Note: Shorter chapter this time, but we are halfway through Link's trip back to the forest. More truths will be revealed, and we'll soon be onto the other dungeons!

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it!

Separation

"Oh no! I have been taken hostage by the monster! Someone, save me!" Saria called out, having been "accosted" by her best friend in the role of the fearsome beast. Currently, the blonde boy held the green-haired girl in his arms, lifting her above his head to demonstrate the strength of the monster he was channeling. At least, what he thought of when he heard the word "monster."

"Whoa, hey, Link! Watch it!" Saria cried out. "Don't hold me up so high! We're gonna…?!"

She got no further as she and Link toppled over, the girl landing atop the boy that was formerly holding her, groaning in pain as she struggled to get up.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Are you ok?"

Link huffed. "...I think you broke my nose with your butt."

Saria's cheeks flushed. "Did not!" she then tweaked the boy's nose slightly. "See? Totally fine!" despite her humor, this didn't seem to cheer him up. "What's wrong?"

Link crossed his arms. "It's Mido," he replied.

"He's giving you a hard time again?" Saria asked.

Since Mido's "victory", he had been flaunting it in everyone's faces that he got the lead role, especially in front of Link.

"Hey, there's always next year," the green-haired girl said. True, while she believed Mido cheated to gain first place, neither she nor Link had any means of proving it. "You can try out for the Hero again."

"It's…not that," Link answered, speaking slowly to make sure he got his words out correctly. "I…don't care about being the Hero," he explained. "It's just that…Mido is."

"And you're the Monster," Saria finished for him. "So, he uses that as a way to take jabs at you."

Link nodded. True, he wasn't upset over not getting the Hero role. If anything, playing the Monster was actually kind of cool! It was just that, with Mido in the lead role, the redhead made it clear to Link that he got his part due to, once again, how he was different from everyone else.

"You tripped during the race, and you can barely talk, so it'd make sense for you to be the Monster. They're already dumb!"

That nearly earned the redhead a punch to the jaw, had Saria not intervened. If Mido hadn't done anything to him, then Link wouldn't care. This position was just another way for the other boy to get back at him, yet why? What had he done that was so offensive that Mido had made the blonde, fairy-less boy his sworn enemy?

"Well, don't worry about him," Saria told the boy. "He might play the part," she smiled. "But, he's not my Hero."

"Hm?" Link turned to face the girl. "Who is?"

"...never mind," Saria answered. "You'll get it later."

"Get what later?" Link asked.

"...come on, let's practice again."

The two children got back into character and played out their roles, the two souls the only living things on the forest floor in that particular section of the Lost Woods.

Completely unaware that they were both being watched from above in the darkness of the canopy.

Present

"Do you really think it was smart to leave Link behind?" Recti questioned her charge, Mido having stopped a moment to catch his breath.

"I can't…let that guy…get ahead of me!" he wheezed. "I…I'm…going…to be the one…to save Saria."

"No way!" a familiar but rarely heard voice protested, its owner emerging from a darkened tree hollow. "I'LL save Saria!"

"Hey, I was here first!" Mido argued.

"The Great Deku Tree told ME to save Hyrule!"

"Yeah, well…" Mido searched for a comeback. "I still was going to be the Hero this year! Until you came along and killed the Great Deku Tree!"

"It was an accident!"

"So you admit it's your fault then!"

Link lunged forward, once again engaging in physical combat with Mido. The redhead pushed the blonde off of him, noticing that an object had come out of the other boy's sack. A strange, skull-shaped mask of some kind.

"What's this?" Mido picked the item up, examining it. "Heh," he chuckled, Link regaining his senses from the pushback he had taken. "Fitting you'd get something as ugly as this, seeing as you ARE the Monster."

Link sprung up and began to charge at the other boy, but a pair of winged orbs of light got in between the two boys.

"Both of you, stop it!" Navi ordered, spreading her arms out to put more distance between them, even if it wasn't much. Not to mention, neither Link nor Mido could see past the glow of her light.

"As much as I had to admit it, she's right," Recti added. "Saria's in trouble, and she's not going to get rescued anytime soon if you two keep going at it with each other."

Link and Mido glanced at each other, then sighed in unison. "Fine," the red-haired Kokiri said. "I'll stick with you," he said. "For now."

Link nodded. "For now," he repeated, retrieving the mask and putting it back in his sack.

The two went on, once again remembering the distant song they both heard. Following the sound in hopes of eventually reaching the one playing it, a collection of shadows observing the two from above began to converse with each other.

"There they are," a young voice said, a pair of golden eyes peering down at the two children. "Should we take care of them now?"

"No, let's wait," another said. "The Baga Tree said that they have to be picked off one by one to make sure neither of them reaches the girl," they informed their comrade. "Or him."

"Why doesn't he want to be found?" another asked. "He's a tree! He could just squash them!"

"You're forgetting," a similarly shaped figure added. "The boy who was without a fairy killed the creature the Man from the Desert brought with him."

"Probably by luck," someone scoffed. "Besides, he's no bigger than us, and he's still one of those pointy-eared Deku spawn!" they huffed. "He doesn't know the first thing about how to navigate this place!"

"That's why we have to stop them before they reach her," a more serious member said. "That particular Kokiri can use the forest in ways, unlike the others. She has power over the flora of this place. If we take away the means to play her tune, she'll just find other methods."

"You know," one of the voices began speaking again. "It's a shame that the Kokiri play is canceled this year."

"There's no Great Deku Tree anymore, so what's the point?" another said. "Besides, you heard the Baga Tree. Now that he's gone, this forest can be ours."

"Well, let's not just stand here, wasting time!" one of them cried out. "Let's go!"

The collective group of shadows moved, ducking and hiding in the canopy that seemed to grow thicker and thicker the deeper in they went, the forest appearing as if it would swallow everyone alive.

Still, one of them thought. That mask that one kid dropped looked pretty cool. And the kid that had it…he looked strangely familiar.

Their reluctant truce had just started, and yet there was already a problem.

"I say we go that way!"

"No way!"

"How do you even know that's the right way!?"

"You…you don't know yours is either!"

Once again, Link and Mido had delved into an argument, this time regarding which direction to go in. They still heard the melody being played from somewhere unknown in the forest, yet before them were two tree hollows, each branching in separate paths. And, even more, Saria's playing could be heard coming from both.

"Honestly," Recti told her charge. "I'd kinda stick with the guy who's got the sword."

"What?" Mido questioned, shocked. "But he doesn't know his way around this place!"

"Neither do you," Navi retorted. "That song is the only clue we have to where Saria is located, so there must be a branching path that connects somewhere around here," she listened in, the song able to be heard from both tree hollows. "How about this, we go down one way, and if that doesn't lead anywhere, we come back and go down the other way?"

"Whatever, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can stop having to hang around you," Mido sneered at Link, the blonde boy huffing.

"He doesn't have a sword, so you should probably go first," Navi told Link.

"What? Why does he get to?" Mido complained.

"Do you want to be the first to potentially be torn to pieces by monsters?" Navi asked.

Mido went silent. "On second thought, yeah. Go ahead, Link."

Wow, Link thought, aren't you considerate? He rolled his eyes, begrudging the fact that he was going to have to potentially protect and defend the guy he hated more than anyone outside of that Man from the Desert. Ganondorf.

"Hey," Mido suddenly spoke, he and Link were surrounded by the darkness of the tunnel that went through the towering tree. "I still think it's sort of your fault, but Saria said she saw the guy that you said gave you that egg," he then scoffed. "I can't believe you actually thought it was a seed."

Link bit his lip, tempted to get physical, but Navi urged him to keep his temper at bay, difficult as it was.

"Still," Mido continued, tone less snarky and condescending than usual. "There's something else about that night that bothers me," he said.

Despite his animosity, Link grew curious.

"The Great Deku Tree said that he controlled the borders of his domain," the Kokiri boy said. "So, there's no way that guy just found his way there by luck."

Hm, Link thought. While he didn't vocalize it, mostly out of fear of making himself appear foolish, it was a factor the blonde had never thought of before. Just how did that guy manage to find his way to the Kokiri Forest? The Great Deku Tree himself warned them all, especially him, of going too deep into the Lost Woods for obvious reasons, so how did he find his way so easily? And he was from the outside too, not even a native of the forest.

Just who was he?

"I kind of wish I knew who he was," Mido said. He bit his lip and his eyes grew somewhat moist. "If not just to give him a piece of my mind."

"...Ganondorf."

Mido, to his surprise, heard Link speak. Rather clearly to be exact. "What?"

"His name," Link clarified. "It's…Ganondorf."

The red-haired boy was about to ask just how Link knew that, yet he stopped himself, putting the pieces together in his head. "Wait," he said. "You mean…you've seen him?"

Link nodded.

"Who is he?" Mido questioned. "Where did he come from?"

Link opened his mouth, but found his tongue not cooperating with him again. Curses, he thought! And he was doing so well until now!

"We don't know much," Navi spoke for him. "All we know is from what the Princess told us."

"You've met a Princess too?!" Mido exclaimed, then he remembered the Great Deku Tree speaking of such a thing in his dying words. "Well, what DID she say?"

"She said that he's the King of a race of people from the deserts west of the country," the pale-blue fairy explained. "A race that, well, from what we heard, they're not too savory of a tribe."

True, they had heard such things, yet, if Link had to be honest, he didn't really see what made them so different from Hylians. Malon had red hair, and skin could get darker in the sun, so why were these traits frowned upon? He didn't understand.

"So, he's from the outside?" Mido questioned.

"That's right," she said. "He's the one that's truly responsible for the demise of the Great Deku Tree."

"Still," Mido said. At first, Navi thought he was going to mention how it was still technically Link's fault such a thing occurred, yet something different came to his mind. "Remember what that Scrub said? About the…Booga Tree, or something?"

"Baga," Navi corrected. "Baga Tree."

"Well, the same guy," Mido argued. "She said that he's an old enemy of the Great Deku Tree, even if I've never heard of him, so it'd make sense he'd want his rival gone," he then thought for a moment. "Still," he wondered aloud. "Just why would he go and make a deal with this Ganondorf? What would he have to gain from it?"

Despite meaning he would have to give him credit, Link agreed with Mido's sentiment. Just why had this Baga Tree helped Ganondorf? Was he after the Kokiri Emerald? It didn't make much sense. It wasn't as if he could go and collect the Triforce, even if Link still had little idea of what such a relic was. So why?

Why did the Baga Tree want the Great Deku Tree dead? Better yet, how could Link have been so stupid as to have a hand in his parent's demise, unintentional as it may have been?

"Hey, you coming?" Mido's voice brought him back to reality, and Link stepped forward, he and the red-haired boy exited the tree hollow, momentarily blinded by a sudden light as this particular area of the forest still allowed the moon to shine through.

Only, when Link emerged, Mido wasn't beside him. He was the only one on the path, the other Kokiri nowhere to be seen. "M-Mido?" the boy asked, receiving a response, but not from a place he expected.

"Link?" the boy's familiar voice alerted Link he wasn't far, but as he approached the source, a barrier of thick foliage prevented him from pressing on, blocking the way to the boy on the other side. "What are you doing over there?"

"Us?" Navi questioned. "What are you doing over there? I thought you two had called a truce."

"We did!" Mido replied. "I…I don't know what happened! When I came out from the hollow, I wound up here! I didn't see you come out with me at all!"

"You have a witness here as well," Recti added. "I saw it all too."

Everyone was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say, let alone comprehend how the two children got separated when they were together just moments before. "Something isn't right here…" Navi muttered, surveying the environment for danger. So far, she hadn't detected anything yet, nothing with malevolent intent, but she was certain that would change soon.

Hey, what's going on?" a member of the group watching from above wondered aloud. "Where'd they go?"

"One guy's over here, while the other guy's over there!"

"Should we split up and follow them both?"

"Looks like we have to. Whatever the case, we just can't let them get to the girl."

"Or find the Baga Tree himself!"

"Right, so let's get to it!"

"Well, first, they've got to get moving!

"So, what do we do?" Mido questioned aloud.

"I guess there's nothing you can do but go on from here," Navi answered. "I still don't know how this happened."

"Wait a minute," Recti then spoke up. "Didn't that Scrub say something about a Farore or something?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Well, I'm not sure if she even exists," Recti said. "But…there's something…messing around with the layout of this place."

True, Navi thought. She never went too deep into the Lost Woods herself, but the fairies all knew their way to certain locations scattered throughout the forest. This place, as well as this phenomenon, was something she had never seen before.

Still, there wasn't much that could be done about it. "Well, I guess we have no choice but to continue," she told Link.

"What about me?!" Mido cried out. "I don't have a weapon!"

"We'll keep close!" Navi assured him. "Just don't try to attract the attention of anything."

"N-Navi?" Link suddenly spoke up. "Wh-What…lives…in…here?"

The fairy was quiet for a moment. "The truth is, I don't know," she confessed. "But, I feel the presence of unsavory things further ahead," she said. "So, you'll both have to be careful."

Both boys were unable to see the other but knew that they were on the other side of the foliage. "Well," Mido spoke up. "Shall we?"

Note: Not much longer now, so thank you for bearing with me. I hope I'm not boring you or going too slow, but I'm just not entirely sure of how to pace this certain part of the story, as it's not exactly canon to the game events. Then again, several elements in this story are already non-canon.

Nevertheless, thank you for reading, and I hope to hear from you all later!