"Daniel! Time to wake up. We are visiting the gardens today, are you excited?" Daniel mumbled a yes as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "There we go. Would you like to follow me or have me carry you?"
"I can walk, thank you though." Daniel stretched and sat up. He made his way down the steps and followed Amarvus out into the kitchen, where everyone was already. The kids were sitting at the table while Punthia was getting breakfast ready.
"Daniel!" Kangi waved.
"Hello!"
"Hi guys." Daniel was helped into his seat and Amarvus then went over to help with breakfast.
"Daniel, do you like sweet or salty?"
"Sweet, please." Amarvus started to pass out bowls. This looked similar to oatmeal, but with the same green coloring as yesterday's breakfast. "Thank you."
"Thank you, Uncle Marvus!"
"You are welcome, darlings."
"Hey, where is my thank you?"
"Thank you, Mama!"
"Thank you, ma'am."
"You are quite welcome." Punthia ruffled each of their hair, making the kids giggle. "So, are you guys excited?"
"Yes!!" The kids said at once.
"I cannot wait for you to see everything, Daniel!" Oormila started catching excitedly, "They have plants from everywhere!"
"Yeah! There is this one that gets really big, and you can watch it eat things!" Kangi joined the conversation.
"And there is this big tree that has all these pretty flowers." They both kept talking until they finished breakfast.
"Alright kids," Amarvus said as he was putting the dishes in the sink, "you go get ready. I have to go help Daniel."
"Ok!" They got up as Amarvus helped Daniel down. They went back to Daniel's room. Amarvus gave him a change of clothes and left the room. Daniel groaned when he saw what he came back with.
"Not again."
"I am sorry dear, but you have to wear it if you want to go."
"Fine, but I'm not happy about this." He raised his arms and let Amarvus put the harness on him.
"I know, I know you do not like it. Thank you for letting me put this on you." He buckled it in place. "There we go. Now we just need to get your shoes... and we are done!" He kissed Daniel's forehead and ruffled his hair. They left the room and waited for everyone else to finish getting ready. Punthia came out with the kids.
"Are you guys ready to go?"
"Yeah!"
"Alright then! Daniel, if you could hold still for just a second..." Amarvus hooked the leash onto the harness, "and we are off!" They left the building and headed to the monorail. Daniel and the kids were placed in the seats while Punthia and Amarvus stood beside them. The kids kept pointing things out the entire trip.
"And that big one is the aquarium!" Kangi pointed to a large blue building.
"Oh, we should go there next! Daniel, you would love it."
"We are going to visit the aquarium; I believe Nathen and Ghantin are supposed to meet us there."
"Who is that?" Kangi asked.
"Nathen is Daniel's friend from the ship."
"We get to meet another one?!" the kids' attention was on Amarvus.
"Yes, you can meet Nathen. Oh, our stop is next!"
"Yay!" At the next stop, Amarvus quickly unbuckled Daniel while Punthia got Kangi and Oormila. The kids were set down to walk and Daniel was carried off of the monorail and then put down. Daniel noticed some people glancing at him as they walked. There were some of the feathered cat-like people like Ihina and many four-armed people like Amarvus. They made their way to a gate with images of plants integrated into the design. Red trees lined the path that branched off into many directions.
"Alright, which way should we go first?"
"Right!" Kangi shouted.
"No, left! I wanna save the best thing for last."
"Oh, yeah. Go left!" They ended up going left. This path lead to a clearing surround by many red plants.
"Woah."
"These are all plants from this planet. You can look at whatever you like, but please do not touch anything." Daniel started to walk around with Amarvus not far behind, still holding the leash. There were plaques all over the place with writing Daniel didn't understand. Amarvus was happy to translate for him as they passed. The plants here were amazing, looking more like ferns and moss than anything else. They made their way through the different plants and came to a greenhouse (redhouse?) overlooking the gardens. It was massive, the rooms varying widely in temperature and humidity. A few parts were filled with red plants, but most of it was filled with purple, woody plants. "Do you remember Ihina?"
"Yes."
"Well, the purple ones are from her home planet, Lonnetra."
"Neat." They kept walking through the exhibits, Amarvus reading plaques and talking about some of the plants. The plants were gorgeous, from the red ancient looking ones to the purple ones with grey branches. They eventually came to a separate greenhouse, and the plants in here were truly wild. Each room was entirely different. "Ok, where are these from?"
"This area is for plants from other planets. Before you, we only knew of two planets with advanced life. The rest have not gotten to the Stone Age quite yet."
"That's cool!"
"Daniel!" Kangi tapped his shoulder, "The eating plant is in the next room!"
"Cool, what does it eat?"
"Uh, birds mostly." Oormila pipped up.
"It looks like they are about to feed it! Hurry up!" Kangi was practically dragging his mother over to the next room. The plant looked like a massive fly trap with a sickly greenish-yellow hue. Its "mouth" was wide open, waiting for an unfortunate creature to wonder onto it. A small crowd had gathered around it as one person -presumably an employee- stood on a platform above the plant. Kangi had somehow managed to get them a pretty good spot to view the feeding. The person on the platform started speaking, her voice coming through a speaker off to the side.
"Hello everyone! And welcome to the Satrian Botanical Gardens! How are you enjoying this fine day?" The crowd cheered. "Excellent! My name is Cempaka, and below me is our very own carnivorous ilania, Dolly! She weighs in at around 5,440 kilograms! In the wild, she would wait with her trap open like you see her doing now. Then, once something landed on her, the weight would trigger her to quickly close her leaves, trapping her prey for her to digest. Can anyone think of a reason why a plant would need to do this?" A few people raised their hand, mostly children. The speaker called on Oormila.
"Um, it is because the plant grew up in a place that did not have enough food in the ground."
"Yes! Good job! Ilanias are found in swampy regions on the planet Astellis, where there are very little amounts of nutrition in the soil. Because of this, they adapted the truly incredible ability to digest living things." She opened a crate and brought out a big dead bird. Compared to her, it looked like the size of a chicken. "Now, who would like to see her eat?" The crowd cheered again. "Ok, here we go!" She dropped the bird. As soon as it landed, the plant snapped closed. "It takes her a little under a day to completely digest her food and open back up again. Thank you for visiting the Satrian Botanical Gardens and have a wonderful day!" The crowd cheered once more and then started to disperse.
Punthia was the first one to speak. "Well, speaking of eating, who wants a late lunch?" The kids cheered. They all went to a building with what looked like a restaurant, with a line leading up to a counter and tables and chairs laid out.
"Alright, Daniel and I will go find a seat while you and the kids order."
Punthia nodded. "What do you want?
"A sandwich will be fine." Amarvus started walking towards the tables with Daniel.
"Amarvus? Am I going to get something?"
"I packed you a lunch, I do not want you to have an allergic reaction to anything."
"Oh, that makes sense." They found a table and sat down. Amarvus went to get a highchair for Daniel and helped him into it. After a few minutes, Punthia and the kids came carrying trays. They sat down and started passing food to the correct people while Amarvus unpacked Daniel's. "Thank you." They ate lunch and soon headed for the next section of the gardens. The plants were back to red.
"This section is for local plants. It also has a playground and a drawing spot. How about you go play with Kangi and Oormila?"
"Wait, don't I have to stay attached to you or something?"
"Oh, right. I can ask if you can stay with the kids and in the play area. You should be fine since you are not dangerous." He walked up to one of the employees with Daniel. "Hello, I have a question for you."
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"Well, I work for the S.A.R.A, and we recently found a new species."
"Oh, I heard about that."
"Well, this little guy here is Daniel," Daniel waved, "and we were wondering if he could go in the play area with my niece and nephew. He is not dangerous at all, and he will stay with them the whole time."
The employee looked at him for a moment. "Well, if he is trained, and you are certain he will stay with your niece and nephew, then I do not see a problem with it."
"I can defiantly stay with the kids." The employee looked a bit shocked when Daniel spoke. "I won't cause any trouble."
"Alright then, yes you can go."
"Thank you, have a good day. Say bye Daniel."
"Goodbye."
"Bye. A good day to you too." They walked back to everyone the kids excited to hear that Daniel could go play with them.
"Now, you have to stay with him the whole time, and you cannot leave the play area, do you understand."
"Yes, can we go now?" Amarvus unclipped the leash from Daniel.
"Yes, you may go." Oormila took Daniel's hand and lead him to the playground. It was designed to look like it was carved from the stone it was attached to. There was a slide, a rope bridge, and many things to climb. They played for a while before coming to a small table where an employee was organizing some papers and crayons.
"Would you guys like to color?"
"Yes! Daniel, do you wanna?"
"Sure." With that, they rushed to to table and sat down. This table was the closest thing yet to Daniel's size.
"Welcome! What are your names?"
"I am Kangi!"
"Oormila. And this is Daniel."
"Hi, another guy said it was ok for me to come back here with them."
She was taken aback for a moment. "Alright then, would you like to color too?"
"Sure."
"Yay! Come on then!" He sat down beside the kids and each were handed a coloring sheet and something like crayons. They began to color the pictures of plants.
"What do plants look like where you are from Daniel?"
"Uhh, green."
"You told us that already, what else?"
"Uhh, well, they kind of look like this." He flipped the coloring page over and drew some plants.
"Woah."
"Those are cool! What is the pointy one?"
"A pine tree."
"Cool."
"Oh, how pretty," the lady looked over at Daniel's drawings, "your planet must be green all over, huh?"
"Well, it's mostly water, so it's blue and green."
"That sounds so pretty, Daniel."
"Yeah, it is." He felt a pang of sadness go through him.
"What is the matter sweetie?"
"Oh, I guess I hust miss home. My family's probably freaking out at this point."
"Oh, I am sorry to hear that, I hope you get home soon."
"Thank you." He gave her a smile.
They soon went back to Amarvus and Punthia, who were waiting on a nearby bench. "Did you guys have fun?"
"Yes! Look what we drew!" Kangi and Oormila showed them their coloring sheets.
"That's so pretty!"
"Daniel made one too!"
"Daniel! Show them yours!" Daniel held up his paper.
"I love it. What is on the back?"
"Oh, I just drew a few plants from home."
"They are so pretty, you did such a good job. Could you turn around for a moment?" Daniel turned and Amarvus clipped the leash back on. They walked around some more, the kids wanting to read a few of the plaques themselves. After another hour, they decided It was time to go back. Daniel and the kids started to doze on the ride back, Daniel being carried the rest of the way. He started to wake up a few minutes later. Amarvus made dinner that evening. The kids played a game and Punthia cuddled with Daniel until dinner was ready. The kids and Daniel sat at the table while Amarvus and Punthia put dinner on the table. "So, what was everyone's favorite part?"
"Oh! I liked the eating plant!" Kangi was the first to speak.
"I liked the purple rooms. The trees are so pretty."
"I like that part too." Punthia said to Oormila.
Daniel paused a moment, "Uh, I don't know. All of it, I guess? Everything was so amazing. I've never seen anything like it."
"Well, I think my favorite part was seeing your drawings."
"No really, what was your favorite?" Kangi had a deadpan expression.
"I liked seeing your drawings! They were great!"
"Thanks." Amarvus smiled at Daniel. They talked about their day all through dinner. Afterwards, they played a board game, and then Daniel went off to get a bath and to bed.
"Goodnight, Daniel. Sleep well." Amarvus hugged him and kissed him on the forehead. Daniel passed out shortly after that.
A/N: And we are officially caught up! Now my updates here will match up with AO3 updates. School has officially started, so I can't guarantee a consistent schedule, but I'll try my darndest to get 1 chapter out a week. I would love to know what you guys think!