Saria Tells The Story of The Legend

"You should have listened to the Great Deku Tree, Link," Saria scolded him on the walk home. "He tells us things for a reason, you should know."

Link nodded, watching as her green hair swung in the light breeze that followed in the evening light.

"You could have seriously gotten yourself killed!" Taters exclaimed, throwing a hard glare over his shoulder at Link, his curly hair hiding his eyes.

"You don't have a fairy, yet, so you shouldn't do that again," Saria finished, turning to face him.

This was true. Link hadn't a fairy like the other Kokiri children, and that was the main reason Mido picked him out of a crowd as his punching bag. Still, he did fine without one.

"Why does that matter?" Link asked of Saria in a grumble.

"Fairies protect us," she replied simply. "If you don't have one, then you won't be protected."

"Then, why don't I have one?"

Both Taters and Saria stopped walking, and each other exchanged quick glances of confusion and concern.

"Well, no one knows for sure why you don't have one," Saria replied a little hesitantly. "I suppose the only two people here who would know why, would be the Great Deku Tree and Mido."

"Not you, too?" Link seemed slightly weary of what her answer would be.

Saria blinked, and then shook her head in apology. "I'm sorry, Link, not even I know why you are fairy-less."

"But don't worry about it too much, buddy," Taters interjected, clapping Link on the shoulder. "If the Great Deku Tree isn't worried about it, then you shouldn't be."

"That is true," Saria agreed, thoughtfully.

After some time walking through the wood, they emerged into the Kokiri village. The sun had long disappeared behind the trees, and the forest was alive with thousands of glowing spirits darting across the land. Exhausted, Link led Saria and Taters to his home where they all sat around a warm fire. Link sat on his bed staring at the dancing flames while Saria and Taters sat silently on stools, staring in at the flickering light.

"So, what did the Great Deku Tree tell you?" Saria asked of Link, breaking the sleepy silence.

"Oh yeah," Taters urged, breaking away from his trance. "What did he tell you?"

"What do you mean?" Link blinked at their curious faces. "He didn't tell me anything."

Saria leaned back in her chair with her hand cradling her chin. Her green fairy, Nina, fluttered around her head in confusion. Taters straightened his green tunic as his red fairy, Lurk, settled on his curly, red hair. Link stared at the pair of them as they thought, and only broke through the silence once he couldn't stand their expressions any longer.

"Does the Great Deku Tree usually tell those he summons something important?" he asked the both of them, even the twittering fairies.

Saria answered first."Those he summons are usually given caution or told something related to a slowly approaching event," she told him. "He sends warning to us, and sometimes only wishes to hear our problems when he senses them. But, it has been some time since anyone has been to his Haven, so I thought that he had something very important to tell you, Link."

Link shook his head. "He didn't tell me anything."

Taters sat up straighter on his stool. "Then why did he summon you?"

Link shrugged, and then fixed his eyes deep in the fire, watching as the flames licked and consumed the wood within.

"He wanted me to answer a question. . ."

"What was the question?" Taters asked, leaning in closer to the fire to catch a good glimpse of Link's face. Saria leaned in closer, as well, her breath held in hopes of catching every little detail.

Link shook his head. "I don't remember."

Both Taters and Saria groaned in disappointment before leaning away from him again. Nina removed herself from Saria, and then fluttered over to where Link sat with his eyes fixed on the flames.

"Why are you so upset, Link?" she asked him in here high-pitched squeak. "Has the Great Deku Tree disappointed you?"

Link waved her away before leaning back against his bed with his eyes on the wooden ceiling.

"It's not just that," he mumbled, "it's the fact that he won't tell me anything. All the other Kokiri have been to see him plenty of times, and the one time I go to see him, he has nothing important to tell me." Link groaned loudly before returning to Saria and Taters. "He won't even give me some small secret about Mido."

Taters giggled, as did Saria. Pleased with this reaction, Link's mood lightened a fraction.

"You know, though, the Great Deku Tree wasn't always this way," Saria told the both of them, glancing from Taters to Link. "Things weren't always this peaceful in the forest. There was once an age where the Great Deku Tree used to summon all of us at one time to warn us of the dangers that lurked in the forest. Knowing that not many of us have been sent to the Great Deku Tree brings me great ease."

Link sat up straighter on his bed, staring at her fair face across the fire. Nina settled on her shoulder again as Taters and Lurk fell into a stupor, staring deep into the flames.

"The Great Deku Tree once told me of an age long ago when the Kokiri children hid themselves well while war outside the forest raged on for years. People of all races died, and not even the goddesses in heaven could help us."

Link's eyes grew wide in wonder. "So what happened?" he breathed. "How did that age pass in peace?"

Saria hummed lightly before fixing her eyes on the flames.

"Well," she began in a mysterious voice, "it all began with the separation of the Triforce. An evil king of darkness named Ganondorf came from the western desert in the early age of peace. He traveled far to Hyrule castle to meet the king. He pledged his allegiance to the king in hopes that the country would prosper under his rule, but the princess, Zelda, had sensed the evil within him.

"Once Ganondorf left the castle for the night, she told her father of her suspicions. He did not believe her, however, and sent for Ganondorf once more. And so it came that the kingdom fell into a dark age, and that this evil king brought up an army from the western desert to destroy all peace throughout Hyrule."

Link watched as Saria's eyes became vacant in the past memory of the story.

"What happened next, Saria?" he asked her.

"The people of Hyrule prayed to the gods of the heavens to ease their suffering. They prayed that there would come a savior who could restore peace to the entire world. For a time, the gods did nothing but watch the people suffer. And then, from the forbidden forest, came a boy garbed in green attire. He held great power and sought out the evil threatening the land in one night. And in that one night, he destroyed all of Hyrule's adversaries, and restored peace to the land once more."

Link sat for a long while, thinking of the words Saria had told them. After a long while of no talk, Link gradually became aware that she had finished her story.

"But what happened to the hero?" Link urged her, hoping that wasn't the end of the story.

She glanced in his direction before shaking her head. "No one knows, Link. He disappeared after saving Hyrule. No one ever saw him again."

"But he carried the Triforce of Courage, right?" Taters said suddenly.

Saria turned in his direction with a nod. "Yes," she replied. "He was led by one of the three, powerful elements of this world. He had the Triforce of Courage, Ganondorf had the Triforce of Power, and Princess Zelda held the Triforce of Wisdom. Together, the three of them were bonded together; but once Ganondorf had been defeated, the three elements were sealed away in the Temple of Time once again. Since then, the Temple has remained at peace and left untouched."

"But the hero. . .!" Link protested insistently, glancing from one face to the other. "What happened to him? A hero can't just disappear off the face of the world in one night after defeating the things threatening the land he's protecting! What happened to him—don't you know?"

Again, Saria shook her head. "I don't, Link. As far as we know, it could be a legend passed down to every family in Hyrule to bring hope in case such a war were to break out again."

"A fairy tale," Taters stated lamely.

"Hey!" Both Lurk and Nina glared at him.

"But the Great Deku Tree told you this, didn't he?" Link charged onward, anger in his heart for this lost hero. Saria nodded her head. "Then it must hold truth! This hero could have really existed, and that war and this Ganondorf, as well! The Great Deku Tree has never polluted our minds with fantasies and lies, so it must be true."

For some unknown reason, Link felt outraged and empowered to fight, though he didn't know where this surge of anger came from. He wanted to search the world for the lost hero that no one ever saw again, only knew that he had saved Hyrule from destruction. Saria observed him from across the flames as he glared deep into the fire to search for its meaning. Why was he consumed by anger and hate all of a sudden?

"Well, me and Lurk gotta beat it," Taters said as he stood up and stretched his arms widely. "Thanks for telling the Legend again, Saria. Hardly anyone around here mentions it anymore."

Link slowly came out of his stupor and watched as Taters waved his way out of the house. Then, it was only Saria and him in the warm room, shining brightly with firelight.

"The Legend," Link murmured after a while. "That was the Legend you spoke of, Saria?" She nodded her head once. "The Legend," he whispered to himself, staring down at his hands. "The Legend of the Hero of Time and Hyrule's darkest age."

Saria watched as he turned his hands over and over on his lap.

"Link, why are you doing that?" she asked him finally.

He looked up into her pale face, and then shook his head.

"The Legend of the Hero of Time," he said aloud into the silence. "Do you believe that such a hero lived once? Do you really think that Hyrule was almost wiped from the map of the world, Saria? And the boy in green who came from the forbidden forest"—he glanced up at his dresser, glimpsing his own figure in the mirror that rested on it—"Could the Great Deku Tree be responsible for Hyrule's peace?"

Saria stood up with a wide stretch. "You sure are asking a lot of questions, Link. Maybe you should go ask the Great Deku Tree, himself? He has all the answers to any of our problems."

And with that, she swept from the house with a wry wave. Alone to brood over his feelings of difference and to think of the Hero of Time, Link doused the fire and crawled into bed fully-clothed.

Author's Note: I'm getting exhausted from doing all this. . . Oh, well. In this chapter, I felt really angry that the Hero of Time kinda just lost his home after saving Hyrule, especially when he had to go back to his time and live the way he was MEANT to live. That meant, losing everything, basically. But, that's just my opinion. ~T-Lea.