How Green Becomes Wood

"Do you want to go to the petting zoo, Hummingbird?" Daizi asked happily, "I bet you do!"

They headed that way, and after feeling Daizi tug on his arm for a few moments, Dark sighed and paid the frankly exorbitant cost of the wafer-cones full of animal pellets so they could all feed the animals, and then stepped inside the little tent. Daizi removed Ivy from her stroller and handed her to Dark so he could help her pet the animals.
 
"Yes!" Alec purred excitedly, holding his wafer-cone. "Yes, I shall feed all the animals and bribe them all into becoming my minions!" He held out his treats to the nearest goats. "Come, my new minions!"

The goats nibbled at Alec's hand until Xander loudly shook his cone. Then they went dashing over to the other twin.

"I don't think your minions are particularly loyal," Xander said blandly.
 
"Controlling loyalty through hunger is a common tactic employed by cult leaders," Dark mused, leaning down slightly so Ivy could see the goats. He held out a few pellets so one ate from his hand and then demonstrated to Ivy how to pet it. Upon managing to pet the goat, she squirmed in delight.

"What do you think are the chances she'd be able to feed one?" Daizi asked, stroking a goat's cheek with the same gentle, loving touch she always had.

"Absolutely none, they would try to eat her hand because she would ball her fist up."

"Hold her fingers flat, then."
 
"Will she let you?" Alec asked, ignoring the cult leaders comment. "Oh! Sheep! Here, sheep!" He hurried over and then forced himself to slow down in his approach to the sheep.

Xander stood still and offered food to whatever animal came up to him instead of chasing one down. "I say it's worth a try." He sprinkled just a little on the ground near him.
 
"Here Ivy," Daizi murmured, reaching out and carefully holding her hand flat. Ivy squirmed slightly, unused to being manipulated in this way, and then with her other hand added a few pellets into her palm while Dark lowered her to a goat. Of course, the goat didn't care, and quickly came to eat out of Ivy's hand. At the sensation, Ivy immediately began to giggle and squirm, delighted by this brand new sensation.
 
"Sounds like someone is really enjoying themselves," Aelc chuckled, turning to watch them. "If Uncle Cooger ever gets goats like he said he wanted to, he'll have a helper to feed them!"
 
"Does that tickle?" Daizi asked, kissing Ivy's cheek, "You have to hold your hand flat, Ivy, see?" She tried to see if Ivy would do it on her own, but Ivy only dropped the pellets and squealed as more goats came to crowd around her.

Dark turned his gaze to Alec, "Would you take a picture of her? I would like to show Cooger."
 
Alec immediately took Dark's phone (his own was sitting on the backseat of the car where he'd dropped it) and took a picture of Ivy. He moved around to the other side and took another picture, then one more straight on. "There we go! Pictures to choose from!" he said proudly. "You know, maybe you should get a photo album, or start scrapbooking."

Xander glanced over and looked Dark over. "Yeah, he'd be pretty decent at scrapbooking, but I think he'd like a regular photo album better," he said, turning back to keep an eye on the goat that was attempting to shove its nose into his pockets. "You don't need a phone. You're a goat. You have hooves. Even if you had a phone, you couldn't use it. Out."
 
"I do not have an interest in scrapbooking," Dark replied, kneeling down so he could let Ivy stand on her two feet and be basically eye level with the goats, "I like taking the pictures so I can sketch my favourites later. You can only remember so many details otherwise. And I can send the pictures to Daizi's family and further endear myself. They cannot complain if I send them daily photographs of her."
 
"Daily?" the twins repeated, stopping what they were doing to stare at Dark.

"Daily," Xander repeated quietly, shaking his head. Three, even four times a week, he could understand, but daily? Good grief. Hopefully, it worked for Dark.

"I bet her family loves them!" Alec said quickly. "But that means there will hardly be anything new for them to learn about her when they get here. Unless you've been holding back a few things for just that scenario?"
 
"Do you want to explain to an 80-something year old matriarch why she didn't hear about something sooner?" Dark asked blandly, "Or worse, do you want to explain to Saladin why we are 'keeping her' from him?"

"We typically live in multigenerational homes, so it is very strange for my family to not get to hover. But he exaggerates when he says it is daily." Daizi explained.

"It is fairly near to daily. Or feels that way. I do not take so many photographs for my own pleasure."
 
The twins somewhat doubted that. In their minds, if Dark was even slightly more extroverted than he currently was, he would be one of those father who whipped out the pictures for anyone who showed even the slightest bit of interest. Anyone who for any reason inquired anything about Ivy - when she was not there in person - could be greeted with an entire album of pictures about her. Luckily for everyone, Ivy was usually there to be shown off, and Dark was not particularly social. Even for the sake of his baby.

"The family is going to be overjoyed to see her in person!" Alec said happily. He promptly forgot all about Ivy and the impending family when a sheep came up for treats. He sank his hands into the soft yet itchy wool and cooed excitedly to the animal. The sheep didn't care what he did as long as it got some sheep treats.
 
Dark hadn't been lying. He did take more pictures of Ivy than he thought he would, but he didn't spend all day snapping pictures of her. His primary interest remained drawing the people he cared about, the problem was Ivy kept him so busy, and moved so much, he couldn't sit down with a sketchbook like he could with others in his life.

"Especially those who haven't seen her at all yet," Daizi smiled, holding Ivy's hand to prevent her from putting it into her mouth now that it was covered in goat saliva. They moved along to the sheep with Alec and then Dark brought Ivy to the camel, who was languidly looking around at everyone unbothered. As he lifted Ivy up, outside his notice, someone whacked their friend on their arm and the pair of them laughed.
 
Xander, figuring Dark would enjoy Ivy's reaction to her first camel, took a quick picture before catching the faint sounds of laughter. Frowning in puzzlement, he turned to look for the source. He thought he recognized the voices, but he wasn't sure.

Alec got his fill of sheep pets and casually wandered toward Dark. "What kind of camel is this?" he asked.
 
Dark exhaled slowly, helping Ivy touch the camel's face, "I know the number of humps makes a difference."

"How many humps does it have?" Daizi asked, "If it's just one, it's probably a Dromedary camel."

"Dromedary, then," Dark told Alec, and only then noticed the sign confirming it, which he pointed out.

The two giggling voices were attached to high schoolers, who whispering to each other, took a quick photograph of Dark touching the camel, trying to get an angle where he wasn't clearly just introducing it to his baby.
 
Xander snorted and walked toward high schoolers. "Hey! Scram! The guests of the patch are not a part of the amusements! Any more pictures and there will be," he dropped his tone significantly, "consequences." To Dark, he said, "You might want to go to the other side and get Ivy in front of you."

Alec tossed the last of his feed out, sending a stampede of greedy animals in the general direction of the high schoolers.
 
The high schoolers rolled their eyes, "Whatever dude. It's just funny, I know you've heard the camel herder jokes before." Still, when Dark looked over, realized what was happening, and scowled at them, they quickly dropped their phones and scurried away. The hungry animals weren't a big deal, Xander wasn't a big deal, but they did not like being on the wrong end of that look.

"God forbid I show my daughter a camel," Dark muttered under his breath as they walked away, "It would not be annoying if I did not genuinely find camels endearing."
 
Xander flipped them off as they left, making sure neither Ivy nor Dark could see, and went to join him at the camel. "Endearing, huh? Why?" He eyed the camel suspiciously. "In all the movies, they are known for biting a lot. I'm guessing that's not what they are really like?"
 
"I do not know much more about them than you do," He replied, petting the camel's face again, "I just like their faces. I do not like them the way you like horses, but they have sweet eyes. I also like alpacas and llamas. And they are very soft." Dark fed a few more of the pellets to it, "It is not so much a longing for past times, I grew up in a city. We had snakes and birds and spiders, and foxes at night, and mongoose, sometimes, because they eat snakes. Stray dogs and cats. Once, once, I saw a polecat! And nobody believed me. But I know what I saw. If I was rural, I would see more, but I was not. I am more familiar with camel spiders than camels. But the actual," He gestured to the animal, "I think they have kind eyes."
 
"There was a polecat that lived under our trailer for a while," Alec remarked. "He was pretty cool. As long as no one startled him, he was chill. Walked right past him a lot."

Xander studied the camel. "I think he looks bored, but I guess I can see the kind eyes thing. He doesn't look too bad."
 
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