The travel up the mountain was long and arduous, to say the least.
Mount Crenel was officially Link's least favorite place in the world. Falling boulders that seemed to come out of nowhere, nearly crushing him in the process. The odd spider-like creatures his companion called Tektites, and of course there was the constant knocking on his head as he was forcefully shrunk down to the size of a human thumb repeatedly just to do some small task.
Every time he had to shrink down using a Minish Portal, as it was called, he would brace himself in the form of grabbing his head as Ezlo the living hat jumped up and down in order to bring him down to size. They had never gotten along in the first place, actually. The only thing they could ever agree on was defeating Vaati, but after seeing this place they could both come to the conclusion that they never wanted to go back again when they were done.
It was not fair to Link, having to travel all over Farore's green earth just to find four elements needed to fix a broken sword. No matter how many times the bird on his head beat it into his thick skull that it had to be done, he just could not get it through to him. A simple grunt of disapproval was all he would ever receive as an answer. But then again, the boy did not speak much anyway.
When he was sure that there was no danger, Link plopped down onto the cold ground beneath him, leaning against the cliff-side and sighing deeply. Ezlo could easily tell that he was exhausted from being on constant alert the whole day without rest, dodging the falling rock and fighting off dark beasts. It was enough to wear anyone out. After making sure that none of the smaller rocks had enemies hidden under them, the green clad youth leaned his head back and shut his eyes.
His companion was quick to jump off his head and look at him for any signs of damage he could have taken; the only thing that really stood out to him was the dark rings beneath his eyes and disheveled hair. His breathing was even, but very heavy, as he dropped his sword and shield from his hands and tried his best to relax. It was quite easy to tell that something was bothering him besides his obvious tiredness. He was good at hiding most things, but this he simply could not hold back.
Perhaps he was always tired because of his gigantic head, Ezlo thought to himself. The kid's head was the same size as the rest of him, and he always had to wonder how he could lug that thing around with him without end. Creatures of Hyrule were always odd to him, but this kid was unbelievable!
"Um, Link?" his grating voice called, snapping him out of his trance, "Did I say you could rest?"
"Ezlo..." His own voice was hoarse, a good indicator that he was dehydrated. "Please..."
He gave his signature sigh; there was never any getting through to him in times like this. He had to deal with this sort of thing several times back in the last dungeon they were in, the Deepwood Shrine. Honestly, what was so hard about this? If he had his way, he wouldn't have even met the kid. But then again, in his current form he needed the lazy boy.
"You aren't dead, are you? Get moving already!"
"For Din's sake, Ezlo..." he muttered, the simple action throwing him into a coughing fit. He grasped the sides of his head in an attempt to get rid of the incessant pounding that came with each cough. The green bird-hat did worry for him, but did not want to reveal that secret, so he simply waited for him to finish.
When the coughing ceased, he continued, "It's so hot here, and you expect me to climb this place without a problem? All I ask...is that you give me some time to compose myself. I'll continue, I promise. I just need..."
He trailed off when his eyes drifted shut again. Ezlo felt as though smoke were billowing from his ears; how dare he tell him what to do! This kid had no right to tell him he needed rest when they had a job to do!
But the boy was already asleep. He had no choice but to give him a respite.
Link was so lazy, he thought as he shook his head condescendingly at the unconscious Hero. He was only after Vaati so that he could rescue his princess, and Ezlo was after Vaati only to regain his true form. Link wanted to save Hyrule, and Ezlo wanted to save himself. They were both fighting together for the opposite thing. It was the oddest concept to grasp in his mind, because Link has long known what he was after, but just went along with it. At least, they were both on a quest to break a curse of sorts, but that did not matter.
When next he awoke, it was late at night. He wearily looked up at the sky, seeing comet-like streaks of orange flying through the black sky as a never ending stream of lava poured from the top of the volcano. Continuing forward was not that hard to do, being refreshed, with the one exception that he was drastically thirsty. There was nothing in sight that was suitable for drinking, and it was only getting hotter as they ascended. His slightly red face only reflected that.
"Eldin Volcano..." he mumbled under his breath. Ezlo looked down at him confusedly.
"What?" he asked, but received no response. He only assumed at that point that it was a new name Link had given Mount Crenel because it resembled Din's fury itself. Even though he loathed the child for being so slow and lazy, he had to admire the fact that he hasn't given up yet. Most others of his kind would cower in fear at the mere mention of something like Vaati, and yet this one kid clad in nothing but a green tunic was more willing than ever to hunt him down with only his grandfather's sword.
He liked that.
What's more, this one was actually tougher than the other kids of his age and even older. Those Ezlo has seen him hanging around would cry just from falling over and scraping their knee, but this one could break his leg and not even complain about it as he was taken care of. He acted more like a grownup than anyone else he's known.
"Point taken, Fi," he moaned unexpectedly.
"Link, you're starting to freak me out. What for the love of Nayru is wrong with you?" Without any warning whatsoever, Link collapsed onto the ground, his chest heaving sorely from the over-exertion. He trembled something terrible as he tried getting back up to no avail.
For the longest time that seemed to last years, the hat simply watched and refused to help him. He could eventually compose himself and move on, couldn't he? He's been able to so far, so why not now?
His damp hair was matted to his beet-red face as he reached a shaky hand up to what Ezlo thought as nothing. After a few moments of that, the piece of living cloth finally decided to do something, anything at all.
"Okay, kid. I can't help you really at all, but can you at least tell me what's wrong?"
"Have to...avoid the lava," he said to nobody in particular, further worrying him. "Need to find Eldin..."
Some time passed before he had the idea to spread his entire elastic frame over the kid to act as a sort of shade from the intense heat. It was easy to do, though it wasn't his favorite thing in the world. Link did nothing but lay there, trying desperately to compose himself enough to get up, but he simply could not at the time. Ezlo had been right, though. He was right when he thought that something had been on his mind the entire way up the mountain, and it only then showed itself.
Link looked up at the face of his companion and thought he saw a glimmer of worry in his eyes, but maybe he was just hallucinating. Either way he had to snap out of it if he were to survive this trip, so after a few moments of complete silence he was at least able to get himself into a seated position and gather the strength to hold himself up as he looked around for any danger. When still nothing came, he attempted to stand up. He wavered upon straightening, but was able to keep himself standing as he used the rock wall for support.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
He only shrugged his response.
A little more time passed with Link just climbing the mountain slowly, using the rocks jutting out of the cliff-side as handholds. They didn't say a word to each other; there was simply nothing to say. Even though Ezlo knew that something was bothering him, he said nothing so as not to set him off. He still did not trust the boy not to throw him off his head, but he truly did worry.
"Ezlo, do you ever get the strangest feeling that you've been here before?" he asked suddenly, throwing him off completely.
"I... Well, um... Not really. Why?"
"I feel like I've been here before. That's why. But at the same time, I have never seen this place before except in the far distance."
"So that's why you've been acting so strange..." he muttered under his breath.
"Look, Ezlo, I've been here before, okay? How else could it be so familiar? Just how!"
"Hey, now, no need to yell..."
"Then you explain how I've been here before!"
At that, he finally broke down. He fell to his knees and did nothing but cry. Everything was too overwhelming to bear, he didn't even know how he knew this place so well. Ezlo jumped off of his head and looked up into his friend's eyes, laden with pure confusion. They were tears of confusion that fell, not mourning of any sort.
"Aw, come on. I can't deal with people like this, you know that..."
"But I've been here before!"
He was at a complete loss for what to do. This kid was more stubborn than him, and that was saying something. All he could do was sit and watch. But...Link was right. Something was odd about that place.
"Wait, Link! I just realized something," he burst out, startling him from his stupor. "I know why you've been here before!"
He lifted his head to signify he was listening.
"You're the Hero, right? Destined to save Princess Zelda? That makes sense, being him reborn."
"What?" he asked, drying the tears and leaning a bit closer.
"You see, I just remembered this from one of my many books of legends. You know this place because you are the Hero Link reborn. Every one hundred years the spirit of that Hero is reincarnated into a new body to fight off whatever evil lies in the world of Hyrule in that era. You've been here before because he was here before. This was Eldin Volcano, Link!"
He sniffed and smiled just slightly. "So I was right?"
"Yeah, you were."
For an incredibly long time, everything was silent. Ezlo had never told him that he was right before. Was he...?
"Enough stories!" he declared, jumping back on Link's head. "We have an element to find. And don't think about doing this again!"
...
Well, so much for nice Ezlo. But he was right. They still needed to find Princess Zelda.