Misteri led the two of them through the Toadstool Town, as it was called. The town wasn't very large, especially compared to the capital, which was the last city they had been to, but she used the little time it took for them to walk to the town hall to animatedly talk about her home. She explained how they, indeed, used magic to keep the toadstools preserved, and in some cases even alive if it was known that the building would need more space in the future – the Minish who wanted large families would start with a small house and then let it grow bigger as they had more children. It was very fascinating and practical, and Sidon looked like he wanted to stop and observe the growth with his own two eyes, as silly as that was.

Also, turned out that the local Minish were called Mist Minish, while the "regular" ones were Forest Minish. Rumor had it there were Mountain Minish around the mountains, and Field Minish in the Hyrule Fields. Misteri didn't know if there were Desert Minish in the Gerudo lands, Water Minish in the Zora Kingdom, Jungle Minish in the Faron region, and maybe some specific kind of Minish around the Hylian and Sheikah towns, but assumed it to be so. Link suddenly felt like their mini adventure was woefully inadequate now, since there was so much more to the Minish world to be seen all over Hyrule. He wanted to explore all of it one day. Maybe with Sidon, maybe with Zelda, maybe with both.

It didn't seem like he was going to be running out of adventures anytime soon. Good.

They arrived to the town hall before they could get too deep into their speculations, which may have been for the best.

Said hall was very small. In fact, it seemed more like a-

"Welcome to my home!" Misteri said, arms wide and a smile on her face. Yep, that's what Link had thought. "We don't actually have a set town hall as there really isn't that much of a need for one. It's just the home of however is in charge, and that's been me for the last few years. Make yourselves comfortable; I'll prepare the dinner!"

Link looked around at the inside of the toadstool with suspicion. There was a spot on the wall that looked like it had been repeatedly gouged with a spoon.

'Sidon. Ask her to not use toadstool in her cooking, please.'

ooooo

It took a while for the food to be done, but eventually they were sitting at the dinner table with bowls of some colourful risotto-like food in front of them. Link didn't care what it was as long as it was good, and it was.

"So, rumor has it that you're looking for Slateri the First", Misteri said after a few spoonfuls of food. Link really liked her directness. "If that's the case, then you missed him. He traveled through our town yesterday, and barely even stopped for lunch. Just went right through to Fog City."

That was a bummer. But at least he had been okay yesterday at lunch time. Not that he had had much to worry about at the time, as Librari's accidental information spill happened this morning. Regardless, it was good news.

"I see", Sidon said thoughtfully, stirring his food rather unenthusiastically. Link wagered it didn't do much for his hunger, then. "How long does it take to reach Fog City? We had a map with estimated travel times of the Minish Woods, but it reaches its edge here."

Misteri looked at them thoughtfully. "It takes about eight hours, and there are two camping spots on the way. You could reach the first one by tonight and stay there, if you're in a hurry. Or you could stay here and leave tomorrow morning."

Link shook his head at Sidon's inquiring look. They couldn't afford to waste time anymore. They would go to the first camping spot, maybe even shoot for the second one, depending on how long it took to travel there.

"We can't stay. We have reasons to believe Slateri might be in danger, so we have to make haste", Sidon said apologetically.

Link really hoped Misteri was someone they could actually trust, as that information could very well be the last piece the Vaatians needed to complete the picture, if they hadn't done that on their own yet.

Maybe he should have discussed this with Sidon beforehand. Damn it!

"That doesn't sound good", Misteri said, now frowning. "What is the problem?"

Link waved at Sidon to get his attention. He could still do damage control here at least.

'Don't tell her. We don't know if we can trust her to keep quiet', he signed urgently. 'She's way too ready to tell us things. She might do that with anyone who asks.'

Sidon looked indecisive. Clearly he wanted to simply trust Misteri, but Link hoped he would see the wisdom in caution. They were in deep enough of a mess as it was and should avoid actively digging deeper.

"I'm afraid we cannot tell you", Sidon finally said, and Link relaxed. "We probably shouldn't have said anything at all concerning the subject, so we would appreciate it if you could keep quiet about the worry."

Misteri didn't look happy about the request, but nodded. "Fair enough. I'll not breathe a word. About your trip…"

She stood up and made her way over to another room, leaving her unfinished dinner waiting. Link idly wondered if she had abruptly abandoned some random activity in a similar manner when she heard the news of their arrival. Judging from what he had seen of her conduct so far, he was almost certain of it.

He and Sidon ate in awkward silence while listening to the rustling of papers from the other room. Link finished his bowl and swapped with Sidon so that it looked like Sidon had eaten his meal, and in the process Link got to have seconds. Win-win.

Misteri returned shortly after, holding a large, rolled up paper. She handed it to Sidon and sat down.

"That's a new map for you", she said, and waved her spoon at it. "I wrote down the estimated times on it and drew you a recommended route through the woods, should you not meet Slateri in Fog City. I really hope you do, as the woods are really treacherous for multiple reasons. Oh! That reminds me!"

She turned to look at Link. "I noticed you're wearing shoes. Tell me, are your feet webbed?"

What? Link blinked a few times out of sheer bafflement, before shaking his head as an answer.

"In that case, you will want to purchase bog flippers before you leave the town, or at Fog City at the latest", she said with a knowing nod. "The Lost Woods are really wet and difficult to traverse for Forest Minish, whose feet aren't webbed like ours. You will save yourself a lot of time and effort by wearing the flippers."

Link had paid zero attention to the local Minish's feet and hadn't even noticed that they were, presumably, webbed. That made them even closer to the Zora in appearance than he had initially observed.

Flippers, huh. At least Sidon didn't have to attempt to find shoes his size, since his feet were, in fact, webbed. Finding a fitting pair for him would likely have been a nightmare, since his feet were much larger than that of an average Minish. Link's should be more doable.

"Thank you very much for all of this", Sidon said, smiling brightly. "Your help is truly invaluable!"

Misteri waved a hand, returning the smile. "No problem at all! I'm the mayor; being helpful is my job!"

They chatted lightly while Link and Misteri finished their meals, and then it was time for them to leave. They had flippers to buy and a city to get to as soon as possible.

ooooo

The town really didn't have much going for it except for the pretty houses. There was exactly one food store that sold all the necessities, and then a clothes shop where the flippers could be found among the other Minish wear. Link and Sidon visited that one first, and it turned out to be an excellent decision on their part: Link's flippers had to be made as a commission because his feet were very differently shaped compared to the Minish, so no regular flippers off the shelf fit him. They had to wait for an entire hour for the flippers to be made from the scratch, and doing their other business during that time was a lot more productive than idly waiting would have been, had they visited that shop last.

They spent most of that hour trying to find something for Sidon to eat.

The food store, predictably, didn't have any fish available. The owned told them that usually they had frog parts in their selection, but they were currently fresh out as their provider hadn't been able to catch any for a couple of days now. All they had was frogspawn, which Sidon bought. It was better than nothing.

After that they still had more than half an hour left, so they sat on a public bench and waited. They ate a few of the honey candies they still had, and were a bit bummed about the fact that they were starting to run low on those. They should have bought the entire store empty, after all, no matter how inconvenient it would have been to carry all of it around.

Link watched Sidon move a hard candy around in his mouth as they both tried new flavours. It was frankly mesmerizing and Link's attention focused maybe a little too intently on Sidon's lips because of it. Sweet Hylia. They were actually sitting completely idly for once, so Link would have absolutely loved to spend some of that time kissing Sidon silly. He was pretty sure it would make time pass very quickly indeed. Alas, neither he nor Sidon were big on public displays of affection, so that wasn't an option in the middle of a small town where they were personally The Cool New Thing. ...Maybe the camping spot they were headed to next would be nice and empty…

"Perhaps we should head back now?" Sidon asked, yanking Link out of his pleasant little daydream. Link gave him an inquiring look. "I know it hasn't been an hour yet, but maybe we'll be lucky and the flippers are done already. If not, we may as well wait there instead of here. That way we'll get them as soon as possible."

Link agreed with the plan, although it was a little uncharacteristic of Sidon to be in such a hurry to leave.

As if reading his mind, Sidon chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck after standing up. "Ah, pardon my hastiness. I'm simply worried about… You know. And all the eyes I can feel on us isn't making it any easier."

That did explain it. Sidon was right about the eyes, too; Link felt like he was itching all over because of the not-so-discreet staring by the locals. It was almost worse than what it had been in the Stable Town. Like he said earlier, the two of them were the cool new thing, so everyone was watching their every more in fascination. Well, he hoped it was fascination anyway, and not someone calculating the best way to murder them. That was also an option with the Vaatians around.

'Yes, let's go', he signed, and then stretched and hopped off the bench.

They made their way back to the clothes shop, and were told to keep on waiting a little longer. Unsurprisingly.

They had a lot less eyes on them inside of the shop – none, in fact, as the shopkeeper was busy and they were currently the only customers – so it was a significant victory.

…No eyes on them...

'Sidon, pick me up', Link signed, standing in front of his boyfriend and giving a big grin.

Sidon didn't even ask him any questions, he just happily did as asked and picked Link up with his strong, muscular arms.

Had Link ever mentioned how attracted he was to Sidon's arms? Because damn, those were some nice arms. Sidon had had him at the first flex on the Inogo Bridge.

Link wrapped his legs around Sidon's torso like an Octorok, careful of his gills, and his arms around Sidon's shoulders. Once he was thoroughly lodged on his spot, he looked deep into Sidon beautiful topaz eyes – on that note, he would take his embarrassingly saccharine thoughts to his grave – and puckered his lips.

Sidon gave a soft laugh, glanced quickly towards the front door, and then at the workspace where their currently only company was still busy with Link's flippers, and finally pressed their lips together. Link closed his eyes and was more than happy to give Sidon a good helping of lips sliding against lips, little nips and nibbling from mischievous teeth, and some wandering tongue.

Now this was the best possible way to spend their spare time!