Chapter 15: The Book Thief
Summer was a season for doing good deeds for the big people. During this time there was always a sense of excited energy throughout the Minish village as each and every member took part in some project or another. The school handled the main projects because they had the excited and energetic students for help. The older grades took care of the slightly dangerous job of placing rupees in the tall grass that grew near the big people's village, and the oldest ones had the duty of sneaking into one of their homes to drop red or blue rupees into jars or under beds. It was the pride of every young minish when they were able to brag about how they had dropped rupees for the big people during the summer.
Vaati's grade, being one of the younger grades in the school, had the task of constructing a doll for one of the girls in the village. It sounded fun to do, but who was he kidding? He had better things to do like…like getting started with magic. Yeah. That was better than going back to school where all those idiots were. He hoped Kari stuck herself with a needle.
Vaati snuck around between houses and kept away from windows lest someone should see him. In his hand he held a letter addressed to Ms. Tutari from 'Sage Ezlo.' It read:
Dear Ms. Tutari:
I am sorry to say Vaati will no longer be attending school, as he will be studying with me. I realize he is a highly competent student and I feel I will be able to push him more to his limits if he is able to have specialized attention. Therefore, I plan to home school him and start teaching him the magical arts as I feel he has finally reached the next step in his apprenticeship. Thank you for teaching him thus far.
Yours truly,
Sage Ezlo
If only Ezlo had actually written that. Pah, of course not. This letter was the product of painstakingly careful forgery by Vaati. He didn't need Master Ezlo to know he was skipping school, nor did he want Ms. Tutari coming to his home and asking his master why Vaati wasn't going to school anymore. Copying the letter had been time consuming but not impossible. All it had taken was for him to collect a few notes Ezlo had written – such as the dinner notes he left for him on the table whenever he returned from school – and to study them enough times to get a hang of his master's writing quirks. Trying to sound sophisticated was a little difficult at first, but after a few comparisons with his copy and some of Ezlo's notes he had managed to piece together some adult sounding sentences that could have come from Ezlo's mouth.
He cautiously approached the mud and grass patched house near the school and made sure no one was watching him. All he needed right now was someone to catch him sneaking about, neither at school nor with Master Ezlo. Dropping the fake letter into the mailbox, Vaati hurried away from sight.
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That's that taken care of.
Vaati crouched next to an overgrowth of tall grass that was a little ways away from the minish village. He leaned back and rested against a rock until he was staring up at the clouds speeding away determinedly in the wind. His bag was squished between the rock and his back, bumpy with the books he had brought along. Huh, clouds move faster than you'd think they do.
Vaati watched the clouds some more before he got up and picked up his bag of books again. He wasn't going to school and he couldn't go back to the flowerpot home. He knew where to go though.
He pushed away the grass and squeezed his way through until his feet reached a thin path through the blades. Vaati walked with a sense of purpose, occasionally shifting his shoulders with the weight of the books. Finally, the grass gradually thinned and he found himself stepping between decaying leaves that were still soft from summer rain. The air smelled faintly of mushrooms and he stopped from time to time to make sure he was going the right way. At long last he made it to a clump of clovers growing at the base of a gigantic tree and he hopped over to the four-leaf-clover that stuck out like a flag. Skidding down into the cracks underneath the roots of the tree, Vaati went inside the secret base he and Delta had found a while ago.
It had still remained the jumbled mess they had left it before the two had stopped frequenting the base. With a frown, Vaati tossed away the collection of big people's papers and other things they had once brought with eagerness. He didn't much care for those things anymore.
Vaati dropped his bag with a thud and began to flick through some of the books he had brought. Today's lesson was to skim over potential material he was going to go by when he attempted his first spells.
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Ezlo groaned when he was woken again from the sound of his cane falling on the floor with a loud clank. Did I fall asleep again? This wasn't good. If he wanted to finish this project before the Picori Festival that was due in four years, he could not afford to waste precious time sleeping. Terrari had warned him that he was pushing himself too hard by working through the day and most of the night on it, and he was beginning to feel his colleague had been right after he found himself napping when he least expected it. If not for poor Vaati waking him up for some errand Ezlo feared he would have slept through the entire week in tiredness.
Grunting, the sage held up the red hat he had been working on. He had finally been able to complete enchanting the special order thread made from kargaroc feathers (and was that a pain to do – all those weeks of fitting mothula's dust between strands…), so could now get started on stitching it through the cloth of the hat. Ezlo didn't look forward to the massive amounts of time he was going to have to spend incorporating the thread into the hat base, but he was determined to have the final product. It was going to be his greatest creation and the greatest gift of the minish to the Hylians.
It was the Wishing Cap.
A cap that would grant any wish its wearer desired. Ever since he had looked into the legend of the golden power he had believed he could recreate or at least mimic it. With persistent research, he had found a way that could make the wish granting abilities of the golden power replicable and he had decided to go about making the wonderful hat.
Ezlo knew that the cap was not without risks. What if it misinterpreted the wish of the wearer, or worse, fell into evil hands? At times the sage wondered if he was better off not creating such a potentially dangerous gift – after all, the goddesses had hid the golden power because it was too powerful - but he was lulled by the enormity of creating such a wonderful thing. The biggest question he wanted to answer was – "is it possible?"
At the moment, it seemed very possible. The acquisition of several magical objects such as the thread, the golden scales of the legendary rope, the band made from pure melted force gems, and a prized jewel given to him by the Great Butterfly Fairy herself, had certainly helped. All he needed now was the time to put everything together perfectly so each magical part complemented the other parts in the way he wanted it to work.
Ezlo put a hand over his mouth to cover a tired yawn and then resumed work again. He hoped Vaati wouldn't mind waking him up again if he ended up falling asleep on his work for the umpteenth time.
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Drat.
Vaati came home around the usual hour he returned and took a quick glance at Master Ezlo's office. It was shut closed as always. Like any other day he made his way to his room to drop off his stuff, and he knew later on he would knock on his master's door to let him know he was home. Of course the sage would be asleep yet again, lazy coot.
Before he went upstairs he made a detour to the kitchen and snatched a cracker from the table. He nibbled on the corner with a thoughtful look and he went up each step on the stair with slow deliberation. He had used his day to look over the material that Ezlo had granted him access to, but they were all introductory books that barely had anything on real sorcery. Most of the things were along the level of the 'enchantment' technique described in the Enchantments and Charms book that, quite frankly, required little more than careful observation. Manipulation: he had no idea he was going to come to love that concept in the years to come.
At the moment, however, he couldn't appreciate the power of 'enchanting without magic.' He needed more guidance than what the resources he had were currently giving him. He needed something more…advanced.
Ezlo's office. He has books.
Vaati had seen those velvet books while he had been helping his master put them away. Master Ezlo treated them a little differently than the others, and from the way he handled them Vaati could tell they were special. He wasn't sure how much of the advanced stuff he would be able to handle, but he wasn't going to know that until he gave it a shot, right? He was just going to…borrow them…for a little while and take a peek. Vaati wasn't going to ask though: Master Ezlo didn't need to know what he was up to.
Vaati picked up his bag and slunk back down to his master's room. He opened the door a crack to make sure Master Ezlo wasn't awake – he was sure his master would be asleep but it didn't hurt to be cautious. Satisfied that the sage wasn't going to be waking up any time soon, Vaati made his way to the bookshelf. Placing a stepstool so he could reach the higher ledges, he glanced back from time to time to check on Master Ezlo.
He reached up and picked the first book on the top shelf, suppressing a sneeze as dust feathers fluttered down. He noted it was a green book, and taking a green book of his own from the bag he replaced his new book with his old beginner's book. One by one he replaced all the books on the top shelf and some on the second with the beginner's books he had brought until his bag was full of Master Ezlo's prized books. This should be good for now.
Vaati quietly stepped down from the stool and pushed it back to its original place. The book thief slung his bag across his shoulders and angled it so that Master Ezlo wouldn't be able to see the suspiciously huge bulge that couldn't have been made from only schoolbooks. He cleared his throat.
"Master Ezlo."
The sage twitched and his head flew up hurriedly from the desk he had fallen asleep on. "Ehrm, yes?" He tried to sound respectable and made an effort to ignore the fact his apprentice had caught him napping once again.
"I thought I should wake you up. Again."
Vaati tried his best to keep his eyes from wandering over to the bookcase that had suddenly been replaced by different books.
"Ah, well, thank you m'boy. I'm sorry you always have to catch me sleeping like this."
"You sound tired, master."
"Is it noticeable? I have been rather busy."
Tsk. Really?
"Hwaa…well…run along then. I'll call you down for dinner today assuming I'm still awake hahaha." Ezlo yawned and waved Vaati away. The apprentice bowed and shuffled out of the room, taking care not to let his master see his bag.
Once outside Vaati gave a small, victorious grin. That was too easy.
fleets: Not much to say, really. I'm kinda pooped. Apologies if my replies are a little crappy.
Shadow Blues: Ummmm maybe. I haven't really thought about it yet but I'll keep that in mind. :)
Peka The Corsair: It's going to get worse (or should I say better now that he has things under his own power?). Ah, but stealing is still stealing and there are consequences to everything :/
Reily96: I'm a little relieved he's not so goodsy anymore. XD
Bishieluver01: He's still only 8 going on 9 soon, but by the end of this story he'll be 12 so he has a few more years to go before he gets that hat for himself. Thank you~
marium: Ezlo is just so clueless and so absorbed in his work - he's going to regret it...
DarkLinkvsRaineSagefan101: :D You'll see soon :)
Victoria-BlackHeart: Indeed :O