Chapter Two

The Adventure of Link

The path to the Great Deku Tree didn't seem the same as it had before. I didn't know what, but I found out pretty fast. A flower on the ground suddenly shot up, taller than my head, and started swinging around. I didn't know what to do, but when it hit me I shot out my arm at it, and since I was still holding the Kokiri Sword, I accidentally cut the stem of it. It shriveled away, leaving a stick behind. Navi said it was called a Deku Stick. I was confused. Why were monsters around the Great Deku Tree? Was I supposed to kill them, like I did this one? Or should I leave them alone?

But I didn't have a choice. Two others popped up three feet away from me, blocking my way. Navi flew around me kind of nervously. "Come on, Link, let's go!"

"What are those?" I asked her.

"Deku Babas! Hurry up and get rid of them!"

"What, you mean I should kill them?" If they were the Great Deku Tree's plants, I didn't want to hurt them. He had always told us that plants were sacred, of the Goddess Farore, and we should never kill them.

"Ye-es! They're evil plants, they don't belong in the forest! Come on!"

I didn't want to argue with her, so I swung the Kokiri Sword as hard as I could. Both of them flowers withered, leaving two sticks behind. I left those there because I didn't want to carry them. "Come on, Link!" Navi said, flying ahead of me. I put the sword away and turned the corner, coming out in the Great Deku Tree's meadow.

The meadow was huge, bigger than our field, but I guess the Great Deku Tree needed lots of room. There was only grass, and smaller trees all around like a wall. I could see a few of the weird flowers, the ones that Navi called Deku Babas, by some of the Great Deku Tree's roots. The Great Deku Tree himself took up more than half the meadow, and his roots went all over the place. His leaves reached all across the meadow, so the light looked kind of green when the sun was high.

He really did look sick. His bark wasn't as brown as it had been. It was kind of grayish now, and his leaves were changing color. He had once told us a story where the trees had leaves that changed color and fell off in the fall, before the tree spirits fell asleep for the winter. But fall was for the outsiders. In our forest, it only meant that something wasn't healthy, something wasn't right. Navi flew right up to him. "Great Deku Tree...I'm back!" she called.

The Great Deku Tree saw her, and said in his slow, tree-ish kind of voice, "Navi, you have returned. And you brought Link."
I followed Navi up to the Great Deku Tree's trunk. I wanted to climb onto his root and tell him a story to make him feel better, but I didn't think Navi would let me. The Great Deku Tree didn't seem to want a story right now.

"Great Deku Tree, what's wrong?" I asked him.

He laughed, kind of sadly, though I don't know how he could do that. "Time flies onward, Link. People come and go, and they fade, and we, the plants of the earth, fade also.Do not be saddened, for it is the nature of the world."

What did that mean? Was the Great Deku Tree...dying? "Great Deku Tree, are you sick?" I asked.

"Listen closely, Link, and thou too, Navi, for you must aid Link with your power in the journey to come. An evil man of the desert did this to me...He put a curse upon me, and an evil creature now dwells within me...Link, I need thou to lend me thy courage in this dark hour. Only thou can break the curse that lies within me. Wilst thou do this for me, Link?"

I didn't know what to say. A curse from an evil man from the desert...what was a desert, anyway? my first thought was of the man from my dreams...but he wasn't a Kokiri. He couldn't come into the forest. It must have been someone else.

And what did he mean by "courage"? I'm not brave. I can't stand up to Mido like Saria can, I won't jump from high places or run across the bridge really fast for a dare like the Twins will do, and I'm not very important like Mido is. I'm not brave...but the Great Deku Tree needed me. I would do it for him.

"Great Deku Tree, I'll go, but I'm not very brave," I told him. I wanted to help, but if I was just going to mess things up he shouldn't send me. Maybe Mido would do it.

The Great Deku Tree laughed, but it wasn't a mean laugh. "Thou art not brave, Link, but courageous, like the Goddess Farore. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the idea that something is more important than thy fear. But thank you, Link."

Then his mouth opened, really, really wide. I didn't even know it could go that far. "Go forth, Link," he said, and I wondered how he managed to talk with his mouth open so big. "And ye too, Navi...Go forth and break the curse that lies upon me. May fourtune guide thee."

It felt kind of weird, but I guess it didn't matter, since he was a tree, so Navi and me walked right into the Great Deku Tree's mouth.

The inside was creepier than I thought it would be. I could see more of those weird flowers, and a path around the wall, and a ladder, and a lot of vines. I looked up and saw a lot of spiderwebs, and I noticed that the Great Deku Tree was really, really big. I walked forward, but stopped when I stepped on something strange. A big spiderweb was on the floor, stretching over a giant hole. Navi said that she could see through the web, and so could I, but all I saw was water. That must be why the Great Deku Tree was never thirsty or anything.

Navi flew over to the vines and flew up and down excitedly. "Link, look at this!" she said. "The vines are big and the wall has a rough texture--I bet you could climb it!"

I really didn't want to trust a vine to hold me, so I headed for the ladder. But I made sure to remember what she said. Navi seemed to know what she was tlaking about. Up the ladder and across the path (some of the floor was missing, and I had to jump) was a different kind of wall. Navi nearly turned green with excitement, like I've seen Saria's fairy do sometimes. "Look!" she said. "A door! All you have to do is push on it to open it, Link. Wow, I didn't know these would be in the forest!"

I didn't see the big deal, but it was strange. Was this one of those things that outsiders used? Still wondering why all this was in the Great Deku Tree, I walked in--and got hit in the face by a nut, which a little plant creature spat at me.

"Hey!" I shouted to it, bouncing back another nut with my sheild. It hit the little creature in the head,and it squeaked and ran around the room. I didn't know what to do, exactly. Navi flew up to it, looking at it. It didn't seem to see her as it ran around some more.

"It's a Deku Scrub!" she said. "Don't be afraid--anything that hurts you isn't of the forest, and that desert man created it to hurt the Great Deku Tree!" So I ran after it. I finally caught up to it after a few minutes, but before I could do anything, it squeaked again and yelled, "Ouch! Ouch! Okay, okay, you win, Master! If you spare me, I'll tell you a secret! When you jump off a high place, if you roll, you won't be hurt! Well," it added, with an evil little squeak, "not unless the cliff is really, really high...Hehehe!"

Then it dived into the hole and was gone. A door that I didn't see before made a noise, and as I looked I saw shining bars slide away. I guess that meant that I could leave now. I pushed the door open, going into another big room. Well, it wasn't exactly big, but all these rooms were bigger than my house and Saria's together. There was a kind of wooden box on a ledge nearby. Between that ledge and where I was standing was a little platform. I jumped to it...and it started to shake. I jumped to the other side as fast as I could, but not before the platform fell, breaking into pieces on the ground. I wondered how I would leave, but before that, I wanted to see what was in the box.

It wasn't really a box. It was more of what the Great Deku Tree had described once as a chest. And inside it was something I had seen before--a slingshot. "This shouldn't be a problem to use, huh, Link?" Navi commented cheerfully, flying around the room. "Hey!" she said suddenly. She was floating around a ladder, which was hanging above the door we came in from. "Look! A ladder! I bet you could knock it down!" I found a little pouch of tiny nuts, Deku Nuts, I guessed, considering the names of stuff around here, and put them in my pocket. I took one and put it in the slingshot. I aimed at the ladder and fired. It fell straight down, and I jumped down and climbed up it. Then I went through the rooms and back to the big place where we came in.

This time I noticed a lot of vines on one wall, with a lot of little spiders on it. They shouldn't be a problem, I guessed. But as soon as I started to climb, one turned purple, looking really mad, and ran into me, knocking me off the vines. Navi flew up to one. "It's a Skullwalltula!" she told me. "Just hit it with your slingshot!" I didn't even try to remember the creature's name this time. (I couldn't even pronounce it.) I fired Deku Nuts at all the spiders, and once it was safe I climbed up the vines.

This time there were spiderwebs all over the place. I saw a gap between some further up, but when I got close, a huge spider flew out of nowhere and knocked me into the wall. Navi started to get excited again, saying something about a "Big Skulltula", but I wasn't paying attention. I needed to beat this thing so I could see where I was. It kept turning around and around and around. I tried to attack it, but the Kokiri Sword bounced off its face, which really did look like a skull. And it still kept turning around...and around...and around. Finally, I just got fed up with it an attacked it again, this time hitting its back. It screeched and flew back up to its web on the ceiling. So that was it; you needed to hit them in the back. But I didn't want to hit this one again, so I just finished it off with the Slingshot.

Since the ledge was free of monsters for now, I looked over the edge carefully. I could see the web on the floor, a long, long way down. "Navi," I asked her, "How do we get through?"

But then, being that close to the edge, I lost my balance and fell. I let out a yell, remembering what the Deku Scrub had said, and rolled. It worked, but my back was sore afterwards. The web bounced, almost breaking itself. And then I got it.

This time, I climbed all the way up again easily. I didn't stop, jumping off the edge of the path. I couldn't help yelling again, but this time I didn't roll. I felt myself hitting the web hard...and then I felt it break. I fell with a really loud splash into the water. "Ouch," I said, though all that came out of my mouth were bubbles. I swam up, climbing onto the shore. There was something on the wall ahead, and another one on the wall behind me. Navi flew back and forth between them. "It's a Gold Skulltula--it's a Gold Skulltula!" she was shouting. I picked one and hit it with a couple of Deku Nuts. It crawled away, leaving a medallion behind it. I crawled up the vines on the wall to get it. Maybe it'll be useful later, I thought, so I put it in my pocket. Then I did the same to the other one.

Now I had to find a way out of here. I could climb the vines up to the main room, but that wouldn't do any good. There were more spiderwebs in front of a door, but I couldn't break through that.

But there WAS a torch...and a Deku Baba was nearby.

I hit the Deku Baba with the kokiri Sword before it had a chance to attack me, and took the stick it left behind. Then I climbed up to the ledge with the torch and lit the stick. I ran over to the web and touched the fire to it. It burst into flames, burning down in seconds. I couldn't help but feel a little scared again--what kind of person would put fire in the Deku Tree? surely they've got to know how bad fire is!

There was a maze of rooms through the door, and they were all the same. Only, some had puzzles and things in them. Not too hard, just stuff like lighting all the torches with a Deku Stick and pressing a few switches. Then finally, I came out in the room where I first fell through the web. There was more web on the floor here, and some torches too. I could figure it out this time. I lit a Deku stick, dropping it on the web. Only, I forgot that I was still standing on it. I fell through, landing in some more water. The Deku Tree must get very thirsty sometimes.

By the water's edge I saw three Deku Scrubs. They all shot up and attacked me all at once. I got my shield up in time, and then I remembered something another Deku Scrub had told me earlier. Something about his brothers, Queen Gohma, and "twenty-three is number one." I guessed it was a code or something. So I tried it. I hit the second Scrub, then the third, then the first. The first tried to run, but I chased him, and he gave up. "Ouch! Ouch!" it squeaked. "Spare me, Master, and I'll tell you something cool! You can only defeat Queen Gohma when her eye is red! I'm sorry, Queenie!" Then he dived into his hole and went away. I had no idea what he meant, but I got the feeling that I was about to find out.

There was one last door here, and I knew that something big was behind it, the "Queen Gohma" that the Scrubs talked about. I didn't want to be scared, but...I was. And then I remembered what the Great Deku Tree had said to me. "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the idea that soemthing is more important than thy fear." The Great Deku Tree was more important to me than this "Queen Gohma," wasn't he? I felt much braver--much more courageous--so I pushed open the door and went inside. It was dark, damp, and cold in there. There were spiderwebs all over the place. It was really creepy. I took a step inside...and the door slammed shut behind me. I didn't need to test it to know that it was shut for good. Then a clicking, rustling noise came from the ceiling, and a gigantic yellow eye opened and looked right at me. A giant spider fell from the ceiling, shaking the floor.

Gohma, the queen of the spiders.

She ran right at me, and I slashed at her with the Kokiri Sword. She didn't even feel it. She knocked me over with one of her legs, screeching. I couldn't hit her from here with the Sword, so I pulled out the slingshot and hit her right in the eye. She screeched again, and collapsed. Since she was just sitting there, not moving at all, I attacked her with the Kokiri Sword. This time, I could feel it hitting her, and it was doing some good after all.

But then she was up again, running away to hang upside down from the ceiling. She just sat there, then made a funny noise. Three eggs dropped from nowhere and broke open on the floor, and three little creatures--Gohma Larva, Navi told me--ran towards me. I managed to get them all, but just barely, and then Gohma dropped from the ceiling again.

This time I knew what to do. I hit her with the Slingshot, then with the Kokiri Sword, hoping that it would work.

And it did. Gohma let out a loud screech, then collapsed again, and then she just kind of...faded away. A blue ring of light appeared where her body was. Navi was celebrating, flying all around, but when she saw the blue light, she stopped and looked at it. "It's okay...just walk into it, Link! It'll take us back to the Great Deku Tree!"

I decided to take her word for it, stepping into the light. I could feel the room disappearing around me...and then it was sunny, and we were outside the Great Deku Tree once again. "Well done, Link," he said, sounding happy, but really tired. "And well done, Navi. The curse is broken."

Navi started flying around again, happy too, but I didn't say anything. The Great Deku Tree still looked really sick. "Great Deku Tree, are you well again?"

He sighed sadly. "Link, although thy efforts to free me were successful, the desert man sapped me of my power. I will die soon, but do not grieve for me. I need thou to do me one last favor..."

"Great Deku Tree--!" I didn't know what to say. Did I do something wrong? Did I not kill Gohma right, or something?

"Link...come hither. Let me tell you one last story." I climbed up on his roots, sitting by him, and leaned against his bark. It was warm once, but now it was as cold as stone. Navi rested on top of my head as the Great Deku Tree told us one last story.

"In the beginning, our ountry of Hyrule was a swirling chaos, with no real form and no living beings to be found. Then the Goddesses came from the heavens to bestow life upon the land. Din, with her strong flaming arms, created the red earth. Nayru poured her wisdom over the land, giving the land order and law. And Farore created the plants and the creatures, giving the land life. Then the Goddesses departed unto the heavens. Where they disappeared, they left the TriForce, three golden sacred triangles. The land where the TriForce dwells is now called the Sacred Realm."

I listened carefully, trying to remember it all. If I didn't, though, Navi could remind me later. But I liked this story. I never knew that the Goddesses created thewhole world! I had always thought it was just the forest we lived in...there's a lot I don't know. "Link...I want thee to have this. Take this, the Spiritual Stone of the forest, for it was for this that the desert man wanted, and for this he cursed me."

His branches shook, and something green fell from them. I caught it, and looked it over while Navi flew around excitedly. "It's the Kokiri Emerald! The Kokiri Emerald! Link!" The Kokiri Emerald had gold in it too, ste around the edge like it was holding the emerald together. It was really pretty...but kind of girly. The Great Deku Tree smiled. I arapped my arms around hsi trunk (as best as I could, anyway) and hugged him. "Thank you, Great Deku Tree. "

"Go to the castle and give this to the princess, Link. I beseech thee...Link...Navi...good...bye..."

I could feel his warmth fade away, and then he was colder than ever before. A red leaf fell from his branches and onto my tunic. I looked up, and the dead leaves were falling like rain...falling like the tears of the Goddesses.

I slid down his root and left. Before I turned the corner, I looked back. The Deku Tree looked almost peaceful...I guess he was happy that his stone was safe. And it was. I wouldn't let anything bad happen to it, now or ever.

"Goodbye, Great Deku Tree," Navi said sadly, as she followed me back to Kokiri Forest.