Waking up the next day, he was tight in Thera’s grasp as he let himself enjoy the feeling of a lazy morning for the first time in a week. He still had a couple of days until it was time for his test at the library and he was content to take things a bit easier until then given all he’d done, both with helping so many awaken or level their magics, as well as with the after party only the night before.
Speaking with John had done wonders for his mood, along with after when he’d spent time with the other humans he was genuinely close to in the world, talking a bit with Will and Steph and getting a laugh from watching others react to the relationship that Amy shared with Jake and Yuzu. Even if plenty had been a pain, there’d been enough fun to be had that made it worthwhile and he was content to reminisce on it as he gently stroked Thera’s head, waiting for her to get up.
“Hmm, hey,” She said, obviously groggy as she nestled in closer. “You should have woken me if you were up.”
“There’s no rush. Besides, I don’t get to see you sleep too often, gotta enjoy it while I can.”
Which reminds me, I wonder if Sonya awakening her life magic was enough to make Thera comfortable with discussing us sharing a room with her aunt. Eh, I guess I’ll mention it whenever we get back.
I’ve already let her know I’d like to, there’s no rush. Much better to enjoy things as they are.
“Mmh, don’t say that or I’ll go back for more,” She told him, eyes still closed and making no effort to start the day. “Were you going to do more studying at the library today?”
“I’m honestly not super worried about that, there’s a chance I don’t pass for the fifth floor this time but there’s no way I don’t get the fourth. I was actually thinking we could maybe have a date day if you’d be up for it?”
That was enough to get her to open her eyes. “What did you have in mind?”
“I overheard about something that sounded pretty fun in the area and maybe we could get a meal someone else cooks for a change too?”
“Ha, tired of it after yesterday?”
“More like in need of a small break. I'll be back to wearing myself down into a fine paste before you know it, just you wait.”
“Then I better take advantage of you while I can,” She laughed, finally starting to get up as she did. “What did you have in mind?”
“Something a little different. It should be fun, you’ll see.”
----------------------------------------
After they both got up and dressed they went off, going through the streets of the magic towers in search of a certain sight, something he’d only heard about thanks to some of his spare minds eavesdropping on the people around him as he did his reading in the library. They were going to a zoo.
“Haven’t gotten your fill of seeing dangerous, exotic animals in person?” Thera laughed. “Something’s going to escape and maul you.”
“We are absolutely not being so negative about my chances of surviving a romantic day out. Everything should be caged, there’s no way anything goes that catastrophically wrong.”
Not you too. You’re both going to have me jumping at shadows if you guys keep talking like that.
Of course, Thera was partially right. He’d gotten to see plenty of creatures on the world who would be more than happy to treat him as a snack, but it had always been in the context of him either hunting or being hunted, the idea of seeing some new ones in a peaceful context was exciting. He hadn’t been to a zoo since he was a kid, and the things he was going to encounter were sure to be a lot more interesting for a couple different reasons. The alien world he found himself living on for one, and the city it was located in for another. They were still in the magic towers after all, and the zoo was primarily a research area for creatures that had any form of innate ability to wield their mana.
He paid their entrance fees as they went in, arm in arm and already looking around as they spotted different enclosures, signs up front and diagrams of animals since anything in there could be a little dangerous to get too close to, even with the distance. There was always the chance of something being out of view, but that still created the opportunity to learn.
The list of exhibits seemed extensive too. Sure, there were some the two were already familiar with, like the pixy dragons and stone apes, but there were plenty they hadn’t seen before. Giant slug-like things that’s bodies would exude flames in a rocky area, leaving patches of the ground glowing as they slowly moved over them, something that looked like a small, scaled disk floating above the ground and clearly in the air affinity, and small rodents running over the surface of deep ponds, walking on the very water as they played.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Not seeing any time ferrets thought,” He muttered as he looked around while Thera giggled.
“Can you imagine how much of a pain it would be to capture any of them to put on display? It looks like they don’t have anything out with a magic that could cause too much harm. Lucky you.”
“You really do believe way too strongly that I have bad luck. I think life’s been going pretty well recently if I do say so myself.”
“I literally just watched you be taken apart in a way that’s going to give me nightmares forever.”
“Ignore everything that happened in the tower, it’s not good to dwell on the past.”
“It wasn’t even two weeks ago.”
“Well, things have been going great since then,” He laughed, letting himself enjoy the conversation and the day as a whole.
It really is nice to have a break every now and then.
That takes so little mentally it’s like I’m not even doing it.
That’s just making souvenirs since it didn’t look like there was a shop for them. Besides, all of that together doesn’t take up a third of my minds which means it’s negligible.
Thera was already pulling him to another enclosure as he was having his back and forth with his god, looking into one that was styled to look like an arctic region, with the cold from the snow and ice that filled it being felt even from afar as Thera moved closer to him while they looked over the edge, trying to spy whatever it might contain and seeing a creature poke its small body through the snow.
With thick fur and plenty plump, exactly what one would expect from something from a northern region, the small animal locked its three eyes on them before wiggling its four arms as the two of them waved back, enjoying the little display right until it exerted its will on the world around it, raising a ball of snow into the air and shooting it on a collision course with Ben’s face.
It was just snow so it wasn’t a big deal, but in an instant his thought speed skills pushed all of his minds to their limits and he forced his body to react as it sailed forward, getting his face just out of the way and letting the ball fall harmlessly to the ground, having missed its target.
“Safe!” He cheered, throwing his hands in the air and turning to give Thera his cockiest of smiles at having successfully dodged the only attack to come his way that day despite her constant teasing him over his poor luck, only to feel the cold smack of snow and ice as he did, a second, unseen one of the creatures having taken aim at the side of his head while he was distracted and getting a better result then it could have ever hoped for when he’d turned just in time to get it head on, enjoying seeing it explode into slush before Thera clung to him, using his body as support to handle the intense fit of laughter she was dealing with after having gotten to see all of it up close.
“What are these things called? Challils?” He asked, giving the one that hit him a dirty look as it insisted on waving its arms and looking cute. “I think we could hunt them to extinction. Their parts would probably be great for making water affinity weapons, what do you say?”
“Ha, I say don’t bully them and let’s get you a towel to dry off.”
It was taking all she had not to laugh even more, leaving her with a huge grin stretched across her face as they made their way to a canteen and explained the situation as a helpful employee was more than willing to help him dry off, after which they sat for a while, enjoying some snacks and drinks.
“So, having fun?” He asked, already knowing the answer as he looked at her.
“Mhm, we don’t have anything like this in Anailia so this is great,” She told him happily. “An all-around excellent idea. It really is incredible seeing just what’s out there.”
“Ha, yeah, it’s crazy what this world has to offer. I like it though, it’s neat to see a bit more of what’s around.”
Seeing all of the strange life of his new home left him thinking on how it compared to his old one, something Thera was interested in herself.
“If you don’t mind, wanna tell me a bit about the animals on your world?”
She knew Earth could be a complicated subject for him, but she wanted to know more about his old home, and talking about it wasn’t the fresh wound that it once was given the years that had passed.
“Sure, there were plenty of pretty neat ones,” He told her, holding his hand over the table to materialize a number of thumb-sized figurines for her to look at, each of them capturing the likeness of ones he’d personally seen. “We’d have a thousand some-odd varieties of dogs, with these ones being retrievers, chihuahuas, and bulldogs,” He told her, trying to show off the range of them as she laughed.
“These are not all the same animal, try something a little more convincing.”
“It’s true, this is what happens when people take domestication and breeding to an extreme. Otherwise, there were a few breeds of cats too, though I don’t think I could name many, along with squirrels, horses, and raccoons. We’d also have eagles and hummingbirds, along with bluejays like the one I made for your necklace and honestly a bunch of others too.”
“Hmm, the cats look cute,” She said, picking up the small figure he’d made and looking it over. “And you had more right? Something-pants? That had ears similar to Vasta?”
“Haha, elephants, yeah, but I think the only time I saw them in person was when I went to a zoo back on Earth. They were from a very different part of the world. Let’s see, if I’m also talking about other creatures I know were on the planet then we have a few species of bear, larger cats like lions and tigers, giraffes and hippos and rhinos and more.”
With each one he named he kept bringing forth more small statues with his mana, letting her pick them up and look them over as she asked her questions and he gave whatever answers he could, both of them enjoying the experience and the day.