"I do." A strong hand took the ocarina from Fado and all four females looked up at the new arrival.

"Impa!"

"A Sheikah!" The three Kokiri squealed. "Could you talk to our Gossip Stone?"

"In a minute. Let me talk to Nabooru for a moment, would you?" The three little elves jumped up and skipped off.

"Where have you been?! You're six hours late!"

Impa sat down next to her. "Before you awoke, one of the villagers came to tell me that a ghost had risen from its grave and was haunting the cemetery. I had to persuade it back into its tomb again."

"It took you six hours?"

"It was a very...persistent ghost." She sighed. "I apologize, but it was unavoidable."

"Fine. Let's find this boy and get out of here then." Standing up quickly, Nabooru rearranged her swords on her back.

"All right." Impa rose as well and motioned towards a tunnel leading out of the village. "Is that the way to the forest?"

Nabooru shrugged. "Don't ask me, I couldn't get the short people to tell me anything." She turned her back on Impa and looked down over the town. "There doesn't seem to be any other way to go except the way we came in. So that must be it."

"Nabooru, I did apologize."

Nabooru's reply was cut off by the three Kokiri girls. They surrounded the pair, squealing and laughing and skipping.

"Would you talk to our Gossip Stone NOW, Miss Sheikah?"

"Please?"

"C'mon!"

"PLEASE?" They chorused.

"All right, all right." She looked down at them and smiled. "Where is it?" Two of the Kokiri grabbed her hands and the other bounced along ahead of them as they began pulling her towards the Gossip Stone.

"Here it is!"

"What does it say?"

Nabooru walked up behind them, frowning. "Can we hurry this up?"

Impa kneeled and greeted the stone in Sheikah. "Excuse me..."

The stone vibrated slightly and then it made a sound which sounded suspciciously like a yawn. "Sleepy...go away." There was a pause, and then it vibrated again, more strongly this time. "Wait!" it squealed. "You speak Sheikah? You are a Sheikah!"

"Yes, yes, I am. The girls here wanted me to talk to you."

"Oh..." the little stone sounded like it was pouting. "I should have known you didn't want to talk to me, really."

"But I do...do you have any good gossip?"

"Hmmmph....maybe. OOoohhh, did you know that Mido has a crush on Tila? He *used* to like Saria, but then she left and so he started to like Tila...but I don't think Tila likes him, I think she likes Reti....and...."

Impa stood up, shaking her head. 'Mido has a crush on someone named Tila. That's all it had to say."

One of the little girls began jumping up and down. The other two were silent for a minute, then started chattering excitedly in high pitched voices. Impa motioned to Nabooru over their heads and the pair began jogging towards the tunnel.

******

Nabooru sat down on a stump with a sigh. "I hate this place."

Impa sat down on the ground next to her with an answering sigh. "I must admit it is very frustrating." She looked at her hands. "We start down one tunnel, and things grow dark and suddenly we're at the entrance to the woods again. It doesn't make any sense."

"It is called the _Lost_ Woods, you know."

"I am aware of the name." Impa set down her pack and took the ocarina out of it. She traced the delicately carved instrument with a fingertip. "I wish we could talk to Saria. She'd know the way." She put it away abruptly. "No.. They'd trace the magic."

"Who's they? Do you even know what we're doing?"

Impa looked at Nabooru. "What are you talking about?"

"This mission...do you know what we're doing? We go off on side quests and no one knows what's going on and we're never going to get back home!" She grabbed Impa's shoulders and shook her hard.

"Nabooru!" Impa pushed the other Sage away from her. "Get ahold of yourself."

"Don't tell me what to do. You don't have any authority over me. I didn't join the Sages to be bossed around by some snobby Sheikah who thinks she knows everything."

"I don't think I know everything. For one thing, I don't know why you're acting like this..." She abruptly stopped and her eyes widened. "Oh....Nabooru, it's just the Lost Woods getting to you. You're not really feeling these things."

"Don't you dare tell me what I'm feeling and not feeling!" The Gerudo walked Impa into a corner and grabbed her upper arms threateningly again. "I'm not going to listen to you anymore."

"Nabooru!" She said warningly. "Let me go."

"No! We're going back to the Sacred..." Nabooru's body slumped to the ground as Impa swiftly punched her in the face, knocking her out.

****

"How are you feeling?"

Nabooru sat up gingerly, one hand pressed to her cheek. "No, I feel awful. What happened?"

"I knocked you out." Impa handed the other woman a cup filled with healing potion. "Here, drink this, it'll make you feel better."

"What do you mean you knocked me out?" She glared suspiciously at the cup, then drained it. "Why would you knock me out?"

"You were threatening me."

"I don't remember threatening you." She handed the empty cup to Impa.

Impa put the cup back into her pack. "I didn't think you would. The Lost Woods can have a maddening effect on some people."

"But...but I thought the witch said we would be immune to that."

"She said we wouldn't turn into Skull Kids, nothing else."

The other woman mumbled something under her breath about not trusting witches. "Where are we?"

"We're in the Sacred Meadow of the Lost Woods. After I knocked you out, I carried you through one of the tunnels...it happened to finally be the right one."

"Figures...and could you stop talking about knocking me out?"