Another day, another chapter. Perhaps I can get another chapter done tonight! But first, some errands.
Here’s hoping Link doesn’t come across like this! Although I like the comment “Actually it depends on how you view the games, so Power and Wisdom may give bonuses right then and there, while Courage [eventually] turns you into a god-forged killing machine.”
Chapter 2: Reunions
Chapter 3: Martyr Complex
Dawn was breaking as Link checked his gear. His sword and shield were firmly belted to his back, the Ocarina and his wallet were mysteriously in a pouch at his waist, his lantern was hooked beside that, his boots were securely strapped around his legs, his chainmail wasn’t going to chafe, and his hat was on his head.
Then he saw a pair of lights bobbing through the forest, and a fast-moving shadow, and he braced himself for impact.
He wasn’t disappointed. Rana flung herself at him, laughing, and he staggered back a pace before he held her steady. “You’re back!”
“I am!” he said, matching her infectious grin. “I – you – I still can’t believe you’re alive.”
“You know, neither can I. But if the Goddesses could pull a… what was it Zelda called it? A deus ex machina on all of Hyrule, it’s not really a problem to pull it on one or two people. I’m not the only one who lived… You know that House of Skultula? The Goddesses cured them too. And I’m sure there were others. But anyway. Oh my gosh! You’re real!” She reached up to touch his face with trembling fingers.
He grinned, pulled her close, and kissed her.
A few minutes later, he reluctantly drew back far enough to see her. “So our first mission is to go see Saria.”
“Oh, good! She’ll be almost as glad to see you as I am! Navi… told me about why you didn’t come back right away, and I understand, kind of. But lots of people in Hyrule missed you. Let me show you the way!”
“Lead on,” Link said. “And tell me more about what’s been happening since I left! With the whole land changed, I imagine it’s affected people we know.”
“Well, you know what’s funny, is I’m noticing more people now. Before, I only noticed people who were actually in trouble and needed help, or who helped me, or were my age. But now I’m seeing people who are just being people, and you know what? It’s really fascinating. Anyway, so who would you like to hear about?”
“Hmm. I heard a rumour Malon was married. Care to elaborate?”
Rana squealed. “Oh my gosh they are so cute together!”
That was all he could get out of her for several minutes, as they passed beneath taller and darker trees, deeper into the Lost Woods. The forest noises seemed spookier than Link remembered, but nothing actively attacked them.
At last, Rana hit upon a small trail. Two minutes later, they emerged into the clearing of the Kokiri village.
One of the Wise Brothers was lounging on the ground outside his house, looking exactly the way Link remembered him. The boy jumped up. “Rana! …Link!?”
“That’s me,” Link said. “I’m back yet again. How is everyone?”
“Y-you’re still alive! Mido told everyone that you died again.”
“Nice to be loved,” Navi quipped. The Wise Brother blushed.
“N-no, I didn’t mean… I guess you want to see Saria, right?”
“If she’s around. I want to see all of you. But…” His face changed. There were four children, a young woman, and a horse missing. They could be anywhere. They could be dead. No, they couldn’t be dead. Not yet. “I don’t have time for catching up right now. There are some people I need to save as quickly as possible. But I promise, as soon as Hyrule is free from evil again, I will spend a lot of time here.”
The boy grinned. “That’s all right! We’re patient. But do come play with us whenever you can. We never really got to meet Navi, you know?”
“I’m flattered,” Navi said. “Really. You guys care!”
He blushed. “Well, Saria’s at home. Well, actually, she’s right there. Good luck with the Hyrule-saving!”
“What’s this about freeing Hyrule from evil?” Saria demanded. “Does that have anything to do with the miasma of fear that came over the whole forest the day before the day before yesterday?”
“Yes, yes it does.” Link bent down and hugged Saria, picking her off the ground. She squealed.
“Hi, Link! Hi, Navi!”
“Hi, Saria. Hi, Nanci.”
“Hiiii!” Rana put in, dancing around them. “We need your help!”
“Well, come inside, and we’ll discuss it over breakfast,” Saria said.
Link looked surprised, and then down at his stomach, which started to rumble.
Navi began to laugh. “You so forgot about food again!”
“Does he do that often?” Rana demanded.
“Not too often. Only when he’s focused on being a hero, you know?”
“Oh, yes, I understand,” and all the girls shared significant glances.
“What?” Link was at a loss. “I forget sometimes. It’s not important next to Colin’s life. Or finding out what happened to Hyrule.”
“Yes, yes, we know,” Navi said. “Sit down and eat your porridge.”
“Yes, mom.”
Saria laughed. “Have you grown up at all, Link?”
He glanced at her. “Yes, of course I have. It’s Navi who hasn’t at all.” When she met his dead-pan with one of her own, he broke down and smiled. “Yes, we’ve seen many things, done many things, endured many things… But…”
“But he’s giddy right now because he didn’t know Rana was still alive, and he’s been operating under the assumption that she would be dead when he got back, for the last ten years,” Navi explained.
“I see,” Saria said, pouring maple syrup into her porridge. “I’m looking forward to hearing the story. We can go to the Forest Temple sometime, play our Ocarinas, you can both tell me all about your adventures. For now, what was it you require of me?”
“I need to know where the monsters in the forest are coming from. I restored this place to Light from Twilight – the fear – but I was told I need to eradicate the source of the monsters.”
“Good call.” Saria pushed her plate back and went to the back of her hut, sitting down crossed legged on a small mat. “One moment and I’ll tell you.”
Rana finished her porridge and snuggled up to Link’s side.
Saria opened her eyes again. “To the north, and a bit east, there is a large tree. More than one, perhaps. There is a darkness in its roots. Be careful when you go there. The spiders have been massing in that area, spiders and Deku Babas.”
“That is good to know. Thanks so much, Saria. I promise I’ll come back as soon as I find my missing friends.”
“Yes, do that. I know you would do no less for me.” Saria smiled warmly at him. “And if you become too caught up in your adventure to spare time until after it’s all over, don’t worry about it. Just don’t die. You won’t let him die, right, Navi?”
“Nope!” Navi said. “That Triforce of his will lead him into the craziest of places, but Rana and I will make sure he’s safe all the way through, and Naeri will make sure Rana doesn’t get too crazy herself. All in all, I think it’s a foolproof plan.”
“If you say so,” Naeri said calmly. “I think I’ll have my hands full.”
Rana chuckled and poked her fairy affectionately. “Sorry.”
Link rose carefully so as to not hit his head on the ceiling. “North and a bit east, you said?”
“That’s it. A great big cluster of very old trees. There might be a bit of a ravine to cross before you get to them, but I think there might be a natural bridge, too. Be safe, all of you!”
They stood before the trees, fairies fluttering over their shoulders.
“Well,” Rana said. “Looks normal from here. And also pretty dirty.”
“Is that worrying you?” Navi asked. “Have you spent too much time at court?”
“Not me,” Rana grinned. “I love playing in the dirt like a kid. But somehow I never manage to carry off the ‘mysterious wild person’ look when I return to the castle… Someone always grabs me and dumps a bucket of soapy water over my head.” Navi laughed. “Shall we?”
“Rana,” Link asked as they climbed towards a cluster of roots that stretched across the ravine towards them, “did you just acknowledge that you’re no longer a child?”
“I guess I did! Link, I’m twenty, I’m supposed to at least pretend to be a grown-up at least some of the time.”
“I guess so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know yet. I just never thought about it like that. And certainly not in connection to you.”
She pried a large wooden slab from the mouth of a tunnel bored into the tree. “I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I. Let me go first.”
She held the door for him and he led with his lantern in his left hand, his shield covering his right side.
The wooden cave they found themselves in was cavernous and dark. The scent of rotting wood and leaves filled their noses, and creaks and groans from the tree made Rana at least look around nervously. She had no lantern; her sword was in her main hand instead. Link wondered if they should trade. Navi and Naeri could help light the place up, if he had to fight. He just hoped he had enough oil to keep the light going when they really needed it.
He listened as best he could, but the only living creatures he heard so far were his and Rana’s breathing.
They ventured forward into the darkness. A scuttling noise came from the left. In a smooth motion, Link hooked his lantern to his belt, unsheathed his sword, and moved rapidly towards the noise.
The lantern and fairy light gleamed off large insect eyes. Now that was a big Skultula. It hissed at them, and he slashed at its eyes. It lunged at him, and he backstepped away from the wriggling fangs. Rana bounded past him on his right, where he wouldn’t accidentally attack her, and stabbed it in such away that it reared up, exposing its underbelly. He thrust in low and was rewarded by the spider’s deathshriek and a dry crackle as it curled up.
There was a squeak, not of a spider, from a tunnel through the wood. Link looked over at Rana, nodded, and went through.
“Wait for me!” she cried, and followed close after him.
The squeak echoed again, pleading and hopeless, and he moved quicker. It wasn’t one of the children, that was for sure. He shuddered to think that they might be in this monster fortress.
They emerged into a hollow trunk, open at the top to the sky, and there were monsters of all kinds. Skultulas, Bokoblins, complacent Deku Babas, and some other strange creatures he couldn’t identify. And in the middle of all of them was a cage with a small monkey in it, a monkey with a red flower behind her ear.
“Hostage,” Navi murmured, and Link nodded.
Rana didn’t even hesitate. In a few seconds she had bulled her way to the centre of the room and was beside the monkey, her sword gleaming in the sunlight from above. Link dashed after her, as the entire chamber began to boil with aggressive monster posturing. He cut down a Bokoblin that ran heedlessly in front of him, but there were too many between the two of them.
Rana’s sword flashed, and a Deku Baba’s head flew through the air. Link jumped on a spider, throwing caution to the wind, and slashed its head off as he struggled towards Rana.
As soon as he reached her, she grinned at him, and took off again, lightly running to the other side of the room. “Come and get me!” she taunted the monsters. Link sighed in worry, but she seemed to have no trouble staying out of their reach. And they were far too distracted to pay attention to the caged monkey, let alone the Hero assaulting their flank. The monkey squeaked, begging to be released.
He chopped apart the cage and let the monkey cling to his back. “Navi, watch my back.”
“You got it.”
The Bokoblins began to realize that there were two threats in the room, and Link was really the greater one. He was confronted by a bristling wall of bone-tipped spears as Rana was cornered by the spiders.
He studied them for a second, shield up, before reaching out with his sword to batter the spear points away from him with brute force. A couple of the spears snapped under his onslaught, and as they tried to come around him, he spun, taking out half of them and knocking the rest back. He spared an anxious glance for Rana, and found her looking at him in much the same way. We would have been better off co-ordinating our attacks, he thought.
“Watch yourself!” Navi snapped, and he fell flat in time to avoid the monkey on his back getting skewered by a spear. He couldn’t roll, but he could kick, and tripped one of the last three Bokoblins. That distracted them long enough for him to jump to his feet again. One of them turned and ran, and Link let it. He could deal with it later.
The other two, deprived of their numeric advantage, weren’t much of a threat, and he went after the one that ran. It cowered before him, and he sighed at it before turning away and going to see if he could help Rana.
Rana was nowhere to be seen. At least not at first.
“Hey!” she cried, and he spun around to see the last Bokoblin sneaking up on him with a bone knife, before Rana’s sword decapitated it.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Not a scratch,” she grinned. “Thanks for taking half of them.”
“Thanks for saving my life.”
She shrugged awkwardly. “Well, I only just found you again.”
“Rana, what was that stunt at the beginning there? Running out into the middle of everything?” He sat down to catch his breath a little.
She flopped down beside him, blinked at him, and tilted her head. “Well, if we attacked from the doorway, they might have done something to the monkey before we could get in close. And I’ve done this before, with Zelda. It took a few months to clean out the last monsters in Hyrule after Ganondorf died, so Sheik and Impa and I would go out on missions that we couldn’t leave to the soldiers. Just in Hyrule, you understand. Zora’s Domain we left to the Zoras, and Death Mountain we left to the Gorons, and the Desert we left to Nabooru and her people. But, like, Saria let us into the Forest to help clean out the forest.”
“I… see. You trained with Sheik while I was gone, didn’t you? During the seven years?”
“Yeah. Did I tell you that?”
“I don’t remember… Just… be careful, all right? You scared me. And I just want to watch you. Um. Watch out for you.”
She smiled. “I understand. Naeri helps me be careful. And you be careful, too. I may be the feint and you the main attack, but that doesn’t mean you’re not going to get hurt.”
“As was nearly proved. I will. Navi helps me too.”
“You’re welcome,” Navi put in.
“So, who is this?” Rana said, turning to the monkey, who had waited patiently for them to stop arguing.
“I’m not sure. I helped her get out of trouble the other day, though. What happened?”
“Got caught by monsters again,” the monkey explained. “This tree our home! Taken over by monsters! All brothers and sisters captured. Big leader crazy. Came to find you other day. Little boy chase me. Too frightened to ask.”
“Why me?” Link asked, puzzled.
“Big leader tell about you, stories from south.”
“The south?”
“You don’t mean… Termina?” Navi asked.
“Yes, yes! South land, where green boy save Deku Princess and big leader’s friend. You not meet him then. But he see you. He remember. When monsters first come, he say to find you. I fail.” She pushed her face into the ground. “Now family all captured. I shamed.”
“No, no you’re not,” Link said. “I’m here now. I promise to free all your family. For now you should go somewhere safe. Like my house in town.”
“Is that safe?” Rana asked. “Won’t the villagers chase her away again?”
“I didn’t have people over very much,” Link said. “They won’t go in.”
“No! Not go. Too far. Besides, must help. This my home. Can guide you!”
Link sighed. “All right. But stay with Rana and don’t leave her side.” Rana raised an eyebrow questioningly at him, but nodded.
An idea occurred to him. “You haven’t seen the boy who chased you, have you? Or any of the other children? Or Ilia?”
“Or Epona?”
“Rana, Epona couldn’t get in here.”
“No, not see other children. Not see much, though.”
Link rose and prepared to continue. “They could be here too. Let’s go.”
One by one, the two Hylians and the two fairies saved the monkey’s eight brothers and sisters, who did help them by building a bridge across a deep pit in one of the trees that the Hylians could not climb across, not even Rana with her acrobatic skills.
Link was deeply conflicted. She could obviously take care of herself. But just having her around was horribly distracting. Not because – or just because – she was an attractive young woman, let alone the attractive young woman that he loved, but also because she was constantly throwing herself into danger and giving him a heart attack. The Triforce of Courage only worked on him for himself. It didn’t work on allaying his fears for the people around him.
Though, he feared more for the children and Ilia. What if they, too, were here? They were not used to the forest. Ilia was, a little bit; she was forever trying to escape the village and make friends with the animals. But that was back when the monsters were shy or stupid, not the sort that appeared when trouble assailed the entire kingdom. He wondered what Ilia had done while Ganondorf reigned. Either way, if they were here, they were in worse trouble than the monkeys they were freeing.
He said nothing, but he caught Rana looking at him a lot, and knew she knew what he was thinking.
They were trapped in a room with a baboon, a cunning creature who was throwing things at them from high perches. Link guessed that this was the big leader that the monkeys talked of.
He ducked, and narrowly avoided a boomerang. A what!?
“Hey!” Rana said. “I was wondering where that went!”
“You know it?”
“It’s your boomerang, remember, from when you were a kid. It’s been through some adventures. Saria was holding on to it, but it disappeared recently.”
The boomerang went by his head again, and stole his hat. “Hey!” That did it. “Okay, girls, here’s what we’ll do.”
Navi and Naeri went to flutter around the baboon’s head. Rana finished dealing with the last Deku Baba, right under the baboon’s nose, deliberately not paying him any attention. The baboon drew back to throw the boomerang at her…
And Link charged into the baboon’s perch, knocking him down. Picking himself up, the Hylian snatched up the boomerang before the baboon could.
A small insect crawled out from under the dazed baboon. Rana squeaked and cut it in half.
The baboon crawled to a sitting position, and found Link’s sword pointed at it. It grunted in fear, blushed, and scrambled up the wall and out through a hole in the tree before he could knock it back down.
Rana was looking at the bug. “What is this thing? It’s kind of hideous.”
“Mind control,” Naeri offered.
“Really?” Navi asked. “That could have grave consequences. We’ll have to watch out for people we know acting funny.” She shuddered. “I hate parasites!”
“Me too,” Rana said, rubbing the back of her neck as if imagining she had one. “Ewww.”
There was a squawking noise from the end of the room, and a small creature emerged from cover. Link pointed his sword at it.
“Goodness gracious! Point that dangerous thing somewhere else, boy!”
Slowly, he lowered it to the ground. “Who and what are you?”
The thing ruffled its feathers. It looked like a large Cucco with a disturbingly human face. A smaller face was buzzing around behind it on miniature wings. “You may call me Oocco. This is my son. I’m looking for something, goodness, yes! But it doesn’t seem to be here. Don’t mind me. I won’t get in your way. Thank you for taking out that crazy ape; it’s cleared my way forward.”
“Have you seen any children? Small children, between the ages of three and ten, and a young woman.”
“You’re the first humans I’ve seen in a while. Gracious, yes! But I couldn’t tell how old you were. Smaller than you? I will keep an eye out for small humans in trouble. Yes, yes! Now, Oocco must go. Ta!” The creature trotted to the other end of the room, surprisingly quickly, and turned a corner, out of sight.
Rana looked perplexed. “I’ve been around Hyrule a few times, but I’ve never seen something like that. I wonder what that was all about.”
“I’m starting to get seriously worried. Either the children aren’t here, or they’re already dead.”
Rana shrieked. “They’re not already dead! What would the monsters kidnap them for?”
“I’d have to agree with Rana,” Navi said. “Stop being morbid!”
“We have to move faster,” Link said, ignoring both of them. “Every second we’re not moving forward is another second they could be lost in.” He ran to the exit of the room, Rana trotting behind him.
“And every second that you spend worried like that is another second you could get hurt in, and then what good are you to anyone?” Rana demanded.
“I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about!”
“I’m fine. Link…”
“You’re reckless, Rana! You’re always running out ahead.”
“That’s how I fight! It works! Just trust me.”
“Then trust me to take care of myself, too.”
“But you’re not focused. You’ve got this… weird guilt complex thing going on, and it’s not helping anyone. Link, I don’t want kids to get hurt. But I don’t want you to get hurt either, and you’re trying to do everything yourself. Please just take a minute to relax and collect yourself. You’re scaring me.”
“I knew you knew about that…” Link muttered.
“Huh?”
“You were watching me earlier.”
“Well…” Rana blushed. “That was more because you’re so good at fighting. It’s kind of… sexy. Also, you were kind of watching me, too. Was that because you were worried about me?”
“You… think my fighting is… sexy?”
“Uh-huh!” her head bobbed up and down enthusiastically. “Super-sexy! You’re so good!”
He blushed a little. “I never thought about it like that.”
“Oh, come on,” Navi said. “I could have told you that. But I thought you’d think it weird, so I didn’t.”
“I must concur,” Naeri said. “Any straight female of any species would admire your fighting, Link.”
“Huh.” He wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“Anyway, so just relax, okay?”
His face hardened. “I can’t do that.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Come on, we’re wasting time.”
“You know, there’s really nothing we can do,” Navi said, followed by a low murmur only to Rana that he could not hear. But Rana nodded understandingly, if unhappily, and followed him jogging through the dark tree.
The cluster of trees became increasingly damp as they fought their way through to the other side. Link still couldn’t stop his urge to rush to the rescue whenever Rana jumped out in front of him. He almost suggested that they split up, but refrained. It was safer that they stay together, in spite of the fact that her presence might make him make a mistake.
It was nice to have his boomerang back, though. He hadn’t used it in a while. It had changed – he supposed that was what Rana had meant by ‘adventures’ – but it was better than before.
He ran – he was always running, now – through another soggy tunnel between trees, and found himself in a half-flooded chamber with a pair of absolutely giant Deku Babas watching him. The room stank. The water looked more than dirty; it looked poisonous.
The Deku Baba on the left lunged at him, and he backflipped to get away from it. It was very big and very fast. This would be a problem.
“Rana! Can you chop it off while it’s chasing me?”
“I – nope! The other one’s chasing me!”
Link gritted his teeth. The Baba’s mouth was large enough to swallow Rana without leaving a trace. And that went double for any of the children.
The water boiled, and a plant emerged from it. It looked like the kind of carnivorous flowers he’d only encountered in more tropical areas, but a hundred times larger, and capable of roaring at him. It opened its petals and a stream of poisonous water shot out at him. He blocked it with his shield, grunting at the force of the water.
“Link! Look!” The baboon had appeared on one side of the room, waving something that glowed. “I think those are bombs!”
“We can work with that,” Link mumbled. He raised a hand to the baboon. “Pass!”
He caught the bomb and flung both it and the boomerang towards the closest Baba head. The wind from the boomerang carried the bomb and flung it towards the Baba’s open mouth. The plant bit down, chewed, and exploded.
“Yessss,” cheered Rana. “Try it on the main part of the monster!”
The main monster head flung the next bomb back at him, and he rolled out of the way. Rana picked it up with her bare hands and lobbed it back. It fell short, creating a geyser that splashed up in front of the monster. The surviving Deku Baba lunged at her, and Link, close by, snapped its stalk with a sharp blow of his sword.
“Good job!” Navi cried. “Only the last part left.”
The flower spit water at them again.
“It’s not coming down here,” Naeri observed.
“Tough luck for it!” Rana said. “I wonder if I…”
“No,” Link said right away. “You fall in that water and it will kill you.”
“But I’ve always wanted to try to wrangle a giant plant monster!”
“Get back here, young lady!”
He flung another bomb at the monster and it flicked it back at him. He threw it back with the boomerang again. This time, it knocked the boomerang away, against the side of the tree.
But the boomerang seemed to have a mind of its own, and returned faithfully to his hand anyway.
And the bomb went off.
The giant plant flinched and bowed towards him, closer and closer… He slashed at it violently with his sword, again and again, until the flower lay in pieces around him. There seemed to be a sphere-shaped core, there…
He burst it with a thrust of his sword, and the plant collapsed, spraying dirty water everywhere. Then it reared back, though he was pretty sure he had killed its ‘brain’ with that last stroke, and began to shrivel. It ceased moving at the top of its arch, a dry, withered branch, and burst into black particles. Link ducked.
The particles were sucked together into a small object that fell towards the water. Before it could touch the water, a large orange hand reached out of the ground and seized it.
Rana dropped down beside Link as Midna appeared out of the ground in her translucent state.
“I’ll just be taking this!” Midna said smugly. “Thanks for your help. I’m collecting things like this, so keep an eye out for more, all right?” Link noticed that the orange ‘hand’ was actually her hair. He supposed she manipulated it with magic.
“Who on earth are you?” Navi demanded, and from the way Rana leaned casually on his shoulder, she was making a similar face at the imp girl.
“Ah… this is Midna. She helped me escape from Hyrule Castle, and she seems to know Zelda.”
“I’ll leave it at that for now,” Midna said. “In thanks for getting me this little thing, shall I give you a quick way out of this place?” She opened a portal on the ground. “It leads directly outside, no tricks, nothing.”
“What is that, anyway?” Rana said. “It looks like the stone thing you’re wearing.”
Midna’s face closed off. “It’s nothing you need to know about, besides the fact that it’s very dangerous and corrupts those not strong enough to wield it. Why do you think that monster was so big, and that water so polluted? Look at it now!”
The poisonous pool had become clear, and water lilies already bloomed in it.
“All the more reason we should know,” Link said. “What am I fighting?”
“Old magic,” Midna answered. “More than that, I’m not saying. Ask your precious Light Spirits. Are you coming, or what?” She beckoned with her hair hand.
“All right.” Link stepped towards her, into the portal. Even if she was arrogant, she wasn’t deceitful. Keeping secrets wasn’t being deceitful. Rana followed, more slowly.
They appeared outside the cluster of trees, where they had entered, as Midna promised. There were all the monkeys, lined up in a row.
“We just wanted to say thank you for your help,” the baboon said. “I remember you from Termina. These kids don’t. Too young. I am ashamed of attacking you, even if it was under the influence of that parasite.”
“Why did you come to Hyrule?” Navi asked curiously.
“Because of you, Mr. Hero. I wanted to go to a place where my friends and family would be so well respected by the humans.”
Link shook his head. “I’m sorry about the Ordon villagers. I’ll try to make it clear that you’re friendly.”
“Thank you, Mr. Hero.”
Rana hugged the monkey with the flower. “Take care, okay? I guess I’ll see you around!”
Link looked at the sky. “Well, the sun is going down. I don’t think we’ll find the kids today. If they’re even still alive.”
“Stop saying that, or you’ll make me cry,” Rana interrupted him, glaring.
“Stop ignoring the possibility!”
“Stop fighting,” Navi said, interposing herself. “Rana, don’t cry, he’s just tired. Link, let up on the pessimism. It’s not helping. Go home and get some sleep.”
“The Kokiri Village is closer,” Rana said. “You can stay there, if you like.”
“That sounds like a good plan. Although we’ll have to travel further tomorrow…”
“You’re almost dead on your feet,” Navi said. “Go to the Kokiri Village. It’ll be fine.”
He really was too tired to argue. He hadn’t fought like that in months.
They were halfway to the village when Rana stopped. “What’s that?”
Link barely had time to look up before a golden wolf pounced on him. Rana screamed, her sword leaping out of its sheath, but Link didn’t feel an impact, only a lightness, and the world faded around him.