Chapter Three
Professor: Thank you all for your support! I'm glad you are enjoying the story!
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.
It took three hours for them to find a door that lead outside of the woods that they were in, but they did it. Three hours of running from monsters and getting lost and never wanting to see a forest again.
But Fi and Ezlo were finally leaving.
"I can't say I'm sorry to leave this place." Ezlo murmured.
Fi could only hum her agreement as she opened the door.
The two of them had also spent a large amount of those three hours sharing their respective stories and adventures. Suffice it to say, they were just as confused as they started out. Neither one of them could find any common ground in their stories other than Link and Zelda. It was very strange.
But soon they would be out of this Temple and free to search for their lost friends.
The two companions stepped away from the Temple door, finding themselves on a large ledge overlooking the ocean.
"This….is not what I expected." Ezlo finally said, glancing around.
"Scans indicate that this is still located in Faron Woods," Fi responded, "But it does seem to be flooded once again. However, scans do not indicate that Faron is nearby. Also, the flood seems far more drastic than the first occasion."
"Would you quit talking nonsense?" Ezlo huffed down at her, "You could've just said that you didn't see the dragon who flooded it the first time!"
"That is affirmative."
He groaned at her, "Fine, well do you have any clue what our next move is? I don't recognize anything here."
Fi continued to look around, only spotting two other islands in the nearby vicinity. One actually seemed more like a column but the other was another tree, a ways away from them, with an entrance on the side.
"Scanning structure." she said. Ezlo jumped at her words, but she spoke up again before he could actually say anything, "Scans complete. Scans indicate life forms inside the tree. The best course of action would be to investigate in that direction."
Ezlo rolled his eyes, "Well, there's not much else to do, now is there?"
"Affirmative."
He just sighed. Fi hadn't responded to his sarcasm at all so far. It was a work in progress.
The two of them left the tall tree that stuck up out of the ocean, heading for the other one they could see. The two islands seemed to be opposite sides of a coin. One a dark and foreboding woods, the other a light and friendly forest.
Fi flew towards the entrance she had seen, going as fast as she could without letting the wind dislodge her passenger. Within minutes, she was slowing down, gently flying through the doorway.
Inside was, as they expected, a forest. But it was not nearly as densely packed as the previous island had been. In fact, most of the space was taken up by a lone tree that stretched all the way to the ceiling.
"Where is everyone?"
"I do not know." Fi answered, flying down to the ground, "Scans indicated at least three lifesigns on this island."
"Well maybe the scans were wrong." Ezlo grumbled.
"Improbable, although not impossible. Rescanning."
Ezlo rolled his eyes and began to turn around, looking for any sign of life that wouldn't try to kill them (like the Chu Chus in the previous forest). In doing so, his eyes widened in shock and his jaw fell open as he gaped at what he saw.
"Scans complete. Life signs confirmed." Fi said, "The most logical explanation is that they are in hiding."
"Uh huh." Ezlo was able to mumble and get out.
Fi tilted her head, attempting to look at her passenger curiously, "You have not made this sound before. Please explain."
Ezlo gulped, choking out, "Turn around."
Fi, being as curious as she was, proceeded to listen to the hat and turned to see what had him so captivated.
And found a tree with a face.
Literally, a tree with a face.
Her mind promptly began to short circuit for a moment before she began analyzing it.
She didn't make it very far before the face (which had been watching them intently) began to speak, "Well now. This is interesting. We don't typically get visitors here."
Ezlo and Fi exchanged a glance. Quickly, Ezlo took the lead, not wanting Fi to say that she was gonna scan him (she had done this quite a lot in the last three hours), "Um….who are you?"
"I was going to ask you that...although I can quite easily say I have never asked a hat that question." the tree responded.
"I'm not actually a hat," Ezlo murmured, "I was cursed."
"Ahh," the tree said knowingly, "The work of Ganondorf. He holds no boundaries when someone crosses him."
Ezlo and Fi exchanged another confused look, "Ganondorf? I was cursed by my pupil, Vaati."
"Neither of us have heard of a being named Ganondorf." Fi put in.
"You...haven't?"
Fi shook her head, shaking Ezlo along with the movement, "Is he a powerful sorcerer of some kind, native to this area?"
"He is the ancient evil that was locked away beneath the sea. He escaped and has been terrorizing the Great Sea ever since in an effort to reclaim the Triforce." the tree explained.
Fi and Ezlo exchanged another glance.
"Have you ever heard of any of that before?"
"I am familiar with the Triforce, but nothing else."
"It was all strange to me."
"Hmm…" she said, turning back towards the tree "Would you mind telling me if this land is called Hyrule by any chance?"
The tree looked at her in surprise, "That is what the old land beneath the sea used to be called."
"BENEATH THE SEA?!" Ezlo screamed, "How in Picori is Hyrule beneath the sea?!"
"I believe I can offer an explanation," Fi said, "I have enough information to now propose a hypothesis. I believe that we have traveled through time."
"What? Through...time?"
She nodded gently, "Affirmative. The three of us all have separate memories and histories and are familiar with different lands. However, there is enough tying the stories together to conclude that we are from the same place. The most logical explanation is that we have traveled in time somehow."
"What a great idea," Ezlo huffed, "Now if only it was actually possible."
"There is one other piece of evidence."
"Oh, is there?"
"Yes," Fi turned her attention back to the tree, who had been watching them with a mix of confusion and curiosity, "Do you know of someone by the name of Link?"
"Link...yes. He is the Hero of Wind, on his quest to save the Great Sea from Ganondorf."
"This is a different Link then either of us know." Fi said, directing her statement towards the hat on her head, "My theory is that all of the Links throughout time were taken by this phenomenon, causing those who were nearby to get caught in the effect as well, leading to our current predicament."
"...All of the Links?" Ezlo's voice came out as just above a squeak as her words sunk in.
"Yes." Fi said again, "My Master Link fought Demise on the Surface. When defeated, Demise cast a curse on my Master, forcing them into an endless cycle of hatred and battles for all of history. Therefore, there are actually countless 'Links', all destined to fight an incarnation of Demise's hatred in their own timeframe. This is what both Ganondorf, and Vaati, are."
"This...is quite a theory…" the tree murmured, looking forlorn, "If that is true, then what Link is doing is in vain."
"Not exactly. The spirit of the Hero has the highest probability of winning those battles, saving the land and keeping it at peace for many years at a time."
"Well that's...something at least." Ezlo muttered, "But, does that mean we have no way home?"
"Who knows?" the tree spoke up, "Personally I would suggest trying to find out more about what dragged you through time. That would be the best thing to use to let you go home, and restore the timeline before it collapses entirely."
Fi looked up at the tree curiously, "You have a surprising amount of knowledge of this situation. May I ask who you are?"
"I am the Great Deku Tree, guardian of Forest Haven and protector of the Koroks."
"Koroks?" Ezlo asked.
The Great Deku Tree nodded to the best of his ability, "Yes, a race of forest dwellers. They are mostly traveling around the Great Sea at the moment, growing forests on other islands, although two have remained here with me."
"The other lifesigns," Fi realized.
"Well that makes more sense now." Ezlo said, "But that still doesn't help with our problem. How do we find out about what brought us here?"
"Perhaps one of the Links arrived here when falling through time." the Great Deku Tree suggested, "If this centered around the spirit of the Hero, maybe you can find one of them. Then you might be able to learn more about what happened."
"Agreed. However, chances are that it will not be a Link that any of us knows."
"It's a chance we have to take." Ezlo said, "We don't have any other idea right now."
Fi nodded, "Great Deku Tree, will you be able to tell us about this land before we leave this island? Is there a specific spot that we should look for a Link?"
"Hmmm….well, other than this island, Windfall, Outset, and Dragon Roost are the most populated ones in the Great Sea. Then again, the Pirates have a particular talent for running into the Hero."
"...Pirates?"
"Allow me to explain. Here on the Great Sea…"
Ravio's head hurt.
A lot.
Slowly he opened his eyes, blinking away the bright light that met them. As he sat up, the migraine began to go away, letting him focus on his surroundings.
There were a lot of really tall trees.
And some mushrooms.
That was it.
But, none of them looked like the trees or mushrooms that were in Lorule. Hyrule, maybe, but he had been headed towards Lorule when...whatever it was, had happened. So, this definitely wasn't Hyrule or Lorule.
Was it possible that the portal had dropped him into an unknown third world?
He shook his head, looking around some more. His giant bag of rupees was lying next to him, but Sheerow was nowhere in sight.
"Sheerow?" he tried calling out, but there was no response.
"Sheerow!" he yelled louder, hoping that his friend was nearby.
But nothing. A few birds chirped, but none of them sounded like his friend.
They must've gotten separated during the trip.
Ravio sighed. This wasn't the first time that the two of them had been pulled apart while world jumping. It was just a pain. However, Ravio knew that Sheerow was really good at finding people. Chances were, he'd show up on his own sooner or later.
Scanning his surroundings, Ravio noticed something for the first time. It looked like a really tall statue that was just beyond some of the trees.
Well, statues meant people. People meant a location.
It was a start at least.
But he needed to hurry. Mr. Hero had been headed to Lorule to fight Yuga and Ganon. He needed to get there to stop Hilda before she made a mistake.
Quickly, he grabbed his bag and began hiking towards the statue.