Chapter 4

It was nearing nightfall and Mido and his fairy partner Raz were walking around the village. Mido had a hard day. First, he sent that annoying kid Link on a hunt for a sword and shield before he would let him see the Great Deku Tree. He knew he would get a shield, but he never thought he would actually find a sword, a very nice one at that. After that, he had no choice but to let him through because the Great Deku tree summoned the jerk. What could he do better than him, the great Mido? The stupid tree was forgetting who was most important in the small village. He should have been summoned instead of that idiot!

Secondly, Saria was giving him a hard time about being so mean to the other villagers, especially Link. He argued furiously with her. After all, he wax the boss of the Kokiri. Shouldn't he be able to order people around as he saw fit? He sighed and tried to put his problems aside as he turned to his fairy.

"Come on, Raz. I want to go home. I'm feeling tired after a hard day's work."

Raz nodded, his red glow betting a little brighter as he spoke.

"All right, bud. Let's go take a break. You could definitely use it."

Raz secretly hated Mido. When he first met him ten years ago when he arrived here with Navi, Raz could see that he needed a friend and became his fairy partner. Shortly after, he tried to change him for the better. He was always urging him not to be so mean. He stopped trying shortly after Mido had him locked up for disobedience. Now, he would just agree with whatever he said. He knew that Mido never did a hard day's work in his life, but what was point of talking back? He would just end up imprisoned again. He was starting to regret becoming Mido's fairy partner in the first place

On their way home, Mido spotted something strange. He saw a weird green glowing coming from behind the forest shop. He walked closer to investigate. That's when he saw it, a glowing green hole in the wall! It was very large in diameter. Suddenly, two figures began to emerge from it. He looked over at his fairy.

"What do you make of this, Raz? What should we do?"

Raz flexed his wings in thought.

"I think we should wait and see what happens. If there are enemy spies coming from that hole, we should hurry and alert the entire village of what's going on."

Mido nodded as he continued to watch. The figures were almost out of the hole by now. Suddenly, there was a bright flash and the figures were pushed out of the hole. Afterwards, the strange hole began to shrink until it was gone completely. The figures groaned as they got up on their feet. They appeared to be two boys, one short and one tall. They looked at each other in confusion. The tall boy spoke to the shorter boy.

"I knew we should've stayed out of that hole, Max. Why didn't you listen to me?"

The shorter boy, who Mido now confirmed was named Max, shook his head slowly.

"It seemed like a good place to look for Tom, okay? I thought he might've fallen down. It was a very big hole. I never expected the hole to have a swirling green light inside. Where the heck are we anyway? I don't recognize this area at all. What do you think, Charlie?"

The tall boy, who Mido now knew as Charlie looked around the area and shook his head.

"I don't know, but something's wrong. How are we in a different area when we didn't travel any distance? What happened to our forest? I can't tell in the dark, but this doesn't look like Greenwood Forest to me."

Mido was unsure how to proceed. What if they were armed? He looked around for a weapon of some kind and spotted a big wooden mallet some careless kokiri had left behind. He picked it up and got ready to apprehend the two boys. Raz urged him forward.

"Come on! Get them knocked out before they have a chance to hurt anyone!"

Charlie and Max were still confused. They didn't know where they were or where their friend Tom ended up, but they wanted to find him. His mother was extremely worried about him and they convinced her not to call the police and insisted in locating him themselves Suddenly, Charlie spotted movement. There was a short person coming into their view. He sighed with relief.

"Finally! Somebody found us. We can ask this person where we are and we can also ask about Tom."

He began to walk forward. Max put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hold it. This person is armed with a weapon. Let's try to be as friendly as we can."

When Mido got closer, they both gasped in shock. Were they hallucinating? They both knew who this small person was! Charlie held up his hands.

"Hold on! We aren't here to cause trouble. You're Mido, aren't you?"

He was taken aback.

"What? How do you know my name? Who sent you here?"

Charlie looked at his friend.

"What does he mean, Max?"

Max turned to him.

"Listen. Nobody sent us here. We don't even know how we got here, but if you're here, does that mean we're in...Kokiri forest?"

Mido gasped in shock.

"I knew it! You were right, Raz. These guys are enemy spies! I'm not going to let you invade our forest!"

Charlie held up his hands.

"No! You have it all wrong. We aren't spies. We're looking for our friend Tom. Have you seen him?"

Mido didn't reply. He simply took his mallet and swung at their heads with surprising speed. They both fell to the ground unconscious. Mido glared at their bodies.

"Lies. All lies! I'm going to take you two to the jail. They better tell me what they know when they awaken, Raz. If they don't, I'll force the truth out of them! Look at them, wearing our clothing to blend in unnoticed even! Well, time to get these two locked up!"

Mido spent about an hour dragging the two to the jail one at a time.

Link and Navi just came out of the Deku Tree's meadow. Mido was just outside waiting for them.

"Well? How did it go? Did you help out our forest guardian?"

Tears formed in Navi's eyes as she nodded slowly.

"Yes we did, Mido. I have some bad news. The Great Deku Tree is dead. That stranger killed the Great Deku Tree."

Mido was outraged.

"WHAT? The Great Deku Tree is dead? What did you two do? How could you two do such a thing?"

Navi shook her head.

"Haven't you been listening to me? We didn't do it! That stranger that arrived here earlier did it! He caused the Deku Tree to rot from the inside."

Mido refused to listen to the fairy.

"I'm not listening to your lies! I think you two are in league with the two I captured earlier! I'm taking you guys to the jail so you can get acquainted again."

Link was confused.

"Who are these two you captured? Did they have names?

Mido grumbled.

"They called themselves Charlie and Max and they claimed to be looking for someone named Tom. Likely story!"

Link was completely lost for words. His friends were here now? They must have fallen into the green hole like he did! He had to get to the jail and see if they were alright. He nodded at Mido.

"Okay. Let's go to the jail. I want to meet these two."

Charlie and Max awoke to find themselves behind bars! On top of that, they both had pounding head aches and sizeable bumps on their heads. Charlie groaned.

"Man does my head ever hurt! That jerk hit us hard with that mallet."

Max rubbed his head tenderly.

"He sure did. I still can't believe where we are. We're actually in a game world right now! How is this even possible? This must be another dimension or something."

Charlie nodded.

"How are we going to find Tom now? We're locked up in a jail! I want to find our friend and explore this land for real this time."

Before either of them could say another word, the door to the jail swung open. Link and Navi walked in followed by Mido. Charlie and Max both rubbed their eyes in disbelief. Mido looked at them and smirked.

"Look at those two! They're crying!"

Charlie shook his head.

"We're not crying! We are rubbing our eyes in disbelief. Link and Navi now? This can't be real!"

Mido glared at him as he opened the cell door and put Link and Navi in it and locked it.

"Oh it's real all right. Time for the four of you to get acquainted! I'll see you guys in the morning. You'd better answer my questions!"

Mido turned around and walked out of the jail leaving Link and Navi with Charlie and Max. Link sighed heavily. What was going to happen now? Before he could think about his next move, Charlie walked over and took Link's hand and shook it.

"I can't believe this. Even though we're in jail, it's an honor to meet you, Link."

He smiled.

"Thanks Charlie, but we already know each other."

He looked at him oddly.

"What do you mean, Link?"

He grinned. Were they going to believe him when he told them the truth? He took a deep breath.

"Charlie, Max, it's me, Tom. I arrived here probably just like you did."

Charlie shook his head in disbelief.

"You can't be Tom! You look nothing like him. Do you have any proof?"

Max laughed.

"I didn't realize you wanted to be our friend that badly, Link."

Link glared at them.

"I pulled a prank on you two and you pushed me, Charlie. I tried to catch up to you, but I couldn't find you guys. Instead, I found a strange green hole in the ground. I ended up getting stuck inside and passed out and when I woke up, I was here and I was Link. Do you two believe me now?"

Charlie and Max were dumbstruck. He had to be their friend Tom. How else would he know all that? Charlie put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry we doubted you, Tom. I still find it hard to believe that you're Link though. So, you fell into that hole like we did? After you didn't return home, we told your mom that we would search for you. I hope she doesn't get worried about our disappearance. When we found that hole, Max climbed in to investigate and immediately called for help. I tried to pull him out, but I ended up getting stuck myself. The next thing we knew, we were here."

Navi flexed her wings in thought.

"So you were telling me truth earlier, Link. You really are from another reality then."

Link faced her and nodded.

"Yes. I told you that I would convince you one of these days"

She nodded.

"Okay you convinced me. So, what are we going to do now? Are we going to sit in here for the rest of our lives? Aren't you going to fulfill the Great Deku Tree's last task?"

Link snorted.

"Of course! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. When we get out of here, I intend to continue my adventure, just like the game. Only this time, it's going to be very...interesting."

Max smiled.

"That sounds like a lot of fun. We're with you, Tom, or should I say Link. I look forward to our adventures and getting to know your fairy partner better."

Navi grinned.

"Well, any friend of Link's is a friend of mine. I look forward to getting to know you two better as well."

Charlie laughed.

"Well said, Navi! As soon as we get out of jail, I'll feel a lot better. I can't wait to get our adventure started!"

Link nodded and lied down in one corner.

"I couldn't agree more. I suggest we get some sleep and we'll deal with everything tomorrow."

Max and Charlie nodded. They couldn't do anything else anyway. They lied down in the cell and went to sleep for the night.