It took 5 days for the birds to arrive. During this time of waiting, she noticed how much longer it took to take care of all the animals. She had to feed them all, making sure that they got the correct element of water, many of them had to be groomed or bathed often.
She had to memorize how many times per day she needed to feed each animal, how much food she had to give them, and she had to grow flowers in the backyard now for Lily to use. She also planted vegetables for the bunnies and ducks to eat.
Of course, she would make them grow quickly via runes and they would be grown under the use of qi.
She debated getting some help around here, but was concerned about the confidentiality of the matter. Especially with the birds coming in, she would get much buiser.
That's when she came up with a brilliant idea… Adoption! She could adopt a child, maybe 8 years old or so. A shy, quiet child, who wouldn't gossip all the time, would be willing to help her take care of the animals and would be gentle while doing so.
Although it may seem irresponsible to adopt a child, especially if your just going to make them work for you, it almost seems like forced child labor.
But that wasn't what she was going for, if the kid she adopts doesn't want to help her take care of the animals, she wouldn't force it. It was kinda like how she had decided if an animal didn't want to cultivate, she would let it stay here and she would take care of it and give it lots of love.
She wouldn't treat it like her child, though, more like a little sister, although it might seem weird to call somebody like her big sister, it was better than calling her mom.
Nodding her head in satisfaction, 'Ava Delacruz' quickly submitted an application to visit a newby orphanage to look for a child to adopt. Her application was quickly settled and she was allowed to go anytime to visit the children and see if she got along well with one of them in particular.
[A/N I have no idea what the adoption process might really look like, so I am very sorry if I mess something up.]
This was only a day before the birds would be delivered, which was perfect timing.
Quickly running to her car, she drove to the orphanage. She still had Lily with her, because she wanted to see how the kids would react to an obedient butterfly.
Pulling into a parking spot, Ava Delacruz tucked a strand of her slightly wavy white hair that came to her ears. She had on a white t-shirt, skinny jeans and white tennis shoes plus a black crossbody bag.
Getting out of the car, she went inside and met with an employee. After verifying her information, she was led to where the kids were playing. They were playing in different rooms, the little kids in one, middle aged in another, teenagers and babies in a third.
Walking into the room with kids mostly ranging from 7 to 12, she glanced around.
A few kids noticed her and smiled at her and waved.
She walked over and crouched down by the table asking, "What are we doing here?"
"Coloring pictures! Look, mine's a car." A little boy said excitedly.
Looking over, Ava saw a decently drawn car and said, "oh wow, that's really cool!"
The boy looked smug and said, "I know."
Ava just smiled and complemented the other kid's drawings.
Glancing around the room, she pointed to a girl about 9 years of age and asked them "what's her name?"
One looked over and said, "oh, that's Hannah, she's really boring. All she ever does is draw funny pictures in her notebooks."
Looking quizzical, Ava tilted her head and said a moment later "I'm gonna go say hi really quick."
Walking over to the girl, she bent down and said "Hello, my name is Ava, what's your name?"
Hesitating for a moment, the little girl replied "H- Hannah. My name is Hannah."
"Hannah? That's a nice name! Whatcha doin'?."
"Drawing some stuff… I guess."
"Ohya, what are you drawing? Am I allowed to see?"
"I- If you want to. But… you're not allowed to laugh!"
"Ok, I promise that I won't laugh then."
Tentatively the girl turned her notebook towards Ava, she looked at her nervously. Meanwhile Ava was looking at the creative drawings, all combinations of different things.
One was an alligator-bus-movie-theater. The alligator would swim along the swamp, people could sit inside it like a bus, or on top where they could watch a movie.
Another was an orange shaped like an apple and an apple shaped like an orange. Seeing this, Ava pointed to it and said, "does it taste like an apple or an orange?"
Dumbfounded, the little girl was only able to say "I never thought of it before."
Lost in shought, she suddenly heard Ava say "You wanna see something cool?"
Hannah quietly nodded her head.
"Here look at this! Lily, come 'ere." On the top of Ava's head, the butterfly hairpeice's wings began to move as it flew off her head and into her palm.
Hannah gasped in surprise. "Is this yours?!"
Ava nodded her head with a mischievous smile on her face, "Yep, Lily is the coolest. Not to brag or anything, but I have a cat at home that can breathe fire."
"What?! B- but that's not possible!"
"It's also supposedly impossible to have a pet butterfly that listens to you, but here we are. So, Hannah, I've got a deal for you. I'd like to adopt you, if that's ok. You don't have to call me mom, you can just call me Delaina, or sister if you would prefer that. I need a partner who can help me take care of all of my pets. You see… I own a magical pet shop."
Hannah's eyes got real big, and she didn't respond for a long time, but once she did, she seemed to ask the make or break question: "Can I draw pictures of them?!!"