Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda, or any of the characters you know. If you don't know the character or the plot part then it's most likely mine.
"Double quotes" is speech.
'Single quotes' is thoughts.
-Dashes- are Deku Tree Speak. (This is supposed to be small caps also but I'm not sure it will turn up.)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Chapter Three: Hero's Quandaries
Entering the path, Link also entered a place with no canopy. The tree's stopped covering the path, and Link had to cover his eyes from the sun.
There were little patches of pale blue flowers every few feet from each other, starting at the entrance to the path. The little flowers looked like they were blowing in the wind, except there was no wind.
Link bent down to admire these flowers, and immediately jumped back when one lashed out at him. The little flower, recovering from the near hit shook itself, and then began to grow. Slowly at first, but then getting faster, it grew. It grew and grew, until it was matching Link's height. And continued to grow. It was around a head taller than Link, when it stopped.
Link stared, transfixed, at the giant flower. He stood still until he heard the snapping sound it was emitting. Link jumped back to avoid the attack he knew to be coming. The giant flower lashed out again at Link, though the attack was futile as Link had already jumped out of the way. Link ran past it, not really wanting to get into a fight right now, and dodged all of the other clumps of flowers. He continued running until he came upon a split in the road.
"Navi, which way is it?" Link asked.
"Its right, I think."
"Alright then, let's go."
Navi reached the clearing before Link did, and shouted. "Great Deku Tree, I'm back and I brought Link, like you asked!"
Link had reached the clearing now, and bowed before the Great Deku Tree.
-There is no need for you to bow to me, young one.-
The words echoed through the forest, coming from everywhere and yet from nowhere.
-Come closer, chosen one of the Goddesses.-
Link took a few steps forward, before stopping again.
-Link, I have a quest for thou. Doest thou have the courage to face the unknown?-
"Unknown? What are you talking about Great Deku Tree?" Link asked.
-I have been cursed, young Link, and will soon die. Without your help I will surely perish, and with me the whole forest itself. If the forest is to die, thou knowest what will happen to the Kokori?-
Link's eyes widen at that statement. 'With no forest, the Kokori will die! I can't let that happen.'
-So Link, will you face the unknown to save your friends? Will you brave my inner depths and fight the curse, brought by the man wearing black and riding a black horse?-
Link's eyes widen even more at that statement.
"A man wearing black, on a black horse? I saw that man in my dreams!"
-I think that thou understands the danger I am in, then, Link?-
"Yes, Great Deku Tree, I can understand. How do I remove the curse?"
-Thou has a great heart, Link, Chosen of the Goddesses. The curse resides in my very Lifestream. If the curse is not removed from my life source soon, I will die.-
"Lifestream? Life source? Is he giving us hints of where to find the curse?" Navi asked, right next to Link's ear.
"I think so. Great Deku Tree! Do you know where exactly the curse resides?"
-I am sorry. I do not. But you will figure it out.-
"All right then, that rules out that plan." Navi pouted.
"I wonder, could he mean his roots?"
Navi looked up. "Hmm… that's true, it could be."
Link walked over to the roots, and started climbing over them to try and find some sort of way to get in. He searched for a while before finding an entrance way.
The entrance way was surrounded by scratch marks. The little passage way seemed to be cut completely through, by something with rather large claws.
'Did something scratch his way through the Great Deku Tree? That would take ages.'
The passage way was hardly big enough for Link to crawl through. Link lowered himself on to his hands and knees before crawling into the dark crawl space.
Navi took the initiative and flew in front of Link, giving him a small amount of light. Link used this light and continued to crawl along the way.
Link reached a hollow after a few minutes of going along. He pulled himself up and surveyed his new surroundings. Not that he could see that much considering it was very dark in the hollow.
Everything in this new environment gave off an aura of wrongness. It all seemed too strange to be correct. There were scratches covering the walls and the floors. Vines grew up some of the walls, and there were seemingly random extrusions sticking out.
From what Link could see, he quickly concluded the room was large. Very large. Larger than any enclosed space he had ever been in. It was amazing and terrifying all at once.
Link took a few steps forward, treading slowly and carefully. Once Link got to about the middle of the room, he felt something underneath his feet. The ground had a spring to it that was missing from the cold hard wood that lay under his feet before.
"Navi, can you check to see what's under my feet? It's not wood like it was before." Link spoke quietly, trying to not wake up anything that happened to be inside of the Great Deku Tree.
Navi's light glow slid down to Link's feet before rising up again to swirl Link's head.
"It is some sort of web, I guess. It's not like any web I've ever seen though. It must be really strong and well woven to hold your weight."
"Are you calling me fat?" Link asked in a teasing tone.
Navi let out a small giggle. "Compared to me you are."
Link snickered at that as well. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I am. I'm always right!" They both laughed for a few minutes, before realizing what they were doing, and stopped. They had no wish to attract attention, yet.
The two of them set off exploring different parts of the room. After a few minutes of searching they came to the conclusion that the only place to go was down through the web, but it was blocked by the impossible to pass web.
Link spent one moment thinking about it before drawing his sword. He swung down and tried to cut the web. As the blade struck the web, instead of ripping it in half like it was supposed to, the sword clanged off of it. Link's eyes widened. That web had to be stronger than metal!
Navi shook her head at Link; she had tried to warn him. "I was about to tell you that the web's too strong for you to cut with that dull blade."
"Where are we supposed to go then? There's no way to go but down."
"There are vines, and with the outcroppings in the walls you may be able to climb your way up. That is, if there are any vines strong enough to hold you up."
"So we're going up?" Link asked, skeptically.
"Yep."
Link looked around for some vines. Due to the lighting, he couldn't see any though, so he asked Navi for help.
Navi flew over to the nearest collection of vines, and Link followed.
Link grabbed a vine, and pulled. Hard. The vine came loose and fell to the floor, one end held limply in Link's hand.
"Well… That wasn't supposed to happen."
"There's got to be at least one strong vine in here. Let me go look." And with that, Navi floated away. As Navi got further away, Link slowly lost the ability to see, the darkness surrounding him taking it away. 'I wonder why I was chosen for this job, to save the Great Deku Tree. I don't exactly have anything really special going for me. Maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing… or maybe not, since Navi had been supposed to bring me there all day. I'm hardly any good at breaking curses anyways; I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.'
"Really Link, you look like you get lost in thought and depressed if someone leaves you." Navi said lightly.
Link started, having not noticed Navi floating in his face. After a few seconds of trying to find a response, he just shrugged and started pulling on random vines.
A few vines later, Link had found a strong vine. "I've got one!" he called over to Navi, who was looking for another way up. Navi bobbed over to him, and lit his vine up so he could see where to go.
Using the vine, Link quickly scaled the wall. As he reached the top, he heard a strange scuttling noise. Since darkness was obscuring he vision, he could not see where the noise was coming from, and he looked around, alert, searching for the noise again. He drew his sword out of his scabbard again spun it around.
Link slowly started walking forward. He took a step, waited, checked for noises, and then took another. As he made his way around the inside of the great tree, he kept himself prepared to hear the weird scuttling. The floor had holes in it, and even suddenly dropped off. Link had to use his momentum to jump, just so he didn't fall.
"Navi, do you think you could fly a little bit lower so I might be able to see the ground so that doesn't happen again?"
Navi floated up mutely, before lowering herself to circle Link's boots. The ground near his feet became illuminated as Navi lit up as bright as possible.
The ground had stopped sloping upwards after a little while of the partial sneaking Link was doing. Once the ground flattened out, Link's foot came into contact with something sticking out of the ground. In a flash he was sprawled out on the ground.
"Dang it. What was that?" Link started to feel around, before realizing that that could be particularly harmful if something dangerous was coming out of the ground.
"Navi, could you come light up the ground near my feet?"
Navi complied, and as her light shone brighter, Link noticed something embedded in the dirt.
Link picked up the offending object, looking at it closely. It appeared to be a slingshot. When Link noticed the name on it, he realized it wasn't just any slingshot.
"That's my slingshot! How did it get to be in here, of all places?"
Navi was about to answer, but Link cut her off.
"It doesn't matter, let's just keep going."
Link started slowly walking. Navi moved in front of his feet again, lighting his path a little.
Link walked on slowly, for what seemed like ages, before finally getting to a level platform. Then he noticed he had no where to go, as the ledge just dropped off, instead of continuing.
"Uhh… where are we supposed to go now?"
"I've got no idea." Navi floated over to the dead end, sitting directly in the center of the tree. Link followed, precariously leaning over the edge, to look down. After a moment, a loud crack echoed throughout the large tree, starting beneath Link's feet.
"Oh… crap!" Link stated quite eloquently.
The edge of the ledge they were standing on cracked again, before breaking off, and bringing Link with it.