chapter five
All Trees Fall on Fairies
I don't even have time to get undressed before Makar calls out that the footraces are starting. Panicking, I shed my clawed boots- I can't possibly run in them!- and turn to Saria.
"Do you think I have time to go grab my boots?"
"Should've brought them with you, idiot. Take mine," she says, lifting a foot to pull off her boots. "I'm not in the race, I'll go grab yours while you run if you want,"
"What, you don't want to watch me beat Mido?" I taunt playfully, pulling on her boots and tightening the laces. They're a little small for me, but improvisation is never perfect.
"He'll probably kick your butt, you know that, right?"
"Eh," I say vaguely. "I've been practicing,"
'Practicing' refers to the roughly two hours I spend each morning running around the woods trying to find some of its hidden treasures.
"Okay, I'll be quick then," she says, bolting off to my house. Straightening, laces tight, I jog over to the roughly toed starting line; straight down the main walkway of the village into the meadow, around the Deku Tree and back again. Easy enough. I hope.
"On your marks!" bellows Makar. I pale as I realise I forgot what each one means; I glance to the side to mimic Soti's posture. "Get set!"
Everyone crouches simultaneously; I'm a step behind, but no matter. And then he shrieks "Go!" and I'm off, feet hitting the ground. I can feel every pebble underfoot; Saria's shoes must have thinner soles than mine, but no matter, everyone's running and I can't fall behind! My breath is rasping up and down my throat, way colder than it felt a moment ago, and I pull ahead of Soti but Mido is still ahead and now Soti is overtaking me and I try to run harder but I stumble, I think I'm gonna fall, and by the time I'm upright again two more have passed me. We loop around the Deku Tree, and Saria's boots skid a little as I turn too sharply. So close to the finish line but it feels like forever, and I finally cross it just after Mido and skid to a halt lest I faceplant in the pond. Kokiri cheer as I immediately double over and then land on my butt.
I am never running that hard ever again. Ever.
I'm mildly surprised when I'm presented with a yellow leaf. Second! That's amazing! I look around; Mido, of course, is toting the green leaf, but I'm surprised to see Zelda packing the brown. Wasn't expecting that. She's shiftier than I thought, evidently. Someone grabs my arm and I flinch before I realise it's just Saria.
"Jeez, Link," she says. "You're the colour of a beetroot,"
"Never...going in the race...again," I pant.
"I do not blame you. Bet you've sweated up my boots, too."
"Sorry," I wince, unlacing and pulling off the boots, stretching my toes gratefully. She tosses me my boots and sticks her own in the pond to wash them out.
"These'll be all gross now," she teases. I stick out my tongue, pulling my own boots back on. That's better. Now to the tree races!
"Oi, Zelda," Saria calls, and the blonde makes her way over to us still in her gold jewellery and long dress.
"Good job, Link," she says encouragingly.
"How do you run in dresses like that?" Saria asks in disbelief. "That was insane,"
She shrugs. "Impa wants me to be capable of defending myself. That includes being able to run in my normal attire,"
I shake my head, finally standing up.
"Nutjob," I mutter. "Absolutely barmy,"
She winks mischievously. "Damn straight," she says. "Where to now?"
"I have no idea," I admit.
"I'm going to do the jumps," Saria says. "You guys wanna join in?"
"Hell yes," Zelda says. I raise an eyebrow.
"In that dress?"
Zelda reaches down, grabs the hem of her skirt, and somehow ties it in a knot above her knees, revealing tall, sturdy Kokiri boots.
"I'll be fine," she says smugly. I shrug.
"On your head be it," I reach over and rap my knuckles on her little headwrap. "Let's go, then,"
We follow the edge of the lake around to the jumps area on the side, where a few Kokiri are wading into the water with the straw floater.
"Hey, you guys jumping?" asks Timi, who's shed his long wizard robe. "Cool! Do you think I can jump that far, though?"
"For sure," I nod. "It's not that far in,"
"We have to jump to that?" Zelda says in disbelief, staring at the floating platform.
"Yeah," Saria says impatiently. "And if you land but tip off the platform then it's a foul,"
"Basically, touching the water is a foul," I add helpfully. Zelda frowns.
"That's not going to be easy," she says. "And it's a bit unfair on the heavier Kokiri,"
"Oh, yeah," Timi agrees. "Saria used to fail it practically every time she tried,"
I blink as Saria punches Timi's arm and he drops his wizard staff to clutch the wounded limb.
"Ow! Sorry!"
Normally Saria swats, not punch. Geez, that must be a soft spot then. But why? Saria's not heavy. Well, in my memory, anyway. Who am I to know what she was like before I was around?
Tactfully and skilfully, Zelda moves the conversation onwards.
"So what do you get for winning?" she asks. "Like, I have this brown leaf from the races,"
"You're meant to tie it around your neck," Timi says. "With the grass rope. You put all your leaves- green is first, yellow or orange is second, and brown is third- around your neck, and the two people with the most points get to climb inside the Deku Tree."
"You ever been in?" I ask.
"Twice," he says. "I won the first time, but Mido was around the second time and he thrashed me. Won by a mile. I think I was still at ground level when he reached the top,"
"Oh, come on," Zelda complains. "Why are the horrible people always the most talented ones?"
"Way of the world," Timi says wisely. "All trees fall on fairies,"
"What?"
"Kokiri saying," explains Saria. "'All trees fall on fairies, not Stalfos'. Pretty obvious meaning,"
"That's morbid," she says with a frown. "Although it's better than the Hylian equivalent. 'Only the good die young',"
"All Kokiri technically die young," Timi says slowly, "so that'd be redundant for us. Interesting, though. Mind if I put that in one of my plays?"
"Uh, no problem," Zelda says, slightly miffed. "I didn't make it up,"
"Everything's original," I say. "Just sometimes it's someone else's originality,"
"Oh, I'm using that too," Timi says brightly.
"Go for it," I nod. "Saria, you got anything to offer?"
"Uh," she pauses. "Nope. I'll get back to you if I come up with anything,"
"Thanks," he says. "My plays could use some one-liners, and Mila and I just aren't witty enough for them."
"You're plenty funny," I reassure.
"Aw, shoot, Link," he says warmly. "Thanks,"
"We should line up," Saria points out. "Bromance can wait. I don't want to wait forever for my jump,"
I sling an arm around Timi, having to tilt drastically sideways to accommodate for his height.
"But bromance, Saria! Don't interrupt it!"
Timi laughs, swatting me away.
"Stop it, you'll make me blush,"
We line up for the jumps, and after a few minutes Kokiri start running one at a time. Hilariously, most of them end up in the pond. It's hilarious as they either jump too far, don't jump far enough, or even hit the platform and skid straight off the other side. I carefully check how well they're jumping; I don't want to lose this one.
Zelda ahead of me gives a brilliant effort but still ends up in the drink; Saria nearly skids off but manages to stop herself at the last minute. Timi does a spectacular job, a perfect jump. I swallow hard as I'm waved ahead; sprinting forward, my toes hit the edge as I push off and land on the platform. I nearly do the splits when I land, and I have to curl my toes hard into the ridged straw to stop myself fouling it. The next jump is much of the same, although this time I think I actually did touch the water and the judge didn't see. I can't tell if the water on my boot is from the pond or from the dripping wet mat. Either way, I'm cleared to go back around for a third jump. Timi high-fives me as I line up again.
Zelda fouls her third jump, slipping backwards onto her butt and sliding straight into the pond with a yelp. I wince in sympathy. Saria makes the third jump easier than she did the first and second- she has long legs, so this is probably easier for her. Timi's superb balance doesn't fail him on this one, a perfect landing again. He's going to win this, for sure. He's doing better than Mido. He's probably got awesome balance from running around on stilts all the time.
I make the third jump smoother than my previous ones. Saria's boot catches on her fourth jump and she bellyflops straight into the water; the crowd 'Ooh's in empathy. Timi pats her on the back as she climbs miserably out of the pond, then goes for his perfect jump again. Mido lands but capsizes the platform, splashing into the water loudly
Before long it's just me, Timi, Miray and Makar. It's tense as we keep jumping; I don't understand how Timi's still making it. The mat's nearly at the other side of the pond and the tiny Kokiri is still making it no problems. Miray repeats Mido's earlier mistake and capsizes it, sliding off with a squeal. I'm the next to go, to my chagrin; I don't jump far enough, my shins hit the platform and I sprawl across it before rolling off sideways. Paddling to the bank with my shins smarting, I watch Timi and Makar brawl it out until finally Makar makes a mistake and overjumps it; I wince in sympathy as he actually hits the opposite bank with an 'oof'. Timi makes one last jump to secure his victory.
"That was awesome!" I congratulate him. He smiles, embarrassed.
"Shoot, Link, it wasn't that good. Your shins okay? That looked painful,"
"Eh, I'll be fine," I shrug it off. "Didn't hit that hard,"
Timi's handed his green leaf, and he triumphantly loops it around his neck. I do the same with my brown leaf.
"Good job, guys," Zelda says encouragingly. "You're totally going to win, Link. Mido sucked at that one,"
Makar looks content with his yellow leaf, and I offer him a thumbs up.
"What're you guys doing next?" Timi asks.
"Tree races," Saria says immediately.
"Tree race?" Zelda asks curiously.
"Climbing trees as fast as you can and then using ropes to swing between them," I explain. Timi shudders.
"No, thanks. Almost broke my leg doing that once,"
"Okay, I wanna do that!" Zelda says immediately.
"Thought so," Saria mutters. "This way,"
We head to the edge of the thicker woods, where the course has been cordoned off by old wooden lattices from the gardens. Mido is swinging around checking all the ropes in the trees as Saria, Zelda and I pick our trees. The ropes are tied in such a way that each starting tree has its own route to follow, and Mido is double checking all of them. He stops at mine, tugging on the knot at the base to make sure it's sturdy. When he's content, he slides to the ground and chooses his own tree. This competition's less popular than the footraces, if only because it's rife with cheating. People deliberately swinging into eachother, people grabbing eachother's ropes out of the way to hold them up, people distracting others by yelling warnings at them when there's no danger… it's a mess. I'm only in it for the points.
Seated at the base of our trees, I look at Zelda.
"Are you sure you want that tree?" I ask, concerned. "It looks pretty smooth. It'd be super embarrassing if you couldn't get up it…"
"I'll survive," she winks cheekily.
"Ready?" calls Miray, since Makar's participating in this. Zelda, Saria and I look at eachother; I have Zelda on my right and Saria on my left. We scramble to our feet, facing our chosen trees.
"Good luck, guys," I say, and get a murmured "Good luck" from both sides.
"Go!" shouts Miray.
Immediately I leap onto the tree, boots scrabbling for purchase in the relatively young and smooth bark. Each vestigial branch provides a perfect foot- or hand-hold as I reach the top of my first tree and reach out for the ropes. Now this is something I'm good at! Pulling on the rope, I kick off the first tree and sail forwards, reaching with one hand to grab the branches of the second. I swing forward as agilely as I can, reaching for the second rope. There are cheers but I barely hear them as I try and stop myself looking back to see where Mido is. Saria isn't far behind me, but Zelda's having trouble grabbing her next tree after a swing. Thankfully she's taken off the long gloves she wore earlier; they would totally destroy her traction and probably become dangerous as the trees we reach get steadily older and taller.
There's a yelp off to my left as someone is nearly barged off their vine; I don't stop to see who it is, but they cling on for dear life as they miss their opportunity to grab the next tree. I think I might actually be ahead! I reach my fifth tree, about four and a half metres tall. I miss it the first time and quickly swing back for a second shot, grabbing a branch and hauling myself onto it. I reach out and swing onto my next rope carelessly, kicking off straightaway. Big mistake.
I'm already on the ground before I register the snapping of the rope.
A choked breath is knocked straight out of me as I plough into the grass mats woven for this very purpose. It feels like there's something crushing my chest and I can't breathe and holy shit I think I'm actually dying I can't breathe and someone's screaming and then Navi's broken ranks with the fairies and is buffeting my face and I can't even talk and holy hell I'm actually going to die. Someone's boots hit the ground beside me and Zelda's there and she's asking me if I can hear her but it's not like I can freaking tell her because there's not enough goddamn air to say so and she's poking my chest and stuff and reassuring Navi that I'm fine I'm just winded but does she know I can't freaking breathe and she's trying to get me up onto my boots to get me to crouch and she keeps telling me to breathe and I want to ask her what the hell she thinks I'm trying to do and she's gently rubbing my back and Saria's there too helping her and I'm trying to tell her I can't breathe and I think I'm going to die but she keeps making these stupid soothing noises as I finally get some slight wisps of air into my aching chest. Slowly slowly, the amount of air I can pull in rises until finally I can stop panicking and just breathe over and over until my chest decides to stop dying like the rest of me has.
"Are you okay now?" asks Saria, concerned.
"Y-yeah," I stammer, voice shaky. "Ow."
There are Kokiri clamouring around; the race must've stopped when I fell or something, because most of the competitors are here too.
"Oh, gods, Link!" Navi wails. "You have to stop hurting yourself!"
"It wasn't his fault!" Zelda admonishes sharply.
"What actually happened?" I pant.
"The rope just snapped. Like that," she says, clicking her fingers. "It was so sudden. One minute you were way ahead of me and the next I couldn't see you and I realised you were down,"
"That's a long way to fall," Navi says, concerned. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Well, don't tell," Zelda says softly, so the others can't hear, "but I think you broke your arm, too. Don't panic!" she adds quickly as all three of us start to do exactly that. I check both arms; one is slick with what looks like a purple slime. It sparks when I touch it. "I healed it," Zelda continues. "Healing minor breaks isn't so hard. It might twinge a little but you'll be fine,"
"You can heal people with your magic?" Saria says in disbelief. "I thought that was a fairy thing,"
"No," Zelda shakes her head. "It's a basic magic discipline. Light scrapes are easily healed, and minor breaks are next. Then big cuts and major breaks, then stab wounds and compound breaks. And some wounds can't be healed at all. They just resist healing and nobody knows why,"
"Th-thank you," I stutter, wiping the slime off my arm.
"Sorry," she winces. "The goo is a side effect."
She wipes her palms, which are also covered in slime, on the grass mats, leaving violet smears behind.
"Oh, Link," says Navi sadly. "You gotta stop doing this. I must be the worst guardian fairy ever,"
"Hey," I reassure her. "It's not your fault. You can't protect me if I shove you in a jar,"
I probably shouldn't have said that. She clams up immediately.
"You're right," she says. "I guess you lost this event,"
"Actually, no," says Miray. "Mido got first- he didn't see you fall, I think, he kept going-"
"Wolfos crap," Saria says immediately, but Miray ignores her.
"-but everyone else stopped. You and Saria were about equal, so it's up to you who gets which leaf,"
"Give Link the yellow," says Saria immediately, to my shock. "He has a better chance of winning."
"What? No!" I protest. "Give it to Saria!"
"Give it to me and I'll smack you,"
Miray meekly hands me the yellow leaf. I sigh in resignation.
"Thank you, Saria," I say softly. She smiles.
"Kick Mido's butt, eh?"
"Well," Saria says a few hours later. "That has got to be the most competitive Greenleaf Festival ever."
Zelda nods. "I gotta admit, I didn't realise climbing trees could be so competitive."
I nod. "That was super stressful,"
Navi returns from a fly-over, landing on my head.
"I can't see anyone with as many yellows as you, Link," she says, "so I hope they add up to enough to get you in,"
We crowd around the Deku Tree, anxious to see who will get to race through the maze-like interior of our de facto father. There's a long, pregnant pause as two non-guardian fairies finish tallying up the leaves and fly up to the Deku Tree, caught in quiet conversation. One looks around at me, and then flies towards me.
"Link," she says, "the Deku Tree says you need to go get something."
"What?" I ask in confusion. She rolls her eyes.
"He reckons he told you to bring something and you forgot it,"
I blink in surprise before I remember the sword.
"Oh, hell!" I swear, turning on my heel and racing off to my house, grabbing the blade from under the bed. Does this mean I won? Navi hasn't bothered to follow, probably due to laziness. I skid back into the meadow with the dark sheath in hand.
"Whoa," says Saria. "Crap, Link, is that a sword?"
"Yep," I say. "Deku Tree gave it to me,"
"Why?" she asks in shock.
I almost tell her before Navi interrupts.
"It was his mother's," she says, and Saria pauses.
"Oh," she says. Then, "Can I see?"
Turning my back on the crowd so they can't see, I unsheath the blade. It doesn't make that nice noise again- probably a good thing, because that'd attract everyone's attention.
"That's a nice sword," Zelda remarks. "I like the guard. It's pretty,"
"Swords shouldn't be pretty," says Saria crossly. "They're tools of violence."
"Pardon me," the blonde says crossly. "I still like the engravings,"
"Quiet down, everyone!" The Deku Tree interrupts their bickering. "The results have been decided! The two Kokiri who will compete to open the fairy buds are…"
There's a long, long pause as he stops for dramatic effect. Vain old tree.
"Mido and Link!" he says loudly, to shrieks of excitement and disappointment.
"Holy hell," I breathe in disbelief. "I actually made it!"
Mido, who of course was expecting it, marches proudly up to the Deku Tree, and Saria squeaks with excitement, nudging me repeatedly. Navi whoops in joy.
"Go on, Link! You could beat him any day!" she says brightly. I doubt that, but elbow through the crowd to stand beside Mido, still not believing my luck. He notices me and scowls.
"No-Fairy? You're the other one?"
"You sound like you didn't see it coming," I comment. His face darkens and he looks away.
"Children!" the Deku Tree announces. "Today has been a brilliant display of talent and confindence; before you stand your winners! They shall race through my trunk to reach my boughs, and whoever reaches them first shall have the honour of opening the first fairy-bud!"
To Mido and I, more quietly, he adds "Be careful, both of you. This year is more dangerous than most; I am feeling unwell, and it is quite possible that there is a proper cause for this. If you should find yourself in any danger at all, simply crush this seed in your hand and you will be rescued. Understood?"
The little fairies offers Mido and I a Deku seed each; Mido shoves my hand away and grabs the biggest one.
I don't see why.
I take the seed and thank the fairy holding mine; it's hard to see through her bright glow, but I think she might be smiling.
"BEGIN!" the Deku Tree bellows, his mouth hanging open. Mido shoves me harshly to the side; the fairies and Navi squeal as they simultaneously shove me upright and manage to stop me faceplanting, as Mido vanishes into the Deku Tree's mouth.
"Come on, Link!" Navi screeches excitedly, zooming forward.
"Thanks!" I call to the fairies, scrambling after Mido. I can hear Saria cheering, and I grin.
I'm going to win this!
A/N: Probably the most different chapter from the original so far; there was absolutely no Greenleaf action in the first round. We also get to explore Link and Timi's friendship a little more, and a few tidbits of personality from Saria and Navi too. All in all, a little filler-ish, but some nice intro stuff to the characters you probably didn't care about the first time.
Lord Darth Yoda: I checked out a few of your fics and I quite like them. Good job, mister! And yes, the mask is downright terrifying. If you want, I could put the art for it on my deviantART so people could view it. I've been meaning to keep the character art up there but honestly I'm a lazy cat and keep putting it off.
Read and review! Hope you liked it!
-Inky
22 August 2016