How Green Becomes Wood

"When we get home, if you would like," Dark replied, "There is not much time to do so when we are walking around. Once Daizi and Ivy are finished, we need to hurry to the tortoises so we are not too late to participate."
 
"They really are not much," Dark said cautiously, "I just enjoy the exercise of it."

"What is just up ahead?" Daizi asked as she exited the family restroom, carrying Ivy on her hip.

"It is a surprise, you must trust us." Really, Dark wasn't sure how exciting a surprise it'd be, but it was worth trying.
 
Alec led the way with the stroller and the map, not really needing the map for this section but taking the opportunity to practice trying to place himself on the map and reading the map signs. Xander followed right behind, making sure they actually ended up where they were supposed to go.
 
Now that Ivy was awake again, she was once more making a valiant effort to keep up with her parents by walking, while her parents made a valiant effort to walk slowly enough for her to do so. The vast difference in stride lengths was a bit of a trouble.

Once they made it inside of the reptile house, Dark slipped away to pay for the tortoise encounter. As predicted earlier, Ivy wasn't particularly interested in the reptiles or amphibians. They didn't move much and were hard to see.
 
Neither Xander nor Alec had seen many reptiles outside of occasionally walking by them in a pet shop. Their mum, Tara, had not been a fan of reptiles or bugs in general, so they were quietly avoided. They were fairly certain they'd seen the reptiles the last time they were at the zoo, but it was so long ago, they didn't really remember. Now, they were practically plastering themselves to the cages and peering in to see every single reptile. Alec particularly adored the snakes. They were gorgeous! Especially the ones big enough to eat Kiki. Hopefully, her impressive fluff would save her. Xander appreciated the snakes, too, but he was most in love with the lizards. Neither were particularly impressed with the insects, even the exotic ones, as they'd seen plenty of those in the places they'd lived before arriving at Dark and Daizi's house. It was hard to move fast enough to get to the tortoises in time, but they managed!
 
When Dark joined them again, he remarked about how he had a snake in his early 20s, a ball python named Rigor Mortis, but he had ended up rehoming her because he felt he wasn't able to give her the care he wanted to. With how long a properly cared for snake can live, he mused it's very possible his former pet was still somewhere out there, going on hunger strikes and causing his owner stress.

Once it was tortoise time, they were all instructed to wash their hands and then, after a safety talk, they were welcomed into an outdoor enclosure with Madagascar Radiated and Aldabra Tortoises. It was very important Ivy be kept supervised, but so long as she was, she would also be allowed to touch the tortoises.

Daizi couldn't help but laugh, "This is your big surprise?"

"The giraffe feeding encounter was full," Dark admitted, "and they wouldn't let Ivy into the rhino encounter."
 
"Whoa! Those are awesome!" Alec whispered, his eyes wide in awe and delight as he watched the massive tortoises.

"How is something that big still able to move? It's flat," Xander pointed out. "Its legs are more like... paddles. Do they just swim across the land?"
 
"I think they just move very slowly," Dark said, looking down a long way at them, "I read once when Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos, he rode the tortoises there."

"Goose, I need you to make sure I don't step on them," Daizi said a bit nervously. The zoo of course allowed her to keep her cane, but the stroller had to be left outside of the enclosure.

"You will not step on a tortoise," Dark promised, holding her arm to guide her and Ivy in his other arm to make sure she didn't try to run wild. "The aldabra tortoises are larger than Ivy and Enkidu, and you never step on them."

"They're what?!"
 
"Oh they are huge, Mama!" Alec told her. "The smaller ones, the, uh, radial tortoises aren't that small, either. You're going to love feeling those ones! The big ones look like moving boulders, but the radial ones have an interesting shape."
 
The twins kept back a little. They were eager to join in, but they could see most of the animals. They had the luxury of being able to watch the great, ponderous Aldabra tortoises as they moved toward the promise of food. Their mother did not have that pleasure, so they stood back and let her be front and center. At least for a while.
 
After Daizi was settled, Dark set Ivy with her and fetched the lettuce. As soon as Daizi was extending it outwards, one of the giant Aldabra tortoises came to eat it from her hand. As it took a slow, crunchy bite, Daizi couldn't help but shriek in surprise and flinch away.

"Why are you screaming?" Dark asked, grateful for how easy it was for him not to laugh.

"It's going to bite me!"

"No it is not," He told her, extending her arm back out and holding it steady for the tortoise to eat the lettuce, "Why would it bite you?"

"Because my fingers look like worms or something, and I can tell by the sound of it as it approaches me how huge it is..."
 
"It wouldn't bite you on purpose, and they wouldn't let random people do this if the turtles bit easily," Xander said, crouching down on Daizi's other side, keeping back and to the side so she'd have plenty of room. "He just wants the green."

"He - or she - is pretty big!" Alec grinned.
 
"You close your eyes and try feeding it," Daizi said, doing her best not to shriek again as it came back to her. In her lap, Ivy was very confused on if she should be scared or not, because her Mama looked scared, but her Baba was calmly touching the shell.

"Ivy, look, you can pet it. Like this, Tifla," Dark encouraged.
 
Alec reached out to touch the shell. "Whoa! This feels so cool! It's like... like... I don't know. Maybe if dirt and rock had a baby and baked it in the sun."

"That is the weirdest description," Xander said. He stepped up to stroke the shell, as well. "Huh... weird, but not inaccurate."
 
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