Fan Fiction ❯ The Mirror Tells All ❯ Twelfth ( Chapter 12 )

You Wish! Productions presents...

The Mirror Tells All

A Legend of Zelda fan fiction

By: Blue Taboo

Proud member of Darkscribes.org

I. have. no. free. time! Apologies for the shortness of this...

Also sorry for the delay, people, but keep telling me what you think of this...

"Do you really have to go tonight?" pleaded a little blonde, sad-eyed Kokiri girl.

Link regretted that once again his response was, "Yes, yes I do."

His three days in the forest had done nothing other than fly by. It didn't matter if he was catching up with Saria in her own special clearing outside the Forest Temple, or if he was giving into Mido's demands that he tell the Kokiri leader all about the world outside the forest, or if he was just playing and laughing with the other Kokiri...time just escaped him.

Link had wondered if it had been like this, when he was still a child, with time being of no real importance and to a point where it came and went too quickly for him to care. Unfortunately, though, he had to care now. When the sun set on that day, he would have to return to the castle and back into the plots of Zelda and the Old Knights. He would have to fight witfully against the Emperor Terinae once more with lies and false notions. He would have to figure this all out...and return peace to Hyrule again, but as much as he loved being back in the forest, he found himself missing the winding corridors of Hyrule Castle well enough...

However, Link had one very important thing left to do before he did leave the forest. Saria had told him, when he'd awoken on the second day, that the Deku Sprout had requested that Link speak with him before he left. Link was actually glad to hear that, since he had a few things to ask the one little tree that would know more about his origin than any other creature in Hyrule. Of course, it was all this lie and intrigue about who he was that made Link suddenly more interested in the truth of it.

"Don't worry, Nessa," he told the girl that had followed him to the entrance of the Great Deku Tree's clearing, "I'll be here until you go sleep, and I'll come back to visit again before you know it."

This didn't seem to satisfy the Kokiri very well, but never the less, she let Link alone to talk with the tree.

The grove was still lively, even with the great gray hulk of the dead Great Deku Tree looming over it all. Sun beams shot in through his great twisting branches and shone in patches along the short grass and moss of the forest floor. Forest fairies still flew about here in great numbers, giggling sometimes as they went. And amongst all of it shot up the Deku Sprout, that seemed to grow by the hour. He bore a youthful countenance, unlike his predecessor, and he lacked the eyebrow and mustache features that stood behind him, rather, having a wide under-biting mouth and two eyes that simply looked carved into the trunk, of course, when the tree did not blink, they did.

"Ah Link!" he nearly roared in a warm greeting. "I am very glad that I have gotten the opportunity to meet you, the Hero of Time, once again!"

At that comment, Link's face was marred with confusion. Zelda had told him that only he and the Sages knew of the alternate future. He had not expected even the mythical tree to be free from the ignorance of the rest of the world.

The Sprout, of course, had probably predicted this. "Haha! You seem so shocked that I know your title. Link, my roots, intertwined with those of my deceased father, cannot lie. Even though I was merely a seedling at the time, I was not able to forget what happened, simply because the minds of trees like myself do not work like those of other sentient creatures. I know all that has happened and all that never will happen. Time is of little matter to me and my eternal children, though it may be of great importance to mortals such as yourself."

He continued on, saying, "However, I am sure that talking of the minds of different creatures is not why we have been brought together again, Link. I must say, though, that as the original revealer of the secret of your own race to you, that you make a very fine Hylian man. My father's roots tell me enough of your kind so that I may say such things."

"Thank you, Deku Sprout..." Link managed in reply.

The ent gave a great laugh again. "Saria has told me of your current quest. She tells me that you are pretending to be the son of a noble Hylian Knight so that you may aid Princess Zelda in taking that Emperor out of Hyrule. Now I must tell you, Link, that for all my knowledge, I know precious little about such affairs, but I will tell you this. The Emperor's men are afreared of my forest, and with very good reason. They are even weaker of mind and magic than normal Hylians, so they get lost very easily. If you, or any loyal Hylian that seeks to aid you and Princess Zelda, ever need a safe place, a refuge if you will, from whatever harm the outside world may bring, then feel free to come to me, and I will protect you as if you were truly my children. I swear it upon my father's roots, just as he swore to protect you when you were just a babe."

"You have my undying gratitude, Deku Sprout," Link told the tree firmly, though relaxing at the notion that he did not have to bow. "I should hope we would never have to seek such refuge, but it's good to know that there is somewhere to go. But...I wish to ask a rather vague question of you, before I must go, that is."

"Then ask, Hero, ask what you wish."

Link's gaze shifted to his boots, his fear rising at the thought of how little information he would probably get. "You said that you get your knowledge from your father's roots, and well, I have been wondering ever since you told me I was a Hylian back in the other time as to who my parents were, and the circumstances of my being left here."

"But Link, I told you of that already. Do you not remember?" the tree returned.

"Oh no, I remember it all. You simply said that my mother was fatally wounded and charged me into the Great Deku Tree's care before she died when I was practically a newborn. I want to know, though, is if you know more than that..."

The ent's mouth twisted and the carved-out eyes closed as if he was literally reaching out underground towards the roots of the Great Deku Tree, though the two were already one...

"My father's roots tell me very little on the subject. They speak of a woman who was all over red as the fall leaves of maple trees and you as a babe, who seemed as golden as the mid morning sun. She entreated him to keep you and my father had other memories of her voice and took you in because he knew her somehow, but I cannot detect how. She perished only hours after, in her wearied slumber, and my father covered her body in the vines that served him, so that she would go back into the earth and not alarm his children. He could feel the heat of war-fire beyond the forest as he called his children to him so that they could take you to be cared for, and as he did so, he came to know you as a child of destiny. This is all his roots will show, other than more concern for the fires outside of his forest..."

Link was silent, and slightly disappointed. The whole of it was only an elaboration on the earlier telling of his coming into the forest. All this he could have simply assumed, with a few new, yet less than helpful bits of information.

"This isn't what you wished to know, is it Link?" the Deku Sprout inferred.

"No it's not. I suppose, though, that Hylian concerns are also different from the concerns of Guardian Spirit Trees. It is of no real matter, just my own curiosity," Link confirmed, still sounding a little down-trodden.

"There, there, Hero," the tree consoled. "I am sure that you will find the knowledge you seek, and for you, I shall spend some mortal time in the memories of my father's roots. He may yet know more, but I shall have to search long and hard. Come to me again sometime, Link, and maybe I will even have what you seek. However, perhaps you should set yourself above Hylian concerns at times. You are a hero and a champion, and your focus should be on the goals of the Hero of Time, not on the concerns of a Hylian."

It was good, solid advice, but Link still sough to protest. "But it's very hard to be a Hylian and the Hero of Time at the same time. My quest is always the first thing on my mind, but other thoughts lurk around it and I cannot help but think them."

"It is your destiny, Link, to be a mortal hero, simply because heroism involves risking one's life. However, it doesn't mean that for every bit of time your life consumes, you must think a hero's thoughts, only that those should be your priority. Should you succeed in your quests and trials, you shall achieve peace, and when there is peace, heroes may rest and become Hylians again. Do you understand my words, Link?"

He nodded slowly. "I believe I do. But, one day, when there is peace in this land, I will find out that which has eluded me. I will find out where I came from, won't I?"

The Sprout laughed again, seemingly shaking the whole forest as he did. "Be the Goddesses willing, Link, and I believe that they shall be. I hope, for you, that you find more than that when peace is returned to this land, Hero. You deserve all that can be given...Our time together, though, must come to an end soon. You must needs prepare to return to your quest."

Link sighed and gave into the thought with mixed emotions, as he did with most. "You're right. We shall meet again, Deku Sprout!" he affirmed.

"Then I look forward to our next meeting, Hero of Time. Good journey to you, my young friend."

Link just nodded politely in reply and waved as he walked quickly out of the grove.

The afternoon sky, when glimpsed through the canopy, had indeed started to darken as the sun set in the west. Link had to attend his last Kokiri feast and play his last forest games. at least for the time being...

But before he even knew it, not only Saria, but also Mido and a few others were standing on the bridge to watch him leave and say their goodbyes. He gave each of them a strong embrace and promised to return again some day, giving a longer, sadder hug to his best friend, whom he would have to leave yet again.

However, the foul mood he'd been put into by leaving the forest was soon soothed as he mounted up on Epona and caught sight of the high towers of Hyrule Castle in the distance. He had a quest to get back to, a quest for Hyrule...

And...he had to get back to Zelda again...

So Link rode off once again into the vast Hyrule Field, galloping Epona as he went, suddenly eager to get back to his new life of falsehood in the name of good.

As he rode up to the gates, bringing his rusty mare to a halt, a single guard, now guarding and commanding the closed drawbridge gate to Castle Town, decreed, "Halt there!"

Link obeyed without hesitation, and recognized the man as the one who was in charge of the other two guards that had been the ones to tell him first of Hyrule's newest problem. He pulled Epona up to the man and offered his hand down to the soldier. "We meet again, my friend," he said in greeting.

It took a moment for the Hylian guard to recognize Link, but when he did, he grinned and gave the younger man's hand a firm shake with his own. "Ah! I've heard quite a bit about you since I let you through all those days ago. Why did you not tell me of your name and title, Master Link? I wouldn't have given you so much fuss, had you done so."

"To tell the truth," and ironically, it was, for the most part, the truth. "I had no real idea how much effect my title would have. I'm sorry, good soldier, if you felt that I deceived you, but I know so little of my own kingdom."

"Oh 'tis nothing, Your Honor!" the man affirmed loudly. "I am only glad to be of service. Your masters have arrived only just before you, so I think it would be best that you seek to follow them swiftly, right?" Then the guard turned to shout to the man on the drawbridge, but Link stopped him before he could yell out the order to take it up.

"But what of my promise to you, though? I told you that I would tell you all I learned about what was going on with the Emperor when I next saw you and--"

The guard interrupted. "Master Link, you'd do me great honor to tell me such things, but I'm afraid the we are both busy men. I have a bridge to guard, and you have a castle to get back to. Perhaps we shall meet again, on a better occasion for the story."

Link was perplexed at how the guard's behavior had changed from their earlier meeting. It reminded Link just how much he hated being thought of as "above" anyone else, but he could do nothing to alter it now. "Then that is my hope as well. Thank you, good soldier."

"Any time, Master Squire." The man then called to have the drawbridge lowered and Epona's hooves were soon clip clopping across it and onto the cobble stones of the quiet Castle Town...and back to Zelda...

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/_\ /_\ Blue Taboo /_\ /_\