Hi, people! Sorry if the last chapter was rushed in the end. I tend to do that with long chapters.

Sam: from closet Yeah! People don't like you anyways! It doesn't matter if you apologize!

See? This is why you're in the closet! People, PLEASE take my muses! Or do something with them! Now, ON WITH THE STORY!

"Talking"

"Talking"

Thoughts

The Kokiri, Children of the Forest

The sun was burning bright on Hyrule Field. Epona was doing a slow canter towards the forest in the east. They had been traveling for almost two days. The first day Link had been 'learning' how to ride a horse. Before they had left, Malon showed him some things about riding with a bridle. After the three travelers had left, though, Link had taken the bridle off Epona's head, much to her relief, and stuck it in his pack. He discussed with Epona, Navi as the translator, how they would travel without a bridle.

Epona began to slow to a trot, then to a walk. She had been slowing for the past hour, give or take a few minutes. This was something Link and Epona had agreed on. If they were just traveling across the field, she could slow down when she got tired. Epona felt a rub on the side of her neck. Epona nickered in happiness. Link stopped the rubbing and spoke.

"We should get to the forest soon." Sure enough, a few minuets later, a vast range of trees came into view. Like the other foliage in Hyrule, the leaves were brown, but had much more green than anything else and the brown wasn't too noticeable. Anybody passing by wouldn't notice anything different. Epona certainly didn't see anything wrong.

"Wow! I've never seen so many trees before!" Navi translated for Link.

"Yeah, but the forest isn't healthy. Ganondorf was very thorough. What happened to the Kokiri then?"

Epona tossed her head to try and look at Link, though failing. "What do you mean? Aren't the Kokiri children?"

"Yeah, but after seeing Hyrule Castle Town, we found out that Ganondorf doesn't show mercy to anyone, not even children."

"What happened in the market?"

Navi answered this time. "The whole place was destroyed and the inhabitants were redeads."

"Redeads? What are those?"

"Corpses, basically. You'd freeze in you tracks if one just walked by."

Epona bobbed her head in understanding. She certainly didn't want to run into those things. "Okay, then what happened to the humans?"

"All of them fled to Kakariko Village by Death Mountain," Link said. "We had to go there to know what happened to the Hylians from the town went," he added quickly. This caused Epona to stop asking questions and think about the current situation. If that's what happened to the Hylians, then what had happened to the Kokiri? They were just children unable to defend themselves. What would Ganondorf do to them? Whenever she tried to answer a question, more would form.

They reached the edge of the forest. Epona stepped into the ominous shadow of the trees, a dark feeling within them. Epona shivered as it felt like the temperature dropped twenty degrees. As they got deeper in the forest, Epona could see what Link meant by the forest wasn't healthy. The further the trio walked, the more dead the forest looked.

"It's worst than I thought," Link whispered, barely understandable. A bridge came into sight and Link pulled on Epona's mane to make her stop. She looked at the bridge curiously and felt Link dismount. She turned her head to look at him.

"What's this place?"

"The entrance to the Kokiri Forest. Come on, follow me."

Epona obeyed the simple command. She walked across the bridge swiftly so not to let it break under her weight. Thankfully, all it was swing sideways. They walked through a log that was the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. Epona looked around the village of children, taking in everything. The houses were made of stumps of trees. All were small except for the one tall one that had a ladder connected to a ledge. A small stream ran through the forest with a waterfall at the beginning of the stream. The village even had a shop. It looked like a regular village, except for one thing. The inhabitants were missing.

Link walked to the center of the village and looked around. Epona walked up to him and Navi flew up between the human and horse.

"What happened? Where is everyone?" Navi didn't translate as Link was walking away. Navi instead answered, "Well, I assume everyone's hiding. There are probably monsters wandering around, attacking any living thing walking passed."

Epona did nothing in response. She just watched Link kneel down by a weed. There's something not right about that weed. She then saw the plant move and Link step back quickly. A giant flower bud with a mouth full of rows of sharp teeth popped out of the weed and Epona jumped back in surprised.

"What the hell is that?" she shouted the question to Navi.

"It's a Deku Baba. A weak monster to an armed person, but to people like the Kokiri, they're deadly." Epona turned her head back to Link, who had drawn his sword from the scabbard. He slashed through the stem and Epona watched as the bud fell to the ground and disappear into a puff of smoke.

"We'd better be careful of where we step," Link said. "They're all over this place."

"Really, Link? I had no idea," Navi said sarcastically. Epona gave a soft neigh for a laugh and Link glared. "Sorry, just trying to lighten up the moment."

"Navi, you're not supposed to make the jokes, let Epona do that," Link said, "or me." If Navi could, she would have slapped him. Epona was ready to roll on the ground a give a very loud neigh, but resisted so not to surprise the Deku Babas. She watched as Navi and Link get into a heated argument about priorities, Epona decided to stop them.

"Alright, you guys, break it up! We need to get busy," Epona said. The bickering fairy and human stopped quickly.

"Epona's right," Navi said. "We should look around for the Kokiri."

Link nodded and started to walk towards a house. "We'd better check all the houses first. They might be hiding in them." Epona and Navi followed him. The first house was empty, so was the next one. The next five were empty as well. Even the shop was empty. Link leaned against the shop front in frustration. Epona walked to the stream and looked around for any places they hadn't checked yet. All the ones on the ground, which was most, they had checked. She looked at the tall one. They hadn't checked that one. Epona trotted overto Link.

"Link, we haven't looked at that house yet." Epona directed her nose in the direction of the house. Link looked at the house and had an almost distant look. Epona gave a quizzical look. "Link, what is it?"

"That's my old home," he said simply. He walked over and climbed the latter. Epona walked down the hill and looked at the stump of the tree house. Painted in white on the house was a person with a sword and some kind of monster. If it was the adult Link that drew this, she would have laughed. But it must have been drawn by a younger Link, so she thought of how cute it was.

She heard shuffling and soft talking above her. The horse walked back up the hill, looking up the ladder and at the ledge. She saw that Navi hadn't followed Link into the tree house and was hovering at the bottom of the ladder.Epona watched as the fairy flew over to her.

"Navi, why aren't you up there? Actually, I didn't see you enter any homes."

"Well, the Kokiri saw Link get a fairy and disappear. They most likely thought he was dead, since any Kokiri who leaves the forest will die. So how would they react if they saw Link, as an adult, alive? They wouldn't do any thing if they didn't see me, but if they did…" She trailed off. Epona thought about that. Navi had a point, but they would eventually find out anyway. Why hide it?

"But they'll find out eventually, won't they?"

"Yes, but Link will talk to them first." Nothing else was said. Epona's eyes darted around to keep herself occupied. Her gaze shifted to the dry grass, to the Deku Baba weeds, and to the various homes. She did this for about ten minutes, feeling more and more tired each time she did it. She felt like she was a little filly again, complaining about how long Malon took to get out to the stables. She shook her head to get those thoughts out of her head. That was in the past and she needed to forget about it.

She heard a creak from the ledge of the tree house and saw Link walk down the ladder, followed by children that looked about ten years old. Navi quickly flew under Link's hat before the children-Kokiri, Epona thought, correcting herself. They were probably older than Talon- saw her. The Kokiri noticed Epona and looked at her with wide eyes. A brown haired Kokiri shifted his gaze to Link, though it was hard to tell if his eyes were looking since they were covered with hair.

"So, Mister Hylian, what do you want to know? 'Cause being down here is dangerous."

"Being in one tree house is dangerous, too. You can stay down on the ground, just stay away from the weeds," Link said.

"You sound like Saria. She said the same thing! Ever since that Link killed the Deku Tree, Saria thinks she's in charge!" Link looked hurt by that comment about him. Epona was just confused. What was the Deku Tree? Who was Saria?

A blonde haired girl stopped the boy. "Why do you always say this is Link's fault?"

The brown haired boy growled. "Who else could it have been? Link was the last one to see the Deku Tree and then fled, knowing he would die!"

"Oh, come on! You are so gullible! That's what Mido tells us. You shouldn't believe him. That conclusion is biased! You now he hated Link."

"What about Saria taking charge of everyone? I don't think that was fair!"

"She didn't take charge! No one took charge! We were working together, and then all these monsters showed up! Mido, of course, suggested we stay in Link's tree house since it was off the ground! All Saria did was suggest what we do!"

"Stop it you two!" Link yelled at them. The two, along with the rest of the Kokiri who were watching the exchange, turn to look at him. "Now, could you please tell me where Saria is?"

The two looked at each other. There was an awkward pause. The boy spoke up first. "Well, that's one of the reasons I'm mad at her."

The girl then said, "She just disappeared. She left to get water for us and never came back. Mido went to go look for her in the Lost Woods but he's missing, too."

"Really? When did this happen?" Link asked with genuine concern.

The girl's green colored fairy spoke up. "Well, Mido left-"

"Not Mido, Saria. When did she disappear?" All the Kokiri and their fairies looked surprised. Epona knew exactly what they were thinking; she was thinking the same thing. Why does Link want to know about Saria? Epona felt like she was missing something that was really obvious.

The fairy that spoke before shook off his surprise. "She disappeared just days after all these monsters showed up. That was five or six years ago. Mido did go look for her a few days after, but he came right back. Then wolfos started to come in the village at night a few months ago. Mido said he was going to look for Saria again. We all think he was just abandoning us. Saria has to be a Skull Kid by now."

"So you all have been in the tree house for six years?"

"We did venture out during the day until the wolfos showed up. We didn't go out much but we did because of Saria's pestering."

Link nodded. "I guess I'll head to the rest of the forest and look for them for you."

"No! It's too dangerous!" The Kokiri yelled simultaneously. A brown haired girl then stepped up and said, "You'll turn into a Stalfos!"

"Don't worry, you guys. I'm sure I'll be fine." Link grabbed Epona's reins and turned towards a hill. The travelers walked up the hill and to a log that was the entrance to the Lost Woods, ignoring the many shouts of the Kokiri.

Five minutes into the wood, Epona's curiosity was bothering her so much, she felt like bursting. Navi had flown out of Link's hat so she decided to ask him about this whole thing with the Deku Tree and Saria.

"Link, who's Saria? And what's the Deku Tree and you 'killing' it?" Link looked over his shoulder and at her.

"Well, the Deku Tree was the guardian of the forest. I didn't really kill him, but…" Link trailed off. "I'll tell you later. Saria was my best friend growing up. She practically raised me. But I'll tell you more later after I tell you about the Deku Tree."

Epona snorted in annoyance but said no more. The walked for what seemed like hours (though it probably was twenty minutes) through the winding maze. With each sound, the three flinched and Link reached for his sword.

The three walked into one of the sections.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A voice said from the left of Epona. Link spun around and grabbed for his sword. There stood a ten year old child. It was a Kokiri.

"Mido?" Link whispered, loud enough for just Epona to hear. Navi flew behind Link.

"I'll ask you again, who are you?" Mido was losing his patience, even though there wasn't much anyway.

"I can't tell you who I am but I can say I'm here to see Saria," Link said. Mido glared, even though it wasn't too intimidating to someone who was fully equipped with weapons.

"I'm not letting you to Saria. And I won't tell you, either."

"She's through the log, I know that!"

"Give me one good reason I should let you through?" The Kokiri boy looked confident.

Link put on a sly smile and took out his blue ocarina. He put the instrument to his lips and blew. An up beat song began to play and a look of surprise showed up on Mido's face. Link brought the ocarina down and looked at Mido.

"That- that's Saria's song! You must know her, then! She never teaches that to anyone but her friends."

"So, will you let me through?"

Mido grunted. "Hmph! Fine, I'll let you through." He moved out of the way. Link turned towards Epona.

"I need you to go back to the village and keep the Kokiri safe."

Epona was baffled. "What!"

"Epona, please just go back."

Snorting in Link's face, Epona turned around angrily and headed back to the village.

Tbc

Well, that's chapter 7! Here are the reviews!

Ariana, aka Nereid-FINALLY! Poor Epona though, that must've tasted bad... Hope Link gives her something good to eat. :D Hmm... what's she gonna do while he's in dungeons? Deep questions... must have answers. MORE!-Yes, Epona's going to be sick in a few days. YUCK! Here's an idea of what's going to happen when Link's in the dungeons.

Lisilgirl-I'm too lazy to sign in. I'm glad Link FINALLY decided to show up. He's so funny too! Oh my dear...I think Link needs to get his butt in gear and finish what he started...geez, just leaving...Hope to see more! -I get like that, too. Yes, as said before, Link's lazy. But at least he saved Epona!

Araknia the Storyspinner-YAY, ERMA! Good horse! Gives carrot to Erma Her you go!-Erma is such a good horse! Erma, get over here! Erma walks over and eats the carrot

That's it! More reviews! I know people are out there!