Swordless Link
So, things got a little weird right around this point. I got a shield, a sword, an audience with the Great Deku Tree, but... I still had questions that needed answering. Like, why me? I was just the tomboy with no fairy. I barely knew how to use the sword I had found. But as it is... This is my tale.
Dost thou sense it?
A climate of evil is descending upon this realm...
Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land...
Of Hyrule...
Truths And Trials Of Courage
I have to say, the inside of the Great Deku Tree is creepy. Vines everywhere, a giant pit leading to nowhere covered in... "Oh goddesses, those aren't spider webs, are they?" I asked, investigating the pit closely. Navi hovered over my shoulder, laughing at me. I glared at her.
"Come on, Link, we have to break the curse on the Great Deku Tree," she said, pulling on my tunic. She wanted me to move away from the pit and start looking for clues. Well, I thought that the spider webs might be a big clue. I continued glaring at the fairy and pulled my tunic out of her grip. "Do you mind? Goddesses take you," I swore, stalking over to the nearest patch of vines growing out of the wall. Starting to climb, I began to notice the underlying sounds of chattering all around me. And it was getting louder the higher up I went. "Navi, what do -you- suppose put that webbing there?" I questioned as I climbed. "Spider's don't get big enough for webs that size, do they?"
"Not sure," she replied, setting down on my shoulder. "It could be a part of the curse on the Great Deku Tree, or it could be something else entirely." I do say now that I didn't like her answer all that much. Groaning, I continued my climb into the upper limbs of the tree. I wasn't looking much higher than where my hands were going, which means that I didn't see anything above me. Like the giant spider web surrounding the canopy of the Tree. When I put my hand in the webs the chattering stopped. I pulled back, hooking my feet and other hand into the vines to secure myself, and looked at my hand. Strands of spider silk trailed from my hand, threads floating to the ground far below me.
"Ew..."
Navi pulled on my ear. "Link, don't stop now, keep climbing! We can't let the Great Deku Tree die!" she cried, then pulling on my hair. I shrugged my shoulder, knocking the bothersome fae away from my hair. "Stop that, Navi, my hair is not something you can play with," I said. "It hurts when you pull on it." She replied to me, but I stopped caring as I wiped my hand clear of webbing and ignored her in favor of looking for somewhere to stand. I needed a better look around. The eerie silence all around me was starting to frighten me, and I would rather not find out what had been making the sounds. My luck was never that good, though. Setting my feet down on the nearest branch that could hold me, I turned towards the center of the tree.
Only to come face to face with the largest black and yellow spider I had ever seen. It was hanging by a thread from a branch above, and all eight of its beady black eyes were staring at me. There was a dark plate on its back that made the entire thing looking like a screaming face. Taking half a step back, my hands went for my sword and shield. "Navi," I said, my voice shaky, "what is that?"
My fairy flew closer, examining the spider. She hovered around, looking closely at it. I was almost afraid it would eat her, but all its focus was on me. "Oh! I know what this is!" she said. "This is a Skulltula!"
"Is it what's causing the curse?" I asked, standing my ground, though I was trembling. This thing was terrifying. Navi's high voice came out from behind it. "They, the underbelly is soft, you can probably kill it by striking it there with your sword!" She still didn't answer my question. Stupid fairy. I swear, I would get a defective fairy. I rolled my eyes. "Sure thing, Navi, let me just slip past the giant claws waiting to slice me to bits," I said, the sarcasm dripping from my words. I stepped towards the Skulltula, and it turned around on its thread, reaching for me with all eight of its legs. "Link, strike now, it's showing its weak point!" Navi shouted at me, flying out from behind the giant spider. I hesitated, just a moment too long and the Skulltula spun quickly, slashing its claws across the blade of my sword and bark of my shield. I was pushed back against the wall, the wind knocked out of me, frozen in place by pain. I gasped to regain my breath before the monstrous arachnid ate me. "Link, it spins around when you approach it, avoid the claws when it spins back around," Navi told me, being unhelpful as usual.
Pushing off the wall, I readied my sword again and stepped forward. The spider turned its soft underside to me, I jumped at it, bringing my sword down on its soft flesh. With a bone-chilling scream that didn't sound natural, the Skulltula fell into the darkness below. I knew where the bottom was, but with the sunlight blocked out by silk-wrapped leaves above, the ground was shrouded in shadows. "Well," I panted. "That was interesting." Putting my sword away on my back, I looked over the edge of the branch at the bottom for the corpse of the spider.
When something slammed into my back, knocking me off balance and sending me falling into the darkness below. "Link, aim for the pit, the webs should cushion your fall!" Navi shouted, flying as fast as she could to keep up with my plummeting form. There was little time, so flipped my body around to land on the webbing with my back. I stopped for a moment, the spider web stretching around me before it broke and I was sent flailing into the pit below.
I splashed down into an underground lake under the Great Deku Tree. Surfacing, I spluttered and tore at the sticky strands covering my eyes and face. "Get them off, get them off!" I shrieked. A blue light suddenly appeared in my field of vision, as Navi started helping me out. I started treading water and looked around. "Link, are you alright?" Navi asked, examining every inch of my head for any injuries. I swear, that fairy... "We are under the Great Deku Tree. This lake is where he gathers the water to purify it before sending it to the forest."
That... actually made perfect sense to me. I looked up, floating on my back, and saw the hole I had fallen down through, which was actually an open point between several of the Deku Tree's roots. There was a patch of vines on the wall leading back up to the surface there. The chattering, which had to be from the Skulltula's, was returning. "That is going to be very disconcerting," I said to Navi, swimming for shore. Or rather, the ledge that counted as shore down here. I pulled myself up onto the ledge and collapsed onto my back, breathing heavy. This was turning out to be a horrible day.
When my breathing had finally settled again, I sat up. "Navi, do you have any idea at all where we are supposed to be going?" I asked the flitting forest fae. Navi floated in front of me, then dropped towards the floor to land on my knee, pouting. "No," she said begrudgingly. She perked up again after a moment. "But I do feel an aura of evil in the air! It feels stronger closer to that door!" She pointed across the lake at a vine- and web-covered door. It was a little ways up the wall from where I sat, just barely visible in the wane light. I stared at the door for a moment, then I turned my gaze on her. "Really? And you expect me to sprout wings and fly over there?" I asked. The ledge over to that side was out, washed or broken away.
"Oh, right..." she said, drooping again. "Well, maybe you can use the vines and those Deku sticks you got outside to make a bridge?" I groaned and stood up, knocking her off my knee. What I really wanted to do was just climb up out of the cavern and walk out the Deku Tree's mouth, but I couldn't. Navi would just pull my hair again...
"Navi, look," I said, poking at her. "There are several ways this can go. You can start being useful, or I can feed you to one of those spiders up there." The expression on her face was priceless as she flew off across the cavern. Shaking my head, I started making a quick ladder. There might be a use for it some how. Navi flew back about the time when I was finished. I vaulted to my feet. "Is there some way to attach this on the other side?" I asked, holding up the end of the ladder.
Navi nodded at me. "There are at least three large roots that you could throw the end over.." she said, examining the make-shift work. "It should hook on the offshoots and you can climb up from there." I nodded, testing all the knots I had made. "Navi, would you be able to carry this over there?" I asked, handing her the end of the make-shift ladder. She struggled for a moment or two, dropping towards the floor before straightening out with a groan. Again, I nodded. This was going to be good. "Good, now fly over to the door and hook that up where I can reach it. I will be right over."
"...Great, lowered to the flying conveyance," I heard her grumble as she flew off. I took off my soft boots and tied them to my belt. The leather, soaked as it was, would be useless until it dried, but I wasn't going to leave them down here. They were MY boots! When Navi was halfway across the underground lake, I dove into the water and started across. All the swimming I had done in the pool in the forest was a boon here, for sure. The other Kokiri had been teasing me about my time spent in the forest, but hah! Now I win! I kicked strongly, glad that I refused to wear any of Saria's skirts. The range of motion from my shorts was great, and there was no worry that anyone would see anything... Well, you know what I mean.
Ahead of me, I saw the reflected blue light from my fairy, and a brief splash as she dropped the ladder into place. I reached the end a moment or three later ,grabbing the end and hauling myself up out of the cold water. "Okay, I hope there's a better way out, I don't want to do that again," I said , wringing out my tunic and shorts. I shook water out of my boots and tugged them on, grimacing at the squish of water between my toes. "Gross," I muttered. Navi had flown off and examined the door, and I wondered, while looking over at the door, why there was even a door down here in the first place. It wasn't like someone had planted the Great Deku Tree on purpose. He just... was.
"Come on, Link, through here! I think we're almost there!" Navi said, flying back and forth between me and the door. It was starting to get annoying how chipper she was all the time. I almost felt sorry for being sassy with her... Oh well.
I sighed and pushed on the door, making it swing open into a large open room. There, in the middle of the room was a large chest, vines drooping over it. There seemed to be some sort of light coming from up above, but I couldn't tell where it had been coming from. The ceiling might have been made of just the roots of the Deku Tree, and the sunlight was streaming through that, or there was magic in the air causing it. Either way, I stepped into the room, closing the door behind me, and skirted around the edge of the room just to get a good look. My fairy fluttered into the room, flying closer to the chest to get a better look.
"Hey, Link, this is unlocked! I wonder what could be inside.." she said, trying to lift the lid off. The sounds of the Skulltula's was slightly muted here, so I could hear a different sound... Rustling leaves, a soft giggle, and whispering. I pulled out my sword and shield, holding them before me as I cautiously approached the chest. Navi was shining her blue light everywhere when a shelled nut came flying out of nowhere and broke into a million pieces somewhere behind me.
"Brother, you missed!" a voice called out from the blue-black shadows on the other side of the room. "Shut your trap, you! You'll give away our secret!" another called out. My sky blue eyes scanned the other side of the room just as a walnut shell shot out at me. I raised my shield just in time to protect my face from the nut. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" I called out, watching the nut fly back into the edge of the room. I heard the distinct thud-knock of the nut hitting wood.
"Ow! That hurt!" I heard from one of the two voices. "Hey, you hurt our brother! You're going to pay for that! Get him!" a third voice said, then two nuts came flying out at me. I groaned, putting the shield up in front of me. Great, two more losers that thought I was a boy. "I'm not a boy! I'm just a tomboy! I like wearing boys clothes!" I shouted at the voices. The nuts bounced harmlessly off my shield, and I started watching where they were coming from. "Come out here where I can see you and no one else has to get hurt."
The nuts stopped flying at me, and the two voices started whispering again. I heard snippets of their conversation, mostly the third one saying that I should be beaten to a pulp for their mistress.. whoever that was. I started inching towards them, motioning to Navi to fly over and see if she could light up the shadows just enough for me to see clearly. With her light, thankfully, I could see the three shapes, one slumped over slightly. They were covered in leaves, with large round faces, large noses... Deku Scrubs! Bullies of the forest, no one wanted to be friends with them.
I groaned, bringing their attention back to me. "Really? Why would you be down here, instead of up in the sunlight?" I asked, putting my arms out. There was no reason they should shoot their Deku nuts at me, right? Oh boy was I wrong.
"Butt out, shorty!" the bigger one on my right said, spitting a nut at me. I brought my shield up just in time to have it bounce back, but the Scrub ducked down into its hidey-hole just as the projectile would have hit its face. Instead, the nut broke against the wall, giving off a little flash. The first one giggled a little, and I looked over at it. It had called the other two brother... and it had a pink flower in its leaves, holding them out of its face on one side. Oh great, a female scrub, and her brothers.. "You tell him what-for, brother!" she said, spitting another nut at me.
This one I dodged away from, jumping backwards and a little sideways. The bigger scrub popped up again and launched another one, this one faster than the ones before it. I brought my shield up, and punched forward with it, giving the already fast nut a speedier exit towards its launchers face. The Scrub didn't expect that maneuver, and when the nut hit him in the face, he slumped over his home and the female shrieked at me, "Why would you do something like that!"
I could tell that I had pissed off the little female Deku Scrub, and now she was firing nuts at me with reckless abandon. Which was a little ridiculous, but what can I say? I have a nutty personality? Not really, of course, but a the time I think I did. I bounced the shelled projectiles back at the Scrub, hoping to hit her like I had her brothers. I had to have some sort of luck today, right?
"Link, aim here!" Navi said, floating in front of the scrub, a little over her firing line. It would be better if she would take a nut for me and let me get closer with my sword.. That would be too much of a mercy for the Goddesses to give me, though. Of course, they wouldn't care about one small Kokiri child that had only just gotten their fairy that day. I did aim my shield to have one of the nuts bounce off towards Navi, anyways, and she moved so that it hit the scrub square in the face. "Oh queenie! Forgive us!" she said loudly, ducking into her hole in the ground. The leaves all closed up for a moment, and the other two shook off their pain and ducked down as well. "Queenie, we're coming! Don't worry!" they said, ducking down into their holes, then all three launched into the air and landed among the roots above.
Looking up, I slipped my shield on my back again, dusting my hands off after. "Now, lets look at that chest..." I said, turning back for the treasure. Navi flew around my head, looking for a good place to look as I started lifting the lid. This thing was bigger than I was by a good half foot. I almost fell in reaching for the bottom of the chest, which was occupied by a single item: a slingshot. I picked i up and dropped back to the floor, frowning. "What in the name of the goddesses is this?"
Navi looked at it as I turned it over in my hands. "Oh! The Fairy Slingshot! This was given to the Kokiri as a gift from one of the Great Fairy's!" she said, landing on my arm and putting her hand on one of the arms. "At least, I think it is.. It looks like it."
"Is it going to be useful?" I ask, lifting my arm up to see how it aimed. I'd used a slingshot before, the Know-it-all brothers had one that they let me use for catching squirrels. Not that I had actually ever hurt the squirrels. I mostly just scared them away from my tree house. You try sleeping while a small fuzzy forest creature is chewing on a nut above your head and crumbs keep falling onto your face and into your eyes. It's not pleasant. So I learned how to use a slingshot and scared them out of my tree before I went to sleep. So I knew what the aim would be like before I shot it just by looking. The aim was pretty good, actually. I looked into the chest and found a pouch of... "Oh, Deku seeds!" I exclaimed, shaking a few out into my hand. These made perfect shot if you could find them.
Navi nodded in the air, flying up and down. "This is good! Now you have a ranged weapon as well as your sword!" she said, setting down on the top of my hat. I tied the seeds to my belt, and tucked the slingshot in next to it, then looked around the room again. "...Now how do we get out? There's only the way we came in, Navi," I said, motioning to the one and only door in the entire room. She flew over to it, and examined the door. "Link, the evil is stronger over here, I think the room might have changed!" she said, turning back to me. I frowned again, and followed her, pulling open the door. She was right, this time. The underground lake was gone, replaced by a short hall walled in stone. I could see a faint light at the other end, flickering firelight, and what looked like a small pillar in the next room.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped through and pulled the door closed behind me. This had to be it, we were deep under the Deku Tree, at the furthest point he could pull nutrients from, I was going to save the Great Deku Tree. "Come on, Navi, lets beat this curse." Navi cheered and followed me down the tunnel into the darkness.
The dark didn't last very long, the firelight I saw earlier was actually torches, and there were dozens set up along the edge of the cavern. There were also some set on the four pillars in the center of the room. In general, the room was fairly well lit for being underground. Navi landed on my shoulder and sat there, trembling. "Link, it's so... There's so much evil here," she whispered into my ear. "I can barely breathe.."
I realized then that I couldn't hear the Skulltula's, but something scraping along the ceiling... I looked up, and saw the ugliest spider I had ever seen! She was at least seven feet long, her legs twice that, and the single biggest eye in the middle of where eight normally would be. There were plates along her back, forming a hard exoskeleton that looked like the Skulltula faces, except not screaming. It looked like this face was actually eating the head of the spider. Maybe that was why she had only the one eye.
That eye was scanning the ground below it, rolling all around grossly. "Ew.. That is a really big spider..." I said out loud. The eye suddenly turned towards me, and the spider let out an ear-piercing scream. I didn't know that spiders could do that! I covered my ears and crouched down as the giant spider dropped down to the floor of the cavern. The ground shuddered with her sudden weight, and I felt stones from the roof clatter on the floor near me. I couldn't move, I was so scared! This monster was the thing of nightmares, of my nightmares! I thought I was afraid of spiders up until this point, but now I can say that was terrified of them. Crouched on the floor near the entrance to the cavern, I trembled and couldn't move. All I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears, all I could see was that eye, bloody and red, staring at me, as I looked at the floor.
Navi pulled on my hair, yanking a strand free from my scalp. The sharp pain pulled me out of my fear, and I cried out. Navi flew into my face. "Link, look at me," she said, her glowing expression melting the fear away. "Link, you can do this, you can save the Deku Tree from this monster, but you have to get up and fight!" She landing on my hand, putting her small fingers against the back of my hand. A faint glow started there, and I slowly stood, drawing my new slingshot. The absolute terror this giant spider had instilled in me was now pushed to the back of my mind as I faced down the arachnid.
She towered above me, her baleful red eye still turned towards me as I sized her up. "You're not so big," I said, pulling out the slingshot and a single nut. I took careful aim, waiting until it looked at me again before loosing the seed-bullet. It hit the monster square in the eye, causing it to let out another scream. I winced, my terror spiking for a moment. The roar echoed around the small cavern, nearly covering up the sound of... shells cracking? I swiftly looked back down towards the floor, ignoring the giant spider above to the smaller spiders rushing at me. They must have dropped when the giant monster above me was dropping rocks. Drawing my sword suddenly, I swung, digging deep into the soft carapaces of the newly hatched spiderlings attempting to surround me. Their shrieks as they died grated on my nerves, though I felt nothing but a cool passive desire to live.
With all the hatchlings dead, their broken lifeless husks surrounding me, I picked up my slingshot again. While I had been dispatching the unholy spawn, the spider had descended from the ceiling again. I.. I won't tell you how it ended, but I can tell you that I needed a bath when I finished her off. Navi lit the way ahead of me, leading me to a door on the far side of the cavern. A cool breeze touched my face when I pushed it open, and I relaxed a little. It was over. "Come on Navi, we have an old tree to talk to," I said to my fairy, leading my way out of the dark. I didn't expect what waited for us when we came into the fading light of day.
Mido stood before the tree, the rest of the Kokiri spread out behind him, some of the girls crying and holding each other. The boys all looked angry, carrying Deku sticks and rocks as they crowded around the entrance. Saria was no where to be seen. "Mido, what's going on?" I asked, stepping towards him, looking around at the others. "What happened?"
The expression on Mido's face should have told me everything. "Link, you killed the Great Deku Tree."