Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hyrule Field

Across the vast fields of Hyrule that stretch for miles, with trees within just enough distance for a certain young individual to see them; the lands are riddled with piles of bodies, rivers of blood leaked from the bodies ran from said piles as the sun was setting into the twilight hours. The civil war had just finished its bloodiest hour, with all surviving soldiers and races leaving the battlefield; in the distance, howls of wolf packs echoed in the distance as the animals feasted on dead bodies.

For Guts, as he limped across the battlefield with a bloody face covered by his cracked iron helmet, some of the blood falling over his right eye causing him to squint it shut to keep the blood from irritating his eye; his armor and clothing was tattered and ripped from the long and terrible war he paced himself through. The young boy dragged his sword with him as he carried himself away from the fields of Hyrule and into the woods where he could find some semblance of shelter. A place for him to catch his breath and rest, while treating all the wounds he collected after fending himself off against Gambino and the rest of the mercenary gang he was once part of.

With the woods of the east within good distance for Guts to have some reasonable relief to find a place to sit down, away from any roving packs of wolves or whatever supernatural creatures that were employed by the Gerudos to shore up their numbers. Stalfos and Wolfos if he wanted to be broader of all manner of creatures he's faced…that, and the many Gorons and Zoros he's faced counted as well. The war dragged in everyone, leaving nowhere safe to hide from the flames of war.

"Ghn…" Guts grunted in exertion as he found a stray boulder to lean up again to relax and collect himself, and to catch his weary breathing back up; the edge of the woods was within sight, giving the young boy much mental reprieve that he could find a hovel to hide in.

Flipping himself around to lean his back against the small boulder, Guts leaned his sheathed sword against the rock; with his one good eye that he was not squinting with, he casted a cursory glance at the horizon of the field.

A young Guts is charging along with the mercenary gang he grew up to a part of, after his mother sold him off for a pittance of rupees; He earned his share of rupees at the very least each time he returned from the battles, what good it did of course with what the bastard Gambino was generous to give him.

Metal clanged and clashed as Guts charged in against the opposing enemy forces, swinging his sword up to block an incoming spear aimed for his head from a man on a horse; his parry of the attack was successful, allowing him to retaliate with an attack at the horse's legs, lopping the leg in two, leaving the horse to fall forward with a harsh screaming neigh while the soldier fell off with a surprised yelled.

Guts was on the soldier instant with a downward stab with his sword into the soldier's throat. "Hrrrk!" The soldier gurgled as blood poured out his mouth and throat.

"That brat took down Stewart!" Yelled the soldiers around him, causing Gut's to narrowed his eyes beneath his helm, and reoriented his sword beside him into a different stance to better prepare himself for the coming slaughter.

Gut's soon busied himself fending himself and lopping off body parts from the knees down, it made easy work of killing the armorless soldiers, far easier than dealing with the ones that wore armor with the Royal Crest on them.

Catching his breath some more, Guts lifted his helmet off from his head and wiped his brow dry of the blood that was beginning to dry up over his eye. "Hn." exhaled Guts as he used his finger to scrape the blood crust from his skin above his eye, allowing him to see with his previous squinted eye better now.

With his helmet set aside atop the rock he leaned against, Guts patted his belt lightly and found what was he was looking for and pulled up his small leather waterskin that he kept; popping the cork off from the tip, Guts tilted his head back and held his waterskin over his mouth and waited for what remaining water he had left to drip into his mouth.

A few good drops of water fell to his tongue, allowing him to wet his dry mouth before he promptly corked his waterskin back up and put it back to his belt; snarling a bit to himself, he'd need to find a good watering hole and refill his water.

AAAWWRRRROOOOO!

Cursing his luck, Guts grimaced with a glare as he found many yellow eyes looking over at him from a hill, several wolves were looking at him with hungry eyes…well, the ones with the least amount of blood caked into their fur. The ones with the least amount of blood dripping from their mouths began slowly marching towards him, prompting the young boy to stand up with an aggravated snarl back while taking with him his sword from out of its sheath.

"Bastards…" Guts hissed out with a death glare at the incoming wolves that were on their way towards them with hungry gazes, "Greedy aintcha." he sardonically commented with a dry smirk.

"Huah!" Guts coughed in pain, the young lad rolled along the ground while keeping a death grip on his sword that was too large for a boy to wield, but for Gut's, it was all he had to aid him in this hellscape of a war.

From where Guts was punched in the stomach after trying to block a punch from one of those Goron folk, the Goron himself he was up against threw another punch through an opening in his defense, leaving the young boy to be tossed along the ground until the boy righted himself by flipping himself through his rolling and stabbing his sword into the ground to stop himself from rolling anymore.

Guts coughed once more in pain, and glared up at the Goron, who was slow to approach him with his rocky fists clenched, "I am sorry child, I really am, but for my brothers, I aim to win this for my people." he bellowed out, before charging at the boy.

Guts snarled in anger, before standing up with his sword pulled out from the earth to hold by his side, "Fucking shut up!" The boy screamed in anger, preparing to put his all into this one attack in an all or nothing strike.

"Be at peace in your eternal rest, boy!" The Goron yelled in his attack, as the rock race being lifted his arms up with a double fisted hammer strike of his fists down at Guts.

"You first!" Guts screamed in fury as he charged in at the Goron, the boy's eyes reflected rage and anger as the Goron's slow but powerful attack missed him and struck the ground, while Guts himself struck his blade through the Goron's midsection, the Rock being's ichor fell from his stomach.

"Huurk…im…poss—ible…" The Goron wheezed out, while Guts' sword was still stuck inside his rocky stomach, the rock being slowly looking down at the young boy that began to wrench his sword from out of his stomach. The Goron's blood began to spurt out onto Guts' face as he finally wrenched his sword free, he slowly smiled sadly.

"...I'm…sorry…you …have …to…" The Goron wheezed out, before toppling over to collapse beside the young boy.

Guts glared at the dead body of the Goron, and wiped his face of the Goron's blood, "I don't need any pity…not now…not ever…" he growled with a glare, before charging off into the battle with the rest of his mercenary gang. They were hired by the Lon Lon Ranch to help defend their lands, a hefty sum was offered as the ranch itself provided a lot of the country's milk to the ordinary Hylian.

"HRAAH!" Guts yelled as he swung with little energy he had left in defending himself from the wolves, his sword found purchase through the gaping maw of a wolf that pounced through the air at him, allowing him to cleave through the mouth of the wolf and bisect it horizontally with a wet 'squelch'.

New blood that was not his soon found itself splattering not just over his face and body, but over the ground around him from his cleaving the attacking wolf in two, "KEEP COMING YOU GREEDY HOUNDS!" the more yelled some more, his eyes were lit up with fury and anger, like a cornered dog that was wounded and willing to defend himself to the bitter end. "I'LL MAKE SURE NONE OF YOU LEAVE ALIVE!" the boy screamed.

Blood and water flowed through the river that Guts and his mercenary gang were in charge of decimating a force of Zora soldiers, the aquatic race was hard to fight when water was nearby, so the wise choice was to fight on land for most of the Hylians.

For Gut's though…

"KAA!" A Zora coughed out in pain as Guts picked his lithe body over himself with the boy's sword still stabbed through his torso, Guts felt the Zora's blood fall over his head, before the boy heaved the Zora off from him while pulling his sword from out of the Zora's stomach in the process.

"HYAAAH!" Roared Guts and he felt the gradual onset of tiredness, the boy had struck against another attack from a wolf, narrowly dodging aside to cleave the wolf in half from the back down, leaving entrails and guts to spill from the wolf's two halves.

"HYRAUGH!" Guts yelled as he leapt up into the air after spring boarding off from one of his dead ally's body, and descended down at a Gerudo woman who had just finished his ally off; the woman deftly dodged in time from Guts' attempt at stabbing his sword down through the top of her skull, leaving the boy to simply stab the earth itself.

The Gerudo woman glared at the boy, while Guts himself pulled his sword up out of the earth to continue his assault, "hmph, so those Hylians even use children." the woman sneered, leaving Guts to simply glare back at her.

"Shut up and fight! I have no time for the enemy to give me their pity!" The Boy snarled back.

A wolf managed to score an attack on Guts, by wrapping its jaw over the boy's shoulder while Guts was busy finishing off another wolf.

"Fucker!" Guts scowled and snarled in pain as he reached with his hand over to grab the wolf by scruff of its neck and rip it off from his shoulder, causing parts of his skin to be ripped off in the process from the wolf's jaws.

After Guts threw the offending wolf to the ground, he finished the beast off by stabbing his sword down into the skull, leaving the wolf to hardly whimper in pain before dying of its brain being stabbed through.

AAAWWRRROOO!

The wolves howled, before making a retreat from the boy to find much easier food to feast on, this one obviously had too much in him to fight to the bitter end, leaving Guts to himself as he watched the remaining wolves leave from his sight. "...you…better…piss…off…" He said through labored breathing.

Later, Next Day, Lost woods

Saria, with a chipper hum, waltzed through the woods towards the sacred sanctuary, she wanted to play her ocarina for a bit, and practice a few new notes on it. As the Kokiri girl walked around a lone tree amongst the hundreds others, she nearly tripped over a set of legs that belonged to a young boy leaning up against the tree.

"*Gasp*!" Saria covered her mouth in worry as she saw the young boy covered in wounds with scars, scratches, bite marks and a variety of his clothes and armor in tatters, "What happened! How…what…this poor young boy!" She fretted as she knelt down to tend to the boy.

Looking up at her Fairy, "Help me here!" Saria began to instruct her fairy companion, as she pulled out from her bag some fairy dust, "I need you to go back and ask for a few of the boys to come here and help me carry this boy back to our village!" she instructed.

"Right!" Saria's fairy bobbed up and down, before flying off as fast as it could back to the Kokiri village.

As Saria worked extensively to tend to the boy's wounds, she looked on at the boy's face with great worry, "Was that war out there that bad, that they used children in it!?" she asked herself with genuine worry, her heart felt heavy at seeing such a young Hylian boy be riddled with wounds to such a great degree.

Chapter Text

Saria's House

"Thank you very much, Mido, Fado." Saria said to the respective Kokiri, while she herself stood beside her small straw filled couch that was now occupied by the boy she found wounded in the woods; said boy was now resting with leaflet bandage wraps over his body, especially over his head where it partially cover his right eye where the wound above his eye was stitched together with spider silk and patched up with fairy dust salve.

The boy's upper torso was bare to the world, while the pants remained on his lower half the preserve his
modesty; all across the lad's torso and arms, were puncture wounds and slash marks, it was something that made Saria's heart ache to know such a young Hylian boy was forced to endure such injuries at his age, much less be involved in that civil war outside the forest.

The Great Deku Tree had told them all that the war had effectively ended not to long ago, by a few days to weeks ago, as much as his roots reached out and could tell how things were going on out in the wider world.

Mido grumbled while sneering at the boy, "Yeah, well, you better kick him out once he's all healed up! Outsiders don't belong here!" he grouched with a snippety tone.

Fado, who stood beside Mido, gasped and slapped the 'Kokiri leader' upside the head, and glared at the male Kokiri, "Mido, he's just a boy, probably ten or eleven years old at that!" she admonished him.

Mido jerked back from the slap, and rubbed his cheek while giving Fado a weak glare, "So what! We can't trust outsiders! Who knows what they bring with them!" he accused the boy while jabbing a finger at said subject of their discussion, "I still don't know why the Great Deku Tree ordered me to help you guys!" he reasoned.

"Enough!" Saria hissed out with narrowed eyes at Mido, who in turn stepped back closer to the exit in surprise of Saria's attitude. The Female Kokiri began to wag her finger at Mido with her other hand on her hip, "I will have none of your attitude in my home." she snapped at the other Kokiri.

"Tch. Whatever." Mido rolled his eyes, before taking his leave, "Just don't expect me to be his friend." he hollered back as he exited Saria's home.

"Really…" Saria shook her head at Mido's behavior, before looking at the boy to inspect that he was still sleeping soundly, she couldn't help but express a hurt look.

"So…" Fado spoke up, as she stepped forward towards Saria with a cheeky grin, "Have you gotten a good enough eyeful of the boy?" She teased playful, earning an annoyed look from Saria.

"Oh hush." she rolled her eyes, before she made her way over to her small kitchen area where she made soups and a variety of other meals she found from the lost woods; as Saria went to work with making a meal for herself, a nice vegetable soup, she spoke with Fado, "I'm just worried that other children were forced to endure such barbarity in that war outside." she explained.

"Hmm." Fado said as she walked over to the boy, and got a better look at him, now that she wasn't busy helping carry him through the woods and into the village, "Yikes." Fado grimaced at seeing a puncture wound near the heart, several on his arms, and many dotting his rib cage, "Either this kid was lucky, or he had plenty of fairy dust or spare fairies to heal him from the brink of death." she remarked, now seeing that Saria was right to worry for the boy's state.

It was then, the boy began to mumble and stir, but not quite wake, prompting Fado to step back a bit, while Saria ceased making herself a meal to look in the boy's direction; the lad stirred and scowled, and began to clutch the air above his chest. "rrrggh!" He yelled in his sleep, before relaxing once more, with his clenched fist falling to his side. "....bastard…" he mumbled a curse.

Fado giggled a bit behind her hands, while Saria gave the boy an exasperated look, "Well…now we know what his voice sounds like…a foul mouthed one at that." Fado giggled out.

Saria simply shook her head, and returned to making her meal, "I am pretty sure he picked up a lot of awful things during that war." she glared at nothing specific as she began chopping some carrots.

The boy stirred some more and began speaking more, "...out…way…." he scowled while turning in his sleep.

Fado blinked at the words spoken, and shrugged while looking towards Saria, "Must be having quite the dream…" she remarked.

Saria paused in her cutting, and looked over at the boy with a concerned look, "Or something of a vision perhaps.…"

Dream

It was a stormy day, with the sun hidden behind overcast clouds. It was close to midday and for some odd reason the draw bridge was closed; but as soon as he reached enough distance from the drawbridge, the thing began to lower. Once the drawbridge was fully down, Guts had to get out of the way when a white horse came barreling out. A young girl was riding with a woman on the horse, and as the two of them passed Guts, the young girl looked back at them in worry and tossed something blue into the moat.

Guts's dream soon had him facing off against the man he knew as Ganondorf during his time as a mercenary; the King of the Gerudo's smirked down at him while Guts scowled back, before drawing out his sword.

Ganondorf said something while on his horse, before getting off along with taking a thick and long sword with him. The sky lit up with lightning as the two of them stared each other down, the man smirked at Guts and said something again, before a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree

The dream transitioned next to Guts seeing himself fending off against the man, just barely, the man was playing him, and he knew it; he already lost sight of that girl he was probably after, so now he was probably fighting Guts that the boy couldn't fathom yet the reason for.

A clang of metal rang through the rainy atmosphere as Guts blocked a blow from the man, he scowled at the Kind of Gerudos and tried to push back.

Another skip in the dream had Guts leaping back from the man throwing down a magic energy orb into the ground, before he attempted to swing at an incoming orb of energy; the dream was surreal enough for him to feel some pain as he felt himself get pushed back from the attempt, some static leftover from the rob rolled over him while the orb itself went sailing back at the man.

While Guts's feet dragged across the ground, leaving divots into the grass, Guts watched as the orb he sent back at Ganondorf surprise the man, as he was hit with his own orb; the idea of his own attack being smacked back at him must have been enough of a surprise that he never expected it to happen till now.

Once more, the dream had Guts breathing heavily as he found himself picking himself up from the ground as some leftover static magic energy rolled off of him while the man he fought spoke more words to him with a rueful smirk, before getting back onto his horse and charging off into the field.

Guts

"GUH!" He abruptly awoke, bringing himself to sit upright, drenched in sweat while breathing heavily, his mind raced with thoughts of what that dream was. It was so vivid, that it felt like a memory; the only problem was, he never experienced those moments.

Guts grumbled a bit, as he blinked his bleary vision into focus, and noticed that his head was wrapped up in some sort of bandage, as was most of his upper body as he checked himself, before looking around to see where he was. "Guess my luck finally came around…" Guts muttered to himself with an annoyed look.

The place was very wood and well kept, the entire place had circular walls, as if he was inside a massive stump of a tree…. "....Must be inside that fabled Kokiri village I heard in passing…" Guts thought to himself after remembering where he collapsed at. He had heard tales that children that get lost in the woods, end up as skull children. He didn't want to test his luck, so he did his best to atleast get far enough into where he could see the edge of the woods, but far enough away from Hyrule field.

Guts moved his body to swing his legs over from the thing he was laying on, there was some pain felt but it was nowhere near to how his wounds felt when they were fresh. "How long was I out?" he questioned himself as he removed himself from whatever he was lying on previously.

As the boy got up, he got a better look at what it was that he laid on, and looked like a crude making of a couch; it wasn't bad though, as it felt softer than laying on the hard ground.

While Guts began to walk around to check his surroundings while gently touching his patched up wounds on his torso, a soft feminine voice broke him out of his musings.

"AH, you shouldn't be up so soon!"

Guts stopped walking around to turn towards the source of the voice, as saw a girl with green hair that matched the color of her tunic; the girl herself marched over to him with a glare while carrying with her a wicker basket filled with mushrooms, "Please! It's only been two days, you should be resting still!" she chided him while gently pushing him with her free hand towards the couch he was previously laying on.

Guts didn't budge, but glared at the girl, "That's more than enough time, I already feel healed, and I can just find some fairy anyways if I need to heal more!" he grouched at the girl, while shoving the offending hand away with his shoulder, only to widen his eyes as he felt something pop loose, followed by warm pain on his shoulder.

"Damn!" Guts cursed as he reached up to touch where he felt the pain.

"Don't touch!" The girl hissed at him as she slapped his hand away from his shoulder, and urged him to sit down, "Fairies can only heal so much, and very specific ailments, I had to stitch the more grievous wounds you had that were not healable by fairies!" she chided him as she guided Guts back to the couch.

As much as Guts wanted to gripe, the girl was right, having an open stitch wound wouldn't do any good, so he listened and sat and allowed the girl to begin nursing his reopened wound.

"Honestly." the girl fretted as she set down her basket and walked over to get a few things, "Do all you boys have to act all macho!? Would it hurt to listen and learn that wounds need to heal properly!?" she questioned rhetorically.

Guts simply scowled at the girl as she came back with a small basket of things, sutures and various bandages made from woodland things, "Never had time to learn that shit, it was either find some fairy dust, or keep moving." he answered with an afterwards grunt as the girl began rubbing something over his reopened wound.

"Yes…well…I suppose not with what was going on outside the woods…" The Girl spoke back to him, as she finished rubbing whatever she had into his shoulder, "Now careful, I'm about to remove your stitches, and restitch your wound, it's going to hurt now that you're fully awake." she warned him.

"I'm used to it." Guts gruffled spoke back with an annoyed tone, while looking off towards the window of the girl's home, where the village was viewable, a very tall tree was viewable that towered over all other trees; What Guts did not see as the girl went to work on his reopened wound, as a soft but downcast look as she made quick work of removing his old stitches.

Guts barely made a peep during the entire process, and as the girl began suturing his wound back up, he bit back his hissing and grunts of pain.

"My Name's Saria….what's yours…" The girl spoke up some more, as she gently stitched his wound on his shoulder up.

Guts grunted in response, before finally answering with a tone of disinterest, "Guts. just Guts." he answered her.

The girl gasped before speaking hesitantly "...your mother..named that!?" Saria asked, her voice was that of appall and disgust.

Guts simply shrugged at her question, "Foster mother, really…she found me beneath a tree of hanging corpses…" he answered her other question. Why was he answering such a private detail? He supposed he at least owed Saria some information, given that she was doubtlessly the one that saved her, with some help most likely.

Saria paused in her work, before resuming, "That…that…" She tried to utter how awful Guts's circumstantial beginnings work, but she found now words that could pass her lips.

"Save it." Guts waved his other arm that was the least stitched up, but was careful with moving it too much, he expressed an apathetic look, "Not like I cared about it anyways…" he scoffed.

"hmm…Well…I'm done now." Saria said as she patted his back and stood up from the couch and wagged her finger at him with her other hand on her hip once more, "No more moving excessively! Please! I just saved you, so at the very least, heal up properly." she warned him.

Guts simply smirked wryly at the girl, "What are you, my mom?" he joked dryly, only to earn a harsh glare from Saria as she planted both fists into her hip.

The girl lightly glared at him, "I just might be! You boys are so frustrating! Always rough housing to the point of injuries." she shook her head, and went off towards what looked like her kitchen part of the house, but not before picking up her basket along the way, "how do you feel about mushroom soup, by the way?" she asked him with her back turned towards him as she went to work chopping up the mushrooms.

"Food is food to me, honestly, never had the chance to actually eat a good meal on the battlefields." Guts answered Saira while rubbing his chest of the phantom pains he was feeling of the various fights he was in.

Saria

The world must have been really harsh out there for the boy, to the extent that even his birth was wrought with a gruesome beginning; the boy was definitely a struggler in life, and it was a miracle in itself that he survived this long. Guts was definitely a hard headed boy, going by his personality, and it showed that he dealt with enough pain to soldier a simple suturing process.

As Saria started up her small metal stove, she began stirring in her various ingredients to make a proper mushroom soup, "It should take a few minutes to heat up." she said to Guts, while the boy himself sat on her available couch she had him lay on.

"Sure….by the way…is that big tree outside the window the Great Deku Tree?" Guts asked in a careless fashion.

Saria responded back to Guts as she stirred the soup with a wooden spoon, "Yup!" She answered him with a broad smile, giving Guts a halfway look while stirring the soup, the boy was now sitting back with his back up against the wall, "Why? Do rumors spread enough for an average person to know about the Kokiri forest?" she asked him, interested in what the outside world has to say about her village and creator.

Guts looked back at her, a gentle shrug from him so as to not aggravate his stitches, "Barely, word is that there is a village like the one I'm in now, of ageless children…" he gave her a disinterested look.

"Hmm I see." Saria smiled as she resumed making the soup, "Well, the lost woods is a very good deterrent from any ne'er do wells, it's a good thing you didn't go anything further into the woods too!" she remarked while finishing up, and began to ladle some of the soup into a spare bowl for the boy, along with putting a wooden spoon in it for him to use.

As Saria approached the boy with his portion of the soup she made, Guts spoke back to her as he accepted her meal, "Keep telling yourself that…who knows who will manage to survive the woods and harass this village…"

Unsure what the boy was alluding to, Saria didn't pry any further, and went back to her stove to grab herself her own bowl; it was for the best the boy heals up, at least to enjoy some modicum of peace, before going back into the world. "So what do you plan on doing once you leave?" she asked, while walking back with a bowl of soup in hand, and sat on the couch beside Guts.

Guts shrugged again while spooning himself some soup and sipped from the utensil, swallowed his food before speaking back to her, "Don't know." he answered while giving a sideways look at Saria, "Fighting is all I know." he gruffly answered, before resuming in sipping his soup.

Saria withheld herself from making a downcast look, "W-w-well, you could always adventure around, I am very much sure people out there probably need a bodyguard or something, right?" she asked him, before taking a spoonful of her soup and took a sip of her mushroom soup while giving the boy a quick sideways look.

"Probably." Guts answered her again while looking down at his soup, "Pretty good stuff you made." he commented, earning a prideful smile from Saria.

"Thanks!" Saria responded back with a preening smile.

Chapter Text

Guts

Staying inside for a whole day, had him stir crazy the next day as Guts found himself waking up again; The sun peeked through the window shutters of Saria's home, just enough to where the sun rays passed over Guts's face. Scrunching his face a bit, Guts opened his eyes while hearing the muffled sound of the early birds tweeting their lungs out.

He grumbled a bit as he picked himself up from the couch, while paying due diligence of being careful to not move too much with the stitches still keeping his wounds closed; Raising his arm up to carefully rub his bare chest pot marked with old wounds and new ones that were in the process of healing, Guts furrowed his brow as he took a more observant look around the house of his new temporary caretaker.

A small wooden stove and all manner of cooking supplies and utensils were situated all around in that one area, Guts then looked around more to see what else the Kokiri girl kept inside her home; by the look of things, she did in fact have a bed that was situated at the far end of her circular home.

Guts grunted in discomfort as he removed himself from the couch he slept on for two consecutive times now, he would have to see if the Kokiri had a spare place he could crash at, after he healed up enough; the green hair girl was the first actual person that had ever given him kindness, and it felt weird.

Feeling the tenderness on his shoulder, and checking the sutures Saria redid, he was satisfied to see they stayed in place, allowing him to see to himself in leaving the 'house' and getting some fresh air; tracing his eyesight towards the entrance and exit way, he found that Saria did not have door. "I suppose Kokiri don't have anything to worry about with thieves or other such things…" Gut's mentally told himself, thinking how an average Hylian's home was built with a door on it.

That, and the Kokiri probably live more with nature, letting all manor of wildlife into their own homes.

Keeping himself from rolling his shoulder to work the morning stiffness out from sleeping all night, Guts made for the exit and in the process needing to squint his eyes from the sudden brightness as he exited Saria's home; with his hand over his eyes to help the process of adjusting to the light outside, Guts removed his hand and blinked a few times to take in the sight of the fabled wooden forest village of children.

As he stood outside the doorway of Saria's home, Guts viewed how large the woodland village was that housed the forest folk; already he saw a variety of different looking children, and if his eyes saw them right, quite a few wooden creatures that peeked from up in the treetops; the many wooden creatures that did catch him looking at them, swiftly disappeared into the leaves of the trees, while the more curious and adventurous one kept their heads out to look at Guts with leaflet faces that had faces drawn on them.

Paying no mind to the onlookers from above, Guts shifted his focus elsewhere; to his right was what looked like a massive stump-like entrance and exit into the village. It was hollowed out from the inside, leaving just the outer edges to be left as some frame for the entrance into the village. Standing not far from the entrance of the village, was some orange haired kid, all dressed in green like Saria.

The boy in question that stood not far from the entrance, was in the middle of hammering down a wooden sign with a wooden mallet; Guts squinted a bit to look at the words, and cursed the inability to read. He scoffed in annoyance at his own ineptitude of illiteracy, yet in the end, he had no other chance to learn to read basic Hylian.

It was one of the many things he had grown up without, and something he had left pondering about how he'd go about learning to read; one of the men in his former mercenary band always carried with him a book on hand, something about a story of how Hyrule came to be, but Guts never had the chance to ask the man if he could read it to him.

Guts was always busy sharpening his skills with the blade, to be studious in the ways so as to survive the next battle and so forth.

Moving off from where he stood, Guts began his slow stroll through the village, dozens of houses were built into massive stumps; there were even houses built into the treetops of the various trees that surrounded the village. By Guts's guess, the tree top houses probably belonged to those wooden creatures with leafs for faces.

As Guts waltzed on through the village, he bore witness to various children walking around, some paid him no mind from afar aside from minor curious glances, while the Kokiri children that strayed anywhere near him, made sure to avoid being within arm's reach as they went about their day.

"Yoohoo!" A girl's voice spoke up from above a pillar that Gut's was soon making his way passed, prompting his attention upwards with a slight glance. "You're up after a few days already!" The girl giggled with her hand covering her mouth.

Guts looked at the girl, glaring a bit at the attitude he was given, not like he had any choice but to rest, hell, he had yet to even bother to ask Saria how long he was out for. Looking up at the girl with yellowish hair that was done with twin buns hanging low on the back of her head, Guts spoke to her with an annoyed look, "Something funny about that?" he pointed out with a glare.

The girl giggled again, and plopped herself down to sit at the edge of the pillar she stood on, and dangled her legs off the ledge as she conversed with Guts, "Not really!" she said to Guts with a broad smile, "I'm just excited to see you up and about! You were all covered in wounds and blood when I helped Saria and Mido carry you back to her house to heal!" she explained to Guts.

That made sense, as Guts surely doubted Saria worked alone in bringing his unconscious body back into her home; He was taller than most of these kids of the village, but not by much, not to mention the fact that he was sure he weighed quite a bit for a single one of these kids to even try and lift his body alone.

Guts nodded once towards the girl, before asking her, "What about my sword and stuff I had on me?" he questioned the girl, his gaze was firm, "Not that I need it right now, but I'd like to know where Saria put my stuff." he questioned the upbeat girl who kicked her feet back and forth from the ledge in idleness.

The girl simply kept a smile up as she spoke with Guts, "Oh simple! Saria put your stuff up in one of the vacant houses! She figured you'd want to have yourself a place to stay rather than simply mooch off from her for your duration of stay~!" The girl said with an air of amusement around her, before speaking some more, "You know, until you're all healed up fully…or until you desire to leave~" The girl said with a close eyed smile.

"Right…" Guts drawled out, while looking around a bit before looking back at the girl, "I see ... .well…thanks…" He tried his best to smile, only to receive an amused giggle from the girl.

"My~" the girl spoke with a look on her face while covering her mouth with her hand, "Quite the nasty smile~!" The girl remarked, amusement shined in her eyes.

"Tch, whatever…" Guts grouched, as he removed himself from the conversation, and walked off. He never had a reason to smile much for all his life, and the one time he tried to express that emotion, he got laughed at.

"Oh! Come on~! It was a good smile!" She hollered over at Guts, before she spoke some more with amusement still in her tone, "By the way, My name's Fado! Nice to meet you, Guts!" Fado hollered, no doubt cupping her mouth for her voice to carry over to him.

He shared his name with Saria, so the logical point being that Saria shared that fact with everyone else…or perhaps just with that girl Fado; he supposed it was fair, some random child ends up in their village, and all manner of curiosity is shared amongst the populace of the forest village.

While Guts walked away from Fado, he lifted his left arm a bit to wave her off in response, keeping himself on the dirt road that led through the village. His little jaunt through the village, eventually led him towards a stump where a lone girl sat atop the awning of. Said girl, like most of the other children, wore a green tunic. Stretched across her forehead was a green headband that held back her orange hair, and like the majority of her peers, her eyes were the color blue.

"Hey~!" The girl greeted Guts from her sitting point with a wave, "I heard Saria took in a wounded Hylian boy, fancy finally seeing you!" the girl said in excitement, before palming her hand back down while looking at Guts from her perch.

Gut simply looked back up at the girl with a raised brow, "..,right…" He expressed with a flat tone and look, while examining the stump 'building' she sat off from, "..uh…" he tried to figure out what else to say, only for the girl to take that as a que to say more.

The girl palm her chest to greet Guts more, "My name's Zutie! And this here is Nuro's store!" She gestured down towards the entrance way below her, and gave him a mischievous wink, "Of course, that is, open to only for those that have rupees on hand." she added.

With a raised brow however, Guts gave Zutie a skeptical look, "What, do you guys sell weapons or something?" he half joked, half asked with a smirk.

Zutie responded back to guts with an amused giggle, "Sure!" She answered, making Guts drop his expression, "The lost woods isn't a place to traverse so easily, so we like to keep stuff on hand in case things get dicey out there!" she explained to the boy with a simple smile.

Giving the Kokiri girl a nod of understanding, Guts supposed that checked out; some of the soldiers he's worked beside, had told tales that the deeper you go into the woods, the more dangerous it was. It was said children and adults that get lost in the woods, never return and are transformed into some mockery of themselves.

He should ask for help on the way out, once he heals enough to leave.

Guts grunted in acknowledgement of Zutie's explanation, before excusing himself from the premises of the store.

The Great Deku Tree

His roots stretch far enough throughout the country of Hyrule, to let him see the goings on of the wider world; the civil war had just finished, and with it, peace came. It warmed his inner core to see Saria and her current job of helping the young Hylian boy heal back to nominal health; it also put the Guardian of the woods on edge.

He had dreamt of a young boy fleeing the dying flames of war, seeking safety in the woods while fending himself from beasts.

Checking through one of his many roots, the Deku Tree saw that the boy was now walking around, while being careful with not moving too much. The Deku Tree curled a wooden lip of amusement, and saw the boy was paying heed to Saria's word in not aggravating his wounds and stitches.

Bringing himself back out into reality from his roots, the Deku Tree peered around his domain in thought; the boy was doubtlessly the champion that would be set forth from his woods to save Hyrule, it was from the many dreams he's been having, of a struggling young lad dealt a brutal hand in life.

But that left the question, would the boy accept the quest of saving Hyrule? He did not want to force something onto the boy, at least, not without telling him he may have a destiny ahead of him…

Coughing a bit, feeling the age of himself, he curled another smile of amusement; he didn't need to cough, but he felt quite a few cobwebs inside him that needed to be removed from the leftover skulltula. With a heave of his inner core, the Great Deku tree blew out dozens of skulltula and the cobwebs they strung up inside his trunk; the insectoid creatures themselves splattering against the various trees that surround his area.

Seeing his work, the Deku Tree frowned. He would not be able to do the same trick again soon, once a certain man comes to visit him; He did not know how that man would make his way into the woods without him knowing, but his dreams foretold of a man from the desert, demanding the treasured Kokiri's emerald.

Black Magic of the sorts, that was all the Great Deku Tree could assume the man would be using; and he would die within a given week from a curse placed on him, that meant he would need to prepare his next sapling incarnation. He'd rather leave the Kokiri and Koroks with a part of him left behind, much like his predecessor before him.

Peering back through his roots, he spied on the young Hylian boy once more, and saw him still waltzing around, more than likely getting himself air after laying down for more than a few or so days; Returning back to himself once more, the Great Deku tree pondered on a thought for a few moments. The boy would probably do well with a fairy companion, early on than later, whether he takes on the journey or not, the boy at least deserved some help in life.

The Deku Tree peered around at all the fairies swarming around him, one fairy in particular, "Navi! Join down hither!" he urged the female fairy.

"Oh my!" Said fairy remarked in excitement, finishing up in tending to one of the many leaves of the great Deku tree, and floating down to look up at her creator with earnest eyes. "I'm here!" she answered with an excited look on her face, her pale pink eyes contrasted to her bright pink dainty small body.

The Deku Tree smiled warmly down at the fairy, "Sayeth to me, wouldst thou like to be the companion to a Hylian boy?" he questioned her, the expression of Navi switched to that of surprise.

"What!?" she asked, Navi reflecting a very shocked look, before expressing an inquisitive look while tapping her chin with her finger as she float in front of The Great Deku Tree's face, "I mean…uh…jeez…that's quite a question…" she began to mumble to herself in thought, "I'd be the first one to have a Hylian boy as a companion!" she whispered to herself while expressing a thoughtful look, while at the same time, making it look like she was sitting on something as she floated.

"Navi…" The Deku Tree spoke, his tone sincere, "If thou hast need to regard more on it, grant it time, but know we are on borrowed time." he urged her.

"Ah! Wait, no! I'll go." Navi waved her small arms, and gave her creator a nervous smile, "I'm sorry, it's just that this decision is so big! I'll leave right now and meet this boy!" she declared while bobbing around in the air in excitement.

The Great Deku Tree responded in kind with a smile, "Be off with thou then." he urged Navi off, before said fairy went fluttering off to meet with her soon to be life companion to help guide. Once Navi was outside of eyesight for the great Deku Tree, the Guardian himself allowed himself to frown for a bit. Things were now setting into motion, it all relied on the boy now and how he wanted to progress his life.

Guts

Staring up at the ladder that lead to the vacant home of the Kokiri village, Guts expressed an annoyed look; That girl Saria really went out her way to keep Guts from doing anything other than resting and healing, and seeing where he was given lodging once he was healed to move well enough, his personal belongings were up in a treehouse that required him to climb the ladder of.

Grumbling a bit, Guts turned around and faced away from his temporary annoyance. He resolved to find something else to do than see if all his belongings were in one place, he had a few rupees to his name in a rupee wallet, his shredded shirt, of which he doubted the shirt was around for him to wear anymore, and finally his sword that was wielded by most men twice his height. Said sword was a tad taller than him if he lined it up next to him, it was what he grew up wielding, and he sincerely doubted he'd get used to wielding a sword smaller than him anytime soon.

Walking up the slight incline that led to the tree house, Fado, who was still sitting on the ledge of the one pillar he last saw her sitting on, spotted him coming back; the Kokiri girl smiled impishly as she hopped down and approached Guts with an easygoing smirk, "Oh, I've seen that look before…annoyed you can't have what you want." she teased as she walked over and stood across from Guts with her hands folded behind her back.

Guts simply gave Fado a flat look, "You're really a star of sunshine in the village, aren't you?" he questioned the girl sardonically, earning a giggle from Fado.

"Oh come on~ I'm just having a bit of fun with you~" Fado expressed with an impish smirk, while giving the treehouse a passing glance before looking back at Guts. "But hey!" she said with an expressive wide eye look, "You should probably go back to Saria's home, she will probably be back any minute now!" she warned the boy.

Giving Fado an annoyed look, he rolled his eyes at her, "Yeah, no thanks, she can deal with it." he scoffed while walking off away from Fado, "I'll go back when I please." he spoke to Fado gruffly.

"~I don't know~!" Fado caught up with Guts to walk beside the boy, while speaking in a sing song voice, her eyes glanced towards Guts as she walked beside the Hylian boy, "Saria can be really cross when she wants to be, and Mido, as much as he likes to boss everyone else around, can never beat Saria in a contest of wills!" she affirmed with a twinkle of mischievousness in her eyes towards Guts.

An annoyed grunt escaped Guts's throat, before he spoke back to Fado while the both of them waltzed up an incline that led up to a fenced area of bushes and rocks, "You like being a busybody, don't you?" he challenged the Kokiri girl, only to earn another giggle from Fado as he leaned up to sit on the fence.

Fado hopped up and began walking on the fence Guts sat on while holding her arms out to balance herself, "~yup!~" She declared without any remorse, making emphasis on the 'p' at the end while keeping an expressive smirk on her face. "And of course, cause you're the first Hylian we've ever had in a long while to ever visit this village!" she added.

"Right…" Guts responded with a bland look, he gave Fado a sideways look of disinterest, before expressing a savage smirk, "Who knows, you guys just might get an unsavory outside to visit your village sometime and ruin this peaceful place." he tried to tease back, to get the girl away from him and mind her own business.

"Nah." Fado responded with a care, she hopped off and landed next to Guts, and palmed her hips as she viewed her entire woodland village, "We have the lost woods to protect this place!" she puffed her chest out with pride, then gave Guts a sideways glance and smirked at him, "We even have the Great Deku tree, our greatest protector!" she declared with pride.

Guts scoffed at Fado, and glanced in the direction of where he saw a towering tree that towered over all others, "Yeah…right…I'm sure he's some protector." he sarcastically responded. How a tree of all things could protect a village, was beyond him. Guts angled his head to stare directly at Fado who was rocking on the balls of her heels in idle amusement, "So what, does he have some sort of thing going on with him that repels monsters or something?" he challenged with a smirk.

"Yup~!" Fado answered with a cheeky grin, earning a drop in Guts's attitude towards her, making Fado all the more amused at the Hylian boy.

"Tch." Guts grunted as he stepped off from sitting on the fence, he felt the need to stretch but withheld himself from doing so.

"Hey~ Hello~! Greetings~! Ah, There you are!" A tiny voice hollered throughout the village, before a fairy finally flew over to Guts from around the large brown fence that walled off the ledge of the ground, "You must be the Hylian boy, right!?" the pink fairy asked Guts, while earning a curious look from Fado.

Guts expressed back a dry look at the fairy while she floated in the air in front of him, the question had to be rhetorical. He was the outlier amongst all the children and woodland folk, "Pretty sure I am." he retorted.

The pink fairy, whose light hue made it almost impossible to see her actual body, allowed herself to float closer to Guts's face and allow the boy to see the fairy better as she expressed an excited look, "Hi, I'm Navi, and the Great Deku Tree wishes me to be your companion! I do hope-hey!" Navi cried out in annoyance as Guts walked over towards Saria's home, ignoring her best attempt at introducing herself to the lad.

Fado

Fado giggled at Navi's situation, "Wow! Already got on the boy's nerves!" she commented, earning a look from Navi as the fairy turned to look at the girl.

"What's that supposed to mean!? Grr, this was not how I envisioned this meeting to pan out!" Navi declared while stomping her foot in mid air, before flying off to chase after Guts, "Wait up!" she hollered after the boy.

Fado watched as the boy entered Saria's home, followed by the fairy that the Great Deku Tree sent to be Guts's fairy companion; with an amused smirk, Fado was very curious now about the boy. The Great Deku Tree did not send one of his fairies on a mere whim to be a companion to someone, much less to a Hylian. Something was in the works, and Fado could not help be curious about it.

Spotting Saria exit the Lost Woods entrance from behind her house, Fado afforded herself an impish smirk and jogged over to speak with her fellow forest spirit.

Saria

With a contented smile, Saria walked through the exit of the lost woods with a basket of foraged goods she found; there were quite a few wild carrots and green onions she collected, coupled with a few sprigs of leaf greens she could use for a good steamed vegetable soup. As she made her way down the incline of the hill that led towards to the backside of her home, Saria soon saw Fado within her eyesight as her fellow Kokiri jogged up to her with an impish smirk.

"Oh that boy, what did he get up to while I was gone!?" Saria mentally asked herself, as Fado approached her.

"Saria!~" Fado greeted with a sing-song voice, while Saria herself expressed a welcoming smile, "You'll never guess what happened while you were gone~!" she teased.

Saria sighed, before asking Fado what happened, "Let me guess, Guts left my home, and saw to it to try and get his things." she asked, betting the boy was too stubborn to stay inside her home and heal. The boy definitely seemed the type to get stir crazy if any attempt was made to make the boy stay inside a home, she was definitely sure, without his awful history, he'd still be a stubborn boy, like most other male Kokiri of her village.

Fado giggled while covering her mouth behind her hands, and gave Saria an amused look, before placing her hands behind her back, "Nope~! Well…" she trailed her eyes up, "He did see where his little home will be, and where his stuff was put by you…" she then shrugged and looked back down at Saria, "But yeah, the Hylian boy just walked around." she added.

"Right…." Saria sighed in relief that the boy at least paid heed to not be too extraneous with his body, then looked straight at Fado with a firm look, "But that's not all that happened, was it?" she questioned Fado with a narrowed look.

"Right! The Great Deku Tree sent a fairy to be Guts's companion, and her name is Navi!~" Fado explained to Saria, watching as she began to show surprise.

"Oh,....oh wow…that's…" Saria tried to find the words to express what she was thinking, but could not find anything to say at the moment.

Fado then thumbed in the direction of Saria's home, "If you're quick, you'll probably see them in the middle of talking! Guts just went back into your home!" she urged Saria off, to which she nodded in agreement.

"Right!" Saria said in a hurry as she bid Fado her thanks, and rushed off, leaving Fado to smirk in amusement at Saria as the Kokiri girl headed to her home.

Guts

Spending the rest of the day inside Saria's home was not something he wanted to do, he just felt like he did not need to deal with that Fado girl, combined with the chatty fairy that the supposed Great Deku Tree sent to be his companion.

"And then, He sent me here, I mean, I enjoy tending to his leaves, but being a companion to a forest child is what we fairy strive for!" Navi gushed in excitement while clasping her hands up next to her cheek while floating around Guts's head.

Guts was in the middle of carving something into a short thick branch, using a pointed sharp flint rock he managed to procure from the small creak of the village. He didn't have anything else to use, well, other than the knives Saria used for her kitchen, but he'd rather not test his luck with the girl in using her kitchen utensils to carve wood.

As he chipped off more wood from the small branch, he grumbled a bit before speaking his mind to the fairy, "Last I checked, I'm a Hylian, so try someone else." he grouched, before looking up at Navi, whose small cherubish face glowered at him while planting her fists on her hips, "Unless you can heal my wounds." he challenged.

"Nope." Navi crossed her arms, and made an 'X' with her arms while making a stern look on her face "I'm not some one time use fairy that will heal you from death!" she bent over a bit and wagged her finger at the boy, "And I'm certainly not one of those fairies that heal your wounds!" she denied.

Navi then proudly held her chest out while palming it, while her other hand was planted on her hip as she floated in front of Guts's face, "Nay! I am your special, one and only, companion through life!" She expressed excitement, before scooting through the air to be next to Guts's shoulder, and elbow him in a friendly manner with a sly look, "Pretty great, huh?" she challenged.

Guts simply ceased carving into his procured piece of wood, and looked at Navi with a bland look, "Wow. neat….now buzz off." he gruffly spat and continued his idle attempt at trying to give himself a hobby to do.

Navi puffed her cheeks out in annoyance, and crossed her arms, "Nope, nuh uh!" she shook her head in denial, and gave Guts another wag of her finger, "I'm with you till the end!" she nodded in excitement with a firm nod on her part.

"Greeaaat." Guts sarcastically replied as he continued his little attempt at an impromptu hobby.

"Guts!?" Saria's voice carried itself into the home of said Kokiri, earning both the boy's and fairy's attention as she walked in, "I heard you have a…is that a knife?" Saria questioned Guts once she fully entered her home, and saw Guts carved a piece of wood with something.

With a dull look, Guts shrugged and showed Saria the slightly dull but somewhat sharp flint rock, "Nope, just some sharp rock." He answered, before resuming his little attempt at carving into the small piece of wood.

Saria clicked her teeth in annoyance, before she greeted Navi with a bright eyed look, "Hello!"

"Hi! So nice to meet you!" Navi greeted Saria as she flew over to the Kokiri girl, and waved at Saria's own fairy companion.

After a bit of pleasantries were finished between them, Saria approached her kitchen to begin making lunch while Navi returned to float around Guts's head.

"So, how was your trip around the village?" Saria questioned him, earning a pause from the boy in question, as he looked up from his work, one that was not going so well as much as he hoped. "I'm rather pleasantly glad you didn't climb that tree house I put your things in." she added while she began taking things out from her basket to place onto her small wooden kitchen counter.

Guts inspected his work, and set it aside for later, and stared back at Saria to converse with her, "Not gonna heal much, if I keep pulling my stitch apart." he grouched, earning amused look from Saria, "I'd like to heal as fast as possible, and get back to practicing with my sword." he explained to the her.

Saria offered Guts an chiding look, "Give it a week, at the very least, then I'll see about removing your stitches." she warned, before returning to making a meal for the two of them, "Fairy dust and creme only works so fast, the rest is up to the body to heal." she added.

"Right." Guts responded back, a glowering look crossing his features; it soon faded before he relaxed into the couch Saria afforded him to lay on, "Doesn't make this any easier though." he added with grump to his tone.

Saria on the other hand, giggled a bit, before giving Guts a sideways look, "At least act like you're enjoying this amount of peace! Don't tell me fighting is all you know." she asked.

Scratching at his leg, he inspected his pants and resolved that they were in dire need of repair. Hopefully, the Kokiri have a seamstress somewhere…before silently realizing Saria might have a knack for it, if she can sew as good as she can stitch "Not really." he answered with a clipped tone, before giving Saria a critical look, "What do you do that doesn't involve fighting?" he questioned her.

While Saria began shaving the carrots down with her peeler, she answered the boy with a warm tone, "Oh plenty! We even have slingshot contests, hop rocks, stone throwing…quite a bit goes on around here really." she discussed.

Some of what Saria had said, struck Guts's interests, but for the most part, he stayed silent as Saria went more about what Kokiri did and what sort of culture they had to share. She kept talking until she was finished with making lunch, before the both of them dug in.

It definitely going to feel like a long week for him to heal, if what Saria said was true; and Guts certainly did not know what the future held for him, now that he was bereft of belonging to a mercenary group any longer. It felt weird not having anything other than waiting for the next battle to fight.

Chapter Text

Hyrule Castle
Zelda

It was still early morning for the young heiress to the royal throne, Zelda, with the sun just barely peeking over the horizon; She was currently laying in her opulent bed, with a well quilted blanket comforting her in her sleep. While the sun's ray had yet to fully enter through the doorway of her room leading out to the balcony, Zelda's face scrunched while making murmurs and whimpers.

The girl began to toss and turn in her sleep, seemingly from the dream she was experiencing; the covers and comfort of her bed gave her no reprieve or protection from the dream her mind was playing out to her.

Dream

A harsh wind blew across the fields of Hyrule, with a blazing fire ravaging the country lands. Amidst the chaos of the flames and harsh winds, dark clouds accompanied by thunderstorms rocked the countryside, the rain that fell from the clouds failed to extinguish the flames that ravaged the lands.

Zelda felt she was standing atop the castle walls, waiting for something, or someone to stop it all; her home was beset by a catastrophe that she knew not what to do for nor halt the process of. Amidst it all, a lone wounded and battered wolf pup emerged from the woods of the east, its gait was slow while walking out through the flames that were ravaging the countryside, the fire itself not bothering the wolf pup in the slightest as if the very nature of walking through the flames was second nature to the pup.

Feeling the need to reach out for the young wolf, Zelda witnessed as a green light hovered with the wolf pup, undeterred by the elements around it as the canine marched himself towards Zelda.

Reality

"Please help me!" Zelda abruptly screamed as she awoke and sat upright, while shoving her covers off herself at the same time. Small droplets of sweat permeated from her face. The princess found herself calming down from hyperventilating, she palmed her chest and felt how fast her heart was beating.

Zelda breathed slowly to calm herself, it was all a dream…a dream that has been replying the same thing until just now. It was always the same, her atop the wall of castle town overlooking the countryside, forced to watch as it was ravaged by an unstoppable fire.

The princess swallowed down her nervousness in a bid to try and make sense of what was going on with her dream, her father had told her that the civil war was over, something that had existed long before she was born, and had just ended not but a few days ago. She had asked how bad the war was, but her father and mother were adamant that she learn later in life of how bad the war was.

But then, why did she keep having nightmares of such awful events? And not just that, the recent dream was the stark difference to all her previous ones. A stray young wolf had emerged from the woods, paying no heed to the disaster around it.

She really wanted to ask her father or mother what these dreams meant, but the last time she told them about her dreams, she was told it was all just nightmares, nothing more, nothing less.

Zelda refused to believe that her nightmares were anything but; with a hardened gaze, while clutching her covers, the young princess cursed herself for feeling helpless. Her dreams were definitely the goddesses way of telling her that something was coming, and the recent dream was foretelling her that someone was coming to either help her…or something else.

Resolving herself to ask Impa about her dreams, princess Zelda breathed out one more calming breath to steady her heartbeat, and removed herself from her bed. She had a big day ahead of her, if she remembered her schedule right.

Various envoys from each race would be meeting her father to discuss politics of peace and prosperity, to settle past grievances and make sure war never broke out once again amongst the races. Her job was to watch from afar in her private garden, a single window would allow her to see it all play out.

As much as she would have liked to live up to the expectations of her mother and father, and watch, her mind kept going back to the dreams she's been having, and the more recent one that involved a young wolf pup.

Later

Tending to the garden her father gifted her on her birthday, Zelda smiled a bit as she held a small watering can to give her flowers their daily dose of water; it had not rained in a week, so she needed to be sure her flowers were well off.

Tapping the bottom of her watering can to get the last drops of water out, Zelda set aside her watering can and kneeled a bit to gaze at the colors her flowers beheld on their petals; it was a calming moment for the princess, one she wanted for the moment after trying one more time to tell her father and mother about her dream.

Zelda frowned, all she got out of either of her parents was to not worry as peace was now among them, her nightmares were all just figments of her imagination of how bad the civil war was.

Again, she refused to believe the repeat of the same dream was anything but, not to mention the new addition of a young wolf breaking his way through the flames.

"Princess." Impa's voice broke Zelda out of her musing, while her personal bodyguard spoke to her in a soft voice, "I asked the other Shiekah, I've even deferred to the history of our land…" she informed her young charge. "There is something about your dreams that have some merit to it."

Zelda, having heard the Sheikah approach her by allowing her footsteps to be heard, stood up and turned to face her caretaker that has been looking after her ever since she was but a baby. Zelda offered a warm smile towards Impa, "I thank you!" She greeted her attendant/bodyguard, and fully approached Impa at the center of her garden.

Impa smiled warmly back at her charge as she looked down at the young heiress, she nodded in acceptance, before fully divulging what she managed to dredge up from what Zelda's dream may foretell. "As you know, the Royal Family descends from an era dating back hundreds of years, all the way to when our people once lived in the sky." she informed her young charge.

Zelda understood where Impa was going with this, of how her family descended from the first Hylians that had descended to the earth to settle the land for themselves, of the calamity that was defeated by a hero so that their kind could finally live beneath the clouds; it was an old tale of yore, passed down through the family.

While it wasn't something the wider populace knew much about, save for some rumors of how the kingdom came to be, it was still a tale to be told.

Zelda looked up at Impa's face with an urgent expression, "Right, and?" she questioned, asking for her guardian to keep going.

Impa agreed to keep going, while her arms were crossed as she regaled what she managed to learn from her elders and ancient library. "There are some old texts, describing how a hero of yore, defeated a calamity. How upon the defeat of this demonic being, this…beast of demise swore to curse the future for his return in another form. He cursed the future of his incarnation to ravage the lands, and bring it to heel under his foot with otherworldly power." she informed the princess.

Zelda furrowed her brow, while palming her chin and resting her elbow into her other palm as she thought on what Impa told her, "This…do you think…this curse might be what my dreams have been warning me about?" she asked, pointedly looking up at Impa.

Impa nodded, and took a knee to be almost at eye level with her princess, "My princess, please, tell me more about this new dream of yours, try and be descriptive of what you remember." she requested.

"I'll try!" Zelda nodded, and began to pace back and forth in front of Impa, "While each dream had repeated itself until now, my recent dream showed a lone young wolf. I vaguely remember it being bruised and scarred, but paid no heed to the flames that ravaged the fields." she described to her guardian, and halted to stand once more in front of Impa to stare up at her face, "It walked through it all while a green orb hovered with it…it was as if that wolf pup was coming to the castle for a reason…" she explained with a curious look on her face.

Zelda continued to stare at Impa's eyes as she explained her dream, "I don't know if I may be right, but I suspect…someone young may be coming from the woods, with the Spiritual Emerald stone held by the Great Deku Tree."

"I see…" Impa remarked with a thoughtful look to the side, before palming her charge's shoulder, "I'll see if what the elders have anything else to say on this, if the King and Queen will pay not heed to your dream, then at the very least, your Sheikah will look into it." she nodded with a warm smile towards her princess.

Zelda was over the moon that Impa was more than willing to look into what her dreams are telling her, and flung herself over to hug her caretaker, "Oh thank you, Impa! I don't know what I would do without you!"

Impa kept a warm smile up as she patted Zelda's back as the princess hugged her, "I live to serve, princess, and I've raised you your whole life. I know when to pay heed to your questions and requests." she affirmed, earning another 'thank you' from Zelda.

Impa

Keeping her warm smile up as she left Zelda's garden, she soon dropped the expression into that of intrigue and pondering, while raising her fist into her chin as she thought over what her charge described and told her. As Impa passed through the archway that allowed one to enter into the personal garden of Zelda, her peripherals caught her understudy, leaning up against the stone while with his hands behind his hand to rest his head against something else other than the wall he was leaning up against.

"Judeau." She began to order while she continued to walk forward. The person shoved himself off from the wall to follow his teacher, "You said you saw a boy heading for the woods some few days ago, correct?" she questioned the boy.

Judeau, garbed in the usual Sheikah garb, scratched at his brown hair as he thought back to the day he traveled the field to survey the damage done to the lands, among the many other Sheikah in training. The primary goal was to roam the lands and survey everything he could across the fields, all the while keeping oneself from being seen in broad daylight; the secondary goal of course, was to tally up all the dead bodies and destroyed pathways that needed repaired.

"Yeah, looked about my age, or older…it was almost hard to tell on my way back home." Judeau said to his teacher as he followed her through the normal castle gardens, "A boy survived all that mess, only to be attacked by wolves, and won in the end." he shrugged to himself, Impa seeing the action from out of the corner of her eyes as she observed her pupil while keeping an eye on where she was walking.

"...hmm…I see…" Impa murmured, while looking forward with her pupil still tailing her, "Perhaps he's the one…" she told herself.

"You know…it might help matters if you let me know what the question was for." Judeau pointedly remarked, earning Impa to look back at him from over her shoulder, seeing him give her a raised brow of intrigue.

"It's that dream princess Zelda has been having again." Impa told her young pupil, the two of them continued walking through the garden until they entered a walkway beneath a stone roof, Impa halted to stand in the shadows of one of the pillars that held the roof up, while Judeau stood opposite of her against the wall in the shadow as well. "It can not be a coincidence, the royal blood has its own mysterious magic, coupled with the many songs passed down through generations…so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch that the young princess is getting visions in her dreams."

Judeau pocketed his hands, and relaxed against the wall as he conversed with his teacher, his red Sheikah eyes shined with curiosity, coupled with a frown, "Yeah, nightmarish visions." he corrected, earning a nod of agreement from Impa, her eyes trailed to the side in thought.

"Goddesses bless her." she murmured, before hardening her gaze, and looked back at her student, "You still remember how to traverse the lost woods and into the village of the Great Deku tree, correct?" she questioned him.

Judeau smirked, and gave a quick snap of his fingers, "Yup. I memorized what you showed me." he answered her, remembering back when he was a younger pupil of Impa, and when she took him to learn the ropes of the underbelly of all that was the seedy underworld of Hyrule. It was a day he remembered very vividly, and how large the Great Deku Tree was. It was a memory that was hard to forget.

Impa nodded at her pupil, and sighed to herself, this next order would determine if the boy was still alive at all, and if he was in the Village of Forest Spirits at all. "Take an observant look in the village of the Kokiri, return to me once you find any evidence of this boy you saw leave the field and enter the woods." she ordered.

Judeau gave his teacher a two finger salute while expressing a wry smirk, and pushed himself off from the wall he was leaning against, "Sure can do!" He responded, before leaping up in the shadows of the ceiling, disappearing from sight.

Impa observed her surroundings a bit more, a mere parlor trick to most Sheikah that learn the art of hiding in the shadows and using it to traverse places, she was pleasantly glad her student was advancing quite far into his lessons…albeit… "I should tell him next time, to avoid jumping into water…it creates too much noise." She had strained her hearing just enough to hear Judeau leap across the castle rooftops, before leaping into the moat.

Removing herself from the shadows, Impa continued walking to her destination; so many things were moving in motion, only time would tell what would unfold from here on out.

Gerudo Valley

Moving back time a bit to when it was still morning, a few horses were crossing the bridge that connected the two ledges that connected two overhanging ledges over the massive drop to the river below; the leader in charge was of male stature while the rest were female. The male was the Gerudo's King, leading the group of other Gerudos to head to the Castle town and make peace with the other races.

From the crowd of Gerudo women that were seeing off their sisters and King, among them were a few young girls, of which one of them pushed her way through to catch up with the last horse and rider of the group heading to the Castle Town. "Sis! Sister!" the young girl called out, her expression was hardened but kept some air of innocence to it. While young, many girls had to live with the conditions of the desert, not to mention, many young ones lost a mother to the civil war.

The last rider of the group halted her horse, and looked down at her younger sister, "Ah, Casca." The Gerudo greeted with a warm smile, "Managed to wake up in time?" she questioned her sibling.

"Yeah!" Casca bobbed her head with a brimming smile, before making a faux angered look, "I was hoping I'd ask you to find that boy that injured mother, and give him a beating!" she declared with her fists clenched.

From the crowd of Gerudo that were seeing off their sisters and King, said mother stepped out to pull her youngest daughter away and to stop pestering her older sister, "Oh shush now." she chided her daughter.

Ubena, a Gerudo warrior and the mother of both Casca and Nebiri, had a face and body heavily marred with scars from the civil war she fought in. Ubena gestured for her eldest daughter to keep moving, "Get going." she ordered with a soft smile, earning one in return from Nebiri, before said daughter got going with her horse, making it gallop at a fast pace to catch up with the rest of the sisters and King.

Ubena frowned a bit, before smiling once more down at her young Daughter Casca, "Honestly, I come home with scars, and that's all you think of? Revenge?" she questioned her daughter.


"But mama!" Casca spoke back with an annoyed look, and glowered a bit, "You had such a beautiful face, then the next thing I know, you come home with all those scars!" she cried out with her fists clenched.

"Hmhm." Ubena chuckled with mirth, while bending over to look her daughter more into the eye, in the background, their fellow Gerudo sisters were already dispersing to begin their daily chores and activities. "I am unsure if that boy survived the war's aftermath at all, it was the most bloody hour, something I dearly hope you'll never experience." She comforted her daughter.

Casca, skeptical of what her mother told her, gave a critical look up at her mother, "But mama, you said that boy was like a berserking dog! It was like you were praising him!" she pointed out with a grumpy look, "You even said you once commended him for matching you in battle! How could he not have survived the war!?" she insisted.

Ubena simply gave her daughter a wry smirk, while patting her daughter on the head, "Who knows, that boy might have survived." she remarked, before standing back up and shooing her daughter off, "Now be off with you, you have Archery lessons with your fellow sisters today." she urged Casca, earning a nod of understanding from her.

As her young daughter jogged off, and in the process joined up with other girls her age, Ubena frowned as she watched the back of her daughter disappear into the crowd of other Gerudos; reaching up to trace the scars that marred her face, to the largest one that went from her brow, over her eyes, down past her nose to the bottom of her left cheek, she still vividly remember how persistent that boy was.

Persistent to survive, to win, to struggle, to deny death his life. Realistically, Ubena did hope the lad did the entire war after she faced him…

Past

Clang!Smack!

The body of the boy went flying into a broken down war carriage, wood splintering and breaking against the lad's back while he kept a firm hand on his sword the entire time; his entire body went through the side of the carriage, bringing the wreckage of it down on him in the process.

Ubena lowered her foot, and kept an eye for the boy, around her were her other Gerudo sisters, fighting off the mercenary group that was hired by one of the lords of the lands as extra fodder for the ongoing war. Ubena twirled her dual scimitars she fought with, and anticipated for the boy to come out of the heap of wood. He had survived many times over, she had heard how one of the mercenary gangs employed children to shore up their numbers. Ubena figured the talk was of children in their teens, not someone like this boy, he was undoubtedly around Casca's age.

"RRRGGGHH!" The boy yelled in anger as he pulled himself out of the pile of wood, blood seeped from his chest and arms from various cuts. The boy seethed at her with pointed canines, like a mad dog of war, before charging at her with emotions broiling in his eyes of rage, fear and panic, carrying with him a sword bigger than most children his age could barely wield.

Ubena prepared herself as the lad closed the gap between her and him with a well timed upwards swing, making her swing her scimitar downward to block his attack from cleaving her from her crotch upwards. Sparks flew between their weapons as the boy snarled, he was like a wolf snarling at his prey three times his size, not caring for his well being.

Ubena grunted as she pushed the boy's sword away and parried it to the side, allowing her to swing her swords down at his shoulders, "Nice try." she smirked, only to drop her smirk of disbelief as the boy intended to stay in place and allow her swords to dig into his shoulder blades protected by simple leather.

A small splatter of small blood leaked from the boy's shoulders, as he gave Ubena a nasty smirk, "My turn!" The boy yelled in seething rage, his eyes peering up at her through his helmet's visor, all the while bringing his sword back from the side to swing up at her face.

"GAAAH!" The stinking pain was felt across her face, she felt blood begin to fall over her eye, down her nose and cheek, the boy definitely gouged a deep wound into her face. Ubena glared at the boy as he wound up another swing at her, "I'm not that simple to defeat!" she denied him, as she blocked the follow up of the boy's swing.

Clang!

Another round of sparks fell from their swords hitting and scraping against each other, the boy kept his nasty grin up as he fought Ubena, the both of them leveraging what ground they could in the clashing of swords.

The mad dog that was the boy, snarled more as he lifted their power struggle of clashing swords, and before Ubena knew it, the boy found more strength in him to push her swords up and out of the way, allowing him a window of opportunity to thrust his sword into her stomach. "HRRAAAGGH!" The boy yelled in exertion, intent on skewering Ubena.

"I don't think so!" Ubena yelled back in anger as she leapt up out of the way, and landed a few feet from where she stood, she breathed heavily from the exhaustion she was feeling. The entire day of fighting this war, had her winning her battles until now. 'This boy isn't normal' she thought to herself, while narrowing her eyes at the boy in question.

"Get back here and fight damn it!" The boy yelled in indignation, his eyes were full of fury as he charged at her again with his sword raised above him, keeping it level with the ground while doing so, quite a feat to still be carrying a big sword this long.

Ubena snarled back, copying the boy's annoyance with how the fight was playing out between them, "This boy…does nothing stop him?" she whispered to herself, before steeling herself to charge at the boy as well with her scimitar raised.

Clang, clang, clang!

The two of them trade three consecutive strikes against each other's weapons, neither finding perhance into their defenses, before ending in another stalemate of weapons being pushed against each other. Ubena glared down at the boy, whom glared back at her. The lad now suddenly smirked, as she felt a sudden shift as the boy angled he sword forward, and made her slip into his defense.

While she managed to slice at his arms, the boy however lunged at her to strike a hard headbut into her skull with his helmet; Ubena found herself stumbling backwards, feeling her world swim while her head felt like it was cracked open.

Present

Ubena rubbed where the boy practically ended their fight between them, because after that, she heard her sisters cry out for her before feeling herself get carried off; the next day, she woke up and found herself looking at the damage done to her face.

She truly did wonder if that boy survived at all. A part of her thought he must have died like a common soldier, but having experienced how the boy fought, Ubena betted her bottom Rupee the boy escaped the fields while dragging his bloodied body off to somewhere safe.

Ubena smirked to herself with rueful expression, before marching herself off to begin making her rounds of patrolling the grounds with her sisters. Who knows, perhaps she'll be able to meet the boy again on better terms.

Guts

"Atchoo!" Guts sniffed in discomfort, and rubbed his nose, before glaring at his awful work of peeling potatoes, he shaved off too much skin along with the inner parts of the spud, "Damn it." he cursed.

"Guts!" Saria admonished the boy, as the two of them were in the midst of preparing potatoes to be boiled, "Language!" she tried to chide the boy, only to earn an annoyed look from said person.

Rather than apologize, Guts responded to Saira with an annoyed grunt, "Got another spud? I sneezed all over this one and peeled too much off." he grumbled.

Saria puffed her cheeks out in equal annoyance, before sighing in a bit of amusement at Guts's behavior, "honestly." She reached over and took the spud from the boy's hand, and offered another one into his hand, "You're lucky we have plenty for you to practice with." she informed the boy, earning an eye roll.

"Right…" He drawled how, doing his best to peel off the skin of the potatoes Saria brought in from the local Kokiri garden.

"And cover your mouth next time you sneeze!" Saria chided the boy once more, before returning to her own spuds.

Guts simply responded with a grunt of acknowledgement. With lunch over, there was quite a few more hours into the day, before night time, then dinner. I really wasn't looking forward to waiting a whole week for his wounds to heal.

Chapter Text

Kokiri Village

As the day was moving into the late hours of the evening, Guts sat himself outside atop one of the rocks that were situated in a circle right outside Saria's home. The potatoes were being slow cooked inside a mettle pot outside over a small fire pit he helped Saria build; the fire itself wasn't raging much, as the charcoals were hot enough to keep the boiling water in the pot going for at least an hour or less.

As Guts did his best to relax for a bit outside in the warm air, from the corner of his eye to his left, he saw many Kokiri exit their homes and began their trek towards the location of the largest tree of the village, many others were exiting out from the denser foliage of the surrounding trees and bushes that surrounded the village, leaving Guts to suspect there were more housing and Kokiri than he had seen during the day.

From over his shoulder, Navi floated up to stand atop Guts's left shoulder, leaving the boy to express some annoyance at the fairy using his shoulder as a place to stand; Navi herself expressed excitement as she held her hand over eyes as she views the ongoing procession of Kokiri heading towards the Great Deku Tree's grounds. "I almost forgot today was the monthly festival!" she remarked, expressing joy on her end.

Guts on the other hand, lifted a brow of confusion, while keeping a passive stoic face, "Festival?" he questioned the fairy.

Navi nodded her small head while she planted her fists into her hips, and looked over and up at Guts's face, "Yeah! Once a month, all the Kokiri, Koroks, Skull Children and fairies celebrate the coming of the full moon with our great protector!" she answered the boy, her expression stayed that of joy and excitement.

"So…like a harvest festival?" Guts asked, allowing some modicum of curiosity to pass his features, all the while, Koroks and fairies were traveling towards their destination for the festival.

From her home, Saria exited out of the entranceway while brushing her hands off together from finishing up in cleaning the utensils she used, "Almost." Saria answered for Navi, smiling all the while and planted her palms against her hips as she looked down at Guts sitting outside her home, "It is a festival to celebrate a time when us Forest Spirits were unsure of whether we would survive the next month from hordes of monsters." she answered with a calm look.

Looking around, Guts observed more around him, just barely catching the tail end of seeing small child-like forms moving through the bushes; said child-like creatures had beak-like mouths, with faces that looked like straw, all the while wearing quite the ragged worth of getups. "And those are the Skull kids?" He questioned the two, nodding towards the skull kids in question.

"Yup!" Navi responded to Guts's question, while peering over where he was looking, and looked back at his face, "They were children once, that lost their memories and forms after getting lost in the woods, so letting them join the festivities has been one of the things we've tried to welcome them into our village as part of the woodland folk." she informed the boy.

Guts hummed to himself before getting up from the rock he sat on, and made his way towards the entrance of Saria's home, "Well, have fun then." he told both Saria and Navi with a dry tone, while making an attempt to pass by Saria.

"Oh no you don't!" Saria huffed in indignation while catching Guts by the crook of his arm, the boy himself giving her an irritated look as she stared back at him with a firm gaze, before expressing a soft but encouraging look, "This a great time for you to meet everyone, even the Great Deku Tree!" she cheered for the boy.

While Navi took her cue to remove herself from Guts's shoulder, but stayed floating around the boy's head, Guts looked back at Saria with an annoyed scowl, "I can do that some other time!" he insisted, before giving a smirk, "And last I checked, I'm not a woodland folk, I'm just some stranger you picked up in the woods."

Saria rolled her eyes at the boy, and moved to push and direct Guts to head to the festival with her, "Just come on! It's a festival for everyone! Even strangers!" she insisted light heartedly with a smile, while doing her best to budge Guts along to move with her.

While the present company argued on for Guts to attend the festival with Saria and Navi, a nasally and annoyed tone broke in, "Just leave him be, Saria! We don't need outsiders here anyway, and we certainly don't need him being involved with our activities!"

While Saria stopped to glare at the owner of the voice in question, Guts simply gave the person a disinterested look. Like his fellow Kokiri, the boy wore green clothes and shoes, along with wearing a green cap atop his orange hair. The male Kokiri leveled a gaze at Guts that screamed contempt towards the Hylian boy.

Guts simply gave the Kokiri boy an annoyed look while being unbothered by the pinned stare and attitude he was being given, he barely knew the Kokiri boy at all. Saria on the other hand, took an expedition towards the boy's attitude with Guts, and stood beside the Hylian boy, while gently patting Gut's shoulder, "Oh be quiet Mido!" She glared at the Kokiri boy she said the name of.

Mido returned Saria's glare with 'harrumph', and crossed his arms while looking away with his nose up in the air, "Or what?" he challenged with a smirk, his eyes shut with a proud look, "All I'm saying, we shouldn't let this outsider get too comfortable staying here!" he insisted, and opened his eyes to turn and look at the Hylian boy. "Hey, you, once you're healed up, get out!" he ordered while thumbing at the exit and entrance of the village.

"Mido!" Saria growled in anger, and stomped towards the boy, "I don't know where you get coming off like that, but you will not be treating Guts like that!" She tried to defend her charge.

Guts meanwhile, scoffed as he leaned up against Saria's house, allowing Navi to fly down and stand atop the boy's shoulder once again, "Are they always like that?" He spoke lowly with the fairy.

Navi nodded in response to Guts's question, "Yup." she answered the boy, the both of them watching at Saria tore into Mido with her words. "Mido likes to put up a brave and bossy front, but he's all steam and bluster whenever Saria gets up into his face." she explained with a follow up of another hapless shrug.

As the two of them watched Saria poke and jab her finger into Mido's chest, and berate the other Kokiri about treating others with respect, Guts continued to talk with Navi with his arms crossed, "So what does the festival really involve?" he asked, his curiosity burgeoning him enough to know a little bit more now.

Hopping down to simply sit on Guts's shoulder, Navi discussed with the boy what entailed in the monthly festival, while using her dainty little finger digits to list off the things, "Well, there's dancing around the large bonfire." Navi began while extending out her pinky, "You have various Kokiri children playing their instruments." she extended out her next finger, and looked up in thought, before looking back at Guts's face, who gave her a sideways glance, "Some Kokiri even played with small balls made from balled up leaves to kick back and forth between each other."

For Guts, as he listened to the list of things Navi was telling him, most of the things seemed fine, but didn't really suit his interest. "Hm, quite the activities you got going on…" he mused, expressing a simply bored look.

Navi on the other hand, gave Guts a grumpy look, "Sheesh, would it kill you to at least try and have some childhood!?" she questioned him pointedly while jabbing a finger at him.

While he was still given Navi a sideways glance, he offered a simple shrug in response, "Don't know…prettty sure I'm almost eleven or something. It'd be too late for me really…" he responded blandly, his arms still crossed as he gazed back to where Saria was chewing out Mido, whom was backing away nervously from the girl.

Navi gasped at that while covering her mouth, "You mean, you don't know when your day of birth is?" she asked, aghast that Guts did not know the specific day he was born.

With a flat look on his face, Guts shifted his gaze back sideways to Navi, "Never had the time or chance to know." he answered, before getting himself up from leaning against Saria's home, and walked towards the girl, "Besides, it's just another day passing that I get to live." he added, while missing the shocked and sympathetic look he was given by Navi.

While Saria shooed Mida off to attend the festival and leave things well enough alone between him and Guts, the Hylian boy himself approached Saria in a relaxed manner, "Hey." he announced himself gruffly, earning Saria to turn and look at the boy.

"Sorry about that." Saria apologised to Guts while expressing a bashful look and rubbing the back of her head, "Mido tends to get overbearing at times, in fact, it took me five minutes to argue with him to help me and Fado carry you back to my home. He's a very stubborn boy that doesn't like outsiders compared to the rest of us." she explained to Guts.

Pocketing his hands into his worn out pockets, while Navi floated above his head, he spoke back to Saria with a tone of disinterest, "Trust me, I dealt with worse people." he somewhat griped, while showing an emotion of annoyance as he looked back into the eyes of Saria, before smirking a bit, "It'd take more than words to get rid of or bother me." he challenged.

Saria rolled his eyes at Guts's behavior, and pulled at his hand to come with her, "Now come on! No arguing! We're going to enjoy the festival with the others!" she ordered, easily pulling Guts now that he was more than curious to see the festival for himself.

"Whatever, just don't expect me to dance or play kid games." Guts warned with a gruff look, as Saria led the way to the great Deku Tree's area.

"Of course not!" Saria giggled as she pulled on Gut's hand to follow her across the dirt path and small creak that was in front of the entrance to the Great Deku Tree's area, where music began to pick up more along with cheering and laughter; Saria looked back at Guts with a look of amusement in her eyes, "Can't have you pulling any of your stitches, I just want you to enjoy the festival. Take a seat somewhere, listen to the music, whatever you like that isn't too staining!" she winked at the boy.

"Whoopee." Guts deadpanned while speaking in monotone.

The Great Deku Tree's dwelling area

While music was being played at the base of the Deku Tree's trunk, way out in the center of the area was a sizable bonfire that a variety of Kokiri danced around, many that Guts had yet seen since his impromptu tour of the village he took.

The moon was already just peaking over the trees, while night was steadily creeping over the village; the night stars shone at their brightest, but overshadowed by the moon itself in the night sky.

Guts sat away atop an incline of a hill that led down to the center of the area where most of the activities took place; Guts noted that the bonfire was situated just enough away where its smoke wouldn't reach the leaves of the Kokiri's guardian, so at the very least, there was no chance the fire would spread.

From his position, he could see Saria was playing an instrument along with the others playing theirs; jogging his memory, the thing was called an ocarina. Remembering his days back as a child soldier to the mercenary gang he was in, one of the men had one on him to play to pass the time along with whoever wanted to join in with their own pocket instruments. The other Kokiri that played their instruments had strings on them, while others used drums; it was quite the gathering of instrument players amongst the Kokiri.

Trailing his eyes up, he saw Navi was still dancing in the air, shaking her hands and hips to the rhythm of the beat, before spinning in place and flew off to dance with her fellow fairies; looking back out forward, he watched as other Kokiri danced around the bonfire. Looking elsewhere around the area, Guts saw the wooded creatures with leaves for faces, all dancing atop the large roots of the Great Deku Tree, dancing on their small digit-like feet.

Looking around a bit more, Guts saw where the supposed Skull children were, and were all dancing within the darkness behind the large roots; not fully part of the gathering, but near enough to take part in playing their own instruments and dance to their hearts content.

"So those are the Skull Children…huh, now I definitely don't want to get lost in the woods around here." A cheeky voice spoke from Behind Guts, the range of the voice made it sound like the person was speaking from up in the treetop.

Guts's body tensed up, as he did not feel or sense anyone behind him until the voice spoke up; he was prideful enough to keep himself aware throughout war, to the nights where he had to keep himself from falling too deep into sleep. Instinctively reaching for his back, only to forget that his sword was gone for now, and he had to be careful with his healing wounds.

"Easy, easy!" The voice responded to seeing Guts tense up, before the deft sound of the person dropping down from the tree to take a knee in the shadow of the tree he hopped out from. Guts glared over at the person, promising a world of hurt if he did anything funny, wounds be damned if it came to it.

The person looked around his age or so, a little bit on the short side though; said person had a blue clothed mask over his mouth that he pulled down to give Guts a cheeky grin, "Sorry, Sorry! Couldn't resist speaking up!" The boy apologized in a low tone of voice, his presence nearly hidden in the shadows.

Looking more closely, the garb the boy wore looked quite distinct, one Guts couldn't put a finger on if he saw the garb before or not, especially the eye and tear drop etched into the front of the boy's garb.

"....who are you…" Guts bit out, speaking low as well, unsure what the deal was with the other boy, who gave a placating gesture towards Guts.

"Aw. Come on!" The boy remarked, giving Guts a disarming smile, while holding his hands up in mock surrender, "I just came to check on things for my master, among other things….and no, I'm not an enemy!" he added quickly.

Guts offered the boy a smirk, "Sure, right, that's what an enemy would say." he said back, before giving a glare, "Who are you, and what do you want?" he demanded.

The boy offered a hand out to shake hands with Guts, "Sorry, how's this, My Name's Judeau, what's yours!?" he asked, some mischievousness shined in his eyes.

Glancing at the hand offer, Guts scoffed and looked back to the festivities, but kept his guard up, "Guts, just Guts." he answered, not bothering to return the handshake offering.

Judeau chuckled nervously, and swiped his thumb across his nose as an idle gesture, before eyeing what Guts was watching, "So…having fun here?"

Guts simply glared into the air, "What are you really here for?" He pressured the other boy, annoyed that the other Hylian boy was trying to get a bit too chummy with him for no reason.

"Heh, was I that easy?" Judeau asked, expressing an amused smirk, while keeping out of sight of the Kokiri and other forest spirits.

Guts leveled a flat stare ahead as he spoke with Judeau, "I don't know why, but it just feels like you're not here for small talk." he answered Judeau in a frank tone.

"Ah, I guess you got me there, good instincts!" Judeau remarked, eyeing Guts from behind the tree he stood in the shadow of, while leaning up sideways against it with his arms crossed. "No, but you're right! I'm just here to confirm some things." he nodded to himself.

Guts, while he still sat with his legs up a bit, rested his arm over one of his knees as he conversed more with Judeau, "Well, whatever it is, leave me out of it, at least until next week…or whenever…" He told the other boy.

"Sure thing!" Judeau responded to Guts in a cheeky tone, before expressing more of a serious look and tone as he glanced to where Guts was looking, the Great Deku Tree, who was expressing a wide and joyous smile with his wooden mouth and brows as he watch his Kokiri and Korok dancing and playing, "You should enjoy this while you can…my Master believes things aren't fully over from the war…" he warned Guts.

Giving Judeau a sideways glance, Guts spoke with an apathetic tone, "Good, gives me more work to do if things heat up…" He assured the other boy, before looking back at towards the bonfire.

Looking over at Guts with his own sideways glance, Judeau lifted a brow of incredulity, "You'd choose war over peace?" he questioned.

Guts shrugged, "Never knew what peace feels like…and I'm pretty sure you don't either." He remarked, earning a warm chuckle from Judeau.

"No, I suppose you're right." Judeau responded back, before gazing onward with Guts at the bonfire, "Peace does feel a bit foreign." he commented, remembering back to the many training periods of sprinting across the battlefield while trying his best to not be seen.

"Look." Judeau spoke up again, bringing conversation more to a close between him and Guts, "Listen, it's probably best you stick around this place for a year or so, wait till the heat of the war actually dies down…who knows might come for your head for past grievances." he warned Guts.

Guts, unsure why the boy was saying such a thing, glanced once more over at Judeau, expressing a flat look of disbelief, "And what's a stranger like you, saying a thing like to me? We barely just met." he remarked, his tone full of snark and some spite.

Judeau simply offered a placating gesture with his hands, while giving Guts a disarming smile "Just some friendly advice, nothing more, I only came here cause I remember seeing you escape into the woods after seeing you fight off a pack of wolves!" he admitted, earning a hard glare from Guts.

"Honest! I was on my way back home at the time! It's just good to see you recovered in one piece!" Judeau confessed, Guts lightening his glare to a simple one as he focused his line of sight back to the festival with a soft 'whatever' leaving his lips.

"Well, here I am, all patched up, I'm Guts, You're Judeau, end of story, piss off." Guts attempted to brush off Judeau to leave him alone, his personality gave him the feeling of a sketchy person, notwithstanding that the other boy was able to conceal himself well enough to not be heard until he spoke up to Guts.

Judeau, nonetheless, chuckled back, "Just a bundle of sun shine, aren't you?" he asked, getting no response, "Well, it was great meeting you in person, I'll be seeing myself off!" Judeau bid Guts his farewell, before he leapt into the treetops with nary a sound

As Guts took the chance to actually enjoy the silence for a bit, he watched as Saria finished playing her ocarina for a bit, and jogged over to him with a joyous behavior; once she passed the bonfire and ran up the incline, she approached Guts with a brimming smile, "Hey, I just got an idea of a hobby you can take up! You know, to mark the occasion!" she urged Guts.

While Saria stood away from Guts, he looked up at her with a raised brow, "Yeah? Like what?" he asked her, before she held out her ocarina for Guts

"Here! While you're healing, you can take up playing the ocarina!" She encouraged him, her eyes shined expectantly for him to try her favorite hobby out.

Guts stared at the Ocarina in question, and weighed his options; realistically, he had nothing else to do than try something to pass the time, and Sara was nice enough to give him the opportunity to learn the Ocarina. Looking back up at Saria's eyes, he offered a hapless shrug. "I suppose it's worth a try…" he remarked, earning a cheer from Saria, and she moved to sit beside Guts, and show him how to play.

While Saria showed what holes for what notes to start for the basics, a passing thought ran through Guts's mind from his conversation with that Judeau, what really was peace? Was it anything like this?

Chapter Text

Kokiri Village
A week later

Sitting atop Saria's couch, Guts allowed said girl to thoroughly check his stitches and wounds on his back, whilst he removed the bandages from his arms; he was afforded a new pair of brown pants to replace his old beat up and torn ones, his boots were still in good condition, but Saria had assured he'd need to get new ones made as he grew older.

While Saria was kneeling on her couch behind Guts to begin removing the stitches from the severe wounds Guts had all over himself, he finished removing the bandages from his arms and hands, letting them drop to the floor, his thoughts led him to some introspection.

Living a less harsh life from the time he spent amongst the Kokiri, allowed Guts to reflect on what he wanted to do once he fully healed. From the recommendation of that Judeau kid to stay low for a while, to Saria insisting he stay and enjoy the time he had in the village from the wider world, Guts on the other hand spent each day walking around, figuring out what he really wanted to do once he healed.

His answer in his mind was that he did not know, other than to find some job to swing his sword for.

Guts inspected his hands and arms, seeing the faint scars left over from his healing, something that would never leave him; they were marks of survival, of brushing with death and coming out on top.

Clenching a fist, feeling barely any pain now throughout his hand and arm, a small smirk worked its way through the boy's face. "All looks good!" Saria's voice chimed in, breaking him from his thoughts, as he felt her pull the last suture out from one of his wounds. She shifted herself over to peer over Guts's shoulder with a brimming smile, "You weren't kidding, you didn't whine at all when I removed your stitches!" she teased him somewhat, as she shifted over her couch some more to sit beside the boy now.

Guts reach up over his shoulder to feel the wounds were now fully healed, thanks to the combination of natural healing, the stitches, fairy dust and creme that Saria applied to his wounds; the whole process made Guts wander how long it would have taken if she didn't use any of the methods she used to speed his healing up, pondering about it more, made Guts thankful he ended up with the right person to dress his wounds.

"Whining wouldn't solve the problem, it needed to be done, that's all." Guts replied back to Saria with a straight glance at her, giving her a frank tone in the process. He still remembered back when Gambino barely offered anything at all to heal his wounds, he was lucky at all whenever the other mercenaries shared their medical supplies with him.

'Hold fucking still! Damn brat! And stop whining and crying! You said you wanted your wounds healed, so stop fucking crying and man up!' Gamino's voice echoed in his mind of the one time the man shared his salve to heal the burn marks from when he fought a Goron troop with the others.

Those Gorons sure did a number using hot magma rocks and their own bodies, his old mercenary band was fortunate enough to be backed up by other Hylian soldiers, else he was sure they would have never fought the rock people back to the mountain successfully.

Saria lightly slapped Guts's arm while giving him a wry smile as she stood up and brushed her skirt off, before she began picking up the threads she pulled out from Guts's old wounds, "honestly, boys like you are always acting tough! I know for a fact it hurt pulling out your stitches, you just didn't want to be seen spilling any tears." she teased, while earning an eye roll from him.

Navi took the opportunity to fly down and stand on the boy's right shoulder while Guts bent over to pick up his bandages he tore off from his arms and hands, before standing up to pitch them into the nearby trash bin, "It hurt, just didn't feel like crying over it." Guts answered back with a nonchalant tone, a dry look crossing his face as he tossed his old bandages into the bin while Saria finished picking up the thin strings off from her couch.

Saria responded to Guts's comment with an eye roll over her own as she pitched the old sutures away, and brushed her hands off, before giving Guts a mock glare while planting a hand on her hip and giving a finger wag to the boy, "Now, just because your wounds are healed, they aren't healing completely, give them a few more days at least, okay?" she asked him.

An annoyed look crossed Guts's features as he stood across from Saria, the height different notwithstanding with him a few more inches taller, he glared at the girl, "So what, no exercising to pass the time? No practicing with my sword?" He challenged her with a scowl.

Saria sighed to herself and shook her head in dismay, of course the boy wanted to practice with his sword the moment his stitches were out, "honestly, what am I going to do with you?" she asked while pausing in the shaking of her head, and stared at Guts with a disapproving frown, she now had both hands planted against her hips, "Would it kill you to enjoy some other hobbies!?" she accused him.

Unperturbed by the attitude he was being given to by Saria, he scratched at the back of his head as he looked back at Saria, "You had me practice that Ocarina." he offered with a hapless shrug in a frank tone, before making his way out to leave the building with Saria followed after him in a huff.

"That's just a hobby I wanted to share with you!" Saria replied back to the boy, some semblance of a smile began to form on her face as she followed Guts outside, the boy did indeed take up to the ocarina quite well when given the chance; and he was shaping up quite well in making a few tunes with it.

As the both of them exited Saria's home, with Navi and her own fairy trailing after them, Saria continued to speak with Guts as he walked towards the tree house she stored his stuff in, "Try and at least find something on your own that doesn't involve swinging a sword." she insisted with a roll of her eyes and wry smirk, Guts always seemed to have a one track mind at times.

While the both of them walked, Guts glanced over his shoulders as he conversed with Saria, "Kinda hard to think of anything else that I might like…." He answered back, before looking back forward, and continued to talk with her, "Perhaps I'll try out those slingshot things I saw the other Kokiri use." he offered as an idea.

"Right! Exactly!" Saria palmed her fist, excited that Guts was thinking about giving slingshots a go, "And hey!-" she continued to speak with her finger up in the air like she was pointing out her idea, "We even hold slingshot contests, and not just that, you can take up stick fighting!" she remarked, giving Guts a moment to pause in his steps and look back at Saria.

"Stick fighting?" he asked her, giving her raised brow at the concept of the last thing she said, and offered a smirk, "What, do you prefer me picking up a stick to fight with, over using my sword?" he questioned her jokingly, before resuming his trek towards the tree house, its distance just short of walking down the hill incline.

Saria continued to tail Guts as she spoke with him, "Well at least you can't get cut by one!" she challenged back, offering a mock glare as the boy climbed the ladder of the vacant home.

"Trust me, a stick can hurt, it just depends on what sort of stick it is." Guts responded back in a fank tone, his voice trailing off as he entered the treehouse.

Saria remained rooted in her spot while she continued to converse with Guts, cupping her mouth as she hollered up at Guts, "I'm sure the know it all triplets would be more than welcome to let you join their stick fighting matches, they're always up for others to join them!" she encouraged the boy, trying in earnest to get Guts to socialize more.

The sound of Guts rummaging through the tree house could be heard, Before the boy finished getting what he wanted and exited out with a sheathed long sword in his grip; As Guts approached the ladder, he dropped down from the height leaving Saria to grumble a bit with a soft glare as the boy landed without fault and stood up while holding his sheathed sword up against his shoulder.

Saria gave Guts an annoyed look while puffed her cheeks out, before stepping over to lightly punch him on the shoulder, "I said be careful! Sheesh!" she rolled her eyes and stepped back, while Guts lightly smirked back.

"I was, but then you punched me where my wound was." He mocked back, earning a surprised and worried look from Saria.

"Oh, oh shoot, let me-" she was about to ask for him to let her see if she did anything bad to cause any discomfort or harm, but Guts simply walked past her while lightly slapping her back on the shoulder.

Rolled his eyes, "I'm fine, I'm just yanking your chain." Guts Joked with some smarm in his tone as he unsheathed his sword, the sound of the sword exiting out its sheath echoed a bit from it, before the boy held it out in front of him vertical at a diagonal angle in the air to test his grip strength, "hmm."

Saria sighed, and turned to watch as Guts lifted his long sword and swung it down, making a quick stop with the swing just before it hit the ground, "Yeah, still good…" he said to himself.

Shaking her head at the boy, she walked around him to get out of the way as he practiced his swings, "Just please don't overexert yourself." she tried to warn him as she took her leave, she had other things to do besides try and be parental with the stubborn boy. "I'm making bean soup for lunch, so be over mister!" she lightly hollered.

"We'll see." Guts dismissively responded, the two used to each other's attitudes by now, Saria knowing the boy wasn't being outright dismissive of her request, while Guts found it better to oblige the girl's whims than have her nag him all day.

While Guts continued his reps with his sword, Navi flew down from the air to hover behind Guts's shoulder, "Huh, the sword is pretty big for a kid like you to wield, now that I see it closer." She observed.

"I used to wield a smaller one, a standard sword when I was younger." Guts responded with a flat tone, focusing himself on each swing he made with his sword, "Just got used to always wielding big and longer swords…" he grunted in exertion as he made another rep, the blade itself just barely reaching the ground before he raised it back up. "Works out well just fine, really. I've found that the heavier the blade, the easier it is to get past the armor of my enemies with my strength and the weight of my sword." he added.

Navi shrugged her small lithe shoulders in response to Guts's answer, as she hovered around a bit while staying clear of Guts's swings, "I guess that would make sense, but wouldn't it be better if you could swing faster with a small sword?" she asked, curious on the subject matter. "You know, to react faster?"

"Probably." Guts answered with an flat look, his focus a tad bit split now that he was in a full conversation with Navi, "But I'm more comfortable with this style, I don't really see myself wielding a smaller sword without a significant weight to it…pretty sure it would throw me off more than I could afford it."

Navi nodded in agreement with the boy, hovering down to stand atop Guts's shoulders as he began making horizontal swings; each swing halting at the center, before bringing it up and around to swing from the other side.

Saria

Standing just within the entrance of her home, an hour had passed, and she wanted to see if Guts was still going at with his sword; and lo and behold, the boy was still practicing with his swings. The focus he put into each one was very practiced and deliberate.

Snapping her fingers, a stray thought passed her mind as she remembered something after seeing Guts still without a shirt. Walking back into her home, Saria moved towards her chest where she kept her things, and opened it up with a sharp creak of the hinges. From out of the chest, she pulled out a simple white shirt. "I knew I forgot to give him something before he left." she chided herself.

Draping the shirt over her arm, she walked over to check her stove top where her pot of bean soup was simmering; taking a wooden spoon out from one of her small wooden counter drawers, Saria spooned out a spoonful to taste test her soup. After tasting the end product, she scrunched her nose up a bit, and put her spoon aside to pick up a small bottle of salt. "Needs more salt." she murmured to herself, and gently sprinkled in some of the fine grains of salt before stirring the pot up with a ladle.

Picking up her spoon again after cleaning it with a towel, she took another spoonful of her bean soup, she hummed in delight before putting aside her spoon. "There we go!" she remarked, and allowed the soup to sit and simmer.

Making her way to the entranceway, she exited out of her home to head over and give Guts his new shirt; as she walked over towards Guts, Fado spoke up from the side as the Kokiri girl jogged over from the store. "Saria, there you are!" she waved with a broad smile.

"Oh, did you need something?" Saria questioned her fellow Kokiri, as she continued her trek towards her destination.

Fado caught up with Saria and began talking with her, "Yeah! The upcoming slingshot contest is coming up this weekend, but I need help finding the right logs for the boys to chop and carry back home! I figured since you know the Lost Woods better, you could help me find the best fallen trees!" She explained to Saria.

As the two walked together, Saria answered Fado with a thoughtful look as she glanced up, thinking of the deeper parts of the Lost Woods, "I do know quite a few places with fallen trees, but some of them might be too thick for our boys to cut through them…" she thought on it more as she tilted her head a bit while still looking up in thought.

While both girl were approaching where Guts was, both Fado and Saria looked where Guts was still swinging away with his sword; at that point, the both of them stood at the top of the hill incline, with Fado whispering into Saria's ear with a smirk, "Hey, I bet you anything, the Hylian boy can use that Hylian lumber axe we found in the woods a few years back."

"Hmm." Saria blinked in realization, and viewed the sword Guts was still swinging, and visualized the difference between the two, "I…suppose he just might be able to swing the thing." she nodded, before shaking her head with a smirk, "Of course, that is if Guts will offered to help-"

"Oi!" Guts hollered up at the girls, his concentration broke as he stopped in a mid-vertical swing, his blade was held out in a diagonal angle as he held it up, both Saria and Fado jumped back a bit in surprise, before Fado afforded herself a giggle at being caught while Saria chuckled nervously.

Guts relaxed his posture and gently lowered his blade to rest on the ground, before reaching down to sheath his sword, his gaze went back to the girls once he finished putting his sword away to speak with Saria and Fado, "What was that you were saying about me helping with what?" he asked with a flat look, unsure of what the girls were talking about.

"Uh…oh right!" Saria nodded, and walked down to hand the new shirt to Guts and explain to him what they were talking about. "Well you see-"

"We need someone to help chop up a few large trees!" Fado cut into the conversation, her expression of cheekiness as she pressed past Saria who yelped in surprise from being sidelined by her fellow Kokiri.

"Fado!" Saria admonished the girl while stepping back in to hand Guts's new shirt for him to wear, she offered Guts the item and nervously laughed, "Sorry for the wait, hope you like it!"

Guts eyed the offered shirt, and took it from Saria's hands, "Honestly, I was almost beginning to think I'd have to leave this place to find a new shirt." he somewhat joked with a smirk, before frowning a bit as he set his sword down to slip the shirt on over his head.

As he tugged at hem once it was fully on him and found that it was loose somewhat, before he looked over at Saria questioningly, "Sorry, I figured I made it so that you can at least have a few good years wearing it before getting a new one." Saria explained.

"Hm..right…um…thanks" Guts muttered with a nod, as the shirt was not exactly too loose, nor too tight; the shirt was just big enough for him to grow into it for a year or two at least. He glanced between the girls, "Now what was that about chopping wood?" he questioned them, while Saria made a quick proud smirk all the while at Guts appreciating the 'gift' as he looked at Fado for answers.

Guts

It was after lunch when Guts headed out with Saria and Fado to procure the supposed adult lumber axe, up where the know-it-all brothers housed their yard with fencing, bushes and rocks, was a variety of tools strewn inside a wooden box.

While Saria and Fado were conversing with two of the brothers about getting their help in cutting and carrying the chopped logs back, Guts was alone with the third brother as he looked at the lumber axe in question. "...hm…"

Pici, the third brother that usually stuck around the fenced area to do whatever he liked, sat up against the fence with his arms crossed, "Yup." He nodded as he looked at the same axe, it was almost as long as Guts's sword, but with the caveat that most of the weight centered at the metal wedge part. "It's difficult for any of us Kokiri to probably use the thing, but I keep it anyway for safekeeping." he shrugged, "You know, never knew if it has other uses."

Reaching out to pick the axe up by the handle, he lifted the tool up with a little effort and tossed it a bit to flip in his hand so that he could hold it upright below the wedge, "Looks a little rusted…but still has a good edge on it…" he examined the wedge and flicked his thumb against it, mindful not to run his thumb along the blade.

Feeling that it needed to be sharpened a tad bit, Guts looked at Pici with a curious gaze, "Saria said you guys have hatchets, so does that mean you have whetstones?" he questioned the other boy.

Pici nodded, and thumbed at the closed chest beside the open wooden box, "should have one in there." he answered.

Guts wordlessly walked over to said chest and opened the lid up to look for the stone; finding the object in question, Guts reached down and pulled the stone out.

"So…" Puci tried to strike up a conversation with Guts as the Hylian boy put the whetstone down and spat on it, before getting to work in sharpening the wedge a tad bit, "...you…you could have asked me to bring some water, you know…" he pointed at to Guts.

Pausing in getting the wedge to a good sharpness, Guts looked up at Puci with a flat look, "Didn't see you had any on you, so didn't ask." he retorted, before resuming his tasked,

"Right, right." Puci chuckled a bit at the blunt statement, before continuing his conversation with Guts, "So what's it like outside the woods? You know, like, I heard it was pretty rough out there."

Guts simply offered a shrug as he kept his focus on the whetstone and wedge he was smoothing the bluntness out, "It was…" he answered back, before stopping in mid work, lifting the wedge up to check his work, and nodded. It didn't need to be too sharp, but sharp enough to get the job done.

"Oh…well, I expected more of an answer than that…but I suppose that's fine…" Puci shrugged, leaving Guts to stand up and put the whetstone away and look at the Kokiri boy with the axe resting against his shoulder as he held it.

With a careless tone and look, Guts spoke back to the Kokiri boy, "If you really want to know, the fields were full of dead bodies out there by the end of it all, blood flowing an shit…" he described, leaving Puci speachless, "That better?" he asked with a smirk.

"Jeese." Puci remarked, laughing nervously while reaching up to scratch the back of his head, "Was just curious if the rumors were true…we Kokiri don't leave the forest, else we shrivel up and die…or something like that…"

Guts furrowed his brow in confusion, "...What?" he asked with an incredulous look, "...What kind of shit is that, that if you leave, you shrivel up and die?" he asked again.

Puci simply offered a shrug, "Don't know kid, just that the Great Deku Tree warned us all to not leave the forest, or we will die in some manner. I was thinking we'd age or something and become dust in the wind."

"Hmph…" Guts pondered on the words of Puci, and shrugged at it, "Well, then don't leave. Probably best you don't anyway." he offered his advice as he headed off to meet back with Saria, "It isn't that great outside the woods anyways." he hollered back with the axe in hand while it rest on his shoulders.

"Right…" Puci hollered back.

Saria

"Alright!" Saria announced, as she finished her discussion with the two other know-it-all brothers, clasping her hands with a brimming smile, "Once Guts- oh, here he comes!" she remarked as she saw the boy heading their way while effortlessly carrying the adult lumber axe against his shoulder, with Puci not far behind him.

Fado leaned around Saria to peek at Guts carrying the axe, and expressed a smirk across her face, before standing back up and held her hand out, "Cough it up! I won the bet!" she cheered, while Saria shook her head at Fado's antics.

Both Puthi and Pephu turned their heads to look at Guts, and grumbled before pulling green rupees from their pockets to hand over to Fado, "Figures the Hylian boy could do it." Puthi the eldest muttered.

"Whatever." Pephu, the youngest brother grouched as Guts approached the group with Puci trailing behind him.

Guts of course furrowed his brow and gave a confused look towards the others, "What going on?" he questioned, as he saw the brother groaning at their misfortune.

Saria shook her head, and gave Guts a flat and annoyed look while thumbing at the two brothers. "They betted against Fado that you couldn't lift the axe." she rolled her eyes.

Fado responded by patting her pocket with a cheeky smirk, and gave Guts a victory sign with her fingers, "Thanks! I knew you could do it!"

"...right…" Guts Drawled out, leaving Saria to face palm at her Friend's antics.

Chapter Text

Castle Town

While the delegations between the King and Queen of Hylians were winding down, the accompanying friends and family of the visiting leaders were visiting the castle town while leaders hashed out the finer details of peace over the land.

At the center of the market town, a few Gorons were sitting on the ground, while a few others were standing or walking around to take in the view of the Hylians and their castle town. It was starkly different from how their homes in Death Mountain looked for how they lived in the caves, generations ago it was a different story, but for the present generation of Gorons, it was a novelty to see the sights.

Amongst the group of Gorons waiting for their Chief Goron, Darunia, to return from the castle, two Gorons were talking to each other beside the center water fountain. Dumog spoke with his younger Brother Pippin, scratching his stomach that was marred with battle scars, "Feels like it's getting chilly these days." he commented as he looked around.

Pippin nodded in agreement as he reached back and scratched at the itch he was feeling, before bringing his arm back around to cross his arms. His expression was quiet while his eyes were a bit closed, "hmmm." He hummed in agreement, wordlessly agreeing with his brother.

Dumog grumbled a bit before speaking more with his brother, giving the sky a glance before looking back at Pippin, "I think the summer is almost over, probably just feeling an early fall breeze…not sure how these Hylians cope with the cold." he quipped.

Pipping reached up to scratch his cheek, before returning his arm, "hmm…they wear clothes…" he simply answered, having observed over the years of the war that the soldiers would layer up with their clothes.

Dumog nodded, "Makes sense, how else would they retain their body heat from leaving their small thin bodies." he commented back, viewing the many different fabrics each Hylian wore.

When their brothers first arrived at the castle town, they received many gawkers, glares, and curious glances; but after a week, with the Hylian Royal Soldiers making sure peace was kept amongst the populace, the Hylians returned to their normal activities. Sure, they received some idle glances every now and then, but the novelty was slowly losing its luster after a while.

As the two brothers remained quiet for a bit, Pippin fully spoke up with a curious tone, "Shame brother Bakmi wasn't able to come." he commented.

Dumog looked at his brother, and nodded in agreement with a somber smile, "He's still healing at home in the hot springs, you remember how that boy stood up to him and cut into his stomach." he remarked.

"...hmm…" Pippin agreed, rubbing at his forearms, large scars were etched into his rock-like skin. He still remembered when he faced against a boy as well on the mountain, a battle that involved their people getting pushed back. He even spoke with his healing brother, and described what the boy looked like after that battle was over.

Both brothers had in fact faced the same Hylian boy, the same boy that was part of a mercenary gang; if he heard right, most if not all mercenary gangs were forced to dissolve after the war, so he wasn't sure what became of the boy after the war.

Dumog noticed his brother was thinking, and commented on it, "Thinking about where that boy is now?" he questioned Pippin.

Pippin nodded, "...hmhm…" he answered, never losing his quiet expression, "...haven't seen his face around here…" he noted.

Dumog offered his brother a shrug, "If he was lucky, he escaped to someplace better, probably took shelter at a ranch or something." He offered as an idea, before giving his brother a curious gaze, "Why…plan on exacting revenge?" he asked.

Pippin remained quiet while gazing across the entire castle town market, his squinted eyes never opening, "...no…just curious about the kid…" he mumbled, rubbing at the scars again on his forearms.

A Year ago

Just a few months after the defensive battle of the Lon Lon Ranch, a battle was taking place at the foot of Death Mountain. The war cries of both opposing factions rang out with the clang of swords and spears against the rock hard exterior bodies of the Gorons, amongst it all, a more personal battle was taking place between two combatants.

"HAAAH!" The Hylian boy yelled as he was tossed over the ground and landed across an outcropping of bomb flowers, his body rolled before he quickly picked himself up, his grip on the hilt of his sword firm the entire time. The boy snarled with his teeth bared at Pippin, as the Goron himself marched towards the boy.

Pippin wordlessly charged at the boy, while the boy himself seemed to be thinking on his feet; the boy looked exactly as his brother Bakmi described, allowing him to target the lad and meet out some justice for the injury the boy put on his brother.

It was petty, and they were at war, but it pained Pippin's heart to see his brother injured like that; so his irrationality left him to seek out the boy and give him an equal injury, and fortune favored him when the battle began at the base of Death Mountain.

As Pippin continued his charge, the Hylian boy glared at him before reaching down to grab one of the Bomb flowers. 'There's no way a mere boy could pick a bomb flower out.' were Pippin's thoughts as he was soon within reach of the boy.

With a quick grunt of effort, the boy pulled the bomb flower out with bloodveins beginning to show on his neck from the strain he was getting after pulling the bomb flower out of its petals, and tossed it at Pippin's incoming form. 'WHAT!' Pippin thought to himself, 'But now he's going to get caught in the blast radius as well!'' he finished thinking, as his charging form smacked against the bomb flower.

BOOOM

Pippin felt the heat of the blast scorch his arms, legs and face as he held his hands up defensively against the blast; his charge was halted while the blast wave caused him to trip and fall in. "hhmmph." he grunted as he quickly picked himself up, soot covered his face and other parts of him, but was nonetheless fine. The slight burns from the explosion was superficial at best.

As the smoke from the exploded bomb flower settled, Pipping tensed himself as he heard the sound of the boy's feet on the other end of the dissipating smoke, and witnessed the boy leap up over with his sword raised above his head for a downward attack at Pippin's head.

Clang!

"Hrrggnnn!" Pipping grunted in pain as he brought his arms up to defend himself from the boy's attack, he took a step back from the force of the blow on his forearms against the blade the boy swung down at him.

The boy followed up his attack with a boot to Pippin's face to spring board off from the Goron, allowing the boy to leap back and land to charge back at Pippin with a running stab at his bare stomach.

Already aware of what became of his youngest brother, Pippin let out an annoyed grunt as he quickly slammed his fist down at the incoming blade coming at his stomach. "...no…" He denied the boy.

CLANG, BOOM

The sound of both the boy's blade connecting with his fist and their attack striking the ground echoed off around them; Getting a better look now at the Hylian boy, Pippin looked through his squinted eyes at the damage the boy sacrificed on himself after throwing the flower bomb so close.

With a blackened and burnt face on his left side, with scorch marks on his limbs, and partially blackened blade, Pippin could only assume the boy did his best to quickly block with the flat of his blade while leaving parts of him unprotected.

"Hnrrrngh!" The boy snarled in anger as he pulled his sword from the ground and quickly swung at Pippin, making the Goron bring his arms up again to block the blows, making clanging noises as the boy started to back cuts into Pippin arms.

'What sort of strength does this boy possess!' Pippin thought to himself with a calm but focused look on his face, "....enough…" Pippin spoke with a grunt as he deftly caught the boy's sword in midswing, and yanked it, only to pull the boy with it as he kept an iron grip on his hilt.

"...stubbern…" Pippin acknowledged the boy as he swung the sword around by the end of it, before finally swinging it down to impact the boy into the ground.

"GAH!" The boy grunted in pain as he was slammed into the ground with his sword, letting it slip from his grasp as Pippin tossed it behind him down the cliffside; the boy glared up at Pippin with a snarl, before he picked himself up and ran up at him.

'There's no way you can tackle me to the ground or anything, so what are you intending to do?' Pippin thought as he brought his arms up to throw a punch at the lad.

Once the boy was within enough distance, he leapt up into the air while pulling something out of his pockets, '...what?...' Pippin questioned, before finding his answer as the boy threw something at him that blinded him in a flash, 'Deku nuts!' he stated, and felt his vision go white, before feeling the boots of the boy kick him in the face.

Feeling himself helplessly stumbling back from being disoriented, combined with the kick by the boy, Pippin grunted in annoyance while quickly reaching out to pull the boy down with him by his leg, 'I'm not going down alone!' he mentally affirmed, hearing the boy cry out in surprise.

As Pippin felt himself fall down the cliff side while periodically bumping against the side, his vision returned to him, enabling him to see the boy with his eyes not far from him while letting out an angry shout, "Dammmnniiiit!" The boy yelled with a snarl as he impacted a lone withered tree that long lost its life ago in its attempt to grow on the side of the mountain, "Gah!" The boy let out a grunt of pain as his boy caused the withered tree to collapse and fall with him while slowing his descent a bit.

CRASH

Pippin grunted in pain as he felt his back impact the ground, while he watched as the boy continued to fall with less velocity after falling onto the lone dead tree, while making it fall with him in the process after its roots could no longer hold it up into the side of the mountain.

"MPH!!!!" The boy grunted in excruciating pain while rolling over on the ground holding his ribs in pain, while at the same time keeping an eye on Pippin with his eyes bloodshot and harshly glaring, "f…uck…" he breathed out, keeping a hand on his ribs, while picking himself up with great difficulty, his limbs shook in exertion.

Pippin too grunted in discomfort as he steadily picked himself up, and watched as the boy too picked himself up to face the Goron, 'he doesn't have a weapon on hand now…or does he?' Pippin thought to himself as both of them faced each other down.

A harsh roar echoed from the right of them, making both combatants quickly look at the source of the noise, making Pippin realize where both he and the boy had fallen, 'We fell on the far side…' Pippin thought to himself, realizing they had woken up a nest of Red Dodongos, a breed of Dodongos that walked on four limbs and had three prominent horns on their skulls for impaling their prey with.

"...boy…" Pippin spoke out as both he and him found themselves in a possible fight to the death for survival against the wildlife of death mountain.

"What!?" The Hylian boy snapped back in a snarl as both he and Pippin stepped back a bit from the tunnel that held the nests of Red Dodongos, the lad quickly stepping back onto his sword and kicked the hilt up for him to defend himself with.

"...ceasefire now….fight these things to survive…" Pippin requested the obvious, as he did not favor a fight where he had to focus on the boy and Red Dodongos at the same time.

As he watched the dodongos stomp their way out of their hole to attack the trespass of their territory, he saw the boy keep an eye on the dodongos with a glaring look and a savage bloody smirk. "Fine, I can work with that." he agreed, wiping his mouth of the stray blood in the process with his arm.

"Hmmm." Pippin nodded and held his fists up to be ready.

Present

Reaching to feel the bite mark on his side from one of the red Dodongos leaping at him to try and take a bite out of him, Pippin still remembered how the boy jumped across his own fair share of dodongos to pierce the one biting him through the top of its skull; either the boy was being pragmatic so that he did not have to fight on his own, or he had some sort of code of honor or something, all Pippin knew was that they were stuck down in the nest of Dodongos fighting for their lives.

By the end of the day, he was sure they practically wiped out the entire nest of Red Dodongos, which suited Pippin and to a larger extent his Brothers just fine; the Red Dodongos were an invasive species that hailed from further north, no one knew how they traveled down south and made their nest there, but Darunia had awarded Pippin with the title of 'Red Killer' once he returned home after the battle and evidence was proven that the red Dodongo nest was obliterated.

He also let it be known his enemy combatant was with him to fight them as well, he was no glory hog or anything, much less needed the glory, but Pippin figured Darunia deserved to know he wasn't alone in the feat.

Of course, the boy and him split ways by the end of the fight, both too tired and battered to finish the fight between each other.

Pippin reached up to rub at his head, 'Never did catch his name…hope he is still alive so I can know it…' he thought to himself. The kid was tenacious to survive that entire day while injured, and walk back to his people. Pippin glanced at where all could see Death Mountain in the distance, 'At least next time, we won't be enemies…the kid was pretty good in a fight…' he finished thinking.

Lost Woods

As much as he withheld his frustration back, Guts simply opted to express a bored look as Mido ranted his mouth off as he led a defensive group of Kokiri for the trip into the Lost Woods. "Just watch, outsider, you think you're hot stuff, but watch how we Kokiri handle ourselves." he announced proudly his keeping his wooden shield and sword out along with a few other boys.

The defense troops of Kokiri were walking with the one Guts was walking with while Saria led the way forward; While Mido was speaking from the left of Guts, Pici who walked to the right of Guts snickered a bit before leaning over to Guts to whisper something.

"Watch this." he spoke in a hushed voice, while Guts watched as the know-it-all brother cupped his mouth to holler over at Mido, "Hey, Mido, since when did you act so brave? Remember when you turned tail when we went into the woods the last time?" he snickered, making Mido stumble over himself and curse under his voice before shaking his fist at Pici with a glare.

"Shut it! I'd like to see you face off with a Wolfos wisecracker!" Mido yelled back, before both boys began getting into an argument of whether it was better to face off against the Wolfos at the time or not, leaving Guts to deal with the two interacting with each other while he was in between them.

Sighing to himself, Guts sped up his pace to catch up with Saria, shifting his Axe onto his other shoulder in the process to get rid of the uncomfortableness he was feeling from resting it against his one shoulder for too long; As Guts reached and walked beside Saria, he spoke to her with a bored look, "So many how Wolfos are we expecting if there are any this time?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Hmm?" Saria questioned with a sideways glance at Guts, while they all kept walking, Mido and Pici still arguing in the background, "Oh, well, it's usually a pack of two or just one, but I don't think we need to go that far back into the Lost Woods." she shook her head in denial of needing to look for the fallen trees they needed for making target circles with.

All they needed to do was find a few good fallen trees, cut them down into appropriate sizes, and finish them down into more even sized ones with hand saws.

"Hmm." Guts grunted in acknowledgement, before speaking his mind on the matter, "Well, just to be safe, I should take the lead, I'll stay within everyone's eyesight." he offered.

Turned her head as she walked beside Guts, she gave him a surprised look, before giving him a mock glare, "What? No! There's no need for that!" she insisted with a shake of her head and grateful small, before focusing her head forward, watching where they needed to go in the Lost Woods, "Trust me, it's best if everyone sticks close, people can get lost real quick in these deeper parts." she assured him.

Guts offered a shrug, "whatever." he responded sticking with Saria's plan.

"Yeah!" Mido's smug tone broke into the conversation as he made his way up to walk up beside Guts and give him a sneer, "It's best you just stick close with us! Or better yet, go right ahead and get lost! Doesn't matter to me!" he remarked with a smug look, before he found his ear getting pulled by Saria. "AAAHHH" he yipped in pain.

"Really now, must I really be the only sensible and responsible one here!?" Saria questioned the boy with a glare as she had walked over to Mido from around Guts's back and pulled Mido's ear down painfully.

While most of the group paused in their walking to watch Saria admonish Mido like a real child, the girls giggling and boys snickering at the self proclaimed boss getting punished by Saria, Guts had continued walking for a bit before stopping to turn around and see the little interaction between the two.

"Okay Okay, I'm sorry!" Mido professed as Saria finished pulling at his ear, and finally let go, but not before giving him a slap on the back of his head, and giving him a cross look while crossing her arms.

"Honostly, I don't know where you get this attitude of yours!" Saria remarked, while Guts watched her tap her foot and give Mido a stink eye.

"Honest! We can't trust outsiders, we don't know what trouble they bring with them!" Mido Professed, making Saria eye roll at him as he rubbed at his ear with a wince of pain.

For Guts, he really didn't care if Mido trusted him or not, and to be fair, he was some strange kid more than a week ago that Saria found collapsed beside a tree; he didn't expect any of the Kokiri to quickly warm up to him, and he especially didn't know if he'd stay long enough to get to know everyone.

As Guts was about to open his mouth to suggest that Saria just ignore Mido, as he didn't care about Mido's hangups with him, a dense fog soon rolled across the woods; what made it more strange was as none of the Kokiri were reacting to the dense fog rolling across the woods until it he could barely see anything.

Walking forward, as he highly doubted he'd lose the others with how close they were, he ended up not finding them, leaving him in the middle of a wide open space of the woods, where a wall of fog surrounded him on all sides. "What?!" He asked himself while getting defensive, putting both hands on the axe's handle.

"But they were just there…and none of these trees were here!" Guts snarled in frustration as he held the axe out, as anything was better than just his fists. "What the hell is going on!?" he questioned himself, keeping himself rooted in place lest he get lost in the woods. It was better to wait and see what was going on, not to mention make it easier for the others to find him than to wander around the woods aimlessly.

Before Guts thought of anything else to do, the sound of wings flapping echoed from above, large ones in fact, judging by the sound, "...what…" the boy's eyes widened as he witnessed a large skeletal bird land down on the ground in front of him, putting him on edge.

And that wasn't the half of it, a man in green garb sat atop the skeleton bird, the being's eyes glowed bright red in his eye sockets as he held onto the reins of his…bird. 'Who the hell rides something like that!?' Guts questioned himself, as he sweated a bit, but snarled at the potential threat, "...w-what are you…" he asked aloud, glaring at the entities, the probable due causes of the dense fog.

The skull rider stared down at Guts for a few more moments, before speaking without his jaw moving, "Take heed, young struggler, you have a tribulation ahead of you, beware of the one that seeks power…" The Skull Rider warned him cryptically.

Guts glared up at the Skull Rider, snarling up at him in anger, "What the hell does that mean!? What are you! What's going on!?" he demanded, keeping the axe at a ready position to strike at a moment's need.

The Skull Rider did not respond to his requests, but spoke otherwise of more cryptic words, "The curse of Demise is not to be ignored, do not falter, or this world will fall to ruin…the weight on your shoulders will feel immense, but persevere as you have done from birth…" The Skull Rider spoke, before he yanked the reins on his skeleton bird, making it flap its bone wings to begin its ascension into the air.

Guts glared at the Skull Rider flying off into the sky, "Wait, wait!" he demanded while reaching out at him, only to watch as the dense fog soon faded away.

"...What the hell was that all about…" Guts muttered with a glare as the fog wall faded, "...and who was that…" he followed up muttering to himself.

"Guts!" Saria's voice chimed in from behind him, making Guts express a look of surprise as he lowered the axe and looked over to see Saria look at him in confusion, "Try not to get too far away, okay?" she asked him.

Guts gave Saria a confused look, and nodded while relaxing his grip on the axe to let it lean against his shoulder; he had just turned around to look for Saria and the others, but now here he was with his back turned to them.

Giving Saria a grunt of acknowledgement with a minor nod of his head, she returned to giving Mido an earful of being nicer to everyone.

Guts turned a bit to look around the woods, either the place was haunted, he was hallucinating, or some mystical shit was going on…he did not know what to do with whatever that Skull Rider said. It was too cryptic for him to understand. 'Curse of demise? Weight of the world?' Guts was not sure if he should ask Saria about what he experienced, or defer to that Giant Tree.

Whatever the case may be, he was going to be more on guard in the woods.

Chapter Text

Lost Woods

From walking through a hollowed out massive tree walkway, and entering into a massive area that beheld a temple on the far end, Guts saw that beside the Temple, the rest of the area between where he and the Kokiri walked out from, there was quite a massive sprawling ruin that looked like a large village made from mossy stone once existed in the deepest parts of the woods; Guts's eyes trailed across the view from where he and the others stood, seeing that there was a massive wall separating the mossy stone village with a single opening that led into what he could only assume was a maze.

Figuring it was some form of defense for the village's temple from an unknown form of invaders, Guts kept his ear open as he walked around to look for any specific fallen tree that looked like it would suffice for the target boards; Saria was already instructing her fellow Kokiris to not go too far into the maze ahead, leaving Guts to know he was correct in thinking the thing ahead was maze.

Halting at the center of the village ruins, shifted the weight of the axe against his shoulder a bit, Guts panned his eyes to look around more and see that there were quite a few fallen trees that had collapsed over the mossy stone building; the buildings however were quite sturdy in the fact that none of the trees that had seemingly grown atop them and fell over from rot had caved in, whatever the mossy stone were made of were quite hardy indeed.

"Guts!" Saria's voice broke him from his thoughts, prompting him to glance over at Saria as she approached him with a warm smile, "See if you can get to work on that tree over there!" she requested while pointing at the tree that nearly blocked the entrance to the maze with its top half.

Guts nodded and grunted in acknowledgement, "These trees look pretty old…not sure if they're too rotted out to make anything good out of them." he remarked, unsure if the Kokiri could make the target boards from the fallen tree Saria requested him to chop at.

"Oh, it's fine." Saria assured Guts as she stood back to let Guts get to work in hacking at the fallen tree, "We just need to get the best parts of the old trees, and it would be good to have some of this place cleaned up and honor our ancestors at the same time." she explained with a grateful smile.

"Ancestors huh?" Guts asked with a tone of indifference as he went to work in chopping at the center mass of the fallen tree, lifting the axe up he still held and slammed the wedge down into the tree with a loud and dull 'thunk', sending bits of wood splinters out from the impact, before lifting the axe up to repeat the same process.

While Saria remained behind Guts to stay safely out of the way, she expressed a shine in her eyes as she palmed her hips and explained to Guts a bit of her race's history, "Yup!" She answered, "From what I know after asking the Great Deku Tree, our ancestors were once ordinary Hylians!" she explained.

"Hmm." Guts grunted as he chopped more into the fallen tree, behind both him and Saria, the rest of the Kokiri were gathering up debris and scattered deku nuts left over seemingly from Deku Scrubs, some were even keeping an eye out for any potential threats. "How does that even work for your people to become what you guys are now?" he asked, unsure how that all made sense.

Saria offered an amused chuckled of warm as she scratched at her cheek, watching Guts continue in making headway through chopping the fallen tree in half, "That's fair, it's what I thought to, but to make things simple from what I know, our ancestors wanted to live closer to nature, and distanced themselves from the wider population of civilization…" she explained further.

"Can't see why they'd do that…" Guts remarked as he grunted in effort while getting almost through the tree he was chopping, a large divet was now prominent from Guts hacking at the fallen log; the boy's expression was of concentrated effort with his brow furrowed, "Wild life seems to enjoy sticking closer to the woods than the open plains of Hyrule…or at least…the rabbits I've seen do…not sure about the wolves…" he added, remembering the fight he had against the wolves that saw him as simple prey amongst the pile of dead bodies.

Guess they wanted fresh meat or something, poor choice on the wolves part.

As Guts slammed the axe against the tree's side, wood chips flew, leaving him just about one fourth of a ways to go, leaving Guts an annoyed scowl. Backing up to catch his breath and rest the axe on the ground, Guts turned to converse more with Saria face to face, "But whatever, guess living with some special tree nearby or whatever did something that made you guys like what you are now…" he shrugged, sweat partially beginning to form on his forehead.

The world was vast, and there were many races that lived across the lands, so one could only figure there was more to the world beneath the surface that Guts had seen so far.

Saria giggled a bit at Guts's behavior, expressing amusement at his nonchalant attitude towards her history, "Yeah, I suppose you are right." she offered a shrug to the boy, before she glanced at the ruins around them, "The Great Deku Tree even once said he isn't the first Tree Guardian of my Race, many more came before him, all have aged and died but not before letting a sprout grow in their place to secure the future for us Kokiri and Koroks!" She allowed herself a wane smile, thinking of how the Great Deku Tree had stated that his time was nearing its end.

With his back turned towards Saria, he didn't notice the wane smile as he wiped his brow and went back to hacking at the fallen tree with his axe, "Well it figures, a tree doesn't last forever, so that large Tree Guardian of yours will definitely age, rot and die. Not like anyone can stop that shit…" he stated bluntly, the dull thunking of wood being hacked by the axe echoed throughout the woods.

Thinking more on the matter to himself, he connected the dots between his discussion with that know-it-all brother Pici, and how he said the Great Deku Tree warned the Kokiri to never leave or they'll age and die or some shit; it didn't take hard thinking for Guts to figure the two were connected.

"Hey!" Mido's grumpy voice broke into the conversation, leaving Guts to pause as he slammed the axe down once again into the fallen tree, before he let the axe rest against the tree so that he could release the handle from his grip and turn to give the Kokiri boy a glare; Mido was stomping over along with a few other Kokiri who expressed worry and curious looks, "What's this about the Great and Mighty Deku Tree dying!?" he demanded with a 'harumph' and arms crossed as he stood across from Saria.

Saria on the other hand winced, before offering the majority of the Kokiri a sympathetic smile, forgetting that her voice had carried on far enough for their conversation to be heard, "Uh, right…I was going to discuss this matter later, but I supposed now would be a good time to spread the word."

"The Great Deku Tree is going to die?"
"What's going to happen to us!?"
"Who's going to protect us!?"
"Are we going to really shrivel and die with the Great Deku Gone?"
"Oh dear…I thought the Deku Tree looked a bit awful on the inside."

The last bit was spoken from Fado with a rare look of worry and sadness, while the rest clamored for Saira to explain herself. Guts glanced between Saria and the others, before making his voice be heard, "Well, what did you think would happen with a tree, even if it's that Great Deku Tree of yours!?" He sardonically remarked, an annoyed scowl spreading across his face.

Magical tree or not, all things die eventually.

Mido glared over at Guts, and shook his fist at the boy, "Shut it! We weren't asking you, outsider!" he retorted back, only earning a flat and unbothered look from Guts.

"Okay, please, just stop!" Saria demanded with a stern look and hands out in a halting manner between the boys, before facing the Kokiri with a downcast look, "Look, I know he's been a big part our whole lives, before we even came into being born, but we can't deny that Guts is right. Trees grow, age, and wither away, and the Great Deku Tree is no exception to that."

"Tch." Mido spat to the side with a grumpy look, and sneered a bit, "I don't believe ya!" he declared, before marching off, "The Great Deku Tree is probably just under the weather or something, ain't something as death going to claim him!" He denied the reality of the situation

While the rest of the Kokiri stayed silent, Saria offered them a simple smile, "look." She clasped her hands with a gentle smile, "We can deny it all we want, but time will always move forward for everyone, it is an inevitability for us all." she explained with a somber smile.

"Right." one of the know-it-all brothers remarked, nodding his head in agreement, "It does make sense. If the great Deku Tree were younger, I'd bet we'd be able to leave the woods just fine. That makes sense why he warned us not to leave the woods."

"Right!" Saria agreed with the brother, before clapping her hands once, "But hey, enough somber and mopey stuff!" she tried to cheer everyone up with a brimming smile, "With every dying Deku Tree, a new life is born, this is not the end of anything, just a new beginning that will rise! And I am sure our Guardian Deku Tree already has planned ahead for this!" She encouraged them all.

While the somber atmosphere began to drain away towards a brighter one, the Kokiri kids began parting off to continue their activities of gathering up the debris and sawing up smaller fallen logs. One of the Know-it-all brother, Pici, stayed behind as he looked at Guts's work, "Well…" he began to say while pocketing his hands and looking at the fallen tree that the boy had been chopping away way, "Looks like you're a good ways finished." he commented, before looking at Guts through his hair bangs.

"If you want, I can cut the rest with my saw while you get to chopping a different part of the tree." Pici suggested with a haphazard shrug.

Guts looked back at Pici, and offered a careless shrug back, "Knock yourself out, beats cutting the damn thing the whole way alone." he answered, before reaching for the axe and picked it up to carry it down with him towards the trunk of the fallen tree.

"Yup." Pici agreed as he pulled his hands out from his pockets and walked back to his tools to carry back a hand saw and begin sawing the area that Guts chopped at.

While Saria offered Pici a grateful smile, she frowned a bit as she turned her head and glanced where Mido was walking off to the edge of the village ruins. The brash and arrogant boy was definitely in denial, compared to the rest of the other Kokiri, and as much as she was annoyed by the behavior of Mido, she still tried to look out for everyone, including him; but knowing Mido, he was as stubborn as Guts but in his own way with expressing himself.

Well, that was pretty much the whole story for most boys, but Between Mido and Guts, the two of them had their own varying degrees of stubborn attitudes.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the negative thoughts brewing in her mind, Saria steeled herself to enjoy the coming days the best she could.

Hyrule Castle

While her personal royal guard Mikau made sure to keep her within his sights, Ruto still wanted to wonder a bit from her mother, that grown up stuff was still going on in the King's hall. With Mikau not far behind her as she walked the halls of the castle, Ruto came to a stop where she witnessed the sight of a private garden. She had passed by it while trailing behind her mother, but now she was allowed to wander a bit with supervision. She could tour the castle.

Pressed her palm up against the roof pillar to lean bit against it, Ruto hummed to herself as she viewed the garden. A lot of it was bushes with some sparse flowers in pottery, there was also a small aqueduct that allowed running water to flow along the side of the garden. 'It all looks nice…but where is the water coming from?" Princess Ruto questioned herself mentally.

Her personal guard Mikau seemed to have picked up on her silent observation as his que to speak up, "Looking at the mini Aqueduct, princess?" He questioned her with an earnest tone as he stood not far from her beside another pillar.

Ruto nodded as she pointed out her fingers at the running water, "Just wondering where all that water is coming from…how is it here and flowing when the water moat is at a lower level?" she asked him, her puzzlement was visible on her face.

Mikau observed where Ruto was pointing before she retracted her finger from the air and relaxed her arm against her side, "I can think of a few way, Princess, one involves a waterwheel that brings the water up while using the assistance of the flowing water in the moat around the castle to spin it." he suggested, his tone relaxed and calm.

Ruto nodded her head, picturing the idea of a waterwheel in some ways bringing the water up to the aqueduct for the personal garden to have its own running water.

The sound of small footsteps accompanied by larger ones brought both Ruto's and Mikau's attention to the right, seeing a young girl walking towards them with a Sheikah beside her, "Ah." Ruto began to remark with a look of realization, "And you must be Princess Zelda, correct?" she asked.

As the girl fully approached her and halted with her attendant standing by her, she nodded with a calm smile, "I am!" she answered towards the princess of Zoras, "And you must be Ruto, correct!?" she asked in return.

"Hmhm." Ruto nodded back, as both Princesses faced each other appropriately, not seeing their personal guards give sharp looks at each other, "you have an interesting garden here." she commented.

Princess Zelda offered Ruto a simple smile, "Thanks." she responded bashfully, and continued to speak, "But I wasn't the one that ordered it to be made, it was around long before I was born." she explained.

Ruto nodded in understanding, "That would make sense." she responded, while making a momentary glance at the garden before looking back at Zelda, "Is there any part of the Castle that is your favorite?" she inquired in an earnest tone, wanting to know if the Princess had a favorite spot within her home.

"There is!" Princess Zelda answered, expressing a brimming smile, before shyly looking up at her Attendant, "Impa, is alright if I show Princess Ruto my private Garden!?" she asked.

The guardian of the princess looked down at her with an encouraging smile, "It should be fine, this is an exchange of diplomacy, so it would be best for you and Princess Ruto to try and make a friendship out of it." she gave her charge a nod.

Ruto expressed some curiosity in her eyes towards Zelda, "You have your own garden!?" she asked.

"Of course!" Zelda answered, and motioned for the two Zora to follow her and Impa, "Come, we can talk more there and see my garden!"

"Yeah!" Ruto agreed with the princess, following her to the Garden, curious to ask what sort of princess stuff the Hylian princess did compared to what she did as a Zora princess.

As Ruto followed Zelda to her personal Garden, a stray thought roamed her mind of pondering about a certain boy that saved her life; the battle that took place around Zora's river and domain had caused an immense damage, to the point that boulders were used by the Gorons during the battle in the threeway battle.

It was one of the reasons much of the path leading up to Zora's domain was blockaded by many rocks and boulders.

Ruto didn't know where young that one boy was, but he was amongst those ruffian looking soldiers that looked nothing like the other Hylian soldiers; Her father had said those ruffians were called hired fodder, something she didn't know the meaning of yet. Both of her parents insisted they tell her more what the war was really about, and what all happened in it.

She just wanted to know where that boy came from, and why he bothered to save her if he was with the Hylians fighting against her people; nonetheless, she was thankful for the rescue.

Mikau

The same set of thought ran through the mind of Mikau, as he walked not far beside Impa whilst the both of them trailed behind their charges. Ever since the personal guard had arrived with his princess, he had kept an eye open for the young boy. For being someone so young and a part of an enemy faction, he never considered any soldier, nonetheless a mercenary to put aside his differences to kill his own ally to rescue an enemy's princess.

To this day, it still brought shame to the royal guard that the battle took place so close to the royal grounds of Jabu Jabu; what's worse, they had to use their old ways of using magic to freeze the water from Jabu Jabu's domain after its dam was blown up, bless Jabu Jabu for managing to survive the entire ordeal.

Past

Seeing one of his fellow Zora get killed in such a fashion by a mere child, Mikau scowled a bit as he witnessed the boy toss the dead Zora off from him and charged at another one of his fellow guardsmen 'Barbarian.' ran through Mikau's mind, before pressing against the soldier he was in the middle of fighting with his spear.

"Hyah!" Mikau exhaled with a yell while swinging a flipper foot around to kick the soldier back and spear him through the skull, brain matter spilling out the other end along with the end of his spear, 'these mercenaries are mere fodder, but it is draining us by the hour to fight them off along with the Royal Soldiers and Gorons at the same time!' Mikau grimaced as he chased after the boy once he pulled his spear free to avenge his fallen brethren, 'Child or not, you're an enemy!' were Mikau's thoughts as his feet made splashes in the ankle deep water of Jabu Jabu's premises.

Their Guardian Deity was luckily deep underwater, leaving the top surface free of any sight of him.

"Help! Help!" Ruto's shrilling screams put a halt to Mikau's attempt to chase after the boy, and for some reason, it brought the boy's attention as well as he slid through the water to a halt; both of them watch a hulking looking male run out from the entrance to the domain of the Zora with Princess Ruto under his arms, the man's face expressing a very foul look on his face as if he got himself a lucky prize, "Let me go!" the princess cried out, tears spilling from her eyes in protest.

"Grrr! Put her down Donavon! She's not a soldier or anything damn it!" The boy protested with a disgusted and angered look, before charging at the male mercenary soldier he called out for with his sword raised.

Mikau ran too, as whatever familiarity the boy had with the man, he did not like the man at all to a high degree, "Princess!" Mikau shouted out for her, as the man ran off with her under his arms, a few men emerging not longer after him carrying with them spoils of their home, from bags to their woman, it disgusted Mikau that these mercenaries were doing such grotesque behavior in the middle of battle.

It seemed the Boy cared not for the other man too, as he went through his own men, cutting at their legs with his sword while keeping his eyes trained on the Donavon character with a savage snarl of disgust.

"Bastard!"
"Traitor!"
"I'll fucking kill you!"
"I'll make sure Gambino kills you!"

There was definitely no love lost between the boy and his fellow hired soldiers, as the boy shouted back at them, "Die in the fucking water for all I care!" He raged while continuing his sprint towards Donavan, who had leapt over the waterfall with Princess Ruto still under his arm.

Mikau made quick work of the men the boy cut down by the legs, quickly stabbing each one in the head as he chased after the boy and that Donavan character, at the very least, he might owe the boy later if he did help save the princess from the creep; Seeing the boy leap after Donavon, Mikau wasn't long before he leapt as well over the waterfall to chase the man down through the river.

Present

While Mikau stood at the entrance of Princess Zelda's garden, his thoughts remained on how fast the boy chased after that Donavon before eventually catching up with the man and leaping to running him through the heart from the back and out the front.

When he asked why the boy risked such an effort to save the princess of the enemy he was hired to fight, the boy gave him a simple answer, 'I never liked the fucker, he always looked at me in a creepy way, now I just had an excuse to actually get rid of that fucker.' the boy told him with a savage smirk, before leaving the scene.

It still chills Mikau's spine to this day of what may have happened with the princess if that boy hadn't opted to chase after the man, 'Wait…what's your name!' his past voice rang in his mind of his earnest question of the boy's name.

He never did get the boy's name, and he never saw him again during the battle of Zora's river.

"You seem to be in deep thought over there." Impa's voice brought Mikau out of his past experience of the war.

While Ruto was still being shown around the Garden by Zelda, Mikau turned his head to look over at the Sheikah with an inquisitive glance, "I was…just thinking of the battles." he answered her calmly.

Giving him a sideways look while keeping her princess in her peripherals, Impa spoke back to him in a low voice, letting her tone not be carried off for the princess to hear them as the two of them had a private conversation between each other, "Look more like you were thinking of something more specific…" she pointed out, as if she could read him like a book.

Mikau on the other hand shook his head and responded while looking back towards his princess, "It's nothing really, just some random thought about a Hylian boy that I met."

Impa offered the Zora guardsmen a shrug of her shoulders before she too resumed keeping an eye on her princess, "Why? What did that boy do?" she asked.

".....it's…complicated." Mikau answered, unsure how to actually explain the entire events to the Sheikah, he wasn't obligated to tell her anything, but he could just to pass the time.

"Well…I'm all ears and curious…" Impa responded, an honest curious tone slipped into her voice.

Mikau scratched at his head before crossing his arms, the day felt like it was dragging on, "...Well…it all started during the battle of Zora's river…" he began to explain.

Chapter Text

Hyrule Field

While there were still dead bodies strewn throughout the battlefields, of which many were now rotting by now with crows and buzzards picking at the scraps leftover from what the wild wolves and Wolfos; plenty of the bodies that were once there had been retrieved by the service of undertakers to haul the bodies off to the massive cemetery behind Kakiriko village. It was a dirty and laborious job, compounded by the fact that soldiers were required to aid in guarding the undertakers from the wildlife and beasts, so they could perform their duties unhindered.

The best that the undertakers could take back to the cemetery by now were the bones of the soldiers, some still having flesh that rotted and maggots infesting them.

From atop a hill however, a pack of wolves observed it all from afar, keeping their distance from the humans and other races that had come to collect their dead; among them, sitting back on his hunches, was a large black Wolf. The wolf pack leader. His eyes were seething red, it was the leader that commanded obedience and tributes, else any wolf or Wolfos that dared go up against it, would find themselves dead or maimed in the worst way.

As of the moment, the beast was waiting with its main pack for the majority of the rest to return with the remaining bits of corpses they could collect from the battlefields; he lifted his snout up and sniffed, before lowering his snout. There was one packing, returning with less numbers than when they left.

Standing up on all fours, the beast narrowed its eyes in anger, at both the pack that was returning and the reason they were coming back with less wolves and barely anything to show for it. If there was one thing the beast disdained, it was failure. It reflected back on him, and it made him want to tear the returning pack of wolves apart.

A harsh guttural growl exited out through his throat, prompting the lesser wolves and wolfos that surrounded it to back away in caution, lest they suffer their leader's wrath.

For the beat however, it would not tear the pack apart that was returning up the hill he stood on, their tails down between their legs in submission, some even managed to carry with them some meager meat in some manner of appeasement to him; quite a few wore sword gashes on them, that helped explain the problem of why the wolf pack were returning with less numbers. They foolishly went after some swordsman when they had all the deadmeat available many nights ago.

Serves them right.

The beast narrowed its eyes at the leader of the pack, as he approached him. "You…explain…." The beast barked out, his guttural bark echoed off, making most of the other wolves and wolfos back away more while lowering their heads in subservience.

The wolf leader held a nasty scar across its snout, while a deep wound was gouged through its side; the wolf grouched back at the beast with a snarl, he dared not show cowardice to the beast leader, the beast showed no mercy to the cowards of all the packs under his reign. "We…went after….fresh meat….a human pup…figured it would….be easy…." The pack leader howled back, his jaws moving a bit to allow the language of the beasts to flow through his throat.

The Beast responded to the wolf pack leader, by snapping at the air in front of the wolf, missing mere millimeters from the snout of the wolf. "A mere pup…did this….Nonsense!" He barked back with a nasty snarl, and began to circle around the wolf, like a shark circling its prey, "No human pup…should have been able…to cut your numbers down...much less…take out a number of your pack!" The beast declared, refusing to believe a human pup could take on an entire pack of wolves.

The Wolf however did not stray from his spot, nor falter in front of his leader, he glared back balefully with a gaze of anger, "Believe me…or not….it was a human pup….he fought while injured….but struck back at us…like a beast…a cornered beast…." He snarled, his teeth showing while watching the beast leader circle around him.

The Beast snarled at the wolf as he came to a halt in front of him, and paced forward threateningly at the wolf pack leader, "An injured human pup…took out half your number?... I just kill you all…. just for the offense that such a thing MAY have happened…if it were true…." He barked angrily into the face of the wolf.

Remaining steadfast to show he was not lying, or else, the wolf remained calm on the outside, but held a scornful gaze in his eyes; whether he'd die here or not, he wanted it to be known that against all odds, some random human pup survived an entire wolf pack attack. It was embarrassing, he hated the fact they lost such numbers, and he wanted vengeance back, to repay that human pup with his teeth around his throat and rip it out.

"Mighty one…" The wolf spoke back in a guttural growl, "I know where that human pup went…give me and my back the chance…the chance to bring the corpse of that human back…to make amends and pay tribute for this slight against us!" He howled afterwards.

The beast padded over and snipped at the air again in front of the wolves snout, just barely missing the nose by millimeters, "Again! How do I know…you are not making this up…?" He snarled, before padding back where he was once sitting, and howled into the air, signaling for the entire pack of countless wolves and wolfos to gather.

The beast the turned to face the wolf with a seething snarl, "No…you will not be going alone…everyone will be going…take me to where this human pup bleed…I will sniff out his scent, and follow where you know he went…" The beast explained, as dozens of wolves and wolfos gathering up the hill around their almighty pack leader. It gaze narrowed down at the wolf with contempt.

The wolf stared back at the beast with a puzzled expression, "Mighty one…it has been many nights…and the water from the sky has fallen during one of them…none of our noses are that good to track a scent that old…." The scent should have been gone by now, along with whatever blood that had fallen from that human pup.

Speaking back to the wolf with a snarl while he padded forward, the Beast spoke with pride in itself while allowing the edges of its mouth to mimic that of a smirk, "For a common wolf…such as you…it is…but I am above all beasts…" He explained, not bothering to look back at the wolf as he followed the Beast.

As the Beast led the way, allowing the wolf to trail after him the wolf spoke back to the beast king, "What is your intention…with the human pup…wants we pin his location down?" The wolf questioned.

Not pausing in the slightest in his steps, the Beast gave the wolf a rabid and nasty grin while giving him a sideways look, "Simple…I'm putting your entire pack up against him…you either kill him, or he kills you and the remaining number of your pack…" He answered.

"...and…if he manages to survive again?" The wolf questioned the beast once more, and earned a guttural chuckle of mirth.

"Then the human pup's reward is my teeth ripping out his throat." The beast answered, leaving the wolf's question answered.

For the wolf, he had some modicum of assurance in this. The human pup has to have already healed by then, and nowhere near the state he was in when he survived the attack on him by his pack; even after he would no doubt fall under the blade of that pup, the Mighty Beast King would make sure to end the human pup's life.

Castle Wall

Atop the walls of the gate, standing outside a gatetower, Judeau had been observing the ongoing process of their people collecting whatever remained of their dead soldiers; part of the reason that it took them a while to collect their dead, was to steer clear of the wondering beast king and his packs of wolves and wolfos.

Judeau was sure their remaining soldiers and possible ceasefire allies could help fend off and defeat the Beat King, but everyone was already tired from the long civil war; at most, the wandering packs of wolves and wolfos minded their own business in eating the corpses across the battlefields.

With the peace talks and everything else that was going on, it was best to leave the Beast King and his packs of canines alone for the few weeks of peace talks; they could simply hunt down the major threat later on, as the canines never paid much attention to the lively soldiers and other races that roamed the battlefields. There was already enough dead meat for them to feast on, which would leave the undertakers to simply collect the bones of their people.

"Hey." A voice piped up from beside Judeau, earning his attention to his left to look at the owner of the voice. It was Bosh, one of his fellow Sheikah, the man was an adult member of the clan, and a subordinate to Impa, just like he was. The man gestured with his chin towards the front, "See what I'm seeing?" he asked Judeau, curiosity laced in his tone.

Judeau frowned a bit, before looking where Bosh's gaze was aimed at, and spotted what he saw. Just barely within viewable eyesight in the distance, Judeau held his hand over his eyes to block the glaring son, and saw what Bosh was talking about. "...Yeah…that's the Beast King…looks like he's…heading towards the woods…" he mused, an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Bosh scratched at the back of his head with his finger, and expressed a confused look on his face, "You think they're done feasting on the corpses all of a sudden, or perhaps they found a new place to gorge on meat?" his fellow Sheikah asked, curious about his own opinion.

Judeau however had other thoughts about what was going on. He had seen Guts fend himself from afar that fateful night, decimate an entire wolf pack while injured; now it looked like the Beast King had learned that one of his pack of wolves were attacked back, and was now on a hunt for the boy.

Judeau began to think quickly, his master had some express interest in the boy, and he would be a poor student of Impa if he didn't look out for the interests of her. With a narrowed gaze, Judeau gave a sideways look to Bosh, "I'll be back, I need to check on something. Tell Impa that something important came up that demanded me to head back to the woods." he requested, before hopping off from the wall and leapt to the moat below with a soft splash, disappearing from sight in the process.

Bosh looked curious but didn't argue with the boy as he peered over and saw no trace of the student of Impa, "...sure…" He answered to no one in particular. Whatever was going on, he didn't doubt the boy to stay safe. More than likely, he was probably heading off into the woods to warn the Great Deku Tree of the Beast King intruding into his woods.

Lost Woods

Having chopped up a decent amount of wood and removed plenty of debris from the old ruins, the group of Kokiri children were given the go to head back home with the supplies they needed for the slingshot contest; most of them having rushed on ahead after figuring which way to go, that left a sparse few others behind.

The only ones that remained behind were Fado, Saria, Mido and Guts. The present group that traveled through the woods were silent for a bit as they traveled through the lost woods; with a curious smirk on her face however, Fado decided to speak up as she walked in step with Guts.

"So, what sort of plans do you have on leaving?" She questioned, causing an annoyed look to pass over Mido's face, an uncertain gaze from Saria, and an unbothered look from Guts as he carried over his shoulder the axe.

Guts offered a hapless shrug as his eyes focused forward while Fado walked beside him. Saria was walking not far ahead of him to his right while Mido stuck to walking a fair bit away to the left. He spoke back to Fado with an unconcerned tone, "Been thinking about that few the past few days, actually." he answered.

"Good!" Mido sneered over at him, giving the Hylian boy a dirty look, "Try thinking of leaving sooner than later!" he exclaimed, and harrumphed after Saria shot him a glare.

"Mido!" Saria chided him, before giving Guts a glance back while she continued walking forward, "Look, Guts, you can live in our village as long as you like! I've even asked the Great Deku Tree, and he even said you are welcome to stay!" she encouraged the boy, expressing a brimming smile.

"What!?" Mido cried out, surprised that the Deku Tree would allow an outsider to stay amongst the Kokiri and Koroks.

Saria simply offered Mido back a rare smug look, "What, do you think you have any authority over us, much less the Great Deku Tree.?" She challenged Mido, earning a grumble from the other Kokiri

Fado took her time to giggle at the two, before giving Guts an amused smirk, "Well looks like you have enough to think on it now, so at least Saria can keep her little Hylian boy for the time being." She said in a teasing manner while at the same time giving Saria a sly look.

"Hey!" Saria protested, rounding on Fado as everyone continued to walk, she herself kept walking but turned a bit to glare at the other Kokiri girl, planting her hands on her hips while giving Fado an annoyed glare, "I'm just trying to help Guts out!" she admitted, before giving Guts an embarrassed chuckle while glancing over at him, who gave her a passing look, "Honest!"

Guts offered a shrug, his expression remained simple and unbothered by the conversation, kept his eyes forward between the two girls, "Doesn't matter to me…gives me more time to figure out what to do…all I've known was fighting for my life…" He remarked, earning a somber look from Saria, a curious one from Fado and while Mido kept to himself, he harrumphed with his arms crossed and head turned away.

As the group continued their trek through the woods, a the sudden sound of howls from dozens of canines could be heard echoing through the entire lost woods, making everyone halt in place and put on guard; Mido had to quickly pull his sword and shield off from his back to wield them, his expression was now uncertain and cautious, "w-w-what the? Why does it sound like there's dozens of them howling!?" he demanded, some nervous sweat fell from his brow.

As the self professed boss of the Kokiri, he did not want to show any cowardice like the last time, especially in front of the girls, not to mention he'd look pathetic compared to the Hylian boy; glancing over at the boy in question, the outsider looked angry and defensive while holding his axe out defensively. No, Mido did not want to look pathetic at all, when compared to the Hylian boy who looked ready to tear the potential threat apart.

For Saria, she was never one to fight, but she did keep a few deku nuts on hand for emergencies; she looked around cautiously as more howls echoed from the far west of the woods, the guttural noises sounded like they were coming closer. Saria looked over at Guts, and noticed he was already looking ready to fight the threat head on; looking over at Mido too, the boy was looking nervous and scared, but he was doing his best attempt at looking brave.

But they were doubtlessly outnumbered, judging by the number of howls.

Fado on the other hand, quickly pulled out her slingshot; the best she could do was aim at the threat's eyes and make a run for it, but with everyone she was with, they all needed to make a run for it. They were nowhere near the haven that was the Kokiri village, the staple of their home and where most of the Great Deku Tree's power persisted and ward off all threats.

But now they were out in the Lost Woods, unprotected by the Deku Tree.

Guts had other broiling emotions swelling up in him, some he didn't understand and others he was more than acquainted with; fear, anger, the need to survive, and a foreign one, the need to protect his benefactors that took him in and healed him. There was just one problem, he didn't have his sword, just the axe. It'd do some of the work in fending against the potential threat.

"Oi! Mido!" Guts called out with an annoyed grunt, keeping his guard up with his axe, while facing towards the incoming threat of wolves, "Take the girls back! Make a run for it! I'll hold back whatever's coming back!" He commanded, a snarl escaping his throat as more howls echoed off through the woods, heading toward his direction.

He had stories of wolves hunting down soldiers for killing their fellow wolves in revenge, but it wasn't as if he wasn't going to lay down and let those wolves kill him at the time; he had refused to die, he wanted to live, and now those remaining wolves brought more with them to settle the score.

Fine with him, he'd kill them all, and this time, he wasn't injured nor tired.

Mido sneered over at Guts, but kept his mouth shut. His knees already felt like they were shaking, and the Hylian boy was giving him an out to look cool by taking the girls back to the village for safety.

Saria opened her mouth to speak and protest, "What? No!" she shook her head, and glared at Guts, "We should all leave together!" she insisted.

Guts didn't look back at her, but replied back with an annoyed grunt, "whatever those wolves are coming for, it has to be me. I'm probably the one they are after." He explained, "I fought off a pack while escaping into the woods, and now they're coming back with more numbers to retaliate back!" he snarled in distaste, seething at the threat headed his way. He'd make sure to finish the job this time.

Fado on the other hand, knew something was wrong with the picture, and it was that Guts had no sword and only the axe to fight with; Running over to grab Saria's hand, who looked at her in a betrayed way, Fado looked back at her with a rare stern look, "Come on! We need to run back home and get Guts's sword! He can't fight with just an axe!" she pointed out.

Eyes widened in realization, before looking at Guts with uncertainty, she moved her mouth to speak before Guts cut her off.

"Get going! I can't fight whatever wolves are coming while you're all in the way!" Guts shouted back at the three of them, his gaze was wild in nature as if his primal nature was going into flight or fight, and his was going full force into fight; his mouth snarled in anger at the three of them.

But Saria was beginning to understand why Guts wanted the three of them to leave, for the mere week of peace and kindness he was given in contrast to the harsh life outside the woods, the boy had found something more than himself to fight for rather than simply fighting for survival. With a quick nod from Saria, she looked at Fado and gave her a firm look, "Right! We need to go!" she said quickly, before the two sprinted off, with Mido tailing behind to cover the rear.

While Mido was just outside of sight though as he ran, he gave a backwards glance to the outsider, "...Better not die…" he moped under his breath. The last thing he needed was Saria and Fado to be depressed for who knows how long over a single outsider.

The Beast King

Sniffing at the border of the woods, he howled to the sky after finding scent again of the human pup that had slain the pack of wolves under his control; it was a week old smell, but his powerful snout was able to pick up the scent against all odds and impossibility. The beast was above all other wolves and wolvos, over twice the size of any ordinary wolf and on his hind legs he stood over all wolfos.

The Beast's commanding force of dozens of canines howled with him, before he continued his trek into the woods, the injured wolf pack leader not far behind him with his pack as well. "Sniffed something else in the air…the human pup was just with some other…" The Beast sniffed again as he sprinted through the woods, his mouth curled into a nasty smile, "Smells like grass pups…that Tree's pups…" He described.

"Was?" The wolf barked back at his mighty leader, his eyes giving the beast a cursory glance before looking on ahead in his sprint, "Our Howls…it alerted the pup…he sent them away?" He questioned.

The beast laughed evilly in a guttural fashion, delight in his red seething eyes, "The pup knows we are coming…I intended our barks and howls to let our presence be known…he intends to fight us all off…such arrogance!" The beast crowed in eagerness to focus on tearing the boy limb from limb.

The wolf however was uncertain, the human pup was already able to fight off an entire pack on his own, while injured, he even remembered how the boy looked; tired, dazed, weary, and on his final breath.

But in the end, the human pup fended off his entire pack and sent them off from sustaining any more loss in their numbers.

And yet, here they were, about to try and settle the score; the wolf was entirely unsure if the second time would be any closer in the death of the human pup, a week was more than enough time for the boy to heal significantly up. Giving his mighty leader a glance, the wolf took in some satisfaction that beyond his death against the boy, there was no way he'd survive the fight against the mighty beast.

No other beast, wolf or wolfos had ever come close to managing any semblance of digging a claw into him or sink their fangs into his hide; the beast was just on another plane of beasthood, it was one of the main reasons the beast commanded so many packs under his authority.

As the Beast continued leading his entire packs through the woods, keeping the scent of the human pup in his mind and following it to where he could tell where the boy was, he steered clear of the boundary of the Tree's domain; as much as it annoyed him, he could never enter the territory of the tree and his pups. The tree had some sort of barrier of some kind that repelled any and all beasts, including him.

He sniffed the air again. The smell he sniffed earlier, clued the beast that the human pup had taken shelter at edge of the woods, an attempt to most likely recover from his wounds; the other scents he picked up, were three separate other ones, leading the beast to believe the children of the tree picked the human pup up and took him into their village of protection.

After having sniffed again, he had smelled the three same scents that had parted from the human pup and were already in their village; whatever they intended to do, they should just cower in their village and stay there if they knew what was good for them.

"Are we anywhere near… the pup?" The wolf pack leader questioned the beast, earning an annoyed guttural snarl, but expressed an amused toothy grin nonetheless.

"Yes…" The beast spoke back to the wolf, the scent of the boy becoming clearer and closer, "He's waiting for us…such foolishness…" He remarked devilishly.

For the wolf however, his gaze was full of uncertainty, he still remembered how feral and wild the boy fought, how the human pup snarled like a wild dog barking at a threat, willing to take them all down with him.

Chapter Text

Lost Woods

Guts awaited the incoming threat, his ears strained as he listened to the sounds of the ever enclosing padding of paws and barking of canines; the sounds made him grip the handle of his axe ever tighter as the threats drew nearer.

Eventually, dozens of eyes peered through the darkness of the woods, all aimed at him, all while he bared his teeth back at them with a seething glare; his grip tightened on the axe handle and kept it at a ready stance to strike at any given moment. Dozens of barks and growls echoed from the edge of the clearing he was in, the sounds of teeth snapped at the air reached his ears, as if the predators found their prey and were licking their teeth of the morsel they were about to tear into.

Guts allowed an annoyed and angry growl to escape from his throat back at the wolves, ever glaring back, "What are you waiting for!?" He yelled back, a tense smirk found its way across his face. "I'm right here!" he yelled again.

More barks and howls yipped through the woods, before finally all grew silent; from the center of the glaring eyes that peered through the darkness of the trees, two large ones appeared; Guts furrowed his brow in consternation, the eyes were seething red, unlike the rest of the yellow eyes, they were also higher above the ground than the rest, leaving Guts to try and picture how big the wolf was.

From out of the trees, Guts witnessed a black Wolf emerge, the paws it walked on were as large as his face, the height of the wolf made it look taller than an adult horse; Guts sweated a bit now, but kept a hard glare on. He watched the black wolf halt and stand and glare back at him. 'What…what the hell is that thing!? Where the hell did this thing come from!?" Guts mentally questioned himself,

It wasn't long before a pack of wolves emerged from the darkness of the trees as well, all of which were wounded by a sword by the looks of it; Guts couldn't help but cynically smirk a bit, "Well now…" He began to say, the pack leader wolf eyeballed him with his own glare, "Come to try and finish the job…that your master or something that you cried back to?" he sarcastically questioned.

This entire situation was now looking bizarre and out of hand, he was more than sure of himself he could handle a pack of wolves, but there were now more than what he fought last time. "Not to mention, that big ass wolf is with them…where did that thing from!?" Guts thought to himself. "And this axe isn't even going to cut it if…no when that damn thing decides to join in if all these wolves came to kill me…" He continued his train of thought, while giving a quick glance at the axe he held.

Before Guts could continue dwelling on his thoughts on the coming conflict, the big black wolf suddenly spoke with a guttural and gravelly voice that caused the boy to look at the beast in mild surprise. "So…this is the pup…that dwindled your numbers…pathetic…" he said, giving Guts a hateful glare.

Undeterred by being called pathetic, he's been called worse, but his inner thoughts were another matter, "Of course the damn thing talks…" He remarked, before voicing loudly back at the beast with an annoyed snarl while giving the black wolf a wry smirk, "What, don't think a kid can kill a pack of wolves singlehandedly?" he shot back, bravado slipping into his tone to ease him into his situation, for all that it was worth.

The Beast simply eyed Guts back with an unnatural amused smirk that twisted through its snout, "Wasn't talking…to you…pup…I've seen and eaten children that had less…muscle on them…than you…" The beast spoke back in a wretched tone of glee and amusement, before a frown replaced his smirk.

The Big Wolf beast lowered his head and turned his attention to the pack leader wolf that had scars on his face and body, "But that does not…excuse…the failure of this one…this one had the number advantage…while you…" The beast continued to speak as it raised its head back and looked back at Guts with a salivating grin of malice, "Were injured. Tired. One foot in the death spiral. I look forward to feasting on you for a snack…." the beast said, its seething red eyes shining with the intent to rip Guts in half.

Guts, not willing to back down to the implied threat, his fight or flight instincts going full on into fight mode, he simply smirked back at the beast with a crazed look in his eyes that dilated from the rush of adrenaline that was swimming through his body; he began to feel his heart beat faster in his chest, it felt like he was on the battlefield again, a time of when he did not know if he'd survive or not. A situation he knew no outcome of.

"I like to see you try!" Guts spat back, his teeth grinded a bit as he steeled his nerves, he dearly hoped Saria and Fado would return with that sword of his or something, this axe was definitely not going to cut it…but he was going to make sure he made the best out of it. "I've faced worse situations than this, I'm not just some kid that you can chew on like a treat, Fido!" he continued speaking, spite laced into his tone as he spoke.

Was it wise to shoot his mouth off like that to the horse sized beast in front of him? Definitely not. Does he care? No. Rather he fight against this damn thing and show no ounce of fear, than to look pathetic and allow this beast any semblance of pleasure of making him quake in his boots.

The Beast snarled and barked, before the scarred wolf from before padded forward along with what remained of his pack, Guts could only assume it was the beast's telling the pack of wolves he doubtlessly fought off from before to try and finish the job.

They were more than welcome to try.

With yips and barks, the scarred wolves hounded towards him with open jaws, intent on sinking their teeth into him; Guts roared back with fury as he charged in as well towards the rabid wolves. He'd make sure to make quick work of them all, lop their heads off with the axe like the pathetic animals they were.

Two of the wolves leapt into the air, aiming for his shoulders, that much Guts saw as he rushed in, while the rest circled around him; swing the handle of his axe up, he slammed the wedge of his axe into the wolf's head on the right, causing it to barely yip in pain from having its brain caved in from the wedge. Guts continued the trajectory of his axe with the wolf's head still on the metal, slamming the wolf on the left in the air as well, making it yip in pain from getting its head struck by the other's skull and batted out of the air.

The momentum of his axe brought the wolf stuck on the wedge of his axe to fly off along with the other one after Guts brought the axe to a halt, causing both bodies of wolves to roll carelessly along the ground. Without thinking, Guts rounded behind him after seeing through his peripherals the other wolves circling around him to strike from his blind spots.

Twisting the axe in his hands, Guts swung it around to bring it down on a vastly approaching wolf that was about to sink his teeth into the back of his neck, the wedge of the axe itself finding it way into the center of the canine's skull, causing brain matter, skull bits and blood to go flying, some splattering onto his own face.

Not to cease the momentum of his swing, He tossed the dead body of the wolf off behind him and brought it up to swing it from the side towards another incoming wolf that was intending to strike from the sideline. With a harsh whine and yip, he sunk the axe into the canine's rib cage; the force of his hit allowed him to bat the wolf off across the clearing, a stream of blood and viscera trailed behind the wolf's body as its now dead carcass flew through the air and smack with loud squelch into a random tree.

Turning on his feet, Guts brought the axe's handle up to block two incoming wolves that were attempting to strike at his back while he was busy; the wolves gnawed at the wood as he held them up, their gaze hateful and spiteful at him.

He quickly smirked fiendishly back at them as he leaned back and spun them around while they insisted on keeping their teeth sunk into the handle of his axe; using the wolves' own body against their own kind, Guts slammed the both of them into another incoming wolf that had leapt up into the air and down at him from a high angle.

The Wolf yelped in pain as its own fellow wolves were slammed into it, causing all three to go flying back away from Guts, the collision having caused the two wolves to receive the blunt force and whiplash of the bodies and made them release their teeth from the wood of the axe.

Settling for a moment, Guts kept a firm grip on the axe and assessed his situation now; a few wolves down…counting a upwards if a dozen or more scarred wolves, he had his work cut out for him before that big bastard of a black wolf bothered to come in and try his luck. None of the other wolves were bothering to join in, and neither were the ones that looked like they were standing upright. He really did have his work cut out for him if those other ones came in to try and take him on.

Taking more stock of the situation, he now realized the remaining scarred and wounded wolves were now assessing their situation, probably to find some way to injure him.

They can try, they're better off just being fodder to tire him out, which made it a problem for him once that big black beast decides enough was enough and comes in.

And Guts was not sure if the axe could hold up in that fight…..much less him…and he hated that feeling of uncertainty.

Kokiri Village

From out of the hollowed out log entrance to the village, Saria, Mido and Fado were sprinting out, Mido himself had finally stumbled over himself and tripped after feeling the safety of finally reach the village; Fado on the other moved to help Mido up, "There's no time to trip on your feet!" She warned in a rare moment of being serious, "We need to get everyone alerted while Saria gets Guts's sword!" she somewhat yelled in worry.

While Saria was already off in the distance in her sprint towards the treehouse of Guts's new dwelling, Mido looked up at the face of Fado and reluctantly agreed with her. She was right, everyone needed to either get inside their homes or arm up and be ready at a moment's notice if any of those wolves dare approach the border of the Great Deku Tree's village.

As Fado helped Mido stand up and split to warn everyone of the impending danger, and to make sure no one was out in the woods, Saria was on approach to the Treehouse. "Navi! Navi!?" She hollered out, the fairy companion of Guts having stayed behind, as the trek into the woods was supposed to be a simple matter.

Not become some dire situation.

While the wolves and most likely wolfos wouldn't be able to enter the village, there were still the friendly Deku Scrubs and Skull Kids to worry about in the woods.

"Oh, Saria?" Navi's voice chimed back, the fairy flew from out of the small home of Guts and hovered above the railing and ladder, "Is something-"

Saria on the other hand was already climbing up the ladder however, and interrupted the fairy, "No time, Where's Guts's sword! He needs it!" she shouted, her voice filled with worry, Causing the face of Navi to frown and worry back at the state that Saria was in as she rushed into the tree house.

"OH! Well it should be over there!" Navi quickly answered as she followed Saria into the home, and hovered above the sword of Guts, leaning up against the bed. As Saria moved to grab it, Navi kept talking, "I mean, I did find it weird he didn't bring it with him, but-" she paused and watched Saria struggle to pick the thing up.

"Pici and…Pephu weren't…kidding…" Saria struggled to say through each attempt to pick Guts's sword. She had the two of the three know-it-all brothers go back into the woods and carry Guts's sword back and store it up here at the time. "This thing…is really heavy!" She gritted out through her teeth in her earnest attempt to lift the sword, her grip on the hilt was firm and strong but she was getting no give.

"Yo, Saria." Speak of the goddesses, that was Pici. His voice echoed back up to her while it sounded like a set of footsteps were climbing the ladder outside the treehouse, "We heard from Mido what happened." He said, as he and Pephu rushed in, "...need us to help?" He asked afterwards after seeing Saria still struggle with the sword.

Saria laughed nervously before getting back to a serious face, "Right, please! Help me get this sword to Guts!" She pleaded.

Pici and his brother nodded in agreement, and rushed in to pick the sword up together, it was easier as a two person job than one. The last time he could barely pick the thing up and hold it steady, and it made him question how Guts had grown up to wield such a sword. "Heave ho." He grunted as Saria backed away.

"Heave ho." Pephu repeated his brother as the both of them hefted the sword up from both ends while it was still in its sheath, and carried it outside, "We'll need to toss it over the rails, we can't carry this heavy thing down the ladder!" Pephu cautioned, getting a nod of agreement from his brother.

Saria walked ahead of the brothers and climbed down the ladder outside the treehouse and waited for the brothers to exit the place. She had to quickly move to the side out of the way when she heard one of the brothers suggest they needed to toss the sword over the railings.

She watched as the brothers toss the thing over, making the sword cause a dull thud into the ground before the brothers hopped down like Guts did to cut down time on getting down from the treehouse. "Right. How fast can you guys carry it?" she asked in a hurry.

The two brothers in turn were already rushing to the sword and picked it up to heft it evenly over their shoulders, both brothers gave Saria a thumbs up, "We're good!" They said unison, before jogging off with the hefty sword carried on the two brothers shoulders back towards the lost woods. They were lucky there was no need to climb up to the woods behind Saria's home, else Saria was sure it would take longer to take the sword to Guts.

Lost Woods

Guts growled in anger and pain as one of the wolves finally managed to getting their teeth sunk into him, the wolf itself was able to bite into his shoulder and kept an iron grip with its jaws on him; from the corner of his eyes and in front of him, two more scarred wolves were rushing in at him, jaws open and saliva dripping.

The fuckers thought they had him, but he's dealt with worse wounds. With a nasty smirk, Guts reached up with one of his hands while keeping his other on the axe's handle, and grabbed at the throat of the wolf, using the pressure of his fingers to find purchase into the thinnest part of the outer fur and strangle the canine's windpipe. "Like ripping at your preys' throats!?" He questioned rhetorically while the other wolves from earlier leapt at him, aiming their open jaws at his own throat and other shoulder respectively.

"Well so do I!" Guts yelled in seething anger as he ripped the throat of the wolf, causing it to release its jaw from Guts's shoulder and fall limp to the ground below and gurgle choke on its own blood from its own ripping open throat.

While his fist was still clenched from ripping the throat of the previous wolf out, he aimed the momentum of his fist into the snout of the wolf coming for his own throat, and punched the wolf out of the air with a loud smack. The body of the wolf that Guts punched ended up colliding into the other wolf that was going for his other shoulder, giving Guts the opportunity to recover momentarily before returning his hand to grip the axe handle with both hands once more.

Now covered in the blood of the wolves, with some claw marks from some lucky attempts by the wolves and the teeth marks on his shoulder, Guts looked at the remaining…counting upwards of…six…no, seven counting the pack leader.

With a savage smirk, Guts shifted his stance with the axe to keep it ready beside him, "Come on, I'm far from done." He goaded them, wanting to get this over with.

From the corner of his vision, the bastard of a giant black wolf was still standing on the edge of the clearing; the fucker was probably expecting him to find an easy meal out of him once he finished the rest of the scarred wolves he fought from before.

Facing the beast with the best smug look he could offer, he spoke with a confident tone, "I don't know about you, floor rug, but perhaps you should just have these wolves of yours stand back and fight me yourself. This is just pathetic at this point." He challenged the beast.

Course, he was just putting up a front, realistically, he'd rather face the fucker now with what energy he had left in him; That's not to say he was tired at all, nor was he confidant he'd manage to escape this situation without missing a limb or something, but he'd be damn if he die here and now.

The Beast returned his snark back at him with a malicious laugh, its fangs shined as it opened its mouth to talk, "Such…arrogance…" he remarked, while slowly padding forward, making the scarred wolves and pack leader of the pack to stop circling around Guts and back away from the two. "But I do grow tired…of waiting…I want to sink my teeth into your carcass after I have fun…ripping your limbs off!" The beast declared.

Keeping his stance ready, Guts remained steadfast as the beast approached him, leaving a few yards of length between them, "You're a…cocky one…I'll enjoy rending your bones into DUST!" The beast bellowed as it charged at Guts with it maw open, intending on snapping its jaws shut on the boy.

Making a quick leap to the side, Guts narrowly avoided the snap of the jaws, the only problem however, was that one of the fangs of the beast managed to just barely sink itself into one of his boots; feeling one of his boots get pulled off, Guts landed on his feet, now missing a boot.

Guts watched as the beast tore his boot between its jaws and spat it aside before leaping at him with the intent to bite down on his skull; acting quickly, Guts sprinted forward and rolled while bringing his axe up to try and cleave at the throat of the beast.

Landing again on his feet from his roll, he looked back to see if he managed to cut into the beast's hide once the damn thing landed, only to find himself getting kicked by the hind leg of the black wolf, "GAH!" Guts coughed in pain as he was kicked in his chest and launched off through the air.

His body impacted a random tree in the process, an excruciating pain was felt on his back and leaft him to drop back to the ground below, but not before catching himself to land on his own feet and glare at the Giant Black Wolf as he held himself up with his hand and feet while keeping a firm hand on the axe handle, "I don't see any blood of his…I know I struck at his throat…is his hide that tough around the throat?" Guts mentally questioned with a glare at the evilly laughing beast.

The beast himself laughed some more until it died down into chuckles as he turned around and faced Guts with a toothy grin of malice, "Don't be so surprised…it'll ruin what fun I'll have with you…I always do enjoy…playing with my food…many before you have tried to penetrate…my hide, all have failed!" The Beast crowed in malicious delight, before rushing at Guts, "Perhaps I'll have more fun with you…human pup…try and survive!" He yelled.

"Pretty sure it's just the axe itself, my own sword was more than enough to cleave through the stomach of a Goron…" Guts mentally thought to himself as the beast ran at him and snipped its jaws at him, Guts again just barely narrowly managed to avoid the jaws of the beast, before having to block with the axe as the beast followed up its attack with a clawed front paw swipe.

CRACK

Guts was so used to using his own sword to block with, he had forgotten he was wielding a simple axe; the wooden handle had barely stood up to the attack of the beast's clawed swipe, making the handle crack, splinter and break leaving Guts wide open.

"Gruah!" Guts grunted in pain as he did his best to react quickly and jump away, only to get smacked and have his chest clawed at, leaving small scratches underneath his now torn shirt. Backing away with a hand on his chest, Guts continued to do so as he noticed he got lucky with that paw strike. The wounds were superficial at best, it didn't feel like the claws went all the way through into his skin.

The beast turned around and gleamed a menacing grin at him with seething angular eyes the reveled in play with its food before it devoured it. "For a pup…not bad…" it grinned evilly, delight in its eyes as Guts continued to back away with caution towards the beast, waiting and thinking of what to do now that he was weaponless. The beast stepped forward with its paws and laughed more with saliva dripped from its jaws, "I always do…enjoy the playtime…it makes me all the hungrier!" it reveled in the moment of its little skirmish with the boy.

Guts simply offered a wry smirk while sweat dripped from his brow and his hands were brought up into a fist-cuffs stance, it was his last method to fight with, and he was pretty sure he wasn't strong enough to beat the shit out of the damn beast in front of him.

The beast on the other hand laughed at the boy, "The human pup intends to fight with his fists…how amusing!" It guffawed in raucous laughter, before charging at Guts, "But only one man has fought me with his fists and made out alive, and you're not him!" He bellowed out in amusement.

As Guts found himself facing down the beast with just fists alone, he thought to himself with an incredulous inner tone, "What sort of bastard fought this damn thing with only his fists!"

Judeau

He could still hear the distant barking, yipping and howls of wolves and wolfos, and it made Judeau worry about the situation; that Guts kid had looked like he could handle himself if he were fully healed, but against the Beast King, he had doubts.

As Judeau continued sprinting through the woods and keeping in mind the correct way to navigate the woods, it wasn't long until he came across a tree of Kokiri kids. "And what are they doing with that sword?" He questioned as he sprinted towards the trio, one girl and two boys.

"Hey!" He shouted, earning a surprised look from the Kokiri kids as he sprinted towards them, "I saw a large pack of wolves enter these woods." he hollered, making a quick cover story. "Is everything all right!?"

The girl spoke first as the three continued to jog through the woods while Judeau caught up with them, "A Sheikah…" she murmured, leaving Judeau the saving grace that at least one of them knew what he was and who he served under.

As Judeau caught up with the trio, the girl spoke up again, "Look, there's no time to explain or talk! We need to carry this sword to a friend of ours!" she explained with her eyes forward.

Judeau looked at the sword again, and judged that it looked pretty much like the same sword that Hylian kid, Guts, wields. "I was coming here to help and warn your village of the threat, I'm more than welcome to help carry that sword to rush the process!" he offered.

The two boys looked at each other while they continued to jog with the sword hefted over their shoulders, before giving Judeau a shrug, "It's heavy, but we could use a third helping hand to run faster." One of the boys explained.

It did indeed look heavy, judging by how big it was and how hefty it seemed. Judeau nodded and jogged behind the boys, "Heave ho?" He questioned them, allowing the boy holding the hilt over his shoulder to scoot forward and let Judeau help carry the sword by the hilt through the woods.

As Judeau hefted the hilt up over his shoulder, he felt quite the bit of weight that he was seeing the two boys struggle to jog with, "How the hell does that guy use this sword!?" Judeau mentally thought to himself, while the two Kokiri looking brothers bid him quick thanks for the help.

Chapter Text

Lost Woods

From the loud sound of flesh being smacked, the body of Guts went fly up through the air; the boy's arms were up in a defensive manner with claw marks gouged into him; Guts's body soared and impacted against several large branches of trees, taking them down with him as he fell out of the air.

"GAH!" Guts grunted in pain as he landed and rolled along the ground, before quickly picking himself up to avoid the incoming form of the Black Beast. Guts dove down and rolled underneath the beast's legs, while moving out of the way to avoid the hind legs from kicking him after the beast ran past him.

"Damn it…I need something, anything to fight this thing with than just my fists!" Guts mentally thought to himself, he glared at the beast as it crashed through a small tree, causing the tree to break and fall over.

As the beast made a quick halt in its charge, Guts quickly glanced beside him, and noted the large branches his body broke off from the tree he fell through, "Better than nothing." He said under his breath. The available branches were thick and semi lively, so at the very least, he'd smack the damn beast with blunt force.

Not that it'd do much, but was better than nothing.

Picking one of the large branches up with both of his hands, its weight feeling it had significant weight to it, Guts presented the beast a savage grin as it rounded on its feet and turned towards him to charge at Guts.

"You think a mere branch…can harm me!?" The beast retorted as it sprinted at Guts, its paws making loud thumps into the earth as it charged at Guts.

"Not really!" Guts retorted back with a wry smirk, feeling pain all across his body from the entire fight he's been in with the beast so far, "But I've seen blunt force of any object cause anyone's skin to break and bleed!" he said back, making the Beast roar back as he ran at Guts full sprint.

"Got to time this right…" Guts thought to himself as the beast was nearly on him, "Now!" He told himself, and swung the thick branch with as much force he could with his arms. Angling his body so that he could leap out of the way while he swung the branch, Guts's ears were rewarded by the sound of the branch cracking over the big skull of the black beast.

Rolling through the air and landing on his feet, he watched as the beast stumbled somewhat in his charge before crashing into a random tree; the beast let out an annoyed groan while Guts checked the branch he smacked the beast over the head with. The entire branch had broken in half, leaving him to toss it aside and grab another one.

The branches themselves were thicker than the deku sticks the store in Kokiri village sold, giving the branches more weight and strength to withstand more punishment, but in Guts's hands and against the Black Beast, he was only afforded one hit out of one so far.

As the Beast rounded back towards him again, the beast stepped to the side and turned and bit towards the tree beside it, wrapping its maw around the entire tree like it was a simple stick, "What the hell…" Guts thought as he prepared himself for whatever the big canine was about to do.

With the sound of wood cracking and the entire tree being uprooted, the beast tore the tree out from the ground and wielded it like a weapon in its mouth; the corner of the beast's mouth curled up into a smirk as he charged at Guts with the tree in its maw.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Guts thought to himself as the Beast charged at him, swinging its head to strike at guts with its own enormous blunt object.

Dropping quickly to the ground to avoid getting wrecked by a literally tree being swung at him, Guts laid flat on his stomach while the tree made a loud whoosh overhead of him; the beast however was not done as it tilted its head up and turned it to slam the tree down at Guts.

Reacting quickly, Guts rolled as fast as he could to avoid getting flattened by the attack; with a loud boom, the tree was struck into the ground by the beast while Guts hurried to pick himself up, the branch still in his grasp while doing so.

As quick as he could move, Guts swung the branch in his hands into the Beast's skull; the branch cracked and splintered over the side of the beast's skull while it was in the middle of pulling its head back up along with the tree in its maw. The Beast growled in annoyed pain as trickles of blood fell from where Guts smacked it with his now broken branch he had tossed aside.

Woosh, Smack!

The Beast swung the tree faster this time than Guts could react, his stomach and chest exploded with pain as an entire tree was swung into his midsection, "GWAH!" Spittle exited his mouth as he coughed out the air from his lungs, his body went soaring across the air before he finally landed into a fallen rotted log.

The rotten log broke into bits and cushioned Guts's fall somewhat, but it did not do much else as the boy's body bounced from the ground under the now broken rotten log and smacked against another fallen log that was more lively.

Guts grimaced with a pained grunt and quickly picked himself up, he couldn't give the beast any chance to swing that tree into him again; as he stood up with his hand rested on the fallen tree, he saw the Beast was already charging at him with the tree still inside its maw. "Need something heavier and sturdier to bash it over the head with!" Guts thought to himself, preparing himself to dodge the incoming attack.

As the Beast was nearing him, Guts spotted a hefty sized rock from the corner of his vision, "That might do it, break some of its skull with it…" Guts mentally remarked, before quickly leaping up as quick as he could, managing to hop over the tree as it was swung at him by the beast. He managed to land and run across the head and back of the beast before quickly jumping off after it tried to buck him off from it.

Landing near the large rock that was the size of an average bomb flower, Guts ran over and picked it up; knowing the beast would already turn at him for the slight against it for using it as a stepping board, Guts spun around with the rock in hand, keeping aim at the charging image of the beast as it charged at him again.

Releasing the rock at the incoming form of the beast, the rock shattered over the face of the beast, causing it to stumble and swerve away from Guts before crashing into a line of trees with its body with the loud sounds of a boom and crack of wood.

Guts allowed himself a small measure of a smirk as he huffed out his exhaustion, he needed to think of something else to fight the damn beast with.

"Mock me will you…" The beast seethed after releasing the tree from its mouth as he picked himself up from his crash, the Black beast wolf turned towards Guts with seething rage, "I think I've enough fun playing…with my meal…" He bellowed in anger.

Guts watched with baited breath as the Beast began to stand up on its hind legs, its body began to contort and fix itself until the beast began to resemble more of a large black Wolfos.

As the Black Beast stood on his hind legs like a human, its front paws and arms contorted into more manageable arms and clawed hands as he looked down at the bewildered look of Guts. "But now it's time to rend your bones to dust!!!" The Beast bellowed with a roar, its howl echoed off throughout the woods.

Guts looked up at the beast with an uncertain gaze, before biting back his fear. The situation was getting far beyond what could be called manageable.

Before either of the two did anything however, the trees behind the beast lit up with a bright flash, causing many yips and howls of surprise, making Guts furrow his brow in wonder who was coming with Deku Nuts; at the very least, it was most likely Saria and a few Kokiri, they wouldn't be caught by the surrounding wolves and wolfos that surrounded him, what with their vision impaired now from the bright flashes.

From behind the beast while it abruptly turned to see who dared intruded on their fight, from out of the top of the trees, Judeau emerged in mid-leap through the air with two daggers in hand; the fellow Hylian kid sailed down towards the head of the beast while the beast himself was still looking who dared attack his packs of wolves and wolfos.

With a wet squelch of the boy's knives being driven into the skull of the beast, Judeau left the knives in and leapt off from the beast while it attempted to reach up and swipe at the human, "Little shit!" The beast barked in annoyance and pain, it swiveled on its feet to turn to glare at the kid.

As Judeau landed beside Guts, he offered him a sideways look and grin, "Hey." He greeted, before making a serious look as he pulled out another set of knives from his pouches, "Figured I come back and check how your healing was going." he joked somewhat, as the two of them stood off against the black beast, who stomped towards them with anger in his eyes.

Guts offered a grunt back as he sarcastically responded while keeping the branch in his hands, "Yeah, sure, was doing just fine, until this bastard came." he retorted, keeping an eye on the beast as it rounded back towards them both now.

"You little shit!" The beast howled as he ran at the two, but not before a sack of powder fell from out of the air and into the face and eyes of the Beast; the sack exploded with fine red powder spreading into its eyes, making the beast howl in irritation, "What!? What…is this!?" He howled while stumbling back and holding his head, desperately trying to rub the pain in his eyes.

From out of the air downwards, Navi landed onto Guts's left shoulder and huffed to herself, "Never…carrying…something….again…" she wheezed, while giving Judeau a glare, who chuckled back at her.

"Well that figures where that small sack came from…" Guts thought to himself, his situation was looking a bit more in his favor, but not by much. The damn beast was still standing, but now its vision was hampered for a bit…which meant it would now be working on keeping its ear open for movement and his nose for the scent of his enemies.

It was how most canines relied on their senses in his experiences, from war dogs and wild ones he's seen.

"Guts!" The voice of Saria echoed from behind him, making him strain his ears as he listened and glanced to his left as Saria and two of the Know-it-all brother came running out into the clearing with his sword; Saria huffed and bent over to catch her breath while the brother tossed his sword over to him through the air.

Tossing the stick aside, Guts deftly caught the sword and gave a nod of thanks to the brothers. "Thanks." He hollered back, before glaring, "Now get out of here! I can handle the rest!" he ordered, earning a glare from Saria once she caught her breath and stood up huff and gave the beast a contemplative look.

"I'm not leaving you guys alone!" She retorted, while bringing out a slingshot of her own from her hind pouch.

Guts gave Saria a glowering look while the Beast continued to howl in pain as it desperately tried to get the harsh red dust out of its eyes, "...whatever…" He groused. Now wasn't the time to argue. Giving the brothers a momentary glance, they too took out their own slingshots.

"...right…" Guts drawled out, before directing his attention on the beast, it shook its head and squinted its tearfilled eyes at Guts, "Just try and keep his attention then!" He ordered, before rushing in at the beast. So long as Saria and the brothers handled the ranged attacks to split the focus of the beast, it would provide Guts more chances to cut the bastard down.

If the present company wanted to stay and help, so be it, were Guts's train of thought as he rushed at the Beast while Navi flew off from his shoulder, not minding Judeau behind trailing after him; once Guts was within enough distance of the beast, its ears picked up the sound of the Hylian, making it swipe its clawed hand down at the boy.

Guts narrowly avoided the claw swipe, and swung his sword into the arm of the beast; Guts however was sourly disappointed as his blade didn't go all the way though, and simply cut across the arm, leaving a deep cut into the fur and hide of the beast.

The beast howled in pain as he pulled his arm back before growling in seething anger, "A simple sword won't cut me so easily!" he denied as his arm bled somewhat,and brought its foot up and kicked it out at Guts to launch the boy away from him.

CLANG

Bringing his sword up to defend himself from the kick, Guts was able to withstand the blow but not without being knocked back as his feet drew lines into the ground from him standing steadfast in his defensive stature. "Damn it…" He cursed himself, as his arm felt numb after using it to place it up against the flat part of his blade to give him more leverage in his defensive stance.

The Beast however did not let up, as he spun in place with a roundhouse kick towards Guts; Guts now found himself getting launched back through the air after defending himself from the follow-up attack against him with his sword.

While Guts was launched through the air and landed back onto his feet some ways away, Judeau was already in the air after leaping up to stab his knives into the eyes of the beast; The Beast however picked up the sound of Judeau clothes flapping a bit in the air, allowing him to swing his claw at the incoming form of the Sheikah.

As Guts was back on it way towards the Beast with his Sword at the ready to swing into the thigh of the Beast, Judeau twisted and turned his body in midair, just narrowly avoiding getting his body smacked and clawed by the beast; he threw his knives however into the skull of the beast as he was on his way down to the ground from out of the air, and land with a soft thud.

Hearing the kid land in front of him the Black Beast was quick to swing his other arm at him while his eyes began to squint open, the irritant dust had finally died down from irritating his eyes; Judeau however was quick enough of his feet to backflip way as the beast slammed his fist into the spot where Judeau once was.

While the beast's fist was still stuck in the ground, Guts was already upon him as he brought his sword around into a piercing thrust upwards into the mouth of the beast; With a wet squelch, Guts pulled out his sword from managing to stab it into the mouth of the beast, leaving said creature to howl in pain and back away while giving Guts a seething squinted glare.

"Little shit!!" He gurgled out as blood poured from his mouth and began to back away, "Grrr I will not die like this, not here!" He roared, before howling into the air as Guts backed away, preparing himself to swing at the Beast again.

Before either Guts or Judeau could do anything else, the Beast's body contorted in on itself until it reverted back to his previous form and retreated into the woods, "Be warned…I'll come back…I swear it!" He barked back as he fled into the woods.

Guts watched as the many eyes and form of wolves and wolfos disappeared from sight, as silence finally permeated the clearing of the woods, Guts released an exhausted breath and collapse to his knees; stabbing his sword into the ground to give him leverage and something to lean with, Guts grimaced as he felt the rush of the battle finally end.

His body felt like it was screaming at him as every inch of his body felt like it was on fire, the sound of rushing footsteps brought his attention to see Saria pocketing her Slingshot and running over to him while the Know-it-all brothers walked. "Guts!" Saria called for him as she ran over to him. He let out a grunt of acknowledgement before giving a glance over at Judeau.

"I'm fine…" Guts answered her as she knelt down and inspected his wounds, he could see from the corner of his vision that Judeau was giving him an amused smirk; the two brothers were pocketing their own slingshots in the meanwhile.

While Guts was being fussed over by Saria and being chewed out for calling his wounds just a scratch, Judeau hollered over to the two brothers, "Good job on keeping the wolves away." He hollered over as he approached the boys with his hands planted on his hips, "plenty glad I brought my Deku nuts for you to use." he remarked.

Pici and Pephu nodded in agreement, before both brothers handed the Sheikah the spare ammo they had left over; prior to reaching the fight, Judeau had suggested he give the Kokiri deku nut ammo to keep the wolves and wolfos packs away; It was why none of the Beast's entire pack had bothered to enter the fight to assist their leader, Saria and the brothers had done their part in blocking any interference in the fight while Guts and Judeau fought off the Beast, leaving the heavy work to the more abled fighters so to speak.

Pici reached up and scratched at his forehead, "Yeah, well, it pays to know that a simple deku nut can hurt quite a bit." he remarked, before retracting his hand from his idle scratching.

Meanwhile Guts began picking himself up after feeling he was able to catch his breath, Saria fussed more over him as he winced, "Guts! Will you stop and wait!?" She glared at the boy, to which he grunted back in response while pulling his sword up out of the ground to lean it against his shoulder.

"I'll just sleep it off…it isn't as bad as last time." Guts grouched with a light glare at Saria simply glared at the stubborn boy, and slapped at his arm, making him wince a bit.

"See!" Saria chided, earning a few chuckles from the other boys.

Guts simply rolled his eyes and began walking off, "Whatever…" He retorted, "I'll just find some fairy dust or something and heal up."

While Guts walked away with Saria trailing after him to make him see reason to sit and rest for a moment, so she could run back home and get some healing Salve, Judeau examined the clearing of all the damage done by the fight. Letting out a low whistle, Judeau commented with some surprise in his tone, "Sheesh…the more I look at it…how did that guy even last that long in the fight against the Black Beast?" He questioned.

Pici walked over to converse more with the Shiekah, while his brother trailed behind him, "You should have seen how battered and bruised Guts was when Saria had him healing in her home." He remarked, striking up small conversations with the outsider.

"Yeah." Pephu pipped in, he stood beside his brother to talk with the Sheikah, "Guy looked like he faced off an army of wolves." he shook his head at the absurdity of Guts's will to survive. "Are all Hylians that tough to kill?" he asked Judeau.

Judeau offered the two brothers a chuckle of mirth, "Not really." he answered.

Chapter Text

Kokiri Village

While Saria was helping Mido and Fado check how the village perimeter was doing and how the other Kokiri were fairing, Guts sat atop one of the stacks of wood the Kokiri kids had brought back from the task of acquiring wood for the upcoming slingshot contest. The stacks of woods were circular and flat, giving Guts a sensible means of a place to sit and rest for the time being.

Rubbing at the pain he felt in his shoulder from one of the wolf attacks, Guts felt that it was slightly diminishing in pain after Saria had applied the fairy salve over his upper body; his new shirt was now ripped, but the upside was that the shirt could be easily patched.

"Yo." Judeau piped up as he walked over to him, Guts's eyes trailed over to the other Hylian boy as Judeau approached him with an easygoing smile, "I have to say, not many men can say they've survived quite long in a fight against the Beast King." He commented on Guts's survival in the fight against said beast.

While Guts had been stuck nursing his wounds with Saria before she left to help the others check the perimeter of any hide or tail of any more wolves, Judeau had been requested by one of the Deku Trees fairies to come see him. For what purpose? Guts knew nothing save for the fact that the Great Deku Tree was aware the other Hylian was among them.

As Judeau approached Guts with a careless attitude, Guts gave the other boy a flat look, "Wasn't that simple of a fight." he commented back, grunting as he rolled his shoulder a bit to get the feel if everything worked alright after the fight. The soreness and pain across his body would probably last for a few days, but nothing he was not familiar with already in his life.

Judeau chuckled warmly as he stood across from Guts with his hand on his hip and brushed a thumb across his nose, "I'd bet." he remarked, giving the other Hylian an amused smile, "I've heard reports of how that beast has torn men apart, you should be counting yourself lucky you survived at all."

Guts hummed in response as he patted his sword that leaned against the stack of wood he sat on, "Would have been easier if I had brought my sword with me." He grouched with an annoyed look on his face, before giving a careless shrug, "But I've been through worse…" He added.

"Hmm." Judeau looked around and saw that the Kokiri were still hard at work checking the perimeter of the Village, "I but man, you would have been better off if you had just made a run for it to this village, from what I understand, the Deku Tree is able to ward off all evil from this village to protect his Kokiri and Korok children." Judeau explained as his eyes wandered across the entire village.

Guts grunted back at the thought of running from the problem, his focus was on Saria and the other Kokiri as they talked amongst each other "Wouldn't have solved the issue…" He groused, he glared into the empty air with a scowl, "Pretty sure that beast would somehow find his way in or something…last thing I need is something to be my fault that was in my power to stop it…" He explained, imagining what would have happened if he had fled with Saria.

He owed her and the Deku Tree enough, he wasn't about to return their kindness with cowardice; it wasn't in his nature to run from trouble, if anything, he was always running to it and swinging his sword at it. He didn't like to run from his fear, he hated that feeling; the problem wouldn't fix itself if he didn't do anything about it, if it was his problem to deal with.

"Huh…" Judeau said as he reached up to scratch at his cheek with a concerned look on his face, his eyes glanced off in the direction of the Great Deku Tree, "You're not wrong there…especially from what the Deku Tree told me…" he regarded the situation of the Deku Tree's declining health, "I'll be having to tell my Teacher about the Kokiri's village situation once I get back to the castle." Judeau commented.

With a sharp look in his eyes, Guts eyeballed Judeau with a certain look, "Didn't you say something about a master, now you're saying you have a teacher." he pointed out, earning a chuckle from Judeau.

"Oh, right, right. Sorry about that!" Judeau raised his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender, "She's both, actually." he answered Guts, earning a certain critical gaze from the other boy. "But please! If anything, you look like you could use a friend or something outside this village!" He offered with an easygoing smile and relaxed look in an effort to change the subject.

Guts expressed back a dry look at Judeau, "Right…" he answered with a drawl to his tone at the other kid, skeptical that Judeau didn't have an ulterior motive to just spring that suggestion out of nowhere.

Judeau expressed an amused look while chuckling nervously as he scratched the back of his head, "Honest! It's honestly kind of hard to get to know anyone else my age, what with my duties my teacher thrusts upon me!" he remarked, earning a blank look from the other Hylian, making Judeau chuckled a bit more,

"Fine, I just figured you might want to have some sort of contact with the outside world…I mean, you kinda come off as someone that might need something to do once you leave this place." he reasoned with Guts as he removed his hand from the back of his head and rested it back on his hip.

With a scoff, Guts gave Judeau a smirk of semi-amusement, "Nah, I'll be fine…but I'll keep the offer in mind." he answered, earning a satisfied smile from the other boy.

Once the conversation felt that it was nearing its end, Guts grunted a bit as he stood up, feeling the aches of his healing battle wounds cry out at him; his entire body felt less like it was on fire now compared to the end of his fight with the beast, he was just glad he didn't have to deal with not exercising with his sword or anything else for a week.

"Whelp." Judeau began to say as he bent down to pick a piece of a long grass from the ground, "I should be heading out now, got quite the bit of news to tell my teacher, she won't like this one bit about the Great Deku Tree's declining health." He said before bringing the piece of long grass to his lips.

"hmm…Right…" Guts remarked, keeping a watchful eye on Judeau, "And who would that be?" he asked, intent on getting to know what the other kid was and who his master/teacher was.

Judeau smiled back and replied, "Oh, right, Her name is Impa, the leader of the Sheikah clan, and I'm her student." He answered Guts, before blowing into the piece of grass with a sharp whistle into the air, earning a bit of attention from some passerby Kokiri.

Guts furrowed his brow in consternation, trying to figure out what the whistle was for; a loud 'hoo' echoed from the air about, before the loud sound of wings permeated the area as a large shadow overhand the area, making Guts and quite a few Kokiri look up.

From out of the air, a large owl flew down from out of the sky, and flapped its wings as it landed to the earth below it; Guts kept his hands steady from outright reaching for his sword as he witnessed an owl as tall as an adult land next to Judeau. He wouldn't have disbelieved the sight were it not for his past experiences of seeing large animals.

The owl pecked at the shoulder of its wings, and eyed Guts for a bit, before speaking with an aged tone, "Greetings…young Guts…one of my birds just returned to me…saying you fended off the beast king.…" The owled announced, his eyes were trained on Guts as he turned his upside down before turning it back right side up, before he pecked at the feathers of his chest and looked back down at the boy in question.

Judeau on the other hand chuckled a bit, and looked back over at Guts after he looked at the owl once it landed, "What do you know, already making a bit of a legend out of yourself!" He remarked, earning a scoff from Guts as he eyed the owl with skepticism.

While more Kokiri in the background were drawing attention to the large owl, of which Saria was among them along with Fado and Mido, Guts spoke back to the owl, "Kinda creepy you got birds that relay that sort of information back to you." He remarked back, earning a bit of a laughing 'hoos' from the owl.

The owl bowed his head in respect and apologies to Guts, before lifting his head back up to stare at the boy, "Oh don't mind my birds if you see any…but just know I'll be keeping an eye on you young one…you have quite the future ahead of you now that your trial of war is over." he answered, before turning his head around to spot the surrounding Kokiri.

"My my… quite the new faces here…since my last visit…though…less new ones than before…Oh…is that perhaps you Saria?" The Owl 'hooed' as his eyes landed on the Kokiri girl in question.

Saria expressed a brimming smile as she jogged over to greet the owl, "Kaepora! It's been decades since you've visited!" She greeted, as she approached the owl, who looked down at the Kokiri girl.

Guts glanced between the two as Saria chatted with the owl, he looked over at Fado who was walking over to see the owl close up herself, "So what's the story?" He questioned her, only to earn a shrug from Fado as she smiled back at Guts.

Fado spoke back to Guts with a careless tone as she stood next to him while eyeing the big owl, "Don't know, Saria's older than me, well, more than all of us, with Mido being the second oldest of us Kokiri…I suppose she'd have known more outsiders than any of us do." Fado explained.

From out of the air, Navi finally hovered down to land on Guts's shoulder to explain more to the boy's question, "That's Kaepora Gaebora! The Great Deku Tree's confident and ally, alongside being a former sage of light."

"...Sage what now?" Guts questioned the fairy with a clueless look, besides knowing a fair bit of knowledge of Hyrule during his time as a soldier for hire, this was the first time he's heard about anything of a sage much less a sage of light.

Before Navi could explain anything else about the owl, the owl himself 'hooed' as he flapped his wings, "While I do enjoy this little reunion, I must be off, I only came to pick up little Judeau." He 'hooed' again while eyeing said kid.

Judeau offered the owl a chuckle of amusement, before giving Guts a two finger salute and soft smirk, "Till next time!" He bid the other Hylian boy his farewell, earning a shrug back from Guts.

"Whatever." Guts answered back lamely as he watched the owl flap its wings and hover up into the air above Judeau, before grabbing his talons lightly onto the boy's shoulders; Before long, the owl flapped off in an instant with Judeau in his grasp, and disappeared over the treeline westward.

Saria sighed to herself with a soft smile, earning a glance from Guts as he looked over in her direction, "It's been so long since he last visited…it feels like just yesterday before the war began outside…" She commented with a frown at the end.

Guts blinked for a bit asking Saria a pertinent question that was on his mind, "Wait…the civil war dragged on for decades…how old are you?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him of asking such a question. He got the gist that Kokiri didn't age beyond the appearance of a child, but it was still hard to know how old all the Kokiri were separately.

With a surprised look on her face, Saria quickly formed a glare and frown on her face as she turned around towards Guts, "Hey! You should never question a girl's age!" She chided Guts as she stormed over at him. While Saria reached out and pulled at Guts's ear as punishment, surprising Guts that she'd do that but nonetheless earning an annoyed look and growl from him from the pain he was feeling.

In the background, the boys were backing around from the wrath of Saria, while the girls giggled and chuckled at seeing the comedy unfold.

"Hey, cut that out!" Guts spat in anger as he caught the offending hand and pried it off, "What's wrong!? All I asked was how old you were!?" He pointed out, only to earn more amused looks from the female populace and warry looks from the boy.

Saria responded to Guts's insistent question and quickly snatched her hands out and pinched apart Guts's face cheeks with a glare, "I said. Never ask a female's age!" She somewhat yelled with a stern look on her glaring face.

Guts growled back with his cheeks being pinched at, "Stop it! I'm just asking, because it's hard to tell when all of you look like kids! It's an honest question!" He barked back in anger as he pried Saria's hands off from his cheeks.

Saria scowled back at Guts and harrumphed, before storming off, "Don't be expecting dinner or anything else tonight, mister!" She hollered back with her fists clenched while she marched off in a huff.

Guts expressed back his own scowl as he rubbed at his cheek as he watched Saria leave, "What the hell was that about…what's wrong about asking someone's age?" He asked himself, earning a giggle from Fado who was still standing aside from him.

She covered her mouth as she giggled more before speaking up and giving Guts a smirk and amused look, "I'm pretty sure you're just too young to know what was wrong with the question…" she giggled some more, before departing from the area.

Guts rolled his eyes and picked his sword up to head to his treehouse, "Whatever." He muttered to himself while Navi flew after him.

"Guts!" Navi called after the boy, "Just try and apologize tomorrow! I'm sure Saria will understand the problem with how you think!" She tried to assure the boy, only to be ignored by Guts as he climbed up into his treehouse to rest for the day.

Hyrule Castle

Outside within a courtyard of a vast garden, Ganondorf stood at the top of a marble stairway that led down to the courtyard of several fountains, rows of green bushes, and countless flowerbeds; it was an extravagant way of showing the opulence of the Royal Hylian Family's wealth, of being with the favor of the goddesses.

With his arms crossed, The King of the Gerudo viewed the garden with envy and contempt; there were many complicated thoughts that ran through his mind, but the most that rang true to him was to covet it all. He wanted more than just to rule the desert. He wanted the green lands of Hyrule, he wanted the power of the Triforce to allow his might to rule over all.

Hyrule was just one step towards his goal, the world, but as things stood now, the war showed him that brute forcing his way to conquer Hyrule was a pipe dream at best; Ganondorf now needed to figure out how to simply just acquire the Triforce and just make it all it.

The only problem, however, was the door blocking any and all attempts at entering the sacred realm. His spies managed to glean enough info to tell him he needed three spiritual stones that existed across Hyrule, the details of which were still ongoing of where they were. It was only a matter of time, then he could steal those stones that were the key to opening the stone door.

Another part of the problem to the door, was the legend about an Ocarina of Time that is passed down through the royal family.

Ganondorf's own persistent frown was tightened more into a scowl, it wasn't enough to just steal some key jewels, he had to figure out from his spies where this Ocarina was and who had it. He had to play his cards right, bide his time. The cost of the war tempered his patience, he had lost many sisters over the decades, on top of taking male prisoners to give birth to more Gerudo.

His people were of a warrior culture at the very least, so every girl grew up learning martial skills; there were also the times he hired mercenaries during the war, but that was few and far in between. He didn't want to buy loyalty, as much as it was that easy, he wanted subservient soldiers that answered him and him alone.

Course, it didn't help when most of the mercenaries were as good as fodder, and it wasn't like none of them were hired to guard his homeland; all of the times he hired any mercenary soldiers, it was to provide numbers to his sisters if a battle was. It also helped matters when he could use those fodder men to provide a male for his sisters to breed with, but that was another story altogether.

Tapping against his arm with his finger, Ganondorf's eyes honed in on Ubena, one of his Warriors that fought in the war; she was in the midst of walking around with her fellow sister Faofili, both battle sisters were down below in the courtyard looking at the water fountain, most likely envious that the Hylians had such plentiful water compared to the harsh desert they all lived in.

If memory serves him right, the pathetic excuse of a sister had failed to defeat a mere child soldier; He didn't see how that made sense, a Hylian child soldier shouldn't have had any chance of defeating a Gerudo warrior, much less survive fighting one.

Ridding himself of the inane thoughts that were pervading his mind, he brought his attention to the large stone monument that showed the Triforce, his envious eyes drunk in the sight of the very tool that would be his; he was determined to steal and take everything, he was determined to lay his hand on that treasure and wish his grandest desires.

Power, immortality, land, domain over all, it would be all his. All he needed was to bide his time, feign subservience to the oaf of a Hylian King and Queen. Time was just a factor, and it was only a matter of when it would all be his.

Elsewhere, in the castle
Zelda's private Garden

The day was nearing its end, as well as the peace talks; leaving the quickly made friendship between the two princess to be a bit dour for the both of them. "I'm sure we can send each other letters!" Zelda proposed with her hands steepled and a smile across her face. The two princesses sat on a clean marble stepway of the garden.

Ruto frowned for a bit, before responding back to Zelda with an unsure look on her face, "I don't know, I live in a damp and wet environment, you think mail will reach my home without any trouble?" she asked her new friend.

Zelda frowned as well, realizing the problem, before expressing a brimming smile, "I know!" She declared as she stood with Ruto following her to stand, "Impa!" She hollered over to her attendant, who she knew was just within earshot of her.

From out of the shadows from the entrance to her garden, Impa stepped out with a warm smile, "Yes princess?" She inquired, wondering where the princess was going with this.

Zelda stepped down forward onto the grass, "Remember that stone you told me about, that can be worn like a necklace!?" she asked, earning a curious look from Ruto.

Impa, realizing where she was going with this, chuckled warmly and nodded, "Ah, you mean to intend for Princess Ruto and you to share a Gossip stone charm." she remarked, "I believe I can acquire two for you, an excellent way for you two to keep diplomatic friendships." Impa said with a proud tone, before exiting the area.

While her attendant was off retrieving the stones, Zelda looked back to Ruto with a curious gaze, "So, I've been meaning to ask…" she began with saying while poking her fingers a bit, unsure if it was appropriate to ask the question, before foregoing her hesitation and went out with it, "What was it like having that war…you know, almost right outside your home? My dad always said it was terrible out there…but never went further than that." She asked, an ever burgeon curious look was on her face as she and Ruto conversed with each other.

"Oh…" Ruto said, a bit surprised that the question popped up, but nonetheless answered the princess with a nervous expression, "It was…kinda bad…I mean…I was almost kidnapped by one of the human soldiers." she answered the princess.

Zelda gasped at the thought, and palmed her mouth, "No!…I'm so sorry!" she apologized, earning a grateful look from Ruto.

"No no, it's fine." Ruto waved off Zelda's concerns, she expressed back a mild smile, "I mean, were it not for that human boy soldier that saved me, I dread what might have happened if Mikau wasn't there as well."

"Oh!" Zelda remarked, a surprised look on her face was expressed as she listened to the tale of how Zora was almost kidnapped.

While The two princesses continue to talk more about what they knew about the war from behind the safety of their home, Impa eventually made it back but waited for the two to finish their little discussion, she could hand the stones to the girl once it was Time for Ruto to leave.

While the two girls were still sharing their own tales, Impa looked over at the attendant of Princess Ruto, "I thank you for keeping an eye on them while I was gone."

Mikau looked back at Impa, and offered a hapless shrug, "It's alright. It was just nice seeing Princess Ruto interact with a potential new friend. She really doesn't have any friends of her age group, so it's been a nice change of pace to see the princess be more than happy to have a friend."

Impa smiled back, and nodded, "I can't argue with that." she said, "The same could be said for my Princess."