Chapter 9
Gaepora emerged from the forest with Mido just around sunset into the Kokiri village. Lamps and lanterns were being lit by what looked like children wearing the same forest green clothes that his short guide was wearing. These forest children turned their heads to look at the strange visitor to their village with a friendly curiosity on their faces, though none of them left off their tasks and approached either him or Mido as he was led into the village. No one he could see looked older than about ten years, though he knew from the sacred stories that they had to be more ancient than some of the trees which surrounded the clearing where their village was. Flying near each one of the ancient forest children was a bright speck of light that shone like a tiny star.
"Fairies." Gaepora said in wonder. He had known they existed in the same way as the Kokiri, though he had never seen one and didn't know of anyone who had. They too were a reclusive people that were seen more and more only rarely by anyone else in Hyrule, and never in the cities. Fairies didn't like being away from nature, and their fountains in particular. But here, watching them dance around the Kokiri they seemed to have a special relationship with them. He watched as one came zooming by to hover over Mido, and then began to speak with him about some matter, though he couldn't quite catch what was said.
Gaepora counted maybe fifteen or twenty "houses" in the village on first glance. Many, if not most of them were built either into the trunks of trees or sitting high in the branches. Mido stopped in front of one of these latter after taking the Hylian general along a small dirt path which ran in between the widely spaced trees. This house was set up high and was only accessible by an old wooden ladder that looked as though it hadn't been used for a long time.
"You remember when I said you reminded me of someone?" Mido asked Gaepora.
"Yeah, why?" He replied.
"Well, this is his house. I never really liked him much because he wasn't really a Kokiri. The girls from our village took him in when he was a baby and he grew up here. And then all the bad stuff started happening when he got big, like the Great Deku Tree dying. I used to think it was all his fault that it happened, but then Saria explained it to me." Mido told him.
"What was this boy's name?" Gaepora asked, not entirely sure where this conversation was going.
"We called him Link 'cause that's what his mom told us to name him before she disappeared." Mido told him.
"Link?" Gaepora asked, his pulse quickening a little.
"Yeah, why?" The Kokiri asked.
"And you think I remind you of him?" Gaepora pressed.
"Yeah, you really do." Mido said, studying his face more closely. "Except you're a lot older. The last time I saw him he looked the same as us, and you're... well, you just look old, but your face looks a lot like his." He then stopped and scrunched up his face as though he was thinking really hard, and then asked, "Are you related to him?"
"Am I related?" Gaepora's mind was reeling from the implications of what the fairy boy had told him. It can't be. It just can't be. His mind wanted to rebel against what his eyes and ears were telling him. But the evidence for all of it was literally staring Gaepora in the face waiting for an answer to his honest, simple question. "I'm honestly not sure." He finally said, unwilling to give in.
"Well, it was a long time ago." Mido said. "Anyways, I just wanted to show the house to you. No one's lived in it for a long time now. The same with Saria's house over there." Mido pointed to another house across the village. "She lives at the temple now."
The temple! Right. "You were going to show me how to get to the temple." He reminded the Kokiri.
"Oh yeah! I forgot! But first you need to go see the Great Deku Tree." Mido told him. "He sent Nali to come and get you." He said pointing at the bright spot of light hovering closely to him.
"The Great Deku Tree?" Gaepora asked, trying to remember all of the mythology his father tried to impart to him, and which he had only half paid any attention to the older he got.
"Don't you know about the Great Deku Tree?" Mido asked, his eyes wide in disbelief. "How could you not know?"
"Like I said, it's been a long time." It was a lame thing to say, but it was all he had at the moment. "Can't you just take me to where the path to the temple begins? I'm kind of in a time crunch." He asked.
Mido's eyes went even wider and a look of total shock came over his face, as he said again, "The Great Deku Tree has summoned you!" As if that should be enough to excuse him from death itself. "Come on. Sheesh!" The Kokiri said in annoyance as he waived for Gaepora to follow him. "How could anyone not know about the Great Deku Tree?!" He started walking towards a path that ran between two high hills at the east end of the village. "He's only the great guardian spirit of the forest!"
Mido's path took them across the village and across a small pond which lay near the middle of the village which he skipped across on stepping stones with ease, but which Gaepora found himself trying to carefully keep from falling into.
The Kokiri finally stopped at the east end of the village and pointed towards a kind of natural corridor which was formed in between two cliff faces. "He's through there." He told him. "Watch out for the Deku Babas, though. They haven't died off for the winter yet."
"Thanks." Gaepora told him, a little annoyed himself, cocking the rifle in his hands as he proceeded along the path. The Kokiri made no attempt to go with him.
"Aren't you coming with me?" The Hylian turned around and asked after he didn't hear any footfalls behind him.
"No." Mido told him, "he summoned you, not me. Sheesh!" As though that should have been obvious.
"Okay then. I guess I'll be back in a little while." He turned around and proceeded onwards, switching on the flashlight which was mounted to the barrel of his rifle to pierce the darkness as he opened up his senses and stepped cautiously, taking the warning about Deku Babas seriously.
He understood what Mido had said about the time of year, and he found himself wishing it was much later in the year. The large carnivorous plants hated cold, and a good frost would kill the buds for the winter. They weren't nearly as common in Hyrule as they used to be, but that didn't make them any less dangerous when one popped up. Being aware of them and looking for the tell tale buds and broad leaves on the ground was a standard part of survival training in the Royal Hyrule Military Guard. They weren't intelligent, or particularly difficult to kill, but if one caught you unaware it could do a lot of damage before you had a chance to react. He knew of a guy once who had been caught by one and had nearly bled to death before the rest of his unit got to him, and it, in time.
Gaepora had asked his survival instructor once if it wouldn't be wise to just carry some weed killer spray with you. His instructor had told him and the rest of the class that would be a great idea if the plants weren't completely impervious to virtually every weed killer available. Nope, in order to really get rid of them you had to destroy the root system of each plant. You could cut the stem, but then the blasted things would just grow back after a day or two. The best strategy when in the field was to just cut the stem, destroy the bud, and don't linger if you don't have to. If they were sitting where you wanted to make camp, you had to plant a grenade on the roots as well.
The earthen corridor was wide enough for two or three grown men to pass through side by side, but that wasn't really wide enough if those plants were lurking in here. Their stems could grow up to six or seven feet tall, and they could move and strike like a viper. They also didn't need to be right side up to grow, having been known to hang down from ceilings, and grow out from walls.
He shone his flashlight ahead on the ground and against the sides of the corridor, looking for the broad leaves which marked a Deku Baba bloom. Sure enough, eight feet in front of him a large bulbous green flower bud sat on the ground amidst broad, yellowish green leaves.
Gaepora raised his rifle and aimed, pressing the trigger just slightly as to cause a thin green beam of light to strike the side of the blossom. The plant didn't react to the light. So much the better as he squeezed the trigger fully a quick couple of times.
The darkness lit up with the fire flashes from his rifle, and the corridor echoed loudly with the weapons thunder as the rounds struck the blossom and broke it apart. "One down." Gaepora said as he scanned the ground and sides again. Not seeing anything immediate, he proceeded forward careful to keep the light on his rifle moving so as not to get caught.
He spied a couple more of the plants on the ground and reduced them both to shredded salad. Another one of them had grown into the side of the corridor where it bent and grew narrow and it's flower bud too was destroyed. He hated wasting rounds on the local flora because of the reality of what he now knew he might face in the Lost Woods, but he didn't want to chance taking his sword to them. The plants could sense your body heat within five feet of the buds and became active.
"How in the world does the royal family get in here to check on the temples so easily?" He asked himself as he took apart a fifth and sixth plant. "They can't have to go through this every time."
He stepped through the vegetable carnage to see an opening at the end of the corridor with the light from his rifle's flashlight. He moved more quickly towards it when he heard a rustling sound behind him. "Oh damn." He swore as he let go of his rifle, drew the sword from his back and spun slashing in the direction of the sound behind him all within a fraction of a second.
The next thing he saw and heard was a bulbous red and green flower bud with teeth jerking reflexively as it fell to the ground, the stem which had just been severed thrashing spasmodically from its leafy base rooted in a small cliff ledge three feet over his head. He kicked the fanged flower hard and it went sailing back down the corridor to die along with its relatives. He let out a relieved breath after he realized he had been holding it, and returned to the opening at the end of the corridor.
The last light of the sun was just beginning to fade as he came upon the clearing of the Great Deku Tree. In the fading light the towering tree stood massive as it dominated the grassy depression in which it sat. Many of its leaves had already fallen in preparation for winter, and those that were left were a brilliant crimson and gold. The tree was easily thirty or forty feet in diameter and it rivaled some skyscraper buildings in Castleton for its height. The lights of fairies flitted among its branches and what leaves remained to it. As he approached, the distinct outline of gargantuan eyes, nose, and mouth took shape and the eyes had been watching the corridor from which he had exited.
"Come, thou son of Link, thee have I been expecting." Boomed a great, deep voice that Gaepora felt as well as heard.
"You have?" Gaepora asked as he approached, crossing the considerable distance down from the natural rocky walls which surrounded the tree's depression in the earth. Great roots gnarled the ground around the tree forming natural platforms to sit or stand, and natural bridges across the depression.
"Methinks thy appearance is much like thy heroic father's when last he came hence." The tree said, his speech archaic, and heavily accented. "I was but a sprout then, born from the seed of my own dying father tree."
"So you were there too," Gaepora asked. "A thousand years ago."
"Was it? Difficult for me to mark is time. The sun riseth, and setteth. The winter cometh and then fadeth again to allow spring and summer to reign for a brief moment of time. It seemeth a long time before. Days, months, years; all come and go so quickly." The Great Deku Tree said. "But methinks I could never forget the face of the man who saved us, and I see his face reborn in thee."
Gaepora felt almost a little dizzy as he tried to wrap his mind around what the tree was telling him. Added on top of that was the fact that a tree was telling him anything, and he almost involuntarily sat down on one of the tree's roots as he tried to bring the conversation back to something that approached comprehensible. "Mido said you wanted to speak with me before I could proceed on to the Temple of Farore."
"Why dost thou wish to enter the Sacred Temple of Forest?" The Great Deku Tree asked. "This is not a task thou undertakest lightly."
Not as lightly as I apparently thought, Gaepora realized. "I have a need to speak with the Sage of Forest." He then added, "it concerns the Princess Zelda."
The tree seemed to deliberate this answer for several minutes, and then replied, "Continue."
He wants me to explain. Gaepora realized. "How do I explain the situation to a huge talking tree? How much of it will he understand?" He asked himself under his breath. Then out loud he said, "The Princess has fallen very ill and is dying."
"That is most unfortunate. My condolences are with her and her family." The Great Deku Tree told him in a sincere tone of voice.
"I hope to speak with the Farore's Sage in order to speak with Farore herself about the matter." He told the tree.
"Thinkest thou the goddess might heal thy princess of her illness?" The tree asked.
"In a way." Gaepora responded. "I hope to enlist the aid of the goddess in..." his explanation faltered as he tried to bring himself to say it and he almost couldn't.
"Yes?" The tree was waiting.
"...in... in helping her return to the realm of the gods where she belongs." He finally finished. It was the first time he had actually said it out loud, and it almost sounded ridiculous to him.
If the tree had eyebrows, they would have been arched in surprise as the entire "face" of the Great Deku Tree shifted to reflect his own disbelief. There was silence as even the bright lights of the fairies seemed to be staring at him incredulously. The discomfort was palpable as he shifted in his seat.
Finally, the tree spoke again. "Thy request is... unusual, son of Link." He then asked, "Why dost thou think the goddess will hear thee better through the ears of the Sage than through her own? Dost thou not believe the goddess heareth thee here just as well as in her temple?"
"The goddess..." Gaepora tried to think through his own argument and it was falling apart, "The goddess has not responded, and the Princess does not have much time left."
"Thou seemeth much disturbed by the death of thy princess to seek the goddess in her own temple. Thou must loveth her very much." The Deku Tree observed.
Yes, I do. Gaepora thought, regardless of all the times she and dad drove me crazy with the impossibility of who they were supposed to be. "She's my mother." He told the tree. "I would do anything for her."
"Still, I have not heard the name of the goddess Zelda before now." The tree said. "And I have lived a very long time."
"She has another name in the heavens, different from the name of her mortal incarnation." Gaepora told him.
"Hmmm." A low rumble hummed across the clearing as he thought. "And what was her name in the heavens?"
"Hylia." Gaepora said.
"Hylia..." The Great Deku Tree said, drawing out the name pensively. "Now that is a name I have heard of. I was not told that she had been reborn." A great weight seemed to come over the tree's face.
"I can't imagine news gets to you quickly here from the outside." Gaepora remarked, thinking of how cut off this forest had been from the outside.
"Apparently not." The tree agreed. "The fairies that come and play in my branches tell me much of what happens outside of this forest, but perhaps they themselves have not much ventured from hence as of late."
"Please, she lay dying as we speak. She is attempting to ascend once more into the realm of the gods, but she needs help. I don't know why Farore, Nayru, and Din aren't responding to any of us. That's why I need to go to the temple, to find out what is going on." Gaepora's voice became pleading.
"Thou needest not my permission to seek the temple, son of Link." The tree told him. "I merely wanted to speak with thee before thou dost, and now I have. Go and seek the goddess in her temple if that is thy quest. The entrance to the Lost Woods is at the top of the hill on the north side of the Kokiri's village."
Gaepora nodded, and then got up from his seat to go. Then a question occurred to him, and he turned back to the Great Deku Tree, "Why did you want to speak with me if not about the temple?"
"I wanted to see if thou wast anything like the boy I knew long ago." The tree told him.
"And am I?" Gaepora asked, curious.
"Oh, yes. Thou art much like thy noble father, son of Link." The Great Deku Tree responded.