Chapter 2
Wake Up

No two words annoyed Navi the fairy more. But this felt different from every other time.
Even in her deepest slumber, the words were spoken clearly into Navi's mind, waking her suddenly, yet calmly.
When her eyes opened, she was treated to the golden green rays of light beaming down from the leafy roof of the forest.
As she looked along the branches, Navi realises she was one of the first to wake up.
Scattered all over the bark were dozens of sleeping fairies all clustered together, casting a rainbow from their various glows of colour, while the males floated about near the branch to keep watch overnight.

"Good morning, Navi," Sekk, one of Navi's most bothersome friends greeted as he flew up to her. "Going somewhere?"

Navi nodded as she stretched out her arms and let out one last big yawn as the little buds on her back sprouted a set of wings.
Sekk landed in front of her.
"Can you see?" He asked, needing to make sure it's not too early for her.

"I can see fine…" Navi hopped to her feet, ready to take flight.

"Prove it…" Sekk held up four fingers. "how many fingers do I have?"

"Four," Navi muttered, crossing her arms with an impatient smirk.

"See, you are blind. I've always had ten fingers."

"Get out of my way~!" Navi playfully pushed him off the branch before hopping off herself.
Her wings fluttered and carried her through the branches as she worked her way near the forest floor.

Navi flew around the Great Deku where all the Kokiri children lived with their guardian fairies.
One of the kids inside was to be hers to watch over, all she had to do was trust her feelings and know when she found the right one.
"Him… no… Her!... Darn it… HER!" Navi floated inside a window, only to spot a sleeping fairy that she never noticed at first. "Oh, for crying out loud…" She flew back out, wondering if her 'summoning' was in actuality the voice of a dream rather than the actual forest protector giving her wisdom.

As she passed by another window, she heard the shuddering breath of someone clearly in pain.
Inside was a boy lying in bed opposite the window, shivering as he slept.

Despite her concern for him, Navi had more important matters to deal with. It's not her place to look out for another fairy's kid.
But as she peaked further inside, she couldn't sense another fairy. But Kokiri are assigned a fairy around ages five or six, and this boy was clearly too old to be without.

The boy was sleeping, albeit not peacefully. His face was buried into his elbow as he lay on his stomach.

"Link…" The word passed from her lips instinctually, as if she knew his name without needing to be told. "Link, wake up!" She flew up to his face, trying to rouse the boy from his sleep.
If she's wrong, this will be a very embarrassing first day as a guardian. But if his name is Link, then there'd be no room for doubt in her mind.

What does a guardian fairy even do anyway? She thought to herself, but it was too late for questions. Link's eyes twitched awake.
Seeing the light of a fairy's glow so close and so soon after waking up, he rolled away in a slight panic.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She could see the bruises, and dried smudges on the boy's face. She so hoped he wasn't going to be some troublemaker who always gets into fights.
Rose often talks about how cheerful and friendly her girl is, and Navi wanted a child like that. Well behaved and easy to live with.
"Your name, is Link, right?"

"Y-yeah…" The boy nodded, the lids of his left eye still trembling from the day before.

"I'm Navi," The blue fairy tried to keep a cheerful tone, but this was not how she imagined their first meeting. "I'm to be your fairy from now on."
She watched the boy's face go through the motions. At first, she thought maybe she had somehow made a mistake despite the name being correct.

The boy looked ready to cry again, but instead, he started laughing.
"Thank you…" He wept, wiping away his tears and more of the crusty blood stuck under his nose.

"Sorry to ask, but why are you all…" Navi waved her hand over Link's appearance.

"Nobody likes me…" He muttered. "They think I'm a liar, that I attacked someone, I didn't do it!" Still shaken up from the all too recent memory, Link tried not to shout so loud as he'd wake everyone else up.
But inside he was glad.
All the rumours and stories that he'd been denied a fairy all this time for being a liar must surely be disproven now.
And had he truly had beaten up a little one yesterday, a fairy would not have appeared today.

Navi got a little frightened by his body language. One way or another, misfortune seems to have entangled this boy.
"Link… why don't we go to the river?" Navi didn't know much about her new responsibilities, but she remembers Rose telling her that every day starts with her girl taking a bath in the river.

But Link shook his head. "No…" He curled up on his bed.

"Link, there's a ritual we have to do together…" Navi prompted. "We're going to see the forest protector. Do you want him to see you covered in blood?"

Link closed his eyes. He didn't want to go near the river again. But at least if there's a fairy, the others will leave him be. Maybe.

"Okay…"

"Good boy!" Navi's smile dropped as she said the words. All day she'd been expecting a little kid, but does a boy of ten want to be goaded with 'good boy'?
Then again, she'd heard Rose say it to her child who isn't much younger.
Regardless, she hovered by as Link got dressed in yesterday's tunic. It may not be clean, but it's not as dirty or torn as the one he slept in.

As they entered the hall, Navi was shocked at how dark it was.
Rose always said it was hard to see, but only now did she realise how much of an understatement it was.
"Link…" Navi stayed by the door, looking into the abyss. "Can I hold you?"

Link looked back at her, confused why she was staring blankly at the wall and not looking at him.
"I'm over here." He called, taking a step forward.

"I uh, can't see in the dark."

Link was visibly confused by this, not that Navi could tell. And neither of them completely understand what her holding him would entail, so instead, Link simply held out his hand for her to hop into and allow him to escort her through the tunnels.

It takes Link time to adjust to the dark too, but Navi looked content to be carried the whole way in his hands.
And thinking back, Saria always lets Rose ride in her hair when navigating the tunnels or during the rare night-time walk.
"Why can't fairies see in the dark?"

Navi looked straight up as from where she was sitting, that's where Link's voice was coming from.
Explaining as best she could, Navi tried to describe how the tunnel looked to her.
At that moment, the world was a black void with an intrusive light creeping in from around the outsides of her eyes.

Link didn't understand right away, so Navi tried an example that she'd heard from another guardian fairy.

"Can you see the walls?" She waited for his response, once he answered in the affirmative, she asked to be lifted to his face. Close enough that her small body took up about a third of his vision. At this distance, even she could make out his eyes shining back at her.
"How about now?" She smiled at him as he tried to focus his eyes behind her, but Navi's pale blue skin, wings, even her hair was luminescent, making everything behind her just look like a black wall of nothingness.
Navi giggled as the question was answered for her.

"Can't you light your own way?" Link asked.

"My eyes glow too. Anything darker than I am is completely invisible to me… makes getting around at night pretty hard." Navi felt rather amused by Link's curiosity. These were all unavoidable facts of life as a fairy that she'd never thought twice about.

"Then, I'll carry you." Before now, Link always assumed everyone carried their fairies around because their little wings get tired. But learning that they actually become blind during the dark hours and inside the Deku tree started making him wonder how difficult life must be for the little helpers.

"Thank you, Link." Although she couldn't see it, Link and Navi shared a smile.

As soon as Link stepped into the sunlight, the world around them was more than bright enough for Navi to fly by his side and follow.
From inside his room, she wasn't able to fully grasp how badly hurt his face was.
'These kids are brutal…' She thought to herself as she silently followed her boy's lead to the river.

About halfway there, Navi spun around in front of Link, crossing her arms.
"Oh joy, here comes trouble…"

Link looked up at his fairy and followed her gaze back the way they came. The much-welcomed sight of a girl accompanied by her fairy was quickly running towards them.

"You know Saria?" Link asked, waiting for his friend to catch up.

"I know her fairy…" Navi braced herself.

Once the four were face to face, Link was embraced with a hug from Saria, congratulating him on finally getting a fairy.

"sore, Sore, Sore!" Link winced.

"Sorry…" Saria eased up, but her smile stayed as she set her eyes on the fairy by his head. "Hi, Navi."

"Hi, cutie~" Navi waved back at her before turning her gaze on Rose.

The Kokiri children watched the blue and pink fairies stare off at each other.

"Go on, say it…" Navi challenged.

Rose uncrossed her arms. Her blood was fizzing at what she was about to say.
"W-… well done."

"And?"

Rose's lips were pouting angrily as she mustered the strength to finish.
"I, was… wrong."

"Yes!" Navi screamed in her face. "Too immature to be a guardian? Shows what You know~!"

Rose did her best to ignore Navi's mocking celebration and instead turned her attention to the children.
Since they were awake, and already on the way to the river, they may as well get their morning bath now.

"Okay." Link and Saria agreed at the same time.

While the two were striping down at the riverbank, Link asked if Saria thought their fairies were acting strange, only for the girl to reveal that Rose is actually Navi's older sister.

"I don't see them together that much, I think Navi is a wanderer, but she's nice. I think you'll like her." Explanation over, Saria ran up the higher banks to jump feet first into the deeper parts. "Ah! It's cold~!" She laughed after breaching the surface again.

Link took the slow way of walking into the water from the stony shore. After yesterday, just seeing Saria's jump gave him a horrible feeling.
Despite this, he still washed the dirt from his knees and the dried blood from his face.

"Link?" Saria could see he was still in pain and wanted to try something.

As soon as the boy looked up, he was hit by a huge splash of cold water.

"Come get me~" Saria kept an eye on him as she swam away. That was all the coxing Link needed to begin a pursuit of revenge.

The fairies on the shore watched with their little drops of dew as they too had their morning wash, all while listening to the boy and girl laugh and scream as they dunked and splashed each other.

"Link told me everyone thinks he beat up a little kid…"

"That's a lie!" Rose snapped. "Link had been with us all morning, then he just ran away. Next thing we heard he had about ten boys punching the life out of him. But Link says the boy was drowning, and both of them were soaking wet…" Rose knew there was very little the fairies could physically do to stop the savage beating Link endured. All they could do was yell at them to stop.

"Mido is the upstart, you met him yet?" Rose explained how she'd asked around while Saria took Link to bed.
According to the other guardian fairies, Mido and a few of the kids that played that mean bucket prank on Link were actually supposed to have been supervising the little ones. Had they done their job, no one would have gotten hurt at all.
"The worst part is, the only one who could stick up for Link's side doesn't remember anything before Link punched him… which Link says, was what got the boy to start breathing again…" Rose looked at the boy playing in the river with Saria. "I don't know what he's going to do."

"Shame…" Navi thought about how if she'd been assigned to him just one day sooner, she'd have been able to speak on his behalf.

"Anyway," Rose turned on the spot to question Navi about the next steps. "You need to take Link to the top of the tree, you know that right?"

"Uh-huh, then we'll get a thing that establishes Link's permanent role in the village."

"Wow, you actually were listening to me." Rose clapped her hands.

After ten minutes of playing in the water, Link and Saria started swimming back to the banks.

"You look like two swamp monsters." Rose chuckled as the pair of ten-year-olds had their soaking hair clinging to their faces as they emerged from the water.

"wait, why does Link have a...?" Navi whispered to her sister.

"Shush, don't say anything..." Rose nudged her before she could say any more. "He's self-conscious as it is."

Navi bit her tongue, not saying anything as she looked at the naked boy's tummy.

Waiting for the water to run off was always the worst part in the mornings, so some children like to use their clothes from the previous day to dry themselves with but bringing it back to their rooms is a chore in and of itself, while others just wring their hair out before throwing their clothes on and dry off as they go about their day.
Giving the importance's of Link's new task, he and Saria opted for the third option.
The fabric of their clothes clung to their wet bodies, but the feeling would go before they even notice.

"Back to the Deku Tree!" Saria cheered, running on ahead.

"Not for us, we have work to do." Rose reminded young Saria that Link and Navi must go by themselves.

Saria moaned her complaints but knew she just had to wish her friend luck and let them do it.

"I'll find you at our usual spot." Link promised.

"Maybe not…" Saria said as the usual hopeful look faded from her face. "I'm a gatherer, you might get another job."

Link was saddened deeply by this possibility. They always worked together. Every day. It was fun.

"Hey, cheer up." Saria punched his arm. "No matter what, I'll see you in the afternoon." With a wave, she ran off to collect her basket to begin her forage while Link and Navi made their way to the Deku Tree.

"It's about to get dark…" Navi gave Link a look. "Where should I sit?" She knew Rose always sat on Saria's head, but Navi wasn't keen on that idea. Instead, she sat herself down on Link's shoulder, holding on to a lock of his hair to keep herself steady as his body rocks with every step he took.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Yes." Link had never been to the top, but he knew which tunnels he wasn't allowed to walk without a fairy.

He passed unnoticed by rooms where children were just starting to wake up.

"hey!"
Link's blood ran cold. Of course he'd get spotted when passing Mido's room.
"Think you're a tough man now?"

Link took a punch to the ribs before he'd even turned around.

"Leave him alone!" Navi yelled, hopping off the boy's shoulder and continued yelling at the wall. Although she couldn't see where exactly Mido was standing, she spoke firmly as she defended Link.

Mido snorted at the sight of the blue fairy.
"Since when did little turds like you get fairies?"

Link held his ribs, looking up past his brow to the boy who always bullied him.
"You can't pick on me anymore…"

"Don't think anything's changed," Mido pushed Link again. "You can't beat me all by yourself."

"Wrong. The truth is, you can't beat Me by yourself!" Link shoved Mido against the wall, pinning him with one arm. "You always claimed I attacked you first… Everyone believed you because I'm a liar, but now I have a witness… So if you ever threaten me again…" Link touched the bruise just below his left eye.

Mido had never known Link to fight back. With his friends not backing him up and his own fairy still sleeping, Link had the upper hand this time.
But link just pushed Mido into his room before reclaiming his fairy from where she blindly hovered in the air.

"What just happened?" From the conversation she just heard, Navi was terrified she was about to be part of a fight.
She got a little startled when Link's hand was suddenly right below her feet but quickly fell to her knees and settled as Link continued to carry her through the dark tunnels.
"Please don't get into fights, Link." Navi pleaded.

"Don't worry…" Link promised. He doubted Mido will be ballsy enough to challenge him after today. "I don't think I'll be doing much fighting again."