21 Chapter 6 - Zora / Hylian Biology

It was a weekend morning, and Mipha and Link were having breakfast together at home. They had nothing special planned except a family lunch with King Dorephan and Sidon later that day. Their trip to Hyrule Castle would begin after the weekend. Link was a bit nervous about bringing the subject up but thought there was no time like the present.

"Mipha, can we talk now about the possibility of having a family at some point?" he said.

She looked over at him and smiled. "Of course," she said.

"I know it's a big step and you need to be ready. And you are still very young to be a mother by Zora standards. But the subject's been on my mind. You've always known I will grow old faster than you, and if we have a family I would like to see our children grow up for as long as I can," said Link.

"Yes, I know," said Mipha, looking down.

"There is one possibility that could help us with the aging difference. In the timeline I came from, Dr. Purah developed an anti-aging Sheikah Slate rune and had developed what she called a beta version of an age boosting rune. She experimented with the anti-aging rune and gave herself too high an exposure, with the result she ended up with the body of a six-year-old girl. Anyway, the Dr. Purah of my former timeline gave me a copy of her notes which I brought back with me and intend to share with the Dr. Purah of our timeline when we visit Hyrule Castle. If our Dr. Purah can perfect the anti-aging rune, then it is possible I can live with you longer than normal. I certainly hope that is the case. But I don't think we should plan our lives counting on it," said Link.

"Yes, you're right," said Mipha. "But I don't like thinking about life without you." Mipha started to cry. Link rushed over and put his arm around her.

"Please don't cry. It breaks my heart when you do that. Hylia willing we still have many, many years ahead of us," said Link. "And let's have some faith in Dr. Purah. But it's something I've been thinking about and thought we should discuss."

"Yes. I'll be okay in a minute," Mipha said, wiping her eyes.

"Alright, let's leave the 'when' part for now. We still have a lot of time to decide that. But can we talk a little bit about the 'how' part?" said Link.

"Given all our time together, I think you would understand the 'how' part by now," Mipha laughed, recovering her composure.

"No, not that," said Link. "I mean how do children from a Zora-Hylian marriage turn out?"

"I was teasing you," said Mipha. "I know that's what you meant. I thought about this subject too, and when I consulted our medical experts, this is what they told me. If the child inherits the same type of chromosome from both parents, the mother's chromosome will be dominant and determine the race. Thus a female child with an X chromosome from each of us would necessarily be a Zora. However, if the child inherits a Y chromosome from you, then it is equally probable which race the child would be. Thus a boy could be a Zora or Hylian. The only impossible combination for us is a Hylian daughter. In any case, the child would inherit some characteristics from both parents but would grow to be a fully viable member of their race. In effect, after hatching, a baby Hylian would go through some of the same development that occurs in a Hylian mother's womb. But we would provide him with a separate protected environment with appropriate nourishment. The baby would have vestigial gills capable of supporting him in that environment. After all, a Hylian baby's lungs don't fully develop in the mother's womb until almost eight months. The gills would atrophy and disappear after the baby was old enough, and he would end up a normal Hylian child. So it would be a little simpler biologically if the baby was a Zora, but a Hylian boy is a viable possibility," said Mipha. "And of course we can only hope any children inherit my brains and looks," she added smiling.

"I know enough not to argue with that!" said Link. "So to summarize, for any child of ours, there is a 50% chance it's a Zora girl, a 25% chance it's a Zora boy and a 25% chance it's a Hylian boy. How many eggs do Zora females typically lay at one time?"

"One or two. Of course, some have more, but one or two is the most common," said Mipha.

"I wonder what the chance of having different combinations of children is if we have two, three or four?" said Link

"I guess they don't teach math so well in Hylian schools," said Mipha. "Let me work up tables with all the combinations and their chances for you from highest to lowest.

Mipha then worked out the tables for two and three children and showed it to him.

Two Child Probabilities

Three Child Probabilities

"I won't write out the four child table as that has 15 rows. But the most likely outcome with four children is two girls and one boy of each race, though the chance of that is still only 19%. With four children there is a 69% chance of having two or more girls and 93% chance of having at least one," said Mipha.

"That's impressive!" said Link. "So, looking at the table for two children, I see there is a 75% chance we would have a girl. With three children about an 88% chance. And you said with four children a 93% chance. So it's pretty likely we would have a daughter in our future no matter how many children we have. I guess I can look at the tables and figure other combinations out. But I hope you know I would be thrilled no matter what sex or race any of our children end up and love them equally."

"Yes, I know you would," said Mipha.

"Okay, we don't have to decide anything now of course. Just something to think about I guess," Link said.

"Yes, something to think about," said Mipha.

"Let's enjoy the weekend and our upcoming family lunch. I can't wait to see Sidon again," said Link.