Stephonika's Universe

The story of Link, the young forest boy without a fairy.  Link embarks on an adventure to save Hyrule from the King of Evil, Ganondorf.  He will journey across the kingdom to its furthest reaches and befriend all matters of creatures in his hopes to bring peace to the realm once again.

The dark sky shone brightly under the luminescence of the full moon.  Hanging low in the night, the orb looked out across the land.  Its dazzle was beginning to fade into the horizon, sinking lower and lower.  There was a single ray of life within the vast fields, and the moon dropped out of the sky behind the figure.

Racing across the plains of grassland, the figure—a man astride a beautiful horse—was destined for a far and familiar place.  He was returning to the place he had been raised, the only home he had ever known.  It was there he had to be, to return the kindness she had always given him.  For so long he had been away, and over the course of those years, she had come into danger.

A distant melody played in his mind.  A song another woman had taught him once.  The song of a radiant young girl.  The lullaby soothed him on his travel.  As he stopped to let his horse take a drink from the river, he thought of only her.  The bright and fun girl he had met … so long ago.

On his way again, his mind churned, and the sky was growing ever brighter.  Would he ever see her again?  The girl with the golden locks?  Whose voice rang out in a melody of its own…?  And then there was his lifelong friend.  She would still be a child to his eyes.  All of them would be….  He had to wonder whether any of them would remember him at all.

Dawn had arrived by the time he started passing the outlying trees.  They grew denser as he closed in….

And there ahead of him … was the place of his childhood.  Dark now, and there was something so foreboding about the chill that coursed through his spine.

A voice rang out in the darkness.

“In the vast, deep forest of Hyrule…. Long have I served as the guardian spirit.  I, the Deku Tree.  The children of the forest, the Kokiri, live here with me.  Each Kokiri has his or her own guardian fairy.  However, there is one boy who does not have a fairy….”

Within a tiny tree house of the forest village, one of the young green-clad children slept restlessly.  He shivered and shifted, a frightened moan escaping him.  His dreams were infested with nightmares … of people he didn’t know….  Or, perhaps, would one day meet….

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Rain.  Thunder.  Lightning.

With each new army of droplets, a jarring bolt lit the vast sky of night.  The cold air chilled his bones.  He had never been here before, on a field of muddy green, the water soaking into his shoes, drenching his clothes, clinging to his hair.  The wet tendrils sucked to his face, and his blue eyes gazed into the plain.

He was not at home.  He did not know which way home was.  He was lost, with no clue as to how he had even come to be here.

Then a long creak sounded, one that pierced the night and sent a frigid tingle down his numbed nerves.  Turning about, he saw it.  A castle, large … luxurious.  But on this night, the torches that framed the drawbridge bounced with malicious furor. The gate was coming down.

It all happened so fast.  A loud neigh.  A billowing white mane.  Harsh steps on wet stone and messy ground.  A woman holding a girl.

All he knew was that he had leapt out of the way.

As he brought himself back up, he watched as the noble horse carried its riders away … far away.

Another horse reared, and he quickly turned about.  Without knowing how he knew, he came to realize that this sight was what the other riders had feared.  A pair of red eyes sunk deep into him, and he looked away from the beast.  Fright consumed him, yet he was not alone.  Atop the steed with red eyes sat another rider, this one male.  But those dark, yellow eyes clinging to their lashes gazed down at him then.

His soul beat madly; he did not know what to do, how to escape.

But in that instant, everything was washed away….  Except those eyes.  Those wicked demonic eyes….

And then … everything went dark and silent.

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“Navi….  Navi, where art thou?  Come hither….”

The voice boomed across the meadows to a sparkling, blue fairy.  She was but the size of a small fist, but her hearing was well tuned.  She could hear the Great Deku Tree calling her name, and, a loyal attendant, she fluttered her glistening wings as fast as they would carry her.

Through the flowers, across the meadows, and down the paths until….

She met the dark brown of his bark.  Hovering before his massive trunk, she awaited his words.

“Oh, Navi the fairy…. Listen to my words.  Dost thou sense it?  The climate of evil descending upon this realm….”  Navi couldn’t help casting sideways glances at the shadows of the surrounding trees, saplings in comparison to the Deku Tree’s stature.  “Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land of Hyrule.” 

The blue fairy turned around for a moment, looking down the long stretch of dirt road that could lead into the other countries of Hyrule.

“For so long the Kokiri forest, the source of life, has stood as a barrier, deterring outsiders and maintaining the order of the world.”

Deterring outsiders....  Except for one....  Navi thought back on the day that one had strayed into the forest.  She hadn’t thought it wise what the Deku Tree had done, but he had more knowledge of so many things that she had never stopped to argue.

“But … before this tremendous evil, even my power is as nothing....”  Navi couldn’t help but notice now the way the Deku Tree’s words sounded.  Rough and bitter.  He never sounded like that.  She drew in closer to him as if pretending to herself that her tiny glow could warm his mood.

“It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey....”

Journey?  She had no idea what this meant.  What could the Deku Tree be saying?  That little kid that she always saw with Saria was this important?  How long had he known?  Had he known since…?

“The youth whose destiny it is to lead Hyrule to the path of justice and truth....”

Navi looked up into the Deku Tree’s eyes, eyes that had seen so many eons.  Had he also seen more than what the world offered in its colorful landscapes?  How deeply could he truly see?  How long had he known?  Had he seen this even before…?

“Navi, go now!  Find our young friend and guide him to me!”  The intensity of his words made his voice crackle.  “I do not have much time left....”

The fairy’s eyes gleamed with sadness.  Such sorrowful, desperate words.  How could the Deku Tree say something so horrifying?  She wanted to think that his words were anything but literal, but she had grown to understand the Deku Tree well.  He could always rely on her, but she could not imagine her existence without his guidance.

“Fly, Navi, fly!  The fate of the forest, nay, the world, depends upon thee!”

Broken from her thoughts, she turned from the guardian spirit immediately.  She would never disappoint him.  She would find the boy, bring him to the Deku Tree, and everything would be all right again.

This was her hope.

Navi sped along through the trees, her little wings carrying her faster than even she thought possible.  She had to speak with the young boy without a fairy as soon as possible.  He was the only one the Great Deku Tree wanted to see, needed to see, and so she would do anything but disobey this request.  But the forest boy, the one without a fairy…. He was different.  Very different from all the others.  And her instinct told her that the boy’s ignorance of this fact would soon run short.

She flapped through the trees until she reached the village clearing, a small little existence within the Kokiri Forest.  All the Kokiri, the children of the Great Deku Tree, resided here.  And unlike all the other civilizations throughout the Hyrule kingdom, the residents of Kokiri village were all young children.  Most acted like the age they appeared, but there were others that seemed much older than they seemed.

Navi flew through the village, slowing for only an instant to pass a pleasant hello to the Kokiri girl above the shop.  She soared over the small pond that stretched through a fourth of the village until she reached Mido’s house.  There was a boy outside of the house pulling up the rocks that had fallen down from the cliffs leading up to the Lost Woods.  She tried to get his attention or even that of his fairy, but both were preoccupied with the duty at hand.

Navi twisted around, trying to remember which of the little houses belonged to the boy.  Then she saw it, back a bit from the way she had come.  She could see it from behind the fence line at the edge of the ground above.  She flew up the incline and through the fence … or rather, banged straight into it.  Her pride was stunned more by the impact than her body.  She shook off the blow and realigned herself, sailing straight through the square in the fence, down to the boy’s house, and in through the half open doorway, a dangling curtain pulled off to the side.

Once inside the simple tree house, Navi ignored how clean it was and soared right over to the boy.  He was still asleep in his bed under the window, his sheets kicked away and green cap thrown over the head of his bed.  He fidgeted every so often.

“Hello, Link!” she greeted pleasantly, but when he didn’t immediately rouse, she added, “Wake up!  The Great Deku Tree wants to talk to you!” 

Still nothing….

“Link, get up!”

He stuffed his head into his pillow. 

“Hey, C’mon!” shouted Navi, fluttering about excitedly.  “Can Hyrule’s destiny really depend on such a lazy boy?”  She’d said it aloud, more to herself than Link, but he stirred and groggily pushed himself up with a yawn.

The boy wiped the sleep from his eyes and shuffled over to sit on the edge of his bed, looking up at the fairy glowing within a sapphire bubble of light.  He dangled his legs over the edge, and placed his hands on his thighs, waiting attentively as his eyes slowly focused.

“Finally!” exclaimed Navi.  Smiling, she introduced herself, “I’m Navi the fairy.  The Great Deku Tree asked me to be your partner from now on.  Nice to meet you!”

Partner?  Link’s eyes brightened at the word.  Was he really getting a fairy?  Everyone had always teased him for acting so different than the other Kokiri.  He had often wondered why, though, for the forest life was all he had ever known.  Then again, as he’d grown up, he had noticed that the others had not changed a bit over the course of the nine years he had known them.  But to receive a fairy….  This was the day he had long awaited.  The day he might finally be accepted by the others.

“The Great Deku Tree has summoned you, so let’s get going right away!”

Link nodded and slid off the bed.  He snatched his green cap, and, after tousling his bright blonde hair, slid it down over his head.  He then ran from the room out onto the high porch, Navi trailing behind him in a whir of blue.

As soon as Link hunched over to grab the top of the ladder, he heard someone call his name.  Looking up, he saw Saria, his long time friend, running up to his house.  “Hi, Link!” she called up.

With a wide smile across his face, Link hurried down the ladder of his tree house and plopped down on the ground beside Saria.  Her short, wavy green hair shined under the bright sunlight and her fairy companion’s greenish tint glowed as illuminate as emeralds.

“Wow,” Saria marveled, looking at Navi.  “A fairy!  Finally, a fairy came to you, Link!  That’s great.  I’m so happy for you!”  Her cute giggle made Link’s smile grow even wider.  “Now, you’re a true Kokiri.”

That is how Link felt about having Navi now, too.  Everyone would accept him now.  Well, maybe not everyone….

“Good morning, Saria,” Navi greeted, and the little pale-skinned girl looked at Navi again.  “We have to be going.  The Great Deku Tree has sent for Link, and we must hurry.”

“Is that right?” said Saria in awe.  “The Great Deku Tree has summoned you?”  Her eyes sparkled.  “That’s quite an honor.  To talk to the Great Deku Tree.  You best be off then, Link!  I’ll come back a little later.”

Stephonika W. Kaye only claims the writing, all else she and this site do not claim.