A Death That Must Be Renewed

It didn't take long for the heroes to reach Mt. Crenel. Once they reached the summit, they stopped to rest for a minute. They needed to get used to the change in the altitude. Kaiba carefully set Link off his back. "You all right, Link?"

He was feeling a little dizzy, but he promised he would be all right. Ezlo, on the other hand, groaned like he was feeling sick. "I think my ears popped," the boy said.

"You'll get used to it," Max told him.

Emily suddenly noticed something small close by. It looked like a Picori. "Excuse me," she said. "Could I trouble you for a minute?"

It was a mountain Picori and he was surprised to see the heroes. "Jeepers," he said. "Humans from this day and age who can speak our language?"

Emily nodded and held out her hand, beckoning him to come closer. The Picori climbed into her hand and she carefully lifted him up. "My friends and I are looking for someone named Melari. Do you know him?"

The Picori did know Melari. He introduced himself as Chiruta and said he was one of Melari's apprentices. "Come on, I'll take you to him," he offered.

Before the heroes could see Melari, they had to shrink again. Luckily, one of the rocks nearby was a Minish Portal. They all surrounded it and shrunk down to the size of Picori again. This amazed Chiruta, for he had ever seen humans use a Minish Portal before.

Chiruta led everyone through a tunnel and brought them to Melari's mine where they saw more mountain Picori digging away. They were all Melari's apprentices. But where was Melari?

Melari was in his main room, sitting on a pile of rocks that served as a chair. He coldly looked at the heroes as he noticed them. "Human visitors. How rare. What do you want?" He didn't even regard Yugi and the others as warriors of the Great Goddess and the Dark Lord.

Everyone was taken aback by his gruff tone, but Link got straight to the point. "We need you to repair the Picori Blade, sir."

Melari immediately refused. "I don't do that kind of work anymore."

"But Elder Gentari told us that you're the only one who can," said Joey.

Melari continued to brush everyone away. "My apprentices do all the work now. I'm retired. Why don't you all give up and go home?"

"No," Kaiba said defiantly. "Listen, an evil mage has placed a curse on Princess Zelda and the Picori Blade is the only thing that can remove the curse."

The mention of Zelda's name seemed to get Melari's attention as he turned around and asked, "Princess Zelda?"

"That's right," said Link. "That's why we're begging you to help us."

The Picori smith understood their need for his help, but he still said it was impossible. "I can't," he said with sorrow. "I don't have enough materials to make a sword."

Dismayed, the group left Melari alone in his room and exited the mine. "I think he's making up excuses," said Kaiba.

Yugi didn't think so. "The Picori are always willing and eager to help those in need. There must be a reason why Melari doesn't want to help us."

There was a reason and Chiruta was going to explain it. "For centuries, the mountain Picori have used charcoal and black sand to make steel and forge it into swords. But we've had to cut down a lot of trees for that. Because of that, there was a fight between us and the forest Picori. Master Melari's wife was from the forest Picori tribe and she couldn't stand to see all of us fighting. She loved her people and understood the importance of the trees to her tribe, but she loved Master Melari just as much. Seeing us fighting with her people became too much for her and she fell ill and died."

The heroes listened and they were saddened by the story. Now they understood why Melari stopped working. "It makes sense," said Emily. "When someone you love with all of your heart dies, you feel as though so much more dies with them; even your passions and your dreams." She took a deep breath, then continued, "It was the same for me when my mom died. I wanted to quit baking because though I loved it, it wasn't the same without her."

This surprised her friends. "Really?" Joey asked.

"It's true," she said. "Baking sweets and desserts was one of the many things Mama Rachel and I always did together. But though it wasn't the same without her, I kept at it because it still made me happy and that was because it brought back many happy memories."

Her friends nodded in understanding. Losing a loved one is difficult and it causes the sufferers to feel as though they've lost everything else, just as Emily pointed out. But the path of recovery is always a hard one; not just for humans, but for all living beings, including the Picori. That means there's no telling how long it will take for Melari to recover from his suffering. He even blames himself for his wife's death. He thinks that maybe she would still be here if he hadn't hurt her people by not respecting that the trees were just as important to the forest Picori. But just like Chiruta said, his master and colleagues need the trees for the charcoal.

Besides, Melari's wife knew how much he loved being a smith and wouldn't have wanted him quit for her people's sake. That was what gave Melari such conflicted feelings about his struggles.

Ezlo suddenly spoke up. "If we had the Fire Element, you could use iron ore instead of charcoal."

"Really?" Joey asked. "Then let's find it!"

Kaiba nodded. "We need the Fire Element anyway."

Chiruta's face beamed with hope. If finding the Fire Element would help make Master Melari want to be a smith again, then he wanted to help. "I've heard the Fire Element is hidden somewhere in the Cave of Flames."

"Cave of Flames?" Emily asked.

"It's an old mine that was abandoned by humans a long time ago," Chiruta explained.

"In that case, we'd better change back into our original sizes," said Max. Her friends agreed. They found a Minish Portal nearby and used it to grow back. Link then gently scooped Chiruta up from the ground and placed him on his shoulder.