Disclaimer:The Legend of Zeldais property ofNintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto, all rights reserved. I am in no way affiliated with these companies, or any legal proceedings concerning The Legend of Zelda. This story has been written purely out of enjoyment, and is not intended to make a profit, steal ideas, or offend anybody. Any similarities between my work and anyone else's is purely coincidental.

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"Elements of Hyrule" — Chapter Two: The Interim's End

By The Last Princess of Hyrule

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Saria looked up. Ahead of them was the self-appointed leader of the Kokiri, Mido. He reached the pair gasping for breath, his freckled face flushed from running.

"Mido?" she asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. "Is something wrong?" Mido was the only Kokiri Saria knew who never entered the Lost Woods. For some reason, he was terrified of them. He would not have come in looking for her, especially at a dead run, if he had not a very good reason.

The boy took a deep breath, his mahogany hair drooping tiredly in his eyes, which were the same color. "Everyone's looking . . . for you . . ." he managed to say. "The Great Deku . . . Tree has . . . summoned you . . ."

"He summoned me?" Saria exclaimed. "Mi didn't say a thing." She glared pointedly at her fairy, who ducked out of view. Whenever the Deku Tree wanted to talk to one of the Kokiri, it sent a message directly to that Kokiri's partner, the fairy relaying the summon. It was odd that Mi had not conveyed the message to Saria.

"Something about a . . . visitor, I think . . ."

Saria and Link exchanged glances; both knew what Mido was talking about. This must have something to do with the Gerudo from earlier, Saria thought to herself as she helped Mido to his feet. The three Kokiri hurried out of the woods. Whenever the Great Deku Tree summons one, promptness is a virtue.

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When Sonya finally left her home sometime near sundown, the first thing she did was walk to Link's tree house. Unlike Link, most Kokiri share their houses, living with siblings, friends, or the Kokiri they had been raised by. Sonya lived with her brother and triplet Kokiri children, who were ten years each, the same as Link. Sonya and her twin, Joseph, were both twenty-four, though they did not look it.

Kokiri were known for two things; their fairy partners and that their bodies stayed children for the duration of the their lives. When one reached a certain age, different for each Kokiri, but always between eight and fourteen, their body stopped growing. In Sonya's case, her body was twelve years old, and generally, she acted like a twelve-year-old child. Sometimes, Sonya showed wisdom beyond her young mentality, as other times she would act silly, below her mentality of a twelve year old.

Age though, did not add to status among Kokiri. Mido, the leader, had only an eleven-year mentality. He commanded much respect and resent from the Kokiri, though four were older than he.

Sonya sighed wistfully, wondering how she could be so old. She and Joseph had lived twenty-four years, twelve growing, and twelve as they were now. Only Saria, Mido, and Ringo had lived longer. Six Kokiri in the forest had not reached their final mentalities yet, one of them her friend, Link.

As she reached the top of the slope that led to his house, Sonya spotted the boy, seated by one of the massive roots.

"Hey, Link!" she called as she hurried down to him. "What're you doing?"

"Oh, hi Sonya." Link looked up and gave her a smile. "I'm drawing a picture."

Sonya bent over to examine it. Scratched over the ebony bark was a hideous lizard-like monster with a long, spiky tail. It was rearing up fiendishly before the figure of a person, who appeared to be firing an arrow at the creature.

She ran her hand across the monster. "How'd you draw this?"

Link held up a small white stone. "I found this in the forest a few days ago. It works really well."

"Certainly does," Sonya murmured.

"So, do you like my picture?" asked Link hopefully.

Sonya rubbed her chin. "It's good," she said, "but it's missing something . . ."

"What?"

"Let me see that rock. I'll add it for you." Sonya could hardly repress the smirk threatening to cross her face as Link handed her the drawing utensil.

"Now then . . ." Sonya put the tip of the rock on the bark and began to draw. First, she made a circle to the high left of the monster, and then drew a bunch of lines flaring out from it. Sonya added a smiling face to the center of the sun.

"Hey!" Link exclaimed when he saw what she had done. "You ruined it!"

"No, I didn't," protested Sonya, handing him the white stone. "I made it happy."

"It was a battle! It's not supposed to be happy!" he whined. "Son-ya!"

"Aww, poor widdle Winkie!" Sonya crooned in her most obnoxious baby voice. "His picture's aw wuined."

"I'm gonna get you for this," Link said as he lunged at her.

Sonya laughed as she tried to dodge, but felt Link catcher her wrist.

"Gotcha!" The boy was smiling as he pulled her to the ground. Before Sonya had a chance to retaliate, Link had one hand on each shoulder, holding her down, smirking.

Sonya struggled futilely, wrenching her shoulders back and forth to escape his grasp, all in vain. Finally, she relaxed, breathing heavily. "All right," she said. "You win."

Link looked smug as he let her up. Sonya glared daggers at him until she suddenly realized what was missing from this picture.

"Where's Saria?"

Link instantly became solemn. "She was summoned to the Great Deku Tree."

"How come?" Sonya tucked her legs beneath her and faced Link.

"I don't know." Link's expression was grave. "I think it has something to do with the visitor in the forest today."

"So that's what it was."

"Huh?" Link gave Sonya a confused look.

"Kettes told me something was going to happen this morning and he made me swear not to go outside," Sonya explained, referring to her Spirit fairy partner, who was currently perched on her right shoulder. "Come to think of it, Tal did the same thing to Joseph," she added on a second thought. "And the triplets' fairies did to."

"Mi didn't seem worried about anything this morning," said Link.

Sonya shrugged. "Were you outside when it happened?"

"Yeah."

"Well, tell me about it," Sonya urged eagerly. Link told her about the Gerudo, which took quite a while, for he also had to explain why the man was fully-grown.

Eventually, the sun set and Sonya went home, more confused now than she had been before. Of course, Link had not understood either, but disregarded it as he climbed the ladder into his tree house.

Inside was a single circular room with an unlit fire pit in the center. To the left, clustered near the door, were a few clay jars, and shelves stacked with food, dishes, and other useful items. Farther down on the left was a small wooden table with two little stools. In a small bowl on the table was a cluster of beautiful wildflowers. Saria had brought them to "freshen the scent" in Link's house. To his right was a stack of kindling and a washstand. On the stand was a small porcelain bowl and rag.

Link sighed and rummaged around on the shelves for something to eat. Unfortunately, all that was there were a few strips of some dried meat. The boy grabbed them and chewed slowly as he kicked off his boots and sat down on the bed at the far wall.

Darkness had fallen and it didn't appear that Saria was back yet. Normally, after she'd been summoned, Saria came to Link and told him all about it. However, since it had taken this long, Link figured it couldn't be too much longer before Saria returned. So, he finished his meal and lay down on the bed. In no time, he was fast asleep.

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However, elsewhere in the forest, others were still very much awake.

"Great Deku Tree, please," Saria pleaded to the old patron of the forest. "I know omens and this Gerudo was no omen."

"He was!" the tree bellowed in rage. It had long since lost its temper from the girl's incessant arguing. "Dost thou doubt in me?"

"No, lord," Saria bowed her head in respect. "But this cannot be the beginning. It's still too early for Purhpciy fu hith Papuulcespi to be in effect."

"Beith thou in belief or not, thy nine year interim hath passed." The deep voice was more calm and patient now.

Up in the Deku Tree's branches, Saria's fairy, Mi, began to recite the prophecy in her clear, ringing voice. "'When the way and tie of Tradition art encountered by the mysterious of the Outside, and the nine year interim hath passed, a time of Darkness shalt begin. Yet, the Light of Creation hath power enough to bring about the downfall of the Black. Only when the Elements hath been gathered and the Golden Power of the outside world released and shattered, shalt the Battle of the Ages begin.'"

Saria listened in silence, remembering the time she had last heard the prophecy; nine winters prior, when Link was still an infant.

"'The Three of the Virtues,'" Mi continued tirelessly. "'The King, the Hero, and the Princess, must stand to fight alone and mayst the conqueror hold the Golden Power true.'"

The clearing was silent for several minutes until the Deku Tree spoke. "Dost thou see? Thy perfect life is not meant to continue such as it is."

"But he's too young," Saria tried to protest, but the realization that everything she had known was changing had hit her. Tears were splashing in rapid succession down her cheeks.

"I shalt summon him to me upon the morn," the tree said gently. "Is there anything I can do for thee?"

Saria considered the request. "Give him help."

"Thy pardon?"

"He doesn't know anything about the world outside the forest," explained Saria as Mi alit comfortingly upon her shoulder. Saria knew, if Link were to take place in this grand prophecy, he would surely leave the forest to do so, much as she hated the idea. "Send him a guide."

"Very well," the Great Deku Tree complied. "Thou mayst depart. But remember, thou can never breathe a word of this."

Saria stood and bowed to her guardian, the great protector of the forest, with the utmost respect. "I understand."

Saria left the clearing in a state much similar to the quiet before the storm. For, once she was home, the girl flung herself on her bed and let free a heartbroken cry. She wept that night in a way she hadn't wept since her beloved mentor, Kyrian, had died.

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Big drops of rain splattered onto Link's head in a raging downpour. He was standing before a great stone wall nearly ten times his size. Set in the wall was a gigantic wooden door, closed behind a furious river and flanked by twin torches, burning majestically despite the rain.

Suddenly, there was a creak and the door fell out of control, smashing into the river and splintering into a dozen huge pieces. Link was barely able to move out of the way as, a moment later, a white horse leapt from within the wall, over the broken wood. His quick eyes followed the riders and locked with a girl whose face was filled with fear.

Hastily, the horse galloped out of sight and Link turned around to find himself face to face with a man on a black stallion. The boy immediately recognized him as the Gerudo he'd seen in the forest that morning.

Seeing Link, the Gerudo raised his palm, an orb of light beginning to grow within. Link's eyes widened and he was frozen in place as the orb rocketed from the Gerudo's hand, straight to the boy . . .

"Yaaaahhhh!" Link screamed and jolted up in bed. It took him nearly a full minute to realize that it had been only a nightmare.

Link rested his head in his hands. His body was drenched in sweat and shaking almost cataclysmically. Many nights now he had been having this dream, each time clearer than the last. This time, the events moved in one liquid motion, unlike the usually flashes from scene to scene.

It had been so clear and so real. Link had felt the rain on his head, heard the crash of the huge wooden door, and seen the whites of the girl's eyes as she leapt the river.

Link gulped down water from a cup at his bedside. He sat on the bed, legs dangling off the edge, afraid to go to sleep. In sleep, the nightmare would return, bringing the terrifying Gerudo, who turned out to be real.

For the next few hours, Link hardly dared close his eyes, much less blink. Despite his resolve to stay awake, exhaustion claimed the boy and settled him into a peaceful sleep, so deep, there was no way for the nightmare to play in his mind. However, there was always another dark, lonely night tomorrow.

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