Kingo had learned a lot about how to deal with Sprite since she had come into the family. Sprite was very sneaky and in the last few months she had gotten much better at sneaking around and finding out things she shouldn't to use them as blackmail against all her older siblings. Consequently Kingo had learned how to make deals with her so that she would not reveal her secrets. It was no longer enough to tell her "you can't tell Thena'' because she would simply tell Gil so he would do it instead of her. She was very good at finding ways to tell on all her older siblings without actually doing it, Kingo had to admit she was pretty smart. The only one she didn't usually rat out was Druig, and only because it was him since she had no problem ratting out even Thena to Ajak.
So Kingo was now paying for Sprite's silence since she had overheard his plans to go to a party with Ikaris without telling Ajak. Actually it wasn't just him who was buying Sprite's silence as Ikaris and Sersi would be going with the two of them, but they would be going their own way and Kingo would be taking Sprite on his own (that's what happens when you owe favors to others and end up stuck with the six year old child).
Sprite had decided that she wanted to go to the zoo so that's what they would do today, Thena was not very convinced to let them go but Ajak had intervened since according to her Kingo wouldn't be alone with Sprite and there wouldn't be much chance of something going wrong having Ikaris and Sersi there. The girl had agreed not to tell as the walk was actually a date from Sersi and Ikaris.
"I want to see the otters" Was the first thing she said as soon as they walked through the zoo gates.
"Otters? There are thousands of animals here and you want to see the otters?" Kingo said with a blank stare "We should see the tigers first".
"Are you sure you can handle this alone?" Ikaris asked, looking at Kingo doubtfully, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave him alone with his little sister.
"Yes, of course we'll be fine plus you guys will be here, following another path but here."
Ikaris looked at Sersi, they were both starting to doubt about this plan but they had the comfort that if something were to happen they wouldn't be so far away.
"You have to do what Kingo tells you and you can't be separated from him" Ikaris grabbed Sprite by the shoulders trying to ignore the mischievous smile on his sister's face "I'm serious Sprite, it's not a joke"
"I know"
"Behave yourself, and listen to Kingo."
"You always say not to listen to Kingo."
"Today that doesn't apply, today you do what Kingo says, got it?"
Sprite rolled her eyes and nodded, Sersi gave her a quick hug and together with Ikaris walked away leaving them finally alone.
Trying to get Sprite to keep her good mood for the day, Kingo fulfilled her wishes to go see the otters, logically they had many stops on the way there which were too long as Sprite insisted on stopping to read the information on each exhibit.
By the time they finally got to the otters Kingo was really thinking that everything was going too well to be true.
"Did you know that there are thirteen different species of otters?" Sprite had her face quite close to the glass, admiring the otters with a big smile. "Some otters spend their whole lives in the water, my favorite otter is the sea otter because it is the cutest, they sleep while floating in the water."
Kingo looked at her for several seconds blinking, sometimes he forgot how smart she was and that when something really interested her she absorbed the information like a sponge.
"No, I didn't know that but now I do thanks to you."
"Otters are very playful and like to do activities just for fun, do you think Thena will let me have a pet otter?"
"I think Thena has enough with the iguana and wouldn't let you keep an otter in the house, maybe we could find a stuffed one at the gift store, how does that sound?"
"Sounds fair" she said with a shrug "can we go look at something else?"
"Sure, what do you want to see?"
"I don't know, whatever" she shrugged so Kingo decided they could continue on the way they were going to continue to see the remaining exhibits.
They continued with the tour without any major problems, Sprite reading all the information of each exhibit and Kingo being as patient as possible to avoid making her angry, so far everything was going well. They made a stop to drink some water and eat a small snack to recharge their batteries and continue with the route.
Sprite was looking at the zoo map as they walked to the next exhibit so she didn't notice when Kingo stopped abruptly after accidentally bumping into a girl.
Kingo helped the girl up, apparently she was also looking at her map and hadn't seen it, after a few apologies and a bit of flirting on Kingo's part they both said goodbye.
"Let's go Sprite, there's still a lot of walking to do" He said, starting to look for the little redhead only to realize she was nowhere to be found. "Sprite, this is no fun, get over here right now."
He tried to sound quite serious and firm but Sprite didn't show up, he started to look around until he finally had to admit that Sprite wasn't there.
"Shit, I'm in serious trouble" he muttered starting to walk "ok Kingo, calm down, she probably kept walking and is at the next exhibit, everything is fine".
The problem was that Sprite was not at the next exhibit, nor the next one and he was starting to get desperate. He was really in serious trouble, if he didn't find Sprite he would soon be a dead man.
Sprite for her part had continued walking until she realized that Kingo was not behind her, then seeing the opportunity she so desired she returned her attention to the map to find a place to go. It didn't take her long to decide on one that was close enough, the petting zoo, she only had to turn right instead of left and she would be at her new destination, Kingo could easily find her when he realized she was gone.
Sersi and Ikaris were at first not sure how much fun it would be to have a date in a zoo, but it didn't take long for them to discover how much fun it really was. Sersi insisted on having her picture taken at every stop and although Ikaris wasn't a big fan of pictures he liked to make her happy so he happily complied with her wishes.
They made a rather long stop at one of the benches while enjoying a drink, the day was quite warm and they were enjoying being able to chat without interruption from any of their family members.
They were having a rather pleasant and fun time until Sersi suddenly froze.
"Is everything okay?" Ikaris asked with a frown, turning to look in the direction Sersi was facing.
"I swear I thought I saw Sprite walk by, but it's impossible because I didn't see Kingo."
"Probably another red-haired girl in overalls?" Ikaris asked, but just by saying it out loud they both stood up starting to walk in the direction where Sersi had seen the girl pass by, they didn't want to take the risk of being right.
"I swear I saw an identical girl pass by" said Sersi after several seconds of walking without finding anything.
"I believe you, maybe you just imagined it, Sprite can't be the only girl dressed in overalls today."
"Yeah, but it would make me feel better if we kept walking around here, just to be safe."
Ikaris agreed so they continued walking down that path expecting to run into Kingo and Sprite at any moment.
"Tell me I'm not hallucinating again" Sersi muttered looking ahead.
"No you're not, because I'm looking at it too."
Sprite was inside the petting zoo petting a very small goat with a small smile on his face. After exchanging a quick glance they both walked as fast as they could to stand next to her on the other side of the fence.
"Sprite, what are you doing here?" Ikaris asked, looking at his little sister astonished.
"Petting a baby goat" she said, barely looking up to see him "I pet a sheep too".
"Where is Kingo?"
"I don't know, when I turned around he was gone so I came here."
"I'm going to kill him" Ikaris muttered, taking out his cell phone to start calling his brother.
"You can't do that, he promised me an otter plushie."
Sersi put a hand on Ikaris' shoulder trying to calm him down, Sprite was fine despite everything and that was the important thing.
"Ikaris!" Kingo sounded nervous "what happened? how are you guys doing?"
"We're fine, how are you and Sprite?"
"Amazingly well, have you finished going through the whole zoo?"
"No, we are very close, where are you guys?"
"We're, we're... looking at the red pandas."
"Well, hey Kingo, are you sure you're looking at the red pandas? Because I'm pretty sure I've got Sprite in front of me petting a goat."
"Petting a goat? no...you must be crazy..."
"Kingo, Sprite is in front of me, she said she doesn't know where you are."
"Oh God! I've been looking for her for more than fifteen minutes! I was just about to call you, I swear!"
"We're at the petting zoo, we're waiting for you here" Ikaris finally cut the call short, he would have time to talk to Kingo away from Sprite.
"Are we leaving already?" Sprite asked, finally moving away from the goat "I want my present before you kill Kingo".
"Yeah, I think that's enough for today" Ikaris said, letting out a sigh.
"Can we get some ice cream before we go home?"
"Yeah, I need some sugar after this"
"I think we all need it" Sersi said with a small smile pulling out her cell phone so she could take some pictures of Sprite so she could show them to Ajak and Thena and not raise so much suspicion about them getting separated leaving Kingo and Sprite alone.
Sprite tried to convince Ikaris to take a baby goat home but besides being impossible he knew that Thena would run him out of the house if he dared to come home with a goat. By the time Kingogo arrived Sprite was completely ready to leave after one of the sheep tried to bite her clothes. Kingo almost cried with relief when he saw Sprite and after apologizing a thousand times to Ikaris and explaining what had happened, he had to accept that Sprite was certainly also a bit to blame for the little accident when he decided to keep walking instead of looking for Kingo or asking for help. Ikaris made sure to let her know that what she had done was very dangerous and that even though Kingo had been wrong to let her out of his sight, she could not walk around a zoo alone just because Kingo was distracted.
Kingo had to buy back Sprite's silence so she wouldn't tell anyone, especially Thena and Druig that he had lost her at the zoo, the price had been the stuffed otter and a book about them.