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Link spat out the dirt in his mouth and pushed himself up from the ground. The sparkling remains of his doubles shone all around him, thrown by the final shockwave.
A red, gold-brimmed cap lay on the ground before him; beyond it, Zelda was getting up as well. She looked around worriedly before spotting him and breaking out into a smile.
"You did it!" She grinned. "You beat them!"
Link got to his feet and yelped at the pain in his right ankle. He hadn't landed very well- explosions tended to do that. Still, Ezlo was going to yell about it and that wasn't going to be fun. Say, why was he being so quiet all of a sudden?
Had the boom gotten him?!
Link reached up and pulled the hat off his head. He shouldn't be able to do that! Ezlo always stuck himself on with his magic!
The hat was all floppy and weird when Link held it up in front of himself. The warmth that had always come from it was gone, leaving nothing but distressingly normal cloth. Link's lip wobbled; he sniffled.
"Ezlo?"
The hat didn't say anything. Link whimpered. "Ezlo?" he repeated. "What's wrong? Are you mad at me? Why won't you talk?"
"Because that is not me, dear child." a voice said. It sounded like Ezlo, but without the squawkiness. Link looked to the sound to see an old man standing by one of the bushes. He didn't look like a hylian- Link squinted, trying to see past the old man's droopy eyebrows and long face hair.
He was a Minish!
"Ezlo?" Link asked. The old man nodded.
"Tis I. I must thank you, for-"
"Wow, you're old!" Link said. He limped over and circled Ezlo, poking him a few times for good measure. "And boney. Granpa would be mad. He'd make you eat lots and lots!"
Ezlo sighed. "This is what I get for working with children. Come, I must-"
There was a groan from below. Link turned to look.
Vaati was hanging over one of the branches of the nearest bush. Or at least Link assumed it was Vaati, given the dark clothes, but they didn't look much like Vaati.
It was a Minish with shoulder-length hair and bangs cut straight across their face. Ezlo made a surprised noise when he noticed them and carefully scooped them up off of the branch, shooing Link backwards to set Vaati down on the ground. He made some funny hand movements and mumbled something, and a moment later Vaati was normal size like the rest of them, though their hylian form didn't look the same as it had before. They looked way friendlier now, Link decided, but he still wasn't sure if they were nice or not. Ezlo was always going on about how Vaati didn't mean any of the things they did or said, but they'd still been a real butthead and they turned Zelda to stone! Not cool!
"Are they gonna be okay?" Link asked. Vaati didn't look very good.
Link tried to get closer but his ankle buckled and he fell down. Zelda ran over to pull him up. "Link!"
Warmth spread from where she touched him like it always did. Link liked touching her- Zelda gave the best hugs, even better than Granpa's. She was always so warm and she smelled really good too. Kind of like flowers. She said it was the castle soap but King Daltus used the same kind and he didn't smell anywhere near as good.
"I'm fine, all I did was twist my ankle," Link whined when Zelda kept hold of him to help him over to Ezlo and Vaati.
"Whatever, maybe I just wanna hug," huffed Zelda. Link made a face and tried to peel her off.
"Eww, you'll give me cooties!"
"I'm a princess! I don't get cooties!" Zelda yelled, shoving him away and making him trip again. Ezlo rolled his eyes, holding his hands over Vaati. Link picked himself back up onto his hands and knees and crawled over the few feet it took to sit down next to Vaati.
"Are they okay?"
Ezlo hummed. "They've taken considerable damage from the dark magic they allowed into their body. I am doing my best to mitigate the effects, but healing magic has never been my specialty."
Link frowned, and looked over at the hat on the ground. "Hey Ezlo, how does the Minish Cap even work?"
"Ah- well, it holds the power of wishes, dear boy. The wearer makes any wish they like and the hat will do its best to provide."
Okay. "Then can I wish them better?"
Ezlo looked up, surprised. "You would do that? Even after what they did to the kingdom?"
Link shrugged. "Well, yeah. If Zelda's fine with it then I don't see why not; they didn't really try an' hurt anyone 'sides her."
Both of them looked to Zelda. She nodded. "I don't mind."
Link nodded and scooted across the yard until he could reach the cap. When he touched it, the fabric rippled and warped, changing into a long, pointed green hood with little straps that looked like they'd button onto Link's overalls. "Wizard!" Link grinned, buttoning it on. He pulled it up onto his head and closed his eyes, doing his best to think of Vaati being totally healed and okay. Oh, and fixing the ruined garden would probably be a good idea too.
"Zelda can I have some help?" he asked. He wasn't very good at picturing things that weren't things he could see.
"Yeah!" Zelda pattered over and Link unbuttoned one side of his new hood, holding it out to cover her head too.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
Together, they thought of healing and regrowth and everything good, and Link squeezed his eyes shut to focus better. He could feel something magic happening, but couldn't tell exactly what. When he opened his eyes, Vaati had opened theirs as well and Ezlo was helping them to sit up. As Link watched, he felt something at his hip warm- inside his kinstone pouch!
He stuck his hand in and fished around until he felt the warm stone, pulling it out to look at it. A blue stone, edged with gold. He didn't remember finding it anywhere, but Link knew enough about kinstones by now to understand what this one represented.
A choice- an important one. Whatever he decided here would have consequences.
He could keep the stone unfused, and things would stay the same, or he could fuse it and move down a different path. No way of knowing which was the right choice....
Actually no, he knew what the right choice was.
Link walked over- Ezlo smiled at him through his beard and Vaati glanced up once before quickly looking away. Link cocked his head to the side, considering. He looked to Zelda, who nodded.
"Umm, Vaati?" Link fidgeted with the stone in his palm. Vaati looked up again.
"Yeah?"
"So uh- 'Elda an' I aren't mad at you or anything so..." he stuck out his hand, holding out the kinstone so Vaati could see it. "Wanna play?"
Vaati stared for a moment, but slowly, hesitantly...they produced a stone of their own. As the pieces fit together, dissolving glimmering light over their outstretched hands, Link saw his smile mirrored on Vaati's face and grinned even wider.
It had been the right choice.