Chapter One: Of Learning

Title: Legend of Zelda - The True Force

Chapter: 1

Author: Hikari no Vikki

Genre: Action/Adventure

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda or Star Wars. Just the plot.

Description: A modern Hyrule is in chaos. After reconstruction from the receding sea, the New Hyrule is literally built from the ashes of the Old Kingdom. However, history is destined, or rather, determined to repeat itself.

Author's Notes-

The idea just sprung into my head as ideas often do. If this thing is ever put up here, know that I actually thought the story through before I posted it. (Lies, all lies. I was just bored. And I had some help from a friend. He knows who he is. -grin- ) It really appealed to me as a story so I just went with it. Hope you enjoy it!

"The old magic still exists."

The tree spoke, his old spirit showing in his voice. This was the enduring spirit of the Great Deku Tree, a single fairy listening to his story.

"Does it really?" asked the fairy. "Yes. Of course it does. Why else do you think I would still be here, Navi?" The fairy, Navi, bobbed up and down, the tree seeing through her blinding glowing light that revealed her scantily clothed but beautiful form.

"Again I sense dark magic spreading across the land as I did so many years ago. That is why I've called you here, precious one. You know, you remind me so much of her." Navi tilted her head, her blue curls swaying.

"Her?" The tree nodded, or whatever could be interpreted as such. "The fairy that once bore your name. I called her here, too, long ago."

Navi was silent, still in awe of the Deku Tree, still waiting for her orders.

"But, I digress. You recall the boy without a fairy? The one who was brought here many years ago? He should be about ten, now, I think." Navi giggled mentally. The Tree was always rambling like this nowadays.

"Bring him here. The fate of this new world depends upon you!"

The Deku Tree's booming voice forced Navi into a skittish flight, trying without succeeding in remembering where the boy's house was.

"Little Fairy?" She turned. The 'guard' of the entrance to the Deku Tree's pasture, Fado, asked the question. Navi fluttered nervously around his head, and next to his fairy, Mila. "Is something wrong?" Navi bounced up and down frantically. "That boy! The fairy-less one! I can't remember where he lives… the Deku Tree sent for him."

Fado thought for a moment, and remembered. "That way," he pointed, his short green sleeve sliding down to his shoulder, "just over those trees. To the right. There's a sign, too, I think." Navi bobbed up and down again. "Thank you so much!"

Fado smiled, waving at the fairy as she zoomed off. "You're welcome!"

Navi's wings fluttered fast, beating against the wind. She very nearly crashed into a fence on the way there, but somehow she made it to…

"Link's House? So this is where he lives…"

She flew inside slowly, as if she were afraid. Silence greeted her for the first few moments as she hovered, but then a cry escaped someone's lips in the folds of sleep as the boy Link dreamed. Navi sat down on the edge of the bed, looking the poor boy over. He was dressed like all Kokiri, but his ears were more prominent, his aura strange and troubled.

The latter could, of course, be attributed to the nightmare he was most certainly having, but that was irrelevant. Now, how to wake him up?

That was answered for her as the boy sat bolt upright, screaming, tears streaming down his face, blue eyes frightened and vibrant. He didn't see the fairy through the haze of tears so he pressed his face into the blankets and wiped them away, cursing the dream.

"…again. Why me? Why that dream? I keep seeing…huh?" He had by now put the blanket down again and could see clearly again. He saw the fairy – no longer a ball of fluffy light, but a tiny person, clear alabaster-skinned with a single blue top ending in a jagged line at mid thigh, with a set of clear, shining wings and blue curls.

"A fairy…?" Navi nodded. "Yes. The Deku Tree sent me to you. He wants to see you." She looked worried. "Is something wrong?" he asked her, a thin child's finger brushing his chin. She nodded. "I was going to ask you the same. What were you dreaming about, Link?"

"I was dreaming about… wait, how do you know my name? Are you my fairy? The one I've been waiting for?" Navi smiled. She liked this Kokiri. He was so different from the others.

"I guess so." She stood up, her slender feet bare against the wood.

He smiled. It wasn't greedy or triumphant, but joyful. Purely joyful. He was trying to contain it, remembering how fragile fairies could be. "Well what are we waiting for? The Deku Tree wanted to see me right?"

Navi, a ball of light once more, fluttered into the air and into his hat once he put it on. He wasn't short for a boy his age, and his hair was blond like most Kokiri. He ran outside, seeing his best friend run up to his house.

"Hey, Link!"

It was Makar, green haired and bright-eyed, as usual. "Did a fairy finally come to you, Link?" He nodded fervently. "Yeah! Yeah!" "Well come down here so I can talk to you!"

Link, laughing, practically sliding down the ladder to land at Makar's feet.

"Now you're a true Kokiri!" Makar exclaimed. Link nodded, but softly, as if he didn't really believe it. "Yeah, I guess. Isn't that right, ah… what's your name again? I'm sorry…" Navi bounced clumsily. "I never told you. Sorry. It's Navi, by the way." Link nodded. "Navi, then. We have to go see the Great Deku Tree."

Makar's jaw nearly dropped to the ground. "What? Are you serious? The Deku Tree summoned you?" He grinned. "Well, go on! He doesn't like to be kept waiting! I'll wait for you to come back! I'll be right here, I promise!"

Link laughed, running off. Jumping the final stone across the pond, he walked up to Fado, who blocked his way.

"Aw, what gives?"

Fado, shrugged. "Not my rules. You need a sword and shield if you want to pass. I think you can buy a shield at the store, but a sword is going to be difficult to find."

"Where can we find one, do you think?" Link asked, pouting slightly, his posture slouching.

"Try the training grounds. There's bound to be something around there."

Link ran off again as Fado shouted, "And don't come back with a wooden sword, either! I'll know!"

Link walked into the shop, his hands clasped behind his back. "Come to buy something haven't you?" The shopkeeper asked. He looked older than most Kokiri (some doubted he was Kokiri at all and just a short Hylian from outside the forest) but he was kind enough to all and they let it well alone.

Link frowned as he looked at the price of the shield, realizing he hadn't a rupee to his name.

"I don't think so. I need money, but I don't have a wallet, and I don't know where I'd get the money either." He looked guilty. Navi fluttered out of his hat, which she'd been hiding in for a while now. "Rupees are everywhere around the forest! In the grass, behind buildings, in rocks… you just have to look!"

The shopkeeper nodded. "As for the wallet, here. Take this child's wallet. Don't worry, it's free. Come back once you have enough, all right?"

Link thanked the shopkeeper and went off to search for rupees.

"Pfft! I found another one! How many do we have now?" Navi, again in her wavering, tiny human form, was holding up his wallet, counting the rupees. Obviously she was stronger than she looked.

"Only twenty. We need twice that. So… twenty more. I think there's some in Fado's House." Link frowned. "I don't want to steal from him…" Navi shrugged. "We'll put it back later. Just go get 'em!" Link tiptoed up to his house as if an alarm would sound the moment he set foot inside. But one did not, though he still tiptoed inside, wincing as the chests he opened creaked and taking the rupees quickly. He ran out depositing them in his wallet, adding up the numbers.

"Okay, we had twenty plus the one in the grass and the twelve in Fado's House so that's… thirty-three! Only seven more!" Link's face lit up, his brief escapade as a thief forgotten.

It didn't take very long to find the last seven, in fact, he remembered the girl inside the shop telling him there was a 'treasure' in the back, and finally had a total of forty-one rupees after he found another blue one behind Fado's House.

"Here you go!" Link cried with a happy grin, the magic of the rupees having combined themselves into two red rupees, as he slid them to the shopkeeper.

"Oh! So you want the Deku Shield, eh? Whatever for?" he asked as he gave it to him, Link sliding it over his back, fastening his brand new shield holster. "The Great Deku Tree summoned me," he replied without pause, "Fado won't let me in until I have a sword and shield." He shrugged. "It's some sort of rule apparently."

The shopkeeper nodded. "He's right, though. Deku Babas are everywhere in the Tree's pasture. You don't want to get eaten or anything." Link blanched, the image of a Deku Baba chewing on his leg coming into his head.

"Yeah, I see what you mean." The shopkeeper laughed. "Well good luck finding that sword of yours!" Link nodded and left.

"So where do we find a sword, huh, Navi?"

Navi's glowing light floated in front of his eyes for a few moments. "I think Fado said one might be in the training grounds. Let's go look!"

Link scampered toward the grounds, jumping over the fences with ease.

"Hey Linder!" Link waved at the boy practicing flips from the entrance. Linder, about his height with hair of more blond-tinted orange color, stopped flipping long enough to see Link running up to him.

"What's up, Link? Finally got a fairy? Cool. Whatcha here for?"

Link looked clueless for a moment but remembered shortly, the look of recollection brightening his eyes. "The Great Deku Tree summoned me, but Fado won't let me in without a sword and shield. I've got the shield, but… swords are kind a hard to come by, you know?"

"There's only one in the whole place! Right behind me! See that hole there?" He pointed to a small crawlspace in the wall. "You can go through there if you really need it. Be sure to practice here before you start using it!"

Link nodded. "I will. I promise."

As he began crawling, he could hear Linder mutter, "A sword? Yeah… the forest has been acting strange lately…" But Link didn't dwell on the matter.

He came out on the other side just in time to see a boulder come rolling toward him.

"Ahh!" He flinched, preparing to be squashed. But the squashing never came.

"What?" Then he realized that the boulder had turned on its own into a small walkway littered with tall grass.

"Is it magicked?" he asked Navi.

"Yeah, it seems to be. I should've warned you, but I didn't know it was magicked myself until it turned. Sorry." He smiled. "It's okay. You must be a new fairy, huh?" Navi nodded sheepishly. "Fairly. I've only been around a couple years." Link waited until the boulder passed another round and followed it down its path to a big chest sitting on a stump.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Navi joked.

He shook his head. "Hardly. Just a little scary boulder running in circles." Navi giggled. "Never did I think I'd hear 'little' and boulder' in the same sentence." Link laughed as he walked up to the chest, opening it.

Inside was indeed a kid-sized sword, beautifully crafted with a single jewel embedded in the simple hilt. Link fastened it under his shield, scabbard and all, and drew it, slashing it across the air horizontally, vertically, and upwards with a triumphant, "Ha!" for good measure.

"Have you ever used a sword before?" Navi asked skeptically. "You looked like you had." Link studied it in his left hand, observing it, tossing it back and forth.

"I don't know. It just feels right, is all."

He slashed at the grass near the crawlspace before going back out, picking up the Deku Stick and Nuts they left behind.

"Cool, weapons!" He grinned. "Don't worry, I know how to use 'em." Then he proceeded to crawl back to the training grounds. "So you find the sword, then?" Linder asked Link as he appeared, flakes of dirt stuck in his blond locks. He shook then off, nodding.

"Yeah, I did. I'll go do the training exercises now, cause I promised." Linder nodded, going back to his flipping.

"To spin, hold the sword briefly behind and then swing in a circular motion." He squinted at some writing that appeared to have been written hastily and clumsily under it. "Um… if you knock the sign down, you'll be given a reward. Don't worry; the sign will grow back. Hmm." Link put his hands on his hips, trying to mentally picture what he was about to attempt.

"Seems simple enough." He unsheathed the sword and held it back briefly, spinning around with a great cry of, "Yah!" The sign clattered to the ground, whole, with the exception of the stump that remained, and a blue rupee appeared in his hands.

"Cool."

He moved on to the other sign.

"The jump attack. Simply run and jump, swinging the sword forward." Again he had to squint to read the part about the reward.

He stood back away from the sign, giving himself running room. So he ran, holding the sword behind him, and then he jumped, swinging the sword forward and splitting the sign completely in half straight to the bottom of the stump.

Again, a blue rupee appeared in hands, but he just looked at the sign and then at the sword before heading back to Fado.

"So you've got a real sword, then? All right. I'll let you in."

Navi fluttered out of his hat as they walked, Fado waving goodbye and wishing Link good luck.

There were only a few Deku Babas on the way to the Deku Tree's pasture, so it wasn't too much trouble just to slash at them and pick up whatever item, be it Stick or Nut, that they left in their place before they grew back.

"Great Deku Tree…" Navi whispered, "I'm back!"

The Tree nodded, acknowledging her presence. "Oh, Navi. Thou hast returned. And Link, welcome."

Link looked up with the same awe that Navi was, completely unaware.

"Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless and full of nightmares, correct?" Link nodded silently, remembering. "As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it. Thou hast always been a sensitive soul."

There was a pregnant pause in the Tree's speaking, one neither boy nor fairy dared break.

"Link…"

He nodded, slowly. Again, he was silent.

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

Link gasped, as if a spell restricting his breathing had been lifted.

"Yes," he spluttered. And before he could say any more, he stopped, taking in a deep breath. The Great Deku Tree looked down at the boy with mournful eyes, knowing the boy would succeed, and what was to follow after.

"Then enter, brave Link, and thou too, Navi."

His 'mouth' began to open, leaving a large entrance to the inside of the Deku Tree.

"Thou must aid Link. And Link, when Navi speaks, listen well to her words of wisdom."

And the tree fell silent as Link stood in front of the entrance, knobby kneed and trembling with fear. "It'll be all right, Link. I'm here for you." Navi said, her human form fluttering in front of his eyes. He nodded, clutching his shirt.

"I know."

And so he entered the Tree, unaware of what would unfold by doing so.

I have the strangest urge to draw Navi now... huh. Well, maybe you'll get me to upload one on deviantART if you review? I'd like to know what you think of the concept, or anything else. There are so few Legend of Zelda/Star Wars crossovers... good ones, anyway. I would also prefer that if you favorite the story, please leave a review as well. They make me happy. :)

Thank you!