Chapter 21:
Surprise

Rini

Time had become somewhat meaningless living in Kokiri Forest. Days and weeks blended together, and the best way to keep track of time was by the changing of seasons. The Kokiri did not track the days with numbers like the Hylians did nor did they track their birthdays. Summer was once again reaching its peak for the third time since their arrival, so it had to be close to Ventus' birthday if it hadn't passed already.

Peering into the water, her eyes tracked the glistening movement of a small fish before a golden-yellow bowl scooped it up and dumped it on the shore next to her.

"You know, I've seen fish people come up from here in the past," Fado announced from their perch, flicking their hand as another fish came sailing from the water and landed on the shore next to her. With Saria distracting Ventus for the day, Fado had offered to take Rini into the Lost Woods. She needed something to offer at the trading hub for a shield now that he could swing around their father's sword with a one hand.

"You mean like a Zora?" she asked, eyes not leaving the crystalline water. At some point it had become a game between the two to see who could catch the most fish. Most things turned into a game of sorts with Fado around.

"I don't remember. It's been awhile since I've seen one," Fado giggled. Feeling the faintest sense of heat further down into the water, Rini narrowed her eyes and flicked her fingers up. A rather large fish came flopping onto the shore.

"That's ten. I win," she announced, finally looking at Fado who had decided they weren't sure what gender they were feeling that day. Some days Fado decided to be a girl, others a boy and some days they couldn't decide on either so they refused to choose.

Puffing out their cheeks, Fado pushed off the branch and practically floated down to the forest floor next to her.

"You're too fast now," they complained as another, larger golden-yellow mana bowl appeared and Rini began to fill it with the fish they caught; nineteen in total.

"You can still beat my brother," she pointed out with a smirk. "He still doesn't have your finesse when it comes to magic."

There were only a few spells Ventus could do without using too much mana, and even then his precision control was shaky on the best of days. Rini wasn't sure why it was so hard for him, even after all this time. At least his sparring with Mido was improving his swordsmanship skills.

"He's getting there. He just needs to let his instincts finally take over," Fado hummed. "But once we get Ventus that shield, I found something weird in the woods. I want to show you two."

"We shouldn't go too far in!" Dela, Fado's fairy, chirped in protest. "Remember what Mido said? The forest is getting sicker with each passing of the moon!"

"Between the three of us, it'll be fine," Fado scoffed, waving her off. "It's not any further than where Saria runs off to."

Rini didn't say anything to that, dumping the last of the fish into her mana construct before using another to fill it with water to keep the food fresh for better trade value. She had noticed with each passing month Fado seemed more and more interested in the Lost Woods. Apparently they too blamed this Link for the death of the Great Deku Tree. With the sprout still not showing signs of growth, they had been spending less time in the village.

It didn't escape Rini's notice; they mostly came back to spend time with Mido or play with Ventus, and if he wasn't available, herself. Less and less Kokiri were willing to go into the Lost Woods with them, and only Ventus was stupid enough to go with Fado. Which meant by default Rini had to go too since the last time she let her brother out of her sight he almost got killed by a Gerudo.

"What do you want to show us?" she asked, flicking her basket up and waited for Fado to take the lead, which they did with a skip and a giggle.

"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you, now would it be?"

"Oh, oh, he's still distracted," Fado was lying on their stomach on a small platform near Saria's house. Standing near them, Rini clutched the wooden shield in her hands. Between the fish and some herbs they had picked up on their way back which Fado pointed out and Rini had almost all memorized by now, they were able to get the shield. Why they weren't going straight to Saria's house was beyond Rini's guess.

"Well, yeah, he's sewing with Saria," Rini said. "Also why did you drag me all the way up here?"

"It's Ven's birthday, right?" Rini suddenly had a sinking feeling at the glint in Fado's eyes and could only slowly nod. "And you Hylians do surprise parties?"

Wherever this was going, Rini knew only chaos could follow.

"Fado, I—"

Fado, on the other hand, was not one to be reasoned with and grabbed her hand with an exclamation of, "So let's surprise him! Kaze!"

And just like that they were rocketing at a far faster speed then Rini would like right toward Saria's door and crashing through the inside, Rini pulling up a mana shield bubble to encompass them both before they could get too seriously hurt.

She could hear Ventus swearing and Fado's maniacal laughter in between the ringing of her ears. How do those two handle throwing themselves at such speeds? Rolling over, she looked down to see the shield was thankfully not broken. As the world stopped spinning, the voices came into sharper clarity.

"—and not only that, you almost broke the loom! Do you know how much more dangerous that could have been if Rini couldn't have shielded you two? What were you thinking?"

"Surprise!" was the only answer Fado told Ventus, who was now a head taller than everyone in the room. Over the past changing of seasons he had really shot up, and would have rivaled Mom in height if she was still alive.

"Surprise?" Ventus spluttered. "For what?"

"Your birthday," Rini said, sighing, standing up, approaching Ventus and holding out the shield. "Here, for you."

Any remaining anger in her brother's eyes vanished as he gently took the shield, looking at her before pulling her into a hug. Even though they could no longer count the exact days, they did their best to give each other gifts. For her birthday, Ventus had managed to find or make, she still wasn't sure which, a hair ornament made of glassy and shining stones.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Yeah, well, now I don't have to worry about your reckless behavior as much," she said, squeezing him back.

"Now that's done with," Fado announced, clapping their hands. "Time for the surprise part of the surprise!"

"Barreling through Saria's house wasn't it?" Ventus asked in a deadpan, raising an eyebrow.

Fado clicked their tongue and waggled their finger disapprovingly. "'Course not! It wouldn't have been much of a surprise if you were paying attention after all. Instead we're going to the Lost Woods—"

"Where it's dangerous—" Dela interrupted only for Fado to continue plowing right on-

"To see something magical! Something that will blow your mind. The Lost Woods are always full of mysteries but even this is something which leaves me confused." Pointing dramatically to both herself and Ventus, Fado continued on. "With you two being Hylians and familiar with the outside world, perhaps you might give insight into this! What do you say?"

"Ouch!" Saria brought her finger up to her mouth, sucking on the place she had pricked herself on accident. She flushed, realizing everyone was looking at her. "Ahem, sorry."

"You okay?" Ventus asked, turning his attention to Saria for the moment causing Fado to pout. Even though her brother wasn't as good at medicine as Rini had learned to be, he still took it upon himself to be an older brother to a race of children who were alive even before he was born.

Part of Rini felt jealous he acted like everyone's older brother, but that's how he was even before. Poking his nose into other people's business, even if they didn't want it.

"I'm fine," Saria waved him away gently. "But Dela does have a point. The woods have been more unpredictable lately, even for a Kokiri."

"There's been more mad Scrubs around and the wolves are acting strangely too," interjected Dew, Saria's guardian fairy, a little orb of light with a hint of teal and wings. "Deku Scrubs are dumb, but still, they don't usually act like this."

"Isn't that even more of a reason to look into it?" Fado pressed, leaning forward. "Even when war happened outside of the forest before, nothing like this has happened back then. We should investigate every lead we have, especially since the Great Deku Tree still hasn't regrown yet. Plus, I know you go running off into the woods a lot too, Saria."

Saria pressed her lips together guiltily, her blue eyes shifting downward in thought. Dew drifted closer to her instinctively. She muttered, "I've sort of tried that already."

"Investigating?" Rini asked, pressing her lips together. The situation about the Lost Woods wasn't talked about much, not like this anyway. It felt like it was a taboo subject they were finally beginning to breach.

"Well then, why don't we go look into it together?" Ventus asked with a smile. "More heads, more ways of thinking, right?"

"Maybe." Saria shrugged. Her hands had long abandoned the stitch work they had been occupied with. Now they wrapped her arms around herself. "I just have a bad feeling."

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Fado said bluntly as Ven put a hand on her small shoulders, trying his best to comfort her.

Rini had to agree with Saria though. While they did occasionally go into the Lost Woods, they usually stayed rather close to the village. Even then, Rini could feel things hiding behind the trees. Over the years, whatever lay just out of eyesight seemed to be drawing closer, like teeth about to snap down.

"Hey, it's okay. How about this, we go in, take a peek and get out. The second we sense something is wrong, we run away," Ven offered. "I can't just turn my back if there is something I can do to help. It's thanks to all you and the Lost Woods Rini and I are able to be safe. The least I can do is give back in an hour of need."

And there's that hero complex again. Rini heaved a sigh, knowing from the beginning it was going to end up like this. Still, the fact her brother was even entertaining the idea of running away at the first sign of trouble was progress.

"Fuck, if you're going I guess I am too," she grumbled, not too happy about it.

"You can stay behind too, Rini," Ventus said, looking at her, pressing his lips together. Rini snorted at this. They had this argument in the past. After the incident at Lake Hylia, she wasn't letting her brother run off and play hero by himself ever again.

"You and Fado can hear better than I can, and you can sense any poes, but I'm the only one who can actually create mana constructs," she pointed out. "But my brother's magic control is shit, and if it's just you two alone, you hype each other up on stupid ass ideas."

"Hey!" Fado and Ventus said at the exact time, looking equally insulted.

"I'll help you, Rini," agreed Saria, standing up and setting her stitching aside. Her expression was still strained at the eyebrows with her worry.

"If you want to, but it will be nice to have someone else to override these two's method of 'fuck around and find out,'" Rini said, jerking her head toward Ventus and Fado. The two got along a bit too well considering how impulsive both could be.

"It's settled, get your things and let's go!" Fado exclaimed, running out of the house.

Saria sighed heavily and went to where her cloak was hung up by the doorway. Rini gave her a sympathetic look before quickly following her brother out of the house to a small treehouse a bit further from the others they had been staying in for the past three years. Apparently it was the house of Link before he left the forest.

Rini didn't need to pick up anything, she had all her stuff when she left with Fado earlier, but Ventus needed to get his sword and bag. She couldn't help but smile as he fumbled with trying to find a place to have his new shield rest before deciding to just carry it.

Ceres was there, sleeping as she usually did during the day. She had grown to a rather large barn owl, and usually went hunting out during the night. How she came back each time was beyond Rini's knowledge.

Exiting the house, Rini blinked as she heard an argument further up.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at Ven who simply shrugged.

"Mido and Fado are arguing about going into the woods."

"And for once, I thought you and I were on the same page, Saria!" came Mido's angry tone.

"We are, sort of…" implored Saria. "We're going to see if there's anything else we can do to help the forest."

They saw Mido standing with his fists on his hips glaring at the two Kokiri.

"Ha!" the boy barked. "The Great Deku Tree—"

"Isn't here anymore," she interjected. "What else can we do but try?"

"It's no use arguing. Fado got the idea in their head, my brother agreed, and well, you know how these two are," Rini sighed, approaching them, Ven giving her an insulted look and Fado mirroring it. "Besides, if there is a chance to figure out what's at least going on it is better to get ahead of it."

"I've tried to stop them, but Fado really wants to go," Dela whined, wings drooping. "Rini and Saria are coming along to make sure Fado and Ventus don't make stupid decisions together."

"You all make bad decisions," accused Mido. "I'm coming if it's gonna be that way."

"Yahoo!" Fado exclaimed, giving him a hug. "It's a full party of all my friends! Let's go!"

It was quiet, though at first it wasn't. Ventus and Fado had been excitedly chattering with each other in the beginning, talking about this and that. They were going back and forth about what the Lost Woods was viewed as from the outside. No matter how many times Fado heard it, they never seemed to grow bored. In return they talked about the others who found their way through the woods. Many died from their wounds or got lost and very few lingered like they did.

Yet the deeper they went in, even Fado stopped talking, looking around at the curving branches which were beginning to look like teeth. Rini could feel flashes here and there of heat, but unlike in the village, the deeper they went in the harder it was to lock on to. Each time she felt like she could grab on to something, it slipped away through her fingers.

Not only that but Anna was insisting they turn back. Screaming at her, really. There were a couple of times when she felt like there was something watching them but each time she turned, there was nothing there. Part of her wanted to ask Ventus if there were ghosts nearby. The other half didn't want to know the answer.

"We're almost there," Fado said finally and it was impossible even for Rini to miss the sigh of relief as they found themselves in a small clearing. Looking around, a sudden shiver ran down her spine as Fado's head whipped suddenly around and as they yelled, "It's an ambush!"

A golden bubble already formed around herself as a white paw with three large protruding claws slammed right where her eye was and scraped down. Whipping her head to the side, she could see a wolf, the same kind of twisted wolf which walked on its haunches they saw from the treelines when they ran in the plains outside. Their eyes glowed even during the day.

Even here?! With a flick, the bubble protruded a large spike and skewered it right through the heart, maybe. It spurted red blood and stopped moving.

Turning her head to better gauge the situation, she could see seven other wolves attacking. Ventus was already sailing back, his shield already having a large chunk of wood taken out of it. Mido was guarding Saria with his own shield, a stone knife in his other hand. The Kokiri girl was pulling something from a pouch on her waist. She threw it at the ground and there was a blinding white flash. Fado seemed to have already taken down two wolves by themselves, though Rini wasn't sure how.

Shit I need to get closer to the others. I can at least protect them with my bubble as they do their thing. While she could provide additional bubble shields, she couldn't cover everyone. It would be better to simply use one and strengthen it than have multiple and worry about something breaking through.

"We need to group up!" she yelled, rushing toward Mido and Saria since they were already together.

Before she could get there, another wolf got in her way and just before it slammed its massive paw into her bubble, she asserted more mana into the front though she could feel it bending under the force of the hit. You gotta be kidding me!

Pushing forward again with the spike, she barely managed to take out another one when something slammed into her and sent her flying further into the treeline. The barrier shattered as she fell, though it didn't save her from the pain of crashing on the ground so hard. What kind of insane strength do these freak of natures have?!

As a shadow loomed over her, Rini knew what was going to happen before it did. Still she threw up a barrier only for it to break in the maws of the wolf as it clamped down hard on her shoulder. Pain flooded every bit of her senses like a sea of fire had grabbed her into its grasp. Letting out a howl of her own, it was only there for a moment before there was a yelp and a different shadow standing above her.

Ventus.

Sword and shield in hand with the sun behind his back, he looked every bit of the heroic knight he always aimed to be in that moment.

"Rini—"

Only to be felled like all the others as a different wolf who followed them into the woods appeared, felling her brother. Felling him Uncle Killian. Like their mother. Like father.

As her brother collapsed to the ground, she could see the one he had only managed to wound, shaking off its injury and getting back on its haunches as her own vision was beginning to fade to black, the pain pulsing through her body. The one hovering over Ventus was raising its claws.

Raising her hand, without a second thought she shot the strongest missile she could at the wolf about to kill her brother, shooting it through the forehead with a wet pop.

The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Ventus reaching toward her and calling her name.

"Rini!"

With a gasp, Rini's eyes shot open, her brother's voice ringing in her ears. Blinking slightly, it took a second to focus. While the walls weren't familiar, Rini could tell she wasn't in the forest anymore.

Somehow they had escaped it seemed.

How long was I out?

She had expected to be in pain, but instead she felt nothing. Really, she felt fine. But that was the furthest thing from her mind as other voices began to filter in.

"Ven?"

It took another moment to register he was hugging her, face buried in her shoulder. His entire body was heaving in sobs and she could see bandages which had blood soaking through wrapped around his torso. Rini swallowed.

She couldn't feel his hug. Did the attack paralyze her? She could still sense his warmth.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here," Rini tried to soothe him, but Ventus continued to cry, completely inconsolable.

It was the only thing she could hear, realizing it was deadly quiet in this tree home.

Rini could feel faint sources of heat further away, though why they weren't nearby was beginning to worry her. A worry which only increased when there was a soft hoot and Ceres landed near her head, looking at her.

At that, Ventus seemed to break from his crying and his brow furrowed ever so slightly as he looked right at her.

"Rini?" he choked out, reaching out toward her.

"Ye—"

However, the words died in her throat as his hand passed right through as if she weren't there. With a horrified start, she moved as Ceres fluttered after her. But her body didn't move with her.

Instead she saw herself, unmoving and turning a pale blue, cradled in Ventus arms as he stared at her.

"I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm so sorry."