Disclaimer: I do not own "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time".
Betaed by: Zim'smostloyalservant and Trackula.
THE GIRL FROM THE FOREST
Chapter 5
The red and brown slopes of Death Mountain were tranquil as evening gave way to dark night. Or they would be, if not for the large figure bounding down the slopes and cliffs in what was almost a straight line.
"Goro!" Darunia cried, leaping yet again, finding and seizing footholds and grabbing an occasional handhold as he descended as only a Goron of supreme confidence could. He was the Wild Darunia, after all, and this was his mountain to run wild upon.
Then it was over, a final great leap landing him in a vegetable patch in Kakariko with a fist planted to the ground, crushing a squash.
"Ha! If Ganondorf was watching the road, he'll not suspect I make my own, eh brother Saria?" Daruia laughed.
"…"
"Brother Saria?"
"BLARG" Saria uttered from her spot under his other arm, emptying her stomach onto the worked dirt.
"Oh, was that too much?" Darunia asked, pitting the Kokiri on her feet. She promptly fell onto her rear in dizziness.
"You idiot! How was I supposed to keep up with that?!" Tuia yelled, sweeping down to get in Darunia's face. The Goron's eyes crossed as she practically touched his nose, ranting about Kokiri not being meant to be hauled around like sacks of rocks, and how any poor fairy like as not would have been ground to powder if she caught that ride.
Saria was wondering if she should step in as she got to her feet, the Goron boss quite unable to get even a word of apology in. Saria could get it, though — she hadn't noticed they had left Tuia behind, but Tuia had needed to chase after them. Kokiri did not separate from their fairies, after all.
"Halt, who goes there!?" a Hylian called out. They all turned to see a young Hylian nervously holding a spear as he rounded a corner.
"It is I, Darunia, Boss of the Gorons," Darunia declared.
"Boss Darunia? You're here," the young Hylian stammered.
"And this is-"
"Thank the Goddesses! We need help, come quickly sir!" The Hylian said, running up to Darunia and going to one knee. The Goron's cheerful mood evaporated, and he assumed a stern expression.
"Walk and talk," he commanded. Saria and Tuia exchanged a glance, before Saria jogged to keep up and Tuia ducked into the pouch.
X X X
"You are Grog?" Darunia said to the miserable-looking Hylian tied up in a cell. They had been taken to what looked like a barn that had been repurposed with various rooms to hold criminals. The feel of the place made Saria's skin crawl.
Saria stood back, watching. She wondered if the Hylian was sick; he looked worse than the know-it-all brothers after they ate wormwart berries.
"That's what they tell me," the pale gaunt figure said, not meeting the Boss' eyes.
"The well. The children. What have you done?" Darunia demanded firmly.
"I let it out. I thought it was like me. I was always out alone at night, trying to be away from people, disgusting people. And one night, a whisper came to me. It hated the people in this town too. It wanted to be free too. So I finally did what it wanted. But it lied to me. I never wanted the kids hurt. But it took them and laughed at me. Do you know… why everyone has to be so disgusting?"
"What is it?" Darunia pressed.
"Dead, rotting, and hungry. I don't mind if you all kill me, but remember, I never wanted those kids hurt. I just wanted to get rid of the disgusting people. Maybe then, I could finally love life like other people seem to."
Grog trailed off, grumbling to himself, and Darunia shook his head and had an unreadable look when he turned back to face Saria and the townspeople.
"The well, is it? I'm going after it."
X X X
Saria stood light on her feet, glaring at the broken well. The feeling earlier had turned into a stench now; the well had a foulness festering in it. Such things sometimes occurred in the Lost Wood when the undead that haunted it became too potent or too lost in their rage and despair. Fire was not lightly used by the Kokiri, but it was best for the rot that did not decay but lingered against the flow of the seasons.
As one hand stroked the pommel of her sword, the other clenched and unclenched as she recalled the spell of fire the Great Fairy had granted her. Useless against the adorable dodongos, but it was about to be quite useful here, Saria expected.
"You are going to need such a bath after this," Tuia commented from her pouch.
Between her and the well, Darunia was doing stretches while a Hylian guard tried to dissuade him from letting Saria accompany him.
"Sir, be reasonable. The captain and most of the squad went down hours ago and nothing has been heard. Dampey and the miller ignored our warnings to go, claiming the guards are surely dead, and we haven't heard from them either. You are mighty, but surely we can't let anymore children near whatever it is."
"Undead is what it is. Blasted Sheikah, always hiding corpses in hidden closets or something then forgetting it until it turns sour. We Gorons return our dead to the magma, they don't come crawling back as disgusting parodies of themselves from that. And besides, this is no shivering village girl! She is Saria of the Trees, slayer of the D.O.U.L.S. and brother to all Goron City! There are few I'd rather have watch my back in the lairs of the polluted. Now enough talk! Time is of the essence if we are to rescue and not just avenge," Darunia said, and without further preamble straightened up and leapt down the well, calling out like a Kokiri boy jumping into a swimming hole.
"You. Will. Climb down," Tuia told Saria as she advanced on the hole.
X X X
The bottom of the well connected to what Darunia identified as a dungeon at the bottom.
"So they built the well over this?" Saria asked, as Darunia lifted a glowing rock to illuminate the large chamber. Moss on the walls caught the light and began to glow an eerie green.
"Lantern moss; Sheikah learned that trick from us. Old breed though, such moody lighting. Sorry brother, your question… I think the well was built to get in here. That Grog was able to drain this well by that mechanism and then open the door. There was a time people made their way down here enough to make it easy to access. The Sheikah are good folk, but they are a tribe of shadows. Foul things can lurk in that darkness, and being forgotten does not mean they stop lurking."
A scream echoed through the chamber as a door slid open, and a stout figure hurled toward them. Darunia raised his fist, but stopped as the man approached, a Hylian with a bald head and mustache that Saria recognized.
"Mito?" Darunia said, as the man collapsed at his feet. The head carpenter panted, his paleness apparent even in this lighting, and grabbed Darunia's foot.
"Save me," the man whimpered, looking back in the darkness he'd fled from.
"You insisted on following the guards. Why?"
"Grog, my son… If I didn't do anything, I could never show my face in town again. I always knew that useless boy would be the ruin of me," the man whimpered.
"I've no time to deal with you. Climb back up and let your wife see to you. But first, what is in there?"
"…Death."
X X X
The whole place stank worse than the east swamplands in summer. There was no metaphor there, as Saria had pulled her tunic up to cover her mouth and nose, following Darunia on the walkways over glowing green sludge.
This place was a maze and riddled with illusions besides. And scary and icky.
Earlier:
Darunia had stopped to inspect free standing crossbeams in the middle of the room the carpenter had fled from. It stank to Saria of old blood and other bad stuff, and the Boss in particular seemed displeased to see it. But Saria was more concerned with finding those kids. So she opened a door, and was surprised to see someone on the other side. They had no clothes on, were incredibly gaunt with leathery skin, and their face was hardened like a hairless mask, with yellow teeth revealed by shriveled lips.
The sight stunned her. Then it stirred.
The sound tore through Saria; she couldn't describe it any other way. Jaw slack and limbs locked, she could barely think, only watch as it hunched its shoulders and waked toward her calmly, swaying a bit with each step.
Tuia's shouting in her ear stirred her just in time for the undead to leap on top of her, knocking her to the ground and wrapping its arms and legs around her. The blow knocked the air out, but broke the spell of the shriek, letting her give her own high pitched scream as burning cold dug into her where the monster touched her.
With a sound like a thunderbolt on a drum, the monster was knocked away with such force Saria was sent tumbling. Blinking, she stood up and saw Darunia lift the struggling monster up over his head clutched into massive fists. With a battle cry that seemed to shake the room, the Goron Boss answered its shriek, which even from this distance made her shiver, and tore it in half. Dropping the pieces, he swiftly stamped all over it, perversely looking like dancing. Was that his dance from before!?
"Are you alright, brother?" Darunia asked.
"Yes," Saria said. With Tuia touching the cold spots on her body, the warmth was returning. Getting to her feet, she held a finger out to give Tuia a perch so they could rub cheeks, "What was that?"
"Redead. Corpses of the soft-bodied types infected by bad emotions in death and not laid to proper rest. Not so tough really, if you get by that shriek of theirs. Plug your ears and then cut them up, they aren't so tough. But there may be Gibdos around here. Those don't just happen; first black magic makes them, then they infect others. All Redeads do is kill and eat, but Gibdos, they are a plague that gets up and walks."
"How did you touch it?"
"Hmm, ha! Gorons are the sons of stone and fire. We do not crack easily before the trickery of the undead. You feel it, don't you, as a child of the forest? This place is festering against the order of rise and erosion, of growth and decay. It's past time it was demolished, and who better than us to see it done!"
His enthusiasm was infectious, and Saria pulled put a pair of handkerchiefs, asking Tuia to help her with earplugs.
Presently:
Gibdos, it turned out, were just undead wrapped in bandages. Saria cut them down, and Darunia smashed therm to make sure. The place was as bad as Darunia said, hallways flanked by tiny rooms where monsters lurked, more of the cross beams and strange chairs and devices Darunia and Tuia both wanted her not to touch, and rows of what Darunia called stone coffins. Darunia inspected one of the coffin lids before putting it back and said they weren't for the dead.
They found the guards in one of those rooms, and the Gibdos that had killed them.
"Let it all out, Saria," Tuia said, rubbing Saria's back while Darunia made her wince as, out of her sight, he was crushing heads as respectfully as he claimed he could.
"You made it even in the face of horrors. You were true to your vows. Well done, soldiers," the Goron boss declared.
The next room was worse, as each coffin opened to reveal a Gibdo, and Darunia actually took a step back. Then the door on the opposite side opened, and music poured out.
The Gibdos turned from the two of them to the opposite door, and then nearly went to their knees. A voice cackled from the dark as footsteps could barely be heard beyond
"Ohohoho! Yes, feel the music of end and beginnings. I am the blood of barrow men, and this is our song. Remember your shame to escape your grave. Be admonished!" the miller said, emerging with his organ-grinder steadily pumped, "And be put back in your graves!"
He stepped aside, letting another man come through. At first, Saria thought it was a monster. His back was hunched, he was bald with one eye bulging, another squinted shut, his bare arms practically burst with muscle, and all the skin revealed by his overalls was paler looking than the carpenter's earlier.
"Pah, looks bad for the grave keeper when the dead get notions of taking a stroll. Get, you gits; no matter how many times you lot crawl out of your holes, that's still where you belong," the ugly man said, brandishing a large shovel. And then started to lay into the Gibdos, each swing of his shovel smashing or cleaving a bandaged head. Snapped from surprise, Saria and Darunia joined in, with the two sides meeting in the middle.
When it was clear, there were no undead left in the room. Saria unplugged her ears, and the miller stopped his music.
"Ah! Capable help! Well met, friends in the forgotten ways," the miller said.
"Name's Dampe. Gravekeeper of Kakariko, and runner of the Heart-Pounding Grave Digging Tours."
They introduced themselves, and Darunia asked about the music.
"Ohohoho! My family has long dwelled in this land riddled with tombs and dark secrets even the Sheikah have forgotten for generations. This song is our ward against the hungry dead. Though I am the first to play it like so," the miller said, patting his instrument affectionately.
"It's a good tune," Dampe said, "But we aren't getting anywhere. There's illusions, and we've been through rooms we cleared only to find them swarming again."
"Ah yes, of course, I have no love for these new townies, Harkanian's lot, the lot of them. But the children are not the proper target for vengeance by the angry dead. Still, this is starting to seem a fairly hopeless endeavor," the miller admitted.
"Illusions? I'm not so good with those. Perhaps if I start breaking down walls?" Darunia asked.
"Ah, no. Unless you want us to be entombed in the bargain," Dampe said, giving the Goron an unimpressed look.
"Hey now, Gorons know stone and digging, are you saying I'd collapse us like some overeager pebble?"
"Well, I'm a gravekeeper and I know tombs. One doesn't build something like this just so any idiot with tools and time could brute force it," Dampe retorted.
"What is it? This place, what is it exactly?" Saria asked.
The adults exchanged a look. The miller finally answered, dropping his smile.
"Something people wanted to forget, from a more savage time. In my grandfather's time, a wicked man opened it and used it as a place to drag victims for his sick fun and aspirations to dark power. The Old Queen sealed it, but the massacre of the civil war… Sigh, I thought the restless dead would seek justice this time, but it's just another nightmare. That old murderer is behind it all, I'm sure. He had a thing for children."
"Actually, we have a kid with us…" Dampe remarked.
X X X
"No," Tuia said, as they stood in front of the small half circle opening in the the wall of the dank room Dampe and the miller had led them to.
"Tuia, I'm the only one who can fit."
"Absolutely not. This place has made me want to fly out like a bird from a burning tree from the start, and now you want to go alone through a cramped hole?" Tuia demanded.
"Probably the new master of the place's design, separate children for an ambush," the miller remarked with a chuckle, tapping the wall with the tip of his boot.
"Tuia, I need to. Besides, look what I've done so far. I can do this!" Saria insisted.
"Ah, the love of fairy and child," the miller said. Everyone ignored him.
"…Fine, but plug your ears," Tuia said. Saria plugged her ears again, drew her sword while Tuia perched on her back, and proceeded to belly crawl into the dark hole by the light of her fairy.
The adults waited, listening intently. Well, except for the miller starting to whistle a happy tune until Darunia cuffed him on the shoulder.
Then a girlish eek came from the hole, followed by fire bursting from the hole, then more shrieks but a tad more angry than scared. Finally, all was silent, and shortly Tuia flew back through and Sara emerged to stand up and start trying to brush the grime off her front with a look of disgust.
"Was it bad?" Dampe asked.
"Just Keese, and it turns out fire doesn't kill them. It just sets them on fire as they attack you," Saria said shortly, trying to shake the filth off of her.
"So, no kids or big bad undead?" Darunia asked.
"No, but I found this thing in a big fancy chest," Saria said, holding up a round purple lens stylized like an eye on a dark purple stem.
"Then Lens of Truth!?" all three said in surprise.
"That important?" Saria asked.
X X X
It turned out it was. Looking through that lens penetrated the illusions of the dungeons, and in short order they found the path downward, and more Gibdos. Which might have been scarier without three fighters and an instrument that paralyzed them.
Finally, they came to a door that refused to open. Darunia's elbow explained that said door had no say in the matter.
Screams that had nothing in common with the undead greeted them from the pitch black room beyond. And just like that they found the children.
The room lacked any of the light of other areas, relying on Tuia's glow and Dampe's lantern to take stock.
"Where are the rest?" the miller asked. The two locals, while a bit creepy, seemed more a comfort to all these kids than her and Darunia, so they hung back.
"It took them," a boy clutching onto a smaller child stuttered.
"What? Who is the master of this dungeon?" Dampe pressed.
"…It's a Dead Hand," the boy's whisper carried to Saria. Along with the hiss as Dampe and the miller recoiled at the title. Darunia, for his part, tightened his fists, making a creaking sound.
Saria was about to ask what a Dead Hand was exactly, when the floor gave way beneath her, and with no time to even shout, she plummeted down away from them, only Tuia barely slipping after her as the opening closed.
X X X
"Brother!" Darunia said, pounding his fist on the trapdoor. He pulled it back up a bit to find neither broken door or an intact one, but broken packed soil. Going to a knee, he shifted the dirt, breathing deeply despite the stench.
"Ho, a true Dead Hand, corrupted earth magic," he muttered.
"She's gone, just like the rest. It usually lets us see, but sometimes it just takes them," a girl from the cluster of children spoke up.
"…Heh, well, it's picked the wrong child to try and torment. You two get them out of here. Me, I'm going after them."
"How exactly?" the miller asked as Dampe began to herd the children out.
"I am a Goron. No malicious corpse can outdo a Goron in riddles of soil and stone," Darunia chuckled, flexing his mighty arms before he began to inspect the floor of the chamber. Darkness closed over him as they left; he feared it not, this task did not require light.
X X X
Saria hit the ground in a crouch, her legs buckling but knees flaring aside alright. The heart containers really did make her more resilient, she realized. She then bared her teeth for a moment, realizing that fall probably killed any Hylian children subjected to it.
The large room was lit with a red glow, whose source she could not see. What she could see were things that looked a bit like slender trees stripped of bark and branch to leave pale poles, thrust up from the ground. But a Kokiri knew trees, and the smell of blood and rot was nearly choking.
Arms, unnaturally long and swaying in a broken manner in a nonexistent wind. Narrowing her eyes, she could see caked blood stains on the pale flesh.
Taking a few steps toward the nearest one, her eyes were fixed on it, her sword drawn. It wasn't attacking, and she half expected it to lunge like a Deku Baba, but with far more unpleasantness than the rabbit-eating plant.
Sheathing her sword, Saria decided that was close enough. The fire magic the Great Fairy had gifted her beneath the castle would be put to good use here, she decided. Taking a deep breath, she drew on the power in her, willing it to gather, shape, and soon ignite.
Before the magic could ignite and her fist fall, the ground behind her burst apart. Instinct took over, the magic slipping away as she instead drew her sword halfway from its sheath. Only half way, as she couldn't do more than shriek before the pale had bearing down on her grabbed her by the head and nearly jerked her off her feet.
Saria struggled to pull her sword out of its sheath while her off hand tried to pry the cold fingers from her head. The cold was making her lightheaded, and her fingers couldn't seem to get a grip on the sword. The ground rumbled again, and the grip loosened a bit but not enough for her to pry free.
Tuia was saying something; she couldn't make it out, her ears were full of roaring nothing.
The dirt churned, but it wasn't another sickly arm that sprouted from the ground. The pale mass was grossly huge, lumps of white piled on each other, clumps of dirt and splotches of dried blood across it. The stench actually cleared her head a bit, letting her pull her sword from the sheath, only to drop it from fickle fingers.
The mass stretched, revealing two stumpy arms that ended in points of bloody bone jutting from stumps, and the top of it somehow folded forward revealing itself as a neck. A neck topped by a head as big as her torso, a pale bloody thing with no eyes or ears she could see. Certainly no hair. But it had a mouth, bare of lips and full of large yellow teeth. Lowering its not face to her level, it began to slide through the dirt, jaws snapping toward her.
Saria called on Din's fire at last, without remembering she could. This just needed to burn, so she did.
The arm holding her burned, but the monster itself was far enough still that it pulled back short of the blaze radiating out from her. It flailed its arm and head around, jiggling obscenely, shrieking reminding her of something else.
Then it retreated into the ground again, leaving no trace.
Saria grabbed her sword, her head still feeling numb, and with the ground rumbling again, rolled as another pale hand burst forth to try and grab her head. Then another and another.
"This won't end, you have to tire it out and burn it!" Tuia said, following at her cheek.
"How?!"
"I don't know!"
Saria and Tuia both screamed when, on top of everything else, part of the ceiling collapsed, nearly crushing them under rocks.
Then Saria gasped and smiled, getting a bit of dust in her eye. Darunia, Boss of the Gorons, walked down the new pile of rubble and picked her up with one hand, placing her on stones now covering part of the soft soil and cracked his knuckles.
"You've been fighting hard, brother, let me tag in. Gorons are no easy meat,"
"Careful, it's under the ground!"
"…Good. Come out, abomination! I, Darunia of Goron City, trueborn son of stone, soil, and the powers of the deepness, declare your desecration of these sunless lands to end. Come out, coward."
As if in answer, four arms burst from the ground to grab him. And he backhanded the two in front of them, snapping them under the force of the blow, and the two that grabbed his shoulders yanked at him, and his stance shifted with them, failing to drag him off his feet. Breaking the hold in a way she could not follow, he held both broken arms in his hands.
"Now get over here!" he roared, pulling on the arms like rope. And to Saria's shock and Tuia's bewilderment, the monster burst forth from the ground like a fish from water, snapping at him. Letting the arms go, the Goron boss leapt like his strange dance around the bite and clasped his fists to bring them down on the monster's head. Black bile burst from the blow and splattered over the Goron. The beast slumped to the ground.
"He did it?" Tuia muttered.
"Wait," Darunia said, backing up. Crouching, he folded into a Goron ball and began spinning in place, the spinning growing faster kicking up dirt.
"Ancient technique of the Gorons, Boss Roll Out!" Darunia called, his voice distorted by the spinning. Red magic flared around the spinning Goron ball, and his rocky flesh sprouted outward into spikes, kicking up sparks. Then the building momentum was unleashed, Darunia's glowing spiked form cutting through the pale undead flesh like a rake through a leaf pile, if the rake was setting every stray leaf aflame in the bargain.
He hit the opposite wall next and came out of the ball, dazed and clearly dizzy.
"And he was just looking cool," Tuia remarked, while Saria watched the nightmare burn up.
"Think he can teach me that?" Saria asked.
"…No."
X X X
It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the wind billowed through the grass, and Saria clung on for dear life, regretting so very much.
Malon gave a frustrated near growl, waiting beside the large mare in the corral of Lonlon Ranch. Reaching up, she grabbed Saria's foot in the stirrups, giving it a small shake as the green-haired girl clung to the horse's neck.
"You fight monsters, and this scares you?" Malon demanded.
"Yes," Saria said, eyes closed tight.
"You just need to show Luna here who's in charge," Malon said as the brown mare stopped and started to graze.
"She knows who's in charge, her," Saria answered. Malon sighed, sharing a look with the horse, who seemed done with puzzlement and firmly into resignation. Epona, for her part, was happily following her mother and the strange girl, sniffing at Saria.
"You want to ride giant Dodongos? Well, you need to ride a horse first," Malon insisted.
"I changed my mind, I'll just walk next to them!" Saria shouted.
"How can you fight giant monsters and be scared of this?" Malon demanded.
"Well I am!" Saria shouted. Tuia buzzed in her pouch; Saria ignored it. Later, she'd get an earful about what was worth getting scared over or not.
Saria had meant to backtrack the road she had taken to Death Mountain, but the road had been blocked off by the Hylian guard diverting the flow of traffic. Apparently an undead the size of a barn had been seen during the night recently in the area, and the Hylians were evacuating the area until it was found and killed, er, re-killed?
After that monster under the well, Saria was not keen on a giant undead, so had taken the long route, which had brought her close enough to the ranch to say hi to Ingo and Malon. Ingo had insisted she pay for a room if she was staying, and Malon had learned Saria couldn't ride, and decided that was terrible.
Which led to this nightmare unfolding.
"Malon, you should be nice to your friends. Not everyone takes to horse riding like you did," a burly Hylian man with very thick arms and a mustache said, walking up to them.
"Daaad! Saria's traveling all over on foot; just think how much better she'd do with a horse," Malon insisted.
"Horses are expensive to keep, dear, and beyond what most little girls can manage alone. Besides, she wants down," Talon said, picking Saria up off the horse and setting her on the grass.
"Thank you," Saria sighed, and received a pat on the head. Talon wore clothes like his workers, but of better quality, and he had the biggest nose Saria had ever seen and a bald head that really stood out; but he seemed nice enough, if a bit smelly.
"Wait, dad, shouldn't you be working in the feed barn about now?" Malon said, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh, it's taken care of, dear. But I have an idea! Malon has been talking so much about you and that Dezla girl, Saria. As her father, I'm so happy she is making friends finally. And since you got delayed in your errands, why don't we give you a hand?"
Saria winced a bit at lying about why she was traveling. Even Malon didn't know why she was fighting monsters, and Saria suspected from her tone didn't believe her anyway.
"It'll take days for her to learn how to ride at this rate," Malon commented.
"But you can ride right now, dear. Why don't you take Luna and Saria and head for Castletown to meet up with Dezla?" Talon suggested.
"…There's no delivery scheduled."
"Malon, you work harder than a girl your age is expected. It's fine for you to take a break to spend time with friends. And little Saria here, it seems, is quite capable of protecting you from anything on the road," he said patting Saria on the head.
Malon frowned.
"Are you just trying to get me away so you can shirk your chores and drink while I'm gone?" Malon asked.
"Uh, well, of course not. You just deserve this. Besides, you will be helping a friend, and the ranch can do without you for a bit."
"Hmm. Alright then. But everything had better be in good order when I get back. You know Ingo will tell me if you slack off," Malon scolded.
"It'll be fine, it'll be fine. I already packed saddlebags for you two."
"Alright Saria, looks like you'll get to see how much fun horse riding can really be," Malon said, rubbing her hands together.
"Uh, do I have to?"
"Yes," Malon said, a glint in her eyes denying any further protests from the Kokiri.
Author's Note:
Merry Christmas!
Sorry to my readers I was not able to update one of my more popular stories in time for the holiday. I have some stuff coming along rest assured, it just wasn't anything else ready in time.
I like this chapter first of all for divergence, the Well being tackled sooner in this case. The story won't just be a play by play of the game with Saria instead of Link after all. In fact it was inspired by tf art pertaining to the adult era of the game in the first place.
Also I waned Saria to have more interactions with people she will meet later down the line. Hence her having an adventure with her Goron brother. Not to mention it let me go against the "Adults are useless" trope, I do hate that one. Its lazy with kid heroes to make them look good by making others useless. in this case I feel Saria is able to shine even though Darunia is vital to the missions success too.
Anyway next chapter more Zelda, Saria makes a new friend, and its happy fun times at Zora's domain.
Long days and pleasant nights to you all.