The Lost Woods

All that could be seen was forest, lots and lots of dark forest. "We're going the wrong way" came a voice that belonged to Sieg.

"How do you know you've never been here before!" came another voice belonging to Shin. Sieg's unseen voice retorted that Shin had never been in the woods either. "Well, at least I'M not telling people we're going the wrong way!" Shin argued.

Instantly Link's Hero's Sword cut through some trees revealing the Hero Trio. "Now you know why they call it "The Lost Woods" here" he explained as the two bickered all the while. Shin wanted to have faith in their guide but Sieg was getting impatient.

Suddenly, the orb given to them glowed and Zelda's face appeared communicating with them. "Hello princess, would you like a progress report?" Link asked with her approval.

"Here's a progress report, we haven't made any!" Sieg said as he was preparing to burn the entire forest down.

It had been hours since they ran into the Kokiri of Kokiri Village and their warning defiantly had reared its head. Saria, the Kokiri leader, had warned them that Abigail the witch was placed in charge of guarding the Forest Temple by Ganondorf. It was unknown why they were working together but Ganondorf must have promised her something special that he had no intention of giving, or he simply threatened her into subordination. Either way, she was using her spells to make the forest grow out of control and hinder the heroes' path.

"I wouldn't try to burn this place down if I were you" Link warned the sorcerer. "A lot of angry monsters will come after us for destroying their home, me included. I was raised in the Kokiri Village after all" Link further implied.

This made Sieg stop his fire spell, but the look of anger was still there. They noticed Shin had climbed his way up a couple trees and couldn't tell where to go. "Just for the record, I wanted to burn us a path" Sieg reminded.

Suddenly, they came upon a large swamp, a large swamp with a large monster inside of it. "Of course" Link said as he readied his weapon. However, Shin jumped down before them. He pulled out his food and dumped it in front of him as the monster approached. Link and Sieg were certainly confused

Shin simply stood there and raised his hands in a humble manner, "Oh great creature of the swamp, we seek the path to the Forest Temple, please take these as our offerings of payment" Shin announced to the creature as its long tongue took the food to the others' surprise. Shin raised his head, "Do the offerings please you?" he asked as the beast turned hit a tree with its arm knocking it over revealed a path. "A thousand gazunetites, O' misshapen one" Shin happily said as he ran over to the path.

Link and Sieg simply stared in awe, "He can talk to animals?" Sieg asked Link.

Link couldn't come to a conclusion, "Maybe?" he answered as they followed the path. On the way, Zelda gave the Hero trio a warning that they confirmed Abigail the Witch's involvement was indeed true. "Why would she work with Ganondorf princess?" Link asked as they continued down the trail their "guide" had pointed out to them.

Back at Hyrule Castle, Zelda sat at a desk looking into the crystal ball where Link's face was. "Witchcraft was made illegal by my mother" she explained. "As such many witches were not happy with this and sought revenge. Abigail's mother is the witch that gained credit for…" she ended as she had trouble finishing the sentence. "…killing my mother" she finally got out. Link tried to apologize but Zelda calmed him until the crystal ball's image went static. "She must be blocking me out" she said in irritation.

Outside her door, she saw her two maids squealing happily. This meant either Link, which was not possible, or Solomon had entered the entrance point of her chambers. She sighed at how giddy they were at times. She looked out of her office to see him enter her chambers with what appeared to be her lunch. Zelda once again noticed he still had that emotionless face on. "I'm here" he said as the head maid came in.

"Thank you Solomon" she said. "I'm sorry to bother you with this" she began as she peered toward the direction of the two giggling young maids. "SOME people assured me they were too busy" she continued berating her juniors until she realized Cain wasn't listening and already moved toward Zelda's office.

Cain entered her office and rolled in her lunch and placed it on a side table for her. He gave a bow and started to leave. "Hey Solomon, if you don't mind my asking, why are you always so serious?" Zelda curiously asked.

With that, Solomon stopped dead in his tracks with his back towards the princess. He was silent, almost as if he was thinking about it. "Why so serious, why are you always so happy and cheerful?" he retorted as he left. Zelda was just in awe at his "answer". It certainly put things in perspective. She couldn't help but take one last look at the serious young butler that her maids adored.

Back with the heroes, they continued down the path, Link became worried at the prospect of fighting a witch. True he was a grand hero and such, but he wasn't very good at fighting magic users. He himself used magic but a small amount to just summon weapons and use magical weapons. He looked at Sieg who still seemed less than interested at helping them and then at Shin who looked like he'd freak out at the sight of a witch. It would seem Sieg would have to be their ace in the hole. "Hey Sieg, know anything about witches?" he asked. "I fought Ganondorf's adoptive mothers once and they were witches" he explained.

Sieg stopped and pondered for a second, "Well, I guess we'll see some old haggard piece of meat that looks like she's been ravaged by the devils or something. Witches usually rely on black arts" he explained. "Or, she could be a natural magic user using mana from her environment, meaning she'd be some old hick…but then again I am a teensy bit racist so I'm just looking at strong negative stereotypes right now so it's probably best to disregard everything I just said" he ended revealing another side of himself.

Suddenly, Shin began jumping up and down in excitement, "I think I see a clearing, we must be there!" he said.

However, their excitement was cut short as something flew right pass them at incredible speed. It zipped past them and stopped ahead of them. It was someone on a flying broom! The lady's face was covered with a witch's hat though. "This thing always comes down when I go too fast!" she yelled as she struggled to pull the hat up and reveal herself. To everyone's surprise, she was a beautiful, young lady! She had green eyes, fair skin, scarlet red hair, and appeared to be only a year younger than them like Zelda! She wore a white blouse, long black dress, stereotypical witch hat and a black shawl with star decorated on it. She wasn't exactly as beautiful as Princess Zelda, but she was closer than most other women.

The three heroes couldn't help but stare at her, not just because she was a very beautiful woman, but this was kinda not what they were expecting. "Are you Abigail the witch?" Shin blurted out.

"What tipped you off, was it the hat, the wand, or the fact I ride on a flying broom" the young witch retorted sarcastically as she fixed her hat back on her head.

Shin then shook his head as if he was disagreeing with her, "I'm sorry, but you cannot be a witch" he announced to Abigail's confusion. "I was told you were going to be old, ugly, and prostituted yourself out to devils" he explained. "You look like the exact opposite of all that" he sarcastically retorted back to her sarcastic remark earlier. Much to everyone's surprise, they were agreeing with him.

Abigail looked very irritated with the last statements, she couldn't tell whether she should be mad, or happy with the fact that she was called beautiful by three handsome young men. "Ugly witches, talk about profiling" she said under her breath. "Alright, unless you three are here to be gentleman callers for me, I will have to ask you to leave here or else" she announced. "Ganondorf doesn't want anyone coming here and I'm getting paid nicely to keep you people away from this place" she ended as she pointed her wand at the three hoping they were there to compete for her.

Link stepped forward, "We are here under orders from Princess Zelda of Hyrule to enter the Forest Temple and break Ganondorf's hold on this sacred place" Link declared. "Step aside and we will not hurt you" he ended.

Abigail gave a disappointing sigh, "Her huh? Talk about a mood killer" she said under her breath as she floated in place. "Well, now that I know you guys are with her, well then I'm going to feel good jinxing you guys into frogs or something. I hate her and her dead mom" she said as she raised her wand in the air. "Trees that stand tall, do as I say, destroy them all, and destroy as you may!" she recited as the trees began to come to life around her and move toward Link and the other heroes.

Without missing a beat, Link pulled out his bow and prepared a fire arrow, Sieg conjured a large amount of fire in his hand, and Shin pulled two long pieces of paper that had the Xangese words for "fire" written on them. Abigail just stared at them, "What are you going to do with those?" she asked. As soon as she asked, an eruption of fire covered the area! Abigail flew out on her broom comically charred and blinking. "Must rethink approach" she said to herself as she used magic to fix her clothes and hair.

Inside the pillar of fire, Sieg moved his hands and forced them forward, towards the temple. The fire followed and burn the Hero Trio a clean path to the temple must to Abigail's amazement. "Let's go, let's forest is creeping me out, I think I hear banjos" Sieg said as he led the way.

Abigail quickly fled inside of the temple as she used magic to seal the temple's door shut. As the three approached the door and found it locked, Shin ran up the wall and went in through a window. He looked at the branches that entangled the door and jumped toward door. "Xangese Style: Twirling Strike!" he yelled as he vertically sliced through the branches allowing the rest to enter.

Abigail saw these and was once again amazed, "Must REALLY rethink approach" she said as she zoomed further into the temple.

The three reunited, Shin couldn't help but make a remark, "Hi, we're from the home inspection office and you maim have numerous little violations that need addressing immediately!"