Chapter Two

Tare walked up the stables, carefully inspecting each of the horses to be used in the attack. He started to wonder though if it was really necessary to bring this much of a strike force into a little forest populated by a bunch of kids. "Well better safe than sorry," he told himself. It seemed like overkill but whatever his boss said, he thought. He finally finished counting. Two days from now twenty-nine of his comrades would storm through the Kokiri Forest, seize the kids and send off a ransom. All of them would be well armed. Figuring that there was about twenty Kokiri, twenty stalfos and four humans would have no problem doing this. To him this was no problem. He had some of the best weapons around at his disposal. No worries he reminded himself. This was going to be a breeze.


"So that's how you've been living for the past five years?" Link asked dumbfounded. The three were almost to the point of tears. He nodded.
"Well it's all over now, Adam. You've found us so you don't have to live like that anymore," Zelda comforted. Adam smiled at her. It was getting late. Adam was looking pale again.
"We better go to bed," Saria said. "It's getting late."
"Yeah let's hit the hay," Link agreed. So all of them got ready to go to bed. Soon everyone was sleeping.


Tare was standing over a map of the forest. His four top lieutenants accompanied him. "Okay let's review. We enter the forest here, fan out and take as many prisoners as possible, then, we have our foot soldiers take the houses over. Then we search the forests for stragglers. We centralize all the little punks in this big house hear. It almost appears to be a social hall or something."
One of the other men took a sip of his rum, cleared his lungs and asked, "How are we supposed to fortify our position?"
"Excellent question, Zachit. After we take the main area we start loading our supplies to some of these center houses, we take shifts watching the brats to pack everything up and ready to ship back out. It will be a cake walk people." Zachit looked satisfied. And with that they were dismissed.
"Wait a minute, Zach!" Tare called out before he left the room. We have a special job that may require your attention."

You know that the Kokiri probably cannot resist our invasion. But we have to worry about Link and Zelda. If they are not taken care of before this starts, they
can raise some sort of alarm they might be able to fight back. And this is where you come in. Your job is to nab Link and Zelda before the invasion even starts. That way our victory is insured. You are authorized to use any methods necessary for Link but we need Zelda alive. We don’t know the exact number of the Kokiri; My guess is somewhere in the twenties. You can handpick a few of our human soldiers to go with you. The rest guard the boss in his stagecoach near the forest.” “I understand, Tare, I’ll start preparing now.”
The horses neighed as fierce winds and sand blew into Tare’s face. It was finally happening. He waved foreward and several horses bearing his men trotted up. They were about to leave their headquarters in the Haunted Wasteland. Several more horses moved up. These pulled the cartridge with Drane and his bodyguards. Zachit’s handpicked team moved next to him. He looked around. “This is it” he yelled over the deafening wind. “Ya.” He slapped his horse and sped foreword and with him the invading forces. As they galloped into the desert towards their secret gate, he wondered “This thing with summoning the stalfos better work.” They passed the gate. The gate being the only other direct route into the Haunted Wasteland besides the Gerudo’s fortress. And the Gerudo were not about to just let them walk through their land so they build another secret entrance. It was well hidden and it served its purpose. They still had some way to go the Forest.
Dawn was breaking. Link and Zelda were already awake and Saria had left. Alex stirred then sat upright. The first thing he noticed was that that she was gone. “Where, where,” “She left during the night and said that she didn’t want to arouse suspicion among the Kokiri.” “You hungry, Adam?” Link asked. Adam nodded. They all sat down and ate. Zelda giggled watching Adam eating so voraciously. “What?” Adam and Link looked at each other and shook their heads. When they were done, Link asked Adam, do you know anything about sword fighting. “A little.” “Let’s see what you can do.”



“Good. That’s enough” Link set down his sword. “Adam, how did you get to be such a good swordsman.” Adam just shrugged his shoulders. Adam sat down looking sullen. Link and Zelda knew why. “Don’t worry about Saria. I’m sure that you and her will go great together. She just isn’t used to this kind of thing.” Zelda said, trying to reassure Adam. “And if not, there are plenty of fish in the sea, as they say.” Adam was gravely nodding his head the whole time. “Adam?” He picked his head up. “Did you leave because of her?” Tears started to well up in his eyes. “No, There was someone before her.” Link and Zelda sat down close to him, trying to help him cope with his memories. “A Kokiri girl named Kirsten.” They tried to comfort him. Zelda put her arm around him. Adam put his head on her shoulder. He proceeded to tell them everything about Kirsten. Link knew her, having been raised a Kokiri. He remembered her once saying something about a creepy boy but that’s all he knew on the matter. This obviously pieced it together for him. They listened as Adam poured his heart out. He told them of how she baselessly rejected him, rallied other against him, while others exploited this and promised in return for favors, an audience with Kirsten. That audience never took place…

“Saria? What happened to you?” Saria feigned not noticing anything. “What ever do you mean?” “You’ve grown, and in more ways than one.” The little Kokiri pointed to Saria’s chest. Saria knew that there would be some explaining to do. And she couldn’t tell the truth. That would expose Adam. She told the Kokiri girl she didn’t know and ran towards the Lost Woods.


Zachit and his forward scouts were creeping through the forest. From the west came a vertical shaft of green light. “Damn it, they summoned too soon.” He waved his men towards him. He told them to link up with Tare at a forest clearing. They had set up a makeshift base there. It basically was a tarp tied between trees with several tables and chairs and the like set up there. It was to be used as a regrouping point for the invading commanders. Zachit and his special team did all this in the past few days. His men left him to meet Tare. “This is going to have consequences.” He thought aloud. When his men were gone he caught sight of something moving. A green-haired girl was walking by. He silently moved behind her and mashed a cloth into her face. She struggled for a few seconds before passing out. Zachit put the girl over his shoulder and started walking towards the clearing to see if he could get any information out of her. Little did he know that the Kokiri girl earlier questioning Saria was following her and caught sight of what happened. She overheard him mention the forest clearing. She knew where that was. She started to run back to the Kokiri to tell Mido and figure out what to do.

The scouts had already left the meeting point and left for the entrance of the forest. They arrived in time to see the stalfos rising out of the ground. A full twenty of them. Drane was standing on top of his carriage with a glowing stone in his hands. He addressed them. “Move towards the forest. Take the children prisoners and secure the forest. As he continued instructing the raiding party the scouts walked through the column of skeleton warriors. They were almost frightened by them save that they knew that their boss solely controlled them. He was finished speaking. The stalfos eyes glowed fiercely red and they marched towards the bridge to the forest. The scouts relayed the news to their boss.
He was furious. “I told Tare to get pick someone who would competently fulfill my orders. What’s done is done. Redirect Tare to oversee the occupation. And give him this,” Drane handed the stone to the head scout. “Tell Tare that I’ll meet him back at the stronghold.” And with that Drane mounted a horse and rode towards their fortress in the Haunted Wasteland.

The Kokiri girl, Kira, was shocked when she got back to the forest. She arrived just in time to see the stalfos marching on the forest. She watched as they systematically entered the houses and took captive the occupants. Several of the Kokiri managed to flee into the forest. They seemed to be running towards the direction of the abandoned cottage, which, unbeknownst to her, housed Link, Zelda and Adam. She started running that way too, hoping to find Link or Zelda or anyone who could possibly do anything about the Kokiri Forest invasion.

Adam had finished with his story about fifteen minutes ago. Then they saw the sky to the west illuminated with the eerie green light. Link ran to the forest to investigate. It was just Zelda and Adam in the cottage. Link hadn’t returned. Zelda began to get worried.

Link also witnessed the invasion. He knew he couldn’t do anything because he was gravely outnumbered. He turned to run back to report his findings to Zelda and Adam.

Tare was ecstatic. Everything was as planned, minus Zachit’s little disappointing performance. Everything was in his control. He divided command of the stalfos to his three remaining lieutenants, leaving several for himself. He walked over to the Kokiri social hall. About fifteen crying, frightened Kokiri were sitting there, all tied at the feet. He yelled at them all about how they better stay shut up, mainly to break what little hope they had left. The terrified Kokiri felt complete despair; just the way Tare wanted it. One of the girls asked if she could go to the bathroom. He walked up to her, almost as if to say yes. He struck he on the face and pushed her to the ground.

Saria awoke feeling sleepy. After a few seconds the grogginess dissipated and she opened her eyes. She was bound sitting on a wooden chair, half naked. A man had various objects and bottles laid out on the table. “Have a nice nap?” He nearly said calmly to her face.
Saria’s expression totally changed. She bore on her face a look of pure terror. Without warning the man walked up and slapped hard on the face. He took a swig of out of one of the bottles. Saria smelled alcohol. “Where’s Zelda?” The man demanded of her. Saria would never betray a friend. She could only guess what would happen if she told him.
When he realized she would not tell him he got right in her face, “I’m going to love doing this to you. You will pay for your insolence.” He took a strangely curved knife and held it in from of her face. He suddenly jabbed her on the stomach with it. Saria screamed. Tears started pouring from her eyes. Tare grabbed the bottle he was earlier drinking from and poured some of it on the wound. Saria screamed again, in agony. He took a horsewhip and began to hit her with it. She was never in such pain before. This man was enjoying doing this to her. She received hit after hit. Her face was bruised, as was much of her body. Saria was in misery. “Where is she?” He snarled in her faced. Saria wouldn’t say a word to betray her friends. The man continued his torture. “Just kill me!” she herself was surprised she said that. She just wanted this to end. Death seemed the only way.



Kira reached the cottage. Panting, she burst into the door. Adam nearly flew to his feet, sword drawn at the door. She had an expression on her face that told Zelda and Adam that something terrible had just befallen. She was stuttering trying to explain what happened. “The, the forest was invaded. A man took Saria, huff, to the huff’ big clearing.” As soon as he heard these words Adam bolted out the door towards the clearing. Zelda knew he only had one thing on his mind, find Saria. She tried to calm down the hysterical Kira. “Its okay, your with me now.” She told the little girl. Inside Zelda asked herself where on earth Link was. She also worried about Saria and Adam. She knew what Adam could do with a sword, and she knew that he was going to mow down anyone who stood against him.

Adam ran through the forest at a pace he never thought possible. He was short on breath but he didn’t care. Only Saria mattered.

Link appeared at the door and saw Kira in Zelda’s arm. “Where’s Adam?” Kira shot straight up upon hearing this. “He, he, he’s alive?” “You just saw him run out the door.” She sat back down an looked puzzled. “That was him?” Link nodded. Zelda asked. “Wait, what happened?” Link inquired. Kira tried to calmly explain what she saw happen to Saria. “I have to go find him.” Link ran out the door to try to find Adam before he does something stupid.

A scream emanated from the deep of the forest.

Adam reached the clearing and nearly went ballistic at what he saw. The first thing he saw was a man left hooking in the face a bruised, cut, and agonizing Saria. Adam’s fury at that moment was unleashed. A sword in his left hand, his dagger in his right, Adam let out a cry of rage that caught Zachit’s attention from torturing Saria. He turned to face Adam, a machete in his hand. Adam was already running though. He charged at Zachit and swung his sword into his machete, knocking them both out of hand. Adam jammed his dagger into Zachit at the top of his rib cage and dragged it up, popping out his shoulder blade. The stunned man fell to the ground. Adam pulled out his dagger and slammed his foot into Zachits’s face, shattering his nose and jawbone. Blood pooled on the ground from his wound. He snarled in the bleeding man’s face, “Your lucky I don’t kill you right here.” He said, putting his dagger at the man’s throat. Adam shook his head. Saria. He came up to Saria. She was bawling hysterically. “Saria, Saria, It’s me Adam. She opened her eyes fully. Adam was standing right in front of her. He cut the bounds holding her and she collapsed into his arms, weeping.

Link just arrived in the clearing. He nearly slipped on the pool of blood forming around the in shock Zachit. “Oh God, Adam, Saria.” Adam turned around and looked at Link. “What happened here.” Adam summoned strength he never knew he had and picked up Saria, carrying her across his arms, her head on her shoulder. Adam explained to Link what he saw on the way back to the cottage, there was work to do. It was starting to get dark