Part Ten- One Step at a Time

When Link made it to the foot of the mountain, the guard at its gates looked at him and laughed. "What kind of funny game is our princess playing now?" he said as Link pulled out the letter Zelda had given him. Navi winced from within his hat as she noticed that her charge, a child of the forest who had left home before he was truly literate, handed the note to the guard upside-down and earned himself a second chuckle from him.

"So you wanna go up this mountain, huh?"

Link's eyes darted from the guard's mirthful ones and followed the crags of the mountain up to its peak. "I do not know if I want to go up that mountain," he split apart the last word and formed the two halves like a cow chewing cud, leaving out the central "n" so each syllable was its own word, "but I know that I am going to."

The guard didn't even notice Link's pronunciation. He was too preoccupied with the note Link had placed in his hands. "This is definitely her handwriting," the guard muttered, his expression growing troubled. "Are you… are you sure you want to do this?"

"I told you," Link insisted, "I'm not sure I want to, but I am going to. Will you please open this gate?"

The guard gave Link and the note another once-over before tucking both his lips into his mouth. "Okay, okay. You can go now. Just be careful, Mr. Hero." He added a quieter, "I've heard about kids growing up fast, but this…" and shook his head. Still, he thrust the butt end of his spear into a small grove in the ground and the gate separating the mountain from Kakariko opened.

Ever amicable to these mysterious tall strangers, Link dipped his head in thanks and started up the dirt path.

"Oh, by the way," the guard called to him, furrowing his brows, "If you're going to climb Death Mountain, you should have a proper shield. It is an active volcano, y'know."

Link blinked. "What's wrong with my shield?"

Mido's sneering face bubbled to the top of his mind and yelped, "You can't see the Great Deku tree without a sword and shield! Yeesh," and Link couldn't help but wonder if having a nice shield was some kind of universal requirement for going to meet one's "destiny", whatever that was. He still hadn't figured that out quite yet.

"It's made of wood and it-" the guard grimaced in frustration as Link looked even more perplexed. His entire posture deflated as he reached into himself to find what to say and then straightened back out when he found it. "If you go back to the Hyrule Castle Town market, check out the Bazaar. They have the shield you want there. Tell them I sent you! It'll get you a special discount!"

Link pursed his lips. "Maybe I will look at it the next time I am back there. I think this shield will be just fine for me. It's special." He absentmindedly reached his hand up behind him to graze the rough edges of bark on the surface of the shield. The wood itself was magic; it was still alive and infused with the life of the forest and Link felt a connection with it. It was a little bit of the forest to take with him wherever he went. The fact he'd only had it for a few days was irrelevant- time was irrelevant in regards to his affections.

The guard mimicked Link's dubious face and shrugged. "If you think you're good to go, I won't stop you. I'm just worried, see. I've got a kid back home and he isn't much younger than you are. I see him a little in you. In fact," he moved a hand to his hip and gripped his spear nervously. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"How can you have a kid back home? You can't own them," Link interrupted. "Besides, aren't you a kid, too? That isn't fair," he decided.

Navi tugged on his hair.

For a second, the guard looked like he might drop his spear in surprise, but he snatched it back up in a hearty bellow of laughter. "I've been told I look young, but that's pushing it! Wahahaha!" his laughs petered off into chuckles and he wiped at his eyes. "No, I have a son. And this favor of mine involves him. You don't have to do it because of the advice I gave you about the shield," he quickly added, "I'm just asking."

Intrigued, Link put his hands on his hips and planted his feet.

"Have you been to the Happy Mask shop that just opened in the Hyrule Castle Town Market?"

"The what?"

"Everyone is talking about it!" the man said. Navi could tell that he was trying to pique Link's interest so he wouldn't pursue continuing up the mountain. The man seemed kind and protective. She considered showing herself and explaining the situation, but thought better of it. No matter how kind he was, this guard was still a human adult and she couldn't trust him.

As for Link, he was too preoccupied with remembering what the colorful Castle Town squares and shops looked like to even consider any deception, benign or otherwise. "Okay," he said, still mapping it out in his head.

"My little boy pesters me for a popular mask, but I don't have time to go there…" the guard gave a dramatic sigh.

"What's the favor?" Link blurted, annoyed that he couldn't remember anything about a "Happy Mask Shop".

The guard scowled. He didn't like being disturbed from his mask daydream and Navi suspected that he wanted a mask as much for himself as his son; he was a child at heart. "So, could you go and get the mask for me the next time you're in the market? If you feel like it. I'd go myself, but… well, I have no choice. This is my job," the guard withered.

"Why don't you have a choice?" Link asked.

"Because I'm a grown-up," he said. "Grown-ups have to do their jobs so they can get paid and then take care of their kids. Kids like you," he said, smiling.

Link, meanwhile, was puzzled. "Grown-up? What do you mean? A grown-up what?"

Navi dug her tiny fingers into Link's scalp. Hard. The boy whimpered in surprise but stood his ground, unsure of what she wanted him to do.

"I'm a grown-up person, kid! I'm an adult! What did you think I was?" He shook his head. " Aw, forget it! I dunno why you have a letter from her highness, but I can't let you pass. You're way too naïve for me to believe that this is anything more than a game."

"…Adult?" Link whispered to himself.

"Yeah! We're the big people! So trust me. That's what I'm here for."

Navi's sharp pricks into her charge's head grew more frequent and intense and they fueled Link's fear like sharp pokers agitating the wood in a fire. The guard took a step closer and Link fled up the mountain as fast as he could, kicking up the dirt behind him.

The flustered guard hadn't expected the boy to bolt and he stumbled after him. "Hey, wait! It's dangerous!" he called, clanking and clattering as he hauled himself and his armor across the ascending, rocky terrain.

Terrified, Link didn't even look back. He fought gravity as he scrambled uphill, crawling and scraping himself across the red, wrathful earth when he lost his footing and collided with it face-first.

Navi leapt from his hat and led him to the path of least resistance with her calming light. The two of them kept climbing until the adult guard could neither be seen nor heard. Repa, Kakariko, and all its inhabitants were left far behind in the valley below.

"They're adults," Link whispered, slowing down to an exhausted trudge. "The big people. They're all adults," he choked.

"But they were very nice about it," Navi pointed out. "I don't think they are going to treat you like the mean ones in the stories."

"But what about you?" the boy gasped out. It was much harder for him to walk uphill than it was for Navi to fly and his earlier pell-mell pace hadn't eased the burden any. Link's heart had already begun beating faster from fear.

"What about me?"

"You don't show yourself to them," Link pointed out. She winced. "If they aren't nice to fairies, then I can't trust them, either! And you heard what Zelda said," he continued. "Her father- fathers in this place must mean the adults that own 'em- he won't listen to her. And that man in all black that I saw in the window… he was an adult, too. I think." He shivered.

"Not all adults are truly evil," Navi tried.

"I know that! But that doesn't mean I can trust them!" Link shouted over her, still shuddering despite the dry mountain heat. "Those are two very different things, Navi!" He clenched his fists, held them at his sides, and stared at his shoes. Then he sat down on a nearby rock. "…'m sorry," he added lamely. "It wasn't nice of me to yell at you just because you were trying to be nice and…"a hiccup slipped from his lips. "…didn't know."

"It's alright," the surprised fairy told him, nervously fluttering closer. "But what didn't I know?"

"Well, maybe you know, but maybe you just didn't know that I know," the boy said, wiping his damp, sweat-and-clay covered hands on his green tunic. His palms and fingers left shaky red smears on his tunic from nature's mountain finger paint. "You can't always trust things that are different and it doesn't matter if you are good or bad," he huffed, clasping his dried hands in his lap to try and keep them still.

"Who told you that?"

"Nobody," Link said. "They didn't need to. I figured it out. Not many Kokiri trust me because I didn't have a fairy, and that's why. I'm not evil. At least, I don't think I am and neither do they. They may not all like me, but they've never thought I was evil, so I know that couldn't be why they never trusted me. They just didn't trust me because they didn't know if I could be trusted!"

It was all very confusing to the fairy and she didn't understand. "But Link, now you have a fairy and you are just like them, and-"

"Navi," he said, voice cracking even more, "we left the forest. I know fairies can do that, but real Kokiri- real ones- can't." his bottom lip twitched, but he held it still. Slowly, he held out his hands for Navi to perch within. "And I wasn't trustworthy," he hushed, closing his eyes.

"What?" Navi fluttered behind his hands instead and gently closed his palms back together with her own tiny ones. "What do you mean?"

Pinpricks of water appeared in the corner of Link's eyes. "They might think I killed him," he choked. "And now there are all these adults! And I'm a- a-" he shuddered and sniffed. "I want to go home!" he told her, in hysterics. "I want to wake up and tell Saria that this was another dream. I want Fath—the Great Deku Tree to tell me it was just a nightmare! But I can't! I'm not one of them and they can't- they shouldn't- ever trust me!" His voice cracked as his tears flowed. "I though all adults were mean but they are being nice to me and I don't know what that means! I can't run away because I have nowhere to go!" He released the inhuman moan of a crying child from sorrow. It was a sound that reverberated from within the empty places in his heart.

Fluttering up to his head, Navi did her best to shush the boy. "It's alright," she told him. "Everything is new and scary for you and bad things have happened," she tried. "But think of the good things that have happened, too. Those girls in the market were nice!" The ranch girl's smiling face was the first positive thing Navi could think of and she clung to it.

"I sh- shouldn'- I- I- I shouldn't cry," Link stated. "I must deserve," he let in a shaky breath, "this. B-because I was… I- I was always too diff'rent."

"No, that can't be it. You've done nothing wrong, Link. Please don't cry."

"I'm trying!" he shouted, jumping up from the rocky ridge he was sitting on and slamming his boots into the ground. "I want to stop. B-but I can't… I can't…" he stopped talking and let his uneven breathing speak for him.

However, Navi wasn't the only one to hear Link's grief. A quiet scuffle, not unlike the sound the brush makes when it scratches the roughness of the dry stone earth, etched itself into the fairy and her charge's ears. Navi felt her body begin to swell and a sickly yellow glow erupted from within her. "Link, something is coming," she told him, flying above his head to scout the area. I don't know what it is for sure, but I think it might be-"

A high-pitched squeal tore through the mountainside as a red blur streaked across the open air and plucked her from the sky. She shrieked as she felt sharp mandibles grip her body and shot downwards on instinct, wriggled out of the pincers' grip and away from the mouth they encircled.

She pirouetted in a wide berth away from the creature and back to Link. He had frozen in his shoes and stood gaping, defenseless, at the unexpected attacker.

It must have come from the rocky façade behind them, lying in wait for the perfect moment to strike. It tilted around on its legs from side to side- presumably looking for the fairy it had previously captured- before it settled itself out and turned in slow, exaggerated twitches to look behind itself and at Link in search of its escaped catch.

It was earthen red- a red tektite, the mountain's spider-crab, Navi remembered- with four bright, furry green legs like muscular caterpillars erupting from its underside. One big, wet, scarlet eye quivered above its mandibles. It was a simple creature and not one of evil magic's creation; the only thing it was after was food. Still, it was dangerous and Navi urged Link to draw his sword in case the tektite charged them.

The boy looked pitiful, with snot and tears running down his face as to make it look like he'd just been in the middle of a rain shower. He shivered. He suddenly felt cold. Only his reflection looked back at him from the gelatinous ruby pressed into the mountain creature's insectoid face and his head felt like it was swimming within its confines along with it.

The spider queen Gohma had once captured him in her one-eyed glare, too. Link was paralyzed.

The tektite wiggled its eyeball around and leaned forward, chittering in confusion about what to do about Link. The tektite was accustomed to hunting in a pack of two or three when it wasn't scavenging for smaller game, but the boy seemed much more docile than most other things its size. The tektite kept itself perfectly still as it considered its options.

Navi was afraid to make any sudden movements and goad the creature into leaping to action. "Don't make any sudden movements," she whispered "and watch it as it jumps. If you roll out of the way as it moves, you can attack it from behind." A tektite, while accustomed to sensing the vibrations of the earth as its predominant means to find prey, never leapt where it could not see. If Link moved out of the range of its singular eye, he would have it at his mercy.

But Link couldn't even hear her. He couldn't even think. The only thing he could see was his own face looking back at him from within the mountain spider's eye.

The tektite, on the other hand, squealed decisively and began to bounce on its haunches. It was hungry.

That surely would have been the end of both boy and fairy had a divinely-aimed boulder not come careening down from the ledge above them and sent the tektite off the crooked path and tumbling down the mountain. The rock then bounced back from the impact and neatly settled itself into the ground.

Navi choked back her surprise and clutched at her unresponsive charge. "Link! Link! Please snap out of it!" She dove around him and flashed her inner light from yellow to blue. "Everything is alright now! But we need to keep moving just in case more of those show up! Hey!"

Just then, the boulder spoke. "Stupid vermin, those things. So long as you come down from where they can't see or feel ya' comin', they're sitting ducks," it said in a voice like wind from a mountain cave. "Are you okay?" The rock turned on its base to reveal legs and arms tucked beneath itself to shield its flat, wide face. "That was pretty close, y'know! That thing might've gobbled you up like the little green rock you are!" The rock-man chuckled and lifted himself to his feet.

Link shakily grabbed Navi from the air and held her to his chest.

The rock-man looked at them inquisitively and then shuffled over on its wide, flat feet. The tendons and bones from it stuck up like the ridges of a miniature set of mountains with rivers of veins running throughout them. "Are you lost? Huh? Can you hear me, little guy?"

Link found his voice. "Are you going to eat us, too?" He was a grasshopper at the feet of a giant.

"EAT you? No! I'm a Goron! I don't eat little person-chips like you! I eat rocks! And calling you one was just a joke!" It waved its rough hands in the air from side to side. "How could I bring myself to eat something with such a sad look on its face? Can you even imagine a tree or a rock with such a heartbreaking expression on its face? It's almost as bad as those creepy one-eye stones! Cheer up, little Chippy, the spider-crab isn't gonna hurt you, and neither am I!"

Slowly, Link nodded. "Are you an adult?"

The Goron looked taken aback. "Well, yes, by most standards, I am. A full-grown Goron, that's me!"

"Oh. I see." The boy stood up and slowly backed away. "Then in that case, please leave us alone."

"Wait! Wait! You think you can't talk to me because I'm a stranger? I just saved your life!" he trotted over to cut Link off, his heavy footsteps making great thuds in the mountain clay. What are you even doing up here? It's gonna be nighttime soon and you're awfully far from Kakariko!"

"I want to go far away from there. I am not going back." Link absentmindedly gazed at Navi through his clutched hands and remembered what Impa had said to him as she had escorted him out of Castle Town. "I am looking for the Spiritual Stone of Fire."

At that, the Goron laughed. "The Goron's Ruby? You want that? Ha! You'll have to ask Big Brother about taking that treasure!" He giggled some more, like the sound debris cascading down a high cliff face makes. "If you keep going up this path, you'll find Goron City, where he is. And hey, you can even stay the night there if you want. It's certainly nicer than out here. Want me to take you?"

From within his hands, Navi urged him to accept the Goron's offer. "No, thank you," he replied.

"You sure, little Chippy? There might be more tektites!"

"That's very nice of you, but I will find it by myself." Link honed his eyes to the ground and ducked by his huge and helpful would-be guide.

"Well. U-um," the Goron stuttered, "It was nice meeting you! And be careful! Watch out for some of my brethren rolling around! We don't always look where we are going and I don't want you to end up like that tektite!"

Sullenly, and with snot still all over his face, Link nodded in appreciation and kept walking. He kept his hands clasped until Navi forced them open and zoomed into his face, hushing her livid voice so the Goron could not see her. "What is wrong with you?! We really could use his help! He's a Goron, not a Hylian adult! And even if he was, he wasn't going to hurt you!"

Link's eyes, still reddened and watery from crying, took her in and narrowed. "I already told you. He isn't one of us, so we can't trust him. Not really. It's the same thing with Miss Repa. When I trusted her, she manipulated me. She didn't mean anything by it, but she still did it. And, you know, I think that metal-wearing adult tried to trick me into not going up the mountain. He didn't wanna hurt me, I don't think, but that still doesn't mean I should trust him."

Navi fluttered furiously, fearfully, mouth agape. "…Well, what about Zelda? You said you would trust her. Why?"

"She's a child not of the forest and she has told me exactly what her plans are. She didn't hide anything, She is just like me," he said simply. "So I know I can trust her. I can feel it."

"What about me? You said you would trust me, but I'm not like you. I'm a fairy. For all you know I could be leading you astray and then abandon you."

Link's eyes grew wide. "No. You wouldn't."

In return, the blue fairy crossed her arms and tossed her head.

"Don't say that," Link begged. "Don't say that! No! No! I won't believe it! I don't want to believe it!"

Navi's angered countenance melted into one of regret and concern as she watched the water gather in Link's eyes again.

"Stop! Stop! The Great Deku Tree sent you to guide me, and he is wise and knowing and I can always trust him, and if you leave me, you leave him! How could anyone do that unless they were completely evil?!" The boy's shouts echoed down the mountain and he bared his teeth at the fairy in front of him. "And you can't be evil," he whispered, his set jaw weakening. "You are made of more good than I am."

Navi bit her tongue and withheld her probing about her charge's trust in Saria. This boy wasn't stupid, she had been wrong about that. He was brilliant- brilliant and strange, and currently very lost.

But she did hate how he made her look at herself- really look- and think about whether or not she could be all the infallible things Link wanted to believe. Navi was a fairy, not a goddess, and she wasn't sure if Link knew the difference. He was, for all of his openness, infuriatingly cryptic.

In fact, it was becoming clear to her that Link had the higher potential for greatness, in the names of both right and wrong, goodness and vileness, once he learned a little more about the world around him and the nature of his destiny.

He may have frozen in the eye of the enemy this time, but Navi had been there when he tore apart the Arachnid Queen Gohma. She had seen the cold, calm instinct that lurked in him and emerged when he had felt fear so long that it had made him numb to its paralyzing influence.

After all, he had gouged her single eye out with his bare hands.

And here, in the lowering daylight, Link looked almost as frighteningly frightened from wrath and hurt. "I'm sorry," Navi hushed. "I'm going to stay with you on this journey. I shouldn't have said that."

Link cried a little more calmly at her apology. "'M sorry, too, because I upset you. I'm so sorry. I'm just so scared." he repeated. Sloppily, he wiped at his face and resumed lumbering up the mountain. "You are scared, too, aren't you?" he asked.

Navi could have lied in an attempt to inspire confidence, and any other day but today she would have, but she knew better now. If Link was going to trust her, she had to trust him, too. "Yes. I am scared."

He nodded and kept walking, still wiping at his face with his clay-covered hands and leaving blood red streaks all over himself.

Navi never specified what- or who- she was scared of. That was alright for now- she would take her charge one step at a time, no more and no less, and that was how they would both see this through to the end.

The two of them made their way to the Goron City in much the same fashion, inching towards the darkness of the setting sun.