Here I am, and guess what? These chapters WOULD have been on time, but the Wifi broke on me. It just wouldn't work! I'm trying to find a solution but nothing else has worked so far... So,
in the last chapter...
Vaati got a very rude awakening by a bunch of monsters up on Mount Crenel. After sending them all flying, he teleported directly to Hyrule Castle, where he took over control at the king's mind so that everybody would think he was the king- though his terrible acting skills still made people get suspicious. After ordering the army to go search for the light force and keep everyone away from the castle, he did some of the king's paperwork and then went searching around for clues to the light force with no luck whatsoever- until he realised that the light force's location was hidden in the elemental sanctuary, and that Link was practically on his way to finding it for him! Now all he would have to do was wait...
Chapter 14: Echoes of the Past; Psychic for the Future
Ezlo woke up first and wiggled out of the bag. To his surprise, Link was sleeping deeply and smiling. That's exactly when Link's eyes snapped open, for a second, a startling shade of electric-blue, before they faded back to their usual black. Ezlo wondered if he'd actually just seen that. Meanwhile, Link was feeling all refreshed and excited!
"Good morning!" greeted Ezlo.
"Hiss!" [Good morning!] replied Venom.
"Good morning to you all!" squealed Chitto excitedly, "Did you have a nice sleep?"
"Hissy hiss." [Yesssss, thanksssss a lot!] politely replied Venom.
"By the way, do you know anything about those big red guard statues outside?" asked Ezlo to Chitto as Link, full of energy, made everybody breakfast while making another packed lunch for himself, Venom and Ezlo. He could hear everything which was being said.
"Yes! Those soldier statues here were built by the minish ages ago to help humans. It's kind of a secret, but there's a switch inside that turns them on or off. Thanks for being such nice guests!"
With the new information in mind, Link put Ezlo on then gently picked up Venom -who climbed up to his shoulders- and left Chitto's house, said minish waving goodbye. He felt Chitto's happiness and gratefulness, as well as Ezlo's calmness and Venom's excitement.
Outside, Link climbed up the ridges on the red statue's magic shield and went into its 'face', which was a room in itself. All along the curved walls were dark red patterns, and in the middle there was a switch with an unlit torch behind it. Link looked around curiously and Ezlo marvelled at the ancient minish technology. Meanwhile, Venom slithered off Link's shoulders and pulled the lever with her tail, activating the torch and causing the patterns along the walls to glow a bright, lively red.
Upon seeing that the statue was activated, Link and Ezlo turned around to see that Venom had pulled the lever. Link smiled a little wider and let Venom go onto his shoulders again on the way down the statue's shield. He then went back to the nearby magic amplifier and they all grew back to their normal sizes. Venom got off Link's shoulders again and watched as Link carefully approached it- and it burst to life, swinging its sword. This time, Link protected himself with his shield before stabbing his sword through the small room which was the statue's face. This made it stiffen and fall over to the side.
He then took his map and pencil out again and continued through the ruins, mapping the path along the way. Ezlo watched Venom attack some of those red-and-white-spider-monsters. Actually, it was very peaceful up on Link's head. with nothing better to do, Ezlo fell asleep again.
"Mmmmnumumumm... Oh, I couldn't eat another bite..." mumbled Ezlo in his sleep, "Let's take the rest home... Vaati, don't forget to save the wrapping for later... Zzzz..." Link giggled. Ezlo really was funny!
"Hisssy?" [Who'ssss Vaati?] asked Venom.
Ezlo woke up with a start. "Wha-? Oh my! Was I talking in my sleep or something?" asked Ezlo.
"Hisss. Hiss?" [Yesss. Ssso who'ssss Vaati?] asked Venom again.
"...My apprentice." explained Ezlo, "I taught him how to do magic, and I'm his guardian as well. Hmmm... you could say he's... unusual, really."
[Could you tell me more about thisssss Vaati? Alssso, what'sss an apprenticccce?] asked Venom.
Ezlo explained more about him to Venom, cutting anything involving turning him into a hat or turning princesses into stone while Link climbed up a ladder (Venom went up onto his shoulders at this point and soon went off again) and continued to map the area, Venom listening to Ezlo but occasionally slipping off to defeat the monsters currently bouncing around here.
Up some stairs and right, there was another magic amplifier. Link went past it and continued onwards, working together with Venom to defeat some snake-like monsters along the way. However, a switched-off statue was blocking the way forwards so Link had to backtrack to the magic amplifier, Venom racing him to it.
Up on Link's head, having satisfies Venom's questions, Ezlo thought about what else he could teach the boy before he went home with or without Vaati. He didn't even notice Link showing Venom how to shrink them all down. The boy had a real affiliation for focus magic and swordplay... Ezlo knew of a few secondary magics which would combine the two, not to mention explaining secondary magic beforehand...
Link switched the statue on and went back to the magic amplifier, though this time Venom did a little bit- a very, very little bit- of the shrinking. Ezlo still didn't notice. It didn't take Link and Venom very long to smash the statue and beat the monsters who were wrecking the ruins. The pathway was long and winding, which was probably what made it slightly easier to map than, say, Mount Crenel.
The pathway went on until it opened up to a clear area with four red statues, all of them activated, standing in a horizontal line just in front of another magical magic amplifier disguised as a tree stump. Link beat the first three, but the fourth one speedily ran forwards and blocked the pathway instead of attacking him.
Link tried to blow it up from the back, but it just didn't work. Link went over to shrink, but then Venom stopped him and managed to get to the other side of the statue, slithering past its legs and ultimately tripping it up, hence getting it out of the way.
"There'ssss more than one way to beat the red guardsss!" cheered Venom.
Link's forehead felt a little warmer than usual, and he heard Venom talking in his own language as opposed to the usual snake language. He nodded in agreement, and vaguely wondered about his forehead and how he'd just understood Venom.
Around the same time, Ezlo was just about ready to fall asleep again when he suddenly jolted fully awake- his mind detecting a psychic wave of some sort, coming directly from Link!
(What?! Psychic waves coming from him?) thought Ezlo, (Does he even know what those are or is he just doing things he doesn't know anything about? ...I think it's the latter.)
Link decided to try and find out if he could do other stuff with the warmth in his forehead. When he tried to make it appear again, he accidentally focused too much and sent some pink stuff flying straight at some nearby spider-monster. The second it hit that monster, the monster went poof. He quickly found that it didn't take much effort to understand Venom- in fact, Link was hearing less hisses and more words now.
"...Take that, hissy!" Venom was cheering as she defeated some more of the ruin-wreaking monsters, "Thisss issss easssy! Hisssy humansss afraid?"
Up on Link's head, Ezlo was very surprised to see that pink stuff dash out of Link's forehead. However, it was obvious to him by the shade of pink that Link's apparent psychic abilities were only just revealing themselves fully- it seemed that having Venom around and being exposed to magic had awakened some dormant abilities Link may have previously not needed to use. At least, that was Ezlo's opinion on the -now more stable- psychic waves coming from Link as he climed his way up to the entrance of a large building.
"Cool! I heard sssomething about thisss being an old fortresss once!" chattered Venom, "I think a 'fortesss' issss a large building for battlessss... At leassst, that's what Chitto ssssaid!"
"Well then," commented Ezlo, "it could be called The Fortress of Winds, couldn't it..?"
Inside the fortress, most of the space was filled with dirt, which were like brittle walls. However, there were some thin pathways through all the dirt that each led to different doors. The entire place had this 'very old' feel to it.
"Ahem!" said Ezlo, "I think now would be a good time to teach you secondary magic, Link."
"Can I try too?" asked Venom.
"Well, how about you try some basic things first..." suggested Ezlo, "Such as moving all the tiny dots on that brick over there."
While Venom cheerily tried to change the shape of the brick, Ezlo explained secondary magic to Link.
"You remember primary magic, don't you?" asked Ezlo. Link nodded, nearly sending Ezlo off his head again. "I asked you NOT to do that..." grumbled Ezlo. Link just laughed a little. "Well, secondary magic involves those magics, but not fully. As if you're just half-using them. But don't get me wrong, Boy, you need the proper control over your magic to pull it off!"
Link went to the door furthest to the left that he could get to, as the dirt blocked the entire place from there. However, something was telling Link that there was definitely more beyond all that dirt.
Through the doorway, there was a small, empty room with some stairs at the opposite end. After the other dangerous places, Ezlo found this a little fishy. "Hm," He commented, "to think the ruins were hidden within this cliff the whole time! Watch your steps, Link, Venom. There may be traps in here."
Link went up the stairs. The floor above mostly consisted of giant hole. The thin, slightly unstable pathway of floor was around the edge and currently occupied by a couple of living skeletons with glowing blue balls of light in their eye-sockets. Link curiously approached one.
"What are you waiting for, Boy?!" Asked Ezlo, annoyed.
The skeletons certainly weren't waiting around. They leaped into the air, intent on squishing Link, who took a few steps forwards upon seeing the skeletons get out of the way. Behind Link and Ezlo, Venom was catching up to them at high-speed slithering... Meaning that the skeletons tripped over her and ended up falling down the giant hole which led to the floor below.
Link, Venom and Ezlo looked down at them... Then Link threw a bomb down after them. The small explosion is exactly what made them go poof. He then went into the next section of the room. Ezlo mentally told himself off for getting distracted and continued to teach Link secondary magic.
"So you fill your sword with magic, then you need to release that energy into a concentrated beam to strike the enemy from afar!" Ezlo explained, "It really shouldn't be that hard..."
Meanwhile, Link used his shield to protect himself from some flying skulls and shot a creepy red eye target across the room. Through the closed door that shooting the eye opened were some more of the jumping skeletons.
"...so try it on those skeletons over there!" finished Ezlo as the door closed behind Link, Ezlo and Venom.
There was a look of awe on Venom's face as Link's sword began to glow with sparks of magical energy, and as the blast released from the sword defeated two of those skeletons at once. Venom began attempting to copy what Link had done and produced a few sparks, but not much. Ezlo didn't notice.
"Excellent!" Exclaimed Ezlo. "Excellent!" Exclaimed Ezlo.
...What? Ezlo had just heard himself speak twice! The second time, however, had sounded more like an echo. Maybe that's what it was. "Another example of secondary magic is that spell I used on your bag. The movement doesn't matter, but it helps concentrate my energy. do you get it?"
In answer, Link blasted the last two skeletons. In answer, Vaati turned Ezlo's sofa purple.
Ezlo shook his head. He thought he had just seen young, ten-year-old minish Vaati turn his sofa purple like he had those three years ago. No-one had bothered to turn it back, and besides... Ezlo quite liked the colour. That's when he realised that this felt as if he were teaching Vaati all over again. Like... a fresh start.
It suddenly occurred to him that that could have been why Vaati did what he did. Because he wanted... a fresh start. Wait, that HAD to be Crazy Theorist Talking, right? ...Well... maybe not... But regardless of why Vaati was doing it, Ezlo knew the power Vaati was after would change him irreversibly if he couldn't control it, and the chances of HIM controlling it were less than zero.
Meanwhile, Venom was enthusiastically attempting basic magic while the doors in the room opened and Link went through into another dirt-filled room. While avoiding electric-things, Link showed Venom how to do some of the primary magics that Ezlo taught him about. The little snake wasn't talking much because she was too busy experimenting with magic and Ezlo was too busy thinking to notice. He then went up a ladder to another dirt-filled room, this time with a spiky-gooey-monster in it, then through a doorway.
Link rode on some floating platforms over a bottomless-looking pit, shooting some eye-targets to make the doors open. In the room directly in front of him there were two 'sleeping' evil statues, two magic tiles, and two buttons. Venom was curios about the magic tiles, and she gasped in surprise when Link used the White Sword to split himself in two.
"How did he do that?" asked Venom to Ezlo as the two Links pushed the buttons at the same time.
"Well," Ezlo began as the two statues woke up and Link began shooting them with arrows, "that white sword he's just put away is the reforge of a sacred, powerful blade called the Picori Blade, though it has been renamed the White Sword now. Its power allows Link to create clones of himself if those magic tiles are around, because as you see, the magic tiles activate the magical energy which goes into the sword. I do believe that it has an absorbent-magical-ore-combination in its blade, as it appears to be absorbing magic from those tiles-" Ezlo caught himself, "-But anyway, that's how he did it."
Venom blinked. "Could you sssay that again with sssssimple wordsss?" the young snake asked. Sighing, Ezlo tried to simplify what he'd just said... again. A large chest appeared in the middle of Ezlo's lengthly simplification process and Venom became more interested in what was in it, much to Ezlo's relief. Inside the chest...
...was a compass. A note on it read,
'This will help you locate treasure. The needles point to treasure chests in this fortress. If used with the map, treasure chest locations will appear in the places where they are. Happy treasure-hunting!'
Treasure-hunting was NOT going to help Link save Zelda! He sighed, disappointed, and put the compass in his bag. Maybe it would be useful later. Ezlo was equally disappointed with the uselessness of such a thing for them.
"Well, let's go back to the room with the platforms." suggested Ezlo, "Maybe we'll find something useful there."
This time, back in the room with the platforms, Link went through a door to the right-hand side of the room. In this room were some snake-like monsters, another hole (H-Hole 2?) in the floor which went down the original hole (H-Hole 1?) in the floor and directly to the first floor... and some skulls on top of magic tiles. Venom was the only one who wasn't fazed by the sight (though that's probably justified simply by her being a snake), and the sight somehow put Ezlo's plans back into proportion- what else could he teach Link how to do?
"Yucky..." began Ezlo, "But let's get back to the point! There are other bits of secondary magic one can do with a sword, such as sending far-ranged slices of magic energy across the room. The process of doing this is similar to the sword-beam, but instead of simply releasing the energy all at once, you release it slightly slower and slash your sword either horizontally or vertically-" He paused at Link's confused facial expression at those words, "-I mean, sideways, upwards or downwards, with your sword pointing in the general direction of your target. Maybe you could try it on those snake-creatures over there?"
"Go Link!" cheered Venom, "You go make the prey-sssstealing-fake-sssnakesss go poof!"
(That's interesting,) thought Ezlo, (it seems Venom can tell the difference between a real snake and an impostor. I wonder if all snakes -or even all animals in general- can do that or if it's just Venom...)
Link understood that and did just that -with a horizontal slash- at the fake-snakes, making them all go poof in an instant. However, the path ahead was blocked by one of those giant blocks. After a quick look down Hole 2, he destroyed the skulls blocking the magic tiles (because not even Link would touch one of those things- well, unless it would miraculously save Zelda) before using them to make a clone of himself again.
This time, Venom climbed up onto the clone's shoulders just to see what would happen... and instead of disappearing -which is what both Ezlo and Link expected- the clone blinked a bit and its blank look faded a little as it -somewhat stiffly- looked round at the little snake. Ezlo could've sworn he saw the clone smile just before the temporary magic ran out and the clone disappeared into a bunch of sparks. Venom fell to the ground, completely unhurt. Link thought about the very faint, very weak beginnings of Curiosity he'd felt coming from his clone... unlike all the others, this one had found emotion. Ezlo just gave up on trying to figure out what he'd just seen. Ancient magic was too complex for his own good.
Link, though still curious, made another clone to help him get that block out of the way. Like all the others except that particular last clone, it had no emotion and merely went along with Link's movements before disappearing after a short amount of time. Strangely enough, Link wasn't particularly fazed by the 'other hims', probably because of their ghostly features. Past the block, which was now permanently out of the way, he pulled the lever he saw on the wall nearby, and a key dropped in from the ceiling. Link, Ezlo and Venom all watched as the key fell past Hole 2 and Hole 1 before landing with a satisfying clink on the stone floor far below the trio.
"Hmn?" squawked Ezlo, "Did something just fall down, or was it my imagination? Well, we won't be getting it anytime soon..."
Link slow-ly smiled. The excited little rush he got whenever he did things like this came back. A psychic pulse was emitted from Link's mind, and in response Venom climbed up onto Link's shoulders as he took a step closer to the edge of Hole 2... Ezlo's -already wide- eyes widened. "OH, NO! LINK, DON'T- AHHHH!" It was too late. Link had leapt of the edge, and, using Ezlo as his own personal parachute again, floated neatly through Hole 1 and Hole 2, landing right in front of the key back on the first floor.
"That wasss fun!" commented Venom as Link picked up they small, silver key and put it away.
"Speak for yourself." grumbled Ezlo in response. Secretly though, it did feel good to have a companion around who actually TALKS to you.
Link personally loved doing that sort of thing- scary yet exciting. Maybe he'd bring Zelda along if he ever came back... well, if the monsters were all gone first. He thought about how much Zelda might like to have a bit of adventure in her 'rather stuffy and mostly boring -apart from you, Link- life', her words, not his, as he absentmindedly went to the long, dirt-filled corridor again and through the door next door to it, finally going directly up some stairs.
Here, there were four more skeletons and this time, Link used the gust jar to suck up their heads before giving their bodies a good whack with his sword. Naturally, they all went poof in a bunch of white smoke.
Link then went back to his thinking while Ezlo taught Venom primary magic techniques since Link 'hadn't been anywhere near as specific as he should have been in explaining something as precise as magic' -Ezlo's words this time. He wondered wether Zelda was okay, and what Vaati might be up to at the moment. He still couldn't shake the feeling that that feeling he'd gotten yesterday was something to do with the purple sorcerer.
He went up a ladder- and found himself at a dead end as all the ways forward were blocked with dirt. Venom was failing spectacularly, randomly making all sorts of magical hijinks instead of what she was supposed to be learning and Ezlo getting annoyed.
Going back to where he started this part of the fortress, he went left around the stairs this time and saw that the path was blocked by another evil-eye statue. Still wondering about Zelda, Vaati and why he seemed to be bitter at Ezlo, Link absentmindedly got around the statue and defeated a couple of skeletons before unlocking one of two locked doors; the one on the left.
On the floating platform in here, Link started thinking about how this place was also like a dungeon. He vaguely wondered if the last element would be in a dungeon-like place too. Up some stairs to his left, there was a large chasm with a door on the other side and some more eye-targets. Link shot them and a bridge slid out, allowing him to cross the chasm. Link went through it, but when he tried to get through the next door... it slammed in his face.
A dark knight like the one that guarded the golden kinstone appeared behind him. Link swept around, took Ezlo off and gently tossed him to Venom, who slithered to the side as she realised Link was about to do something awesome. Link faced off against the creature, dodging the slow-but-heavy swings of its sword before neatly slicing through the air with his own sword, sending powerful magical beams at it. The boy dodged and slashed with a strange sort of confidence and serousness that just wasn't very... Link-like. It was as if he still didn't quite understand that this wasn't a big dream...
When Ezlo caught a glimpse of Link's eyes, he realised something was very off at the moment... as they were shining an electric-blue.
So... who was that attacking with those skills?! Link?! A ghost couldn't do that... Maybe... Maybe... (That's Crazy Theorist Talking!) Ezlo reminded himself, (That's just Link... That's just Link...)
Ezlo didn't know this, but he was absolutely right. That wasn't Link over there.
As he began fighting, Link felt a strange presence burst from his heart and release an ancient energy that flowed through his mind... Someone else had taken the lead, was battling instead. Was it Guardian Spirit? Regardless, the magic that was currently flowing through him sliced down the creature's unprotected back and it went poof.
Link found that energy to be a bit tiring, unusual. It wasn't something he was very used to. Knowing that Ezlo and Venom would end up worried wether he did this or not, he closed his eyes and focused his mind, in a sense to speak with the heart.
Ezlo and Venom simply saw him go white, pure white, and collapse.
"They say that when you speak with the heart, you speak with a spirit of long ago." Link's father once said.
"H-Hello." Link greeted the spirit he saw there, in the white place of wherever-this-happened-to-be.
It seemed full of sparks , and magic, and things like that. The spirit looked a lot like Link, but more a teenager, really, though he seemed wiser and more knowing than the teenager he took the physical form of. The physical form was pale and ghostly, except for his electric blue eyes. These were bright and clear.
Link himself was looking into that place, though he wasn't actually there. He was feeling the warmth in his head again... Maybe the pink stuff was something to do with here? He'd been here before a few times, but never before had he'd felt Guardian Spirit's regret like this, or that strange Binding that was somewhere there too.
Ezlo panicked. "OH NO! The illness!" he screeched.
"Isss Link sssick? Isss there medi-ssstuff?" asked Venom.
"Yes and yes!" replied Ezlo, rummaging through Link's bag with his beak and with Venom, who was looking around inside the back for anything that looked like medicine. The purple bottle was surprisingly elusive... "Why now, Link, why NOW of all times..!?"
The voice of Guardian Spirit wasn't quite a voice, exactly. He formed words in a similar way that Link formed words- with simple mind-pushes, but not really. Momentarily Link wondered if the mind-pushing was also part of the pink-suff and Venom-speaking-hylian, before going back to what was actually happening. Unlike Link's 'inner voice' though, the spirit actually formed words.
Link! I... need to tell you who I really am now, don't I?
Link was wondering about a lot of things, but mostly about what had just happened with that amour-creature. But yes, who Guardian Spirit really was also happened to be something he'd been confused about for a while before all of this had began.
How do I even put it... well, I am the Spirit of the Hero, the one Vale talked about. I'm glad he figured it out through that vision I sent him.
If Link were physically there, he would be tilting his head. There was something he wasn't being told.
... I get what you mean. Did you pay attention in history this time? At least for the part about the Hero of the Skies? About the legend of my enemy? ... This is all my fault. One little mistake, one forgetful moment, and the rest of history is affected. Perhaps ruined.
Link thought he got all of that. If he were the hero, and Zelda the princess, did that make Vaati the bad guy? Well, Vaati was already, just like Zelda was always a princess. He didn't get what Spirit meant about one little mistake, but he figured he could just check a history book later. Then what about the rage that wasn't Vaati at all..? Like Spirit wasn't him at all..?
... The rage is that of my enemy. I am here to help guide you through your destiny- ... yes, like the hero before you. ... Link... my name doesn't really matter now. You won't be here soon. Just... let's talk again someday.
Link hoped to talk to him again soon as well. It seemed clear that to get one big answer he'd need one big question. The big answer would be able to help him figure out how to make everybody happy at once, so he'd need an equally big question...
Venom finally dragged the right medicine out of Link's bag. "I have the purple bottle!" she announced.
"Gimme that, quick!" loudly instructed Ezlo as Venom rolled it over to him. (Curse this stupid curse...) thought Ezlo as he tried to open the bottle without spilling the stuff everywhere. Link's psychic waves were running rampant and Venom seemed extra excitable at the moment. Through the Power of Panicking, Ezlo finally managed to knock the cap of the bottle open with his beak and read the label. 'pour a spoonful into fainted person's mouth.' it read. Ezlo poured a little of the stuff into Link's mouth... then a little more... then a little more...
The place Link saw faded to black as he opened his -now black again- eyes and saw Ezlo and Venom looking at him. Their worry quickly became relief. Link was now more-or-less completely back to normal again and he smiled to both of his current companions to show it.
"You're OKAY!" cheered Ezlo, hopping around happily along with Venom's happy celebration-dance-thing.
"Hissy!" [The boy sssmilesss!] cheered Venom right along with him.
Link giggled at their antics... but realised the warm feeling in his head was gone. Now that Link thought about it, it felt a bit squashed. A bit off. To top off the proof, Venom had gone back to snake-language. His smile faded. Ezlo and Venom stopped celebrating instantly, and Ezlo realised the psychic pulses being emitted from Link were gone.
"ARE you okay?!" asked Ezlo. Link nodded, deciding it would come back eventually. With that he put Ezlo back on his head and walked through the now-open door, continuing with his adventure to save Zelda. Past a room with some spiky-spinny traps, there was a high corridor with a loose bit of wall. Link promptly got Venom out of the way and blew it up, revealing yet another dirt-filled room with a large treasure chest right in front of him. Inside it was a pair of -conveniently Link-sized- brown gloves with hardened metal finger-parts which were in the shape of claws. Like most other useful-things-in-big-chests, it had a label attached to it.
'These are the Mole Mitts. They are specifically designed for digging through all the dirt which will no doubt be here. Use your magic abilities to strengthen your arms through the mole-mitts. They will circle the flow of magic energy through you while charged with their own magically-infused energy -please don't get them confused- so will prevent any lasting damage to your arms or wrists from all the hi-speed digging -I know you'll be fast. Be sure not to bury your companions, no matter how much they get confused or cross!'
...Link was beginning to believe whoever left these things here could see the future. How ELSE could they get everything right? Ezlo was thinking much the same, though he half-thought it was Crazy Theorist Talking all over again. Link also thought that he would like to say thanks to whoever-had-left-them-here (if they were still here) if he ever met them. He slipped on the mole-mitts right away.
"Careful with that!" ordered Ezlo, "I don't want to get DIRTY!"
"Hisssy hisss." [Pleassse try not to get dirt in my mouth.] said Venom. Ezlo had to translate, after which Link nodded with a mischievous smile... Venom -actually quite wisely- curled up around Link's shoulders again.
And then he was off like a hi-speed-super-speed digging machine, sending dirt flying everywhere except Venom and his own respective faces. Unfortunately for Ezlo, he just so happened to be right in the line of fire and was wildly dodging dirt in every direction so that he wouldn't get dirty. It took a couple of minutes to get through it all, after which there was still dirt everywhere but just not in brittle walls anymore. Link was grinning a bit wildly as he opened the treasure chest that he'd dug up. Inside was a large silver rupee- worth a hundred rupees! How exciting! Link left the room, somewhat over-excited and humming to himself.
"Hissy hissy?" [How did he do it ssso fasst?] asked Venom to Ezlo.
"Don't ask me... Just get used to it..." replied Ezlo to Venom.
Right at the end of the high-corridor, he found that the ledge dropped off exactly where he'd started this section of Wind Fortress. After jumping down, he found a set of stairs which led to a big chest on the way out. Inside this one was a magical map of the fortress and all of its floors. Link looked at it before putting it away. After heading back to the room with the dead end of dirt, he had a fun -if fast- time digging away all the dirt around, revealing that there was a large, imposing door locked up with giant chains and an equally giant lock- no doubt the door to the element!
Back at the first dirt-filled corridor of The Fortress of Winds, Link excitedly dug his way through all the dirt to this right at high-speed, either ignoring or simply not hearing (it depends on who you ask) Ezlo's complaints about getting dirty. Venom was quietly listening and thinking that the whole situation was funny. He found a treasure chest with a blue, knowledgeable kinstone and also found a fifth doorway that looked identical to the other four.
Inside the room, the door slammed shut behind them and two skeleton-faced humanoid monster wearing grass-green robes appeared, one on either side of Link. They teleported around and tried to blast Link with offensive magic. (Apparently, it works with no emotion at all.) Observed Ezlo.
Link kept on chasing them -with Ezlo on his head and Venom round his shoulders- but got nowhere because the wizard-monsters were forever teleporting away. He blasted them with sword beams, though that didn't seem to do much due to the wizards' magical-cursed-spirit nature. However, the more Link channelled his magic energy, the more warm his head seemed to become. Link was trying to access the pink stuff again to see if he could blast the wizards with that.
Just like that, as if a dam had broken, the beginnings of Link's psychic power seemed to burst at once like a pinky-red wave that exploded outwards from the depths of Link's mind, sending Ezlo and Venom flying to the edge of the room -luckily, Venom landed on Ezlo and Ezlo felt very little pain due to his hat nature-, also causing the two wizard-monsters to go poof.
As an aftereffect, it shocked Ezlo and Venom into complete silence. Venom because of how awesome it was to be sent flying by pink stuff and Ezlo because that wave had been slightly more red than pink- this meant that Link's psychic potential went beyond what eighty percent of the ten percent of people who could materialise psychic energy were capable of... and then if one combined THAT with his already far above average magic potential AND his capability for learning stuff...
(... ... ...Just WHAT is that boy capable of doing..?!) thought Ezlo, (I'm scared to find out...)
Link had paused after his outburst of psychic energy, though the comforting pulse that was the warmth in his head steadied and relaxed after a few minutes of complete silence, of a starstruck Venom and a blown-away-by-simple-logic Ezlo. Nobody had moved from their end positions since the psychic wave burst, so when Link finally snapped out of his blank-mind-recoil (that tends to happen after a burst of energy like that. The more concentrated the blast, the longer the recoil), he spotted Ezlo and Venom at the edge of the room and rushed over to them, not noticing the small chest which appeared after the wizards had gone poof.
The look on his face practically cried, "Are y-you okay?" Strangely enough, both Ezlo and Venom could practically hear Link's voice even though he didn't say anything.
"That wasss AWESSSOME!" cheered Venom at the top of her voice while excitedly moving everywhere, "Mr. Ezlo and I are fine!"
"I second that." replied Ezlo, picking himself up and leaping back onto Link's head. Venom got to the chest first and flipped it open with her tail before looking inside.
"Oooooh! There'sss sssome pretty and sssparkly gemsss in here!" commented Venom.
"Those are rupees. Hyrule's currency." replied Ezlo, looking into the chest too after Link caught up and put the rupees away in his wallet, which he then put in his dimensional-hole bag.
Back outside, Link got digging to the left this time, glad that his psychic power -which he'd officially called 'Pink Stuff'- was now working again. He made a mental note to remember not to talk to Guardian Spirit in front of people again. There was nothing past this dirt, so Link just headed back to the last door he'd passed by.
Ezlo quickly got extremely annoyed with getting EVEN MORE DIRTY than before, but before he could tell Link off they ended up through the door right at the other end of the hall to the door they'd just left through, where the room was half-collapsed and held nothing but hard, cold rubble. That reminded Venom about primary magic and so she tried to use it again, causing a minor explosion of sparks and getting the room rather a bit less stable than it had been before.
So instead of his original intention to tell Link off for getting him all dirty, Ezlo warned, "Let's get out of here before we all get crushed!"
After leaving the unstable room, Link went through the only door he hadn't been through yet, the one to the right of the door leading to the unstable room. There was a hole in the floor, another electric thing and a lever on each side of the room. On the right-hand side of the room, there was a treasure chest. The whole room was like a corridor with one door on the side Link was on and another door on the other side which was firmly closed.
Ezlo went on a long rant about being annoyed about getting dirty and how was he supposed to properly clean himself as a semi-absorbant hat and how annoying it was that he was getting dirty and how was he supposed to properly clean himself as a semi-absorbant hat and how annoying it was that he was getting dirty and how was he supposed to properly clean himself as a semi-absorbant hat and how annoying it was that he was getting dirty and how was he supposed to properly clean himself as a semi-absorbant hat and how annoying it was that he was getting dirty and how was he supposed to properly clean himself as a semi-absorbant hat and how annoying it was that he was... you get the picture.
Venom took a nap on Link's shoulders while Link just tuned out Ezlo's repetitive rant and avoided the red electric thing, opening the chest and getting another blue -but this time innocent- kinstone. He then pulled the lever on the same side of the room, opening the door opposite to the one Link just came through. Upon pulling the other lever, another chest appeared which also had an innocent blue kinstone. However, it wasn't the other half. After that, Link went through the door, but that's also when Ezlo turned up the volume of his complaining to the maximum.
"...and it's so annoying that I'm getting dirty and how am I supposed to properly clean myself as a semi-absorbant hat and ARE YOU LISTENING, BOY?!" yelled Ezlo.
"I a-am now." replied Link.
"I TOLD you I didn't want to get DIRTY!" Howled the noisy hat, and now all of us except Venom are covered in DIRT!"
"..." Link just looked up at him.
"OH, DON'T YOU PLAY THAT GAME WITH ME!" Shouted Ezlo.
"..." Link slow-ly smiled.
"WHAT?!" Screeched Ezlo, "WHAT ARE YOU SNICKERING ABOUT?!"
"I-I win." Link replied, eyes twinkling with mischievousness.
"What?" asked Ezlo, bemused, "HOW do YOU win WHAT?"
"..." Silence is the only explanation he got.
"GAHH! I think you're driving me insane!" Cried Ezlo. "GAHH! I think you're driving me insane!" Cried Ezlo.
It was as if he could hear himself, but that was when he realised what was happening- he was doing the EXACT same things he'd done with Vaati. Even though he and Link couldn't be more different from each other (actually, they could. One of them could be right-handed or not be able to use magic), Ezlo was teaching both of them the same way- and getting annoyed at both way too easily.
Then his eyed widened as he remembered what happened last time he'd uttered that sentence. Vaati had seemed upset and stared at him with wide eyes. Then Ezlo had broken their gaze and Vaati had left without a word.
What would happen this time?
Link didn't stare at him. In fact, he burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" asked Ezlo, exasperated.
"Y-you!" replied Link, grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear. Ezlo promptly flopped over like a floppy cap.
That was just it. Link was not Vaati. Nobody was even close to being Vaati, because Vaati was different, and it had taken Vaati stealing his magic cap, turning HIM into a hat and himself into a human form, a failed encounter with Vaati, one crazy adventure and one even crazier kid for Ezlo to finally realise that actually, he missed his apprentice. Not the 'Vaati' he thought existed, but the real Vaati, the one he'd rescued from that river all those years ago. The confusing, conflicting, complicated minish that if he ever saw again...
Forget telling him off. It wasn't his fault. If he ever saw Vaati again, Ezlo would apologise, because it was ALL HIS OWN FAULT. Not for making the cap... but for what went wrong. (That last bit in italics, readers, is up to your interpretation.)
Still giggling, Link pulled out the picnic blanket then and there during Ezlo's big reverie, as well as getting the packed lunches (he saw with surprise a few raw eggs in there as well, with a label reading 'for Venom') and the water. He had decided that now of all times was a good time for lunch.
Waking Venom (who had amazingly stayed asleep during all of Ezlo's yelling) up, and snapping Ezlo out of his reverie in the process, Link made sure everybody got some lunch before packing away the lunch equipment and climbing up a nearby ladder.
Up here, there was a metal-slime monster and an electric thing. Link just dug around in the same over-excited manner he had before -successfully getting Ezlo even MORE dirty- and found a bitter red kinstone. Through a doorway on the far side of the room, there was a small room with a closed door and two buttons to either side of it. Pushing each button one at a time proved to be futile, so Venom pressed one and Link pressed the other to open it.
However, he still went through a doorway on the right just in case he found anything useful. In fact, he did- there was a familiar hole on the floor and an 'off' statue in front of a lever. As this was a dead end, Link went through the door he and Venom had opened, where there was a magic amplifier. With Ezlo still a little light-headed, Link did the shrinking himself. Ezlo said nothing upon realising this, because he'd quite honestly had had enough of yelling and a lot of thinking today. He just listened the the psychic pulse coming from Link and fell asleep deeper than Venom had earlier on Link's head.
Meanwhile, Link just switched the statue on, went through a passageway, unblocked a passageway and went all the way back to the magic amplifier to grow again and obliterate the statue in the way of the lever. Just as he pulled the lever, Ezlo started snoring and a key fell down the hole, so Link went down after it. Link used Ezlo as a parachute again, which woke Ezlo up. Back on the first floor, Link picked up the key. Venom decided she wanted to sleep a bit again and curled up on Link's shoulders to do just that.
"You're full of surprises..." sighed Ezlo. Link just giggled again. (Scratch that, he's just plain scary at times.)
In reality, Link just thought Ezlo was funny, an opinion Venom shared.
Link went through the long corridor at the start of this place again, went back to the middle room again and used his key to unlock a door again... though this time, it was the right-hand-side door. The door went up, as usual taking the key with it. Through the door was a very long corridor mostly filled with bottomless pit. Near Link was a lever, which he pulled. A bride slid out to cross the massive bottomless pit, but slid in again just as fast. He started feeling that excited feeling again as he pulled the lever again and used the pegasus boots to cross the fast-moving bridge, barely making it across.
"Phew...! We barely made it!" gasped Ezlo, "I was certain we'd run out of time!"
Link turned to go up a set of stairs, which led into a room with three, gigantic, black hands with glowing blue edges. Link stared blankly at them. Then he tilted his head. There was something about what Link was 'saying' even though he wasn't speaking that made Ezlo reply, "They don't have bodies... These are just floating hands..." Link promptly drew his sword and thirty seconds later the hands had gone poof. Ezlo blinked.
To put it blankly, what happened next was pretty normal dungeon stuff. So long story short, Link ended up in front of two holes leading to the floor below, with Venom still asleep and Ezlo close to falling asleep. Link, after a look down the holes and a bit of thoughtful consideration, leapt down the one on the right, which just so happened to be the right door in the sense that it had the giant chest with the giant key for the giant door with the giant padlock and giant chains in it.
Despite Link's 'precautions', it really was pure fluke that he ended up jumping down the right right hole. After that, they headed back to the big door and unlocked it. Past a short corridor and another doorway, there was an ancient, truly gigantic floating statue-head with two floating statue-hands. The statue-hands each had an eye half as tall as Link in its palm, and those eyes were minish-sized small compared to the rest of it.
So naturally, Venom woke up at that particular moment and looked at the mechanical... thing... with awe. "Wow... did the wind people make thisss thing with minisssh help? That'sss ssso cool!"
The 'Thing', as Link would now refer to it -for Ezlo, that would be the 'Mechanical Thing'- did not seem too friendly. The second it raised a giant fist, Link took out his bow and started shooting at the other hand's eye while simultaneously attempting not to get smashed into a pancake.
"DON'T GET CRUSHED!" encouragingly yelled Ezlo, "I DON'T WANT TO BE SMASHED!" (That ATTITUDE...)
"Go Link! You can beat the... Thing!" encouraged Venom.
"No, the Mechanical Thing." corrected Ezlo automatically.
"What doesss 'me-can-ni-cal' mean?" asked Venom.
Ezlo had to explain while Link ran around trying to attack the Thing's -or Mechanical Thing's- Obvious Weak Point. You would expect even Link to be pretty annoyed by the fact that his companions were sitting around talking while HE did all the dangerous stuff but he was really very occupied with 'not-being-turned-into-a-Link-pancake' at the moment.
Finally, the left hand of the Thing experienced a mini explosion and dropped to the ground smoking -regular grey smoke, not white smoke- ,leaving the other hand exposed to Link's relentless shooting. Unfortunately, he was getting low on arrows... on the bright side, with both hands down the Thing's head dropped to the ground as well... umm... so what was he supposed to do? Go INSIDE the Thing through that convenient minish-sized passage where it's 'mouth' was? ...yes?
Ezlo is the one who spotted the magic amplifiers in the back corners. "LINK! USE THOSE MAGIC AMPLIFIERS IN THE BACK CORNERS BEHIND THE MECHANICAL THING AND FAST AND WHO CARES WHAT 'MECHANICAL' MEANS AT THE MOMENT?!"
Link responded by practically leaping into the portal, Ezlo, Venom and Link all doing the runes at the same time so fast that nobody noticed the others -or, in Venom's case, themselves- help shrink them. From there Link managed to get to the inside of the Thing, where there were six pillars, one of which had a glowing blue lump on it. Link sliced the glowing blue lump with his sword -holding his bow in his other hand just in case- until it exploded in a puff of regular smoke.
That's when a small, flying, also mechanical bug-thing -hence now called the Bug-Thing or the Mechanical Bug-Thing- which picked up Link -and subsequently the other two- and left them outside the Thing, which had somehow fixed itself.
Link made sure to grab his bow again and ended up running around trying not to get crushed by the Thing... again. This time, the Thing started shooting thick laser beams which burnt holes into the old stone floor as WELL as trying to crush Link and company.
"EEP! I think thossse light thingies don't look very niccce!" Hollered Venom in the middle of the chaos.
"You THINK?!" howled Ezlo over the Thing, its laser and Venom.
Honestly, Link was the only one NOT making any noise. Said boy was still trying to shoot the eyes with what limited arrows he had left while avoiding being flattened while avoiding being fried-like-a-fried-Link-egg. However, the hands of the Thing were constantly fixing themselves as it was taking too long for Link to partly-explodonate them.
Finally, he decided to take a risk- a BIG risk. He took out his shield and held it in front of him just as a laser beam came buzzing at him...
"LINK!" yelled Ezlo and Venom.
"Link... have you ever noticed how light bounces off shiny things?" Zelda had asked once.
(Do b-burning beams of light b-bounce off shiny things too?) Link thought now.
...then it bounced of the shield and hit its own weak point instead, finally making its 'head' fall to the ground again. Link rushed to the magic amplifier and just about managed to get into the Thing once more. However, this time the area was filled with dirt. For once Ezlo was actually glad of Link's super-fast-digging-skills. Or was that just the mole mitts taking effect? Regardless, Link had soon found the weak pillar again and managed to make it explode. He coughed a bit because of the smoke, but it really wasn't all that bad. The Bug-Thing picked Link and company up and got them all back outside again.
After a quick growth to normal size again, Link realised he'd run out of arrows, and Ezlo did too. Unfortunately, the Thing was not waiting around for Link to get some arrows.
"LINK!" screeched Ezlo over the Thing's smashing and lasers, "FOCUS YOUR MAGIC THROUGH THE BOW!"
Running around trying not to be squashed or fried, Link was not really in the sort of mood to learn stuff. Sure, he was absolutely terrified, though the terror was the fuel for whatever else was making him able to keep his head together in a situation like this.
"FOCUS YOUR MAGIC THROUGH THE BOW TO FORM ARROWS!" yelled Ezlo even louder, though Link still wasn't paying attention to him while trying to do the laser-reflecting thing again. The Mechanical Thing seemed to have caught on to his tactics, because every time Link stood still it would attempt to smash him like a pancake.
"Mr. Ezlo hasss sssomething to sssay!" added Venom, though in trying to help she accidentally made things worse by adding the extra noise to the chaos of the battle.
To top it off, the Thing suddenly slammed the floor with both its hands and sent many of tiny, annoying, harmless-but-slows-Link-down-monster bugs from the ceiling. So now, Ezlo and Venom were shouting at Link to listen, the Thing was still shooting laser beams and trying to squash Link, the Monster-Bugs everywhere were getting in the way all over the place and Link finally pulled his last resort- an attempt at that Pink-Stuff-Blast-Thing he'd done on the wizard-skeleton monsters.
With the warmth in his head building on top of all the physical running around and magical energy channelling needed for that magical-arrow thing Ezlo was yelling about, Link could barely handle the over-power. It was bursting his current limits to the limit of the limits, so Guardian Spirit ended up joining the battle and helping Link by temporarily keeping his Pink-Stuff -AKA, psychic power pulse- under control...
...and in all the chaos came a huge, pinky-reddy and slightly orangey blast of psychic power which sent everything monster going poof, everything mechanical crashing to the floor and everything Ezlo and Venom flying to the edge of the room. Also, it left Link extremely dizzy and Guardian Spirit out of commission for now due to messing with the living world too much.
However, now that everything was simple and quiet again, Link was in his element. Putting away everything else, slinging his shield over his back and holding only his sword in his left hand, he shrank at a magic amplifier and ran into the Thing for the third and final time. Inside, he got past all the dirt and stabbed his sword directly into the glowing blue lump on the final weak pillar.
The effect was practically instantaneous! The entirety of the Thing simply exploded all over the place, sending Link flying sky-high... He automatically reached for Ezlo, only to realise that the noisy hat was back on the ground with Venom.
Back on the ground, with Venom asleep due to over-excitement (the little snake just was not an adventurer at heart), Ezlo gasped as he saw Link seem to recover and shrink, then soon after the little thumb-sized dot which was currently Link had entered the Mechanical Thing, it started smoking all over the place and simply fell apart. Apparently, the ancient piece of technology was just that: An ancient piece of technology.
However, reality caught up with Ezlo at once- Link was currently flying up, and soon would be plummeting DOWN, without HIM to use as a parachute. Using the Power of Panicking for the second time that day, Ezlo hopped in great leaps to the magic amplifier Link was currently plummeting towards, and frantically started messing with runes and putting bits and pieces together so that when Link fell over there, he grew back to his regular size near instantaneously, which in turn prevented him from getting seriously hurt.
Blinking, the small boy looked around, before spotting Ezlo and smiling happily. Ezlo -somewhat- smiled right back. "Next time, Boy, TRY not to nearly die!" grumbled Ezlo. Link just giggled and put him back on his head before rushing to the side of the room to see if Venom was okay, ignoring the remains of the Thing along the the way.
After seeing that Venom was, in fact, okay and just needed to sleep off all the excitement, Link carefully carried the little snake in his arms and finally noticed the stairs leading to the top of the Fortress of Winds. Surely, surely, after all the trouble they'd gone through to get this far, the Wind Element would be waiting for them at the top?
Despite why they'd even come here in the first place, both Link and Ezlo really were blown away by the stunning view of the rainbow sunset up at the top of the cliff the fortress was built into. Sleeping around the boy, the hat, and the snake were multicoloured birds, two fiery red ones, a stunning yellow one and a rich, ocean blue one.
With the winds gently swirling, the birds and Venom gently snoozing, and the sun gently setting, one could forget all their problems and simply sit down to watch the gentle sunset and relax with a couple of sandwiches. Ezlo was lulled to sleep by the gentleness of it all right there on Link's head. Also responding to the natural lullaby, Link gently tucked Venom and Ezlo up on opposite ends of his picnic blanket, before falling asleep himself as the last of the sun set over the horizon.
Nobody noticed that the element they'd come so far to find was nowhere to be seen.