Chanpter 6: Minish Misunderstanding

Mipha let out a content sigh, stretching as she slowly woke from her slumber. Her memories burst forth, reminding her of the early morning she and Link had, including not only his nightmare but his acceptance of her proposal as well. A smile graced her lips, her eyes fluttering open to find her sleeping fiancé.

"Link? It's time to get up sleeping head. We have a long day ahead of us." Mipha glanced down at her chest, noticing a certain hero missing from his previous sleeping place. "Link? Where did you go?" Mipha looked around, trying to catch sight of her hero.

After a minute of searching, her panic reached new levels as she frantically looked for any trace of Link. "Link! Link! Where are you? LINK?!"

Link couldn't put his finger on it, but something felt off during his peaceful slumber. He never felt like he could get comfortable, as if he was moving around constantly. He finally lifted his heavy eyes, light blinding him as he blinked, trying to regain his vision. When he finally did, he noticed new sets of eyes staring at him. He let out a quick yelp as he scooted away. The people the eyes belonged to let out a small giggle, chasing after him. Link, panicking from the new group of strangers, jumped up and ran. He dashed around small rocks and leaf blades, desperately trying to escape his kidnappers. He could hear their giggling, sounding hostile to the panicking Hylian. Scanning the area, he finally saw what he hoped would be his sanctuary: an over turned pot. Giving it his all, he made a mad dash for the pot, his pursuers right behind him. He leapt for the entrance, rolling through the hole before crashing into something.

Link glanced around the pot, still dizzy from his crash. The first thing he noticed was the object he crashed into was a table. Questioning the size of the furniture, he slowly began to stand up. The second thing he noticed were the voices that surrounded him. They were a mix of confusion, concern, and even a bit of curiosity, all of which worried Link. Were these people in on his kidnapping? Their confused faces didn't lend much to that theory but it was still weird to see so many people stare at him.

Wait a minute? People? At his size? Link jumped into a battle stance, ready to deal with whatever problem these people would give him, when an old voice entered the sea of voices. Link's ears perked up at the voice, searching the crowd to find its owner. His eyes finally landed on an older gentleman, who held out his hands in an attempt calm him down. He had a long white beard, which served as an interesting contrast to his much darker outfit. Getting a better look at him, and the rest of the people as well, he noticed they had mouse like qualities to them. There goes the shrunken people theory. While his motions were helping Link calm down, what wasn't helping was that he was speaking gibberish to Link. Link couldn't understand a word he was saying, figuring these people must speak an entirely different language than he. Or the table he banged in to caused more damage than he thought. Before he could question it further, his Sheikah Slate came to life.

"Detecting foreign language. Attempting to translate. Translation found. Language: Minish/Picori. Translating. Bridging Hyrulian to Minish/Picori. Please hold Slate in front of you while conversing with locals."

Link raised an eyebrow, questioning the device before raising it up. Soon enough, the language the man was speaking was coming in loud and clear to Link. "...so, unfortunately, with you unable to understand us, we'll have to find another way to help with this situation."

Link shook his head. "I can understand you now. No need for anything else!"

The Minish people looked shocked. "How can you understand us? And how can we understand you?"

Link motioned to the Sheikah Slate he was holding. "The device I have can translate languages...apparently," Link explained, being just as surprised as they were at the sudden feature the Slate possessed.

The old man stroked his beard. "Well, that makes things a lot easier then. First things first, let's get introductions out of the way. I'm Parvus, the village elder. You could say that I'm in charge of this settlement. And you, why you don't need an introduction to us elders, now do ya? You're the Chosen Hero, aren't you?"

Link was taken aback. How did they know about him? He certainly didn't know anything about these people. He didn't even know that other tiny people existed. Sensing his question, the elder spoke once again. "We recognize the Master Sword strapped to your back, young man. Only the Chosen Hero may wield that blade, thus you must be he. Last we heard, the hero's name was Link. Is that your name?"

Link nodded. "Yeah, that would be me. Who are you? I mean, your people? I've never heard of a bunch of people being shrunk in the past..."

The group shared a small chuckle, the elder clearing his voice to silence the crowd. "That is because we are not shrunken people, my dear boy. We are the Minish, though you may know us as the Picori. We were always this size for as long as we can remember. Though you being at this size is definitely a new one! How did you get like that?"

Link shook his head. "We're not entirely sure. We think Ganon had something to do with it, as he did hit me with a large amount of malice...uh, evil energy, before he was sealed away. Maybe that's what caused me to be like this."

The elder nodded, following along with his explanation. "Ah, I see. Well, shrinking magics are not unheard, although quite rare. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the Triforce of Power would grant Ganon such abilities." Parvus paced around the room as the townsfolk murmured to themselves. "That raises another question: who is 'we'? You keep saying 'we', so I assume others know of your condition?"

Link nodded, pulling open the pictures on his Sheikah Slate. "These five know about my current state: there's Daruk the Gordon, Zelda the Hylian Princess, Urbosa the Gerudo, Revali the Rito, and Mipha the Zora."

The elder glanced at each photo, before pausing on Mipha. "Ahh, this must be the 'giant' the little ones were referring to. 'A big fishy giant!' they said. I told them it was probably just a Zora and to ignore it. But then they said that they had captured a fellow Minish, and it raised some concern. We did a quick head count to find out no one was missing, but we very well couldn't leave one of our own out to dry. We told the children we would investigate on our own to find out what was going on, but it seems they beat us to it..." The man's eyes trailed off to the right. Link followed his gaze to find a small group of children peering into the pot. When they realized they were noticed, they all came stumbling in before one stepped out in front of the others.

"We of the Minish Men have saved a fellow Minish! We couldn't stand by and let our brother be tortured at the hands of his captor! We're heroes, no thanks to you all!" The small child boasted, his grin wide and happy.

"My boy, this man is not a Minish. He is Hylian." Parvus explained, pinching the top of his nose.

"We of the Mini...wait, what? N..no, he's a Minish! Look at his size! He's clearly a Minish."

"Do you see that his clothes are not from around here? Or the Master Sword on his back? What about the lack of distinguishing feature we Minish possess?"

"I don't even speak Minish." Link added, shrugging.

The boy started to falter. "B..but that giant was threatening to eat you! We rescued you from her."

Again, Link shook his head. "She was joking because I had a bad dream that she had done so. She would never hurt me."

The boy leader began to fall back to his group, struggling to find the words to defend his actions. "B...but I...we...we saved...we..."

Parvus shook his head, the elder approaching the group of children. "This is why you must listen to your elders, young ones. We need to always assess the situation first before running head long into action. We have always survived off of careful action and cooperation. Do you feel your actions reflected these ideals?"

The leader looked down at his feet, shuffling them back and forth before finally shaking his head. The elder gave a small smile. "Do you know what you must do next then?"

The group looked between themselves before looking back to Parvus. "We're sorry..." the group spoke. Parvus then gestured to Link with a quick nod, the group quickly understanding what he meant. They quickly turned towards Link before bowing their heads. "We're sorry for taking you..."

Link shook his head. "It's alright. Just a...'little' misunderstanding, right?" Link joked, trying to lighten up the mood. Thankfully, it worked, causing both the children as well as the townsfolk to chuckle lightly. Sensing the lighter mood, Link decided now was as good a time as any to ask his next question. "So, what do we do now?"

"I came as soon as I could. How are you holding up?"

Zelda placed her hand on Mipha's back, rubbing it slightly in an effort to calm her down. In response, Mipha threw her arms around Zelda. "It was my job to protect him...I was supposed to...to protect him..." Mipha sobbed.

Zelda frowned. She completely understood her friend's sorrow, but her broken down state was not going to help find him any faster. "Mipha, I know you're in pain, but we have to find Link."

Mipha looked up at her, tears staining her face. "But what if he's lost? O..or hurt? Or...or...what if..if he's d..dea..."

"Don't talk like that!" Zelda yelled. She quickly realized her volume and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "I mean, we can't think negatively. We can find Link, and we will find him. Ok?"

Mipha sniffled. Zelda is right! I can't keep moping around. Link is out there, somewhere, and I'm gonna find him. Hold on, my love. I'm coming! She wiped away her tears before giving a determined nod.

Zelda gave her a small smile. "Good. Now, where did you last see him?"

"We were here, at the Eastern Reservoir. We were sleeping together, with him on top of my che..." Mipha blushed, looking away from Zelda. "Umm, we were sleeping here. When I woke up, he was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere! I looked for footprints, signs of an attack, anything. But there wasn't anything in sight."

Zelda paced back and forth. "So he was taken between when you woke up earlier and when you woke up again hours later?" Mipha nodded. "Ok...maybe he was attacked? He retreated when he couldn't get your attention?"

Mipha shook her head. "I would have felt if anything attacked Link. I also had my hands over him like a small cage, so if someone did take him, they'd have to move my hands away. But again, I didn't feel a thing..."

Zelda frowned in thought. "So someone didn't take Link...and he didn't run off..." Suddenly, a thought popped up in her head. It may have been a stretch, but it could be... "Maybe someone didn't take Link, but what if he was taken by people who could get close unnoticed, would be able to slip into your hands, and steal him away without you noticing?"

Mipha shot her a confused look. "I'm not following, Zelda. Who exists that can do that?"

Zelda turned and looked through her pack, throwing out books as she searched for a specific tome. Turning around, she held out a small, old, and dusty looking book.

"Legend of the Picori?"

Link sat with Parvus in his home, a small, overturned barrel lightly furnished with a desk, a few chairs, and some windows to the outside world. It also had a bed in a loft upstairs. They had been hashing out ideas on how to get him back to his friend safely. Most options were a tad too dangerous, and going back the way the children came would depend on the sheer luck they benefitted from the first time they kidnapped him. Flying ended up being too dangerous due to predatory birds. Waterways with too many fish more than ready to eat whatever is smaller than them stopped them from any nautical routes. Getting attention from the regular sized inhabitants of Hyrule also served as a problem. They were a bit too large to just yell at, and waiting on the road for them was too dangerous due to horses and carts. And to top things off, the Sheikah Slate, while retaining some features, was unable to teleport to any shrines or towers. Link couldn't tell if it was bad luck or just lazy writing.

Link sighed. "We're getting no where. All options point to failure. There's gotta be a way back!"

Parvus stroked his beard. "It is quite a conundrum. Most routes leave us with low chances of success. Our location does lend well to our defense. Being on an island in the Zora river, most people do not bother our small town as they never find it. But it also makes it a little hard to leave and interact with the other inhabitants of Hyrule. I'm still surprised the little ones were able to get you all the way down here. I'm going to have a talk with them about how far they've been leaving the village. The world can be quite dangerous for a Minish, especially young ones."

Link nodded, glancing outside. "How do they normally get up that far?"

Parvus showed off his kinstone. "Minish are able to use kinstones to teleport to certain areas, generally to places where a kinstone has been left to teleport to. Sadly, this ability has been lost to the denizens of Hyrule for ages. The little ones must have carried you back when they thought the stone was broken. By that extension, they also brought the stone back. We can longer travel up there, even if we could take you with us."

Link grumbled, slightly annoyed by the complicated situation he was stuck in. His best hope was that Mipha noticed he was missing (not that he was worried she wouldn't, considering their new relationship and the promise she made to him) and went searching for him. Then she would just have to get lucky and accidentally stumble upon the village. Oh yeah, she's also apparently too old to see the Minish so it'll also be invisible. Easy.

Parvus lightly chuckled. "I understand the scenario seems hopeless, but worry not. We Minish are a resourceful bunch. We'll find a way to get you home safely."

Link gave him a small smile, before returning to the window. Something felt...off to Link. He couldn't quite place the feeling. Sure, he knew he was safe here, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, that something was about to go wrong. He turned to Parvus. "Hey, Parvus, can...can monsters see the Minish?"

Parvus gave Link a quizzical look. "An odd question, Link, but a good one. Yes, monsters can see us, that is why we tend to hide our towns and settlements in secluded areas to protect ourselves. Why do you ask?"

A rumble. Then another. Parvus eyes snapped to the window as a titan walked into view. A soaking wet red Bokoblin was wandering towards the village, shaking its head trying to clear the water off itself. It froze suddenly, seeing the Minish people staring up in horror at the creature. It let out a weird mix of a snarl and a gleeful cry as it began to stomp towards the town. The Minish people began to panic, retreating back into their homes or any other shelter they could find.

"Oh, just wondering..."

AN: Ahoy! Writer Not Writer here! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I don't write fighting scenes often, and it would appear that I'm gonna tackle that hurtle next chapter. Someone's gotta deal with this rogue bokoblin, and our hero might just need some help in defeating this grand enemy. The fighter becomes the teacher, and an unlikely combatant shines next time on Little Link!

Don't know how I feel about previews. We'll see how it works out :p