Castle Town, around noon
Link found the baby Goron cooing and squirming in the middle of a circle of admirers. The adult Goron was walking by the side, taking advantage of the many other eyes on the baby to stretch his legs.
Link slipped inside the circle and picked up the baby again to a chorus of disappointed noises. The baby burped from the sudden movement and started playing with Link's hat.
The adult Goron spotted Link and waved.
"Thank you again," Link said, walking over. "And sorry."
The Goron brushed the apology aside, smiling. "No trouble, goro. My own meeting with the King is still not for a while, so I'm just waiting either way. I was a bit nervous at first because of the crying, that's all."
Link chuckled. "Can't blame you there. You don't happen to know of any missing baby do you? I'm taking him to Big Brother but if his parents are actually around here..."
The Goron shook his head, losing his smile and looking down. "No missing one, no. One died day before yesterday, goro."
Link's breath hitched and he tightened the grip on the baby he was holding a little bit. "I'm sorry," he said. "Monsters?"
The Goron nodded with a sigh. "It's what I'm seeing the King about. Big Brother didn't want to leave everyone alone and I'm his Second so he sent me."
Link's eyes widened. "You're Rokaye?" he asked. "And I made you babysit?"
Rokaye chuckled. "You know we'd do anything to help you, Squishy Brother. Good luck with Big Brother – he's going to be glad of one found baby but he's really taking the lost one hard. I didn't know the parent, but he was an old friend of Big Brother's."
Link nodded. "Well, I better get going. At least this little one will be good news."
He reached for his ocarina with his free hand and played the modified bolero that would take him not inside of Death Mountain but near the entrance to Goron City. Rokaye and the path to the castle dissolved into light.
Death Mountain, around noon
The travel landing point was about a minute's walk away from the entrance to the underground city. Link walked holding the baby against his shoulder again, particularly thankful for the Golden Gauntlets: he estimated that with his natural strength alone, he wouldn't have been able to carry the baby for more than a few minutes before his legs, back and arms gave out.
The baby was twisting his head to look around and cooing in his raspy little voice, basically doing his baby job of being cute enough to make up for the trouble he caused.
The entrance was guarded today, for the first time in Link's memory. The two Goron guards had their eyes on Link and their spears at the ready, but as Link got closer, their gazes drifted to the baby and their stances changed completely: they straightened, one literally dropped his spear and the other leaned it on the wall behind him, and they both pointed at the child, grinning and gesticulating at each other.
Link stopped a pace away: if the Gorons were on their guard, it would have been rude to just stride in and besides, it looked like the two guards would like to see the baby.
Both were in fact staring at the little one now, grins not fading in the slightest.
"Look at the hair!" One of them exclaimed, pointing at the three tufts of silicate hair protruding from the top of the baby's head. "The color! It's him, it's gotta be, GORO!"
Link looked at the hair but to his eyes, all Goron hair just looked white. Gorons could see colors better than any other race, however, so they were probably seeing an unusual shade of white on the baby's hair.
The other nodded, dancing on his feet, and suddenly rolled and took off inside the city.
"Er," Link said.
"Squishy Brother, you found him, goro! We thought he was dead! How? You're a miracle!"
The Goron stretched his arms in a hug-ready position and advanced towards Link, who hurriedly backed away.
"Still squishy," he said, smiling. "Is your friend getting Big Brother?" he continued, speaking as fast as he could. "I need to talk to him."
The Goron put his arms down but walked to Link anyway to tickle the baby. "Yes, he's gone to get Big Brother Trodur," he replied in a completely calm, happy and unhurried voice. "Go on in and meet them on the way. Not sure how far you're going to get, though. Everyone's going to be so happy to see YOU!" he added at the baby's intention, booping him on the nose.
Link gave the guard a nod and a friendly wave, and then walked into the city at a quick pace, taking one last glance at his shadow before stepping out of the sun. It was still short: even though it felt like it had been at least a full day since he'd rescued the baby, it was still just after noon. The knowledge did nothing to calm Link's impatience to get back to trying to fix the Master Sword and then trying to find and stop the Enemy.
Link usually thought of Goron City as a city of layers.
The entrance he had taken was on the uppermost level and left him on a path that went around a roughly round enormous cavern, with several staircases and ramps leading to the level below or as Link thought of it, the next vertical layer.
Between these paths and stairways were houses, shops and a school, all carved out from the rock, and behind those, accessible through alleyways, caves that also served various functions.
More houses, workshops, a hospital and various other things were found on each lower level. Starting on the third level down, the alleyways between the buildings led to streets which ran concentric to the main path, lined with more buildings. Behind those were more caves. Therefore, the deeper vertical layers were made of concentric horizontal layers.
Finally, if you looked at the oldest parts of the city, you could see repaired walls and ceilings, and beams reinforcing some areas: Link thought of those as time layers. They were the result of the City's age: according to Trodur, Gorons had lived on this site for literally thousands of years, give or take a few instances where archeological evidence suggested it had been temporarily abandoned for a few decades or centuries.
The main characteristic of Goron City that Link was faced with right now, however, was that it was big, and full of Gorons. He scanned around for something his hookshot could latch on to and that might provide him with a potential shortcut, but the City was almost all solid rock, with some metal work here and there and jeweled art throughout.
Predictably, he hadn't walked ten paces before exclamations about himself, a baby, and Garnot, which he assumed was the missing baby's name, started erupting all around. He was quickly surrounded by a crowd acting so relieved and happy that it confirmed the impression Link had already got from the entrance guards that the lost baby had already been assumed dead altogether.
He beat down his irritation – the crowd was not quite stopping him from advancing, instead moving towards the lower levels themselves, but thanks to having most of their attention on the baby rather than on the path, they were moving very, very slowly. The baby, meanwhile, was unhelpfully making adorable gravelly cooing noises, smiling and even waving, much to the other Gorons' delight.
Link found himself looking up for something to hookshot on again. If not for the need to let Trodur know where he'd found the kid, he would have passed it to the closest Goron and used his ocarina to get out of here.
As it was, he was stuck in the crowd, all attempts at walking faster stymied by a seemingly never-ending number of Gorons wanting a closer look at the baby, or to thank Link and whatever deity they felt more likely to have had a hand in it for bringing Baby Garnot back.
Trodur was pacing, pounding his feet on the hard rock floor furiously. He was still beating down the temptation to break stuff: as Big Brother, he couldn't set such a poor example. He needed to be strong.
Even if his childhood friend was dead, savagely mauled by monsters, not much more than a minute's walk away from the City. Even if that friend's infant son was altogether gone, eaten or torn apart and cast away. There wasn't even a trace left. Even then, Big Brother's job was to be the strong one, the rational one. He needed to be better than he was right now. The thought made him pound the floor harder on his next step.
He was debating going for a roll into the cliffsides when someone knocked at his door.
"I asked not to be disturbed!" he said in a growl. He felt more like roaring and screaming, but it wasn't fair to take out his broken heart on his people.
"Big… Brother!" The speaker spoke quickly and between gasps of air, clearly out of breath. Trodur recognized the speaker as Veeyurok, an older Goron who wasn't known for running or getting excited. Or for leaving his post for that matter, and Trodur knew he was one of the two guards out this morning. "It's Squish… Squishy Brother! He… he's got…"
At that point, Trodur noticed that Veeyurok was speaking over a crowd a bit further off. It sounded like half the City was out celebrating and cheering something or other.
"A baby!" Veeyurok finished.
Trodur frowned at the door. Why anyone would get that excited over Link becoming a father was beyond him. Good for the boy, sure, but the celebration that was going on seemed downright inappropriate while they were mourning two of their own.
He yanked the door open and scowled at Veeyurock and at what Gorons he could see cheering. He followed their eyes to see Link, wearing the green suit the Hylians were so found of for the Hero, slowly working his way towards him, impeded by the crowd that had assembled.
Trodur's scowl disappeared when he saw the advertised baby: Link wasn't carrying his own child, he was carrying a baby Goron.
"EVERYONE STAND ASIDE!" he called out.
The order bore no delay: the crowd scrambled out of the way, leaving Trodur to quickly roll to Link and unfold just as hurriedly to get a good luck at the child.
Link shifted him in his arms so his face would be visible, going from a shoulder carry to a cradle.
"Garnot…" Trodur whispered. Then… "You're ALIVE!"
He grabbed the baby from Link and swung him around before gathering him into a hug, much to the baby's delight.
Link couldn't help but smile at the display. Big Brother turned from him to face the rest of the city, cleared his throat, and shouted loud enough to make Link's ears ring.
"GARNOT IS SAFE AND RETURNED TO US! LINK BROUGHT OUR BABY BROTHER BACK!"
The city erupted. It sounded like thunder, with cheers and screams and a lot of banging. The crowd had been a bit noisy before, but it was nothing in comparison to now. Link could feel his bones vibrating.
Big Brother turned back to him, still grinning. "Come," he said. "You cannot leave here without letting me show my gratitude, and we need to talk."
Link clenched his jaw: he did need to talk to Big Brother, but he didn't have time for extended thanks. This whole rescue felt like it was taking forever already, and the Master Sword was just steadily getting worse, while whatever had cursed it was free to prepare whatever evil they were going to do next, quite possibly attacking a bunch of people again. And here it was already the afternoon, and he'd left home just after dawn. As if to confirm the late hour, his stomach growled.
Big Brother laughed. "Perfect. We'll feed you while we talk. We'll find something soft, don't worry."
"Not baby food," Link said, resigned. He had no intention to try and eat dirt.
Big Brother laughed again and started walking, leaving Link to follow.
Thankfully, the Gorons did know how to feed guests: Link found himself sitting down to a plate of roasted bird and root vegetables. Big Brother sat opposite him with a meal of rocks that Link wouldn't have been able to tell apart from non-food rocks. The baby had been handed over to an aid.
"An old friend of mine was visiting and was attacked in the Hot Springs just down the road yesterday," Trodur said. "A mere minute away. You know the spot, don't you?"
Link nodded.
"There were claw marks and hoofprints from bipeds everywhere," Trodur continued. "We found my friend's body, but not his baby's. We thought the poor child must have gotten eaten or torn apart and tossed down the mountain."
"Moblins," Link said grimly. "I'm sorry." He couldn't imagine anything eating a Goron, even a baby one, but it hardly mattered at this point.
Big Brother nodded. "There's been more monsters lately. The merchants have taken to traveling in groups because some never did come back. At last count, five from here and nine from other towns."
Link's eyes widened in horror. He forced his thoughts back to the present with some difficulty. "Rokaye thought this was another lost baby. IS there another baby missing?"
"Ah, you were in Castle Town, were you? No, there's no other missing baby, thank goodness. Rokaye just didn't recognize Garnot, I guess. Nobody is bringing any children outside the cities now. We're downright sheltering… Rokaye went to see the King because he's really tough when he's rolling, and he's a very good roller, he can easily make the whole trip without unfolding once." Big Brother paused and Link got the distinct feeling Trodur was mostly trying to convince himself that his second in command would be safe. It took the Goron leader a second to start again. "You Sea Folks are aware there's an outbreak all over the place, right? They're probably attacking squishy people too."
Link frowned, trying to think. "All the settlements were attacked last night, but we haven't run into anything on the roads," he said. "I didn't know there WAS an increase. Anywhere."
Big Brother's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry you were attacked... I hope you're all well. We've seen the opposite scenario, there was no localized attack. The Merchants who didn't come back over the past few weeks… we found three of the bodies: one to the South of Castle Town, one near Lake Hylia, and one in Tabantha. Nowhere near here, nowhere near each other, and some of the towns who lost other brothers are in the hills East and North of the desert."
Link's frown deepened. He didn't spend that much time just patrolling the Kingdom, and he'd been home for two weeks, but he'd always received letters to let him know when there had been monster outbreaks before. He chose not to reply to Big Brother's hope that everyone was well in the Sea Folks settlements.
Trodur frowned as well, perplexed. It was most unlike the Hylian King not to inform the Hero of a monster outbreak. All in all, however, that subject was exhausted: Link knew now and could be trusted to warn whoever needed to be. Trodur wanted to move on to another, less pressing but even more confounding subject.
"Where DID you find Garnot, Brother?" he asked.
Link put down his fork and locked eyes with him. "I didn't tell anyone about this except for the King. It's not good, and I thought it was best to let you decide how and what to tell the others."
Trodur tilted his head. "That is a much more ominous opening than what I expected," he remarked. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "Go on. Tell me."
Link took a deep breath. "I rescued him from a cult that was trying to ritually drown him in the Spring of Courage," he said.
The words felt like someone had ignited a fire in Trodur's chest. A cult? Trying to drown his dear departed friend's BABY? He was up and towering over Link before he knew he had moved.
"WHO?" he thundered. "Tell me who, Brother! THIS WILL NOT GO UNANSWERED, GORO!"
Link held his gaze without moving – looking afraid would just make Big Brother apologize and delay things further. And besides, Big Brother was among the smartest people Link knew: he was an archeologist and historian by trade, and he knew pretty much everything there was to know about the other races in Hyrule, including Sea Folks. He wasn't likely to forget Link was not made of rocks like he was and to squeeze his shoulders too hard or anything of the sort.
"The King says they call themselves Children of Hylia," Link said. "He's going after them, I told him where they were."
Big Brother harumphed and stepped away from the table, pacing.
Link got up too. "Thank you for the meal," he said. "I need to go. I hope the King and yourself are able to bring these would be murderers to justice."
Big Brother stopped pacing and turned to him fully.
"Thank you, Brother, for bringing Garnot back to us, and for his life. I will contact the King and like you said, we'll get that cult." He sighed. "I know the King is trying already, of course he is. But... there's a lot of bad blood going on between everyone lately. It's time to stop ignoring it before things get even worse."
Link didn't meet Big Brother's eyes. His own people faced quite a bit of prejudice, and he knew personally how bad things sometimes got. He hadn't known of the issues between the other races until today, but all in all it was not a surprise.
"Yeah," he settled for saying.
Trodur nodded and dropped the subject. "Wait one moment, all right? I have something for you."
Link hesitated. He didn't want to be rude but he didn't want to wait either. Thankfully, he didn't have to: it truly was just a moment before Trodur opened a nearby chest and handed him the gift he'd had in mind.
Link's eyes widened: Big Brother had just handed him a hair decoration similar to the one he'd been wearing for a while on his frontmost right braid. It was basically a thick ring made of a thin layer of metal that opened and closed on a tiny hinge. Inside the ring were pins meant to grip the hair so the ring didn't fall, and on the outside of it was the Goron emblem, the geometric footprint made of what seemed to be dozens of tiny orange gems.
Trodur pointed at the hair ring Link was already wearing. "The Royal Family gave that one to you, didn't they? They're big on putting the Triforce on stuff. And you have their symbol on your collar, too… they really want you on brand, don't they?" He gave a small chuckle.
Link's eyes widened a bit more. "Actually, this one is from home, but... you wanted me to have something on me from the Gorons too?" he asked.
"You're our Squishy Brother," Trodur said. "So yes. You're not Hylian either, so we figure if the Royal Family's giving you their symbol to wear, we can too. All the better you have something from your own people, too. I'm glad to hear it, but I'm surprised... I didn't realize the Sea Folk were interested in the Triforce at all. Or maybe your folks just associate the courage part to you?"
Link reached for his frontmost left braid and clamped the ring onto it, fighting back tears. He was way more touched than he cared to admit. "Pretty much, yeah," he said in answer to the question. Thank you, I…" he swallowed, irritated with himself and his stupidly dried and tight throat. He didn't have time for being emotional over this. "I'm honored."
Big Brother burst out laughing. "The ones that aren't words are the best thanks I could get, Brother!" he said. "I'm really glad you like it, and I won't keep you any longer since you're obviously dying to get going."
Link swallowed again and forced his mind back to the business at hand.
"Not so much that I'd just leave before making sure the area is safe," he said. "I'll walk to the Hot Springs and then down to the Spring of Power and see if I can find any monsters."
Trodur shook his head. "I appreciate that, Brother, but don't. The monsters are coming from somewhere, and that's what you need to focus on, not one little patch of mountain where they may or may not be right this moment. We're perfectly capable of keeping ourselves safe. There are some out there who don't have our strength, they're the ones who need you."
Link's eyes widened as his thoughts automatically associated the idea of people who could not defend themselves to the Kokiris. His breath caught and his chest tightened.
It couldn't be, could it? The Great Deku Tree wouldn't have been able to hide his grief if they were all dead, if monsters had been in the woods. But then where WERE the Kokiris? He'd just assumed they were napping when he hadn't seen any on his way to the Great Deku Tree, but that seemed like an incredibly foolish assumption now.
He took out his ocarina and played the Minuet of Forest faster than he ever had, Big Brother all but forgotten.
The Lost Woods, early afternoon
The sped up minuet sounded strange but it still worked: the Lost Woods resolved themselves into existence around him and he ran for it, letting his feet pick his path. He still didn't see a single Kokiri.
He arrived in the Great Deku Tree's meadow after a few minutes, out of breath and full of dread.
"GREAT... DEKU... TREE!" he called out between gasps of air.
The tree suddenly looked like it had a face again, this time a concerned one.
"Link? Have you fixed..."
"The Kokiris!" Link said, his voice nearly back to normal – he'd always been quick to recover from exhaustion. "Where are they? Are they ok? Did... monsters didn't... they're not...?"
The Great Deku Tree took pity on him and interrupted before Link stammered around the question any longer. "I changed my children so they would be safer," he said. "The forest is still safe, but the outside world was safe enough to explore for so long that they could not heed my recent warnings as seriously as they should have. They would leave sometimes, only for a short time, to see the world and satisfy their curiosity."
Link swallowed. Some Gorons had failed to come back from trips outside their cities lately. Had that happened to Kokiris too?
The tree once again did not force him to voice his question.
"One did not return, a few weeks ago. I felt him disappear from the world... it is heartbreaking still. I feared for the rest so I made it a rule once again that nobody should leave. I ordered the paths to the outside guarded. I warned them all over and over again."
The Tree paused. Link's jaw and fists were clenched in grief and anger. Kokiris were NOT supposed to die. They were life, and joy, and despite their appearance, they were not mortal beings. They were not supposed to die. Ever. How had he never received any notice that monsters were rising so much as to be a problem to both the Gorons and the Kokiris? What about everyone else? Why hadn't he known this was happening?
The Tree sighed. Link looked up at him again and suddenly realized that the Tree listing what he had done to prevent the Kokiris from leaving again was not how the conversation would be going if the next piece of information was that all was well now, especially considering there was still no explanation for where the Kokiris were now.
Link swallowed, forcing the anger down to keep his brains working properly. "Some left anyway?" he asked.
"Ten slipped through the guards. Eight came back."
Link closed his eyes against tears that flowed anyway and clenched his jaw against the urge to scream in rage. Three. At LEAST three. Three eternal children who should have been immortal, brutally murdered by rampaging monsters that Link hadn't known were there. And still he didn't know where the rest of the forest children were. It could be all of them, they might ALL be gone. But the Great Deku Tree would have been devastated far more than this, wouldn't he?
The small voice that suddenly burst right in front of him startled him into opening his eyes again.
"NO! Please don't be upset Link! You'll figure it out, I know it!"
Link stared, mystified. The voice belonged to what looked like a stumpy branch with a large-ish leaf stuck to it, serving as the creature's face – it had eyes, a nose and a mouth, all seemingly drawn on but obviously functioning since the mouth had moved while the creature talked. It was holding itself aloft with a leaf spinning over its head, attached to a stick the creature was somehow holding with the end of a limb that was no more than a small stump off the branch that composed its main body.
Before Link could properly respond, more appeared around him, all crying out various encouragements. There was some variety in them: different types of wood composed their bodies, their height and width varied a bit, and their leafy faces were of several shapes, sizes and colors.
"Wha... I mean who...?"
The creature facing him laughed. "Silly Link! It's me, Falo!"
Link's eyes went wide. Falo was one of the Kokiris: as such, he usually looked like a Hylian child that happened to have a fairy following him around and a very forest-themed fashion sense.
"I'm sorry. I forgot to allow for YOU to see them," the Great Deku Tree said.
Link looked up from Falo's leafy face to the tree's wooden one, his bewilderment temporarily overpowering his grief.
"They're the kokiris?" he asked.
Laughter burst out around him.
"No," the Tree said. "The Kokiris are no more. I changed them because three lost was already far too many. My children are now Koroks."
The tree's voice had gone eerily quiet, and his eyes had stopped focusing on Link. The creatures were also suddenly quiet. Link swallowed through a clenched jaw. The distraction caused by his surprise was over: rage and grief were filling him again.
The Great Deku Tree, after a short pause, continued. "I will not imprison my children. I can warn them not to leave, but the outside world has been safe for them for so many centuries... how could they possibly resist the fun of exploring beyond what they know? This new form will keep them safe when they do. As you've seen, they can be completely invisible, and they can fly away from danger, as well." There was a pause. "I can see you are disturbed by the change," the Tree observed.
Link's eyes travelled to the several floating leafy faces around him. They looked strange, far less human than before... but they were bouncing around, whether currently in flight or not, and giggling, and one of them suddenly stole his hat.
"Bring that back," he said in as stern a voice as he could manage, extending his hand.
The hat was plopped back on his head instead with a burst of laughter.
"I'm sorry," Link said, meeting the Great Deku Tree's eyes again as he adjusted his hat. "I was, yes. I shouldn't have been."
The Great Deku Tree smiled and rustled, somehow conveying approval with the noise.
Link took a last look at what had been the Kokiris. They looked different, but now that he was allowed to see them, they certainly didn't feel different. Kids. Drops of fun and joy and laughter.
He grabbed at his hat just as another one was trying to steal it.
"Little monkeys..." he scowled jokingly. "Wait, no. Weeds. You're little weeds now."
There was a chorus of "YAY!" and "WEEDS!". He chuckled.
"Shameless weeds," he concluded. He turned to the Great Deku Tree and grew somber again.
"I'm so sorry three were lost. I didn't know there was an outbreak of monsters. I'll take care of it, I promise. But I better get going for now. I've been delayed, I've still only visited one Spring."
"Don't worry about the symptoms, child," the Great Deku Tree said, "worry about the disease. You will need the Master Sword to take care of THAT, so hurry on to the Springs. And good luck."
Link nodded and played the Ode to Power on the fairy ocarina that had originally belonged to one of four Kokiris he knew would never have the chance to become Koroks.