The last time Link visited Windfall had been more than two months earlier, when, stumped over the location of the last Triforce chart, he had visited a certain teacher to see if he could exchange some joy pendants for rupees, which he desperately needed. Upon seeing the satchel filled with glittering, butterfly shaped necklaces, the school teacher was so elated that she promptly handed over to Link the deed to her own private island. The young boy tried to turn down the offer, assuring her that a rupee or two would be more than enough, but the woman would have none of it. "Besides," she had said, "I kept a little spare change in that hut. Help yourself, darlin'."
It turned out that her "little spare change" turned out to be several hundreds of rupees, and, to Link's utter surprise, beneath the building was a giant labyrinth containing the last Triforce Chart. He promptly took the map to his eccentric friend, Tingle, for deciphering and used the money he found at his own "private oasis" as payment. Luck had been on his side.
However, Link had never been one to trust on luck alone. So when he arrived at the merchant's isle early that morning, the question of where to go first had been obvious: the potion shop.
Not much had changed in Windfall since his last visit, but Doc Bandan's shop was a notable exception. Though the building itself had gone mostly unchanged, the clientele was a different matter entirely. After several visits to the shop months before, Link had begun to suspect that he had been the doctor's only real customer. The sight that met him as he walked up the crowded spiral path almost made him drop his bottles.
A humongous line stretched from within the cramped store, down the spiral path, and threatened to enter the bay area. As Link walked along the column of people—most of which were elderly men with long, crusty beards and pointed hats—several turned their heads in his direction and others, crankier than most, actually spoke out to him.
"Hey. Hey, YOU! Boy, where are you going?"
"If it's this store you're heading too, you better stop right there boy, there's a line in case you didn't notice!"
"Hey, where—where is he going? No cutting you little runt, no cutting!"
Link pretended not to hear as he entered the shop, a light blue smoke trailing out the doorway as he passed. Before continuing, he stopped to tuck his nose beneath his under shirt. Link still remembered his first visit. Old Doc Bandam had failed to inform him that the smoke billowing from his concoctions and that filled the windowless shop to the brim was a certifiable hallucinogenic. In his defense, Link doubted that the potion master was even aware of it himself because he walked around with his nose and mouth unprotected. Even the men in line stuck their large noses in their robes.
Link approached the counter and found Doc Bandam haggling with an older woman over the price of a blue potion.
"Two-hundred and fifty rupees?! Are you crazy?!" screamed the woman in the witch's outfit.
"Madam, how dare you attempt to put a price on something that is so obviously art!"
"Me? You're the one charging two-hundred and fifty rupees for that blasted potion!"
"Madam, if you only knew the trouble I endure—on a regular basis, I may add—in order to obtain the ingredients to make this magical elixir, then you would think twice before questioning the ethics behind my pricing…"
"Ingredients? Ingredients! There's but one stinking ingredient in the damned thing! And you don't even gather it yourself, you pay sailors to go out and find it for you!"
"And do you know how much I have pay said sailors, madam? I highly doubt you do…"
"Stop calling me 'madam,' you bald-headed little ogre!"
"Ogre?! Ogre! Madam, I do believe I feel a price hike coming on…"
At this the old lady quickly swung her wrinkled face towards Link, much to the boy's surprise. "Can you believe what this man is charging me?!"
Somewhere down the line, an elderly male voice shouted angrily, "Ah, stick a toad in it, you old hag, we all gotta pay the same price!"
Link stuttered an "um" as the woman's nose closed in on his face. Luckily, the potion master interrupted her inquiry.
"Now madam, let's not bring a child into our altercation," he said, turning to Link, "by the way, boy, there's a line to get in here, in case you didn't…" He squinted his eyes as recognition slowly dawned upon him. "Link? That you?"
"Hi, Doc." said Link through his tunic.
"Well, how are you doing, my boy? How can I help you?"
The old hag couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Eh? You haven't finished with me yet!"
"Madam, please!" snapped Bandam angrily, "don't you see that I'm speaking with the boy who discovered blue chu jelly? If not for this little one, you would have to buy a bottle of green potion to heal your magic energy AND a bottle of red to treat your arthritis! Now, if you'd excuse me…."
The woman's jaw slowly dropped and she spent the rest of Link's visit staring at him. A wave of excitement flowed through the line as the news spread.
Doc Bandam leaned down on his counter. "So, what brings you to my studio of chu delights, my boy?"
"Just came here to buy four bottles' worth of blue potion, but two-hundred and fifty's kind of pricey. Maybe I'll just take two…."
"Oh, nonsense! If ever someone merited the on-the-house treatment, it's you, Link."
"Thanks, Doc. I'll just leave these bottles here and pick them up later. I don't want to take any more of your time."
The potion master looked at the boy unbelievingly, then burst into maniacal laughter. Everyone in the room who wasn't Bandam took a half pace back as the doctor choked on his own amusement. After a long while, he said, "Wait right there!"
He swiped the bottles from the counter and ran off to the other side of the store. Five minutes later, he was back with four bottles of blue potion still hot from the flask. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Doc." said Link, heading for the door.
"No problem, my boy! Just tell your friends about me and my jelly masterpieces, okay?!"