As he was leaving the village Fado said, "If you die, I hope you'll come back and do it here."
His throat hurt. Fado would be nice to his body, he knew. She would plant him in the ground and moss would grow out of him, and then he'd be in Kokiri Forest forever and never worry again. But she wouldn't know that it used to be him. And he wasn't sure it was actually a good trade, being calm at the cost of being dirt.
He said, "I hope so too. Take care of everyone for me."
"You're so silly. We don't need to be taken care of. We have our tree, and everything is going back to normal. And we'll never hurt, and we'll never die. Are you scared?"
"Well, fine. Don't take care of them, if everyone's doing so great. But boss them around a little," he said. She said, "But are you scared?" He said, "Someone has to keep them from getting ideas," and cleared his throat, and walked out onto the bridge. His fairy followed at a distance. As if she didn't know he never changed his mind.
The bridge trembled underfoot. "You are scared," said Fado, and Mido turned on her snapping "That's not me, I'm not doing that," because he wanted to leave with dignity and if anyone remembered him he wanted them to remember him being cool and tough. But also, it really wasn't him doing that. The bridge shook because something was coming from the other side. From outside. Because something in the big world was coming for Kokiri Village.
His first thought was to hide behind Fado, but he told himself Cool and tough, cool and tough. His second thought was this was his fault, because the big dark shape was coming for him, and if he'd gone out to meet it sooner it would have no business coming for the whole village. His thoughts after that didn't come with numbers on them. Barely even words. The bridge shook faster in the rhythm of pounding feet getting close and he imagined a big claw going into his chest or a slingshot bullet going into his eye and he didn't want to die and become dirt after all, even if that was where the Great Deku Tree was.
On the far side of the bridge a white point appeared, and got bigger. A tall person in white clothes. When he got into shouting distance he stopped and waved his arms and yelled in that weird deep tall-person voice — a Hylian voice? — "Hey, you kids! Are you Link's friends?"
Mido and Fado looked at each other. The bridge's rocking slowed and stilled. Mido swallowed his heart down from his throat and yelled back, "Why? What did he do this time?"
"Miss Malon sent me with a message to the fairy boy's friends. The Kokiri. You're Kokiri, aren't you?"
Mido and Fado looked at him. Mido's fairy said, "You don't have to talk to him," like she'd totally forgotten they were about to go out in the big world and have no other kind of person to talk to. Okay, so Mido had forgotten that too.
"There's a party at the ranch in two days," he said. "Ganondorf has been defeated!" he said, and Fado cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled back, "What's a gammondort?"
And Mido didn't leave the forest that day, because he had to go back and tell the others there was a party and see who wanted to go. And he had to hear the Deku Sprout say, "Mido, this will be good for you. You can try the outside world for a little bit with your friends, and then think about what you'll do. There's no need to rush any decisions. The ranch isn't far, and I'm sure that if a group of you goes and you don't stay out more than two days, your bond with the forest won't be damaged." And he had to see the Deku Sprout smile and rustle excitedly and say, "And I want to hear all about the party when you get back!" It was miserable. Everything was the worst. He'd made a hard choice once and then they took it from him and now he had to act normal and get ready to make it again. And after two days he led a group of Kokiri out over the bridge and didn't feel anything, just annoyed.