Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Hey! Listen!

Still in shock over the events of the past few hours, Link slowly took in the details of the strange, new environment
he now found himself a part of. Though he was well aware of the urgency of what he had been called to do, a
sheer, overwhelming uncertainty began eating at him almost before he had stepped into the cloak of darkness that
beckoned from the inside of the Great Deku Tree. Pinpoints of light from the forest outside streamed in to cast a
partial illumination over the surrounding area, but all he could see at first was the giant spider web stretched taut
across the center of the floor.

"N…Na…Navi?" he said, feeling very weak as he pointed to the silky strands. "Can you check to see if whatever
made that is still around?"

"Me?" the fairy said, startling him with the volume of her reply. "I think I'll stay here."

"You are checking this whole room until we're both sure there aren't any spiders in it."

"Go stick your head in a thorn bush." Flitting about like an insect, Navi spun back and forth around the perimeter
of the chamber, uncovering nothing that seemed an immediate threat. Small beads of moisture slid down the bark
that made up the walls of the environment, which rose upward into the shadows for a distance that Link could only
guess at. Vines that grew through and upon the surface of the bark snaked around in a network so full of life that it
was almost like a forest by itself.

Eagerness suddenly rising above his fears, Link rushed forward to take hold of a large cluster of vines at the
opposite end of the chamber, skirting the edge of the web as he ran. In his hurry, he paid little attention to his steps,
stamping a solid footprint into a patch of muddy ground that swiftly melded him in place. The soil swelled and rose
up around his heels, and when he tried to move, the suction formed a grasp that tore away his boots before
throwing him on his face. Annoyed but undeterred, he pushed himself to his feet and ripped the boots out of the
mud, using the stem of a nearby vine to wipe himself off.

But the vine bit him, for it was not a vine at all, and he fell back again to the mud with a shout. When he looked up,
his cheeks became slick with the saliva of a plant that seemed determined to bite off his head. Its own head, blue
and shaped like a melon, held a brain that contained only one command.

Eat.

Link jumped to his feet and slammed the broad end of his Deku Shield into the plant's head, preventing any further
attempts to bite as he dropped to one knee and tore the stem from the soil in one fell stroke. Then he stomped the
head for good measure, spoiling the plant's appetite indefinitely.

Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all, he thought, gazing up at the network of vines and wondering just how
many of those plants might be hidden among the ropes of ivy. Unfortunately, the only other way to proceed would
have been to tear through the spider web to the aft, an action that, when attempted, brought only frustration and
bewilderment at the web's considerable strength. Resigned to the inevitable, he sighed as he slipped back into the
boots and eyed the mud and filth covering both sides of his tunic.

Approaching the vines, he gave a firm tug on the nearest cluster and began a slow, cautious climb into the darkness.
Thankfully, no plants sprang from the flora to hinder his progress, and there was still no sign of whatever horror had
formed the giant web. However, a sweat that trickled and poured down his hands and arms soon arose out of the
tension flooding his psyche, an uncomfortable fact that made it all the more difficult to maintain a firm grasp on the
vines. His fingers constantly slipped, and the only thing that saved him from a nasty fall was a persistent effort to
keep at least one hand locked around a vine at all times.

"Hey! Listen!" Navi exclaimed, her bad timing startling Link so severely that he lost his grip altogether, dropping
several feet towards the floor until his body was caught in a tangle of vines that served to hold him in a temporary
net of safety.

"Can't you keep it a little quieter?" he demanded. "Do that again, and I might not be so lucky."

"Sorry!" she said, still several decibels too high as he extracted himself from his precarious position, groping about
until his hand found purchase on a nearby ledge protruding from the bark. But no sooner had he pulled himself over
the lip of the edge when she called again.

"Hey! Listen!"

This time he did not respond, instead choosing to raise his shield as a sound like the rustling of leaves broke out
somewhere nearby in the murk. Navi's light peeled back a fraction of that swirling blackness but was scarcely
sufficient to alight the source of the noise. Sweating more profusely than ever, he inched forward.

Again the rustling echoed, but this time he dove forward, spreading his arms to act on a hunch that his enemy was
near. His hands fell upon a fat little creature with leaves instead of hair, wood instead of skin, and a squeaky voice
not unlike a rat caught in a trap.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" the creature exclaimed, quaking in Link's arms. "Please forgive me, master!"

Link narrowed his eyelids to slits. "Tell me how to get through the web."

"If I give you a clue, will you let me go?" the creature said, its pupils dilating from the strain placed on them by
Navi's brightness.

Link nodded.

"When you jump off of a high cliff, be sure to roll when you hit the ground. If you do, you won't get hurt from the
fall." With that, the creature leapt from his arms and scurried off into the dark. Link followed its movement with
raised eyebrows.

"What was that all about?" Navi said.

* * * * *

Stirring a piping hot bowl of Deku Soup as she stared glumly into its broth, Saria sat alone upon her bed, trying to
come to terms with the shock of recent events but failing miserably. Her hands shook as she brought the spoon to
her mouth, and her mind was clouded with a storm of thoughts that refused to allow her a moment's peace. She
hoped for all the world that Link was safe, having prepared an extra serving in case of his return. But the silence
and the loneliness went on, continuing to hound her without end.

Outside, the beauty of the cerulean skies had shifted to the bright orange of evening and would soon fade away to
the deepest of sapphires. Saria noticed none of this, ignoring all but the beat in her own heart, until a poignant
tearing sound alerted her to the fact that something had just uprooted her flowers. She slowly lowered the bowl to
the bed and her feet to the floor and was just about to investigate, when the privacy of her home was suddenly and
deliberately invaded by an unwelcome visitor.

"Hey, Saria!" said Mido, leaning against the doorway with one hand held behind his back and a cocky smile spread
across his lips.

"What are you doing here, Mido?" she said, her own expression devoid of its standard warmth and laced with a
deadly scowl.

Grinning like an idiot, he whipped a pair of geraniums out from behind his back, oblivious to the clusters of tightly-
packed soil that still clung to their roots. He presented them with what little flourish he had, plopping them down
right next to the bowl of soup intended for Link and letting the soil crumble and fall onto the wooden floor. And
then, without waiting for her reaction, he began to recite the horrid poem he had prepared only minutes before.

"The trees of the forest

Are stunning and glorious

But nothing compared to you.

Saria, your hair,

So green and fair,

Makes all of my dreams come true."

Taking her silence as a positive sign, he continued, oblivious to any sign of her forthcoming reaction to his words.

"I, the Great Mido

Am wearied to watch

This pain that you're going through.

Forget about Link;

He's not coming back.

It's now only me and you."

A smack resounded throughout the house, and before Mido knew it, he was on the floor in a pool of soup Saria
had obligingly dumped on his head, along with her bowl. Anger blazing in her normally friendly eyes, she backed
her hand away from the spot where it had met his cheek and leaned over to make sure that her message was clear.

"Mido, if I ever hear you say another bad word about Link, I promise Farore it'll be the last thing you'll ever say!"

Totally unprepared for such a reaction, Mido salvaged what dignity he could and bolted out of the house, sprinting
back to his own before his brain could invent new ways to dig the hole any deeper. He had gotten the message.

Saria collapsed to the bed, all pretense of bravery having vanished like the warmth of the sun that now yielded to
the chill of dusk. Tears welled up and overflowed, and she spoke Link's name again and again until at last her
weary soul yielded to the blessed release of slumber and knew no more.

* * * * *

Storming into his dwelling with a howl of indignation, Mido slammed his fists against the doorpost and paced around
the room several times before snatching a Deku Stick from his bedside and thumping it against the wall, where it
snapped and fell to the floor in shards. Not content to leave it at that, he removed another and swung it into a
nearby jar. Both shattered.

"Who do you think you are?" he screamed. "Saria belongs to me. You're no hero; you're not even a real Kokiri!"

Reaching under his bed, he swiftly withdrew his most precious possession: a sword that now shimmered in the faint
moonlight, another treasure of the Kokiri upon which he had long ago laid his hands and ownership. He took it out
of its sheath and held it, willing every frustration and point of hatred into its blade as he fumed over his bruised ego.

"Saria probably hates me now, but it doesn't matter. I'll never let that filth get all the credit for saving the forest!" He
swore to himself as he dashed out to follow Link on the quest to break the curse.

* * * * *

Several minutes after receiving the strangest advice he'd ever been given, Link was still trying to figure out how
rolling on the ground would save him if he ever did happen to jump off a cliff.

"I hope," he huffed, inhaling air in short gasps, "that these vines end soon."

Apparently taking his hope as a suggestion, Navi spiraled up into the gloom, which had grown ever darker since the
onset of dusk in the forest. Faint skittering sounds had been echoing around him ever since he had begun the climb,
and he felt sure that his fingers had brushed past at least one slithering insect in the dark, but poor sight had again
prevented him from seeing anything that was not illuminated by the glow of his fairy companion.

His finger touched the cliff at the same moment in which Navi revealed it. Glancing to each side, he saw that he had
climbed through an opening on the edge of a thick ring of rock and soil that encircled the topmost level of the Great
Deku Tree. That wasn't what caught his attention.

Spider webs and strands of silk clotted the area in nets so thick that it seemed as if a mad linen weaver had strung
dozens of pale white blankets together in rows that sagged over the edge of the outcropping.

Link grimaced. The webs were like fresh cotton that stuck to his fingers, but they certainly gave him no such
comfort. He now held little doubt that he would soon be encountering the monster that had made these strands

"Hey! Listen!"

Tripping forward in surprise, Link fell right through an especially thick web, cutting his nose on a sharp rock as he
landed in the soil.

"Darn it, Navi!" he said, spitting a wad of silk he had nearly swallowed. "I told you not to-"

A massive weight slammed into his chest, pitching him right over the edge of the precipice. Too stunned to cry out,
he groped and found a branch caught in a nearby web. The branch, in turn, found purchase in the flesh of his
assailant, buying him time for a quick glance.

He screamed. The spider's body was at least two feet in width and two feet in length, tapered off into a plate of
solid bone that bulged from its carapace.

Link realized that only his hold on the branch-which had somehow impaled the spider's eye-prevented him from
falling to his death. Unfortunately, his reflexes failed to outlast his shock.

"Link, I'm sorry!" Navi said as her friend plunged back into the dark depths. "I was only trying to be helpful!"

* * * * *

In less time than it took to curse Link by every leaf on every tree in the forest, Mido blazed the route from his house
to the Great Deku Tree, ignoring his fairy's protests as he bored through the clearing and in through the hole in the
Tree's side.

Drawing his sword, he slapped the giant spider web with his booted feet and wailed his rage.

"Where are you, you coward?" he said. "You can't hide forever. Come on and give me your best shot! Hit me,
you loser!"

Link's fall, timed perfectly with Mido's arrival, destroyed the web and knocked them both unconscious as they
plummeted dozens of feet, into the underground pool surrounding the Deku Tree's roots.

Only Navi was aware that the spider had followed them, too.

* * * * *

Saria shivered in her bed, fighting for sleep despite cold, fear, and the soup that was now giving her cramps.

Against her own feelings, she had insisted that everyone stay in bed to await the morning and the outcome of Link's
task. She had to trust that the Great Deku Tree would never have asked anything of him that he could not
accomplish.

Whether it all made sense was another matter.

Her heart beat at different rates in her chest throughout the night, depending not on whether her fears ever calmed,
but on the stress that heightened every few hours until it culminated in a series of dreams involving both the events at
hand and, though she didn't know it at the time, a vision of things to come.

* * * * *

She was standing upon a round platform of beautiful blue, feet placed on a pedestal shaded in the colors of
the forest. Around her were five others, spaced equally apart from one another on the edges of the
platform. All stood upon a similar pedestal, each with a different color and design, telling much about that
person and the land from which they hailed and for which they were responsible. These guardians, these
sages, were all staring upwards into the center of the platform where a vision of events in another realm
was taking place. One of them, the leader, whose platform radiated an intense yellow light, chose that
moment to speak.

"The child of destiny grows stronger. It appears he may soon be ready for the final test."

She silently watched and waited, keeping her silence for the moment. Her concern for the person of whom
their leader spoke was strong indeed. She had faith in his abilities but was assailed by a constant fear of
watching him fall, of seeing him fail. There was no one for her to turn to, no one who could truly relate to
her dilemma. The closest she had was the daughter of the river, but she had once loved him too. Perhaps
she still did.

The vision to their eyes grew darker, and the whole land was shown before them. Out of the desert, a hand
stretched forth, seeming to encompass and devour everything in its path. There was no stopping it.

Out of the forest, there came a light.

This light collided with the force from the desert, and their battle raged on for an eternity. The life of every
citizen in Hyrule seemed suddenly caught up in this war of titans.

"Power and courage. Who will be the victor?" said the leader.