The arrival of the morning was blatantly obvious in the Minish Stable Inn: when the big people awoke and started moving around the whole place shook, and when they spoke to each other the voices were booming like thunder after the silence of the night. Link woke up with a start, his heart hammering and the Master Sword gripped tightly in his hand without any conscious action on his part. He was on his feet and ready to fight before he had the slightest recollection of where he was and why. He looked around frantically and was very confused by his surroundings – particularly the lack of enemies – for a few seconds, until his brain finally caught up with his body and reminded him of the situation at hand.
He slowly lowered the sword, unsure if he should feel foolish for overreacting or glad that his survival instincts were as sharp as ever still. He hadn't woken up battle-ready for a while now, not since his after-Ganon crusade to make Hyrule safer for Zelda to rebuild her kingdom. He had had a break from sudden danger ever since, only finding trouble when he looked for it or in places where it was perfectly reasonable to expect it. Even his nightmares had gotten less intense and less frequent over time, diminishing his reactions to waking up from them to mere gasps and tenseness rather than jumping out of his bed with a weapon in hand. Until now.
"Link? Is something the matter?" Sidon's sleepy voice called from behind him, making Link realize that not only had he gotten ready for a fight, he had also positioned himself to defend Sidon. That was definitely a habit from his travels with Zelda, and considering that Sidon wasn't up and alert yet, despite Link looking like he was about to charge something, it was likely a good habit to have if he wanted to keep the Prince alive. Of course, he didn't know if Sidon's lack of reaction was because of him being unaccustomed to sleeping with one eye open, or because he had been perfectly aware of where he was and the place lacking danger. Link sighed deeply to himself to get his muscles to relax, then turned to look at Sidon who seemed mildly concerned for him.
'No. Fine', Link signed sloppily and lowered his sword. Sidon's eyes followed the movement, but thankfully he didn't comment; instead he gave Link a cheerful smile that hid his obvious tiredness somewhat. Now that Link looked, he could see that Sidon's scales looked rougher than usual and his lips were a bit chapped. He may have stared at the lips for longer than was proper because Sidon gave an awkward cough and sat up, which finally made Link avert his eyes. For now.
"Ah, yes, I probably don't look my best right now", Sidon said, and rubbed a hand over his chest, which produced curious faint snapping sounds thanks to the dry scales. Link almost reached out to try it for himself until he remembered that it would be both rude and a somewhat bad an idea if he didn't want to complicate things between them. "I kept waking up to keep myself hydrated to my best ability, but I must have fallen into deep slumber towards the end and now I'm dryer than ideal."
Link nodded, and wrenched his eyes off his friend's… scales. As in not his chest. In any case, his eyes were no longer on Sidon and instead he located the water bowls and walked over to them while Sidon stretched. One was empty but the other was almost half full. He carried the latter over to Sidon, who accepted it with a bright smile.
"So, what is our plan for the day?" Sidon asked while dipping his hands into the water, patting the wet hands against his body, and repeating the process again and again. It was hypnotic, but Link had the presence of mind to hear the question and answer it, all the while watching Sidon's actions.
'Eat breakfast here, go back to the town, eat there again, visit Threaderi, ask for directions to the next place, then go there. Not necessarily in that order', he answered, then gave it more thought and added: 'Soak you.'
Sidon chuckled. "That sounds like a good plan. I'm all for it."
ooooo
Their breakfast was a quick affair, and Sidon ate as much fish as he could possibly fit in his stomach, knowing he would only be getting it smoked, dry and in small portions from then on. Well, he actually bought one last load from the vendors, which he planned to eat once they were in the city and as such it wouldn't be an extra burden for long, but that would be the last of it.
Their trip back down was mostly uneventful; Sidon only gave a fright to a few early Minish that were on their way up, but that was it. On the floor they had another encounter with a big person stomping by, which may or may not have caused Link to dash- to calmly but quickly walk out of the door in a dignified manner. That was his story and he was sticking to it.
The tunnel was abuzz with Minish who were headed to the Inn, but it was also cooler than yesterday because the sun and the crowd hadn't yet warmed the place up after the night. That was truly a blessing because Sidon still didn't look his best and definitely didn't need to have it made worse. The water treatment from the morning had helped, but he was in dire need of a long soak to actually fix the damage. It didn't make Link feel better about the forced decision to take Sidon with him to the Lost Woods, but he tried to tell himself that Sidon's condition was mostly caused by the extra heat of the inn; he would be totally fine in a lush forest. Hopefully.
Being in the Stable Town was a much different experience now that they understood the language. Sidon still stood out like a sore thumb, but it seemed like many of the Minish had heard the news of their existence by now and were staring and whispering like any proper townsfolk, and of course conveniently gathering wherever they were sighted. Link hadn't realized it the last time because he hadn't know how big a population the town contained, but now it was obvious that yesterday the Minish had avoided them when they could; there were suddenly large crowds of people everywhere, unlike yesterday's relatively quiet streets. Kids kept running up to them to ask the questions the adults didn't dare to ask, and Sidon answered them all happily and to his best ability. Nobody understood Link's signing. He still kept trying, if only to prove Sidon wrong, but so far he had no luck.
They dropped by Threaderi's shop to get Sidon's leafwear, and sweet Hylia was the woman talkative now that they understood each other. She even did her best in including Link in the conversation by asking a lot of yes or no questions that he could answer by simply nodding or shaking his head. It was… considerate, Link supposed, even if he would rather have quietly escaped the onslaught of words. He wasn't fond of having long conversations with people he didn't know, especially when they didn't understand him.
Sidon looked handsome as ever in his new clothes, though. He was so tall that the usual model of leaves that go from shoulders to the floor would have looked awkward, so Threaderi had improvised and made him a short poncho-like top and a knee length skirt-like bottom. It left Sidon's midriff bare and Link approved of it wholeheartedly. Ten out of ten, Sidon should never ever cover his stomach with anything, ever. He also got a green ribbon on the end of his tail instead of the standard triangle hat, probably because the hat wouldn't likely stay on his head. It was damn adorable. Link took a sneaky picture with his slate and made sure to save it to keep it forever.
"You look dashing, sweetie!" Threaderi said and clapped her hands in delight. "Why, if I wasn't married I would snatch you right up!"
...That was another Minish woman fancying his… friend. Link would be disappointed if there wasn't a Prince Sidon fan club here by the time he visited again.
"Thank you, you're too kind!" Sidon said with a wide smile, and turned to look at Link. "What do you think, my friend?"
I would snatch you right up too and I'm in fact single, was what Link didn't say. Instead he gave a thumbs-up and a nod, which seemed to delight Sidon immensely.
"I'm glad! And what's better, we match now", Sidon said happily, and nuzzled the top of Link's head, almost dislodging his hat. Link tried his very best to appear largely unaffected and to not read too much into any of it. But inwardly he was screaming and wanted to kiss the face rubbing against his hat and tell Sidon about the Hylian custom of "a couple look". But he didn't. He didn't want to ruin this.
"Yes, you two look perfectly fashionable together!" Threaderi chimed in, clearly as clueless as Sidon. Then again, considering that most of the Minish wore the same kind of clothes, it wasn't a surprise that they didn't have that particular custom in common with Hylians.
'Can we leave before she starts talking again?' Link asked, eager to move on from the dangerous topic and from this place. Sidon grimaced, and then looked at Threaderi and seemed like he was going to apologize for Link's rudeness. Then he visibly realized that Threaderi was actually clueless to Link's words and swallowed what he had been about to say. Smooth.
"Link, ah, reminded me that we have other places to be", Sidon said, and made his excuse seem very polite, too, with his dazzling Prince Smile, "We thank you kindly for your generosity and the pleasant company. It was lovely seeing you again."
Threaderi looked flattered and gushed a few compliments of her own as she led them out. They would, of course, always be welcome to visit her whether they bought anything or not, and she would tell her husband hi for them in case they didn't see him before they left, and so on and so forth. Link was starting to believe they would never be let go, but thankfully she didn't do the thing where you're trying to leave but the other person keeps on hanging by the doorway and talking despite you trying to inch away and saying the appropriate conversation enders that should clue them in on the fact that you want to leave already. She just told them bye, waved, and went back in. Yes, they could visit her again sometime, she was sensible enough. Link approved of her.
Their next stop was the public bathhouse to soak Sidon up. They had to rent out the family pool because Sidon was simply too big for any bathtub meant for a single Minish, but at least they could both fit into it comfortably, so that was fine. Link smelled like smoke and fish from working with Sidon's rations, so it was for the best that he cleaned up too while he had the chance. That, and there was no way he was skipping the opportunity to bathe with Sidon, even if the activity had to be kept perfectly innocent.
After a good hour of soaking, and Link trying not to make it weird while inwardly enjoying it a little too much, Sidon looked good as new. The Minish who had to clean the pool would likely have an interesting experience picking up the loose scales that were left behind in abundance. Though who knew, maybe they would make a profit by selling exotic Zora scale jewelry or something if they were a resourceful person. That'd be fun to find out about the next time.
They stopped by Scavenri's place to have lunch with him, partly because according to Sidon it would be an etiquette blunder to bring one's own meal into a restaurant, meaning his fish, and partly because Link wanted more of the tasty grasshopper legs he had bought the last time. They also figured he'd be able to give them directions to the next place.
They were right.
"The path is well worn, so you shouldn't have a problem following it to the next town", Scavenri said as he pointed out the route on the map he had just sold them. "The actual problem is that you have to cross the big people road and this is the busiest part of it. They don't frequent the woods itself, so the deeper you go the safer you are, but this part here is in constant use. Since you won't make it to the next town today anyway, my recommendation is to go to this spot here and camp out until the nightfall and then cross safely. Mind, you shouldn't usually travel at night, but in this case it's actually the safer option. There aren't many hazards on the big people road during nights, and running into a few Chuchus is definitely preferable to being stepped on."
Link dropped his grasshopper leg on the table so he could quickly sign to Sidon: 'Ask him about the Chuchus!'
Sidon looked baffled, but did as asked. "Link wants to inquire about the Chuchus. I… assume he means the fact that they're rather on the large side compared to our current size?"
Link nodded, back to chewing his food while paying rapt attention.
Scavenri looked equally confused, but then shrugged. "Chuchu come in different sizes. They get bigger by absorbing each other or spare pieces of the smashed ones, but once they reach a certain size they stop paying attention to us. The worst ones are about thrice as tall as us, much like you, Prince Sidon. This close to the big people they don't typically get to grow very big before they're smashed again, so we have lots of… Minish sized around, you could say. They're mighty useful though, so no complaints here."
Link nodded thoughtfully, thinking back to the Electric Chuchu jelly lanterns in the tunnel, and the Fire Chuchu jelly that substituted actual fire in Slateri's house. He imagined the Minish used Ice Chuchu jelly in their ice boxes, should they need them, although that kind would likely be uncommon because making it would require something to freeze it with. Maybe they had an ice arrow stored somewhere for that purpose? If not, Link could make a fortune by selling them one…
In the end Scavenri made a lot of helpful little marks on their new map, should they need shelter or food or water in the nearby parts of the woods. He also advised them to ask the food gatherer troops or his colleagues in other towns for more information as they progressed, since he had only traveled so far. Link and Sidon thanked him heartily for all the help, and finally headed out of the town and towards the forest.
Time to track down Slateri the First.