About twelve years later...

***

"Saria! SARIA!"

"What is it? What happened?" she asked, lowering her ocarina.

"The – the Great Deku Tree – is dead!" cried Mido.

Saria gasped. "What?! No!"

"Follow me!" Mido yelled over his shoulder.

The two Kokiri sprinted off, joined by others along the way, through the tall grass and hanging branches, until they came to a great clearing. There stood the giant tree, leaves brown and trunk gray, in the silence. Then someone spoke.

"Saria!" Link called, recognizing her green-haired head in the crowd of blonde ones.

"You!" gasped a round-eyed girl, "I – I saw you go inside the Deku Tree!"

"I did!" she told the others, "He – he went in and he killed –"

"Link would never!" snapped Saria, seizing Mido's arm to stop him from leaping onto him.

"Then what was he doing?" said one voice, followed by a chorus of "yeah!"s.

"There...was a curse," Link mumbled "I was only..."

But no one was listening, and Saria was leading him away.

"Thanks," he said, glad to out of the crowd, "But...Saria, I have to go..."

"Go? Wait – you mean – leave the forest?! But Link, you can't! The Great Deku Tree said you'll die if you leave!"

"The Deku Tree was the one keeping our forest alive anyway. What's going to happen now?"

"Link, if this is because...Look, the others will come to their senses. I know you would never..."

"It's not that...I just have to. I'm sorry."

He began walking towards the bridge that led to the outside world.

"Wait!"

Link turned.

"Wait. Please. Take...take my ocarina," said Saria, holding out her prized possession, "To...remember me by..."

He stood there a few moments, instrument in his hands, eyes glittering, then fled without looking back.