The Legend of Zelda- Ocarina of Time

Death Mountain

Navi hesitated, her luminescence dimming slightly. "The Kokiri Elders will have worked it out, I'm sure. It won't do any good worrying about it."

"I bet Mido's convinced them to blame me," Link sulked, recalling the anger and fear in the eyes of those he had grown up with. "He was always blaming me for something."

He heard Navi's quiet sigh. "Link," she said softly, "most of the Kokiri know there was no way you could have harmed the Great Deku Tree or would have."

"Except I ran away." Link's face fell, his gaze drifting towards his dust-smeared boots. "Mido will have convinced them it was my fault..."

Navi's face was etched with concern. "You did nothing wrong." This prompted no reply, so Navi persisted, "There was nothing you could do. You didn't curse the Great Deku Tree. Ganondorf did."

"I know," Link murmured without conviction.

"We can still make this right, Link," Navi said, her voice determined. "Let's just focus on getting the stones before anything else happens. Deal?"

Link nodded, mustering his resolve. "Deal."

"Good," Navi sounded relieved. "Come on, we should keep moving."

Swallowing his doubts and fears as best he could, Link held his head high and trudged on along the arid track. Navi was right. There was no point worrying about Mido. With that, he straightened his shoulders and kept going.

They soon reached a fork in the road, and one track led up to a flat shelf where the mountainside had been cut away. The second track meandered further along the mountain, beyond the shelf, and out of sight. They took the first track, and soon, Link noticed fewer wagon ruts than before.

"Navi, are you sure this is the right way?" he asked, dreading the thought that they were lost. "Is this where you came last night?" 

"Yes. The Great Fairy of Death Mountain lives this way, beyond the Goron settlement," she affirmed. "Don't worry, we're on the right track."

"I've never met a Great Fairy." Link knew of one that lived in the forest, though he couldn't recall her name. She was said to be very reclusive, and it was not unusual for her to go unseen for months or even years at a time.

"They aren't very common," Navi said, sounding pleased that she'd distracted him from their earlier conversation. "Perhaps we can visit Elisia once we're finished with the Gorons."

"I'd like that," Link said, and then suddenly, a question sprang to mind. "Is what Brynn told me true... that they don't wear anything?"

"What?" Navi nearly came to a halt, losing altitude as she did so. "No, of course not." There was a hint of laughter in her voice as she added, "I think he was just pulling your leg."

"Brynn's always making stuff up," Link admitted. "I didn't really believe him..." he paused, noticing something. "What's that noise?"

They had just rounded one last bend in the road when Link heard a sound like someone chipping away at a rock.

"Possibly Gorons," Navi suggested.

As he reached the shelf, the noise grew louder. He could hear voices ahead, deep and rumbling, unlike any creature he'd heard before. Link soon discovered the source. On one side of the ledge, three Gorons were picking away at a boulder the size of a house, the shafts of their pickaxes resembling long, thick logs. One of the Gorons peered over at Link as he approached. It tapped its nearest companion on the shoulder and pointed towards the Kokiri. The Goron's brethren looked over, lowering their pickaxes. The subtle differences in the colouration and pattern of their rock-like scales were the only way Link could tell them apart, and even then, it was confusing.