"So how long will all the rewiring take?" Mandibula asked of Melbourne as the two of them watched some of the electrician teams go through the various rooms and hallways with ladders and other various tools.
At present they were removing all of the old wiring that had been left in the building before it had been abandoned. A lot of that wiring was placed on the floor in the center of the lobby area near where the two were standing. The two could also hear some load banging come from outside as other work teams were starting to assemble the scaffolding needed to put new glass windows in place. Melbourne glanced down at the wiring that had been brought out from the main hallway on the first floor. It was long and often coiled up, but he could see that it was a good idea that the building be rewired. Several of the removed wires looked that they'd been nibbled on in places, likely by rats and mice that moved into the building, either while it was in service or after it was abandoned. In fact, the crews doing the rewiring had even removed a few old "nests" from inside the ceiling.
"That depends on how quickly these guys can work," Melbourne answered, "and how quickly the crews putting in the new windows can get them put in. The building has seemed to avoid having major structural and wall cracks that would let water in... I'd guess thanks to the foliage that had grown around it, but the windows being broke DID let water in and new wiring can't go in until they're sealed up. From there, plaster and drywall crews will come in to remove the water damaged internal walls and the electricians can then put in the new wiring and so on. The more we stay out of their way the faster they can work and the faster it'll get done."
"But how long will that take?" Mandibula asked, sounding a bit impatient.
"I can't really say," Melbourne answered, "a lot of my job, right now, is making sure an adult caiman doesn't decide to grab someone by the river or that a Jaguar or Puma doesn't come out of the undergrowth and grab someone. I've never worked in construction. Much of what I've known on what needs to be done is very basic common sense sort of things that anyone would know."
Mandibula sighed and then turned toward the front doors and looked out toward the clearing and the river beyond. With a lot of the debris cleaned from walls around the pool and the grounds cleared from around the building, there wasn't that much left for either Mandibula or Melbourne to do. Melbourne ran some standard patrols and set live traps, mostly as a safety measure. Anything that got into them would be set free, and in a way that they would run back into the rainforest and not towards the hotel. And at times, Melbourne noticed a certain amount of protectiveness from him toward her, particularly when a couple of the workers complained that Mandibula wasn't "double dosed." It struck Mandibula as something like what she remembered her mother doing when she was a young hatchling with regard to driving off potential predators and akin to what Melbourne had told her about how human families worked with the parents protecting their children.
In a way, Mandibula DID like that. It was strange, as she remembered that before her uplifting, the concept of "family" was really not part of what she understood. There was food, predators, territory, and so on, but family really wasn't a concept that was there. She even remembered that her mother chased her off once she grew to enough of a size that she wasn't completely reliant on her mother for safety. Now, though, as an Animalian, Mandibula had found that "family" was now something that was becoming very important. Melbourne was something like a father to her, and she found that she liked that, though she'd never openly tell him. That acceptance of the concept of family also began to raise ideas in the back of Mandibula's mind on ultimately having a mate of her own and raising a family of her own. After all, the two Mountain Lion Animalians had said they were married and had a family back in Animalia and they looked happy. A part of Mandibula wanted that for herself, though she'd need to wait until she fully matured and a male Black Caiman could be uplifted.
"I'm going to go for a swim," Mandibula said to Melbourne, "stay cool... maybe get a bite to eat."
Melbourne nodded, "just be careful."
Mandibula nodded and headed out. She eventually made her way out to the river and walked into it calmly. The river was a place to cool off and while there were potential dangers, they were largely dangers to humans who were not adapted for aquatic life and didn't have the strength or natural armor to resist an attack in the water. Mandibula as a Black Caiman Animalian DID have those advantages and she did enjoy often going into the river to fish, as her strong tail could allow her go after even piranha, as she wouldn't be thrashing about to excite them and her scaled armor was strong enough to allow her to go through their schools and take one or two out. Today, though, Mandibula was more interested in cooling down a bit, which the water would allow. She took a deep breath and closed the clear Nictitating membrane over her eyes before diving in.
Her swim was leisurely through the Amazon's waters, though Mandibula did move toward the river bottom and let her look around at the sights there. There wasn't anything too out of place or unfamiliar to her, but that didn't mean she didn't enjoy looking to it. However, as she got about a hundred yards from the dock to the hotel, Mandibula soon felt another presence in the river and a big one. She could feel it in the pressure sensors along her jaws. Normally she used them to help her hunt fish under water, but they could pick up movement by just about anything in the water. She turned to look toward the source and soon saw what it was. It was another Black Caiman, though clearly bigger than her. It's scent seemed to mark it as male and too much older than she was. That made sense to her, as full adult caiman had claimed the more prized hunting grounds that were father away from the city and the hotel and thus not having to deal with human activity as much, and that younger caiman like herself and this male were forced away from them. The male soon turned and angled toward her.
"He knows I'm here," Mandibula thought to herself and prepared, just in case this male was more in the mood for establishing a territory, however, he never opened his mouth and came close enough for both of them to look at each other. He gave no audible signal and as Mandibula moved to swim upstream, the male turned and was soon following her, looking more curious then aggressive. That only raised some thoughts in Mandibula's mind that related to families. "He's curious... maybe... He must know I'm female. Neither of us are fully mature yet, but... maybe."
With that, Mandibula soon turned again and began to head back toward the hotel. Melbourne had a needle with the Animalia virus to uplift her, maybe he had another to uplift this male and they could "date" as Melbourne described the interactions between unrelated male and female humans. The male turned and continued to follow, even picking up speed to keep pace with Mandibula. She figured he had to be REALLY interested in her when she emerged from the water and began to walk out and he continued to follow, even coming out to walk on land. It started many of the workers who were outside, as caiman usually didn't go too far from the water's edge, but like all crocodilians, Black Caiman could walk over land if they wanted to. The workers with the scaffolding climbed up as Mandibula walked back into the hotel and with the male caiman following. She eventually found Melbourne seated in a chair in the lobby area and approached him.
"Melbourne..." Mandibula spoke to him to attract his attention.
Melbourne turned and noticed the male caiman, still following Mandibula and was quick to jump up, which the male caiman noticed and hissed at.
"Blimey... you've..." Melbourne exclaimed as he jumped back.
"He came across me in the river and has been rather curious," Mandibula answered, "I was thinking you could uplift him... like you did with me."
The male came up and seemed to sniff at Mandibula's tail, but did pause to look toward Melbourne was he moved in front of the female Black Caiman Animalian.
"Horizon only sent a very small amount of the Animalia Virus down here," Melbourne answered, "given the work needed to get the hotel up and running again, most of the actual upliftings are being done in Animalia. Yours was done here because of the opportunity and the fact that we didn't have a case to keep you safe for the flight to Animalia in the US."
Mandibula frowned and looked back toward the male. He seemed calm and not aggressive, but he was clearly looking toward Melbourne, likely in some way that would indicate that he was almost looking at Melbourne as a rival for Mandibula, not knowing that Melbourne and Mandibula's relationship was more father/daughter than boyfriend/girlfriend.
"So we can't uplift him?" Mandibula asked.
"Well, we can," Melbourne said as he backed up a few steps.
Crocodilians, while they weren't that agile on land could be capable of surprising speed when they needed it and it was best not to challenge this male. He looked like he was a few years older than Mandibula, but not fully mature, but he also knew that even if he wasn't mature, coming across a lone female, like Mandibula would raise some of the instincts present in any animal with regard to breeding. With no access to some of the tools he'd had to help control Mandibula before she was uplifted he didn't want to risk that this male had some interest in Mandibula and would then attack a perceived rival on the issue.
"We can?" Mandibula asked.
"Yes," Melbourne answered, "in the main office area, where I got our hammocks set up, I also have some ground beef. I was originally planning on grilling it, but now we may have to take a separate action with it. There should be a bowl in there. You'll need to put some of YOUR milk into the bowl and then mix in the ground beef. Then we feed the ground beef to this guy here and the Animalia Virus in your milk will then uplift him."
Mandibula looked down for a moment to the front of her shirt and the orbs that it covered. Having breasts had been extremely strange to Mandibula at first, as she'd never had them before and neither had her mother. As a hatchling she did just fine on a diet of insects and fish eggs when she could find them. However, as she learned about Animalians, it appeared that the Virus seemed to also create animals based on the human form, and since humans were mammals, this included mammary glands that would mean breasts in females. It would mean that when Mandibula had children in the future, she'd likely need to nurse her own hatchlings, as she wouldn't have developed breasts as an Animalian if she didn't need them. In comparison to Clara when she visited, Mandibula was clearly smaller, but then she wasn't a double dosed Animalian. Thankfully, though, she was producing some milk, so Melbourne's idea might work.
Melbourne stepped back and let Mandibula move off with the male caiman following. The caiman paused enough to give a growling hiss at Melbourne, but he continued to back away. That left Mandibula to task at hand. The old officer area had been set up as something of a campsite for herself and Melbourne. He had managed to hang a pair of hammocks in the room and from support beams that were sturdy enough to hold plenty of weight. Cooking was done outside and away from areas that might lead to a fire, but Mandibula also knew that Melbourne did keep food supplies in an igloo there and some basic eating utensils, like plates, bowls, forks, knives and spoons. It was enough for Mandibula to easily gather the material needed, and the male caiman following her made things easier.
"Just you wait a few moments," Mandibula said to male and opened the small igloo on the counter and collected a plastic bowl.
Inside the igloo there was a packet of ground beef that was wrapped in plastic. Mandibula collected it and then placed it in the bowl. Once it was there, she then moved to lift her shirt and lifted the bowl up so that it was under her now exposed breasts. The scales that formed her "nipples" served the same purpose as a nipple would on a human woman and were a slightly different color from the rest of her belly scales, but they were a slightly tougher than a human woman's nipple or even those on female mammal Animalians, though Mandibula didn't really care about that. She carefully pinched at the nipple and pulled to produce a small stream of milk that flowed into the bowl. It lead to some stimulation, but the pressure needed to produce the milk wasn't exactly pleasureful. It didn't hurt but neither did it feel "good." She occasionally glanced with one eye to see that the male caiman was again sniffing at her tail, as if trying to figure out what she was.
"Soon..." Mandibula said softly and continued to fill the bowl with milk until it was nearly enough for the milk to mix with the ground beef.
Once that was done, Mandibula lowered her shirt again and began to knead the meat in the bowl so that it more thoroughly mixed with her milk. The sound of the ground beef being squeezed and pressed soon caught the male's attention and he looked up toward where Mandibula was working. It allowed Mandibula to smile as she presented the ground beef to the male caiman who then opened his mouth, smelling the meat and expecting food. She then dropped the meat and the male caiman caught it. Mandibula could only smile as the male chomped on the meat she'd offered and managed to swallow it after lifting his head. From there, Mandibula could only wait to see how long it would take for the uplifting transformation to begin with this male.
She didn't have to wait long. The male caiman again hissed and collapsed onto the floor and thrashed about, but Mandibula could soon see the caiman beginning to change. His rear legs began to grow longer and longer. At the same time, his shoulders began to widen and his arms also grew out, with his fingers also showing signs of lengthening and growing in dexterity. His legs pushed out in length that equaled human proportions while his arms did the same. His "hands" were similar to Mandibula's where the webbing between the fingers only came to the first knuckle. The last was a small sort of cracking sound as the male's hips rearranged to allow him to stand erect and so that his tail didn't impede their standing. He then slowly blinked as he then looked up toward Mandibula.
"That... that was strange," the male said slowly as he climbed up to his feet. He stood slightly above Mandibula.
"Yes... the uplifting process can be odd and I can remember feeling things odd when it happened to me," Mandibula said slowly, "but it does provide you with plenty of new opportunities. In a way of being like the humans."
"Humans?" the male caiman asked.
"The man you growled at outside," Mandibula answered, "His name is Melbourne."
"Name?" the male caiman wondered.
"It's how humans identify individuals," Mandibula answered, "as they all look so alike. My name is Mandibula."
The male blinked and then thought for a moment, "You can call me Cranio."
"A fine name," Mandibula answered, "Cranio..."
"You are pretty," Cranio stated.
"And you are handsome," Mandibula replied, "but let us get to know each other better before going any further. Besides, we'll need to get you some clothes... Melbourne might be able to loan you some."
Cranio only responded with a growling hiss, "I will not share with a rival."
"He's more of a father," Mandibula answered, "at times he can be firm... but he's looked out for me has kept people from being fresh with me."
"A father..." Cranio said slowly.
Mandibula nodded, "In what humans would see in their families... let me tell you..."