How Green Becomes Wood

"I do not know if I can bring myself to eat fish after spending all day looking at fish," Dark admitted, turning the stroller so they could see Ivy's face. She was sleeping hard and Dark smiled softly at the expression on her face, "My only hope is the food tastes good. I already know it will be overpriced, but I mind it less when it is still edible."
 
"Fish eat fish," Xander pointed out.

"How about chicken?" Alec offered. "I bet they have chicken! Then we can be snapping turtles."

"Do snapping turtles eat chicken?" Xander frowned.

Alec shrugged. "Probably, sometimes, if they can get it."
 
"Yes, but they did not travel an hour just to admire fish," Dark replied, "I suspect they will sell fish, though. I think the two types of people are those who go to an aquarium and want desperately to eat fish and those who have no interest in such a thing."
 
"No way, really? Butts from a hundred thousand years ago got to hurt just as bad as butts today watching sports games?" Xander smirked. "There ain't nothing new, is there, Ba?"

"Ooo! I think i see a seal!" Alec said eagerly. "Oh, no, wait, that's a person in a wetsuit just walking."
 
"No, nothing at all," Dark teased, warily watching two kids run screeching down the walkway. The longer they had been still, the more Ivy had been stirring, but the noise seemed like it ran the risk of fully waking her, "How do you mistake the two? Anyway, we are seeing sea lions which are not seals."
 
"They are similar, but there is a difference between them," Dark replied although he himself was not well educated on what those differences were exactly. Looking down at Ivy, he considered Xander's proposal. It seemed likely she was going to wake up regardless, and he wasn't too worried about that fact, but if Xander wanted to do something with her, he wasn't going to say no, "Sure, if you would like to."
 
Xander stood and took the handles of the stroller. Quietly, he walked away from Dark and Alec, going down the front until he found a good spot to turn around and then heading back. As he did, he heard another father talking to his kids in an exasperated tone. The kids were being a bit whiny and whimpery, but it didn't seem worthy of the level of agitation the dad was displaying. Then he realized that it was the tone of voice he'd been accustomed to hearing from everyone when he was younger. Now? Virtually never.
 
When the stroller cover was pulled back and she was able to both see and here her brother, much of her anxiety went away and although her little face was still pink and tear-stained, she broke out into a big grin and reached up towards her brother.
 
Xander's heart pinched, but he gave her a smile. "It's okay. I'm right here. Just a little farther." He looked up to make sure he wasn't going to run into anyone, and in a few seconds pulled up in front of Dark. "See? Here's Ba!"
 
When Ivy saw her father again, she flailed all of her limbs in excitement, absolutely delighted to know she was safe, "Baba!!!"

"Good morning, Tifla," Dark said, immediately bending to take her out of her stroller, "Did you sleep well?"

"Baba!!!" Ivy said again, wrapping her arms as tightly around his neck as she could, pressing against him as he hugged her close. While still snuggling her in tight, he looked at Xander, "Thank you for walking her."
 
"Soon, I think," Dark replied, and sure enough, only moments later, trainers came happily walking down the path, was waving to the crowd before introducing the show. Then, from the back doors by the pool, they welcomed in three sea lions who happily galumphed in: Jupiter, Pocket, and Carl, all of whom were rescues and couldn't be released back to the wild. The trainers convinced them all to go to a different area of the stage so each of them could have a bit of their individual stories told before the sea lions all were given a fish and given a moment to dive through the water.
 
Alec clapped enthusiastically, completely entranced by the sea lions. He tried to watch all of them at once, oohing and ahing over every little trick.

Xander was not nearly as emotive as his brother, but he was just as interested. He watched in silence, mostly tracking whichever sea lion was closest.
 
Although Dark watched the sea lions with his typical, unbothered expression, his eyes were bright as he saw their dives and tricks. When the trainers explained the differences between a sea lion and a seal, they had the sea lions mimic seals movement patterns. When they had them vocalize, the tiniest smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. Meanwhile, Ivy watched wide-eyed with a big grin--since she had learned how to, anytime the audience clapped, she did too, and since Alec was oohing and aahing, she'd make little noises just after he did. When the sea lions honked, she laughed so hard she tipped over out of Dark's lap and her head dropped into Alec's lap.

Throughout the show, some of the tricks would be done to music (bizarrely, it was primarily to 80s pop songs) so all the sea lions would be diving, leaping out of the water, or waving together. They also had the sea lions do "impersonations" of other animals, such as one of them swimming with one fin held out of the water to "be a shark."

At a few points in the show, the sea lions would hop right up against the glass, so their heads were hanging over, and once the sea lion was allowed to jump all the way over and parade (still at a safe distance) down the length of the walkway before hopping back into the tank.
 
Alec laughed and caught Ivy when she fell over, helping her sit back upright again. He could not help cheering when the sea lions did their tricks, barely stopping himself from standing up and clapping when they did things like "be a shark." When the one paraded out in front of them, he literally squealed in delight, matching his sister. The sea lions were so incredible!

Xander clapped a few times but mostly restrained himself. When the sea lion marched in front of them, he jolted back, leaning backward, nervous it would come closer. It didn't, staying where it was supposed to, but he was in shock. It was so Huge!
 
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