Zelda: OoT Novelization, Ch2-1

Chapter 2
Strange Confrontations

Lightning flashed across the ebony sky, casting a brief eerie glow over the plain. In the dead of night the darkness seemed almost tangible, like a fog, so that it was nearly impossible to see more than a hundred feet from where he stood. His only light source was a strange, hovering orb which cast a circle of wan light around him. He craned his neck, looking far into the sky. The huge pinnacles of a massive castle obstructed the view. The castle looked to be made of grey marble and fine-cut stone, and he gazed at the towering structure in awe. An icy droplet hit his upturned face. Rain had begun to fall, slowly at first, turning quickly into a downpour. Unconcerned about the storm, he stood in the rain, silent and still, until it had penetrated all the layers of his clothing and ran down his face and arms. Suddenly, with a great shudder, he lurched back to life and wrapped his arms around himself, as if realizing only now how cold and wet he had become. Taking an unsteady step forward, he began to make his way toward the castle.  

A screeching sound filled the air, startling him. Looking ahead, he stopped as the drawbridge of the castle began to lower before him. It spanned over the moat and with a resonant boom, it lay quiet and open as a great, expectant maw. The portcullis beyond the drawbridge lifted, the grating sound tearing through the night like claws on stone. He peered into the thick blackness, searching for any sign of life, but detected neither sound nor movement from within the castle. Then, as if beckoned by his efforts, a small grayish blot appeared in the center of the gaping hole which led into the castle. Moving oddly, it appeared to be growing larger, and after a few moments it became evident that the blot was moving towards him at a rapid pace. His eyes wide with terror, he felt as if his feet were rooted to the ground, paralyzed in his fear as he watched the strange entity drawing closer still. As it reached the portcullis, he saw that it was not a malevolent spirit but rather a pure white horse at full gallop. Almost too late, he dove away from the frothing horse as its hooves rang out on the stones he had been standing on just moments before. Twisting around on the puddled earth, he could barely see the two riders that were clinging to the horse as it sped away, their faces hidden from view. He picked himself up and watched as the two rode away into the distance.

A horse snorted behind him and he whirled around. A jet black stallion had emerged silently and unseen from within the castle and was now standing between him and the opened gates. It stood there, pawing the ground, and seemed to scrutinize him with one giant, malevolent, crimson eye. It took him a moment to realize that this horse also had a rider, for its rider was hidden in a cloud of dark grey smoke. He looked up at where the face would be and saw instead two pinpoints of red light emerging from within the smoke. They glared at him as if to peer into his very soul.
Sounds emerged from the smoke, and he recognized them as words, but he felt strange. It was as if the darkness had settled into his mind, clouding his very thoughts. He shook his head in confusion. Suddenly, the rider snarled with anger, holding up one ghostly hand.  White light began to gather in the rider’s palm, and he backed away frantically, sensing danger. The light hummed a deep frequency, but as it grew larger, the humming grew higher, more urgent, as if longing for release.  The light suddenly exploded and shot towards him like a beacon. He threw up his arms to protect his face, and the light slammed into him with such violence that he was thrown backwards. A light burst in his head and his eye sockets burned from the intensity of the brightness. He screamed as agony sang from deep within his bones and banished all thought from his brain...

Link awoke with a start. He was breathing heavily and covered in sweat.  That dream again, he thought to himself as he covered his face with his hands.  Always that same dream...

Link dropped his hands away from his face, squinting in the bright morning light. He shaded his violet-blue eyes with a hand, looking at the position of the sun through his round-cut window. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"It's that early?" Link fell back onto his sheets and pulled the covers over his head. "I'll just sleep for five more minutes..."

Navi flew over to a tree and settled down on a branch. She stretched her wings painfully, resting until her breathing slowed a little.  She ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated.

"Oh, where is that boy? I've been flying about all morning!" Navi frowned in the direction of the glade that housed the Deku Tree. "It may have helped if the Deku Tree had given me a little more information about him, like perhaps what he looks like!"

Navi was about to get up and resume her search, when she felt the branch tremble from under her. She glanced around anxiously, searching for the cause of the disturbance.

"Hah! If you want to save your skin, little lady, you have to have better reflexes than that!"

Navi whirled around to face her nemesis. Her mouth curled into a snarl.

"Rean, what do you want?!"

A red-orange fairy with hair like flame crossed his muscular arms and leaned against the tree, a wicked smile playing on his handsome face. "I just haven't seen you for a while, so I dropped by to say ‘Good morning’. You’ve got a problem with that?"

"Yes, in fact I do, Rean. Especially when you mean to say that you haven't tortured me in a while." Her frown deepened as Rean laughed heartily at that, and she waved her hand towards him in dismissal.

"Well, if you have nothing important to do, then I suggest you leave. I have no time for your foolishness. The Deku Tree has an assignment for me that takes priority over you."

Rean's laughter subsided almost immediately, and his charismatic smile transformed into a dangerous frown.

"Oh? So what 'assignment' is important enough that you’d brush me off so easily?"

“It's not as if you would care, Rean. But if you must know, the Deku Tree has sent me to find a boy, although he failed to mention anything other than his name."

"Oh, really!" Rean put his hand to his chin and paced, in pretence of thinking. "So, what is the Deku Tree up to today, hmmm? Tell me, Navi, who is this person that the Deku Tree wants to see so badly? They must be quite an important person, indeed."

"His name is Link. But really, Rean, I can't see why you ca-"  

Navi stopped as Rean exploded into almost hysterical laughter and dropped to the branch on his knees, holding his midsection. Navi stood there feeling like a fool. She clenched her hand into a fist. Idiot! she screamed at herself. Her eyes prickled with unshed tears of rage and frustration. How did Rean always seem to glean information from her, even when she didn’t want to tell it? She always knew what the consequences would be, but it was as if she couldn't help it.  

Finally, Rean straightened up and wiped the tears from his eyes. "The boy without a fairy, huh? Well, it's a suitable task for someone like you.  A loser fairy, working on a loser job, to find a loser boy... Hah!"  

Navi's temper flared.

"Oh, shut up, Rean!"  Navi screamed, shaking with rage. "How dare you talk about the Deku Tree like that? You'll be sorry you did, soon enough. And as for the boy... if you only knew! Even for you, Rean, your ignorance is remarkable. Now get out of my face!"

Navi whirled away and was about to fly off when a viselike grip grabbed onto her wrist. She looked over her shoulder, teeth clenched in rage.  

"You know what, Navi? I pity you. So I'll tell you where he is, just so you don't waste your whole morning looking for him."

"I neither want, nor need your help, Rean."  

Rean's trademark smile played at his lips again. "Oh, but I think you do need my help, Navi, and I think you should want it, too. Well, here's the story. He lives in the tall tree-house with the ladder attached to it. It's near the edge of the village on the side opposite the Deku Tree. Just look for a boy without a fairy tagging along at his heels, although I don't think you needed to hear that from me. Hah!"  

Navi shook off Rean's grip and flew off without even a glance behind her. Rean looked after, a puzzled expression on his face.  

"Now, what did you mean by all those things you said, little lady?"

Fortunately, the Kokiri village was rather small and it took only a short time for Navi to fly all the way to the edge. The time it would take to walk back through it to the Deku Tree would be much greater, however. She glanced at the sky- it was almost noon. Where has the morning gone, she thought. She looked around, but this part of the village seemed quite bare. Tree-houses were few and far between, and Kokiri were scarce as well. Few lived this close to the edge of the village. The small number of Kokiri that were wandering around all had a fairy flying about their heads. There wasn't a single Kokiri without one...

Damn that Rean, Navi thought to herself. If he's made me fly all the way out here for nothing, I'll...  

Before she could finish the thought, she spied a tree-house that was nestled within a group of smaller trees. It looked akin to what Rean described; it even had the ladder attached to it. But she could not see any movement around the house and it looked deserted inside.

Navi did not particularly want to go into the house. She had learned her lesson after causing minor chaos flying through other Kokiri’s, and fairies, houses. She shrugged her shoulders. There was no harm in checking through the window, was there? If it really was deserted...  
She flew towards the tree-house and smiled as she spied a childlike drawing on the base of the tree. It looked to be a very simplified picture of a warrior about to slay a great monster. The ladder was hand-fashioned and crude, but it seemed well-made. She flew to a hole cut in the bark of the tree and peered inside.

Apart from miscellaneous tools propped against the wall and certain odds and ends lying around, the room was quite tidy. But it did seem to be deserted... Just then a large lump on the bed groaned and rolled over. Navi squeaked and ducked behind the window, startled. She peered over the edge and saw a small hand peeking from under the covers. She quickly glanced around. There was not a fairy in sight.

"He's still in bed?! But it's way past noon!" Navi glided into the room and hovered just above the bed.  

"Hello, in there! Wake up!" Navi yelled at the mound of blankets.  Suddenly an arm shot out from within the pile and swatted at her. She had just enough time to squeak before his hand hit her and sent her tumbling head over heels through the air.  She managed to gain control of her wings barely in time to avoid hitting the wall. Navi shook her head, dispelling the dizziness.

"That brat! Hey, get up, lazy boy!" Navi flew down and tugged with all her strength at the blankets that were covering the sleeping body inside. She had just enough strength to expose his face to the sunlight.  Dropping the blankets, she panted from the exertion and looked up. Her heart leapt into her throat.  
The boy was wide awake, and looking directly at her. His cold eyes held a predatory gleam in them and she wanted to hide.

"Who are you?  What are you doing in my house?"  Link said, sliding out from within the blankets.  His eyes narrowed at her suspiciously.

"Oh, Link! The Great Deku Tree has told me so much about you and he wants to meet..."  Navi stopped when she realized that Link could not understand her.  
She drifted slowly towards him so he wouldn't be startled.  Navi clenched her fists.  If only he would allow her to establish a mind-link with him... but she was not sure what his reaction would be if she touched him.

Link stood his ground as she approached and followed her with his eyes, clearly wary of her.  Navi stopped where she was sure he could see her, and not the ball of light that shone around her.  With gentle hand movements, she attempted to inform him of what she wanted to do, but Link quickly became confused. He shrugged and shook his head.  He no longer felt suspicious of her presence, however, and Navi decided that it was time to show him directly what she wanted to do. She flew down and gripped one of his fingers, tugging it in the direction of the bed. Link frowned.

"What are you doing, fairy?  What do you want?" Link began to walk in the direction she was tugging.

"I'll show you in a second, Link. Please just sit down here." When Link was beside the bed, Navi stopped pulling and dropped his finger. Link looked behind him at the bed and back at her, puzzled.

"You just got me out of bed, and now you want me to get back into it?"  

Navi waved up and down in the air, hoping he would decipher it as a nod. Link shrugged again, but he sat down on his bed and waited. Navi floated up until she was close enough to touch his face. Link squinted his eyes and tried to shade them with a hand, but Navi slapped it away. Link dropped the hand and closed his eyes against the brightness, frown marks betraying the effort of shutting out her white-hot light.

"Now, relax. This may hurt a little..."   

She traced a slow triangle on his forehead with her hand. Invisible at first, it began to glow with a white light and Link's eyebrows twitched, feeling the slight tickle of her hand tracing the pattern, and a warmth which spread throughout his body.  Navi placed her hand directly in the center of the triangle and Link could hear a slow pulsing sound that seemed to come from within his head. In his mind's eye, he could see a brilliant globe of white light that pulsed with greater and greater intensity until his brain was flooded with the light. His eyebrows pulled into an even tighter frown as the heat that spread throughout him grew to an almost unbearable level.  

And still the power intensified. Link's mind shrieked with panic as the heat seemed to burn through him from within and the light blazed ever brighter. He tried to pull away, but it was as if his body was paralyzed.  

See if I ever trust a fairy again, Link thought to himself. It was the last thing he remembered before his mind broke free from the blazing light and spiraled down into darkness.