fleets: cover art on devart :)

Chapter 10: Mages Armed, Heroes Harmed

As soon as they were out of sight of the imposing Telma, Link took a deep breath. "What a woman," he said. In front of him, Vaati's hat bounced as the sorcerer quickly made his way up the stairs and away from the bar owner.

"Don't remind me," Vaati rubbed his cheek where he had been pinched. "Can't say I understand your tastes though."

Whap!

"… That was uncalled for." Now Vaati had one hand on his head where Link had hit him and one hand on his cheek. He had run out of energy from his experience with Telma to get back at Link for daring to whack him.

"She just helped me with my previous adventure," Link said, voice wavering from remembering the questionable wink Telma had sent them off with, "nothing more."

"You just keep telling yourself that."

Link put his hands around the hilt of his sword and gave Vaati a warning look as the two reached the door of their room. The sorcerer glanced back wearily for a moment at the other boy's annoyed expression, and then gave a heavy sigh as he pushed the door open and walked into the room. "You know what? The more time I spend in this world the more I hate it," he grumbled, whipping his cape dismissively. "At least back then people gave me respect."

A wistful look came over him. Suddenly turning around and making Link stumble back in surprise, Vaati fiercely pointed a finger at Link. The blue runes from his curse flared around his wrists. "To Stone With You!"

Link simply looked at him in confusion. There were several seconds of awkward silence. "Huh?"

"Huh, never mind. I was just remembering the better days." Vaati hopped on the only bed in the room and eyed Link coldly. "You're sleeping on the floor."

Too tired to argue, Link shrugged and shook his head. He pulled over the rug by the door and rolled over its corners to make something that resembled a pillow. He'd slept in worse, even in dungeons; compared to that, this wasn't so bad.

At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

XXXXXXXXX

Vaati couldn't sleep even though he had been looking forward to the blissful emptiness devoid of his worries. Link had managed to fall fast asleep despite the fact that he was sleeping on the floor; he was probably used to sleeping in places that were less than ideal. The sorcerer frowned, jealous of Link being able to sleep so easily.

All of the memories of the events that had happened since his fight with Link kept him awake. In all his years of fighting Link and his incarnations, he had come to expect only two outcomes – to win or to be resealed trying. Death he never expected since… well… that just didn't happen. However, never in his many years of existence did he expect to ever find himself in a situation where he would have to work with Link.

He didn't know how long he would have to work with that imbecile. The real problem now was to figure out how to defeat Ganondorf, and at the moment Vaati had no clue since the Four Sword had been useless against him. That weapon was the only one the sorcerer knew about that could defeat enemies that were "almost-but-not-quite" as powerful as he was.

He still refused to admit the possibility that Ganondorf was his equal.

Vaati squinted his eyes and brought up his wrist in front of his face. He let out a rapid string of spells in his seventy-eighth attempt to get rid of his curse, and for the seventy-eighth time all he got in response was the taunting ring of glowing blue runes that circled around his wrist. He clenched his fist, and then slammed it down into the sheets of his bed in frustration.

(Oh, now that's interesting.)

Vaati's ears pricked at the barely audible voice he had heard from somewhere in the room. Slowly turning his head to the side, he scanned the darkness for the presence. His gaze wandered over to Link who was sleeping peacefully on the floor to see if he had been talking in his sleep, but he was sure it wasn't the blond. What his ears picked up hadn't been Hylian.

"Who's there?" he whispered.

(Ahaha, only a cat. Not that you'll understand me though.)

Now Vaati was sure he had heard the voice. The sorcerer glowered. "Tsk. Just that cat." He paused. Then, "I understand you all right."

There was a surprised mewl from somewhere up above on top of the wardrobe in response. (Really?) Two bright feline eyes glinted down at him, and Louise poked her nose down from her perch. (You sure are interesting, dear.)

Vaati sat up in his bed. "What are you doing here?"

(I was just curious. I can't be the most informed cat in town without keeping an eye out on the most unusual people who drop through.) Louise licked her paws and then circled back to the edge of the wardrobe, making sure she was a good distance away from Vaati. (I heard everything you and Link were talking about. It sounds like you're not actually a good person, oh mister evil sorcerer.)

"Then why did you side with me?"

(Only because I agreed with you in that Link was going to die needlessly if he stormed the castle without a plan. If you harm that boy I'm not going to be pleased with you.)

"Like I need a stupid cat's approval…"

(For the most part though, I was just curious about the two of you.)

"Well you won't find anything worth gossiping about with your kitty friends here," Vaati replied gruffly before falling back onto his pillow.

(That's for me to decide, isn't it?) The cat swished her fluffy tail from side to side. (Why can you understand me, anyway? I've never met a person who could understand animals.)

"That's none of your business," the sorcerer growled. He couldn't be bothered to explain that the Minish race understood animal speech. He hated the Minish culture and everything about them; it only fouled his mood to be reminded of his ties to them.

Louise gave a Cheshire smile. (And just how are you going to defeat the King of Darkness, hmmm?)

The sorcerer mumbled beneath the covers. "None of your business, you damned cat."

(Then it's none of my business to tell you how to find that sword.) Louise jumped down onto the floor and pattered over to the door.

Vaati's eyes shot open. Sword? He flipped the bed covers off of him and rolled over on his side to stare at the cat that was now pawing the door of the room to open it. "What sword?" Vaati demanded. Louise momentarily stopped her efforts of opening the door, and then went back to batting the wood with her paws. Vaati scowled. "If you're talking about the Four Sword then it's useless! That sword won't work."

Louise tilted her head to the side so only a part of her face was visible. Her cat eyes glinted in the darkness, and she gave a low purr that was analogous to the amused chuckling of someone who had been proven right. (I don't know what I'm talking about,) she replied teasingly, making Vaati's hate for cats more pronounced.

Vaati had half a mind to get out of bed and strangle the cat.

Louise pushed against the door and squeezed through to the other side. (Someone who Link knows is bound to visit the bar tomorrow before noon. Ask them about a sword that Link used to have,) her voice drifted through the half-open door.

After a few minutes, a draft of wind made the door shut on its own with a slam. The sudden noise made Link snap awake, and the green-garbed boy unsheathed his sword in one automatic movement. He quickly surveyed his surroundings only to see there was nothing in the room besides the sorcerer and himself. Link relaxed, and put his sword away while grumbling at Vaati. "Oh, it's only you."

Vaati said nothing, continuing to look at the closed door with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Stop being so loud, I can't sleep," Link mumbled before flopping back onto his pillow rug. "It sucks to sleep on the floor, and you're not making the experience any better."

The sorcerer said nothing, and dropped onto his pillow as well. He had a small, annoyed smirk on his face as he tried to go to sleep once more. "Damned cat," he grinned.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, Link was forced awake when Vaati unceremoniously threw open the curtains and let the sun shine into the room. Link groaned and rolled over, squeezing his eyes shut when the bright rays fully hit his face. "Close that," he said groggily, flopping his hands tiredly at Vaati who was surveying the town with little interest.

"Get up," the sorcerer huffed, still looking at the street below him. "We've got work to do."

It was no use arguing. Vaati wasn't going to close the shades, and Link would have to get up himself to close it, which would mean he would have to wake up anyway. Grumbling and groaning, Link rolled over again and slowly pushed himself up so that he was sitting. His back hurt from the hard floor, and he was not in a good mood from having been woken up so suddenly. "If you didn't need to sleep so long you could've spared me the bed," he muttered, rubbing his eyes and letting them get used to the light.

"Hmph, I'm not going to sleep on the floor like a poor street hermit," Vaati scoffed indignantly. He turned around from the window and strutted over to Link. "Come, show me your weapons inventory. I need to arm myself."

"What? Now?" Link still wasn't fully awake yet.

Vaati tapped his foot impatiently. He had spent the last fifteen minutes thinking about how to fix his problem of not being able to defend himself, and he had reached the conclusion that he could take whatever Link had. Now that he knew a solution, he was impatient to get to it.

"No, I'm sick of going around helpless." Vaati crossed his arms haughtily. "Before, I could blow up a city if I so desired. Now I can't even stop an aging woman from bossing me around."

"You and your ego…" Link added, "And you shouldn't underestimate aging ladies."

Vaati grinned. "Speaking from experience?"

"Shut up." Link stretched, and then reached over to grab a modest sized bag hanging from his tunic. "Here, just take whatever one you…" Link stopped, and then swung his offering hand back away from the sorcerer who had been ready to grab it. "Uh, never mind. I'll look through it first before I stupidly give the guy who wants to kill me all of my weapons."

"So mistrusting."

"I'm pretty sure you're not exactly on my side."

"That's true."

Link pulled the string around the bag that kept it shut. "All right. Do you think you can handle a bow?"

"I'm not sure. Hold on, you don't mean to say you keep everything in that tiny bag?" Vaati tried to get a better look and he knelt down next to Link.

Link spun the bag around in his hands. "I know, weird huh? It's just one of these things that came with the tunic. I just try not to think too hard about the mechanics: out reasoning the logic of it might make the bag stop working."

Vaati raised his eyebrows. "What an idiotic thing to believe."

"You're not getting anything if you keep making fun of me," Link retorted.

"Trying to find a solution to something will not make the magic of the object go away. You sound like someone from the old days: 'oh dear Nayru save me, lest I start wondering why the world is round and I become unable to stay on the ground.' Stupid." The sorcerer reached over and snatched the bag out of Link's hands.

"Hey!"

Vaati pushed Link away so he could take a look at the bag. He couldn't see inside of it except an bottomless darkness. Reaching his right hand inside, he thought about the set of bow and arrows that Link had mentioned before. "Hmmm." He felt the hand touch the arch of a bow, and he pulled it out of the bag. The sorcerer smiled broadly. "Ohhh someone must have enchanted it with the labyrinth spell with a few modifications. How very clever. It's the same spell I use to create those infinite hallways in my palace."

Link reached out and snatched the bag away from Vaati's hands. "I'm not letting you take that." Then, he took a good long look at the bow. "I'm taking that too," he declared, swiping the bow away from the sorcerer as well.

"Return that at once!"

"No." Link gripped his possessions firmly. He was much more awake than before and he was beginning to think clearly. "Come to think of it, I don't know why I need to give you weapons in the first place."

Vaati shot up from his crouching position in rage. "You will listen to me, you insolent fool."

"Or what? Look, if you don't have a weapon, then you can't threaten me, you can't hurt me, and you'll be utterly pathetic." Link stared at Vaati whose face was flushing crimson. Something occurred to the blond, and he glanced back at the bow that was in his hands. "Aw crud, that's a problem. You'll be so pathetic that I'll have to come save you every time something attacks you." He tossed the bow over to the sorcerer. "I don't want to deal with that. I'll let you take a weapon."

"How dare you mock me," Vaati snarled.

"What's that? Do you want me to not give you anything? Just hurry up and take it."

Giving Link a blistering glare, Vaati picked up the bow and an arrow from the quiver that had come with it. Wordlessly, he tried to get the arrow knocked onto the bow.

"Um… maybe we should get you something else." Link watched, amused by Vaati's attempts.

It took the sorcerer a full fifteen seconds before he had the bow loaded. The next bit was causing him more problems, as he couldn't pull the string back far enough for it to do decent damage.

"This is stupid," Vaati dejectedly threw the bow down onto the floor. "What else have you got?"

"Hold on, here! Er…" Link watched in surprise as an enormous ball and chain crashed onto the floor and splintered some of the wood. "Wow… I never knew I had that."

"That's probably something 'future you' had." Vaati picked up the end of the chain and tugged. The ball didn't budge. "Next?"

"But you haven't even tried to swing it yet."

"Very funny Link. I'll stuff this up your face if you don't show me what other things you've got."

"Can you even pick that up high enough to – all right, all right! We'll try something else."

The next item was a bag of bombs. Link pushed it off to the side with the other 'no-good' weapons before Vaati even had a chance to look at it. "I am not giving you that."

The sorcerer frowned. "Why not? I've used bombs against you before; I know how they work." He reached over for the bag of bombs, but was stopped by Link's stern look of disapproval.

"Bombs not only have the wonderful potential to hurt enemies, but the added bonus of hurting your allies. I'm worrying about my own safety; I could care less if you self-destructed." Link slapped Vaati's hand away from the blue bomb bag. He sighed when the sorcerer looked at him in a way that Link could see 'how dare you?' written across his forehead. "Look, just listen to this scenario. Link and Vaati encounter a group of moblins. Link, with his sword, rushes in towards the moblins. Vaati throws a bomb at the moblins fighting Link. The moblins and Link all blow up and die."

"That sounds splendid. Give me the bombs."

Link stopped Vaati with his sword. "I thought you wanted to come with me?"

"No, I did not want to go with you. I kind of had to go with you."

Link tightened his grip on his sword. "I can hypothetically leave you to rot in this town while I figure out a way to get back to the right era, all by myself. Do you want that? No, I thought not. Moving on."

Link reached into his bag and pulled out a slender pole. Vaati wrinkled his nose.

"… Link, that's a fishing pole."

Link gave it a swing. The little frog lure bounced up and down at the end of the hook. "Did you know you could actually cause damage against monsters with this? You should give it a tr-"

"NO. Next."

Link's next item was something that looked like a large top. It was brown, and had a cog-like edge that could freely rotate along its periphery. Link brought the object eye-level to see if he could figure out what it did. "I guess it's another item of 'future me.'" He tossed the item over to Vaati. "It would really help if I had future me's memories right now."

Vaati gave the top a few experimental spins, making the rhythmic whirring noise of machinery fill the room. With a bored gesture, he threw it over his shoulder where it clattered and spun on the floor until it stopped. "Next."

Link and Vaati pondered over their next item, a white rod with engravings of ancient Hylian written along the wide arcs at the end of it. Vaati squinted his eyes as he tried to read the writing. "It says it's the Dominion Rod," he turned to Link for advice, "what does it do?"

Link shrugged as the sorcerer gave it a swing. "I don't know; I've never seen that before." He watched Vaati shake it in the air. "It doesn't seem to do anything," the blond observed.

Frowning, Vaati gave it another swing. The rod hit one of the bed legs, making Link wince from the explosive ringing noise. Vaati smirked, and then noticed the impact had dented the furniture. "It's pretty sturdy." He then tossed the rod into the 'junk' pile. "Next."

Link reached into his bag and he immediately began to look excited as he pulled the weapon out. "Hey Vaati! This should be great for you!"

"What? What is it?" Vaati leaned closer, impatient to get a weapon.

"Even kids can use this effectively, so it should be no problem for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The sorcerer asked flatly.

"Here," Link tossed the slingshot and a bag of seeds to Vaati. The sorcerer snatched the toy out of the air, loaded it with some pumpkin seeds, and fired some shots at Link. "Ow! Hey, that hurt!" Link protested, until he saw Vaati pull back on the rubber band and aim another shot. "Okay, I guess that's a 'No.'"

Vaati fired anyway, causing the seed to whack Link squarely between the eyes. "You'd better rethink just who, exactly, you're talking to."

"A bitc – "

"NEXT."

Link was beginning to look exasperated, and Vaati was becoming increasingly upset since it appeared there was nothing in Link's inventory that he could effectively use. Overall, the atmosphere inside the little room was becoming stuffy with irritation.

"You know, if your physical abilities weren't so below average we'd probably be able to find something you'd be able to use," Link groaned.

Vaati said nothing, but gave the slingshot another warning pull.

Link gulped, hastily waving his hands in front of him. "Okay, okay! We'll find you something." Vaati nodded, and fired a shot over Link's head.

"The faster you find something for me, the less you'll suffer."

"I'm beginning to have second thoughts on arming you."

Vaati fired again; this time letting the pumpkin seed hit the other boy in the face. "You'll have more than second thoughts if you don't hurry up."

Link growled, and took out his next weapon.

They looked like sturdy gauntlets, except the end had metal claws instead of fingers. Link turned them over in his hands and scrutinized them carefully. "They're Clawshots," he explained once he was sure what they were. He passed it to the sorcerer who had stopped aiming at Link with the slingshot. "I don't quite understand why I have two of these instead of only one."

Vaati put one on his hand and held the Clawshot up to the light to take a better look.

Link continued to explain. "They're not really good for fighting. I used it mostly to move across large chasms, or to quickly move up a ledge. That's not to say you can't use them effectively against monsters."

Vaati tugged at one of the claws. He half-heartedly listened to Link's description of the item.

"I sometimes used it to either stun monsters or – "

At this, Vaati grinned and aimed his Clawshot at Link. Before the blond had a chance to react, the sorcerer fired, expecting the weapon to stun Link. Instead, he was surprised by a result he hadn't expected.

"You freak! Get away from me!" Vaati violently shoved the startled Link who had been grabbed by the Clawshot and had been forcefully pulled closer to the mage.

Link pulled at the metal claws that were hooked into his tunic. They snapped away and returned back to the glove on Vaati's hand. "I was just about to explain that they can be used to move enemies closer to you as well." He scowled at Vaati, "Why do you have to try my weapons out on me? I'm going to keep you defenseless if you do something like that again, and if you end up getting hurt I'm just going to explain to the royal council when I get back that you'd experienced an accidental death."

"All right, all right, I'm actually sorry I did that." Vaati squeezed his knees to his chest, slightly traumatized by his idea that had backfired. He muttered something under his breath, griping.

Shaking his head, Link put the Clawshots away and reached into the bag one last time.

"I think we're down to the last weapon," he announced.

Vaati managed to look up from his huddle. "If I don't like it, I'm getting the bombs."

Link prayed that the next item would actually be useable by Vaati. If this one didn't please him, Link was going to have to spend the next however-many weeks with the fear of being blown up, accidentally or purposely, by his nemesis. Tentatively reaching into his bag, his fingers touched the soft down of feathers.

He was disappointed when, instead of a completely new and impressive weapon, he pulled out a boomerang. It was fancier than the boomerang he had had in his time; one side of its blade was adorned with white feathers, while the other blade was sharper and capped by gold. However, he knew that boomerangs were hardly meant for killing monsters, and he assumed Vaati wouldn't want a weapon that could only stun. He wordlessly handed it over to Vaati and watched his reaction carefully.

Vaati let the boomerang sit in his lap for a few minutes, occasionally running his fingers along the feathered tip of the weapon. He surprised Link with his verdict. "I want this."

"Really?" Link asked, incredulous. He was about to point out that it was almost no better than the slingshot regarding damage, but then decided against it. Who was he to encourage Vaati to pick the bombs? "Can I ask why, out of curiosity?"

The sorcerer shrugged. "I just want it. Now stop asking or I'm going to change my mind."

Link nodded, and began to put away the weapons now cluttered all over the floor. Vaati took another look at the boomerang he held in his hands. Although he had threatened Link that he might switch weapons, he had just been bluffing. The moment his hands had touched the boomerang, he knew that this weapon was for him. He'd needed some time to see if he hadn't imagined the feeling, but the more he'd had it in his hands the more convinced he'd become. The weapon hadn't been clumsy or awkward in his grip, either, like some of the other weapons, and there was something about it that reminded him of the rush he got when he had once been able to cast spells.

Vaati was surprised when he felt a presence stir in his mind. You hold the Gale Boomerang.

"What?" Vaati quickly turned his head to see who had spoken. He puzzled over the boomerang in his hands. Was it possible that this boomerang… ?

"Have your weapons ever talked to you before?" Vaati waved the boomerang at Link.

The other boy stared at him, and then shook his head sadly. "I should've known from the beginning that you were insane."

The sorcerer ignored him. Link hadn't heard the voice, so did that mean he had imagined it? He tapped the boomerang a couple of times against his palm. A few wisps of wind curled around the boomerang's edges. Vaati cracked a smile in delight; no wonder he liked the weapon. It used magic. Wind magic.

"Are you done making friends with my boomerang?" Link asked impatiently.

Just before the idea of trying his new boomerang on Link could emerge in Vaati's head, a loud meow was heard from behind the door of their room.

(Are you dears still asleep? It's practically noon and breakfast has been ready for a long time.) There was a light pawing at the door, and then another meow. (A visitor has arrived, and he knows Link quite well. You know what that means, don't you? I know you can hear me, sorcerer.)

Vaati perked up at the sound of Louise's voice. He shrugged to himself, and then stood up while twirling the boomerang around his fingers. "Telma says breakfast is ready."

"How do you know?"

"The cat told me," Vaati grinned.

Link watched Vaati walk out the door, taking a moment to stoop and pet the cat before striding down the stairs in an obviously good mood. Link sighed.

"He's totally gone in the head."

fleets: Very few changes from the original, except all the parts with Louise. I realized that it'll be more fun if Vaati understood what animals were saying, especially since in the Minish Cap game the Minish can understand what the animals are saying. What I didn't understand while playing the game which I won't try to solve in this story is why you couldn't talk to animals when you were big versus when you were small: I'm just going to assume that Vaati, since he was once a Minish, can understand animals regardless of his current size.
Anyways, yeah, I didn't really change this one because I just enjoyed writing the dialogue between Vaati and Link too much in the original, and it would have made me upset if I changed it to something else D:
But speaking of changes: a few key changes are projected for the next chapter along with a few others so hopefully I can still keep you from becoming bored before this story is over :)

Reily96: No, no he isn't. Especially when he's powerless. XD

Midna Hytwilian: I used to think Vaati would be a 'cat person,' but then I thought back to all those times I got attacked by cats in the game and figured they'd have been enemies to Vaati too...

Vaati the wind mage1: fleets: (whistles innocently) Pirate parties? What pirate parties? (tries not to notice Vaati glaring at her)
Vaati: Is there something I should know about for what's going to happen in this story?
fleets: Nope. Nope nope.

SmashQueen: Ah... I guess I generally see Vaati as this arrogant asshat who usually announces what he's going to do (thinking back on Minish cap, he had a tendency to announce what his plans were: i.e. telling Ezlo he was going to go after the Force, telling Link when he was going to get the Force out of Zelda before the final boss fight, etc.). He knows Link knows he wants to kill him, so I ended up assuming his plans wouldn't be surprising (looking back, maybe it was an unnecessary segment in the story).
Ohhh thanks for catching those mistakes! Especially the 'had had' - I'll change it since it's annoying.

Sapphiet: Now you've got me thinking about the most ridiculous bosses possible... lol.

msfcatlover: I think I missed the timing of the banter to keep it as funny as it was. I'm beginning to think that this version would be slightly more serious than the original (mostly because my writing changed towards a more serious style, I think), but I'm going to try my best to keep some of the humor intact. :3
Or maybe he should just go shirtless.

Vaati: -_-;

i-wish-799: Wow thanks! I guess it does tie into his personality, huh? He is a mage who was apprenticed under Ezlo after all :3

LilyMoonstone: Vaati's a nerrrd! XD

Shadow R-B: fleets: Vaati's not very mature bwahaha

Vaati: I'm not amused.

Astral S. Kepeire: I had a problem with the "Magic - therefore we time travel" aspect of BC. It was a quick answer to get the plot going, but it sort of felt like cheating when I was rereading it in my efforts to rewrite it into Rend.
Yup yup. According to my dictionary the entry exists as: to put a person out of possession. The word itself exists - there is a possibility I'm misusing the word though :P
Louise the cat is totally new. :) I'd forgotten about how Louise is supposedly the most informed cat in town, and how the Minish can understand animals. I thought it'd be fun to put these two aspects together :3