Chapter Four
The Lost Woods and the Forest Shrine
Link, Zelph and Zane were left at the entrance to the Lost Woods by the Kokiri leader, Nanna and Skit. To get to it they had to climb a ledge and then up onto the roof of a two storey Kokiri house. The leader wished them luck, as did Nanna and Skit as they venutred into the woods.
They were immediately confused, for all the fallen tree tunnels looked the same.
"How on Earth are we going to find our way through this?" Zelph asked in disbelief
"There's a clearing in the centre of the Lost Woods" Zane told them, "If we can make it there the Sword will be in range of the Shrine, it should in theory still lead us, even if it is infested"
"Alright" Link said, "In that case we need to follow our ears"
"For what?" Zelph asked
"The water. There is an underwater stream that flows out of this wood and into Kokiri village, if there is a lake in the centre of this wood then it's supply is coming from Zoras' Domain. All we have to do is follow our ears to the sound of running water" Link told her
"Oh!" Zelph exclaimed, "That's brilliant"
They did this with some success until a Skull Kid jumped out at them and stole Link' sword.
"Give that back right now!" Link ordered
"Link play first!" The Skull Kid said
"Link no play!" Link snapped, "Without sword" He added
Zane and Zelph frowned at Link as the Skull Kid studied him,
"You not friend now Link?" Skull Kid asked "Link friend, I help Link last time to Shrine, by accident sure but Link like me then, Link told me "Be good Skull Kid" so I good Skull Kid, I take Link' sword when see Link, Link want to go back to Shrine, Link no remember Skull Kid? Skull Kid sad now"
Link knelt down, studdied him and then smiled,
"Sure!" Link said, "Link still friend and I am Link but I'm not your Link, I'm Link' Link, Skull Kid understand?"
"Oh, Link had a Link to help Kokiri when my Link too old to be Link yes?" Skull Kid asked with a creepy smile.
Link nodded,
"Something like that"
"Link' not dead is he?" Skull Kid asked, "Skull Kid very sad if that's true"
"Link, Link is sleeping in that sword, we need a few Link' if we're going to stop Shanklin reviving Canon and yes sadly if he's successful then Canon too" Link told the Skull Kid. Skull Kid studdied the sword, "So will you help Link' Link?"
Zelph shook her head, all she could hear was a creepy whining sound coming from the Skull Kid, that Link then responded too like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Are you following any of this conversation?" She asked Zane eventually,
Zane just laughed,
"Link is part Korki so it makes sense that he'd be able to speak to a Skull Kid"
"Hello?" Skull Kid said to the sword, "Link, Link? Are you there?"
"Give Link back his sword Skull Kid!" Came the voice of the Sword,
Skull Kid and Zelph screamed,
Skull Kid dropped the sword,
"Skull Kid very sorry!" Skull Kid spluttered, "Skull Kid will take Link to Shrine if Link, Link not angry with Skull Kid and Link play game with Skull Kid"
"Link, Link love Skull Kid, Skull Kid helped Link, Link save the world, Skull Kid can do it again" Came the voice of the sword.
"Uh huh!" Skull Kid exclaimed before darting off ahead of Link, Zelph and Zane
"Where did he go?" Link asked, picking up his sword
They heard a creepy party whistle at the top of some rocks nearby and climbed them to get to where the Skull Kid was waiting for them.
The Skull Kid laughed and jumped down into another section of the Lost Woods, where he was attacked by Bug Pug'. Link jumped down and delt with them as the Skull Kid cowered in the corner by a tree stump.
Link waited and helped Zane and Zelph down from the above ledge as Skull Kid darted off again.
Link, Zane and Zelph chased the sound of the party whistle all throughout the woods until finally spying the Skull Kid at the top of another ledge.
At the top of this ledge, Link, Zelph and Zane could see the centre of the Lost Woods but Skill Kid was too scared to go down or even across as there were four minies pig like creatures patrolling a camp fire.
"I can get across that" Link said confidently but half way across the minie pig like creatures caught sight of him and fired arrows at him to knock him off balance and he fell into the area below, "Maybe not"
Luckily for him this was a wood made for children so the fall wasn't that big of a deal for Link. It winded him a little though.
The trees atop of each area blocked any view of Kokiri village or a Shrine of any kind.
Link got up and started attacking the minie pig like creatures but as soon as one blew up another two appeared,
"Link! You have to get them all at once!" Zane called, before blowing into his whistle and tossing it down to Link.
Link only now realised the whistle had a face, Zane' face,
"Holey cow!" Link said distracted, a minnie pig like creature got him in the leg, "Ouch! What do I do!?" He called,
"Run rings around them!" Zane called back
Link did and realised there were now lights around their feet and not only that but they were now trapped.
Link did a spin attack from the centre and they all blew up into purple smoke at once.
Link fell back, exhausted.
Zane, Zelph and the Skull Kid climbed down to join him,
"That was just a minie pig, it'll be a while yet before you can take on Shanklin' leader" Zane told him seriously, giving Link a jelly heart.
Link took this and instantly felt better,
"Link strong enough for Skull Kid! Skull Kid proud!" Skull Kid said, "Link OK now? Skull Kid worried"
"I'm fine" Link said with a smile
"Good! Skull Kid no like waiting around!" Skull Kid said before darting off again.
Link, Zelph and Zane had to be quick to catch up with the Skull Kid but eventually they found themselves in an adult sized clearing with rocks and steps, broken in places, going up three walls.
"Woe!" Zelph and Link exclaimed at the same time
"Skull Kid no welcome here, this was once the Temple of Time"
"Before Demise and then his decsendant Ganondolf and his decendant Calamity Ganon, this was the central point for the power of the Gods, with the Forest Shrine to the North, Hylia Shrine to the East, Goron City to the South and Snow Peak Mountains to the West, the shrine of which sits deep underground and above it Hyrule. Then known as Sky Loft.
When that decsended from the skys after the statue it destroyed this temple and the King of Hyrule used the portals of all four Shrines to split Hyrule and hide three of the four shrines in the hope that even if that beast was broken out of his seal again they'd have the time they needed to retrieve the power of the minerals and protect the scroll" Zane told them
"Skull Kid go no further" Skull Kid said "Skull Kid given permission to help Link so don't fry me OK!?" He called to three statues gauarding the walls,
To Skull Kid' surprise he got a hug from Link, which made him cry with happiness .
He screamed and tried to run when the statues lit up but was surprised when they caught him and broke his curse, turning him back into a Kokiri. Link grinned as he jumped up and down with Zane, excited.
"Go forth Link of our Time, the Gods shine on you and your Princess" Came the voices of the statues
It took some doing to get up and over the wall to the North where this enormous Forest Shrine sat in an overgrown bowl.
It was crumbling in places and had black smoke billowing out the top of diamond shaped chimneys on the rooves of two points of the Shrine.
"My little sister's in that?" Link said in question, shrinking inside,
"Hey look, if we go in there thinking we can't instead of we can then we'll all be dead" Zelph said, "Now I may not have a lot of confidence in a lot of things but I'm not going to let this place beat me and neither are you, let's do this!"
Link smiled and nodded.
They looked all around to find a route into the Shrine. There were three eyes guarding the door but every time Zelph fired an arrow or Link jabbed his sword at them the eyes closed.
"Son of a...Skyward Sword!" Link exclaimed before jumping up onto a nearby ledge, "Get back!" He called to Zelph and Zane before holding out his sword. It glowed and the eyes were drawn to this. Following the game he moved the sword in circular motions until the eyes got dizzy, the eyeballs exploded into puffs of smoke and the lids dropped off so the doors into the Shrine could open for them.
"I'll go in ahead and try and find your sister!" Zane said, darting into the Shrine.
Link and Zelph nodded at each other and ventured into the Shrine after.
Zane squeezed through an almost impossible tunnel, out into the main part of the Shrine, this was roofless. It had three floors with only ledges outside the doors and at present no way of reaching them. On the top floor there was an enclosed bridge with arches going right across the middle of the space, left to right and a chandelier suspended from the centre of it,
Zane put his hands and his ears to the locked door on the right of him, then closed his eyes. Through three rooms his vision took him until he found Mya locked in a cage, hugging her Link doll for comfort,
"Hang on in there Mya, Link' coming for you!" Zane called as he opened his eyes. Zane was shocked back into a pool of water by a pig like creature standing behind the first door. The creature having jabbed an electrified rod through a keyhole. Zane shook his head as he surfaced and swam over to a vine on the wall, "I'll just have to find another way in"
Meanwhile Link and Zelph were round at the entrance, staring at the tiny tunnel in disbelief.
"Oh there is no way Zane crawled through there" Link was saying,
"Clearly he did" Zelph said, then pointing to the rubble ahead she added, "Becasue no one could get through there"
"We can't get through there" Link said, pointing at the tunnel until Zelph coughed and Link got down on all fours, and squeezed into the tunnel, "Alright but if we get stuck I'm blaming you"
By the time Link and Zelph had reached the other side Zane was in the next room up from the one with the locked door and was sneaking across ropes, holding flags and slipping across mossy boulders. He was spotted at one point but despite the screeching made by the pig like cretures these ones had no arrows so they coudn't get to him.
Zane grinned and made himself fairy sized, stuck himself to the wall, sidling across to a thin gap between that and the door to the next room before simply slidling down through the gap.
In the next room Zane was able to trick a pig like creature by flying into his face and got him to drop his electrified rod, which he picked up again in a rage and used to shock the rest of them in the behind. These ran around hitting each other and the pig that had hit them until they all blew up into purple smoke.
A key dropped down from the ceiling but Zane was suspicious of this. As he flew through the lock of the next door three shadow hands dropped down from the ceiling, and looked around in total confusion after finding no one there at all.
Mya gasped when she saw Zane,
He shushed her and winked at her but then as he tried to get to the gate he saw the monster gaurding her. It was a huge puppet being manned by at least thirty pig like creatures,
"Look out!" Mya screamed as they made the puppet swipe an arm down,
Zane zoomed through the bars, became Zane sized again and dragged Mya with him to the far corner of the cage.
"Link...Link!" Zane said into the whistle.
Out in the main room Link and Zelph looked at each other, trying to work out where the voice was coming from.
"Zane?!" Link called
"Link! I'm with your sister but you have to listen to me! There's a puppet guarding her but it's being worked by at least thirty of those pig like creatures that captured her, a little smaller but still big enough to knock us all out...maybe even kill us. I can see a light on the top of their heads, they're being controlled by the one that took your sister. You have to find him and destroy him before you even think about heading this way!" Zane' voice rang
"Which way is this way?!" Zelph called
"Where are you?!" Zane' voice rang
"Main room I guess, no idea how we're getting to some of these rooms though if he's not down here!" Link called
"I see you now. The locked door right of the tunnel, we're through there!" Zane' voice rang
"How did you get through it?!" Link asked
"Don't worry about that now, find that pig!"
Link and Zelph looked around until they found the only door they could go through and then made their way over to it. It took some doing for Link to get the door to roll open but eventually it did. He realised there had to have been power in this place at onc point because of the mechanism on the door.
Zelph jumped as the door rolled shut on them on entering the room. There were three blocks in a shallow pool, on sliding plates and a track Link and Zelph could walk on, and there were three switches on the floor at various points. Link and Zelph quickly realised what they had to do but after a laugh rang out and a beeping sound they realised they only had a certain amount of time to do this task.
The first time they let it slip by to work out how long they had. When the timer ran out they were warped back to the start point, after that it was trial and error to get the blocks onto the three switches on time.
When they had a key dropped down from the ceiling and they heard a rumble. Link and Zelph left the room to find a bridge going across from the ledge above to the ledge on the right, where there was another locked door.
Link and Zelph climbed the vines and then gingerly walked across the bridge that bent alarmingly in the middle.
A fire was lit up on the arch walkway and some bats flew down towards them. This startled Zelph and she fell off the bridge into the water below. Link used his shield to deflect them after killing one and realising they were real and not of the Shanklin Minerals.
"Zelph! Are you alright?!" He now called,
Zelph had gotten herself out of the water, climbed the vine and walked to the centre of the bridge again by this stage,
"Yes!" She yelled in his ear
This startled Link and he fell into the water, making her laugh.
"Really, we're playing that game?" He called up before shaking his head, smiling and swimming to the ledge, "Oh I am so going to get you back for that later"
In the next room Link and Zelph found some of the guards with eyes in the back. Link and Zelph were ready for them and although they got sent flying once or twice they soon made scap of them. They then looked all around the room but for a minute or two but they couldn't for the life of them work out how to get to the next floor or even where the next room was, and then they saw a pair of eyes in a small tunnel, not quite as small as the first but small enough.
Link drew his sword and the owner of the eyes screeched
"Don't...don't hurt me!" It called
"Who is there?" Link asked, he was stunned to find that it was the cheeky Kokiri, who had challeged Skit, "What are you doing here!?" Link cried, putting his sword away
"Oh please don't be angry with me Link I only wanted to help" The cheeky Kokiri cried
Link smiled,
"We could do with a map" Link said
"Oh! Oh, I know where you can find one!" The cheeky Koikiri exclaimed, "There's a room above this but you're going to have to use the tunnels to get to it" He said before he took a stick and drew the path for Link and Zelph "You pass three holes in the roof of this tunnel and at the third is where you want to climb, if you try climbing the others there are traps so you'll get into trouble, then you want to go the opposite way through the next tunnel past two holes in the roof before climbing up, then go back on yourself through the last tunnel until you get into a room with the map in it"
"Thank you..." Link began
"Pip!" The cheeky Kokiri said
"Wait for us by the entrance, are we clear?" Link ordered
"Uh huh!" He nodded
"Are there any more of you in here?" Link asked
"No" Pip told him honestly
"Did you tell Nanna or the leader you were going into the woods?" Link asked, Pip sat down on the floor and burst into tears, "You are a puzzle Pip, you want to be brave but you do stupidly dangerous things in the process, I'm not mad and they might act mad when we go back but it's only because they worry about you"
Pip sniffed and Link let him hug him before running off.
Link smiled after him and then braced himself for the next set of tunnels.
Even Zelph had a tough time with these tunnels but eventually they got out and into this small room Pip had told them about. In the corner of the room was a skeleton holding a map. Before Zelph or Link could take it though its eye sockets lit up and the skeleton came after them.
Link had a tough time with this one but he got him eventually and Zelph got the map. They sat on the floor and looked at the map together under the light of the lit torch above their heads.
"There should be a door in here somewhere" Zelph said, Link stood up, took his sword and started bashing the walls, Zelph covered her ears "Link, what're you doing!?"
"Using my ears, the wall with the door behind it will sound..." He began, helping her up before bashing the wall behind her, "Different"
"How're we getting through it?" Zelph asked
"This is where it gets a bit dangerous because we need to back up into that tunnel so I can take a bomb from my bag and roll it over there, it'll detonate after about three seconds once it makes impact with the wall" Link told her.
With a degree of difficulty Zelph and Link had to get down on all fours and back into the tunnel, Zelph directing Link so he didn't accidently kick her in the head.
Once they were ready Link carefully took the bomb from his bag and rolled it at the wall, the first one went off too early and took out a big roach casually walking around, minding it's own business, the second didn't go off at all, the third did the trick and Zelph was grateful because by now she was starting to suffocate with the heat generating in this small space. They climbed back out of the tunnel and then left through the door now available to them.
They found a new ledge and the top of the suspended chandelier.
Link could see that if raised they could use it as a ledge to get onto the enclosed bridge. He looked up and saw a mechanism on the underbelly of the enclosed bridge,
"I think this was designed to go up at some point" Link summerised, "This is the only thing with power running through it but there's something wrong"
Zelph looked up and saw four switches with soft spots in the centre,
"The switches need to be activated, I don't want to waste my light arrows on them though" She told him, "Haven't you any normal arrows?"
"No" Link said after searching his bag, "But we do have the sling shot, how good are you?"
Zelph took her sling shot, took aim and fired but it was not use,
"Wait! You can target anything you need to hit with your mark!" Zelph realised
Link held up the back of his hand to the switch and a light appeared, Zelph fired a shot and this time it worked,
She hit all of the switches and the chandelier moved up to the walkway with them.
Link and Zelph had to be quick to climb up and off oto the bridge before the chandelier went back down and after a fight with two pig like creatures with electrified rods they used the map to work out which way they should go. They chose to go left.
It was in this room that Link and Zelph came across the big pig like creature that had taken his sister. Link and Zelph were ready for him this time.
Bars came up to stop them escaping but right now he was oblivious to their prescence.
There were shelves everywhere, all up the walls that they could climb on. With Link gesturing he went one way and Zelph went the other. Up on the shelf Link found a jar full of dirt, with a handful he now called down to get the pig' attention.
"Hey!" Link called
The pig looked up and Link poured the dust into his mouth to distract him before flipping off the shelf onto the floor and hitting the pig' behind with the sword.
He got a shock when he saw an eye appear on the pig' back and the pig turned round and batted him across the room, into a wall.
"Link!" Zelph called, readying her bow, "I know how to beat him!"
"Great" Link said weakly, getting up and dodging the pig so he could eat some jelly hearts,
The pig now took a swipe at the ledge Zelph was on but she managed to get to one higher up,
"Link! Listen! Zelda can freeze him with the light arrows but you need to make the mark of a Tri-Force piece in his back to defeat him!" Came Zane' voice,
Link nodded and ducked and dived until the pig was where Zelph needed it to be, then when she shot the eye with a light arrow Link could get a shot in with the sword. He got batted back and the process started again, he ducked and dived until Zelph could fire a light arrow and he could swipe with the sword. This time he got out of the way and the process started again until Zelph could fire a light arrow and Link could swipe with his sword. Finally the pig let out a cry and exploded into purple smoke but not before tossing the key they needed into the air and out of the room.
Link and Zelph ran out of the room as the bars blocking the door fell.
As they ventured across the walkway to the next room, down stairs all the pigs holding up the puppet vanished and the puppet fell to the ground.
"It worked!" Mya exclaimed
"Hang on, I've seen enough to know it's not really done with us yet" Zane said
In the next room Zelph and Link could see the key they needed in the middle of the room but Link had seen enough to know it wasn't going to be that simple and sure enough with one step a wall rose, a step back and it sank.
This was trial and error but eventually they got the key and then screamed as the floor went from under them.
They landed in the room just before the one Mya was trapped in.
They were injured quite badly but as luck would have it the shadow hands were directly under them and so were dealt with almost instantly.
After eating the jelly hearts to heal themselves, they got up and looked at the electrified rods on the ground, left by the pigs Zane had tricked earlier.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Link asked Zelph
They each took a rod and used the key to get into the room Mya was trapped in.
Sure enough the bars came up and the puppet was up on it's feet, eyes aglow before Link could even check on Mya.
They had three problems, he was huge! He had three eyes, one at the back, two at the front and he also had a glowing diamond on each of his arms.
Without words Link and Zelph worked together, they used the rods to get the puppet to its knees so they could take out the eyes, Zelph the front two with her light arrows and Link with his sword on the back eye.
Zane blew into the whistle and with the diamonds on the arms targeted Link did a spin attack and cracked them.
Once they had repeated this three times and had been batted and bruised and picked up and thrown they got him and with a few more stomps and a scream he exploded into purple smoke and the key to the cage Mya was stuck in dropped to the ground.
Mya sobbed with relief as Link let her out and they shared a long hug.
The Skull Kid, now Kokiri, and Pip met at the front of the Shrine and looked at each other in shock as the purple smoke replaced the black smoke and it shot out of the Shrine, became the face of Cannon, screamed and then vanished.
A second later it was raining rose petals.
All the way back in Kokiri Village Nanna and Skit stood up in shock and delight as they too saw the smoke and the petals raining down,.
The Kokiri' rejoiced along with them.
"That was just one Shrine of four, he has a way to go but it's a good start" Nanna smiled
Link, Zelph, Zane and Mya were ported to a very familiar looking tree where stood a stand, similar to the one at Zelph' Palace. It was in a pool with crystals and minerals in it. Link dipped his sword into it and the water ran up the blade and over his hand, adding to his strength and the sword' power. He also found two bows, and some normal arrows.
Link now put his sword away and touched the stand. A blue ball and a yellow ball appeared above it and started to spin slowly in circles. This took Link and Zelph by surprise.
"Let's go find Nanna" Mya said
Link nodded and Pip shrunk nervously.