Chapter 4: Forest of the Gods
Night was falling as Mei reached the edge of the Kokiri Forest. After leaving her rendezvous with the princess, Mei had returned home to sleep and to gather a few meager provisions: a loaf of bread, a glass bottle full of water, the least-smelly wedge of cheese she could find, a simple handmade slingshot, and an old charm bracelet which her father had said belonged to her mother. The bracelet was made of colored wooden beads arranged in a pattern, with a silver or gold charm spaced every few beads. The largest charm was engraved with an odd symbol, a roughly diamond field interrupted by a wrench-like shape with circles inside the claws at each end. Mei knew the bracelet would be of no practical value to her on her journey, and might even get in her way, but she didn't feel right about leaving home without taking something which carried the memory of the mother she had only ever imagined.
Mei had set out early the next morning, making her way through the long grasses of Hyrule field towards its southern end, beyond the aging ranch on the hilltop which had been barely visible in the distance when she had sat at the edge of town the day before. She told herself that she would have said goodbye to her father had he been there, but really she wasn't too sure. She couldn't decide whether he would have forbad her go or shrugged her off dismissively had she told him her plans, and she was just as glad not to have to find out.
Mei stopped, contemplating the still darkness of the woods before her. They were quite intimidating. Even so, she wasn't thrilled about sleeping out in the open either, and she couldn't just sit awake at the edge of the woods all night. Entering the forest seemed the only viable option, and, taking a deep breath, that's what she did.
It didn't take long for her to regret the decision. It was even darker under the shade of the trees than she had thought standing in the twilit field. Mei could barely see the trees in front of her in time to keep from running into them, and roots and ferns underfoot caused her to stumble frequently. She wished she had thought to bring a lantern. Then again, the light would only broadcast her position to the billions of predatory creatures which she was certain were lurking all around her, just out of sight. Not that she was moving especially stealthily anyways.
She stepped on a twig, and the sound was deafening in the relative silence of the forest, much louder to her ears than the general shuffling and stumbling which the young girl had caused thus far. She froze, breathing hesitantly, listening intently, her eyes shifting rapidly back and forth. It may have been her imagination, but she felt certain she was being watched.
Mei gulped and drew her sword. "W-Who's there?" she shrieked, doing her best to keep her voice from shaking. She spun around at the sound of a light cough behind her, sword arm outstretched.
The boy leaned back a few degrees, the point of Mei's blade missing his throat by an inch. "Careful, there," he said calmly. "Nice knife."
"Who are you? I'm armed!" Mei warned superfluously.
"I can see that," the boy replied. "Sorry I didn't announce myself sooner. I'm Mido." His youthful face and short orange hair were suddenly illuminated as a fairy fluttered down from the foliage and hovered by his shoulder, her tiny body glowing so brightly it could barely be seen, giving her the appearance of an orb of light with wings. "And this is Fay." The sylph bobbed in the air as though curtsying.
"Were… Were you following me?"
"Well, it wasn't exactly hard. You're loud and you smell."
Mei blushed, unslung the pack from her shoulder, fished out the wedge of cheese, and chucked it into the woods. It bounced off an unseen tree trunk and tumbled back towards her obstinately. She kicked it. Mido giggled softly; Mei glared at him, her face still nearly as red as her hair.
"Sorry," he said. "I followed you out of concern. The Lost Woods are a dangerous place, even in broad daylight. And even for someone with such a… fiery temper," he finished, eyeing the remains of the cheese wedge scattered in the dirt.
"I-I'm not afraid," Mei lied. She knew the stories. Children went into the Lost Woods, never to come out again. Some even said they died and became mischievous spirits, waiting to prank unwary travelers. Or worse, lead them astray and trap them, too. That wasn't where she had meant to be going at all.
"Sure," Mido said, seeming to accept her claim. "But why don't you follow me? You can spend the night in the Kokiri village, and if you really want to go into the Lost Woods, you can do it in the morning when it's slightly less of a death sentence."
Mei and Mido set off through the forest, angling away from Mei's haphazard path. Fay lit the way. "Of course, I can see in the dark just fine," Mido explained.
"So… You're a Kokiri?" Mei asked after a while.
"Yes, and not just any Kokiri. I'm their leader!" He drew himself up into a mock grandiose pose.
"Are you the oldest, then?"
"The what?"
"The oldest."
"I'm not following you." Mido looked at the girl quizzically.
"Never mind." They walked the rest of the way in silence.
The darkness lightened up a little as the pair emerged into a vast moonlit clearing, the dim outlines of simple huts breaking up the endless wall of trees beyond. The air was still, peaceful; a sense of timelessness hung over the little village.
"You can use my bed for tonight," Mido said, leading the way to a hut near the far edge. "I'm on watch anyways. I would say to try not to wake my sister, but… Well, she is a Kokiri."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mei pouted mockingly.
Mido pointed to his ear. "I can hear your heartbeat." He started off back into the woods, Fay dimming her glow as she hovered over his head. "Take care now. Don't wander off before morning."
Mei opened the door and stepped inside the hut. As she did so, the room within lit up with the glow of another fairy, revealing a girl with long blonde hair tied into twin orbs behind her ears, wearing the same style of green tunic as Mido.
"Hello," said the girl. "I'm Fado."
"Hi," Mei replied, taken aback. "I'm not breaking in, I swear…"
"I know." Fado grinned. "I heard you talking with Brother."
Mei found herself staring at the girl's hair. "If you're Mido's sister… And he's your brother… Then how…?"
Fado looked confused. "How what?"
"You're hair, it's… different."
"Yes, and?"
"It's just so… Well… What do your parents look like?"
"My what?"
"Your parents."
"I'm not following you."
"You must have had parents," Mei insisted. "Otherwise, where would you have come from? Although I suppose they must not be around, if Mido is the leader…" Realization struck her. "Wait, are you orphans? Are all of you Kokiri… Orphans?"
"What's an orphan?" Fado seemed completely lost. "I didn't come from anywhere. I've always been here." She chuckled softly to herself. "Boy, you outsiders sure are strange. First there was that no-fairy boy, and now a no-fairy girl… And such weird clothes, too." She glanced up and down Mei's simple garb: a sky-blue vest which almost matched the earring looped through her left ear, brown leggings which stopped at mid-calf, and muddied leather moccasins, with a bulging canvas sack strapped to her back.
Mei decided to ignore the comment on her attire. "No-fairy boy?"
"Yeah, there was a boy here a while back who didn't have a fairy. Blond hair, decent dress sense, lived in a treehouse. Then one day Navi took pity on him or something and then he up and left. But that was ancient history. Back before the old Deku Tree died." Fado frowned. "Come to think of it, I think he had something to do with that. What was his name again? Larry? Luke? Liam? I swear it started with an L-sound…"
Mei's head swam with the combination of fatigue and unfamiliar nouns. "I think I should get some sleep."
"Whatever you say, Outsider." Fado stood up and moved towards a door. "This is my room over here. You can sleep in Mido's room. It's that one." She pointed at the only other door in the hut.
"Thanks," Mei said, keeping the sarcasm in her voice to a minimum.
The next morning, the forest was transformed. At night it had been a labyrinth of shadows, haunted as effectively by creeping vegetation as any spirit, death lurking behind every tree branch. Now, it was paradise. Sunlight filtered through the verdant canopy, casting shifting white streaks through the air, illuminating the ground in complex patterns of inimitable beauty. Every leaf and blade of grass seemed to glow with life and vitality; the air was thick with the sense of arrested time.
"Good morning, Flaming Hair," Mido called from behind her as Mei stepped out of the hut. She turned around to see him perched on the roof, his fairy companion flitting about his head.
"My name is Mei," she answered, flushing slightly.
"Well, Mei," Mido replied, sliding down the roof of the hut and dropping to the ground. "Are you still set on traversing the Lost Woods?"
"That was an accident," she admitted, averting her eyes. "Actually, I don't know what I'm looking for. Except… well, guidance. I'm on a great journey, only… I don't know where I'm supposed to go."
"Guidance, huh? I know just the guy. Come on, follow me." Mido struck off through the woods, Mei struggling to keep up with his stride. He seemed to walk over the underbrush rather than through it, his every step light and easy.
They walked for some ways, though Mei could not say how long; it was impossible to keep track. Hours felt like seconds, or perhaps it was the other way around. The girl would have tired quickly, moving as she was without the Kokiri boy's grace, but for the distracting wonder of the forest about them. It was unlike any wood she had ever seen. The trees seemed somehow more real, and at the same time more abstract; she could not tell one trunk from another, yet every twig was profoundly beautiful, every drop of dew a shining diamond. The feeling of power which hung about the two small figures intensified with every step, an awesome pressure building and building as they approached its root.
At last they arrived at a clearing, emerging to face the largest tree Mei had ever seen. It towered above the rest of the forest, its crown lost to the eye, its trunk easily a mile around at the base.
It was dead.
Mei laid a hand on the massive trunk. Its bark was dry and brittle, and flaked off at her touch, revealing rotted wood beneath. The tremendous branches stood in ruin, the few leaves still clinging to it curled and brown. She could just make out the outline of a face set in the trunk, its features grown over by moss and fungi.
"Welcome, child." An ancient, sonorous voice filled Mei's ears, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, sounding as much like the wind in the leaves as it did like human speech. She spun around in shock, eyes darting left and right as she searched for the speaker. Mido chuckled softly to himself.
"This way," he said, placing a hand on Mei's shoulder and turning her to face a young sapling which had taken root a few feet from the towering giant. Mei started when she saw that it, too, seemed to have features carved into its trunk, only… this face was moving.
"I am the Great Deku Tree, guardian of the forest and all who dwell within," the sapling's slow, sighing voice intoned. "Though my form is young, my spirit is aged as the world itself. Regrettably, I was forced to leave much of my power behind along with my original body." The sapling waved as though blown by an unfelt wind, gesturing towards the colossal husk. "Still, what I have left is enough to see to the needs of my children."
Mei dropped to her knees. If the aura she had been feeling all this time was produced by but a fraction of this being's former power…
"My name is Mei, Great One," she sputtered. "I come seeking… that is, I have come to ask for the benefit of your wisdom." She bowed her head. "Please, Spirit, guide me in my quest."
She explained everything; the princess's mystical summons, the dark path forged by the usurper Tyrell, the vagueness of her goal. When she had finished, the sapling shifted as though stretching, then let out a thoughtful sigh.
"Mei… A fitting name indeed. Truly, it must be fate which has brought you on this path." This was the second time Mei had heard such a sentiment, and it only confused her all the more this time. What was the old tree talking about? Had she missed something about the simple name she'd had all her life?
"If you seek to turn the people of Hyrule against their new hero," the tree continued, "you must first find evidence of his intentions, or of past actions which have escaped the public eye. Only armed with such evidence can you hope to convince them of the truth."
"I suppose that seems obvious enough," Mei replied. "But how? I don't even know what I'm looking for!"
"When the truth is what you seek, often merely looking will suffice. The only question is where to start. The answer lies with Tyrell himself. What is the one thing you are certain he accomplished through underhanded means?"
"He… he forced the princess to approve a military camp outside the Gerudo Desert by staging a riot. He claimed it was as much to protect the Gerudo from the Hyruleans as the other way around," Mei answered slowly.
"Precisely. And if he truly had ulterior motives, if he manipulated events to achieve that specific outcome, the evidence will most likely lie in the very desert he sealed off."
"But it's just that, sealed!" the girl protested. "How am I supposed to get past all those guards?"
"How did you get past the guards in the castle when you met with the princess?"
"That was different. There was a hidden underground passage."
"Exactly. You got past the guards because the guards did not see you. Often, there are hidden ways to travel from place to place… And even when there are not, there exist in this world artifacts of great power, tools which will serve you to much the same effect."
"Where can I find these… tools?"
"Once, long ago, there lived a tribe which worshipped shadows… Perhaps you have heard of them. They were known as the Shiekah."
Mei thought back to the legends she had heard in school. "The Shiekah were the sworn guardians of the Royal Family," she said. "Appointed by the goddess Hylia herself at the founding of Hyrule. But… they vanished."
"Centuries past, when the location of the Triforce of the Gods was first discovered, greed swept the land. Wars were fought for control of the relic's power, the power to grant any wish the heart desired. Realizing this power was too great for any nation, or any person, to control, the Seven Sages united their strength to seal the Triforce in a pocket dimension, a fold of space and time cut off from the rest of the world: the Sacred Realm.
"But this did not put an end to the strife it caused. A sect within the Shiekah tribe became obsessed with the Triforce, and plotted to infiltrate the Sacred Realm to claim it, just as Ganondorf did sixteen years ago. Whether they intended to use it for themselves or turn it over to their king, none can say. The Hyrulean monarchy viewed the sect's actions as treasonous. They were branded as dark interlopers, and as punishment they were banished to an existence without light. What remained of the Shiekah continued to serve the kingdom faithfully, but there numbers were few, and with time they dwindled to nothing.
"The final generations of the Shiekah inhabited a village in the foothills surrounding Death Mountain, a village since given over to any who were in need of a new home, whatever the reason. The legacy of the Shiekah lingers there still. They were masters of illusion, wise in subjects and powers unknown to the common man; whatever secrets remain hidden in their final resting place hold your best hope of completing your mission."
Mei bowed low. "Great Spirit," she said, "truly I am in your debt. How can I ever repay your kindness?"
"The world as it stands now may soon become unsafe for my Kokiri," the tree replied. "What strength I have left may not be able to protect them from a Hyrule in turmoil. That you succeed in your quest and restore the peace of old is all that I could ask."
"One last thing," the ancient being said as Mei was preparing to depart. "The pendant about your neck. Whatever may happen, do not lose it. Wear it always. It may just help you find what you seek."
Mei bowed once again, conveying her thanks, then followed as Mido led her back through the forest.