Link eventually regained his composure, and they could finish their meal amicably. Sidon had been right: the honey mead was to die for. Link would have happily made it his plan to drink tonight away to enjoy the maximum amount of the stuff before they left, if only he didn't have other plans for the evening. That plan being finally coming clean to Sidon about his feelings, and hopefully then making out with him until the dawn. He had to be sober for it and that meant no more mead.
He would definitely come back here after their current odyssey was done, though. It would take months, but he could be patient when he wanted to be.
The fact that he now had a set deadline for his confession was not making him nervous at all, thank you very much. If he didn't actively think about it, at least. Which he didn't, because he wanted to be able to function properly and see the wonders of this town.
After they were finished with eating, they rented themselves a room and left most of their luggage there for the time being; they didn't feel like risking venturing out only to have more rain make their attempts at travel miserable, so they might as well stay here until tomorrow. Sidon also took the opportunity to sit down and stretch his abused back before their second trip to the town.
And off they were.
They visited every shop they saw, eagerly inspecting the Minish bits and bobs. It was curious how none of the shops sold any big people items, while in the previous towns they had been all over the place. Link supposed it was because they were getting deeper into the woods, which meant less big people traffic. Instead, they sold a lot pottery here; the abundance of clay was the obvious reason behind that peculiarity. The other towns had had mostly woodware, so it was a very cool change. The pottery was finely shaped and engraved with beautiful patterns and pictures, as was the custom in this town. Some items were even skillfully painted and glazed over. Zelda would absolutely love one particular set of dinner plates with intricate floral patterns that were carved in and then painted over, if only Link could afford to haul such heavy souvenirs around. Again, he would have to return here on a better time. With great reluctance he left them behind. Oddly enough, when he exited the shop and spared one last glance at the pots near the door, he felt a strong, almost primal urge to… smash them to bits. He almost returned inside to do it, but got a grip at the last second. Weird.
They entered the food shop next. The moment they stepped in Sidon came to a very abrupt halt.
"I feel… strange", he said, which instantly made Link worried. Did the frog meal disagree with Sidon? The mead? Was it the heat? The lack of humidity?
Sidon frowned and reached into his money pouch, much to Link's confusion. He rummaged around for a bit and finally pulled out the kinstone.
It was glowing brightly. Pulsing, even.
Sidon simply stared at it with a confused frown, which Link took to mean he didn't see the glow this time, either.
Then a Minish approached them, holding a similarly bright and pulsing piece of his own.
"Excuse me?" they asked timidly. "Are you perhaps feeling the same strange sensation as I am from my kinstone? Should we try merging these?"
Oh. This was interesting.
Sidon looked at the Minish in astonishment, then smiled brightly. The Minish flinched – presumably from seeing all those pointy shark teeth – but somehow refrained from fleeing like Link had half-expected.
"So that's what it was! Yes, let's do this!"
Sidon crouched down in an attempt to get to the Minish's level, but it hardly made a difference since most of Sidon's height came from his torso rather than his legs. They did manage to fit the pieces together, though.
It was a perfect fit and the halves magically merged together seamlessly. Link saw that the resulting coin had a picture of a four-leaf clover on it, but he only got to look at it for a second before the glow intensified and made it impossible to look directly at it. This time even Sidon and the Minish saw the glow, judging from the sudden squints and rapid blinking on their parts.
The now repaired coin freed itself from their grasp by lifting into the air on its own and spinning. It turned into pure light – as far as Link could observe anyway – and rose all the way into the ceiling and then went through it with a faint, and rather unfitting, ping-sound.
Link looked at Sidon, only to see him stare dazedly into nothing.
ooooo
Muzu exited the throne room with a sigh. The letterman had arrived but there hadn't been any correspondence from Prince Sidon today, either. It had already been a week and King Dorephan was starting to feel restless by the complete silence from his dear son. It shouldn't have taken the Prince and Link this long to reach either the Castle or Kakariko Village and send their first letter.
Had something happened? Muzu would have Link's head if he found out Prince Sidon had been injured in any way.
He grumbled to himself about useless Hylian Champions and made his way to the Royal Library to pick up a few reference books for his current project. Worried or not, he had work to do.
As soon as he entered, he heard a thud of a book falling from a shelf.
"Who's there?" he demanded, instantly wary of intruders. There weren't a whole lot of people who were allowed here, and since he knew where the King was and the Prince wasn't at the Domain, the list of possible allowed visitors was very short indeed.
Silence reigned and Muzu relaxed marginally. He looked around and soon spotted the fallen book. It was spread open haphazardly right next to a shelf, which meant it probably just fell on its own. Maybe it had been put back carelessly.
He grumbled to himself about careless princes and walked over to the book to pick it up. As he did, he glanced at the open page and halted.
"The Legend of the Picori" read the title of the page.
Weren't the Minish Woods and the Pico Pond right by one of the riverside routes to the Castle? He fondly remembered Prince Sidon going on and on about visiting the area and looking for the Picori once he was big enough to travel, back when he was but a youngling.
Muzu chuckled to himself and tucked the book under his arm. He would show it to King Dorephan.
He had a very good idea what may be the reason Prince Sidon was delayed so. They needn't be so worried after all; the Prince was stubborn and thorough and would probably comb the whole area before even considering giving up on the fairytale.
ooooo
Link breathed a sigh of relief when Sidon finally blinked rapidly and looked around with bewildered eyes. He was back from whatever head trip he just took.
"Wow, that was…" Sidon said, but was interrupted by the Minish.
"I have to go", they said with a big smile. "I need to buy a berry and go visit my nana. Thank you, mister! I hope you'll have some luck come your way!"
The Minish skittered off, leaving the two staring after them.
Link hadn't had the chance to ask them whether they saw the glow too or not. Damn. He looked at Sidon.
'What happened?'
Sidon shook his head, looking mystified. "I saw Muzu. A book dropped from a shelf, he picked it up, and then he looked happier. I haven't any clue what that was all about. Was it real?"
Link frowned thoughtfully. 'That Minish sure seemed to believe their vision, whatever it was. You're not missing memories as far as I know and you didn't mention seeing yourself, so it's not a recalled memory. And it's not like you can go drop a book for Muzu anytime soon, so it's probably not a hint for what you should do, either. Unless you heard a voice telling you stuff?'
"No voices except for Muzu's", Sidon said, looking at Link like he surely had all the answers. Ultimate trust. It made his heart skip a beat.
'Then my verdict is that the scene you saw happened just now', Link signed confidently. He rather thought himself an expert on this subject; what with all the visions he had had from multiple sources during his epic journey. 'It was probably important somehow, but I don't know how just yet.'
Sidon nodded enthusiastically. "I see! It's good to have a seasoned adventurer with me to tell me these things. I think I'll ask Muzu about it once we have the chance to send letters. Apparently the kinstones do work; just like you said!"
Link beamed proudly.
ooooo
They didn't buy any food yet; they wanted to wait and see if the frog legs kept Sidon's hunger at bay first, and then stock up if they did. They could buy frogspawn and tadpoles, too, for variety. This town's closeness to the mud lake was obvious in the food choices. Another interesting food was the fresh slugs that were sold in sizable chunks. The problem with them was that they didn't keep for long, so if he were to buy some he would have to cook it and eat it right away – at least according to the seller. He opted to try some at the inn later to save some time and hassle.
Eventually they arrived to a shop front that had reliefs of bees on it. Link was willing to bet good rupee that it was Hiveri's place. However, the door was locked and there was a note on it; in Minish, of course. That meant illegible as far as they were concerned.
They returned to the previous shop to ask the clerk about it.
"He must be at the hive", they said with a shiver, "You may want to just wait until he returns."
Link's hands were flying excitedly before the Minish even finished their sentence: 'Where is the hive?'
Sidon seemed very amused while the Minish seemed to question Link's sanity.
"I really can't recommend-", the Minish started, but gave in at Link's glare. "Fine. Okay. You know the three way crossroad? Good. Go right. Don't scream and run when you encounter the bees; just back away slowly. Also, you seem like the type to try to touch them. Don't."
Link felt mildly offended by the assumption, but he couldn't very well deny it without lying, so he supposed it was fair enough.
"Thank you for the directions and the advice", Sidon said, "I'll make sure we come back alive."
'Bold of you to assume your rationality is enough to keep my chaotic nature from getting us killed', Link signed with a wide smile once they were out of the shop.
Sidon laughed. "Oh no. I wouldn't dream of that. I'm counting on you not wishing to make a liar out of me."
Link joined in on the laughter. 'Cheating.'
They made their way back to crossroad, again, and Sidon's back was stuck on being bent once more. The second round seemed even more painful than the first, judging from the grimace on Sidon's face. He really needed that back rub later.
They took the right turn and warily made their way forward. The scratching they had heard before got louder and louder, and was joined by occasional buzzing. It was downright eerie and made the hair on the back of Link's neck stand up.
As if to balance the scary out, soon the sweet smell of honey reached their noses. It was even stronger than in Sweeteri's shop; Link got almost dizzy from it.
They turned around a corner and found themselves in another tall cavern. This one was packed with huge, hairy bumblebees that were crawling and flying all over the place like striped, six-legged bears. There was an enormous hive consisting of bulbous, brownish orange and bright yellow baskets on one end of the cavern, and pollen covered the whole place from floor to ceiling. The ceiling and the walls had tunnels that presumably led outside; there was a constant traffic of bumblebees coming in from some tunnels and going out of others.
The bumblebees were fuzzy and looked perfectly huggable; Link would bet their hair would feel soft and go great with his face.
"Link", Sidon said sternly; apparently his thoughts were plain on his face. "We were told not to touch them."
'But soft! Fuzzy!'
"Remember how you promised not to pull reckless stunts without discussing them with me first?" Sidon asked, trying and failing to hide his amusement in order to sound serious.
'Promised to try; not to always succeed. This is a discussion. Hugging a bee now, regretting it later.'
"Sweet Hylia. Link-"
"Excuse me? What are you doing in my hive?"
Link and Sidon simultaneously turned to look in the direction of the voice.
There stood a Minish who was covered from head to toe in pollen and honey. They were wearing a long sleeve work smock, a cap that went over their ears, and a pair of wooden shoes. That was the first pair of shoes Link had seen on any Minish.
This could be no-one other than Hiveri.