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“Four? Where are we going?” Wind sounded utterly confused as he pushed aside branches and leaves. He and Sky always made the most noise walking through forests, which made sense. Four knew that neither had grown up among trees, like many of the rest of them did.
Four turned his head from the front of the pack. “I told you, my grandpa’s forge. He lives at the edge of the village, and we’re actually close this time, so I thought we’d stop in.”
“Not to doubt you,” Warriors said, frowning as he picked a leaf off of his scarf, “but what village? I couldn’t see any chimneys from the hill, and I don’t hear anything. How far away is it?”
“Just a few minutes,” Four assured them with a smile. They stepped into a tiny clearing, crunching underbrush underfoot. He stopped and turned around. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if this will work. The evidence so far implies that it will, but—Anyway. Everyone needs to step on that stump.” He pointed.
The Heroes looked over at the small tree stump.
“All at once?” Wild said.
“Wait, if what will work?” Legend asked slowly.
“What is a stump supposed to do?” Twilight squinted in suspicion.
Four smiled at them, a little bit evilly pleased. He’d been waiting a long time for this particular reveal and didn’t want to give the game away too soon. “Who’s going to be the first to find out?”
Time and Twilight glanced at each other. Sky hid a yawn behind his hand, but his eyebrows rose in concern. A moment more passed, and then Wind’s hand shot up.
“I will!”
Four’s smile grew.
“Wind,” Warriors began.
“What? I trust Four. It’s not my fault if you don’t.” Wind pushed his way to the front and crouched to inspect the stump.
“I do. But I don’t like the way he’s smiling,” Warriors said, which was fair.
“It’s not going to hurt,” Four assured him. “Just step on top, Wind, and wait for a second.”
Wind stood and climbed on top of the stump. He positioned his feet on either side of the little hole in the top and looked down. “What’s it supposed to—”
With a rush of magic and a faint blue light, Wind disappeared.
“What the—” Twilight began.
“Where’d he go!” Wild pushed his way up to take a closer look at the stump.
Four heard vague squeaking noises coming from the clump of grasses growing at the edge of the stump. They were just excited noises, though, so he didn’t give away the jig just yet. “Who’s next?”
Time fixed him with an impassive stare. “Four, where’s Wind?”
“Really close, I promise.”
“It’s a portal of some sort?” Legend joined Wild near the stump. “He had to have gone somewhere.”
“I’ll go!” Wild stepped up onto the stump without fanfare or any debate. “Woah, tingly.”
Magic—light—poof. Wild vanished.
“Someone responsible should probably join them,” Four suggested. “Before they burn something down.”
“You’re sure it’s safe?” Sky asked.
Four nodded. “I’m just going last to make sure everyone gets through okay.”
“All right.” Sky jumped up to the stump. After several seconds, he also disappeared into the light. The squeaking sounds from the grass just got louder. Four could pick out laughter, and his smile shifted to something more amused than mischievous.
He looked to the others and gestured to the stump, silently asking who wanted to go next. One by one, they stepped up and vanished, displaying different levels of suspicion and excitement at the unknown—Hyrule, Legend, Warriors, Twilight, Time.
Four followed Time after a last glance around the forest. He stepped up onto the stump, and the familiar magic washed over him, blurring the world for a moment.
He tumbled out of the base of the stump, taking to his feet in a practiced movement. The stump towered over him now, casting shade onto the ground. A rough set of stairs climbing the side of the stump had appeared with the change in perspective. He took a moment to acclimate himself again to the familiar senses of his Minish form—different sight, softer sounds, stronger smells. The dirt under his paws felt good. He’d missed having claws. As usual, his Pegasus Boots had conveniently reformed into Pegasus Footwraps.
Four brushed off his multicolored tunic and looked up to judge how his fellow Heroes had taken their own transformations.
Eight Hylian faces looked back at him.
He tilted his head. His nose twitched.
Huh. They’d just shrunk, equipment and all. He could honestly say he hadn’t expected that.
“Four?” Twilight asked hesitantly. “Why are you a mouse?” Though their voices had sounded squeaky from up above, Twilight sounded normal from here.
Four stood up straighter, his feathery tail lashing once. “I am a Minish, a perfectly respectable fey, not a mouse. I thought the rest of you would turn into this, too.”
“Guess not,” Hyrule said, looking down at his hands and wiggling his fingers. “Still Hylian. Just tiny.”
“Why did you change?” Legend asked, not exactly accusing. “You went through the same portal we did.”
“Why do you think?” Four asked right back. “Come on, the village is just down this path. You can’t see it when you’re big.” He started down the path, conscious of the eyes on him. He knew they would find out, but he’d thought it would happen in town, not outside like this. It felt a little awkward.
Warriors followed first. “Well, I suppose a village being so small would account for why I couldn’t see it from the hill.”
“We’re really small,” Wild said in wonder, looking up and around as they started walking. “It must take forever to get around like this.”
“It does, in terms of Hylian distance,” Four agreed. He climbed over a stick. “That’s why I’m grateful there are so many portals everywhere, to get big again if I need to. The world above is pretty, but it’s nice down here, too.”
Hyrule stopped dead, his eyes wide, then ran to catch up again. “Is this why you always win hide and seek?”
“Maaaaybe.”
Time walked up beside Four. “The Minish are fey creatures, you said?”
Four nodded, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for disturbances. “You might hear Picori sometimes, they’re the same people, it’s just another name.”
“And this is a village full of them?”
“Yes. Please, guys”—he spoke to everyone, turning his head to be heard—“Minish are very nice, but don’t take advantage. They might be wary of you to start with, but they won’t attack. I mean, except for the kids attacking with questions.”
“I’m used to that,” Wild laughed.
The walk to town remained pleasant. The sun filtered through the grass and the clovers overhead as they headed down the trodden path. Four had every step of this path memorized, having used the nearby portal dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. As the town got steadily closer, he became more and more restless. He started bouncing on his feet, and the others picked up his energy, laughing about and generally in awe of their new perspective of the world.
All at once, they turned a corner and saw the entrance to the village, a cultivated archway of clovers, grass, and woven sticks. The village itself sprawled out around and up the side of an old log. Houses with toadstool caps as roofs mixed among buildings with grass-woven roofs. Bridges and ladders made of sticks and twine stretched over gaps. A few quail cooed deep inside the log itself, watched over by herders. Three strawberry plants grew at the base of the log, their berries still white and ripening. The snap pea plant climbed up the side of the log. Painted acorn lanterns and flower-petal banners strung between houses and structures.
Minish of all shapes and sizes and colors walked and climbed around, busy with everyday tasks. A few hung on the pea plant, using sliver-sized knives to cut the ready pods off so they fell into waiting baskets woven from strips of bark. Near the road, several more chatted as they dunked brightly colored fabric into large buckets that strongly resembled thimbles.
As Four had expected, the children noticed them first.
“Link! Link! Little Hero!” three nearby kids shouted in the chirping Picori language, squeaking in their eagerness. They ran over to tug on Four’s clothes, on his tail, and on his paws. “It’s been forever since you were home!”
Four couldn’t help but smile. “Hi, Brita! Jeron, you’re getting so big! And Kali, too! I brought some friends,” he replied so they could understand. He switched languages. “How is your Hylian coming? Can you say hello?”
Brita, a brown-furred little girl, turned to the group of Heroes watching. She didn’t let go of Four’s shirt, but she waved. “Hail and well met, trabi… traveler.”
Wild came up to crouch near her. He held out his hand to shake. “Hail and well met. It’s nice to meet you. My name is Wild.”
“I am Brita,” Brita responded, staring at the hand with wide eyes. Four reached down to pull her paw off of him and put it gently in Wild’s, who shook it.
“Shaking hands is a Hylian greeting,” Four told her, speaking a bit slower than usual. Learning Hylian had become commonplace among the Minish during his first adventure, and though some of the stubborn ones refused to learn, most picked it up with determination. It made communicating with Zelda and the castle easier, honestly, when almost anyone could do the talking.
Wild let go of Brita’s paw after a moment. “You’re very pretty,” he told her, and Brita turned to bury her nose in Four’s tunic.
Four switched back to Picori for the kids. He pulled his tail from Kali’s paws and made sure Jeron held onto her. “I’m not back for very long,” he said, to their disappointment. “But I’ll see if I have a bit of time to play with you later, okay? Maybe tomorrow. I have to talk to adults for right now.”
“Aw,” Jeron whined. “But you just got here!”
“I know. Someone’s gotta take care of my friends, though, they can’t do anything without me.”
Kali nodded somberly. Brita let go of Four’s tunic, and the three of them scampered off, bending to use all four paws for a bit more speed.
“They’re cute,” Wild said, standing with a grin.
“Yeah, they are.” Four waved to a few of the adults who’d noticed him, but didn’t go to talk to anyone as he might otherwise have done. He really did need to make sure the Heroes wouldn’t get into any stupid trouble. A few bets about how long they’d last and who’d be the one to start it flew around the different colors in his brain.
He turned around to address them all again. “Welcome to Rilliata. We’ll say hello to the elder first, so she knows you’re all here. Then we’ll go to the smithy where my grandpa lives, where we can eat and set up for the night. Sound good?”
“Four,” Time began, looking around the village spread out in front of them, “is your grandfather’s forge in this village?”
Four pointed toward the ground at the end of the log, where a mud-brick structure belched smoke. “That’s the smithy, yes.”
Sky stepped up, looking thoughtful. “Does that mean… you…”
“Grew up here?” Four finished. “Exactly.”
More than one person blinked at him in bafflement. The light of realization dawned on a few faces after a moment. Four wondered how long it would take the others. More bets emerged, heedless of the fact that he only had one wallet.
“Huh,” Warriors said. He looked up at the town with a contemplative expression, arms folded. “I never would have known that people like this even existed.”
Four gestured them onto the wide, shady road and started leading them toward the elder’s temple at the top of the log. They’d have to climb a little to get there—not a problem for Minish with claws, but Hylians without them would have a little more trouble.
“To be fair,” he said as he waved back at the people who looked at the group in curiosity, “most of the time, Minish can only be seen by young Hylian children. We make exceptions occasionally. Like for Zelda.”
“How many villages like this are there?” Twilight asked, joining the front of the group as he normally did.
“Five or six in the forest. There are a few up on the volcano, Grandpa’s from one of those. Another maybe six or seven are in Hyrule Town, including one right next to the castle. And then there are a couple caravans that travel between towns. Doesn’t look like any are here right now, though.” He didn’t hear the tinkling of the caravan bells or see any of the tamed squirrels that pulled them. It disappointed him a little, the caravans threw great parties.
Hyrule skipped in a circle. “It’s nice! I like it.”
“Me too.” Four smiled. His ear twitched at the sound of running feet, and then he had to take a few heavy steps backwards to not fall over at the force with which a girl threw herself at him. “Oof. Erune!”
“Link!” She hugged him tight for a few moments, then started chittering away. Her blonde fur glimmered in the daylight. “You’ve been away for so long, Zelda said you were off on another adventure. Is that true? Are you back now? Who are these people? More emissaries from Hyrule Town and the knights?”
“Slow down,” Four told her, pushing her gently off of him. He answered in Picori, knowing she hadn’t really advanced very far in Hylian when he’d left. “Yeah, I’m on another adventure. I can’t stay very long, we’re off to see the elder and then Grandpa. What do you mean, more emissaries from Hyrule Town? Have there been knights?”
She nodded and smoothed her short red dress down. “Yes, Reynold brought them. He and Princess Zelda have been working together. There’s been a lot of talk about living in the open , can you believe it? I don’t know if it’s a really good idea, but it is very exciting. Anyway, I won’t keep you, but you’d better come say hi later!”
“I will,” Four shouted as she ran off again, waving behind her.
Wild stopped next to him. “I caught ‘Zelda’ in there a few times. And Hyrule. Don’t tell me that’s your Zelda.”
Four burst out laughing. “No, no. You met my Zelda, she’s the Hylian princess! I’m the only one who goes back and forth, er, that I know of. That was Erune, we’ve been friends since my second adventure.”
“That brings up an interesting question,” Twilight said. He wore a forgotten smile on his face. “Why are you the only one who goes back and forth? That portal didn’t require anything special.”
“No other Minish can grow big.” Four kept walking, aiming for the nicest part of the log to climb. “A couple have tried. There must be something about the Hero’s Spirit that lets me.”
Erune’s other news, about the castle emissaries, was good. Four had been in the process of establishing communication between the Minish elders and the castle, going so far as to put a town Minish named Reynold in charge of the efforts. He didn’t know it had gotten as far as Hylians from the castle (knights, even!) coming to visit. Presumably, they’d been shrunk just like the other Heroes, which led to a few curious conclusions about the inherent magic of Hylians versus Minish. Four would have liked to have been present for those first interactions, but he was glad to know they were moving forward even in his absence, and that things seemed to have gone well.
Nobody was screaming and pointing at the other Heroes, anyway. They just looked curiously and waved. Ergo, nothing too bad had happened.
Four stopped next to the log wall, an easy part to climb with lots of textured bark creating handholds. They wouldn’t have to climb an awkward slope, just a straight shot, but from down here, the height looked a bit daunting.
“Ooh, we get to climb?” Wild looked up the log, stars in his eyes.
“Wild, you’re welcome,” Four said. “Everyone else, sorry.”
“Eh, it’s not that bad.” Twilight joined Wild in looking up. “Get a rope up and we’ll be fine.”
Time offered out a rope, and Four took it.
“Race you?” Wild offered.
Four looked at him, considering. Competitiveness was definitely an element of the Hero’s Spirit. None of them could easily turn down a challenge or a dare, Four included. “You’re on.”
“Do you really think you can win?” Twilight asked. “If I remember correctly, you kind of suck at climbing.”
Four held out a paw and spread his fingers to illustrate. “When I don’t have claws, I suck. I grew up climbing this wall.”
Wild blinked at him, then grinned. He pulled his slate out, and with the customary flash of blue, his clothes changed out into a loose shirt and a bandana around his head. “Let’s do this.”
“On your mark,” Twilight said with a laugh in his voice, standing back.
Four and Wild took up positions near each other, and Four stuck the rope between his teeth so he’d have his claws free. He glanced up to see the path he’d have to take. It looked pretty straight, one of the easier ways to get up the log.
“Get set…”
A few Minish stopped to watch, and the other Heroes clustered around. They looked bored (Legend), very excited (Wind and Hyrule), slightly concerned (Time and Sky), and entertained but trying to hide it (Warriors.) Four braced himself.
“Go!” Twilight chopped a hand through the air.
Four jumped high, latching onto the bark of the log with the claws on all four of his limbs. Wild didn’t get quite such a good start, but he went faster than Four had expected. Those watching from the ground and up above cheered, happy for entertainment.
The two of them climbed up neck-and-neck, only for Wild to gain the advantage by somehow jumping straight up at a strategic moment. Four worked hard to pull ahead.
His foot slipped once, but he managed to keep going. He only used the tips of his claws, sacrificing a bit of stability for speed. In the end, the strategy worked out, and Four pulled himself up on top of the log wall only a scant moment before Wild did.
“You’re fast,” Wild panted, leaning his hands on his knees.
“So are you,” Four told him, not quite as out of breath. He bent down to tie the end of Time’s rope securely around a green twig growing from the side of the log.
A few of the younger Minish up on top congratulated Wild on his effort, telling him that they hadn’t even known Hylians could climb, much less climb so fast. Wild took the praise with a red face. When the watchers dispersed, he double-checked Four’s knot by tugging on the rope, and the two of them peeked over the side.
“Come on up!” Wild called, gesturing. Wind was the first once again, and grabbed onto the rope and start pulling himself up. Four remembered the comfortable way Wind swung on the rigging strung up on the ships they’d ended up in more than once.
Four reached down to grab Wind’s wrist as Sky started up the rope. He hauled him up, and Wind grinned.
“I never thought a view from so low could be so pretty!” Wind said, shading his eyes to look out over the town.
From here, the clovers looked like trees, and the homes looked a lot like some more rustic Hylian buildings Four had seen. The sun started to dip behind the large trees that framed the blue sky, and a few Minish ran around lighting lanterns, the painted acorn ones hung from canopies and shaded posts. A few wind chimes made from wooden buttons and scrap glass tinkled from the overhang of a nearby shop.
“I’m a fan,” Four agreed, offering his paw down towards Sky, who stood next to Wind while they waited for Twilight to ascend.
It had been a long time since Four had seen this view. He’d never, ever be upset that he got to travel with the others—the smithing techniques he got to study were worth it on their own, to say nothing of the people and places he’d grown to love—but he did miss home sometimes. Although the group had been to this time period before, they had always either been too involved in Hyrule Town or too far away to come visit.
Legend smiled wryly when Four helped him up. “Now I know why you’re never offended when someone calls you short.”
Four gave him a flat look.
“I can’t read your expressions when you’re like this, Four.”
“Can you read me rolling my eyes? Come on, it’s getting late.” Four led them through a few rows of small shops, climbing occasional stairs in sets of five or six. The flow of people slowed as they got closer to the temple at the very top.
Decades ago, the first Minish to come to the area built the elder’s temple out of wood, a simple structure that lasted a long time. As more caravans were established and traveled more extensively, the builders here started to buy up pieces of Hylian glass, from broken cups and crockery to bits of royal crystal. Year after year, bit by bit, builders replaced bits of old wood in the upper parts of the temple with that glass, sealed with concrete.
Now, the temple was built on a solid foundation of wood and pebbles, but it was mostly made of mismatched, multicolored glass arranged in artful patterns that almost made sense. The glass made up the roof, the walls, and the clearest bits made windows. Smaller pieces of shattered glass hung from the eaves, throwing motes of light in every direction and singing pleasing notes when the breezes knocked them together.
“It’s lovely,” Time said as they approached.
Four nodded his agreement, and pointed up to one of the hanging bits of glass, one with three pieces tied together with dark wire. “Everyone adds a chime when they get old enough. That one’s mine.”
Hyrule laughed. “It kinda looks like the Triforce. Was that on purpose?”
“Sort of. Zelda always had the symbol on her, so for the longest time, I assumed it just meant Zelda.” He led them up to the front door and pushed it open, letting them file inside the quiet building.
A chandelier, made of more gem-cut glass, hung in the peak of the roof, and candles on tall sticks threw light and shadow everywhere. Pillars of carved sticks lined the entryway. Just visible in the shadows to the side, empty thread spools and split pinecones served as tables for dried leaf parchment books and various crafting tools. At the back of the entryway, where a shrine or statue would be in a Hylian temple, someone had painted a simple fresco depicting Minish and Hylians with a bowl of bread and strawberries between them.
Wind strained his neck to look up at the chandelier, and Hyrule spun in circles to see all of the room. Legend muttered something under his breath, to a nudge from Twilight and an offended scowl from Warriors. The group at large stayed quiet.
Once the door thumped behind Four, shutting out the rest of the noise from the town and the chimes, a curtain rustled, farther into the temple. A Minish, fur gray with age, shuffled into the entryway with the support of a gnarled staff topped with a colorful glass bead.
“Mm… Link, Link, Link, not the Links I know,” she muttered in Picori, her milky eyes turned to the group. Her nose twitched, and her ears turned toward them. “I see, small like the knights. Or perhaps the priests. Courage.”
Four made his way to the front and spoke in Hylian. The elder’s easy grasp of the language gave her the position of being the town’s primary teacher, a role she took pride and delight in. “Hello, elder, I’m sorry I left without warning. I’m back for a short time, now.”
Her nose pointed toward him, and she answered him in Hylian for the benefit of her other visitors. “There is the fractured soul I know. No apologies, Link, we knew from the beginning that you were a wanderer. Who are these other Links?”
“Heroes from across time,” Four said. “We’ve been brought together for an unknown purpose. They’re all Hylian, as far as I know, so if you know something else, keep their secrets, please.”
Someone shuffled behind Four, and the elder smiled. “As you wish. It is a pleasure to meet you, Heroes. Welcome to the village of Rilliata. I suspect your journey has been a long one. Please allow the time you spend in our village to be that of respite.”
“A pleasure to meet you, as well, elder,” Time said, stepping up once. He bowed a little, and Four appreciated the clear respect, despite the fact that the elder couldn’t see the gesture. “And thank you for the welcome. We’ll do all we can to not make trouble.” His last few words sounded more like a warning at the troublesome Heroes behind him than a reassurance.
The elder just laughed, a creaky but pleasant noise. “Good to hear it. Has our people’s Hero treated you well?”
“Oh, yes,” Sky said with a laugh of his own before Four could protest. “He’s the reason the rest of us do any kind of maintenance on our weapons and armor. Otherwise, we’d just be spending all our money buying new equipment all the time.”
“And that, as well as his combat skills, have saved our lives multiple times,” Warriors added.
Four tugged on his ears in embarrassment, feeling his face heat up. “You’ve saved my life, too,” he muttered.
“I’m very glad you are all alive.” The elder smiled wider, her eyes crinkling. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“We just wanted to check in with you,” Four told her, getting over the compliments. “I do have a question, though—Erune mentioned knights. Have other Hylians shrunk and come through? Have you spoken with Zelda?”
The elder shifted her grip on her staff and tilted her head. “Other Hylians have been here. A few have brought up the idea of training young Minish as knights, themselves, but would like your opinion. Zelda has not visited yet. She says she is busy, but I rather think she’d like to have you show her around.”
Four’s heart lightened a bit at the news, and drooped a bit to know that it would be a while until he could properly attend to the business here. “I’ll talk to her when I can. The training idea is a good one, but for the record, Hylians have a very different worldview, and I think the castle knights need to spend some time around adults first.” He shook his head before his ideas could spiral any further. “I’ll write a letter or something, later. Thank you, elder, you’ve been very helpful. We won’t keep you any more.”
“Don’t be a stranger, Link,” she told him, turning to go. “Thank you for coming to see me. Say hello to your grandfather for me, and have a lovely evening.”
“I will, and you, too.”
With that, the elder shuffled out of the entryway, waving to the group and disappearing again into the shadows.
“So, off to the forge?” Four said, turning around. He felt a little self-conscious under everyone’s attention, without the passing scenery to distract them. His tail flicked once.
Twilight stepped forward with his hands extended. “Yes, definitely, but first, clarification?”
“Clarification about what?” Four ran over the last conversation in his mind—what had been so confusing? “The language?”
“That too, but Four, just to be clear: you’re not Hylian? As in, this is your true form?” Twilight gestured.
“This is how I was born,” Four answered, crossing his arms. “And how I grew up, until that first call to adventure. However… As far as I know, the Hero’s Spirit itself is Hylian. True form? I don’t know. But I do know that this village is home, and so is the castle with Zelda.”
Wind tore his eyes off the chandelier. “Wait, you’re not joking? Really? You’re actually a mouse thing, a Minish?”
Four let the mouse comment slide this time. He shook his head. “No, I’m not joking about it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Hyrule asked quietly. “You didn’t think we’d dislike you or anything, right?”
“Of course not,” Four said with a shrug. “Why does anyone keep secrets? At first, it just wasn’t relevant. And then I found out that nobody even knew what Minish are. It just never really mattered. Now you know, so let the jokes commence.”
“We’re glad to see this never diminished your self-worth,” Time said, keeping a straight face.
Everyone chewed on that for a moment. A green-colored thought inside Four’s head cackled.
Four walked around the group back to the front door. “All right, we’re going to Grandpa’s, now. Time, feel free to stay here and think about what you’ve done.”
Wild and Legend snickered. Twilight rolled his eyes and herded everyone out the door that Warriors held open. Outside, the sun shone lower in the sky, well below the tree line, casting the whole village into shadow. Smells of cooked vegetables and meat floated around from many windows, and Four felt his stomach gurgle a little. Nobody seemed to hear, though, and he headed the pack as he started toward the end of the log.
Hyrule skipped up near him. “So, you need a stump to transform?” Wind walked on Four’s other side, his insatiable curiosity showing again.
“A Minish portal,” Four clarified. “They’re everywhere—stumps, rocks, between tree roots, even in pots and doorframes.”
“How do you tell there’s one nearby?” Wind asked.
“There’s a bit of magic involved. They’re obvious when you know what you’re looking for.”
“Are they only here, in your time?” Hyrule reached out to brush his fingers against a nearby outcropping of colorful mushrooms.
Four shook his head. “When I said everywhere, I meant everywhere. The only time I haven’t found many in is Wars’s, for some reason.”
“We don’t know where he fits in the timeline, anyway, so that almost makes sense,” Hyrule said thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s a connection.”
“Maybe,” Four said. He opened his mouth again, but Warriors interrupted from behind.
“Four, do we have to go down the log again? We just passed the place we came up.”
Four turned enough to answer. “Yeah, the smithy is down on the ground up here. There’s a spot to slide down. That or you could just jump, I guess.”
Unexpectedly, Wild and Sky ran past shouting in glee, and before Four could blink, they’d jumped off the log, sailcloth and paraglider in hand. They caught the slight breeze under them and flew off toward the smithy Four pointed out earlier, gliding over the petal banners and strings of glowing lanterns.
“Wait for me!” Wind said, taking a running jump with his huge leaf.
“Hold on, Wind!” Warriors tried, but Wind was gone. More than one person sighed in exasperation.
Four debated the merits of pulling out his Roc’s Cape and following them, but the purple and green thoughts in his head rightly pointed out that he still had to show the others how to get down. Right. Boring. He shook his head and kept walking.
At least they weren’t far from the forge. It only took another minute before they stood over the building, watching Sky, Wild, and Wind land in the tall grass with laughs. No more smoke puffed out of the pebble chimney, meaning that Grandpa had stopped his work for the day. Four couldn’t stop himself from getting excited. He was ready to go home, even if just for a night or two, however long it would be.
“The way down,” Four announced, gesturing to a thick strip of bark that stretched from the top of the log to the street outside the smithy. Years and years of use had worn a smooth rut down the center, and twine rose along the sides in case someone wanted to use it more like a bridge.
“Seriously?” Legend muttered. He peeked over the edge. “Looks steep.”
“Nah, kids use it all the time. I’ll go first.” Four stepped over.“See you at the bottom!” He jumped down the bark, picking up speed every second as he slid down on his feet.
The slide evened out closer to the ground, so Four slowed well before crashing into the ground. He hopped off, waved to Wild, and looked up. Twilight apparently elected to take the slide sitting down, followed by Hyrule, who lifted his arms to feel the air that tugged at his smile. The others grabbed the twine to walk instead, taking the boring way down. At the bottom, the road was deserted, seeing as the smithy was built on the outside of town and the day was winding down. They were alone.
Four waited for everyone to get down anxiously, hopping from foot to foot, his tail restless. As soon as Time stepped off the slide, Four started off toward the smithy’s front door, gesturing everyone along after him with a smile.
He knocked on the door for politeness’s sake, then opened it and poked his nose in. “Grandpa?”
A clatter echoed through the kitchen as the white-furred Minish at the walnut sink dropped something and spun around. “Link! You’re home!”
“For a little while,” Four answered, opening the door a bit wider. He smiled.
Grandpa did his best to switch to Hylian upon seeing the boys standing behind Four. “Ah, and these people are?”
“Other Heroes, from different times,” Four said plainly. He jumped into the house and squeezed Grandpa around the middle. Grandpa was always a good one to hug—nice and squishy, still warm from the forge, and strong.
“You get into strange situations,” Grandpa laughed, giving him a hug back before beckoning the others inside. “I welcome you to my home, Heroes, come inside.”
They started to shuffle in, and Four rattled off their names. “Grandpa, this is Wind, Sky, Hyrule, Legend, Wild, Twilight, Warriors, and Time.” He repeated the names in Picori so Grandpa would understand what they meant. While words like Wind and Sky were common, he might not know ones like Wild and Twilight. Only Hyrule’s nickname sounded the same in both languages.
“…and everyone, this is my grandfather Smith.”
“Call me Grandpa if you want to,” Grandpa said with a smile. He gestured. “Sit down, please. The table is big enough for us all.”
The dining table was, in fact, big enough, and beautiful, too. A group of Minish travelers had returned to the village after a trip to the volcano towing carts laden with lumpy gray rocks. When the masons split the rocks open, however, they found bright colors and glittering strata inside. The best slices of geode turned into tables in the temple, while all the others found places in different Minish homes. Four and his Grandpa had taken one of the less-desirable pieces and sanded the top smooth before filling in the gaps in the sparkling blue rock with scrap metal.
Legend had stars in his eyes, looking at the biggest sparkly thing he’d likely ever seen. Sky smoothed a hand over the surface and smiled.
Grandpa picked up the thing he’d dropped into the sink earlier, an earthenware mug, and set it aside. “Have you all been together on this… ah… word…” He muttered something.
Four hauled over one of the extra chairs—really just two sets of fork tines bent into shape and welded together. with a blue cushion on top—and offered the translation. “Adventure?”
“That’s it.” Grandpa clapped his paws together. “Adventure! Have you all been together on this adventure?”
“Yes, sir,” Time said, shutting the door behind everyone. It was a bit of a tight fit, but not as bad as Four had feared. “All nine of us.”
“Does that make it easier or harder than the alone adventures?”
“Both,” Warriors said dryly, a smile on his face.
That made Grandpa laugh. “You are lucky, in time for dinner. Mushroom stew?” He pulled out a nice pot, one Four had made him as a present.
“Can I help?” Wild asked, still standing. “There’s a lot of us, I’d hate to make you do it all.”
“I would enjoy your help, thank you!”
“You know,” Legend said, jumping over a stick in his way, “I think you’ve convinced me, Four. Cats are, in fact, the devil’s pet.”
“I think I still like ‘em,” Twilight admitted, sounding just a bit guilty.
Wind laughed as he jumped for a drooping clover. “I definitely still like them.”
“Its claws nearly got your arm,” Warriors reminded him.
“So? They’re still cute and fluffy.”
“And vicious,” Four said with no small amount of vindication. They now understood why he did not like cats.
Wild tossed a small acorn up and down in the air as he walked. “Are the villages safe? I mean, everything’s a threat when you’re this small. Cats are monsters, even bugs can be issues. Is there anything we can do to make it all… less dangerous?”
“I agree,” Sky said. “That bee was actually kind of terrifying.”
“Told you!” Legend shouted from ahead. He had, indeed, told them about several bad experiences with bees. Just single bees. Not even swarms.
Four snorted. “So you know that Minish can’t be seen by most adults? Or most children, for that matter?”
Everyone nodded and agreed. During their first day shrunk down, before they took a short journey to a nearby pond to investigate rumors of weird bugs, they’d all relaxed and played around the smithy. Grandpa set aside most of his work for the day and lectured those who’d listen (all of them, for a brief period, and most of them for longer) about the nature of the Minish.
He used fables and folk stories and anecdotes, like telling the story of how Four met Zelda to explain that not everyone could see Minish. He spoke of lost travelers his friends had helped through the forest without the travelers ever knowing they were there. One very entertaining tale—with a robin, her eggs, and the family of Minish who helped her—was the legend of how the Minish got their feathery tails. Grandpa always told that one well. Four loved to listen to him tell stories, he seemed to know an endless amount. Because of them, the other Heroes knew pretty much everything, now.
“The same magic that enables that is what keeps the villages safe. They’ve never been attacked by wildlife or Hylians or anyone else. But I’m sure they all really appreciate the thought.” Four turned down another path, deeper into the clover.
“I just don’t want to leave them unprotected,” Wild said, glancing backwards as if he could see the village from here.
Four gave him a very unimpressed look. “As if I’d let that happen. If it was safer to do something else, I would be doing it.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” Wild backtracked. “I’m just…”
“Worried,” Four finished. “I get that way, too. It’s in our blood, right?”
Warriors frowned down at the grass-woven hat he held in his hands. “I’m still sad I don’t get to keep this.”
“You’ll still have it,” Hyrule said with a laugh. “You knew it wouldn’t get big again when you bought it.”
“It’s a very nice hat! It’s served me well!”
Twilight snorted. “It’s been a week, Wars.”
“I like my new sword,” Wind announced for the seventeenth time. He brandished the honed sewing needle, holding it by the mushroom-leather grip on one side of the eye. It strongly reminded Four of his own first training sword. “It’s useful whether we’re little or big!”
Legend eyed it. “I’m not sure how useful it’ll be for sewing anything, actually.”
“I’ll make it work.”
Leading the way, Four pushed aside a last dandelion stem. “We’re here.”
Time stood behind him, looking up at the giant tree. “This isn’t a stump.”
“It’s still a portal, the next closest is days away. We got pretty far from the village with that last little quest. Come on.” Four ushered them all into the gap between two protruding roots. He pointed. “Go into that dark spot, you’ll probably end up standing on a root, so don’t fall.”
“And that’s it?” Sky asked. “Walk into that, and our sizes will change again?”
Four shrugged. “I have no reason to believe otherwise. I’ve used these portals hundreds of times.”
“I’ll go first!” Wind charged past everyone, holding his needle sword carefully so it wouldn’t hit the others as he shoved past them. He disappeared into the dark spot between the tree roots.
A large shadow rose up over the group, and Wind stood up on top of the root. He looked at the sewing needle in his palm, then got off the root to crouch carefully nearby, smiling at them. “Aw, you’re all so little!”
“Not for long!” Hyrule ran into the portal next.
Now that they knew what to expect, everyone headed into the portal without nearly as much suspicion as that first one. Once all the others had grown to a more normal-for-them size and gotten out of the way, being very careful not to step on anyone, Four took one more moment to appreciate his fur, claws, and tail.
It was very inefficient to be the sole Minish-sized person, so he still didn’t think he’d do it much, even now that everyone knew about the whole thing. But maybe he would. Sky, at least, had pursued a line of questioning where he found out about Four’s occasional size dysphoria. Four would just be worried about ambushes and getting into fights… he shuddered to think about a full-size monster fight while he was so small.
For now, he’d stick to being big. He walked into the portal. Magic bubbled over him again, and he tried to step to avoid falling off of the rounded root. It didn’t quite save him from landing on the ground, though. At least there was grass.
“There you are,” Twilight said with a smile. “I wondered what was takin’ you so long.”
“Weird to see your face again.” Legend glanced over.
Four shook his hands out and touched his nose, getting used to the Hylian skin again. “I always had a face, idiot.”
Sky offered him a hand and a smile. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Four took the help to stand up. He readjusted his balance, and didn’t fall over again.
“Now,” Time said, “to the castle?”
“Do you think we can meet some of the Minish who live there?” Hyrule asked, leaning down to pick a dandelion from the ground.
“I don’t see why not.” Four pointed at the path that led to the castle, so Time and Warriors could get them back on track.
“I wonder if they’ll have different recipes,” Wild said. He looked down at the acorn in his hand, smaller than most. “The ones I got sound really good, but I’ll have to modify them a bit to make them Hylian-sized, too.”
Warriors sighed as he took up a rear position to herd them all onto the path. “I already miss my hat. It matched my tunic.”
“Not enough,” Legend said. “It kind of clashed.”
“Excuse me?”
“Green is green.” Twilight looked a little bewildered. “It’s just… green.”
“It’s not,” Legend and Warriors said in unison. They shot each other narrow-eyed looks.
Sky laughed. “I’m glad we visited your hometown, Four. It’s definitely not what I expected, and yet, I couldn’t picture anything else.”
“I had fun,” Wind agreed. “Thanks for showing us! I hope you get to show me where that portal is on Outset you mentioned! It would be fun to use!”
“I’m glad you had fun.” Four smiled and reached out to touch the leaves of a nearby, drooping tree. “And that you know a bit of what it’s like. It is fun to be so small, sometimes.”
Time glanced backwards. “I did have another question, Four.”
“Yeah?”
“There was a group of children playing the Hero’s battle, but more than one of them were Link at the same time.”
Twilight nodded. “I definitely noticed that theme, too. There aren’t… four of you, are there?”
“You know,” Four said. “That might be a story for later.”