The Hyrulian Valhalla Saga
By Queenie Z
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me
"Hey, Mini, what's this over here?"
Mini lifted his head from the book he was reading and looked towards Brown, who was crouching in the corner of the living room for some reason. He lifted an eyebrow. "What's what, Brown?"
"This," said Brown, repositioning himself so that Mini could see the small tea saucer situated on the floor in front of a mouse hole; it contained breadcrumbs, a half-eaten piece of lettuce, and a single grape. "Do the mice just help themselves to your food here, or...?"
With a laugh, Mini stood and shook his head. "Of course not! We don't get pest problems up here." He approached the younger Hero and knelt beside him, looking down at the tiny plate. "This is for the Minish that live in the walls - I've always left stuff for them to eat."
Brown stared at him in confusion for a moment.
"...You know," added Mini, "the little guys that leave rupees and stuff for us."
"Oh!" said Brown in realization, "Yeah, I remember you telling me about them." He turned back to the saucer and cracked a small smile. "I didn't know they got to come here, too."
"Well, where do you think the Minish go when they die?" Mini picked up the tiny plate and stood, headed towards his kitchen. "I haven't been able to see them since I hit puberty, but I could still tell when they moved in after I got here. They've always eaten the food I put out, and in return they do little things around the house for me."
Brown followed, watching as his elder cleaned the old food off and replaced it with some leftover peas and broken crackers. "Sounds nice," he said, folding his hands behind his head. "I kinda wish I had some Minish around my place - I'm terrible at keeping things organized, haha."
"Actually, there should be some living there already," Mini said, turning back to Brown with the saucer in hand, "you just never notice them, that's all."
"Really?" asked Brown with an excited expression... an expression which quickly soured when he realized the full implications of what he said. "...Wait, so, they've been in there this whole time, and I never knew about it?"
"That's kind of the point!" said the elder Link with a big grin. "They like to do their work in secret. They love to watch people and help them out, especially us Heroes."
As Mini returned to the living room to place the small plate of food back in its corner, Brown gulped. "W-Watching people, huh..."
"Hmm?" asked Mini, turning his head back towards his successor, "What was that?"
"E-Er, nothing!" said Brown defensively, eyeing the mouse hole with suspicion. "Nothing at all..."
The conversation continued to bother Brown, especially when he returned to his own house later that day. Though he tried to block the unsettling feeling from his mind, he simply couldn't shake the thought of dozens of beady little Minish eyes watching him from every nook and cranny of his home - and no where was this more apparent than when the newest Hero tried to go to the toilet.
He undid his belt and was just about ready to pull down his leggings when the creepy realization once again reared its ugly head. To think that the cute, charming, helpful Minish folk that Mini had described may have been watching him in the bathroom this whole time...! After nervously glancing around the room for a moment - not that it would have done any good, as the little buggers would have been invisible to him anyway - he let out an embarrassed whimper as he opted to sit down on the commode instead. His cheeks bright red, he pulled the hem of his tunic until it nearly covered his knees and grumbled to himself.