Bones of the Earth, Spirit of the Woods
Saria knew her way around dense forests better than most; after all, she was a Kokiri. The forest was her birthright. She had grown surrounded by tall trees and entangling vines, thick underbrush, and carpets of wildflowers. What most would consider an outright claustrophobic mass of deep vegetation, was simply home for her.
As such, she could confidently say that her ability to traverse and navigate the dangers and pitfalls that could be found in any forest, even one she had never laid eyes upon before, was second to none. Her skill was not changed by how she now had to do said traversing upon four hooves instead of two legs, something that the now cream-coated deer, sporting a short green mane, was deeply thankful for.
As Saria dashed through the underbrush at breakneck speed, weaving around tree trunks as fast as she could, her hooves hitting the muddy ground in a constant staccato as her heart hammered against her chest, a small part of her mind couldn’t help but thank Farore, the Great Deku Tree, and whoever deity or spirit who could happen to be listening, about her long time hobby of exploring the depths and most unknown and dangerous parts of the lost woods. Because, as the young doe ducked behind a tree just in the nick of time and heard something large collide against the large fern with a loud angry growl, she knew that if not for that she would’ve been caught already. And that would most definitely not be good.
Meanwhile, the remaining, and far larger, part of her mind was focusing upon keeping her hooves moving without tripping and traversing the tricky terrain, the fact that she still felt a little unsteady upon her new hooves since waking up as a doe this morning was something that the lithe small deer was deeply aware of.
A very angry roar accompanied by the sound of something large ripping its way through the thick underbrush made her run even faster. Even though mere hours ago her legs had wobbled like a newborn fawn with every step she took, now her hooves hit the ground with perfect coordination and surety as she sped through the underbrush, as once more necessity proved itself to be an excellent, if very unforgiving, teacher.
As she jumped over a small creek in a display of agility that she would’ve been unable to replicate in her original body, Saria risked a glance backwards as she soared through the air, her short green mane flapping all around her face as she laid eyes upon her pursuer.
“Not good!” Saria exclaimed, putting forth another burst of speed the moment her hooves touched the ground, rushing into the thick underbrush where the creature’s far larger size would make traversing the terrain harder and help hinder it a little.
The feline creature roaring its anger, while ripping its way through the forest chasing her, clearly was not happy about the fact that she was insisting on denying it its next meal. Saria intended to keep things that way. No matter how much she loved and admired nature, she personally had no desire to become part of the natural cycle in the near future. The beast was unlike anything she had ever seen, over five times her size and easily ten times her mass it was clearly some kind of feline monster. It sported the face and general body type of a lion, and yet the large bat-like wings upon its back, and the long and very deadly looking scorpion tail wildly lashing behind it put to rest the idea it could be a mere lion. And, as its gleaming eyes and slobbering mouth could easily attest, it had clearly decided that she was its next meal.
Point in fact, it kind of reminded her of some of the monsters that Ganondorf would cook up when he was feeling creative, bored, or, Farore forbid, both. The thought made her try an to eke just a little bit more speed out of her hooves.
Saria had no idea how she had managed to find herself in such a situation, especially since it was really rare for the actions of Link and his fellow Triforce Wielders to create enough of a splash to hit Kokiri Forest. But right now she didn’t particularly care about that. Knowing what craziness her long-time friend was involved with this time would not help deal with the hungry feline intent upon turning her into its next meal.
Ducking low under a thick tree branch that was wider than her body, she darted to the side. The sound of wood exploding as the beast barreled through the obstacle with only a small loss of speed for it affirmed her decision of not wanting to fight the creature directly.
Sure, she knew how to fight. She may not be as good as Link at it, but then again who was? Saria could hold her own in a pinch. But that was while armed and in her own body. Both of which were privileges she currently most definitely did not have.
And so she ran, dodging and weaving around the verdant maze while trying to either lose her pursuer or find some kind of shelter that could hope to withstand its sheer strength. Only, as she burst out of the thick underbrush and into a clearing, as her hooves dug into the earth in an attempt to arrest her momentum, it seemed that her current case of bad luck hadn’t been exhausted by meeting the hungry feline. Not in the slightest.
Even as she dug deep trenches with her hooves upon the muddy ground, it was barely enough to stop her before hitting the large rock formation that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere, cutting the clearing in half.
Her two front hooves hit the massive golden-brown rock with a loud clopping noise, finally bringing her mad charge to a halt right in front of it. The natural formation was composed of some kind of light-brown rock, with a few darker patches spread all around it. It was easily over sixty feet high, and so wide that both ends disappeared past the end of the clearing and into the forest itself, making it look like someone had simply picked up and dropped a small mountain amidst the verdant trees.
But Saria barely paid any attention to those things, the details of the random rock formation being of very little importance to her at the moment, her mind focusing on the far more important fact that the large pile of light-brown stone had just cut her path and put her in a corner.
“Definitely not good!” she hissed, swiftly turning around and lowering herself into the closest she could get to a fighting stance with her new body as a triumphant roar echoed upon the clearing as her pursuer burst out of the underbrush.
She was trapped, and the creature most definitely knew it as well, the large feline abandoning its earlier haste in favor of slowly approaching her with measured steps of its large paws, savoring the moment and how its prey was now at its mercy.
Knowing that the feline would be able to pounce and get her before she could dart out of the clearing, Saria pressed her back against the rock wall and readied herself to make the creature pay dearly for this particular meal, a small prayer to Farore under her breath as she tracked the slowly approaching beast’s every step.
The beast roared once more, extending its bat-like wings wide and lashing with its scorpion-like tail behind it, proclaiming its victory as it prepared to pounce, only for an even louder roar to echo throughout the forest, drowning out all other noises.
Even as her ears folded against her head and her eyes darted about in search of the source for the far louder roar, an action that was being mimicked by her pursuer, Saria wondered if the stress of it all was finally getting to her, since she could swear that the roar had sounded surprisingly like a yawn of all things.
A deep silence filled the clearing, until a loud cracking sound, as if large boulders rubbing against each other, broke it. Saria felt the rock wall behind her start to tremble as if it was suffering a localized earthquake.
With a yelp of surprise, Saria jumped forward, as the rock formation she had been leaning against moved of all things!
Wide-eyed, Saria watched as what she had assumed to be a small light-brown mountain started to flex and stretch as though limbering its arms and legs after a prolonged sleep. As the ‘mountain’ continued to uncurl itself from the ball-like shape it had taken while sleeping, it stretched its long reptilian neck, equally long and spike-filled tail, and unfurled its large leathery wings. Saria realized that she hadn’t run headfirst into a mountain. She had run headfirst into a sleeping dragon!
“So not good,” she whimpered as the gargantuan light-brown dragon released another deafening yawning roar as it opened its maw that looked big enough to gobble up her feline pursuer whole, not to mention her much smaller self.
Upon seeing the cavernous opening lined with many, many, huge sword-like teeth, her feline pursuer apparently decided that this simply wasn’t worth the meal and promptly fled with a panicked meowling cry. But unfortunately for the green-maned doe, before Saria could follow upon its example the dragon opened its large eyes and looked straight down at her.
Being stared at by a piercing blue eye larger than her whole body froze Saria in place. A shiver ran down her spine as the largest dragon she had ever seen or heard about turned around in order to look at her fully, casually uprooting century-old trees without even noticing as it did so.
The gargantuan titan looked down at the terrified kokiri, who had already made peace with the fact she would become one with the spirits of the woods soon, and slowly smiled with its huge fanged mouth. And then it spoke with a thunderous voice that blew the leaves upon the trees away and seemed to make the earth itself tremble with its power.
“Hello tiny one!” the massive dragon shouted in an extremely cheerful, and highly incongruous with his terrifying appearance, tone of voice. “I’m Biggoron, nice to meet you! What brings you to these parts?”
As the echoes of his thunderous voice died down and the meaning of his words penetrated Saria’s highly perplexed mind, the cream-coated doe found herself being able to formulate only a single response.
“What?”