"Greetings", Sidon said with a smile. "You must be Hiveri? I'm Prince Sidon and this is Link. Pardon us if we're not supposed to be here. We're simply curious travelers who want to see everything you Minish have to offer."
Hiveri looked impressed. "Huh. You have manners, that's rare. Yes, I'm Hiveri. I'm sorry about my rude welcome; I don't get a lot of friendly visitors here. Mostly it's kids daring each other to come see the bees, and that's a hassle."
"Children do that", Sidon said with a chuckle.
'May I hug a bee?' Link asked. He considered himself very well mannered and responsible for not sneaking off to hug a bee while Sidon was distracted. Zelda would be so proud. ...At least if he left out the part where he seriously considered the mentioned alternative course of action first.
Hiveri looked at Link's hands at the same time Sidon did, and shook his head before Sidon had the time to say Link's words out loud. "No. They don't like that. I could, however, let you pet one of the more docile types."
Link blinked. Sidon openly gaped.
'Can you understand me?' Link asked disbelievingly. Sidon didn't translate it; he was just as keen as Link to hear the answer.
"Yes", Hiveri said with a smile, "Bumblebees don't understand speech, but they're game to learning a few signs. 'Course that's thanks to generations of continuous effort on the part of Hiveri successors."
'Wait. So most Minish don't understand me, but your bees do?' Link asked, unable to get over this bizarre turn of events. It even made his excitement over finding a Minish who understood him pale in comparison.
"I wouldn't say they really understand you", Hiveri corrected. "They only know a few signs that matter, such as stop, come here, stay, turn around, and so on. You can't have a conversation with them. They can't reply anyway. They can just obey the commands, and that's how I know they understand."
That was still better than most of the Minish, so Link refused to be anything but thoroughly impressed and proud on the bumblebees' behalf.
'May I pet one?' he asked, just now able to process the earlier words and realize he had been tossed a bone. He would have loved to hug one of the fuzzies, but simply petting one was still loads better than nothing.
Hiveri chuckled. "All right. We can try. Note that the bumblebee will have the last word, so don't be hasty."
Link nodded. He was generally good with animals, so he knew to heed Hiveri's words.
They approached the hive, and Sidon apparently couldn't hold his own questions in anymore.
"How is it that you have befriended bees in the first place? I know some Hylians keep bees, but as far as I know they don't actually communicate with them. I think they… lure them away from the nest? Or possibly scare them away? Either way, they make the bees leave the nest so they can collect the honey without getting stung."
Hiveri looked stunned, and then shook his head to clear it.
"That's insane", he said, and stopped a few feet away from the hive and its busy bumblebees. He took a deep breath and then extended a hand, palm forward, towards one bee. The bee turned his way after a moment, antennae wagging. Hiveri signed for it to come to him, and the bee did. It was amazing.
"Link, was it?" he asked, and Link nodded eagerly. "You can now try to pet this one. If it pulls away or starts to vibrate its wings, stop."
Link nodded again, solemnly. He stepped forward and the bumblebee turned to regard him with its huge compound eyes. Link noted that it also had three smaller eyes on its forehead; he hadn't known about that. It's not like he had had a chance to examine a bumblebee this closely before.
'I'm a friend', he signed, 'May I touch you?'
The bee did nothing. There was a high chance it didn't understand Link's words, but Link felt better for having tried. He slowly extended his hand towards it, coming in from the side but still well within its vision; as far as he knew anyway. The bee buzzed its wings once, but then went back to doing nothing. Link considered withdrawing, but the bee showed no further signs of distress so he resumed his actions and then found his hand buried in soft fur. The bee continued to allow his touch, so he grinned and slid his fingers through the fluffy goodness.
It was awesome. It was perfect.
"Now that that is going well, let's get back to your question", Hiveri said somewhere behind Link, obviously talking to Sidon.
"It's my family's aptitude. Getting along with bees, that is", Hiveri said. Link assumed Sidon made a confused face, as Hiveri continued after a brief pause: "All Minish have some degree of magic in their use. Most don't use it much because anything beyond big people repelling, speed bursts, and other mundane stuff requires lots of training under a teacher and that's costly. However, with proper training you can discover your special aptitude for some branch of magic. For some it's an element like fire, for others it's communicating with another species, for some it's a trade skill like forging, and for some it's blessing objects. There are a lot of possibilities. Aptitudes tend to run in families – especially the properly trained ones – so most Minish have some idea what their most likely aptitudes would be if they trained. If it's something they feel would be useful, they are more motivated to train. Like I said, my family's aptitude is bees and that's why all bees accept me easily and are willing to listen to me. When I beckoned that bumblebee Link is petting to me, I first reached out with magic to get it to notice me and be willing to see what I wanted. Other Minish aren't able to do that; except for the rest of my family, of course."
"That's fascinating! I wonder if that's just a Minish thing, or if big people have it, too, but don't realize it? My sister had healing powers that manifested since young age. I wonder if I would have the same skill if I received some training in magic."
Link frowned in thought while sliding a second hand into the bumblebee's silky fur. Sidon having Mipha's Grace was a strange thought, but he supposed it wasn't an unwelcome one. Healing was a very useful skill to have, and he suspected Sidon would view it as a gift from his sister, even if it was a hereditary trait he would have had independently of Mipha. It would make him happy regardless. To have a tangible connection to his sister.
Now that Link thought about it, all of the old Champions sans himself had had a supernatural skill. Mipha's Grace, Urbosa's Fury, Daruk's Protection, Revali's Gale, even Zelda's holy power. They had all taught themselves, but that didn't make the abilities something just anyone could learn. Maybe Sidon was onto something here.
It wasn't like Link had run into any professional mages on his travels. If that had been a thing, Zelda surely would have had a mentor or five after her mother passed so she would not have lost her only teacher in her. A mage mentor would have made unlocking her power much easier, one would think, even if her power might be different due to, uh, Goddess-ness. Perhaps magery was another forgotten tradition of the past, like the Sheikah technology. Maybe the Minish could help the big people with it now that the communication route was open once again. It would be worth looking into, although not on this particular trip. Not extensively anyway. They still had their own, more immediate goals.
Link realized he had completely missed the rest of that conversation due to his own musings. Sidon and Hiveri were talking about the bees again.
Oh well. He could ask Sidon later.
Link checked the bee's mood and, upon finding it as uncaring as before, buried his face in the fur.
The next roughly three seconds were a bliss of soft – oh so soft – fluff on his face and under his palms… But then there was a distinctly angry sounding buzz combined with a curious vibration, and he was roughly yanked away from his perfect face pillow.
The bumblebee launched off instantly. Link turned to look at the person holding him by the back of his leaf dress, and saw Hiveri giving him a stern look.
"I told you not to hug it."
Link gave a sheepish smile. 'My arms weren't around it. Technically not a-' Glare. 'I'm bad at impulse control. I'm sorry.'
Hiveri glared at him for a moment longer, and then let go of him with an amused sigh. "Okay then. I understand the temptation, so I can't blame you too much. Just don't do it again."
Link saluted solemnly. Behind Hiveri, Sidon was shaking his head exasperatedly.
Link couldn't wait to tell Zelda that he had hugged a bee. She would be so jealous.
ooooo
They spent almost an hour in the Hive. Sidon watched Hiveri collect honey and pollen into pots, and Link got to pet another bumblebee. He didn't hug it this time, and it stayed with him for a good long while because of it. It was great.
After Hiveri was done working they walked back to his shop with him. Link carried a couple of honey pots to make up for the bee hugging. He had to exert an unreasonable amount of willpower into not randomly smashing them, for some reason. At times like these he could swear he was channeling some nutty ancestor of his or something.
The shop was similar to Sweeteri's: lots of different honey candy and honeyed nuts. But unlike Sweeteri, Hiveri also sold plain honey, flavoured honey, and pollen nuggets. Link got to try a nugget, and honestly found it kind of gross; the mouth-feel made him think of the Gerudo Desert, and sandy things weren't something he wanted in his mouth. They didn't buy anything, seeing how they still had honey candy left and hauling around pots of honey wasn't practical.
Hiveri's shop had been the last one left, so they decided to call it an early night. They went back to the inn and ate dinner. Link tried the slug, and it was quite possibly the best non-dessert he had eaten in the Minish cities. The flavour was a delight and the firm yet tender texture was superb. It was different from the sea snails he sometimes ate, and he had a feeling it was because he had bigger and stronger jaws as a big person. So it would stay a Minish specialty dish.
Sidon ate tadpole with the side of frog spawn. He had declared that the previous meal had managed to keep his hunger more or less at bay, so frog was now considered acceptable fish substitute. They would stock up on it tomorrow; the food shop had sold dried frog legs and jarred frog spawn, so they didn't even need to preserve it themselves.
After the meal they retreated into their room. Much to their delight, the staff had brought in another bed and aligned it with the end of the one that had already been in their room, making for a longer bed that could accommodate Sidon's height. Sidon lied down with a sigh and stretched his abused back with relish.
"This will be nice. Having a fitting bed is only second to sleeping in the water", he said.
Link nodded with a smile. He set down his sword and removed most of his clothes. Said clothes had honey and pollen stains on them, and he doubted they could be removed; a leaf wouldn't be able to take much of a washing. Maybe he'd get another set at the capital.
Sidon reluctantly got up to undress as well, but laid back down the instant he was unclothed. Link watched him from the corner of his eye, starting to feel a bit nervous. This was it. Or soon anyway.
First things first, though.
"Roll around", Link said quietly, "On your stomach."
Sidon gave him a questioning look, but did as asked. Link walked up to the bed and stretched his fingers, more to announce his intentions than out of any actual need to do it. Sidon chuckled and adjusted his position slightly, turning his head to its side to keep his tail off his back and out of the way.
"My posture looked about as painful as it felt, I take it?" he asked.
Link nodded seriously, and then set to work. He started with the lower back, since it was probably in the worst shape. He applied light pressure at first, getting the feel of things, and soon found that he needed considerably more force to have any chance of massaging the well defined muscles under the surprisingly tough scale barrier. But once he found the right amount of pressure, he had Sidon groaning appreciatively in a matter of moments.
"Every reckless action you've committed during our trip is hereby forgiven and forgotten", Sidon sighed, much to Link's amusement.
"I'll make sure to remind you of that, should the need arise", he replied. He had progressed almost up to Sidon's shoulders and his fingers were getting stiff from the workout. He couldn't understand how professional masseuse could do this all day. However, getting to have his hands over Sidon's vast, vast back more than made up for it. He hadn't realized just how muscular said back actually was, despite having hugged him more than his fair share.
Sidon turned his head to rest his tail on the other side – he was probably getting a bit uncomfortable with the position – and Link got started with his shoulders. He was not surprised by the muscles, or the stiffness, this time. He was well aware of the delicious musculature of Sidon's broad shoulders; he had spent plenty of time getting distracted by them at random times. Also, he had thoroughly familiarized himself with Sidon's neck for the past couple of nights, and one couldn't do that without also feeling around the shoulders said neck was attached to. And Link loved these shoulders.
Speaking of love.
Link swallowed nervously as he finished the massage. He shook the worst of the stiffness from his fingers and felt thankful about his recent progress in vocalizing to Sidon whenever they were alone; he would much rather talk than sign right now.
"I'm done", he said, and Sidon immediately stretched languidly and turned to lie on his back with a restful smile.
"Thank you very much", Sidon said, "You're truly the best."
Link nodded, and his nervousness must have shown as Sidon's smile dropped in favour of a worried frown. "Is something the matter?"
Link shrugged helplessly, and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Depends. There is something we need to talk about."
This was it.