How Green Becomes Wood

Dark was pleased to answer questions--she loved fruit and hated sweet potato, slept well but sometimes fought naps, but did not seem to show much colour preference yet--although he did steal glances over at his boys throughout their conversation. When they looked truly bored he said, "I apologize, my sons are still waiting. They do not enjoy these conversations as much as adults do and I would be cruel to make them suffer."
 
All heads swung toward the twins since that was where Dark was looking, but the other two did not immediately grasp the twins belonged to Dark. The first woman, who had seen Alec and Ivy together, remembered first.

"Those two are very fine-looking young men," she said, confirming to her friends that, yes, the redheads did belong to the Arabic man. "It is so rare to see a brother playing with a little sister like that!"

"Oh, do they get along well? Even with their age gap? Marvelous!" said the second woman looking at Dark with distinct approval.

The third woman sighed. "You are absolutely not single, are you?" she asked in a resigned tone.

"Mavis!" the first scolded.

"What? Just asking if the unicorn stands alone."
 
"I am very happily married," Dark replied immediately and proudly, "We just celebrated our tenth anniversary. And yes, our sons get along quite well with Ivy-Qadira, and she adores them. But I do believe the longer I linger the less they will adore me."
 
"Thank you so much for letting us see your baby. She is so cute! Have fun seeing the rest of the aquarium!" the first lady said.

The other two echoed her sentiments, and the three started to move off, gathering whatever family members they'd brought with them.

The twins had seen Dark was starting to escape Ivy's adoring fans, and they'd begun slowly ambling away in the direction of the baluga tank, fully confident that Dark would catch up with ease.
 
"Thank you, I hope you all enjoy your days as well," Dark said politely before turning and walking after his twins, easily catching up to them, "I apologize for making you wait. It was a surprisingly difficult conversation to escape."
 
"Oh, that's interesting," Alec mused, trying to follow that logic. It took him a moment, and then it clicked, and he nodded happily.

"Why do their heads look so... squishy?" Xander asked, staring at the beautiful white creature swimming within.
 
Dark turned his own head slightly to the side, watching them peacefully swim about with little smiles on their faces. He was going to make a guess when he noticed a sign post, "It is called the 'melon.' It contains dense fat and oil which help with echolocation. I guess their brains are further back within their bodies."
 
"That's so weird!" Xander proclaimed. He and Alec were all but pressed against the glass, watching the whales swim. "Do they really have lungs?"

"Seems inefficient for a water-dwelling creature," Alec remarked, following one of the whales.
 
"I believe so," Dark replied, "they are mammals, after all. Although, thinking about it, birds and frogs also have lungs, so I do not know what classes posess or lack them. But there must be some benefit to them having lungs, or else they would have lost them in their evolution."
 
"Why are they always smiling? Or is that me projecting?" Alec asked, following the whale back as it turned and languidly floated in the opposite direction.

"Projecting. I think. Pretty sure," Xander said absently. "Whoa. Teeth! I forgot some whales have teeth!"
 
"I am not a whale biologist," Dark replied, holding Ivy up to the glass, "I have only read Moby Dick, but Herman Melville was not a whale biologist either. I also think they look like they are smiling though, they look quite happy. Not all whales do."
 
"Wasn't he weirdly obsessed with whaling, though? I haven't read Moby Dick, but I remember reading that a bunch of it got cut out from publication because it was basically a how-to guide in all things whaling," Alec remarked, reaching the end of the glass and turning to walk back. It was hard to tell if he was following the whale or the whale was following him.

"I guess they like people well enough. That's a deep tank, but they are choosing to be at least somewhat close," Xander remarked.
 
"Much of what he wrote about whaling was incorrect," Dark explained, watching the whale and Alec follow each other, "The idea, from what I understand, is a contributing factor to the madness at the end is how the entire ship was descending into madness."
 
"I have no idea what you just said," Alec admitted on his way back. "I didn't understand a thing. But! I am glad whaling is not longer such a big thing. Now we get to enjoy this kind of beauty and cuteness!"
 
"I was quite pleased when I finished that book and it seemed the whale survived at the end." Dark replied, for the first time putting his own hand on the glass, "Nature should remain unconquerable. None of the whales here could be safely returned to the wild and none were taken from there. They are too intelligent. Daizi loves whales, specifically Orcas, even though she cannot see them."
 
"She likes whale sounds, but I think it is primarily their social bonds with each other and their displays of grief." Dark replied, feeling like he was going to get dizzy if he kept watching Alec and the whale. He instead turned his attention towards some of the others in the tank, "Whales have incredibly complex social bonds, she once told me some scientists think they may have more complexity that we're able to make sense of."
 
"Most likely since we can't breathe underwater or talk whale," Xander said. He reached out and caught Alec by the collar as he walked by again. "Okay. Next display before you walk yourself to death."

"Touch tank?" Alec asked.

"Yep, touch tank," Xander agreed.

"Nice!" Alec started going in the wrong direction, but since Xander was still holding his collar, he was able to turn him about to face the right direction.
 
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