Okay, it's been a month and I must provide an apology before going on with the story. It's annoying, but I feel like I have to give reasons for the insanely long wait. Skip over it if you wish. I just got back after being away for a week and a half, and before that I couldn't post because my stupid computer wouldn't get online. Then I tried posting from a different computer and the formatting was completely screwed, and I couldn't figure out how to make it work. That's a long story made short, and I'm sorry. Maybe if this computer wasn't such a piece of TRASH......but I'm not going to get into that because I'll never shut up. I realize that this is a long AN, so I'll spare everyone and get on with the fic.

Disclaimer: Aw, come on, people. How many times do we have to go through this? Smart people own stuff, and I am definitely not one of them. And until I take over the world, smart people will continue to own stuff. So leave me alone!

The Missing Link

Chapter 5: An Exchange of Mockery

"So there it is. The immense, treacherous peak affectionately dubbed Death Mountain, one of the most perilous places in all of Hyrule. It also serves as a tourist trap, hence the existence of Kakariko Village. Now, if you'll look to your right-" Navi went on, relishing in the sarcasm as he gestured with his wing to the entrance of the Death Mountain trail.

Saria rolled her eyes. Was this fairy really interested in saving Hyrule, or landing a job on a late-night comedy? They'd been traveling nonstop for an entire day, and had finally reached Kakariko Village. To Navi, it was a boring old town that he'd seen hundreds of times, nothing to get even remotely excited about. It was different for her. This was the first time in Saria's life that she'd ventured outside the forest, and she found the world outside to be an amazing spectacle, bursting with life. She regarded the quaint village as a new horizon, a door that opened to a whole new world. Of course, Saria would never tell that to Navi. She'd get laughed all the way back into the Lost Woods. The fairy was adventurous, but not the least bit sentimental about new experiences.

He'd given her enough of a hard time when she'd first seen the entrance to the market and Hyrule Castle. She stood before the drawbridge, gaping at the massive building before her, longing to go inside. He'd teased her for hours about her childish impressionism, the eager look on her face that he described as looking like "a kid with a candy bar". Saria had thought she'd long since outgrown her adolescent wonder with which she viewed the world, but she hadn't. Perhaps she had lost her ingenuous nature in Kokiri Forest, but she was certainly full of immature amazement in the real world. This different realm outside the boundaries of the forest had reopened a door she'd closed long ago, releasing her carefree, childlike spirit. She was a kid again, asking countless questions, astonished at things unseen before.

Perhaps this was a beneficial happening, though. Saria had gone so long without feeling the rush of exhilaration, the surge of adventure, that she was worried she'd lost her ability to experience, strange as it may sound. She'd grown so accustomed to a quiet life in the forest that she'd squandered her spirit of wonder, feeling that there was nothing more for her than a simple life among the Kokiri. Now infantile vitality had surfaced, and she found it strangely thrilling. Navi, of course, only found it comical.

Saria snapped suddenly out of her reverie to the sound of Navi blaring satires in her ear. "Please keep your lunch inside your stomach at all times and deposit trash in the proper holes in the ground," he drawled in a high-pitched voice, grinning stupidly at her.

She shook her head, sighing as she did so. "Okay, I get it already. Enough of your half-witted fun, Navi. We have work to do, remember?"

Navi stopped in the middle of a speech on flash photography and glared at her. "Well, you're a real live wire, aren't ya?" he asked, ridicule ever-present in his tone. "Come on, I was just trying to explain the real world to you, since you're from the forest and all. I mean, you can't honestly tell me that you've actually seen a mountain before, can ya fairy girl?"

Saria made a face at the nickname. It reminded her of Link, in a sickening way. "Don't call me that, Navi. And I have seen a mountain before; I can see this one from the Lost Woods. I've just never seen it up close, that's all." She looked around at the houses sitting quietly in the village, feeling the chill that night was bringing to the air. "Are we going to find somewhere to stay, or are we just going to freeze to death right here?" she snapped, suddenly irritable. It seemed almost two days of walking across the barren fields of Hyrule, never stopping to rest, had finally caught up to her. Navi's mockery wasn't helping things.

"Ohhhh, testy forest girl," Navi taunted, but immediately stopped when he saw her face. He sighed, realizing it was time to lay criticism to rest for the night. "We're going to find a place to stay overnight, and then we'll move out tomorrow morning and start our journey up Death Mountain. That okay with you, princess?" He grinned as he darted out of her grasp, watching her try desperately to grab him. His wings were fine just as they were; he didn't need Saria "renovating" them.

Saria turned back for one last glance at Death Mountain, drinking in the majesty as the last rays of the setting sun lent their glow to the towering peaks. The splendor was simply awe-inspiring. However, though it was beyond her knowledge, the magnificence of the mountains was also misleading, offering a guise of protection and tranquillity. Serenity and safety were the last things they'd encounter on their trek up the mountain, although they didn't know that. Or at least Saria didn't, and Navi didn't plan on telling her. Despite the dangers they'd experience, he loved watching other people being surprised when they least expected it. And this little forest girl who had never ventured farther than the Lost Woods.....she was in for a rude awakening. Navi couldn't help chuckling to himself as he reflected on it.

Saria looked at him curiously, suspicion shining in her amethyst depths. "What? What is it?" she asked, scrutinizing him for hints of the never-ending ridicule.

"Oh, nothing really. Nothing you need to worry about, elf chick," Navi grinned maddeningly when he saw her cringe at the term he'd so degradingly used.

"Sometimes I think I lost my mind when I agreed to help you," she told him, shaking her head. "If it wasn't for Link, I would have turned around and gone home by now." True, she'd grown rather used to the fairy's attitude after dealing with it for two days straight. But mockery was mockery, and it was still annoying, especially when it was directed at her.

"Yeah, you'd run on back to the forest screaming, wouldn't ya? Of course, I know you won't do that to me now, since we're looking for your boyfriend and all....." he trailed off, still wearing that same infuriating smirk. Saria was starting to think it never left his face. She scowled at him darkly, seething.

"Link is NOT my boyfriend!" she shouted at him, brushing her emerald hair back from her face in frustration. It was an inveterate habit of hers, a sign of imminent rage. Once she had the forest green locks in her grip, she pulled on them, fuming as she bit her lower lip. It took a lot to push Saria over the edge, and she'd always prided herself for being able to handle pressure far beyond the breaking points of most people. Yet, here she was, completely losing it all over a fairy's derision. It was pitiful. Utterly, completely pathetic.

"Some savior you are! All you've done is crack insults and tease me mercilessly since we started this whole thing! Don't you even care about saving Hyrule?!" she screamed at him, her fury boiling over. She couldn't take this. The combination of lack of sleep, Navi's bitter laugh track, and stress were wearing her down, and she was on the very end of her frayed rope, a rope that had been unwinding with every day that passed, every hour that went by when she didn't know where Link was, or if he was even alive. Her anxiety alone would have been enough to break her, but apparently Navi wasn't satisfied in letting her go so easily. He didn't like to watch a person destroy themselves if he didn't have a hand in the destruction.

[The chick has lost it.] Navi shrugged, completely indifferent to her vehemence. She was just another high-strung kid; he ran into a lot of those in this particular line of work. "Sure I care. I just don't see why I shouldn't have a little fun in the process. And *I'm* not the savior here, the forest kid is. He's the one destined to save the land, not me. Now are we going to find a place to stay or what? It's getting dark out." His voice was breezy, his attitude unfazed by her animosity.

His nonchalance only served to further irritate Saria. For her, screaming was a rare occurrence; it didn't agree with her temperament. When she did let loose, however, she relished in the occasion. She shrieked herself hoarse, gesturing wildly with her hands and tugging at her hair until her head was sore. Her eyes were blurry and bloodshot for days afterward. However, she could only work herself up into a blind frenzy when she had someone to shout back at her. Because Saria was so calm and collected most of the time, conflict was something that she rarely had to deal with. When hostility arose, though, and she felt the need to yell, she had to have someone screaming back at her. It helped her enjoy her anger.

Navi, however, was frustrating her beyond belief, simply because he refused to comply. He wouldn't scream back at her, no matter how loud she screeched, no matter how out of control her malice got. The fairy was a master of criticizing others, but he himself was impermeable to ridicule. Insults rolled off him like raindrops, unable to penetrate the impervious membrane he'd built around him. When Saria realized that he would not satisfy her want, she felt her rage slipping out of her grasp, leaving only tired defeat in its place. Her opportunity to scream and be screamed at had passed, and she felt empty and void. Navi would insult her, but he couldn't take the time to really yell at her. Was she that much of a nobody, that he wouldn't acknowledge her fury?

Saria sighed and mustered the last of her ebbing anger to shoot Navi a weak glare. "I know it's dark out," she muttered in annoyance. Without her rage, she was simply apathetic.

"Oh, well, I was just wondering if you noticed. I mean, since you seemed to be so busy with your hysterics and all," Navi's slightly comic look didn't change in the slightest as he led the way down the small flight of steps from the Death Mountain entrance and around the corner to a small house, listening to Saria muttering under her breath bitterly. He smiled in the darkness, grateful to find that this girl had an attitude after all. Watching her scream and yank at her hair was much easier for him to deal with than her carefree, polite disposition. Of course, he'd also found it highly amusing.

"The people who normally live here are away currently, most likely staying somewhere near Hyrule Castle. They offer up their house to travelers all the time, so it'll be fine if we just stay here overnight, and start our journey tomorrow like I said before," Navi explained as Saria opened the door to the house and peered inside at the darkness.

It felt strange to be walking into someone else's home and acting as though it were her own. This whole experience of traveling with Navi just felt so surreal that she sometimes doubted it was really happening, and that she'd wake up any minute in her plain forest home and meet Link in the Lost Woods. Navi, of course, the master of directness, burst into the house as though he'd been living there all his life, shouting out to Saria to light a candle. She did as she was told, though she didn't know why she bothered listening, and shut the door behind her to keep out the wind. [The wind and whatever else happens to be out there in the night.] she thought, shivering from cold and apprehension. She shrugged off her fears, telling herself to be stronger for Link's sake, and joined Navi in the middle of the room.

It was a simple house, much like the ones back home, containing only two beds, a round wooden table with a few small chairs, and a stone stove in the corner with a single pot sitting on top. A carpet with simple, repeating patterns of faded colors lay on a hard wooden floor beneath her tired feet, stained in several places with streaks of dirt. Saria felt strangely wistful. She could faintly hear Navi speaking from very far away as she longed for the houses of Kokiri Village. The little house offered a familiar comfort, and that was welcome, but it also brought a wave of suffocating nostalgia upon her.

"All right, fine. Don't listen. If you want to stand there with your mouth hanging open and look like an imbecile all night, it's okay with me. I'm going to be here, sleeping, so if you feel the need to speak, just kinda slap yourself in the face and save us both some trouble, okay?" Navi told her. He sounded annoyed, as though he'd been trying to get her attention for the past fifteen minutes rather than fifteen seconds. He floated over to the bed nearest the wall, mumbling biting gibes under his breath.

Saria pulled her wandering spirit back into her body, retrieving it from the forest fantasies, and looked at Navi critically. "Since when does a fairy need an entire bed to sleep?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at Alia, her own fairy. She felt a pang of guilt when she realized that she had hardly acknowledged Alia's presence since Navi showed up. "Alia isn't half as spoiled as you are," she added haughtily. The fairy tossed her wings in agreement, grateful that her master was finally realizing she was there.

Navi scoffed as he turned to look at the pair. "That's because 'Alia' isn't a fairy of the world, my dear elfin friend. I happen to be very high-maintenance." he told her matter-of-factly. "And you were listening to me after all, although you only opened your mouth to criticize. You know, that's a horrible way to make friends."

Saria gaped at him. "Oh, like you're the expert on friendship! Every time you open your big mouth, ridicule comes pouring out. Don't try to deny it!" Alia bounced up and down, showing her support for Saria's argument.

"Who said I was denying it? I'm a jerk, not a hypocrite," Navi replied calmly, as he always did. "Are you finished now? At this rate, the sun is going to rise and set again, and you'll still be throwing a tantrum."

Saria glared at him as she blew out the candle and collapsed on the other bed. "You're hopeless," she muttered to the darkness.

"And proud of it," Navi responded to her statement simply before declaring conversation closed for the night. Saria rolled her eyes and stared up at the dark ceiling. She closed her eyes, but they flicked open seconds later, watching the patterns of moonlight from the window dance across the ragged floor.

This was what she had longed to do for almost two days, and now she was bereft of the one thing she needed. Comfortable sleep had taken the rest of the world, but it refused to allow her to join in. Saria rolled over in agitation, frustrated because she could not find repose. Her mind that had been so fatigued and dulled only moments ago was now spinning with thoughts and unanswered questions, criticisms and dreams, vivid hopes and dark, threatening fears. She attempted to ignore the meditations that spun around her head, worrying that if they stopped to rest then she would be forced to consider them. However, the rollercoaster of terror and ridicule, questions and concerns, combined with the smallest thread of faith, refused to stay moving forever. It slowed, gradually coming to rest on a thought that had been clinging to the back of her chaotic mind, a thought that she had been afraid to acknowledge.

Here it was, though, hovering in the cool night air, pressing down upon her, forcing her to reflect on it. It was an intense thought, one that threatened to asphyxiate her entire being, hanging thick and dark above her, holding all the pressure and panic that had been whirling through her body ever since that fateful morning when Link was found missing. Saria tried to hold it off, attempting to keep it far above her in the air, where she wouldn't have to deal with it. Eventually it became too much for her to handle, and she reluctantly allowed it to fall, where it took root in her brain and spread like a virulent plague, infecting every thought, intensifying every horror and smothering every hope.

[You are a horrible Sage.] her mind's demon thundered. The words began twirling around her head, picking up speeds equal to that of a hurricane. [It's your fault Link's missing. You weren't paying any attention to what was going on in the Forest; too blind to see the evil taking shape. You don't even deserve to be a Sage anyway; you're only an immature child who can't comprehend the dangers of neglecting your duties. The Great Deku Tree must have been desperate, choosing you to be Sage of the Forest. Obviously you're far too juvenile and stupid to watch over a sacred temple.] Saria choked back a sob and stifled a scream. She felt herself beginning to tug at her emerald tresses once more. She began shaking her head violently, wanting the voice to leave her alone. It was far too late for that, however, as the evil had already sown the seeds of self-destruction in her mind. There was no way to remove them now. They would only continue to grow.

[Link's only gone because you were too preoccupied with your childish games to see the darkness coming upon Hyrule. He hates you for what you've done to him, how you abandoned him and let him be taken away. Link hates you, Saria. He knows you aren't worthy of being a Sage. Do you know where he is right now? He's probably gone, dead from being betrayed and forgotten.] Saria felt the tears, hot and sharp, begin to flow freely down her face. She shot upwards, punching the bed with all her might, all the while resisting the urge to scream. [HE'S NOT DEAD! LEAVE ME ALONE!] she shrieked soundlessly at her mind, choking on her own agony. [Yes, he is.] the demon boomed, refusing to let her head find respite from the spiraling pain and accusations. [He is, and it's all your fault. Everything is your fault, Saria. They hate you for it, all of them. Navi, the Great Deku Tree, the villagers, they despise you for what you've done to them. And Link- he thought you were better than this.]

Saria yanked at her hair furiously, sobbing and having fierce spasms. She looked down at her hands, covered with her own torn emerald locks. [Your fault, your fault....] the nightmare taunted, mocking her mercilessly. She collapsed on the bed, rolling back and forth and shaking, clawing at her face and hair, and then she began to scream. She screamed aloud, kicking the bed in torment, desperately trying to free herself from the confines of her mind. The tiny walls of the house began to surround her, strangling and threatening to crush her. Saria shot out of the bed and ran for the door, tears streaming down her face, hands shaking violently as she struggled with the knob, all the while shrieking with fear and hatred.

She finally succeeded, flinging open the door and running out into the frigid night. She sprinted forward until she collapsed at the tree near the entrance to Kakariko Village, ripping out the grass and sobbing. She raised her head to the sky, choking on the chill in the air. "LIIIINNNNKKK!" came the agonizing scream from her throat as she crashed against the withered tree, still shivering from cold and anxiety. "Link," one last strangled whisper escaped as she at last ceased screaming and lost consciousness, her hands that had tugged so violently at her hair falling helplessly to her sides. The demon retreated back into the darkest interiors of her mind, waiting patiently until a time when he would again resurface. Every taunt pushed the forest girl closer to the breaking point. It would only take a few more of these incidents before Saria, Sage of the Forest Temple, hit rock bottom, taking the hope for Hyrule's safety down with her.

***

Miles away from where Saria lay near lifeless, a figure cloaked in black smiled as she watched the episode, her silver eyes shining with cruel satisfaction. She fingered a small circular vial in her hands, relishing in the evils within, reflecting on the damages of her power. She smirked savagely as an image of Hyrule Castle became visible in her crystal viewpoint, and waved her hands about, causing the wind outside to pick up drastically. She focused her eyes on the reflection of a young blonde girl, sleeping peacefully in a majestic canopy bed, and sneered at the unsuspecting victim. "Princess Zelda," whispered the figure, lustrous orbs flashing as she held the vial skyward. Her heartless laughter echoed through the dark cavern, searing through the night. "Rest assured, Hyrule. Your inevitable demise is approaching. None will be spared."

O_O Saria going insane? Where'd *that* come from?! That wasn't the way the chapter was supposed to end, but I guess it'll work. Saria's never seemed stable to me, anyways! Okay, I think I should let you guys know now, I have tons of different, interlocked ideas for this fic, and at the moment, it's screaming EPIC at me loud and clear. I'm thinking somewhere around thirty chapters......I dunno. We'll just have to wait and see where my crazy mind takes us. Until then, lots of cookies and thanks to everyone! ^___________^