FicWad

Chapter 9
Saria’s Song

Link wasted no time getting out of Goron City after he realized what song was making the Gorons happy. The song must have been a song that Saria had played on the ocarina when she and Link were younger. We hadn’t been to the forest for a couple of days now, so I knew it would be hard on Link to leave his hometown. Luckily for him though, he had a home to return to. I couldn’t go back home at all, or at least to my knowledge I couldn’t.
It was getting rather dark outside so I assumed we would crash at Link’s house again, like we did after we got the Kokiri’s Emerald from the Great Deku Tree. I just wasn’t sure if Link, Lux, Zucchini, and I would actually fit in Link’s little tree house. It would be a tight fit for sure, but we could make it happen.
Link and I untied the horses and Link decided to take off ahead of me. I didn’t get why, but he sure was eager to get back to Kokiri forest. The sun was slowly going down as we made our way across Hyrule field. Since the sun was going down, it also became a bit more chillier and riding Lightning and having wind blowing was no help at all.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. It wasn’t really that far. We entered on our horses and all the kids just stared at us in wonder. Link was leading, so I just followed him. I had no idea what he was up to, so I decided to just sit back and watch a bit.
Link stopped right by his house and dismounted Epona.
“Saria’s house is right here,” he said as he walked towards a grounded house on the left of his. It looked like to have been made from a rather large tree, or at least the tree’s stump for the roof was flat.
I dismounted Lightning and followed Link. Zucchini and Lux followed closely behind. I entered the house and Link stood in the middle. Saria wasn’t there. Instead standing in the middle was Mido.
Great, I thought. Here we go again. I looked down at Lux whose fur started to get all ruffled like it had when Mido threatened me a couple days ago.
“Oh, well look who decided to show up,” Mido said harshly.
“Alright Mido, you can stop,” I snapped. “We’re just here to find Saria and then we’ll be on our way.”
“What, are you going to go see her and then kill her, like you did with the Great Deku Tree?” Mido said.
“I’m not arguing with you,” I said.
“Mido, where’s Saria?” Link asked.
“Why would you want to know?” Mido said.
“I need to see Saria right now,” Link said. “She can help us and then we’ll leave the forest, okay?”
Mido started to tap his foot rather fast, like he was annoyed of something. “I don’t care what you need on your dumb adventure. You might just be planning on killing someone else, like you did the Great Deku Tree.”
“Alright Mido,” I said harshly, “you’re starting to get on my nerves. Listen to what he’s saying, or I’m going to get annoyed real quick.”
“You think I’m scared of you?” Mido asked.
“Well, I didn’t ask you that,” I said. “Nor do I care if you’re scared of me. I just want you to tell us where Saria is so Link and I can get on our way.”
“Why should I?” Mido asked and he held his head up high.
“Okay buddy,” I snapped, “Link and I will find Saria ourselves. It won’t be that hard.” I grabbed Link’s wrist and he followed me. When we got outside, I said, “So where does she usually, ya know, hang out?”
“There’s this forest up on that hill,” Link said and he pointed up towards the tip of the hill. “The forest is called the Lost Woods and it’s really confusing. If you go in the wrong direction, you’re led right back to the entrance. I remember that Saria use to grab my hand and take me through the Lost Woods. She had a sanctuary somewhere in those woods where she would go and clear her head.”
“Do you go there often?” I asked.
“Well, I can only go there if Saria’s there,” Link said and we started to walk towards our destination.
“Why’s that?”
“I’ve never actually memorized the path to get to Saria’s sanctuary. The only way I got there was by listening?”
“Listening,” I said, “you listen to things. What the hell do you listen to, birds?”
“No. When Saria goes to her sanctuary, she usually goes there to practice her ocarina. I just listen closely and the louder the sound, the closer I must be to her.”
It didn’t surprise me that Link just had to listen. It seemed he was good at listening, seeing as he could hear a song once and play it perfectly. We had reached the tip of the hill and I could smell the small waterfall to our right. Zucchini walked over to the small waterfall and looked like he was about to jump, but Lux grabbed a hold of him and shook his head.
The entrance to the Lost Woods was basically a hollowed out stump. I poked my head in and felt disgusted. Why would a bunch of kids settle to walk through a crusty, hollowed out tree stump? I definitely would not walk through that thing, but Link walked right passed me and it looked like he didn’t mind the crusty stump. Following him were Lux and Zucchini, so I started to feel a bit awkward.
I took a deep inhale of the nice clean air and put my left foot in the tree stump. The moss that was in the stump felt like wet sand under my boots, but it didn’t feel as good and relaxing as it would with I was walking through wet sand on the beach. It felt creepy so I quickened my pace. I was smacked in the face by the moss that was hanging from the ceiling and they felt like spider webs, so my heart rate quickened.
Once I got to the end of the stump, I began to shake wildly; trying to remove the moist moss that was on my body. I don’t really know why I was crept out by the moss, but it just smelled weird and felt extremely awkward. While I did this, I only assume that Lux, Link, and Zucchini were watching me like I was insane.
“Hey, stop all the jumping will you?” I heard a little voice shout from the back of my head. “Can’t a fairy get some sleep around here?”
I didn’t realize that Max was in my hat because I was really freaked out. I took off my hat and threw it on the ground. I got on the ground and started to shake really badly. I didn’t know what had come over me for I knew that the moss was completely off, but I was still freaking out.
Link got on the ground and grabbed me. He kept screaming my name and kept telling me to calm down. All of a sudden, I felt a surge go through my body that seemed to paralyze me. Lux had used some sort of electric power that made me lose control of my body. I lay on the ground flat and looked at the sky. Above me was Link and Lux’s face.
“Ash, what’s wrong?” Link asked.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. I really couldn’t move my lips, but I could at least form some words.
I suddenly remembered my mental health issue back at home. I had significant anxiety and major depression. I was medicated heavily back at home, but I hadn’t taken my medication for about three days. I was beginning to relapse, but I didn’t know how to explain that to Link, or really anyone for that matter. I didn’t think they had depression meds in Hyrule and I couldn’t go back home to get them, so I was screwed.
I was paralyzed for about ten minutes or so. Link sat down with Lux and Zucchini and watched me and to also make sure I was alive. They all looked worried and I really didn’t blame them. I must’ve given them all a huge scare. Even Max, who never came out of my hat, was floating above me and occasionally asked if I was okay.
Every minute or so that I was paralyzed, I could feel myself regain some composure. My toes started to wiggle and soon my ankles could move. I stayed down until I was sure that my neck was moveable, otherwise I could’ve broke my neck, being unable to control it and all.
When I felt I had control of my whole body, I got up slowly. Link helped me up so I was standing straight. He let go, but I realized that my legs were rather shaky so I had to grab onto him to keep myself from collapsing.
“Ashley, I think you should go back to my house,” Link said. “I can find Saria all by myself and when I’m done, I’ll come back to get you.”
“No, no,” I said and I let go of Link with some hesitance, just so I could get use to standing again. “We need to do this together and my being all weird won’t make a difference in what we both need to do.” I walked forward to another hollowed stump and said, “Now, I need your ears. Let’s find Saria.”
Link and I went through this stump. I shut my eyes tight and prepared myself for gross moss so that I wouldn’t have another anxiety fit, or at least one that wouldn’t get out of control. I glanced back here and there to see Link watching me intently. It was creepy, but he was probably just watching me to make sure I didn’t go nuts again.
I began to feel the relapse getting worse. I became really tired all of a sudden and my stomach was in knots. I felt like I had to puke every five minutes or so which made me feel extremely lightheaded. I had to keep going though for I knew relapses would pass eventually.
I was listening as well as Link must’ve been for we came to what seemed like our last tree stump. In front of us was two hedges and an opening in the middle, but there was a gate blocking our path.

I walked closer and examined the gate. It was a really tough metal so I didn’t know what to do. Lux jumped right up however, and made his way passed the gate. He didn’t jump down or anything. I saw him jumping from one hedge to the other without taking the path below. I peeked through the gates as much as I could and found out that there was a chance that Link and I were going to have to go through a hedge maze.
I suddenly heard this sharp howl and turned to see a wolf looking creature appear out of nowhere. It was a black color and stood on its hind legs. It went right after Link, but Link thought quickly and drew his sword. I heard a huge clang sound as the wolf tried to smack Link with his huge paws but he was blocked by Link’s blade.
I unsheathed my sword and got into the action. This wolf thing was really awkward. Whenever he curled into a ball, we couldn’t wound him at all. Even Zucchini joined in and he couldn’t get passed this wolf’s fur. Being surrounded by all three of us must have been overwhelming to the wolf, but he was holding up pretty well. I realized that this wolf had a really fluffy tail though, so I decided to slash the tail, which must have done the trick because the wolf disappeared into green fire and was gone.
“What the hell was that thing?” I asked and I wiped the blood off of my sword in the grass.
“That was a wolfos,” Navi said. “They have a shield on their backs that is disguised with fur.”
As soon as she said that, the gate blocking our entrance to the hedge maze disappeared. I, without looking first, entered this maze and got showered with Deku seeds. Some damn Deku scrub decided it was a good idea to start shooting at me. Since I hadn’t taken my medication for awhile, this guy made me extremely angry so I just attacked him furiously, even after he died.
“Ashley, Ashley!” Link shouted and he carefully grabbed me as I swung my sword around. Luckily, I didn’t actually hit him and I was able to calm down…after I punched him in the face.
Link’s nose started to spout a bunch of blood so I had to find a way to plug it and keep it from bleeding. This was the second time his nose had bled, so I felt really bad for him. I picked up a leaf and gave it to him and he covered his nose up. We still needed to move along though, so I pulled his head back and put my hand on his back to lead him forward through the maze. There were more Deku scrubs ahead, but Zucchini went ahead and took care of all of them.
As we went on, I heard Lux above us. He had been hopping on top of the hedges instead of going through the crap that Link and I were going through, but I really didn’t blame him. Fortunately for the both of us, Zucchini was nice enough to help us through the maze and also clear the way for us as I helped Link with his bloody nose.
We got to what seemed like the end of the maze and walked up a bunch of stairs which must have been a trial for Link, seeing as his head had to be tilted back. I helped him up as much as I could and met Lux at the top of those stairs. Zucchini was killing a couple more Deku scrubs in front of us.
There was a clearing and more stairs a bit farther ahead of us, but we were on flat ground, so I took the leaf off Link’s nose and let him look forward. His nose was beet red and his eyes were watery. He took his fingers and checked his nose, which had stopped bleeding completely. After wiping his eyes, we went forward towards the next set of stairs. The ocarina sound was actually getting louder.
“She should be just up those stairs,” Link said and he started to jog up the stairs. I watched him. He must have really missed Saria, seeing as they were childhood friends. I just walked slowly behind with Lux. I didn’t really think Saria cared too much for me, so I didn’t want to ruin some friendly moment between her and Link.
I heard the ocarina sound end when I was midway up the stairs and Saria shouted Link’s name. I got up to the top of the stairs and saw Saria sitting on a stump with the ocarina in her lap and Link standing up. He was talking to her about Princess Zelda and how gorgeous she was.
I looked at Saria and we made eye contact. At first she looked uneasy, like she thought I would be gone from Link’s adventure. However, Link motioned me over and Saria looked less tense. Maybe she was just a little curious about me, seeing as she knew that I had never been to Hyrule and that I would probably leave after the mission with Link would be over.
“Why hello, Ashley,” Saria said cheerfully. Her big, blue eyes looked happy, so I was glad that she seemed alright with me still being with Link.
“Hey, Saria,” I said and I smiled. Maybe she wasn’t so bad. When she told Link about what she had heard about me, she was probably just looking out for him as a friend and I completely understood that.
“So, why are you two back?” Saria asked.
“Well Saria,” Link began, “we’ve ran into a road block in our journey.”
She tilted her head and said, “How so?”
“Well, we’re collecting these stones called the Spiritual Stone,” I said. “Anyway, there are three of these stones and they belong to each race here in Hyrule which are the Kokiris, the Gorons, and the third one, well, we don’t know about them yet.”
“Anyway, the next stone we need is the Goron’s Ruby,” Link said. “The Gorons are really ticked off right now because this guy decided to block their cavern and they can’t eat. The guy shut a bunch of monsters in the cavern and blocked it with this huge boulder.”
“Yeah, and the boss of the Gorons, Darunia, won’t let us have the ruby until we defeat the monsters inside this cavern,” I said.
“Well, I’m sure that Darunia has something that can get you inside of the cavern,” Saria said, “seeing are you’re both willing to help his people.”
“Actually, he does have something that can get us into the cavern,” Link said, “but he refuses to give it to us. He says he’s really angry, but I think I know how to cheer him up.”
“How?” Saria and I said simultaneously.
“Saria, that song you always play,” Link said, “what’s it called?”
Saria looked a bit startled, but said, “Well, I wrote it myself, so I just call it Saria’s song.”
“Well, believe it or not, but the Gorons dance to this song,” Link said. “They really love it and I think if you let me learn that song, he’ll lighten up enough to let Ash and I help him.”
Saria put a huge smile on her face and picked up her ocarina. “Do you really want to learn it?” she asked and she put the ocarina up to her chest.
“Why yes,” Link said sweetly and he pulled his ocarina out of his pocket. I knew the drill, so I just stood and watched. Saria put the ocarina’s mouthpiece up to her lips and started to play a really nice tune. Link played it right back and then they started a cute little duet thing. Once it was finished, I decided to give them a round of applause. Lux and Zucchini joined in, even though Zucchini didn’t really have any hands to clap with.
“Thank you Saria,” Link said and he put his ocarina back in his pocket. Navi came out of his hat real quick and said this: “Now, I don’t know if you are aware Saria, but that song has a mysterious power.”
“I wasn’t aware at all,” Saria said and she had a shocked looked on her face. “I created a magic song?”
“Yes,” Navi said and she floated around Saria’s head when she talked to her. “If Link or Ash plays this song, they can speak to you for a short amount of time. If you play this song, Link and Ash will also be able to talk to you.”
“Wow,” Saria said and she looked down at her ocarina.
“You, just like Ash and Link, have a duty to help save this kingdom,” Navi said. “You are very wise Saria, and Link and Ash may need some of that wisdom from time to time.”
Saria looked down at the ground and sighed. Something seemed wrong, but I didn’t know what and I don’t think Link knew, either.
“When your time comes to make sacrifices for this kingdom, I’m sure you will make them,” Navi said. “The goddesses are counting on you.”
Saria did look a bit sad, but Link and I knew we had to get on our way. We hugged Saria and parted. She looked like she was about to cry, so it broke my heart to leave her all alone.
When we got a bit farther down the stairs to exit her area, Link asked: “Navi, what were you walking to her about?”
“What?” Navi asked. She was playing dumb, I could tell.
“You know that whole sacrifice spiel,” I asked. “What was that all about? It looked like she was about to cry.”
“I was just saying that she needs to help her kingdom,” Navi said. “No matter what she wants in life, sometimes people are destined to give their lives to their kingdom.”
“Aw Navi, you didn’t need to scare Saria like that,” Link said. “She’s probably scared to death now. I feel bad for leaving her like that.” Link looked behind him with a worried look on his face.
“She’ll be fine,” Navi said. “She knows what needs to be done.”
Navi was a jerk, but I had no time to tell her that. Link and I needed to get some rest and then head out to Goron City to play that boss guy Saria’s song so he’d quit being mean.
At the end of the path was the reentrance to the maze, but Lux showed us a ladder in which we climbed up. We were now on top of the hedges which were actually sturdy enough to have all of us on top of.
Lux and Zucchini jumped from hedge to hedge and Link began to jump too. I just stood there. I was too scared to jump or move, so I just stood there like a stone. Link turned around to see me and looked puzzled.
“C’mon Ash, it’s not that much of a jump,” Link said. He had a huge smile on his face, but it faded as I just stood stiff in that one spot. “Ash, what’s wrong?”
I didn’t really know what happened at that moment because I couldn’t control what was going on in my head seeing as it was all up to my brain chemicals to let me feel better. The only reasonable thing to do at that time, or at least I thought it was, was for me to burst into tears. So reader, I started to cry and if I was off my medication and I would started to cry, I would have a full fledge breakdown, which is what I preceded to have.
“Ash,” Link said and he jumped back over. “Ash, what’s wrong?”
I collapsed to the ground and just started to bawl. Link jumped over and sat down with me. He tried to calm me down by grabbed my hand, which was shaking badly. I wanted to calm down, but my mind wouldn’t let me. I became really scared and I felt lonely, even though Link was right there with me. In front of me, Lux and Zucchini started to jump back to us. They looked worried and Lux rushed to my side. He started to lick my arm.
“Ash, what’s wrong with you?” Link asked. “Are you sick or something, because you’ve been acting really weird recently?”
I was shaking so bad, but I was able to say, “I guess you could say that I’m sick.”
Link touched my forehead to see if it was hot and shook his head. “You don’t have a fever.”
“I’m not that kind of sick,” I said weakly.
“Then what kind of sick are you?”
“I’m mentally ill, Link,” I said.
“Mentally ill?” Link said. “What is ‘mentally ill’?”
“It’s when your brain doesn’t produce certain chemicals that make you act like a normal person,” I said.
“The brain has chemicals?” Link asked. This medical mumbo-jumbo was way out of his time era, so I didn’t know how to explain it to him.
“It’s hard to explain, but I had to take medicine for it and you don’t have that kind of medicine here.”
“Are you sure?” Link asked. “I mean, there’s plenty of potions and herbs around-“
“Link, those won’t help,” I said and I grabbed his shirt. “All I need you to do right now is listen.”
Link watched me intently, so I began. “Now, when someone takes medication, they become dependent on that medication. I became dependent on my medication to make me feel better. I took it every day since I was ten, but now I don’t have it. I’m going through something called a relapse, which is when my body goes through a lot of stuff to become independent off that medication.”
“So, you’ll be sick for a little while?” Link asked.
“Unfortunately, I’ll be sick for the rest of my life,” I said. “I have this disorder that makes me sad and also makes me extremely paranoid. Without my medicine, I have nothing to balance it, or at least keep it in check, so I will be a wreck from time to time.”
“Here,” Link said and he picked me up, “I need to get you back to my place. You need to relax.”
I didn’t want to stay behind, but I knew I needed to. Link was a pretty strong kid and I was fairly light, so I let him carry me out of the Lost Woods. I was exhausted and hungry, but I knew that if I ate, I would probably throw up.
Once we got to Link’s tree house, he sat me on my feet and we went up the ladder. I wanted to go last because I didn’t want him looking up my skirt, but he made me go first so he could catch me in case I fell. Once inside, I laid on the bed. I didn’t feel good at all so I got comfortable.
“Now Ash,” Link said, “I am going to go ahead and go to the cavern.”
“Please don’t,” I said weakly. “I don’t want you to get hurt and all.”
“I’ll be fine Ash,” Link said and he sat a glass of water on the table by the bed. “Just rest and I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.” He closed a couple windows so that the morning sunlight wouldn’t bombard me in the morning. He walked over to the bed and kissed my forehead which I thought was terribly disgusting, but I just wanted to get some rest.
“Alright Lux,” Link said, “I need you to stay here and comfort Ashley, okay?”
“Rai,” Lux said sadly and he got on the bed.
I saw Link set my sword and shield on the couch and he blew out a small candle.
“Get better Ash,” Link said.
I cuddled up with Lux and my eyelids started to droop and I fell into a very sound sleep.

I awoke in a cold sweat about an hour after I had went to bed. I got up and put my feet on the cold, wooden floor. I was shaking really bad and just wanted to get out of the house. I put on my boots and grabbed my sword and shield. Lux woke up with me and he followed me. He tried to pull me back to bed, but it didn’t work.
“Let’s just get some air, Lux,” I said and Lux sighed. He followed me and watched me close as I went down the ladder. I was a bit dizzy, so I got on Lightning. Lux got right behind me and we just sat there.
The damn yellow ball things started to fly around me and it pissed me off, so I decided to ditch the forest and left. Lux became a bit uneasy as we rode out of the forest. I wanted to go out to the field and trot around a bit. I wasn’t suppose to leave the house, but what Link didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
I stopped by this river that was draining from the castle. It sounded so peaceful, so I sat under a tree and took in the clean Hyrule air. Back at home, I lived in the city which had loud, nasty cars. It was nice to hear some peace and quiet.
Something broke that silence however so I looked up and saw a black horse trotting in the distance. I couldn’t really see the horse that well, but I recognized its rider in the moonlight. It was Ganondorf. Lux looked up and got a bit tense.
“Lux,” I whispered, “this might seem dumb, but we need to follow him.”
Lux looked uneasy, but he followed me. We mounted Lightning and took off in the moonlight, creeping behind Ganondorf like a shadow.
Something was up with this guy and I needed to figure it all out. Where ever he was going, I would find out why he was so compelled to destroy Hyrule. I carefully followed him, not worried about my relapse or what kind of mess I would get into next. I had to find out who Ganondorf was…even if it would kill me.