CHAPTER 15

Upon seeing the leaves, Link intuitively reached for the Gilded Sword. "Ruto," he warned with an unsteady voice, "you might want to hang on. . . . . . . . ."

Before he could elaborate, the leaf-patch sprang up with a crunching sound – and Epona reared up on her hind legs, neighing in terror, as the horrible visage of a Mad Scrub presented itself. Ruto barely had time to scream in surprise and alarm, upon seeing the sadistic living plant, before the young horse took off at a full gallop.

Link abandoned his attempt to draw the Gilded Sword and quickly grasped Epona's reins, looking over his shoulder as Epona veered to the Mad Scrub's left. The plant fired its signature projectile – a Deku Nut – at the boy-hero, his steed and the Zora hatchling on his shoulder, and he barely managed to yank the Mirror Shield out in time to repel the attack. From behind the shield, he heard a pained shriek as the Scrub was struck by its own weapon, then the rustling of the surrounding leaves as it tried to escape.

"Is it gone?" Ruto yelped, her voice – and, indeed, her body – trembling.

"Not yet!" Link replied, drawing his bow and searching his surroundings for any sign of the plant. His ears, rather than his eyes, guided him toward the target – and, as the plant tried to scamper away on its stubby legs, he aimed in its general direction and waited until its sinister eyes were facing him. As soon as it decided to turn around, he loosed a single arrow and struck it directly between the eyes.

With a final pathetic screech of pain, the Mad Scrub slumped to the ground and vanished, seconds later, in a wave of mulch.

"Now it's gone!" he assured Ruto, who carefully peered toward said mulch for confirmation. "But be on your guard. There might be more of them."

Watching his surroundings for precisely that, Link pulled on Epona's reins in a fruitless attempt to calm her down – and to slow her down, as she galloped deeper and deeper into the woods. She ignored his every command, stubbornly sprinting at full speed toward. . . . . . . . .

A sound?

"Link! Please! Make the miserable beast stop!" Ruto wailed, burying her face in his neck to guard against the rushing wind.

"I don't suppose that you have any ideas?" he retorted, unable to control Epona's course any more than Ruto could.

"Where. . . . . . . . .where in Din's fire is she taking us?"

"I'm not sure!" He strained to hear whatever song Epona was rushing toward, for it sounded more familiar by the foot. "There's something ahead of us, but I can't see what!"

"Can you hear it?"

Link could, in fact, hear this sound quite clearly now – and it was absolutely the last sound that he expected to hear. From the surrounding forest, a song echoed – the same song that Saria had taught him in Kokiri Forest, when neither of them had a care in the world (except for Mido, of course). Was Saria in this god-forsaken place, too?

Before he could even think about pondering this matter, he caught a glimpse of the enormous tree just ahead of them – a tree nearly identical to the one that had brought him to Termina. . . . . . . . .