Ryu had gotten past the maze of trees. Now he was about to come to another one. But there was a metal gate blocking his way. 'Ugh… Honestly, why would someone take the time to build a gate here? All it would do is make it inconvenient to the locals.' Ryu shrugged.

Suddenly, from out of the grass to the side, a grey Wolfos appeared, announcing its arrival with a long, piercing howl. It set it's hungry, yellow eyes on Ryu. The Wolfos' drooling mouth was hanging open and it looked like it was way overdue for a meal. It ran up to Ryu and tried to slash him with it's front claws. Ryu dodged them with ease and then drew his sword. "Hmph. I hope you find peace in the underworld." He said sarcastically. When the Wolfos lunged at him Ryu side-stepped out of the way and delivered a cutto its back.With one slash the Wolfos fell, vanishing into eerie blue flames.

The metal gate blocking his path before was now lowered. Ryu decided not to question why killing a demon would bring a gate down and just kept walking. Once he passed the place where the gate used to be, he was ambushed by a giant carrying a spear the size of a giraffe's neck. (A/N: You know, Navi doesn't lock on to those giant, brown guys so they don't have a name. Let's refer to them as Behemoths. ) Out of the corner of his eye, Ryu saw the 20 foot monster making a mad dash toward him, giving a long, intimidating growl. Ryu leapt at the on-coming monster, dodged the spear and gave a powerful stab to the Behemoth's head. But it was no good. For some reason, the front of his head was impenetrable. The Behemoth, using its oversized arm, swatted Ryu off of its head and onto the plot of land above. (A/N: Where the scarecrow is when you call him.) Ryu fell hard on his back. Slowly getting up he looked back down to the Behemoth who had resumed pacing up and down the corridors of the forest maze. "Hmph. I'll deal with you later." Ryu sneered. Ryu continued on toward the source of the mysterious song, leaping from one high ground to the next. He could here it now, clearer than ever.

Ryu leapt down from the upper ground when he saw steps leading up another small passage.

"Hmph. Why would someone build a stairway if they were just going to block anyone from even coming here by creating that metal gate? These Kokiri must not be very bright..."

Ryu continued onward but stopped advancing when he saw another large creature standing at the end of the passage. It looked like the Behemoth that he ran into earlier but this one was even bigger and wielded a club that must have weighed as much as a Dodongo. Ryu looked at it with annoyance. "Well, well. You must be King Behemoth. One of your foolish henchmen gave me a bit of trouble… Sadly, you must be the one to suffer from his mistake." With a grunt, King Behemoth started to pound the ground with its club, sending shockwaves through the ground big enough to throw someone back quite a distance. But that didn't matter to Ryu. Using his great speed he dodged every wave that came at him and passed the king right by. Spinning around quickly he leapt onto the Behemoth King's back and stabbed his long sword through him. With a grunt, the king fell, and exploded into dark green flames. Ryu looked over his shoulder, at the sound of the beautiful melody. He was very close now and he knew it.

Ryu slowly walked up the remaining stairs. He was trying to come up with his plan of attack. When he got up there he looked a little bit toward his right and saw a green haired girl sitting on a tree stump and she playing an ocarina made out of wood. She looked like she was a little more grown up than all of the other Kokiri children. Ryu would never have thought she was a Kokiri if she wasn't wearing a Kokiri outfit. He approached her with caution. After being completely wiped out by Darunia he wasn'tabout to take any chances with this sage. Even if she didn't seem harmful at all he knew she was going to be a challenge to beat. She was gently swaying at the sound of her music. When she heard footsteps she opened her sparkly blue eyes and looked deep into Ryu's dark purple eyes and smiled sweetly. "Hello. Can I help you?" She said as she stood up.

Ryu backed away a little and Saria looked a little confused. Ryu spoke up. "Are you Saria? The Sage of Forest and guardian of the Forest Temple?"

"Oh, yes. I am."

"Good to hear. I've been searching for you for some time now."

"Tee hee. You have? What for?"

Ryu continued to glare at her. "For your power… I will make it my own…" Ryu was slowly unsheathing his seven-foot sword. As he was drawing it, Saria's smile was fading, her happiness turning into fear.

"Wh… What? My power? What would you do with it?"

"That's for me to know!" Ryu darted toward the Kokiri girl with his sword in his right hand. Saria screamed and covered her head. Thesecond she screamed, a root from under the ground rose up and made Ryu trip and land on his face. He shook his head and looked up at Saria who uncovered her head. By the look in her eye, Ryu could tell that that root coming up was something she did completely on accident.

"Sorry… I… I didn't mean to do that…" She said, unsure of what else she could say at such an awkward moment.

"Oh, don't be." Ryu said. He leapt over Saria at a very impressive speed. Ryu was behind her now and she was wide open. He raised his sword and got ready to strike. He lowered his sword but he was stopped. He couldn't move his arm. He turned to see what the hell could have been interfering. To his surprise, he couldn't move his arm because a vine had wrapped itself around it. "Wh-What is this?" Ryu yelled. Saria turned around to see him. Curious of these happenings, she tried to see if she was actually the one doing this. She imagined the tree wrapping a vine around his waist. Sure enough, that's what happened. Ryu had another strong vine binding him and there was no way he could break free. Saria never knew she had these powers and decided to see the extent of it. Three more vines came out and wrapped around Ryu's left arm and around each of his legs. He was completely immobilized now.

Ryu struggled hard but to no avail. "Gr…! Release me!" He was in a bad place to be in right now. Saria, who was now completely in power, decided to condescend to him. "You've been bad. Why would you attack a girl who's innocently playing her ocarina? I haven't done anything to you… have I?"

"Ugh… No, I've never even seen you before. However, I am in need of your power over the forest… Give it to me, and I'll be on my way."

"I can't do that! This power was entrusted to my by the Goddesses. I have to use this power to cast down evil whenever I have to." With out intending to, Saria made a huge thorn grow on one of the vines and in pierced all the way through Ryu's right shoulder. He flinched from the pain, but he didn't let himself scream. Saria didn't even seerealize that that hadhappened, so she just continued. "If I gave it away, I couldn't protect what's important to me anymore. I'm sorry but you'll never be able to have it." She looked at him with sad eyes. Showing that she pitied him and that she was sorry she couldn't fulfill his request.

Ryu lowered his head. If he didn't have what it takes to take down little Saria, then there's no way he could ever destroy Ganon or Zelda. Was this really his fate? Was he really supposed to be so weak? To be so inferior? The thought finally pushed Ryu over the edge.

"NO! I will not lose to you!" Ryu yelled, pulling at the vines with all his might. He finally broke his left arm free and then used his sword to cut the other vines with it. "Nothing will stop me…" He attacked full force, cutting away any vines that came at him from behind. He swung his sword with all his strength at Saria's midsection but Saria made a tree quickly grow between them and when the sword hit it, it got stuck. Ryu just left it there deciding he didn't need it. He leapt to the top of the tree and then jumped down in front of Saria. Then delivered an intense, well-aimed kick to her stomach. The kick sent her flying into the wall. She tried to regain her balance but she stumbled over. Ryu retrieved his sword from the tree and walked over to Saria.

"Ok now… Let's get that power…" Saria was obviously having a hard time breathing. She was struggling just to get oxygen in her. She was laying on her side and clutching her stomach. She looked like she could pass out at any moment. Using his foot Ryu turned her onto her back and held his hand over her wounded body. After a while, a green ball of light (like the one Saria turned into before Ganondorf was sent to the evil realm) left Saria's body and went into Ryu's hand. Ryu could feel the sage's power now running through his body. "Ah… This is it…! This power…!" Ryu was completely satisfied with the results after seeing how easy the power of the Forest Sage was to control. Simply by using his mind he made the vines move. He made roots appear from out of the ground. He manipulated the movement of trees.

"Such power should have never been in your hands anyway." He looked down at Saria. "You may not be a threat to me… but just to be sure you don't interfere from now on…" Ryu put his sword to her chest. But before he could take any further action he was hit from behind by something. Ryu was slammed into a wall that was underneath the entrance to the Forest Temple. He looked back to see who had the audacity to attack him from behind.

What he saw was none other than the wild Darunia,Sage of Fire.Daruniawas staring at him coldly. "How DARE you attack Saria? What did this innocent child do to deserve this? You can't just go hurting people just because you've gotta huge thirst for power! Now, I'm gonna put you down for good…"

Ryu held his aching shoulder that had just been pieced with a long thorn and punched by a Goron. He couldn't fight on anymore. He had to retreat and wait 'til his wounds were healed.

"I'd love to play with you, Darunia but I'm afraid that if I stay here much longer I'll be turned into a Stalfos and I don't want that." With a wave of his hand Ryu made seven long, thick trees grow in between him and the Sage of Fire. Darunia started punching wildly at the trees that barred his path. By the time he got through, Ryu was long gone…

"Damn it all! I can't believe he's actually still alive after what I did to him in our last incounter..."

Darunia picked up little Saria in his hands and began walking toward the Kokiri Forest. "I've got to get you back to full health."

As Darunia walked he couldn't help but let his mind wonder.

'How could he have survived such severe burns... And how did he survive a fall from the top of Death Mountain...? This young man... He can't possibly be human...'