Key Quest: Air and Fire by Judy Colella (first color ebook reader TXT) 📕

“No. Thanks again, Malon. I enjoyed being here. You and your father are very nice, and I hope to see you again.”

“You still have your fairy, I see.” She pointed at Navi, who had remained silent this entire time.

“Yes. Her name is Navi.”

“Hello, Navi.”

The fairy turned a lighter shade of blue and twinkled.

“That means you’re a Kokiri, then. I’d wondered about that after I met you in Town. But…I heard they were very small. About my height, like you, only smaller. You look like you’re going to get much taller some day, but I thought the Kokiri children stopped growing once they got to my size.”

He shrugged, disconcerted. So she’d noticed it, too! What was going on? “Guess so.”

“Before you leave, I’d like to give you something. I – I’ve been keeping it hidden, but I doubt I’ll ever need it. You might, though. I mean, it sounds like you’re going to be having a lot of adventures, and this could help you. See that tower over there?” She pointed to a tall stone structure at the far end of the ranch, beyond the corral and near one of the outer walls. “That’s our storage silo. If you go inside, you’ll find a few cows, probably, and some crates of milk bottles. If you push them aside, you’ll find a secret entrance to a special hiding place I go when I want to be alone. In the straw, there’s a large heart fruit. That kind lasts a really long time after its been picked, and since I only got it about a week or so ago, it should last you another two or three weeks before you have to eat it before it goes bad.”

“Are you sure?” Dang, this girl talks more than Fado! At least she makes sense, though.

“Of course! I would never offer it otherwise, silly boy!”

Great. Now she sounds like Navi. “That’s extremely kind of you. Thank you, Malon.”

The girl suddenly blushed and looked away, which Link promptly took as his cue to get out of there.

A short while later, the life-giving fruit tucked into his satchel, he headed out of the ranch after stopping briefly to thank Talon once again for his hospitality.

“My pleasure,” said the man, beaming. “You’re a good boy, Link. Feel free to come back any time you need a place to sleep, or even for a nice visit, okay?”

“Yes, sir. I will.”

When they were out in the field once more, Navi reminded Link that he really, really needed to get to Death Mountain. With the reminder, however, came a return of the heaviness he’d felt before entering the ranch, and which his stay there had all but erased. “You’re right,” he admitted, unhappy. “I do need to get there.” He headed back toward the stairs to Kakariko Village, and was about to cross over the path that led back to the forest when he stopped.

“You know,” he murmured, “I probably won’t be back for a really long time, if ever. Hmm.”

“Link! What are you doing?”

“Thinking, Navi. Every once in a while I do that.” Should he let someone else have his tree-cottage? But who would need it? There were no new Kokiri children as far as he knew, and now with the Great Deku Tree gone, there most likely wouldn’t be any new ones for a while.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?” And there was something else. Something he couldn’t explain, but it seemed a new sense had awakened in him since his encounters in the Deku Tree. Almost like a compass, only it was in his head. At the moment, it was telling him…

“You have to hurry, Link!”

He made up his mind. “You’re absolutely right, Navi. Let’s go!”

The fairy shot forward, while Link turned right and started back down the path toward the Forest. A second later, she realized he wasn’t with her and zoomed back. “Where are you going? The mountain is the other way!”

“I know, Navi. We’ll get there, but not today. I have a feeling I need to go back to the Village, but I’m not exactly sure why.”

“Very well.”

A few steps later, Link realized that she had sounded almost pleased. “Navi, is there anything you aren’t telling me?”

“Like what, Link?”

“Like why you aren’t arguing with me about my decision to return to the Forest.”

“It’s nothing. I trust you, is all.”

Thinking that was about the weirdest thing she’d ever said to him, he didn’t respond. Besides, the light was beginning to fade, and he figured it might be a good idea to get back to the Village before nightfall. He wasn’t concerned about the Stalchildren or about the Village remaining in darkness – he had the Sun Song, after all. Nope, it was something else.

The first time he’d entered Hyrule field, he’d seen some strange-looking objects resting on the ground far to his left. They were still there, from what he could see, but one of them, he now noticed, had risen from the ground and was floating off somewhere. The fact that these things, gigantic as they were, could not only move, but fly, too, had him quite worried. He had a feeling that since they were around in daylight, they probably wouldn’t disappear at night, either.

Ahead, the narrow passage between grassy walls and trees loomed closer; Link picked up his pace, and got there with no mishaps. Grateful, he dashed into the opening, wondering if everything would still be the way it had been when he left.

No one was standing guard near the opening back into the Village. Why? What had happened? Was something wrong? How come –

“Link, are you all right?” Navi sounded worried, but not terribly so.

“Where is everyone? What’s happened here?”

Silence. “I think they’re probably in their cottages for the evening. You know you’ve only been gone a couple of days.”

“Are you laughing at me, Navi?”

“No. Yes. A little. You’re too serious, Link!”

He sighed, relaxing. “You’re right.” He trudged forward, feeling somewhat foolish.

“Why are we here?”

“I have no idea. It seemed like the right thing, is all.”

“Where are we going?”

He stopped, put a hand to his forehead and winced. “I don’t know. Saria’s house, I suppose.” He didn’t have a headache or anything, but suspected the fairy’s constant stream of questions would be giving him one soon.

“Why?”

He’d known she was going to ask that. “Because. Because I’m a – a silly boy.” He started walking again.

The journey from Lon Lon Ranch to the Woods had taken less than half a day, but he was hungry, and while not that tired yet (he hadn’t been running, after all), was beginning to think he could use another good night’s rest before doing anything else of major importance. Like climbing a mountain.

He stopped, having reached Saria’s cottage. Unlike his, this one’s door was on ground-level. He went in, a perfectly normal and acceptable behavior here, and called her name.

No answer. No movement. How odd, he thought, going outside again.

“Link! You’re back!”

“Hello, Fado.”

“Everyone was wondering if you’d died. No Kokiri has ever left the Forest and lived, you know. But many said you would – live, I mean – because like Saria says, you’re different from us somehow. How are you different, Link? I mean, you’re stronger than most of us, but – ”

“Do you happen to know where Saria is?” He didn’t like being rude, but if he didn’t interrupt her prattle, he’d start drooling.

“Sure do! She’s in the Lost Woods. In fact, I think she knew you’d be back because she said if any of us saw you, we should tell you to meet her there at the Temple ruin. I’ve never been there, myself. Have you ever been there, Link? It sounds mysterious!”

“Here.” He held out an apple he’d put into his satchel after breakfast at the ranch. “Ever have one of these? They’re delicious.” She needed to stop talking…

“Ooh! Thank you, Link!” She blushed, took the apple, and batted her eyelashes at him.

Suppressing a groan, he thanked her for the information about Saria, told her to enjoy the apple, and took off at top speed toward the wall of vines that would bring him to the entrance of the Lost Woods.

At his shoulder, Navi was doing something odd. Something… “Are you laughing at me, Navi?”

“Yes, Link.”

“Hmm. Okay.” He climbed the vines quickly in case Fado had liked the apple and decided she wanted to discuss the fact with him.

The entrance was marked by the cut end of a massive hollow tree. He ran in, and because he knew the maze-like pathways by heart, headed in the general direction of where he believed the Temple to be. Never having been there, he’d been told enough about its location to have a pretty good idea which paths to take.

As he made his first turn into one of the many openings, he paused. Straight ahead was something that had always made him curious, but about which he’d been unable to do anything. An object that looked almost like a drum dangled from the branch of a long-dead tree; he’d tried hitting it with rocks, and once even used a sling-shot, but both attempts had ended in failure. In neither instance could he reach it. But now he had a fairy sling-shot that had a range far beyond that of his crude home-made versions.

“I wonder…” He went to the wooden railing at the top of what was actually a deep gully within the Woods, and stared at the so-far unreachable target.

“Link! What are you doing?”

He didn’t reply, but took out the sling-shot, armed it with a deku seed, and took careful aim.

Zing! Thwack! “Got it!” He shot at it a second time, then a third, delighted that every one of the seeds had hit dead-center.

Suddenly, a deku scrub, of all things, popped up from the stubby top of the tree’s gnarled trunk. It hopped to the end, peered down at the drum-like object, then across the space at Link, who was slack-jawed with surprise.

He’d never imagined anything was living in the old tree, much less this creature! So scrubs didn’t only exist in the Great Deku Tree!

The creature was hopping up and down again, clearly excited about something. A moment later it spoke. “You did it! A perfect score! That deserves a special prize, I’m thinking – don’t go away!”

What the heck?! Link stayed where he was, still too shocked to speak, and watched as the little leafy being returned to the other end of the branch.

Ploof!

Link ducked, but instead of a deku nut, the thing had shot something softer from its snout, something that sailed over the boy’s head and landed on the grass behind him. He turned, went to it, and picked it up, amazed. It was a soft leather bag which, while somewhat larger than the one in which he’d been carrying ammo for his sling-shot, was still a good size for tying onto his belt. He opened it.

“Woah! Look, Navi – way more deku seeds than I’ve been able to carry at one time before!” He looked across at the scrub. “Hey, thank you!”

The creature gave what sounded to Link like a pleased squeak, and burrowed back into the tree.

Imagine that! he thought, attaching his prize next to