Kokiri Village

It had almost been a year now, for Guts, living amongst the Kokiri Children, and Koroks that were still somewhat shy to interact with the young Hylian boy; The incident that was the Beast King didn't escalate any further than Judeau returning for a visit for Guts. Judeau had assured that if any sign that the Beast was sighted in any way heading for the woods, along with his packs of wolves and wolfos, Judeau promised he'd send a bird over to warn the village.

Which suited Guts just fine, with his sword in hand, he assured himself he'd finish that overgrown mutt off; He didn't like the thought of the threat that the Beast King held over Guts, and the village that he had come to know as a stable home for the months that he had lived here. It was a slice of something that he hadn't ever felt before.

Currently, Guts was outside his treehouse at the base of it, the boy was swinging his sword with one hand and small logs tied around the base of the sword to add more weight to it; Guts was going through reps in lifting his sword, and quickly swinging it down before shortly stopping it as it neared the ground.

"-fifty one…fifty two…" Guts grunted out as he lifted and swung his sword through the air vertically, doing what he could to keep himself in shape and able to swing his sword with one hand if the occasion ever arised. Course, if he swung it with both hands with the added weight, it would be easier, but he wasn't training his swings in any easy way. He wanted to push the limits with his body, he imagined himself using his sword to lop off a leg of that beast with the sheer force of his swing and sword.

"-sixty five…sixty six…" Guts continued to grunt out his reps, sweat dripping from his brow as he was feeling the intense burn in his arm's muscles, and finally reached his seventieth rep, before letting his sword down steadily to rest it up against the tree of his treehouse.

Guts rolled his shoulder, feeling the soreness and burn he was feeling from performing his exercise; he had already worked with his right arm previously, so that left him with working out with his other arm next.

Glancing off to the distance from his spot, he could see the many decorations that have been in the works of being put up over the week in preparation of the Annual Deku festival; Guts hadn't been present the last time the Kokiri and Koroks celebrated the festival, as the last festival was held just shy a month before he escaped into the woods, so this would be his first time seeing the Festival underway.

From what Navi told him, part of the festival was to celebrate when the Deku Nuts turn red and pop open, of course that begged the question, where the deku nuts come from, if not from the Deku Tree himself. When asked, Navi had explained that they do come from the Deku Tree himself, and the squirrels and birds would occasionally pick them up and carry them across the country for food to store in their nests or in the ground for storage.

Guess that was one of the reasons Deku Babas exist across the country.

Guts walked over to a nearby log that he situated outside his home, and sat on it, a simple seat for Guts to sit down and relax for a moment after doing enough reps with his sword. As he sat with his arms resting on his lap, Guts continued to think about what Navi explained more about the annual festival.

The Red Deku nuts that the Koroks and Kokiri could find, would be gathered up and used; the red shells would be split open and used, while the inside nuts would be boiled and dried to serve as small snacks for everyone.

Guts's eyes trailed over to the small pile of red deku nuts he had found that popped out of the ground outside his home, he had yet to do anything with them; he was planning on handing them over to one of the know-it-all brothers, they had said they wanted to do something special with the red deku nuts, like making special nut bombs or something.

Guts had supposed it was worth seeing what the brothers had in mind, so he had gone out of his way to dig up the red deku nuts that had popped open from out of the ground outside his home, making it quite easy for him to spot them all out of the green grass.

"Guts! Guts!" Makari's voice warbled out, the sound of the pitter pattering of twig feet echoed from Guts's left, prompting him to sit up a bit and look over to see the one Korok that had gone out of his way to be the one outlier of Korok that wanted to get to know the Hylian boy.

The Korok himself had been getting more friendly through the months, and Guts wasn't sure why the wooden creature found any need to associate himself with him; perhaps it was the novelty of interacting with a Hylian, along with being more outwardly playful was what made Makari want to interact with Guts the most compared to his other Koroks.

Makari, a short stubbly Korok with a red leaf for a face, wobbled over to Guts in an excited fashion, earning a curious look from the boy as he watched the Korok waddle somewhat over to him in a hurried way, on the back of the Korok he carried a Viola. Guts watched as Makari finally reached him and hopped from twig foot to twig foot, "Guess what!? I'll be playing for the upcoming festival this time!" he celebrated.

Offering a raised eyebrow at that, along with a haphazard shrug, Guts responded back to the Korok with a plain tone, "...hm…neat?" He answered back questioningly, unsure why the Korok wanted to tell him the news, "I guess, good for you?" He congratulated the wood creature.

Makari, hopped and twirled in the air before landing back down facing Guts again, "It is! Last year, it was Fado with her Violone!" He explained, and brought his Viola around for him to hold and show Guts, "Tonight, I shall hope to play just as well as she did!"

"Mmh." Guts was not sure what else to say, other than, "Well…uh…good luck?" He offered Makari, who placed his Viola back around his back and nodded back at Guts with his whole body, given the fact that his entire leaf face covered almost all of his stubbly body.

"Thanks!" Makari answered back, before speaking again with a cheerful tone. "Oh, And Saria sent me…hehe…almost forgot about the other reason I came here." Makari chided himself with a nervous laugh, and gestured for Guts to come with him, "Come on! Saria says you should join in with the festival!" He encouraged Guts.

With a dull look, Guts blew out a silent exasperate breath from his lips, and picked himself up from his seat, it was better to listen to that girl than to ignore her and test her patience; Saria will always try and get Guts involved with every activity they did around the Village, and Guts had found it was better to indulge the girl's whims.

And to be fair on his account, the stick fights, slingshot contests, and stick ball games had been fun.

"Sure…" Guts responded to Makari lamely, while the Korok continued to exude an excited attitude contrary to Guts's own; Makari hopped up and down in excitement as he followed beside Guts towards the center of the village, where there were quite a few Kokiri sawing and building something with old logs, some of which were already put into use as carved benches that had been chiseled out for the Kokiri to use to sit on.

"Mind telling me what they're making?" Guts questioned in an earnest and curious tone to Makari while the two of them walked towards the general setting of the ongoing construction work.

With a pep in his little twig steps, Makari answered Guts with an excited tone, "Oh, that, well, the Kokiri are building the stage for the play." the Korok answered Guts as if it were the general knowledge of what a play was.

"Play?" Guts asked, a clueless look crossed his face as he and Makari approached the general construction area of the stage and audience seating. Guts furrowed his brow in confusion as he tested the word again in his mind, "Play, like play around or something?"

Makari answered for Guts as they continued to walk alongside each other, "Hehe, No! A play is something that is acted out on a stage, to entertain everyone…in basic terms that is…" Makari answered, while adding on the last part after thinking more on it.

"Sounds…weird…" Guts remarked, he did his best to imagine the image of people doing something that would entertain others, and all he thought of were tricks like juggling balls or playing music for people to listen to; his curiosity was more than piqued now. "But…I am curious…" He voiced his thoughts to Makari.

"Hey, who knows, maybe you'll be voted to be the fairy prince!" Makari commented back as an idle thought, as he and Guts finally reached the construction area of the stage, where Saria, Fado, Mido were already there.

Guts expressed a dry look while his eyes gazed forward, "I highly doubt that…" He remarked, earning the attention of Saria who had her back turned towards him.

Turning around, "Oh, Guts! You're here now!" She said, an excited smile accompanied her tone of voice.

While in the distance Mido was directing the Kokiri in putting the stage together, Fado wasn't that far away either as she was huddled up with a few other Kokiri with a book in her hands.

"Hmhm." Guts shrugged in response to Saria seeing him approach her, while Makari hopped up and down in excitement beside Guts, "So…what's this play supposed to be really…?" Guts questioned, hoping to get a more clearer answer from Saria.

"Yeah!" Makari urged Saria on with a gentle gesture with his nubs of arms, "I bet Guts would be great as the Fairy Prince this time!" He offered his idea.

"...Fairy Prince?" Guts spoke with a blanched face, imagining himself in some clothes that reflected the nobility. He really didn't see himself wearing such posh clothing, "Yeah, no thanks." He answered back at Makari with a sideways gaze down at the over-exuberant Korok.

Saria giggled into her hand as she turned and sat fully around on her stump seat, to face Guts with an amused smile, "Oh come on, Guts! I bet you'd make for a great Fairy Prince!" She urged the boy to play the part of the upcoming play.

As best as he could express his displeasure of the idea, Guts looked back down at Saria with an annoyed look, "How about no, just hand the position off to Mido or one of the Know-all-brothers." he offered, doing his best to deflect the idea of involving himself with the play, or whatever it entailed.

Hearing the conversation, Mido made a sly look as she turned and raised her hand in the air, "Okay, now that we're all here, Let's hold a vote on who should be the actors of the play!" she declared with an expression of excitement.

Having just helped push the last bit of the floor down for the stage, of course, for the sole purpose of showing off to the other boys that he could lift as good as any other boy, Mido turned around with an excited look, "'Bout time!" He remarked rushing over where everyone was huddling up around a thick flat board to mark down the names for each role for the upcoming play.

Lost Woods

Deep within the recesses of the obscurest parts of the woods, where light barely reached the grounds underneath the abnormally tall trees, of which some say led to places unknown if one ventured deep into the Lost Woods, a giant gnarly tree existed within a grove of rotted wood; The gnarly tree in question wore a face that looked evil beyond comprehension, its knotted bark hooked nose made it look like a witch had places her face on the tree.

From within the eye holes of the tree, light shined before eventually the tree opened its mouth with a gangly and crooked smile; insects exited the tree's mouth as he spoke, "hehe…I can feel itttt….The Deku Tree is aging close to his deatttthhh…." He said while dragging out his words with mold spores spewing forth from his mouth.

The Tree was the Baga Tree, Ruler of the Lost Woods. His greed for more domain of the woods had set his sights on the Deku Tree's village and children; he wanted everything under his domain, the soil beneath him was growing thin with nutrients, and it was getting harder to find any decent water that fell from the tree tops above him.

The Baga Tree wanted to corrupt every life that existed within the woods, and unleash it into Hyrule; getting rid of the Deku Tree was just part of the problem and plan, for the Deku Tree himself, whilst waning in power, was still able to hold the Baga Tree's influence back within the deep confines of the Lost Woods.

But now, the Baga Tree could feel it, he could feel the Deku Tree's life force ebbing away, steadily over time; this was his chance to push back against the Tree's influence, and allow the Baga tree to spread his roots out to the wider world of Hyrule and corrupt the lands to suit his needs.

He would have it all, he would be worshipped, he would have the land to himself and then some! "Eheheeeee!" The Baga Tree cackled, more mold spores exited his mouth and infected the air;causing some still alive trees in the distance to get caught by the airborne mold spores, and begin to show shines of corruption, the trees themselves began to slowly contort into gangly and gnarly looking trees, reflecting the appearing of the Baga Tree.

"At Last!" The Baga Tree rejoiced, the inner darkness of his eyes had dots of red shining malice, "All will be mine, all shall be consumed, all shall wither and grow to my whims!" He declared, and cackled with delight.

The Baga Tree's face contorted before he willed his power into being, the corruption that allowed him to cause those that dared enter his woods to be corrupted. From beneath the earth, skeleton bodies emerged, the skeletons themselves seemingly acting on their own as they climbed from out of the corrupted earthen dirt.

As the skeleton bodies stood upright before their master, sinewy muscles began to form over the skeleton bodies, before finally sickly brown gnarly tree looking skin formed over the bodies of the once dead bodies that rose above the earth. Moblins, of all sizes, stood before their resurrector, and bowed to the evil tree.

The Baga Tree cackled again in delight at his work, the evil creatures knew who to pay respect to, and it delighted the tree to no end. "Heed my commannnnd." The Baga Tree announced, his facial bark features looked beyond eerie and evil, "Set forth, and charge. Attack the wards of the Deku Tree…I want his land! I want those Kokiri and Koroks…I want everything he has, for all will become mine soon! I want you to accelerate his death…!" he ordered.

The Deku Tree could only keep up the somewhat invisible wards, that were the extension of his roots; at best, the Deku tree probably only had a few years left, but the Baga Tree was impatient, and he knew that troublesome tree had a Deku Sprout already growing beneath him.

It was better to attack the Deku Tree now while he's unprepared, than to deal with a new Deku Tree sprout that could extend the wards further into the lost woods, thereby making the Baga Tree have less territory to use as power.

He couldn't let that happen, not when he could deny the Tree any chance of getting his Deku Sprout ready after his death.

No, he needed to strike now! "March off, my minions!" The Baga Tree bellowed from his gnarly wooded mouth, spittle mold flecks exiting his mouth as he spoke, "Attack his root!" he demanded.

A chorus of monster-like growls and other noises exited the grotesque mouths of the resurrected moblins, as they turned and set forth for their destinations; the imprinted command put into their minds by the Baga Tree allowed them to know where to go and what to attack.

The Baga Tree cackled once more as he watched his minions of corruption walk off into the woods, "Soon! Soon!" He cheered in evil delight for himself.

Kokiri Village

The Great Deku Tree raised his aging wooden brows that covered his eyes, not that he needed them but they were part of a face that help give his forest children a face to look at; his roots felt the distant footsteps of an approaching evil, of which were heading towards the roots he used to help boost the wards for keeping evil at bay for his village.

Feeling out more of what was going on, the Deku Tree could feel that an approaching small army of moblins were one their way towards the village; what was worse, they were all covered in the sickly green energy that belonged to his old counterpart, the Baga Tree.

So he's playing his hand now? The Baga Tree no doubt knows he was nearing his death, so evidently, he was trying to accelerate his death, while making it near impossible to nurture his Deku Sprout in preparation for his death.

This was no go, and just now during his Children's little annual festival…

He had best alert the old fairy system, have his fairies leave him and alert every Kokiri and Korok that a real threat was coming after his own life; he could do little now other than protect his children, he dearly hoped they could…

No, perhaps this was just the start of young Guts's journey? That Vision he's had of an adult man confronting his Deku Sprout; the man was tall and held a large sword, nearly as long as the man was tall. So many visions the Great Deku Tree had had over the recent years. Evil was growing, and his visions were beginning to foretell of a young battered dog recovering from his wounds, and rescuing the land of Hyrule.

'Well young Guts, you've fought that Beast King…but can you fight an army of monsters?' Were the Deku Tree's thoughts. As much as he wished he didn't have to thrust the responsibility onto the boy so soon, he didn't have the time now to be hesitant, the village was under another threat.