Chapter Two
The forest was silent, not even the rustling of leaves in the wind disturbed it. It was almost palpable, the loneliness that was in the woods.
Down below, at the very bottom, lay a giant flower floating in the murky, purple water, the ropes that once held it suspended floating around the plant.
It had been many months since this scene had been disturbed by a tiny boy in a green tunic.
But now it had a new visitor, one who would finally disturb that silence.
This visitor lay inside a sword. Blue hilt and a sparkling blade, it flashed once before a woman appeared from it.
She was a mix of blue and purple, with blank eyes and waves of fabric instead of hands or arms.
She looked around and thought to herself for a moment before she came to one conclusion.
Fi had been teleported.
It was simple to determine and one of the two most likely possibilities.
The other, that Demise had simply cast a spell that made her think she was teleported when she was really delusioned, was far less likely. Demise had been much more focusing on killing them then making them delusioned.
There was also the fact that she remembered Master Link defeating Demise, absorbing him into the Master Sword to finish killing him, and then all of them stepping into the Gate of Time to return to the future before being taken by that strange water, making it improbable that Demise was behind this.
Although, if they were lying unconscious somewhere thinking that they had killed Demise before being teleported, it would be quite easy for Demise to-
Fi had to stop herself there, something she rarely did. There was no point in continuing on such a self-destructive tangent.
She would act upon her first assessment until proven otherwise. Which, should she live through the hour, would mean that Demise hadn't killed their unconscious bodies and she really had been teleported. Better to get a headstart if that was the case.
Hmmm...maybe this was why Master Link told her not to share so many of her thoughts out loud.
Needless to say, it took four seconds for Fi to come to all this.
Now she just had to figure out what to do next.
Glancing down, she studied her sword. It, along with the sheath, lay on the flower, but her Master was nowhere near it. And scans indicated that his aura was not nearby.
That made things more difficult. If he wasn't in range, how was she supposed to locate him? Very few things could actually be out of range of her dowsing ability. Master Link must be far away indeed.
Her first objective would be to find him. The next would be to figure out what had teleported her to some strange section of Faron Woods. After that, they would make their way back to the final battle.
She nodded, the destination set in her mind. She focused on her sword, willing it to float back into its sheath and then latch onto her back. Having a reasonable amount of magic, and considering it was her own sword which she was the embodiment of, she had no issues with this. That being said, her 'telekinesis-mind-powers' as Master Link called them, applied to very few things. Her sword was actually the largest thing she could move. This explained why she could move the sacred tablets, but she also had issues doing this for large distances. Which explained why she could never carry anything back from the Surface for her Master.
It was a sore subject for her and a favorite of her Master's to tease about.
She looked around, noting two ways to travel.
Along the water, or up to the next level.
Both had equal chances of success or failure. But if there was one thing she had learned about going anywhere with her Master, it was that in the end, you tended to need to make your way upwards.
Ezlo really wished that as a hat, he couldn't feel pain.
But he could.
And it was horrible.
He ached all over with a migraine to boot. Even worse, branches were caught in his fabric, threatening to tear him to shreds should he move the wrong way.
Oh if Vaati wasn't already dead, Ezlo would kill him for this curse.
'Wait a minute…' he thought to himself, 'This doesn't make any sense. I was-'
"Are you a living hat?" a woman's voice jarred him out of his thoughts, bringing him back to the present.
He glanced around, looking for the voice. It did not take him long to find it.
"AHHH!" he screamed, trying to run away from the blue woman who was watching him intently. But in his panic he forgot that he was, indeed, a hat and nearly tore his hem on the branch that held him in place.
"Do you require assistance?" the woman asked him.
"Of course I need assistance!" he squawked, "Does it look like I just sat here waiting to get scared half to death and rip myself to shreds for the fun of it?! And don't sneak up on me!"
"One moment. Running through the best possibility of removing you unharmed," the woman took a closer look at the branches holding him in place, contemplating to herself, "Solution determined."
"Wha-" Ezlo's noise of confusion as the woman pushed a branch below him, taking away most of the support he had, turned into another scream as he fell into her other flowing arm.
He paused a moment, waiting to see if anything else was going to happen. When it didn't, he turned to the woman angrily.
"You could've given me some warning! Honestly! Besides, I was snagged on at least three branches! How did you not tear my fabric?! Learn to be careful, would you?!"
She bowed her head softly before responding, "Apologies. The branch I moved was holding the others in place. Probabilities showed that moving it would release you with the least amount of harm."
He huffed, "Oh well then, what's done is done. Tell me, who are you?"
"My designation is Fi."
"Well, nice to meet you Fi. My name's Ezlo." he hopped around in her arms until he could face her properly, "I don't suppose you know where we are at all, do you?"
Fi looked around at all the foliage, "Scans would indicate that we are somewhere in the region known as Faron Woods, although the aura is incredibly faint. The most logical explanation would be that its is an area that I have not yet explored with my Master."
"Well I won't be much help then," he sighed, "I've never heard of Faron Woods."
She turned her gaze back to him as he spoke, studying him. Ezlo resisted the urge to squirm under her gaze.
"Do you know which Knight of Skyloft dropped you?"
"What? What sort of nonsense is that?!" he yelled at her.
"I was dowsing for living auras and came across you. You look quite similar to the hats of the Knights of Skyloft, so the only explanation I can find is that you are an enchanted hat of one of the Knights of Skyloft that fell through the cloud barrier." she explained, "If we could find your Knight then we could ask him for assistance in locating my Master."
Ezlo stared up at her with wide eyes, "I...have no clue what you just said."
Fi tilted her head, "You've never heard of Skyloft or the cloud barrier?"
The hat shook his head, "Never, and I know a lot about Hyrule and its lands. Look, I'm not even technically a hat! I was cursed! The last thing I remember is helping Link kill Vaati before some dark water I could breath in put me here."
"What is Hyrule?" Fi asked him, "I must assume that is where you were before the water hit you. I was also grabbed by this water. Even more curious is you know my Master, yet I have never met you."
"What in the world are you talking about, you crazy girl?" Ezlo huffed at her again, "There's no way Link can be your Master. He definitely would've mentioned that to me! And Hyrule! The land created by Din, Farore, and Nayru!"
Fi fell silent again for a few seconds as she processed this before saying, "I think it would be beneficial to us to gather more information. It appears that we know two different Links."
"I agree. Not that common of a name, but it's the best we've got so far. Now hold still," he wiggled himself into a better position before launching himself upwards towards her head.
Before she knew it, Fi had Ezlo sitting on her head, adjusting himself until he was comfortable.
"There we go, I'm all ready." he said proudly.
"This is a very strange feeling," Fi noted.
"Think of it from my perspective."
Fi conceded the point.
"So, going up?"
"Affirmative. It seemed to be the best course of action."
"Good enough for me." he agreed, "This giant tree has to have a way out somewhere up there."
Fi nodded slightly, not wanting to jog her new passenger too much, "Perhaps on the way you can explain what you were doing before you were taken by the water. It may help to clear up the confusion of why we were both captured by the same phenomenon."
He chuckled as she began flying upwards, "Something tells me that it didn't happen to just us. My Link was wearing me, so he's got to be around here somewhere."
"A reasonable assumption." she agreed.
"And, to explain what we were doing, I'd have to explain a lot more, just for the first bit to make sense."
"We seem to have plenty of time at the moment."
"Very well," he said, "I'll start by saying I'm actually a race known as the Picori. I was cursed into the form of a hat and-"
"Question," she interrupted, "Define Picori. I have no records of this race."
"Not many do. The Picori, also called the Minish…."