Into The Woods [Legend of Zelda]

Written by MarLuna

+standard disclaimer applied

Summary

[Modern AU.] Zelda finds herself lost in forest and drawn to a tune that she's never heard before. The song was created by a ghost boy, Link, unable to neither speak nor leave the forest. Zelda, left with his ocarina and her own horrible talent for music, is determined to find the truth behind the spirit and why he's so attached to the land. Old allies and foes return, blurring the truth into a giant puzzle. Can Zelda figure out in time, or will she join Link in the forest to play forever?

Chapter Two: Advice

When I went home, dad was angry. And not his usual red-face-steam-blowing-out-of-the-ears angry, but this one was the full package: red face, steam out of the ears, nose flaring, eyes popping out his head, drool flying out of his mouth, and snot threatening to land on my forehead. It was both scary and amusing at the same time. "Where have you been young lady?" He roared. "Do you know how much I was worried?" There was also a "You could've died!" and "What if you were attacked?" and "I swear to the goddesses this always happens when I don't send out guards with you!" Mind you, we didn't actually have any guards, but the sentiment was there.

I was already somewhat used to this behavior from him. He would do something like this every time I went over to Impa's . Few hours later, I'd have his breath stinking down my throat until I could console him that I had definitely not been mugged and that I had been actually pretty safe and dandy. In this case, I was just following this kid around with his magical flute. There was nothing unsafe about that at all.

"A boy? A flute?" He kept roaring like the dragon we both knew he wasn't. "Where is this?"

I didn't dare show him the actual flute else he'd claim I'd have stolen it and that I was going to go to jail. "In the woods."

At the word 'woods', his face got fifty shades of purple. "WOODS? WHAT WOODS? DON'T YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THE WOODS ARE?"

I waved him down dismissively. "The woods next to the school, the one with the little bridge."

"You mean the one that was taken down thirty years ago to build some fancy business industry?"

"Yes! Exactly!" I realized the mistake. "...what?"

It was like dad's rage was swept away by the waves of the ocean once he realized I no longer knew what I was talking about. He was suddenly all cool and calm and collected. He pulled out his laptop and we ended up using Google to prove it. I, of course, still refused to admit it. I couldn't have possibly imagined the boy and the woods! My creativity was so small that it could bring a mouse to shame! I was only good at one thing and that was memorizing things, and something like this random vivid forest dream was not going to ruin my reputation. No siree! I needed to find that forest again and prove to my dad that it was real. And then we'd go have picnics and we could do cool things and we could play instruments that will bring all the other badly-playing-instrument players to shame and all sorts of other fancy things. And then maybe my dad will start freaking out less when, Goddesses forbid, I'm not home at exactly 4 o'clock, 45 minutes, 38 seconds, and 12.3 milliseconds.

I needed to find this forest and the only lead I had was that fancy industry that took over the forest. And a tiny ocarina. Yeah, that was going to go well. I needed to return to the area and speak with that kid again. Or maybe the industry was actually gone and the forest grew back, or maybe they build their own private forest and I visited that one instead. Either way, I needed to figure out why my dad and I's memories about the place were so different.

So I set out on my mission. I waited until my dad fell asleep to his favourite TV show after supper before I slipped outside. I grabbed my bike, packed anything I deemed necessary (which wasn't much, really), along with the ocarina, and was on my way. Thankfully, the school wasn't too far. It was a good half an hour of biking (more or less depending on the stop lights), so it was a good thing I liked exercise and did many of these types of runs before. Even the people living on the streets knew me when I passed—I had a tendency to sing (really off key too) as I went.

"Zelda dear!" one of the adults I was passing waved me closer. I skid to a stop at the door of her fence (that she built solely to stop the deer from eating her incredible flowers) and hopped off my bike. She wasn't like the usual adults too—she was one of those cool adults that everyone liked. She seemed to know anything and everything, full of wisdom that no one knew how she had gained it. She was also really super willful, and loved to change her look as her mood felt. Today she was dressed in light flowing garments, with her hair let down and dyed a really beautiful blue. I was almost jealous, but I knew that my own gold hair was the purest through all the land! (Or so my dad liked to tell me.) The weird thing about her was that she refused to let anyone know her name, and instead desired to be called "The Oracle". Although odd, no one refused her. She was really respected here in this town, even if it was hard to figure her out.

"Here, I have a feeling you'll need this." She reached back to the little table next to her outdoor porch swing and passed me the bag that was waiting there. I peaked inside and saw a few little fruit pies laying in wait. I glanced back up in confusion. "For you and your friend." She clarified, and a chill went down my spine at how she knew I was going to visit the kid in the forest. Not that I was complaining. I loved pies! The timing of them was just plain old creepy though. I told no one of my plans and there was no one else I was going to see today. "Oh, but the last one is for your dad. You can tell him you've been with me for the evening and he won't be the wiser. He loves my pies." She smiled sweetly, a sly glint in her eye. The Oracle was really nice to me, she loved having my back and getting my dad off of it. She knew just the right way to help me when I needed it.

"Can I have some advice?" I asked as I put away the bag of delicious treats into the little basket at the front of my bike.

"Sure thing, sweetie, I love giving advice." She clasped her hands together and her eyes went wide in excitement. If she were about twenty years younger, I bet you she would have been hopping in her little heels. Although she was known as The Oracle and the rich loved coming to her for advice, her spot-on predictions and fortune telling had gotten people afraid of her and her abilities. She was not as popular as she once had been and, although she didn't regret it, she still wished that she could be helping more people this late in the game.

"What do I do if..." It was weird talking to her about something like this, but I trusted her. She was like the mother I had lived without. I knew she cared a lot for me and wouldn't judge me when I was at my lowest. I knew I could trust her with my craziest thoughts and ideas, even if they made no sense. "What do I do if the truth turns out to be a giant lie?" I was referring here to the truth about the forest and the kid, but I knew from experience that even if I didn't give the most secret of details, she always knew what I was talking about deep down. And she always knew how to make me feel better.

She looked deep into my eyes and saw what I held hidden within them. "Although the truth may show itself to only a few, and although its reality has changed now, it doesn't alter its state. It doesn't make it less true than it already is. It just takes the one to prove its existence."

"Is proving its existence truly beneficial though?" There might be miscommunication here. I only wanted to prove it to my father. It wasn't something as big and important as she made it seem to be.

She seemed to understand the conflict in my expression. "Even if it's only for one, or even if it's only for many, the truth has a way of liberating us." And now she had lost me. Liberating truth? I was only doing this to prove to my dad that I was indeed not doing illegal things and that I wasn't actually on any hallucinogenic substances. Didn't seem like anything liberating to me. It was more along the lines of preventing my dad from having a heart attack. Oh! Maybe she meant it was going to liberate him from that incoming heart attack? That would make sense.

She shook her head at my epiphany. "You'll understand when it's time."

I shrugged. "Okay, thank you!"

She waved at me as I climbed my mighty steed of a bike and started back on my way. "Have a good time! Be careful of the trees!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" I laughed back over my shoulder. Those dancing trees were just plain ol' creepy and weren't going to get any dances out of me.

I eventually made it back to the school, and then few minutes later, I had found the little bridge. It seemed normal at first, trees surrounding the area, but it was when I neared that I noticed the difference. The trees were only there as some sort of fence or pretend forest; past the first few layers of foliage, the building constructed within the area towered up from its hiding position and blinded me in the face with a good reflection from the sun. Goddesses dang it, I was at a bad angle from this thing. I still made it though. I just had to take a five minute break so that my eyes could readjust and not have me see dark blotches all over the place.

I took the pies and hid my bike under the bridge to avoid a random passerby passing and making a few good hundred bucks off of it. I trotted up the wooden planks of creaky unsteadiness and considered going back. It could have been a whole dream. No no no wait, The Oracle knew of the kid. She sounded like she wanted me to go back and solve the issue. Yeah. I could do it. My nerves were just getting to me.

I took my first step onto the grass of the surrounding trees.

My vision shifted and a strong scent of incense hit me.

I fainted.