Chapter 140: The Impact of Restoration
"Yeah. I really do think I prefer dry land."
"You do? I liked it."
Noona, cradling Soeun and admiring the photos she'd taken on her phone, made no effort to hide how much fun she'd had. If anything, she looked a little sorry it was over.
I could hardly tell her I disliked something she was enjoying. I shrugged and turned to Grace.
"Where are we headed next?"
"Well, the original plan was shopping, wasn't it?"
"Right."
Grace glanced at a map on her phone, then set about guiding us once again. It wasn't far. A short drive brought us there.
"...There aren't many people, though."
"...Whoa. It isn't usually like this. Today it just seems empty."
Empty it was. From what I'd heard in the car, this was a famous fashion street that normally drew a good crowd, so the quiet was hard not to find strange. The reason became clear almost at once — and so did the fact that our family was the cause.
"Word got out that the whales and dolphins came in close enough to see from shore, so everyone went there. People around here see whales fairly often, but getting this close almost never happens."
A huge crowd had apparently rushed over to see the whales that had followed our yacht all the way into the marina. No wonder. On the drive in, people had been sprinting the other direction. I'd half thought they were filming a zombie movie.
"This works out better for us. We can shop in peace."
Pleased at the thought of browsing without a crowd pressing in, Noona took Soeun's hand and started looking around. She ducked into one shop after another without the slightest discrimination, and in no time she was the biggest spender on the street.
"Suhwan. This would look wonderful on you. Try it on."
"Does this suit me?"
"Hmm... I wonder if they have Soeun's size."
"What about these for matching family shirts? All the same."
"Eek! Oh, I love it! Soeun looks too cute! We have to buy this!"
Every shop she entered, Noona bought several things, until both hands were heavy. If we hadn't promised the bodyguards extra pay and had them ferry the bags out to the car every so often, I would have been hauling a load heavier than I was.
Even so, she looked so thoroughly happy that I couldn't help feeling happy myself. Trying clothes on at every stop was a nuisance, granted.
And so, after a rare outing that had included shopping on top of everything else, we decided to eat out. We found a place that served all kinds of seafood alongside an enormous steak. Seasoned jumbo shrimp, lobster, grilled clams, and that massive steak — by the time we'd eaten our fill, the sun was already going down.
Between the yacht tour, the whale herding, and the shopping, we were worn out. The lodging was a fair distance off besides, so we dropped off together in the moving car, sleeping side by side in perfect accord.
After that day of whale herding dressed up as a whale-watching tour, and the dead sleep that followed, we roamed all over Australia, sightseeing as we went. With Grace's help we were even given a helicopter, so we could look down on the country from the sky and cover long distances in comfort — a thoroughly luxurious tour.
Naturally, even while we were crisscrossing Australia, the saplings we had finished planting were growing at a furious pace. The day after a heavy rain, the grounds around the lodging took on a fresh green cast from end to end.
While we spent our time there, the saplings drank in the full influence of my Superpower and shot up. They had started out smaller than Soeun, but in only a few days they already stood taller than she did.
"Truly. I've met all sorts of Awakened Individuals, but I don't think I've ever met anyone with an ability as wondrous and remarkable as yours, Druid."
Where the ground had been nothing but ash-gray, green grass was coming up, along with all kinds of flowers and weeds, and a place that had been little more than empty barrens was now thick with saplings taking root and starting to grow. Grace looked deeply moved by it.
"Since it's come to this, shall we take a look around? Now that I think of it, I don't believe we've properly seen the area."
"Me too!"
I'd only gotten up meaning to take a light stroll around the lodging, but Soeun came scampering over and flung herself into my arms. Then Noona joined us as well, saying she wanted to enjoy a rare walk and feel the fresh air. In the end the whole family decided to make a circuit of the grounds. The bodyguards came along, of course, and the animals too, so the party grew quite large.
We had a crowd with us, but Noona and I linked arms all the same, determined to give the rare walk at least a hint of a date. Grace and the bodyguards caught on and, with admirable tact, opened a little distance.
Walking arm in arm the way we had back when we'd only just started seeing each other, before we were even married, felt strangely new. Soeun, up on Bboni, tore around us in a dizzying whirl — and even that was nice.
Noona broke into a soft, bright smile and looked at a sapling growing quickly nearby. Leaves had already come out in abundance, and it had taken on the full shape of a tree.
"When we first arrived, it was... gloomy, I suppose? A little eerie. But with the trees filling in like this, it's actually something to look at."
"Isn't it? Honestly, if Soeun hadn't liked that lodging, I would have said we should stay in the city."
The landscape from the day we arrived clearly hadn't left her. She touched the leaves, openly amazed, then soon fell back into step with me.
The forest that had been barren beyond words was now full of new life, and there was plenty worth seeing in its own way. We came across new growth that looked like branches just beginning to bud, and a modest colony of ants that had settled in who knew when. We even found one small snake, with no idea where it had come from.
"So there were snakes here, too?"
"I didn't see any when we were planting... Where did it come from?"
Small as the snake was, I felt a quiet wonder at Noona pointing it out — the little thing winding its way up a sapling that wasn't very big either. I hadn't exactly walked every inch of the area, but this was the first snake I'd actually seen.
Grace declared that the appearance of ants and a snake was unmistakable proof the ecosystem was recovering. We smiled at her enthusiasm and walked on.
With no destination in particular, just an easy pace, animals began to catch our eye one after another. Besides the kangaroos, koalas, and wombats we could spot so easily near the lodging, there were all sorts of other creatures. We found an echidna — what you might call a mole with a back full of spines — and even a subadult Cassowary. It fled the instant it sensed people, but at least we could confirm it was there. Grace was delighted, insisting the ecosystem truly was being restored.
"Hm? Suhwan, do you hear something like water?"
"Water?"
We'd been walking along, marveling at one animal after another, when Noona said she heard running water. I focused and listened, and sure enough a soft rush reached me — shaaa.
"Grace, is there a river anywhere around here?"
"Ah, yes. There's one a little way off. Judging by how far you've walked... if you keep going just a bit farther in that direction, you ought to reach it."
At the word river, we set off that way. After ten minutes or so of walking, we really did find one. Clear water drifted slowly along, and with the river came still more animals — frogs, of course, and freshwater shrimp and crayfish as well.
"We didn't even touch this place, and it's already recovering. There used to be no crayfish or anything of the sort here, either, because of the ash."
I spotted a crayfish flicking past and tried to catch it, only for the creature to drop its claw and flee. I was still feeling sorry about that, with Grace adding a light word of explanation, when something came paddling up with a soft splash.
"If you're not gonna eat that, give it to me, quack!"
"...?"
At the quacking shout from around my feet, I looked down. Something was staring straight up at me.
"Suhwan, this is the one, right? A platypus."
"I... I think so. It's my first time seeing one, too."
A broad, bill-like snout. A round, plump little body. A tail as flat as the snout, and webbing on all four feet. It was a platypus — that curious animal nicknamed the creature God assembled from the spare parts left over after making all the others.
"Whoa, a duck! But it's not a duck!"
Soeun's confusion pulled a soft laugh out of me. Still, just then I wanted to keep the mood going with Noona a little more than I wanted to indulge Soeun.
"Noona, want to try giving it to her?"
"...Shall I?"
I gently cupped the platypus where it floated, lifted it, and handed Noona the claw the crayfish had left behind. Noona hesitated a moment, then held the claw out in front of the bill. With a small shift, the platypus slurped the offered claw straight into its snout and set to chewing with fierce concentration.
As we watched, Grace came over and began telling us about platypuses.
"This one looks like a female, which is a relief. Males have a venomous spur on the hind foot. The venom usually grows stronger in October, during breeding season... Oh. It is October now, isn't it?"
"..."
A chill prickled the back of my neck for no good reason as I stared at Grace. Say that sort of thing a little sooner. Before I pick it up!
Whether or not she caught the meaning in my look, Grace serenely stroked the platypus along the back.
"For reference, a platypus has no stomach. The esophagus connects straight to the intestine, which is why they chew their food so very thoroughly."
At her words I looked at the bill-like snout, and sure enough the bill was working away — chomp, chomp, chomp — grinding the crayfish claw to pieces.
"Also, the platypus is a mammal that lays eggs. Only a few mammals do that, including the echidna you saw earlier. They're called monotremes, I believe."
At some point it had started to feel like one of Grace's platypus lectures, but the facts were interesting enough that I found myself listening in spite of myself. Noona and Soeun were no different.
"I've never heard of a mammal that lays eggs. I thought mammals were all animals that nurse their young..."
"That's a perfectly reasonable thing to believe. And it isn't exactly wrong — platypuses do nurse. They simply have no nipples, so the milk seeps out like sweat, and the young lick it up."
"Whoa..."
"It really is strange. Laying eggs and giving milk, too."
Our family gazed at the platypus in my hands as if she were a wonder. Still chewing diligently on the claw, she seemed all the more remarkable once we'd heard the explanation.
"Want me to show you my eggs, quack?"
The platypus, who had been taking in all our attention, looked at me and asked. She seemed to have heard me say the word eggs.
I nodded at once and set her down at the water's edge. She started swimming along the bank, moving a little, then waiting for us, as if telling us to follow properly. When I passed along that she meant to show us her eggs, everyone hurried me on.
"My eggs are right here, quack!"
Following her, I spotted what looked like a loose, haphazard weave of the sparse water plants. Tucked among them was something pale that I took for her eggs.
We admired the eggs for a moment, then carefully set them back in her nest. It wouldn't do to crack them just because we'd gotten curious.
"You're not gonna look anymore, quack?"
"It's all right."
She reached for the eggs with a webbed foot, as if to say we were welcome to look longer, and I stopped her. She neatened the eggs, then floundered about around our family. She seemed especially taken with Soeun, fussing and hovering at her side. Soeun liked her just as much, scooping her up and petting her with all her heart.
"Daddy! The bill is so squishy!"
"Miss Soeun, a platypus's bill isn't like a bird's. It's more like a person's lips. There's bone around the edges, so that part is firm, but the rest is soft."
"Ooooh! That's amazing!"
Only after Soeun and the platypus had bonded to their hearts' content were we able to finish the walk and head back to the lodging.