"In every phenomenon the beginning remains the most notable moment."

- Carlyle Thomas

I rounded the second corner slowly, worried about what I would say to the Great Deku Tree. Really, what does one say to someone like that? And then it happened. Nothing could have ever prepared me for it. A large, grotesque monster reared it's head out of the ground and lashed at me.

I think Navi is saying something, but I can't hear her. I just wave my sword stupidly at the head—which is as big as I am, might I add—but I swing too low. I've never cut anything but grass! What do I do? It strokes me again, this time throwing me back against the wall.

I did what any sensible kid would do: I ran.

Navi, typically, is complaining about my cowardice. Will I never please her? Did she know these things were here? Why didn't she tell me? Is that so much to ask? Stupid little unhelpful fairy.

"Why didn't you do what I said?" Navi says and now I'm calm enough to hear her.

Oh. She did try to help.

"Those are Deku Baba," she tells me. "You wait till they are straight and then you chop the head. If they go stiff, you can get a Deku Stick out of them. And if they don't, you get Deku Nuts."

Wow. I never noticed how many things are called Deku around here. Us Kokiri are obsessed. I laugh to myself at the thought of my Deku Shield. It's really just a distraction, though, as I'm still scared stiff.

"Let's keep going, then," Navi tells me.

We enter the clearing slowly, me by choose and Navi by obligation. It makes me want to go slower to annoy her even more, but I try to speed up. I also want her acceptance. I'm failure enough with her not accepting me— she's my fairy!

The Great Deku Tree is bigger than I would have thought. I am amused slightly by his bark mustache, but I might just be giddy from surviving.

"Great Deku Tree . . . I'm back!" This is Navi. She is dancing arounf so fast that it's making me dizzy to watch her, so I try to focus on the Tree.

"Oh . . . Navi . . . Thou hast returned . . . Link . . . Welcome . . . Listen carefully to what I, the Deku Tree, am about to tell thee . . .

"Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless, and full of nightmares . . . As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it . . . Verily, thou hast felt it . . .

"Link . . . The time has come to test thy courage . . . I have been cursed . . . I need you to break the curse with your wisdom and courage . . . Dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?"

I stared at him. I wanted to ask the obvious question: why me? But then I would get the obvious answer. I tried to imagine Mido fighting the Deku Baba. He talked big, but he was a coward, and lazy to boot. I ran through them all, but I couldn't imagine the noblest of the fighting. The thought of gentle Saria with a sword make me cringe.

I barely fit into their society in the first place. It had to be me.

"Okay," I told him. "I will do what you wish."

"Then enter, brave Link, and thou too, Navi . . . Navi the fairy . . . thou must aid Link . . . And Link . . . When Navi speaks, listen well to her words of wisdom . . ."

The Tree's mouth was open now and I was to enter. So I entered. Navi did not complain about my slowness this time, but huddled near my shoulder. This made me think she was a scared as I was; only she knew nothing more than this. I had been safe and proceed with no thought of this in my mind and she had never known anything outside this certainty that she would follow me into danger. I felt sad for, as I felt sorry for myself.

Inside the tree, it was dark. There was enough light to see by, but my eyes took their time adjusting. I walked in a little more after they'd had their time. A Deku Baba immediately jumped out at me. I thrusted with the sword and it stood straight up, towering over me. I sliced the bottom and it fell over, head seeming to melt into mud. I pick the stick up carefully to look at. Navi tells me to stop gawking and put it away.

"How?" I ask her.

"Put in the pouch on your sword sheath. It should hold ten of them. One should also hold nuts," Navi explains. I do what she says (I already had some nuts in one pouch), and am amazed at the truth of her words when the stick it twice my height. I look around. There's a ladder, some vines, and a giant hole in the floor covered in webs. I go over to the webs and walk out into the middle. It holds me. I jump up and down a few times. Nothing. I bet I have to get past it somehow.

So I try the ladder. It takes me up a level, but it looks like I'll have to find my own way up higher. I also have to jump a couple ledges. Jumping isn't hard for me but I can't always go very far. Luckily, I made it both times. There's a few spider looking things on the walls that Navi informs me are Skulltulas. She tells me they are some larger ones up ahead and that their bellies are they weak points.

Yeah, right. I hugged the wall until I reached a door, as the Skulltulas don't seem to mind me this far away, and I throw myself into the room in case it changes it's mind. Here there is another Deku Baba. I hate them, I really do. I kill this one a little easier and with a little less panic. I put the stick away and look around. There's a cliff on my side and the other and a small cave in one wall. But I would have to find some way across the both. And both are protected by Skulltulas. I look around. There's some grass. That's nice. I cut the grass, more for nostalgia than anything. But I find some nuts and a small round bottle shaped like a heart. I open it and a cool, pink wind blows out. I am somewhat stunned, but I feel less bruised.

"What's this?" I asked Navi, showing her the left over container. It had been glowing but not now.

"A heart pack," she tells me. "It heals you. I don't know where they come from."

I nod and put the container back.

"How do I get across?" I ask.

Navi looks at me wish almost insulting astonishment. She lands on my shoulder and grabs a bundle of hair so that she doesn't fall. She is a strange little fairy. I've never seen one this close before. I'm not sure if the brilliant glow is coming off of her or the lightly tinted dress she's wearing.

But it doesn't matter. There's work to do. Ah! That sounds like her.

"That torch looks like it's recently blown out," she tells me. I nod. "And that button looks oddly suspicious, or maybe it doesn't look like a button from your level?"

I look at the torch and then at the stone mound. Is that mound the button she means? I try climbing onto in. It slides down under me and I hit the floor with an oof.

"Smooth," Navi says sarcastically. But she's smiling.

I get up quickly, adjusting my hat, and look over at the rising pieces of floor. I realize that I don't have time to gawk and jump onto the nearest one. I can see a chest behind the wall-cavern Skulltula, so I jump across another block and then passed the Skulltula. It's spinning confusingly. I whack blindly with my sword and hit it's shell. It clangs up my arm with horrible force. My arm is half numb but I thrust again, this time hitting its soft underbelly. It rises from the ground and I back up, hiding panickedly behind my shield. It doesn't hit me, but it goes back to spinning. One more it in the belly kills it. It falls down.

I sit against the chest for a moment to rest.

"Why are you doing this?" Navi asks me. She lowers herself to my knee.

"Why not?" I ask her. I hadn't really thought about it too much.

"Because you could die!"

"I can? No I can't, you'll protect me."

She doesn't look convinced by this argument. But I'm not really convinced either. As she says it, it kind of sinks in. I could die. And she could die trying to save me.

"We won't die," I assure her, tapping her head with one finger. It's starting to occur to me that's she's just a kid, like me. And that she's probably in over her head, too. Just like me.