While the dusty kids books on John's shelf contained many pictures and mini descriptions of the animals, Skylar was entranced by all the amazing creatures depicted across the internet. Real, theoretical, or imagined, it was amazing how diverse Earth was.
Flying, swimming, digging, sight without eyes, feeling with hair, the adaptations to the world around them was endless.
"I wish I had enough time to try out the bodies of all Earth's creatures." Skylar said with a sigh. "There are so many interesting features and adaptations which could prove useful back on Qwortar or in other exploration."
"You were able to manipulate Emily's sample into something slightly different, wouldn't you be able to do that to try out animals? We are all DNA based after all."
"I could try, but so many of these adaptations I am so curious about have been fine tuned over years and I would have to go through a lot, maybe endless trial and error to get things just right. If trying doesn't kill me from energy depletion or screwing something up in the genetic material."
"Yeah that's too risky." John drummed his fingers on his desk.
Skylar nodded. "Besides, if I wanted to try out every species for at least twelve hours then I'd be here four million three hundred fifty thousand days."
John whistled. He pulled up the calculator on his phone and did the conversion. " That's nearly twelve thousand years. Do Qwortarians even live that long?"
"Nope." Skylar sighed. "So I'd have to pick carefully to teat out all various adaptations with the least transformations possible. And it could still be a while."
"Yeah." John leaned his head in his hand. "You know what you reminded me of when I saw you?"
"You told Emily I was like jello."
John snorted. "Yeah, I mean animal wise. Guess which animals you reminded me of."
"Uhhh..." Skylar glanced at the animal books. “Uh, well, I have a beak like a bird.” John nodded. “My eye has a stalk, like, uh, snails and slugs. And I had tentacles like squids and octopuses.”
“Yeah, and your body looked squishy like a slug too.” John held up three fingers. “Those are three traits you already have experience with, so you could knock those off your list.”
“Well, hopefully the government people leave the park soon and I can leave. Best not attract any more attention by trying out other animals.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s for the best.” John looked out the window. “Hopefully they find nothing and you get to go home without further incident.”
Word count: 429
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