Navi sighed. "I guess you didn't need my help after all."
They had taken a left after meeting the Deku Scrub and, to Link's utter bewilderment, found an odd stone gate that held tribal writings of the Gorons.
The boy turned to the glittering, glowing, tiny girl and smiled, softly. "Of course, I need your help! Did you think I can find my way out of here without you?" He tied his prize, a bag of forty Deku Seeds, to his belt.
Lincoln's words seemed to cheer the Faerie up and she flew over to where the Hyrulean was trying to decipher the gate. "Um, Link? Shouldn't you be trying to find Saria?"
His eyes lit up and he smacked his forehead. "I almost forgot! I'll have to come back to this later! I only have an hour!" He turned to Navi. "Do you think you could bring me back here another day?"
She beamed. "I would love too!"
A right took them to a deep pool of water that sparkled in the golden rays of sunlight that fell from the Deku Tree's canopy. The eight year old discovered yet another door beneath the surface of the crystal waves but, with advice from his new friend, he chose not to dive beneath the depths to see where the opening lead.
Another left, straight, yet another left, and finally a right before the music became a constant beat. It lifted the spirit and brought earthen scents to mind with its upbeat melody.
Lincoln had began to whistle the notes in harmony when a great howl broke through the air and stopped all sounds of merrymaking. Cobalt eyes watched two wolfos claw their way out from a secret grotto beneath the cover of high grass. Their yellow eyes burned with rage and hunger and it was apparent to the boy that they were quite desperate for food... they were but skin and bone.
"Link, go back, run!" Navi cried but, before her voice could bring reason to the mind of the child, the monsters attacked.
A fierce and chilling swipe from razor claws came at the lad with blinding speed and it caught the front of his white tunic and red vest.
Lincoln rolled to the side and banished his sword. "Get back!" He growled, shoving his only form of protection, the wooden Deku shield, in front of his face just before a set of jaws almost found his flesh.
"Link!" Navi screamed, heart pounding and little body shaking from fear. "Be careful!"
The next time one of the creatures came at him, Link charged back and cut a red line across the muzzle and slammed his wooden shield into its face with as much force as he could. Adrenaline pumping, he spun quickly on the tips of his feet and lunged... yellow eyes stared back from between a silver blade then Death glazed over the hunger that filled them and pulled the monster from its misery and desperation into her Land of Souls.
Lincoln shivered as a howl of agony and loss cut through the air, tumbling from the throat of the other wolfos. The eight year old turned and raised his shield, suddenly exhausted. The wolf-cousin stared at the boy for a long while before it moved...
Large canine teeth bit down on the wooden shield and ripped it from the child's hand. Those powerful jaws spintered the wood; broken it fell to the side with a clomp; and snarled at Link with such malice that his brave heart faltered.
The Wolfos crouched low and then sprung off its hind legs, tackling into the lordling, with its teeth ready to crush his skull. Link felt the ground slam into his back and the whoosh of air as he lost his breath, he was dazed for a second until Navi's blue form sped into his vision.
"Get away from him!" Her tiny voice screamed. "Let Link go!" Navi threw herself at the monster's forehead. A light came from her hands but, for all her bravery, she was merely swatted to the side where she hit the ground with a sickly snap like the sound of a twig.
The boy slammed his barefeet into the wolfos' stomache and stuck his weapon into its ribs for he could not reach its head with how he was pinned. He rolled backwards and as he did he felt the painful tearing of his own flesh. He planted his feet into the ground and staggered to stand, the scorching sensation of its claws burned on his back. Lincoln lifted his sword.
The feeling of wetness trickled down his back and bloomed roses onto the white of his breeches... Link wondered if he might die from it then released a cry of fury and pushed all that was left into him in the jump that he made toward the beast which was savagely licking the blood on its claws...his blood...
The impact made his whole body tingle and Death slithered the length of the sword into the wolfos where Lincoln had left a head to be wanted. Lincoln took a deep, lightheaded breath. "I...won..." He did not hear Navi scream as he passed out.
When he awoke, he heard a great roar of commotion that he soon realized were voices... some were angry, others afraid, but one was calm and whispered to him...
"Be brave, child of mine... be brave and all will be well... Go, back... We have need of you."
Another cut through the calm voice and it took a moment for the boy to find its name...
"Father?" Lincoln murmured with a vague notion that he was in a pool of water. "Am I dead?" The thought occured to him that he could be in his own blood...and it made his stomach churn.
"No, son." Raven smiled and lifted his child up out of the liquid to lay him ontop of a straw mat. "You were very close though." The Lord had traces of anger locked inside the relieved tones of his voice and it hung in the air for several moments before another voice broke in.
"Why were you in the Sacred Meadow, Link?" It was Saria. The green headed, indigo eyed, pale girl dressed in a green jumper of the same color of her hair seemed odd in the assortment of people who surrounded him who were mostly red headed.
The boy frowned at his friend who looked about thirteen. "Fado, uh, said you were looking for me...and Navi said you were there." He shot up and bit his lip, hard, when a spasm of pain dug into his back. "Navi! Where is Navi?"
"Here." The girl tugged on his sleeve and a sad sight met the boy's eyes. His little friend's arm was bound in a tiny sling. "I'm okay, really!" She smiled. "Are you okay?"
Lincoln smiled back, shifted, and felt a sharpness stab into his back. "My back hurts...but yes."
"You were torn into by a wolfos, Brother, you cannot expect it to hurt even with Faerie magick." Jason crouched down and ruffled the boy's hair. "How you even survived such an attack is beyond me."
"Wait, how did Navi know I was in the Sacred Meadow?" Saria asked, suddenly, with a distrubed look upon her face. "I only told-" Before anyone could ask who the person was, Saria disappeared from the Deku Tree's Grove.
It was then that the Tree spoke. "Mido has tricked you, dangerously, young Lincoln."
The boy looked up and frowned. "But, why, Sir? I have not done anything to upset him."
"He is jealous of your relationship with Saria and although he did not mean for you to get wounded so grievously, I believe, he had hoped to get you lost in the Woods." The wind rustled the many leaves atop the Great Deku Tree and set them flittering down to greet them. "He will be punished, extensivly, Lord Rave-"
"Don't." All eyes turned to the child who lay next to the basin of water that had been retrieved from a Faerie Fountain for the purpose of healing his back. "Please."
Raven gapped and Jason's face seemed angry but only the Deku Tree spoke. "I will not, if you so wish, but he does deserve it, child."
Link took a deep breath and sighed. "I know, it was a mean and vile thing he did, but I want to try and be friends and if this gets held against him than... I just want to give him another chance."
The eyes of the Tree, hollow yet full, seemed to glisten with mirth. "As you wish, Lord Lincoln." The Kokiri's Protector then turned to Raven and Jason. "My protection over you is wanning, Lords, and I think it would be best if you were to leave now or else risk being...changed."
"Do you feel strong enough to go, son?" Raven asked, large hand combing his child's blonde hair.
"Yes..." He stood with the help of his brother, Jason, and realized that he was no longer in the clothes he had arrived in... instead, he was dressed in the green of the Kokiri...
"Wait!" Navi's voice cried out and she fluttered up to the Great Deku Tree. "In my naivety, I almost cost Link his life..." She turned, momentarily, to the Lords. "A-And with permission... I was...hoping to...to, uh."
"Go on, little one." The Tree urged with a soft sway of its branches.
"May I keep watch over him... until he is healed... or does not want my prescence?"
"That matter is entirely up to him." All eyes were, again, upon the boy.
Link smiled. "Looks like you have a partner, now, Navi."