After my discussion with the Great Deku Tree, I had gone to my house and laid down for a long nap. The subject matter and it's complexities had demanded a good nap. I had awoken several hours later with Link sitting on the edge of my bed and leaning over my face, watching me carefully.
"So, you got to go see the Great Deku Tree, didn't you? What did he say? Did he say when I was going to receive my fairy companion?" Link queried me curiously.
"Yes, I saw him. We talked about…things…" I ended lamely.
"Did he say anything about a fairy companion for me?" Link repeated.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, he did. She's almost ready to come for you!"
The smile on Link's face was priceless. A smile of relief, of heartfelt joy, of anticipation.
"The Great Deku Tree and I talked about you."
"What exactly did you talk about?" Link said suspiciously.
"O, I can't tell you exactly what we said, but I told him…how much I like you." I couldn't believe how easily that had spilled out of my mouth. Link didn't look like he could believe it either. He blushed furiously and spun his head around to look at some pots in the corner.
I pulled out my ocarina to break the awkwardness. It had always been a tremendous comfort to my agitated mind when I listened to good music.
So I played my song.
Link turned to me and smiled. "That song has always been so lovely to me."
I nodded and kept playing. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed beside him and tapped the bed frame with my heel to keep time.
I looked over at Link to see his eyes closed in obvious pleasure, swaying to the dips and hills of the song. I stared at him for too long and I missed a note. The reverie broke and we gazed at each other in a strange sort of shock.
As we looked at each other, I trembled as I fell into the depths of his velvety blue eyes. And as I fell, I received the sensation that he was falling into my own eyes. We had no desire to stop falling…we just silently agreed to suspend time and float in one another's consciousness…our lips started coming together …to seal our fates…
Link and I jumped violently as something banged on the wall outside. In one of my rare shows of anger, I marched outside and focused on the source of the rude interruption: Mido. Apparently he had seen Link and I have our intimate moment, and in his frustration had thrown a fair-sized rock against the wall of my house.
I know that I shrieked at him, but I don't remember what I said. I do remember the looks on the faces of the other children as they stared in surprised awe at the normally gentle Saria giving Mido quite the upbraiding. After the loudest tirade I'm sure I've ever given, I turned on my heel and marched back into the house with my head held high. Goddesses above, how insufferable Mido could be!
The anger surge had lit my body so that I was hot all over. My fists were tightly balled up against the sides of my thighs, and I could see red in my peripheral vision. I felt my mouth was tight and my eyes were narrow. This whole emotion was entirely new to me, and something wasn't right. Things hadn't been right since the beginning of Link's nightmares. It just seemed like the wrongness had reached me.
The look on Link's face as I walked back in brought shame on my head. Hurt was reflected in his eyes even though I had not screamed at him.
"Don't do that again, please Saria. That's not like you." Link whispered.
I sagged onto the bed. "You're right. I apologize." I answered quietly.
The episode really had been out of character.
I wanted to sink into the cracks in the wooden floor, I was so ashamed. Link continued to gaze at me with those piercing eyes, as though he were trying to see where the wrongness was coming from and if I was feeling it as strongly as he. I just stared at the floor. I couldn't meet those pure eyes. I felt dirty and childish for my outburst. And after such a beautiful moment with Link.
What I hadn't realized at the time was that whatever evil had been affecting Link in his nightmares was changing me at the same time. This character change also brought about a new awareness of powers that none of the other Kokiri children could pick up. I'm not sure if Link also had the same new awareness, but something tells me he did. I don't know because I never got the opportunity to ask him…
Some months later, I was dipping my feet in the little stream that ran through our village when blackness overtook my vision and I suddenly became very lethargic. I bowed my head onto my chest to try to clear my vision, but to no avail. I shook my head to shake the blackness, but it did not help.
And then as quickly as it came upon me, it quickly left. The forest was reilluminated and everything looked as it was before. But there was a feeling in my heart that evil had finally settled into my beloved Forest and that nothing would ever be the same again.
I looked over to the entrance of the Great Deku Tree's meadow, and a blue fairy flitted out.
Navi.
The day has come.
I followed Navi as fast as my feet could carry me. She disappeared into Link's house, and I waited at the bottom of the ladder to see my friend's reaction. It was not long before he appeared, a combination of triumph and delight on his face, with the blue fairy hovering over his shoulder.
I jumped up and down and clapped my hands in delight. The other female Kokiri joined in with me.
Link has his fairy companion! At last!
Now the courses of our destinies can begin spinning…
When Link had climbed down the ladder he immediately began a steady stream of small phrases: "I have a fairy…the Great Deku Tree wants to see me…where do I find a sword?...what's a shield?...am I dressed well enough to go see the Great Deku Tree?...what's Hyrule?...I need something to eat…is Mido guarding the entrance to the Great Deku Tree's meadow again?...where do I put this rock?..." on and on he rambled.
I quieted him and blew out a breath. Navi had apparently filled him in on too much for his mind to take in. I placed my hands on my hips and put on a look of mild irritation at Navi as a simple show. She shrugged apologetically and said, "What was I to do? Does the fate of Hyrule really depend on a boy that talks this much?" It was my turn to shrug and I looked at Link whose eyes were dashing around to take in the sights of a Forest that he had grown up in.
"We're off to see the Great Deku Tree! I'll see you later, Saria!"
"Good-bye…" I said quietly. I glanced up at my own fairy, Deidre, and sighed. Link would leave the Forest soon after this. I knew it. Evil had entered the Forest, and Link needed to leave to protect us. The rememberance of the knowledge hurt the same way it had when it was first revealed to me. Could I let go of all I loved, Link, my friends, and my own life for the sake of people I had never seen before, for generations that I would never even think of?
