By Mr. Watch
Chapter 2: Children of the forest
Hyrule Field
The sun was high in the blue sky as Terra made her way along the beaten and dusty dirt path that led to the Kokiri Forest. She could feel the warmth of the glowing orb above her touching the dark cloak. The entire field around her appeared to be in full bloom. Flowers and other plants were bursting with reds, yellows, purples, too many other colors for Terra to count.
She walked on the path for some time eventually arriving to the edge of the great forest. Traveling on the earthen path on the edge of the tree line Terra stopped for a moment to observe and take in her beautiful surroundings. Turning to look behind her, she saw on the horizon the great grey stone outer walls of Hyrule Castle, her home, the place she grew up, and really the only place she really knew. And when she looked forward in front of her was the vast Kokiri Forest, home of the forest children and the Great Deku Tree, the forest protective spirit.
Staring on into the field she saw the great plain the Hylian people called Hyrule Field. It was an enormous grassy expanse, lush and green and full of life. Terra could see the grass sway back and forth, pushed by the gentle breeze at rolled across the plain, almost like waves of an ocean. The breeze carried with it a familiar smell, one of summer flowers, fresh air, and vigorous life. The scent could be smelled all the way across Hyrule, and it was something Terra enjoyed, especially in the summer when the smell was at its peak.
Hyrule Field was like a giant sea of green plants. With the occasional tree and wooden or stone fence, the field lay mostly interrupted for miles. Standing on the far border of the plain Terra looked across and could barely make out the other tree line that lay far on the other edge Hyrule Field. The trees bordered and surrounded the entire expanse of the field from Hyrule Castle down to Lake Hylia.
One of the few major landmarks that lay in the field was the circular mass of trees that acted as a wind-break for Lon Lon Ranch. The ranch lay on the summit of a large hill in the center of Hyrule Field. Terra remembered when she had been to the ranch a few times before when she was very young. It's the place where her parents took her to learn to ride horses, an activity the princess quickly grew very fond of. Terra had a few horses over her own back at the castle, but the time she spent riding them was far and in between, always being busy with royal business, or out with her parents on some 'Royal Duty' to some other land on the borders of Hyrule. But she vividly remembers her teacher, a young woman with light auburn hair, almost red, who was close friends with her parents, a woman by the name of Malon. She often saw her old horse riding teacher in town during celebrations, much like the Summer Carnival, or delivering milk to the castle or the town. Though lately, a few years even, she hasn't been to the Ranch. It seems that her royal duties quickly caught up with her as she got older, even though she tried her best to avoid them.
Continuing her short sight-seeing stop Terra looked up at the tall peak of Death Mountain. Smoke slowly circled the top of the slightly active volcano. Though burning lava still coursed through its stone veins, the mountain remained at peace. And slightly beneath the mountains peak laid the home of the Gorons, the people of stone. She also gazed upon a small river that gently flowed toward Hyrule Castle. The river weaved through the forest and exited out into Hyrule Field. If traced to the source one would come upon the Zora's Domain, home of the Zoras, the people of water.
The princess was soon on the move again. She could feel the gentle summer breeze pass over her cloak. Terra was traveling on the edge of the forest at a slow pace attempting not to rush herself to finish the job her parents put before her. The princess enjoyed her time away from the castle. It seems as she got older her free time she had to herself quickly became less and less. Terra was always busy helping her parents, getting scolded by Impa about not having found herself a 'boy' yet, or something else that she found completely ridiculous.
Terra arrived at her destination later in the afternoon. Smiling to herself she entered a small path between two extremely large trees which served as the entrance to the Kokiri Forest and the village of the Kokiri children. The large trees created a great amount of shade, as she walked under the canopy there was an immediate temperature difference. From the warm and bright field she entered the cool and refreshing forest.
She slid her hood down to her shoulders and proceeded across the small rickety wooden bridge that spanned a grassy valley heading into the town of the Kokiri. Upon reaching the other side of the bridge she was stopped by a Kokiri child in dark green cloths and fire like orange hair hanging carelessly over his face, covering his eyes. The child held a short wooden stick carved crudely into the shape of a spear. The weapon had a very dull point, obviously a toy the forest child had quickly crafted earlier in the day due to the fact that the wooden was still green inside.
"Halt!" The child yelled, pointing the dull edge of the toy at Terra. "Who are you? I-I-I mean Who goes there? I-I mean Halt, Identify yourself!"
Terra giggled at the child's attempt to act as a rough and trained guard. "Don't you recognize me?" she joked, leaning down to eye level with the Kokiri. "Or are you the one who wasn't paying attention when I came here to play with the Kokiri Children last?"
The child lifted his orange hair out of his eyes, revealing a pair of bright green eyes. "Terra?" the boy replied "It's Terra! She's came here to play with us again! Yippee!" The orange haired boy began to jump around wildly, and then headed off into the forest village repeatedly shouting "Terra's here! Terra's here!"
Terra had come to the forest many times before, mainly to get away from her parents, but also to entertain the Kokiri Children with play and, on occasion, her beautiful singing voice. They would flock around her whenever she arrived; excited for what games Terra might play with them or what song the princess might sing for them. The young Hylian had rapidly become like an adopted parent to the Kokiri, often taking care of the cuts and scrapes they had, or solving emotional conflicts between children, much like a normal Hylian parent would with its children. She seemed to have taken up Link's place in the forest; filling up the void he left behind when he left the woods to get married to Zelda
The orange haired boy returned this time unarmed and accompanied by a vast number of forest children. "See! See! She's here! You got to play with us today! Please please please!" the boy begged, going onto his knees comically which generating a laugh from Princess Terra.
"Everyone calm down!" A girl's voice boomed from behind the group of children. It was Saria, Sage of the Forest. She began to cut her way through the crowd towards Terra followed closely, as always, by Mido.
The group stopped shouting as a girl with green hair made her way to the Hylian.
Saria made her way through the crowd up to Terra, who was smiling as usual, quite entertained by all the commotion she had caused by coming to the village. "I'm sorry about them, they are just excited..." She said looking down and shuffling her green shoes in the dark earth.
"See what you did guys! You made Saria sad! You should all be ashamed!" Mido shouted, flailing his hands wildly into the air. Though everyone seemed ignored his comment, they all knew that he was still trying his luck with Saria, even after many years of getting nowhere.
"Oh, it's fine Saria." Terra smiled and used her hand to gently lift Saria's face. "I guess since I'm here I might have to play a few games and sing a song or two for everyone." She smirked looking around at the children, whose numbers continued to grow by the minute. "But not too long, my father asked me to bring you into the city for a few days, the summer carnival and all!"
The Kokiri children broke out into a cheer, jumping around wildly. Some even latched onto and hugged Terra's dress. Terra couldn't help but break out into laughter. She enjoyed the company of the forest children. In a way they reminded her of her own self, not wanting to grow up, not wanting anything more than to be happy with playing simple games or acting like a child. Even though for her, growing up was inevitable, and for the children they remained the same age forever.
"So…What game shall we play?" Terra asked raising an eyebrow, looking down onto the crowd of kids in green that surrounded her.
The Kokiri grew silent and looked at each other. They all began to grin unanimously as if they all got the same exact idea all at once.
"Hide and seek!" they all shouted. Each child instantly darted in a different direction, off to a hiding spot which they thought was 'The Best'. The kids had left Saria and Terra wide-eyed. The two girls looked at each other, moments before they were surrounded by a sea of children and in seconds they all disappeared into the village and woods.
"Well…" Terra said, almost choking on laughter. "Best we start looking, huh?"
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As time passed and the yellow sun slowly crept across the blue sky the game of Kokiri Hide and Seek went on. Finding an entire village of children in a deep forest isn't an easy task. But slowly and surely each child of the forest was found. For Terra time just seemed to move too quickly as she often looked up into the sky to check the time, she wished she had more time to stay and play with the children but sadly she was on a mission for her dad and had to keep track of what she was doing, or lose track of time. But finally the game of hide and seek came to a close...
When the last child was found it was near sundown. Kokiri games of hide and seek can last for hours and even a day if the children hid well enough. The village of children plus the Hylian princess sat in a large grassy area. Everyone was laughing and congratulating each other on another successful game of Kokiri Hide and Seek.
"Hey!" A child spoke out, getting the groups attention. "How about Terra sings us a song?"
Almost instantly the children seemed to have caught a second-wind and all began to yell. "Yeah, Terra! Sing a song!" They would call. A group of children grabbed the princess by the hands and led her away even after Terra protested that she must be going. Eventually she gave into pleas of the mass of children and let them led her to her normal singing area.
The children lead her to the old stump next to the still young Deku Tree, the place where each time before she would sit sing to them all. Saria took her place next to Terra and pulled out her tan and green forest ocarina. Children began to take their seats on the grass and dirt around the stump. Each of them would fidget eagerly, getting ready to hear what song Terra was going to sing to them.
"Oh, Terra's here?" A raspy yet vigor voice from a nearby tree said, it was the Great Deku Tree, still not fully grown. "It's been so long since I heard her wonderful voice. Terra's voice is even better than song birds that nest in my branches."
The children shouted in agreement. The Hylian princess smiled "Oh…You guys, I'm not that good." She blushed humbly. Everyone, even Saria, disagreed; they all knew that Terra's song voice was amazing.
"Oh Terra hush, you have a wonderful voice." Saria replied encouragingly.
Terra giggled. "So…What song shall I sing?" She leaned down eye level to all the kids.
The crowd broke out into a jumble of words, not being able to agree with one another about what they wanted to hear. "Hey! I know, How about one you haven't heard before?" Terra shouted, over the volume of the Kokiri kids. The children soon stopped their bickering and unanimously agreed.
Terra thought for a few moments before deciding on a song.
"This song is called The Song of Healing." Terra started "My dad taught it to me, he said he learned it from a very strange man in a distant far away land. It's said to have magic mystical powers, to heal cuts, mend wounded animals…" Terra giggled at what she was going to say next. "…and even broken hearts!"
The kids grew wide eyed. Mido's face even perked up at the 'Broken Hearts' section, which caught Terra's eye and made her quietly laugh to herself, she too knew that Mido liked Saria even if he kept getting shot down.
"Well? Shall I begin?" She inquired. The Kokiri children all cheered in agreement and quickly grew quiet not wanting to miss a single note.
Terra took in a deep breath and started with the first series of descending notes of the song.
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Hyrule Castle, Later that night
Each sage gathered into the great hall except one, Saria. They stood in a semi-circle around Link who was looking out a window into the fiery orange sunset sky. "Well, Shall we go?" He inquired quietly. "Even with Saria not here this meeting needs to happen. I'll get her information when my daughter brings her" The Hero of Time turned and began to walk down a dark hallway in the back of the great hall. Each sage gave a shallow nod and proceeded to follow Link though a vast amount of chambers until they reached a closed metal door guarded by a single Knight of Hyrule. The Knight was in full battle regalia, his smooth metal plate armor glimmered in the soft light and his blue cape hung motionless over his shoulders. The soldier had a constant watch over the door guarding it from anyone or anything that didn't have clearance and tried to enter. His helmet's visor keeping his gaze shadowed. Taking notice of the group the knight slid open the metal door for them and waited until the last one entered finally closed the door behind them and continued his constant watch.
The company entered a dimly lit room, with mysterious symbols and artifacts adoring the walls. A small fire was burning in the fireplace to the back of the room flooding it with soft orange light. Swords, books, paintings and strange items of all sorts were scattered across the walls, each hung neatly into a certain place. Above the fire place hung a heart-shaped masked adorned with horns, Majora's Mask. The mask seemed to be the only shadowed object in the room though its orange fire like eyes seemed to give off their own light. The husk of the mask serves as a reminder to Link about what could have happened in the land of Termina, and the fight that almost took his own sanity. But the mask on the wall reminded Link that Majora's Mask wasn't the only artifact he had brought back from Termina…
Each sage took a designated seat around a smooth stone oval table, Link and Zelda sat at the head looking upon the sages. "Seeing as most of us are here we might as well start." He said, looking to his left at a green chair where Saria was supposed to be seated was empty. So Link then went on to the sage of fire. "Do you have anything to report old friend? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Daruina let out a laugh that shook the room. "No…of course not. Nothing has happened in my part of the world for some time. It seems that this peace is a lasting peace, a good omen my friend."
These meetings were to discuss any happenings in Hyrule, good or bad. They were once a common occurrence long ago after the defeat of Ganondorf but slowly they boiled down to only a once a year occurrence. As the Goron finished the meeting continued, going clockwise around the table to each sage. No sage had anything to report, until it came to the old sage of light, Rauru.
Rauru started. "While reading though some ancient text in the archives below the Temple of Time I found this behind one of the old archive shelves…" He placed a tablet covered in old on the table and began to unwrap it.
"It shows something…Most interesting…" On the tablets face was a picture of orbs each representing a planet, each was in line with the others. "It shows the date of a planetary alignment, Look here" the sage pointed to an inscribed date. "One year and two days from now…Or next year's Summer Carnival!"
"Ah!" Daruina yelled. "Another good omen, something else to celebrate on that wonderful day!" The Goron began to laugh, shaking the room and its contents.
Each member around the table took their turn at looking at the piece of stone inspecting it closely. When it arrived at Link he spoke.
"Wait here…The tablet is broken!" Link pointed to the bottom of the stone tablet. Under the aligned planets the tablet had broken. "Why is it broken? It seems like there is more writing when the rest of the tablet should be." He pointed to a few lines that disappeared where the rest of the tablet should be.
Rauru rubbed his bald head. "Yes, about …I….I don't know why it's broken…I have yet to find the other part."
Everyone in the room was deathly silent as they all stared at the piece of stone.
"So what's so important about this piece of stone huh?" Ruto, the sage of water blurted out. "To me it's just a broken rock with writing on it showing some crazy day where the planets line up…big deal."
Link stood up. "Well right now that's all it is. I'll contact when we figure out what this tablet says about the planetary alignment…Rauru, could you see if you can find the missing piece?"
The sage nodded in agreement.
"So as of now this meeting is over, I will call us back when Rauru finds the remaining piece of the tablet." Link stated, nodding to the rest of the group. "Right now it's nothing to be concerned about."
As the meeting ended everyone left the dark room for their assigned living quarters in Hyrule Castle. (Each sage had a room while staying in Castle Town.) Zelda silently took Link aside. "Link…" She murmured softly into his ear. "Where is Saria and our daughter, its past nightfall, they should have been back long ago. I'm worried." Zelda clasped her husband's hand. Link took his wife out onto the balcony and looked out over the town, light from fires lit up the streets. "I'm sure they're…" His words trailed off as he saw a young Kokiri girl with green hair ride up to the castle on a ranch horse. The green haired girl was holding the Terra's royal cloak. "Oh no…" He gasped, and began to race down the stone stairs followed closely by his wife…
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