How Green Becomes Wood

"That is very serious indeed," Daizi said, impressed, "Especially considering how intense people tell me his face is. Maybe he's gone soft."

"I have not," Dark replied, as though he were not sitting in a baseball cap and helping his toddler pet a tortoise.
 
The twins glanced at Dark, glanced at his hat, at his toddler, and then at each other.

"Nah, he hasn't gone soft at all," Alec grinned.

"Nope. Same stone face as always," Xander agreed.

"Mama, you gotta pet the radial tortoise!" Alec urged. "Its shell is so cool looking!"
 
"I am choosing to ignore your obvious sarcasm," Dark said dryly, remembering a month or so ago when he threw Tristan's father to the floor. More than anything, he felt like a warrior in a garden and he was going to take full advanta andge of peacetime.

"My guess is the tortoises don't have a whole lot to worry about," Daizi said, "Will you help me to the other kind? I would like to feel them, too."
 
Alec took Daizi's hand and led her over to the Madagascar Radiated tortoise. This one was smaller than the Aldabra (which was not saying much), but was still a substantial tortoise in its own right. It checked them out, looking for food, and then seemed prepared to ignore them. Alec guided Daizi's hand to its back. Unlike the smooth dome of most turtles and tortoises, this one had a pattern of raised points, almost like pyramids, that made up its entire shell.
 
"It looks a lot different from the other one, too," Alec told her. "I wonder what the reason for the difference is? It seems like it would make it more likely for the tortoise to get stuck."
 
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