The arrival at Maelewano had its own excitement for the Dinotopians. Due to the colony's larger land area and the large airstrip that was constructed the specialized features needed to land on Mieni's present airfield weren't needed, though the hard packed dirt airfield soon presented other issues that the plane's pilots and crew would need to take care of, namely the dirt itself. Maelewano did have a fairly large hanger near the community center, which served as its primary means of contact with the rest of the world, which was a good thing, as the pilot was soon getting some warning lights on the display screens.
"No emergency?" the copilot asked carefully.
"No emergency," the pilot said with some assurance, "but we'll probably need to get the engines cleaned while we're here to keep dirt out of the system and the engine's moving parts."
The copilot nodded. The large plane's four specialized engines were an engineering marvel, but they still functioned on the same basic principle that any jet engine functioned on. Air had to be fed into the air intakes to allow for the spinning turbofans to help allow for thrust when the fuel and air were ignited to generate the engine's thrust. This meant that anything loose that was in front of them could potentially be sucked into the engine, and what the lights were providing a warning for was some dirt particles being sucked into the jet's engines.
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And the large colony in terms of its land area served to provide plenty of attractions that were more than just touristy types of places. Sora and Yuki, after they checked in at the hotel were soon checking out a small shop that was near another building at the Community Center. Much of the building's exterior was rather futuristic in many respects, but the interior was fairly standard with most clothing stores and was fairly similar to the shop where they had their offices for designing clothes for Animalians. Most of the interior was filled with relatively simple and workable clothing that would allow for people dress with some degree of comfort and functionality, and most of them were actually scaled to human sizes. This actually happened to hold more of their attention than much of the rest.
"Um... excuse me?" a voice said slowly making them turn from a display that Sora and Yuki were investigating to see a lone woman standing there quietly. She wore a pair of khaki pants and a polo shirt with the name of the shop sewn into in. "Can I help you?"
The woman's English was fairly slow, but it was understandable. The two Velociraptors guessed that the woman figured that they were English/American tourists because they hadn't seen anything like a pair of feathered dinosaurs elsewhere on the colony grounds.
"We're mostly just looking," Sora answered with a small smile, "I'm Sora. This is my sister Yuki... we're..."
"Dinotopians, yes," the woman nodded, "television and internet service is not quite as good as in America, but we do see news. Particularly as Horizon has invested a lot with Maelewano."
"So... do you live here?" Yuki wondered.
"I do now," the woman answered, "a lot of my work is for Kenya and when the government reached an agreement with Animalia for this colony, they knew people would need care and clothing as well as protection. Even your Rhino Guard works for Kenya in this way... keep the colony safe and give it a chance to give the people a shot at a better future. They may even gain Kenyan citizenship in the long run."
"And you sell clothes here..." Sora said slowly as she held out a shirt for a moment before her eyes caught some fabrics that were in rolls and where held up on a metal frame. She gave an excited squeal and hoped over to it, admiring the colors and the geometric patterns on it. "And you make clothes here! Like Yuki and I do!"
"It's more that I provide the fabrics that some may want or need," the woman gave a small smile, "some of the people come here from a long way and have different cultures and styles from Kenya. This way they can have their own clothes that fit something closer to their style. It also benefits some of the Animalians here too."
Sora and Yuki both nodded. Generally speaking Animalia did well enough with clothing for Animalians, at least with regard to every day wear and the greatest changes were left with the sizes of the Animalians as Elephant Animalians would obviously need bigger shirts than a Rabbit Animalian. Animalia had figured out the scaling issues, which would then allow for high fashion design to have some success, which Sora and Yuki both saw a good future it. The bulk of their work, at present though, actually related to some of the more unique Dinotopian features that would involve alterations for those features.
"Though I'm not sure as to where some would think modelling would work here... most of the people here are refugees and farmers," the woman commented, "even if they become Animalians for whatever reason... they're not going to suddenly become interested in high fashion."
"True," Yuki said slowly, "but by the same extent... you'll be surprised."
"And in time you may have to make more adjustments for more... unique forms," Sora added, "we do a lot of work with designing clothes for the Dinotopians and the various spines, ridges, spikes, and other features will also require certain clothing alterations. We can help should anyone in Maelewano want to become a Dinotopian."
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Meanwhile some of the other Dinotopians were going through a base tour around some of the villages. It was for the most part a walking tour for them, as Andrew and Jen were too tall for most vehicles in the US. Even with the money that Horizon had likely poured into Maelewano, that didn't mean they were able to get enough vehicles that were scaled up to Dinotopian sizes. However, there were no real problems, as for the most part the Dinotopians were generally rather used to the size issues they had to cope with. They walked along and enjoyed looking at a lot of the scenery that was there.
"These trees are interesting," Jen commented as she stepped over to look more closely at one of the small group of trees that was by the roadside where they were walking. It was very different from the rainforest trees in South America and the planted trees she'd seen in Lyre and Animalia, and she also noted the sharp looking thorns on the branches. "What are the thorns for?"
Their guide, another new Rhino Guard member, who's form was actually based on the Black Rhinoceros as opposed to those that were in Lyre/Animalia and the one or two that had come to help with establishing Maelewano as an Animalian Colony that were White Rhinoceros Animalians, turned and looked up to the female Brachiosaurus Dinotopian that was looking at the tree. He gave a small smile, which shoed his more pointed and hooked upper lip.
"Likely as protection from most herbivorous animals with soft palates," the Black Rhinoceros Animalian commented, "especially when its young and shorter animals and those in larger herds might kill the tree if they ate it... Though they don't seem to bother the Giraffes that wander through any."
Jen blinked and looked at the trees and its leaves again. While she'd well adjusted to a fully herbivorous diet with things bought at the supermarket and some more vegan meals, though there were the odd times where she'd looked at a tree and couldn't help but feel the urge for a nibble. It'd actually been rather strong in Vilcabamba with all the trees there, but she did manage to control herself. Particularly as she didn't know what was poisonous and what wasn't.
"Interesting," Andrew answered, "Do you see any giraffes from time to time?"
Some of that was an interesting prospect of seeing some of the great African megafauna in the wild was a part of why he'd thought on coming on the colony world tour. He'd met the Giraffe Animalians in Lyre and Animalia, but that wasn't quite the same as seeing the actual animal. It would provide for an interesting comparison given how tall he and Jen were as Dinotopians, and particularly from a species that was built like a giraffe in many ways. Though there were obvious differences as giraffes actually had the same number of vertebrae in their necks as people did while Sauropods, in Andrew and Jen's case Brachiosaurus, had more neck vertebrae.
"I'd rather not meet any uplifted animal," said a slightly nervous voice drawing attention to come down to a human male standing by Rachel, "they might step on me or kick me."
"Loki," Rachel answered with a shake of her head, "You know I wouldn't let any harm come to you."
The young man looked up to her with a small smile. He had some interest in boxing and had even been in a few amateur tournaments here and there. When he heard about some of Animalia's planned tournaments, he'd come to watch and see what was going on. He'd met Rachel by accident during one of her training sessions and the two had gotten along fairly well from there after. Rachel had met Samuel Sorenson, Animalia's male Stegosaurus Dinotopian, but while he had been amicable, he seemed more interested in a girl he knew from Reno. In this, after meeting Loki Wax, Rachel was quite happy that he made friends with her but shared interests as well. There had been the proverbial "eyepopping" moment when she told him that she was actually much older than she presently looked, but Loki did accept that.
"Thanks," Loki answered with a small smile. While he was a bit nervous over run ins with any wildlife that might be dangerous, he actually had no issue with being with the Dinotopians, and while they were of different ages, he and Rachel had a few things in common.
"We do see some Giraffes from time to time, along with other wildlife," the Black Rhinoceros Animalian told them, "though... you don't have too much to worry about. Many of the animals that be the biggest threats to you in Africa... at least with regard mammalian predators and megafauna... will tend to give Animalians a fairly wide birth, and given the size and strength of your friends here, you would be exceptionally safe."
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Of course the tour also showed some of the hard facts of life that surrounded the formation of the colony. While Maelewano was founded as part of efforts to allow Horizon to expand its scientific operations and open up new doors for Animalians to go beyond Lyre/Animalia, there was also the position to allow for those fleeing wars, famine, and persecution to actually do so without fear of being sent back to the trouble spots they'd fled from to be killed or persecuted... or enslaved. It had its risks, but the Rhino Guard had been working with various security agencies that put together some means of making sure that no one was pulling any tricks, and so far it had worked with regard to security.
Tyra, Rex, Heather, and Jeremy were present with one tour group and had found on how a lot of the refugees that settled in Maelewano were handled. Many came to escape famines, but there was also a fair number of those came from the various man made conflicts that raged in some parts of Africa. Everyone that arrived had the option of converting. Pamphlets and other material stated it would be allowed for all Humans that came to Maelewano that wished to convert, though largely with the requirement of the animal they become come from Africa. However, with those who were starved or injured by what they were fleeing that they were in poor health, conversion was actually offered in connection to Project Phoenix along nutritional drinks that would aide in the healthy conversion. And many did convert under that offer.
"You've all gone through a lot," Tyra spoke with some amazement to one human family. They'd arrived in relatively poor health but weren't at a point were conversion was needed. The story they were told was troubling in its own right, but Tyra was glad that it had a happy ending as the family looked happy and healthy as the young son hopped about getting a closer look at the Dinotopians that had come to visit. It was clear that they had recovered since Maelewano's establishment.
"Yes, we have," the mother spoke after the Rhino Guard member that was with their tour group translated the conversation, "but we are glad to have found a place where we're safe."
"And can see Jurassic Park!" the son gave a cheer, hopping over Rex's tail and examining the feathers on it.
"Forgive him," the father employed, "I had an old VHS of the original movie and our son has loved it."
"It's alright," Rex chuckled, "While there is plenty in the movie that I'd find scientifically inaccurate... it WAS a good movie and will hopefully help serve get people interested in the subject. I can remember as a kid playing with toys that would act out scenes that wouldn't be out of place in Jurassic Park."
The son seemed even more intrigued after the Rhino Guard member translated Rex's answer.
"What dinosaurs came from Africa?" he asked.
"A fair many of all kinds," Rex smiled.
"Like T-Rex?" the son answered, making Rex chuckle.
"No," Rex said slowly, "Tyrannosaurus lived in North America and its ancestors evolved in in Europe and migrated across what is now Asia. However, the largest Theropod that ever lived, Spinosaurus came from Africa and there is another large Theropod from northern Africa... Carcharodontosaurus that was also bigger than Tyrannosaurus."
The boy looked up in awe at Rex as he continued.
"But Theropods weren't the only ones in Africa," Rex continued, going slowly to let the Rhino Guard member translate what was said, "There were some representatives of the Stegosaur family of dinosaurs... such as Kentrosaurus and from the Sauropod family of dinosaurs, like Giraffatitan that were found in Tanzania to the south of Kenya. There were many dinosaurs that were found in Africa... though... I might be able to find a translation of a guidebook or encyclopedia on them if you're interested."
The whole group was left chuckling when the boy then hugged Rex's leg when his answer was translated for him. Tyra looked down to the boy and was glad that he and his family had made it to a place like Maelewano where they could be safe.