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Deep in the forest, past a maze of cavernous trunks, past another maze of moss-covered stone blocks, beyond a weathered set of stone stairs, there was a secret place that few Kokiri went to. There were Skull Kids in the Lost Woods that liked to play games and tricks, there were Wolfos guarding the way, and there were Deku Scrubs that ranged from scammers to shooters. Add in how far away it was from their ancient guardian and the secret place would remain secret, far even to the other races. But a few would go out that far. Mido claimed to be the bravest Kokiri and would go fight the Wolfos to prove it. Saria went to the secret place too, without fighting a single thing. When she was there, her music would be heard throughout the Lost Woods.
Link went out to the secret place too, at first to prove himself to Mido. Once he found out Saria went there too, he would go there if he couldn’t find her in the village. There were lots of things to do out there: catch some bugs for a closer look, bounce the Scrubs’ shots back at them to start a game of tag, find a good stick to tease the Wolfos guard with, climb the bushes and slopes, or practice playing an ocarina with Saria. She never bothered him about not having a fairy companion and she liked hearing about his dreams. At least, until he stopped telling her because he started having nightmares every night.
One of the most interesting things about the secret place deep in the forest was the temple there. It’s what Saria called it and she was the only Kokiri who had ever been inside. Ever since he first reached that place, Link had wondered what it was like in there. It was a building made of stone blocks sitting high up on a cliff, covered in vines and flanked by old trees. From the rubble remaining in the meadow, there had once been stairs leading up to the entrance. The vines didn’t reach all the way down. Link had tried climbing the trees up, only to run out of footholds halfway up. While Saria was happy to talk with him, she never told him how to get into the temple, only that there was a temple inside. The temple gave the secret place the name of Sacred Forest Meadow.
It was only now, seven years since he left Kokiri Forest, that Link had the means to enter the forest temple.
That stranger from the Temple of Time had been here when he arrived. What did he want? Sheik wasn’t anyone Link had known before, but he had been waiting for him to finish his training in the Sacred Realm. Why? He probably wasn’t trouble. Putting him out of mind for now, Link looked back over the secret place. The stump where Saria used to play looked small now. The temple entrance was still overhead, not as far but still out of reach. Back in the stone maze, bulky Moblins with spears replaced the Scrubs. “A lot has changed,” Link murmured.
“It looks different because you’re different,” Navi said. “For being seven years, this place hasn’t changed much to me.”
“Maybe.” He hadn’t realized how much he had grown until the Master Sword was given back to him upon completing his training. It had gone from coming up to his shoulders in its resting place to a sword he could wield with one hand.
Navi bobbed around him. “This is where we’ve gotta be to help Saria! Let’s go in!”
Nodding, Link got out the hookshot and aimed at a branch hanging over the temple’s entrance. With a sproing and a boing, he got himself up where he couldn’t reach before. It was really a lot of fun to zip through the air and see where he would end up. He’d thought about using it around Death Mountain, but he wanted to check up on Saria and this was the place to look for her. From her song, he’d learned that she’d gone in here again to look into a problem. Once he found her, they could work together again.
He entered the temple and found the entrance. Not an entrance room, this looked like the outside of a building again. Grand pillars held up a stone roof over large locked doors. Two old trees towered over the second entrance, stretching toward the sunlight coming from the sky. At the sides, dozens of vines grew over the cliffs that had been carved away to form this place. Inside the outside, outside the inside, outdoors indoors with indoors outdoors… this was a strange place. Two Wolfos guards rose from the ground, howling that he did not belong here.
They were creatures of the forest, not actually evil. Link used the hookshot while they were howling to zip himself over to the vines. Before long he’d climbed high enough that the Wolfos couldn’t reach. There was another problem, though: the skritch skrtich skritch of a Gold Skulltula. Whenever he heard that, it was like claws cutting into his ears. The Wolfos could be ignored. The Gold Skulltula was the product of a curse, a menace that turned people into monsters. Link moved from the vines to the tree so he could stand on a sturdy branch and kill the gold Skulltula with his hookshot. The Gold Skulltulas would all die.
What now? There was a chest on the other tree, easy enough to hop over to claim a key with a stone leaf on the handle. That should get him in the door. But, where was Saria? Did she lock the door after going through? Or did one of the monsters guarding this place do that? And how was he to get past the Wolfos guards? He could easily defeat them now, but if he could avoid that, it’d be better. Or maybe… Link grabbed the vines again and kept climbing up. The sunlight had to be coming in somehow and there was a ledge not too far ahead.
That way was a bust. Glass remained intact up there, forming a ceiling that he couldn’t get through. Well, he could, but that would require shattering glass right over his head and that didn’t sound like fun. He did have an idea about the guards and so climbed back down to the roof over the doors. A dropped bomb spooked the Wolfos into running away, allowing Link to drop down, unlock the door quickly, and get through the door as the bomb exploded. Simple as that.
The door brought him into a place that was more clearly indoors, yet full of roots and vines hanging from above. Little grasses and other small plants managed to survive on the dirt floor. The hall itself was narrow, just big enough for a giant Skulltula to entirely block the way ahead. It wasn’t a gold one, so it could be left alone if he could trick it away. There were also framed pictures on the walls now. The first two facing each other were a blue and red Poe; they carried a torch with flames that flickered in the picture itself. As Link walked by them, the laughter of Poes came from behind him. They hadn’t manifested, but the paintings were suddenly blank black squares. The same thing happened with the next two paintings of a green and purple Poe.
Then the giant Skulltula was in his way. There was no room to make it swing so he could dart past. Instead, another bomb was a sufficient enough scare to get the Skulltula to retract to the ceiling. The next two paintings were not of Poes. Instead, one was of the Temple of Time by night, light shining through the colored glass to illuminate the dark garden around it. The frame had writing on it. ‘I’m waiting.’ Who was waiting for what? The other painting was of Ganondorf standing in a desert, a sandstorm starting to blow around him. This one also had writing. ‘Are you coming to me?’
“Who are these messages for?” Link asked quietly.
“Mmm, maybe you?” Navi asked.
“Why?”
“I dunno. But he’s kinda a hunk in this picture, don’t cha think?” Then she started singing, “He’s the king of the desert!”
“That doesn’t matter,” Link said, heading on to the next door before the giant Skulltula dropped back down.
“But I know what you’re thinking!” Navi teased him, then cackled. Navi helped a lot because he didn’t have to talk to people with her to talk for him. Then there were times when she wanted to do nothing but tease him. Hopefully that didn’t last all day again.
As he shut the door, the laughter of Poes filled the cavernous central room. There was no longer sunlight coming from above, nor plants growing everywhere. Instead, four colored torches surrounded an open elevator. And the four Poes from the pictures appeared, snatching up the flames as torches. The elevator quickly retracted into the floor without the flames to guide it.
“Well look here, dear sisters!” the purple one said, then cackled. “It’s the little nuisance the freed our master!”
“Isn’t he a scrumptious delight?” the blue one said with a giggle.
“Hey, watch yourself!” the red one said. “You know what’ll happen if you go against the will of our master.”
The blue one shook her torch at the red one. “Aw come on! How could you turn down a strong pretty man like that?”
“We get to play with him a little,” the green one said, putting her torch in front of her glowing eyes.
“That’s exactly it, we’re going to play with you,” the purple one said in a menacing tone. “We’re going to get you so lost in these forested halls that you’ll never escape!”
“Come on, let’s play!” The four Poes then flew off through the walls, taking the torches with them.
“Wheee, game time!” Navi bounced around. “Let’s get ‘em!”
Link nodded, although first he took out one of those malevolent Gold Skultullas that was skritching away on the wall. One door in the room was locked, one possible door was barricaded with a giant blue block, another door was up on a balcony with no way to get there even with the hookshot, another was barred by an evil eye, and the only free door was the one opposite the one he’d entered through. It was another small hallway, this one with a Skull Bubble flying about. More pictures too, of four Skulltulas and the green Poe. However, the Poe picture laughed at him before he reached it and turned into another Skulltula painting.
The sixth painting in the hallway was of the ominous dark castle that Hyrule Castle had turned into; the clouds were violet in a storm. It also had writing on the frame. ‘I took the throne but could not take the wind.’ It didn’t make sense, so Link moved on.
Although it was a dead end, Link could hear an ocarina playing. Overhead? There was a large opening into another room but these walls weren’t good for climbing. While he was trying to figure out if there was something to use the hookshot on up there, a pair of Stalfos broke through the walls. These undead creatures were animated by evil magic into skilled swordsmen. Link drew the Master Sword and avoided the first attack to counter into its spine. When he’d first started out, Stalfos were a large challenge to overcome. Now that he could properly wield a sword and shield, they were more of an even match. Defeating them got him another leaf key. The music was gone, so there was nothing to do but go to the other locked door.
What followed was a long time of getting lost with crossing passages, a well to be drained, a chest hanging from ropes, a river to follow, trees where there should be none, mossy growths not letting him climb places, huge stone blocks to push around and climb onto, doors that locked him in small rooms with monsters, the indoors outdoors, the outdoors indoors… and there were the paintings all over the place. The Poes would appear in a frame only to laugh in escape. Other paintings had monsters depicted as though the artist admired them. Scattered among all the paintings were more of Ganondorf or places related to him. They continued to have cryptic engravings.
‘I’m waiting.’
‘The forest child has everything we do not.’
‘You gave me the power.’
‘I still cannot capture the wind.’
‘The forest light shines in your eyes.’
‘Are you coming to me?’
‘I’m waiting for you.’
Eventually, he came to a long hallway guarded by the evil eye. Skull Bubbles were flying around and not paying him any heed. Other than them, it seemed like a cleaner hallway than in the rest of the temple. A red carpet ran along the center. Candles on the walls had red roses tied to them. While there were paintings on the walls, these weren’t of monsters. They were paintings of himself, of the adventures he’d had as a child that led to him claiming the Master Sword at the Temple of Time. When had these been painted? None of the Kokiri would paint. They drew on trees and rocks if they could find chalk or charcoal to use, but painting required things from towns. At the very end of the hall, there was a pair of paintings with his early training in the Sacred Realm. Who would even be able to paint that?
And the engravings were here too.
‘These children will unlock everything.’
‘They will be a problem if they grow up.’
‘The forest child has everything we do not.’
‘He can be slain when he unseals the temple.’
‘The temple snatched him from my grasp.’
‘He should be slain when he leaves.’
‘He has potential.’
‘He could give me a battle worthy of legend.’
“Ooo, somebody’s been watching you,” Navi teased.
“Was it you?” Link asked.
She giggled. “Noooooo! Come on, do you think I can hold a paintbrush? I can hold a dandelion! But that’s it.”
The rooms ahead had more Poe paintings to taunt him. Even if he ran as fast as he could, the Poes would vanish before he reached the painting. Link had tried his slingshot on one, but the pebble bounced off the painting and the Poe would not stop laughing until he left the room. After a few more halls and rooms, he found himself in the upper part of the Stalfos room. There was no sign of Saria. However, there was a large painting of a dog on one of the walls. It had a blue frame, which was odd.
Before he could investigate the dog painting, a pair of Stalfos jumped up from the lower room. Link had to take more care fighting them here so as not to fall into the hole. Once they were dispatched, a large platform came down and slotted itself into the hole. There was a chest there along with three more Stalfos. They tried to surround him. Link evaded one attack by stepping around the Stalfos until all three were in his sight. Taking the battle patiently, he attacked whichever of them came forward until one fell. That made it easier to focus on the other two one at a time.
Then he heard Saria’s song again. It was faint, far away… below him? Taking out the Ocarina of Time, Link played along. He was here to help her, but he had to find her.
Her playing was interrupted by her sunny laugh. “I knew you would come! I’m at the altar of this temple; it lies within the Sacred Realm. Come to the deepest room and I’ll open a passage for you. Just, be careful. Those sisters are not the only phantoms in this place. In the chest is something I made you; it will help you hunt those Poes down. Also, to get to the deepest room, you need to know something. There are blue blocks that will obstruct your way, but don’t worry. They will change positions if you play the Song of Time near them. And if you see the sign of the royal family in blue, the Song of Time may affect that too. Good luck. I’ll be waiting.”
Good, she was here. And she should be safe. Link opened up the chest and found a bow and quiver of arrows inside. Even better; he’d trained in using a bow in the Sacred Realm but hadn’t been able to take the one he used there. Maybe piercing the paintings while the Poes were inside would force them out. Although, he didn’t want to do that with the dog painting over there.
Link went over to check it out too. It was a black dog in the field outside the castle, a friendly and playful expression to its whole body. On the bottom of the painting itself, there were words in white. ‘all the doggy kisses xoxo Toto’ The blue frame had the royal family’s sign on the bottom in a darker blue. Curious, Link played the Song of Time in front of the painting. What would this do?
The painting itself disappeared, reforming into a spell crystal like he used for Din’s Fire. Before he could touch it, the spell cast itself and summoned the black dog from the painting. He barked and wagged his tail.
“You’re Toto?” Link asked.
“Bark!”
He smiled and patted the dog’s head. “Good. We’re hunting down some Poes. Can you help?”
Toto barked twice, then ran over to the next door to bark again. That way then. Past that door was a long narrow room with a staircase down. Many pictures of the blue Poe were along the walls, but Toto ran past them all to bark at one hanging over the stairs. Link followed him over to shoot the suspicion painting. This time, the Poe wailed and flew out of the painting. Link and Toto chased her down the stairs to fight her; the dog’s barking was enough to make her freeze for a moment, letting Link make sure she didn’t escape through the walls.
With another wail, the blue Poe turned into the blue flame. “Hee hee hee, you are a strong one. No wonder the master has been watching you so closely. I wish I could possess you and have that body all to myself, mmhmm. But you’ve won. Maybe we’ll meet again someday.” She laughed and left the blue flame to him.
“I’ll hang onto this,” Navi said, going to the floating flame so that it begun following her around. “Don’t worry, I won’t let them possess you! Unless you want to see what they’d do to someone they find scrumptious, hee hee hee.”
“That laugh worries me,” Link said, which made her laugh even more. “Let’s not do that.”
Pursuing the next Poe brought them up more stairs to a room with a checkerboard floor and a ceiling that regularly smashed into the floor. It worried Toto; he barked from a safe distance. On the walls, the red Poe kept switching places with paintings of Moblins. Link checked around until he found the blue sign on a black tile. With Song of Time, he summoned one of the blue blocks to stop the ceiling from crushing them. That helped Toto run over and point out where the red Poe was actually hiding. Link shot the painting and defeated this Poe too.
“Ooo, why’d you have to bring a dog along, huh?” the red Poe said bitterly. “You think you’re some big shot hunter? Well you’ve got nothing on our master! He’ll get what he wants; he always does.” She then left the red flame to him.
Leaving the checkerboard room brought them to the central room again, through the door which had been hidden by the large blue block before. Navi returned the blue and red flames to their torches. After snuffling around, Toto led them to the room with the stream. Passing through halls and up stairs got them back to the long hallway guarded by the evil eye. Link shot an arrow there to close the eye, then followed Toto through the door.
The long hallway was now twisted about, turning so that the door at the far end was now on its side. Not caring about that, Toto trotted ahead and soon appeared to be walking on the wall. Link would have followed, but the paintings in here had changed entirely. Now they all showed how he looked now, during his training in the Sacred Realm. The engravings were different too.
‘Time has been kind to him.’
‘The princess was a fool.’
‘She took his freedom for her plans.’
‘She took his life to offer to her gods.’
‘His form is flawless.’
‘The light in his eyes is pure.’
‘He’s being turned into a weapon of the Hylian gods.’
‘I will take him for my own.’
The messages were unsettling. There were probably lies among them. But, which were lies? Link wasn’t sure, but he shouldn’t get distracted by things like that. Toto got excited and bounded straight down a hole in the room ahead. Down there, the dog barked at a group of blocks that came up to Link’s chest. They each had fragments of the green Poe’s painting. Link rearranged the blocks to make the painting complete. This time, it was enough to release the Poe to be fought.
When defeated, the Poe left a green flame. “Wow, you have a really good eye! Maybe you’ll see past the lies of the gods to what our master could be to you. He’s been waiting a very long time for you.” She cackled before leaving entirely.
The door out of the room led them back to the well, in a dark passage behind a grate. After some thinking, Link went out a far as the hookshot reached and used it to slam himself into the grate. That knocked it out of place. The chest still had those weird ropes on it, but it turned out to be useful. Once Toto hopped into the chest, Link could climb out the well and turn the crank to get the dog out as well. Toto barked at the door back into the central room; the last Poe was likely there.
Navi went to put the green flame in place. As she did, the purple Poe appeared. “Come on, come on, play some more!” She giggled and split up into twelve images that bounced all over the room.
Toto tore off after one of them, barking the whole while. Link moved for a clear shot and fired an arrow ahead of that one, to hit her as she moved into it. For a short time, the shadows all vanished and he could fight just her. Then she turned invisible to resummon her shadows and send them zooming around the room again. Toto had his ears alert, but didn’t see the real one yet. Link deflected the Poe’s fireballs with his shield until the real one appeared again. While she disappeared twice more, he defeated her as well.
When her wailing turned into laughter, Link felt unsettled again. She even hummed. “Aren’t you quite the hero, hmm? Having defeated us nasty old ghosts and freed the forgotten old temple from our haunting. But who forgot this sacred place? Who neglected it into a fine residence for me and my sisters? And just what do those who are pulling your strings want you around for? Maybe you shouldn’t listen to them.” She giggled again and departed.
Navi blew a raspberry at the purple flame before collecting it to return. “Silly, who’s gonna take care of this place when the stairs in are missing?”
“Were they lying?” Link asked. The elevator in the center was coming back up. “Or someone else?”
“I dunno.” Navi returned to him as Toto yawned. “Aw, I think our new friend is all tuckered out.”
He went over and patted Toto’s head. “You did a good job, so you should rest now.”
After giving a bark and friendly lick, Toto turned into a black spell crystal. He might prove useful in another hunt. Link set it with the other spell crystals he had. “You were sent to me to guide me to my destiny,” he said to Navi. “What does that mean?”
“I dunno,” she repeated, settling on his shoulder. “The Great Deku Tree sent me to be your partner! He said I should help you, so I have been. He did say you were chosen by destiny, but not what that meant. So, I’ll just help with whatever you decide to do! If it is destiny, then you’ll find it on your own. I’m pretty sure of that.”
“That’s probably the case,” Link said, heading to the elevator. “Let’s find Saria. She might be able to help after we help her.”
“Yup!”
The elevator took them down a deep narrow shaft, only lit by Navi’s small glow. It brought them to a wooden barn, the stalls all empty. Feeling like something wasn’t right, Link looked around cautiously as he moved forward. Nothing stood out in the barn. At the door, they found themselves looking at wide dirt road heading into a dark forest. Stone torches with colored flames lined the road, resembling those that had been around the elevator. Overhead, stars twinkled in a moonless sky. Was it a sky? Or was it a hidden cavern roof?
A laugh deeper and darker than the Poes came from behind him. Link turned to see Ganondorf there, riding a powerful black horse. Instantly reminded of childhood nightmares and an overwhelming encounter at the castle drawbridge, Link felt a deep sense of dread. Ganondorf then tore his face off, revealing a flaming skull with empty eyes. He took off into the forest, the hooves of his horse like thunder on the road.
He’d trained for this too. Taking out his ocarina, he played the song that called Epona to him. This probably wasn’t a normal place, so… he heard her quickly, ready for a chase. Link got on her back and urged her down the dark road too. With the barn behind them, they hurried to catch up to Ganondorf’s phantom. It likely wasn’t him, just the nightmare. But things were different now. He could defeat this nightmare; Link was sure of that.
The black horse was immense, but Epona was fast. She caught up readily. Using his bow, Link attacked the phantom. It summoned a staff and sent balls of lightning flying all over the road. Trusting Epona to avoid being hit, he fired again. A lightning shield kept the arrow from hitting, then was split into bolts flying right past them. They were catching up, so Link put aside the bow and took out the Master Sword. He first tried disarming the phantom so it couldn’t use the staff. The lightning shield blocked his strike. Pulling away to avoid the following bolts, he next deflected an orb back at the phantom. The staff deflected the orbs too, leading to a furious exchange until the phantom failed to block and was thrown off his horse.
While the black horse continued running, Link pulled Epona into a stop. She then vanished and he had to drop onto the road without hurting himself. This really wasn’t a normal space. When the phantom readied its staff, a tower that hadn’t been there before burst into flames. The entire forest followed suit. Link hurried in and slashed into the phantom; the resistance was like water. Before he could block, the phantom struck him with his staff. It didn’t have a lot of physical power, proving without a doubt that this was just an illusion. He backed off to bait it into using the lightning orbs again. Once it was stunned by its own magic, it was defeated without much fuss.
The darkness returned, the quiet of a still forest. Even the flames had been illusions. However, the tower wasn’t. Navi started flying for it. “You were great, Link! That phantom didn’t stand a chance. Come on, I sense the exit up there.”
The staircase wound around the outside of the tower once, bringing them up to the top. The sign of the Triforce was on the floor there; this might be the deepest room in the forest temple even if the forest they currently saw was an illusion. Knowing that Saria was waiting, Link stepped onto the Triforce symbol. A click sounded behind him; a gate had appeared at the top of the stairs. As Link looked for what triggered that, a hand grabbed his neck from behind and pulled on him tight. He was left barely able to breathe.
“Well done, hero,” Ganondorf said, close enough that Link could feel his breath on his ear. “You’ve defeated the nightmare that has pursued you for many years. Shall I replace that with an entirely different dream?”
“Hey, you creep!” Navi shouted, her light flickering in anger. “What are you doing?”
Ganondorf chuckled. “I won’t be doing anything about you, little fairy. You can’t do anything to me.”
“Hmph!”
“Besides, you are his precious partner, aren’t you?” Ganondorf said. His grip was still firm on Link’s neck; any struggle would end up strangling him. “The one who speaks for him when he won’t speak for himself. It wouldn’t do for me to hurt you. Even like this, you speak for him.”
“We don’t have to speak to you if you’re gonna be like this!”
“That’s all right. You both can listen for now.” He then put his other arm over Link, pinning him against himself completely. “You’ve been cut off from the entire world for seven years. Why is that? What reason do you have to fight me? It’s because the princess told you I was evil. But you already know that she was mistaken. Her orders to you let me take Hyrule from her. How many mistakes has she made in leading you around?”
But it wasn’t just Princess Zelda who told him that. It had been the Great Deku Tree who first told him what his nightmares meant. And, it had been himself who had those nightmares without knowing of anything beyond the woods. Link had known all along that a great evil was growing, one that led to the destruction of Hyrule. From those dreams… this couldn’t be over. Ganondorf wouldn’t be satisfied until all of Hyrule was destroyed.
After a moment, Ganondorf continued on. “Why don’t you look around and judge Hyrule for yourself? It is a land that has been greatly blessed by the gods, but the Hylians have squandered or abused those blessings. Blood and cruelty stain their legacy. You yourself are a blessing that they have taken unfair advantage of. You grew up alone because the gods marked you with destiny. You trained alone to fulfill their commands. And you will leave this land alone, that’s where their guidance will lead you. Unless you chose to escape their control, of course. Those gods will curse you for such a choice, but that’s no reason to be afraid. I will welcome you as one of my own.”
Then he let go of Link’s neck and gripped him tighter. Only a moment. By the time Link had caught his breath, Ganondorf was gone like he’d never been there. The wind rustled the trees of the dark forest, then drifted off to the silence of an enclosed room. The Triforce sign was glowing, but he was no longer standing on it.
“Ooookay, that was creepy,” Navi said. “But kind of hot too.”
What was that? This room was almost cold but there was still some warmth from his grip. They were supposed to fight for the fate of Hyrule; that was destiny. Link had been protected by the forest for his childhood for that purpose. He had trained for years in the Sacred Realm to fulfill that purpose. But then, what was Ganondorf doing? He should be preparing to fight against the hero chosen by the gods not… doing whatever that was.
Link didn’t have the words to explain any of this, not even to Navi.
“I don’t get it either,” Navi said, bobbing around. “But, I am your partner! That will never change as long as I’m here! I’ll help you with whatever you decide, absolutely whatever. That’s our destiny.”
Link nodded. “Thank you, Navi.”
“Tee hee, no problem! Well, don’t forget! We came here to find Saria and help her.”
He nodded again and stepped onto the Triforce again. This time, he was transported back to the Sacred Realm and the Chamber of the Sages. Saria was there waiting for him, on the stand for the Forest Sage. It was yet another strange moment. In the past, he would always look up to her. Bit by bit, he had come to see her eye to eye. Link had to get down on one knee to do that now. “Saria.”
“Hello, Link,” she said, smiling in a mix of warmth and sadness. “It’s been a long time.” She leaned closer and touched his face. “Are you okay? You look troubled.”
How did he explain this? Fortunately, Navi spoke up. “It’s cause Ganondorf’s minions had messed around in the forest temple so much, and then Ganondorf himself spoke to us! It was really weird and creepy. But, don’t worry! We came to help you.”
“You helped connect this space to the Forest Temple,” Saria said. “You cleared out the phantoms too. Thank you, Link. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to stop worrying about you. You’re still my best friend and I want to be a good friend to you too. So if you’re ever troubled, just play my song and we’ll talk. I’ll always be there for you, as much as a Kokiri can be.”
“Right, there’s more different about you as a Hylian than a Kokiri,” Navi said.
Maybe even these feelings? Although, that didn’t explain anything. “Who do I trust?” Link asked.
Saria tilted her head. “Hmm…” then she poked him in the forehead. “Your own feelings. We Kokiri are simple children. Even me, even when I was set apart as the Forest Sage. So I can’t help you with everything. That makes me sad, but I hope you will keep talking with me all the same. Because, one thing I’m sure of, is that you have the spirit of a hero. Lots of people will lie. Even Kokiri will lie from time to time. But deep in your heart, you know as a hero what the right thing to do is. That’s why you can always rely on that. Your heart will not lead you wrong.”
He would know what was right? Even if Ganondorf just confused him.
Ganondorf was aiming to confuse him.
Link nodded. “I see. You’re right, I’m sure I can trust that.”
“Good! Then, let me give you the blessing of the forest.”
Although once he left the Sacred Realm, he started wondering about things again. Was destiny truly going to leave him alone?