Link awoke with a jolt, confused, feeling exposed and struggling for air. He wasn't in his thicket! Sweat soaked his sleeping fur and when he wrung his hands together, it felt as though he held two dead fish. Where was he? He looked around, seeing nothing but grass waving in the wind. Gagging, he rolled from his bed, and took two steps when his guts clenched and forced a meager stream of bile past his lips and with some sick fascination, Link watched it spatter on the moist grass, separating into mossy yellow jewels that clung to the stems like mucous.

He quivered a little, inhaling deeply of the fresh morning, stepping away from his sickness. What a fine morning to start his journey to the find Hylians, Link thought through the aftertaste of spleen. He rinsed his mouth with a short guzzle from a water bag, the cured, translucent yellow stomach of young deer with a hollow vertebrae fastened on as a mouthpiece. He popped a bit of cork back into the round opening and let his bag settle at his hip, hanging from a thong passed over left shoulder and under the right arm. Something jabbed his bone, though. Confused, Link moved aside his bag and saw the Kokiri sword lashed to his thin belt. He rearranged the deer stomach to his other hip and fingered the leather-bound hilt. He must try to work with the weapon soon, he thought. It will be good protection, patting the new rabbit-wrapped blade with satisfaction. Then, as per the usual, his stomach wheezed a hungry groan in this early morning light, and with great predilection, he fished a strip of dry meat from a bag and began working it between his teeth.

"Morning," greeted a near-cheerful blue fairy from her spot close to Link's sleeping fur. Navi floated upwards, stretching her little limbs and curling appendages in a ritual of acclimation.

He half-heartedly raised a hand in hail. "Good morning," Link replied after he pushed the chaw of meat with his tongue into his cheek. He could gnaw and suck on the nutritious dehydrated snack for hours if he chose. "How far did we come yesterday?" Link asked in a careful tone, shifting his eyes to his possessions sitting in the grass.

"Not very. You tore down the hill with your stuff and wrapped yourself in fur. It didn't seem like you wanted to go anywhere after that."

The elf nodded mutely, glad he hadn't done anything stupid.

Nestled in a valley between two ridges, the sun's disc had not overcome the hills yet the wispy clouds at the edge of the sky reflected ambient light back to the surrounding plain, bathing everything in the clear gold dawn. It was by no means quiet on the prairie. Birds had been singing for hours, alerting the world of the sun's rising, and countless insects buzzed and chattered and chiffed from among the grass and bushes. To Link, however, the rustle and creak of leaves and branches overhead no longer filled his ears, and he felt distinctively small again on the open grassland. Also, aside from the forested hills behind him, Link knew little of this world. But he did know how to stay alive. The intimacy of his Lore assured his foraging needs at least. Link licked his lips, still chewing the masticated jerky, proud of the work the simple meal embodied. Meat was hunted, butchered, processed and stored or eaten. Link was sure he could survive in this alien plain. He rolled up his fur and lashed it to his back frame, picked it up and slipped his arms through the smoked buckskin suede straps. Taking his time up the adjacent hill, Link stretched his sleepy calves every few steps, bending his knees, readying for, presumably, a day of walking.

He wondered if there was a stream nearby, feeling flaky paint on his skin and an itchy scalp, and the need to start this journey as freshly as possible. But when he reached the crest of the mound, the same, redundant rolling landscape splayed out in every direction until the sky brimming with wispy smears of cloud devoured the horizon. Link groaned as he wished, that he could see down into all the valleys…

"How high can you fly?" queried the boy with blue eyes.

The blue fairy was munching on a seed she pulled from the stalk of a familiar, early-bearing wheat plume, the nugget of protein and starch easily as large as her hand, chewing precisely as she glanced upwards. "We never went above the trees in the Old Forest. It wasn't that we couldn't, but there were a lot of hawks that rode the updrafts hovering around the canopy." Again, she pointedly peered up at the wide blue expanse. "I see many hawks, and there is no canopy to protect me. How high do you think is safe?"

Link sensed the verbal trap she was setting. "As far as you're comfortable, really."

Curious herself, Navi gritted her teeth and flapped her little wings, slowly, cautiously, rising straight up, then she put on a burst of speed. Higher and higher she levitated until Link could see neither her distinctive nimbus nor unique outline against the brilliantly blue sky. He scoured the view anyway, looking out for the telltale specks that turned into hawks or eagles so he might warn the invisible Navi. Suddenly, she was there beside him.

"It just goes on and on," she was saying, disbelief lacing her words, waving at the landscape, sounding annoyed, even. "Just hill after hill out there, no landmarks, and there's a river some distance ahead. I don't know that I'd even call it a river, more like a teeny stream."

Her astute remarks sent a little thrill through Link, and he realized that this was what having a fairy was all about: to have a second set of eyes to survey landscape and watch out for predators and an extra pair of ears to listen for footfalls in the tangled underbrush of the woods. Now that the forest was behind him, literally, Link intended to use every advantage that came his way. With a fairy at his side, he could more readily see the distant scenery and food. Maybe Mido was right—he was living only half the Kokiri life.

Not any more, though, Link thought resolutely. My life lies out on that endless plain; somewhere, I'll find people. People like me, I hope. He met Navi's eyes, asking, "Ready to find that stream?" He knew he was, pleased that his new companion was eager as well. "Which direction?"

Navi surveyed the sun, shadows and her own intuition, finally saying, "Due west."

True to his upbringing, he was constantly scanning the environment, comparing the plains to the forest. In the forest, there were hills and crags covered in trees, topography lending itself to a wildly varied amount of highly adaptable and hybridizing plant life. At first glance, the field appeared to be nothing more than a wrinkled landscape, an ocean of rocky swells and troughs covered in a layer of grass that undulated gently in the persistent wind like the far western seas. The farther Link walked, however, the more diversity he discovered. Most common was the knee-high blue grass growing in little bunches and forming a formidable layer of sod. An even taller cousin grew in dense stands, some twice Link's height! Fleabane, a member of the aster family, also showed it's pink and yellow faces in the bright light, and a hard, spiky sort of flower with droopy pink petals added their distinctive colors to the mélange of greens, blues, yellows and muted reds of low-growing herbs. When they reached the first stream, a few whippy willow trees clung to the edge of the water, fighting, it seemed to Link, for precious life. Scrubby birches, little more than leggy shrubs, and drought-loving mesquite were farther back from the stream. Like he promised himself, Link slipped out of his encumbrances and flopped into the water. He rotated until his feet faced upstream, letting the flow comb his yellow hair, shivered as his long ears took in a little water and sat up, shaking vigorously, spattering dry stones on the bank with droplets. Link brushed at his skin, which was still covered in chalk paint from the Long Day ceremony. Little flakes and rolls of pigment and dead skin dropped into the creek, carried downstream to whom knew where. Utterly refreshed, Link bounded out of the water, in for less than a four-count chant! He redid his single garment, the breechclout, and then, when he thought about it, he snuck his hand into the basket, searching blindly for a little horn box at the bottom. Fingertips halted when they sensed the ridged mountain sheep signature glassy horn carved out, two halves bound together with sinew. Link snatched it up, untying the cords and enjoying the scent of the tallow-based paint as he exposed the white cream. With his two forefingers, he dabbed a swatch over his brow, down the bridge of his nose and across either cheek. He left long, uniform smears on his forearms, rubbed hands together and smoothed back his hair, tucking it behind his ears. Loaded up once more, Link and Navi set out with adventure bubbling in their hearts, and meat in his jaws.

Hundreds of rodents and snakes lived among the low plants, sometimes becoming airborne when a hungry hawk or eagle spotted rustling grass. Finger-sized green grasshoppers flung themselves out of Link's path, and he was startled when a lark swooped in for the kill! He looked up and saw more birds flying above his head, more than he'd ever seen at one time, and all of them wheeling and flocking in beautiful fluid movement, as if stirred by some invisible guidance. Then he realized, with delight, that the birds were following him, waiting for him to disturb their chosen prey so they could follow the lark's example.

"Navi, look! Aren't they beautiful?" He gaped, his mouth a little "O" of amazement, his eyes tracking the flame-like dance.

"If you think so, bird-brain," she snipped, and reminding him about the fact she happened to resemble a flashy insect, she stayed close to the young elf, hoped the birds would not get too brave.

Link was unable to look away from the flock. He saw sparrows, finches, bobolinks and even a few sandpipers in the mass of feathers, all vying for the tasty invertebrates his motion provoked. Soon enough, he had his fill of watching the birds, egged on by the moving sun to find a better shelter tonight.

He hiked over a hill and over the next one, and down another hill and up the other side of yet another rise in the landscape. By nightfall, his knees ached and his ankles absolutely shook with tension; his legs were not used to the strenuous and utterly repetitive activity of traversing the rippling countryside. Only when he lay beneath a wide mesquite bush bundled in his fur and allowed himself to relax did his agony lessen by a degree. But it was enough to allow Link to slip into slumber.

The next morning, Navi gently called out, "Sun's about to come up. Do you want to see it today?"

Link yawned and stretched, sighing sleep away and threw back the cover, knuckling his eyes and gingerly working his joints as he hobbled up to his feet. "How late is it?"

"Not very, we've got maybe one sunlength below the horizon."

Link scooped up his sleeping fur from the dust beneath the bush, brushed the hair to remove the fine minerals that flew away in little clouds and draped it over his arm. Navi was sitting a little ways to his right in the branches of a wind-twisted skeleton of a birch tree, alert and waiting. Picking out a level spot on the sedge and sod, Link spread the fur skin-side-down on the dew-wet grass and slumped comfortably with eyes trained on the eastern sky.

The sky was dusky lavender, and some fog still lingered in the lower troughs, a velvety jacket that stained woody stems dark with moisture. Birds chirped and trilled their morning songs, and a few early risers were taking to the skies in search of food. A new voice called out under the lightening sky: a low nasal bawling. Link thought it belonged to some deer, but the depth of tone signaled size. Maybe Navi would look for them, he thought glancing at her.

Then he looked up at the horizon. It was bright with uneven washes and banners of sky blue and vat orange, and fog lifting in wraiths, torn apart by the intensifying yellow glow. The shapes of the topography were backlit in a fiery mix of reds and oranges and light pink, paler than any alyssum growing around them. Light saturated everything, as though the rays were trying to embrace the whole expanse at once. And then, a glint, a rosy spot, a flash of yellow and there, the dawn-fresh light of the new risen sun flowed over the landscape.

Stunned into a breathtaking wonder, the world was suddenly awake, the sunlight breaking the barrier of the night and birthing a new day. It was a very different sunrise today, Link deemed. It wasn't nearly as full of drama as a flashy dawn through the trees, but it expanded and enveloped the plains with such majesty.

"I wouldn't mind watching that again," he said, not taking his eyes off the ascending spectacle.

Navi replied, "I've never seen such a big show."

Link leaned back, yawning acutely, soaking up the warm waves of light with his skin, breathing deep, and listening to the rising noise of the morning world. He dreamily itched his pelt in a few choice spots. After a few minutes, he stopped and said, "We'll have to watch the stars too. I bet we'll see all of them at once; the sky is so huge."

Navi agreed, her smile a silent assent, looking forward to the evening.

Now that their part of the region was awake, it was time to start moving.

Efficiency was Link's second name; he pulled together his bundle of furs, pulled on his protective boots, relieved himself of his night's waste, shoved a handful of dried meat and fruit into his mouth and put the sun behind his back in a matter of minutes.

The odd shrub or groves of prosperous and lucky trees that managed to get roots into a flowing waterway broke the monotonous countryside occasionally. Soggy bottoms that rarely gathered standing water were perfect havens for plants that loved wet roots. Upon request, Navi and he went to inspect this new swamplet. Tall reeds and corkscrew grass were profuse, hiding uncountable toads and salamanders, Link was sure, and he could almost taste the crispy amphibians he planned on cooking. He pushed aside the slim stalks, silent as a cat in the night, padding softly over the spongy ground. He picked up a likely rock, disturbing a shaded toad. It leaped away, but Link was faster, and snagged the meal by a webbed toe. Then, in a breath-mangling discovery, his eyes followed the stem of the brown-topped cattails. The long, light green leaves of the bulrush swayed gently in the wind.

Instantly, Link could taste the biscuits the Kokiri made when they harvested cattail roots. The roots, which were long, stringy and invasive, were dried in the sun and then pounded in cold water. The fibers separated from the starch, floating on top to be made into cord, while most of the water was poured out and the white paste was mixed with fat and cooked to doughy perfection on a flat terracotta baking stone. Sometimes, the thick yellow pollen from the cattail blooms, blueberries or the swamp-loving cranberries of the season were folded into the mix and all prized the starchy, unleavened treats. Bothered by the wriggling in his hand, Link released the slippery creature, his stomach acting much the same as the offended toad grumpily croaking as he fled for the cattails. He pressed his lips together, toying with the ends of his sling on his belt, homesick, and stalked away from the bog, leaving Navi to inspect what interested her.

Besides the grass, cacti and herbage, little was left for the eye to savor, Link observed morosely. However, on a ridge to his left was a large, gray boulder, seemingly out of place far from any watercourse capable of moving it. Intrigued and keen to displace the hollow in his chest, his feet carried him through the fescues and up to the rock. Two sides, north and west, were wind-beaten and it looked like the boulder hunched on the plain, huddled against the constant forces of nature. With pity for this lonely island bubbling in his liver, Link extended a hand to the rough granite surface. His fingers trailed along the divots and crystalline misfit's skin, rounding the south side, and when he looked down, he was surprised to find a sheltered covey of tender vegetation. A karmic tingle tightened under his scalp, but Link shook it off and studied the details of the spontaneous garden. An anemone flower, pale and ragged-leafed sat rather forsakenly. He bent down and gave it an encouraging touch, but the wide, salty leaves of coltsfoot were too far spread, and edging the flower out. Rosemary's tall, shaggy stems speared through the spaces around the broad coltsfoot lobes. Towards the edge, a single trailing vine of white verbena grew out and curled up towards the rock, as though trying for an embrace. Link gathered a few tasty pieces of the rosemary, enjoying its earthy aroma, and reached around to put it in his pack. Another plant caught his eye. He extracted Hido's spear from its lashings to his pack and meandered to another stand of vegetation. The flowering top of the carrot was unmistakable, and in a few quick moments after jabbing the soil with the pointed, flint tip of his newest spear, he uprooted several of the long, yellowish vegetables. The feathery foliage of the carrots he wound around his belt to hang until he hungered or had a use for them.

"There you are!"

Link ducked, hardly expecting a voice to interrupt his work, and whirled to come face to face with Navi. Her little features bunched up and her face was a mask of scorn. Dumb, carrots in hand, Link blushed when he realized how far from the swampy bottom he had come.

"Next time you go on an adventure," Navi was saying, fists on her hips. "Tell me about it. Don't make this into hide-n-seek." She harrumphed and waited for Link's apology.

"I'm sorry," the boy said dutifully, and true, he did feel a tinge of shame for going so far, but the cattails…Was the rest of his life going to be like that? Could he stand the memories? What might he do to avoid the situation? Blind himself? He couldn't be afraid to see the world, and the things in it. There was no use for worrying about wolves when panthers stalked the woods, he supplemented in Kokiri idiom, then bit his tongue as the wry irony rolled over him. Link looked at the sky. Clouds that promised no rain in the immediate future scudded along the blue expanse, roaming on the wind that brought many smells to Link's nose. Grass, green and sweet like fruit flowers on the wind, the sour stink of dung from some herbivorous animals, these pervaded his skin, replacing the cool, chlorophyll menthol of the forest. His feet were covered and his calves were scratched systematically by the blades of grass, instead of bare calluses covered in the loam of tree-waste. Although, he was now more of a Kokiri than he ever was back there, so he turned his back to the eastern exposure. "Let's keep going, then."

Link swiftly parted the grass, walked on brashly until a flurry of feathers exploded from a clump of grass nearby! Link immediately pulled his sling from his belt, fished a pebble from a pouch and sent a stone flying into the panic-driven flock. Thanks to its sacrifice, the rest of the group of quail made an escape to the skies. Link picked up his prize and displayed it to the fairy proudly. Now his carrots and rosemary had an immediate application, and the thought of a hot meal was all the persuasion he needed to stop early and make a true camp.

Using practiced motions, he plucked and gutted the bird on the spot, then cut its limbs and body into manageable pieces and wrapped them in a bundle of grass. He would cook them later, when he found a better campsite. They turned west again in search of one.

After a few hours, they stumbled into a copse of well-watered trees, and found a great deal of suitable firewood in the deadfall. Link detached and dragged several green, leafy branches from low spreading poplars towards the gurgling stream, which was more sizeable than any waterway he'd seen previously. It flowed in a gentle southern direction, making wide curves around distant hills and spilled into pools around sharp valleys. The water was deep, Link judged about shoulder height on himself, and he could see the silvery glinting of fish resting in the upstream current. The beach was mainly smooth, rounded river rock on top of sand. He cleared a layer of rocks and dug a wide trench down into the soft dirt, and a circular pit only a few feet away. He set up short green wooden posts across the hole, building a comfy sleeping platform above the sand. Nature's bane, sand got into everything and never came back out. Then, he erected two short poles, piled rocks at their base so they would not fall over and strung a thong from his basket between them. He wiped a tickling drip of sweat from his forehead, noting it seemed like he was sweating a lot more than usual. He suddenly remembered his toes were stretching the leather of his boots, as if they were growing. He wasn't worried; not yet. Some Kokiri grew up to four feet tall, and Link was nearly there the last time Saria marked his height on a tree near his thicket.

Shaken at a new pang of homesickness, Link worked on the branches nearby and began threading the twigs into the thong and anchored the cut ends into the ground. He spread his sleeping fur inside and pushed his travel basket to the back of the little shelter. Standing back to admire his bit of handiwork, Link reflected on this new loneliness. In the forest, there were always people around the campsite willing to let the weirdo sit on the edge, watching activities, then gather his own materials and try his hand at the craft. Some offered advice and others only laughed at his failures. He never stopped trying; he had to learn the skills to survive. If animals came in the night and killed him in his thicket, his body would have been recovered and laid to rest. Out on the plains, no one would even hear me scream, Link thought grimly.

He recalled who was accompanying him now. Navi was unlike any companion he knew. She had her own quest and motivations, but she was also here to help him. Link wanted to toe the fine line between friendly assistance and exploitation of her abilities. They could be friends. Right now, he very much appreciated another voice to ease the separation, though traveling alone really wasn't so different than ostracism.

"I'll make a fire, and then we can eat," Link said to the fairy hovering around the area, who was curiously inspecting all aspects of the terrain.

"Yeah, sounds good," she said, not looking back from the little sage bush she was circling.

"What are you doing?" Link asked, bemused with her distraction.

This time, the blue fairy leveled her gaze with the boy. "I'm studying stuff. I'm observing how the land works with the plants and how the water ties it all together. Fairies are born to deduce and repeat information. It could be important someday."

"Oh," Link said simply. Not bothering to respond, she went back to her intense study.

Link dejectedly gathered a nest of tinder and built up a loose pile of smaller logs into the small circular pit, slashed together his grayish yellow firestone with a shard of mud-colored flint and produced a shower of sparks. A few caught in the nest of fluffy fire starter and the wisps of smoke curled above the mass. He bent down low to puff into the glowing center, watched the little wood catch in licks of orange energy and passed through the rest of the kindling. Link sat back and caught his breath as the fire began to blaze. Only when he let the fire burn down slightly, he put the grass packet of bird meat, herbs and vegetables into the edge of the hearth. He covered the bundle in hot rocks resting in the coals and then he dumped a basket of dirt over the growing pile.

The sun was dipping low, still lighting the tops of the hills, but Link's chosen gallery in the trough was already in shadow. His fire sprayed the area in a flickering orange light, and his impromptu ground oven was steaming through its layers and filling the area with the aroma of rosemary and hay. With nothing much to do but wait for his food to finish cooking, Link sat next to the fire with the gifted ocarina in his hands.

He avoided it, unable to forget the nausea that awakened him. Today was a new day and the small, comforting shape in his hand felt like a step towards his new life. He couldn't shun the memories of Kokiri, and maybe experimenting with something new would help him be a little less impatient for his evening meal.

Link examined the instrument: it was made of a delicate pink clay, shaped like a little bird, complete with suggested wings, lines etched into the clay on the top and bottom of the body, and there were eyes and a dainty beak tooled into the stem of the mouthpiece. Along the top "left" wing was a line of three holes for fingers, and above the right wing was an equally spaced grouping of four holes. He gingerly placed his fingers over the holes and brought the mouthpiece to his face, though he could not put it to his lips. There were fingerprints on the body, forever preserved in the firing process after its construction. He could imagine those fingers on pine-pitch scented hands.

Expelling a sigh, Link went and shoved the instrument into his pack. Not tonight.

Navi had either finished looking at the campsite or it was too dark to see any more, and she was waiting patiently by the fire.

"Food should be done," he said, sitting down near the little woman, her blue glow transcendent through the orange flickers.

"Good, I'm starving!" Navi said, patting her tiny abdomen. "You can have the quail, I don't eat flesh. But those carrots you picked are fair game."

"Fairies don't eat meat?" Link inquired disbelievingly. "But why?"

"It'd be too tough. Have you ever tried biting through a green vine as thick as your wrist?" Navi said logically, holding up the appendage. "Muscles are made up of fibers that stretch and contract. Cooking only makes them tougher. Your teeth can handle it, but mine are a little undersized," she said with a depreciating and obvious smile.

"I never thought about it," Link shrugged, and imagined a world where scale was vastly dissimilar to his own. Everything would be much more extreme, like saw teeth in grass and monstrously sized birds roaming a world filled with giants. "I didn't need to, I guess."

"Yeah," Navi agreed. "I understand. Do you want to talk about it?"

Link jumped. "What? About what?"

"Not having a fairy, then suddenly getting dumped with one and kicked out of your home?"

He considered it. The steaming oven, however, once in his line of sight, caused a contortion in his gut that even Navi acknowledged it.

"After dinner, then," she said amiably, and Link relaxed a little. He didn't need to be nervous. He just wanted to eat, he said to himself.

The meat had absorbed all the wonderful, grassy hay scent of its packaging, caressed by the flavor of rosemary sprigs and supplemented by the sweet root notes of the carrots. Navi ate a carrot coin cut off by Link's handy obsidian knife, and Link polished off the rest. They sat easily and companionably, full of hot food and warm by a fire. Starting to nod off with his full belly, Link shook the sleep back and stood.

"The sun should be far enough below the horizon for us to see the stars," he said, summoning Navi away from the night-vision-destroying light source. She hovered upwards, ready to follow, and Link led them towards a nearby rise in the landscape.

Neither knew there were so many stars. Illuminating the night world, the light of a million other suns cast shadows beneath Link's brows, and Navi looked pale and wan beside the spectacular display. Reds and blues of varying intensities twinkled around the central Path of Stars, as it was called in Kokiri, the wide, bright belt of glowing celestial clouds and distant lights.

"It's said that the Path of Stars is where stars are born," Navi whispered, feeling miniscule.

"Saria and I watched a star die," Link said, almost silent. "It was in the northern sky, and then the star blinked, and winked out. How are stars born?"

Navi thought for a moment, and then said, "They look like fires, so there must be something in the sky that gathers, like kindling, and it starts to burn. Eventually, like a fire, it would run out of fuel. Maybe the ashes are even the starter, the kindling for new stars."

It was an idea that would not have occurred to Link, and her simple, succinct explanation made all the sense in the world. "I think you're right. What about shooting stars? Saria said they were the stars that grew too tired and fall from the night."

A wolf howled somewhere in the dark, his pack adding a few reedy tones to his full, sonorous howl, complementing him in primal harmony. Link's ears perked up at the music, wishing for a moment that he would not remember Saria or her words right now. Her absence, or rather, his own, was like a wooden peg driven into his belly, thumping like the winking stars in the atmosphere, and harder to ignore.

He sniffed, not expecting grieving mucous or prickling eyes, and swiped below his brow. His sudden sorrow was not lost on Navi.

"Link? I'd like to say something."

"…Yeah?" His throat constricted a little.

"I really appreciate what you're doing for me," she said, bowing her head, and glancing at her escort. He was rigid against the imperceptibly moving backdrop of stars, spine held straight and chin perfectly level. "You've never had to accommodate a fairy. So I understand if seeing a fairy constantly is a reminder of what you are leaving behind, and I can't help it. I think the Deku Tree should have given you one earlier on; at least, it seems a little late in the game to stick you with me."

"That's not-" Link swallowed hard, but the lump in his throat would not move. "It isn't you. You're not even the same color as anyone else's fairy." A little lick of irritation touched him; what a presumption, that she was the problem. "You have your own quest. The Pools?" Link said stiffly.

"Pfft. Sure, but there's no time frame," Navi said nonchalantly. "Until I finish my assignment or you Grow up, I'll be here." But despite her offer, Link's eyes were still glassy, reflecting the starlight clearly. "No sidestepping around conversation. I don't mince words." Navi drew herself up and posted her figure in front of Link's eyes, and told him very firmly, "I am your partner now, and unless you really want me to, I won't leave. I'll ask you to stick with me until I'm done with my mission or another definitive end. What do you say?"

Link mouthed some soundless syllables as his brain went on a scavenger hunt to remember how to form sentences, sputtering when his lips got in the way of those words. "I, uh, yes. Yes, of course," he stammered.

"Good," Navi nodded fiercely. "You miss Saria, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Link cried, pulling his teary face away from Navi, but she wheeled around and faced him in full.

"Then miss her. You've got no one to impress now."

So Link let his grief pour out again, shaking and still upright this time, his shoulders tight and quivering as he wept. He clutched his face and directed an angry shout towards the earth. The world was so big, and yet, there didn't seem to be enough distance between the sweet misery of a half-Kokiri life behind him and a full life of loneliness ahead of him.

However, as the strong feelings lost power and rearranged themselves into logic once more, the blue light shimmering off of Navi caught his eye, reminded him, not of what he was leaving behind, but instead, that her blue light was going with him, into the unknown, to help him understand a new life and an untried path. Link was not alone.

He left Saria behind. Navi was not Saria, but his friend with the sticky green hair had never spoken so plainly or bluntly…

Navi approached Link, and laid a tiny hand on his right shoulder in the Kokiri gesture of siblinghood. "Even if you see her again, you'll always miss her."

"But when I meet new people, I don't want to…" Link stopped himself. No one was ever going to take her place in his heart as his first friend, no matter how many people he befriended. When he connected with Navi again, she was shaking her head up and down, grinning for his internal correction. It must have showed, Link thought wryly, and said, "Thank you."

"No problem."

Wrung out and filled with starlight, Link and Navi went back to his shelter. He stirred the coals of his little fire with a stick, breathing a last rush of energy into the embers, then dumped a handy container of dirt over it, and sat down by his pack. His feet slipped out of their boots, and then into the open end of his branch construction. Navi snuggled close to the entrance, curling up but not covering herself. Link tucked his fur beneath his chin and promptly fell asleep.

The next five days of hiking passed quickly. At slightly before sunrise, Link would watch the sun jump over the dawn line, pack up and move out. Navi kept up very well with his pace, swifter since he was more used to the undulating nature of the plains, and he could cover up to five leagues with his ground-eating walk. Well supplied by an early summer world full of growing edibles and innumerable critters and targets for his sling, his body was not lacking for nourishment. Only from a distance, however, did he see larger ungulates: antlered bucks and their does with spotted, spring-fresh fawns, elk and a few huge, shaggy, horned and hoofed beasts with dark shoulders for which he had no name. A small, close-knit herd of bulls and cows stood lowing and making patties in a broad, green valley, where they grazed gently. One had snorted, lifting his head, nostrils flaring and spraying spittle, scenting Link in the wind. Blue eyes met deep brown, sharing the prairie for a moment in mutual curiosity.

Link observed many new species across the hills, but so far, he had seen no sign of elfin habitation. Once, he spotted a plume of blue smoke rising above the horizon in the north, and it just as quickly disappeared. He wasn't going to fish around blindly, not without that guiding beacon, so he kept true to west.

At the end of eight days, Link's big toe popped through his thinning leather footwear. He and Navi picked a campsite next to a little spring-fed pool surrounded by boulders where he built a fragrantly smoky fire and berated his feet for growing so disproportionate.

"I don't even have enough rawhide to make two soles for these things!" Link said sourly, throwing something at the ground and staring crossly at the rawhide panels he brought with him, as if venom from his glare would prompt them to enlarge. There was an outline of a foot in charcoal on one, though it overlapped with the edge in several places, and the second and third bits were hardly large enough for heel or ball.

"How much leather do you have?" Navi asked. "Are you sure you don't have more rawhide in your basket?"

"Well," Link said, sifting through his belongings again. "I have some good leather I can wrap around my feet until I bring down something big and replenish the pantry." He leaned back and crossed his arms, recalling Deer Lore, thinking about the places they liked, and the times of the day when they were inactive or sluggish, and how it might be different here on the grasslands. "I can't do anything tonight. It's going to be dark soon, and there's no sense in hunting by torchlight. I'd attract every bat, moth and predator within a league out in the open. At least, with shelter, there's only one way to get to me, and Hido's spear is not far from my fingers-"

"HALLOO!"

"What was that!" Link gasped as he rolled beneath a nearby mesquite bush, spear in hand, whipping his head from side to side in search of the source of the noise. How ironic, he sneered, that he would have to deal with an animal of the night anyway. Navi huddled close to the plant, out of Link's way if he needed to pounce. Then, their eyes caught movement! Something big was crashing through the outlying mesquite, closer and closer, but they couldn't see just what came their way; the brush was tall around the spring, blocking its form. Just as it pushed through the screen surrounding the campsite, Link thrust himself out from under his bush with a yell, spear pointed towards his yet unseen enemy, and then froze.

It was a giant!

Navi immediately popped up and rushed to Link. "Don't stick him, he's a person!" she hissed.