We were a quarter of the way there. I could barely see the towers of my old castle to the north of us. Link's arms held me in place on the horse's back. I closed my eyes, trying to make this all much more positive. We were lovers, escaping on a romantic getaway. We would sleep in the sand and make love in the tides. The coupling of married people was not that much of a mystery to me. It was something I'd been educated on while being groomed for marriage and childbirth. I could at least give a sterile, brief description of what happened during coitus, but the very act was foreign, and how anyone could actually want to perform such acts willingly; I hadn't figured out why. Part of me was hoping Link could show the way for that. I smiled to myself, and opened my eyes again.

The smile was disrupted by a crack of thunder. Link swore in a shout, and the horse reared and screamed. I looked behind us, and I could spy riders on massive, ugly boars charging after us. One had bombs that he lit and flung at us, hoping to startle the horse into dropping us. The other brandished a sword. Link unsheathed the Master Sword and raised it in the air, wrapping his free arm across my body and gripping Epona's mane tight. "Come and get us, you doglickers! Foul scum of hell!" He leaned down to my ear, rubbing his lips against its long edge. "Direct Epona towards the Lost Woods. Those boars can't turn very fast."

I whispered, "okay", and used my grip on the horse's mane to turn her towards the forest. Epona ran, screaming. The boars squealed in reply, and their riders' aim with the bombs was getting better. We charged through the trees. The uneven ground and labyrinthian scattering of trees slowed us down, but Link had been right. The boars were having a harder time wriggling their way through the trunks. Epona drove onward, splashing through hidden swamp and breaking brittle sticks under hoof. When we could no longer easily see beyond the trees, Link stopped Epona. We held our breath, looking around to see if our pursuers had caught up. The woods was quiet besides the occasional singing bird or chattering squirrel.

Link sighed in relief. "We escaped them." I looked around the forest, a sinking feeling in my gut. "Link, where are we?"

He patted my shoulder. "We're out of harm's way for now. Don't worry, I'll get us back out of this." I couldn't think of anything to say. I didn't wish to insult his ability. But I was scared. Link walked away, leaving me by the horse. "Don't!" I cried, my eyes wide. He was going to abandon me here?! This was called the Lost Woods because that was what happened to people who ventured in without some sort of guide—they got lost. Forever. Or at least, that was the legend.

Link stopped and looked back at me. He could see the childish worry in my eyes. There was a smile on his lips though, and I was able to calm down. "Miss, I grew up in these woods. We'd go explorin', me an' my friends, an' this'd be our favorite place. I ne'er got lost." I nodded slowly. I could believe him, it was easy to do. He made it easy. "Just stay in my sight, please," I asked softly. Link reached out and took my hand, kissing the knuckles. He turned and walked away into the trees, and I watched him. He was careful, avoiding as many broken branches as possible, to not make noise and draw them towards us.

I rubbed my hand where he kissed it, feeling warm and flushed. Was that a sign from him? An indication? I was probably assuming too much. Instead, I watched him as he prowled as far out as he could, walking in a wide circle around me. I'd picked dark-colored clothes for him, and he was barely visible. His horse nervously pawed at the ground under our feet. I turned and patted her muzzle. "It's okay girl," I muttered to her softly. She snorted against my palm, and jerked away, looking to the left. I looked as well, my eyes wide. Standing several yards off was a figure in white; a stag deer. Its antlers sprawled from its head like tree branches. But it was massive! I'd only partaken in a few hunts with my father, but this deer was bigger than the massive roan horse standing by my side. That just didn't seem right. It stepped forward, with a gentle rustling of leaves. I held my breath and turned back around. Link was heading back towards us. The stag looked in his direction, and started to step back.

"Stop!" I raised my hand in the stag's direction. It looked towards me again, and stepped forward. I turned. Link was back in our clearing. "What is it?"

I cleared my throat. "Don't you see it?"

"No, what?"

I turned back to the stag. It shook its mighty head. The towering figure was taller than I was. I smiled at the creature and reached up, stroking its massive head and neck. It felt like sticking my hand into a waterfall's mist, a sort of cold vapor. Link got up behind me. "What are you doing?" The stag started and snorted, and I shook my head. "You'll scare him."

"Who?"

It finally dawned on me that Link could not see the stag. Only I could. I lowered my hands. "There's a stag in front of me," I replied.

Link raised an eyebrow. "As in a deer?"

I nodded.

"And you can see him."

I turned back; the stag had started to move back, away from us. He snorted and pawed at the ground. "Yes. He wants us to follow him."

Link nodded. "Okay."

I was surprised at his ready agreement. He climbed up on the horse, and I followed the stag through the woods. It chose easy paths for Epona to follow by, and never strayed more than three meters from us. At times, I thought we were going in circles. The trees had started off sprawling and brown, and now it was turning into a deep, brilliant green. The white form of the stag stopped near an overhang of massive trees that curved and grew together to form an archway. It looked back at us expectantly. I walked through the doorway, Link not far behind me. The stag watched as we both headed through the tunnel, and it did not follow us.

Ahead was a beam of golden light. When we reached it, we emerged into a huge clearing. The trees we could see were huge, and had planks of wood nailed into their trunks, leading up to little fortresses. "Someone lives here." I turned and looked at Link. He was staring with huge eyes, and in a low, auspicious tone, he whispered, "Kokiri."

I gasped and turned back to look at the houses. "The fabled people of the woods? But that's…" A tiny, childlike face was peeking down at us from one house. Link slipped off his horse and walked past me. "Can you see those?" I could only hope he could. "Yeah," was his reply. That was a relief. I stayed near Link, watching as more tiny, childlike faces popped up, creeping downward. I could see them more clearly now. They watched us with narrowed, suspicious eyes. Some were even carrying slingshots. I stayed near Link, putting up my hands to show them that we were harmless. Link licked his lips. They got closer now, barely waist high to us.

A petite girl with blond hair crept up to us, watching us. She started speaking in a low, soft voice, but I couldn't understand it. She gestured with her hands, turning them from palm up to palm down. "She wants to see the back of our hands," Link muttered to me. I nodded once, and we showed her our hands. She went quiet, grabbing our left hands and studying the triangular marks. Her face brightened with a smile. She looked up at us and touched our foreheads with her fingertips, talking again and laughing. Link grinned, and looked at me. I grinned back.