AN: Have an extra chapter!
Midna awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. Well, Twilight Night. She had gotten accustomed to the Light World's change from overly bright to overly night during her travels with Link . . . but she much preferred the consistent Dusk of the Twilight Realm to any of that. She got out of bed and went to the window.
So . . . Saria's chosen to leave as well. Something about those two . . . it was like they were connected somehow. Honestly, she hadn't seen such a connection since . . . since she and Link fought together.
It was Saria's disappearance that had wakened her. She had expected to feel her Light power the second she made it to the window, but apparently Saria had learned how to mask her presence. Midna smirked. She must be spending a lot of time with Princess Zelda. Still, she was impressed with the extent of the young girl's magical capabilities.
Midna floated out of the window and flew across the clouds of twilight. Saria was pretty good at magic for her age . . . but not quite good enough to hide from the Twilight Princess.
It was only a few minutes of swift travel before Midna caught up to the little bird and transformed her back to her Hylian self.
"How did you find me?!" Saria exclaimed, annoyed.
"Have you forgotten I'm the powerful princess here? If you truly want to hide, you'll need to practice more. Where are you off to?"
Saria made emphatic gestures with her arms. "I have to find Vaati!"
Midna nodded. "I thought so, but how are you going to do that?"
"I can feel him."
An eyebrow raised. "Really?"
Saria nodded. "He has an ocarina that has Light Magic in it. Also for some reason he leaves a trail of magic behind that I can read."
Midna placed a thoughtful finger on her chin. "How interesting." It really was curious. If Midna didn't know any better, she'd think Saria was Zelda's child with how much magical ability she was exhibiting. "Well, where is he headed?"
"To his crumbled old castle!" Saria was visibly upset.
Midna crouched down. "The Twilight Realm is safe enough because I can protect it. I can't say the same for the rest of the Dark World out there. No creature dared venture toward that castle when it was sealed, but I have no idea what lurks around there now."
"I have to find Vaati! He's all alone and he's going to get hurt!"
Her stubborn rebelliousness made Midna grin. "Don't worry. We can go much faster with my magic. Take my hand and tell me where to go."
Saria's eyes widened. Her hand swiped out and grabbed Midna's with extra gusto, then pointed across the horizon. "THAT WAY!"
Zelda was bedridden, still recovering from childbirth. Her body was tired, but her brain was on fire.
Meaning, she had lots of mental energy but her mind was too fuzzy to actually think of anything productive. It was terrible.
She had finished nursing Sheik, who was soundly asleep in the crib situated next to her bed.
As if waking every three hours to feed her baby didn't keep her tired enough, her nightmares were getting worse.
She rolled over to her side and placed a hand on Shadow's pillow. Where are you, my love? You'd get me better in a minute . . .
She was actually wearing one of his tunics as a night gown. She brought the collar up to her nose and sniffed. It smelled like him. It was strange to think of Shadow with a smell. He hadn't always had one, after all.
Every time something new like that happened, she thanked her lucky stars that Link had turned her down when she revealed her feelings about him years and years ago. It's true, he turned her down. She'd been very depressed about it at the time. After all, Link was one of her most trusted friends and allies. Now she had Shadow, though, and every time she thought about having him she smiled.
She didn't like comparing and knew she was biased, but . . . He's much better than Link!
Nicer, more handsome, more interesting . . . and he actually loved her back. Even now, she imagined feeling the pull of his love from wherever he was in the universe. She knew he thought of her often.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she sensed danger. She turned to look at a dark corner of the room, and there saw a single, large, menacing eye materializing out of the shadows. "Vaati!" She hurried to her elbows, leaping out of bed and quickly gathering Sheik protectively in her arms.
The eye melted into the shadows, which became the figure of a man. A weasel-faced man with fangs and mad eyes. "Oh, princess! You are truly the most beautiful being in Hyrule!"
Zelda backed unsteadily away, her body still weak. She kept the crib between her and the sorcerer. "What do you want?" she demanded, clutching Sheik close to her and away from Vaati, looking over her shoulder at the sorcerer.
He grinned maniacally. "I want my son back!" He floated to the other side of the bed from Zelda. "The poor boy disappeared and I want to know where he went." He suddenly disappeared, and reappeared right in front of Zelda, face contorted with rage. "I suspect he's in Hyrule! You can't hide him from me, princess!"
"I don't know what you mean!" Zelda replied firmly, shrinking from the sorcerer, but her face betrayed no fear.
Vaati rolled his eyes and floated a few feet away and then flattened himself against the ceiling. "Oh don't tell me you're innocent! I attacked your castle and you took my child in revenge!" He pointed a sharp fingernail in her direction.
"Vaati, you're mistaken," Zelda said, her voice shaking.
Power radiated around Vaati as he dove to the ground, making the whole room shake. His eyes flashed with red electricity as he snarled. "DON'T lie to me!"
Zelda's legs buckled under the quaking and she sat on the ground.
Vaati reached out a hand and strode toward her.
"DON'T HURT MY BABY!" Zelda curled herself over Sheik protectively.
Sheik had finally soaked in the negative feelings and decided to make his voice heard. He wailed, more angry about being woken up so rudely than scared.
Vaati's hand paused, and slowly his power disintegrated with each new cry. "Vaati!" he said, suddenly. "Oh there you are!" Using magic, he stole Sheik from Zelda's arms and pulled him into his own.
Zelda got to her feet. "Don't hurt him! Take me, don't hurt him!" She got ready to charge at him, mustering every bit of magic she could. Her hands barely collected enough static to shock somebody as a prank. She kept trying, frustrated.
Vaati rocked Sheik with practiced hands, patting the newborn's back. "Poor junior, where'd your mother go?" Sheik soon stopped crying, and just muttered noises.
Pausing, Zelda wondered at Vaati's strange behavior. She wanted to rip Sheik from his arms, but she was too afraid of hurting him in the process, and she didn't want to infuriate Vaati. She didn't want there to be a magic fight with Sheik in the room. How could she protect him?
Even so, she could sense that Vaati's hostility had somehow vanished. Sheik kept making noises, and Vaati exclaimed, "He's hungry."
"I just fed him," Zelda replied automatically, exasperatedly.
Vaati finally took notice of her again. "Oh! Are you a wet nurse?"
He's completely mad. "Yes!" she lied.
Vaati returned Sheik to her arms. "There you go, you should feed him, he's hungry! I'm going to go find who's responsible for this!"
Zelda cuddled Sheik closely, still eyeing Vaati warily, but the sorcerer was headed to the door. He paused and looked back. A flash of utter confusion crossed his face as he stared at Sheik. Please, Zelda prayed, Just leave!
At first she thought Vaati had come to his senses, but then he shook his head and left the room.
So Vaati has a son named after him? She looked at Sheik. And he mistook you for him? At first she wondered if it was some sort of cloaking spell Sheik had exhibited, but she quickly found out that wasn't the case. He hadn't done any magic.
Zelda breathed a sigh of relief that Vaati was gone and Sheik was safe, but she couldn't rest. She needed to alert the guards . . . to . . . she hobbled to the window, feeling faint. She grabbed the windowsill for support and looked out.
Before her very eyes a magical barrier was being erected around the castle, slowly separating her and the other castle residents from the rest of the world. No . . .she hated when this happened. You'd think she'd have a counter spell put in place by now. Well, she WOULD have, but trying to maintain such a counter spell for an indefinite amount of time was too exhausting. It would require too much magic. She groaned.
Was she really kidnapped again?