Chapter Text
Four saw Wolfie walk back into camp with blood around his muzzle. He felt some of the tension leave his body when he realized none of it was the wolf’s. Wolfie loped over to Wild’s side and laid down with a thump, his tail slowly wagging in contentment at being back with the group, safe . Four watched with amusement as Wind was allowed to run his fingers through Wolfie’s thick fur for once, the wolf making no move to stop him and even leaning into the affection.
He had already picked back up his book when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a Minish running as fast as his miniscule legs could carry him towards camp. Four grabbed his bookmark from his lap and set it in the book, before moving the hardback to his bag so no dirt would sully its pristine pages. Then he stood to head over and see what the Minish needed help with. It was rare to see a forest Minish so far from a well of Minish magic indicating a town. He changed course as soon as he rounded the log, surprising Four by running right at Wolfie!
Wolfie was turned so he didn’t see the Minish coming and trotted towards the trees, likely for Twilight to return from ‘patrol’ as it had been a while since he left. The Minish (who was valiantly still trying to catch up) finally had to stop and catch his breath. Four was on his way to help the poor thing, but was distracted by Twilight re-entering the clearing, declaring that there had been a few monsters, only one black blooded. Everyone nodded and relaxed more, knowing that Twilight would have noticed any large gatherings of monsters nearby.
He looked down for the Minish, but didn’t see him anywhere nearby. Four shrugged to himself, knowing that Minish were experts at avoiding those who couldn’t see them, though he mentally wished the lone Minish luck on whatever task he had set his mind to. Soon enough the book was back in his hands and being read again, with only a break for the curry Wild had made, which was fantastic as always! Before watches were set for the night and bed rolls laid out, he spared a thought for what in the world a Minish could want with Wolfie?
The next morning Four woke up to Twilight trying to figure out who had lost a blue rupee. He went around the camp determined to return it to its owner. Eventually Legend threatened to stuff the rupee down his throat if he didn’t take the thing and shut up!
Four snickered with the rest of them as Twilight admitted defeat and tucked the rupee in his wallet, though he felt a little baffled at how doggedly Twilight had tried to make sure it was in the right place. Was 5 rupees really that big of a deal?
As it turned out, that was only the beginning of a series of strange events surrounding their Rancher. Later that day he bit into some bread only to find a kinstone piece! The next morning the group woke up to find morning glories intricately braided into his hair, some of them still covered in glistening morning dew. It was after this incident that Twilight started to shut down. His responses went from fond warm things, to one word answers delayed by a bit, as though the single words took a great deal of effort to force out of his body.
He found more arrows in his quiver that he could have sworn weren’t there before, Epona’s hair also mysteriously got braided all throughout with morning glories (Twilight actually seemed quite happy to match with his mare and let Wild take a picture on his slate of the pair). By day three of these small acts of kindness being showered on Twilight, Four had seen the flick of a Minish tail disappear elsewhere several times and knew there wasn’t a drop of ill will in any of the acts, though he still wondered just what had happened to make Twilight the recipient of so much attention from a lone Minish?
The thing that pushed Four into outright concern was the fairy. He had no idea how a Minish had managed to either catch or coax a fairy into a bottle and sneak it into Twilight’s bag but Twilight’s near panic at the discovery made Four decide that something needed to change.
The next morning, Four was able to find a Minish portal close to their campsite. After bouncing down the mushrooms and walking into the grass now much taller than him, he set out in the direction he could feel magic most similar to the stump he had just emerged from.
The ground was teeming with life, which was great for the forest and less great for being able to get from one tree to the next without having to fight a spider or aggressive beetle. He did his best to scare them off when possible rather than leave a trail of things no longer able to eat the bugs that gave Four rashes. He knew he was getting somewhere when he saw Wolfie’s dark form ahead of him. Four made a beeline for his friend; a higher vantage point would help so much in spotting the Minish!
He stopped dead in his tracks when Wolfie let out a whimper.
What ?
Creeping closer with much more caution in case whatever has caused that whimper would see Four as a snack, he heard Wolfie talking? Now more confused than anything, he nodded to himself since there was no reason to reveal his presence yet.
“Look, I appreciate whatcha been doin’ for me, and I ain't gonna tell ya to stop bein’ helpful, but the others all deserve it a lot more than me.” Twilight’s voice held a watery quality to it Four had never heard before. He had no idea who Twilight was talking to, but anyone who could make his friend sound on the verge of crying could do with some pokes from his now miniature sword in their ankle.
“You saved my life! Plus you go around fighting monsters and helping people! That's so cool! And you can even talk to me when you're like this.” There was the Minish on a fallen tree in front of Wolfie, arms waving wildly to try and emphasize just how cool he clearly thought the wolf in front of him was.
Four noticed Twilight flinch at that, his ears going flat against his head as the Minish continued to talk about how awesome and nice and fluffy Wolfie was. There was something else going on here, another layer to the conversation Four was missing, but he was still making his way towards the pair, struggling through the tangles of grass that had been flattened on Wolfie's way to his spot. If he could just get past this dumb obstacle he might be able to see just what was making Twilight so upset, and the tight feeling in his chest at how distraught he sounded demanded that something be done.
“But . . . Wouldn't ya rather help someone like Four? He can see you guys all the time and . . . He’s a real hero, he ain’t a monster half the time like me.”
Four heard the Minish try to protest, but Wolfie was already sprinting deeper into the trees, far faster than either Four or he could go at their size.
Four had been feeling anger bubbling up inside for the whole conversation, searing his insides with how intensely he felt ready to fight on behalf of his friend. But now he felt the cold creeping ice of realization in his veins. The way Twilight had nearly choked on the word scary, how these feelings had to run deeper than one Minish being nice or he would have never gotten this worked up. That searing continued since he was Four, the one called the group called observant, and he hadn’t noticed at all.
Four finally made it to the log the Minish had perched upon to be closer to eye-level with Wolfie. He scrambled up the rough surface and finally came face to face with the person who, in trying to be nice, had somehow drug up issues that Four didn’t know Twilight even had.
The Minish’s tail was lashing in agitation as fat tears poured down his face, a look of anguish painted on it. Before Four could say a word, he had an armful of sobbing Minish and he couldn’t deny that being able to squeeze tight onto someone else felt good in the moment.
When the full body sobs had changed to watery sounding hiccups, Four released the Minish and leaned back to talk to him. He introduced himself (despite knowing that they as a people kept amazing records and that being this small without a tail was a giveaway on its own) and learned that the Minish was named Giftari, he had chosen to be a traveling Minish when he came of age, taking rupees and putting them under rocks, in tall grass, or hiding other things like kinstones for those on the road to find. Four admired that he was so dedicated to trying to make every corner of the world a little better for the next person to find.
Then Giftari told the story about how despite being ignored by most Hylian-sized monsters, more and more were noticing him and trying to kill him. He had been caught in the open by a Lizalfos and knew that the tiny knife he’d made from a broken plate had no hope of saving him when Wolfie came charging in. He talked about how he’d been afraid that once the wolf was done with the monster it would turn its teeth on him, but instead he’d been asked if he was alright! Giftari had decided that he should help the wolf in any way he could, to repay him for not just saving him, but going out of his way to make sure that he was okay in the aftermath.
Ha talked about how surprised he was to see that Twilight had turned into a Hylian, and such a tall one! (Four didn’t know how to tell him that in Twilight’s era he was below average height.) In some ways that made figuring out how to help easy, but he’d been careful to sneak around until he realized that Twilight couldn’t see him at all when in his Hylian form. He even talked about how he asked a fairy he’d found to help out, since it seemed that Twilight was getting sadder with the gifts and acts of service, not happier like he had hoped.
By this point the sun was climbing in the sky and Four knew someone would come looking for him if he didn’t return to camp soon. He winced a little at the lecture from Legend about wandering off he could almost hear now.
He asked Giftari if he would be willing to come with him, since he was sure that the Minish was in no state to be alone after so much crying. After he agreed, Four made the journey back to the stump and got big again, offering Giftari a ride on his shoulder while he muttered about ideas for helping Twilight, though he kept coming up short on what would actually work if Giftari’s methods weren’t working. He hoped whatever Wild was making for lunch would help clear his head.