Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hey! Your legs work!" Shye said excitedly. It also seemed like he could understand what she had said now, at least the part he had heard. He squinted and frowned at Freak before turning a smile back at Gabrielle. "These pan-dahs are cool, huh, Sticky?" he said, standing on his toes for a moment to get a better look.

"Gabrielle," Smerdle corrected.

"Gabbi-elle." Shye rolled his eyes and scooted closer to the other spirit. "Look what I still got." He reached in his coat pocket and pulled out the little flower she had given him.

Morning was nearly over, Caden said. Well, he kind of said it. Okay, maybe he didn't say anything at all. But he pointed to the moving sun and the point was taken. Caden and Ethan were back in the United States for a while, visiting during a school vacation, and because Ethan's 'rents were busy with whatever celebrities had to do on their off-time, the two took it upon themselves to find something interesting to do.

On their way back from London, Ethan had brought a bunch of picture books with him, to read to Caden and to pass the spare time. There was an idea.
"Hey Caden, come over here and look at these books. Maybe we can find something fun to do. Looks like these kids are having fun, right?"
Maybe it was a bad idea. But it was an idea nonetheless.
"I think they're having fun. How do kids have fun?"
Caden pulled himself away from the windowsill, and toddled his way over to the pile of books laying on the ground. This took a few minutes, so Ethan sat and waited -- having to learn to be patient was a big thing for the young man. Anyway, the blond little boy shuffled through soft covers and hard covers, caterpillars and the ABCs, and finally found one he liked. Pushing all other books so that they slipped off the mound, Caden pulled out THE WILD WILD ZOO. Ethan shrugged his approval.
"The zoo it is, I guess."

By now it must almost have been noon, but if the chauffeur drove fast, the two would be at the zoo before lunch, and would probably get to visit at least one of the exhibits. Hovering out of the limo, Caden lead the way to Olmstead Walk. A tower with pictures and words rose in front of him as he peered up into its massive height. Ethan appeared and looked down at the little boy.
"So, uh, this is the map, Caden."
Caden nodded and nothing else was said. Almost awkwardly, the fog boy stretched -- reaching up at a square. A square with a big brown rock in the middle.
"Rock."
"Hippopotamus."
"Rock."
"So I take it you want to see the hippos, huh?"
His messy blob of white-blond hair was thrown back and forth in a flurry as Caden nodded once more.
"Let's go see the hippos, then!"
"Rock."

Elazu watched Taji tug on Kimi's horn, glad that he didn't really have anything of his own to have tugged, or did he? He quickly wrapped his tail around his waist, similar to the way he saw Risika do it whenever she tried to hide her own tail from Trent, another of his many brothers.

" I like cheetahs, and foxes! Just like my Mama!" His pointed ears perked then, rotating as best they could back toward the cheetah exhibit. He turned suddenly, and saw that all the cheetahs had come out from hiding. "Cheetahs!" He flung himself toward the gate again, jumping easily back to his perch from before. " Hi cheetahs!" He waved his right hand feverishly.

" Elazu do be careful," Risika muttered before placing a hand on his shoulder. She then turned her attention back toward the other guardians, smiling warmly. " So where to next?"

"CHEETAHS!" Taji similarly squealed, fully intent on going over and petting them had Rhine (who was very seriously considering buying a leash to put her on) not grabbed her by the neck of her jacket and yanked her back. Her attention span did not allow her to consider this injustice of being denied her cheetahs; stumbling backwards, her gaze swept across Bob and she was immediately captivated by his majesty.

"I had a mudman named Bob! I built him with Ziya." She announced loudly, and then addressing the frog, continued: "Are you a king?"

Releasing his sister, Rhine turned to consider (glancing warily at Taji from time to time) the cheetahs with a very offended air, as if they had just started tapdancing an interpretive dance that involved many 'your mom' jokes. While he admittedly did not know much of animal behavior, he knew that cheetahs did not normally approach human visitors unless lining up for a buffet. He glared at them and cursed their complete and total lack of common sense.

"Pandas," Taji immediately demanded when the question was asked, taking a step back and, inhaling deeply, immediately bellowing for all the zoo to hear of her preferences (or perhaps to warn them of her approach): "PANDAS."

Uziri's attention was once again distracted as she heard the shouted word 'panda'. She had no idea what a panda was, but something shouted that loudly had to be extremely important.

"PANNA!" she parroted, looking around for the source of the Mystical Mystery Word.

Hells on weels. Shye didn't know what that meant, but Gabrielle seemed pleased to be it. Maybe he could be hells on weels too... once he figured out what it was. He nodded and repocketed his flower before following the other's spirit's gaze to the yelling and the nearby children.

Kids! Suddenly squishy bears seemed slightly less important. "MA! Less go! C'mon Gabbi'elle!" He started toward Uziri and the others in the distance, hoping that the little hooved girl would follow. It would be nice if he appeared to be in charge of somebody cooler than his own mother, even if that somebody was small and flowery.

Along with Taji were some of the other children. Noah ran up to them with Ashe in his hand and Ruth yelled, "Noah, stop running ahead! We don't want you two to get lost again!"

Noah went up to the other babies and exclaimed a big, "HALLO!" to all of them. Ashe did the same thing. Noah, being the outgoing kid he was, immediately introduced himself as, "NOAH THE GREAT HAS COME! And his sidekick, Ashe the not-so-great! What are your guys' names?"

"Thingy!" Taji greeted the new girl happily, throwing both arms in the air and waving them as if she just didn't care. To Noah, she said very seriously, "I think Asssshhheeee is much prettier than you are."

Taji knew of sidekicks and superhero costumes, and while neither of them admittedly looked the part well, it was nevertheless a Law of Justice that the flashier and more attractive of the pair was the main hero, and the other one the sidekick. Clearly, Noah was just a little confused. "I am Taji!" She announced, twirling on her heel and peering at everyone in her group.

"See, see," she began to wave, pointing to everyone in turn, "That is Elazu, and that is Kimi, and that's Elazu's Mom, and that is Kimi's Mom, and that is Bob, and the cheetahs are Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, an'..." Was she forgetting something?

Behind her, Rhine coughed delicately.

"An' that's Poopyhead," Taji finished brightly, gesturing grandly to her brother. "We are going to see pandas, and pandas are fat cuddly bears and maybe we can ask them to do a little dance." She had only just finished explaining for Elazu's benefit when she heard the mystical cry of PANDAS echoing back to her.

Finally, someone who spoke her language! "PAAANDAAAASSS," Taji yelled back, running a few feet forward into the crowd to find the origin of the noise.