Without any time to take in the import of the situation, Link's hawk-eyes caught movement, something big rounding the Deku Tree's bole. He was horrified to identify the ugly, bruise purple shelled spider as a Gohma, a Queen by the looks of her swollen, egg sac festooned abdomen, and hungry if the twitchy trembling of her venom drenched jaws meant anything. And she was scuttling right for them. Link tugged Saria to him as he sprung from his knees and rolled the both of them into the lee of a sheltering root. He scrambled to get his back against wood, throwing a glance over top of their temporary shelter. The Gohma was still zipping up the hill, murder in her one red eye.
"What do we do?" Link breathed, looking out of the corner of his eye at Saria, hoping his Wisest had an answer. She was silent. Her face was blank, slack and, after a moment of panic, fearing catatonia, Link recognized that she was Speaking, communicating with the Deku Tree. Yes, he told himself over the sound of his pounding heartbeat, that is definitely the look of a Child who hears something unseen. Screwing up his courage to face the spider queen, Link tensed his legs again, readying to cast himself in her path as a diversion.
"Hey, Queenie! Come on! Hey!" Navi darted away, screeching as she dive-bombed Gohma's rolling eye. Link could see the spider's confusion plainly as she was assaulted by some horrible glowing thing, Wasting nary a second, Link jumped up and pulled the blank faced Saria, stumbling farther into the woods. He ducked and weaved through tight-packed vegetation, trying to keep some barrier between them and the spider. They came to an abrupt stop when Saria planted her feet.
"We're going the wrong way," she said firmly, turning them north instead of east, back towards the rampaging creature. She had lost the glazed look and was now regaining her bearings, pricking up her long ears, sniffing the wind gently for sign of friend or foe. Link submitted to her, falling in line behind the swiftly moving girl, trusting her beyond anything else in the world for the moment. They hiked for no more than a few minutes when they approached a section of the forest where blocks of limestone decomposed quietly into the rich loam, ferns and lichens sprouting from every surface of the green stained rocks. Something about their arrangement struck Link as unnatural, though. Each was a different size, their shapes varying wildly between cubic-cut monoliths and knotted lumps of boulders huddled together, and yet they were spaced too evenly to have fallen by accident.
Saria walked with a mission between two rocks, not sparing a glance behind her for Link, who followed her into what was revealed to be a circle. Once inside the ring, he thought it looked like the rocks guarded a single slab of stone in the precise center. Not just a slab, Link realized, but a bier, a bed, a resting place for a single Child of the Forest. In skeleton hands was clasped a simple sword, one of legendarily Goron crafted metal.
As though it was nothing, Saria picked the sword up by its hilt, holding it blade-side up, giving Link an her this-is-a-ceremony straight face.
"Link," she said, her words echoing between boulders. "When the Deku Tree Spoke to me, he reminded me of the story about the Kokiri Champion. After battling a beastly gohma for years, he chanced upon a Goron in the woods who traded his blade for a bauble carved of wood." She twitched the weapon in her hand. "Only by steel can the monster's magic be broken."
Link was silent. What should he do? What could he do? The Deku Tree summons him, a Gohma queen appears from nowhere, and now the most iconic symbol of Kokiri mythology was being shoved into his hands. He wasn't even a proper Kokiri. Hadn't Mido said so, and several times over? As soon as the words echoed in his mind, a stab of guilt gutted him. Saria and he just made the point he was indeed a Child. And like any good Child, he would listen to his wisest and the telepathic tree that was the center of their world. He reached out his hand, giving Saria a ghost of a smile, and his fingers snaked around the wire-wrapped handle of the dull short sword.
It was a good weight in his hands; he nodded, twisting the sword through the air. Already he began adjusting stick smackdown style for the slash and stab of a long blade. It was a unique sensation, to be overwhelmed by a complex technology, so different, so advanced from anything he had ever used before. The main defense and offense of the Children were the sling: a leather strip with a bulging pocket in the middle to throw round, hard objects; the fire-hardened, sharp tipped wooden sticks, good for jabbing and a swift knock on the head. Some hunters knew how to flatten and layer the dried stems of deku babas, coat them in hoof-and-hide glue and sap varnish and bend them into the strongest bows for their sapling arrows. Even fewer Kokiri braved the stands of deku babas in their prime season to pick the fruit. When the crimson skinned, fist sized nuts dried, their liquid centers became dangerously volatile, and therefore, sensitive to impact. Deku nut explosions tended to be more flashy than concussive, and made for excellent diversions when hunting herds of grazers.
They also flaked knives and cutting tools from the prevalent glass obsidian, fallout of nearby volcanic explosions, and it's silicate cousin, flint. Both made for excellent knapped arrowheads or spear blades, and in the right hands, knives were wicked sharp and versatile. Link knew of no one better at working the stone than Gido Rockhumper. However, metallurgy was beyond the Kokiri's ken. There were a few odd trinkets made from pounded ore, tiny decorations at best, but the stuff of swords, knives and saws was far too complex and dangerous to try in a summer-dry, underbrush choked forest. Besides, homes and shelters were always cultivated, if not constructed from deadfall. Their stone tools were utterly practical and serviceable and NORMAL, and Link suddenly felt right holding the only metal weapon in the entirety of the woods. Let the others argue now about his worthiness as a Kokiri.
"We've got steel, let's go find the monster," Link said, and Saria brightened to hear that determination, that moment of supreme self-confidence in his voice.
It didn't take them long to find Gohma. Link and Saria had traveled no more than a hundred yards when Navi careened across their path!
"Please! Help!" she panted, her tiny form heaving and shaking, and her wings crumpled in exhaustion. Saria reached out for the falling fairy, catching her gently and cradling her close. Suddenly, the woods around them fell silent. Link faced Saria, listening as the birds muted themselves, and even the trees' shivering leaves stilled. He could hear Navi breathe. The one other sound in the forest around them was getting closer.
Branches whipped, whistling in the still air, limbs crunched beneath arachnid feet and the frenzied, bloodthirsty rattling of her breathing apparatus filled Link's ears. He was sure that he could pick out the noise of individual drops of venom sliding down her fangs onto the leaf-littered floor…
Gohma burst through a screen of new green shrubs, screaming her victory as she spotted prey. Her single red eye rolled in her excitement as she scuttled towards the Kokiri children, a seemingly easy target. Gohma reared above Link, wailing terribly. He simply raised the blade and braced himself as the Queen of Spiders impaled her mouth organs, and didn't even flinch when the tip of his weapon popped through her eye, spraying him with eyeball jelly. She jerked back, still screaming, though bubbles of bloody foam erupted from between her jaws, moistening the sound and muffled the sickening sucking noise of sliding off metal. Gohma flopped about, halfheartedly attempting retreat and Link felt a pang of sadness for her children. Without her supply of food and energy, the eggs would shrivel and die, or be eaten by opportunistic scavengers. Again, it was the way of the forest, Link thought seriously, and he was only playing his part. At least the village would be safe from the spider's legendary appetite.
Realizing he was shaking and still holding his sword aloft, Link let his arms fall to his sides and released a breath he didn't know he was holding. His head pounded and he wanted to howl his own victory. The greatest danger the forest could present to a Kokiri…and he had killed it. Just think of the celebration everyone would hold! And what a treat, to be the day after the Long Day! Link's heart leapt. Maybe Saria would even lengthen the ceremony to include this feat from now on!
Link drew a breath to spew his giddy suggestion, but Saria's pain tightened mouth was a gash across the bottom of her face, and he sobered immediately. He scrunched his eyebrows, moving forward, entreating with his eyes.
"What hurts?" Link asked tenderly, concerned for some unseen injury.
Saria did not answer.
Navi was just rousing, pushing herself up on tired wings from Saria's clutch. She looked at the dead spider, Link's spider-smeared sword and the subtle tension of the friends. Link watched her lips purse, as though the words in her mouth were ones she would rather not spit out. Finally, she swallowed her uncertainty and looked into Link's eyes.
"The Great Deku Tree summoned you. Let's get moving," Navi said, carefully omitting all emotion.
