The Reign of Ganon: An Ocarina of Time Adaption (G)

It's been nearly seven years, now, since I began my work as a fanfiction writer. I think that's kind of funny; I have come as far in my writing skills as Link's jump from child to adult. Recently I looked back at my first piece of writing - a completed Ocarina of Time adaptation! - and decided that the quality was absolutely terrible. It was my first fic, my favorite fic, so it deserves more than a revision or a quick clean-up; I'm giving the whole thing an overhaul and rewriting it, and I'm going to post the chapters here as I finish. My goal is to get the entire thing rewritten, and perhaps draw a scene from each chapter when I'm done.

For now, I'm going to put each chapter in its own post and link to everything here; that'll keep it clean and you won't have to go digging through comments for chapters. (Not that comments are a sure thing, at this point. XD I'm just being optimistic!) If there's no link attached, that chapter hasn't been rewritten yet.

Oh, one last thing: since I always write with music, I'll post what I was listening to each chapter in case you want to take it up one level as you read. If you can't find the song, try YouTube, ZREO, Google, or the music section of this site.

Warnings for this fic include a very mild attitude towards the canon, two non-Sue OCs, and extreme longwindedness. As Link grows older and his world more violent, the rating my change from G to T to M, and more warnings could be added here.

Edit: I've started on a project to do an illustration for each chapter, barring the prologue and epilogue. I'll link them below.


Prologue - Artwork N/A
Chapter One - Artwork
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Epilogue

The song for this chapter is max05233157's arrangement of "Title Theme" from the Ocarina of Time soundtrack; it's on YouTube.

Prologue


A girl wearing a light blue dress sits at a grand piano, playing a sweet tune that echoes softly through her home. The day outside is beautiful, with a light breeze and few clouds in the sky. She hears gleeful shouts from the open window and stops playing. Would her younger brothers never tire from their games of heroism and adventures? It’s nice outside, so she decides join them. She walks down the stairs and out the front gate of her home, and, sure enough, there are her brothers, playing games.

“You’re no match for me!” one of the boys shouts, swinging a wooden sword all around him. He quite small, but like most small children, his energy drives him, and he runs about the meadow, shouting threats and insults.

“You lousy hero! You can never defeat me! Never! All the world shall be mine!” The boy trips then, and flops down onto the grass, but it isn’t long before he gets up and shouts out again.

Another boy, much older than his brother, at seven, also has a wooden sword. He runs forward and cries, “You can never win! I’ll defeat you yet, scoundrel! And then I shall win the lady of honor and rescue her from...from...what am I rescuing her from, Grandmother? I forgot.”

“Oh, anything you like, so long as it’s fearsome enough,” says an old woman who is watching, barely concealing a smile.

“I’ll rescue from your terrible tower...!”

The younger folds his arms. “You will not! You...you....” He spots the girl watching them. “Sister! What’s a good name for this hero who is so foolishly challenging me?”

The girl walks up to them, and shakes her head sadly. “His real name should be fake. Or imaginary, or nonexistent, or not real at all. They’re all just stories, anyway.”

The older boy frowns. “But they did, Grandmother told us so! She’s even being our maiden of honor. You can go next, if you want.”

“No thanks. I’m too old too believe in nonsense!” The girl frowns. “Grandmother, why are you filling their heads with stories? There aren’t any real heroes and sorcerers, at least, not anymore.”

“The stories aren’t fake!” the old woman says, looking nearly insulted. “There are real heroes today, still living, who’ve done such things. There’s been heroes as long as the world has existed. Sit down, all of you, on the grass,” the woman continued briskly. She sits, pulling the younger boy into her lap, and the older boy sits right next to her, but the girl doesn’t move.

“Another fairy tale...?” she asks.

“This story is true, I promise. This is a story I haven’t told you before, and it really happened. I was there, in fact.”

The boys gasp in amazement; even the girl can’t stop her eyes from growing wide.

“You?” the older boy says. “You were there? Did you meet a hero and a sorcerer and a princess and...?”

“I certainly did!” The old woman smiles. “Now, all this happened quite some time ago, but I remember it well.” The old woman smiles, a far away look in her eyes. “It’s hard to tell where these things begin and end, but I do believe it all really started with a little girl named Zelda...”

The songs for this chapter are Hyrule Symphony's "Opening Theme, and djpretzel's "Pachelbel's Ganon". Try YouTube and OCRemix if you're having trouble getting ahold of them.

Chapter One


The skies over Hyrule were cerulean blue, with puffy white clouds traveling fast overheard. A strong breeze played around the towers of the castle, ruffling through the hair of a young girl sitting outside on the balcony of the room at the top of the tallest tower. She was determinedly pulling a brush through her long blonde hair, despite the wind; it had gotten all mussed up from her playing earlier, and she was supposed to be downstairs in an hour to meet some of her father’s guests, looking presentable. As she pulled the last tangle out of her hair, she sighed in relief and brought a hand up to massage her sore scalp. Relaxed, she leaned over the edge of the balcony, folding her arms along the guardrail as she peered down at the world spread out below her: the stables and the gardens, the archery course and servant’s quarters, her special courtyard. Further out in the distance were the markets, which she rarely got to visit, and even further out, the green, rolling plains of Hyrule Fields, which was an even rarer occasion.

As her mind wandered, she caught sight of a carriage coming in through the gate. The guards stood aside to let it by, and as it passed through under her tower, she was hit with a sudden sick sensation. She gasped, and the hairbrush slipped from her hands, landing in one of the fountains below as she stumbled backwards from the railing, shaking. She moved back into her bedroom, leaving her window-door open to the warm afternoon outside, and pulled the quilt from her bed to wrap around herself; she was freezing. It didn’t help any, not at first, but as the minutes slid by the cold faded away, and when it was gone entirely she cautiously crept back outside to see if the carriage was still there. But no; there were only two puzzled guards fishing the hairbrush out of the fountain.

“Hello!” she called down to them, leaning far over the railing to get their attention and cupping her hands around her mouth. “Up here!”

The guards looked up, and one of them waved. “Princess Zelda! Does this belong to you?”

“Yes!” Zelda called back. “I’ve misplaced it, I think! Would you mind sending it back up with Impa?” Impa had always taken care of her, since the day she was born, and she had taken care of her mother before that. She was wise beyond measure. If there was anyone better to get advice from, Zelda did not know of them.

“Not at all, Princess!”

“Thank you!” Sighing, Zelda went back into her bedroom, closing the window behind her this time. Her entire bedroom was pink; most of her clothes were, too. It was a nice enough color, but sometimes it really felt as if it was a bit much...as if the person making all these choices hadn’t bothered to find out anything about Zelda beyond her gender.

A few minutes later, as Zelda was changing out of her trousers and into a pale pink gown, there came a knock on the door. “Zelda?”

Finally! “Come in, it’s unlocked!” Zelda called, and slid her arm into her dress. As tall and muscular as Impa was, with white hair, red eyes, and tanned skin, any other child might have found her frightening and hesitate before going to her, but Zelda embraced her at once, not caring that the damp hairbrush in Impa’s hand dripped on her back. “Impa...”

“My goodness, what’s wrong?” Impa asked, shutting the door behind her and standing back from Zelda to look her up and down. “Are you all right? You look a little pale.” Impa held the hairbrush up and put it on the dresser. “It was only a brush, sweet. It’ll dry out in awhile.”

“That’s not it.” Denied the comforting embrace of her nursemaid, Zelda hugged herself and sat down on her bed, straightening out her blankets. “Something funny happened a moment ago...a carriage came through, and I was hit by this awful sick feeling. I got all cold and had to come in and cover up so I wouldn’t be sick.”

“Are you ill?” Impa asked, frowning, putting her hand to Zelda’s forehead. “No fever. Have you been eating properly?”

“I feel fine!” Zelda insisted. “Or I do now, anyway. It just came and went. Do you know who was in the carriage?”

“I’m afraid I don’t,” Impa said, smoothing Zelda’s hair back. “But we’ll look into it. Meanwhile, if you feel fine, we need to get you ready for lunch.”

Zelda groaned; she ought to have played sick. She hated formal meals and dinners; she herself was a tomboy, a practical joker of sorts with too much energy. When she wasn’t having lessons or attending dinners, she was allowed to do what she liked; usually that meant braiding her long hair to keep it out of the way (her father wouldn’t let her cut it) and running around outside, riding horses, practicing archery and looking for snakes in the garden. She wasn’t afraid of them like most girls her age, but usually played with them when she found them, coming in and stealing snacks from the kitchen without washing her hands simply because it was unladylike. When the weather was bad, she would beg Impa to play indoor games like hide-and-seek with her, or annoy the castle staff with sugar in the salt shaker and short-sheeted beds. Sometimes she would find her music tutors, the brothers Sharp and Flat, and learn jaunty little tunes on whatever instrument she had yet to try, or on her old favorites, the harp and ocarina.

But for all the fun Zelda had around the castle, she was the only child living in its walls. She wasn’t terribly lonely, not with Impa as her constant companion and her tutors to talk to now and then, but sometimes she wished for someone her own age to play with; besides the Lon Lon girl who only visited the castle on deliveries, there was no one. More unlikely still, Zelda wished for her father to spend real time with her. But her father, King Daphnes, was a strict man, and he was always busy with diplomacy. A little over ten years ago, on the day Zelda was born, her mother, Queen Dareene, had been shot by invading troops from the Gerudo Desert, living only long enough after Zelda was born to kiss her on the cheek and name her. Since then, King Daphnes had done all in his power to prevent war from ever happening again, trying to prove that he could do his job despite being married into nobility rather than being born into it. But he never spent any time with Zelda. Zelda asked Impa once why that was, and Impa could only reply that it was because she had her mother’s face.

“Does that make me ugly?” Zelda had wondered, as she climbed in bed.

“No, sweet,” Impa had told her, sitting down beside her, “it makes you beautiful—your mother was a beautiful lady, and you will be too one day. Seeing her in you brings me joy. But your father, he loved your mother like you and I never could. Sometimes when he sees her in you, it reminds him of what he lost.”

“Do you feel that way when you see other Shekiah?” Impa wasn’t a Hylian like her, but a Shekian woman whose tribe had fled Hyrule for lands unknown with their children in the civil wars before Zelda was born. The warriors had stayed to defend the castle, and they had been almost completely wiped out, with precious few remaining.

“No.” Impa had looked sad, though. “The traditions of the Shekiah I’m going to pass down to you. And you’ll remember them all for me one day when I’m gone, won’t you?”

“Yes! But please don’t leave me, Impa. I love you. You’re my only friend.”

“I’ll stay until you have no more need of me, my Zelda,” Impa had promised, and hummed Zelda’s lullaby for her until the young princess had fallen asleep.

From then on, Impa had become another tutor for Zelda, teaching her the ways of the Shekiah, from how they dressed and ate to the language itself. She also taught Zelda magic now and then, something innate that was in all the children of the royal family that her mother would have taught her, had she not died so early on. The magic helped her sense things, like where a lost item was or whether or not people were lying to her.

“I wonder,” Zelda mused aloud now, as Impa unlocked the cabinet with her jewelry and things, “do you think I was cold a little while ago because of magic?”

“Magic?” Impa asked, turning and handing Zelda two rings, a pair of earrings, and a necklace to put on. “I don’t know, it’s possible. You are getting better at sensing things; maybe something was wrong with the carriage after all. Come to think of it, I believe one of the men you’re supposed to be meeting on lunch was on the carriage. No one else was supposed to arrive today.”

“Let’s go down and see who it was, then,” Zelda said, standing up fast. She grabbed her jewelry and put it on, waiting impatiently while Impa placed the royal tiara on her head. “And yes, I’ll behave!”


***


The lunch party was a rather informal affair, with guests milling about and King Daphnes mingling with them. Zelda was relieved that she didn’t feel the cold she had felt earlier; parties were bad enough without being sick on top of it. Zelda met with several of her father’s new friends, most of them boring, stuffy old men, and had something to eat. Her guard relaxed; probably the cold earlier was nothing, right? She hadn’t felt anything like it since...

It was in the middle of the party when her father made a formal announcement; he had a new diplomat staying in the palace with them. As Zelda watched, the man came into the center of the room, far from where she was, and spoke to the crowd briefly. She paid no attention to his words, but his appearance she studied closely. Red eyes, so dark they were almost black, and flaming red hair. His tan was deeper than Impa’s, and he was just as tall and muscular as she. He wore all black armor, though, and it frightened Zelda; she was feeling cold and ill again. “Impa,” she whispered, tugging at her nursemaid’s hand.

Impa’s jaw was set, and she didn’t hear Zelda at first. It took her a moment to look down. “What is—Zelda!” Impa exclaimed softly. “You’re pale again. What’s wrong?”

“I feel sick,” Zelda whispered, hugging herself. “I’m cold. I’m so cold.”

Impa looked up at the man in the room, eyes blazing. Then she tore her eyes away from him to find a guard standing nearby. “Please inform His Highness that the princess has taken ill,” she said, and without another word, picked Zelda right up to carry her back up to her room.

***


“Who was that man?” Zelda asked when they got back upstairs. She had been undressed and put into her nightgown in the middle of the day; the sickness had persisted half an hour after she left the party, thought the cold had vanished. She was drinking tea Impa had made from an old Shekian recipe, sitting up in bed so as not to spill any.

“The Gerudo king,” Impa replied tightly. “His name is Ganondorf. The nerve of him, showing up here—he was the one who started the civil wars ten years ago. He was responsible for all those deaths! And now your father has him living under this roof, it’s—it’s shameful.” She spoke with prejudice; she, like the remaining Shekiah, absolutely despised the Gerudo for wiping out their people in the civil war. Still, her words rang true; the man’s name was hated by more than just the Shekian people. “Sweet, we have to tell your father. He needs to know there’s something about this man that’s evil. He can’t be allowed to stay here with you.”

“I’m afraid,” Zelda confessed, sipping her tea. “I know he won’t believe me.”

“We have to try,” Impa insisted. “Tonight, after dinner. Do you promise me?”

Zelda hesitated, and then nodded. She trusted Impa. “I promise.”

***


But King Daphnes did not want to hear what they had to say. First he told Zelda it was only her imagination, then accused her of trying to get attention. By the end of the conversation, Zelda was in tears.

“You have to understand, Zelda,” her father had said. “Unless we want war with the Gerudo again, we must ally ourselves with them, make certain we have a strong bond of friendship with their people. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“But why with him?” Zelda asked. “Why does he have to stay here?”

The king’s face set. “Because I say so, Zelda, and that’s final. Do I make myself clear? Impa, take her up and put her to bed. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

***


From there on out, the situation only grew worse. Zelda could not tolerate being in the same room with Ganondorf, and rarely had to, but dinners became a big problem. If she “misbehaved” during the meal, her father would send her to bed without supper, but rarely could Zelda stop her shakes. Impa fell into the habit of bringing Zelda’s dinner up to her in the evenings, and she and Zelda would sit and talk about old Shekiah legends to ease the princess’s mind before sleep.

Still, it wasn’t long before the dreams began.

The first dream had seemed harmless enough. Zelda dreamed she was standing in Hyrule, in the fields she so rarely got to see. It was a good dream, a happy dream—everyone she loved stood around her. She would flop on her back in the grass and gaze at the sky until she woke, never noticing the dark clouds on the edge of the horizon.

One night, however, the dream changed. Zelda was lying in the grass when the clouds snuck up on her. Before she knew it, they were covering the sky, and everyone around her was vanishing one by one. The clouds were like mountains, coming closer and closer to her and consuming everything in their path, and when she looked very carefully, Zelda could see red eyes glaring down at her from behind the clouds. And she heard laughing, and knew that it was him. Ganondorf was laughing at her from behind those clouds. “Impa!” Zelda called. “Impa...!” But Impa was nowhere to be found. Zelda sank to her knees, terrified, crouching low to try and look at anything but those awful eyes on her.

And just when she thought she could bear it no longer, the clouds parted for the briefest instant. A light shot through the opening, piercing the darkness, driving the evil away. The laughter faded and Hyrule was restored, but Zelda still stood alone. She squinted at the source of light, trying to see where it had come from, but it was so bright all she could make out was a silhouette—there was a boy.

Each night she had the same dream, and each night she dreaded the clouds more and more. But with the dreams came the increasing confidence that there was someone out there just like her—someone who knew Ganondorf was evil, someone who could drive him away. Each night he walked closer and closer to her, and she made out more and more of him. He was followed by a little ball of light, and wore all green. He carried a green jewel in one hand, with a sword and shield on his back, and his hair was dirty blonde. His eyes were the most beautiful color of blue Zelda had ever seen.

One day he got very close to her, while she was still on her knees from the frightening part of her dream. He held his hand out to her, silently, and offered her a smile. Zelda smiled weakly back at him, and took his hand to pull herself up—

And she did not have the dream again.

***


“What do you think it means?” Zelda asked Impa several days later, as she was getting ready for bed. “It’s been nearly a week and all my dreams have been normal. Did he just go away? I thought, you know, he would be able to help us...”

“I think it is his destiny,” Impa said quietly. “Shekiah say that the Goddesses give each of us a task to accomplish in our lives, a destiny to fulfill. Some people do, some don’t. Each of us has to make choices, and if they’re the right ones, we will be blessed. I know your task is to protect Hyrule.” She smiled. “And I know my task is to protect you, sweet. Maybe this boy’s task is to help us. Maybe his task is to help you protect Hyrule, and defeat the evil. Who knows? But if your dreaming has come to an end, it must signify something. Perhaps it means the ordeal will be over if we accept his help.” She sighed. “So far none of the guards I sent out have seen him...it could be that he’s not from around here.”

“Maybe,” Zelda whispered. She laid down and let out a content sigh as Impa pulled the covers up to her chin, looking out the window at the clear night sky. “Impa...what do the Shekiah say about stars?”

Impa smiled and sat down on the bed. “Ahh, I see. After a story so you can stay up later, eh? Well! The stars. We say lots of things. When you die, the spirit journeys into the sky, and becomes a star, so one day you and I will be a part of that sky. It’s why no one can count them all; the number always changes.”

“Is my mother a star?” Zelda asked.

“Oh, yes. The stars that burn brightest, the ones we can see from here, are the people who did great things, and I’m sure your mother is the brightest one!” Impa kept going, watching Zelda closely as she fell asleep “Some of the bright stars connect, make pictures in the sky...there’s the sacred relic, the Triforce, and the Shekian crest...and if you see a star coming back to earth, you can make a wish on it...”

Impa stopped when she saw Zelda had fallen asleep. She looked out the window, and could have sworn she thought she saw a shooting star. Hah! Well, if she was going to make a wish, she would wish for Zelda. Give her a bright future. Don’t let her be alone her whole life.

Ah, but wishes were useless, weren’t they...? If only everyone came so easily as to just want it badly enough...Impa stroked Zelda’s hair as she slept, hating the things Zelda had to endure. She was so lost in thought that it took her several moments to realize Zelda was twitching in her sleep.

***


She was having the dream again, wasn’t she? But no, this was different; though Zelda was in Hyrule Field, she was right by the gate, and the clouds had already come. It was raining, but she wasn’t getting wet.

Lightning flashed, and thunder rolled in the distance. Terrified, she looked up, waiting to see the terrible eyes glaring down at her, but she only saw the storm. When the lightning came again, the drawbridge was lowered, hitting the ground with a crash, and Zelda took two fearful steps backwards.

Suddenly the boy was in front of her.

Thunder rolled, and a white horse flew by. Zelda recognized it as her favorite mare from the stables and was shocked to see herself and Impa on the horse’s back, riding out of the markets as fast as they could go. Now that the drawbridge was open, Zelda could smell smoke, and fear gripped her heart. She watched as she threw something—something blue—into the moat behind her as she left, but she could not make out what it was.

“Hey,” she whispered to the boy. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but her hand went straight through him. She could see his mouth was moving, was he talking to that ball of light? She couldn’t hear him...

Lightning flashed again, and there was another horse on the drawbridge. Zelda gasped and took another step back when she saw those terrible red eyes, when she saw that Ganondorf was on that horse. No...! But—he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the boy. They were talking, but she couldn’t hear them, why couldn’t she—?

“I’m not afraid.”

Zelda stilled as she heard him whisper, the first and only words she had ever heard him speak. But he looked terrified, his sword and shield almost shaking in his hands. Still:

“I am not afraid.”

Ganondorf held out a gloved hand, and a sickly shadow began to form in his palm. The boy braced himself as Ganondorf drew back his arm and threw the spell; he didn’t even try to dodge.

Zelda saw him hit the ground, flat on his back, staring up into the rain, and she dropped to her knees beside him, her face over his. But he could not see her; he opened his mouth and screamed, and his scream became hers as she woke, fighting Impa off as if she were still in the dream. All she could do now was cry; that boy was their hope. What would happen if he died? What would they do without the light?

“Zelda? Zelda, what’s wrong?”

But Zelda couldn’t speak. She only leaned against Impa and sobbed, frightened out of her mind. It would be a long time before Impa could calm her down enough to get the details of this latest dream.

And little did Zelda know it, but somewhere out there, there was someone just like her: a boy dressed in green was having the same nightmare as she.

Gosh, sorry for the long wait. I had vacation and some things in my personal life come up, not to mention I'm trying to have an extra chapter to keep myself backed up. I have three chapters written and posted on FFN, but I'm keeping an extra one to post here, so the third chapter will go up when I've finished the fourth. If you're enjoying this story, please comment! I'm going through some rough stuff lately and it'd really make my day.

The songs for this chapter are Immediate Music's Serenata (choir version, for the dream :P), and ZREO's Soundscape tracks "Kokiri Village" and "Sacred Grove".

Chapter Two


He was having that dream again, wasn’t he?

Yes, this was familiar, too familiar. He was standing in the middle of a quiet place with no trees; places like these were called fields, and this one was more expansive than anything he could have imagined on his own. The sky was so huge, big enough to swallow him whole if he stared at it too long. There was a fairy in his dream, too, floating around lazily near his head, speaking in words he couldn’t hear or understand. The only thing before him was a solid wall, with only one opening that was covered by a moving bridge. An odd triangle symbol he had never seen before was at the top of this wall, and a small stream blocked him from getting any closer.

The feeling of dread crept slowly into him; he knew what was coming next. It wasn’t the sky or the stream he had to worry about. It was the storm.

The clouds came swiftly, and sometimes, like this time, he could have sworn that for a second he saw eyes behind them, glaring down at him with all the dark force and malintent he had ever known. That apparition faded quickly as the clouds opened up and it began to pour. He didn’t ever get wet; he couldn’t feel anything. Not yet. But he knew he would...

Lightning flashed once, twice, and the drawbridge crashed down before him like thunder. There was the first one, a white animal with two people on its back. He never could seem to focus on the woman, but the girl’s face stood out clearly; she was terrified. She looked at him and mouthed his name, and threw something—something blue—into the small stream under the bridge. As he turned to follow its progress, lightning flashed again, and then there was another beast on the bridge. On its back was the man with the eyes, the man he was so afraid of.

And this evil man, he was talking, but he couldn’t hear the words—

Every night he had this dream, and every night he tried to run away. Always it ended the same, but if he acted differently, could he change the ending? He reached for his sword and shield, both strapped to his back, not there when he was awake. If he had these things, did it mean he knew how to fight?

“I’m not afraid,” he whispered to himself, or the fairy, or maybe to the man in front of him.

It was a lie. Even after he got his weapons out, he knew he was lying; they shook in his hands.

“I am not afraid.” He said it again, more firmly, this time to the man before him, and he felt just a little of his fear vanish.

The man held his hand out, a shadow in his palm.

But he couldn’t be frightened; no, he wouldn’t move. After all, it was just a dream. It was just a dream! No matter what happened, he would wake up soon and everything would be fine, because he knew deep down that it was just a—

He was knocked breathless as the spell hit him, and he landed flat on his back in the rain. The fairy darted down to his side, and he waited, terrified, for the pain to begin. He couldn’t change it. No matter what he did, he couldn’t change it.

He saw the girl’s face for only a moment, eyes wide and terrified, before the pain hit him.

Link screamed.

* * *


“No—!”

Link sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide, panting as if he had just run a great distance. But no, he was here in his own room, his own bed. It really had been just a dream.

He shivered and drew his knees to his chest, hugging them for protection against the nightmare. The daylight coming in through the edges of his window soothed him, but the lingering sleepiness from many restless nights made him hurry out of bed, the fear he would fall back asleep and have to dream it all over again making him afraid to close his eyes.

He looked around his room, taking comfort in the smell of trees, of wet earth; it had rained last night. His little room was at the top of a gigantic tree stump, having been hollowed out through much hard work by children born many hundreds of years before him, when he had still been too small to carve it himself. There was a smaller stump in the middle of the room, and his bed lay at the top end, only a very few things packed neatly underneath it. He got out his day clothes first, and changed to feel a little cleaner; he’d have a proper bath in the woods later, to relax himself, if he didn’t run into any trouble on the way out. He combed his hair before pulling his cap down snugly on his head, and, that finished, he peered outside to see if the coast was clear.

No such luck.

Link groaned and slipped back inside, drawing the curtain over his makeshift door. Mido was out there, talking to some of the other Kokiri. Link didn’t want to go down the ladder now; he didn’t want Mido to see him. Last night his friend Saria had yelled at Mido for being mean to Link, and he was sure Mido would look for his revenge in a time and place when Saria wasn’t around. Instead of going down to find himself breakfast, Link took his time straightening up his room, putting things away and generally just attempting to kill time. He could use the secret tunnel to Saria’s house, but he didn’t know if she was awake yet, and he didn’t want to bother her if she wasn’t.

Lucky Saria, lucky Mido. They both had fairies of their own to wake up to each morning and to talk to before they went to sleep at night. Sometimes Link longed for a fairy for just that reason: company. Link had had a fairy in his dream, sure, but it didn’t mean he had one now, this second. If he did, he wouldn’t have to worry about going down the ladder and seeing Mido. If he had a fairy like all the other Kokiri, he wouldn’t get picked on by Mido and his friends...and from the day he was old enough to realize he didn’t have a fairy like everyone else, Link had hoped and wished for one every night before he went to sleep, silently asking the Great Deku Tree to bless him with a fairy partner of his own.

It didn’t help matters any that Link wasn’t “grown-up” yet. When Kokiri turned twelve for the first time, their bodies stopped growing and they lived forever; the stories of adults in the outside world held no meaning here. In reality, the children were so old that they didn’t remember being born, or being small, but everyone assumed that they had all once been babies just like Link was when he first appeared in the Great Deku Tree’s meadow. But Link had only been alive for ten years, or so Saria said, and he was smaller than the other children. He had been the first Kokiri to be added to their number in a long time, and he wasn’t accepted well by people like Mido, who couldn’t turn a blind eye to the fact that a fairy had never taken him as their charge.

Link could only assume it was the Great Deku Tree’s will that it had never come about; a few times he had asked fairies living in the Lost Woods if they wanted to be his partner, and they had always told him that the Deku Tree simply wouldn’t allow it. Why, Link didn’t know, couldn’t fathom. He was always picked on by Mido and plenty of the other Kokiri boys, and he either had to mostly spend time with girls—who found his company awkward—or stay lonely.

The only girl he really felt open around was Saria. She had raised Link from the time he appeared as a baby in the Deku Tree’s meadow, and when he became old enough to mostly care for himself, she’d moved him into his own house and had become his best friend instead; they were as close as brother and sister. She had taught him to read and write better than most of the villagers in the forest, and she’d taken him into the Lost Woods almost every day since he was a baby. She still stood up for him against Mido when he was too timid to stand up for himself. Link loved Saria, because she was the only one who loved him.

But even though Saria protected Link when she was around, she couldn’t protect him all the time, and she certainly couldn’t give him a fairy. Link peered out the curtain again and winced; Mido was still there, and Saria wasn’t. Oh, well. He wanted breakfast. Down the ladder he went.

And without a word, as soon as Link reached the bottom, Mido reached over and pushed him to the ground.

Mido and his friends cracked up when Link fell into the small puddle by his ladder, and Link stood up fast, not wanting to stay down there in the cold mud so early in the morning. “Wh-what was th-that for?” he asked angrily, stumbling over his words. He felt his face heating up already.

“‘Wh-wh-wh-what was th-that for!?’” Mido said in falsetto, a high-pitched mockery of his target.

Link swallowed down the tight feeling in his throat, tried to ignore the burning in his eyes. He hadn’t had enough sleep; why did he have to deal with this, too? “Sh...” His fists clenched, and he forced the words out clearly, despite the frantic racing of his heart, despite wanting to flee: “Shut up!”

It did him no good. “‘Sh-sh-shut up!’” Mido mocked, grinning at one of his buddies. “Geez, guys, do you think having no fairy makes you slow? First he trips himself, and now he’s talkin’ funny!”

“I think he’d be a little funny even if he did have a fairy,” the boy to Mido’s right said.

“I think none of the fairies want him because he’s so stupid!” Mido countered. “What do you think, Link? Just not enough in that noggin’ of yours to justify a fairy wasting their time?” He reached out and roughly tapped Link’s skull with his knuckles.

Link drew back sharply from the contact, even though it didn’t really hurt, and opened his mouth to defend himself—he was not stupid!—but no sound came out; he was so humiliated and frightened it was all he could do not to cry. “Y...y...you...”

“There he goes again,” Mido said, snickering. “I wonder why I’m still surprised...”

“J-just...leave me alone!” Link tried to push past him to get back to the ladder, but he wound up in the mud again, this time face first. He got up at once, grabbing for the ladder again, but he felt more hands on him, trying to pull him back down. No, please, not again—

“Hey!”

Saria! Link looked back just to make sure, and yes, it was her. Knowing that, Link was able to scramble up to the safety and privacy of his room, where Saria and the others wouldn’t see him crying as he changed clothes. He wished he wouldn’t, but he went ahead and did since no one was watching. Ooh, Link hated Mido! Why did he have to make him feel like this? Why couldn’t Mido just leave him alone...? Link hadn’t done anything wrong to him, and he wasn’t stupid—if he wasn’t so frightened of Mido, he probably wouldn’t have stuttered at all. He never stuttered around Saria...

“If only I were braver,” Link whispered, sitting down on his bed. He was still dirty, but at least he was dry and his clothes were clean. He sighed and pulled the blankets back over him, phantoms and dreams forgotten in the wake of pain that was much more real to him now. “Maybe then I would have a fairy...”

If only I had a little courage...

* * *


Saria watched Link scurry up the ladder with her jaw set, fists tightened in anger. None of Mido’s friends were laughing now that she had found them, but it didn’t help matters any; Link was already inside, probably crying. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Saria demanded.

Mido shrugged, looking off to the side. “We were just playing around, Saria...”

“Playing around?” Saria moved up to Mido and looked him right in the eyes; they were the same height. He looked away. “I believe he told you to leave him alone.”

“Didn’t hear him, I guess.” Mido shrugged, tapping his foot. Saria knew he was a little intimidated (and mostly irritated), but honestly had no idea why he was being so cruel; she and Mido had been good friends before Link came around, and once Saria would have sworn he was the kindest boy she knew. Now...

“Well you’d better listen closer next time,” Saria said as she took a step back. “I am getting really tired of this, Mido. If I catch you bullying him again—so help me I don’t care what excuse you make up—”

“All right, all right, enough with the lecture!” Mido definitely seemed annoyed now; he stepped back too and folded his arms. “C’mon, guys, let’s just go...”

“Not so fast—” Saria tugged him back before he could leave, pushing him down into the same puddle he had pushed Link into; he hit the ground with a satisfying gasp. “Fair’s fair, right?”

“Saria!” Mido got to his feet, fuming; his friends were trying not to snicker.

“Sorry, I was just playing around,” Saria said flippantly, taking a little too much joy in the look on his face. “Guess you’d better go get cleaned up, huh, Mido? You look really stupid with dirt on your butt!”

“Fine.” Mido glared at her. “But you can’t watch out for that kid all the time, Saria. I’ll be back.” He stormed off, his two buddies hesitating before following after him. Saria sighed. He was right; they’d be back, and she knew it. She couldn’t keep a watch on Link all the time...

“Oh, Link,” she murmured worriedly, looking up at his silent doorway. Was he all right? She made her way up the ladder and pushed the white curtain aside to let herself in. “Link?” she asked softly. He was lying on the bed, facing away from the door, covers pulled up to his chin. “Did you go back to sleep?”

“No.” Link sat up, kicking the covers off him to put his feet over the edge of the bed. “I can’t sleep,” he confessed. “I keep having that dream about that man.”

Saria paused, then went over to sit on the bed next to him. “Hey, it’s okay. Dreams are just dreams; they go away when you wake up.” She moved one hand up to stroke the damp hair out of Link’s face. Times like these were when she felt more like Link’s caretaker than his friend. In essence, she was both; their relationship had changed as Link got older, but she would always look out for him, no matter how old they got—even if Link never received a fairy of his own. “Maybe tonight you can stay over at my house again. It might help.”

“I dunno.” Link looked down, and Saria could tell he was embarrassed. “Um...there was a girl, this time...in my dream...”

Saria felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. “Was she pretty?”

“What?” Link looked up at her, clearly alarmed, and she saw his cheeks turn color. “No! I mean—yeah, I guess she was pretty, but—I wasn’t dreaming about her being pretty. She was just...there!”

“Being pretty,” Saria quipped, grinning, and she reached up to gently tug at one of Link’s ears before putting that arm around his shoulders. “Relax! I’m only kidding. Do you want to go to the woods to get cleaned up? We can see if we can find some stuff for breakfast.”

Link perked right up at that. “Yeah! Can we use the passage, though?” he asked, wary. “I don’t want to go through the village...”

Saria’s smile dropped, and she took her arm away from his shoulders. He was afraid to walk through his own village... “Sure. Come on.” She slid off the bed and pulled a little on the stump-table in the middle of Link’s room; it opened to reveal a ladder going down inside the base of the stump. Link had a basement down there full of odds and ends; it was why his house above was so neat and tidy. He had liked, from a young age, to keep everything down here, away from Mido and his friends. It was his secret route to any place in Kokiri Village, including Saria’s house. Even after he’d moved into his own house, Saria had often been woken by him coming back to his old bed in her home in the middle of the night after bad dreams, needing the comfort of that bed and house to feel safe. This happened less and less as he got older, but Saria knew better than to think it was because the nightmares had stopped; Link was simply too timid to wake her if she was asleep. But these latest dreams had her especially worried. They were nothing like Link’s norm...

* * *


Saria led Link through the passageway to her house, shutting her wooden stove behind them as they came out of the tunnel. After glancing out the window to check for people outside and waking her fairy, Spryte, the two children went out her back door up the steep slopes that led up to the Lost Woods. The slopes overlooked the village, and up there, Link felt totally safe; everyone else was too afraid of the Lost Woods to get so close without Saria as their guide.

“It’s so small from up here,” Saria said quietly, stopping to take in the view of the village. There had been one rickety, unsteady fence built here to try and stop children from going too close to the ledge and falling off, and she leaned against it now to look down, totally unafraid.

“Especially compared to the woods,” Link agreed. He hung back from the fence as he always did, afraid it would break and he would fall, even though it wasn’t such a long or dangerous distance down. He looked beyond the tops of the trees here to the top of the biggest, tallest tree in the forest—their guardian spirit, the Great Deku Tree. “But he’s the biggest thing here.”

Saria followed his gaze. “Yeah.”

“Have you ever talked to him? I mean, besides the time when he gave me to you?”

“I think so,” Saria said, frowning. “It’s hard to remember that far back. It was probably at least a hundred years ago. I think I remember a time when anyone was allowed to go and see him, not just fairies.” She glanced up at Spryte. “You’re lucky, you know.”

“I don’t make the rules; I just follow them,” Spryte insisted. “I remember that time. Back then, you children didn’t look quite the way you do now, I’m sure. But I don’t remember what you looked like.”

“Was that back when the village was a forest?” Link asked, looking down at the severed tree trunks that he and his people lived in. The air there looked thicker from where they were, and little lights skipped to and fro; it was the life force the Great Deku Tree breathed to keep the trees and the Kokiri living eternally. It looked a lot like fairy light.

“Yes!” Saria said. “Then...” She frowned, a breeze blowing some of her green hair away from her face. “Then something happened, and the trees all died.”

“A plague,” Spryte said sadly. “We lost a few Kokiri, too, and their fairies just withered away without them. It was awful.”

“Yes, a plague killed some of the trees...” Saria said slowly. “So we hollowed out the trunks for houses and used the wood to build things...we dragged some of the trunks into the Lost Woods to help us navigate...ohh, I can’t remember. My diaries only go back so far.” Saria kicked the fence dejectedly. “I wish I knew where we lived before we made the houses, but I guess only the Great Deku Tree knows now. I hope you’re keeping up with your journal, Link.”

“I am.” Since he had been old enough to write, Saria had made sure he wrote daily in a journal, so that he would be able to remember the things that happened to him after he became very old like the rest of the Kokiri and forgot his past. Before he was old enough to write, she had kept one for him, along with her own diaries that she had been writing in for nearly a hundred years now. “Nothing to write about, though. ‘Mido’s a jerk, still no fairy, what else is new?’ I don’t see the point sometimes. I don’t want to remember stuff like this...”

“You will later!” Saria said. “When you stop growing and a lot of time passes, you’ll forget things because it’s been so long. And then you’ll wish you could remember them! I sure do.”

“I still don’t think there’s a point,” Link mumbled. “Things have always been this way, so it only makes sense they won’t change...”

“Only in the forest!” Spryte said. “You children may live forever, but there’s a whole world outside these woods, and in that world, people die when they’re not even a hundred years old!”

Link folded his arms to his chest. “Sounds scary...the ‘world’, I mean. I don’t want to die.”

“The world isn’t scary,” Spryte said. “My friends from the mountains come through here a lot and tell me about it! It sounds like good fun. They say there aren’t as many trees, though. There’s just a big wide open green space called a—”

“Field,” Link mumbled. “I know. You’ve told us the stories before, Spryte. Well—I don’t care. I don’t care about anything outside the forest. I never want to leave or see any of the rest of it.”

Saria turned to Link, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. Just because you dream about fields doesn’t mean anything. Calm down.” She smiled a little and tugged affectionately on one ear. “You haven’t even had breakfast yet,” she excused him. “No wonder you’re so grouchy. Come on, let’s go find something to eat.”

* * *


Navi the fairy watched Saria and Link vanish into the Lost Woods. She hurried to keep up; she couldn’t navigate the fearsome forests the way those two children could, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d be left behind. She ducked under the small waterfall coming off of the slopes to cool herself off and then headed up into the giant empty log that went into the Lost Woods.

Before Link had come along, Navi rarely ventured here. It was said that anyone who became lost here would turn into one of the monsters that haunted the woods here—or get eaten by them. But Saria had been taking Link every day since he was very young, and she had been going for as long as Navi could remember. The woods glowed with the same life-light that was in the village, and Navi made a grab for one of the little flitting lights, to see if she could catch them. She couldn’t, of course, so she contented herself to look after Link as he and Saria collected things for breakfast, pausing to perch on a high-up tree branch when they stopped at a small pond.

Navi was jealous of Saria’s fairy Spryte; she got to tag along everywhere, do everything the children did. Oh, how Navi longed to be down there with them...! More specifically, she longed to be with Link; it had been ten long years since she had been bound magically to him as his charge, and for every moment he longed for a fairy of his own, she mirrored it with the same ache to be looking out for him, caring for him the way she felt only a fairy partner could. But she had been given her orders from the Great Deku Tree; she had to stay away. This boy wasn’t like all the other children in the forest, and despite the magical bond they shared that made them ache with loneliness, Link and Navi weren’t meant to be together yet. Why, she didn’t know. She didn’t question the Great Deku Tree. He had been very kind to her, to accept her back in the forest after she had run away, and to allow her to be Link’s guardian fairy, even if from a distance. She wouldn’t test his patience.

“...take your time. I’ll be back later!”

“Okay.”

Navi snapped to attention; the two children were parting ways so Link could get cleaned up. Poor thing, she thought, as she watched him strip and look at his skinned hands. A quick healing spell would fix that, but she just wasn’t allowed...

To give him privacy, she turned her eyes away while he finished undressing and moved to the pond. After she heard a splash, she looked back at him, bathing alone and humming a tune to himself. She wished she could go down, but no...she wasn’t allowed to be the one to care for Link. She had spent the last ten years watching Saria tend his skinned knees, comfort him after his nightmares, and stand up to his bullies. Navi had longed to be the one doing that, and even if part of it was the bond’s magic, she honestly loved Link, wanted the best for him. And he didn’t even know she existed...

Navi sighed, depressed. It was nearly time to contact the Great Deku Tree. She had been ordered to every day ask him if it was time yet...and of course every day he told her no, which was both a disappointment and a relief. Still, she looked forward to the question each day, as if there was hope that one day soon he would tell her...

Navi, it’s time.

Navi shrieked and fell off her perch, catching herself in mid-air and diving behind the tree to avoid being seen. She paused a moment to slow her racing heart, peering around the edge of the tree. Link was still bathing; he hadn’t noticed her. Thank goodness...geez, for a second there, she’d imagined that the Great Deku Tree had been talking to her.

Navi...

Navi gasped, tiny hands flying to her mouth. That was really him! Yes, Great Deku Tree?

Navi the fairy, it is time. Where is Link?

Navi’s eyes widened, and she sank slowly down to the grass, wings twitching once before they stilled. Her light dimmed a little. He’s right here, in the Lost Woods.

Navi, we have need of him. Please bring him to me at once. The King of Evil has found me at last, and I have been cursed. My life cycle is about to restart, and I need both of you. Link must get the Kokiri’s Emerald before the King of Evil does; if he fails, all is lost, both here and in the outside world. Navi, my time is so short...the task of telling him his true identity may well fall to you.

Oh! I don’t know if I can, Great Deku Tree...I’m only a fairy, I...

You are an extraordinary fairy, Navi, the Deku Tree replied. You saved Link from a terrible fate once. I will place my faith in you to carry on where I cannot...now fly, Navi, fly! The fate of the forest—no, the whole world—rests on both your shoulders.

I’ll be there as soon as I can, Great Deku Tree! Navi straightened up and got to her feet; as her wings started fluttering, her light came back full-force.

Navi the fairy had been ordered to ask every day, Is it time yet? And every day, the Great Deku Tree would tell her, No, wait a little longer. Each day the answer was both a disappointment...and a relief. Because Navi had always known that the day the Great Deku Tree told her it was time, she and Link could finally be together...but for the Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forests, it was the end.

She tried not to despair. The Great Deku Tree could never truly die, after all; when he did, a new sprout was planted in his meadow, eventually becoming the same wise old tree that the Kokiri loved. But every time he was reborn, tragedy struck the forest while he was still too young to guard against it. And there would be another hundred years before he was fully grown and the children of the forest were allowed to see him again. He had been on his ninety-ninth year this time...but he wouldn’t reach full growth. Not if the King of Evil had already found him and cursed him.

Navi had seen the King of Evil only once before, in her first and only trip to the outside world. The memory of him was terrifying enough to make her not to ever want to leave the forest again. And she had watched as Link described those nightmares about him...

But she couldn’t be afraid. It was time, finally. It was time to finish what she had started ten years ago. It was time to tell Link that he wasn’t alone.

* * *


Link was still in the pond washing his hair out when a fairy came up to him.

“H-hello,” it said timidly, landing on the ground near the water. Its light dimmed when it stopped flying, and Link could see the fairy was female.

“Hi,” he said back, smiling a little. He was a little embarrassed to be caught without any clothes on, but since his lower half was under the water, he didn’t complain. The fairies in the Lost Woods usually didn’t talk to him much, and despite not having a fairy of his own, he was always happy to talk to any fairy who spoke to him first. This fairy especially; something about just looking at her, hearing her, seemed to soothe the loneliness Link felt without a fairy partner to call his own. “I’m Link. Who’re you?”

The fairy took a deep breath. “My name’s Navi,” she said, and here did a tiny little curtsy. “I-I was sent by the Great Deku Tree to find you and bring you back to him...”

Link paused. The Deku Tree...? Then...this couldn’t be...

“I’ve been assigned to be your guardian fairy!” Navi said, and took to the air, glowing brighter now that she was flying. “I’ve been your fairy since you were a baby,” she gushed. “And I’ve been looking out for you this whole time, and—and—” She dissolved into tears. “Oh, I waited so long to be your fairy! So long! Your whole life! And now here we are.” She sniffled and swooped down to pick up a stray leaf off the ground and blow her nose. “Oh!” she said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to get like that so suddenly. Do you like me?” she asked anxiously.

“I’m dreaming,” came the stunned reply. “Of course I like you, are you serious—?” Link was grinning now. “You’re really gonna be my fairy partner?”

“I really am!” Navi agreed. “Forever, Link, truly. I’m sorry I haven’t been with you the last ten years, but from now on, no matter what, we’ll be partners! I promise!”

“Wow,” Link laughed, wiping at his eyes; he was the one in tears now. “I’m so happy I—I don’t know what I’ll do. I waited my whole life for you! I’m so glad you’re here. Oh, oh, I’m gonna tell Saria, right now, and Spryte, and—and Mido, and I’m...I’m...”

“Not wearing anything,” Navi supplied delicately. “You have to get dressed before we can go anywhere.”

“Oh!” Link looked startled for a moment, and then he asked shyly, “Do you think you could turn around for a minute...?”

Navi did as he asked, hiding a grin at Link’s excitement. He was normally such a quiet kid; now he wouldn’t stop talking.

“...will never believe it. You know, I’ve never heard of a boy having a girl fairy before, or the other way around. Do you think we’re a special case?”

“Uh-huh,” Navi said, being absolutely truthful. “Are you done getting dressed?”

“Yeah!” Link pulled his cap down and got to his feet, brushing his legs off. When he was standing, he dug in his pockets for his Fairy Ocarina, a gift to him from Saria many years ago. He paused and played a few notes on it. Because of all the fallen, hollow logs, the song bounced around the forest; Navi heard it echo several times.

“I’m calling Saria,” Link explained. “She’ll hear me and answer back.” He listened hard, and sure enough, the notes echoed back to him a few moments later, this time from her ocarina.

“I’ve seen you do that before,” Navi admitted. “I watched you both practice the trick when you were still small. I always wondered how you could navigate this place so well,” she added admiringly.

“Saria’s the best teacher in the world!” Link tipped his head to the side and listened closely as the notes echoed back to him, a little louder than before. It was a request from Saria to play again, to let her know where he was. Link started walking in her direction—how he knew which way was which, Navi had no clue—and played again as he walked. After his own notes finished bouncing around the forest, he heard the reply. She was close, now, close enough for him to call out to her. “Saria? Spryte?”

“Over here!” Saria called back, and soon enough he could see her coming from the mist just ahead of him. “You sure got finished fast,” she noted. “Look, I got all these berries for breakfast, we can...make...” Saria looked up curiously at the little fairy sitting on link’s shoulder. “Link?” she asked, hardly daring to believe it.

“Oh, it’s Navi!” Spryte was the first to realize what had happened. “Here at last! It’s so good to see you again!”

“Hello, Spryte,” Navi said warmly, from Link’s shoulder. “And it’s nice to meet you face-to-face, Saria. I’m Navi, Link’s guardian fairy.”

“No way,” Saria gasped, hands covering her mouth. “Oh, wow, really? After all this time?”

“Truly!” Spryte said. “Navi’s been waiting on the Great Deku Tree to give her permission for years. She was the fairy who first called Saria to the meadow to get Link, when he was just a little baby.”

“Really?” Link asked Navi, surprised. “Why didn’t you stay with me?”

“Deku Tree’s orders,” Spryte said sagely. “And we never question the Great Deku Tree.”

Navi let out her breath in a huff. “Speaking of that,” she began.

“Oh, Link, you’ve got to go show Mido!” Saria said. “He won’t believe it.”

Link grinned. “I know!”

“Link—” Navi began again, and reached up to tug a long lock of Link’s hair. “Hey! Listen! Don’t forget! You’ve been summoned! The Great Deku Tree needs to see you right away.”

“Right!” Link said, eyes wide. “I did forget. Do you know why?”

“I think it would be better if he just told you,” Navi said awkwardly. “I’m not so good at explaining things sometimes.”

“Let’s go, then!” Link held his hand out, and grinned proudly when Navi obligingly landed on his palm. From there she flitted up to his hat, holding onto that while he got started on the walk back to the edge of the woods. Once they were out of the thickest forests, it was only one short but unsteady walk down the steep slopes before they got to the village, both children laughing and chattering all the way.

“Hey, Link,” Saria said, hopping from one of the lower little cliffs to the ground next to the back door of her house. She took two steps away from him, towards the Great Deku Tree’s meadow. She grinned, biting her lip in anticipation. “Race you!” She began running towards the entrance of the meadow.

“Wha—?” But Saria was already gone. “Hey!” Link yelled, hands cupped around his mouth, watching her go. “No fair! Cheater!” He started laughing, too, and ran after her. “Come on, Navi!”

“Children!” sighed Spryte, having stayed where she was when Saria ran off. “Aren’t you glad to finally have one of your own, Navi?”

“I am!” Navi flew around in a quick circle, then hastened to go after Link.

She arrived at the entrance to the meadow just in time to see Link run headlong into Mido.