voidtreckerexpress | Gardening in the Garden Car? OTA

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najaran [ou]

Gardening in the Garden Car? OTA

Who: Najaran, her new Card, and OTA.
Where: Garden
When: The first several days after platform
What: Najaran fretting over her new creature.
Warnings: Angst, death and violence mentions.

Ever since Najaran got this little one, she hasn't done her chores obsessively like she usually does.

She'd been draggy and down since the end of the mission, but since the platform it had been different than just that. She'd been almost obsessive about staying in the Garden car. She'd grab food from the kitchen then just go there and stay, usually laying down near the small patch of dirt she'd gathered and the small creature resting there. She was like a mother hen that hatched a kitten by accident. She had no clue what she was doing, or if she was taking care of the baby properly. but she felt like she had to try. HAD TO.

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"Atla told me to get fire wood, and I didn't realize they were alive," she said, rubbing the back of her head, sheepishly. "Woodfolk adults are all flat on top and when they're sleeping they look like tree stumps. So I kinda thought it was a tree someone had already cut down. And we didn't need much, so I figured hacking at a stump was better than killing a tree..."

"You didn't just gather branches?"

Link shook his head, and smiled ruefully. "Sorry, sorry, that wasn't helpful. I grew up in the forest. There's lots of types of people in forests, it can be tricky. Deku Scrubs look just like a scrubby bush until they come up all the way out of the ground."

"I probably should have," she said, still sheepishly. "I hadn't ever been in the woods before, and never built a campfire until Bisteam. So I didn't know what I was doing."

"Never heard of Deku Scrubs."

"I'm not sure they live anywhere besides Hyrule and Termina," Link confessed. "I got transformed into one once, when I was younger. It...wasn't much fun."

"You got transformed into one?" she asked with a wide eyed mix of horror and fascination. "How?"

"A Skull Kid wearing a possessed mask transformed me. And then tried to end the world by making the moon fall." He rubbed his neck and chuckled awkwardly. "It's a long story."

She gathered the baby Woodfolk into her lap. "Tell us the story?" she asked, fascinated.

Link, unlike certain striped demons, found it hard to be the center of attention. And talking about his own heroic quests was exceedingly difficult. It felt too much like bragging--and his story wasn't even the interesting one in his mind. The people of Termina were much more interesting.

"I'm not sure if you'd like it very much..." Too many people died and the tale was complex enough with time looping and time traveling that without some form of visuals, Link wasn't sure he could do it justice anyway.

"How about--I tell you about that Skull Kid." The hero sat down, cross-legged and began talking about his friend.

"Once there was a cursed Forest that none could enter. Adults who became lost there, became Stalfos. Children who became lost became Skull Kids. One of these imps, wandered from the land of Hyrule to the land of Termina and befriended the giants who lived there. They were the best of friends, this tiny Skull Kid and the mighty giants who towered high above him."

She settled in to listen. She was learning that she liked learning about other worlds but more... her Master wasn't big on stories. Not ones that weren't secretly lessons. But her dad had loved to tell her stories when they'd camp out. And she missed that.

"Stalfos?"

"Huh? Oh! Right, sorry. Stalfos are skeleton warriors. They're pretty strong--it doesn't seem to matter if the person was a soldier or a warrior in their life. It's just what they become."

Link continued his story.

"They played together all the time, until one day the giants had to leave. The Skull Kid didn't understand, all he saw were his friends abandoning him. One going to the North, one going to East, one going to the West, and one going to the South.

The little imp was alone and a seed of bitterness was planted in his heart..."

She wanted to ask questions but listened instead. And when he talked about the kid being left alone... she felt it. She hugged the Woodfolk tightly.

"While he was feeling lost and alone, two fairies found him. Tatl and Tael. While the imp liked the fairies, they weren't a replacement for his old friends."

Link twiddled his thumbs. "After awhile, they came across a traveling salesman. This salesman didn't sell normal wares. He sold masks. He liked to tell people he was spreading happiness, but, there was something different about him."

"No one can replace the people who left though, right?" she asked softly. "We make new friends, but they never take the place of the old ones."

Pain flickered across Link's features for a split second, before he did his best to hide it. "No," he said quietly, thinking of Navi. Of Saria. Of Nautilus and Shadow.

"There's a saying....I think....something about one being silver and the other one gold?"

"I don't know that saying," she said softly, thinking about Kigi. She closed her eyes and held the Woodfolk tighter. It started struggling and fussing, trying to get free.

"It's something I heard...from another world. Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold." Link sighed, scratching his ear.

"I think it's a song for kids." He noticed how the little creature struggled in her grasp, and cleared his throat. "I think your friend wants to be free."

"Wants to be... but she died..." Yes, she was confused because she was still thinking about Kigi.

"I believe he means the Woodfolk."

"The... oh!" she let go quickly and set the baby in the spoil with an absent pat on its leaves. It looked angry and turned its back on her, sulking.

She didn't seem to notice. She looked up at Link to say something, then blinked as if seeing him for the first time. "Are... Are you a nymph?" She said the words in a near whisper, as if hope and pain were both in them.

"Ah---no, I'm Hylian. But, I was raised by the Kokiri, and my adoptive father when I was a kid was a Tree. So, I'm pretty good with all things forest."

Link watched the little Woodfolk with a smile. After a moment, he pulled his Ocarina out and played Saria's Song for the young creature.

"Oh. Your ears are a lot like Kigi's," she said softly. "Your hair too."

The creature glanced back when he began to play.

Link lowered the ocarina again at the end of the song and smiled at her. "They say our ears are long so we can hear the gods. I think my parents probably had hair like mine, but, I don't remember either of them."

That was why Culdra gave them long ears? Then why did humans have such small ones? Did Culdra already know everything was ending for the Gods when humans were created?

"I look like my dad, I think," she said softly. "But I don't remember my mom at all. But the train made us think we were kids again recently, so my memories of my dad are fresh again." Yes, she was choosing to see that as a silver lining. "And lots of people here are really nice to kids."

"I'm kinda glad I missed that. Having to grow up a third time would be a bit much," he laughed.

"I had fun. Lots of yummy foods and kind people. Though I thought I had accidentally left my father behind," she said sheepishly. "I wanted him to be here with me so he could get to sleep inside and have good food."

"Sounds like it might have been a little upsetting for you."

She shook her head. She wasn't generally the type to dwell on pain, though it did sneak up on her sometimes.

"Like I said, now I remember my father more clearly, and I got to see that even when people don't know who I am, they're all very kind here."

"That's good. And you're very lucky to be able to remember your father."

He knew virtually nothing of his own, actually knowing more of his mother from just the snippet the Deku Sprout had told him.

She nodded, rubbing the back of her head. "He always did his best to take care of me." And she, stupid child she had been, had bought every lie. Every half truth. She had heard the love and good intentions behind the words, and so had trusted the words completely.

The Great Deku Tree let Link grow up thinking he was a defective Kokiri, instead of letting the poor child know he'd been adopted. It would have saved him a great deal of anxiety growing up if he'd known the truth.

"I've had two adoptive fathers," he said. "One, was the Great Deku Tree, and, he was a father to all the Kokiri. I wish he'd told me a lot sooner that I was not one myself, it would have been easier to fit in if I'd known I was actually a different race. And if they had known."

Link smiled a little. "My new adoptive father is worrywort bookworm." He paused. "Not... not literally. He's human." He had to specify, he realized, having just said his first adoptive father had been a Tree.

"Wow. I've only ever had the one dad." She leaned back against a rock. "He never lied about me being adopted or anything, but about things like how it was too beautiful a night to sleep indoors when we could watch the snow instead and how he had eaten when I'm pretty sure now he didn't, just so I could have more." She missed him. "But it was just him, and then My Master, till I came here."

"Sounds like a good dad."

The Great Deku Tree, being...well, a tree, hadn't really provided much physical protection. Spiritual guidance, yes, but, physical needs, no.

She nodded, smiling a bit. "He was the best," she agreed.

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Gardening in the Garden Car? OTA

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Link is seriously singing girl scout songs? LOL

He was a boy scout in the other reality, pffft. I figure he'd be aware of it at least :D

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