It's your favorite author... again. I'm sure you hate reading this, but I hafta get my say out too ya know! Read the reviews for a special note from yours truly.
Here it is, the next chapter. A little short, but hopefully it gets its point across.

- ^_^

Chapter III: The Foreboding Dream

"Meleeu kita! Meleeu maykita! Asante Mika! Mika nowa!" an old man's voice echoed throughout the walls of a small canyon at the base of Death Mountain.

Almost stepping on his long beard every step of the way, the old man continued his log track upwards. Every Tektite in the area seemed to avoid him as he walked by with his small wooden cane. His ragged lab coat and worn brown shoes trotted along the dirt path slowly, but to the beat of his strange song.

"Meleeu! Meleeu kita! Meleeu! Meleeu maykita! Anisante! Asante! Mika! Mika! Mika!" he stopped and sung out proudly, completely off key.

His song continued until he came across the entrance of the Goron Village, where two Gorons were sitting near the doorway. Laughing, he poked the hood of his lab coat slowly.

"Wake little fairy!" he boasted in his deep voice, "we have work to do, people to meet, and experiments to finish!"

"Hey! Hey! Listen here you little..." the fairy started as she slowly rose from the lab coat's hood.

"No time for complaints!" he pointed the to the entrance, "we've arrived little navigator!"

"That's Navi! Not little navigator!" she cried out, hitting him on the head playfully, "and I would of been asleep but your stupid mumbling kept me awake!"

The pink fairy fluttered by the entrance, sprinkling dust on the two guards before returning to him, nodding. Only a minute later, the guards were heavily asleep. She looked back behind him and saw the most hideous sight she had in a while. A gathering of almost 10 Tektites were crowded behind them, but they seemed caged away like pets. The creatures couldn't approach them one more step.

"Hey! Listen! Doc Profellor!" Navi came face to face with him, "you gonna tell me why those things haven't ripped your old body to shreds yet?"

"My cane, deary!" Profellor explained, "Is producing a frequency in the ground that matches their natural frequency. This resonance, which is what this process is called, forbids their bodies from coming exactly 4 feet from where this stick is!"

"Um.. yeah... right..." Navi flew over to the Tektites and stuck her tongue out at them before returning to the doctor, "what were you singing before anyways?"

"The words of the ancients, my fairy friend, the words of the ancients..." he replied simply.

"I think I've been traveling with you too long..."

Navi had actually been traveling with the Professor since she returned to Hyrule after Link's grand adventure. With orders from the Great Deku tree to pursue her own personal adventure, Navi left for Lake Hylia, which seemed like the easiest place to find that. What she found was a loony doctor and his huge laboratory. There, the man took a great interest in her and began research on creating the greatest experiment of all. All of this experimentation was based on stories she told him from her adventure with Link.

Goron village had relatively no interest points for tourists to see. Not to mention that the royal family placed protection laws on the village so that no Hylian could enter without permission from the family. But with a sleeping guard and a determined mind, Profellor made his way to the village. His goal was to excavate two raw materials from the ground of the village. One rock was just the food the Gorons ate everyday. The rock was known for its nutritional value and its uncanny ability to keep the Gorons full for days. The other material needed was of course the Goron's Ruby. This ruby had the magical output of a Fairy's magic crystal and could make Hyrule castle float in the air... for about 1 second.

Beginning his slow trod yet again, the doctor and Navi entered the village while the powder she sprinkled on the guards still took effect. The first rock would be easy to obtain, but the second one would be a little harder to get off of the leader of the Gorons. Navi claimed to know the exact way to do it. All Profellor needed was a fake note from the royal family and a fairy ocarina.

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Groggily, Link's eyes opened halfway. The night was a total blur for him. In fact, his memory of the entire night only contained two things: Saria and the Fierce Deity's mask. The young Hylian returned to consciousness outside of the Great Deku Tree's meadow and strangely exhausted, made his way back to Saria's home to check up on her. The last thing that happened was that he fell asleep next to her?

'Then why I am...?' Link thought to himself as he glanced around. He was still in the Kokiri forest but the trees were different. They were completely black from the leaves to the branches and even the trunk. And from what he could see, Link was nowhere near the Kokiri village. Instead he seemed to be as deep as he was before he entered Termina. As he looked up, the sky was lit up with stars and the lone moon. They were in fact the only reason he could still see.

"I might as well figure out where I am," Link told himself as he shakily got up to his feet. As he did, though, a large clatter was heard right below him. He looked down only to find one thing his never wanted to see again. The legendary blade of the hero of time. The Master Sword.

"H...h...e...l...p....u...s...." a cry came from all around him, "pppp....lll.... .e...e...e...a...s...s...e...ee..."

Looking up away from the sword, around 20 of the Kokiri from the village surrounded him suddenly. They were all crying hysterically and seemed to be in an intense amount of pain. One lone Kokiri boy strode up to Link and fell to his knees in front of him. It was Mido. The young Kokiri that once taunted him constantly was at his feet. But Link knew very well that it was serious.

"Mido? What's wrong? Where's everyone else?" then a painful realization came to him and he started to panic, "Mido... where's Saria?"

"My... hands... Link..." Mido managed to stutter as he lifted his hands from the ground. His shaking hands were disappearing slowly... and were replaced by the hands of a Skeleton's.

Once Link looked up, it wasn't just Mido's body anymore. All of the Kokiri were slowly turning into Skeletons. But it was much different than just that. Swords and shields began to materialize in the air and helmets were appearing in front of them. The fairies that once circled their heads lost their magical aura as they dropped to the ground, dead. In a couple horrifying minutes, Link couldn't tell if one of them was Saria, because they all were now Stalfos.

Already panicking, Link went for the Master Sword and attempted to pick it up, but it wouldn't budge. It was way too heavy for him to pick up, but he didn't have the Kokiri sword with him or the Fierce Deity's mask. He was all alone and completely defenseless. And now, the Stalfos started to get their wits about them. Their intelligence grew and the target became quite clear. Once he realized their nature, Link bolted for the other way, leaving the sword behind. He couldn't find fist to sword and the master sword wasn't any use to him as a 10 year old.

He continued to run through the darkness blindly. The stars disappeared as the forest became denser. Looking back, the Stalfos were no longer following him, but when he tried to turn his head around, Link was stopped by a huge wall.

The wall was the Great Deku Tree, or at least what used to be the Great Deku Tree. With a surprised expression on his face, his adopted father looked like petrified wood. Backing up in horror, Link tripped on a twig and fell on his behind. As he continued to stare at the tree with disbelief, a song floated through the air. Saria's song. And it was coming from above the Great Deku tree.

"Hero of time... the one chosen by destiny," a voice, like the song, floated to him. The song stopped when the soft, female voice spoke and a figure stood up in the branches.

"I'm... not the hero of time anymore!" Link shouted out, "I'm too young! I can't even lift the Master sword! Now how do you know Saria's song!"

The woman looked about as short as Link, but her hair went down to her feet. She jumped off of the branch and sailed through the air to the ground. There was no sound, no pain, and she didn't even bend her knees when she landed, despite the fact that she was traveling so fast downwards. Her voice was so mature, but she was as tall as a little kid. He couldn't see anything about her. Her figure itself was shrouded in darkness.

"Hero of time... your end is nigh... as are the sages," she spoke, nodding strangely, "Hyrule shall succumb to the Phantoms..."

"The Phantoms...?" Link started to back away again.

"Yes... the Phantoms of Echoes... we have been released from an ancient seal and all we await is our final release by the one chosen by the Triforce of Power."

"That's impossible! Gannondorf was sealed away in the evil realm by the sages!" Link screamed out, still backing up. He stopped when he hit something behind him again. Figuring it was a tree, he shook it off and continued to look at the woman. The so-called tree grabbed Link by the arms and held him in place and the woman held her hand out and the Master sword materialized in her hand.

"Am I still there...? He... he... he..." a dark, very deep voice whispered in Link's ear.

The hero of time began to struggle immensely out of Gannondorf's grip, but it was futile. The Gerudo had him in his clutches and not even the golden gauntlets could help break him free. Meanwhile, the point of the Master Sword was coming closer and closer to Link's neck.

"Now to say goodbye... hero of time!" the females voice rang out.

A blood-curdling scream escaped from Link's lips as the female figure held the sword back momentarily, then drove it into Link's chest. Just as the tip was about to touch his skin, Link's world faded away into darkness.

'I'm sorry... Saria... Princess Zelda... everyone...'

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With a scream, Link bolted up to a sitting position. Covered with sweat and tears, he panted hard and kept his gaze at a nearby wall. He didn't move anywhere and now he was back in Saria's home. How his last adventure started would start all over again, but this time Navi wasn't there to help him. She was gone forever... or at least until he met her next. He hoped so hard that the Happy Mask Salesman was right about her.

Images of the dreams still haunted his mind and continued to until he felt a soft tap on his leg. In his daze, Link didn't even notice that beside him Saria was there. He eyes softened as he focused on her small frame, but something was wrong. She was tossing and turning frequently and she even sounded like she was crying. Link's eyes widened her whole body started to shake violently and her crying turned into screaming. All of his previous thoughts put behind him, he didn't the first thing he could think of. Link threw his arms around the young girl and positioned her across. Holding onto her shaking form tightly, Link began to rock back and forth, hoping to calm her down soon. If she didn't, he would have to wake her up, but that was a last resort.

As Link was about to wake her up, the shaking subsided and her body attempted to bolt up as his did when he first awoke but Link's hard grip wouldn't allow her to. Saria's eyes fluttered open with tears running down her face.

'Horrible... so... horrible...' she thought to herself as she tried to relax. She had never seen or even heard anything so evil in her life. And the forest? Gone for good? That wasn't ever going to happen... 'the Great Deku Tree will always take care of us...'

"Link..." she whispered sadly, "Please tell me the Deku Tree is alright..."

Link tried to shush her as he slowly combed his hand through her dark green hair. Her body was still shaking so he knew he had to calm her down first.

"He's fine, the thunderstorm is gone too... in fact I think we slept through it," Link whispered to her back, "It's morning already, but its still pretty early."

"Did you see the other thing that was with him last night?" Saria relaxed her head against Link's chest and sighed, talking halfway normal now, "did it... have green skin... and orange... hair?" the words came out shakily and with fear directly behind them. Almost as if she had seen the thing before.

Link immediately looked down at her, surprised.

"No... why do you think that?" Link shakily said, hoping she didn't regain her memory about being a sage yet, especially her memories about the Evil King Gannondorf.

"I had a nightmare..." Saria started off. She told him about the entire nightmare she had. The dark, colorless forest, the petrified Deku tree, the green skinned, orange haired man, a female playing her song... they were all there. And it all ended with a huge sword with a blue hilt and the Triforce symbol on it killing her.

The hero of time's heart completely dropped. She just experienced the same exact dream he had, and for her it had to be about 10 times worse. Link's hold tightened on her as he closed his eyes.

"Link? You had the same dream too... huh?" Saria said matter-of-factly. Somehow talking about the entire experience made her feel better, but the reminder still left her shaking.

"Huh? How's you know, Saria?"

"I can see... it in your eyes..." she yawned out, her full body weight leaning again him.

Link blinked a couple of times to realize that she had tilted her head up and was looking straight at him. He had lost his focus listening to her story and couldn't even gaze straight ahead until she asked that question.

The two agreed that the Great Deku Tree would have to be approached with this and hopefully he could help them find a solution. But for the next hour, Link decided, he wanted to stay right where he was and comfort her a little bit more. Despite her cheerful exterior, Link knew that Saria hid many things from him, including her fear of what this dream might really be. He kept pushing all of his fears into the back of his mind and remained right where he was until she was ready to leave.

Saria, on the other hand, snuggled into Link a bit further and slowly yawned. The nightmare and her past bout of unconsciousness left her body with little sleep. Her eyes drooped back down and within minutes she was back to snoring soundly, just the way Link wanted her.

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Later that day...

"Princess Zelda?" Impa appeared on the outskirts of the castle's courtyard and bowed her head, "May I speak to you a moment?"

The princess looked up slowly. Her vision and mind were clouded with thoughts of the night before; the dream still continued to haunt her. A female figure, Gannondorf... all of them came to her and killed her in her dream. The rest of the day flew by so quickly she didn't even notice she had been sitting in the same spot in the courtyard for over 3 hours.

"Oh, yes Impa!" Zelda tried to perk up as best she could, "What is it?"

Impa's explanation came quick and to the point. Her dreams were exactly the same as Zelda's. She wasn't ready to tell Zelda as quite as fast as the princess told her when she woke her up from the nightmare. The attendant bowed her head again and waited patiently for Zelda's response, which seemed to take forever to come. The young princess was awestruck by the fact that she wasn't the only one to see Gannondorf again.

"I need... to see someone," Zelda stood up, pacing momentarily, "but I won't even have to leave the castle to see him, thank goodness..."

"What are you talking about, Princess Zelda?" Impa asked, terribly confused.

"I need you to get to the Royal library and find me a legend book," Zelda recalled the name from her dream, "I need to know all I can before he arrives."

"Who are you talking about though?"

"I am talking about a hero that will help us if any of this comes true!"

"And what legend book am I searching for?"

"The legend of the Phantoms of Echoes."

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Next up: Chapter IV: Sidetracked
Link's next adventure is underway... starting off at Hyrule Castle. But mysterious forces won't allow him to even reach Lon Lon ranch before being trapped between the water and a lot of Skeletons.