Welcome to Gaia! ::

Huginn repressed the urge to sigh. This was looking like it was going to the most horrid fieldtrip ever. Even worse was it was required for class. Luckily the class was hitting the zoo right as it opened on a weekday, so the park was mostly deserted besides the class. The assignment wasn’t too hard either they had to walk around and take notes on the behavior of different animals. Only problem was the assignment had been mixed in with the typical ‘get to know your classmates’ and they had been paired off.

Huginn wasn’t sure what to feel, he had always just been paired off with his siblings. He rather didn’t like really dealing with people and because he was soo quiet others didn’t really like talking to him too much even if he tried to be as polite as possible, but as he looked over to his partner he felt like he needed to pull himself together. It wasn’t their fault he had been paired with them and what if his uncomfortableness was affecting them. Since after all they hadn’t yet said a word to each other.

“I’m sorry. I should have spoken up earlier. I didn’t mean to cause any uncomfortableness if I did. What animals would you like to see first?” Huginn said in his most polite manner. His voice just over a whisper.

Oh ear dropping, he knew what ear dropping could mean. He hadn’t screwed up already, had he? His tendrils swirled around in an apologetic upset manner. Hadn’t he just told himself he was going to make an effort to be better and to be friendlier? He felt even worse when they opened their mouth shut it and then turned towards their phone.

Huginn leaned forward and read the message. Oh no had it been quiet between them this whole time because his partner was like his sister Melody or their friend Tayce? Huginn took a deep breath and calmed himself down by briefly looking at the Zoo. Right now they were in the bird section, the bear section being on the other side of the base, but Huginn would definitely start with the bears.

“ Still, I should have been better about it. However I wouldn’t mind starting with the bears. It’s a good place to start” Huginn replied out loud.

‘I’m sorry if I am assuming too much, but if it would be easier, I know sign language’ he added completely in sign language. If they were mute like his sister, he had to figure that just speaking this way instead of typing everything out and then showing him had to be better.

Ah they were making progress. Well slow progress but at least communication was happening and misunderstandings on Huginn’s side got cleared up. The terrified smile worried him a bit still but people could be really shy.

“Well if you don’t mind, but I really don’t mind starting at the bears. I’m used to brightly colored winged things. Well maybe not brightly colored but…” Huginn tried joking. Ugh… he needed to talk with his more extroverted sibling… or work on his jokes or something… even he could admit it was a bit sad… okay a lot sad.

Huginn stared at the smile and then blushed in slight embarrassment. Yep he definitely needed to work on his humor. Oh well he had other strengths to pull on he guessed.

“Alright that sounds like a pretty good plan. The bears here are definitely pretty cool” Huginn replied. “So obviously the pond over there is for the flamingos. I think the more tropically birds are over in bird cages over there. It’s been such a long time since I’ve been to this zoo.” Between all of their different features or personalities his family could only really go when the zoo was open during the ninth or really early in the morning when it first opened. He pulled the map out again and flipped to the bird section.

Huginn didn’t pay much attention to the squeal but he did look up when he noticed the movement out of his eyes from Maeve. So he was already looking at her when her ears perked up. Looking over to the direction he noticed the game stand and the plushies and then his gaze flickered back to Maeve. Did they want to go over to the stand? Other people were so hard to read. He really needed more friends than just his siblings.

“My brother owns a lot of birds, so I know a little bit about them already, and that game stand is on the way to the bears, and we still pass through some of the bird exhibits, at least according to the map. Want to go try a couple of games?” Huginn asked taking a gamble. He really didn’t mind where they went, and he wanted to make up for his rude behavior earlier. Besides his mother had always said to be as friendly as possible and it seemed like Maeve wanted to go over… or at least he thought that’s what she wanted.

He made a note when they got home to just watch Rhea’s ears for a while, or maybe he could go with Mom some time when it was just the two of them and visit Uncle Tobias. Uncle Tobias had really expressive ears.

Yep that was a definite wanted to go to the game stand if Maeve’s actions to his suggestion was any indication and he would have to be a cruel person to suddenly go ‘just kidding’. The truth of it was that Huginn wasn’t too big on actual games outside of computer or video games but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“Yes, I am quite sure, and it would be really fun to win something. They have a lot of cute plushies as prizes it seems. I’m not too good at game stands but it looks fun non the less” Huginn replied.

Well there was more tail wagging which was good. Maybe the trip would be tolerable or even a tiny bit fun instead of the uncomfortable awkwardness that was the start of the trip. The teacher probably should have paired him up with someone a bit more extroverted but maybe just maybe they knew what they were doing. What if Maeve had been paired with someone who hadn’t known Sign? Would she just have typed away on her phone the whole time?

It couldn’t be fun or that easy. Enough of his siblings had problems speaking or couldn’t speak and so his mom taught him sign from a really young age. He learned it right alongside learning to talk, unlike some of his other siblings though he didn’t advertise it too much. Eventually however they got to the game stand. It looked like one of those toss something and knock it over games. Come to think of it, the manager probably wanted money, all needed to support the wildlife conservation. Did he have any?

Huginn blushed sheepishly as he took the coins, luckily he could add it to the couple he found. It looked as if they would have enough for the games, or at least for a couple. He was kind of looking forward to it. It would be fun, and hopefully it was on the start to creating a new friend. To say the least it would definitely make the evening report when he talked to his mom. Today hadn’t been so bad. He really needed to stop worrying about things though.