While there was stricter control over airplane travel these days, there wasn't much change for winged flight. Of course, Animalians were subject to different laws. Even if they could fly, they just couldn't go across national borders without passports. There was a question about how long an Animalian could fly before becoming to exhausted to stay airborne. That seemed to vary from species to species. Currently, the upper limits of long-time flight were being tested in preparation for the 'Flight Around the World' tour. Quetzal was hard at working building up her wing strength. It could take a bit of effort before she rise up high enough to rely on thermal updrafts to do most of the works. And in Mieni Atoll, one of the hippies that moved there, Gabriel, wanted to become a bird instead of a fish. As such, Horizon Labs offered a large discount to become an albatross so he could do the tour. Gabriel was intrigued and signed up quickly.
But this is for another time. There are some people who have made flight plans before the stronger clampdown on flights. Ollie and Leslie were able to wing their way south. It required a few stopovers, mostly checking passports and taking some photos. But eventually, they flew down to Vilcabamba. They needed to stop in Manuas in order to get there. The rainforest colony is notoriously hard to find from above. But once they got there, the frigatebird couple had been living it up and meeting some interesting locals.
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It wasn't much of a surprise that Ollie and Leslie met some of the Piper rats down in Vilcabamba, considering how many of them moved to the colonies in order to not be so crowded and introduce some badly-needed new genes to their shallow gene pool. It was more of a surprise that were more than expected.
"They are pretty cute," said Leslie, looking down at the two baby rats in the stroller.
"That they are," said Ana proudly, "Of course, they're just the beginning for our family." She rubbed her stomach, which was looking pretty round.
"You're having more already?" asked Ollie in surprise.
"Ana was a little disappointed we only had two the first time and rats pretty much breed all year round," said Nick.
"Don't you think you're being a little fast?" asked Leslie.
"I've always wanted a lot of children," said Ana, "Besides, aren't you two going to have your own chicks?"
Ollie and Leslie looked away from each other in embarrassment. Ollie certainly hadn't planned on it. He was quite proud of being gay before he converted. But there didn't seem to be any other gay men who were interested. And being around Leslie made him more open to his bisexual side. And after her conversion, the sex had been surprisingly nice.
"I'm not sure I'm ready for a wedding," said Leslie.
"You could always elope," said Nick, "That's what me and Ana did. She was pretty impatient."
"After all the extra-long weddings I went through for my cousins, I wasn't going to make mine longer than normal," said Ana.
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There were some people who lived in Vilcabamba that neither Ollie or Leslie expected to see. Not that there were no hippo Animalians, but they would have been expected to be seen in one of the African colonies. "So, how long have you been in Colombia?" asked Ollie.
"I cannot really say for certain," said Pablo, "Animals don't keep track of time the way way humans do. I do know that after Escobar died, my pod had grown quite a bit, enough to become a bit of an invasive species here."
"Would there even be enough genetic diversity..." started Leslie.
"We might not have spread throughout all of Columbia, but we had enough presence in one part of it," said Magda, "And there are still other hippos that need to be uplifted."
"So why are you here in Vilcabamba?" asked Ollie.
"The same reason a lot of Animalians haven't spread out," said Pablo, "The pandemic is limiting everyone. The Colombian government can't really work on constructing a colony or anything meaningful until it's over. So we can't really uplift more hippos for some time."
"At least this is a nice enough place to wait it out," said Magda, "I do wish not everything is up in the trees we can't get up to." While the hippos weren't ungainly as Animalians, they were still very heavy and the rope bridges in the tree village would not hold their weight.
Leslie shrugged. Being seabirds, this place wasn't quite a perfect fit for her and Ollie either. But it was still enjoyable in its own way.
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Ollie and Leslie weren't the only visitors here. Though people weren't able to come and go so easily with the travel restrictions in place. But at least one other Animalian had managed to arrive, though for quite an unexpected reason.
"You really think there are aliens here?" asked Ollie skeptically.
"An alien," said Nova, "This El Jichi has to be one. Only an alien could remain undiscovered for so long."
"I'm not sure if that's necessarily true," said Leslie, "Aren't there other species that have yet to be found?"
"Perhaps, but new species to be found are typically small ones that have gone unnoticed or individuals who have been misclassified," said Nova, "Do these look like the footprints of something that would have been overlooked?" The footprints were pretty big, though it was hard to say if they were made by a bird or a lizard.
"How do you know it's not an Animalian's footprints that people haven't recognized?" asked Ollie.
"Well...that clearly can't be the case," snapped Nova.
"Couldn't it?" asked Ollie, "It'd be a pretty sloppy researcher who didn't at least check first to make sure there aren't any matches."
"Of course not!" snapped Nova. Then she bent down to look at the frigatebirds' feet. Their webbed feet obviously made them not match the footprints left by El Jichi. "If you must insist, I'll examine all the Animalians who feet could possibly leave such prints," snapped Nova.
"Good hunting," said Leslie.
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Of course, these will probably get more exciting next week when it's time for Carnival. But there are other upcoming events, namely the Lunar Year Year and Valentine's Day.