Chapter Five

Battle of Kokiri Forest

Zelda stroked Link's face affectionately as he slept on his bed, regaining his strength. She had asked the owl Kaepora Gaebora to deliver the news of her staying in the forest for a while a few hours before. Now she was caring for her hero like he had done for her a thousand times before. After giving him a gentle kiss, Zelda walked out onto the balcony of the tree house. The moon shone dimly through the hazy sky and fairies flew around the magical forest. So beautiful... Zelda thought as a fairy flew by. A Kokiri boy wandered into view with a fairy following close by. The sight vividly reminded the princess of the day when she first met Link. She regretted the pain that she had put him through during the following adventure and the years when he was locked away in the Sacred Realm. Zelda realized that she had given him and herself another chance to truly live, but that incident still haunted her that day. It was now the same year that Link was released from the realm and defeated Ganondorf in the other timeline. Seven years. Had it really been that long? The years she spent with Link had passed much faster than the seven years that she had waited for him with little hope.

A Kokiri girl ran up to the boy and gave him a peck on the cheek. Zelda smiled as the boy became noticeably redder even from this distance. The girl grabbed the boy by the hand and they started chasing each other across the field. Ah, to be kids for your entire life. What it must be like! Zelda thought as she watched the Kokiri play. Another Kokiri walked up to them and gave them a scolding. Even from this distance, Zelda could tell that it was Mido, the supposed leader of the Kokiri. Link had told her about the times when Mido used to pick on him mercilessly until Link grew a foot taller than him. After that, he was one of the nicest people he had ever met!

Moonlight suddenly flashed into Zelda's eyes. What? Zelda looked closer and noticed that the moonlight was being reflected off Link's old Kokiri sword strapped to Mido's waist. Link used that sword when he was ten years old, the time when Zelda first met him. To a fully-grown Hylian, the sword was no bigger than a dagger. But why was Mido wearing it now? Curious, she climbed down the ladder and approached the Kokiri. The boy and girl stopped arguing with Mido as the princess walked up. Mido looked in her direction with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"What's that for?" Zelda asked, pointing at the small sword.

"Oh, uh...defense." He replied.

"Defense against what?"

"Anything... I just have a bad feeling about tonight... Now I must get going!" Mido walked off, casting the other two Kokiri a small glare. Zelda looked at the two kids with a sympathetic glance as they sulked off to their houses. Zelda turned back to Link's house and quickly climbed up the ladder, wincing as the bandages rubbed against her burned hand. Back on the balcony, she saw Link had woken up and was now standing at the door. They kissed and looked out into the forest from the doorway. Soon, they saw Saria come skipping along the path with a basket full of wildflowers.

"Hey Link! Zelda!" Saria said happily as she started coming up the ladder.

"Good evening Saria." Link said, tiredness still straining his voice. The green haired Kokiri finished climbing the ladder, slightly out of breath.

"I was wondering if you--agh!" Saria's smiling face suddenly contorted with pain. A look of shock replaced her expression and she slowly sank to her knees and fell forward. Zelda screamed at the sight of a wicked looking dagger sticking out of Saria's back. A stalchild jumped up from its hiding place on the ladder and screeched loudly. Link's shock of seeing his best friend murdered was replaced by seething anger. With a furious yell, Link slashed the small skeleton to pieces. Screams echoed through the forest as more and more stalchildren appeared. Link jumped off the balcony into the swarm of skeletons. Zelda stared at Saria in despair. How had she not foreseen this? Her hopes lifted when she saw Saria try to get up, she was still alive! Another stalchild suddenly jumped onto the balcony and glared at Zelda. It jumped at her, knife in hand, with a loud screech.

"Hyah!" Zelda kicked the knife out of the skeleton's hand and watched it go off the edge. The stalchild searched frantically for a weapon and noticed Saria lying face down.

"Scree!" The tiny stalfos jumped onto Saria's back and to Zelda's horror, violently yanked the jagged blade out of her back. Oblivious to Saria's scream, the skeleton lunged at Zelda with the dagger. "Now you die!" The stalchild screeched at her as it swung madly. Zelda felt the blade cut her cheek and forehead. Confident in its victory, the stalchild raised the dagger to deliver the finishing blow. Zelda made a fist and punched it squarely in the jaw. The impact of her fingers against bone hurt like hell, but it was worth it. The blow took off the creature's head and the skull shattered on the ground. To her complete surprise, the little skeleton body continued to walk around aimlessly, swinging the blade like a madman. Zelda glared at it and when it had its back to her, she kicked hard into its backbone, obliterating it. Hmph! She suddenly heard Saria scream in agony as she tried to get up.

"Aahhh!" The pain was excruciating! Saria had never felt anything like it! The worst pain she had ever felt before was from skinning her knee. It hurt like hell to breathe and moving meant torture. She coughed up blood, bringing a whole new level of pain. Tears ran down her face as the pain knocked her down again, causing even more agony. Losing hope, she vaguely felt a pair of hands pick her up and hold her like a baby.

"Y-you'll be alright! Please be alright!" She dimly heard Zelda's sobbing voice tell her. She curled up against Zelda and cried.

Link caught up with Mido, who was furiously swinging the Kokiri sword against the wall of living bones. The Hylian hero joined the battle taking out stalchildren three at a time with one swipe of his sword.

"Mido! Hit the ground!" Mido looked at Link confused. How would slicing the ground help? Oh... He thought as Link put his sword behind him and it began to glow. The Kokiri leader dove for the ground just in time to avoid Link's deadly spin attack. Link listened to the screeches of the dying skeletons with satisfaction. That's for Saria! He thought. After completing the move, he looked at the Lost Woods entrance and his heart fell. Stalchildren came pouring through the tunnel like locusts. He and Mido couldn't hold back this storm alone. They needed more fighters! He looked back at a small group of frightened Kokiri hiding behind a tree stump. "Mido! Go to my house and grab the leather bag!" The normally stuck up Kokiri nodded and sprinted for the tree house. Link slashed skeleton after skeleton and barely managed to keep the evil tide at bay. Oh no...

Three fully-grown Stalfos warriors came through the tunnel and leaped over the stalchildren. Link swallowed, it would take a while to get rid of these guys and while he was distracted, the stalchildren could get past him and slaughter the helpless Kokiri! What was taking Mido so long?


Mido raced up the ladder and was shocked to see Zelda cradling Saria, who was obviously in extreme pain. He gaped at the sight of a nasty stab wound in the middle of her back. How dare they attack her! She is the most peaceful of all of us! Becoming angry, he stormed into the house and looked all over for a leather bag. He finally found it on a rather high shelf and tried to reach it. Blast my height! He cursed. He looked around again and to his delight found an old walking staff carved from a deku stick.

Grabbing the stick, he poked it through a strap on the bag and pulled it off the shelf. A bottle filled with a blue liquid was also knocked off and it rolled out the door. The bag hit the floor with a metallic clang. What the... He opened the bag and to his shock, found it to be filled with gold and silver daggers. He heaved the heavy bag onto his shoulder and ran out the door. Saria was drinking the blue liquid out of the bottle and her wound was healing rapidly. Passing Zelda and Saria, Mido took out two daggers and tossed them to Zelda. She caught both daggers by the hilt and put them onto her belt. Mido slid down the ladder and ran back to Link.

"Run for the trees!" Link yelled at the Kokiri he was defending. They all looked at each other and began to climb the nearest tree. Three Kokiri, the "Know-it-all Brothers", stayed put on the fence shooting at the stalchildren with slingshots. The closest Stalfos swung his jagged sword at the Hylian and blocked the counter attack with his shield. Stalchildren ran past the distracted Link and surrounded the tree. His fears were confirmed when the stalchildren started climbing. The terrified Kokiri stared at the stalchildren as they climbed up, their jagged daggers between their bony jaws, pirate style. A Kokiri boy kicked the lead skeleton, taking off its head.

"Yeah!" The elfish children kicked the skeletal children off the tree with ease, until a stalchild leaped to the top of the tree and dropped down through the canopy.

"Screee!" It slashed a Kokiri girl across the throat and stabbed a boy in the chest and pushed them off the tree before another girl kicked it hard in the back, destroying it. Twang! An arrow shot into the tree and hit a Kokiri in the torso, sending him flying out of the leaves and into the mob of skeletons. Link looked up at the Lost Woods entrance and saw three stalfos archers lined up on the ledge. Out of the corner of his eye, Link saw Mido, with a bag over his shoulder, running as fast as he could toward them. Link blocked a hard blow and was nearly knocked off his feet. Suddenly, the other two Stalfos attacked. Link barely had enough time to block an incoming blow with his sword. What was going on? They had never triple teamed him before, usually they attacked one at a time!

"Mido! Give a dagger to each...of the...Kokiri!" Link said with a strained voice. He saw Mido nod and dash up the tree right next to the surprised stalchildren. An attacking Stalfos suddenly head butted him and the hard skull nearly knocked him out!

Stunned, Link fell to his knees and the stalfos reared up for a decapitating blow. A green haired Kokiri jumped onto the Stalfos's back and beheaded it with a shiny gold dagger. It's head gone; the stalfos swung its sword madly, taking out a couple stalchildren. With a slight concussion, Link finished off the skeleton with a vertical slash.

"Saria? I thought you were dead!" Link said to the unusually grim faced girl.

"Watch out!" Saria's warning alerted Link about the remaining Stalfos jumping at him.

"Whoa!" The loud clang of two swords hitting his shield made the ringing in his head worse.

Zelda chopped a stalchild in two and whirled around to see Stalfos archers firing arrows into a tree. For every arrow that went in, a shot Kokiri fell out. Enraged, Zelda took her bow out and fired an arrow into an archer's head. The archers stopped firing and they looked at their injured comrade. The stalfos felt the arrow embedded in his skull and shrugged. A second later, they were back to firing arrows. Zelda concentrated on her new arrow and it glowed with light. She aimed at the archer again and fired. This time, a blinding flash of light incinerated the skeleton. The other two stopped firing at the tree and started shooting at her. She ducked behind a stump and heard the thumping of arrows hitting wood. Zelda charged up another arrow with light and fired. One archer left... she thought with a smile. The thumping of arrows stopped and she saw another Kokiri fall from the tree. She charged up another light arrow and fired. Suddenly she felt intense pain! Shocked, Zelda looked down and found an arrow embedded in her ribcage. She numbly noted that her last arrow had hit its mark. She looked over at Link and moved to help, but screaming pain overwhelmed her. Zelda collapsed and the world went black.