| 02/23/01 - Day 3 Dear Mom & Dad, This is my first mail sent by Necco Air! I hope it arrives to you safe and sound. It was certainly expensive. The first site was probably one of the oddest experiences I've ever had. I barely know how to begin to describe it. I guess I'll start with the trip there. I arrived at the airport and went through customs and picked up my luggage. Airports are all pretty much the same wherever you go, and the Faidian airport at Tower city was no different. But after I left the airport things really started to get bizarre. Well, I suppose not bizarre -- Just Faidian. There are people in all modes of dress here but the traditional Faidian clothes tend to be on the robe-like side, little half capes and the like. And most of the younger men and women wear these skin tight underclothes that go right down to their wrists and ankles, even during the middle of summer like it is right now. I was sweating through my denims while these people run around in skintight wool. Someone told me it was lorriam wool and you barely feel it while you're wearing it, it's so light and cool. I guess so or otherwise all of these people would be fainting from heatstroke. I hired a car to get out to my destination. The school wanted me to start out on a pretty small Faidian creature. Site 1 was a necco breeding facility out in the country downriver from Tower city, which was still in sight when I got there (the namesake tower of that city is several miles tall ...!). It was a small fairly simple house with a large aviary like building behind it made of glass and steel and decorated inside with lush plants like a green house. I wasn't sure what to expect of my tourguide for that afternoon. Remember what I told you about the Snakes? Well there's another kind of creature native to Faidia, rarer than the Snakes. These are aksandriates, or akkies for short, people who were born as plants. I was taking notes like crazy, I can tell you. Aksandriates are born only in Tower city in the special greenhouses there, and they are very rare, but my guide that day happened to be an aksandriate. He was even kind enough to shift to his plant form for me once. He was a species of orchid. Fascinating. Anyway, Delye was the guide's name. He was very thin and had darkly tanned skin, and odd greenish black hair. Lots of people on Faidia have odd colored hair -- their complexions seem to reflect their animal or plant origins. I confess that I thought Delye a surly character when I first encountered him, and rather the nervous sort -- he twitches perpetually. But eventually I learned he has Tourette's syndrome and that was the reason for some of his rude behavior; that and I think he's just naturally obnoxious. He was all alone at the facility for that day and he showed me the works. I can't tell you how adorable the little neccos were. They are a small draconic species native to Faidia that cannot be found in great numbers in the wild any longer. Some individuals reach to about a gull's size, although most stay about the size of kittens. They were well matched with Delye because they express a great deal of intelligence and cleverness. I spoke with several and the first thing they usually asked for was some kind of food. Some even pretended to only know the word "Treat." Thank heavens Delye was there or I would have been exploited down to my last penny. I enclosed copies of the papers you fill out to adopt a necco of your own and some pictures of the neccos I met. I'm exhausted after my day at the facility and I should probably hit the hay. I'm staying in one of the spare rooms here. Hope everything's all right at home, I'm feeling a little Earthsick. Love, Gary |
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