Edward Kidnastoff
By John Little
Chp. 8: A Tale Of Two Villages
*****
"Well, scratch the Lost Woods off of our list, Saria. Not one Skull Kid had a lead, not one."
"It certainly didn't help when you started threatening them, Nabooru."
"I was merely trying to persuade them. You can't trust some people."
"Well, I know that I can trust the Skull Kids, even if you can't."
Saria and Nabooru were walking out of the Lost Woods into the Kokiri Village. They had spoken to every Skull Kid and friendly Deku Scrub known to live there and not one of them had known anything about the missing Link. They had asked everyone in the Kokiri Village earlier, meaning that they had effectively covered the entire forest area.
"This is hopeless," Nabooru mumbled. "No one's seen Link."
"Well, maybe not around here. But maybe the other five have had better luck."
"Please! Aside from your suggestion to simply ask every last man, woman and child in the world, not one person was able to come up with a single idea. Meanwhile, I'm the only one from our little conclave who's had decent training in the field of treasure hunting, with the possible exception of Darunia. Face it, we're the single most qualified group to look for anything and anyone, and so far we've not found a thing!"
No sooner had she said this than Navi hurtled out of the tunnel that came from the Lost Woods. "Oh, thank goodness! I didn't think that I'd be able to catch up to you in time! Saria, when you weren't in the Forest Temple, I started asking every Skull Kid and Deku Scrub that I met about where you were! I would've found you sooner, but most of them just turned and ran when I mentioned Nabooru!"
Nabooru scowled as Saria spoke. "We've been looking for Link in the Lost Woods, and we had a few unusual encounters. Anyway, what's on your mind, Navi?"
"A fairy arrived at the fountain today, and it was one that Link had with him when he was kidnapped! She said that Link had been kidnapped by someone who calls himself Dr. Edward Kidnastoff, and that he knows how to create monsters with some kind of weird machine! Then she said that whenever the machine is turned on, it creates Poes and that those Poes are sent to Hyrule through a system of pipes!"
Nabooru and Saria stared at Navi for a few seconds without blinking before Saria snatched her out of the air, grinning like a maniac. "Anything else? Anything at all? A description of this Dr. Edward Kidnastoff? Any word on why he's not tried to contact me through the song? Anything?"
"Well, there was one other thing, but....well....I'm not entirely sure what she meant."
"Well, spit it out! A chat with this fairy, and you've already got more info than all seven sages combined!" Nabooru chimed.
"Well, she said that....well, she said that the pipes might be moving."
Another few moments of silence passed, though more from confusion than shock. Nabooru found her voice first. "Moving? The pipes are moving?"
"Yes," Navi responded. "That's what the fairy said. Well, the fairy actually said that they could potentially be moving, not that they definitely were. But yeah."
"Navi, this is fantastic!" Saria exclaimed.
"Yeah," Nabooru agreed, smiling for the first time in hours. "Instead of just blindly looking for Link everywhere, we can narrow the search to a Poe purging, portable plumbing system!"
Nabooru and Saria felt excited, but it was nothing to how Navi felt. Some of the guilt that had been her life for almost a week now ebbed away to be replaced with a glimmer of hope and a rush of adrenaline. "What now?" Navi asked, eager to see if she could continue to help.
"Well,...I guess there's nothing for Nabooru and me but to start over. Go over the entire Kokiri Village and Lost Woods from the beginning, this time remembering to ask about Dr. Edward Kidnastoff. For you, Navi, go find the other five Sages. Tell them to ask about Dr. Edward Kidnastoff, and tell all of them to mentally search for wherever Poes are being released. We've not really been concerning ourselves with where these things are coming from yet, maybe a concentrated effort can pinpoint it. Zelda is posing as Sheik with Rauru in the Hyrule Castle Market today, asking pretty much everyone coming into and out of the city about Link, Darunia and Impa are taking care of the entirety of Death Mountain including the village, and Ruto chose to cover all of Zora's Domain, River, Fountain and Lake Hylia by herself. She can cover water quickly enough to do a fair job of it, so we allowed her to try it."
"Okay," Navi said. "Should I go to the Gerudo Fortress?"
Nabooru scoffed. "Navi, first of all I ensured that every single member of the Gerudos would be on the alert for Link before I left. Second, this other person that we're looking for now,...with a name like 'Edward', I have to assume that he's a male. No man, other than Link and Ganandorf, was ever able to make it through that place without rising a stir, and Link was the only one who managed this when we were actively guarding against him."
"Okay, then," Saria said. "Are we ready to get started?"
"Not quite," Nabooru responded. "I need to stock up on arrows before we start again. I used my last one trying to shoot down that last Skull Kid."
Nabooru began trotting towards the Kokiri Village's shop, with a concerned looking Navi and Saria in close pursuit. Before running in, they nearly ran into an unusual looking man who was running out at exactly the same time. The man, who was wearing a very strange white coat that looked not unlike a cross between a toga and robe, dropped all of the arrows that he was attempting to shove into a quiver.
"Ah! Terribly sorry, miss," he mumbled as he stooped to pick up all of the arrows that now littered the forest floor. "I'm in a bit of a hurry today, and want to get back on the road before night falls."
As Saria reached down to help pick up the arrows, Nabooru simply stood where she was and fumed. "You need to watch where you're going! Don't you know who I am? Don't you know where I come from?!"
The man turned from the arrows for a moment and looked at Nabooru. "Um,....no, I'm afraid that I don't know who you are or where you come from. Sorry."
As the man turned back to his arrows, Saria, Nabooru and Navi all froze. Nabooru from an apparent rage at not instantly being recognized (and feared) as a Gerudo Thief, but Navi and Saria from pure shock.
Saria handed the arrows that she had thus far picked up to the man, nervously eyeing Nabooru. "Um, sir....you're not from around here, are you?"
"No, I'm afraid not," said the man jovially, unaware of the fierce look of hatred that Nabooru was shooting at him. "I'm passing through Hyrule, really. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to stay in this fine land, but I'm certainly enjoying it."
Before anyone could blink, Nabooru had lifted the man from the ground by the hem of his white coat, pushed him into the side of the shop, and stared directly into his eyes, almost touching his nose. "LISTEN! I am Nabooru, leader of the Gerudo Thieves! NO ONE nearly runs me over without hating the rest of their day, and NO MAN does so without dropping out of society for weeks for fear of torture! Now tell me, what's your name?"
"What?"
"YOU'RE NAME! Tell me your name!!!"
Saria furiously nodded from behind Nabooru.
The man looked mildly uneasy, though not nearly as scared as he should have been under the circumstances. He saw Saria's frantic gestures and decided that the best course of action was to simply comply. "Well, my name's Edward Kidnastoff."
Saria's jaw dropped and Nabooru dropped the doctor.
"Could you repeat that," asked Saria.
"My name is Edward Kidnastoff. Dr. Edward Kidnastoff. I'm very pleased to meet you, Nabooru, and you as well little lady, and I sincerely apologize for inconveniencing you. Now that you mention it, I'm sure that I've heard your name mentioned before somewhere, but I've yet to associate a face with that name. Anyway, I really must be going now."
He turned to leave with Saria and Nabooru still standing in shock. Nabooru snapped to her senses and leaped at Dr. Kidnastoff with a flying roundhouse kick. Unfortunately, Dr. Kidnastoff heard her, turned around, latched onto her leg and threw her into a nearby stream. As Nabooru stood, roaring in frustration, Dr. Kidnastoff simply stood and laughed.
"Sorry, but randomly attacking people who casually inconvenience you simply isn't polite. I really have to go, I have one more shopping trip to make before heading home, and I simply feel like I've spent too much time here as it is."
Dr. Kidnastoff turned towards the exit from the Kokiri Forest, but Saria was standing in his way. She wore an expression of mingled curiosity, fear and anger that made Edward stop in his tracks.
"Er,...is something the matter? I assure you that she isn't hurt, little one, just a bit soggy."
Saria continued to stare.
"What? What do you want?"
"What have you done with Link?"
Dr. Kidnastoff's eyes locked with Saria's, and for the first time in years the doctor felt afraid.
"Excuse me?"
"What have you done with Link. The Hero of Time who lives in this Forest?"
"Um,....I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about, miss. But don't worry, I'm sure this 'Link' is perfectly safe, and that he's simply resting. You may be too young to truly realize the benefits of a good rest, and-"
"I'm very old, Dr. Kidnastoff. Kokiri age very, very well."
"Ah, I see. You know, I'm old too. Centuries, really. Anyway, even if you've been alive for ten times as long as I have, I doubt that you've had the life experiences to-"
"My name is Saria. I am the Sage of the Forest. I am the guardian of the Kokiri Emerald. Most of all, I know that you have Link."
Dr. Kidnastoff's eyes locked with Saria's once again. Instead of responding, however, he simply ran. He ran faster than anyone present had seen anyone ever run before. Moments later and he would have been rendered unconscious by Nabooru who had been quietly approaching from behind, but Saria's stalling tactic hadn't lasted quite long enough.
"Great!" Nabooru said. "We get a shot at the guy who has Link, and we blow it. Did you see how fast he was running? He must be half-way to Termina by now."
"I doubt it, but he might be half-way to the Lon Lon Ranch if he was heading in that direction. At least we got a good look at him. That's more to tell people."
"Yeah, but we're the only ones who really got a good look at him! If he drops that ridiculous coat thing and cuts his hair then he's got a great disguise!"
"I doubt it," Saria mumbled. "Cutting his hair wouldn't help him to blend in."
"Why not?"
"Did you see his ears? Did you notice them at all?"
"No. Why?"
"They were....they were round! He looks exactly like a Hylian, except his ears are the wrong shape entirely! It was freakish! His hair did a good job of hiding it, but it's not the type of thing that would help him to blend into a crowd when he's being looked for."
Nabooru thought for a moment. "Round ears, eh? I wonder if his hearing is worse than your standard Hylian's."
"Maybe. Anyway, we know that he's not around here anymore. What do we do now?"
Without verbally answering, Nabooru simply picked up Saria and put the Kokiri girl onto her shoulders. Nabooru ran towards the exit, not nearly as fast as Dr. Kidnastoff had been running, but at a respectable pace.
"Nabooru? What're you doing?"
"We're tracking him."
"Tracking him?"
"He runs fast, but anyone could follow this trail he's leaving."
"Anyone?"
"Any Gerudo, anyway."
*****
An ordinarily fast runner anyway, Dr. Kidnastoff broke nearly every existing speed record in Hyrule's history as he darted out of the Kokiri Forest. He didn't stop running until he had crossed the bridge that went towards Death Mountain. Breathing heavily, he turned and stared in the direction of the forest, terrified.
Someone knew. Not just any someone, but a member of the race that Link claimed as his own despite his lack of any blood relation to any other member of the race, a Kokiri. And not just any Kokiri, it was Saria, the Sage of the Forest.
Edward slowly began to trod in the direction of the stairs that went towards Death Mountain's only Hylian village. He had heard about Saria and the other Sages. Only in passing, but he knew that they were important. What the Sages did, exactly, seemed to be a matter of much speculation among the people of the land; few of the small sampling of people who even knew of their existence had any clue just when or how they had come to power. Most suspected that it had something to do with Princess Zelda as she had been an established authority when the other Sages appeared, though none could justify that with anything other than that she had been aquainted with one of the other sages, a woman named Impa, earlier.
The amount of information that was not known about the Sages was staggering for people with their power and influence. Dr. Kidnastoff had centered his life around worlds such as these, and he knew from experience that the mysterious, shadowy powers were often more dangerous than the firmly established rulers of lands.
"And that other one, that Nabooru! She's another Sage! That's where I'd heard that name from before! That old man in that tavern mentioned her with the other six Sages....what I wouldn't give to talk to that old man again. Oh, if two of the Sages know who I am, what I look like and that I've got Link, the other five must know by now! And if not, they're sure to hear about it before much more time passes. I'd better hurry to this Goron City. Good thing I programmed the ship to meet me there. Might've been safer if I'd just used it to travel from place to place, though it would've taken longer to constantly reboard, relaunch and find a new hiding place every time...."
He slowly climbed the mountain, thinking that it would be best at this point to attempt to slowly sneak through the village than to dart through faster than a horse. "Wonder why they call it Death Mountain," he asked himself as he cautiously proceeded.
*****
Nabooru continued to track Dr. Kidnastof across Hyrule Field as Saria simply thought about this strange person.
"He seemed polite," she said.
"Hm?"
"Dr. Kidnastoff. He seemed really polite."
"Oh, you think so? I didn't like him at all."
"Well, you're used to people running in terror at the sight of any Gerudo that they don't know. He's obviously not from around here, and he's not from any race of people that I've ever heard of or seen, if his ears are any indication. If he hadn't been the one to kidnap Link, I'd think that he acted perfectly reasonable. And he did apologize for running into you, Nabooru. Good manners."
Nabooru chuckled as she stared at the obvious footprints in the ground before her. "They've all got good manners, Saria. The worst guys can't be separated from the best if you only look at their manners the first time that you meet them."
"Yes, but I'm telling you: he wasn't a bad person. So very much like a Kokiri."
"What?"
"Well, aside from the fact that, if he was telling the truth, neither he nor a Kokiri ever age, he seemed to have an almost childlike mentality. An innocence that I've rarely seen outside fellow Kokiri, and one that I've barely been able to hold onto ever since Link left after defeating Ghoma in the Deku Tree. Give him pointy ears and make him about two or three feet shorter, and he'd fit in well with the Kokiri."
"As fascinating as that is, you can't forget that he's the one who kidnapped Link. Navi's also said that he makes monsters. Monsters, Saria, evil scary things. You've seen monsters, right?"
Saria fell into silence, unsure of how to respond to that. There was something unusual about Dr. Kidnastoff, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
*****
Dr. Kidnastoff sighed. "Please. It's very, very urgent that you let me pass through this gate and go to the Goron City."
The guard grinned as he leaned on his battle axe. "Sir, much as I appreciate your plight, I'm afraid that I've got my orders from every authority who has a say in the matter. Princess Zelda of Hyulre Castle, Darunia of the Goron City and Impa, the founder of this very village, have all stated that during the current crises we're to limit travel unless there's an important reason."
Dr. Kidnastoff's blood turned chilly as he heard the names of three of the Sages. Toss in Ruto and Rauru, and he'd have been inconvenienced by every single member of their conclave in one day. He hid his nervousness from the guard and masked his face with impatience.
"Crises?"
"Yeah, they're asking around lately, saying that they can't find Link anywhere."
"Oh, I see. Well, just look: if I don't get to that city soon, it could be disastrous," he lied. "The fate of the world could hang in the balance."
"So? Not an uncommon occurrence 'round these parts."
Dr. Kidnastoff blinked. "Okay, fine. Don't listen to me. But don't say I didn't warn you."
Before the guard could react to that, he had been thrown to the top of the nearby watch-tower. The guard nervously got to his feet and looked back to the ground just in time to see Dr. Kidnastoff jump over the gate. As the guard watched the strange man begin his hike up Death Mountain, he felt unusually calm. "How on Earth do I report this one?"
By John Little
Chp. 8: A Tale Of Two Villages
*****
"Well, scratch the Lost Woods off of our list, Saria. Not one Skull Kid had a lead, not one."
"It certainly didn't help when you started threatening them, Nabooru."
"I was merely trying to persuade them. You can't trust some people."
"Well, I know that I can trust the Skull Kids, even if you can't."
Saria and Nabooru were walking out of the Lost Woods into the Kokiri Village. They had spoken to every Skull Kid and friendly Deku Scrub known to live there and not one of them had known anything about the missing Link. They had asked everyone in the Kokiri Village earlier, meaning that they had effectively covered the entire forest area.
"This is hopeless," Nabooru mumbled. "No one's seen Link."
"Well, maybe not around here. But maybe the other five have had better luck."
"Please! Aside from your suggestion to simply ask every last man, woman and child in the world, not one person was able to come up with a single idea. Meanwhile, I'm the only one from our little conclave who's had decent training in the field of treasure hunting, with the possible exception of Darunia. Face it, we're the single most qualified group to look for anything and anyone, and so far we've not found a thing!"
No sooner had she said this than Navi hurtled out of the tunnel that came from the Lost Woods. "Oh, thank goodness! I didn't think that I'd be able to catch up to you in time! Saria, when you weren't in the Forest Temple, I started asking every Skull Kid and Deku Scrub that I met about where you were! I would've found you sooner, but most of them just turned and ran when I mentioned Nabooru!"
Nabooru scowled as Saria spoke. "We've been looking for Link in the Lost Woods, and we had a few unusual encounters. Anyway, what's on your mind, Navi?"
"A fairy arrived at the fountain today, and it was one that Link had with him when he was kidnapped! She said that Link had been kidnapped by someone who calls himself Dr. Edward Kidnastoff, and that he knows how to create monsters with some kind of weird machine! Then she said that whenever the machine is turned on, it creates Poes and that those Poes are sent to Hyrule through a system of pipes!"
Nabooru and Saria stared at Navi for a few seconds without blinking before Saria snatched her out of the air, grinning like a maniac. "Anything else? Anything at all? A description of this Dr. Edward Kidnastoff? Any word on why he's not tried to contact me through the song? Anything?"
"Well, there was one other thing, but....well....I'm not entirely sure what she meant."
"Well, spit it out! A chat with this fairy, and you've already got more info than all seven sages combined!" Nabooru chimed.
"Well, she said that....well, she said that the pipes might be moving."
Another few moments of silence passed, though more from confusion than shock. Nabooru found her voice first. "Moving? The pipes are moving?"
"Yes," Navi responded. "That's what the fairy said. Well, the fairy actually said that they could potentially be moving, not that they definitely were. But yeah."
"Navi, this is fantastic!" Saria exclaimed.
"Yeah," Nabooru agreed, smiling for the first time in hours. "Instead of just blindly looking for Link everywhere, we can narrow the search to a Poe purging, portable plumbing system!"
Nabooru and Saria felt excited, but it was nothing to how Navi felt. Some of the guilt that had been her life for almost a week now ebbed away to be replaced with a glimmer of hope and a rush of adrenaline. "What now?" Navi asked, eager to see if she could continue to help.
"Well,...I guess there's nothing for Nabooru and me but to start over. Go over the entire Kokiri Village and Lost Woods from the beginning, this time remembering to ask about Dr. Edward Kidnastoff. For you, Navi, go find the other five Sages. Tell them to ask about Dr. Edward Kidnastoff, and tell all of them to mentally search for wherever Poes are being released. We've not really been concerning ourselves with where these things are coming from yet, maybe a concentrated effort can pinpoint it. Zelda is posing as Sheik with Rauru in the Hyrule Castle Market today, asking pretty much everyone coming into and out of the city about Link, Darunia and Impa are taking care of the entirety of Death Mountain including the village, and Ruto chose to cover all of Zora's Domain, River, Fountain and Lake Hylia by herself. She can cover water quickly enough to do a fair job of it, so we allowed her to try it."
"Okay," Navi said. "Should I go to the Gerudo Fortress?"
Nabooru scoffed. "Navi, first of all I ensured that every single member of the Gerudos would be on the alert for Link before I left. Second, this other person that we're looking for now,...with a name like 'Edward', I have to assume that he's a male. No man, other than Link and Ganandorf, was ever able to make it through that place without rising a stir, and Link was the only one who managed this when we were actively guarding against him."
"Okay, then," Saria said. "Are we ready to get started?"
"Not quite," Nabooru responded. "I need to stock up on arrows before we start again. I used my last one trying to shoot down that last Skull Kid."
Nabooru began trotting towards the Kokiri Village's shop, with a concerned looking Navi and Saria in close pursuit. Before running in, they nearly ran into an unusual looking man who was running out at exactly the same time. The man, who was wearing a very strange white coat that looked not unlike a cross between a toga and robe, dropped all of the arrows that he was attempting to shove into a quiver.
"Ah! Terribly sorry, miss," he mumbled as he stooped to pick up all of the arrows that now littered the forest floor. "I'm in a bit of a hurry today, and want to get back on the road before night falls."
As Saria reached down to help pick up the arrows, Nabooru simply stood where she was and fumed. "You need to watch where you're going! Don't you know who I am? Don't you know where I come from?!"
The man turned from the arrows for a moment and looked at Nabooru. "Um,....no, I'm afraid that I don't know who you are or where you come from. Sorry."
As the man turned back to his arrows, Saria, Nabooru and Navi all froze. Nabooru from an apparent rage at not instantly being recognized (and feared) as a Gerudo Thief, but Navi and Saria from pure shock.
Saria handed the arrows that she had thus far picked up to the man, nervously eyeing Nabooru. "Um, sir....you're not from around here, are you?"
"No, I'm afraid not," said the man jovially, unaware of the fierce look of hatred that Nabooru was shooting at him. "I'm passing through Hyrule, really. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to stay in this fine land, but I'm certainly enjoying it."
Before anyone could blink, Nabooru had lifted the man from the ground by the hem of his white coat, pushed him into the side of the shop, and stared directly into his eyes, almost touching his nose. "LISTEN! I am Nabooru, leader of the Gerudo Thieves! NO ONE nearly runs me over without hating the rest of their day, and NO MAN does so without dropping out of society for weeks for fear of torture! Now tell me, what's your name?"
"What?"
"YOU'RE NAME! Tell me your name!!!"
Saria furiously nodded from behind Nabooru.
The man looked mildly uneasy, though not nearly as scared as he should have been under the circumstances. He saw Saria's frantic gestures and decided that the best course of action was to simply comply. "Well, my name's Edward Kidnastoff."
Saria's jaw dropped and Nabooru dropped the doctor.
"Could you repeat that," asked Saria.
"My name is Edward Kidnastoff. Dr. Edward Kidnastoff. I'm very pleased to meet you, Nabooru, and you as well little lady, and I sincerely apologize for inconveniencing you. Now that you mention it, I'm sure that I've heard your name mentioned before somewhere, but I've yet to associate a face with that name. Anyway, I really must be going now."
He turned to leave with Saria and Nabooru still standing in shock. Nabooru snapped to her senses and leaped at Dr. Kidnastoff with a flying roundhouse kick. Unfortunately, Dr. Kidnastoff heard her, turned around, latched onto her leg and threw her into a nearby stream. As Nabooru stood, roaring in frustration, Dr. Kidnastoff simply stood and laughed.
"Sorry, but randomly attacking people who casually inconvenience you simply isn't polite. I really have to go, I have one more shopping trip to make before heading home, and I simply feel like I've spent too much time here as it is."
Dr. Kidnastoff turned towards the exit from the Kokiri Forest, but Saria was standing in his way. She wore an expression of mingled curiosity, fear and anger that made Edward stop in his tracks.
"Er,...is something the matter? I assure you that she isn't hurt, little one, just a bit soggy."
Saria continued to stare.
"What? What do you want?"
"What have you done with Link?"
Dr. Kidnastoff's eyes locked with Saria's, and for the first time in years the doctor felt afraid.
"Excuse me?"
"What have you done with Link. The Hero of Time who lives in this Forest?"
"Um,....I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about, miss. But don't worry, I'm sure this 'Link' is perfectly safe, and that he's simply resting. You may be too young to truly realize the benefits of a good rest, and-"
"I'm very old, Dr. Kidnastoff. Kokiri age very, very well."
"Ah, I see. You know, I'm old too. Centuries, really. Anyway, even if you've been alive for ten times as long as I have, I doubt that you've had the life experiences to-"
"My name is Saria. I am the Sage of the Forest. I am the guardian of the Kokiri Emerald. Most of all, I know that you have Link."
Dr. Kidnastoff's eyes locked with Saria's once again. Instead of responding, however, he simply ran. He ran faster than anyone present had seen anyone ever run before. Moments later and he would have been rendered unconscious by Nabooru who had been quietly approaching from behind, but Saria's stalling tactic hadn't lasted quite long enough.
"Great!" Nabooru said. "We get a shot at the guy who has Link, and we blow it. Did you see how fast he was running? He must be half-way to Termina by now."
"I doubt it, but he might be half-way to the Lon Lon Ranch if he was heading in that direction. At least we got a good look at him. That's more to tell people."
"Yeah, but we're the only ones who really got a good look at him! If he drops that ridiculous coat thing and cuts his hair then he's got a great disguise!"
"I doubt it," Saria mumbled. "Cutting his hair wouldn't help him to blend in."
"Why not?"
"Did you see his ears? Did you notice them at all?"
"No. Why?"
"They were....they were round! He looks exactly like a Hylian, except his ears are the wrong shape entirely! It was freakish! His hair did a good job of hiding it, but it's not the type of thing that would help him to blend into a crowd when he's being looked for."
Nabooru thought for a moment. "Round ears, eh? I wonder if his hearing is worse than your standard Hylian's."
"Maybe. Anyway, we know that he's not around here anymore. What do we do now?"
Without verbally answering, Nabooru simply picked up Saria and put the Kokiri girl onto her shoulders. Nabooru ran towards the exit, not nearly as fast as Dr. Kidnastoff had been running, but at a respectable pace.
"Nabooru? What're you doing?"
"We're tracking him."
"Tracking him?"
"He runs fast, but anyone could follow this trail he's leaving."
"Anyone?"
"Any Gerudo, anyway."
*****
An ordinarily fast runner anyway, Dr. Kidnastoff broke nearly every existing speed record in Hyrule's history as he darted out of the Kokiri Forest. He didn't stop running until he had crossed the bridge that went towards Death Mountain. Breathing heavily, he turned and stared in the direction of the forest, terrified.
Someone knew. Not just any someone, but a member of the race that Link claimed as his own despite his lack of any blood relation to any other member of the race, a Kokiri. And not just any Kokiri, it was Saria, the Sage of the Forest.
Edward slowly began to trod in the direction of the stairs that went towards Death Mountain's only Hylian village. He had heard about Saria and the other Sages. Only in passing, but he knew that they were important. What the Sages did, exactly, seemed to be a matter of much speculation among the people of the land; few of the small sampling of people who even knew of their existence had any clue just when or how they had come to power. Most suspected that it had something to do with Princess Zelda as she had been an established authority when the other Sages appeared, though none could justify that with anything other than that she had been aquainted with one of the other sages, a woman named Impa, earlier.
The amount of information that was not known about the Sages was staggering for people with their power and influence. Dr. Kidnastoff had centered his life around worlds such as these, and he knew from experience that the mysterious, shadowy powers were often more dangerous than the firmly established rulers of lands.
"And that other one, that Nabooru! She's another Sage! That's where I'd heard that name from before! That old man in that tavern mentioned her with the other six Sages....what I wouldn't give to talk to that old man again. Oh, if two of the Sages know who I am, what I look like and that I've got Link, the other five must know by now! And if not, they're sure to hear about it before much more time passes. I'd better hurry to this Goron City. Good thing I programmed the ship to meet me there. Might've been safer if I'd just used it to travel from place to place, though it would've taken longer to constantly reboard, relaunch and find a new hiding place every time...."
He slowly climbed the mountain, thinking that it would be best at this point to attempt to slowly sneak through the village than to dart through faster than a horse. "Wonder why they call it Death Mountain," he asked himself as he cautiously proceeded.
*****
Nabooru continued to track Dr. Kidnastof across Hyrule Field as Saria simply thought about this strange person.
"He seemed polite," she said.
"Hm?"
"Dr. Kidnastoff. He seemed really polite."
"Oh, you think so? I didn't like him at all."
"Well, you're used to people running in terror at the sight of any Gerudo that they don't know. He's obviously not from around here, and he's not from any race of people that I've ever heard of or seen, if his ears are any indication. If he hadn't been the one to kidnap Link, I'd think that he acted perfectly reasonable. And he did apologize for running into you, Nabooru. Good manners."
Nabooru chuckled as she stared at the obvious footprints in the ground before her. "They've all got good manners, Saria. The worst guys can't be separated from the best if you only look at their manners the first time that you meet them."
"Yes, but I'm telling you: he wasn't a bad person. So very much like a Kokiri."
"What?"
"Well, aside from the fact that, if he was telling the truth, neither he nor a Kokiri ever age, he seemed to have an almost childlike mentality. An innocence that I've rarely seen outside fellow Kokiri, and one that I've barely been able to hold onto ever since Link left after defeating Ghoma in the Deku Tree. Give him pointy ears and make him about two or three feet shorter, and he'd fit in well with the Kokiri."
"As fascinating as that is, you can't forget that he's the one who kidnapped Link. Navi's also said that he makes monsters. Monsters, Saria, evil scary things. You've seen monsters, right?"
Saria fell into silence, unsure of how to respond to that. There was something unusual about Dr. Kidnastoff, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
*****
Dr. Kidnastoff sighed. "Please. It's very, very urgent that you let me pass through this gate and go to the Goron City."
The guard grinned as he leaned on his battle axe. "Sir, much as I appreciate your plight, I'm afraid that I've got my orders from every authority who has a say in the matter. Princess Zelda of Hyulre Castle, Darunia of the Goron City and Impa, the founder of this very village, have all stated that during the current crises we're to limit travel unless there's an important reason."
Dr. Kidnastoff's blood turned chilly as he heard the names of three of the Sages. Toss in Ruto and Rauru, and he'd have been inconvenienced by every single member of their conclave in one day. He hid his nervousness from the guard and masked his face with impatience.
"Crises?"
"Yeah, they're asking around lately, saying that they can't find Link anywhere."
"Oh, I see. Well, just look: if I don't get to that city soon, it could be disastrous," he lied. "The fate of the world could hang in the balance."
"So? Not an uncommon occurrence 'round these parts."
Dr. Kidnastoff blinked. "Okay, fine. Don't listen to me. But don't say I didn't warn you."
Before the guard could react to that, he had been thrown to the top of the nearby watch-tower. The guard nervously got to his feet and looked back to the ground just in time to see Dr. Kidnastoff jump over the gate. As the guard watched the strange man begin his hike up Death Mountain, he felt unusually calm. "How on Earth do I report this one?"