Quinn grinned seeing Brittany cuddling a cat sized plush cougar when they came out of the shop, it wasn't a stiff stuffed animal but a floppy fuzzy one. "I expected more." Quinn eyed Santana, Mercedes grinned informing the blonde.
"The rest is being sent to the gift shop by the main entrance for pick up on departure."
Santana shrugged, she'd gotten everyone a little something "Got Matt a few things, you know we're gonna have to bring him here."
"Anniversary." Quinn pipped up "I told him he needs to bring his wife to Mercedes club for their anniversary, we can get him tickets for here."
"I'll take care of him." Mercedes promised. "Now what is next on our list?"
"Malayan tiger and elephants," Quinn stood up "and they are that way." pointing in the direction they needed to go she pulled on her backpack.
They were following the trail stopping to take photos of anything that caught any of their attentions, despite looking relaxed both Santana and Quinn were on guard due to recent incidents, "I think B'sst is keeping an eye on you due to recent incidents." Quinn whispered to her sister.
"I didn't think about that," looking away from Brittany who was walking ahead of them with Tina and the other mortals Santana explained in a whisper "I thought it was more of an overprotective godmother thing, warning me to be on my best behavior kind of thing."
"Either way she's keeping an eye on you." Mercedes said casually lifting her phone causing the other two to automatically smile as she snapped a photo of the three of them. "Bright side we got back up if Calliope or her sons change their minds about leaving you alone."
"Macaws." Brittany smiled at the large birds in front of them.
"Do you want to go a different way?" Quinn glanced at her sister, the instant shift was easy to see, Santana's shoulders drop and her demeaner completely changed. It didn't matter that it was fake, it was the closest Santana could get to the real thing without causing an incident. Brittany joined them leaving the others at the large aviary cage
"We don't have to go in there Santana." Brittany said softly.
Blinking back tears Santana shook her head squeezing Brittany hand "Let's see how close it is to the original."
"Were there Macaws?" Brittany asked.
"Yes, Mayans lived in what is now Central America and parts of Mexico." Santana said softly "At one point they had almost the entire Yucatan peninsula under their control." Brittany listened while Quinn watched Santana. "Maya lands included what modern people call Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador." her voice trailed off as she stepped closer to the birds. "Macaws are from the Central and South American rainforest, they like fruit and nuts, snails." Santana gave a soft smile as a memory of feeding a macaw snails with her mom flashed in her mind.
"Do you want me to take pictures?" Quinn asked.
"I've got it." Mercedes volunteered pulling her phone out "You get in there with your girls." Brittany on one side, Quinn on the other Santana had her arms around both their waists. "Say big creepy bird." Santana chuckled, she forgot Mercedes didn't like Macaws despite the birds loving the goddess. "Next please."
"Okay." Santana inhaled, linking pinkies with Brittany she noticed Quinn fall in step right behind them allowing Santana a free hand, reaching out she touched the replicated ruin running her fingers over it. Touching the plants along the path she pointed to the next exhibit "Giant Anteaters also live in Central and South American and they like ants and termites so they got that right." Mercedes quietly snapped another picture of the trio.
"Brazilian ocelot, hello beautiful." Quinn smiled at the animals in the enclosure.
"Southwestern United States, parts of Mexico, Central and South America." Santana walked over to the fencing "They're solitary and sleep during the day sometimes in trees.."
"Not sleeping and clearly checking you out like the others." Quinn took a couple pictures, "I think we should talk to B'sst."
"Later." Santana shook her head. "Salvador Dali had an ocelot as a pet."
"The painter dude," Tina asked adding "the melting clocks guy?"
"Yep." Santana nodded.
"San what does this mean? Brittany pointed to a sign post some of which was written in another language.
"Guanaco is a kinda llama, Criaturas de la Noche is creatures of the night and they are that way." Santana pointed in the directions of the arrows "Guanaco live in South America but I don't think they had anything to do with the Mayans, they're more Peru and Chile"
"It's probably their way of having people learn about the other tribes of the Americas." Marley suggested. "Maybe their placard will explain."
"Maybe." Quinn agreed.
"She's beautiful." Santana murmured, without realizing it Santana released Brittany hand slowly walking to the enclosure.
Jaguars.
She was prowling across the low bridge they'd made for her and her enclosure mate, he was lazing by the water feature with a replica of a Mayan jaguar that looked as if it were broken off from a temple. Their whole enclosure looked to be a replica of a crumbling Mayan temple. Scanning the crowd his eyes found Santana, giving a low snort as he stood he gave a head shake before matching Santana's pace to the glass his golden eyes on locked on her. Placing her hand on the glass Santana was surprised when it chuffed at her and placed its forehead against the glass where her hand rested. Bowing her head to the jaguar she was surprised when he returned the bow, the young female doing the same when she arrived at the glass in front of Santana as well.
"I believe they know their kind." Mercedes whispered to Quinn.
"Are they talking to her?" Quinn asked hearing the raspy noises from both jaguars.
"They really like her." Marley remarked watching the jaguars ignore the other patrons both now with their foreheads to the glass so that both of Santana's hands were now touching the glass where they were.
"They recognize one of their own," Mercedes said adding "apex predator." if they didn't already know Mercedes wasn't going to point out the Mayan connection. While Quinn was recording the interaction
"They gorgeous." Brittany said joining Santana at the glass.
"They are." Santana nodded taking Brittany's hand in hers interlacing their fingers she brought their hands up to her face kissing Brittany's knuckles murmuring "I love you."
"I love you too." Brittany whispered giving Santana a smile and light peck on the lips, resting her head against Santana's she sighed contently.
"Put your hand on the glass, see if the do it for you." Santana suggested, the male had moved his head away from the glass and had put his paw up to it instead, holding her hand to the glass Brittany giggled when the young female put her forehead against it and then her paw.
Giving the jaguars a final nod Santana pulled her hand from the glass getting a low roar from each of them. She didn't know that while Quinn was taking video Mercedes and the others were taking pictures. They quietly moved to the next exhibit.
"Llama."
"These are the guanaco." Santana corrected Tina.
"Why'd they put them in here if they're not from the Mayan areas?" Brittany asked.
"I'd say because they're from South America like most of the rest of the animals in the area." Quinn shrugged. "Nocturnal House."
"Criaturas de la Noche." Santana read the name above the door as they walked closer to the building.
"It's dark in there." Brittany said holding Santana's bicep with her free hand.
"We don't have to go in." Santana said as the others in the group passed them in the entrance.
"No I wanna see, this is your past, I want to see it, if you want to show me." Brittany didn't want to push if things were uncomfortable for her girlfriend.
"One day you'll get to see everything."
"Did it really look like this?" Brittany asked gesturing to the ruins and plants around them.
"They looked carved like the real thing," they didn't feel fake when she touched them "the symbols are real, they depict the different animals."
"There's a lot of those." Brittany pointed to a carving.
"Jaguars, they are the old gods of the Mayan religion. I guess you could say like the Titans, I don't know much, I was very young when I left." banished, once she had gone to Greece they forbid her from ever returning. "Even when the gods of Mami's generation took over jaguars remained an important symbol to the peoples, and they could be found all over the Mayan territories."
"Can you tell me what all the other carvings are when we see them?" Brittany took the first step forward missing Santana's nod, Santana kept in step as they glanced around at the animals before bumping into their own group.
"Bats." Santana watched as one or two flew while the others remained in their spots.
"Seba's short tailed," Quinn piped up from their placard "found in Central America and upper regions of South America. They can be black, brown or gray. They live in forest..."
"No shit." Santana snorted then apologized seeing a child next to her "Sorry." she looked to the mom who shrugged offering the Latina.
"I've said worse."
Quinn couldn't help but chuckle as the mom gestured her child to another exhibit. "As I was saying, they eat fruit but will eat nectar, pollen and insects."
"They are ugly as all..."Unique glanced around before spelling "h..e... double hockey sticks." in a whispered voice. Marley smiled at her friend and took a photo, without flash as the signs said.
"They have vampire bats too," Mercedes said looking up from the information on the pamphlet in her hand. "not as many as these guys."
"Little blood suckers are native to the Americas so totally explains why they're here," Quinn glanced around "somewhere."
"Probably away from these guys because they're different and they might get confused." Brittany said looking through the glass at the creatures of a different enclosure "Agalychnic callidryas." she pointed to the green blue frog, the others looked at her momentarily confused because she hadn't read their name just stated it like everyone knew what she had. "Are they this pretty up close?"
"They are beautiful." Santana nodded, she'd seen many on walks with her mom, like most animals they were not afraid of the gods.
"And they eat bugs making them one of my favorite animals." Mercedes chuckled.
"Macaws eat bugs." Quinn pointed out.
"No." Mercedes shook her head.
"What are we missing?" Tina asked.
Mercedes glared at Quinn before explaining "We were at a mall, I really can't remember which one, what I do remember was the pet store they took me in."
"They had kittens. Quinn explained.
"Oh no." Marley brought her hand to her mouth, she could see where it was going.
"Little bastard stalked me around the store, it should have been locked up, but no" Mercedes threw her hand up "he was just walking around following my ass through the whole damned store." Mercedes gruffed "These two were no help."
"I was distracted." Santana offered to Brittany "There was a little kitten, looked like a baby black jaguar."
"This one was laughing." Mercedes pointed at Quinn who had begun laughing at the memory.
"It's not my fault, the bird was whistling at her and calling her sexy mama." Quinn tried to defend herself. "And the guy did put it in it's cage," Quinn reminded quietly adding "then it got out and found Cedes again."
"Twice." Mercedes pursed her lips.
"It made kiss noises at her and asked for kisses, when we were at the register." Quinn recalled.
"It was up on the gerbil cages, right by my damn face and kept leaning at me." Mercedes shook her head "The frogs stayed in their tanks, so frogs are awesome and the macaw can suck it."
"It just really liked you." Quinn teased.
"Imma tell Millie you're not behaving." Mercedes pointed at the blonde before moving to the next enclosure "More frogs."
"That's South America." Santana said causing Brittany to tug her along to the next animal.
"Anthony's poison arrow frog." Quinn read it's name.
"Poison?" Mercedes looked away from the red frog with light stripes.
"Yea." Quinn nodded.
"Damn," shrugging Mercedes looked back to the amphibian "that's cool, I don't care what other people say, you're a bug eater, I like you."
"You're gonna wanna avoid the next two enclosures Wheezy." Santana called out, from where Mercedes couldn't see.
"What's in...nope." Mercedes shook her head walking away, pausing she read the next placard "Oh hell no, mm mm, nope." holding her hands up in surrender Mercedes walked until she found Santana. "Is it staring like the others." Mercedes asked seeing the name before seeing the animal. "Nevermind, not a cat and not a lemur I know that much," reading the description to herself Mercedes nodded "raccoon family, kinda cute."
"Okay those are creepy and gross but this little guy's cute." Unique smiled seeing the spider.
"No thank you." Marley shook her head "The giant cave cockroach are bad enough."
"Auntie's got you." Mercedes reached back grabbing Marley's hand, pulling her close "This one's cute, it's a ring-tailed cat."
"How can anyone like spiders?" Quinn shivered joining Brittany and Santana.
"They were creepy then and they are creepy now." Santana looked over to see Unique taking pictures of the spider.
"They eat insects." Unique said knowing Mercedes could hear her.
"That will never help." Mercedes shook her head taking a quick photo of the girls watching the ring-tailed cat.
"It's smaller than Lord Tubbington." Brittany smiled taking a picture.
'Cat' Santana mouthed to Mercedes seeing the question in the black woman's eyes. "They are, I saw some when Quinn and I first came to Louisiana, I'd say he's 2 and half to 3 times bigger than this one."
"Mike would like these guys." Tina forced herself to take pictures of both the giant cave cockroaches and the Costa Rican zebra tarantula before joining the other girls. "Maybe I should bring Blaine or Matt, they can see them with him. Now he's cute, or she." Tina glanced at it's information snapping a picture. Like Brittany she'd taken a picture of the animals and their placards.
"Nancy Ma's night owl monkey." Quinn read the name on the next enclosure.
"Not from my neighborhood." Santana shook her head, Brittany took her pictures tugging Santana away. "Looks like we're done." Santana put her sunglasses back on as they stepped outside, the others did the same as they stepped into the light. "Let's sit and give Quinn a rest."
"I'm fine." Quinn said blinking and focusing on their surroundings, with her sister suddenly quiet Santana looked where Quinn had quickly turned away from, a replica of a Mayan temple. Santana inhaled, it did resemble the real thing and unlike the other 'ruins' it was in one piece just over grown with plants "San?" Quinn whispered, gently taking Santana's free hand, Quinn gave it a little squeeze unaware that Brittany was doing the same on the other side.
"I'm okay." she quietly promised them, she hadn't expected the ruins to look realistic.
"Let's hit the bathrooms." Mercedes nodded in their direction.
Giving a quick head shake to clear her mind Santana took in the rest of her surroundings "Capybara." Santana said moving to the next nearest exhibit. "Capybara's are South America."
"It's a rodent." Unique read the information "World's largest rodent and it apparently barks like a dog."
Santana couldn't help but chuckle relaxing a little more "They're weird little dudes, but they're cute."
"What was that about?" Quinn whispered to her sister, the others were still in the bathroom or looking at the capybara "They zeroed in on you and nobody else." Quinn looked to the jaguars which were back to ignoring the crowd.
"I don't know." Santana shook her head.
"They were talking to you San." Quinn whispered
"I know, they know what I am." Santana murmured looking to the jaguars. "We're going to rest when we get over to the elephants, you're looking pale."
"I'm not the only one little sister." Quinn gave her a quick hug.
"The cat thing is unnerving, it wasn't B'sst, it was the jaguars." Santana admitted.
"I'm sorry?"
"I don't know how I know, but it was them." Santana nodded in the direction of the big cats. "Nice to know some from my own mythology, other than my mother, like me." Seeing Brittany bounce out of the restroom Santana smiled and waved at her.
Brittany bounced over to them throwing her arms around both of them "You guys look tired, we should rest."
"We're going to take a break on the way to the elephants." Santana promised