The Zookeeper 2: The Past and The Present

Ch. 13: A Chance

Later at San Diego, Amity was doing both good AND bad. She was doing good in that she was doing great at her job, she was doing bad at getting her family to lose their fear.

"I keep telling you guys, the giraffes are harmless." Amity said to them as they sat at a table in the zoo food court for an early lunch.

"You don't understand, they're evil." Emira said, "I've heard the legends."

"Legends that have probably been twisted and over exaggerated over time." Amity said to him.

"Possibly but history books can't be over exaggerated." Alador said as he ate a burger, finding it quite good.

"No, but they can be changed over time to fit a narrative." Amity said, "Happened a lot here."

"I'm still not comfortable around them." Emira said as she drank some soda. "It's those long necks that freak me out.

"Makes me wonder how you fell in love with Viney then." Edric said.

"Viney?" Amity asks.

"Emira's girlfriend. Beast keeping expert, basically a magic zookeeper times 10." Edric quickly explains.

"Did you just compare my girlfriend to a demon?" Emira asked Edric.

Alador gave a sigh as he shook his head.

"Emira, please not here." He said to her.

"What?" Amity asked, confused. "What's wrong?"

"They tend to do very stupid things when one gets on the others nerves."

"Even in adulthood and still living at home?" Amity asked Alador.

"Yes." Alador said blankly.

"I've been helping them learn about Blight Industries but its taking a while." Alador said.

"Blight Industries?" Amity asked.

"The family company I and your...birther made from the ground up. I briefly mentioned it last night. A security company that sells abomination products to customers, mostly weapons but we've been branching out." Alador said softly so no humans would hear him, "I hope they can take over someday."

"And what about you? What will you do with your retirement?" Amity asked him.

"Hmm, maybe travel the Isles a bit. I've lived in Bonesborough my whole life, it's a big Titan to see." Alador said to her, "The possibilities are endless."

"Well, whatever you decide, I hope you want to visit more. It's been nice having you all here, irrational fear or not." Amity said with a smile.

"It's not irrational." The twins mumbled.

"Here, it is." Amity said before she ate more of her salad.

"What's irrational is that you don't eat meat." Edric said to her.

"It's a life choice and I stand by it." Amity said.

"You're missing so much though." Edric said.

"I really don't think so." Amity said to him.

"I stand by your choice, but meat just has SO much to offer." Emira said as she took some pepperoni off her pizza. "Especially this, their meats even tastier than back home."

"Yeah, well, Pizza is comfort food." Amity said.

"I'm not just talking about the pizza. It's the pepperoni that makes it so good, without it, it probably sucks." Emira said to her.

"Oh, you clearly don't have pizza in the Demon Realm, because that is a straight up lie." Amity said, "Be glad you didn't say that in New York or Chicago."

"Why?" Edric asked her.

"They say their deep-dish pizza is the best. And by deep, I mean DEEP." Amity said with a serious tone, "And for New York, they claim to have the best Pizza in the country."

The twins looked at each other, wondering just how good their pizza was if it was the best in the country.

"Anyway, it's weird to eat an animal if you spend all day near them." Amity said, "Even though I've been vegetarian my entire life, it's become stronger ever since I started working here."

"Really? Interesting." Alador said with a nod and a smile. "Sounds like you would've made a promising Beast Keeper."

"I mean, I just take care of them. Luz would've though, she can talk to them." Amity said, "I... can't."

Everyone could see the sad expression on her face, how sad she was that she couldn't understand the very animals she took care off.

"Well, maybe there's a way to change that."

Amity looked at her blood father in surprise, wondering how he thinks this could be fixed. Eda told Amity that learning beast keeping magic would take years before she could communicate with animals, so what shortcut could Alador provide?

"I've been working on something." Alador said, "A necklace that, theoretically allow someone to communicate with animals. I was hired by the Beast Keeping Coven to come up with it and perhaps you can be the first to test it."

Alador reached into his coat and pulled out a necklace with a red gem in the middle. Amity's doubts came back into her mind, what if this is just a trap? What if this erased her memory? What if this was a mind control device?

"And you're SURE this is safe?" Amity asked as she slowly took the necklace from him.

"I promise on my mother's grave." Alador said, "I know what you might be thinking, but I am nothing like your mother."

"Yeah and since he divorced mom, dad had really stepped up his parent game." Edric said.

"Okay... I trust you." Amity said, putting on the necklace, "How... how does it work?"

"It should begin to work when you're in the presence of an animal. Whenever you are close to one, the gem will flash and act as a translator for you to understand them." Alador explained.

"Okay, I'll go try it." Amity said, getting up.

She knew the perfect animal to speak with right now... her babies. Amity had always wanted to know what they really thought of her, how much they really cared about her for taking care of them. If she could hear it, even a little bit, she'd be so happy. She entered and put the necklace on.

"Hello my gentle giants." Amity said.

Hearing her voice, some of the giraffes turned to her and went to greet her. A young one especially since she was always happy to see Amity.

"Let's see if this works."

Amity got close and gazed at the gem around her neck, seeing it flash like Alador said and smiled. She was finally going to hear them speak. Amity listened, hearing...