Child Of The Forest by Judy Colella (read an ebook week TXT) 📕

Grass…he needed grass…He stumbled to the nearest patch and grabbed a handful, laying it quickly over the ugly gouges in his left arm. It helped some, but he still didn’t feel right, so he plucked a few more blades and chewed on them.

Ah. That was better. Not great, but better.

“Cut some of this,” Navi suggested, hovering over another plant.

When he did, instead of Deku seeds, something red tumbled out. It was fruit of some kind that almost looked like a heart. “What’s this?”

“Magic, Link. A special magic fruit that restores all damage, even from poison.”

“I was poisoned?”

“Yes – that’s what they do – they inject you with poison so you can’t fight any more, and then they eat you.”

“Inject…”

“You were lucky. It only scratched you, so the poison didn’t go all the way into your blood.”

“Lucky…right.” He picked up the berry-sized fruit and popped it into his mouth. Immediately, he felt a surge of strength course through his being. “Wow!”

“All right – let’s go, Link.”

“Go where?”

“Burn that web over there.” She flew toward the other end of the room where a web covered some kind of sloping path like the one on which he’d entered.

“What about this one?” He’d noticed another web to his left, this one blocking a huge opening beyond which he could hear the hissing of one of his favorite plants.

“Later, Link. This way for now.”

He nodded and took out a Deku stick, lighting it at the torch stand nearby. When the web was gone, he saw that the small path ended at a square opening in the wall, one that looked oddly like the one in Wado’s training area. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled through.

The tunnel wasn’t very long, and when he emerged, he realized he was back in the chamber where he’d fallen through the shaft. Only now, he saw, he was on the higher ground, in the middle of which was another circular opening covered by a web.

Since there was nothing from which to jump and break through it, he had to – ah, exactly! A lit torch stood close.

“Wait…” What had seemed like a logical next step proved to be an impossibility. The torch was raised, and not even the tip of a Deku stick, held all the way at arm’s length, could reach the flame. Any second now, he told himself, Navi will announce the obvious solution. Any second now…any…huh? What was she doing? Filing her fingernails?

On the verge of asking her why she wasn’t talking to him, he suddenly realized what he’d been leaning against while having this discussion with himself. A block. He frowned, climbed on top, and peered over the opposite edge. Yup, another channel, but this one ended at the lip of the plateau. So if he pushed the block, it would probably fall into the water…aha! Access to the torch he could reach and a way back up to this higher ground!

Link jumped down, got behind the block, and began to push. A moment later, it slid off the edge and splashed into the water. He hopped onto its top, then leaped, landing near the lower dry ground. Pulling out a Deku stick, he quickly obtained some fire, ran back and managed to climb up the block without dropping the stick. He ran to the circular opening, lowered the stick, and the flames burned away the web.

And I did it all without Navi’s help. Imagine that. He looked around, wondering at her continued silence.

“You’d better jump now,” she said by his left ear, sounding far too unhappy to be encouraging.

“What’s down there, Navi? Why are you so afraid?”

“Those baby spiders – one almost killed you, Link. But down there, you’ll find the creature that’s at the heart of the curse, the creature that’s poisoning this Tree and filling it with evil things – their mother.”

“The baby…how big is she, Navi?”

“Bigger than your tree-cottage. Her name is Gohma.”

He boggled. How could any animal, especially a bug, be that big? Not that he thought for a moment that Navi was lying to him. Still… “That’s what I have to destroy to break the curse?”

“Yes, Link. And I…”

“What is it?”

“I’ve come to like you, Link, and I don’t want you to die.” She uttered a miniscule sob, shocking him deeply.

“You care that much?”

A diminutive sniff tickled his ear, but she didn’t speak.

“Oh, Navi. Look, I’ll be all right. Why else would the Great Deku Tree ask me to do this?”

Her light seemed to grow a tiny bit brighter.

“Come on – I’d better get going.” He peered over the edge. “It doesn’t look like it’s as deep as the other shaft.” He hoped the water down there was, however. He took a long, slow breath, held it, and jumped.

The water on this level was actually warm – not that it mattered. It was still wet, and he was once more reminded how much he disliked walking around in wet clothes.

After swimming to the shallow end, he stood and walked up onto the dry area.

“Ack!” A Deku nut missed his head by a whisker and he yanked the shield from his back.

Ploomp!

“Ouch!” This one found his left side, pushing him back a few inches.

Ploomp!

“Hey!” As the last Scrub had warned, there were three of them firing at him. He crouched, moving his shield around to try and anticipate which one would shoot next. And what had the Scrub told him about the order I which to get them?

“The one in the middle must be hit first!” Navi hissed at him.

“Right!” He moved his shield again, this time deflecting a Deku nut coming from the left. It flew between two of the Scrubs, missing both cleanly. “Dang.”

Ploomp! Thunk! Squeak!

Drat – wrong Scrub!

This went on for several minutes, until he managed to get the middle Scrub, which began hopping around. He ignored it, and went for the one on the right.

Ploomp! Thunk! Squeak!

Unfortunately, this was the wrong one, and the middle Scrub returned to its spot where it resumed firing Nuts at the beleaguered boy.

Okay, thought Link, middle, left and right. Got it.

And he did. A few minutes later, all three were hopping around, squeaking and glaring at him.

“How did you know the way to stop us?” demanded one of them when he got near it.

“I’m a great guesser. What are you doing?”

“We’re guarding the Queen!”

“Shut up, brother!”

“We’re all doomed!”

Link nearly laughed. But then he remembered Navi’s description of this Queen, and all amusement fled. “What are you talking about?” he demanded instead, drawing his sword.

“Oh! Oh, no! Little master, please don’t hurt us!” one of them wailed – at this point, since they were identical, he had no way to know which one this was.

“Tell me more about the Queen – how do I defeat her?” That seemed to him like a good question.

“Oh, dear, oh, dear, we can’t betray her!”

“Really?” Link shook his head. “If you do, and I defeat her, what can she do to you when she’s dead? If I fail, she’ll never know, so what are you getting so upset about?”

The Scrubs stopped hopping and gave him identical considering stares.

“He has a point,” said one finally.

“He’s not very big, and she’ll probably eat him,” said another.

“He’s only a fairy-boy, after all, and they aren’t very strong,” said the third.

“He’s standing right here and can hear you,” said Link, exasperated.

They blinked, and then one took a hop closer. “She’ll drop down in front of you,” it said in a half-whisper, “and her eye will be open and exposed. Strike it! Strike at her hard, right in the eye! If it doesn’t kill her right away, she’ll climb to the ceiling again and try to drop her offspring on you. Kill them quickly and she’ll come back. Keep hitting her eye!”

“She isn’t very smart, is she.”

“No, little master, just very, very big and very, very strong, and very, very poisonous, and very, very ev- ”

“I get it. Thanks. Please go away, now.”

Giving him a last, considering stare, the Scrubs spun about and burrowed into the ground, leaving him alone and facing another door.

Possibly the last door he’d ever enter.

Darkness was the first quality that set this chamber apart from all the others. Not pitch-dark, but creepy-dark. Link could sense the vast size of the space before him more than see it. He stayed near the door which shut with the deep resonance of something extraordinarily heavy.

Navi’s light, a subdued blue, barely made any difference, but he knew that whatever was in the chamber would be able to detect it immediately, and he wished he could tuck her into his tunic or something to hide her spark.

He took a step forward and looked up – his experience with Gohma’s offspring made him sure their mother would be waiting on the ceiling, too. At first, he could see absolutely nothing, but then…a movement, a rustling sound…there. Looking like a dull red star with a cross-shaped green center, the creature’s single eye stared around, eventually turning its focus on him. An eye, he could tell, that was nearly as large as his entire body.

The eyeball seemed to do a weird double-take, then zeroed in on the very small boy with his blue fairy – Link almost stopped breathing. Waited. And then –

Slam! The spider leaped straight down from the ceiling, landing with the same unyielding crash as the stone-clad door behind him. Without hesitation, it rushed him, giving him almost no time to react.

Link yelled and stepped forward to meet it, sling-shot drawn, some instinct he could never have explained fueling his determination to attack this monstrosity before it could launch one of its own.

Perhaps his actions perplexed the arachnid – surely, no prey had ever run toward her before – because she paused, and that was all Link needed.

He shot at the eye, and she stopped dead, as if frozen in her tracks. Quickly, he tucked the  sling-shot into his belt, drew is sword, an began attacking the eye with it, jabbing, sliding his blade across its surface, and jabbing again, over and over.

The creature suddenly shrieked, the sound so loud it nearly knocked the boy to the ground, and retreated.

“Come back here, you big coward!” Link shouted, running after her.

Gohma reached the far wall with breathtaking speed and climbed, finally stopping somewhere on the ceiling, hiding her eye from further assault.

Angry and more frightened than he’d ever been in his life, Link searched the ceiling, his sling-shot out again and aimed upward. Where had she gone?

A soft thud sounded beside him, followed by another, then another.

“Her children!” Navi screamed, her tiny voice sounding as terrified as Link felt.

“Oh, no!” He looked around and to his mounting horror, saw a small army of the thick-legged spiders racing toward him. He was surrounded, and all he could do was shoot at the first ones to reach him, then start slashing at the rest after pulling out the sword so swiftly, he had no time to put the othe weapon away.

He seemed to be doing all right, until one of them bit him on the ankle. Immediately, he began to feel weaker, but kept slashing.

“Link! Get away from them!”

Good idea, he