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 Five: Out of Place
By The Last Princess of Hyrule
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When he reached the fairy, Link found her hovered inches above a piece of bark in the shape of a tuning fork.
"Do you have a slingshot?" she asked, looking up.
"Slingshot?"
"Yeah. You use it to help launch things like stones further distances than you can throw," Navi explained.
"I know what a slingshot is," Link retorted. "Not that I have one."
"Well, take this stick."
Link bent down and grabbed it.
"If you smooth it out and we find an Ariku weed, you'd get a good slingshot out of it," said Navi.
Link pulled his dagger from its sheath and began to hack away at the rough bulges of wood. "What's an Ariku weed?" he asked as they walked on.
"A big clump of leaves and stickers," Navi informed him. "The leaves are extremely elastic and would be perfect for your slingshot, but the thorns are coated in some kind of sticky goo. It's hard to get them off something they've touched."
"Great," Link said unenthusiastically. "Are there any growing in here?"
"There shouldn't be," Navi replied. "This is a tree, remember? We shouldn't even be here."
She had a good point. The pair walked on in silence, always keeping the wall of the Great Deku Tree on their lefts. Link paid little attention to what was around him. Most of his concentration was focused on making the base of the slingshot as smooth as possible.
After a while, they stopped at a familiar puddle of green goo. Navi looked at it and groaned. "We just walked in a big circle!"
Link leaned against the wall, letting his tired legs collapse beneath him, and slid to the ground. "A really big circle," he muttered to himself. "What do we do now?"
Navi didn't answer. Instead, she fluttered almost cautiously toward the center of the room. Link watched her gentle glow bobbing up and down, as if she were examining something of interest. Then she stilled.
"Link," she called. "I found an Ariku weed!"
Link stood and walked toward the glow, where he found Navi hovering just inches above a small clump of weeds.
"Do you have the base of that slingshot finished?"
"Yeah." Link held it up.
"Good. Now, cut one of those leaves off-"
Link drew his dagger and grabbed one of the leaves.
"-Just be careful how you go about it."
"Why?" Link asked as he sliced at the plant. As soon as the blade touched the leaf, Link felt it deflect his strike, throwing his arm back.
Navi sighed. "I tried to warn you. Ariku plants can't just be hacked off. You have to slowly saw through them."
"This would have been useful before I started," Link said pointedly as he grabbed the weed with one hand and began to saw. His wrist shook with every stroke of the dagger, the elasticity of the weed causing it to bounce, try as he might to control it. Finally, when he was almost through, Link sheathed the dagger and grasped the Ariku leaf with both hands. Summoning all his strength, Link pulled up as hard and fast as he could. Unfortunately, the leaf came away from the plant a lot easier than he had expected. The momentum of his jerk caused the boy to stumble back.
"Link, watch out!" Navi shouted.
It made no difference. Link fell back, landing not on the hard wood of the tree but something as elastic as the Ariku weed that bounced when he hit. Navi flew over to her partner, illuminating the surface he had landed on.
"A spider's web?"
Link reached out and touched the surface. Instantly, his hand stuck. Link tugged at it, but the sticky substance held fast. "What the . . .?"
He tried to move his legs, getting the same result. The web stretched as far as he could lift his leg then, when he could not hold it any longer, snapped it back into place.
"Well, that was good," Navi said sarcastically from above, examining his predicament.
Link ignored the comment as he stowed the unstuck Ariku leaf in a pouch on his belt. With his free hand, Link drew his dagger.
"What are you going to do with that?" Navi asked.
Link thrust the blade into the web near where his right hand was caught. "Cut myself out," he answered off-handedly as he pulled the dagger up and down, slowly cutting the sticky goo. The web did not rebound when something struck it, the way the Ariku plant had, but it wasn't much easier to cut. It felt rather awkward trying to cut something so thick with only one hand.
After much work, Link was able to pull his hand free. Unfortunately, it was covered in webbing, which would glue his hand together the instant he made a fist. Carefully as possible, Link used the tip of the dagger to slice away as much of the goo as possible.
"Gross," Navi commented as he flung the gunk away in her direction. The fairy dodged resentfully.
Cutting around his legs was far easier now that Link could work the dagger with two hands, though the going was still slow. Every so often, the blade would be stuck and he would have to stop to clean the compiled webbing.
As he worked, Navi examined the spider web. It had been spun to cover a great hole in the ground that stretched straight down quite far. Though her light did not reach far enough down the shaft for her to guess how deep it was, the fairy determined that crosswise, the hole was at least eight feet. Link was stuck in the very center, cutting away the sticky strands without another thought.
That was when Navi noticed that the web had begun to sag downward. "Uh . . . Link?" she began. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why?" Link answered, not breaking his rhythm.
"Your right over—Link!"
Just as she began to explain, the strands of webbing to the edge of the hole straight ahead snapped. Immediately after, the two on either side snapped, the rest going in chain right after. In only a few seconds, Link was falling through the air down into the dark pit.
"Navi!" was all he had time to scream before he was out of sight. It took only a split second for the fairy to realize what had happened before she darted down after Link. A moment later, she heard a loud splash and emerged in a medium sized cavern. She stopped just above a small pool of water. Link was nowhere to be seen.
"Link?"she called.
There was no sound. Navi hovered an inch above the water's smooth surface, the fluttering of her wings creating tiny ripples along it. Everything was calm and impossibly still until a tiny bubble burst beneath the fairy. Then, three more appeared and popped simultaneously. Navi dipped in closer for a better look. The bubbles were coming faster now; there was no pause between them. Then, from the murky depths, she saw something large coming at her very fast. The fairy had no time to respond as Link suddenly burst thought the water, gasping for air.
"Link!" she cried, leaping out of the way as he swam ashore. "Are you all right?"
Link looked up at the blue glow dancing frantically around his head. He started to speak, but all that came out was water. Coughing, he tried again. "Calm down, Navi . . . I'm alive."
"Are you sure? I mean, are you sure you're all right?" Her voice was filled with concern. "That was a really long drop."
Link scowled, looking up at the pit. "Yeah, I know."
He stood, wringing the water from his hat, and gazed around. The chamber was warm and moist, looking very much alive. By only Navi's light, he could see all the walls of the cave, including the opening to his left. Putting on his cap, Link started in that direction. The small corridor it led him into was so dark he could not see more than an inch away, even with Navi. He held out his hands and walked slowly. Every few steps he stumbled and fell, scraping his hands on the rough, gnawed ground.
"We must be nearly to the heart of the Great Deku Tree by now," Navi stated. "It feels alive."
"Do we even know what we're looking for?" Link asked.
"A . . . curse," Navi answered unsurely.
"A curse. Great. What does a curse look like?"
Navi shrugged. "I don't know . . . but I think we're about to find out."
As she spoke, the corridor emerged to an immense cave, larger than any of those prior. There were a few tall pillars standing. Apparently, the thing eating the inside of the tree realized that a room this large would fall in on itself without support. Navi shuddered. That implied that whatever they were fighting was intelligent. Link took a step out, resting his hand on the wall. As soon as he did, he jumped and pulled it away.
"What?" Navi darted to the place he had touched.
"It's alive!" Link exclaimed. In Navi's light he saw several small green vines, a few triangular leaves protruding, illuminated it an eerie aquamarine.
"How . . . ?" Navi reached out and stroked one. "How can they be alive down here . . . ? There's no light . . ."
Link shook his head. "I don't know." He looked around warily. "There's something not right about this . . ." He reached back and drew his sword. Then, he felt the ground shake under his feet. Link jumped and whirled around, facing the center of the cavern. "Did you feel that?" he asked.
"What?"
"The ground shook."
"Link, I'm a fairy, remember? I can't feel the ground!"
Link did not say anything. Although there was no light aside from Navi, he could make out the whole room. A strange, pale glow emanated from the opposite side.
"There's light over there." Navi fluttered away from the vines. Link pulled on his shield. The ground shook again. "Something's coming," the fairy whispered, but Link already knew.
He tightened his grip on the sword as he spotted movement to the far left.
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