Legends of the Hero of Time

by Ryan-Sinclair

The Hero of Time, Link, is blessed by the Golden Goddesses with a normal existence, free for himself to rule over. He must learn the true meaning of life as he attempts to join Hylian society. Along the way, he finds a family to call his own. Protecting and loving them, as a new threat emerges, he grows to understand how he must still endure the challenges of fate.

11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

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[Time: 12:45 P.M. (Afternoon)]

[Date- Month 4 'Mid-Spring', Day 12, 8th Era]

[Location- Hyrule, Hyrule Field]

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All he had just read rushed through Link's head as he tried to figure out what was going on. The letter from Saria was a lot to take in. Numerous questions arose from her words. To begin with, Link wondered when Malon sent the Kokiri girl a message through the mail, as well as why she didn't bother to tell him. Since he'd left, he'd been pushing himself to get to the Forbidden Forest in order to inform everyone of his well-being. Last time he showed up in the village after being away for several weeks, Saria nearly killed him for worrying her to death. He figured it would have been nice to be made aware that she already knew he was okay so he didn't feel like he was in such a hurry.

However, taking the note's content into consideration, he found much bigger problems. Whatever it was that had been causing the issue plaguing Kokiri Village, he would have to find a way to put an end to it.

Wolfos, as Saria mentioned, would most likely be his biggest concern as they were far more dangerous than Deku Babas or Chupas. No matter how he looked at it, he knew that for Kokiri, just about any danger was a serious danger. 'The Great De-…' He stopped himself from incorrectly thinking. 'I mean, the Deku Tree Sprout; he has to be protected at all costs.' Tightening his hand into a fist, his fingers cracked. 'I can't let nasties run a muck and threaten the livelihood of our sacred protector of the forest.' Though the boy was a Hylian, culturally, he remained steadfast in his Kokiri beliefs, including the relationship he still held for those that raised him. Family is very important in the world. After his kokiri family went through all that they did, dealing with Malon, helping her keep him alive, it left Link with a debt that he felt could never truly be paid. Despite that, he also felt obligated and willing to lend a hand until the job was done. The hero wouldn't leave the forest until he felt assured everybody within was once again safe. 'Time to put these skills of mine to use. Good thing I was already on my way too.'

Lowering the letter as the boy reread it, he gave Epona's sides a gentle kick to spur on her momentum. He'd made the decision to make haste immediately after finishing up his brief discussion with the PostMan. Several minutes in, they came closer to the treeline of the Forbidden Forest. Summoning all he had inside him, he prepared himself for what he might see.

Seven years from now, in a time that no longer exists, when he returned to the Kokiri Village to witness its demise, it made him sick to his stomach. Seeing corruption take hold of the place he grew up and adored, to watch evil grip the land and suck it dry of the majestic nature residing there, it was too much to bear. At one point, Link even promised himself that he would never allow his home to succumb to the blight of such hatred ever again. Saria and the others were miserable and if they're miserable, then he was miserable. In fact, the boy might as well be on a journey to cheer people up, even if the main reason was to retrieve the Ocarina of Time.

"Alright, Epona… Are you ready?" He asked the filly as she galloped toward the entrance of the Forbidden Forest. The horse neighed while staying on the path to avoid wildlife. "Don't worry, I won't get you lost. I promise."

Gradually, a small smile came to his lips as he thought about the last time he went to where he was going. This time, things would be different as his emotions were no longer in control over him. Epona likely sensed this confidence as she sped up until they arrived at the tree-tunnel, which pierced the thick foliage to make an opening into the woods. Without any hesitation, the boy was quick to let his horse keep going. They traveled fast from Hyrule Field, into the entrance of the Forbidden Forest. Same as each time he returned, Link's lungs filled with the heavy atmosphere dripping in dew. It made him cough, but felt good, almost nostalgic in spite of him not being gone for that exceedingly long.

After the log, they crossed a rickety wooden-bridge where Epona's horse hooves clattered on every plank. Glancing down, Link saw that nothing was out of the ordinary in the Lost Wood's ravine below. Slowly, his heartbeat increased as he formed a plan on what to do. Thinking about it more, he figured it would be easy to get rid of what's causing all of the commotion. He only hoped that it was a fluke, that there was no real reason why the trouble showed up in the village, having had nobody or nothing causing it to be there.

Intuition was a useful ability, but it can be wrong. Telling if it's correct or not was difficult. On the other hand, Link had a feeling that his intuition was right in that something more sinister was happening. "Chupa never venture toward the village, they love swampy areas with murky water… Deku Babas are different though. They grow in inconvenient areas. Then again, the Kokiri usually pick their buds from the ground before they can grow into the dangerous adult plants… Hmm..." Getting closer to the next hollowed out log, Link kept thinking aloud, trying to form a working theory in regards to what's going on. "As for the Wolfos problem, I'm going to have to do what I have to do." Now and then, the boy wished there was a type of barrier he could put up to stop things, monsters, from literally walking into the village, strolling in without anything or anybody there to stop it.

Adjusting himself on the saddle, feeling the sword on his back, he made sure it was there as he knew he'd need it later on. Without anything to prevent creatures from waltzing into Kokiri Village, it fell solely onto Link to fend them off. It would only take a few dead Wolfos for them to learn to stop coming around. Beasts were smarter than people give them credit for; the young hero learned that the hard way through fighting them as often as he did.

Whinnying, the equine stopped for a brief moment, coming to a dead standstill. It startled Link to an extent as he didn't expect her to do that. He had to hold onto the saddle so she didn't throw him off from the sudden decrease in speed. Whatever it was that was happening, it wasn't ordinary. Epona was too smart as well as loyal to be stubborn during a time of great importance like this.

"Huh? What's wrong girl?" Link knew there had to be an explanation other than it being her fault. "Is somebody there?" Looking around, he yelled just in case he was being watched. "Who's there?! SHOW YOURSELF!"

With one hand on his sword and the other cupped to his ear, he listened silently. Nothing other than ambiance was heard for a while. The bond between Epona and the boy left him feeling aware of her emotions. She could sense the danger during the times that he couldn't. 'I trust you.' He thought. Using what he'd learned of horse communication and behaviour, he saw her ears indicate that she was feeling threatened, her nostrils flared and her eyes widened. Judging by that, he knew he was right. There was someone or something ahead of them in the final hollowed log leading into the Kokiri Village. There wasn't any other way to enter, thus, the hero had to prepare to take on the challenge of that which resided inside the abnormal darkness.

'Wait a second.' Just prior to barging forward, Link formed an idea. Opening up the pouch which held several items from his journeys, his hand reached inside to root around for about three particular nuts that he could definitely use at a time like this; Deku Nuts. Once found, he pulled one of them out, not needing multiple. Instead of risking a chance of unknown danger, it was much easier and wiser to simply throw the nut with great velocity, allowing it to strike halfway through the hollowed out tree. In a bright flash, the log was lit up enough to see any signs of that which made Epona not want to go toward. As quick as a bolt of lightning, Link saw a thin bulbous creature drop from the top of the inside hollowed log. Not enough time was given for it to fully register what it was, not until he heard a certain huffing chatter.

"Deku Baba." His lips spoke with a sneer. He'd dealt with plenty of these creatures before. Although they resembled an overgrown venus flytrap on a thin stem, they were more alive that regular flora. Functioning more as an animal than a plant, they're carnivorous and try to bite anything that comes within the vicinity they're rooted in. Their teeth were actually marginal spikes. Their tongue is also not what it seems, being a proboscis capable of secreting a slightly acidic venom. Although they usually killed smaller prey that fit into their mouth, they were opportunistic eaters.

Link kicked his heels against Epona's side. The horse started moving across the rest of the span of the rickety wooden bridge. Giving the filly more motivation to go faster, she picked up the pace while her master drew his sword. Epona didn't have to worry about the creature, for Link knew he could kill it without any problem in the least. "Yaah! Giddy-up!" It was still abnormally dark inside the log, so he had to use judgment to determine how far from the beginning of the log he was to the monster. Hitting darkness toward the center, with no light able to penetrate that far, the hero counted to three whilst hearing the chattering grow louder. "1… 2… 3..."

Swinging his sword with a slice, he could not only hear, but feel as the blade obviously ripped straight through what was likely the stem of the Deku Baba. A distorted shriek filled the log before the beast gargled and then went silent; only a hissing sound remained as its toxic fumes were emitted from its throat during death.

"Excellent..." Link praised himself plus Epona with consideration on how well she did. With a smirk on his face, they came out of the long into the other side of the Forbidden Forest tree-line. Kokiri Village awaited. "Now, here I come."

Several steps passed in advance of the hero sheathing his sword. He wasn't entirely sure how safe it was. Due to that, he stayed wary and with his hand at the ready to grab any weapon he needed. Traveling down the path leading to the Kokiri Village, he noticed right away that there was a particular absence of any Kokiri. It wasn't too surprising since he had already encountered a monster, but it still frustrated him that his beloved family couldn't enjoy the outside like they were meant to. If the Great Deku Tree were still there, the demigod would never allow a monster to get close to his children's encampment. Without the tree deity, everything fell upon Link. He was the one who had to figure out what the cause of the beastly migrations was.

"SARIA!?" The boy shouted for her, hoping to get anybody's attention that was around. "MIDO!? FADO!? ANYBODY!? IT'S ME, LINK!" Looking around while on horseback, things seemed quite strange here. The air smelled stale and tasted like musty dirt instead of fresh vegetation. Light barely seemed to be making it through the treetops even though it was midday, when the sun was at its peak. Even the water looked slightly murky, as if someone spilled clay inside of it. Here and there, grass seemed to be wilting, dying in certain spots; going as far as to have been replaced by more Deku Babas waiting for a victim to come close enough for them to chomp on. 'What's happening here? This isn't right… All of this in a couple of weeks? Malon was just here and she never mentioned anything about plants wilting or water corruption.' Link started to seriously worry now, getting Epona to trot around the village until they arrived at Saria's house, his first and foremost stop.

Dismounting Epona, he took one last look around prior to making his way inside. He was slow and steady with his movement, careful since he was unsure of what was on the other side of the curtain-drape door. "Saria?" Arriving on the other side, nothing was too out of the ordinary in the house. It was empty, but with obvious signs that it hadn't been that way for long since a chair was tipped over and a bowl of food laid spread out amongst the ground. "Saria?" Link repeated, still hoping that he'd get a reply. "Saria, come on. It's Link, come out from wherever you're hiding." Deep down, he knew she wouldn't be hiding from him. If the kokiri girl were nearby and heard his voice, then she'd reveal herself. His only concerns were that something really bad had happened. "Hello?"

Nobody was in there, it was clear. Turning around, he nearly made it back out of the house preceding a small thump to the ground he felt reverberate through his boots. "Huh? Who's there?" From the boy's voice, the thump repeated and even accompanied a tiny scratching sound. It came from near the clay pots lined along the wall. The first thing Link thought was that a person might be hiding inside of one, but he wasn't overly sure about that. His hand moved behind his back where it gripped the handle of his sword while stepping closer. "Come out right now, unless you want to get stabbed!" He didn't really want to stab the pot since it would break. Saria's scowl would likely hurt worse than whatever hiding inside could possibly dish out. "I mean it!"

Growing ever closer, with his other hand, he reached out to tentatively grip the lid. He selected the right one, for he felt it wiggle as soon as he did; leaving no doubt in his mind that there was most certainly something inside of it.

'Okay, that's it.' Eventually, whenever he felt ready, he yanked the lid off the top of the clay pot. His feet jumped back as he nearly expected whatever was within to come jumping out. Instead, nothing really happened. Due to being away from the window and it not being very bright outside, the hero couldn't really see inside either. He wasn't daring enough to reach inside. All he did was scratch his head. His high expectations were let down. He expected something big to happen. "What the-...?"

Unfortunately, lowering his guard in confusion was a mistake. Having least anticipated it, a bulging bulbous mouth shot up from within the depths of the pot, ferociously snapping at the boy as if it were trying to rip his face off. On instinct, he stumbled backward as his heart started beating faster. "By the Goddesses!" The fright didn't take him overly long to overcome and yet, by the time he did, the creature had slithered forth, revealing itself to be a special subspecies of Deku Baba, known as a Baba beast was viciously bloodthirsty in its attempts to get to Link. It appeared as if it had been severed from its roots by someone else; taking into account the things' location, it was likely Saria or another Kokiri who dislodged it from its base. It snapped its jaws harder and harder as it came after the boy, so hard at times that several of its teeth busted onto the floor, even more so when Link stomped on it.

Poison was his main concern as Link knew exactly how dangerous a Baba Serpent's saliva could be. Each bite it tried to take out of the hero, he had to dodge or risk losing a limb. The beast was intent on getting him. Eventually, once he drew his sword, he had to figure out how to dispose of the monster. Slowly yet surely, he backed out of the house while using his shield to deflect the serpent's ferocious attacks.

"Come on you nasty little freak!" Link taunted, stomping his foot in order for it to feel the vibrations through the ground. Despite the intimidation attempt, the creature grew fiercer, not about to back down from getting to its prey. "Alright then! We'll play rough!"

Spinning the sword in his hand, now that they were out of Saria's house and out into the open, his feet strafed to the left as he tried to circle behind the Baba Serpent. Going at it from any angle other than the front was most ideal. To his surprise, the beast flipped around with its stem squirming violently as its jaws continued to snap. Hissing, it growled at him, bellowing a deep grumble unlike that many would think a plant to be capable of.

"Dammit!" Trying again, the result was the exact same. "Well, aren't you just the village menace!" Seeing as how it refused to do anything other than lunge at him, Link wasn't sure if the beast was either desperate, or intelligent for its kind. Moving closer, he allowed it to slam its body against his Hylian Shield multiple times over. The steel wouldn't budge an inch and neither would he. "Oomph! That's right, tire yourself out!"

While the Baba Serpent was occupied, Link slashed at it a few times. One slice cut through its hard shell-like exterior, but it didn't do sufficient damage to make the thing so much as stop for a brief moment. The other five strikes missed as the creature was being too jerky for him to focus on stabbing.

Once he formed a strategy, the hero began fighting with more vigor. Using the plan he had in his head, he decided to end this as quickly as he could since he still needed to find out what happened with the rest of the Kokiri. "Come on! Come on! Come get a nice tasty bite out of me!" Jumping back, Link allowed the Baba Serpent to feel more comfortable with the extra fighting room. The less threatened it felt, he knew it would use fewer of its own antics out of despair. A beast such as it didn't think like a hylian. He was able to fool it using his own superior knowledge.

When it was ready again, the Baba Serpent charged forth, slithering as fast as it could while its bulbous head frantically jumped back and forth to help it chase after the boy. Reaching within striking distance, the attack resumed. The creature leapt toward Link using all of its available might, hissing and foaming from the mouth the entire time. Skillfully, as the plant-monster was in the air from its bounce, Link gently tossed his Hylian Shield up in the air, making sure to keep it upright. His feet automatically moved as he timed his offensive attack perfectly. The shield came down just as the Baba Serpent landed on the spot that the boy had been at previously. Together, it planned out right as the beast smashed its face into the shield, discombobulating it long enough for Link to circle around and grab the end of its severed stem. As if it was a rag doll, the hero held a firm grip on the stem as he swung it back and forth, swinging it backward to smack its head on the side of Saria's house, then returning with a powerful overhead slam onto the rough ground in front. Immediately, using his sword, Link then made his own jump, vaulting forth prior to directing his sword downward, plunging it directly into the beast's head. The Baba Serpent was impaled into the dirt, causing it to let out a shrill screech of terror. When Link pulled on the sword, it tore through the creature's fibrous insides while splitting the outside shell forming its body.

"Gotcha!" Link gloated a smirk as he yanked his sword to the side, slicing the Baba Serpent clean in half until its green, juicy, sap-like body fluid spilled out amongst its now deceased remains. "You won't be a threat to anybody anymore."

Withdrawing the sword, Link then wiped the blade off onto the grass in advance of sheathing it. For a moment, he took the opportunity to look around his surroundings in hope that somebody might have heard all of the commotion. 'Geez, did nobody hear? Nnn… Goddesses, I hope they're alright. If they're not-…' Exasperatingly concerning was where Saria was and how a Baba Serpent got inside her house, contained within a jar. His greatest fear in the world was likely something happening to the green haired Kokiri that took care of him, raised him for as long as he could recall. 'No…' He quickly shook his head, refusing to let his thoughts go to dark places. 'No, they're fine. Everybody's fine. Just because they're kokiri and can't fight very well doesn't mean they are stupid. If they were in too much danger, they would have gone into hiding.'

"SSSSSSssssssssssssssssSSSSSSssssSSSSSS!" A grumbling hiss suddenly sounded from behind him, forcing the boy to spin around. He quickly realized that, in the midst of battle with the Baba Serpent, he had inadvertently backed into a stationary Deku Baba. The creature wasn't very happy about the hylian child's presence at all.

"Oh, Shit!" Link shouted, reeling back as the Deku Baba made a single snap at him. The plant was intent on snatching the boy's face from his skull, getting so close Link could physically feel the air moving from its jump. The only thing that stopped him from getting bit was his hands, which shot up at great speed to clutch the Deku Baba's jaws. "Grr! How many of you things are there!? Right when I put my sword back too!'

Due to being a young boy with a small stature, he naturally had a small problem keeping his strength up against what is practically a spring loaded set of chomping teeth. As he quickly lost stamina, the Deku Baba started shutting its mouth around his hands, which was extremely bad. He wasn't planning on losing his hands, that's for sure. Link summoned all his strength and determination to overpower the enemy; it channeled through the Goron's Bracelet, giving him the spare strength needed to pry the creature's jaws open again. Going further, as the boy grew angry, its mouth opened wider and wider until he pulled so hard the force broke the beast's mouth, ripping its bottom jaw clean off from its hideous head. The Deku Baba screamed nearly as loud as the Baba Serpent did before collapsing to its death.

"Jeez… What the?" Dropping the plant's lower jaw as it remained in his hand after separation, Link spun around in a small circle to make sure there wasn't anything else around. Thankfully, there wasn't, so he swiftly took the chance to grab his shield. 'Things truly are bad here.' He contemplated the situation occurring in Kokiri Village. 'If I had known it was like this, I would have come much quicker.' Part of the boy grew curious as to what was behind the cause of all the atmosphere being odd. 'Is it a coincidence that these creatures just decided to invade the village? Is Ganondorf doing something from where he's hiding? Is it something else?' Thinking about possible reasons, he soon came up with another plan as well. He needed to find Saria and the others first, then clear out the meadow around the Great Deku Tree's remains to get answers from the Deku Tree Sprout himself. It was his only hope of figuring things out without having to do it by himself. 'I don't have all the time in the world either. I should hustle.'

Link whistled to get Epona to come to him. He had to give her a bit of petting to get her to calm down, but she eventually relaxed. "I know, I know, girl… I don't like poisonous things either. I'm really lucky I didn't get bit." The horse neighed softly as he mounted her for a quick ride to his own personal tree house. Once they passed Saria's place, they turned to go down the path leading toward his place.

Before long, Epona abruptly stopped, making her owner sigh as he saw yet another Deku Baba. This one was still buried in the ground awaiting a victim. "By The Goddesses… Something's definitely wrong with this village…. Ughh…" Pinching the bridge of his nose, he grumbled before thinking up a new plan. "Okay, Epona. On three, we're going to ride past it. Ready?"

Retrieving his sword from the sheathe on his back, he began counting down with his heels at the ready. "One… Two… Three!" On three, his heels kicked at the horse's sides as he whipped the reins. Epona knew he wanted her to run and did just that. The filly was aware that her master would do anything to protect her, that he wouldn't let her get bitten.

The horse clomped onward while leaning to the right. Link readied the sword for a slice. He aligned perfectly, the same as with his previous attacks. As Epona's hooves grew near, it sent vibrations through the ground. Those vibrations made the Deku Baba rise from its slumber to look for what was making all the ruckus. In advance of even letting the plant gather its bearings, Link held his sword out straight off to the side with a rigid arm, letting the blade slice directly through the Deku Baba's stem. The cut was clean from all of the momentum.

"Great job!" Link praised, talking to Epona as they approached his tree house. Glancing back to look around for any more enemies in the immediate area, he saw as the Deku Baba's head landed on the ground with a thud.

Having finished with clearing out the main road, his next step was dismounting Epona. Although she wasn't happy with having to stay behind, as a horse, there wasn't much she could do seeing as how his house was quite literally built in the treetop. "You stay right here, okay?" She whinnied in response as he looked around one last time, just so that he could make sure nothing would bother or attack her during the brief few minutes he'd be away. The following moments were spent ascending the ladder with his sword still drawn. It had been a while since he last climbed the ladder he was. In a way, it was comforting to be home again. 'I have to set things straight while I'm here. Until then, I need to find everyone safe and sound.'

Before long, he was at the top of the ladder. To his dismay, he heard a strange noise. Making a dead stop, he listened as a chittering grew closer. Before long, he could feel the vibration of something approaching. There was absolutely no telling who or what it was. Link's best hope was for it to be friendly, perhaps one of the Kokiri. "Hello?" He said aloud. "Who's there?"

With his hand at the top rung of the ladder, he reached up to feel around, not wishing to risk getting his head injured. Instead of hearing a response, there was an ensuing slick, juicy sound followed by a putrid smell. He was just about to retract his hand when it brushed up against something spiky and slimy. In a jerking motion, he cringed from the sensation and pulled his hand back, gasping when he heard the chittering speed up. "Oh no!" There wasn't any doubt in his mind as to what it was. Knowing he was right, it was no surprise when the creature which he felt jumped to lunge at him, ending up quite literally falling on the boy through the opening of the hatch to the ladder.

"CHUPA!" Having the terrifying beast on his back was enough to freak him out, temporarily causing him to lose control over himself as well as his ability to fight back. The proceeding struggle forced both of them to fall from the ladder. Taking a decent twenty foot drop, then landing on his back, Link was in a daze until he heard Epona squeal. As quickly as he could, he gathered his bearings, dusted himself off and then rose to his feet using his sword as leverage. Thankfully, Epona was merely upset, not hurt. She didn't like poisonous critters any more than he did.

"Get back, Epona! Get back!" Link commanded, getting the horse to step back several paces.

The Chupa was upside-down, on its back, with all six of its creepy tendril legs flailing wildly. Being a nasty turtle-like monster made of ChuChu goop, it was equally atrocious, consisting of an oblong sphere. Its outer body was hard, like a shell. On each side of the shell along the center, were its legs. In the front was the hole where its jelly-like head protruded from. Its skinny neck was long as a bundle of rope, shooting out at high-speed, trying its best to latch onto Link to drink his blood.

The boy would've been ready to deal with the critter, if only his shoulder wasn't hurting quite badly from the fall off the ladder. "Ughh… Dammit."

Raising his blade stretched a muscle, but it weakened it as well, forcing him to go rigid and swing it overhead. "NNYAAAH!" In full intent to cleave the beast in twain, the sword slammed down into the dirt, not getting a strike on anything as the Chupa rolled out of the way to save itself from death. Watching its beady little eyes land on him only brought out a fury of more attacks from Link; strikes, stabs, jabs, anything that he could do to kill it.

"You made a big mistake by coming here!" Despite the hero's best efforts, the Chupa avoided each attempt to hit it. The monster even went so far as to leap onto the end of Link's sword. "Vile filthy monster!" He shouted while slinging it off his sword then lunging at it, slashing forward prior to watching as the chupa jumped a great distance to attach itself to a nearby tree. During the time it was on the tree, it turned to get a better angle at the boy, allowing itself to prepare for a more coordinated attack.

Link tried to deal with it by running up to the tree so that he could stab the chupa to the bark. That strategy swiftly backfired. Defending itself, the monster crawled further up the tree to make sure the boy couldn't reach it. Going back on the offensive, it then propelled its head out of its shell, stretching five feet in length as its flat snake head bore its fangs with vicious intent.

"Doauuha! Yuck!" Link cringed again. "By the Goddesses, you things give me the heebie jeebies!"

Spinning around, Link protected himself from the chupa's poisonous bite by letting it collide with the Hylian Shield on his back instead of his bare skin. After the clank from contact, the creature retracted its head. Link tried his best to go after it, trying the tactic of severing its snake head. If he cut through its neck, it would be dead and thus no longer a problem. He had to run in order to catch up with it. With a jump the boy slammed the sword down as hard as he could. However, the chupa once again outmaneuvered him, retracting its head too fast for the hero to get it or bring his sword back up to try again.

"Ughhh!" The same pattern repeated several times until Link had enough of it. The creature itself was frustrated as well, for it had come down from the tree and began striking numerous times in a single throw of its long neck and head, no longer retracting its aforementioned neck after one bite. It was desperate in its attempt to take a chomp out of the hylian boy.

"That's it!" Link finally exclaimed while shielding himself from another series of vicious bites. The Chupa then jumped to another tree, making the hero change the position of his shield in order to not get bitten. Changing things up again, he decided to run back to Epona. As fast as he could, after taking an extraordinarily brief second to calm the filly, he then rustled around inside his bag of belongings to remove his bow and arrows. There weren't too many arrows left, but it would be enough. 'It has to be enough.'

'This shouldn't be too hard.' Link thought, readying the bow by nocking an arrow to the bowstring. 'The most difficult part is going to be getting a shot through the neck while the creature switches back and forth from tree to tree.' Generally, Chupa were fairly intelligent, more-so than their gooey cousins, the ChuChu. This one, on the other hand, seemed extra smart as it literally picked up the pace of jumping whenever it saw the hero using the bow and arrows. "What the-...!?"

Frustration flowed through his veins while trying to target the ferocious critter. Eventually, he even had to crouch with the intent of getting a better shot. He had more trouble too as he was still faced with the Chupa's attacks. Link had trouble managing to keep his aim while also dodging the monster's thrown head. At one point, it nearly nipped his calf muscle.

"That's it…" The boy soon uttered while devising an ingenious plan. "I've had enough of you!" Knowing that the Chupa wasn't going to cease its movement, Link had to plan ahead of time by aiming for the next tree that it was going to jump to. In that moment, as he aimed the bow with his sharpest arrow, things around slowed down. In every way possible, he planned for a perfect shot. Upon release of the bowstring, the arrow flew through the air at the exact same moment the Chupa made its leap toward the next tree. A fraction of a second later, after the Chupa latched onto the tree, the released arrow struck it directly in the head between its beady little eyes, puncturing its slimy brain. The arrow essentially nailed the monster to the tree. It shrieked loudly, but before long it grew quiet as life quickly drained from its disgusting body; hanging from the tree, swinging back and forth.

"Yes!" Link gloated in his success, gesturing a satisfactory arm pump. "I knew I could do it."

Now that the monster was out of the way, Link felt much safer. Having a Chupa hanging around the village was unnerving, so he knew Saria and the others would be glad to know it was gone. Standing back up, the boy waited a good five minutes to make sure it was dead, plus he continued to remain on the lookout for anything else that might've wandered into the village. Each time he thought that he had dealt with nearby enemies, another one revealed itself. With his plan being to still investigate his house and find the others, he had to be sure there wasn't anything else close by that could do harm to him while he searched. Had the Chupa bitten him, he might have been near death right about now.

"Alright." The hero was soon satisfied that no other monsters were in the immediate vicinity. "Here I go." In a matter of a minute, he placed his bow and arrows back inside of the bag attached to Epona's saddle. "You stay right here." He spoke to the horse. "I'll be back in a little bit." Rubbing his shoulder from the fall, he made sure to keep his sword drawn. Despite all that he'd been through, he didn't completely trust there wasn't anything else in the nearby area. Deku Babas, Baba Serpents, Chupas; so-far it had been extremely dangerous. For that reason, on his climb up the ladder, he held his blade up as he ascended higher. Upon reaching the top, he was swift to get to his feet, standing on the balcony of his tree house. 'Excellent. No Chupas.'

Thankfully, without anything to get in his way, he was free to move on with a quick walk along the balcony. He hadn't been on his porch a long time. Seeing it brought back memories. Unfortunately, those memories were stifled as, from up high on the balcony, he could see that there were indeed several more hostiles in the immediate area. A large species of spider known as skulltula had made a web around the entirety of the local shop. There were multiple Deku Babas littering the garden, preventing any Kokiri from harvesting plants to eat. Toward the meadow, where the Great Deku Tree and the Deku Tree Sprout resided, there was also a solid line of Deku Babas. The monstrous plants were everywhere, as if they were an infestation. Never before had the boy seen so many of them in one place, much less inside the supposed safety of Kokiri Village.

"What in the world is going on here? I've never seen it like this before, not even when it was Ganondorf causing it." Shaking his head, Link found it hard to look at the disaster laid out before him. This was his home town and it sickened him to see it in such shambles.

After he had enough of the ugly sight, Link made his way inside of his tree house. 'Home sweet home.' He thought. The wooden smell made him melancholy. The boy had spent the majority of his life there, living out of this tree house. Vividly, he could recall helping to carve each piece of furniture in the room as well as the nights Saria spent with him when he was too scared to sleep on his own.

The layout of the room was pretty much the same as the other houses, with a few unique contributions to make it specific to Link. In the center, there was a handcrafted wooden table. To the side, was another table, one which he ate his meals at. On the right, he had a large wooden cabinet with his clothes in it, some clay pots, farming equipment, as well as a washbasin with a mirror. Finally, in the front was his bed, a window and a bulletin board.

Nothing had changed since the last time he visited. Nostalgia was unavoidable. Moreover, he longed for the comfort of a certain green-haired Kokiri who raised him since birth. His worry increased each second he was unable to find any trace of his Kokiri family.

"Hello?" Link soon called out, despite not really expecting a response. "Is anybody here? It's me… Link." Following some time to make sure he was alone, his next step came to be gathering supplies. There were actually several things which he'd either stowed away for a time like this or had merely left here without thinking he'd need them. Going over to one of the clay pots, he lifted the lid, thankfully not concerned with the possibility of a Baba Serpent being inside of it. From within, he took out several bundles of arrows, a sharpened Deku Stick, three unlit bomb flowers and a silver dagger. Those would all be of great use. For the time being, all the items were stowed on top of the table in the center of the room until he had everything else collected.

Seeing as how there was nobody there for him to talk to, he remained silent while working. He went to grab the pillow from off his bed with the intent to take it with him to the ranch as a memento, but realized that it was gone. 'That's odd.' The boy thought. Not having the time to be curious, he moved on, deciding that it would be best to gather some more clothing. He was glad to have fancy hylian clothing, yet he still needed attire that had been custom made by him and Saria last summer.

Shortly thereafter, he made his way over toward the wooden cabinets next to the washbasin and mirror. 'My reflection's looking rather dark in here.' His subconscious picked up prior to having a chill run down his spine. If he had seen correctly from out of the corner of my eye, his reflection looked almost as if it were the shadow version of him, the Dark Link he had encountered earlier today at the clothing store. 'Wait! There's no way!?' Jumping back about a foot, his eyes latched onto the mirror, staring hard at it to examine every single detail there was to see. Shockingly, all that he saw was his regular self staring back. No afflictions, no dark shadow looming over him and no wicked grin on his face.

Whatever he thought he'd seen, clearly it wasn't correct. He hoped it wasn't correct. Now that he reminded himself of Dark Link, he felt stressed, overworked at the notion of being unable to deal with all of these impeccable mysteries. In any case, for the time being, there wasn't a Dark Link hanging around inside the mirror world, ready to reach out and grab him like there was previously. Being wrong was occasionally a good thing. Unfortunately, it cast more doubt over the hylian hero. As usual, to a certain extent, he had to doubt himself, to wonder if what he saw was true and not some trickery of Ganondorf's. After all, the being known as Dark Link was nothing more than a shadow summoned from the floor to serve the Gerudo King's every desire, every will; nothing more and nothing less.

"Come on, Link. Keep it together." Giving himself a gentle slap to wake up, he spent a minute rubbing his eyes and blinking. Afterward, he began carrying on with what he was originally doing. This time, he didn't let anything stop him.

All he needed was a few pairs of clothes and then he'd be able to leave in search of the Kokiri. By the end of the night, he had a feeling he would probably wind up searching every house in the village. After all of that, he'd then start out with clearing the rest of the village of monsters. Finding the Ocarina of Time was going to be another story entirely. Nonetheless, he did have to be sure to try and find the magical musical instrument before leaving the forest. The longer it stayed out in the open, out in the elements, it risked getting broken or at the very least, fractured.

Upon opening his cabinet, he was in for the shock of his life, almost more so than with what he thought he had seen in the mirror. "What the-...!?" He exclaimed, skidding backward some as his blade was swiftly drawn from off the table in the center of the room. Nothing would have prepared the boy to know that there would be something hiding where he stored his clothes. The very first thoughts to race through his mind were that of extreme disturbance. Another monster.

After he settled down, seeing that it was a person and that they were asleep, he wanted to know why they were there. After calming, he realized that it was a green haired kokiri, which meant only one thing. "SARIA! SARIA, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?" Dropping his sword to reach out, the instant his hand landed on her side, she screamed in fright.

She squirmed violently until she quite literally fell out of the cabinet, landing on the floor with a gentle thud. At first, Link was gravely worried in exasperation whether or not she was still breathing. Now, more than anything, he feared that she was injured. "Saria!?" The hero looked over her body to make sure she wasn't hurt. There didn't seem to be a single mark on her, yet she was obviously severely distressed.

After the flop, Saria stared up at Link with her eyes swiftly adjusting. She looked extraordinarily tired, much more than she'd been in a while. Ultimately, as she stared up at Link, her rapid breathing subsided down to normal levels. "L-Link!?"

Nodding, Link smiled rather weakly, trying his best to calm her down. The boy didn't understand what was going on at all. But, he was happy the kokiri girl was alright. For his sanity, it was great that he found her uninjured. However, judging solely by her fright, he feared for the others as well as what caused her to be so distraught. "Yeah, it's me… I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I didn't even know you were in there until I opened it and saw you."

Before long, as her senses returned to her, Saria jumped up to knock Link down with a tight hug. "Oh, thank the Goddesses you're okay! I was so worried about you!"

Hugging her back, Link wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Hearing her in such distress was upsetting. "Me? Look who's talking!" He chuckled softly "I was looking all over for you. I went to your house, then I stayed in the middle of the village for a while." Leaning back from the hug, he looked at her with a furrowed brow. "What in the world were you doing in my dressing cabinet?"

As Saria looked up at Link with her sky blue eyes, her cheeks began to flush from the question, causing her to look away in embarrassment. "Ehh… W-Well. I was sleeping here, since it wasn't safe at my place…" Bumbling with words, she felt tongue-tied for a moment. "I… I figured it would be safe here… and… I mean, well… It smelled a lot like you in there, so I managed to go into a deep sleep. T-That's why you scared me." Tapping her fingers together, acting shy, she continued to stare at the boy with an awkward blush until a small gasp ensued from her. "Oh! Did you say you stopped by my place!? You didn't open any of the clay pots, did you!?"

Nodding to answer her question, Link made sure to let her know that everything was okay. "Yeah… I did. The Baba Serpent won't be bothering you anymore, don't worry."

The following minute the two spent gazing at one another. Both of them refused to budge from their embrace. However, Saria was putting extra love into her affection by caressing the hero's cheek and delicately stroking fallen strands of golden hair out of his eyes. Her breathing steadied out and she relaxed knowing that there wasn't any danger in the area.

More time was taken to rest than was actually needed. Link found it merely felt extremely comforting to be in Saria's loving arms. They were the consoling arms he'd consecutively dreamed of during nightmarish times. Her being a Kokiri and him being a Hylian didn't matter in this aspect. Whenever he was being held by her like this, he wanted to rest his head against her chest or in her lap and take a nice nap. 'Even though I seriously never speak about it, she is the closest thing to a mother I ever had. I'll always admire and respect her for that.'

"I got your letter..." He spoke softly, trying to keep going and not let himself fall asleep. "I came as soon as I could. It looks like I made it just in time too." Sighing, he continued "Can you tell me what's going on? Where is everybody and why are there so many monsters in the village?" Softly pulling away from the hug, they both stood up onto their feet, leaving Link to grab his sword from off the ground.

"I don't honestly know what's going on, Link. Something bad is happening, that's genuinely all I've figured out. Since Malon took you out of the Lost Woods, things have been getting worse and worse around here…" She shook her head sadly. "Creatures started coming out, like they were trying to follow you or something."

Link even wondered if it had to do with him. As strange as it sounded, he did have to take it into consideration that something like that was possible. Perhaps the timing wasn't a coincidence at all. Perhaps his removal from the Lost Woods actually caused all of this.

"It's not your fault!" Saria suddenly exclaimed. "I mean, I'm not blaming you! It just began around that time. Ever since, it's gotten more dangerous around here each day… Right now, besides Fado, the others are all sealed up inside of Mido's house. He doesn't want anybody going outside when it's so dangerous." Sighing, she sniffled then continued "I've never seen it like this before. Kokiri Village has always been a peaceful place and now look at it. We can't even tend to the Deku Sprout or gather our own food. What are we going to do?"

As best as he could, Link attempted to calm Saria down by placing his hands on her shoulders. "Saria… It's okay. I promise, now that I'm here, I'm not going to leave until I know everyone is going to be safe." No matter what, the hero vowed he'd protect his kokiri family. Malon and the others could wait.

"You promise?" Saria asked.

Link instantly responded. "I promise." In addition to his smile, he gave Saria's shoulders a gentle squeeze to let her know that he was there for her.

The kokiri girl hugged him again to show appreciation. Hugging her back, it was then that Link noticed somebody else missing. A cheery little fairy he'd always seen with the green-haired girl. The fairy wasn't in the room at all. "Hey… Where's your fairy?"

As soon as the question left the boy's lips, Saria gripped the back of his tunic tighter, squeezing him even further until it was fairly tight. For a moment, Link worried, but thankfully she said "Laila's with the other fairies, watching over the Deku Tree Sprout since we can't get to it… They'll make sure to tend to it. Yet, we still have to find a way through the meadow to protect the sprout. Our fairies aren't fighters, you know that. They're barely able to keep skulltulas off the Great Deku Tree's remains and they're terrified of being eaten by Keese."

Nodding, Link knew it was true. He knew that Fairies didn't have any skill in combat. 'And how could they? They're only several inches tall, not much of anything toward the scale of certain enemies I've encountered on my journey.'

"We've tried everything." Saria grumbled. "Those… Those stupid Deku Babas are stubborn and won't quit growing back, no matter how many we chop down. There must be at least thirty of them clogging up the path toward the Great Deku Tree."

Considering how he was already in progress of eliminating every Deku Baba from the village, Link figured by now that Saria would have realized he was taking care of the situation. Regardless, the Information was good. Ending the hug, Link felt his next objective was to most definitely clear out the path to the meadow. "I have a plan. The reason why I'm here is to collect supplies…" Pointing over at the table with his stuff, he said "I'm thinking Bomb Flowers might clear out a cluster of the Deke Babas, then I can take down the rest on my own."

During the time Link gathered a few undergarments and tunics, Saria's eyes widened a bit. "That's-… That's actually not a bad idea. But, I want you to be extra careful with Bomb Flowers. They're highly dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt."

Her motherly concern over him never grew old to the boy. Not once did he dislike her caring nature. However, there had been a couple of times he'd gotten a bit annoyed. "Saria… Don't worry. I've used them hundreds of times. The Goron's taught me the perfect way to work with them, so I don't even worry about premature detonation anymore."

Saria watched intently as Link gathered clothing and then shoved it on top of his bed for taking home later on. The hero's answer was satisfying enough to calm her down.

Giving himself a few more minutes to collect anything of use, Link's eyes were drawn to the washbasin and mirror on the right side of the room. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. His suspicion simply led him to continuously watch for any sign of a shadowy entity. After all, it still didn't make any sense at all for the shadow version of him, Dark Link, to exist in this timeline. What he'd fought previously, that particular evil interpretation, black with red eyes, that was a manifestation of his negative traits brought out by a curse Ganondorf used. This time, whatever's causing the apparitions might be something different.

"Hey… Uhh… Saria, have you seen anything unusual?" As soon as Link asked that, he knew he should have said it differently.

Saria cocked her head to the side prior to giggling with slight sarcasm. "Are you kidding me? Look around, Link… It's never been like this before. We ca-..."

From right there, the boy interjected to clarify. "No, No… I mean, have you seen anything unusual, anything not related to the Deku Babas?"

Again, she didn't appear to fully understand what I meant. "Huh? What are you talking about? There's skulltulas, keese, chupas, chuchu and wolfos, even the occasional wild boar."

Now Link decided that it might be best for him to forget about it. Obviously Saria hadn't seen any dark entities or she would have mentioned it by now. There were more important things to attend to anyway. "Nothing, never mind." To his dismay, waving it off after bringing it up wasn't a thing Saria particularly enjoyed.

Every now and then, the kokiri girl really showed how nosy she could be. "Uh-uh… What do you mean, Link? Tell me."

Knowing she would persist, Link gave in almost instantly, deciding to inform her of what he'd seen. "It's a long story. Twice today, I've seen this shadowy figure lurking in mirrors. Once at the clothing shop in the Market of Castle Town and then once here, in my mirror…" Gulping, he gave his forehead a gentle slap. "I don't know why I keep seeing it. I only know that it's not a good thing, it can't be. It tried attacking me through the mirror the first time, saying that 'EVERYTHING WILL BE CONSUMED', just like Majora said to me." Ranting, he didn't even realize she didn't know who Majora was. Nonetheless, he was so deep in worry he didn't care either. "I don't know if there's a connection between the two; if this shadow and Majora are one in the same, or working together…" Gritting his teeth, he huffed. "None of it makes much sense."

With her mouth agape, she soon replied "It came out of the mirror?" Furrowing her brow, she also asked "And, who is this Majora?"

"Yeah…" Link replied. "It reached through the mirror like it was going to grab me or something."

He purposely left out an explanation on Majora. He felt it was a mistake on his behalf for even mentioning it. Everything that the Happy Mask Salesman said to him revealed the confusion over the world known as Termina. Termina was real, but it was an obstacle course, with Majora as well as the Skull Kid being the obstacles. The goal of it all was to finish and come out alive, to emerge victorious, clinging to life to prove he wasn't done due to the fact that his main purpose in life was over. 'Truth be told, I doubt anything from Termina is able to affect this world.' Given that the scenario was now unbelievable, he found it unlikely that the currently nonexistent Majora had anything to do with what he'd recently seen. 'This time, I know I'm in the real world, my world, the world I'm native to. There's no chance I'm imagining or dreaming about a shadow trying to attack me. Not this time.'

"I… I don't know what to say, honestly..." Saria replied. "I guess I can say that I haven't seen any dark shadowy figures coming from inside any mirrors."

After a while, as Link resumed gathering the last of what he needed, he noticed that she appeared relatively anxious about something. The boy knew her. He knew Saria was never anxious unless it was about something she just couldn't understand. Being the most mature Kokiri, she was too strong-willed to get upset, disturbed, or angry very easily.

'Is she not telling me something?' Link thought. Looking at it from outside the box, he realized he was holding back from telling her something as well. He wondered if they were both hiding something from one another. What he'd kept out of the conversation, Termina and Majora, they weren't relevant at the moment. All he could do was pray to the goddesses that what Saria wasn't saying was not important either. Before long, however, even that wasn't satisfying enough as the childish boy grew ever more curious. 'Ughh… Geez, what is it?'

Coming to a conclusion, to make it fair, Link decided to tell her anything she needed to know, so long as she did the same for him. "What is it?" He asked, unable to stop staring at her concerned expression.

"Huh?" She responded, ceasing the slightly cute lip-biting she had ensuing. "It's nothing… Nothing." Seeing the hero raise an eyebrow, she knew he could tell it wasn't nothing. She knew it wasn't nothing either. As he stared at her, soon enough, she gave in and divulged what she wasn't telling. "Well… Maybe it's not nothing. It's quite strange actually…" Stopping to sigh sadly, she sniffled prior to proceeding onward "The Know-It-All Brothers could explain better than me, but from what I understand, a strange thing happened. You see, when Malon pulled you from the Lost Woods, we had to give you a tonic that brought you back from the brink of d-death..."

'Is… Is she crying?' Link's mind interrupted, noticing a tear running down the side of the kokiri girl's face. He wanted to say something to her, yet she was still busy talking.

"We knew the tonic worked whenever you coughed up this black tar-like gunk. The Know-It-All Brothers said it was a mixture of your death and the curse of the Lost Woods. I guess they were slightly wrong though, which they weren't very happy about… Whatever it was you coughed up, it vanished during cleanup. I wiped it off the corners of your mouth about a hundred times using this cloth here." She lifted a small piece of cloth so Link could see that there wasn't anything on it. "And yet, when I was getting ready to wash it, there wasn't any black-goo. It looked just like this, as if I hadn't used it for anything."

Hearing all of that was quite strange to Link. There truly wasn't any explanation he could offer, as he didn't know how it could be possible for some disgusting slime he coughed up to suddenly disappear. The relevancy regarding this fluctuated rapidly. The boy wasn't able to figure out if that had to do with anything. 'It's highly doubtful, in my opinion, that phlegm has anything to do with the disaster outside, in Kokiri Village.'

Regardless, it was quite mysterious, just not one he was overly interested in at the moment. With all of the other stuff Link had to focus on; an evil shadow spirit, his lost Ocarina of Time, getting the Kokiri Forest back into order, he had no time to focus on anything else.

"I'm not really sure what to say about that. I guess, maybe it soaked into the cloth or something." Link shrugged off Saria's concern over the missing goop. "Wash it anyway, see if anything nasty comes off it, then you'll know it maybe just seeped into the fabric and didn't vanish." Straightening himself, he changed the conversation over to his next objective. "For now, I'm going to clear out the path leading to the Great Deku Tree and the Deku Sprout."

In spite of acting brave, in the back of the hero's mind was the curious bewilderment over Saria's sudden sadness, her heartbreaking tear. Try as he might to ignore it, the image of that had been burned into his retinas. Among everything, he prayed to the goddesses that he could fix this place, to restore it to its beauty and make Saria happy again. 'That's it, I'm sure… She's upset because this place is in such shambles. That's all it could be.'

Throughout it all, he remained fixated on his goal as he walked toward the door. It was imperative that the boy made it where the kokiri could tend to the Deku Tree Sprout. Having the fairies away from their kids, doing dangerous work by themselves, it wasn't a wise idea. Kokiri need their fairies, they get cranky and feel alone if they're left without their guardian sprites for too long.

Abruptly, it dawned on Link that the reason Saria was being so emotional might actually be because she didn't have Laila, her appointed fairy. The other kokiri were likely suffering the same distress.

He had the Bomb Flowers he needed, and even extra supplies. Considering being well equipped, he had faith he could pull off another rescue for the village. More motivation flooded him as he walked out onto the deck of the tree house. Once the hero was done doing all that he had to do, he knew he'd have to come back for the rest of his supplies. For the time being, he'd only take what he'd need.

On his way down the ladder, the boy heard what sounded like voices talking, kokiri voices. It was off in the distance, but not too far. Knowing the others were okay was a huge burden lifted from Link's shoulders. At first, he was scared that he couldn't find anyone. Locating Saria gave him the strength he needed to look for the others.

Bound and determined, there wasn't anything or anybody that was going to stand in Link's way. The boy's eyes scanned the area quickly as he ambled over to Epona. The voices were far off, so he had a feeling they were closer to the meadow surrounding the Great Deku Tree.

Epona took delight in seeing Link return, plus, the hero was glad nothing tried messing with her while he was inside, almost out of earshot.

"Link, wait..." Saria's voice called out from behind, making Link turn to look as he mounted Epona's saddle. The kokiri girl took her time, slowly descending the ladder prior to coming closer. "I'm going with you."

Lifting both eyebrows in surprise, Link didn't expect her to want to accompany him. In reality, he didn't want her to come with him, for he obsessively feared for her safety. The last thing in the realm that he wanted to happen was for her to get hurt because he couldn't protect her adequately enough. "What? Are you serious?"

Responding to his question, Saria held her hand out, wanting the hero to assist her in climbing up onto the saddle. "Of course I'm serious. This is my village, Link. I'm not going to just let it stay ruined." Scoffing at the thought, she continued "I want us to be able to come out here in peace and not have to worry about getting our toes bitten off from a Deku Baba rising up through the soil."

Saria had always been quick to inform how she wasn't a defenseless weakling. However, Link had yet to see her so much as raise an open palm to something. Nevertheless, taking her hand, he knew better than to try and refuse her. "Alright, I'm not going to stop you. Be careful though, that's all I have to say." The girl wasn't hard to lift up onto the saddle. Link was a bit shocked actually. It had been a while since they were last together and he'd begun to gradually grow taller than she was. Using leverage, before long, he had her up on the saddle

The kokiri sage held onto Link's shoulders from behind. "I won't get hurt, don't worry…" Grunting a few times, she tried her best to adjust to the saddle. "This is my first time riding a horse though." Squirming, she said "Hnn… It's a bit uncomfortable. Aren't you practically doing a split?"

In spite of the urgency of the situation occurring around them, Link let out a brief chuckle as he directed Epona to turn around. "No, my legs aren't spread that far, just enough to reach the stirrups. You'll get used to it, trust me. My butt was so bruised the first time I rode, I thought I wouldn't be able to sit down ever again."

To that, Saria giggled softly. Her hands fell from the boy's shoulders to wrap around his waist. It was a better grip. "Okay… I'm not holding you too tight, am I?"

Link's cheeks flushed incredibly lightly. He shook his head as he whipped the reins to get Epona moving on through the village. Their stop would be the path toward the meadow. "Uhh, no… You're fine. It's good to hold tight. I don't want you to fall off."

Out of the millions of things the green-haired kokiri had taught Link during the time she raised him, he found it odd to be teaching her something for a change; not that she minded. To his partial dismay, she hugged him tighter, resting her head on his shoulder as the filly trotted. 'What in the-…? What is she doing?' Delicately, he could feel her long ear brush up against his, tentatively rubbing it as if to soothe the both of them. It didn't take long either for their cheeks to become pressed together. She felt warm, more so than usual. His brain told him the situation was embarrassing. On the other hand, his body found he enjoyed her loving embrace.

A few of the nights the boy had slept in the hayloft of the barn in Lon Lon Ranch, he wished he could've had Saria with me, to cuddle up to her, to have her hum or sing him to sleep, to rub his back, to love him in ways he'd deeply missed since 'becoming' a Hylian. 'I just kept thinking of Malon instead.'

Instantly, Link's cheeks reddened as he thought about a pressing issue. 'Malon, the farm girl, we had a unique relationship. To an extent, I'd say we were beginning to move away from friendship and into another area entirely, one higher up than friend.' Although he was in thought, he didn't let it show. He just kept thinking. 'Saria, the green-haired kokiri girl who raised me from birth; all I've ever known of love came from her. She's my best friend, my mother and sometimes a companion. When I had my crush on her, when I was eight and a half, I wanted to move on from what we had and take it further, to the next step. Though she let me phase out of that crush, there were several occasions where she'd shown interest too, genuine interest in me.' Glancing back at her, he gulped. 'She's sweet, kind, caring and so unique. Being around her makes me want to smile every second of the day. There's only one other girl who makes me feel that way.'

"When did you get such broad and manly shoulders?" Saria shattered his private thoughts by whispering to him while further leaning her head against his. "Each time I see you, it's like you're getting bigger and bigger."

What she said was true, as the hylian boy was indeed growing in size, progressing more each time they saw one another. "T-That's because I am." Link nervously replied. "I've been working on the ranch everyday and that's getting my muscles bigger. Plus, well… Ehe… I'm a growing boy, what can I say?"

Saria giggled, kissed Link's cheek and then said "I suppose you're right. I just can't help other than remember when you were a baby and only came up to my knees. Oh, you were so cute! You're handsome now. Like a knight in shining armour."

Biting his lip, Link held back the frustration brewing within him. The way the kokiri girl continued gently whispering into his ear was too stimulating. It made his adolescent body feel weird in ways he wasn't sure what it meant. All he knew was that it felt wrong in a certain way; how she was eliciting excitement within him. That wasn't supposed to happen. Those were feelings he'd felt only with Malon, not with Saria. Not since when he was younger and had his crush on her.

"You have to be the most good-looking boy in the whole village, you know?" Saria complimented him "How in the world did I manage to raise such a successful young man… such a-… suave and clean-cut boy; just like the Great Deku Tree said you'd one day become."

Her cheek actually pressed against Link's further, causing him to release a small moan from the close proximity. As her left hand scooted up his chest, he felt it clamp over the spot where his heart was. Obviously, she could feel how the boy's heart was racing. She was making him go crazy, and yet, he didn't understand why. He was confused, extremely confused by what she was doing.

"I'm so happy to see you back on your feet, Link. I worried about you so much, I couldn't sleep right at night…" Saria momentarily closed her eyes as she held the hero. "I can't sleep unless I know you're alright."

Nodding his head, Link choked up an answer as his heartbeat sped up in excitement. "I-… I'm sorry… I w-was fine. Mr. Talon just didn't want me to leave the ranch for a while until he was sure I was healthy again." The boy's arms whipped at Epona's reins to get her to go faster.

Link felt Saria's bright blue eyes focus on him. Her gaze was practically singeing a hole in him. That funny feeling stuck around. Trying to think about it logically, the only thing to come to his mind was how she seemed to be incredibly aroused for no apparent reason. Since she was a kokiri, Link didn't even think she was capable of acting in such a way. Saria always told him that romance was a hylian thing. Due to that reason, he considered her more like his mother because that was how she wanted him to perceive her. After all, it's what she was and is to him.

"It's okay..." Saria whispered soothingly into his ear as she held onto him tightly. "Once I got Malon's letter, I knew you were alright and I felt at ease." From behind the boy, she began running her left hand's fingers through the back of his hair, caressing and combing it like he was her baby boy again.

In spite of acting strange, which would complicate the situation further, Link stayed calm as he replied. "I… I didn't even know that she had sent you a letter until I read yours earlier and you explained it."

Giggling, Saria said. "Malon really likes you. It's no surprise that she wanted you to stay with her."

There really wasn't a need for her to tell him that. Link knew all too well of the farm girl's feelings for him. It was a touchy subject, mostly since he was new to the concept of romantic love. The boy found considering himself 'in love' to be plain weird. In every way, shape and form, being attracted to Malon was special to him, as all similar relationships should be. Malon, a Hylian girl, was the first to catch his attention like that, far more so than the crush he had on Saria in the past. "Y-Yeah, I know… I know… It's complicated though."

"Love is always complicated, sweetie." Saria responded. She saw Link turning his head back toward her so he could see her deep blue eyes. Once his cheeks blushed, she took notice. "Hey, what's with that blush? Are you feeling okay?"

Rolling his eyes, Link couldn't believe Saria didn't have a hint as to what she was doing to him. He wondered if he was merely misinterpreting things. If she truly didn't realize how she was making him feel, then it was more or less his fault for overreacting. "I'm fine. Y-You're just embarrassing me."

Saria cocked her head, not really getting what Link was trying to say. "What? How? I'm just saying, love is an extremely complicated emotion. It always has been, since the dawn of history."

Shrugging, Link tried to pass the situation off as nothing more than a misunderstanding. Saria had always been clingy with him. This time shouldn't be any different and he shouldn't act any different. 'There's no way a kokiri could have feelings for a hylian like me.' The boy thought. 'Especially not whenever that kokiri is the one who raised me.' Having multiple thoughts coursing through his mind made him feel as though there were a hundred things going on at once. No matter what, he knew he had to persevere. There were many other things of much greater importance than anything emotion related. "Nothing. Never mind, it doesn't matter."

Epona made it to the path which led toward the Great Deku Meadow. From there, the young hero decided that it would be best to dismount from his beloved horse. A short walking distance wouldn't be any problem for them. Pulling on the reins as well as lightly digging the heels of his boots into the filly's sides, they came to a halt shortly after. First, before anything else, he hopped down from the saddle and helped Saria down like a gentleman, something he'd grown accustomed to doing with Malon.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright? Your face is pretty red." Saria was inquisitive.

For a moment, his inner-vision switched back and forth between a certain cute farm girl and a strangely aroused Kokiri. It was no surprise his face was red. To be completely honest with everybody, including himself, Link had never thought he'd have a girl take an interest in him in such a way, much less two girls. "I'm fine…" The boy stopped to clear his throat before continuing. "It-… It's just-…. Why did you say I was good looking?"

The green haired kokiri girl lifted an eyebrow while letting go of Link's hand. She successfully landed on her feet after dismounting Epona. With a light blush on her own cheeks, she replied "Because it's true. You're growing into quite the studly young man."

Using vocabulary like that was also awkward to Link. Never before in his entire life had he heard Saria use the word 'studly'. It was quite flustering. Regardless, he grew a tad suspicious that something wasn't right with her. Following the time it took to lose the red cheeks, he narrowed his eyes, coming closer to her with an inquisitive look on his face. Link was examining her, making sure she really was Saria; not that her expected her to be an imposter or anything.

"W-What?" She asked through a stutter as their faces grew closer, about two inches apart. Their eyes gazed into one another's.

"Nothing… You're just-… You're acting strange." Through the analysis, Link watched as Saria visibly shivered. The girl looked as if she was slightly upset. Her eyes gradually shifted downward, watching Link lips intently as he continued speaking. "You really don't have to come with me if you don't want to. I know how to use Bomb Flowers. You don't have to worry."

Several seconds passed without a response from her. Saria merely stood there, staring at Link's lips as if she was captivated beyond all possible words. Never before had the boy witnessed her in such a state and it was beginning to worry him. 'Is there something wrong with her?' He thought, trying to get a grip on the reality of the situation. 'This is-… This is freaking me out. Why is she literally coming on to me? I mean, it's obvious, there's seriously no doubt about it.' Most times, kokiri relationships ended with kisses. Here, Saria was acting like she wanted Link in many ways more than that. 'Why would she want to kiss me? She's Saria, my friend… Doesn't she realize how I feel about Malon?'

Blinking, he cringed on the inside as he was too flustered. 'Ughh… Wait… How do I feel about the redhead? Am I saying that I love her? What about Saria then? What do I feel toward her? Dammit!'

When the time came that he could bring himself back to sanity, Link had to shake his head to break himself away from fantasy. There were things that needed to be done and this wasn't one of them. If anything, it could wait until later, when he had free time. For now, he knew he had to re-focus his attention on his current objective.

Saria rejected Link's advice on letting him go alone. The moment the hero took a step forward, the kokiri girl did the exact same. Before long, the both of them could hear voices and a rustling sound coming from up ahead on the path. With the plan of leaving Epona behind, Link made sure that he had all of the equipment that he needed to take care of himself. With his sword and shield on his back, the satchel around his shoulder had everything else; Bomb Flowers, arrows, ect.

The voices sounded like a boy. Link figured it was perhaps Mido or one of the Know-It-All Brothers. No matter who it was, he was going to be glad if it was kokiri. Knowing that Saria's alright was great, but now the boy want to see the others safe and sound as well. "Did you hear that?"

Both of them acknowledged the voices. Without anything else to do, they ran forward. Instinctual, Link drew his sword. There was no telling what could be around the corner. From up above, before he left his tree house, Link could see there was quite some bit of Deku Babas blocking the route. Unfortunately, from then to now, something could have changed for the worse. The only thing the boy was glad about was the fact that he was able to briefly take his mind off the embarrassing events of prior with Saria. Right now, he was hyping himself up in preparation for whatever they might encounter.

"GHAAA! CURSE YOU STUPID PLANTS!" A voice yelled.

As Link came around the corner, he was sure the voice was Mido and it turned out that he was right. The orange haired Kokiri was standing off to the side, away from a mass group of Deku Babas, all snapping their jaws at him. Even the ones further away were acting rabid. "There's no way the great kokiri leader, Mido, is going to let you foul things block him from getting to the Deku Tree Sprout!" The kokiri boy shook his fist at the monster, but did nothing else. There wasn't anything he could do anyway, not without even coming equipped with some form of weapon. "You just wait until you dry out and we use you as kindle wood!" He spat.

Usually, Link would chuckle over something like that. But, he already knew Mido wasn't the best fighter in the world. Instead of laughing, he let the kokiri boy know of his and Saria's presence. "Mido, what are you doing?"

Instantly, Mido spun around and stared at Link and Saria with a look of anger stricken across his face before he managed to relax. "Link! Saria! What are you two doing here!?"

With his sword still drawn, Link walked closer to the line of Deku Baba littering the gap consisting of the path. Nothing looked 'out of the ordinary' regarding the monster's appearance, nothing to discern them from the rest, nothing which made them unique from any of the others. "Having a cup of tea." He responded sarcastically prior to being serious. "What does it look like I'm doing? Saria wrote me a letter about how bad it was here. Now here I am."

Mido growled in frustration as he examined the Deku Babas too. "You're here to fix this?!" He interrupted Link's thoughts. "There's nothing you can do, unless you have a hundred men rounded up to start slashing away!" The angry kokiri boy pointed at the Deku Babas as a vein on his forehead bulged. "Look at how bad this is! You can't possibly take on all of these little snappy-jawed freakazoids!"

Saria tried to calm down the orange haired kokiri, yet Mido wasn't keen on doing so. Under normal circumstances, he'd be right. It would usually be difficult to defeat such a large quantity of Deku Baba clustered together like they were. To a Kokiri, Link could see where it would literally be more or less impossible. However, the hero was neither a kokiri nor a normal hylian and he didn't need to come back with a dozen soldiers to chop down pests like these.

Bomb Flowers were considered exceedingly dangerous to children of the forest. In fact, since most individuals didn't have a need for them, most people weren't even aware of how to use them. The general populace were unable to so much as make an attempt at picking the special plants without having them explode in their face. For somebody such as Link, a boy trained directly by the Goron's on how to use them, it would be no sweat at all.

"Calm yourself, Mido. I've got this." Link told the boy as he unlatched his satchel.

"Ughh! Why did you even come back!?" Mido griped. "You've already caused enough trouble!"

Upon hearing that, Link stopped, with his hand still holding the Bomb Flower from within the satchel. He didn't appreciate being told something like that. It hurt, more than Mido might have expected. Everyone there in the village had always been considered family by him, even the ones who shouldn't be, who were rude to him and might still be rude to him. The kokiri took Link in and raised him for as long as he could remember. There were times where he was pranked, bullied and heavily annoyed. Yet, they never did anything to hurt him. On the contrary, they constantly protected him, not allowing him to leave the forest due to the belief that it was certain death which awaited beyond the tree-line. Now, for Mido to speak to Link in such a way, it was upsetting to the hylian boy.

"Mido! You hush your mouth!" Saria furiously shouted at Mido. "Link came back here to help us! You should thank him, not be mean!"

In spite of how Mido should act, he remained obstinate. He didn't care if Link was back to help, he was upset and that was all there was to it. Being as self-centered as he was, nothing else mattered other than his own uptight opinion. "You're wrong, Saria! It had to be him that caused all of this, I'm telling you! As soon as that hylian girl pulled him from the Lost Woods, monsters kept wandering in like they're ready to make themselves at home!" Slapping his hand to his forehead, he stomped at the ground while gritting his teeth. "Ughh! You can't see that though because you're so busy being all lovey-dovey and motherly to him!"

Link's eyes narrowed as he thought about what Mido had said. 'If it was true that this all started after I'd been dragged from the Lost Woods, then there may need to be an investigation in order afterward.'

Regardless of Link's thoughts, Saria continued to stick up for him as she always had. The hero could have said something back, but he was too busy actually thinking of a way to solve the situation and put a stop to the terror going about. "Mido, why don't you just go back home, huh!? You're causing trouble when Link's just trying his best to fix things and bring peace back to the village."

After realizing that the argument wasn't going to end itself any time soon, Link decided to go through with his plan by himself, ignoring Saria and Mido as they bickered back and forth.

"Oh, and I'm not trying to restore some peace to the village!?" Mido started getting righteous. "Why is it that he's always your saviour!? I can do stuff too! I'm the Great Kokiri Leader! UGHH!" Picking up a rock, the kokiri boy chucked it at one of the Deku Baba's, hitting it in the head. "Besides, I already said that it wasn't possible to get rid of all of these Deku Babas!"

Lifting the Bomb Flower from the satchel, Link shook his head in regards to what Mido had said about being a great leader. At times, the kokiri boy showed wonderful leadership skills, and at others he showed that he was just a giant jerk with an ego as big as a Deku Scrub's face after it suffered an allergic reaction from eating a spoiled Deku Nut.

"It's not that, Mido! You're just being mean!" Saria argued with Mido.

Link held the Bomb Flower in his hand while looking back at the two kokiri. "Umm..." He tried to interject "You two should move."

Instead of listening to Link, Mido and Saria they merely kept going at each other, ranting and raving like fools about how things were bad and that they needed to be fixed. Once the hero was sure they weren't going to stop, he shrugged and carried onward. Pulling the fuse-like stem on the Bomb Flower, all he had to do was give it a solid yank to ignite it. The hissing sound signified the ignition and he knew he had only a few seconds to make his next move.

"Bombs away." He teased nonchalantly while reeling back to take aim. He threw right in the middle of the clustered Deku Babas. Being the plants they were, they didn't even care what it was. To them, anything that came close would be eaten with no regard.

A Deku Baba near the center considered itself lucky as it caught the Bomb Flower in between its jaws, trying to swallow it with noticeable trouble until it flat out began choking on it.

Moments away from detonation, Link's forthcoming tactic had to be pulled off flawlessly. Out of his satchel, he removed six Deku Nuts. 'This better work… If it doesn't-.' Je momentarily doubted myself in advance of knowing I had to proceed or miss the opportunity. The hero swung his arm, throwing all of the nuts into the air prior.

The Deku Nuts landed with a snapping bang inside the cluster of Deku Babas. Mido and Saria ceased their quarrel that very instant, the same moment multiple Deku Babas froze in a shocking daze, unable to move themselves from the paralyzing effect of the Deku Nuts. Shortly afterward, the Bomb Flower detonated into a great bursting explosion, which incinerated the Deku Baba that ate it, several others nearby and utterly destroyed a large group of them surrounding that.

Surprisingly, everything had gone according to plan. A large circle of the monsters had been cleared from the middle of the path and those still alive on the outskirts were mostly frozen with paralysis.

On the inside, Link was shouting for joy that his plan worked. Saria and Mido were stunned in their own way as they couldn't believe what he had done. The hero wasn't finished either. If anything, he was merely getting started. What was left of the Deku Babas had to be exterminated and his sturdy blade was the right source to cut them down like twigs in a fire.

Running into the left side group of Deku Babas, Link did the same as he had done quite a few times; holding the sword horizontally to make it simple by slicing the plant monster's stems. Staying stiff, they popped up after getting cut, fell to the ground with a squeal and then perished under the boy's boots as he ran further.

The right side group of Deku Babas likely could have been dealt with the same way, by running and slicing. However, Link knew the paralyzing effects of the Deku Nuts weren't going to last much longer. With that in mind, he gripped his sword tighter and performed a spinning maneuver toward them, crossing the burnt ground where the Bomb Flower exploded and slashing several more monsters while he spun. Following that, the paralysis wore off and the remaining four Deku Babas lined up in a single row shook their heads before going berserk by bashing their heads against anything near. They were coughing up noxious fumes that smelled like rotten Cucco Eggs.

Tactfully, to take them out without having to get close to the rank scent they emanated, Link threw his sword at the right moment, taking off thereafter toward them all. His sword flew through the air at great velocity before impaling three of the remaining plants, slicing through them all until they were skewered like a kabob.

Finally, to end it, the hero ran toward the last one as the three that had been shanked fell to the ground. Jumping up, a bit of acrobats was needed as he had to successfully land a hard kick to the side of the Deku Baba's head. The vermin took its tumble until Link simply stomped on it to make extra sure that it was dead.

With sappy blood stained on his clothes, he gave the area a quick look around to see if there were any remaining enemies. There wasn't. All around, the entire gap which had been filled up against the path-line was chalked full of dead plant life; plant life that wanted to kill hylian and kokiri life. Eliminating such a large quantity wasn't all that hard for him. However, it had been a while since he used all of his abilities like that.

"That's that then..." He uttered under his breath, uninterested in showing off at the moment despite his subtle victory. "Now, to get to the Deku Tree Seedling."

Picking up, then Sheathing his sword, Link carried on. For some reason, there wasn't much else on his mind at the moment. It was as if the fight had cleared his head, leaving him to think freely and intently focus on what he was doing. With his adrenaline flowing, pumping and pulsing, he felt as if he could rule the world. Nothing, at the moment, was beyond his reach. That helped him feel as if things would be okay. He knew that he'd be perfectly capable of protecting the kokiri as well as the Deku Tree Sprout. Plus, in his valiant efforts, he'd both retrieve the Ocarina of Time and allow The Forbidden Forest to return to normal.

Crunching beneath his boots as he walked were the hard yet broken shells of most of the Deku Babas he had destroyed. At first, he wasn't sure if he was going to pull it off flawlessly. Now, he felt happy that he was able to do what he did. No longer did he doubt his skills.

Once he completely made it past the burnt ground from where the Bomb Flower went off, the boy turned around to see Saria and Mido still standing in the same spot they had previously been. Both kokiri looked shocked, as if they couldn't move. Only whenever Link raised his arms in a curious manner did they break out of their trance.

Saria was the first to speak, with that of course being an enthusiastic praise. "Woohoo! Good job, Link! I knew you could do it!" Then the girl walked toward him.

They both followed Link now, but Mido was visibly gritting his teeth in frustration. Before long, he gave in, relaxing in relief that Link had managed to clear out the path to the Deku Meadow. "Grr…...Ughh… Yeah. I'll admit, that was pretty friggin' cool."

Link's eyebrows lifted in surprise. He never expected Mido to give a half-ass apology as well as admit that the hero had done the impossible. It was fairly dubious that he'd matured, considering the years of pranks and bullying he put Link through; on the other hand, Link did still appreciate it. As the Hero of Time, he was appreciative that someone felt grateful.

"Since when did you learn those awesome moves?" Mido asked with interest.

Link smirked. "A well trained swordsman never gives out his secrets, Mido. But, if you must know, I've fought off far worse than that throughout my adventures in the outside world."

Saria stared at Link with a glazed-over look on her face. Link worried that something was wrong until she smiled at him with rosy cheeks. His only option was to look away, to ignore it again. The boy didn't know what she was thinking and he probably didn't want to know either.

"Let's hurry." Mido spoke again, now reorienting his mind toward their most important goal. "I want to check on the Deku Tree Seedling to make sure it's okay."

Together, they sped up, walking through the winding path prior to coming out into the expansive Great Deku Meadow. Link's fears popped up for a moment, giving him the speculation that there could be more enemies nearby. His greatest concern would have been encountering a swarming plague of Deku Babas, all surrounding every single inch of the Deku Meadow. Thankfully, to his highest luck, there was nothing other than a horde of fairies floating about, with most of them grouped around the Deku Tree Seedling.

Link tried to somehow look at each and every fairy, to examine them as well as their little. Up next to the Great Deku Tree's remains, there was a single fairy, a blue fairy floating around the face as if to visualize it, to remember the days in which the elderly tree-god watched over all of them, his children, with ever loving benevolence.

Alarms went off in the boy's head as he tried to figure out which fairy he was looking at. By instinct, he found it looked quite familiar, one that he thought he'd seen many times before. 'Navi?' His subconscious projected thoughts to the rest of his mind, forcing goosebumps to arise on his arms as he suddenly became shocked. 'Navi!?' The thoughts continued until his mouth moved on its own, without him making it say what it did. "Navi..." Saria heard him, but Mido did not. Nevertheless, he got his answer when the fairy spun around to look directly at him and then calmly floated away.

"No, Link… I'm sorry." Saria replied while the fairy Link had initially assumed to be Navi mingled in with the others. "That's Clover, one of the Know-It-All brother's fairies… I hadn't mentioned Navi because I was waiting for you to bring her up. Just know that I noticed her absence and I'm here for you if you ever want to talk about her."

The excitement that previously filled his body slowly faded away, leaving Link with nothing other than sadness until he felt a pair of arms wrap around him. Looking down, he could tell said arms belonged to Saria. She could tell that the hero was upset about Navi abandoning him. He just didn't want to talk about it, at least not yet.

"It's alright, Link." Saria said, making sure the hero was okay. "What Navi did was a good thing. While you might not realize it right now, later on in life, you'll be glad she did all that she has."

A single sigh drifted out of Link's nostrils as he hung his head. This time, he felt that Saria was wrong. He'd never forgive Navi for leaving him the way she did. In his greatest time of need,she abandoned him. Moving on wasn't a choice for the boy, it was forced upon him. "Let's just get moving." Link replied coldly, not in the mood to talk about the fairy that deserted him.

Saria let go of Link and they all walked over to the Deku Tree Seedling, where a bunch of the forest's fairies had gathered, all of which tended to the small seed to the best of their ability. Thankfully, it looked to be as if their protection was enough to sustain it. At least the hero could feel some form of peace knowing that his father figure was alright.

Mido and Saria both sprinted, running as fast as they could toward the Deku Tree Seedling. Their fairies flew to them respectively. There was an immediate change in their behaviour once they were together again. As kokiri, they were heavily dependent on their fairies. Everything, from their mood and attitude to their healthy well-being was monitored by the gentle sprites.

"Laila!" Saria shouted as her little fairy fluttered around her.

"Breena!" Mido shouted as well.

Both of them enjoyed the affection from their lovely fairies, the fairies they were lucky to have had since their birth. Even though Link was jealous to watch them enjoy the love of their guardians, he was glad to see them happy, glad to see the Deku Tree Seedling safe and sound. Nonetheless, the shadow of the Great Deku Tree's remains left a constant feeling of dread within him. The superior confidence given by his previous fight had all but disappeared, leaving only sullen depression. Although he tried his best to think about others in his life; Malon, Saria, Talon, even Ingo, looking up at the rotting wood of the deity that served as his father for the first ten years of his life, he wanted to cry more and more. It hurt to have so much gone from his life, especially to have it be gone so quickly, without a moment's notice.

Physical scars were no more painful than mental scars and he'd received plenty of the two. 'It hurts…' The boy thought, clutching his chest while staring up at the Great Deku Tree's remains. 'Why did you have to go too?' He questioned the fate of reality. 'Why couldn't you have stayed since Navi didn't want to? I need someone wise like you were, I need guidance too…' Frowning, he felt abandoned by the Great Deku Tree as well. 'I-… I'm still your child, am I not?'

Before long, he realized that thinking like that wasn't a very good idea. Depression only served to worsen the dark feelings of despair encroaching upon his heart. Link hung his head with another sigh. There wasn't anything he could do and he knew it. Fate had a way of putting its foot down and not letting him do a damn thing. 'Why can't things be easier than they are? Sometimes, I just don't get it.'

It was frustrating, all of it, but the hero was positive that being that way wasn't going to do him any good. Continuing onward, he had to perk up and snap out of the wave of sadness he had encountered.

"Saria..." His lips spoke, forcing him to move on with his next task. "I need to talk to you for a minute."

With a smile plastered on her lips, Saria turned to face Link. Everything was good and fine in her opinion, so she wasn't near as down as Link currently. However, she saw that he wasn't smiling and knew something was amiss. "Sure, what is it?"

Mido was busy talking with his fairy, giving Link the time he needed to discuss with Saria what he had to do next. "Well… Now that most of the village is safe, I need to get moving. My next objective is in the Lost Woods."

The green-haired kokiri girl stood still without saying a word for multiple seconds. All of the sudden, her face reddened until she simply shouted "WHAT!? ARE YOU MAD!? THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN GO BACK THERE!"

During the time Link cringed from Saria's shouting, her fairy Laila, fluttered around her with an inquisitive look on her tiny face. The sprite knew that it was odd for her Kokiri companion to be so brashly loud. It was even more proof that the time without being in each other's company had emotionally afflicted her to an extent. All of that would, of course, dissipate as they stayed around one another more.

To his dismay, for now, Link was stuck with Saria being the way she is. He tried his best to explain his situation. "No, but, I have to go back there for-..."

Cutting him off, Saria was quick to respond. "FOR WHAT!? NAVI!? I'M TELLING YOU, LINK, WHEREVER SHE IS, SHE'S NOT IN THERE!"

Mido was definitely aware of what was going on now. With Saria screaming at Link as loud as she was, it wouldn't be a surprise if even everybody back in the village heard and knew what was happening. "What!? You're going back to the Lost Woods!?" Mido butted in the conversation. "What's wrong with you!? Are you some sort of stupid idiot or something!?"

All of what was said fully soaked in as Link continued to merely stare at them. He wasn't exactly sure of what words to use or what to say. Saria's comment hit the hardest, as in truth, he wasn't looking for Navi anymore. Anything that had to do with her was gone now, he had moved on. "No… I'm not a stupid idiot and I'm not going back there for Navi."

Both of them continued staring at him as if he had lost his mind. On the other hand, Saria seemed to soften up some as she began realizing how rude she had just been. "T-Then… What are you going back for?" She asked, like she should have done in the first place.

Link didn't want to go back there, he had to. If it wasn't for what he had to get, he probably wouldn't ever go back. All he could do was explain his plan. "When Malon found me, she left behind something I had, an ocarina, a very important one at that."

Hearing that it wasn't something completely foolish that he needed to go back for made Saria and Mido calm down further. Still though, she didn't want him stepping one foot in the Lost Woods without a fairy. The chances of Link getting lost again were abnormally high. His only hope to make it through would be the markings left behind by the Skull Kid that Malon had encountered. Even then, the boy would have to find where the markings began and that would probably be the most difficult part.

"An ocarina?" Saria questioned. "Why don't you just use mine again so you won't have to worry about going in there?"

Shaking his head with a small smile, it made Link feel slightly better to know that she was simply looking out for him, still just as concerned for his safety as she ever was. "Sorry, Saria… But, it wouldn't be the same. This ocarina is special. It's the Ocarina of Time, bestowed upon me by Princess Zelda of the Royal Hyrulean Family."

Her face lit up once Link finished talking. Saria knew of the Ocarina of Time as well as how important it must be since it was given to the hero by Princess Zelda. For a split second, her eyes blinked as she had a strange psychic recollection of events to come. Images of a future that will never be flickered into her head before she pushed them away to focus on her boy. "Are you sure?" She asked again, making it clear that she really-really didn't want him to go.

"Yeah. I have to go…" Link replied prior to trying to improve the outlook on the situation. "I shouldn't get lost again though, because Malon said there was a trail left behind by the Skull Kid she ran into out there. You know, the one that supposedly took care of me while I was unconscious. He painted some sort of mark on trees, leading back to the spot where I was found."

"Timi made a trail?" Mido unexpectedly spoke. "That's-… Hmm… I'm actually surprised at that. Most Skull Kids prefer it if their home stays unknown to most."

Link could only shrug. He didn't know much because he didn't meet or speak to the forest imp. The majority of the Skull Kids he had found on his journeys were child-like mischievous bastards with nothing better to do than harass people. He knew that it wasn't the case with all, but there were still quite a lot that were. "You're probably right. After all, Malon's not the type to be a liar." Although the hero said that, he wondered about the note Malon sent to Saria. He never heard the farm girl mention anything about sending mail out to the Kokiri Forest.

"How far did the trail stretch?" Saria inquired, wondering about how hard it would be to locate a halfway mark amongst all the trees strewn across the dense forest.

"From what I understand, it starts about a mile into the Lost woods and leads about two miles further to his location." Link replied.

Saria squinted with a gentle wince at hearing a mile. It was obvious why. Finding the beginning of the trail would be seriously difficult to find, especially if it's not in a straight line from the village. "That's not going to be easy to find, Link."

Nodding, Link pursed his lips as there was no other perceivable way to retrieve his priceless artifact of great power, his Ocarina of Time. Earlier attempts at asking Malon for better directions led to her saying that she was too scared to pay attention, that she let Epona do all the work on navigating while she was busy fighting off Wolfos. He'd have to go on what directions he was given. "I know all of that, Saria. Trust me." He told the girl. "Before I got your letter, I was planning to come back anyway to see everyone and get the ocarina out of there. There's no way I'm just going to leave it there."

Saria and Mido continued to look annoyed, yet there was nothing more that Link could truthfully say to convince them. They had to let him do what he needed to do. This time around, there wouldn't be any stopping him. Once the hero became intent on doing something, he rarely stopped until he finished it.

"Fine..." Saria soon gave in with a sigh prior to hugging Link tightly. "But, just so you know… I'm coming with you."

Link's eyes widened as soon as he heard her response. He certainly didn't expect anybody to come along with him into such danger. For a split second, he was actually thinking they'd be more arrogant regarding going considering everything that he'd gone through, as well as all they had gone through to keep him alive after dragging him from the depths of the woodlands. To hear that Saria wanted to go was quite the surprise. "What!? N-No, Saria…" Link attempted to dissuade her. "You should stay here and get some more rest, I can take care of it myself. The village is mostly safe now, there's no need to worry about anything."

Alongside a huff, Saria placed her hands on her hips with that mother hen look she always had when she dealt with Link. "Pfft…" She waved the hero's request off in a contemptuous manner. "Yeah, right. So we can see Epona come back without you again?" Shaking her head, she grabbed his ear and pulled on it. "Link, we've already been through this once and I'm not going to let it happen again. If I had known you didn't have Navi with you, I never would have let you go into the Lost Woods so carelessly in the first place." Letting go of his ear, they remained with their eyes locked on each other until she resumed with more maternal concern. "If you're going in there, I'm coming with you and that's that. No 'Ifs', 'ands', or 'buts' about it."

As annoying as it was, Link found himself eventually agreeing with her. In the long run, he didn't want to be there by himself anyway, he simply feared for the safety of anyone else that decided to come along with him. There were definitely advantages to having someone else with him. Saria, being a Kokiri with a fairy, would be able to keep him safe from the effects of the Lost Woods while he kept her safe from monsters. "Okay, okay." He soon gave in and accepted her company. "You can come along, but stay close to me. I don't want you to get hurt."

Saria nodded in agreement in advance of walking over, gently grabbing his arm like she used to do whenever he was little. "Don't worry about me, Link. I'm stronger than I look."

Being the Forest Sage, Saria was right, more so than she was aware of. She had been in the Lost Woods on her own throughout multiple situations. Nevertheless, that was in a future that would never be. Right now, she was merely Saria, the kokiri girl that raised Link from birth. She wasn't the Forest Sage, that part of her hadn't awoken yet and might not ever awaken so long as there remains peace in Hyrule.

"Well, I'm going too." Mido said.

Saria and Link turned to him as his fairy fluttered around him and then said. "Really!? Wow, you're on a roll today, Mido. Since when have you been so heroic?"

Along with a coy smirk, Mido chuckled with the same inflated ego he always has had. "What are you talking about, Breena? I'm Mido, the Great Kokiri Leader! I'm always heroic, which is why all the girls in the village can't get enough of me."

While staring at him, Saria and Link eventually broke out into laughter, with Saria being the one to say. "Haha! You're joking, right?"

In response, Mido glared at them. He wasn't joking, he really considered himself the leader of the Kokiri and a ladies man. But, those were all lies he made up to make himself look better. Without a shred of doubt, hands down, Saria would be a far better leader than him. Even the Know-It-All Brothers would be a better council than Mido.

"What do you mean?" The kokiri boy asked with his hands on his hips. "I'm fantastic at this!"

Eventually, Link just rolled his eyes and then turned around with the intent to leave. 'If they wanted to come with me, then I'm not going to be able to stop them.' Again, the hero felt as if there was safety in numbers. He only feared for the possible outcomes if he had to fight something. Mido might be better off in a fight than Saria, and yet he didn't want either of them getting themselves into any danger. 'If one of them got hurt, or worse, I don't know if I'd be able to forgive myself.' The Lost Woods is a cruel and unforgiving place. The boy should know, considering how he experienced the curse firsthand.

"What about your horse?" Saria inquired about Epona. "All three of us can't fit on her back, somebody is going to have to walk."

Mido sighed instantly before holding up his hand as if to volunteer. "I'll walk. You two go ahead and I'll try to catch up to you when I can."

While Link found himself to be quite surprised that Mido bothered to volunteer, he also knew that a plan like that would never work out well. Having Mido walk while he and Saria rode on Epona would be a flawed idea. For one, he wasn't overly sure if he wanted to be that close to Saria again with the way she acted so strangely the first time. Secondly, there's no way Mido would be able to find them if they split up like that. The Lost Woods was huge and it's named as such for a good reason. Though Kokiri and their fairies never get lost, they can lose track of one another while they're both inside the area afflicted. Epona is ten times faster than Mido could ever run. That being the case, he'd never find them or they'd be done by the time he caught up.

"No..." Link replied, interrupting them. "We're all walking. Epona's too fast and it'll be difficult to spot something like a small mark on a tree if she's galloping full speed."

They stopped in their place when they heard that. Saria ensured that was the best choice. "Are you sure? We might be walking for a while."

Link knew that. Nodding, they knew he was aware too. "Of course." He replied. "If it's too much, you can always stay behind… You'd be safer here anyway."

"Oh, you'd just love that, wouldn't you?" Mido retorted. The orange-haired boy glared at Link angrily then made a childish face; sticking out his tongue and holding his index finger and thumb up to his forehead to make it look like an 'L'. "Well, guess what? It's not happening… I'm going and Saria's going too. Somebody has to keep you alive."

They stopped at the path leading out of the Great Deku Meadow. From there, they needed to decide what their course of action was going to be. The quicker they followed through, the sooner they could relax. Plus, Link would be at ease, with no worry over the safety of the Kokiri or the Ocarina of Time.

Shrugging, the hero took one look back at the Deku Tree Seedling and then said. "Alright, suit yourself… How about the other Kokiri? What are they doing?"

Saria looked at Mido for a response, to which he soon gave "They're resting in my house. I figured it would be best if they all stayed under one roof until safety was fully restored to the village." He clapped his hands once and gave a fist pump. "Now that those stupid Deku Babas are gone from the path, they'll probably be out and about within the next couple of hours, as soon as their fairies begin returning to them."

The guardian fairies, all of the ones from the village, those who hung around with their kid kokiri, were floating around the meadow, keeping it safe like a miniature army. Still, Link knew he'd feel safer with the thought of the kokiri themselves taking care of the Deku Tree Seedling. Being much taller, they could defend it far better and nurture it quicker than the little magical sprites would be capable of. Nonetheless, as long as the Deku Tree Seedling was safe, he was at ease. With the majority of the village cleaned up, it was better as well. Now was definitely time to move on with the next objective. 'Having Saria and Mido with me might not be as bad as I'm expecting it to be, then again, it could very well be a complete disaster.' All that the hero could do was proceed anyway, regardless of whether or not it took a long period of time or was frustrating. The sooner this was done, the sooner he could rest assuredly.

"Okay then. Let's go ahead and get us a-move on then." Turning around, Link began to get serious. He wanted to get serious. This was no laughing matter.

However, Saria did just that for a reason unbeknownst until she replied "'get us a-move on then?'… Where did you learn such broken language?"

Chuckling, the boy told her the truth. "Mr. Talon, from Lon Lon Ranch. He's a really nice guy, but talks like a country bumpkin." Trying to get them serious, he said "Look, we need to get going, for real this time. This is very important, Saria. The Ocarina of Time is direly essential. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, it could cause utterly catastrophic mayhem for everything and everyone." Turning back, Link started to make his way through the path leading to the village.

The two kokiri followed closely behind. Mido, having listened to what had just been said, happened to raise a decently good point. "Wait, what? How powerful is this thing exactly!? Could this be what's making things so terrible here!?"

On their way, they passed the spot where Link slaughtered all of the Deku Babas. The young hero thought in his head prior to speaking aloud. 'I doubt they'd believe me if I told them all that the Ocarina of Time is able to do. Manipulating time, changing the weather, warping me to locations set by the Golden Goddesses during my great journey; it's not a child's plaything, it's not meant for somebody to toy around with and sing a song along to.' Narrowing his eyes, he continued to ignore Mido for the time being as Saria watched him, awaiting his answer. 'If Ganondorf or some other evil entity found it, they'd probably hold onto it until they learned how to use it. With the mark of the Royal Family painted on top, there's little to no doubt that it isn't a mere novelty…' For a moment, he imagined the Skull Kid finding it and using it. 'Hmm... However, should a regular person encounter it and try to play it for music, they could unwittingly unleash untold atrocities unfit for its purpose.'

"I doubt it..." Link finally said while approaching Epona. Although there was a small chance, it truly didn't seem very likely. He found it best to think that way. "It takes skill to use it. If you just randomly blow through it like any other ocarina, it's just going to make the usual sounds. Whoever it would be, they'd have to be luckier than a zora dodging rain to actually get it to work with its intent."

Epona neighed with her big brown eyes latched onto Link, watching everything that her master was doing. As he grew close, he gently took her reins and led her back into the Kokiri Village.

Mido still didn't like the idea of how this powerful relic, the Ocarina of Time, had been left behind. "Think about it, Link. You say that you lost it when Malon pulled you out of the Lost woods. Well, when you were pulled from the Lost woods is exactly whenever all of this crap started happening! Ughh! You know I don't believe in coincidences!"

"Relax, Mido. I don't think that's right." Saria said while contemplating the matter on her own. "Why would it all happen right after he was removed? Malon said that he had probably been there for several days. Why wouldn't all this, all that's happened to the village, why wouldn't all of this have happened while he was in the Lost Woods, not just after?"

The orange-haired kokiri boy shrugged in response to what Saria had asked. He didn't know, and neither did Link. The three of them were completely unaware of the cause, what made this village, the place where they grew up, a nightmare. Regardless, Mido was the most vocal about it. "I don't know! I'm just trying to understand this crazy stuff!"

No matter what, Link was going to set things straight before he left to head back to the ranch. The hero would be unable to rest easy at night knowing it was this bad here if he returned without making a difference. He even figured that it might perhaps be possible to use the Ocarina of Time, once recovered, to restore everything to its original glory. Considering that, he felt it would be mighty nice if Mido calmed down. The kokiri would be a much better companion if he focused on the task at hand. "Calm yourself, Mido. This isn't the time to act like an immature brat…" Not letting him have a chance to respond, Link kept explaining "Things are bad, I know. I can see that with my own two eyes. But, what we need to do is carry on and get this done as fast as possible. The sooner we get in there, the sooner we get back."

As they came into the village, nothing had changed. Briefly, a small figure was seen in the window of Mido's house; what could perhaps have been a Kokiri looking out. It was true that they felt the return of safety as their fairies are less stressed from local danger.

They walked past the other houses before Saria abruptly gasped. "Look! Who did that!?"

The kokiri girl pointed to a tree and looking at it, Link realized it was the one where he had shot the Chupa in its head, pinning it to the tree where it still hung. "Oh… Ehe, that was me. It was up on my balcony, so I decided to kill it since I didn't want anybody getting hurt."

Mido grunted, but Saria praised the hero by clapping. "Yay! Those things creep me out so badly! I really don't like applauding the death of things, but they're monsters."

Momentarily, while coming up on the small freshwater stream which flowed through the village, Link waved off Saria's dainty attitude. The Chupa wouldn't have thought twice regarding a bite to anyone that got too close; the boy knew as he was one of the people that got too close. "They're so gross." He choked while thinking about it. "I'm just glad I took care of it and didn't leave it to wander around here."

Going onward, as they came to the freshwater stream, Mido said "I'll tell you what's gross, drinking this water. I don't know what happened, but it's polluted… Look at it."

Earlier, whenever he had first arrived at the village, Link had seen how bad it was. It was true too. The water was murky, with green algae floating on top. Anyone who drank from that would be extremely sorry. This was highly unusual as well. Link had always seen the stream crystal clear. There were times where he spent a solid hour relaxing in it; drinking, bathing, soaking. Now, it was useless and disgusting. Although it was polluted, he didn't see or know how anything could make it this way. Traveling alongside the stream, there didn't appear to be any actual source of the gunk clogging up the waterway. In fact, it seemed almost as if the vileness just appeared out of nowhere, tainting the freshness of everything.

"Yeah, I noticed it whenever I came in… It's-… It's rank." Link admitted. "But, I don't know how to fix it. The Know-It-All Brothers and Fado know more about irrigation than me." Crouching down, the hylian boy took the liberty of scooping a handful of water into the palm of his hand. He almost wished he hadn't, however, as it was definitely bad, worse than he expected it to be. The nasty sediments floating around were everywhere. Back when the stream was built, long before he was born, the kokiri laid out rocks, then covered them with pebbles, just in order to keep the bottom and side from being in the dirt. With that in mind, Link didn't understand why the water would be so nasty. 'Something isn't right, that's for sure.'

Suddenly, a gurgling sound took Link and everyone else out of thought. Bubbles formed in the water as a clear indication of there being something under it, something breathing and coming up fast.

"What's that!?" Saria asked in exclamation.

There wasn't any time for Link to react properly as something swiftly came flying up out of the water. He and Mido both fell backward, landing on their rears. Quicker than Mido, Link returned to his feet and drew his sword as he realized then what it was he was dealing with. "Baba Serpent! Everybody get back!"

The Baba Serpent lunged its way out of the water. It was disconnected from its roots, same as the other one. It didn't make sense to Link, none of it. The hero wanted to know why it was underwater and yet, he was busy trying to protect himself and others from the monstrous beast. Swinging his sword, he didn't miss. But, the Baba Serpent outsmarted him by biting the blade, latching on in a way that kept Link from being able to stab it.

"Dammit!" He cursed, trying to sling the monster off as best as he could. The ensuing sound of more bubbles sent shivers down his sides as he noticed two more spots forming in the water. "You've got to be kidding me! More of them!?"

His worries increased tenfold as he saw what it was that was causing the additional bubbles. Rising up from the depths of the water, two Chupa ambled onto the bank, crawling up toward the hero and kokiri. "CHUPA!" Link shouted this time, making sure Mido and Saria knew.

Everything was happening so fast, and yet Link knew he had to make sure not to let anything bad happen to anyone. Gritting his teeth in anger, he lifted his leg to place his brown boot on the top of the Baba Serpent's head, slowly pushing it off the blade of his sword thereafter. "Yaa!" Stabbing downward, he then pierced the plant's lip, but nothing more. The boy had to pull back in order to make a few slices at the emerging Chupas. "GET BACK!" He shouted again whilst keeping the monsters at bay. Although he was outnumbered, he knew he could take them on, just not exactly how.

Things took a radical turn as something strange happened. As Link remained stern on his sword motions, getting in several good strikes on all three enemies, he heard multiple heavy puffing sounds followed by impacts, squeals and thuds. His blue eyes flitted around until landing on what was the monsters. The two Chupas and the Baba Serpent somehow laid dead in front of him.

Upon closer examination, the young hero saw long darts sticking into each creature, right in critical areas. The Baba Serpent had one in its throat while the first chupa had a dart in its forehead, the second in its eye. The darts came from nowhere and yet, Link quickly looked around to see who it was that shot them. It wasn't him, Saria, nor Mido, so he knew it had to be somebody else nearby. "What the-…?" Forcing himself to adjust to the new potential threat, his eyes flew back and forth while on the lookout for any other enemies in the nearby vicinity.

Mido and Saria noticed the abrupt death of the creatures that tried to kill them. They knew it wasn't Link who did it either. In fact, whoever shot the darts was extremely skilled to have hit in such deadly areas. Two Chupas isn't anything to scoff at. The hero was terrified of just one; dealing with two at the same time was extremely stressful. Unlike the majority of his opponents, combat with a Chupa was very one-sided. Being as extraordinarily poisonous as they are, it would only take a single bite from them to take out a grown hylian adult.

"They… They're dead." Saria said while confronting the deceased monsters. "Who did that?" She turned to Link, then Mido, before looking around too.

All of them expected it to have been somebody far away, at a distance where they were safe, yet had plenty of range left to shoot their darts. To their surprise, they were completely wrong. For the time being, they heard more puff sounds, followed by squeals which made them look over at a dying Deku Baba in the Kokiri Garden. In the center of the plant monster's head was a dart which had pierced all the way through its hard external shell to puncture its brain.

"WHO'S THERE!?" Link shouted loudly, wanting whoever it was to reveal themselves to him. He hoped they were on the same side; the good side. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

"Shh, you're going to throw off my game." A girl's voice responded to Link's screaming.

A light rustling sound made them look up and just in the nick of time too, for they saw the bottoms of two boots as they were swiftly on their way down toward the ground, directly where Link was standing. The hero jumped out of the way, shocked to see who it was. A blonde double bunned kokiri girl landed on the ground holding a blowgun made from a hollowed out Deku Stick. She had an entire bandolier full of darts diagonally wrapped across her chest.

"Fado!?" Mido and Link exclaimed at the same time, in perfect unison.

Fado smiled while staring at them with her casual blue eyes. "Yep, it's me. Seems like you guys and girls could use a little help." She flourished her hand with her thumb pointing back at herself. "So, here I am."

Briefly, the group all refused to stop staring in awe until Mido broke the silence with his incessant yammering. "Have you lost your mind!? Get back inside and stay there until it's safe!"

In spite of him being stone-cold serious, Fado smirked and rolled her eyes at the kokiri boy. "Oh, please… You don't need to protect me. I can take care of myself, obviously." Pointing at the dead critters by Link's feet, they started to think that she was right. Having hid above them, on top of the wooden bridge spanning from one house to another, she picked off their enemies like a professional.

Link was highly surprised. 'Not that I couldn't have taken them all on myself. But… Wow.'

Never before had he known Fado to have any offensive form. However, in a future that would never be, one seven years from now, she was oddly absent from the village. 'Thinking about it, the only time I saw her was whenever I was trying to help Grog, a sickly and depressed Hylian who wandered into the Lost Woods with the intent of dying, willingly committing suicide.' Back then, she was aggressive to the hero in a very rude way, although he wasn't sure if she was aware of who he was or not since he had the body of an adult. Nevertheless, he was in shock. This was all quite the surprise.

His vision focused on the dead Baba Serpent and the two dead Chupas before he turned to stare at the still dying Deku Baba in the Kokiri Garden. 'In all honesty, I'd rather take her with me than Saria or Mido.' Then again, in a way, he felt he'd also be happy if she stayed there to protect everyone with the blowgun. Either way, he knew that now wasn't the time to overly concern himself with the mysteries of girls. 'I'd like to know how or when she found the time as well as the interest to learn such a dangerous sport, but for the time being, I should just consider myself lucky.'

Mido seemed to feel similar to Link, for he continued to keep his eyes on Fado while rubbing the back of his neck. He and Fado had always been close in terms of relationship. Obviously he didn't want her getting hurt anymore than Link did with Saria.

"What are you three doing?" Fado asked. "Err… Mido, I know what you're doing, but; Saria, what are you and Link doing out here?"

In response to Fado's question, Saria and Link looked at each other. However, unexpectedly, Saria returned to that awkward bashfulness as her cheeks reddened and she was forced to look away. "N-Nothing really..." The mature kokiri girl tried to say until she stuttered.

The hero simply sighed and picked up Saria's sentence for her. "We're trying to get this place cleaned up. Saria sent me a letter saying that it was bad here, so I came back. I'm not sure why this all started after I left, but I promise you that I'll fix it all before I leave. There's no way I'm going to let this place stay like it is."

Fado held her hand to her chin. "I thought I felt something change in the air around here about ten minutes ago." She stated. "Was that your doing?"

Once Link figured out what she meant, he let her know the good news. "Yeah. I've cleared out the path leading to the Great Deku Meadow. It's safe to go back there now." The smile that came to Fado's face made Link glad he did what he had done. They needed his help and he pulled through the same as they did whenever he needed their help.

"That's great!" Fado rejoiced. "I can't wait to tell the others! We've been waiting for our fairies to come back to us for so long, we've practically forgotten what they look like!"

Giggling, Saria laughed with her. "That's not true! It's only been a couple of days… You better not have forgotten that quickly."

Fado shook her head teasingly at the joke and then turned to Link. "So, what's your next move? Clean the ChuChu out of the Great Deku Tree? Filter the sludge out of our water? Regrow the plants the Deku Babas destroyed?"

Shaking his head, Link found it slightly interesting that there were ChuChu inside of the Great Deku Tree. Malon had mentioned something about having to kill a few of them, but he thought that they would have dealt with the remaining amount after she left. To have them still here, after several weeks, plus having just been in the Deku Meadow, it all got under the boy's skin. He wished that Mido or Saria would have mentioned something about them while he was there. It made him wonder what in the world was going on here. Nonetheless, he had to do one thing at a time.

"No, actually I'm heading back into the Lost Woods to retrieve an important thing of mine that I left behind… Before you freak out, know that Saria and Mido are coming with me so I'm not going to get lost." Luckily, he said that last part in the nick of time, for she looked as if she was just about to express concern until he mentioned what he did.

"Well, be careful..." She replied. "I think I'll go ahead and make an attempt to kill off the ChuChu in the Great Deku Tree. My darts are solid, but I don't know if they'll do any good against creatures that are practically made of living jelly." When she motioned toward the bandolier with darts, Link once again wondered when she got her blowgun and whether or not she made it by herself.

"That's up to you." He replied. "After I retrieve my Ocarina, I'll head back and see if I can lend a hand clearing them out with you."

Having expected Fado to agree with him, Link found himself surprised whenever she cocked her head to the side as if he had said something fascinating. From there, she turned about face to direct her attention toward the hero. "An Ocarina? Hmm… I might go with you then."

Both of his eyebrows lifted in amazement as he found himself forming a whole search party just in order to find the Ocarina of Time. However, Link wasn't overly thrilled to hear about how she wanted to join them. He'd much rather she stay there and protect the village than accompany him. "Umm… That's okay, you don't have to." The hylian boy spoke, wavering in his voice ever so slightly as he attempted to avoid sounding rude.

Fado waved him off almost instantly. "I want to, no worries." With a wide smile, she stepped over closer to them, signifying that she was joining. "Besides, maybe I'll get to shoot more monsters with my blowgun. I'm getting a lot better at using it."

As she ranted about her blowgun, Link took a moment to think about the safety of the other Kokiri. Leaving them there alone, he wondered who would take care of them. The Know-It-All Brothers could possibly keep watch; he knew that they were perfectly capable of defending themselves and their family from harm. According to Malon, it was them who saved her from a Wolfos attack by throwing Deku Nuts at them. Regardless of whether they were okay with the choice of being the village's sole protectors, the hero also had no choice other than to move on. He had to find his ocarina, just to get it over with and not have to worry about something bad happening to them or it.

"Fine… Let's get moving then. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can be back here relaxing." Although Link sounded a tad annoyed, it was only because he was looking out for the well-being of others. He cared about everybody in the village as if they were all close family members; mainly because they basically were, considering how they all raised him.

It is because of that he felt responsible for everything that's happening inside the village. 'This is my true home, where I grew up, where I love every spec of soil laid out amongst the ground. Nothing would ever change my mind on how I feel toward this wonderful place. Seeing it like this, locked down tight with nothing getting done, resulting in a pileup of work as well as highly overgrown weeds, it makes my heart hurt.' He didn't know how he was going to fix the sludge in the stream, but he'd use his sword to stab anything threatening the peace and tranquility their sacred place deserved.

Saria, Mido, and Fado were well aware of Link's intentions, seeing as to how he returned as requested, even going as far as to come back before he knew they needed him.

Things needed to be forced back to normal and Link had a feeling that he was the only one who could do that. Saria, Mido, or Fado would have done it last week if they could. That menat, it's up to him to safely get his party into the Lost Woods, where they can try to recover the Ocarina of Time. If everything went smoothly, they would return to the village afterward and Link would look into the cause of why things are as bad as they are there.

As they all moved down the path, heading toward the break-off which led toward the Lost Woods, Link found himself feeling more glad that others were accompanying him. He knew for sure that Malon would be ecstatic to hear that he didn't risk going by himself again. Perhaps the others were going due to that very reason. He knew for sure that Saria was merely tagging along to make sure he didn't get hurt or lost again. Since they took care of him, he was going to take care of them, like the family they are.

Without a doubt, this is what the Great Deku Tree would have expected of him. As the Hero of Time, he was responsible for protecting everyone. That was something he had to realize; just because he stopped Ganondorf, doesn't mean he's done being who he is.