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They were back in their own Hyrule and Shadow decided to take advantage of his cat like form to ferry Rainbow around the local Minish villages, keeping him out of harm’s way of the local cats. He was trotting across the bridge of the town with Rainbow hanging comfortably from his mouth, when Wolfboy called out to him. He turned to look at the tall man, only to see that the man looked seconds away from hoisting him off the ground. He was not dealing with that again.
“Shadow, what do you have in your mouth?” Shit, does this guy even know about the Minish? Much less Rainbow being able to get smaller than he already is? Wolfboy took a step forward and Rainbow chittered from where he was hanging. In a moment of sheer panic, Shadow bolted for where he knew the nearest Minish portal was. Wolfboy yelled and Shadow heard him thundering after him. He jumped into the house with the portal and placed Rainbow at the foot of the upside down pot, he disappeared into it and resurfaced on top of it. Wolfboy had the decency of not slamming the door open when he entered the once empty house.
“Four! I saw Shadow carrying something on his way here, you didn’t happen to see what it was?” He and Rainbow shared a look, Periwinkle was in charge. Good he’s at least decent at lying.
“The person who lives here keeps mice, Shadow was helping me find them after they got loose.” That was actually a decent lie, Minish could easily be mistaken for mice if you didn’t look close enough.
”Four, why are you standing on a pot?” Well crap, how was Rainbow going to get out of that question. Blueberry surfaced, causing Wolfboy to step back a bit.
”Well, I can’t exactly see if any of the mice may be in a high place on my own can I?” Blueberry shouted, jumping off the pot. “At least Shadow found the last mouse, before you chased Shadow back here.” Blueberry huffed and Shadow was pretty sure his bad mood was from being jostled around on the run.
Shadow got the opportunity to apologize to Blueberry, in the evening when the chain settled down around the hearth and Blueberry instinctively reached for his yarn. He was currently working on knitting a soft sweater for Strawberry, who had been missing the softness of his own bed. Shadow jumped for the yarn basket and dislodged the yarn he was using to knit the sweater. He attempted to unroll the ball to help give Blueberry a good length to work with however he miscalculated on how little the yarn would actually cooperate with him.
He was horrifically tangled in the yarn and when Rainbow noticed is predicament he broke out into a mixture of colored laughter, Shadow felt warmth in his chest at the brightness of their laughter. Laughter that became rarer when the four of them shared the same body, it became rarer when the villagers failed to understand how the Four Sword split him apart. When the colors managed to mix without fighting with each other it immediately made any scorn held against him by those who knew he lived worth it. Rainbow- no Blueberry, Strawberry, Stringbean, and Periwinkle deserved so much more than the villagers gave him.
Shadow was saved by the unexpectedly diligent hands of the Geezer. “My hero,” he said in a voice that mocked a damsel in distress. Not that he’d ever met one Dot certainly never acted in distress when Vaati held her prisoner.
The Geezer chuckled, “I’m fairly certain that cats shouldn’t be able to speak with people regularly.” Shadow squinted at him, it almost sounded like he had spoken with animals before. It wouldn’t be the most surprising thing since the Jabbernut had allowed Rainbow to communicate with animals, when they decided to listen that is.
Rainbow split before bed, the colors wanting to take the opportunity to spend the night in their own beds. Shadow decided to crawl in bed with Periwinkle and curled into the crook of his arm as he read before bed. He read along with Periwinkle and patted at the pages when he was ready for the page to be turned. Eventually Periwinkle dozed off while holding the book, so Shadow shifted form and placed the marker in the book before setting it down on the nightstand. He tucked Periwinkle in and went to check on the other colors. He had to lift Stringbean back into bed where he had rolled onto the floor and bundled him in to prevent further spills. He found Strawberry cuddled in bed with Blueberry, a dark patch forming on Blueberry’s nightshirt were Strawberry was drooling on his shoulder. Strawberry was latched on to Blueberry like a redead, and Shadow pulled the covers off Blueberry slightly so he wouldn’t overheat. Shadow then checked the rest of the chain and when he was satisfied he returned to the darkness of Periwinkle’s room and settled into place as his shadow.