Ok, I'm back with a new chapter! Will Zelda avenge the Great Deku Tree? And how long will Link stay asleep in his fairy p-j's? All of this answered in this new chapter! MWA, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HACK HARF COUGH COUGH CHOKE GAG GASP! Damn it, I can't even do an evil laugh?

Navi: Guess so.

I'm the freaking CRYPTICElf, and I can't even do an evil laugh? Oh well.

Navi: You wouldn't even hurt a fly, why do you call yourself CrypticElf?

(Smashes fly with a newspaper.)

HA! You thought that you could get away and get all over my food, BUT I WIN!

Navi: Never mind.

What did you say?

Navi: WHY DO YOU CALL YOURSELF CRYPTICELF IF YOU WOULDN'T EVEN HURT A BUG?

(Smashes a spider, beetle, another fly, and a group of ants.)

Navi: Do you do that on purpose?

Do what?

Navi: -- never mind, you stupid human.

Hey, I am not a human; I am an elf in this realm hidden as a human. Some times my ears come out unexpectedly, but I always wear a hat.

Navi: What does your real form look like?

Let me see, black hair, skin like snow, long pointy ears, fangs, not really tall but not short, and one purple eye and one red eye. I think that that's about it.

Navi:....

Oh, and I can use black magic.

Navi: I think that I'm going over here now....

I own nothing of Zelda and never will, but the script is mine and if you take it I can sue you! More money for me!

Chapter Seventeen: Forest Temple, But Without Zelda By His Side

Link opened his eyes and looked around, there was something wrong with this picture. What was it?

Zelda!

Link was so shocked that he fell out of his bed and hit his head on the floor. He jumped right back up and started putting his tunic on.

A few minutes later, Link ran out of his house and went up to a Korkori boy.

"Hey, did you see Zelda?" Link asked the boy.

"No. But Link, there's something wrong! A monster appeared, it didn't hurt anyone, but what do you think that it is? And where's Saria anyway?"

Link swallowed nervously; there was only one thing that could explain the monster.

The Great Deku Tree was dead.

Link didn't have any time to wait, not even for Zelda. He had to get to the Forest Temple that was the only thing that Link could of going. Nothing else could do something like to the Deku Tree, and hadn't Zelda said that the Temple wasn't balanced? This must be it; it must starting to destroy living things. First it would start from the forest, and then spread. And since the Deku Tree had been protecting the forest, he was the plant to go first.

Link clenched a fist and ran to the Lost Woods, the Korkori boy staring after him.

Link stopped a little after he had entered the Lost Woods, remembering that he had a teleporting song. Pulling out his Ocarina, he played what he had remembered from the Forest Temple wall, "Minuet of the Forest."

In a flash of green light, Link found himself standing in front of the Temple on the strange rock on the ground. But he ignored that and started climbing the vines next to the fake entrance of the Temple. Once there, he ran in and into the darkness.

It didn't take long for Link to find the teleporting statue, and he instantly teleported to the room where he had last seen Milo, Kilo, Milan, and Lale.

He saw the three Korkori sitting there, they were awake, and when they saw Link they greeted him with smiles and ghost hugs. After that was done, Link looked to Lale.

"Where's Milan?"

"Milan went with Zelda," Kilo told Link before Lale could respond. Lale gave him a glare and he retreated like a dog with his tail between his legs.

"Zelda came before you did, and she told us that she needed to free the other two sisters of Kale and Milan. She told us to wait here for you, and that she wanted us to tell you that you should free the Korkori ghosts. Don't worry; freeing Korkori ghosts don't have anything to do with magic. Only the four Poe sisters count, at least that is the nickname that they have earned."

"What? Why?"

"Because together they may open the way to the deepest and lowest dungeon. What is down there, I do not know, and no one else knows either. But it must be of importance. But we Korkori ghosts were just sealed for our murderer's entertainment. I can remember him telling me, 'You remind me of a frightened animal trying to escape from the killer, when you know that there is no escape.' That is what he told me after he sealed me in the portrait."

Link saw Kilo and Milo shudder at the words that Lale repeated.

"How long has Zelda been gone?"

"Not long to use, because we have been alone and dead for so long. But to you, it would be about seven or eight hours ago."

"WHAT? THEN LET'S GO!"

Ran over to the door and opened it up as the others flew behind him. Link ran through the room, what happened if Zelda was bleeding or already dead?

Link ran strait into the next room, and was in the middle of it and going to the door when a large Wolfos jumped in front of him. No, large was not the right word, Link preferred to say that it was about four times larger then all of other Wolfos that he had fought.

Link unsheathed his sword and pulled out his shield, he wanted to get to Zelda as fast as possible. And no stupid Wolfos was going to get in his way.

Zelda looked at the portrait in the room. This one had a young woman with curly brown hair, her eyes gray.

Zelda had gone through room after room, monster after monster for about eight hours. And was so tired that she knew that if she sat down she wouldn't be able to get up for a long time. But she didn't sit, she kept herself going. The deeper in the Temple she got, the more traps and monsters had been waiting for her, so she knew that she shouldn't even try to sleep without a protected circle around her.

Layers didn't protect this room and layers of magic like the room with Milan had been. And right now, Zelda couldn't find where the trigger was to set this ghost free.

"I wonder what it is that is keeping Kalona in this room?" Lale said as she tried to search the room for magic. Ghosts could see and feel magic too, but not as well as Zelda could.

"That's what I'd like to know." Zelda replied glumly.

"I wonder what it is as well." Kale remarked as she took a temporary control of Zelda's whole body to try and see if she could find it. She let go seeing that she could find nothing and left Zelda alone. That is except for Zelda's mouth.

"I wish that I could help," Kalona whimpered sadly from her prison. "I have been trapped her for hundreds of years, and I can't even help you figure how break it."

"It isn't your fault at all, don't say it like that." Zelda told her as she continued searching for even the slightest touch of magic.

"She is right, say it like that and you make yourself feel useless even though you aren't." Kale said with as much enthusiasm as she could make.

Kalona sighed; she could do nothing from here. Just sit and wait.

Silence came around the room again, and it lasted for half an hour until Zelda screamed and threw a bolt of magic at the wall in frustration.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Milan coxed as she hugged Zelda's shoulders. Zelda bit her lip.

"I want to, but this is making me angry!"

"Oh, please calm down. If you are angry then you won't be able to concentrate."

Much to the other ghosts surprise, Zelda straitened her back and smiled at Milan.

"You're right, I need to concentrate."

Then Zelda looked down at the new bracelet that held the Korkori's Emerald. Could this do anything to help?

Zelda walked over to Kalona's portrait and lifted up her wrist to see if it would do anything to help. It didn't do anything, but both Milan and Kalona looked at it with wide eyes.

"You have the Korkori's Emerald!" Kalona said as she pressed her head against the invisible wall. All of the ghosts in the portraits were each the size to let all of their body be shown. So she stood at about a foot tall when stood up. When she would be free, she would be life-size.

"Yes, the Great Deku Tree gave it to me. You know who he is?"

"Oh yes," exclaimed Milan as she looked at Emerald without touching it. "He is still alive? He was here since the very beginning of time, and was created by Farore. And when I say that, I mean that she even placed some of her Goddess strength in him. Not enough to be immortal, but still."

"No, he is dead. He died this morning."

"Oh, I was hoping to talk with him when I was free.... But then again when I go to the realm of the Goddesses then I may talk with him as long as I want. After all, there would be nowhere where I had or needed to go...."

Milan sighed painfully and returned to searching the walls with less energy as she had before. Zelda wanted to say something, but nothing came.

Zelda returned to trying to use her bracelet, but it still wouldn't work. Zelda gritted her teeth and tried again, this time placing magic in the stone at the same time.

That seemed to have a positive reaction, because a small flash of green light appeared from the stone, and suddenly it went away. Kalona looked at Zelda.

"Do you think that I can get out now?"

"I wouldn't just stand there, try!" Zelda replied, Kalona nodded and took a step forward. Hoping that her foot wouldn't be stopped....

But it wasn't, and she happily glided out and started laughing as she hugged Milan and then Zelda. Zelda returned the hug, and made sure that Kale could feel the hug as well.

"Freedom! I can't believe it! I can finally walk or float without banging into something after only four feet! Oh, thank you Milady, thank you!"

"Don't call me Milady, just Zelda."

"Alright, Zelda. Whatever you want! Whatever you want!"
Zelda smiled as Kalona flew around the room, and then she tried to figure out how to get out of the room.

'Kale?' thought Zelda.

'There is a door behind a wall, but the wall is not thick. Just blast it away.'

Zelda nodded and started tapping on the wall to check where it sounded hallow. Kalona was still laughing like a gurgling fountain, and Milan was still happy with watery eyes.

Zelda didn't have to wait to long to find it. And after, she backed up and threw a ball of gray magic at the wall. It exploded and a door appeared. Kalona flew over to Zelda and looked at the door with interest as Milan hovered over as well. Zelda walked forward and twisted the doorknob, or at least Kale did. The green flame that had been in Kalona's hands had long disappeared, returning back to their rightful place.

In this room, a pair of Stalfos waited, and Kale let go off of her control to let Zelda do the work. Zelda moved aside as one tried to run and slash at her without success.

Zelda liked her new clothes, she could run and move MUCH faster then before. Milan and Kalona watched from the ceiling, they didn't want Zelda to get distracted by running through one of them by accident.

Zelda ran on the brim of the room and threw a blast of white magic at one of the Stalfos. She hit it perfectly and it exploded into pieces. Zelda smiled and then stopped running once she was at the other end of the room. She put her hands in front of her and then shot a silver ray of magic at the other Stalfos. Slashing its head off. Then she took her ray away and threw four small balls of magic, blasting it to bits.

"Try recovering from that, bone bags." Zelda told the piles as she advanced to the door. Milan and Kalona floated down from the ceiling and joined with Zelda again.

"A most magnificent win!" Kalona exclaimed as they went through the door and entered a hall that looked like all of the others. "You fight with grace and power at the same time. You are truly a great Sorceress!"

"Err, thank you." Zelda replied blushing, Milan shook her head and sighed. Zelda kept on walking, even more alert because of the extra blood flowing to her head. They had reached the end of it, and Zelda went through the door. Making sure that she wouldn't be ambushed by something behind the door, she continued on. Watching the statue of a median sized vine monster out of the corner of her eyes.

She tripped over something on the floor, when she looked to see what it was, nothing was there. She frowned and stood up; she didn't want to know what was in this room. She began walking again when something tugged at her foot; and Zelda's eyes flew down and saw nothing again. She clenched her fist and turned back around, only to be wrapped into a cocoon of vines.

Link dodged the first slash that the enormous Wolfos had given him, and counterattacked by giving a slash of his own at the creature's neck. It dodged just as swiftly as Link had, licking its teeth with hunger. Link just stepped back, ignoring the monster's teeth licking. Link waited until her saw the muscles of the monsters twitch and then threw his sword forward in a stab as the monster jumped at him. But somehow, Link didn't know how, the monster seemed to go over Link's sword and right over to Link's head.

Link ducked and then rolled away and then got back up in a defense position, he wasn't going down that easy.

"Shit!" Link almost got hit when the monster tried to jump at him again right when he got back up. Link kept his defense, but waited to try and impale the monster with his sword when it jumped again. But it didn't, and instead it charged forward, howling as it missed Link. Link jumped forward and made a mid-length slash, and he smiled as he made the hit go all the way down the side of the Wolfos.

His smile disappeared when the monster's teeth seemed to appear out of nowhere and appear onto arm. Link gritted his teeth in pain, but instead of just sitting there helplessly he drove his sword into the Wolfos's neck.

The creature's teeth were still clenched like steel, Link had to pry them off before he got his sword back.

Link stood up slowly, his wound burning like fire. Blood dripped off of his sword, quietly making drip drop sound on the floor. Link sighed and looked at his arm, it wasn't as bad as it looked. But the bad thing was, was that he had no way of healing it.

He took the pack off of his back; he had brought something for healing hadn't he?

He smiled as he pulled out a tiny bottle of cream; he had let Zelda take all of the herbs, but had taken this just in case.

Link took the quark off and then starting spreading the cream on his arm. It burned, but not as bad as other things that he had experienced. He looked into the pack again and found some wraps; he hadn't put those in there.

But when he looked closer, he saw that it had a small ball of light with wings sticking out. That was Navi's sign; she must have put that there.

Link wrapped his wound up and then looked at his sword, and then he wiped the blood on his tunic. He preferred a shiny sword to a tunic that was going to get messy anyway.

He sighed and then walked around the Wolfos and then over to the door, Milo and Kilo whizzed around behind him.

"WOW! You fight really well! Can you teach me how to use a sword?" Asked Kilo.

"You're dead, stupid!" Milo told him.

"Oh, you're right...."

Link muffled a laugh and then went through the next door, thinking in his head. 'What's behind door number two?'

This room was different from the others thank Farore's mercy. This one had a lower floor from where Link was standing, and was covered with plants that looked like they had teeth. But in the center was a spinning platform that was Link's level, faraway from the so-called plants.

Link jumped on the platform and then looked around. This room didn't seem to have anything that was going to try and kill Link, but it was too unusual. There had to be something here.

Link looked around, starting to get dizzy from spinning around. Not too much, but enough to make him get a sore head.

Well, he might as well try to get across. He walked towards the edge but not close enough to where something could reach and grab him. He waited until the other side of the room was in front of him, and then he jumped.

Just as he jumped, the ceiling came flying down. Lucky enough for Link, he rolled just beyond the ceiling and almost banged into the door. He glanced at the destroyed floor and then opened the door; he didn't want to be crushed.

This room looked just like others, circular with torches, but in one part of the room a bored looking Korkori boy in a portrait sat staring at the wall.

This one had wavy yellow-green hair with yellow eyes and tanned skin without any freckles. His tunic was yellow, and his lips thin and dry.

He jumped and looked at Link with wonder.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Link, and I'm here to help."

He looked at Link for a moment, and then saw Lale, Milo, and Kilo. And his face instantly lit up with happiness.

"Lale! Milo! Kilo!"

"Hello!" The other three said together as they flew over to his portrait and put their nine hands on his barrier.

Link looked around, trying to see how he was supposed to free this one as the others talked. He looked up and saw nothing. He looked around and saw nothing. Nothing was here to help free this trapped Korkori. Link scowled and looked at the ground, and to his surprise a pattern that looked like the Great Deku Tree was etched onto the floor.

Ok, there was something, but what did it mean?

"Hello!"

Link looked away and at the boy in the painting. Link smiled and walked over, taking his thoughts of how to free him away for just a moment.

"What's your name?" Link asked curiously.

"Wes."

"Mine is Link."

"Are you really going to free me?"

"Of course I will, I just need to figure out how."

"OHHH! Then take your time!"

"Thanks, I will."

Link looked over at the tiled floor of the Deku Tree and thought. What could he do?

Pondering over what he should do, he stood and waited for an idea to come stumbling through his head.

Zelda felt the vines wrap around her, she resisted and threw a bolt of magic at one of the vines. Whatever it was, it made a yelping sound and retreated. Zelda kept her guard up though; it would attack at any moment again.

Zelda felt her hands glow with magic and let it flow into her hands with ease.

Nothing flew at her, and Zelda looked around herself cautiously. She glanced at the statue; it was still there and in the same position. She didn't feel any life coming from it, so it couldn't be what was attacking her.

A bucket of something clear and sticky feeling on top of Zelda and completely drenched her. She spat out some of the goo that got in her mouth and looked up.

It looked just like the same monster that she had fought when she had nearly bleed to death but Link had saved her with Pink Fairies.... But he wasn't here now, and there weren't any Pink Fairies to save her this time. She couldn't let herself be thrown across the room this time, or else she knew that she would die.

She took in a deep breath and moved out of saliva range; good thing that this wasn't the venom that looked like it could melt her in a moment.

Another small vine flew down, followed by many others. Zelda knelt down and put a barrier up around her. Once the vines had been thrown back she let her barrier fall and then sprinted for the wall. Once she made it she threw up another barrier.

It was a useful trick, for the wall was one side of protection and your barrier the other. That way you would only use up half of the magic required to making a shield.

She knelt down on her knees, keeping her shield up she started to concentrate.

She placed the image of the torches in her mind, and imagined the monster on the ceiling at the sometime....

Imagining the torches floating up, she imagined them setting the monster on fire. Then she poured magic into her mind....

A sudden burst of heat made her open her eyes, and she saw that the monster was on fire.

Smiling she let her barrier down and ran out as fast as she could out of the room.

That had been easier then she thought.

"Oh! A most fantastic win!" Kalona repeated just as she had before. This ghost seemed to be the hyper one out of the four sisters.

"Thank you, again." Zelda replied as she looked around the room that she was in this time. It was another circular room with nothing that looked dangerous. "Wow, I wonder why this room doesn't surprise me with its uniqueness over the others." Zelda told the other three sarcastically.

"Well, all the rooms do look the same, don't they?" Milan replied.

"Who built this place anyway?" Zelda asked as she looked around the room that looked like all of the others.

"We did." Kalona told her with a supportive tone.

"What? You did...? Oops, sorry."

"What she meant," Milan said. "Was that our family built this place. Or at least they were the first ones to explore the temple. The Three Great Goddesses made each of the temples. Our family was created to be the keepers of this temple. And we did protect it, until that putrid Gerado came and killed us all."

"Gerado?" Zelda asked curiously, she loved learning new things.

"Yes, a male Gerado."

"Really?"

"Yes, and he came and killed us all because he wanted to gain control over the temple. But we wouldn't tell him how to gain it, so he killed us all."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I know why I died?"

"Sorry... it's just that it sounds just like my theory."

"What theory?"

"Well, the person who is ruling over Hyrule is a male Gerado. His name is...." Zelda's voice trailed off, she didn't like to the name of someone who caused so pain, suffering, and countless deaths. "Ganondorf."

"Hmm. And what is he like?"

"Horrible, terrible beyond words and probably smells like onions, garlic, manure, and many other horrible smells all mixed together and magnified by a trillion."

"Sounds like you don't like him."

"How'd you guess?" Zelda replied skeptically.

Zelda walked forward and looked around the room to make sure that nothing was going to try and eat her. Nothing and perhaps nothing in the next room.

A thought popped into her head.

How was Link?

She shoved the thought out of her head, but she still felt worried for him.

Damn stupid emotions for those who lived above the Sheikah.....

'Oh, you shouldn't try to make yourself hate him.' Kale told Zelda calmly.

'Hmm.' Zelda replied tartly. Kale didn't reply, it was pointless.

Link stared down at the painting of the Deku Tree, what did it mean?

"GAH! I hate this damn thing!" Link whispered harshly under his breath.

"You need help?" Lale asked as she floated over next to Link.

"Do you know why there is a picture of the Deku Tree on this floor?"

"Hmm. I think that I can remember this room the Deku Tree meant something. But I can't remember what."

Kilo popped up on the other side of Link.

"I bet Kale would know. She was always the smartest and quietest out of the rest of us. Even when that giant sword that was going to cut her head off was coming strait at her she didn't even scream."

Link wondered how these ghosts could talk about death so freely. It gave him bumps on his skin to think about things like this. Or at least, about how a person screamed before their life ended.

"She was the very first out of us to be killed. Hmm." Kilo floated off, in a thinking position. Link just looked at the picture on the floor and tried to ignore the thought of death that was inside of his thoughts. But it wasn't working.

"I think that the Deku Tree was in here because...." Lale trailed off, and then her voice came back. "It was for the symbol of life!"

Link almost wanted to re-kill Lale just at that moment. He already knew that!

"Sorry, I can't believe that was all that came into my head...." Lale floated off, and Link kept on looking at the picture on the floor.

Life. What in Farore's name was that supposed to mean? Obviously it was the answer of freeing Wes.

Link took a deep breath and walked away from the picture and over to Wes. Putting his hand on the wall next to Wes's portrait and leaning on one leg he looked at the Korkori ghost in portrait and smiled like he was hitting on a girl.

Wes laughed and pointed at Link. Link's smile went away and he leaned on the wall as his finger lightly tapped on the portrait's edge.

Milo floated over in front of the portrait and looked at the laughing Wes and put his hand forward, meaning to lean against the invisible barrier.

But instead, his hand went through farther then it was supposed to and he would have fallen in the portrait all the way if Lale hadn't caught him and pulled him back. Link jumped off the wall as Kilo rushed forward as they all looked at the portrait.

"How come my hand went through? Is the painting trying to catch me too?"

"No," Lale told him as she let him go and then she smiled at Wes. "He can come out!"

"What?" Wes said to Lale as he edged forward. He kept on walking, and to Link's relief he kept on going until he was all the way out.

He did a cry of joy and immediately started zooming around the room. Milo and Kilo joined in, but Lale stood where she was. Link looked at her, and she looked back.

"You're wondering why he's free now, aren't you?" Lale asked Link.

"Yeah, what did I do?"

"Life," Lale told him in a wise voice. "You touched the portrait with hands that are warm with life and the spell was undone. All that was needed was a living touch and he would be free. That is why the Deku Tree is there, for the answer was life."

Link thought it over for a moment, and then realized that she was right.

"Why are you... so wise?"

"Wise?" She asked back.

"Yeah, the other Korkori aren't as wise as you are. In fact they act like the living Korkori that I know. But you don't act that way, you act like you know more then you tell."

"That is because I was freed by prison and I was able to roam the Temple as I pleased. What do you think that I did? Sit around and do nothing? No, I watched my surroundings, read books and simply gained knowledge by other ways. Kale is also wise like I, but she is even wiser. For in life she was already wise for her age and much brighter then any of her sisters or the Korkori. So when she escaped her prison she did just as I and learned even more. That is how it happened. The others all just sat in their portraits and waited until the day that they would be free. Although Kale and I often visited them, it still grew boring to them." Lale sighed and floated away, Link watched after her and then walked across the room and to the door that lead him to the next room.

He waited for a while, and then Zelda rolled into his head. Why had she left before he did? Why didn't she wake him up? He sighed and then thought about the first time that he had met Zelda.

A young teenage girl with long dark blond hair that shimmered when light touched it with a silver undecorated silver circlet on was standing next to Epona, her midnight blue cloak gently covering her body. Putting his bow down; he looked into her eyes, and felt his breath taken away. Her eyes were of an incredible deep dark sapphire blue, he felt like he was drowning in her beautiful ocean eyes....

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." She stammered out after they had stared at each other for a few seconds. Blushing madly, he walked out of the water and advanced towards her. Once they were at least a yard away from each other, he stopped and looked at her again.

"Who are you?" He asked, afraid that he was going to drown in her eyes again with their beauty.

"My name is Zelda, I'm sorry that I scared you like that, its just I saw you over here and wondered what you were you doing. Sorry for intruding on you, I think I will just go now." Turning around, she was about to walk way when Link gently put and on her shoulder making her turn around.

"Why are you wandering around in such a dangerous place by yourself? Don't you have a guardian or someone to protect you?"

"I can take care of myself, I don't need protection from anyone."

Link smirked as he remembered how shocked he was when she told him that she could take of herself. If he had known her better, then he wouldn't have said anything like that. But one thing that that he didn't laugh at was when he thought about how he felt when he first looked in Zelda's eyes. He could feel her eyes looking at him at that very moment, soft, warm, gentle, and yet still you could see the strong stubbornness and will that was filled within. She wasn't like a normal girl; even Malon wouldn't be as rude as Zelda had been. Fact is, is that Malon would probably say yes immediately. She wanted to marry a knight or brave warrior. Luckily she only considered Link a good friend and only thought of him in that way.

He didn't want to think of what would happen if Malon were attracted to him. He didn't want to think about that at all....

He jumped when Wes called him out of his thoughts. Link looked up and saw that all four Korkori were looking at him with eager eyes. Link smiled at them, then silently turned around and opened the door to the next room. With the thought of only one person inside of his head, soon to fade away.

Ok, sorry about the long delay on these chapters, but for some reason I'm have A LOT of trouble Logging onto I wish that I knew what was wrong....

Navi: I wonder too, I feel really bad for all you people who are reading!

Oh well, nothing else special happened.... OH! And one more thing, if you actually read this stuff me and Navi are saying, then on the bottom of your review write: 'CrypticElf and Navi.'

Navi: Why should they do that?

It's so that way I can tell who reads and who doesn't! I notice that some people don't answer me when I ask questions. Because even if what I write can be pointless, sometime I ask for certain things and then only two people answer me. Usually it's only one. So please, write: 'CrypticElf and Navi.' On the bottom of your review.

So Until Next Time,

CrypticElf....