Life in Zora's Domain

Chapter 168 - Picturing History - Part 5

Summary: The Sheikah Slate from Eventide Island reveals a well-known story.

It was early morning in the calm river waters near the Royal Ancient Tech Lab as Lapha and Midon were each eating a quick breakfast fish. They were both eager to make their way back to the lab and determine if Midon's passphrase of MARK OF THE SHEIKAH ANCIENT ENERGY would unlock a portion of the ten-thousand-year-old Sheikah Slate found on Eventide Island.

"It's funny how the alternate passphrase just popped into my head," said Midon after swallowing a bite. "I guess I was just staring at the letters so long they floated around in my mind. I can't wait to try it."

"I'm eager too, but let's not choke on our fish," said Lapha.

"Should we wake Dr. Purah and Dr. Robbie?" asked Midon.

"I'll send Dr. Purah a message," said Lapha. "I'll leave it to her to wake up her assistant."

"She won't be upset if it turns out the passphrase is wrong again, will she?"

"No, no, not at all," laughed Lapha. "Don't worry. Nobody is a bigger enthusiast of trial-and-error experimentation than Purah. Robbie likes to tease Purah that her research is more like trial and error and error and error. She's quite accustomed to experiments not always succeeding."

They finished their fish, and by the time they climbed the stairway to the lab, Purah and Robbie were already awaiting them.

"I understand you have a new idea for the passphrase? Let's try it at once!" said Purah as she eagerly rubbed her hands together, and they all gathered around the guidance stone holding the Sheikah Slate.

Lapha entered the passphrase, and the device accepted it, opening up a new folder.

"Hooray! It worked!" Lapha exclaimed. "Nice work, Mido! Let's see what it reveals."

"Yes, marvelous job Prince Midon, that was clever," said Purah.

Lapha scrolled through the folder.

"Besides some additional pictures, there are some documents here," said Lapha excitedly. "But the documents are written in the ancient Sheikah dialect, and it will take me some time to translate them."

"Robbie and I can help with that," said Purah. "Prince Midon, you can take a well-deserved rest while we work on this."

"Thanks, I'll just sit over there and work on some ideas I had for automating the decryption process I went through," said Midon.

Purah, Lapha, and Robbie began working on translating the first document from ancient Sheikah to modern Hylian, while Midon started working on code.

It was later that morning in Zora's Domain as Mipha and Link sat together holding hands on a large rock adjacent to Lulu Lake. The sky was a bright sunny blue with only occasional wisps of white clouds. A Woodland Boar was foraging under a clump of nearby evergreen trees and ignoring them, as was a family of three ducks in the lake itself. The sound of the waterfall drowned out most other noise, including that of Tara, Tila, and Linky playing together at Mikau Lake below them. They had spent most of the morning together with them until Mipha finally pulled Link away.

"I know you love being with the family," said Mipha. "But we should also make time for ourselves, just the two of us. And I don't count time spent going on adventures together!"

Link laughed and squeezed her hand, then leaned over as they kissed.

"I know, and you're right, of course, sweetheart," said Link after their kiss ended. "It's funny, though. I never realized how attached to our family I would become and enjoy just spending time at home with them. Maybe it's because I hardly had a family of my own growing up, and I'm seeing it from the other side now. You were probably the closest thing to a family I had when I was small."