‘Great Deku Tree!’ Link cried upon entering the glade.

With Mido trailing close behind, Link ran up to the Deku Tree’s wide trunk and laid a hand on the coarse bark.

‘Answer me Great Deku Tree!’ Link shouted in desperation, bashing his hands on the wood.

‘He’s really cold… it’s as if he’s dead,’ Mido surmised from behind Link.

‘Mido? Link?’ and voice said from behind the two of them, near the tree line.

Link glanced back to see Saria and all the other Kokiri appearing from the trees to see what was going on. Link looked back at the Deku Tree, and from a hole as big as Link’s head, an eye peeped through, severely startling Link. And then the hole was burst open even more, and emerging from it the creature that had entered the Deku Tree. Now with the light of the fairies lighting up the area, the creature could be looked upon. It was an arachnid-like creature but had a single, shining eye and menacing claws that looked like a crab’s on a few of its legs.

‘Stone!’ the creature croaked, clearly unused to speaking. ‘Give me the stone!’ it managed.

This scared all the Kokiri save Link, who was standing at the front of the group of Kokiri, angry at this creature’s intrusion into the forest and into the Deku Tree.

‘Where is the stone!’ the creature said again.

But getting no answer it turned around and once again entered the Deku Tree through the gaping hole it had left. Navi followed the creature until it entered the tree, when Navi turned around and rejoined Link.

‘It’s a Gohma, Link,’ Navi informed him. ‘Her weakness is her eye!’

‘Then I’ll go and get her!’ Link snarled before making his way to the tree.

‘Link!’ Saria yelled.

Seeing this Mido immediately drew a sword from under his clothes.

‘I’ll go too!’ Mido said. ‘I’ll help the forest with the Kokiri sword!’

Link didn’t have time to care, so he continued into the Deku Tree, which was bathed in an eerie green light, but not bright enough to see with. Behind Link, Mido was bent at the knees with his sword out in front of him, ready to strike.

‘Don’t overdo yourself, Mido,’ Link said.

‘Shut up!’ Mido whispered. ‘I’m not going to let you be the only one to show off in front of Saria!’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’ll never let you have Saria!’ Mido said with a snarl.

Link looked away and ventured further into the Deku Tree, his slingshot now out and cocked with a seed, ready to fire at any moment. Mido wandered off to the right, and immediately found himself in trouble.

‘What’s this sticky stuff?’ Mido said, echoing through the inside of the tree.

‘Hurry up!’ Link told him.

But Navi was focused on something else.

‘What’s that strange noise?’ she said, before flying to the roof.

With her luminescent light the top of the hollow tree was visible, that of a circular web blocking the higher part of the tree.

‘I can hear it, now,’ Link said.

A sucking noise was coming from above, a resonant sound that was growing louder. But as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

‘Where is the stone?’ the same throaty voice said.

Mido was now frozen still and shaking. A minute earlier he had been brave and ready, and now he was scared and shaking.

Navi, upon hearing this, had rushed to the position on the wall where Gohma was.

‘S-she is… eating the Great Deku Tree!’

At this, the arachnid’s revolving eye turned to observe the two Kokiri who had entered the Deku Tree and disturbed her feasting. The creature then pushed herself off the wall and plunged to the floor, making a booming ‘crash’ upon landing. If Mido was scared before, he was even more scared now; now he was whimpering.

‘Should I curse you two as well?’ Gohma said.

But Link was already moving. He had dived backward and fired a seed aimed at Gohma’s eye. It made a clanging sound like metal-on-metal, but it had hit the area to the right of the shining eye. A few more shots were fired, but Gohma was awake to Link’s intentions, so she closed her eye and took the beating with her metallic-like skin.

‘The stone… where is the stone!?’ Gohma demanded, getting louder.

In frustration she lifted her claw and crashed it down where Link stood, but a quick dive and roll and Link was out of danger for the moment. What’s this about a stone?
Link ran around and hid behind a rock while he fished in his pouch for a seed, but Navi interrupted him.

‘Link! Mido is…’ she said.

Mido was still rooted on the spot shaking harder than ever, and Gohma was aware of the immobile Kokiri. Link dashed out from behind the rock and grabbed Mido before Gohma’s claw came thundering down, dislodging Link and making him stagger and fall back into a web, which he stuck to like glue. Again, he tried to fish around in his pouch for seeds, but he didn’t have a pouch anymore. It lay behind Gohma, who was now advancing on him. Oh, no! I’ve got no bullets! But, luckily for Link, a single seed was stuck in the web, having been deflected by Gohma onto the web. He quickly cocked it a aimed at Gohma’s shining eye. I need to hit it! He let the seed fire and watched it cut through the air toward Gohma, but her eye had moved and was concentrated on her shoulder, which had just been hit by a rock. No! Link inwardly screamed while he watched the seed bounce off and fall to the ground. Mido appeared to the side of Gohma carrying an armful of rocks, which he was hurling randomly at Gohma’s body, taking her attention from Link. But, this was Link’s chance to get free. He squirmed violently and ripped the sticky substance from his clothes with his hands and broke free of the web.

Gohma was now scurrying around Mido, circling him like a bird of prey, while he tossed rocks at her impervious body. Link swooped in on his pouch and took a seed, which he cocked into his slingshot immediately. He ran around Gohma until her eye came into clear view, entirely focused on her prey, Mido. So he let fly the seed, which made a beeline for her eye, striking it right in the centre of the pupil, causing her to reel back making a noise that must have been an expression of pain. And then Navi appeared next to Link’s hat.

‘That’s not enough, you’ve got to stab her eye and make it completely useless!’ Navi instructed.

And on the ground next to him lay the Kokiri sword, asking him to pick it up and use it. And that he did, grasping it with his left hand he advanced on the thrashing Gohma with the sword at the ready. Reaching her, he waited until she got lower and he lunged
at her eye, aiming for the tiny slit left between her eyelids, which he went straight through. To this, Gohma loudly screamed started toppling down. Her body actually started to be melting, giving off a purple kind of cloud that disappeared almost immediately to leave the corpse of a relatively large normal spider.

‘So this is Gohma’s true form?’ Link asked Navi.

‘Apparently,’ she replied.

‘It’s just a bug!’ Mido laughed.

But Link was already dashing toward the hole they had entered, to see if the Deku Tree was still OK after what Gohma had done. Mido followed closely behind, his fairy only now emerging from inside Mido’s clothes, to which Navi silently snorted.

‘Great Deku Tree! We beat Gohma! You can go back to normal, now!’ Link shouted.

‘Well done Link… and Mido,’ the Deku Tree said, to which Mido beamed. ‘With both of your powers combined you were successfully able to break the spell… but it seems my life won’t go back to normal after all…’

‘What!?’ Link cried. ‘I fought with all my might! No, it can’t be for nothing!’

‘Link, listen well. As I was being eaten by Gohma I understood her intentions… she was under a spell herself. The one using this frighteningly evil power is a black king of the desert. His desire is to conquer Hyrule and make the Tri-Force his.’

‘Tri-Force?’ Link said, confused.

‘If you had been to my story, you would know. The Tri-Force is the three sacred triangles, which keep the power descended from the goddesses of Hyrule from time immortal. They have the power to create the world reflected in the heart of those who touch it. If a person with a pure heart touches it, it will be a just world… if a person with a devilish heart touches it, it will be a world conquered by evil. A horrible crisis is drawing near for Hyrule… that devilish person must not touch the power of the Tri-Force! Fortunately, with you courage, surely you can kill his ambition.’

‘I can’t fight such a scary guy,’ Link said stubbornly.

‘You can! Find out about the outside world and grow, Link. Now, go to the kingdom of Hyrule. There you’ll surely find the princess who was chosen by the gods. Take this, the Kokiri Emerald, the stone that that man wanted so much he cursed me for it! And you must go with extreme haste. Please, Link… I… I believe in you.’

‘Alright, I understand Great Deku Tree.’
And from the foliage came down a sparkling green gem, which Link held up in front of his face peering with curiosity into its amazing glittering centre.

‘It’s best that you make a shield out of my remains. It should protect you from every evil in you path.’

Suddenly, Navi flew up to the Deku Tree.

‘Great Deku Tree…’ was all she said.

‘Navi, I ask of you to assist Link…Everyone, so… long…’

‘Great Deku Tree!’ the Kokiri said in unison, all with tears streaming forth from their eyes. But the Deku Tree had visibly stiffened and turned a shade of grey, so he was surely dead. But Link had work to do, so he wiped the tears with his green tunic and walked over to the Deku Tree. Everyone watched, not moving, as he peeled a thick piece of bark from the Deku Tree and whittled away at the sides until it was the perfect shape for a shield. He attached a few straps to hold on to, and he was ready.

‘Let’s go Navi,’ he said.

‘Alright!’ she answered.

‘“Go”? Go where?’ Mido asked. ‘We Kokiri can’t exist outside the forest.’

‘The Great Deku Tree wouldn’t have sent me to my death. Besides, I want to see the outside world, Mido. No matter how big or what’s there, I want to see it with my own eyes. After I’ve passed the gem along, I’ll return. I promise.’

‘Wait, take this,’ Mido implored. ‘At least you can carry your sword.’

He presented a simple scabbard attached to a leather belt, but too big to put anywhere but over his shoulder and across his chest. So, his sword was sheathed on his back, and his shield fitted nicely on the scabbard.

‘Thanks, Mido,’ he said gratefully.

‘And don’t come back now, you hear!’ Mido said with tears welling up in his eyes.

And with this, Link turned and walked through the hollowed out tree trunk, thus exiting the Kokiri Forest and entering the Lost Woods. Across the bridge he dashed, but was halted by a familiar voice.

‘You’re going, aren’t you?’ Saria said from the edge of the little wooden bridge. Link turned around.

‘Saria…’

Saria looked sadder than Link had ever seen in his life, and it was having an adverse effect on his excitement about exploring the world.

‘I’ve always known I was different from the others, but… this forest is my home!’

Saria gave a little sad laugh and said: ‘Yes, it is.’

‘I’m giving you this ocarina,’ she said suddenly, and from her tunic she pulled a hollow oval shaped object with a mouthpiece jutting out and holes to form the notes. Link reached out to the green and cream coloured object.

‘Play it sometimes and think of the forest, OK,’ she instructed him as he took it.

‘I promise.’

She looked at his face with a sombre expression and gave another sad little smile.

‘Goodbye,’ she said.

Links smiled at her one last time before turning around and going through the other hollowed out log, into Hyrule Plain.

Emerging from the trees into the vast expanse of grasslands, Link halted a moment before walking off, and from high above, on a dead but tall tree, an owl looked on, unbeknown to Link. When Link broke into a run down the path in his excitement, the owl spread its wings and soared off after him. So it seems the time for the child to depart on his journey has arrived. The world of Hyrule’s future depends upon a single little boy…how will it end? In the name of the Great Deku Tree, I will watch over you…