For a number of minutes, Link simply cradled Mido in her arms as Razl and Dazl hugged each other and cried. What pulled Link out of her sad contemplation was the sound of the door they had come through opening and shutting. Looking up, Link realized that Don had went back, likely to talk to Aryll. Sure enough, after a moment, Don came back through and said, "I spoke to Aryll and let her know you won. I also told her not to come in here because of...reasons." Don glanced at Mido for a moment before moving on to stand near the mural door.

Gently, Link placed Mido on the ground, crossing his arms to put his hands together over his heart. Link then carefully took Lumie and put him in Mido's hands. Standing, Link looked around and spotted an old tapestry on a nearby wall, depicting a giant tree with a face talking to a little boy in green clothes. Link went over and pulled the cloth down, and brought it back over to Mido, draping it over him. Kneeling next to him, Link spoke to the fairies. "Could you two...tell me a bit about Mido? The Great Faery said that me and him were rivals in a previous life. Do you...know anything about that?"

After a moment, one of the fairies would speak up. "It was...fifteen hundred years ago, I think."

"The Hylians had just had some kind of war."

"A woman fled into our woods, carrying a child."

"She found the Great Deku Tree, who took pity on the dying woman, and took her child into the care of the Kokiri."

"With her dying breath she named the child Link, and he was raised as one of the Kokiri."

"But he was not a real Kokiri, so no Fairy ever came to him."

"Mido never liked Link, and sometimes tried to bully him."

"Mido called himself the leader of the Kokiri, but was jealous of Link because he was Saria's friend."

"One day The Great Deku Tree called for Link, and sent him on a journey to save Hyrule."

"Mido at first was glad that Link was gone, but when Saria became sad, he became upset."

"There was chaos in the forest then, and Saria went to investigate. Link came back, older then, but Kokiri don't age, so Mido didn't recognize Link."

"Link went into the Forest Temple, and stopped the chaos, but Saria awoke as the Sage of the Forest, and could no longer return from the Sacred Realm."

"Mido blamed Link for Saria not coming back."

"But the truth was, Mido loved both Link and Saria. And he was sad when they never came back."

"Over the centuries, each time Mido was born, he lived a lonely life. He's always felt like he was waiting for his friends to come back."

"But they never did."

As the fairies told Mido's story, Link was plucking the metal shrapnel out of her arms and chest from the sword shattering. She was trying to ignore the disturbing feeling rippling through her as she could almost see visions in the back of her mind of the events they were describing. An small pain was digging into her heart at hearing that Mido loved and missed..."her".

Link looked up, seeing Don waiting patiently near the mural door, leaning against the wall and letting Link do what she needed to do.

"Thank you, for telling me this." Link said to the fairies, before rising and heading over to Don.

"I told you he wouldn't survive the Purification." He said simply as she approached, keeping his gaze to the side away from Link.

"I had to try."

"I know." Don smirked, "You wouldn't be a Hero if you didn't, eh?"

"I guess." Link let herself have a small smile. She looked then to the mural, which depicted a young man in a green tunic, wielding a series of similar swords against a variety of large dark monsters. It seemed that he came from an island in the sky, and was friends with a woman that Link recognized as a depiction of Hylia from the little pamphlets those preachers spread around. In the final image, the Hero fought against a humanoid version of the dark monster wielding a sword that looked like the normal Master Sword from the normal artwork of the Hero's Tales as well as the Tri-Force. "This is...the earliest depiction of the Hero, right?"

"Yep, it's supposed to be his origin. There's another mural down that way that's supposed to precede this one. It depicts the Three Goddesses creating the world, and then leaving the Tri-Force in Hylia's care. Then Hylia led the mortal forces in a war against a Demon King, and managed to seal him near this temple. Another Mural down that way depicts the aftermath of this one, where the Demon King somehow curses the Hero and the Goddess Hylia, which I think is supposed to be why the 'Beast' keeps coming back to Hyrule, and why the Hero and the Goddess, who is always a Princess Zelda, I think, keep fighting over the fate of Hyrule."

"Is...is it my fault that he keeps coming back?"

"What? No! The Demon King's the one who made the curse. You-er-the Hero has successfully defeated the Beast each time, hell, from what I understand, some Hero's have gone to rather extreme steps to try and permanently beat him. I mean, the last Hero tried to use his own Soul as a sacrifice for it."

"Right." Link frowned. "So, after I go around and poke these seals and fix them so that this 'Beast' is properly resealed, then I'm supposed to kill Fangor, right? But what about the soul fragments he has? Will they reincarnate into a new cycle a hundred years from now?"

"Perhaps. This time might make him weak enough to no longer be reborn. Or maybe some other archeological idiot will come along and mess with these seals. Don't worry too much about it, Link. You have a bigger, more immediate threat to deal with before you start thinking about what you can do to end the cycle."

Link sighed heavily, but nodded. "Yeah, you're right. One step at a time." She looked up at the door then, looking at her past life and trying to draw strength from him. She moved to the middle of the two massive doors, and went to push, expecting them to be heavy. And for a brief moment, they didn't budge, but then the cracks around the edges glowed and the door swung open, causing Link to fall on her face.

"Graceful." Don snarked from behind.

"Shut up." Link stood up and brushed herself off before looking into the room and seeing a massive glowing orb with a dark core floating above a pedestal. Link's jaw kind of dropped at the sight, which Don pushed back up with a finger. "Thanks."

"Yeah, it's honestly a lot bigger than I was expecting too. Look, those are the ritual parts that are siphoning the soul bits out." Don pointed the arcane looking carvings around the pedestal and odd occult devices. Some of the devices glowed and Link could almost see energy being pulled out of the Orb and into the devices. "Now, first thing's first, lets kick over all these devices. We can't do much about the carved in runes but if we remove the Foci it'll be fine, the Great Faery can protect this Temple now that you've fixed her."

"Right." Link and Don quickly knocked over all the devices, which Link noticed some contained Crystals, which she pocketed to look at later. Mid-way through, Razl and Dazl floated into the room and up to Link. "Hey guys, so, what exactly do I have to do now to fix this...thing?"

"Well, I believe that's it's an extremely complicated ritual. You touch the orb." Don stated very solemnly.

"...and...?"

"Nothing else, that's it." Don smirked as Link facepalmed. Even the fairies let out small sad chuckles, seeming somewhat better than before. "The magic that maintains the seal should do the rest once the Hero's Soul resonates with your piece of it. I expect it will be loud, dramatic, and probably involve flashing lights of many colors, and then everything should fix itself."

"Good to know." Link said, suddenly feeling nervous. Razl and Dazl landed on her shoulders then, leaning against her neck as they tried to comfort her.

"We'll be with you Link."

"We'll keep an eye on you and do what we can to help."

"Thanks." Link smiled at the fairies. "I appreciate that."

Slowly, Link moved closer to the orb, which was both blindingly bright and hideously dark at the same time. An intense fear started to burn in her mind as she got close to it, but she pushed through, swallowing her fear and thrusting her hand onto the orb's surface. A huge rushing of wind filled Link's ear as blackness consumed her vision.

Link blinked her eyes as she returned to consciousness. Don was looking over her with only a mild bit of concern while the two fairies were losing their minds.

"I'm alive, calm down." Link grumbled as she sat up, but falling back down as the two fairies tackle her face.

"I wasn't worried." Don chuckled.

"I can tell." Link chuckled as she peeled the fairies off her face and they took flight. Link looked at the orb, which seemed to be a ball of almost pure light now, the dark core now very tiny. "So, did it work?"

"I think so..." Razl said uncertainly.

"Like Don said, there was a lot of light and noise and stuff, and now the orb looks stable."

"I can barely see the darkness inside anymore, I guess the Hero's Soul has a better hold over it."

"See?" Don called out, a wide smile on his face. "You're a natural at this Link. Everything's going to work out fine."

"Well you look cheerful."

"How could I not be Link, this here today proves I was right. You're a genuine Hero in the making! I wonder what your title will be..."

"Oh my Goddesses, that's right, if this all works out I'll get some kind of Title, won't I? Oh I hope it's not stupid."

"None of the titles are all that bad though," Razl said as she turned to Dazl, "Let's see, there's the most recent Hero of Life and Death,"

"Fought the Lich."

"Hero of Divinity,"

"Fought the Beast Cult."

"Hero of Magic,"

"Fought the Dark Sorcerer."

"Hero of Light,"

"Sealed the Beast in the Four Sword."

"Hero of Twilight,"

"That whole Twilight debacle, ugh."

"The Hero of Time,"

"That's the one that was Mido's rival."

"The Four Sword Hero,"

"Wait, stop, hold on, there's a Four Sword Hero? But that's not the one that sealed the Beast into the 'Four Sword' you mentioned earlier?" Link interrupted the amusing back and forth.

"Well, there were two incidents with the Four Sword, and in one the Hero was called the Four Sword Hero, and in the other he was the Hero of Light."

"Why?"

"I...don't know? I didn't pay that much attention to the Gee-Eff's history lesson."

"And what order are you doing these Heroes in?"

"Uh, backwards from most recent?"

"And how many more Heroes are there?"

"Um, The Hero of Elements, the Hero of Men, the Chosen Hero, and Hylia's Chosen Hero, but Gee-Eff said there's some debate among the other Gee-Eff's about whether or not the last two are the same person."

"Thanks for the History lesson." Link said as she walked out of the room back into the large Hall. Glancing off to the two side paths, and seeing some rooms in their hallways, Link veered in her path and went to check the rooms in one hallway, Don after a moment realizing what she was doing, went to the other side saying, "I'll check the other rooms for loot."

As Link looked through her rooms, she found various ancient decaying relics, some of which she was sure stiff nobles back home would pay through the nose for no other reason than they were old relics. One thing that made her stop in her tracks though was an odd statuette of two strange looking birds. Once again Link felt an odd feeling of sadness, as if remembering a long lost friend. She frowned as she tried to tug at the mental string, find out what that was about but couldn't think of what it was.

"Dammit." Link grumbled as she put the statuette back down. In a different room she found a knife, similar to the one that Mido had used, though from the design it was apparently meant to be a sword for a smaller person like a Kokiri, but for Link it was just a knife. Still, better than nothing given Link's lack of sword.

Link reunited with Don soon after, showing her knife as Don tossed her a small bag of Rupees. Link wondered for a moment if the Thief had found anything and simply kept it for himself, but if he did, that was fine, she supposed. He was part of the team and earned his own rewards, after all, he seemed relatively invested in her, so she doubted he'd keep anything that would help her.

"Also, here's this." Don tossed Link another small purse, which Link peeked in to find a bunch of Dark Crystals. "I figured you could hold onto these until you figured out something to do with them."

"Oh yeah," Link said, remembering that she'd used the purifier on Mido, but didn't collect the crystals. "I can give these to the Great Faery!"

"Um...ok?" Don gave a confused smile at this.

"Oh right, I don't think I told you. When I purified the Great Faery, she took the Dark Crystals and got rid of them, and in return she gave me some Mana. She said that her and the other Great Faeries will give me gifts in exchange for these Crystals, since they know how to get rid of their evil."

"Oh, neat. So that's what was up with the whoosh whoosh glowy thingy you did during the fight."

"Yes, my charged blade attack." Link chuckled at Don's vocabulary. As a Mage Thief, you would think he'd know better terms for the trick Link used. "I'll bring these to the Great Faery and see what she'll give me for them."

"Cool, let's go do that then." Don said. The group then made their way back to the main tree area, where Don went over to Aryll and told them about their winning and fixing the problem in the Temple. Link and the fairies meanwhile went down the staircase and made their way into the Great Faery's chamber again. To Link's surprise, the giant woman was giving her a huge smile.

"You did it! I felt the magic from here. It seems like to stabilize itself the seal drew from the Ambient magic of the entire temple, but I can sense that Fangor's ritual is no more. And thanks to you, I'll make sure Fangor's forces never set foot in this section of the woods again." With a wave of her hand, Link was levitated onto the raised platform again so the Great Faery could talk to her on a more even level. "And...what happened to Mido? Did...he make it?"

But the Great Faery's face became sad as she could already tell from Link and the fairies' body language.

"I see."

"Link tried everything she could!" Razl called out.

"She used a purifier and gave him a health potion and-"

The little fairies were silenced by the Great Faery raising a hand.

"It's okay. At least he is able to rest in peace now. I'll talk to the Great Deku Tree about this later. Where is his body?"

"He's in the hall of the Temple, I put Lumie in his hands and covered him with a tapestry. I'm sorry, I don't know what else I should have done."

"That's fine. I'll take care of the rest." The Great Faery thought for a moment before focusing her gaze on Link, specifically one of the pouches on her hips. "You used the purifier on him, yes?"

"Oh, yeah." Link quickly pulled the purse out and opened it, and the small couple dozen crystals flew out of the bag into her hands, where she crushed them. "There wasn't that much from him though."

"Not surprising. As these things are crystallized dark magic, my body would of course produce more from the sheer amount of magic in my body, despite not being completely corrupted, and while Mido was fully corrupted, he had little magic. I imagine that different victims of Fangor will produce different amounts of Crystals depending on their magic and level of corruption."

The Great Faery lifted a hand and pointed at Link, the tip of her finger glowing as Link started floating again, feeling magic flowing into her. "As thanks for this, I will give you a spell of my Patron Goddess, Farore. Farore is the Goddess of many things, of Courage, of Wind, and of Life. I give you a healing spell, so that you may recover from your wounds, and press on in the face of danger."

Link gasped as she felt the knowledge enter her brain, and on an instinctual level she understood how it worked. Gently she settled back down on the platform, where she bowed to the Great Faery, "Thank you so much. I'll put it to good use."

"I know you will, Hero. You have every time I've given it to you. Now go, today has been but one battle. You still have a war to win. Fangor has other plots."

Link nodded, feeling herself filling with determination as she turned and quickly ran down the spiral path of the raised platform, and headed to the exit. The fairies were moving to follow her when the Great Faery called out.

"Razl, Dazl, I know how you feel, but I need you here. You can't join the Hero of this journey."

"Aw..." The two collectively sighed sadly.

Link said goodbye to them and thanked them for their help, before turning and heading back topside. She met back up with Don and Aryll and they made their way out of the tree and back towards town.

Author's Commentary: Now, I'm sure some people are going to comment on Mido's story. Since this is supposed to be from the Child Timeline, then Link went back in time and stopped the events of the 7-year war, so Saria awakening never happened, right? Well, in my story, even with the time travel, certain things still carried backwards. Basically, and this will properly be explained later, when Link went back, all the Sages awakened again, and the Kokiri and fairies to a degree, remember the events that happened within their woods. So Saria has since then been in the Sacred Realm, operating as a Sage and working with the Hero to protect Hyrule over the generations. The previous Hero had met with Saria when he enacted his plan for the sealing of Ganon's soul. Saria still exists within the Sacred Realm as a Sage too, and may be met later in the story.

Also, yes, I'm aware that Demise was sealed in the Sealed Temple, which according to Hyrule Historia becomes the Temple of Time in OoT, which means that the Temple of Hylia, which was in the Faron Woods, was not actually near the Lost Woods. I am yes, aware that on closer inspection, a lot of details being given in my story don't seem to jive with canon. But keep in mind who gives the various details. Not of them are primary sources with first-hand experience. Stories change over time, as do geographical features. Details are lost or added, etc. Through various wars, Hyrule town has been destroyed and moved and rebuilt many times. The current "Old Hyrule Town" is by far not the first "Old" Hyrule Town. So, whether or not the temple we're currently in is the original Sealed Temple, and by extension the Temple of Time from OoT...who knows :3 Well, I do, but I'm not telling.

Through Razl and Dazl, I've now also given a list of the Heroes, in reverse order, that make up the Chain of Heroes in my story's timeline. The three most recent, Life and Death, Divinity, and Magic, are my original Heroes and they all had their own adventures which may or may not get more explanation later, but each story has their own major impact on the current plot.