Chapter One
I awoke to the sounds of laughter. To anyone else, this may have been frightening or unusual, but not for me. Living in a village of all children, you get used to it pretty quick. As I slid out of bed, I caught sight of my wild green hair in the mirror. Quickly, I grabbed a brush and tried to tame the neon tangles. No use. I grab a ribbon off my little shelf and pull my hair back into a pale green ponytail. Walking to my closet, I chose from my many uniformly green dresses. I made this one, so it would be different from the others. It had one shoulder strap and barely brushed my knees, tied in the back by a black ribbon; matching the one in my hair. I gave myself a once over in the mirror, then walked out the door.
The morning mist was pink in the early sunlight. I stretched my arms and climbed the ramp leading to my roof.
"Hey Saria!" I hear a voice call out to me from a nearby platform.
"Morning Fado!" I reply to the girl, balancing across the bridge from my roof to her perch above the village. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Nice dress." She said. Fado's puff-ball pig tails tickled my nose as she turned her head.
"Where's Link?" I asked, scanning the crowd playing in the medow below.
"I haven't seen him yet today. He's probably still sleeping." Fado replied, putting a hand across her forehead and looking around.
"Probably." I agreed. We sat in silence for a while, until I heard someone calling my name. I said goodbye to Fado and jumped off the platform, landing in a crouch with one hand on the ground. Following the sound of Link's voice, I made my way around the field and to the tree he called home. I was nearing his house when a boy ran up and blocked my path.
"Move it Mido." I said, trying to get around him.
"Let me ask you something, Saria." he said, putting an arm out to stop me.
I gave up. "What?" I said impatiently.
"Why do you always hang around with that looser." Mido asked, gesturing to Link's house behind him.
"He is not a looser, Mido! He's going to be a hero someday, just you wait."
Mido laughed. "He doesn't even have a fairy!"
I looked at my own fairy, hovering just above my left shoulder.
"Don't bring me into this." She said, fluttering into my pocket. Mido walked away, snickering. Finally, I was free to get into Link's house. I started to climb the ladder up to his porch, when Link rushed out to greet me.
"Saria! Hurry up here!" he said excitedly, brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.
"I'm coming!" I said, hoisting myself up off the ladder. I stood up and brushed myself off, when something caught my eye.
"Link." I said breathlessly. "Is that a fairy?!" Hovering above his head, was a fairy almost as blue as his eyes.
"Not just a fairy." he said, bursting with pride. "My fairy."
"That's great! I told you you would get one!" I congratulated him.
"Yeah, I guess I should have listened to you." he said, scratching the back of his head and looking embarrassed. Suddenly his face lit up.
"I just remembered something. Wait here." He said, dashing through the door. He came back moments later with something hidden behind his back. "Close your eyes."
"What did you do?" I laughed, doing as he said. I felt something little brush up against the bottom of my neck.
"Open 'em." he said, looking at me with a big grin. Around my neck, he had fastened a necklace. It was a wood carving of four lines making a sort of swirl.
