Link and Sidon woke up nice and early, well rested and eager to face the day. They ate a hearty breakfast on a bench near the marketplace with Link taste-testing the local specialties – super expensive roasted spider leg for one – and Sidon mostly eating from his own stash, as there was nothing that would satisfy his hunger available. They hoped that the town at the entrance to the Lost Woods would have a better selection. After all, the forest there was all misty and damp, so frogs were a likely find.

After they were done eating, they headed to the library.

Librari was sorting books that had been left in the return box overnight, or had possibly been brought in this morning by the early birds. She looked up when they entered, and smiled widely.

"Good morning, Link, Sidon", she said, then blinked rapidly a few times before bonking the side of her head slightly with her fist and then proceeding to sign the same thing.

Link chuckled, and Sidon's smile widened as he answered alike.

'So, Hero Museum?' Link asked as they reached the counter. He noticed a couple of thick pamphlets that were clearly about the museum on the desk; their covers had a very detailed drawing of what seemed to be a set of artifacts on a table, which was why he drew that conclusion.

Librari smiled again, and grabbed the pamphlets from the desk. She handed one to each of them. 'Yes! You can keep those pamphlets. I'll be giving you a tour and I'll explain a lot of things, but the highlights are also on those papers if you want to follow along or read them again later. Now follow me!'

Sidon and Link looked at each other as she scurried towards a door in the back. They followed her, and Sidon cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Ah, please excuse me, Librari", he said, and she turned towards him with an expectant expression. Link winced inwardly. "We appreciate your effort, but unfortunately we cannot read Minish."

She stared at him silently for a beat, and then she blushed scarlet and did her cute hand wiggle thing. "Oh no! I'm so sorry! I should have known that, since you did kind of imply it yesterday, but I just didn't catch on! Aaah, I keep doing dumb things with you two! I'm so, so sincerely sorry!"

Again, Link forgave her instantly because she was just so damn adorable when she was flustered. He was glad he didn't have to interact with her on a daily basis, because he could see himself becoming something of a bully for her, just so she would be cute like that often.

Sidon waved his hands at her with a grimace. "No, it's alright! We don't mind! We'll simply listen to you attentively so we'll remember it all!"

Okay, what was better than one flustered cutiepie? Two flustered cutiepies. Though of course Link would take Sidon over Librari any day.

Eventually his show ended, and a meek Librari led them to the museum proper. Link looked around in amazement.

There were paintings. There were figurines. There was a pair of clawed mittens, a cane of some kind, a pair of winged shoes, a cape, as well as some other artifacts that he couldn't quite make out from his vantage point at the doorway. There was also a big statue in the middle of the room that depicted a heroic looking Hylian child holding a sword up high and wearing a cap that had a bird's head at the tip.

Link stared at it intently, something niggling at him at the very back of his mind, somewhere even beyond his lost memories. If he concentrated hard enough, he could almost hear the bird cap talking, berating him for something or another… taking unnecessary risks, riding too fast on a mine cart… And giving him advice on the next breath... he should use the Cane of Pacci to flip the Spiked Beetles around to access their vulnerable belly... He could picture the voice so clearly that it was kind of scary…

"Link?"

Link blinked a few times to get out of his trance and then turned to give a concerned looking Sidon a questioning look.

"Are you alright? You spaced out quite thoroughly."

Link smiled and nodded, then gestured towards the statue. 'A Hylian kid. Got distracted.'

Sidon gave the statue an intrigued look, but was stopped from asking further questions by Librari clapping her hands.

"Okie dokie! Let's begin the tour!" she said excitedly, and belatedly remembered to sign the same thing.

Link and Sidon lined up behind her politely, and let her do her thing.

She told them a story of a Hylian Hero who stopped the original Vaati from accidentally destroying Hyrule in his quest for power. She told them of a Hylian Princess who got turned into stone and who was the guardian of a holy power. Of a Minish archmage who got turned into a talking cap. Of a sword that got imbibed with elemental magics and could multiply its wielder and seal away evil. Of a grand adventure where the Hero and the archmage traveled all around Hyrule to collect the sacred artifacts to power up the sword. They had already heard some of it from Histori yesterday, but having the whole picture was something else.

They were shown gorgeous paintings that depicted the adventure. Amazingly detailed figurines of ancient monsters and people – said figurines were replicas of the ones the Hero had allegedly purchased during his journey for some reason. They were shown a pair of mole clawed mittens the Hero had used to dig his way through obstacles, a magical cane that flipped heavy objects upside down without breaking them, and a lantern that always burned without the need of fuel. There was a pot-like object with handles that Librari said produced a sucking wind – Link mentally likened them to the Octoroks at Death Mountain. There was a pair of winged shoes that gave their user a burst of speed, a pair of flippers that made swimming easier, and a cape that made it possible to jump across wide chasms. A pair of bracelets that made their wearer stronger, and a ring that gave a better grip for climbing. Link could have used many of those items to make his own journey a little easier.

Finally, at the end of the room on top of a fancy pedestal was a green cap. The Minish Cap. The one Ezlo had made, Vaati had stolen, and that had restored the balance in the end.

Or a very convincing, magically enhanced replica of it anyway.

"Most people honestly think this is the real deal", Librari said with a mischievous smile. "And that's what we want them to think in order to keep the real one safe. I'm only telling you this because I trust you to not tell a soul, so please keep it to yourself."

Link hoped she wouldn't make it a habit to tell this to all the big people who would visit the Minish in the future, no matter how far into the future that might be.

Speaking of visitors, his ear twitched as he picked up a quiet sound of footsteps from the direction of the door. Well, their tour was almost over so Librari could deal with the other patrons soon enough. He went back to examining the hat. It glowed faintly in a similar manner to the newly picked up kinstones, so Link assumed it had the same enchantment on it. Maybe that was because the original hat was – from what he had gathered – some sort of a wish fulfilling item as well, so having a similar spell on the fake one made it more believable?

"Where is the real one, then?" Sidon asked, and then chuckled in embarrassment. "Ah, pardon my silly question. Of course you wouldn't tell us, and we have no actual need to know."

Librari waved her hand. "No worries. All things considered, you may just need to know. It's been passed down as a priceless heirloom in Ezlo's line all this time. It's a funny coincidence, actually. You see, Ezlo's grandson was the one who-"

She got interrupted by Link pulling out his sword and whirling around to point it at the intruders who had been trying to quietly sneak behind them instead of staying in the library. It was the sneaking that made him react, and it was a good thing he did: The four intruders were pale faced, had bleached hair and wore purple clothes. Three of them had a large sack each in their hands, and the last one was holding a rod of some kind. Very obvious Vaatians, and very obviously up to no good.

"Damn! Get them!" the one with the rod said, and unleashed an ice beam at Link.

Librari screamed. Sidon jumped in front of her and readied his claws, not having the time to pull out his spear. The Vaatians with the sacks jumped forward. Link deflected the ice beam with the side of his sword, sending the ray to freeze a painting on the wall instead, but also leaving his sword frosty and heavy.

Sidon swiped at the first Vaatian who reached him, shredding the sack with his deadly claws but getting his arm trapped in the cloth tatters at the same time. Link swung his sword at the Vaatian with the rod, making the Minish jump backwards to avoid him. Librari whimpered and tried to escape from Sidon's Vaatian-free side, only to get pushed prone by Sidon's attempt to pull his arm free while snarling with bared fangs at the other Vaatians, who were hesitant to approach such a large and scary looking creature.

Link swung his sword again, but the ice on it caused him to overbalance and the Vaatian wizard dodged his strike easily enough, and promptly sent another ray of frost at him. Link narrowly dodged it, and heard a scream from behind him. He couldn't see the others from his peripheral vision anymore and couldn't afford to turn to look, so he had no idea who got hit. It hadn't sounded like Sidon, at least.

He made another swing at the Minish wizard, who was forced to parry with the rod. Except the rod didn't snap in half like Link had expected. No, it sparkled at the contact and the Master Sword started freezing over at a rapid pace, forcing Link to let go of the handle because he didn't want to risk being frozen solid himself.

Shit.

The frozen sword clattered on the floor, and the floor in its immediate vicinity froze over, trapping the sword.

Double shit.

Link dodged behind a pedestal that held a boomerang, and the pedestal froze over immediately after. He made sure to not lean against the ice block and took a risky second to look in Sidon's direction.

Librari was nowhere to be seen, but one of the Vaatians was wrestling with a filled sack, so she was probably there. The other two were harassing Sidon: one still had Sidon's right arm trapped in the shredded sack, but was also hanging on to it for dear life while Sidon ignored them completely, unbothered by such a tiny nuisance. The other Vaatian had ditched their sack and was holding a sturdy looking pole-arm and was doing an admirable job keeping Sidon too busy to help Link or Librari, and from reaching for any of his weapons.

The floor under Link's feet froze over, and he jumped hurriedly to the side. One of his boots got stuck on the ice and was left behind, also making Link stumble and crash land, slightly hurting his right shoulder.

He rolled behind another pillar just in time to avoid an icy fate. Making a split-second decision, because he needed a damn weapon that wasn't the bow secured a bit too well on his back, he gave the pillar a quick push and made whatever it held drop on the floor. The pillar was frozen a mere moment later, and ice began to spread on the floor again.

Link jumped, rolled, grabbed a stick of some kind, and got behind the Hero statue.

He examined his new weapon. It was made of light wood and it had a hook on top. The Cane of Pacci.

Link smirked.

He could work with this.