Because I am very new to the game itself and have only used Link and gotten to know him through Super Smash Brothers. I really don't know too much of what happens after the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time. As you can clearly see I haven't gotten that far. -_-; So, this story is very AU, or can that actually be? Can a game be AU? Ah, never mind... Please just bear with me and if I make any dreadful mistakes, other then the fact Link was sent back in time by Zelda, and Navi left, which I am completely ignoring for the moment, by all means let me know.
I will be using a combination of the game and the manga...
One more request: Please review and flame if you want. I have a rule about flames though, you must tell me the problem so that I may at least attempt to fix it. Thank you.
Link lay on his bed, gently tossing in his dreams, while Navi the fairy flew silently above his head.
"Wake up!" She yelled, her quiet voice doing little to nothing to wake the sleeping youth. She lit on his shoulder, her body, usually enveloped in blue light, could be seen for a moment and her petit features conveyed amused irritation. Finally he stirred and Navi once again took to the air. "You always were lazy." She commented as he stood and stretched, looking out over the small Kokiri forest.
Link had chosen to come back and protect his beloved home from any new dangers that threatened to show their ugly faces. So far everything had been peaceful, he was sure it would not last. Navi gazed at her friend, his face showing no emotion, it never did anymore. She smiled for him but found herself thinking of what they had gone through together, she knew what terrible scars were hidden under that green tunic.
"Morning." He greeted softly, sweet tenor filling the air for only a few seconds. Never did he say more then a few words, even then it was rare, but when he did all his bottled feelings could pour out into the open. He had grown quickly despite jumping through time, countless battles could do that to someone, Navi supposed.
"Are we going to visit Saria today?" Navi asked, flitting around his head to hide in his collar where she felt his head nod.
"Deku Tree first though." Navi balked. Link never went to the Deku Tree anymore, not since the sprout had grown anyway.
"Why?" The fairy asked and wasn't surprised when she received no answer.
Jumping from his tree house Link ran across the grass and jumped from step to step until he made it to the entrance to the Deku Tree's meadow. Mido greeted him coldly and Link ignored.
"Move." He said shortly.
"I don't think so, Half-Person. The Deku Tree would never allow the likes of you to be in his presence." Navi felt Link flinch, the words cut him deeply but he did not let it show. Ever since Link had revealed himself to the rest of the Kokiri as a Hylian Mido had grown colder than before.
"Move." He repeated and brushed by the haughty Kokiri. And Mido could do nothing to stop him.
"Thou hath returned Hero of Time." The Deku Tree welcomed the silent one. "I wondered when it would be thus, you sense it also." Link nodded once and Navi flew anxiously about his head, she hadn't sensed it, whatever it was. The Tree, acknowledging her unease, spoke to her. "Navi the Fairy, fear not, thou were not meant to know. Leave us now, I must speak to the hero alone."
She had obeyed and now fluttered nervously around the branches of the trees, she would know when she was needed again. But until then she would worry and wonder. Why hadn't she sensed it? Was it really like the Deku Tree had said? That she wasn't meant to? That had never happened before, why now? Was something so terribly wrong with their world that she could not know?
"Let's go." Navi jumped, she hadn't heard Link walk up. He walked deftly passed Mido, climbed the vines that led to the Lost Woods and walked through the dark passages absentmindedly mumbling the directions to himself. It was the most he had said all day, not that that was unusual. For a moment she considered asking Link what that Deku Tree had said but reconsidered, he wouldn't answer. Before she knew it they were at the Forest Temple and Saria was standing out there to greet them. She wrapped her arms around Link and hugged him tightly not missing the hint of a smile that flickered across his lips for the briefest of moments.
Many would mistake his silence for aloofness but Navi and Saria knew otherwise, he simply had nothing important to say. The battles had been too numerous and had resulted in too much sadness...
A faraway look came to the warrior's blue eyes and they visibly brimmed with tears.
"It would have been a shame for the hero of time to have died..."
"Because everyone who'd fight Gannondorf would be gone, right?"
"Yes...and the one to slay the wicked dragon...is only you."
"He's not a wicked dragon!"
"Link...Link..."
"I've missed you both!" Saria exclaimed happily, grasping his arm and pulling him inside the temple. He followed willingly enough. "Did you bring the ocarina?" The Sage of the forest asked eagerly, Link had promised to teach her some new songs and she gently took out her delicate instrument holding it to her lips and waiting as Link did the same. In no time at all the Sacred Forest Temple was filled with the sweet yet haunting notes of the simple melody Link had chosen and Saria quickly picked it up, echoing his call with her own while Navi drifted, enjoying the moment. Then, all too soon, it was over. Both their gazes locked and Link stared with true longing into his friend's soft blue eyes willing for something that could never be.
"I, I have to go now." He muttered quickly, turning his head and slipping his ocarina back from whence it came. Saria clasped his hand with hers.
"Visit me again soon." She whispered, "I get so lonely here...my friend..." Link blinked once and then was gone.
He wandered in silence with Navi slowly trailing behind.
"Is something wrong Link?" Navi asked, desperately trying to break the chilling silence, and to her surprise he nodded.
"Very much so. Something terrible has happened here..." he trailed off, searching.
"Something...terrible?" Navi repeated slowly, hovering a few inches lower. She didn't feel right, not right at all.
"Navi!" She heard Link cry out as her tiny body fell towards the ground and she snapped back to consciousness.
"I'm all right..." she whispered unevenly, flitting into his collar. "But I think I'll ride for a few minutes..." Navi felt Link relax, she must have frightened him, she had frightened herself really, that had never happened before. Then, just as quickly as his taught muscles loosened they tightened.
"Worse..." she heard him mumble and she peeked from around his shoulder. There, lying in the dewy grass, was a boy. Fair locks were so pale they shone almost white in the dim forest light were stained with the sticky fluid that she and Link new only too well. Blood welled from every where, seeping from the hungry red mouths that were his wounds. A pink froth bubbled from his mouth and blood trickled from the gash across his throat. Seconds passed and Link was by his side watching the boy's chest for the faint testimony of life, if it still stirred within him.
"...no..." Navi whispered as she spied the boy, presumably Kokiri as his fairy hovered nervously near. Suddenly the pointed ears, his left adorned with a single, silver band, twitched as the green-clad chest heaved upward and the blood gurgled anew from his throat as he took a ragged breath. The boy's stained lips moved vainly and his eyes flickered once revealing the light silver shade, peculiar for anyone. "Link...what did this? Wolfos?"
"No," he said as he gently lifted the dying child and allowed his fairy to rest with Navi. "These wounds were not inflicted by a creature's claws." He said no more and raced quickly, though carefully, back to the Forest Temple.
"Saria!" He yelled, jerking both fairies awake though they had not been aware they had fallen victim to the ruse of peace. Link rarely raised his voice.
"What happened?" The Sage of the Forest cried out as she saw the blood staining Link's Kokiri tunic and the writhing burden he carried. "Oh my..." she whispered as closer inspection revealed the child's many injuries. "I don't think I can fix this Link...but I will slow...the bleeding." She had broken off not wanting to voice what was certainly the inevitable. The words came to her slowly and she willed them to come faster as she murmured the charms of healing over the boy. Link watched in silent anticipation as the less serious wounds closed and Saria slumped to the ground, her head hung in exhaustion. "I've done all I can..." she sighed as Link picked the stranger up. "Ride Link, ride Epona as fast as you can to Hyrule Castle..." He was already gone, she heard Epona's song, the whinny of a horse and the hooves beating the ground. "Fly fast..."
Link urged his steed to go faster, squeezing his knees tight into her sides, pushing her to the limit and beyond all the while willing the quivering form in the saddle in front of him to keep living.
"Navi?" He asked, trying to keep his mind off of death. "What is his name?" He dug in his heels and Epona neighed and threatened to buck. He whispered a hurried apology.
"The boy is called Koi and his fairy is Tanej..." she whispered quietly into his ear. ( AN: His name is pronounced Ko-e, thanks ^-^ )
"Koi..." something flashed in Link's mind and his grip on the reigns faltered.
"Link?" The soft voice jarred him back to reality and he rode faster, the market gates looming on the horizon. Koi took another forced gulp on air, his first in what seemed like hours, and more blood dribbled onto Link's tunic but the hero paid it no mind. There was the creak of rusted metal and he saw the drawbridge begin it's slow rise.
"Wait!" He called desperately, "please wait!" It was no use, he was too far away. "Faster Epona, faster!" Gritting his teeth he prayed to the gods that he would make it in time. This child was important to him even if he didn't know why. Ten yards, five yards, the gate creeping slowly upwards, time itself seemed to stand still as Epona's powerful hindquarters bucked and her majestic body sailed through the slender gap even as her hoofs clacked heavily on the pave stones below. "Ya!" Cried Link and she galloped even faster up the road and past surprised guards. "Open the gates!" He ordered coming to a slow canter at the castle's portcullis.
"What business have you?" The guards asked almost in unison.
"To see Zelda, I have no time, let me through." Link gestured to the gasping boy and they raised the iron bars albeit with a little skepticism. "Navi, find her." The sparkling creature hurried through the first open window she came to as Link pulled Koi down gently off the saddle. "Thank you, Epona." He whispered. "I'll get you some water soon." He patted her heaving side once and jogged to the heavy doors awaiting entry hopefully by Zelda.
"Oh Link!" The princess breathed as she shoved them wide, "I hurried as fast as I could, bring him this way." She whisked them through a multitude of halls and finally came to the healing chambers.
"Can you save him?" Link asked while laying the still boy onto a table as Zelda had directed.
"I'll do my best." She replied sullenly, running her light fingers along the many wounds. "We shall have to fix this one first..." Zelda motioned to the slit ivory neck, the seeping blood a terrible crimson contrast, and began the chanting rituals with eyes closed in concentration. Link watched, always had he been fascinated by her miracles, as the torn muscle slowly nit together leaving nothing but a very thin, silvery scar, hardly noticeable unless you knew it was there. Koi immediately began to breath easier though still shallowly. Link summed it up to blood loss, indeed most of the boy's life was staining the green fabric of both their tunics, but Koi would live...hopefully. "Hand me a cloth please, Link." The Hero of Time nodded and reached above him to the shelves, he had been here enough times to know.
"How long?" Link asked, referring to recovery time.
"There really is no way to tell...is he Kokiri?" Her silent friend nodded once keeping the secret of the earring just that, a secret. "Take him back with you then, later today. He must rest, and Epona too. Take her some water and oats." Zelda brushed strands of the pale hair away from Koi's equally pale face and bid Link leave. Throwing one last look to the blood-tainted child Link left to take his noble mount to the stables, she would be in goods hands there.
Link patted her sweaty muzzle affectionately. She had been with him through a lot of his battles and he considered her to be a best friend, honest and true. They clip-clopped slowly to the stables, taking it easy for what seemed to be the first time that day, and he left her with the hand on duty explaining, in the fewest words possible, that he would be back later.
"Navi?" He asked softly to the air wondering where she could be and then remembering that she was still in his collar along with the newcomer. Link shrugged and sat under a tree to wait, plucking blades of grass and shredding them between his fingertips, watching the frail strands hang in the crystal air for a few seconds then slowly drift to the ground below. Leaning his head back against the rough bark he gazed up at the sunlight filtering through the leaves, dappling his face with gold, and sighed. A deep, contented sigh of well being that he knew was coming to an end. Closing his dazzling blue eyes he slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep, the last restful one he would know for a while. As he descended into the darkness his last thought wandered to the boy's fairy...as far as he knew Sheikah didn't have them...