60th Entry: Korok Forest

"This isn't good," Zelda muttered sometime later. "We've been wondering around the Lost Woods for what feels like hours, and we're nowhere close to Korok Forest."

Midna sighed. "As I said before, I thought you Sheikah knew everything."

"But the Lost Woods are different!" Zelda objected. "Unless you have a Korok guide, it's much more difficult to traverse this forest. Even Link's heightened sense of smell as a wolf isn't good enough to show us the way, probably because there are no Koroks left in the forest for him to sniff out and lead us to the Deku Tree."

Wolf Link lowered his head in shame. Then the sound of maracas was heard echoing in the mist, causing Zelda to draw out her bow while Wolf Link growled. From out of the thick mist appeared a tall Korok shaking maracas in its tree limb hands. It looked surprised to see them, and backed away slowly.

"Wait!" Zelda pleaded. "It's okay, we're friends."

"Friends?" the Korok repeated. "All my friends left the forest, because they didn't like my maraca-playing…."

"That's not it," Zelda assured the Korok. "Your friends are fleeing because something happened to the Deku Tree, and it involved a boy named Gulley. Do you know him?"

"Oh, yes!" the Korok replied merrily. "He was my best friend when he lived in the forest with us Korok, and always visited whenever he could! But I didn't know he came back, and is with the Great Deku Tree. I must see him!"

Then the Korok took off, forcing Zelda and the others to follow.

"What a dumb tree," Midna remarked. "He clearly doesn't know what happened."

The Korok looked back. "Did you say something?"

"Oh, nothing," Zelda said, covering Midna's mouth with her hand. "What's your name?"

"Hetsu!" The Korok replied. "What are your names?"

"I'm Sheik," Zelda claimed. "This is Midna, and the wolf is named Link."

While Midna rolled her eyes, Wolf Link barked in response.

"Shalaka!" Hetsu shook his maracas in excitement. "I can't wait to show the Great Deku Tree my new friends!"

###

In Korok Forest, a pathway lit by glowing plants led into a glade where a large tree stood. Though Zelda expected the sky overhead to be clear and blue, there was a dark orange cloud hanging over the large tree that was steadily growing. Wrapped all over the tree was a black vine with the face of a child in it.

"Gulley!" Zelda exclaimed, recognizing the child's face in the vine.

While Hetsu fled away in fear, the black vine moved as several of its tendril-like shoots reached out trying to grab Zelda. Fortunately, Wolf Link managed to block them by biting off the ends. Midna then floated over and her orange-red hair became a glowing hand that grabbed multiple vine shoots and crushed them completely.

"Don't just stand there, Sheik," Midna said, frowning at Zelda. "Have you ever been in a real battle before?"

"Yes, I have!" Zelda stated.

Zelda then noticed the living vine had a purple sheen to it as yellow eyeballs popped out.

"It's the same Malice that plagued Naydra," Zelda realized and said to Link. "Aim for the eyes! They'll weaken the creature."

Wolf Link immediately charged at the eyes and bit into them. The child-like face on the vine howled in pain, which both horrified Zelda but made her feel glad that she was right.

"And you keep the vines distracted, while I take care of the remaining eyes," Zelda said to Midna while loading arrows into her bow.

"Okay, then," Midna said while her hand was busy swatting the vine's shoots. "So you don't know how to get through a forest, know exactly how to take down a living vine. Good to know you Sheikah are consistent with your knowledge."

Not responding to that sarcastic remark, Zelda fired arrows into the eyes that Wolf Link hadn't attacked yet. Like before, the vine's face cried out. Once all the eyes were destroyed, the vine shriveled into tiny black particles that drifted into the sky and out of the glade. At the foot of giant tree was a small boy wearing a green pointed hat and next to him was a piece of metal that resembled a chest-plate. The piece of metal floated toward Midna, who absorbed it into her hand. When she did this, the dark cloud over the glade dissipated and the sunlight from the late morning shined into the glade.

Midna immediately retreated into Wolf Link's shadow as the eye-like structures on the giant tree seemed to move. It stretched its branches in a relieved manner, and sighed deeply. Zelda then heard footsteps behind her, and noticed a retreating figure wearing a purple robe. A red stone floated above the figure's head that was covered in clockwork gears, which Zelda found odd. But when the figure completely disappeared into the mist, several Koroks arrived into the glade including Hetsu.

"Oh, my!" Hetsu exclaimed upon seeing the boy. "Gulley! You did come back!"

Hetsu ran over to Gulley, who woke up with a confused look on his face.

"How did I get here?" Gulley wondered as Hetsu helped him to his feet. "The last thing I remember was being in the Gerudo Desert with the other Sages."

"Did you find the Mirror of Twilight?" Zelda asked Gulley. "Is that why the Arbiter's Grounds appeared in the Gerudo Desert?"

"I don't know about any Arbiter's Grounds, but I know we were looking in the desert and this big structure suddenly appeared all around us," Gulley described. "We got separated from the Hylian soldiers, but we found this chamber with a big black mirror at the center. Impa claimed it was the Mirror of Twilight, so we stood in a circle and tried to send it to the Sacred Realm. Then this creepy guy in a purple robe showed up, and he did something to the mirror which made it glow. And another guy showed up, who was wearing a helmet shaped like a chameleon, and he gave the purple-robed guy a weird-looking helmet. He made the helmet and the mirror shatter, and that's all I remember."

To be continued…