Jia had only been teasing him when she’d joked about his probably having heard the phrase from the old cartoon show from their youth. She hadn’t intended for him to take it seriously, but if he wanted to take it literally, he could. It wasn’t like he was rude about his telling her where he had probably really heard the phrase. Was he talking about the Bible when he mentioned a shepherd named Book?
The dryad wasn’t really a religious woman. She didn’t believe in God or in other deities. It was her belief that the offspring of “gods” were really just the offspring of a race that was superior to humans. That didn’t make them gods. It just made them something else. After all, there were many races other than humans that were superior. For instance, as a dryad, she healed much more quickly than a human, and she could walk through trees and communicate with them to some extent. That didn’t make her a deity or anything.
“You watched it three times in a row?” Jia laughed softly, not quite mockingly, but she feared he must have taken it to be that. He looked out the window, and from the view of the profile of his face, he seemed a little sad. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you.” She apologized quickly, misunderstanding his reasons. She couldn’t see his face perfectly, just enough to know that his smile had disappeared. That’s why she thought he was upset. Why else would someone go from smiling with amusement to not smiling and looking out the window?
“Well, there are wild animals, and there are wild animals like tigers and bears and things. You would have to specialize for something like that unless you’re just going to work in the city. There are also zoo veterinarians. That’s what I meant.” She wasn’t berating him, and she hoped her smile told him that.
“Tennis, hm?” She asked. “I’ve never played it. I’m pretty quick, but I doubt my aim would be good enough to get me through it.” A soft chuckle followed this. She was graceful, and she could dance, but games where one needed precise aim weren’t her forte. Jia couldn’t do much more than hit the board in a game of darts, and bowling often produced gutter balls.
“I’ve found some rap songs I like, but they’re the innocent ones. I don’t like the kind where they rap about smacking some “ho’s” or doing drugs or things like that. It just doesn’t interest me. There are also a lot of R&B and hip-hop influences in the dance routines we do for competitions, so I’ve learned to like that music, too.”
Jia laughed at the comment he told her his sister had made about his singing. As an only child, she sometimes wished for siblings, and she liked to hear about the interactions others had with theirs. She just never got to experience it. She didn’t even have friends who were as close as a brother or a sister would be. “Ouch. I’m not a particularly great singer, but I can at least hit the notes if they’re in my range… whatever my range is…”