Chapter III

Trail of Autumn

Bird's singing, scampering creatures and Links soft breath was the only thing hear in the forest. But, as if a tree had fallen, the hero suddenly woke up, his sword in hand at the throat of some unseen villain. He was soaked in salty sweat, and was panting heavily. He only started to pant more when he noticed he was in the middle of a forest that was probably older than the Great Deku Tree himself.

Well he thought at least I am out of Da'korath, and wont have to fight Gannon…well, at least not yet. He checked himself to make sure he had all his weapons still with him, and then started searching around for a way out of the ancient forest or at least somebody that could point him the way. He tried to remember what had happened. But all he could remember was picking up his sword, and then after that, everything went black.

Except for that blue flash. He wondered how he got to the forest for hours while trying to find his way out, but to no avail.

"What now." He thought out loud, and sat down on a tree that had been knocked over probably before he was even born. He buried his face into his hands, and sat like that for a few moments before deciding that sitting around wasn't going to help him.

He took his face out of his hands and slowly opened his eyes, hoping it had all been a dream and he would be back home at the castle with Zelda at his side. He was disappointed when his eyes finally opened, and what he saw actually spooked him. Instead of the ancient green and healthy tree's he had seen earlier, the trees were literally changing before his eyes, starting at one end of the tree, and then working its way to the other side, the trees were dying. Their green leaves were now shades of red and gold.

But not all of the trees were dying. On one side of Link, all the trees were still healthy and untouched by whatever curse was killing the trees, but almost in a straight line, the curse moved east.

"What in the…" he trailed off when he heard footsteps running east with the curse at an unbelievably fast pace. He stood up, and ran as quietly as he could after the footsteps.

He could occasionally catch glances of the runner, but after a straight hour of running as fast as he could, the only thing he could see was an occasional blur of colors. Link stopped suddenly, he was so focused on the runner, he hadn't seen what he was leaving behind, a trail of fiery footsteps.

He was panting heavily, and didn't think he could run much longer, but by the time Link had caught his breathe, the runner couldn't be seen, only his trail of fire and his wake of dead trees showed which way he had gone.

He walked over to one of the many fires that littered the ground, and noticed that the fire was like no fire he had ever seen before. The fire gave off no heat, but it was still burning the twigs and leaves inside the indented footprints, though it took a while before even a small twig was completely burned. The fire wasn't spreading either; it kept its footstep shape perfectly and would only burn what was inside the footstep. By studying the footstep, Link could tell that the runner was roughly two hundred pounds, including all of his clothes and weaponry, assuming he had any.

Link nervously put a finger inside the fire. He almost laughed at what he thought Zelda might say if she could see him now. But he was too nervous about what the fire might do to let out even a chuckle. The fire still gave off no heat and didn't hurt him, but it slowly ate away at his skin. If someone were to put this fire on someone while they were asleep, they wouldn't even know that they were on fire, but it would be a few hours before the fire did enough damage to kill them.

He stood up and realized that the sun was setting behind the horizon of trees. It would only be a few minutes before it was to dark to see. He found a hallow tree nearby that wasn't affected by the curse, and found a comfortable position, and tried to fall asleep. It certainly was an odd day, and he was still confused about what was happening and how he got in the forest. But wondering about it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He decided that he would follow the mysterious runner's trail tomorrow, and see if he led him to a town or at least out of the forest. But he probably wouldn't stop there; he wanted to know who the runner was. It was very interesting that he, or maybe even she, left behind footsteps of fire and left a trail of dead trees with out even touching them. He had to know who or what it was, friend or foe.

Link kneeled down, and reached his hand down. As his hand got closer to the sword, his hand tingled, and slowly moved up his arm, and the sword started to glow the color of time. An indescribable color, that was more blue than anything else, but yet, blue just didn't quite explain the color.

By now Links whole body was tingling, the feeling was so comforting, that link felt like is he could just live like this forever, he would never want again. His hand finally reached the sword and he picked it up. A burst of gold and the indescribable color of time burst out of the sword and surrounded links body along with a strong gust of wind that lifted his feet of the ground. The wind was so intense that Link had to close his eyes as it slowly became stronger. It felt like a million flaming hot needles were piercing his body, but as time progressed, they were more like swords than needles. Link let out a pain filled scream.

What's happening? Link thought as he lost consciousness. Suddenly there was an explosion of white-hot light out of his body, and when the light was gone, so was The Hero of Time.

Link went in and out of consciousness for what seemed like days, but in truth, it could have been just seconds. Finally, when link was able to stay consciousness long enough, he got a good look around. He was on a floating blue platform, surrounded by thousands more of the bluish platforms, in what seemed like a giant atrium. But instead of walls in the atrium, there were waterfalls that were the same color as time, falling into what seemed like eternity. There were twelve waterfalls, each a little bit different in color, but all the color of time.

"Beautiful are they not?" A voice said from behind. Link swung around and drew his sword out at the same time, by the time he had a good look at the figure, his sword was already under his chin, and Link was standing in a battle position.

How did I not here him before? Link wondered in his head.

The man smiled "Your speed has never ceased to amaze me, Hero of Time."

By the time link opened his eyes, he was already sitting up, covered in cold sweat. The cold morning air blew softly though his little hallow inside the tree, and he shivered. He remembered now what happened after he grabbed the sword, but where his dream, or flash back, ended, he couldn't remember anything after that.

Where was that? He wondered. He crawled out of his cove into the cold morning, and stretched his sore legs and arm, sleeping in a place as small as that made him a little cramped.

While stretching he noticed that all of the trees had shed their leaves during the night, and now, little green leaves were growing, reaching full size in a matter of seconds.

"Who is this mysterious runner?"It was almost the only thing Link could think of, but the answer almost scared him.

He walked to the trail of fiery footsteps. There wasn't even a trace that there was a fire there last night. Deciding that he had race the healing forest, or else lose the runner's trail, Link started to sprint down the trail, dream and fears forgotten.

There was only bare trees, and charcoal footprints the further he got, but it was more than what he had seen that morning, Eventually, trees started appearing that had red and gold leaves, and the charcoal footsteps were once again little footstep shaped fire's that gave off no heat.

I am getting closer

The tree's ended suddenly, and the fiery prints ended too. There was a great grass plain in front of him, it reminded him of Hyrule Field, but this field was different.

"Why do you follow me, elf." A deep voice said from above. Link drew his bow and nocked an arrow and readied into a shooting stance, preparing for an aerial attack off a nearby tree. What he saw nestled up high in the branches almost made him drop his bow.

"Speed like that I have never seen in your kind. Who are you, and why are you in my forest?" The creature had a sword hanging from his hand almost carelessly; he didn't even seem worried about Link's bow.

"My name is unimportant, I am just walking through, trying to find my way to Hyrule. I followed you in hopes you would lead me to there, or any civilization for that matter." Link lowered his bow a little.

The creature gave Link a strange glance. "Why do you search for Hyrule? You seem Hylian in my eyes, but yet, you do not tremble before me as most, and seem unaware of the terror that resides in Hyrule."

"You have not attacked me yet, so I have no reason to fear you, though your trail you leave behind intrigues me. And I do not fear Gannon as..."

The creature laughed. "Gannon! The magician is no more than a mutt, no one's seen him in years! There are far worse things in Hyrule these days."

Link scowled and re-aimed his bow at the creature in the tree. "Who are you?"