Part Five- Kaepora Gaebora

It was an endless nightmare of running.

There had been an episode with dying trees and giant spiders and grinning eyes, and the only light had been from a shining green stone- it was shining brighter as he watched the forest die. It was dying, and someone was yelling at him for it (was it Mido?) but he was desperate, desperate to keep going. Mean words flew around him along with some punches, and he thought that for the first time in his life, he'd successfully stood up against someone without Saria's help.

But it didn't matter, because he had to keep running.

Ahzull looked up over the counter when he heard the commotion, but the issue was too far over his head for him to understand.

He headed for the entrance to the forest and tried to block out the cries and screams of the forest spirits as they spread the news:

"He is dead! The Guardian is dead! He has killed our Father!"

The inaudible panic spread across the forest, and he knew that Fado's critical eyes couldn't comprehend anything but the view of his retreating back from her perch. Next to her, her fairy was quivering like a dragonfly's wing.

He kept running, running on past Saria's house.

He fled until he collided into Shad, who tried his best to stop him.

"It isn't safe out there! Stay here, where the Great Deku Tree can protect us!" Shad tried to position himself in front of the path to the bridge.

"The Great Deku Tree is dead," he blurted, and shoved past his friend, ignoring all of Shad's shaky denials and leaving him far behind, splayed on the ground like shattered glass.

He tried to run away from the tumultuous chaos in awakened in his wake- he plugged his ears, but the forest only got louder. He ran faster- if he could get away from the noise, he could get away from the hungry, monstrous eye that was currently searching for him.

"Cursed," whispered the trees.

But he'd closed that eye himself, he'd broken that curse, and he'd saved the Great Deku Tree, hadn't he? None of this should be happening! He did exactly what he had been told to do, as his Guardian, his Father, had said. This shouldn't be happening.

Why was he running?

The question was louder and louder, almost drowning out the agony of the flora around him. The answer followed, barking out each syllable in time with his feet.

"He is dead! The Guardian is dead! He has killed our Father!"

In the aftershock of such a powerful spirit dissipating, even the woods on the far edge of the Kokiri Forest Valley were reeling and flailing as they tried to stabilize themselves. They expressed their grief at the death of their kin, sparing no creature with the ears to hear them.

"He is dead! The Guardian is dead! He has killed our Father!"

The accusation resounded through his entire being as he veered off the trails he and Saria used to play on. His head hurt from the noise, and stars in his eyes spotted out everything.

He was going to go crazy if it didn't stop. He had to escape it. He had to run faster- he was getting Lost in the Woods. Despair coiled around his heart as it sucked him in like quicksand. In its catastrophic wake, the aftermath of the death of the forest god was going to strip off his sanity, and then his flesh, until he was nothing but a walking skeleton. He was going to die, just like that, and his body would transform into the monster he so feared. It was like fighting a storm that was so much more than the water and wind that beat onto is face in every other nightmare. The panic wasn't going to stop and he was going to die because he failed and because Mido was right and Fado had told on him and because Ahzull had trusted him and because Shad had been his friend and…

And then the noise suddenly stopped.

He was standing on the bridge, and the air had stopped moving. As he focused his blurry vision, he discovered that the forest spirits around him had stopped their tantrums and were lazily floating through the warm, stagnant air like undisturbed leaves on a muddy pond. His eyes didn't linger on them for long, though- his attentions were drawn to the figure standing on the other side of the bridge.

If you had asked his little companion, who trailed in a rush after him, she'd have sworn that this section of the forest was completely frozen in time, like the death of their compatriot Deku Tree meant absolutely nothing. She caught up to her shaken child and circled around the quiet pool of air until she too found what he was staring at.

Saria was there.

She opened her mouth, and Link felt himself slip into a trance as she began to speak. Her voice was soft and low, part of the atmosphere, and he couldn't quite bring himself to answer her and break the melody. He was so completely enchanted by the spell of her words and the woods that all the force it took to move him was the push of an ocarina into his hands.

"I hope you'll come back to the forest and visit," She whispered.

He wanted to believe that there was no reason to visit, that he wasn't going to leave- not ever- but the Great Deku Tree had told him he must. The words froze in his throat.

He took a step back and felt his heart rip out of his chest.

Here his feet were, moving without him.

Link felt himself begin to cry. He really, truly, desperately did not want to go, but Saria's eyes told him that he had to. He took another step back, like he was reeling from an unseen blow.

Finally, he turned and ran, knowing that if he ever looked back he'd never make it. Maybe this was all just a dream, and he'd wake up soon and go tell Saria- the real Saria, the one who'd finish teaching him to play the ocarina and who'd stand up for him when Mido yelled at him- all about this terrible dream.

"Watch out!" blurted Navi.

Link's foot caught on a tree root and he barely perceived himself falling until he was met with a painful greeting from the forest ground.

"Are you alright?" asked Navi worriedly.

No, he wanted to say. No, I am not alright.

Instead he held his tongue and lay face down, nursing his wounded feelings instead of his nose and forehead. All of himself flooded out of his watery eyes and ran down into the dirt until it congregated in the hole in his chest.

The world was quiet and so was Link.

After an eternity in the blessed silence, he began to calm down until he could recount the Great Deku Tree's last request that Link leave the forest and find, well, he wasn't sure what the things the guardian had referred to were.

It would be foolish to keep going, he thought to himself. I don't even know what a "Princess of Destiny" is. And, if Father did give me a fairy, then I truly am a Kokiri. He watched Navi, his new little friend, dance around his head in motherly worry from the corner of his eye. If I am a Kokiri and I leave the forest, I'll die. He gritted his teeth as he felt a bruise that was forming under his eye. But if I don't at least try to obey Father's request, all of this will have been wasted. And how will I make the others not be mad, anyway? Tiredly, he rolled over and prepared to meet the sulfurous sky, silently wondering how he should go about this problem.

He probably would've stayed there for quite a long time had the sky peeking down at him not been a bright blue.

It was exactly at that moment that the world's natural music returned and reached out to surprise Link, like the whole setup had been a planned prank.

He jumped up faster than he'd thought possible and began pacing in and about the trees to see if he could find a clearing to see the sky better. Navi fluttered in awe behind him. Looking up again, Link noticed a giant, glowing ball sitting up in the sky, illuminating the whole area! He couldn't believe that was possible and foolishly cast his unguarded eyes on it to see what it was.

Navi answered Link's yelp of pain as it burned his eyes with shouts of her own worry, and pretty soon they began an impromptu shouting match with one another. Navi would shriek, "What's wrong?" and Link, unsure of what to do, would answer with nonsensical screams.

A sudden hoot of laughter volleyed back at them and Link scrambled around to capture source within his spotty vision.

"Link, look up here!"

After another agonizing attack from the light, Link rested his gaze upon the biggest owl he had ever seen. Its wingspan dwarfed the dilapidated branch it was perched upon, with bits of snowy white peeking out of the rich, chocolate colored feathers that started from the wingtip and spread all over the owl's large form. Most noticeable, however, were the intricate markings upon its broad face, right below its beak. Link was amazed at how much they looked like a second set of eyes and couldn't help but stare at them.

"It appears that the time has come for you to finally start your adventure!" hooted the great bird, "You will encounter many hardships ahead, assuming you can get past the perplexing mystery of the light of the Hyrulian sun…"

Link stuttered, still unsure how to reply.

"Can't speak?" The owl flipped its head around until the markings below his beak pointed upward, where his eyes previously were, to get a better look. Unthinkingly, Link followed the movement and felt himself lose his balance and fall over as he tried to twist his own neck the same way.

The owl began to hoot in its obnoxious cacophony of laughter once again as Link tried to put his head on straight again.

"Well, my boy, such is your fate! To be forever clueless!"

Link felt himself flush and abashedly tried to hide behind Navi, who barely covered his nose. The giant fowl only laughed louder at this futile movement and his feathers began to stand on end.

Navi flew up closer to the owl. "Please, sir, he's already discouraged enough! Don't make it worse by mocking him," she scolded. Link felt himself flush in embarrassment.

The owl, over his initial outburst of amusement, preened himself and smoothed over the feathers he had ruffled during his bout of laughter. "Well, now, boy," the bird continued, his voice more somber, "You shouldn't get discouraged, not even during the toughest of times. There's a lot depending on you."

Link nodded unconfidently. Was the owl referring to the mission the Great Deku Tree had given him?

"If you follow this path, you'll find a castle. Inside the castle, you'll meet a princess."

A princess? Like a princess of destiny? Link nodded in reply and pretended to know what the owl was talking about.

"I guess I'll leave you to it, then. You don't have much time before nightfall. See you around." With a flurry of feathers, leapt of the perch and took off into the sky.

"Oh, and one more thing," he shouted over his shoulder, "Don't leave the path!"

Link turned his thoughts away from the events he'd left behind and towards the endless blue sky in front of him, hoping that it held the promise of something better. Navi finished yelling her thanks to their feathered guide and joined Link, lightly flying behind him. They walked in silence and reflected upon their own thoughts.

"Hey, Navi? Can I ask you a question?" Link finally asked.

"What is it?"

"What's nightfall?"

She paused. "I don't know."

"Oh, well. Maybe it's not that important. Maybe it's a meal of the day."

Navi shrugged in reply and continued to follow her little green charge onto the beaten path in front of them, wondering if leaving the forest was the right thing to do after all.


In my personal opinion, this is one of the points in Link's life that qualify as the most important- so I really want this chapter to be really, really good. Please, if you do't do it on any other chapters, please give me some constructive criticism on this one- any feedback (including flames, if they are funny) would be much appreciated. Thank you so very much!