A/N: Hello kiddies. If you need a recap of the last episode, it is this: Link and Saria have to fight in an illusionary world made by the personification of the Lost Woods, in order for Link to prove himself tough enough a chap to survive the outside world, cuz' Lost is one of those moms that worries about mortal danger: who knew? If Link fails, she will eradicate the Terminan/Hylian army so that he won't have any reason to leave her (She claims that he holds a right to freedom, by Farore edict)


Triangle 28 - Denial

Saria….

Nothing fights Saria.

But, here I am, in this illusion world.

And there she is, stretching and doing practice bounces.

Split step. Half step. Cross step. And what can only be described as a ballerina fluttering maneuver that can't possibly have any place in sensible combat.

"Link. Plan?" Navi asks. "Are you ok?"

"Nothing fights her, Navi."

"I know she's something else, Link." Navi explained. "Mana, even here, coils and… bubbles around her. Like it loves her, even in an artificial world, and wants nothing more than to throw itself at her to be used. The very mana of the spell that keeps us here is being tugged around through nothing but presence. B-But, uh," she seems to have realized that her depressing analysis wasn't helping, "But she's no Gannon. Nothing's Gannon. We can power through this!"

"That's not it!"

That's not…

…it.

"Nothing fights her, Navi." I try to explain. "They wouldn't dare."

"Ah… huh?" Navi asks.

Saria comes sprinting at me. She really does, in an honest to goddess sprint. Up on her toes and with arms pumping, and everything.

And she leaps! As if in a long jump competition only for her, she leaps and then twists into this terrible dervish of barely glinting steel.

It's so out of place. It's so… odd, that my head freezes, and I react totally on instinct.

The next thing I know, I've thrown a shield-covered arm out to ram wood into her ankle, and in doing so… shattering it.

I gasp. I try to arrest my motion. It's too late.

But thankfully it doesn't matter.

Saria pulls the left foot, and stomps down with the right.

Next thing I know, she's perched on my shield with her pulled back left foot.

Oh.

That's where Shadow Link got it from.

He must have pulled it from some memory of Saria… dancing.

It's odd. But she cries "ha!" loudly as she snaps my chin back with a swift kick.

There is a moment there, just a single perfect moment that I have experienced on occasion, where time slows down to a crawl.

I can feel her weight on my shield arm, as gravity begins to demand that Saria fall. It wouldn't matter if she did, I know. Her original attack was aerial to begin with, and her positioning has not grown any worse.

But, there in that moment, I can see her reared back leg. And in a flash of inspiration, I can see myself sliding my blade beneath my upheld shield, out of her sight, aligning it with the edge at the last moment, and letting momentum take care of the rest. A perfect counter. She wouldn't know what hit her, because nothing would. It would all be her.

And I feel sick.

Something must be wrong with me.

This is what I have to think to myself, after her kick snaps me to the ground.

I pull myself to my knees and I shake my head. No. I didn't do it.

I didn't do it.

Nayru's mercy. I didn't do it.

And I can't do it.

I came here, fretting about the foe I'd never faced the likes of before:

Angry mom.

Saria wasn't that, but perhaps it was worse. She was…

She was… maturity amongst children. She was logic and peace, and that chiding hand that you listened to because they just knew better.

She was more than any boss or even the Deku Tree.

The Deku Tree, we revered and respected.

But he was off in his grove.

Saria was at home, making every day work out.

Nothing fights Saria.

Nothing could be so cruel.

"Forget it." I say weakly. "Not happening. Can't do it."

Yes.

I feel something in my mind grip then. Traction, I guess, on the meeting of reality and my own child sized gonads.

"Li – you can't say that all of a sudden!" Navi exclaims.

"I just won't!" I explain, pushing down forcefully with my arms, sending me to my feet.

And just in time, too, because Saria swoops in after me, cutting so low and so smoothly that the grass beneath us slides over at the seam, rather than being sent flying as she swept past.

It's not a chopping weapon, I realize in that instant. And she is not a chopping fighter.

They separate.

Saria doesn't get up and righten her stance. She curls into a roll, then stretches out of it, swinging her arm wide and cuts again – forcing me to jump back. And again. And again.

Navi head butts me with her puny form. "Hey! You know this isn't real, right? It's all spellcraft!"

Navi. No.

If we're really to live courageously free, then there are lines we must draw in the world. And we stand up and we say: "There, that's it. There, and no more."

And I've been through too much. I've grit my teeth, and given in. I've erased those lines, over and over, and drawn new ones. And so ok, I'll do that extra temple. I'll face the next burn, the lightning, the ice, and the dark of night. I'll do the one more, and the two more, and the three more.

But I did it all for them. My friends. My family.

At least it's me, and not the Milly twins. They were such crybabies. And Burnl was too peaceful at heart. And Saria, she had done too much for me. At least it wasn't her. And Malon? Malon was a sweet girl. All tough, but I bet she wouldn't hurt a fly. And all the other people I'd met. And at least they will all be saved.

They are the last of the last lines, and I don't care if its illusion or pollution or even a magical sword called 'Resolution'.

I have walked the line between life and death because there are lines more important than that, which I shall never scuff with my boot. I will not swing my sword on Saria, ever.

I haven't the time to get into a big discussion about it. But I will Navi to understand.

Navi makes an indistinguishable, garbling sound, apparently in stifling of her outrage. "You make my job so much harder than it has to be."

Oh, you know me Nav. My job is making yours harder.

"Talking to your fairy?" Saria asks in a quip, from a distance that is almost nose-to-nose. It's indescribable how she has invaded my space so quickly. "That might be trouble." She's nose-to-nose, from almost throwing her upper body in my direction, and in theory she's full of openings. But being so close, neither of us can see the stance or weapons of the other, and the raw force of her initiative is enough to make me roll away from the possible blind exchange.

I come to a stand, and find that it's all gone wrong. Saria's still smiling. "It occurred to me that this is the first time you'll be sparring with another kokkiri, properly. With your fairy with you." She shrugged. "By the way, you should know: We kokkiri have never once forgotten about our partners. They are always somewhere around, a part of us. Combat is… the same."

Oh no. I forgot. Saria's fairy.

Where's Selina?

"Huh?" Navi asks, spinning around, just in time to be brought to ground by a little ball of pink light blazing across the sky. "Oof!"

"It's on, newbie!"

Scrubshit!

"We never fight alone, Link." Saria explained, in a tone that was… actually quite patient and sincere. "Remember that."

From anyone else, it would be condescending.

God, if Mido had said that I'd be lobbing bombs and fire arrows right now.

But from Saria it's just another lesson.

Tie your shoes like this, Link. Don't forget to brush your teeth, Link.

Keep an eye on your fairy's condition, Link.

Oh man, what am I even doing here?

"Lesson 2…." Saria began, before faltering. "… I wish I didn't have to show you that. Once you see them this way, they will just never be the same. But if you really are going to defeat me, and take 'Resolution', and leave this place… you will have to learn."

Oh no. It's coming.

I've never seen her fight but it has to be something like this.

"Lesson 2…"

Magic.

"Magic."

I run. Got to get Navi up. She needs to think me out of this mess.

"Chop."

I'd seen it before. A hundred times. I used to watch her in the kitchen, on a little stool so that I could see the counter.

I never really knew what it was that was separating those slices of tomato, but I can see it now. The huge crescent, as it cleaves its way through the air towards me.

And it's strange, but I swear that the first thing through my mind, despite it all, is…

Wow. So that's what it looks like.

Followed, of course, by: I'd better roll to the side.

Her follow-up approach, again, is composed of unusual and flighty movements.

All kokkiri knew the bounce-step. We used it to dodge in tag. We used it to fight. We used it to escape being cornered by wolfos and flee. We used it to dance. To play with our fairies, that could change course with the wind.

It was that way of softly moving from foot to foot. Feeling one's own weight. Priming one's muscles. Prepping for movement. Establishing a rhythm.

Float like a fairy. Sting like a bee.

But saria barely touched the ground. She changed vectors with the barest touch of her toes upon the earth. Clearly there was some other charm at work here. Possibly a weight loss one. I don't know about any such charm but if there were one, I'm sure the girls would keep it to themselves. They were always looking for ways to cheat the scale.

Left, right. A little turn to even show me her unprotected back.

And, right before striking distance, a beautiful aerial backflip that takes her above my head.

I can only call it unnecessary.

Whatever unconventional style Saria has picked up, all combat I have ever seen has boiled down to angles and emotion.

As she manages to leap above me with her gymnast-like flip, there is just no good way for her to hit me.

So I put my shield above my head, and grit my teeth.

She's not a swordsman. She's not a mage.

She's a kokkiri. And we, I'm finding out now, fight differently. Not the flashy brilliance of a mage. Not the armor of a knight. And not their slowness. Not their predictability.

Not smartness.

Cleverness.

I'm learning so much.

"Push."

A shockwave of force ripples down around me. The charm for moving furniture and clearing landslides threatens to clear me away like the inanimate objects it is accustomed to. Maybe it's because it's inanimate, or maybe Mido just didn't take care of his stuff, but the shield straps snap as it takes the blow. It survived the majority of the force, though, and I stand through the rest.

I cannot buckle here. Need to keep on my toes.

I twist, once the shockwave passes, and face her. There's nothing directly behind me.

I look up.

She must have cancelled the weight-charm to use push, and then used the counterforce from 'push' to handspring on empty air. Why? Why not? She's there, perched on the wall, seemingly stuck.

And for a moment I think she's used another household charm again, and at least that meant that her hands were just hands now and not tools of mass insanity, before I realize that it's just art again. She's just living in the time it takes for gravity to catch up to her. She reaches out in that moment, and briefly grazes my forehead with her right index finger. It's so simple and unthreatening an action, I don't properly note it until contact is already made.

And, despite the sound of blood pounding in my own ears, I hear a 'click' somewhere.

"Lock."

Lock?

Lock what?!

She springs off of the wall in a reverse roundhouse aiming for my head.

I snap my fingers. Deku Stick. Shield was down, but I could block with a stick, without hurting her.

Ooof!

What….

What?

I roll to my feet, and hop back to avoid another 'chop' charm. It is the first in a series of many.

Snap. Deku stick to vault over it!

Snap. Bombs to cancel it out!

Snap. Bottle to… to I don't know! Just… just bottle!

Come on!

But nothing came.

I had to duck the first, twist around the second, and perform an honest-to-goddess lateral vaulting high jump on the last.

And I landed on my butt.

Lock…

She locked it.

My hatspace… she locked it.

I scramble up.

"Lesson 3." She told me. "Nothing is sacred on the battlefield."

And she looked so sad, saying it.

Oh Saria.

"Push."

She knocks me from one end of the grove, straight into her tree stump in the center. I bounce off the edge painfully, like a pinball, and land on the other side of it.

As I pull myself up, I have to note the lay of the field. Saria's stump before me. The fireflies above us, and between us a pair of pink and white dancing lights.

Navi.

The collared lights rammed together and twisted about in the air above my head.

"Agh! Not the hair! That's foul!" My fairy partner cried. "What are you, six?!"

"Wow girlfriend, look at these split ends!" Selina exclaimed. "We're going for a makeover after I finish kicking your butt."

Navi wasn't doing too well.

And then I had an idea.

"Navi." I said. "You have more colors than her."

"I what?" She demanded.

But I couldn't say anymore without giving it away. Besides, I think Saria's been left alone too long. By now, she's probably…

"Toymake."I hear.

Oh.

Huh.

Evidently, we did have more complex charms. One of those, apparently, could be used to make a two story tall monstrosity of packed earth and rock. It was a nice action figure made out of connected blocks, in the very rough shape of a man with a kokkiri hat of knitted grass. I wouldn't be surprised if it could transform into a giant horse or something.

It turned its indistinct stone face towards me. It raised a large, blocky hand above its head.

And I shrugged. This was all really out of place, compared to the previous frantic fight to stay in one piece.

Meh.

Giant magical earth golem?

Awesome as an action figure.

Boss Key guard at best.

I flick my sword to the side, and enchant it with a bit of magic I'd picked up in Termina.

It tickled my fancy that all my arrow spells could be found over there. Of course Light arrows had a special place in my heart for amazing evil overlord-stunning properties. But I'd always been rather partial to the simple utility of the fire arrow.

Having acquired the elemental set twice, and saving two worlds with them, I had picked up a few tricks.

An 'arrow' you see, was anything that flew.

And this sword hasn't been doing me much good for swordliness.

The excess magic will probably melt the blade in a while, but it's Mido's anyway.

And I let it 'fly'.

An easy javelin throw into the golem's elbow breaks the joint apart. Its own oversized rock hand falls freely upon its clear slab of a head, and the structure collapses into a pile of rubble. It's more earth than rock after all. No fortitude.

Five seconds max.

I look past the rubble, expecting more immediate trouble, but I get none.

It's simply quiet in the clearing, as Saria, the fairy, and even the fireflies that light our battle suspend still.

"What was that?" Saria asked. I barely caught it her words, since she was on the other side of the field.

That? That was nothing.

"Oh." Navi said, breaking the silence. "I get it. I have more colors than her."

And with a start, the two fairy lights before me rose high into the sky. I presume that Navi's ramming Selina up there.

Good girl.

She flashes from her customary light-blue to orange, green, and settles at last as the pair flies into the cloud of fireflies. She settles on firefly white.

"Um." Selina muttered. "What?"

With a camouflage backdrop, I can't say that I can make out any of the action. I doubt Selina can either, as she's smashed by hit and run from Navi's superior flight speed. It's a blitzing, and it ends with Saria's fairy knocked out and my fairy perched upon my shoulder in exhausted victory.

"Nice advice." She panted.

"Might just be able to do my own advice from now on." I comment.

"That'll be the day." Navi snorts.

"Did you figure out how I deal with Saria?" I ask.

"'Looks'." She muttered to me. "Didn't you always want to win?"

What?

"New rule." She declared. "It's always your turn."

I stare at her.

You have to be joking.

"Didn't you say you couldn't bring yourself to engage in illusionary combat with the veteran army killing kokkiri in front of you? You're the crazy one here." Navi protested. "I'm just along for the ride."

…You're a genius, Navi.

"Look out!" My fairy cries, and I feel a sense of calm wash over me.

Excellent fairy partner recovered. Plan in mind. Not out to do anything weird or taboo, like dismantling my best friend.

Just a little game.

I'm going to win it for a change.

Navi's warning corresponded to one of Saria's long-range 'chop' attacks. I've gotten used to dodging them already.

I think Saria noticed that, because she closes the distance even as she launches another. We run at each other, towards the middle of the clearing. I dive head-first over her next chop, and turn my subsequent meeting with the ground into a roll.

I've made it to the tree stump first, rolled into a crouch. And, with an admittedly significant amount of weariness, I seize victory within my hands.

I seize the previously discarded Soup Spoon of Tactile Denial. She'd dropped it.

She'd dropped it shortly after we'd first met in this clearing.

And now... Farore, Nayru, and Din protect me... it was within my hands.

I mean your master no great harm, O mighty Soup Spoon of Tactile Denial. It's just a friendly game. Do not curse me.

"Link. What the scrub-loving crap are you doing." Navi deadpanned. It wasn't a question. She knew exactly what I was doing. "You can't be serious."

I rose up, armed, and met Saria's charge with an upward slash to meet her.

Saria swung and 'Resolution' came swinging down, the enchanted fey blade of my Mother's crafting. Slayer of a thousand Hylians, and retribution of fairy-kind given form. It came upon me and the Soup Spoon of Denial and stopped cold in its tracks. I met Saria in a deadlock.

I knew it wasn't a regular soup spoon. I just knew it.

"You can't be serious!" Navi exclaimed. "What the – I don't even –"

Saria pouted.

I don't care for your sword Saria. I'd much prefer this Spoon.

It may be plain looking. And it may not be a weapon at all. But this Soup Spoon is far better suited for my needs, because it will not hurt you. This is myResolution.

Her other arm raised, I think to 'push' me.

But I stepped in, until our noses almost touched. And as she stepped back, I stepped forwards, keeping our deadlock in place. She could not get her hand between us.

And I raised my own off-hand to just beside her face. There, I snapped my fingers once. It was the generic trigger to summon hatspace. I could not, of course, she'd locked it.

But this was kokkiri combat. Saria had said so. It's different.

And I'm sure… that she will flinch on reflex.

I see her eyes dart to the side and that is enough.

As I recall, the party game 'Looks' is one where the one who is tricked into looking away gets a punishment hit.

I pull back immediately.

Saria blinks, and pushes her hand forwards to use her charm. Of course she does.

Made you look.

But as she had done so many times before, when I was a little guy looking for the merest taste testing of soup, I thwack her outreach away.

Despite herself, she winces.

Stings, doesn't it? This spoon is no gentle thing.

Know fear and retribution.

Saria shoots me a sour look, before spinning into a pair of alternating high and low kicks.

Duck. Hop.

One to my midsection? Just catch it.

She's so light. Her kicks have force, because she spins so sharply into them. But compared to a rolling Goron or even just a Lizardfos… she's just so light.

Saria… you weren't made for fighting.

One day, you just got stuck with the job, didn't you…

… Just like me.

But Goddesses… you're just too light.

She snaps out the command "Warm" and suddenly I find her boot too hot to handle.

I block her swipe at my head, only to have her twist around me. The curved inner edge of her blade is meant to harvest, sure, and was never meant to be stopped by either stone or steel. But when stopped anyway, it served well as a grappling tool. She twisted around me like this, pulling my sword aside, and as she came behind me she slapped me across the temple with the back of her blade.

She didn't even take the time to reorient the edge for that. She knew that if she did, I would have blocked it.

She… probably has more experience than me. Fighting an intelligent opponent, that is.

All those Hylians….

Navi flashes and flies.

I take the cues. Without turning to face Saria, I block the swipe at my right thigh. I block the swipe at my right temple. I block the swipe at my right torso, and then I step back, into her chest. I can look over my shoulder and see her pouting face.

"Lesson one was we don't fight alone." I recall.

Saria blinks, and then purses her lips briefly in thought. "Good boy." She praises, after a pause. "That's right."

Saria's fighting style is really quick, and tricky. But Navi's quicker. That's all there is to it.

I reach up in that moment, and grab Navi by the leg. Dangling her as such, Saria can't help but stare.

"Made you look." I say.

Saria raised an eyebrow. We twist away to break the deadlock.

"That was not cool, Link." Navi chides. "Do I look like Tinkerbelle? If you shake me, pixie dust doesn't come out. I just get pissed and lead you into a brick wall one day."

Sacrifices must be made during combat, Navi.

Saria quickly darts left and right, so light on her feet and flighty that every single moment except the very last one before her strike all account as feints. That included a flurry of 'chop' spells as she twists and dances our distance closed.

But knowing that, one must simply react only to the very last moment.

Which one will be the last? It's simple. Only the best, and most beautiful one.

A missed swipe leads into her modifying her grip on 'Resolution', and a subtle coiling of the whole body.

Ah. There.

She wants to Spin Attack.

One moment she's crouched, her sword is at her side. The next moment it's flying at my chest in a perfect circle.

I'd long since learned to perform spin attacks at a moment's notice. A Great Fairy had taught me to toss magic into it as well.

As such, I meet Saria's attack with my own. The forces cancel out both our movements immediately on contact, but I see Saria reeling more.

This is my own magic, which I hadn't learned in the village. "Lesson two was magic." I recall, whacking her on the head belatedly for her earlier miss-look.

I've figured Saria out, more or less, and it's two-on-one with Navi here.

And, thank Farore, my head's working right again. I can handle the thought of playing a party game with death.

We just have to trudge through the process.


I don't know how long it's been. The world is… exactly the same, actually.

Is this real? I can't even.

Saria's just standing there before me, under the incandescent glow of our firefly audience, looking at me oddly. "Child," she suddenly snapped, "what have you done?"

"I unwound your spell Mother." Saria replied to herself. "The fight had become… meaningless."

Right. She's still channeling 'Lost' in the real world.

Oh man, how long has it been…

I'm so tired.

But only my mind. My body's full of energy and in the peak of health. That's so weird.

"I lose, Mother." Saria explains, dropping 'Resolution'. "He isn't too fast, or too strong, or too skilled for me. But everything stopped working anyways. I feel like scissors, and Link is rock. And no matter how hard I may be; even if I were harder than any rock, I would still break upon him. It was just…" Saria searched for the word.

"Natural. Yes." Saria replied to herself, in 'Lost's tone. "You are prey to him. All are prey to him. And that is good. It puts me at ease that he may leave and live well. But Child, Other Child was more wounded." Lost, as Saria, spoke to herself.

"No Mother." Saria shook her head. "It's cuz' he wouldn't hit me for real."

"Why ever not? I made a very proper illusionary world."

"Because he's too much of a boy, Mother." Saria sighed.

I wince.

"He's all macho, and thinks girls are frail and should stay at home and cook, and stuff."

I wince more.

"Ow." Navi whispered. "She's brutal."

I know.

"I think maybe you pissed her off by not fighting her seriously." Navi continued.

Maybe a little. When she gets angry, she takes it out on you in a weird round-a-bout way.

"If she's a warrior," Navi continued, "come to think of it, that would be pretty rude."

You can stop now, Navi.

"But Child." 'Lost' Saria said to herself. "As a sex, Women are far stronger."

Saria shrugged. "I know, right?"

"How odd."

"It- It's not like that." I say finally, suddenly charged with the task of defending my good name.

"Then what?" Saria tilted her head.

"I… just didn't want to." I say lamely.

"That's not a reason." Saria said.

"It is." I defended. "You're my friend. And my…"

It was hard to define Saria. She'd had a big hand in raising me, too. And teaching me. But we messed around and played tag, and were equals in a weird way. And I looked after her sometimes, when she'd let me, in a weird way.

"You're my Saria." I finish lamely. "So I didn't want to fight. The whole thing was stupid."

Saria's posture changed. It was 'Lost' that would speak to me next. "Child. Sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do." 'Lost' Saria explained.

"Well… Mother, who said that?" I asked back.

'Lost' blinked. "I did."

If 'Lost' says something, people listen.

But I frown. "No you didn't." I say with surety. I'm really clear on this point. "Neither of you did. You taught me to be brave. And to be free, even if I had to fight for it. And to not, ever, let anyone make me thing any other way."

That's Kokkiri 101

'Lost' Saria opened her regal mouth.

She paused there for a second.

Then she closed it with a click.

"Oh… Oh Child." 'Lost' said softly. "You grow up so fast. Is that normal? Growing up so fast? There's no rush. I wish you wouldn't rush. I so wish you wouldn't rush."

It's amazing... how sometimes people say things, and they just hit really close to home all of a sudden.

"I… I didn't mean to." I say thickly. "It just sort of… happened."

"That's really such a shame." Saria, normal Saria, said consolingly.

"…Yeah."

"…Sit down with the Lemonade." Saria said, grabbing me by the hand. "I'm going to coddle you."

It bothers me only a little, that I don't know which Saria said that.


A/N: If you found the 'Lost' dialogue confusing, well it seemed appropriate. Just imagine how Link must feel.

This, more or less, concludes the 'kokkiri' arc of the story. Next I have no idea. Maybe a little Zelda centric arc.

Bets were:

Win 7

Lose 2

Tie 1

A few people guessed that the soup spoon would be really important. A lot of people expected Link to have to run around before he figured something out. No one really came out and said that he would have a problem fighting her because she was his childhood friend. I found some of the ideas really interesting.

Anyone got their hands on a good skyward sword fic? Like golden power or ascension or shadow lord's bane level good. Like really good?

x-Trivia corner-x

Last chapter was named after/with a pun on Saria's sword, 'Resolution'. This chapter was named after/with a pun on 'The Soup Spoon of Tactile Denial'.

To be clear, Link's got 'Resolution' now. The sword. It's properties are:

The edge of the blade is as thin as a leaf.

Is very light.

Does not reflect much light.

Is pretty much tough as daimond.

Has some synergy with kokkiri magic.

And it will probably not be very relevant in the future, in terms of combat prowess. It is more a man-cleaver than a monster-cleaver.

He does not get to keep the Soup Spoon of Tactile Denial. Frankly, it scares him anyway.

This is the first time, ever, that Link has won 'Looks' against another kokkiri.

Please Please Review.