Chapter 3
Link and Navi gazed around in awe. The hole inside of the great Deku Tree appeared to be hollowed out. Link scratched his head in confusion.
"He never told us he was hollowed out, Navi. How is that tree still living?"
She shook her head in anger.
"This must be that evil man's doing. I bet The Great Deku Tree knew about this all along. He must be in great pain. Before we get moving through here, I want to know a little more about you."
Link gasped. He didn't have a lot to tell. He looked over at Navi and shook his head slowly.
"Well, I'm ten years old and I really like it here so far."
Navi snorted.
"Come on! Surly you can tell me more than that! What's it been like, growing up here? Was Mido always a jerk towards you?"
Link grinned at her oddly as he sat down on the floor.
"Well, I can tell you more about myself, but you probably won't believe me at all. I'm still having troubles believing it myself."
Navi laughed.
"Oh come now! It can't be that bad. Please tell me. We hardly know anything about each other."
Link stood up slowly and faced her and took a deep breath.
"Well, this is how my tale begins. I used to live in a forest by the name of Greenwood with my mom and my friends Charlie and Max."
Link paused. Navi began flying slowly around Link's head.
"Greenwood Forest...Where in Hyrule is that?"
Link laughed quietly.
"Now, here's where my story really starts. Greenwood Forest isn't in Hyrule at all, not even in a neighboring province."
Navi was perplexed.
"I don't understand. Exactly where are you from then? If Greenwood Forest isn't near or in Hyrule, where is it then?"
Link shook his head.
"I'm not sure what happened. I'm still trying to figure this out, but I think I'm in another reality."
Navi began to laugh.
"Ok. Now I know you're pulling my wing. That can't be true! Stop telling lies."
He held up his hands.
"Just hear me out, alright? In my reality, this world is actually a video game called The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Me and my friends almost finished the game."
At this point in Link's story, Navi was having a very hard time believing him. This wasn't a game! It was real life. She decided to ask him more, just for laughs.
"Ok...So, how did you end up here then?"
Link cleared his throat.
Me and my friends were taking a walk in the forest. We were going to head back soon when I decided to pull a small prank. My friends got angry and overreacted. They ran back to my house. I tried to chase them, but I couldn't find them."
Navi nodded as she listened intently. She had to admit, she liked the story so far.
"Well, I ended up getting lost. That's when I saw it, a green light. When I got closer to it, a realized that it was a big hole. I looked inside and there was a sort of green, swirling pattern. I stuck my head in to get a closer look. That's when I got stuck. I couldn't get my head out. I tried to pull as hard as I could, but nothing. I ended up making things worse and I fell into the hole completely. I lost consciousness and when I woke up, I was here. I was the boy you see in front of you. I don't know if I'll ever see my mother or my friends again. So, after hearing the whole thing, what do you think now?"
Navi didn't know what to say. She just stared at him. Finally, she sighed and spoke her thoughts.
"I still have a hard time believing the whole thing. I hope that doesn't make you angry, Link."
He shook his head and chuckled dryly.
"Absolutely not. If I was you, I wouldn't believe it either. Well, that's enough about me. I want to know more about you."
She nodded.
"Very well. That's only fair. Well, as you know, I've been assisting the Great Deku Tree. I would go find somebody if he wished to speak to a certain kokiri. I would also relay messages back and forth. I didn't always live here though. Me and Mido's fairy Raz came from the distant province of Labrynna. We both arrived here when we were very young. We evacuated after an evil tyrant named Agahnim began to enslave all of the people there. I think it was one of the best decisions we ever made. We ended up stopping here in this forest to rest our wings after the long flight. We met the kokiri and the Great Deku Tree and after a few days went by, we began to really like it here. We've been here ever since. Raz took a liking to Mido for some reason and I decided to help the Great Deku Tree. That was at least ten years ago."
Link held up his hands.
"Wait a minute, you arrived here ten years ago? Just how old are you anyways?"
She landed on Link's shoulder and flexed her wings in thought.
"Like I said, I arrived here when I was very young. I'm much older and wiser now than I was back then. In fairy years, I'm 21. I'm not sure what that is in human years."
Link shrugged.
"I don't know either. That was an interesting story about your past. Maybe we should get moving through here. The Deku Tree would be furious if he could see us now, standing around talking instead of helping him out."
Navi flew into the air once more.
"Yeah you're right. We should get going. Be on your guard, Link. I'm not sure what kind of creatures we might find in here."
Link and Navi began to look around the interior of the giant tree. There were spider webs all over the place. Link began to walk around and explore carefully. He walked forward and he heard Navi cry out.
"Link! Don't take another step!"
He blinked in surprise. What was wrong? He stared down at his feet and immediately knew the answer. Just an inch ahead of his foot was a very large hole covered by a thick, yellow spider web. He sighed in relief and turned to Navi.
"Thanks a lot. That was too close, Navi."
The curious fairy flew over top of the web covered hole and inspected it carefully. The web looked to be very thick. She doubted that Link would be able to break it with his weight alone. She peered downwards and she could see a cavern below. That must be where they had to get to. She turned to Link and grinned.
"No problem. I think we have to break through here somehow. I can see an area below. There is a deep looking pool of water down there."
The confused Link laughed nervously.
"What do you mean? I almost fell through that web."
Navi shook her head.
"Now that I've got a better look at it, I doubt you would've broke through. We need to jump on it from higher up."
Link gasped in alarm.
"Are you nuts? We don't need to jump form a great height. Watch this!"
He backed up a fair distance and took a run at the hole and jumped on top of the web, expecting it to break. Instead, it bounced him off like a trampoline and sent him flying backwards. He landed flat on his back. He got up and rubbed his back tenderly.
"Ouch! That hurt. I thought for sure that would break."
Navi giggled at his efforts.
"I told you so, didn't I? I saw a ledge nearby. Maybe you can climb it and get higher up above the web."
He shook his head and drew his sword.
"Nonsense. I'll cut through that darn web with my sword."
He walked up and attempted to hack away at the thick web with his sword. It was very hard, almost like wood as he chopped away. After a few minutes, he stopped chopping and stood back and viewed his work. He managed to break away maybe a couple fibers of the thick web, but not many, and certainly not enough to break the thick web. He shook his head in amazement.
"You've got to be kidding me! I never broke through after all that swinging?"
Navi laughed as she shook her head.
"No you didn't! Are you going to listen to me now?"
He sighed and nodded slowly.
"Fine! Let's get this over with. I have a small fear of heights."
Navi led him over to a ledge with rough looking vines growing up. It wasn't too high and there was a new area to explore. He grabbed the vines and began to climb up. It wasn't a hard climb. He found places to put his feet and pulled himself up to the ledge. He wiped sweat off of his brow.
"There. That wasn't so bad. Now, let's explore this area beyond this ledge."
There was a small bridge connecting the small ledge to an even bigger one. When he reached the bigger ledge, he gasped in shock at what he saw. There was a huge wall with vines growing all of the way up to the top of the tree. Link groaned.
"This is going to be a nightmare to climb!"
He turned around and he realized that he was alone. Suddenly, he heard the fairy cry out to his right.
"Hey, Link! Over here. I found a door!"
He walked over to where her cry came from and found her in front of an old wooden door. He smiled with delight.
"Good find, Navi. Let's see what's in here."
He gave the door a push inward and it flung open and they both walked inside. There was a ledge across the room with a treasure chest on it and a large gap between the ledge and the one Link was standing on. There was an unstable looking platform to jump to in order to cross the big gap. Navi got closer to it and voiced her concerns.
"I'm not sure if it's a good idea to jump on this or not. It looks very weak!"
Link shook his head slowly.
"What other choice do I have? Watch out, Navi. I'm going to make it over there."
He took a run at the platform and jumped on top of it with ease. It began to groan and crack under his weight. Navi screamed at him.
"You idiot! You're going to hurt yourself. Jump off right now!"
Taking her advice, he quickly jumped over to the other side. Just as he did, the platform cracked and shattered into many pieces onto the floor below. She shook her head in disbelief.
"Nice move. How are you going to get back now? You should have listened to me!"
He wasn't paying attention. He had his eyes on the chest in front of him. It was decorative, like the one the sword was in. He started to walk towards it. Suddenly, he heard a lot of rustling coming from above him. He looked up and saw a huge spider descending. He backed away as it landed and blocked the path in front of him. It was completely white. The front of the spider looked like a skull of some creature. It had two big, black eyes. Link blinked in confusion. He thought all spiders had eight eyes. It's eight legs were fuzzy and yellow in color and it's fangs were jet black and dripping with green, oozing venom.
The spider began to walk towards him, growling and spewing venom as it went. Link drew his sword and stabbed at it. He flipped it over, but it quickly flipped itself over again. He noticed that it's belly looked soft. He stabbed at it again and flipped it over and stabbed it in the belly with a roar. It let out an agonized cry and disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. He shook his head.
"Wow. That was crazy. What just happened?"
Navi nodded slowly.
"That must be a creature that man created inside here. I hope it's not too late for the Deku Tree. See what's in that chest and let's figure out a way to get back."
He nodded as he walked over and opened the chest. Inside, there was an old slingshot with a bag for bullet seeds. He pulled out both the weapon and the bullet bag. To his surprise, there were thirty hard seeds to use as ammo in the bag. Navi giggled.
"Wow, that will help us out a lot if we find any more of those spiders. Now, how do we get out of this room?"
He sighed and looked towards the door. Getting out of the room was going to be difficult. Even if he climbed down to the floor below, how was he going to climb up the platform where the door was? He groaned and looked up at the ceiling. That's when he saw it, an old ladder hanging from spider web up above. He got the slingshot and a bullet ready and began to take aim. Navi was confused, she hadn't seen the ladder yet.
"Link, what are you doing? What are you aiming at?"
Still concentrating, he gasped out a reply.
"There's a ladder high up that I spotted. I'm going to see if I can knock it down."
He aimed at the bottom rung and let his bullet seed fly. It hit it with a loud Thunk! The ladder fell down and landed face down in front of the far ledge. Navi shook her head in admiration.
"Good eye, Link. I never saw that ladder. Let's go set it up and get out of here."
Link climbed down and ran over to the ladder and picked it up. He then leaned it up against the ledge, climbed up and walked out of the room. Navi began to fly over to the left where the high wall was that Link encountered earlier. She sighed heavily.
"Link, I know this is going to be hard for you, but we have to climb up this wall. If we can make it to the top, perhaps we can then find a ledge to jump off of and break that web below."
Link gulped nervously. He didn't want to jump from such a great height. What if he ended up missing? He turned to Navi with a confident smile on his face and nodded.
"Alright. Let's do this, Navi. I'm going to try and conquer my fears."
He looked at the wall and grabbed at the vines that were growing on them and began to slowly climb up. For the first five feet up the wall, the wall was easy to climb. The vines were the perfect thickness to climb and he was feeling great. Everything seemed to be going quite well. That is until he got about halfway up. His legs were beginning to feel weak and wobbly like jelly. He was breathing heavily from exertion. He looked over his shoulder and looked down at the ground. That was a huge mistake. He began to feel dizzy and he felt himself let go of the vines with one hand. Nav saw what was happening and screamed at him in panic.
"Link! Snap out of it! Don't look down and keep both hands on the vines or you are going to fall and hurt yourself badly!"
He heard her words and attempting to get his balance back, he closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them once more, he felt a lot better. He reached out with his free hand and grabbed onto the vines. He looked up at how much farther he had to go. He began to climb with sheer determination. He wasn't about to give up and die here! He knew there wasn't much more to climb now. He pushed his body onward until he reached the top at last. He pulled himself weakly up onto the high ledge and sighed with relief.
"Wow. That was too close. Thanks for snapping me out of that, Navi. I would've died for sure."
Navi laughed as she joked around.
"No problem. It seems like all I'm doing is saving your life lately. I'm glad you were able to climb up here."
Link walked over to the far wall away from where he climbed up and slumped down wearily.
"Wow...how...do...adventurers...do this sort of thing? That was the...biggest workout of my life."
He breathed heavily for a few minutes afterwards and then his breathing settled down. He began to talk one more.
"When I used to play this game, I never thought how hard all this adventuring would actually be on a real person. Now I'm experiencing that first hand. I hope things get a little easier. It's not easy actually being the hero for real."
Navi shook her head.
"Riiight. Whatever you say, Link. Are you almost ready to continue on?"
He nodded and got up to his feet.
"Don't worry, Navi. I'll find a way to prove to you that I'm telling the truth one of these days. Just you wait."
He began to explore the high ledge that was a circular all the way around the tree. He got about halfway around when suddenly, three big spiders appeared in front of him. He grinned and pulled out his sword.
"Let's dance, you eight legged freaks!"
One of them snarled and rushed towards him. He thrust his sword in between his eyes and to his surprise, it went through it's head and killed it. He smiled. These spiders weren't as tough as the one he encountered earlier. The other two spiders attempted to circle Link. He smiled. The perfect opportunity to test out his spin attack carefully. He held his sword out and began to spin slowly and gradually got faster. He managed to keep in one spot while spinning. Navi gasped in awe while she watched. Link wasn't visible in the melee. All she could see was the two spiders and a green blur. And a white one just outside the green one, obviously his sword. She tried to shout through the melee.
"Link! The spiders are long dead. Stop spinning!"
He barely heard her and started to slow down. When he was stopped completely, he was very dizzy. He sat down as he tried to view his work. The spiders were nothing more than a pile of legs and green ooze. They suddenly disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. Link looked up at Navi with a dazed expression on his face.
"Thank god for Brad's training. That guy's amazing, learning those kind of techniques with just a staff alone. I wish he was the leader of the kokiri instead of that idiot Mido! Give me a few minutes to rest and then we'll see about this big jump."
After about five minutes, Link searched around and he found a long walkway that stretched almost halfway across the gap. He carefully walked across and looked down. He was directly above that huge hole. He gulped nervously and turned to Navi.
"Well, there's the hole. I guess all that's left is for me to jump down, right?"
She nodded.
"That's right. Go ahead, Link. You'll be fine. When you bust through that hole, you'll land in a large pool of water and you won't get squished. Just trust me on this one, okay?"
He nodded nervously and looked down at the hole. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and jumped off. He fell down very fast and he smashed right through the web. Navi followed him down. When he opened his eyes, he was almost up to his neck in water. He turned around to see the fairy beside him.
"That was close, Navi. Any deeper and I could've drowned!"
She shrugged apologetically.
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it was so deep. Just ahead of you is a ledge."
He climbed out of the water and looked around. There was a lot of water in this area and even more holes. This must be where the Great Deku Tree stored the water from his roots. Link spotted a higher platform and more rough vines leading upwards. He walked over and climbed up the vines. There was a medium sized spider waiting for him up top. This one was red in color and had one big red eye. It had legs, but they were more similar to claws. They lashed out at Link. He quickly dodged them as he looked at the creature quickly, trying to find a weakness. But all he could see was the big eye of the beast...of course! The weak point had to be it's eye. He pulled out his slingshot and got a bullet ready, while trying to dodge it's attacks. Then he suddenly stopped and aimed at the monster's eye. The monster lashed out at his still body. Navi screamed out.
"Link, watch out. It's going to hit you!"
The claws were mere inches from his unprotected body. Suddenly, it stopped in it's tracks and screamed in agony. Link had let the bullet fly from his slingshot and it hit the creature directly in the center of the eye just in the nick of time! The claws went limp and fell in front of his feet. He kicked them out of the way as Navi berated him endlessly.
"You almost got yourself killed again! I don't care what kind of weird reality you came from. This is no game! If you die here, you die for real. Try to be more careful please. I hate to see your life here come to a close before it even began."
He nodded as he spotted another hole in the floor, but this one had weaker looking web. Link drew his sword and hacked away at it. A few minutes later, the hole was clear and Link jumped down the hole and once again, he landed in a pool of water. Link sighed heavily.
"What is with all of this water?"
Navi shrugged.
"How the heck should I know? Just don't worry about it. Get out of the water. I think I found where the source of that curse is residing."
Link pulled himself out of the water once again and found Navi flying in front of a large door. Link walked up to it and pushed on it and once again, it fell inwards and he fell flat on his face. He got up and looked around the big room and checked his surroundings. There were huge spider webs everywhere! There were also a lot of tree roots scattered all over the place. Suddenly, Link began to hear a strange scratching noise. He looked around, but he didn't see anything. Then he heard some snarling noises coming from above him. He looked up and to his horror, there was a huge spider above his head! He recoiled quickly as it landed right in front of him. It was a gigantic version of the spider with one eye that he encountered earlier. He knew that this spider was going to be harder to defeat than the smaller version. He got his slingshot ready as the huge spider walked towards him. He tried to aim for it's eye and it deflected it easily with one of it's legs. He decided to pull out his sword and try one of the techniques. He tried to do a chop. He raised his sword above his head, leapt into the air and tried to bring the sword crashing down onto the spider. The spider brought it's arm out and smacked Link across the chest and sent him flying towards the wall. He got up and groaned. That really hurt!. He looked around for Navi, but he didn't see her. He walked over to where the giant spider was and he realized that the spider was chasing Navi around! The white fairy was mere inches from being an after dinner mint for the spider. Link couldn't help but giggle quietly at the scene. Things were looking bad for Navi, but he had to admit, it did look funny! Navi heard him laugh and screamed out in anger.
"Oh real funny! I'm about to be eaten and all you can do is laugh? Help me out here!"
Link took a deep breath and ran over behind the spider. Maybe he might be able to launch a surprise attack. He got his slingshot ready and shouted out at the gargantuan monster.
"Hey ugly! I'm behind you! Don't worry about that fairy, I'm more of a match for you.!"
The spider turned around to face Link. Just as it did, Link launched a bullet from his slingshot. The monster didn't have any time to react. It hit it right in the eye and stunned it. It fell over and left itself completely defenseless. Link took his sword and stabbed it repeatedly. Green blood was oozing from it. Within mere minutes, the eye was gushing blood. The spider was screaming in agony. It managed to detatch Link, but it was too late. The blade had done it's work. The spider walked awkwardly around the room completely blinded. It let out one last agonized scream and fell over dead. Suddenly, it disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke.
Suddenly, a blue portal appeared in front of Link. Intrigued, he walked into it as Navi followed behind. The light was very bright and Link and Navi closed their eyes. When they opened them, they were in front of the Great Deku Tree. Link looked around.
"What the? How did we get out here?"
Before he could think about it further, the Great deku Tree spoke.
"Link, thou hast returned. I assume that means that the monster within my body is defeated?"
Link nodded.
"Yes it is. Why didn't you tell us more about what that man did to you?"
The tree smiled.
"I figured that you would find that out on your own. I apologize. I didn't wish to cause worry. I have some bad news for you both. Because of that curse that man placed on me, my end is nigh. I hardly have any strength left."
Navi was shocked.
"W-what are you talking about? That doesn't mean that..."
The tree sighed quietly.
"I'm afraid so, Navi. It means that I will die soon, but don't grieve for me. I have lived a long life and seen many seasons go by and many friends die."
Navi was crying. She wiped her eyes.
"You can't die, Great Deku Tree! The forest needs you. I need you! You're one of my closest friends."
The Great Deku Tree smiled weakly.
"I know and I appreciate your friendship towards me, a dying tree, but I'm afraid that nothing can be done. Although you destroyed the source of the curse, it had already done it's deadly work before you even started. You are going to have to find an even stronger friendship within Link. Before I pass on, I have something to give you, hero. The stone that man wanted so badly, that he cast this death curse upon me."
The tree's upper branches began to sway gently. Link looked up and saw something glittering drop from them. It landed in front of Link. He picked it up and realized that it was a green, shining stone. The Great Deku Tree explained it's significance.
"That stone is known as Kokiri's Emerald and it is one of two of the hidden treasures of the kokiri. The kokiri sword in your possession is the second. That emerald is very important and I need you to take it to Hyrule Castle. There, thou will surly meet the princess of destiny. She can explain to you the legend of the stones and the history of the devine relic, the Triforce. I wanted to tell you this, but I am far too weak. Navi, you are no longer bound to this forest and you may come and go as you please along with Link. Farewell, you two. Good...bye..."
Suddenly, the Great Deku Tree's leaves began to turn brown in color and his whole body turned black. The Great Deku Tree had passed away. Navi brushed away a tear and sighed heavily.
"Let's get out of here and make it to Hyrule Castle. Maybe a long journey will help me forget the passing of one of my dearest friends."
They both made their way out of the meadow and back into the village.