Chapter 10 - Birds

The next morning, 'Ava Delacruz' went to pick Hannah up from the orphanage. Getting in the car together, they both had huge smiles on their faces. "When will we see the magic pet shop?!" Hannah asked excitedly.

"Well, we live in it, so you will see it as soon as we get home. By the way, Hannah, I don't really look like this, as a matter of fact, I'm shorter than you. But don't hold that against me, cause' I'm way older than you!"

"Ah? Oh, ok then. Don't worry Delaina." Though slightly surprised, Hannah soon accepted it.

Pulling into the parking lot, she handed Hannah a green jade. "Don't lose this, and don't ever tell anybody you have it. Always wear it on you, ok?"

Hannah nodded in acknowledgement before hanging the jade around her neck.

"Now then, welcome to…" Getting out of the car, Delaina unlocked the gate and brought Hannah inside, going back to her true self- the little white-haired, blue-eyed girl, she put her hands up and proudly presented, "Delacruz Petshop!"

Hannah's eyes widened as she took in the building that was covered in detailed circles of many different colors and designs. If it didn't have the words 'Petshop' on the front, you would never be able to tell what it was.

Taking Hannah by the hand, she led her inside and started giving her a tour. Taking her up to the second floor because there wasn't much to see on the first, she took her to her room. It didn't have any furniture yet, though, because Delaina wanted to take her to the store to pick her own stuff.

Then, she took her up and slowly showed her around the top 3 floors, having the animals that had learned [Elemental Breath] show Hannah.

She took her out to the backyard and showed her the small garden and had Hannah help her do the daily maintenance right then, so that she would know how to do it.

After that, Delaina explained how some birds were coming in, and how Hannah could help her sort them, but they could go to the furniture store to pick her stuff out first, so that was what they did.

Delaina let Hannah get whatever she wanted, and they took everything home at once so that she could have a fully furnished room to sleep in that night.

Making them some lunch in the kitchen that was located on the first floor, they had just finished eating when a large vehicle pulled into the lot with the birds.

Quickly running out, Delaina turned into her Ava disguise with Hannah following behind her. They unloaded the birds and then Ava signed on it, saying she received the animals.

Waving as the car drove away, they brought the cages into the first floor where they would sort them before taking them to the 5th floor.

"How do we sort them, Delaina?" Hannah asked.

Pulling a foggy orb out of her pocket, she handed it to Hannah and explained "You just touch the animal with this and it shows a color, then you take the same color ribbon, and put it inside the cage. When we bring them to the 5th floor, we have them transferred to the hanging cages, and we will tie the ribbon to the bars of the cage."

Nodding her head, Hannah quickly got to work. Delaina had never made another affinity orb so she let Hannah do it, because the little girl was obviously having lots of fun.

Looking around, Delaina saw how dull the first floor looked. 'No wonder that hotel went bankrupt…'

She had never changed anything on the first floor, so it was still the same as when she had brought it.

This won't do…

Walking over to the receptionist's desk, she used wind qi to bring a few buckets of paint over, then did the same thing as she had done outside, using wind qi to move the paint out of the tin and began spreading it along the entire area.

Next she painted black dots across the surface, before painting light blue and purple stripes, both thick and thin and seemingly with no pattern.

After this, she wrote on the desk 'Delacruz Petshop' and then she signed her and Hannah's name in the corner. Smiling in satisfaction, Hannah and Delaina finished their tasks at the same time.

Looking at the birds, Delaina wanted to cry.

11 out of the 20 birds were all of the wind element.

There was Lightning (1), Fire (3), Light (2), Water (1), Dark (1), and Metal (1).

It was so unbalanced…

Sighing, she and Hannah went to the 5th floor via the elevator. After a few trips, they were all on the fifth floor.

Pressing a button on the wall, the bird cages that were hanging suddenly started lowering down to eye level, and people could easily reach them.

Making herself a bit taller, Delana showed Hannah how to transfer the birds and reminded her to tie the ribbon onto the cage.

While Hannah was doing that, Delaina went in and carved an element gathering rune on each cage, corresponding to each bird's element.

Hannah finished faster than Delaina, so when he was done she went back to watch tv.

Once Delaina finished carving the runes, she walked to the middle of the floor and activated the rune that forcefully cultivates everything.

All of the animals seem startled, as expected, before calming down and attempting to do it themselves.

There were no problems, the animals all seemed ok with it and so she continued to let the rune run for 20 minutes before stopping it. She would do this again for the next 3 days.

Moving down to the 4th floor, the floor with dogs, she did the same thing. Although there were animals that had already learned to cultivate here, running the rune didn't really do much, if anything it was a bonus. Now they could just sleep or play as the rune cultivated for them.

The animals all showed the expected reaction, which was good. The same situation happened on the 3rd floor.

When she was done, she went down to the second floor and watched TV with Hannah.

Hannah helped Delaina take care of the animals extremely well that day, and Delaina was certain that she had made the right decision.