Plants generally like sunny days. When it is bright and sunny, it absorbs the light and the warmth that embraces its fragile life as a single bud blooms to a beautiful flower for the world to see its glory. Sunny days are always welcomed by the plants as they hum happily across the field of green. When the sun sets, they give a heartfelt farewell, although they know full well that it'll be here the next day and then the next.

Little do they know that the true heat of the sun would scorch, burn, and drain the life out of them.

Yes. In the distance, blended with the fields of flowers and the lavish green of forests, the sun is a thing of beauty, a life giver, an admirable existence.

But far beyond the sky, over the clouds, past the moon, and the distance uncaptured by the eyes of this world, stays the sun, lonely, untouchable, and, ever-burning with fury. It's better to admire it from afar than to approach it to discover what grueling existence it really is.

For that, I've grown to dislike the sun shining above with its fake smiling mask looking down upon me and the forest. But it wasn't as if my opinions mattered to the existence older than history of Hyrule.

My, my… I'm being childish again. Funny how I - yet again - contradict myself.

Oh well. It's probably the only thing that amuses me nowadays.

Hyrule's been at peace for awhile now. Everything is perfectly in order, with the Queen Zelda - bless her soul - ruling the land in her wisdom, and with people finally finding their place in the land. Hyrule was prospering greatly with the sages smiling behind the scenes with the Hero of Time.

Except me, I wasn't smiling.

Am I selfish to announce such? Perhaps. However, no one would ever know as long as I do not speak a word of it. No one would notice as long as I do not appear unhappy.

But why even bother?

No one comes by me anymore.

And perhaps that is why I feel so self-conscious right now.

I could feel someone coming. A presence in the woods heading closer to my direction. I wondered who it could be. Probably another lost Kokiri child looking for the way out, when in fact, he is walking deeper into the woods. Maybe he wants to catch a glimpse of me, not knowing that I look just like them. How lucky of this person. No one succeeded to coming so close to me before. Not so lose that I can feel their presence.

Or maybe, it was him.

But that was not to be thought of for obvious reasons.

Should I smile? Should I wave? How should I greet this person?

I stepped out of the Forest Temple.

There stood a child much like me, looking at me with confused pair of eyes.

There was a moment of silence between us.

But he was the first to break it. "Are you the Forest Sage?" He asked.

"I am." I answered him.

"Will you come with me?"

I looked into the child's hopeful eyes. And then I smiled. I stepped off of the ledge and I think I startled him a little, but after seeing that I was unhurt, he relaxed a bit. "Your name?"

"Hete…"

"I am Saria."

"I know…" He seemed to be dazed.

"Why do you ask of me to go with you?"

"Because… Mido - our stupid leader, that is - said that…"

I smiled again at the familiar name. "Oh, Mido… I know of him. We were such good friends."

"He was?" Hete looked at me in disbelief.

"Best among the Kokiri," I answered him.

"Will you come with me?" He asked again.

I looked at him. And then looked at the temple I must protect. "No, I cannot."

Hete's face contorted into a painful expression that did not belong to a child's. "Please… I beg of you…"

I held his hand. "I shall return you. But take this with you for I cannot fulfill your request," I said as I handed him a small necklace that was around my neck. It was worthless to me, but it would mean something to a child who was so excited to see me.

And I was right for his mouth stretched to a grin. "Thank you…" He said.

"Good bye," I said to him, as I summoned a blue portal to take him to the mouth of Lost Woods.

"Saria…" Hete called as the portal carried him away.

I sighed.

It was just a foolish child that would hope that I would come out into the village just to prove their worth. But honestly, no matter how much of a pester it is though, I must admit that I am tempted to take the naïve offer. If my fate could only change by going away with a random child…

But that will never be, my wisdom is no match for a child's foolish hopes.

Even if he came to me with the offer, my wisdom has the better of me than my heart.

At times like this, I want to cry and cry and cry only to realize that I cannot.

I took out my old ocarina that I had not played in years. It brought back another series of blissful yet agonizing memories of my stolen innocence. I tentatively placed the mouth of it between my lips and blew a stream of air through the tiny instrument.

It seemed obvious that I had not played with it for a first few seconds as shrill and violent shrieks blasted out of the holes. However, the sounds steadied after a while until it became a clear note that vibrated through the woods, rolling off the blades of grass and leaves, dispersed by the winds, and echoing back to me.

I then played the song that I've always played with him as a child. My very soul went into individual notes as sweet memories played inside of my head. We had also used this song as our secret communication method when we could not see each other.

But that didn't work anymore.

I turned my back towards the place I belong.

Then I heard it, the echo of my performance.

Then I felt it, another presence.

Then I recognized it, the playing style that I was all too familiar with.

Then my heart trembled violently from the core as the notes grew closer and louder until it was the only thing that reached my ears. Not even the sound of my own heart could drown the marvelous sweet sounds.

It was unmistakable. It was too familiar to pass. It was too painful to ignore.

Then it all came to an abrupt halt.

There was a brief silence that not even all of the waters of Lake Hylia could not possibly fill. And when he spoke my name, I thought I was almost dreaming, knowing that I do not sleep.

"Saria… I'm here."

The ecstasy of hearing his voice again quickly obliterated as I remembered his status… and mine… and the bitter fact that this encounter should not be happening.

I want to see him so much. I want to run towards him. I want to tell him how much I've missed him. But I don't do such things. So I do not turn back, I do not move a muscle, and I ask him a simple question with forced plain voice that contains no trace of emotion. "Why?"

He is shocked by my choice of words. He is pained that I won't look at him. He is troubled that I would not even give the slightest twitch of gladness, fear, longing… or whatever.

"Saria… please, look at me."

But I couldn't.

We are not the same.

We never were the same and never will be.

"I won't."

He took a step closer to me.

"Do not come any closer," I warn him.

"Saria… I came back."

"Foolish of you to do so."

"This isn't necessary… not anymore," He said, and I felt him smile. "I found a way…"

"We were friends. We will always be. But you know we cannot-"

"You can become a mortal." He said, quickly.

I was not sure I heard him right. "Link," I call out the name that had not crossed my lips since our departure and as sweet as it tasted to speak his name again, I again forced myself to take the most bitter and the most thorn-embedded tone. "You cannot change destiny."

"A Life Fairy can."

I froze.

I searched within myself.

I called out for my voice of reason.

I called out to the wisdom that had enslaved me for so many years.

No reply came to me.

For once when I search for its aid, it deserts me.

I do not know how to respond to his words. Logic tells me that I should somehow deny his offer, but without wisdom behind the logic, it was a meaningless set of words and sounds. Even I - a sage - cannot prove logics to be true without any proof of wisdom behind the logic. I waited and searched for the wisdom to take me over. But it did not.

Become a mortal… that solved everything.

But even so…

He gingerly put his hand on my shoulders as a vibrant sensation coursed throughout my body. "I've missed you," His voice was shaking. "Please… look at me."

I turned my head ever so slowly.

I took in his beauty as a leaf took in a sun's ray.

He looked much the same. A single tear was trailing down his flawless face and his golden hair that blew gently in the forest wind lashed it away. His sapphire eyes were filled with sadness and longing that lacerated my heart. When another tear fell to his cheeks, I could take no more.

I touched his face, and he twitched at my cold touch. I meant to solace him, yet my hands were infinitely too small to do such a job. The tear rolled onto my hand as his eyes and my eyes locked in gaze.

Such an odd picture this creates… A full grown man and a small little girl standing in the deepest part of the haunted woods… One crying, the other trying to comfort the teary…

A hero and a sage.

Not a princess, not a lady, not even a pretty peasant. A sage.

But at this moment, the differences seemed so little.

He wraps his arms around me and I made no move to stop him. His arms around me, his breath on my neck… his warm heat warming up my ever-cold body… But that was when my wicked wisdom decided to knock some sense into me.

I gently pulled away as I let the malicious servant of fate take over me again. "We can never be, Link…"

He looked at me in disbelief. He reached in his pack and pulled out a bottle containing a violet fairy, also known as the Life Fairy. He opened his mouth to speak but before he found his voice, I silence him with my finger.

"It isn't so simple as you think. Your part of protecting Hyrule is over, however… mine… is not complete… and never will be as long as Hyrule exists. You must go…" I began to turn around, as my heart felt as if it was being hollowed out.

"I saved Hyrule," He cried desperately, as he grabbed my arm roughly. "Because I thought everything would go back the way it was!"

I turned back to him.

"I didn't save it so I could never see you again! I didn't save it so you could be a damn slave to this temple! So you even know how much I sacrificed just to have things the way they are again?! Do you even know… what Navi did for us?"

"Navi…" The name rolled off of my tongue. So the Life Fairy was Navi…

"Just because I become a mortal… doesn't mean-"

"Come with me," He demanded, as he embraced me from behind me.

My breath stops inside of my throat.

"I didn't fight for this. I fought so hard, Saria… I'm going to claim you as a reward if I have to… But, I will not lose you like I did then."

My heart sings for all the wrong reasons. The fact that he wanted me so much filled me up but I could not let myself be so foolish to give into the bliss of him wanting to fight against destiny itself to get me. But his next words shook me like branches of trees during a violent storm.

"Saria… come with me. I'll become an immortal with you to protect this temple… But at least for today… come see the world with me…"

Link? An immortal?

The branches shook but it never broke off. But the trunk itself snapped off from the roots and flew far beyond the sky, letting the winds decide its fate. How irresponbible... the decision I will make now is one of the most fatal mortal treasons.

But I will not let him endure the pain of eternity.

My voice of reason tells me otherwise, yet it does not feel anything as it commands me to obey its orders. It does not care about how much I hate being an immortal and it does not care about the pain it will cause him to be an immortal just because of me. For once, my heart knew more than my wisdom ever will.

I will not let him endure the pain of eternity.

And if I must defy the law of nature itself… if I have to leave the temple behind… If I had to face the wrath of the other four sages and the Queen… so be it.

No reasons of this world could stop me now.

I will be Forest Sage no more.