A Weird Reality

Chapter 8: A Fishy Sight

Axavia woke up what felt to be about an hour later. She looked around the car and then down at her hands seeing Jovial still sleeping peacefully. She looked outside the car window and saw the entrance to an aquarium theme park. She groggily climbed out of the car and headed towards the entrance. The car sped off once she exited. The theme park looked interesting to her just based on the exterior decorations. She lightly shook Jovial to wake her companion up. The creature in her arms stirred a bit before uncovering itself. It looked up at her and fluffed it's wings as it got out of her embrace.

Axavia entered the theme park with Jovial following behind her. The beginning area seemed to be the outside area of the park. There were signs pointing to certain areas of the park, though some seemed to lead to dead ends. She saw some structures like food stands, restrooms, benches and so forth. She followed the sidewalk and signs as she strolled over to the main building.

There was a huge sign above the door of the main building that read "Water World". Axavia entered the dome-shaped building with Jovial. The two looked around and noticed a desk with an infoman behind it. The infoman gave them a ticket which allowed them to enter through the spinning doorways into the main area. Axavia put the ticket in her pocket and roamed around the place. The building was quite dark as none of the power seemed to be on. Axavia took out her flashlight so they could see as they explored the aquarium. She went towards the first section she noticed. It had a sign above the entrance to the exhibit stating that it held the octopuses. Axavia loved octopuses—they were her favorite animal—so of course it would catch her eye immediately.

She wandered into the section taking in all the decor of octopus facts that lined the walls. She wasn't unfamiliar to these facts as she practically knew them by heart. Axavia would always research octopuses whenever she could. The pair looked through the glass into the octopus enclosure. Axavia was brimming with energy, excited to see her favorite sea creature up close. "I've never been to an aquarium, Jovial. I'm so excited to see the octopuses they have here!" The girl exclaimed excitedly as she watched for the animal she so hoped to see. The first one that entered into her line of sight was a giant pacific octopus. Axavia flapped her hands excitedly and bounced lightly on her feet.

"Jovial, look!! It's a giant pacific octopus, it's the largest species of octopus. They usually measure from 7-13 feet but some can get even longer!! They can even change color within a tenth of a second! Isn't that cool, Jovial?" She told Jovial. The flying creature dances around in the air happily. Axavia smiled at it and continued to tell it all the facts she knew about octopuses. The two walked side by side through the exhibit with Axavia pointing out the octopus species they saw, such as the blue ringed octopus and the flapjack octopus.

Eventually they exited the exhibit, much to Axavia's dismay. They visited the other exhibits too with Axavia telling Jovial whatever facts she knew about the animals and explaining them to her companion. Suddenly they hear a voice play from the intercom, stating that the aquarium was closed and under maintenance. Axavia looked towards where the voice was coming from with a confused expression on her face. She kept it in mind and the pair continued on carefully.

After a while, Axavia decided to stop at one of the cafeteria areas to rest. She sat down at one of the tables with Jovial sitting across from her on the table. She materialized some food out of the 'pocket' broach for her to eat. She sat in comfortable silence as she ate, making sure to clean up once she was done. "This is fun, Jovial. I almost forgot I wasn't in a real aquarium back home and was still trapped in this odd place." She laughed. Jovial flapped it's wings at her happily. The two continued to rest in the cafeteria for a while before continuing their exploration. Axavia took out one of the books she got from a previous area to read while she relaxed. She kicked her feet back and forth slightly as she was enjoying the peacefulness of everything.

About what felt like three hours later, Axavia got up from the table with Jovial sitting in her arms and resumed their exploration of the aquarium. They went down a glass tunnel and watched as a bunch of sea creatures swam around them. Axavia stared at the animals in awe.

"Look, Jovial. There's sharks, rays, and all kinds of fish in here. It's so cool to see them swim around us." Axavia whispered just loud enough for Jovial to hear her. The two stood and watched as the animals swam around the see-through tunnel.

They wandered through the rest of the tunnel afterwards and came across the gift shop. Axavia stepped into the gift shop, looking around at all the items they had. She picked up a keychain she saw that had a small blue ringed octopus charm. She thought it was cute and decided to take it. She attached the keychain to her bag strap and continued walking around the gift shop looking at all the stuff. After a while of looking around the two left the gift shop.

Eventually they wandered into what seemed to be an arcade. "I didn't realize an aquarium would have an arcade in it." Axavia mumbled to herself.

None of the arcade machines seemed to work from what she saw. She wandered around the arcade observing everything. There didn't seem to be anything else in this section besides the game machines. Deeper into the arcade area she found the only arcade machine that actually worked. It was odd that only this one worked out of the multitude of games. The game looked interesting so Axavia switched to holding Jovial with one arm so she could play it. After a few minutes of playing the game she suddenly grew drowsy and blacked out.