Chapter 11
It seems the Great Deku Tree is so ancient he’s become confused about when he is. With his mind still stuck in the past, the old spirit sees a female body in front of him and insists on calling her Linkle. Link sees little point in correcting him, and only listens with half an ear when he sends her off to Hyrule Castle. Link really shouldn’t have to bother with this part of the Path again, so ancient has her old friend become that his spirit is as tattered as his physical body. His role is almost redundant now. But as Link had learnt the hard way so long ago, Fate tends to play very nasty tricks when she’s not obeyed.
Why do the gods insist on stuffing him back in this body, again and again? Where once standing before him was like staring down a burning inferno, Link instead senses he’s become a flicker of flame about to fizzle out. Were the Deku Tree cognizant enough about his state of being, Link has little doubt he would choose to snuff the rest of himself out.
Perhaps her biggest regret as she stands before the Great Deku Tree is not that she has to watch as an old friend succumbs to a sort of incremental madness. No. It’s a lack of a once-faithful companion and the comforting flutter of fairy wings near her ear. That companion left a void in her soul that’s been there for centuries. Link’s not seen her in thousands of years.