As Link entered the village, he heard a scratching sound coming from behind the Helfdanes' house. He climbed up to the ledge on which it sat. On the back of their house was a gold skultullah. Link quickly dispatched the beast, and claimed the token it yielded. He then went to Saria's house. No one was there. He stopped by his house, no Saria. Then, he ran into May, April's twin sister. "Did Saria see you already?" she asked. "She said that she would be at the usual spot!" She walked away, giggling to herself.
Link was relieved. If Saria had been angry, the message would have been "The Sacred Forest Meadow, even without a fairy you can find it!" Or, if she was really mad, she would have just said, "find me!" She didn't get angry often, or stay that way long, but when she did she meant business.
Link climbed the ledge, and stepped into the first clearing of the Lost Woods. He was glad he had Navi along. He was tired. Although he had memorized the layout of the Lost Woods, it was easier to have a fairy guide you. It was tough enough to keep any intruder not brought in by a Kokiri lost forever, cursed to become a Stalfos, hence the name.
"Ok, Navi! Which way to the temple?" Link thought.
Navi answered back "I've never been here before! I'm already lost."
"A fairy lost in the Lost Woods?" thought Link.
"A Kokiri without a fairy till he turned eleven!" shot back Navi loudly.
"Navi, I didn't mean anything by that! I'm sorry!" said Link humbly.
"No matter," said Navi. "We're both tired. Just don't be so thoughtless with Saria. And PLEASE remember the way out of here! I don't want to be the guardian to a Stalfos!"
"Don't worry, Navi! Kokiri NEVER get lost IN the woods!" And, to prove his point, Link deliberately went straight where he should have turned. The duo was instantly back where they started, on the ledge overlooking Kokiri village. They headed back in to the Lost Woods. This time, they both heard music coming from one of the portals in the first clearing.
"Do you hear that, Link? That's ocarina music! But I've never heard the tune before. Could that be Saria?"
"I think so, Navi! That's her style of playing. And it is coming from the right direction." Between Saria's music, and Link's having made the walk hundreds of times before, they were soon in the clearing of the Sacred Forest Meadow.
A large snarling wolf-like monster immediately attacked them! Link had no idea what it was. He raised his shield and asked Navi "What is this? How do I kill it?"
Navi replied, "It's a wolfos! The fur of its back is like stone. You have to strike it in the face, or its underbelly when it comes in to attack!"
Link drew his sword. He blocked the wolfos' lunge with his shield and stabbed at the soft underbelly. He got in a couple of good hits before the wolfos crouched down within its iron-hard fur. The wolfos lunged again. Link knocked it on its back with his shield and finished it off with a jump attack. The wolfos went up in a cloud of smoke.
"That's the first time I saw a wolfos this close to the village, Link! This is not a good sign," Navi said.
"Does this mean that we didn't lift the curse after all?" Link asked.
Navi answered "No. It means that some of the protective spells the Great Deku Tree cast are already starting to wear off. These monsters have been in other parts of the realm, but the Great Deku Tree kept them far away from the Kokiri Forest."
Link cleared away some dead brush that was blocking their path. The ladder which should have been there was nowhere in sight. Link thought "Great! The wolfos must have eaten the ladder! Saria can set it up herself, but she can't pull it up onto the hedge maze. I could barely do it alone, we usually both did that! So we get to fight four mad deku scrubs tonight, Navi!"
The fairy answered "No problem, Link. With my help, you'll be able to aim and anchor your shield while you run at them! We'll kill them with their first shots, without missing a step!" They ran into the maze.
They fought past the four mad scrubs without incident, and found themselves in the clearing in front of the abandoned temple. Saria was sitting on a tree stump, playing the ocarina. She looked up, saw Link, and stopped.
Saria said, "I've been waiting for you, Link! This meadow has been our secret place. Yet, this is the first time I've ever been here at night! It seemed so different without you. I waited since late this afternoon, playing so you would find me. Without you here, the forest was as empty as the Gerudo Desert of legend. But by your side, it is full of life, full of hope, full of promise! If we play the ocarina here, we can even talk with the spirits in the forest. Would you like to play the ocarina with me?" Link was expecting this, but was still stunned. He and Saria were to become life-mates that night!
In Kokirish society, marriage was not consummated with sex. That normally waited a week or so after the marriage. However, since the bonds of life-mates were impossible to break short of death, the marriage was considered instantly unbreakable. The marriage was acted and consummated in one step, by the playing of ocarinas. Each Kokiri would teach the other their song. This song was usually known to their other closest friends, but usually never heard by the other until the wedding night. Once each Kokiri taught the other their song, they would take part of each song, making a new song for the both of them. They would then serenade each other through the night with their new song, while locked in an embrace. They would do this where no other Kokiri could see them, but where their music could be clearly heard. They would kiss once, at dawn, then live together from then forward. As each Kokiri could recognize the style of ocarina playing of another as distinctly as their voice, and since the wedding song usually had parts of both songs in it, everyone knew who had been married.
Saria went first. "This, beloved, is my song. It is of the forest, as am I. Play it anywhere, and it will remind you of the forest, and of me." Saria's Song was short, light, and of the forest. It would have lifted Link's spirits even without it being Saria's. Link learned it quickly. Then, it was Link's turn.
"This, beloved, is my song. It is of wandering, as I have been. It is about travels ended, as I hope to be. It is of yearning, as was I. It is about yearnings fulfilled, as you have made me. It is of fear, doubt, and loneliness, as I once was. It is of courage, restored hope, and family as I am, from knowing you.
"My quest, the quest The Great Deku Tree sent me on, is not over, it is only just begun. Princess Zelda of the Hyleans told me to recover the other two Sacred Stones. We are then to open the Temple of Time, claim the Triforce, and seal the evil man who killed the Deku Tree in the void of the damned. If we don't succeed, Ganondorf will take over and rule with an evil hatred that makes the troubles of the past few years seem as a summer afternoon. Even if we succeed, I'm not sure I'll be around to return. I can't ask of anyone, much less the one person that I love more than life itself, to endure this!
"If that person, knowing the hardships ahead, has the courage and desire to take this life of mine and share it with me anyway, I can't turn them away. I did not ask for my challenge. But having been given it, I cannot turn it away. There is no one else who can make this quest, and if it's not made, the world will pay dearly! Whatever your answer, whatever you ask, know that I will always love you. I will be your friend, and your friend's friend, forever. Even if that friend is a life-mate, and not I. Learn this song and treasure it in your heart. For should you play it, it will remind you of me, and bring me home to you!"
Link played his song. His song was not much longer than Saria's, and just as he described it. After Link's playing it once, Saria played it perfectly. If anything, it sounded more lonely, more absent of loneliness, and more beautiful than when Link played it!
Saria spoke. "Beloved, it was right that we pledged our love to each other on a bridge. For when we betrothed ourselves to each other, we both crossed a bridge, together! Before then, I had been prepared to let you leave, though the pain and longing were already sapping at my very strength. After that moment, I could no more leave you than leave myself! For my heart is now in yours, and my fate is in yours as well. I know not what the future holds. Tomorrow is not promised. You must have me as you would I have you, knowing that our time may be long or short. I don't know, but I feel your quest is far more mine too, than if I were only your life-mate. Do you take me, Saria, daughter of Melisande to be your life-mate? Do you take me to love, honour and cherish? Do you take me for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health? Do you take me as your life-mate, forsaking all others till death us do part?"
Link answered. "I do, beloved. Do you take me, Link of the Kokiri, to be your life-mate? Do you take me to love, to honour, and to cherish? Do you take me for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health? Do you take me as your life-mate, forsaking all others till death us do part?" Saria replied, "I do, beloved. With these songs, we are as one." Link answered, "With these songs, we are as one." They embraced each other, and played their new song.
As they played their song to each other on their ocarinas, they sang to each other, in that realm beyond words. Most of the legends fail to record the words the two lovers sang silently to each other. But those words are writ below.
Come to me, be my love
Pledge your heart to my heart
Forever more, and ever more
Bond with me, stay with me
You and I will see
What true love can be
Eternally
You and I, I and thee, Unity
Joyfully, blissfully, merrily
Your love mine, my love thine, all
through time
Forever forward ever moreward
Even to the very end of days!
Their new song, like their hearts bonded together, was more than the sum of its parts. Though they were certain of their love for each other, and their bond to each other, they were nervous. They played their new song faster than either had planned. The rhythm of the song was far faster than was proper ether before, or since, though the propriety of their song was doubted by no one. But this only increased the power of the song! Their playing, and the love for each other it expressed, was more than even the Lost Woods could hide! They were not only heard in all the Kokiri Forest, but the forest itself absorbed the song. They serenaded each other until dawn, but the forest itself also serenaded them back. The music of their wedding could be heard, even felt, within the Lost Woods from then on!