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You told me, Master, that I was to content myself forever, gazing at something I could never have? Knowing that all my heart’s desires were within arm’s reach, but forbidden to do anything?
You told me that I was not ready? That I was not meant to hold this power? Crafted by our people’s hands, but bestowed upon another race?
You told me that we were to serve the giants that dwelt above, without acknowledgement? Lieges, lap-dogs, invisible slaves? Is this what we have been reduced to?
How contemptible.
I see how they act towards one another. Look at their cruelties, Master! What did they do to deserve our servitude?
But perhaps…
Perhaps they are not wrong.
I remember what you foresaw that night. What you showed me as a warning.
A warning? No, Master. It was enlightenment.
One of them will come forth, born of the desert, with a thirst no water can quench. Clenched in his hand is power.
His thirst and mine are one. I feel it at my throat already.
What is wrong with desiring more from a life that has given you so little? What is wrong with taking from those too weak to protect what they have?
But soon I shall be greater than even he.
Soon I shall be greater than all men, all things, living or dead, man or Minish. And then you and your hollow words shall be naught but wind.
“Do not taunt me, Vaati.”
Link looked up. His talking-cap companion was muttering in his dreams again.
“Hey!” the young boy shouted, and Ezlo woke up with a start.
“Huh? Whaddaya want, kid?”
“You doin’ alright up there, Ezlo?”
Ezlo turned his head down until he could see the boy. The kid’s face was impossible to resist, especially when he was so concerned. He couldn’t possibly tell him…
“I’m doing fine.” he said, with an uncharacteristic gentleness that surprised Link. “Just…thinking about something again.”
Link breathed a sigh of relief. For a change, Ezlo wasn’t shouting at him!
But then he heard uncertainty in Ezlo’s voice. Something he had not heard since their meeting with Vaati.
“You sure?” he said.
“Yeah.”
Ezlo looked down at Link again and noticed something. From the way the light shone and from the angle of his vision, Link almost looked like…
Link’s eyes met Ezlo’s again. “Ezlo?”
“Argh! No time to waste, my boy!” Ezlo jerked up again, his beak a straight line from the ground. “We’ve got to stop Vaati, remember? Beat it!”
“Yes, sir!”
Ezlo would have smiled at that, if he could.