knowlee- Hi guys! Sorry about the long wait for this new chapter. Long story short, first I briefly lost my motivation to work on this chapter and then after that I got stuck at certain parts that I knew I needed to write, but that my mind didn't want to work on. (It wanted to get to the fun parts of the story.) And then I got so busy at work that I wasn't able to do much except for eat, sleep and work and that didn't help me much on my writing endeavors. *sigh*

But now at last, I can say that this chapter is done! :)

But I have yet to proofread it though, so if there are any glaring errors, please let me know, but otherwise know that I plan on looking it over to find all of them when I have more time. I just felt like going ahead and putting this out there that way you guys wouldn't be waiting for too much longer.

And without further ado, here's the latest chapter of Flames of Change!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Legend of Zelda nor its characters, world, etc. They belong to Nintendo. Also since this fanfic was conceived before anything huge was known about Zelda Wii U, this fanfiction shall be considered an Alternate Universe version of the game. Only one major character, one enemy, the world it takes place in and a few items are currently shared between the two versions. If there is any story, character, plot resemblances that appear between the two after more information about the game is released those are to be considered purely coincidental.

A Legend of Zelda Fanfiction

Flames of Change

Chapter 8: The Lost Woods

By: knowlee

His body woke on its own accord before he heard the cucco crowing outside, signaling that the sun had risen. He sighed as he lifted himself off of the small couch that he had been resting on since the beginning of his stay here. Lin had offered him her bed during the first night, but he refused saying that she would probably need it more. It was also her house to begin with.

He also knew that he would feel more comfortable sleeping in the open area of her living room more than her bedroom. It allowed him more availability to see what was going on around him. Plus if someone attempted to come in through the front door or the one through the shed, he would hear it first in this room more than hers. He figured that the reason behind his penchant for the comfortableness of this was due to his upbringing. He wanted to know what was going on in his surroundings at all times. Luckily Lin hadn't pushed the issue and let him be. Which led to his next thought.

She confused him.

He was so sure that she would be like one of those people from his village and that he would have to keep her at an arm's length to ensure that she wouldn't harm him. And although he was still doing that to make sure that she wouldn't get too close, he also felt that she could be trusted. Not trusted to the extent of her having his full confidence with everything, but enough that he could rely on her when it was needed.

He still had the nagging doubt that she might still pull something over on him and it he knew it was in his best interests to listen to it. Even if it was proven that she wouldn't do that, he still sided with it. He had too many mishaps before to stop listening to it now.

And speaking of the girl in question, he needed to get her up. He knew from the short time he had spent here that she wasn't much of a morning person. Sure, she got up and got ready, but it was rather begrudgingly. He huffed slightly at the thought. She certainly wouldn't make it too long if she was under his aunt's tutelage.

He shifted his legs off of the couch to hang off the side of it and began to put on the boots that he had set aside the night before. As he finished buckling them on, he spared a glance over at his things he had packed neatly last night after Lin came back with the news of being able to leave. He made sure to pack enough items and food for the next few days inside a bag Lin had given him. One of the items he was quite glad to have in his arsenal was an updated map of Hyrule. The one his aunt gave him wasn't cutting it.

He stood up from the couch and began making his way towards the part of the house where Lin's room lay. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much trouble to get her up this morning. They had no time to spare for that. They needed to get going as soon as possible.

Sheik crossed the length of the small home in a few seconds and reached the door that separated Lin's room from the rest of the house. He brought his left hand up, knuckles to the door, and knocked. He had a small feeling that this wouldn't be enough to rouse out of her sleep, but nonetheless he wanted to try it because there could be a small chance that it would work this time around.

He waited for a few moments and listened for any noise that came from the other side of the door. Once he felt he had confirmed that Lin hadn't heard his call, he grabbed the door knob and turned it to allow himself him. With the door opened enough to where he could now see into her room, he was able to confirm that the girl didn't hear him at all.

He sighed. Guess it was time to do it the hard way then.

He pushed the door to its fully open position and walked into the room. He came up the right side of her bed to see her head sticking out from the top of the blankets that covered her lower form and from what he could tell from the expression on her face, she was awake, but was attempting to fake that she was asleep. Too bad he could see right through her act.

"Lin, it's time to wake up. We need to leave now." No response from her.

Sheik sighed. Looks like he would have to resort to threats to get her to react accordingly. "Lin, if you don't wake up now, I'll force you to get up. Don't make me resort to that option. You know I would do it." The 'option' that he was referring to was one that he did one day earlier that week where in order to make sure she woke up in time for practice (she was trying to take a short nap in between her job and their training sessions), he woke her up suddenly by dousing her in water. He found himself smiling slightly at the curses she said when it happened. He had to admit that it was funny. It wasn't something he wanted to do, but it was humorous nonetheless.

Apparently that was the ticket to getting her up for just a few seconds later after he said that to her, she pulled herself up into a sitting position on her bed and glared at him. "Don't you dare."

He snorted. "Well, get out of bed and get ready and I won't have to." He turned to walk out the door and finish preparing his things. "I'll be out here when you're ready."

Lin grumbled in irritation as she gathered the things together that she had set aside to take with them on their journey last night and sat them on her bed. She turned around to push the door to a position that would prevent Sheik from seeing into her room (not that he would look anyway, he was respective like that) and began focusing on getting herself dressed accordingly for the trip.

As she opened the drawers to the dresser that held her clothes, she found herself thinking back to that 'option' Sheik was threatening to pull on her again. Her cheeks colored as she remembered sleeping soundly in bed during her nap only to have it rudely interrupted by cold water. She was just glad that she wasn't wearing anything that could've shown anything...revealing. Her face grew even warmer at the thought.

She needed to focus on something else and fast. That thought didn't deserve to go any further.

Lin quickly finished dressing herself in her normal Kokiri Hunter attire and pulled her hair back into its usual low ponytail. With that finished, she kneeled down to put on her boots and moved to attach her quiver to her belt while making sure that her arrows were securely fastened. And lastly, she grabbed the bag and slung it over her shoulder and reached down to grasp the sword and shield in her hands. With everything she needed now within her possession, she used her foot to reopen the slightly ajar door and exited her room.

She didn't even bother to look back since she knew that she would return in a week's time.

After ensuring that they both had everything they needed, the two exited the house and entered the shed where Epona stood waiting. Lin turned to make sure that the door was locked behind them (although she didn't think anyone would ransack the place while she was gone, she just wanted to be careful) while Sheik moved to stand near the horse's stall. He stared at the animal intensely wondering if it was going to try and hurt him. He had never been near a horse before, so the experience was new to him.

Lin turned from the door and saw the apprehensiveness showing on what she could see of Sheik's face. She smiled once she figured out what he was staring at. She smiled even wider as she remembered her first time encountering a horse. She couldn't blame him for feeling that way. It was pretty intimidating to see one up close for the first time. They were a lot bigger than people thought they were.

She turned her attention from the Sheikah and moved to go pet Epona, who was staring back at her companion with the same amount of apprehension he was showing her. At her touch, the horse looked away from the man and towards her master. She neighed in happiness at seeing her.

Lin took this chance to speak. "Based on your expression, I suppose you've never been around a horse before."

Sheik looked away from the animal in question and shook his head. "I never had a reason to be around one." He looked back at the horse. "Looks like now though I have a reason to be near one."

Lin nodded in response. "If it makes you feel any better, Epona's not really that comfortable around strangers. She gets kinda skittish." She saw Sheik raise an eyebrow at her as if wondering how exactly that was supposed to make him feel better. She laughed slightly at the action. Then she noticed his harp that he had strapped to his back. She smiled. If it worked for her, it had to work for him. All she had to do was teach him the proper notes to play and that would warm Epona up to him. "Although you can get her to like you if you play a particular song for her."

Sheik found himself curious at this. A horse trusted people who could play a certain song? Well, that was certainly a first for him hearing about something like that. "A song? What kind of song is this?"

Lin smiled. "It's a song that my friend, Malon, taught me. Epona was a gift from her on my last birthday and she gave her to me since I was able to gain her trust by singing her favorite song." With one hand still on Epona petting her, she brought the other one up to scratch at the back of her head nervously. "Granted I can't tell you the notes exactly that you have to play, but I can hum it for you. Don't know if you can learn a song that way though..."

Sheik looked from the horse then back to her. It would do better on this journey to have the horse trust him. Plus he knew after some time of interacting with the creature that he would grow accustomed to her. "I can learn the notes by listening. It was one of the things that my aunt taught me to do when I was learning how to play the harp."

At these words, he reached behind him and pulled out the instrument. He put it in the crook of his left arm where his elbow was and put his right hand in the ready position. He looked over at Lin with and expression that said that he was waiting for her to sing the notes. Lin felt a blush start to form on her face at the thought of singing in front of him. Her voice wasn't exactly the best, but she also knew that he would need to learn this song. Not only would it help with Epona getting used to him, he might need it if the situation called for it since the song also acted as a way to call her to whoever played it.

She forced the embarrassment from her body as she removed her hands from the back of her neck and Epona. She thought about the song Malon had taught her and remembered the notes that was needed to perform it. Lin took a deep breath and began to hum the song, going slowly to ensure that Sheik was able to figure out the notes that was needed.

It took a few more times for her to perform the song for him to finally catch onto the notes, but when he did she found that it sounded more beautiful coming from his harp than it did from her. She was entranced by the song coming from it that she barely noticed that Epona was honing in on him. It was the sudden neigh that Epona made that finally forced Lin from her staring.

She smiled as she realized that the horse was wanting to get closer to Sheik. She made her way to the front of her stall and opened it to allow the horse to walk forward. She looked amused when she turned back to see Sheik have a brief moment of panic form on his face as he saw the animal coming towards him. She tried not to laugh. "Hold your hand out and let her nuzzle into it."

Lin watched as he hesitated for a moment to do the action, but it didn't take him too long to actually do it. With the hand he had free from holding his harp standing out before him acting as a placeholder for Epona to go, she kept walking until her muzzle came in contact with his hand.

Sheik flinched slightly at the feeling of the horse underneath his hand. He had never been this close to one before so he thought it was understandable that he would have that reaction. "You can pet her, you know?" His eyes flickered over to Lin to see her encouraging him to do what she said and then back to Epona. He hesitated for a few moments more before he finally began to rub her from her forehead down to her muzzle. Epona walked a little bit closer.

In spite of himself, Sheik found himself smiling underneath his scarf. Looks like the horse had come to like him now when compared to a few moments ago when it was unsure. Plus now that the animal was closer and he could touch it, it didn't seem as intimidating. Perhaps that realization would also help him when the time came for him to ride it. He sighed and removed his hand from the horse to look over at Lin. "Now that that's out of the way, shall we get going?"

The two, along with Epona, exited the shed and secured the door behind them. Lin double-checked the bags and saddle that Epona had attached to her to make sure that they wouldn't fall off anytime during their journey. After doing that, she turned to look in the direction of the forest that lay behind her home. It was there that Sheik said that their journey was going to start.

She'd be lying if she said that she wasn't excited. She would also be lying if she said that she wasn't scared, because she was. She was excited to see what they'd find while journeying across Hyrule, but she also knew the dangers that came with it. She frowned.

Lin turned around halfway to look back in the direction of the village. Her mouth formed into a straight line. She was doing this for them and for all of Hyrule. She wouldn't let whatever threat that was supposed to befall it have a chance of catching it off guard. Hyrule would be ready. And she would help make it so.

"Let's go."

Lin turned away from the village and back to Sheik. He looked at her for a few more moments before nodding and turning to enter the forest. She found herself wanting to look back again to see her home, before she thought better of it. She knew if she looked back she would probably end up giving into her fear and stay behind. And that was something that she knew didn't need to happen.

She needed to move forward.

With that thought in mind, she grabbed the reins that was attached to Epona and used them to guide her to follow while she entered the forest after Sheik.

Although they were only in the forest for about what she estimated to be thirty minutes, she was bored. It wasn't that the scenery was boring or anything, it was actually really beautiful, it was more so the company that she had with her. He wasn't being much of a conversationalist. Neither was Epona, but she was a horse so she couldn't help that.

She didn't really know why this bothered her though. She had traveled across Hyrule many times during her runs with the hunters, some of these trips were by herself, so she wasn't sure why it unnerved her for it to be quiet. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was traveling with someone and usually when she had someone with her they spent a good time of the traveling talking in order to help pass the time. Or maybe it was the fact that she was going somewhere that she had never been before and that added more to her need for conversation. That was more than likely the reason why.

She frowned and looked over to her right where Sheik was walking to see him holding the map out before him and trading glances from the piece of paper to the land ahead. He had been doing that for some time now and while she couldn't blame him, she herself didn't want to get lost (that'd be her luck), she really wished that he'd put it away that way she could try and talk to him. Granted she could go ahead and just ask him what she wanted to know, but she didn't want to be rude.

Lin turned her gaze away from him. Still though, there was no telling how long he would continue to look at that map, so she reasoned that it probably wouldn't hurt to try and get him to talk. But what would she ask though? She thought for a moment and figured that the best answer would relate to where they were going, cause she figured that he wasn't about to give her his life story. He didn't trust her enough to get that that point which she was okay with. She knew if she were in his position, she'd be the same.

"So, where are we going exactly? I know it's a dungeon, but there's still a name for the location, right?"

Sheik still stared down at the map as he wanted to make sure that they weren't straying from the path. "It's a place that's deep within the forest. A place that's hidden to everyone except for those that know of its existence and of how to get to it."

"Well, that doesn't really give me a straight answer." Lin raised an eyebrow at the vagueness of his response.

He finally looked away from the map and glanced over in her direction. "The reason for that is that I can't really give you a straight answer. I know the general area of where we need to go because it was taught to me by my aunt. As far as to 'where' it is I'm not sure, but I'll know we are there when I see it." He shifted his line of sight to the forest before them.

Now Lin was a little confused by his statement. Was this place so well hidden that even the Sheikah couldn't find it? She was curious and a little excited by this possibility as that would mean that this would be an entirely new experience for not only her, but for him as well. But it was the latter part of his words that really made her wonder. "What do you mean 'when I see it'? Is this a Sheikah code word for something or are you literally meaning when you see it?"

Lin looked over to her companion to see that he had stopped walking and had a look of contemplation on his face. She stopped walking (Epona stopping behind her as well) and looked at him in concern. She wasn't sure what had made him stop walking. All she had done was ask an innocent question. But maybe the question meant more to him than just that? Why would it do that though?

Sheik knew that she had every right to be curious. It was just a simple question and he knew that she didn't mean anything by it. But this answer to this question was related to the one thing about himself that he didn't like. It had caused him so much trouble back home so naturally his reaction was to keep it hidden at all costs. But…

He spared a glance at her before turning his attention back down to the map he still held before him.

...since they were going to be traveling together for a some time, it was certainly inevitable that the knowledge about his eye would come to light. It would probably be better for her to know about it now instead of figuring out later and have it lead to some disastrous results. Of course she could still have a bad reaction if he revealed it now, which was what scared him and made him hesitate. His aunt was the only person, besides his parents, who fully accepted his power and didn't judge him for it. Would she join that category once she knew?

He sighed. Either way, he needed to let her know. His poor choice of words had led to her curiosity and he knew that it wouldn't stop bothering her until she knew. Plus he also knew that he would require the use of his power once they reached the destination they were going to and explaining it now would prevent the questions and shock that she would express then. He turned to look back at her and spoke trying to make his voice sound as serious as it could in order to mask the fear he felt towards her reaction. "What I mean by that phrase is that literally that. Only I can see where we are supposed to go."

He folded up the map carefully in order to force himself to focus on her and his words and took a slow, deep breath to settle his nerves. "There's a magical barrier that protects this place where we are going and only I can see it. Without me being able to do this, we'd never find the location and would be left to wander aimlessly through the forest and get lost in it."

"A magical barrier? Why would there be a barrier in the first place? To protect an old dungeon? I mean, I know something special is in there, but it still seems like a bit of a waste to me, especially if the dungeon is filled to the brim with monsters like they are said to be in the stories." In the back of her mind, she knew that was probably a stupid question, but she was still curious. Was there another reason why it was there?

"True, it may be just a dungeon like you said, but regardless the artifact inside of it is very important." He hesitated to speak the next sentence, but decided to proceed as he knew she would figure it out when they arrived. "But the barrier isn't just meant to protect things. It is also meant to keep things hidden."

"Keep things hidden? You mean like the dungeon?" Lin raised an eyebrow at his vagueness. What else would need to be hidden besides the dungeon? She swept a quick glance over the surrounding forest and returned to look back at him with a questioning expression. Was there more than meets the eye to this place?

"The dungeon isn't the only thing that needs to be hidden here."

If Lin thought she was curious before, now she was certain that her curiosity would end up getting the better of her if she didn't watch it. "There are other secrets in the forest?"

She saw Sheik turn his red eye towards her with a glint of something in it that she couldn't recognize. "There have always been secrets in the forest. The only reason why no one has ever found them or discovered them is due to this barrier. And once we find the barrier, we will be the first to discover its secrets since it was designed to be that way."

Her eyes widened at his words. Okay, now she was excited. Being able to discover a secret no one else (well besides the Sheikah in this case, for obvious reasons) has known about it was a big deal. She smiled. If her journey was starting out like this, she could only imagine how the rest of it would turn out. Though she knew it wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows. It was going to be tough. Hopefully it wouldn't be all that though. She wouldn't mind having excited moments like this sprinkled throughout it.

"So we'll know that it's been found once you see it, right?"

"Yes." Sheik had turned his line of sight away from her and was now scanning the forest ahead trying to see if there were any current threats they needed to be worried about.

"So...how exactly is it that you see it? Is it some kind of Sheikah magic or something?"

Sheik turned to glare at the ground. He knew this question was coming. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves against the inevitable horror she would express at what she was about to hear him say. "You could say that. I...I have a power that is concentrated in my left eye that gives me the ability to see through illusions and other magical barriers, both physical and metaphysical. It also allows me to see weak points in enemies." Sheik took another deep breath as he gathered up the courage to continue speaking. At least she had said anything yet and was letting him finish saying what needed to be said. "It's commonly known as the Lens of Truth where I am from. And… it is why I was chosen to be the guardian to the new Hero."

Lin's eyes widened at his words. "A magical eye?! That's..."

Sheik waited and braced himself for the inevitable negative word that would slip from her lips and cause his fears to be fully realized. He was hoping that she was a bit kinder than the others, especially from what he could gauge about her from their limited interaction this past week, but he also knew that everyone had a dark side to them. Even someone like her.

"...cool!"

...Wait, what? Sheik turned to look up at her and briefly had a look of shock appear on his face at the word she chose to describe it. She didn't think his curse was a bad thing? The realization caused his brain to stop thinking for a few moments as the feeling coursed through him. Once it finally made it's rounds though, he quickly wiped the look of shock from his face before she could notice. He didn't want her to see it and begin asking him questions about why he would have that look on his face before. Telling her about this was all that he wanted her to know about him personally. No more than that. 'Although, you're the first to say something like that to me about that.'

"...you're not intimidated by it?"

"Why would I be?" Lin raised her left eyebrow, a little confused as to why he asked that. Maybe he thought people outside of his own tribe would be a little frightened by magic? She could see why for where she was from as a vast majority of people in Hyrule relied on mostly technology now and didn't consider magic to be as reliable now as they did in the past. It would also give another reason why he was hesitate to teach her magic back in her village?

Oh, yeah, she nearly forgot about that little tidbit of information. "Speaking of magic, aren't you supposed to teach me how to use some spells? At least I think that's what you said to me when we were still in Kokiri."

Sheik drew himself out of his thoughts about how Lin reacted to his power (her last comment especially caused him to get lost in thought as he was shocked by it) and turned to answer her question. In truth, he nearly forgot about that himself. He was too caught up in trying to make sure they made it to the first dungeon that he didn't think about anything else. Some guardian he was turning out to be…

"Yes, there are a few spells that you need to learn in order to help you through this journey. At least four in total. I'll only teach you one for now as you will need time to allow your body to relieve itself from the stress of accessing your inner magical reserves. Your Triforce piece will give you more reserves to draw from, but you will still feel tired after learning these spells." He turned to grab the bag he had attached to his belt in order to pull out the book he recalled his aunt giving him.

"So I'll get tired like how I did when I used the Light Arrow?" Lin remembered that tired, achy feeling that came along with some dizziness. She grimaced at the thought of experiencing it again.

"You'll get tired yes, but it won't be to the extent as how it was with the Light Arrow. That particular magical ability uses a lot of magic, hence why it had that effect on you and also why it is only accessible to Triforce wielders. These spells don't use that much magic so all you will feel is tiredness after casting them over a period of time. This will especially be the case as you are not used to channeling magic. After some time your body will grow accustomed to it." Ah, there was the book. He pulled it out and took a moment to look at the symbol of his tribe that the book bore on its cover. Then he opened it to find a spell that he thought would be suitable for her to learn as her first spell.

Lin watched as he thumbed through the pages, searching for what she assumed would be her first lesson in the art of magic. She was excited about delving into a new area of expertise to learn about, probably more so this one that the art of swordplay, and was eager to figure out what would come first.

She looked at the cover of the book he was holding and found herself interested in the Sheikah symbol that he had on its cover. It looked similar to the one Sheik had on his chest, but it was it was different in color and the 'eye' on the book had an ethereal-like blue glow to it and that caught her eyes' attention. Before she could continue to examine the book, she noticed Sheik stop turning the pages in the book and begin to look intently at something in it. She was curious as to what he found.

"Ah, this would be a good first spell to learn. It's a relatively simple spell although it can be a bit hard to control in terms of aiming if you want to get technical with it. But for just using it to throw in a general direction, it's a good beginner spell." He grabbed the upper portion of the book along it's spine with his right hand and flipped it around to hold it out for her to grab.

In turn Lin let go of the reins that were attached to Epona. She knew the horse would stay and not run away so she wasn't worried about it too much. Instead she focused on the book that Sheik was holding out before her. She grabbed it with careful hands. She didn't want to damage it, especially since she was sure that it was a very important book and that her companion wouldn't appreciate it if she did.

Lin looked down at the page he was talking about to see a diagram of what looked like a person holding out one of their hands and something moving from the palm of it's outstretched hand. "Is this an air spell?"

"A wind spell to be more specific."

Lin slightly nodded her head as she looked closer at the pictures that she assumed was showing her how to perform said spell. She was eager to put these instructions into action, but unfortunately for her they were written in another completely. She assumed it was a Sheikah-related language (probably much like the one she heard Sheik speak back when they were dealing with the metallic creature) because none of the characters looked Hylian to her. "You do realize this is in another language, right? Although I can somewhat tell from the pictures what needs to be done, I don't think I can learn from that alone."

Lin's eyes widened at the words that came from her mouth. She hadn't intended on saying that aloud or at least not in the tone she conveyed. She prayed that she didn't make him mad from what she said to him, but she was speaking the truth. She spared a glance up at him. He didn't look like he was upset. Actually he looked more like he was amused at what she said. Was he making fun of her? Or had no one ever talked to him like that before? Either way though, she was just glad that he wasn't mad at her.

Truly Sheik was amused at her words. Sure, the thought hadn't really fully occurred to him at the moment he handed her the book, as he was more concerned with her seeing what it was she was about to learn. The true amusement behind his lack of a reaction was the fact that no one had ever attempted to talk to him like that before. Not even his aunt.

Sure they had talked during the past about different things concerning the upcoming journey or trying to get him up to date on how Hyrule was doing currently, but this was different. She had teased him about something. Sure, it was a little thing, but that little thing, regardless of how much he wanted not to admit it was actually considered a big deal to him. She had spoken to him like any normal person would be spoken to. It made him feel...human.

But regardless of what he was feeling towards that, he would have time later during their journey to sort out his feelings about that action. Now, however, he needed to focus on teaching her this spell. That came first.

He held out his hands to take the book back from her and she followed his example by placing it there. He flipped the book back towards him so he could read it properly. He looked up at her. "First, before we even get to the part of where you are going to cast this spell, you need to learn how to call upon your magical reserves."

Lin nodded slightly. Even though she was very eager to get to the part of where she actually could cast spells and such she also understood why this was necessary. Although she had called upon those reserves once when she made the light arrow, she considered that to be only because she was desperate and got really lucky. Calling upon it on command though would be more difficult. There was no danger present so she didn't have that to work with.

"Okay, so what do I do exactly?"

"You need to dig down deep inside yourself and find that source of energy that you called upon during that battle with the creature. Once you find that source, you need to pull it to the surface and let it go to allow it to flow through you freely. After that is done, you should be able call upon your magic power when you need it." Sheik continued to hold the book in his hands as he moved to step back a few paces. Since she was calling upon her magic for the first time without being under duress, he wasn't sure what to expect and wanted to make sure he wasn't really close to her just in case her magic lashed out at him. He knew that had happened before to people back in his tribe who were learning to call their magic for the first time.

"Okay, so how exactly do I do the 'digging' part? I mean, I understand what you're staying about finding the source, but as far as getting there I'm still a little confused." Lin moved away from Epona and Sheik while asking this. Although she didn't think she was going to hurt anyone by doing this, but since she was a beginner at this, she didn't want to risk it. And by her seeing Sheik move away from her, she assumed that he was thinking the same.

Sheik stood still for a few moments as he tried to come up with a good way to accurately describe what it was that she needed to do. "Do you remember that feeling you had back when you were fighting that creature?"

Lin nodded at his words. "Yeah, I felt a warm sensation coming from the back of my hand where the Triforce symbol is at. Right after that then, I saw the golden light surrounding my arrowhead."

He inclined his head. "Right, that sensation you felt was you digging into your magic that lay within the Triforce piece you possess. Since you have never really 'activated', so to speak, the magic that naturally lay inside of you, during your time of distress you dug into the golden power. The golden power has always been accessible to you, it's just that you never needed it until then apparently. And although while it is good to have that power at your disposal, it is also good to train your body to call upon your natural source of magic initially that way if a time came when you couldn't use the Triforce's magic you wouldn't be bad off." He continued to speak. "The way you tap into your natural source of magic for the first time is pretty much the same way. You need to feel a powerful emotion that forces you to unlock it. Once it is unlocked, you can then use it without having to resort to feeling that emotion every time you need to use it. Instead you can use other emotions in tangent with spells, such as the one I'm about to teach you, that will allow you to use your source in different ways."

"So, I have to feel an emotion really hard to cause my magic to release itself?" Lin was still a little skeptical about what he was telling her, but at the same time she knew that he had more experience in this than she did. She needed to trust him with this.

"Precisely."

"Does it matter which emotion?"

"No, any emotion can be felt. It just needs to be a strong one." Sheik answered her question and stared at her as if he was waiting for her to put his instructions into practice. She sighed. Hopefully it didn't blow up in her face. Now she could understand why he waited until they were away from the village to teach her this stuff.

She took a deep breath and began to concentrate. What emotion should she choose to awaken her magic? Lin racked her brain for what strong emotions she could think of. Hate? Sadness? Anger? Love?

Hmm… That last one sounded like a better option to her. Now what could she think of to bring that emotion to the surface? A few seconds passed before an idea came to her.

Her parents.

They could bring the emotion she was searching for to the surface. So she began to focus on what memories she had of them. The first time they showed her how to shoot a bow. The time they celebrated her fifth birthday. All the moments they shared up until that fateful night. She fought back the tears that wanted to come from her eyes at the memories she had of the love she felt towards them. She didn't want to cry here, especially in front of him. She didn't think he'd chide her for it, but regardless of that, crying in front of someone else was too personal for her. Especially if it was someone she barely knew.

Now that she had that emotion flowing through her, she began following the instructions that Sheik had told her. She began to dig deep inside herself until she found what would be her natural source of magic. Once she had found it, she began the process of bringing it to the surface. It took a few times to trying to get it to fully release, but after a few moments had passed she felt a warm sensation come over her and wondered if she succeeded. "Are you supposed to feel warm once you've released your magic?"

He hummed in affirmation. "If that's what you're experiencing then that means that you've successfully unlocked your magical source. But just because you've unlocked it now though, that doesn't mean that all magic will come natural to you. Just like learning any new skill it will take time for you to fully master and control it."

Sheik looked back down at the book to where the wind spell was shown. Now it was time to see if she could learn the other parts of using her magic. "Now that that is done. Let's see how this spell works out for you."

He began reading the instructions in order to familiarize himself with the technique needed to cast the spell and once he felt he had it figured out, he looked back up at her in order to relay what she needed to know. "As I mentioned before, this is a relatively simple spell, but don't let it deceive you though. Like air is naturally, it will be hard to control."

Lin nodded. "It wouldn't hurt to try and see what happens."

She listened as he told her how to focus the magic into her right hand, which she held out in front of her palm up, and imagine something that makes her happy. He explained that this was the emotion needed to call upon this power at first until she became naturally accustomed to using it.

So she recalled everything that she could think of that made her happy: memories of her parents, traversing the forest with the Kokiri Hunters and hunting in general, sleeping in on off days… She could go on with things that made her happy, but she figured that she didn't need to recall that much of her memories in order to find the emotion she was searching for.

As she felt the emotion course through her, she awaited his next instruction. "With that feeling now flowing through you, all you need to do is say one word. And this word will need to be pronounced as it is in my language in order to get the desired effect. If you say it how it is spoken in Hylian, it won't do anything."

"Okay, so what's the word I need to say?"

"In your language it is pronounced, 'Farore'. In mine, it's pronouced, 'Farore'."

"Wait, but that's the name of the Goddess of Courage. So it's also the name of this spell?" Lin raised an eyebrow at the realization. She was trying to piece together why the two were related, but she still couldn't see how.

Sheik nodded at the connection she made. "Yes, Farore is the name of the Goddess of Courage and this spell has a connection to that. Not only is she referred as that title, but she can be called the Goddess of Wind, the Forest and Life among other things. This spell is connected to the Wind title that she has. It is supposed to be a representation of one of her powers."

"I see. So I just have to pronounce her name just you like you did in order to cast the spell, right?"

"Correct."

Lin focused back on the magic flowing through her. Hopefully she wouldn't mess this up too bad… "Farore."

Before Lin could comprehend fully what she was seeing before her, she felt wisps of wind curl around her hand briefly before she felt the air still around her. She stood still for a few moments to see if anything else would happen. ...but nothing did. She felt a little disappointed. Was this all the spell was supposed to do?

"Did the spell even work? I know I felt something, but I didn't see anything." Lin moved her arm to cross it under her other in front of her chest. If this was all the spell did, then it certainly was a let down.

"Considering its your first time casting it, what you felt was all it could do for now. With time and practice you can conjure large bursts of air and direct it towards things to use as both an attack and a defense." Sheik closed the book and moved to put it back into his bag. After that was done he turned back to her. "For now though, it was a good first using it. We'll practice it some more when we rest for camp. For now though we need to get moving. We have to get to to the halfway point before nightfall."

Lin watched as he turned away from her and began walking towards the direction they were headed for to being with before they stopped. She sighed and went to grab Epona's reins. Hopefully she'd get the hang of this magic stuff before too long.

"We're here."

Lin stopped a few paces behind Sheik and stared ahead to see more forest scenery laid out before them. She scanned ahead to see if she saw anything like ruins of settlements or people even, but there was nothing. She raised an eyebrow. What was he talking about? "What do you mean 'we're here'? I don't see anything."

He brought his index finger to the part of his scarf where his mouth would be to silently tell her to be quiet and closed his eyes to began casting the spell that he was taught that would dispel the illusion before them to allow her to see what it was he was seeing through his magical eye. It took a few moments for his native language to slip past his lips, but when he finished, he held out his right hand before him and his shadow magic centralize it his palm before it flew towards the magical barrier.

Lin's eyes widened as she saw the shadow he formed bashed into something invisible that she couldn't see and almost immediately after that she heard the noise of what sounded like shattering glass and her eyes widened even more when she saw the forest before them began breaking apart into large pieces. 'What the…?'

She stood still in shock at what was happening before her. The scenery continued to fracture and shatter until all at once it broke apart causing Lin to throw her arms up in front of her to protect herself. She heard Epona neigh loudly and pull against the reins in fear of what just happened. Luckily she didn't freak out too much though otherwise Lin would've found herself having to chase down a frightened horse.

A few second passed before she lowered her arms to see what now was in front of her after that dramatic display. She gasped as she saw a huge hollowed-out log, big enough for all three of them to pass, sitting inside of a grass covered wall.

That certainly wasn't what she was expected. Heck, she wasn't even expecting the forest to shatter like it did. But, she glanced over at Sheik, if this was the place that he had mentioned them going, then it made sense why that happened. A thrill of excitement coursed through her. This was the place she had to go. She was curious as to what lay on the other side of that log.

"Let's go."

She nodded vacantly as she tugged on Epona's reins to get her to follow behind her as she went after Sheik. The dull thuds of their feet hitting the bottom of the log echoed throughout the insides of it as they walked through it and at the end of the dark tunnel she could see a bright light shining. Their eyes blinked against its harshness but the trio continued on until they finally reached the exit.

And when they reached it all of them stopped walking and Lin and Sheik expressed a mixture of shock and amazement at what they saw.

It was a small village that was surrounded by tall trees. The houses were made out of trees and were surrounded by small fences and tiny bushes. In the distance there looked like there was another pathway that led deeper into the woods and a small stream flowed in front of it. Another thing that caught their eyes were these little glowing sprite-like things could be seen floating about the area. In short, it looked like a forest paradise.

If Lin didn't grow up where she was now, she could certainly see herself living here. It reminded her so much of home.

She continued to admire the surroundings until she saw something move in the corner of her eye. She quickly turned her head back in the direction where she was the object move. What was that?

She narrowed her eyes at the area trying to see what it was that caught her attention. Then her eyes widened suddenly when she saw whatever it was that she glanced at earlier peek out from behind one of the small buildings and upon realizing that she was looking at them, it darted back behind its hiding space.

Was that… was that a child?

What was a child doing in the middle of the forest?

She whispered to Sheik to see if it wasn't just her that saw that. "Sheik, did you just see…?"

"Indeed I did. The Kokiri are a little shy towards strangers especially considering that their just young children."

Lin looked at Sheik with an incredulous expression. Wait, what? What did he mean by that? The Kokiri? But the Kokiri were her people, they weren't children…

...wait a minute.

Suddenly, a memory regarding the stories she read about the Hero of Time came to her. Like her, the Hero of Time was raised in a village of people called the Kokiri. And according to what she remembered of those stories, the Kokiri of that time weren't comprised of people like her village was, but they were actually made up of young children.

So was the Kokiri Sheik referring to same one? But she thought they were extinct like the rest of the ancient tribes of Hyrule. She glanced at the symbol of the Sheikah that Sheik bore on his chest. Of course she thought the same thing about the race of Sheikah a week ago until Sheik came into her life. So she probably shouldn't completely dismiss it. "So the Kokiri aren't extinct either? Why is that?"

Sheik turned to look at her. "The Kokiri and Sheikah were the only tribes, outside of the Hylian race, that survived the Great War. The Sheikah survived due to their battle prowess as well as what part they would play in the destiny regarding the next Hero. The Kokiri survived since they were protected by their guardian deity and didn't participate in the war due to their inability to fight in one. After the war ended, they were given the task of protecting the dungeon where one of the Sages' Relics are by the Sages themselves. Hence why the barrier was put into place. It was created by the Kokiri. They manipulated the forest to cause the illusion of the forest continuing instead of being able to see the village like we are now."

Lin nodded in interest. She turned to look back at the spot where the child, or Kokiri in this case, was last seen. She waited to see if they would try and look at them again. At the same time she had to try and force herself not to call out to them. She had a feeling if she did, she would only frighten them.

Her eyes widened slightly as she saw something green pop out from behind the tree-shaped home. At first she thought that it was the same Kokiri from before, but this one was different. The child in question moved out from her hiding spot and began walking towards them.

From the spot where she and Sheik were standing at, she could see that the child was a young girl who had short shoulder-length green hair and wore green clothing that seemed slightly reminiscent of the legendary clothes that the previous Heroes were said to have worn. As the girl continued to get closer, she couldn't help but feel as if she knew her from somewhere, but that feeling didn't make sense to her. She didn't remember ever seeing her before.

The girl kept walking until she got a few feet away from them. She looked at them with her bright, blue eyes with wonder. She didn't know who these strangers were, but she somehow could feel that she could trust them. "Who are you and why did you come to our home?"

Lin was at a loss for words. It was just a simple question the girl had asked. But it still left her wondering what she should respond with. Luckily for her, Sheik was better able to think on his feet. "We were sent here by my tribe, the Sheikah, to bring the new Hero to the first dungeon to retrieve the Sages' Relic."

The girl looked at them with a look of surprise etched on her face. She looked at the symbol on Sheik's chest. "You're a Sheikah?" Sheik nodded. She turned her attention to Lin. "So you are the new Hero?" Lin nodded.

The girl still looked a little uncertain but before she could voice her doubts, a small little glowing creature came out from behind her and flew over to the two strangers.

Lin jumped at seeing the small sprite come towards her and was confused as to what it was. Sheik noticed. "It's a fairy. All Kokiri have guardian fairies."

Her mind blinked to the symbol that was etched on Navi's forehead. She did recall that the symbol was supposed to represent that the Kokiri were protected by fairies, but now knowing that the tradition come from this was not exactly how she imagined it. She thought fairies were just imaginary creatures that the original Kokiri came up with to play pretend with. But now that she saw one for herself, she knew for a fact that it was far from imaginary.

After continuing to float in front of Lin for a few moments more, it flitted over to Sheik and stared at him just as it did her. Once he found whatever it was it was looking for, it went back over to the girl and landed on her shoulder. The girl looked over at the fairy and had her ear leaned over to it to listen to whatever it was saying. And whatever it said appeared to be good news as the look that the girl originally held on her face had been replaced with a smile.

"It seems that you are who you say you are." The little girl laughed. "Hi, I'm Saria and welcome to my home, the Kokiri Forest!"

Sheik inclined his head slightly. "It's a pleasure to be here. And although I hate to rush this meeting, I must say that we need to see your guardian deity. Would it be possible to see him now?"

Saria smiled and nodded. "Sure!" She looked over to the fairy sitting on her shoulder and sensing what she was wanting, it floated up and began flying towards the pathway that lay behind her. She turned her attention back to the newcomers. "Fable is going to tell the Great Deku Tree of your arrival. When he returns we can go see him. For now though, how about you meet the rest of the village!"

Lin opened her mouth to say something in response to that, but before she could get a word in, the little girl had ran off towards the other children (who it appeared were hiding behind the same house that she was earlier) to try and get them to come out.

"I'm not sure exactly how I feel about meeting a bunch of kids." She turned to Sheik when she heard him make a noise in response. "What? It's not like I dealt with them a bunch back home. They always seemed to intimidate me whenever I had to. I was always afraid I'd make a mistake."

"Hmph." He debated for a few moments on whether or not he should say anything, but he eventually came to the conclusion that this little bit of information wouldn't hurt him if he were to say it. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't have much experience with little kids either."

She smiled. "It does a little bit, but still the nervousness remains." Suddenly she heard the murmuring and laughter of children get closer to them and she turned her head towards that direction. Her eyes widened as she saw a small group of children, the rest of the Kokiri she presumed, standing behind Saria with they eyes gazing up at them in awe.

"Wow, are these adults? I've never seen an adult before!"

"What's that big, brown creature behind them? It looks kinda scary!"

"Is that a SWORD?!"

"What's that eye on that guy's chest mean?"

The children's questions continued to ramble out of their mouths until finally Saria put a stop to them but simply saying, "Remember what the Sages told us about one day there would be two outsiders that would come to our village? Well, they are them."

Collectively all of the children gasped in awe and before Sheik and Lin knew it they were now surrounded by the young children who were now (if they weren't before) completely enthralled with them. Lin tried to watch them around Epona since she knew how she'd react to being freaked out by them running around her and she didn't want any of the Kokiri getting hurt if that were to happen. While in the process of doing this, she didn't notice that Saria had gotten closer to her and was looking up at her with a look of happiness.

"It's nice to see you again, old friend."

Lin blinked in confusion at her statement and looked down at her. "What do you mean?"

She giggled. "I think you know."

Her eyes narrowed at the girl as she tried to put the pieces together. She felt herself feeling that same strange emotion again that she felt earlier when she first saw Saria. She didn't know what the emotion was that she was feeling, but now she could pinpoint what it was.

It was nostalgia.

But why was she feeling nostalgic about a person she had never met?

She heard Sheik speak and turned her head away from Saria to look up at him. "Do you not recall from the stories that the Hero of Time lived here once? And with the fact that you are the Hero reincarnated, wouldn't it make sense for you to feel some kind of connection here?"

It did make sense now that he explained it. Since she was the reincarnation of the Hero, it would mean that she had the same soul as the Hero of Time and Light and even all the others before them. It would make sense that she would feel nostalgic towards something that she personally have never encountered, but that in the past another person who shared her soul had.

She looked back down at Saria and smiled. Although she didn't know her, Saria recognized her friend's soul which meant effectively she was her friend too. She waved at her and her smile widened at seeing Saria's eyes glow in delight.

The sound of a fairy getting closer stopped the endless chatter that was coming from the Kokiri and caused all of them to look in the direction the sprite was coming from. Once it got closer it made the announcement that the Great Deku Tree was ready to see them. Lin felt nervousness hit her again.

She had never met this tree herself (although she now knew for certain one of her past incarnations did) so she wasn't sure what to expect. She glanced over at Sheik to see the same look of apprehension on his face. That look there told her that even though he had been taught to expect these things from a young age, he was still cautious and wary of what he would find. She could sympathize with him. Hearing about these things was one thing, seeing them was a whole other experience.

She smiled at him. "Ready to go?" He looked over at her and nodded. The two, along with Epona and the group of Kokiri children made their way to where the Great Deku Tree waited for them.

He was HUGE!

Although huge was a good way to describe how the Great Deku Tree looked like, there probably was another word in the Hylian language that would do better to describe him, but at this time she couldn't think of any. She heard a strange word come from Sheik that sounded like the language of his people and although she didn't know what it meant, she was sure that it more accurately describe the being before them better than her own language did.

"Welcome to my forest, young travelers."

The tree was talking… THE TREE WAS TALKING!

Lin took a deep breath to stop herself from freaking out. Sure, she expected the tree to have some way to communicate with them, but it still had yet to hit her that this was how it was going to do it. She needed to calm herself down.

Apparently the look of distress could be easily seen on her face for she felt a small tug on her pants. She looked down to see Saria looking at her with a smile. "Say something."

"What do you say to a tree?"

Saria giggled. "Anything you want!"

She looked back and forth from the girl to the tree until she came to a decision. She laughed nervously and looked up at the tree. "H-Hi!"

"Hello, young Hero! Have you come to take on the trial you need to take to obtain the Sages' Relic?"

She swallowed and she struggled to contain her nervousness from talking to the tree. "Y-yes. Yes, I have."

A vine came crawling down slowly from the treetops of the Great Deku Tree until it touched the ground. Lin and Sheik were a little confused by this until the giant tree spoke again. "I knew you weren't imposters since you were able to find this place, plus when one of my fairies confirmed your honesty I was certain that you were the ones the Sages told us to wait for."

The vine moved slightly from the wind. "This vine will take you two up to my tree tops where you both will encounter the dungeon that will test the Hero. Do be careful up there, I'm not certain what tests the Sages created for you both to encounter, but I'm certain that they won't be easy."

Sheik nodded. "We thank you for your hospitality, Great Deku Tree."

Lin was certain if the tree could nod, it would, but she was certain that it was sending its prayers towards them for a safe journey. She looked at the vine and took a deep breath. So, this was it.

She turned to look down at Saria and held the reins belonging to Epona towards her. "Can you take care of my horse for me please?" The girl nodded and took the item from her. Lin smiled. "Be careful with her now, she can get spooked if she gets bombarded too much. She could use a drink and some food as well."

Saria smiled again. "We'll take care of her, I promise. Won't we, Fable?" The aforementioned fairy bobbed up in down to show that it would help. Lin gave them her thanks and looked briefly over at Sheik before the two began walking over to the vine.

Once they reached it, he looked briefly over at her before grabbing the vine and began the process of pulling himself up. Lin watched as he went for a few moments before taking another deep breath to steel her nerves and hoisted herself up onto the vine to follow.

This couldn't be happening!? It couldn't be!

Ingo gripped the letter in his hand as he rushed as calmly and quietly as he could down the street towards the shop where he had placed his order about a week ago. Although he knew he still had a couple of more days left until they were completely finished, he knew he had to make a move now. Especially now that he knew that the Kokiri were growing suspicious.

He couldn't lose this chance. If he did, his employer would have his head.

Once he reached the shop in question, he burst through the door and quickly closed it behind him. Luckily Groose was standing behind the desk dealing with another customer, so he didn't have to waste time calling for him. However, he hoped that the customer there left soon because his patience was beginning to wear thin. He discretely put the letter in his pocket and tapped his foot in impatience as he waited for the customer to finish his buisness.

Apparently the Goddesses were with him today for the customer was only here to pick up one item and after retrieving it, he left. And once the door was closed behind him, Ingo began. "I'm here to pick up my order."

Groose raised an eyebrow at him. "We still have a few days left and there are still a few left to build."

Ingo huffed. "Well then let me pick up the ones that are finished now and I'll pay for you for those and then I'll come to pick up the other ones once they're finished. I need to have those now. The plans my employer had have are… moving faster than he thought, and he needs what is available now."

Groose grumbled. Normally he didn't let an order go until they were completely finished due to having incidents occur in the past where people did just that and never came back to pick up the leftovers which caused him to be out of money. ...but seeing as Ingo had already proven himself as trustworthy in the past by always paying on time and by sending him new clients, he was inclined to let this slide once. "You'll pay for the rest when they're done, right? I don't want to be left out of money when the time comes that I need it, plus I want my employees to be paid for their hard work."

Ingo was pleased with this, but he was still on a time limit. "Yeah, yeah, I'll pay for them. That you can be assured of. My employer wants all of them, but for the time being he just needs what is finished. How many do you have completed now?"

Groose turned to look at the documents regarding Ingo's order that he had laid on on the workbench behind him. Without looking back he called out. "12. The other 3 still have some last minute touches to be done."

"That'll have to do then. How much do you need?" He heard Groose rattle off a number he calculated for the price and Ingo reached to grab the rupees that sat in his wallet. Even if there were only 3 completely done, he would still be doing the same exact thing. He had very little time left and if what the feeling he got from the letter he read rang true, he needed to make a move before the target his employer was seeking got out of his reach.