Another random-idea oneshot. This one's focused on description, and is pretty much an ode to one of my favorite dungeon beginnings. Or at least, it was my fav, at then I started the Temple of Time...and wow. Just wow.

If you're reading "A Link from the Past": I will update. I have not abandoned you or Link or Link! But for the sake of safety and of perfection (at least plot wise because typos are my bane) I'm gonna wait until I have the ending figured out. So that could be tomorrow, that could be another week. Breakthroughs happen, and so does finals week. But I wrote this oneshot so that y'all could have something to read this week, so please enjoy!

I do not own Legend of Zelda.

Simple Soup and Simple Joy

The plate of ice shattered beneath Link's feet. His snow-encrusted boots broke against the stone, and he struggled to straighten his fingers from their frozen gloves to brush powder off himself. He fought the grip of cold as it threatened to keep him still, to keep him from moving ever again. With weary legs he walked towards the mansion. It looked grand, and for a minute Link had a vision of roaring fires and cotton beds and a thousand other mirages he longed for on the peak of this mountain blanketed by blizzards.

Link forced himself to put one foot in front of the other and climb the steps, but his body cried out, softly pleading, "Let us rest. Don't make us move, please. We've been through so much already, please, please let us rest, it will only be a moment..."

Link knew if he stopped he'd never move again. His fingers felt like blades of ice as he wrapped them around the door handle. Gripping the cold metal, frosted and slick, he felt the capillaries in his fingers splinter. With a jerk he opened the door.

He had been exhausted when he reached the peak, drained from his long climb fighting a full on blizzard. He must've rolled most of the way down to the mansion instead of sledding, collapsing into banks of snow and feeling his body slide, powder drifting beneath him like the sand of Arbiter's grounds, scaring him awake again as he remembered the edge, the abyss so far down.

Link looked up to find the eerie glow of a Poe suspended midair above the ice. "Midna," he whispered, his voice weak. She emerged from his shadow.

"What's the matter?" she asked gently, the ever-present note of annoyance in her voice absent.

"Wolf," Link coughed at the icy air knifing his throat. Midna obliged, pressing the Shadow Crystal into the numb palm he held out. Link felt his eyes roll back into his head and his body curl in on itself, his shoulders pushing forward and driving his hands, melting into paws, unto the ice before him. His spine straightened and a thick fur coat enveloped him. But even beneath the thick fur, the numbness persisted.

Wolf Link ran forward, Midna on his back, cuing into his senses and knocking the Poe to the ground, tearing out its soul with his teeth in a surge of will and adrenaline. It tasted like ink.

He limped a few steps, the ice biting into his paws, his chain clinking against the ice. With a deploring look he turned around towards Midna. His breath puffed out rapidly, pluming into space before them, short from the thin mountain air. He felt a little dizzy. Wordlessly Minda unsheathed the Master Sword and Link took it amid a matter-bending moment and he stood as a human again.

Stumbling forward, he coiled his fingers around the doorknob. They'd been wreathed in the agony of cold so long that he didn't notice them anymore, barely missing them when he slipped into his wolf skin and scarcely remembering them when he shifted back. He longed to bash them against something, get the blood flowing, but his groggy mind warned he could break them and feel nothing. He turned the knob and went inside.

A breath of warm air greeted him. "Who?" asked a quiet female voice, rousing Link from the dream of warmth he was slipping into even while standing. His eyes focused and he saw that there was a roaring fire in a grate, casting warmth over the carpet covered stone.

"Sorry, I have sickness, uh," she apologized, "Come closer?" His heart floated with gratefulness as he stumbled toward the fireplace and the puffy penguin-shaped woman wrapped in a chair beside it. He removed the frozen cloth he'd covered his mouth with against the cold, letting the warmth thaw his cheeks.

"You cute little human," she said to him as he smiled weakly, "Husband told me you come. You want to look at mirror, huh? My husband found it, but it pretty thing. Uh, but—" she coughed weakly, "…since I get mirror, I get sick," she said, coughing and wheezing as she spoke, "And then bad monsters appear." She coughed again, harder this time. Link dazedly handed her the cloth in his hand. It was still stiff with ice. "Thank you. So many bad things happen since mirror….so we lock bedroom on third floor where it hangs, uh—" she coughed again, sniffling loudly, her face puffy and miserable, "Wait, I'll tell you where key is," she trailed, pulling a worn map from her pocket and handing it to Link. He took it in his still-numb hands. He couldn't feel the paper beneath them yet but they were rampant with pain again. He struggled to unfold the map, to hold it out to Yeta. "Fever make head blurry—" she coughed again, "but it probably here in this room," she pointed. Link nodded, starting to feel alert again.

"May I?" he asked, pointing to the charred sticks in the hearth. "Oh, yes, no problem," Yeta sniffled and the Hero nudged one of the sticks free with the fire tongs and scribbled ash over the designated room. With how quickly the world was fading, he didn't expect to remember.

"Right now, can't even get up," Yeta said apologetically. Link nodded understandingly, thinking to himself, I can barely stand. He almost told her that, but the fire at his back was lulling his body to sleep now that he was so close to it. He could feel his muscles unwinding. It was like the call of the snow when he'd fallen into off his snow board—cocooning around him, soft and inviting. Stay with us...

"Would you bring it to me, uh?" Yeta broke through his thoughts. "Start with door right there," she said, gesturing weakly. Link nodded, barely managing to croak out an "I will," before stumbling off in that direction. He could feel Midna's presence in his shadow—it was the fact she was there that kept him from keeling over in front of the fire. He almost hated her for it. But he was so tired…it didn't feel like he had the strength to hate. But then again, it didn't feel like he had the strength to put one foot in front of the other, and yet he did, walking towards the door as if in a dream.

He heard Midna stir in his shadow as he opened the door. But the booming voice of Yeto interrupted him. "You!" the yeti grunted from behind a steaming pot. Link's nose was thawed out and running terribly, but through it he picked up a salty soup which cleaved his stomach empty and made his mouth water. He walked towards Yeto and the pot in a daze, staring into the bubbles ravenously as the yeti spoke, "Wife look bad, huh? Not healthy since mirror….so I make soup for her! Fish from Zora village are most nutritious!" he exclaimed, Link nodding absentmindedly.

Yeto eyed the hero and saw the way he stood, exhausted, shoulders drooping and his eyelids threatening his full collapse while he stared mesmerized into the pot. The Yeti's big heart surged at the sight of him. "You tired, huh?" he said loudly, patting the boy on the shoulder and nearly knocking him over. "You have some! It give you energy! You feel better!"

Link steadied himself against the crates and pulled himself to the rim of the pot. The world was slow as he pulled out a bottle, his hands weak as he tried to uncork it. But his fingers couldn't grasp, his wrist couldn't turn—he was knocked back as Yeto took the bottle from it and easily removed the cork, filling it with soup. "Here, you drink," the yeti said, pushing the warm container back into Link's grasp. The sides were slick with soup but Link didn't care. Faint, famished, and frozen he raised the bottle to his mouth and swallowed. The salt and warmth slid down his throat like a dream. He tipped his head back and the bottle was empty, but before he realized Yeto had taken it from him again and then pushed the full-up glass back into his hands. Again he swallowed, tasting salt and fat and fish and warm.

The soup stuck to his insides like glue, but he kept eating. He lost count of the times Yeto refilled his bottle, and he forgot himself in the mechanical motion of swallowing and growing warm.

"Can I have some water?" he asked at last, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he held out the bottle. Yeto nodded and hummed, opening a window and filling the container with snow, then turning to melt it over the flames.

The hero sat down on the crate, his belly heavy and warm with soup, mouth full of salt. Midna came to float beside him. "You okay?" she asked, her voice soft for once.

Link sniffed heavily—all the hot soup made his nose run even more. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said, pulling off his gloves and laying them on the crate beside him, freeing his hands and clenching and unclenching them, rejoicing in the fact they could move again.

"I was worried when you tried to start the temple without resting," Midna said, her voice a whisper. "You were stupid to do that," she snapped as he removed his boots and socks and laid them beside the gloves, squeezing his still-pained toes. What she really means is "You were stupid to make me worry," he thought with a grin.

He unstrapped his armor and put down his sword, Midna eying the weapons Link was never without and then the yeti uncertainly. But Yeto was quite focused on the melting snow, and didn't notice as Link pulled off his outer tunic and chainmail, leaving only simple pants and a white shirt. He even took off his hat and laid it by the fire to thaw as well.

"Here, drink!" said Yeto as handed Link the bottle. Link drank it eagerly, and after sighing deeply and went to the window to gather more snow. He was feeling much better, though still dazed, his toes still frozen against the stone of the kitchen.

Midna floated beside him. "So are you ready to start the temple?" she asked irritably, huffing and covering up the fact that she didn't want him to go anywhere until he'd rested. But she couldn't let her Hero go soft letting him know she thought that.

Link smiled as he returned to the fire, placing the bottle beside it and choosing not to answer. Midna eyed Yeto warily again. She clearly didn't like the size of the beast-man. "Well?" she persisted.

"Well," Link repeated her tone, "I can't go anywhere until my clothes have thawed out."

Midna him an iconic look. "Wolves don't wear clothes," she said.

Link threw his head back and laughed. For the first time in weeks, in a temple no less, he felt happy and comfortable.

"Is that why you like me so much as a wolf then?" he mocked.

Her bright orange eyes ignited with rage and she kicked him. But he simply laughed. "How dare you!" she cried, pummeling him as he raised his arms to block her.

"Hey, easy," he said, shrugging her off and curling his despondent toes against the warm stone around the pot. He reached over to the crate to grab his bottle and drank the warm water, replacing it with some more soup. His stomach was full but he was still cold at the edges.

Midna came to sit on his shoulder. He sighed and wiped his mouth again. "Were you cold on the way here?" he asked.

"No. You're a lot fluffier than you think you are."

Link snorted as he knocked back more soup. Midna bumped his shoulder. "You really shouldn't drink so much."

"It's soup, not whiskey. You want some?"

"No, of course not."

"Fine, suit yourself. Hey Yeto, there's not a chance you have any fire whiskey in here, is there?"

Midna slammed full force into him, dribbling soup down the front of his shirt. He laughed some more at her. Realistically, he wasn't much in the mood to get drunk—drinking soup in a Yeti's kitchen in his undershirt with an imp on his shoulder was weird enough. But he wanted to tease Midna and he figured whiskey might fire the deep-seated chill in his bones more efficiently than soup.

"Eh?" Yeto turned to Link, his eyes bulging, "You want fire whiskey? You little human! You no can take fire whiskey! You think Yeto stupid?" The Yeti was huge and he looked mad.

"No, no I don't, I'm sorry, I was just joking!" Link cried.

"Huh?" Yeto said, and after a moment burst out laughing, a deep raucous sound that came from his belly. "You silly human! You make joke! But you no should get drunk with pretty girl. Pretty girl deserve better. You share soup with her. She pretty girl, you owe her."

Link flushed red, and Midna laughed beside him, curling into herself as she floated in the air. "Hahaha! I deserve better! I like this guy!"

Link smiled embarrassedly and pulled his face from the column of steam above the pot, taking a swig of soup, trying to look cool, and ending up looking ridiculous. Midna laughed harder.

Link looked down and considered his empty bottle, feeling all the weight of the soup he'd eaten settling down. A bubble gurgled up in his throat and he burped, the realized weight of his meal slogging him off his feet.

"Haha! Yeto make good soup. Human get drunk from soup! Hahaha! You small, little human, you watch what you can take. Soup thick for Yeta!"

Link smiled back at the yeti and agreed aloud as he slid down against the crates. He sighed heavily, feeling the heat from the fire under the pot surround him. He was drained from the long climb and the thick soup gluing to his body, and all the events of the day spilling over him at once, washing him out. Midna drifted beside him, still smirking. "I told you to take it easy."

Link smiled, "I will," he added, closing his eyes and letting himself drift off. The world was warm and simple and happy, and he relinquished consciousness gladly, the sound of fire feathering the air in the background of his dreams.

Midna smiled and shook her head at him. Residing to herself that it would be a few hours before he awoke from his food coma, she settled down beside him, and in a world warm and smelling of soup, she dozed off as well.

Above them, Yeto hummed and stirred the soup, smiling to himself for a dozen mysterious reasons. And for then, the soup was simple and so was the world they found themselves in.

Yeah, I had soup for dinner. And we just got the first snow of the year where I live. And all that happened after I decided to write this. So monkey.