"Lie lie little green turtle dove, fly fly through the heavens above…" sang a fuzzy voice in the back of Link's mind. Link turned over on his side, looking up into a pair of bright brown eyes. The eyes smiled down at him from a shadowed face.
" Good morning Link. Did you sleep well?" crooned the voice, Link sitting up in the sheltering arms to look about the room surrounding him. He was in a small wooden building, small beds of sleeping pointy eared children lining the walls.
"This is a dream isn't it?" Link said, hopping off the lap of the person, walking over to a window on the left side of the room.
"You have much more than the wisdom of a five-year-old Link." said the broken record voice of the person, standing up, walking over to pull away the green curtain to look out at the forest beyond with Link. The forest was full of fairies, and floating glowing bugs, the world bathed in the golden light of early morning. Off in the distance, along the dirt path that led out of this section of forest, Link saw a giant hollowed out tree. Through the hole in the fallen tree that was big enough for a small elephant to walk through, Link saw what looked like a small construction site. Shadowed figures were building buildings out of the large trees that stood there.
"The shadows are the Deku tree's sendings, they're building your new homes. In a few weeks you'll all be living there…" the person sighed. Link looked up at the girl, the only things he could see about here were those big brown eyes, her hair, and her golden hoop earrings. Her hair was brown, shoulder length, and curly. It was wavy down till the tips where it swayed in perfectly clumped springy curls. The girl closed the curtain, a few children stirring in their beds as she walked with elf-like grace back to her chair. Link jogged over to the small, empty bed by the girl's chair. Link ran a hand over the soft material of his pillow, looking over at all the other children. Laying next to the heads of all the children was a small glowing light, tiny butterfly wings fluttering in the fairies sleep.
"When did this happen? I know this place but I cant really remember it. I know I've seen you before, but I cant really see you… Why not?" Link walked up to the girl, placing his head in her lap ad she stroked his hair.
"Once upon a time you may have known me. This is a faded memory. I can talk to you and only you. If the children were to wake up right now, none of them would see me." she sighed, her voice had lost the tinkling, fuzzy sound and was completely clear. A mellow sound, something gentle enough to lull you to sleep is what her voice was.
"Why cant they see you?"
"This is your dream Link. They will never have it." she said as she took his head in her hands to stare at him. Her eyes were brimming with silent tears as she brushed a handful of curls behind her pointed ears.
"Why are you crying?.. I've never asked you that before have I?" Link said as he wiped away a tear from her face with his hand. He startled himself as he looked at the girl again, it seemed like she had shrunk, for she stood and only came up to his nose. Link looked at himself, realizing he was grown up again, just like the dream always showed him.
"You will never remember me link. That is why I cy… you will never remember.. Th..I..s.." her voice shook and crackled like breaking ice as she held out a flower of some kind to him. Link took the flower, its color faded into a dull red, the petals of the rose still soft as silk. The colors of the world around him melted into a light blue, and he was standing in a never-ending, ankle deep puddle of water, gray sky stretching forever. The girl turned and began to walk away. This had never happened in the dream before. He ran towards the girl, holding out the flower to her.
"Wait! Wait! Take this! Take this from me! I wont forget you! Don't leave me! Please wait!" cried the voice of a small Link, as Link watched his younger self chase down the girl and give her the flower, the girl's smile etched into the back of his mind as his world faded into darkness.
"What's going on?"
"He's attacked again, and this time he's closer."
"This cant be happening. Why would he do this?"
"You know it's not
him doing this."
"Don't look at me like that, do you think
that I can stop him?"
"You're the Queen after all, and he knows you! Your majesty wait! Hey! Your time to be the hero has come!"
"What if I don't want to be the hero….!! Oh my Goddess… I said… just what he… oh Goddess.."
"You know how he feels?"
"I will NEVER know how he feels Damnit! DON'T YOU GET IT?!"
"My Queen…."
"It's my fault…"
"Why would you say that, come now."
"LET GO OF ME! Because. I gave him the Ocarina. I am the one who had to try and give him the everlasting memory so he'd come back to me!"
"My dear what are you ranting about?" the king opened the golden studded door and stepped into the large meeting hall. Knights and Lords from all over the kingdoms were seated in a giant circle of comfortable couches, one of the knights looked as though he had been pushed back by the pacing Zelda, he blond hair slightly messed with sleepless nights of worry. The king sighed, running a hand through his short hair, cape sweeping behind him as he waltzed over to Zelda, the frail queen running into his arms to hold him.
"There there now. Don't cry dearest. I'm sure we'll think of something. We have to." the king lifted Zelda's face gently with a white gloved hand. "We have to think of something for the sake of our people." the King and Zelda exchanged a secret smile and a short sweet kiss, the room enjoying a moment of silence. The precious moment was lost as a security guard burst through the door, the whole of the people jumping at the sound.
"My lord and lady! We have visitors from afar! They have come with a plan of stopping Link!" the guard took a low sweeping bow, his red cloak and gold fringes brushing the floor as in walked a group of women.
"Lady's Malon, Anju, Marin, and a cloaked stranger, have come to present their condolences to the crown." the guard said as the ladies and their husbands stepped into the room.
"Welcome friends, we humbly receive you in our hours of need." Zelda said, quickly wiping away a tear as she hugged the ladies and led them all over to the circle of people.
Lady Malon and her Knight of a husband suggested that they repair the barrier that had protected Hyrule from the outside for so long. Anju and her lordly husband Kafei suggested that they ask Link to leave forever in return for anything he asks for, but the king objected.
"If we tell him that he'll ask for the Queens head."
"Why would her do that?"
"For some reason, the Mask has made him hate Zelda for everything that has happened to him. We know why not."
Then Marin and her Knight of a husband spoke, the black cloaked stranger listening to them most curiously.
"I believe we should find our answer else where. None of us know why he had gone mad but the mask, and we cannot go to the mask's creator for advice. I suggest finding his origins. Who knows link better than any of you? Our origins are our strongest allies."
The cloaked stranger approached the king and queen as the room buzzed with voices exchanging views on Marin's suggestion. She spoke in a low, raspy, airless voice, only loud enough for the king and queen to hear.
"Majesties, in this hour of need the help you seek will not be found by any of you or your friends who believe they know him best. Marin has wisdom beyond her years, and there is truth in what she says. I come bearing a message from the one person who knows him best… but you will not find that person here…." the cloaked woman croaked, handing them a small green envelope addressed to the Queen. She turned to walk out the door, stopping to stare a pair of blue glowing eyes at the room and speaking loud enough fro all to hear.
"Origins are indeed your strength, but make haste for you have no time. This time, you have no ocarina to save you, nor the hero to wield it. Find a hero." The small woman said, turning and disappearing from the doorway. Zelda opened the letter and pulled out a green piece of parchment, something falling to the floor at her feet. The king reached down and picked up a small rose, frosted at the tips.
"I wait for my little green turtle dove where his fairy found me first. Do you have the answer now? Or is our Queen not that precious and worth saving…." Zelda read aloud looking over at her husband with the rose. There was a moment of contemplation and the group reached a decision. Zelda would venture into the Kokiri forest and seek help from the Deku Tree Sprout.
"Even though the Deku tree is not there, the sprout will know just as well." Marin assured Zelda.
"But the Deku Tree is the one who knew Link the best of any of us.."
"Ah, but the Sprout was still growing when Link was, the sprout wouldn't forget its time with the Deku tree, our origins our our greatest ally. The Sprouts roots run deep. There is wisdom in that little plant that he'll tell when the time comes and the right questions are asked."
Zelda set out later that day to the Kokiri forest. No one knows why no one could enter it before. Some people claim that the air in there was poisonous, or that there was a barrier that no Hyrulian could cross. For whatever reason, no one was able to enter the forest of the Kokiri until now. The Kokiri had all fled and no one knew for that either, and the forest had become nearly forgotten for the past 3 years. Zelda trudged through the muddy ground beneath the cracked wooden porthole in to the Kokiri forest. A light, misty silence had settle upon the village, the houses had begun to grow back into trees, barely any light shone in this dismal graveyard of a magical people. No movement could be detected save for the occasional flower of blade of grass in the wind. Once the skies were lit with the bright glow of fairies which had gone as well so it seemed. Zelda turned a corner and continued to look for the Deku Tree Sprout. She walked into the small passageway, and then the large clearing of gloomy darkness surrounding the Deku Tree Sprout. There was a single, tiny ray of light that bathed the floor near the Deku Tree Sprout with light. The small tree was leaning over to one side, its branches and body wrinkled slightly, and its breathing was heavy. Zelda ran over and cradled the small tree in her arms.
"Oh Deku Sprout! What has happened to you? Where are all the fairies? Where are the Kokiri? What is happening to the forest?" Zelda cried as the sprout wheezed. The tiny tree turned its face towards her and shed a small green tear as it whimpered out its wisdom.
"I am dying slowly but surely…..the fairies.. Left because of the Kokiri….the Kokiri left because…..because.." the Sprout wheezed heavily, shaking.
"Oh goddess, I should've brought a potion. Hang on, I'll go back and get some! Don't die on me!" Zelda cried as she was a bout to leave, but was stopped by the small branch of the Deku Sprout.
"Zelda… no.. please.. I'm scared. Don't leave me…." the Deku Sprout shed another tear, shaking and wheezing as the queen held it tighter.
"Zelda.. There is a poison in here…it has been here for.. Forever. The Kokiri left because… they saw him… the poison began to kill me and someone went out into the forest…by Termina…..and they saw him…. They all fled because he'll come back… because SHE's not here…" the Deku Sprout gripped her tighter and let out a long, droning cough, a trickle of sap curdling out from the side of his mouth as he shook more violently.
"She's not here…. She's not coming back… they remembered her! They remembered what the Deku Tree told them to forget and they went to find her! You must find her… she'll stop him…. Before.." Zelda looked at the little tree in horror as its color began to fade and it cried harder.
"No… NO! DON'T DIE!! PLEASE! Oh goddess.. No … you're too young! ..This isn't right…!" Zelda felt the cold touch of the Deku Sprout's branch on her cheek. It smiled weakly a her, the plants face wrinkled and faded like an old man's.
"Zelda… where has the strength of our kingdom gone? Where is the strength of our queen? You must find her. The poison came slowly when she left. Stop him before he kills you… we don't want to open the gates again now do we?" sighed the Deku Sprout as it cried again. "Zelda.. I don't want to die… I'm so scared… I don't want to die… I want to live to see Hyrule…. To actually see it from above these walls… the last time I saw it…. Was when you were all at war….. Before you set up the barrier….when link came to us… and when my dad…!!!!! Aghh!" shrieked the Sprout as it shook violently, a dark black blood oozing from its cracks and crevices. Zelda screamed and held tighter as the droplets of black blood stained her dress, the Deku sprout dying in her arms. The tiny tree didn't fade into a mystical performance of pretty lights like its father, no, it died. It died painfully, screaming and wheezing till the end. Zelda looked at the Sprout's cold and unmoving face. It looked as though even at the end, it still was in pain…. There was no relief.
Blood soaked and carrying the rotted stump of the Deku Sprout, Zelda brought the plant outside the forest, crying all the way out, collapsing upon her knees as she set the poor tree to rest on Hylian soil… the soil it would never get to see.
"There is… a girl we must find….and she … she knows how to defeat Link…" Zelda said between shuddering breaths, the company in the room starring at her in horror, looking over her blood stained outfit. There was a silence, and then a low jingling of bells, the Sage lights appearing before the Queen.
"Sprout…. SPROUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Saria screamed out into the silent air, the sages bowing their heads to the fallen Deku Sprout.
"He will pay….. He is no friend of mine….. I WILL KILL LINK WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS! HE SHALL NOT LIVE FOR FORCING HER OUT! HE SHALL NOT LIVE FOR KILLING A CHILD OF THE FOREST!" Saria screamed, a blazing green fire engulfing her sage body, as she floated to the heavens.
"ZELDA! If you do not kill him, then so help me….. I WILL!" Saria shouted as all the sages gave one long disappointed look at Zelda and disappeared.