FicWad

It was really hard to get out of the castle town. Just below my left shoulder, I had been stabbed by a rapier and my blood streamed down my torso. In the castle town, Coffee Bean began to use her fire and started to burn the zombies that were sulking around. Burning the zombies was an amazing tactic for they just coiled up and let the flames engulf their bodies. Coffee Bean could look straight at these creatures and not become paralyzed with fear, so I knew right away that she was a very special Pokemon.
I wasn’t able to run or anything because I needed to apply pressure to my shoulder. I would have run straight through the castle town if I could, but it just wasn’t happening. Thankfully, I had Coffee Bean by my side for we made it out of the town quickly. It was in the area where the drawbridge was that Coffee Bean and I were stopped.
“You,” I heard a raspy voice say and I looked to my right and saw a dark alley and there was what looked like a body standing there, but it was too dark to see anything, so I couldn’t tell who it was.
“Um, yes?” I said and I heard Coffee Bean below me growling.
“It’s been a long time since anyone has crossed here,” the voice said. “I’ve been watching you.”
“Dour,” Coffee Bean growled.
“I saw you and that young man walk out of the Temple of Time,” the voice continued. “They say that only the chosen ones come out of that temple nowadays; since this castle town is very, well, dead.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
This man came out from the alley way and the shadow left his body. He was very tall and actually built like Ganondorf, but his eyeballs were a solid, glowing red color. He had on what looked like a pirate hat and a long, white feather was attached to it. His skin, I noticed, was an ashy gray color, and he had a combed and well groomed beard. His outfit was that of a pirate and on both of his sides were a sheath with the hilts of a sword showing. The sheath on his right, however, was a bit smaller.
“My name is Cervantes,” this man said.
“I’ve never heard of you before,” I said. “Where are you from?”
“That doesn’t matter, my child,” Cervantes said with a smirk. “What matters is what I need to tell you about your little friend Ganondorf.”
The pain in my left shoulder suddenly ran from my mind. I wanted to get as much junk as I could about what Ganondorf was planning and what was going on. He obviously had a plan for Link and I when we would both wake up and I had to figure it out so we could both take him down.
“Okay,” I said sternly, “I need as much dirt as I can get on Ganondorf right now.”
Cervantes smirked a little and said, “Wow, a bit desperate now, aren’t we? Anyway, I will tell you right now that your friend, Link, is in Kokiri Forest right now and he is about to get a big surprise.”
“What’s going to happen?” I asked quickly.
“Hyrule isn’t quite what you remembered it to be,” Cervantes said and his red eyes began to glow. “Right now, Lon Lon Ranch is holding a huge horde of minions led by Ganondorf himself. In about one hour, Ganondorf is going launch a huge attack on Kokiri Forest and attempt to get into the Forest Temple. I would suggest that you get to that forest and create an army to try and protect that temple from Ganondorf and his minions.”
I suddenly remembered what Sheik had said about all of the sages needing to be awakened in a temple of some sort, because they were dead. If they were woken up, they would give the waker some of their power and if Ganondorf woke a sage, things could get bad.
“So, you know what to do, correct?” Cervantes said.
“Yes,” I said. “But, why are you telling me this?”
Cervantes laughed for a second of so and then his face became serious. “The power that Ganondorf has is a power he obtained in a whole other dimension. This was obtained from an evil sword that drives men crazy for the power it holds. Ganondorf only has a little bit of this power, but he’s angered a few people. I am one of those people.”
“So you’re from another dimension, huh?” I asked. “Tell me, are you an advocate for good, or evil?”
“One day, you will figure that out,” Cervantes said. “Right now is not the time. I need to get back to where I came from, but I want you to know that a lot of people are counting on you.” Then, this Cervantes guy turned around and walked back into the shadows of the alley.
“Wait!” I shouted, but he didn’t respond and I lost all sight of him.
“Houndour,” I heard and I looked down, but Coffee Bean wasn’t at my feet. She was actually a couple steps away from me; trying to get me to follow her so we could get to the forest. I just felt so weak and light headed as blood trickled down my arm. I tried to put pressure on it to slow down the blood flow when we first got out of the castle, but it wasn’t working as well as I hoped.
I followed Coffee Bean nonetheless and exited the castle town. The draw bridge was down, but it must have been damaged during the flood seven years ago, for it had collapsed in the river. The river itself contained a small amount of water that flowed rather slowly. Carefully, Coffee Bean and I crossed the broken bridge, hopping from spot to spot and trying to avoid falling in the river and getting soaked, or falling and breaking a bone.
I was a tad bit nervous for it remained dark the whole time we crossed this bridge, but not the nighttime kind of dark. Dark clouds filled the sky above us, so if it was nighttime, the moon couldn’t poke itself out and light our way. I was afraid that Hyrule was covered completely in clouds and that the residents had to live in complete darkness everyday of their lives.
Fortunately, after walking away from the castle the clouds began to clear and I could see the sun. It startled me a bit that the clouds were as dark and thick as they were, but I was relieved to just be able to see the sun. It was the brightest thing in my life at the moment; seeing as I had a huge stab wound in my upper left torso.
I could feel the moist, green grass being squashed under my boots as I walked slowly towards the forest. The pain was so unbearable that it was hard for me to keep walking, but Coffee Bean would occasionally grab my pant leg and pull me forward. I knew it wasn’t much of a long walk, but it felt to me that getting to the Kokiri Forest would take an eternity to reach. My eye sight would sometimes fail me and make things seem farther away than they actually were. It was a terrible feeling, like walking through a blurry, strange hallway that would never end.
I got to the small arch of trees that let me know I was close to the entrance of the forest. If it wasn’t for my memory, my deceiving eyesight would make me think that I still had a mile to go. With the help of Coffee Bean, we reach the entrance and carefully crossed the small, wooden bridge that led to the area where the Kokiri homes were kept. The wood that supported the bridge was now dry and, despite being careful, my foot made a board collapse and I received the shock of possibly falling off the bridge. It wasn’t that far of a drop, but because my eyesight was being weird, I thought the drop was a lot farther down.
I screamed in terror and squirmed as Coffee Bean grabbed the collar of my tunic and tried to pull me up. It took about ten minutes for me to calm down for all the screaming and panicking caused my heart to beat faster and my blood rushed through my veins, therefore I became more lightheaded. Fortunately, Coffee Bean was able to help me and she dragged me the rest of the way across the bridge. Once we went through the final hollow log that led us to the Kokiri Forest that was when my full attention turned to something other than my bleeding shoulder.
“My God,” I whispered and what stood before me was not the forest that Link and I had left behind seven years back.
The dark clouds that hung over Hyrule castle were up above the forest; making it even harder for me to see the damage that Ganondorf’s rein had done. Since I was on the ground, the once soft grass now scratched at my chin like tiny wires. I stood up and sniffed the air that was once full of life and peace. Now it ranked of death and despair. I slowly looked around as I walked and saw that some of the small, cozy Kokiri houses had been destroyed. The house that Mido owned was now totally caved in and the sign out in front was covered in moss.
Chunks were missing from some homes, including Link’s. It even looked like part of the ladder had been torn off, but it must have been repaired for some of the wood looked newer. The little chalk drawing that was on the side of his home was still there, but a little faded. However, the small drawing of himself was splashed with blood. Seeing the ladder repaired made me feel better because Link might have done it himself when he got here.
As you know, reader, I do not like ladders and I definitely do not like ladders when I cannot use one of my arms. All I could do was yell Link’s name as loud as possible. Fortunately, he was up in his house and he poked his head out and looked around warily. I said his name again and he looked straight down and a smile beamed on his face. Lux was at his feet; the curtain that served as Link’s door covering some of his body. Lux jumped right off the platform to see me but once he was aware of my wound, Lux became worried.
Link had finally climbed down the ladder to see me. I was slouched over while holding my left shoulder. Navi and Max flew out of the house to see the commotion and flew straight towards me once they knew who was yelling. Once Link saw my wound he just stood there with a blank expression on his face.
“Oh no,” Navi said and she flew up to my shoulder. “Ashley, how long have you been like that?”
“For about forty-five minutes,” I said quietly and I sighed. My shoulder was in pain and barely moveable and, in about an hour, Ganondorf would be heading this way with an evil horde put together.
“Ash, you need to go and lay down,” Link said and he touched my right shoulder and started to move me towards his home.
“No,” I said sternly and I turned over to Link. “In about an hour, Ganondorf is going to attack the forest. None of us can be resting at a time like this. Ganondorf has a huge horde ready over at Lon Lon Ranch and they will launch an attack in a matter of minutes.”
“What?” Max shouted. “What are we gonna do!”
Max began to fly around fiercely and I said, “The thing is, I don’t have the answer to that.”
After a block of silence and hopeless expressions, Navi finally burst in with an idea, which shocked me.
“Max, you and I need to gather all of the forest fairies, even the ones without children,” Navi said. “Link, you need to gather all of the children, even the ones that are in different sectors of this forest. Tell them to fashion all the wooden shields, sword, and slingshots that they can manage. Ash, you take Lux and Coffee Bean with you to the Lost Woods. Ganondorf is probably after Saria and the Forest Temple. When you reach the Sacred Forest, go through the maze and climb up a ladder that you should find towards the end. That ladder should lead you up to the top of the maze which will reveal a cleared area which should have a hole in the middle. Climb down to the hole and fall through and down there should be a Great Fairy Fountain which has only healing fairies. They should be able to heal your wounds.”
I noticed that Navi was glowing an even brighter blue than usual, which I assumed was just because she was heated up and determined. She had quite the plan, rather than doing her usual whining.
“C’mon Max,” Navi said and they both took off as quickly as possible. Only Link and I were left.
“Where are all the kids?” I asked for they were usually out playing.
“They’re all inside,” he replied. “There were huge monsters here when Lux and I first got here, so we took them out for all the kids were too scared to come out of their homes. They’re still scared and all, but I can try to get them ready.”
There was an awkward silence but then I said: “Well, I better get going.”
“Oh yeah,” Link said and he reach behind his back and pulled out this blue device that had a point at the end. “I got this in Kakariko Village. There were two of them. I guess they’re called hookshots and we can use them to grab onto objects and, once you release this button on the handle, it will pull you up.”
He handed this thing to me and I looked at it. It was made of metal, but the point at the end wasn’t much of a hook. The only thing it would be good for would be trying to get up on trees or wooden junk.
“Thanks,” I said and I hung it on my belt and began to walk away.
“Oh, and Ash,” Link said and I turned slowly to find him close to me. He hesitantly lifted his arm and had it hover for a second and then placed it on my right shoulder. “I’m worried about you. Don’t get hurt, please. Know that I’m always thinking of you and, well, good luck.”
We looked straight in each other’s eyes for a moment. I didn’t know what was into this kid, but I couldn’t tear away. Something about him made me want to keep looking into his eyes, but then something about me wanted me to run away and not get close to him. That part of me dominated that moment.
“Uh, that’s…that’s nice,” I said and I began to walk backwards. “Link I-er-I’ll be fine, just do your job.” Holding my shoulder, I scurried away as fast as I could; leaving Link behind.

That hookshot device that Link gave me actually came in handy. Since I was unable to use my right arm, I was able to use the hookshot to climb various vines and ladders that would come my way. Lux and Coffee Bean were incredible jumpers, so they didn’t need the aid of a climbing object.
I hadn’t been in the Lost Woods for a long time, so I didn’t quite remember how to get to the Sacred Forest. I remembered hearing Saria playing her ocarina, which guided Link and I, but I couldn’t hear anything which also meant that I had absolutely no guidance. As soon as we entered, three different paths were open to us. I decided to take a right, but somehow I just ended up back at the damn entrance.
I decided to go straight forward and we came to an actual opening. However, Lux began to growl quickly and I looked down at him and then looked in the direction he was looking. Standing to our left was a hollow log but guarding it was no one other than Mido. He looked sharply at us and shouted, “Hey, what are you guys doing here! This is a forest for Kokiri children only, not adults and their pets.”
“Alright Mido, cut the crap,” I said.
Mido stood up straight with a stern expression and said, “How do you know my name?”
“I’m Ashley, that girl that ran around with Link seven years ago,” I said. “This here is Lux, the one that shocked you because you threatened me. Do you remember him?”
Mido gulped as he looked down at Lux whose fur was standing on end and small sparks were coming out of his cheeks.
“Uh, yeah, I remember you,” Mido said and he gulped, but he suddenly stood up straight for some reason. “But I have to protect Saria and the Forest Temple, so any threat you give me I will have to ignore.”
I sighed and looked at the ground and said, “Mido, Saria went in that temple, correct?”
“Yes, why?”
“Mido, the reason Saria went into that temple was she felt that it was her job to save the forest and keep it safe. She wanted to awaken a power that was inside of her. Unfortunately, she is dead.”
Mido stared at me for a couple of seconds; his face showing the expression of one with a broken heart. After some silence, he said, “So, what now?”
“I need to get to that temple,” I said. “Once I’m there, I can reawaken Saria to her destiny. Sadly, she will still be dead, but there is a reason for her being alive, and a reason for her feeling that she needed to fulfill her destiny all the sudden. You, on the other hand have a different task. The forest is currently being plotted against so it can be infiltrated. An evil man wants to get to Saria so he can use her power for bad. You and all of the Kokiri need to hold this horde off until I am done. Understood?”
“Well, this is a lot to handle,” Mido said, “but I won’t let you or Saria down.”
“Great,” I said with a smile, “now go get ‘em.”
Mido nodded and ran towards the exit of the Lost Woods. With him finally dealt with, I became concerned about my wellbeing. I wouldn’t last much longer so I needed to get to the Sacred Forest as fast as possible. I went through the hollow log that Mido was guarding and became puzzled. I became frustrated rather quickly however as three more hollow logs were in front of me. Between being frustrated, I was also extremely tired so I sat down and leaned on a rock.
“Raichu,” Lux said and he had a worried tone in his voice. Coffee Bean came over and started to nuzzle against me and her warm body provided some comfort.
Suddenly, I heard a weird voice and all it said was this, “Gloom.” Shortly after, a terrible stench burned and boiled in my nostrils and it must have done the same to Lux and Coffee Bean, for Coffee Bean was using her paws to smack her nose and Lux covered his small nose with his paw.
“Glooooom,” I heard again and this weird flower thing wobbled out from a hollow log and came to see me. This thing had a small, stout body, but it had a flower on top of its head that had some sort of powder seeping from the middle.
This thing stared at me for the longest time and suddenly a big smile cracked on its face and drool started to seep out in what could have been gallons. It started to wobble closer to me like a baby and I could smell its stench even stronger than before. I didn’t know if that flower thing was drooling saliva or some kind of chemical, but I didn’t want to find out.
This thing wobbled over to my right arm and Coffee Bean fled behind the rock I was on because the stink from this damn flower was way too powerful. It started to stare at my hand and I suddenly noticed that the Triforce was glowing on it again.
“Gloom gloom!” this thing shouted at me and it picked up my hand with its stubby, blue arms. I thought it was just attracted by the glowing, but then it shoved my whole damn hand into its mouth. The drool made me shiver and I felt like I was going to puke. The thing looked up at me with a smile as it drooled all over my poor hand. “Gloom,” it said, but it was extremely muffled by my hand.
I could see the top of its flower and looked in the middle. Oddly enough, there was a symbol on the middle of this flower, which looked a lot like the Kokiri symbol. I became intrigued and realized that this flower was probably a lot more important than I thought. I felt my hand slide out of this thing’s mouth and it held my hand with its stubby arms and just stared at it. It looked up at me and then hopped away and reached one of the hollow logs and turned around.
“Gloom gloom!” It shouted again and it waved its arm; signaling for us all to follow. I took a quick sigh and got up. Surprisingly this thing moved fast, so Lux and Coffee Bean took after it. I ran as fast as I could, even though my arm kept me from going as fast as I wanted to go.
But I was in no rush, honestly. If this thing got ahead of me, all I would have to do is use my nose and follow its stench. What I didn’t know was that this chase would be crucial to finding Saria and would also be crucial to getting me into a hell of a lot of trouble.