Welcome to Gaia! ::

With a stretch of his arms, Vilyum yawned and then slammed the door of his car shut. Eleven in the morning was far too early to be out and about, he thought, heck, it was far too early to even be awake, if you asked me, but Áróra had wanted to go to the zoo; it was a reasonable request.

Despite the weather warming up the past few weeks, it was a cool day; the overcast sky was to thank for that, shielding the earth from the sun's perpetual bombardment, but not quite giving the appearance of an impending rain.

Áróra flew from her seat and out the passenger door, something that would also be plausible in the literal sense, due to her growing wings. She scurried around to Vilyum’s side of the vehicle and proclaimed through a wide grin, “I think you forget something daddy!”

“Um,” Vilyum uttered, clearly confused by her statement, “I have no idea what I forgot, my watch? Though I never wear that….”

“The keys daddy! You locked the door without grabbing the keys …again! Luckily I saw them!” she replied as she unfurled the two face tentacles on the right side of her face to reveal the car keys hidden within.

“Oh,” Vilyum muttered with a wince before suddenly changing his tone, “Good job! You see, that was merely a test of your observational skills, merely a test, and you performed wonderfully!”

“Right daddy, sure it was,” Áróra replied before adding, “C’mon let’s go!”

She then sped walk to the front gates with Vilyum close behind, stopping only when she got to the front gates. Upon catching up to her, Vilyum paid for their admission and they both entered through the large arch that made up the front gate.

“So where do you want to go first,” he asked.

“Hmm,” she whispered. Where should we go first, she thought, the monkeys would be interesting and they have tails; the tigers have teeth like me and tails; the penguins are cute; where to go first. Then, with a rumble of her stomach, she decided. “Let’s go to the snack bar first! Then how about the….uh…..tigers! Yes, the tigers!”

With a laugh, Vilyum replied “Alright then; sounds like a plan!”

Áróra gleefully skipped towards the tiger enclosure, not far ahead of Vilyum; her hands were swinging to and fro and a half eaten cinnamon twist was barely sticking out from the face tentacles that were wrapped around it. She couldn’t wait to see the tigers; they had teeth almost as pointy as hers, though she did feel that her teeth were much closer in appearance to the saber-toothed cats she saw in her picture books, but she would never see one of those at the zoo. More importantly then teeth though, they had tails, she absolutely adored tails!

Suddenly, Áróra stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening underneath her goggles; just ahead of her, at the tiger pen, was a little girl with a tail. She broke into a sprint and charged at the girl, a wide grin engulfing her face. As soon as she had approached close enough to reach the girl, she gently gripped her tail and exclaimed, “Hi! I’m Áróra! You’ve got a beautiful tail! What’s your name?”

In response to the other girl’s startled jump, Áróra found herself jumping slightly as well, oddly startled by her own startlement of Emmy. “I’m sorry,” Áróra asserted, “I didn’t mean to catch you off guard, it’s just, your tail… I was excited; I like tails!”

She then politely curtsied and, upon rising, she excitedly exclaimed, “Hi Emmy! You have a cute name! How are you? Aren’t the tigers cute?” Holding her mouth open with a finger and pointing at her teeth, she then added, “They have sharp, pointy teeth like me!” Suddenly remembering Emmy’s comment, she exclaimed, “Yep! Face wigglies! I can hold stuff with them! See?” Áróra then unwound some, revealing the cinnamon twist that had been stashed inside.

“He bites your tail?!” Áróra exclaimed in disbelief, “Why ever would he try and do such a thing?” Thinking about it for a moment, though, she added with a shiver, “Well I did meet a girl, a while back, that seemed to like tasting people’s blood.” Grinning widely, she replied, “Yep, pointy tooth! Oh you do?" She then leaned in close to get a closer look at Emmy’s teeth.

“Yes, they are pretty, “ Áróra agreed, “though, I think I would only hug one if it was tame, though I am pretty strong, I wonder if I could restrain a tiger.” She trailed off at her last statement, as if lost in thought. Snapping out of it, she exclaimed with a giggle as she held out the twist, “Yep! A twist! Would you like a bite?”

Scratching her head, Áróra commented, “Well I want a tail, but I don’t really see how biting one would help.” Giggling slightly, at the vampire question, she replied, “No, she wasn’t a vampire, but she did look like she was part spider! She even had extra arms!”

Áróra leaned in real close, about as close as she possibly could get without actually trying to stick her head into the other girl’s mouth. “Pointy teeth!” she suddenly exclaimed, with a giggle, after a thorough inspection of Emmy’s teeth. “Well,” she started, “I would only try and restrain the tiger if it wasn’t tame and was trying to eat me. I heal real quick, but I think that would still be real dangerous and hurt a lot. I like the tiger’s pointy teeth but I don’t want them in me.” She then quickly added with a nod, “A tame tiger or a plush tiger, that would be different!”

Smiling as the other girl took a bite, she stated, “They are as tasty as they are twisty!”

Giggling, she couldn’t help but stop for a moment to think of herself with two extra arms, it would be fun, but not as neat as having a tail. After a moment of Áróra added, “Yeah, extra arms would be neat, but a tail would be even better!”

“Oh, so did you make a new friend Áróra?” Vilyum asked, seemingly appearing from nowhere, or at least it seemed that way because she had been paying attention to Emmy and the tigers and just didn’t notice his approach.

“Yes!” Áróra giddily responded, “This is Emmy!” Turning to Emmy she continued, “Emmy, this is my daddy, Vilyum!”

“Good day,” Vilyum said to his daughter’s new friend, with a tip of his hat.