The healthy crackling of a blazing fire, giving off huge clouds of black smoke, was engulfing a castle. The vision was hazy, but a figure seated atop a horse could be seen, and in her arms a bundle of cloth. The castle is burning! …But it’s not Hyrule Castle. Where am I? Who is this person? A feminie scream cut through the air, followed by a voice, deep and calming repeating the same word.

‘Link… Link… Link…’

The woman on the horse was in a forest, now, trees whooshing past overhead. And then, out of the bundle’s view, a massive tree came into view.

‘Great Deku Tree!’ Link shouted, now sitting bolt upright.

A look around told him the reality of it all. …A dream… Under the light of the moon, Link sat beneath a plain tree in Hyrule Field. Link sighed and looked down to where his belongings lay. Amongst his sword and shield were the two stones.

‘The Kokiri Emerald,’ Link said to himself, picking it up, ‘and the Goron Ruby.’

‘Only one remains!’ Navi said sharply in his ear, startling him. ‘Come on, you’re awake now, so let’s go find the other stone!’

Link silently agreed with Navi, but one problem remained.

‘I have no idea where the other stone is, though,’ he said to his fairy.

Navi fell silent, as if she hadn’t taken that into account.

‘I bet the Great Deku Tree would have known…’ she said

‘Oh, well,’ Link said, standing up and collecting his things. ‘We better start looking, then!’

‘Yeah! We’ll do our best to find it!’

Under the shade of night the two companions started the search once more, heading in the general direction of the castle, for wont of any other reasonable destination. But suddenly Link stopped, concentrating hard on something, his long ears quivering.

‘I… hear a song,’ he answered.

Navi looked confused.

‘But who would be playing one in the middle of night… and in the middle of Hyrule Field?’ Link said.

Link, in answer to the noise, turned to his left and started walking in that direction.

‘But we have got to find the other stone!’ Navi yelled after him, annoyed.

‘It’s here,’ Link said softly, gazing at the wooden arch signalling the entrance to Lon Lon Ranch, which was painted in bold Hylian lettering. But the “ranch” consisted of a large, circular iron fence with a typical farm house on the very outskirts.

‘A ranch?’ Navi said, looking at the sign also. ‘But there’s no one here!’

The pair walked in, however, drawn by the melodic music coming from somewhere around there.

The scene painted a relatively scary scene in Link’s eyes. The pale moon against a backdrop of purple sky shone down on the eerily deserted place, as well as keese nested menacingly on sections of the fence, and strange noises seeming to come from under the ground. Then heavy “thumps” that squished the damp grass started from somewhere, and the music stopped. The thumps got faster and closer, sending Link into a panic before a creature knocked him down and held its face over his. A horse’s breath panted down on the quivering Link, but its head lifted at the sound of different steps approaching, a human’s, with a bright torch held out. A little girl held the torch in her left hand.

‘It’s the foal that I rode up Death Mountain!’ Link realised.

‘Well, that’s where she was yesterday!’ the girl said to herself. ‘Who are you?’

Link was still recovering from his fright not a minute before.

‘I’m, er-’ he tried.

‘Yes! A customer! It’s been so long!’ the girl squealed happily, her expression changing from one of curiosity to one of joy. ‘Welcome to Lon Lon Ranch!’

‘So, where are you from?’ she asked, while they walked towards the house. ‘Oh, so you’re a fairy child from the forest, huh?’ she said with observation.

‘Actually, we didn’t come here for sightseeing,’ Link said, finally getting in a sentence.

‘We’re working all night,’ she continued, totally ignoring Link. ‘Except for Dad, that is.’

They reached the other side of the ranch, to where a deceptively big house and a stable were. The girl led them over to the stable and opened the massive door with an audible racket.

That’s the guy I caught a ride with…Link thought, seeing a plump man asleep in a heap of hay in the corner of the stable.

‘Dad’s sleeping again,’ the girl giggled. ‘Hey! There’s a customer, Dad!’ she yelled at him, the change of tone so sudden as to startle Link.

‘Huh?’ the man said drearily, sitting up and looking at his daughter.

‘Hmph!’ a man scoffed in the corner. A lanky, tall man with a ridiculous moustache and a pitchfork held over his shoulder. ‘Even by night, the owner of the ranch is taking a siesta! He leaves all the work on this ranch to me!’

The man hadn’t tried to be discreet, his meaning loud enough for even the half asleep man to comprehend easily. But the girl didn’t take it like Link had expected. She smiled at the grumpy man and made her way over to him.

‘You’re right, Mr, Ingo! All we have is thanks to you!’ she said, trying to hug him.

‘I’m gonna change the name to Ingo Ranch!’ Ingo said.
Link was confused with this dysfunctional ‘family’, and remembered his next task for the first time in over an hour.

‘Uuh, look. I’m in a hurry to find the Spiritual Stone of Water, so-’

‘Here ya go!’ the girl said, reaching behind here and grabbing a large bottle of fresh water.

‘OK,’ Link said slowly.

The girl smiled at him and walked out of the ranch, leaving her father to go back to sleep and Ingo to continue mumbling his intentions.

‘I’m Malon,’ she said suddenly while they walked out of the stable. ‘Epona loves songs and music, that’s why I always sing to her.’

‘That’s why she followed your Ocarina, Link,’ Navi told him.

Malon climbed up onto the fence and stared at the moon, longing written on her face.

‘I’m sick of doing work, work and more work. Everyday,’ she sighed.

‘What about your mother, Malon?’ Link asked, leaning on the fence.

‘She died when I was little, but I’m OK now. Singing by myself every night makes me feel better.’

‘For me it’s my Ocarina.’

‘From that moon will my one and only prince descend,’ she said sadly. ‘Whatever. But it’s a wonderful thought, isn’t it? How about you, fairy boy? Do you have a dream?’

Link paused, thinking of the Deku Tree’s face. Grow and find out about the world!

‘My dream is… to see lots of the world.’

‘That’s a good dream.’

‘I think so.’

Silence fell between them, both staring at the moon, at the far away shape silhouetted in it. But the shape was deceivingly close, a giant bird, wings outstretched was only a hundred metres away when they finally noticed, and then it was at the fence, a massive owl with strange marks on its fluffy feathers and a human look about its bird face.

‘I see you have toughened up a bit, Link!’

‘Wha- what are you?’ Link asked the creature.

‘How informal of me,’ the owl said to himself, ‘I am Kaepora Gaebora. I’ve known you since you were a baby. The Deku Tree and I are old, old friends.’

‘The Great Deku Tree?’ Link said.

‘Link, the Spiritual Stone of Water lies in the Zora’s Domain.’

Kaepora Gaebora stopped to let it sink in.

‘Heh, heh. You’re expression has changed. If you’ll lend me your eyes, then grab hold of my legs, I will take you there!’

‘Alright, then! Take me!’

‘Fairy boy! Are you leaving already?’ Malon asked, startled.

‘I’ll come back to play again, Malon!’ Link called down, already a few metres in the air.

‘You better! You better come back!’

‘“You better come back” she says!’ Kaepora said to Link when they were soaring over the clouds. ‘You’re popular with the ladies, aren’t you?’

‘Shut up,’ Link said simply.

‘So,’ Kaepora said, changing the subject, ‘How’s the “world” from up here?’

For the first time in the flight Link dared turn his eyes to the ground below.

‘Woah, it’s so huge!’ Link said, liking what he saw. ‘Everything looks like bugs. We’re so small compared to the rest of the world.’

‘And in someone as tiny as you lies the power to change the world,’ Kaepora said thoughtfully. ‘But, actually, from the beginning it was your destiny.’

Kaepora paused.

‘Link, I know that you wished on your own to leave the forest. Before long you’ll understand the true meaning of those words.’

Link was still looking down in amazement at the world below, so when Kaepora’s talons suddenly let go of his shoulders, he was thrown into a state of panic. He plummeted downwards at an alarming velocity, the river below him getting bigger and bigger as the seconds went on. But, the fact that it was a river and the water was moving, his fall was broken nicely, although the savage current prevented him from feeling very relieved.

Finally emerging from the clear water some hundred metres and a waterfall downstream, Link was amazed at where he was. Complex pathways of stone surrounded the underground lake he found himself in. And the water itself was the cleanest Link had ever seen before. While it was almost ten metres deep, Link saw the bottom as if he was looking through glass.

‘Is this Zora’s Domain?’ he said to himself.

‘It’s very pretty,’ Navi said from behind him.

Where Link was floating, in the middle of the beautiful lake, he could see a gathering of creatures on the side of the water.

‘I’d guess those are the Zoras,’ Navi said pointedly.

‘Probably.’

Weighed down by his sword and shield, Link tried his best to swim over with grace, but soon found himself thrashing about in the water. Despite his troubles, he reached the bank relatively easily.

And once he was out of the water, Link set his eyes on the “people” arranged before him. They resembled people, but they quite obviously weren’t, with their blue scaly skin and fins protruding from their arms, as well as what looked like a fish tail connected to the back of their heads.

‘Greetings,’ one said to him, ‘And you are?’

Link took his time to stand up and catch his breath before answering, but he was beaten to it.

‘Insolence!’ another said. ‘You are in the presence of King Zora!’

“King Zora” was quite different to his subjects in that where they were “fish-people”; he was more like a normal fish, but three times as wide as Link, and twice as tall. The resemblance was there, however, since he had blue scaly skin like his people, and he did possess arms, and a sad excuse for legs.

‘I’m Link, King Zora,’ Link said, speaking quickly. ‘Please tell me where the Spiritual Stone of Water is! I come from Princess Zelda, for the world is in danger!’

‘Messenger of the Hyrule Royal Family…’ King Zora said, slowly and sounding like he had trouble speaking due to his puffy lips. ‘Regretfully, I am afraid I’m in no place to do so right now. Our lovely princess has been swallowed by lord Jabu-Jabu, you see.’

‘Lord Jabu-Jabu? Who is that?’ Link questioned.

‘Lord Jabu-Jabu is our protector deity who lives in the lake,’ said the Zora who first talked to Link.

‘The protector deity swallowed your princess?’ Navi asked.

‘Lately, Lord Jabu-Jabu has been acting strangely. It’s because that Ganondorf fellow came here!’

‘Ganondorf came here too?’ Link said. ‘Did he demand the Spiritual Stone?’

‘Yes,’ King Zora replied. ‘When I denied him, he left in a rage. When my princess Ruto left to feed Lord Jabu-Jabu, he swallowed her. And here I had chosen the most handsome Zora and was to celebrate their engagement tomorrow…’

‘Alright,’ Link said, smiling with the idea in his head. ‘How about if I go inside Lord Jabu-Jabu and bring Ruto here? Will you promise to give the Stone to me?’

King Zora put a finger to his lip thoughtfully before saying: ‘That’s an easy trade!’

‘Alright!’ said an excited Link.

‘But before you go,’ King Zora said, ‘Please take this weapon with you.’

King Zora, from his tiny robe, pulled out an expensive looking boomerang. It was a finely carved piece of wood with a gem at the point of it.

‘Surely it will come in handy inside Lord Jabu-Jabu.’

‘Thank you, King Zora,’ Link said, giving as much respect as he could, before bolting off behind the group towards the shrine.

Lake Hylia was a place some of the Kokiri had spoken to Link about when he still lived in the forest, although none had actually been there. They had said it was water from horizon to horizon, and the water was sparkling clear and clean. Emerging from the underground domain to the surface, Link believed he had found the lake he had heard of. A sense of accomplishment washed over him, making him feel proud, for his dream was coming true: he was seeing the world, and he was loving every bit of it.

‘I can’t believe I’ve found Lake Hylia!’ Link said to himself.

‘Lake Hylia?’ Navi chimed in.

‘Yeah! My dream was to see the world, and experience what I have always longed for in the stories I’ve heard.’

‘Well, I’m sorry, Link, but this isn’t Lake Hylia,’ Navi informed him.

Link looked at his fairy in confusion.

‘How can there be a bigger lake than this? It stretches from horizon to horizon, and the water sparkles with a blue radiance.’

Link brushed a hand down into the water and tasted it on his fingers to emphasize his point clearer.

‘Well, this is Lake Zora!’

Link hung his head down in sadness, his hopefulness crushed beneath a fairy.

‘Lake Hylia isn’t very far from here, but this is definitely not Lake Hylia.’
With a disappointed trudge, he walked up to a raised stone platform near the end of the lake. The water before the lake was knee high on Link, but the lake floor beyond the platform took a deep dive in depth.

‘That is deep,’ Navi said. ‘I can’t even see the bottom.’

‘Well…’ Link said, looking around, ‘What do I do?’

‘Call him or something.’

Link looked at his fairy for a minute before turning and facing the deep part of the lake.

‘Lord Jabu-Jabu!’ Link shouted at the top of his lungs.

For a moment, nothing happened, causing Link to look at his fairy as if to say: ‘Now what?’, but from the deep came a rumbling sound, making the water very violent directly in front of the platform. And through the thrashing water appeared the biggest fish Link had ever seen in his life. It was even bigger than any building Link had seen in his short experience of the world. And when Jabu-Jabu had come up against the platform, he was perfectly still.

Link was unsure of what to say, now that the giant fish had surfaced, so he said the first thing that came to his mouth.

‘Lord Jabu-Jabu, please let the princess out!’ Link said.

‘He’s a protector deity,’ Navi said, ‘so maybe you should give him an offering?’

Link didn’t see the complete logic in Navi’s suggestion, but he was awed by the huge fish. Snatching a lone fish from the water nearby, he held the slippery animal in both hands, raising it above his head.

‘Lord Jabu-Jabu, please accept this morsel!’ Link cried.

And from the deity came a short, deep groan, followed by one of his eyes to dart across Link’s body. And without warning, he opened his gigantic mouth and started sucking in great torrents of air, pulling the struggling Link and Navi in with it.

When Link opened his eyes next, he was thrown about wildly inside the spacious mouth of the fish he was in.

‘He must be moving!’ Navi thought aloud.

Link was not at all happy about the situation. He had been sent to save the princess but had fallen victim to the princess’s attacker. Not to mention the state of his clothes; covered in and soaked through with saliva and digestive acids that were irritating Link’s skin.

‘Let’s just find this princess and get out of here then,’ Link suggested.

‘I’m fine with that,’ Navi added.

Link turned away from the jaws of Jabu-Jabu’s mouth and continued through the fish’s body.

‘Princess Ruto! Princess Ruto!’ Link yelled, echoing through the organic walls.

‘Hold on, Link,’ Navi said. ‘Can you hear a scream?’

Link paused and concentrated. Without the squelching of juices under his foot, he was able to pick up a high pitched noise. With a look to his fairy, he dashed into the stomach of the fish, where he was greeted by a creature that looked every bit like a parasite. With strange, veiny and pulsing sacs the size of houses connected to the floor of the stomach, and from the sacs protruding tentacles from the sacs with enlarged jellyfish on the ends, it was a disease.

‘Help!’ screamed a girlish voice from somewhere close to the base of the parasite.

‘There, Link,’ Navi pointed.

Mere metres from the electrical jellyfish’s reach, a teenage-looking Zora was on the floor, cowering in terror at the thing over her. In seconds Link had bridged the gap between them and had the Zora in his arms, running for an exit, leaving behind the scary parasite in the stomach of Jabu-Jabu.

‘Princess Ruto, you’re safe!’ Link said, putting her down in a safe area near the mouth.

‘You insolent fool!’ she retaliated, struggling out from Link’s grip. ‘You are addressing the princess of the Zoras, Ruto! Name yourself!’

‘I’m the one who promised the King to come and save you.’

‘My father?’ Ruto said, in a drastic change of tone. ‘I never agreed to that!’ she said, switching seamlessly back into her arrogant voice.

‘What are you saying? Everyone’s worried about you! Come on! Let’s hurry and get you home!’

‘No way! You go home!’

In her cheeky, childish manner, she strutted off towards the scary creature Link didn’t want to see again. But, danger was everywhere in this strange fish, it seemed, as a group of jellyfish floated their way in front of Princess Ruto.

‘Watch out!’ Link cried, drawing his sword and slicing at one of the jellyfish, which Ruto had not yet noticed. But, countering Link’s heroics, the victim jellyfish shocked Link with bolts of crackling electricity, paralysing Link momentarily before regaining his self-control. I better not do that again, Link thought, mentally noting it down. Still stiff and sore from the shock, he looked at Ruto.

‘You have to come with me,’ he said, holding his hand out.

Ruto sighed, and all of a sudden, her face turned deadly serious, but it was clear that she trusted Link, now.

‘I will if you retrieve my stone!’ she demanded.

Link’s attention was now completely and utterly focused on her.

‘I dropped it when I was swallowed by Lord Jabu-Jabu. If you bring it back to me, then I will go back with you.’

‘You don’t mean a stone called Zora Sapphire, do you?’

Ruto was looking at him with the same seriousness that he was taking, which comforted him. And with that expression, Link’s question was answered.

‘Alright, let’s go!’ Link said, turning and bolting for the room with the parasite. And the parasite greeted him with an extraordinary show of electricity and airborne jellyfish, rocketing around the stomach of Jabu-Jabu.

‘Stay back a little!’ Link ordered Ruto, retrieving his boomerang from his belt.

‘Watch out for these jellyfish, Link!’ Navi warned him. ‘Unlike that other one that zapped you, they have enough voltage to kill you, so keep out of their road.’

‘Right.’

Boomerang in left hand, he drew it back and powered the sharp object in an arc through the air, on a course for a stray jellyfish.

‘Navi!’ Link called, ‘Get me a weak spot in that thing!’ signalling the creature controlling the speeding jellyfish.

And the small ball of light dashed in close to the monster, buzzing around it, while Link kept firing his boomerang at any jellyfish he could.

‘Watch out!’ came the cry of Ruto, just as a jellyfish, connected by a tendon to the parasite, aimed its direction in that of Link’s. But a dive and roll was enough for Link to escape danger and, conveniently placed him close to the parasite, now.

‘Link!’ Navi called, flying back toward him. ‘The base is vulnerable flesh! The rest is electrified muscle. Hit the base with your boomerang and then it will be crippled enough for you to give it the final blow with your sword.’

Taking this new information to heart, he drew back his arm for a lethally close shot with his boomerang. He watched the golden object slice through the air and embed itself in the red, fleshy material at the base of the parasite.

But it didn’t like that. Emitting a wobbly groan, it drew the few giant jellyfish it had left close to the injured flesh to act as a speeding shield around its body, not allowing Link to get any closer to the injured creature, and not in any danger from Link’s boomerang, which was painfully implanted in it.

To add more worry to Link, half a dozen purple tentacles started coming out of the top part of the monster, groping for Link in a last resort defensive. But Link had his sword out in a flash and was carving his way through slow moving tentacles with ease, but one remained out of reach; too high for him to hit with his small sword. And with a sickening realization, he noticed it was going for Ruto, who had her eyes on her sapphire that was safely grasped by a small tendon on the creature’s body. Link could only watch in horror as the tentacle, with surprising speed, snatched the Zora and dangled her high above the speeding jellyfish.

His boomerang was his only hope at getting the princess before being electrocuted to death by the monster. So he focused on the jellyfish, of which there were only three, spinning around fast enough deny easy access to its still vulnerable body. Link lined himself up right, followed a particular jellyfish all the way around the parasite, and when the time was right, leaped in front of it and landing only centimetres away from the veiny tissue of the creature. And with his childish cry, he stabbed the parasite repeatedly until it started convulsing wildly. The jellyfish were severed from the creature, now, and floated of their own accord around the stomach. Link fired his boomerang quickly at the tentacle holding Ruto, severed it, and caught her in the air, dashing for cover, only to get metres away from it before it exploded in a purple mess.
Link stopped and laid Ruto down on the ground, catching his breath.

‘You did it, Link!’ Navi congratulated him.

‘Yeah!’ he smiled.

‘I was a tad scared,’ Ruto admitted, looking sadly down at the floor. ‘The truth is, I was never swallowed by Lord Jabu-Jabu. I was hiding here.’

‘What?’ Link exclaimed. ‘But… why?’

‘My father… he went ahead and arranged a marriage for me without consulting me. He’s always saying: “Oh, my lovely princess!” I have my own feelings, and I’m not my father’s little doll!’

Link was only staring at the princess, not wishing to say something lest he anger Ruto even more. But an awkward silence followed, forcing Link to say something.

‘Being a princess sounds tough!’ Link said, rubbing his neck nervously. ‘But I guess I’m still envious of you. As for my parents… the Great Deku Tree told me that they died and I never had a chance to meet them. But since you have a loving father who’s worrying about you… let’s go home.’

Ruto sighed, and turned around, as if nervous about something.

‘Well… if it’s okay, then will you come with me?’

‘Huh?’ Link asked.

‘This is the Spiritual Stone of Water, the Zora Sapphire… an item I’m supposed to give to my fiancé.’ Ruto turned around again, facing Link. ‘It’s the engagement ring of the Zoras, and I’m giving it to you!’

Ruto was blushing fiercely as she handed the sparkling blue sapphire over to Link, which had started to glow a radiant blue. Glancing up at Ruto for an awkward meeting of their eyes, he thought to himself: I’ve got all three stones. I can save Hyrule…