Chapter Text
Vee sits in the front passenger seat of the car as Camila… mom drives them somewhere called the Zoo.
Nervously, she says “So, what exactly is this place again?"
Mom smiles slightly and says “I figure that since you are new here Vee, that giving you a bit of crash course on the local wildlife of Earth would be a good idea. And there is no better place to do that than the zoo, Mija.”
After a few seconds of peaceful silence, she says “I don’t quite understand how that works mom, but I trust you.”
Mom smile at that and says “Thank you for putting your faith in me, Vee. I'm hoping today goes well so you can just be a normal kid for once.”
She smiles at that. Being a normal kid sounds so nice. And well, if a zoo trip, might make her that, then she is going give it her best effort to enjoy it.
---
Once they park and get into the zoo, she quickly discovers a zoo is an area where human keeps animals. And at first, that doesn’t sound fun for her, considering her past.
Once she sees the giant area for the hippo encloser, she relaxes a bit. It clears the animals here have tons of room, but a bit still slightly bothering her.
So, she asks “How exactly do they make sure they are well fed and not sick?”
Mom smile and says “As you know I’m a vet that takes care of house pets. There are other types of vets that specialize in animals such as hippos and other animals. They the ones who make sure they well-fed, and not sick.”
She nods her head at that and excitably says “That good to know. What other animals are around here?”
“I'm glad you like this so far Vee. And there a lion exhibits nearby.”
---
The day begins to breeze by as they visit the lion, tigers, bears, and more.
They are currently at the artic area, and she lets out a gasp as she sees a bit of dirt move and she soon realizes it has eyes. She scans around the encloser, and they're a good dozen of them, playing.
She says excitably “Mom, these are so adorable!”
Mom chuckles and says “Ah, I see that you found the arctic fox. And there are very cunning animals, making them look playful.”
She looks over to the sign to learn more facts and says “Huh, according to this, they change color based on the season. And now that I know that, I think I see a bit of white on them.”
Mom nods and says “They turn completely white and are near impossible to distinguish with the snow when that happens, which makes them great hunters even in the coldest of areas.
“That so cold. How cold can they survive I wonder?” she says, before scanning the sign again and saying “NEGATIVE 70 DEGREES!?”
“And that in Celsius as well, so put it around… -100 Fahrenheit. And to think humans get cold at 160 degrees above that.”
Vee nods completely stun and says “I can’t even begin to imagine how cold that is. Do they keep their encloser cool to some degree?”
“During the summer, probably. The winter here actually gets cold enough to snow, sometimes, so they will let them play outside during that.”
“We will have to come back and see that.”
Mom smiles and says “That sounds great Mija.”
They stay there for some time watching the foxes play before moving on to the next place.
---
Soon after exiting the artic area, they sit down for a few minutes next to the otter exhibit to rest their legs. The zoo is surprisingly big, and even a bit hilly, so she is starting to feel tired.
She zones off and watches the otter play for a bit. They are cute, but honestly, they are lower down on her list than most things she has seen today. Even lower than the spiders, weirdly enough.
After a minute or two, she notices that mom seems out of it and asks “Mom, something wrong?”
Mom sighs and says “Otters are one of Luz’s favorite animals.”
“Oh. We can go somewhere else if you like.” She says as she put a hand on mom's shoulder.
“It's fine Mija. We can stay here as long as you like, then we can stay till you ready to go on to the next one.”
She shrugs and says “I mean, they cute and all, but I don’t see much draws in them.”
She can see a bit of pain flash in mom's eyes, and she realizes that was the wrong thing to say and quickly adds “I mean, I like them, but they not one of my favorites and…”
Mom put a hand on her shoulder calmly and says “Vee, you don’t have to like the same things Luz does. You are different people, and you have things you dislike that Luz love is perfectly fine. It's just… a reminder of how different you two are. Which, again, is a good thing, but it just going take time for me to get used to, Mija.”
She nods and says “Ok, then maybe we can get some lunch. We have been here a while, and honestly, I'm starting to get hungry.”
“That sounds like a plan, Vee.”
---
After eating lunch, they make their way into the reptile house.
And Camila almost instantly realizer that this is a mistake as Vee's face slowly goes paler and paler.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. From what she knew, Vee appears to be some sort of reptile, though with warm blood instead of cold. And the encloser in here a smaller than most they have seen up to this point, which probably seems unfair.
And then she notices Vee looking at one encloser in complete horror. Slowly, to not scare the girl, she walks up to the plague to see what it is.
And quickly discover that it belongs to the common basilisk.
Oh no.
Calmly she says “Vee, let's…”
“Don’t” Vee spits out, completely stunning her silence. After a second, Vee continues “I see how the world views me now, Camila.” Something to be gawk at from behind glass.”
Thinking fast, she says “I don’t think that about you, Vee.”
“Oh, and what separates them from me, in that case? Or any of the animals at the zoo in that matter.”
That is a great question. But one that she has a semi-decent response to.
She calmly says “A lot, and also almost nothing. The answer is intelligence. And that it. When strip away from our inventions, humans are the same as any animal here. We are not even on the top of the food chain in reality. But with our inventions, we have… changed the world. In some ways for the better, and others ways for the worst. And I'm sure where you are from is the same.”
Vee thought about this for a second before saying “I'm not sure how I feel about that, honestly. I'm not sure if… we have the right to keep animals like this.”
She smiles and says “Some animals would be better in the wilds. But some have been saved from going extinct due to Zoos. An individual in a species has been saved due to human involvement. But others have died as well. That is why I became a vet. To try and do right to the word. And sometimes I feel like I fighting a losing battle. But when I fix a dog's leg and return them to their loving family, I know that it is worth it.”
“I think I need to think about all of that then.”
“You want to go home then, Mija?”
“If that ok with you.”
She pulls out a map and looks at it for a second before saying “Looks like the fastest way to get to the parking lot is to go by the giraffes. Do you want to stop there or not?”
Vee shrugs and says “Maybe for a minute or two, but not long.”
---
As Vee stares at one of the many giraffes, she calmly asks “Why do some animals have giant pins like this one, while others don’t.”
Mom calmly says “Some are so small that keeping a close eye on them is important, while others, like the reptiles, are cold-blooded and need heat lamps to stay alive.”
“And I'm guessing running one of those to cover an area like this would be very expensive.”
“You are correct, Mija.”
Things enter a calm silence between the two of them for haft a minute before she notices something and says “Is it just me, or all the giraffes staring at the two of us?”
Mom is silent for a few seconds before saying “Correction, they staring at you, and they all walking towards you. This is odd. Any idea why…”
“Finally, a basilisk in the human realm.” All the giraffes say in complete unison, cutting off mom.
She could have heard a pin drop it got so quiet around them.
After a second of silence, another guest yells “THEY CAN TALK!?!?” and she hears a commotion behind her, while she still trying to process the whole giraffe knowing her true identity thing.
After a few more seconds, the giraffes say in unison “We have waited a long time to see your kind again. What took you so long?”
Nervously, she says “I… have no idea what are you talking about?”
“Do you not know of the destress we sent out all those years ago?”
At this, mom speaks up “Look here, Giraffes. Vee here is just a girl. I don’t know what you see in…”
At this, all the giraffes’ eyes, and her mom's eyes, go blue, right before she pulls out of her own body consciously.
She sees the first giraffes talking to the first basilisks. They made a deal long ago that if either were in trouble, the other would come to help.
Then she sees the giraffes get banished due to their misuse of looking into people's minds. The basilisks come to defend them, but the giraffes tell the basilisks not to worry, that they will be fine in the human realm.
Then a long time passes, and she sees the whole history of the giraffes' pan out in front of her. Till one day a huge portion of the giraffe population randomly dies. They sent out a distress to the basilisks, but it never answers.
And then she sees all of mom life as well. She goes to college, gets married, has Luz, gets a divorce, and more.
And she knows that the giraffe and mom are seeing all of her life. Which means they know everything she has been through on the isles. She isn't happy about this. Some details she didn’t want mom to know. Or for her to remember. Some details hurt to just think about.
Eventually, she returns to her own body, and the giraffes lower their head, clearly in the morning, as they say, “The basilisks went extinct. This is devastating news, and we fail at our end of the deal. Meaning, we have no right to ask for help from you, little one. Go home and enjoy your life.”
At that, the giraffes move away from the fence and appear to return to normal. She looks around, to see a few dozen people with phones out, no doubt they had recorded the whole thing.
She looks at mom and says “Let… go home… please.”
Mom simply nods, and they walk to the car.
---
The car ride home is a tense silence. Neither of them wants to talk about it. But she knew that they needed to. At least for Vee’s sake. Before today, she knew the basics of what Vee had been through. But that has changed now. Now she knew every little detail of the torture the girl had been through.
At she pulls into the driveway to her home, she says “Vee, how are you holding up?”
“Not… well. I really… didn’t want you… to know everything.”
“Do you want to talk about it now that I do know everything?”
“Why are you being so nice right now? Now that you know I was hiding so much.”
“Because you are my daughter.” She says easily. Honesty, after everything see seen, how can she not feel that way.
Vee looks at her stun before saying “The memories hurt to even think about. That why… I didn’t tell you.”
She got out of the car and walk around to the other side, where she embraces Vee in a giant hug and says “I got you, Vee. I understand you not being ready to tell me everything. And what I saw today will not change how I feel about you, ok. You still a daughter to me, Vee.”
Vee looks at her for a few seconds before tears enter her eyes and say “How… can I… make them… not hurt… mom… I don’t want them… to hurt.”
“It will take time Vee. A lot of it. But I know you can do it. Because you so strong Vee.”
Vee weakly nods before saying “Can we… go inside… and watch a cartoon.”
“Of course, we can, Vee.”
They crash on the couch and turn on the tv once they are inside.
She must have left it on the news because a reporter is standing in front of a giraffe exhibit and saying “Giraffes in a Connecticut zoo were seen talking…
She quickly turns the channel and says “Let pretend we didn’t see that, ok.”
“Agree,” Vee says.
Once they found a decent cartoon to watch, she soon realize Vee is a bit tense from the day still. She sighs during a commercial break and says “Today was a mess, wasn’t it?”
“Ya, it was. But I did have a good time before the whole reptile thing.”
“I should have realized that might have been a sensitive topic for you Vee. And I'm sorry about that.”
“I know you are mom. It just… brought back some memories, is all. Which is weird, considering now that I think about it, those animals look well cared for.”
“Vee, it's not weird. You have been through a lot that you shouldn’t have. And I need to get better at realizing what seems normal to me, might set something off for you.”
“At least you try. Not everyone would do that. And sure, you make mistakes, but so do I. It's just part of life.”
They sit in silence for a few seconds before she says “So, what do you want to eat for dinner today? Your choice, since today was another long one for you.”
Vee thinks about it for a few seconds before saying “Why don’t you pick. I think I want to try something new today.”
“If you say so, Vee. I’m going to order one of the local restraints then. Be back in a bit.”
She watches Vee on the couch as she orders delivery from a local place that she has been to many times with Luz, but never with Vee. She smiles as she places the order. Today might not have been a perfect day, but weirdly, she can tell that both she and Vee are going to be stronger because of this.
As she hangs up after ordering, Vee laughs slightly at a joke from the show they are watching. That is a sound she can get used to. And she will do anything in her power to hear it as often as possible.