The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.

The Voice
23 - A Stroll in the Woods

Link kept his eyes closed until the ringing in his ears stopped and the pressure behind his eyes relented, the white-hot needle inside his brain slowly cooling until its presence was reduced to a dull ache. Only then did he breathe out and open his eyes, blinking as his eyes started tearing up from the sharp light of sundown.

Make preparations, huh? Zelda had been ready to assume the worst, the attacks from Ganon's forces increasing in both scale and frequency. Too bad whatever preparations they'd made had been for naught.

"You okay?" Sheik asked.

"Mmm," Link grunted noncommittally as he rolled up the sleeve of his right arm. Now, where had it been...? Like the rest of him, his skin was covered in a multitude of scars, both shallow and deep, rough and smooth. The one he'd been looking for was just beneath his elbow—a straight line, the scar tissue shiny and soft.

Surrounded by bodies—moblins, bokoblins, freakin' lynels—and all he'd suffered was a small cut on his arm. And just with a sword. Well, not a sword. The sword. The Master Sword.

Was it all because of the sword? Had it given him the power to defeat so many powerful enemies? Or had he just been that strong, back then? If so...did he have any chance of regaining that strength?

"What was the memory about?"

"J-Just...a s-stroll."

"Uh-huh," the Sheikah said drily. "Just a stroll. Now, I'm not calling you a liar, Link, but I have a hard time believing that. If you don't want to share, I understand, but do me a courtesy?"

It was only fair, really, especially after their conversation about honesty a few hours ago. His cheeks reddening a little with shame, he cleared his throat. "I w-was w-with the p-princess, and..."

Sheik listened quietly, and only when Link was finished did he speak again.

"So...you're worried you won't ever regain the sort of strength that let you take down a veritable army of Ganon's minions by yourself? Am I in the right area?"

"W-Well—"

"That was a rhetorical question, of course I am," Sheik cut him off. "I'm not calling you predictable, but...well, yes, I am, aren't I? Let's go with...easy to read, yeah?"

Link shook his head. "Th-That's not all," he protested, not really happy that Sheik had drilled down to the issue so quickly. He was usually glad Sheik was so perceptive, but it sometimes made him feel like the Sheikah would always have the upper hand in whatever discussion they were having. "Th-The sword..."

"What about it?"

"Wh-What if I w-was only s-strong because of it?"

"You're plenty strong already," Sheik pointed out.

"N-Not strong enough," Link countered. "N-Not as strong as h-him."

"You're getting there," Sheik said, his voice suggesting the conversation wasn't even worth having. It was an impressive show of patience, then, that he continued talking at all. Indulging him, almost. "And you're just going to get stronger, with or without the damn thing. I mean, you've already freed two Beasts without it—who's to say you can't finish this whole thing without having to rely on a magical maguffin?"

Link's thoughts derailed for a moment. "M-Maguffin?" he asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"Doohickey," Sheik clarified. "A whatchamacallit. Doodad. Gismo. Thingy."

"Okay, I g-get it!"

"My point being, I don't think you need it," Sheik finished. "We've already proven that Ganon's essence can be beaten with normal, cold steel. I bet the big bastard itself will go down too when you stick that Sheikah blade directly into its heart."

That was true, wasn't it? The blighted monsters that had murdered the Champions a century ago and taken control of the Beasts had succumbed to normal weapons—and apparently, they were direct extensions of Ganon's will and essence. If they could die without using the Master Sword...then surely Ganon was the same? Unless those extensions were just weak enough to die by regular blades, and Ganon was on a different level entirely...

"But even so, I think we should retrieve the sword," Sheik said, apparently reading him once more, seeing the worry on his face. Link looked down at the screen, where Sheik had brought up the map. "For safekeeping, if nothing else. We don't want Ganon getting its grubby hands on that weapon."

"Mhm," Link hummed.

"Plus, it couldn't hurt to have a magical thingamabob on our hands just in case things go to shit. I mean, no harm in making backup plans, right?"

"Yeah," Link said, nodding and smiling.

"Not that you need it, mind."

"N-No."

"So, we'll go get the sword?"

"S-Sure."

"That's good, because it's, like, literally a paraglide away."

"Wh-What?!"

It actually was a paraglide and a little walking away, but that didn't make for a nearly as good a segue as his first statement had. Still, it was true enough. True-ish. They could see the damn forest from their spot on the mountain even now.

At this range, he could tell quite easily that the responses to his pings were coming from the approximate heart of the woods. The forest looked old, the trees taller and thicker than any of the others they'd seen so far, gnarled and ancient.

All he needed to confirm the position was the map data from the region's tower, which, coincidentally enough, was also just a paraglide away, just below them.

In a muddy swamp.

Surrounded by an enemy camp.

Link was thrilled.

"I am n-not thrilled," Link snarled as he hauled himself out of the swamp, onto one of the docks the bokoblins had built, glaring down at the dead, pig-like monster he'd left in it. It was sinking rapidly, claimed by the mud, its glassy, unseeing eyes staring up at the sky.

His mood dropped further when he felt a sharp tugging on his boot, the mud refusing to relinquish it, sucking and gurgling around the leather. He kept pulling and pulling, feeling the mud lose its hold gradually, until he was suddenly thrown backwards, lying on his back on the planks, his ears full of Sheik's laughter.

"Oh my g—haha, your boot...!" the slate guffawed.

Link raised his leg, directing his glare at his now boot-less foot, big toe poking through a hole in the sock. Even his clothes were betraying him now.

"N-Not funny!" he barked, sitting up and crawling to the edge of the dock, barely in time to grab the heel of his recently emancipated boot before it was eaten by the mud.

"I be-beg to differ!" Sheik managed to stutter out between laughs.

"It's l-like q-quicksand!" Link growled, hauling and pulling with gargantuan effort, the boot rising from the depths far too slowly. Then, with a pop, it came out...but Link was still pulling as hard as he could. Physics being what they are, the boot didn't stop moving, and Link ended up with a face-full of footwear and mud.

Sheik couldn't stop laughing for minutes.

"Hey, some sources say that mud is good for the skin, Link," Sheik offered, doing his damnedest to get Link to pay attention to his projection, even waving a hand in his face. "Consider it a free beauty treatment? Not that you need it, of course..."

Link kept his gaze firmly down on the forest, dark and dreary now that the sun had set, his feet dangling over the edge of the tower, one boot absolutely caked in mud. Not that the rest of him wasn't covered in mud as well, but that boot in particular had decided to bring more than its allotted share. He paid no heed to the blatant flattery, too annoyed. Not at Sheik, because the mud incident hadn't been his fault (the dead bokoblin was entirely to blame for that), but Link was too embarrassed to actually say it'. No, right now he was just annoyed at everything in general.

At least his fear of heights seemed to have gone away, for the most part. Sitting like this, at the top of a Sheikah tower, swinging his legs above a fall that would most definitely kill him, was not something he would have done back when he'd first woken up in the Shrine of Resurrection. Then again, paragliding into an active volcano wasn't on that list either. He supposed he was making progress.

He felt something poke the back of his head.

"Liiiiiiink," Sheik said in a sing-song manner. "What are you thinking about?"

More poking.

"S-Stop that," Link grunted. The fact that Sheik was even able to poke him at all was amazing in and of itself—too bad he was using it to annoy an already peeved Hero.

"Okay, is it me you're mad at?" Sheik asked. "'Cause I don't really recall having done anything to upset you lately. I mean, I laughed at the boot thing, but come on, who wouldn't?"

Link sighed. "I'm n-not mad at y-you," he said. "J-Just...everything."

"Ah, one of those days, huh?" Sheik's projection came to sit next to him, sinking gracefully onto the edge. His mask was down, his face visible, a small frown making his lips turn slightly downwards. "Fair enough. Anything in particular?"

"N-No."

"Hm."

Sheik shifted a little closer, and Link felt the pressure of the projection's boundaries against his side. Slowly, the pressure grew heavier, forcing Link to adjust his position to accommodate the weight, realising Sheik was, essentially, leaning against him. It wasn't quite the same as a real body doing so (the lack of heat was quite telling, for one, and not something the shield tech Sheik was using could simulate), but it was still just that: contact. His skin tingled slightly as Sheik's face stopped inches away from his cheek.

"So what's really eating you?" the Sheikah asked, giving Link the least impressed look he'd wielded so far.

How a grainy projection whose clarity was debatable at the best of times could deliver so much meaning in a simple gaze, he did not know. What he did know, however, was that Sheik wouldn't stop digging until he struck oil. Or was it gold? As far as Link was concerned, all Sheik would strike if he kept digging into the so-called Hero's mind was a veritable disaster, like accidentally hitting a lakebed while mining.

Not that Link was able to resist that look for very long. It had a very...prickly quality to it. Plus, he had a feeling Sheik would put his insanity-inducing flavour of annoyance to use if he felt Link was withholding information, vital or otherwise, from him. It was bad enough when Link was simply a third-party witness to it—he never wanted to be the direct target.

"N-Nothing," his treacherous mouth decided to say anyway. Hadn't he suffered enough?

"Right," Sheik said, the skin between his projection's eyebrows wrinkling slightly.

Oh no, Link thought, here it comes...

"It was that ol' famous gargle—"

"P-Please, n-no p-poetry!" Link interrupted before Sheik could get rolling, briefly considering using the mute switch if his companion refused to acknowledge his plea.

As it turned out, the Sheikah, in addition to being warriors, assassins, spies, engineers, scientists, and all-round geniuses, had a voracious love for all things lyrical, especially poems...and a profound inability to write them. Their musicians had been renowned, Sheik had assured him...and Link was willing to believe that, if only for the strength of the music itself as opposed to the writing.

The few excerpts Sheik had recited for him had been atrocious, though Link had nodded and smiled at what he hoped were the appropriate points. They had also grated on his nerves something terribly, which Sheik had—of course—not failed to notice. And so that became his needling strategy.

"Then tell me what's up," Sheik said innocently, "or I shall open up the Brobdingnagian tome I found in my files the other day with the ominous title 'The Torturous Symphony of Pain' and start reading from a random page. I believe it was written by an interrogation specialist."

Link's eye twitched. He wasn't sure if Sheik was fucking with him at this point or not.

"Oh look," Sheik said in a delighted tone, "It's the first volume of four!"

"Okay, okay!" Link snapped, not daring to take the chance. "You w-win!"

"Heh," Sheik chuckled. "Nothing like a bit of literature to strengthen one's arguments."

Link wanted to ask what arguments Sheik had even had in the first place, but that was a conversation he quickly saw leading to madness (or burst eardrums, depending on how annoyed Sheik got), and wisely decided not to. Instead he hung his head, and said, "I c-can't stop thinking about the f-fight on R-Rudania. Wh-Why d-did it try to take y-you?"

Sheik's triumphant face sobered immediately, his lips turning downwards in a frown. He clearly didn't enjoy the memory of it any more than Link did. The way Link's heart had, he was certain, completely stopped beating once he saw Ganon's monster reaching for the slate...

"Hard to say," Sheik said after a while. "It only went for me after I started messing with the Beast's controls...and after you nearly cut it in half. Could have been an act of desperation, since it probably knew the slate was interfering with the battlefield."

"B-But it d-didn't just try to s-stop you," Link said. "It tried to s-steal you!"

"We don't know that," Sheik said hesitantly. "We know it tried to steal the slate, but we have no idea if it knew about me. Clever, really. I mean, without the slate, you're basically helpless when trying to interact with Sheikah technology. Take it away, and Ganon more or less eliminates the biggest thorn in its side without even having to kill you."

Link sighed, rubbing his eyes. He was so tired. The descent from Death Mountain had been tiring enough without the fight below the tower, and the mud, and...just his thoughts, bouncing back and forth inside his skull, never giving him a moment's peace. He could handle just having to worry about himself in a fight—but now the enemy probably knew that the slate was his biggest weakness. He couldn't stand the thought of Sheik being taken...

"...and even if it did know about me," Sheik continued on, "So what? I'm just an artificial construct whose entire existence is woven into the circuits of the slate. A voice in a box. I'm hardly a threat. Remove me from the equation and you're only out an alarm clock. Sure, you'd have to manipulate the Sheikah tech yourself with the slate, but you'd learn that quickly enough. No, I think the target was the slate, not me. But thank you for considering me important enough for the source of all evil in the world to see me as a threat."

Link shook his head. "If you th-think th-that's all you're g-good for...you're w-wrong," he said seriously. There was so much he wanted to say, to convey, to finally put out there, but he knew he'd stumble over every word, his tongue tying itself into knots over the simplest of syllables and sounds.

Sheik sighed. "I know that I'm...more than that to you. To Ganon, though? I'm just what I said. Which is fine. I'd rather go unnoticed by the likes of such a creature, thankyouverymuch. Nah, Ganon steals the slate? You just steal it back. Done and done."

"I'd be l-lost without y-you," Link said, not even wanting to imagine what would have happened if the monster had succeeded in getting away with Sheik in its grasp. Would he even manage to summon the strength to go after it? Where would he even start looking? Dumb question, the castle, obviously, but without the last two Diving Beasts, what would his chances of getting there even be? Less than nil. He'd be better off killing himself there and then...

He jumped a little as Sheik's projection's finger prodded at his cheek, the shield giving him a small static shock, the look on the Sheikah's face anything but joking.

"Hey, none of that," Sheik said seriously. "You wouldn't be lost. More than a little inconvenienced, maybe, but not helpless. You'd find a way, with or without me, to bring those Beasts to heel...and then you'd come after me. You may not think so yourself, but I know you. All those thoughts in your head telling you otherwise? All bullshit, and not representative of what you'd actually do in such a situation. Ganon would rue the day it decided to steal me. Then we'd be reunited, and you'd be back to wishing we'd never met in the first place as I start reading passages from the Symphony of Torment or whatever the fuck it was called."

Link snorted a little at that. "I'd l-let him k-keep you if th-that's my r-reward," he said, feeling a little better already. "You'd m-make it g-give up all on your o-own."

Sheik's eyes widened slightly. "That's...genius! Why didn't we think of that before? Hand me over and watch as I bring the beast to literal tears with my people's terrible poetry! Can't fail, just you wait and see!"

Link couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. "S-So you d-do admit it's t-terrible!" he said, pointing an accusing finger at him.

Realising he'd been caught, Sheik tried to backpedal, but it was too late. "I...that is not what I meant...I never said—!"

"T-Too late!"

"You're such a brat, you know that?!"

"N-No more th-than you!"

It always surprised Link how quickly Sheik could make his dark thoughts lift from his mind, even if it was just for a little while. A night like this would have been devastating if he were on his own, but with Sheik there...well, it was bearable. Even if it introduced a whole new element of worry into his life. Though perhaps that was a good thing—to not have every worry revolve around his performance as the Hero he'd once been. Maybe it'd keep him from retreating too deeply into his shell, having to keep an eye out for Sheik as well, now that the slate was clearly a secondary target to Ganon's beasts.

"Amusing as the idea of me single-handedly beating Ganon with the lyrical genius of the Sheikah—which is clearly so far ahead of its time it'll be millennia before it can be properly appreciated by the plebeian masses—is, I think I'd rather put my trust in you and your sword," Sheik said once the laughter had died down. "Though it is likely Ganon might try to steal me again when we free the next beast."

"Mhm," Link hummed.

"In the interest of me getting to watch you kick Ganon's ass to hell and back, I'll see if I can find a way to defend myself, should the worst come to pass and one of those monsters gets their filthy hands on me again. I have a few ideas already, but I'll need some time to judge their viability. I won't be a distraction in battle—this I swear to you, Link."

"I w-won't let th-that happen again," Link promised in turn. "Ever."

A cold wind blew at Link's back as he stepped into the ancient-looking forest, making him shiver. It had been mid-morning when he'd paraglided down from the Sheikah tower, having summoned the courage to finally begin looking for the Master Sword shortly after breakfast. The sun had been warm on his face, the sky blue and clear. Now, however, the sun was gone, obscured by the thick fog that appeared to be flowing among the thick trunks of trees both living and dead.

In Link's mind, the word haunted kept flashing. This was exactly the sort of forest the restless spirits of the dead would inhabit, ready to ensnare any unwary traveller, getting them lost until they died from starvation or exposure. Before, Link would have tried to comfort himself by very firmly holding onto the knowledge that there was no such thing as ghosts...

...but he knew that wasn't true, didn't he, on account of having met and spoken with both Mipha and Daruk, who were, in all but name, ghosts.

Spirits.

Whatever.

That meant all bets were off, and he could not suppress the shiver that ran down his spine as another gust of wind did its best to rob him of all warmth, and the fog shifting around a grizzled, dead tree in just the right manner, making the patterns in its bark look like a giant, evilly grinning face.

"Well, this is creepy," Sheik said. "Whoever hid the sword in there sure picked a good spot. I bet even Ganon's minions would have second thoughts about stepping into this place."

Link took a few steps forward, trying not to imagine all the horrors that could be waiting among the trees. Nameless, faceless, shapeless things. Hungry things.

"C-Can you f-find it?" he asked the slate. All he could hope for at this point was being able to get in and out as quickly as possible, leaving the woods far behind.

Fuck, he'd rather face a battalion of Guardians than linger here any longer than he had to.

"Nope," Sheik replied, apparently paying no heed to his discomfort. "Whatever's in the heart of this forest is interfering with my sensors, and just barely letting the return pings of the Sword reach the Tower, and the map's pretty much useless."

Link looked at the slate, where Sheik had helpfully pulled up the map of the area. Whereas the other forests of Hyrule usually had a few distinctly marked paths running through them, this one was just a sheer mass of trees. Not a single path to be found. He also noticed that the place had two names.

"The L-Lost Woods..." he read, and nearly choked when he saw the second one. "K-Korok F-Forest?!" he sputtered in disbelief.

"I know, right?" Sheik intoned. "You wouldn't think something as goofy as Hestu or those annoying little shit cousins of his would be from somewhere like this, but here we are..."

Link tried to reconcile the idea of the cute (though unbelievably annoying) little Koroks originating in the creepy woods around him, and immediately failed. There was just no way. It had to be to a trick to throw their enemies off to the path to their true home.

"Unless the cutesy act is just a façade, hiding a much darker nature," Sheik continued obliviously as Link hesitantly made his way further into the woods. "Maybe they all subsist on the flesh and blood of unwary travellers who enter their domain? Or each other! Imagine that! Cannibalistic little Koroks running around, tearing each other to pieces and devouring—"

"E-Enough," Link snapped, spotting a stone platform with a burning torch in a small clearing. It looked so innocuous it was downright suspicious. The wind was still at his back as he approached it, sword drawn in case some creature—Korok or not—was waiting to pounce on him.

He could already hear the high-pitched little "Ya-ha-has" of the creatures as they swarmed him...

Nothing happened. The torch continued to burn brightly and innocently as he stepped onto the platform, glancing around the clearing. Nothing. Just a torch, and nothing more. Though now that he was standing there, he noticed he'd already lost sight of the small path he'd followed to this point. This was definitely somewhere a traveller would get lost and die if they weren't careful.

"Well, that's just great," Sheik muttered. "Map's out. I can't even find our position on it now. Something's definitely interfering with the signals in here."

"S-So we wing it, th-then?" Link asked.

"Or we could march right back the way we came and forget we ever discovered the sword's location?" Sheik suggested hopefully. "I'm a fan of that plan."

"N-No," Link said, squaring his shoulders. Sure, he was absolutely terrified of this place and its foggy interior, but...he was a Champion, damn it. And he needed that sword...if only to prove his identity to the Rito and Gerudo when he came to tame their Beasts. "W-We k-keep going."

"All right," Sheik said with a sigh. "Though I hope your pathfinding skills have improved, 'cause not even my compass will work in here."

...admittedly, that was going to be a problem, but Link was too busy psyching himself up to acknowledge it. It was either that or deflate like a balloon and run away with his tail between his legs...which was hard since he didn't actually have a tail. Maybe he could imagine having one, or fashion one from materials lying around...

Sometimes his mind went to strange places.

He stepped off the platform before he could make any further attempts to talk himself out of it continuing, and walked straight ahead. When all else fails, what other way can you go but forward?

He was only about ten paces into the woods when the fog seemed to rise up in front of him, quickly engulfing him. The sweet scent of rot hit his nostrils, and he forced himself to calm down before continuing to walk. He could handle fog. Fog was just water suspended in the air, right? Water was nothing to be afraid of! He'd be damned if he was going to let water stop him from...

...from...

...from stepping into the same clearing from before, the torch still burning cheerfully.

Link paused, blinking in confusion. Hadn't he...wait...

"Huh?" Sheik said, just as confused. "When did you turn around? I didn't notice anything..."

"N-No idea," Link said, looking behind him. It was definitely that direction he'd gone in, but somehow he'd managed to turn around hundred-and-eighty degrees without even noticing. Weird. He shrugged. "L-Let's try th-this again," he said, turning back and heading into the woods once more...

...only for the fog to engulf him again, and step into the same damn clearing again.

"What the fuck?!" Sheik exclaimed. "I kept an eye on you this time—you were walking forward the entire time! How the hell could you...oh...oh, I see it now. Okay. Very clever. Ha-ha."

"F-Fucking magic?" Link asked.

"Fucking magic," Sheik confirmed. "Clearly there's some sort of defensive mechanism at play here, which keeps you from heading deeper into the forest. Bet that's how the sword hasn't been found yet!"

"B-But how do w-we—"

"I don't know, Link, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Just give me a moment, yeah? Take a break, or something."

Mind racing, Link sat down on the stone platform, just beneath the torch. The heat felt nice; the ever-blowing wind had robbed him of what little warmth he'd gotten from the morning sun. How on earth could he bypass magic like this? Everything else he'd encountered so far had had an obvious source or weakness he could exploit...but this was just a foggy forest. There was nothing else here as far as he could see.

Sheik wasn't having any luck figuring it out either, judging by the annoyed grumbling he heard coming from the slate every now and then.

His butt was getting cold from sitting on the stone. Shivering, he stood up, accidentally knocking his shoulder into the burning torch. It shuddered, releasing several glowing embers that were immediately caught by the wind and carried away.

Wait...

Was that...?

Link knocked the flat of his sword into the torch, releasing another shower of sparking embers.

Yes!

The embers were, as before, immediately taken away by the wind...in a very particular pattern among the trees, curving in and around them like debris in an invisible river running through the air. That couldn't be a coincidence.

"Sh-Sheik!"

"What? I'm trying to think, Link," Sheik asked, annoyed.

"L-Look!"

"Yes, Link, the embers are very pretty, but I don't think...huh...that's weird. Do that again."

Another knock, and they both observed as the wind carried the embers away once more in that exact pattern.

"...well, that's one way to mark out a path, I suppose," Sheik said. "Last chance to turn back."

Too satisfied with having figured out the puzzle on his own, Link had no intention of turning back. The sword was within reach, and he was damned well going to retrieve it.

It was his, after all.

It took a few hours to navigate the labyrinthine layout of the Lost Woods, following the embers of the torches that had been so conveniently set up at various points throughout the woods.

It was unfair, how a single misstep would somehow bring him back to the last platform they'd found, but Link was nothing if not stubborn in wanting to fucking succeed for once, and so continued on. At least they weren't forced back to the beginning of the damn place.

When the torches ran out with no end in sight, he grew slightly nervous, but he quickly remembered the pieces of flint he carried with him for the purpose of lighting campfires, and quickly fashioned a torch of his own out of a bokoblin club and some spare cloth. It didn't produce as many embers as the other torches, but he quickly discovered he could simply follow the direction the flames were blown in by the wind.

"By that logic, you could simply, you know, keep the wind at your back," Sheik suggested.

Link ignored him, deciding his solution was a lot cooler and Hero-like.

The fog disappeared abruptly, like he'd walked through some sort veil, and Link was nearly blinded by the light of the noon sun beating down on the massive clearing he'd stepped into. Here, the trees looked vibrant and alive (though just as huge), unlike the twisted, gnarled horrors of the section they'd just left behind.

"I guess we found Korok Forest," Sheik said. "This makes more sense, given the name."

Link nodded in silent agreement as he put his torch out and slowly stepped forward. Most of the clearing was occupied by a truly gargantuan tree, taller than the Citadel Tower, he was sure. Hell, the massive roots were probably bigger!

Movements in the corners of his vision revealed that his approach was being watched carefully by Koroks, the woodland creatures uncharacteristically quiet. Link stepped around a giant, fallen stump and nearly gasped as he saw a small stone platform in the middle of the clearing...and the sword.

The Master Sword looked exactly as it had in his memories. The winged hilt, the golden accent, the absurdly shiny and sharp blade... It was every bit the Hero's sword, the sort you'd imagine in the stories. The tip was sunk into a stone base on the platform, holding the sword upright, as if it was simply waiting for someone to pull it out.

Neither of them spoke as Link stepped onto the platform, unable to take his eyes off the blade. He hadn't felt it before, but now that he'd seen it...he knew he needed this sword. It belonged in his hands. There had been a gap, and he knew exactly how to fill it. He hesitantly reached out, almost afraid of what would happen when he touched it. Would it react, somehow? Lash out? Leap into his grip?

Before his fingers reached it, however, a deep groaning sound echoed across the clearing, the sound of wood splintering almost deafening in volume...and coming from somewhere above him. Slowly, Link looked up, gaze travelling along the impossibly ancient, gnarled bark of the huge tree...and a pair of equally huge eyes staring down at him. And that knothole...it kind of looked like a nose, didn't it? And those scars...a mouth...

...surely not...it couldn't be...

"Hmph," the tree spoke as it its eyes regarded Link with a look of...contempt? "So, there you are!" its voice bellowed. "Took your sweet time, didn't you?"

Link's mouth fell open, and he could not find the strength in him to move it to form speech...or even close it, to be honest.

Luckily, Sheik was there to take charge.

"What. The. Fuck?!"

The Deku Tree in BotW is a bit of an ass to Link, isn't he?