SNOWPEAK--Ch. 2, Hospitality

A Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess fanfiction

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Chapter 2: Hospitality

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Yeto's wife Yeta had a kind and gentle spirit, more so than Yeto if that could even be possible. She didn't seem to have arms herself but nevertheless sympathized deeply with her guest. She crooned "Ooooh" and "Oh no" in all the right places as he sat across from her at the fireside, telling his story. Link did not mention Midna to her.

"How does arm feel now?" she asked, voice ringing with sweet empathy.

"Not too good," Link admitted. Once Yeto had dragged the truth about the tree and the fairy from Link, he had been very firm about both the need for setting Link's arm to rights and his own ability to do so. Link wasn't sure how many pieces those blunt fingers had mashed his poor bones into, but at least the limb had been bound into a sorry, swollen package that would heal… more normally than before. Which would take who knew how long unless he could sneak away long enough for Midna to warp him elsewhere, somewhere he could get a fairy. Yeto had no fairies. He didn't even have chuchu jelly. Link had half a mind to give that helmet of Midna's a field test for not warping him earlier. If she didn't kill him for spilling her secrets to Yeto first.

"Not too good" indeed.

"You are brave boy," Yeta said.

Link hardly thought it proper for any self-respecting seventeen-year-old to be called a boy, but he hardly saw the use in offering protest.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"Ache-y," Yeta said sadly. "Speaking of which…"

[Here she looked around furtively]

"I heard what Yeto said about pretend friend Mindy. Don't worry. I not think you crazy. I have pretend friend too."

"Oh really?" Link asked, not sure what else to say.

"Pretend friend made of ice," Yeta whispered. "Beautiful ice, uh, all smooth and sparkly. Visitor in dreams. Always same vision—friend coming down the mountain and covering whole world in ice. And sometimes I pretend I am something that I am not, uh, like you pretend to be wolf. Sometimes in the dream I pretend that pretend friend is me."

"That's an interesting dream," Link said. "Let's hope it doesn't come true."

Yeta frowned.

"It is nice dream," she said defensively. "Ice makes beauty, uh. Ice can make even silliest object beautiful."

"It makes living objects dead," Link pointed out.

"Oh," Yeta said, frowning. "Yes, it does, uh."

"So… did this have something to do with your headaches?" Link asked.

"Friend came after headaches started," Yeta said quietly. "After mirror. Sickness is no fun, but friend is nice. Uh, it is lonely here often. Sad if friend leaves once I am well. What about your friend? Is Mindy nice?"

"Hmm…" Link said. "Most of the time."

Then Yeto came out of the kitchen with two big bowls of horrible-smelling soup. The smell and the memories that came with it brought Link's mind to murky, canine places. One memory was stronger than all the rest, a memory of a triumphant catch in Zora's Domain: Whooooa, what a smell! It is a GOOD SMELL! It is a good smell for this thing that I have caught, and it is a good smell for me too! Roll, roll, roll, all over! Hooraaaaay!

Unsettled, Link stared at the faded pictures on the wall, doing arithmetic in his head and running his tongue over generally blunt teeth—anything to remind himself that he was not a wolf at all but a rational human being. His brain did not readily disclose wolf memories with embarrassingly animal content to his human mind, and for good reason.

"Have little taste of soup, uh," Yeto said kindly, offering Link one of the huge bowls. "Tell Yeto if you want more."

There was more to the memory: Now let's see what is inside this wonderful thing with this wonderful smell! Oooh, it is warm on the inside! This wonderful thing with this wonderful smell is cold on the outside and warm on the inside! Hooray! And wow wow WOW! This wonderful thing has a wonderful taste! Even more wonderful than the smell! I like this thing. I like this thing a lot. This wonderful thing.

"I'm not hungry," Link said. Seventeen plus sixty, that's seventy-seven. Sixty-eight minus forty-five, that's… that's the same thing as sixty-three minus forty, which is twenty-three. If you add seventy-seven and twenty-three, you get an even hundred…

But he was hungry, and the yetis were very persistent.

I miss the water temple, Link thought darkly as he sipped the warm broth. Another, less sophisticated part of him thought, Yum yum yum, fish, hooray, hooray!

Midna, we need to talk. Soon.