Chapter III

Into the Darkness

The duo traveled for about three days before they saw a row of rising trees ahead of them. They ran up to the entrance and noticed that the smallest tree was at least 300 feet high and 25 feet across. There was a thick wall of trees with an opening to the forest. Link figured it must have taken hundreds, if not thousands, of years for this forest to grow.

"There's a legend that no one has ever escaped from the forest once they enter. They say that time flows differently in these woods." Jonah told Link.

"You know how many times I've heard something like that. I've faced more 'inescapable' dungeons than I can remember." Link said proudly and a little haughty.

So they both headed into the dark forest. As they walked through the entrance they stepped into a natural phenomenon that would actually make time pass much slower for them than the rest of the outside world. Link and Jonah looked up in awe at the magnificent trees that must have taken hundreds of years to grow. The trees were so tall that the sunlight didn't come through at all. The only light came from some mushrooms that glowed a very dim bluish light, but it was hardly enough to see anything. Maybe one could see three feet in front of himself before the darkness was too thick to see. Link tried to light up a branch to use as a torch, but it just wouldn't stay lit. The canopy made it so that much of the moisture never evaporated, making all the vegetation very green and fresh. It also created a greenhouse effect that trapped in the humidity, making this a very humid musty place.

So the duo had to rely on the dim light of the luminous mushrooms for light. They searched for any sign of a trail or path made by people who dared make the dangerous trek. They eventually found a small path that seemed to lead away from the entrance. They began to follow it hoping it would somehow lead to the other side.

After what seemed like a few hours later Jonah began to get hungry. "Hey, I'm getting hungry, can we stop to eat." Jonah complained.

"Yeah why not, we've been walking all day." Link figured it had been at least a day since they entered the forest. So they stopped to eat. They ate only a small portion cause the food had to last for a while. After they finished eating they continued on a little path.

General Cynan was no fool; he knew the legends were true, time did slow down in the forest. So he told 120 of his rookie men to go in after Jonah and his Hylian companion. The rookies had no idea what to expect so they followed his orders without question. When they had gone General Cynan took the rest of his men and went around the long way; a 150-mile hike over the mountains and the desert beyond.

"Sir, won't that take a long time? Too long to hope to catch those two?" questioned one of his men.

"Trust me, we've got enough time." General Cynan said mysteriously. The man didn't know what he was talking about but he decided it was better not to argue.

About four days into the forest Link and Jonah were getting tired of the darkness. There was only one time where the sun actually broke through the gloom. They found this place to be much more uncomfortable for another reason as well. They found a few human skeletons along the way. Some apparently died from starvation, but others seemed rubbed clean. Some even had some deep grooves and scratches embedded in them. So they were forced to keep their guard up despite the fact that they couldn't see but ten feet around them.

During this time the two got to know each other a little better. Jonah told Link about his life at the academy and how his parents were both killed in the onslaught of Agahnim's huge army. He also told Link about his first battle against Agahnim's forces, where his best friend died. Link felt for him. Jonah had grown up an orphan like himself. Then he was thrust into a life of battle and war, maybe against his will, also like himself. Then Link told of his first adventure through Hyrule and then about Termania. He told Jonah about his last adventure that took him all over the world. He also told Jonah that he was also an orphan and forced to be a warrior at a young age. He told Jonah how he married a woman named Zelda and that he would became the next king of Hyrule. Jonah was shocked that Link was the heir to the throne of Hyrule.

"You should meet my wife, it's a good thing she's good at the whole royalty thing." Link joked. He got kind of teary when he mentioned his kids. They were twins. He had a son named Aaron and his twin sister named Lisa.

"Well sounds like you got yourself a nice family. I wish I would meet someone to settle down with. Maybe when this is all over with." he said as he trudged along the barely visible path.

"Man! I can't believe we haven't got to the end of this forest! We've traveled at least 20 miles every day!" Link yelled as he took out his anger by chopping up a tree trunk with his sword. Little did he know that since they first entered the forest that something in the shadows had its eye on the two, waiting for the right moment to strike. Link cutting that tree made the creature mad, but it still wasn't the right time to strike.

Days later as the two were about to go insane from the gloom Link and Jonah came to a big clearing where the sun actually came out. There was about three hundred feet without a single tree. The leaves were golden, indicating that in Pandera it was towards the end of the fall. Link gazed at the sky up above for the first time in a week and let a small smile climb up his cheeks. Just as he was starting to relax he heard Jonah.

"Oh no, this is Dead End Point," Jonah realized as his voice shook with nervousness. "This is where our trail ends and we are left to guess the rest of the way. This is the farthest anyone's ever been into the forest. No one knows what's still out there."

"Well that's good news." Link said sarcastically, "We're almost out of food!" Just as he finished talking a barrage thick vines shot out of the ground and flew towards the two. Link and Jonah unsheathed their swords and started hacking away at the vines. They were thorny and white liquid oozed from the tip. When the tough vines were cut the liquid was sprayed out and a very foul odor was released. One vine managed to find its way past Links sword and attach itself to Link's leg. He didn't think anything of it until he suddenly fell face first on the forest floor. As Jonah watched Link fall a vine grazed his arm and he too fell unconscious.

Jonah woke up some time later and found himself dangling from a tree by the vines that attacked them. He had no idea how long he had been hanging there; it was morning meaning they had been there at least over night. He looked over and saw that Link was near by, but he was still out cold due to the significantly greater amount of poison in his system. Suddenly two creatures walked into the clearing. One was very tall and looked a little like a tree itself. Its yellow eyes glared at Jonah, who pretended to still be asleep. It growled at the second creature in a low bellowing roar. The other creature was very short and skinny; it had a wide football shaped mouth full of jagged teeth and its blue eyes looked intently at the other creature. It had arms that were almost like a twig from shoulder to elbow and as wide as a small tree trunk from elbow to hand.

Link suddenly started struggling to break free as the effects of the poison finally began to wear off. Then he noticed that the creatures were walking towards him. The small one spit up some green acid and spit it at Link. It hit him in the shoulder and it burned so bad, but it burned the vines enough for Link to break himself out. He landed and jumped up to where Jonah was and cut him free too.

They both landed and charged towards the creatures. Jonah figured Link had a little more experience so he took on the smaller creature. He charged at the creature and tried a downward slash. The creature rolled out of the way and charged at Jonah. It used its thick arm to deliver a punishing blow to Jonah's head. He fell forward, but got back up. He touched the back of his head and felt a stream of blood flowing from a big gash.

"That hurt! You're gonna get it now!" Jonah shouted. He ran towards the creature and started swinging wildly. The creature used some power to raise up a wall of vines as a shield. Jonah regrouped and then did something that the creature didn't expect. He ran up and rolled towards the creature, then as he was getting up he swung his sword horizontally. The blade sliced the creature across the gut and some green acid started spilling out of the wound. The creature stood stunned as Jonah made his final move that flowed from the previous one. Jonah jumped and came in close to the creature. Then he thrust his sword into the creature. With a howl of pain the creature felt the blade go right through it. Jonah then pulled the sword up as hard as he could, effectively slicing the creature in half. The creature crumbled to the ground as the pool of acid began to eat away at it.

Then he looked over at Link, he was doing something that Jonah had never seen before. He was actually channeling the energy from inside him into his sword. As he did this, the sword began to glow a little. Then he unleashed his famous spin attack. The big creature didn't know what to expect. The sword actually chopped many chunks of wood off of the big creature. Link landed, expecting to hear the creature fall behind him. Instead he was met with a crushing blow. Link flew into a tree in the distance and blacked out. Then the gigantic creature came after Jonah.

Jonah didn't know what to do so he just dodged the creature's attacks for a while. Then he noticed that the creature had a deep crack down its back. The next time the creature attacked Jonah rolled through his legs. He tried to stab his sword into the creature's back only to be met with a tree trunk across the face. Jonah immediately blacked out, but was woken up by the pain of his leg getting crushed by the enormous creature's foot. Jonah backed himself against a tree and awaited the final blow.

Then suddenly Link, who had awoken from Jonah's cry of pain, jumped in between Jonah and the charging creature. However instead of getting into his stance, he actually put his sword away. He did a weird movement with his hands and slammed them on the ground. A dome of fire suddenly surrounded Link and Jonah and then spread out in every direction.

"Whoa! What did you do?" Jonah asked in amazement.

"I'll explain later. Now shield your eyes." Link instructed. Then there was a blinding flash and the flame turned blue and shot in every direction. Jonah opened up his eyes and all that stood in front of him something that looked like a standing piece of charcoal. Link walked over to the creature and with one powerful kick the creature crumbled into a pile of ashes and was blown away by the wind. The fire was also so powerful that the forest had been cleared for about five hundred around them.

"How'd you do that?" Jonah asked.

"Well, I learned a move very similar to what you just saw, but I eventually became more powerful. I learned a way to boost Din's Fire spell. You see I'm a Hylian and some Hylians are able to use magic." Link explained.

Because of Jonah's crushed leg Link had to carry him over his back. They got to the end of the clearing and back to the pitch-black forest. Two agonizing, depressing, and tiring days later it happened.

"Jonah, I have some bad news, we've run out of food and I don't know if we're even close to the end of the forest! You might have been right about this goddess forsaken place being inescapable." Link said.

"That's not good, I can't walk and carrying me will waste even more of your energy." Jonah said worriedly. For an hour they just sat there trying to think of a way. They both eventually fell asleep from complete exhaustion because they hadn't rested since they fought the two creatures so they could make better time.

"Hey, how long do we have to stay here? We've been here a week." complained one of the soldiers.

"We stay here until we find him! Those were orders from the General himself! Understood!" yelled the commanding officer that was tired of all his men complaining about the dark. The army had followed Link and Jonah into the forest, but was separated when they came to the area that Link burned. After another day of walking some scouts came to the place where Link and Jonah had fallen asleep.

"Quietly, go tell the rest of those bums that we found Jonah." One of the scouts commanded. Link, however, was woken up even though the scout was as quiet as possible. He pulled out his bow and strung an arrow. He let a silent arrow fly. The arrow hit the man in the back causing the scout to cry out in pain. Link let another arrow fly at the other scout who thought he had hidden well enough. The man didn't even have time to cry out as the arrow struck his face. Miles away the rest of the men heard the muffled scream and followed it to Link and Jonah. The army surrounded them and prepared to attack.

"Jonah, I only have enough energy to use Din's Blue Flame one more time, after that I'll collapse of loss of energy. Take some of this and drink it, then find a way out of this forest and get help." Link instructed as he threw Jonah a vile of red potion. Then he cast the spell and slammed his hands into the ground. The dome of fire followed by the flash of blue appeared. In a second there was no one left but Link and Jonah.

Jonah looked up and saw that Link had indeed collapsed. Jonah drank the bitter potion and it felt like his leg healed a little. He struggled to his feet and began to walk through the pitch-black forest. He fell every couple of steps because of his leg. He thought up a plan to get back without being lost. Every tem feet or so he would carve a deep gash in a tree, then on his return trip he would simply follow the marked trees back to Link.

About three agonizing hours later he saw the most beautiful sight in his life. He saw the daylight ahead of him. As he limped towards the light the trees began to thin out and then he was standing in a plain facing a small village. In the distance he could see the fabulous Castle Fynn rising high in the sky. He knew he couldn't go there without Link though. He continued through the field for another few hours before finally getting to the closest town. The odd thing was that there were some patches of snow in the shade of the trees, and it was unusually cold. Jonah figured it was an early snowstorm and put the thought out of his mind.

He made it to the town, by now his leg was hurting beyond imagination. He stumbled through a door into a bakery. He bought enough bread for him and Link. He then visited the potion shop and bought a red potion for him and a green for Link. Then he set out to the forest again.

He managed find the marks he made where he exited the forest. After wondering around a little he realized how crooked he must have been walking, because his marks were nowhere near a strait line. After many hours of searching he finally emerged into the newly burnt clearing. He immediately ran to where Link was and gave him some green potion. It was enough to wake him up, then Jonah gave him some bread and followed the same marks to find his way out again. The whole day was consumed by dragging the barely conscious Link back to the village. Where the locals were compassionate enough to give them a room at the inn free of charge for a week.

After a couple of days both men had recovered their strength and Link decided to teach Jonah a valuable move. They were now in the fields outside the city. "Now, you have to focus all your thoughts on your sword and on your next move." Link explained. Jonah tried as hard as he could, but nothing happened. He focused all his might on his sword, but no aura of power appeared on his blade. After a few more failed attempts Link got an idea. He launched himself at Jonah and pretended he was going to attack. Jonah dodged and thought only of getting Link back. Then he focused on his sword and it started glowing. Link charged his own and blocked.

"Nice, see you have to be focused only on the battle." Link complemented. "Now do that again and this time attack me like you mean it, you big wuss!" Link teased. It had been a long time since Jonah had a real friend, and it felt good to feel happy even with all the troubles surrounding him. So he charged his energy and a small glow appeared around his sword. Link did the same, but he felt like showing off a little so he channeled all his energy into his sword. A huge green aura surrounded the sword and he swung his sword weakly at Jonah. When his sword hit Jonah's the energy was released and Jonah flew back at least 10 feet. Link couldn't help but laugh at the look on Jonah's face as he flew through the air.

"Whoa, That was great! How long did it take to be able to do that?" Jonah asked in shock as he got off the ground.

"Years, I've had a lot of experience you know." Link said. After a while the two decided to get going. When the weather wouldn't warm up Jonah asked which month it was. What they didn't know is that it had been nearly two months since they first entered that treacherous forest

"What! I promised my wife Zelda that I wouldn't be gone for more than two weeks. Oh she's going be so mad at me, again." Link said with a chuckle.