Chapter 7: What hides in the Lost Wood

The next day an exhausted Link dropped onto his bed. He still couldn't play a single tone no matter what instrument he chose to use and his father kept insisting on double practice.

It was dark outside, it rained heavily and thunder was in the air. Half asleep Link looked out the window and jolted out of bed. A dark figure was glaring at him through his window.

Impa easily opened the window she had been lurking outside of and climbed in. Link gulped, anything but Impa he silently prayed.

"What kind of horrible monster are you?" he blurted out as the Sheikah glided into his room and crouched down on the floor in a catlike manner and the red eyes gleamed dangerously, as always. Impa cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Such manners. You don't know what I am?"

Link sighed, now she didn't just think he was weak but stupid and rude as well.

"I guessed that you would like to see Zelda one of the three coming days."

"Of course I would, but none of us have time", Link explained impatiently.

"You get an invitation from the princess and turn it down because of your lack of imagination! Fine then, I'll take care of it… and you're supposed to be a man?" Impa said and crossed her arms while making sure he caught how unimpressed she was. "Can't do anything on your own."

"I'm still a boy!" he tried to defend himself and crossed his arms defensively. "…And I can!"

Impa turned to leave without giving an answer. Link was just about to relax, thankful that she wouldn't trouble him more than this, when suddenly Impa quickly turned around.

"Think fast!"

Link could feel something fly right past his right cheek and hit the wall. He slowly turned his head to see a dagger stuck next to his head.

"Are you crazy, you… you…" he stammered, not finding a word terrible enough to describe this bloodthirsty monster.

"You let your guard down… Never do that!" Then, instead of leaving through the window she threw something on the ground and a blinding flash forced Link to shield his eyes. When he dared to open them again Impa was mysteriously gone, only a small note lay on the ground. He picked it up and read it.

You better cover the hole in the wall before your mother notices!

Link stared at the note. He closed the window and pulled out the dagger from the wall. A black hole, if yet small, was gaping at him in its place. He dug threw one of the boxes in his room until he found some charcoal and paper.

He frowned. What should he draw?

He doodled down a knight fighting a dragon. It took a lot of effort to get it right considering that he wasn't an awfully skilled artist but eventually it was done. He proudly held it up to inspect his work. Not to shabby, he thought and looked it over again. Actually it was the best drawing he'd ever done.

He hesitated and then drew a princess next to the knight. She was most important in the picture and he wasted the same amount of time on her as he had done on both the knight and the dragon together. His expression softened as he tried to get her face just right.

Satisfied he put it up on the wall and let it cover the hole Impa had made with her dagger. Just as he had done so someone knocked on the door and his mother entered.

"Now this is a pleasant surprise, my son drawing", she said and smiled at him. She went over and took a closer look at his picture. Link nervously watched her to see if she noticed the hole behind it.

"I love it Link", she said and smiled again. "Is that a dog?"

"Eh", he could feel a small sting in his heart. "It's a dragon!"

"Oh, of course it is! I can see that and that must be the dragon's baby. It has such a scary face!"

"That's me!"

"Oh, no doubt about that my dear, I was only kidding!" She quickly said. It didn't take a genius to notice how depressed her words made her son. She wouldn't have been surprised if dark clouds suddenly popped up inside the room. "…and is that a princess?"

Link met his mother's gaze.

"You can see that?" He beamed at her.

Link's mother looked at the picture again. Her son was a lousy artist, no doubt. She wished he would be more interested in playing instruments and drawing but she had to realize that it wasn't his thing. He was much too alike his father.

"A mother can see things made with a lot of love."

Link was about to ask what she meant when the door flung open. Both he and his mother rolled their eyes. They didn't even have to look, only one person entered like that when the word 'love' was mentioned.

"Hello dear, did you come to join when I read Link his bedtime story?" Link's mother asked her husband as she swirled around to face him with an innocent smile.

"Uhm, no… I… I just thought…" Link's father hesitantly mumbled, not knowing what to answer he carefully closed the door and left.

"Love", Link's mother said in a monotone voice and immediately Link's father came rushing in exactly in the same manner as before.

"Are you sure you don't want to read the story with us?" She asked sweetly.

"Well, I guess it could be kind of fun", he responded and took place next to his wife on the edge of Link's bed.

Link suddenly remembered something he wanted to ask.

"Hey, do you know of any creepy people living in Hyrule?"

His mother giggled. "Depends on what you mean with creepy my sweet magic bean."

Link tried to recall Impa's appearance.

"Hmm… Maybe… Some tribe with grey… no white hair, red eyes… Oh, and an eye with a tear as some sort of symbol or something…"

His father's face suddenly lit up as if this was the best he'd heard come out of Link's mouth since he was born.

"You mean the Sheikah! No one speak of them in our days but already in my youth their name was on everybody's lips. They were feared in all of Hyrule and people couldn't wait for an opportunity to get rid of them. They are terrible and evil creatures that can't wait to slash your throat." His father fell silent and thought for a second. "But all of them don't have white hair of course!"

"Oh no" Link's mother sighed. "Here we go…"

"First you could only see their symbols, the lone eye, everywhere, but never them! In the war against the Zoras, mystical warriors appeared with the Sheikah symbol but it had one difference: One sorrowful tear. They showed up right in the heat of the battle, only one or two of them, slashed as many Hylians as they could and then disappeared without a trace when the battle was over."

"You don't have to tell all the details dear", Link's mother said stiffly but he ignored her.

"You know, son. They brutally killed every Hylian that came near them! Only Hylians! And there was always blood everywhere and…"

"Enough!" She put a hand over his mouth.

"Aww, but I want to hear", Link said pleadingly. His father removed Link's mother's hand and looked at her with the same expression.

"Yeah, it's a good story!" he tried to convince her.

"Well, I can tell a short story about the Sheikah. They did exist…" Link's mother said thoughtfully.

"Pah!"

"Don't interrupt dear!" She said and glared at her husband. "During the war you were only a couple of months old Link."

"I was born!" Link looked at her wide-eyed.

"Yes, and I worked for the queen which was pregnant. One day a Sheikah showed up with a message that Castle Town would be attacked and that we had to flee. I caught a glimpse of a stone, with the symbol of an eye with a tear, which the queen took from a box when I left the room.

After the battle in Castle Town the Sheikah, who usually never showed themselves, turned up every now and then with this new symbol with the tear I had seen on the queen's stone. However, now they seemed to have switched sides and were against all Hylians. You see, from the beginning the only lived to protect us."

Link's father tried to keep his mouth shut but it was hopeless.

"The Sheikah are nothing but dark magic that's called from people who deny the goddesses! They aren't real, that's why they can disappear like they do!" He blew out the candle next to Link's bed to give a better effect to his story.

"Light the candle!" Link's mother snapped at him.

"Yes, sugar…"

Link's mother cleared her throat as her husband lit the candle and went on with the story.

"There are so many things in our beautiful world that we tell as stories. Many of them are more real than we think."

Link woke up from his thoughts about what he had heard at the sound of his mother's voice.

"What happened to the queen?"

"Actually I think she stayed in Castle Town. She might have hid in the Temple of Time. Myself I brought you to my home village outside of the Lost Wood."

"But Mummy… There is no village near the Lost Wood."

"Yeah, there are… many places where there are no villages." She said and smiled but yet she seemed so sad. Link's father cast a worried glance at his wife and quickly turned to Link.

"Have I told you that it was in that war I made a name of myself and became the general I am today?"

"Yeah, a billion times!"

"It was because of me we succeeded to pull ourselves together and win many of the battles we fought even though we appeared to be cursed by the goddesses. I took initiative and became a spontaneous leader for the troops. After the war I was selected to become…"

"Mummy, what more peoples exist here that Hylians think are only myths?" Link interrupted and looked at his mother who already had put on a happy face.

"But what about my story?" Link's father complained.

"We'll save that for a special occasion", Link and his mother said with one mouth.

"Like you have a better suggestion", Link's father muttered while his wife caught sight of the book Zelda had given Link for a birthday present. She picked it up and turned the pages slowly, taking her time to look at all the beautiful pictures. As she came across a picture that covered a whole page, one with shades of green and children dancing and playing games, surrounded by small lights, in a forest.

"This story contains both sad and happy memories", Link's mother softly began. "I think you should hear about the Kokiri…"

"Not the Kokiri", Link's father whined and Link's mother sighed as she closed the book and put it to the side.

"I'm sorry but I can't do as both kids say!"

Link's father was about to argue against her calling him a kid when Link spoke:

"What's kokoisiri?"

"Kokiri, my little gold scale, are…"

"…Bed stories for girls about kids who play with fairies and pick flowers all day!" Link's father cut in.

"…are hidden memories of a world of peace and the innocent mind of a child!" Link's mother continued and pretended that she hadn't heard her husband.

"Waddya mean Mummy?"

"In the Lost Wood…"

"Which is full of monsters and no one who enters ever returns and…"

"Can you please let me tell the story?" she asked her husband as she gave him a dark look. "I can see it was a mistake to invite you, darling!"

"What! I have to be here so you don't destroy our son's mind with butterflies and eternal love and…"

"Is there something wrong with eternal love? Since that is the way I see our marriage, maybe…"

"Oh, no, no, no! Nothing wrong with eternal love! I loooove eternal love, who doesn't? Everybody loves eternal love!"

"So, will you let me tell the story?"

"Sure, but can you mention something about the war?"

"Of course I will!"

"…and maybe something about my honorable achievements…"

"Don't push it!" And with that Link's mother began to tell about the Kokiri.

"Far into the Lost Wood there is a hidden village where the children of the forest, the Kokiri, live. The wisest being in all of Hyrule, the Great Deku Tree, lived there and guarded them.

The Kokiri lived happily with the Great Deku Tree and had no need to explore anything outside of the forest.

Their guardian warned them about leaving their home. It was said that they would die if they did. Even though some of them were curious they were satisfied in their own little paradise. They lived in harmony with nature, ate what the earth offered them and dressed in the colors of the forest… Their houses was built in the trees, they could walk freely in the woods and guarded the Forest Temple."

"Are Kokiri just like us Hylians?" Link asked.

"Kokiri have the appearance of young children. The fairies are their guardians and each one of the Kokiri has his or hers own guardian fairy.

It was safe for Hylians to keep themselves in the borders of the Lost Woods but going further in meant no return.

All those who lost themselves, and unbelievingly did return, told stories about young children with a glowing light soaring in the air around them, guiding them back to safety. But they never saw them clearly and so the stories about the Kokiri came to be.

To us they were pure souls which guarded the forest and helped the good-hearted that lost their way in the darkness of the woods.

Only a few years ago there were several smaller or bigger villages all around Hyrule and one lay right outside of the border of the Lost Wood.

I lived and grew up there. One day, when I was a young girl, I got lost in the Lost Wood when I was looking for berries, even though I never walked further than I was allowed. I tried to find my way back but everything around me turned darker and darker until it was pitch black.

Suddenly I noticed red, glowing eyes glaring at me through the darkness. I ran, sunlight made it through the thick leaves and I could see again but I could only make out a black silhouette running toward me. It was enough to make me realize it was a wolfos. You should have heard of them. How sharp their claws are, how they run like the wind and how they rejoice whenever they get a chance to taste flesh from the outside of the forest. They are demons rather than living creatures that enjoy the hunt more than tearing their victim to shreds. The only reason that I wasn't already eaten already was that it was toying with me. I thought all hope was lost when a small light flew forward and shoot a small beam at the wolfos who retreated to its darkness.

I looked around but saw no one. I felt arms caressing me and a light voice, which sounded almost echoing, talking to me.

"Are you lost?"

It was as if the forest itself spoke to me. The small light flew above me and glitter rained down and made me feel as if I was half awake, half dreaming.

This someone grabbed my hand and walked with me through the forest. I hardly noticed. The only thing I was aware about was my hand in the other person's hand.

I was taken to a place I recognized and there I fell down in a deep sleep.

When I woke up I thought I had dreamt all of it. But the picture of a girl, a girl with green eyes and a friendly smile, refused to leave my mind. However, it only made me more convinced that I dreamt it since, in the dream, I hadn't seen the person. The only thing left to bother me was that my before empty basket was filled to the brink with sweet berries.

I could not forget the girl and then I began to believe that it had been a Kokiri.

When I grew older I went to Castle Town with hopes of getting a good job and a better life. I fell in love with a soldier in the royal army, your father, and later on we married and got you Link.

When we heard of the war your father went to fight and I stayed in the castle. Not long thereafter we got informed of a planned attack on Castle Town and I decided to take you with me to my small home village to keep both of us safe.

One month passed without me hearing anything from your father but I heard good news about the battles and believed he was safe. But it seemed as if something had angered the goddesses. Rain began to fall constantly, nature seemed to be against us and we were followed by a terrible misfortune.

According to the local gossip, something had happened to one of the holy temples and that's why the goddesses sided with the Zoras. You would naturally assume it was the Water Temple since it's the Zoras' temple to guard. Because they always took perfect care of it the culprit's people would probably be cursed in more than one way. Sadly it seemed to be the Hylians that had to suffer from this misfortune.

Everyone had thought the war would be over quickly. Hyrule had always been such a peaceful country. But soon we could do nothing but doubt as the rain kept falling and the battle did nothing but went on and on.

This was the opportunity the Gerudos had been waiting for. The Hylians had lost one of their many strong allies. That the Hylians also had to face one misfortune following the other was more than the Gerudos had ever hoped for. They entered the battle on the Zoras' side.

The warriors that people whispered were of the Sheikah also began to show up and disappear mysteriously during the battles and made it much harder for the Hylians.

The two sides fighting each other were equal.

I thought we would be safe in the village but soon enough the Zoras had reached that far into Hyrule. It seemed as if the Hylians had too much against them to be able to win. I fled into the forest as the village was completely destroyed and burnt down.

I was wounded and held you tight against my body as I ran. I don't now for how long or how far I ran but later on I collapsed.

When I opened my eyes I saw someone holding my baby. I tried to get up to protect my child and take him back at no costs. Then I heard that echoing voice I had heard when I got lost as a child. The one I never forgot.

"He looks very much like you."

I saw a girl, just like the one I remembered, who hadn't changed one day since the last time I saw her. She put my baby in my arms and helped me up. A fairy was circling around her and I felt healed in an odd kind of way.

It felt as if there was no need for words. I turned and was about to leave. I slowly peered over my shoulder to make sure she had been real. She was almost invisible since her colors blended in with the scenery. She herself seemed to be a part of the forest. I saw her small body fade away as I walked further away."

"Your village was destroyed Mummy?"

Startled by her son's voice she looked around as if she'd been awakened from a dream.

"Sorry, my dear, I got so into my story that I forgot I was going to leave out that part"

An unpleasant silent followed and none could think of anything to say, at least not till Link's father broke the silence.

"You hardly told anything about the war!"

So, finally this chapter is over with! Aren't the Kokiri adorable? I love the beginning of OOT!

And, nah, I didn't know it was forbidden to answer reviewers like that but you learn something new every day. Too bad though! I loved to answer them but maybe you feel more confident to review now when you don't have to bother about my constant thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hmm, I know my English isn't the best and I trust my computer to take care of most mistakes but some slips through. I can only say I'm sorry! There isn't much I can do about it that wouldn't include me blushing to death! I'm thankful for your help.

Anyway, if you're still reading this story all I can say is that I'm very impressed and that I admire you!

Since this became much longer than planned I have decided that I won't allow myself to make more than two more chapters about Link and Zelda at this age!

Now, before I go listening to Enjoy the Silence to get over my mistakes I would like to ask if these notes are forbidden too…