Lost Woods
From walking through a hollowed out massive tree walkway, and entering into a massive area that beheld a temple on the far end, Guts saw that beside the Temple, the rest of the area between where he and the Kokiri walked out from, there was quite a massive sprawling ruin that looked like a large village made from mossy stone once existed in the deepest parts of the woods; Guts's eyes trailed across the view from where he and the others stood, seeing that there was a massive wall separating the mossy stone village with a single opening that led into what he could only assume was a maze.
Figuring it was some form of defense for the village's temple from an unknown form of invaders, Guts kept his ear open as he walked around to look for any specific fallen tree that looked like it would suffice for the target boards; Saria was already instructing her fellow Kokiris to not go too far into the maze ahead, leaving Guts to know he was correct in thinking the thing ahead was maze.
Halting at the center of the village ruins, shifted the weight of the axe against his shoulder a bit, Guts panned his eyes to look around more and see that there were quite a few fallen trees that had collapsed over the mossy stone building; the buildings however were quite sturdy in the fact that none of the trees that had seemingly grown atop them and fell over from rot had caved in, whatever the mossy stone were made of were quite hardy indeed.
"Guts!" Saria's voice broke him from his thoughts, prompting him to glance over at Saria as she approached him with a warm smile, "See if you can get to work on that tree over there!" she requested while pointing at the tree that nearly blocked the entrance to the maze with its top half.
Guts nodded and grunted in acknowledgement, "These trees look pretty old…not sure if they're too rotted out to make anything good out of them." he remarked, unsure if the Kokiri could make the target boards from the fallen tree Saria requested him to chop at.
"Oh, it's fine." Saria assured Guts as she stood back to let Guts get to work in hacking at the fallen tree, "We just need to get the best parts of the old trees, and it would be good to have some of this place cleaned up and honor our ancestors at the same time." she explained with a grateful smile.
"Ancestors huh?" Guts asked with a tone of indifference as he went to work in chopping at the center mass of the fallen tree, lifting the axe up he still held and slammed the wedge down into the tree with a loud and dull 'thunk', sending bits of wood splinters out from the impact, before lifting the axe up to repeat the same process.
While Saria remained behind Guts to stay safely out of the way, she expressed a shine in her eyes as she palmed her hips and explained to Guts a bit of her race's history, "Yup!" She answered, "From what I know after asking the Great Deku Tree, our ancestors were once ordinary Hylians!" she explained.
"Hmm." Guts grunted as he chopped more into the fallen tree, behind both him and Saria, the rest of the Kokiri were gathering up debris and scattered deku nuts left over seemingly from Deku Scrubs, some were even keeping an eye out for any potential threats. "How does that even work for your people to become what you guys are now?" he asked, unsure how that all made sense.
Saria offered an amused chuckled of warm as she scratched at her cheek, watching Guts continue in making headway through chopping the fallen tree in half, "That's fair, it's what I thought to, but to make things simple from what I know, our ancestors wanted to live closer to nature, and distanced themselves from the wider population of civilization…" she explained further.
"Can't see why they'd do that…" Guts remarked as he grunted in effort while getting almost through the tree he was chopping, a large divet was now prominent from Guts hacking at the fallen log; the boy's expression was of concentrated effort with his brow furrowed, "Wild life seems to enjoy sticking closer to the woods than the open plains of Hyrule…or at least…the rabbits I've seen do…not sure about the wolves…" he added, remembering the fight he had against the wolves that saw him as simple prey amongst the pile of dead bodies.
Guess they wanted fresh meat or something, poor choice on the wolves part.
As Guts slammed the axe against the tree's side, wood chips flew, leaving him just about one fourth of a ways to go, leaving Guts an annoyed scowl. Backing up to catch his breath and rest the axe on the ground, Guts turned to converse more with Saria face to face, "But whatever, guess living with some special tree nearby or whatever did something that made you guys like what you are now…" he shrugged, sweat partially beginning to form on his forehead.
The world was vast, and there were many races that lived across the lands, so one could only figure there was more to the world beneath the surface that Guts had seen so far.
Saria giggled a bit at Guts's behavior, expressing amusement at his nonchalant attitude towards her history, "Yeah, I suppose you are right." she offered a shrug to the boy, before she glanced at the ruins around them, "The Great Deku Tree even once said he isn't the first Tree Guardian of my Race, many more came before him, all have aged and died but not before letting a sprout grow in their place to secure the future for us Kokiri and Koroks!" She allowed herself a wane smile, thinking of how the Great Deku Tree had stated that his time was nearing its end.
With his back turned towards Saria, he didn't notice the wane smile as he wiped his brow and went back to hacking at the fallen tree with his axe, "Well it figures, a tree doesn't last forever, so that large Tree Guardian of yours will definitely age, rot and die. Not like anyone can stop that shit…" he stated bluntly, the dull thunking of wood being hacked by the axe echoed throughout the woods.
Thinking more on the matter to himself, he connected the dots between his discussion with that know-it-all brother Pici, and how he said the Great Deku Tree warned the Kokiri to never leave or they'll age and die or some shit; it didn't take hard thinking for Guts to figure the two were connected.
"Hey!" Mido's grumpy voice broke into the conversation, leaving Guts to pause as he slammed the axe down once again into the fallen tree, before he let the axe rest against the tree so that he could release the handle from his grip and turn to give the Kokiri boy a glare; Mido was stomping over along with a few other Kokiri who expressed worry and curious looks, "What's this about the Great and Mighty Deku Tree dying!?" he demanded with a 'harumph' and arms crossed as he stood across from Saria.
Saria on the other hand winced, before offering the majority of the Kokiri a sympathetic smile, forgetting that her voice had carried on far enough for their conversation to be heard, "Uh, right…I was going to discuss this matter later, but I supposed now would be a good time to spread the word."
"The Great Deku Tree is going to die?"
"What's going to happen to us!?"
"Who's going to protect us!?"
"Are we going to really shrivel and die with the Great Deku Gone?"
"Oh dear…I thought the Deku Tree looked a bit awful on the inside."
The last bit was spoken from Fado with a rare look of worry and sadness, while the rest clamored for Saira to explain herself. Guts glanced between Saria and the others, before making his voice be heard, "Well, what did you think would happen with a tree, even if it's that Great Deku Tree of yours!?" He sardonically remarked, an annoyed scowl spreading across his face.
Magical tree or not, all things die eventually.
Mido glared over at Guts, and shook his fist at the boy, "Shut it! We weren't asking you, outsider!" he retorted back, only earning a flat and unbothered look from Guts.
"Okay, please, just stop!" Saria demanded with a stern look and hands out in a halting manner between the boys, before facing the Kokiri with a downcast look, "Look, I know he's been a big part our whole lives, before we even came into being born, but we can't deny that Guts is right. Trees grow, age, and wither away, and the Great Deku Tree is no exception to that."
"Tch." Mido spat to the side with a grumpy look, and sneered a bit, "I don't believe ya!" he declared, before marching off, "The Great Deku Tree is probably just under the weather or something, ain't something as death going to claim him!" He denied the reality of the situation
While the rest of the Kokiri stayed silent, Saria offered them a simple smile, "look." She clasped her hands with a gentle smile, "We can deny it all we want, but time will always move forward for everyone, it is an inevitability for us all." she explained with a somber smile.
"Right." one of the know-it-all brothers remarked, nodding his head in agreement, "It does make sense. If the great Deku Tree were younger, I'd bet we'd be able to leave the woods just fine. That makes sense why he warned us not to leave the woods."
"Right!" Saria agreed with the brother, before clapping her hands once, "But hey, enough somber and mopey stuff!" she tried to cheer everyone up with a brimming smile, "With every dying Deku Tree, a new life is born, this is not the end of anything, just a new beginning that will rise! And I am sure our Guardian Deku Tree already has planned ahead for this!" She encouraged them all.
While the somber atmosphere began to drain away towards a brighter one, the Kokiri kids began parting off to continue their activities of gathering up the debris and sawing up smaller fallen logs. One of the Know-it-all brother, Pici, stayed behind as he looked at Guts's work, "Well…" he began to say while pocketing his hands and looking at the fallen tree that the boy had been chopping away way, "Looks like you're a good ways finished." he commented, before looking at Guts through his hair bangs.
"If you want, I can cut the rest with my saw while you get to chopping a different part of the tree." Pici suggested with a haphazard shrug.
Guts looked back at Pici, and offered a careless shrug back, "Knock yourself out, beats cutting the damn thing the whole way alone." he answered, before reaching for the axe and picked it up to carry it down with him towards the trunk of the fallen tree.
"Yup." Pici agreed as he pulled his hands out from his pockets and walked back to his tools to carry back a hand saw and begin sawing the area that Guts chopped at.
While Saria offered Pici a grateful smile, she frowned a bit as she turned her head and glanced where Mido was walking off to the edge of the village ruins. The brash and arrogant boy was definitely in denial, compared to the rest of the other Kokiri, and as much as she was annoyed by the behavior of Mido, she still tried to look out for everyone, including him; but knowing Mido, he was as stubborn as Guts but in his own way with expressing himself.
Well, that was pretty much the whole story for most boys, but Between Mido and Guts, the two of them had their own varying degrees of stubborn attitudes.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the negative thoughts brewing in her mind, Saria steeled herself to enjoy the coming days the best she could.
Hyrule Castle
While her personal royal guard Mikau made sure to keep her within his sights, Ruto still wanted to wonder a bit from her mother, that grown up stuff was still going on in the King's hall. With Mikau not far behind her as she walked the halls of the castle, Ruto came to a stop where she witnessed the sight of a private garden. She had passed by it while trailing behind her mother, but now she was allowed to wander a bit with supervision. She could tour the castle.
Pressed her palm up against the roof pillar to lean bit against it, Ruto hummed to herself as she viewed the garden. A lot of it was bushes with some sparse flowers in pottery, there was also a small aqueduct that allowed running water to flow along the side of the garden. 'It all looks nice…but where is the water coming from?" Princess Ruto questioned herself mentally.
Her personal guard Mikau seemed to have picked up on her silent observation as his que to speak up, "Looking at the mini Aqueduct, princess?" He questioned her with an earnest tone as he stood not far from her beside another pillar.
Ruto nodded as she pointed out her fingers at the running water, "Just wondering where all that water is coming from…how is it here and flowing when the water moat is at a lower level?" she asked him, her puzzlement was visible on her face.
Mikau observed where Ruto was pointing before she retracted her finger from the air and relaxed her arm against her side, "I can think of a few way, Princess, one involves a waterwheel that brings the water up while using the assistance of the flowing water in the moat around the castle to spin it." he suggested, his tone relaxed and calm.
Ruto nodded her head, picturing the idea of a waterwheel in some ways bringing the water up to the aqueduct for the personal garden to have its own running water.
The sound of small footsteps accompanied by larger ones brought both Ruto's and Mikau's attention to the right, seeing a young girl walking towards them with a Sheikah beside her, "Ah." Ruto began to remark with a look of realization, "And you must be Princess Zelda, correct?" she asked.
As the girl fully approached her and halted with her attendant standing by her, she nodded with a calm smile, "I am!" she answered towards the princess of Zoras, "And you must be Ruto, correct!?" she asked in return.
"Hmhm." Ruto nodded back, as both Princesses faced each other appropriately, not seeing their personal guards give sharp looks at each other, "you have an interesting garden here." she commented.
Princess Zelda offered Ruto a simple smile, "Thanks." she responded bashfully, and continued to speak, "But I wasn't the one that ordered it to be made, it was around long before I was born." she explained.
Ruto nodded in understanding, "That would make sense." she responded, while making a momentary glance at the garden before looking back at Zelda, "Is there any part of the Castle that is your favorite?" she inquired in an earnest tone, wanting to know if the Princess had a favorite spot within her home.
"There is!" Princess Zelda answered, expressing a brimming smile, before shyly looking up at her Attendant, "Impa, is alright if I show Princess Ruto my private Garden!?" she asked.
The guardian of the princess looked down at her with an encouraging smile, "It should be fine, this is an exchange of diplomacy, so it would be best for you and Princess Ruto to try and make a friendship out of it." she gave her charge a nod.
Ruto expressed some curiosity in her eyes towards Zelda, "You have your own garden!?" she asked.
"Of course!" Zelda answered, and motioned for the two Zora to follow her and Impa, "Come, we can talk more there and see my garden!"
"Yeah!" Ruto agreed with the princess, following her to the Garden, curious to ask what sort of princess stuff the Hylian princess did compared to what she did as a Zora princess.
As Ruto followed Zelda to her personal Garden, a stray thought roamed her mind of pondering about a certain boy that saved her life; the battle that took place around Zora's river and domain had caused an immense damage, to the point that boulders were used by the Gorons during the battle in the threeway battle.
It was one of the reasons much of the path leading up to Zora's domain was blockaded by many rocks and boulders.
Ruto didn't know where young that one boy was, but he was amongst those ruffian looking soldiers that looked nothing like the other Hylian soldiers; Her father had said those ruffians were called hired fodder, something she didn't know the meaning of yet. Both of her parents insisted they tell her more what the war was really about, and what all happened in it.
She just wanted to know where that boy came from, and why he bothered to save her if he was with the Hylians fighting against her people; nonetheless, she was thankful for the rescue.
Mikau
The same set of thought ran through the mind of Mikau, as he walked not far beside Impa whilst the both of them trailed behind their charges. Ever since the personal guard had arrived with his princess, he had kept an eye open for the young boy. For being someone so young and a part of an enemy faction, he never considered any soldier, nonetheless a mercenary to put aside his differences to kill his own ally to rescue an enemy's princess.
To this day, it still brought shame to the royal guard that the battle took place so close to the royal grounds of Jabu Jabu; what's worse, they had to use their old ways of using magic to freeze the water from Jabu Jabu's domain after its dam was blown up, bless Jabu Jabu for managing to survive the entire ordeal.
Past
Seeing one of his fellow Zora get killed in such a fashion by a mere child, Mikau scowled a bit as he witnessed the boy toss the dead Zora off from him and charged at another one of his fellow guardsmen 'Barbarian.' ran through Mikau's mind, before pressing against the soldier he was in the middle of fighting with his spear.
"Hyah!" Mikau exhaled with a yell while swinging a flipper foot around to kick the soldier back and spear him through the skull, brain matter spilling out the other end along with the end of his spear, 'these mercenaries are mere fodder, but it is draining us by the hour to fight them off along with the Royal Soldiers and Gorons at the same time!' Mikau grimaced as he chased after the boy once he pulled his spear free to avenge his fallen brethren, 'Child or not, you're an enemy!' were Mikau's thoughts as his feet made splashes in the ankle deep water of Jabu Jabu's premises.
Their Guardian Deity was luckily deep underwater, leaving the top surface free of any sight of him.
"Help! Help!" Ruto's shrilling screams put a halt to Mikau's attempt to chase after the boy, and for some reason, it brought the boy's attention as well as he slid through the water to a halt; both of them watch a hulking looking male run out from the entrance to the domain of the Zora with Princess Ruto under his arms, the man's face expressing a very foul look on his face as if he got himself a lucky prize, "Let me go!" the princess cried out, tears spilling from her eyes in protest.
"Grrr! Put her down Donavon! She's not a soldier or anything damn it!" The boy protested with a disgusted and angered look, before charging at the male mercenary soldier he called out for with his sword raised.
Mikau ran too, as whatever familiarity the boy had with the man, he did not like the man at all to a high degree, "Princess!" Mikau shouted out for her, as the man ran off with her under his arms, a few men emerging not longer after him carrying with them spoils of their home, from bags to their woman, it disgusted Mikau that these mercenaries were doing such grotesque behavior in the middle of battle.
It seemed the Boy cared not for the other man too, as he went through his own men, cutting at their legs with his sword while keeping his eyes trained on the Donavon character with a savage snarl of disgust.
"Bastard!"
"Traitor!"
"I'll fucking kill you!"
"I'll make sure Gambino kills you!"
There was definitely no love lost between the boy and his fellow hired soldiers, as the boy shouted back at them, "Die in the fucking water for all I care!" He raged while continuing his sprint towards Donavan, who had leapt over the waterfall with Princess Ruto still under his arm.
Mikau made quick work of the men the boy cut down by the legs, quickly stabbing each one in the head as he chased after the boy and that Donavan character, at the very least, he might owe the boy later if he did help save the princess from the creep; Seeing the boy leap after Donavon, Mikau wasn't long before he leapt as well over the waterfall to chase the man down through the river.
Present
While Mikau stood at the entrance of Princess Zelda's garden, his thoughts remained on how fast the boy chased after that Donavon before eventually catching up with the man and leaping to running him through the heart from the back and out the front.
When he asked why the boy risked such an effort to save the princess of the enemy he was hired to fight, the boy gave him a simple answer, 'I never liked the fucker, he always looked at me in a creepy way, now I just had an excuse to actually get rid of that fucker.' the boy told him with a savage smirk, before leaving the scene.
It still chills Mikau's spine to this day of what may have happened with the princess if that boy hadn't opted to chase after the man, 'Wait…what's your name!' his past voice rang in his mind of his earnest question of the boy's name.
He never did get the boy's name, and he never saw him again during the battle of Zora's river.
"You seem to be in deep thought over there." Impa's voice brought Mikau out of his past experience of the war.
While Ruto was still being shown around the Garden by Zelda, Mikau turned his head to look over at the Sheikah with an inquisitive glance, "I was…just thinking of the battles." he answered her calmly.
Giving him a sideways look while keeping her princess in her peripherals, Impa spoke back to him in a low voice, letting her tone not be carried off for the princess to hear them as the two of them had a private conversation between each other, "Look more like you were thinking of something more specific…" she pointed out, as if she could read him like a book.
Mikau on the other hand shook his head and responded while looking back towards his princess, "It's nothing really, just some random thought about a Hylian boy that I met."
Impa offered the Zora guardsmen a shrug of her shoulders before she too resumed keeping an eye on her princess, "Why? What did that boy do?" she asked.
"...it's…complicated." Mikau answered, unsure how to actually explain the entire events to the Sheikah, he wasn't obligated to tell her anything, but he could just to pass the time.
"Well…I'm all ears and curious…" Impa responded, an honest curious tone slipped into her voice.
Mikau scratched at his head before crossing his arms, the day felt like it was dragging on, "...Well…it all started during the battle of Zora's river…" he began to explain.