The Minish Cap

LLong before The Minish Cap, the legend goes, the Picori, a tiny people from the sky, gave a hero of Hyrule a blade and a golden power called the Light Force. He used them to lock an army of monsters in the Bound Chest. Hyrule holds a festival in their honor every year. At the hundredth festival, the winner of the sword tournament, Vaati, breaks the Picori Blade, opens the chest in search of the Light Force and turns Princess Zelda to stone.

King Daltus sends Link, grandson of the royal swordsmith Smith, to find the Picori and have the blade reforged. In the Minish Woods Link meets Ezlo, a Minish sage who has been turned into a talking cap and can shrink Link to the size of the Minish, as the Picori call themselves. Vaati was once Ezlo's apprentice and got his power by stealing Ezlo's Mage's Cap.

The Minish Cap is the first of the Four Sword stories. In it the Picori Blade is reforged with the power of four elements into the Four Sword. Vaati becomes the wind sorcerer of Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures. It comes after Skyward Sword and the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule and before Four Swords.