The woman ran through the forest desperately, panting heavy breaths as a pain surged in her back, her stomach, her head, her feet.
Her ears still echoed the sounds of her own screams. In fact, she felt as if she must have been deafened by them, having heard nothing else since. Her throat still ached deeply enough that told her it had, indeed, transpired, that this was no nightmare.
She saw flashes of it as she ran, there was so much blood that it oozed more and more into her memory, dripping and dripping with pain. The hot tears down her cheeks, as a matter of fact, felt like that same blood. The one that had start to trickle down her back, the one that pounded in her head, the one stained on her rags, her cloak, the one she absolutely had to ignore was still coming from the unimaginable pain in her stomach.
But, none on him, for the love of the goddesses, she prayed, she begged, she pleaded for no blood to stain him.
Ever.
She looked behind her at a sudden noise that didn't exist, jumping at shadows within her delirium before running faster into the dark forest.
The woman clutched the warm bundle in her arms as she ran, every step becoming heavier, every next harder to take, yet she only ran faster.
This was a war only a miracle would allow her to escape, the Hylians so divided amongst themselves that she had witnessed brothers killing brothers in cold blood, friends who once looked at each other with happiness armed with swords and a burning rage in their eyes.
That was the flame she ran away from, the flame she wanted as far away from her son as possible, and the Triforce was the cause of it. Hylians blamed the Royal Family for keeping it secret, and by extension all the inhabitants of the castle, but really it was to prevent the exact thing that was happening now. So Hylians fought amongst themselves, crawling over each other, breaking bones, them smashing and cracking under their feet for this legendary power.
The king couldn't lie to his people that it didn't exist once they confronted him, and yet he couldn't unite them either.
He wasn't able to.
They were determined to stay divided, so caught up in the survival of it all that they forgot they once lived. They forgot the very word mercy in their quest for greed.
Her suspicions of their bloodlust were confirmed when she first felt the arrow sink into her back, some of these Hylians so greedy for the power of the Triforce that they would kill anyone.
But the child she held was innocent, unaware of the war of his home as he slept peacefully in his mothers' arms.
He didn't deserve any of this.
Her vision was hazy now, the arrow in her back stinging more and more, trying to push her down to the ground until it succeeded.
She collapsed, her baby waking with a wail as, it too, tumbled from her arms.
By some miracle it was a soft roll, the child still unscathed.
The mother felt paralyzed, only able to scoot inch by inch closer to where he landed as tears streamed down her face.
She knew she was about to die. She had known that for a while now, and as her vision started to fade, only seeing his bright blue eyes, she felt her heart breaking.
"Link," she said, bringing a shaky hand to stroke his small, soft cheek.
She couldn't hold her head up anymore, nor her hand, both deflated as her energy, her consciousness, her life, slowly and surely left her.
"Farore," she whispered as her eyelids narrowed. "Din…Nayru…Hylia…he is innocent…please…please keep our blood away from him…please…save him…save…Hy…rule…"
Her eyes closed, all her strength diffusing in a single second, dying with one hand on her son and another stretched out to nothing, as if reaching for something without knowing what it was.
The woman's cold hand was inches away from a great and mighty tree, the guardian of the forest, who heard the child's cries with pity.
Until he heard something else within the child call out to him.
"Saria!" his voice boomed, loud enough for the entire forest to hear. "Saria, come hither!"
A small korok descended down from the tops of the tree until meeting the ground lightly.
"What is it, Great Deku Tree," Saria said with attentive eyes before she happened to glance to her right.
She let out a small gasp at the sight before her, a mother covered in blood, a baby wailing in distress.
The small korok waddled closer, a distinct jingle in each step.
"The war in Hyrule has grown," the Deku Tree said in Saria's shock. "It has killed a mother and yet our forest has spared her son. We must…echo that protection."
Suddenly, Saria felt a warmth within her. As a korok, she was always warned against fire, against the warmth that would scorch her to her very core until she longer stood.
Yet, this warmth felt okay, more fulfilling and happy than an agonizing pain. A green light surrounded her as well, Saria feeling barely a sense within herself until the warmth and the light dissipated.
She was higher off the ground, looking to her hands to find, well, hands.
Hylian hands.
She looked up to the Great Deku Tree, within her eyes a resounding inquiry.
"Do not be alarmed, Saria," he said, his word calming her almost immediately. "You have taken the form of a Hylian child, and within it you will stay for a long while. This childs' home is no more, he will find no solace in the world he was born."
Saria looked to the child with pity, approaching him with sad eyes, his strained, confounded whimpers reaching her ears fast.
"He deserves a sanctuary, at least for the time being, he will be raised in the forest by your brothers and sisters."
Saria knelt down, taking a shaky deep breath.
She took a hand to his cheek gently, his whimpers calming almost immediately. The korok had never before felt this sensation, skin on skin, a warm touch, the gentle tickle of its' subtlety.
And when he opened his blue eyes, she couldn't help but smile.
Yet, she suddenly saw, in her minds' eye, small glimpses. A Hylian youth with his blonde hair leaving the forest, meeting a young Princess, pulling a sword, then a man, scratched up and bleeding, crying in anguish, in pain.
It was as if she was knocked back by some otherworldly force as she fell backwards. She panted so heavily that she felt as if her new lungs were about to burst open completely.
"Mmm," the Deku Tree hummed in Saria's shock. "You saw it too."
"He's…" Saria began, stammering, "s-so…he's…it's him…the…"
"Yes, my child," the Great Deku Tree confirmed. "It seems that fate has brought him right to our doorstep."
Saria crawled back to the child, her eyes tearing up as she saw his bright eyes once more, happy, joyful, innocent. There was such a haunting despair and burden in the older blue eyes she saw in her vision that the comparison saddened her greatly.
"Your siblings will appear as you do, so that he feels at home. And, until destiny calls, Hylians will be but a legend to him. He will think of himself and his family as Kokiri, children of the forest. He deserves a childhood as peaceful and happy as possible."
Saria picked up the child carefully, holding him in her arms and trying not to wet him with her tears.
He didn't deserve any of this, which is why the Deku Tree aimed to give him a home away from the war of his people, knowing that this child would see enough of battle when the time came.