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Mad Science

Arriving in a New Place to Start a Friendly Visit

added by s1 A year ago O

Arranging the flight and things ultimately proved rather easy, and while there were some delays regarding some flights, Animalia Air hadn't suffered as much from them, often because largely playing to a smaller clientele than most other airlines. They would go almost anywhere, but with much of their associations with Animalia often meant that many of the flights made were made as needed. Thus, Tuxing was able to get the flights needed on with enough of a schedule that there wasn't a real problem. She updated Lenard by email on when her plane would take off in her time and also converted it over to his time zone and updated him when she landed in Hawaii for fuel and again Lyre/Animalia before transferring to a smaller plane that then flew north to Boise. She was a bit tired when she made her way from the gate and toward the baggage area but did find a pleasant surprise waiting for her on that July 1 day, a male Siberian Tiger Animalian and his younger Human brother waiting by an escalator.

Mikey was drinking from a plastic bottle of Coke and had an opened candy bar in his other hand. Mikey smiled and then held out the candy bar to Tuxing as she approached. The smile also drew attention to some of the chocolate that was on Mikey's lips.

"Welcome to Idaho," Lenard said politely and gave a chuff as Tuxing approached before Mikey could further push the candy bar in Tuxing's direction.

"Wanna bite?" Mikey offered.

"If that's chocolate, I'm afraid I can't eat that," Tuxing said to the younger Bearstone brother, "you're more than happy to have it."

Mikey seemed to slowly accept that followed Tuxing's gaze to Lenard. The two gave a brief hug before Tuxing addressed him.

"And thank you for the invitation," Tuxing spoke, "I much say it is..."

"Different?" Lenard chuckled, "yeah. Lyre/Animalia is pretty good, but a lot of the trees and things they have there are planted and watered and may be running into trouble given other climate issues. Otherwise, it fits more into a sort of mountain/desert sort of habitat. Up here, we get a bit more rain and have some real forests."

And that had been the thing that Tuxing had noticed as the plane came in for its landing. It wasn't easy from a long way way, but she could see mountains with lots of conifer trees, though she was too far away to tell if they were spruce, fir, or pine, and it was different from what she knew. Heiya Island really didn't have much in the way of trees and much of what wood was there was imported. There were some of the special cherry trees that were planted for their blossoms in decorative parts around the island, and then there were Nate's fruit trees that he was hoping to ultimately get crops from... and Shuixing had even found some interesting ways of teaching Nate her style to handle watering and caring for the trees. But outside of that there weren't many trees on Heiya Island.

"And you'll get to see plenty on the drive east," Lenard continued, "it'll take awhile... but then we are in the western part of the state. Mikey and I live out on the eastern part of the state. Right next to Yellowstone."

"Which is in Wyoming," Mikey added to show some knowledge.

"Yellowstone," Tuxing smiled and slowly and thought over the American national park, "is it..."

"It's a "super volcano," yes," Lenard commented, "but don't panic over some of the things the National Geographic guys say. I've talked with one of the High School science teachers when we have assemblies for the district's entire staff and he's told me that the references to its eruption are more in geologic time, which can vary and could be today, next year, or a thousand years from now. So, for the moment, there'd be no need to worry about an eruption."

Tuxing blinked and then remembered that Lenard worked as a school librarian for a little town that was just to the west of the park in Idaho, "I was going to ask if it was open after all the weather that came through."

"Parts of it are," Lenard answered, "but I think right now a lot of access is limited and it's only for one day. Don't worry. There can be plenty of wildlife to see at my cabin."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The ride across Idaho was ultimately quiet and uneventful. Mikey talked about some of his summer league baseball games and how Lenard was often there to watch the games as well as some of the other events of summer. Lenard shared some things on his summer work, which was more than what Tuxing expected, but she did accept that and even liked that he'd been able to get time off for Mikey's little league games and everything else, including her visit. It was something that further drew her to him. It reflected a lot of the nobility that she'd seen in Lenard, and she liked that. It then let her enjoy a lot of the ride and be able to look out and see the countryside fly by as Lenard drove along.

And while they did have to stop and get some dinner along the way, Tuxing found herself continually impressed with a lot of the terrain that could be seen from the car. The trees the rolling mountains. All of it were things that Tuxing didn't see a lot of on Heiya Island, and even as the sun went down, she strangely felt some odd sense of comfort in looking out at the scenery. Some of it felt rather instinctive, but she couldn't place it. While the Bengal Tiger did range into the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, Nepal, and Bhutan, it also largely didn't see the sorts of coniferous trees that they were driving past. The only thing that seemed off putting was occasionally spotting a dead deer on the side of the road. The other thing that came as a surprise was occasionally seeing fireworks come off over towns or ranches that they passed. It was a reminder of things in Lyre and Animalia when the Five Elements first converted.

"The countryside is beautiful... even at night," Tuxing said to Lenard and rather grateful for the specialized lenses that helped tigers see in low light situations and noting that by now Mikey had fallen asleep in the back seat of the car.

"It's even better in the day," Lenard commented with a small yawn and grateful that Tuxing was providing some conversation as he turned onto the road that would lead to his cabin. It had been a long drive and it was likely that all of them would be tired by the time they got to his home. The conversation would at least keep him awake and alert for the last few miles after hours on the road, "when everyone's better rested."

"Sorry to have to make you drive so far," Tuxing commented, "at least this way... if and when there are other visits in the future, I could rent a car at the airport and drive myself rather than having you have to make this long drive twice."

"It's no problem," Lenard managed a smile as he glanced to Tuxing, "you're worth the trip. Smart and beautiful, protective and caring, and very well adjusted, give what you said you and your sisters went through. I'm sure there would be many people that would love to have someone like you in their lives."

"Not all of them though are those that would work so hard to raise his little brother and give up so much to protect him," Tuxing commented.

"There are other things that I've come to like, though too," Lenard chuckled while raising one hand to stifle another yawn, "I've never been unfit... but becoming an Animalian also made me feel fitter than I've ever felt. And sure, it wasn't enough to win the Year of the Tiger contest... and the financial gain from winning would have been helpful, but... it's all helped me stay fit and get even better. Nothing to hate and meeting you... it feels even better."

"You say that as though you've never met anyone," Tuxing commented.

"Oh, I've had a girlfriend or two," Lenard managed, "and I'm no virgin... but most of those I've been with... never felt right. Some started off okay, but then fell off. Meeting and talking with you... it feels... different. Better... I can't explain why it feels that way."

"Perhaps it's because we met as Animalians and got along rather well," Tuxing commented as she saw a cabin show up in the distance, "a lot of the stories have seemed to indicate that Animalians seem to have had a much higher success rate at finding comparable romantic partners than Humans."

"Possibly," Lenard chuckled as he slowed down a bit to then find the button for the garage door opener, "a lot of that would also strike as part of Animalians seeming to be more civil. There are some cases where Animalians have dated for a while and broke up, but when it's happened, it's been on such polite terms that they end up still remaining friends with those they dated. I had a buddy in high school... hung out with this girl he had a massive crush on, and they did date for a while. I can't remember what got them to break up, but when it happened, he couldn't stand her after that point..."

Tuxing nodded as Lenard pulled into the garage that was attached to the cabin. It was only he shut the car off and began to close the garage door again that Mikey woke up in the back seat. Tuxing found herself smiling as Lenard picked up his little brother, who clutched his arms around Lenard's neck. She collected her bags and followed shortly after. The cabin was dark as they ultimately entered, but it was very late, or possibly very early in the morning and they weren't going to probably be handling much of a tour. They went through a pantry type space and then a small kitchen before heading up a flight of stairs. Lenard bent over crouched wherever he needed to make sure Mikey didn't hit his head before placing him a bed on the second floor with a blanket with a character image that Tuxing didn't recognize. Though, once Lenard had Mikey's shoes off, his younger brother was soon asleep again.

From there, Lenard led her to a room across the hall that was set up as a guest room. The bed looked sturdy enough, but Tuxing also noted it was a small room, but one that also had some decorations left for her. Lenard said, "good night" and moved on to his own room that was next to the guest room she'd been given. Despite the small size, the room did look good and then she noticed something else. Laid out on the bed were a series of papers and at first thought there might have been some forms or something, like Lenard had used this room as an office before needing to convert it into a guest room for her visit. However, as she came in, she saw that they weren't forms. They were drawings and she set her bag down on the floor to look at them. One showed a crude picture a Tiger Animalian in Superman's costume, though Tuxing noted that the Tiger Animalian was female. The next one showed a pair of Tiger Animalians together, one male and one female and both smiling to each other. She then also noted they were named "Lenny" and "Tuxing." That made her realize that while the drawn stripes did not match her or Lenard, that Mikey was drawing her and Lenard.

"A noble man... and a noble brother," Tuxing yawned as she collected the drawings before collecting them and putting them in a neat pile on the floor by the bed.

She found herself smiling as she did so. It was rather cute that Mikey had seemed interested in Tuxing being with Lenard as well. Though a part of her also had some questions over this. As while she liked Lenard and found Mikey to be rather sweat, she then remembered some of the things that Lenard had told her about when they first met. That his parents had him rather young and thus there was a decent "gap" between when Lenard was born, and Mikey was born. And then their parents had died in 2020 from Covid and had forced a lot of things to change. Lenard had converted to be able to protect Mikey and Tuxing respected that. But these pictures gave some indication that Mikey was looking out for his brother as well and made her wonder on whether or not there were other effects that the death of Lenard and Mikey's parents had had on Mikey. It would be something to ask Lenard about in the coming days before the Fourth of July in addition enjoying her time enjoying the nature around the cabin... but that would be something to do after a good night's sleep...


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