A gentle breeze blew across the field, creating waves in the grass. Flowers swayed in the wind. An air of serenity surrounded the place.

It was the last place Vaati had expected anyone to look for him, and he was right. While the idiot hero was frantically searching swamps, graveyards, and dungeons for him, Vaati was enjoying the peace and quiet of his own secret garden on the outskirts of Hyrule.

It was a valley, hidden behind the Death Mountains so that no Hylians ever ventured into it, but still technically Hyrule's territory, so the neighboring countries stayed out as well. It was Vaati's hide out. He came to this place when he needed to blow off steam, to cry, to scream, to enjoy the moment, to think, to do anything that didn't involve kidnapping or conquering.

This time, he'd come to think. To think back on everything that had happened in his last failed attempt at taking the triforce and laugh.

Laughing at himself wasn't something he was used to, but he had to admit he'd done some pretty ridiculous things this time around. Clearly his heart hadn't been into the attempt at all-and thank Nayru that no one had none about some of the rustier gears in the mechanics of his scheme.

Of course, for all of Link's failures it probably wouldn't have mattered that he'd substituted chu jelly for nitric acid in that poison he'd tried to make.

Maybe next time…

Vaati shook his head. He didn't want to think about a next time yet.

He lay down in the field, shut his eyes, and let himself forget about the past and the future, enjoying the peace and serenity of the moment.