Rupert Giles was looking through the latest shipment of supplies to arrive at the Magic Box. Even though he was still a week away from opening the store he had his hands full in stocking the store up and keeping the truly dangerous items out of the public's hands. As he neared the end of his inventory his employee Xander Harris walked in the door. Over the summer Xander had been on a road trip for the first few weeks. After that he had returned only to find that he had been kicked out of his parent's house. He had looked for an apartment for about a week until Giles had offered him the other room in the house for half the rent.
Of course since Giles was the one paying him Xander was just returning money given to him. The two had quickly become acclimated to living with each other. Xander had proven a bonus to his business by helping him with set up his shelves and counters. He also had learned more than Giles would guess about supernatural artifacts in his high school years. So while Buffy and Willow tried to keep Xander out of the group Giles knew that he wouldn't be leaving the fight for anything. If Buffy managed to make Xander leave he would simply move somewhere else and still fight.
Seeing Giles unpacking boxes Xander started helping him out. "So G-man anything strange or dangerous in this set?" Xander was always interested in new artifacts. Looking through the last box Xander noticed a dagger with a weird symbols inscribed on the side of the guard. It was about a foot long with gold strands over leather handle. "Giles you ever seen anything like this?"
"Yes, please take it to the back and look it up in Sheard's supernatural weapons. I think I remember reading about it in there" As Xander took the dagger into the back Giles finished the rest of the stocking and went over the manifest for the shipment once again. Looking through the list Giles didn't find anything that could tell him more about the blade. Getting nervous Giles looked through one more time. This time he was sure the dagger was not on the list. Running into the back of the store he arrived in the room just as Xander was taking the blade out of its sheathe. "Xander don't take out the blade."
Unfortunately hearing Giles yell Xander jumped and finish drawing the blade from its sheathe. As a keening noise filled the room Xander dropped the dagger and the sheathe to the floor. As the sound continued to grow Giles heard him say, "Ah shit. I wasn't expecting the sound effects." The sound grew in pitch until in a flash of bright light Xander, the blade, and sheathe vanished.
As Giles rushed over to were Xander had been standing he noticed the young man had found the dagger in the book. The picture the book showed left no argument that this was the dagger. Reader the book Giles had the sudden urge to clean his glasses. "The dagger of time is said to be used as a weapon for the companion of a hero. Whenever a hero needs aid in his quests the dagger picks a worthy companion and none but the forseen companion can draw the blade from the sheathe. Realizing that there was nothing he could do he got up and left the room heading towards the phone. The others needed to know what had just happened. Picking up the receiver Giles paused before dialing. "Xander may you return to us safely, I hope you put the fear of god in those you face."
In the middle of a forest.
Xander appeared in a similar flash of bright light. Taking his bearings he noticed that he was in the middle of a forest. Looking around he quickly became lost and finally as he was just about to start yelling for someone to find him he walked into a village. The first thing he noticed was everyone in the town was wearing the same type of green clothes. The second thing was that all of them were children. The weirdest thing he noticed was that they all had glowing balls of lights swirling around them. Some even looked like they were talking to the lights.
Deciding to get the introductions over with Xander walked towards the people closest to him. As he approached neither noticed him until he was about ten feet away. The one with green hair was the first to see him and jumped behind the second. The second one reacted quickly in pulling out what to Xander looked like a dagger but in the little guy's hands looked like a sword. Deciding that moving closer would be a mistake Xander put his hands in the air and took a step back. "I hope that you can understand me. My name is Xander and I'm not from around here. Where is here anyway."
This caused both figures to look at him closely for a few seconds. After talking with each other both smiled with the boy put away his sword. The girl took a step forward "Yes we can understand you and as for where you are this is the lost woods. More specifically this is Kokori village. I am Saria and my friend's name is Link."
After talking with Saria and Link for a while Xander ended up with a little more knowledge about the land he was currently in. The lost woods were located in the Southeast of Hyrule. Xander also learned that each of the Kokori had a fairy partner to guide them in their lives. After telling Xander about the fairies Link's new partner Navi became impatient and decided to grab Link by the ear and lead him away. Seeing this Xander was almost ready to go smack the fairy down but Saria told him that Link had just gained his new fairy and had been summoned to appear before the guardian of the Kokori, the Great Deku Tree.
Since Link was gone Xander was looking around the village. In the distance could see the Deku Tree in the distance. As he looked towards the tree he kept on getting a bad feeling about it. Deciding to find out more about the tree he turned to Saria and asked her about the Tree.
"The Great Deku Tree is the guardian of the forest. With him around the Kokori are protected from the rest of the world. That's why when you first appeared I was a little scared. Lately though the Deku Tree has been acting a little weird."
"Weird in what way?" Xander was starting to get worried for Link. If the guardian spirit was acting weird something could be wrong. While he was sure that Link could handle a lot more than he could he didn't know whom he was a companion for.
"About a month ago I was playing in the woods near the Deku Tree and saw a man in black yelling at the tree. As he turned to leave he said something in a strange language and a flash of dark light hit the Deku Tree. After that the Deku Tree didn't let anyone near him until he called Link to him this morning." As she finished she saw Xander turn and head towards the Deku Tree. Running fast to catch up with Xander she asked, "Where are you going?"
"I think that Link might be in trouble and I'm going to make sure that he's ok." With that Xander started to run towards the Deku Tree. As he got close another Kokori stopped him.
"You aren't a Kokori and the Great Deku Tree doesn't ever see none Kokori. I don't know why he summoned Link when he could have summoned me the Great Mido." This Kokori was full of himself.
Drawing his dagger and pressing the blade to Mido's neck Xander said calmly, "Normally I don't threaten people but I have the feeling that Link is in trouble. Now you can either get out of my way peacefully or not." Seeing the steel behind Xander's words Mido jumped out of the way and ran back towards his house.
With Mido gone Xander approached the Great Deku Tree to notice that the tree had a face and that its mouth was wide open. Link, however was nowhere to be seen. "Who are you that comes before the Great Deku Tree?"
"My name is Xander and I am looking for the Boy named Link. Who are you and where is he?" Xander was looking around for the source of the sound but it seemed to come from every direction at once.
"I am the Great Deku Tree and Link is inside me trying to lift the curse put on me by an evil man." Xander started to walk towards the tree. "No you mustn't enter Link must do this by himself. He is the future Hero of the world."
Drawing his dagger Xander shouted back at the tree, "This dagger names me the hero's companion and I'll be damned if I let anyone face a difficult task without any aid." With that Xander ran into the mouth of the Great Deku Tree. Inside was what appeared to be a dungeon. Looking around Xander notice that Link had been in this definitely been in this room. He could tell by the corpses of monsters that littered it. Hoping that he was still around Xander started to shout for Link. As he was doing this Xander looked up and noticed Link jumping off the platform on the top of the room. Trying to reach the spot where Link would hit ground Xander got caught in a massive spider web.
Link hit the center of the net causing it to break under the force of his impact. Falling down both Xander and Link yelled hoping that they would be something to break the fall. At the bottom both splashed into the water. As soon as they ended up on solid ground once again Link turned to Xander and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Xander looked around and replied, "Simple I came here to help you. No other reason."
"Help me how?" Link asked at Xander. Since he had lived most of his life with only Saria as a friend trust came hard to Link. It made him look at everything someone he had never met before with a skeptic's eye.
"Like this." Xander drew his knife and threw it behind Link. A creature had managed to sneak up on Link. As the knife buried itself in the creatures eye Xander let out a quick yell. "Holy shit it actually worked." Xander was smiling as he retrieved his weapon.
Navi who immediately went to see if the monster was dead noticed the designs on the dagger. "That's the Dagger of Time. If that really is the weapon from the legend then we need Xander's help in our quests."
Xander who couldn't really hear Navi was wondering why Link seemed so engrossed in his fairy all of a sudden. As he walked around the room he noticed that there were monsters attempting to sneak up on the three of them. "Hey guys, less talking more fighting." With that Xander jumped into the middle of the groups and started to slice enemies with his dagger.
After ten minutes of battle Xander and Link stood and looked at the remains of the creatures that attacked them. "So Navi, could you tell us what the legend of the dagger is?" Link asked when they were both sure the room was safe. Xander listened in while making sure that the room stayed empty.
"In the final battle for the fate of Hyrule the Dagger of Time will choose a companion for the future Hero of Time. The two warriors will have many challenges to overcome, but the legend says that if they fail everything will be destroyed. The legend isn't real specific about that part. Since he has the dagger it marks him as the companion, the second of the two. I guess that would make you the Hero of Time, the first of the two. The Great Deku Tree could probably tell us more, but we have to break the curse before he can."
With that the group went through the remaining rooms of the dungeons killing any creature in their way. Near the entrance to the final room Xander stopped Link. "According to your map this is the last room. Whatever is causing the curse is inside. You ready for a fight?"
Link just drew his sword and nodded. As the pair entered the room the heard a scratching noise from the ceiling. Looking up the pair saw a huge creature that looked like a giant black bug. The creature only had three legs and one big eye, but it looked enough like a bug that Xander muttered, "Just great I knew I should have brought along some insecticide. Hey Link, why don't you use your slingshot and hit the things eye."
Link pulled out his slingshot and aimed carefully at the creature's eye. Letting loose the bullet he managed to knock the beast from the ceiling leaving it stunned. Not giving it a chance to recover Xander attacked with his dagger stabbing it into the eye. The bug was wounded but it hadn't been finished yet. Grabbing Xander with one of its legs it tried to toss him away. Before that happened Link managed to sever the leg holding Xander. After this it was only a matter of dismembering the rest of the bug.
With the bug dead the remains disappeared into dust rapidly. "You think that was all of them Xander?" As Link spoke a circle of blue light appeared in the floor. The group walked to the circle and stepped inside. The portal transported them to the front of the Deku Tree. "Congratulations, you have broken the curse placed upon me. However, my time grows short. Now listen carefully as I tell you how the world came into being."
With that the Deku Tree told Link and Xander how the three golden goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru created the world. At the point were they left the world a triangle made of gold was formed. Those mortals who managed to own the Triforce were granted one wish. The man who placed the spell on the Deku Tree was after the Triforce. If the man in black won the Triforce all would be lost. In order to prevent this from happening the two of them would have to retrieve the three spiritual stones.
The Deku Tree gave Link the Kokori's Emerald, the first of the spiritual stones. "It is because of this stone that the curse was placed upon me. Now you must go to Hyrule Castle and meet with the princess of destiny. Navi, watch after Link." Another fairy appeared next to the Deku Tree. "Bit, aid your partner Xander. I entreat thee, to save Hyrule." As the Deku Tree finished the color left in his leaves faded.
Xander and Link both knowing that the Deku Tree was gone stood silently in the meadow for a minute. "Link, before you go you need to say goodbye to Saria. She was waiting for you at your house."
When Link told Saria that they were leaving she said that it was time for Link to do what he had to do. As a final gift between friends Saria gave him her ocarina. "Link, whenever you play a song with this ocarina remember me please." With that Link and Xander left Kokori Village heading for Hyrule Castle.