Life in Zora's Domain

Chapter 69 - Linky is Growing Up

Summary: No adventures, just some family updates. As young Link approaches adolescence, Mipha reflects on her time raising him. She asks Link to later work on filling in some early memories of Linky for his journal. Link speaks at Professor Sandor's history class to help correct the wrong impression Sandor left with them about the battle of Hyrule. Linky considers an upcoming opportunity. Princess Tila shows surprising to some academic prowess, and Midon receives some good news.

The children had all given Mipha hugs and kisses as they left for school this morning, while Link, for some reason, was sleeping late. Mipha sat alone at the dining room table, the house all quiet now. She was thinking about the dance party the other night, and Princess Tila's interest in her son Link was on her mind. She still thought of him, Linky as they liked to call him, as her little boy. And the way he had hugged and kissed her goodbye moments ago, with that fun-loving, mischievous smile of his, had only reinforced that in her mind. He still was her little boy. She realized she was used to Zora children, but even for a Hylian, he was still young. He wasn't old enough to have a girlfriend yet. But was he getting close to that age already? Had the years really gone by that fast?

Linky was already slightly taller than his father, and so were Mila and Midon after their early growth spurt. And for that matter, so was she now that her growth had finally finished after they had married. She was a typical female Zora height now, the same as most other females in the Domain. Only Lapha was still small as her growth spurt was still some years away.

But height was not always a reliable indicator of age for Zoras, so her instinct was to tend to ignore it. Some Zoras were late bloomers and took much longer to mature. They were adults in a child's body until their growth spurt occurred. Mila and Midon were the opposite: very early bloomers. They suspected that might have something to do with the Hylian influence on them. And her younger brother, Sidon, was already taller than her. So, the significance of Linky's height hadn't registered with her at first.

Linky had just turned thirteen. It was true that his father had already been chosen by the darkness sealing sword at about that age, but things were different with him. Link had been an orphan and became a knight after his father died. He was alone in the world and had nowhere else to go. That was one reason Link could tolerate all the loneliness in his life as he wandered Hyrule on his own. He grew up used to being alone. And it was one reason he was so quiet and reserved in conversation back then.

But Linky was different. He was surrounded by a family he grew up with. He had parents and siblings, an uncle and a grandfather, all of whom loved him. Linky didn't need to rush off and save Hyrule. He could lead a normal life.

Mipha would sometimes re-read parts of Link's journal to remember things in their past. It was much simpler now that Link's writings had been converted and stored on her Tab. They hadn't been published yet in this timeline, but she and Link each had a copy on their Tabs. She had gone back and re-read the chapters covering the time of Linky's birth and shortly afterward. And having done so, she was pretty disappointed. She had been especially looking for parts of Link's journal that covered the first few years of Linky's life and the time they had spent raising him. But there was hardly anything at all. The first five years of Linky's life were crammed into a single chapter!

Admittedly, in Link's defense, that had been a tough time in their lives. She had been a new and unexpected Queen back then, Father having been killed in a Yiga Clan ambush. Lapha hatched just four months after she became Queen and Linky was born six months after that. So, with four children on their hands and all her new responsibilities, life was definitely challenging. And another reason Link wrote less was that he spent less time with the children. The older two children had been a great help and were often the ones looking after or playing with the two younger ones while their parents were busy.