Chapter 3

Accession

Link woke early the next day. He did not waste time getting to the stream to bathe. As he went about his hygienic routine, he once again wondered whether he was making the right decision.

Link, Saria, and Mido had agreed not to tell the folks in the village about their climb to the top of the tree. They knew the Kokiri would be skeptical at the thought of their own kin acting curiously towards the outside world. The three of them had made plans to meet up this day to explore the cave. Link was still going over the details in his head as he finished bathing and got dressed. It had been Saria who brought up the idea. After Link and Mido bombarded her with questions due to Saria's knowledge of their view (none of which she answered), they agreed to make the same journey the following day. Link and Mido were still completely in the dark as to why Saria had changed her mind, but she promised she would tell them when they reached the cave.

Link was quick to get breakfast today. He did not engage in usual conversation. He did not taste his food. He was at the edge of the village within half an hour of waking up. Saria and Mido were likewise ready to get going. They three of them departed the village with the same belongings as the previous day.

They were silent at first. Link could tell Mido was having a tough time keeping quiet, but he also didn't know how to begin asking. Saria saved him the trouble and brought it up herself.

"Bet you guys are wondering what's going on…" she started.

"I'll say," Link agreed. When Saria did not say anything for a few minutes, Link figured he'd try himself. "So there's a lot of stuff you seem to be not telling us… where do you wanna start?"

Saria laughed, "You guys are over thinking this. We saw the entire forest yesterday right? So we know that the cave we found before couldn't lead out of the forest. So why pass up an opportunity to check out a new cave?"

Link wasn't buying it. "Saria you realize how suspicious you've come off as? You got us to swear we wouldn't tell anyone in the village about what we found. Not to mention once you saw from the top of the tree, your entire attitude changed from skeptical to determined. Do you really expect us to believe you just wanted to explore the cave? And why wait til the next day?" Link said bluntly.

Saria simply replied "Well it's pretty dangerous to explore a cave after nightfall. You could wind up not being able to find your way out from lack of light at the entrance. So I thought we should start exploring on a fresh day." Link could tell she would ignore further questions.

Neither Mido nor Link bothered asking Saria any other questions for the time being. When they reached the cave, Mido produced their one torch. The three of them entered together, exploring the first main area without lighting the torch. The ceiling of the cave was perhaps 15 feet above them, and it tapered as it went deeper away from the entrance, into the darkness. As Link got closer to where the light no longer touched the wall, he noticed there were engravings on the wall where he could just barely see them, the visibility almost nonexistent. Unfortunately, Link did not know what language he was seeing.

Saria approached Link and examined the engravings. "It's Hylian," she stated. She saw Link's skeptical look so she explained "It's the same language we speak, it's just a different dialect. Verbally, the two dialects sound exactly the same. The only difference is the written language. My father told me of it long ago. I've never actually seen Hylian text, but this matches his description." She stepped back and examined a minute longer. The two of them were studying the hieroglyphics so carefully that they did not notice Mido proceeding further down the cave.

Upon Link and Saria catching up, Mido lit the torch. The corridor was getting narrower, and the walls seemed to be bare. The three followed the passage straight for half an hour. Suddenly, Link remembered a question for Saria.

"Saria," he asked, surprising her after the long period of silence, "Do you know much of other languages?"

Saria raised an eyebrow "Hardly. When my father was still alive he claimed to know quite a bit, though I don't know how that's possible. No other humanoid species has visited our forest before, and clearly he's never left. What he did say, I still remember. Why?"

Link thought about it, "Do you recognize the word 'Ordona'? I'm wondering what language it comes from."

Saria laughed, "That's Hylian, Link." When Link did not say anything, Saria added "I'm sorry; I don't know what it means. Sounds like a proper noun." The term confused Mido and Link. "Meaning it's the name of something or someone," Saria threw in, "Why? Where did you hear a word like that?"

"Dunno," Link said semi truthfully, "Guess I just heard it there."

Saria did not have a chance to ask more questions before Mido stopped.

"You're both keeping things from me. From each other too. What's going on?" Mido demanded.

"I'm hoping Saria will enlighten us," Link said, trying to divert the attention to Saria.

"You're both being ridiculous," Saria laughed, "Link, I have been worried about you but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary.

"Your leg!" Link yelled at Saria as Mido instinctively moved the torch closer to Saria to see. A moderate sized rat had lurked between Saria's ankles, but upon being exposed to light, the creature fled. Within a second Link had his slingshot loaded and Mido his sword unsheathed. The torch was clearly getting in Mido's way of having his sword ready. Saria jumped back, scared, but within a few seconds they had calmed down.

"Kind of a surprise we haven't seen more creates in this cave," Mido remarked.

"This tunnel feels mostly lifeless," Link said grimly, making his judgement from his sensing ability. "How much torch have we burned through?" Link asked.

"About a third," Mido replied, "Shall we keep going for now? I'll keep an eye on the wick. We can always talk when we're outside."

Link and Saria nodded in agreement. Before continuing, Mido unstrapped his sword and handed it to Link. "Seems it would be much more useful in your hands. Don't worry about me, I'll handle the torch."

Link nodded and accepted it. I'll hang onto it for safe keeping until we're out of the cave."

The crew kept walking, mostly in silence for the next 10 minutes. Link could feel Mido's tension building. Amongst Mido's pressure and curiosity, Link could detect something else. Jealousy. Link had something Mido did not, something Saria got to know about that he didn't. Mido was jealous of Link. He practically projected it in his demeanor.

When Mido was about to burst, he stopped them and faced Link directly. "Saria won't tell me but I know you will. What is it you're not telling me?" When Link tried to wave him off and keep walking, Mido's anger increased. "No Link!" he said, grabbing Link's tunic. Link wasn't about to let himself be thrown around.

"Mido knock it off, you said it yourself, we can talk outside," Link said, breaking free from Mido.

"You're just going to keep avoiding it!" Mido yelled angrily shoving Link.

Link was knocked back diagonally across the tunnel's width. He was supporting himself on the wall about to make a retort when his foot slipped. He was standing at the top of a ledge. It was too late for him to reach back, he was falling. He did not know how wide the drop-off was, nor how deep. As he fell, he tried to grab anything he could. No matter how much he attempted, there was nothing he could grab. The light behind the cliff was getting dimmer and dimmer. Link felt like he could have been falling for a long time.

His heart was racing. He felt light and controlled, yet extremely fearful. He fell silently. Just as he could see the light returning to the cliff, he felt the red hot pain of impact. The last thing he heard was Saria's cry before completely blacking out.