodies had never been intended to carry children.

"No… our first son…" Mido said hollowly.

"Link…" Saria smiled fondly… thinking of the foundling… also long dead. He had grown old, and died, in the arms of his wife… a woman of horses and fiery hair.

His children and grandchildren used to visit the forest… to play. But like all things, Saria and Mido had eventually been forgotten with the passage of time.

"You don't think…"

"He could be a descendant… he carries the blood of a Knight," Mido said, holding up his stone dagger… the tip black with dried blood.

"And his name is Link," the kokiri finished. It was a common name, however.

"One of the goat-children is lost in the forest," Mido prodded.

"If he is the descendant of our Link… he will return," Saria nodded slowly.

((()))

Rusl's hands moved with ease from long practice, as he donned his chainmail and leather armor. Link stood by, waiting, armed in his usual fashion…

Although he also carried a satchel of torches as well.

Ilia watched the two, fear clenching her stomach.

"If you don't intend to fight the kokiri, then why the armor?" Ilia asked sharply.

"The kokiri are not the only foes we may encounter," Rusl pointed out levelly.

"Will Link's presence really make such a difference in a fight? He cannot run," Ilia pointed out.

"I do not know where you encountered the foe… and he is a better tracker than I," Rusl said patiently, as he finished tightening the straps on his leather cuirass.

The mayor's daughter remained quiet, as the two warriors departed their home… both girded for conflict.

Ilia felt another stab of fear. Link looked so vulnerable, next to his armored uncle.

Be safe… Ilia prayed.

((()))

Rusl followed his nephew into the forest, he too carried a satchel of torches, but they remained unlit. Only one needed a light… and a torch was awkward to carry with shield and sword in hand. They followed the trail for an hour… the tracks difficult to miss in the torchlight… but they were slowed for a different reason. At some point, two pairs of tracks would diverge from the slurry of goat tracks… and those would not be so deep, nor hard to miss.

Occasionally eye shine would flare from the darkness… bokoblins… but none dared attack, not with Link and Rusl together.

At least, not without greater numbers.

"Here," Link said softly, pointing. He followed Fado's prints… and other signs of passage, disturbed branches, broken or snapped…

Link held up a hand, halting his uncle.

"We were confronted, there," Link whispered, pointing twenty paces ahead of them.

"Find Talo's tracks…" Rusl replied, rolling his shoulders… in preparation for the possibility of combat.

Link drew close to the invisible, perceived border that marked the presumed kokiri's territory… but did not have to cross it before he found the tracks he sought.

These tracks wore shoes.

Talo.

Link signaled Rusl, and they resumed the hunt.

((()))

"Link!" Talo yelled, as he walked, his voice turning hoarse.

"Link!"

Link would come… or Rusl. Or his dad… they would find him.

Someone would find him.

And someone did.

"You're going the wrong way," the forest girl said.

"Leave me alone," Talo snapped.

"You're going in circles," she teased.

"No I'm not!" Talo argued.

"You are not of the Forest… but soon… you will be. Soon the magic will finish taking root within you… and whether you wish it or not… you will be one of us," the forest girl sneered.

Talo picked up a rock and threw it at her. She moved, slightly, and the rock missed. She stepped back, disappearing into the dark.

Leaving Talo alone.

In the dark.

"Dad!" Talo screamed, volume restored by fear… as the forest pressed in on him… hungry. Stalking… crawling up behind him…

Talo broke into a run.

((()))

Rusl staggered, and thrust out a hand, steadying himself against a tree.

"Uncle… what's wrong?" Link asked, turning back.

"I'm not sure. I feel—"

Rusl vomited, little more than bile, drenching the ferns beside him.

"Cursed?" a voice asked, amused.

Link spun, raising the torch. It illuminated another of the "kokiri"…

"What did you do to him?" Link demanded.

"Long ago, our forest was nearly destroyed. We have increased the defenses that protect our lands since then… so that none may achieve that feat again," the creature shrugged.

"He has simply strayed within the outermost of those wards—" the creature drew closer, "—as have you. Strange that you are not also afflicted…"

"We have no quarrel with you. We seek a missing child," Link said coldly, fingers tightening on his staff.

"Any child that enters here becomes lost… doomed to wander until they too sing the forest song," the creature replied.

Link studied his foe. There was something… off.

The last declaration had not sounded like a threat…

"And if a child is found, and carried away from the forest… will the doom remain?" Link asked.

"No. But if you become lost… know this: the forest accepts children into its embrace… and you are no child. You will never hear the forest song… unless you perish here," the creature warned.

Link didn't even hesitate. He lit a second torch, and handed it to Rusl.

"I will return…" he promised.

Rusl nodded weakly, but made no move to retreat. He would hold his ground until his nephew returned… nausea and weakness be damned.

Link broke into a fast shuffle-limp, deeper into the forest, following Talo's tracks, torch held high. Fear coursed within him… but it was trivial… because he knew what he had to do… because only fools, and the dead are fearless.