~Chapter Eight- The Fungus Problem~
The Kokiri Forest was beginning to stir, as if awakened by the outsiders’ footsteps. Warro was several paces behind Kuro, nervously taking each step; looking every which way with each step he took. He yawned with his next step.
“Come on,” Kuro said, turning around, motioning Warro over. “It’s not my fault you fell asleep late. What were you doing? Watching me sleep?” She smirked as her second question finished.
“Is it bad if I didn’t?” Warro cautiously tip-toed over to Kuro’s side, where she punched him in the head, making him lose his balance. “Is that a yes?”
“No,” she said. “The punch was for being slow, and this…” she placed a foot on his back, where his shield was and twisted her foot. “This is for asking if it was bad. You got in trouble for watching the Princess sleep, in a way. Of course, it’s bad!” She took her foot off and hauled the boy up, shoving him forward. “You know the way to the Great Deku Tree, right? Well, lead the way.”
Warro, feeling very intimidated by Kuro, obeyed and slowly made his way through the village of the child-like Kokiri, who were staring at them from the windows(No glass! thought Warro.) of their homes in trees that were literally in homes. He knew that just up ahead was the Deku Tree (he had seen the pathway leading to it during his last visit.). They hopped across the shallow creek, where to the duo thought that the little platforms were an inconvenience that the Kokiri found funny.
“Ooh, lookie!” Warro exclaimed as a glint of blue shined from the corner of his eye as he hopped into the last platform. “A upee!” He bent over and picked up he blue shard lying on the platform.
“It’s surprising you know what that is,” Kuro laughed. “I was expecting you to stick it in your tunic for enjoyment, or something.” She shoved Warro forward. “Deku Tree, now?”
“R-right,” Warro stuttered, noticing that there was a shop in the forest as well. Inside the shop, the Kokiri looked out from the entrance at him. The way they looked at him… he was sure of it. They knew he was the mysterious prankster that haunted the Lost Woods the past six years. Another inconvenience of a platform to hop across, this time, only it was a natural outcrop from the water and after hopping across, they began their way through the path leading to the Deku Tree. As they walked, Kuro looked along the ground. One some blades of grass, there was a peculiar shade of pink and the weeds—
“These aren’t weeds… these are—“ She gasped and thrust her halberd forward, stabbing the blue head of a monster that sprouted from the weeds. Just as soon as the monster shriveled up and died, another sprouted from a patch of weeds behind Kuro, and these weeds had the peculiar pink color seen on the grass. It lunched forward and it’s prickly mouth biting into her sides. She yelled “Sever the stem!” as she struggled to get free. She had heard of these monsters before. They were only in the forests, hence the name of Deku Baba. She grimaced as the wet, yellow tongue rubbed up against her side. This Deku Baba clearly was not normal. While the head of a Baba was usually blue, this one had many spots of pink, and its tongue was yellow.
“What’s ‘sever’ mean?” Warro asked.
“Just cut the damn stem, idiot!” Kuro yelled as it tightened its clamp on her. Warro’s eyes widened, now understanding the connection between “cut” and “sever” and he took his sword out and vertically slashed at the stem of the Deku Baba. The stem stiffened as the sword’s blade cut through it. As the Baba’s head shriveled up and sunk into the ground, Kuro rubbed her arm, where the Baba had bitten her. It was scratched here and there from the prickly thorns in its mouth. The grip on her halberd tightened as she hit Warro on the head with the shaft. “Idiot!”
“What was that for?” Warro groaned, rubbing the back of his head.
“You’re so slow in so many ways,” Kuro said walking ahead of him. “You’re lucky you’re with me, Warro. Anyone else and you’d be ditched, because of you being a liability.”
“Lia…bil..i—“
“Just hurry up!” Kuro said grabbing his hand and pulling him in front of her. “The Great Deku Tree is ahead of here, right?”
“Right, he should be just around this corner…” Warro continued his way, occasionally turning around him to check up on whether the Kokiri were following him. Luckily, they all seemed to be afraid of outsiders. Who could blame them, really? They are too afraid to even enter the Lost Woods, thanks to Warro. Around the bend, the two entered a large meadow, where a large tree that had dark spots on its that were shaped like eyes and a moustache. This tree was the Great Deku Tree. “Great Deku Tree, I’m back!”
“Ah, Warro, come hither,” a deep ominous voice responded, startling Kuro and making her unintentionally step back as Warro sprinted to the tree. “Why dost you hesitate, young one? You come as well.”
“M-me?” Kuro asked. She had no idea what was making her so nervous about being before the Great Deku Tree, but something was giving her a bad vibe.
“Yes.” Kuro slowly made her way forward, this time walking just as slowly as Warro was walking before. She eventually stood behind Warro, who sat down, turned his head back to Kuro and said,
“The Deku Tree’s meetings are long; he doesn’t mind us sitting,” he said grinning. “Great Deku Tree,” he turned to face the Tree, “Princess Zelda sent me back to tell you that I was chosen to help in the investigation over the suspicions of Ganondorf. Great Deku Tree, there was an intruder at the castle, who tried to kill Zelda. Apparently they thought it was me.”
“Darkness is befalling Hyrule, Warro. If there was such an intruder, it is important you become stronger.” Warro stood up and added,
“There’s a poster saying for people to capture me! Great Deku Tree, I need to show them it was not me.” Just as he finished, Kuro stood up and hit Warro in the back of the head.
“Warro, you can redeem yourself by becoming stronger, you idiot! And you need to fend them off, when you encounter them, right?” Kuro looked up and owed her head to the Tree. “Great Deku Tree, I am truly sorry for this little outburst. I’m Kuro, a human from Castle Town and a former member of the Royal Guard.”
“A human…” the Deku Tree murmured. “Kuro, did the Princess request you to accompany Warro?”
“She did. Her father has been becoming crueler as of late and it seems his morality is degrading. Princess Zelda told me it had begun the moment that he and Ganondorf signed the treaty between the Gerudo and Hylians.”
“Kuro; Warro, I have a favor to ask of you.” Warro and Kuro stood up as the ground began to rumble and the lower part of the Deku Tree’s trunk lowered to reveal a passageway inside of him. “Inside of me is a parasite named Gohma. I believe the longer it stays inside of me, the more this fungus will infect the forest. As you have probably noticed, there are pinkish plants scattered about the forest. Gohma has already bonded with me, and so…”
“You want us to kill it,” Kuro said, “is that right?”
“Yes, and I am prepared for what is to come,” the Deku Tree let out a deep sigh. “After you defeat Gohma, head to Kakariko Village. The Sage of Shadow, Impa, should be reawakened. Warro, your pendant will guide you to the Sage.” Warro was already wandering down to the entrance, nodding to every word the Great Deku Tree had said. Warro really liked the Deku Tree and he was determined to save him no matter what. Warro was not even Kokiri, nor did he live in the forest yet the Deku Tree let him visit whenever he wished. It was not until three days ago that he was specifically asked for by the Great Deku Tree. Just before he entered, he asked,
“What exactly does the spirit pendant do?”
“It preserves spirits and will allow them to aid the wearer,” the Great Deku Tree explained. “It also can sense the sages and guardians of the world. You will learn to use it, in time. Now, enter me and free me from my parasite.”
Warro nodded, and entered, but something was not right. The Deku Tree usually spoke in a very old dialect that sometimes confused him. And they way his voice sounded…
Kuro followed Warro inside and the exit shut behind them. She turned around and yelled,
“Oh, damn it, I knew that hunk of wood was up to some—“
“Kuro, we’re inside him. I think he can still hear us.”
“But he locked us in!”
“Does it matter?” Warro asked, taking steps forward and looking around. Everything about the inside was a tree. There were vines, wooden platforms and walls; there were Deku Babas. As he walked the ground became bouncy and seemed more fragile.
“Uh, yeah, it does,” Kuro said, walking over to him and hitting him on the head again. “We can’t get out!” She looked down and noticed that the two of they were standing on a web. She looked up and saw a lot of platforms. “If a person was alone, I would recommend falling from that height, but since there’s the two of us, I think we can just do this.” She grabbed Warro’s wrist and began to hop up and down. “C’mon, do it with me! It’s fun!” She laughed as Warro listened and they hopped on the web. Kuro had to admit, it really was fun—well, that was until the webbing broke and the two of them fell down the pit and where there was water at the bottom.
“It’s cold!” Warro gasped as his head reached the surface of the water. He treaded as he looked around for Kuro. “Kuro, where are you?” Warro looked around; cold water dripped onto his nose, making him shudder.
“Up here.” Warro looked up and saw Kuro hanging from the vines that had grown from the wall laughing. She held her halberd in one arm and the vines above her looked as if something, or someone had slid right through them and broke them all. “I just wanted to be sure there was nothing in the water. It seems like you’re the only one down there, so I’ll be letting go, now.” She pushed away from the wall and dropped down into the water next to Warro, who groaned from the water that splashed onto him. “C’mon, we gotta continue. If something is infecting the Deku tree and it’s able to infect an area that far out, it must be in a deep place. We’ll look for a lower level, alright?”
“Right,” Warro answered, swimming over to a ledge and pulling himself out of the water. “But how are we sure of this?” Kuro swam over and sat on the ledge with Warro and with a smug look on her face replied with,
“Woman’s intuition, Warro. Never ever doubt it,” she tapped a finger against her nose and looked around the room. The ceiling and the walls had the fungus from earlier scattered about. She then noticed that it got significantly thicker near a large wall of webbing. “Warro, you think your sword could cut through that webbing over there?” She pointed across the water to the other side of the room.
“I’ll try,” Warro said, hopping off the ledge and swimming to the other side. He pulled himself up the ledge and a quiet hiss of his sword leaving his scabbard echoed through the chamber. He neared the webbing, when suddenly a trio of babas emerged in a triangle formation round him.
“s**t,” Kuro muttered, getting up. These were not Deku Babas. They were Baba Serpents, because of their red heads. “Warro, don’t do anything stupid. Whatever you do, don’t—“
“Teeyaah!” Warro began to hack and slash at the babas and severed them from their stems, but much to his surprise they still squirmed around on the ground and lunched at him. One bit down on his leg, the other began to gnaw on his torso, and the third—
“I told you to not do anything stupid!” The halberd swung horizontally batting away the baba and knocking it into the water, where it promptly drowned. Warro cried out in pain as the babas gnawed on his body, while he struggled to free himself. Kuro stomped on the limp stem of the baba on Warro’s leg and stabbed into its head with the point of her halberd. Purple liquid stained her blade and as the baba continued to gnaw, she twisted it and stabbed it several more times with more force, until it fell limp on the ground. “You’re extremely dimwitted, Warro!” She grabbed onto the mouth of the baba and pulled back on its jaw, dropping her halberd at her side. “You’re a fragile thing, ain’t ‘cha?” she muttered as she heard the jaw of the baba beginning to crack. Pop, pop, crack, snap; there goes the upper jaw of the Baba Serpent and there goes its life. It felt to the ground and Warro fell to his knees, panting from the pain he had endured.
“Long as it doesn’t kill me, right?”
“Idiot,” Kuro sighed, sitting next to him and taking her bandana off. “You’re lucky your shield was protecting your back, or this would be much worse.” Her head motioned to the blood stain that had appeared on Warro’s right waist, where his hand was clasped over the wound. “Can you stand?”
“I think,” Warro said, rising to his feet, but immediately grimaced from the pain in his leg, staggering backwards from the shock and falling back on his behind.
“Idiot,” Kuro sighed once more. She knelt down and tied the red bandana around Warro’s leg, hoisted him up, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Just make yourself useful and use your shield while I lug you around.” She leaned over and picked up her halberd as Warro put his sword away and took out his shield. Kuro batted away the webs that blocked their way, walking deeper and deeper into the tree. The inside of the tree seemed to glow as the darkness grew, when they went deeper.
“What’s Women’s Intuition , anyways?” Warro asked as they entered the next room, which sealed itself upon their entrance. In the center of the room was a pile of dead leaves.
“Something that’s telling me that you better lift up your shield,” Kuro said in a panic. Just as she finished, a monster emerged from the leaves and spat a nut at the duo. “Oh, screw it, split up!” She said, throwing Warro to the side and jumping the other direction. The nut shattered against the wall that was behind them as the monster hid in the
“It’s a Deku Scrub… of all the monsters from the forest…”
“I had a feeling you must have seen at least one monster from the forest in here, Warro,” Kuro said. “Now, you know how to beat them?” Kuro knew how, of course, but she needed to see how much combat knowledge Warro had.
“Er, they always hid in the leaves the moment I ran up to them,” Warro said. “Besides, they never really attacked me.”
“Well, their nuts are shot at a high speed,” Kuro said. “They will ricochet back at them, if a shield is used. So, lure it back out and deflect. They aren’t very bright, so they won’t learn from mistakes. All monsters are like that.”
“All right,” Warro said, nodding and getting down on one knee, holding his shield in front of him. His leg was killing him, but t did not hurt as much to be in this position. The Deku Scrub emerged again and spat a nut at Warro and then turned to Kuro and spat another.
“Well, that’s new,” Kuro gasped as the nut hit her in the chest. She took several deep breaths and then,
“Ah!” A high pitch cry came from the Deku scrub as it was hit by its own nut,that Warro had deflected. “Mercy, mercy!”
“You can talk?” Kuro asked walking to Warro, helping him up, and then helping him over to the Deku Scrub.
“You may have beaten me, but my brothers aren’t as easy! Twenty-three is number one! Forgive me, Queen Gohma!” It scurried off into the darkness and a new path was opened. As the entered the new room, the sound of something spinning could be heard, and it got louder as they entered. Inside this new chamber, there was a spiked axle spinning horizontally with a platform moving back and forth underneath it. The distance between the platform and the axle was very short, and would mutilate anything, or anyone that was underneath it.
“Warro, you stay here,” Kuro said, dropping her halberd next to him. “I’m going to go look to see if there is any way through this.” She dove from the ledge and into the water. As she neared the axle, she dived under and came up the other side. She swam over to the other ledge and called back, “It’s too high! We need the platform! You think we could lower the water level somehow?”
“How should I know?” Warro called back.
“Good point,” murmured Kuro. “I’ll check under water.” She took a deep breath and held it as she dove under water again. She looked around as she swam and noticed a switch on her right. She surfaced and called to Warro once more and said, “Get ready to jump on the platform, once the water goes down! I found a switch under the water. Once you’re on, I’ll swim over to you, and you better help me on. We’ll make a jump for the ledge. Just ignore the pain in your leg and do it, when the time comes!”
“Um… okay,” Warro said, gulping. “Ignore the pain?” Right now, he could barely stand. How could he jump?
“I’m going under!” Kuro called out. She dove under and swam to the switch. She pressed down and the water level began to lower with a lot of noise. She surfaced again and yelled, “Jump on!” As the platform neared Warro, who nodded, grabbing her halberd, hopped off the ledge and onto the platform. He cried out in pain as he landed on both legs and falling on his good knee. He took deep breaths and looked to Kuro, who was swiftly swimming towards him. He held out a hand and pulled her up.
“Do I have to… have to jump?” Warro panted. Kuru, who was also out of breath looked at him and then looked at his leg, noticing that his wound worsened. She quickly tightened her bandana around his leg and responded,
“No.” She sighed and stood up. “Just hold my weapon a little bit longer, okay?”
“Why?” Warro asked, as they went under the axle.
“I’m stronger than I look,” she said, flexing an arm. She picked up Warro and held him in her arms as they neared the other ledge. The water began to rise and the distance to the top began to decrease. “Roll on the ground when you hit the ground!” she yelled as they got close enough. She brought him back and tossed Warro up and onto the ledge, where he yelped from the landing. “I don’t have much time left,” Kuro muttered. “Better make this quick.” She dashed off and left from the very edge of the platform. She flew through the air and then slammed right into the ledge. She hung on desperately and then suddenly she felt Warro pull her up. “Th…thanks,” she panted with a hand over her chest. “You’re learning—slowly, but learning.”
“You owe me one now, right?” Warro asked.
“No, you just paid off one debt,” Kuro laughed. “C’mon, I’ll left you up that ledge over there and then we’ll continue.” Kuro picked Warro up again and carried him to the wall, where the next passageway was. There was no block to move over to make a suitable “staircase” to the passage, but the old fashioned way will be just as fine. She lifted him up and her arms began to tremble under his weight. “Damn, Warro, you’re heavy,” she muttered. “You see the ledge?”
“Uh…”
“Well?”
“Yeah.” Warro’s weight being released from her was such a relief, but it was not over here. Kuro took her halberd and stabbed it into the wall and then stood on the haft. As she grabbed onto the ledge with one hand, she took the halberd out of the wall with the other and joined Warro. She wrapped his arm around her shoulder and continued down the path. As they walked, they heard soft screeches from all around them and the “hall” got considerably darker. From what light there was, Kuro could see Warro had grown pale and was shaking.
“You alright, Warro?” Kuro asked. “You afraid of the dark?” Warro quickly shook his head and muttered,
“It’s… it’s those black things… Keese… I hate them…” Warro shuddered as he spoke. “They’re all around us… can we just keep going? If we wake them…”
Kuro could tell from the sound of Warro’s voice that this was a serious phobia of his and this was certainly not the situation to make fun of him. She picked up the pace, being wary of the walls, when suddenly, from the ceiling came a spider-like monster. It turned around and stared at Kuro. Warro suddenly fell to his knees, almost crying from fear. The screeching got louder and the suddenly, the Keese that were all sleeping awoke and flew out from behind them, scratching them as they flew out. They attacked the monster who had awoken them, ripping out its insides and then flying out a hole in the ceiling of the next room.
“Warro?” Kuro asked. She knelt down and hit him in the head lightly. “Warro, the Keese are gone, now.” She rubbed his head and held her hand out to him. “C’mon, you can’t cry right now. You’ll have time for that later.”
“S-Sorry,” Warro said, sniffing. “I just feel really useless. You’ve done everything, because I hurt myself.”
“Well, you didn’t see the Baba weeds. You’re a rookie, so you’ll make mistakes. Just learn from them. It’s alright with me doing the work. Hell, it’s my final order to keep an eye on you and that includes protecting you.” She took Warro’s hand and helped him up. “C’mon, let’s go examine that hole in the ceiling.” She helped Warro to the center of the room, where the hole was in the ceiling. There was the fungus from before coating the interior of the hole. Sunlight was entering from outside, but where exactly in the forest, they did not know. The same fragile feeling of a surface was felt underneath them as well.
“Another web,” Warro muttered.
“Hold onto me,” Kuro said. “We’re going down.” She slashed her way through the web as Warro clutched her arm. Neither of them screamed as they fell. Both remained calm as Kuro stabbed her halberd into the wall, which hade the fungus underneath the vines. They slid down, butting through the vines as the weight of Warro and Kuro combined applied a lot of force. As they neared the bottom, where water was they slowed down. For a moment, it seemed as if they were about to hit the water, but they finally came to a stop. Their feet just bared touched the water beneath them. “You can let go now, Warro. My arm’s probably gonna fall off right about now.”
“Oh, sorry,” Warro said, letting go and dropping into the water. As he landed, he hit a pink, heart shaped rock at the bottom of the pit with the foot on his bad leg and suddenly the pain went away. He began to tread water comfortably and then Kuro joined him. “My leg’s feeling a bit better, now. We can take down this parasite together, now.”
“That’s good!” Kuro said treading next to him. “Now, c’mon, we have a Queen to visit, apparently.” She swam ahead and walked out of the water, when it became shallow. Warro followed her and walked behind her. In the three corners of the room were leaves. They were the same as the Deku Scrub’s from before.
“Halt!” A deku Scrub emerged from one leaf pile.
“What business…“ Another emerged.
“…do you have here?” a third said as it came out.
“Um, is there anyone named Queen Gohma through that barred off path behind you?” Warro asked. “The Great Deku Tree is complaining about some kind of parasite and he sent us to look for it.”
“An appointment!” one scrub called out.
“Password!”
“What’s the password?”
“Give us the password!” They said in unison. They all hid underneath the leaves.
“Do you have any idea what the password is, War—never mind,” Kuro sad, remembering who she was asking.
“Twenty three is number one,” Warro said. “That’s the password.”
“That’s probably the smartest and most logical thing that’s come from you so far, Warro!” Kuro said, patting him on the head. “He also said they won’t be as easy. So be careful with whose nuts you’re hitting.”
“Right,” Warro said as he held his shield in front of him. It was good practice with using it for him, right now. He never really used it until now. They all at once rose from the leaves and fired. Time itself seemed to slow down for Warro as he deflected the nut of the middle one back and hit. The other two nuts hit the wall way behind Warro and Kuro and the deku scrubs hid under the leaves again.
“Go for the one on your right!” Kuro called out. “It’s a fifty/fifty chance he’s the third one!”
“Got it!” Warro answered as he positioned himself near the scrub. It emerged and he deflected it. All that was left was the last scrub. He hurried over to it, deflected its seed and then,
“Correct-o!”
“You got the password!”
“However, Queen Gohma is currently not in the room ahead. Follow the hole through the wall straight ahead and just keep going straight. You will eventually find her.” The bars that blocked the passage to where Gohma was sank into the ground. The next room was dark and foggy. The floor, ceiling and walls were all discolored and with each step they took, Warro and Kuro heard a disgusting Squish. Or Kuro, she also felt that the ground was very slushy from whatever was getting onto her feet, from her wearing sandals. There was a large hole in the back wall. It was even darker than the rest of the room, but at the end of this tunnel there was sure to be light.
“Warro, it may be a straight line there, but well, I think it’s dangerous,” Kuro said. “So, umm…” She walked over to him and grabbed his hand. “Don’t think anything funny, alright? This is only until we reach the exit.”
“Gotcha.”
