Chapter Five
The Forest Girl
As the morning smell of leaves and fresh dew filled her nose, the girl rose to her feet. She loved the scent of life in the morning. Walking over to the only dark corner of her cave, she looked into a small mirror, which had a large crack running through it. It had a blue frame with many small, delicate ripples that reminded her of running water. She looked at herself as she combed her hair with a pine needle brush. This mirror was her most prized treasure. This was the only thing left of her mother, her dear, dear mother. The memory had no pictures only sounds. Her mother's voice singing that same lullaby again and again to her little baby. Brushing away the tears that had fallen on her cheek, she left to the woods to find herself some breakfast.
The girl searched left and right but found nothing. Her stomach growled with hunger as she searched on. Suddenly, the girl saw a bush before her, ripe with berries for the picking. She smiled at her luck and began to eat the bitter-sweet berries ravenously. When she stopped the poor bush was almost completely bare, with a few branches bent. She felt sorry for the tree, wishing she weren't so clumsy as to bend the branches. Then, her throat complained to her for water so she headed off towards the pool of water she knew of. It was sparkling clear and at the bottom there was a hole. Many times she had tried to dive to the bottom and see were it lead but had never made it. As she rounded the corner, she stopped suddenly at what she saw.
It was the boy, washing his face in the pool of water. She stayed to watch, not knowing why. She felt a strange feeling in her stomach, shrugging it off as a stomach pain from the berries. Hadn't she told herself she would forget this boy? Hadn't she learned to stay away from humans? She continued to watch even as the boy shook his head like a dog to dry off. An urge came to her to laugh that she could only reduce to soft giggles. The boy looked up at her and stared. She began to run as he shouted "Wait!". She heard his heavy footsteps following her as she ran back to her cave, wondering what had possessed her to do such a thing.
Back in a small cave this morning . . .
A cold morning breeze woke him like a bucket of ice water. Link woke only to rise and bump his head on the rocky ceiling of the cave. He hadn't found the girl or his way home last night and was forced to find shelter in this small, damp cave. The sun was already in the sky and he needed to start his search once more, but his pleading stomach came first. He opened the small pack he always wore and pulled out a small loaf of bread. He ate this, even though it was dry, and felt his sudden thirst. He knew where the pool from Zora's Domain was right? Link shook all the worries out of his mind as he concentrated on searching for the pool.
There it was, as clean and cool as ever. He ran towards it and began to drink the icy liquid from his hands. Then he realized he was quite dirty from wandering around in the Lost Woods. He began to wash his face and had to shake his head to dry off. He heard a giggling in the distance and turned around to look at the girl he had met yesterday. As he stared she began to run and he called out after her "Wait!" but she paid him no mind. He was up in a flash, running after her.
Last night a revelation came to him that this girl was indeed the girl from Zelda's vision. She was in the forest, and had green eyes and brown hair. His heart thumped as he ran faster, trying to keep up with her quickening pace. Then he lost her. He was sure she had gone through this hole but . . . where was she? Link walked around the area and found nothing except one of the gray boulders that were all over these woods. Maybe there was a hidden place in the wall, or something else of that sort. Once before, he had discovered a tiny cave ... perhaps, this girl lived in a similar one. The question was, how could he get her to come out? After thinking, he decided to hide in the entrance and wait for her to come out. He sat still, unmoving so as not to be seen. A rumbling sound reached his ears when he saw the old, gray rock roll away and the girl came out from behind it. She looked around for intruders, then began to walk away.
Link jumped out of his hiding place and grabbed her, holding her mouth with one hand and her waist with the other. Her eyes were wide with fear until she saw him. Then, she began to kick and struggle, bitting his fingers and trying to scream for help. Link let go of her mouth as she bit him, pulled back the boulder and took her and himself inside the small cave behind it.
Inside, the cave was pitch black and for a time neither said a word. Even though he couldn't see her, Link felt the girl's piercing stare boring into him. More silence. Cautiously, he said, "Do you have a light in here?" He had tried to speak kindly, but the girl gave him no such courtesy. "Why did you kidnap me?" she demanded of him, basically yelling at him, not answering his question.
"I wouldn't call it . . ." he began, a bit startled at her boldness.
"Then what would you call it? Asking me out to tea? Why did you do it anyway?" her every syllable accented with bitterness.
"I want to talk to you about something," he said calmly, trying to make the situation go more smoothly.
"You don't even know me! What would you, could you, possibly want to talk to me about?" her voice was shocked at first but regained its bitterness by the time she finished.
"Will you listen to me if I tell you?" he asked quietly.
"I will if it will make you leave," she said, her tone softening.
"Do you know who Princess Zelda is?" he asked her, almost expecting her to say no. There was a scraping sound as sparks flew and the cave was flooded with light. The girl had used some flint and was now lighting three candles.
"Of course I do! Do you think I'm stupid?" her face was lit by the candle light and was set in a scowl when she spoke, her eyes glaring.
"Anyway," he continued, " she sent me on a quest because she had a vision. In it she saw a girl with green eyes and brown hair, in the forest with me." He stopped to look at the girls reaction. Link wasn't sure if he should go into detail with her just yet. Her face was expressionless. He sighed and said, "Also, she told me to find a girl without a name. She met her once and for some reason thinks she might be able to help me in my quest. Do you know her?" he asked, hoping she wasn't too confused to answer.
"I should know her," she said, as if this were obvious, "That girl is me." She smiled at his shocked face.
"You're the same person?" he said in disbelief, "How can that be?"
"I don't know, but it is." She looked into his sapphire eyes, trying to find out more. "Well, if that's all, I think I'll go." She stood up and made a move towards the boulder blocking the opening.
"There is more if you want to hear it," he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. If she didn't help him how would he ever find the cure for Zelda? A tear escaped his eye, as he thought about her, unnoticed. The girl looked at him. She sighed and sat down, swiping at a fly piece of her brown hair. If he's going to cry if I don't stay, I guess I could listen for a while, she thought.
"Before I didn't know if I should tell you this, but I suppose I have to since your so involved." This confused the girl and her face scrunched up as it always did when she was trying to think. There was a long silence between them in the candle lit room.
"Well . . ."she said to Link, flicking his head as she spoke "Are you going to tell me the whole story?" As she said this, her left eyebrow was raised above her leafy green eyes. The boy looked at her, a bit flustered and then began to tell her the story. It took awhile for him to tell the whole story to her, as she frequently interrupted him. When he was finished the girl was sitting on the floor hugging her knees crying silently into them. Once again, he was startled to see her crying.
"Are you alright?" he asked her quietly. He looked at her again. What had he said? Why had she cried the last time? Many questions flooded through his mind about this strange girl, but he said nothing. He put a hand comfortingly on her knee. The pressure of his hand startled her and she looked up, her eyes bright with tears. She put her head back on her knees again, trying to hide her tears. Finally the girl spoke. "You just don't know . . ." she said, almost inaudible, "You just don't know . ." she repeated shaking her head.
"Will you tell me so I can understand?" he said, urging her to tell him. Boys! she thought to herself, They can't even be in the least sympathetic, forgetting that he had just been trying to comfort her. She wiped her tear-stained cheeks, and took in a deep breath. "The thing you don't know is that . . . well, Zelda and I were . . . friends." Link stared at her in amazement. How could she be? It just wasn't possible! But the girl continued her story. "One day we met on the road as you know. She watched me as I ran, headed towards the Kokiri Forest. The next day I found her wandering the woods, looking for me as you were. I don't know why, but I went over to her. She looked up when she saw me and smiled. We began to talk and soon you would have thought we were old friends. She continued to come each day and we shared our secrets, our past memories, places we'd been, and . . ." the girl paused for a moment, stunned at herself. Why am I telling him this? I haven't ever told this to anyone. I almost told him our secret! She was ashamed of herself for doing so. "So we were best friends and now this happened . . ." Her emerald eyes became blurry with a fresh batch of tears.
Link now felt sorry for the girl. He moved over towards her and hugged her shoulders with one arm, for comfort. Startled, the girl pulled away from him. She stood up in the cave's flickering candle light and looked at him. He was a strange boy. He wore Kokiri clothing, yet he couldn't be a Kokiri because they never grew old. His eyes were misty with past memories of pain and sorrow, things lost to the heart. She pulled herself out of this trance and thought. If we were both friends of Zelda, I suppose we might work together to help her. This time as she looked at him she spoke, "We need to leave right away." Link didn't move, then shook his head as he came out of a kind of trance too. He had been staring at her, wondering about her past, her family, and other things. He stood up, saying nothing, and began to move the boulder as the last candle flickered out.
