A/N: I’d like to welcome my good friend Goron Girl Cal to the site (yes, we have matching names, we’re sad XD or just crazy…). She’s a huge Goron fan so drop by her profile and read her stuff sometime, when she gets round to putting it up.

Also, I’d like to thank everyone who’s reading, especially those who review. I love getting feedback (who doesn’t?) even if it’s just to say you’re still reading.

---

There was a faint clattering sound behind them as they followed Travis into the town. Turning to see what it was, Link spotted his dagger laying covered in something on the ground. Picking the weapon up, he saw the ‘things’ were tealeaves.

“Odd…” he mumbled to himself. “Something strange is going on.”

“What’s that you’re mumbling about?” Saria stopped to wait for him.

“Nothing,” Link caught back up to her. Placing an arm around her shoulders, he mentally shrugged it off, had to be a coincidence.

“If you’re sure,” Saria narrowed her eyes, she knew he wasn’t telling her something but didn’t want to push it, she was just happy to be alive.

Catching up with Travis, they arrived at what must’ve been his house. An old farmhouse surrounded by a large field with a wooden trailer sitting lopsidedly next to the house. Saria imagined it would have looked a lot better in the good weather, if the grey stone walls were cleaned, the grass was cut and the trailer was fixed and moved out of the way of one of the windows.

Moving towards the front door, they jumped back when a loose tile from the roof came crashing down.

“Mind the tiles,” Travis warned lazily. “We really need to sort that roof out.”

As the door was opened, an awful smell wafted out into their noses. Both Nori and Madi made excuses that they wanted to go explore elsewhere; fluttering off before anyone could say anything, they escaped.

“I can’t believe they did that,” Saria frowned. She was strongly resisting the urge to hold her nose and run after them.

“Go on in,” Travis held a hand in the direction of the dark entrance. “Feril and Eckle are inside, Feril landed awkwardly on one leg earlier but he’ll be ok.”

Inside was pitch black, even the windows that weren’t blocked by some large object didn’t let in much light. The foul smell continued to torture their lungs, how could anyone live in this? The floor was covered in rubbish, empty cans, food packets, sharp tools, everything seemed to be on the floor instead of in its proper place.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, Link wandered into the next room where the Pepeckeri were lounging on the dusty floor.

“It’s…nice,” Saria said aloud nearly tripping over what felt like an axe-type object.

Liar, Link grinned.

I dare you to say the truth then, Saria returned the grin.

“My folks are down in Soli at the moment, they’ve gone to put in our petition to get solar power up here. We’re stuck like this without it,” Travis stumbled after them into what he called the living room.

“Some candles would solve that and a bit of tidying,” Saria nodded to herself. “We could help you clean!”

“It could use it,” Link agreed as he eyed what he swore was something moving on one of the corners. He wasn’t one to tidy much but even he had his limits and this was far over them.

“Eh, if you really wanna,” Travis didn’t seem too enthusiastic. “People have stopped comin’ round recently, I guess it could use a clean. I’ll go start on the trailer.”

Elsewhere in the town, the fairies were enjoying their lucky escape by exploring the area.

“Where do you think a pendant could be?” Madi asked.

“I have no idea,” Nori replied. Glancing around the houses, he couldn’t see anything or anyone out of the ordinary, it all looked so normal. Apart from the obvious fact that the whole place was in the sky.

“Are those shiny lights from the shrine Mommy?” a child’s voice asked as he and his mother passed the fairies.

“Shrine?” Nori wondered where this ‘shrine’ could be.

“Nori, look over here!” Madi squeaked excitedly.

Following the younger fairy down the street, Nori was led to a strange stone building. It appeared to be a cube-shaped stone block, only about half the height of Link and as wide as Travis’ trailer. A picture of a feather was faintly engraved on the front along with strange letters.

“Interesting…” Nori didn’t get time to inspect the stone anymore when a large net came swooping down over the both of them.

Back in the house, Saria was busily poking through pieces of rubbish with a long deku stick. Noticing something sparkling amongst the dirt, she reached down and picked up what was actually a golden key.

“Do you need a hand?” Link asked Travis as he watched the boy putting a new wheel on the trailer.

“Nah that’s ok. I know I only gots one arm but I learnt to adjust long ago,” he grinned. Taking the new wheel from the ground, he continued to twist it into place.

“Looks like you can fix things better than me and I have two hands,” Link mumbled, he’d never been good at making things in the forest like the rest of the Kokiri. Tables, chairs, even a bed had broken after he’d attempted to make them, it was just another thing Mido loved to pick on him for.

“I wouldn’t say that, you made me a great sled back home,” Saria appeared in the doorway holding the key.

“Yeah, a sled that ended up breaking,” he went over to her to see what she’d found. “Hey, you found-”

“My key!” Travis jumped up and snatched it from Saria. “I’ve been lookin’ for this everywhere! I was out flyin’ with Feril one day and I found this shiny key floating in the air! It’s pretty neat huh?” he stared lovingly at the key like it was the reason for his existence.

“Sure, but why do you want it?” Saria had no idea why he’d want a random key, a key that wasn’t even his to keep.

“This ‘ere key is the only gold thing I’ve ever owned,” Travis simply replied, pocketing the key, he got back to work on the trailer. Getting that key wasn’t going to be an easy task.

---

“GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN!!” the mighty voice of the Goron leader, Darunia roared over the land of Hyrule. The Gorons were generally a friendly race but when they were angered, especially Darunia, the whole kingdom knew about it.

A large army of Meldoran soldiers were scaling the rocky Death Mountain, however, none of them had been ready for the Gorons. They may not have been the smartest race in Hyrule but they certainly made up for it in brute strength.

Hundreds of Gorons rolled out of their city, picking up speed every second before smashing through the army as if rolling through paper dolls.

Seeing their attacks weren’t doing much, Darunia retreated into his throne room.

“Big Brother?” a young Goron popped their head around the door.

“What is it!?” Darunia snapped.

“Um, the army is getting closer to the city,” the Goron backed out of the door hoping not to get in the way of another of Darunia’s tempers.

“I’ll deal with this,” Darunia slid behind the statue that hid the entrance to the crater.

Standing over the bubbling lava, he summoned the spirits of fire to aid him. The symbol of fire appeared over the summit of Death Mountain, calling for its assistance, Darunia leapt into the boiling lava.

Outside, the Gorons managed to take out as many soldiers as they could. Resorting to their special crop, they sent rumbling explosions across the mountainside scaring half the army away.

Suddenly, the mountain began to shake violently, men fell off their feet as the shaking got increasingly worse. The ring around the summit lit up brightly followed by a blast of fire blazing out of the volcano. A burning ball of pure fire rocketed out of the top, spinning in the air for a moment, it let off an array of red, yellow and orange sparks before slamming down onto the ground.

Speeding along the dusty path, it emitted a heat only known in the deepest of lava, scorching anything that couldn’t handle the heat as it passed.

Dodging the burning bullet, the soldiers smirked to themselves, there was no chance that thing would be able to turn around, at least, that’s what they assumed.

Reaching the entrance to Dodongo’s Cavern, the fireball span around and chased them once more. The ones who didn’t get burned alive, leapt to their doom off the cliff edges.

Coming to a halt back at the city, the ball finally cooled down to reveal Darunia. Shaking his head at the mess, he retired to his room to prepare for anymore attacks.

---

Malon sat huddled in one of the bedrooms at the ranch along with her dad and Ingo who stood waiting by the bedroom door with pitchforks in hand.

Shouts and rattling armour noises had been passing the ranch for awhile now but still no one had attacked. Maybe the army thought a ranch in the middle of the field wasn’t worth bothering with? That was, until they heard a gang bashing the front door down.

“Capture any Hyruleans alive and destroy the animals!” one soldier ordered his followers.

“The animals!” Malon shoved her dad and Ingo out of the way. Opening the door, she was immediately grabbed by one man who dragged her down the stairs to be tied up.

“Oh no you don’t!” another male voice entered the room. Kicking the man harshly in the back, the figure sped around him to free Malon.

Looking up, Malon saw a blonde Sheikah boy standing untying her, his mysterious red eyes and rugged hairstyle were quite attractive to the ranch girl.

“Quickly, get out of here!” Sheik pushed a startled Malon out of the house.

Listening to the boy’s words, Malon left the house only to find soldiers destroying their barn. The only thing for her to use were a few empty pots.

Ducking a swipe from the solider in the house, Sheik rolled to the side, jumped up and tossed two stars which pinned the man neatly to the wall. Back-flipping over another soldier, Sheik span around sending a dagger into his side before jump-kicking the one still stuck to the wall.

Dashing outside, he gasped at the disgusting actions of the Meldora army. Turning to Malon, Sheik couldn’t take it anymore, seeing a friend nearly in tears hurt more than this whole war put together.

“Stand back, I’ll finish this,” Sheik told Malon who nodded as she watched the boy hold his right hand out in front of himself.

“Goddess Nayru come to my aid,” he began chanting a quiet spell. The Triforce of Wisdom startled to glow a blinding white as the Sheikah concentrated. A moment later and the barn with all the animals inside flew into the sky, a yellow light shot from the Triforce symbol on Sheik’s right hand.

Malon just stared in awe at the amazing scene before her, she’d never witnessed such magic in all her life.

“Time’s Final Hour!” the light engulfed the frightened soldiers, in the blink of an eye their bodies began to shrivel and twist into old men, the final hour of their lives.

The barn landed in exactly the same spot, none of the animals were injured.

“Wow, you’re brilliant!” Malon ran up to the tired boy, arriving at his side, she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Oh dear, she doesn’t know it’s me, Zelda thought to herself. “Eheh, no problem,” she grinned then made to leave, very swiftly.

“Wait!…..Will I see you again?” Malon shouted after the stranger but got no answer, he had already vanished.

---

The cool night air was so refreshing, along with the clear star filled sky, Pelotrona was a tranquil place at night.

Saria sat on the fence surrounding the field outside Travis’ house, after many hours of cleaning, they had finally made the place look half decent. Staring towards the stars, she tried to name all of the Kokiri constellations the Great Deku Tree had taught them awhile ago. There was Neirol the first great Kokiri leader, then there was Reidol, Neirol’s younger brother who had taken his place as leader when he‘d tragically passed away. And finally, the third one was…..she could never remember this…

“What are you looking at?” Link came up behind her, leaning on the fence, he joined the stargazing.

“Trying to name the constellation over there,” she pointed to the cluster of stars she was talking about. “Although, I’m guessing other races have their own names for them.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve always used the Kokiri ones, they‘re the ones I grew up with.. That’s Aeffia, the first Forest Sage, I’m surprised you of all people didn’t know that,” Link laughed then thought it over. “Oh, I remember why, you fell asleep during the Deku Tree’s story!”

Saria blushed furiously, she did remember now. She’d been up the night before making sure Link was alright after he and Mido had thought it would be clever to have a berry eating contest. Neither boy had bothered to check if the berries were rotten or not, resulting in them both getting an awful stomach bug. The evening after, the Deku Tree had gathered them all to teach them about the constellations since it had been an unusually clear sky that day, but Saria had been so tired, she’d managed to hear a few names then fell asleep on Link’s shoulder. Fortunately, the Deku Tree had been very understanding. But still, how embarrassing!

“There’s a story?” she asked curiously, she’d forgotten to ask about it after she’d woken up.

“Sort of,” Link recalled the story. “Neirol was the Kokiri leader of the first generation, he was brave, kind, strong, everything you’d expect in a true leader really. Neirol had a younger brother, Reidol. Reidol had always been jealous of his brother, how he was adored and admired by the rest of the village. This resentment resulted in both their ends. Then there was Aeffia, like Neirol, she was loved by most of the village, until she mysteriously disappeared.”

“So that’s why there are no records of her in the Forest Temple, she never finished her Sage duties,” Saria commented before he could continue.

“Right,” he nodded. “She and Neirol were good friends, actually, you could say they were more than that. The Deku Tree never encouraged Kokiri to develop feelings like those but there was the rare occasion when some did mature more than they should have and he wouldn’t stop them. The only problem was, Aeffia didn’t feel it was right even if she did want it. She told him her heart belonged to the forest and they could never be, then a few days later she vanished.”

The starry scene came to life in Saria’s eyes as Link told it. Aeffia’s figure faded while Neirol’s appeared to fall to the ground, she knew what it was like to be separated from someone you love.

“Seizing the opportunity now that Neirol was so upset, Reidol plotted to get rid of his brother so he could take over the village. Venturing deep into the Lost Woods, he picked some poisonous fruit, the Deku Tree had warned them all to never eat that type since even one bite could end your life without the proper cure to hand. Ignoring the warnings, Reidol picked the fruit and planned to slip it into Neirol’s next meal, which he did with ease due to his brother’s depressed state. The next day, Neirol sadly passed away leaving Reidol in charge of the village just as he wanted. However, as the years went by, his guilt slowly ate away at him until eventually, it killed him.”

“That’s so sad,” Saria’s mind was already working on an answer for where Aeffia disappeared to, so far she had nothing. “She must have travelled so deep into the woods that the Deku Tree lost a connection with her.”

“The Deku Tree said there is one thing that remains from Neirol and Aeffia….but he didn’t say what,” Link didn’t have a clue what it could be.

“Maybe it’s the Kokiri Sword, they could have made it together,” Saria shrugged, until they got back to the forest there wasn’t much point thinking about it. “Have you seen the fairies? They’ve been gone for hours.”

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t,” he moved behind her putting his arms around her waist. “You have to admit it’s nice not having ‘Link you hurt Saria and I’ll eat your head.’ or ‘Butterfly! Butterfly!’ being yelled every second.

“Nori isn’t that bad,” Saria laughed. “But butterfly? Who was Madi yelling at?”

“Um, you,” Link blushed. “After being called No Fairy, Hood boy, Grasshopper and a variety of other names I thought it was about time you had one.” Not waiting for a response, he began to gently pull her off the fence ending with them both tumbling backwards onto the grass.

“Were you trying to achieve something by doing that?” Saria turned herself around so she was sat on his stomach. She had to smile at his expression, his eyes were half open with a goofy grin on his face.

“I don’t know but I like the result,” he let his hands rest on her sides. Saria had definitely changed in appearance over the past week, the main change was how her body looked more like a woman’s and less like a girl’s. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed, especially right now….

“Looking at something?” she smirked as his eyes moved back to her face.

“Uh no, I mean yes, no!” Link became flustered, he felt ashamed for doing that, even though he knew she didn’t mind as long as he didn’t sit there drooling mindlessly for hours.

Leaning forward, Saria gently kissed him then slid down beside him. Resting her head on his chest, she was surprised to find it smelt like the forest, a mixture of trees, deku, pine, oak, they were all there.

“You smell good,” closing her eyes she imagined they were in the sacred meadow then remembered the last time they’d been there, they’d talked, she’d cried, it felt like a lifetime ago. She did look forward to going home though, back to their meadow as they still called it, a place where they could be alone.

“I must be the best smelling pillow you’ve ever had,” Link brought his arms around her thinking how they’d never really laid like this before. Sure, they’d fallen asleep against each other many times, but this felt different, it was nice being so close.

“Definitely,” she replied sleepily. She knew they should have gone into the house, but she felt so warm and safe and it didn’t look like Link wanted to move either.

Letting sleep make the decision for them, they both drifted off beneath the stars.

---

Opening his eyes, all Taj could see was darkness. It felt like he was in some sort of cupboard but he couldn’t be sure, all he could feel were ropes tied around his wrists and ankles.

“Hello?” he summoned his courage and called out to whoever did this to him.

“Ah, you’re awake,” the owner swung open the door to his broom cupboard. Kneeling down, he dragged a startled Taj out into the living room.

“Why are you doing this?” Taj growled, this guy was just plain weird.

“I used to see you coming around this city with them, years ago, looks like you haven’t changed,” the owner strolled around the room. “Still causing trouble for Hylians, right?”

“It’s none of your business,” Taj struggled in his ropes but they wouldn’t loosen.

“Sheikahs are meant to protect the Hylians, are they not?” the man sat in one of his chairs.

“You don’t know the full story, if you did, you wouldn’t be holding me here.”

“Oh really?” he decided to give this kid a chance to explain himself. “Then you must tell me, I’ve got plenty of time.”

---

“Where could they be?” Saria was getting anxious, it wasn’t like Nori to disappear on her for very long.

“They couldn’t have gone far,” Link tried to assure her. He remembered how upset he’d been the day Navi had left him after he’d saved Hyrule and they had only been together a short while, Saria and Nori had been together years so being separated must’ve been twice as hard.

The streets of Pelotrona were peaceful in the morning, a few people wandered about as the Pepeckeri woke up for another day of flying. Coming to another street, they paused when they heard faint voices screaming.

“Saria!” a voice yelled from within one of the buildings “Over here!”

Running towards the voice, they gasped when they saw Nori and Madi in bottles through a shop window.

“How’d you get in there?” Link whispered into the glass.

“The owner caught us to sell!” Madi screeched pointing to the sign on her bottle.

“Five hundred ebelons!?” Link gawked, neither him or Saria had that much.

“We can’t afford that….” Saria peered into the shop to find no one was in and the door was locked. There was a counter in the front with various items on shelves behind it. Looking over to the opposite wall, she saw another window that had been left slightly open. “I think I can get in there,” she moved around to the back of the building. Flipping the window up, she climbed in.

Just as she was about to grab the bottles, voices could be heard in the back room. Leaving the bottles on the windowsill, she quickly found a hiding place in a cupboard under the counter.

“So you think those sparkly things are from the shrine?” one voice asked.

“Could be,” another replied “Although, I doubt it, nothing ever comes out or goes in that shrine. It’s time to open up anyway, I’ll meet you in the shop in a few minutes.”

A young dark-haired man entered the shop room, wiping down the counter he prepared to open. Link winced when he went to reach into the cupboard Saria was in. Acting on impulse, the boy knocked the shop door loudly. Luckily, the man stopped what he was doing and went to open the door.

“Would you like to buy something?” he asked a sweating Link.

“Yeah, do you have any….” he tried to think of something he knew they wouldn’t have. “Tektite hats? They’re a new fashion down in the city, if you don’t stock them then you’re not much of a shop.”

“I’ll go check in the stockroom,” the man shook his head at Link before heading to look for the hats.

Swiftly opening the cupboard door, he helped Saria out who grabbed the bottles and left through the door.

“Sorry Sir, we don’t have any of those hats,” the man returned to the main room.

“Oh, that’s alright,” Link stared dumbly in front of him for a second before leaving.

“Thieves!” Madi teased as she twirled happily about in the air over Link’s head.

“Would you rather we left you there?” Link crossed his arms.

“That shrine they were talking about sounds interesting,” Nori landed on Saria’s shoulder. “I wonder if a pendant is being kept there?”

“May as well take a look, not like we’ll be getting that key anytime soon,” Saria mumbled.

Letting the fairies lead them to the strange stone structure, Link examined every angle of it. The only thing that made sense was the feather carved on the front, it had to be something to do with the Pepeckeri.

“This scripture must be Meldoran or some sort of Pelotrona language,” Saria ran a hand along the carvings of the letters, each appeared to point towards the feather as if telling them something.

“I say blow it up!” Madi set herself on top of the cube clapping her hands insanely.

“I say-” Link was cut off by Perri trotting over to them, pecking at the boy, he stole his hat and began chewing on it. “Hey!” Link grumbled snatching the hat back from the bird. Ducking another peck, he stepped out of the way as Perri flapped his wings wildly, multicoloured feathers flew everywhere.

Picking up the nearest feather to her, Saria looked back at the carving then at the feather. Placing it in the carving, they all moved back when the stone began to glow a deep red.

“It’s going to explode!” Madi squeaked while hiding under Link’s hat.

The cube span around a few times before coming to a stop. The picture of the feather disappeared revealing an arched doorway big enough for most people to crawl through.

“What the?” Link knelt down to get a better look, nothing but darkness could be seen from the outside.

“Looks like that’s the way in,” Nori stated the obvious, he’d never seen something like this himself but he was sure there was more to the structure inside.

“What if we go in and it closes?” Saria wanted to look as much as the others but they didn’t even know anything about this thing.

“We don’t have any other choice, the map says it’s here,” Link pointed out. Taking a breath, he braced himself and crawled inside, there was a small flash before his body totally vanished.

Taking a final look behind her, Saria followed Link into the unknown void of darkness.