Nika made her way into the woods, looking around the only thing she could think is "Why does this place become more beautiful and interesting the more I look?", she walked following the only path there was, jumping over a few pits that were in the way, but not even halfway through the path, she saw another werid creature being attacked by monsters.

"What's the deal with things getting attacked here?" Nika thought as the monster noticed and attacked her, failing miserably, "These things are really weird... Wonder where they came from." Nika said outloud catching the attention of what now looked to be an animal plant.

It looked around a bit, but got scared when it noticed Nika "Kweee!" It screamed before running away, "I get the feeling he doesn't like me..." Nika thought before following the plant up a really steep slope.

This slope brought her to the heart of the woods, there were shrooms and trees, bigger than any she ever saw, "What is the reason Shiva Samba kept all of this hidden from Skyloft? The monsters around here aren't strong at all..." She wondered before seeing the plant hiding behind a mushroom, "And it certainly isn't this guy... Does he think I can't see him" Nika muttered as she approached the plant, who ran to the other side of the mushroom.

This went on for a bit, back and forth until Nika got tired of it and punched the mushroom scaring the creature, causing it to run behind another mushroom, "Seriously?" Nika siad outloud as she punched that mushroom too, and the creature ran away to yet another mushroom, now absolutely done with this, Nika jumped over the mushroom catching the creature off guard, "Kweee!" It screamed again before dropping to it's stomach and letting it's leaves out.

The creature stayed like that for a bit before noticing that Nika wasn't doing anything, "Huh? You don't want to...eat me? Kwee... And come to think of it, why did you fight off all those red monsters?" It said, "Yeah, can you stop running away now?"Nika asked and the creature replied "Oh, sure, I'm Machi by the way, say, what are you? I never saw an animal like you, besides the one that passed through here earlier, but it was a girl." The creature now identified as Machi explained.

Hearing about the girl made Nika perk up, but before she could ask anything, the spirit of the sword came out, scaring Machi in the process, "Master, there's a 90% chance that the person that this creature identified as a Kikwi is referring to is Zelda." The spirit said before going back in the sword, "You have some weird friends, anyways, your other friend was in a lot of trouble when I saw her, a pack of those red guys was chasing her, but she escaped with the Kikwi elder." Machi explained.

"Okay, thank you, see ya! NOT!" Nika exclaimed, but Machi asked something first "Hey! If you're going to search for the elder, could you tell him that I'm safe?", Nika sighed and said "Yeah, sure, whatever.".

After just a bit of walking, Nika saw a giant Kikwi who could only be the elder, "Hey you! Wake up!" She exclaimed making the elder get up and say "Kweeee-heee... I am Bucha, the Kikwi elder. I saw the way you spotted me through my ingenious camouflage. Kweee, you are clearly a master woodsman.", Nika ignored the stupidity of the elder, "So one of your friends, Machi I think? Said you knew something about where Zelda is."

"You say Machi is safe? I'm glad to hear, and if by Zelda you mean the girl creature, yes I did see her, I would tell you more, but I'm too worried for the rest of my tribe to focus on the details." Bucha explained causing Nika to shrug and respond "If you're asking me to search for them, forget it, it's not worth the trouble to find out information I could get in other ways.", Bucha sighed realizing Nika wouldn't budge, "Look I know you're in a hurry, but I really need help to find the others... How about this? If you help me find them, I'll give you something that will help you traverse the woods, what do you say?" The elder suggested.

Nika thought about it and decided to accept, with how much the ground changed in just the location she was right now, an easier way to move would help a lot, so she went and searched for the other Kikwis.

Kikwi 1: After crossing a tightrope near the elder's location, Nika found herself in front of a bunch of monsters trying to get to a Kikwi that was stuck on a tree, she defeated them and shook the tree to get the Kikwi down.

Kikwi 2: Behind the largest tree in the forest, Nika climbed some vines and got on a cliff where another Kikwi was disguising as a bush, she talked to it, and confirmed it was safe.

Kikwi 3: This one took a little more searching, that was until Nika stepped on a part of ground that collapsed and made her find the last Kikwi she needed to find.

Now back to Bucha and extremely annoyed, she hoped that the reward would really help, "I found them." Nika said, "Oh thank goodness, now I eveen remember where your friend went!" Bucha exclaimed, "How convinient..." Nika thought, "She went to the temple northwest from here, you'll find a path that leads you there in front of a weird bird statue" The elder explained before remembering "Oh, and for your other reward" He said as he fell on his belly, just narrowly missing Nika.

From the bush on his back, some kind of fruit came out, it was purple with spirals on it, "A fruit?" Nika asked as she grabbed it, "Not just any fruit, this is what is known as a devil fruit, more specifically the gomu gomu no mi, it gives the one who eats it the properties of rubber, though I did hear that it actually has another name, but I'm not sure." Bucha explained only confusing Nika further and it was clear when she questioned "How... How is me being rubber going to help me move around?".

Bucha laughed before replying "By stretching of course! I would take a moment to understand exactly how it works if I were you though, oh and remember, the moment you eat it, you won't be able to swim anymore." He said that last part just as Nika swallowed a mouthful of the fruit, "Guess I should have said that first..." He thoguht as Nika glared at him, but she took her attention off of him as she pulled on her figner, and indeed it stretched.

Nika looked at her figner and a smirk formed on her face, why did she feel so happy all of a sudden? In any case, she pulled her arm back before launching it forward, causing it to stretch quite far and when it returned to it's original shape, Nika laughed a bit, "This is going to be useful!" She thought as she stretched and grabbed onto a branch above her and pulled to launch herself above the trees and saw the temple from up there.

"Incredibly useful!" She exclaimed as she stretched again, grabbed a branch and lauched herself in the direction of the temple.