09:32 03/05/2587 –(8734/674/37/83)

“Here are your passes Mr Ratlu. I hope you and your daughter enjoy your stay,” the man at the ticket booth said, handing over two V.I.P. lanyards.

“She’s not- it does not,” Gabriel replied, taking the passes; it was not worth explaining it to someone he would, in all likelihood, never meet again.

Pista trilled happily, swinging Gabriel's hand back and forth. “You’re my daddy,” she giggled; Gabriel had to remind himself that despite Pista’s chronological age and height, being equal to a human teenager. Mentally Pista was six.

“Sure,” Gabriel replied flatly; he was not all that bothered, and if it kept her from buzzing, all the better.

Pista trilled even louder at Gabriel’s confirmation. He thought that maybe he should not be feeding her fantasy.

Nish and Risoti were absent; yesterday, Nish had seemed a little sluggish, so Gabriel suggested that he take Pista off her hands for a day while she relaxed at a spa. Risoti had gone with her, not wishing to miss the opportunity.

Gabriel had gotten the executive treatment for the two of them, and while it was technically a violation of the terms of service since Gabriel was not with them. He honestly doubted anyone cared.

As for Pista and himself, Gabriel had brought her to a well-known and renowned children's park called Jebi’s Children’s Fun Land. They had needed to get up at four to reach the park on time; Gabriel realised they were now over six hundred miles from Reshu, quite the trip.

“We’ll get some second breakfast, and then we can go to the petting zoo,” Gabriel said, checking his map for the nearest café.

***

“Now keep your hand flat; that way, they won’t bite your fingers,” Gabriel explained, channelling that school trip he had taken to a farm when he was seven. It was the only thing he could remember about that day out. Well, that and feeding a cow by hand was a one-way trip for a slobber-covered hand.

“Like this?” Pista asked, keeping her hand as ridged as possible. Gabriel recalled he had done much the same thing; Pista was excited but was not keen on getting nipped.

Gabriel guided her hand towards the waiting mouth of the Sebol, who was annoyed by the wait and had begun snorting to show its dissatisfaction.

A Sebol was a small herbivorous creature about the size of a goat and with a similar temperament. It had a similar body plan to a rhea, though the neck was much thicker, and the head was large, with a heavy skull and a shock-absorbing keratinous plate used in the head butting contests between males.

It could also be used to fight off predators, but the animal's primary defence was to run into thick foliage and lose the pursuer.

There were also a few babies in the paddock, eagerly chirring and begging for food. They were quite a bit different from the adults, the neck and head were proportionally smaller, and their backs were covered with sharp spines, like a porcupine.

These would be shed once the animal reached sexual maturity; Gabriel kept his eyes on them; while they were no threat to Gabriel, those spikes could cause a nasty injury to Pista.

The adult Sebol greedily gobbled up the food pellets, a nutritious mix of everything a Sebol needed. Pista trilled with delight and went to feed it again.

Gabriel began to feel sympathy for the hungry babies, so he knelt and spread some food on the floor. A few of the more confident Sebol babies ate directly from his hand.

Another Sebol noticed this; whether it believed that Gabriel was harming the little dears or was jealous of the attention they were getting was irrelevant. The Sebol scrapped its hoofed foot against the dirt and charged at Gabriel.

Pista noticed the movement and attempted to warn him, but her reaction was too slow, and the Sebol collided with Gabriel’s rear end.

Gabriel lost his balance and dropped his food but was able to stop himself from hitting the ground. He cried out and said something, but Pista had no idea what it was; it was in Gabriel’s native tongue.

He was fine; the shout had been from surprise, not pain. The Sebol, though, staggered from the impact. The beast should have considered itself lucky as it stumbled to the floor; had it stuck in an area with less padding, it might have gotten hurt.

Gabriel stood up and dusted himself off. “Let that be a lesson to you,” he said once he realised what had happened.

The Sebol rose after the dizziness had passed and traversed to the opposite end of the pen, its head held low. Gabriel could not but think the animal was embarrassed, though he knew he was anthropomorphising.

“Are you ok?” Pista asked, hugging him.

“I’m fine; maybe my pride took a hit, but other than that, good as gold,” he replied, patting her head.

“I am so sorry, Mr Ratlu,” a voice behind him said.

Gabriel turned to see who had spoken, only to be frozen on the spot; he immediately closed his eyes and once against was grateful that his suit hid his face.

It was another of those horrifying therapod aliens; Gabriel had learnt the name, Wokul, and even with the passage of time and more knowledge, he still found himself just as unsettled as he had been in orientation.

“Is everything alright?” the person asked, leaning closer to Gabriel.

Gabriel swore under his breath, though whether it was because of the sight or because of how much his own behaviour sickened him, Gabriel did not know.

“I’m fine; the critter must have made me a bit dizzy, but It’s passed,” Gabriel lied, opening his eyes just a crack to look at the Wokul.

“You’re all stiff,” Pista pointed out, trying to forcefully bend Gabriel’s arms and legs back into a relaxed state. Despite Pista’s comparative weakness, she had physics on her side, and it did not take much force to make his joints flex.

“All better,” Pista said, pleased that her treatment had worked and Gabriel’s body entered a more relaxed state.

“Well, all’s well that ends well, I suppose,” the keeper said; Gabriel quickly glanced at their name tag. “I’ll let you two get back to it,” Djolu added before walking back to his bench.

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief and condemned himself once more for his infantile reaction before looking at Pista and asking, “who wants to go on the river ride?”

“I do!” Pista yelled, her wings fluttering in excitement.

***

Pista had been a little disappointed when it turned out they would not actually be going into the water, but that evaporated pretty quickly.

She had enjoyed the river ride, bobbing along in the rubberised raft, bouncing against the sides of the artificial river, and looking at the numerous small animals that dotted the route. So much that Gabriel needed to put his foot down after the third go.

“It’s dinner time, and other people want to go on the ride Pista,” he explained, Gabriel tried to keep his voice calm but authoritative, but Pista was getting into one of her moods.

“NO! I want to go again!” she demanded, stamping her feet on the floor.

“No, Pista, it’s time for dinner. Your mommy will be cross with me if I don’t give you your eight meals a day,” Gabriel said, trying to mimic Nish’s attitude.

It had some effect, as her temper started to calm, but once Pista realised she would not get her way, she began to buzz.

“Yes,” she cried; her antennae drooped, and her wings held flat against her back.

Gabriel sighed and picked her up.

“I have no idea how your mother managed fourteen years of this,” he thought as he carried her to the nearest restaurant.

***

They had not been at the restaurant five minutes when Pista’s mood did a complete turnabout, and she had forgotten entirely about the river ride.

She had done well, eating all of her dinner, so Gabriel treated her to some dessert. Gabriel was drinking something that looked and tasted like chocolate milk. Though from a genetic standpoint, chocolate milk had more in common with a moss smoothie than the beverage he was drinking.

The portions were also laughable; according to the waiter, they had needed to go rooting through the cupboards looking for a cup large enough to fill Gabriel’s belly.

“Let’s see, we could go to the climbing frames next,” offered Gabriel.

“Maybe,” Pista replied, clumsily lifting her spoon and dropping her cake into her bowl.

“Be careful; if you drop it on the floor, it’s gone,” Gabriel explained, looking back at the map for something that would grab her interest.

“Slides, soft play area, go-karts,” Gabriel mumbled, making a mental note of where all the activities were.

“Go-karts!” Pista squealed, smearing food on her face.

Gabriel sighed, grabbed a paper towel, and cleaned her face. “Watch what you’re doing now; go-karts later,” he explained, shaking his head.

***

“I am so hungry,” Gabriel said as they waited at the train station.

The plan had been to spend the night at a small hotel, but Pista had never been away from her mother this long, and she was beginning to become depressed. So Gabriel had offered to change the plans, and they had gotten the midnight train; if everything went to plan, they would be back in Reshu by dawn.

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Pista was very excited; she had never stayed up this late before. However, she struggled to use it, as the night air was chilly, and she was currently huddled up to Gabriel with a blanket around her.

Also, her small girl metabolism was catching up to her, and Pista found herself quickly nodding off. “How much longer?” she asked, resting her head against Gabriel’s arm.

“Another thirteen minutes,” Gabriel replied, gently rubbing her arm.

“Did you have fun?” he asked as Pista's eyelids began to droop.

“Mmm,” Pista hummed; with each second, she found it harder and harder to stay awake.

“What are you gonna tell, mommy?” he asked.

“That I went down the giant slide and rode the river….” Pista said but did not finish. Gabriel looked down, and she was out like a light. That’s what it appeared like, at least; paradiseworlders slept very lightly; he would need to be careful when the train finally arrived.

At ten minutes to midnight, the maglev gracefully slid into the station. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle hum of the generators and the two passengers on board departing.

“Look’s like we’ll get an entire carriage to ourselves,” Gabriel whispered as he gently scooped Pista into his arms. Gabriel felt he had done a pretty good job at this whole parenting lark. Sure, Pista was not his kid, but on their day out, she had basically filled that role.

Gabriel lay the moth girl down on the seat, taking great care not to damage her wings. Now that he thought about it, they must make lying down to sleep incredibly difficult. Do Tufanda lie down to sleep? Or do they hang from walls or something; he had never been inside Nish’s apartment, so he had no idea what their bedroom looked like.

He observed Pista, trying to be sure he had not made some catastrophic mistake; he had placed her on her stomach, her wings draped over her, much like the blanket.

The girl was fine, gently snoozing away, her body rising and falling with each breath. Then Pista started to twitch, it looked like a gentle seizure, an oxymoron if ever there was one, but then Gabriel recalled that Paradiseworlds had far more active sleep than ordinary people.

Pista's face, specifically her antennae, was a picture of tranquillity, and Gabriel assumed she was okay.

Gabriel yawned and stretched; it was well past his bedtime too.

One benefit of being so small by sapient standards was that most benches doubled as king-sized beds. Not the most comfortable beds, mind you, but beds nonetheless. Then again, maybe it was the suit, it was not designed to be slept in, and Gabriel could feel some of the ridged supports digging into his side.

Gabriel always had a rough night in new places anyway; this would be a nightmare. Still, Gabriel kept his opinions to himself and grumbling to a minimum—all the while hoping that the gentle rocking of the carriage would carry him off to sleep.

“It felt good to do this again,” thought Gabriel

***

The blare of an alarm forced Gabriel’s eyes open. As his lid slid open, he wondered; had he slept at all, or had he managed a few hours? Gabriel was uncertain. Gabriel silenced the noise, and to his surprise, Pista was still fast asleep.

She was still twitching six hours later, and Gabriel would not be surprised if she had done it all night. It looked painful and exhausting; once again, the worry from last night came back, only now he was far more confident in waking her up, if they remained on board for too long, the maglev would leave without them, and Gabriel would get a fine for fare dodging.

Gabriel rocked her as gently as he could while calling her name. Pista continued to twitch; she was still dreaming; Gabriel then rocked her harder, banged the window, clapped his hands, and even tried snapping his fingers in her ears. He tried, but the suit made it impossible.

“Can you sleep through anything?” Gabriel asked as he stood up, wondering how Nish managed it.

“Nish,” Gabriel said, grabbing his P.D.A.; he called her.

Tapping his feet against the floor, Gabriel waited patiently, though knowing his luck, Pista would wake up the moment the call went through.

“Hello, Gabriel. Is everything alright?” Nish asked; the speaker slightly distorted her voice, but Gabriel was glad to hear it.

“Yeah, it’s just we're at Reshu train station now, and I can’t wake Pista up,” Gabriel explained, passing about the cabin.

“You’re at the station already,” Nish stated, surprised. Gabriel noted that she did not sound tired, yet it was only six o’clock, was Nish an early bird or did the fatigue wash off Tufanda quickly?

“Yes, Pista missed you a lot, so we got the midnight train and came back early,” Gabriel explained.

“Oh,” Nish replied; Gabriel could have been mistaken, but he believed Nish was flattered by it.

“I’ve tried making noise, but she just keeps snoring like a log,” Gabriel explained, looking down at Pista.

“No, noise won’t work; you’ve got to stroke her antennae,” Nish said.

“You sure? That seems kind of creepy,” Gabriel replied, looking at the long feathery appendages.

“No, it’s fine; it’s like a hand shaking you humans do,” Nish clarified.

Shrugging his shoulders, Gabriel knelt beside Pista and carefully stroked the tips of her feelers.

Immediately Pista’s eyes opened, and she sat up; no grogginess, no stretching or yawning, as though she had been faking the entire time.

“She’s awake,” Gabriel explained.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” he told Pista, rubbing her cheek.

Pista looked at his P.D.A. and asked, “who’re you talking to?”

“Mommy,” Gabriel replied, handing his P.D.A. over to her.

“Hi, mommy,” Pista said, holding the phone with three hands. The intercom chimed, and the last call to leave Reshu station was given.

Gabriel picked Pista up and carried her out, not wanting to spend another two hours on the maglev. Pista ignored him and started to tell her mother about what had happened on their day out.

“Save something for when you actually see her,” Gabriel said, patting her back.

“I can just tell her again,” Pista explained, finding that an entirely reasonable thing to do.

“No, you won’t. We need to get breakfast for one; I can already hear your belly grumbling,” Gabriel responded, taking the P.D.A. off her. “Not to mention my own, haven’t gone this long without solid food for years,” he added.

Speaking to Nish again, “I’ll get her some breakfast, and then I'll bring her to your apartment.” “Should be about two to three hours; give you a little more alone time.”

***

“Mommy!” Pista shouted and leapt into her arms.

While Pista began recounting their day, Gabriel examined the room. While some chairs were on the floor, a lot of the furniture was attached to the walls, taking full advantage of the Tufanda’s ability to fly.

“How do you sleep?” Gabriel asked though it was only after Nish inquired about what he had just said that Gabriel realised he had spoken out loud.

Nish stared at him; her antennae raised slightly.

“Just curious how you slept; those wings would probably get in the way if you lay on your back,” Gabriel explained.

“Bedroom’s through there,” Nish replied, pointing to the west-facing wall.

Nish’s bedroom was much like Gabriel's, large, spacious, with a marvellous view of the city. Looking out the window, he could see his tower off in the distance. He knew it was the same because of the sizeable artistic display on the roof.

“You can see my tower from here,” Gabriel told Nish, raising his voice.

“You can?” Nish asked in disbelief; she entered the bedroom and followed his line of sight. “Where?” she asked.

“That one, there with the statue of a flying creature on the top,” Gabriel explained, pointing at the skyscraper.

Nish peered through the glass; all she could make out was a vague blur. “Your eyes are a lot better than mine,” Nish said, looking back at Gabriel. “Why is there a giant Taku on the building anyway?” she asked.

“Apparently, the architect who built it really liked Taku, I mean really really liked Taku,” Gabriel explained. “I take it that’s your bed,” Gabriel added, pointing to a climbing lattice-like structure on the wall.

“Yep,” Nish replied.

“I’ll show you,” Pista said, climbing the rungs. “You go halfway up, hug it tight and then fall asleep,” she added before closing her eyes and pretending to snooze, making exaggerated snoring noises.

“I didn’t think Tufanda snored,” Gabriel said.

“We don’t; Pista’s been watching a lot of human children shows lately,” Nish explained.

“Come up,” Pista said, rocking back and forth.

“Don’t rock the bed!” Nish ordered, “you’ll rip it off the brackets.”

“I’d love to, but I’m starving, and I need a shower,” Gabriel explained, “Besides, I’d probably damage it.”

“Give me a day to myself, and we’ll meet up tomorrow,” Gabriel said as he left Nish’s apartment, “and go easy on your mum; you can be quite the handful.”

“Hey!” Pista shouted as Gabriel closed the door.

10:58 07/05/2587 –(8734/677/39/76)

“Risoti had picked well,” Gabriel thought as he trudged up the mountain. Hab Ifru was quite famous, an entire town constructed on a mountain slope. Its primary business, naturally, was tourists attempting to conquer the mountain with the same name.

Gabriel had never been mountaineering before, but he liked it. Something about the slow plod up the mountainside gave him a sense of accomplishment every second.

Calling their casual, if exhausting, walk mountaineering might have been a bit of a stretch. Hab Ifru was a large mountain, but its size was mainly horizontal, only 2km tall, and the gradual slope meant it was nothing like scaling Everest.

Gabriel was also pretty darn sure that Everest did not have food and drink vendors every hundred metres with ample seating arrangements.

If you wanted an intense experience on Minagerad, you wanted Hab Odrego, as tall as Olympus mons and as hazardous as the Himalayas. Gabriel was going to stay far away from that.

“Can we jump off when we get to the top?” Pista asked, using her wings to make exaggerated leaps.

“No, you can’t fly off the mountain; you're too heavy,” Nish explained causally.

“Aww”, Pista replied, “Can I have a lolly instead?” she asked.

“Sure, we’ll get one at the café,” Nish replied, and Pista immediately perked up.

“So, why this? Out of all the things you could have chosen, why this?” Gabriel asked Risoti, it was her day to pick the activity, and while Gabriel had no problem with it, it did not seem to mesh well with what he knew about her.

“There’s a mountain on Xorko, much bigger than this one, similar shape though, and I’ve always wanted to scale it,” Risoti explained.

“Why haven’t you?” Gabriel asked.

Risoti snorted before answering, “Never got round to it, always made excuses, though when Erilur moves in, I’ll ask her; she seems like the kind of person who would go for it.”

Gabriel still had a little trouble parsing that nugget of information; Erilur was going to travel one hundred light-years just to be with someone she had known for three weeks. Though considering he had never had a lover himself, who was he to judge?

“Look at that,” Nish said, pointing at the valley below. It was quite the sight, the sunlight caught the river, and it looked like the water was glowing. Trees dotted the landscape, and sunbeams broke through the clouds, looking like pillars of light.

Pista was bored; she had seen water, trees and sunlight before; why would anyone stop to look at them?

“I wanna ride,” Pista cried, running up to a mechanical boat ride.

“We could have a drink and get our breath back,” Risoti offered, checking the time; the four had done well and were ahead of schedule.

Pista had fun rocking back and forth on the plastic boat while the grown-ups enjoyed the view.

“Got any idea where we’ll go tomorrow,” Nish asked Gabriel.

“There’s a scenic train journey through the Anala mountains, a less rigorous change of pace after today,” Gabriel offered.

“Never been on a train journey just for fun,” Risoti mused.

“Might be difficult keeping her still, though,” Nish stated, pointing at her daughter.

Pista noticed and asked, “what?” and began rubbing her face, thinking she had something on it.

“Nothing, sweety,” Gabriel replied. He noticed that her little boat was still going after five minutes and added, “you get quite the ride for just one credit.”

***

“We beat you, mountain,” Gabriel said as they crested the last rise, and finally, they were at the summit.

“Yeah,” Pista added before getting on her knees and punching the grassy earth.

“We’re taking the tram down, right?” asked Nish as she collapsed to the ground, panting.

“Hell yeah,” responded Gabriel; he had given all the effort he could be bothered to today, not that the sense of accomplishment he now felt was not worth the price.

“I can only help but think that this would be much more magical if there weren’t about one hundred other people here with us,” Gabriel said as a group of tourists blocked the view.

“You could always shove them out the way,” Nish offered, sitting next to him.

“No, thank you, I don’t want to get sent to prison for unaggravated assault,” Gabriel explained.

“Don’t be so negative, good lawyer, claim you didn’t know your own strength. You’d get a massive fine and a few dozen hours of community service,” Nish countered.

“Nothing but the best for me, eh,” Gabriel replied with a smile that no one could see.

Pista decided that this conversation had a severe shortage of herself and sat in Gabriel’s lap. “Getting bored, the majesty of nature not working for you?” Gabriel asked cheekily.

“What’s Magesty?” asked Pista, looking at Gabriel. Gabriel explained the word as best he could.

“Are you looking forward to telling all your friends about your adventures?” Risoti asked, enjoying the sun.

“Yeah, I’m gonna tell Introt and Ajal all about me being in with the monsters, and they're gonna be scared, and they’ll think I’m really brave,” Pista answered. “Then I’ll tell them about Gabriel, and then they’ll be even more super jealous.”

At the mention of his name, several people looked in their direction. While much of the hype had died down over the past month, Gabriel was still famous. While no one had bothered him, asked him for autographs and photos, he still got looks, in some instances, sniffs or clicks.

Gabriel had adjusted to the extra attention and had gotten quite good at ignoring it. Even so, his cheeks blushed as he picked up a few words from the conversation; the word “hero”, in particular, made him wriggle.

“I don’t know about you three, but I am parched, let’s get that drink,” Gabriel said, standing; he was so focused on escaping the whispered praise that he did not realise he was carrying Pista.

“Bye, mommy, I’m gonna live with Gabriel now,” Pista said, waving at her mother, a trait she had picked up from him.

“Oh no, how will I ever survive,” Nish deadpanned, joking about it only because Pista was far too young to get the joke.

“Oh no, you are not coming to live with me; a little Pista goes a long way, thank you very much,” Gabriel added, pushing open the door to the café.