Chapter 2

Adventure Time with Link and Mido™

Link woke late the next day, having missed breakfast. He changed into his traditional green tunic and cap. On his way out the door, he grabbed his slingshot and his bag of seeds. He exited the main room and promptly hopped down the tree. He began heading to the river to bathe when Saria and Mido intercepted him.

"Well-rested there sunshine?" Mido teased, "I saved you some breakfast if you're hungry."

Saria noticed Link was not quite with it. She tried to grab his attention, "Hey Link you feelin' alright?"

"Yeah," Link replied, "just a little behind on some sleep. And no thanks Mido, I'm not hungry. I was just on my way to the river."

Mido nodded "Fair enough. You still wanna check out that marsh later today?"

Link nodded in reply, "Give me half an hour? I'll meet you at your house."

"Sure thing," Mido said looking at Saria.

"Need me to pick anything up for you Link? I've got some time to kill," Saria asked him.

"No, but thank you," Link responded.

15 minutes later, Link was at the river stripping down to his shorts. He hopped into the stream and relaxed. As usual, he surveyed the forest while he bathed. After soaking for a few minutes, he noticed something peculiar in the distance. He climbed out of the water, dried, and quickly dressed once again before going to examine what appeared to be a fallen bird.

As he got closer, he realized it was infact a bird with its wing clipped, but it was not a bird he had seen before. He was used to seeing sparrows and robins, and the odd bird of prey up in the trees. This bird had dark feathers, a dark beak, dark eyes, and dark talons. To someone from outside the forest, this bird was clearly a raven, but Link was completely thrown off by this foreign bird.

Despite the creature being strange to Link, he was concerned by the bird's broken wing. The forest was a place of life and Link had spent his entire life living around growth and natural repair. He was not sure what to do. He had had his own wounds treated in the village with a powder mixed by various elders. Judging by the bird's blood loss, Link did not think he would have that long. Link was shaking now. He had never witnessed a death before and was not sure if he could help the bird. He continued to cup the bird as he ran to the stream. The bird's tiny body was starting to move less and less. Link frantically tried to think of something to do. The village was too far away and he had no means to heal the bird.

The bird was nearly motionless when Link froze and said a word that he had heard in his mind for a while.

"Ordona."

He placed the bird gently on the ground. Link was debating whether the bird should be buried when it sprang up. Link stepped back, confused. The bird walked around while stretching its wings. Its left wing seemed as if it had never been damaged. After a moment, the bird took off and landed on an upper tree branch. Link stared at it in confusion as the bird was happily free again; taking its leave it was soon out of sight.

Link stood there for a moment, wondering what happened. He had felt a brief surge in what he thought was the bird's final minute. For a split second, he had felt the bird's pain in his left arm, and the unorganized thoughts going through its head. Panic. Despair. Submission. After a minute of standing out in the middle of nowhere, he decided he should probably get back and meet up with Mido and Saria.

How am I going to explain this one? He wondered.

Back at Mido's house, Saria and Mido were waiting there when Link arrived. Saria gave Link a worried look having seen that he was shaken up, but said nothing.

"Shall we?" Mido prompted.

Link and Saria nodded as they set out to the marsh. Saria and Mido were both dressed in the same traditional sense as Link. Saria brought her wood ocarina, while Mido brought his esteemed sword that he wore sheathed on his back. The three of them traversed the forest, playing childish games along the way, singing songs and stopping to climb the odd tree for a lookout view.

Link refrained from mentioning the bird. He was still afraid, and was worried that if others learnt of him healing a bird with some kind of spell, he would be further outcast. Something felt different still. He felt much more aware of the presences around him. Mido's and Saria's demeanor were the most prominent, but if he really focused he could sense the smallest bug amongst the twigs. He had an idea to put his senses to the test. He stopped the crew at the next slight clearing and pulled out his slingshot.

"Mido," he said grabbing a seed, "grab a pinecone and throw it as hard as you can away from us."

Mido raised an eyebrow as he slowly picked up a pinecone, "Uhm, ok which direction do you want me to thow it?" he said winding up.

"Doesn't matter," Link replied "Just don't tell me where," he instructed, aiming his slingshot to the ground and pulling back the sling.

The next few seconds wound up being kind of a blur for Link. Mido whipped the pinecone at an angle that it flew horizontally across Link's range of vision at a high velocity. By the time the pinecone was in alignment with Link's nose, he had taken aim and released the seed. Link shook off the chill and looked at the ground to see a shattered pinecone about 6 yards ahead of him.

Mido gave a laugh "Someone trynna show off? Props though, that was impressive Link," he said excited.

Saria looked as if she could not refrain any longer. "Link is something going on? You seem very different today and I'm worried about you." After Link remained silent, she walked closer and looked him right in the eye, "You're holding something back. You have to tell someone eventually so tell us. We're your friends and you can trust us."

"Yeah," Mido piped up, "You know if something's up you can tell us about it Link."

Link thought about it a moment, "Just felt lucky," he said, seeing Saria frown, "But I have been feeling ill lately," he threw in. He accepted that he would have to tell his friends soon, but he was not ready to do it yet. He gestured onward "Let's keep going."

His friends accepted it and continued on with Link. Within a few minutes they reached an unfamiliar cave. The three of them surveyed it for a few minutes. Naturally Link knew Mido would want to go inside, but this day he felt he wanted to explore it too. He felt like he had nothing to lose there. He also knew Saria would be reluctant. It wasn't just her, but most Kokiri would shy away from a cave. Along with their belief that leaving the forest will cause one to die, many of the stories passed down in Kokiri culture involve heroes going into caves and never returning, this being some of the roots of the Kokiri's settled nature.

"Well," Mido said taking a step forward, "shall we?"

"You can't be serious Mido," Saria said rolling her eyes "that is so like you. But c'mon you know better than that. By now we're at the edge of our forest. For all we know that cave could lead to the outside world," she said, almost flinching at the thought, "I'm surprised you'd go any closer than you already are."

"The outside world, eh?" Link thought aloud, "We haven't checked that one out yet."

Saria's eyes widened "You too link?! No, please don't do this, guys. We've already established that there's strange activity going on. I just don't think this is a good idea…"

"Oh c'mon Saria," Mido began,

"No," Link interrupted, "She's right, we've never even seen this cave before. Mark it on the map, Mido, so next time we come this way we can bring more people."

Mido did as Link suggested and stood there quietly, disappointed. Link pressed the group to keep going for now. While they walked, his mind kept going back to that cave, still curious to check it out. He could sense Mido's suspense too. Saria exerted a much more calm demeanor. Link was lost in his new sense ability when he noticed that when he touched Saria's presence, she pressed back. He thought he was imagining it at first, but after he tested it again he confirmed it. Saria knew. Had she been able to do this longer than Link? Did she know something Link did not? Now Link wanted answers, but Mido's presence was still very unaware. He decided to let it go for now.

Link had been so lost in thought he did not notice Mido and Saria stop. When he looked up, he saw a wider clearing than before, with what looked like several houses made similarly to the houses built in trees in his village. These ones looked older, like they had not been touched in quite some time. When Link reached out with his senses, he felt nothing in this area. Not a single insect bird or plant. What he did feel was a faint presence in the distance. Looking to the other side of the clearing, he saw another small passage. As he walked closer, he could feel the presence calling from the passage. He wondered if Saria could feel it too.

"What could this be?" Mido wondered aloud.

"An abandoned village," Saria said, almost grimly, catching Link and Mido's attention.

"You been here before, Saria?" Link asked suspiciously.

"N-no," Saria replied, trying to go back to her usual cheerful self, "Just going by what I see. Should we check it out?"

Link and Mido were a little surprised by her lack of initial skepticism. They both nodded but opted to stick together this time around. They set down the main path, with half a dozen houses on either side. They first went to the second house on the left. They climbed up a latter to about halfway up the tree before stepping into the main room. Inside the tree was a linear room with a simple bed made of wood. On the far wall was a slab of wood with faded engravings. The language appeared to be similar to that of the Kokiri, but none of them could make out what it said. The only comprehensible writing was a series of numbers in a vertical column. Link had the feeling someone was keep track of some kind of record.

Link stepped outside and waited while Saria and Mido kept surveying the house. The other houses seemed similar in design, some of them with entrances at the base of the trunk rather than up high. When the other two were finished, they walked to the final house, one with a red painted roof. Upon walking in, the room seemed much wider than that of a regular house, even in Link's village. At the back of the room was a set of finely crafted shelved mounted on the wall. A wooden counter stood between the three of them and the shelves. Link was the first to step forward. On the shelves at the back were a bundle of frail arrows, some dark round objects, appearing to be inactive bombs, and several empty slots.

"So this was at one point a shop," Link theorized, "And when the village was abandoned, someone took the more valuable belongings."

"So why did the inhabitants flee the village? Have you ever heard any tales of an abandoned forest village?" Mido wondered, "Maybe if we ask someone in our village they can tell us the story behind this."

"Perhaps," Link said, "Saria, are you alright?" he asked turning to Saria, who looked rather pale.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered, trying to retain her appearance as healthy, "I'm fine. This is just kind of spooky," she said with a laugh.

Now Link was the one who wanted to ask questions. He refrained once again and exited the run-down shop. The three of them made one last stop before approaching the passage. They climbed a ledge before coming to another tunnel. Link detected only blurs of life signals from this area. There was a sign next to the entrance. This time, Link could make out the engravings. The sign read:

The Lost Woods

Beware; all who get Lost will become Stalfos,

All who enter will become Lost.

"Is it a practical joke?" Mido wondered aloud.

"Perhaps," Link said, "But I have a feeling we're not prepared enough to find out."

"We should ask someone in the village about this area," Saria agreed.

"Seriously guys?" Mido said disappointed, "We're going to wimp out on this one too?" he asked.

"If it's not broken, don't fix it," Link declared and turned around.

Saria followed promptly, soon followed my Mido. The three finally approached the strange passage. They treaded along the narrow corridor around a few turns before reaching a much larger clearing, with a massive rotting tree in the middle. They stood there for several minutes studying the tree. It appeared to have been dead for atleast a decade. From Link's knowledge of trees, a tree this large would take quite a long time to decompose. Link was the first to take a step closer. He continued until he was at the base of the trunk and looked directly up.

"What would you say, fifty feet Link?" Mido guessed, "A hundred?"

"Definitely larger than any tree I've come across around here," Link confirmed as he began to scale it. This time Mido was the skeptical one. He watched as Link and Saria made their way up the thick trunk. Link and Saria were perhaps 30 feet up the tree before Mido caught up. The three of them spent the next hour or so just climbing. The top was in view, but it never seemed to get any closer, nor did the ground look any further away.

It was mid-afternoon when they reached the peak. Link had kept his mind on his work the entire time, so he was surprised to find himself at the top. He looked around in amazement.

The forest continued for miles, but beyond that in the distance he saw things he had never seen before. His only knowledge of what they were was what he had heard in stories passed down in the village. He saw plains, rivers, sea, mountains, and at the extent of the vision, a great structure made of stone. He stared in awe as his friends joined him. They too shared his surprise. No Kokiri had ever had a glimpse of the outside world before. Although their view was very limited by the distance, the three of them felt as if they were the first of their race in history to venture this far.

"So… what are we looking at?" Mido asked, not expecting an answer.

It was Saria who provided an answer. "The Kingdom of Hyrule."