The God-Writer has demanded more omakes for the omake throne, and who am I to refuse?
Part 3 and final of We're going to the zoo
Leaving behind the Crimson Plateau (and, Albriech hopes, everyone grinning and ribbing him, even the kids), they cross yet another boundary into the last area. The change from reds to pinks and purples was less dramatic this time, though the switch from straight lines to wavy ones made the change explicit anyway.
"Last but not least, lest Bianca spank me, is the Artistic Display! This place is as much an art exhibition as a natural one - carefully chosen naturally purple rocks mixed with painted materials to provide support and colouring for the many displays." Firis explains the area." Here, in the glass cabinet, you can see the exhibit for a mated pair of Purple Horse-maned Snakes, kindly donated by the St Tryna's Academy. Their venom is a soporific, that also in humans function as a hallucigenic; to represent that, the artist Korfula has created an artistic, hypnotic pattern out of coloured glass beads, topped with several specially chosen Pink Rainbow Stones and some sulccents to replicate the natural environment of these animals."
Albriech reads through the informational plaques of the various snake and scorpion exhibits. Unlike the Pavallion and Plateau, the DIsplay includes not just information on the animal, but also on the artwork displayed. He actually recognised several of the names from his bedtime chats with his mother and sister, though he did felt that openly declaring how many works were produced under the influence of the poison of the animal displayed was a bit more dangerous than it should be, even accounting for Panacea. Additionally, many of the works were relatively short, and constructed to be viewed from adult height, so all of them had taken turns lifting kids to see the animals. Reislin was muttering about mini stairs, so he supposed the next batch of children should have the issue solved.
"I know all of you are bored with the small animals, so here's a few bigger ones! Look veeeeerry carefully at that cliff face there. What do you see?" Firis pointed towards a cliff that was artistically painted in the colours of sunset. Purples, pinks and orange blended into each other, though sometimes as splotches. Albriech was squinting to try and see what Firis was referring to when one of the large orange splotch fell down.
"Well, it looks like they gave it away before I could! Those orange splotches are actually Ambush Cliffcrabs! They cling onto cliff faces to ambush prey, but sometimes their grip slips and they fall down. This is actually advantageous, though, as the fall attracts predators, which can then be ambushed in turn by other Cliffcrabs!" There was probably a lesson to be had here about working together to turn moments of weakness into strength - Albriech commited it to memory, in case he needed it when teaching the children later.
Having arrived at roughly the center of the area, Albriech was not surprised to see a third mysterious structure in a large cleared area, near the sunset wall. It shared a similar structure as the Screamer, being a closed loop of rails, but it was larger, flatter and didn't appear to invert. "Let's take a break from animal spotting to introduce the lost age wonder of the Display: The Gentle Serpent!" Firis declares.
The lilac vehicle certainly has a serpentine look, six tubular segments with a head that's somewhat equine and avian despite the distinctive long tongue rising off the first segment and a tail from the last. Each segment has two saddles on them, like the seat of a bike, though with a tad more restraints than normal. There are six of the vehicles queued up, which strikes him as a bit of overkill, but he remembered Dianthea's preference of getting things in sixes and decided at least they aren't trying to hit sixty-six here.
After everyone is divided by lots and saddled up (a far easier task, though whether it's because of the design or the kids getting more familiar is an open question), Albriech lands on the tail of the second Serpent, with Reislin clinging onto his back. As the ride starts, he understands the name - while it's certainly moving very quickly, and the ups and downs and turns are still thrilling, the Gentle Serpent did not have the whiplash-inducing speed turns of the Screamer or the constant crashes of the Crushin' Wolfquads. Instead, he was able to enjoy the lovely artworks as he breezed past them. He turned his head slightly to see Reislin resting her head on his shoulder, a sparkle in her eye. "Beautiful," he says to her, lightly pressing their cheeks together before he returns his sight forward.
"Next up, we have the horse ranch. Slawkenburg imported many high quality breeds of horse prior to the Uprising, though their treatment were abyssal. As an example, the..." Reislin was enthusiatically introducing the next display, her cheeks flush with excitement. There wasn't much feedback to be done on the Serpent; abut everyone agreed it was nice, though Booker was once again speculating about Outrider training. The ranch area, occupying quite a large chunk of the Display, was dotted with artistic works across the lavender grass. They had skimmed through the area earlier on the Serpent, but now he was able to see the horses proper. In addition to the regular hoofed versions, many had strange additions, like a serpentine tail, or clawed feet, which he supposed was about normal for artistocratic hobbies taken to Giorban extremes. Nonetheless, some of the decorations made his brain itch... "Are those the steeples?" Albriech asked.
Reilsin paused, and nodded. "Yes! Many of the decorations here were taken from the steeplechase courses that used to be popular around here. Of course, they were mostly a venue for horse cruelty, with obstacles up to eight meters tall and the animals surgically altered to get around them... or, as was more common, die trying. Our Grand Magos shut down the operations by winning with a horse altered minimally to climb the obstacles safely and slowly, demonstrating the Bringer's creed that safety yields greater dividends than reckless experimentation, but the agents of Decay that used to rule the Mechanicus exiledhim for telling the truth. They were subsequently used by the Liberator to artfully prepare for the Uprising, and most of the taller obstacles have since been relocated to the USA training grounds, a symbol of their history, but the shorter ones have come here and been redecorated to serve their original purpose!" The children cheered appropriately at the mention of how the Liberation Council had turned the Giorban cruelty against them, making Reislin puff up in pride.
"Now that the history lesson's over, let's get to the fun part!" Firis took charge again, as they entered a barn-like structure. "Riding! All of you kids will get the chance to ride one of our ponies today, and even jump across a steeple or two! How's things going, Spike?" She ends off by waving to a techpriest who was tending to a pair of odd-looking ponies.
"Thank you for the intriduction. I am Sigma-Pi, the techpriest in charge of rehablitating the various horses imported to Slawkenburg. Here, we have two Seeker Ponies; yes, they have only two legs, don't worry, it's natural. Say hello to Rarity and Twilight, everyone." The children responded witha chorus of hellos, and slight giggles as the periwinkle Rarity and the violet Twilight licks some of the frontmost kids with their long tongues.
Albriech settles for sitting with Sarah and Amelia on a bench and watching the children take turns. The long tails did balance the two-legged horses well, and the clawed feet were quite good at navigating the kid-sized obstaces. Even so, with that many kids, it took a long time to get through them all, and so it was the perfect time for the two Sisters to rest their head on his shoulders and take a quick nap. By the time everyone was done, the sun was about to set.
There were a few more poisonous animals in glass exhibits to go through before the DIsplay merged back to the Atrium, though even then Firis was clearly skimming through and the children low on interest. Everyone had a nice stew dinner by the employee cafe before the sleepy children were loaded into the slim-T and Booker drove back to the temple, this time with Firis and Reilsin in tow.
Everyone was too tired to make it back home, so instead, after putting the children to bed, messaging Dianthea and Bianca and changing into nightclothes, Albriech, Firis and Reislin ended up in the same bed as Sarah and Amelia, just cuddling together. And thus ends their trip to the zoo.