The Lunar New Year celebration was something that Animalia had latched onto with some measure of gusto, mostly due to the fact that a community of anthropomorphic animals would have some natural interest in a year that was identified with an animal, and for those Animalians that represented that animal, even more so. Which for the most part meant that not everyone that participated in the competition was Chinese or celebrated the Lunar New Year as a point of following the calendar. It was just something fun that would fit well within the community. And those Animalians that were Chinese or celebrated the Lunar New Year for cultural reasons had also proved very accepting of this, and often cited it as an additional way to celebrate the year. Though the coming year, the Year of the Dragon, would present its own challenges and ones that took a year to truly sort out.
The first part was about who would qualify for the "Year of the Dragon." For, dragons, be they Eastern or Western were mythological beings that had abilities that no known animal had. They could have two or four legs, some might even have none, depending on how mythological "winged serpents" could be classified. Some breathed fire, others ice. Some flew with great scaly wings others because other abilities that no actual animal possessed and thus made dragons different from animals like dogs, pigs, rats, tigers, cattle, and rabbits and that then raised the question on what Animalian would qualify and that brought some groups together to discuss the qualifications after the Year of the Rabbit contest ended...
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"I'd never thought I'd be in something like this," the Chinese American man commented as he sat down in one of the conference rooms at Animalia's City Hall while straightening his glasses and looking to some of the others that were there.
Melvin Qvite was there and representing Horizon, which did a lot of major business with Animalia. Much of it comes from the fact that it was Horizon's experiments that lead to Animalia's creation in the first place, so it made sense that he would be involved. There were a couple of Animalians and Humans there that had served as organizers for prior Lunar New Year celebrations in Animalia, along with Robby, Animalia's Deputy Mayor. The man figured that some of the extras that were there also did work with the web-broadcast and telecast of the celebrations, which were popular. The start of the Year of the Rabbit contest got a lot of hits when one of the contestants bounced out of her sports bra for all to see, and which the man had to chuckle at, as he didn't think a wardrobe malfunction had been expected. Though, he still didn't expect he would be called in to something like this.
"Well, Mr. Wii, your work in archeology, paleontology, and cultural studies would probably help get things set up for the tournament for the next Lunar New Year," Robby spoke, "Mr. Qvite has actually read a couple of your papers."
"Really!?" the man, Wayne Wii, said with some amazement.
"Some of it is a bit of a hobby and some of it is that I had some spare time to look into it," Melvin Qvite answered with a smile, "it is interesting... and I'd hope that enough people learn from it. The bits on paleontology affecting cultures around the world and how they then show up in archeological finds is quite fascinating."
"Which then has all of us trying to discern on just what would qualify as a dragon," one of the other Humans present commented on.
"It would be more an approximation of a dragon than would qualify as a dragon," Wayne Wii commented, "and a lot of this would be something you should already know. My points on how fossil bones of dinosaurs and even some prehistoric mammals have been marked as culturally representative of "dragons" is hardly new... particularly in China."
"Yes, and some of the Dinotopians have even inquired on when our signup sheets will go out for them," one of the organizers spoke, "we just wanted to confirm if that would be right... particularly where we've confirmed many of the paleontological theories that at least most Theropod Dinosaurs were feathered, not scaly."
"Well... that may not apply with Chinese dragons, specifically, but then the concept of a "dragon" can be pretty different around the world," Wayne Wii answered, "and some cultures have creatures that have some features that would be similar to dragons in some way, but they don't call them dragons. The "feathered serpent" gods in the Americas often fill out roles similar to the Chinese dragon, and their long bodies can be similar in a way. In some ways... you could probably provide some sort of approximation that things would work. And in this, just any of the Dinotopians would qualify and would be acceptable. The same could go for the Pterosaur and Marine Reptile Dinotopians."
"That'll be good news to all the Dinotopians," Robby commented with a small smile coming onto his furry muzzle, "though..." He then paused to look to the others, "what about some of the more modern animals that would have the word "dragon" in their name. Like the Komodo Dragon... I believe there is at least one Animalian that represents that species."
"There are some species of seahorse that would have the name "seadragon" in it," one of the other Humans there commented, "could they work?"
Wayne Wii listened in as the conversation went back and forth as things went a bit away from his expertise. He'd studied architecture, culture, and Human histories in how they related to myths, religions, and other related factors, and in this, he half expected to get this call at his office in Sacramento to provide the answers to the questions just asked of him. Biology and the other related issues that the others were beginning to go over were a bit beyond him. The only connection was his Chinese heritage, though, his family had been US citizens since the late 1800s. While a lot of that helped inspire his academic studies, it also meant that there were plenty of aspects on Chinese culture that even he was still learning.
"So... what do you think, Mr. Wii?" Robby asked, snapping Wayne Wii from his thoughts.
"Well... I would suppose that could technically work, given that you're trying to arrange for a contest for actual animals to represent a mythological animal," Wayne Wii spoke, "the Komodo Dragon's venom could approximate the "fire breathing" ability in Western Dragons... though, I'm afraid I don't know much about Seahorse Seadragons..."
The man who had mentioned seadragons then offered his phone, which had a picture of the Common Seadragon pulled up for the moment. Wayne Wii looked at the picture and then nodded.
"Well... I could see where some of the name comes from," Wayne Wii spoke, "long and thin... looking a bit like the Eastern Dragons with their more serpentine shape, the fins could resemble the antlers and limbs... along with the long snout. It would definitely carry the look about it, IF you have an Animalian from these specific species..."
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As the year then progressed, there then came the choice of venues and what events would be part of the competition, and much of this came as a result of some of the figures that did sign up. Mostly because the Dinotopians represented different species and in the case of Pterosaurs like Sophie and Roland or Marine Reptiles like Ty and Kumiyo, different groupings of animals altogether. All would have specialized abilities that not all the others had. Sophie and Roland could actually fly, while JC and Pauline could maintain short bursts of powered flight and could glide with great ease and over long distances. Ty and Kumiyo could swim with ease and with a sort of grace that their physical size might not have betrayed at first. They also certainly swam better than the other Dinotopians, who had hollow bones and thus would be TOO buoyant to dive effectively.
The team that coordinated the planning for the Lunar New Year Celebration then had to take these things into account in arranging events, and some of the basic size differences also came into play. For with the prior competitions, the size difference between contestants wasn't going to be that much. A Chihuahua Animalian and a Saint Bernard Animalian wouldn't be too different in size, even though the size difference between the mundane Dog breeds was massive. Most of the Bovines from the Year of the Cow were going to be of comparable size and weight, with only Nate and Shuixing being representatives that weren't Animalians based off of breeds of Domestic Cattle, though Domestic Water Buffalo and Domestic Cattle would be of comparable size. The same applied in the Year of the Tiger between the two Liger and Smilodon contestants. They were bigger than the other Tiger Animalians, but not by all that much.
But among many of the Dinotopians, there were some drastic sizes differences. Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were comparable in height with most Humans in terms of height. Heather, Tyra, Jeremy, and Rex were about as tall as the Giraffe Animalians and having the muscle mass of the African Elephant Animalians. Ty and Kumiyo were of comparable size to the larger Theropod Dinotopians. And then Andrew, Jen, Luke, and Marjorie were larger still. And while the general body proportions for Animalians were generally "equal," the raw size differences with the Dinotopians meant that any sort of physical contest would be off the table, at least not in the sense of mearing the combat tournament that was there for the Year of the Tiger. That was then something that was there for the planning events...
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"We may have to have this be a narrower competition this year than in previous years," one of the planning coordinators commented, "I mean... if we say, "who can lift the most, we'd know that Andrew and Jen would probably manage that with ease."
"While if it's a contest of grace, the smaller Dinotopians would have a dominant advantage," another commented, "maybe those things could be part of the talent portion of the pageant and male's competition that is done. I mean, those are all aspects that have been there with the other competitions."
"So... just the pageant and the race for this year?" a third member of the team asked with looks to the other two, "we'd have to explain this to those wanting to broadcast the competition and so on."
"A shorter one may be culturally easier," the first commented, "after all, the Year of the Tiger competition took us well PAST the end of the Lunar New Year's normal celebrations to handle the combat sports matches before the final race."
"Yes, but even last year with the Year of the Rabbit, which was shorter, we had at least three elements to the competition," the third pointed out, "with the line of events that we're getting into only two events."
"Maybe we could open up elements of the pageant to be a bit more complex," the second commented, "as we do have some applications from Dinotopia Aquatica. They may have something that would bring in water as part of the event. Maybe we could offer the flexibility to move the venue around for things like that."
"And the last event could be a variation on the standard race up the mountain, though having this year having them run up something like a volcano... with spots that could be shorter to traverse, but would definitely force them to slow down and hop to make their way up the volcano," the first then finished, "and for the flyers, they'd then have options they could use, but would then have distances added to their route if they were to use their wings and thus set the possibility that all would have a relatively even chance of getting to the top... It'd ultimately be like a multiple-choice obstacle course."
"That'd actually sound good..." said the third, "but then where would we hold it?"
"I was thinking Dino City," the first spoke, "granted we often do this here in Lyre/Animalia, but with multiple Dinotopians coming in and with some of them being... well... huge, even by Animalian standards, Dino City would give us the room to make this work. We'd just need to be able to see to arranging for the use of the Dino Dome."
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William Tarr did his best to keep Dino City running as best as possible, and by that trying to keep his role as mayor out of the affairs of the people of Dino City as much as possible. The male Parasaurolophus Dinotopian stuck very close to his personal feelings on what "small government" should be, and that things should only be done when it was absolutely necessary, and not trying to look for ways to solve problems that might not be problems or get involved in other people's bedroom business. It was a big reason why he dropped his registration as a Republican and became a Libertarian. And despite some complaints from Republicans in the State House in Austin, or in Texas's congressional delegation in Washington DC, William Tarr retained a rather respectable reputation in Dino City, and even those on the city council that might disagree with him on some things found it fairly easy to work with him and debate when they had to.
A lot of this also generally let him keep up with a lot of the work he did before he met Candace and became a Parasaurolophus Dinotopian to be with her, ultimately siring three eggs that had hatched and were his children, John Tarr, Kristi, and Teddy. Those were all things that he preferred, especially when being able to be with his three hatchlings as they learned words and gained more coordination. Of course, the "terrible twos" were still terrible, and he'd found that they could be very loud with their growing crests when they wanted to be, but the three were generally well behaved and that made him happy, and he very much enjoyed looking at a picture of them that he kept on his desk at Dino City's mayor's office. He wasn't always there, as the civilian job he did keep him busy, but they had proved flexible enough to enable him to juggle all of those things. Mostly as much of the work as Dino City's mayor often proved more ceremonial than not, and then there were the odd cases of requests that often left him having to explain how Texas' state laws worked or where he would stand on certain issues. And when the phone rang, one summer afternoon, he assumed it would be under those circumstances.
"Hello?" William spoke into the phone after picking it up.
"Mayor Tarr, good afternoon," came a male voice from the other end, "how goes things in Dino City?"
"Who is this?" William answered with his eyes narrowing.
"This is Benny Heller," the voice answered, "I actually work as part of a production team that works in coordination with Lyre/Animalia and Horizon. In a sense, we do a lot of the work that helps produce Animalia Ambassadoria and the related magazines and web content. This also includes things like the Lunar New Year Celebration."
"Did you just have that a few months ago?" William wondered, "the Year of the Rabbit contest... with the wardrobe malfunction. Why are you calling me?"
William heard a chuckle through the other end of the line.
"That wardrobe malfunction will probably end up on the blooper real on the adult section for the Animalia website," Benny Heller answered with a laugh, "but my call has more to do with next year's Lunar New Year celebration, not this year's."
"And that being...?" William said slowly and raising one eyebrow, even though no one would see it.
"The next year would be the Year of the Dragon, which would mostly be available for Dinotopians, like yourself, be they based on dinosaurs, marine reptiles, or pterosaurs," Benny Heller explained, "we even have a few contemporary animals that would also qualify, if they apply for the contest. Though, so far, nearly all that have signed up are Dinotopians."
"Well... that's good for them, but why are you asking me?" William asked, "I haven't signed up for this contest... and I have no particular interest to. There is a lot that is to keep me busy."
"We're not necessarily asking you to volunteer," was Benny Heller's response, "what we'd like is to see if we could schedule the use of the Dino Dome next year for the contest... and allow some of the appropriate work to set things up for certain elements of the contest. In theory, Animalia's Claw Coliseum would be big enough, but some of the space and size limitations for other areas might be difficult if any Dinotopians other than the competitors come... and even they may have some issue. As things like the hotels in Lyre were built to Human scaling and those in Animalia were built more to the scaling for other Animalians. Things might be a bit... cramped for many Dinotopians."
William could understand that. When he moved in with Candace after their marriage, he was a bit shocked on how small his old trailer and many of the things in it were for him. So, if some of the Dinotopians had signed up for this contest, the larger ones... like the small number of Sauropods, with the exception of the one Amargasaurus, would be rather cramped in areas not scaled to their size. William experienced some of that whenever he went to the grocery in Glen Rose.
"I can sympathize with the sentiment," William spoke, "though, I'm afraid, I personally can do much concerning the Dino Dome. That would go more Dome Sports and Health Team. They're private and work more with understanding what the Dino Dome will need to stay in service. Doesn't the Claw Coliseum do the same?"
"Technically, the City of Animalia owns the stadium, and we lease it to the various sporting agencies that would want to use it... so the operation for a lot of it is private, though the ownership would be public, if that's how you're looking at," Benny Heller answered.
"Best hope you have elected officials that always understand structural engineering, electronics, food logistics, and tons of other stuff that that politicians, by rule, DON'T understand in the slightest," William answered, "anyway, personally, I support the idea, as it would certainly be easier for the Dinotopians here in Dino City to be able to use the Dino Dome. I'll give the number for their front desk and management office and let you talk with them on what you need and if they have the time and room for it."
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Ultimately the phone calls were sorted out and the Dino Dome was more than capable of arranging things for the length of time that the Year of the Dragon Contest would be going over. The sponsors and producers for the contest took the cooperation as a sign of support and then moved on to the natural other changes that would come as a result of the change. That being that Mr. Shikamatsu and his daughter, Michiko, would have to go down to Texas when the Lunar New Year celebration for Animalia began. They also were able to assure that there would be television and online coverage that would allow things at the Dino Dome to be broadcast back to Animalia. These promoters also promised to do the announcing, since the Animalia Ambassadoria crew would have school that they would be attending.
Much of the rest of the year then let time progress as those that signed up for the contest train and prepare, particularly as they found on what would be part of the contest and pageant and then shaping their skills. This, of course, left those they cared for having their moments to talk on these things, as was something that came up at the Albers house while Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were out enjoying something that related to their Christmas break from SMU. It was something that gave Mr. and Mrs. Albers time to talk with Mr. and Mrs. Luwrie, the parents of Sophie's bond-mate, Roland.
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"How long will they be out?" Mrs. Luwrie asked as Mr. Albers opened the door for him and his wife.
"For a few hours, likely training for the Year of the Dragon contest next year," Mr. Albers answered to the man who would likely be his in-law once Sophie and Roland both graduated from college.
"That'd be assuming that training is ALL they'd be doing," Mr. Luwrie commented, "I mean... they are Animalians, in love, and have grown up. We can't deny them everything that comes with that."
Mr. Albers nodded and led them into the living room and then the dining room where Mrs. Albers was seated at the table with some folders set out.
"And I suppose some of that is why we're here," Mr. Albers commented slowly, "jealousy and inadequacy..."
"You were never inadequate, dear," Mrs. Albers said to her husband and took his hand as he sat down beside her, "as... if you really wouldn't want to do this I wouldn't complain. It's just... well... aside from the Marianas, were the only ones that stayed Human. All our kids became Animalians for one reason or another... JC adopted Sophie as his mother when he was uplifted, and he's called me grandma on occasion... and I don't feel that old..."
"And a good many of the others in our age group are seeming to enjoy certain things at a much higher rate," Mrs. Luwrie commented, "I ran into Josephine Brown at the store the other day... it may be fairly early, but I'd swear she's pregnant."
"And the Wesleys had Belle and Bash shortly after Thomas and Julia became Animalians," Mr. Albers nodded.
"And they're still enjoying it," Mrs. Albers commented, "I mean, I called them the other day, because I had some ideas on things we could all do for when our kids have their weddings, I could swear that based on how the answer came when the phone was picked up, that I'd interrupted something that wasn't just "relaxing," if you know what I mean."
There were nods from the others that were there at the table.
"And then there is the whole prospect of Sophie moving so far away," Mrs. Albers then picked up, "I mean... I know I'm not supposed to get all worked up on this... and that when kids grow up and succeed... it should be accepted they move on... but Texas... moving all the way to TEXAS. I'd hoped that Sophie and Roland would stay in the area in northern Nevada, northeastern California, southern Oregon... you know, closer to home."
This time it was Mr. Albers who comforted his wife, "if it makes you feel any better, dear, I think Sophie feels the same way regarding JC. I mean, if he and Pauline move to some place far from her and Roland... I think she'd be heartbroken. She loves JC that much."
"Like a good mother," Mrs. Albers found herself smiling and thinking back on how close Sophie was to JC. Seeing her care for and nuzzle the young African Grey Parrot from the pet store and doing everything to feed and care for JC, including demanding that JC only get bottled water so as not to get anything that might be wrong in the tap water, which was ultimately how JC avoided getting uplifted with the rest of Lyre's pets.
“I’d be more concerned with who her neighbors could be,” Mr. Luwrie commented, “I mean… granted Heather Wilcox-Green went through Animalia’s punishment and has apologized… and has shown signs of getting over what lead to her attacking my son…”
“But we would like to be able to put our foot down, should something happen where she relapses or something else happens,” Mrs. Luwrie agreed, “and thus why we’d look at the two specific species we’d been looking through. Granted… there could be certain… sexual advantages, based on meeting Andrew and Jen… but being large enough to deal with Heather directly if something goes wrong would be my issue…”
“Even if we don’t move from Lyre/Animalia to Texas and following them?” Mr. Albers wondered.
“We wouldn’t need to follow them,” Mr. Luwrie answered, “just provide an image at the Year of the Dragon Contest… even if we aren’t contestants, “that if anything ever happens to our son or your daughter or their hatchlings, and Heather Wilcox-Green is responsible in any way… we’d be able to come and demand a right boxing match as part of the punishment.”
"There'd have to be a better way to word that... at least to Sophie," Mrs. Albers spoke, "I mean... Mrs. Green hasn't caused any trouble in Texas, and actually bonded a bit to Sophie while going through her punishments..."
"And I can accept that she has improved," Mrs. Luwrie commented, "likely the influence your daughter has at providing lessons on right from wrong and standing up to bullies... having her grandmother providing reminders on morals and so on... and she did behave well enough on that apology dinner after Roland and Sophie became Dinotopians... but there is still the stance to be ready or able just in case things go bad."
"Maybe... but it may be best not to mention that specifically, particularly as her husband would be the one administering the shots," Mrs. Albers reminded Mrs. Luwrie, "and the two of them are raising a family as well. The last thing we want to antagonize people or do something that will upset Sophie and Roland... Particularly as I doubt she's entirely unaware of the interest. Particularly after meeting Andrew and Jen at that one Thanksgiving banquet..."
"You don't necessarily have to say you're doing it for sex, either," Mr. Luwrie commented, "maybe just give an open-ended statement on doing for better health and being stronger with some of the other stuff going on... some of that might be taken as acceptable."
There were some nods and that brought all eyes down to the listed paperwork that the two sets of parents had narrowed things down to, Mamenchisaurus and Alamosaurus. The idea had been one set would become one of the two species of Sauropod and the other set would become the other. And with the Lunar New Year starting on February 10, they had the time to finalize those decisions and set things up for the both the move to the homes in Animalia being specially built them after them and setting up the drive to Dallas to pick their children up for the contest and break the news for that conversion and then setting up the conversion and the trading of their cars in for something more Dinotopian sized.
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Meanwhile, the southern end of Animalia, Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were looking up at a pair of new homes that were on that edge of the town and looked like a lot of the work had been done toward the end of summer and the start of fall. There were some tarps over windows and the roof area, but things were largely far enough along that some of the winter weather wouldn't be an impediment to finishing the structures. The thing that drew most of their attention was that the two homes were closer in size to what they'd seen at Dino City or Mesozoic Enclave. They'd come across this while jogging to keep in shape and work on some endurance training to be ready for the race to the top segment of the coming contest.
"These look a bit bigger than just for some of the normal Animalians," Roland commented, "do you think that maybe they're trying to balance for something... you know, as a just in case thing for Dinotopians, as not all of them moved to Dino City when it was established."
"That could be possible," Pauline commented, noting that both Roland and Sophie moved to jog in place.
She and JC hadn't actually signed up for the contest, but JC remained dedicated to Sophie and Pauline couldn't fault her mate for wanting to help his former owner and mother figure. Not to mention that some of the jogging and other activities helped keep things fit and helped both Microraptor Dinotopians work with movements on the ground that wouldn't mess up the flight feathers on their legs.
"We might have to check with Mrs. Brown on that, as Animalia is pretty much all on the areas that had been on the Brown's ranch," Sophie commented.
"Or one of the other ones that was next to the Brown's ranch," Roland reminded her, "as the art teacher at WSA got caught up in the initial outbreak as well."
"And it may not be possible that Mrs. Brown knows," JC commented and pointed to the sign boards posted in the ground near the cement driveways on each home, "the construction companies are privately run, and don't appear to be fully affiliated with Animalia. Any Animalians on the project may only be doing the physical work as contractors."
"And contractors wouldn't know who it was for, and since we aren't police, we couldn't ask the companies who these are for, if they've already been sold," Sophie figured, "it might make for something interesting by the time we get to the summer. By then the hoses will be fully done and may have residents. If they are Dinotopians... it'd be polite to say high as some of the ones still in Lyre/Animalia."
"And in the meantime, you still have your exercises to keep in shape for the multi-path obstacle course race to the top of the "volcano" for the Lunar New Year celebration," JC spoke.
Sophie and Roland both nodded and their jog soon resumed.
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From there, much of the work in preparation for the contest was more in building the large volcano that would be the focal point of the finale. The frame was metal and had lots of internal arches in order to make sure that the structure would be able to support the weight of those competing, and through the course of the year this had also included some stress tests on the design. The engineers that designed it provide for multiple paths to the top of the mountain, which was also made to look like a typical flat-topped volcano. The top section would be large enough that just about everyone could stand there, and there were special stands that would also be built into it and allow for the proverbial flag to be taken to be the trophy and winning the race.
There was a winding flat track that spiraled up the mountain to that mountain and that anyone could use, but it wasn't the only path up to the top. For there were a series of additional platforms that went straight upside of the volcano and technically took a shorter path than the spiraling track. However, because of this, those platforms were placed in such a way that one would have to jump from platform to platform and be careful on how far they would jump, and this could mean that a misguided jump would mean a fall to the far side. And as the team worked on the preliminary assembly of the mountain in the Dino Dome's main arena area, that did draw some attention from others that came in for their workouts in the facilities and responded to the noise.
"That all looks quite big," Mr. M commented as he looked up at the frame as the Horizon engineers were working on the assembly, "bigger than the mountain used in Animalia..."
"Well... Most Dinotopians are bigger than other Animalians, and with that, we need to make sure there is space for everyone and that it is structurally sound," one engineer spoke.
"And we have thick layers of rubber to provide for traction and padding so that no one is straining their legs," said another.
"And the platforms going up the side?" Mr. M wondered.
"An alternative to running along the path," the first engineer spoke, "though it's spread out so that the only option is to essentially hop up the levels to get to the top. One won't move as fast as running, but in not having to go as far, there is the chance of one being able to beat someone who is running and is faster."
"And if you're worried about some one falling, the rubber used for the skin of the mountain will be thick enough to avoid injury and we'll have enough big foam blocks at the bottom of the mountain that the landing will be soft."
Mr. M blew air through his teeth, as it seemed like this obstacle course had ideas for just about anyone.
"What about the Pterosaurs?" Mr. M wondered.
"If they chose to fly, they'll have a route that has been largely pre-measured and will have some large set rings to fly through in order to qualify," the second engineer spoke, "in this while they may go the fastest while flying, they'd also have the furthest to go," the first spoke.
Mr. M found a lot of this quite impressive, and it would make for a good story to tell to some of the others, as many Dinotopians were training in various ways for the event. There were some questions from them on what to do for the pageant and male's contest from some of the others when they came into the gym, and Mr. M could understand some of that. The was the one question that was there that all were expected to answer, and that being, "if you were to rule as an emperor or empress how would you rule in the face of a crisis? Be prepared to explain and be questioned on your response." Mr. M guessed that question was because of the importance of dragons in Chinese culture and how dragons were often connected the emperor, though he'd also wonder on how that would be graded. Would it be on the basis on what he thought of politics or what would be the most culturally appropriate answer. Would it be a practical or philosophical question and things like that. He'd sent in some emails for clarification, and hoped an answer would come in the coming days, though he also doubted this group would fully understand that. Though, there was a question he could ask...
"I do have one more question, if you don't mind..." Mr. M began.
"Go ahead," the first engineer answered.
"Given the size of this... and the fact that there will be the pageant and show before the race to the top..." Mr. M spoke slowly, "wouldn't it be a little early to be setting all this up?"
"The system is designed to be taken apart and reassembled," the second engineer spoke, "Just as the mountain in Animalia is designed to be disassembled and reassembled. This one is a bit different in its design and the elements needed to assure its weight support. So, we're wanting to time how fast it will take to assemble and the like. And some of it would even be in sections and has doors so that the mountain could be disassembled from the inside. With that down, we can then calculate what we'd need to do for assembly storage until the beginning of the Lunar New Year... which the contest is to go for a couple days. The pageant and all that on the tenth and then the race to the top on the next day."
"I see..." Mr. M said slowly.
"Our biggest quest after that will then be making sure there will be a way to store it until the next Year of the Dragon after this one," the first engineer added.