Chapter Five

Lost

The beads of sweat roll down Link's forehead like freezing snowballs down a mountain. The yellow eyes that had haunted him from the previous night grow larger as they move closer to him, striking deeper in his heart with every step forward.

With a set of thunderous steps, the figure emerges from behind the veil of shadowy tree trunks and low-hanging branches, into the forest clearing. Expecting the creature to reveal its large, menacing wingspan, Link gasps when the shadows draped over the figure lift away to reveal not feathers, but a thick layer of dark brown fur.

The shadows of the woods had exaggerated the figure's true size, for now in the dim light of the clearing, the creature was no taller than Link himself. It stands with a curious slouch; its plump, spherical midsection of light brown fur wobbling slightly back in forth. A set of small ears poke meekly out of the top of the creature's head and twitch with a similar curiosity as displayed in its stance. Yet most curious of all are the creature's eyes which stare out from a patch of pitch black fur. Similar to the yellow eyes rooted in Link's fears, they shine with the same piercing yellow radiance, but their gaze is not of intimidation. Instead they quell the avalanche of sweat from Link's forehead leaving him to stare back with the same peaceful curiosity.

A smooth wind silently passes through the clearing, paying mind to the tense silence that surrounds the staring combatants. The more Link stares into the creature's eyes, the more their yellow glow reflects a different intent than the ones that had been haunting him.

Whether the intent is benevolent or malicious, Link cannot tell.

Link takes a quick glance around him. The bodies of the monsters he had defeated before had vanished into smoke, but the broken ends of their spears remained behind only a few feet away from him. He would most likely be able to grab one of the weapons should this furry thing decide to attack him.

Link takes a step forward.

The creature stands still.

Link creeps with another step towards the nearby spear.

The creature's eyes remain locked in place.

With a deep breath, Link lunges forward and grabs the spear from the grass and points it directly at the creature. "Get out of here! I don't want to use this again."

The yellow eyes widen, but the creature does not move.

Link can feel his head swirling; the cut he had suffered in the battle began to sting sharply, aggravating his frustration with the aloof creature. "Please, just leave me alone" Link says exasperatedly.

"Alone, leaving you? But sir, meeting you I am for the very first time" says the creature with a frivolous giggle.

Link's eyes widen as he loosens his grip on the spear, lowering it slowly to his side. This dumbfounded-looking thing could speak.

"A name, does my sir have?"

A name? "My name is…Link" he says.

"Link!" the creature yells with a high-pitched cackle, throwing its stubby arms out to its sides. The furry creature begins to twirl in slow circles, exposing a short striped tail that spins in a whirl of brown as the creature dances in place.

Link watches in awe as the creature continues to spin while squeaking his name out in a rhythmic tune. The ridiculousness of the dance loosens the tension in his body, relaxing the fear from the yellow eyes.

He shakes his head to snap himself from his surprised daze. Setting the spear down on the ground, Link inches slightly closer to the creature, curious to find out exactly what the thing is.

The creature stops whirling as Link grows close. Its tiny mouth opens wide and its eyes squint with excitement as it jumps forward to tackle Link, throwing him hard to the ground. "A friend you are, finally!" says the creature, "Lonely this place is always. Lonely so."

Link gasps for air as the heavy mass of fur lays on top of him. Even though this thing was most likely not evil, it was still going to find a way to kill him. "You don't want to kill your first friend," Link grunts as he struggles to free himself from the audacious hug, "do you?"

The creature springs to its feet with a sharp gasp. "No, no, no! Killing my friend I do not want, no!" it says.

With a beleaguering pain over his entire frame, Link scrapes himself from the forest ground and up to meet the creature face to face once again. "I gave you my name, can you tell me yours?" he asks.

The creature twists its eyes in confusion, putting a knobby finger to its lip to think. "Name? Name. Name, name, name."

"Link rolls his eyes. "Yes, your name, please."

"No name do I have," the furry creature says with a cackle, "No name do I need."

Link's frustration returned to its icy course through his veins. "No name do you have?" Link says confusedly, realizing he was starting to talk like the stupid thing, "Why don't you have a name?"

The creature raises his arms in the air momentarily and averts its gaze upwards away from Link as if to recall a memory. "Know why, I do not. Remember nothing, I do. Waking up every time in the forest; mushrooms all around myself when I wake. Remember nothing, always…"

Link continues to stand in awe beside the creature, lifting a hand to scratch his forehead as the creature continued to ramble about its unfortunate existence. Link can barely see the creature in front of him, as the light had almost completely cleared out from the clearing. The cool stream of sweat from Link's forehead begins to build up as he realizes that night would soon be upon the forest. Of course, that meant he would be left alone with what were sure to be even deadlier creatures than the fat raccoon that stood before him.

The creature had altered the topic of its monologue to the mushrooms it claims to have woken next to, but nonetheless shows no sign of stopping, prompting Link to casually step away from the creature. Walking backwards, Link watches for any sign that the raccoon notices him abandoning the conversation, but the raccoon's mouth continues to chirp away and its eyes remain diverted to the clearing's ceiling.

Far enough from the creature, Link turns away to face the edge of the clearing. The trees had faded away into the darkness of the night, turning the forest into a looming abyss. Link steps forward and hears the sound of crunching branches and leaves beneath his feet. He reaches a hand in front of him to feel for the nearest branch, but continues to wave around in futility, finding nothing but pitch black space.

Link takes a few more steps forward. The snapping of the forest debris continues for a moment but soon turns to the soft patting sound of grass. The darkness lifts slightly to show a faint image of the grassy ground. With a few more steps, the light grows even more, revealing a corpulent furry figure and a set of large yellow eyes.

"Why leaving your friend are you?" says the furry creature that now stands in front of Link, its eyes clenched in a purposeful squint.

"Well," Link gasps on the cool forest air as he tries to return the question. How did he end up behind the fur ball? "I can't stay in this forest any longer. I have to leave."

The creature's eyes remain squinted, "You tell me not why."

Link sighs, "I didn't come here to make friends with raccoons," he says, his tension building, "I have to figure out how I'm going to get off of this island, but now it's too dark to see anything and I'm not sticking around this forest to be attacked by the next cursed thing that wants to kill me!"

The creature closed its eyes and screeches a high-pitched laugh through the quiet clearing, "Friend I am not to you, but my only friend you are to me. Leaving I will let you not."

"I'd like to see you stop me," says Link firmly. He turns away from the creature and storms away.

The grass soon turns to the crunching debris beneath the trees as the light fades to black, but again the light returns slightly and with it the sound of the soft grass. The creature stands in front of him yet again, this time its eyes wide with excitement.

Link grits his teeth and turns away from the cackling raccoon, running back into the woods, but yet again the furry creature turns up in front of him. It is as if the clearing's edge were an infinite loop; an infinite loop surrounded by a perpetual jeering cackle. "Stop!" yells Link raising his hands to cover his ears, but the raccoon's laugh passes right through Link's attempt to muffle the noise.

With a loud growl, Link lunges for the raccoon, but misses as the large mass of fur jumps nimbly backwards. Hitting the ground hard with his chest, Link brushes his outstretched arm against a piece of wood that had been on the ground. It is one of the broken ends of the monster spears. Grabbing it and lurching to his feet, Link whirls around furiously, looking for the yellow eyes of the raccoon.

The screeching laughter of the raccoon continues to pierce through the clearing, but the creature's yellow eyes are nowhere to be found. Link turns in every direction as best as he can in the absent light, adamantly searching for the maniacal raccoon. As he turns, Link's foot slides across the ground and knocks against something hard. Bending down, he pats around on the grass in an attempt to locate the object, and quickly finds it and raises it close to his face. It is the stone he had thrown to ignite the flames earlier.

Link quickly puts the stone to the wooden stick in his hand and strikes it hard against the bladed end. An orange spark flies off of the tip of the metal and lands on the forest floor, bursting into a bright red flame on a small pile of leaves. The clearing is illuminated in the light of the flame, revealing the laughing raccoon a short distance away.

"What did you do to the forest?!" Link shouts at the creature. The raccoon continues to laugh as it begins to bounce in place.

Link angrily throws the stone at the raccoon but the raccoon again dodges.

Stopping just at the edge of the clearing, the raccoon's pestering laughter finally quiets as the raccoon opens its eyes to gaze at Link. "Lost in the woods, my friend will always be. Forever we will play," says the raccoon. With a quick bounce in place, the raccoon resumes its laughter before scurrying away into the woods.

"No, you're not getting away from me!" screams Link. He takes the spear and holds it into the fire, lighting the wooden end in the flame. The dancing flames from his torched spear bounce their light off the dark trees. With a kick of dirt from the ground he smothers the fire before racing towards where the raccoon had escaped.

With the bright guide in his hand, Link passes out of the clearing and into the forest. As he continues his pursuit of the raccoon, the forest remains intact and the spaciousness of the clearing is soon forgotten as the dark maze of trees closes in on Link.

Now buried deep in the smothering blackness of night, the trees of the Mysterious Woods seem to have come alive. The light of Link's torch flickers against the jagged bark of the trees, contorting the shadows into hideous faces of terror that loom over Link as he races after the raccoon. The space between the trees is narrow and each hard step Link takes threatens to send him toppling into the darkness never to be found.

The labyrinth narrows further as Link continues his pursuit, but it quickly becomes apparent that the raccoon has long since escaped his reasonable area of pursuit. Link stops to catch his breath on a tree, resting his head on his arm. The light from his torch has diminished through the pursuit, leaving the area lit in a meager glow from a few dying embers.

Link falls to the ground, turning his back to rest against the tree and closing his eyes to escape the terrifying shadows of the woods. What was he doing? Why was he so determined to follow the yellow eyes? At this point, they could lead him to nowhere but his certain doom. Link opens his eyes and nearly shrieks at what he sees before him.

The shadows dancing from the trees had made it seem like each one had a face of its own, but the tree in front of him is cut to take the appearance of a leering face. The sight is startling, but Link raises himself when he catches sight of the candles poised in what looks like the tree's "eyes." Does someone live here?

Link slowly weaves through a few small trees and creeps into the mouth of the mysteriously cut tree. The tree is hollow on the inside and the light is dim, but brighter still than the night-covered woods. A murky, purple haze covers the ground and the walls seem to ooze with a bubbly, green slime. There are shelves attached to the walls adorned with glass bottles of various colors and amongst them crawl small black creatures that look like moving shadows.

Link can feel his own body turning against him, pleading him to turn around and run from this horrifying place, but before he can run, he is stopped by the sight of something moving at the center of the tree. There is a large bronze cauldron where the purple haze appears to be coming from and behind it something lumbers around before popping up from behind the cauldron. "Oh, what a handsome young man."

A very old lady with a long, pointy nose and scraggly, green hair smiles at Link from behind her cauldron. She is wearing a long purple robe complete with a witch's hat of the same color. She brings a large wooden stick from behind the cauldron and dips it into the pot and stirs. "What brings you here, my dear?"

Link remains fixed in fright and can barely utter a gasp to answer the old witch.

"Wait, I know. You've run into the feral beast, haven't you dear?" She says with a toothy grin.

"Rac–coon," Link stutters, "the raccoon, you know of it?"

The witch continues to stir her cauldron. "He's a foul beast, isn't he my dear? He's gone and got you all tied up in the woods. Well, I'm afraid there's not much you can do about that."

Link feels control of his body return and takes a few cautious steps towards the witch. "Do you mean…I'm stuck here? For how long?"

"Most likely…forever."

Link falls to the floor to his hands and knees.

"Don't be like that my dear; that would only be if you stayed here and decided to become my assistant. If you want to break that beast's curse on you, I'm sure there's a way." The witch cackles softly and keeps stirring the cauldron.

Link lifts himself back up and steps up to the cauldron just across from the witch. "What do I have to do?" He says, "Please, I just want to leave this place."

The cauldron bubbles faster as the witch stirs it, the purple liquid inside turning into more of the haze as it bubbles over the sides. The witch takes her one of her bony hands from the stick and holds it over the pot and snaps her fingers. A plume of purple gas bursts out of the cauldron consuming both Link and the witch. Link closes his eyes and waves his hand in front of his face, coughing to avoid breathing in more of the gas. When he opens his eyes, the cauldron is back to its original state, but something has appeared in the witch's hand. A small, leather pouch no bigger than Link's own fist.

"Magic powder. My special little concoction," the witch cackles, "take it my dear."

Link reaches out his hand and grabs the pouch. He holds it in front of his face and opens it to peer inside. With two fingers he reaches inside and lifts a small amount of the power out. The purple substance slides easily out of his fingers, falling back inside the pouch. "What does it do?" Link asks.

"Sprinkle a little on the beast."

"And what will happen?"

The witch stretches her mouth into an evil smile. "It will eliminate your problem."

Eliminate. Link can only assume at what she means by this. "It will kill him. Won't it?"

The witch retains her vile grin.

"Who are you? Why do you live here in this forest?" Link says. Until now, this tree, this witch, and this dark forest had been too frightening to comprehend, and the danger was all but aesthetic. But now, the danger is staring him in the face, literally, and at the same time appears as his only apparent escape route.

"Never mind why I am here my dear," says the witch "but just know that granny Syrup is here to help you…as long as you're willing to do anything to get what you need."

Her words leak with menace and Link feels the pressure of this malevolent tree pushing him to leave. If he is willing to do anything…to get what he needs. What does he need? An escape from the woods? An escape from the yellow eyes? An escape from this entire island?

He starts to back up from the cauldron, still clutching the pouch of magic powder in his hand. The witch remains behind the cauldron, stirring at the purple solution with the evil smile still stretched across her face.

"Thank you," says Link before running out of the dark, hazy tree.

The forest continues to swell in terror in the darkness of night but Link is ignorant of the blackness that surrounds him. The pouch of magic powder glows in his hand, giving off a dim light that guides him forward, but all Link can do is stare at the pouch and wonder. His escape was lying right in his hands, but with every step he takes with the pouch in his hand, Link's stomach turns in disgust. Killing my friend I do not want. The words echo in his head. Those words were not evil.

Link trudges along the corridor of trees still holding the magic powder in front of him, but the turning of his stomach begins to shift to churns of exhaustion. The light is so dim and Link's eyes begin to fade as the exasperation in his stomach consumes his head. He falls to the floor of the forest and joins the abyss of the nighttime forest.

A sweet aroma brings Link back from the darkness. The scent tingles with the smell of fruit and flowers; it smells like Marin's home. Did someone find him in the woods? Did he finally escape? The blissful aroma gently lifts Link's eyelids and raises him to a sitting position. No, this is not Marin's home. The room looks similar with simple tables, chairs, bookshelves, beds, and windows, and the aroma reminds him of the tropical sea breeze, but the color is tense; not comforting. The windows are all closed and the only light in the room seems to be coming from a set of very dim lamps in each corner of the room. The dim light seems to be in a haze, similar to the tree of the evil witch, but instead of a murky purple, this haze is an almost…seductive, red.

Link gazes around the room for any sign of a person when he feels something smooth run across his neck. Looking to his left, he is startled to find a young woman staring into his eyes. Her eyes are a deep blue like his and not a moment after he notices this does Link find he is unable to look away from the woman. Her hair flows in majestic waves of black around a face of perfectly chiseled marble and over thin shoulders left bare by her dress. The dress echoes with the scarlet haze of the room and is neatly tapered across her thin figure and cut short enough to reveal a set of silk legs. She smiles at him with lips painted the color of the room and the large bow resting on the top of her head. "You look so much more handsome with those pretty blue eyes open, big guy!" she says.

Is this a dream? Link feels his heart pounding inside his chest. No, it feels too real. The woman takes her other hand and brings it to Link's cheek. Her skin is soft, like a silk pillow, and it melts the side of Link's face with its touch. With a smooth motion, she leans in and kisses Link directly on the lips.

Link feels the air in the room turn warm, and the red light from the lamps seems to intensify. His head is lost to the warmth of her lips, setting his thoughts aside in his mind. After holding him for a brief time longer, the woman releases his head and leans back to survey him once more. "You should feel perfect now."

Link utters something unintelligible but he cannot help but agree with her behind his mumbling. All of the pain from his night in the forest is gone, he feels better than he has ever felt since arriving on the island. Wait. The island, the forest, was he still in the forest? He rubs at his eyes and shakes himself out of the red haze that has consumed him in this room. "Who are you?" he says.

"That's not important—"

"No it is important!" Link says, jolting to his feet and taking a step away from the woman. "I've had enough of this place."

The woman crosses her legs and stares up at him with a sly smile. "Now, what place would that be?"

Link presses his fingers to his forehead. "This forest! I want to go back to the village—"

The woman gasps. "The village? But I thought you wanted to leave there too?"

Link takes another step back, widening his eyes at her words. How could she possibly know that? There was no explanation, but with everything that's happened to him in this forest, was it really so hard to believe? "Who are you?" he asks.

The woman slides up from the bed and slinks her way over to Link, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pushing her waist against his. "I'm Tracy. I found you half-dead in the woods, and brought you back here."

Link tries to separate himself from the woman calling herself Tracy, but her grip is soothing and he subsides. The feeling of her touch, it was so calm and peaceful, nearly the opposite of how the witch's dark tree had felt. This woman, standing next to him right now, she clearly has some sort of power beyond his understanding. And not just her, this forest, the raccoon, and the witch too, they all seem so out of place on this island. But, then again, maybe it was he who was really the one out of place?

"I'm sorry." He says, looking at the floor.

Tracy smiles at him. "It's alright big guy, I know my healing techniques might be a little…startling."

Link brings his gaze up to look in her porcelain eyes. "Healing techniques?"

Tracy reaches somewhere behind her and pulls out a small glass container. She holds it in front of Link's face and shakes it slightly, sloshing around an opaque red liquid inside. "Here, take this big guy," she says, placing the bottle in his hand, "my healing techniques just for you, to use whenever you want."

Link takes the bottle and stares at the red liquid inside. A healing potion. If he were to spend any more time in this forest, something like this would keep him alive.

"I know you want to get out of here big guy," says Tracy, "but, at this rate, you might miss something important."

Link raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing!" says Tracy, waving a hand in the air. "But…" Tracy says, taking that hand and wrapping it around Link to embrace him. "…if you stick around, maybe I can tell you." She says with a devious grin.

Link stands motionless, staring into her tempting eyes. The red haze in the room appears to darken. No. He can't stay here; he needs to find his way out. Link pushes himself out of Tracy's grasp and backs up to the door. "Thank you," he says before walking out of the red, hazy room.

The forest seems no different. It's still a black as the moment the last rays of sunlight left the clearing. There is no telling how long he's been trapped inside these woods, but the thought is in the back of Link's rejuvenated mind as he continues to trek through the woods.

The two mysterious women he has bumped into are the thoughts that race in the front of his mind. One felt so evil, the other so pure, but both of them were equally as mysterious. One gave him magic powder, meant to give him his freedom by eternally sealing another's. The other gave him magic potion, meant to deny him an easy escape but keep his hope alive. What could the purpose of all of this be?

Link does not know. He was shipwrecked, trapped on an island. Then he was tormented, by children, by eyes. Now he is lost; lost in a maze of trees, thought, and endless mystery. The only possible way he can escape it, is to find the raccoon. But what would he do if he found it?

Link suddenly stops his thoughts when the light from the magic pouch dims more than usual. He had spent so long in the forest that he had gotten used to the light bouncing off of the trees in front of him. But now, the space in front of him is empty, and in the faint light, he recognizes the space as the clearing. He had found his way back to where this nightmare had begun. The light from the pouch is too dim to see the entire clearing, but Link is sure it is the place.

He takes a few steps forward, kicking the ground in front of him. His foot knocks against something hard on the ground. It is the fire-starting stone he had thrown at the raccoon. Yes, this is the place. Link takes a few more steps forward, the soft grass soothing the soles of his boots. He takes another step, but the feeling of grass is replaced by a soft splash. Link takes the magic powder in his hand and holds it close to the ground where his boot came to rest. He lifts his boot and finds a small puddle of red covering the grass. Blood?

Link darts his eyes in front of him, holding the pouch out to spread the light as far as he can. A shadow rises up from the ground in front of him. It's quite large, and appears to be a large rock, but Link remembers the clearing being completely free of rocks of any size. He takes a step towards it. It does not move.

He reaches the shadow and holds the pouch directly above it. In the dim light, the black shadow crawls away and is replaced by brown fur matted with a thick red liquid. Link races around to the other side of the object and gasps when he sees what it truly is.

The raccoon lies in front of him, its yellow eyes dim with sorrow, shooting directly into the ground. The light reveals three arrows lodged in the creature's side, blood leaking gently from the wound. "Friend. Found," the creature says meekly.

Friend? Found? Yes. He has found the raccoon. Link looks at the magic powder in his hand. This is it; this is his chance to get out!

Sprinkle a little on the beast.

Link reaches in the pouch and pulls out a handful of the magic powder. The light from the powder reflects in Link's eyes. Looking down on the helpless creature, his eyes are ablaze with a violent purple hue.