Chapter 6
The Quest for Courage
It probably went without saying that the large unclaimed wilderness located South of the Kingdom of Hyrule so charmingly named 'The Monster Wilds' wasn't a particularly inviting place to visit.
The vast majority of people knew better than to ever go there, and for good reason: everything from swarms of Keese descending upon unsuspecting prey from above like flying piranhas, deranged Wizzrobes popping into existence to inflict terrible curses upon people for no other reason than to satisfy their own amusement, Deku Babas springing up from the ground to devour anything that dared to get too close to their stems, to all the undead stal-creatures that rose up from their graves every night to make the living join them in undeath, could be found there...and that was just scratching the surface.
To enter a place like that, you'd either have to be extremely confident in your abilities to defend yourself, have no other choice, be downright suicidal, or just plain too dumb to know any better.
...and yet, against all sense and all logic, there was one unassuming teenage girl who not only entered the treacherous Monster Wilds without hesitation, but had somehow managed to survive everything these untamed lands had so far been able to throw at her. Truly a remarkable achievement!
Now if only she could figure out where she was going...
"Eeeeheh...that's...right? No, no, no, left, yes, left, past the river, then left again, and then right after crossing the big hill, right? right?!" a high-spirited and high-pitched voice could be heard muttering in a forest not at all far away from where Impa and Princess Zelda just were.
A pair of knee-high boots (actually slightly taller than knee height) traversed through the underbrush of the forest, belonging to a figure in a green hood who was trying to make sense of a map she was holding in front of her face with both of her gloved hands.
"AHAH! No, it's a right after crossing the river, then left, then right, then right again after the big skull-shaped cave, and finally...left!"
Despite being only 16 years old, this girl was surprisingly well-built, perhaps not to Impa's level, but her toned arm and leg muscles, as well as a bit of a tan on the exposed parts of her otherwise peach skin, spoke of someone quite used to hard work outdoors...and not some sheltered princess like Zelda was.
Dangling from the girl's neck was probably her most noticeable detail though: a golden compass with the sigil of the Hyrulean Royal Family engraved on it; a trinket that seemed quite out of place for someone who otherwise looked nowhere near rich enough to afford something like that...and yet there it was all the same.
To better see her surroundings, the girl lowered her hood and looked around, revealing a pretty face framed by a pair of blonde braids, while the rest of her hair was otherwise boyishly short. She also had some freckles and a slight tooth gap that could be seen when she smiled.
This, ladies and gentlemen...was Linkle, the Legendary Hero!
...or that's how she introduced herself at least. The reality of the situation was a bit more complicated.
For as long as Hyrule has existed, and even a bit further back than that, has the Legend of the Hero Eternal rung through. Everyone and their grandmother have long heard the same story repeated over and over again, that whenever Hyrule was threatened by some great calamity, a hero clad in green would rise up to face it and save the land from evil.
This of course meant that a lot of people, whether they assumed correctly or not, often believed themselves to be that hero. It was actually kinda ridiculous how many there were, and though of course most of them were deluding themselves or perhaps believed their own hype too much, even to the point of suicidal overconfidence, there are not (and have never been) any strict rules by fate about who that hero had to be. The Hero Eternal wasn't one specific person reincarnating over and over, but more of a vague pattern or destiny anyone with enough courage and determination can become if they did what was right when the world needed them most.
Wearing green clothes while doing so also helped...though what that had to do with anything was anyone's guess.
To Linkle's credit, she was wearing green clothes, but whether or not she had the courage to truly be the Hero of Legend, that remained to be seen. Right now though, she had more pressing concerns...such as knowing where she was going.
"Wait, why the heck did I say left? The map says it's straight ahead towards the skull cave...and then right?! Grhhh! Dammit, you crazy balloon-riding fairy-man! Not only did you swindle me out of nearly all the rupees I own, but you also sold me a map that makes no bloody sense?!"
With a frustrated sigh, she grabbed the golden compass around her neck and held it up so she could see where it was pointing now. Easier said than done actually...as it wasn't exactly a normal compass.
The needle on the compass spun around back and forth like an angry flare dancer, never settling on a direction for more than a moment. Now unless the world's magnetic poles were switching places every other second, or some kind of giant magnetic anomaly was present nearby, then it would be fair to assume that whatever the compass pointed at, it clearlu wasn't North.
She let out a groan, "Gaaah! Just pick a destination already! It's really not that hard."
Strangely, almost as if it was listening to her, the needle finally settled on a direction to Linkle's left and actually stayed there. "Thank you!" she said in a chipper tone.
With a spring in her step and a determination to continue her journey across these treacherous Monster Wilds, Linkle took off towards where her mysterious compass was leading her to at a brisk pace. In truth, she actually had no idea what exactly it was pointing at, but she trusted that it would not lead her astray.
After all, it was a gift from someone very precious to her, and it hadn't failed her yet.
That said, she probably shouldn't place all of her trust in the thing...or at the very least, actually watch her surroundings instead of focusing only on the compass alone.
As a result of her current tunnel vision and lack of focus on her footing, she suddenly tripped over a rock and was sent tumbling down a small hill, getting tangled up in the forest underbrush on the way down...which was...not pleasant, to say the least.
By the time she finally hit the bottom, which she did by face planting into the ground, she was covered in leaves, dirt, and a few branches, one having gotten stuck inside one of her braids somehow.
"...ouch..."
With a groan, Linkle slowly pulled herself up into a sitting position, feeling quite woozy as she did so. She grabbed her head in the hopes of making it stop spinning, and pulled the twig out of her braid while she was at it.
"Note to self: Watch where you're going, Linkle."
She dusted herself off and got back up on her feet, checking herself for any injuries from the tumble, but aside from a little pain, didn't find any.
"Then again, all things considered, that could have gone a lot worse, heheh, at least there...weren't...any..." her monologue trailed off when she actually took the time to observe her surroundings and see where she'd landed.
In a cruel twist of fate, she had somehow ended up right in the middle of a whole pack of Bulblins, and now each and every one of them was looking right at her.
"...monsters," she finished with a gulp.
Putting on the biggest, and most awkward, smile she could manage, Linkle gave the armed monsters a friendly wave and said, "Hey, guys! Just...uhh...passing through, don't mind me, I'll be out of your-"
"That's her, isn't it? The princess!" one of the Bulblins called out once he'd gotten a good look at her.
"Wait, what?"
"I dunno, she looks...different," another Bulblin noted, looking Linkle up and down. "Can't put my finger on it."
"No, seriously, what do you mean by prin-"
"Come on, how many blonde human girls could there be out here?" the first one argued back. "Grab her!"
Apparently, that was enough to quickly end the debate and get the whole pack to draw their weapons and charge at the confused girl who had no idea what they were even talking about.
"Oh fuck!" Linkle cursed before she responded to their sudden aggression not with flight...but with fight.
Despite admittedly not looking like much of a threat, Linkle was anything but defenceless, and the Bulblins were unwise to underestimate her. When the first Bulblin got too close for comfort, attempting to use one of his long arms to grab her, Linkle ducked under his grab, spun around and delivered a kick straight to the back of his head, knocking him out in a single move.
The next guy who ran at her fared no better, as Linkle delivered another devastating kick...right in his groin, which while not enough to knock him unconscious, did a very good job of taking him out of the fight thanks to crippling incapacitating pain searing through his unmentionables.
Her third opponent didn't even get the chance to get close to her, as Linkle quickly pulled out some kind of advanced and beautifully designed crossbow from under her cloak, which she held with one hand, lined up the shot in less then a second, and then unleashed a bolt straight into the Bulblin's eye, piercing the creature's brain and killing him nearly instantly.
It did not take long before he fell to the ground, dead and leaking blood on the forest floor.
As impressive display as that was, there were a lot more Bulbins than just those three, and soon enough, one of them blew into his horn and signalled the rest of them to converge on who they falsely believed to be their prey.
Linkle loaded another bolt into her crossbow and braced herself for a tough fight, for which she was heavily outnumbered, though not with dread, but a cocky smile, on her freckled face.
"Bring it!"
Legends, history, stories...if there is one thing the Kingdom of Hyrule is known for, it's for having a fair share of them.
Many stories come and go: tales of heroes rising up to fight some great evil, tales of wars, creation, peace and scandals. Some are remembered in explicit detail now and to the end of history...while others remain forgotten to the ravages of time and entropy.
One such lost story was the mystery of the Palace of Winds.
Though none now remain who knew anything about it, knew where it came from, why it existed, or could even reach it...the people who lived on the surface of Hyrule have occasionally spotted something high in the skies above, something that defied explanation. It has teased the curiosity of many...some of which have used telescopes or other instruments to get a better look, but with the current state of technology the people were in, actually getting close enough to see what it was or what was hiding there have proven to be fruitless.
Even the people of the Rito Tribe (avian humanoids gifted with the power of flight) could not approach it no matter how hard they tried. As soon as they got too close, powerful and violent unnatural winds blew them away with the force of a hurricane, leaving many broken wings and several deaths before even they gave up on ever reaching it.
As best as those particularly interested people could tell, this unidentified flying object was, in fact, a stone structure of some kind: majestic in size and scope that, against all logic, was floating amongst the clouds, utterly immune to the concept of gravity.
Yet, nobody alive knew why it was there or even how long its been there...or at least, nobody but one.
Time kills all things eventually: that is a rule that all life adheres to...or at least that's what all life should adhere to. In truth, there is one lonely creature that have lingered in this world for over a thousand years longer than it should, a creature so ancient that it knew the old tales better than anyone else...and one that, unbeknown to those that constantly looked up at it in confusion, lived in this Palace of Winds.
This creature...was Vaati.
Also known as Vaati the Wind Mage, he was a sorcerous being of unimaginable power that once terrorised Hyrule in the early days of the kingdom. He was said to be a wielder of magic of such ilk that he was almost godlike, that he transcended the very concept of mortality itself, and that none but the most legendary heroes of the world could ever stand up to his arcane might.
At one point in history, he was the most feared and dangerous enemy Hyrule had ever faced, and even the mere mention of his name inspired dread in all who heard it...but then along came a new villain to take his place: a thief from the desert known as Ganondorf.
In his conquest, this cruel and destructive man razed the old Hyrule Castle down to nothing, and in the process, also destroyed more than half of the books and ancient texts held within, and with it, nearly all recorded history of Vaati's earlier attacks on the kingdom, and that was part of the reason people lost both the memory, and the fear, they had for the Wind Mage. However, a greater reason by far was the fact that he also supplanted that fear with a new one...the fear of Ganon, the Great King of Evil.
Make no mistake, Vaati threatened Hyrule unlike any before him, but Ganondorf ruled over it for seven long years. Those seven years of darkness, misery and despair left a big black stain on Hyrule's history that every man, woman and child remembered.
And now, 115 years after those dark seven, the legend of Vaati the Wind Mage was all but forgotten...except by the Wind Mage himself, of course.
Even though he was struck down by the Hero of the Minish with a legendary sword bathed in the Four Elements of nature nearly a thousand years ago, Vaati had proven more than once to be a master of cheating death, and not only survived that defeat, and a couple similar defeats after that, but he also appeared to be completely unaffected by the ravages of time: never aging, never fading, never dying...and his sheer stubbornness and demented lust for power had been enough for him to haunt the world once again even after it had forgotten he ever existed.
The Palace of Winds was sustained by his own magic, and it was here where he lingered, remaining unknown and unseen as he watched the lands below; seeking anything that could help him fulfil his own self-proclaimed destiny.
In one of the many, many darkened rooms of this massive ancient stone structure, a pale hand with long sharp fingernails flipped the page of an old book, apparently trying to find a certain page in particular.
It was said in the old days that Vaati could take on many forms: his most feared shape being that of an eldritch monstrosity resembling a gigantic eyeball with huge dark wings, but once upon a time he disguised himself as the King of Hyrule himself, and at another time even as one of Hyrule's princesses, but most often he resembled a pale teenage boy dressed in gold, red and purple, with long lavender hair that flowed in the winds that always accompanied him...and at least in this moment, that was the form he had taken.
"Fascinating..." he mused to himself after flipping to a page displaying the unmistakable sight of the holy Triforce itself depicted in its pages, with a text written in old Hylian inscribed underneath it, a language very few people spoke these days. As it happened, Vaati was one of those few, and had no trouble understanding the old words.
Despite there being no one else around to listen, he read it aloud simply because...well, that was just something he liked doing. Also, he had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with hearing his own voice.
"'The resting place of the sacred triangle, the Sacred Realm, is a mirror that reflects what's in the heart, the heart of the one who enters it. If an evil heart: the realm will become full of evil; if pure, the realm will become a paradise. The Triforce...the sacred triangle', wow, redundant much? Urghh...let's see, 'the sacred triangle...it is a balance that weighs the three forces: Power, Wisdom and Courage. If the heart of the one who holds the sacred triangle has all three forces in balance, that one will gain the True Force to govern all. But...if that one's heart is not in balance, the Triforce will separate into three parts: Power, Wisdom, and'...oh, now we're getting somewhere. 'Only one part will remain for the one who touched the Triforce, the part representing the force that one most believes in. If that one seeks the True Force, that one must acquire the two lost parts. Those two parts will be held within others chosen by destiny, who will bear the Triforce mark on the backs of their hands'..."
His calm demeanor vanished in an instant, and he tossed the book into the nearest wall while his voice raised loud enough to echo throughout the room. "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M DOING, YOU BLASTED TRIANGLE!" he snarled, brandishing his sharpened (almost vampire-like) fangs and growling like an angry beast.
He clenched his left fist, and the mark of the Triforce lit up upon it: its glow strong in the darkened chamber he was in...but only the top part, the Triforce of Power, was glowing brightly...the other two parts notably did not.
Something else in the room did react to it though: right in the middle of the darkened chamber was a golden glow, the exact same golden glow that the trinket on Vaati's hand had...and it also happened to be coming from one of the three sacred triangles...though not the same one: This was the Triforce of Courage, the gift of Farore, an essential part of the full Triforce, yet also the least understood of the three pieces.
While the Triforce of Wisdom was passed on within the royal bloodline, and the Triforce of Power had been kept within the stubborn hand of the thief who originally stole it, the Triforce of Courage had a will of its own, often manifesting through several seemingly unrelated people who proved themselves worthy of it when its need was greatest. In this era, it had manifested on the hand of a common farm boy from a small village, imbuing him with the indomitable will and courage to rise from his humble beginnings and become a hero worthy of standing up to the evil Ganondorf.
...and now, through a strange and chaotic series of events, it had fallen into Vaati's grasp. However...there was a problem.
The Triforce of Courage was in his possession, yes, but also, not really. Instead of showing up at the back of his hand when called upon, the third triangle was suspended inside a magical orb in the very centre of the room Vaati was in, surrounded by four enchanted runestones holding incredibly powerful magic for the sole purpose of making sure the sacred object stayed exactly where it was instead of flying off to who knows where...as it was constantly trying to do.
Vaati circled the imprisoned Triforce piece with loud angry steps, all while glaring at the defiant object with his one visible eye. "I don't understand why you keep refusing me? Power accepted me as its master like a fish to water, but you...you keep burning my hand every single time I touch you...WHY?! Can I only hold one at the time!? Do I need Wisdom here too?! Or..." he clenched his fist nearly hard enough to draw blood. "...do you think I lack courage? Hahah! I'm immortal, I fear nothing! Don't you get it!?"
Just like he'd tried, and failed, to do for several long hours at this point, Vaati once again reached his hand out and grabbed the Triforce of Courage through the bubble, hoping that the infernal thing would finally accept him...and not just further prove that Vaati had no grasp on the definition of insanity...but just like the last seventeen times he tried it, Courage would have none of it and burned right through the skin of his hand as if it was an open flame burning hotter than the sun.
The pain was beyond intense, even for an immortal demon, and he was soon forced to let go of it this time too.
Fortunately for him, any lasting damage to his hand was healed within seconds, but the pain of rejection by his one remaining ticket to godhood pained him far, far more than any physical damaged ever could.
He knew...he just knew that he, and he alone, was destined to become a god, to shed all remaining ties to his mortal form, be free of all limits, and ascend above all others. Vaati also knew that the only thing left in existence that could make such an ambition even remotely possible was the completed Triforce.
So why was one of the three pieces of it denying him his wish?
Filled inside and out with tedious frustration and boiling rage, Vaati clenched his fingers over his skull, breathed deeply...and then screamed skyward, and he screamed so loud that his human-like form began to dissolve into darkened goo and purple smoke until it burst completely, and his true form emerged from inside his human shell. His singular crimson eye glared from the darkness while the rest of his body twisted and morphed without form or consistency as he unleashed what could only be described as an arcane temper tantrum into the room around him: purposelessly blasting magic in all directions, shattering the purple stained glass windows in his image, shooting surges of lightning that shattered the statues also made in his image, and flames that burned the tapestries once again made in his image.
"You accursed piece of trash! I am Vaati the Wind Mage, and I will not be denied!" he bellowed loud enough that his voice could not only be heard, but felt, throughout the entirety of the Palace of Winds, a place larger than many towns in the lands below.
Shifting his inhuman abomination of a form to create an arm out of his main body, Vaati reached out for the Triforce of Courage one more time, despite all logic and reason telling him that he would not succeed this time either.
At this point though, he was simply too angry to care. That or he truly was insane. Either reason (or maybe even both) was quite likely.
Vaati craved the full Triforce, he needed it, and he could never complete a full set if one of the three pieces had the gall to deny him its power like this. He had personally killed the person who previously wielded it, he was the one who manipulated the players of the old prophecy to leave him the victor in the end, and what had he to show for it? Only one out of three?! What kind of divine prank was this!?
The Triforce of Power that he had was a price worthy of respect, sure, and it had made Vaati more powerful than he'd ever been before. In some ways, he was even more powerful now than Ganondorf was when he wielded that very same piece...but it was still not enough, not for Vaati, not for one whose ambitions were limitless!
Fuelled by his deranged desire, he poured as much strength and magic into his hand as possible when he tried to claim it again, this time refusing to let go of it until the Triforce of Courage was his, and his alone!
It burned and seared, adamantly rejecting the Wind Mage's mastery over it with all the wrath of Farore upon him, but Vaati refused to let go. He poured more and more magic into his grip, trying to force the sacred gift of the old gods to mix with his sorcery...but Farore refused him with all her might, cooking and boiling his hand until it exploded into purple ooze that splashed all over the floor like mud.
"THAT'S ENOUGH, YOU ARROGANT CREATURE!" a female voice so loud and so powerful that Vaati felt it reverberate inside his very soul declared, her voice emanating from the defiant Triforce piece itself. "Courage will only be yours when you prove yourself worthy of it. Touch it again before you've proven yourself and I will permanently strip you of your magic and revert you back to your original form!"
...and then She said no more to him.
Vaati's massive red eye widened in sheer terror at what he just heard. That voice wasn't just any angry woman's, that couldn't have been anyone else than the actual Goddess of Courage: Farore, herself, one of the three supreme beings who created this world, speaking directly to him as if he were a little more than a disobedient child. To be fair, compared to her, he very much was.
As powerful as Vaati was right now, not even he dared to provoke the divine wrath of Farore. Her threat was not idle, and not even something that would be remotely difficult for her to do either: all she'd need is to will it, and all that Vaati had fought for would be gone in an instant. And like all people who attained great power, the one thing he feared the most was, of course...losing that power.
Humbled by that threat, Vaati shrunk down to his human form...and allowed himself to seethe, giving the Triforce of Courage one more glare before his body shimmered away and transformed into nothing but wind.
He understood not why the Triforce of Courage had denied him, it made no sense to him...
...and that is why he couldn't claim it.
His physical form manifested itself in another room in the palace, and then slumped down on the nearest chair with a sigh.
The room in question turned out to be his very own personal library, full of all kinds of ancient tomes that he had spent centuries collecting, and also what he considered to be his favourite room in the entire Palace of Winds. Being a thousand-year old antisocial eldritch god-creature, books were one of the few things in the world truly capable of bringing him joy these days.
His love of reading was probably the only part of his old life that had lingered even after he became...well, whatever he is now.
With a flick of his wrist, he manipulated the air around him to make one of the books on a nearby shelf fall off and elegantly fly into his hands so he could read it. The title of the book was 'Princess Zelda III, a biography'.
"Well...that didn't work," he remarked in a quiet voice, sounding strangely nonchalant about what just happened.
Opening the book, he flipped to the page he last visited, using neither memory nor a regular bookmark to find it, but a small arcane mark near the edge of the page that he could remove and reposition to any place he wanted to. That's right, this was a man so utterly reliant on sorcery that he used magic spells instead of a simple bookmark.
"Not yet at least..." a familiar voice replied, echoing across the walls of the library. "Hehihihehehhe...I'm sure eventually you'll-ARGHAAH!"
Having no patience for the intruder's riddles and games, especially in his current less-than-stellar mood, Vaati held out his hand, and instantly the mysterious speaker was dragged out of whatever shadow he had been hiding in and straight into his grip. As for who exactly it was that Vaati was now holding with one hand around his throat, well that turned out to be none other than the mysterious Trickster ghost who had been haunting Princess Zelda for quite some time.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one he spoke to.
"Do you think me in the mood for your annoying little voice right now?" Vaati asked in an icy cold tone while putting down the book he just grabbed on a nearby cupboard, almost daring the Trickster to say something to piss him off.
Despite being currently throttled by Vaati's vice grip, which in itself displayed shockingly high amount of physical prowess from such a wimpy-looking teenage boy, the Trickster didn't exactly breathe, so to speak, so the rough treatment didn't really bother him as much as it would someone more...alive...than he was. "Careful, laddie, you wouldn't want your wee temper to get out of hand again, do you?"
Vaati did not let go, but he did turn his head to look into the Trickster's glowing green eyes. "What do you want with me this time?"
"Simply to offer some advice, my lord...as always. I am nought but your humble servant, after all," he replied with his usual dramatic flare, even using his arms to further articulate every word that came out of his unseen mouth...while also appearing completely unbothered by being throttled.
"Enough with your rambling! Spit it out, 'o humble servant'!" Vaati mocked, clearly not amused by the Trickster's theatrics.
Though it was impossible to see through his red scarf, the Trickster actually smirked at that command. "I have a question for ye: what is the definition of courage? The absence of fear...or the ability to overcome your fear?"
The question sparked a flare of anger, and in the span of three seconds, Vaati had moved from one end of the library to the other at unbelievable speed, slamming the Trickster against a wall hard enough to dent it...and the wall was made of stone, by the way. Arcane flames of bright purple lit up along the Wind Mage's body, especially around the arm that was holding his undead associate, and his eyes, well, eye, began to glow red like the demon he was.
"You tell me," Vaati challenged in a dark tone, snarling. "You may be dead already, but I am more than capable of eradicating every trace of your lingering soul with my magic without even breaking a sweat...and yet, you do not even flinch, do you? Why is that then? Is it courage...or the absence of fear? Stupidity perhaps?"
There was silence from the other end for a moment, and then...
"Hehihihihihehheheheheheheh-HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAH! EXACTLY! Now you're getting it, my lad! Keep it up and soon you'll understand Farore's point of view, her...courage, and claim her gift as your own, hehhihihiheheheh...as for your question directed at wee old me...well...let's put it this way: threatening me with a good time is no threat at all. Trust me, nothing would make me happier than to no longer be forced to wander the plane between life and death for eternity. Eradicating me is a kindness...and we both know that you're not a 'kind' person."
The grip on the Trickster's throat (or well, the closest thing he had to one of those) ended, but not because Vaati simply let go of him, but because Vaati's entire body turned into purple mist that flew back to his previous position and reformed his human body back on the chair. He calmly, and with a certain degree of style, then picked the book back up and resumed reading it.
"I suppose you do have a point," he said without taking his eye off of the text he was reading. "Don't want to give you the satisfaction of resting in peace, now do I? As for the Triforce of Courage, I have waited a thousand years to get the power I seek, I can last a little longer until I figure out what the blasted thing wants from me. At least it's not going anywhere."
The Trickster cracked his skeletal neck back into place and began to float over to where Vaati was reading, using the lantern where his burning green soul was located, to light up the page and look over the Wind Mage's shoulder.
There was a picture on the page, that of the first Hyrulean princess Vaati had met, Princess Zelda III, the one he infamously turned to stone so long ago, sitting on her throne on the day of her coronation into queen...which actually was an event Vaati himself did not witness...due to being more or less dead at the time. It was complicated.
The glowing green orbs that were the Trickster's eyes travelled from the picture on the page to Vaati's face until he asked, "...and what of the Triforce of Wisdom, my lord? Courage won't do you much good without the final piece, correct?"
Vaati gave him a quick side-eye, but then looked back at his book. "My darling princess has only so many places to hide, especially with my new minions on her trail. And even if they fail, I know exactly where she's heading. Being unaccustomed to a place as dangerous as the Monster Wilds, she will seek shelter and protection...and the only place around there that has either of those is one small Hyrulean outpost run by a knight named Alfonzo. That is where I'll be waiting for her."
"Assuming she hasn't been eaten by a monster on the way, or gotten lost," the Trickster 'helpfully' pointed out.
"That girl holds the Triforce of Wisdom in her hand, somehow managed to escape me once, and is an incarnation of the goddess Hylia herself. No mere Bokoblin or Deku Baba will end her life. I won't hear of anything else! Soon enough though, she will be mine, and she and I will-"
A sudden beeping interrupted his monologue, and the red gem at the front of his robe (his oldest and most precious possession in fact) started to flash in sync with the beeping. With a snap of his fingers, he sent out a burst of wind that blew the Trickster away from his personal space (an easy feat considering he was a ghost), and then he tapped the gem with a finger on his other hand, causing a magical hologram of the face of his newest servant: King Bulblin, to appear before him.
"I assume you have good reason to disturb me?" Vaati asked, sounding mildly perturbed.
"We have found Zelda and are in pursuit!" he reported back.
Now that got Vaati's attention, and he could not, in any way shape or form, stop a massive grin from forming on his face after hearing it. "Is that so?"
"Yes, she's fighting back and trying to escape. You want her, come here and take her."
"I'll be right there, don't lose her!"
With that dire warning, the hologram vanished, and Vaati once again put down the book, rose from his chair and stretched a bit, actually making small sparks of electricity surge out of his fingers. Being as overwhelmingly powerful as he was, it was actually quite difficult to contain all the magic that was stored inside of him, so a lot of reactions like that are, in fact, completely involuntary. Goodness knows you don't want to be near him when he loses his temper.
"Hmmp, seems finding the princess will be easier than I thought," he said as he gave the Trickster one quick look before he vanished into thin air...quite literally actually, as he used Farore's Wind on a regular basis...the same spell Zelda had ironically used to escape his attack on the tower.
After Vaati vanished from the room though, the Trickster lingered a bit longer, if only to say, "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, laddie, heehiheiheiheeheh," once Vaati could no longer hear him.
What Vaati of course didn't know, was that the person the Bulblins had found was not the one he was after...
He probably should have been more specific about what Princess Zelda looked like, because by sheer coincidence, Linkle, whom he had not accounted for...nor even knew existed, just so happened to also be a blonde teenage human girl wandering around a place where humans almost never visited. The mixup was therefore quite understandable.
While her fight against the Bulblins had started in her favour, mostly thanks to them vastly underestimating how dangerous a little human girl could be in a fight, their superior numbers had soon enough put Linkle on the run...quite literally actually.
That said, the way she decided to flee was no less ridiculous than anything else she did.
Despite being on foot while being chased by monsters riding giant four-legged boars, Linkle was able to outrun them quite effectively thanks in no small part to her choice in footwear.
While at first glance, Linkle's knee-high boots might not look all that special...they were in truth anything but any old pair of shoes, but the famous Pegasus Boots themselves, enchanted by magic to enable whoever wears them to run at superhuman speeds. How exactly Linkle acquired them was a bit of a story, but one better told at a later date. For now, they served her well when King Bulblin and his pack were out for her blood...or something? Linkle honestly had no idea what they wanted with her.
The Pegasus Boots were not without their drawbacks though: chief among them being that while they enabled her to run really fast, they did not in any way shape or form change her perception of time, so the chance of running headfirst into a tree, wall or something similar was very real, and to make things worse, once she'd start building momentum, making turns was not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do.
The Bulblins were also quite relentless, riding right behind her with stubborn determination to catch her before she got out of their sights. Bulblins also always rode in pairs, which allowed one to steer while the other was free to shoot arrows at whatever they were hunting...which in this case just so happened to be Linkle.
Given that this was a capture mission, not a kill mission, they had switched their usual arrows for smaller, less immediately dangerous ones dipped in a sleep-inducing potion. If even a single one breached Linkle's skin, she would fall asleep on the spot and be completely unable to defend herself.
Luckily for her, hitting her proved to be easier said than done.
Arrows whizzed past her, and very nearly hit her several times, but by sheer luck or maybe evasive skills...or probably a bit of both, she hadn't been hit yet.
Several Bulblins loudly blew into their horns, calling the rest of the pack on her location. By now, over five Bulbos were in hot pursuit, carrying twice as many Bulblins on their backs, and soon enough, King Bulblin himself come upon her tail atop of Lord Bulbo.
Their massive leader didn't have any potion-tipped arrows to shoot, but his ways were more direct. Riding the biggest, and surprisingly enough, the fastest, pig among his tribe, he managed to catch up with Linkle, even with the Pegasus Boots on her feet, and was just about to reach down his massive hand to grab her, when...
...Out of nowhere, a massive gust of wind blasted through the forest, disorienting the Bulblins and scaring the life out of their mounts, making them run off in all directions. For Linkle, the wind pushed her just enough for her to lose her footing, trip over a nearby root, and once again fall face first onto the forest floor.
"Ouch, crap! Why does this keep happening?" she mumbled as she spat out a bit of dirt that got into her mouth, placed her hand on the ground, and pushed herself back up on her feet, her whole body stinging a bit from the fall.
"Led me on quite a chase, didn't you, princess?" a voice asked, one sounding not very human, but something more demonic and unsettling.
Linkle pulled her hood up and turned to the source of the voice, not quite knowing what she was expecting to see, yet also freezing up in awe when she came face to face with a massive flying eyeball that stared down at her from a clearing in the woods...a clearing that wasn't there a second ago, but instead was caused when this creature blasted the trees away to fit its massive size between them.
Some of the Bulblins, including their leader, took positions around the clearing, cutting off her escape routes, but otherwise, obediently waited for their master's command.
"Ooookay...giant talking eyeball. That's new," Linkle mumbled, trying to awkwardly process what in the world was going on. "First off: who, or what, the heck are you? Secondly, can you stop staring? It's creeping me out!"
The eyeball, or as we all know him: Vaati, laughed, "Heheheheh...oh you should know who I am. I am the one who will never die, he who commands the winds themselves, he who will ascend to godhood so very soon, the greatest sorcerer to have ever lived. I am Vaa-"
"Oooooh," Linkle interrupted, placing her gloved hands on her hips and looking a bit smug, as she just came to a conclusion and felt proud of herself for figuring it out. "You're that Ganon fella, aren't ya?"
Several Bulblins flinched, one straight up made a run for it, and quite a few made sure to take a few steps away from Vaati, at the very mention of that name in his presence.
The air became charged with static electricity, making the hairs from Linkle's braids stand out and fizzle, and even she noticed the tension shift quite a lot after she just said that.
Vaati was now not just looking, but glaring, at the hooded girl in front of him, his eye narrowed and he became completely silent...until he erupted with rage and a single loud question. "What did you just call me?!" he screamed, sending gusts of wind in all directions with each word.
"Oh, my mistake," Linkle amended, but then somehow made it even worse with her next assumption. "Then are you one of his minions?"
At this point, all Bulblins but the Bandit Lord himself ran for the hills, and even he looked very uneasy remaining so close to Vaati's physical form. Vaati himself meanwhile was practically bristling with rage, with lightning coursing throughout his furry body and through his golden horns, with one electrical discharge setting a nearby tree on fire.
"Imply something like that again and I will have you incinerated!" he growled loud enough to actually push Linkle back a few steps.
For a second, Linkle was sure the creature before her would have made good on his threat right then and there out of rage...but then, to everyone present's great surprise, he instead managed to calm himself enough to say, "Ahem...excuse me, sensitive subject." before transforming into his far less threatening and smaller human form.
King Bulblin tilted his head in confusion at the sight. He had never seen his master's human form before, and it did not match what he imagined it in his head to be.
Linkle too was in a similar boat. Of all the things to happen to her today, seeing a grotesque eyeball monster transform into a...surprisingly attractive young man, was probably the most unexpected. Hell, he didn't look any older than she herself did right now.
Vaati put a friendly (yet also painfully insincere) smile and calmly approached her, and now put as much charm and seduction he could into his voice when he spoke, "I apologise if I frightened you, my dear. Why don't we start over from the beginning? My name is Vaati. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, your highness."
Linkle could not decide right now if the way he spoke to her was flattering...or just plain creepy? "Err...'your highness'?"
"Of course. Don't think your change in clothes will be enough to fool me, Zelda," Vaati replied, completely unaware of how ironic that statement was. "So why don't you take off that silly hood and reveal your beautiful face?"
Linkle was beyond weirded out right now, with all manner of thoughts going through her head. Who the hell was this guy? Why did he think she was Princess Zelda? And why was he being oddly seductive in the way he spoke? "Look, I'm really flattered, and you are handsome, not gonna lie, but...eh, I think you have me confused with somebody else."
"Nonsense, I know...exactly...who..." his voice trailed off when Linkle actually did as he asked and lowered her hood so he could see her face. "...wait a minute."
He clenched his left fist, making the mark of the Triforce of Power light up on it...but of course, without any of the other pieces nearby, there was no resonance, no recognition, nothing in response to its presence. "You're not Princess Zelda! Who are you?!"
The change in his demour from rageful to charming to rageful again was quite jarring. In Linkle's professional opinion: this Vaati guy was perhaps not...all there. "I'm...Linkle, the Legendary Hero!" she said, adding a bit of energy to her voice at that last part.
The look of absolute disappointment on Vaati's face was nearly comical, and all he could do was sigh. "Typical, just...typical. Another reckless kid dressed in green and calls themselves a hero. Why do people just like you keep popping up everywhere!? Just to spoil my fun?!"
Not sure how to react to that, Linkle just said, "I'm...sorry...maybe?"
Vaati turned his back to her and gave King Bulblin a glare, "You said you had found Princess Zelda, this lost little brat is clearly not her! Which means you sent me all the way out here for NOTHING!"
King Bulblin dismounted his boar and took a few steps towards Vaati...making it quite apparent just how much bigger and taller he was compared to the man he called 'my lord'. "You told us to look for any human girl in this area. Most of my crew don't know what Zelda looks like. Mistakes were made."
"Is that so?" Vaati said sardonically, a crazed smile growing on his face. "Heheh...hehehahhahaahah, so you think that excuses it?! If I lose Zelda because of your incompetence one more time, then you can look forward to spending the rest of your miserable existence as a statue!"
"My lord, it was not-"
With a single hand gesture, Vaati unleashed a bolt of magic from his palm that cleaved off King Bulblin's one remaining horn, sending it flying off of his head. The Bandit Lord clenched his skull in pain and fell to his knees. Vaati's spell somehow was leagues more agonising than when a Lizalfos cut off his other horn with a bladed weapon, as his dark power resonated throughout the Bulblin's body after the damage was done.
"To make myself clear, you big oaf, I don't care what you-"
"Hey, leave him alone!" Linkle suddenly interrupted, having pulled out her crossbow and was now aiming it at Vaati's head.
The outburst from Linkle took both Vaati and King Bulblin himself, completely by surprise. A Hylian defending someone like him was all but unheard of, and as much as it confused him, that one moment of defiance earned a bit of respect for Linkle in the King's eyes.
Funnily enough, the one most surprised by the act was Linkle herself. King Bulblin, as well as the rest of his crew, were monsters, as in actual demons created by the dreaded Bringer of Demise at the dawn of conflict, enemies of the free people of Hyrule, and more than that, had attacked Linkle herself just a minute ago. Even still, there was something about the way Vaati was treating him that deeply disgusted Linkle.
Even if she had just met him, Linkle could already tell Vaati was an evil (and possibly insane) man, and King Bulblin, as ruthless as he might be, was just a servant who hadn't even really done his master wrong. Granted, all of those were near-baseless assumptions, but at the core of the matter, Linkle was a woman of action, and could not bare to see anyone suffer if she could help it, even if it was a monster king.
Vaati gave her a look, "Stay out of this, pest. You have no idea who you're dealing wi- GAHHH!"
Before he could finish that sentence, Linkle pulled the trigger, delivering a crossbow bolt directly into Vaati's throat, right through his adam's apple. Absolutely a definitive kill shot had the target been a mortal being.
The pain shooting through his throat was great, but for a creature like Vaati, it was not nearly enough to kill him. It would not even leave a scar. A brief pulse of magic reverberated through his body, and on contact with the crossbow bolt sticking into his flesh, the pulse completely disintegrated it, erasing the the intruding object into absolute nothingness. The wound healed up a second later, leaving no evidence that he was ever injured to begin with.
All that might have been a bit overkill when he could have simply pulled it out with his hand, but Vaati loved to show off his power at every opportunity presented to him, and this was no different.
"You annoy me," he said to Linkle, somehow managing to sound furious, murderous and bored...all at the same time. In his eye, she was not an enemy, she was just a nuisance.
Linkle trembled a bit at how casually he brushed off what would have to 99% of all people have been a mortal blow...and also by the way he was now glaring at her. Taking a few tentative steps backwards while lowering her crossbow ever so slightly. "What in Hylia's name are you?"
The sight of fear in the defiant child's cyan-coloured eyes brought a smile to Vaati's lips. "I...am a god!"
Unable to think of anything else to do, Linkle raised her weapon and tried to shoot him again, but before she even managed to pull the trigger, Vaati threw a magical orb that hit her right in the chest
Immediately she felt a cold chill ring out from the point of impact, as if blood, muscle and tissue had just been replaced with something far more stale and lifeless...and then the feeling started to spread. She looked down at herself and saw, to her absolute horror, that her body was rapidly turning to stone, reaching around her torso, then to her limbs, removing her ability to move them as the curse progressed.
"No, no, no, no! Screw you, you purple son of a-"
...and before long, the curse reached her face, leaving every single part of her body as a lifeless statue; immobile and unresponsive as stone.
Vaati took a moment to admire his handiwork, walking up to Linkle's petrified form with calm steps. Her face was stuck in an angry pout that made her look strangely adorable despite the morbid circumstances.
With a serene expression on his face, he gently reached out to stroke her stone cheek.
"You certainly are pretty, but I seek a more divine bride than a lowly mortal peasant like you," he said, knowing she could, on some level, hear him even in her current state. "Also, I won't suffer any more would-be-heroes in green clothes. I've dealt with far more of your ilk to last a lifetime...and I've lived through many. So by all means, spend the rest of your existence as a chunk of cold, lifeless, stone...perhaps you'll make it into a museum one day, hehehhahahahahahahahaha!"
For most of what just happened, King Bulblin had just silently observed the events, and was actually dealing with some...complicated feelings about the situation.
He had ever so briefly contemplated switching his allegiance from Vaati by Linkle's show of courage, and by the fact that she, a human, had chosen to stand up for him of all creatures...and also because King Bulblin straight up didn't like or respect Vaati in the slightest. Ganondorf was a tyrant, sure, but he also knew how to inspire loyalty in his servants, Vaati on the other hand...just didn't. Still, at the end of the day, Vaati had also just proven that he was the strongest, and King Bulblin always followed the strongest side, so he decided to remain loyal to him...for now at least.
Vaati's mood took a sudden nosedive back into anger, and he teleported right next to where King Bulblin was standing. "Now that that's taken care off, what are you lot standing around here for? Get back out there and find the real Princess Zelda...NOW! Now, now, now, now!" he demanded, displaying the emotional maturity of a petulant child.
Regardless of his lack of maturity, the Bulblins feared him, and for very good reason, so none of them, not even their king, argued with his order. King Bulblin mounted his pig and blew his horn, signalling the rest of his pack to get moving. However, the encounter with Linkle would remain in his thoughts for quite some time.
Vaati himself didn't linger either, and as soon as he had made clear that he had gotten his will across, he returned to his floating sanctum up in the sky, where he didn't need to deal with annoying mortals pestering him or making his life difficult. Perhaps actually getting a chance to finish reading his book would improve his sour mood? It was as good an idea as any.
Once the Bulblins had left the premisses as well, the only thing left in the clearing was the petrified Linkle, frozen in place, seemingly for all eternity. Vaati's petrification spells were not temporary, and only a really powerful counterspell would be able to reverse the effects.
Only time would tell if such a miracle would come her way...anything was possible, after all.
Author's Notes:
FYI: this chapter ended up being way longer than I intended, but oh well, that's just how things are sometimes.
By the way, I made some small changes to chapter 3: removing all lines implying that Zelda's direct connection to Hylia is common knowledge, since I think it would be more fun for her to learn that as the story progresses.
On top of that, I also added some new characters to the cover art.
Not really that relevant to this chapter in particular but I just wanted this to be written down somewhere: here are the ages of all characters introduced so far from youngest to oldest.
Linkle: 16
Zelda: 17
Link: 18
Impa: 19
Duelia: 27
King Bulblin: 48
Ozshen: 72
Ganondorf: 150 (hasn't aged since he was 35)
Vaati: 1 008 (hasn't aged since he was 15)
Trickster: ?