The Scouring of Kokiri Forest

The Scouring of Kokiri Forest
The flow of time is always cruel. Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it. A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days.
But those younger days were tainted for me. I had lost seven years of my life, lived and fought without them, and the prize for my victory was to live them through. I remembered the fighting. I remembered an adult body and strength, and I saw the world aged. I could not look at friends without seeing their future. I could not speak to them and grow friendships, because I knew the end of the story. I knew that because of my actions seven years in the future that their lives would be bright, but I could not bear the agony of knowing.
My home was with the Kokiri -- woodland sprites who never aged, who never lost their childlike innocence. I envied their joyful lives in their secluded forest. I could never stay there, for I would age. I would lose that innocence, that purity.
Done with the battles I waged across time, I departed Hyrule in search of the one friend in whom who I could confide, a fairy who had fought with me across time. My search brought me into the depths of the Lost Woods. That was my final error.
I fell. A pit deeper than any other swallowed me and my short, fragmented life flashed before my eyes before the blackness took me.
I awoke in Termina, a world where the rules were devised by mind of a mad god. I lived three days over and over and over and over, solving Termina's problems, protecting the land from the fall of the moon itself. I saw the moon fall and I saw it destroyed time and time again. I succeeded and failed, rescued Termina from its devastation and found myself defeated. Three days, again and again.
Termina was my purgatory. The days I spent there were in the millions. I never returned to Hyrule, nor did I move on to the realm of the goddesses. I died when I fell, and as the realization dawned on me that Termina was a world between worlds, I faded from it, and could only watch as my death destroyed Hyrule and the Kokiri.
The dark lord knew I had lived with the Kokiri. He had grown impatient with my absence, as all of Hyrule did. He was obsessed with facing me in battle. He burned the forest, killing my friends and forcing others to take refuge in the Lost Woods. They knew the danger there, but fear of an unknown fate is a powerful motivator.
I have never seen them in my misty prison. But I saw them change. Some of them became undead. Others became the very forest they loved.
One Kokiri was a deeper friend than the rest. She was blessed, and protected the forest as a Sage. But as she ascended to sagehood, I could no longer see her.
I do not know her fate. I doubt that she faced the dark lord.
Or perhaps it is that I fear that she did.
== Notes ==
The Scouring of Kokiri Forest is the first of the Hero's Laments.
The book was written by the Hero of Time and addresses the fate of the Kokiri during the Last Great War of Hyrule. Specifically that some were killed, while others are implied to have become Stalfos, Stalchildren, or even Spriggans. In this sense, the book provides a possible explanation for the presence of Spriggans in The Ruptured Towers - Doubt.
The book also alludes to Saria, albeit not by name.
The book establishes a possible reason for the Hero's absence during the Last Great War as well as his emotions regarding his absence. In doing so, it also establishes Termina as a metaphysical realm, and alludes to an aspect of the origin of the Ruptured Towers.
Finally, the book confirms the events of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask to be part of Relics of Hyrule canon.
== Background and Inspiration ==
The Scouring of Kokiri Forest makes references to several pieces of literature and popular culture. The title itself is in reference to a chapter of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King titled "The Scouring of the Shire."
The Scouring of Kokiri Forest directly quotes Ocarina of Time with the opening sentences, which come from Sheik before teaching the Minuet of Forest.
The book also quotes Majora's Mask, but retells the events of the game's opening cut-scene from the perspective of the Hero of Time.
The book references Doctor Who and Majora itself by stating the rules of Termina were "devised by a mad god." This is in reference to the Doctor Who episode "The Rings of Akhaten."
== See Also ==
The Eruption of Death Mountain
Acid Lakes
Even Death May Die
The City in the Sky
Fading Twilight
Hero's Lament
Category:Books
Category:Lore
Category:Relics of Hyrule Canon
Category:Story