Wow, I just want to take a moment to say thanks for the raving reviews, Crowlet! Every one of them made me either laugh or reread them (especially that last one, laughed for a full five minutes)! I actually almost rewrote the last three chapters, because I almost felt as if they were rushed (just kept writing and couldn't stop!), but maybe not anymore :)

Well, hope you enjoy :)

When I awoke, I was leaning against a wall, sitting on a very plush carpet. As I opened my eyes, a pair of blue eyes suddenly came into focus.

"You're awake," Link said, clearly relieved. "I wanted to find you a bed to rest on...but the Gorons didn't know what a bed was...so I found this carpet..."

I looked down at my foot to see that it was wrapped.

"Oh, the Gorons gave me some medicine to put on your foot, and gave me a bandage."

I reached down and rubbed my foot. It throbbed painfully. "Thanks!"

"Can you heal it, yet?"

"No. My powers haven't fully recovered. I'll just have to let it heal the old fashioned way..." I then realized that Link still seemed nervous. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... Well, yeah, it's something... I don't really like these 'Goron' people... They make me nervous..."

At that moment, a Goron came down the stairs not far from us and started walking toward us. He was large, slightly larger than the average adult, with skin as tough as leather, and rocks protruding from his head and back. His arms and body were long, his legs only about as long as ours despite his size. He was slightly humanoid looking, although his nose was very small and he had no ears.

I had seen Gorons before, but seeing them through the eyes of someone like Link, I suddenly knew why they made him nervous...

"How is the female human fairing?" He asked in a deep voice as he approached. I noticed that he had a tattoo of the Goron tribe's crest on his arm; a paw-like symbol made of four triangles.

"Fine," I said, standing up.

"Did the medicine and cloth I gave the boy help?" He asked, gesturing to my foot with a long finger.

"Yes. Now it can heal properly."

"Good. Take these," He held out a pair of black leggings and boots, "They will prove more sufficient while scaling the mountain."

I took them gratefully. "Thank you!"

The Goron nodded and then turned, walking back up the stairs. I then realized that the city was completely vertical, made of four tiers. We were on the bottom-most tier.

"Why are we down here?" I asked as I pulled on the leggings under my dress, surprised that they were more like super thick tights; the feet were sowed closed.

"The chief is down here, I guess. Through this door." Link gestured to a large stone door with a large Goron crest on it. "I can't seem to open it, however."

I laced up my boots, surprised at how well they fit, being careful with my foot.

"Have you tried playing the song Impa taught you?"

"Well, I thought of that," he said, "One of the Gorons told me that the chief was 'waiting for the royal family's messenger,' so I figured I had to play the song... I've just been waiting for you to wake up."

"Hm... I'm awake now, so go ahead and play it."

Link nodded and then pulled out his ocarina. He then played the lullaby Impa had taught him.

I had to admit, for someone who couldn't sing to save his life, he had a natural talent with the instrument.

After the song was over, the stone door suddenly rose, disappearing into the ceiling above.

"Well, here we go," he said as he put the instrument away. He waited for me to hobble over to him, and he then held out his hand, the shyness he had displayed before gone. I took it, and we walked into the corridor together.

The corridor was long, and at the end it opened into a medium sized room, completely lit from the two torches in the far corners. The same plush rug I had woken up on decorated the floor in here, and two tables were set against the wall to our right. Directly in front of us, standing in front of a giant Goron statue, was the chief.

The chief was taller than the other Gorons, and was the only one I had ever seen that actually seemed to have hair. It protruded from his head and chin in one wild, giant tangle. The moment we had entered the room, he looked at us and scoffed.

"What the heck! Who are you?" He yelled, his voice booming. As we got closer he folded his arms and glared down at us. "When I heard the song of the Royal Family, I expected their messenger had arrived, but...you're just little kids! Has Darunia, the big boss of the Gorons, really lost so much status to be treated like this by his Sworn Brother, the King?"

"Um, no sir... We were sent here by the Princess-"

"Now I'm REALLY angry! Get out of my face, now!"

"If I may ask," I said, raising my voice, "Why are you so-"

"Are you asking why I'm in such a bad mood right now?" Link and I nodded. He glared at us for a second, and then he took a deep breath. "Ancient creatures have infested the Dodongo's Cavern! We've had a poor harvest of our special crop, Bomb Flowers! Starvation and hunger because of the rock shortage!" He rushed out in one breath. He then paused, taking another deep breath again. "But... This is a Goron problem! We don't need any help from strangers!"

"But, sir, we need to get the-"

"GET OUT!"

Link and I jumped and ran from the room.

Once we were in the larger room, we stopped and looked at each other. Both of us knew that this was hopeless. At that moment, the Goron from earlier (or at least I thought so; they all looked so much alike) appeared.

"How was brother?"

"He wasn't too happy to see us. Threw us out..." Link said, trying his best to hide his nerves.

"Oh I see... By the way, have you been down that corridor, on the tier above? There is a strange kind of music coming from in there that we all really like! It cheers us so..." He sighed and then walked away.

We didn't notice until the Goron was gone that our hands were still joined. They sprang apart, almost of their own accord, and we filled the awkward silence by followed the Goron up the staircase.

On the next tier, we could see perfectly the tier below. In the middle was a great, Goron statue, shaped like a vase. On the other side of the statue, which I hadn't noticed, was another room.

We walked around the path until we found the corridor that the Goron had mentioned. We walked down it, and as we got closer, we realized that there was, indeed, music coming from it. And it reminded me of...

"The forest!" Link suddenly exclaimed. "That's the song that Saria used to play for us all the time on this ocarina!" He looked frantically at the giant boulders blocking the rest of the corridor. "Do you have any idea where this leads?"

"Possibly back to the forest."

"But...that's so far away..."

"Long ago, the ancient Sages built corridors that were used as shortcuts between the different realms of Hyrule. This is possibly one of them, thought it looks like it hasn't been used in ages..."

"So, this leads back to the forest?" I nodded. "Well, how do we get through with those boulders?"

He was so excited, practically jumping up and down, unable to contain himself. His eyes were large, almost as if he were pleading...

I pointed toward the ground, where in the corner of the corridor, grew a rare Bomb Flower. "If we figure out a way to light that, then it will blast the boulders to pieces and we can get through."

"How do we do that?"

"Remember the torches in Darunia's room? If we go back in there and just tell him we want some light, he might let us light a stick and we can use it to light the fuse!"

Link beamed. "Okay, let's go!"

Both of us ran back down the stairs, although I slowed us slightly, and into Darunia's room. He was about to yell at us, when Link pulled out a short stick.

"Can we use some of that fire? That's all; we swear!"

Darunia stared at us for a long moment, and then waved at us. Link ran over to the torch and then ran back down the corridor, with me not far behind. We ran as fast as we could, considering that the stick would burn up fairly quickly. Once in the dark corridor, Link used the light from the stick to find the fuse, and he quickly lit it, dropping the stick just as the fuse lit and the stick burnt up.

"We got it!" He exclaimed. I grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the corridor, just as the fuse ran out and the bomb went off.

I slapped my hands over my ears just as the bomb exploded. My ears throbbed from the sound, and I guessed that one of my ear drums might have burst. Sure enough, once the ground had stopped shaking, one of my ears was bleeding and throbbing painfully.

I stood up and brushed the dirt from the blast off of my dress, with the hand that wasn't now covered in blood. I then felt Link tap my shoulder.

"I can't hear anything!" He yelled, though his voice was distant. I knew it would take awhile for my hearing to recover. I then realized that both of Link's ears were bleeding. Apparently, he hadn't thought of covering his ears.

I pulled my piece of cloth out of my pouch and used it to clean my hand. I then motioned for him to come closer and he did. I placed a hand over each of his ears and healed his burst drums. The magic, however, caused me to sway slightly, and Link caught me just before I fell over.

"You okay?" He asked, looking concerned again.

"Can you hear, now?"

"Yes, perfectly. You should have saved it for yourself, however," He said, motioning to my bleeding ear.

"No, you're the one whose going to be learning to play whatever song that is. You need to hear more than I do." Link didn't say anything, but he didn't look too pleased, either. "Aside from that, I can still hear out of one ear. I'll let my magic recover and I'll heal this one." I stood up. "Now, let's go. This corridor will cut our journey in half, but it will still be a long one."

As we walked, the corridor got darker and darker. And then it suddenly started to drop. This almost caused me to fall over, considering that I was still slightly limping.

"This is no use," Link said, frustrated. "I can't see a thing!"

"And I don't have enough power to create a light source for us..."

At that point, Navi sprang out of Link's hat, making a sigh that sounded like ringing bells. "I might be able to help with that."

And she did. The light from her body lit up the corridor ten feet on either side.

"Perfect! You're a life-saver, Navi!" Link said as the fairy settled on his shoulder opposite me.

"No problem, Link! Just...don't wake me up, okay? I'm going to go back to sleep."

"But, won't you fall off?"

"I might, but if I do I know how to fly," She laughed and then went quiet.

Link then looked at me and shrugged. We started walking again and I noticed the path getting even steeper. I grabbed Link's hand for support when I felt my foot slip slightly.

"You know, with how much you keep grabbing my hand, I might start to think that you like me, too," he said, a smirk on his face.

I sighed and shook my head, "I'm going to pretend that you didn't just say that." But I couldn't help but smile as well.

The trip down the path was shorter than I expected. I had a feeling that the path had a bit of old magic in it, because about a hundred feet after the path grew steep, it leveled out. Another hundred feet and the path shot upwards. And then, there was a light ahead of us. When the light broke through the darkness, Link squeezed my hand even tighter and pulled me faster up the hill. And then...

We were in the forest, the path bursting out of a particularly large boulder. But where in the forest we were, I wasn't sure. It was a section I had never been to before. The trees here were insanely thick, so thick that I couldn't see the sky above or the sun, even though it had to be pretty bright out. I also couldn't see very far ahead. We were standing in a very small clearing, as if the trees were afraid of the boulder, but where the trees began I could no longer see.

And the song seemed to be coming from everywhere...

I started to pull my hand from Link's so I could get a better look, but he suddenly was fierce, pulling me back close to him.

"Don't," he whispered. "We're in the Lost Woods..."

That explained why I didn't recognize this place; I had never wandered this far into the forest.

"Why not? I just want to look around..."

"No," he said, stern. I looked at him to see that he was very serious. "People who wander in here with no fairy get lost and are never seen again. If you let go of me you'll be gone..."

The fear in his voice scared me.

"So, don't let go?" I whispered, trying to keep my voice steady. I felt him squeeze my hand to steady its sudden shaking.

"Don't be scared," He said, trying his best to look and sound calm. I could still see the tenseness in his eyes, however. "I won't let you go, I promise. I know where to go. Just...stay close, okay?"

I nodded, suddenly not wanting to be more than a few inches from him. Now I knew why the deeper sections of the forest had always scared me; if they had this effect on the local Kokiri, then what chance did an outsider like me have?

Link pulled me close and started walking, slowly. He then became very deliberate in his direction, pulling me suddenly faster. I thought, for a brief moment, that the song seemed to be coming from the direction that he was heading...and then it was gone, distant again.

Link slowed, and then made a sharp turn. He stood still for a moment, and then pulled me forward.

It went like this for about a half an hour, and Link never loosened his grip the entire time. I could tell that he knew where he was going, but I had a feeling that his nervousness came from my presence. He kept looking back at me, as if to check that nothing was going to sneak up on me and yank me from his grasp. And every time he looked back he pulled me a little closer.

Every time he did this, I squeezed his hand to let him know that I was still there.

Link finally sighed, and for the briefest moment his hand loosened. But then he seemed to remember and squeezed it again. Moments later, the trees thinned out, and we were suddenly in a giant meadow. Link then let go of my hand.

"We're here," he said in relief.

I could only stare. I knew where we were! It was a place I had only heard of but never dreamed I would get to see; the Sacred Forest Meadow! It was said to be the home to one of the ancient temples that housed one of the sages.

Link turned to me to say something, when I saw something move behind him. His back was to it, so there was no chance he would be able to see. It didn't even make a sound...

"NO!" I heard myself scream. I felt the magic flow through every particle of my being and I threw it forward, into the wolf that was twice as tall as a grown man. It had been in mid-pounce, its claws mere inches from Link, a blow I knew would have been instantly fatal with how large it was compared to him.

My magic hit the creature and it yelped. The force of the blast sent it flying backward, right into an oversized tree. The blow shattered its spine, and it went still.

I don't know why, but I was suddenly crying. I could feel, more than see, Link standing in front of me, confused about what had just happened. I finally heard him sigh and then his arms were around me.

I was usually taller than him by a couple of inches, but because of my bum leg and how I was now hunched over, I was able to feel his breath on my forehead.

"Hey, don't cry," he said.

"Y-you c-could've d-died!" I sobbed.

I heard him laugh. I knew that I should have been mad at him for laughing. It wasn't funny! But... I couldn't. All I could do was be happy that he was still there...

"Pull yourself together, Maple," he said gently, forcing me up straight so I was looking at him. "I'm fine, no?"

He was right. I took a deep breath and nodded. It took me a moment, but I finally wiped my eyes and stood straight.

As my vision cleared, I realized that Link was smirking.

"W-what?" I said, my voice still suffering the effects of my sobs.

"Oh, nothing," he said, raising an eyebrow, his smirk growing larger.

"Tell me!"

He waggled his eyebrows. "You just saved me!"

"So?"

"So! I was right! You like me!"

I scoffed. "I do not! It just means I care!"

"Sure," he said dragging out the word.

I glared at him. "Wasn't there something we came here to do!"

His eyes grew large. "Oh yeah! Come on! It's not far!"