Link knew that there was a shrine north of Animal Village, so he left the bay and started traveling north. Just outside of Animal Village, Link remembered the hibiscus flower he had picked up, and decided to present it to the female goat who lived in Animal Village. She was delighted and, since Link was such a gentleman, she made a request of him. She asked if he could please take a letter to Mr. Write, who lived on the border of the Mysterious Forest. Link took the letter and went on his way.

Mr. Write was overjoyed to received a letter, and showed Link the photograph that had come with it. The photo showed a beautiful girl, who looked like a certain Princess Toadstool, and was signed Christine. Link didn't try to guess the story behind this, but accepted Mr. Write's gift, a broom. Grandma Ulrira, a crazy old lady in Mabe, was obsessed with sweeping and cleaning, so Link took the broom to her as a gift. In return for the new broom, Grandma Ulrira gave Link a fishing hook she had found while sweeping by the river bank.

Now that Link had found the fisherman's missing fish hook, maybe the fisherman could help him find the mermaid's still-missing necklace. Before Link left Mabe, he dropped by the shop because his purse was filled to the brim with Rupees. He saw a nice bow, but gagged at the price: 980 Rupees, almost all the money he had. Link briefly considered stealing it, but he choked down the inflated price and bought the bow. Almost broke, but armed with a bow, Link set out for Martha's Bay to return the fishing hook to its rightful owner.

The fisherman promised to give Link his next catch if he would give him the fishing hook. Casting the line, the experienced fisherman felt a sudden tug, and reeled in his catch. He could tell that this was a really heavy one, and with one final tug he pulled the line up out of the water. The fisherman had caught the mermaid's necklace and, making good on his promise, gave it to Link. When Link took the necklace to the mermaid, she greedily demanded it, and promised that Link could have a scale of her tail. Link gave her the jewels and dove underwater to take a scale.

The mermaid swam off and sat on a far away rock, and Link swam after her and talked some more. She told him that an artist had once asked her to pose for him, and that he wanted a scale too. Link had indeed seen the statue of her, and had even talked to the artist, a hippo, in Animal Village, who had said the statue was his finest work. Link heard the mermaid mumbling to herself about whether the "legend of the Magnifying Lens" was true, and decided to get a closer look at that statue.

Using the Hook Shot to get across a cliff, Link walked up to the statue and saw a spot on the statue to put the scale. Putting the missing scale on the mermaid statue, Link watched it slide to the side, revealing a staircase down into a dry underground cavern. Inside, lying on a raised platform, was the Magnifying Lens, with which Link could now reveal many things he couldn't see before. Returning to the entrance of the cavern, Link saw that it was teeming with enemies that were invisible before.