Tingle Begins
by: Vladimir the Hamster

The dazzling colors of the morning sunrise blossomed across the sky. Never before had the sky been this beautiful in radiant shades of red, yellow, blue and purple behind the drab gray clouds.

Such a pity for the inhabitants of the planet to wake up to gray... One of these inhabitants of the planet was Tingle.

Tingle was around his early twenties at the time, although even then he was of an unusually small stature. He lived with his father, a photographer, in a small wooden shack in the back alleys of Hyrule Castle Town. He had a very mundane life in the not so mundane land of Hyrule, which was known for its many magical wonders despite the normality of life.

Anyway, Tingle woke up to gray, and was sure that this day would not go well already. First of all, in the mere moments of opening his eyes and stretching his stubby limbs, Tingle accidently knocked over his father's most prized Deluxe Color Pictobox. The Deluxe Color Pictobox could not only shoot color pictographs, but also store up to a then unprecedented 4 pictures! (at this rate, artificial intelligence will take over the world in no time)

Tingle whimpered, and spun around in circles of fear. His father is going to kill him for sure! He was on bad relations with him since birth already, with a name like Tingle, among other things… and now he broke his most precious pictobox! "Oh noes!" Tingle thought wildly to himself as panic took him over.

While glancing over to the next bed, Tingle saw that his father was still asleep. He sighed deeply. Sweat beads formed all over his brow, and elsewhere as well, as he gingerly picked up the broken pictobox. Luckily for him, the case was still fixable with a bit of superglue he had gotten from a time hole that randomly appeared near the Temple of Time one day… Tingle reminisced about how on one of the trips with his father in pursuit of pictograph greatness, they accidently stumbled across that time warp. Too bad they forgotten how to open it; it would solve so many problems…

So Tingle sat on his bed and pushed down a wave of panic rises in his chest. Upon further examination of the Deluxe Color Pictobox, he noticed that other than the cracked case, everything worked fine. Except one thing. It was no longer in color! Tingle did not know how to bring color to a pictobox. A new wave of panic rushed forth. What will he do? What will he do? WHAT WILL HE DO?

Tingle brought both hands to his head as he sat in deep thought, slowly digging deeper and deeper into the bed sheets with his toes. And it came to him!

Once he had heard that what gives color pictoboxes their color is a distinctly unique species of firefly or something that glows in the seven colors of the rainbow. Tingle was not sure how they powered pictoboxes: only that the great Lenzo, great pictographer and pioneer in many pictobox breakthroughs, used them to make his greatest pictoboxes, including the Deluxe Color Pictobox model.

Thus, Tingle decided it was ripe for a new adventure. Glancing back at his father one last time, he took the pictobox, wrapped it carefully into a bag, grabbed some sandwiches, and set off for the Lost Woods, where said fireflies of legend were said to inhabit.

Due to his determination and fear of his father's burning wrath to find both him and his beloved Deluxe Color Pictobox mysteriously missing, Tingle made it all the way to Lon Lon Ranch before he stopped to take a rest. He waltzed into the ranch hoping to buy some fresh cucco meat. Instead he found a distressed young redhead crying over some type of cucco attack of a newfound friend. But Talon Lon was still sane enough to provide him with a hearty meal of Cucco Noodle Soup, as well as dried beef strips for the rest of the journey.

"Thank You!" Tingle exclaimed in a voice reminiscent of a man known as Beedle that he once saw in a drea—er, nightmare. A bit shellshocked to get all this for a mere ten Rupees, Tingle was. He sat in the corral watching all the pretty little horses gallop, canter, graze, and whatever else horses do when people are watching for a few minutes before returning to his long travail to supposedly one of the most dangerous places in Hyrule: perhaps even more so than the Desert, where sand traps and fierce Gerudo thieves are found. Why a bunch of trees should be so dangerous Tingle never knew.

Several hours past, and Tingle, with the blazing speed of a Terminian postman when the time is slowed, reached the forest in 2.45 days. Tingle ate his 3rd sandwich (out of 8) and braced himself. He took the daring plunge. One foot was into the forest. Now his body. Now his other foot! Tingle was now completely cloaked by the shadows of the leafy giants above him. Tingle danced a little dance, and uttered the greatest words he had ever spoken for the first time ever: "Tingle Tingle Kooloo Limpah!"

Tingle chuckled. He liked those words. I should copyright them, so no one can steal them from me, he thought to himself. No, I must focus! Tingle stepped forth more than his measly two steps.

The trees grew together thicker the farther Tingle walked. Not only thicker, but twisting, turning, reaching, grasping, as if they could move on their own. Whispers wafted through the air along with incandescent ringing chimes of almost musical beauty. Light and shadow constantly danced, creating elaborate light shows on the gnarled surface of the ground. Beautiful colored fireflies seemed to fly everywhere. And… a faint tone of an ocarina, playing a happy song in the distance? For its bad reputation, Tingle found the woods to be quite enjoyable.

Then, quite suddenly, the trees opened up, and the sun burst forth, momentarily blinding Tingle's already squinted eyes. Once his eyes adjusted, Tingle's mouth dropped open. Before him was a vibrant village full of laughing children garbed in green. The entire village seemed to be grown into the forest itself; the trees seemed to naturally grow into huts. A voracious waterfall poured down and cut water through the village, eventually creating a small pond. This, realized Tingle, must be the fabled Kokiri Village, which no one has ever seen!

I'm so lucky! Tingle thought. It was said to be impossible for outsiders to enter the village, for the magic of the Lost Woods would guide anyone far away from it; often times, people would remain lost forever. No one knew of what happened to those unfortunates.

Knowing full well that the children of the forest might run away in fear of an outsider, Tingle bravely stepped into the village with the same confidence he had when stepping into the woods for the first time.

The first to notice Tingle's arrival was a blonde girl with enormous, round pigtails. She looked curiously at Tingle. "Hello Mister. Are you from outside the forest?"

Tingle nodded, but before he could speak, he was surrounded by all the Kokiri! They bombarded him with questions about everything. Were there really people that were twice their size? Were there really huge stone buildings that seemed to touch the sky? Were there really great animals that ran at blinding speeds? Were there really powerful men with brutal weapons that killed each other for the enjoyment of crowds in huge coliseums? What is it like? What do you eat? Where are you from? Why are you here?

There were also many comments on Tingle himself. Wow, look at those clothes! Look at that beard! What kind of food is this (which brought to Tingle's attention that there were three boys rummaging through his backpack)?

"Woah, slow down kids!" Tingle exclaimed.

"Who are you calling kids, kid?" sneered a red-headed boy. "We're over two thousand years old, I'll have you know!"

The Kokiri giggled at the look of astonishment that crossed Tingle's face.

"We're eternal children!" the red-head explained. "By the way, my name's Mido."

Tingle and the Kokiri began long introductions. He met Sola and Fala, the twins; the Know-it-All Brothers, Doti, Reti, and Meti; and also Fado, Tire, Saria, and Soti. They soon led Tingle through a merry chase of highly active games: the types that he despised most. Tingle was not exactly what on would call an athletic man. Nonetheless, it was amazingly refreshing to be able to do whatever he wanted without a single worry. Tingle felt a strange sense of freedom, of happiness. Never before had he felt this way at home before. What was it about the Kokiri that made them so innocent, so carefree?

These thoughts sifted through Tingle's mind as he attempted to keep up with the Kokiri in a game which involved jumping from tree to tree.

He really have ought to be paying more attention to jumping from tree to tree than his ponderous thoughts of Kokiri innocence, for it was at that very moment that he missed a branch and crashed nine feet to the floor in a loud WHUMP!

A few fairies flew over and nursed Tingle back to health. Tingle cringed, expecting the Kokiri to ridicule his incompetence. But the thing about Kokiri is that they have a different mindset from the average Hylian, choosing to look upon the best in people. They encouraged Tingle to try again, and did not look down at him in any way. Their smiling faces were truly a mystery to Tingle.

So on and so forth did Tingle spend the rest of his day, until near sunset they all sat down for a large feast of heavenly proportions. From the trees were produced multitudes of fruit found nowhere else on the planet. They came in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and flavors. There was a purple fruit the shape of boiled clumps that tasted sweet and slightly sour, as the juice poured over the consumer's mouth. Another was green, with yellow stripes, with a slightly rough texture that was surprisingly silky as well.

There seemed to be no end to the wondrous things found within this forest and these young (old?) people.

But alas, the time came when Tingle remembered the reason of his adventure. He told the Kokiri of his plight with his pictobox. They were saddened, but found a fairy who was willing to become a color mechanism for Tingle's father's Deluxe Color Pictobox. With eternal thanks, Tingle turned to return home, and was reminded of his dreary life back home. He would miss his time here.

Turning back one last time, Tingle asked, "What is it that makes a Kokiri?"

The Kokiri answered, "Our fairies, I guess. All true Kokiri have a guardian fairy."

Tingle smiled, but before he turned to leave for the last time, he said, "Can I asked you guys a favor?"

"Sure," said the chidren.

xxx

Three days later, Tingle arrived home to his shack, to the silhouetted figure of his large and angry father.

"What is the meaning of this? Leaving home with no warning, and my Deluxe Color Pictobox gone?"

Tingle whimpered, as his father drew his hand to slap him, but brought out the fixed Deluxe Color Pictobox. "I'm so sorry father, but last week, I accidently broke it. I have traveled far to fix it, and I hope you will forgive my sudden disappearance."

The expression on Tingle's father's face softened, and he forgave Tingle. He picked up his son and hugged him tightly. From that moment, Tingle and his father finally appreciated the other, and their life improved greatly.

Later that night, Tingle produced a color pictograph from his bag, and from it were the smiling faces of Sola, Fala, Doti, Reti, Meti, Fado, Tire, Saria, and Soti along with their Guardian Fairies. He slipped it under his pillow as he went to bed.

No matter how much better his life was at home, nothing would ever compare to the bliss he felt at the Kokiri Forest. From this day forth, Tingle waited for a fairy of his own.

Well, there you are. This story is very canonically incorrect, but oh well. It was fun writing it. Tingle Begins was written for a Team Tingle battle on IGN, although this version has some slight changes in the ending due to the fact that I rushed it to fit the deadline.

Thank you for reading; I await your reviews!