Title: A Chance Encounter

Author: Alex Foster

Category: Drama

Rating: PG

Summary: While searching the Lost Woods for the Master Sword, Link stumbles upon an unusual little girl who seems to know him. (A Link to the Past fic)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Nintendo. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: I'd like to say thank you to my excellent beta readers, Romance Queen and CatMarieS. Their skill in finding my errors was matched only by their swiftness. I thank both of them very much.

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Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure. - Jewish Saying

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Link stumbled out of the brush; pushing branches bearing leaves the size of his hand aside. He kicked his leg several times knocking a vine off his ankle. His foot now free, he slowly turned his head and took his surroundings in. The heavy fog that swirled and flowed between the trees increase the thickness of the Lost Woods. He took a step forward and shivered as the fog brushed over his bare arm. There was magic in the fog. He could tell by the bitter taste each breath left in the back of his throat. He didn't know if the magic meant him harm, but aside from gooseflesh, it hadn't hurt him.

Moment of rest over, Link began walking again. He tried to choose a path that wouldn't cause much noise, but with fog coating much of the ground, it was next to impossible. He winced as his foot came down on a stick snapping it in two. He held his breath and listened for the telltale sounds of a palace guard charging through the brush.

After a few moments of silence, he released the breath and started again. After weeks of being a fugitive of the law, he had learned how to be cautious. The punishment for the abduction of Princess Zelda was execution, and he held no doubt that, if found, the guards would carry that sentence out immediately.

Ahead of him was a hollowed out tree trunk. He had seen others like it in his journey through the forest but hadn't been close enough for a detailed inspection. There didn't seem to be a way around it. Tentatively, Link peered inside. He could see a pinpoint of light at its end but nothing in between.

With no choice left, Link started in. Mud squished underneath his boots. He pulled a thick web off his face feeling something fuzzy run up his cheek as he did so. He knocked it off with the back of it hand. It landed somewhere in the darkness scurrying away from the boy who had disrupted its home.

As Link made his way down the tunnel, he wondered how so many tree trunks had been turned into routes through especially thick parts of the forest. He didn't think an animal could purposely do such a thing—but if one could, he didn't want to meet it. When his uncle had still been alive, he had told Link stories of forest children who never aged and cared for the forest, but those had just been stories.

Link walked out of the tree trunk like tunnel and into the closest thing to a clearing he had seen since entering the Lost Woods. The carpet of leaves and sticks had been pressed down and broken. As though someone had walked over it several times. Seeing that, Link's guard came up. He paused and turned slowly considering the bramble around him. His eyes searched the shadows for the dark armor of the palace guards.

Oddly, in the short time he had been in the tree trunk, the air seemed to have changed. Fog no longer pressed up against his skin; it had receded to just beyond the cleared path. What little wind had moved trees above before was now silent. It was as though time itself had stopped.

With more than a little trepidation, Link stepped onto the path. By his fourth step he realized that, with the sudden quiet, it was like he had entered a crypt.

"It's about time you came," a voice said behind him.

Link jumped and spun around. His fingers fumbling for his sword. He pulled the blade free and dropped into the best battle stance his shaking body would allow. He saw that the owner of that voice was a little girl.

She stood at the mouth of the trunk tunnel a slight smile on her small face. She was dressed nearly as he; a simple green tunic with matching trousers. Unlike his, however, her clothes were unmarred. They were of such vibrant green they might have been made of the forest itself. Not a single bur hung on her clothing, and, as Link quickly looked her up and down, he couldn't even find a belt knife on her.

Though her smooth skin belied her as no older than he was, her eyes held a deep, tortured wisdom that could have rivaled Sahasrahla's in intensity. Under that gaze, Link suddenly felt very young and very foolish for holding a sword on her. He lowered the point to the ground and fought the urge to bow his head as well.

"Who-" he began, but his voice squeaked. He cleared his throat and tried again, forcing the words to come out strong, "Who are you?"

She tipped her head to the side as if amused at the question. She blinked several times as tears formed in her eyes. "You even look like him," she whispered, almost reverently.

"Who?" Link wondered out loud.

"My old friend."

Link wasn't sure if what she had just said was an answer or an appellation. "And I look like him?" he asked.

"In more ways than one," she said.

Link glanced around searching for the path she would have had to have made pushing through the foliage. He found no path. "My name's Link," he said. "What's yours?"

"I have no name."

"You must be called something," he protested. "Even foundlings have names."

"I'm the last of my kind," she said, "there isn't anyone left who would need to call me by name."

'Her kind?' wondered Link. 'She looks Hyrulian.' He suddenly felt a heart-aching compassion for her; if she was the last of her kind... oh what had that child been through?

"Well, there is now," he said, sheathing his sword and taking a step forward. "What was your name?"

"So alike," the girl said softly, not answering the question. She cleared her throat and spoke again, "Have you come for the sword?" Her voice was stronger this time.

Hope quickly replaced confusion in Link's heart. "Yes, I've been searching for it. Do you know where it is? Do you have it?"

She gave a tight-lipped smile. "I do not have it, but I do know where you may find it."

Link fought the urge to laugh with relief. "Where?"

The girl raised her hand as though to ask for his silence. "First, have you completed the three quests? You must prove yourself to the sword before attempting to even touch its hilt."

"I have completed them." Link reached into his belt pouch and withdrew the three pendants. Each glowed with a respected power. One shone with a warm gold, another with icy blue, and the last with fiery red. Wisdom, Courage, and Power. "It was a struggle," he said, holding the pendants up, "but I found all of them."

The girl didn't share his delight, she bowed her head and he saw her eyelids squeeze shut. Two teardrops fell from her closed eyes and impacted on the ground, leaving two dark stains on the dirt floor.

Link stuffed the pendants back in his pouch and crossed the distance between them in two strides. He took the girl by the shoulders. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head and drew deep breath. She raised her head and brought a hand up to her face as she opened her eyes. Another tear fell landing on her fingers. She considered the tear a moment, and then wiped her fingers across her lips, tasting it. "No salt," she whispered.

Link searched her gaze. "What?"

She smiled a full, broad smile. "Oh, how long I've waited. How long we've all waited." She took a step forward, embracing him. "I've tasted too much salt through the years, Link," she mumbled against his chest.

Link glanced down at the girl holding on to him. Not knowing what else to do, he brought his arms up returning the embrace. "I, ah—"

"Forgive me," she said suddenly, and pushed back to stand an arms length away. "Forgive me, I forgot myself. You just look so much like my old friend."

"The one you mentioned earlier?"

"Yes."

Link shook his head. "Well, it was all right."

The girl raised an arm and pointed toward the overgrown brush. "You will find what you seek through there."

Link looked to where the girl indicated and saw the lip of another tree trunk tunnel protruding from the foliage. How had he not seen that earlier?

He glanced back to the girl and smiled. "Thank you. Thank you very much."

She didn't return the smile. "That was the first part to the promise I made long ago. Now for the second."

"The second?"

"The second," she said, "was to pass a message to you."

Link raised an eyebrow. "From whom?"

"From the one who held the Master Sword last."

Link stood dumfounded. "How... how could you know the—"

Now she smiled. A grim smile that made the sadness in her eyes shine through even more. "Disbelieve my words if you wish, but for the sake of a lonely girl living in the Lost Woods, do not forget them."

Link nodded slowly, not quite sure what to believe. "I will remember them."

"Good." She clasped her hands easily in front of her small form. "Then I will speak the words to you as they were spoken to me. 'When gripping the Master Sword's hilt remember that you must govern the sword's power. Let it control your actions in battle but not your thoughts. Learn the wisdom of drawing the blade and of leaving it sheathed. And never forget that though its magic will sink into your soul and it will only fly to your arms, it is not yours. You are nothing more than a caretaker. It belongs to the men and women you use it to protect, and, to the ones you use it to kill.'"

Link swallowed hard. He had thought the Master Sword would be the answer to Hyrule's plight, but if only half of what she had told him was true, then he had been mistaken. Something Sahasrahla had said floated up in his mind: 'The Master Sword is one of the most deadliest and most useful tools ever conceived.'

"A tool," he whispered.

"Have you learned something today, Link?" the girl asked.

"Yes," he said meeting her gaze fearlessly. "Yes, I have."

She nodded. "Good, then my duty has been completed. Go and claim your birthright." She took a step back into the woods.

"Wait!" he called out. "What about you? If you wait here, once I've pulled the sword free, I'll take you back to Kakariko. I'll find you someone to stay with, maybe—"

The girl silenced him with a shake of her head. "Oh, my old friend, I can not leave the forest. It would die without me and I without it; we are bounded as one. Almost as you and I once were."

Link took a step forward seeking to keep her from disappearing into the dense woods. Suddenly a wind rushed up around him, branches creaked and snapped high above the forest floor, leaves in the thick canopy over head brushed up against one another, creating a scratching sound the reverberated from one end of the Lost Woods to the other.

Link shielded his eyes as dirt and dead, dried leaves swirled up in a whirlwind. Then, just as quickly as it came, it was gone. Leaving a dead silence behind. The girl was gone.

Link looked around trying to find a trace of her tracks. There were none. He couldn't even find the broken bramble that would have indicated where she'd fled. He sighed; he didn't even get a chance to say "thank you" for the information. Turning he walked into the tunnel that would take him to the Master Sword.

---

The forest shivered. Or at least that's what it looked like had anyone been around to see it. Like a brief hint of movement out of the corner of a person's eye, the trees seemed to shake and the leaves seemed to tremble. Then stopped. The girl had returned.

Saria stood watching as the green clad boy disappeared down the tunnel. "So alike," she said again.

The echo of his footsteps faded and she knew that he had exited the tunnel. She smiled wondering his reaction to the sight of the Master Sword resting in its stone. She could not believe how identical this chosen one was to her Link. Link—they even shared the same name! She shook her head at the wonderment of it all. If they were of the same bloodline, that would explain the resemblance. She didn't know if they were indeed related. But if they were she felt a deep pang of pity for that family.

The powers of destiny could indeed be cruel.

Saria felt more than heard the sword come free. A blinding light exploded from the sacred meadow. It shot up beyond tree level and into the clear sky. The serenity of the forest was broken by the sound of the boy named Link screaming. Saria closed her eyes and tried not to remember what that blade's magic would do to its user's soul. She knew that the magic would rip into his very being seeking his darkest desires, it would then twist those desires making him face them... to see their horrible truth.

As the light faded, the bramble beside her shook violently. Saria took a step back and faded into the shadows. Three soldiers in the cumbersome armor of the palace guard thundered passed, running toward the meadow.

They would be of little danger to the one holding the Master Sword, Saria knew. The power would be raw in the boy, but no less deadly. It was said that in the grip of the sword's power a farmboy could cut down a blademaster.

She was sorry though that the small boy named Link would be forced to use the sword so soon; she had hoped he would have the chance to familiarize himself with it first.

Her task completed and her promise fulfilled, Saria turned and began walking back to her temple. The Forest Temple had long since been lost to the ages, but it was not beyond the reach of a Sage.

Already she could feel the warm embrace of the temple's magic reaching out for her. At the boarder between her adopted world and the physical world, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. Her ears could just make out the clang of swords clashing.

"May the worlds hear my words," she said, her voice echoing down the endless halls of reality. "May those who have cause to fear it hear my words in the form of a shiver down the spine. May those in need be heartened in the form of hope's comforting glow. For on this day the Blade of Evil's bane has been pulled. The last of the Knights of the Triforce now cradles it in his arms and in his soul." Saria stepped across the threshold of her temple letting her final words find their way to a wizard who stood waiting at Hyrule's Castle. "And he is coming for you, Agahnim."

End.