Chapter 10: No Place is Home.
"I have never seen a city before," Arialk chirruped, trying to stay upbeat. It was past dawn and clouds were forming overhead. It looked to be a day of rain.
Link looked to the guards who still had their sights trained on him and his monkey friend. He didn't feel like replying to Arialk. He felt low. He had put on the Deku mask, altered his form, all to fit in with the Deku people of this city. Already he found himself under suspicion, for what he could not say. He traced lines along the wooden planks of the jetty with his wooden hands.
"Are you okay?" Arialk asked, putting a friendly paw on Link's stumpy arm.
"I was just thinking about the first time I went to a city."
Saria smiled from behind her monkey's face; finally, she was getting somewhere. "You weren't born in a city?"
Link shook his head, his Deku eyes looked sad and forlorn. "I never knew where I was born, but I never grew up in a city. The first time I saw one, I was so terrified. I had just been exiled from my home."
"Exiled?" Arialk asked confused.
"Yeah, kind of. I mean I had been asked to go on a quest but I had also been accused of killing my people's leader. They didn't kick me out but being blamed for something like that would make it hard for me to stay even if I wanted to. I remember there was always one boy of my kind who would guard the exit to the wood to where I grew up. He would guard that pathway day and night reminding us that to leave the forest was a death sentence for our kind; that we couldn't survive beyond our village. After our leader died, he didn't try to stop me leaving anymore and that was the moment I knew I was no longer welcome. In the end, only one friend came to see me leave."
"What did they say?" Arialk asked.
"She told me she always knew I would leave the forest one day. She was my best friend and, though she didn't mean to, those words hurt more than anyone else's. They were an admission that even she knew I wasn't one of them. Back then, I didn't know the world had secrets."
Saria leaned in to her wooden friend and hugged him tightly. He didn't know it was her but she needed to do it all the same. "What about the city you went to?" she asked sadly. "Did you find that you were one of them?"
Link chuckled. "The first girl I met, who I am very good friends with, made fun of my clothes and called me fairy boy when I first met her. She was only teasing playfully, others were far less kind."
Saria felt tears welling up in her own eyes and she drew one paw across her face to banish them.
A great commotion behind the city gates drew Link's attention and he hastily stood up. A Deku of larger height was marching towards them. He had mossy green hair curled into two large orbs on his head, and a very well kept moustache of that same colour. His long spindly legs and arms betrayed him as no fighter, but his bearing put him high above the guards on patrol.
"You," He said as he leaned in to Link and began sniffing the air around him with his large round snout-mouth. You are of no Deku clan I am aware of and as the royal butler it is my job to know them all. Tell me plainly boy, where do you come from?"
Link nodded, his little Deku form looking pitiful next to this majestic adult of the species. "I am an orphan," he answered, hoping such a thing existed for the Deku.
The butler's eyes squinted as though he were searching for the truth on Link's face. "Yes, I believe you are. And this monkey, is she a friend of yours?"
"She is," Link affirmed. Even if Arialk was the reason the Deku guards had denied him entrance to the city, he didn't feel he could deny her now.
"It is good that you are an orphan then; the King would not take kindly to any of our own falling in with creatures such as this." At that the butler rose to his full height, turned to the guards and snapped his fingers. Instantly the guards on the gate moved aside. "Follow me."
"You're letting us in?" Arialk asked confused. "Didn't you just say…?"
"His benevolent majesty wants the monkey tribe to understand what it means to anger a Deku, he wishes to make you a messenger of his displeasure. You will accompany me to the royal court and there bear witness to his righteous fury. When you have seen all you need to see, you will return to your people and speak of what have seen. As for you little orphan, we will figure out what to do with you in due course."
Beyond the palisade, the Deku city seemed to be everything Link had ever described Hyrule town to be, in shades of green and leaf instead of grey and stone. In the square, Deku children were loading nuts into their mouths and paying an adult to practice on his target range. A variety of merchants, fatter than the regular Deku, were plying their wears from their flower patches. There were many people too. Saria had heard how busy the rest of the world could be, but this was the first time she could actually see it for herself. As she followed Link and the royal butler, she wondered how she would have coped if she had been forced to leave the Kokiri and enter this bigger, busier world. She would have been driven insane.
The royal butler wasted no time in ushering the visitors through the streets and toward the castle. Link noticed the angry faces of passers-by who, without exception, stopped everything to scowl and glare at the monkey by his side. Even the guards who were patrolling the royal gardens turned as they made their final approach to the palace gates.
As soon as the door to the royal court was opened, Link felt like he might spontaneously combust. He was still getting used to his wooden body, but he could feel the moisture inside him drying out as he walked inside, his joints beginning to creak and stiffen. He needed watering. The source of the heat came from a large bonfire that had been lit in the centre of the court floor. The fire had been stoked to an unbearable heat and a large cauldron of water suspended above it was coming up to the boil.
Arialk crept on all fours, keeping her body low to the ground and a little behind Link. This was a useless gesture as all the eyes in the Deku court were on her but she would take any measure of comfort she could. The Deku King in particular had a gaze that burned hotter than the fire in the middle of the room. The far side of the court had been partitioned off with a thick curtain and the occasional glances the king made to it, revealed the importance of whatever lay behind. The rest of the court were shuffling in a mad dance about the fire as though in the grip of some unholy frenzy. They were whopping from their large snout mouths, letting out long ominous calls, as the leaves on their body rustled louder and louder. The cacophony of noise was only stopped when the King waved his sceptre bringing the whole court into awed silence.
Link looked to Arialk and held her hand supportively.
"Behold," the King bellowed, "Another of the fur covered demons of the forest has come, no doubt to plunder and destroy our entire city!" A chorus of squeaks and squeals of disapproval rang out from the courtiers present. "Our beloved princess, the brightest blossom of our empire, has been lured to a tragic end by the hands of their kind!" The King pointed his sceptre at Arialk. Once again, the court erupted with an angry joy; the King, drunk in the adulation, not even trying to retain order anymore. "Bring forth the prisoner!"
Two aides of the King shuffled over to the red curtains and began drawing them apart to reveal their captive.
"Fraylo!" Arialk cried diving out from behind Link. He tried to keep the monkey by his side but in his Deku form he was far too slow for her. She bounded across the court to the cage only to be knocked down by a bullet fired from one of the King's guard. She had tears in her eyes: It was so complex being at once Saria the Kokiri and Arialk the monkey. Saria was reminding herself that this was all a figment of Link's mind and that he was her priority. Even so, she cared for her bond mate as truly as though it were really Link.
"See, see my fellows how the vermin conspire with each other. They have brought another to break out the evildoer from his cage but she will not succeed. She will return to her people having borne witness to the fate reserved for any and all of her kind who ever dare darken our doors again."
Arialk was now clawing at the ground, trying to get closer to her bond mate who was bound and caged to a pole inside the cage. The Royal butler had taken a hold of her feet and with a strength far beyond what his twiggy arms should accomplish, he was dragging her out of the court.
"And you knew about this too?" Darunia once again found himself quizzing the Happy Mask Man for information, only this time he didn't bother dragging him into the woods.
"Yes, I have admitted this already," the Happy Man said, bowing furiously every few seconds to show his contrition. "You were travelling with a child of the forest, I assumed you all knew the risks, I am guilty only of supposing that your little sage had made suitable recipes to keep the Hylian from harm."
"Just what are you anyway?" Nabooru asked disdainfully. "You don't look like a Hylian, what race do you come from that protects you from the forest?"
"My race does not protect me from the forest, neither does yours I might add."
Darunia looked nervously to the Gerudo. If Nabooru was concerned by the prospect of turning into a monster she didn't show it on her face. "Why haven't I changed then? I have no magic."
"Hmmm? In another reality, in another time, aren't you the sage of spirit?" The Mask Man's eyes glistened as though they were set on something exciting. "You may not be awakened as a sage here, but there is still enough power surrounding you to protect you from mundane harm."
"I would hardly call turning into a Wolfos mundane." Nabooru sighed. "And what is protecting Link from such a transformation?"
"The Triforce of courage," the Happy Man answered. Every answer was spoken as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Our young hero still earned the blessings of the gods in that other reality. Even if he was returned as a child and prevented from ever taking up the master sword again, he still has power from those days."
"Poor Fire Hat," Darunia shook his head. "We should have known better than to take a simple farm girl with us on a quest such as this."
"Hmmph, I still would have taken her." Nabooru answered. "She wanted to be here; I respect that. You other races are too soft on your own young. How can anyone grow strong if you aren't willing to throw them to the lion's jaw of adversity?"
"Is that why you're happy letting Ruto guard her by herself?"
Nabooru leaned her head out the window. Ruto was sat on the floor by the trees base with Malon nuzzled peacefully next to her. Epona was stood nearby and would trot about impatiently. Malon still had a good voice and, even though she could not sing now, she howled the notes to Epona's favourite melody beautifully. "They seem fine," she said satisfied.
"Until Malon losses her pretty little mind and runs off into the mist to kill everything she finds."
"We shackled her leg to the roots of the tree didn't we, this problem isn't going away."
Darunia felt like punching someone again. "This journey is cursed. If this were for anyone else but brother, I would call it a folly and return to rule Death Mountain."
Nabooru eyed the Goron coolly. "Then I suggest you remind yourself that it is all for Link. Nothing else matters in this. We should all be honoured to meet Malon's fate and worse if it helps Link."
"I'm not sure if I admire your fervour or whether I'm frightened by it."
"I'm not looking for your approval," she said finishing her conversation with Darunia. "Mask Man, you said Saria should know of some potion to save Malon from this."
"Oh my, yes. There is a certain mushroom that can be turned into the most powerful of potions, easily capable of warding off and reversing the monstrous effects working through your little friend. Unfortunately, it can only work on a patient not yet consumed. If Malon loses her mind to the Wolfos, there may well be nothing of her soul to save."
Darunia looked down at the sleeping form of Saria on the floor. "Hurry up in there girl!"
Author's Notes.
Wow. It's weird to think I only started this little project two weeks ago. As always, I really want to thank everyone reading who has taken the time to follow, favourite and leave their thoughts on how the story is progressing.
Good or ill, please continue to post your thoughts on the story; they give me the impetus to continue writing and more than once they've been the inspiration for whole plots I had never even considered.
Thanks for reading.