The Hero statue started to freeze over. A pained grunt sounded in the air, and Link recognized the voice as Sidon's.
Hylia damn it!
Link grabbed the only boot he had left and tossed it to the right, as far as he could. An ice ray followed immediately, and Link took the opportunity to jump to the left, leaving his shelter. He locked his sight on his enemy, who was looking confusedly in the wrong direction now.
Hah, sucker! Clearly they weren't used to competent opponents.
Link pointed the Cane of Pacci at the Vaatian wizard, and the knowledge of how to use it filled his brain, like he had done this a million times before. He fired, and hit the Vaatian in the chest.
The Vaatian's tunic turned upside down, locking his arms up and blocking his entire head from view completely. The rod dropped on the floor and froze it over, making the Vaatian's shoeless feet get stuck on the ice up to their calves. The rod itself stayed on top of the ice, unaffected.
Link ran forward, slid over the frozen spot on the floor with his socked feet, and grabbed the rod with his free hand as he passed by. As soon as his feet hit solid floor, he ran in Sidon's direction.
The sack with Librari in it had been tied up and was wriggling uselessly on the floor. Two of the remaining Vaatians were attacking Sidon, whose right thigh had a dagger sticking out of it. The missing Vaatian was an unconscious heap on the base of the pedestal that had held the Minish Cap replica, which was currently on the floor next to them.
One of Sidon's attackers was the polearm user and they were still keeping Sidon busy, despite him having two arms to use now. The other one was standing to the side, wiggling their fingers.
Damn, another wizard.
Link lifted the ice rod and tried to make it work, but didn't know how to. It wasn't a Wizzrobe rod so simply swishing it in the right direction apparently wasn't enough, and his brain didn't seem to magically contain the necessary information, either. He lifted the Cane of Pacci then, and shot a beam at the wizard. Unfortunately, his aim with weapons like this wasn't as good while he was on the move, so he only turned their hat inside out and upside down.
Thankfully, it was enough to break their concentration. They yelped in surprise and grabbed their hat, most likely out of reflex.
Link took the final leap necessary and tackled them to the ground, tossing his weapons to the side as he did – he made sure the ice rod was tossed far away so that it wouldn't cause any trouble. They wrestled for a brief moment, but Link was clearly the more experienced one and overpowered the Vaatian easily. He knocked their head against the floor harshly to render them unconscious, and then scrambled up to look at Sidon's situation.
He was just in time to see Sidon's jaw snap the damn sturdy polearm into two like it was a mere twig, and then the last Vaatian was grabbed and tossed violently against a wall. They did not get up.
That was all of them. Link checked each one briefly to make sure they were still harmless – the wizard had gotten their tunic righted but was still stuck to the floor – and upon confirming it ran to Sidon.
"Link!" Sidon called when he was done doing the same check. He grabbed Link into a bear-hug as soon as he was within arm's reach.
Link returned the hug fiercely.
Sidon was okay. Mostly anyway.
"They almost ambushed us!" Sidon said, when he was done squeezing the breath out of Link. "Weren't the guards supposed to be on the lookout for Vaatians?"
Link shook his head, equally baffled. Then he heard a frantic shuffling sound, and turned to look at the sacked Librari guiltily. He had completely forgotten about her for a moment.
Sidon let him down and they both went to free her. She was breathing rapidly and her eyes were the size of saucers.
"Librari. It's alright now", Sidon said soothingly and helped her sit up. "We took care of them."
Librari shook her head, refusing to look anything but panicked. "They heard- they heard-"
"Calm down", Sidon said, and crouched down with a poorly hidden wince. Right, the dagger was still there. That needed looking at as soon as possible. "Breathe first, then-"
"They heard about the cap!"
...She was probably right. She had lowered her voice but hadn't been particularly quiet, and the Vaatians had been right behind them at the time.
Time to make sure they didn't run and go tell the others, then.
Link took the sack and turned to check on the incapacitated Vaatians. Unconscious. Unconscious. Unconscious or potentially dead. And the wizard he had grappled with at first-
Damn. There was a puddle and a sizzling scroll on the spot where the wizard had been, and Link could see the tail-end of a purple cape disappear through the door.
He took off running, not wasting time signing his intentions. He dropped the sack and grabbed a frozen boomerang off the floor on his way, not having the time to pick up either of the rods, as they weren't in his direct path, or to thaw his sword.
It would have to do.
As a side note, he needed to start carrying an additional weapon that was always within easy reach. A dagger, maybe.
He ran through the door and saw the Vaatian at the doorway that led out of the library. They stopped there for a moment and turned around, locking their eyes with Link.
They smirked, pulled some kind of a tag off their cape, and suddenly their appearance changed into that of an average Minish. Link froze on the spot in shock.
The Vaatian turned tail and ran out of library. Link cursed under his breath and followed, pushing himself to run as fast as he could.
"Help!" The Vaatian shouted as soon as Link reached the doorway. They were at the end of the hallway that had two frozen, spear carrying Minish by it. That explained the lack of guards. "Vaatians are attacking the museum!"
Damn it! And people would buy that, too; Link was the only one who knew they were lying! Or well, not lying, but certainly bending the truth.
He threw the frozen boomerang, hoping against hope to hit the Vaatian while he still saw them. It flew through the air clumsily, weighed down by the frost and unbalance because of the spot Link's hand had thawed. It clattered uselessly against a wall off to the side, not even making it to the end of the hallway.
Cursing under his breath for the second time, Link took running again, only to almost collide with two unfrozen guards who came running from around the corner the Vaatian had turned.
"Hey, watch it!" the guard he almost ran into barked, and grabbed his shoulders to keep them both upright.
This was his chance to alert them. He needed to make it quick before the Vaatian escaped. He wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the other Minish, but this guard should be easily able to.
"No, the-", he started, but then his mind registered the unfamiliar and stern face of this utter stranger, and his words stuck in his throat and made him unable to even breathe, much less talk.
No...!
No! Not now! This was important! His voice needed to work, Hylia damn it!
He coughed and tried to get the air to flow into his lungs, but his throat was completely locked up and his breathing got harder the more he thought about his urgent need to speak.
The stranger looked at him in concern, and then reached out to pat his back. "Hey, hey! Calm down! Oh no, are you having a seizure?"
No, damn it!
Link gave up on breathing and started signing rapidly. This guard needed to know. They needed to know the culprit was escaping with important information!
He was met with a bewildered look of complete cluelessness.
They didn't understand him.
Link couldn't speak or even breathe and they couldn't understand his signing.
The Vaatian was getting away and there was nothing he could do to stop them. No way to alert these people that the real problem was running away, looking the same as any Minish out there.
Link wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the bystanders even if he followed them now. Unlike Sidon, he still couldn't tell most of the Minish apart from each other.
And Sidon hadn't seen their face.
Frustrated tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, making the situation even worse.
He didn't even have his sword.
No…
He sank to his knees, much to the alarm of the Minish guard.
His vision was greying around the edges due to the lack of air. He closed his eyes, forced himself to forget about his failure, and concentrated on breathing.
No matter how bad the situation was, at the very least he would not faint. That never helped.
He blocked the guard's concerned questions out and breathed through his nose.
Just breathe.
Air. Sweet air. He forced himself to breathe slowly. Calmly. To not think.
His heart rate slowed.
The anxiety eased.
The air flowed easily into his lungs and back out.
His mind worked better.
Calmer.
Yes, he had failed. There was no helping that now.
Now. Now he needed Sidon. They needed to regroup, lick their wounds, gather their supplies, and get back to moving.
Link took one more deep breath, gathered himself, and stood up. Then he finally looked at the guard, nodded, slapped his shoulder gently, and turned to head back to the library.
Time to get his sword and his boyfriend.
ooooo
Upon arriving to the museum – with the guard on his heels – he took stock of the situation at hand.
Librari was talking to the other guard, who had continued on without heeding Link and their partner. A smart decision, really, as they hadn't know what the situation here was, and Link was just one guy that the other guard could easily deal with.
Sidon had stuffed two of the unconscious Vaatians into their own sacks, and was in the process of doing the same to the last one. He still had the dagger sticking from his thigh, which was half relieving because it meant he hadn't been dumb enough to take it out and bleed to death, but half worrying because the idiot was using the leg like nothing was wrong and probably making the wound worse.
The Master Sword was still frozen to the floor.
The museum itself was in disarray with ice all over the place and priceless artifacts littered on the floor.
...He had left the boomerang in the hallway. Oops.
The guard who had come with him hurried over to their partner and Librari.
Where should he even begin unraveling the mess?
He glanced at the sword, then at Sidon.
As if that was a tough choice.
He went over to Sidon and tapped his arm once his boyfriend was done tying the sack closed.
Sidon turned to him, and let out a relieved sigh and then smiled. "I'm glad to see you unharmed. Did you catch her?"
The wizard was a woman? Okay then. He plain and simply couldn't tell for the life of him.
Link shook his head regretfully. 'No. She turned into a regular Minish and ran off. Things got… complicated, and I couldn't follow.'
Sidon frowned, giving him a worried look from head to toe.
'I'm fine', Link said, and gestured at the dagger on Sidon's thigh. 'You're not. You should not be walking around and crouching and what have you. You need a medic.'
Sidon sighed, and stood up with a wince, avoiding putting too much of a strain on the injured leg. "I know. I had no choice. Librari was in no condition to secure these villains, and I couldn't risk them running off, too. I'm sure there is a healer around who can fix me right up. That apprentice of Mageri's, for example."
'I don't think he's good enough', Link said with a frown.
Sidon tried to smile at him, but it was more like a grimace. Guess the adrenaline was running out and that dagger was finally starting to really hurt. "He's better than nothing if there doesn't happen to be anyone else. But enough about me. We should talk to the guards. Librari is telling them her version of the story, but we have a lot more to add. You especially. Come on."
Sidon made a move to walk, but Link blocked his path. 'No. No more walking. I'll get them here.'
Sidon looked ready to argue for a second, but then clearly saw the wisdom in Link's words, and simply nodded. He leaned against the closest pedestal to take his weight off his leg, and Link nodded in approval before turning around to fetch the guards and Librari.
Time to try communicating with them again. At least this time he had translators available.
He couldn't wait to be big and more readily understood again, damn it.