Link did come back. It felt like decades and decades later, but it was really only a few weeks. He came back, but he didn't stay.

The morning he came back to the Forest, I felt someone call my name from the Lost Woods. I felt deeply compelled to follow the sound, but I hesitated at the entrance to the Lost Woods. Many people, including Kokiri children, wandered into the Lost Woods and very few had ever come back. I had no desire to be lost forever, no matter how much I loved my Forest.

But the voice led me through the tunnels and the trees that formed arches over my path. I walked deliberately, placing one foot in front of the other, absorbing the sound of a tambourine that emanated through the Lost Woods and that seemed to have no source and no harmony that it had been set to.

I paused my progress to think up a tune to make the Lost Wood's tambourine complete. But it was already in my head. My song. Of course.

I pulled out the new ocarina I had carved from the bark of the Great Deku Tree after His death, and played my song. Almost on beat. A little faster. There. It's perfect. I played my song until I wanted to stop, and then I leaned my head back to listen to the sounds of the Forest. To my utter surprise, I heard my song being played back to me in time with the tambourine. It was being played over and over and over, seemingly never to stop again. I had unwittingly set into motion a song that would echo forever until the earth burned into oblivion.

I continued my journey.

I knew now where I was headed. The Sacred Forest Meadow. A place of solitude and beauty unfathomable. It was so tangibly beautiful that few mortals had ever touched its' grass. It was one of the few places on earth that the goddesses had walked upon when they created the world that had not been sullied by the feet of mortals. And Little Saria was to walk upon this very bit of earth! I felt so small and insignificant.

I arrived at my destination. It was just as I had imagined it. I had imagined the strong sensation that the Forest spirits frolicked, lived, loved, slept, and mourned in this very place, and here I was. Little Saria, with her role to play in the breaking of Evil's hold on her Forest.

My song continued to echo and keep up with the tambourine in this Meadow. But I stared an oddly shaped building that jutted out from one part of the Meadow. A broken staircase that one could not climb led to the entrance of the building, and a dead tree's branch hung over the entrance. Odd. Another dead tree. A tree stump lay directly across from the dead tree.

I walked over to the stump and made myself comfortable on it. As I did, I noticed that my song which echoed through the trees stopped, and all that was left was the tambourine.

I noticed that in the middle of the Meadow's floor was a large pad of stone that looked as though it could be illuminated from the inside. I wondered who could have put it there, why, and what significance it had. I looked back at the entrance to the building. Why did everything that even remotely touched my life have some 'greater meaning'?

The absence of music mildly disturbed me, so I pulled out my ocarina and picked up my song again. The tambourine sounded complete to me once more. I sat there for hours and played my ocarina and just felt the presence of the spirits observing this girl of the Forest make music.

Link came back to me about that time.

Instead of running up to greet me as he normally would., he stopped and gaped at his surroundings, walking reverently through the blessed grass. Then he saw me and his joy lit his eyes.

I continued to play, but I smiled over the mouthpiece and beckoned him to come closer. This he did, and I forged ahead and taught him my song. I don't know for sure why I did it at the time, but I just did. I never taught anyone my song; no one knew how to play it save myself and he.

The sound of two ocarinas playing made tears come to my eyes. Link smiled a sweet smile over his ocarina. My ocarina as well.

We put our instruments down.

"So, my friend. What did the Princess of Destiny say to you?" I asked.

"She said very much. Are you ready for a long story?" he said.

I nodded and he began.

"The Princess of Destiny's name is Zelda." He said. There goes the familiar sensation again. Where had I heard that name before? It was not a Kokiri name…

"She saw Navi and said that she had a dream about me with the Kokiri Emerald. She said that the Emerald is one of five keys to opening the Sacred Realm. Zelda went on to explain that after the Goddesses created the earth, they left at the same time, and the place where the left is where the Sacred Realm stands. Apparently this Realm also holds a more powerful symbol of their departure and power and this symbol would be the Triforce. That's where I got kind of lost. She talked about things that she's heard all her life, but that was the first time I've ever heard that kind of thing."

I put my hand on his shoulder. The Great Deku Tree often told this same story that Zelda had told Link. I don't remember why Link hadn't heard the story before. He must have been taking naps while they were being told.

"I've seen the Incarnation of Evil, Saria."

I focused intently on him. "Go on, please."

"The Incarnation of Evil is in the form of that man in black armor that I used to see in my dreams. His name is Ganondorf, and he is visiting the same castle where Zelda lives. She said that he is trying to become an ally of her father's, but Ganondorf's intents are anything but peaceful. Zelda says he wants the Triforce for himself."

"And you and Zelda need to protect it." I finished for him.

He nodded appreciatively.

"You need to protect the Triforce from Ganondorf so that he will not take over Hyrule. What does my newly appointed knight in shining green armor think he shall do to prevent this?"

Link blushed and muttered something about knights being for grown-ups.

"No, no! You must be a knight now in order for Zelda to send you on this mission, aren't you?" I teased. Link blushed a bit harder.

I jumped up, intoxicated with my game, and stood a ways from him. "Well, you over there, handsome knight!" I said dramatically.

Link groaned and tried to sink into the tree stump. I annoyed a Deku Scrub with my loud voice and theatrics. It began spitting nasty seeds at me. "O no! This terrifying Scrub is pelting my back, and soon I shall have bruises all over my body! O…O…who shall save me?...who shall help me in my time of great danger...help me O handsome knight…help me!"

Link apparently had decided to play along. "I'll save you, fair maiden of the Forest! With this sacred blade, I will cut your enemy down in front of you and we shall live happily ever after!"

Link dashed over to the offending Deku Scrub and several seeds thunked onto him, but he managed to dispatch the Scrub quickly.

"Now fair maiden," he called, continuing our game. "I would ask for my kiss that the fair lady traditionally gives the knight who has risked his life for her…" He finished in such a sly tone of voice that I couldn't help grinning and ducking my head.

Link was not to be deterred. "My kiss, fair lady?" I looked to see his face very close to mine.

"Great knight, you have fought well! Receive thy kiss and treasure it for all your life!"

I leaned toward him and felt our lips meet. His lips were silky soft and warm. I put my arms around his torso and he placed his arms around my neck. I never wanted it to end, but the Forest spirits made such a commotion over a pair of children kissing in such a fervent manner. We had to stop to get some peace and quiet, but we still stood in one another's embrace.

Link spoke softly. "Zelda said that the Kokiri Emerald was the first key, and then the Goron's Ruby, the Zora's Sapphire, the Ocarina of Time which Zelda holds, and the Master Sword of Time."

I nodded. I had heard of all these things before. "You might want to go to the tallest, fiery mountain in Hyrule where the Goron's live and see if their king, Darunia will loan you their stone. I don't know where you would go from there, but I think that will get you started in the right direction."

"That sounds about right. Zelda said that's where it could be. Makes sense, doesn't it?" I nodded again. We broke our embrace.

"I have to go, Saria."

"I know you do."

"Thank you for teaching me your song."

"Your welcome. Please be safe in your travels. You are important to Princess Zelda, Link, but I know that you are also very important to me, Link."

He kissed me again, ignoring the spirit's commotion rising once more.

"I have a feeling that this Meadow will figure prominently in our destinies later in life, Link." I said after our kiss broke.

"That's what I felt, too."

He started to back away. "Good-bye Saria."

"Good-bye Link."

I love you, Link.

I love you too, Saria.