Link stared at the Minish for a moment, then sighed and poked at Sidon's arm to get his attention.
'How screwed are we?' he signed, which made Sidon wince.
"Mind your language, please", Sidon said, making Link roll his eyes. "Don't despair yet, I might still be able to handle this."
Link gave him a 'go ahead', then crossed his arms and waited. He took notice of the fact that the Minish hadn't exclaimed in sudden understanding at his signing either, despite the fact that they had clearly been paying attention. So that wasn't useful either; not that he had expected it to be anyway after Slateri's complete lack of understanding.
Sidon cleared his throat. "Do you speak Hylian?"
That was his plan?
The Minish looked at him uncomprehendingly, just like before. They glanced back at the others, who were working really hard on avoiding eye contact, most likely so that they couldn't be dragged into this. Link didn't blame them.
"That's a no then", Sidon said, then asked the same in Zora. Alright, now that was more like a plan.
It didn't work either. Sidon wasn't done, though, and asked again in what Link recognized as Rito, even if he didn't speak it. Still nothing. Sidon looked hesitant, then spoke again, haltingly, in what Link assumed to be Goron, judging from the cracking and throaty way it was pronounced. He had to admit that he was impressed; he hadn't known Sidon spoke so many different languages. Had to be the decades of royal education. Too bad that didn't work either.
Sidon started to look despairing, but cleared his throat once more and let out very familiar sounding gurgling shrieks, which made Link stare at him with wide eyes. Was Sidon… speaking Lizalfos? They had a language? They weren't just shrieking nonsense that didn't mean anything? Were they... actual people?
Whatever the case, it didn't yield results. The Minish looked vaguely impressed at the display of so many different sounds, but clearly didn't understand any of it. Sidon sighed, and turned to look at Link again.
"I'm unable to handle this", he said miserably. Link smiled and patted his arm comfortingly.
'If it makes you feel better, I'm very impressed', he signed, which brought Sidon's beautiful smile back. At least something was working correctly.
He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and the both of them turned to look at the Minish. They looked determined now, and proceeded to point at the two of them, then at themselves, then towards the village.
Well, that message was very universal and clear. Link smiled and nodded, while Sidon gave a relieved laugh.
They followed the Minish, really hoping the mess could be solved by that. Somehow.
ooooo
It didn't take them long to be led to the biggest building in the village. It looked very... official inside: there were drawings of same-looking Minish on the walls, a vase of flowers at every doorway, and there were half a dozen Minish running to and fro with papers in their arms. The town hall, probably.
The Minish leading them took them to one of the doors and knocked nervously. They had to wait a couple of minutes for an answer, but finally another Minish opened the door, took one look at Sidon and immediately squeaked and shut the door in their faces. The Minish with them looked sheepish and knocked again. The door was opened to a crack, the Minish inside peeked out warily, and the one with them seized the chance to talk to them before they could retreat again. After what was presumably an explanation, the Minish inside looked the two of them over, gave them a hesitant smile, and opened the door wider to invite them in.
Link and Sidon glanced at each other, feeling hopeful but apprehensive, and then stepped in. Their escort took this chance to flee the scene. Link couldn't blame them this time either.
The Minish official cleared their throat.
"I speak little Hylian. You speak Hylian?" they asked, much to Link and Sidon's relief.
"Yes, and I'm so very glad that there's someone here who understands us!" Sidon said enthusiastically. "I'm Prince Sidon of the Zora, and this is Link. We're here because-"
The Minish official looked increasingly more bewildered, and Link tapped on Sidon's arm to stop the onslaught of words and to catch his attention.
'Speak slower. I don't think they understood all of that', he signed. He was more than used to seeing that particular brand of bewilderment on peoples' faces after they claimed to understand sign language, but apparently weren't as good at it as they had thought. He would recognize it anywhere.
Sidon rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Ah, pardon my enthusiasm", he said, slower this time. "I'm Sidon, the Zora Prince. This is Link. Nice to meet you."
The Minish nodded slowly, processing the words.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Officeri, I am, uh, leader of town", the Minish, Officeri, said. "I welcome you to Stable Town. Um, enjoy your stay?"
Their speech was very slow, had a heavy accent and, worryingly, mostly consisted of common phrases that they had probably memorized from wherever they had learned Hylian. Link dearly hoped that it wasn't all they knew.
Sidon seemed to have noticed the same, as he looked a little wary as he spoke, oh so slowly and carefully.
"Thank you, Officeri. I take it that it's uncommon for Minish to speak Hylian?" he asked.
Officeri bit their lip in thought, then nodded. "Yes, uncommon. Not visitors in many, many years. Only learn if, uh, in office. Why Slateri not give you nut?"
Link and Sidon looked at each other in confusion. Nut? What and why? Link gestured at Sidon to ask, which he did promptly.
Officeri looked equally confused, and somewhat disappointed. "Slateri give visitors nut to speak Minish. You not see Slateri?"
"We did see Slateri but we didn't receive any nuts", Sidon answered, while Link took a moment to mentally berate Slateri for apparently not doing their job. He took another moment to feel regret for not using any nuts in their dinner or breakfast; at least then he could have lucked out and accidentally used the correct one.
"You don't suppose anyone has any of those nuts in here?" Sidon asked, although he didn't seem particularly hopeful. Link wouldn't have even bothered with the question, himself.
"No, only Slateri", Officeri answered after a long while of pondering. "I send, uh… messenger? To visit Slateri and ask nut. You wait and visit town? I come with you and speak?"
Link and Sidon, once more, glanced at each other in silent communication. Link didn't particularly feel like walking back to Slateri's house, so he would gladly accept someone else doing it. And since they didn't speak Minish, they needed Officeri's help if they wanted to accomplish anything while they waited. He nodded, and Sidon smiled.
"We accept, thank you very much."
ooooo
After sending a messenger to Slateri, Officeri took them to what was presumably a restaurant. The both of them were happy to see food, even though Sidon had to once more make-do with not getting fish. He was much too polite and diplomatic to say anything about if after his initial inquire about fish was met with head shakes, so he just ate what he was given and managed to look content with it. Link, on the other hand, enjoyed the meal immensely; it consisted of nuts, seeds, and flower petals, and was seasoned and baked just so. He wondered if he could get the recipe once they were better able to communicate with their hosts, or if it was a trade secret.
After that Officeri led them around the town, trying their best to understand and answer Sidon's endless stream of questions about the architecture, the culture, the clothes, and whatever else he asked about. From Officeri's haltingly spoken explanation Link managed to piece together that the Minish had magical abilities that both allowed them to hide from big people as long as they didn't stick out too much from their surroundings, and also made the big people subconsciously avoid any places with enough Minish in it, thus making it virtually impossible for their villages to be accidentally trampled despite the big people not noticing them. If they didn't have that, they would only be able to live in places that big people didn't frequent, so it was convenient and logical.
The two of them were also introduced to various Minish. Officeri's wife, Threaderi, was a seamstress and gifted Link with Minish leafwear, which he changed into right away. For some unexplainable reason he longed for the hat to be green, but he was happy with anything when it was free; besides, he could have it dyed in Hateno if the feeling persisted. Threaderi didn't have anything to fit Sidon, but she promised to have an outfit ready for him by tomorrow. It's not like they could leave anytime soon anyway, not without the nut to help them understand Minish, so it was very likely they would still be here at that time. They needed to visit the stable, too, and that would likely take long.
Another Minish they met was a merchant, Scavenri. Turned out that at least the currency was still rupees even here. Link idly wondered if the Minish rupees would grow big with them, or stay as tiny shards. After all, their belongings had all shrunk with them, so there was a chance it worked the other way around too.
Scavenri had interesting wares. He apparently scavenged in the forest and by the stable for unusual goods, such as human tableware (according to him, spoons were super popular among commoners, while knives were wanted by other merchants), bird eggs (they were tough to acquire due to their size and the height of the trees), crickets (Link bought cricket legs to sample later, they looked delicious), sugar cubes (there was a long list of requests for that), occasionally mice (not today, to Link's regret), pins, scraps of leather, ribbons (Threaderi usually bought all the cloth items he brought in), and whatever else interesting he could find. He reminded Link of Beedle, who he was quite fond of, and he made a mental note to leave him a stash of small goods somewhere once he was big again. He could easily acquire a bunch of sugar and he would bet the Minish would be ecstatic were he to leave a colourful handkerchief for their clothing use.
After Scavenri, they met Nuteri, who was in charge of the food gathering troops. She and her troop of gatherers went into the forest to collect nuts, seeds, berries and flower petals for the citizens; their expeditions typically lasted a couple of days because of the locations of the gathering spots. It was a very admirable and dangerous job because of all the bigger creatures the foods attracted. Link could see himself being a guard for these troops, were he actually a Minish. Maybe he would volunteer for it one day, just for the experience.
Then there was Buildeson who was a construction worker, and made Link wonder whether Tarrey Town had Minish in it or not. Probably not, since it was so new and even short distances were time-consuming for the Minish, and news likely traveled slowly. Apparently Buildeson was considered odd because of his chosen name, which made Link realize that he really had become Bolson Construction's official recruiter since he hadn't even noticed anything off; he was too consumed by the thoughts of welcoming this new 'son' to the family. He would… probably need to talk to someone about it. Maybe Zelda – she was good at dealing with his oddities.
After those two, they met Slateri, who-
Wait.
"Oh, Slateri!" Sidon said enthusiastically, looking about ready to scoop the panting Minish into his muscular arms. "You arrived much quicker than I would have thought physically possible, I must say I'm very impressed."
Link only wanted to know whether or not Slateri actually brought the nuts they needed. If not, he would scream. He would scream so loudly.