There’s a shoemaker, Rem, in the town, but when Link enters the shop, he falls asleep right across his counter. There’s a pot in the shop that Link can use to shrink to Minish size. When he climbs up to the counter, he finds some Minish who work on the shoes when Rem’s asleep, which seems to be a common condition. They’ve finished a set of Pegasus Boots, but need Rem to put the finishing touches on before they can give them to Link, so Link needs to find a way to wake Rem up. They suggest he talk to Syrup in the Minish Woods.
As Link passes by Lon Lon Ranch, Malon and Talon are outside. Talon’s fretting, walking back and forth, because he’s locked out and the only spare key is inside. There’s a Minish entrance and a portal nearby, so Link shrinks down, goes inside, de-shrinks, and finds the key under a pot. Even with the key, he can’t just unlock the door from inside and go out that way, for some reason, so he has to shrink down to use the Minish door again. Talon doesn’t know how Link got the key, but he’s grateful, and gives Link permission to cut through his home in the future. As Link passes through the farm, Ezlo stops to appreciate the setting, and in particular, the delicious-looking cows.
Getting to Syrup’s hut involves finding high ground and then using a series of cyclones to give the Ezlo-glider a lift over a large pond, then cutting through a corner of the Lake Hylia region. This puts Link in the northern part of the Minish Woods, where he couldn’t get before because of a pond in the way. There’s a heart piece here he can grab, then it’s to Syrup’s hut in the northeast corner. She sells health-restoring potions – now that the handheld games have proper bottles, potions are back to having to be actively used (but Link can also bottle fairies). She also sells a wake-up mushroom. Link buys it, goes back to town, and uses to wake up Rem, who gives him the Pegasus Boots.
At this point, Link’s ready to go back to the Castor Wilds to continue questing for the Wind Element, but there’s so much left to do. First, the Cucco Game. The Pegasus Shoes only make a small improvement here; Link can continuously run, but needs to stop to change directions, and still gets stuck on townspeople and dogs who don’t understand I’m under a bit of time crunch here would you PLEASE get out of my way thank you. Still, I was able to make good progress on the game, getting to a run where there were only two Cuccos, but they were far away from the pen, so it was tough getting to them and back in the allotted time. After that one, there was one with three, but the third is across the river, and there’s no way over to that area just yet, so back on hold this game goes.
Swiftblade has a couple new sword techniques to teach Link. With the Two Sword, he can now break pots and even rocks with sword slashes. And, of course, with the Pegasus Boots, Link can do a charge attack. There are a lot of pots in houses with portals – some need to be flipped over with the Cane of Pacci before Link can use them, but they’re there. This lets Link explore town at small size. Doing so, he can find a heart piece, enter Stockwell’s employees-only area and get a bottle (on the condition that he first deliver the contents to Stockwell’s dog), and cross a small bridge to the blocked-off area on the other side of the river and convince the dog blocking the staircase to move. This opens up that area, but getting there still takes too long to have a realistic chance of getting the Cucco there back to Anju in time.
In the southwest corner of the town, a man who looks a lot like Wind Waker’s Carlov has set up a shop selling Figurines. This is what the Mysterious Shells are for – Link trades them for a figurine, with the chance of getting one he doesn’t already have based on how many he trades. There are over a hundred of them, and I got about thirty before the odds of getting a new Figurine for a single shell dropped below 50%. At least, aside from gathering the Shells to trade, this is entirely isolated to this one room; there’s no need to futz about with taking monsters’ pictures.
On a raised area near Link’s house, Link can find Tingle. He’s just as Tingly as ever, wanting to fuse Kinstones because he’s convinced the good luck from doing so will make him a real fairy. After he and Link fuse, Tingle encourages Link to seek out his brothers, and says there will be a good reward if he finds them. If Link talks to him again, he’ll say how many Kinstone Fusions Link has left. At this point, Link’s done the first one with the man who gave him the bag and this one with Tingle, so there are 98 left. There are a hundred of these things. Oh, boy.
Next: Making a dent.
