Surprise! Quick chapter! I think it's because they've been shorter than usual recently. Oh well. Here it is... the big meeting between Link, Ezlo and Vaati! What will happen? Is this where the adventure ends? ...Heh... Time to find out! So,

in the last chapter...

Vaati was all prepared to go to Hyrule Castle, but was instead invited by Rhinestone to the gorons' 'find-lunch-and-eat-it-goron-reunion-style. The whole thing lived up to its name as Vaati and the gorons found lunch in Hyrule Field, picked up Limestone along the way to Trilby Highlands, and ate lunch in Trilby Highlands. Vaati reflected on his opinions on friendship- wasn't that... an alliance of some sort? Regardless, he'd never experienced anything like it before and actually had... fun! Inside a cave full of rarities that Basalt found, Vaati found the right half of that violet-lilac kinstone he'd made with Ezlo three years ago. Unfortunately, on the last stretch of the 'lunch trip', Tingle dropped in out of nowhere thanks to a spark of emerald-citrine and stole Vaati's diary! During the chase, Vaati and the calculative voice in his head seemed to be one and the same, and his eye's pupil was even aqua-green for a moment, along with that rage. Once Vaati turned Tingle into stone and dropped him in Lake Hylia, he said bye to the gorons and headed straight to North Hyrule Field, where LINK of all people literally ran into him...

Chapter 11: A Gesture of Friendship

Vaati and Link stared at one another for a second.

"S-sorry." apologised Link.

"..." Vaati just looked at the small boy for a moment, a bit confused as to why Link would apologise for bumping into him when he'd turned Link's -friend?- into stone and released monsters all over Hyrule, "...Okay then." ...Was it just him or was that green hat wiggling? Strangely enough, the power of Earth was now out of his bag. Then Link's face broke into a large, innocent smile and he took a kinstone out of his kinstone bag- and not just any kinstone, but the left half of his violet-lilac kinstone. Where in The Human World did he get that!? Vaati was lost for words. Carefully, Vaati drew out the other half of that kinstone, thinking that it was a joke or something.

"Will you fuse kinstones with me?"

The minish walked away, as if Vaati wasn't there.

"Will you fuse kinstnes with me?"

"I don't know... You'll probably curse me." The minish walked away.

"Will you fuse kinstones with me?"

"I don't have any.", HE'D said. But HE had been lying, Vaati knew.

...So why was he trying now, when it could be all a lie? ...It didn't feel like one.

Link had guessed that Vaati had the other half of the kinstone because it was Vaati's, not anyone else's, loneliness coming from that stone. Link, feeling Vaati's mixed emotions of fear, curiosity and confusion, thought that a nice little gesture of friendship might help him feel better. He made sure to keep Ezlo from unintentionally messing things up.

Said hat was extremely frustrated, wiggling around and attempting to escape from Link's iron grip- naturally, it was no use. Ezlo gave up and just tried to listen to what was going on...

("Why would you want to fuse kinstones with me?") thought Vaati and the timid voice, his eye turning a more pink-ish shade of red and his pupil widening just that little bit. Link noticed this and looked into Vaati's eye. Something was different than it had been the first time... It was as if there was more than one Vaati.

Confusion. Curious Anxiety. Went the first part.

Aggressiveness. Defensive Fear. Went the second part.

Analysing. Near emotionlessness. Went the third part.

The one right at the deepest level felt most like Vaati. Link felt it from himself too.

Hope.

Vaati, remembering last time, averted his eye as soon as he figured out what was happening. However, he could feel it- that odd, strange feeling he'd felt back at Lake Hylia when he'd figured out how to swim. What was it called again? Hope or something like that?

They fused kinstones... and this time, they seemed to fit, like they were meant to go together. Vaati smiled wryly. (He's left-handed.) he thought. The wry smile turned into a soft one, a little one. The kinstone formed into a violet-lilac spark and hovered in the air, like a tiny purple star, releasing glimmers of the very purest magic glittering down to Vaati, Link and Ezlo. Link, mesmerised by the glttering, glimmering spark of magic, dropped his hold on Ezlo, who flipped back up and figured out what had happened very quickly.

For a very rare moment, there was just a kid called Link, a kid called Vaati and a hat called Ezlo, nothing more, no-one more...

Until Vaati turned his head to say something and spotted Ezlo. That boy's hat was Ezlo!? Ezlo turned his head and saw Vaati, remembering his earlier plan all at once. Vaati spoke, the bitterness from his past all coming together at once- Ezlo was the embodiment of his bad memories.

Link felt Vaati's bitterness and growing anger... It was like the parts of Vaati all came together under one emotional pain. Separate to all of that was a hint of that rage. Something in his heart was naturally opposed to this rage, wanted to fight it. He felt Ezlo's guilt and idea. Vaati's eye went back to its normal blood-red and his pupil shrank again. Link's smile faded. He couldn't fix this now...

"Interesting. You're the very last person I expected to find here. And just as I was wondering about Link, I find my old master..."

"VAATI!" yelled Ezlo, planning on telling him off.

"And as always, you're dressed in... heh heh heh... the shabbiest of rags." Malevolence. Vaati's eye went a cold, hard, iridescent blood-red and narrowed... "My curses are not to be mocked. The one I cast on you is most powerful... No matter what power you wield, you will never break it."

Well, whatever plan Ezlo had was now out of the window.

"You haven't changed in the slightest. I should never have created that cap! It only fuelled your insane desires!" Yelled Ezlo.

("He was just the same as everyone else! Whatever made me think that... No. Not now!") said Vaati and all three voices in his mind. Rage. "You LIE!" shouted Vaati, "A hat with that much power is a spectacular creation! Thanks to you, I have gone from being a weak, pathetic, minuscule NOTHING to... The Sorcerer of Winds! You cannot stop me now, and I have YOU to thank for it!"

Vaati meant every word, every bitter thought behind it. Insane?! Was that what Ezlo thought about him, about his goals? But then, what did Ezlo know about him? NEARLY NOTHING. He was drawn to the kinstone spark, and it was going somewhere. Vaati turned around to follow it.

Link was saddened by the feelings between Ezlo and Vaati, by that odd rage which felt like it shouldn't be there. It wasn't too late for either of them.

"W-wait..." said Link to Vaati.

Vaati stopped for a second. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about it made him want to say, (Link... I apologise.), though he didn't. If it wasn't so that turning Ezlo into stone would subsequently turn Link into stone, said minish-turned-hat would be at the bottom of Lake Hylia with Tingle right about now...

On the way out, Vaati turned the blades of grass around Link and Ezlo into huge, unbreakable boulders (this is a form of complex transformation magic involving atom transformation and shell-spaceing), making a wall between each of four conveniently-placed trees, and summoned a couple of those monsters he'd seen in Trilby Highlands to slow them down at the same time (this is called linking magic). All the monsters were so mindlessly stupid that Vaati was positive that beating them would be a piece of cake even for a ten-year old with a sword.

(Of course,) mused Vaati as he followed the kinstone over Hyrule Town, (it helps to know how to USE it.)

"VAAAAAAAAA-TIIIIIIIIII!" yelled Ezlo, "YOU ARE IN FOR THE TELLING-OFF OF A LIFETIME ONCE I GET AHOLD OF YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!" He'd lost all of his (very little amount of) patience. His chance... was gone.

Vaati half-turned over his shoulder to face him, his -still iridescent- eye seeming to flash blood red, "...I wonder if you are really that ignorant." stated all of Vaati, feeling a twinge of pain before turning his face away and continuing to follow the knstone, but so softly and so far away that neither Link nor Ezlo ever heard him.

Thanks to Vaati, Link and Ezlo were now stuck between four trees with two huge, black, (unhygienic, Ezlo notices at this point with a sniff), pig-like monsterss on their hind legs, holding spears. Link looked at them. Then he pulled out a forging hammer from his bag.

The monsters rushed at Link with their -mainly wooden- spears, who promptly smashed them with the hammer. Ezlo just stared. Link looked at the monsters with a blank expression on his face. They roared. Link bonked them both on the head and they went 'poof'. The rocks 'poofed' back into grass at the same time thanks to the linking magic being broken. Ezlo just stared. (That boy never runs out of surprises...) thought Ezlo, just staring. Then he remembered who put them in that situation in the first place. Ezlo jumped off of Link's head to look him in the eye, though Link didn't quite have eye contact for obvious reasons, it was close enough.

"That foul Vaati!" steamed Ezlo, "What could he be scheming now? Link... I feel like I owe you an explanation of what happened. You see, Vaati and I are both Minish. I was once a famous sage and a renowned Minish craftsman. Vaati was only a boy when I took him on to be my apprentice... and even younger when I first pulled him out of a flood-river. But... I don't know what happened. He just seemed... bitter, somehow. One day, Vaati took the hat I made for the humans-my pride and joy. It brought out the inner power of its wearer. He put it on without permission... and transformed, right before my eyes. Don't get me wrong, Boy, he was always purple and red with those odd markings under his eyes -yes, both eyes. It was like a one-eyed monster took hold of him when he put on that hat! Then he used a powerful merging spell on me, that's why I'm now a hat, and then he laughed and told me he was going to take the light force and then he left."

Ezlo paused to take a breath. Link looked at him. Ezlo continued, "You know the legends, of course. The gifts the picori gave the humans... What you call The Picori Blade was the first of those gifts. The second... well, you call it the Light Force, but it is a transferable source of limitless power. If Vaati were to get it now, the damage to himself would be devastating! I came to the world of Humans hoping to stop Vaati, and I met you in the woods. But it seems we won't be breaking the curse on me anytime soon. However, with the sacred blade, we can certainly restore Princess Zelda. I'm sorry. All that has happened is due to my pride. My folly. I must rely on you, and your power, until we've sorted out Vaati."

Like most people do, Ezlo had forgotten the kid was ten. However, it felt great to tell someone these things... he usually kept up his public image.

Unknown to Ezlo, Link had figured out what he meant- to an extent. The simplified version was, 'Ezlo had been a terrible caretaker and a worse teacher, so Vaati set an impossible goal for himself, which caused all this trouble.'

"Well, Link, enough fairy tales! We must search for the next element!" announced Ezlo, hopping back on to Link's head. A small scuffle later, the two of them headed off to Link's grandpa's house. Link would wonder about his confession even after it was all over, but even then he'd understood, in his own quiet way.

"HEY!" yelled Ezlo, remembering something, "What made you want fuse kinstones with Vaati? He released monsters and turned your best friend into stone!"

"Th-that kinstone held V-Vaati's loneliness. I think he n-needs a friend, a t-true friend. I d-don't think he kn-knows what friendship is." Explained Link, speaking more than he usually did.

Ezlo didn't get it. The boy and the hat got through Hyrule Town and into Smith's house soon after that. It was late, and Link felt sleepy. He could almost hear Zelda's words vibrating through his head...

"Courage! That's what you need, Link! Courage!"

Now, Link would finally take her advice. Link thought there was more to the nightmare than a dream. If Vaati was in it, and he'd been swept down a river and Ezlo saved him then maybe the rest of the dreams were real too! He would face it, face them right to the end.

With fear as the fuel for everything else, for such is what courage was.

Vaati was still following the kinstone. He thought it would lead him to the light force, or indeed, to somewhere important. Kinstones were meant to bring good fortune, after all. He followed it all the way to the top of Mount Crenel.

There, on the sunny side of Mount Crenel, the kinstone fell out of the sky and into Vaati's palm. Vaati was confused at first, but then he felt... tired. He looked out towards the night sky, looked out at the millions of stars scattered across the horizon...

(The view from up here... is beyond everything I've ever seen...) thought Vaati, looking at the stars, the full moon that glowed through the sky, out to the lands beyond Hyrule, the places covered with placid twilight. Out there, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Vaati looked down at the kinstone in his palm. Something inside felt... warm... when he remembered the look on Link's face when they'd fused, the innocent smile that held not a drop of fake-ness. A true, solid smile. But... Why? Why would Link show a so-called gesture of friendship to him?

Vaati stared at the view again. Despite his night-sight, he saw all the little parts of starshine bouncing of the hills of far away lands, bouncing of everything beyond Hyrule... Vaati felt inspired. His eye went a pinkish-red and his pupil grew just that little bit.

"I'd like to go there..." He and the timid voice said to the view, "But I have one goal to pass. One thing to find." A gentle breeze swirled around him, as if holding his hand. "I will find that light force, then I'll go there. I'll see what these people refuse to imagine..."

Power wasn't the answer to this. He could feel it, somehow. The moonlight glinted off the face of the kinstone- the four-leaf clover.

Vaati had got pulled into the water by Rhinestone...

Had understood Mira's determination for her sister's gift...

Had seen the joy between people at a lunch or two...

And...

Had fused two lonely kinstones together with Link...

They weren't lonely anymore. And... somehow... Vaati felt less lonely too. He could feel that warmth everyone seemed to understand... What was it? Vaati placed the kinstone gently into his cloak pocket. He lay down on the rocks, there and then... and slept.

In his dreams, Vaati was atop a cliff, staring into an infinite expanse of lands...Vaati saw a memory of a certain few gorons, a pink gini, a smiling boy, a couple of ghosts, a strong swordswoman, and...

A very old minish with a long white beard and long white hair and a topknot, wearing a green robe and holding a scary-looking bird staff.

Vaati saw the world in a new way that night. Link's gesture of friendship had help Vaati take a step into a new path, a different path than the one Destiny had prepared for him...

Link burst into his house. Grandpa Smith was sitting on a chair near the doorway with a bandage round his head. He was very grumpy- in fact, more grumpy than usual.

"What's wrong?" asked Ezlo.

"Well, while you two were off, I was making swords as usual when those soldiers came along looking for Vaati," Grumbled Smith, "and then, said sorcerer comes walking by, cool as you please, right nearby! So of course I point him out and those soldiers all go rushing at him but they're -unsurprisingly- no match for that guy, so I decide to deal with him myself, and he goes and beats me at my own specialty! The nerve of that kid! Then I go and wake up an hour later with this throbbing LUMP on my head! Link, if you see Vaati, remember to SCREAM, RUN AWAY and TELL SOMEONE- it's the most sensible course of action when it comes to bad people!"

Link looked up at Ezlo. Ezlo looked down at Link. Both looked back at Smith.

"So anyway, Link, you should go have a shower then go to bed. Ezlo, could you fill me in as to what happened up there? I really need to know..."

Link did. As he settled into bed, he closed his eyes and prepared to see that nightmare through to the end.

Darkness. Darkness, protecting the brothers like a cloak. Light. Light was coming, unweaving the cloak, searing away each thread, one by delicate one. Whoever Link was, he was worried for his one-year old brother. He was too young for this... not that they had a choice. The younger brother's red eyes flickered open to see the sunrise as magic pulsed through the older brother's tail...

Fighting. Fighting, among those who'd taken supplies as a team. It wasn't enough. Never enough for everyone. Nobody trusted the others, so they all hit and ran. The two-year-old younger brother stared at the fighting, then asked, "...Weren't we all supposed to be allies?"

The older brother looked down at the younger one, feeling sad inside. His younger brother was caring, sensitive. Quite timid at times. (He doesn't deserve this...) Whoever Link was had thought. "Yes... but in the end, all that matters to everyone is living to see another night." The older brother explained."We're lucky, Vaati. We're lucky to have each other. Many of them have been alone since the beginning."

The younger brother began to cry, and the older brother held him tightly...

So the younger brother was Vaati. One confusion solved. Link should have known he'd heard the purple sorcerer's name somewhere...

That. That was IT. A year later, when the brothers had found a place to stay, other twilight minish were attacking. Vaati had broken down, crying about the fighting for hardly any reason.

It was time for things to change. But before the older brother could say a word... Water. Water. Lots of water, flooding a place that could have been home.

Screaming. Struggling. Pain.

Younger brother being whisked away, crying out for help, emotional pain too much for Link, whoever he was, to bear.

"Don't abandon me... Don't leave me behind! I can't lose you too, Va-"

Drowning.

Cold. Cold. Why this cold, at the end of this daily nightmare?

No-one woke him up. They let Link sleep. The cold was fading, the blackness still there.

"Is th-this cold d-death?" asked Link, actual Link, in the odd blackness.

"No." replied the older brother's voice within the darkness, "I think this is your subconscious. My name... is Vale."

Ezlo watched Link head upstairs before filling Mr. Smith in on what had happened to, on, and in Mount Crenel.

"Link WHAT?!" yelled Smith, "Flying over LAVA?! Fighting giant, flame breathing, monsters?! Getting SICK?! YOU TAUGHT HIM MAGIC?!" Ezlo gulped. Smith suddenly took a deep breath and became very serious. "That 'bad cold' up on Mount Crenel was no bad cold. It was an attack."

"Attack? Of WHAT?" asked Ezlo.

"Nobody knows! The doctors were all stumped years ago! We are both lucky the picori make excellent medicines... Look, Link knows how to use his medicines but after a bit of thinking, I decided you, as his travelling companion, ought to know about his medicines and attacks. Link's always been like this. He somehow manages to get very, very ill very, very quickly... The problem was, nobody knew what it was, only that Link had been born that way. Everybody thought he would die before the age of two, and he very nearly did. There was an accident involving snow just after his second birthday, and he was sleeping, waking up, then sleeping again two seconds later... when he was asleep no-one could wake him up. He was sleeping for longer and longer each day, and his parents, the king, the doctors and I were all very worried that he would never wake up. But one day, just as it seemed that Link really wouldn't ever wake up... a miracle happened. A bright blue light glowed from under his clothing, and a spark of black and white darted into it, I saw it! Then Link sat up, suddenly better! Every day he'd get better, but almost every night he'd toss and turn and call out in a strange voice... I think that's some side effects of the illness... He deprived himself of sleep, tried odd potions and did other things to try and get rid of whatever was causing it. He didn't even TELL anyone, except maybe Zelda. The hay fever is part of that illness, and if he's caught in rain, snow or any cold or wet condition... the attacks could come. They vary, but that's when he gets really, really ill if he doesn't take his medicines..."

Ezlo remembered those bottles and the spoon he'd seen in Link's bag. Now they made sense.

"If he gets hayfever, give him a pill from the C.H.S.M.S box, if he's sneezing, give him the blue bottle, if his face goes a funny colour use the green bottle, if he throws up use the red bottle, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, the purple bottle is for if he passes out. Just before he does, his face will go pure white and his eyes will go blank. It's ONLY for that, GOT IT!?"

"Yes. I understand." replied Ezlo, "I believe the picori will be able to help with this mysterious illness. Thank you for trusting me with that information." By now it was very, very late, and both Smith and Ezlo were extremely tired. They both went upstairs to the bed.

Smith was out like a light but Ezlo looked at Link tossing and turning in his sleep from the other side of the bed. Then Link, in his sleep, quite suddenly grabbed Ezlo and held him like he was a teddy bear or something! He was so tired that he just fell asleep without hearing Link's question...

"You're V-Vaati's brother, right?"...

...asked Link in the 'subconscious'.

Vale stepped out of the darkness. He was a deep-purple minish wearing torn, patched-up fabric and leaves. He had a swishing, feather-like tail which was light purple except for the tip, which was dark, blackberry-purple. His eyes were exactly the same shade of blood-red as Vaati's with white pupils, and he had black cross-birthmarks on each of his cheeks. He also had short, scruffy lilac hair like Vaati's but much shorter, and he wore no hat. Deep regret lingered around him, hope as well...

"Yes." replied Vale, "When you were much younger Link, you were going to die and I was going to disappear from existence. I followed Vaati to that village, where the old man helped him out. I saw what had happened to him and how people reacted to him over the years, so I had been searching for help with no success... but then a great, powerful spirit of long ago who resides deep in your heart let me in from across the boundaries of worlds, saving both you and me. I should explain that those dreams of yours are my memories... and the last one is when I died. Will you help me out? Will you please make sure Vaati doesn't go down the wrong path for me? I can't let him become what he is becoming..."

Vale's expression darkened and concern swept through Link from him. "I must warn you... You, Vaati and your friend have all become connected into an ancient battle of ages past. The Spirit of the Hero, The Rage of the Demon and The Blood of the Princess are all tied in something beyond time. I saw a vision when the sprit let me in and it was not good... Link..."

Vale was fading into the darkness again as Link's sleep was fading...

"This is not Vaati's fault, but the fault of those who's actions brought out The Demon's Rage..."