And there's sliced fruit and savory muffins and spicy fried potatoes with cream sauce; it's all very tasty.

As the meal wraps up, Kenozì turns to Nidela again. "Will you be joining us today?"

Ila's head snaps up and her ears go back and she growls. Don't you dare...

Nidela rests her hand restrainingly on Ila's shoulder. Kenozì blinks; what a rude cat. "You really should have her trained better than that if you're going to bring her places."

Nidela tenses. This doesn't help with the growling.

"She's distressed because her companion's sick," he says irritably. People. 

"That's really no excuse," Kenozì opines - no animal who would threaten an elf should be allowed in the city.

"She's looking after me." Talking hurts, but that's rote enough to not hurt much, at least. "Going would be," ow, "dangerous," ow. "She knows." Nidela would very much like to be done with the talking now, please. Her thoughts are starting to fracture again.

Kenozì looks assessingly from elf to lynx and back - did she train her to do that? That would be super sketchy, even more than keeping a (rare, even among wild-caught ones!) elf-aggressive animal in the first place. Maybe not worth risking a diplomatic incident over, though; they still haven't worked out why she in particular is traveling with the Quendi. "All right. You should probably leave her in your room, though, if she's going to get that upset."

...and there's Ila growling again.

The Quendi suggest that the Quendi get going now.

Kenozì takes the cue; Nidela takes the opportunity to go back to her room.

Sorry, she sends as they're leaving. Kenozì apologizes, too, almost simultaneously: "Sorry about that. We don't usually allow aggressive animals in the city at all; I suppose that kind of thing isn't so dangerous for you."

"Valinor had dinosaurs," he says, and sends them.

"Oh, wow. And they're particularly aggressive? Most animals won't attack elves, even the giant ones."

"If you bother them or get in their space, yes. They won't attack Oromë, but that does not extend to us."

"Huh." That's a surprising design choice, give all the other goodies their species has. Gods, though, who knows.

She's quickly distracted by the need to work out their plans for the day; as promised, she has a list of attractions for them to consider.

And they are appreciative and eager and pick out some that sound nice (really, the ones that sound prettiest.)

Elves don't quite have the Quendis' standards for prettiness, but with plants and nature as a common theme they can make up at least some of the difference with variety and innovation.

After lunch, they stop by the zoo again; the head zookeeper meets briefly with them: the straightforward changes are being taken care of immediately; most of the rest will be rolled out over the next few months, with a few of the more complicated or effort-requiring ones still under discussion. They're also willing to release any animal the Quendi can acquire a replacement for, and some of them even if they can't; arranging to return them to their native habitats is complicated, but they're working on it.

The Quendi are appreciative and would be delighted to go find replacements and will hand out the magic trinkets they brought along wherever they might be appreciated, as a token of the new cooperation between elves and Quendi.

The elves are more impressed with the workmanship of the trinkets than the magic - glowing things are pretty common here; the quality of the light is a little unusual but not remarkable to casual inspection - but they're very impressed with the workmanship.

They visit another garden - this one arranged along a path through the trees, designed to attract songbirds and butterflies - and go to a restaurant for dinner and then head back to the guest house. Nidela is sitting in the living room, but retreats back to her room when she sees them approaching.

They thank their guides and retire as well. Did you eat today? Tyelcormo asks her.

Yeah, they have someone bringing me meals while you're out.

Could you talk to Ila? She's still upset and she's not really listening to me - she's afraid I'm going to leave without her again, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, sure, but not at range. Want me to come in?

Yeah, thanks.

Nidela's sitting cross-legged on the bed when he comes in, with Ila taking up the rest of the space on it. She looks considerably better - she's moving more easily, sitting up under her own power rather than relying on the furniture to keep her upright. Ila, on the other hand, is tense, obviously stressed.

I wasn't awake when they brought lunch, so I don't know if anything happened, but we were down in the common room when the guy brought dinner, and - I don't know if he surprised her or she's just that upset right now, but he didn't even do anything and she growled at him. We're going to get in trouble if she keeps doing that, these elves don't know her like the ones she's used to do.

What's up? he asks Ila.

We need to go home, before they take her away again, and I don't know how.

No one's taking her away. She's with us and they don't want to offend us. And I can probably just give you guys a teleport back - I haven't had a spell break in months, but I still wouldn't do it on you, I'll just do a mat or something...

We need to go home. She relaxes slightly.

Yeah, okay. Do you want a spell?

Yeah.

So he concentrates and makes them a teleport pad to return to the pastures by Lake Mithrim. Rip it up afterwards, I'm not totally sure of my casting yet. And aloud, "this'll take you home if you want."

...I'd have to take it out of the city to make it look like I'd left instead of mysteriously disappearing, and I don't think I can do that yet, even if you're sure you'll be okay without me. And I did still want to go to the library.