fleets: cover on devart!
Chapter 11: Planning the Next Step
Vaati, full of suspicion, poked his breakfast. "You humans eat the most disgusting things imaginable." He brought up a piece of egg to his nose and gagged. Though he may have appeared Hylian, he had grown up as a Minish and still hadn't gotten the concept of eating things like cuccoos around in his head. Link, meanwhile, was shoveling forkful after forkful into his mouth.
"What do you eat anyway?" Link asked.
"Not this." Vaati pushed his plate back away from him and instead scanned the room for the 'visitor' that Louise had mentioned. There were things he wanted to ask that person, whoever he or she was. Just then, they heard a voice call out from upstairs as a man rushed down to greet them.
"Link! You're up and awake." The man had a rugged appearance with a sword slung across his back. He wore an odd helmet that covered half of his face, concealing his features. "Telma told me what happened; you don't remember me do you?" When Link sheepishly shook his head 'no,' the man took a heavy breath. He removed his helmet, revealing a thick eye-browed face with sharp mustaches outlining his lips. "I didn't want to believe it, but it seems that what Telma told me was true."
Vaati kept his gaze fixed on the man, trying to find a good opportunity to speak.
The man walked over and leaned against the bar counter, picking up a glass and absentmindedly playing with it. "I finally find you only to see that you've lost your memories. We were all worried about you, Link, and especially Ilia. That poor girl's been worried sick ever since you just decided to run off out of the village without telling anybody."
Link stared at his half-finished meal guiltily; what a jerk his future self was, to make people worry like that! Telma noticed Link was looking gloomily at his plate.
"Rusl, don't make Link worry about things like that. He has enough problems as it is considering he's lost his memory."
The man named Rusl sighed and put the glass back down on the counter. He turned to Link apologetically. "Sorry Link. I guess I wasn't being fair to you. It's just so frustrating since you disappeared on us, and now there's a new problem we have to worry about…"
Telma caught Rusl looking her way with his last phrase. It was very subtle, but Vaati's quick, scrutinizing gaze was able to pick up the nod from Rusl and Telma reach for something under the bar counter. The sorcerer's eyes narrowed when he noticed Telma momentarily lose her color.
Link noticed Vaati staring at Rusl in an unsettling manner. He frowned. "Is something wrong?"
The sorcerer stirred at the question, and then blinked as though he were noticing Link for the first time. Then, he yawned lazily and twirled his fork between his fingers. "Oh, I was simply wondering if there was anything we could do to help with this new problem," he probed, looking at Rusl sternly. His eyes only wandered once to look at Louise who had decided to see what was going on. The cat appeared to be grinning smugly.
Rusl considered the sorcerer for a bit. "I'm sorry, but this matter is personal." There were a few seconds when Rusl could have sworn an icy glint had appeared in Vaati's eyes, but it was so brief that he couldn't be sure. Rusl asked cautiously, "Are you a friend of Link's?"
An almost sarcastic, bitterly amused smile broke in Vaati's face before it transformed into a pleasant smile. He was the epitome of politeness. "An acquaintance," he said, his voice somewhat strained. "I am Vaati, the Sorc-"
"His name is Vaati. I'm sorry I forgot to introduce him to you," Link interrupted hastily before Vaati's ego blew his cover.
Vaati huffed, and though he still smiled, his hostility was evident as he stabbed his egg. "A pleasure," he said coolly. "You seem well acquainted with Link." Vaati prodded his fork that was standing upright in his breakfast, making it fall with a tinkle.
Rusl nodded carefully, aware that the sorcerer was up to something by the way he watched him like a snake. "We're both from Ordon."
"Then perhaps you can help us," Vaati glanced at Louise again who was staring at them intently with her cat eyes. He grinned – this was the person the cat had talked about. "You see, Link and I were searching for a sword he used to have."
Link frowned. "We were?" his frown seemed to say, though he remained quiet when the sorcerer shot him a look of warning.
"Do you know anything about it?" Vaati prompted.
Rusl stiffened. "What do you know about it?"
Vaati laughed loudly. "Well, don't just throw my question right back at me! That's what I asked first." Still chuckling quite rudely, he picked up his knife and began to saw through his sausage with no intention of actually eating it later. "I see we're not going to get anywhere at this rate, so I'll say this bluntly," he finished dissecting his sausage and dropped his knife, steepling his fingers in front of his face, "Ganondorf is here and Link needs his sword to beat him."
There was a crash from behind the bar counter when Telma dropped some of the glasses she had been carrying. Rusl opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he was able to actually say something. "That's impossible!"
Link wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "It's true. He's here."
Telma stood up from behind the counter after cleaning up the broken glass. She looked worriedly at Rusl. "It would explain why the stones have gone dim…"
"Stones? What stones?" Vaati asked.
Rusl sighed, and then moved away from the bar counter to join the two at the table. He regarded Vaati with severity. "I need you to tell me everything you know."
The sorcerer grinned. "Of course, but only under the condition that you tell me everything you know. Let's keep things fair, shall we?"
Rusl frowned. He didn't trust this pale, sinister looking so-called friend of Link.
There was a pause, and Link took the moment to reassure the other man that he didn't have to worry about giving Vaati information; he still wasn't sure what the sorcerer was getting at, but from the mention of a sword he could take a guess on what Vaati wanted. "Rusl, you can trust him," Link threw up in his mouth a little from defending his enemy, "we're both trying to find a way to defeat Ganondorf and we need all the help we can get."
That seemed to finally convince Rusl to take his chances with Vaati. Still mistrusting, he looked defeated as he reluctantly gave in. "All right. If Link says we can trust you, then I'll trust you. I only ask that you keep everything that's spoken here a secret – if we find out you ratted on us –"
"That's enough Rusl! Have a little faith in Link, dear. The boy says we can trust his friend, so we will," Telma said roughly. She hadn't noticed Vaati rolling his eyes, annoyed that no one besides Link recognized just how frightening he used to be. Link, meanwhile, felt a pang of regret for insisting that Vaati was trustable, because he totally wasn't.
Rusl simply nodded, and then continued. "You wanted to know about Link's sword?" He stroked the corner of his mustache thoughtfully, and then shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know too much about it. The only thing I know is that it's called the Master Sword."
"The Master Sword?" Link and Vaati exchanged glances. They've never heard of it before.
"It's also called the Blade of Evil's Bane. I didn't think the sword actually existed until I saw Link with it. There are stories that it's found deep in the Faron Woods, but no one besides Link was able to find its exact resting place." Rusl smiled sadly at Link. "I still don't know where it would be – you hardly ever talked about your adventures after you came back." The man took a deep breath, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help, boys, but that's all I know."
Vaati sat contemplating what he'd heard for a few seconds, and then smirked. "That's all we wanted to know, thank you. You've been most helpful."
Rusl leaned forward in his seat. "I've told you what you wanted to know, so I'd like to know a few things as well." He reached over and placed a small, round stone in the middle of the table. It appeared ordinary, and neither Link nor Vaati could see anything remarkable about it. "After the last ordeal with the Twili, Princess Zelda instructed each of the members of the resistance to carry a stone she had enchanted. If she were safe, there would be a small gold triangle on the stone. If not," he tapped the grey stone on the table, "there would be nothing on the stone."
Vaati picked up the stone and tossed it in his hands. Catching it, he absentmindedly rubbed the stone with his thumb. "Clever."
"The purpose was so we would be notified as soon as possible of the Princess's safety. The Royal Guards are, I'm afraid, not very reliable during times of crisis."
Link and Vaati nodded earnestly as they both had first hand experience on what the Royal Guards were like. Link, however, still felt some loyalty to the guards. "I thought our Royal Guards were pretty decent," he whispered to Vaati. The sorcerer arched his eyebrows and made a face.
Rusl turned to Vaati. "You mentioned something about Ganondorf returning, and it coincides with the fact that this stone's triangle has disappeared. Do you know anything about what might have happened?"
Grinning, Vaati stood up from his seat. "Like I said earlier, Ganondorf has returned and probably took over the castle last night."
At this, Link scowled, remembering how Vaati had kept him from running in to save Zelda.
The sorcerer picked up his knife and twirled it between his fingers. He then stabbed it through his toast, bringing it up to his face as he spun it lazily in front of him. "Link and I will take care of him. Just take us to Faron Woods." When Rusl hesitated, Vaati narrowed his eyes and bit the toast that was hanging off the edge of his knife. "And when I say 'take us to Faron Woods,' I mean 'take us to Faron Woods now.'"
Link stood up as well and pushed Vaati back down. "Don't be rude. Rusl, will you be able to take us to the woods?"
"Well, um, are you sure you'll be all right Link?" Rusl faltered. He couldn't keep his gaze off of the mage as he shot back up armed with a butter knife in his free hand. Rusl only hoped he had been mistaken when he heard Vaati tell Link he'll "gouge his eyes out."
Before Link could answer, Telma appeared behind Vaati. She whacked him across the back of his head, causing the sorcerer to drop his toast and knives. "I've been watching you take apart your breakfast from the beginning, and I've been keeping quiet about it but I've run out of patience."
"What are you talking about?" Vaati snapped, rubbing the back of his head in offence. He quickly shut up when he gained another whack.
"Don't play with your food – you're not three years old anymore."
Link suppressed a snicker as he watched Vaati holding in a growl out of fear of getting whacked across the head for a third time. Armed or no, the sorcerer had no chance against Telma. Link turned to Rusl, laughing. "I'm pretty sure I'll be fine."
The man shrugged. "If you say so." He stood up and shooed the two back up to their rooms. "Start packing then. We'll leave in an hour."
XXXXXXXX
A large shadow streaked across Hyrule fields, sending the local monsters running out of sight in fear. To a normal person standing on the ground, the creature flying high up above the sky would have looked like a large hawk but the monsters in the area knew better – that was no bird.
Argorok scanned the fields below him, hunting for someone who resembled the hero of legend. The dragon didn't rely on sight, but instead on unique registers of Force emitted by different creatures. It worked wonderfully well for hunting in barren places such as his usual area of reign high up in the sky, but Lord Ganon clearly did not understand that finding one person in a huge area with many people and other creatures was not a simple task.
The twilight dragon growled frustratingly to himself as he remembered how oddly his king was behaving. Lord Ganon appeared to have no recollection of his second in command, Lord Zant from the Twili realm, and Argorok had also come to the realization that Lord Zant was no longer alive. When had that happened? Why hadn't he heard about it? And why in Majora's name did Lord Ganon not care, since the whole plan revolving the Twili realm had been the dark king's idea in the first place?
Another thing that was bothering Argorok was some of the other Force registers he had sensed that didn't make sense to him at all. There was a powerful collection of Force from the direction of Ordon that he understood as belonging to Diababa, a monster who should have been slain by the Hero of Light. It was all too confusing, like he was missing important bits of memory.
Argorok hissed, folding his wings next to his sides and taking a steep dive towards the ground. He opened them at the last minute; catching enough speed to hurry across the plains and making the air give a shrieking whistle as it moved through his armor.
It was the Render. He was sure that Ganon's amnesia regarding the plan with the Twili, the disappearance of Lord Zant, and the reappearance of fellow monsters that should have been dead had to do with the appearance of the Render.
"HISSSSSS," Argorok suddenly snarled and then took one powerful flap to shoot back up into the air. He slowed down, hovering in place above the grass that bowed to the wind; if he had eyes to widen in his shock, he would have done so. Instead, he slowly hovered in place with his forked tongue hanging from between his teeth.
What if… what if he had been brought back from the dead like that Diababa?
It was a frightening thought – but at least that would explain why he had suddenly appeared at the Palace of Winds with no memory of how he had gotten there.
The only problem with that theory was that he didn't remember ever dying.
Still, Lord Ganon didn't remember him and that was a fact. The king had been standing before him along with the Render, and he remembered the way the Gerudo had looked at him as though he had never seen him before. Granted Argorok himself never had the grace to speak with the king often, but he was sure he should have been recognized. He vaguely recalled the conversation that had transpired at the Palace of Winds:
"Lord Ganon, I've done as you've requested. Hyrule is now inhabited by monsters the hero would never have set eyes on," the girl standing next to Ganon spoke almost lifelessly.
"Excellent. We need more from the Dark faction to take over, but it would be pointless to have the ones from the past return since they had proved to be failures. We want Link to be unprepared."
Argorok swung his head towards the odd girl, wondering who she was. It was then he noticed her Force register was the similar to those from the ore class demons; but what ore class demon would disgrace itself by taking the form of those despicable creatures of the Light faction?
"And who is this?"
Lord Ganon's voice quickly made Argorok snap to attention. The dragon spoke with a curious lisp from his bad habit of having his tongue hanging out of his mouth. "It issss Argorok. You do not remember?"
Ganon gave the dragon a frightening look. He turned to the girl. "How can that dragon know me?"
"It's possible a future incarnation of you existed and you have taken his place. I have changed eras, but the way it was done still follows the principles of warping where I replace one area with another."
"Warping… YOU. You musssst be the Render! A traitor and a coward, how dare you return to show your face!" Argorok roared. Spreading his wings in fury. "You refussssed to fight assss sssson assss the ssssword wassss created! Traitor – I will kill you mysssself in the name of the King of Darknessss!"
"Argorok, was it? If you're going to kill my new pet under my name, I think you better consider that I would rather keep this useful pawn alive for the time being."
At this, the dragon hunched its neck in shame as though it had been slapped. "Ah, I ssssee." Then he swung his neck towards Opal, snapping. "But ssssince when issss the Render working with ussss?"
"That's none of your concern. Now take us to Hyrule; that was why you were summoned here in the first place."
"… Yessss my lord."
Come to think of it, Lord Ganon had mentioned something about 'future incarnations' and changing eras. What was that all about anyway? Could it be that Lord Ganon and the Render were actually from a different era?
Argorok scowled under his helm and circled above Hyrule fields once more to search for Link, who he had been ordered to find and kill. He shouldn't have any reason to think about those kinds of things. Who cared if the king was from the past or the future?
All that really mattered for the dragon was that they won this war against Light.
fleets: Most of the conversation with Rusl changed from the original because there were a few things that didn't make sense in the original.
Aw, I think I'm starting to like the little lispy fire-breather. He's going to get more page-time in this story as you can tell from the attention he's getting so far.
Midna Hytwilian: I see him as a cat-person. I wonder what kind of cat he would have O.o
Vaati the wind mage1: And dang does he like that boomerang! XD
Lord Siravant: I threw Link in the story mostly because he keeps the story moving, but next to Vaati I could really care less.
Link: HEY!
me: It's true. You're too good.
Link:... Uh, thanks I guess?
I have no name: It's true about the fishing rod! I think I also read somewhere that you can damage Ganondorf with it in the final fight in TP (glances at Vaati...)
Vaati: What are you looking at?
i-wish-799: I remember when I first wrote the chapter I didn't really know what weapon to give Vaati. As I went along the list of weapons in TP, I saw 'Gale Boomerang' and that was the end of the dilemma. :)
LunaticEyesInaba: Is... having... urge... to draw Vaati with glasses... O.o;
LilyMoonstone: Box? I don't remember writing about a box in BC... ?
darkdigidestined: Thanks! I try to keep the characters as realistic as I can make them :)
Sapphiet: Vaati's ego boost, though not yet revealed in this chapter, will most likely surface in the next one... lol.
Astral S. Kepeire: I couldn't think of another way to write the dialogue since I liked the original too much with all its flaws. I did describe the Spinner a teeny bit more after I realized how vague it was for people who've never played TP. Also I let Vaati read "Dominion Rod" instead of having Link just know it automatically (since that really makes no sense). As for Louise, well, I thought I'd let other TP characters be more noticed for a change (coughArgorokcough) :3
msfcatlover: Oh yeah the short jokes! I honestly have no idea. Usually the jokes just insert themselves into the story whenever I see an opportunity to put them there. The type of joke will probably depend on what the banter is at the time :)
Reily96: Seriously archery is hard! Well, at least harder than what videogames teach you. The bomb and clawshot dialogue were my two favorites from the original - I just couldn't change that one at all :)
Purplegc: Oh my gods 2 years! I can't believe it's been that long already. Louise is definitely new, and yes, Vaati did change his mind that quickly. Mostly because he learned afterwards that the darned cat was actually being helpful and he also liked the idea that he knew more than Link. :P
Ohhh clawshots and hookshots galore - fun times ahead XD
Vaati/Link: I don't like the sound of that...
