Chapter 26: Revelations

For mother's sake, the child was dear,
And dearer was the mother for the child.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

From the Sacred Realm, Link and Navi were returned to the clearing where the Great Deku Tree had died. They were not alone when they got there. A crowd of Kokiri, led by Mido himself, surrounded the two of them as soon as they arrived.

"What took so long?" Mido glared, hands on hips.

Link, still trying to clear his mind of the Sacred Realm, blinked twice before meeting all the stares directed his way. "Where have you been?"

"Where have I been?" Mido shrugged. "Where have you been? Did you see Saria?"

Link nodded. "Both of us have chosen, or we were chosen, to help Hyrule go back to the way it was." He nodded at the Great Deku Tree. "Before this happened."

One rosy-cheeked girl with pigtails spoke up. "Is that possible?"

"I don't know. We have to try."

"Hey, look," Navi said. "There's something new growing here!"

At the foot of the Great Deku Tree, a sprig of a plant poked through the grass around it.

Someone coughed. "What is it?"

Mido peered close. "It looks like a weed."

The ground rumbled. The children exchanged nervous looks. Link waved them back.

The soil around the plant exploded, showering clods of dirt in a five-foot radius. Most of the children ran for cover. Where the sprig had been, a small tree had emerged from the ground.

"Hello," said the tree.

"Hello," said Navi.

The tree tested its voice, speaking slowly. "I am…the Deku Tree Sprout."

At first, no one moved or cried out except Link, who dropped to one knee. "Great Deku Tree."

"No." The tree interrupted him. "I am a small tree, sprouted from one of his acorns."

"But he died seven years ago." Mido scowled.

"Yes. Because of that, it became dangerous for anything to grow here. But thanks to the four of you—Link, Mido, Saria, and Navi—that curse has been lifted."

Link raised an eyebrow. "If you're not him, how do you know our names?"

The tree waved its scraggly branches. "I may not be the Great Deku Tree himself, but I am his descendant. His memories and his knowledge have been passed on to me."

Link's eyes widened slightly. "Then…you know how I came to live here."

"Ah," the tree said, "now there is a story."

She fled for her life and the life of her son. On a white horse, across a bloodstained field cluttered with the dead and wounded, through rain and thunder and the moonless night, she fled, clutching the reins in one hand, supporting her son with the other. Behind her, the city rang with the clash of swords and spears, the shouts of victors, and the screams of the dying.

She had left with nothing.

Only her clothes, her son, and the horse had come with her. Her husband had stayed behind, determined to fight with the rest. Even now, he could be dead, but she tried not to think about it. All that mattered was her baby. She had to get him to safety. She had to get him to the forest. It was the only place untouched by this awful war.

Link was on both knees now, weeping for his mother and father, who had died to save him from the war that had almost destroyed Hyrule before he was born. "Is it true? All of it?"

"I'm sorry, Link," said the tree. "Your mother lived long enough to find her way to the Great Deku Tree, but she was already dying when she entered the forest."

"But if she died…" Link snuffed his tears and looked up. "Who took care of me?" A new sense of wonder stole over him. "Wait. It was Saria, wasn't it?"

"Yes. Saria knew which plants were best for nourishment, and with the Great Deku Tree's help, she took responsibility for you until you were old enough to live in a house of your own."

Navi turned on the children. "How many of you knew this?"

"We knew Saria was taking care of him," said Mido, "but if she knew where he came from, she never told us."

"You should have treated him like one of your own, even without knowing where he came from," the tree said. "It is time you made up for the past."

Link stood on his feet. "He's already done that. I don't think I could have made it through the Forest Temple without him."

Surprise flickered across Mido's face. "You don't? I mean…yeah, that's right."

Navi whispered in Link's ear. "I think you got him there."

"Don't worry." Link extended his right hand. "We don't have to like each other."

"Right." Mido smirked to avoid embarrassing himself in front of the others.

While the other children weren't looking, Link slipped the Fairy Ocarina into Mido's grasp and spoke in a whisper. "Saria wanted you to have this."

"She did?" The blood rushed to Mido's face. "Why?"

Link raised his voice. "Deku Tree Sprout, where will I find the rest of the temples?"

"I could tell you that," the tree said, "but if you go to Kakariko Village, you will surely meet someone who can guide you more closely than I can."

Link cocked his head. "Who?"

He paused at the foot of the stairway leading into Kakariko Village. "Do you think the Deku Tree Sprout knew what he was talking about? If she's alive, Zelda might be, too."

Navi snorted. "What makes you think Ganondorf wouldn't lie about it?"

"I guess we'll find out." Link sighed and began climbing the stairway.

At first glance, there was little difference between the village and the village as he remembered it. But the more he examined it, the more he noticed the subtle changes: wear and tear on the buildings, a shop here or a house there where there had been nothing, and a general sense of claustrophobia. Hard to believe Ganondorf spared it, he thought.

Something moved behind a tree, a few feet to his right. Before he could tell what it was, a quarterstaff cracked him on the nose and brought him to his knees. He tried to draw his sword, but the staff smacked him again, this time on the left cheek.

Navi screeched. "What are you doing? We thought you were expecting us!"

Their assailant hesitated. "Yes. I expected more of you both."

"Why—" Link began, but the staff came down on his head, clapping against his skull. With a ringing in his ear and surprise on his face, he fell into unconsciousness.

He woke hours later with a headache, an earache, and several other aches he couldn't identify. Navi was at his bedside, unharmed, and Impa leaned over him with a bowl of soup. It took him several minutes to remember what had happened.

"You." He sat up with a start and backed away, only to discover that his bed was against a wall in a corner of the room. "Why did you…" With a groan, he clutched his nose and cheek, leaving the question unfinished.

"It's okay," Navi said. "Just let her explain."

Impa held out the bowl of soup. "Take this."

Link frowned at the awful smell wafting from the bowl. "I'm not hungry."

"You haven't eaten since we left the Temple of Time!" Navi said.

Impa gently pressed the bowl into his hands. "This will revive your strength. You will need it for your training."

Link took up the spoon resting on the lip of the bowl. "Training?"

"If I had been one of Ganondorf's servants, I might have killed you," Impa said, "and Hyrule would have lost its only hope."

"I didn't do so well, did I?"

Impa folded her arms. "Ganon will kill you unless you can learn to face a real opponent." She paused. "You have one hour to rest. We will meet on the Death Mountain trail."

Link dropped the spoon in the bowl just as he was lifting it to his lips. "After a beating like that? It'll take days just to recover from these bruises!"

"One hour." Impa turned to the door of the one-room cabin. "For every minute you're late, you'll spend a night sleeping on the roof…no matter the weather."

Forty-five minutes later, with the sun in the west, Link jogged onto the trail he had taken to Goron City seven years ago.

"Why did she make me leave everything behind?"

"She says you should learn to fight without the Master Sword first," Navi said.

He wiped the sweat from his brow and winced at the pain throbbing in his skull. "I just hope she doesn't put me through another one of her pain tests."

Walking just ahead of them, Impa turned her head slightly. "Do not equate the trial of the moment with the pain of failure or death at Ganondorf's hands."

"So you've said." Link stopped for a moment, sore and out of breath.

"Who instructed you in the forest?"

"I taught myself how to fight, mostly." Link, hands on his knees, heard a sharp ring and looked up to see Impa approaching with a knife in each hand, pointed downward. "What's this?"

A slight smile crossed her face. "Your first lesson."

Though the result was the same, their second contest went on twice as long as the first, lasting for an entire minute this time. At the end, Impa helped Link to his feet and indicated that he should follow her up the trail.

"We will rest here for the night," she said when they had reached the halfway mark between the village and Goron City.

Link watched as she gathered a mound of dry brushwood.

"What are you doing?" Navi said.

"Get back." Lowering herself to her knees, Impa slammed her palm into the brushwood, and a flame roared up amidst the kindling.

With a start, Link yanked his hat off and tried to smother the blaze, but Impa pushed his arm aside.

"No. I am unharmed."

He stared at her palm. "You did that?"

She nodded. "It is a gift granted to those who find favor with Din."

Link slowly set his hat back on his head. "Will I learn how to do it?"

Frowning, Impa crouched at the fire's edge. "The Master Sword is the weapon of the Hero, forged by Farore and the Ancient Sages. If that is not enough to defeat the King of Evil, I fear the ability to call on Din's Fire would make little difference."

Retrieving a few strips of meat from a pack, she took some for herself and offered the rest to Link. Though dry, the taste of the meat was exceptional compared with the soup she had forced down his throat in her cabin. Link ate slowly, staring up at the mountain. A ring of fire had settled around the peak, replacing the fleecy clouds he had once taken comfort in.

"Impa?"

She did not look at him, but her silence invited him to ask the question that had been burning in his mind since he left the Forest Temple.

A bead of sweat ran down his left ear lobe. "When I was in the forest, Ganon spoke to me as if we were in the same room. He…told me things. Things about you and Zelda. He said he…"

Though her eyes remained on the fire, he thought he saw a glimmer of anger in her expression. "Continue," she said when he hesitated.

He swallowed. "He said he forced you to watch while he cut her throat."

Her brow furrowed. "And you believed this?"

"After seeing what he did to the city and the forest? I didn't know what to believe."

"You see I am unharmed."

"Then is she…?"

Impa never moved. "She is alive."

"And?"

"Safe, for now. To tell you where she is would be to risk everything."

Link turned away from the fire, hiding his face in the shadows, but the sudden, low sobs and the short gasps for breath were impossible to conceal.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you, Impa."