Long time no see, eh? I'm sorry about the lateness of the update, I really am. But my previous school schedule didn't allow much time for writing - not if I wanted to pass my classes anyways. It's summer, though, and I have more time for writing now. :3 But I swear I'm not dead. I'm totally alive. It's just... well, I do have a life, you know.

Anyways, this has not been checked over for mistakes. I figured you guys have waited long enough to forgive the occasional misspelling and missing word and whatever...

Act V: In Which Vaati and Zelda are Reunited or In Which the Helmaroc King Takes Things Into his Own Wings

Vaati had been following the trace he'd had on Zelda like a madman… of course, many did question whether or not he was in fact mad (personally, he didn't like to think so, but realized full well if he was he probably wouldn't admit it and so chose not to think about it). And he was mad in the sense of being incredibly upset. He had been flying non-stop for hours and the sky was darkening significantly. But he knew he was getting close. He wasn't the only one expending his energy flying such a long distance – long enough so that he was well aware they'd left Hyrule ages ago. While he wasn't sure where he was exactly, he'd have to guess it was Holodrum. But in the end, it didn't matter. Anytime, anywhere, he would take on that dragon. And as he grasped the strand of dirty, red blond hair tightly in his fist, he couldn't wait to skin the beast.

And then he hit a brick wall.

Or at least that's what it felt like. He didn't actually hit a wall at all, but the sudden severance of his trace upon his bride-to-be was quite enough to make him come to a dead stop midair. While dispelling a trace was possible, the ways in which it was done varied. The most common ones were that the practitioner behind the trace had dispelled it his or herself; whatever the practitioner was using to trace the subject had been discarded by the subject; or the subject died.

... I will be very cross if she is dead. The wind mage growled in his mind. He doubted she was. While he wasn't entirely familiar with dragon magic, he knew that their brand of magic was timely, in a sense. Most of their magic was heavily dependent on ceremony and monthly cycles – and to make things even more complicated, it had to be at a particular time, such as twilight or dawn, noon or midnight and the fashion. It had been past twilight for around half an hour, too late for a twilight ceremony… Zelda was likely still alive, then… unless Onox was preparing for a midnight ritual.

The wind mage gritted his teeth. It would be very bad if that was the case, seeing as the dragon had cloaked wherever he was hiding – something dragons could do without ceremony. And he was rather at a loss at what to do. The girl had proven herself resourceful and resilient… he could always release her from the crystal… but if Onox was around, the crystal was probably the only thing preventing the dragon from eating her. Cooking her was another matter entirely… But he couldn't risk Onox seeing the crystal dispelled – if he did plan on eating Zelda that night…

He was gritting his teeth and getting ready to lash out at the nearest object when he felt the air shake. With an expression much like that of a deer with an arrow pointed right at it, Vaati froze. The dragon was near. It was either coming for him or was going out of its own accord. Was he still carrying Zelda? He flew down towards the ground, hiding himself in a canopy of nearby trees and blinding the senses to his presence. The dragon quickly soon flew over and the wind mage focused intently upon the great beast. No sign of Zelda… So she wasn't with him.

He attempted the tracking spell again.

No luck. Wherever she was, it was the place that Onox had shielded. But the dragon was no longer there. Don't get caught, girl. He growled in his head.

Zelda had given up screaming and shouting and kicking and flailing. Despite that, her throat felt raw from all the screaming she had been doing, though they weren't screams of fear more than they were anger. Not that it did much. Vaati's glass prison was still as tough as ever, and Onox seemed to have been deaf to her shouts. So she did her best to make herself comfortable in her cramped crystal prison, crossing her arms and throwing a deathly glare at the dragon's massive head in hopes he would see it.

But with all the bobbing up and down of the flight, Zelda had a difficult time keeping her hate filled gaze on the dragon. After a while, she settled for looking around, noticing that she did not recognize any of the land that they were flying over and scolded herself for not paying attention to the flight. Her stomach then knotted up at the realization that they were probably flying over a land that wasn't Hyrule at all – and that also meant that Vaati would have to be the one to save her seeing as Link had no idea she was currently in the clutches of a dragon.

The princess then let out a sigh, as she hated to think that she finally acquiesced to the fact that Vaati was, in fact, the lesser of two evils. That didn't mean she would at all consent to marrying him if he did rescue her, however. It was his fault she was in this situation in the first place, after all. Despite that, she bit her lip, minding the orange and red and ever darkening sky while reluctantly pleading for the mage's arrival in her mind.

Zelda then let out a yelp, which quickly turned to a groan of pain as she fell to one side of her crystal roughly. This had already happened several times during the flight, but this time was more severe, leading the princess to believe that they had just made a sudden change in course or were descending for landing. The latter guess ended up being the correct one, for only a few moments later the dragon hovered near a cave before landing and crawling inside of it.

It was then the princess remembered just hours earlier when she had attempted to bargain with Onox. She had offered him some additions to his hoard – because his last cave certainly seemed to be lacking in any form of gold or treasures. In this cave, it was easy to understand why he'd refused. Because his hoard wasn't "quite comfortable" as he'd said; it made the whole of Hyrule Castle look like a pig sty. The walls seemed to be coated in some form of gold, silver, bronze or valuable gem and she could make out several piles of treasure laying about in what she guessed were less traversed parts of the cave. She noted that the very back of the cave seemed to be a solid mountain's worth of treasure, and had to wonder just how long it had taken for Onox to obtain such a horde… and how many kingdoms he'd had to steal it all from.

With that grim thought still fresh in her head, she'd barely noticed Onox had stuck the crystal upright in one of the piles of treasure. She had been brought back from her morbid musings of burned and ruined kingdoms by the dragon passing in front of her sight, seemingly looking for something within his gilded cave. Her morbid thoughts suddenly became downright terrifying as she could only envision what horrible thing the dragon was looking for. As silly as it sounded, she wondered if he was perhaps looking for a cookbook on how to make lemon-pepper princess. Visibly grimacing, she found herself looking around her glass prison again. There had to be some way out of it…

Her search was interrupted when Onox's head suddenly looked to the mouth of the cave in alarm. The great dragon ran to the cave's entrance, leaving Zelda wondering what on earth was wrong with the dragon? If he left, it would be fantastic, and she might yet have another chance of escaping if she could somehow find a way out of Vaati's crystal. But the princess was dismayed to see that this was not the case. And confused. She couldn't figure out what the dragon seemed so concentrated upon. The orange and red sky was now darkening into a dark navy, but so far as she could see there was nothing… So the dragon must have seen something she had not – and she had no doubts of it. She'd once read somewhere that a dragon had enhanced sight due to having six optic nerves per eye rather than the one human and Hylians graced with per eye. While she had no idea if it was true or not, she was willing to believe it as the dragon's head twitched every so often as he examined the sky.

To her great alarm, Onox began to spew flames into the area. Zelda was sorely tempted to scream at the dragon and demand why he was about to kill them both until she saw that his normal white hot flames were green. It took her completely by surprise. As far as she knew, air didn't burn green. And then a great sense of dread came upon yet her again. It was magic. The dragon was casting magic around the cave – probably to prevent detection from a nearing Vaati.

The dragon finished his spell, turning back into the cave and glancing at the princess in a disinterested manner. "Your purple bug is persistent." He growled.

"The Sorcerer of Winds is a sore loser if history says anything," Zelda said stoically. And whether it was because she was just incredibly desperate and truly believed it, she added, "He'll find me. You're digging your own grave."

Had the dragon had eyebrows, she could have sworn he forked one. His massive head lowered down to her crystal, in a way that almost had the beat face to face with her. "Oh? And why is that?" It was a mocking tone; an obviously rhetorical question. In fact, she was quite willing to bet the question was a challenge. He was daring her to answer.

Perhaps the smart thing to would have been to not answer at all and leave the dragon to his own designs. In fact, the smart thing to do would have been to just sit, be quiet, look pretty, and wait to be rescued – the family tradition at its finest. But Zelda's level of tolerance was at an all time low, and she was willing to take up the beast's dare. In the haughtiest tone of voice she could manage, she said, "Because Vaati is a sorcerer of legend, one of the most powerful and feared beings to man and monster. And you don't gain a reputation like that without reason."

Onox merely stared with what Zelda had at first thought was her desired reaction, that being of some degree of outrage. However, the longer the dragon's gaze lingered upon her, the more she realized that Onox didn't seem at all perturbed by her words… in fact, if she had to identify the reptilian beast's expression, it would have to be curiosity. She gritted her teeth, and then scowled with outrage when she recognized the dragon's gravelly laugh before he turned around and resumed his earlier search. Again, she wanted to scream, and was sorely tempted to smash her head against the crystal wall before her repeatedly until she blacked out.

Could this day possibly get any-

She didn't finish the thought. That would tempt fate far too much.

Apparently fate didn't need her to finish the thought. Onox seemed to find what he was looking for fairly quickly after the unfinished question flew through her mind. She had no idea what it was he'd found, but she knew he'd found it. He had stopped his digging and let out a pleased little thrum from the back of his throat – much like a friendly bird would to a person.

Oh Vaati… she thought hopelessly, Whatever that dragon did outside, I hope you can get past it... She thought desperately, trying to forget that she really shouldn't even be rooting for the sorcerer. And as if to crush her efforts of trying to hope for survival, the dragon blew a lick of flame at whatever it was he had found. Red light flashed brilliantly within the cavern, and the light condensed, leaving only rope-like squiggles in the air. So shocked was she by the sight of the flaming red squiggles, she hadn't realized the interest Onox had taken in looking at the squiggles himself. And when she did, she realized he was reading the squiggles. It was some sort of foreign language then… and in it held the instructions to her doom.

Desperately, she tried to turn the squiggly flaming lines into letters she could understand, but to no avail. Nothing she could come up with made any sort of sense, and really she knew it was desperation that drove her to it.

Zelda turned her attention from the squiggles back to her crystal prison, looking for any sign of weakness. She'd done it many times before, but she just had to keep trying… If not…

"Looks like you have a little time yet," she heard the dragon purr (though it had sounded more like a menacing growl, she found it was actually a purr since there seemed to be more amusement and less menace than initially thought). Purr or no, it still sent a violent shake up her spine. She was absolutely positive all the blood had drained from her face before she finally faced the beast, who had a massive gleaming crimson eye upon her. "Two days little princess. Enjoy them while you can." He then laughed a literal roaring laugh, which was terribly unpleasant upon the princess's ears, before taking off out of the cave to who knows where.

And watching the dragon take off again, she felt even more helpless than before. Because Onox had done some sort of shield or cloaking upon his cave – Vaati wouldn't likely find it…

She was incredibly ready to break down and cry, and she was just about to do so when the crystal walls around her vanished. Since her feet had been upon a glass floor, she lost her balance and quickly fell over onto the pile of treasure that Onox had stuck the crystal in. She growled something unpleasant and crawled her way down the pile of gold coins, as attempting to stand would probably result in her slipping all over the place again.

It was only after she was on solid ground did it hit her that she had been released from the crystal. Vaati had released her… She didn't dwell on it. Now was not the time to think too hard about these things, she had to escape!

… But before that, she really needed to do something else that had bee bothering her immensely, and it wasn't exactly something she could do in the confined space of the crystal. Zelda made a beeline for the mouth of the cave and then stopped. She smirked and trotted over to a particularly tall pile of gold… she adjusted her skirts and squatted, then let nature take its course.

Satisfied in more ways than one, Zelda stood and straightened out her skirts (as much as she could anyways) and then left the cave with pride. But then her satisfaction quickly died, because she had no idea where to go. From the looks of it, the cave was at the foot of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Or more accurately, there were plenty of places to go but she would get hopelessly lost. But then she scolded herself for losing her resolve so quickly! She stepped forward, because anywhere that was away from Onox was an excellent place to be.

Yet as she walked, she shivered. She came to the realization that the crystal had been protecting her from the cooling temperatures of the night… and while that was great inside the crystal, it wasn't great for travelling in a torn and tattered dress… especially when one realized how incredibly tired they were. Zelda, however, did not stop until the cave was well out of sight, and when she did she had retreated under a tree. She considered finding some abandoned branches and making a fire, but realized that might have given her away to Onox… Crouching down, she hugged herself tightly and rubbed the bare bits of her skin that were breaking out into chilled gooseflesh. How she wished to be find something warm!

… And then her memory flashed back to just earlier that day. Vaati had held her… granted, forcefully, but… he'd been warm. Perhaps it was the paleness of his skin or the horrible reputation, but she'd always imagined him to be cold. In fact, it'd be easier to say she had always imagined him as a sort of cold-blooded reptile. Instead, he'd proved himself a warm blooded mammal, like the rest of the humanoid races (excepting maybe the Zora). And at the moment, she rather wished he could be there, holding her… But not for any romantic reasons! She told herself quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly. And she realized that. No matter how she tried to rationalize her reasons - she was cold and needed warmth, he was the best of a bad situation, etc – she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he wasn't at all so bad…

Oh Zelda you delirious fool! She chided herself, Don't be so stupid! He's a villain too, remember! You're only getting this wishy washy because you're sleepy! But she didn't dare go to sleep. Onox could find her at any moment… but her lids were getting heavy, even as she began to shiver violently in the night air. But she still did her best to keep her eyes open… and that made things rather surreal. She was positive she was hallucinating at some point in the night… Heck, Zelda even imagined that she saw Vaati flying down towards her. The slight breeze that always seemed to be around him was even there in that figment of her imagination.

"There you are, princess," he had said, sounding somewhere in between relieved and annoyed. "You seem a bit worse for wear… Come now, we have to get going before the bloody dragon find us." She wanted to snap at him; say something just as rude back… but anything that came out of her mouth was slurred and indistinguishable to the point where even she wasn't sure what she was trying to say. "Good gods, you're slurring…" she heard the hallucination grumble irritably. "I suppose I can't blame you – a willful girl like you can't possibly have been having a very good day."

That's the understatement of the century, she wished could have yelled. What an incredibly rude hallucination. Almost like the real thing, really. But perhaps her glare was clear enough to this figment of her imagination, as he seemed to be giving her this impatient sort of look. Her glare suddenly broke when a violent shiver coursed through her body and she gripped herself even tighter. No time to be getting so worked up over something that was all in her head, not when she was so cold.

And that was when she realized the hallucination was not a fake.

Vaati plopped down next to her and with an impatient sigh, grabbed her and held her tight. However, Zelda hadn't quite realized what had happened, and was instead reveling in the warmth. It was almost like paradise… That was until her mind was clear enough with the new found rise in temperature to realize that she had practically buried herself into Vaati. Horrified, she was nearly about scream shrilly and slap the wind mage for the audacity of doing such a thing – no matter how well intentioned it was. But she stopped herself when she heard the smallest of snores. She shifted herself a bit to get a glimpse of the mage's pale face… He was asleep. And perhaps it was the falsely innocent look on his face while he slumbered, or perhaps her own desire for sleep overcoming her, that she thought, I suppose he's had a rough day too…Getting hit by a dragon's tail twice…

Soon after that thought, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

They both awoke late in the morning when the shade had left the tree they had used as shelter. Both somewhat confused as they came to consciousness, the memories quickly caught up. Vaati gave the girl an almost triumphant satisfied look, even as she gave him a horrified expression before pushing herself off and brushing herself down aggressively. She didn't really care if he'd kept her warm during the night, or had come for her and was willing to fight for her… Zelda was not at all happy to have been touching him in any way, shape, or form.

"No 'thank yous,' Princess?" He teased.

The princess gritted here teeth before saying a very strained, "Thank you, Vaati."

"For?"

She turned on her heel and gave him the deathliest of glares, only to see he was just grinning expectantly at her. She knew exactly what he wanted to hear… and she would not give it. "Thank you for trapping me in a crystal that only made it easier for a fire breathing lizard to kidnap me!"

The satisfied look that Vaati had moments ago turned to ice. "What an incredibly ungrateful thing to say, after all I've done for you."

Zelda was flabbergasted. "After all you've done for me? You kidnapped me to force me into marrying you; and then you get a dragon angry enough to kidnap me from you out of spite, and then he decides he wants to eat me! What is there to be grateful for, exactly?" She exploded.

He rolled his eyes, but for all his show of calm impatience, she could sense the anger emanating from him. "Leave it to a woman to remember the awful things; never mind I've fought this dragon twice for your sake and saved you from roasting and freezing. Not to mention conveniently forget that I have no intentions on killing you – though your green friend and his cohort clones are a different matter entirely."

Red in the face, she found herself in a situation that was eerily similar to the one on the Palace of Winds before Onox had arrived. It was so similar, in fact, that when she went to slap him, they both felt the harsh vibrations of wings in the air.

"Shit," she heard Vaati growl under his breath. She pretended not to notice the alarm in his voice. With a scowl, the mage looked to her and then said, "Apologize."

She was confused at first, until she realized he was referring to the conversation the dragon had just interrupted. "What? I will do no such thing, now get us out of here!"

With a sneer, Vaati said, "Apologize to me, or apologize to the beast once he gets here for running away."

It had to have been a record to see the girl pale and then redden so quickly. "This is the worst possible time to be acting like a child!"

"We're not moving a muscle until I hear a proper apology." The wind mage repeated.

"Do not be that guy right now!" She screeched.

"Oh, I am going to be that guy. Now apologize. And if I were you, I'd hurry up; I have no doubts the infernal lizard has heard your little outburst." He said carelessly.

Oh how she hated this man! How she ever thought he was bearable was beyond her! Worst of all, she knew he was steadfast in his desire to hear that damned apology, just like a little spoiled brat! They really were not going to move until… She resisted the urge to scream, and instead half shouted, "Fine! I'm sorry! I take it back, thank you for going through all this trouble for me and for being such a perfect gentleman!"

"Sarcasm is unbecoming, dear." Vaati said sweetly.

Zelda was so incredibly sure there was some sort of aneurism brewing somewhere in her brain. Through clenched teeth, she barely managed a simple, "I'm sorry." The wing beats were obviously getting closer, and she hoped it would suffice… Vaati simply seemed to be mulling over the short two word statement before saying in a pseudo-defeated manner, "Oh, I suppose that'll have to do for now."

Quicker than she had expected, the mage scooped her up bridal style and then took off. Not at all having been ready, she squealed and ended up holding onto the mage for dear life and shut her eyes tightly. For some reason, flying this way seemed to be even more terrifying than being trapped in claws – mostly because the claws had her all enclosed, while as here she felt the wind pushing against her very skin. When she dared open her eyes again, she saw that while they were flying, they were still close to the ground.

Unfortunately, she also saw that Onox wasn't too far off and was getting closer with each beat of his massive wings. "V-Vaati," she squeaked.

"I know," he growled. "I'm flying as fast as I can."

Part of her wanted to demand that he fly even faster, but she knew that wouldn't help. Rather than stare at the dragon, she turned to the direction they were facing and certainly hoped that Vaati knew where he was going. And then Zelda saw a flash of light from her peripheral vision. She looked back and guffawed, "He's throwing fire balls at us!"

"I know!" The mage snapped angrily, trying to pick up his speed more. It worked, and a sudden jolt of speed had them further ahead than the dragon. But the dragon just put his wings to harder work, flames pouring out of his mouth towards them. Vaati ignored the foul cusses his lady was spewing at the dragon, and he tried his best to ignore her very constraining grip on him. They had to fly – he could not fight the dragon now. Yet he could not think of where to go – Onox had proven himself quite capable of matching his own flight speed.

And that's when it happened. The dragon sent another stream of flame their way. Zelda screeched, seeing the heat of blue flames come right at them. Wait…? Blue flames?

Before she could register the meaning, the flames hit them. Rather than burning them to the bone, both mage and princess were awash in feelings of cold and grogginess. Of course, that quickly turned to pain as they both crashed into the field below them. Grass flying upwards in their wake, they rolled on their backs feeling confused and disorientated. But quickly remembering what was going on, Vaati was back on his feet eyeing the dragon who now circling above them. He jumped to fly up and confront the beast… but he fell back down. It was so unexpected, he didn't even land on his feet. "What?" He exclaimed in surprise. He tried again, only to fail again (though this time he had landed on his feet). And then he remembered the blue flames. Gritting his teeth, he refused to believe and attempted to blow an updraft right into the dragon. He stepped forward, raising his arms to cast the spell… and absolutely nothing happened.

He had been jinxed.

"Shit… Zelda! Quickly, get up! Get up, girl!" Vaati hissed, pulling the still groggy girl up to her feet. "We need to run – we need to run now, we've been jinxed." Not that running would do them much good. He could already feel the dragon's wingbeats getting closer; Onox was preparing to land.

"Wha- jinxed? Huh?" Zelda, it seemed, was one of the types that suffered confusion as a side-effect of jinxing.

"Dammit!" He cursed, scooping the girl up and running as fast he could – which wasn't very fast. Being a mage, he wasn't used to such physical exertion and was tiring easily. To make matters worse, Onox had landed. The vibration from the air settling around them and the shaking of the ground told him that. He stumbled, twisting his body so that he took the brunt of the fall rather than the princess. "SHIT!" Vaati cursed. To lose like this – it was unbearable!

And then he felt the ground sinking beneath them. Before the mage could scramble up with the girl, the ground completely gave way. It was both a blessing and a curse, he figured, as they fell into the darkness of who knew where. It was a blessing because he could hear Onox howling in rage at their escape; a curse because Vaati hated the underground with a passion.

By the time Blue, Vio, and Poe had returned to what Blue dubbed "camp Throw up," Gibdo, Red, and Link seemed to have shifted the camp a little and were sound asleep. For the most part, the night passed uneventfully, though Poe had taken to badly humming a tune. When morning came, it seemed that most of the poison ivy had left the systems of the three tea drinkers and they resumed their journey, heading towards the next location of a Great Fairy – Death Mountain.

Poe led the way in almost a skip, which immediately told his older brother that something was very wrong with the universe. Concerned, Gibdo asked his brother, who blushed and told him to shut his face and mind his own damned business before resuming his reverie. So instead Gibdo went to Blue, who smirked and said, "Your brother has a thing for Great Fairies – seriously, the guy went head over heels when he saw the Great Dragonfly Fairy."

Though Gibdo did notice from the side that the normally calm Vio seemed to have a slight blush on his face as Blue spoke. The guardsman didn't think much of it, however. He was still far too shocked with the idea of his brother being so enamored with a fairy; it might not have spelled anything good really… A grim thought entered the elder brother's mind as he began to think if this might be Ghini all over again, except with worse consequences. He'd heard the stories, all right, about how Great Fairies would take the occasional human in for a lover and how said lovers were never seen or heard from again. At first Gibdo didn't believe th stories, but he didn't believe the stories about Vaati and look where that put him now! My poor brother! Thought Gibdo, He's been trapped in the spell of the fairies!

And these thoughts continued to plague him as they entered Death Mountain Pass. Well, that was until Link stopped them.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Blue asked impatiently of his green counterpart.

Link remained silent for a moment before concluding, "Something's not right. Ever since we got here, we haven't seen a sign of life. We haven't seen one tektike. Don't you think that's a little strange?" What Link found most strange, actually, was that the normally ever so logical Vio didn't see it first.

"Well that's good!" Red piped up happily. "That means things should be easier right?"

Vio seemed to come back to himself then. "No… Vaati wouldn't be so careless as to leave this place unguarded… there's something here."

"I'll take it on!" Poe said, stepping up with spear at the ready. "I will take on anything to save the Great Fairy! … I mean, the princess…" The last part came out with much less gusto than his previous statement, enough so that the group saw through it easily. It didn't really ruffle anyone's feathers but Gibdo.

The group, however, remained quiet. The Links pensive, Gibdo fretting over his brother, and Poe ready to stab the nearest thing for the love of a Great Fairy. And then they heard it.

A piercing shriek rang through the Pass, causing the boys to cover their ears with their hands. A shadow flew over them and then landed in front of their path. The great helmed bird spread its wings out in threat display and shrieked at them. Poe shrieked right and charged madly at it. The Helmaroc King slapped the guardsman away with a wing as if it was swatting a fly, and for all intents and purposes he was. Worst of all, there wasn't exactly any place the group could hide. Death Mountain pass was wide and, aside from the uphill incline, flat.

"Blue, aim for the eyes!" Vio said.

"Already on it, Smarts," Blue said, aiming for the great bird's gleaming eyes behind the helmet.

"Red, try to get on its back!" Vio ordered. Red nodded and threw on his cape, rushing towards the bird and using the cape's magically ability to hop onto the bird.

The Helmaroc King let out a mad screech as an arrow bounced off its helm and Red managed to hop onto its back. In an attempt to shake off Red, it took the air, but the Red Link held onto the feathers of the bird until he landed again. At this point in time, Link, Vio and Gibdo had their weapons out and ready for the bird. Even Poe was scrambling up, trying to get in on the action. Wings spread out again in threat display, the bird screeched again, only this time it's screech went something like, "Screeeaaaaa-I give up."

Everyone stopped what they were doing. In fact, Red didn't even object when the bird reached its head over to its back and plucked the Link off before gently setting him down.

"Wait, wait… you're just giving up?" Blue sounded outraged.

The great roc fluffed up its feathers indignantly. "As a matter of fact I am, and I have every right to. I'm supposed to be on vacation you know."

"What do giant birds have to go on vacation for?" Poe asked, sounded just as frustrated as Blue.

The Helmaroc King rolled its eyes. "You sound just like Lord Vaati. As a matter of fact, even giant monsters need a break every now again. When we aren't terrorizing the populace, they terrorize us. Forgive me if I'd like a break from all…" The bird waved its wings around, as if it was using them to gesture at its surroundings, "-this. Besides, perhaps this will show Lord Vaati not to interrupt my holidays in the future."

"B-but – you're disobeying his orders!" Poe said, aghast. He couldn't believe one of Vaati's underlings was actually doing such a thing. If he were an underling to the most powerful mage in the world, he would never do any such thing!

"Hah! Orders from Vaati… I don't need to take orders from him. He is not my master." The Bird said as it puffed out its chest feathers proudly."Besides, it's not like he would find out – he's not even in Hyrule. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a great deal of preening to do at Lake Hylia."

"Wait!" Link started forward. He became very alert at the bird's "not even in Hyrule" comment, and was terrified as to what that could mean for Zelda. But if the bird heard him, it did not acknowledge him. With a great flap of its wings it was off, ignoring the green clad figure crying out for it to stop.

Eventually, Link stopped, though his eyes still chased the Helmaroc King's silhouette as it flew off. How could the bird just drop a phrase like that and just leave? Frustrated, he hadn't even noticed the presence of the rest of his group as he shouted, "What did mean not in Hyrule?"

"Well, the Palace technically isn't in Hyrule. It's in the sky," Blue pointed out.

"But wouldn't Vaati still know about the Helmaroc not fighting us?" Red asked, "I mean, even if he's not technically in Hyrule, if he's floating above it he'd probably know what's going on right?"

"That's true…" Vio agreed with a nod. "I think Green is right. Vaati may not be around-"

"Where do you think you're going?" Gibdo cried out as he noted his brother running ahead on Death Mountain Pass.

"Psh, you guys can talk about it all you want, I'm going to find a Great Fairy!" Poe said matter-of-factly.

"H-hey!" Vio called out, seeming somewhat flustered. "Wait!" He ran ahead as well, with Red, Blue and Gibdo (who shouting at his brother to stop) followed suit.

But Link had not so easily forgotten the bird's words. If Vaati wasn't in Hyrule… then what did that mean for Zelda?

And here concludes this Act. Next one should be up sooner than this one came, and again do I apologize for the wait. I was perilosuly close to failing one of my classes last semester and I'm only going to college because a scholarship I need to maintain pays for the bulk of it. Soo, yeah. It was a choice between writing fanfiction or losing the government money check that allows me higher education. Do note, however, FA will be getting the next update. Try to expect the next of this story to be updated in like... two weeks, something like that. That's an estimate though, not a promise. -w-

MidnaHytwilian, thanks, I guess? XD

XiXIXiX, yup, Poe's a sucker for the fae. XD Oh yes, I've seen that video. And I shall not ask you how. I really do not want to know. XD

msfcatlover, I don't see why it couldn't translate with size. After all, a dragon is just a big fire breathing lizard. :3

SubZeroChimera, and now you saw. XD

Sage of Video Games, I was just joking with you, dear. Sarcasm doesn't really translate well in type, though. XD And yeah, I have a lot of stories with 15+ chapters... When I write multichapter stories, apparently, I really write a LOT. D: Oh, no, Zelda was not at all having a good day. Though I suppose at this point, no one's having a good day. XD

LocalTalent53, glad you're enjoying! Hope i didn;t keep you waiting too long. D:

realperson909, thanks. And yeah, i suppose she is. Don't mean she has to like it. XD

Poe Princess Mara, no. Ghirahim is not goinjg to be in this story AT ALL. Fly Away is a different matter enirely, though. I've got some important plans for good ol Debbie there... ANYWAYS, I happen to think Zelda, Vaati, and Onox aren't enjoying any of this at this point. XD

MusicLife, I'm glad you gave my story a chance! I love the VaatiZelda pairing but it hardly gets any love... and when it does get love, sometimes it makes no sense at all. I enjoy keeping characters in character, and if I'm going to write a story with VaatiZelda pairing, I plan on keeping the characters in character. :3

Flappyeyeball, now dear, we've discussed this. Just because I haven't updated in a while doesn't mean I'm not around. I just got other stuff to do, you know. :3 Nonetheless, the story should be back on track now and updated more or less regularly. XD Sorry for the wait.

H-Bomber, forgive me for preening my own feathers, but allow me say: Reily96, writing good quality fanfiction since 2008. :3

Bishieluver01, that's because fleets is cool like that. X3

Tinselplease, he's throwing a riot right now too. D:

fleets, thanks. :3 It's really hard to write fight scene. ugh, how I detest them... Whatever the case, you've been totally busy. You don't need to go back and review each chapter individually. XD And Poe, choose between Vaati and a Great Fairy? Hmmm... Good question, though in the end Poe would still be around Vaati - when it comes down to it, Poe being a poe and all, he's on the opposite side of the spectrum from a Great Fairy. D: Unless he found an evil Great Fairy... which I doubt exist save for in that ONE fanfiction I wrote back in 2008. But that's a fanfic soooo... yeah. D:

Elle-In-Wonderland, I am so sorry for the late update. DX But I'm so glad you're enjoying, and I certainly hope you keep reading despite the long absence. DX

Lanaryu Sand Sea, ohoho, why thank you. And I'm glad you think my fight scenes are good, because I happen to think otherwise. XD And of course I do. I wasn't kidding when I said I like to keep characters in character. I absolute hate it when people make Vaati into some misunderstood wishy washy guy, because I happen to believe that he is the opposite. I'm just sorry for the wait. You know, real life gets in the way and all. D:

LoyalIntentions, so very true... And thank you. :3