Summary: Minish has a toothache, and ignoring it hasn't helped. They need to ask for help, as scared as they are to trust people near their mouth.
Characters are from @thatbrokenpromise
Words: 1900
AO3
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Minish wasn’t an idiot. They had felt it immediately when they had cracked a tooth during the last battle, and had fought hard to hide it from the others. They had spent a few days hoping desperately that it would heal on its own, but the pain was only getting worse as time went on. It was nearly impossible to eat soft foods or even drink, and Minish didn’t know how long they could keep on like this without collapsing.
There wasn’t a single good outcome they could think of. Either something worse happened to their tooth on its own, or…
They didn’t want to. They really didn’t want to ask for help.
Still, nobody had caught on. Nobody had pinned Minish down and forced their fingers into their mouth. Whatever treatment they received had to come from their request, but that didn’t make it any easier.
They waited one more day, hoping against hope that the magic would bring them to Minish’s own era. If this had to happen, they at least wanted Zelda to be there. They trusted her, they loved her, and they knew that she would do everything in her power to avoid hurting them.
Luck wasn’t on their side. They remained in Lorule, and the pain kept Minish awake all night long. Any appetite for breakfast was long gone, and they curled up in their bed and whimpered until they could bear to stand up.
One step at a time. They would find Ordon and tell him what was happening, because he was at the top of the very short list of their companions that Minish trusted. Then they just had to gather the courage to talk to Chief.
Minish shook their head and huffed to themself. They couldn’t believe they were doing this.
Another shock of pain seized their mouth, and they closed their eyes against it. They didn’t have any other choice.
Ordon and most of the others were still eating breakfast, and Minish sat beside him while making themself as small as possible.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” the ranchhand said easily. “You hungry?”
Minish grimaced and shook their head, even though they could feel the consequences of avoiding food for this long. They reached for Ordon’s arm and squeezed it, tight enough to convey their urgency.
“Do you need something?” Ordon asked, then glanced at Minish and added, “Or is something wrong?”
Minish looked around the table and found too many eyes that pretended they weren’t watching. They tugged on Ordon’s arm and pointed at the door.
“Not here, alright. Give me a minute.” Ordon finished the last of his food before letting Minish lead him to their (thankfully empty) room.
Before they could think to hesitate, Minish pointed to their mouth and made a small, nervous sound. Ordon frowned, but kept his hands to himself.
“Something is wrong with your mouth? Are you hurt?”
Minish nodded, shying away even though Ordon still hadn’t moved to grab them.
“Is it something I can help with, or can you let Chief take a look?”
Minish took a deep breath and pointed past Ordon, to the door.
“Okay. You’re sure about this? I know you have good reason to not let people near your mouth…”
Minish wanted to say no, they didn’t even want to think about a medic being near them like this. But this had to be their choice, as much as they didn’t want it to be, so they nodded and braced for whatever would happen next.
“I’ll go find Chief, then. Do you want me to stay with you while Chief looks at your mouth?”
Minish nodded again, terrified at the thought of being alone again.
“He’s not gonna hurt you, I know it,” Ordon promised gently. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
Minish collapsed on their bed as soon as Ordon was gone, curling up in a tight ball that didn’t stop their panicked shivering. They whined to themself, trapped in a spiral of their own pain and misery.
Too soon, Ordon returned with Chief in tow. Minish hissed reflexively at the medic’s soft greeting, and watched as Chief flinched but managed to compose himself. They couldn’t do that again. Unsteady hands were dangerous.
Minish convinced themself to sit up with Ordon’s help, and just as quickly retreated to protective arms. They heard Chief settle in front of them, and turned to face him when they were ready. Chief smiled, forced but there all the same, his hands visible and resting on his lap.
“Ordon told me your mouth hurts,” Chief said. “May I see?”
Minish made an uneasy sound and nodded, watching Chief closely. The medic reached for Minish’s face, and they leaned away before he could touch them.
“I need you to stay still,” Chief explained. “Please.”
Minish narrowed their eyes, but allowed Chief to carefully touch their cheek. He was wearing his gloves, and as Minish opened their mouth they tried to keep their focus on the unfamiliar texture of the rough fabric on their skin. Chief’s hand stayed well outside of Minish’s mouth as he looked within.
“Looks like you cracked a tooth,” Chief confirmed. “It doesn’t look good, how-”
Chief’s thumb shifted slightly, grazing the edge of Minish’s lip, and their mind went blank with panic. They twisted and bit, but their tooth couldn’t handle the pressure. They recoiled with a cry, hands pressed to their mouth as if they could hold back the pain.
“Shit- Chief! Are you-”
“I’m fine. Minish, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
Minish couldn’t answer, keening miserably as their eyes stung with angry tears. Angry with Chief, angry with themself, angry at this whole situation. Chief had scared them, they had almost killed him for it, and their mouth still hurt so much.
“Let’s just give them a minute. You need to breathe too.”
“You’re right,” Chief sighed.
They sat quietly for a few minutes, then Minish slowly came out of hiding once more. Chief wasn’t upset; he never was. He asked Minish some questions like nothing had gone wrong.
“Do you know when you cracked your tooth?”
Minish made a face and held up their fingers. Three, four days ago?
“Have you been able to eat despite the pain?”
Not enough, not anymore. They shook their head firmly.
“Okay.” Chief sighed again, hiding his own face behind his hands for a moment. “I know you’re not going to like what I’m about to say.”
They didn’t like anything about this. They couldn’t see how Chief could make it worse.
“If your tooth hasn’t healed in the last few days, it’s not going to start now. You’re going to get sick, either from hunger or infection as it gets worse. It needs to be pulled. Do you agree?”
They hated it, but they did. They were more afraid of what it would do to them if they left it alone.
“If this was anything else, I would say that I could do this without giving you something to help you stay calm. But just from touching your face…”
Minish flinched, and Chief looked genuinely apologetic.
“If you’re awake, I don’t think that would be safe for any of us. You still have a choice, though. Would it be easier if I only gave you enough so you can’t feel your mouth, or would you rather sleep through it?”
Minish wanted to hiss and hide and never have to make this horrible choice, but that wouldn’t help. Should they stay awake while Chief pulled their tooth, or give themself the mercy of sleep?
Somehow, that question answered itself. Slowly, they held up two fingers and closed their eyes.
“You want to sleep?” Chief guessed, and Minish nodded before ducking to hide against Ordon. “Okay. Are you ready now, or do you need to wait…”
Minish made a sharp sound. If they waited, they were going to lose their nerve and continue to live with the pain until they were truly in danger. They needed this to happen now, they needed it to be over.
“I understand. Ordon, talk to them, please. And don’t stop.” Chief’s voice had taken on a different tone, one that sounded more urgent.
Ordon’s deeper voice immediately pulled Minish’s thoughts away from Chief. “Hey, Minish, you’re gonna be hungry when you wake up, right? How about I ask Hateno for some honey, and you can have that as soon as your mouth feels better. You can eat all your favorite fruits again, and-”
Minish felt a sting in their arm, and their terrified gasp never made it to a scream.
****
There was something soft and fluffy underneath Minish’s hand. It wasn’t their tail; they could feel it resting on their other side. They felt a weight over them, too- a heavy warmth draped over their legs. It brought a numbness, like it had been there for a while but as the moments passed Minish realized that their entire body felt like that. A weird sort of tired, that tugged at their limbs in a way that made it a struggle to move.
What… had happened?
They opened their eyes, blinking a few times and found themself tucked into bed in a vaguely familiar room. The furry mass on their lap turned out to be a great gray wolf, alert and docile with his head beneath Minish’s hand. It was Ordon, Minish knew, and they wondered why it had taken some effort to remember.
“You’re awake,” the wolf said, his eyes looking over Minish while his head remained still.
Minish flexed their fingers in the wolf’s fur and swallowed, about to respond but another sharp sense of wrong struck them as they did so. Their mouth felt normal, and they hadn’t thought anything of it but something told them that they should have felt pain. They ran their tongue over their teeth and discovered a gap that hadn’t been there before.
Everything was starting to line up, but Minish couldn’t quite catch up. They tried to speak again, in the picori language that came easier when Hylian was too much. “Doctor? Hurt me?”
“Not quite,” the wolf said. “You were hurt, and you asked Chief to help you.”
“I… asked?”
“Yes. You wanted to sleep while he treated you, so you’re waking up from that.” The wolf lifted his head, only to lick Minish’s hand. “You were very brave to do that.”
“Oh.” They tried to imagine how they could have possibly trusted Chief enough to agree to that, but their mind still felt very fuzzy from whatever medicine had put them to sleep. “…I’m hungry.”
“We thought you might be.” The wolf pointed his nose to the side table and explained, “I didn’t know how you would feel, so I brought you honey to start with.”
Honey sounded very good. They would have thanked Ordon for thinking of their favorite food (and one that wouldn’t hurt their mouth), but all of their energy was spent on reaching for the jar of honey. Their body was still clumsy and weak from their unnatural sleep, but they were able to grab the jar and open it. Ordon watched them, clearly guilty that he couldn’t help, and Minish scratched the wolf’s head until he settled again.
Being able to eat even something so simple and sweet felt almost too good to be true. It hadn’t come easily but extending their trust, however reluctant, had offered a nice reward.
"The jar," Ordon said. "Now."
Cia's eyes darkened with hate. Her hands tensed on the jar for just a second before she laughed.
"Oh, very well," she said, and let it fall.
Link lunged, too late.
The jar froze, an outline of shining gold and then it rose again, back to where Cia had held it before. The woman gasped, but Link threw her aside to seize the jar from the air.
The gold snapped with a sound like cracking glass but he could see and feel it wasn't the jar that broke. Far, fragile and crumpled, a tiny figure only as tall as his palm with glimmering white wings, was wrapped around Minish as though he could save the smaller man with his body alone.
They were terrified, but alive.
-Overflow by Tassledown/@batrogers/@thatbrokenpromise
@skyloftian-nutcase's Fluffvember day 3: Nature Walk
Summary: Minish spends some peaceful time away from everyone and everything.
Words: 850
Characters are from @thatbrokenpromise
AO3
Please reblog to show your support! Likes do nothing.
Minish stared at the mountain across the grassy field, restless excitement filling them at the thought of exploring it. The group had stopped halfway between it and a stable on the other side of the hill, and they were already so close to untouched nature. Minish hopped over the short stone wall to drop beside Hateno, who was talking with some of the others near the smaller fountain. They tapped Hateno’s shoulder, then pointed at the mountain.
“You want to explore?” Hateno asked, and Minish nodded eagerly. “All right, just don’t go too far from the mountain. Ordon and I will follow behind you in a minute, Satori’s a good place to gather food. The rest of you…”
Minish didn’t wait to hear the rest of the plans. They climbed over the second curve of stone wall, this one nearly as tall as they were, and made their way down the rocky hill away from the little park. Across the field was a monster camp, with a rough path up the mountain on either side. The path on the right had more rocks, and was obstructed by the camp, so Minish decided to try the one on the left.
A gentle breeze was blowing, and their bare feet darted over soft grass and wildflowers. The path up the side of the mountain was steep, and led them to a small grove of pine trees. With harsh cries and a flap of black wings, a few crows flew away as they noticed Minish. Deeper in the grove, a bear stalked among the trees and gave a warning growl. Minish hissed back, and the bear squawked and ran down the mountain.
They found a tattered tent draped over a rock, and more importantly, a beehive dripping with honey. Minish snatched it and happily munched the sweet stuff as they explored further. They chose to go left again, avoiding the rocky cliffside, and carefully picked their way around a puddle of water at the entrance of a stone arch. They curved around and found another trail that led even higher.
A dozen squirrels resided on the next outcropping, and bolted away from Minish. The tiny creatures kept their distance from the trio of large rocks in the center of the trees, but Minish was too curious. They crept forward, only to screech and jump back when the rocks shifted under their feet and started to rise from the ground. Minish turned tail and found a foreboding cliff wall, so they ran back the way they came. Once they were sure that the rock monster wasn’t pursuing them, they found another path and followed that one up the other side of the mountain.
They found two more honeycombs for their trouble, and tucked one into their robes for later. They sprinted past a few angry octorocks, past a beautiful pond and into a massive, overgrown skull that more resembled a cave. Minish sat in the sunbeam created by an eye socket, catching their breath for a few minutes while they listened to the birds.
There wasn’t an obvious path after that point, and Minish finally resorted to climbing the rocky cliffs. They snuck past the rock monster, chose the right path this time, and were rewarded with the top of the mountain at long last. There was a peaceful little pond, surrounded by moss and pink flower petals from a lone cherry blossom tree.
A magic presense brushed the edge of their senses, and Minish turned to see a strange animal- or perhaps a spirit- on the far side of the pond. It was a glowing blue rabbit with golden antlers and an owl-like face that held no expression. Its aura was similar to the bubble-belching frog Minish had met in the cave of not-Hateno’s-era, but this creature felt curious, and more… pure. It didn’t seem to be afraid of Minish, as it bounded to the edge of the summit then looked over its shoulder to see if Minish would follow.
They did, playing a one-sided game of chase down the hill until the blue rabbit slipped into a cave in the side of the mountain. Minish saw another, that ran as soon as it saw them and led them around a few corners before vanishing too. They heard monsters to the left, so they went right and carefully jumped down a hole in the ground. A blue flash ran down another corridor, and Minish crouched to all fours and leapt to the raised bridge of stone so they could follow. A series of glowing rabbits came from the other direction, running straight at Minish before vanishing in blue sparkles and a bell-like chime.
No rabbits greeted them in the next room, and Minish peered around the oddly shaped rock in the center to find four more corridors. Upon exploring, they all led to the same room again. Confused and starting to get a little tired, Minish pulled out their last honeycomb and nibbled on it as they backtracked through the cave. Maybe Hateno would know more secrets about this mystical mountain.
