A Past Memory
A young boy sat on a log with his legs hanging over the side, swinging inches above a small pool of water. His expression was pensive, and his deep-blue eyes were vacant in past thoughts. He was clothed in a green tunic, and wore brown, leather boots made from either Goron hide or horse skin. A pointed hat rested on his head, hiding his scruffy, blond hair. As he stared at himself in the water, he gradually became aware of how his ears began to take on a pointed shape. Distraught with the sudden, strange changes in his body, the young boy began to prod at his ears.
Since his late birthday, the young boy began to notice that his ears had taken on a different shape and structure. They began to slightly curl and change, becoming sharp at the tips and less like a Kokiri Child's ears. This new sight placed him in a very tight spot, especially since Mido, the leader of the Kokiri children, began to notice his changes and mock him about them. He was very grateful that he had a hat to hide his ears, for if he didn't, Saria, one of his good friends, would notice them.
"Saria," he grumbled, pulling on his ears as he stared at his reflection through the water. "How do I tell you? How can I tell you that I'm so different from the others?"
Just at the thought of him telling her of his difference disturbed him, and he buried his head in his knees to hide his eyes from his shameful face.
"Link! I knew I'd find you here!"
The boy jumped as a set of gentle hands touched his back. He toppled over off the log, and fell face-first in the pool of water. As he broke through the surface again, squirting water out of his mouth, laughter met his ears and he looked up at the log just as Saria dropped down exactly where he had been sitting seconds before.
"You're so clumsy at times, Link," she laughed, flashing him a brilliant smile that made him blush. Quickly, he shoved his hat over his ears.
The boy, Link, climbed to his feet as he squeezed his tunic free of water. He shook his boots as he emerged from the pool, and then dropped down on the grass next to the log, sighing. Saria watched him as he pulled his boots off and shook them to purge the water. Then, he placed them over his feet again and tugged on his hat to hide his ears.
"Link? Is there something wrong," she asked him.
"No," he replied, distracted, "not in particular. Why do you ask?" He jumped in shock before withdrawing a minnow from within his tunic. Gently, he placed it back in the water before fixing his gaze on Saria. "Is there something bothering you?"
She cradled her chin in thought before shaking her head. "You just seem. . .different lately."
The word pierced through him like an arrow, and he quickly averted his gaze, returning to the pool before him.
"I had another dream," he mumbled, leaning back with his legs spread out, and his arms supporting his inclined body. "It was the same dream with that woman. . .and that castle."
Saria slid off of the log and joined him on the ground. She stared at him as his eyes became distant.
"It was like. . .I was there, Saria," he continued in a barely audible voice. "There was a war, and many people were dying in this kingdom. I was there, amidst the death and fighting." She put a comforting arm around him as his eyes took on thin slits. "It was cold," he continued lamely, "and there was something wrong about it."
"Link, you don't have to remember your dream," Saria whispered from his side. "It's far away, and you aren't there. You're here, in this forest with the rest of us. You're one of us, not a part of that war."
Slowly, Link came out of his trance and rubbed his face with the back of his left hand. "You're right, Saria," he said, flashing her a wide smile. "That was all just a dream. I'm not part of any war."
She returned his smile with a pouting frown, and then snatched up his hat in her hand, exposing his blond, messy hair.
"Hey—Saria!" he shouted, jumping to his feet just as she jumped away from him.
"Me and Taters have been looking for you all over this morning!" she whined, shoving her hands on her hips. "The Great Deku Tree summoned you at dawn!"
Link, who was eager for a fight only seconds before, suddenly lost interest at the mention of the Great Deku Tree. The other Kokiri children were summoned to him regularly, but it was Link's first time being sent an invite to visit him. This news struck through him, and sent his heart bounding in joy.
"The Great Deku Tree!" Link repeated as his jaw dropped. "Why didn't you mention that before, Saria—that comes first before any dumb dream!"
Saria held out Link's hat for him to take as he dashed by. He sprinted through the wood, avoiding low-hanging tree branches and upturned trees roots as he ran. In a matter of seconds, Taters, a Kokiri child with red hair and gleaming hazel eyes, joined Link at his side as he rushed through the forest.
"Hey, Link," he said, keeping exact pace with him. "Why did you leave so early this morning?"
"Not now, Taters," Link nearly exclaimed, his heart bounding from the excitement of what The Great Deku Tree would want with him. "Did you know that I got invited to visit The Great Deku Tree?!"
Taters nodded. "Saria came and told me. I agreed to accompany you on the journey to visit him."
Link suddenly skidded to a halt, and then turned towards Taters with a confused expression on his face.
"Wait, doesn't every Kokiri summoned go on his or her own?" he asked him.
Taters rubbed the back of his curly, red head. "Well, The Great Deku Tree asked Saria to accompany you on the journey. She also asked for another person to come with her, and since we're all friends, I decided to come with you. Fair answer?"
Link's spirits dropped. So that was how the Deku Tree viewed him: untrustworthy and weak. An unexplained anger began to trickle into Link's heart.
"I don't need your help!" he shouted at the small boy. "I can go see the Deku Tree without anyone's help! Tell Saria I'm going alone."
Link turned away from Taters and began down the path again, but he was called back.
"But, Link, when the Great Deku Tree tells us to accompany each other, that's usually for good cause," Taters called to him. "Shouldn't we heed his words with caution?"
Link couldn't help but listen. Taters was right: the Deku Tree always gave them cautionary words, but Link didn't want to listen this time. He wanted to prove to the Deku Tree that he, Link, the only boy among the Kokiri that was different, could fend for himself just as well as the others. Without another word, Link took off into the forest.
Why, he thought bitterly to himself, Why does the Deku Tree think I can't handle myself? Why does he want Saria and Taters to come with me? There hasn't been anything in the wood lately, and all the Skull Kids are behaving themselves. So, why?
Link slowed to a walking pace once he was a good distance away from Taters. Anger was in his heart, as well as in his mind. He didn't want his first journey to the Deku Tree to be allied with friends. The other Kokiri children went by themselves, but Link was to be sent with Saria and Taters. Why?
He suddenly felt as if he wasn't worth the visit. Link turned down a dark tunnel in the Lost Woods, and continued walking until he came across the Sacred Meadow. Quietly, he crossed to a tree stump that sat next to the forgotten, worn Forest Temple, and then dropped down on top of it. Usually Saria would be sitting on that exact stump playing her ocarina, but she was still back at the pool, most likely preparing to accompany Link on his journey to the Deku Tree's Haven. But Link wouldn't go. He had already made up his mind, and just sat there on Saria's stump, thinking hard about the dream he had the past few nights.
It always started out with a distressed woman singing a lullaby to him. It's rhythm was mysterious, and she sang it to him every night while he lied awake. Then, every second day he'd awake to screaming and chaos. The walls around him were shattered, and the room was littered with stones. The same woman would come to him every second day he'd awake to in his dream, and take him up in her arms, wrap him tightly in his blankets, and then leave the castle. He knew this very well, though he didn't know why, and then the dream would always end with her whispering a prayer to the goddesses as she lied him down on the cold earth. It was always the same dream again and again. There were no changes and no new scenes. It was replayed exactly as if in a play.
Thinking hard, Link began to play with his left ear.
A castle was under attack in his dream. Strange people garbed in strange clothing attacked the castle, always. There was a glint of a sword or two, as well, and then there was the sound of an arrow as it was shot from its bow, and then struck its target. Then, there was silence as the darkness engulfed him, only spared by the strange sounds of something rapid on the ground as he and the woman sped along on a strange creature, fleeing the land. And after that, there was that prayer, and Link would awake in his own bed.
Distressed, Link tugged hard on his left ear, only pausing as he felt its strange, new structure. He retired his hand back to his side as his thoughts came to an abrupt halt, and then stood up once more.
"Well, I don't care," he said moodily, straightening the belt around his middle. "I don't care about some dream, nor do I care about some war. I'm not there, and those people aren't my concern." His mood suddenly lightened as he glanced around at all the trees that surrounded him and the bright sunlight as it trickled in through the canopy of leaves above him. "The forest is my home, not some castle far away." Content with his answer, he set off through the Lost Woods again.
Around noon, Link arrived in the Kokiri village with a slightly happier mood. As he hopped across the 'Happy Stones', as Kairi called them—and received a blue rupee from her—he set a course for home. However, as he crossed the path towards his tree house, his good mood quickly evaporated as Mido came into view, leaning against Link's tree with a sly expression on his pointed face.
Mido was the leader of the Kokiri children. He was a short and stocky boy with a pointed face and a flat nose. His hair was orange, short, and straggly, and he wore green shoes the Deku Tree, himself, wove together from the leaves of his tree-body. All-in-all, he was a bad-tempered boy, and his main entertainment was Link's discomfort.
"Well, well, look at who shows up after disappearing for most of the day," Mido grumbled coolly, chewing on a blade of grass.
"Go away, Mido," Link growled in response, "I'm not in the mood."
"You're not in the mood," Mido repeated, slightly heated. "I'm not interested in what kind of mood you're in. I've been asked by the Great Deku Tree to take you to him. Good job, loser," he added in a bit of a lighter tone, examining his fingernails in indifference, "Looks like all these years that the Deku Tree has passed you up, he's finally decided to summon you to his Haven."
Link's eyebrows furrowed deeply in anger. He crossed to Mido and shoved him away from his tree. "Shut up! You don't know anything!"
"Ooh, getting a little pushy there, don't you think?" Mido grabbed Link by the hat as he turned to climb his ladder, and then sent him flying a few feet away from his house. "I don't have time for arguing, loser. When the Deku Tree summons someone, you don't back down. First rule of the Kokiri. But I'm forgetting," he added in a grim tone of voice, "You're not one of us. . .are you?"
"Yes I am!"
Link launched himself at Mido, and the both of them fell on the ground in a tangled heap. Link took hold of Mido's tunic and began punching him with as much force as he could muster. Outraged, Mido grabbed the closest thing he could, which turned out to be Link's hat, and pulled with all his might. In a matter of seconds, Link's blond head was exposed to the other Kokiri children that had gathered to break up the fight. As Link made to slam his fist into Mido's face for the fifth time, his strange ears curled out from the safety of his blond hair, and the group around them fell silent. Mido gasped in shock at the sight. Realizing what happened, Link snatched his hat away from Mido and covered his ears again as his face burned with hot blood.
"Well, well, the loser's got sharp ears now," Mido jeered, jumping back to his feet as Link backed down from the attack. "What's next—sharp eyes?"
"Shut up, Mido!" Link shouted as the crowd of Kokiri children watched him, as he kept the pressure of his hands pulling the hat over his ears.
"Why, loser, 'cause you know it's true?" Mido challenged as he placed his hands on his hips in smug satisfaction. "When will you realize that you're not like us? When will you realize that we'll never accept you— "
"That's not true!" Link charged at Mido in another assault, but Mido side-stepped swiftly, and then snatched off Link's hat again. In a mere few seconds, Link's ears were exposed to the other children once more.
"If your ears aren't proof enough, then go ask the Great Deku Tree," Mido said as he pointed at Link's sharp ears. "He has all the answers."
"Maybe I will!"
Angrily, Link claimed his hat again and shoved it roughly over his head, hiding his ears from the Kokiris' eyes. Then, he shoved his way through the crowd and began making his journey to the Great Deku Tree Haven that lied beyond the village.
"Hey, the Deku Tree said that you can't go alone!" Mido shouted after Link, rushing to keep up with him.
"I don't care!" And Link sprinted away into the forest before Mido could catch up with him.
Author's Note: Okay, this is really frustrating! This is my first time publishing, so it is very hard for me. And thank you for your comment, Reghedable. Yes, this story is suppose to be the Link that breaks the ties of the other Links that would be reincarnated in the future. I think you'll really like this story, and plus, I'm almost done with it...well, Part 2, anyway. I have 10+ chapters of the story already done. Sorry if I don't get the chapters up quicker, I'm just having issues with the publishing process. Thank you for reading! ~T-Lea.
