Chapter Nine
Destalfication

Saria lay on the bed, her red eyes staring into space. Her skin seemed a bit loose, Link noted with concern. Zelda swallowed nervously and moved closer to Link.

"What's happening to her?"

"I have no idea but I guarantee that stalfos has something to do with it!"

A loud crash sounded outside the tree house and Link and Zelda ran to the deck, where they beheld a frightening scene. The door to Mido's house had been shattered from the inside. Kokiri from all over the forest looked at the house with alarm. One of the younger kokiri girls carefully advanced toward the broken door.

"Aaaahhh!" The girl's scream echoed through the forest as a stalchild leaped out of the hole. The girl tried to get away, but the stalchild pounced and slammed a dagger into her chest. The rest of the forest stood still, looking at the stalchild's green clothes.

Link heard the cry and jumped off the twenty-foot high deck. By the time he reached Mido's house, the stalchild was standing triumphantly on a dead kokiri. The Stal-Mido glared at Link with glowing red eyes, eyes that looked like Saria's. Link braced his shield as Stal-Mido pounced at him with a dagger, screeching.

Clang!

The skeleton bounced off the shield and landed on its behind. With a growl, the stalchild jumped back up to its feet and dashed for Link's legs.

"Whoa!" Link dropped his shield and the stalfos Mido ran into it. Lying on the ground again, the skeleton scratched its skull, which was still wearing Mido's green hat.

"Scree!" Stal-Mido jumped again at Link's head but was suddenly hit in mid-air. Saria rolled off the surprised Mido and took up a fighting stance. The other Kokiri watched this new display with fascination. Many were shocked at Saria's appearance. Her skin was gray and almost seemed detached from her bones. Her normally green hair was more of a slate-green. The red glow in her eyes was gone, however, and she looked like she was in extreme pain. The Stal-Mido sized up his new opponent and swung.

"Alarsa De Stalfos!"

There was a large flash as an energy bolt slammed into the skeleton. Stal-Mido sparked for a second and collapsed onto his back. Two seconds later, Mido began screaming in pain. His flesh was regenerating at a remarkable rate but that only increased the agony. The now slightly fleshy skeleton convulsed as muscles and sinew reattached themselves. A gruesome sight to say the least. Saria seemed to be undergoing the same "de-stalfication" process but she was much farther along. The girl finally was able to stop clenching her teeth in pain as her skin tightened back into place. Her green hair resumed its normal brilliance. Mido continued screaming as nerves sprouted out of the back of his skull and slipped into his backbone. Zelda turned away from the gruesome sight that she had caused. True, it was healing him but it was still disturbing to hear such screams of agony.

After about ten minutes of intense pain, a fully regenerated Mido shakily got up to his feet. "Ow…" He said before sulking into his house in shame. The rest of the Kokiri elves just stared open mouthed at the whole spectacle. Almost ceremoniously they picked up the dead girl and carried her to the new graveyard. Yet another casualty to the stalfos.

"How did you do that?" Link asked Zelda, amazed. They were eating eggs and vegetables for dinner with Saria.

"Who cares? At least it worked! It gives me the chills to know that I almost ended up as one of those monsters!" Saria quipped as she took a bite of celery. The kokiri never ate meat, but Saria took an exception to the occasional egg.

"Well, I was just wondering if it would work on anything else?"

"Its exhausting to say the least." Zelda replied after swallowing some berries. "…and disturbing." Link shuddered in agreement, remembering the Mido transformation. He thought for a moment.

"We need to get out of here, before the Stal-King completely obliterates this forest." Link declared finally. Saria grew sad and nodded in agreement.

"Link? Zelda?" She asked him, innocently. "Can I go with you guys?"

Sorry for the short chapter and long update, this will be the shortest it will ever get. Hope you're enjoying the story! ;-) Special Thanks to those that reviewed!