Link looked up to Sidon's angry face, feeling both guilty and instantly defensive despite knowing full well the grasshopper ride had been a mistake. He kind of shrugged sheepishly but didn't say anything to defend himself with or to apologize. He was allowed to be reckless if he wanted to; Sidon wasn't in any position to tell him what to do.

Sidon's eyes narrowed, and for a brief flash Link could see Mipha with the exact same expression. Huh, apparently he had pissed off her too, at some point in the past. Too bad the memory didn't elaborate on itself, although he supposed being able to focus on the here and now was probably for the best.

"Did you even stop to consider the consequences of your actions back there?" Sidon asked, voice calm and steady despite his obvious anger. It was kind of impressive. "You have seen grasshoppers before and you should know how high they can jump. And how fast they are. We were lucky that this one was content to hop in circles so I had the opportunity to shoot it, because if it had hopped away in one direction there would have been no way I would have been able to catch up to it. You would have been long gone."

Oh. Right, Link had no idea how long he had been holding onto the rapidly moving grasshopper. Even one leap was enough to cover a distance that would take them close to ten minutes to cross on foot. In a few jumps he would have been thoroughly separated from Sidon who – Link remembered now that he considered the bigger picture – didn't have a map on him, since only Link's slate had been to the local tower to get one and he was also the one who carried the Minish maps in his bag.

Needless to say, his idea was starting to look truly moronic in hindsight, just like Sidon said. That thought was quickly chipping away at his defensiveness and boosting the guilt.

"Please, Link", Sidon said, now looking deflated instead of angry. That was actually worse. "Don't do that again. I know you're amazing and you could have gotten yourself out of the pinch eventually, but I can't stand the thought of losing you. Yesterday, when you froze…"

Sidon didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't have to: yesterday, when Link froze in the middle of the road right when the big person was about to walk over them and potentially crush them. They hadn't talked about it and it clearly troubled Sidon. They should talk about it. Soon.

The guilt intensified. Maybe, just maybe, he should admit to having been wrong here. Or at least having been inconsiderate.

Link got up with a grunt and promptly wrapped his arms around the kneeling Zora.

"I'm sorry", he rasped, his throat really not approving of the idea of talking right after all that screaming laughter. Link ignored the discomfort. "I was stupid."

Sidon returned the embrace as soon as he got his arms un-trapped from Link's hold.

"You were", he agreed, and Link chuckled despite himself. "But I suppose… I should be honest with you, lest I want to be a big hypocrite. Do you remember the giant hearty bass from the Pico Pond?"

Link wondered about the change of subject, but nodded. The fish, apparently a hearty bass, that had cornered Sidon on their first day of being shrunk. ...Had they truly only been mini for about four days? It felt like a lifetime.

"The truth is, I noticed it first and I could have swam away", Sidon admitted with a sheepish laugh, "but I decided to attack it despite its size. I thought that I could take it on, that it couldn't be worse than the giant Octorok that I fought decades ago. I thought of the feast we could have, and..."

Sidon coughed awkwardly, and removed one hand to smooth the scales on the side of his neck. "I thought you would be impressed."

Link stared at Sidon. He… He got into that pinch because of recklessness? Because he wanted to impress Link? As in, not accidentally or by being ambushed? Mind, Sidon's reasonings were still better than Link's "because I wanted to ride it", but it was still choosing to engage in perfectly avoidable danger instead walking – or swimming – away from it like a sensible person.

Link let go of Sidon in order to free his hands for signing.

'We're both idiots, then.'

Sidon chuckled, and stood up. Then he held out a hand to Link.

"Not the word choice I'd go for, but accurate enough", he said, and pulled Link up. He looked at the dead grasshopper. "At least you managed to get a meal out of your reckless little adventure, unlike me. But… shall we promise to not repeat either of our excursions?"

Link looked at the carcass, noting that the arrow had pierced right through the eye; Sidon was an excellent shot. Then he looked at the Zora in question, pondering the wisdom of promising such a thing, knowing there was no way he could keep the promise for long. Well, he would not be riding more grasshoppers anytime soon, but he knew promising only that would be obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit of it.

He sighed, and decided to cave in. Or do a compromise anyway.

'I promise to at least try to keep any unnecessary recklessness at bay, and to discuss any actions with you whenever possible', he signed carefully, and received a beaming grin from Sidon.

"You'd make a wonderful diplomat with some proper training, my friend", he said, before promising the same. Oddly, Link felt much more at ease afterwards. Almost like Sidon was already safer from the promise alone. He wondered if Sidon felt the same.

'Don't suggest that to Zelda. I don't want to be saddled down with a job like that', Link answered, half joking and half deadly serious.

Sidon just laughed, which wasn't necessarily reassuring.

ooooo

Turned out that grasshoppers consisted mostly of chitin and odd internal organs, so the back legs were the only edible part when Link was Minish size. At least they were delicious when roasted, so he was satisfied with the catch anyway. He wondered if they would taste as good when he was big again, or if the bite was too small to count for anything. He would have to give it a try.

They continued their trip after carefully comparing the map they got from Scavenri to the one on Link's slate and deciding on their direction. They should arrive to the next Minish town in a few hours if they kept a brisk pace and stayed out of mischief. Scavenri had said the town would be a lot smaller than Stable Town, but they could at least replenish their supplies there and ask for directions or advice, if necessary.

It took Link a while to realize that Sidon was being unusually quiet. Not that he was always continuously chatty when they walked, but usually he pointed out a sight or two and occasionally talked about any random thought he decided to be worth Link's time. Now, though, he had been silent since they left the camp. It didn't typically take him this long to strike up a conversation, so it was suspicious and worrying.

Link discreetly looked at Sidon from the corner of his eye. He seemed troubled and deep in thought, but apparently he was disinclined to talk about his thoughts since he hadn't said something by now.

Link had a good idea what Sidon's quiet thoughtfulness was about, so he sighed and braced himself for a difficult conversation. He cleared his throat to get Sidon's attention, which worked like a charm, as per usual.

"Yes, Link?"

Link brought his hands up to sign, remembered he was supposed to vocalize and hesitated, but in the end decided that this was going to be tough enough as it was.

'I need to talk to you about Vah Naboris', he signed, and saw Sidon immediately take a very serious and attentive posture. It would seem he had guessed correctly, which was half relieving and half... uh... he really hated talking about the subject.

'I froze earlier because of a flashback', he signed, and looked towards their route. He supposed he had to start from the basics. 'Vah Naboris is the Divine Beast of the Gerudo, it's a giant quadruped creature that releases bolts of lightning with deadly accuracy. The Gerudo have an ancient heirloom that's sole purpose is to protect them from that lightning, should they need such protection. Without it, or outside of its protective circle, you have no way to avoid the lightning if Naboris decides to aim at you.'

He glanced at Sidon, whose mouth was set in a firm line and his tail was twitching anxiously. Clearly Vah Naboris was a terrifying concept to a Zora, who were particularly weak to electricity. And that was just the beginning.

'That heirloom, the Thunder Helm, was worn by Chief Riju, who accompanied me in a similar manner as you did when we took down Vah Ruta', Link continued, taking Sidon's silence as his cue to keep going. 'Except she did not carry me, like you did. We both took separate sand seals to travel with. ...You know what seals are, right? These ones swim in the sand and you attach a leash on them and let them pull you on a shield.'

Sidon looked baffled by the thought, but nodded anyway, likely deciding to not ask any questions to make this easier for Link. Or maybe he just wanted to hear the rest more than he needed extra details.

Link was slightly disappointed at the missed chance to digress and avoid the rest of the talk for a little longer. He took a deep breath and released it to relax his rapidly tightening shoulder muscles.

'Traveling with different seals meant that Riju was safe at all times, both by keeping her distance from Naboris and by being protected from the lightning, but I could get separated from her and enter the danger zone as needed. I just had to make sure to return to the circle before a lightning could strike', he signed and shuddered, fingers starting to tremble lightly. He soldiered on. 'I needed to shoot Naboris' feet to stop it, similarly to the spots I needed to shoot to shut down Ruta. Only Naboris was stomping around instead of staying still like Ruta had been. It was hard to aim an arrow at a moving target while moving and trying to steer the seal, myself. I had to weave between the legs to even be close enough to hit them as every step it took covered considerable distance, every step shook the ground and the booming noise was deafening and if my seal took the wrong turn while I aimed it could get me under one of the massive descending feet, and there was sand whipping into my eyes and limiting the visibility while there were protruding rocks all over the place, and I was too hot from the sun and it was hard to breathe in the sandstorm, it shot lightning-'

Suddenly Sidon's hand landed on his shoulder and effectively stopped him. Link jerked his signing to a halt and looked at his friend with wide eyes. Sidon kneeled before him and his other hand landed on Link's free shoulder.

"Link. Deep breaths", Sidon said, voice wavering oddly.

Only then Link realized that he was breathing very shallow and very rapidly, but barely getting any air. He took in a deep, shuddering breath, and released it slowly. His head felt light. His heart was drumming. He felt like he might collapse if Sidon removed his hands. He only saw Sidon but nothing around the both of them, his eyes hyper focused on the only thing that mattered. His ears were buzzing. He kept on breathing as slowly as he could because Sidon told him to.

Sidon kept him still until Link felt relatively normal again. He had no idea how much time had passed.

"Are you alright?" Sidon asked, "I'm sorry I inadvertently reduced you to such a state. I was unable to understand the last half as your fingers shook too much, but that's alright, I got the gist of it. You don't need to strain yourself for my sake."

Link lowered his gaze and shook his head. He still felt a bit disconnected from… well, everything, but he was damn well not going to give up at this point. Not after he had already suffered through the attack – as Zelda had called it – and as such it couldn't get much worse. He just needed to get a grip and tough the rest of it out.

'Which part did you manage to understand before you no longer could?' he asked, moving his fingers very carefully to minimize the shakiness.

Sidon was quiet for a moment and Link refused to consider the possible reasons for it.

"Alright", Sidon said gently, sounding reluctant but letting Link make the call regardless. "Sand seal possibly leading you... under the massive feet…"

Good, that was further along than Link had anticipated. He could work with this. Not much to go. He could do this.

He drew strength from Sidon's hold on him and got back to his tale, doing his best to not immerse himself in it this time.

'It was tough to see much because of the sandstorm Naboris whipped up, and it was hard to breathe', he summarized detachedly, 'And of course the lightning. I got hit once but Riju showed up right after and negated the electricity before it could kill me. I… I had topaz earrings, which I think helped. I think she also stopped me from being crushed, but that part is fuzzy so I'm not sure. We had to catch up to Naboris all over again. That was the closest call I've had with any of the Divine Beasts.'

He breathed deeply a couple of times, just to make sure he was still doing it correctly.

'With Ruta I felt no fear', he signed with a small smile, 'It was the first one and I felt invincible with you by my side. You wouldn't let me drown, so there was little to fear. Those ice blocks and balls weren't half as intimidating as the Lynel had been.'

He felt Sidon's hold tighten for a moment, but Sidon kept quiet, listening despite probably having a lot to say. Link was thankful.

'With Medoh I felt almost as secure. I had my paraglider and Teba was there to catch me if I were to fall, not to mention all the other Rito nearby, and there was mostly water underneath so I felt my chances at surviving a fall were decent. Teba was acting as decoy and thus was the one who had to dodge the shots anyway, so I had an easy time taking down Medoh's defenses. Rudania was scary because if I were to drop in the lava I would be dead in an instant, but at that point it was already static so I only had to be wary of my own clumsiness. I had to shoot it from afar and avoid falling rocks to stop it, but that was pretty easy and not that dangerous, all things considered. Naboris was the only one that caused me to actively fear for my life.'

Link took a fortifying breath, glad that the tale was more of less over now.

'The big person's approach vividly reminded me of Naboris. It sometimes happens with Hinoxes, too, but I have always been able to shake it off on my own before it could become a problem. I don't know why I couldn't do it yesterday.'

He let his hands drop as a sign that he was done, and he was immediately squeezed against Sidon's chest.

"I had no idea you had it so hard even now", Sidon said quietly, "It's perfectly normal and doesn't make me think less of you. Maybe the reason why that big person affected you more is because you're used to Hinoxes and they aren't big enough to adequately compare to a Divine Beast? Whatever the case, I promise to come to your aid much sooner, should need arise again. Thank you for telling me, I was very worried about you."

Link felt guilty for having worried Sidon, and slightly ashamed of the thought of possibly needing Sidon's help for this in the future, but ultimately he leaned into his best friend's hold gratefully.

Together they would get through this. All of this.