They briefly stopped by at an inn that Ranvir got recommended by the blacksmith. Ranvir was already carrying all their belongings in a pocket-space, which meant they didn’t really need to drop anything off.

The inn was massive, a huge multistory building with dozens, if not a hundred, rooms. The man they had stationed in the reception, some kind of bird, told them they were in the ‘off season’, whatever that meant, but they had pretty much free selection of rooms. Ranvir got one with a view of the city.

The rooms weren’t overly expensive and with them only staying for two nights; it was well within the money he had left over from speaking with the blacksmith, worrisome experience as that may have been.

Stopping by the receptionist on the way out, Ranvir briefly asked him about stuff to do in the city. He’d expected a list similar to what Grevor had dragged him, Sansir, and Esmund through on their first day into the Elusria City, but the receptionist took one look at Frija and suggested something he called a ‘zoo’.

Ranvir thought he might’ve read about it before, but no clear idea for the concept came to mind. Still, he followed the man’s advice and was soon back on the streets with directions.

The first thing that struck him was the stench of animal. At first, the scent was diffuse, something that barely registered over the background smells of the city’s natives, but as they grew closer, so did the odor.

They were a lot closer before Frija reacted to it. “Ugh it smells,” she made a face, scrunching up her small nose and waved a hand in front of her face. “like lots of animals!” she finished grinning up at him madly.

“Sure does,” Ranvir responded, squeezing her hand and smiling, though part of his mind still lingered on the conversation with the blacksmith. Despite his best attempts at easing the man’s worry, he never calmed down from their brief interchange. Ranvir got a lot better price for the rest of his metals, to the point he feared ripping the man off.

There’d been nothing Ranvir could do. The man had simply refused to give him anything less, as if fearing his retaliation. Latresekt really did a number on him, Ranvir thought, remembering the creature’s laugh.

They reached the specified street, revealing a vast edifice. Letters in the foreign language of the natives were scrawled across the top. The facade of the building looked to have been carved from stone but made to look like wood. Bas-reliefs had then been carved into wood-imitation depicting animals.

Frija gasped as they reached the one end of the immense structure and ran her fingers over one relief. “It’s a cat! And it’s with its friends!” It featured what Ranvir thought to be a wolf running with a pack. As they passed down the relief, the pack came on a herd of deer. “What’s that?” Frija asked, pointing at the next relief as Ranvir’d gotten caught up in admiring the detail.

The next set of relief depicted the wolves bringing down one deer while another got away. Frija was smudging a finger over the wolves and deer.

“What are the cats doing, dad?”

Thank you so much zoo, whatever you are, Ranvir thought acerbically. He licked his lips and crouched down next to Frija. He pulled her into an embrace, hugging her back to his chest as they both examined the relief. Those fuckers even included blood and guts, Ranvir sent an extra curse to whoever thought such pictures should be made publicly available.

“Animals eat different things,” Ranvir said slowly, feeling like ice was groaning and cracking under his feet. “Some animals like deer,” Ranvir pointed accordingly. “eat grass and leaves, they are called herbivores. Some animals like the wolves,” Ranvir pointed to the pack.

“Those are wolves?” Frija turned in his arms to give him a skeptical look. “They look like cats, dad.”

“I know firehearth,” Ranvir replied. He ran a finger over the carvings. “See how long the fur is? Few cats get their hair that long. But then look at their ears, see how pointed and long they are? Look at their snouts. Do you remember any cats with such long mouths?”

“They still look like cats to me.”

“They also remind me of cats, but when you look closely, they differ in a few very important ways.”

“Why?”

“Why the differences are important?”

Frija nodded silently, looking at him.

“You can’t treat everyone the same, right? You wouldn’t treat me the same as you would Vasso, would you? Would you treat little Fanis? He’s not even as old as you.”

Frija pursed her lips. “I guess you’re right, dad,” she hugged him and he hugged her back, hoping their talk was over. He’d just barely straightened before Frija turned back and suddenly remembered. “You didn’t explain what they were doing, dad!”

A pair of natives walked by, their furry appearance making Ranvir think they might be partially wolf. He did his best to ignore them as he crouched once more. “Like how some creatures are herbivores, some creatures need meat to survive. They are called carnivores, or sometimes just predators. The wolves are eating the deer, because otherwise they will starve…” Ranvir felt his brows furrow, ready for the onslaught of questions and fears he felt were coming.

“Am I a herbivore?”

Ranvir blinked. “Uh, well, you still need to eat meat. I believe humans fit in as both,” there was a word for it in fiyan, but Ranvir’d forgotten.

“I think I’m a herbivore. I’m a raisinore.”

Ranvir let Frija’s word pass over him for a moment before chuckling to himself and lifting her up high into the air, causing his little girl to squeal. “You’re a raisinvore, I think you mean. But I’m a little girl eater!” Ranvir mimicked, chewing down her stomach, and blew raspberries instead. Frija kicked, screamed, and laughed before he put her down.

Somehow they’d moved from the middle of the bas-reliefs to in front of the zoo’s doors.

Entering the zoo was enough to stir Ranvir’s memory of where he’d read about them before, except in their descriptions in books on Korfyi they’d been described as lifeless places where the animals kept trapped were slowly drained of their lives in tiny cages filled with dung.

Though Ranvir definitely caught hints of more unsavory smells, his heightened perception was likely the cause for this. Even the noises weren’t so bad, though. He quickly realized why when he saw the map. This place was enormous. Bigger than villages.

It seemed these people cared greatly for their animals, even if they’d captured them first, for some reason. He even caught a snippet of fact when he paid for their tickets. It was the Royal Zoo. It seemed this place was sponsored by the local government, which might explain the vast swath of land it was taking up.

Frija flew away from him as if loosed from a bow as soon as she saw the first cage. Owls resided within. At least, Ranvir assumed as much from the drawings attached to a board nailed in front of the cage. He could only make out the occasional glare of yellow or white irises from within the shadowed corners. Even his perception-enhanced sight couldn’t break through.

Then one eye flared from yellow into silver-white as it locked gazes with Ranvir. He furrowed his brow slightly, taking a step closer, examining the bird with his tether-sense. There was a… connection between its spirit and its body, like what caused Ranvir’s eyes to change when he accessed his powers.

“Dad!” Frija called from somewhere else. Whipping his senses around even faster than his eyes, Ranvir found her staring at birds that proudly paraded in front of their cages, changing colors on a whim. “Look!” One bird appeared to be doing a little dance before Frija, which she eagerly mimicked.

Ranvir smiled, keeping Frija in his gaze as she danced with the bird. “What did you do to the blacksmith?” he asked Latresekt. Briefly, he considered putting the translation stone into a pocket-space to avoid the risk of being overheard, but realized he wouldn’t meet any of these people again. The inconvenience wasn’t worth it.

“You think I did something?” Latresekt chuckled. “Please, boy.”

“So it was just him seeing you?”

“His primitive spell wouldn’t have seen me, even if I allowed him to.”

Ranvir grit his teeth. Was Latresekt lying to him? That was a distinct possibility, but his experiences told him that the creature didn’t lie. At least not in anything he’d caught it in. It would rather outright avoid answering, than tell a lie. Even during their attempted bargaining it could’ve lied to him and told him some innocuous thing gaining access to his Disciplines did, but Latresekt remained quiet and mysterious. Infuriating.

They perused the zoo for a long time. The sun, just like in Korfyi, didn’t move, though Ranvir could see a planet was slowly approaching. Perhaps that was how they tracked night and day here, though the cycle had to be much shorter than on Korfyi or Vednar.

Frija made them get something the locals called ice-creams, for which Ranvir would always and forever be in her debt. It was as they were eating these deliciously cold and creamy frozen treats that the next great revelation of the day struck Ranvir.

They were passing by a cage with creatures that looked human-like. Enough so that Ranvir and Frija immediately noticed. Another family was passing through further ahead. The kid screamed for his father as two of the animals in the distant cage started screaming and yelling.

They were loud and Frija immediately clutched her dad’s leg, almost dropping her ice-cream. Thankfully, he caught it on a flat top of space before going to investigate.

Ranvir couldn’t stop a grin from spreading onto his face as he witnessed the glory of these powerfully build creatures. Their arms were long and as thick around as Ranvir’s thigh, reaching to the ground, supporting their weight. One of them, with pale white hair on its back, towered over another smaller primate. It appeared those two had been the ones involved in the spat. As the big one walked away, it paced in a highly familiar fashion.

“Not a word from you. I will not hear a single word from you,” Latresekt groused.

“The gorillas have calmed down now, son,” the father of the child who’d first spotted them said.

“They look just like you,” Ranvir whispered so silently, not even Frija could overhear him.