Hi! Guess who's back? Been way too long. Not really going to go into details or make any excuses about my absence. Anyone who really wants to know more can PM me. I'll try to respond. If not I hope you enjoy this very, very late chapter and always please R&R!

xxx

The Legend of Fairy Tail Revised:

Chapter 7

Home

xxx

X779

Lyre stretched her arms out with pleasant hum as she stepped out of her tree to greet the new day. The action made her pause for a moment then smile to herself when she thought about the strange habit she had picked up. It idly made her wonder what else she had begun to imitate from the young mortal who had changed so much for her kind in such a short time. She turned to gaze fondly at the clearing where her sisters went about their morning activities.

With Link's help well over a dozen of her fellow dryads had taken shelter in the Guardian's Grove as they had come to call it. None of them knew how many were still out there. They had been out of contact and isolated for so long that it was impossible to guess, but they were determined to find as many as they could. With their growing but still diminished strength it took a concerted effort to locate the other spirits still in hiding. Retrieving them was another matter altogether and one that would have been impossible without the Guardian.

True to his word Link had become both the sword and the shield for the dryads, protecting them from the Gorians and any other dangers that threatened them. The grove he had helped them establish had become a true sanctuary to all spirits and had earned him their title of Guardian. To the dryads, their Guardian had become as precious to them as their trees a fact which had earned Lyre, a relatively young dryad by standard comparison, the position of Matriarch of the Forest. As the one whose actions led to the Guardian becoming involved in their plight and forming a familiar contract with him, Lyre had unintentionally elevated herself to a position of power and leadership amongst the dryads.

Normal people might have had objections or been envious of that but such feelings were those of mortal humans and not familiar to the forest spirits. To her sisters, Lyre was the one who had started their new chance at life after countless years of seclusion. None of them truly knew how long they had been in hiding since they perceived time differently while they slept.

Earth Spirits were very similar to their cousins the Celestial Spirits. They were largely immortal beings that stopped aging after a certain point, only growing more beautiful and regal as time went on, though they could be killed if kept away from their source of power long enough. For the dryads, those were their trees. Each dryad had a single tree that they bonded with to house their life and power and they needed to merge regularly with their trees in order to rejuvenate themselves. While technically a dryad could merge with any tree they wanted their nature prevented them from doing so casually without asking for the tree's permission first, a process which could take several seconds. Those few seconds were often all it took for a pursuing Forest Vulcan to catch them. Worse still, even if the dryad managed to merge with a random tree there was a very likely chance that the Vulcan could simply knock them back out with a sufficiently powerful blow due to the weak connection.

Even if the dryad managed to merge with a different tree in time they couldn't stay in them for long before they had to return to their real ones, making them vulnerable once more. While it was possible to change their home trees the dryads had to sever the connection to their originals in person and carry their power to another in order to do so. The full binding could take several hours depending on various factors during which time the dryad was completely mortal and vulnerable.

On the other hand, dryads that managed to get to their trees were forced to stay in them for incredibly long periods of time. While they could survive indefinitely within as long as nothing directly destroyed their trees, the dryads needed their freedom to roam the forests almost as badly. They were caretakers of the forest and their very nature drove them to do all they could to nurture and protect. Regular forest creatures, even the most dangerous of predators, wouldn't dare harm a dryad under normal conditions. However, the Vulcans were a different story altogether and they quickly forced the dryads to stay in their trees for longer and longer periods. While they slept within their trees they perceived time through wildly fluctuated levels of lucidity. Sometimes they saw things clearly as a normal person would, other times their perceptions slowed to a geological crawl. In the past, it was not uncommon for an older dryad to sleep for several years and not realize it. Unfortunately even the deepest of sleepers needed to step out after a while, something they could no longer do with the Gorians present. Despite the incredible power that a dryad possessed, the absolute alien concept of violence combined with the savagely lustful nature of the Forest Vulcans and their overwhelming numbers made the dryads easy prey.

Many of the older dryads gave into despair and lost themselves forever in their trees, giving up their self-awareness for the bliss of oblivion. Younger dryads like Lyre grew restless and risked venturing out only to be captured. They had become prisoners within their own homes, trapped for centuries in a hell that was slowly but surely killing them all. Lyre had been one of those young and restless fools to try her luck outside her tree and had nearly paid the price for it. She had been so close to death before Link had saved her that if he had arrived even a half a day later it would have been too late. Even worse she had been forced to watch another dryad, one of the oldest and most beautiful she had known, slowly waste away with her until she was no more. That she had been captured before Lyre was proof that even the old ones who hadn't yet lost themselves were growing desperate.

Then the Guardian had found her and changed everything.

He could fight the battles they could not and did so without hesitation. With Lyre's guidance, they had found and escorted several dryads from their trees to the safety of the Grove, forming a safe haven that the local Vulcan population was quickly learning to fear. Though the area they lived in now was small with more dryad trees in one location than any other place before, they were finally free. Free to learn, grow, and flourish once more. It was such an incredible gift that not a single dryad now living in the grove could treat Lyre or Link with any more reverence even if they were gods. They had not yet found the old dryad matriarch, who most worried was one of the ones who had been lost, but if they ever did find her none of them doubted for a second that she wouldn't acknowledge Lyre's new claim to the title.

Lyre was the only one among them with a dual bond, one to her tree and the other to Link the Guardian. As his familiar, she had bound herself to his magic and thus could survive off it if needed. She could feel his emotions, sense some of his thoughts, and draw on his power. They could communicate freely and when needed could sense and call each other no matter the distance. Lyre was learning things from her bond with him that no other dryad had before which she, in turn, could teach the others.

The biggest of which was how to defend themselves.

The Guardian was fierce and deadly when called for but was also kind and gentle; he truly cherished the forest and those under his care. While he was not afraid or hesitant to end a life when he felt necessary Link didn't relish doing so. It was this unique balance of decisive violence and gentle kindness that was allowing the forest spirits to add a bit of ferocity into their tender, caregiving nature. While they would never be aggressive, they were learning how to turn their powers towards protecting themselves when attacked.

What the dryads themselves didn't realize was exactly how powerful they truly were. While they were still very weak due to their long isolation the very nature of their powers made their full potential terrifying. What wizards classified as Wood, Tree, Plant, Green, or Life Magic was the very essence of a dryad and as natural to them as breathing. The only difference being the attitude which the dryads held towards nature. Where wizards used their will to force change with their magic the forest spirits never did, always communicating their desires with the subject of their magic, encouraging, helping, and guiding the growth rather than coercing it. Their lack of understanding towards the concept of violence also prevented them from employing their magic in such a manner further giving the impression that they were weak, defenseless beings when they were actually anything but. With Link's help, they were slowing learning how to fight when needed although it gave them great sorrow to force their will on the plants and earth around them when they did so.

Lyre watched several of her sisters tend to the wall that encircled the grove, their first line of defense against the Gorians that Link had encouraged them to create. It was several meters high and made of a thick combination of vines, leaves, roots, branches, and thorns; no Vulcan could get through without a lot of effort and noise involved. It was the first group effort the spirits had done to force growth, a fact they continuously tried to make up for by tending to the wall and speaking with it daily. The plants that the dryads had manipulated had forgiven them readily only happy to have the forest caretakers back and more than willing to do their bidding if it meant protecting them; however, the dryads still considered every such forced manipulation as a violation of trust and always felt the need to atone for it.

Smiling to herself Lyre turned to stroke the bark of her tree, by far the largest in the grove and one that she and all the other dryads had been coaxing, nurturing, and otherwise preparing for their second big forced manipulation. The tree had to be large and strong for what they intended so they had spent most of their energy every day to strengthen and grow the tree as much as possible. They had chosen this tree for a reason as important to them as their newfound freedom.

Their Guardian needed a home.

Thus far he had been camping under a simple shelter but Lyre and the others wanted to give him an actual place to live. Spryte had told them about normal human homes as well as the ones the Kokiri from the Lost Woods lived in and Lyre had decided they were going to create something like that for their precious Guardian.

As the new matriarch, one of the things Lyre had decided to do after some discussion with Link was to have Lyre's tree partially connected to all the other home trees so that she always knew the condition of the other dryads. Such an act was not uncommon in the past between small closely-knit groups but it had never before been done on such a large scale. This had the twofold effect of allowing Lyre to monitor her sisters' conditions as well as allowing them all to more readily assist in the strengthening and shaping of Lyre's tree. Now the tree was ready and tonight they would all work together to mold the inside into a home that their Guardian would be comfortable in.

Link was currently out with Spryte on one of the 'jobs' they had to do with their guild and wouldn't be back for another day or two. It had taken a bit of effort on their part for them to explain to Lyre about the guild, jobs, and other human matters but she was slowly beginning to understand how things worked outside of the forest. Lyre couldn't wait for the time when Link would take her out into the human world to see things for herself. With the way things were going it probably wouldn't be too much longer before they could. The others didn't need Lyre present in order to find dryads still in hiding, they just needed their magical senses to expand far enough to send and receive signals like the ones Lyre had used for her initial callout. Unfortunately, it took time for the dryad's awareness and influence with the forest to spread out enough to locate others outside the Guardian's Grove and that sphere's expansion was slowing as it grew larger and larger. With the wall as strong as it was and emergency procedures in place, the time that Lyre would feel comfortable leaving the forest behind for a few days was soon approaching.

The thought both excited and terrified her. The dryads were very shy and timid, beings that had very little human contact throughout their history despite an almost as large sense of curiosity. Lyre would soon become one of the first to ever enter a human city and undoubtedly become the most widely traveled. Having spent her entire life basically hiding from everything she was understandably nervous about the whole ordeal but the thoughts of new wonders and the comfort of the Guardian's presence made her determined to experience the outside world.

For now, though, her place was still here in the forest. With a final pat to the trunk she turned and made her way towards the center of the grove. She had a few things to discuss with her sisters in preparation for tonight. She was looking forward to seeing the expression on Link's face when they presented their surprise to him.

xxx

"ORAAA!"

Link stepped aside to avoid Natsu's flying punch before immediately using an arm to turn aside another attack from Gray. He angled his body slightly and gave the shirtless boy a shove to send him stumbling off balance before reaching backward to seize Natsu's wrist mid punch and throw the pink-haired kid over his shoulder into Gray's back sending both boys to the ground in a heap.

"Get off me loser!" Gray shouted angrily.

"You were in my way!" Natsu roared back.

Both boys struggled to disentangle themselves from each other and return to the fight but only really succeeded in angering one another further. This soon devolved into a completely separate brawl from their initial spar with their forest-dwelling guildmate. Link watched them for a moment before he sighed and walked over to them. With silent, casual efficiency he reached down and pulled the two boys up to their feet, interrupting their fight in the process.

He stared them both in the eyes for a moment before simultaneously slamming a fist into each of their guts dropping them back to the ground in silent agony. Dusting his hands, Link looked at them with a calm expression.

"You really shouldn't forget about your real opponents in a fight. Bad things tend to happen."

With that, he left the two absorb that lesson through the pain of their stomachs.

"Those two never quit do they?" Spryte giggled while floating beside him.

"Apparently not," Link shrugged. "At least they're spirited."

"And endlessly entertaining!" The little fairy laughed. She turned around to look back at the two prone boys and gave a mock wince in sympathy. "That must have really hurt."

Link merely chuckled in response before pushing open the doors to the guildhall.

"Hey, Link!" Someone shouted from across the room. "How'd they do today?"

"Same as last time!" Spryte cheerfully responded. "Except today ended when they started fighting each other."

Everyone had a good laugh at that before returning to whatever it was they were doing before. After a quick glance around, Link made his way over to a table close to the bar where Lisanna was sitting with Cana, Elfman, and Mirajane.

"Hi, Link," Elfman greeted cheerfully. "Welcome back!"

"Thanks, Elfman," Link nodded as he settled onto the bench while Spryte lazily floated overhead and began fiddling with magic again.

"How was the job?" Mira asked.

Link shrugged. "Not bad. Just needed to gather some herbs from up in the mountains. Nothing really exciting."

"Still that has to be a bit irritating just coming in off jobs and having those two challenge you to fights all the time." Cana mused while using a straw to stir her juice. "I mean that would drive me nuts personally and half the time they just wait outside for you."

"It's not so bad, it gives me a chance to stretch my muscles and practice a few things."

"Like you don't get enough of that…" Cana snorted before sliding a glass of milk towards him. She had gotten it for him during his fight outside with Natsu and Gray, a courtesy between drinking buddies, on his tab of course. "Seems like you're always sparring with somebody when you come around here."

"Care to join the rotation?"

"No thank you," Cana stated firmly. "You're nuts if you think I'm joining in with you psychos."

Her comment made Link laugh after a long swig of his glass, using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. Cana's claim was not unfounded. Link regularly sparred with most of the younger members of the guild in all manner of ways. Sometimes it was straight-up fistfights with Natsu, Gray, and Elfman, other times it was sword duels with Erza or power battles with Mira. The sheer variety of their spars was mind-boggling and they were, more often than not, quite intense. They had sparred so often in the beginning that when combined with his personal duties to the dryads, magical studies, training, and the regular jobs he took from the request board Link hardly had any time to just relax and enjoy life.

This was something that Spryte had brought up to the others when Link had taken a nap in the guildhall. She hadn't been happy that her partner was burning out so she had taken the opportunity to chastise the other young mages for their lack of consideration. After that, they had all adopted a sort of loose, unofficial rotation between them over when they got to spar with Link. Of course, it went without saying that they could, and often did, challenge each other for an earlier spot. Erza and Mira's rivalry had taken on an entirely new level of intensity due to this.

Cana was a talented young mage whose own potential was just as high as her peers but she was quieter and significantly less prone to violence than them, preferring to watch while sipping whatever fruity beverage that caught her fancy at the time. Her Card Magic was potent and incredibly versatile but she lacked the raw power and physical endurance that the others possessed. As such, she wasn't interested in the insane brawls that they all got into even though she actually rivaled Erza and Mira in ability. Master Makarov had even mentioned briefly during one of his discussions with Link that he was considering her for the S-class exams.

"Well the offer is always there if you want, Cana," Link said. "I think your magic would be interesting to fight against and I'm sure I could teach you a few things too."

"I don't doubt that," Cana gave him an appreciative smile. "Maybe I'll take you up on that sometime, but I think you've got enough on your plate as it is."

"You're not wrong there," Link chuckled again. "Which reminds me, I need to take a trip up to Crocus soon."

Mira quirked an eyebrow at that. "Whatcha need to do in Crocus?"

"Erza told me there's a really good magical blacksmith shop over there. I'd like to see if I can get some new weapons made. She's building up quite the arsenal and most of my gear just doesn't measure up to the standards of Earth Land."

Mira's only visible reaction to that statement was a surprised blink.

"Uh…yeah that's…probably a good idea."

Inwardly, however, she was screaming.

The three-way rivalry between herself, Erza, and Link had a few unspoken facts that both she and Erza accepted even if they didn't voice them aloud. First of all, the two girls were far closer in ability than either of them would like to admit. Secondly, they both respected and acknowledged Link's superior skills and experience in combat. Thirdly, Link was going to surpass them and once that happened they would be the ones chasing after him. These established facts had changed the rivalry between Erza and Mira from trying to stomp one another into the ground to not be the first one to lose to the blonde swordsman. They were both far too proud to avoid fighting with him so their only recourse was to try and stay ahead of each other until one of them fell.

Of course, this was all BEFORE Link had decided to arm himself with proper magical weapons. There was no telling how much his power would spike once he got his hands on a new set of equipment and that fact made Mirajane very nervous considering the fact that she was next in line.

Fortunately, she hid it rather well.

"Maybe after that, you'll finally be able to give me a challenge."

"Here's hoping," Link chuckled.

"You know magical tools are pretty expensive right?" Cana said as more of a statement than a question.

"I'm not too worried," Link shrugged. "I'm not exactly poor and can always make more jewels."

Which was true enough since the Hylian rarely spent money on anything he didn't need and was ridiculously good at completing jobs. Link felt confident he was well off enough to afford a few new weapons and anything he couldn't afford now could just be pre-ordered for later.

"When are you planning on going up there?"

"Hmmm, I'll probably head up first thing next week. I have a couple of things I need to do around here first."

"Those cute tree spirits of yours keeping you busy?" Cana smirked. "You know you're gonna have to introduce us to them at some point right? Frankly, I'm having a hard time believing they actually exist."

Link laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I know. Right now they're still recovering from the trauma of what happened to them and they were already shy beings to begin with. Lyre is very curious about the outside world though so she'll probably work up the courage to meet everyone soon."

"Ugh…" Cana threw up her hands in exasperation. "Sometimes you're no fun, Link. You're supposed to challenge my disbelief with adamant claims to the contrary. Not brush it aside with a reasonable explanation and a placating compromise."

"It's part of my charm."

Suddenly a large magic circle appeared in the air over the guildhall. Everyone present blinked in surprise at the sudden display and became further confused when the large circle vanished as quickly as it had arrived in a brilliant flash of light. Various curses and exclamations rang out around the hall as people began rubbing the spots out of their eyes.

"BAHAHAHA!" Natsu roared with laughter while pointing a mocking finger at Gray. "You look like a total loser!"

"WHAT?!" the young Ice Wizard glared at him but soon smirked. "Look who's talking ya walking blueberry!"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

As the two devolved into further insults, other exclamations of surprise soon brought light to the fact that everyone's hair in the guild had changed color. More specifically they had swapped colors with the people they were closest too. Oddly enough this had a rather minimal impact on the Strauss siblings since they pretty much had the same hair color and were sitting close enough together at the time that the spell just caused them to swap shades between the three.

With a deep and heavy sigh Link, whose own hair color had been swapped with Cana's, craned his neck to give a disapproving look at the obvious culprit floating over his head.

"Heh heh…Oops?"

xxx

"I said I was sorry!" Spryte whined dejectedly. The sun was setting and the two companions were heading back to the forest after the little fairy had managed to undo her little hair styling accident. Link was studiously ignoring her while he read one of the tomes he had borrowed from the guild library, trusting Epona to get them home on her own. He really had to thank Master Makarov for suggesting he buy a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses. The handy little accessories were making his studies so much easier and faster than he had ever thought possible.

One of the things he had quickly learned during his adventures was that knowledge was power. Information was just as big of a factor in his victories as his fighting skills, perhaps even more so. As such he was determined to learn as much as he could about this world and the magic he could develop. He wanted to be able to face down anything that Earth Land could throw at him and he was well on his way to becoming the same kind of powerhouse he had been in both Hyrule and Termina.

Plus the glasses helped him keep up with Spryte and her ludicrously unfair advantage in all things magical. If magic was water then his fairy partner might as well have been the only fish swimming around in a pool full of floundering apes. Her ability to directly see and manipulate magical energy allowed her to understand and work spells without any prior knowledge. It was seriously unfair. The only thing that slowed her down was the fact that she couldn't actually store a lot of magic power at once.

Unlike human mages who could cast powerful spells rapidly and repeatedly so long as they had the power inside them to do so Spryte didn't have the capacity to do the same. What she could do though was in some ways far more dangerous. Rather than storing an excessive amount of power Spryte instead channeled and amplified the magic around her. This made her spellcraft slower than most so she was unsuited for straight-up single combat but if you gave her a little bit of breathing room then Spryte could easily cast ritual level spells faster and with greater potency than any human possibly could.

That being said her knowledge wasn't infinite or perfect which is why a lot of her experimentations ended up with unexpected results like say swapping everyone's hair colors. Unfortunately for everyone around her, she experimented a lot and thus the situation she currently found herself in was a regular occurrence.

"Come on, Link!" the little fairy slumped down onto his head. "Don't be mad….it wasn't that bad this time…"

Link sighed and snapped the tomb he had just finished shut.

"You know I can't stay mad at you for long, Spryte. You're my partner and best friend in this world. Oh except you, of course, Epona," Link corrected himself quickly and patted his noble steed gently when said equine snorted and tossed her head angrily at his words. Epona gave another sharp flare of her nostrils before settling down and continuing her gentle gait. "I just wish you would be a little more careful at times. You get carried away pretty easily."

"I know, I know…" Spryte admitted contritely.

"Just try to keep that in mind for next time."

"Ok..."

They were silent for several seconds before Link nodded.

"So what did you learn?"

"Oh! It's actually really interesting!" Spryte perked up immediately. "Apparently getting a spell to affect a wide area is more a matter of properly constructed layers within the magic circle rather than its size. Of course, the size of the circle will always directly correlate with the power of the overall spell and obviously it's easier just to do that if you want a quick and fairly reliable way of increasing the effect but that method is really inefficient. It's much better to just tweak the circle with another ring layer so that the effect is spread over a specified target area from the start. That way the size of the circle doesn't matter and the amount of energy you would spend on making it bigger the other way can be either saved or directed towards making the spell more potent. It's definitely a bit trickier to do mind you but if you get it right then it's soooo much more efficient! Furthermore…"

Link listened intently as Spryte continued to ramble on about the things she learned from her experimentations. While only someone like the young fairy would say that modifying an existing magic circle was merely 'a bit tricky,' she wasn't wrong about the overall facts behind her discoveries. Spryte wouldn't make a very good magic teacher. Magic came to her easily so she couldn't really understand how difficult learning magic was for the average person. There was a reason after all that only about ten percent of the population were mages despite practically everyone having the capability of becoming one. No, Spryte would not be a good teacher but she would definitely put to shame any magical professor or researcher she met.

He listened to her ramblings attentively, asking some pertinent questions here and there which often led to further discussions on other tangents, while Epona eventually turned off the beaten path and began making her way deeper into the trees. The route she followed was completely unmarked by any discernible wear and tear from travel despite how often they took it. Any damage done by their passing was always repaired by the growing influence of the dryads and their desire to stay hidden and safe. Not even Porlyusica knew where the grove was despite living relatively close to it. Despite this Epona traveled unerringly through the forest, branches, and brambles seeming to bend away from them as they did.

Soon enough they came up to the thick wall of vines, branches, and briars that made up the protective barrier of the dryads grove. As they approached a section of the barrier shuddered and shifted away to create an opening for them to pass and just as quickly slithered back into place once they did. It was like stepping through the gates to another world. Everything seemed brighter, fresher, and more alive within the barrier and the air was absolutely saturated in ethernano giving it a rich and energizing quality; truly an appropriate place for the ethereal beings that dwelled there. And speaking of ethereal beings, Lyre was standing just inside the grove's border waiting to greet them with a beautiful smile.

'Welcome back, my bonded!' She greeted brightly through their connection.

"Hello Lyre," Link replied with his own smile as he dismounted from Epona and walked up to give her a hug. She was quite a bit taller than him so she had to bend down to accommodate but that didn't bother her one bit.

The young Dryad Matriarch looked much different from the pitiful state that Link had initially found her in. She was vibrant, healthy, and strong; a far cry from the deathly state she had been in. Her stunning beauty truly made her seem like a forest goddess and would have enraptured anyone who saw her. There was a good reason, after all, that the Vulcans had hunted her kind so relentlessly.

"How was day?" Lyre asked slowly when they separated, her face scrunched up in concentration as she spoke. She and the other dryads had been making a concerted effort in learning how to speak the human tongue and they were making surprisingly good progress despite the difficulty. The bond between Lyre and Link gave her a distinct advantage which she, in turn, was able to convey to the others. The tree spirits struggled greatly to grasp the concept of words but none of them ever seemed to grow depressed or anxious over their lack of progress or understanding. On the contrary, every failed attempt to use real words to communicate was usually met with a wrinkled nose and continuous repeats until they got it right. Every success on the other hand always produced an ecstatic childlike joy no matter how small. Link would never forget the day when the dryads had learned how to say their own names.

"It was good despite another one of Spryte's mishaps."

"Hey! It wasn't that bad!"

Lyre cocked her head to the side curiously. "What do?"

"I…uh…accidentally swapped everyone's hair color…"

The young dryad blinked then giggled softly. "Sound fun."

"Well, I suppose it was rather amusing." Link admitted with a light chuckle. "But it was still a problem." He continued quickly cutting off whatever Spryte was going to say at his admission. The fairy pouted but didn't reply.

Lyre simply smiled and reached out to take his hand. "Come. Been waiting. Have surprise."

"Huh?" Link replied intelligently. "What's going on Lyre?"

"You see." She replied with a bright smile.

With that she proceeded to lead him into the grove, Spryte bobbing along behind them. Link couldn't suppress the bemused smile that spread across his face as the excited dryad pulled him along. He could feel her eager anticipation and enthusiasm through their bond and it made him very curious about what she was planning. He was mildly surprised when she led him directly to her tree where the rest of the dryads in the grove had gathered, forming a large circle around it.

"What's going on, Lyre?" Link asked curiously, staring around at the other dryads who were all staring at him with glowing smiles.

Lyre said nothing. Instead, the small, gentle smile she gave him seemed to speak volumes. It was full of love, gratitude, and serene joy which all stemmed from his presence in her life. She leaned down with gentle hands to take his face and press her forehead to his. The sheer depth and breadth of her emotions that she conveyed through their connection, which was also filled with the feelings of the other dryads, momentarily took his breath away. They stayed that way for several moments before Lyre pulled away and turned to join the circle of dryads. As one they all turned to face the giant tree at the center. For a few seconds, all was quiet.

Then Lyre began to sing.

Just like the first time he had heard her there were no words to this song. Even so, her voice rang out with the pure power and beauty of the forest. It was the wind in the leaves, the water in the streams, the songs and cries of the birds and animals. It was the sunlight through the canopies, the smell of the flowers, and the dance of a butterfly's wings. It was the essence of the forest given voice and it touched upon Link's very soul. Then, as one, the other dryads added their voices to hers and the resulting symphony became something that could not be described in words.

Link didn't even try to do so. He simply listened and it seemed as if the entire forest joined him as the dryad's song flowed through the grove. It wasn't the first time he had heard them sing and he never got tired of it, but this…this time seemed different; deeper and with far greater power than when they sang to heal his minor injuries. Time seemed meaningless at that moment; the siren song of the forest spirits drowning out all worries and cares. Suddenly, with a sound that echoed throughout the grove, Lyre's tree groaned.

It wasn't a sound of pain or discomfort. Rather it was the sound of something old and heavy that had not moved in a long time finally breaking out of torpor with a shudder. The creaks and groans from the large tree became more pronounced and steady and its leaves began to rustle. After several moments of this, the tree began to grow. With every passing moment of the dryad's ethereal song, the tree expanded outwards slowly but visibly and steadily. Its widening trunk gave the tree a strong but squat appearance since its height only increased marginally while everything else became thicker and broader. Link watched in fascinated wonder as the trees surface roots expanded and grew significantly higher than he was tall. At this point, it had grown even wider than the Great Deku Tree!

Finally, the rapid growth of the tree began to slow as the dryad's song took on a different cadence until it finally stopped, though the creaks and groans continued. Lyre's tree was now ENORMOUS! The Great Deku Tree had been quite a bit taller but Lyre's tree was by far wider though it was no slouch in the height department either. The dryad's song wound down into a vibrant hum, their swaying bodies rhythmic and hypnotizing to watch. At long last Link saw a spot at the base of the trunk ripple and he watched in further surprise as wooden stairs grew outwards leading up to what was mistakenly a door. At the same time along one of the large roots that framed this part of the trunk, a large indentation sank inwards forming a cave-like entrance. Once the last step had grown into place the dryads singing faded away and the noises from the shifting tree died down.

Silence filled the grove for a long moment as if the entire forest and its inhabitants were paying homage to the great tree. Then as one the dryads broke their circle, turned, and gathered by Lyre who had turned to Link with a radiant smile.

"Welcome home," She said softly.

For a long moment, Link could only stare at the tree in wonder.

"Lyre…I…" His brain couldn't form any words as he tried to process this new turn of events. Lyre's smile only broadened as she felt the emotions tumble around inside him.

"Come. See." She gently took his hand once more and guided him to the stairs. She stopped at the door and waited for him to open it. Link paused for a long moment before slowly reaching up and pushing on the handle. The door swung inwards smoothly and without a sound and revealed a massive hollowed-out interior illuminated by soft glowing spheres that hung suspended in rather artistically woven cages of roots. There was beautiful wooden furniture spread throughout the interior of a cozy living area with very comfortable looking cushions of moss, a kitchen area with a large circular wooden table that somehow had a stone stove and chimney in the corner, a set of stairs that grew out of the walls and led up to a railed loft area with a desk, bookshelves, and a large bed.

Link looked around in wonder at the home, one that reminded him so much of his old house in the Kokiri Forest only several orders of magnitude grander. He still couldn't find any words to describe what he was feeling. The home was so perfect for him that he sincerely doubted he could come up with anything better even in his dreams.

"THIS IS SO COOL!"

Spryte, on the other hand, had no such compunctions. The little fairy zoomed around from wall to wall and room to room like an overexcited firefly on a sugar rush 'Oohing' and 'Aweing' at every new little feature and detail she found.

"Look, look, Link! There's even a little house for me!" Spryte exclaimed excitedly and Link turned to see that there was indeed a miniature porch-like area with another door inset in one of the walls that must have led to a dwelling area for the fairy. Spryte wasted no time at the discovery and immediately darted through the door and inside. Her subsequent laughter and squeals of delight indicated that she must have been fairly happy with what she found.

"Lyre…I…this…" Link tried speaking again, turning to the dryad who was staring at him with a wide smile.

"Do you like? It good?" She asked shyly.

"It's…amazing," the young Hylian finally replied taking a step forward and embracing her tightly; a single tear leaking out the corner of his eye. "Thank you. Thank you so much. It's perfect."

Lyre nodded her head once in satisfaction.

"Good."

The loud whinny from Epona broke through their moment and Link turned to where the stairs were and noticed that they also went downwards into another room. Curious as to why he could hear Epona from that direction he went over and descended the stairs quickly. They led to another large room with shelves, racks, and chests in one corner for a storage place, another spot with benches and tables that could function ideally as a workshop once he brought in some tools and supplies, a large section with practice dummies perfect for a training ground, and to top it all off Link found Epona prancing happily around a stable area that she had entered through the cave-like opening in the tree root.

If Link had thought the house that the dryads had built for him was perfect before, now it may as well have been the equivalent of a king's luxury summer home. He turned back to Lyre who was still watching him with that same bright smile. At that moment there was nothing he wouldn't have done for her or the other dryads if they asked. A conviction that was so strong it easily bled over their connection and caused Lyre's smile to grow even more.

"I don't know what to say Lyre," Link spoke softly. "This is…more than I ever thought I'd need. I can't think of anything you could have done to make it better. Is there anything I can do in return?"

For her part Lyre simply shook her head, stepped up to him again, and pressed her forehead to his.

"Already have," She replied. "We free. Alive. Happy. You save us. Never repay."

"You didn't have to do this though. I was fine as I was."

"No," Lyre replied curtly and more forcefully than Link had ever heard her before, even when she spoke to him in her natural manner rather than words. "All things have home. Dryad have home. You not have home. Not right. You precious. Need home. Dryads love. We make. You have home. My tree, my home, now your home. With me." She leaned back to fix him with a playfully stern stare. "You say no, will be mad."

Link couldn't help but laugh.

"Thank you Lyre, I accept gratefully," He gave her another hug. "And I must say you're getting better at speaking."

The beautiful dryad blushed lightly, her green-skinned cheeks darkening noticeably.

"Thank you. Words hard. But learning. We practice much. Spryte help. Is hard but fun." Her face then wrinkled into an adorable expression of consternation. "Sella best though."

"Oh?" Link quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought our bond helped you learn faster."

"Does." Lyre pouted cutely. "Sella still better."

Laughing once more, Link gave her a reassuring pat and headed back upstairs. He had a new house to explore after all.

"LINK! LINK! COME LOOK! THERE'S EVEN A WATER FEATURE!"

And apparently an overexcited fairy to deal with.

xxx

A/N: Wow it's been a long while. This chapter has been sitting half-done of my computer for a LONG time. Other things in life just kind of slid into the area that used to fill my writing time. Been playing waaaay to many video games for too long in most of my free time. Other times when I actually decided to sit down and write I either forgot what I had been doing or kept re-writing parts because I wasn't satisfied and barely made any progress or something else came up that I had to deal with and killed my motivation. Trying to get back into it. If anyone has any questions or are confused about something in my stories I haven't clarified well feel free to PM me or ask in a review. Next chapter will be in Whom She Found. Gonna try and get that out by the end of the month at the very latest. Gonna shoot for a little over a week but no gurantee.