"Excuse me, sir? Where can we find the city hall?"

Link looked around the nearby stalls with great interest while Sidon had a conversation with the least busy looking Minish they had spotted from the food tent they had just exited. Ah, he really wanted to forget all about their quest and simply mill around and do some souvenir shopping! Or just shopping, without necessarily needing to tack on the part about souvenirs – he liked buying things to himself the most, if he was being honest.

Everything looked so neat! From where he was standing he saw a stall that sold little braided bracelets, another that sold baskets, and one that had some kind of wooden objects that he couldn't see well from where he was. And that was just the stalls he could see! The marketplace had looked enormous from a distance, so who knew what kind of treasures he would find with a little time to explore.

"Link?"

He turned his wistful gaze away from the wood object stall and looked at his boyfriend.

"I got the directions", Sidon said, looking pleased with himself. "Shall we head that way? We need to walk right through the marketplace, so we can look around a little as we move."

Now that was more like it! He nodded with a large grin, and motioned for Sidon to lead the way.

They walked down the packed alleys between the tents and stalls, and both had their heads swiveling back and forth as they tried to take everything in while walking. There were food tents that Link was dying to get samples from, despite being more than full at the moment. There were stalls that sold different kinds of foods to stock up with, and they'd have to browse those better later. There were booths with pottery, paintings, jewelry, toys, clothes, mats, furniture, and even weapons. In fact, Link tapped on Sidon's arm to get him to stop at the last one in the list.

'I want a knife, maybe', he signed, and pushed himself through the throng of curious kids who were admiring the weapons with stars in their eyes. The Minish behind the booth looked pleased to see someone who would potentially be a real customer…

Hold on.

The Minish looked different from any of the others Link had seen so far. Their build was stockier while they were taller than the others, their skin was a little darker, and their hair, unhidden by a hat and instead bound with a bandanna, was thick and blond. They were most definitely neither a Forest Minish nor a Mist Minish.

"I'll allow staring this once, but only because I'm doing the same", the Minish said with a thick accent of some kind. "Hi, I'm Wanderi. You're the big people everyone's abuzz about."

'Link', Link signed without thinking, and was met with a politely quizzical look. Right.

"A pleasure to meet you, miss Wanderi", Sidon said, rescuing him once more. "I'm Prince Sidon, and this is Link. Is your business doing well?"

Small talk. Of course. Link tore his eyes away from the strange Minish and looked at her wares instead while keeping an ear out for the conversation. Her selection was fascinating. There were wooden spears, clubs, and quarterstaves, swords and daggers with odd green blades that Link thought might be leaves of some kind, daggers and spears with thorns as the blades, and also a few real iron weapons.

"Better than usual, actually", Wanderi said, sounding delighted. "I think it's the recent unrest. The local guards upgraded their weapons at my shop just this morning, so my so called foreign stock is pretty low now."

Link looked up from the weapons.

'Unrest? Foreign? What?' he asked Sidon, who nodded at him.

"Could you tell us more about this unrest? We arrived just today and have yet to catch the news", Sidon said.

Wanderi nodded, and idly picked up a sword to fiddle with. "I don't know much, really. Apparently there was a scuffle at the south entrance last night with some of the local punks jumping travelers. There's this new cult or gang around that's been rallying for revolution. I'm not really sure what that is about, as my wife and I just came back here last week and we're always busy for a while in the beginning. Regardless, the guards were not very well equipped to deal with something like this, so they came to my shop to purchase some good iron weapons to replace the broken wooden ones. I'm the only one selling iron around here."

The information was not as comprehensive as Link had hoped for, but it was valuable regardless. So the Vaatians had been hoping to ambush them last night? Maybe? They were up to something anyway. And the guards were somewhat incompetent, unless they actually managed to catch the culprits even with their weapons broken.

"I see", Sidon said with a frown. "That is worrisome. Was anyone hurt?"

"Not that I know. The guards didn't look too grim at least, so one should think not."

"I hope you're right." Link tapped Sidon's arm and gave him a look. Sidon smiled and shook his head in exasperation. "My impatient friend here would like to change the subject. You mentioned the iron weapons being foreign, and you don't look like a local either. Could you tell us about yourself to satisfy our curiosity?"

That was a needlessly long way to ask where she's from, but Link was starting to get used to Sidon's politeness with strangers, so he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and simply listened.

Wanderi chuckled. "Ah, it's been a while since I've been asked that. I'm from Death Mountain, and I'm a Mountain Minish."

Now she definitely had Link's undivided attention. Death Mountain was far away for a big person, so how did a Minish travel all that way? He was also beyond ecstatic to find that his guess about other kinds of Minish existing was correct! Take that, Misteri!

"I'm curious by nature, so as soon as I was old enough to travel, I left my home to see the world", Wanderi continued, and put the weapon she's been fingering down. "I had some fun adventures, and met my wife, Lizari, in the Hyrule Fields. She's a Field Minish, and the prettiest person I've ever met. She can talk to lizards and we can travel very fast by riding those critters, so we have homes all over the place and act as traveling merchants, more or less. My iron wares are straight from Death Mountain, and are very exotic by the local standards. It's really too bad I can't bring the local wares to the mountain without them burning right up. I can bring 'em Luminous stone weapons from the Water Kingdom at least."

The Water Kingdom?

Sidon was on it immediately without Link even needing to ask. He looked excited with his head tail moving back and forth. "Would the Water Kingdom happen to be Zora's Domain? South-east from here? Past the mountains?"

Wanderi looked thoughtful. "Maybe? The direction is about right. There's Swamplands first and then you follow the river east. That sound correct?"

"Yes!" Sidon said, now bouncing up and down. He was obviously more than ecstatic to learn of Minish existing in the Domain. "What do the Minish there look like there? What are they called?"

Link eyed the weapon selection again while the others talked. There were three daggers that he could see. One was wooden, and looked pretty shabby to him – the Minish had nothing on the Koroks when it came to wooden weaponry, it seemed. Another one was made from a thorn of some kind and looked sharp all around, like a rapier. Link liked that one. The last one was made from a stiff and sharp looking leaf. It was razor-edged, but the point didn't look very convincing; the green blade was very nice looking, though. It would be a tough choice.

"There's actually two kinds there: River Minish and Underwater Minish. The River type look plenty similar to the locals, while the Underwaters look frankly a lot like fish. They can't stay on land for long, those ones. They have cities below the water, but I obviously haven't visited."

"That's amazing! Link, we have to see them!"

Link smiled indulgently. 'Sure, let's put it on the list, but I doubt I can go to the underwater cities. I don't have gills to breathe there and can't hold my breath for long at all.'

Sidon looked like he had trouble deciding whether to be disappointed by Link's statement or continue to be joyful by the news themselves. Poor thing, but at least he could visit the underwater cities, unlike Link.

Link looked back and forth between the two weapons his eye had caught. The leaf blade was pretty and very exotic in an eye-catching way, but he had to admit that the thorn one looked more effective and versatile. It was always better if you could both stab and slash. In the end he picked up the thorn dagger and waved it at Wanderi.

"Oh, you're actually buying something?" she asked with a laugh. "I thought you just came to gawk at little old me. I'm liking this turn of events!"

Money changed owners, and Link slid his new dagger to his belt.

"Hey, if you're leaving now, might I suggest you visit Lizari's stall at some point? She sells dried foodstuff and spices down that ways", Wanderi said, and gestured a direction for them. It wasn't in their way to the city hall, but Link supposed they could visit it afterwards when they did their food supply purchasing, so he nodded.

"Have fun on your travels, if we don't happen to meet again!" Sidon said with a friendly wave.

"Likewise! Stay safe!"

Link smiled and waved. He really hoped they would eventually meet again, even if not on this journey. Perhaps in the Water Kingdom or Death Mountain some day? It was a nice thought.

ooooo

The rest of their journey through the marketplace was uneventful. Sure, they would have liked to stop at every tent and stall, but they refrained for now and concentrated on their mission. As such, they made their way to the city hall in good time.

Link and Sidon stopped before the building in question, openly gaping. In front of them was a cluster of large toadstool houses that were connected to each other at the base, and behind those was an even larger building that looked so out of place that it was astounding. It seemed to be a smooth granite block with moss growing on the top, and it was shimmering and sparkling faintly. Link squinted at it – the aura actually looked the same as kinstones when they activated. Curious.

'Can you see shimmering?' he asked Sidon.

"Where?" Sidon returned, which was enough of an answer on its own. Definitely the same magic as kinstones, then.

Link shook his head and smiled at Sidon, who was giving him a mildly curious look. 'Building. Never mind. Let's go in?'

Sidon continued looking at him for a short moment longer, before seemingly dismissing the questions he might have had – perhaps he figured it out on his own, as he had heard Mageri's explanation just as much as Link had.

They entered the largest toadstool of the cluster, and what they saw inside left them completely floored.

There were about a dozen children of varying sizes running around, playing tag. They were all dressed in red cloth robes, which was a rarity with the Minish, so they were probably either related or it was a uniform of some kind. Could even be both.

But what was a group of unruly children doing in a city hall?

...This was the city hall, right?

One of the bigger children stopped in their tracks after noticing the two of them at the door. "Oh! Visitors!" The kid turned to look at the other children, who had absolutely not noticed anything. "Guys! GUYS! Visitors!"

All of the children stopped practically at once, and turned to stare at the two of them with big, round, blinking eyes.

It was half cute and half eerie.

Then an avalanche of children ran their way and Link had to very consciously stop himself from grabbing his sword and shield to parry a perceived potential attack.

The kids grabbed them everywhere they could: their hands were taken, Sidon's arm fins were grabbed, they had kids hanging from their leafy tunics, and one of the kids moved behind Link to push him forward while another one did the same with Sidon.

"We're Festaris! Welcome to the city hall slash the abbey slash the entrance to the Deepwood Shrine!"

...Link had so, so many questions now.