Manfred was quite pleased with himself as he stepped out of Horizon's main offices. They'd hade enough contact that they were able to get him clothing that would fit him, and from what he'd been told had been made to fit elephant sized Animalians, which made sense and would work well for him. After all, the Wooly Mammoth was essentially a type of elephant. The breeze was blowing slightly and the air was brisk in its temperature, though not outright freezing. For the moment it felt like it was in the mid forties, cooler than what modern elephants were probably used to but warmer than what the Wooly Mammoth was used to.
"Of course there was the idea on establishing a sort of nature preserve in Canada, Alaska, or Russia to bring back some of the Ice Age megafauna," Manfred thought to himself, "and if it works... it would need someone to tend to it."
And Manfred had volunteered for that part of the project that Project Cenozoic was attached to. His past work with Asian Elephants when circuses were enough to have some understanding and working with the large animals and dealing them. Females worked best, though if from what Horizon had told him was correct that there was ultimately hope to establish a breeding population which would mean dealing with male elephants. And male elephants, at least among mundane elephants, were tricky to handle and work with. For much of the year, they could be easily handled and worked with, but at certain times of the year, and usually coinciding with the elephant's breeding season, males entered a period of "must." In that period, male elephants had massively large amount of testosterone running through their system that would lead to a great deal of aggression on the part of the bull elephant. And because of its size, there isn't much that could be done to prevent that, short of "fixing" the elephant, which would defeat the purpose of having a breeding population.
However, dealing with those issues was probably something that Horizon had interest in with Manfred since he'd had experience in working with elephants before. Manfred was actually quite willing to work on such a project as in many ways he liked working with animals. Working with extinct animals, like Mammoths would be a new challenge. There was also the curious question on how a mundane Wooly Mammoth would respond to a Wooly Mammoth based Animalian. Of course, that would have to wait until Horizon had figured out more. Until then, he had an apartment that was offered to him in Animalia, which from what he was told sort of functioned as a "layover" type of situation for those who humans who were not only wishing to become Animalians but wished to live IN Animalia. They'd stay in the apartment complex while looking for a more permeant home and go from there. Some did stay full time, but from what Manfred had been told that wasn't in every case.
However, for the moment, Manfred more interested simply looking around Lyre and Animalia for the moment. It mostly related to his curiosity at the city where Animalia was essentially born and how it evolved. He'd seen the news reports and many of the Animalia Ambassadoria web programs showing the bright sides and new things that were going on. It contrasted with some of the more negative claims made in some circles, and Manfred was curious to find out more. So with his new form and the freedom to move, Manfred took a step forward and began to stroll through Lyre, with the intent on looking at Animalia once he'd finished with Lyre first.
He walked along and took in the various sights of Lyre. He'd found that city's zoo had a function had been chained greatly. The pools that were in the aquarium section were converted to serve as outdoor swimming pools for Lyre's residents. The outdoor exhibits were for the moment being converted into things like tennis courts and skate parks while some of the smaller and enclosed structures were there for education on mundane animal life, though obviously having to do with more of a classroom type setting than what it was before. Manfred guessed that the reason that the Lyre Zoo didn't order new animals to be transferred from other zoos was the fact that the people in Lyre could go through much of the day and see plenty of Animalians walking about and going through their day.
He walked by a building that was marked as a "modeling school" and another that looked like it was something of a specialized clothing store. From what he could see through the window, it seemed that the store primarily sold lingerie, but he didn't go in and was content to simply keep exploring. He eventually made his way into what was more a residential area and he noted many of the houses looking wonderfully decorated for Christmas, which he knew wasn't too far away.
From there, he made his way toward Animalia. As he did so, he came onto an odd sight. In a large field, which Manfred couldn't tell if it was in Animalia or in Lyre there looked to be a deep padding of snow that was being laid down and kept rather deep. Now, while winter had arrived with some days of colder weather and some snows, it hadn't been enough to bury Animalia or Lyre for long. Yet the field was covered in snow and a group of Elephant Animalians were shoveling the snow from a truck to a field. Manfred noted that many of them were bundled up far more than he was, but African and Asian Elephants didn't have the thick wooly fur that the Wooly Mammoth did. He stood there with a semi puzzled look for a few moments before these Animalians turned to him and approached.
"Honored Ancestor!" a male Indian Elephant spoke with a mix of reverence and surprise.
"Uh..." Manfred said slowly. As this was a total surprise as they came up and he soon found himself shaking hands with them. He was happy to say hello, but he didn't expect this kind of "reverence." "Hello."
They all shook hands and were quite happy to meet him. However, Manfred noticed that nearly all of them continually called him "Honored Ancestor." It puzzled him and made him a bit uneasy. While the Wooly Mammoth did exist before the modern forms of the African and Asian Elephants evolved in the Pleistocene, it wasn't an evolutionary ancestor to either. From what he'd read while going through the studying process that had to be done before getting his dose, Manfred had found that the branch of the evolutionary tree that would lead to the African Elephant split off before Mammoths evolved and while the Wooly Mammoth and Asian Elephant were more closely related, their respective genus, Elephas and Mammuthus had actually begun to develop at the same time in the Pleistocene. That meant that while the Wooly Mammoth predated the modern Asian Elephant, it wasn't a direct ancestor to the Asian Elephant.
"It is great to meet you... I take it you are with Horizon...?" a female African Elephant asked him with a male standing protectively by her.
"Yeah... you can call me Manfred," Manfred spoke, "and yes... I'm with Horizon with regard to Project Cenozoic... which would include the hope to re-establish the Wooly Mammoth, not just as an Animalian but the mundane Animal as well."
"Cenozoic..." the African Elephant female said slowly.
"The period in Earth's history running from the end of the Mesozoic Era... the age of dinosaurs... to the beginnings of recorded history," Manfred answered, "including the Ice Age, though there were times where things were periodically even warmer than they were during the age of dinosaurs. In that it IS true that Earth's temperatures can and do fluctuate... however, it needs to be noted that it's usually been caused by a massively chaotic event. It doesn't just happen without cause."
"Interesting," the female spoke, "I trust you will stay and provide us with some wisdom... Honored Ancestor?"
Again, Manfred backed away a bit nervously at the reference. He really didn't consider himself smarter than anyone else. He might have learned a thing or two on working animals, but that didn't make him on par with intellectual heavy weights, like Plato or Aristotle.
"Easy, Nzinga," the male spoke, "I think he's a bit nervous about that... and since he was likely human, like me, I'm not sure he sees Mammoths in quite the same way you see them..."
The female turned but soon nodded as the male came forward.
"Sorry if any of this seemed a bit overwhelming... there's been some talk and speculation on Animalia's work with Horizon on these de-extinction projects," the male spoke, and then gestured to the female he identified as Nzinga, "and Mammoths appear to be one of them. Our school has a whole skeleton of a Wooly Mammoth in its entry area..."
"A whole skeleton?" Manfred asked.
The male nodded, "I suppose if WSA ever gets to compete in state-wide athletics we'll end up being the WSA Mammoths."
"It'd be an honor to have such a wise and noble animal as the school mascot," Nzinga answered.
"I'm just a man who was willing to try something a bit... different," Manfred answered and then looked out at the snow field, "tell me... is this a school project... Mr...?"
"You can call me Dean," the male answered with a slight smile, "and no... more of something that's help make winter fun for kids from Lyre and Animalia. Animalia has really been interested into the Christmas Truce from World War I... and I didn't know about this until last year when they first did it... Apparently, despite all the horrors of trench warfare, the two sides called an impromptu truce on Christmas 1914 and celebrated Christmas together. And the whole thing is something that Animalia has had interest in... literally stopping the fighting and cooperating with each other. I guess... it works to reflect the best of humanity rather then the worst..."
"So... all of this is to reenact the Christmas truce?" Manfred asked.
"That and a big snowball fight that will go on until Christmas," Dean answered, "Nzinga and I are helping place the snow in our after school hours."
"For a snowball fight with some history thrown in," Manfred managed a chuckle
"Pretty much," Dean shrugged, "but it's supposed to be rather fun... supposedly some tech guys are even going to bring in a catapult or a air cannon or something to see who and launch the biggest snowball."
"Sounds like fun," Manfred commented, noting that it was presently after four o'clock.
"You will stay to see it, right?" Nzinga asked, sounding hopeful.
"I'll probably be around until Horizon is ready for their project regarding the re-establishment of a mundane Mammoth," Manfred answered, "until then... I might do what I can to help..."
"Thank you, Honored Ancestor," another African Elephant who'd been standing nearby spoke with the same reverent tone as Nzinga.
Manfred could only sigh.