The road back to town is blocked by Mutoh and his carpenters, who are repairing the damage Vaati’s done. There are several other branches off the area between the castle and the town, but most of them are also blocked by obstacles Link doesn’t have the item to bypass yet. So, there’s only one way to go: in the southeast corner the only obstacle is a couple trees that can be cut down with the sword leading Link to Lon Lon Ranch. There’s nothing to do here, either, so Link passes through south to the Eastern Hills, and on into the Minish Woods.
As Link explores the Minish Woods, he hears a voice calling for help. Investigating, he finds a couple Octoroks bothering a creature that looks like what would happen if Link’s traditional hat (which he doesn’t yet have in this game) were partially transmogrified into a bird [1]. The bird-hat won’t stop complaining that Link’s not helping as he gets pelted by a couple of rocks, but of course his complaints keep Link from doing anything. Eventually, he shuts up long enough for Link to deal with the Octoroks, and he is ultimately grateful for the rescue. He gets Link’s story, and says that he also needs to break a curse of Vaati’s, so the two should team up. The only problem is he can’t keep up with Link (not that he tries), so he comes up with the improvised solution of nesting on his head. His name’s Ezlo, and he’s a combination of Link’s hat and advisor companion.
Link and Ezlo continue exploring, coming to a stump. Ezlo explains that the Minish – whom the Hyruleans call Picori – are very small, and Link needs to shrink to their size to meet them. The stump is actually a portal that can be used to change Link’s size between human and Minish. I didn’t go into items with Four Swords because most of them were familiar, but one new item was the Gnat Hat, which made the wearer tiny to let him pass through small holes and ride platforms much too small for a normal person. The shrinking mechanic here seems similar, except it can only be done at portals. Before Link uses the stump, he finishes exploring the area and finds the first heart piece. Once Link’s come back and used the stump portal to shrink, Ezlo warns that hazards that are easily dealt with at human size aren’t so easily ignored at Minish size.
After crossing a small puddle on floating lily pads, Link and Ezlo approach the nearby Minish Village. The camera zooms in so that we’re not dealing with teeny little graphics that make it impossible to see anything. When they enter, they’re greeted by a group of Minish, but a language barrier stops them from communicating. To humans, the Minish language sounds like it’s entirely made of the syllables in “Picori,” in infinite arrangements, hence their human name. Exploring the village, Link finds Festari, a sage who speaks human language. He tells Link he’ll need a Jabber Nut to be able to communicate with the rest of the Minish. Link finds the Jabber Nut, and it works as Festari said.
With the language barrier dealt with, Link seeks out the village elder. The elder says that to reforge the blade, they’ll need four mystical elemental crystals. (An alternate origin for the name “Four Sword”? Also, they look a lot like the jewels the Links had to round up in Four Swords Adventures.) The Earth Element (the purple stone) can be found in the shrine where Link was headed to anyway, and Festari can show Link the way to the shrine. Before leaving the village, Link looks around for a bit and talks to the Minish. There’s a piece of heart there, and the Minish talk about other villages Link can visit, as well as a blacksmith who lives in the mountains who’ll presumably be the one to reforge the Picori Blade. Once Link’s ready to hit the road, Festari doesn’t show Link the way so much as stop blocking the path from the village to the shrine. The shrine is a short way north of the village; the only visible entrance is Minish-sized, so it’s a good thing Link ran into Ezlo when he did, because it’s pretty clear he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish much if he couldn’t shrink.
Next: If the whole adventurer/chosen hero thing doesn't work out, Link has a promising career as a housekeeper.
[1] Yes, this description is retroactively informed by knowing what’s about to happen. That doesn’t make it wrong.
