"I really think I was very lucky and had an okay childhood but it seems like talking about it upsets you. We could talk about something else."

"I mean-" Sigh again. "It's a special kind of evil to make a kid - or even a teen - or anyone - have sex against their will. It's making me want to go stab something."

"...Because you could have children by accident and they wouldn't have two parents?"

"That's not- Well I guess that's part of it, but sex is private and special. It's absolutely traumatizing to-" She's yelling now. She abruptly cuts herself off and quiets. "Maybe because we grow up thinking it's so important. But - consent and understanding - is very important. Rapists get hard labor or hanged."

"...It wasn't as bad as... maybe you'd just get even more upset if I started listing worse things. Or maybe it feels worse when it's not the only way you have to get anything you want." He glances around in case there are monsters listening.

"...That's a good point. You had some choice, even if it wasn't a very good one. By Hylia, slavery is awful."

No monsters are in evidence! It's just peaceful river.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad. Hyrule seems nicer even with the monsters, if what everyone says is true."

"You can be mostly safe from monsters if you stay in town or on the main roads. Especially before the Calamity."

"How do towns stay safe? I couldn't tell how Zora's Domain was protected."

"A lot of Zora are good at fighting! Good enough that they can beat a few monsters without too much trouble if they group up. There's only one land entrance, too, which makes it easily guard-able."

"It's weird how normal needing to fight is here. We have sports at home but that's different, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Hmm... Yeah, I guess it is kind of problematic. It's a fact of life here, but if monsters didn't exist probably a lot less people would learn to fight."

"I wonder if you guys have more kids than we do to keep from dying out with all the attacks."

"I don't remember if I have siblings. Or what my parents are up to now... You see a lot of kids in towns that aren't Zora though."

"I'm an only child. I'm glad I am, I wouldn't want my parents to have more. So when we see kids in Kakariko do I just treat them like any other free people?"

"Not quite, but pretty much. Kids - it's kind of a lot of shades of grey. Kids are mostly supposed to do what their parents say, less as they get a bit older. But there's things you don't tell your kids to do and don't tell them not to do. It's not slavery. It's hard to explain. It's pretty acceptable for anyone to tell a kid less than like - uh, yea high -" she indicates near her waist, the cusp of adolescence. "To stop doing something dangerous or particularly rude or whatever or to ask where their parents are or if their parents know what they're doing."

"What aren't you supposed to tell your kids to do or not do? Sex, I'm guessing, anything else?"

"Yeah, kids don't do sex. Adolescents maybe kissing, but it's still kind of iffy. Uh, dangerous things, politeness, teaching them morals, having kids do reasonable amounts of chores, like, a few hours a day tops and not heavy labor, is acceptable and people say it teaches them how to do hard work but that's a bit eeeh, life skills things like how to clean and cook and dress yourself and what not... Oh, language skills. You're supposed to teach your kid to read at least a little bit but schools take care of that if you don't."

"I'm glad you have schools here, they seem like a great idea. Do you have them for adults that want to know more than the basics?"

"Well, there was the Royal University, but I'm pretty sure that's a pile of rubble now."

"Any chance of... never mind, no point in going hunting in ruins when we could just buy any books they had from Milliways. Do you remember anything about what it was like before the Calamity?"

She goes a bit wistful. "Bits and pieces... It was a bit tense, near the end, but I remember my early life better than my late life at this point. The University was in the castle town, a few buildings with classrooms, laboratories and such, and parts of the castle were open to students, mostly the library... I didn't actually study there. It was peaceful and colorful and lively. Monsters were a problem in fringe areas like Hebra and Akkala, not... Not everywhere. I remember the earth-and-grass smell of the ranch where I learned horse riding and archery, and the paper-and-leather smell of the library... Ahh..."

"It sounds nice. If you get any of it back I will personally make sure that your university will stand even if the rest of Hyrule is crushed into its component atoms."

"I'm sure Princess Zelda will appreciate it. I think you'd like her. It's really too bad you can't meet her now."

"Is she even still alive after a hundred years? How long do Hylians live?"