Random Story Fact: The way Vaati originally planned to track down the light force was by sensing it's power, as any good magic user would be able to feel such powerful magic. The bound chest and the Picori Blade were also examples of powerful magic, so Vaati thought that the light force might be there- however, it wasn't. At this point, he thought that if the light force was hidden somewhere nearby, he'd be able to sense where it was. So,

in the last chapter...

In Minish Woods, Link began his search for the picori. When Ezlo got cornered by two weak monsters, Lik quickly showed up and saved him. Ezlo decided to tag along with Link. Curiously, the monsters were completely emotionless... How bizarre. Thanks to Ezlo's knowledge and educated guessing, they found Minish Village deep within Minish Woods. After eating a jabber nut, Link and Ezlo found out that the key to fixing the Picori Blade would be to find the four elements, and Link wondered what Vaati was doing that same afternoon and wether he was actually evil...

Chapter 4: Unnatural Malevolence

Vaati laughed, "Pleh heh heh...", before teleporting directly to Minister Potho's study. Vaati looked around, a little confused. This was not part of the plan, yet something inside Vaati contradicted, told him yes, he'd meant to come here. Vaati walked over to the sword that was originally meant to be presented to him before he'd turned the princess into stone. He took it, then teleported to Hyrule's inn, where Mira Lisan was staying. Vaati became invisible, now realising why he was even here.

"I'm gonna win that sword for my sister and you're not going to stop me!"

He had no use for the sword, so why not? A part of Vaati felt that Mira's sister must be very important to her if she went to all the trouble of nearly winning the competition for her. Family must be a nice thing to have. As far as Vaati was concerned, Ezlo did not count. Not at all. Besides, he'd cheated in the contest. If he hadn't, Mira would surely have won hands down. Vaati picked up a random piece of paper and took a pencil out from his inside cloak pocket, then wrote a message onto the paper, reading,

'I have no need for this. So take it. I hope your sister likes it. -Vaati.'

He then checked the records to see which room was Mira's and snuck into it. He then left the sword and message on the bedside table, before teleporting to the middle of North Hyrule Field.

A few minutes after Vaati left, Mira came into the room and looked over with confusion at the sword she'd been so close to winning on he bedside table. She smiled as she read the message, before packing her things and leaving the inn. Curiously, the inn lady insisted that nobody had been there while Mira was out.

As soon as Vaati got there, he was surprised to see a map just lying on the ground. Vaati picked it up and looked at it. What luck! The map wasn't even scratched. It would be perfect for Vaati to use. He put it away in his cloak pocket, which had a dimensional hole spell on it, allowing it to hold anything. Vaati continued wandering around North Hyrule Field, wondering where to look for the light force next. After deciding to explore Hyrule a bit, he ended up at a ranch. He was in no hurry. He would find the light force, but he had to get used to this world first.

When he reached the house at the ranch, he saw a large, chubby man packing bottles of a white liquid into a cart. A horse was grazing nearby. The house was to Vaati's right, and a large stump was behind the man and the horse. Vaati knew that word would not spread quickly around here, and the man would most likely not recognise him.

"Excuse me, but do you know anything about the light force?" Asked Vaati, carefully analyzing him to tell wether he was hiding anything from him, Vaati's gift.

"Who are you?" Suspiciously asked the man, "I haven't seen you around here before."

"I'm Vaati." Vaati replied, "Now tell me... who are you and what do you know about the light force?" His voice was cold, calm and soft, the voice of someone patient, but dangerous.

"I'm Talon, the owner of this ranch." replied the man, still clearly suspicious of Vaati, "I haven't even heard of this 'light force'." A dangerous gleam came into the blood-red eye uncovered by hair.

"You lie." Stated Vaati.

Just at that moment, a young girl with red hair wearing a pale blue dress came over, holding a picnic basket. "Hi, Dad!" She called out to Talon, "Has Vaati come over to say hello? You should have seen him in the competition- he won the whole thing in record time!"

"Oh- really?" Asked Talon, awkwardly.

"You were there? What's your name?" Asked Vaati, "Do you know anything about the light force?"

"Malon," Replied the girl, "and yeah- the light force is supposed to be this golden power the picori gave us! I heard that it's power is legendary, but it's location is a mystery. That's all I know."

Vaati felt that that wasn't very helpful, but she'd spoken the truth- that was all she knew.

"I had a great time at the festival! Dad, can Vaati come inside? I'd like to show him around the ranch. After all, he did come all the way to Hyrule..." insisted Malon. It was clear Talon still didn't trust Vaati. He put on a smile anyway.

"Of course- Vaati, do feel welcome to look around the ranch..." agreed Talon.

Malon led Vaati through her house and gave him a tour of the ranch. Talon was keeping an eye on them from a distance the entire time. Obviously, Vaati wasn't welcome. "This is Epona!" Introduced Malon, showing Vaati her horse. "She can be a bit wild at times, but she's a great horse! Epona, this is Vaati!" Vaati found that he could still understand animals, despite his transformation. Perhaps that was because he was still minish at the core.

"Vaati, hhhuh?" snorted Epona, "Vaati the sorcerer who turned someone into a hhhhat?" Upon hearing this, Vaati realised that Ezlo must have come to The Human World too. That meant he'd get in the way...

(That's it!) Vaati thought, (If I run into him, I'll turn him into stone.) His expression darkened.

"What's wrong?" Asked Malon.

"Nothing." Replied Vaati, "Now, what else is there?"

Malon continued to show him all the different places in the ranch, and to introduce him to the cows and the dogs. The cows were placid, and actually very nice. The dogs were the exact opposite- Vaati thought that they were very noisy, not to mention annoying and one of them was rather rude. After that, Malon started talking about the time she'd seen the picori.

"The picori were so cute! They were wearing little blue coats and sweet little blue hats! I saw those three on Rem's desk at the shoe store, but one of them just stood out- that one seemed the sweetest! Have you ever seen a picori?" Asked Malon.

"Yes, I knew some." Replied Vaati, hoping she wouldn't ask about it- Ezlo had been right. Not being able to speak a lie was annoying. However, Vaati knew how to twist his words- he could twist a truth and make people believe a lie. During the entire tour, Vaati didn't feel any great amounts of magical power... The light force was not here, but somewhere else. Still, the tour wasn't finished yet. Vaati continued to follow Malon until she showed him the cuccos. They reminded him of when a cucco had shown up near Vaati's village, terrifying everybody.

"Look out, a cucco is coming! RUN AWAY FROM IT!"

"Master Ezlo, quickly, scare it off!"

Everybody had always respected Ezlo, since he was the one who protected everybody from large, scary creatures like cuccos. Vaati had eagerly gone towards the cucco in order to try and prove to the village that he could protect them too, but Ezlo had stopped him and scared the cucco away by summoning fire from the fireplace onto it. Ezlo had saved the day once again... (Doesn't he trust me to protect myself and them, too?) Vaati had thought at the time.

Vaati thought of how just being the size of a human made him far more powerful than most minish as he looked down on the cuccos, which now seemed harmless. To the minish, they were humungous village-squashing animals which were difficult to reason due to their general stupidity. To the humans, they were apparently a source of food. Still, even though he was more powerful than the minish, it wouldn't be enough to keep him safe in a world were there were creatures much larger and more powerful than even humans. (The hat may be helping to draw out my true abilities now, but it's temporary. I can't rely on it. After all, if I were to take it off, my true magic ability would hide again.) thought Vaati. (The light force would make my power go above and beyond even my own potential and ability- and it would be permanent.)

"Oh! You know what, you should come and try some of our famous Lon Lon Milk!" Eagerly offered Malon, breaking into Vaati's thinking and making him wonder about something else-

"Milk?" asked Vaati. These humans were full of strange things. Vaati had never heard of it in his life.

"You know, the drink Lon Lon Ranch is famous for- people come from all over Hyrule to try our Lon Lon Milk!" announced Malon, "Follow me, I think we've got a spare bottle of it somewhere..."

Two minutes later, Vaati, Malon and Talon were all in the house at Lon Lon Ranch, and Malon shoved a bottle of Lon Lon Milk into Vaati's hands. Vaati sipped a little and it tasted... odd. He decided that he preferred berry juice, but this human drink wasn't bad.

"Mmm... not bad." said Vaati, putting the bottle on the nearby table, "Well, I'd better go now." As he said that, he heard a sigh of relief from Talon's general direction. As Vaati left, he overheard Talon talking about him with Malon.

"He didn't hurt you or scare you, did he?" asked Talon.

"No, he didn't, but Vaati's strange... he's cold, Dad," replied Malon, "and I think he's lonely."

Vaati didn't stick around to hear anything else. He checked the map to see where else the light force might be. He thought about trying a tracking spell, but then remembered that it only worked with people. Let's see... There was the possibility that it was somewhere in Hyrule Town or Castle, but Vaati didn't want to check there just yet, incase he caused a ruckus. Hmmm... maybe it was in Minish Woods. After all, he had heard something about picori -probably minish- living there. If the light force wasn't there, Vaati could always ask the picori where the light force was. The Royal Graveyard might be a good place to search as well, since it was a connection to the royal family... ( But Minish Woods would be a better place to start.) concluded Vaati, putting the map back in this cloak pocket.

Next, Vaati experimented with his elemental wind magic a bit and used it to fly over Lon Lon Ranch and to the entrance to a corner of Minish Woods. (I wonder why only the forest kept the name 'minish'...) thought Vaati to himself as he walked through the forest path. The trees around him were very dense, and Vaati didn't want to cause a ruckus by destroying a lot of trees, and he couldn't fly out of the forest because of all the branches- he hadn't practised using his elemental magic properly yet. After all, great magical power required great knowledge and skill. Vaati continued down the path, alone with his thoughts.

That's when he heard the gentle lapping of water nearby. Vaati curiously walked towards the sound. If someone had seen him at that particular moment, they would have thought he looked just like a young child. Vaati walked to the edge of the lake and the moment was over. looking at the fearful, calm water, Vaati's eye widened in fear as he felt that memory again...

Splashing. Giant drops, double the size of boulders.

Water, a river, washing away a home he would never know.

Struggling. Sinking. Splashing. Screaming.

Before he knew what he was doing, the wind had responded to his fear (that tends to happen when one is connected to the energies of the world) and swirled around him fiercely, yet protectively. Vaati looked at the swirling whirlwind around him, and felt protected, but... not really safe. The feeling of being protected felt good, but it wasn't really the same as feeling truly safe. The cyclone became stronger, and Vaati's power began accidentally picking up the water- now, this was bad in two ways. One, the cyclone/whirlwind/tornado/typhoon/hurricane would end up becoming like a giant whirlpool and would cause a HUGE ruckus, and two, being surrounded by water would easily terrify the life out of Vaati at this point. So, Vaati's reaction to this was to teleport out of there as quickly as possible, and the first place that came to mind was North Hyrule Field (after all, random teleporting is a Very Bad Idea. Emphasise on BAD).

Vaati was now right back where he'd started- at North Hyrule Field, near a tree. Vaati took his map out of his cloak and tried to figure out where he'd just been. Upon looking closer at the right edge of Lon Lon Ranch, he realised that he'd taken a path that cut right though Minish Woods and led to Lake Hylia. That part of the forest was apparently cut off from the rest of it. Vaati would have to find another way in. He hoped that the light force wasn't hidden at Lake Hylia; as despite everything, his old fear was still there. However, the more Vaati thought about it, the more he thought that he wasn't afraid of the water, more the memory that came with it... could it be... that he was afraid of the past, more so of the past he never knew after the flood?

("That's right.") said the timid voice in Vaati's head, ("You are afraid. We both are. You need to find it. Stop running away. You don't need power to find that past of yours.")

"Stop." replied Vaati, though he didn't realise he was speaking out loud. He coldly, calmly focused on blocking his inner voice out. "Once I find the light force, my ultimate potential will be released. Once that potential is power, I'll b-feel safe, and the fear will go away once I'm safe."

... Had he just..? No, he couldn't have... but something inside told him that he'd twisted his words, that he was believing a lie. It would have been wiser to listen to that feeling, but Vaati squashed it and cleared his mind. That dark, cold feeling showed up. Not the rage, exactly, but something... malevolent. Similar to when he'd turned the princess to stone. It felt unnatural, yet right. It made him feel better than his inner voice and conflicting morals. It just... was.

Yes. Once he'd gotten the light force and reached his ultimate potential, he would build that potential into ability, then into pure power, and the fear would go away for good. He'd be safe. But he would have to find it first. Vaati decided to fly high into Hyrule's skies. From there, he would work out what to do next. Up in the skies, Vaati figured, nobody would be there to potentially disturb him, and maybe he would find something or someone useful from up there.

Vaati found that he actually really liked the sensation of flying; as the very air cloaked around him, lifting him up, protecting him from falling. He flew far above Hyrule Town, where some soldiers were searching around, presumedly for him, and passed it. (I'll leave the forest for later. Getting too close to that lake again would not be good.) thought Vaati, analyzing, processing, and sorting out his current speculation and knowledge inside his mind and coming to a conclusion, (The Royal Graveyard would be a good place to start- I can search there without causing a ruckus, and its connection to the royal family could prove to be useful at some point. I'll go there next.) Upon reaching this conclusion, Vaati checked the map again and flew towards his destination. A bit of peaceful time later, a couple of voices broke into Vaati's thoughts.

"Oh! I had no idea humans could fly!" Squawked a voice behind him.

"Well, looks like they can! But how? They have no wings!" Added a different voice.

Vaati turned around to see two colourful birds, one a bright, tropical red; the other a cool, sea-sky blue, chatting away behind him. They were looking at each other and did not notice Vaati listening in to their conversation.

"Maybe he's trying to find the Palace of Winds!" suggested the red bird.

"Well, then he's on the wrong side of Hyrule!" chuckled the blue bird.

New plan! Work out where this 'Palace of Winds' is and see if it has anything to do with the light force! "Palace of Winds? Where is it?" Demanded Vaati.

"What?!" twittered the red bird in surprise, "You can understand us?!"

"Yes." replied Vaati, his voice showing no emotion, yet somewhat threatening, "Where is this 'Palace of Winds'? Do you know anything about the light force? Does the 'Palace of Winds' connect in any way to the light force?"

"We know none of that." Insisted the blue bird, clearly trying to get itself and the red bird away from Vaati. The dangerous gleam and the malevolent feeling came back.

"You lie." stated Vaati. The blue bird took one look at him and froze up, only his wings moving. The red bird remained obliviously unfazed and, strangely enough, friendly.

"Well, we can show you to the Palace of Winds!" Offered the red bird, "The Wind Tribe might know about that 'light force' you're asking about!"

"Okay, show me then!" ordered Vaati.

He followed the birds' lead as they flew in the opposite direction, towards the Palace of Winds. Vaati checked his map as he flew and noticed that it wasn't on the map. However, there was a lot of blank space in the top-right corner, above the place labelled, 'Veil Falls'. He then put it away, deciding that his trip to Royal Valley, and ultimately to the Royal Graveyard, could wait. If the light force was hidden in the sky, he would find it!

"You know, I'm wondering how you understand us." chattered the red bird. The blue bird seemed to be feeling better.

"Yes, you don't seem to be Minish." added the blue bird.

"But are you sure you're Hylian? I mean, no offence, but but every Hylian I've ever met are definitely not purple!" continued the red bird.

"Minish aren't purple, or human-size either!" chattered the blue bird.

"Are there really no purple minish? Or red-eyed minish?" Asked a small, curious voice of a minish boy from a long time ago.

"Nope!" replied both birds at once.

(Was I always the only one? Am I some sort of... freak?) sadly thought Vaati, the cold fading for a moment, being replaced with sad fear, mixed with a bit of curiousness. (I... don't want to feel this... not again... Stop. Go away. I don't want to feel anything.) Vaati coldly squashed those feelings. It was as if his coldness was forming into malevolence, which formed into that unnatural, determined rage... (Freak or not, even with my power now, I can make people fear me... I can make them feel that fear... I will RAGE!) Vaati's eye narrowed and seemed to glow an iridescent blood-red for that second, before fading back into its usual, bright blood-red, however, his eye was still narrowed, and his mind focused. It felt sharp. Deadly. Powerful.

The birds continued to chatter to each other, totally oblivious to Vaati's extremely dangerous state of mind at that particular moment. "Did you know we deliver messages to the minish?" asked the red bird.

"Shh! We're not supposed to tell!" shushed the blue bird.

"Ah, so they even brought messengers from their world..." mused Vaati to himself, in that soft, dark, menacing, malevolent tone of voice, his face in a soft, dark, menacing, malevolent expression, eye an iridescent blood-red...

"I told you not to give away so much!" snapped the blue bird, panicking.

"How did he know about The Minish World?" Asked the red bird curiously to itself, for some reason totally oblivious to Vaati's really dangerous facial expression at the time, despite the fact that both of the birds were now looking directly into Vaati's iridescent eye. The blue bird was trembling in its feathers.

Vaati stared back, a small smile slow-ly curl-ing wi-der across his already sinister expression... it was mysterious, but...

"Sinister..." whimpered the blue bird. The birds turned away from him and continued flying, the blue one flying somewhat faster than before.

The three of them soon reached an entire part of Hyrule, which was made of two layers of clouds and a very large house on a cloud at the top. Vaati and the birds easily flew past the clouds and up to the incredibly large, colourful house with brightly coloured small paper-like windmills spinning nearby. It wasn't as large as Hyrule Castle, but it was the largest house Vaati had ever seen in his life (Hyrule Castle is a castle and therefore doesn't count as a 'house'), and it was all on a huge, stationary cloud. Vaati's expression changed from the scary look before to the innocent, curious look from earlier, at the lake. His eye went back to normal. He tried to stand on the cloud... and nearly fell through.

"Only pure-hearted people can stand on the clouds!" Explained the red bird.

"The wind people can, too!" Added the blue bird.

"We'll help you get inside!" Concluded the red bird before flying in through an open window after the blue bird. A lot of noise which included squawking, twittering, loud talking and thumps followed, and then the front door was opened by a somewhat bulky person with a rather grumpy expression, who had orange-red hair and wore a blue cloak-like outfit.

"Hello," said the person, "What are you here for?"

"I'm here looking for the light force." replied Vaati, do you know anything about it?"

"Yes. In fact, come in!" replied the person, getting out of the way.

"Thank you." said Vaati, floating inside before discovering that he could stand inside the house- just not on the clouds. The wind person showed him to a room where an old lady, and a tall, young lady were doing their own things.

"Belive it or not, we've got an unusual guest." said the grumpy-looking wind person.

"Oh, hello! What's your name?" Asked the old lady, "I'm Siroc."

"I'm Vaati." Introduced Vaati, do you know anything about the light force?"

"Hmm... yes. It is a powerful force that only the one who wields it can handle. Its current location is hidden, but if you search for it, you'll be in for a nasty surprise..." warned Siroc.

"Where might it be?" Asked Vaati.

"Now, now, I'm sure thirteen year old minish don't usually go searching for the light force." replied Siroc, eyes sparkling and smiling. Vaati was rattled. How exactly did SHE know?! One, he had always looked different from normal minish, and he was human-size and looked far more human now, AND he didn't even look very 'thirteen' due to his current height, but the most important reason of all... Vaati was from a different world!

"Huh. So you are the Vaati Ezlo talked about. You look different now." commentated Siroc.

"What? But how? The gate only opens once every hundred years!" Exclaimed Vaati.

"Communication crystal. Ezlo's ancestor gave it to my ancestor before he left to go back home. I've been able to communicate with Ezlo for all this time! So you are his treasured apprentice." Explained Siroc, speaking the truth right to the last word.

"Treasured?" Asked Vaati in a small voice. As he continued speaking, his voice grew darker and his eye grew slightly more iridescent, yet he sounded as if he were trying to convince himself as well as Siroc. "He never even asked... that proved he didn't care enough to understand-in my opinion! He cared more about his project, I'm-not quite-certain of it!" Ezlo had never asked how he felt... not once in his life. That had proved it... yet... it had happened again. His gift had made him correct himself. What was he lying to himself about? Why did it matter so much to him? Why did he even CARE?! Vaati took a deep breath and calmed down. He was still patient with her, but now was the time to push things along a bit.

Siroc raised an eyebrow when she saw the iridescent gleam in Vaati's eye.

"Well, what happened to your other eye?" She asked.

In answer, Vaati moved his hair out of the way, revealing that his other eye had a few scars straight through it. It was the same blood-red as the other eye, but all the life was gone from it. That eye showed no emotion, yet it was still... open. It had the same black birthmark underneath it. Vaati could not see through it, naturally. In fact, the way he'd gotten that injury had done a very rare thing- broken Vaati's patience. Vaati covered the eye up again. The gleam in the other eye had gotten more dangerous, but Vaati would play this game for as long as she could try.

"Oh, goodness me, it looks like someone attacked you!" commentated Siroc.

"You have no idea..." grumbled Vaati.

"Ah, losing patience are we?" cheerfully asked Siroc. However, what was really happening was that Vaati was calculating. planning. Vaati's malevolence was truly beginning to take control again...

"On the contrary, you are nowhere near breaking it. Now tell me..." Vaati was beginning to feel that dark presence shining past his heart once more, "where is the light force?"

"I told you, it's hidden, and for good reason too." She replied.

"Tell me everything you know about it." demanded Vaati, dangerously.

"Goodness me, no. That won't do. It's for your own safety, it'll turn you into a monster if you can't truly handle its magic potential, let alone its power." Explained Siroc.

Vaati's eye narrowed and he reached out his left hand. As he did so, it turned to shadow, slipping past the physical body and straight into Siroc's memory. Liking this new, dark power already, the rest of Vaati followed, his entire form becoming pure shadow except for his one working red eye, which was literally glowing that iridescent blood-red all over. Vaati went directly into Siroc's memory and searched around for anything generally light-force-related.

The other wind people gasped as Siroc collapsed, holding her head.

"Siroc, I don't know what to do about Vaati."

"Vaati? Surely he isn't upset or anything?"

"No... well, I don't know, but he's... well, different. I don't get it."

"What isn't there to get?"

No. That wasn't useful. but... what had Ezlo said about him? Vaati was curious. NO. (I shouldn't be. But I am.)

"He's got the gift to sense truth, yet has an affinity for transformation magic. They contradict, a lot. For example, to transform into a rabbit, you must believe you can be a rabbit. Those who sense truth, however, will know that however much you look like a rabbit, you're not a rabbit and you can't ever be a rabbit. How would Vaati ever be able to use that potential of his to its full ability if his powers contradict each other like that?! I can't quite put my finger on it but there's always been something threatening about him even though he's scared of everything. I can't figure him out!"

"You will in time. Hopefully before it's too late."

...What? That was interesting. However, Vaati had known right from the start that Ezlo didn't understand him, but he understood Ezlo. Vaati looked through a few similar memories, before finding some about powerful elemental wind spells that Siroc couldn't use anymore but Vaati could. After a lot of searching, he finally found the information about the light force that he was searching for and left Siroc's memories. Vaati looked down at Siroc and felt both horrified and satisfied.

Unlike last time, the satisfaction won. Vaati smirked coldly and said, "Thank you for the information." He then left the house, leaving Siroc unconscious and the rest of the wind tribe speechless with worry.

Vaati flew down to Veil Falls, thinking about the information he'd gained. (So,) he thought as he set up some sort of shelter at the top of the waterfalls, (the light force is hidden in a sacred place which is underground... yet that place only holds the secret... to it's true location...) Now Vaati was getting somewhere! Now that he had a clue, he would figure it all out soon enough. A sacred place, huh? Maybe the graveyard was it... Still, it was getting very, very late (possibly past midnight) and Vaati realised that he was hungry. He sat down on the ground and took out some food, a special silver book and a pencil from his cloak pocket dimensional hole. After he'd eaten the food, he opened the book. The front page read,

'This diary belongs to Vaati Nightshade.

To whoever reads this thing,

Don't read it unless you know I'm in whatever afterlife there is. If you read it not knowing wether I'm dead or alive, that's positively insulting! I'm keeping my memories safe in here so I never forget them again. Whoever you are, you've got those memories now.

-Vaati.'

Vaati flipped the pages and began writing in everything that had happened since reaching The Human World. After he was done, he closed the diary and put it and the pencil away, before getting some rest. The wind swirled gently around Vaati like it always had, and Vaati fell asleep after thinking one last conclusion for this day.

(After all, I can wait. My patience has lasted ten years in the past, and it can very well last longer.)