Maelewano had been an interesting place for Beacon, Allura, and Xena to visit. There was quite a wide variety of Animalians living there, not to mention the vast cultural blend of different African people. It had been fascinating to watch the IAC games there, which included a lot of track and field events. The three fish wished they could have stayed long enough to watch the Lion King remake that was being shown there. From what they heard, the visual effects were good and the hyena Animalians approved of how much more like a real pack the movie's hyenas behaved.
But the time came to move on, which was when they had to part ways with the rest of their tour group. Maelewano being in the Serengeti made it stifling hot, which was pretty hard for the three fish. Beacon was soon wishing shi still had hir sweat glands. They had to make frequent visits to Maelewano's pools to keep from drying out completely. Then their next stop was going to be New Zerzura, in the middle of a desert. Deep-sea fish had no business in the desert and the trio weren't going to risk extreme dehydration. So they made a different flight plan, heading to Skull Island instead. Not only was it an island in the Gulf of Mexico, but they would get to see what the aquatic half of Dinotopia has been up to.
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It was a good thing that the underground mansion has been expanded, as with new aquatic Dinotopians moving in, they'll need the space. Nessa and Molly have already moved to Skull Island. Beacon hadn't met either of them when shi was just Beatrice, but since shi was an anglerfish now, she better get acquainted with the other aquatic Animalians. Darla and Maya seemed pretty well-adjusted for having been coelacanths before being uplifted. Danielle was a bit alarming, mostly because she had teeth (or solid pieces of bone in this case) like a bear trap. But she was a nice person despite that. It was nice to be able to talk to another girl who's become a fish, even if she and Beacon went in very different directions.
There were also new members as Dinotopia Aquatica was finally making a start with other ancient marine reptiles. The first of the icthyosaur line was Miki, a girl of Japanese descent who became a Mixosaurus. "You know, I didn't always used to be this trim," said Miki, "I actually had a weight problem beforehand. But I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer. Or a swimsuit model. I could do one, the other, or both. But no one believed I could do it because I was too fat and I couldn't get skinny and I looked terrible in a swimsuit. So I'm just really glad I can become an Animalian." She was a rather chipper girl, probably from the elation of losing so many pounds.
"So why a Dinotopian instead of other aquatic animals?" asked Xena.
"You know how expensive conversion is these days?" asked Miki, "They give big discounts if you do something more experimental. I was planning on being a dolphin when I converted. But they wanted me to do one of the icthyosaur species. And I thought to myself 'well, itchyosaurs are pretty close to dolphins, right?' I mean, I look close enough to a dolphin, don't I?" As a Mixosaurus, she did have a resemblance to a dolphin Animalian. Though the most obvious difference was that her skin was green-yellow and was obviously scales on close inspection. She did have a dorsal fin like a dolphin, but she had vertical tail flukes, which made an interesting spade shape at the end of her tail.
"I guess so," said Beacon, "I'm guessing Mixosaurus was one of the smaller icthyosaurs?" Beacon knew from personal experience that a person's height after conversion depends on the Animalian they became. Miki was pretty short for an Animalian, being just under 6 feet.
"Yeah, well at least it makes it easier for me to have a room here," said Miki, "I don't take up a lot of space like some people."
That remark wasn't just aimed at Nessa, whose long neck made things a little difficult even if she partially spliced with snake DNA to make it more flexible. Tyson had become the first mosasaur, specifically Tylosaurus. Tyson was a former navy SEAL who had served during the Korean war. He had a war buddy named Moses who was going to become a Mosasaurus after Tyler had converted. However, there was a delay on that as Tyson had grown considerably larger than what was projected, standing at 10 feet tall. And with Mosasaurus even bigger than Tylosaurus, there may need to be extra construction to accommodate the larger marine reptiles who'll be living here.
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But the biggest relief for the deep-sea trio was being able to swim in the ocean again. Pools were nice, but most places had only freshwater. De-chlorinated water was common at Animalian colonies since fish Animalians could be poisoned by them. But nothing really beats breathing in seawater.
"It's not as colorful as Mieni Atoll down here," said Beacon as shi swam with Allura, "But I still like it."
"Maybe they could build some of those extra buildings down here," said Allura.
"Allura, they're still reptiles, you know," said Beacon, "That means they don't have gills."
"Not everyone here is a reptile," pointed out Allura, "They have fish here too."
"True, but living underwater has a lot of complications," said Beacon, "They should make one of those VLFS's to make more room for everyone. Like that museum at Mieni Atoll."
"But don't they have hurricanes here?" asked Allura.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so. Well, I'm glad I never went into civil engineering," said Beacon.
"I'm just glad you came to me," said Allura, swimming close to Beacon and hugging hir.
Beacon didn't mind hir mate hugging hir, but hir newest addition did feel rather constrained in hir bikini. "Let's save it until we get back to our room," shi said, "Wouldn't want to cause an epidemic down here."
"That's your excuse for everything," pouted Beacon.