I'm guessing it was near dinner time when I finally got a decent amount of nourishment. Aurora had taken me to a small market that had a few stalls still running. I was given an apple and a muffin which Aurora payed for out of her pocket. I tried not to inhale the precious food she had bought but I was really hungry.

We also walked around for a bit too. Since it was so late there weren't as many people walking around, although I did see a guy with an owl pass me once.

"You've never been here right?" She inquired, taking a bite of her apple.

"No..."

"You ever heard of Zoi?"

"I can't say I have, who is it?"

She giggled. "Zoi isn't a who, it's a what. A tree. Come on."

    She lead my through a few archways, I got the feeling we were heading towards the center of the complex. Until finally we passed under one more archway and I felt a cool breeze on my face, and recognized the natural light of the setting sun instead of the fauna torches that had previously served at the only light source.

    Inside the room, was the largest tree I had ever seen in my life.

    The trunk took up most of the space in the gargantuan space. The room was shaped like the top of an egg, curving gently around the mass of the tree. It had a massive array of leaves and branched that were growing outside of the building, through the hole in the roof. There were some birds flying around on the inside, landing of fake tree root perches anchored to the walls before flitting around again. I blinked I realized what I thought to be scintillating stars were actually the glowing fruit of the massive tree.

"What is it?" I asked, walking toward and laying my hand on the bark.

"This is the Tree of Zoi."

I startled at the sound of a new voice, and spun around to see a short young lady in a long pale blue gown smiling at me in a friendly way.

I panicked as Aurora let out a startled gasp and suddenly dropped to her knees. "Your Highness."

The lady waved her hand at her. "No need for formalities here young one, I'm came to enjoy Zoi's just the same as you have."

Then it struck me. I was standing bewildered in the presence of the queen. Not just of the mammals, or of the North, but the queen of the entirety of Zoo. I forgot she lived here. I also forgot to speak so I opened and closed my mouth a few times as my tongue dried up in protest.

"Is this your first time here?" She asked. "I know I haven't met all of my people, but you're definitely new, I like your hair."

"Th-thanks!" I sputtered, feeling my face grow warm, relieving compliments was still pretty foreign to me. "Uh, yeah. This is my first time here."

She smiled, a bright blue butterfly fluttered around her face and landed on her shoulder, but she failed to notice. "My name's Percy, you probably know me by Queen Persephone though."

"Craig." I replied numbly, as she shook my hand.

"I'm Aurora Hemsworth." My new friend introduced herself beside me.

"This is my familiar Blink." Percy pointed to butterfly on her shoulder. "He thinks you both look sharp tonight."

Blink bowed gently and delicately, which was honestly how I might expect a butterfly to bow.

    "It's super impressive first time huh?" Percy asked, filling the gaps of our star struck silence with her questions.

    I nodded, placed my hand in the bark again and craned my neck to stare up at the top of the tree. Percy put her pale delicate hand next to mine.

    "What so amazing about this tree, is that Zoi alone is responsible for all the flora and fauna magic running through out our land. The spirits of Kosmos gifted it to us when the first familiars appeared. You're fifteen right?"

    "For about a day now, yeah." I agreed, focusing more on her words, I felt awestruck to be honest.

    "You can talk to your familiar because of Zoi." She explained. "I am eternally grateful for the magic it provides. I try to come here at least once everyday, it's my favorite spot in the whole Capital."

    "Do you learn all that when you become queen?" Aurora asked quietly, she had hung back a bit until now.

    "It's hard to explain." Percy admitted. "Don't laugh, but I feel like Zoi speaks to me."

    If it were possible for a queen to looked shy, Percy was doing a good job. She brushed one of her long silver hairs out of the way and stared at the bark for a moment.

    "That makes perfect sense." Aurora agreed. "I mean, it's so ancient and so powerful."

    Percy's eyes lit up. "Exactly, I knew I wasn't going crazy."

    Blink crawled up onto her ear suddenly and made the impression he was talking to her. Percy paused for a moment, before straightening herself, and giving a short curtsy.

    "It was a please meeting you two, I hope we talk more in the future, but it appears I must leave you now. Queen stuff."

    "Thank you Your Majesty." Aurora curtsied back.

    "Bye." I let out somewhat bitterly, I had really liked talking to her.

    She gave a short waved with her fingers to us before gently hiking up her dress and walking in a hurried fashion from the premise. Now it was just me, Aurora, and the big tree.

    I heard a sharp caw, and a flash of green sailed in from the arch we had arrived from. Peri landed on my shoulder, looking somewhat relived.

    "I never knew how big this place was, until I had to look for you in it." He sighed.

    "You're back." I observed.

    "Someone's making good use of their eye balls." He breathed. "The Gene Runner said I could leave a few minutes back, I just had trouble finding you guys."

    He suddenly focused on Aurora, as if he suddenly realized she was there. "She giving you any trouble?"

    I glanced up at Aurora, and at her amused expression. "No, she's been pretty cool so far."

    "Speaking of that, I hate to end our fun night but I probably should take you back now. It's getting pretty late and I need to get back to my Hotel." She sighed, as if the idea was a distasteful to her as it was to me.

    A few minutes later we were knocking on the door of the wolf rep's door. There had been loud voices inside, but they stopped once Aurora knocked. I didn't like the sound of that, I could feel my heart pick up pace and start to rattle around in the back of my head.

    Neve did not look happy when I walked in, her hair was out of place, that meant she'd been yelling and probably threatening to knock stuff over. Surprisingly, her eyes were red and puffy as well. Had she been crying? The wolf rep look rather unkempt and startled, he'd probably been yelled at. His face told me he's done some of the yelling as well. Not to mention the tension in the room was thick I could poke my finger through it.

    "Your DNA result have returned, Craig, and we've got some interesting news." Neve started, her voice husky.

    "I'll wait outside." Aurora announced, closing the door behind her.

    What was that supposed to mean? Did they find out who my real parents were? We're they still alive?

    "I don't want to go live with my real parents, I hate them." The words slipped out of my mouth surprisingly easy.

    The wolf rep frowned. "That's the thing, we haven't actually found a registered pair that meet the DNA requirements, from this vantage point it looks like you have no parents at all, but we're working on it."

    "So let me go back with Neve." I continued. "If you haven't found my parents I don't have to leave, right Neve?"

    I looked to Neve but she replied by looking down at her hands. What did that mean?

    "We didn't find you parents, but we found something else, a sibling." She explained. "It's in the governments best interest to reunite the two of you."

    A sibling? I blinked, almost expecting this to be a joke. My useless parents not only gave up kid, but two?

    "Sibling?" I asked again, handling daring to believe it.

    "A sister, twin sister actually. She currently lives in a foster system in the South, in a small jungle town called, Agrios, Mr. Damia will be taking you there in the morning."

     "What?" I roared. "I'm not going! He can't make me!"

     "Craig," the wolf rep started. "Because this is so sudden, and because of your environment we don't really have a choice."

     "I already have a family!" I insisted.

     "We're working on that, remember what I told you about Felix." Neve shot me a look. "We're bringing it up in court, there's a chance you and your sister will get to live with us, but for now I have to leave you here."

     I forced myself not to cry in front of these two adults. I missed my mom, I just wanted to go home. I tried to calm down and convince myself there was a chance, and these laws only apply to me as a kid, once I turned eighteen I could travel by myself. Maybe I might like my new sister.

     "You're gonna be okay." That was the last piece of advice Neve gave to me before she took the Scobi bus back to my home.

    Only this time I wasn't going back with her.

______________
Okay now that I've gotten my signature plot twist out of the way y'all can start shipping, no other surprise siblings are gonna pop up

At least not for a while ;)