Chapter 3: The Princess’s Premonition      Chapter 5: The Great Lizard

Chapter 4: To the Mountain

Link jumped back as if the gaze had scalded him, and indeed he felt it had pierced his mind. He glanced at the man again, and saw that he had turned away from the window, his stance politely apologetic.
“What happened?” Rana asked.
“I don’t know,” Link replied. “He is evil, I can tell that much from his eyes, but what does it all mean? The Great Deku Tree said that a man named Ganondorf wanted the stone, and that was why it died. Is Ganondorf one of this man’s servants?”
“No, that is Ganondorf. He is the hidden root that is bringing the evil back to Hyrule. I can feel it. Wait, th-the Deku Tree is dead?”
“Yes… there was a poisonous spider eating at the roots.”
“That is serious. We’ll need to move quickly to counter him. I wish my father would believe me when I tell him he’s up to no good. Peace treaty indeed!”
“But what is he after?” Rana asked impatiently.
“I’m so sorry. I keep forgetting… Um… Rana, wasn’t it? I believe Ganondorf is after the Triforce.”
“Really?” Rana gasped. “But it’s impossible to find it, because it’s in the Golden World.”
“That’s true, but Ganondorf is after it all the same.”
“How annoying. What do we do?” Navi asked.
Zelda laughed at the fairy. “We need to try and warn the other holders of the Spiritual Stones. One is the Goron Elder and the other is someone in the Zoran Royal Family. Have you ever met a Goron or a Zora?”
The children shook their heads.
“Saria said she met a Zora once,” Rana chirped. “There’s a way for them to get to the Lost Woods.”
“Well, Gorons are like big rock people. They’re very jolly and friendly, and their leader Darunia has the Spiritual Stone of Fire, the Goron Ruby. The Zorans are different altogether. They’re tall and slender and love music and swimming. I know less about their leadership, since they’re a bit reclusive, and none of the Royal Family has visited in the past few years. I think there’s a king and a princess, though. They have the Spiritual Stone of Water, or the Zora’s Sapphire.”
“Right. Where do they live?”
“The Gorons live under Death Mountain, and the Zorans live at the head of Zora’s River. Um… I forgot to tell you what to do after you get the stones.”
“I thought you just wanted us to warn them about… Ganondorf.”
“Well, yes, but if you have the Stones, that’s where the cool part happens. Have you heard of the Master Sword?”
“What?” Rana asked.
“Saria said something about it once,” Link said. “It was once kept in the Lost Woods, but then it was moved out by a distant hero.”
“It’s in the Temple of Time, down in the town, sealed behind a heavy door of stone and magic. When evil arises, a hero comes and takes the sword. To prevent people from just fooling around with it, the three races of Hyrule used the Spiritual Stones as the key to lock it away.”
“Oh, I see, so we get the stones, and then Link takes the sword and becomes the Hero!” Rana cried excitedly.
“When did you make up this plan? Just now?” Naeri asked curiously.
“No, after I had the dream. The clouds were really thick. I can’t stress enough their menacing nature. If we don’t stop them, we may be in for a rough time.”
“From the weather?” Navi put in cheekily.
Zelda giggled. “Monsters like a strong negative atmosphere.”
Rana keeled over comically, overcome by difficult language.
“I’ll send my nurse with you to escort you out of the castle. Go to Death Mountain first; it’s a little easier to see the Gorons. You’ll need this letter I prepared earlier to get past the safety gate.”
“Right,” Link said, putting it in his pocket. “Will you keep the stone, or…”
“You keep it. I have the last piece of the puzzle, and I’ll need all my energy to protect that. ‘Kay?”
“Right. Thank you, Zelda.”
“If the letter doesn’t get you through, there’s another way. Impa will teach it to you.” The princess waved, and a tall silver-haired woman, neither young nor old, appeared as if out of nowhere near the arch.
“You are the children the Princess has foreseen. I am Impa of the Sheikah, bodyguard and nurse to Princess Zelda.”
“Teach them the song, Impa,” Zelda requested.
“I remember, Princess.” Zelda made a face behind her guardian’s back as the woman whistled a gentle tune. Link found where he had stashed his Ocarina and practiced it until he could remember it easily.
He said “Thank you,” and followed the woman as she led the two Kokiri through the castle to the gate.
“There is one more thing for you; it is a gift from the princess.” She took two large shields off her back and handed them to Link and Rana. “These are the shields of the Hylian Knights. There are few left now, but the hero and his friend should keep them. They will be useful.” The shields were made of wood with steel on the outside, and both children found them much too large and heavy to use comfortably, but they took them in preparation for the future. Each had a red eagle and a Triforce on it. The fairies took them and stored them away as pieces of magic somewhere.
The sun was getting a bit low in the sky, and after thanking the Sheikah once more, they went back to Lauri the healer and stayed at her house for supper and sleep.

The next day, they were up early. Saying goodbye to Lauri, guessing they would be gone a couple of days, they left the town and headed towards the mountain range in the west, aiming in particular for the distinctive cone of a volcano. They found a road that crossed the river with a bridge and led into the foothills to a beautiful little town named Kakariko. It was more laid-back in feel than the bustling castle town, but they found out that Impa was well known there; in fact, she had once been the mayor.
Soon after that, and after lunch, they found the safety gate Zelda had spoken of. The guard there was much amused by the princess’s new game, but let them through when he saw the letter.
The road after the gate dwindled to a rocky path that rose soon above the town on steep cliffs. The children climbed carefully, pausing only to slay the odd Tektite rock spider that got in their way.
They came to a big cave opening. Inside, where it was brightly lit by torches, they saw moving rock piles.
“I think those are Gorons,” Link told Rana. She giggled.
“They’re funny!”
A Goron walked up to them. “Welcome to Goron City!” He walked away again.
Link and Rana walked slowly down the steep flights of stairs. At the bottom of the first one, Rana saw Link’s long ears twitch.
“What is it?”
“I thought I heard Saria! But that’s impossible. She can’t be here.” Link looked around and followed his ears. They led him to a long tunnel. Halfway through, though, it was blocked by some boulders.
“We can climb over that,” mumbled Link to himself.
“Um, Link? I’m kinda claustrophobic about this place, you know…”
“Okay, so we can’t climb over that. Whatever.” Link swung his sword randomly, thinking, wondering if he could ask a Goron for help, when the ground blew up under him. The Kokiri were sent flying back into the wall.
When they climbed back up, the boulders were gone. There were some large chunks of rock lying around, but no block.
“What happened?” Rana gasped.
“I don’t know,” Link answered.
“I saw!” chirped Navi. “You accidentally hit one of those plants!”
Link looked at the tiny little tomato-sized black fruit and shivered. He bent and tried to pull it off of its stem. It didn’t budge, even when he used both hands and braced his feet on the cave floor.
After a minute, he gave up and ran down the tunnel with the fairies and Rana following him. The familiar music grew louder.
The children and the fairies came out of the tunnel into the Lost Woods.
“Weird,” said Navi.
“Hey, let’s go talk to Saria! She should know what we’ve been doing,” Rana suggested eagerly.
“Good plan,” agreed Link, and strode off in the direction of the Sacred Forest Meadow.
They came into the Meadow, and saw that the maze was blocked off by a tall gate.
“Why is that there?” Rana asked. “It wasn’t there last week, when we went to play hide and seek… I wonder why she put it up.”
“I don’t think she… put it up herself!” Link’s last words came out in a startled shout as a Wolfos charged out of the tall grass around the gate. His sword and shield were good to go, so Link charged to the attack. Rana fumbled with her sword, but stared as the Wolfos slowed… then stopped… then ran away from the crazy kid running towards it with a sharp sword.
Link stabbed the sword into the Wolfos’ tail, pinning it to the ground.
The Wolfos disintegrated and the gate faded into mist.
“That was weird,” said Navi.
Naeri peeked around the corner. “There’s some Dekus,” she said quietly.
“Let’s get ‘em!” Rana cried. “I’m in a hurry, and Dekus are easy.”
Now it was Link’s turn to watch in surprise as all the Dekus fell over in Rana’s dust.
Finally, they entered the stairway where the tree tops arched over into a sort of cathedral.
“Almost there,” said Navi, grinning in anticipation.
Saria’s ocarina whistled and sang through the Meadow below the Forest Temple. She knew it was the Forest Temple from what the Deku Tree had told her, being the oldest, wisest, and most grown-up Kokiri. However, nobody could get in. The stairway had broken long ago, before the old Deku Tree was planted.
“Hurrah!” cried Rana, dancing around like a little girl. Saria looked up and laughed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, smiling.
“Do you think we wouldn’t stop by sometimes and give you a progress report?” Link asked sardonically. Everybody but him giggled.
“That gives me an idea,” Saria announced. “I’ll teach you my magic song. My song! The one I play all the time.”
“When you play it here, I can hear it from the entrance to the Lost Woods,” Link said.
“We can even hear it from Goron City, you know.”
“Is that where the long dark tunnel goes?”
“Yes.”
“I know where the pool leads to, because a couple of times Zoras came and visited me…”
“Yeah, you told us,” Rana said. “We told the princess about it.”
“So, what have you been up to?” Saria asked.
“Well,” began Link in his quick concise way, “we snuck into the Castle and showed the Emerald to the Princess, and she sent us off to get the other two. We climbed up Death Mountain today. We think the Gorons have another one.”
“Death Mountain?” Saria asked with a shudder.
“It’s not deadly, at least we haven’t been hurt yet.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Let’s teach you my song.”
She raised her Ocarina to her mouth again and played the sprightly little tune. Link played it on his, note perfect. It wasn’t coincidence, either; Rana usually spent whole days just humming the tune. Major third… augmented fourth from the first note… It was very difficult to play, but fun.
“Well… it’s about five… you should stay home tonight, and go a-questing tomorrow, don’t you think?” Saria asked.
“You’re right. I’m finished for today,” Link admitted.
“Wait for a sec! How did you get in here this morning?” Rana demanded.
“I warped, as usual. Why?”
“’Cause there was a Wolfos at the front of the maze, and Deku scrubs. That explains it.” Saria had strange powers all to herself. She didn’t show off, and she always walked when she was with her friends, though.
“That is strange,” Saria said, her face concerned. However, there was nothing more they could do about it, and the creatures were gone when they left again.
The adventurers fell asleep very quickly after they ate.

Chapter 3: The Princess’s Premonition      Chapter 5: The Great Lizard