Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Zelda, only the essential plot line I have written here.

The Flames of Time

Chapter Eleven: Ambush

Tessa watched as Link stumbled ahead of her. He completely forgot about his attempt to help her walk and just continued to walk. His eyes were wide, and for a minute he reminded Tessa of a lost child. "Link...are you okay?" She decided to suck it up and began to limp towards him on her own. The adult Kokiri continued ahead on his own; his mind was consumed in his own shock. Navi also seemed to frantic with worry as she flew around Link's body with amazing speed.

"Where are they? Where are the rest?" Navi shrieked, and Tessa could tell that the fairy would have already flown off to find the Kokiri but had her duty to Link first.

"Link..." Tessa finally caught up with the two. Link still didn't respond, but only stared at the surrounding forest. Tessa frowned but took a moment to share the sight. He was right, there was nobody there. However, Tessa could see that the trees in the area were much thicker than where they had entered the forest in the first place. They seemed to have been cut in many different manners, and looked almost like homes.

"Nobody..." Link murmured. Suddenly he flew forward with the sound of a large bone-breaking thud. He screamed in pain, and Tessa looked to see what had hit him. Navi flew towards the area and Tessa could see the shape of a creature made of leaves and wood pop its head out of the grass. It hurled itself back and something flew out of its large O-shaped nose. Tessa fell to the ground to dodge it, and looked at Link. His leg had been hit pretty badly, but contrary to the painful sound nothing appeared to be broken.

"Link!" Tessa shouted. Link groaned and rolled onto his back. Tessa could hear the creature scurry towards the two of them in the grass and she held back a curse. "Link, get up!"

"I'm not sure how easy that will be right now." Link hissed, and motioned towards the leg that had been hit. Tessa glanced briefly and almost immediately felt nauseous. His kneecap had been dislocated. Tessa stumbled for something to do in her mind, and she saw Navi's form again appear from the grass. The thing was almost on them.

"Tessa, use his sword!" Navi screeched, and Tessa grabbed it without second thought. Fear drove her to stand up and run towards the area where Navi and the creature were. A nut soared just inches from her thigh and Tessa barely even registered it. The creature came in sight and Tessa raised the sword into the air before she brought it down on the thing's head. It squeaked so loud with its death that Tessa snapped out of her fear and registered a sharp pain in her hands. She immediately dropped Link's weapon and hissed as she examined her hands. They were heavily blistered and slightly swollen.

"What..." Tessa winced and Navi flew towards the girl's hands.

"The Master Sword is used to repel all evil..." Navi murmured. "It chooses its master, and I imagine that since it had chosen Link, nobody would be allowed to wield it besides him. Normally I would suspect you of being evil...but your arms would have been blistered too."

"So it's just persnickety, and now I have two useless hands and a useless foot. Link has a useless leg. We're shit for luck right now." Tessa growled.

"Link!" Navi gasped and flew over to him. Tessa grumbled and attempted to stand. She propped herself up on her elbows and put most of her weight on her good foot. It took some time but eventually she was able to stand and move towards Link. His fairy swirled around his knee and the bleeding was slowing down. Link lied on the ground with a frustrated look on his face.

"What are we going to do now?" Tessa asked, and fell down next to the guy. Link frowned and struggled to sit up. Navi protested his movement and Tessa used her elbow to keep him down. "You can't move, remember. I think Navi's trying to heal you."

"This will take forever if I'm the only one here to heal." Navi sighed. "I'm almost at my limit, and I'll probably have to rest also. Healing takes a lot of magic."

For another minute the three were quiet. Tessa faintly wondered where Epona and Tompton had run off to and whether or not they were okay. Link grumbled as he stared at the tree tops. Navi finally went over to Tessa's shoulder and sat, since the Hero of time lay on the ground.

"Link...I think I should look around and see if I can find any of the Kokiri." Navi finally spoke. "Is it all right if I leave you just for this?"

"Yes." Link attempted to nod his head. "I'm pretty sure that if we stay quiet there won't be any more Deku Scrubs after us."

Navi flew off, and Tessa fell to the ground. "Link...this probably isn't the time to say this...but I had to leave your sword."

"Why?" Link looked shocked. Tessa frowned and lifted her arm from the ground to show Link her hands. The swelling hadn't gone down, and her hands were still blistered. "Well...I guess it doesn't like other people using it."

"No kidding. Between my foot and my hands I'm pretty much a useless lump of fat and skin." Tessa resisted the urge to puff out her cheeks to prove her point. Her eyes widened when she heard Link begin to laugh. It wasn't a loud laugh, but the laugh was genuine. "What's so funny?"

"I'm imagining you as a lump of fat and skin." Link gave Tessa an amused gaze, and Tessa couldn't help but picture the scene. For some reason it turned out a lot like Jabba the Hutt from "Star Wars" and she couldn't help but laugh as well. After a moment Tessa stopped and breathed.

"I can't believe we're laughing about this." Tessa shook her head. "We just had our asses kicked by a living plant and here we are laughing."

"It's always better to laugh things off." Link grinned. "I should have been paying attention. Those things are relatively easy to kill. Some even surrender and tell you secrets if they're too afraid to die."

"Seriously?" Tessa asked. Link nodded, and with a grunt rolled over onto his front. He used his arms and his good leg to move himself forward. "Where are you going?"

"I need to get my sword back. Nobody else can take it, but I don't feel right without it."

"Well, I'm going with you." Tessa rolled over and stood more quickly than she had the last time, though she hissed when she put pressure on her hands. "I'll walk ahead and stand where it is. Though I am not going to touch that thing if my life depends on it."

Link nodded to show he understood and Tessa proceeded forward. When she finally got to the sword she sat back on the ground. She was pretty sure Link had seen her and she waited for the Hero of Time to get there. It took him a while, but he finally dragged himself there. He stopped the moment that the Master Sword was in his grip.

"I hope Navi finds somebody soon." Link groaned. Tessa nodded in agreement and looked at the tree tops. It was actually a pretty open space, but the trees that were around were incredibly dense. The sky could easily be seen, and any rain that fell would reach the ground without much trouble.

After a small while Tessa felt her eyelids start to droop. With a yawn she fell onto her back and closed her eyes. "This grass is really comfortable." Tessa murmured. She had begun to doze off a bit when she heard an angry shriek and sat up as quickly as she could. Link was already ready, as he had somehow managed to sit on his one knee and keep his bad knee straight out ahead of him. He had his shield on his right arm and his sword in his left. Tessa ignored her damaged hands and foot and squatted down behind Link with her back to him. "Link...what was that?"

"It was more Deku Scrubs." Link stated in a very quiet tone. "I think they're surrounding us."

"What gives you that idea?" Tessa hissed at a nervous pitch. "I can't hear or see any more of them."

"Look at the grass around us."

Tessa did as he said, and realized that not too far away the grass was moving, and the movement kept on growing closer. The girl almost broke out into an immediate sweat. She couldn't fight, especially not in the condition she was in now. Link was worse off, but at least he knew how to do battle.

'I won't let you die.' The same voice from Dante's grave startled Tessa. Tessa looked back to see if Link had heard it, but he hadn't even twitched. 'Just trust me.'

"Trust you with what?" Tessa whispered. Her eyes kept to the grass. In a few moments it would part, and reveal who was coming.

'I can only do this for a minute...but let me take over.'

"What?!" Tessa shouted. Link jumped, and the Deku Scrubs attacked. Deku nuts were hurling themselves towards the two, and Tessa felt a strange sensation. Time seemed to slow down to where everything almost stood still. A woman with fiery red hair and eyes appeared before her. She was beautiful, but at the same time the air around her was almost frightening.

'That wasn't a smart move.' The voice seemed to come from the woman, and she looked around. 'Now, I'm taking over whether you like it or not. You'll thank me for this.' The being bowed her head for a moment and stepped forward into Tessa's body. Tessa felt herself being pushed to the back of her own mind, and could only see and hear what happened afterward.

As far as she could tell, her body hadn't changed, but the moment the body was secured by the woman time sped right back up. The woman in Tessa's body slammed the ground with her fist and somehow flames sped up around her and Link. The flames acted as a shield and incinerated all that flew towards them. She then made the flames expand around them and they engulfed some of the Deku Scrubs in flame. When the fire stretched out to its limit she drew the fire into hand and made it into a tightly compacted ball. She shot her hands forward and split the flame in two as it gushed out. As she spread her hands the flames moved to where the palm faced. Link didn't seem to question what had just happened at the moment, and waited for any of the little monsters to become brave enough to face any of them.

Tessa felt herself begin to take over, and the woman cut off the firepower. She simply smirked and stood in a relaxed pose. 'That's all I can do for you. Let's hope fate has a kind heart.' With that the woman's presence disappeared completely and Tessa moved her own body around to make sure everything was all right. When the woman had used Tessa's fist she had cracked a knuckle, but other than that everything was in the same condition it had been before the possession.

"What happened?" Link asked. He gave Tessa a wide-eyed glance before he continued to watch the frightened Deku Scrub.

"I...I don't know." Tessa admitted. She was terribly confused as to what had happened, but that wasn't the thing to worry about now. The Deku Scrubs seemed to realize that Tessa didn't have control of fire anymore and were beginning to start forward again. Since the fire had burnt all grass it could reach Tessa could see a better estimate of how many enemies there were overall. Whoever it was that had possessed her body had also made sure to take all of the flame away so that the fire would not get out of control.

"Can you still make fire?" Link asked hopefully.

"No...I'm sorry." Tessa felt tears well up in her eyes as the let the fright of the situation settle in. "I...what can we do?"

It was then that sounds of battle reached their ears. Many Deku seemed to running away now, and the sounds drew closer. The grass parted once again to show a group of what appeared to be small children wielding sticks and nuts. The occasional child had a slingshot in his or her hand. They all wore similar clothes to Link, and Tessa realized that these children were Kokiri. One of them headed straight for the two. "We're here to help."

Tessa felt so relieved she dropped face-first onto the ground, out cold.

END OF CHAPPIE

WELL here's the next chapter. This was actually fun to write. I debated a few different ideas of how to work this scene out, but I'm happy with what happened. For those who have read the original, I'm making the Goddesses take a more active role here. I figure they're cool and should be given credit and all that jazz. So yeah. I love you all! Time for bed!