Yellow sunlight streamed in through the curtained window, bathing the room in a soft yellow glow. The small village was quiet, as that all of its residents were still within their houses. Song birds sang from the surrounding trees, giving a peaceful feel to the air. Link stirred slightly and opened his eyes. He sat up, gave a yawn and rubbed the drowsiness out of his eyes. As he stretched his arms, a familiar blue light floated into the room and stopped.
"L-Link," she stuttered. "You're alive. You were practically dead last night."
Link just returned her surprise with a broad grin. He was grateful just to be alive, though he did not now why. Navi just floated aimlessly near the door, not knowing how to act next. While she was busy doing that, Link was feeling the stitches on his chest. His fingers traced the three long lines diagonally from his left shoulder to his right side above his waist. He pulled his hand away as Navi seemed to snap back to herself. She buzzed around his head, spreading her blue sparkles allover. She was blabbing on about something that half of which Link couldn't understand. After a while, she had tired herself out and settled down on one of Link's shoulders, resting gently against his neck. Link leaned back against the head of the bed so he was still sitting up. He started thinking about how he was still alive at that moment. He knew all too well that he should be dead but he wasn't. Something strange had happened the night before, something Link knew had happened but couldn't remember. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Saria walk by the door and freeze in mid-step.
"Oh my Goddesses," She whispered.
She walked into the room, wearing an expression of shock, relief, and confusion. She fell to her knees beside the bed, her eyes never leaving Link. She was speechless. Just the night before, he was a few heartbeats from death yet there he was, alive and healthy. Link looked back at her, concern in his eyes.
"Saria?" He asked. "Are you okay?"
Happy tears welled up in Saria's crystal blue eyes and she flung her arms around him in a hug. She laid her head against his chest, feeling the stitches on her face. At that moment, Saria didn't care how this looked to anyone else, she was happy to hear Link's voice. At first, Link sat completely still with surprise, but when Saria cuddled closer to him, he wrapped one of his arms around her.
"You sure you're feeling okay?" He asked her again.
"I'm fine," She replied. "It's just that-that last night, you were going to die, but then here you are. You don't know what it's like to almost lose someone close to you while you can't prevent it." She released Link and went to the door. "You hungry? You look like you haven't eaten in a while."
Link nodded his head.
"I'll be back then," She said before slipping out into the hall.
It had just occurred to him that he hadn't eaten since the day before he was attacked, and he didn't remember why. That attack still left him confused, he could only remember some of it and the rest was a blank. Link's fingers traced the three bumpy lines of stitches again. He remembered when he had gotten that. A memory of the pain rushed back to him and his jaws tensed tightly.
"Damn Lizalfos," He muttered.
Navi drifted off of Link's shoulder and floated where he could see her easily.
"I've been with you all these years yet you still surprise me," The fairy said crossing her arms.
"What makes you say that?" Link asked with a wry-like smirk.
"I'm talking about how you slaughtered all those Lizalfos. I've never seen you fight like that before," She answered.
Link cocked up an eyebrow at her. She returned his look with one of confusion.
"You don't remember, do you?"
Before Link could answer, Saria returned with a bowl of something. She sat on the edge of the bed and handed him the bowl. Almost immediately Link started shoveling the food into his mouth. Navi floated down near Saria.
"When was the last time he ate anything?" Saria asked.
"About four days ago. He started refusing to eat and well, you know him, he usually eats almost anything you put in front of him. That was worrying me, but at least he's eating something now," Navi replied.
Link somehow managed to swallow everything he had put in his mouth all at once, since he gasped for air afterwards. Saria put a hand on his wrist to stop him for a second.
"Slow down," She said, laughing slightly. "We don't want you choking to death, now do we?"
Link laughed a little under his breath but went right back to eating. Saria watched him for awhile and then turned to Navi.
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"An ambush," The fairy replied. "It all happened so fast that he didn't know what hit him until it literally did. I still don't know why though."
"It was clear that he was in a fight, but I didn't know how bad," Saria said to herself.
"Let me tell you what happened," Link said putting the empty bowl on the floor. "At least what I remember. You see, three days ago Navi and I finally cleared the surrounding forests of Hyrule Field. I ran through the grasses, which were as tall as I am, to get to where it grew shorter so I could navigate better. It was night at the time and some clouds blocked out most of the moonlight for awhile. I heard noises and before I knew it, I was surrounded," Link explained.
By now Link had pushed off the blanket and was sitting cross-legged on the bed. He was wearing a pair of navy-blue, looses fitting capris, just something comfortable, and his legs were just as bandaged as his arms. Saria felt sorry for him. When all those cuts healed up, more than half would become scars. Link went through more than any person she knew. A thought entered her mind, one she wished hadn't. 'At that rate, he won't live very long.' Saria regretted even considering thinking it. It wasn't his fault that he got attacked when he was just trying to get home.
'then they just seemed to keep coming," Link ranted; apparently her had continued talking while Saria was thinking. "Then one got past my sword and slashed at me with his claws, my guess is it was an attempt to rip open my heart, but not before I stuck my sword through his back."
Saria shook her head slightly. 'There he goes.' She thought. Link was the kind of guy that would tell you every detail of something he did, if he felt it was important or to simply push all your buttons until you couldn't take it any longer. The good thing was that he was outgrowing the ranting. 'This one is not as bad as some of the other ones.' Saria though to herself with a smile as Link demonstrated something like a sword swing as he talked. The last one she had heard from him was back when he was ten and it was how he had blackmailed Mido. She couldn't remember anything about it and doubted Link did either.
"And that's all I can remember," Link said finishing his story.
Saria snapped back from her thoughts.
"Can you repeat that last part?" She asked.
"After sometime, only a few were left and I couldn't fight them, even if I wanted too. I was exhausted so I closed my eyes and blacked out," Link repeated. "I figured that they had killed me, but then I woke up the next morning and they were all dead."
Saria motioned for him to sit up straight and moved to his side. She started to undo a knot on one of the bandage strips.
"I want to check on those bad slashes of yours and make sure they're healing alright," She said as she loosened a strip and began to unwind it. "I want to hear more about what happened. What were the things you were fighting? You failed to mention."
"Lizalfos," Link answered, helping remove the bandages. "Six foot lizards that walk on their hind legs."
"Oh, never seen one."
"Don't want to," He said. "They're lightning fast, but easier to fight when there's one or two of them."
"Instead of hundreds, I suppose."
"Exactly."
Saria finished unwrapping the strip and that loosened up the others and she pulled them all off. She bit her lip when her eyes settled on the stitches and this time she saw them clearly. The actually started on the back of his left shoulder but ended just short of his waist on his right side.
The only words to escape from her mouth were, "That must've hurt."
"It wasn't that bad," Link muttered, apparently lying.
"You're a bad lair," Saria said with a smile. "Always have been."
Link just gave a shrug and Saria went back to what she had started. She gave a soft laugh that caused Link to raise an eyebrow at her.
"I've got good news and bad news," She said, covering her mouth with her hand to keep the giggles inside.
"Good news first," Link said, somewhat amused and confused.
"The good news is that your three huge slashes are totally healed. I don't know how you managed that, but you'll have three long scars," Saria said. "and the stitches don't need to be there anymore."
"So you're saying that you have to take them out," Link said. "That's not too bad."
"No, but the bad news is that you're not asleep for me to do it nor do I have anything to numb you up with so I can do it."
"You're going to take them out of my skin while I'm awake!?" Link demanded, a little bit of fear reflected in his eyes.
"Yes, I find that kind of ironic," Saria said smiling. "Compared with what you currently went through, this shouldn't be too bad."
"Whoa! Now look who's lying!" Link said causing Navi to burst into laughter. "I honestly don't find it that funny," He muttered giving the fairy a glare.
Navi put her hand on her forehead and looked away from him.
"I don't know what came over me," She said in an obviously fake tone.
Link simply rolled his eyes. Saria made Link lay back down a bit so she could work a little easily and him making his reluctance known every inch of the way. Saria simply smiled at him.
"The quicker it starts, the faster it's over," She said, smiling slightly at the craziness of the situation.
Link didn't answer. He had his jaws clenched tightly, knowing he wasn't going to like this.