I had never traveled on anything other than my own two feet before. So the concept of the Scobi bus was slightly foreign to me.

I should probably explain, Zoo ran on two types on magic, Fuana and Flora. Fuana was magic that you drew from your familiar, it was stuff like temporary strength, and the ability to understand your familiar. Flora magic lasted longer and could be used to enchanted things, like what my mom did. The Scobi Bus ran on Flora magic, or so I assumed. I mean it looked like a big floating log with a door and windows.

    "Craig you're looking at the bus like it's a big bug." Peri commented. "Bugs are delicious."

    I shook my head, it had taken us a long while to reach the Scobi Bus Station, it was almost dark now. I was hungry, seeing as I hadn't eaten any breakfast, or lunch. Not to mention my entire body hurt from all the running around I had done today. Also the amount of pure emotional trauma I had just went through. It had been a long day.

    Neve pushed me inside, and friendly woman told me to watch my step, and I took a seat on one of the smooth wooden benches. Kadyn sat on one side of me, on the floor, and Neve on the other.

    My hands were shaking.

    Neve seemed to notice this and her demeanor softened slightly. "I'm sorry about earlier."

    When I didn't answer she continued.

    "It's just, I half expected this you know? I told myself when I brought you in that it wasn't a mistake, that I could raise an outsider to be with the Pack. I convinced myself if you were raised by a mother with a wolf by her side, you would have one too. The woods isn't really a place for a tropical bird like yours." She explained. "I don't know what will happen."

    The bus started to move, slowly but surely it built up speed. I looked out across the carved windows and tried to ignore the thoughts circling around. Neve didn't want me either. I was in an endless loop of being the unwanted child.

    "What's going to happen, is I'm going to talk to the wolf representative at the Capitol. It's important because I don't want your familiar getting hurt if you were to stay in an environment you didn't belong in." She continued, brushing some of stark white hair out of her face. "I don't really want you to go either Craig."

    I flinched, and she noticed this.

    "I don't think you realize how much of Felix's sanity he has in you. If you disappear, he won't be the same. This isn't just about me."

Instead of just plainly ignoring her I thought about this. Felix needed me, so I had to come back no matter what.

About two hours later we stopped. I stepped off the bus to come face to face with one of the largest structures I had ever seen in my life. Big huge gleaming white domes stretched out everywhere. They were huge compared to the small huts I was used to living in. I barely had time to take in their pearly beauty before Neve started walking into the crowds of people that moved in and out of the Capital Buildings.

The second thing I observed was the mount of animals there were roaming around. I saw a few other wolves, some bird, even a large grey thing I didn't even know the name of.

"What's that?" I gaped, staring at the animal in amazement, a girl with dark skin leaned against it chatting with her friend.

"It's an elephant." Peri informed. "In Kosmos, which is a mirror to Zoo, I see them all the time."

    "Those things can fit in the jungle?" I blinked, craning my head to marvle at it.

    "They'll tear down trees if there's not enough room."

    "What's that?" I pointed to a weird brown animal that looked like a giant slug with a dog face.

    "Sea lion. They live underwater."

    "Whoa..."

    "Stay close to me." Neve warned. "You could easily get lost here, and we don't have time for that."

    I noticed she suddenly looked out of place in the midst of all theses different animals. For the longest time I thought nothing could get bigger than Kadyn, but boy was I wrong.

    "Here." She turned sharply, then proceeded to lead me up a flight of stairs and up to an office door.

    She knocked, and a man with dirty blonder hair and grey streaks tied up in a ponytail, answered. He looked generally unamused at first but raised an eyebrow once he noticed Neve and I.

    "Mrs. Vlasta, I wasn't expecting you." He observed.

"I'm afraid it's an emergency, I didn't have time to send word ahead." Neve admitted, gesturing to me.

The man spotted Peri on my shoulder and nodded his head. "I see, well I was in the middle of a job interview but I can post-pone it, you clearly have a lot on your mind."

He opened the door all the way, and ushered us inside. I was seated down in one of the two remaining chairs and Neve in the other. The room was bare except for a desk with was covered in parchment, quills, ink, and a small bookshelf. There was a girl in the seat next to me, she appeared to be in her late teens. She had a very intimidating aura and stark white hair. The hair color reminded me of Felix so I decided I liked her.

"Minor emergency Aurora, I'm sorry but we're going to have to continue this at a later date." The man announced.

"That's alright." She shrugged, standing up and gathering her things. "I'm free anytime."

"Next Tuesday then? And before you leave I have a small task for you, call it part of the job protocol."

"Sure thing Mr. Damia, just name it." She stopped, hand on the doorframe.

He adorned some half-moon glasses and stared a piece of paper, then back up at me. I started to panic and wonder if I had done something wrong.

"Can you take this young man up to the the Gene Runners, we've had a bit of a mix up."

She looked down at me and smiled. "Yeah I know where that is, come with me kid."

I glanced at Neve to she if she was okay with this strange teen taking to to a strange place I wasn't aware of, but Neve nodded. I stood awkwardly and followed my chaperone out of the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked nervously, as much as I liked this girl I didn't really know her, or this place.

"Gene Runners, they run DNA tests there. Did you get lost from your family or something?" She explained.

"No...but I am adopted." I replied hesitantly, it was weird introducing myself like that.

"Oh, cool. I'm Aurora by the way." She extended her hand and I shook it while we were walking.

"Craig." I replied, speeding up slightly to keep up with pace. "So why are you here?"

    "Job, I'm trying to land a place as one of the representatives interns, even if it's not my own branch of animal."

    "What kind of familiar do you have?" I questioned.

    She smiled. "Polar bear. He couldn't come with me this trip, to big for the bus, if I stick a job I'll just walk here."

    "Walk? From where?" I blinked, thinking about the long trip I had taken from the North, she had to live even higher up if she had a polar bear as a familiar.

    Aurora shrugged. "Okay so it'll be more like a journey, and I'll live around here of course. I have most of it planned out."

    "Cool."

    "Where you from? Do you know?" She inquired.

    "Uh, I live with one of the wolf packs. I have my whole life, I think. I'm here because, well, Peri's not a wolf." I explained gesturing to the dosing off bird on my shoulder.

    "Hm." She nodded understandingly. "Well, here we are, the Gene Runners."

    We walked into a small sub section of building that was basically a very long room. There was only one old woman but a few roughly carved out desks. Behind her were shelves with a mix of books and various dried leaves hanging off. The woman herself looked very old and mysterious. I'm not sure how comfortable I feel alone in this room with her.

"You here for a DNA test honey?" She asked.

"Yep." I squeaked. "Pardon my asking but what exactly are you going to do to me?"

She waved her hand at, gesturing the two of us sit  in chairs that I'm pretty sure had not been there before. "Quick and easy, just need a bit of your blood. Then your familiar can stay with me while I find out who you're related to, okay dear?"

"Wait, my familiar?" I raised an eyebrow, putting one hand on my bird protectively.

"Calm down Craig." Peri yawned. "I just gotta do a bit of magic, I'll be fine."

"If they have people that can tell you who you're related to why didn't they do that when I was a baby?" I realized.

"You need a familiar to be identified." Aurora added.

"I'm like your personally feathery identification bird." Peri said smugly.

I reluctantly let Peri walked down my arm onto her desk. She took a small knife and made a tiny incision on my arm, which stung slightly. Once it started to bleed she took a vial a collected a few drops.

"You can wander around if you want dearies, this might take a few minutes, maybe an hour." She informed, after wrapping up my arm and turning to a candlelit desk behind her.

"Remember to breath." Peri shot over his shoulder sarcastically.

"This might take a while, when's the last time you ate?" Aurora asked.

Beneath my adamant fear my stomach clawed desperately for nourishment. I had almost forgotten about it.

"Please! I haven't had anything all day." I gasped.

"I know just the place." She nodded. "Come with me kid, I wanna show you something."

_____________

Chronicles of Zoo drinking game: take a shot every time peri tells Craig to calm down