Chapter Ten: Faron's Trial
About half a month had passed since I arrived in Europe, and I was now wandering through a deep forest. I had been through several other wooded areas in the past few weeks, but none of them showed any signs of a light spirit living in them. Hopefully, things would be different with this forest. As I wandered through the woods, I came across a grassy clearing. When I was halfway across it, I heard something rustling in the thickets.
I stopped and listened carefully, bracing myself for some kind of ambush. I heard more rustling, and this time I heard several growling sounds. Whatever was around me, there was more than one of them. Suddenly from out of the thickets, a wolf came running at me. I rolled out of the way of its attack, and stood my ground. Then two more wolves came out into the clearing. These must have been what I heard before.
The wolves were staring me down and growling ferociously. One of them was a little bigger than the others and had a blackened scar across its eyes. I guess this was their leader. It was funny, because this wolf, with its scar, kind of reminded me of Robin with his mask.
All three wolves came at me again, and I was ready to counter-attack. However, right before any attacks hit, a voice echoed from the woods.
"Stop!" the voice said. "This boy is not to be harmed. Let him pass."
The wolves apparently understood the voice, for they backed off after they heard it. Even so, the leader wolf took one last look and snarled at me before disappearing into the wood.
Whose voice was that just now? I had a feeling that I knew. It must've been the light spirit. I guess I was heading in the right direction.
I continued on through the woods, and I eventually came to a large freshwater spring. It was almost identical to the spring back in Lanayru Village. I approached the edge of the spring and took a look around, hoping this was where I'd find the spirit. Fortunately I didn't have to look for long, because the rocks and water in the spring started to glow.
A golden sphere rose out of the water, and a large golden squirrel-like creature appeared along with it and lay down on top of the sphere, while its long tail curled vertically around it. The creature looked upon me with a rather unimpressed look.
"My name is Faron." It said, with a somewhat feminine voice. "I am the light spirit that guards these lands. I have been awaiting your arrival boy."
"I'm here for…" I began to say, but Faron cut me off.
"The emerald spirit shard, yes I know. But first, as I'm sure you are aware, you must pass a trial to receive it." She told me.
"I know. So what is the trial?" I asked.
"Your trial will take place in a particular area of this forest that has been come to be known as the Woods of Despair, on account of the fact that the area has been crawling with foul creatures as of late." Faron answered. "At the end of those woods is a shrine built to protect the shard. If you are able to brave the horrors that await you in forsaken place, then you will be permitted to retrieve it."
From the sound of that, these 'Woods of Despair' sounded horrifying. I was a bit nervous about going there, but I needed to retrieve the shard to reform the spirit key, and the sooner I reformed it, the sooner I could return home to my friends. So I wasn't going to turn back.
"Though to be honest, I highly doubt that a meek little boy like you could last long within those woods." Faron told me. "To think that the spirit's chosen hero is someone like you…"
"What? I can do it! I will do it!" I told her.
"Hmph! You only passed Lanayru's trial with the help of your friends. And if I had not intervened before, those wolves would've ripped you to shreds! I honestly don't know what the other spirits were thinking when they chose you." Faron remarked. "If the decision had been up to me, I would've chosen one with far more confidence in their own skills. One such as that masked lad you met during Lanayru's Trial. Hmm….Robin was it?"
While I didn't entirely agree with Faron's judgment, she did have a point. Robin does seem a lot more skilled and confident than I was, and could likely get through those woods easily.
"But Lanayru insisted for you to be the chosen hero, even going as far as to give you the spirit's blessing." She said.
Spirit's blessing? What was that? I guess that might have been where my powers came from.
"I'll pass your trial and prove that I have what it takes!" I told her.
"Hmm… very well. Continue down the path to the right of my spring and you will reach the entrance of the Woods of Despair." Faron told me. "Good luck… you're going to need it."
Faron then vanished back into the spring. I wasn't going to let what she said get to me. I started running down the path to the Woods of Despair.
About ten minutes later, I arrived in front of a section of the forest that looked different from the rest of it. The trees within it had pitch black bark, and there was barely any light coming in.
"This must be the Woods of Despair." I said to myself.
"Indeed it is." Someone said out of nowhere.
I jumped a bit when I heard that, but I recognized the voice. Sitting up in one of the trees was Ghirahim. He jumped down from the branch he was on and snickered. I was about to draw my sword, but Ghirahim stopped me.
"Don't fret. I'm not here to fight you." He told me. "After all, you'll be tortured plenty once you go in there!"
"What do you know of this place?" I asked him.
"Oh… merely the fact that it is crawling with all sorts of horrific creatures, lurking in the darkness ready to attack anything that moves, possibly even devouring them." He answered.
Devoured?! There was the chance I could get eaten in there?! The thought of that freaked me out, but nothing was going to make me give up.
"Before I go, a piece of advice for you Link. Watch your step in there… or you'll end up as something's lunch." He said before he vanished.
All of this just meant I had to be extra careful. I took out the spirit gem and held it tightly for a few seconds, for luck, and then I cautiously walked into the Woods of Despair.
It was very dark inside. I could barely see in front of me. I knew if I couldn't see I'd have no chance of getting through here. Then I had an idea. Maybe I could use the glow of my sword from when I use my powers to light things up a little. I gave it a try, and it worked, the area about six feet around me was now illuminated. I remembered Faron saying something about Lanayru giving me the spirit's blessing, or something. Assuming that's how I got my powers, I decided to give them a new name: Spirit mode.
Anyway, while my sword was glowing in spirit mode, I took notice of several very large flowers with strange patterns on the ground ahead of me. I found it odd that they were growing in an area with so little sunlight, but I didn't have time to wonder about that, especially since I was in spirit mode. I decided to ignore them and charge on ahead. But I was in for a nasty surprise.
One of the flowers opened up in the middle and out snaked a serpentine creature with razor sharp teeth. I managed to dodge its attack just in time and sliced its neck-like stem horizontally in half. The plant creature struggled for a moment on the ground, with the area that I cut it oozing purplish blood, before finally shriveling up.
The whole forest floor ahead of me was covered with these flower monsters, so I had to move carefully. I only had about three more minutes before my spirit modes side effect kicked in, so I decided to try something kind of crazy. I held my shield out in front of me, and charged as fast as I could through the monsters. Several of them tried to bite me, but I was either going too fast, or they met the wrong end of my shield.
When I saw no more flower monsters on the ground, I took a break from spirit mode for a moment. I got lucky however, because there happened to be several orb shaped plants hanging from a nearby tree, and they had their own light. I went over to pick one, but the moment after I picked it, the branch it was hanging from swiped at me and knocked me backwards. Then to my surprise, the tree growled at me. This place had some pretty bizarre life forms, but at least I had some light now. I wrapped it around my belt and continued onward.
After traveling further into the woods, I came upon a clearing similar to the one from before. The moment I reached the center of it though tentacle-like roots encircled the clearing, blocking my escape. Suddenly I heard a scraping sound coming from above me. I looked up and saw what was making it: A gigantic spider. The spider dropped down into the clearing and hissed violently at me.
I braced myself for an attack. The spider delayed for a bit, but then attacked by thrusting its fangs at me. It was slow though so I was able to dodge it without much trouble. But then it tried a new attack. It reared up and sprayed venom at me. I was quick enough to dodge it, and it was fortunate that I did, because the venom had hit a tree and was burning a hole through it. I had also noticed a small glowing spot on the spider's underside when it had reared up. I had an idea. I kept dodging its attacks until it reared up to spray venom again. When I saw the glowing spot, I quickly thrust my sword into it. When I withdrew my sword from the spider, I could tell immediately that it worked.
The spider fell onto its back and curled up, dead. The roots that were blocking my path before disappeared. But before I was able to continue on, a large treasure chest fell down from the trees right in front of me. I decided to open it. Inside it was a yellow-colored boomerang. It would probably come in useful, so I took it along with me.
As I trekked deeper into the woods, I came across another clearing, but this one had a large withered tree in the center. What had caught my attention however was the building on the other side of the clearing that bore Faron's symbol. That had to be the shrine that housed the spirit shard! I made it! I started to run towards the shrine, but when I was about halfway across I felt the ground beneath me vibrate. Once again tentacle-like roots surrounded the clearing. I was expecting another spider or something, but it was something completely different.
The withered tree in the center of the clearing suddenly straightened itself up. In the middle of its trunk was a mouth-like hollow surrounded with small sharp teeth. In the middle of the hollow was a single large yellow eye that was staring evilly at me. It then closed the hollow and from the top of its trunk snaked out ten snake-like branches, each one tipped with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The tree's branches began snapping at me one after the other. I tried dodging them all, but one of them managed to scrape me with its sharp teeth. I stumbled back in pain for a moment, but quickly regained my footing.
I had a feeling that if I could attack the eye in the center of its trunk, then I could defeat it. But first I had to get past all of its jawed branches. I tried slashing the branches, but they were too strong to cut. As I was dodging its attacks, I noticed that each branch had a discolored section near where they were attached. Maybe those sections could be cut, but with all these jaws attacking me, I wouldn't be able to get close enough with my sword. Then I remembered the boomerang that I picked up earlier. I took it out and threw it at one of the branches. When it hit the discolored section, it sliced right through it. The cut branch fell from the tree and shriveled up.
I was going to throw the boomerang again, but to my surprise the branch I had just cut off quickly grew back. Perhaps if I cut them off all at once I could get to the eye, but how was I going to do that? Maybe spirit mode could do something. Once I activated it, I focused energy into boomerang, which glowed with a blue light, just like how my sword does. I definitely felt something different about the boomerang at that moment. I prepared to throw it and focused on each of the trees weak spots.
When I threw the boomerang this time, it hit all ten targets at once! It would take a little time for it to grow them all back, so I rushed towards its now exposed eye and thrust my sword into it. The eye burst apart when I drew my sword out of it, and the tree monster began flailing around in agony. When it stopped flailing it shriveled up and disintegrated. The roots surrounding the arena disappeared and I was now able to access the shrine.
Inside of the shrine, there were two lit torches and a green-colored pedestal in the center. There was ancient writing on the pedestal. It said: "Ye who holds the Spirit's power, thrust your blade into the pedestal. When it has seen your power, what you seek shall be revealed." My guess was that I had to place my sword into the pedestal while in spirit mode. So I did just that. When my sword was in the pedestal, the blue light from it surged into the intricate patterns throughout the room and gathered into a rectangular section of the floor in front of me.
From that area a large stone tablet bearing the symbol of Faron rose up from the floor. And in the center of Faron's symbol, embedded within the tablet, was the emerald spirit shard. I hastily went up to the tablet and pulled the shard out. It began to glow, and I felt the same mysterious power within it that I felt from the sapphire spirit shard. I now had two of the shards. I just needed two more.
When I exited the shrine, I heard Faron's voice.
""You have done well, lad." She said. "Though I have to say, you were a bit slow."
Ignoring that remark, I asked Faron where the next shard was.
"The next shard and the light spirit who guards it lie south of here, within the vast Sahara Desert." She told me.
I checked my compass and pinpointed which direction was south, and started heading in that direction. Faron wished me good luck, saying that I'd need it. I had just managed to get through a dark forest filled with monsters, so I was pretty sure I could handle a desert.