Blue eyes locked, Saria's little smile was as good as impassive, Link scowled slightly. He watched the muscles in her face tighten; he imagined it was pity. She must know why the Deku Tree called for his presence. Fingers curling, knuckles whitening, Link's mouth popped open in a loud burst : "Do you know-"
"I'm not the one who will answer that," Saria said, her authority ringing in childish frustration. She looked from side to side, avoiding the other's blue eyes. Her toes dug into the dirt around her violets, hiding them as she wished to hide her face. "I...I didn't think it would be this soon. I'm sorry." In a knifelike gesture, Saria quickly thrust her hands toward Link, palms out, empty, showing her heart on display, as Kokiri do when they are very, very apologetic. He finaly met her doe-like gaze, and with a dry, bobbing swallow, Link placed his hands over hers, accepting she had only done what her heart believed wisest. She was too good a friend and ally for him to wholly reject her position, as companion and Wisest. He said nothing, though, as they walked a familiar branching trail through the pines.
Saria led them north and east, bringing them into the deepest part of the woods, navigating easily the shale shelves along a wide, gurgling stream. The trees here were old, huge and the further down the creek, their roots determined the landscape. Thanks to the movement of the water, a central path stayed open between the giant hardwoods. Their great leafy crowns blocked most of the sunlight, instead of filtering it like their smaller cousins, creating randomly spaced rays. Mote gnats flurried around these pillars, flitting from one to another, dancing, weaving, bobbing about, lending a gentle, subtle motion to the proud, tall Ancients.
The Old Forest was a revered microcosm to the Children of the Woods. Protected by wide, cavernous buttresses, and far back from the central avenue and stream, stands of delicately swaying flowers beckoned with a gorgeous ultra-violet, bulbous, ruby throated flower atop a single dainty stem. A perfect eighteen inches from the ground, the baba flower waited quietly for prey. As the victim made contact, the stimulation actually caused the "jaws" to open wider, exposing backward, hooked, velcro-like, camoflagued toothed projections that dug in and held on to the passerby. Unfortunately, the teeth secreted a chemically cauterizing poison. Any trapped beast might try to chew through the offending stem, but the thin tough fibers seperated and dug in beside gnashing teeth and bloodied gums. The stem also produced a strong, vomit-inducing bitterant. Even the roots of the ingenious carnivorous plant were so deep seated in the earth, that no claw, paw or hand could dislodge them. Poisoned, exposed, dehydrated and doomed, prey eventually died and decomposed, nourishing not only the deku babas but the sheltering, neighborly trees, plus a multitude of carrion eaters and scavengers. Without the absolutionist strategy of the blue-headed beauties, the mammoth trees would never survive, would overcompete with his brethren for resources. The Old Forest, the entry to the birthplace of the Kokiri, depended on death for survival.
Link hated the smell. Cloying, organic, mineral, visceral clouds of stink hovered close. His nose itched wildly, and he breathed deeply, accustoming his sensory organs quickly, and was able to ignore the stifling air with less effort. The constant decomposition provided a rich buffet for carrion eaters, though thanks to the deadly mouth of the flower, many ended up meals themselves. Thankfully, the babas would not grow close to the moving water, preferring stagnant, standing water clogged with dead, giving the Kokiri a wide berth through the Old Forest's living corridor.
Saria did not enjoy this part of the trail either, and Navi even less, but the Wisest of the Kokiri recited a song about Necessity as they passed by the babas:
"Even though rock and plant and animal die,
Bodies are not wasted.
For what is dirt but beaten rock and plant and animal?
We all shall nourish each other,
For this is the Necessity of Life."
Link heard this song every year, and each time, he took comfort in that his death would feed the forest that fed him during his life. He still had to push down a heaving belly while he avoided the patches of death. Comfort or no, he didn't want to feed the forest just yet. Today, it also seemed to strike him oddly, that the path to their lifesource was choked by those deadly things. It must be profound, and there would have to be a song or story about it, but Link was more concerned with his upcoming appointment than cosmic metaphor.
What could the Deku Tree want? It can't be something really wrong, because Saria or Mido would decide a Judgement. Had he offended him the previous day? Was it possible to offend a tree? But then, why would Saria have gone through with the ceremony last night, if she knew what Link had done? And her words, "I didn't think it would be this soon." What was that supposed to mean? Did he do something he didn't remember, had been too young to remember? What could he have done as a babe, that a tree would hold it against him? Maybe it was so bad, his fairy was taken away as a punishment...No, that was entirely false. Saria said she had picked him, and he had no fairy then, so he was born without...
...Without a fairy.
His earlier questions to Navi, and their answers, rang in his ears like the crash of a tree falling. Others in Hyrule no longer had guides. Gorons, Navi said, but Zoras and Hylians must be evolved past the need for fairies, too. Link could niether breathe beneath the water's surface, nor could his fingers survive the labor of mining, so it left him one option: he must be a Hylian.
That was preposterous, he snorted to himself. How on earth could a Hylian babe find its way into the deepest part of the deadliest and most ancient forests? The very notion was absolutely ridiculous. No, it must be some deed. Saria never related any tales of bad Kokiri being called, but neither had she said it never happened.
A wall of sunshine abruptly assaulted Link's eyes, and he clenched them closed, as they always did at this point on the path. Link breathed in a wonder-filled sigh, preparing to take in the grand sight of the old, massive, spreading giganto, a sheer joy to behold, that anything could be so huge and aged, an ode to the forces of life...
...Whose leaves were falling off in bunches. Dead, crumbly, brown masses of once-fine, foot-in-diameter leaves were dropping out of the canopy like a sad, unstoppable snow, littering the still green grasses and heathers of the meadow. Link dropped to his knees, Saria beside him, grinding fists into the pebbly soil and sobbing.
